I move to exit executive session second I e we've exited executive session but we're just kind of hanging out and then we will start again in our Open Session shortly e e e e okay we we actually called this meeting to order a half an hour ago and we had our executive session but now we're back here an open session um and as usual we're going to start our meeting uh with hearing from anyone that would like to talk to us for up to 3 minutes and um what I usually say at this point is that it's key that we hear from people because you know otherwise we're just talking amongst ourselves and not really representing the town and on the other hand we have a long and Hefty agenda so we keep things to three minutes uh Dean has a a yellow card that he holds up when you got a minute left and a red card when when it's when you're three minutes is up and then it's my job to have you stop um so let's go ahead uh are there resident concerns hi I'm Tara from massab and um so I would like to be able to speak on the number 12 topic about the MBTA zoning before you make any decisions I know a lot of times you guys start making decisions informally about like do you feel about this and that so the decision is already made before you hear from us um so I was hoping that you could hear from us before then thank you I was expecting to accept public comment for that I meant before you start making consensus decisions so that the decision is already made we're going to hear from select Bo like usual we're going to hear from select board members and then hear from the public thank you yeah um are there other resident concerns okay and there's one online um Matt or whoever is monitoring the line let's let the let's let the public speak of course Mr chair this is Frannie Osman Frannie you should be able to speak hi can you hear me yes we can okay good um I was going to come to your last meeting but it was early in the morning um after a late night um so I came this time but I'm hoping to get on the agenda on this topic at our next meeting perhaps um after talking to Jim and SNY Grant the chair and John M about our new newspaper in town um we wanted to come more formally to the select board um to tell you and thus everybody about the new newspaper um so I just thought I would take just a minute now just to remind you that it is here um the act in exchange started putting out material in May of 2023 we have had a new website in November of 2023 and we have a brand new professionally designed website as of about two weeks ago two or three weeks ago so we have our I think we have our third issue on that new um I don't have any doubt that everyone in town sees the importance of having a Town Newspaper so um welcome to peruse it and we will talk a little bit more about it um if we are on the agenda at a future meeting um it's just very exciting so thank you very much thank you Frannie and I'm happy to report that there's an action act and exchange reporter Right In This Very Room so thanks so may I just just say that we should name the person here so M Mr Tom beels has been at our meetings now for months maybe four months he's here every meeting he say after 11 when we're here after 11 so thank you um Tom Beals for being here all the time um any additional resident concerns no okay uh this next part of the meeting item two is called chair update Town manager update and members minute um so let me look at my notes and see what I got here um so this is our last uh agenda before um town meeting uh we we did we did schedule a special meeting for May 1st uh in case the override doesn't pass and we have to scramble to you know sort of redo the Motions for town meeting and you know just sort of strategize um but that meeting will get cancelled if um if uh if the override passes um which is also an opportunity for me to remind everybody that tomorrow is the election from 700 am to 8:00 pm um please get yourself there and vote if you can vote uh if you're already sure you're going to vote try to find some other people to get voting it's um this is one of the big decisions uh we we make we haven't had an operating override on the ballot in 20 years so um we are we we need to hear from people um what else um oh a small thing um item 17 uh which is accept non which is an accepting a Disclosure by a non-elected Municipal Employee uh I'm going to move that off of consent and and handle it as the last piece of um of new and special business because that actually requires a um a little bit of discussion um and if there's any other thing that needs to come off of consent we'll figure that out when we get to consent but I just wanted to call that one out right away um that's all I got um Mr manager I yield my time to assistant Town manager Tom bean all right thank you very much um just want to Echo what you had just said Mr chair that the election is tomorrow and encourage residents to uh vote early um or vote whenever they have an opportunity uh it is 7 am. to 8:00 P.M like you had mentioned uh additionally in front of you you'll see a document that's called the popular annual financial report which is put together by our finance team uh this year uh Ellie Anderson um from the finance office led the way um did a fantastic job with fantastic job with it if you have any questions let us know that's an annual occurrence and that's for FY 23 and then the last item um next week is annual town meeting um reminding everybody that it begins Monday uh the 6th and runs to Tuesday the 7th begins at 7 but we encourage people to arrive early so that you can receive all your background information uh shuttle buses will begin at 5:30 um so bring some coffee and we'll see you there thank you very much yeah but don't try to bring the coffee into the auditorium CU that would not be okay thank you um okay members might have things to say Dean yes I have uh three items uh first the uh acting Garden Club is going to be dedicating the New Garden in the front ellipse uh this Wednesday morning at at 10:00 a.m. and there's going to be a reception up here in the falconer room afterwards uh they've uh the garden club's been quite a fixture here in town for all those years and we're very much indebted to all their hard work so certainly like to congratulate them um second item request um and to my colleagues on the board if you can go into the town's website and check the list uh member list of all of the Committees that you are Liaisons to and check those for names missing or people that have moved off those lists um I on the acting 250 committee we have four members that have not been listed ever um I've made numerous requests to have those names added and so far that hasn't happened um mine being one of them but probably the least important um but I I suspect perusing through the website I've seen a few other suspicious uh names that I think of folks are no longer there so I think I'm sure that the IT department and the town manager would welcome your input um lastly um McGovern aut group uh their operation at 196 Great Road the uh as you might remember last summer when we were debating their site plan for their new location up at neog Woods it came up um that they had repeatedly violated their site plan uh for their 196 Great Road location with parking Vehicles all over the landscaped area in fact some of the vehicles probably aren't even on their property they probably were um actually within the Bruce Freeman rail trail um you know we kind of beat him with a stick of that they agreed they wouldn't do it uh we put some physical restraints in place uh for their new location to make sure it didn't happen uh two weeks ago I walked down Bruce rean rail trail and found that the vehicles were all parked all over the landscaped areas once again um so I contacted our zoning enforcement officer uh she contacted them they did move them back and of yesterday they were back in their proper homes couple of thoughts Integrity is when you do the right thing even when people aren't looking and I'm pretty much my wits end with McGovern that they you know comply until they think they can get away with it and then they go back to their usual Motors opendi um and I you know I intend to probably go down there once a week to check to make sure they're still complying uh later on this year we're going to be renewing their we renew all the licenses and my intention is that I will move to hold the auto dealer license for 196 great road unless I make sure that there are some physical restraints put in place to make sure this stops happening um and I would suggest that we probably should call in the McGovern folks right after town meeting and appraise them of this um there's just no excuse for this they're thumbing their noses at us and I know everybody here on the board took a lot of heat to uh allow that sight plan and uh you know I think it's a slap in the face so hopefully that'll be something for the newly constituted board after town meeting to uh deal with thank you thanks Dean um other members bran Qui um it's I'm sad to announce that Pat Hearn has bid farewell to the agricultural committee he's going to start his own Farm Pat has been a member of Adcom for three and a half years and was instrumental in bringing forth adcoms agricultural plan and goal agre agreement um you can check that out online or in doc doc youare hopefully Adcom might come here and present it to the select board and we can make it a part of our new uh community plan um he will be missed but I wanted him to I wanted to wish him the best of luck along with the select board on his new Venture thank you Fran um Alissa thank you um everyone is already announcing mine uh like the Garden Club I saw them mulching the ellipse garden and it looks fantastic so I did want to um give a shout out to the Garden Club and also to act an exchange which you heard about from Franny I did discover that they have a subscribe button so if you go on the ACT and exchange.org website you can click to subscribe and you'll get an email once a week with everything that has been published in the in the past week and I am just so proud of that group of volunteers for the effort that went into creating such a phenomenal news source and I hope that they're going to have a birthday party because I guess they got started a year ago um I also want to give a shout out to the Memorial Library staff and trustees and Friends of the Acton library for a second annual holy celebration that happened on satday Saturday they had at least 300 people and there was uh colorplay music food and dancing and the town manager arrived for a little while and I got to throw color at him which was a lot of fun um and then let's see I guess a couple of you have already mentioned that the election is tomorrow so I also wanted to encourage everyone to go and vote it is at the RJ gray junior high for all voters and I also wanted to take the opportunity to mention that the um Town budget without the override represents $2.6 million in cuts the school budget without an override represents $9 million in Cuts so $12 million in cuts um will result in noticeable declines in services and quality of services um this is very real I wanted to also uh remind the board and also apprise the public that we did receive dozens and dozens of emails requesting full funding of the schools that amount was not something that we could consider because that budget Gap um that budget shortfall was too great um it would have had um a really negative impact on taxpayers so significant compromise has been made to bring that override amount to as low as possible I to avoid um serious harm to the town services and the quality of the schools a lot of capital projects um facilities and infrastructure needs are not included in the budget those May cost more um because they're deferred to the Future um the lower services in FY 25 next year that would result um with the override failing would still create a shortfall for budgeting in FY 26 so um we need to pass the override now um and address address the structural changes to find cost savings um in the coming months in the near term so encourage everybody to get out and vote tomorrow thank you David oh thank you um I just wanted to to say that um in addition you know I was I think it's already been mentioned that in addition to the election tomorrow town meeting is um in in two weeks um and and so what one week one week sorry so there's no I was there there's no more um Regular select board meetings before that we have a couple possibilities of of special ones but I also wanted to say that for town meeting most of the uh warrant articles have preview presentations in acting TV and so you can go see those and if you're want to um get some background on on the Warren articles you can find it there thank you um that's the end of that agenda item um now we're going to go to uh a couple of public hearings um I got a special piece of paper for these um notice is hereby given under chapter 138 section 12 of the general laws that the select board will hold a hearing in the Francis fauler room 204 in the Acton Town Hall right here and virtually on the application of Eve and Murray's DBA silver girl for an all alcoholic beverage license located at 251 Arlington Street Acton Mass um it could be that someone is here from from Silver girl to tell us about it hey come on up at least one of you if not both of you you got a choice of you got microphone there or you got a microphone at the podium you can press a little button there and then we can hear you we were wondering how this would work yeah yeah we'll talk you through it it's it's all yours tell us about this cool thing you're doing yeah do you want to go first all right so hi um I have to do this thing where you you need to talk like right into the microphone even if it's G to suppress your normal interest in moving around a lot it's just go for it all right hi um I'm Don aiar Eve and this is Tamara um Murray Murray delusio um we own the cheese shop even Murray's in um West Acton and we are opening a restaurant also in West Acton called silvergirl um hopefully to open this fall and it will be um a restaurant that will have um cocktails and uh small plates at dinner time also our um lunch with our grilled cheese and mac and cheese and then brunch on the weekends thank you and all those things be so much more delicious with the right kind of beer or wine or all alcoholic beverages correct that's why you're applying for a license with us for that okay great um there might be questions or comments from board members Alysa I don't have any questions I just want to tell you both that I'm thrilled that you are taking on this endeavor um even Murray's is one of my favorite places to eat lunch my kids were there today getting sandwiches for lunch so congratulations thank you so much David yes also congratulations um you'll be coming back for our common bidler license um yes Lisa is saying yes yes yes yes I think I I think that's one of the ones that I haven't filled out yet we have um we did the first uh business license and the restaurant license that um the Board of Health has signed off on and then common VOR would be next perfect I I look forward to your opening thank you thank thank you any other questions or comments from the board members I just wanted to wish you congrats too and I was curious how you came up with a name Ah that's you so so uh we were wondering what to do for a name if we were going to do like even Mar's 2 even Mar's kitchen uh we wanted it to be something that came about kind of organically and one night um after we closed we were cleaning I was merchandising and Don was doing dishes and Bridge Over Troubled Water came on and the verse came Sail on Silver girl Sail On by your time has come to shine all your dreams are on their way and I said oh my God that's it that's the name and Don came into the doorway with you know sods all over her gloves and she's like silver girl I'm like silver girl that's that's it so there it is thank you so much um this is a public hearing so might be questions or comments from the public yeah sorry Mary Price Maddox I'm at longtime resident at 252 Arlington Street so welcome to the neighborhood but I did want to express a little concern over potential for live music with a liquor license and with residences so close and a school teacher who has to get up really early um thank thank you so to address that um we understand that there has been um there have been restaurants there for quite a long time just not in very recent the last few years but before that there was Savory Lane and I think something local kitchen or something that had um music there our intent is it's it's not a large space it's only a 50 seat restaurant our intent is to um on the weekends to have a small like um Duos or Trio jazz band or or like singers but not loud rock bands along those lines I used to live next to her Christy Anderson for 60 M Street uh while there was music there it was along the lines you were talking um it was quiet the windows were rarely open we never heard it um would you be willing to make some sort of a commitment or is there a town guideline to how late the music would be played I think there is a Time Town guideline yeah that's all welcome to the you so yeah um not hearing any more comments I'd be happy to entertain a motion to uh approve this uh common viers license I mean sorry approve the all alcoholic beverage license I move to close the public hearing ah even better let's close the public hearing first second okay uh all those in favor please say yes or I yes I I okay that's all of us okay public hearing is closed we're not going to take any more information we're going to have to make this decision all on our own uh is there a motion to approve the all alcoholic beverage license I move to approve the all alcoholic beverage life license for even Murray's llc at 251 Arlington Street in active second okay is there any more discussion along the lines of the public comment will in addition to the vler license will we also need to have them come for an entertainment license Lisa saying yes yes okay so there'll be another opportunity for an entertainment license hearing where we can hear more comments about you know hours in volume and all that sort of thing um okay um where were we we had a motion and a second and we were just about to we got a comment on that and now we're going to check uh all those in favor of the allic license please say yes or I yes that's unanimous you got it one one one license down a few more to go thank you very much thank you thank you okay now we're on to the next item it's another hearing um so uh those of you who are fans of um select board meetings will note that once a year we usually have a huge set of licenses that are being renewed um but sometimes some businesses miss the deadlines and they get their own little special hearing um but it's that's I think that's all I need to say um the actual notice of hearing is that under mgl 140 section 58 the act and select board will hold a public hearing on April 29th 2024 at 7:20 p.m. in the Francis fauler hearing room um and online uh for a class 2 auto dealers license for Advanced Auto Sciences Incorporated located at uh 140 Great Road act in for on-site sales and storage of up to 26 vehicles um so as I said before this is a business that's already in place it's already been doing this um but uh we do need to renew these licenses uh once a year um there might be questions or comments from the board members no okay there might be questions or comments from the public or even from um uh advanced Auto Sciences come on up yeah you got the routine that's the button hi hi I'm Jason willford I'm the owner in Advanced Auto Sciences um took over a couple years ago from the previous owner that established it in 1999 um I'm new with all the licensing stuff I lapsed um just trying to get it back I never have 26 cars for sale I'm a lot um I just like to have the license available to help out customers find cars um so yeah just trying to renew that great thanks so much thank you um any other questions from the FL board no um seems like we'd be ready to close the hearing uh is there a motion about that so moved um Second and seconded okay so the the the hearing's been uh closed and now we could inter oh yes we absolutely do um so all those in favor of closing the hearing please say yes or I yes I I that's unanimous okay uh and now uh I would entertain a motion to approve this license go ahead David I move to approve a class two auto dealers license to uh Advanced Auto science at 140 Great Road second uh any more comments comments from the public all those in favor please say yes or I yes I that's unanimous as well you are relicensed yeah yeah okay now we're on to um uh item five uh introduction of director of Health and Family Services penel fenoli um John W you or Tom whoever is doing this why you introduce us yes hi uh thank you I'm very pleased to introduce some of you may have already met Penny but I'm introduce you to introduce to her formerly uh penny is our director of Health and Family Services and she oversees the health and humor department and she's off to a great start and I uh welcome Penny and it's all yours hi everybody thank you so much for having me thank you so much for hiring me I really love this job I'm very excited excited about it um so I've been here almost two months as John said and I've you know I'm a I'm a fast person so I'm I keep trying to get to six Monon milestones and I need to slow down a little bit but I'm getting the lay of the land I've had the opportunity to go to multiple Board of Health meetings and to the Human Service committee meetings and I'll continue to maintain all of that and work with each um committee and board to to do the work of those boards um I'm working with all of our staff I meeting with everybody on a regular basis so that I'm clearly understanding what their jobs are but also helping them explore ways to expand and grow what the what they're all doing um I'm someone who's highly focused on data hence my love of Public Health so we will be hopefully sweeping and moving much faster towards a lot of a a community needs assessment I think that needs to be done um it's you know we'll be working with Emerson Hospital see what kind of data they're Gathering I'll look to the schools to talk to them but we as a team have already started to look at some existing data and kind of take an audit of that um and I think that once that gets cooking and I'm able to report back what we're finding I think we'll have a great conversation um when that comes around I don't anticipate that being completed probably until January it will take some time to get that rolling and going and by the way what that really means is is Right using that hard data that you get in the surveys and the analytics from the state and all that stuff but it's also a lot of focus group a lot of one-on-one interviews a lot of listening sessions hearing from the public on specific topics really understanding what is what is the experience of the aonian I heard that from somebody at a meeting the other day so yeah so that's that's where I'm at and um I'm coming here to you from 15 years of service and I and I absolutely loved every minute of it from the city of Medford um so I'm also learning how a town Works instead of a city so um that's probably one of the bigger learning curves for me is and I'm like wait how's that work so I'm I'm getting acclimated to it I think I'm starting to pick it up and it's it's very exciting and I think what's really exciting about it is like it's like everybody really is involved in the government and that is really really cool and it's probably a little more complicated but I like complex things so I'm excited so that's that's me so great to have you here um Let me let me just ask a couple of easy questions just to get myself oriented where where where is your office where are you I have two offices great yeah so I think it's really critical that the health department um the environmental health side really stays connected to the land use that's their day-to-day colleagues so I'm sitting um here in town hall Mondays Wednesdays halfday Tuesday and then half day on Tuesday Thursday Friday I'm over at the um 30 subber building so I'm able to be connected to both teams which I really like and then I just had last week we had a team meeting with um Matt came from the health department and I met with the other department heads and that I think that'll be a consistent conversation so great um really looking forward to what gets to happen once these uh you know these these different departments are are coordinated under your leadership um the other question I had before I turn it to the rest of the select board is um I I noticed that I I actually hesitated before I said your name so you have an opportunity now to teach us exactly how to pronounce your name so just to be clear you pronounced it absolutely correctly I'm going to butcher it the way that we say it which is funny o so you know it's we we like to emphasize the funny part keep life happy so funny Ola funny okay great thank you um there might be questions from other board members or comments or whatever Alyssa welcome thank you um I'm really excited to uh see see so much enthusiasm and uh excitement for learning about how the town operates and I'm really really excited to to