Yarmouth council hears flag project, climate update, GA changes

[0:11] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Good evening, and welcome to the Town Council workshop for October. This is Thursday, October 1st, 2026, and we are meeting under the watchful eye of the moose, as always. We also refer to this as day one of the Audra Kaler era, as you will see to my left. Our new town manager, Audra Kaler, is here, and welcome. Happy to have you. We'll try not to put you under the gun too much tonight. All right, and we don't take a roll call at this meeting because we're not taking votes. We do have a quorum. I will note that Councilor Wolf is joining us online. Hello, Zoe. And you can hear us okay? Okay, good. And we know that Councilor Cooper will not be joining us this evening. We expect Councilor Monty, but we'll see. Okay, so item one on the agenda is announcements and information exchange. This is not liaison reports, this is more of a, is there anything just general information for the public? I don't think I have anything other than the announcement I just made. Anybody else on the council have anything to share with the public from a general nature? Okay. Okay, so we'll move along to item number two, which is our public comment period. At all of our meetings that we hold here in the log cabin, we have open public comment for anything that's not on the agenda. If you want to speak about something that's on the agenda, we ask that you wait for that item to come up. But this is an opportunity now, if anybody wants to come up to the podium and talk about just about anything you want, this is your opportunity. opportunity. We would ask for all public comment that you direct it towards the council. It's not a question and answer period, it's public comment period. If you pose questions to us, we'll consider them and we may be able to get back to you after the fact, but we're not going to get into a back and forth on question and answer, unless it's something really simple like, you know, when's the next time you're meeting? And we'll say, you know, two weeks from now, Thursday, October 15th. With that being said, open public comment period is open. And there's no one online other than Councillor Wolfe. If you're online and joining, you just want to comment, you'd raise your hand or unmute yourself, but there's no one there. Okay. Oh, we have a taker. [2:52] Steve Johnson, Town Engineer: Good evening. My name is Steve Johnson. I'm the town engineer, and it is my distinct pleasure to be here tonight. And I'd like to announce some very important awards that were cast at the Maine Water Utilities Association meeting this past fall at the Sunday River Ski Resort in Newry. At that time, at that professional conference, four of Yarmouth's awesome wastewater staff here were recognized by the state organization. And so, while it's, it's certainly no surprise to me, given the professionalism and tremendous talent that our folks exhibit. I must say that to have four of our folks recognized at a single event really speaks volume for their skill, their dedication, and their commitment to excellence in this critical profession of keeping our receiving waters clean for everyone. So without further ado, our first staff that was recognized was Jeff Mitchell. He was awarded the Young Professionals Award, which is given annually to recognize the achievements of a young professional that has made noticeable contributions or achievements within the water environment industry and or to MIOWA. Jeff is our newest operator, and in the short time he's been here, he has been a part of our team. Has provided tremendous value with new skills, perspectives, and willingness to tackle new things and improve both wastewater operations as well as support the town's stormwater management program. I'll say that Jeff has really embraced some of our stormwater inspection and management, and it's been just a tremendous boon to me and Chris so that we can get that key piece of work done. So Jeff, if you please stand up so we can recognize you for. Our next up is Andy O'Brien. He was awarded the Charles Perry Collection System Award, which is given annually to a collection system operator that exhibits exemplary operation and maintenance of the wastewater collection system, including extra effort and originality put forth in operations to reduce environmental impact on the local community. Additionally, this recipient provides concern for the community by showing interaction with residents, community service, education. Knowing Andy and reading about this award's namesake, I can clearly see why the awards committee chose Andy for it. There are few people who have the willingness and the drive to continuously improve and seek new technology and new ways of doing things. Andy excels at this and provides tremendous value to the department in his work and drive to excel. I know that there's not one person that I wouldn't want to have out in the field doing management of our construction and ensuring that our system is well operated. So Andy, please stand up and be recognized. Fred Terrison was awarded the Operator Award, which is given annually to an individual who has shown high interest in performance in clean water operations and made significant contributions to water quality in the field in Maine. I must say that Fred is one of the most talented wastewater professionals I've worked with. There are truly very little that Freddy cannot do or has not already done. Besides maintaining his journeyman's electrical license, Freddy excels in all aspects of his profession and will do anything to help his wastewater team and all the departments achieve their missions. Fred's humor and humble personality is truly a pleasure to work with. And I will say that Chief Gallant was extremely glad that the work that Fred and Jeff did for our communication system. So working across all departments. So, Freddie, please stand up. Be right there. And last and certainly not least, Chris Klein was awarded the prestigious President's Service Award, which is awarded by the association president to acknowledge a person that provided assistance and support during the president's term that optimized and complemented the president's goals. While I can't repeat it all here, I was privileged to hear the current president, Rob Pontu's, accolades of Chris and his lengthy list of accomplishments during the formal presentation of the conference. And Rob said, and I agree, Chris, quote, works incredibly hard, but more importantly, he works smartly. The man does not waste a single ounce of effort and the results speak for themselves. He is a true leader in our field and a great guy to be around and is more deserving of this recognition. I very much agree with Rob's sentiment. So, again, Chris, please stand up and be recognized. I'll say that since the short time Chris has been the superintendent, it has just been a tremendous improvement to all of our operations, and it's really great to work with these gentlemen here. And the rest of the team, I want to also recognize Brian, who is right here. He's also one of our operators, came in. Thank you, Brian. And I don't see Tim, but we have one more professional that couldn't make it tonight. But thank you very much, and thank you to the spectacular wastewater team we have here. [8:12] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Thank you, Steve. I've heard, we've all heard over and over and over about what a great team you have there. I mean, wastewater is the sort of thing that, you know, they're working in the background, and when you don't notice it, that's great, you know, and we don't notice it because things just don't go wrong. They keep it running. And I can vouch for this from personal experience. I've got a pump station at the end of my driveway, and that project's been great and really well-run, and everyone's been professional and courteous, and it's just super. So thank you, and well-deserved, all of you. Okay, any other public comment? That's a big shoes. That's a tough act to follow, Steve. I don't know if you're going to get anybody else up there. I wish I had better. You did all right. Okay, we'll close the open public comment period. And we'll go to item, the official item number one on the agenda, which is to hear the reports of the council chair, committees, delegates, liaisons, and the town manager. I checked prior to the meeting. There's a couple of us that have updates. Councilor Casey. Sure. [9:16] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): On Tuesday of last week, the Harbor and Waterfront Committee met at Madeline Point. We meet at different locations along the waterfront during the warmer months of the year. So that was great. And Will, our harbor master, explained to us about the grant that the town has received to expand the dock at Madeline Point and add an extra L to the dock. So it will now look more like an F than it does now. Looks like an L now. Anyway, and the inner part of the dock will be for swimmers and the outer part of the dock will be for boaters. And Will is very excited about this because it's going to really help to make Madeline Point safer, particularly for our young people who swim there a lot. Right now, they're both using the same dock, and it sometimes is worrisome to boaters. And this is fully funded by a grant, which is also great news. So, thank you. [10:12] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Councilor Wolfe, do you mind if I report on the regionalization meeting, or do you want to do that? We both attended. I don't want to steal your thunder, if that's something. [10:22] Councilor (council member): My thunder can't be stolen when it's freely offered. Okay. [10:28] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): So I'll report that Councilor Wolfe and I attended a regionalization meeting with members of other town councils and select boards and school committees from the region. There were representatives from Freeport, North Yarmouth, Cumberland, Falmouth, Yarmouth, maybe others, I hope I didn't leave anybody else out, and then there were representatives from MMA, various other organizations, and the whole thing was pulled together by GPCOG, which is the Greater Portland Council of Governments, who moderated the meeting or facilitated the meeting. It was a couple hours long. It was over at the Falmouth Elementary School. I think the takeaway for me, and it's something I've said for quite a while, but now I've got a lot more data to back it up, there's a great deal of regionalization already happening. There's many cooperative agreements, shared services, things that are happening between the towns that have just, you know, risen organically as the, as the needs arose. Assessing is another one where we share a tax assessing pool. So it doesn't mean we can't do more, but, you know, there's, you know, there was quite a bit of interest in the room, but I think again, we're doing quite a bit. But to begin with, we will be having follow-up meetings as we've had these regionalization meetings right along, but GPCOG is really stepping in to