April 28, 2025

“Motion to send a letter of support for the Freetown Water Line Extension Community Project Funding Proposal from Congressman Auchincloss was made by Selectmen Zager and second by Selectmen Lopes - Vote: approved by a unanimous roll call vote - Vote: Selectmen Zager - aye, Selectmen Matthews - aye, Selectmen Lopes - aye 3. Discussion, and vote on the use of the Town Seal for Selectmen visit to school and Selectmen for a Night items. Ideas were a water bottle for the Selectmen for a Night winners and pencils that say Town of Freetown for the school visits at Town Hall. - Motion to approve use of the Town Seal for Selectmen visit to school and Selectmen for a Night items was made by Selectmen Zager and second by Selectmen Lopes 2| 10 - Vote: approved by a unanimous roll call vote - Vote: Selectmen Zager - aye, Selectmen Matthews - aye, Selectmen Lopes - aye 4, Discussion, and vote whether to issue a proclamation recognizing the 56" Annual Professional Municipal Clerks Week 5/4-5/10/25 Town Clerk plans to do community outreach and has planned Coffee with the Clerk and Just Brew It... on Monday, at the Council on Aging, Tuesday at the James White Library, and on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in the Town Hall office. Selectmen Matthews read the Proclamation. - Motion to issue a proclamation recognizing the 56" Annual Professional Municipal Clerks Week 5/4/25 -5/10/25 was made by Selectmen Zager and second by Selectmen Lopes - Vote: approved by a unanimous roll call vote - Vote: Selectmen Zager - aye, Selectmen Matthews - aye, Selectmen Lopes - aye Personnel Board Discussion/possible action on the following topics: 5. Discussion, and vote whether to make Recording Clerk, Nina Dumont as a Special Municipal Employee. She will hold 2 positions in town. Selectmen Lopes amended #5 to vote to make the Recording Clerk a Special Municipal Employee. - Motion to make the Recording Clerk a Special Municipal Employee was made by Selectmen Matthews and second by Selectmen Zager - Vote: approved by a unanimous roll call vote - Vote: Selectmen Zager - aye, Selectmen Matthews - aye, Selectmen Lopes - ay 6. Discussion and vote on whether to update the appointment date of Craig Cabral to the Scholarship Committee to be effective 4/14/25-6/30/26. - Motion to appointment Craig Cabral to the Scholarship Committee to be effective 4/14/25-6/30/26 was made by Selectmen Matthews and second by Selectmen Zager - Vote: approved by a unanimous roll call vote - Vote: Selectmen Zager - aye, Selectmen Matthews - aye, Selectmen Lopes - aye 3 | 10 7, Discussion and vote whether to approve the following appointments: a. Robert Klevecka as Veterans' Agent Director & Veterans' Graves Officer effective 5/1/25-4/30/26 b. Chad Carvalho as Public Records - Clerk Planning Board effective 4/15/25- 6/30/26 c. James O'Leary to Board of Registrars effective 4/1/25-3/3 1/28 d. Nancy Durfee as SRPEDD JTPG Representative effective 6/1/25-5/3 1/26 e. Deborah L. Pettey as SRPEDD JTPG Alternate effective 6/1/25-5/31/26 f. Jeff Field as Public Records - Clerk Board of Assessors effective 4/14/25-6/30/25 g. Jeff Field to Taxation Aid Committee effective 4/14/25-6/30/26 h. Dr. Barbara Starkie to Scholarship Committee effective 4/29/25-6/30/25 i. Cheryl C. A. Estrella as National Voter Registration Act Coordinator effective 4/17/25-6/30/25 j. Patricia Demanche to COA/Library Community Building Committee - COA representative effective 4/29/25-6/30/25 - Motion to approve the following appointments a thru j was made by Selectmen Matthews and second by Selectmen Zager - Vote: approved by a unanimous roll call vote - Vote: Selectmen Zager - aye, Selectmen Matthews - aye, Selectmen Lopes - aye Board of Parks Commission Discussion/possible action on the following topics: 8. Discussion, and vote on any updates needed on the ball field licenses. Progress is being made with feedback from the groups. They need to still go over certain items, make decisions and send it back to them. Licenses for football, baseball, and adding the word softball. The only utility bill is electricity, baseball has been paying it. It will have to be prorated between the teams that are actually use it. The baseball teams will be actively using the site. The baseball league has agreed to relinquish the three fields with the caveat that they will have the opportunity to use them if they are not being used by softball for practice. There will be three softball fields and the soccer field in the back which has not been created yet. There is a request for a sublease but that is a hard no. We have broken up the lease into 4 different license agreements and cannot be subleased. We need to make sure we have liability and who is doing what. Another concern is the concession stand and storage space. There is a clause that if they do not use it, they lose it. As long as they are actively trying to improve it. They do not have to be actually playing on the fields, but have to be doing something with them. We will put some language in it for repairs. We will look into adding a second cage for storage. Another comment was repairing the fence and the dugouts, only dugouts will require permits. 