Select Board Meeting — August 5, 2026

Good evening.

Good evening and welcome to the select board meeting on the 5th of August, 2026, at 5 PM here at the community meeting room at the Seekonk Senior Center.

Would you all please rise and join me in the salute to the flag and a moment of silence?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, Mass General Law under Section 38, Section 20F requires any person recording must notify the chair at the beginning of the meeting.

All select board meetings are recorded via audio and video and are broadcast live on SEACOM Channel 96.

Would somebody like to read the board and committee openings?

Mr. Chairman, volunteers are needed on the following: Capital Improvement Committee, 2 board appointment appointments, 3 moderator appointments.

Commission on Disability, 5 select board appointments.

Economic Development Committee, 3 select board appointments.

Energy Committee, 3 select board appointments.

Finance Committee, 1 moderator appointment.

Historical Commission, 2 select board appointments.

Okay, thank you.

Priority matters.

Consider the conditional offer of employment to Alexis Francis to the position of full-time kennel worker.

Chief Venus.

Good evening, Chairman Segar, members of the board, Mr. Kadeem.

So as you know, uh, we just recently promoted our kennel full-time kennel worker to become an assistant animal control officer, which opened that position.

Our part-time kennel worker decided she wanted to move up to full-time kennel worker and shortly thereafter left us.

So it left us with no kennel workers.

So the ACOs have been doing double duty since that happened.

Myself and ACO Russo just recently did interviews and we think we found 2 good candidates to fill those positions.

Alexis is a Dayton Rehoboth graduate and has worked for a local animal supply retailer.

She is familiar with domestic and some farm animals.

Her background includes pet sitting, dog walking, and fostering.

Through Mr. Gadeem, we'd like to extend a conditional offer from the board to appoint Alexis Francis to the position of full-time kennel worker.

Okay, Mr. Chairman, my recommendation, uh, is as the police chief stated.

Okay, so we have a motion.

Uh, so moved.

Second.

Discussion?

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

So voted.

And on the second, consider the conditional offer of employment for Courtney Monty to the position of part-time counter worker.

So again, uh, we held interviews, um, Courtney Monty, she showed interest in the part-time kennel position.

Myself and ACO Russo did the interview.

She has experience with— let me get this right— trap, neuter, return.

All right.

And programs in caring for feral cats, which we do have some at the shelter.

She's worked with individuals with developmental disabilities and mental health challenges, so she's a caring, very caring person.

An impressive resume.

She's also a former EMT, so she does have some medical background, which is helpful with, with the, with the baby cats.

Uh, for those reasons, through Mr. Gadeem, we'd like to, uh, extend a conditional offer of employment for part-time kennel worker to Courtney Monty.

Okay, Mr. Chairman, I support the police chief's recommendation.

Okay, is there a motion?

So moved.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

So voted.

Congratulations to both of you.

Good luck.

Good luck.

Yeah.

Okay, so while you're standing there, Chief, uh, we have the ceremonial swearing of police officers Emma Papagirls, Adam Pacheco, and Michael Conroy.

Excellent.

So I'll take them in order of, uh, seniority.

Uh, first I'd like to call up Adam Pacheco.

Officer Pacheco was a recent graduate of the Plymouth Police Academy.

He was sponsored by Simmons College, where he was employed as a campus police officer.

Subsequently to his conditional offer of employment by this board, Adams has filled all the conditions requirement and is currently in our department's field training program.

Officer Pacheco is doing well, and we're hopeful that he'll be finishing the field training program later this year.

We're going to do all 3.

We'll just set them over here, and then we'll do The captain will give the oath of office, and then we'll have the people come up and do their— pin their badges.

And tonight, Mr. Pacheco, Frank, will be pinning Adam's badge.

Just stand still.

Next will be Emma Papageris.

Officer Papageris is a recent graduate of the Randolph Academy.

The board extended her a conditional offer of employment at the end of the last year, and she finished all conditions by graduating the academy this July 17th.

Emma is— was employed by the City of Boston as a park ranger.

She was assigned to its mounted division.

She too currently is in our department's field training program and is expected to complete the program as well later this year.

Tonight, she'll be pinned by her father, Jim.

And lastly is Michael Combro.

Officer Combro comes to us with 13 years of law enforcement experience.

He works full-time as a machine operator for Eversource and was a reserve officer with the Town of Whitman for 13 years.

Officer Combro will be added to our Reserve Officer Division.

He will soon be starting field training.

Today he was doing firearms, so we hope to get him through that and then add him to the ranks.

He'll be pinned by his wife Brittany tonight.

And at this time, I'd like to have the captain administer the swearing of the oath to the new officers.

I, state your name.

I, Edward Vigil.

Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly swear that I will bear faithful and true allegiance to the United States of America, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, will support the Constitution thereof, so help me God.

I, state your name, do solemnly swear and affirm that I will faithfully and impartially Discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as a police officer for the Town of Seekonk according to the best of my abilities.

I will obey and be bound by department rules and regulations, policies and procedures, As are or may be established.

As are or may be established.

I will enforce all state statutes.

I will enforce all state statutes.

Town bylaws.

Town bylaws.

Serve criminal process.

Serve criminal process.

And make arrests as prescribed by law.

And make arrests as prescribed by law.

Okay, next on the agenda is Community Speaks.

Does anybody here like to speak on the Community Speaks?

That's what I have, a Community Speak.

Good evening.

I would just like to congratulate everybody that was involved in, uh, making the National Night Out last night.

It was fantastic.

There were a lot of people there for 4 hours, and every— I think almost every department in this town was represented, from the— from Animal Control.

Our town nurse was there.

Um, and, um, I was going to say Animal Control again.

Um, all, all the departments, Parks and Recs, everybody had a lot to do.

There was a lot of food.

Hamilton Diner was there with practically a buffet.

Of food and the setup with the hamburgers and hot dogs and pizza and cotton candy and those slushy things, the ice-flavored whatever they're called.

But it was excellent, and everyone that had anything to do with that, we hope that continues to— in the town.

I know there was a threat at one point that they might not do it because they didn't have enough money, but I actually read today on Facebook that if that ever comes to fruition, We hope that the police chief at the time reaches out because there's a lot of people that would volunteer not only to help, but if there was any cash value necessary for that, that they would pitch in and help because the community was unbelievable.

They couldn't even find parking spaces for everybody.

And the kids had a million things to do.

I mean, the FBI was there, the court system was there, the school was there.

The, uh, veterans agent was there, and I was trying to convince him to go into the dunk tank, but he had 150 excuses, or his friends had 150 excuses for him not to go in the dunk tank.

But I tried my best, but they all had fun.

And, uh, I'd like to thank everybody that was involved in that.

It was a great night.

It was.

Thank you.

Anyone else like to speak?

Community speaks.

Anyone else?

Seeing none, next we have a license hearing under Licensing A, license hearing pursuant to Mass General Laws Chapter 140, Section 59, to discuss a Class 2 license regarding K&A Auto or motor vehicle business located at 190 Taunton Avenue, Seekock.

Kyu Hong Kim, owner.

And, uh, good evening.

For the record, if you'd both identify yourself, please.

Uh, yes, good evening.

My name is Michael Garland.

I represent K&K Sales.

Okay.

And you are, sir?

Tell your name.

My name is Chu Hong King.

Okay.

And we are represented tonight by an attorney from KP Law?

Yes, Brian Riley.

Brian Riley.

Okay.

So, Mr.

Chair, the, uh, hearing will start at 5:13.

5:13, right.

We call that hearing to order.

Uh, I would, uh, recommend that anybody who's gonna talk be sworn in.

Sworn in?

Oh, absolutely.

Okay, so on the recommendation of counsel, would both of you gentlemen please raise your right hand?

Do you swear that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Okay, thank you.

So here on complaints, uh, against your license, should we read the complaints into the record?

Um, yeah, that's a good idea.

Okay, so the letter that was sent of the notice of hearing was dated the 14th of July, and it says, dear Chu Hong Kim, on August 5th, 26th at 5 PM, the Seekonk Select Board will hold a hearing pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 140, Section 59 to discuss your Class 2 license regarding the motor vehicle business located at 190 Thornton Avenue, Seekonk.

The hearing will be held in the community meeting room, Seekonk Senior Center, 540 Arcade Avenue, Seekonk, Mass.

The hearing will concern numerous complaints the town has received from customers regarding your business as well as your continuing violation of the Class 2 license by storing more vehicles on site than allowed under the license.

You will find enclosed with this notice copies of records concerning these complaints.

You may attend this hearing and be represented by counsel at your own expense if you wish.

These allegations, if proven, may constitute violations of Mass General Law Section 140, Section 59, Mass General Law Chapter 90, Section 7.5, and/or 940 CMR 5, and may constitute grounds for revocation of your Class 2 license.

If you have any questions, please contact this office.

And it was signed by Christina Tester, Executive Assistant, and with a CC to our Chief of Police and this board.

So you've received a copy of the, the notice?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

How would you like to proceed?

So, uh, Mr. Chairman, members of the Select Board, with respect to the issue with the storage issue of multiple vehicles, there was an amended site plan approved by the Planning Board back on May 28th of this year.

Apparently no copy was provided to the Select Board for your approval consideration.

I have copy here.

I spoke to Mr. Kimmer about that.

He advised me that the failure to provide it to the Select Board was an oversight, and I can provide a copy to the board now if it would be acceptable to you.

Sure.

Yep.

May I approach?

Sure.

Okay.

And I have the full-size plan if you need it.

Anybody want to look at it?

And we'll just mark that Exhibit 1.

Okay.

Okay.

So with just one question, you agree it was your Romacyte?

That you didn't supply it to the selling point?

