with doing this i'm here because i'm in search of a remedy for a problem that affects the residence of the voters of elizabeth's drive the neighborhood known his deer track estates last week while walking my dog came upon the owner of lot ted cutting down trees which is sixty elizabeth dr i have knowledge of the previous events pertaining to this lot ten in life and i do too many meetings with the planning board back in two thousand and eight and two thousand and eight a ceas order was issued to the previous owner and he was ordered to correct a wetlands violation i have a copy of that here this is the cease and desist order there also has been a request to divide the and it into multiple ho are said he had a logging permit on this property which in fact he does it was approved by the assessor on october sixteenth of two thousand and fifteen this allows for a change in the land use to a chapter sixty one it takes effect in january of two thousand and sixteen mr radford said that he has a truck waiting to come in now he is upset that he had to contact the company to lay this cutting due to a meeting with the conservation department on nov eighteen the covenants attached to our property were designed to protect the only and protect property owner's investments one of the restriction restrictions of the property is no commercial use of only and or buildings this is a residential neighborhood and should not have changed to a commercial use we as neighbors should have been notified of any change to the neighborhood in the past we had been notified by certified mail with previous owner wish to get permission to make changes when the neighbors attended the meeting and provided the documents that i have here it was disallowed chapter sixty one allows for the cutting of trees for profit that is a commercial operation i believe the cutting is about eighteen tractor trailers worth trees per hour mr guy would she and the state forestry and additionally many cords of wood it would provide mr around with income but it also reduces the amount of taxes that he is responsible for paying to the town of auburn the lady and mr raff are own and protected forest i believe because the covenants require there to be only one house on twenty plus acres of land that means that no additional building would be taking place mr rafa recently finished construction on his home this summer thank you ok just for information was led with an affidavit signed that all of the neighbors within two hundred feet were notified when in a town meeting just yesterday in fact nobody within two hundred feet not one that abuts that property was notified in advance and while there may not be a town or a barber an issue we do take exception that the permit was let we believe ill gotten because of the false affidavit thank you thank you cars and our building commissioner capability to go over a couple of issues so try to break them down by the issues that were raised first of all well the assessor's office did have to approve of the application for tax purposes the  chapter sixty one the state forester is the sole responsibility for approving chapter sixty one a applications so it goes directly to the state first a property owner petitions to the state that state the state a state they also have to submit a true move a claim which i believe you are referring to and that tree removal plan is something that the state approves of and that also gets set to the assessor's office as proof that it's gone through the process so then the assessor's office by law to approve of this once the state makes their approval have it so the there at the separate issue is whether it's a commercial use so that's the approval process on the on the state level for the tax cuts  allowed by right and in our district residential district of which this is so no special permit or variance or approvals for planing will have required we went back and checked there is no requirement as the gentleman said there's no requirement for the municipality to give any notification there does not appear to be any requirement for the state to give notification either i'd be curious to see if we'd like to see it also if the state is required to do it it's not outlined in chapter sixty one that there any type of notification process other than to the assessor so the town does not make the kitchen of of this there is there is no requirement and the town has never has never done that covenant third issue is that there are covenants and the covenants are a private it is a document legally it's a document between property owners that is it here to buy the property owners in the neighborhood that to come in its effect it  a private document in this particular case i believe there are two covenants now of a template or speak to him a moment but they were two separate documents and if there's any dispute that generally in the covenants it outlines in those covenants the process for resolution of disputes it's my understanding that if there is no resolution of disputes covenants in massachusetts that its own message has to slip out of court matter so it's a civil matter so from there it would go to if the neighbors had a concern i have a document here that's part of the forestry plan that was submitted to you and in this it says and it's signed under penalty of perjury the state said that they don't verify this that it's up to the landowner to do this and that's sort of what alexander was referring to it was signed by mr raffo that says that i certify that i have notified the conservation commission in the town in which the operation is take place and the abiders of record within two hundred feet of the area to be harvested and he signed this and there are some other things that it also says that he's responsible for doing when i talk to mr after he said that he did not notify the conservation department in the town of our brain even though he did sign trees especially large quantities of trees there are people that have had problems in the past with flooding so it would affect the our homes and cause them distress so i feel as though this is a document that talk to the state for a start to ensure and actually has the right to go on the property and verify that the force you plan is being followed if a certification was made to the state regarding notification then again that would at that issue would have to be taken up with the state forester the only documents that work required to get the final approval from the state which go to our assessor's office so the town is required to do than of the property owner signed that he had done it so again i again i would suggest that this is could regarding use and what one might be regarding brode so i think there should be a section in there that talks about resolution of disputes aren't following that crisis if the resolution can't be done with the property owners i believe you'd have to go to spaces out back is that the amount of hockey you going to need for customers and in forty second be sufficient parking there's actually much more parking available but those are the only designated parking spaces that are painted lines ok but if you look at the parking lot fits four or five times that size ok if we need to but yes we expect that to be plenty and also there are for an additional four parking spaces in the back of the building that the employees would use as well ok and that parking space is all fully paved yes various steps and permits that are needed so the first step was he wanted the architectural drawer in its certification that it will meet the fire code radiance of today and in the drainage so those two are being done now and that's the first step happening as i said the first step was to get the an architectural study done to ensure that the two occupancies be separated by a fire wall that would be a state code so that that's really literally happened this week it will be complete this week from that once that was completed then we move on to the drainage and that's where they put an instructor will be involved at that point but we're trying to do it in steps that one of the other steps that we have taken as we've sent out a notification by the introduction calculations for the tax rate and other numbers are estimated at this time or for the preparation there may be additional information slides and handouts that are not part of tonight's presentation and handouts we do have handouts up here life i have the problem with the purpose of the classification hearing it's mass general are chapter forty section fifty six ahmed allows us to shift the tax burden between property classes these changes to this does not change the total tax levy for the community it simply determines the share to be born for each class well what classification hearing does not do the classification it does