e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] 2 one good evening I'm Bernard Green chair of the Brooklyn select board and this is the regular meeting of the select board for April 2nd 20124 uh let's start off with announcements or updates from the select board anyone want to say anything no okay no I you know me I just I'm just waiting for others to uh does anybody else want to jump in I'll jump in if they don't want to jump in um there's a number of things that could be announced but I'll try to stick to just a couple um first of all I'm going to repeat my my announcement um because I don't have too many weeks left to to make it and that is that people in Brooklyn I hope I hope will um visit the page of what's called team Brook mine um to um check out the wonderful wonderful group of people who are running the Boston Marathon to raise money for various bookine nonprofits and I hope not only will they visit the page but they will see there a nonprofit that they would like to support um um and or a runner that they would like to support and give generously to sponsor a runner who is raising money for one of these Brooklyn nonprofits it's um it's a wonderful wonderful part of marathon day which is coming up in just a couple of weeks um V I donated today all right right all right um the other thing I I just want to say that people don't always um make the connection when they see news of such as the news of the untimely and unfortunate death of Larry Lino um and I don't think he needs any introduction um especially to Red Sox fans um they don't always make the connection that um he um was for quite some time uh a resident of Brooklyn and and one of the things that I cherish about Brook line is that people the likes of Larry Lino make Brookline their home and um it makes me feel proud that um that they they have made Brookline their home it makes me feel even more loyal to the Red Sox um and um I hope it makes a lot of people think about um the qualities of Brookline that are special but also the special people who um who we have in our midst and he was definitely um one of those very very special people um and I think probably gets as much credit as anyone individual for um the Red Sox breaking the curse as they say so I'll just leave it at those two announcements thank you John um anyone else yes marathon website is live on the uh on the Brooklyn ma.gov uh thanks to um the whole team for putting that together Christina mcaf and our whole team um if you need some information about road closures and te closures that's your spot remember marathon is April 15 2024 if you need to cross the marathon route you can cross it at tapen Street Webster Street and Hall street thank you sure this this just came to mind as Chaz was making his announcement Our Town Administrator um and others make um valuable contributions to a monthly Town Hall newsletter and the newsletter for the month of April was published today and it's on the Brookline Massachusetts website and um I must say this thing has come a a long way in a short time and it is chalk full of news to invoke a cliche but it's a really it's a really really interesting read with a lot of valuable information in it so I hope people will check it out okay thank you uh next public comment let me just uh note that this is a regular public comment we will have a public hearing for comment on the article 97 issue at the Pierce playground so don't speak about that during this public comment uh Charlie sure thank you for joining us for public comment this is an opportunity for us to hear your perspective on the issues in Brookline that matter to you each person speaking tonight is limited to 3 minutes you don't need to use the entire time but you may if you like once a total of 15 minutes has been met there will be an opportunity at the conclusion of the select board's business for additional comments members of the public sometimes raise questions during public comment we may be able to provide a quick answer to a question but are more likely to work with staff to get a more thorough answer and respond over email we'll let you know when you have 30 seconds remaining of your 3 minutes and when your time is up please conclude your remarks at that time if you have more to say you're always welcome to send an email to board members expressing your thoughts in Greater detail so uh folks on Zoom can use the hand raise or Q&A feature to let us know that they would like to speak there was nobody signed up in advance um Tom Eunice is in the chat with their hand raised I'm going to promote them to speak Tom declined to be promoted to a panelist um other folks could use the hand Q&A feature I don't see anyone in person volunteering to speak um Bernard we have 25 attendees and no one is using the handraiser Q&A feature indicating they'd like to make a comment okay so let's move on to uh our miscellaneous calendar first question of approving the following meeting minutes March 12 2024 and March 19 2024 uh on in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I Miri ashkanazi hi uh Mike not here where did he where did he go where did he go okay Paul waren hi share votes I okay next we have items 3B through 3n I want to take those items in Omnibus fashion since the select board or no select board member is asked to take any of them out of the vote but I do want to highlight item 3M which is a letter supporting the application for a federal earmark of one .15 million through representative oen close's office for a three-year senior limited Mobility