hear that you're going to be conducting Community needs assessment and Gathering data I think that that will be really useful um for everybody to set some goals and priorities moving forward so thanks for that thank you David uh hi and welcome I'll note that the town manager only has office um um but um I I just like to maybe give you a chance to tell the public the groups that are in your department just so everybody knows oh yeah so um the the health department in the land use so we're doing all of the septic and the pools and the camps and all that stuff is hot right now um the Council on Aging the community resource department act and nursing service and the veterans officer thanks uh Alyssa has another so I that just made me think of a question um do you anticipate or could you describe if it's happening already any coordination with the the Youth and Family Services Division in the police department yes um I'm I've already met with um Beth uh and then in addition to that I've you know I've met with the chief a couple different times we're part of a group that's working on um an anti-racist strategic plan for the town so that's really exciting I've met with him a couple different times but yeah we're already having conversations about coordination um you know my vision is to really take coming from Medford I instituted a hub model where we worked with all of our local providers to address immediate Community needs crisis level and so I'd like to continue to work towards that in addition to working with the police and the schools around primary prevention of substance use into Supportive Services for mental health and that's my background so that's I'm not going to let that go we're so happy you're here welcome penny and I had the pleasure of meeting penny at um uh a human services committee meeting and I look forward to working with you in in that regard so thank you I'm excited about has so much energy welcome uh I serve as the select boards liais on to the Council on Aging and uh certainly I'm sure that we all look forward to to dealing with you and uh you know as you know the senior population is increasing rapidly enacting um and at the same time the uh the present lease for the existing Senior Center is getting closer expiration so we need to make some decisions on that so I look forward to your input on that whole process I'm excited to be a part of it thank you well great um thank you so much for coming here and introducing yourself um so you know since you're coming to a city to a town so this is the select board yeah we we're odd but we're here and um John works for us um and um um and we work for the people of Acton yeah that's great thank you and it's it's I can't tell you like how impressive it is you all are working so hard there's a lot of stuff that happen in this town so yeah thank you right thanks so much for being here thank you okay thank you goodbye okay now we're on to the next agenda item um and this is called presentation of Finance committee's F FY 2025 point of view um and chrisy who is the chair of the finance committee is going to explain to us what that is and then tell us what the point of view is thank you for having me um it's been a crazy year as you all know with the override normally we would have presented this written it presented it much earlier in the process ahead of budget planning in the hopes that we could provide some guidance how's this oh hey that's a lot better um and hopes that we could provide guidance on the budgetary planning didn't quite work out that way this way on timing so this point of view is going to be a little different from ones you've seen before and because we're so close to the vote I'm going to skip through some of this entirely just to educate the public I know you all know about this at this point in time next slide please High LEL overview um even without an override and with all the Cuts necessary if the override does not pass spending will outpace Revenue in fiscal year 2025 if we don't pass one now we will need one coming up um no turn backs are projected for this year so we will not see any increase in reserves to help us um the same is true for the school side we meanwhile have an expensive 5e forecast for capital projects required and uh unfortunately the same sort of pain that's hitting the town is hitting our taxpayers so people have real concerns about what they're spending and then we'll provide a little more information about the operational override process our revenues are limited as um many of you know by proposition two and a half that is a 2 and a half% increase on the previous years Revenue plus this is handwavy there more details in here um and I'd be happy to direct anyone towards a wonderful video The League of Women Voters put together about it U but two and a half plus growth means that we can generally raise taxes by 3% every year without having to go to the voters for an override like we do this year that is insufficient to keep up with how expenses have gone up next slide please this is the projection if we have the override that's why there's the big bump between um fiscal year 24 and 25 and the yellow Revenue line um getting up to that green line reaching the uh where it says that tall fiscal year 25 line is to cover all of the expenses we need um what's important here is if you look at the projected shortfalls going forward we still need to um that's a good way to say this we have shortfalls projecting out every year those numbers are ones that we can deal with if you look at any of the ALG models and any of the warrants in the past will you will see shortfalls you could please go to the next slide um this is if the override doesn't happen there will be cuts to make this B budget balance and when you look at the $2.8 million in fiscal year 26 there will need to be additional cuts to meet that level put another way if you don't believe that we need the override right now we will need one next year regardless this has been coming this year has just been pushed by such a very large sudden need relative to healthc care costs and some mandated costs for the school system next please um I'm going to skip the next two slides and this one um we are currently in a good position relative to our available savings is kind of an a good way to think of it our reserves the school is not um our good position means that the town is able to spend a fair amount of that um free cash reserves this year to help blunt the bro the blow of the override U necessary unfortunately the lack of turn backs I mentioned earlier means that that will not be getting replenished so we're going to have to keep a really close eye on this money the school however is not in a good position at all um and will not be using any of their reserves called end um which we are very happy about because in the previous years they have been balancing the budgets with that money next slide please don't worry that you can't read this slide this is merely to give an example um based on the capital Improvement plan of the many capital projects that are indicated as needing to be done in the upcoming years many of these are priorities for the select board but have not been chosen this year to help meet the budget that we need um you might have heard a much larger initial override um requirement request then we actually came down to um many things had to be cut from places like this in order to get to the level I want to be clear to people the override number that we are voting on tomorrow and if that passes again at town meeting includes Cuts this is not a free-for-all town and schools asking and getting everything they want the whole process has been very detailed to try to keep this as potentially affordable as ideally affordable as possible um if the override does not pass this is a great big list of things that need to happen cannot be put off forever important things so again an override is going to have to happen soon because we can't keep kicking this can down the road next slide please uh to get you the taxing bodies in a mindset around future expenses this is a chart of our um current debt exclusion Service uh the big blue bar is uh the Bardock campus that we added recently you'll see in fiscal year 29 the total debt we have is about to drop off to um with that added be around the level it was before we added that in which was part of our discussion with the citizens when that project was added next slide please unfortunately what you'll see coming soon is that we have a need of a new DPW project which is going to push that back up to a higher level of course we couldn't have predicted that at the time that we made those statements about there being the the boardwalk campus being such a large loan but it is something we need to keep in mind especially as we look to do other projects this especially comes up from the finance committee's point of view and that we would very much like to see going forward a significant focus on cost analysis ideally with a I's cost cutting um as you might have heard me say in other context operational overrides can be a really good thing they require the town to come together as a family and look at our budget and decide if the money we are spending is in line with both what we can afford and where our our ideals are I find sometimes my ideals do not line up unfortunately with may my wallet is this is a real opportunity for us to have a public discussion which has been rushed through ideally would have happened and normally would have happened with more leadup to the override um we strongly um hope that if the override does pass at The Ballot Box tomorrow and the related budgets pass at town meeting that those Cost Cuts will still be analyzed that there still will be that public discussion that there isn't simply move on to the next thing because we all do have a lot to do but we think this is a very important Community process that needs to happen regardless next slide please uh we can skip this one um tax bills have going up about $500 a year just to keep that in mind this is what it would be before the override this is what it would have been if the override doesn't pass this is still ballpark what we're getting next slide please um and here is where we point out to everyone who decides to spend money on things that the same stuff that's been hitting the town has also been hitting people's wallets um supposedly inflation is down but it really doesn't feel that way when you go fill your shopping cart and I can tell you when I pay my gas bill for heating it's been extremely painful uh in iing to General everyday expenses we have expenses coming relative to the Water District's Mitigation Of pasas while that is something everyone has to pay for it doesn't specifically come out of our tax bills so it it's not necessarily on uh the radar here and for people on the sewer um looks like there are facility upgrades that will need to happen there so that's another bringing everything together in our minds in one place another expense coming next slide please um looking at this this shows you basically that before any of this year's unexpected large increases happened I mentioned about health care mandated expenses Etc we were in the hole that's a gap that maybe could be closed this year that wouldn't have been closable next year which is why we had the initial expectation of there needing to be an override so we really were looking at one regardless uh next slide please Perfect um for people listening out there the town and the schools have done a very good job pushing off our need to have this override in the last two years a variety of cuts have been made or positions not filled things you wouldn't necessarily notice um School District admins I you talk to students right now they'll tell you that they're really feeling the cut with assistance Etc um but the town and the schools have shielded us so well from knowing what we haven't gotten or and how they've moved all the the chess pieces around our town manager is very good about moving Staffing around to get exactly where it needs to be combining positions Etc that I think um the populace doesn't know how how much work has been done to push this off so it I suspect seems even more sudden um than it would have otherwise um next please so the finance committee supports the operational override of $6.6 million this gives us the money to get through the current crisis and with a little extra to help us handle um where things end up some of these expenses like the state mandated outof District tuition for special ed are going are set to jump another trench again and just can't be predicted it depends on how many kids come in to school so we that little bit of buffer really is necessary again we recommend a creation of task force these have been done in the past I don't know the exact format of them um so I recommend we look to people who've been around this block before but getting people to look at what our expenses are look at Best Practices in those regards and um discuss all that going forward would be very very helpful um next slide please yep that's it thank you very much I appreciate it thanks so much and um just stick around for a minute you invited questions there might be comments or questions from board members and as we noted before there uh one of the things that the override process has done is driven more conversations between the finance committee and the select board uh not enough we still need more but it's been a nice beginning so I'm I'm looking forward to to this next little part as as another chance to continue that conversation um there might be statements or questions from board members about the finance committee point of view Alissa thank you for coming in and presenting this again um I do appreciate that you've described the normal process for anticipating an override as being having these discussions and cost analysis prior um and then that couldn't happen this year because of the increases to health insurance and special education transportation and and other increases um pensions um so I guess I just wanted to con to affirm the request from the finance committee that this cost analysis does need to to come in conjunction with an override and I think that it needs to be a select board short-term goal and a pretty high one at that so I just want to offer that as we enter into our goal setting process in in a couple of months um be because it we're going to need to have um staff focus on this and I think um in the slide it says um members of the school committee members of the select board members of the finance committee that sounds a lot like Acton leadership group and so I would offer that we might want to consider it not being a twin of acting leadership group and maybe um tagging people in the community who have served on the finance committee in the past um or select board in the past or other folks that have um maybe they've never served on a board or committee but they have the financial Acumen to to help us with this may I respond please uh yes I entirely agree um it is not something that should be done by the acted leadership group um and it maybe should be a variety of committees we don't you don't want the school committee telling the town what sort of cuts it needs to make or the town telling the school committee but you do want discussion between the various committees and I think involving people who are not specifically part of a committee or a board would be very beneficial um other board members with comments or questions um I'll add this that um when we started going into this process we knew that we were balancing pain levels Not Just Between the schools and the town but you know with residents and looking at their tax bills um you know I I think we've come down in the right place we we'll know more we'll know a lot more tomorrow um and the the other piece that that reminds me of is that um so our tax system defined by the state has some flaws in it um and we purposefully try to compensate for some of those Flaws by having uh you know a series of ways for people to reduce their taxes um and I I encourage everyone who's feeling the pain of this coming override um to remember that on July 1st you can you can go to go go to the town hall and get help uh there's there's there's there's a team standing by ready to talk you through all the options um you know delaying delaying taxes and paying them later uh based on uh value of your house um the senior work program which allows people to get to to earn money that reduces their taxes and just simple tax reductions um we've taken every uh every inch that the state uh flexibility allows us and try to turn it into a workable program so and it's not um these programs are not taken uh are not subscribed to enough um they're not doing the full work that they can be doing about um uh making the uh pain of our tax system especially hard for especially for people who are you know living in larger houses that are now larger than they need or um people of low and moderate income who who who either own houses or um you know it's it's it's not we need more people to apply to these to these systems they're there for a purpose they're there for a policy purpose purpose uh so I just want to encourage anyone who's uh to to go ahead and and you know put July 1st on their calendar and get to town hall then thanks well we'll be we'll be talking again later tonight you're on the agenda later okay that was item six now we're on item seven um approve resolution and approv letter from select board to Governor opposing Hangar expansion at Hanscom Airfield uh the last time we talked about this uh um we sent Fran off to to talk to people in the public and come back with ideas and um she's back so we had a couple things in our packet uh that Fran can explain to us I'm going to read my thoughts um no November 2023 was the last conversation the select board had about the hands Comm expansion letter now that the draft in oh sorry sorry now that the draft environmental impact report was published late March of this year I'm putting before um my fellow select board members a letter to Governor Mora hey to take a closer look at the the draft environmental impact report for the proposed Hanscom Airfield expansion there were some inconsistencies in the deir that are included in in the letter such as the report only analyzes aircraft during takeoff and landing at the airport Greenhouse at the airport greenhouse gas um ghg emissions data for aircrafts in flights above 3,000 ft should be analyzed and included another inconsistency is by providing new hanger space for jets the Pro proponent encourages new private jet purchases increased flights and more emissions this is induced demand the project proponent must analyze how flights will increase due to the expansion in a revised deir deir I hope the select board will approve the signing of the letter and or the resolution so that the town of Acton can support our neighbors of Lexington Lincoln Bedford and Conquer in the conversation of ya hansum Airfield expansion is not prudent at this time or any time really we have constituents here tonight to speak to some of the questions that were raised when we last spoke about this in November thanks FR um so way we're going to structure this is we're going to hear um um questions and comments from the select board and then we're going to hear comments from the public with our usual three minute limit uh and then we'll see where we're at at that point whether we whether there are motions to be made in support of either the resolution or the letter um so who would like to start David um thank you Fran for putting together this uh draft I I really appreciate it I um I do have a couple of uh questions on the draft um there's one part in the second paragraph where it says this private project does not benefit the public Etc and then it says during these tough e economic times uh uh it's difficult to do with this with budget cuts Etc so I just wanted to clarify is this a private project that's getting public money that those two sentences together make me think that that this says that's a this is a private project which getting public money is that a true statement so it's public land and it is a private project through massport it would be leased through massport I believe right so that it's it's purely a private project and they lease the property right so um if that's correct I would just propose that that um in these tough Economic Times senten is not relevant if there's no public money being expended here that that's that's not a relevant thing um and the the other thing which I would like to see and this is maybe just me but um at the towards the end of the the the letter uh where it says um this luxury travel mode infrastructure which benefits it's very small percentage of people should not expand here or anywhere I would rather see that replaced with some kind of statement about um environmental justice right uh that is not a that's an okay statement for what it is but I would WR like to see a a stronger statement about environmental justice and um uh other than that I think the letter is actually pretty good um the um for me and maybe again I differ from here the the the resolution is uh quite uh different I don't agree with the resolution um basically at all um it says things like um that private jets produce uh um 20 tons of carbon uh in a two and a half hour flight as far as I can tell that's just not true it's about four times more than what's really true um uh I say the citation uh XLS produces 5.4 tons in that same trip at 20 and I I I just don't agree with these in in exaggerated environmental claims um the the um uh It also says it negates half of the climate benefits of all the solar in Massachusetts that is true only if all the planes that park there are new and all the flights are new and which is not the case and and your letter I think correctly in increases the I sorry criticizes the um uh draft environmental impact report for the opposite reason right they did not properly they completely ignored the possibility of increased flights um they don't really make an assessment of what that is um they should make an assessment but in the same here the the resolution here should have made an assessment and it does not it just assumes the other end of the Spectrum which I think is is not right and finally um the resolution also ignores um environmental justice effects right if um uh the facility at hansum is not built um some of the flights will either stay with they are or move to other airports and some of those are over um communities that have been impacted by airports for a very long time and it's it's it's a it's something that you know we've done forever as long as there have been airports um and I um uh you know and they added uh the word or anywhere at the end of the that's not enough to me um and so for those three three reasons I can't support the the resolution but um thank you very much for drafting your letter thank you Alysa thank you um I guess my first question is uh whether or not we need a resolution and a letter or if the letter only would s suffice given David's objection to parts of the resolution um also I have a recollection that public monies are spent because there are tax not tax breaks but they don't have to pay taxes I don't know if it's just on purchasing a private jet or if it has something to do with the fees that are associated with using the hangers or takeoff and Landing my my memory is a little fuzzy on that but I just I question whether or not we can definitively say that there are no public funds expended here um regarding the letter I thought it was excellent um I just had a couple of maybe suggested changes in the last the second to the last paragraph there are a couple of questions and I think I'd rather see those as statements let's just be firm um so that was just a suggestion for for changing the the tone by turning those into statements you see those okay um and then also the letter begins with we oppose the current proposal and then at the end um we're demanding that the inequities be addressed so does that leave open a possibility that we would support an an a amended proposal because that conflicts with the we don't support this expansion here or anywhere and I agree with David I think it's a it's a slogan so um we could just leave it at we don't support the expansion but I think that there is a little conflict there um Dean yeah I I frankly oppose both of these uh I oppose the resolution much more vehemently than the letter uh I think you know if we just go with the letter and rather than say upfront that we oppose it and we need more information I think we should say we need more information and then I think the board could take a position whether to oppose it or not the implication is no matter what arguments uh massport brings back we've already said we're going to oppose it and frankly I I don't feel that that's the appropriate way to deal with this also you know certainly we're focused on the environmental impact of this I think we also should be uh focused on the economic impact I think that hansam is a an economic engine for the region and I think we we need to keep in mind that you know we we still need economic Vitality in Middle sex County and finally in both the resolution and the letter um there's been an attempt made