Select Board Meeting — August 19, 2026

Right behind now.

Good evening everyone, welcome to the select board meeting of Wednesday, August 19th, 2026, being held here in the, uh, select board meeting room, 100 Peck Street, Seekonk, Mass.

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

Anybody recording to me?

Seeing none, all select board meetings are recorded via audio and video and are broadcast live on, uh, Secong Channel 96.

At this time, I'll call the regular meeting to order.

Before we stand for a Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence, I would like to ask everybody, um, to pray for Gary Sagar and his entire family on the passing of his son Matthew.

Matthew unfortunately lost his courageous battle with cancer yesterday, August 18th, 2026.

May Matthew rest in peace.

At this time, can we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance?

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.

Can someone please read the board and committee openings?

Yes, I have it.

Volunteers are needed on the Capital Improvement Committee, 2 from the select board, 3 from the moderator.

Commission on Disability, 5 from select board.

Economic Development Committee, 3 from the select board.

Energy Committee, 3 from the select board.

Finance Committee, 1 from the moderator.

Historical Commission, 2 by the select board.

Thank you.

Now we're going to move on to priority matters.

First thing on priority matters, recognition of the Seekonk Fire Department's America's 250 coloring contest participants.

Chief Whalen.

Sit right here.

Okay.

Good.

Okay, you sit down.

Chief, before you get started, if there are any parents here or family members that want to come up and take pictures, you're more than welcome to come up around the table and take pictures during this ceremony.

Good evening, Chairman, Vice Chairman, select board members, Mr. Cadime.

Come before you this evening to recognize 3 out of our 4 winners.

Back in July— or back in June, I should say— the, the fire department had put out a 250th— America's 250th coloring contest.

We had some great submissions that required the individuals to my left and everybody, all the students that participated, to come up with a fire-related evolution of the fire service over the 250 years since America's been around.

So these are some of our winners.

We opened it up to everybody, so I want to officially recognize them publicly and then also have the board know that we're going to have a pizza party for them on Saturday at the fire station as well.

So they have a private invitation to the fire station.

They're going to get a tour, do demos, whatever they want to do.

The fire station is theirs on Saturday around noontime.

So if anybody wants some pizza, feel free to stop by.

But to my left But I have Caden Roy, and I'll show everybody, and I'll show the board his submission.

So it's a great presentation of a fire truck and America's 250th.

So I want to present Caden Roy with a thank you letter from me personally, and also a congratulations on your submission of the artwork, and congratulations on winning.

Thank you, Caden.

And then also Noah Trevares.

He had submitted also a fire truck with the Eric is 250, showing us just how important it is to to have everything that we need in today's market and the current fire department apparatus that we have just shows how important we are to the community.

And nice job, Noah.

Thank you so much.

The next was is Max.

So Max also presented quite a quite a bit of artwork here, which just shows the evolution of fire-drawn apparatus to where we are currently with the modern-day fire apparatus.

So excellent job by Max as well.

Nice job, Max.

I just want to point out that all 3 of these young men are in the first grade, right?

You guys all come from first grade?

Into second grade now.

So you start second grade.

So nice job, Max.

Thank you so, so much.

And I do have one final.

She wasn't able to be here.

Naya's— she's in grade 3, and this was a great presentation, and she She just showed how we've come from the, basically, you know, the historic days all the way through now to where we have current modern-day fire apparatus in the city scene.

So she did a great job, and she's from grade 3.

So we recognize her as well, and I'll get this out to the family.

But I just want to recognize all 4 of these contestant winners.

You guys did a really good job, and we should be proud to have you in our community.

And you guys, we just look forward to having you on Saturday.

Nice job, everybody.

Great job, guys.

Great job.

Nice job.

Oh, and I also just notified them, we had a discussion this morning, we're gonna make these, all of these 4 artworks in some professional frames, and we're gonna hang them in the fire station somewhere so everybody can see all of their hard work and effort that they put into this contest.

So they'll be there permanently in the fire station for everybody to see.

So great job, everybody.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Very creative.

That looked like a fast dance.

That was good.

That's funny.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Chief, you good?

I have one more, uh, item if you guys want to take a picture outside.

Yeah, that'd be great.

Grab that and we'll do one nice picture outside.

I am.

You're right.

Okay, next on the agenda, consider extending a conditional offer of employment to Wesley Meyer for the position of firefighter lateral transfer.

Chief, welcome back.

Good evening, Vice Chairman, Select Board, and Mr. Cadime.

Rise before you this evening to make a recommendation of lateral transfer paramedic to be accepted on a conditional offer.

I'll just give you a little background.

Wesley was interviewed on August 6th by a panel consisting of myself, Deputy Chief Joel Lazio, and Lieutenant Young.

Wesley brings more than 23 years of fire and EMS experience, primarily with the Pawtucket Fire Department, where he served in multiple capacities in dispatch, along with being a firefighter assigned to Engine 4.

And he's been promoted to rank, serving as the following: a rescue lieutenant, a rescue captain, and finally where he is today, serving as the EMS Battalion Chief for the City of Pawtucket.

He's also worked with Brewster Ambulance and previously worked at Pawtucket Memorial Hospital.

His education certifications include Firefighter 1/2.

He's an EMT paramedic.

He's Fire Instructor 1041 certified.

He's certified in NIMS, Hazardous Materials Operations.

He's an ACLS instructor, which is Advanced Cardiac Life Support, PALS, which is Pediatric Life Support instructor.

And he also has a degree from the Community College of Rhode Island in Fire Science.

Not only does he have an extensive work history, but he also is active in the community.

Wesley has an extensive history in community involvement where he's volunteered with Fill the Boot, the muscular dystrophy initiative, for over 15 years, having raised more than $115,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Organization.

He also has volunteered as a counselor at their summer camp and has supported the Pink Heels, Gloria Gemma, and the Flight for Air Climb, along with various other children events and Christmas and community organizations.

Wesley also has received several awards recognizing his service.

In 2014, he received the Muscular Dystrophy Volunteer of the Year Award.

He also in 2014 received the Fire Service Award for his actions at 2 Harris Avenue fire.

In 2021, he received the EMS Medal of Merit for his actions at a vehicle fire and a motor vehicle accident on Route 95.

And in 2021, he received the American Legion Rhode Island Firefighter of the Year Award.

So during his interview, Wesley presented himself as an experienced and professional candidate, candidate who we believe will transition nicely into the fire department here in Seekonk.

So based on his qualifications, experience, and his interview, I would ask through the board we make the recommendation to extend a conditional offer of employment to Wesley Meyer for the position identified.

Mr.

Chair, I support the fire chief's recommendation.

Very good.

Any questions of the chief from any board members?

Okay, seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to extend the conditional offer of employment to Wesley Meyer for the position of firefighter lateral transfer.

So moved.

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

All those opposed?

Same move.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Denied.

Okay, next item is Community Speaks.

Anybody from the community want to get up and speak?

Good evening.

Good evening.

Ken Kazarian, 12 Kenwood Court.

I just doing.

Good, I do.

At a previous— this is regarding the Medeiros Farm.

At a previous meeting, I'd asked both you and Mr. Zorra about, you know, why you were voting in favor of building all these soccer fields and everything in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

And everybody keeps referring back to the open space and recreation report.