resident rid share pilot program this would result in a significant increase in transportation services for residents who need them to stay connected and to get medical and other appointments um fulfilled so with that I move approval of items 3B to 3n all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak hi maram ashkanazi hi and Mike's still missing Paul Warren hi and chair votes I as you have 15 minutes before the uh scheduled joint public hearing do you want to take the town clerk first out of order and then police Personnel questions so that we can move through those yes let's do that uh thank you chair green and thank you to the board for uh taking my uh agenda item out of order um I'm Ben Kaufman the town clerk the uh three votes that are before the board tonight are all votes related to the May 7th annual Town election uh the first vote is to establish the dates and times for early voting at the election uh we've seen a tremendous uh usage from early voting activities and participation uh since the passage of the votes act in 2022 uh last year's annual Town election almost 700 voters cast their ballots early in person at one of our early voting locations we continuing to expand our early voting options and for this election um we are adding a second day for both the kage corner and putterham library locations so that voters have more opportunities to vote uh so this proposal will have uh early voting occur uh every day during the early voting period at Town Hall as well as on both Saturday and Sunday of the early voting period at both coolage corner and putterham library locations uh the second vote before the board is to assign police details for the May 7th election um uh the uh votes act uh requires that that be approved by the select board after consultation with the Town Clerk and with the chief of police um the chief has reviewed this uh schedule and request which includes police officers at every Precinct to ensure proper administration of the election uh as well as at the early voting locations and a few others uh to uh handle other issues that we've had in the past around parking and ensuring proper access to polling locations the final vote is the actual execution of the warrant for the May 7th election um the polling location will be the same as they were at the March election I will note for people who did not vote in March um but will be voted in person in precincts 10 and 11 at the Driscoll School the polling location is in the new school in the multi-purpose room uh it's a very nice space um but for voters who are used to go to the old Driscoll school that building is uh that space is no longer there so uh you will be confused so please go over to the new Driscoll school um so that you can vote uh on the ballot in May will be the positions of moderator town clerk select board Library trustee uh school committee Housing Authority as well as a number of town meeting races both for full three-year terms and uh shorter terms to fill vacancies I don't know if the board has any questions happy to answer them thank you any um Miriam I just want to say like I always do I really appreciate uh the effort you go to to increase voting opportunities for people in town and it shows so thank you and for those of you who are listening have a plan to vote John um I have a question um and I wonder if you could just help me understand something about early voting um I got myself in the unfortunate position of not having filled out the application for a mail-in ballot because I thought for sure I would be in town and now it turns out I'm not going to be in town on April 2nd and I do understand that there's this period um at during which people can you know walk into town hall and there'll be voting machines set up for them to vote um but what about people who don't have a mail-in ballot but need to cast an absentee or mailin ballot um how soon can we do that and how do we do that uh sure so the deadline to request a vote by mail ballot is going to be April 30th so as long as you do one before then we'll mail you a ballot okay the early voting period which uh begins on April 27th and runs through uh that Friday uh is available for any voter in Brooklyn so even if you requested a mail and ballot and we sent you a ballot if it was never received or if you don't want to use that you can come in and you can vote in person uh during inperson early voting so that's available for any voter and they can go to any polling location so if you usually vote at the putterham library you don't necessarily have to go to that early voting location you can come to town hall or to the coolage corner Library uh so any voter um as long as they have not returned their vote by mail ballot once you've returned your ballot to us and we've received it then your vote is cast and you won't be able to vote anymore but um otherwise any voter is eligible to vote during early V in so if you don't mind mind just following up just to be absolutely clear about it so um again it's April 27th is the first day of early voting correct April 27th but um as early as uh tomorrow um you could request an application for a mail-in ballot correct tomorrow you can request a ballot and we will begin mailing ballots out our current schedule is that we'll receive them from the vendors on Patriots Day so that week we'll be to voters so let's say as early as the day after Patriots Day you might be able to walk into town hall and request an actual ballot uh so you are able to request a ballot we are not allowed to give