try to facilitate it and move it ahead. So we expect to have more of those. I think that's it. And unless anyone else has, I didn't get a chance to check with you, Councilor Monti. Did you have? I did not. Nothing. Okay, great. And first day, but did you have anything you wanted to? [12:16] Audra Kaler, Town Manager: Nope. Just very glad to be here. I want to thank Nat. He is doing a fantastic job handing things over to me. I know he wants to be out of here as quickly as possible, but he's also offered to come back and just fill me in and give me context when I need it, and I really appreciate that and really appreciate all that you've done to make it a smooth transition for me. So thank you, Nat. And also just wanted to say that I already feel very at home with the staff. Everybody's been so welcoming. And I know Yarmouth is lucky to have them all. And I'm just very glad to join that team. So that's all I have. [12:55] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Great. And yes, we would all be remiss if we didn't recognize Nat Topper for chewing up a good chunk of his summer to come back on short notice and fill in his interim town manager for a few months. You know, we couldn't have a better interim town manager because he had 32 years of experience doing the job. So, you know, we didn't have to do much on the job training for him. It's been a real pleasure working with you again, Nat. Thank you very much. I don't know what we would have done this summer without you. Thanks, Pet. Okay. Let's move into the meet of the meeting. And I will mention that we have several members from Yarman's Boy Scout Troop here, working on a merit badge, and that's a good segue for item number two, which is to consider a proposal from Eagles Scout candidate Ian Ferguson for a community project endorsement. And I passed out a copy of Ian's prepared notes. So, Ian, welcome and take it away. [14:03] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): Thank you. Good evening, members of the town council, town staff, and community members. My name is Ian Ferguson, and I'm a life scout here in Troop 35 in Yarmouth. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you tonight about my Eagle Service project, the installation of American flags on the selected utility poles along Main Street. This project is especially meaningful to me because the idea originally came from my grandfather. Father, when I first joined scouting, he described how seeing American flags displayed proudly in town unifies us as a community, as a country, and reminds us of the values we all proudly share. Through the years, we've seen flags lining the streets of many towns. It made me think about doing something similar someday. That experience stayed with me and became the foundation for my Eagle Project. For my project, I'm proposing the installation of durable outdoor American flags on approximately 25 to 32 utility poles along Main Street, beginning at West Elm and continuing to Portland Street. The stretch of road is one of the most visible and well-traveled areas in Yarmouth, and I believe transforming it into a welcoming corridor will beautify our town and have a meaningful lasting impact. To make the display even more special, each flag bracket will be mounted on a painted 2x4 board decorated in wet white and blue. These boards will provide a strong stable mounting surface and add a handcrafted touch to every flag. I will be repairing and painting all these boards myself. I also want the council to know I'm personally fundraising the full cost of this project including the flags, brackets, hardware, spare flags, and painted 2x4s. This is my commitment to giving something meaningful back to the town and ensuring that no financial burden is placed on Yarmouth. Similar displays in towns such as Gray, North Yarmouth, and Bridgeton have become beloved traditions. Their flag installations bring communities together during Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Veterans Day, and other events. After seeing how unifying and heartfelt the displays are, and remembering my grandfather's words, I wanted to bring that same sense of pride and respect to Yarmouth. To complete this project, I will be responsible for planning and coordinating every step. step. This includes walking the entire route, identifying each utility pole, photographing them, and creating a detailed map and pole list. I will work closely with AMMETS, who are the official beneficiary of this project, and with the Town of Yarmouth as the license holder for the pole attachments. For safety reasons, neither I nor any Scout volunteers will be climbing or installing brackets ourselves. All installation work will be performed only by a contractor authorized to work on utility poles. This ensures full compliance with safety standards and keeps everyone involved protected my role is to lead planning coordination mapping and preparation in and community involvement while ensuring that the actual installation is handed by trained professionals who are authorized to work on the poles once the installation is complete the town of Yarmouth will take responsibility for long-term maintenance this includes replacing worn flags inspecting brackets and ensuring the display remains respectful and safe. This project is not just about installing flags. It's about leadership, service, and giving something meaningful back to the town that has supported me throughout my scouting journey. Ever since I first became boy scout, I've been taught the importance of serving my community. This project is a way for me to put that lesson into action. It's also a way for me to carry forward the idea that my grandfather shared with me and turn it into something that will benefit the entire community. Tonight I am respectfully asking for the town council support to move forward with this project. With your approval, I it is my hope that I will be able to finalize coordination with AMVETS, the contractor, and town departments, and begin preparing for the installation once all planning is complete. Thank you again for your time, your consideration, and your dedication to this community. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. [17:58] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Thank you very much. Are there any questions from the council? [18:02] Councilor Monty: I have a couple questions. Yes. Council Monty. First question. Is this something that would be up at discrete times or every day of the year? [18:11] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): What I had originally planned was to have it up during certain holidays, but if need be, it can be up all year round. It depends on what the town wants and what the community wants. [18:28] Councilor Monty: Gotcha. Two other quick questions. So you mentioned you'll take care of all the costs, and I get that, but then you also mentioned the town would then take responsibility for long-term maintenance. So how do you think about long-term maintenance and cost over time? [18:42] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): From what I know, Karen McNeil had said that her department would be taking on the replacing worn flags, brackets, or the two by fours mounted onto the pole. I don't know if that is still the case, but that is what would be done. And then if there were need to be some thing with spending money for the town to do that I would add that into my budget and put that in as far as this point though that the town isn't going to be spending any money on this [19:16] Councilor Monty: and then my third question is can you imagine a scenario where the town wouldn't want this and [19:21] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): why do you think that might be true I can't imagine a scenario like that people may think that the American flag is a sign of the current administration and what I've always said is the American flag unifies this great nation and is not a representation of this current administration. Any other reason? People just may not want flags up because they may think it'll ruin the street. The nature of the street. [19:48] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Okay, cool, thanks. Any other questions from the council? Yes, Councilor Teng. [19:53] Councilor (council member): Hi Ian, thank you and thank you for motivating yourself and getting this project together. Have you identified who the contractor is [20:03] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): is and is that someone that our town knows? The contractor hopefully will be Molson Heavy Electrical. They are a commercial electrical company in Westbrook. I have worked with them many times because they're also part of a company I work for, CCB Construction Services, and I know a couple electricians there who would be willing to help put these up, including David Riddle, who is a former Eagle Scout of Troop 35. [20:39] Councilor (council member): And I've seen these, like you've said, in other towns already. Have you had a chance to maybe talk to their town manager or their maintenance crew to ask a little bit about? [20:54] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): I haven't yet. That is my plan going forward to talk with them about that, yes. [20:58] Councilor (council member): Yeah, get a rough idea of how many hours it particularly would take their staff to sort of, if they're taking, putting flags up and taking them down, maybe you can get a rough idea of how often the flags are worn and how much you need a budget for, replacement and stuff like that. And you know, it would also be good to get yeah, primarily the staffing part how long it would take them to sort of accomplish the longer-term goal. [21:32] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): Hi, I'm Ian. I don't have a question. I just want to say thank you. This is a this is hard to do to get up and stand in front of all these people and say something like this. You did a great job and I appreciate your work for the town. [21:46] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): I actually have a question, but I'm going to throw this out to the town. That's okay, you go. You go. Oh, I'm sorry. No,, Councilor Abbott. [21:55] Councilor (council member): With Megan, thank you. This is great. I really appreciate seeing someone put together a project that helps our town feel more pride and connection and belonging. So thank you for putting this together. Other. I also think this is a good opportunity for the town as license holders to have those brackets be used for, say, Christmas decorations or a clam fest flags. How do you feel about that? [22:21] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): My project is just to put the American flags up. If the town wanted to put other flags up, that'd be fine, but that would be up to the town. [22:29] Councilor (council member): And then my only suggestion for aesthetics would be not to have them painted red, white, and blue, because when there's not a flag up there, to keep it more neutral and have it blend in more. That's my only suggestion, but I think it's great. Thank you for