Uh, so I've got these 2 documents in front of me, and one is the meeting minutes or the agenda of May 1st, 2025, of the Medeiros Farm committee meeting.

And items to discuss at the meeting— this is just before the town meeting where we were going to ask the town to approve $825,000.

The second item was they were telling people not to discuss the total estimate cost of the project and emphasize that this is just for the architects and design phase.

And stress that the CPC has already approved the recommended $825,000.

So I'm asking you, why would you stress not to tell the people how much the project was going to cost?

Why would that be part of an agenda in this town when the people behind me have to pay for it?

And I don't think anybody back here would want to pay for something or do something without knowing what it's going to cost.

All right.

The bottom line is, would you have a guy like this that would write something like that or run a committee that's asking for $16 million from the town?

You'd go bankrupt if you were a business.

And then the other thing they say is, they say committee chair referenced the town open space and recreation plan.

That's what they're basing this all on, open space and recreation plan.

I have that document in front of me.

And I've highlighted what the Open Space and Recreation Plan says.

All right?

And Mr. Zarra, would you like to read it?

I've highlighted it.

You can read it.

Okay.

Because you said that's what you're basing your information on.

It sort of starts off as one of the things that they like to see is to preserve the valued rural nature of Seekonk, which is important of acquiring Farms and fields, wetlands, wildlife habitats, land acquisition require large investments with minimal expenditures after the purchase of the property.

That's what they're recommending.

Does anybody know what we paid for this report, Sean?

Open space and recreation report?

I think it was part of a grant.

I don't have the dollar amount.

What are you thinking?

It was expensive.

It must have been— No, I'm not going to give you— A rough idea.

Yeah.

It was a lot of money because it was a massive report.

It's online.

Anybody could take a look at it.

It also goes into investing in active recreation.

Despite everyone's best efforts to maintain the athletic fields that we have, current field conditions are substandard and demonstrate the need for regular field maintenance programs and standard operating procedures with properly trained personnel.

Do we have that?

Does anybody know if we have that?

Or do we have to go out and purchase that too?

So we're not telling people what this thing is going to cost.

They're telling us that we're going to have to go get professional people to run it.

Do we have money in the budget for that?

In addition, with the growth of formalized athletic programs and increased selections of sporting offerings, these same facilities are experiencing increased wear and tear and showing signs of overuse.

Does anybody know if we rent these fields out?

And if we are renting these fields out and that's what's causing the overuse, maybe we shouldn't be renting the fields out.

If it's going to cost us $12 to $16 million to build new fields, are we building them for us?

Are we building them for some group, special interest group, that needs them?

So this is really— it's really a want, it's not a need for the town, okay?

And they're asking us to spend again $12 to $16 million.

We already spent $2 million for the land, which is another issue.

Everybody thinks we got the land for free, and everybody thinks it's not going cost any money to develop it.

It's going to come out of your CPC funds.

So where does that come from?

It comes out of every person's pocket.

All right, so it's not for free.

Okay, and then finally, so not only is there a need to address deferred facility maintenance, we need more people, more money.

According to some of the maintenance people, we don't have enough people to do what we're doing.

All right, do what we have.

We need to formalize a maintenance plan.

Have we done that, Sean?

Do we have a formal maintenance plan?

Okay, I'll take that as a no.

We need to budget and dedicate maintenance staff.

There's also a need to invest in additional athletic facilities to meet current and future demands.

Okay, so can we look at East Providence?

Fields are empty that I've seen.

Can we look at Wheeler School?

Maybe we could rent these fields and let them have the burden of maintenance.

Maintaining them.

Okay, just a thought before we get into this massive expenditure in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

You know, some people have come out and say, well, you know what, it's not going to be that bad.

Well, how bad is it going to be in the middle of a residential neighborhood?

The previous chairman of the board, when I asked you why are you pushing this, told me you didn't have to answer that.

She's not here anymore.

Tell me why you, you know, why you're pushing this.

You know what the budget of this town is.

The taxes have gone up every year over the last 10 years.

Can we afford another expenditure like this, or can we find a way not to have it?

And my question is, is it unreasonable?

Again, you don't have to answer that question.

He's not driving the project.

Who's driving the project?

Mr. Killian is not driving the project.

Tell me who is driving the project.

Who is?

Tell me the vote drove the project.

You mean there's a— out of 16,000 people, 290 people, is that the will of the people?

Is that the will of the people?

Well, at town meeting, that is the vote.

So in other words, we're going to spend $16 million for 290 people that got packed by soccer moms and dads, all right, that may not even be here in 2 or 3 years, and we're stuck with the bill.

We need some fiscal responsibility here.

I mean, come on.

I mean, you're a fireman.

I think we need a fire station before we need, you know, 7 more soccer fields with all the expenses it's going to come with.

You know, you keep referring to the Open Space and Recreation Report.

I just read it.

There's nothing in there that says at all cost, all right, at all costs, forget what the neighbors are going to go through, all right, forget what it's going to cost, forget about the, uh, traffic studies, at cost, we need these fields.

It doesn't say that.

It needs a smart board that can, you know, look at this thing and say, look, you know what, maybe we need a field or two, all right?

Maybe we start off with something out, you know, in the woods there on the opposite side of this road, whatever.

But do we really need it?

That's the question.

Does this report, Chris, does that open up any light in your eye on how this should go?

No?

Listen, there's a certain special interest group that's driving this and they're expecting everybody else to pay for it.

Okay?

Anybody have any questions?

I don't.

Thank you, though.

You're welcome.

Anybody else for community speaks?

Hi, Mark Nano, 116 Reed Street.

Uh, first I want to send my condolences to the Sagar family.

Matt used to cut our lawn, so I know Matt and It's devastating.

I'm so sorry to hear it.

Thank you.

But I am here to talk about the Madeira's Farm project.

And the first thing I want to say is I go to town meeting.

I don't want to go to town meeting.

It's a drag.

It, it's hot in there.

It goes for hours.

I try to go to bed by 10:30.

Sometimes I'm not even out of there by 10:30.

But I go to town meeting because that's our form of government, and I believe that when people vote at town meeting, that's our legislative side.

That's where we make rules, laws for town.

That's where we decide things.

So I hold that to be sacred.

I come here to vote when it's time to vote, but I go to town meeting when it's time to do town meeting things.

We had the chance to rescind the vote on the Medeiros Farm committee— sorry, uh, project— and we didn't do it.

We, we voted those down.

We want this project.

That's what people went to town meeting and voted for.

I'm not a soccer mom.

I've never been a soccer mom.

I'm not a big fan of soccer.

I don't really care about soccer fields.

I do care about what kids need, and I, I— that's why I've always been in favor of paying my taxes to pay for schools.

My kids went to good colleges.

They went to Seekonk schools all the way through.

I'm proud of our schools.

I'm proud of what our town does for our youth.

I don't think it's a special interest group.

My personal feeling, it really is more about it being a farm and the history and open space, maybe a town garden, maybe another another playground for kids, I think that's great.

I'm a senior citizen.

My husband's a senior citizen.

We pay our taxes.

I think there should be some way of helping out people who are seniors in this town who can't afford their taxes, but please don't cut my taxes.

