you you you you All right, Dan, we all set. Excellent. All right, good evening, everyone. The time is now 702 and today is April 7th, 2025. Please stand for the Pudjolidians. 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. Thank you all for being here this evening. Starting off on our agenda. Is our spotlight on schools? I think it's our very first spotlight on schools for the town council. So we're very much looking forward to welcoming our school superintendent, Dr. Peter Cummings, who will introduce our very special guests. Great, thank you so much for having us. It is such a pleasure to be able to spend a little time with the community and the council just to help you get to know our schools a little bit better and some of the great things that are happening here. So you all may have noticed in the newspaper that we have a fabulous women's basketball team, who are very, very proud. So I'd like to introduce Abby Hummel, one of our athletic administrators and our assistant coach to talk a little about the team and introduce some of our wonderful student athletes. Excellent. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Abby Hummel. I'm the assistant athletic director at the high school. I'm also very proud to be the girls basketball team assistant coach. I'd like to introduce the head coach to come stand here with me. Catherine Mahoney and let me talk to you about the girls a little bit before you meet all of them in this general area right here. We really lucked out with today's weather, although it's gloomy, it allowed all of them to come because although our team is small, it's 13 girls in total, every one of them, except one, is playing a spring sport and has a game tonight. So not only are they good at basketball, but they do a ton of other things at this school. This team's seniors have seen a lot of playoff battles in their time at Narragansett High School. They have made the finals and lost in Division III. They have won the regular season division and lost in the semifinals. But this year, not only did they move up a division to Division II as one of the smallest publics, I can't look at you anymore, as one of the smallest public schools in the state, but they excelled. They won their regular season first place into the playoffs. They went into the playoffs. They went all the way to the AMP and Providence. And won very distinctively against a team that is not only double our size, triple our size, is quadruple our size. That's the team that they went up against and won a state title. And they also are the best team we've ever had in the history and arrogance it. As in, there's a second round of playoffs in Rhode Island basketball. It's called the Open Tournament. This team made it all the way to the Elite 8. We fell short to North Kingston but stuck in there the whole time. This team's 13 players has two all-staters. We have two of the top 15 girls basketball players in the state. This team's 13 players has three all-class members, five all-division members, six academic all state members, and one on the all rookie team. So... five all division members, six academic all state members, and one on the all rookie team. So they just really excel on and off the court. On top of all of that, there is one girl that has a ton of accolades this season. She is a thousand point score grace blessing. She is ranked ranked although she's a thousand point score I you'd think black hole with the ball never gives it up she is ranked 17th in the entire United States in assists She averages Thank you. Woo! Thank you. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Uh, and not only that, these girls have made such good relationships with their fellow school teammates that our boys basketball team that fell short this year of playoffs actually donated their time and came to our practices during our playoffs, during our open to make this team better, to push them to be better in the playoffs. So that is completely on them and their relationships they built. And now I want to introduce Katherine Mahoney, the head coach to add some for that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Abby did a beautiful job summing up all of the accomplishments of this team. I've done this for roughly 20 years, soccer and basketball, and it goes without saying that this group and what they did was unprecedented. And it's what you won't read in the Narragansett Times, Providence Journal. Independent is what Abby was just talking about, the selflessness of this group, how kind they were, the love that was here. This, if I could make a carbon copy of this team and show people what team should consist of, it's this. And, you know, this is something, it's harder and harder to find. A group, if you look at the college level, the professional level, you don't see what they have. And I was watching the finals yesterday in Geno from Yukon was speaking about his experiences. And the IT factor that he talked about was the love and this team has it. And I think, you know, having them here tonight is really important because we might not see this again. And I can say in my coaching career, this to be a part of this is amazing. I can speak for my dad who I've coached with in Abby. Again, what you guys did, you'll remember it for the rest of your lives. And you've set and made history in town in arrogance. So I'm incredibly proud and I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up the unsung heroes, the parents. You guys are the way you are because of how you were parented and the example they set as a coach it's tough, it's not always easy. We've been through ups and downs last year, was very tough, but this group of parents was the most supportive. And again, kind of group, I've ever had the pleasure of coaching their kids. So thank you, parents that are here. You did a wonderful job. I appreciate everything you did and all of the support that you've given to us over the years. So once again, thank you. I can't say enough about this group, but I love you guys. And without further ado, come on up, ladies. Here we go. Just come up. I don't know. Come up. Wave. Thank you. It was a lot. It was a great thing to have you here. Slap for your parents. Thank you. Thank you, all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Abby and Jack. Come on up. Coaches. And Abby will be unfortunately leaving this year. She's still around. Abby and Jack come on up, coaches. And Abby will be unfortunately leaving this year. She's still around and my dad has been the favorite coach by far. Abby and I know for many years, so thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm also going to leave you with our three seniors here at the podium in case you had questions for them. Grace Blessing, Brooke Cafery and Alexa Poria. Excellent. Well, I just want to say, you know, what a great honor it is for us and welcome to the Narragansettown Hall. This is one of the really great reasons why I was very happy to see the spotlight of schools added to future town council meetings is so that we can celebrate these incredible successes as a community to hear just how rewarding of an experience that you all had under the leadership of Coach Mahoney and Coach Hummel. It does sound like it's going to be a significant loss losing her, but I know you're in exceptional hands and really just incredible job this season to hear all of the historic achievements. We're in the presence of greatness and and I couldn't be proud of all of you. I actually went to one of the playoff games with Councillor Durkin, and to the entire time, there was actually a game where we were deciding to go to URI or a playoff game here, and I have to say, could not have made a better choice than to see you all in person. You were all very fast, very quick, very agile, high level of professionalism, athleticism, and I was just so surprised. So you were very well coached, very well parented, very well disciplined, but at every stage throughout the entire playoff process, it was clear that not only were you excelling at greatness as individuals, but more so as a team, and that I think will carry on in every aspect of your life moving forward. So really just fantastic job. So my question actually, before I leave it with these guys guys is what are your plans for next year? Are you are you all seniors? Are you going on to new and greater things? I'm going into study physician assistant studies. I haven't completely decided where yet, but that's my major. Excellent. I actually just officially committed to Salve Regina University to play basketball. Congratulations. Oh, we do so well. Oh, we do so well. Oh, we do so well. And it's okay if you don't want to share. I don't know what I'm doing it, but I'm looking at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Wow. Excellent. Does anyone from the Council have any questions or comments? Starting Council Irving Nellie. Just like the sake and congratulations, girls. What an amazing season you had. And like President Menzi said, this is something you will take with you forward for the rest of your life. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you so much. Councilor Collins. I just want to say congratulations. I'm raising two girls and it's nice to see strong and brave and wise women. And Councillor Torello. Congratulations to you and to the whole team. To what do you credit this incredible accomplishment? I think really it's all about what they kind of already said before. It's just our team is really like a family. It's a cliche, but it's a cliche because it's true. Like these are my best friends behind me and I think we couldn't have done it without that relationship that we have with each other. Excellent job. Well said. Another round of applause, please, for our incredible season. The next step will welcome back Dr. Cummings to introduce our next guest. Excellent job. Congratulations again. So shifting gear slightly. So we do have another student to honor. And just because it's our first time here, we typically will only have one thing to honor honor but it is my pleasure to introduce Emily Shardier our middle school principal who will talk about Sarah Whitworth and her award excellent welcome Good evening, so I am happy to share our seventh grade student Sarah Whitworth, who has achieved an outstanding honor by placing second in the state of Rhode Island for her Patriots pin essay. Sarah's journey began at the post-level with the win there, followed by first place at the district level and finally securing second place at the state level competition. At a ceremony at the Quonset O-Clubs, there received many awards from distinguished VIPs, such as Secretary of State Greg Amor. Congressman Gabe Amo, director of Veterans of Fair for Rhode Island, Cazman Yarn, a BFWRI Department Commander, Mark Turner you and I'm going to share with you and share some of the awards that she received and answer any questions you might have. So this is Sarah Whitworth. Welcome, Sarah. My voice in America's democracy, my parents tell me an over and over again that it takes one person to make a difference and they tell me it is like when a pebble hits the water, it makes a ripple effect. One little pebble doesn't make a big difference from what many people think, but when it makes ripples, the ripples can be many and can turn into bigger ripples and eventually large waves. They tell me this often with situations about kindness. I should be kind to someone because not only is it the right thing to do, but it makes that person feel good about themselves. However, if my friends and other people see me do a nice and kind gesture to someone, they may be more willing to follow my example and also be kind to this person and perhaps other people too. The world becomes a better place because so many people are being kind to one another. Using our voice in our democracy is the same thing. It takes one person to speak up about an unfair law or to fight for our rights. One person's voice is like the tiny pebble in the water because other citizens will also gather to join their voices to hopefully make our community a better place for all. The bill of rights includes the right to free speech. Our nation's founders thought that our voice and our democracy was important. Using our voices together as the community helps our elected officials know what lost a pass or not to pass to make our country the best country to live in. It is especially meaningful when we use our right to peacefully assemble, which is also included in the first amendment. Our voices together with our peaceful gatherings really let our politicians know what we want how we can contribute to our democracy. This creates an even bigger way to ensure we fight for our freedoms that so many others across the world wish they had. Really, really well said, well spoken. All of the council members had the honor of reading your essay. And it really just really moved me and I'm sure the council members will have their compliments as well. But, you know, just in a very important topic by today's standards as well, talking about how just one pebble can turn into a ripple. How one person's voice can lead by example how many lasting effects that we all have as individuals. You know, we've seen how the basketball team, how each one individual player had such a great input into the overall team's success. But when, you know, collectively, they all came together. came together, they were this one unit. And to hear just how incredibly well said your position paper was on, the importance of democracy and how important it is for all of us to recognize that we have the right to exercise our voices and our rights, it was very impressive. And to hear the high praises and recognitions that you received were very well deserved and we do have a certificate recognizing you for your service as well and I will, we will come down to present this with you afterwards but it does say this certificate is presented to Sarah Whitworth in recognition of your outstanding accomplishment of earning second place in the state for your Patriots. Penn essay, your incredible accomplishment is celebrated by the town of Narraganssa today and year fourth. So I will happily pass this off to any counselors who would like to ask questions or components. Just congratulations. It was an excellent essay. Congratulations. Thank you. Councilor Colonies. And just congratulations. It was an amazing essay. It was very moving just like the president said. So really great job. Congratulations on your essay. It was powerful, tangible, and very present in today's day and age. Keep on your writings, and you are well on your way to becoming a great public speaker. Already is. And I'm sorry, what grade are you in? 7th. 7th grade. I just want to put a star on that for everyone out here. It's very, very difficult for anyone to get up and talk in a public setting and for you to be in seventh grade, to have the confidence to come up here and talk and read out your incredible essay, your speaking light years ahead of your time. So really well done. We're gonna come down and we're gonna present this to you and we're going to get a quick picture. And then after that we'll have a short recess for anyone who doesn't want to stick around for the important budget presentation can do so and leave. No, no. Thank you. No, no. You can't. Sure. Thank you. No, no. Sure. Thank you. No, no, no. Thank you. Thank you. No, no, no. Thank you. No, no, no. No, no, no. Thank you. No, no, no. Thank you. No, no, no. Thank you. No, no, no. Thank you. Me, me, me, pick me. Where you going, Jason? All right. Lauren, tell me how to get it. Same. Me too. So. Good job. Good job. Thank you. So now we will have a short recess if anyone would like to leave the chambers and then we will continue on with our meeting. you you you you you you you you you you Welcome back everyone. Next item on our agenda is the town manager's update. Jim. Good evening members of the council. Folks who are here this evening and those who are watching from home. The narrow river dredging project frequently comes up in town and to avoid any misinformation, I'll continue to give regular updates on it. The engineering firm has been contracted to the town, has prepared draft applications for DEM, CRMC and the US Army Corps of Engineers. Those draft permits were forwarded to the Autobahn Society and the Dune's Club for comments as a butters and interested impacted parties. We have received responses back, some responses back but not completely. And we expect the final permit to be filed by the end of this month. Keep in mind that the original option was chosen back in just in October of 2024, so we should have it to filed within six months. The Nair against Police Department has five vacancies from retirees, from retirements. We have secured five seats in the August 25 Academy to fill these vacancies. We will be meeting with the union shortly to commence negotiations for ground rules and scheduling for the negotiations. Last week town staff and the library met Christine Wilson the finance director Donna Vignale the representative from the council and I met with the library team's patty acrite Sua Maruzo Deb Copac and Pat Cole and and to discuss a variety of issues, including the budget, memo of agreement, repair services provided from fan, camphes, Eric Bell from the Property Management Company also joined us in a productive meeting. Keep in mind that budget work sessions will be held on April 15th, 16th and 17th at 6 p.m. here at the council chambers. That's a Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night. And as we go into discussions about the budget this evening with the public hearing and other work sessions, keep in mind that the time I call it this, that's a town in Erie, Janssen has what I consider the lowest full service community residential tax rate. There are only three communities that have a lower tax rate than us. Charlestown, New Shoreham, and Little Compton. Charlestown and New Shoreham don't have a fire department. Little Compton has a small one. And all three of the communities do not have a school system as expansive and inclusive as the town of Narragansett. And with that said, that's why I state that those three communities, they don't compare to us as far as tax purposes. So for a full service with paid fire or rescue and schools, we are the lowest right now. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone have a question, Sir Jim? Seeing none. On to the approval of minutes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes? I'm sorry, this is a reminder for myself. Can I do them all at once? Yes. Thank you. I always have to ask myself that. Is there a motion to approve the minutes items B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, and B7? So moved. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Hi. Any opposed? Motion passes for zero. One absence. Do I have to report the absence? No, okay, thank you. Next on the agenda is open forum and being mindful that we do have a couple of public hearings tonight. I may have to stop in the middle of public, the open forum, excuse me. And then we will go into the public hearings and then come back to open forum at the conclusion of our public hearing section. So we will start off with open forum. Is there anyone who would like to speak? Yes. Please state your name and address. Susan Sicillini-Banano, 9th Secluded Drive. First, I want to say thank you for your service. I'm here tonight on behalf of the Wakefield Rotary. We have a special project that we're embarking on. It's a Peace Pole project. And we're including Narragansson and South Kingston. This project would display a eight-foot pole in our community for residents and visitors to see. It stands for a beacon of hope. The pole would have eight languages, including the Braille on the pole. It would say, may peace prevail on Earth. Currently, the Rotary International has over 250,000 peace poles worldwide. And so we would like to request permission to put a peace pole in a visible location in the town of Narragansett. So that's our request from the rotary. And I have one other request as a resident and a member of the Affordable Housing Trust Collaborative. I know that you're going to be reviewing your budget. And I'm requesting that you look closely at an allocation of the 50,000 for the Affordable Housing Trust as we continue to struggle with funding. So I hope you'll consider that. And good luck in reviewing the budget. I'll see you all later. Keep up the great work. Thank you. I'm sorry, Jim. I forgot to ask. anyone sign up to speak? Yes the first person we signed up is Gail Scocroft. Thank you. Jim how many are currently signed up? You're five on this list. Good evening. Good evening, town council and Mr. Cunune, Mr. Callahan and staff. I have just please stay your name and address. Sorry about that. Gail Scocroft, 19 prospect, Deb. Thank you. I have watched all 15 and a half hours of planning board discussions regarding your proposed zoning changes as have many other residents. Handing the planning board 14 zoning amendments at once has greatly impacted the planning board town staff as well as residents. These proposed changes would gut our zoning laws, allowing developers and investors to fill small lots with low huge homes. They'd be able to build duplexes in all zones. Buildings could be built to within five feet of the next house, creating a public safety hazard during a fire. Parking regulations would be eliminated, allowing for parking on front lawns right up to the property line. Think about living next door to a duplex with five bedrooms on each side, five feet from your property line, housing 10 students, on a small R10 lot, where would these students park their 10 cars? How about if you had another one of these on the other side of you? How is our water and wastewater infrastructure going to accommodate all these changes? If you increase the maximum number of college students from 3 to 5, you could add over 4,000 more students to our town in addition to the close to the 7,000 already renting homes here, further stressing our infrastructure. The North End Waste Water System is maxed out already, and during summer drought we are at risk of running out of water. Have you considered how to deal with the inevitable infrastructure issues, including the climate change insurers were extreme summer droughts affecting our water supply, and predicts larger storm surge events and more intense flooding, seriously compromising our existing wastewater system? If you listen to the four experienced planning board members, you heard these zoning changes will increase housing costs, including rents, making affordable housing virtually unattainable in this town, not to mention that the character of our town will be changed forever. I don't know who you listen to before you voted to put these proposed zoning changes in motion. Mr. Durk can tell me that residents want these changes. And Mr. D. Simone on the planning board also expressed this sentiment during one of the planning board hearings. I cannot believe that any resident in this town wants to see their neighborhood destroyed as you have proposed. So I also have to wonder where this party party line originated. Residents, most of our residents do not want these changes. We are fortunate to have a nationally recognized planning board expert in Chairman Brady, and I hope you thank him and the rest of the planning board for the Yomans job they have done since March 3rd. I pray that you listen to their recommendations and stop this egregious train that you have put in motion. Thank you very much. Thank you. Uh, who's next? Roger Gados. Good evening. Hi there. Roger Jadis, one blind book drive. The previous speaker said everything I was going to say. So I'm going to have to wing this one. I went also to three out of the four meetings with the planning board. First time I met the planning board and boy I was impressed. Talk about expertise, intelligence, experience, the degrees that most of those board members had. I was really taken back. And there's some people, I hope you consider that you're very lucky to have a board such as that with that experience, particularly Mr. Brady. I didn't realize how many degrees he had and how many different states he worked for, worked in and how many communities he affected from both the development side as well as a resident side. During one of the meetings, I think it was the last when I attended. I did not know a town engineer. Yeah, the town engineer. And from his testimony, I did not realize and I did not think that any more building, any more putting the McMansions on 5,000 square foot lots, how it affects our sewage system, those of us that do have sewage in our water supply. I didn't realize after all these years living here, I didn't realize that we buy our water from North King's town and South King's town. If they're in a jam, are they gonna sell to us? It kind of boils down for me. You have so much area in Narragansett. There's a finite number of houses that can be accommodated. And to redo these zoning, these proposed zoning changes does not benefit me, does not benefit my neighbors, does not benefit the parents of those school children that you saw today. It's not usually, it's not friendly for families to be moving in here. So if we want another state championship, we're going to be keeping the families out. I just hope and I know you have a meeting next month to discuss this issue as well, but really please take into consideration the advice of the planning board because we don't want this issue to become Narrow Gants its Washington bridge because it could. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Oops, sorry one second. So the plan will be, we'll go through the list So the plan will go through the list, then we'll go into the hearings, and then we will continue open forum after the hearings. Is that work? Okay. Carolyn Petra-Sally. Good evening. Please say your name, Nandras. Carolyn Petra-Sally, 74 Rockland Street. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight. A lot of what has been said by the prior, the two prior speakers, I'm about to read to you myself. In an effort to communicate with you, the email is going to prove and fruitless with the exceptions of Miss McNally and occasionally Mr. Menzies. I attended more than 12 hours of planning board meetings on the 14 amendments you sent them to review. To keep myself focused, I'm going to read from my written statement. What you sent to the planning board was a long standing document that you took a broad red paintbrush to, eliminating decades of protections established over the course of several town councils. I failed to see how dismantling these ordinances served the residents, but I do see how it will benefit builders and investors. I would understand if you were trying to streamline the process, but this is not what this is. It's a wholesale gut job that will have profound, irreversible, negative effects on the character and quality of life in this town. Is the intent, as was mentioned at the March 25th Planning Board meeting to eliminate far and replace it with nothing. Throwing all these ordinance in the same basket and claiming they need to be aligned with state law is not being truthful or transparent. I don't hear you mention the enabling act, which allows cities and towns the ability to modify the law as long as it does not weaken it and stays within the intent of the law. This act allows us to maintain autonomy which empowers us to address the challenges and preserves narrow-gances unique identity. And furthermore, if threats of lawsuits is enough for you to slash vital time-tested legal ordinances that protect the character of this town than we're in big trouble. You might as well just turn over the keys to the town, to the investors and the builders. The other thing I've heard repeatedly from this town council is the need for affordable housing, which we do need. But I don't see the connection. What investor or builder would voluntarily build a house to rent or sell at affordable rates, especially when you remove all barriers? If these ordinances are gutted, more oversized houses on undersized lots will be built. Further burdening police, fire,, parking and already stress sewer and water systems. I don't blame the builders for wanting no restrictions. I get it. They're not stupid. Narragansett would be a bargain for them at any price, build for maximum profits, short-term and student rentals, certainly not affordable housing. No average person seeking to move into town could compete with that. Based on what I've heard from the planning board, this needs to be pulled or rejected. To do otherwise makes me think what I did not want to believe that this is a done deal, especially after hearing what was said twice by one of the members of this council to one of the members of the planning board. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Johanna Schiffer. And then Jim, there's one more on the list. And then we will go into public hearing and then we will continue with open forum afterwards. Good evening. Good evening everyone. I'm Johanna Schiffer, 176 Boone Street. I believe I am mistakenly up here. I meant to speak at the hearing. Oh, that's okay. I just want to say well done, Narragansett, basketball team, well done, Sarah, and I'm very proud to live in this town. So thank you. Excellent, thank you. In Kevin McKenna. Hi, my name is Kevin McKenna. I live at 31 plus into Avenue. I've been a full time resident and property owner and that regainscit for 46 years. I've been following the town council for many years. As a 30-year resident of Eastwood Look who felt forced to move because of the impact of rentals around my home. And I have closely followed ordinances that would safeguard the quality of life and our neighborhoods. Obviously, this is a very important issue to me and to my family. I oppose these 14 amendments that will gut our current zoning code. These changes were introduced with little or no public input and they will devastate our current zoning code. These proposed changes in our zoning will in fact affect all town residents. As I had mentioned before, I had lived in Eastwood Look for 30 years. My wife and I moved from our home in Eastwood Look where we raised our family because of a dramatic increase in rental properties in our neighborhood. Believe it or not, Eastwood Look was a beautiful residential neighborhood when I purchased my home in 1979. It was comprised of many young families who sent their children to area schools and participated in local sports leagues and community activities. You could walk to the beach, black point, and even saw pond. It was a beautiful neighborhood to raise a family. Families began to move out as more and more landlords, purchase tombs, and rented them out to college students during the academic year. And in many cases during the summer months. Throughout this period of time, they were limited and forcible ordinances to protect the quality of life in the Erichan city. Approximately 75% of the town's rental properties are owned by non-residents. It's not the town residents that want these 14 amendments to zoning. However, a vocal group of non-resident, absentee, investor landlords are pushing for these changes so quickly. The majority of town residents are not in favor of these changes since they will diminish the quality of life in this town in order to satisfy the insatiable appetite of more profits for some absentee landlords. For years, I'll permit another 15 seconds, but I will remind everyone you will get it. For years, Eastwood looks suffered because of a lack of zoning ordinances to protect the quality of life in this beautiful neighborhood. I attended two of the planning board meetings on these ordinances and the common theme of these meetings was why were these ordinances being changed and who was asking for them to be changed? Thank you. In closing what do you want to change and why? Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. And just as a reminder, everyone will have an opportunity to speak during the each of the public hearings on all of the amendments that we've sent over. So I do, if you do come up to speak tonight, I do hope that you will come back during those work sorry during those hearings. Dr Abba, we do have to move on to the public hearing section. I know you just came in, so I do want to let you know and everyone else know. We are going to put a pause on open forum so that we can get through the hearing session and we will come back to open forum afterwards. So next, is there a motion to open and hold a public hearing on the proposed budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year? So moved. Second. All is in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes for zero and the time is 7.47 pm. Do you want to start? Or not, I'll get right into it. I'm not going to be a lot of people. I'm not going to be a lot of people. I'm not going to be a lot of people. I'm not going to be a lot of people. I'm not going to be a lot of people. I'm not going to be a lot of people. I'm not going to be a lot of people. I'm not going to be a lot of people. The other major funds such as the bridge, middle bridge, the beach, water and wastewater will be discussed during the work sessions and a later date. So first what's notable in the budget, it's the on a signed fund balance as of 6.30 24 audited was 22.3 percent at 15 million plus. The use of one assigned fund balance reserve in the current budget is at 2.283, and that's really due to the increase in personal costs and utility costs. And 20, I'm sorry, in 2025, it's 2.4, that's budgeted, in 2026,26 it's 2.28 and then in 2024 we had zero fund balance use and we didn't use that mostly because of the open positions especially the police open positions they had almost all year. The contributions for OPEB and pension are at 100% the required amount. This is just a picture of the general fund allocations over the years excluding the school transfers. You can see how they went up. Maybe people at home can't, but the PowerPoint is online. The overview of the budget basically for 2026, you can see that 40% is for the school transfer, and then salaries and benefits are at 38%. That's the most for the budget. You can see that the other transfers, such as to OPEB and the police pension, et cetera, the library is at 15% and the rest is under 5%. These are the capital projects and how that has been funded over the past few years. As you can see, it continues to grow. So the impact on taxes as presented is that the proposed residential property tax rate would be at 6.79 cents per thousand and the commercial tangible rate is proposed at $9.17. That's with a 4% increase in the tax rate levy, the tax levy. The fiscal year 2425 rates are at $6.55, $8.84 for the tangible per thousand. As I said, it's a 4% tax levy increase that would represent a 3.7 increase in the tax rate for the taxpayer. The 4% tax levy increase represents almost 2.4 million dollar increase in anticipated revenues. Some other considerations that stay date so far is still an estimate, so I don't know the final numbers. The town manager reduced the capital improvement plan budget to reduce it to 2.291 million from the department proposed a 5.3 million for a total reduction of about $3 million. The town manager also reduced the operating budget about $333,000. Those were mostly positions that weren't needed any longer? Not, they were new for a while because of the tax rate structure changes they were talking about previous councils but that never came to fruition so those positions have been eliminated. And the school department budget it's allocated at a 2.4 percent increase. Obviously they asked for a 2.9 but currently in the budget it's at 2.4. There's been additional requests and special appropriations in the amount of 10.5 thousand and I believe we received another one today for another 2000. Miss Sabo talked about the SNEP grant matching funds of 57,500. Those are not in the budget as presented. There is no debt service, issuance budgeted. So if you want to issue debt, we have to budget that. There's also a couple of introduced bills that we need to watch. They're talking about a local meal and beverage phase out, which is about a million dollars of our budget. It's a 25% every year through to 1.129 and a full property exemption for veterans, which is over $2 million that would reduce our revenues. There's rental registration needs to be looked at during the work session and that is basically because of the short term rental issue but they have fine balances pretty much next to nothing but we'll have to review that. It's not anything that can be fixed. It's just some problems. The budget forecast revenue and expenses, this is another little chart that I show all the time. So if you did a 2% tax levy increase, you can see how use of fund balance goes away. Because you're increasing your revenues. This is a forecast of the levy in the tax rate. Again, at 2% up top, there is a mistake, 20, 25, that's only 3% increase. It wasn't a 4% I apologize for that. But if you go 2% year over year, you can see in the additional annual revenue, you're only increasing revenue by $20,000 a year. If you go to 4% increase year over year, you're looking at additional 100,000 in that compound, obviously. You can see on the bottom that we're looking, if you go up in 2026, a 2% would be $6.65 a 3% increase in the tax levy would be $6.72 and a 4% would be the $6.79 on an average home estimated at $742,000. a $178 increase for the year at the 4%. Obviously, then what's next is the work sessions. That's where everybody will present everything. And the revenues will be discussed, any debt service, any capital projects, and more detail. The second public hearing is scheduled for May 5th. May 19th is the first reading and also the capital improvement plan adoption. And then June 2nd will be the adoption for the budget for the final. Next year. Questions. Well, I have to say, for the initial presentation, very concise job. Well done. Really incredible amount of work that goes into this. You know, I know Don and I worked closely with you and with the town throughout the negotiations with the firefighters. We're very impressed by how quick you were able to turn around with any financial related questions that we had. And to see how we're being very forward thinking here, thinking about not only this year, but several years ahead. And you know, that's one thing I was particularly impressed on the school committee side when we were working on those budgets and seeing that. just on that level and then seeing it on the town's level, it's very reassuring to see. And I would remind the public and reiterate that everyone is highly recommended to come to the budget work sessions next week, April 15, 16th and 17th. That's when we get down to the meat and potatoes of everything that's in the budget. We actually had our first work sessions tonight on information resources, community development and boards and commissions. And again, really high level overview, but again, if there's anyone from the council or the general public who has any specific questions, it is encouraged to reach out to me, to Jim Tierney, to Christine, so that we can get those questions ahead of time in preparation for those work sessions so that we can address those in a timely manner. Because time is not something that we have or anyone has when creating a budget. No sooner do you approve this year, you're already beginning the next year and never year after that. So, again, really appreciate the very thorough presentation. I'll pass it off to Councillor Torielde if you have any questions or comments. No questions at this point in time, but thank you for all of the hard work that went into this. I look forward to the workshops and the work sessions with the individual departments regarding this. Thank you. Councillor Colle Nays. No questions at this point in time. I do appreciate everything, though. Thank you, Councillor McNally. Thank you. I also appreciate all the work that went into this budget. and I have no questions at this time and I look going to be able to thank you for the opportunity to thank you for the opportunity to thank you for the opportunity to thank you for the opportunity to thank you for the opportunity to thank you for the opportunity to thank you for the opportunity to thank you for the opportunity to thank you for the opportunity to thank you for the opportunity to thank you for the opportunity to thank you for the opportunity to it up to the public to come up with any questions or comments. Please, Dr. Alba. Dr. Alba, 24 Eagles, and that's Terrace, near against Rhode Island. I do have one question, and I agree with you. I love the pot that we're twer with thinking. I think that's very important. And my question would be, I would like you to explore the cost for a sewer infrastructure if that fails and has to be replaced. And the cost that would be borne by our residents. And the reason why I'm asking that is because I know we have a lot of rentals as many of us know. And as you know, the rentals do tax our citizens quite a bit. So it would be something to consider looking at a surcharge for all short term rentals and those who do not rent out year round. So therefore, if you're renting out for the school year in the summertime, it would be worth considering some kind of a surcharge, and that way there would be able to have some kind of a buffer, some kind of a, basically a fund. So God forbid, if some time, or if we have to retrofit the unit or do repairs, that could be looked into. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else would like to come up and comment for the proposed budget? Seeing none. Is there any other questions, comments, concerns? Nope. All right. So just as a reminder, the next work session will be held, the first work session, sorry, will be held on April 15th. Where did my notes go? And I believe that starts at 6 p.m. Awesome. Is there a motion to close this public hearing at 8 p.m.? So moved. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes for zero. Thank you, Christine. On to the next public hearing. Is there a motion to open and hold a public hearing for the four month review of the alcoholic beverage license for the market at Gansett Rail LLC, DBA, Boone Street Market for the license year December 1, 2024 to November 30, 2025 at 8 o'clock p.m.? So moved. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any pose? Motion passes for zero. Excellent. So as we go into this next public hearing, this when we first had our first public hearing, only days into our session as a new town council, there was a, the first work session was very lengthy, there were a lot I would like to welcome up our representative from Boonson Market. Thank you. Thank you. So. Oh, and please stay your name. And then. The home's 24-fer relief trail in Arkansas, Rhode against it. Thank you So what I prepared for the council for this evening and for those in attendance was a Progress timeline for some of the solutions that we had drafted up as both ownership and management to hopefully Continue to work with our neighbors to address some of the concerns regarding sound escaping from our south patio. I know it was brought up extensively when we met last that we were planning to construct a pergola on that south patio in hopes to trap some of the sound that was escaping and becoming a nuisance to our neighbors. We also referenced sound dampening panels that we wanted to also install in that same South patio to do the same. So what I prepared, I emailed copies to all council members to Mr. Tierney and also to building fire, tried to be a thorough to make sure we were all on the same page. Also Chief Rakesh got a copy of this today as well. So though we met last in October, a lot of these solutions were beginning to kind of start to become more concrete starting in September. So it's September of last year, we interviewed three different pergola manufacturers to kind of get their opinion on how best to move forward with a pergola structure on that South patio. We also, at the same time, interviewed three different acoustic engineers with a focus on sound dampening panels to try to trap some of the sounds. At that time, we were pretty much gathering quotes and timelines, availability of materials, obviously cost and overall operational disruption, disruptions to our neighbors, things like that were all kind of put out to these companies. In October, we were presented with the preliminary plan to construct a program on that South patio. We presented that to town officials, mainly building and fire. We reviewed sound panel bids and plans. We had a plan that we presented to the council at the liquor license renewal hearing and kind of gave all in attendance a good handle on what the motivating factors were behind this project and our hopes for, you know, lessening the sound and improving relations with our neighbors. Obviously, at that time, a review was scheduled for today and we were just continuing at that time to work towards the same goal. There was a sound panel approach when we were last gathered here that did not meet our desired timelines and at that time we brought an alternative company in. It was not only ownership's hope but management and the hope of all of the town officials that have been helping work on this project that we would be able to do an immediate solution in getting these sound dampening panels hung. One of the biggest roadblocks there was we were presented with a plan to hang these directly on the existing Cedar Stockade fence. That's us with something that was already vetted, it was already approved. It didn't involve a further construction project. It was pretty much, let's take these sound dampening panels and affix them on to that Cedar Stockade fence. I try to be very thorough when I have any outside vendors coming in that are going to be, you know, constructing these kind of projects. So in due diligence, we had a second company come in and vet the likelihood that this plan would do what we were wanting it to do. The second company came in and said, yes, you can go ahead and you can proceed with that. It's only going to result in a 5% reduction in sound escaping from the patio. That to me did not seem like a significant enough reduction in sound based on neighbor feedback and didn't seem like it was, you know, worth the time, the money and out of respect for our end game, it didn't seem like it was the right path to go down. That second company who was very honest and told us what we really had to gain by putting those panels right on the stockade fence. Then did present us with a plan where we could use the same approach with these sound dampening panels, which are passing all fire ratings that are being asked of us from the town, that to put them on the other side of the fence on the structure that is going to support the pergola. So in essence, the post of the pergola could then be used to have these baffles affixed to that structure and what it would do was it would catch much more of the sound that is escaping over the top of the current cedar stockade fence. So that's a seem to have a much more tangible difference. I wasn't really interested in a five-percent reduction in sound. But what it did do is it put the construction of this pergola front and center. I was no longer able to immediately put these dampening baffles up until the pergola was approved by town officials. So, once we had this very solid plan from distinctive pergola, as close as you can get there out of Southern Mass, we then had to move into the engineering part of the whole project. Once we had arrived on the right people to do the job, right budget, right timelines. The project was then sent to, and now we're kind of somewhere, November, December-ish. The entirety of the project was sent to Principe Engineering, local engineering firm, that has worked with my team on not only the project at 145 Boon Street, but our sister property at 83 near Kansas Ave. Very knowledgeable across the board with a lot of our engineering needs. This was something that is required for a structure of this magnitude, so it was something that we were prepared to move forward with. What the first thing that Prince Fy did was they conducted a carrying capacity to structurally vet the south-south of the building. Again, turn to the centuries as an old building, we've put a lot of love into it over the past four years. It has been extensively reinforced in our initial phase of development. We were very confident that the building could carry this weight. I was not interested in any plan that had the pergola affixed to the actual face of the building. So this is coming off of the socket that is already extending. So to me, my historic brain was thinking of it as an extension of an existence of it. So that did require extensive structural engineering to ensure that the building could indeed do what we were asking. It passed with flying color. Engineering had zero problem stating that it was able to carry the weight of the pergola. So that information was sent to town officials. After that box was checked, the town asked me to have a class one survey of the entire property redone. I was hoping that the one that we had been working off of over the past few years was going to suffice, but in all fairness there's been a lot of changes to the property. There's a lot going on. So they requested an updated Class 1 survey, including a lot coverage, and that was then sent to the principle, so principle went from structural engineering into this more land survey. And luckily for us, because of our relationship with them, they were able to work pretty quickly to get this done. Sometimes it takes eight, 12 weeks to even get on these folks calendars. They were very, very, very willing to work with us. They understand why we're doing what we're doing. They understand we don't have to do it. We're doing it to keep peace of our neighbors and try to live together in harmony on Boone. So after that survey was completed, we officially went under contract with distinctive Pergola. And then at this point, we are now the permit for the pergola is in the town officials' hands. We have site-specific drawings from distinctive pergola that is being sent to all of the town officials. We've had extensive, every single vendor that's worked on that back patio is now having to be accountable to this larger permit. For those that don't understand when you try to construct a pergola like this, if you are in essence creating a closed space, it's an extension of your building now. And there is a laundry list of potential code non-compliance. We are constructing this pergola in a way that it will not be creating a confined place. So we have found a path forward with town officials. Though there are a lot of not only building codes but life and fire safety codes that need to be met. and hopes to expedite this and to not put an undue burden on town officials, we have hired Jensen and Hughes, which is, I call them a code