not determine the tax rate for the town it only determines its distribution classification does not determine how much money can be raised at town meeting voters determine what the tax levy  other available funds your total taxable real estate and personal property any income from state aid in reimbursements new growth debt exclusions and overrides the overview for their size of the property commercial and industrial properties values are based on the income approach to the value per the department of revenue requirements for our personal property it goes on the net book value new min us depreciation therefore vote at the classification hearing the residential factor the ships ships the tax rate between residential and commercial properties open space discount this ships the tax burden within their residential classes to discounted open space m we have residential exemption which shifts the burden within the residential tax classes and then we have a small commercial exemption this shifts the burden within the commercial and the industrial classes to be given a discount to qualifying properties in the percents of a levy for four for the four property classes this is just showing the what was back in fiscal year two thousand and two thousand versus a fiscal year two thousand and sixteen and right now the residential we are up and everybody industrial and commercial their value the percentages are down a little bit and the personal property is up from two thousand your tax levied we get the tax levy zero levy limit and the maximum amount that the town can levy and given year and this is done by taking last year's levy we have the new growth and then it to a half percent your maximum allowable levity left in the s fiscal year two thousand and sixteen levy limit these are the calculations last year for two thousand and fifteen the levy limit was thirty seven million seven hundred seventy seven thousand five hundred seventy three there was no amended growth for two thousand and fifteen leaving the subtotal at the thirty seven million seven seven hundred seventy seven thousand by seventy three for the fiscal year two thousand and sixteen the two and a half allowable l increase which if you take two and a half percent of that subtotal it gives us nine hundred forty four thousand four hundred thirty nine for fiscal year two thousand and sixteen our new growth was eight hundred sixty four thousand six fift fiscal year sixteen the property two and a half override we do not have its arrow so at this point you add those together you get thirty nine million five hundred eighty six thousand six hundred seventy one for fiscal year two thousand sixteen the debt exclusion is two million four hundred twenty nine forty three giving the maximum allowable levy of forty two million zero sixteen thousand six fourteen ok the factors that drive our tax rate increase is the debt exclusion which included our new the middle school and the south hold road purchases account for about fifty eight percent of that tax on the fiscal year sixteen rate we've had dental listens over this past year properties that have gone off the tax roll due to demolition from snowstorms we've had three houses that had fire damage and had to be demolished and there was other causes for you know them to disintegrate and fall down and then properties becoming example is another factor the town has more clothes on properties in town ok the trends for two thousand and sixteen are residential growth is up that is most stable it's not usually secured by an individual property making any significant changes to marshal growth is also up  these numbers can be affected by one significant new property or addition on an industrial growth is down somewhat in numbers can be affected annually by wind my property or addition this is the second year though in a row that it's very low in industrial growth personal property growth is up the personal property is actually quite volatile this year was up it was increased because of the public utility met mess electric in new england power ok can see on this chart these are the trends over the past four years of the notable growth we've had if you notice in sixteen we've had a on our residential personal property was four hundred seventy seven thousand and four thirty nine and our residential was two hundred fifty nine thousand one hundred four very low in the industrial and commercial was down just a little bit but that just showing a trend over the past four  years notable growth was actually new england power the public utilities personal property growth which was a lot of the polls that were we were able to pick up gallo built a new building on washington street which is the x golf place and we also have a brand new ok tax levy increases due to the new growth so basically this is dividing down into the categories you're residential commercial you're industrial and your personal property and the growth of the residential change due equalizing the fiscal year two thousand and sixteen great value changes this is basically showing example not normally what happens is when your values go up your tax rate will go down somewhat but if you notice if for two thousand and fifteen a two hundred thousand dollars property their tax rate at seventeen twenty six was three forty two fifty two if you add that one point six one percent to the fifteen you coming up with two hundred three thousand ok there are here one of the things we need to vote on the vote on the residential discount up to a twenty twenty percent discount to owner occupied resident residential properties this shifts the burden from the less expensive homes on to the higher priced and nonresident homeowner homes normally this works in communities with a large amount of vacation rentals or non owner occupied properties to shift the burden onto the rental next the final vote for the board of selectmen is on our commercial exemptions no effect on the residential and personal property rates is affected whatsoever when we do a small commercial exemption industrial properties do not qualify but they'll share the the shifted burden with the commercial the exemption goes on goes to the property owners not to the business it relies on a trickle down effect hopefully the business owners the property owners get the discounted they the businesses when we vote on the small commercial exemption for multi purpose business all of the properties must qualify all the businesses in that property the value of the property has to be under a million dollars and has to have less than ten employees assessors we get a list from the department of workforce development and we qualify each property by the business located there are businesses that aren't on the list they have to be a d b a to be qualified by  small corp businesses must be on the list we need to know that there's less than ten employees in each one of those businesses each year all the properties on the list need to be refiled applications with the assessors every year who send out the applications and if they qualify then you just send them back nice small commercial exemption to shift the tax rate up to ten percent of the it will vote between the properties are compiled by qualifying small businesses on to the commercial and industrial properties applications are taken after the classification hearing and processing can be late can delay settling the tax rate and exemption not process prior to the submission of the recap will impact the overlay accounts applying the exemptions to the prior to the two are burned if we do a shift one point one zero shift of the commercial industrial properties they have a commercial industrial twenty two dollars personal property would be twenty one ninety one which is a difference of nine cents if you notice the difference that changes it goes up by five percent if you do one point one five shift then the commercial rate at twenty three and a personal property to twenty to ninety one in this this is giving you an example right now we presently away point two two for our shift and it gives us a commercial rate of twenty four forty it's going to get personal property of twenty four thirty and that's a difference of ten cents from ok it's right here is a chart showing that our current shift is one point two two and the current exemption for small commercial it's ten percent and if you know the values it to fifty in it's just giving you an example what it would be qualified with an exemption and you have the tax i'm qualified for the exemption in taxes with no commercial property exemption the rate chart basically with the residential list and on this one here since this is with assuming the ten percent business exemption and this is assuming that we grow it it's granted for two thousand and sixteen if we keep th shift at one