you a ballot in Town Hall you can submit an application for us to mail you a ballot I'm so glad I asked these question correct the only exception to that is something that's called in-person absentee voting which you can do over the counter as soon as we have ballots that's only for people who are eligible to cast an absentee ballot which is much more restrictive you have to sign saying that you will be out of town you have a physical reason a medical reason or religious reason that you can't vote in person on Election Day yeah so if you qualify for absentee you can do that over the counter as soon as we have ballots otherwise if you want to vote in person that's during the early voting period or we can mail you right right so but swearing that you will be out of town far away is enough reason to get one of those correct d okay yeah if anyone sees me just keep quiet no I really am going to be far away thank you uh Paul then last year um the annual election we had a number of ballots that came in late uh the mail and ballots for a whole host of reasons um what is your what steps have you taken to prevent a recurrence of of that situation sure so we uh have had a lot of conversations with both the legislative delegation the Secretary of State's office uh encouraging changes to the state law which would allow us to count those ballots um as the law currently stands it remains that we must receive those ballots by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day um we've taken a number of steps we've worked with our vendors to ensure we received the ballots earlier than we did last year so that we have more time to mail ballots out um we also installed ballot dropboxes throughout town so that people can drop their ballots in front of the coolage corner putterham libraries or in front of town hall instead of having to rely on the post office um we also had a very productive conversation with the um uh manager of the uh Brookline post offices about um this issue and uh how they can uh do a better job keeping an eye out for ballots how we can do a better job informing them um they've informed us that they have received new and additional staff in the post offices which should alleviate some of those post office issues um the biggest advice that I have for voters is request your ballot early and mail your ballot back in quickly um one of the biggest reasons we saw uh the two largest groups of ballots that had to be turned away were actually ballots that we had mailed out to two or three weeks ahead of time that then didn't get sent back until a day ahead of time as well as ballots that weren't requested until the statutory uh last day which is only five business days before the election which we then mailed out but were're not received back in time um so our big advice to voters is make sure you request your ballot early make sure when you receive it you send it back in quickly and if you can uh use the ballot drop boxes or come by Town Hall uh to avoid any potential issues with uh the post office the final note that I will say is um there is a website track my ballot ma uh uh.com uh which is run by the secretary's office it is directly tied into our system so you can go and you can look your name up it will tell you if we've received your request if we've mailed your ballot out as well as if we've received your ballot back uh we encourage voters to check that especially if it's election day and you mailed your ballot but it's saying we haven't received it it might be an issue with the post office and you should make sure to come in and vote and is that information included with the mail and ballot when you send it out yes in the mail and ballot there's instructions which includes links to track ballot M as well as uh advice on went to mail the ballot back thank you so much thank you thank you uh I'd like to follow up on a comment that Mariam make and thank you for making voting uh so easy here in Brooklyn you know it used to be that uh we in America would say we're so proud that we have a right to vote where whereas other countries don't have such rights or it's it's more difficult in those other countries these days we can we we should be saying that we in Brooklyn are so proud that we have a right to vote and easy voting because so many other states do not have that privilege and I hope that people appreciate the fact that uh here in Massachusetts we have great clerks like uh Mr Kaufman who who making voting easy as as as possible and there are no impediments in the way of anyone voting and hopefully uh with that appreciation people will turn out in greater numbers than uh they have uh in in the past for Town elections and and other uh not offe elections so anyway so again thank you for for all you do thank you any other comments or questions no okay I move uh approval of the 2024 Town election early voting schedule uh and approval of the police details for the 2024 May 7 annual Town election and approval of I'm sorry just let's just start with those two um all in favor please indicate by saying I jenan skak I maram ashkanazi I Mike sanman I Paul Warren I chair votes I next um I move approval of uh the question of executing the warrant for the May 7 2024 annual Town election all in favor please indicate by saying I John Van skak I Mar ashkanazi hi Mike sanman hi uh Paul Warren I and chair votes I okay do we have time yes we do we should um promote uh superintendent Ming superintendent m is being promoted now what are we taking on now we're taking on the uh police hiring