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The Raynham Channel
Board of Selectmen 05/06/2025
(Episode Description is AI generated and may be errors in accuracy)
Democracy in action takes center stage as the Raynham Board of Selectmen prepares for what promises to be a consequential Annual Town Meeting. With 37 warrant articles ranging from routine procedural matters to potentially transformative zoning changes, the Board methodically reviews each item that will come before voters on May 19th.
The meeting opens with Police Chief LaPlante delivering a report highlighting recent successes, including narcotics investigations resulting in arrests and the solving of credit card fraud at a local business. The Chief also notes the apprehension of juveniles responsible for several car break-ins, reminding residents that every vehicle entered was unlocked – a practical security reminder amid the official proceedings.
School funding takes center stage with Town Administrator Barnes explaining the carefully crafted financial strategy designed to support education while respecting taxpayer concerns. Meanwhile, neighboring Bridgewater has scheduled a Proposition 2.5 override vote for June 22nd, setting the stage for potential parallel action in Rainham if approved at town meeting.
Perhaps most significantly, the warrant includes Article 36 regarding the MBTA Communities Act, requiring designated areas for high-density multifamily housing. Town officials have strategically selected commercial areas near Walmart locations, explaining that this proactive approach maintains local control rather than risking state intervention. The Board is creating an informational portal to address resident questions and dispel misconceptions about the impact of this state mandate.
Public comment reveals tensions regarding the Planning Board's nomination of a recently unseated member to an associate position, highlighting the delicate balance of electoral will and administrative appointments. The Board's commitment to proper advertising and transparent joint voting demonstrates responsive governance in action.
Whether you're concerned about local policing, school funding, housing development, or simply want to understand how municipal government works, this meeting showcases the careful deliberation that shapes our community. Join Town Moderator John Donahue at the Raynham Library this Thursday from 6-7:30PM to learn more about these important decisions before town meeting.
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of the rainium board of selectmen uh to order on tuesday, may 6 2025. Call us actually back to order at seven o'clock pm. Thank you for joining us. This meeting is being broadcast live on the rainham channel through comcast channel 98 or verizon channel 34. It is also being recorded by ray cam for replay on the rainham channel. I also want to announce that we are returning from executive session during which the board discussed and voted on the proposed rainham sewer employee union contract and we will be reporting that vote under new, the new business section of the agenda, item 9f.
Speaker 1:Please join us for the pledge of allegiance now. Please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance, thank you. Item is the acceptance of the minutes of our regular meeting on April 29th 2025. Do we have a motion to accept the minutes as printed? So moved. Second, motion's made and seconded Any discussion Hearing none all in favor, aye, any opposed. It is so voted and the minutes are accepted as printed. Next we have Department Head Reports and and we have our police chief, david LaPlante, with his monthly report. Welcome, chief Good evening.
Speaker 3:So for April we had 2,362 calls. 459 of those were emergency 911 calls and of those, 87 were for emergency medical dispatch. We had nine arrests and several criminal summonses. There were a couple notable incidents last month from the detectives. The first detectives unit from the Rainham Police Department assisted the masses Massachusetts State Police Interstate Narcotics Reduction Enforcement Team in Homeland Security with an investigation that culminated in several search warrants. On April 15th Two of those search warrants were executed in Rainham, resulting in two individuals being arrested for various drug charges. One had some weapons charges.
Speaker 3:I want to acknowledge the hard work of our detectives and commend them for their dedication. A lot of times stuff that they do we can't really talk about, so they don't really get the credit they should, but they've been working hard. And the second one as a result of an investigation for credit card fraud at the One Foot Reflexology located on New State Highway, initiated by Patrolman Mike Zavalli and followed up by him and our detectives. A search warrant was conducted at the business and the owner's Rainham residence on April 18th. The search warrants resulted in several credit card fraud-related charges against the business owner and an arrest warrant was issued. I commend Patrolman Savali and Jared Turkington and Detective Pat Leahy for their great investigation. We just have one on IOD and that's it for my report tonight.
Speaker 1:Great work, as always, chief. I know I can speak for the board and say we're really proud of the great work that our police department does. I know I've noticed a lot of reports on Facebook about break-ins in cars. Is that being investigated? Yeah?