point two two then you'll notice the residential factor is ninety point eight zero one one bringing our residential tax rate to eight hundred nine commercial b twenty four forty and the personal property would be twenty four  makeup of the the eighty three and i sent in the residential increase this is a graph showing that forty three percent of that increase is going to the middle school another three point three percent is for the south old rolled forty three percent of that it's the increase for the allowance of the proposition two and a half which is that actually a two percent rate and eleven percent is the demolitions and exemptions that we have to absorb into the into the depreciat is showing the tax rate without borrowing so if we had not done any of the schools or the properties it would be at sixteen eighty but by adding in the high school sixty one cents you're middle school at fifty ok this is showing your effect of your tax rates on your commercial and industrial assessments basically the higher the of the higher taxes have a negative impact on our commercial buildings are by raising the tax the value base is assessed are actually lower because it goes into their net operating income i just think if you noticed you have the building sizes that i use in the bill for all the different towns and it's the at the tax rate is going up the value to those properties if you know it's arbor and it's originally three hundred seventy five thousand by increasing those taxes it's actually bringing that property to eighty seven three twenty five ok the impact on splitting the tax rate on an average property for right now the average residential buildings are two hundred thirty two thousand i'm twenty one and if we keep  it a tax split at one percent they're looking at four hundred four thousand six hundred forty right now it were at one point two two which phrase it would actually bring their taxes down to four thousand two hundred twelve dollars so it's just showing the difference between the splits and what the tax rates and what the it was actually being paid on those and this is for the right breakdown the split of one point two two it showing that they residential which is the median house price the change of the rate at one percent it's going to cost the average homeowner four hundred twenty six dollars savings a loss with a one point five percent split is one hundred thirty five so it's a loss of that one twenty is thirty nine and if it's a one twenty five it would be actually go down fifty nine but brings them up to equalize the value with the increase and in value for the revaluation this year and what the change in their taxes is going to be based on the various shifts if we stayed at  sixty one dollars which adds two six point six two percent if you look at the average commercial property with the new tax rate their bill that was twenty five thousand six hundred  six hundred ninety dollars last year their new tax bill this year is going to increase by one thousand five hundred eighteen dollars to twenty seven two hundred six two hundred  eight so that bill's going to go up about five point nine one percent if you look at this chart you'll see if we leave it even if everybody's increase is going to be very similar as you go through the various scenarios you'll see that it's not going to be even between the various classes some will go up more some will go up  actually somewhat lower than statewide for on the average residential buildings commercial commercial industry is we seventy to seventy second highest in the state we're down from the fifty seven ties in the state which actually puts us in the top quarter of the state for the cost  commercial properties to do business in town over the last twenty years there this is just showing you the trend the value of trans right now it's there even ing out we are climbing back up again so the values are going up for our residential of foreclosures actually from last year is gone up just a little bit to sixteen foreclosures lives share we have eighteen proposers this year but it's way down from when it was you know back in two thousand and ten two thousand and eleven be this is a chart showing our excess levy over a six year history just to let you know the cost of living to the max would actually add an additional one dollar and sixty seven cents on the residential tax rate and another   of the possible two point five so we are leaving their point five you know excess levy for this year for this year broken down in one percent increment so that the board of selectmen can have an idea as to you know what would happen if they decided to change the rate in increments less than what i show in the presentation earlier  as best we can to general fund obligations as well as meet the obligations as approved by the borders of the community good evening my name is mary huge until you have been resident for twenty nine years i was a chamber president years ago when i first came up to talk to you and i want back on the board so i'd love to see the taxes go down for all of us that 's my mission that's my goal i believe that with the current leadership you guys are doing a great job and running the tonic keeping things looking real good financially for all of us i think we can do a little bit more i spoke before this  about six years ago and i asked for help filling the holes of all the holes of auburn where all the empty store fronts up and down the street and many other streets i actually took a ton of pictures and passed them out that was the first year that they started to change the tax rate so i thank you for that i suggested that we aim for a single tax rate for residential and business back then it was agreed that they would work towards that and i was the first year that we made a change as you  i drive around town today a lot of those holes of being filled up by businesses this is really good for our town provides job jobs for residents and also added tax revenue for the town i believe this has happened and continues to happen because we are perceived as a more business friendly town because this shift is going in a downward direction in kopel it for a single tax rate i would love it if we could aim and shoot for a one point one differential this year to continue this growth of businesses coming to our town and hopefully increase the tax revenue to the town in time all of our taxes will go down thank you for your time  consideration thank you good evening stuart luce more from the auburn chamber of commerce here tonight to expand and continue the prior two speakers what the past actions of this board has done has provided a sense of stability and planning for businesses as they start to develop multiyear budgets and long term plans past commitments of this board to continue to work towards a fair rate allow businesses to really look at reinvesting and that's what you've seen in some of this with commercial properties going up and down for so proper going out businesses are investing in their own business with residential properties going up you have residents investing in their own homes so it's not just the business community that says that getting out of this residence are also reinvesting and putting money into their own homes it really continuing to make auburn a vibrant and thriving community we just ask that you continue with this trend and thank you for your support of the business community thank you to members of the board my name is marty rise from here on behalf of the auburn industrial development corporation i think next to the auburn mall one of the largest taxpayers in the town and we do our best to invest in the infrastructure of our company and we've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into as fault canticle drainage lighting roofing worcester they moved to auburn because the tax rate was too was too high and i just also wanted to say that our company does this within the community we work with companies good evening my name is mark psaki jr i'm speaking here tonight representing capital signing company in the also the chamber of commerce also residential owner in auburn and her staff have also done a great job keeping our town in great shape we appreciate it while the past nine out of ten years the  reduce the business tax rate from the two thousand and six differential of one point six to present rate of one point two i know this is a very difficult year for the town and lashly you voted no change but we can't give up now they have been over twenty new businesses that came into town last year and they are going  because of the changes the board have made in the past we now have a more positive image and we cannot that let that slip yack into the past sturbridge voted to go back to a single tax rate last year and we are fighting to obtain businesses that