to demonize a group of people talking about Elites and luxury Jets and I don't think that it's appropriate for the select board to find a segment of the of the community that you want to demonize and denigrate I think that's contrary to our statements in the pack about in the past about respect for all um I've never ridden on a corporate Jet and I expect I never shall but I still feel that that small piece of the population that does have the opportunity should be allowed to use that opportunity and they should not be demonized by this board thank you um so I've been in favor of this um from the beginning that we take some action uh to state our opposition to this um I I think rather than getting into the details um a couple things stood out for me um one was um that the uh the design of the project includes a huge new fuel Depot so this to me tells me that reasonable people expect that if you add these hangers you're going to be using a lot more jet fuel um and that's the to me that's the direct connection with the with the greenhouse gas emissions um so it seems very reasonable to me that that we oppose the project um I think uh in terms of the demonizing the only language I saw in the letter that was um coded was the word elite um I'm comfortable saying that people that own private jets are part of an elite minority um it's freaking expensive to own one of those things and even if you you know spend a lot of time renting it out you're still it's not quite as a waste of money as I don't know owning a professional football team but it's it's at that same scale it's the sort of thing that uh very wealthy people can do um and it's not uh it's not part of our requirement that we uh give the needs of that very small set of people more weight than we do um to everybody else who has to put up with the noise and the pollution ution um so I I'm in I'm in favor of both uh the letter and the resolution um I'm I'm hearing concerns about the resolution which I'm comfortable with uh you know setting aside and having us just uh focus in on the letter um but I think that's that's my that's my statement for now um i' would like to hear from the public unless there are more burning comments from the select board because we'll have a chance to discuss this more after hearing from people Alyssa I guess I would just add to that that the ultra wealthy are also dependent on a cooler climate and clean air thanks um there might be comments from the public so I want you all come on up and line up and we'll hear from each of you up to three minutes good evening um members of the select board I'm here um representing as the chair of the act and Democratic committee so the acting Democratic committee is a strong voice for environmental action in our community We Stand United with the Acton Climate Coalition in the fight against climate change Acton has consistently shown leadership in this fight the community took a Firm Stance in 2020 by declaring a climate emergency following that town meeting overwhelmingly supported the development of a climate action plan in 2022 and our commitment to clean energy twice in 2021 and 23 Aton has endorsed measures promoting clean energy use in new construction projects however the proposed expansion of private jet facilities at Hanscom field directly contradicts these efforts these jets are major polluters that's why the Acton Democratic town committee recently voted to endorse the goals of the stop private jet expansion at Hanscom field or anywhere Acton DTC calls on the select board to join forces with the neighboring towns and pass a resolution that opposes the expansion of private facilities at Hanscom field or anywhere thank you um hi Karen root Watkins Strawberry Hill Road um I'm speaking tonight um as a member of the acting chapter of mothers outfront um how all of us use uses energy really matters for our kids future and for the health of the natural world on which all of us depend um every single one of us no matter our income needs needs to think about how we're using transportation we need to do it in a much more thoughtful way um massport is in favor of this project because they will get income from the land leased to the developers and um I could talk to you about the negative impacts on the Land There 37 Acres of new pavement 490,000 um square feet of hanger space to accommodate 50 to 80 Jets a fuel Depot um and Mass report says that these additional hangers are a means of maximizing revenue and complying with Federal requirements to provide transportation services to the public um this is a really really small percentage of the public private jets are owned by 0.008% of the world's population um and yet private jet use at hanscum even before the hangers has increased 19% since the pandemic um is this really part of mass ports mandate to provide transportation services to the public I mean for me I um and I'm going to jump ahead but I feel like what we're looking at at town meeting this year which is the MBTA vision of um transportation where we build Housing close to Transportation Cor corridors we decrease the Reliance on individual Vehicles we make public transportation more available to more people um to me that's the vision that we should be promoting um not not private jets it's it's it's it really tilts the kind of priorities we need to be making for our children and for our future thank you very much thank you chair again um I'm in favor of the statement um I agree with uh whoever said about the word elite that might be able to be substituted to focus on their behavior as opposed to their persons um and then relative to MBTA zoning if we are uh just keeping all the sprawl building building 50 70 units uh single family houses a year and then adding clustered housing that's not reducing the environmental impact if we really truly want to to um reduce the impact on the environment of new building we will stop building the sprawl at the same time we're building clustered housing it's just an ad and I hope people can understand that it's just basic math thank you Judith arenstein three Gregory Lane Acton I'm member of mothers out front I've been working with mothers out front for about eight years and and at this point right now I'm feeling more nervous about the state of our future and it's kind of combined with a numbness given the consequences of post-pandemic um election and also what's going on in The Wider world including melting of glaciers floods and extreme weather so I looked at the co two levels over the last two years uh 10 years excuse me and it really had me deeply concerned because the CO2 levels have been rising and there in the last 10 years on April 28th yesterday it's gone up every year except for one which is a very negligible retreat but it's gone up basically anywhere from 31% a year to 0 40% a year and it makes me think of 350.org 350 if people don't know was the number that they thought was sort of recognized as the safe concentration of carbon dioxide in the air and right now we're at it's 350 parts per million we're now at 427 parts per million so we've exceeded that so to me adding these extra hangers makes absolutely no sense sense I I I just don't even understand it whether it's in light of what we've done already in our town or in the state or in the federal government so I urge you to approve the letter and the resolution to the governor to oppose the expansion of hansam thank you Stella Co 11 gwood road but I'm speaking on behalf of the indivisible act and area steering committee I can't read um indivisible act and area is a proud member of the act and Climate Coalition we support Acton's Endeavors to reduce carbon emissions and promote climate action as um sahana mentioned I won't repeat the actions that we've taken in town meeting um since 2020 and we believe that the proposed expansion of private jet facilities at hansam or anywhere contradicts Acton's climate commitments the indivisible Acton area steering committee urges the select board to unite with neighboring towns in petitioning Governor Mory to oppose the proposed development and I want to Second what um Karen said from uh Mother's out front thank you hi I'm Carolyn Davis one Brewster Lane um for me the most disturbing part of The hansum Proposal is the developers claim that expanding Hangar space will actually reduce 3500 so-called fery flights and therefore reduce the emissions being released this notion that increasing the hanger space will reduce flights goes against common sense um so we have to look at their data um the developers have access to all the flight records did they analyze them and identify the fery flights well no they made a broad assumption that any flight from an airport within 350 miles and staying at hansum for less than 18 hours was a fairy flight meanwhile a recognized industry consultant industrial economics Corporation did analyze the data they looked at a prior years the prior years's flight activity they found three aircraft that fery through hansam three reducing 75 flights not 3500 we would not be having this meeting if the hansam proposal was to accommodate three planes to reduce fairy flights instead they want space for 55 to 79 more private luxury Jets the biggest expansion by far of any project in the country so so the purpose of making the flawed claim of no new flights is the developers get to sidestep all the all the information they need to provide about the environmental impact specifically the massive harmful impact of the private jets on the climate these jets are the largest contributors to greenhouse gases per capita than any other Transportation vehicle in the world climate change can make us feel overwhelmed and we are often faced with tough choices this is not one of those this is an easy one you have the opportunity to take a stand and make a real difference for our future thank you good evening Andy Platt here 52-year resident I think you see there's some concerned engagement among a number of people and um as a close backyard to hansum the scope and scale of this project will definitely impact us our air our noise our health and the quality of life some quick points this project is not about corporate Jets this is about private jets privately owned unidentified individuals is is about a very small as pointed out group going in 50% of the time to nant Tucket or the Hamptons or maybe stretch it to the BVI these are not business trips my friends they're not business trips you have waited for the deir it has arrived I doubt any of you have read the 270 pages except maybe you Dave I will tell you I've read three qus of it skimmed a little bit of the charts and things and I have to say it is a bunch of falsehoods false assumptions false aspirational propositions and projections false claims which has been debunked by the group that Carolyn just mentioned Carolyn detailed the fairy tales I don't have to repeat it it is absolutely inaccurate I was at the meeting of the developers 6 weeks ago when one of the Consultants admitted under pressure that they really didn't know how many fery flights there were well that under undermines their entire argument so the last thing I'd like to say is we have a climate emergency no surprise here massport is an organization that was developed in the early '70s or it chartered in the early' 70s to um be more efficient about getting things done you know they had to figure out how to get things done with legislature bugging them you know executive branch bugging them they've done a heck of a good job at growth and managing growth their job has been to manage the aviation industry and some other things but massport has no obligation to follow the road map of the of the state and interestingly enough they are really concerned because the developers have come in with this greenwashing notion listen to this they're claiming to be one of the greenest airports in the country when they're done with this they're basing it completely completely on the structures they're avoiding the business of the emissions because they cannot defend it so let's be supposed to be able to tell you now that at your 3 minutes up so if you can find those few key gy sentences I will go to my ending gy thank you and do it quickly I submit to you as a select board that progress needs to be measured by a new metric growth yes but that which aligns with the Earth saving climate goals and growth that does not undermine the road map or our action plan and join the ad Coalition Partners to help with that goal and vote unanimously for this maybe with some revisions to the letter but please please this project is a luxury we cannot afford thank you Andy I was just going to make mention that I think it's a responsibility for municipalities to push back using their Municipal Power on things that seem inappropriate um and so I urge you to um also send the letter thank you um we'll probably be talking about this issue for a while so feel free to send us the full version at s spa.gov we have an email address and we we read all of our email um are there folks online who have uh want to make a comment Matt are there any hands raised no okay great oh you all came out in person that's awesome um so where are we at um what I'm what I'm seeing from what I've heard so far from the select board uh is that there's um there's a clear majority support for uh sending a letter with some revisions uh there's a less I have a less clear sense of whether we have even a majority or not on the resolution um so let me first focus on the letter um the um we heard about a couple of revisions that folks would want to see um was that some from you Alysa and you David is that is that what I heard okay um so one possibility is to check to see if um we want to um uh you know have uh to to indicate our support for the letter here publicly at this meeting to see how that vote goes uh and then uh in the actual composition of the letter um um you know have have Fran uh continue with revisions based on information that uh she can get publicly from David and Alyssa um that's one possible Next Step are there other Next Step ideas Alysa are you suggesting a vote tonight and then revising the letter yes I'm okay so I would I would um prefer a revision of the letter and before we vote okay I just want to make sure it's worth your while to work on that I just want to make sure we have a a general sense of the board that we would support a letter uh whether it's you know 4: one or 3 to2 I just want to make sure there's a majority David Mr chair would you appreciate a motion to ask ask Fran to produce one more draft if that would be okay sure um that certainly works for me I I move that we ask Fran to produce one more draft of the uh the letter can I just add something I'd love to I know this is tricky timing and we're coming up on a busy next week um a comment period is ending May 10th so I'd love to get something in before then um well we have we have um one possible meeting on the 1st and then we have meetings on the fifth and the 6th and 7th right before uh town meeting starts so if we if we are if we are if we are ready uh then we could you know consider it then um the other question I have for the group or maybe for the manager is what's the right way under under uh you know concerns about the open meeting law for um the the uh the revisions that um Alyssa and David are suggesting to make their way to Fran for a revision um David has a thought about that so mine I think are pretty simple I can just State them so on scen so mind pry simple if the public money thing is if there is no public money yeah um please remove that sentence if it list is right and there is public money in this project then draft a sentence that's appropriate to what happen and the the second thing for me in that final paragraph um uh uh where um it says you know we oppose this here or anywhere I would like to see instead um a statement on environmental justice and in fact right next to that are the luxury and Elite words and so you could kill multiple birds at the same time by putting some things on top of the other things so and then I think Alyssa wanted the questions the statements yeah and also the opposition in the be in the beginning and right and I think Dean repeated that when he spoke that we don't want to say make these changes but we're still not going to support it we want to just say no we don't support it got it um Dean I'm oh no go Dean I'm guessing from your comments that even a revised letter wouldn't get your support but I just wanted to make sure if there was any wiggle room in there yeah I think this shot of uh minor revisions that the my colleagues are in favor of probably would still not address my issues okay well we' then still end up potentially with a with a 4 to One support for for a letter which um that's that's good enough to write a letter um there's a place in there where we have signatures you could choose not to add add your signature for example that might help uh you know make you feel like you're not being forced into something that you don't agree with um so the next question is about the resolution um there were concerns expressed about the resolution um Fran I didn't know if you had any uh anything to say about um the distinction between the resolution and the letter the different roles they play and whether we should um you know proceed to see if we have some way of getting to uh you know three or four uh votes on on on a resolution I think the the the this resolution was really uh across different municipalities so it's sort of a template um okay I don't know if that answers well it helps in the sense that we we uh we don't we don't we're not really given the opportunity usefully to think about revisions because it would be we were asked to sign on to a resolution that's already been created and signed on okay then I I I I'm I I'm not inclined to proceed to try to figure out if we want to sign that because I heard concerns from at least three of us about that are we okay with that okay great so you want me to go ahead and make that motion that we ask Fran to do a uh make another draft I or not whatever you want no I that's would be exactly appropriate thank you so so I I move that we ask um uh Fran to produce one more draft with the uh revisions we've discussed second um any more discussion on that no all those in favor please say oh no there might have been a comment one more question yeah yeah so if I find out that I could tailor this resolution would and and maybe to to what how we feel would that be uh ala David is it so my understanding is that there's a group group of Municipal entities like select boards or or other bodies that are all signing onto a resolution so if we're going to choose not to sign on to the resolution and instead send a letter that has language that most of us are comfortable with I don't see any use to revising the resolution and sending two documents great okay um um go ahead let's have the did we did we get the motion Ved and we seconded oh I asked for comments and that was the comment uh okay so all those in favor please say yes or I yes I okay uh all opposed or no I think did you what did you say I think she should be revising yeah okay great we are we are unanimously unanimously in favor of this action of revising the letter and when we will reconsider it at a future soon meeting um and thanks everybody for coming out um it's great to to feel the the passion um and the you know the thoughtfulness that you've gone into this appreciate it okay now we're done with item uh seven and we're moving on to item eight which is discuss crosswalk concerns at 149 Central Street the infant toddler Center and um in our packet was um the the the a most a more recent letter from uh the folks at the ITC uh analyzing the the issues there uh the cross the crossing at Central Street uh and some proposed Solutions um the the reason uh this is coming before us again is because um there's a level of study uh that's necessary to make progress on this sort of issue that the manager wanted to make sure we were actually in favor of and given some context about you know what it would take and what our other priorities are so I want to give a chance for the the the manager or whoever he wants to delegate this to to talk through the the different options that were presented in in the report from ITC so that we can comment on it and so that the public can comment on it uh thank you yes we uh we did review the uh request for some additional measures over on Central Street uh we did our engineer did provide a memo which I thought was in the packet um I'm not seeing it though so I'll I believe I sent it to the board directly if that's not true then I'll do it later uh but uh we have we have streets all over town and crosswalks all over town where we've had uh efforts underway to make improvements to them and examples of that are River Street um Great Road um and the list goes on you've heard you've heard them before uh and so I think we certainly will uh include this in the work that we're doing if that's if the board asks us to and we think it's a good idea either way uh but in terms of prioritizing the work uh that's where we were looking for a little Direction um or I was looking for a little Direction uh because we have several studies underway uh we're doing a big project in West Acton right now and we're starting one in Acton Village uh for the crosswalks and everything going on over there or neander and all the the the issues that we've been trying to work through and so we'll try to do everything which is what we do but if you want us to do this particular thing faster that would be something that would be helpful to to hear um you um there's a variety of things here that we might want to make sure to differentiate as far as the the cost and the priority um uh reminding myself that um the the five different recommendations were to move the crosswalk location so that it's um you know has the best visibility um uh add speed speed indicators in both directions um I I did notice that when I went over there today that there was one of the one of the traveling uh speed indicator signs was right there um but I know that those move around from place to place um there was the notion of having one of the blinking lights not a full Hawk system but the the system that you know you can press a button and it shows a blinking light um and then the fifth one which I know the knew the least about was um establishing that area as a safety zone uh which the state allows us to do uh which then would allow us to have a a 20 M hour um speed limit there now I understand that changing speed limits doesn't magically change the speed of cars um but it might be uh it I I think it's you know it's it's another part of what might need to be considered and uh I wonder John if there was any um you know sort of separate analysis of those uh you know those five options whether any of them are you know more doable or uh you know more easily done or anything like that yeah thank you uh for going through that that's helpful uh we did we did move one of the mid mid crosswalk signs to that location to make it more visible it's a traffic combing device that we use in crosswalks throughout town and a lot of times if you put it there uh it's immediately has an impact and I I hope it has uh the police did locate the uh radar feedback sign there uh as they do to respond to concerns throughout the community and so will probably be there for a little while and then it moves because it gets stale it starts to lose its Effectiveness if it stays too long uh so we keep moving those around um changing the location of the crosswalk would require engineering study which we have not completed uh and that's one of those things where our engineering staff is already trying to engineer several things that are already been prioritized uh the funding uh is limited to you know the flexibility we have to just hire engineer to do a study uh on short notice is limited uh and we we didn't really plan for that this year um so that would be a challenge uh the rapid flashing Beacon those cost nearly uh $225,000 when you consider the the equipment itself uh and then you consider the wiring and other things you need to do to make it safe or to make it work uh so that's something that I do think we may have one of those uh so the cost wouldn't be as much but but the rest of the costs would would um still need to be figured out um so that's that you know we've and we've had requests for those in other places too uh we try to work through and it's actually been a board's policy goal this year to develop a traffic calming policy which I know we're working on and this is would be a perfect application of it um because it would help provide us as staff Direction on on how to uh best handle requests like this and it also be the board's consensus on how it should handle them as well so you could try to do that without a policy uh and see how it goes uh or we can just commit to continuing the measures that we've already started and continue to see if we can find ways to work some of the engineering work needed for this into our planning uh for the coming year I would also add that the police department has in addition to that sign uh has done some enforcement there um recently thanks um you you covered um almost all of these options um the the one that I didn't hear about was the the the school