Speaker 3:so I was going to say that that happened in May but, I'll talk about it briefly. They charged four juveniles out of Brockton. They got them that midnight shift, did an excellent job, along with Sergeant Pachico with his canine. They called an Uberber and then they got caught. So they were identified. They're all Brockton residents. They're 14 to 15, I think, years old and they've been charged in juvenile court. So I'll give you a more in-depth in the next meeting.
Speaker 1:but but I guess the idea is it's a good idea to keep your vehicles, vehicles locked.
Speaker 3:Every vehicle that was entered was unlocked and people have their wallets with their money and their credit cards and they they don't break into the guys. They open the doors. That I'm you know. They don't smash the windows, they get in.
Speaker 1:Thank you Chief, Mr Pacheco.
Speaker 6:No, I didn't stop it at all Mr Collins.
Speaker 2:Again, thank you for everything you do. Chief, you mentioned what I was going to say that a lot of times these incidents may not make headlines but it's a lot of work and I was explaining to them earlier. Like credit card fraud, may not be the most fun thing to investigate, but it's a hard thing to investigate and a lot of times it doesn't get resolved To actually get a result is impressive.
Speaker 3:We've got two young detectives and they've been doing a very good job, excellent. Thank you, chief. Thank you and all the members of your department, thank you.
Speaker 1:Great job and we also have our town clerk, marcia Silvia, who has some important information for us. Does the board have any objection to asking this?
Speaker 5:is Sylvia to come right after the podium, marsha I just wanted to tell everybody that the last day to register to vote for the annual town meeting is Friday, from 830 am to 5 pm at the town hall. So I just wanted to let everybody know that, because I know it's an important town meeting. And I also wanted to just mention that if anybody has any questions about election procedures or anything to do with elections, absentee ballots or the cost that the town incurs by state mandated ballots, absentee vote by mail ballots, to please contact our office and then you can get accurate information or on our website.
Speaker 1:So by the way, 824, 2700, you got it yeah thank you so much, thank you okay, we have no appointment scheduled for this evening. We have no public hearings. Completion of old continuing business. Do you have a new? Mr Collins, I have nothing. We move to new business. We have first discussion and vote on annual town meeting warrants and I will turn that over to Mr Barnes to tell us what we're looking at here.
Speaker 8:Okay, how much of detail do you want?
Speaker 1:Probably just a summary would be good, mr Barnes, because we are inviting our town moderator will be with us next week to go through the the warrant in more detail. But basically, if there's anything that you want to point out, we do. It's gonna be a really important town meeting everybody. It is, of course, monday, may 19th, starting at 7 o'clock at the Rainham Middle School.
Speaker 8:37 articles so we have 37 articles.
Speaker 8:The first four are procedural. Five is the operating budget. Six is for an override for the for the school. Article seven is for the schools. Article 7 is for the sewer enterprise budget. We are funding the contract for the sewer department. Um, you'll be announcing that later this evening, um, but in any case we came to uh agreement with the sewer union, um and uh that this will fund the first year of it, which means that if town meeting votes it, it becomes ratified. We do have some placeholders for highway and police in case we come to agreement with them, but that we're still in negotiation.
Speaker 8:There are some debt articles one for to do the interim adjustment for the assessors. One that is not typical is we are an article which will allow the exemption for disabled veterans to be adjusted each year for the COLA we did something similar in November for the elderly and Article 14, that's for the $400 for the American Legion. There's an article that sets amounts for the revolving funds, a bunch of articles you see every year regarding board and colony expenses, ambulance, again, bond premium. There's a article 19 involves an amount for for the schools, for capital. The schools had asked for an added amount for capital. What we did is we took the amount that we typically budget them minus the amount they said they needed in any case and through the difference in the operating budget. If it turns out that the override passes, they will not need that additional money for operating and in November we will transfer that amount to their capital. If it turns out they need that money for their operating, it will be in the operating budget to supplement the 3%. So total we are giving them, I believe it's like 5.4%. Again, this is the non override dependent and again, if it turns out the override passes can then reallocate some of that money over to the fall. But they indicated at the very minimum they needed 258,000 for capital under any scenario. Article 20 is to. Every year we fund police cars. This year we're doing two, not three. Article 21 is for utility truck for sewer. As you know, every year we fund them out out of the franchise fees for the Ray cam.