I can afford to pay them.

I want to pay them.

I think that's what being a citizen means.

So if you're going to do anything about taxes, do it means-tested, please.

I think that's important because there are people in town who want this town to flourish, and part of that is recreational opportunities, historical opportunities, arts opportunities.

I'm part of the Seekonk Artist Network, and we think maybe we'd have a place to show our artwork for the town and, and meet new artists and bring in new people.

There's so many possibilities with this project.

Project, please don't hold it back.

It's really not your job to hold it back.

Your job is to do what the people at town meeting voted for.

So I urge you to— I'm afraid of this traffic thing.

I hope it's, it's going to get done and quickly.

I don't think it'll show much because we don't know what the project look like— looks like, so how can we know what the traffic looks like?

But anyway, I came here because I'm I believe that we need to vote for things in town and then follow through on what the people vote for, because that's what democracy is.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anybody else for Community Speaks?

Paul Vieira, 6 Kenmore Court, Seekonk.

I moved to Seekonk in September of this year.

I graduated from Seekonk High School in 1988.

I moved out of town in 2002, and I came back thinking it was the same Seekonk I had before.

I moved from Ballantyne in to escape this mess that is going on now.

The same exact thing.

My taxes in Barrington went up like 40% in like 5 years.

And when I purchased a home in Seekonk, the first down payment we made, I think the taxes were $14,000 in Seekonk.

The day of the closing, they were at $17,000.

The last tax bill we got were close to $20,000.

It is already more than I paid in Barrington.

And in Barrington, I had 2 acres of land and a home of 4,000 square feet, which means nothing to you guys.

But I can tell you that I have bought that property, and people who have seen the plan, they talked about putting cement barriers, cement sound barriers along my property like a highway.

Me and my wife are still working 80, 90 hours a week to purchase that property.

We didn't come into money.

All my neighbors— Ken, Manny— we leave home at like 6 o'clock in the morning, come home at 6 o'clock at night.

Who wants to have soccer, lacrosse?

Like, people think it's only soccer.

We already know that it was read here that emails were sent to lacrosse, to other— maybe football, to have football practice behind the house.

So I'm working 6 days a week to come home to 7, 8 o'clock at night, whistles and kids playing in my backyard.

Like Ken talked about Wheeler Farms, like they are renting those fields out for profit, for profit.

Like when we give them tax break.

When did that— like, in their contract, whatever they— are they allowed to make money in those fields for themselves?

Well, in our town, we're giving them a free, free, free money.

Free money.

I just heard today my buddy's daughter is going to Seekonk High School as a freshman.

She's paying to play sports, and they're also paying to park the car at Seekonk High School.

How did this happen?

How did this happen at a public school?

I went to Secaucus High School.

I never paid for sports.

I think I paid a dollar to park my car my senior year.

One dollar.

And you're talking about like a vote of 290 people that want this project out of 16,000 people that live in this town of Secaucus.

Do people understand that no matter where the project goes, that everybody's paying for it?

Everybody.

The project's in my backyard.

I wouldn't vote for this project if it was in anybody's backyard.

It doesn't belong at all in a neighborhood.

At all.

Like, they're going to stick fields in somebody's backyard.

Yard.

Doesn't make any sense.

I've never heard of this.

I've been doing this— I've been around sports my whole life.

You're talking about turf fields.

People think there's no maintenance in turf fields.

There's more maintenance in turf fields than in grass fields.

And every 8 to 10 years, you're gonna replace the skins, between $600,000 and $1 million per field.

So forget about the $14 or $16 million dollars up front, then you have maintenance.

And I can tell you, the town of Seekonk does not have the maintenance people to fix the turf fields daily.

They're supposed to be worked on every single day after events.

The less they're worked on, the less they feel less.

So, I mean, Sean, can I ask you a question?

The building question, like the money Okay, just like, I've been building buildings for years.

I never built something in my life without knowing the price of something.

I'm just trying to understand the process of the town.

Like, we give money and we, we start a project, then eventually the project may not go on and we lose the money.

So how does that, how does that work?

Like, I'm just trying to understand the process of how the town— like, every time I've built, done projects, I've always had a number before I started the project.

I never did a project saying to the builder, like, hey, keep going until I tell you I run out of money or we can't keep going.

Like, is there a process in SEACOM?

I don't know.

Like, how does this happen?

Mr. Chairman, through you, I just I just want to— I was just asking a question.

I don't know the process.

I, I appreciate that.

So through you, Mr. Chairman, I'm just going to request of the public, if anybody has specific questions, my door is open.

They can schedule a time to come sit down with me.

I have no issue whatsoever explaining the process.

I've explained this process publicly.

Unfortunately, this project itself has garnered a lot of negativity on both sides with a lot of misinformation.

And I, for one, want to make sure that any resident who has legitimate questions and are willing to actually listen to the information, good, bad, or indifferent, yeah, I will provide it.

Uh, you know, we've had the previous speaker came in, we've, we've had multiple meetings where we went around talking about all the reports, how the reports are outdated, things of that nature, the emails that were going back and forth.

And it's just, we're just rehashing a lot of this stuff.

I want to just clarify some of the misinformation that's been said tonight that we've never talked about.

Cement barriers along property lines, that has never been discussed.

Never.

Not once.

Um, in terms of the Willow School and contracts, that we're— we have got a contract.

We, we don't have a contract.

I'm asking you, when they built, was everything grandfathered in?

That they're a nonprofit.

That's where I was, I was going.

So that's, that's, uh, so if they're not directed, that's directed by the state.

From, from my standpoint, I'd love to tax them.

We just have no authority.

They're nonprofit, right?

Then how can they rent their fields for for-profit?

They're, they're allowed to under the law.

Mr. Mayor, hold on.

Yeah, you asked Mr. King a question, he's trying to answer it.

Let him answer it.

Then you— if you have something else to add, please.

We're not going to have going back and forth.

Thank you.

So I, I just— I guess just to wrap it up, I mean, we're going around and around and around, and I understand there are people that are for this project, there are people against this project.

As I mentioned before, as an administrator, I can only take my direction from this board and from town meeting.

This is our form of government.

I know there are— we, we complain about our form of government with the fact that we only have anywhere from 150 to 300 people that attend town meeting to vote on very important projects, projects similar to this, operating budgets, the— you name it, zoning changes.

That's what we get.

Unfortunately, that's our form of government, and good, bad, or indifferent, that's what we have to manage by.

So with that, I, I've said it before, I appreciate the concerns that the residents have for the quality of life.

I want to try to minimize the quality of life.

I said that from the day one, having a conversation, looking, moving forward, trying to make sure that the residents are there so that we can find that balance.

We're going to have to strike the balance.

Um, I don't, I don't know what else to tell you, but at the end of the day, town meeting has voted on this, and until I'm, I'm directed not to proceed with this, I've got to proceed with it.

That's just, that's, that's the responsibility I have.

But not to drag this on, if you have specific questions, you want to have some time to come into the office and just really discuss it, and I can show you documentation so we can have conversations and I can explain things, um, and I'll take as much time that is as needed, you know, to have these conversations.