the the safety zone option um and whether that's you know you know when have we done that elsewhere do we have any understanding of what sort of cost or studies or time that takes yeah so that's some I haven't been involved in in doing that in a street although we've heard it mentioned a few different times in a few different parts of town uh so we're happy to look into that um it would probably require something similar to a road safety audit which we've you've seen those before um and then I'm sure there's some paperwork with the state um so it's not something that would happen um quickly I if I had to guess but we can look into that as well okay thanks um it could be that um board members have um questions ideas or concerns uh Dean yeah I the issue that I have is I would not put this as a high priority for a very expensive upgrade know I think if we've got a $25,000 rrfb floating around rapid firing Beacon there's probably other locations that would be of more more benefit to the general public um there is only a sidewalk on one side of Central Street at this point um this would strictly be a benefit as I see to infant toddler center now certainly that's important but I think we need to look at at the needs of the entire town um you know one of the areas that I could think of regardless of what happens with any other development for one of those rapid firing beacons that we could use one right now would be at the crosswalk on Main Street right at the location where the dog park might happen um we got a sidewalk on a very busy State numbered route um I've seen numerous near misses right there and I think that would be a much better spot to drop $25,000 um and it would be a more benefit to the general public so um I'm all in favor of looking at what minor changes can be made um I know the permanent speed feedback signs that are available I believe they cost about $10,000 a piece so certainly the the Portables that the police department deploys make more sense but it's a very large amount of money to put in one particular area which is of of a benefit really just for the infant toddler Center uh we need to put these kind of uh installations in place where we've got large numbers of the general public population moving from one side of the road to the other so you know I would say if you know whatever you can do for a couple thousand dollars if you can find it in the budget that's fine but I don't think i' I I don't think that this particular project should jump the line on all the other projects we've been talking about I mean we've even been talking about um modifications either by us or by the state at Harris Street um all the other locations got on Route 2A um if the state doesn't come through with this I think you've got a much larger more risk population in locations like that than in uh on Central Street where when the kids cross the street they're supervised by adults so I think that's uh that's something that you know I'm not inclined to put a huge amount of money into this particular location friend I have to agree with Dean on the fact that just uh centrally um focusing on this location um I think that I got I had an exchange with someone on Facebook who was concerned about uh kids crossing over uh Parker Street to the Parker Street departments and they don't even have a crosswalk so I think looking at areas of town that need crosswalks first before something improved uh John you have some extra sorry sorry to jump back in here I did find the memo from the town engineer which I did not send anybody so I apologize for that uh I'm just glad I didn't forget it uh I'd like to read from it right now if you don't mind uh the injured fairing department has reviewed the crosswalk analysis provided by the infant toddler Center and below our our comments the posted speed limit sign is 30 m hour the existing crosswalk is located in front of the daycare it's located at a high point which maximizes the site distance for vehicles approaching from both directions a crosswalk sign has been installed on both sides of the road for each direction to enhance visibility for the crosswalk the crosswalk signs in front of 148 Central are obstructed by some roadway Brut and Landscaping we will work with the tree Warden and uh the DPW to see if we can uh knock some of that vegetation back to improve the site of that existing uh infrastructure uh the town typically repaints crosswalks Every Spring uh I think they do it overnight sometimes or maybe during the day so that that's also something that will happen this spring um and oh and she mentions how it how you get a speed zone uh they must be set at 20 M hour and intended to be used in where areas where vulnerable Road users are likely to be present near Parks playgrounds um certain housing and hospitals and medical facilities um we're allowed to do it um creates a latory speed limit it requires an engineer during study prior to the establishment of the safety zone it needs to conform to the guidance found in Mass do procedures for Speed zoning as you all know when you ask M ask do to do a speed study you don't always like the results that you get um oftentimes the report ends up telling you that people drive faster than you want them to and it's okay so uh it's certainly something we can look into uh but that that uh sometimes can be problematic uh the other thing that she mentioned is that the existing crosswalk is angled AC Cross Central Street to align with driveway openings the town could look into reconstructing the crosswalk perpendicular to the road in order to shorten the crossing distance however this will require modification to the existing sidewalk to conduct accessible compliant ramps and we would need to conduct a traffic study that includes a site distance analysis from our site visit sight lines sight lines do not appear to be an issue so they've already started thinking about it and some IDE some creative ideas which which I I wouldn't expect anything less from chin uh she's very good so uh I guess I would alter my comments earlier to say that we've already started working on it and I guess I would also say that if there's any major expense that would be required I would bring it back to the board David um thank you um so I've driven through here when the uh kids were crossing the street I wasn't driving too fast um uh um uh you know I I don't disagree with any other thing that was said here I mean that the the the crosswalk um on Main Street near route two is definitely an important uh crosswalk to have a flashing yellow Beacon or something and I've been asking to get uh sidewalks on Parker Street forever and I think it it's one of the most highly walked roads you know other than our really main streets and um and in the winter um it's particularly uh dangerous um because people just walk in the street outside the snowbank because there's no other place to walk having having said that though um uh two two comments I I think having been here and seeing the the kids you know there's a I forget when I was there probably there were two adults but there could have been three and a whole bunch of kids I didn't count them you know it's hard to to keep track of all the kids as they're as they're crossing the street and also sometimes drivers are in a in a days in in these kind of situations I believe that the most effective solution is one of those uh flashing yellow beacons um for for a couple of reasons it's first of all it's easier to put in requires less uh study but also it goes off when it's needed whereas the 20 m per hour signs they all the time sometimes they're they flash sometimes they just say when children are present um but in any case people learn to ignore them whereas the flashing yellow Beacon only goes off when someone presses the button which means someone's there and I think it it kind of you know makes drivers more alert as they drive by so um having said all that you know I I it's great that um um the the the measures that chin is already proposing are already working on but also I would like to see us have this be one of the sites where we consider a flashing yellow Beacon I I I think the the the other me measures are less needed right or would be less effective anyway this is easier and more effective in my opinion so uh you know I would like to to to see to see um to see this be on the list to to get one for however we prioritize it thank you um I would just add to that um if we are going to plan we do plan painting crosswalks in the spring that maybe we prioritize this one and maybe we can look at the cost of a creative repainting so instead of just the white paint maybe the squares can be yellow just so that it's it's solid um but with a pattern that doesn't make any sense but you know what I mean just so that there's more paint there that's reflective and it will be um more visible and I'm glad to hear that the tree Warden is looking at the bushes because that's the only other lowcost measure um that I see in their suggested Solutions um but their very first picture is of a staff person who's holding up probably a stop sign um but I would suggest that we encourage those folks to wear a reflective vest rather than just regular street clothes um when they're when they're doing that um and perhaps invest in a sign that flashes instead of just a one of those crosswalk signs um and some of the photos show the center um crosswalk that's on the heavy rubber pad and some of them don't so I just want to make sure that that is out and that it stays out all the time we don't need to worry about snow plows knocking them over right now did you notice when you were not speeding David down that road whether it was out whether the whether the little that crosswalk thing is in the center on the line it was last time I went down the street yes great um the reason we prioritized um you know safety improvements and having a traffic calming plan plan is that we are in us this slow but awful emergency you know people are are dying crossing our streets they're not safe enough um and we haven't been able to keep up with the you know Investments needed um so I I you know so I I feel very frustrated that we don't have the resources to just you know fix this thing and I'm glad that people are think both staff and select board members are thinking creatively about what can be done you know more quickly and less expensively um you know changing the you know changing the the you know a reflective vest and a stop sign that actually blinks uh are things that the ITC can do and uh prioritizing the repainting of the crosswalk is something that the town can do um and um it seems like a lot of these things require an engineering study so uh I'm certainly happy with the notion that this uh this project gets added to the list of of what places where engineering studies need to get done um um what was the other thought I've seen a draft of the traffic calming policy um it does try to um bring some order to the process of um you know getting getting all these requests and like only only doing the ones where you know the most people show up and come complain um so it's uh it provides a way for the the the public that's concerned about a situation to you know go through steps to to make sure it gets it things get prioritized um so I'm looking forward to that um I think it's it's it's going under yet another revision but I'm still hoping that it will be before the select board um you know during the summer um so that's us we've said a bunch of things it could be that folks in the audience have things to say uh either from the ITC or from the general public um Jude Jude arinstein three Gregory Lan Acton I'm just uh uh remembering that in Lincoln Center Lincoln Crossing they have like little pockets I believe they're on both sides of the street with like on a telephone poll in they have jackets and a little stop sign and everyone's free to use them and they move side to side I think it's a really very inexpensive solution and it might be a reasonable solution thanks J um any other public comments on uh the crosswalks and safety issues yes uh CH again uh I would like for your Collective board to not pit one vulnerable group against another vulnerable group I feel like all these places have to get fixed I think you can pay for it with the money that you're trying to get for the uh Hayward light we got to not invest in car you know uh car Centric traffic and uh traffic control measures safety measures but um put them everywhere you know get a show a commitment to walkability by installing these things basically everywhere I love the idea of the 20 mph and we can all just drive 20 an hour become a traveling roadblock uh at 20 M an hour uh somebody mentioned the cost of growth this is a cost of growth so when we talk about adding thousands of people we got to be prepared to add the crosswalks the blinking lights whatever it is and I love this top sign idea oh oh one more uh the colorful crosswalks um I've seen um pictures of towns that have made crosswalks with big flowers on in them you know things that like attract attention maybe even like pictures of kids so that uh people know this is a special crosswalk for a school thank you oh and just the last thing is that we got to stop talking about Great Road as if it's a highway it's a village so we need to have these um lights practically everywhere and some benches too because it's a village thank you meline Cruz six station way so I support everything that t said and um Judith and I just want to remind you guys that where Junior was hit we're still waiting for something how long is it going to take so we sit here and we talk all this talk but when are you going to walk the walk he was hit the kid still does rehab he's still not well and we're still waiting for something to be put there to protect people who walk like I'm afraid of walking there I could walk to the Dollar Tree and it's safer than Crossing that intersection something needs to be done but it needs to be done everywhere like T said not just one particular place versus another Junior was hit a year and what four months ago five months ago and there's still nothing there when are we going to do something about it thank you um John uh we've heard a variety of points of view on the select board some of them you know know uh seem to be emerging into a pattern um what sort of uh guidance or vote uh do you need from us or have you heard enough to to to you know understand how to what sort of relative energy and time and money to put into this uh I'm comfortable uh if you're comfortable of with our plan to look at the measures that Chen identified as sort of low hanging fruit uh in terms of some brush clearing and the repainting and then we can continue to think about some of the other more structural changes to the infrastructure as part of the CommunityWide complete streets work that we're working on that cor you know Cory York our Public Works director and Chin Ray Pang Our Town engineer uh both have about 30 projects going uh in different areas uh including Great Road and they all have different things that we're trying to get through uh and we can add this to the queue because none of them happen as quickly as we want them to because of the various Regulatory and and other hurdles that we have to go through so uh if you're comfortable with the plan of adding it to the list then that's uh that works for me Alysa I just have another um couple of suggestions it probably wouldn't cost a lot to replace the crosswalk sign just the panel with a school crossing sign not that we can change it to a school zone 20 M hour but we could change the image to be one of children um because somebody mentioned it's a school uh another zero cost measure would be for everyone who's driving down Central to go the speed limit and not look at their cell phones um especially now that the painted bike lanes are in for the uphill travel you have to go 30 or you go across the double yellow lines in the center and I drive on that road pretty much every day and people really need to slow down and go the speed limit so they stop coming into my lane and stop you know not seeing that there's someone standing in the center of the crosswalk holding a stop sign um because I did hear that when the when the board of directors president came to present to us that they were in the crosswalk and sometimes cars don't stop so we really need to have eyes on the road instead of on our phones absolutely um okay uh any more public comment I think we we've give we've given the the manager some direction we've given some ideas uh at some point we might actually have a traffic calming policy which would be another point of re-entry for ITC into the process uh I also speculate that there's a point in the process where um if there's a point in the process where the only thing holding it back is uh some money um it could be that I ITC would be interested in um providing some of that money in the form of a gift to the town I don't know if that's realistic I know that you know uh it's not a big money-making operations so it's not like there's a bunch of cash there but if that's the if that's the thing that could make a difference um we might want to stay alert to that possibility um any other last comments okay uh the next item is called number nine approved process for updating sustainability policy um so let me look at my notes on this one and uh take us through it and hopefully it'll invoke some invoke some good discussion um okay um the original uh acting Board of Selectmen environmental sustainability policy has been on our website since 2018 um it was originally drafted um by a couple of members of Green Acton including myself working with Katie green with the point at that point was the chair of the select board I was then revised by board members uh John Benson and Janet adachi and voted in unan ously in December of of that year 2018 there were there's there's some you know uh appropriately stirring language around it but the the uh the parts that require actions um are fourfold um the first one is about you know just in its the town of Acton in its actions policies budgets bylaws and purchasing decisions will consider and strive to advance sustainability and that part seems really to be working um we have that sustainability policy invoked a lot by the manager and the sustainability Department as a way of EX explaining what they're doing and why uh and and you know since 2018 we've had a lot of progress um but the other parts of the action plan have not really been uh dealt with uh there's one about uh specific measurable goals that would be uh created uh with consultation with um you know like the act and water district Town boards committees Community groups members of the public we have not tried to do that in in the in this particular format and um there was also a rep supposed to be a report on progress towards these goals uh annually and um there was this fourth part which was that this policy should be reviewed periodically um so noting those issues ues uh last year uh we had the short-term goal of um implement the goal setting process identified in the 2018 environmental sustainability policy um so uh the manager and I talked about it a couple of times and what became clear is that um the that a lot has changed since 2018 that the policy as it stands uh doesn't really fit with our current way of working where we have a green Advisory board that has you know a wide uh Charter now to work on townwide issues uh we have a sustainability office which we didn't have before we have a climate action plan which we didn't have before um so a lot has changed so we uh we moved to step number four about this policy should be reviewed periodically by the board Town manager and other staff and Community stakeholders now um what I wish I done at that point is to come back to the board and say uh hey guess what we're moving to part four uh how do you want to be involved so my bad um what happened instead which has been useful but it needs review now uh is that the town manager has a uh sustainability working group uh it has people on it from the green Advisory Board from uh Community groups uh staff um and that's for example the group that worked on um wrestling with the details of how our act and power Choice program was going to be structured uh to bring you know sort of a coherent proposal to the to the board um so it's been a group that has worked on the details of of uh developing proposals for sustainability policy pieces that then you know come to the board um so that group has begun to work on it but I would like to come back to uh this board and to find out whether it's okay for that process to continue as is and we would then come back uh with a a policy uh whether the board would like to have a discussion you at this meeting or at a future meeting about the kind of changes they want to see in the policy uh whether we'd want to um ask the manager to uh you know include another person from the select board in this uh so that we have more select board member involvement in in in this development um or whatever um so that's that's the opening statement of what what we've been up to and why we need to check back with the board so here I am checking back with the board what are your thoughts David so I I feel like this board speaks formally through our yearly goal setting process and policies I really don't like um know a resolution or something that we someone's asking us to sign on to that's one thing but um a policy I think uh should not be written by an outside group right and it's a it's kind of a circular thing if it's being written um you know policies are essentially to direct staff if it's being written by staff that's odd to me right and again to me um the it should be um our voice right that's that's in the it's not someone else's voice so I I would like to see a process where one of us drafts it and um and comes back to the board for input or gets input and then drafts it you know something where we we develop um and then at the end you know outside groups can comment on it but I I I feel strongly like it should be our voice Melissa I would say that we create goals and those are informed by many voices who provide input during a listening session and also send in emails I am comfortable with the process that's already been started and I would think that it would be better if a second board member was in involved um and I volunteered David if he has time to do that um and I guess it's not as bad as when private in interest groups and companies write legislation that the Congress adopts like um I I feel that uh if if we had a working group you know more heads are are better than than five so or or one in this case because David suggesting that we have one board member write it and bring it um and it it already exists so it's just a revision of an existing policy um and it sounds like the original policy was uh written by someone other than a select board member um you know in consultation with the chair at the time but I'm perfectly comfortable with the the process and would be even more comfortable if there were a second board member involved in the working group thoughts from Dean or fan yeah I I think certainly um having two select board members involved in this uh I think would give us a uh a broader range of opinions um I do think it's really important that uh that the working group continues that involves Town staff you know exactly uh I think the I see the working group uh with Town staff is providing sort of the background and the the uh the meat that will go on the bones the bones would be what the policy that we would vote on for any changes but uh I certainly uh you know we've we've got some some really topnotch Town staff people that can provide a lot of really sophisticated input into this so I I wouldn't want to you know just abandon that process uh but I certainly would welcome the idea about having two members of Select board be more closely involved in this thank you I'm in per perfect agreement with that as it exists um so your name's come up a couple times David um and it it some options are uh that uh you and I are part of this working group and work on that uh another option is um uh you know we go off and work on our own version we have you know we have a draft from this group that could serve as you know part one of our sources um the I guess I didn't want to characterize the group as as a bunch of Outsiders I mean two of them are from the green Advisory Board which is specifically the group that we have to give us you know advice on green matters it's kind of in their title um uh so you know I don't have that same feeling as an outsider but but that's also because you know I I know the people that are involved in it who are in community groups so you know it doesn't feel outside to me but it is outside of our structures so I get that that's a that's a that's a that's a challenge for you um so I wondered if you had any thoughts about these this this path of either um you know sort of starting fresh with the two of us uh or um you know potentially with the input of that group as a starting point uh or um you know having your thoughts and concerns uh you know joined with the working group uh do do you see one or the other as a good way forward David so so first I I I'm not wasn't trying to I'm sorry if it came across that way I wasn't