have gone to our neighboring towns bond rate has dropped again and that reflects the right mix of businesses and commercial use this is why we need to continue to work towards a single tax rate in this town we are the only town in the immediate area besides wister that has a split rate we have made tremendous progress in bringing businesses back to auburn but we are still not we cannot go backwards this is a win win decision for the residents and the businesses of our town so i am asking the board of selectmen to not only keep the small business tax exemption but to also lower the commercial rate even to just a modest reduction to one point one zero which would have very little impact to residential i know it's not an easy decision but it's the right decision thank you for your consideration thank you president did not send teams for small businesses to go out and get export business like germany does like france does so it was a little bit more confident that you folks will do that and like i said thank you very much but last year you know i was a little bit disappointed that you folks did not come down in tax rate but we are looking t folks coming to see us there from different parts of the country like georgia like north carolina because i intend to be very positive about what you folks are doing and i hope you will consider that because it's not a to us trying to attract but to other businesses around here so when you send a good message you kind of send a message to the other states that massachusetts and town of all but most of them and all these other towns really competing for the business eventually you please my name's phil joined one forty eight hampton street thank you for your time this evening in regards to the lack of residents that have come here tonight i would like to perhaps speak on their behalf and it seems that the business owners would like to see an increase or decrease of their of the tax rate to one point one that's an increase of one dollar eighty three thousand that's a big effect on the residents i've said this in the past every household in this town is a small business x amount of dollars come in x amount of dollars go out the residential end does not have the opportunity to pass along any increases to the customers we have to absorb that and that's a fair amount of money the tax rate would be going up to  dollars and fifty cent yes there are not a lot of towns in the local area that are at that rate sturbridge is at one thousand dollars and twenty four cents i'd like to bring attention to shoes because everybody seems to gravitate to shoes free as as a point of reference the tax rate is thirteen dollars and twenty cents they also have thirty six thousand five hundred eighty people the town of auban has sixteen thousand three hundred eighty seven people there's a fairly big difference there are assessed residential value of one point three million dollars shoes for this four point three million dollars there's a little difference here i'm sure there are a few real estate people in this room tonight and you would know that you can take a two bedroom ranch and compare it to a four bedroom colonial it really doesn't work out as far as increasing the tax rate for new businesses somebody just made a statement that we have twenty twenty two new businesses coming in town is that not supposed to reduce the tax rate i would expect that that's supposed to do that but i'm not hearing that that is going to one way or the other so then i would like to close with this if we have to bring the commercial rate down why can't you bring just the commercial rate down and leave the residential rate alone is there reason why you can't just do that and i would like an answer for that one from somebody between it in order to leave the residential rate alone and bring the commercial rate down there would have to be substantial cuts to the budget to accommodate th observation or information that i've read so if the town needs to find a way to bring things in order maybe there are and it was that can be done then i will close i will close with that  would like to thank everybody for their time to see me thank you years seems like this for me is always been positioned as businesses horse of the resident which really isn't fair because businesses do provide it dition to town they pay taxes just like the residents there at the same time another thing that i've observed from these meetings is really it's become a game of political brin great point which is a point that i've raised several times that we could change the commercial factory without affecting the residents or tax rate bottom line is the town doesn't want to do it so a couple of things we learned over the last year i've been told in the past that we can't get a special town meeting on short order that was this group twice both those items that were left off the original warrant became very clear also this year that when there are pet projects to be funded we can pull a three quarter million dollar rabbit  but we can't find money to mitigate the taxpayer burden change this to a single tax rate at no cost to the residents it can be done it's not my job to say how to do it that's the job of the folks at the other end of the table but it can be done missed the joint so i'm not going to support anything except going to a single tax rate this year thank you them first of all i want to thank everybody for coming out tonight it's great to see a full crowd and and i do want to share a mistress an audience comments that it is a business versus residence and it should never be posed that way we're all neighbors we all made a significant investment in this community and we should introspect that that fact i find myself this is my second and i have a great hard time when i look at the history and when i look at the upward spiral of residential taxes almost doubled in less than twenty years i have a hard time saying to the residents of town that we should be moving further and expanding their share of the burden because during the worst economic time that we've experienced probably in our lifetime we've invested in a new high school for a new middle school we're currently paying for another school a path and we've had to take on a sixty one a property which are excellent investments and actually pay dividends to the business community because we're training the workforce for the twenty first century so i will be voting to hold tax at one twenty two next year if estimates continue we're looking at a six hundred thousand dollar hole in the budget so i can't see adding to the tax burden is here and then going back to the road that actual tax payer and saying by the way you know your taxes went up last year and now they can go up this year and i could never support such a drastic change to one point one zero that would devastate the residential homeowners budget and it's just not good business for the town so i will be supporting a one to two and those are my reasons and i hope in the future that i can join and  us progress towards it looks a little fairer tax rate for businesses to recognize the fact that you support a lot of our charitable organizations a lot of our sports teams and people without your support as well as without your presence in our community would be a lot poorer for it so i apologize we're regret not being able to go along with you tonight but i hope in the future that we can work together for a  going backwards there's been a lot of pressure on board members to you know our taxes going up too much the commercial customers can use their prices and make up the difference says mr joined us said i'm not going to do that i don't think we should go backwards but i also believe we've come a long way and be being business friendly to me business f isn't just setting a tax rate annually we've made and vestments in the roads we've made investments in public safety we've made changes in the permitting process which streams l streamline separate process so someone looking to come into our but now you know what that process will be and how much time they have to commit to that the town manager continues to work with the business community holding business round tables we have the economic development committee and we also have a new comprehensive review and update of the by lies which affects everyone including the business community so so i too will be supporting the one point two two i don't consider it going backwards considering it consider it continuing to move right direction with an acknowledgement that we've just had a little school come on like we had the unexpected sixty one a property come on line the share and we are continuing to pay for the high school children's school while they were growing up and actually somebody took the burden of paying for nearly dean