Not mine personally, but Mr. Kim's.

That's correct.

Okay.

All right, very good.

So we proceed.

So with respect to the numerous complaints, uh, I, I'm looking at an email that was sent by Sandra Smith to Ms. Testa back on June 29th.

It makes reference to 2 complaints.

Apparently the complainants' names are redacted.

Although we have, with regard to the first one about basically a violation of the Lemon Law, we are aware of the complaint, at least we believe we are, of Mr. Muzzy.

I can represent to the board that Mr. Kim or his business is not in violation of the Lemon Law because Mr. Muzzy never made an attempt to have the vehicle repaired.

After he purchased that vehicle.

I think, as the board is aware, a dealer has, I believe, 3 attempts within a specific period of time to remedy a problem or defect.

We are advised that Mr. Muzzy did in fact have that vehicle repaired elsewhere.

He then came to my client's dealership.

He made a demand to be paid for that work.

Mr. Kim does not have a copy of that bill.

And I would submit to the board that under the law, Mr. Kim should have had an opportunity to make repairs to that vehicle.

So we believe that in fact he is not in violation of the Lemon Law.

With respect to the second item, I've asked Mr. Kim about it.

He denies the allegation that he refused to give— that he sold the car but then refused to give the vehicle owner, the buyer of that vehicle, title to that vehicle.

And again, it's difficult to respond to this specifically because we don't know who made the call.

We don't know who the prospect— who the alleged buyer of that vehicle was.

We are aware that there may have been complaints from abutters relating to the lot itself while a garage was being built there.

As you will recall, this was a very snowy season while the garage was being constructed.

Uh, it may have had an impact on the number of vehicles that were stored at that lot.

That garage is now constructed.

It has been inspected.

That inspection has been approved.

And I would attempt to answer any questions the board may have.

Okay.

Does anybody have any questions of the attorney?

All right.

What's the plan with a a new site plan from the planning board to then come here and ask for more vehicles to be stored?

Because I understand there's too many— has been too many vehicles.

The change in the plan, counsel, the original plan did not allow for storage of vehicles at the very front of the lot near Taunton Avenue.

I have the original plan which shows— and in fact, that was the change.

There were 4 vehicles added to the front of the lot adjacent to Taunton Avenue, and that was approved by the planning board back in May, and that is depicted or shown on the plan that I submitted to you.

Okay, but the, uh, the license itself had a restriction on the number of vehicles, right?

And that's— and again, um, in hindsight, what Mr. Kim should have done is he should have scheduled a meeting with the board prior to tonight to seek approval, uh, or your blessing, if you will, for the planning board change that was made back in May.

It was his oversight.

He regrets not coming before the board prior to tonight's hearing.

Okay.

All right.

Very good.

Is that all you have at this time?

Yes.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Would you take a seat?

I'm going to call on the chief of police, if I may.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Chief.

Good evening, Chief.

Do you swear the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, so when I did receive notification from Miss Testa, I had the captain go over and look at reports regarding K&A Auto.

And since the beginning of the year, we've had approximately 14 calls of service to that business.

Most of them were disgruntled customers.

Some returned to act— turned into active disturbances where we were called.

In fact, one of those calls, I actually was close to the business and I, I was the first officer on scene.

And that had to do more with employees.

I guess he may have a partner.

Not on paper, or— and that person had a secretary and he didn't like— he wanted that person out.

It was very confusing, chaotic.

Um, also note that we have, uh, 18 other car dealerships in town with the same kind of, you know, size licenses, and we have one call of service in that same time period for those other 18.

Um, you know, when I started looking through the calls, a lot of them have to do with warranty issues, you know, things that are civil in nature, but again, these, these rise to disturbances inside and that people feel like, uh, you know, they start calling us and we have to respond to these calls.

Um, being, uh, not getting refunds, uh, you know, again, things that are civil in nature but concerning police department-wise when you have a business in town where you're responding to these type of calls.

And usually, you know, you can go to these type of calls and the business will explain the process or why things are the way they are.

And, you know, you can kind of explain to the customer, but you don't get those answers from Mr. Kim.

It's very confusing and convoluted on, on his responses to these things.

So I did talk with Miss Tester, and I, I thought since this body was the, uh, licensing board on it, that you should be made aware that the police department are taking these calls.

And, you know, we do have, uh, these calls to services regarding the license.

Okay.

I see your captain is here.

Does he have anything he'd like to say?

Did you raise your right hand, sir?

You swear to testify about to give the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Okay, just because we are under oath and I just want to clarify that, uh, it's probably my fault for not conveying.

Just so we're clear, it's 14 calls for service relating to the business, not that we have to respond to that actual location 14 times.

We've had multiple walk-ins who are dissatisfied with the service over there who have come into the police station to be told by the police officer it's a civil matter, you know, you have to handle it a different way.

It's still, it's still for call for service, but I just wanted to make sure that You know, because he said we responded there 14 times, that just so we're 100% clear, it is, it is more calls.

And just to, you know, echo what the chief said, I did just kind of go a little bit above and beyond.

As you guys are well aware, we have a multitude of auto dealerships in the town of Seekonk, and I did just in fairness research the rest of them to make sure that, you know, nobody was being singled out.

And like the chief already stated, we had one similar civil matter Um, throughout the 18 other dealerships that are in town since the first of the year.

So, okay, does anyone on the board have any questions for the police?

So, Chief or Captain, either one can answer it.

Um, looking at the logs that you guys provided to us, so you were there April 1st, the 24th, the 9th of May, the— and then again the 15th of May, and then the most recent one was the 29th of June.

Um, do you guys feel that's a little excessive for a small-time business in a short period of time?

According to the log that we got in our packet, you guys have been there repeatedly in the last couple of months.

Is it the same type of issues going on?

Um, it's the same complaints, like same type of things, just warranty issues.

Is— I mean, one of the reports I was reading had to do with a refund and, uh, you know, not getting it in a timely manner after the money was sent through, uh, right, online.

The, the unfortunate part is that, uh, I can tell you that there have been no criminal charges filed from any of these calls.

So there have been no physical attacks?

There's nobody— um, there was, there was a disturbance that I don't— there was, there was a physical attack.

It didn't amount to, uh, charges in that one, but there was a disturbance that was in between I believe employees are people who are there, not so much the customers.

So again, the issue for us is that, and as the chief already noted, like these individuals seem to be upset, so they don't know who else to call.

They call us, and unfortunately, like I said, 99% of the time we've had to tell them that it's out of the realm of the criminal.

Enterprise, and we advise them that the remedy is probably civil in nature.

But again, certainly an uptick from any other dealership that we haven't talked to.

Okay, thank you.

Anybody else?

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Chair, can I offer rebuttal, please?

Sure.

So this is the first time I'm hearing of the multiple calls, and I appreciate what the chief and captain had to say.

By way of sort of background, Mr. Kim had hired a gentleman by the name of Anthony Baronet in March of this year to basically manage the lot.

Mr. Baronet in turn hired a woman by the name of Karina Gandula to assist him, perhaps act as a secretary.

That Mr. Baronet was hired in March of this year.

I believe Ms. Gandullo was hired in April of this year.

And Mr. Kim was not on that lot during that time period, during apparently which the time when all these calls were being made.

In fact, Mr.— when Mr.— and he brought these people in because he wanted to modernize his record keeping.

He's not computer savvy, as he would testify, or to if you asked him.

And so he brought these people in because he thought they had an expertise with respect to basically upgrading his recordkeeping and that sort of thing.

When I think, as he found out, or when he learned that there were problems at the lot, he stepped in and he actually fired both Mr. Baranem and Ms. Gandula.

I'm going to say around July 4th, the beginning of July.

He is there now on a full-time basis.

I think frankly hearing there were so many problems with respect to disgruntled clients or customers, I think is a surprise to him.

But he was not actively engaged with managing that particular lot between the months of March and July.

He— again, he stepped in.

He's working there now on a full-time basis.

He doesn't— obviously doesn't condone the conduct engaged in by Mr. Barronette or Ms. Gandula.

I'm advised that since he is now working there full-time, that these issues will not reappear.

And I think in essence, you know, he Perhaps he made some bad hiring decisions.

I can't speak to that.

But in any event, the people that we contend were responsible for the service problems and the client complaints have been removed from the business, and he is working the business full-time.

But you would agree that responsibility ultimately holds with him as the license holder?

Absolutely.

No question about it.

He hired them.

He knows that he's responsible for their acts.

Whether they're employees or even independent contractors.

He understands that the business is in his name.

He is ultimately responsible.

Okay, so anybody have any questions for the attorney?

I have a question.

Um, one of the complaints here involves not receiving clear titles, and that, that to me is a real problem because the ownership of the vehicle— you paid for it, you, you know, you need need title to it.

Is it— has that been addressed?

Without a doubt.

The letter that we received only made reference to the 2 items, the item involving, we think, Mr. Muzzy, and then the item of a person not getting clear title.

And it appears those names were redacted, so we can't respond to something if we don't know the identity of people.

And again, I will tell you that when the chief indicated there were 14 separate calls, I— that, that's news to me.

That's the first time I had heard of that.

I will represent to the board that to the extent there is any issue of a clearing title, Mr. Kim will address it immediately once he knows who those people are.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Are any of those people in the audience tonight?

I believe there was one or two scheduled to attend.

I'll ask for the clearing You're done.

Is there anybody else who would like to speak on this matter?

Anyone in the audience?

I don't see any.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

What's the board thinking?

I, I do have one question, Mr.

Chair.

Um, do we know the number of times that the building commissioner has been out to the site for the violation of the license for the amount of cars that were on the lot?