But to be upfront and honest about what's going on, I just— all I'm looking for is, is that, you know, that we just— if we disagree on something, that we respectfully agree to disagree and just move in a different direction.

I just, I just think this, this project, and it just keeps coming back, is just extremely negative and is not what this town needs, right?

So let's just try to— can I add something to that?

And I think this might help clear things up.

I think there's a— there's— I don't want to say miscommunication, but I think— I don't think anybody in this town or at this table is against wanting the recreational space.

I think what was presented, and some believe the path we're going down, is an athletic complex.

And I think there's where there's that fine line.

That's what I'm hearing from different people.

Um, you're talking about striking a balance.

I think that's what we need to do.

But I think with what the people voted on for the warrant article, um, was recreation.

Everybody wants recreation.

But the number of soccer fields, 6, 9, whatever, and, and it's in executive session minutes, people asking, can we have more.

I think that's where the problem is, the number of fields and the makeup of the project itself.

As the previous community garden, absolutely.

I mean, I'm— I think everybody is for recreation.

We need more recreational space.

We don't want more building in town.

Um, but I think that's where there's a problem here.

It was— it's been presented in a way as an athletic complex.

And I think that's where the clarification needs to be provided.

And I also believe this is my— I can tell you right now, my neighborhood, we all think that the way that we've been treated, meaning like we shouldn't have a— we shouldn't have a say at all.

Like people believe that this one neighborhood should not have a say what happens behind our house, and we have to live there.

We put a lot of effort, blood, sweat, and tears, whatever you want to talk like, to live in that area.

Like, like I said, we all still work.

It's not like we were given that stuff.

And people like, we shouldn't have a say at all.

Like, I don't understand.

Like, the Madeiras Farm Committee, I, I guess for years people from our area, like from the, the, the streets whatever, wanted to be on the board and they were never allowed.

Why would they allow somebody from that who was going to be affected in that area to be on the board?

The Medeiros Farm Committee, they were offered, I guess, um, a position on the board with no voting abilities.

Like, why would somebody come on the board and have no voting abilities?

No, I think it comes down to the questions some of the members here had, why it hadn't gone before zoning.

We have a master plan and some of us felt it should have gone before zoning.

That's where you'll have your say.

So that's where I think everybody in our— in, in the street, in the area, they're all about like wanting to do something.

I can tell you, I look outside, I have 12-inch weeds— 12-inch— 12-foot weeds behind my house, right across the wall, ruining my Green Giants.

I called the town, they said they don't have people, enough people to work to do that job.

So they did cut some of the grass back there, but I have 12 to 15-foot weeds along my border, my wall, and they say they don't have enough people working.

Can I, can I just ask, who did you call?

I just called the town.

There's only one secretary that answers the phone.

DPW.

DPW.

I called, and I call all the time, and she says— and then I asked for a manager or something, a boss, and there's nobody in the office.

And Sean, you can drive by my— you know where we live.

The whole— it's all weeds going across the wall, and vines are going through the Green Giants.

So, so I would just ask, and I'm going to extend this to you, that next time that happens, feel free to give me a call because, yeah, yeah, we'll make sure we get it cut.

So, uh, it is on a schedule, so we do get it out there.

But if there's additional growth, then yeah, they cut, they cut the, the field like in July, but they didn't cut along the wall at all.

So, all right, I don't want to keep your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Viera.

Moving on to general business.

Anybody else for community speaks?

Seeing nobody, moving on to general business.

Item A, license hearing.

Consider the request for a common vehicular license for Country Kitchen, 469 Taunton Avenue.

Rebecca Graham is manager.

Is Rebecca here?

Good evening.

How are you?

This is Kim Costa, also owner.

Owner.

Nice.

Very good.

She getting close to opening?

Can't wait for it.

Yes.

How close?

Sorry, as soon as we get this license.

You've done a lot of work over Um, do any members of the board have any questions of the manager or the co-owner either?

No.

All right, I'll entertain a motion to approve the convivial license for Country Kitchen, 469 Thornton Avenue, Rebecca Graham being the manager.

So moved.

Second.

So moved and seconded.

All those in favor?

Aye.

All those opposed?

Nobody.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

I'm so excited.

Okay, item B, license hearing.

Uh, consider request for a common vehicle license for Dave's Hot Chicken, 1200 Fall River Avenue.

David, uh, Laderas, uh, to be manager.

David here.

Yeah, good evening.

My name is Jamal Barot and I'm the owner of Dave's Hot Chicken in Seekonk here.

So looking forward to get that going.

We're excited to be here.

So a little bit about Dave's Hot Chicken.

I don't know if you're familiar.

It's a Nashville-style fried chicken.

It's another franchise out of California, but locally operated.

We live in Massachusetts as the owners.

So, so it has a different level of spices, 7 levels of spice from light to a Reaper, which is the hottest spice.

You have to sign a waiver to eat that.

So that's a It's very simple.

The menu is just fried chicken and, and french fries.

It's very simple.

We did a lot of work in the building that we had, so we can't wait to get that going and open.

As you know, it spends a lot of money to build that.

Do any members of the board have any questions?

When will you be opening?

Like we said, we have this, and I think the fire department requested something— okay, fire alarm system or something.

So as soon as So I think the engineer is working on that.

So as soon as we get this stuff, hopefully, uh, it's been a long time working on that building.

It needed a lot of work, so we put a lot of work in that building.

It looks good.

40 seats?

Uh, yeah, not— I think it's very, very small.

It's only 22,000 square feet or 18.

It's not even that big a restaurant.

This is our smallest restaurant.

Any other questions from any board member?

Okay, I'll entertain a motion to approve the common vehicle license for Dave's Hot Chicken, 1200 Fall River Avenue.

David Medeiros will be manager.

So moved.

Second.

I have a motion, I have a second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

No one's opposed.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you guys.

You better come visit us when we send you the invite.

Absolutely.

Thank you guys.

No number 7 though.

No, no, no 7.

We'll start you at the mild.

The mild is good.

And keep going.

What's that number 7 called again?

A Reaper.

A Reaper?

Yeah.

That's nothing for you guys.

For you guys, the committee, and we get the Russian roulette and we put it— that's what the students do, the younger generation.

That sounds fun.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you for your support.

Until you eat the Reaper.

Yeah.

Okay, item C, consider the appointment of Elizabeth Almazian, Sean Kadeem, Jennifer Ago, and Dave Cabral to the Seekonk Schools Building Committee per the Massachusetts School Building Authority, MSBA guidelines.

So, Mr. Chairman, this is a requirement for the MSBA, so the superintendent did send the, uh, the list over on the request.

She just needs the board to approve this prior to August 31st.

So we need to formalize the picks for MSBA.

MSBA requires the local chief executive officer, so we did ask the chair if he wanted to do it.

He said no.

Um, Michelle Mason is willing to do that, so that would be request the town administrator, a representative of the office who is authorized by law to construct the school building— so that would be the DPW director— and then the local budget official, which would be the finance director.

So that's why we have the names before you.

Okay, anybody have any questions for Mr. Gadea in regards to it?

Okay, I'll entertain a motion to appoint the following to the Seekonk School Building committee, uh, first being Elizabeth Almazian, Shawn Cadime, Jennifer Augen, Dave Cabral, according to the Massachusetts School Building Authority guidelines.