putting this together. [22:44] Councilor Monty: I do have a general just process question about what this would mean. What is the process for making a pretty substantial modification to downtown? [22:52] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): That's just really for Audra and whoever else knows. So hang on to that for just a second, because I kind of have a process question that may feed into that, and I'm sorry to toss this to Nat Tupper, but would we approve something like this just by acclimation tonight, or do we bring it back in couple weeks and actually formally voted on this. I don't know what's required for the, if you don't mind me asking the question, and I'm sorry to toss it to him, but I just... [23:20] Town Attorney/legal counsel: My experience, you can have some choice here. You could say yes, go ahead, and be done with it. I think if you decide to accept this offer, that it makes sense to have a vote. I think it helps him with his submission for his badges and his Eagle Scout designation to have an official record, and I think it's worthy of a formal acknowledgement and if you can give him a clue tonight which way you headed that's fine and if he has to be surprised in two weeks like the rest [23:50] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): of us always there thank you not so that given that being said how do we I don't know a question like you have counselor Monty probably can't be [24:05] Speaker K (unidentified): be answered tonight, but we could ask. I do know one small thing. So we would need to get [24:11] Audra Kaler, Town Manager: permission from CMP because they're the poll owners. [24:16] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): I have already gotten permission from CMP and Fidium Fiber who service the polls. I've been emailing with two people from there and with Steve Johnson's help and Karen McNeil, we have had a contract that has been set up with a one-time flat fee of four hundred and twenty five dollars which I would pay the town to do and they said they would be happy to have us have the flags up there for the question following up on that now that I think of it doesn't matter that our Main Street is also a state route 115 in terms of for approval of anything or is it just a I don't know who I'm asking no it doesn't matter okay, Nancy's no. Okay, thank you. [25:01] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): So, kind of, again, getting back a little bit to Councilor Monty's question, if we have questions like this around process that might have to wait a few days for answer, should we, I assume we'll forward this, I'm guessing that we want to forward this to a vote in two weeks. Do we want to put it on the operations meeting, just in case we have any questions that we want to toss to staff to have them come back? Yes, for sure. Okay. Okay, so is that the general consensus operations meeting next week and then for a vote in two weeks? So we got a thumbs on, okay. So if anyone does have any questions that would like to be discussed or have some answers for the operations meeting, please email the town manager and copy me if you would, just so we know what we, you know, so we know what questions we have to go get answers about. All right, cool. Cool. I don't have any other questions. Thank you very much. And as we do with all items on our agenda, we open up to public comment. So if anyone would like to add anything to this, feel free to come to the mic and say your part. Thank [26:21] Karen McNeil, Director of Yarmouth Community Services: You. I should have chosen a closer chair. My name is Karen McNeil. I'm the Director of Yarmouth Community Services and had the privilege of meeting with Ian and our town engineer Steve Johnson to start preliminary discussions almost two months ago, maybe. Now we're happy to be here tonight to hear the presentation. We know the guts it takes to come out here and do this as well, and the work put into this is definitely something that our, my department and our Public Works Department does support in order to go forward. It is something, Counselor Ting, that is on the back of our mind regarding the number of hours it takes to go up and down. So I definitely look forward to hearing that research and information from you know, neighboring communities in our area, especially on busy streets like Main Street. Those are tricky places to have vehicles parked with everything that might need to take place to get pedestrians and also cars around that work site when it's on a main road like 115. The other comments that I would have is I'm also, I have also been meeting with our Mary and Bright Committee, which is hoping to and presented to you all to decorate downtown. My request would be that the bracket is multi-directional so that it can be used going forward so that we then don't need to go get another bracket and change it up in the future. Eagle Scout projects are meant to make a lasting impression on a community. I think a minimum of five years is the requirement, if I recall, and we've, we've worked with numerous Eagle Scouts throughout the years, building things for our community, including the closest thing right out back at the warming hut addition, which allows for numerous opportunities for the high school hockey team, pardon me, and others to utilize that storage space, as well as my staff who does all of the maintenance there on the facility. So things like the five-plus-year lasting contribution would be great to think forward as far as we can as to what can be hung there or hanged, if that's the proper term. Public Works Director Madsen and I spoke yesterday just to review this. We are very interested, like I mentioned, in supporting it, but definitely want to make sure we know what we're getting into. to and I think that's about it but definitely the multi-use option would be something I feel the community and not just I feel but many feel the community will benefit from. We have committed to putting the flags up ideally as and taking them down just one time each time every year so ideally they go up sometime in May at least initially to try this out and then come down after Veterans Day so we are hanging those flags on Main Street during the nicest months, weather months of the year, but also in recognition from Memorial Day all the way through Veterans Day. And that way, those brackets could be used in the reverse months during the cold months to maybe bring some light or color or something to our community. And I'm not sure what that looks like yet, but I'm sure other people will have input as well. Thank you, Karen. [29:31] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Proving to be a popular topic. [29:33] Steve Johnson, Town Engineer: Good evening. Steve Johnson, town engineer. I want to commend young Ian for his hard work in doing this. He met with me early on, and I think he did a very great job. I also want to, Audra's question, that there is a licensing with that. Ian did great work researching it. We do have a sample of the contract, and so I don't see that as any issue. So, again, kudos to Ian and his hard work. Great. Anyone [29:57] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): else? Actually, I have another question for Ian. If you wouldn't mind coming to the podium, just a quick question, following up on something Karen McNeil said. Does your bracket have a multi-position? Is it a multi-position bracket? [30:09] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): bracket the bracket I have picked out right now has a position for a full staff and half staff flag. I'm still researching brackets to find one like Karen McNeil so we can have two different types of flags if we needed so I'll wait as you see in gray how they have the veterans just straight up see if I can get a bracket like that to put up if not then what I would do is have it be like how they have it in gray which is just a straight pole sticking out wrapped around the POLL WHICH HOPING TO RESEARCH MORE ABOUT AND FIND OUT MORE ABOUT SO THANK YOU [30:44] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): YEAH WELL GOOD ALL RIGHT SO WE'LL TALK ABOUT THIS NEXT WEEK AND WE'LL GO DOWN IT IN TWO WEEKS VERY NICE PRESENTATION WELL DONE AND GLAD TO HAVE THE REST OF YOU HERE ATTENDING ALL RIGHT LET'S MOVE ON TO ITEM NUMBER THREE THEN THIS IS TO CONSIDER AN AMENDMENT TO CHAPTER 504 OF the Yarmouth Town Code, which is our general assistance schedule of assistance, and to schedule a public hearing thereon. So this is a, you know, annual update type of thing, and I think we'll hear from Christy about that. [31:27] Christine Hayashida, Human Services Coordinator: Hello, I'm Christine Hayashida. I am the Human Services Coordinator for the town of Yarmouth, and I administer general assistance as well as other funding programs in my position. Every year DHHS and the Maine Municipal Association issues GA maximums for each region in Maine based on regional metrics. We are asking that you adopt the maximums put forth by DHHS and the state. These numbers I believe were provided to you by Nat Topper. For those I think most people here know what general assistance is for those who are slightly new to it general assistance is a program of last resort to financially assist individuals with basic necessities such as housing food utilities and other necessities the program utilizes vouchers it does not hand out cash there are also strict rules regarding one's income how one spends their money and what their assets are also maximums do not mean automatic payouts so just because a person is eligible for GA let's say I find them eligible for GA that does not mean that they automatically receive the maximum in that category it they could possibly it just kind of depends what's in front of me and all of the information I have on their income and their needs maximums just means that is the legal limit that the town can pay for a specific necessity. The maximums this year compared to last year, as you might know, the overall maximum is 4.8% higher than last year. The housing maximum is 4.8% on average, higher than last year. And the food maximums increased by an average of 2.9 percent. Mileage rate increased 3.7 percent. I've never done mileage because we have other alternate ways to help people with transportation. There's no change to utilities, heating, fuel, personal care, household items, burials, cremations. I do also want to point out that the state reimburses the town 70% of all GA costs. Now, you as the council could attempt to set your own maximums. If it is lower, if you come in lower than recommended, you would have to prove to DHHS that you're maintaining the decency and safety of Yarmouth citizens. If you, if the council decides to approve higher maximums, we would not be reimbursed 70% from the higher maximums. We would be reimbursed 70% from what MMA and DHHS suggested. So my recommendation is we accept the numbers recommended to us by DHHS and MMA, and I'm very happy to take questions. [34:53] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Thank you very much. Any questions from the council? [34:58] Councilor