trying to criticize anyone in the working group or anybody as you know labeling anybody as an outsider I just feel strongly that you know the actions that result of the policy lots of people are involved in the policy I believe is a statement of the board right and so um uh I'm I'm happy with um uh any kind of um um way way way this can be uh handled as long as the board has as a whole has has frequent input you know and and maybe there's a couple points where it gets um you know passed by for comment and those are are are incorporated into the into the process I am happy to be on the working group provide input or whatever else makes sense um but I I sounds like I'm a little bit alone there and that thinking that the the the the policy reflects the will of the board but um anyway um I mean to me your your willingness to uh engage uh with the work counts for a lot so I you know I'm I'm not too concerned that um you know we would be going astray from the board's General opinion if if you know if you and I work together uh to come back to the select board with some you know General points like let's discuss you know here's a change with thinking of what do you think of this idea and get get some public discussion about it and and input right from the board I I'm very comfortable with that process um Alyssa I'm wondering if you can provide some more detail on what the revision um is is it because the the existing policy has initiatives from 2010 to 2018 so are we just updating the catalog of initiatives um and then I guess I'll also offer that perhaps Dean would like to be the second board member because Dean you just mentioned that um having a second board member would provide a more reflective of it would be more reflective of the board's views um so I don't see you as the green guy on the board and you and you've added some pretty thoughtful and important um amendments to some like our our electric first policy you were um really clear that you wanted to make sure that we weren't imagining that our snowplows would be electric vehicles so um your experience both working as a town employee and also thinking about other things besides green green Green might be a useful balance I was going to say foil but I'll stick with balance I'm trying to read the body language um but I was looking at Alyssa unfortunately did were you like going oh that could be good or oh I I uh I'll be happy to to serve in whatever capacity the select board would like um as you folks know I'm not shy about um my critiques so I would certainly be uh and I think this would be really important that you know any policy changes be interactive and you know we have enough time to kick this stuff around so I I certainly would not be shy about involving myself with that but now I think if if you and David are are comfortable with being the uh the delegates to this um that's fine with me and I will uh I'll get out the red pen great you have a fine red pen um so Alyssa you asked some questions you asked a question about you know what sorts of things the uh the working group had had proposed um so I have a a summary of the main things um uh first of all in the in the section about goals that we we thought we would uh recast that in terms of the the climate action plan so make it a so you think of sustainability as a bigger bucket and climate as a smaller bucket inside that and we thought that the um the place where we we already have very specific goals is in the climate action plan so why not you know use that um both the uh both the uh the you know the climate emission goals about you know getting getting the climate emissions down to zero as soon as possible and the then the specific you know action steps we're identifying the climate action plan so we don't have to reinvent the wheel um the uh the other uh the focus um the the one about Consulting with other other organizations we move that to uh potentially the the part three the part about reporting on goals so the notion there was that we would uh go out to other groups and organizations and say hey we're about to do this annual report on progress in sustainability in the town of Acton what what do you got uh we also discovered from the staff that a lot of our uh departments are required to come up with different kinds of reports for the state that are uh in a sense sustainability reports they include information about you know things that were done materials that we use and so on so there might be a way uh to sort of you know use that work as well um we also um we expanded on the definition of sustainability because it's very it was very quickly defined in the policy at a very high level and we think you know everybody has a different sense of what that means uh so there was some draft language uh taking a look at three sort of um uh High key areas for the town of Acton which were climate and water and public health and kind of uh trying to give some specific examples and and uh a frame for what sustainability means environmental sustainability means in that uh we also um added language that acknowledged the limits of our financial and human resources to be able to apply to these problems so it's not like we're not saying uh you know stop doing everything you're doing to of act and and focus only on sustainability I mean we know as we go through the day by day we have to balance this stuff so that's in there along with um kind of the U the flip side of that which is acknowledging that we need uh you know financial and informational help from uh groups and organizations Beyond us like the state like the federal government you know and like we do we try to get a lot of our uh more Innovative um environmental uh projects done by seeking grants so sort of acknowledges that yeah we can't we can't do this within the constraints of our our current budget um those those are the key things yeah and calling at the select board instead of the board of Selectmen um so to summarize I think what's happening next uh is that um we have a we're going to find a time to um sort of read you in to this to this group David and then you and I are going to talk about what makes sense uh what to bring back um so we will we will come back uh after some Consulting and and you know editing and um uh give you guys more to talk about um are there other comments before we leave this topic or question or okay that was that was almost like a decision so if there if there are burning comments from the public I'm happy to can happy to make sure they're part of the record okay we'll move on thank you everyone and um yeah that was item nine item 10 um approved proposal from the act in food pantry for the ReUse of 19-21 Maple Street pending successful negotiation of a lease so we have a a concept I think that we can we can learn from is there is there a group here to take us through it uh yes thank you just to remind the board where we left off with this we issued an RFP over the winter uh we had a few responses the one that uh was recommended by the group that reviewed the proposals was The Proposal from the active food pantry Lisa Gordon who serves as the executive director uh for the food pantry is here tonight uh and has prepared some information to share with uh more details about their proposed use of the facility because I think the discussion we had at the board meeting a few weeks ago was more higher level and the purpose of tonight is to give more details about how the food pantry intends to use the space and hopefully answer some of the questions that were raised at the last meeting and then give the board an opportunity to ask any additional questions uh with the ultimate goal being uh the motion that is in the agenda uh which is to have you to have the board rather um approve us moving forward with negotiating a lease there is an article in town meeting warrant which uh relates to the food Pantry's use of the property uh because it's asking us to allow us to lease it for more than three years um and so once that's approved which I hope it will be uh if the board asks me to I can work with the team to finalize the lease and and be back to you with any final approvals that may be required ired but i' I'd invite Lisa Gordon up to uh present uh the information discussed thanks welcome back thank you I did bring a copy of The Proposal if anyone wants to look through it I know You' got it electronically so I just wanted to make sure if you wanted to look at it you could look at it um what I did is I structured rather than repeating what is in the RFP cuz I know everybody's seen it uh I did get a copy John sent me copies of questions from the last meeting so I structured um what I'm going to speak about around those questions and then of course I can answer any further questions first I want to thank you chair and all the select Ford and town manager and Mr ban um thank you so much for having me here tonight I know there's a lot going on in Acton and if I may I'd like to thank all of the volunteers and people involved with the pantry who are all here to support um this proposal so um next slide please so I started with the floor plan just to recap a little bit we are proposing using the entire site that was offered to serve the needs of the pantry we are prepared to invest a substantial amount to transform the space into what we think will be a really Vibrant Community Resource where the out Dooors will reflect the nature of the work that we're doing indoors so when you drive down Maple Street you'll be like this is something special and I think it will really help add to the plans that are being looked at for South Acton we are also very committed to working with the town because we are very aware of why this property was purchased and we want to ensure that we are partners with the town and making sure that the parking is preserved and you'll be a you'll be able to get out of it what you intended when that starts to come back next slide please so I put together a little Montage here these are four different drawings of food pantries that are around Massachusetts there's a new vision recently for food pantries and it revolves around setting things up like a market to be warm inviting so that people can shop with dignity the two questions that I feel are appropriate to answer with this slide are would you be able to use the site and allow us to keep the ambulance company in there and would you be able to use the site if the garage is eventually demolished to improve site circulation which for anybody doesn't know what that means the site circulation that has to do with the parking lot and how people come and go so 90% of a food pantry is really storage just like any market so the actual shopping area does not have to be very large but the storage area is very large so that is why we really Envision needing the separate garage the Standalone garage and the entire first floor so that we can set something up that works efficiently and so that we can uh have the food that we need for the amount of numbers that are coming through the pantry that being said if further down the line you're looking at the parking lot and you're like you know we need that Standalone garage I would hope that we could come to some kind of an agreement where we could have some kind of an external storage space that might not be the garage but um part of this plan that makes it really work for us is you utilizing everything that was put out in the RFP and we really want to make sure that the space is um warm and inviting and that we can right now we leave a lot of food on the table so food rescue is a big deal and we can't possibly take all the food that is sometimes offered to us um simply because we don't have the storage space so we've been the recipient of a grant we were able to refrigerate our van so that we could put some more things in there like an external refrigerator but this would really offer us um something that we desperately need next slide so the next question we were asked after the last meeting was are you planning to install an elevator and if so have you thought about how and where so an elevator was not part of our original plan but but through discussions it seemed very clear that that is something that we need to do we would not be putting in an elevator we put putting in something called ayt those are pictures from Danny's place and I've been in talks now with different contractors we feel confident that we'll be able to put that in so that people will be able to have accessible access to the second floor and what we're thinking at this point is there's a garage door that faces the street and we feel that that would be an excellent place to put doors and build a welcoming Lobby and then put the lift to the right there so that that would bring people straight upstairs and the lifts are done so that there could be one person and an aid so the latest thinking is nobody should be able to go into those things alone they need to have somebody with them so that that is what we've been looking at uh next slide okay the million dooll question I guess is parking um the next question question was would it work for you if we maintain 95% of the parking spaces for commuter parking so we have a couple thoughts here there is pink there we feel that we'll be able to have enough staff parking and client parking very close to the building so in the front that's facing Maple Street on the side it is a throughway there but we feel that we could put staff and volunteer parking along the side of the building that and people could block each other in and we could be efficient about how we do that we're also proposing there's a shed next to the freestanding garage so we're looking at that and I talked to the contractors about removing the shed which is falling apart um the side of it is connected to the freestanding garage so we'd have to re we'd have to reside the freestanding garage but we're prepared to do that um and we'd be looking at repaving that are area and if that were done then that whole side of the freestanding garage it's actually quite large could become client parking um I discussed with John and so you'll see some pink that goes into the least parking area about having five spaces that were what I would call swing spaces so they could be used by the town and by the client when they're clients when they're free they wouldn't be ones that you you know lease out um because they'd have to be those swings spaces but we're we're hopeful and confident that we'll be able to keep things close to the building which frees up all that rest of the parking um and the reason you purchased the building um next slide please okay so this um is do you have more details about the renovation proposed and that's a very big question we do have more details now because I've met with two contractors we do have a architect who's agreed to come on board and work with us for the scope of work that we need to do and we do have another architect as well who's willing to work with us so we've learned a lot perhaps in the Q&A there'll be a more specific question that I can answer we I I feel I've been to this building a lot recently John will attest who is's getting texts from me can I have the keys to bring people by so I've really learned a lot about this building i' I've come to realize what a lovely building that it is um so that's a very open-ended question but I I know a lot more now so if there are questions about that uh I will say that one of the things we learned is that the roof is not insulated as far as we can tell there's no heating or cooling on the second floor or ventilation and so these are all things that um we're going to have to look at seriously especially to bring it up to mass energy code so um which are very new uh the new codes to do with energy um next slide okay when would you Implement Renovations and what contribution would you be asking of the town toward these Reser Renovations so this plan that we put into RFP has adjusted a little the time frame of finding out about the RFP here you know what's going on has adjusted a little um but our goal is to work through the summer should should this all go through so that we have a really good scope of work and we're making sure that that what we are planning on doing is viable and can be done well um then we would be looking at getting drawings and permits and quotes from our contractors and we would be planning to start Renovations in the fall to late fall um in terms of what we'd be asking for the town we're looking for a long lease somewhere between 10 to 15 years because of what we're putting into the building and we're also asking that you allow us to pay the very very modest lease that we asked for so those were the two things that we would be looking from the town for we're not looking for financial money to be put in to the building um at this point or now um next slide okay when would you begin operations I use this slide to illustrate this is from last year the number of clients we've have year over the year before the number of individuals and the amount of pounds of food which we've already surpassed so we are incredibly motivated we are in crisis mode we are a lot of people in need groceries in Massachusetts are at their highest point ever as we all know there's rent increases and so we are looking to start operations as soon as possible as early into 2025 as we can possibly get so this is not a project that we will be dragging our heels on but but we also want to do it right so we will be taking the time to make sure that everything is planned correctly and we know what we're getting into um next Slide the next question was what hours would you be open to the public once it is operating so that's a little bit hard to answer but these are examples of other pantries that we would be looking to emulate similarly as we had those Market pictures to give you an idea we currently are open to clients just just 11 hours per week and that would be one full day on Wednesdays and two hours on Thursdays when we're actually open um for people to come in and we tend to be closed well we are closed on the week that falls on the fourth Wednesday of each month in our new facility we are looking to be open at least three to four times a week we'd like to have varying hours we want to make sure that we have times that Shoppers can get there we're also aware though that we want to keep it so that we don't have a lot of people all there at once we want to make sure that traffic is part of the community that we're not causing any issues so if we find that there's a time that we're getting too many people we are willing to go to appointment only as well which is what is Illustrated up there so again we want to be good partners with Acton and make sure that the way that we set our ourselves up is conducive to our location the next question for this slide is how many people would be working at the facility on a daily basis the best I can do in answering this is to tell you what we have now and to let you know that I think it will be fewer people that will be required because we are drive-thru and that and that and we are a choice Pantry which means that every car that comes up we have a shopping list and we talk to every single person and we ask them what all their choices are and then someone goes in and has to do the shopping and then someone has to weigh the bags and then they have to be brought out to the car so so um every day is a little bit different Wednesdays are different than Thursdays um we typically shifts are 2 to three hours we tend to have at least one to two staff members present for each shift and each shift right now is seven to 10 volunteers so I I believe it will be um a lot fewer because there won't be as many moving parts right people will park they'll come in they'll shop they'll leave so next slide so I want to thank you I tried to keep this brief because I know you have a long agenda and I know at this point you're halfway through only um I will answer as many questions as I possibly can I again want to thank the select board I think that a commitment to feed The neediest Who Live work and frequent acting is an incredible Community benefit and an amazing gesture that we've even gotten this far and I want to thank you for the support um and I think that this really speaks to Acton's commitment to diversity inclusion and wanting an acting that is truly for everyone because this is a service that you cannot get everywhere so I will end there and I don't know if you want me to sit or stand here if there are questions but I'm sure there'll be questions thanks um and thank you um I feel like I want to start with John because you've worked very closely with him and he's very familiar and his staff are very familiar with the details of this proposal and I wonder John if there's anything that you'd like to highlight for us about you know special challenges or special opportunities with this proposal uh well I think the goal of this project was to have a productive reuse of this facility that benefits community and so I believe uh this proposal does exactly that um in terms of the challenges I think the challenges from my perspective and what I what I'm required to do every day here in town hall is make sure we can pay the bills um and so that's the only concern that I have is first of all the parking demand is coming back but it's still not back um so we are relying on the the funding from the ambulance company to help with our debt payments that were used to purchase that building uh so that would be the only challenge that that I see with the proposal is that uh the the benefits of of the organization being there are are great but we still need to be able to pay the bills um and so if the parking van doesn't come back um we we'll we'll need to find other ways to do that which which we can do uh and we will do uh if asked but I just wanted to raise raise that as an issue um other than that I think Lisa and her team have done a good job of trying to conceptualizing the ReUse of that building it is and I spent a lot of time with the previous owner uh it is very structurally sound uh concrete everywhere uh because he was a concrete guy um so I think there will be some challenges with renovating it but I'm sure that they'll be able to work through them uh and I think our building our perating team hasn't really looked at it but but they will when the time comes and we'll help figure out challenges as they come up um and then the final thing would be circulation on the site uh we had a really comprehensive plan to rework that entire parking lot uh removing some of the facilities um to make a better circulation for people that are using the communter rail both as pedestrians and as uh drop offs uh this use would require us to change that but that's okay because the state already said we don't like your ideas and we want you to change it so we were going to change it anyways um so it's not a problem uh it's just it's just something that I wanted to raise as uh we will be changing that design and and we would incorporate the use uh the food Pantry's use in that new design thank you so much John um there might be comments or questions from select board members David thank you um yeah I also have concerns about losing the ambulance lease money I was hoping that the ambulance would be able to stay there to help defas some of that but I understand the need for first for storage um the second thing I wanted to ask uh John was what is the condition of the smaller building um uh is it sound enough to keep for the long term uh the garage structure is as I said he builds he built things well so the garage is fine I think there's a a lean to that's a part of it which nobody would miss uh and it's not in in great shape okay good that's um maybe I was looking more at the at the lean to then because it I haven't been down there in a while but it uh at one one point it was uh it was looking kind of sad at least from one side um um is the is the the lift going to be used for um clients or or staff or both I think the lift will be used if we have a small meeting area not not a big assembly area but you know something that that uh a small group of people could have for a meeting with a meeting table so it would give people access to come up there um I don't see clients generally speaking needing to go to the second floor great yeah that that's kind of what what I was expecting I just wanted to make to to make sure just a comment on the days and times obviously for um parking um Friday and Saturday are the least um have the least parking needs if if all the parking comes comes back um uh I I uh John I would like to see the um uh whatever lease payments we have um cover the basic maintenance of the building you know uh I don't know exactly what that means but painting from time to time Roofing from time to time you know that kind of thing um so that that that would you know uh at least that um assuming that the parking comes back um the the parking could cover the the the debt payments on the land um but anyway that's I don't know if you have a comment on that sure yeah I think the The Proposal was was a nominal payment not not really payment at all a do a dollar a month um so I think the but in lease agreements and I've and we've done this in other communities in terms of what you mentioned maintenance of the building we could require the food pantry to