compliance firm. I'm sure they have other terms for what they do, but these folks come in and interpret existing codes and they make sure that the plan that you are trying to put forth, meet said codes and if there is any obstacles to those codes they provide, they provide alternative solutions and kind of help, they're like a third party that helps kind of guide us to this end goal. We've been in constant contact with all town officials. We've trying to be as transparent as possible. Anybody from the community that's come out asking questions about what are plans moving forward. All of my management staff, which I know some of, you know, people in this room are familiar with all of them. They're very much trying to explain to anybody that has any questions, what we're doing. really trying as we have, historically, with the town to really work together towards success at 145 Poon Street. I wish I was here in front of you with an approved permit. I'm sure Wayne and Kevin wish that they had a, you know, a approved permit as well. This is not for a lack of absolute stellar communication between all town officials and everybody on my team as well, all of the outside companies that we are working with. I can't think principally enough. Anybody needs any engineering in town, principi engineering has been wonderful for us. So we really are just here trying to be as transparent as possible and giving you an update on this project. I'm also here to answer any questions operationally since our last hearing. If you would like for community members to have their voices heard and then come back up, whatever you see fit, I'm okay with. Thank you. And if there's any way that we can make this information public, that would be great. I don't know what capacity we would do that, but I think this was a really great summary of all of the progress that's been made, exhausting amount of work back and forth communication. You know, I'm also, and to hear the empathy on your end, shared with the residents and to hear the communication that's ongoing, the willingness to communicate with residents in the area. I think that was clear the first time that we had the hearing and now it's clear now. My I will ask a few general questions because I think some people might come up and voice opinions depending on how these questions get answered. Okay. At the first hearing, one issue that was brought up was what kind of training you were providing the staff in regards to when people are leaving the premises. So I'm just wondering if you might be able to share with us what additional training has been done since when was the last one November? November? I know. It's crazy that it's a blur. Yeah, I I December. Yes. So in addition to those trainings that you spoke of, we also added additional signage. Again signage plane is day saying, please leave quietly respect our neighbors. We've also been doing a lot of recommendations as we close at night to kind of close instead of doing a hard close kind of close more gradually even if it's management walking around recommending that people get you know ubers earlier just so there's not this kind of mass exodus all at once which is just very hard to have everybody leave a building like that all at the same time quietly. So there's been a lot of that, a lot of just making sure that we have, you know, people safely getting to their cars, a lot of people who are waiting for, for um, ubers to just do so. It's been, our approach has been just supervising. We feel the more bodies that we have outside during closing and during our busy times just naturally people tend to behave better and listen to what's been being asked of them. So that's something that has been operationally a big focus of ours. And I really do think increased presence has probably been one of our biggest things there. Increasing our security, increasing you know trainings and making sure that we're logging, management logs are a big thing for us, making sure we're communicating what's working and what's not working so we can just continue to try to improve. And I know we have a really great partnership with the Narragansett Police Department. Absolutely. We're ever grateful. So the another concern that was brought up last time was, again, the liability of when people leave the premises throwing trash or making, like it's one thing to, and again, I understand that there's things out of our control business restaurants. But again, what kind of actions or training? Actually, I would say, let me just preface this. I was happy to see when I came by to have some food one late one evening just to see how everything was going. There were some disruptive patrons in the facility and I thought your staff handled it very well. They addressed it, they walked them out and made sure that they left the premises in a safe and quiet manner. And we're big on the D.S. scillating in those moments because I feel like the tone you take inside the market if you can get everybody to kind of take a breath, calm down them, by the time we get them outside, we're not dealing with that volume. So again, what times your last call as well? Last call is 1230, 1240 depending on volumes. Okay, and again. I feel like in the off season, that's more realistic. In the summer, we're leaning more towards the 1215-ish to just again last call, get everybody safely out. Thank you. And again, when it comes to education, educating the staff, I know that it's a very, it's surrounded by residential properties. Is there any actions being taken? Because I know that there was talk about possibly setting up an Uber station in front of the business. What kind of actions are being done in order to address the extremely loud noise that patrons out of your control once control once they leave the premises? Absolutely. But then become a liability once they're out and about in the neighborhood. So this has been another kind of ongoing battle. I will use the word battle because Boon Street is a public area. I cannot ask for a designated pickup spot. For example, say one of my neighbors, residential neighbors wanted to get an Uber for themselves. If I had a designated Uber pickup on Boon Street, it would in essence not allow them to get an Uber or a lift to theirs. I was always using it as like the airport, how you can, there's those designated areas, but because that is all the same property in essence, they're allowed to kind of manipulate and designate where they have those pickups. So we're looking into some alternatives right now. I have been a big proponent of having the pick up be within our parking lot. The one thing that makes us a little concerned is when we have a lot of cars in our parking lot that we have people coming trying to turn around. So we're trying to explore alternatives to that. It seems to be the what I wanted as a solution in this designated pickup, even if it's kind of more like where my flag pole is now. Just getting us even just a few car lengths further down, we haven't been able to designate that on the app with any of those third parties. One thing that we have recognized is that we have a lot of the same drivers that come through and pick up staff. So, you know, even if we have friends or family of ours that are ubering away, we try to have them engage with them. I'm obviously not ubering to and from my property. So, we've been trying to, you know, encourage pickups to be a little bit further, further past. Again, one of the drawbacks of that for anybody that's used any of these services, they try to pick you up where you are. So if you're ordering an Uber inside the market, then they're gonna have your pin right there. So they're gonna try to get as close to you as possible. What we don't want to happen is have our patrons flood down Boone Street to get pickups further away. I feel like that's just a safety hazard as well. Excellent. And Mr. Tierney, I don't know if you have the information readily available, but would you mind, you have, or if not now, or at some point during this hearing, be able to share with the public or reiterate what's already been shared about any noise complaints or police information that you're able to share? Well, since the last meeting back in November, the chief ran from the schedule from 12 to 24 to the current date. And there were no nuisance-type complaints, I mean, that could be attributed to the business. The routine interactions with the police, there was a noise complaint, but it was unsubstantiated, it wasn't in violation of the ordinance and a minor accident, but no type of nuisance complaint connected to the license establishment. Thank you. And I do know that we're mindful of, we are heading into the busy season. Yes. and I'm sure you hear enough of it as well But of course want a close partnership with residents in the immediate area and it sounds like you're you've really worked to establish that really good rapport and are going to continue to Develop those relationships with residents in the area As you continue to support our community. I will turn the floor over to whoever on the council has their first questions and then we'll open it up to the public. But does anyone have any preliminary questions or do you want to just turn it over to the public and then ask bring, ask her to come back up. I've got some questions. Sure. Go ahead. Thank you very much for for coming on back for a review. Okay, so question for you regarding the October 24 pergola that was shot down. Why was that not up to code? The original plan for that pergola was to affix it to the face of the building. That was dead in the water. The second it was presented to me. I'm trying to be as flexible as possible. That to me was just everything that we did to restore that building that did not seem. It seemed to me when it was presented like it was the easy solution and that it wasn't doing that what I think very beautiful building and any justice. So we kind of, I immediately sent that back to the drawing board. All righty, understood. Yes. And with the current plan with distinctive pergola, what is the sound reduction percentage that we're targeting with this one? So until that's a very great question, it is hard to ascertain what the percentage from just the pergola itself will be. Now you have to keep in mind the acoustic engineers that were out on the site were for the sound dampening baffles. They were not for the pergola. The pergola itself does have a luvoured roof, so that roof will substantially trap. Until we have a approved permit, we will not have the acoustic engineers to come back out to optimize the layout of the baffles and to give us an overall reduction in sound rating. It's just, it's not a service that distinctive pergola offers and until that part is constructed and we're past this phase one and we have the engineers come back out to kind of recalculate that. Right now, even the calculation of sound, you know, decrease in sound is still up for debate based on if the current approach to the pergola is approved, then we can move into the plan where the the baffles will be placed. Gotcha. I'm certainly not settling for five percent though. Do we have an an ETA on the perglot permit approval? No, unfortunately that's, I have two buckets, things I can control and things I can't and that is not in my control. I have just been working tirelessly answering every email as soon as I get it. Now right now the ball is in the core of Jensen and Hughes. So I've had extensive, we brought them on last week. I've had numerous phone calls with their senior consultant who is familiar with my team. One thing that I am, you know, kind of happy about at this point is once everything is approved, the construction aspect should move very quickly. I actually got an update from one of the project managers at Distinctive Pargola that a lot of our material is already on site on site at Boonstreet on site at Distinctive Pargola. So we're hoping that as soon as this is passed. We're gonna be able to get this up very quickly. Okay. The under the current approach the roof will be covered. It's louvered so it it's able to be opened and closed. Gotcha. Okay. Well, that kind of does with my follow-up question about the fire pits. So, the fire pits are one of the main reasons as to why we are not creating an enclosed space out there, aside from the incredible, I mean, that would be years to make that and lots of variances I would imagine to make that entirely enclosed. We have to maintain at least a 30% open air exchange in order to maintain both the bromant heaters which are the ones that hang from the soft and from the south facing fence in addition to the warming trends fire tables that everybody that spent an evening at the back patio have come to really enjoy. We have a lot of money invested into those heaters and that's something that we really need to maintain. Okay. And the material for the pergola would be? The material. It's like a galvanized metal. Okay. I more ment meant the coverage. Oh, the coverage. It is going from, if you can put yourself out in the back, it is going from the ticket window all the way over to the material that's going to be up top. Oh, the metal louvers. It's metal louvers. Metal louvers. Yes. OK. Yes. No vinyl.. No, no, no. It was answering everything but your questions. Okay. Understood. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Collinies. I have no questions at this time. Thanks. Councillor McNally. I think my only question, as we know, and as President Menzi said, the warm up weather is is coming and you talked about training and more presence outside trying to de-escalate things from inside and I know you know but I was just wondering is there anything else that you have planned or that you're thinking about to try to just stem the set some of the behaviors from last year. I think one of the biggest differences that I saw operationally, um, and I know I, I, I, I, I, I, I that we have made, and I really just think more security foot traffic through the market, really both interior and exterior, even from a trash perspective to a sound perspective, to just additional eyes everywhere. I think that really proved the most tangible difference. And I think that the more eyes we have back there, the more we're going to be able to identify problems before their problems. That's a big driving training button for me is to really, to put yourself in a position where you're seeing these things before, you know, 20 minutes before they're even a problem. So I think that's something that we've been able to, we saw an immediate change last year when we really did put more bodies in the back. We have what I consider my bias aside a very stellar security staff on Boone Street, former military police, former civilian police. We really do have people that really, really know what they're doing there. And I think that that is our best approach to de-escalating any possible problems. Thank you. And I guess just one more thing as far as capacity. Do you anticipate when they're standing outside in line waiting? So what basically is there going to be some type of a line? So we have the metal stanchions with the retractable. A, that's a big safety measure for me, making sure people aren't getting out of line. I think that that's just with the proximity to the street in the parking lot. That is something that I have found is very, very good about not only curtailing everybody into the right direction, but allowing my security to kind of walk on the outside of that. And again, just making sure that they're seeing all and everything that they really need to see. I have continued to emphasize that that line shows my door guys are doing their job. It means every idea is being looked at, every face is being looked at. They are encouraged to take their time and making sure that everybody that's entering is of age is not already intoxicated. So those are things that as much as I can see that line being an indication that we are so busy or over capacity, it's not safe. As an owner, I see that line and I'm just my staffs doing their job. So as much as we're trying to keep that line safe I'm that line's not going anywhere. Thank you. Thank you very much for sharing that. Are those lines like do you have any concerns about their spilling into the street or going down the street because obviously that's a concern. I understand and really respect everything that you're saying, especially the amount of training, the amount of vetting of everyone that's coming through there. You understand the liability very well. But of course, it's concerns as there's just an endless number of concerns here that go with people going down the streets and what they're doing. Which is why we have the main source of entry on the Boone Street side. That might sound counterintuitive to everybody, but what happens because the line, the entry is into that Boone Street facing Gabelend. It allows the line to go actually away from the street and back towards the bulk of our lot. If we were to do things the other way and have people come in what is known as the ticket bar entrance, that would then create a line that actually spills backwards into Boonstreet. So that was, you know, through a lot of security meetings that that was a deem to be the best route. But it also does is it puts the bulk of my staff as close to Boone Street as I can, so that really allows them to be very, very present, close to the road to really deter anybody from skipping that line and crossing the street in an unsafe way. Do any of the updates that are going to be made here to change the fire code or change the max occupancy? No. So what is one nice part about this plan that actually stream, stream lines the approval is it does not change occupancy, it doesn't change seating, it doesn't change my dining room, it's pretty much just giving us this, this structure which allows us these opportunities us these opportunities for sound happening. And can you please just remind us what the max occupancy is for the internal and external. Oh, Kevin's going to 442 or something like that. Okay. And lastly, I will say that, you know, there were a lot of different concerns brought up by residents at the first hearing, including one being that of light pollution. And I was very impressed to see not only where you willing to acknowledge that concern, but within like day or two it was all gone. And I was sad because it looked really nice but I really appreciated the fast turnaround that you and your business did to address that concern. So now we will turn the floor over to the public and after the public has the opportunity to speak, we will invite you back up for final questions. Okay, sounds good. Thank you. Mrs. Entrilo. Hi, Paul's on for low seven, one word circle. I have to give Ms. Holmes credit. She's really done a great job of framing the debate away from the real problem. Because instead of saying, how do we limit the number of drunks? How do we limit the number of people? So it's how do we control it? I haven't heard anything about reducing the hours. God forbid we do that, right? And I think the strategy here is to run out the clock. Like we're talking about pergolas. We're talking about IDs. And what you notice is, anytime something comes down that will actually cost her money like revenue That's off the table right 440 people getting out at two o'clock in the morning. I'm sorry getting out one o'clock in the morning We should reduce these hours. That's what the residents here are demanding and You know, I think Mr. Mendez you've been a great Proxy for her attorney tonight because it's pretty clear that you're buying the pergola argument. You're buying the, of course, she's going to do things that don't cost her a lot of money or revenue. But it's like we're talking about how these people have to be on the street, how they have to be there. And what these poor residents are saying is we want less of it. And I haven't heard any compromise on the hours at all. You know, I don't live on Boone Street, but it just shows you how, you know, people who have interest here absolutely trump the residents. Because there's nothing meaningful was done to really change it. And of course, it's through the dead of a very cold winter. We'll see what happens in a couple months. Thank you. Anyone else? Dr. Alba? Yes. Dr. Alba, a bunch of 24-year-olds, Ness Terris. I'm a big support of small business and when the Boone Street Marketplace originally came up for the Elicolization, so I supported it. At that time, I didn't realize it was going to morph into a bossing at night. But on that note, I do want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I think we also have to be proactive and we have to recall the nightmare that some of the neighbors experienced last year. So I'm going to just try to give some recommendations of out of all due respect. I know the owners are trying, but I would like to give some consideration. With regards to transportation in Uber or someone getting in their car who might have had one too many, the owners might want to consider getting their own shuttle service to shuttle students to and back from URI and also their local residences within the local area. We also need to consider possibly having near against a police detail. I do hear some policemen do frequent that area firemen as well. Well, maybe we can hire them out. They're experts in the area. They won't really need to be have any training. And I feel with their boots on the ground during the peak season. And when people see someone in their police officers suit, it will make everyone on notice that the Boone Street market is not fooling around. So therefore, if we can have possibly some kind of a police detail, both inside and outside the building. I don't think that's too much to ask. Regarding to drinks, you know, don't drink and drive. We all know the legal limit of intoxication. I think the bartenders have to be trained that if someone's up at the bar consuming multiple drinks within a certain period of time, then he or she is in no doubt going to become intoxicated. Therefore, they should have to split some kind of a limit or be trained in some kind of a limit on how many drinks they are serving one individual. When we go to a follow-up, you know, I appreciate, you know, that, you know, there have been no instances that's passed, yeah, obviously this is the cold season, the slow season. So it's not a true reflection on what's going to happen this summer. Therefore, I would request that the town council does a follow-up review in the heat of the summer with the owners to see how things are going. We got to sound what's going on outside the peace and quiet that the neighbors are going to be experiencing. I don't think that's too much to ask. In regards to the limit of numbers, it was mentioned that 442 patients can stay in this building. Okay. That is quite a bit for a bar for any kind of establishment. So if things do get out of hand, the town council might want to consider limiting how many people can be in that environment at one time. Because we have to consider the safety and security. Katie DeCugulus, a young girl lost her life. I know Meg, and I know her husband. In fact, her husband is a traffic tribunal judge. It was a tragedy that Katie lost her life due to a drunk driver. Therefore, we need to take extra precautions, and maybe you can actually reach out to DeCugulusulouses and ask them for additional safeguards. Thank you so much. Thank you. Anyone else from the public? Good evening. Good evening. Mark Crook, 161 Bloon Street. I want to go backwards, but before that, I want to ask a couple of questions or make comments about what I've heard tonight. So the major concern of the neighborhood is noise. But yet Mrs. Holmes' presentation when asked what percentage of noise is the percolar going to cut down, she cannot answer that. She says that there has to be 30% of airflow. Does that not mean that the noise that we were concerned about last summer is still going to be there? The roof can be opened. Does that not mean that the noise is going to be there? She's telling you that she can't give you that percentage until she gets her permit. Isn't it too late for you to ask this question? Once that permit is issued? You know, this is something that the residents have supplied you through Mr. Lynch at the December 2nd meeting of all verifiable facts from police records and from town meetings. manager tonight has basically given you the information that there has been little or no complaints that are on record with the police department for the last four months since the December 2 meeting. The only thing that has changed at Boone Street Market in the last four months is the weather. People do not want to be outside in the weather that we've experienced the last four months. So the concern is, is the pergola being built for the resident's sake to cut down a noise, or is it really being built for a dual purpose, which would solve the pressure if it does decrease the noise, but also give her the added ability to put people outside since she has limited capacity inside for winter weather. You know, these are questions that need to be answered before you make any decisions on going forward. I ask you as Mr. Mencise indicated at the December 2nd meeting that he was willing to push another review in three months since he was well aware that the last four months does not give an accurate picture of what the residents experienced through the summer of 2024. So you were handed an important hearing at your first meeting. You must have had many concerns including correct procedures and other things. Therefore, I ask you now that you have settled into your position, that you review the presentations of Mr. Lynch and Mrs. Lindsey Holmes at the December 2nd, 2024 meeting. Since we were not allowed to speak after Mrs. Holmes, I would like to revisit her presentation for a couple minutes. I think you will agree that Mrs. Holmes is a convincing speaker, engaged, dramatic, and emotional. Mrs. Holmes, in the first two minutes of her presentation, makes a statement that she feels she is a very, very good neighbor on Boone Street. What criteria is being used to make that statement? She speaks of the arrests at Boone Street Market and skillfully tries to turn the 14 arrests in four months and in four months, into a positive by explaining that our staff is calling the police and Boone Street Market does not try to hide from their arrest record. The real issue here is why is Boone Street Market attracting a clientele that requires rest to keep the people under control. Look at the record of other restaurants in the pier and how does Boone Street market compare. That's the important measure. This is home states that she is begging her patrons to respect neighbors when leaving Boone Street Market. This is what their sign reads. Please be mindful of our neighbors when leaving. They love peace and quiet probably more than you love our mudslides. She also explains that the noise monitor system, noise aware, that is on the property. She does not explain what the procedure is if the system alerts them of high noise levels or who is responsible to react to that system alert. A system without procedures and knowing how the information is used gives little credibility to the noise alert system. Mrs. Home states that she is unwilling to pivot on closing hours. She also told Mr. Lynch that she will not consider a change in operating hours to placate neighborhood quality of life. My understanding is the town council determines the liquor license hours, not the applicant. Mrs. Holmes tells the council that one of the reasons she will not pivot on closing hours is that employees count on the hours. Yet when business drastically slows down because of the season, did she not make necessary staffing changes? There is a new restaurant in Providence. I don't know if you're familiar with it. It's called Track 15. It is a very similar business model. Seven stations. 