Monty: I think I would benefit from a general snapshot of what our GA population looks like in town and has looked like over time. Sure. Demographically? Yeah, ballpark, whatever you have. [35:12] Christine Hayashida, Human Services Coordinator: So as far as, let's say like I've been here four years. So let's say three years ago, the majority were immigrants. Because they could not work, and so because they could not work and it takes several months for them to receive their work permit, then they are supported by GA. With that comes requirements. The requirement is they would have to learn English, so we provide bus passes, we, you know, we work with Freeport, I work with report to have them go to classes there. We did for a while have classes taught in Yarmouth, and so there are requirements that went along with that. If they came to me already knowing English, then the requirement was that they go volunteer, and so, and I would help them, try to help them find a volunteer position, and so that was mostly the case. It was immigrants, but then so many, well, everyone now has their work authorization. And so then I did not see them. Occasionally there might be a blip, you know, like there might be like, oh, I had this job and I lost it. And so maybe there might be some assistance needed for one month, let's say, but generally not at all. So now I'm seeing mostly U.S. born Yarma citizens. But the numbers have decreased dramatically. Three years ago, three years ago, our, this is, this is what our, the town paid after this 70 reimbursement, we were at 51,700. Two years ago it decreased to 33,180. Last year 13,377. So it's almost a quarter of what it was three years ago. And that is because the immigrants who were coming to see me have gotten jobs. And they're doing great. So that's kind of a picture. Helpful to see it framed. Yeah. All right. [37:27] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Any other questions? All right, so move this ahead to a vote in two weeks. Great. All right. All right, now item number four is to receive a report and recommendation of the Climate Action Committee and schedule action thereon. So Mehdi, the floor is yours. I [38:11] Megan Halstead, Co-chair, Yarmouth Climate Action Board: think we're organized. Not Mehdi. Good evening. I'm Megan Halstead, co-chair of the Yarmouth Climate Action Board, along with Jeff Bates, who you'll hear from in a minute. So we're here to give you our second annual, we've only been around for a couple of years, but our second annual update on progress against the climate action plan and our proposed work plan for the coming year. So we really appreciate the ongoing engagement from the council, from a lot of committees in town, from residents, from the schools, as we all work together toward the climate action plan that was adopted. And so we look at tonight as hopefully a short presentation and then discussion. We have a couple of questions we'll key up for you after we go over the progress to think about how we can collaborate better to move things along in a speedier fashion so presenting tonight we'll just do a quick introduction next will be abby grunwald distinguished ycab member and followed by jeff bait no followed by medismith distinguished sustainability coordinator for the town of yarmouth followed by jeff bates co-chair of ycap so thank you Okay. [39:32] Climate Action Board member (possibly Abby): Hi. Could we change the slide, please? Thank you. So the town council has had several different advisory committees focused on energy, including the previous iteration, which was the Committee for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability, or CEASE. This shows a longstanding commitment and resident interest in conserving resources. With student advocacy, the council unanimously adopted a climate emergency resolution in 2022, and this resolution did several things. It established targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, acknowledged that change needs to be urgent and resources are required, and it confirmed that the town's approach to adaptation should focus on affordability, equity, and changing the whole community. And finally, the resolution solution directed the town to create a task force and develop a climate action plan. After the climate action plan was adopted in 2024, the council replaced CEASE with YCAB and many members of YCAB carried forward. Slide change, please. YCAB was created to shepherd the climate action plan implementation. We have been fully up and running since fall of 2024 and are now entering our second year. We don't own all of the implementation steps, so our role is to coordinate across town council, the school committee, other local committees, and town staff to support efficient and cost-effective progress. A piece of our role is engaging the wider community in understanding climate related issues and what they can do to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt as changes impact our community. The overarching targets the town is working toward are the 2030 net zero goal for the town or for town and school operations and the 2050 goal for the entire community to reach net zero. Thank you. Hi [41:34] Climate Action Board member: everyone, Sean, you can go to the next slide. So as Abby mentioned, we have this wonderful and comprehensive climate action plan, but importantly, it's not collecting dust on the shelf. And so across town departments and YCAB and other advisory committees, there's a lot of actions in the CAP that have been initiated. So we're at like 60% of these 74 actions have had some progress. And six actions within the last year, we've kind of confirmed as complete, which is really great. And so thank you to all the partners within the town and community that have helped move that ahead. Head. A lot of the complete actions are kind of policy oriented. So those were policies that had come before the town council and you had voted to approve. So there's still a lot of policy opportunity, but we also have room to grow in programs and capital and operational work. So we've got a lot of check marks on the policy side though, which is good. Next slide, please, Sean. So, a couple of accomplishments from this past year, we've got a group of volunteers collaborating from across different committees to create a really neat GIS-based tool that looks at recreational asset habitat and hydrology data. And it's being finalized now, but the goal is for that tool to be used in decision-making about land conservation and balancing growth and protecting the natural environment. So that's a really cool tool that you'll hear more about. We also did energy audits of two town facilities through a state technical assistance program and we have a pilot energy coaching program that's helping residents understand and make changes to make their home more efficient and save money in this time of really out of control energy prices and so on. The picture on the right is some of our coaches. You can kind of see it's, it's a really awesome program. Like the coaches are down there working with people, looking at their boilers, like peeking up into the attic. So it's a really cool program. It's providing a great value for residents who are taking advantage of it, and it's totally free, and it's grant funded on our side. So very proud of that program, and we'll report back on its success. Next slide. So something I've also started tracking this year, which you can see a little bit more information about in the progress reports that I've generated for the climate action plan with the help of my Resilience Corps fellow Christy. So we understand that the climate action plan will take significant investment, and the climate emergency resolution really lays that out and acknowledges it. But I just wanted to bring up some points that previous investments the town has made have a real payoff in annual operating costs. So like when the town transitioned to a pay-as-you-throw system with the blue bags, our waste, the MSW, dropped like 30% before. And so we're saving a lot of money on tipping fees when we drop the waste off at EcoMain. And so there's a real kind of success story that's told through not only climate benefits and public value, but like dollars. So, I just wanted to note that as kind of another success across the board and share that, like other departments, the sustainability department is, you know, actively pursuing external funding and grants, and a lot of the, all of the principal programs that I'm administering are grant funded. Next slide. slide. So, there are two progress reports generated each year to show progress on the Climate Action Plan. One looks at each of those 74 actions, like what are we doing across the 10 goals that we have in the cap, and what's next? And the other report looks at available data to understand if we can't model greenhouse gas emissions locally every year, what data do we have available to us to tell us if we're moving in the right directions across transportation, waste, and building energy use. And so I just wanted to high level share a couple of these trends. So on the transportation side of things, we're seeing that, you know, car dependency is kind of steady, but people are driving more miles per person, which is interesting. At the same time, EV adoption in Yarmouth among the community is also really steady and growing, you know, 20% year over year. At this point, EVs and plug-in hybrids make up 7% of registered vehicles in town. I mentioned that, you know, we're seeing this really great story of less waste being generated since the Pay As You Throw program. So that trend is continuing, which is great. Community electricity is decreasing, and so as we switch to more efficient technology in our homes and we're wasting less energy, we're seeing that kind of go down. Natural gas use in the community is rising, and when we look at how beneficial electrification manifests in our community, so like the number of heat pumps installed, we saw a real jump in 2023 with federal subsidies. And so we're seeing that slow in pace. So still happening, but it's not happening as fast as it was. And then on the town and school operational side of things, the fossil fuel use trends fluctuate year over year, but there's no significant downward trend at this point to report. So at a high level, there's so much momentum with the climate action plan. But like other communities, we need to continue and accelerate and amplify the action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, continue the cost savings we're seeing from our investments, and manage future costs of rising energy and other risks from a changing climate. So I think I'm going to pass it off to Jeff Bates, co-chair. [48:07] Jeff Bates, Co-chair, Yarmouth Climate Action Board: Thank you, Mehdi, and thank you all for having us and giving us the time. I think I've met many of you, but for those of whom I haven't, I'm Jeff Bates, co-chair, and Audra, congratulations on the new role and looking forward to working with you. So next slide. So this is the YCAB work plan for this coming year. We're