4| 10 9. Discussion, and vote whether to approve the licenses for ball fields between the Town of Freetown and: a. Apponequet Junior Football b. Freetown Lakeville Athletic Association c. FreeLake Youth Softball Association, Inc. d. Freetown-Lakeville Soccer Club, Inc. - Motion to approve the full licenses read with the caveat of Softball agreeing to the tightened-up language that we just discussed made by Selectmen Matthews and second by Selectmen Lopes - Vote: approved by a unanimous roll call vote - Vote: Selectmen Zager - aye, Selectmen Matthews - aye, Selectmen Lopes - aye 6:30pm Combined Meeting with Board of Selectmen & Finance Committee 10. Omnibus Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Review with Finance Committee. It is anticipated that Departments listed below will be reviewed. Others may be discussed as may come up or as they relate: a. Community Program b. Council on Aging c. Highway d. Animal Control Officer e. Police f. Health Inspectional Services Being 6:38pm and having a quorum present, Margaret French called the Freetown Finance Committee meeting to order. In attendance is Robert Alderson, Christopher Dudley and John Viarella. Budget review with Community Program and Council on Aging Budget # 699 for Kylie Botelho, our Community Program Director and Budget # 541 is Rebecca Frias, Council on Aging Director. Both budgets are funded as presented to each Board. Kylie works part-time for the town doing programming, such as the concert series, Zumba, paint nights and comedy shows. Th events have been well received. She also has a degree in Public Health. Her and Rebecca wrote a grant and received a money for a part time outreach worker under the COA. This has been a success and wants to continue the program into next year for the Seniors who are a third of our population. The issue is there is two different positions and two different pay scales. They have talked about combining the position into one. There is a job description in front of you. Ms. Pettey recommended that we do not combine the positions as of yet, because they are brand new positions that we need to figure what the towns needs are. She recommended that the pay scale be the same for both positions which will alleviate some of the issues of both jobs. While working on community programing a senior may come in and need assistance, It is hard to track the timing. In both budgets it is funded that she would work part time for 5 | 10 both positions at the new rate. We need one more year just to define how the positions will work. She is a Department Head for the Community Program Director and works under Rebecca for the COA. We will need to see how that looks like as a single position. Kylie and Rebecca agree that this is the best move. The combined positions for the year would be around $58,000.00. The COA Budget #541 is level funded. The bylaw employees were instructed to include a 2.5% cola increase in their salaries. A majority of them came back expressing that was not sufficient. They are paid less than many surrounding towns. The unions get a cola and step increases. In the budget includes a 2% wage adjustment plus a 2.5% cola in their salaries. Their salaries are 4.5% more than prior year. Causes for the increase is inflation, cost of living. With more experience, your time and value go up. In the Municipal world the way you get more money is to make lateral moves to other towns. They have the institutional knowledge that comes with time at the job. If we lose our current staff, and need to replace them we would have to pay more. 4.5% is fair and equitable across the board. We have great employees right now. Budget review with Highway Surveyor Budget # 420, 423, and 424. Highway Surveyor Chuck Macomber and the department have been busy with schools, baseball fields, pickleball courts and the highway department yard. Stipends for their CDL's is contractual. Salary for the Highway Surveyor went up $10%. He did a survey of surrounding towns. It is a large percentage, but it is not a large dollar amount for the amount of money we have saved the town in the last year on various projects. You have never heard no from the Highway Department when something in town needs to be done. Signs and lines for road striping has gone up. He has six employees, and the town looks