That's currently the license that's there, not with the new site plan that we have not approved.

I think reading, it's been at least a few.

Okay, I think it's in the record.

2?

Yeah, I think 2.

Yeah.

All right, all right.

I don't.

And again, we did submit the plan today.

We would ask you to approve that plan.

Granted, it was it was approved by the planning board back on May 28th.

Should have been submitted to the board prior to this date, but we would request that that the select board approve that plan.

Thank you.

I got a question now.

Sure.

So I can see where it's a little confusing here because it seems like a Mr. Barbo's.

Barbozos owns the property, Mr. Kim is the VC, and then there's people that he hired.

But then I see an ad over here for saying K&A Auto Sales is looking for a new sales manager.

Also space available for rent for sales, dealer and auction license provided, $2,000 a month.

Interested, please give us a call.

So you guys looking at multiple owners, multiple people on this, on this business site?

I can see where it's kind of confusing because there's so many hands over here that as far as who runs what.

Apparently Barbosa, I think they've always— or the gentleman owned the property before.

I think he conveyed it to his LLC, I think in April.

But Mr. Kim has been, to my knowledge, has only been— has been the sole lessee there.

So again, uh, Mr. Zorra, I— what you just read to me is news to me.

I can only speak to Mr. Kim, and I don't know when that ad was placed.

It looks like January 5th.

Of this year?

Of this year.

And perhaps, and if that actually fits in the timeline of the hiring of Mr. Baronet and Ms. Gendula, I would say.

It says the dealer, back in the 5th, it said dealer and auction license provided.

So that's where it's kind of confusing, I guess.

So he's trying to get multiple people in under— at the time, or is it under his license and then he's trying to rent out spots and then it's going to be more convoluted?

No, I think he was looking— he was looking for someone to manage his business there at that lot.

Do you have any comments?

Um, well, I guess I would say that if, uh, if, if we've heard from everybody who is, you know, wants to testify or give information, uh, typically I kind of compare this to a liquor license hearing.

You know, once you've heard what you're going to hear from folks, you can close the public hearing piece of it, and then the board can decide You know, do you think there have been violations of the license or any of these laws or regulations?

And then if so, you know, what do you want to do about it?

What action do you want to take on it?

If the licensee, you know, has gotten approval from the Planning Board to at least, from their perspective, to have more cars on it.

I mean, that's a, that's a good step, but, uh, I, I would think that needs to be set up as a separate hearing rather than asking the board to just okay this on the spot.

Yes, I agree.

Okay.

All right, so I'll give one more opportunity.

Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak?

Chief, would you raise your right hand, sir?

You swear to testify to give us the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Okay.

Just a question for the board, if I may.

There was a new site plan submitted this evening on behalf of the licensee.

This came before technical review.

We had some issues as far as the fire department goes with means of access, not being able to provide that with the current site plan.

So just for your information, without seeing that, I don't know if that's conforming with the recommendations that we've made to the previous licensee.

Would you like to see it, or— well, I don't think we'll act on it tonight.

Tonight anyways.

Yeah, and I would, I would also make recommendation that if that is the site plan that they're looking to go for, submit it through the portal, OpenGov portal, so the fire department can have a review and make recommendations on the, uh, the access points that we're required to have by law.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Councilor, do you have any closing comments?

I don't.

I thank you for your attention and for your consideration.

Thank you.

Okay, Chief, do you have any closing?

No, nothing.

Okay.

All right then, I'd entertain a motion to close the hearing at 6:35.

5:35.

So moved.

Second.

Second.

All in favor?

Opposed?

So voted.

Okay, what's the, uh, feeling of the board and council?

I don't want to put you on the spot.

Would you have a recommendation at this time?

Um, well, I did.

I don't know if, uh, an exchange I had with Miss Testa, uh, got to the board or not.

I did note to her once that that the statute, Chapter 140, Section 59, says if the board finds, you know, there's violations of the license or of these laws and regulations, the board shall revoke the license.

I have since located an appeals court case where a board suspended a license, actually for having too many vehicles on the site.

Site.

And the appeals court didn't seem to have any issue with that at all.

So I think if the board wants to, you know, believes that this merits a suspension, I think that would be appropriate under the statute.

I just wanted to clarify that in case that had gotten around.

Okay.

Why don't we start with Mr. Zara?

Do you have any further comments?

I would say admitted his fault about the parking plan.

I'm not sure why planning board never got it down to our office to also let us know, even though Mr. Kim, like he admitted, he failed to do that on his part.

Now that there's a new parking plan in front of us, or going to be in front of us for approval, I don't think I can see suspending him at this time.

You can't?

I can't.

I don't think I should.

I don't, I don't think I will vote to suspend him at this point.

Has he admitted his fault?

And then for the rest of the stuff goes, there's the witnesses that said they were going to be here, did not show up.

However, I will say if more problems persist, then I will have the Chief have him bring it, bring it back to us.

I'm just one person.

I'm just a little— usually doesn't happen that the planning board would approve something that hasn't gone through the TRC process and the fire department has had time to comment on it.

So correct, sir, this is a new site plan.

I have not been able to review this.

Okay, thank you.

Michael.

So where I sit right now, Mr. Chairman, is Since we just got the site plan tonight, I would, uh, I would head in the direction of suspending the license for K&N Auto until our next meeting, pending approval of that site plan, as long as it meets all the requirements of the town, whether it's our next meeting or the meeting thereafter.

But in the meantime, they're going to— I would suspend their license of operation based upon an issue that we have with a person that we— whether he has a title or not, that's, that's a pretty serious issue.

The number of complaints that have been over there And the ongoing issue.

I mean, to look at this report and see how many times the police department has actually physically been in the business in the last couple of months is a little hard for me to swallow.

I think there's a little bit more going on than just the absence of the manager or the person who's responsible for the license.

I understand he might not have been there, but he's still responsible for what goes on in that building.

He could be searching for a manager.

He could be searching for anything.

He could be looking for Santa Claus as far as I'm concerned.

Um, my point is there's a way to run a business in a town, and right now, in my— the way I look at it, there's too many things that are a red flag for me.

So I, I would be willing to make a motion, Mr.

Chair, after Miss Almazan speaks and yourself, and yourself, to suspend his license until we have a site viewer plan reviewed by us and we get, uh, all the requirements for the fire department corrected, if there are any, and then we'll go forward from there.

I'm in agreement.

I don't think it should be an extended suspension, but the title issues concern me.

And the fact that people didn't show up tonight, I mean, we meet at 5.

I, I can't blame them if they're at work or, or whatever, but I'm in agreement that a short suspension would be in order for just the number of times the police have had to be there.

Um, it would probably give Mr. Kim some time to take a step back and, and get things in order.

But I'm, I'm in favor as well.

This, this hearing was supposed to be 2 weeks ago, but one of the persons that was— made the allegation negative negatively affected by their business experience couldn't make it, so they asked if it'd be tonight and they, they still didn't show up.

Okay, what would be the date of our first meeting in September?

Would be the 2nd.

The 2nd.

So that's just under 30 days, right?

So I think I'm just going to suggest if we temporarily suspend it it till the next meeting?

That would give them time to correct what he's got to correct.

Mr.

Chair, just for clarification, are you looking for the 19th or the 2nd?

September 2nd.

I was thinking September 2nd.

Okay, the next meeting would be the 19th.

You said the next meeting, I just want to clarify.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, I'm sorry, the first meeting in September would be the 2nd.

What's your thoughts on that?

I'm okay with that.

Same.

Somebody want to make a motion?

I'll make a motion that we temporarily suspend the license for K&N Auto Body, uh, until our next, uh, select board meeting of September 2nd, uh, 2026.

I'll second that.

Moved and seconded.

Okay, okay.

It was just K&A Auto Sales.

I think you said K&A.

Oh, K&A.

Sorry.

Okay, he's just seeing if you paid attention, Chief, that's all.

Okay, uh, any further discussion?

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Aye.

No.

Mr. Zorra is opposed.

So, sir, Councilor?

Yes, Mr.

Chair?

Your license is suspended immediately until September 2nd select board.

I understand.

And we give you some time to address I believe you said you didn't have all the docket, everything had— No, I didn't have the calls.

I don't have the calls.

So I never provided you with a copy of it?

No, sir.

The only— I received the letter from Ms. Testa.

Attached to that letter, if I can find my copy, the letter, and then It appeared there were copies of 2.

There was a site inspection which indicated it passed.

I think that may have been in February.

And then I have redacted, it appears there was an email from Ms. Smith to Ms. Testa referring to 2 complaints and the names were redacted.

That's all the, that's what we received.

We did not receive the other complaints as noted by the chief.

Okay, and, uh, Council, we'll get a written decision.

We'll get a written decision out to you.

Sure.

Yes, yes, there are.

Okay, um, I asked just that because I don't— obviously what these actions are done, we're going to give out certain things.

How that is differently than something we would give you.

Yeah, so, um, I would ask that if we could just hold off till tomorrow and I'll have my admin bring you up copies of all the reports to that.

And again, it's for the sole purpose of trying to address the issues.

Yeah, yeah, Chief, why don't you keep that copy?

Okay.

And then we go from there.

Sure.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Okay, so we voted and we have 3 in favor and 1 to the suspension.

Okay.

Okay.

And we'll— I'll work with Sean's office to get a written decision out.

And you're welcome to stay.

Well, okay.

I thank you.

Okay.

Thanks.

Okay.

Next, we have discussion of the Seacock Speedway rules and regulations.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Ready for another season?

Hopefully, since we normally do this in, uh, April, this will be a attuned to good weather coming up.

Um, the only issue that we had that I spoke with your office today, Mr. Gadeem, was just a name change that was approved from you guys a while back on Frances Vanetti to David Auburn, the manager.