maintain the building to the extent that it applies to the use of the building and we could also look at Capital Improvements I mean if they're going to be there for 10 or 15 years we could come to an agreement on how costs are shared uh over that period of for any Capital Improvements that are required that are not related to the food Pantry's use of the building which would be like the roof or another example I don't that I can't think of but that type of thing so that could you know if it ends up being no no money then we could require them to invest in the facility over the life of the lease um you know they're making they're proposing a huge renov which should make it kind of in in good good shape for a while but there will always be things that come up with a building as we all know and that can be worked into the lease so so my my my concern is that the town not be on the on the hook for additional costs I mean I'm I'd like to have the food pantry pay as little rent as possible but having uh losing the ambulance lease is uh um you know I just want to make sure that we we don't get stuck with some cost there and finally um if the if keeping the the smaller building um uh you know would hurt circulation long term if the the parking lot was relayed out I was just wondering about the possibilities of making that first tenth of a mile of uh Maple Street 2way so that um uh the circulation could be on the street um rather than through the parking lot so that that's just an idea you know in other words people could but I'm not expecting you to answer that today but there just an idea for um you know if you know I so I was kind of expecting that um uh maybe that building wasn't in good shape you're telling me it's in in good shape and so if if that is staying then um we may need to make um circulation improvements eventually and maybe that little bit of uh Maple Street could be made two-way thank you thank you other coms ments or questions fanan I'm so so excited for this project I I hope that it comes together um I I just wanted to mention that this building although it's not in historic district I'm going to be the historic nag now it is on the cultural resource list um and I don't I think the building that you were talking about is an old salt shed which I don't think is included in in on the inventory sheet but you might want to check in with a historical commission when renovation times are upon you because um I think they bylaw you know they have to see everything if you alter 25% of the building or something like that so you're you're you're talking about the what I call a shed and what the thing that's attached to the freestanding garage that's what I'm understanding no no I mean I don't I it's just a a weird roof with some railway tracks underneath it so um but I am of course willing to check with anybody to make sure that I I'm very pro- historic preservation so so there yeah that that's all I had to say I'm keeping my fingers crossed thank you thank you for coming back um I'm also very excited to see this project moving forward um the question that you addressed about the parking I don't remember which of us asked 95% um so I appreciate the the pink lines on the diagram and the number of spaces that would be swing spaces but I'm not clear what the answer is because it's not looking like it's 95% is it about 50% of the parking would be and I I I understand that that number could shift but the the number of spaces that could be reserved for commuters so if you look at the strip parking now the only part of strip parking that we're taking are five that a swing space the rest we all of those are ones we're going to create they're not parking spaces now they're not being leased so the answer to that question is yes well I don't know what 95% is so I have to admit I knew though that the goal was for us to interrupt the cities needing to lease spaces as little as possible and so that's why we've sort of worked with that I suppose if we can't remove the shed then you know we'll have to get creative maybe about because that creates a nice line for that could be a lot of spaces but but we are committed to working with the town because of your commitment to helping you know us potentially be in a space that would be better for us um and also I I appreciate the item IED list I think I asked for that and that's very helpful to see um in terms of the the costs for the improvements on the exterior you mentioned that you would be Paving with that removal of the I don't know what to call it shed um and I know that the town has plans for improving circulation um which I didn't realize the state didn't like so that's kind of disappointing um but how do you envision or maybe this is a question for the town manager the sharing of those different exterior Paving and infrastructure costs so we are not at a point where we can contribute to the paving of that space which I was told is you know the I don't know if John wants me to repeat the cost that he gave me so I'll leave to John um I feel like if we remove the shed that it that is on us to and that's one of the things that we're willing to do to be good neighbors and to to think you know to to recognize what your goals are and that would have to be because there's Railway ties there now so it's not like you could remove the shed and just have parking there but that's a very small space um and I just had another one other question oh two other questions do you expect Shoppers to come on the commuter train it seems like it would be really inconvenient to get off the train and then catch the next one which might be an hour later well um I'm thinking that it may be people who live in Acton who are coming in and maybe utilizing the pantry there's also a new van service that boxboro has started a Mart and that is currently going to our pantry this is new which is fantastic for us and we would be looking to have that also Loop in you know because they're coming to where we are now and we would say why don't you come over here so we're hoping that will work um one of the things that we like about this location is it's not hidden away people can ride their bicycle it's on a trail we have a lot of families it's near a playground it's also near The Gleaners um who we work very closely with so there are a lot of positives from that point of view um but I do think there are people who work in Acton who are food insecure and so they'd be able to come by before they get on the train and I think there are some workers who maybe leave Acton who could then stop when they come back in um at the food pantry okay thanks um and then my final question was um the use of the upstairs space do you envision that being open to community organizations at no cost or is that a potential income generator you know we haven't gotten that far because we're still we know it'll be a small you know when I put this proposal together I is rather than calling it community space I probably should have said it was a meeting space because we would be looking for it to be small and as I said there's a lot of things about the upstairs that um are unknowns that we did not know when we did this like primarily the lack of ventilation and Heating and Cooling and all of those so that is something we want to do I don't know if we'll be able to do that in the first pass um but I feel like this could be a vibrant com space where we have volunteers coming I would love to offer it to book clubs you know figure out how to do that that may have to come a little later though um just because of the things that that we're learning and and then in terms of whether we collect a fee or not um that wouldn't be a secret I'm happy to talk about that you know we're not looking to generate revenue and not pay rent so we we could figure that out David yeah I just wanted to quick on in the map the the pink area was originally going to be part of the drop off and was not supposed to be parking spaces and we originally wanted to have an entrance to the station that was closer to the bridge and that's the part the state didn't like us to do so we're really not losing any parking we're losing flow which is why I asked about possibly making Maple Street two way just to the end of the parking lot right um uh but whatever works out I um so we're really not really losing too much parking other comments questions Dean yeah I think regarding the uh the upstairs space that will be accessed by a lift um personally I don't see any particular need that this should be public meeting space certainly it should be accessible but um I I hope in the uh negotiations the town manager doesn't start pushing towards you know I can't see having the Conservation Commission meet there something like that I think you know we've got especially with continuing to do a lot of virtual meetings it doesn't seem to me that we have much of a need for municipal meeting space um you know any small group that food pantry might want to work with or just have your own staff and volunteers hang out there I think that would probably be a better use of the space um you know if you go down that route of saying okay well it's going to be accessible to the public then you've got you know how do you get the place open how do you get it closed um supervision that sort of thing I just think that's that's a bridge too far for you folks to deal with so I I hope the town manager keeps those thoughts in mind in his negotiations John you're you're indicating sure I I think the um I have no interest in having to try to program another meeting space uh that's not really the the purpose of discussing link it was more The Proposal stated that it was a community Gathering space and that's what raised the questions if it's going to be an internal meeting space for food pantry staff then I you know um that's then it wouldn't it may or may not need the same measures as a community space would one comment you could have classes on composting or something like that that'd be cool classes on composting oh I I fully expect that one of the nice things about moving and being part of the community would be that we could put on a lot more additional programming and so really be a service because really the goal here isn't to just keep providing it's also to work with people so that they they move on and we just had our annual event we had someone there who bought a ticket and said I used to come to your pantry and I'm so excited that I could buy a ticket and I have moved on from that so the programming possibilities the things that we could do when we have moved are just Limitless I think yeah so comp composting great idea um could I add something just one of the things that John and I were discussing is that there will be a period of time where we're working on the scope of work and we're really planning and there's really no need for the EMT or muddy water coffee to you know I said to John I'd work with him so that he knows our scheduling so that nobody has to move out prematurely so that um that can continue until we really need like okay this is the date we're going to be going through the wall thank you um my only comment is um I'm enthusiastic about this project I I recognize that there is this there's um there's a revenue Gap that gets created because of the lack of the income um which will eventually be met by uh increased commuter income um I I I'm I by supporting this project I recognize that I'm putting the town in a position where it has you know a little bit more financial need uh a requirement to you know fill that Gap uh I'm I'm okay with that um I think this is um a tremendously important Community need uh that you're filling and you'll be able to fulfill it even more powerfully by this so I think it's you know it's it's worthy of the town's support from our you know from our Human Service Mission as well um so let's do this thing um the uh I think the the the who has who has that motion right in front of them we had a motion in mind that the manager would like to say what it's right on right on the agenda oh so I'm move can I please I move that we approve the proposal from the act in food pantry for reuse of 1921 Maple Street pending successful negotiation of the lease second uh absolutely especially if people don't like this idea because we're about to approve it so hearing from people that think this is a bad idea would be really useful but a short a short statement in favor of it is also wonderful thank you I'll go sit down but if you need me to come answer anything I'll come back up yeah thanks Lisa hi fry Osman um 16 Half Moon Hill I had a couple questions that I wanted to ask so I'll just ask them all and and I might have missed them by not reading the material um so I apologize um I always have wondered if this was the best location it's great because it's a inexpensive Town location a town owned location that the food pantry can use and I was glad to hear that there were reasons to be at the train station but in some ways I feel like it's it it's not the best use of something that's right on the train um so my question was the same as Alyssa's what relationship they would have with the train and so I a question if people can come from other towns and utilize the food pantry um that would be good to know and is there going to be an accessible pathway between the property and the train platform right now unless we build the the ramp where it was supposed to be which I heard that the MBTA isn't happy about doing it there even though there's a panel that's supposed to be removed from the train station for a ramp to the South side it's right now very awkward you know you'd go east and then you'd come West all the way to the thing and then you cross over it's it's very annoying if somebody came from West conquered say to go to this food pantry right now they would have to get out go to one up one elevator across down another elevator all the way down the platform and then back um it's just so I want to know what the plans are for an accessible pathway and I might have missed it there was a lot of requests for coffee for warmth because a lot of people idle in the winter and in order to avoid that we need to have a place where people can stand and for bathrooms this has been requested for many years and I want to make sure that by going through with this we're not just cutting that off and that there are plans to utilize some of the building space for those things thanks thanks Ry um there might be answers to those questions either from Lisa or the town manager or from select board members either about the uh the the pathway uh in into the you know from the train station especially the far side to the to to the food pantry um whether there's going to be um accessible or at least publicly available bathrooms and is there any hope of a of a place for uh coffee service um so with with regard to the accessible Pathways I think that a use like the food pantry might better position us to get support uh for state and federal funds to make improvements to the parking lot and the circulation if we can say yeah it's an important commuter rail Hub transportation is important and it's meeting needs for food security so I think that yes there are things that we want to improve with we've been trying to improve with the way the site with people get around the site uh and there are not any imminent plans to do that uh or any funding to do that uh we've asked in the capital plan for the last few years for 600,000 it wasn't approved we U we've asked Mass Works um Mass doesn't really like the plan so uh maybe this change will give us some some inspiration and some new support that we didn't have before nice and the the question perhaps for Lisa was um uh the the use of the Acton food pantry by people that don't live in Acton is that part of the plan or is that a possibility or our food pantry is open to anybody who suffers from food insecurity so we already have a lot of people who come from outside of acted in boxboro so we have a large amount that are acted in boxboro and then we have a pretty high percentage of people who come from from other areas and um there's no question in my mind that we will be serving people who will be using the commuter rail in that capacity and certainly if there's somebody when we're open who needs to use the facilities we would never turn someone away from using the bathroom so um we want to be as I said before an amenity that's for the community as a whole as well and um I would love it if Muddy Waters uh stayed around as the food truck for our volunteers and for everyone else so I'm kind of hoping and I'm hoping it'll bring in maybe a restaurant and a coffee shop and some other things in acting so I hope that answers that question thanks Lisa thank you so much that answered a couple of my questions um because I had heard that uh the food pantry limits to certain surrounding areas and so I'm glad to find out that's not the case I hope that the food pantry doesn't require an ID that would make me very sad um and where the town's plans if and I know tenants aren't the only clients for the food pantry but I think as a nonprofit you have to be careful about supporting uh political um uh positions on policy especially where they're controversial and I know that a tenants group um has been looking at these plans for rezoning uh and uh in in my view it's an economic incentive to destroy 30 homes down a Railroad Street so I I really wish you look closely at this if you take a position anybody please invite people that have differing positions to come tell you and show you the numbers um and so yeah that's it and oh and community events and everything the Franny was saying I love all that thank you so much um so one of the board members can remind me of where we're at I do remember hearing a motion did it get seconded yes okay uh and we heard some more comments about it are there any final comments before we vote on this motion no uh yes excellent hi hi uh Renee Soul 26 Taylor I just want to thank you guys for supporting us and um supporting the food pantry We're All in This Together it takes a village and we really appreciate that you guys are on board with us so thank you and uh don't forget to pick the garlic mustard it was a garlic mustard reference yeah yeah when I'm not here I'm I need different clothing picking garlic mustard out of the conservation L um okay so that we have a motion on the floor uh all those in favor please say yes or I yes I that's unanimous um so uh John thanks for continuing to work on this hey that's fun you don't usually get Applause um I'm probably supposed to discourage it but it's okay one once a meeting should fit um the next item is called item 11 approved 2024 2031 open space and Recreation plan letter of review um and Alyssa prepared this for us Alyssa do you want to tell us anything about it um no I don't want to say anything about it because I can't get into the eating packet do you want my screen no I mean I I don't have anything to say except this is an awesome plan that is took place over multiple years and had so much involvement from so many Town departments and um public Community groups and individuals and I'm very happy to endorse it and would love any feedback that you want to provide on the wording in the letter okay uh comments or questions I think the letter sounds great uh I agree with Fran letters looked great to me I didn't have any changes to recommend I'll make a motion oh oh great comments questions yes I look at the packet pretty regularly and um I didn't see a copy of it for the public to review and so I still have the same comments about pocket Parks Great Road as a village as opposed to just large open space next to already wealthy people so um I and a a goal like you know 30% you know to you have a metric to actually achieve I think that'd be really powerful thank you so much um On a related note um let's make sure to get a link to that osrp uh for public comment on in a public location because it is it is a little tricky to find um so that you know people can make their comments because there's room for 's more room for comments also uh the invalid invalid license thing keeps showing up I guess it's because we're getting close to town meeting but thank yeah yeah uh ter ter is noting uh that the the docu docu share uh can can run out of Public Access so yeah trying at odd hours is sometimes good um any other questions or comments uh Tom I I am happy to um update the board that I planning to Department submitted this to DCR and we've received approval of the draft plan or acceptance of the draft plan I should say and that now uh qualifies us for DCR grants which include the park Grant and land grant as well okay and to to go along with that I'll note that the The Unfinished uh chapters uh include all of our review letters and include any public comments that come in before the the actual document is finalized so we um that but that's great news that the the core of it has been accepted Alysa do we have a date for when public comment is due on the draft H Who would know anybody in our electronic audience know when the uh last comments would be due no okay we'll we'll find that out and let the public know okay um so were you were you you made a motion not yet okay I move to approve the 2024 to 2031 open space and Recreation plan letter of review from the select Board second um any other comments or questions all right yeah do you um yes it's in the packet the Letter's been in the packet in the packet it's been in the packet before today yeah the packet just got started yesterday no anyway whatever nobody else is complaining I won't okay thank you Tera um okay U so we finished a a motion it got seconded any other additional comments or questions about the letter of review no okay Al those in favor please say yes or I I I it's unanimous thank you okay um 10 10 so I'm staring at the agenda and thinking about the rest of the things here these are all important to get done so I don't see any alternatives here um okay item 12 is called discuss request from finance committee to postponing mbta's zoning article um it seems like christe you're still here and you wrote the letter um do you want to say anything about it before we uh discuss it or or what uh thank you uh so I'd like to make it really clear we are not expressing any opinion in this request about MBTA zoning especially in override year it is um the finance committee's responsibility to look at the cost of everything we do we have been told the costs of non-compliance relative to uh grants loans low interest loans lost Etc um the planning process has involved the planning department saying repeatedly that impact studies are extremely hard slimpossible to do because we don't know how much building will actually happen in what time frame what the finance committee is asking for is a time to find information coming at it from the other direction at what point in the development of the town will we hit certain expense requirements such as how close are the schools school buildings to hitting a capacity that requires significant renovation or the building of a new building um as I sent you there's a letter from the water district that expresses concern about water capacity in the current system I recognize that if that is a problem people can put wells in that's still a strain on our water system which has ridiculously large expenses if we decide to connect to the MWR and takes an extremely long time to happen again I'm not arguing anything against MBTA I'm asking you to please give us a chance to get the information that we need to present a strong opinion our request for delay is often tied to this idea of being related to people who do not want the MBTA zoning to happen that is not at all the case here we are um told started with giving a purely Financial reasoning recommendation for what we're doing we believe that we have a way to get the information to provide that because of the late submission decision by the planning board to put forward this article into town meeting yeah they chose it on the April I keep trying to call this month August they chose that on April 10th during one of our meetings to bring It Forward because of the special town meeting we did not get a chance to discuss it until April 23rd which is when we sent you the request so we have not had a chance to collect the information necessary there is not a tight T um time constraint on getting this done in that the requirement is not until December 31st that we adopt the zoning if that is what we are doing um i' also like to point out that the finance committee does not lightly ask for the possibility of a special town meeting to address something we appreciate the expense and time Etc of that full request let me just check oh and um I might have already said I'm sorry I don't know how you all function this late in the evening um uh we are not asking for an impact study we've been told that what we are asking for here might seem in contradiction to the article at the special town meeting that was voted down um we are not asking for that we are asking for information that should be relatively easy and as I said comes from the opposite direction of understanding our limitations in the town at which point they would trigger large significant expenses and if there's any answers you'd like to me give her comments after people speak I suspect we're going to get