So moved.

Second.

I have a motion, I have a second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

All those opposed?

Seeing none, very good.

Item D, review and approve the human resource director job description and salary.

Um, as you know, this was on our last agenda agenda, and we discussed to go into executive session to discuss it.

After further discussion with the town administrator, I was, I was informed that since we don't have any specific person in that for these positions, we can't go in executive session to discuss the job description and salary.

But we can discuss the job description in open session if anybody has any changes, or if we want to take any action at all.

Were we supposed to be given— I know we were before, but I didn't know if there were any changes.

That's why I was going to ask if if we could— do you want to put it off to the next one?

Yeah, yeah, because I want to talk to you about something too.

So we can, we can do that, and then I can, um, that one and the other one.

So you want to take item E, uh, no, D and E, and table them until our next meeting?

Yes, if that's okay.

Yep, no, that's fine.

Do you need me to email it, or do you want— yeah, you could, but I want to talk to you about one small thing that we might need town council on too.

All right.

Okay, can I have a motion to table items D and E, the first one being review and approve the Human Resource Director job description, and secondly, review and approve an updated Executive Administrative Assistant to the Select Board and Town Administrator job description.

Did you make that motion?

You need me to make it?

I need someone to make it.

I'll make the motion.

You can just say so moved.

So moved.

Okay, you summed it up nicely.

Thank you.

Do I have a second to that?

Second.

Okay, I have a motion, I have a second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Thank you.

Item F, discussion review of the TV9 annual report.

Um, according to the agreement that we have with Cable 9 between the town and, uh, Seagant Cable 9, they're— they are responsible, I believe, the first meeting in August, Mr. Gabe, correct me, or by August 1st, um, to give us an annual report, which they have provided.

Um, I have gone through it, I've reviewed all of it.

It's It's pretty much a summary of any update that I've ever given you in regards to where their balance is, where their budget is, their budget requests that they have to do twice a year.

This is just their annual report that they're required to give us.

I don't see any issue with it, but if anybody has any questions, feel free to ask.

And thank you to the people from TV9 for putting it together.

Any questions from any members of the board at this time?

Okay, I see the motion to approve the TV9 annual report, please.

So moved.

Second.

I have a motion, I have a second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Okay.

All right, discussion regarding excise revenues in unregistered vehicles in Seekonk.

I had asked that be put down, but where do we begin with this?

Like, I'm open to suggestions.

So let me, uh, I did pull some statistics just so, okay, for you and the general public.

So according to the motor vehicle census as of 7/1/26, there are 13,821 passenger vehicles registered in Seekonk, 1,088 commercial, which includes passenger and truck.

So from a motor vehicle excise standpoint, FY27 we've estimated about $3 million.

Uh, FY26 we've actually collected $3,030,000, and then FY25 we collected, uh, $2.9 million.

So it's $25 per thousand.

The way the valuation works is year 1 of the vehicle is 90%, year 2 is 60%, year 3 is 40%, year 4 is 25% of the value, and then year 5 is 10%, and moving forward as long as you own the vehicle.

The requirement by state law is that anybody who is moving— and this includes anybody, any resident of Massachusetts and then out of state as well— anybody moving into the state or anybody moving their, what they call their garaged location is immediately required to notify their insurance, and then they have 30 days from that point to make the necessary changes to the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

The enforcement of that comes down to the RMV and the state and local police.

I did have the chief run some information for me, so it's Chapter 90, Section 3, which imposes a civil fine of $255.

But you have to— before, you can't just— it can't be a reason for the stop.

So you have to have, um, you have to know that the person, uh, has moved before you actually pull them over.

Or if you do pull them over, there's a discrepancy between their license and, and where the registered vehicle is.

So it is a fine of $250, $255.

And Chief happens to be here.

I don't think he was anticipating, uh, to be here to talk about that.

But if you do have questions from, from a policing standpoint, just have to come up with a game plan or something.

Yeah, I didn't expect stops.

Yeah.

Okay.

I don't want to get into that.

All right.

New, new, new.

Yeah.

Okay.

And then in regards to unregistered vehicles, enforcement of these things obviously, uh, is important, but also education.

Um, what we see mostly is when when people like rent and move from out of state is where they run afoul with it.

People who buy houses— Chief, can you just grab the mic please?

People who buy houses, move to Seekonk, usually get their Mass license, get their Mass plates.

It's the renters, right?

So we do have some places where rentals are, uh, you know, mostly, mostly rentals.

So, uh, town websites, things like that, we can put out on our social media just reminding people if you you move into town that you have a legal obligation to register both your license and your motor vehicle.

So, okay, thank you.

Whatever we do, that should be part of it, the education part of it.

Yes, thank you.

And then I believe as far as unregistered vehicles, yeah, that you can only have one on a property, right?

And that's enforced by the building commissioner and zoning officer, correct?

Correct, not the police department, right?

Okay, you're allowed one.

Every resident a lot of one, one, one unregistered vehicle on the property.

And I, and I know for a fact that there are some that are getting to be of concern that I think we should look— have the building commissioner look at and address.

Yeah.

And we can provide— if you— yeah, if you have addresses.

Yeah.

Chief, we do enforce that.

Also unregistered reports of it, we, uh, send an officer to the residence, uh, they're handed a copy of the bylaw, and then we follow up after that.

There's a bylaw violation and we— it's $50 a day.

So we do do that.

Okay, thanks, Chief.

Anything else on that?

No, no, Chris.

Thank you.

No, I remember about 10 years ago a manager of a large complex in this town said that when they fill out— when people come to rent out an apartment, they do hand them a slip saying with the law they have so many days to transfer the title registration of their vehicle.

I'm not sure if that's still being done.

That was probably about 9, 10 years ago.

The gentleman stated, stated that.

Okay, I'm not sure if that's still the case.

All right, so we're also with that discussion.

Item H, discussion update of the traffic study for the Madeira Sound project.

Mr. Keating.

Excuse me, through the chair, because of a complaint earlier in the summer of my deliberation, yep, I'm going to recuse myself from this conversation.

Okay, very Very good.

Thank you.

Uh, just by a quick update— I'm sorry, sorry.

So noted at 5:49.

Uh, just by way of an update, so I'll have this on for, uh, the next agenda for the board.

Uh, we put out a request for, um, a proposal, if you will, um, for a daily traffic count, uh, looking at anticipated average daily traffic counts peak hours, traffic volumes, and that was due— the deadline was August 15th.

So we received— we sent out to 4 different groups.

We received back 2 proposals.

We sent it out to the Beta Group.

They declined to submit a bid based on their current workload.

Niche Engineering, who also does some peer review for us, they did not turn back a proposal.

We had Bowman who came in at $27,300.

And then Howitt, Stein, Hudson came in at $23,800.

So to take advantage of it, we also asked for some additional traffic studies.

So I'll tell you exactly what we were requesting.

So anticipated average daily traffic and peak hour traffic volumes to be anticipated from the facility at full build-out.

Then we were also looking at potential impacts on the Route 44/Tawtyn Ave intersections with Lake, Elm and Lincoln Streets.

We were looking at potential impacts on the intersection of Lincoln and County Street, potential impacts on the intersection of Lincoln and Elm.