when i was there just a short time ago in the high school however the town did take the responsibility for two new schools and i think it's a really big plus nowadays when you're looking for a home i would want to know what to school systems for like and how far they've come and i think that the voters have done a wonderful job with what they voted night self hold road we could all sit and say should we should we have whatever i think in the long run we will also representing residents that lived in the area somewhere for someone for a weekly by monthly we come up here and we advocate on behalf of the president it's very important that we cannot please everybody we can't i however will be supporting the one point two to thank you  you we currently don't have any classified as open space so basically at this point we would not do there we would not do an open harvard is pretty much on the market so it would simply create a shift between the various classes of property within the residential meaning that the people who had roger homes would pay even more and she was approached by two other dogs two dogs she described as like husky type dogs and one of the dogs bit her dog which she i guess recognized the dogs and she waited for the owner  and the the complainant saw them go back to to the address on chestnut fast forward then almost not quite a year to april eleventh of two thousand and fifteen a complaint was received by animal control of two us peace or to housekeep type dogs that were running loose and entering residence yards in the area of a white terrorists adela street and also just an absolute just basically running loose the complaint was investigated by animal control they were not able to locate the dogs at that time the next day a complaint was received by animal control again of the same two dogs running loose on white terrace a dollar and chestnut a resident was able to actually provide a picture  gotten loose over the weekend and she said that they have attempted made attempts to confine the dogs and keep the dogs contained in their property but then you know they had done some some work by constructing a fence in concrete and the dogs ha just that i have the complaint approached was approached by the two dogs while she was walking her dog and she became concerned enough that she actually turned around and went back to her home because she was concerned the dog's going to go after her dog it was somewhat aggressive i guess on may thirteenth which was a wednesday ups of ramos of our department responded to call long with the animal control officer a dog respond swimming in an above ground pool and the woman couldn't get the dog a resident fourteen summer street had a dog basically stuck in a pool and the dog was described as a an australian shepherd husky type the dog was pulled out of the pool in scuse me was identified as molly from just one of them and mr ellis took the dog to hillside vet and her body temperature the time was ninety two degrees which is almost ten degrees below what it was a normal body temperature for a dog i guess at the  law they need to provide proof of rabies vaccines for their dogs and they were given until may twenty fifth two thousand and fifteen to accomplish that and provide proof on may twenty ninth two thousand fifteen a return receipt for asserted by letter was sent and signed was signed by ms mari and returned to the department of instructional services on monday august twenty fourth two thousand and fift a resident of oxford street north number twenty oxford street northwest of lee visited the actual office when special services to file a complaint that two dogs two husky type dogs had on his property earlier that day and had killed several of his chickens mistily provided pictures of the dogs and some of the the remnants of the chickens to the inspection services and based on past interactions with the dogs and knowledge of the dogs the animal control officer was able to identify molly as one of the dogs in the pictures from just on the twenty fourth of august a concerned citizen contacted the animal control the report that her daughter into the citizens daughter had become concern because she saw reported to wolf like animals wandering through properties on chestnut nadella after some investigation in the control officers on two husky type dogs which beginning on august twenty fourth through august twenty seventh the animal control officer made several attempts both telephonically and by written five letters to work with the owners of the dogs to try and get them to get the rabies shots you know to have the dogs be in compliance including you know offering to transport the dogs you know not only to the animal control officer research low cost or lower cost opportunities for the people because they  with getting the dogs properly vaccinated and bringing them into compliance i know that at some point mr ellis paid the outstanding citations from the previous incidents and did require him both of the both of the dogs in essence that you have six complaints over the course of over a year more and more so thirteen months or thereabouts and at this point the six outstanding citations that of the recommendations that i would like to make is that the owners would pay the six outstanding citations that were issued on august twenty fourth so that's for a total of one hundred fifty dollars there were three issued per dog the owners were not able to provide proof that the dogs were in fact up to the owner of these vaccinations so they were issued say patients are being vaccinated at the time they were not licensed with the town issued citations for running at large in the neighborhood so i'd also like to suggest that the dogs must be confined inside of the home and the owners are not on the property i would like to recognize that the owners have made attempts to keep the dogs c fined they do have a fence around their property there is concrete along the bottom of the fence so the dogs would be able to dig out from under that section of the fence or the concrete there is a kennel in the backyard however the back yard if no one is with the dogs that to this day he has been insufficient to actually be able to keep the dogs on the property recommend that if the dogs are proven to be in violation as the town of auburn bylaws within the next two years of the hearing date so from november ninth two thousand and fifteen to november two thousand and seventeen that the dog should be the whole of her life so five years i don't know if they have been in auburn at full amount of time but we're staying here from two thousand and twelve two thousand and thirteen and fourteen there's been no record of the dogs residing at twenty  to comply with and want to do i'd like to state that all those reports are legit so the alleged biting of a dog and the alleged killing of those chickens there's no proof positive that's all true those dogs have been born  raised and grew up with mighty little kids and never had an issue with my daughters six my sons four they've been around my kids since they were infants and to touch on the pool incident now if that was my daughter running after a ball some other issues i think that need to be addressed as well however i agree that my dogs are a pain in the ass pardon my language they are completely nuisance and everything she said i agree with one hundred percent their out of control and  start ok now how long have the dogs been in town those ties have been in town sense they were born both of them so ten years old what i'm hearing of the reports of there's no record of them being  they're currently vaccinated they've been vaccinated several times their vaccinations overlapped and i was unable to get a record of the vaccination because of the dates i couldn't prove that their overlapping vaccination extended the vaccine for the three years that when you overlap it does even though that was the case so we didn't back on it then we get in because it was overlapping i just couldn't get a record of that so i want to head and have her vaccinate the dogs and paid the bill for that and paid the latest citation the six outstanding citations i got a plead ignorance i don't have the paperwork if i if there was a bill i owe check the town i pay all my bills i've been living in thirty two years all my other bills are paid had i known there was six are down the road to have this issue corrected well just to touch on some of the things i've done like she said completely fenced in the yard some an electric fence dog cattle with cement done all those things clearly didn't work the dogs have since been locked up in the house constantly a lot some there to supervise them outside of the house there's been no record of them out the other thing i like to touch on is the fact that there isn't fact a look