great. We spend a lot of money on snow and ice, but nobody can touch his roads. According to the state we have 78 miles of roads, but it is really 107 miles of roads, 2300 catch basins. We did $1.1 Million in paving with state aid and Chapter 90. The Town is doing engineering for the salt shed and we are going to need a new street sweeper next year. Environmental Partners makes the decision of what needs to be done in Town. Such as the new paving of the yard and the salt and sand sheds. Budget review with Animal Control Officer Budget #292 with Lisa Podielsky is level funded. We did purchase her a new car. The salary ask was a lot higher. We put in the 4.5% for bylaw employees across the board. She does have two jobs. The seconded is the Animal Inspector, which falls under the Board of Health which has been increasingly busy. For years she had to wait 5 years and 10 years for a raise. She never received a cost-of-living raise, so she is already behind. There is danger in her line of work. She goes on search warrants when needed. She has no assistant. She works 32 hours a week but is on call 24/7. If she is on vacation, and the phone rings she answers it. Some things she can take care of over the phone and if not David from Lakeville will come over to help. He does it out of the goodness of his heart. There is no longevity for her. The bylaws state you must be 36 hours per week. 6 | 10 She does get insurance. She has been here 14 years and works alone, most inspectors get a stipend. A lot of animal control officers in the state do not fall under the same department. Some are under the Police, Board of Health, Board of Selectmen. There is no regulation for that. The only regulation is that of the Academy, which she did. The Animal Control position is supposed to be domestic animals only, which is never. The Board of Health Animal Inspector position is for all of our livestock which we have a lot in town. Other towns give a stipend for the inspections. There is only one budget. No separation. New Law Acts have come out and she will be rewriting all new town bylaws along with possible zoning. The stipend varies from town to town and what department it falls under. To be consistent with other departments, the decision was a 2% wage adjustment and the 2.5% cola. For an animal inspector stipend of $1,500.00 would bring that up, close to what she was looking to get per hour with the addition of the 4.5 %. Budget review with Police Department Budget #210 with Police Chief Scott Rose. This does not include any raises for the police officers. Budget cuts are made by the town and would definitely reflect the impact of the safety of the community. Calls have been increasing. There are mandated requirements set by the state. We have no funding to support the mandates. We are trying to maintain a standard on patrol lines of having three officers working on every shift which is very difficult. There are issues of predictable overtime and unpredictable overtime. It is a challenge but he manages it to the best of his ability. At times it is unavoidable. His first year as Chief he worked within his budget and did not have to come back to the town for more money. This year he will be very responsible in working within the budget that he has. There are some challenges coming ahead. He will stay positive and manage these issues as we go forward. MBTA issues go to the Mass Transit Police. He will aid and support them with their responsibilities of the property. They also assist the State Police on the highways and the Environmental Police at the State Forest. The view of law enforcement is getting better respected than where we were about four or five years ago. But we are getting a lack of respect to law enforcement regarding us trying to do our professional job. It is prompting us to react and getting more involved with use of force and making arrests. The financial climate is maybe, making domestic disturbances increase. It gets busy between 4pm and 6pm with calls coming in. We have officers out injured; some are on leave. It is a challenge to have three officers on a shift. He is a working Chief, and he will be there with his men. The challenge is to being able to provide a ready and available service to the community when the need arises. For safety issues two officers are required to deal with the arrestee, leaving one officer responsible for the next incoming call. These calls are becoming more frequent. The risk of litigation with law enforcement is with every single call. It is constant. We have applied for body worn cameras last year which we did get denied. Our current climate regarding grants may have played a factor in that because of the housing regulations here. He will be applying for more grants