And then the additional was a traffic signal warrant analysis to be conducted to determine the need of a traffic signal at the intersection of 44 and Lincoln Street under the current conditions and at the build-out of the project.

And then we provided the conceptual plan that was provided.

Bid.

So we just still need to review the proposals that came in.

It was— they were pretty lengthy.

So myself and John, along with Dave Cabral, will take a review at that.

And then assuming there's no differences, we'll probably be submitting the lowest bid to the, uh, to the board.

Can you clarify the last thing you said?

A traffic signal at 44 and Lincoln?

Just an analysis.

Yeah, because the state shut that down.

No, no, they did.

But we want to just to see if there's any change with the current conditions and then also with the built out.

Okay, anything else from anybody?

Any questions in regards to that?

Seeing none, next item.

Uh, item I, I'm going to request that we, um, table that to the next meeting, which is the reading of the proclamation for the town's Purple Heart status.

Um, with the absence of Mr. Sagar tonight, um, he has put an awful lot of work into this, and there's something that I, I feel personally that he should be— he should read as the chairman of the select board.

And I ask that, um, I can get a motion and a second to table it to our next meeting until September 2nd.

So moved.

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Okay, uh, item J, accept the donation to the Veterans Service Gift Account in the amount of $860 from the Friends of the Seekonk Veterans Memorial Park for the purchase of the Purple Heart designation signs and the Purple Heart flag.

Thanks.

Anybody have any questions in regards to it?

No.

Miss Taylor, do you have anything to add?

You are part of the Friends of the Sigamo Memorial Park.

Other than thank you?

Just happy to do it.

Okay, so I'll take— I'll entertain a motion to accept the, uh, gift of $860.

So move.

Second.

I have a motion, I have a second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Very good.

Thank you.

Uh, yes, thank you.

Item K, consider accepting the open session meeting minutes of August 5th, 2026.

Make a motion to accept the minutes as, as presented.

Okay, I have a motion.

Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a motion.

I have a second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Very good.

Okay, you want to— I have one abstain.

One abstain.

I'll abstain.

Okay.

Okay, let's see, where am I?

Okay, community speaks.

Anybody from the community have anything?

Seeing nothing.

Other business?

Not yet.

Oh, Omar.

Oh, sorry, I didn't see your hand.

Carol.

Ann Miller, 25 River Street.

And I would just like to start also by sharing my condolences to Gary Sager and his family.

Thank you.

And tonight, once again, I am standing before you, uh, well, sitting before you as just one voice.

But as we have heard earlier, behind me are 216 votes from the May 12th, 2025 town meeting approving designer services for the Medeiros Farm.

There are also 148 votes from the November 10th, 2025 town meeting against the petitioned article to suspend that funding.

And 143 votes against the article to rescind the Medeiros Farm committee.

Town meeting has spoken on this project more than once, and as previous speakers have noted tonight, town meeting matters.

It is our form of government.

It does direct this board.

But despite those votes, this board has stopped the design process by rejecting the contract with CH Consulting.

The approved article states that the town shall appropriate the sum of $825,000 from the Community Preservation Fund on designated reserve for the Naderes Farm Committee, with such sums to be expended under the direction of the select board.

Board for designer services for the Medeiros Farm project at Elm Street and Lincoln Street.

Now that raises 2 important questions.

First, does under the direction of the select board give this board the authority to prevent the design study authorized by town meeting from proceeding?

Second, if this separate traffic study is being paid for from the $825,000 appropriation, what is the authority for using those funds for that purpose?

The appropriation was for designer services for the Madeiras Farm project.

It was not presented to town meeting as a funding for separate Select Board traffic study.

Traffic concerns absolutely need to be addressed, but the design study would address traffic based on the project actually being designed and finalized.

At the August 5th Select Board meeting, scaffolding the project was mentioned as a reason for rejecting the CHA contract.

But the design study was already structured in phases, so I don't understand how scaffolding the project justifies stopping the design process.

15 abutters brought petitioned articles to town meeting seeking to suspend the funding and rescind the Medeiros Farm project.

Town meeting rejected both.

More than 65% of the voters said no.

They voted to leave the funding and the committee in place, but 3 select board members have now accomplished what those petitioned articles failed to achieve.

The design process has been stopped.

There are also facts about the decision the public should know.

Mr. Archambault is a direct abutter to the Medeiros Farm property.

Property.

On April 15th, Town Council advised him in writing that because of his financial interest as a direct abutter, the law prohibits you from participating as a select board member in any matter regarding the Madeira's Farm property.

Yet on June 24th— I have the floor.

You do, but then— yes, and so I shall continue.

Please, may I continue?

This is under advisement.

Yet on June 24th, Mr. Archambault participated in the discussion, seconded the motion to reject the CHA design contract for the Madeira's Farm property, and voted in favor of that motion.

And according to Ms. Lamation's campaign finance report— excuse me— covering March 30th through April 29th, all $1,448.60 in contributions reported during that period came from Kenneth Karzarian, an outspoken opponent of the Madeiras Farm Project, and Joanne Karzarian.

These are matters of public record, and I believe the public has a right to know them.

Would you like to come back?

Well, that's fundamental.

I'm not finished.

May I have the floor?

I am going to respond.

When Ms. Miller's done.

Thank you, I appreciate that.

We wait our turn.

So I come back to the fundamental question: if town meeting approved the project funding, later upheld that funding, and upheld the Medeiros Firm committee, what authority does the select board believe it has to prevent the approved design study from proceeding.

The select board represents the entire town, and town meeting has spoken repeatedly.

Respect the voters of town meeting.

Sign the contract with CHA Consulting and get the Medeiros Farm design study back on track.

We have seen tonight many, many questions about cost, about use, about fields?

All of those would be answered in the design study.

It is more important than ever to stop the miscommunication around this project by having facts, by having a complete design study against which to do cost estimates, against which to do traffic studies, against which to provide the town— and the town with the they need.

Thank you.

Okay, now I would like to respond.

There were other— there's a number of responses, but I would just like to ask you, as far as the donation made, that, that's been resolved?

There's not an issue there?

The state closed whatever was filed?

Okay, well, we think she doth protest too much.

Okay, well, I'd I'd like to ask you a question now, okay?

I'd like to ask you a question.

Seeing fiscal responsibility is, is so important to you, um, I have an email here dated October 19th, 2021 to the CPC members, okay?

And this is from Mr. Alves, all right?

And this is where the discussion of the purchase price was $2,000 and this had to wait for the final appraisal.

But in here he's asking if the town can pay $1.5 million more for the property.

So my question to you is, where is the upset about— no, don't go— $2,000 for the Medeiros Farm?

$2 million.

I misspoke.

$2 million.

So we're— my, my question is, we didn't stop this project.

If you read the warrant article Well, the spending of the money is left up to the board.

No one stopped anything.

Let me finish now because I allowed you to finish.

If you'd like to interrupt, I'll allow you to because I interrupted you.

But all right, let's have some decorum between speakers, please.

So my question to you is, did you see the contract that we were supposed to sign?

It had no numbers in it.

We didn't get any supporting documents.

That's the reason why that contract wasn't signed.

Not scaffolding.