alike couple of husk running amok so i feel like my dogs are getting the brunt of all this and half the time it's not even that so and i've actually made a call to the tower one instance in particular when they were accused of being and i want to but when they weren't they were right in front of me and i'm getting calls saying they're all right around i'm not saying it's not them most of the time i'm saying that some of those times i believe it wasn't them that's what i believe as far as corrective action i mean i pay the citations give me a zero tolerance situation where if it happens again you can take the dose i don't want to be honest with you i've been back and forth if i even want the dogs what's keeping me with the dogs is on the oil to the animals my kids have known those dogs since they were little for them to you know where the dogs hit it breaks my heart so they're a pain that my house is destroyed inside you know the oldest one went through a fire she's got a lot of anxiety and that's what stemmed let  it's a it's an issue if it wasn't i if i if it wasn't an issue i wouldn't be here complying with everything you're telling me i mean make friends of the chickens your dogs and kill the chickens too that's what dogs do it's that it's a bad end up running around as a dog that's what they do have a lot that i don't know how i feel bad for the chickens i think it sucks that they killed the chickens taking care of these dogs you say they're going to kill chickens well if they weren't in the situation of third and weren't allowed to get near him were they would you kill them that's your responsibility  by dogs is pretty smart animal but it's not smart enough to walk up to town on your license or to know that it needs one and i don't see that facetiously just to me it's absurd that as someone who owned a dog pretty much my entire life and i know dogs can be a pain i've had dogs too expensive things my current diet hughes's on my last nerve some days but it's still my responsibility to keep them under control and it's not fair to the animal for me to go hey i'm going to get a diet maybe i'll take care into the maybe i won't on the one hand and figure out why you know trying to do something to mitigate them consciously run away consciously trying i don't know but i just i'm bothered as a dog owner by the attitude of yeah they're going to do this they're going to do that it's the owner responsibility to make sure that they don't attack other animals that they don't go after kids that they don't just run i mean we have we have laws about dogs being on leashes for a  reason to try to prevent those things and i know people who happened to and has my dog got a moose shirt it happened everyone who's had a diet i tell you right now they're lying if they say my dog never loose but if it's once or twice here or there it happens responsibility to those dogs and it contained completely agree with you i said that from the beginning not put the responsibility on the dogs to get out there huskies he don't i mean i don't know if you've ever dealt with the breed look into it it's what they do they're no longer in the yard so they can't get out no they i just told the officer mill's that i wouldn't be surprised if the next step was them breaking through an exterior door to get out if you would come to my house and do a tour of the things that they're managed to get through it probably blow your mind to be honest with you and i don't know if it stems from the anxiety from my the older dog she was in a house fire ever since then she's been disciplined tough to keep her inside so ok i'm going to take some steps to allow her to be outside where she's more comfortable i did the fence i did the kennel and we're talking a ten by twenty kennel with the top on it cemented in poor descent myself dug the trench i mean i'm not just for around and saying i'll let him out the front door  and make sure they don't kill chickens i took a lot of time and effort in to keep them in the yard and try to keep those dogs happy because of the exactly that was originally causing them to not want to be inside or whatever the reason is and it's just it's spiraled out of control i agree it's all my fault it's my responsibility i wish i had nipped in the bud sooner i wish i'd place them somewhere sooner but now you know what i've had leakage since your eleven years old i mean sue me since she was a newborn she's eleven years old her puppy of us a single litter and i tried to place them i can't find anyone to take them together i'm afraid if they go separately the older dogs not going on too well with it so i mean will what do i do what would you do i'm not in a good position i fortunate that we're here just tonight chill and nuisance complaint my concern is that you know that the way it's progressing i don't want you to be here before us in a future date because the dogs have gone after a person and i were looking at youth and i see in these dialogues we don't want to get to that point and from what you just said when you just spoke to mr smalley and this might not be the right setup for these dogs it doesn't sound like it's fair to the starks they need to be able to get out and run and it certainly sounds from the the you know the recommendations that the animal control officer has made that at this point if you're not at home to care for these dogs able hood is put you know put in fear i can't tell you what to do with your darks i'm going to support the conditions that the animal control officer has made but i just want you to think about the dives and the fairness of the darks and we have an excellent animal control officer here we have people in town who care about the animals deeply and just again i can't tell you what to do with your dogs story appreciate your concern and i just touch back on the i mean they've been my children been raised around these dogs that is just like any any family pet they you know they pull on their ears they grab the tail that these dogs are going to  a little kid or a person i understand where you're coming from but it just hurts my feelings to think that my dogs however i do agree with you i agree that another option might be better direction to travel for them i have a feeling it's going to be difficult to do when keeping them together so thank you there's nothing else there any neighbor officer one being that the owner must pay the six outstanding citations which were issued on august twenty fourth twenty fifteen for toll of one fifty two the dog must be confined inside of the home and an auburn is that so that is any violation if they have a fine if they get out of the property so for that one it would be a violation at the top restraint so if they were found to be off property try to find a place where he can relocate both of these dogs i don't know if we can help him i understand his concern about wanting to keep the ducks the other makes it makes sense and i know that if it gets to a point where the docs have to be removed from the town that whole thing probably lost in the shuffle and they probably have a better than fifty percent chance that they will be euthanized at some point so if we can provide that if if there is a way to work with them if even if it's some recommendations or be a sheet of paper with organizations put these dogs in a safe environment if that's his wish rather than seek the alternative i think that would probably be pretty heartbreaking to most people including me are his family his children so if we can do that correct and justify some of the issues and concerns that were brought up on the october twenty sixth hearing i'm here with my colleague mike vanity as he is the technical operations manager for central massachusetts like the wall street area so since that meeting i also just want to mention that we going into the homes reconfigured some things in the home because i know as of late last year we went all digital of course so that by default affects your t v is a lot more than in the past in the past if you had screen of course so i know with a lot of the issues that were brought up we've dealt with those there's the small you know we want to follow up with you as well and just start from scratch well from square one so from now picture everything's what we called s any issues please if you want to get the information id then to me will will gladly deal what i wanted with them as well and work till build complete satisfaction with that but i just had an issue them in the paris and just recently this past week it's the service has been you know very very good and to those places that there's a problem and that's right they should contact you wonder be sure had some concerns heard from a lot of residents but you know i do appreciate the fact that number one chatter has been very responsive to in regards to