Yep, yep.

So she agreed to make that change.

There were some other wording and description changes that I've spoken with Chief Enos on, and we're going to work on that in the offseason for next year's review.

Other than that, there is nothing on here that's anything of difference.

Well, the only thing that I, I found as attending there once in a while, uh, is the regular race program.

You raced— you listed divisions that race there.

One of the things we agreed to speak about in the offseason was clarification of that, as what is a regular race program versus what is a special event.

Okay, because you have street stocks down here which are renamed.

I mean, it's the same, so we'll just leave it for now and you'll meet and work with the team.

My, my question is, why do the divisions need to be listed in there at all?

If it's a touring series or a regular racing series that races for a structured purse and competitive points, it should be one and the same no matter what we are.

We should be able to change the division out mid-season if we wanted to without having to come before the board of the select board to get approval for a Sportsman versus a Crown Vic division.

Sure.

Yep.

All right, so for, for this document though, we will change the manager from Francis Vendetti to David Auburn, correct?

We voted to do that in the spring.

All right, and I've corresponded with Miss Tester about that earlier today.

And the rest of it, I've spoke to Chief Enos and we're going to discuss some of the other things in the offseason.

Um, just— it's nothing that changes anything, it's just clarification of terms.

Okay, one thing I noticed on here, there's no signature page for the Board of Selectmen, so I like that to be added too so that we can all sign it.

Okay.

All right, so what's the pleasure of the board?

I'll make a motion to accept the Seekonk Speedway rules and regulations as presented with the change With the change of— and a signature page.

Okay.

All right, is there a second?

Any discussion?

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

So voted.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Have a good day.

Yep.

Okay, next is an update from the veterans agent regarding the Purple Heart status for the town.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

My name is James Laflamme.

I'm the veteran services officer for the town of Seekonk.

I've been speaking with Al Varelas, who is the adjutant for Region 1 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, which is a very large region, almost all of New England.

I think it's his goal to have every city and town in New England to become a Purple Heart community.

He himself is retired, but he's a Vietnam veteran and he received 3 Purple Hearts.

I don't know if that's lucky or unlucky.

These, I believe it was the second page, have a proclamation.

If you wanna read through that, if there's any changes you can make, 'cause this is something that he just wrote up and it's probably a pretty standard thing, but I did have some changes on it.

But if you look at it over and let me know, we can change that whatever way we need to.

On the first page, you see the price for the signs.

And he says that that is like $52 apiece.

That's at cost, he said.

And he picks them up directly from the manufacturer.

So there is no shipping cost because he will bring them to us.

And they take 4 to 6 weeks.

And so we can plan a ceremony because you have a ceremony.

So as you can see, it's engineer grade.

It's got UV film, so they don't get beat up by the sun.

I talked to DPW because they would be installing them, and that will also, I guess, be really at no cost because they have— like, they buy those signposts in bulk.

They have like 24 of them at a time.

They have like 20 of them right now.

Um, in correspondence with Mr. Kadeem, he suggested that, um, because normally you have them like coming in and out of the town, um, so he suggested Route 6, Route 44, 152, and then the off-ramp and on-ramp to 114A.

Um, I would also suggest maybe you have one like for all the people coming into town, the circle out in front of Town Hall.

As well as one at the, um, Seekonk Veterans Memorial Park.

So if we give him the go-ahead, like, it, it's the same thing like we use for like all vendors, you know, we get a W-9 and, um, and then he would get those ordered.

Like I said, it takes 4 to 6 weeks, um, so we could have a ceremony say sometime like middle or end of September.

He lives in Springfield, so it is a little bit of a haul, and he was hoping, 'cause Dartmouth is in that process right now, but I checked with the VSO over in Dartmouth, and they kind of put it off till the spring.

So to save him a trip, we could do it if we were to do it in the spring, but I guess they have some building projects they're doing right now, so they kind of put it on the back burner.

During the Veterans Day celebration?

I asked him about that and he said typically no.

No, but, uh, yeah, and I think he's probably busy on Veterans Day, um, anyway.

But like, there's supposed to be a separate ceremony.

He actually gave me like, like a whole thing about like who to invite and how to set up the ceremony.

It's really the same type of stuff that, that we've been doing, you know, for our ceremonies for both Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

The only difference is like they said that the proclamation, like the VSO will generally be the MC board, but it should be an elected official to read the proclamation.

So usually we have like someone from the Veterans Council do it, but this is much easier because like ours have like all these battle sites in France and stuff.

And so it's a little more of a challenge, I think, just pronouncing the names right.

So to get the town officially recognized, it would take a vote of this board?

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Also, like, I found out, like, the— it's not going to require that, like, those type of signposts are not going to require concrete.

So it's just pretty much just the cost of the signs with no shipping or anything.

And no taxes, of course.

So would— how many would you believe that the $52 price would be adequate?

A dozen?

20?

Just 10.

10?

10.

Yeah.

15.

Okay.

No, the only reason I'm not— I'm not saying anything— I went through real quick when I was sitting here.

So if we did 2 on Central Ave, Attleboro line, Pawtucket line, Newman Ave at the East Providence line, Taunton Ave 2, Route 6 2, Town Hall, you said.

Would you— you would like one here, Jim, in the Town Hall?

Uh, probably at the circle at Town Hall.

And so one there and then one at the park.

One at the park.

Route 6 at 114A, you said, the on-ramps, off-ramps.

There's 2 there.

And then Pine Street coming in from Hobart.

So that was, I think, 13.

Woodland Avenue.

Yeah, I think that was 13.

So I said I had 2 more just in case I forgot one off the top of my head.

Kind of covers every entrance into town.

Okay.

And for a total of $780, I I think it's the least we can do for our veterans.

Yeah.

Do you have that money in your budget?

Well, right now I do.

It's the beginning of fiscal year.

Okay.

Yeah, so that's a yes.

Okay, we can make it work.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So then, uh, I think a proper motion would be is to officially accept the town as a Purple Heart community and to purchase 15 $52 signs.

Yep.

Yes.

Was that your motion, Michael?

That is my motion.

Okay.

I also should say that, like he said, those— the, the ones we get in our 24 by 18, they're like a landscape style.

Some of the surrounding towns have like, I think they're like 12 by 15 portrait style, but those aren't really the official ones.

And if you like, if you Google search, you see some towns they're not even purple, they're blue.

So these are the, these are the official signs and they're the good stuff.

They're, they're 24 by 18.

Yeah, that's good.

Second Michael.

Yep.

All right, any discussion?

Seeing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

So voted.

Right, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so we have, uh, consider accepting a donation of $100 for AllTrust Credit Union to the Seekonk Fire Department.

Okay, if you want to speak on it, Chief.

Good evening, Mr.

Chair, select board members, Mr. Gadeem.

Uh, there's really not much to speak on on the donation except for the, uh, the thanks from the fire department to the AllTrust Credit Union.

We had reached out to them as an organization.

We were trying to get a technology upgrade for iPads and and operational needs as far as technology went for responding apparatus.

Our request is a little bit too robust for them, but they were nice enough to give us a $100 donation.

So we will use that to help advance that cause, but we do want to thank them personally and publicly.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so entertain a motion to accept the donation.

So moved.

Second.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

So voted.

Okay, consider accepting the donation of a second batting cage.

Oh yeah, I'm, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Consider accepting a donation of refrigerator for the Cole Street concession stand from Seacock Softball.

Good evening, how are you?

Good.

Eric Harris-Grimes, Parks and Recreation.

Thank you for hearing this out.

Um, so a couple of weeks ago I met with Tom Papalich, who is the president of the Seekonk Girls Softball League, and we were talking about different ideas they had coming up for the complexes and touching base on that.

And when we were there, he mentioned that the refrigerator they're using in the concession stand right now has reached its end of life.

Repair does not seem to be an option for it, so the league wanted to purchase a new one and ask the town to accept the donation to use in the upcoming season.

While we, um, in the concession stand.

Okay, pretty good.

Did you have anything like that, sir?

Uh, just that we also— I assume this, uh, would give us, uh, the right to dispose of the old one too that's there now.

We're replacing it, so you'd like to dispose of it so we don't have to?

However it can disappear would be great with that.

Okay.

I just know that my tenure as president of the league will be short if I can't keep ice cream cold for our student members.

Okay.

Yeah, if you can take care of that, that'd be fine.

If not, you know, I'm sure we can find a way to get rid of the old one.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm just nervous leaving it sitting out.

Sure.

There's a danger to children.

Okay, I'll accept the motion to accept the donation of a refrigerator.

So moved.

Second.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

So voted.

And then we have also— thank you, sir.

We also have— yeah, if it doesn't get picked up, consider accepting the donation of a second batting cage netting purchased by Seekonk, I guess, Little League.

Uh, nope, it was from Seekonk, um, softball also.

Oh, Seekonk softball.

Yes.

So what ended up happening was Um, I'm not exactly sure where, but there was a training center that had gone out of business, was selling off some of their items.

The league was able to purchase one from that training center that they asked we accept as a donation.

So if anything happens to the one we are currently using, we would have a backup that wouldn't cost the town a lot of money to replace.

Okay, any questions?

Then I would accept a motion to accept this donation also.

So moved.

Second.

Any discussion?

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

So voted.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Okay, okay, the next one is to consider signing the agreement for survey, design procurement, and construction services for improvements to the George R. Martin Elementary School.

Uh, this is confusing to me, but I'll let Mr. Cadime explain it, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

So, uh, the school department had submitted a warrant article for the, uh, the repair of the parking lot over at the Martin School.