yelled at a lot about this I'm happy to come back up thank you thanks chrisy for explaining that um we we did get a a preliminary note uh from from uh from Town manager based on consultations with the planning staff um there any parts of that John that it would be relevant to say out loud at this meeting as part of the discussion uh yeah I think I I'd like to um share the full thing um I wasn't expecting to have that opportunity so um I can find it in a minute and bring it up but just generally I think that the finance committee um had a member of its committee on the working group for the South Acton Village planning process the fact that the planning board submitted the warrant article on April in April uh does doesn't make it a surprise that this article was coming forward uh certainly something that we had talked about the finance committee received a presentation from the planning director in late September uh probably a 20 minute presentation about the whole thing uh that was part of the 2-year Community engagement process process that the staff and volunteers engaged in many of them are in this room uh it was a robust process as planners like to say uh included everyone in the community that uh was interested in it uh whether it was at the library or at public meetings like this and they got a lot of good feedback from everyone including the finance committee throughout the process and adjusted the plan accordingly um to me the request to count school children that may use up space in schools is problematic and I don't I'm not interested in doing it it's it's sounds like it might be violating some anti-discrimination things that I'm worried about and I can find the rest of my notes thank you um there might be comments from board members oh yes there are um Dean yeah I I can certainly understand the finance committee's interest in in looking at long-term capital expenditures that might be brought about by this um you know couple of factors as far as expanding schools you know we we certainly kicked around enough in anticipation of the override how our student population has dropped precipitously over the last 10 years so you know if conut School needs to get rebuilt at some point that's going to have to happen whether MBTA zoning is initiated or not uh but for the rest of it um you know we've got depending upon your time frame anywhere from a thousand to uh to only 500 fewer students than we had at some time in the past likewise for some of our Public Safety our infrastructure I can't can't imagine anything happening as a result of the MBTA it's going to cause us to put a need to put a third story on our public safety building we've got four fire stations now that are nicely situated throughout Town yes they're going to need repairs they're going to need repairs regardless of what happens with the zoning next big bite is Public Public Works building um that is something that we've been talking about for many years long before the governor and the state legislature came up with this law we're going to need it anyway um you know as far as the the marginal operational expenses yeah maybe that's a problem but I can't imagine how you could project that um you with all due respect with the opinions of the finance committee this is kind of like asked and answered we spent pick a number 8,000 $10,000 to have a special town meeting to Hash this out uh 2third majority said we don't want to Hash it out any longer the thought of spending another 10 or $15,000 in September um I'm not in favor of that idea and I think there's no matter what happens at all of those Town meetings there still going to be a portion of the population that's just going to say you need more information you need more information you need more more information and I I don't particularly like the way all of this was foed upon all of the communities but there it is we have a housing crisis in this state and this is a way to deal with it um so I I would not be in favor of taking this off the uh agenda for the upcoming town meeting thank you um Bren I'm GNA read so I also disagree with pulling the MBTA Community Law from the warrant the select board although not unan unanimous has recommended this article and now it is in the hands of the the voters of Acton this proposed new zoning change in conjunction with the South act and one and two zoning proposal has had two years of community outreach with lots of citizens input I know the concern has been displacement of renters which we all should be sensitive to and impact studies however this article is just to put zoning in place should the opportunity arise that a developer or homeowner choose to build under the MBTA zoning overlay this law does not mandate development nor can we predict what may or may not be built zoning is just a tool it will be the the private developers who will have to do their own due diligence which includes impact studies um I also oh sorry sorry I I in with all due respect to the finance committee I did hear you know a comment about you know maybe we can wait and see how litigation works out uh for other towns and to me that's not complying so I I that's all I have to say thank you David so the the biggest things the finance committee was concerned about were schools and water um uh availability and those two things really are not the town government right and I um that information can be obtained from those two entities and could have been obtained from those two entities at any time over the past two years um I'll say a couple things about the the the water supply here um for the memo from U the water district um worries a little bit more about groundwater protection and the pipe capacity in South Acton so groundwater protection we have some of the best you know groundwater protection laws in the state um and um the uh the nice thing about the MBT communities Act is it doesn't allow anybody to violate those um um some 40 40b developments can violate sorry get around local laws the the MBT Community zoning does not um uh the the pipe capacity in South Acton that may or may not be an issue but the water district is not required to to serve any new development um or if a new development wanted to be put in that exceeded the pipe capacity in South Acton the development could offer to um add larger pipes down the streets um so I I don't see that as being in an issue either it doesn't happen because there's not enough capacity or uh the development development pays for it uh again water surfaces is not required and I agree with Dean that there's lots of capacity in the schools right now and so uh uh I I don't see that as being being a problem either and anyway this this question could have been asked any time um in the in the past two years Alissa thanks um first I want to offer that our recommendation of this article was unanimous the one that wasn't unanimous was the decision to not recommend the article at special town meeting um so just to make that correction um you're welcome uh the I just want to address the idea to come at this from the other direction that sounds like it might work out to find out at what point are we in trouble with Town services or water supply or Wastewater but if what the planning staff has been telling us is that these analyses cannot be done because there's really no way to project um determine the timeline and the number of units or the types of commercial developments we still can't understand at what point we're going to get to that point so that's a great analysis to do you know when are we going to need new firefighters or new police officers offers or um an additional school or more roads or when are we going to run out of water that's that's fine but it doesn't seem to be related to this in so much as we can't actually know when we will get to that point so we might be able to find out half of that information um we we've already heard that the finance committee had a representative on the south act Envision and action plan Advisory Group I want to note that the economic development committee also had a representative and for the last year and a half they've had a standing agenda item for an update from that working group and that could have been something that the finance committee did as well in order to you know keep on this I realized that we you know the finance committee was overtaken with the budget process and the override decision um so was the school committee so was the select board and we still managed to accomplish other businesses that we needed to do um and just reiterating that there is no requirement from this zoning to build anything it's just a requirement to zone for it um and that's all I have David so I I also wanted to say a couple meetings ago a couple members of the finance committee proposed that we develop some way of modeling um uh Z proposed zoning changes in the future such that we could at a you know relatively low cost determine some kind of comparative um impact um and I've said I think that's an interesting idea I mean it's it's a it's a big deal it would be difficult to do but I think um if members of the finance committee are interested in in doing that so one member of the finance committee said that we should take a year to try to figure that out I think that's an interesting idea um and maybe we should figure try try to figure that out I mean it I I think everybody wants to know um what the um the the the possible impact from a zoning change is and maybe there's some way of modeling that and I think that's worth exploring myself thank you Melissa I had one other point um it seems that this information is wanted in order to um enable the finance committee to make a recommendation or not for this particular article to help inform town meeting voters and to me that um goal is not worth putting taking it off the warrant and the expense of a of a special town meeting um because there are there have been and probably are on this warrant um articles that don't have a recommendation from the finance committee and this is up to town meeting voters um so there's already a risk that we're going to have to bring it back at special town meeting and that is if it doesn't pass um so people have spoken a lot of what was on my mind I'll add a couple things um I I've been very concerned about uh you know water impact and sub impacts uh in a variety of contexts uh when I looked at both the South Acton zoning and the uh you know the associated South Acton Village zoning what I saw was um the two places where we're going to see uh relatively immediate relatively immediate within a few years development are the two Sav 2 districts the uh the one on on the one on Central Street and the one down on powdermill uh where 25 units per acre is allowed so I can I can easily see uh you know the 5 Acres uh on Central Street that's buildable you know having 25 units per acre and you know adding uh you know 125 new units um I can also see you know similar number slightly larger down in the powdermill district um but these are not numbers that scare me in terms of our capacity um the the sewer capacity uh there's already a a memorandum of understanding between the powdermill developer and uh and the town of Acton about um you know their contributions to uh you know the the the sub capacity and the uh the the the the the place along Central Street is outside of the Sewer District and I don't see any appetite on this board to expand the Sewer District uh you know especially at you know that far enough away from the the current lines um you know they have a package treatment plan now and they're going to have to you know figure out a way of of using that again uh expanding that if necessary for new building um this the other the other parts of the South Acton Village zoning and the MBTA zoning are going to be much more slow um there's there's the allowing of residential above commercial um and the requirement of it uh for for new commercial buildings so you have a scattering of residential units on some new commercial building as we know there hasn't been a big block blossoming of commercial development in South Acton uh there could be someday I hope so uh but that's not a large number of new units um and similarly with the multifam allowed 10 units per acre along Central Street these are these are lots that are already have uh you know perfectly functional buildings on them uh where there's not going to be um you know some big movement to um you know uh for a family to suddenly leave the house that it's been living in and you know say oh yeah sure we'd we'd much rather you know we we'd like to redevelop it this way there might be some of that but it's not going to be a huge amount um and at at 10 units per acre some of those one acre lots can have you know an additional 10 units these are not scary numbers uh we've already spoken to the school issue that we already have a drop a drop in enrollment so you know a little bit of increases it's it's it's lovely we can handle that uh with sewer um we're not expanding our Sewer District in order to uh accommodate new housing unless we're you know unless we are convinced that we have the capacity to handle it and we're awfully close to our capacity now so there's not much appetite on the board for expanding it same thing with water as has been pointed out um you know what what happened before when we lost a bunch of water quality uh back in the WR Grace days is we stopped stopped connecting new buildings uh and that's you know that's a distant possibility but it's a possibility what's not a possibility is that we will suddenly run out of water um we just might stop having new connections um that's it Alyssa thanks I'd love to just add one more point about school enrollment the state calculator for multif family is 04 so multif family development brings in a lot fewer children than single family homes so if we're worried about number of school children we need to worry more about um subdivisions with four or five bedroom homes than a multif family building thanks for that reminder uh I'm just going to make make sure we get a motion on the table before we hear comments because then you can respond to the actual motion um so it sounds like or actually or we could just take no action right we could just say we don't yeah okay so yes we could hear comments now so first of all other towns did the analysis U Milton for example this point4 multiplier is for average for State not a high demand market like Acton for schools I'm sad that um you guys don't think that the finc come's opinion um is worth that much um in terms of water quotes I just want to read you know the Acton water district to the planning board wasn't even discussed at the planning board hearing uh changes in use and density in this area May pose a threat to water David said uh well that seem to be more about water protection uh but it says could use up and exceed the remaining available capacity they said that in their memo so um the 300 excuse me the 125 at Dober Heights the the site is 26 Acres 25 at the main site plus the extra acre that the same owner owns so that's 26 25 * 26 is 350 units if you look at the 8.8 buildable times the number of square feet and the number of floors I beg to differ with your 125 I think it's at least 200 perhaps even more like 300 um and these are the kinds of impacts that drive people to sell a house for a million bucks because the developer can make 10 million by putting all the houses on that site and the tenants are asking us to do these studies this the summer would give us that time or we can just go and vote on it on the 7th and then uh you know see what happens because you know I thought we were a progressive community that cares about people who are vulnerable you have a group of people who have said please care about us and you guys seem to just railroad without doing the uh the analysis and it makes me very sad um and I hope that the Democrats or whoever else is out there in the audience can let us come talk instead of just the person who's a professional developer you know let's let's talk about like who is actually making these comments and um you know listen to the tenants you know listen to the tenants Branny okay you know we can't just like get new poor people that can afford it you know it's not a really good good thing to say you know um and so anyways I'm I'm sad that it looks like you don't care to um postpone and I hope anybody out here will vote this down it's not the time we need to get more information the um there's now been a case filed in federal court that it's um against constitutional rights I'm not sure exactly I haven't read the case yet um but there's strong you know sometimes Believe It or Not zoning can be really bad okay it can be in it it can be you know not inclusive exclusive but on the other hand if it's protecting tenants to keep that zoning the same then that's a really significant thing to pay attention to thank you thank you meline Cruz s way um yeah um was that something you wanted to say before there was more public comment Fran I wasn't clear no I I just want to say that I take really very seriously the opinions of our other committees especially the finance committee they are a guide so that's all yeah quick comment please the um the uh if you read the water district memo correctly uh the the the capacity issue is a piping capacity issue in South haon we're not running out of water we only pump 3/4 of what we're allowed to pump they just drilled two new deep Bedrock Wells it's not out of the question that the state would allow us to pump more we don't need more we have plenty of water there there is there is water quality issues in town both with iron and maganese and past there is not a quantity problem I beg you to I beg you to look at the facts and read the memo yourself and see that it talks about the permit and the capacity of you know we haven't even looked at the aqua for I'm I'm well aware of that and the um the planning department has answered that memo thank you please hi okay I must say that I don't understand Jack of what is being said other than my reason for saying not so much a no against this MBTA zoning law listen I get it I get that the governor and the legislators created this and I understand the reasoning why they created it the problem is not that we necessarily need more housing the problem is how do we prevent homelessness building more housing is not going to prevent homelessness or fix homelessness issues you know what's going to do that friend control you know what's going to do that ending greediness and with this new MBTA proposal that's coming out that the zoning and being change that's exactly what you're doing when you look at a person like me and tell me that Logistics with the water and sewer I don't care about that and I'm being honest I don't care about that because regardless of whether they're wrong or right or the studies need to be done that still doesn't stop people from ending up homelessness in the future all right you're saying you want to build more because it's needed yeah indeed more housing is needed but it's not just about building new housing it's about making it affordable having an M an Ami of 80 doesn't solve nothing Lance and I together make 70,000 a year and we live for public housing you want to know why I live in public housing because I can't afford it at 70,000 a year between me and my partner because there is no structure place for people like me so when a person like me stands up and argues why this is not feasible is exactly for the reason that none of you want to listen to people like me and then we get insulted and say oh that's not democracy if I can't come up here and say what I need to say then what's the point of having democracy at all we need to do better by listening to the people and the reason behind something shouldn't pass or should be withheld I'm not saying that it doesn't need to pass I'm saying before it passes let's protect people that are already there and let's fight for something that's meaningful and that means making things affordable not at an 80% Ami it doesn't solve the problem we're going to see the same things happening over and over again because nobody wants to end greed and at the end of the day that's what it's all about thank you oh you pressed that little button there sorry Bob Van Meter chair of Acton housing for all um I think that the uh select board has um accurately summarized some of the issues with the fincom um letter uh I just want to add I think that the planning board and the planning staff have looked very hard at the issues of affordability and uh potential displacement and I think many of the concerns of residents at Dober Heights that had been brought up by one of the previous speakers have been addressed at the planning board meeting a couple of weeks ago and um I think that the um the town to my knowledge is planning to see if we can pursue a higher inclusionary percentage if if the um Market analysis uh justifies that and I would urge the select board to do as it seems you are inclined to do and take no action on the fincom recommendation hi frany Osman Half Moon Hill first I want to apologize to one of the previous speakers for laughing I was laughing because I felt that they were um pointing to somebody who spent their life working on affordable housing including developing affordable housing and speaking about them as a bad developer or something and so I that's why I laughed and I apologize um it wasn't nice um I really appreciate everything you all have said and I um and I agree with it and I would ask you to not get wayed by thinking about this I do think any financial studies are great and no matter what happens with the state I'm happy to see if the Financial finance committee encourages some study um but for now we just don't want any more delaying tactics um for the MBA to not happen would have wasted two years of the planner's work I was wondering I don't know if you have a number that estimates how much has been spent on this so far um but I assume it's a lot and cost of delaying it would be not only that those two years but the future work that would have to be done and the slower response to the housing crisis um this is a way of adding housing it's not perfect I just I just don't want to delay based on this I feel like some of the concerns that people have talking about school children whatever is pointing to words like character and that they don't like change and I feel feel like if you want to keep some of the rural character support open space purchases support agricultural efforts support transit to reduce congestion but allowing this zoning all it does is add to the 400 Acres that we have of multi Z owned Acres compared to 9,000 single family in Acton and it will allow people who live in those houses to have a choice of maybe staying in town because they add units to their building anyway thank you for taking no action or deciding not to do this right now um jenet before you get started y Janet Adai Simon hapan did you Janet I just wanted to interrup up before you got going um what I'm thinking about is the time I'm thinking that I've heard from all the board members so I already know that we're we're not going to support further action and that if we want to debate uh zoning that's what town meetings for so just want to make just I want to keep have you keep that in mind I I'm very happy to hear from you as long as it's short but it may be the right time for us to to move on to the other couple things beef because I'm not going to talk about zoning about how the the law article 12 is going to create housing any of that anyhow I have a very quick point one I think that the select board should retain article 12 on the uh T meeting warrant and allow there to be a robust discussion at town meeting as the town manager says robust very good way of discussing anything um and I think that that the select board should respectfully decline or whatever take no action on the finance committee's requests um you're elected officials you represent the interests of everybody in the town you recommended article 12 and I think you should stand by that okay um and I as I said allow there to be a full discussion at town meeting um I'm a little bit concerned about vom's sort of imposing this request at the 11th hour it's a little bit unusual and and it seems as if it's an attempt to take a second bite of the Apple the first bite having been at special town meeting with the uh article that was seeking um to require the select board to have an impact analysis before any zoning proposal could become law and of course as we all know at that special town meeting on the 17th uh the vote fincom endorsed the article and ended up on the losing side with the vote 72 supporting that article and 147 against and so I'm a little bit puzzled by this sort of renewed effort to derail I guess the MBTA zoning uh proposal ultimately um especially because it involves disappearing article 12 from the warrant and then depriving the the public the voters of the opportunity to hear more about it or talk about it or vote on it and I don't feel comfortable with a non-elected committee trying to kind of circumvent the Democratic process that the annual town meeting represents so I urge you to do what you have already decided to do which is to take no action retain article 12 on the special CH meeting and and let it