the service calls having a direct merger in your train or showcase yourself you have a tendency to do maybe put a few extra dollars and create a quick staff so i feel a little more confident tonight and i thank you for following up then and being patient and coming back opposite situation it's actually gotten worse and i know we talked about it at the same time as i said several other people have also mentioned  that e mails about some ongoing issues that need to be corrected i understand you make an effort i applied for that i think it's very i just don't think it's quite there enough for my satisfaction and the people who have contacted me and it's not just about me those are the people i represent and the overwhelming majority of them have asked me not to support it i owe that to them as their representative to do th i would just ask that the chairman of the board cosign a lot or as it's on behalf of the board is like me it would be nice to have the chairman sign a letter in addition to the town manager no problem with th from the previous owner the beneficiary of the previous owner asking if there was any interest on behalf of the town deeming the property back to the owner we cannot do that  four exactly and there's no other anticipated costs going forward i mean if there were never were legal expenses would we get to complete this process morning i don't know if that's something you can answer so if if you can't if you can't get the property redeemed and sell it are you still on the hook property it could be it could be ten or fifteen years later if if there's a if there's that existing link that triggers the state coming after that money i just i just want to make sure well thank you thank you for coming in so the motion been made and seconded all those in favor i told thank you thank you for coming we'll see you on the twenty third of november o a value of one hundred dollars and it's food for animals hows that the animal control shelter and they can't sell it but they want to donate it to us and oftentimes they want to speak up that day because they have to get it out of their their world so we were looking for just a blanket approval of accepting donations like that from pet stores the value is very it's a modest value but a lot of times it is time sensitive or they'll call and we'll have a product that we can use that may not last for another two or three weeks before we c draft a letter signed by the chair expressing our appreciation for the investment that holiday in an express and suites has made i don't feel that this rises to the level of a proclamation i know there's an item later on we'll probably talk about it more full throated but to me i think a letter signed by the chair would be sufficient emotion made for a letter from the chairman to the holiday inn express for their this brings up something that in the past there probably are different levels of these types of investments in things that folks in the business community here for pretty much all we've had available to us is either a proclamation or not a proclamation a letter from the board or the chairs is certainly something we can with that we don't really have we haven't established like a category or a level of this warrants a proclamation this warrants a letter this warrants something else  while i agree in principle when mr carter saying to me the fact that we haven't established two years of you know whatever you want and no we do not have a policy i do know that the subcommittee has worked for a while on a policy and i know the chair has asked us to revisit it traditional start and at different times this is no different than a tradition that we started four years ago with the tree lighting there was no policy there was we never did it but we do it now to me to continue a process diminishes those individuals who receive proclamations for individual achievement this to me just does not rise to a level of of giving a proclamation so if it's between issuing a letter expressing our gratitude as a board i would rather do that but if it's to issue a proclamation i will not support issuing a proclamation and going forward i will not it's i will not support it in the proclamation and instances that i don't feel rise to the level of individual achievement that at this point should be interested in addressing at the town establish levels of what's you know consider worthy of a proclamation and what's not so i've looked at it the last thing i want to do with van hollen express or anyone points i for one have expressed the fact that the proclamation i think of gone a little bit too far and you're right there are some traditions that begin and end and i think this unfortunately may be one for me though i'm going to say that we may end this just to get the ball rolling and say that the proclamations have been overextended i think people that have had individual  successes and experiences and no data worthy of a proclamation yes but as far as this is a ongoing business is done a renovation there's been some probably some new absolutely felt this wasn't proclamation worthy and i think it is getting carried away but the chamber of commerce has already advertises this of that it is a ribbon cutting ceremony of and they have a format that they follow the holiday inn express and suites are part of the chamber they are very supportive of the community and i hate putting a name to a new policy we're trying to set in the i think it's important that we need to reach out on our and have a discussion with her i mean a ribbon cutting ceremony a business in town absolutely and i agree that they are the set committee needs to come up with policy very quickly but this event has already been advertised promoted and i think there's like maybe we need a business a word side and individual contribution word side maybe a proclamation a citation and a letter might be the three levels that would satisfy  proclamation that was made there was you did a great job to make it all where the top so what's a proclamation a new business is that's one thing we've had businesses that have been well they've been in business for a long time they've changed the name of the change management so there's many ongoing things that we have to look at and i think you're right i think that i would disagree with mr goodrich i think that may be a good point to start someplace and maybe draft a letter and say yes yes it has been proposed as a ribbon cutting ceremony and yes it is in the terms of force them one hundred support the letter with the capital and i just want to make one final point the congressman i have up into a lot of these because my business takes me out of town but cops want the government provides a letter when a business opens so i don't agree that it's unprofessional if our representative in congress can send a letter and we humble boards of selectmen should be able to do the same and not be i don't think that there should be expectations on the part of anybody because i don't think that's fair to the board this has to come before the board this should not be any expectation that past practice as boards change that we should be held hostage to probable wards decisions and that we may or may not agree with i respect mrs goodrich as points greatly and mr sloan ians but as i said i don't feel that this is no reflection on the business i just feel that we need to start a new tradition and we need to start expressing as a board what we feel we want to engender as a community and recognize as a community and how we do so thank you ok the motion made and seconded for sending a letter from gle scout this boy scout made it to the eagle scout level but he's already left to serve in the united states navy and there is no formal or public  ceremony for him to be recognized that so so i think it's important that we recognize them so the town of our border selectman population eagle scout award whereas the board of selectmen for the town of arbor which is struck and i see outstanding achievement of  was as an illustration of the bright future these leaders of tomorrow will provide our great country and where as the eagle scout award is the high scout made chief demonstrating his dedication to the organization while serving his community and where as mr jameson clay at his face the challenges and met them while demonstrating the parts of qualities of our youth and whereas mr mr jameson class achievements and dedication including h available for everybody the problem is of the brain require that it be for sixty and over so just as a reminder there is a fire path that we had this program i believe a year ago it may have been two years ago it was so successful this is a great opportunity for the seniors to com so it's going to help friday november twentieth at the senior center from one to three and just a