Um, that was not approved at town meeting, so there was discussion about first potentially just getting some engineering designs completed so that we could get a more accurate picture of what was needed to be repaired in terms of the parking lot itself and drainage, as well as the cost, which many folks felt that was a little too excessive.

So based on the conversations with the chair and the leadership committee that we had with the school department and on the town side, we had discussed using GPI to do some engineering plans.

So what's before you is a contract for the engineering plans.

They will help with the design documents, go out to bid, and then we'll actually have an actual price associated with the cost of renovating the Martin School parking lot.

And if that includes drainage, we'll know that at that time.

So the the actual price will be presented, and then we'll just present it at town meeting.

All right, well, this is where we disagree.

The leadership meeting you're talking about was June 16th.

You were there, I was there, and Michael was there, as was the chair and vice chair and the superintendent from the school committee.

I have no memory of discussing doing this in my conversations with the vice chairman.

He doesn't And neither does the vice chairman of the school department.

We talked about what a disaster that warrant article was in the whole process, and we said, yes, there has to be a better process.

But if we sign this, we're liable for it, and it's got a $50,000 price tag on it.

Uh, so I guess our memories disagree.

I did have a conversation with the superintendent.

She, she agreed with the exact conversation Uh, you're the one that brought up the fact that you wanted us to use GPI.

You even asked me where the money was going to come from.

Uh, June 16th, at that point, we had a handle of where we were for year-end, and I said that we could potentially use FY26 encumbrances, and then you told me to move forward with that.

That was the action on it.

I don't remember that.

And in furtherance of that, we sat here for the Quad Board meeting, and I had a discussion with one of the school committee members, and I suggested, yeah, they needed to get an engineering— last Wednesday night that they needed to move forward with an engineering study before they went and got an appropriation.

You sat here and said nothing, and then the next day we get to sit out packing.

Okay, Mr. Chairman, so with that, with all due respect, that conversation that was before us was talking about how the process went for town meeting.

Uh, just moving forward, you know, I'm just— it's difficult for me to be able to manage the day-to-day operation if I'm getting direction from you.

And when I don't do something, you get upset with it.

And then if I do something, then you told— you're telling me that I should— I had no authority to do it.

So all I'm asking moving forward, if there's going to be any direction from any member of the board, that the board has to take an official vote so that we have record of it.

Because I have notes that GPI— that you wanted me to move with GPI.

I sent out an update to the board saying that I was working with GPI.

GPI was coming back with cost estimates.

If the board doesn't want to do it, that's fine.

We don't need to, to vote on this contract.

The money that was encumbered from FY26 will just flow to free cash and we just move on.

Okay, well, I would say this should be forwarded to the school department.

It should be there.

It's nice you did all this work, but my memory, Mr. Healy's and Miss Fields' memory, is different than what you, you seem to— and I don't know why we good off the page, but I'm not going to be supporting this as I believe it should be the school department endeavor.

It's a school department property.

So in regards to what you and I talked about with the leadership meeting, I had gone back and looked at my notes.

During that meeting, we had a discussion about the parking lot and the debacle that took place at town meeting.

We also had other discussions, and I'm not exactly sure what meetings we had them at, um, but we did— we have discussed getting engineering work done at Martin School.

So I guess my question is going to be to the rest of the board and to yourself, Mr.

Chair.

I understand that there's some confusion and we must have misunderstanding, but now we have a document in front of us, we have encumbered money to get it done, and we can go to town meeting with a reasonable request, which we have requested several times because the initial response was $900,000 for a parking lot, which you took offense to, I took offense to.

I think a lot of people took offense to it.

And then they came back at the end of the meeting, I believe, they tell me, and they asked for $150,000 for engineering services, and that didn't pass.

So this is, to me, I don't, I don't have a recollection of discussing the encumbered money.

I mean, I apologize for that.

I should have written it down, and that's my own fault.

But I'm willing to at least move forward so we can get this engineering study done, so when we go to tell me that we're going to have a solid number.

But at $50,000, doesn't it have to go out to bid?

No, engineering services are exempt from 30B.

All right, all right.

Chris, any comments?

I'm just as confused.

One says they said it, the other one says they didn't.

Here we are with this $50,000 price tag in our lap.

That's a school issue.

Um, I agree with Mr. Healy.

It seems like Mr. Dean put this work together, so to keep it moving forward— we all know it needs a parking lot and drainage.

Um, it's town property overall, even though it's under the care and custody of schools.

But to keep the progress going, um, I'll accept and vote to move forward with this.

Maybe someone can shed some light on this for me, but whether people remember or not, why are we looking at this bill and not the school department?

That's my only question at this point, and, and I'm open to an answer from anyone, not just the chair.

No, so I think the recollection, um, of the town administrator and the school superintendent from our leadership meeting, um, was that at the end of our meeting we discussed hiring GPI and using encumbered money.

I think, I think that's why you're seeing seeing in this document now.

Um, I did not write that down.

Like I said, I do apologize.

Um, shame on me because I usually try to write most things down.

And I, I, I'm, I'm of the opinion we're at this stage, we have to— we need to get it done.

We asked for them to get it done.

In all honesty, it's all the town's money, whether it eventually comes out of there.

And my point is, it's a project that needs to move forward, and we need to get a better number than a guess of $900,000.

So I'm willing to— I'm willing to move the article forward.

We have it in front of us.

It's up to, you know, each individual member of this board what they want to do.

Okay, it does, but I'm having a recollection or flashback of our April 8th meeting where, you know, everything came down to you've got to find us more money, find us more money.

And now we have another $50,000 bill that we— I understand where you're coming from, and I'm in agreement, it has to get done.

But again, when we were here in April, it's, it's always nothing's enough.

And that's where I'm a little on the fence.

But it does have to get done because we need a definitive number.

Because the $900,000 number was insane.

How much money in engineering did you encumber?

You know, it was the amount that was provided.

Is that what you— the $50,000 for this?

Yeah.

How old is— how old is this document then?

He had, uh, it's like 2 weeks, 3 weeks.

2, 3 weeks?

Yeah.

I would have thought you could have shared it with us a little earlier.

I mean, I sent the update on July 7th to the board.

Nobody had any comments, right?

It was an update saying I'm working with GPI.

Jim Noyes is giving me this.

We're going to move the project forward.

I'll let you know once I get the project moving forward.

I got the contract.

I submitted it.

Mr. Chairman, with all due respect, I took direction from you.

Okay, I agree it does need to be done without question, and this seems to be— we can agree on some of the circumstances, but this seems to be the best way to move it forward now.

So, any emotions?

Mr. Chairman, if I could, just for the record, the I have the email in front of me, uh, Tuesday, July 7th, 2026.

Project updates, Martin School and Madeira's Farm.

That was the subject matter.

Good afternoon, and it's to all the board members.

Just as an update— this is the first paragraph— just as an update, I'm currently working with Jim Noyce to finalize the scope and cost of the Martin School parking lot engineering plans.

He expects to have the information to me by the end of the week, at which point we can begin moving the project forward.

I'll let you know once we're ready to get started.

And then we go into the Maduras Farm.

I just— just for the record.

Okay.

All right, so is somebody going to make a motion?

Mr.

Chair, I'll make a motion that we, uh, sign the agreement for survey, design, procurement, and construction services for improvements to the George R. Martin Elementary School.

Should that say parking lot, or— oh yes, I'm sorry, just so People don't understand, like, we're making a renovation to the school itself.

That would be my motion, Mr. Chairman.

Second?

I will second that motion.

Okay, any further discussion?

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

4 in favor, none opposed.

All right, so we will sign this and, uh, go with it.

Is there a second?

We all have that Is there going to be one document?

Oh yeah, they have a couple.

Okay, okay.

All right, very good.

Next is discussion regarding the job description and salary for the position of Human Resources Director.

You want me to take the lead?

Please.

Um, so with the, um, resignation of our assistant town administrator, uh, slash HR director, I did meet with the, uh, members of the board to discuss a proposed, uh, reorganization.

Um, I did submit the plan.

Uh, there was a roughly $77,000 savings based on the reorganizational plan that I submitted.

So what I would be looking to do is, um, as opposed to having an assistant town administrator slash HR director, we will remove the assistant town administrator duties, uh, do a human resource director so that it's solely human resources.

And then at that point, we would also reduce the salary that we currently have for the assistant town administrator slash HR director.

For the HR director position.

Okay.

Mr.

Chair, can I ask a question?

Sure.

In the past, and maybe it's just me, whenever we've discussed a job description and a pay scale, it's always been done in executive session because it's a personnel matter.

And also on top of that, I just got these 2 today, these redlined job descriptions.

I personally am not comfortable comfortable trying to decide that quickly tonight if I'm going to accept either one of these.

I haven't had a chance to read them.

When did you get those?

I got these this afternoon.

I didn't— they were in an email this afternoon.

Well, I, I printed it this afternoon.

It was dated this morning, I think.

Okay.

I was in court and didn't get a chance to.

So, um, and we're also missing one member of the board tonight, so I do think, um, it would be only fair that we have an opportunity to read these job descriptions that were redlined and also whether we're going to discuss in an open session or an executive session, because my recollection of any time that we've done a job description and a pay scale before a posting or something like that— and correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Kaneem or Mr. Zara, because you've been on the board longer than I have— that's how we've always done it.

It's been done in executive session.

You're correct, from my recollection.

So then you're saying There's no— or do you want to discuss this any further, or you want to wait till we do it in executive session?

I would like to wait until we do an executive session and also have a full board so there's no— so every member has input into what they would like to see in the 2 job descriptions.

Well, one of them is existing.

The admin executive assistant is existing.

There's just some changes to it, right, that I see that are redlined.