Speaker 8:Article 23, which the board had requested beyond the warrant, is to allow us to change the name of board of selectmen to select board. So this will officially change the title and authorize that we go through the general bylaws and the zoning bylaws and and change wherever reference is made to board of selectmen or selectmen to select board and you'll be known as select board members. Article 24 the FinCom felt and capital supported. They felt the definition of the capital was three years and a cost of 10,000 or more. They felt that had not factored in inflation and such, so that the definition of capital is now three years or 25,000 or more. This proposed article, article 25 the current complement of members for the FinCom is seven. The FinCom felt, given changes related to management playing a bigger role in the budget process, a lot of what they once did now management does, they felt, for other reasons which they can describe, they felt five was a better complement of members than seven. Five was a better complement of members than seven. So this would reduce the number of members for in the fincom from from seven to five.
Speaker 8:Uh, the next article allows us to lease the self school up to 99 years. The plan is to lease to a non with the idea the nonprofit. This has to be all procured, I want to stress, but the nonprofit. We would put the responsibility on the upgrading of the building on the nonprofit in order for the nonprofit to be viable in terms of investment in the building. They need it for a longer period than 30 years, which is the current maximum allowed. So this would be for 99 years. It should be stated any lease would have a provision If the building wasn't used for the nonprofit use.
Speaker 1:As Allowed in the procurement, it would revert back to the town. Articles 27, I think through 35, all deal with land transfers. Could you just summarize what that is all about?
Speaker 8:Yeah. So article 27 through 35 are all related to that special act that was passed by the legislator about board and colony. I won't get into the detail of each one of these but basically you recall that board and colony legislation allows us to take ten acres out for the for the public safety building. It also gives land for a shared use path. It allows a widening of it, gives land to allow Kingips to be widened, in return for the land we're getting from releasing from apr agricultural protection restriction. There's also some land being released from the wreck restriction. We in turn are giving the state a number of pieces of land in return that had been donated to us or will be donated to us. So there's a lot of legalese involved in this and these articles allow that all to be executed.
Speaker 8:Article 36 is Section 3A, better known as the MBTA Act. This would Rezone two areas in town, both where the Walmart's are situated, to allow for an overlay district that would allow for high density multifamily housing. This is a state mandate. We had to pick an area. We picked an area. We felt there was a high barrier to entry. The planning board did support this. Recommend this unanimously. The planning board did support this, recommend this unanimously.
Speaker 8:It's the kind of thing where either the town does this or the state will do it For us. We had delayed to see where the Milton case would go, see where the Millborough case would go. Unfortunately, case law only reinforces its a state mandate. So a lot of thought went into this. We work really closely with serpent and we believe I recognize that many people may not be supportive of this, but again we wanted to do something where the town itself was in control and ultimately this is subject to a town meeting vote. It is a majority vote, not a two thirds as is typical for zoning. Finally, you, the board, may recall that over the years we've had a number of special citizen petitions asking for new alcohol licenses. We have another one. This one's asking for an alcohol license at 1348 New State Highway.
Speaker 1:Thank you, mr Barnes. Questions. Mr Pacheco no, no questions.
Speaker 2:Thank you, mr Collins, we're well covered.
Speaker 1:No questions. And again, as mentioned, John Donahue, our town moderator, will be here next week.
Speaker 8:He's going to give a big picture, overlook and also talk about town meeting. We expect that. The expectation is the participation at town meeting may be higher than usual, given the obviously the school override and also the MBTA Act thank you.
Speaker 1:Motion made and seconded any further discussion. Hearing on all in favor opposed. It is so voted. Next we have a junk dealers license gift for GameStop at 300 Route 44.
Speaker 6:Motion to approve Second.