reminder dogs mean to be our nation's and cats in carriers and it's a great opportunity to come in and get a number of different services including fr if it's really not much more involved than that this is something that is in the current master plan at both considered i think i mentioned this at a board meeting previously at the time of course timing being everything but we just signed a new contract so we were a day late and a dollar short literally so it is it is finished business and the master plan i would like to see is try and do that rather than as some have suggested for a i guess to be specific what you were asking the town accountant to or the c f o to ask them to research what we have reports we need to find out the mechanics of how to do it if we want to do it i mean this is a long way from saying let's do it this is this is foundational information we've got this i believe was last meeting and it had given us some information and i forget the item but there was some citations i would refer to everybody to take a look at those because they are interesting but to try and create a fund so that we can take care of whether it's sixty one a if we have another one come before us to bank money for that and i know there's been many suggestions both at the open space community and at this board for the necessity for more playing fields and we do have some rather wild properties that that people would like to see trails be put on them and we also have a grant for trails currently and they're going to need to be maintained so this could be up to ten well source to maintain these very valuable assets is that part of what you are looking for i know there was a discussion on a fee for the golf course green fees is the apt in the equation what i just don't know what's on or off the table happy to sit down with you but  a i don't see is a viable option the reimbursement rates are not where they were i was involved in some groups but when that was a hot issue and there was no appetite in the town at the time and at night after tonight and from what i'm hearing from residents the appetite for more taxation is absent not that it's ever robust but i think we need to find a way to fund some of these items but whether administrator and he knows municipal law quite well so keep in mind that that was done some years ago and he may have been some interceding laws that may have changed the complection so that's what i'm looking for just to see if we can do anything unfortunately where we are several years too late for self old rope but i have no specific goal in mind because first of all we have to find out can we do it and what are the mechanics so to me i wouldn't be looking to say this is the ultimate number and after that we're just going to say we don't need any more i think any time you bring money for community uses i think we've seen some substantial investments that have benefited turf if we need to there's been discussion as far as in adequacy of parking up at pappas that's a big ticket item that's not something that we can just you know rate some account and you know it's not a ten thousand dollar sell we do have a conservation fund that has been in place it was adopted by devoted to meeting years and years ago i think there's a balance a six thousand dollars in there because i think a one point zero was use to help support matching funds for grants and may have been applied for so there is a fun in place that i think the question is a mechanism to feed and over a period of time there were allowed to get some things done so i'll be happy to explore the board this quickly as possible quoted text that we talked about that related to having a fee on to the golf course a and i think initially said that i don't think it would be allowable under the enterprise method of accounting because they had to be used solely for the activity the money's being charged for i could go there group but i'm not so sure that and i think that's why i reached over earlier to find out if that's you want me to to explore that as well show tonight exactly what those numbers were going to be and i think that if we could come up with something like that to maybe even rainy day fund of so we could probably help our town out as much as i hate to say you know find a tax or find another way to get some money it may help us down the road for he with the polls he's a financial policies we have to make the investment put it into a bank account let it build sort of case we have these issues come up like a issue at least we have something to lean on as we don't have to go back to the taxpayers and hit them as bad as it has been this time through the motions been made seconded all the favor proclamations i think it's important i think as we discuss tonight we're sending a letter to a ribbon cutting event and i think that there are some places to what extent we want to send a proclamation and to you know just have some kind of guidelines and all leave it up for discussion the board but i think that's pretty much we were or discuss a little bit of it tonight with wooden one proclamation we're going to send a letter now instead so there is some tweaking we should do and i think that you know it should be for a very good and just cause and not just you know an ongoing you know business and type of thing i would just say that we have a board before we send it to the subcommittee because they don't necessarily think it is fair to the subcommittee to divide what we want much like the participation i would like us to at least have some discussions at the board level to try and give some sort of definition and that the committee of the subcommittee would have something to work on rather than have them having to divine what we want  and stop anyone who is singling out any member of the board anyone is willing and anyone is welcome to disagree with any of us that part and parcel of government i have no problem with that and any way shape or form but specifically calling out people that there was a personal attack or if there was anybody that was singled out for any comments one way or another and i think you're referring to the finance committee chairman who had made comments about what that meant just manage and i didn't hear any names i didn't hear any fingers point to see if it figures pointed i saw nothing it was and if there was i would have thought to write that i know because i would not have i'm going to disagree with you because he started his comments directed specifically at me was his words unable to understand me so i'm just going to apologize to tommy and make a promise to you that from now on when i address town meeting i will use small words and speaks what were so there's no more interruptions because i'm not understood texas so when they are required to send out letters to those who are eligible for the program they come up from their processing center costs why they have such great capacity to respond to president concerns and to make sure that they can handle this program so watch let everyone know yes it came from texas it's not a scam a very good question when i show everybody that it is legitimate we have a copy of the back up we have a website that we put out i mean this will aggregation for residents and if you click on our home page it'll say minutes were under how did your how to if you click on that there's a section on f a q so frequently ask questions please direct residents there wasn't great information there's another section there where it says click here for the letter that went out so if you're concerned that you didn't get that the letter was potentially a scam you can see the exact letter that was sent to everybody on our website and you'll realize that it's legitimate if it's different than that then it can start just a reminder that c power it's our aggregator they are set up for any answer questions and they don't respond zero eight four eight five five eight five eight willing to whatever questions we can and our first but we're trying to direct the questions to cornell as well a letter and who has a separate contract for energy supply would not have received a letter in a lot of questions came in on this so i'll just make one more comment it is an opt out program so if you receive a letter there is a terrible cheat instructions on how to opt workwise you may opt in at any time but we highly encourage you if you're with another supplier make sure that's not penalties and fees you can but some of these companies do have penalties for getting out of line and they want any questions please direct them today thank you all and take a few minutes to think about them thank you and before we get through we have minutes from the may eleventh two thousand and fifteen meeting of there any comments or wrong concerns over this except that it is presented