on an academic calendar. I won't go through each of these projects because this has been provided in advance. I'm so happy to answer any questions on these, but I did want to highlight a couple of them. Starting at the top, the business program is a program designed to celebrate local businesses that are taking steps to mitigate emissions and build sustainability into their operations. And this program is being spearheaded by the student members of the Climate Action Board. The program supports action 5.1.2, which is to launch a business recognition and outreach program to provide resources for businesses to reduce waste. And I believe the students are planning to expand beyond waste reduction to encompass other actions that meet the goals of the Climate Action Plan as well. Mehdi mentioned the energy coaching program. The work this year is really gonna be focused on driving utilization, getting more folks to participate in that program. And then towards the May timeframe or towards the, in the spring, it will be focused on transitioning that to a long-term sustainable project. And then jumping down, members of the Climate Action Board will also be working, will continue to be involved in the Sligo Road Solar Project. David Ertz is heavily involved in that and pushing that forward, and there's certainly more work to do, but in good hands and moving forward. I will save the discussion of land conservation ordinance changes and the soil and water ordinance to the next slide. But before we switch to that, are there any questions about these projects or what we're focused on for the coming year? All right. Hearing none, we'll go to the next slide. So for each of the projects that I mentioned, we anticipate either actions or requests of the of the council to come up in the in the coming year. Just before going into these, wanted to highlight that this is not an exhaustive list. Certainly there may be other actions or requests that come up during the year, but for the ones that we anticipate, sort of if we hit our, if we hit our milestones and we hit our work plan, then we should be coming to you with these actions or requests. And so I will touch on each of these. The first is to simply endorse the annual progress reports, that progress and data report that METI has sent along, as well as the YCAB work plan that was represented on the previous slide. We also hope as sort of a matter of course, when recommended by the planning board, that some edits that we have pending for town ordinances that you will support and adopt those, as well as a couple of conservation easements on two town-owned parks, as well as a standalone soil and water ordinance that we would expect to be coming through the planning board to you in early 2027. We wanted to talk a little bit more detail about this last bullet here, which we can do on the last slide. We switch to that. And really, we see an opportunity here. So, of course, town projects are planned and executed continuously. It could be new infrastructure projects, new vehicle procurements, really procurements of any type, updates to buildings. And every project has climate and emission considerations associated with it. Even just operational decisions have these considerations. But especially the emissions of large capital projects can be especially impactful, as many of these decisions can lock us into a specific way of operating for a long time. So the Climate Action Board is not currently involved in these planning efforts, the Climate Action Board and Sustainability Department, and we believe that there's a significant opportunity there. Many of the projects that reduce emissions also offer a significant return on investment, as you saw a bit of with the figures that many referenced, and certainly recent increases in fuel costs make that especially and potentially even more true. So we believe that if we can, as a climate action board and the sustainability department, be brought into these discussions, or integrate into these discussions early on, we can help perform these analyses, identify these opportunities, and potentially have the result be significantly lower operating costs for the, for the town in the, in the long term. And of course, it will also help us meet our climate goals as well. So I think that the question, I don't know how much time we have for discussion, but maybe the question to leave you all with, or that the ask of you tonight is just sort of general support of the board and the sustainability department being involved in those discussions, and support for as we sort of, as a volunteer board come up to speed quickly, ideally on how we can integrate in that process, and then any ideas on how we might do that. [54:02] Councilor (council member): So thank you again for the time. Can we go back to the previous slide please on the time frame? Yes, thank you. So for the actions and requests for town council for the ordinances, since I'm a newbie here, when we adopt new, when we make edits to town ordinances, that's something we handle as a as a council, yes, right? If there's a new ordinance, what happens? Similarly the council has to adopt. So it's not necessarily a town-wide vote on whether or not we implement an ordinance. No, that's that's that's the purview of the council. Okay, all right. So you know i think it's important that we for example when we say adopt a soil and water ordinance and we want to adopt in early 2027, that's a pretty contentious topic that other surrounding communities have grappled with. I like to you know when we have these very and you know I know it's probably not the right word to put it but I've used it before that would that be the equivalent of a pesticide ordinance in town? I think pesticide or yes some level of pesticides in scope of the ordinance. Yep, so you know we have experience looking at how that has divided communities around us. I would just urge us not to go the same direction where we go, where we hear it, talk about it for a week, and then pass it, because I think we really need to give the public a lot of time to digest it, and we need to hear things through. That's all. [56:25] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): Councilor Casey. Sure, I just wanna follow up on that. I agree with Mike. Mike, I think that probably, though, knowing many, that the process of before the ordinance is even proposed to us, I assume you will have public hearings, public information. And I agree with Mike that even given that, we should have it be a little bit lengthy here at the council level. But I hope and assume that you will be doing that as you form the ordinance. [56:48] Climate Action Board member: Yeah, so I can speak to that. that we're just in the stages of kind of drafting language and meeting with stakeholders to understand what the process was like in other communities. So I can say that there absolutely will be a public process on our end, but also through the town channels as it goes through the planning board and has public hearings and comes to you all as other ordinance are proposed in that way. So there'll be, yes. Yes. [57:18] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): Lots of opportunity. And I agree also at the council level. Longer than the typical two-week thing. [57:25] Councilor Monty: Councilor Monti. Hey, I have a bunch of questions. Just as a framing, I think we went right for, is this a pesticide ban? And we need more time. I actually encourage you guys to lead and lead quickly because we are sitting on 30 to 40 to 80 to 100 years of evidence. And only right now is good design coming into town to say, actually you're building sick environments. So you certainly will have my support as your liaison to lead, which I think is also part of what the board needs to do and what we're here to do is to help give you guys some direction. So I feel excited about that. Kudos to you guys, it's important work. I have some, I've read the whole thing, no surprise, right, so I have some detailed questions. Where is the school with the energy assessment, right, the audit of the schools, because when I look at the slide labeled trends and metrics, there's six things up there, and it's as if they're all created equal, and all I see is one huge bubble, which is the cost of heating schools, and the rest feel like small fry. So can you bring us up to speed on the timeline for that specifically? [58:32] Climate Action Board member: Yes, so a little bit of context, right, we have these two goals for community to reach net zero and operations to reach net zero in terms of our whole carbon footprint as a town. The town and school only make up three percent, right, so there's like in context they're kind of apples and oranges a little bit. So to my knowledge the school is engaged with an energy performance contract company and they're completing the analyses of the facilities, so they'll have kind of detailed reports on the energy use intensity and air quality, and so I believe that's with the school committee at this time. They might not have heard the results yet. It would be great if you [59:15] Councilor Monty: have any, can get back to this level of council where that's at, just because I don't see the right, the cost implications for school kind of affects everything else and it's really important one. So you want to follow on that one? I have a couple others, but yeah, no, please. All right, thank you for that. Pilot energy coaching, I want to have you come to my house. Do you have a sense of the per home benefit if somebody implements all of your recommendations every [59:39] Climate Action Board member: home is different right so and it depends what a person would have the resources to do and what their home needs efficiency main has some really great calculators where you put in the information of your home and you're gonna change your water heater to a heat pump water heater here's how much you could save so I can't necessarily speak to the dollar value per household but I will say depending on the investment somebody could make in say insulation you know you can save thousands on energy costs. I'm interested. I would encourage you to think [1:00:14] Councilor Monty: about starting to ask people what would you pay to have us come, right? Because that's what's going to end up making this grant funded stuff sustainable, because my guess is it's a decent, a decent sized number if you're potentially adding all this benefit over time. We have to think how to get you guys sustainable and not always grant funded. So I'd love to talk about that. All right. The electric vehicle ports in front of the library. I don't even know. Are they free? Do we [1:00:38] Climate Action Board member: charge? They're networks. So we charge for the energy there and at the charges at town hall. [1:00:43] Councilor Monty: Okay, cool. So they kind of come out like neutral, like they kind of pay for themselves. Yes. [1:00:52] Climate Action Board member: They Actually, right now, I'm going to do a utilization analysis with GPCOG on the town-owned chargers to understand how much are they being used, how has that changed over