I mentioned why the contract could not have been written where it was scaffolded.

The reason why that contract wasn't signed by 3 people— because it wasn't a complete contract.

With all due respect, having watched the video again of the discussion, there was very little comment about the actual contract.

We had just received it that evening.

So in my humble opinion, the proper action is to get the contract signed so that we can proceed with the design study.

Can we go back to this though?

Real argument here is that town meeting directs you, and yes, under the direction of the select board it says, but you have stopped.

And I don't know, how is this traffic study being funded?

What, what are the funds?

Where are the funds coming from— for— I would like to get back to my question about this email where your outrage was over offering $1.5 million more on a piece of property that wasn't even worth the $2 million.

Where was your outrage then?

With all due respect, I am not here to talk about that.

I am here to talk— but I'm asking you why you are making your concern off point.

You could— no, it's not off point.

You're concerned about $500,000.

This discussion— why is that?

I'm trying to have a discussion.

Thank you very very much.

Thank you, Miss Miller.

I, I would like to put on the record that there is an email here that somebody on CPC wanted to spend $1.5 million more for the property.

There was no outrage back then.

We're trying to put safety first, and every week, every 2 weeks, we, we have to sit here and listen to the same thing.

Can you— can I— I have copies for everyone, or even just the date.

No, I've got them for everyone so people don't think that I'm losing my mind.

Anybody else for community speaks?

Nobody else for community speaks.

Okay, other business.

Is discuss other topics not reasonably anticipated by the chair 48 hours before the meeting.

I do have something that I'm going to read.

We received an answer from the Attorney General's Office from Elizabeth Connors Flynn, who's an Assistant Attorney General, Division of Open Government, in regards to an open meeting law complaint.

The letter was addressed to Janelle M. Austin, and Brian Riley, who are our lawyers, our attorneys for KP Law, which is the town's law firm, because they, they— each one of them answered, uh, one complaint and the other answered the other.

So I'm going to go through this.

It's going to take me a few minutes because it is lengthy.

I did, um— I am going to eliminate a lot of the, um, open meeting law delineations.

They're like cases that they use to summarize why they came to their facts.

So I'm going to kind of skip over some of that, but bear with me while I read this.

Okay.

Dear attorneys Austin and Riley, this office received 2 complaints from Doreen Taylor on January 6th and 9th, 2026, alleging that the SEACONG board— SEACONG Select Board— the board violated the Open Meeting Law, General Law Chapter 30A, subsections 18 through 25.

The complaints were originally filed with the board on or about December 8th, 25th, the first first complaint and December 23rd, 2025, the second complaint.

Attorney Austin responded to the first complaint on behalf of the board by letter dated December 19th, 2025.

Attorney Riley responded to the second complaint on behalf of the board by the letter dated January 8th, 2026.

The complaints arise from the— the Town of Seekonk's purchase of historic Medeiros Farm located in Seekonk and the development of a park at the farm.

We understand the first complaint to alleged that: 1, the board failed to respond to public records requests, uh, to Miss Taylor's, uh, that Miss Taylor made, uh, for meeting minutes and notices.

2, the board held improper executive sessions.

3, the board did not take certain votes in open session.

4, the warrant article related to the purchase of Medeiros Farm was presented to town meeting by the chair of the Community Preservation Committee, not the chair board.

And 5, Justin Sullivan, the former chair of the board, has a conflict of interest with respect to the Medeiros Farm project.

The second complaint alleges that: 1, between August 4th, 2021 and June 22nd, 2022, the board held several— 6 improper executive sessions.

2, the board did not take certain votes in open session.

3, the board did not discuss the first complaint in sufficient detail during its December 17th, 2025 meeting and had— it had a prepared response drafted by legal counsel.

And 4, although there are individuals serving on the Madera Storm Committee created by the town meeting, the board did not appoint these individuals.

Discussion in regards to the first complaint.

Item 1, we decline to review the— we decline to review the first complaint, open meeting law complaint must allege violations of the Open Meeting Law with a degree of specificity, as our office will not conduct broad audits of public bodies based on generalized allegations.

And this is a section where they have a bunch of delineations of why they came to that conclusion.

To begin, the first complaint appears to be a request that the division conduct the type of broad audit that we have consistently declined to conduct.

For example, the complaint alleges a violation date of 2021 continues, and although the complaint alleges that executive sessions were improperly held, it does not identify any particular executive sessions alleged to have been improperly held.

Additionally, we understand the first complaint to allege that the board did not vote to designate the chair of the Community Preservation Committee as designee to negotiate the purchase price for Medeiros Farm, nor vote to accept the appraisal of the property in open session.

In general, the Open Meeting Law does not require that a public body discuss any particular matter or take any particular votes Rather, the Open Meeting Law requires that if a quorum of a body— of a public body will discuss a matter within the public body's jurisdiction, it must do so during a properly held meeting.

She goes into some more delineations.

The first complaint alleges that the board failed to respond to a public records request, that the former chair of the board, Justin Sullivan, has a conflict of interest to the Medeiros Farm project, and that the Warren article related to purchase of the property was presented at town meeting by the chair of the Community Preservation Committee, not the board.

Again, even if true, none of these allegations would constitute a violation of the open meeting law, and we therefore decline to review them.

Section 2: We find that the second complaint was filed— was timely filed with respect to the allegation that the board improperly met in executive session.

We find that the board did not violate the open meeting law by convening in executive session to discuss the purchase of Medeiros Farm.

All meetings of a public body must be conducted in an open session unless an executive session is properly convened for one of the 10 permissible purposes.

General Law Chapter 38, subsection 20A and 21A.

On such statutory purpose is to consider the purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property.

If declared— if the chair declares that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on negotiation position of the body.

General Law Chapter 30A, Section 2186, also known as Purpose 6.

Purpose 6— Purpose 6 is intended to preserve confidentiality in negotiating the value of property to be purchased, exchanged, or leased to avoid putting the public body at a disadvantage in its negotiations for the property.

The second complaint alleges that an executive session held between August 4th, 2021 and June 22nd, '22 inclusive, the board discussed matters related to the Madeira storm that were not proper for executive session.

Specifically, the complaint identifies the following topics as being improper for executive session: information for field use, naming the athletic fields, preserving buildings for 30 years, parking spaces, ADA compliance, field rentals, using community preservation monies for turf fields, field lighting, meeting with neighbors, curfews, designing fields and parking spots, and questions surrounding adding more fields if needed.

At first blush, these topics to be improper for discussion under Purpose 6, where many of them relate to the use of the property.

However, after close review of the executive session minutes and further communications with legal counsel, we understand that these topics related directly to the board's negotiations to the Madera— to the purchase of Derris Farm.

For example, the development, renaming of athletic fields, preserving buildings, and field letting were all points of negotiation between the board and the seller.

Likewise, the discussion of whether Community Preservation Act funds might be available related to the board's negotiating position.

Therefore, we find that on the whole, the board's discussions were appropriate for executive session under Purpose 6.

They'll go on to go on and say, although we find no violation here, we remind the board that it is incumbent upon the public body, meaning the board, to monitor its discussions in executive session to ensure that all matters discussed are appropriate for executive session and fall within the purpose cited as the reason for convening in executive session.