and out of order and then Charlie you should preemptively I think promote any U uh Conservation Commission or parks and wreck members hello superintendent mey hey how are you how's everyone tonight good good so uh tell us about the appointment okay so we're requesting the appointment of uh the following candidate as a prob police officer effective upon approval of the board uh our appointee is named Joshua Ramos he's a 26y old male he currently resides in Boston he is a graduate of Marshfield High School from 2016 and Westfield State University with a Bachelor's in criminal justice um 2020 he was hired from a list of candidates from the 2023 Massachusetts Civil Service police officer exam he graduated from the MBTA Police Academy in 2021 and has been working as a police officer with the MBTA since that time and therefore he can start his uh field training officer program after two weeks of assignment to the Department's Training Division um during the hiring he completed uh background drug screening employment interview medical exam uh written psychological test a psychological interview and Physical Agility testing his probationary periods for 12 months following his appointment and with your approval his start date will be April 3rd 2024 which is tomorrow great any questions from the select board oh I have one quick question is this considered a a transfer a Lal transfer from another department or or not um so he was working for the um the MBTA he had uh left the te to uh join the state police um then he had changed his mind at that point and uh when you leave the NBTA they must be so flush with candidates they don't let you return so I don't know why but um he had a very good record at his time at the te and um he's coming over as uh I wouldn't say he's a lateral um because he's still on the uh Civil Service list um but he's ready he's ready to go okay fully trained and ready okay great well we we appreciate his uh his willingness to join Brooklyn and mbta's loss I was just gonna say mbta's loss yeah um that's a little strange but uh yeah they must be turning the candidates away I don't think so okay okay I move approval of the appointment of Joshua Ramos as a probationary police officer as requested by Chief pastor and is indic indicated by superintendent mey effective upon approval by the select board all in favor please indicate by saying I John Van skak hi Mary masazi I Mike sanman I Paul Warren hi and chair votes I okay it is now 5:30 I moved uh to adjourn the SEL board meeting until after the joint meeting and uh public hearing uh after which we'll return to take up the remaining items on our agenda all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I Mary masazi I Mike Sandman I Paul Warren I and shair votes I okay we got exactly two minutes and so we're promoting folks who are yep remote um if members of The Parks and Recreation Commission are you if you are here in person the first the second row here is reserved for you please come on down if you are a member of the conservation committee the front row is reserved for you please come on down uh if you are a member of either of those bodies and you are on Zoom please use the hand raise feature Charlie will promote you in good and soon as we can please be patient thank you I will let folks here know the Run of show as we prepare to get ready here um I'll do that you'll do it never mind okay thank you if I miss anything you can fill it in okay deal everyone here you can't take the theater kit out of the theater only seen one Parks member online so far sh that's CH you have a quum is Claire black bat here CL should be joining via Zoom pardon me she's gon join via Zoom should be joining via Zoom have not seen Clara yet now they have one minute I also assume we're gonna wait until we have a quum yes okay yeah that's what we have to do there's another Parks member again in case you're just joining if you are online and you are member of either ARS or concom please use the hand rais feature to let us know that you'd like to be promoted think also if you were a member of the presenters uh from any of the the Pierce project team please raise your hand and we'll promote you as well insation yeah pretty cool somebody five I've been hunting for the names too um Harley Tom Brady is um on for the Conservation Commission if you don't mind promoting him as well great thank you let's promote Tom and let's promote lap Yan as well right there are two people with their hands up too yep we got them I have sent them yeah I have sent [Music] themotion requests okay everybody smile this is an event say Pierce I wore my I have a dris s hand up I have sent you a promotion request just please accept Dr PE it's Haze I but I um Dr they gave me the sweatshirt after we opened the new online we have John actually but is dirty because I slept in it so I did not wear it that and I have a not a sweatshirt a nice picture the second row but not maybe two yeah hey Charlie could you turn off the transcript we're picking up some uh we need to leave the we need to leave the transcript on but we'll just ask folks in the hearing room the microphones are sensitive um and we know we you're revealing you don't want to reveal right but I all right again any parks and wck or concom members on uh Zoom please use the hand raise feature to let us know you're you're here I'm scanning the name list as well box why can't I change my go well there hey do we have a quorum quorums see leave one shot are in person we have two parks and rec Commissioners in person and