But then the other one is— there's a lot of changes to it.

The assistant town administrator HR has a lot of changes, a lot of changes to move in, a lot of great stuff.

So, okay, if I may, I love the restructuring, and I told Mr. Kadeem that I think there are other things.

And if you want to wait until we have a full board and do it in executive session, that's fine.

There were other things that I wanted to discuss pertaining to the jobs themselves, the posting of the jobs, things like that.

So, so is it best to wait for executive session for the whole thing?

That's up to the board.

I'm just giving my recommendation.

Chris, your thoughts?

I would agree with Mr. Healy.

We've never discussed salary ranges or anything in open session or anything like that when we— okay.

And so You want to table item H and I until August 19th?

Is that what it is?

And, uh, item I, the same thing?

That's the 19th, the discussion of jobs, the position of executive assistant to the town administrator select board.

You want to do the same thing?

Yes, correct.

Okay, all right, if you want to Make a motion.

I'll make a motion to table the discussion of item H and item I until our next board meeting of the 19th in executive session.

In executive session.

I'll second that.

Okay.

Moved and seconded.

Any further discussion?

If not, all in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

So voted.

Okay, establish the date of the full town meeting for November 9th and consider opening the warrant.

And we've come up with a policy of having it with the second, second Monday in November and second Monday in May.

So I, I would, uh, recommend that we close— if we open the warrant today, uh, that we close it for September 10th.

September 10th.

Is that long enough?

Mm-hmm.

Okay, so establish the data form for November and consider opening the warrant with a closing date of September 10th.

Is there a motion?

So moved.

Second.

Seconded.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

So voted.

Accept resignation Designation of Brittany Saracen from the Seacock Fire Department effective August 2nd, 2026.

So moved.

Second.

Moved and seconded.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

So voted.

It's a shame.

Yeah, that's what everybody says.

All right, update discussion regarding the possible senior tax assistance program.

Great.

So since we met a couple weeks ago, there's been a lot going on.

Do you have a letter from the assessors?

Um, okay.

So if you recall, we, we scheduled a special meeting for next week in this room for the sole purpose of to discuss the senior tax proposal.

Um, and we have a letter dated August 4th, 2026, and it says cancellation of August 12th, 2026 meeting appearance.

Dear members of the Select Board, the Board of Assessors would like to inform the Select Board that following discussions with the town's finance director regarding funding for the proposed senior property tax discount program we have been advised that the town does not currently have the financial resources to support the program.

As a result, the Board of Assessors will be canceling its appearance at the select board meeting scheduled for August 12th, 2026.

Thank you, Seekonk Board of Assessors.

And it's signed by, uh, Joyce Solomon and Janet Parker.

Mr.

Chair, I ask that we reject that letter as there was major clarification that we received in an email from what that letter states, saying that the town does not have the funding.

That was not what the financial finance director meant by that statement.

She clarified everything in the email, what she, what she did mean.

And Miss Solomon, I guess, took it out of context or still wrote that letter anyways, because people reading that letter is going to get misinformation.

Wrong information, and it's not going to look good.

So if they want to resubmit the letter with the proper wording of why they're not moving forward at this time, instead of placing blame on the finance director for a mismatch of words, then that'd be more appropriate in my mind.

But if they are not going to be here next week, then I don't think we are either.

No, correct.

Yeah, correct.

But there's gonna be people calling saying after you just read that letter saying what's going on?

Yeah, well, I would direct them— we would— we scheduled the, the meeting next week.

I have a copy of the finance director's email.

Oh yeah, do you want me to read it?

I have it.

You do?

Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah.

All right, so this is, this is in response to what Mr. Zara is talking about in regards to the letter from the Board of Assessors.

This is from our Director of Finance, Jennifer I want to clarify a statement made by the Board of Assessors letter regarding the senior property tax discount program.

The letter states that I advise the town does not currently have the financial resources to support the program.

That is not what I said.

The discussion was about the Board of Assessors proposal to fund the senior property tax discount program.

It was about a separate program that Joyce Solomon was proposing in place of the program that had been presented to the select board last Thursday.

I met with Joyce Solomon and Assessor Lydia Cordero in Lydia's office to discuss that proposal.

Joyce wanted to fund the new program upfront and suggested using free cash as a one-time possible funding source.

I explained the town's financial policy regarding free cash.

Under that policy, 10% of certified free cash is retained and carried forward to the next fiscal year.

In addition, fiscal year '26 free cash will not be certified until October, and any use of those funds will still require town meeting approval.

Because of these— those restrictions, free cash was not available to fund the program upfront.

After discussing the funding option, Joyce decided not to move forward with the new program because it could not be funded upfront.

I want to be clear that I never said the town does not have the financial resources to support the senior property tax program.

My comments were specific to the proposal— proposed use of free cash to fund a separate program upfront and were based on the town's financial policies.

Okay, so that's read into the record.

Yes.

The letter from the assessors.

So, um, I would entertain a motion that we cancel the meeting of next Wednesday.

So moved.

Second.

Second.

Moved and seconded.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

So voted.

All right.

Okay, discussion regarding the annual evaluation of the town administrator on August 19th, 2026.

I put that out because isn't there a form or a format that's been used in the past?

Yep.

So typically once the chair calls for it, somebody in the office, whether it's Chris Testa or Sandra, will send you the evaluation tool.

She'll send it out to each individual, and then as they're collected, she will put them together for the board to— for the chair to review, and then it's a summarized evaluation.

Okay, so it's on— we'll have it on the agenda for the next meeting, so we'll get all that information at that time or in advance.

I, I can have her send it tomorrow.

Okay.

Any questions on that?

Do you want to put a— I would just suggest that you put a deadline as to when members need to submit it.

Okay, does that give everybody enough time?

Having done it in the past once you get it, it does take a little bit of time to go through it.

So I would think maybe the first meeting in September would be the night we can actually discuss it, like summarize the whole summarization, Gary, because that gives you time to crystal collect them all.

You get to review them all, you summarize, you come up with a summarization of all everybody's input, and then that night you go through each topic or each group that we discussed, whether it be finances or planning or whatever, and you can summarize against the whole thing.

I just think 2 weeks would be— it would be tight.

All right, so, um, all right, so if everybody could have them submitted, I guess, to me by the 19th, is that— and then I'll review them and we'll put it on the agenda for the 2nd of September.

2nd, whatever the process has been in the past, I believe we send it back into Chris, Chris collects them all, and then collectively she makes— I think she makes like an overall like, uh, comment.

Yeah, she consolidates it.

Yeah, consolidates, and then you review it for your approval and, you know, you go from there.

And then she gives you the individuals and then the, uh, consolidated.

All right, so if it goes out tomorrow like you said it would, then it's basically 2 weeks that we— you'd have to prepare them.

Is that enough time for everybody to prepare?

So get them to me by the 19th, and then it'll be on the agenda for September Second.

Does that work for you, Chris?

Yeah, it works for me.

Okay, very good.

Well, Bob's not here, so do we know when he'll be back?

He'll be back on the 19th.

Okay, he's scheduled to be.

I just want to make sure he's going to have enough time to fill it out.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, all right, consider accepting the ocean— the open session meeting minutes of July 22nd 2020, July 22nd, 2026.

The motion— I'll make a motion to accept as presented.

OK, second.

OK, all in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

So voted.

Community speaks.

Oh, you had— you go ahead.

Doreen Taylor, 101 Foresight.

Um, I wanted to let you know that, um, Friends of the Seekonk Veterans Memorial Park intends to give the money that, um, Mr. Laflamme had mentioned earlier.

We're also going to add $80 to that so he can purchase a Purple Heart flag that can be loan at Town Hall, and I believe the total is going to be $860.

So I spoke with, um, Mark Drapo.

He and I are the only members remaining with Friends of the Seacong Veterans Memorial Park, and it is our honor and our privilege to donate this money to the Veterans Council to, to buy this so it will not affect Mr. Laflamme's budget.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Good.

You're up.

You may as well.

Yep.

Okay, I would ask that some member of this board make a motion to reconsider your vote on gen— on the General Business A license hearing.

And I'll explain why.

I believe that you've just opened the town up to litigation.

You have suspended somebody's livelihood, and I know in the past that we have done this before and it has come back to bite us afterwards.

You could have made a motion to postpone this hearing for 2 or 4 weeks to give him time to fix what is wrong and tell him that he's to operate under his present license and its stipulations.

So that would have given him a month, but you have completely suspended the license, so he can't work at all for a month.

That is taken away from his family, and I know we have done it before and And it was not right.

So if somebody here, after he— on the board, after hearing this, would make a motion to reconsider and make another motion to do that instead of suspending his livelihood, it would be better for the town.

Just saying.

Speak, please.

Sure.

Okay.

Aside from the change in the plan They've kept the police department quite busy.

He has utilized somebody else to run his business.

Okay, I think he needs to come up with a new business plan, and that's going to take some time.

Now, with all due respect, I've seen— and I do mean this with all due respect— I've seen you as chairperson make decisions where it opened up this town to litigation, and I can cite them, but I won't.

I think like anything else, people need to learn a lesson, and I think our police, we owe them more than just the same old same old.

I don't see where 30 days— um, I think 30 days is more than fair.

Well, I disagree, and as far as the police department goes, not one member here asked of those 14 complaints, when did they come in?

After— how many came in after the gentleman took over his business and the other 2 people were fired?

He's responsible for his business.

I understand that, I understand that.

But if he hasn't had any complaints, if the police department didn't get any complaints since he took over, then it was poor employees.

But— and I understand that, but we're in July.

I understand that there's been litigation against the town.

I am just pointing out to you that this could do it.

You are not his parent.