time, and see if we can compare that to other similar chargers to understand, like, yeah. [1:01:08] Councilor Monty: So today, we don't know if our two are full every single night. [1:01:12] Climate Action Board member: We don't know. We don't know, but we will soon. And if you're interested, I'm happy to come back and talk about it. [1:01:18] Councilor Monty: Because if it's full all the time, then it's like, get two more, right? [1:01:20] Climate Action Board member: like exactly that's what I'm hoping to discover all right cool oh [1:01:27] Councilor Monty: I just want to make sure I heard it correctly, procurement and that sort of updates to building on the last slide, does that mean that we built new buildings in the last decade without sustainability decisions going into things like materials choices, or is it that we did consider those things and they were not implemented? Do we end up to while back? I don't know how far back, you know what I 'm just wondering, what is the context? Is that true, that we haven't really had that type of lens on new buildings in Yarmouth in 2020, in the last five years? [1:02:00] Climate Action Board member: I have not been here for five years yet. So I have not been part of any discussions where new town or school facilities have been constructed. I think in some case, there could be choices that have been cost engineered out. But if there was, if there's been other folks directly involved, I would [1:02:22] Councilor Monty: definitely like to defer. What I'm hearing is that you're a group like yours has not had a seat at the table in those decisions as far as you can tell. I think [1:02:32] Climate Action Board member: that would be true. There's, there's just an opportunity to kind of integrate more systematically across operations. Yeah. Cool, awesome. We should be building for [1:02:41] Councilor Monty: health, so you guys keep at it. Thank you. [1:02:44] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): I'm good. Councilor Ting, did you have a question? [1:02:47] Councilor (council member): Oh, no, I was just making sure that when we present the information to the public on our data that we, for example, specifically in mind that for the schools and their energy audits and whatever report comes out, that we also include previous reports that were made, right? Because there's been previous energy assessments done at the current schools that reflect certain costs and payback times, and we shouldn't pick one report over another. You make sure that all the data's out there. [1:03:29] Councilor Monty: This is interesting, Mike. I actually disagree with that, in that each one is created differently, right? So if we wanna go into which report is right, that's a much different effort than what's happening today. [1:03:40] Councilor (council member): No,, yeah,, no. [1:03:43] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Please wait to be recognized. We don't do this back and forth. [1:03:47] Councilor Monty: Like, I'm not sure what that means, because my understanding is that the school has never had an energy audit done the way it's being done right now. Does anybody know? There is a contract right now with Siemens to do an assessment on those buildings, which are throwing heat out the windows eight months of the year. Does anyone know? The way, and I talked about this a lot when I was running, and what I heard back was, nope, it's never been done. So the idea that there's data out there doesn't, if there is, we should find it, and if there's not, there's not. Does anybody know? I don't know who we'd ask. I don't. Okay, school committee might [1:04:21] Councilor (council member): know. I don't know. There's a Honeywell report. Happy to afford it to you. Was Dr. Dolov, had, I'm not sure if commission's the right word, but it's out there. The devil's in the detail. That sounds pretty good. Yeah, I mean, yeah, and I'm not implying that one report's better than the other or right or wrong, I'm just saying show all the data, right? That's it. Right. [1:04:48] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): ANYTHING ELSE? I LOST MY TRAIN OF THOUGHT HERE. SO PICKING UP ON SOME OF COUNSELOR MONTI'S POINTS ABOUT THE SCHOOL, BUT ESPECIALLY IN TERMS OF YOUR REQUESTS AROUND BEING INVOLVED IN CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS, I THINK that's key because the largest capital improvement project we've done in the past decade or forever, actually, in this town was the 52 million dollar bond to rebuild the schools. At the time, I and others advocated for heating the schools, heating, you know, building into that plan using renewable energy resources, and it was completely ignored and now that decisions were made and it's next to impossible to do anything about it so like you said it's this big bubble in terms of municipal greenhouse gas emissions yeah it's it's the school heating is this is the huge part and then there's everything else. And that decision to be able to heat with oil and natural gas [1:06:02] Councilor Monty: is honestly a disaster. That bill is going to be 5X. Exactly. [1:06:07] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): So I guess where I was going with this is, I think, and we'll have to have some discussions about how this is done with the capital improvement plan. But I think we should have some discussions about that. Perhaps there's a, you know, requirement for every capital, every capital improvement project there must be a sustainability analysis and must be reviewed by YCAB or, you know, something like that. I'm not trying to throw a solution at the problem right here. That's for us to decide as a group, but I think it's a great suggestion, and I think it will avoid us having decisions get made the way that they were made in the past that you're stuck with. I mean, I really, I really don't know how. It's a huge problem. When we passed this climate emergency declaration in 2022, I thought to myself, wow, this is going to be tough in eight years to get to net zero as a municipality. Yeah. Well, it's four years, and we're flatlined. So now we've got four years to do what I thought was going to be difficult in eight years. We're not going to get there. We're not going to meet that goal. And the biggest reason why is because we're stuck with decisions that were made that make it almost impossible to meet that goal. So I guess my thought for YCAB is I'd like to see a plan of, you know, from 2026 to 2030 what it would take to get there, and it's probably not an achievable plan. It probably means you'd say, well, we'll have to spend, you know, 40 million dollars to retrofit the schools, but I'd like to see the plan. I'd like to see what it is. And if it's non-achievable, then I think we ought to consider revising the goals. I mean, if you can't become net zero as a community by 2030, because there's just no viable plan to get there, I think we should talk about that. We should have that discussion. And if it means that we have to do it by 2035, or there is a plan that could get us there in 2035 or something. Anyways, I guess I want to toss that out there. The other thing we said back in 2022 was we don't want to be net zero just by buying offsets. But that was the last case or the last worst case scenario or last ditch effort or whatever would be to offset what we're doing because we didn't make progress and we go buy the offsets. I'd like to know what that costs. I asked about that last year and I don't I don't know that we ever really did that analysis. So not that we're gonna spend the money, but let's get in front of people what it would actually cost to achieve this. And what and what's viable in the next four years or how long it's gonna take. Those are my thoughts for the for METI and the climate action board and yes, I see that, but if you want to make public please wait for public comment, which we will open up to concert in chess again. [1:09:09] Councilor (council member): Again, I want to make sure, and I think this number was in the comprehensive, the Climate Action Plan itself. Let's just remember that the town of Yarmouth as a whole, all 9,000 of us, our annual contribution to the global greenhouse gas emissions is less than three ten thousandths of one percent okay so hey i believe in global i believe in climate change i think it's a global problem but let's keep that number in mind as we look at our budget planning and move forward with reasonable ideas on how to limit our contribution to that three ten thousands of one percent per year. I want to encourage you to change [1:10:07] Councilor Monty: the name of this group to energy transformation because you fall into these climate traps like this where this is mostly about the enormous costs we are going to bear as a town for failure to modernize. It's not really about, of course, it's about climate, right? But we don't want to play like the climate, is climate change real? What do we contribute game? We want to lead with an energy future that is modern and responsible to the kids that are behind us. So I would want to actually, I don't know what formally would have to happen, but I'd like to consider renaming this group. Something to think about. [1:10:44] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Anything else from the council before we open it up to public comment? All right. Then given that, we'll open public comment. If anybody's online and wants to comment, please unmute yourself. If you're here in the room and you'd like to comment on this, please come to the podium and state your name and where you live and give us your comments. There's only one person, but they have not indicated they want to speak. [1:11:13] Jeff Thaler, Climate Action Board member/public commenter: My name is Jeff Thaler. I live off of Bayview Peninsula. I've lived here over 40 years. I'm a clean energy, climate, environmental lawyer, et cetera. So I've been doing these types of issues for decades. I'm also on the Climate Action Board. I've been working on the zoning issues. But I want to briefly just add some information to some of the comments the councillors have made. One is that the cheapest source of energy in Maine is electricity. The cleanest source of energy in Maine is electricity. And to your point, Councilor Ting, we don't even have to mention climate. I always focus on dollars. And given diesel at $6 and going up a gallon, given the heating oil prices that are going to hit this winter, there are policies in the state of Maine that have not been met, to your point. The state has goals of 2030, 2040. It's being frustrated by federal policy. We know that, among other things. However, Maine is trying to, the state, taking steps to get more clean energy onto what we call the grid, the transmission system, of which Yarmouth is just one small part, but the more of that goes onto what our CMP or VIRSEN or other wires, we can pull off the grid and plug into this room or wherever in the schools. schools. So if you want to, and I agree with you about looking, you know, for us to look at the next four years or 10 years, to your point, that to reduce the bills of the