Speaker 1:Motion has been made and seconded Any discussion Hearing none all in favor, aye, any opposed. So voted. We also have a request for a junk dealer's license for Rose's Used Autos at 1 East Britannia Street. Motion to approve Second Motion is made and seconded Any discussion Hearing none all in favor, aye, any. The LARGEST PARTY IN THE STATE OF TANNEHILL STREET. Motion TO APPROVE SECOND MOTION IS MADE AND SECONDED ANY DISCUSSION HEARING NONE ALL IN FAVOR, aye, any OPPOSED. It IS SO VOTED. We ALSO HAVE A REQUEST FOR A ONE-DAY SPECIAL PERMIT FOR THE LIONS CLUB FOR A PASTA N has been made and seconded to approve pending the approval of the park and recreation commission, any further discussion hearing that all in favor, any opposed. It is so voted and we have a discussion and vote on the fiscal year 2026 workers compensation renewal with m-i-i-a. Mr barnes, what can you tell us about this?
Speaker 8:uh, it's for our workers comp, the there is no additional cost to the town. It's recommended that we approve this. And again, this is for fiscal 26.
Speaker 1:second any discussion. None all in favor, aye Any opposed, so voted. Next we have a discussion and vote on the sewer union contract and in executive session this evening the board did review and discuss the proposed contractual agreement and voted unanimously to approve it. I would ask for a motion to confirm that vote in open session.
Speaker 6:Madam Chair, I motion to approve the contract.
Speaker 1:Thank you. It is a three-year contract with 2% increase each year. I have a second to move. Second that Do you want to add anything under discussion? Mr Collins, Mr Barnes?
Speaker 8:We're supportive of that. We think that it was a good deal, the UNION, a GOOD DEAL FOR THE TOWN.
Speaker 1:EXCELLENT ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION. Hearing NONE ALL IN FAVOR ANY OPPOSED. It IS SO VOTED. I WOULD LIKE TO THANK MR COLLINS, who REPRESENTED THE BOARD ON THE NEGOTIATIONS COMMITTEE, which ALSO INCLUDED Attorney Joseph Emerson and Human Resources Coordinator Kelly Usher, as well as the union representatives. Mr Pachico, do you have?
Speaker 2:anything else under new business? I do not, madam Chair, mr Collins, I have no new business.
Speaker 1:I do have something under new business.
Speaker 1:I just want to report that yesterday the Selectman's Office received correspondence from Maureen McKinney, on behalf of the Planning Board.
Speaker 1:Mckinney, on behalf of the planning board, indicating the planning board's interest in filling the position of associate member, which is a position that is allowed through our town bylaws. We are not going to take any action on that this evening because it was not included on the agenda for tonight's meeting and would therefore not be in conformance with the open meeting law. However, since, according to the bylaw, the position is appointed by a joint vote of the Board of Selectmen and the Planning Board, I would ask Mr Barnes to include on the agenda for next week's meeting an item to discuss and vote on advertising the position by posting it on the town website for two weeks, as we do whenever we have the opportunity to appoint someone to a board or committee, and then, after taking probably a week to review all of the applications, we can invite the Planning Board to hold a joint meeting with us in order to take that joint vote. So no action on that. Just, mr Barnes, if you could put that on the agenda for next week's meeting. Okay. So moving on.
Speaker 8:We next have our town administrators report, mr barnes I was going to mention the, the presentation by the moderator.
Speaker 1:Next week we're also chris will be giving a little financial, financial AND WE'RE INVITING THE FINCOM CHAIR, as WELL AS THE CAPITAL CHAIR, and OTHERS AS WELL. Very GOOD, thank YOU, mr BARNES. Any QUESTIONS FROM MR BARNES, mr BICICA, mr COLLINS? Selectment REPORT.
Speaker 6:MR BICICA, I HAVE NOTHING THIS EVENING, ma'am.
