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Raynham Select Board 12/02/2025

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(Episode Description is AI generated and may be errors in accuracy)

A quiet room, a folded flag, and a name that meant action: we open with a heartfelt tribute to Marie Smith—trailblazer, veteran advocate, and the first woman elected to Raynham’s Board of Selectmen—whose five decades of service left a durable imprint on our town. Colleagues and our town clerk share personal memories that reveal her defining traits: she listened, she got results, and she showed up for veterans and families when it mattered most.

From remembrance to responsibility, we turn to the work at hand. Our police chief delivers a clear-eyed November report: 2,453 calls, 434 emergency 911 calls, key incidents requiring coordinated response, and a multi-year climb in written citations and calls for service. We talk practical impacts—training needs, staffing realities, and how holiday pressures shape public safety—while extending appreciation to officers working the season’s toughest nights. Then we move through the civic essentials: a constable reappointment, a joint public hearing approving one new utility pole and six relocations on Pine Street, and contract actions that keep the town’s core services steady. We formalize Assistant Town Administrator duties for our finance director to strengthen continuity, renew our veterans agent’s agreement as he returns to duty, and extend our engagement with UniBank Fiscal Advisory Services to navigate borrowing and capital markets wisely.

Strategically, two housing updates reshape the path forward. The state confirms our MBTA Communities Act compliance, and the Chapter 40B subsidized housing inventory now officially places Raynham above the 10% threshold—granting safe harbor from unwanted comprehensive permit projects. We unpack what that means for zoning, infrastructure planning, and local control. Finally, we set expectations for a disciplined budget season: contracts on the horizon, limited revenues, and a firm commitment to align spending with core priorities without drifting beyond our means. We close with community notes—holiday craft fairs, Santa’s town ride—and gratitude for residents who show up, debate with respect, and help keep Raynham strong.

If you value smart local governance, clear policy updates, and stories of service that inspire, subscribe, share this episode with a neighbor, and leave a review to help others find the show. What topic should we dig into next—public safety trends, housing policy, or the budget outlook?

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SPEAKER_01:

25 at Veterans Memorial Town Hall at 558 South Main Street. Thank you for joining us. This meeting is open to the public. It is also being broadcast live on the Rainham Channel, Comcast Channel 98, or Verizon Channel 34. It is also being recorded for by Raycam for replay on the Rainham Channel. Please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance.

SPEAKER_00:

I pledge allegiance to the public, the United States of America, and to the Republic, voted, or nation, undergo, indivisible, the liberty, and justice.

SPEAKER_01:

And please remain standing for a moment of silence for former select Marie Smith, who passed away this past Friday at the age of 91. Marie served the town of Rainham, our community, and our veterans for many years in many capacities, including 18 years on this board.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

With your indulgence, gentlemen, I would like to take a few minutes just to talk about uh Marie Smith. Um, many of our younger members of the community or newer members of the community did not have the opportunity to know Marie and know what she accomplished, but Marie devoted her life to service to her family, to her community, to veterans, and to our town. In 1959, she and her husband Richard chose the town of Rainham as the community where they wanted to make their home and raise their five children: Richard, Yvonne, Peter, Annette, Jeff, and Dean. Marie first became involved in the community as a Little League parent and then as chairwoman of the Vietnam Memorial Committee in 1970. That same year, she began her career working as secretary in this building, Town Hall, as secretary to Rainham's treasurer Arnold Ziegler. In 1989, Marie became the first woman ever elected to serve on the Rainham Board of Selectmen, and she served in that role for two terms until 1995. She returned to the role in 2008 when she was elected again to serve on the board, and she continued to serve in that role for a combined total of 18 years until her retirement in 2020. Murray's service to the town over the course of 50 years included serving on the Veterans Memorial Committee, the Board of Selectmen, the Finance Committee, the Housing Authority, Business and Economic Development Commission, Solid Waste Committee, North Rainham Study Committee, and the Democratic Town Committee. She was also a staunch supporter of the American Legion, serving as a charter member of the American Legion Auxiliary in Rainham, and on the state level, including as a past president of the Massachusetts American Legion Auxiliary. Marie also served on the national level as the National Vice President of the American Legion Auxiliary Eastern Division. She was also a charter member representing the town on the Raycam Board of Directors and a special volunteer with the Rainham Association of Volunteers for Education. For her many years of service, Marie received RAVE's highest honor, the Rave Award, for exceptional commitment and dedication to the children of Rainham, and the Board of Selectmen dedicated the 2021 Annual Town Report to her for her many efforts and countless acts of kindness. Marie served her community selflessly with wisdom, grace, and dignity. Another of our departed selectmen, Donald McKinnon, once remarked that there are many people who walk through the pages of Rainham's history, but every now and then there is someone who achieves that status of being legendary. Certainly Marie is in that class along with Don. Visiting hours will be held on Friday from 4 o'clock to 7 o'clock at the O'Keefe Wade funeral parlor on Route 138 in Taunton, with a funeral mass on Saturday at 10 a.m. at St. Anne's Church and a private burial at Bourne National Cemetery. We send our condolences out to her family and her many friends and admirers. She will uh certainly be missed. She was a pillar in our community. And we while we miss her, we'll miss her, her memory and the good works she accomplished will live on in the hearts of those who knew her and in those pages of our history. Thank you. Um Mr. Pacico, I know you served with Marie for many years, many of those 18 years old. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