school department or to reduce the bills of the municipal buildings or whatever, which are on oil or because we don't really have much natural gas piped in here and gas fluctuates every winter, then, you know, electrifying is ultimately what the state is trying to do that's part of your net zero and that will ultimately be not just The cleanest but also the least expensive way to go, and the last fact I'll leave you, because I always use this when I teach or talk, is that every year Maine exports five, six billion dollars a year out of state to buy fossil fuels. And if you divide that by 1.4 million people, that's about four thousand dollars for every man, woman, child, baby. And if you could, for a family of four, keep sixteen thousand dollars a year in your pocket, that's significant. Thank you. [1:13:53] Councilor (council member): You, thank you very much, Jeff. No, I was going to ask, thank you, Jeff, neighbor, so you could ask me over, you know, I could, I could ask you what percentage of that electricity, what sources are [1:14:09] Jeff Thaler, Climate Action Board member/public commenter: we getting that percentage from? Yeah, so Maine historically has had one of the highest what's called renewable portfolio standards in the country. Primarily a lot of it is hydro, and then [1:14:21] Councilor (council member): Then it goes from our state. [1:14:23] Jeff Thaler, Climate Action Board member/public commenter: No, I'm only talking within Maine, within Maine's borders. It is the majority of our electricity is what I'll call clean or carbon free. So the hydropower, wind, solar, biomass, which is wood fired. We don't have really much geothermal, really don't have tidal. But there are, we will see how things unfold over the next couple of years. But there is still a lot of, Maine has done studies as to how much more it could generate from wind and solar. I don't think we'll see any major new hydro dams, but the Northern Maine project, which I've been working with or involved with, would be 1,200 megawatts of wind connected to a new transmission line to connect to the rest of the system. Offshore wind, the Gulf of Maine has one of the best wind resources in the United States. I've worked on this since 2008 with UMaine. So it's technology patented in Maine, and the wind resource is greater than, and you can access it off the coast of Maine easier than the West Coast. So the point is that we have the potential to literally do electrify our economy over time. [1:15:43] Councilor (council member): But as of today, even with all those green sources, we're still, if I'm hearing it correctly, I'm just trying to interpret what you were saying to miss. Sure. We're still importing $14,000 per [1:15:54] Jeff Thaler, Climate Action Board member/public commenter: person we, you know, I mean Maine is the most independent state in the country on heating oil, still used to be over sixty five percent. I think it's a little lower now, but we still are very heavily dependent on [1:16:09] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): oil just to correct. I think he said four thousand was a four thousand. Oh, it's yeah, it's... $16,000 per family. [1:16:15] Jeff Thaler, Climate Action Board member/public commenter: For a family of four, as an average. Thank you for the correction. [1:16:20] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): We just want to make sure we get the right information. Thank you all. [1:16:25] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Any other public comment? [1:16:30] Councilor Monty: I have just another comment here. [1:16:32] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Sure, we'll close the public comment period and bring it back to the council then. [1:16:35] Councilor Monty: And I'm not sure where to go with it, but we know we're going to be facing a massive bill that is currently not budgeted for in terms of heating the schools. And is there something that we should be doing now to look at that, like planning for that, because we know it's gonna be bad I think. [1:16:52] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): that is we could suggest to the school committee I'm sure they're already doing it 's their job not ours but and if for some reason they haven't thought of this which I doubt is the case but if so it's fine for us to suggest it but it's not our job to do all [1:17:09] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Right, so the immediate thing we have in front of us, the first ask from WICAB is for us in November to approve their annual plan. Are we good to move this ahead? I guess any reason we couldn't vote on it in October, or do we want, they had November on the slide, but it sounds like the annual plan is ready. Do we want to vote on it in two weeks, or do we want to take more time? So let's move this to the agenda for the voting agenda in two weeks. To do that, and of course there'll be other interactions throughout the year. Great, thank you for the presentation. Okay, on time number five, this is to consider actions to release Don Madden from tax collection duties to allow the Assessor to commit recommit the outstanding tax obligations to order Kaler. So the town manager is also the tax collector, so whenever we have a new town manager we have to make them the tax collector too, so that's that's what this is about, it's strictly administrative. Any questions from the council, we'll open it to public comment now. Thank [1:18:31] Town Attorney/legal counsel: you. I just wanted to note for you that I sent a revised note out, it came under orders name because my email's been ripped from my hands. Good. But to everybody's benefit. But I had noted to you earlier and then sent a reminder that we had neglected to formally appoint, you had neglected, I neglected to remind you, to appoint Audra as treasurer as well as tax collector. So I had suggested in that memo that we revised the agenda for the 15th to relieve Dawn as tax collector, assign that to Audra, and then to assign that you don't have to relieve Dawn of anything, even though she's acting as treasurer now. But it makes more sense that the manager do that, and so the finance director is not doing two capacities that are supposed to be watching each other. [1:19:33] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Right, and I saw that memo and I forgot to read it, and okay, so yes, so actually this would be considered making town manager tax collector and the Treasurer. Okay. Should we move that to the vote in two weeks? [1:19:56] Councilor Monty: Are you going to sit here the whole meeting? Are you going to sit here the whole meeting? [1:20:03] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): He's going to answer questions if we need him. And then you'll never see him again. [1:20:08] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Item number six, to consider adoption of emergency medical transportation plans required pursuant to Title 30A MRS section 3127. So I'll just read the short description I have here. This is a new law in Maine that requires the town council to hold a hearing and adopt a statement defining our operational structure for EMS service. So that's what we have to do. And Nat, you were saying this rose out of a situation up north where, yes, we'll open up to public comment. [1:20:46] Town Attorney/legal counsel: Can I comment during the public period? I won't need to. It's labeled a report because that's what the rule requires, that we do a report. I've never heard of it before, so it's new this year. And it is not really a report. It's a checkmark. Who are you serving? How are you serving people with medical services and transportation in particular? We need to get our, we at the state, need to get our act together and make sure we know what's going on. I understand from the fire chief that arises out of an incident in northern Maine where there was a town that had not provided for any ambulance service. There's no law that says you have to, but nobody knew that, what their circumstances were. And so a medical emergency arose in that municipality, and a number of communities were contacted. And we said, no, that's not our town. We don't go there. We don't go there. I don't remember how many, but it was a large number. Nobody went. The patient did not survive. Everybody said, this is not a crack we fell through. This is a chasm. them and so while i have belittled the survey because i didn't know all that stuff in thinking it was silly that the department that licenses us and regulates us wants to know well who are you and what is it you do and that's the only two questions they have is that 's the report we are yarmouth we provide medical emergency medical services using the fire rescue department panel has had to submit a report that says we rely on Yarmouth or whatever else they do so it's not it's not silly that the state wants to get their act together. It may be silly that they haven't done it sooner, but this is a good thing to do, so that's the, that's nature of it, and the report is already written and you just have to sign it, and all it is check the box, which model are you using? Are you contracting? Are you having another community do it? Are you doing itself? You're not doing it, you had something else, is the hospital doing it? Years ago it was the funeral homes doing it, that probably more marketing than efficiency, but anyway, there you go. Any questions [1:23:13] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): from the council, any discussion? So should we just move this to a vote in two weeks? Sounds administrative. All right. Next three items are our new kind of new business that [1:23:24] Councilor (council member): we just need to schedule. Just curious that you, oh, well, it's Mark adopted this 15th day of October. Okay. Nevermind. It's in two weeks. Okay. We don't have to sign it tonight. No, [1:23:39] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): no worries. Item number seven and eight and nine are very similar in that it's just scheduling time to discuss new business. So item seven is to consider or schedule discussions on changes into the stay program. I've got some ideas around that. I think others on the council do. We want, you know, I guess the question is do we want to put on the next operations meeting or do we want to wait until November or any thoughts? I mean, none of this is super urgent, but we should do it before, we get into budget season. How does the next meeting work? So the next meeting we've put a few things on there, but I don't think, I guess my thought is I wouldn't try to do all three of these maybe in October, but I would, I can't answer Craig. Go ahead, Councillor Wolff, go ahead. [1:24:40] Councilor (council member): Yeah, all three is too much. I do, I feel that both the sewer and the stay program are kind of continuations of conversations that were started last year, and pilot as well. But I don't feel, they're not emergent, but I feel a sense of urgency when talking about these, recognizing that it's October, And, you know, that only gives us a few months to really put something