Speaker 1:MR COLLINS, I JUST HAVE A just have a couple things. I do want to report that last Thursday Finance Committee Member Dr Piewandowski and I attended the school committee's working group subcommittee on the budget along with Superintendent Ryan Powers, school committee members Tim Fitzgibbons and Jessica Davenport and Bridgewater Council members Sonia Strigles and John Loretty. Two other Bridgewater Council members were also in attendance. Councillor Strigals reported that the Bridgewater Council voted 6 to 2 to schedule a Proposition 2.5 override vote on Saturday June 22nd. That ballot will contain one question for an $8 million override to cover the increased assessment for the school district as well as other town. One QUESTION FOR AN $8 MILLION OVERRIDE TO COVER THE INCREASED ASSESSMENT FOR THE SCHOOL DISTRICT AS WELL AS OTHER TOWN CONSIDERATIONS IN BRIDGEWATER. A ride regardless of the outcome and to, and our request to take have the district take the district-wide, have the school committee take the district-wide meeting option off the table. But they have not ruled that out. They said they might consider that a little further on in the process. Dr pretty, when dusk and I outlined our town's process going forward voting on the annual town meeting warrant tonight, as we just did, which includes the article that would raise and appropriate through taxation the additional funds the school district is seeking, contingent upon a vote of approval by the voters at a special town election and then, obviously, if approved at the town meeting, that comes back to this board, which has the discretion to decide if and when the special town election will take place. If not approved at the town meeting, then it goes back to the school committee to consider recertifying their budget at the amount that both towns have indicated they can afford without an override vote. The school committee has consistently stated that the override question has to pass VOTE. The SCHOOL COMMITTEE HAS CONSISTENTLY STATED THAT THE OVERRIDE QUESTION HAS TO PASS IN BOTH COMMUNITIES AND THAT IS WHERE THAT STANDS AT THIS POINT.
Speaker 1:In OTHER NEWS WE ARE INTO A NEW MONTH, so CHECK OUT ALL THE GREAT ACTIVITIES GOING ON AT THE RAINHAM LIBRARY, including THIS THURSDAY EVENING FROM 6 TO 7 30 A TOWN MEETING, q AND A WITH TOWN MOD meeting Q&A with town moderator John Donahue about the um spent the award for the annual town election. Over at the senior center the bathroom renovation project is in full swing but activities continue, some in the large room, some over at the gym kind of building and some over at the Lions Club building. You may want to consider joining the newly formed friends group to help plan fundraising activities and plan the future of the Senior Center. They are meeting this Thursday at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And lastly, memorial Day is quickly approaching and so is our annual Rainham Memorial Day Parade. Next planning meeting will take place this coming Monday evening, beginning at 630 here in the municipal meeting room at Town Hall. Help us make this our biggest and best parade yet ever to honor our past and present veterans and members of the military.
Speaker 1:And that is all that I have. We have no correspondence Press time. We have no members of the press. Do you have any emergency business? No, you're not. Community input I don't see anyone rushing to them.
Speaker 1:Oh yes please just state your name and address for the minutes, please um my name is paul molia.
Speaker 7:I live at 722 king street. The first thing I'd like to say is I'd love to thank the chief. We were one of those people who had their car inspected and by the time we were done grocery shopping, we had a detective at our house with the stuff that was taken from the car that morning. So they're doing a heck of a job. The other thing I got up to talk about was that I know we're not the select board is not going to address it tonight, but in a week, but the planning board, in contradiction to what was even said tonight, nominated, selected not just any old member of the public to serve as the associate member, but the very one person who was just voted out. So last night and or at their last meeting, and you know, as a I know there are other people who are looking for that position, had already put in for that type of thing, and they're waiting, and I don't know. That's the kind of thing that gives people. I absolutely know that for a fact. I know my name is on the list. I serve on the zoning board. I know there are others as well who have a professional background in planning and would like to serve on the planning board. Haven't sought to pull papers to run, but if the member of a planning board who gets voted out is going to, without notice, be voted in, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 7:I don't need to say what kind of look that gives for us as town. It's, it's about a black of an eye politically, as we could have short of of actually doing something bad. That wasn't doing something bad, it just was the appearance of evil. I mean we're called to flee from the appearance of evil. Now I messaged Maureen at length yesterday and I know she assures me that there was no. You know there was an ignorant innocence of intent. But I mean, I'm sorry, but if you're the person who gets elected out of a job by the populace of this town, you shouldn't automatically be passed into the same job side by side by the people who you served with. I mean it's just, it's inappropriate mr Boehler, you is.
Speaker 1:You know, we have no jurisdiction over the planning, but it's a separately elected board. But since it is a joint vote, we are going to, you know, put on our agenda for next week and we will advertise the position.
Speaker 7:Oh, I understand that, but ultimately, even if even if it was would have to be ratified by you guys anyways, for this associate position. So I thought it was important to get here and say, hey, this was this act was not appropriate. And you know somebody who has a professional license. That I mean. It's just the integrity involved in that kind of decision is questionable. Thank you for your input.