I mean, I think, Madam Chair, you said most of what I could say. I just would add, you know, uh, that outside of her family, I don't think there was anything she was more passionate about than the town and veterans. Um and those were the two um areas I think in life that really motivated her from a professional standpoint. Um she was instrumental on the host of veterans' issues here in Rainham and certainly played a significant role in the Rainham government, as you said, Madam Chair, being the first woman uh elected to the position, technically the second woman elected when she came back. Um she pulled that off twice and just uh a really uh classy person and a fierce advocate for the issues that um mattered to her and in her viewpoint would help move Rainham forward, and so uh just deepest sympathies to her whole family, her kids, her grandkids, um, and uh we will miss her and we appreciate everything that uh we were able to learn from her and um clean from her.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you. Ken, I know you didn't have a chance to serve with her, but I'm sure you can understand 18 years of service on this board is huge.

SPEAKER_04:

Very admirable, and uh condolences to her family for sure. And like I said, I have not known her personally, but seeing her from afar and all the work that she did for the town was certainly admirable.

SPEAKER_01:

We have another town official with us here, our town clerk, Marcia Sylvia. Would you care to say a couple words?

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. Everything you said, Chairman Ryan and Mr. Pacheco and Mr. Collins. Um, I can just say I started here many years ago, and um Marie was a lot of fun, and I just grew over over the years. We had a really good relationship. I could talk to her um about different town matters, and she was very approachable um and she got results. The um North School Committee, she was very instrumental in putting that together, and because of that, our committee and the whole the study and everything, we have North School now, and it looks like the police department or somebody may be using it. So um that was that was a she listened. She listened to us. My heart goes out to all of them, and you um Chairman Riley, I know you were really good friends, and it's hard to lose a friend. And um, I'm sorry for everybody's loss because she will be greatly missed, and we really appreciated her. She's also very close friends with your mom, obviously. My mother, yeah. My my mother I think town meeting up in heaven right now. Um, but um, yeah, she'll be greatly missed, and um, thank you for giving me the opportunity. Thank you, Marjorie, for everything. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, returning to our regular order of business. Next we have approval of the minutes of the regular session of the board on November 17th, 2025. Do we have a motion to accept the minutes as printed? So moved.

SPEAKER_00:

Second.

SPEAKER_01:

Second, any discussion? Hearing on all in favor. Any opposed? So voted. Next we have our department head reports. We have our police chief with us, Chief David LePlant. Welcome, Chief.

SPEAKER_06:

Uh so for the month of November, we had a total of 2,453 calls. Uh 434 of those were emergency 911 calls. And of those, uh 103 were emergency medical dispatch calls. Uh, there were 12 arrests and several criminal summonses. Um there were a couple of significant events last month. Uh, one on November 21st, uh members of the Rainham Police Department and Fire Department responded to a serious motor vehicle crash in the area 762 King Phillips Street. Uh the crash was a single vehicle and the operator suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The victim was airlifted by med flight to Rhode Island Hospital. Uh Patrolman Brian Silver and the detectives are investigating the crash. I uh would like to commend uh both the fire and police for their efforts during that incident. Um on November 24th, uh members of the midnight shift assisted the uh fire department with a motor vehicle fire in uh Broadway northbound um by Landy's. Um I want to thank those who responded to that incident. And then for community service, uh this past Saturday, uh members of the fire department and the police department spent four hours at uh Walmart on Broadway. Uh this is 44, I'm sorry, uh collecting toys for their annual toy drive. I want to thank the volunteers who uh did that. Um in two weeks it's gonna be on 44. The other one. Um and currently there's one officer that's out IOD.

SPEAKER_01:

And um at our coffee with a cop event back in October, um your department had presented some of the statistics of how the in the job of our police department has increased dramatically. I remembered to bring them tonight. So I'd just like to share because it it is it is very impressive as far as how much work that you certainly are doing in an increase even as far as total written citations, and this only goes from January 1st to September 30th, because this obviously was announced on October 1st. The year to date, 2024 to 2025, represented a 66% increase or 635 more written citations. And in the four years, from 2021 to 2025, an increase of 249%, or 1,133 more written citations. And as far as calls, from 2024 to 2025, an increase of 10.7% or 1,969 more calls. And in that four-year period, an increase of 35% from an increase of 5,280 more calls. Which is a lot for sure.