in the future. If we were to get the basics to get up and running, we are looking at $100,000.00 to $130,000.00. That would be a camera for each officer, the charging units, 7 | 10 the extra batteries, and the server for recording. We would be required to have individuals here to be able to maintain, review and edit if a records request came in. The District Attorney in our area is promoting the local law enforcement agencies to get body worn cameras. The budget is level funded. The budget does not reflect that we have discussed, in the future, of potentially making a second lieutenants' position within the department. Communications budget #215 total increase is $35,000.00 a 6.6% for tower leases which is a fixed number. Communications has been the best investment this town has made. The officers thank you dearly and the town for making this happen. We have twenty-two full time sworn officers and one part-time retired officer who is available to fill in. We do have one person under a Field Training Officer program learning all our practices and hoping he will be ready to go solo within another month. The 4 to midnight shift has one full-time dispatcher and one part-time dispatcher. It definitely makes sense to have two, but the dilemma is that when we have part-time dispatchers and do not work consistently, they lose their skills and could cause an issue. That second position for part-time dispatches is giving them the opportunity to work. They are working 50 to 75% open shifts. This keeps the part-timers fresh. We may lose what grant funding we get towards them too, if we do not pass MBTA. We have relied on the 911 grant for training. We may need to put money in the budget come October, if we do not get the grants. Budget review with Health Inspectional Services Trash collection #433. Town Administrator's office prepared the trash budget based on last year's number. It is level funded. The curbside pickup is contractual with Borges. We did raise the acceptance fees at the disposal because we look like we are going to be underfunded for the current year. We added a little bit more to the trash bags. Health budget #510, This year, with the move to the annex what we did was cross train the clerks. There is one full time clerk Nadine that works for building and a part-time clerk for Health. They are both cross trained and cover both departments. We added the salary of the full-time principal clerk with the salary of the part-time senior clerk. We added the cost together and divided it in half. The clerical numbers are combined on both budgets. The office will be covered if one is out of the office. The contract the transfer station for monitoring the dump that is run by Riverhawk. We are doing work under the Board of Health, so it made sense to move that contract under Board of Health which is where you will see that extra $30,000.00. The budget stayed almost level funded. Board of Health Keven Desmarais appreciates the 4.5%. There is room to grow within the salary. He is the Board of Health Agent and does the Public Health Director's job. It is not on the books. Other towns that have Public Health Directors, the Inspectors inspect. Directors work on policy's, budgets, and public outreach such as the ADU's. The Public Health Director warrants a bit more money than what is being offered. He appreciates the effort to get to the 4.5%. He is a certified soil evaluator, certified septic inspector, certified food protection manager, certified in pools and spas. He has Mass Housing. BU School of Public Health. He has the responsibility under the Board of Health and Mass General Law and CMR. They are not making Board of Health Agents anymore. 8 | 10 The state has minimum requirements. Now, you see Health Inspectors having four- year degrees or are engineers. A stipend for qualifications instead of upping the salary. Across the board has been $2,500.00. They are proposing the Health Education Career incentive to now be at $2,500.00. Finance Committee: Motion to adjourn was made by Chris Dudley and seconded by John Viarella All in favor - Margaret French - aye, Chris Dudley - aye, John Viarella - aye, Robert Alderson - aye. Meeting adjourned at 8:34pm Town Administrator's Report: Discussion/possible action on the following topics: Old Business: Potential discussion on pending items - action will not be taken at this meeting: Public Input: The Board signed documents associated with tonight's meeting. - Motion to adjourn the meeting was made at 8:37pm by Selectmen Zager and seconded by Selectmen Lopes - Vote: approved by a unanimous roll call vote - Vote: Selectmen Zager - aye, Selectmen Matthews - aye, Selectmen Lopes - aye.” (Motion: Zager, second: Lopes)

Read it in the official minutes, page 3 (PDF)