18,000 square feet. Capacities are 300 people inside, 100 people outside, total of 400 people. 18,000 square feet. Their hours are Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. A business of this model, obviously, they thought this is a $25 million investment. I'm sure that they did their diligence when they decided what hours they were going to be open. So they feel that they can successfully run that business with those hours. Mrs. Holmes has told you she can't do that. He needs to be open until 1 a.m. If you look at the plans of the building, Boone Street Market, she's using inside and outside approximately 6,000 square feet. Her capacity is over 400. Again, track 15, 18,000 square feet, 400 people, Boon Street Market, approximately 6,000 square feet, over 400 people. The noise is not going to decrease without you reducing their hours. The town manager has given you that information. The former chief of police have given you that information. As I said, Mrs. Holmes is a good speaker and convincing. But this is not a verifiable situation with the solutions that she's come up with. There has been no communication with the neighborhood. Mr. Menzies, you know, you congratulated her on her relationship with the neighborhood. I am a representative of the neighborhood. There's been no communication. There was no communication from the very beginning. No written communication, no verbal communication. So this is my suggestion. That you establish a meeting with two representatives from the neighborhood and Mrs. Holmes and one of her managers, if that's what she prefers, every three to four months. And let's get and sit at a table and let's discuss some of these things. Because you are being given two different versions of the situation. What is factual? Again, that's why I encourage you. Go back and review on YouTube the December second meeting if you haven't done that. It is well worth your time. Take a look at the information Mr. Lynch has provided you with. Take a look at Mrs. Holmes' presentation. In that presentation, under some of a second, she tells you that the sound absorption panels have been ordered in our in-production and will be installed within three weeks. Tonight we hear not only have they not been ordered and not in production, but there's a totally different plan that now they need to be installed on the perigula. She tells you on December 2 that she does not want to spend a half a million dollars on this perigula that she's doing it out of an olive branch to the naval hood. So my suggestion again, Mrs. Holmes can save her $500,000 and reduce the hours of operating that agree with the other establishments in the peer. All of the information I'm giving you tonight, don't believe me, it can all be verified. You can look up track 15, you can take a look at the December 2nd meeting, by all means verify what I'm telling you tonight. The only solution that the residents can keep their quality of life for 2020-25 summer is if you limit the hours on her liquor license. Sound absorption boards, 5%, a pergola with a roof that opens and air flow. Now, without you even getting that figure, what do you think that is going to do? Mrs. Holmes had opportunities on that fence, pulled out, put bigger ones in. I asked the landscapers, what are you doing? Oh, we're pulling these out, we're going to put bigger ones in. Those are the 10 footers, we're going to put 15 footers in. I said, what is that going to do? He said nothing, but we're getting paid. We need a real verifiable solution. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry I can't before you said anybody else. I apologize. Nope, that's all right. I was going to, I actually saw you get up so I was, thank you. David Bird, 23 Perkins Ave. The main point I wanted to make tonight is that we do need that hearing in July because what happened last summer is going to be repeated. There are solutions. I won't go into all of them. The Mark mentioned, with the 9 o'clock closing, go inside and do what they said with other councils to other bars who were late at night with noise, with music, etc. Go inside, close the windows, close the doors. Panchos, Shorehouse, even the Coast Guard House, shut off the music at a certain time. This whole thing about, it's a social justice issue for people to be able to drink into one o'clock of the morning outside and make noise. It's just unacceptable to the neighbors. And to continue to pretend that baffles and pergolos are going to do anything is just not the case. 426 people, yelling, screaming, TVs, games, the noise is incredible. And we kind of find it difficult that it keeps being kind of belittled, that it isn't that much noise being told, it's not that noisy tonight. So this our 400, 500 feet away, and you can't open a window at night. This whole thing about I must, I must be open into one time and time again and the hiding effects time and time again, planning never got to the number of 417. They stuck at 226. Zoning never got the 417. They stuck. It went to this council and there's no mention of 417. 417 people outside to 1 o'clock in the morning with all of the rest taking place between 9 o'clock and 1, DWIs, which continue. We're kind of disappointed that sort of the tone it's taking that she's doing something because it's just arranging things. This isn't a solution. It's not going to quiet down. It's not going to be any quieter. Yes, she might be protected from the weather. That's also been closed down with outside. Now you can't put up protective measures to enclose your place and to get around another variance. It's 126 people with the parking she had that was supposed to be 46 parking space toward 26. No discussion and now with 417 it would be something like over 120 parking spaces. Put in a bathroom, they don't even have 26 now. I mean it just is a disruption to the neighborhood that just isn't required and shouldn't have been approved. And please, no more variances to sort of allow it to just be enclosed so that in fact, it can still be noisy. But in fact, isn't consistent with the neighborhood. We talk about bringing families to the Boone Street to have apartments with stores downstairs, etc. It isn't even safe, especially after nine o'clock at night, to walk across streets. No one's gonna want their children in the planning that was noted. Keep in mind you're gonna be three and a half inches from the sidewalk. How are you going to keep people from that outside area facing east? Well, that'll just be sort of a holdout area for people want to have meals. The story just changes and it's not consistent with the reality. Thank you. I hope tonight to just come and speak to having another hearing, but I felt I had to speak beyond that. We're not going in the right direction. I'm sorry. Thank you. Anyone else who hasn't already spoken? Wish to comment? Yes, please come forward. Johanna Shepard 176 Boone Street, near again set. I just want to show my support to our neighborhood. And I love what Sarah had to say in her essay. You know what, sometimes it just takes one person, it takes a ripple. It makes that ripple a fact. But we just want to feel like that we are listening to. And I have a great deal of respect for our town, for our town council, for our law enforcement, versus responders, and business owners as well. And we can talk about all these different pseudo solutions, but it just comes down to it's almost like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. And if you look at the layout of the neighborhood, these neighbors are not complainers. These neighbors have really lived in this neighborhood for quite a while. They are upstanding citizens. And, you know, I personally do appreciate you. And I do like your restaurant and it's just the hours and and if you don't believe us I mean our former police chief said the same exact thing and you know he really knows this town better than most of us and it it's just not going to work. Past 11, I don't know what else to that I can really say. I just want to be able to sleep. I mean, we just want to feel safe safe and I agree that we should look at all the other business models that don't come with all this disruption. But we don't want to be personal. I do appreciate what you're trying to do. I'm sorry, I do appreciate the staff and the owners. What they're trying to do, it just doesn't work. It's just not going to work. You know, we can we can keep trying things. I do care very much about our community and I do believe you're all trying to do the right thing and it's a tough situation. And that's why I believe that I'm not as articulate and I don't have all the statistics that my fellow neighbors brought to the table. But as a citizen, as a resident, about as a citizen, as a resident. I just think that that's the only solution. So if you don't want to listen to me or the fellow residents, listen to the experts, you know, Lickard, our police chief. And I think the lawyer that we hired did an excellent job of pointing out how we're not trying to disrupt her business. We're not trying to be nasty or negative. We would love to work together. We absolutely would. And I have such a steam for all of you. But I honestly felt after the last hearing and we've been to many hearings, so emotionally drained after all that time, but also, I don't know, I hate to say, He just seemed like your mind was already made up before we even spoke. I hope that's not true. It's just the appearance of great job, great job, everything that you're doing. I know the revenue is important. I know our town needs money. But the bottom line is we're just, we're people. We just, we want to have a good life here. We want to have a safe neighborhood. And even, you know, staying open till 11, it's still quite busy. There's still a lot of traffic parking. And, you know, that just comes with the territory. But quality of life, you can say that over and over again until you have the crowd of people walk past your bedroom window in the middle of the night until you can't go to sleep and get up for work. We'll have to get up for work but you need people to sleep. I'm sorry I'm not articulate. I don't want to take it any more of your time. I just wish I had some solutions to offer everyone. So we could all be happy. But it just doesn't work in this environment to have that kind of noise and have those that many people that late at night. I'm sorry, thank you so much for everything that you do and thank you everyone for listening to me tonight. Thank you. And I thought you were very articulate. Anyone else? Seeing none. I think there were a lot of very valid concerns brought up and I will give Lindsay the opportunity to respond before the council Has additional comments and conversations amongst ourselves? Okay, I want to thank everybody for voicing their concerns I just took some notes as people were speaking, so I apologize if they're fragmented or all over the place. So my first note is just a reminder to everybody, and this is something that Chief Raikis can attest to. We have had a posted police detail up for grabs, if you will, at the police station since before we last met. So that is something that officers can sign up for between the hours of nine and one. And we set the rate of pay as such that if somebody was wanting to get overtime and take a four-hour shift at the just a normal patrol or four-hour shift at Boone Street Market under this posted detail that I would match that overtime rate of pay. That was something that, you know, the chief said wasn't common, but that was something that I wanted to level the play in field and I didn't want a police officer to take a decrease rate and pay for taking a police detail at my establishment. So that is something that to this day is still posted just to be very, very clear. I am not in control of whether an officer signs up for that detail or not. It's obviously like a volunteer kind of situation where they would sign up and get paid for being at the market. We have looked into a trolley system or actually one of my employees is working on the employee shuttle route 2 and in conjunction with that is something that we are continuing to look at one of the concerns I have of that is there used to be those party buses that would go into the neighborhoods, and then instead of having them now getting picked up in a commercial district, they're getting dumped into a neighborhood. So I worry that that's also going to cause additional problems, but trolley systems are something that is on the table and we are constantly exploring and welcomed any additional options that anybody in the community has in regards to transportation. I'm a very big mom a bear of my staff. My staff is all extensively trained. They're all typ certified. They all get constant, weekly trainings on how to conduct their job in a professional manner that ensures that everybody is as safe as possible. I am absolutely open to another review. I'm open to workshops with my neighbors. As soon as they retained legal counsel, it was instructed by my legal counsel that lawyers now talk rather than individuals, which was something that I wish didn't happen, but once I am approached by an attorney, I am no longer speaking to their clients, I'm speaking to this attorney in regards to my conversations with Mr. Lynch that we're taking a wee bit out of context. I do not negotiate my hours of operations, my restrictions or lack thereof of my liquor license with somebody else's attorney. Jack McGreen is my attorney that I have been working with for the past four years. Jack has only took the night off because I thought that I could handle this on my own tonight. So just to be to be very clear on that. Also, I think there is a very big misconception over who sets fire capacity. The capacity in 145 Boone Street is not set by Lindsay Holmes. It's not set by Christina Holmes or anybody else. It is set by the Fire Marshall. There are two different capacities. There is a seating capacity, which then dictates how many parking spaces I need to have. And then there is a fire capacity, which is based on a square foot algorithm of public space. The reason that track 15's capacity is different than mine. I have not been there yet. Congratulations to the Marcelo group. They were very jealous that I beat them to the punch in opening up the first market. But it has to do with public space for your guests to gather. I'm just going out on a limb saying that they probably have more back of the house space than I do. More on site storage space. I could go on and on and speculate as to why the city of Providence have given them a different capacity than mine. Fire capacity is not within my control. My seating capacity was something that was approved and looked at extensively before I even was operational. There will be a second permit for the sound baffles. That's why you do not have sound engineering for those baffles in front of you. That's why we are not even to that part yet. I did have soundbaffles under contract in production. I actually gave them a $40,000 check that I had to have refunded once the second company that came in said that they weren't going to do nearly what I was led to believe. So when I stood here on December 2nd, that was the reality. I have email chains, contracts, checks if anybody needs that cooperated. Her patio has been open all winter long just to be very clear. There have been people gathering, there were people there this afternoon granted, there has not been 100 people out there, but it has been open all winter long. I'm actually the only business owner, restaurant owner in Narragansett that has a winter seating plan that is filed with you folks. My back patio is included in that winter plan. To remind people, the procedures with noise aware, we get notifications when sounds reach certain decibels. All of my management are alerted via apps on their cell phones. It lets them know what exact location is reaching a sound. And it gives my security, my management, and my staff and opportunity to go out there. see why is it friends that are laughing, is it a cornhole game, what is causing an increase in sound and gives them an opportunity to de-escalate that problem before it gets louder. This is something that was a contingency of my liquor license on 83 Gensadav. If anybody wants to look up all of my testimony, I have gone on and on about the pros of noise aware why we choose to use it, how it is used. So I just want to give that reminder. Another thing, another difference about track 15, they are not being run the way that we are. We are run as one restaurant. All of those kitchens are independently operated. I don't know if that has anything to do with their hours of operations. I am not going to speculate why the Marcello Group put their hours the way that they did. I have been saying for years and years at this podium and in front of planning and in front of zoning that I want to serve all of the people that the last lady spoke of first responders police officers fire nurses industry people She listed all of those people that she has a mass amounts of respect for where are they going at 11 30 when they get off their shift These are not just people that are coming to my market and drinking. I beg everybody, come into the market at that hour and see who is in there. Please, please, please. You're going to see that it's people that are serving this community that I want an opportunity to serve. So when I sit here and say, I don't want my hours changed, it's not a money grab. It is, I have long sense said, that's the demographic that I wish to serve at that point. Right coast landscaping. I find it very hard to believe that anybody at right coast landscaping responded the way that that gentleman said, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that that is true. The reason that those trees were swapped out is A, they were bigger to begin with. B, I was desperate for solutions. And they're supposed to grow at a faster rate and fill out that line. That's the end of my notes. One thing that I just wanna point out and I hope that I'm not the only one that caught it. The number of people that stood here and said, the solutions that I am working so hard to bring to fruition, the half million dollars that I will not see a return on my investment, zero ROI on this investment. The fact that they think before it's even done that it's not going to work. But I'm the one that's supposed to be coming up with solutions. I'm coming up with solutions and before they're even constructed, everybody's just shooting them down, they're not going to work, they're not going to work. We heard it from almost everybody that came up to this, they're not going to work. It's very, very difficult to be doing what I'm doing, spending what I'm doing, and hear that. It really makes me feel like I'm working with people that really have zero hope or, I don't know, I don't feel like they're wanting to work with me. So I opened my doors. I would love to host a meeting, I actually threw it out to Jack, Jack was going to talk to Mr. Lynch. So we can see in presence of lawyers and absence of lawyers, I would absolutely welcome anybody to come in and tell me what I can be doing. And I know I'm a good neighbor because you can ask everybody that lives on friendly trail, I'm a very good neighbor. So I don't know how you really quantify that. Talk to my neighbors. But I'm doing, I'm going above and beyond. So I welcome any additional feedback. I welcome additional solutions because the ones that I'm spending a lot of energy and people that are in this field that are saying they're gonna work. And I have everybody coming up here saying that there's, there's not a shot. So I look forward to another review, whether it's in the dead of July, fall, you tell me, I will be here. And I can reach out to Jack, who can reach out to Mr. Lynch to see if he can get his clients to agree to a sit down. That's something if Jack was here. He would have test. I've been open to that for months now. Thank you. Thank you. So a lot of feedback has been shared tonight on both on from everyone. Actually, who's gone up to speak. And I think there's a lot of feedback has been shared tonight on both from everyone, actually, who's gone up to speak. And I think there's a lot of valid feedback from our residents and as well as everything that you've shared as well. I agree that from the first hearing, we actually reviewed a full list of the major issues that were being brought up from the residents. the first hearing, we actually reviewed a full list of the major issues that were being brought up from the residents at that time. And I have watched the December 2 hearing and I will rewatch it again before the next hearing. But it was very clear to me, I can't speak for the council, but it was clear to me at the time that we articulated what the major concerns were at the time. You acknowledged what those issues were. You presented us with a plan of action and have followed up with the status of the action items. But I do also agree and am empathetic to the fact that we are not in the peak of the season. But I also do wanna give you the opportunity and Boone Street, the benefit of the doubt, to fully roll out all of the changes that have been suggested and are being stated that are being addressed and we will revisit this. I would propose revisiting it in August 4th. So as to not have be in the heat of July, July 4th, that first weekend, first town council weekend would be like impossible. But I would either propose July 21st or August 4th to revisit this liquor license and just as a reminder, and then I'll open it up to the council for conversation. The current liquor license that was agreed upon at the December 2nd meeting was that outdoor live music will cease at 9 p.m., all outdoor music will cease at 11 p.m. and the current license agreement to serve until 1 a.m. would remain in effect and then we would revisit the approval in four months, which is why we are here today. I would, and again, based on all of the information that has been presented to us in the factual evidence, the lack of, and the police reports that have been shared, I would propose giving the residents the opportunity to work with you set up a meeting. I don't know in what shape or form that looks like. I'm sure we can get a town council member to be present but I thought that was a great suggestion because lawyers are expensive. So if you guys can come to the table and talk it out, see what it is that each side would be able to compromise on and be willing to present that to us at either July or August when we have this fall if the council agrees. We'll be able to address it in the peak of the season because I that's very important that we address the concerns at the peak of the season so that this council, the residents, all of us will have the opportunity to have that conversation on both sides between now and then, and then also be able to revisit some of the greatest concerns, especially the noise again, that you have rolled out a plan in reaction to all of the points that were brought up at the previous hearing. So I do want to give you the benefit of the doubt as well as Boone Street to be able to implement all of the changes