together before budget season and all three of them have a not insubstantial potential impact on how we put together a budget. So I don't know if it's like maybe the way we think about it is that the October meeting is sort of the view from 10,000 feet on the three of them. But and maybe we're not getting into like all of the meat of all three of them. But I would like us to all sort of know broadly what we're thinking about sooner rather than later. [1:25:39] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Thank you, Councilwoman. Good suggestion, Councilman. And Councilman Casey Edwards. [1:25:45] Councilor Monty: I feel a responsibility to solve the sewer problem for the next billing cycle. I think it's achievable. I think it's a deliverable to the people in the town that are concerned about it. So I would love to move on that one, as we're talking about moving other things. I also just wanna add for stay, I have some questions about sort of the economic architecture of the town and the likely impact on how much we would set aside if we were to change the requirements. So that feels like a data ask that is not answered today that we would need more information for. So that doesn't mean it has to move out of October. There's just more of a work for the staff there, I think. [1:26:28] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): what that's worth. I just had a question about it. The sewer one is dependent on the GPCOG results, which we did get, I think. But do I remember correctly that there was still something that needed to be sent back and asked again of them? Or is it all set? Because we did it once [1:26:45] Speaker K (unidentified): already that they came forward and we went back. We got it and went back. I mean, others may [1:26:52] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): may disagree. I'm personally satisfied with what we got back from GPCOG on stay and sewer, but others may not. If we need additional information, that's fine. [1:27:02] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): As far as scheduling goes, that meant if this conversation is going to produce, we need more information about it, 's better to do that conversation sooner rather than later, but if it's all set, then it doesn't matter. I kind of agree with Zoe. Do a 10,000 foot view of all three. Simple, not the deep discussion and if and if there are like Jen saying you know questions particularly that we want to put the staff between October and November we can do it at that meeting at next week's meeting and then and then have a more detailed and decision-making maybe decision discussion at the [1:27:38] Speaker K (unidentified): November ops meeting okay I'm very comfortable with that personally it [1:27:44] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): It sounds, so you're, you're like it. I'm okay with that. Jen likes it, Zoe suggested, I'm okay with it. Mike? [1:27:50] Councilor (council member): So we're talking about deciding or coming up with a, with a plan for both stay, sewer and pilot. And we're going to be having these discussions at the operations meeting. As a start. Just the first one. Either, one or multiple operation meetings in the future. JUST REMIND ME, THE OPS MEETING, THAT IS MINUTE REPORT? IS THAT REPORTED OUT AS MINUTES? IS THAT VIDEO TAPED? IS IT REMIND ME HOW WE DOCUMENT THAT MEETING? [1:28:27] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): WE RECORD IT. IT'S RECORDED AND STREAMED. BUT IT'S, I MEAN, IT'S RECORDED, SEAN CAN CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG, BUT IT'S RECORDED I THINK STREAMED AFTER THE FACT. [1:28:39] Councilor (council member): the great Oz speaks [1:28:41] Speaker K (unidentified): yeah I was only saying [1:28:45] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): operations meeting obviously it's a start we need some working sessions as a group clearly any changes that get suggested or any new programs or changes to programs will have to go through the full [1:28:58] Councilor (council member): public hearings and workshops I just want I just needed some clarification if people actually want to watch it or can give what was discussed that they can actually go and watch it or they have to read minutes or what but yes thank you counselor wall just to follow up on what counselor monty said i think the sewer thing is the most actionable thing and while i definitely want to do a view from 10 000 feet of stay and pilot i would like to maybe get a little bit more into the substantive details of the sewer situation sewer fee situation in our next in our Because I think that's something that we could do reasonably in the next month or two. So if folks are okay with that, I mean, we have been given a lot of reports and the solution seems sort of simple, if not easy, but simple. [1:29:56] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Okay. Well, just because of the process, we're doing them one at a time, but I think I have a feel for where people want to go with them. So, for item seven, which is the stay program, so we put that on the agenda for two weeks from now. I'm sorry, put that on the agenda for the operations meeting at kind of a 10,000 foot [1:30:14] Councilor Monty: view. Okay. Is the right, may I ask a question there? Is the right thing to do to send Audra a clear question about the data that I'm interested in advance of that operation? Yeah, that would be helpful. [1:30:24] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's always helpful if you've got questions. [1:30:27] Councilor Monty: Email's fine to do that. All right. I'll put you on there so you both know what's going on. All right. [1:30:33] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): There's no public. Yes, I will open it to public comment. I was going to say there's no public. We do have one. [1:30:39] Speaker K (unidentified): But for now. [1:30:46] Town Attorney/legal counsel: That was a wonderful question about can we tell somebody what the questions are, and I have not known, and I knew that each thing was being studied. I had some sense of what some arguments were, of what the problem was perceived to be, and if it is one, but I have not had any sense in my three months here of what the council is thinking. But where do you want to go with this? Because to put it on to start discussing solutions without a common shared understanding of what you think the problem is very hard. And I have tried. I hope you will agree that I've provided the council through reports and memos or white papers, whatever you want to call them, 25,000, 30,000, whatever level it was, on all three of the issues that you have. And in fact, we probably haven't had a chance to look at some of the packet stuff yet, but provided in another survey of sewer fees, even today, I didn't do the work, but somebody else had, and I shared it with you, because Yarmouth wasn't included in it, but it had a dozen or so other communities. I said, oh, I can do the analysis, tell them how Yarmouth would have answered the question, where we would fit had we had we known. That I think it's noteworthy that you know Yarmouth's sewer fees are about 50% of what the average in the survey group was, so that's kind of neat, but I'd already told you in that white paper that it's about 50% subsidized by the property taxes, so it's likely that we're about like everybody else in total cost. We just share it differently, but so what you want to Achieve would be very helpful and probably useful to talk about in one operations committee meeting before you send somebody out who's probably got a million other things to try to sort out, like where the hell did he put anything in these files, to focus the data set and how to analyze it, to uncover, to shed light on, and give you more options on solutions, chasing understanding of the problem as opposed to guessing. It's always, it's always a challenge for us, but so if you want to talk about all three of them, you do so. I just say to find the problem, I spent a little time with that first because it's not clear what people think is a problem. It's my two cents worth, and you keep [1:33:10] Ian Ferguson, Life Scout (Troop 35): change. Thank you, thank you. I want to think that, thinking that, I think that's important that we address the questions we have to the staff as best we can without over, so that we don't overwork them, that it be the direction of the council, what we, so what you're saying, have a conversation first, then send Audra, or will be at the conversation, and so you can just write down the questions yourself because there may be questions that you have done that you at the operations meeting you find are unnecessary to ask, or and other ones may come up that none of us have thought of that are unnecessary, so I would like to do that. And I would like to, I guess I agree with, I want to say I agree with Zoe, too. You're right about the sewer fees. It's a lot easier than the other two in some ways, so we can move on that fast. It would be great. Okay. [1:34:03] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): I think it sounds like we've got some consensus building. All right, so stay. Item seven, I think we've agreed, we'll discuss at the operations meeting, and again, focus maybe on defining where we want, what we think we need, why it needs changing or whatever. I mean, I've got some ideas about that. I'm sure others do. We should discuss that first and then go from there. And maybe we decide to do nothing. Who knows? Item number eight, to consider or schedule discussions, changes to sewer fee. I think we've already kind of talked about it. Operations meeting? Any public comment? Item number eight, to consider or schedule discussions. Oh, that was sewer fee. Nine. CONSIDER OR SCHEDULE DISCUSSIONS ON ADOPTION OF A PILOT PAYMENT IN LIMIT OF TAXES PROGRAM. AGAIN, THIS IS PUT ON THE OPERATOR'S MEETING IN TWO WEEKS. OKAY. ALL RIGHT. ANY PUBLIC COMMENT? NO. OKAY. ITEM NUMBER 10, TO CONSIDER OR MAKE COMMITTEE, BOARD, AND DELEGATE APPOINTMENTS AS MAY BE NEEDED. APPOINTMENTS COMMITTEE, ANYTHING? [1:35:13] Councilor (council member): SORRY. I WAS TALKING WITHOUT UNMUTING MYSELF. WE HAVE TWO APPLICANTS, AND I REACHED OUT TO Heather and Mike today to schedule and so hopefully out of the voting meeting we will have folks to vote on okay great oh concerting sorry I'll have to get to you Zoe because I did not get any applications through the usual emails didn't show up in my email box so I'll reach out to you Lisa I mean I can forward them to you Mike but Lisa would be the one to email about that because she sets those up from that website to, like, auto-flow to the correct email addresses. Okay. Thank you. I will forward them to you also. Great. [1:35:57] Chair/presiding officer (likely Council Chair): Item number 11 is to consider or schedule other council initiatives and requests as may be offered or introduced. Does anyone have anything new business for, kind of like we just did with 7, 8, and 9? Not seeing any. To hold an executive session if necessary. I'm not aware of any reason we need to hold one. That's good. We are adjourned.