Speaker 1:Anyone else with a public comment? Yes, again, just please state your name and address for the minutes.
Speaker 4:Dr Lee Kozak, 123 Sherwood Lane. Just to back up this gentleman, I forgot your name. I'm sorry, paul, I'm in total agreement, but additionally I'd like to know who has jurisdiction over the?
Speaker 1:voters.
Speaker 4:They're separately elected, as we are separately elected so if there is some sort of you know and I hate to say the word ethics violation, um, and we don't know that, of course we're not. There's no accusation of that, but it does look bad. What was done, as many of us watched it, the voters what's our course of action?
Speaker 1:I mean, if we we want this board looked into for miss misbehavior basically, as far as the vote is concerned, we are going to, as we said, we're going to, take action next week. We will advertise and then invite the Planning Board here for a joint vote on it. So that's when the vote becomes valid, okay but just you, you don't, you don't know.
Speaker 6:We, as voters, don't have any At the state level, of course you won't recommend it to us.
Speaker 4:We know that so, but it would be at the state level, okay. My second question is regarding the MBTA communities, the law, section 3, zoning act. I forget which article number. It is 36, so just heard a lot of confusion out in the public as to what this is, what's happening here and what. What happens if we fail to comply say, it's voted down, the state comes in and picks out land, or I? From what I read from reading the act, the zoning act failure comply means we're not eligible for funding from the state. So that's the action they would take against us as a town.
Speaker 6:Mr Pacheco, I mean it's in my opinion and Greg can jump in after we're still fully understanding the repercussions of it, right? Okay because the the state Supreme Court ruled that the rulemaking process was not adhered to right it was remanded back to the agency, which is executive office of housing, and livable to go through the rulemaking process again. So basically anybody who had been in noncompliance was back into temporary compliance.
Speaker 4:Okay, until this is.
Speaker 6:July, either 7th or 14th, I think so it's not a lot of time. What we can say definitively is grant funds, and I know there's been speculation out there. Well, we don't get them, we do get.
Speaker 4:We do get them and I think that the public needs to know that. So maybe John can John state that next week.
Speaker 6:So that's part of my response to you, if I could finish, we're gonna be releasing in the next day or two a web portal that's going to have information including the grants we've received over the past two fiscal years that we believe would be in jeopardy if we were in noncompliance. And when I say we believe because, again, it's still an evolving topic early on we were not getting a fire safety grant because we were in noncompliance, and then the state supreme court ruled and we were able to get that. So the original beliefs on grants have continued to evolve and it seems like it encompasses more grants than what originally happened in terms of if the state would come in and designate land. Potentially it's within their purview right, but they also can take us to court, as was the case with Milton, for example my other question is this was signed into law in 2021.
Speaker 6:We didn't approve any anything that would be acceptable to them no since it has to be fully well, so the legislation was approved, but the promulgating of the regulations was okay. So that's what took time. The legislature can approve very broad legislation, which was the case here, and I'm glad you noted 2021, because it does go that far back and that they spent that much time promulgating what the regulations were going to be and then they missed some of that, which is why it was remained back to them to repromulgate it.
Speaker 6:Okay yeah, just I think, in order for this to pass, that this information that the information is great yeah, we're also putting up a Q&A because one of the rumors that is out there is, if this is past the house and comes, and that's not right, that's just because zoning is passed, like now, I can have an ad you in my backyard, I don't have any of you in my backyard. So there has to be active steps to be taken. And again, that's going to be on the portal, mr Barnes has assured me, as soon as tomorrow. Correct, greg?
Speaker 8:Yes, and I sent you a bunch of answers to a bunch of the questions. Did I miss anything, Greg? You did not. You did an excellent job.
Speaker 4:I don't think so. I you know that's great news because this has to go through.
Speaker 1:So thank you okay, um seeing no one else um performance of administrative duties. Just to report that I've reviewed the town of Rainham invoice and payroll warrants. Today's date, May 6, 2025. And with that I'm looking for a motion to adjourn at 735. So, moved Motion and second All in favor. Aye Opposed. It is so voted. Thank you all. Stay safe, stay well and we'll see you next week.