that you've brought forth. There were a lot of residents that I greatly respect who have stated that it's not going to work if it doesn't work out between now and then we will be talking, we will be having a more serious conversation I think. And but again, I want to give you the benefit of the doubt to roll out all of the changes that have been recommended. I'm going to be honest, I'm not opposed to modifying the hours of operation in July or August if we see an elevated amount of out of control. And I think at that time, we'll be having a different conversation. But that's why I'm sharing that feedback because I have the confidence that Boone Street market, you seem like a very strong business owner yourself and we want to continue to ensure that people want to do business in this town. It shouldn't have to be every three or four months that we continue to see you. But I also want to be mindful of the residents in the area because even if both sides, you know, one side is saying that the conversations are being had and then another side is no conversations are being had, I think this is a great opportunity between now and then to ensure that that conversation does happen. I would encourage residents in the Boone Street area as well as you or a representative to reach out to Jim Tierney and then we can collectively come up with a neutral meeting on both sides and we'll have at least a town council member present and then that way all will be represented. And then hopefully we can come up with a compromise. And we only have to see you in November, hopefully. But again, I like the ongoing conversations that are being had. And I think that the current liquor license with this current stipulations can remain in effect until the peak of the season, either the third week in July or the first week in August. So that's either July 21 or August 4. Would be my proposal to this council. I know I've done a lot of talking, so I will open the floor up to whoever wants to comment. A couple of questions. After our last meeting, it's my understanding the air staff volunteer to turn the decibels down outside immediately. Immediately. Right to a different level. We also changed the way that the speakers were zoned so they could, the exterior speakers on the Boone Street bar could be isolated from the rest and made sure that those were able to be controlled independently. Okay. It is also my understanding that the reason why you're post for a paid police presence wasn't happening is because you had a police presence there at night and they just weren't taking that posted job. Yeah, because we were kind of, where we're close to the station, they were kind of patrolling through anyhow. So I don't think any of the officers saw that as a immediate need. And when I posted the detail, we had currently had police had police officers at the door, at the street. It was something that I did because I didn't want to seem as though I was taking advantage of that or, you know, using police resources and access. So that was something that I had offered up to kind of offset that. And you will continue to keep that post up. To my, I can verify with Chief Rikis, but it has been up the whole time. Okay, I agree with everything Alex said too, as well, so we'll look forward to seeing you in late July August. Okay, so that's good. Thank you. Councillor Torrealdi. And I'm going in this direction because Councillor Vignelli said she would like to speak last on things, class on things. So this is an a preference of one side or the other Councillor Torraldo. Thank you. Given that there is police. She would like to speak last on things. So this is an upreference of one side or the other. Councillor Torriela. Thank you. Given that there is police already there, Chief Reakus, would the officers who are, you know, I'm not necessarily picking up the detail but who are stationed there at that point in night, could they be encouraged to discourage, you know, wandering into the neighborhood or excessive noise. What would the enforcement look like? Sorry about that, Chief. If there's any pointed questions, please just say so ahead of time if you wanted to reach out. No, that's all right. So we are actually, we are not posted there every night. Okay. So we have extra patrols on the weekend on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. If those offices are available, then they go by there and would address any needs. Okay. Understood. Could it be encouraged to them for those that are, the go by there Thursday through Sunday night to really keep an eye on the wandering into the neighborhoods and the enforcement of noise ordinances. Like Lindsay said, it is close to station. So we go by the snapshot quite a bit. OK. Thank you. Is there a reason why not Sunday, or did I just miss here? Did you say Thursday through Saturday or? We usually post through the years. We've posted a what we call a potty patrol detail. It's at seven o'clock and three o'clock in the morning, that's specifically the handle, the bars, and the your right crowd. And usually it's Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night that of the busy nights. And this is a service that you've regularly provided before. Yes, the one street. Okay, does anyone else have any other questions for the chief? Okay. Do you? No. I'm good. Thank you. Thank you. And Councillor Tariq, do you have any other additional questions for Lindsay? Yes. Sorry for the up and down. Would you please be able to keep us updated with the progress of the pergola permit? Absolutely. I would ask that you come and speak perhaps during open forum to let us know when that has occurred so that we can keep an eye on that. Absolutely. I don't know how best to do that. I know that the permits are on the town portal. I don't know that something that you guys have access to. I could definitely extend a guest invitation to that. A lot of that is kind of the Q&A behind the scenes for the permit. I think we can also ask Jim, Terney, to provide us with an update. Yes, I'll go ahead and do that. I'll speak to Wayne tomorrow. But once it's issued, I would suggest that as it progresses, we'll do the regular inspections anyway. Send me an email, let me know the progress and I can inform the council. Absolutely. Just a thought, Uber had been mentioned earlier. Could, I don't know, some kind of jug handle be carved out, maybe over the flagpole area or where the bike racks are, they could pull in. Yes, that's kind of, that was when I said that I kind of wanted to direct them in. I think again, one consequence of that is if we have patrons that are already parked there, if staff is parked there, I think that that one thing I'm trying very hard to not impede anymore parking, we all know that parking is an issue in the peer in general. So that was an idea that I had initially kind of had for them. I don't know if I can control their pickup, just like I can't control the pickup on Boone. I don't know if I can, I don't want to say make them, but encourage them to kind of come in there and do that kind of drop off. But that's something that I can definitely, I can explore further. and my point of contact, Brad Marso, who's been working trying to optimize some of these issues with lift and Uber. I can definitely lean on him and see if we can designate a pickup on the interior of the parking lot and what the consequences of that would be. Yeah, I was kind of thinking of entry from the street, but I don't know how that would play with the sidewalks and everything going on there. Again, it's like it's a double-edged sword because I, you know, the less cars that are coming and going from the parking lot, I feel the safer the sidewalk is. So that's why one reason that the pickup, you know, in that regard was working street side to, to not have causing any congestion or unsafe egress in or out. Yeah. OK. And then one last point, I would just ask for July 21st over August, just my personal preference in terms of re-review date. OK. Councilor Vignelli. I just want to say that I agree with everything that has been said so far. And I am a firm believer in communication and speaking to one another. And I think the suggestion and thank you for that suggestion of meeting maybe three or twice a year or once a month or whatever the time is that you guys decide. But I think that's an excellent idea and I hope that that can open up communication and I know the suggestions and the recommendations and the solutions are hard. and maybe you're not sitting down and talking to one another, something can come out of it and I think that that would be a great start. So I applaud you for wanting to do it and I applaud the residents for wanting to do it. And I really hope you follow through and do that. Absolutely. And I would agree as well just to jump off that as well that communication throughout this whole process is incredibly important. It's one thing when we get to hear it at a hearing in the public. It's to get to listen to this back and forth. But I think there's a lot of personal stories on both sides and financial concerns as a small business or business in town. But of course, the quality of life for residents that live in that immediate area. That's their home and they live there all year long. And we want to make sure that all voices are coming to the table and being listened to. And it's really reassuring to hear that both sides would be willing to have that conversation. And I strongly encourage that that conversation happen between now and either July 21st or August 4th. It sounds like the preference is for July 21st. So that there can be a better understanding on both sides. I don't want to come back here in July to listen to similar stories that conversations were not had on both sides. And maybe they have had, maybe they have had, or geez, maybe they have had those conversations already. But again, I think now that we can really put it on the books that we're publicly encouraging this, and we've heard from both sides that we're willing to have those conversations, I think we'll come up with a stronger solution in the peak of the season and take the whole picture into account. In addition, I did have one other question, but I'm trying to remember if I said it already. Hold on. Oh, when it comes to the noise issue, especially, it's one thing for us to put in, turn the music down at off outdoors at 11 p.m. But I think crowd noise is being measured. It's definitely a major and primary source of the problem and how when people go and leave the business, the spilling out and the loud noises that goes out and down Boone Street. And that's why I brought up some of those concerns earlier on was, you know, the training of staff and what are we doing to ensure that patrons who are leaving the premises are doing so in a safe manner. And again, just for a point of clarity for the whole public, the current monitoring system, I know that there were different measurements of sound going on, but there is an agreed upon one correct measurement, is that correct Jim, that the police uses, and that that that's when it comes to the measurement of sound isn't They're not using our monitors. They're not using your monitor. They're using independent monitors that the police office has. They use their own independent. Yes. So each so both sources there's not like one reliable source they each have their own source of measurement. Police Department uses uses the calibrated units that they trained in and they use the ordinance to do it. The system that they have is simply for them to monitor it, which we do not rely on. Okay. Thank you. So does anyone else from... So again, the my proposal, and agreed upon if the council should vote in favor of it, would be to under advisement, keep the current restrictions in place where you cease live music outdoors at 9 p.m., all outdoor music will CIS at 11 p.m., and the current liquor license agreement will remain in effect until 1 a.m. and we will revisit this on July 21st at the peak of the season and review more thoroughly the hours of operation as well as the updates from Boone Street. Do you guys agree with that? Okay. I need to make a motion while I'm making a motion. So approved. Second. Any additional discussion? I'm sorry. Am I doing that right? Am I doing that right? Do I have to close the hearing first? No, you do that to a date certain of July 21st, right? Yes. OK. And that's actually part of the motion, please. And sorry, and what? I just make that as part of the motion. Just be positive. OK. Thanks. OK. Is there? OK. Hold on one second. OK. is there a motion to continue with the current license approvals for the class B, virtualing alcoholic beverage license for the market at Gantzent Rail, LLC, DBA, Boone Street market, 145 Boone Street, Narragansi,wood Island subject to state and local regulations with an additional public hearing scheduled for July 21st. So you're basically just keeping this hearing open until that date. Yes, correct. Thank you. Sorry about that. Is that good? All right. anyone move that motion? I'll move the motion. I'll second it any discussion all those in favor. Hi any opposed? Motion passes for zero. Thank you. Thank you. Is there a motion to? Where am I? Is there a motion to I'm on the wrong? Oh, thank you. I'm sorry. Is there a motion to schedule a public hearing on May 5th? Oh, this moved. That's why is there a motion to schedule a public hearing on May 5th 2025 on the amendments to appendix a entitled zoning that were referred to the planning board at the March 3, 2025 regular meeting. So moved. Second. Discussion. Just as for clarity in my conversations with our town solicitor at the current interpretation is that we re-voted and to refer these zoning amendments to the planning board who have reviewed and will provide their feedback and based on the current interpretation of the law, 65 days it has to be within 65 days from the point in which we refer to the planning board that we have to schedule the first public hearing. Is that correct? Correct. Thank you. And it would be my, you know, I think I would just add to the council that it's likely not going to be the last hearing that we have on it. But this is very much a starting point for the conversation of this review. And then we will go from there. So I will talk only to the motion here. So is there, so we've already moved that, and we've seconded, is there any other additional comments or discussion? Just confirming that we wouldn't be voting to approve or reject anything at that hearing. Good question. No. The way that I would frame it is we will go through the entire vetting process review starting on May 5th to a point unknown. So there is no deadline when it comes to the review process and James please crack my thumb wrong. The only hard deadline that we have is that we have to start or open a public hearing within 65 days from the point in which we referred this to the planning board. And then we can, if the council chooses, continue the public hearing over a series of days, of review, and then once we close the hearing on the final day, we can then immediately vote individually on each of the 14 recommended amendments or the following meeting. Okay. Got it. But we would not be voting on anything at the May 5th. Okay. And again, just confirming we'll be voting on them individually, not as bulk. That's correct. And I did confirm that with James, that is, that they can both be they can all be voted on individually They do not all have to be voted on together Good. Thank you Any other questions comments All those in favor I Any opposed motion passes for zero this this is a scheduling Agenda item Oh, you, point of order. May I have a question from the panel? This is just a scheduling item, sir. This isn't, if you want to talk, there would be plenty of opportunity during a public hearing. The board of the discussion is just a scheduling order. I don't know why they be public comment on a scheduling matter that's statutory. No, we don't need any public comment on a scheduling matter. I have to hear my point of order. That's law. Your rules. I don't think your rules are very important to make much more. If you want an opportunity to speak during open forum we will grant that we're gonna come back to open forum This is just The council president will close the council discussion and will inquire if any citizen wishes to be heard on the matter It doesn't say if it's a scheduling motion But this is just a scheduling. Yeah, but that doesn't, that still allows me to speak. It's up at the president to decide. It is not, it is the rules on this town's website. Check make it out please. In this unique circumstance, I will allow the comment. But please take into consideration moving forward that all scheduling agenda items are really just scheduling purposes that we do have a lot lengthy agenda to get through. But I will allow your comment. I have an objection to your schedulingness, and people should be allowed to speak on that, because these are your rules. Excuse me, sir. I need to get back. Sure. My name is John Healey. I live at 10 wheel in the strife. And before I start, we have a public hearing. Isn't it customary to swear in those people that testify? I don't think anybody got someone in tonight. So, thank you for the opportunity to speak. So a couple of things. In the public hearing before, it was nice to hear you at least appear to appreciate quality of life issues like on Blooms Street. Moreover, as far as this public hearing and what has the upcoming public hearing, I would have thought that at least it made sense that you introduced all these suggested ordinances by you on March 3rd. I would have thought the chronology would be, you introduced them on March 3rd. You sent them to the planning board for their review and comment. Also on March 3rd, you. Well, for you actually, after the public discussion, well, for you said you didn't agree with all of them. So since you didn't agree with all of them, I thought that when you went to the formal public hearing that you scheduled, you would have corrected what you did not agree with, and then put that into the, along with the comments from the planning board, put that into the public hearing agenda packet where it has all the information. And that will be provided, sir. That public, yeah, it's already posted. Right. Yeah, I know, but right, but I didn't see in any of your, where you publicly said you weren't agreeing with all of them, I didn't see you change anything. Right, we haven't had that public hearing yet, sir. This is just the review process. I know. Okay. I'm saying you had an opportunity to review and put in what you really thought apparently you already have. Anyway, enough of that. So this agenda item tonight says the planning board has held several special meetings to review the proposals. This public hearing is being scheduled for May 5, 2025 to meet the requirement set forth in Rhode Island General Laws, 45, 24, 51. Well, I heard you say, which is a different interpretation of Riga when I read that general law. Because it says that the City or Town Council shall hold a public hearing within 65 days of receipt. I interpreted that as to be within 65 days of the receipt of the planning board's recommendation. We have discussed wrong. We have discussed that. I was looking to say about that. And we decided together. I think that's correct. That we interpreted as March 3rd, starting the 65-day timeframe. Correct. You interpreted it. It's reasonable. That's when the That received by the town council. So anyway, I'm saying to myself, there seems to be a big rush to push these suggested changes through a big rush and I don't think it's only my perception. When I compare what's going on in the past three, four months, and I look at we have the short-term rental ordinance, which you guys introduced in February. We now have this stuff introduced much through it with the objective of re-emwriting it down the town's throat in a shorter period as possible. The short-term rental ordinance which started before March is somewhere in limbo. It's getting the slow walk. It hasn't gone to the planning board yet, although it started before. And I'm saying to myself, yeah, you know what? What's going on? That's getting the publicity. That's making us look good, it's caring, and all this other involvement. But yet this 266 pages of change, gonna go through right now, where the 10 can take 6 or 8 months. It makes no sense unless there's some ultimate goal. So, it occurred to me why you're trying to rim where these changes throw, because as fast as you can, not even waiting to get a planning board response. That reason is you need to get this stuff passed before the residents actually understand the ramifications of these changes. Your strategy is simply this. Let's get this implemented before the residents actually understand the content. Let's face it, most people in this town only wake up after it's too late to take any action. For example, look at those grotesque dwellings on the Civil and Road. And another fine example is the world famous narrowed-against salt-check at the entrance of town. You know, I attended all five of these special planning board meetings over 15 hours. It was amazed to learn how truly devastating and irreversible these changes will be. I object to moving this motion. And now I'll explain my rationale. First of all, a few definitions are in order, so I won't be misconstrued. A personal attack versus a personal behavior attack. A personal attack focus on a person's character, motives, or trustworthiness. While a personal behavior attack focuses on specific actions of behaviors, often with the intention of criticizing or discrediting men. My comments here are focused on actions in behaviors. However, if anyone wants to extend them to someone's character, that's their paragraph. So I've got some definitions. Laya, personal knowingly other's falsehoods. Freud, in this context, an intentional deception to gain an unfair advantage, often involving misrepresentation or concealment of information. Untrustworthy, not able to be relied on as honest. Mr. President, are we talking about scheduling here? I'm not understanding that. I'm talking about why. This is a scheduling motion, not. I am talking about why I oppose having this motion scheduled. The scheduling is by statute. That's what it is. That's why it's scheduled in these days. There's no, that's not even a question. I'm voicing my opinion, my opposition, to the scheduling of it. To the scheduling of it. You're opposing the statute itself? I'm opposing the movement of this motion to be scheduled. Yes. Then they'd be invited. The process would not be followed. I don't understand what you're trying to say. The process would not be followed based on your definition I might. Okay. Well, you know, if you're going to shut me up, that's fine. However, I will be back. Thank you. Thank you. And I do realize that we did not make a motion to close Boonsuit market. Is that correct? You did not. You continued. Okay. Thank you. So, that I believe concludes our public hearing decision portion of this meeting. Is that correct? Good. All right. Thank you. Well, we don't have, is there anything, no, is there anything, No, we don't have to close anything additional. Yeah, thank you. Did you vote to schedule the hearing on that? Yes. July 21st. No, I'm talking about it. For March 5th, yes, we already voted. And then I allowed that comment. When the meeting was going to share which is allowed in the program to work that comment. Sure. Posting? Can you please come forward? And I do want to move forward with the rest of the agenda. Nope, that's all right. Because again, it was scheduling. And I know you do. Thank you. So, War is very, very explicit. It has to be posted three times. The first time has to have all the content that you forwarded. Correct. Okay, so it's 200 and actually it's about 400 pages, but I think the actual changes are some 200 pages. So those have to be posted incomplete as is. So anything that was just crossed out, etched out, deleted, that has to be posted as it was sent to us in the first posting. And then the following two can be summaries of that. How are you going to handle 200 and some odd pages of post thing? Is that going to be in one paper run or is it going to be broken up? That's a good question. Sarah and I are going to go through that this week. OK. Thank you. OK. Thank you. My question is, if it's not posted correctly, what are the consequences? I'm sure it will be posted correctly. I have no doubt but people are watching and people will challenge anything. So, what's certain is this all gets, because we're on the clock for 45 days. Right. So, my question is, if it isn't posted correctly, what are the ramifications? That's all I'm not trying to cause problems. I'm trying to prevent problems right now. It could be challenged based on the notice. Okay, and then what happens? We stalled until the challenge is... It depends on the nature of the challenge. It does a lot of different ways that could happen, so I'm not sure how to answer your question perfectly. Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. I'm sorry Mark I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. open forum part of this. Sorry, Mr. Frandy, are you planning on talking in regards to a point of information or are you going to speak during open forum? This is a point of information on the area. And then we really need to move on. Thank you. Thank you. Stephen Ferrandi, 44, Sylvan Road, now I against it. Thank you, Mr. Mendys, for giving me the time. This is, as everyone knows, it's an unbelievable of importance to the town residents. And this is a little unique in the way this is happening. I understand the 65 days, but that's generally if an applicant puts this on, you as the town are putting this on as your, by yourself, the town council is putting this on. So you have the ability to amend this or just remove it and not go forward with it. That's where the 65 days comes because it's the applicant. So if you so choose because of a lot of the hyster, the time that the council has to put into it, the time that the planning board has already put into it, the 14 amendments, I think it's pretty clear. And I went to all of those meetings that there weren't too many people that spoke in favor of these ordinances. And when you give the planning board a lined out ordinance, you give them no choice to say, okay, I want to line the whole thing out or not. So I think it would be who the council to move on from this. Paulis, put it out a later date. There's better things the town has to do than go after these 40-year ordinances that are proven planning. the data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data data about alcohol and our 10 zones and our 20 zones. There's write outs and comp plans that I don't even think we can hear right now according to the last list of that was here because it's illegal to be doing that. They have to have hearings. So I think you've just put so much in this that it's just going to create a lot of issues with the residents. And believe me, there's a lot of good residents that understand all of the good that went into these 20 and 30-year ordinances, the bulk zoning. It's all going to go away. What people have been saying at these planning boards is true. So please, you have the ability to back off this right now. You guys are the applicants on this, not the residents. You put it on. It's going to be on your guys' issues to change all of these ordin ordinance all of it once. So please let that resonate you can get rid of it. You can delay it you can take it off right now because you have it in your privilege to do that. I you know we did just vote. We did just vote on it but again we we already we voted on that already. A motion to schedule for May 5th before the point of information. I realize that you could be sending the vote or you could change your, you could amend the motion to say, I'm not going to hear it right now. I understand what you're saying. You guys are the applicants. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. And now we'll move on to the, yep. And I know you know more than anyone. So I'll allow this, but we again, this really has to do a lot of. Just feel quick, it's just me one quick statement. So I also did attend all. And I just confused Alex. I just want to make sure as many of the other speakers we don't get into more trouble. I know that that Miss Fagnail, this is one of your big things, no more lawsuits. At the March 18th meeting, the town solicitor interpreted a lot different- get into more trouble. I know that that was a fact. Now this is one of your big things, no more lawsuits. At the March 18th meeting, the town solicitor interpreted the law differently than Mr. Callahan just did. At that meeting, the town solicitor said that they had the plenty board had 45 days to get their interpretation to you. Once you receive that, then you have 65 days to just have a public hearing, and then 45 days after that to decide on that. Different from what Mr. Callahan said. And the things that's concerning me is that what you stated tonight, Mr. President, is the most recent interpretation between Mr. Callahan and Miss Sabo is this. But that was different than the interpretation by the zoning attorney on March 18th. Just want to have that out there because we're looking from two different attorneys. The statute says the city, excuse me, Mr. Callahan. I'm speaking right now. Excuse me, Mr. Callahan. Public here within 65 days of the receipt of the proposal. Excuse me, Mr. Callahan. What my point is is that the zoning attorney said differently. That's my point. It's straight. It's... You might be wrong, but the zoning attorney might be correct. You can read the statute yourself. I am listening to the zoning attorney for the other day. I don't want to argue with you. I spoke to him. It's straight. It's. Whether you might be wrong, but the zoning attorney might be correct. You can read the statute yourself. I am listening to the zoning attorney for the other day. I don't want to argue with you. I spoke to him. I spoke to him. Then watch the meeting. I spoke to him. I spoke to him. Then watch the meeting. I spoke to him. I spoke to him. Then watch the meeting. Thank you. And now we'll we have to move on to open forum. The remaining portion of open forum. If you have not spoken already, please and have something that you wish to speak for three minutes time, otherwise, we really do have to move forward with the remaining portion of the agenda. Dr. Alba, please state your name and address. Yes. Dr. Alba, 24 Egliness Terrace. First of all, I respect everyone, Councillor Tanya and Andrew. Sorry, hold on. Everyone who's involved, congratulations, please, chief. Last summer, the town manager put a scene of a major rocket fight at a rental. It was awful, he had a shout out out there. It just shows you it was evident that anyone can attest that if we have these, if we have a rental property, whoever might be, it can get out of control. We had a big discussion tonight about Boone Street Market. That's a business. We'll sell our rentals. So we have to be very, very careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water. The last town council was one extreme where they tried to micro-manage rentals to the end to gray, and that got us in litigation. And now, sadly, it seems like we might be going to the other extreme where we want to throw the baby out with the bath water because I listen to Mr. Brady. He's an educated man. He's an engineer. I'm an engineer. He speaks about the septic issues. He speaks about the safety issues. He speaks about our concerns about tax structure and how just by removing these bulk zoning, how would any of you like to have a huge multi-story property built right next to your property. I mean, I wouldn't like it. It would degrade. It would take away the value of my property. Plus, none of that. I have a person, our colleague of mine, who lives in arrogance, who has one of these structures. And he's going to be retiring next year. He's going to be leaving to New Hampshire. He goes, I can't take this anymore, Dr. Alba. He goes, it's just awful. He goes, I can't sleep at night. There's loud noise. So I hope that we have a moderate approach. I voted for you. He goes, I can't take this anymore, Dr. Alba. He goes, it's just awful. He goes, I can't sleep at night. There's loud noise. So I hope that we have a moderate approach. I voted for you. I support all of you. I like moderation. I don't like tariffs across the board. I don't like having people that leave the country across the board. I like moderation. When we do have to have tariffs, Yes, for some countries, yes. But like I said, we need to be careful. We should not throw these years in years of ordinances out. Some of them are very valid. Mr. Brady, he's an engineer. I have an engineering degree. We have septic issues. We have, if you have too many people in a house that's a safety issue, peace and quiet of neighborhoods. that's a concern, and it goes on. Tax increases. Our property is going up. So I'm going to say, that's a wonderful thing. Well, it's not necessarily about to pay our taxes. So I, please, I urge you to please reconsider. Do not give them these ordinances, and with the lines do them, saying, this is going to be removed, this is going to be removed, this is going to be removed, this is going to Because it sets up a question, why? Why is this happening now? You know, I've heard the town manager speak many times. When the previous town council was here many times, the importance of having control. Okay, so now we want to have five instead of four. Please think about this and give a consideration. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone who wishes to speak for open forum who has not already done so? Yes. Sir Ham the strive. My comments were prepared as Jill said under the assumption that your other returning was right. Maybe she should get your story straight. Regardless, I suggested ordinance amendments. This council dumped on the planning board at A 3rd meeting. I have an update. Couple weeks ago I mentioned the devastating effects these changes would have on the town. Tonight, after attending five planning board meetings, which included the regular meeting as well as four special sessions to address the council's request, I have some specifics. But first, you're the council must have been trade by magicians. You've perfected the slate of hand. While the right hand is waving wildly, attracting all the attention, the left hand is quietly behind the scenes, fooling the audience. Here the right hand is the council and a 10 page short term rental ordinance, a public display of so-called public input, stakeholder involvement, and transparency, including the whole council publicly patting themselves on the back. All this while at sneaky left-hand has submitted 266 pages of ordinance changes to the planning board with zero public input. These specific changes include, and council, I welcome another interruption from your attorney if here I should say something that is not factually correct. Home heights up to 40 feet in our 1080 and our 20 zones. Completely eliminating flurry of ratio limitations, allowing five students per dwelling regardless of the number of bedrooms, allowing five person unrelated households regardless of the number of bedrooms, minimizing setbacks across the board, allowing currently prohibited duplex and two family houses to be built in and Atene in the 20 zones, rolling back, parking restrictions, rolling back, plan of planning, board oversight. Councillor, am I correct? Probably, that was a nod. Mrs. Eropenform. With these changes, within a couple of years, you will have a duplex on your right. A duplex on your left. A duplex behind you, and a duplex across the street. All 40 feet tall with reduced requirements for setbacks. Each of these duplexes could have 10 unrelated people or attend students for a total of 40 students with 40 cars. This coming to your neighborhood brought to us to never again to residents by this council. And by the way, when this happens, these requirements are by right, which means you can't challenge them. There's no zoning board, there's no planning board. They get town inspector has to approve it. Think of Briggs Farm, or I think you live, what a mess. Think of Maddo Tuxa, Mr. Colleys,, can I wake you up? You're even paying attention to me. I know that's bad before. You live in Metatuxet. Thank you. Is this your vision for Metatuxet? Thank you. Anyone else? Yes, please come forward. Carol Spasiano, 12th-Rinström Road. I also attended all of landing board meetings and I got quite an education. My concerns, I brought forth to them and they came back with some very disturbing answers. I live on a sub which was less than 5,000 foot long. I can't imagine building a huge house with our sewage plant treatment. We don't have that capability. We have problems now. I live in the south end. And a lot of times I'm quilling the sewage plant when it's in the summertime and there are a lot of people there. The odor is is atrocious and they have to put extra chemicals in. So I can't imagine all these big houses being built on these substandard lots. My other concern was the parking from emergency vehicles to get through. Our streets aren't that wide as they are here in the pier. They're narrow. So that was another concern mine. Was getting an ambulance through the air with really no parking restrictions. And my third thing is the whole community of how it will change the community of Narragans, which we all love. That's why we live here. I mean, my house was built in 1955 by my grandmother, and then I purchased it and moved here year-round in 1980. And I love living here, and I would hate to see this become like the Jersey Shore. So please take that into consideration when you're voting for these. Thank you. Thank you. Oops. Any else? Yes. Good evening, Councillor Wright. Right about now you're recognizing what a really thought job you have here tonight. And the thing about being on town council, it takes at least a year to get yourself in groove and understand what's going on. So I appreciate the fact that you're in the middle of a learning curve here, and thank you for your attention. A few things, I rewrote my comments as other people were speaking tonight. The day May 19, 2006, what does that mean? That was a day that a town council voted three to two to be able to give the development rights for the mixed use to Gilbane. It is a town council vote that three to two that many people refer to the day that a council gave away our peer center to a developer. I stand here tonight in my opinion thinking that what is in front of you with all the zoning changes you're looking at is even worse than that May 19th vote. What you would be doing in Ancest is giving our way our residential neighborhoods to developers at right. They would not need to come to the planning department at right they could do things. Since the 1990s, all the town councils have been working in one way or the other to create zoning to protect the character of our neighborhoods. On the 3rd of February, Council President and Council Dave Agnalli introduced a plan to take a look at all of our zoning ordinances. And I thought it first was going to be a good discussion, because one thing that Council President said was, the tone of this is to be able to have them collaborate, have our solicitor and the planning department, not the planning board, the planning department, collaborate on all the zoning rules and come back to us with some recommendations. But what happened next on the third of March was very different. In that very short period of time a red line of all of our zoning ordinances came back to you. Came back to you. And it's throwing away everything. Mr. Alba says Dr.. Alba, Suralba, what he wants to call himself. It's taken throwing out the baby with the bath water. You're getting rid of everything. So why did you do that? You wrote it that you wanted to be able to come to create consistency with state law. So the planning board saw this on the 18th of March at the regular meeting. The very first thing that this started talking about was it's in within state law. That we have the fact that we have the ability to have home rule and they're acting within it. So I ask you tonight because this is so encompassing all the zoning laws. If tonight each of you were given a test right before you, given an hour to take a look, multiple choice, 100 questions, what are you asking the town to do with all the zoning? Could you pass it? What if your test scores appeared all in front of you? I don't think you could. And no disrespect to you, but what you're asking the town on Plenty Board to take a look at is 40 years of zoning to take a look at it in three weeks. Now we don't even know who wrote these voting ordinances. When I asked the question, the town solicitor, a different one, said he wasn't quite sure if it was Mr. Callahan or not. So I don't know who wrote these. I don't know if you know who wrote them. But they certainly are changing the whole ability of our town, the whole character of our town. So what I ask you tonight is to do this, do what you did with the short term rentals. Pump the brakes, step it down. I don't think that Mr. Durkins could be able to vote on this. the community. So what I ask you tonight is to do this, do what you did with the short term rentals. Pump the brakes, step it down. I don't think that Mr. Durkins could be able to vote on this. So it will be the four of you. Take the time to work with the planning board. They're making recommendations to you tomorrow night. Be thoughtful. That's what you said tonight, Donna. Your firm believer in speaking with others. Speak with the planning board. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Thank you. On to consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve consent agenda items D1, D2, D3, and D4? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Looking forward to the blessing. Ah, yes. It's, you know, and hats off to the Lions Club every year for putting on such a fantastic event. And again, also looking forward to that as well. So all those in favor? Hi. Any opposed? Motion passes for zero. Next onto new business from the Parks and Rec Department. Is there a motion to approve a request from the Narragansett Historical Society to host a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Windmill Building on Saturday, May 31, 2025 with a rain date of Sunday, June 1, 2025 subject to state and local regulations. So moved. Second. Discussion. Anyone have any questions or comments from the council? I think it'll be a great event and it'll be nice if some of us could be there. I agree. So put it on your calendar. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion passes for zero. Next on to the Public Works Department. Is there a motion to adopt a resolution for an act relating to support Senate Bill S-57 and House Bill H-5393, retaining two state funding and responsibility. support senate bill s-57 and house bill h-5393 retaining to state funding and responsibility of sidewalks. So moved. Second discussion. Anyone from the council have any questions or comments? I support this. I think it's a good bill coming up and I support it. Anyone else? All right. Seeing none. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes for zero. Where am I? Next onto item F2. And I need to look up Mark as I realize that I'm not asking. Is there a motion to award or reject the bid for seasonal trash receptacle rubbish removal for the public works department to the lowest bidder Joe Harvey landscaping LC at their prices 50,,000 $387.50 per barrel cost of $6.95 for year one in 50,000 $387.50 per barrel cost of $6.95 for year two So moved Second discussion Anyone from the council have any questions or comments? This is the lowest bidder by far. Sorry. This is the lowest bidder by far. I believe it's about 250. Ultimately a $550,000 difference between the two bidders we have to go with this one. Okay. Anyone else from the Council? Anyone from the public? Seeing none? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes for zero. Next, on to the engineering department. Is there a motion to award the bid for wastewater laboratory analysis to the lowest bidder Rhode Island Analytical Laboratories Inc at their quoted contract prices for one year period ending April 7th, 2026. So moved. Come on guys. Second. Thank you. Discussion. Anyone from the council have any questions, comments? Anyone from the public? Seeing none, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes for zero. Next. Is there a motion item G 2? Is there the project back to the sewer policy committee for reconsideration. So moved. Second. Discussion. I do have a question for the town engineer. Is that possible? Sure. Good evening. Good evening. So is it true that we have the capacity to do these duplexes with the sewer? This particular project is in the south end of town where the close to the Scarborough plant. So capacity was not an issue for the sewer policy waiver, but it was for the number of units on the property. And the reason it's being presented to you now is the original waiver was for eight total units and three of them were affordable and now through some, through the various meetings with the public, with the planning board and with the, and with the residents through the discussions at the meetings that were advising the plan to three duplex units, it was four duplex units now, it's going to be three and then, so it's 16 development and the 30 and then only two affordable units to 33%. So in their discussion they want to make sure that the sewer policy waiver is either affirmed by the council since it was approved for eight units and three affordable and as a reduction in the affordable housing units in addition to the total units. So that's the motion is presented to affirm that or you can refer it back to the sewer policy committee where it can be reviewed and discussed but all the merits are going to be the same. It's just a different number of total units and affordable units. Any other questions or comments? Was there an opinion of the board who? Apologies. That's alright. What was there an opinion of the board? Whether to. It was recommended to approve or was approved ultimately by the council. I believe that it was either held or when it was presented And one of the last items is the original approval cover page where the information regarding the Connection to the private sewer was not available at the time so it changed the at least one of the committee members opinion at the time of the meeting so with the council meeting it was approved ultimately Thank you Council of Agnoliilly. I'm good. Okay. Is there a general consensus from the council as to, since this is a motion to affirm before voting on this and I just want to make sure that I'm discussing this correctly. We would be trying to figure out, based on the way in which this is written, we would still have to amend this motion, right? Because we still have to determine whether or not we're going to approve this, affirm this, or refer it back to the Super Policy Committee. As far as I'm understanding. I think since the amendment here is a lesser density plus lesser waiver that you can approve it based on that. If it was more, I think to send it back, but since it's less. All right. We just want to make our decision. It's going to be a long way. And we're unsure if something is going to happen. Because it counts. That's it. So I just think it was more of a good party better than we were before. Thank you, the council, as to whether this is something that could be approved. And I think it is based on the scenario. If you choose to do so. Thank you. Appreciate that context. Does anyone from the public have any questions or comments? So I would move to affirm the sewer policy we have granted to plant 5.4649.0. On November 20, 2023. And are all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes for zero. Thank you. On to the finance department. Is there a motion to award the bid for general heating ventilation and air conditioning HVAC services to the lowest bidder JMB mechanical ink at their quoted bid prices for a one-year period ending April 7th, 2026? So moved. Second. Discussion. Anyone from the Council have any questions or comments? Anyone from the public seeing none? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes for zero. Next. On to Town Clerk. Is there a motion to appoint an individual to the Economic Development Committee for a three-year term set to expire on April 1, 2028. So moved. Second. Discussion. I'd like to nominate Melissa Jenkins to the Economic Development Committee. Any reasons? She has a large base of knowledge. I've seen her in meetings. She controls herself well. She really wants to work for a volunteer for our committee. I know her well. She's also applied to be on a number of boards and commissions, I think. And now that we have this opportunity, I think that this is a great opportunity. I will reviewing her resume extensive many years of residency in the town of Nare against it. So I agree that it's a good nomination. Any other nominations or comments? She's a known activist in town and she wants to further serve her community. Excellent. Anyone from the public wish to comment? Seeing all those those in favor. Hi any opposed motion passes for zero Next is there a motion to confirm the appointment of Stephen D. Simone as the planning board representative to the land Conservancy trust for a term set to expire on November 1st, 2026 Some moved second. This was a position that Mr. Brady did throw out there and Mr. D. Simone during a planning board meeting volunteered for this position and this was recommended confirmation from the planning board. So I have no reservations with this appointment. Any other questions or comments? Anyone from the public? Seeing none, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes for zero. Next, is there a motion to approve a class F alcoholic beverage license for the Narragans Historical Society to hold acutting event on Saturday, May 31, 2025 with a rain date of Sunday, June 1, 2025 at 140 Clark Road, Narragance at Rhode Island subject to state and local regulations. So moved. Second. Discussion. Anyone have any questions or comments? Anyone from the public? Seeing none, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes for zero. Next, is there a motion to approve a victual or license and a holiday license for hookline and pizza, LLC, DBA hookline and pizza located at one angel road, Narragansett, Rhode Island, subject to local and state regulations. So moved. Second. Discussion. Anyone from the Council have any questions or comments? Anyone from the public? Seeing none, all those in favor? Hi. Any opposed? Motion passes for zero. Next, to share a motion to approve a private detective license application for Stephen D. St. Ange 13 Carol Lane, air against Rhode Island subject to state and local regulations. So moved. Second discussion. Any questions or comments from the council? Any questions or comments from the public? Seeing none, all those in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes, 4-0. Next item, aye. 6, is there a motion to schedule a public hearing, acting as the urban renewal board of review for a class B, Victuola, or alcoholic, I'm sorry, class B, Victuola, alcohol license for Narragansi Casino, LLC, DBA, Narragansi Casino, located at 11-Pierre Marketplace, Narragansford Island, and refer the application to the planning board for review and recommendation. Scheduled for, oh, I'm sorry, I skipped, sorry, reading ahead. So moved. Second. Discussion. Am I reading, I just want to make sure that I'm not misreading. June 2nd, 2025. That's the suggested date. That's the suggested date. Thank you. Anyone from the public wish to comment? Yes. My name is Richard Bloom. I'm from 27 Medituxet Road. I represent the Narragansett Casino. We submitted our plan to the planning board previously and the unanimously approved it. The Narragansett Casino has not changed that plan and any hearing should not last long. And records should show that discussion. The Narragansett Casino is in the urban renewal zone and the previous town council after numerous delays denied the Narragansett count, Casino's application for a liquor license three to two in an unprecedented manner. In June the Narragansett Casino will have been open for two years without a liquor license. The Narragansett Casino original business plan to have a liquor license for beer and wine only is necessary. And to wait until June to hear our statements and make a decision makes it very difficult for the Narragansett Casino to run its business in the Narragans at peer. The summertime is the major time to be open to our full capacity and capability. So the Narragansett casino respectfully asks that some accommodations be reached to have a hearing scheduled sooner rather than later. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from the public before I go back to the council to ask some follow-up questions. Okay. So this is a just a general question to our town solicitor or town manager, whoever can provide some additional context here. With an application already having been submitted and according to what's been shared, can you please provide some context with where that review currently stands? It sounds like it was submitted to the planning board for review. They've already reviewed. So I'm just wondering what new, like, why does this process need to start over again? Just for clarification, is this for a full liquor license or beer wine? Beer and wine only. The application is actually was completed for a full liquor license. That's why we're doing the referral back to the planning board. That's where communication is always that is not our plan. So if that's the way it was interpreted, we want to change that. We only want a beer and wine liquor license. Okay. The application needs to be amended then because it was requested for a full. Okay. That's not, I did not, I ignored that. I did not know that. Okay. If the license is amended, would that resolve the need to go to the planning board? How long ago was it? When was it 2022? Is it a special use permit? They got a recommendation, but I don't think it was a special use permit. I'd have to pull that up. I don't believe that was a special use for it. It depends on the. If it's possible to just talk into the mic. No, I know. We're just trying to figure out out how to do that. That's all. So I'm just trying to retrace the steps, the process. They apply Mr. Bloom applied for a beer and wine license. Yes. You went to the planning board? Yes. They approved the unanimously. Planning board is owning board. Planning board. Since the Urban Renewal Zone, the zoning board was not required. OK. After many delays with the last town council, they finally got in front of us. We got in front of them, and they denied us three to two. Ridiculous. But here we are again in need of a liquor license. How do you run a bar without a liquor license? We have a huge building. We have 8,000 square feet on the first floor, an additional 2500 on the second floor. We're not looking for something that's asking too much. What we're looking for is something that's needed. We've been open almost two complete years without a liquid license. I think as it's in the urban or new area, the town council has all the power over that area, including liquid license, which we do have generally plus any real zoning or planning applications. So I think, based on a quick review, is that you could probably schedule this earlier, based on the prior approval. I don't think that expires. If you recall. And I will say I misspoke because the public hearing was held in 2023 August 21st the original application was 2022 so I I correct myself on that unless there was some expiration date in that decision. I don't think that does expire Okay, so with this new information and should the proposal I'm sorry should the should the application be amended, what then would be the recommended course of action to go from here to continue this item? I think the only issue to be advertising? That's you. Right. How long would that have to be? If you. It's three weeks. And I do appreciate your patients, especially after the lengthy review that it's already taken. So thank you for bringing that to our attention. I will put this in a state as May 5th, which we already have a full public hearing calendar for that day. The Past Town Council made a special meeting for a liquor license so that it could be opened in the summertime in the past. We don't really wanna ask for that, but we do need to be open as soon as possible with a beer and wine liquor license to wait until May or June and then have maybe other delays. So we're not open. It's uncalled for. Is it possible to schedule a special meeting on April 28th? The only issue for the advertising is the earliest date is May 5th and then That would allow the advertising take place I'm not sure what the agenda looks like that night. I think this boy. We have to second public hearing for the budget We have the zoning amendment public hearing at 14 different changes So that that's a full, full public hearing night. We did the advertising once before. We will do it again. We can do it very quickly because we've got that whole setup done. It's just waiting and waiting and waiting is very difficult right now. would may 12th. I mean, I That's it seems like May 5th through May 5th is the Prom but it would May 12th. The on and off night. Yeah. For a special meeting. I don't know what logistic. I will Just say the night of the public hearing. There's usually Also the approval of the license so it doesn't delay any further from the public hearing night. So there's a potential if we did it on May 19th and a regular hearing night that we could you would have the opportunity to vote on the approval of that liquor license that very night and then as long as everything is in place with your application we're ready to issue as soon as that vote is made. That works for me. Okay. Thank you. So, where are we on this? Oh, sorry. Dr. Alba before you get to the vote, you do have the opportunity to speak. Thank you very much. Thank you. And please try to keep it to three minutes. Yes, Dr. Alba, 24 Egos next to us. Thank you. I am pro business and pro restaurant. And you know, this is going to help them out. That's fine. But I do want to let you know when I was the last meeting when they heard testimony, the owner of that land said that when they took out the lease that in fact, it was under the condition nothing would be served. So their lawyer, their representative, came to the hearing, came to town council meeting. You can verify that at the video on YouTube. I just don't want to say, in the reason why the last town council voted against it was because they felt that there was a possibility that the town could get sued for violating the original grounds by the lease owner, by the owner of that land, not the lease owner, but the owner of the land. So I just want you guys to consider that and just do do diligence on your part. Thank you. Let me make sure. Thank you. Really you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Really only supposed to allow everyone to speak once. I understand, but that makes a very important statement. The last person who is talking about we own the building. Oh, I like it. There is a prepaid lease for another 170 years. Because of their objections, I had to go to a lawsuit. to a tremendous cost to go through this lawsuit. We won the lawsuit. They no longer have the right to stop us from doing our business. And they had to sign a consent for the Narragansett Casino to go forward. That is already been done by the law. So to try to bring that up again is unnecessary. Thank you. You're on, there is a motion on the floor to schedule this public hearing, acting as the urban renewal board overview. Okay, I wanna make sure that I'm doing this correctly because this is contingent on an amended application, correct? Correct. So, I just, actually, I will, I want to make sure that we're writing this correctly. So, I will heed to your, whatever you recommend in regards to the language here. Since it's not going a class B license It's gonna be a class B Limited limited, okay Okay, thank you So is there a motion to schedule a public hearing acting as the urban renewal board of review for a class B Victuular limited Actually, I have to I'm sorry. Okay. Limited alcohol license for Narragance Casino LLC, LLC, DBA Narragance Casino located at 11 peer marketplace, Narragance, Rhode Island, and refer the application, wait, we're not referring, I'm sorry. In schedule this public hearing for May 19th, 2025. So moved. It's excellent. Thank you. Any additional discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes for zero. Thank you, everyone. And then lastly, to the town council, is there a motion to read, pass, and adopt as a second reading and ordinance in amendment of chapter 14 article 17 solicitations specifically section 14-601-hours so moved second discussion This is just a second reading of an item that was proposed and there are there hasn't any changes that have been made. No changes. Okay. Any other questions, comments? Anyone from the public? Yes. Oops. There we go. Oops. There we go. Dave Avedici. There we go. Dave Avedici. There we go. Dave Avedici. I'm on the land trust. I didn't know if there are any questions you needed me to answer on this. I did send you all an email. Next one. Next one, they skipped. Yeah. I'm so tired right now. No, that's all right. Come on. Can I just go now? No. That's all right. Oops. There we go. Dave, I have a D-1787 Woodward app. so tired right now. No, that's all right. Yeah. Oh, come on. Can I just go now? Good now. Good. I'm so tired right now. No, that's all right. Oh, come on. Can I just go now? No, that's all right. Sorry about that. No, that's all right. Appreciate everyone's patience. Any other questions, comments? Nope. All right, all those in favor. Hi. Hi. Any opposed motion passes for zero Last item on the agenda Is there a motion to adopt a resolution requesting a enabling legislation to be sent to the general assembly to implement an additional real estate transfer tax to be used for affordable housing and land conservancy. So moved. Second. Discussion. All right, since this is Councillor Torialdi's motion, I will let you start. All righty. So as one of the representatives to the land trust, I have been working with that particular body for a couple of months at this point and they have presented to me a real estate transfer tax. And what this would, what this enabling legislation would allow us to do would be to impose a monetary or percentage based tax on any real estate transferred in Narragansett. This would be applied to the buyer, not the seller, and would not impact anyone presently living in Narragansett. I don't love the idea of enacting a new tax, but I do feel that this is a viable funding stream for both land trust as well as the Affordable Housing Trust collaborative. If anyone were to come in and purchase a house or lot within their GANS, then they would ostensibly be investing in their town right out the gate by giving money to interest or affordable housing. Do you want to heed the floor to the representatives to provide any additional commentary or do you want? And I'll ask the rest of the council as well. Okay. If anyone for a representative from affordable housing or more land trust would like to get up first. Thank you. And because this is in regards to the specific agenda item, you will not be restricted to the three minutes. I was going to try to make this very brief, okay, in the spirit of time. Cliff Tyler, 30 Lambert Street, I'm the vice chair of the Affordable Housing Trust Collaborative. Here tonight in that position to lend our support from the committee for the passage of this motion that's before you tonight. Passage of this resolution would allow the enabling legislation to be created and implemented by the town council in the future. There are lots of knobs and levers that the town council can control when this gets implemented in the future. It would also help address the current need for affordable housing and land preservation here in the town and air against it. And this was discussed at the public work session that we had, but over the last number of years, many municipalities across the country have adopted similar actions with real estate transfer taxes to help with their affordable housing needs and their land preservation needs. So creating this enabling legislation would be a huge step in the right direction to address our needs here in Narragansett. If there are any specific questions that the council has from my perspective, don't a lot of research on this. What do our other local communities give percentage wise? Let's say South Kingston for example. So in the state of Rhode Island right now, there are only two municipalities that have a real estate transfer tax. That's being New Shoreham and that being little Compton. So in New Shoreham, there is a 3% tax on dollar one from any real estate transaction. They do have an exemption for deed restricted affordable housing and they do have a staggered chart or staggered rate chart for first time home buyers. That's it. If you look at little Compton on the other hand, they're a 4% real estate transfer tax and they have currently have an exemption of on the first $450,000 you don't pay on that, but beyond that then it would be the 4%. In other municipalities like in South Kingston or any of the other communities in the state don't have real estate transfer taxes. A lot of communities rely on a conveyance tax, which is required by statute in the state of Rhode Island. So many municipalities, I think New York City was the first one to implement a real estate transfer tax back in the early 80s. Little Compton implemented theirs in 1986. Black Island followed suit about a year later. But in the last five years based on my research, communities and states across the country have adopted this because the need for to address the affordable housing issue is tremendous. And there's only certain avenues for revenue opportunities. And with all the activity going on in Washington right now, who knows if HUD will be around or if they'll be funding that will be available through those federal agencies. Thank you. Sir, any other questions? Yes, but I don't know if if anyone has any specific questions for Cliff. So I have questions, but I don't know if they're going to apply to. No, that's right. Or the other gentlemen, so Mr. Evidision, if you wouldn't mind just both of you wouldn't mind just I don't know how to do this logistically. It's probably either or so. And again the special consideration to not do the three minutes is because both of you are representatives of the Affordable Housing and Land Trust which this resolution applies to. So Councillor McNally please continue. Okay so I have a couple of questions just trying to understand this. So you said there's a lot of knobs and lovers to this. So if this were to go to the state and happen, so is there a time frame when we have to make those decisions about those knobs and lovers or could it sit for a substantial amount of time and then we could decide to do something with it or is there some type of a time frame? So my understanding and I'll refer to the solicitor on this too but the enabling legislation you can put a number of different variables in there. So you can say, as an example, with little Compton and in New Shoreham, they say the tax rate is up to 5%. It doesn't dictate what the percentage is. The town council or the local municipal government would dictate that. If you decide to have some type of deed restriction to affordable housing in there, you may have that baked into it or you could have it as an option if you wish. When you turn it on, you know, that's another option that the council has. Once the enabling legislation is in place, it's not something you have to say, okay, we need to turn this on right away. We might say, okay, let's work out through some of those details. At least the structure is there for you to rely on. So I would be a little vague. So as we'd have to work with our state reps as they create the legislation that would go to the state and have the variables there that you want, that you feel important, but allow you to be selective in that. I don't know if there's any other additional comments from the town solicitor. And then get to the correct and then if it was actually passed to the state it would come back to you and you have to craft your own ordinance as Mr. Tyler said but you don't have to. It's just probably. You know just simply we're just asking you to ask the state can we do this if we want to in the future. So it's not taxing anyone now. It's not, you're probably, you're just simply, we're just asking you to ask the state, can we do this if we want to in the future? So it's not taxing anyone now, it's not putting any fees on anyone if you kick it to the state now. The state kicks it back to you, says yes, you can do this, then you can either sit on it, you can say let's debate it, we've run lots of different mathematical scenarios with different exemptions and different rates so we can play with and show you how that what that looks like and how much revenue it could possibly generate but before we even get there with different exemptions and different rates. So we can play with and show you how that looks like and how much revenue it could possibly generate. But before we even get there, we need permission from the state. And that's what we're asking you now to do. Get permission from the state that if we want to do this in the future, we can. And then it gets kicked back to you and you decide what those parameters are. We have that discussion. And the challenge we're working up against right now is the legislative calendar. So we have probably safely until the end of April to get this to our state reps for them to start working on the legislation. Otherwise, we miss the calendar and we're not looking at January, February of 2026. So that's why there's a sense of urgency now to at least get the enabling legislation You know written and get it in front of the Assembly you know to vote on right and then from there It's up to the council what to do next as the council said ordinances would need to be written and that takes time and etch at your back and call so my god I'll try to do this in question for my head. So, I have several fears about this, right? One, the governor is proposing a 2.5 transfer tax for all of the state in his new budget, I believe, that's true. So, adding on to that transfer tax, we would be adding on more tax to people that were trying to welcome into the town. I just, I have a hard time getting my head around saying to somebody, hey, welcome to the town. Thank you for the extra money. It just doesn't, it doesn't bow well with me. I also fear that like even if I could get my head around it, that it would like say we taxed it for a certain amount of a house that I would be comfortable with. Any town council can come in and change that any time and when I hear that like New Shoreham they tax all of their houses right? Or is this so these tax on dollar zero at 3% right and I would hate to see a town council come in and make That type of effort in this town and I don't know how to stop that and So so little Compton and block new sharm There's structures a little bit different in that it was created they actually at the same time created their land trusts at the same time. So it became baked into it and the council again has up to 5% that they can go to and over the years they've increased that. With little Compton when the first past this legislation I think their exemption was at $70,000. Now it's up to $450,000. So you're not paying on the first part of it. And I appreciate the concern of taxing people when they move and welcoming to their against, here's the tax. But when I hear somebody buying a house two weeks ago for $3.2 million, I don't think they're going to be financially burdened too much by that. So that's why I'm saying there's a threshold that you say, okay, the first exemption, maybe we call it a million dollars or 850,000. The median sale price for a house in town near against last year, January to December, was $875,000. That's not an affordable house in my mind you're, you know, you're, you're police, you're fireman, you need to have a salary or an income of $250,000 to support a mortgage on a $875,000 house. So it depends who your target audience is for this. So we're trying to, you know, from an affordable housing perspective, we're trying to bring in more families into town, make it more affordable, where our teachers can live, where our farming can live, where our town employees can live. From a preservation perspective, we're trying to preserve green space, we're trying to preserve, make open space available. And not potentially let developers come in and take over potential areas. That's what the article I sent you today from the Boston Globe showed an example of Massachusetts where the two groups worked together, where they put up, they bought piece of land together essentially and they had affordable housing and they had open space together. And quite frankly, there is no funding source for either side right now or there's not enough of a funding source. And I have a whole thing right now for pages, but I'm not going to do that right now to you. But if you think about it, it was a feel good thing to pass a $3 million bond for affordable housing. That's on the back of every taxpayer in this town right now. Because you pay interest on that. And once you pay interest on that over 20, 30 years, however long you wrote the bond for, that increases everyone's taxes in town. This doesn't put a tax burden on anyone that currently owns a house if and when we get to that. That is only on a buyer new coming to this town and that is consistently funded without putting more of a tax burden on anyone else in this town. So if I know there's a lot of rooms out there that a tax isn't going up because of this, that is simply not true, that is not how it works. It simply attacks on the buyer or fee on the buyer. That's it. And so we could continue to pass bond referendums, but you know the cost of those. And that always goes out to voter approval. And then it's always a delay. We can't act fast enough because there's nothing in our checking account to say, hey, there's a five acre piece of land over there. that always goes out to voter approval. And then it's always a delay. We can't act fast enough because there's nothing in our checking account to say, hey, there's a five acre piece of land over there. We can go get this. Well, we got to enact the bond. Well, we got to pass the bond. No one's sitting on the sideline saying, oh yeah, we'll hold off. As soon as someone shows up with a check for them and arrogance it, they sell the piece of property. It's a great piece of land down the north end of town that we'd like to jump on. And I'm bossing that road and I'm sure you all hold the rumors of what. There's a great piece of land down the north end of town that we'd like to jump on. Right, I'm bossing that road, and I'm sure you all hold the rumors of what might possibly be going in there. It's perfect for affordable housing and open space. It's crossing the playground, crossing the fire station, on a bus route. Perfect. We can't do anything about it. There are two perfect lots in South Pier Road that we could have bought. I've been on the land trust for three years. How many pieces of property do you think we've purchased in three years? Goosec, what's the point? Just to have something in namesake, you've got to be able to fund it so we can do something and move forward. This only enables the legislation so we can come back and then have a discussion if we want to do it. Councilor McNally, do you have any other questions or comments? I think my only concern right now is that I just feel this is very rushed and I feel like we just got it on the agenda and I haven't had a time to really figure it all out and I've been mind, you know, just playing devil's advocate. What could go wrong? What can't go wrong? So my understanding is, and please correct me if I'm not correct, is that the town council can set the percentage of the amount, could set how much goes to affordable housing, how much goes to the