You can't— he— I understand he's not made good choices, but you're suspending that man's livelihood.

We've tried it.

It did not— well, tried it— we did it.

It did not work.

And I'm just advising you, you do what you want, but This is going to open up litigation, and it's not right.

Okay, our counsel— excuse me a minute— our counsel advised us that suspensions have gone before the appeals court and they've been withheld— upheld.

But aside from that, this gentleman allowed a business to continue for 6 to 7 months with no oversight, and all of this transpired.

So if nothing was done, don't you think as a business owner he had, he had a duty to check in monthly, whatever, just to make sure things were running smoothly?

I'm not saying he didn't, but it doesn't— he does because it is his.

But even the attorney was shocked that all those calls came in.

So maybe the gentleman who owns a business didn't know either.

No, he knew.

Let me fill you in on something that I know personally.

You can roll your eyes all you want, because I'm a little— you can roll your eyes, that's fine.

He just hired that attorney because I got the phone call to find him an attorney last week.

I'll put that on the record.

Why would you get a phone call?

Because I'm an attorney, and somebody called me and said, do you know of anyone?

And I'm being quite honest with the board, and I said I can't get involved.

So he had no attorney as of a week ago.

No, do what you like.

Thank you.

I got a lady in the back.

Oh, Doreen.

Again, Doreen Taylor, 101 Forsyth.

Um, previous speaker mentioned that it's not known or how many calls or how many service requests were made of the PD.

I believe, Mr. Healy, you read a time log with dates, so that was submitted as part of the record.

Thank you.

Well, just to address, um, Miss Hines, uh, I, I certainly have no desire to reopen anything.

I'm going to stand with the way I voted.

Good.

Michael, you too?

I'm good.

Yep.

Okay.

Chris?

I'm good.

Oh yeah, you voted against it.

That's right.

Okay, I'm sorry.

All right, of course.

All right, good evening.

Ann Miller, 25 River Street.

Mr. Cadime, Mr. Chairman, select board members, I speak tonight as a concerned citizen.

2 of you were recently elected to this board based on campaign promises to restore fiscal responsibility to town government, but in the few short months of governing This board's decisions are wasting my money.

And I say my money because when I write out the check to the town of Seekonk to pay for the tax bill, that money's coming out of my pocket.

Take the recent decision to reject the Madeira Farm project contract.

You are wasting my money by shutting down the design study appropriated by town meeting and instead conducting a standalone traffic study based on the master plan.

That plan is a conceptual design.

Any changes, which are highly likely, mean your traffic study will need to be redone.

That is irresponsible spending, especially since the appropriated design study includes traffic study based on the final design, meaning no rework required.

The design study should provide all the information you seek.

However, even worse than the bad spending is that you have essentially shut down the committee and the project.

Town meeting votes matter.

They direct the select board.

The town voted to fund a design study following the standard process of across the Commonwealth and for every similar project in Seekonk.

We did not vote for the select board to conduct an independent traffic study.

Abutters tried to stop the project with a petition-led warrant at town meeting.

Those warrants were to rescind the Madeira's Farm committee and to rescind the $825,000 appropriated for the design study.

Those articles failed.

The town voted them down.

But now 3 select board members have effectively met those warrant objectives— warrant objectives.

The committee was told to go home and do nothing.

Money has been redirected from the design study.

For elected representatives who say they want to enact the will of the people, this doesn't add up.

Your rejection against the will of the people and your rejection of the contract goes against the will of the people.

It goes against the majority of town vote.

So do the right thing.

Act according to the town meeting outcome and approve the design study contract as recommended from the Madeira's Farm Committee.

Move the project to the next phase and stop wasting my money.

Thank you.

May I respond, please?

Go ahead.

Okay.

What I would like to ask is the public— and I may get some pushback from Mr. Kadeem on this— I'd like to know if the public saw those contracts and read through those contracts and noticed that the lack of language pertaining to a traffic study in those contracts.

That language was omitted.

Other documents that spoke to traffic were not referenced, incorporated, or referenced in the CHA contract.

So what we're trying to do here is get the most bang for our buck, because I can guarantee you, if we sign that contract and it didn't speak to a traffic study.

There was nothing in that contract to have a traffic study done where it would be included in the contract price.

And we can disagree on this, but I've been reading contracts for 28 years, and no place in any of those documents did it say a traffic study was to be conducted And that contract for CHA, I, I, I think a 10-year-old could have done a better job with it.

And I'm a little tired of taking hits about my decision when it's a very limited few who are making a big deal about the fact that we ordered a traffic study.

We did not put a stop to this project.

I don't know, it, it, the Since when is public safety put on the back burner?

So we're supposed to just approve a contract that did not cover what it was supposed to, didn't include the language it was supposed to, let something happen, and then subject the town to liability, or worse off, the loss of life?

I'll take the heat.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Just quickly, so I'm not going to opine going back and forth on the issues before us, I just want to set the record straight.

So in terms of the contract and what was in the contract, the contract is a template contract coming from KP Law.

We've used it on a number of building projects.

The contract, as Selectwoman Almazan has stated, does not include the language for traffic sites.

She's 100% accurate about that.

But the first paragraph of the contract refers back to the bid document, which contains the scope of service for CHA.

In that scope of service, traffic study— a traffic consultant was named throughout that document.

So CHA was fully aware that they needed to provide a traffic study.

So I don't want anybody walking away thinking that there was no language for a traffic study.

Sean, if a document is going to be referenced in a contract, it has to be incorporated by reference and the contract, not supporting documents.

The supporting documents don't govern a project.

The contract does.

No, it would be the contract and the scope of service would have been included in the contract as an addendum, which is stated on the first one.

That contract was not given to us in addendum.

Well, with all due respect, all I was asked for was the contract.

So again, it comes back to communication.

And I've said this before.

If you were looking for it, it was— I was asked for the contract after the vote was taking place, and all I was asked for, can I see the contract?

I sent over the contract.

So anybody reading the contract, if you would have read the first sentence that said Addendum A and there was no Addendum A in the contract, I would have thought somebody would have came back to me and asked, can I see Addendum A, which I would have provided.

All I was asked for was to see the contract, and I provided the contract.

Okay, now, now we're splitting hairs, because if my signature is going to be required or asked for, requested, I want to see every document.

I shouldn't have to read a document and then say, oh, go back, by the way, I need this document too.

If you expect me to sign something, I want everything, okay?

And, and one sentence— I'm sorry, one sentence doesn't cover it for me.

And this whole thing about, well, it was KP Law wrote it— well, just because KP Law wrote it doesn't mean it's 100% accurate or correct.

So, and, and I, I stated before, that's the way the board has handled it before, and I understand your concerns.

So moving forward, I, I said I would address that, and I took responsibility for it.

Okay, so from here on in, I want every single piece of document.

If I'm going to have to sign something, I don't want to have to read it and then go back and say, oh, there's an addendum to this, I didn't get the addendum, can I have the addendum?

I want everything.

So if things are going to be— if we're expected to read everything together, it would just make sense that we get everything together.

But I want the public to know that that was an issue with us as to— it was an issue with me anyway, because when I see that as an attorney, I see that I want the documents named in the contract and saying reference, not just read it with this.

I want it incorporated by reference in each document identified.

And we'll work that moving forward.

And I respect— and I respect your issue, but I would like the public to know that and not think that we're on a witch hunt to terminate this project.

Yes, I promised last time In your consideration for a traffic study, I'm hoping that this goes beyond just Lincoln and Elm Street.

Everybody who lives in the South End knows that between Route 6 and Route 44, by way of Anthony Street, Miller Street, Bradley Street, crossing over county to Lincoln is affected by traffic.

This cannot be just a limited scope study to be able to gauge whatever effects that you guys define in the traffic study.

The sidewalks stop at the end of Anthony Street.

They don't go down Miller.

They don't go up Bradley.

They never did.

Traffic on those streets are unbelievable, and it's just not passenger cars.

I'm talking about heavy-duty equipment, and not limited to DPW.

I'm talking about all kinds.

You get those big dirt dummies that come through there that haul gravel that spill things all over the place.

There are dump trucks, there are sanitation trucks, there are all kinds of heavy-duty equipment.

And trust me, having lived, lived on that corner for 30-plus years, they fly.

They absolutely fly.

So I'm just requesting that in your attempts for a traffic study that you please consider extending that to the— to include the counts of cars that go through Anthony, Miller, and Bradley and trying to cross over County.

So to some extent, County Street is affected as well, all the way to the end to Route 44.

And just, um, on another note, the warrant at town meeting for the Madeira Spa project was written to read at the discretion of the Board of Selectmen.

So you are in fact doing your jobs.

Thank you.

John Alves, 25 River Street.

Quite frankly, there seems to be some disagreements here, and quite frankly, I disagree.

We've heard that one of the select board members say that it's not included— traffic study is not included in the document.

Fine and dandy.

Rather than stopping it and saying No, let's let's go no further.

Simply request that it be written into that document and proceed.

But no, we're going we're going to we're going to stop.

The the other thing is, let's consider where the application for that eight hundred and twenty five thousand dollars came from.

Do you know where it came from?

Who made that application?

Town of Seconk Board of Selectmen.

So you're simply saying on one hand, yes, we want the money to do the proper, uh, review, uh, of what needs to be done by this town, and then you come along and say, drop dead, we're not going to do it.

It certainly to me makes, makes no sense.

And, uh, and the other, other thing at At the Quad Board meeting, there was a quote from one of the selectmen, deliver what the residents want.

Another quote from the other select person was, I agree, pointing to that person.

I agree.

Yes.

Yes.

What he said.

That was me.

I'm not mentioning names here.