SPEAKER_06:

So obviously we know you've how busy, but when you see the statistics, it really it's impressive, and I'm proud of everybody that works at the police department for their efforts because um they they're the ones that are doing it.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, Chief. Um comments, questions, Mr. Pachica. Mr. Collins.

SPEAKER_04:

The comment I'll make is the name of the holidays. You know, appreciate what you guys do. This is a tough time of year for everybody, it's chaotic, but you guys are still out there doing your thing and working, and you know, especially Thanksgiving Eve. It's tonight. Normally a lot of young kids in your twenties, you get together and you meet up with your old friends, and unfortunately the police are out working doing their job. And unfortunately, during the holidays, usually the job gets a little bit more difficult. But um, you know, don't want them to think they're forgotten during the holidays, and we appreciate everything the kids do.

SPEAKER_06:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_06:

Just one more thing. I'm gonna send out an email Friday morning, but um, I'm gonna be out of state for the weekend, so uh Captain Beeches will be the acting chief Friday till Sunday afternoon.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, Chief. And as Mr. Collins said, thank you and the members of the department for everything you do. Appreciate it. Okay, next on our agenda we have appointments. We have a constable reappointment of Adam Loomis, and this is signed off by our police chief.

SPEAKER_04:

So moved.

SPEAKER_01:

Second motion is made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor. Aye. Any opposed? So voted. Next we have a public hearing, joint petition of TMLP and Verizon, New England. This is a request for one joint poll location and six poll relocations on Pine Street from Sydney Drive. I'll open the public hearing at 7:13 p.m. Um, Mr. Pachico?

SPEAKER_05:

Uh no, no questions or anything. Do you want to just check if there's any public input?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, sure, sure. Um, Mr. Collins, any questions or comments first?

SPEAKER_05:

I do not.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, public input. Anyone have any questions or comments? Seeing no one, I'll go back to Mr. Pachico.

SPEAKER_05:

Motion to approve. Seconded.

SPEAKER_01:

The motion is made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing that all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? It is so voted, and I will close the public hearing at 7.13 p.m. Next we have completion of older continuing business. Do you have anything, Mr. Pachico?

SPEAKER_05:

I do not, madam chair. Thank you. Mr. Collins? I do not.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh so then we go to new business. And first we have discussion and vote on employment agreement with Chris Lavalette, who is our finance director for the assistant town administrator position, which is the vote that we took at our last meeting. And we have the, it's actually an amendment, I think, to his current contract. And as we had mentioned before, um, it is uh in addition to his duties as finance director, town accountant, the town will employ Mr. Lavallette as assistant town administrator beginning December 1, 2025. It is expected that Mr. Lavalette will devote the time necessary to act as the assistant town administrator when the town administrator is not available, and this is to be compensated at a rate of$2,000 per year in addition to a salary.

SPEAKER_05:

So moved.

SPEAKER_01:

Motion is made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing and all in favor? Any opposed? It is so voted. Next, we have discussion and vote of non-union employment agreement with Scott Blake for Veterans Agent. And this is um uh to continue on Mr. Blake's employment with the town uh for the veterans agent for the period beginning November 17th and continuing through June 30th. And um obviously this is a return to duty for Mr. Blake who has recovered from his um serious motivate bill acting.

SPEAKER_05:

Yes, motion to approve.

SPEAKER_01:

Any discussion? Hearing and all in favor? Any opposed? So voted. Next we have discussion and vote on contract extension with Unibank Fiscal Advisory Services Incorporated. And Mr. Barnes, what can you tell us about this?

SPEAKER_03:

This is the fee structure we have with our town's financial advisor. They help us with uh borrowings and and such things as that.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's basically just an extension or continuation?

SPEAKER_03:

It's a continuation with uh some updated fees.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, very good. Um, Mr. Pachico, questions, comments?

SPEAKER_05:

No, I motion to approve. I will second that motion.

SPEAKER_01:

Is made and seconded any discussion? Hearing on all in favor, any opposed? So voted. We have a tag day request for um this is for artistic dance studio for uh several dates in March and also in um in May, in my April and May, I'm sorry, for April and May of next year.

SPEAKER_05:

Madam Chair, I would motion to table at this time. It's an out of uh town organization, and I know uh you've been working with the administrative to further refine our tag day policies uh to get them back in line with where they previously had been.

SPEAKER_01:

So we motion to table?

SPEAKER_05:

I will second the motion to table.

SPEAKER_01:

Second, any discussion? Hearing that all in favor? I post, so voted. Also, under new business, I guess maybe we would vote on it at our next meeting. Um we need to establish our holiday schedule for our meeting. I think usually we take off the week between Christmas and New Year's, and that Tuesday we would not have a meeting, and the town hall hall offices would also be closed. So if you schedule that for a vote next week, and with that, that takes us to any other new business. No, ma'am, channel.