go to full discussion and vote so thank you thank you uh I would like to go on the public record that I have rarely been as offended As I Am by this committee with the exception of Jim you have all condescended to the finance um that the finance committee did not do its work yes yes we were extremely involved in the South act Invision plan we chose to not question it until the plan was complete the costs of it we have been repeatedly told through the planning process that the costs couldn't be found couldn't be figured out when we had a final plan to review we asked questions about it I came in here expecting to be shot down I did not expect to come in here and be told that my committee did not do its job that we were attempting to take a second bite at an Apple for trying to demonstrate that we have done our due diligence again in the time of an override of presenting people with our educated opinion and recommendation about this I'm thank you when this I just want to know what you're going to do about the tenants who's going to take care of them when the gun goes off the ink is dry and that's a rhetorical question you to think about it yeah thank you we do I do um there might be more comments or not I'd love to move on but I'll be quick and I even wondered about getting up here I'm Jim Carrey gustard Road um couple of comments and a question for clarification because there's been a lot of discussion I've been to a couple of the meetings and I get more confused every time the comments are it's really hard to take an affirmative action moving forward it's really easy to vote for more conservation land or to vote down change it's really hard to make a step toward change I everything I do from My Little House on gust Road I have to get in my car and drive everything I would love to see our zoning rules change in addition to these proposed changes so that I get to walk more places and get more things that I need without having to get on the roads without having to uh even my electric car uses juice right so I would love to see some affirmative action taken and I have not heard a reason that I won't vote Yes on the proposal that's coming up next week my question is just a clarification because I think I've heard this I think I've heard that the zoning regulation does not change water regulations or groundwater regulations or Wetlands or any of the other uh protections that we put against the ground is that a correct statement yes thank you so much because that will make things easier for me okay I I support the decision you're going to make and just want to say I don't think the mark of forces are changed that much and that scare tactics have been used to make tenants worried when they shouldn't be worried and I think that that that's something that should be public knowledge thank you thank you Michael oh my um okay uh Matt there's one person online yes Mr chair Tris W Tris you should be able to speak good evening lucky I'm a night owl um thank you I I'm actually sort of opposed to the MBTA plan but one of the there were a few comments that were made earlier in the evening the first one um one was the presentation on the prop two and a half um and how how it relates to this uh resoning plan is it possible that there could be an overlay of that slide that showed the impact of the budget and trying to meet numbers if it's possible to do some sort of projection you know with developments and rezoning there's always going to be a maximum amount of what building is going to eventually be allowed in those new areas that are rezone you could certainly do a worst case scenario uh projection based on U the availability of units Etc there was another comment that was made earlier I believe it was by a gentleman by the name of David I'm not sure but it they had said well 10 units per acre it's really not that scary but if you're living in a house in a residential neighborhood that goes through this change I would say that yeah that could be pretty scary for some people um for myself in particular I'm actually a homebound disabled person uh I became quite sick uh at a very young age about six years ago I am not afforded the accommodation to go to town meeting and vote which is a struggle for me uh because I would like to have my voice heard um that being said I did go to earlier meetings uh presentations of the uh development plans and I asked those questions at least 18 months ago to a year ago about water traffic height restrictions uh impact on the historic district Wetlands open space light pollution ET parking waterways the river all of those now keep in mind I'm not ignorant to all this I used to be a commercial architect and I did a lot of um design and development throughout Boston in 495 Corridor so I'm familiar with how these things go I think it's absolutely necessary that part of this planning includes a full review whether or not these resources are AA available I spoke to ever Source they said that our infrastructure electricity wise is totally outdated I've gone to some of the outside committees that are working on the environment uh impacts and this just doesn't seem like this aligns with so many of the things that the different committies have shared with me so I do feel that there's a little bit more information that needs to be reviewed as well as the impact of the finances but also environment thank you thanks TR um I think this is the point where it's probably past the point but it's the point as a chair where I say we're done with public comment we're going to move on to the next agenda item um okay um the next uh the next topic is called discussion of logistics for upcoming town meeting and that's a topic that has um a few parts to it uh so let me get my notes up and see if I can wake up a little bit and uh go through the go through some of these um okay um first of all well the three things I'd like to cover are um offering some time if any members want to review the concepts or words in their statements from the select board that they'll be stating at time meeting in case anyone particularly if they're uh talking about an article that didn't have a a unanimous vote and they want to make sure they're you know representing the thoughts reasonably this is a chance to do that another would be um we have had some conversation about the citizens Library trustee election process so I want to talk that through together and um related uh potentially is just reviewing the order of items at the meeting um the the the moderator has is is in charge of that along with town meeting members but we may have a feedback for her uh about the proposed order um so with those three things in mind are there members that want to review the concepts or words that they're planning to say at time meeting yes Alyssa thank thank you so my article comments are for article 12 so sorry we're not done talking about it um I'm not going to read the whole thing but just wanted to uh let everybody know that I have included um information about the public engagement process and the goals of the town and how this um zoning change meets several goals of the town uh that we noted many other barriers to development that um we are behind in the state for the number of housing that are needed um housing Supply in acting is limited and that other towns are complying and we acknowledge concerns about displacement um what we didn't discuss and and I'm disappointed that I didn't even think to bring this up because I'm the leaz onto the water district is the Water District's um comments which we heard about tonight so I would like to mention that as well it kind of goes along with the other barriers to multif family development Wastewater discharge capacity water capacity water quality um I just want to make sure that if I mention that that's copasetic with the rest of the board members any concerns about that no okay yeah it seems like it's an issue on the table and like you say you you can just represent it okay thanks um I was going to review what I was going to say about the um uh gas bylaw but I went back and listened to the tape and I think I'm I'm very clear about the concerns that were expressed and I'll be able to include those in my statement um any other folks have statements that they no okay um the next one so the the the the twin issues about the order of the items at the meeting and uh the um the citizens Library trustee election process and hey we have Jo man here hi welcome here there may be questions um and um the last the last statement I saw was an email from Melissa about the potential of doing the uh the citizens Library elections oh it wasn't from Melissa sorry it's from one of the candidates uh suggesting that uh it would be uh better representing that you know sort of Town's priorities to make sure we get that election done early on and I just you know I was curious about your thoughts about that and the board's thoughts about that um so first of all I will say thanks for this opportunity um Joan Barry Town moderator for anyone who doesn't know um I think it will so the one the main thing I want to make sure is we have the child care from 6:30 to 9:30 and I know a lot of people are very concerned about being able to vote on the budget items so I would like to skip over start with choose Town officers except the the contested office the West Acton citizens Library go to town budget items School assessments both um ab and Minuteman and then do West Acton citizens Library M and then take up con the consent agenda which normally doesn't take too much time but everything eats up more minutes M and the I mean I have to respect the fact that people organized the child care it's teachers mostly folks who work in the school they have to get up and go to work in the next day everybody does but you know they spent all day with with kids and now they're spending their evening with kids we should um do our best to be done by 9:30 and I will make that point at the meeting that that's my intent so yes we want to hear from everybody but if somebody already said a thing just say you too um yeah thanks so so I'm fine with that yeah okay um understanding that this is up to you and and I guess to town meeting members if someone made a motion to rearrange things um there may be feedback from the select board members along the order of items on on yeah Alysa so I guess thank thank you for that Joanne I guess what I am worried about is the amount of time that the citizens Library trustee election would take if we have a minute from each candidate and then we do a clicker vote we're not accepting public comment right right um I wonder if that would be shorter than the time that would be taken up by a proposed please take these items in a different order and then the discussion around that so if we're if we're talking I don't know how many minutes it takes us to use the clickers and get the tallies up um and then add 2 minutes for the speeches from from the um nominees candidates whatever candidates well they are nominees so um not unreasonable um yeah I was like I said I was really trying to make sure we get budgets done and minutes get you know you think it seems short but it add up M so um let me work with my numbers some more and see and I I do have to wonder and and I this is a question on my part can the and you all may not know the answer to this but can the clicker votes happen quicker because you know the voting process itself takes 30 seconds we fire him up then we vote and then we wait so and I if that's how long it takes that's how long it takes but I just wonder if it could be done more quickly and I have no idea um any anybody here no information about the speed of processing or if we do it more maybe it will just go faster because people get better at it I don't know so okay so so I guess is the wrong crowd to ask I guess right well the question's out there now yeah um and my impression but you I'm checking this out with you is that um an arrangement like this of you know taking something out of order you don't actually have a formal vote on that at meeting do you do you just say this is the way we're going to do it I can do that yes yeah okay okay so at least you don't have to take the time to have a right a motion and a yeah all the all the discussion you just say this is the way we're going to do it okay that at least helps that not take so long um other thoughts or questions about so and I these are just ideas and you you could move all of article one later and not try to to split it up well except that we are voting for a deputy moderator who will if if there's more people when fill the auditorium there will be people in the um gym so that person Bill Mullen has to be elected yeah and and and lastly at least in the the the the draft time frame that we we received the consent to genda was before the uh citizens Library officers I didn't know whether that might be reversed so that we do the citizens library at at 10 and uh well that that's what I was thinking but I do want to take Alyssa's uh comments into account I was thinking of yeah doing all of the budgets and assessments up to article um the minute man which is yeah the Minute Man one and then then doing West act in okay and then consent okay the list that we has shows consent and then right but then but then it did make more sense yeah when once I heard some feedback on that that was and if um uh some consent articles get held it can be up to you or town meeting is to whether we take them the next night or that the the only problem with that is we found in the past when like back when Don McKenzie was moderator you they would get held out and then taken up in wherever they fell in the agenda by that time oftentimes the person who held it wasn't there anymore so you don't even know what the question was and it could have been a good one so I think it's better to just take them up right then because then people's questions can usually it's a question um people's questions could get answered on the spot and then take care of it yep thank you yeah I I think the way you've split the meeting up makes a lot of sense um I know folks from CPC and others were really interested in the fact that they know for sure when that CPC article which you know that's about a 9 Minute presentation so it's it's great that it's going to be on the second night so on that what perhaps I should just say what the plan is so people who haven't read your agenda so the first night do article one as we said with the exception of the West act and uh citizen trustees do all the budget items go back to the trustees then the consent agenda that I am hoping will take us to about 10:30 which I'll just point out right now it's 5 11 um then start up the second night following employee recognition which will be brief yes um we'll start with article 9 UM CPC and then go right into the zoning and that those some I think some of those articles we can dispose of Fairly efficiently and others I know people have thoughts and so we'll have to hear them and there'll be some discussion but I do want to keep us going right along so we can once again finish hopefully in the in the 10:30 range because I mean that's long for I mean you all just sat here tonight for more than that and we are not entirely alive right at this point exactly um and if I could just point out the videos I know somebody said to of this earlier but we'll recap the videos are online at acent TV and YouTube so please do check those out if you need a ride to and from be sure to call cross town connect uh the number is in the warrant and on the town website by Wednesday and then if you want the child care call by or email by Friday and I've seen some questions online whether or not children will be allowed into the auditorium yes we don't want more children than voters in there but um particularly if you have toddlers you know younger than four because the minimum age is four or you know a child that just is not going to work in that environment then that's fine um I will say that and wouldn't be the first time that that's happened I even brought my own kids one time and we had to leave before the sewer vote came up because my three-year-old was done so I get it it it's a thing so um and I think that was pretty much any more thoughts questions great all right thanks well looking forward to town meeting thank you I will see some of you on Wednesday and there's a pre-own meeting meeting on Wednesday and that is just to be clear that's for folks who are presenting just so that I'm clear on everything and also answer any questions because once in a while people do show up and they're not quite sure what it is but it's it's really for the presenters and for me to be better organized so thank you thanks so much um okay uh right before we get to approve amended manager contract I'd like to deal with the um uh the conflict of interest uh that's item 17 on our agenda um this is about Christopher uh Brandon who's um a driver for the Acton Town shuttle service um and who has uh joined the transportation committee we we approved his his membership and uh it's been great to have um him there you know he knows a lot about Transportation um he did get warned that you know he should make sure to pay attention to the potential conflicts of interest um my my initial take on that is that if the transportation so the transportation advisory committee is an advisory committee they're not actually you know deciding on the fate of um of you know shuttles uh or Shuttle drivers but they do make recommendations so uh my thought was that um you know that the that that that that Christopher and the committee uh pay attention to if they are developing a recommendation uh that involves you know changing the structure of the shuttle system that he recuse himself from that particular conversation but that he'd be a you know continue to be a fine member otherwise for the transportation advisory committee and I I didn't know if that sat okay with the rest of the board or whether they'd like an alternate uh statement on that or what because I was just going to stick that in the uh uh appointing authority uh comments um which there is room for in the form um any concerns questions thoughts David so I I'll just say I'm completely comfortable with this in fact um uh considering that he's a driver and not a decision maker on the cross town connect side and he's not a decision maker on the town side either um I don't see any problem with him participating in the discussions he might want to recuse himself from a vote right um but I don't think he needs to leave the room during a discussion in fact I think it's valuable right I I do agree with your point that they need to be uh conscious of this right so um but um other than that I'm I'm completely comfortable great um and and John I was wondering if there was any Town perspective on this um since he's not directly a town employee but he's you know sort of in the town system whether that you had any particular concerns no great um well then uh I I I would move that we uh you know approve this uh Municipal Employee uh financial interest and um uh including the determination that um the financial interest is not so substantial as to be deemed likely to affect the Integrity of the services which the municipality may expect from the employee and I'll add a comment about you know paying attention to um votes on decision that might impact the U you know the number of shuttles second okay uh any other comments no all those in favor please say yes or I I I yay okay that's unanimous thank you so much um okay approving amended Town manager contract so um we spent some time in executive session going over the contract the proposed contract that John and I worked out um I'll just now but approving it is a matter of of Open Session uh and I'll summarize for people that um uh once we approve let's see the process here is uh assuming the vote is positive uh we will then go ahead and uh finalize it like right now it's in a redlined form we need to you know make sure it's an actual document that can be signed we'll get all our signatures and then we'll make sure it's publicly available um but I I I can note that um I think the key the key uh the number that makes a big difference there is that in the past uh John has been getting both the uh the the step and cost of living increases that all other uh non-union Municipal Employees are eligible for the you know the 3 and a half% and the 2% and this year we agreed on a simple 3 and a half% um and uh I thought that was a you know it was it was it was helpful for John to be willing to you know uh have a salary go up less than the the maximum that would be suggested by um you know the way we deal with other Municipal Employees are there uh so I would move that we approve the town manager contract that we reviewed in executive session are there any other comments or questions about that I'll second the motion okay now it's been moved and seconded there so there could be comments or questions no all those in favor please say yes or I yes I okay now we've approved the amended Town manager contract yeah thanks thanks for sticking around thank you yeah uh now I'm going to read the consent items and I will hopefully remember to skip over 17 uh but please say something if you'd like a further discussion of any of these items uh 15 appoint David bti as an associate member to the Water Resources advisory committee with a term to end on June 30th 2027 uh Point Nadia Burns as a full member to the ACT and dog park committee with a term to end on June 30th 2027 18 approved Farmers Market Winery license to sell application aaronap sellers act in boxboro Farmers Market June 16 through October 13 2024 and November 24 at their special uh fall Farmers Market event or winter uh fall late fall uh 24 2024 from 10:00 a.m. to 1: p.m. 19 approv Farmers Market Winery license to sell application house Bear Brewing act in boxboro Farmers Market June 16th through October 13 2024 and November 24th 2024 from 10:00 a.m. to 1 1 p.m. and finally approve these uh one-day alcoholic beverage license applications Powder Mill Animal Hospital June 14 2024 nooba Valley neighbors Club neara Park patio tent June 22nd 2024 tactical reintegration project Nara Park picnic tent August 24th 2024 and finally Boston area Gleaners 77 Powder Mill Road June 14 2024 I move to approve uh consent items 156 and 18 through 20 inclusive second it's been seconded um all those in favor please say yes or I yes that's unanimous thank you uh we have considering the hour we have a very very brief meeting evaluation any thoughts my main thought as first is uh I wish I had cut off discussion on the um finance committee recommendation much earlier turned into a discussion of MBTA zoning which is not what we needed um and this may be just about my last meeting of being chair at like a big public meeting so just want to say it's it's been awesome I like I like running meetings I I did not do so well on all the details in between meetings so I just want to acknowledge that as part of the eval that uh there were there were lots of times when people wrote to me after agendas came out and said ah you you said you were going to put this item on and and I hadn't so apologies for that but uh it's been a good run I wanted to ask when we are checking our Committee Member list whether we need to send corrections to the clerk or it or maybe both uh John any advice on changes to websites where would you like that to go you can send them to the manager's office we'll we'll take care of it NE okay great I've seen people in the manager's office actually go on the website and change things live so they can they can they have a lot of power sounds good and I also wanted to um comment on our discussion of the finance committee's request um the folks are not here any longer but maybe they'll watch this recording um just like Fran I want to reiterate that no one on the board said that the finance committee's view informed view was not valuable um I just feel that the public engagement process has provided voters at town meeting with really good information on which to make a decision so all that went along with that the delay and the cost of a special town meeting that was what I didn't think was a good tradeoff um and I also think that the the cost of growth analysis that they're interested in being part of or leading is a very valuable exercise um and I hope that that happens very important to get your signature and then Lisa who knows all of us will notorized but I think we don't actually have to like raise our hands and say we're doing this of our free will indeed because you know us we know you know we're doing this by a free will indeed okay David um so I just wanted to say and I I don't kind of agree with the way it turned out I um I'm little bit sensitive to what what Christy said at the end they they were trying to wait the the reason the way they didn't take those articles up earlier um was because the planning board hadn't approved them earlier so they weren't officially on the warrant you know I don't know if that's the best way that for it to handle I'm just saying that that's why they did it that way um uh you know I'm not sure what to do about that right because some of these things you know that they were asking for would take a long time right to to to figure out so um I move to a jarn second all those in favor please say yes or yes I