I'm saying, Mr. Chairman, I'm not mentioning names here purposely.

Because I don't want to get into that kind of give and take, he said, she said.

It's a fact that those— that so was said.

If you don't believe it, review the tapes of the meeting.

So that I'm absolutely adamant in that we should proceed with spending that $800 $25,000, and that the selectmen should wake up and sign that contract.

Mr.

Rouse, I'd like to respond to you, if I may, if you're willing to listen.

All right.

What, you know, that, Mr. Chairman, is a rather snide remark.

If you're willing to listen.

You were walking away.

I'm sitting here trying to listen, Mr. Chairman, and all I get is you're walking away.

Here I am.

Okay, so I'd like to respond again.

Everybody is going by the vote, the vote, but no one has seen the documents.

If that contract, or if the plans for the Medeiros Farm project, were written in a way where it was scaffolded— okay, instead scaffolded— I don't know what that means.

In other words, one test gets done and then we take a step back.

And then, because you all said the master plan may not even apply because of ledge that's over there and so forth, okay, that's what was said at that meeting when they were in attendance with the select board.

I had mentioned, and you can go back and look at the meetings, why wasn't the contract written in such a way, or the project plans written in such a way, where One test gets done.

Instead of paying all $500-some-odd thousand dollars, you allocate so much for this test.

Then you have that done.

You see what the results are.

You go back to the drawing board and say, okay, this needs to change.

Now we're going to do this test.

And then we'll get the results from that and then we'll go back and we'll look at those results and then we'll keep going from there.

That was my issue with the $562,000 or whatever it was.

$500,000, because it was like a lump sum.

It was all or nothing.

$825,000.

But that includes the cost of the master plan, does it not?

It was $825,000 to do the study, uh, and, and develop, uh, plans for, uh, for the, uh, the property, right?

But didn't the master plan money come out of that $825,000?

No.

Okay, so my point to that was my— that, that, Mr. Chairman, is— continues to add to the confusion.

Nobody knows what, what came from where.

Well, well, why don't I hold my tongue on that?

But my suggestion was to move forward with the project in that manner, and I think Mr. Kadeem said yes, it could have been done that way, or we could do it that way instead of putting all $825,000 out, why can't we do it in increments with each test being done?

This way, if there is ledge, now we don't have to come up with a new master plan.

Because after spending the money on the master plan, everybody that night said this master plan could be useless, which upset me because we spent— we paid all this money for a master plan and now it may not be utilized.

So my suggestion was let's redo this and do it in increments.

And that's what I meant by scaffolding.

But that just fell to the wayside.

Well, apparently, Mr. Chairman, we just— we have a great many disagreements.

Okay, anybody else?

All right, moving forward.

Other business: discuss other topics not reasonably anticipated Anticipated by the chair 48 hours before the meeting.

I don't believe we have any.

Nothing.

Town Administrator's report.

Uh, the only thing I have to report is just an update on the Library Building Committee.

Uh, they met on Monday.

We had 10 proposals that came in for, uh, design of services.

Uh, the, uh, committee voted to interview 4 firms.

Uh, those firms will be interviewed, 2 on, uh, August 11th and then 2 on August 13th.

Okay, that's it.

That's it.

Okay, select board liaison reports and comments.

The accounts payable warrant's been signed by O.L.

TV9 liaison report?

Uh, nothing at this time, Mr.

Chair.

Okay, Bristol County Advisory.

Uh, Mr. Archambault is absent.

Uh, Medeiros Farm, anything Mr. Mason asked Sean about the status of the traffic study.

Mr. Cadime.

Uh, so we're working with, uh, the planner, the town planner.

Uh, we've sent out several, uh, requests for proposals to come in.

Uh, I believe we have at least 2, uh, engineering, uh, firms that are, uh, willing to do the, uh, the work.

So we'll be moving forward with that, uh, sending a contract to the, uh, to the board for signature.

Is there a deadline on Uh, I think they were just waiting for one other firm to put in, so we'll have it for the next meeting.

Okay, on the 6th— on the 19th.

19th.

Okay, thank you.

All right, uh, start with, uh, Chris.

You have anything you want to bring?

Yeah, I got a couple things, uh, regarding dealer licenses.

Should we look into how many we have open and see if we should be getting rid of some?

I believe we 40 currently, but 30 are all taken.

Should we look at limiting that number for used cars a lot?

Used car lots?

Should the board look at that?

We had 18.

Didn't the chief say we had 18 used car licenses?

Uh, so I, I forget exactly what the limit is, either 40 or 45, but I can get that.

Um, if we should take a look at— maybe I can provide an update to the board with the number of licenses and what the limit was on the cap on the license.

Right next to where the Tavern on the Green, Tavern on the Square is.

They didn't last long.

No, no, they're going.

Yeah, correct.

Okay, then another thing I have as far as the amended agendas, um, can we remind department heads— I've never seen so many amended agendas in the last few months— they have to have their stuff in a timely manner so we're not amending these every week.

Um, that could be, that could be done.

And then the other thing was we saw it tonight with the school memory and, and stuff like that as far as where monies came from for the parking lot.

If you recall last meeting, I brought up about the perk test for the South End Fire Station, saying that we did not have a formal vote on it even though the town administrator has authorization to go out and spend the money for that type of service.

But we've always done a a vote authorizing him to for the accountability.

And here we are with the— what happened earlier with the school, how they said, he said, someone said, and there was no proper vote taken for the accountability, the line of accountability.

So moving forward, if we could do that, um, exactly what I recommended last meeting, for the town administrator to spend money like that, for the town— for the selectmen to authorize him And then I'll end on a good note with National Night Out.

I thought it was, uh, really good, um, from both chiefs and our Director of Human Communications.

It was well handled, very well attended, a lot of vendors.

I like how they moved the canine demonstration to the grass area.

I think it afforded everyone a better 360 ring for to watch it.

Everyone that was involved, I want to thank them for coming out.

There was many restaurants, volunteers, different organizations that came.

It really is a community event, and I hope that never goes away.

And that's all I have.

Just to clarify, in the perk test, the engineer donated his services.

I never knew that.

No one said nothing.

Okay, so he donated his services, so it didn't cost the town anything.

Good.

Michael, do you have anything?

Uh, 2 things.

One, I attended National Night Out.

That was— it's always a great time.

It's great to see, and I know it's going to continue, um, just like other events that happen in this community.

Secondly, I am absolutely, um, happy with my vote to expend extra money to get Arcata done correctly, because the progress that's being done over there by that company, I'll tell you, they're doing a phenomenal job.

Not only The, the way they're handling it, the way everything's marked out, everybody knows their lane.

But the police department's doing an outstanding job keeping traffic flowing.

I'm very, I'm very pleased with taking my vote and spending the extra money to get that done, that road done correctly.

I think the extra money is going towards that orange barrels.

They certainly have no shortage of them.

All I'm saying is they're doing a good job.

Yeah, they are.

They actually— I noticed last night they're putting some ribbon down and it's actually straight, so that's perfect.

Okay, anything else?

No, that's it.

Liz?

Same sentiments about National Night Out.

It was great, and I had said to the chief last night, if funding is ever a question, that I would certainly help with fundraising, that that wouldn't be an issue.

As far as business, I if we could put on 2 weeks from now to address vehicles that aren't registered here in the town, people that live here, but vehicles that are not registered here in town.

I think we're, we're missing out on a lot of excise revenue.

Microphone, microphone, microphone.

Sorry.

I think the town is missing out on quite a bit of excise revenue.

And if I stand corrected, I think the town has a bylaw they can have 2 unregistered vehicles on a piece of property, right?

That's one.

Is it one?

Okay.

Oh, I mean not unregistered.

I mean those Rhode Island— Rhode Island.

Yes.

Yes.

That's— I don't mean unregistered.

I mean out-of-town registrations.

Okay.

Okay, all set?

Yes.

Okay.

Did you do any more with the Weaver School?

I have not.

I haven't heard back from them.

Okay, so we can follow up with them.

Monday night, the school committee unanimously approved the naming of the Cole Street soccer field in honor of Neil Avery.

Wilson.

So that'll be moving forward.

I also, uh, if anybody has had to get rid of a mattress, if we go through the town process, I think it's $80 it costs you to go up to DPW and get a sticker.

And yeah, Attleboro has a vendor that you can go to their recycling center.

Well, first of all, it wouldn't apply to us because You have to be an Attleboro resident, and you bring the mattress to them, and they— and you pay the, the employee that's working there $25, and it gets disposed of.

So I'd like to get you that information.

It might be a better service for people.

I might hope to stop someone dumping, ending up on the side of the road, you know.

So, all right, so Our next board meeting is August 10th at— I'm sorry, 19th.

I could put my glasses on.

Okay, so if there's nothing further, I would entertain a motion to adjourn, uh, open session and to go into an executive session to reconvene an open session for potential contract approval item A, to conduct strategy sessions with respect to negotiations with Secong Firefighters Union, IAFF Local 1931, per Mass General Law 30A-21A Section 3, as having the discussions in open session would be detrimental to the litigation or bargaining position of the town.

B, to conduct strategy sessions with respect to negotiations with the assistant town administrator, Human Resource Office Director Carol Ann Days, per MGL Chapter 38, Section 21A2, as having the discussion in open session would be detrimental to the litigation or bargaining position of the town.

And C, to consider accepting executive session meeting minutes of July 22nd, 2026.

So moved, Chris Zorra, at 6:55 PM.

Second, Michael Healy.

Okay, roll call vote.

Chris Zorra.

Chris Zorra, aye.

Michael.

Michael Healy, aye.

Elizabeth Gary Segal, aye.

We will take a brief recess before we go into executive session.