we have two on Zoom so we are one shy of a quorum four is a quum for us four is a quorum yes okay let's get going let's get started can I just say there are seats up front if folks want to no this so the first the first two rows are reserved for the commit sorry to say the two rows seats first two rows there are still seats if you don't want to um stand sorry thank you that oh I you only see one never mind hold on one second then folks we got to start yeah why don't we take it Parks and Rec or concom members on Zoom please use the hand raise feature and we will get you promoted indicate you know I was gonna do that I've got a couple folks that are trying to join via zoom and they're just having some trouble so I'm trying to troubleshoot with them right now but um thanks Alexandra [Music] I'll huh well that's that's that's possible too yeah at this Jerry wayang just raised his hand uh this is wor another picture did try promoting Jerry and he didn't it's not promoting he hasn't been accepting declined the try again Jerry you'll need to accept the promotion in order to be promoted to a panelist okay according we go I just love all these kids civically engaged but Charlie where are we with our Quorum our quora I think we are still one short Park and W yes is that is Claire batau I have not seen Claire not one of the people having issues joining but I we have uh John Jim and two in the room so we do have a for Park and wreck I think we only ended up having one we only have one in the room currently I'm sorry okay I thought we had and is for a quorum because we have we have a a vacancy uh we no for's a quorum I thought we had nine members no we have seven seven we have two associate members who don't vote associate that's right thank you yeah no they do not so that's no so that's that's good that's four four is what we need all right now let's trck the associate MERS here well I'm not sure Mar vote him quickly can we promote an associate members no you don't have a you don't have you don't have a vacency to promote them to oh boy but is Alexandria saying that they just have they're having trouble connecting yes oh so they're here they just can't get on right they they're getting some sort of error message from Zoom so I'm telling them to re-register um and sign in as a regular attendee they're saying the link they got isn't working so that sounds good thank you for the update they said the link isn't working J yeah when we do get started I'd like to recommend that we have a roll call vote for each of these commissions and know who's we're gonna do that okay I see Clara Bachelor bachelor in the uh here we go in the waiting room or in the room in the attendees I'm going to promote Clara now and then Teresa Mooney's one and keep's in here now as well who's that Alexander sorry Teresa Teresa Mooney and Lauren Bernard wonderful okay great thank you we thanks Charlie okay uh let's start off by taking rooll Claire Could you um uh make sure your members are here and call out their names four I'll do it in Al alphabetical order Antonia Balta she's present here I don't I don't see her nor do I hear her she's in the room she's in the room she's present okay thank you Lauren Lauren Bernard here thank you Jim Carol here John pan here Janee Flanigan who told me she was not going to be able to come okay I don't see her and I'm and then I'm the seventh member Teresa president here oh sorry Teresa you're on the list I just didn't call you sorry okay thank you we have a quorum of the Park and Recreation Commission uh Marcus Quigley could you take role for your commission thank you no without stepping up to the mic Roberta uh would you just is here online great thanks for okay let's get going we have a full house it's going to be interesting okay this is a joint meeting and public hearing of the park and Recreation Commission the Conservation Commission and the select board let me start off by saying that the town of Brookline is committed to build a new peer school question of EX okay thank it it's a question of equity including giving children with disabilities who cannot physically access the school as it currently exists or cannot learn within the structure of the current building the same right to attend their neighborhood school as children without such disabilities and by using geothermal heat pumps to heat and cool the building we will save on capital cost and operating costs over the long run so it's a great deal educationally and financially the subject of this meeting and hearing is the proposal to install geothermal wells in the subsurface of a portion of the Pierce playground on School Street the hearing will serve as the select board's public hearing on Warren article one the Pierce geothermal Wells home rule Petition of the special town meeting scheduled for May 28th 2024 after the hearing the select board will vote on whether to recommend favorable action on the warrant article to town meeting and other related motions first we will hear a presentation by Margaret Clark of Miller Dyer Spears Architects then Town Council Joe Callahan I'm sorry Joe Kalan will speak on the article 97 process and finally Adrien Lennon the senior ecologist of our civil engineering firm BSC will speak following that members of the select board and the commissions will have an opportunity to ask questions and then we will open the public hearing after which we will each vote on our respective resolutions anything I missed D okay so let's start off Margaret Clark can you all uh hear me see my screen so I'll