land trust, and all those could be changed at any given time. So one of the things I was just thinking, and maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking, we don't want this to come back and back fire on us. I mean affordable housing is very important to me. Land trust is very important to me, but if you have a council who's one sided, and they decide, okay, well, you know what, we're just gonna give 90% to land trust or 90% to affordable housing. And only 10%. I mean, I just think we really need to think it through and make sure that we're doing the right thing before we jump on it. That's just my only concern. I just feel like it's very rushed. And I just would like to, If we're not going to act on it in the near future, let's just wait for the next legislative session. Have the opportunity to talk to the solicitor, make sure that the scenarios that I'm playing in my head can't happen. I mean, I just, you know, and I don't know. I just have some reservations about how quickly this is happening. And I would just like to take a step back. I do not disagree with the concept. I do. I have some reservations about what Justin's Jason said. As far as welcoming your gants that we're throwing attacks on you, I have some problems with the fact that if the governor's putting 2% to 1.5% we really need to think about that too. So I just feel like we should just slow down, take a step back and really think this through. And that's why at this point, that's what's going through my head. But I'm willing to listen to what other council members have to say and what you have to say. No and I personally appreciate that. I mean I don't want something that forced down anyone's throat. The clock is ticking though. I mean not only just with the legislative session, affordable housing clock is ticking. Each year, last year, the median sale price for a house went up 15%, even though volume was down 13%. So the cost of housing and bringing families back into narrow-gantza is going the wrong way. And if we don't want, you know, if we want to be in a leotist type of town where we don't want certain types of families or individuals so be it. But this is an opportunity. Again, it's really just to get the enabling legislation in place. And you could even have where the minimums of percentages between the two trusts could be there. You could say at a minimum 25% to either trust or 5050 or whatever the case may be, as a safeguard to prevent any future town council coming in. The governor has proposed a lot of different things. To see if they get approved or not, he's talked about a hotel tax that currently exists in the state and that's a 1% hotel tax, but it's only for rooms, right? It's not for a house. If you come into the town of Eriganc and rent a house for the month of July, the town of Erigance receives zero on that tax. There is no hotel tax. He's talking about making that available to full house rentals in addition to that. So yeah, we're all trying to tackle this issue, you know, in many ways. The speaker of the house has got his 14 or 15 bills that he's tackling all different aspects. Unfortunately with affordable housing, it's not just one thing. It's all different things. You've got zoning, you've got planning, you've got all different aspects that impact how density is on a particular piece of property and the funding sources. Unfortunately, the funding sources are not there. I mean, right now in housing, the state approved $120 million bond. If I look at that bond and I say 100% goes to develop affordable housing, actual units, not all program stuff, that will develop a total of 240 units. That's all, $510,000 per unit today in the state around developed either a single family house or a single rental unit. $220 million is going to go to Cranston. It's going to go to Central Falls. It's going to go to Providence. It's not going to make its way down here to near Gansett, in my humble opinion. And I've been doing this for over 11 years, affordable housing in South County. So I appreciate the sensitivity of this being rushed and unfortunately, the clock is ticking on both ends and I'll leave that up to your conscious. Thank you, thank you. We started discussing this last fall. And so this has been a discussion that we've had It done research and had town council members sit in our meetings to discuss this as L.A. A. Zons back to you I don't want you to think this is something that we came up with last week And you know the other thing I asked this question to you at this one some my notes here if you had an empty lot next door to, what would you like to see? Continue as open space, affordable housing, one of these six to eight bedroom houses that go in to turn it to our rental. Depends on who that resident is. Right? Right? Well, I really appreciate the feedback. And I will still, before I ask my follow questions, I will ask our representatives from land trust. If you have any other additional questions or comments. All right, do you? Let me just gonna say this is a legitimate funding stream for both land trust or affordable housing, or both together. It was mentioned earlier tonight, potentially adding, I believe it was a 50,000 into the budget for affordable housing. What if that doesn't get passed? And this doesn't get passed. They're still at zero. This provides a legitimate funding stream that doesn't impact anyone presently in our against it. Can you just elaborate on what this funding stream is actually going to look like in the output. Again, it does say, you know, both the Affordable Housing Trust Collaborative and Land Conservancy Trust we do currently have in the budget 50,000 allocated to land trust. It has been proposed by Affordable Housing to get an additional 50,000 as well. And I'm just wondering if in this budget season affordable housing does get the 50,000, is that enough to put this off until the next legislative session to be considered in January? I'm just wondering and I understand all the context here. I'm just trying to map out timelines. If this does go through and it's still up in the air as to whether or not this even gets considered this legislative session because of how late we already are sending this over, if in the perfect world where the state acts in a fast manner, which we know that rarely happens, and they do pass an enabling legislation and it does come back to us. What exactly is the expectation in regards to a turnaround for usability between now and like January? Could an alternative be that we as a council work on and workshops, work sessions with affordable housing and land trust? we we potentially work on a possible ordinance, or whatever this would look like, and then send it up to the state house after we've already crafted what this would look like? So you're probably two years away then at a minimum. Why do you say that? Well, by time we do all this and it go in next spring. And then they would vote on it. And then by time it comes back to you. And then you discuss that I want 1%, 2%, 3%. So I want to give a $500,000 exemption, a million dollar exemption. At that time, more and more land is sold, more and more homes are sold. And we know what happens to property and arrogance, which is different than most other towns in Rhode Island. It never goes down. And in white plateau, it always seems to go up and be less availability for us to do things. And you could continue to give us, well, let me trust 50,000, and 4,000 to 50,000, but realistically, what can we do with that? 50,000. What's that going to get? Would you rather not have it at 50,000? Well, honestly, we have 400,000000. We have $400,000 right now. Because there is such a limited amount of land for the land trust and potentially more for affordable housing. But maybe the scenario is then maybe if you pass this or if it gets to enabling legislation, state gives it back to you says, yes, you're OK. Maybe you save the tax payers $100,000 because then you don't have to give that money to us anymore because we have another source of revenue. I think the tax payers is town will like you to save them 100 grand. That's on the backs of all current taxpayers. Okay, I see what you're saying. What's the one to write that? Thank you. If not, when. That's really the question. Yeah, well, just one moment, Dr. Albo, before I turn it over to the public. For me, it just, again, I understand the need and I understand why it's being asked. And I do appreciate the amount of time that's gone into creating this resolution. But I ask the two of you here, and I assume you've both thoroughly read this resolution, is this clear enough, the ask? While it is an enabling legislation, I'm just wondering if we're being clear enough in the directive and the ask where we're coming from to the state. And why not just go to the state and just ask them directly. Is this a required step in the process? This is a required step. Is create the resolution. Then our state reps, both from the House and from the Senate, would then go and then work on getting this legislation written for to be presented, to be approved by the General Assembly. So it's a process that moves, it's part of the process. So the first set of the process is the resolution. We did the same thing when we did the housing bond last year, right? The housing bond, the council approved the resolution to go to the state, then our state reps did their magic up there, it got presented to the state. And I will honestly tell you, the speaker of the house would love to see some positive activity from our affordable housing coming out of the town and air against it. He really would. You know, and I met with him back last spring about the bond. He was a joke, this is why you're only doing three million. You need to do at least ten million. And we're like, no, we need to crawl before we walk. And so he's very supportive of affordable housing as you know and he's looking I think you know be anything positive coming out of an air dance it for the speaker that would be beneficial for the town. So again I don't have any reservations on the foundation of this and I appreciate the amount of time and effort that's gone into this. Just my final question at least for an affordable housing side. You do stand behind this resolution that with the way that it's written in the message that we're sending to the state that there isn't any sense of dissentivizing families from coming in that this will have because again I'm going'm going based on surface. You know, when I'm reading, I hear taxes being proposed by the state, a message for somebody who's not educated on this resolution, if it's some outsider looking in, will say, oh my gosh, all they want to do is raise taxes in Narragansson, tax. And again, from the affordable housing perspective, you don't have any concerns that this might turn prospective families off. And again, I think we're missing the context of the range. But again, just help me understand why providing this additional tax for new families to come in that this isn't going to be a turn-off to them to not want to come into an area. And I appreciate that. And so this is something that's been enacted of municipalities all across the country in the last several years. They all see this as an opportunity to get funding for affordable housing where funding doesn't exist. It's been called a mansion tax in some municipalities, right? It's really targeted for the higher priced homes to help subsidize those lower priced family homes coming in for affordable housing. So affordable housing has different definitions. It's just one of those things that you're looking at those to have to help to have nots, if you wish. And so that's why we're proposing maybe that threshold of the exemption is maybe it's a million dollars, right? If you can afford a million dollar how in the town and air against it to my point earlier I think you can afford a little bit extra for subsidizing the community. Where do your you know your municipal employees work and live and where would they like to work and where would they like to live you know it's it's helping address that. So hopefully that. It was very helpful. I appreciate your response. And I'll ask the other council members if they have any other additional comments before you sit back down or leave. Then I'll turn it over to the general public. Okay. Two. One, a million dollar home in New York, and I said I is, is I could not afford to pay. I just bought a house in Frick's farm last year. It wasn't quite a million dollars, but if there was a tax on there, I would never have been able to afford that. So if we're going to do this, it's got to go higher than a million in my opinion. So, but the second thing is, is there any way that this can... If we put it on a house that's $800,000,000, way that this can, we can, if we put it on a house that's $800,000? Is there any way that we can say if you buy this home and it's owner occupied for, like say, three years, then you can be reimbursed your tax? Could we use it to incentive size people to come and live in arrogance and not rent it? So what are the benefits of the housing bond? Is that I've designed about seven different programs that we're looking to implement as part of the bond funds. And the bond funds can only be used for what they're advertised for, right? But one of those opportunities might be to provide first time home buyers of people moving into town a interest fee, no interest loan or a grant. So maybe it's a grant for 10 years or five years, but after five years, if you're still here, you don't have to pay it back. It's one of those that, you know, if you do flip the house and you sell it, then you pay, you know, 6% interest on the balance that you were given. If you're in there for more than five years, then it's waived, right? And it's forgiven. It's forgiven loan, if you wish. is what I was trying to get to. I think that's the important piece. When you ask the state, you get the enabling legislation. All these things have vetted out. And one of the things might be a better idea that I was just thinking about when you said this, rather than someone who lives here around you qualify it even more, say someone that has kids that attend an area gets a school system and they if he is waived. Because we know we got a school department that needs kids. So something like that can be worked into something like that. That's all it gets discussed after the fact once you get permission from state. The council has the complete flexibility on what is in corporate. So yeah, basically this is permitting the state to, if they should take it up in the session, create the skeleton, and then we fill it in at our own discretion later on. Okay. Any other questions or comments before turning it over to the general public? Nope, but thank you very much for having to have a good rest. Yes, really appreciate the very thorough and very thorough and thoughtful responses. Dr. Alba, you've had to hand up. And thank you for your patience. Dr. Alba, 24 Egos Ness Terrace. As you know, I have many Facebook pages, and this came out. Transfer attacks. We don't need any more taxes. Things are costly enough. The state of Rhode Island is going to be increasing attacks by 2.5%. If we want to make an arrogance more affordable, why are we going to be increasing taxes for people who probably could lease the fraud to move into an arrogance? It could be a slipy slope. As councilwoman Donovan has said, we don't know who's going to be coming down the road. We don't know who's going to win the next elections. There's no guarantee. So it's a slippery slope and it's dangerous. So I would say no, no to no do taxes. In fact, at one time, Black Point, which I'm sure this gentleman's aware of, Black Point, was purchased by the state as conservation land. It didn't cost a town one cent. Okay, that was, I believe, under the Dupreet administration. Okay, because at that time, there was a big developer who wanted to build condos there, and they reached out, the legislators reached out and they said, no, this is not gonna happen. So there are ways of getting money for conservation land. There are also ways of getting money for affordable housing. We have to speak to Carol Hagen-Mackenty, Theresa Tansy, and also our senator, Alana, Alana, our demario. Reach out to them. We can get that one, but I would say no. Ironically, people who can just about afford to move here are going to be possibly left out. They might have to move to North Kingston. Because if you could put just about 20% down on a million dollar house, 200,000, that's for PMI, that might be the limit. And you amortize it. We already have a bond, is that the $3 million bond? When we amortize that and the interest is going to be paid out for that, that's going to be expensive. How much more are we going to put on a tax burden for our residents? Please reconsider this. Let's reconsider this. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else from the public wish to speak? Seeing none, is anyone from the Council have any final thoughts or comments? I will say that I came into this with the anticipation of not supporting this in the way in which it was written. But after hearing and understanding the enabling legislation and the message that this would send to the state that this just allows the state to create this kind of structure as a source of income for both affordable housing and land trust that it's up to the town council later on. Town council could decide, they don't wanna move forward with it at all. This does not say or guaranteed that any tax will be provided whatsoever. All this does is permit the state to create such enabling legislation for the town council to then later consider and then work with the affordable housing, land trust, the community to figure out whether or not it's something that needs to be considered or actually Cliff would Do you mind if I just ask you one more question? Sorry about that. If we supported this resolution, sorry about that. If we supported this resolution, but later on decided we wanted this to be a voter initiative and put it on the ballot, is it, is that going to counter what this resolution is saying or just trying to understand it? I would be more forward to the solution. I think you have the if you have the enabling legislation it's law at that point. Okay. What you would get from the voters unless you had a specific ask and correct me if I'm wrong but if you're going to take like a town-owned property you would get from the voters unless you had a specific ask and correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're going to take like a town owned property and want to convert it into land, trust, or affordable housing, that requires a vote by the town, you know, people. But I don't know if there'd be any other situations. Once you have the enabling legislation, it's to your point earlier, it's just the skeleton, right? And it's there, so when and if the council ever determines, it's time to take action on this. It's not, okay, we have to wait to the next legislative session. It's there and we can implement it whenever the council wants to move forward. Yep, so where I stand, you know, again, I went into this with interpreting this on as face value. But with everything that's been shared from land trust and affordable housing, we're the way in which this resolution is written. We're permitting the state to craft this legislation. And then later on, down the road, we as a town council can determine whether or not we want to, if the state even gets it through their legislative session, we as a council could then later on determine whether or not we want to move forward with it. If we want to workshop an ordinance, probably well. So it's for that reason, I will be in support of this. But again, can I ask just a question? If this were not to pass this evening, can it go back on the agenda for in for the next legislative session? Does that mean once it doesn't pass? Can we put it back on the agenda? Right, I have to be somebody who, I guess it would be three to one or depends on the vote. Whoever was in the negative against it would have to put it back on the agenda to say I wanna put this back on. Does that have to be done in a timeframe frame or could be done at any point? Any other questions or comments? I just want to re-emphasize that it's the later on that scares me the most. That's why I have a hard time supporting this. I definitely hear your point of the later on, but who would drop it? You know, let's say we put an allowance of, you know, first million dollars exempts, just using that example because it's around figure. Who would drop that to 500,000? Who would drop that to 750? I think that's just a poor move. I would also add that, again, we haven't created the ordinance yet. Again, this is just a resolution to the state to create that skeletal structure. We as the town council could put such restrictions or parameters in place that would prevent such a slippery slope like that from happening. Again, that's why I'm supporting that this move forward, and then we make a more stronger determination later on. Because again, the state does not work fast. And again, the concerns being brought up are valid. That if this is not a resolution that gets passed to the state, it's likely that this council won't even consider this until next term as far as I'm concerned. I guess my thought process is that just the opposite. set of going to the state first and then coming back and having a discussion on what the parameters would be, I prefer to talk about where do we see the parameters before we go to the state. Like you had initially said, when you started the conversation, I thought you were making really good point about that. And that might be a better way to do it instead of us doing it in the reverse. Just kind of where I'm at right at the moment. That's understandable and I don't interrupt. But it's from my understanding that while that process makes sense on the surface with the way in which it was shared by the representatives from affordable housing and land trust, is that this really just gives us the time as the current council to be able to put into place the possibility of some sort of a system that provides funding to affordable housing and land trust. And I understand the concerns on the other side. But again, also forward thinking and being realistic and the amount of limited time that we really have as this current elected body, if we don't send this to the state now and then it gets start, it only gets brought up in January of next year. Likely won't even see it till March. You know, you're going into the next election year and my concern is, you know, again, this is not confirming whether or not we're taxing or doing anything with this. This is just telling the state you have our permission to work on. But if you get enabled, if it does get enabled, it does confirm that another town council can do that. Correct. We'll make the same one thing. Sure. As far as you're concerned about possibly laying out the groundwork first and then going to the state, the danger of doing that is the state could always say no. So you put this time in effort and have these meetings, have these discussions of all these different possibilities. You go to the state and the state may say no, we're not doing that right now. And so this way, before you pull that time effort in and have all these extra meetings and laying out all the different scenarios, get the permission first and then come back and decide what your parameters want to be. And this is no different, by the way, then I was thinking about early in the meeting today, when you're looking at all the zoning and planning regulations, that town council's always look at previous regulations. And some are reaffirmed, some are undone, some are tweaked a little bit, so that's no different than any other piece of legislation that gets passed in front of any other town council. With town councils always look at past stuff, and depending upon what's going on in the community, what needs to be addressed at that particular time. Any other council members have any other questions or comments before we go to vote? Oh, okay. Seeing none, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Aye. I am going to say aye. You are going to say aye. I am because affordable housing is is very important to me. And it sounds like this is something that we need to do for affordable housing. So can I ask for roll call votes? Councilor Vignelli. Hi. Councilor Colonies. No. Councilor Torialde. Aye. And Councilor President Menzi's votes, aye. Motion passes, three, one. Next executive session is there a motion to retire to executive session to discuss and act on litigation regarding in regarding national prescription opiate litigation, update, pharmacy benefit, managers, PVM, MDL, 17-MD-2804. this item may be discussed in closed session pursuant to Rhode Island General Laws 42-46-5A2, sessions pertaining to litigation or reasonably anticipated litigation. So moved. Second. Role, I'll ask for a roll called vote. Councilor Torialdi. Aye. Uh, Councillor Collinies. Aye. Councillor Menzi's votes. Aye. Councillor Durkin is absent. Councillor Vignagli. Aye. Motion passes for zero. Thank you. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Is this on? All right. Time is now 11.35. And we're reporting on the results from executive session. The only votes that were cast were to seal the minutes and that passed at 4-0, and to exit and return to open session at 11.33 pm, which also passed 4-0, is there a motion to adjourn at 11.35 pm? So moved.