We find that the board did not violate the open meeting law with respect to its review of the first complaint.

We understand the second complaint to allege that the board violated the open meeting law when it failed to discuss the first first complaint in sufficient detail during its December 17th, 2025 meeting, and because the town's legal counsel had drafted a proposed response to the first complaint prior to the board meeting— prior to the board meeting on December 17th.

Within 14 business days of receiving an open meeting law complaint, the chair must distribute the complaint to all members of the public body.

The public body must review the complaint, and the public body must then respond to the complaint in writing and provide our office the complaint and the response.

There's a couple of citing cases that they, they, uh, have there, and at the bottom it reads, we find no violation with respect to the allegations that the board did not discuss the first complaint in sufficient detail and that legal counsel drafted a response prior to the board's meeting to review the first complaint.

We, we decline to review the remaining allegations raised in the second complaint.

Finally, the second complaint alleges that the board failed to vote on various matters and additionally asserts that its failure to do so violated various town bylaws and processes.

The second complaint also alleges that the board has failed to appoint members to the Madeira Farm Committee in violation of town bylaws.

As explained above, the Division of Open Government reviews concerns— concern compliance with open meeting law only.

Where these allegations, even if true, would not constitute violations of the open meeting law, we decline to review them.

In conclusion, for the reasons stated above, we decline to review the first complaint and portions of the second complaint.

With respect to the allegations that the board improperly met in executive session and failed to properly review the first complaint, we find no violation.

We consider this complaint— these complaints addressed by this determination to be resolved.

And that is signed by Elizabeth Connors Flynn, Assistant Attorney General, Division of Open Government.

Sorry for the long read.

Okay.

Tony Mejia, District 1.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Just a couple of items with regard to the library building project.

The Building Committee met last Thursday evening to interview the 4 finalists for design services.

Those firms were Bruce Thornton Group Architects, Johnson Roberts Associates, Inc., CBT, Tappe Architects And then based on the evaluation criteria, the committee ranked Brewster Thornton Group Architects as the highest-ranked firm.

Brewster Thornton Group is currently preparing a fee proposal with the goal of having that into the office so that we can have something before the Board for September 2nd.

Second update is Arcade Ave.

I know I sent this out to the Board.

I just want it for the general public, just an update.

So the Arcade Ave roadwork project.

There's 2 sections.

So Section 1, which is what we're currently doing, is north of 44 to Newman Ave.

The work is currently underway, as everybody knows, and is anticipated to be completed on August 31st.

Section 2, which would be the south part of Arcade Ave from 44 to Mill Road, that work is scheduled to begin on August 24th.

With an anticipated completion date of November 6th, 2026.

The sidewalk and road paving updates, the work that has been completed, storm drain structures have been repaired and reconstructed as needed.

All sidewalk berms have been installed.

All pedestrian ramp transitions have been placed.

Dense grade subgrade base has been placed and rolled in the sidewalk areas within the entire project limits.

The first layer of the asphalt has been installed for the sidewalks from the Runnins River to 80 Arcade Ave. And then the final layer of asphalt has been installed for the sidewalks from Ledge Road to Sykes Road.

So ongoing work, and this is the important piece, final sidewalk construction will continue through Saturday, August 22nd.

Cement concrete pedestrian ramp installations will begin Monday, August 24th and will continue through the week.

Final preparation work will occur next week prior to the paving of the roadway.

And then the roadway paving is scheduled to occur overnight as school is back in session on August 26th.

So that overnight work will begin from 7 PM to 4 AM on the following days, obviously weather permitting.

That would be August 26th, August 27th, and then August 30th.

And that's all I have for it.

Thank you.

Okay, select board liaison reports and comments.

Accounts payable, we've already signed and done.

TV9 liaison report, I have nothing.

Bristol County Advisory Board, yeah, the annual meeting meeting for the budget was on, uh, I attended it on Zoom.

It's on August 6th.

The meeting minutes, I believe, were released today.

So when I get those minutes, I can report back at next meeting to the details.

Okay, very good.

Um, Adair's form committee report, I don't think we have anything, correct?

Just what he had shared.

Just what we really— yeah, traffic study.

Okay, at this time— oh, any comments any of the board members?

I do.

I have something I'd like to read, um, and I think this would probably go to Mr. Kadeem.

Um, since the open law meeting complaint that was scheduled for discussion this evening has been continued, I would like to request that pending the board's consideration and disposition of the complaint, all records and electronically stored information potentially relevant to the complaint be preserved in their original form.

This should include, without limitation emails, text messages, correspondence, attachments, drafts, documents, metadata, transmission data, electronic files, call logs, recordings, and other communications concerning the subject matter of the complaint, its preparation, supporting documents, and circumstances surrounding its filing.

I'm not asking that any conclusions be drawn or that these materials be produced or discussed this evening.

I'm simply requesting that potentially relevant information be served so that the board has a complete record available when it considers the complaint and determines what action, if any, is appropriate.

Is that all?

That's it.

Thank you.

Yes, I'd like to thank the town administrator and, uh, Dave Cabral for the work going on on Auburn Street.

There was a situation that I brought out, that a resident had a bunch of dead trees that were the town's responsibility.

And they've been waiting a long time, and the work has commenced, and it might already be finished.

So thanks, Sean, for working with Public Works and making the resident happy and getting those trees out of the way.

Chris, you have any— I was summer winding down, are we going to be going back to regular business hours at 6 PM for the meetings?

I can, I can check with the chairman before our next meeting and see if that would be— I think we did discuss it and we're finding that it's good.

It's a little tough for people to get here for 5, amongst board members.

Unless we do the next one for 5.

And yeah, we can do the next one for 5, Chris, and then we can discuss it when we hopefully have a full board.

Yep.

Is that okay?

That's fine.

Okay.

You want to put it on as an agenda item?

Yeah, please.

Anything else?

No, that's it.

Okay, I'll entertain a motion, uh, to enter executive session until our next meeting of September 2nd, 2026.

Uh, time will be determined— no, time will be 5 o'clock, uh, for the following, and we will reconvene in open session.

Mr. Gideon?

Uh, no.

Uh, nope.

No.

Okay.

All right, for the following— I'm sorry, yes, yes, for this item, right?

Correct.

So I want to take a motion, uh, at 6:20 to enter executive session to reconvene an open session for potential contract approval for the following: A, conduct a collective bargaining session with Seekonk Firefighters Union, IAFF Local 1931, per Mass General Law Chapter 38, subsection B, to conduct strategy sessions with respect to negotiations with Seconk Firefighters Union, IAF Local 1931, per Mass General Law Chapter 38, Section 21A, uh, Section 3, Subsection 3, as having discussion in open session would be detrimental to the litigation or bargaining position of the town.

Item C, to conduct strategy sessions with respect to negotiations with Superintendent of Public Works per Mass General Law Chapter 38, Section 21A, as having discussion in open session would be detrimental to the litigation or bargaining position of the town.

And item D, consider accepting the executive session minutes of August 5th, 2026.

So moved at 6:21.

I have second— I have a motion by Mr. Zahra and a second by Miss Almeida.

Uh, roll call vote please.

Mr. Archambault?

Aye.

Michael Healy?

Aye.

Good night, people.