SPEAKER_04:

No new business.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Um that takes us to town administrators' report, Mr. Barnes.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh yes, uh, first of all, as you know, every year we have a classification hearing to set the uh uh tax rate. Um we have that scheduled for next week. Um so the assessors has officially asked for next week for the tax classification hearing. And we have uh posted that online, and uh as usual the assessors will be here to give a recommendation and the board will will vote on the the rate. Uh secondly, uh I received notice uh from the uh executive office of housing and livable communities that we are now a MBTA uh uh Communities Act compliant community. Um the uh we had voted the an act of an article related to this at the May 19th, 2025 town meeting. That article had been approved by the Attorney General, but there's also a further process whereby the the state um executive office looks at what we have done. We have to fill out the 22-page application and takes them, obviously took them quite a while to get back to us, but we now are uh officially designated as compliant with the MBA uh TA Communities Act. And while we're on the housing subject, um every uh two years the state's supposed to do a biannual update to the what's called the Chapter 40B subsidized housing inventory. Um we finally got the results of that. Well, it's been clear to us that we've been above 10 percent in terms of uh percentage of houses that are subsidized, uh housing units that are subsidized uh for a few years now. The state has never officially acknowledged such uh in this census and in the the accompanying email, they have acknowledged we are now uh we now exceed the 10% statutory minimum for subsidized housing under Chapter 40B. That means that for any future 40B projects we can declare what's called safe harbor and be exempt from the provisions of the Chapter 40B uh law. So again, uh this isn't new news, but it's the first time the state has actually put it in email that we do exceed the 10%.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, Mr. Barnes. Any questions or comments? Okay, and that takes us to Selectman's report, Mr. Bachico.

SPEAKER_05:

Thank you. Uh two items, madam chair. Um it was a few weeks ago now, but just uh wanted to acknowledge everybody who participated in that town meeting a few weeks ago. I I thought it um a good turnout, a healthy turnout, uh I would say better than in the past few years. And uh as always, the moderator, the town clerk, uh council, and everybody involved I thought did a great job, as well as uh the public, the members of the public. There were some uh somewhat controversial issues, but everybody was respectful, courteous, and um stuck to uh what was in the article. So just my appreciation to everybody involved to make it that a success. And then the only other piece is, and this is more so for our administrator, I just want to make sure that we as a board get a draft of the budget message before it goes out to departments. Um I've been uh broken record on this, but the budgets not just here but statewide are going to continue to be um tough. And I want to make sure that the budget message here is aligned with our priorities. I'm sure you both have seen the Whitman-Hanson School District just cut 25 positions or a million and a half in the hole, and that's starting to happen everywhere, and so I want to be mindful of the fact that the message we put out articulates our shared views on that. Um, we have a lot of contracts so that they're gonna be coming due as well, and the reality is, in my opinion, we do not have cash to play around with. And so my votes and my position is going to be uh disciplined financial management, sound financial management, and not um spending outside of our means.

SPEAKER_01:

So Thank you, Mr. Pacico, Mr. Collins.

SPEAKER_04:

Nothing new, but I will second his comments regarding the the uh town meeting. I th I thought that was really a good healthy town meeting was a good turnout like he said there was difference of opinions, but it it stayed respectful and it it was actually nice to see.

SPEAKER_01:

It was an excellent town meeting, a nice turnout, and as mentioned, everyone uh was great debate, great discussion, and that's the way it's supposed to be. So that was excellent. So hopefully we can always have a good town turnout for our our meetings. So that was great, and thanks to everybody, as you mentioned. I think our town um administrator, our finance director, finance committee did a lot of work preparing for that, in addition to all the efforts of our town clerk's office and our town moderator. So kudos all around. And the only other thing that I have is this Saturday, there's a lot of activities happening, holiday activities happening in town. But I know our our Rave annual holiday craft fair is this Saturday at the La Liberty Elementary School from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Over 40 um local crafters, and that is a fundraiser with all proceeds going to support our Rainham schools. And also, I believe Santa's taking a ride through town this weekend Saturday and Sunday, going up and down all the streets in Rainham. So we look forward to that. And that is all that I have at this time. I don't believe we have any correspondence. I don't see anyone here from the press for press time. Emergency business, Mr. Pachico, Mr. Collins, Mr. Barnes, any emergency business? Um, then we do citizen and community input. We have none. Uh performance of administrative duties. Just to report that I, along with our finance director, have reviewed and signed off on the town of Ranium invoice and payroll warrants dated today, December 2nd, 2025. And with that, I am looking for a motion to adjourn at 7 24 p.m. All in favor, any posed, good night. Thank you all, and we will see you here next week.