just um Orient you to what you're seeing on the screen um this is the drawing that shows uh this a School Street extending from Washington Street to Harvard Street the book Brookline Public Library is here at the Southwest the existing school property in the building in Gray under here and the new proposed building in blue um the existing historic building to remain um here in blue the Pierce Street drop off here and the playground to the north of School Street where we are proposing to put the geothermal well field I just wanted to take you through a quick um uh explanation of all the options that we've looked at relative to the playground um those range from uh we looked at building location options pedestrian bridge and overpass options construction Logistics various HVAC systems and then and also the various geothermal wellfield options so on the building building location options we were tasked with looking at all Sites possible for this uh for the school project um with r uh ranges of of um project that was started from just code repair uh to add Renault to all new building on the school side um and then we also considered an all new building on the park side the the all new building at the park side was eliminated early on because we were not able able to replicate the park in an equivalent manner um on due the due to the grade change and its and its uh relationships to the streets and such on the school property site and also just simply the impact on on the neighbors and the size of the project Etc so we you know initially it would have taken up this entire site if we considered the building there that was eliminated um regarding we also looked at once the building was settled to be um still on the existing School site we looked at options um for a pedestrian an improved pedestrian bridge right now there's an existing inaccessible very narrow uh Bridge there um we looked at at six different options to more safely uh cross the students with a pedestrian bridge high enough over the school street so that it could traffic could still um pass under but the change in grade from one side of the site to the other extended the any of the options through the basketball CT into the playground area for the ramps and none of the options provided A maintainable Accessible um pedestrian bridge option which would accommodate the number of students and the amount of time needed to to cross the street so that was eliminated as an impact on the park um we looked briefly at using the basketball courts as laydown area for the new building uh but that has also been eliminated because you know we heard that the the uh basketball courts are used well beyond school hours by the entire community so um the only impact um of the proposed geothermal wellfield on the basketball courts is to run the pipes connecting the geothermal wellfield through the the um basketball court and the street to get under the building across the street we also looked at a range of HVAC options for the building which um all electric fossil fuel free um and we initially landed on option two which which would have had an would have been air cooled with a unit on the roof um that was the least initial cost um and uh so that's that's where it we were headed um but given the um lower carbon emissions lower annual energy costs the ease of Maintenance and the durability similar to the Drisco school um as you all remember the select board voted to amend the budget and incorp incorporate the geothermal wealth fields at the park into the base project and that was what was presented and and approved around the town meeting uh and town votes so the three options we looked at for the geothermal well Fields option one was here in the park um option two was under the building uh the new school building and option three was under the uh Pier Street drop off Loop um it was quickly this option three was eliminated quickly because it was just uh it's got too many Utilities in it and it's simply too small um to to have enough Wells to serve the project um on the initial report that was sent from the um geothermal uh wellfield consultant we have um it it identified under the new school building as being the for for for the geothermal contractor subcontractor the most efficient cost effective um solution under the building but once we looked at the overall project and the spacing of the all of the peers and things through the garage to support the building the construction Logistics the um increased schedule time costs it actually was significantly more expensive to put it under the building and uh future access to the Wells because they are covered then with a building um would not be available and the it was just generally an overall uh increased risk to the town so the final solution was to put to uh put there was a test well then done on the park side behind the the back stop and uh it was determined the 80 Wells there were more were talked about like 120 initially but it was dropped down to 80 Wells at 600 feet that would be placed um they would all be the well heads would all be five feet and the piping five feet or more below the surface the only um thing that you'd see above grade would be a manhole that's associated with the vault where all these pipes connect before they go across the street um and we can work with the with Park and wreck to determine if it's better just at the edge of the ball field or just in the pavement of the walkway uh we can make either one of those work but it's just one manhole cover um and all the areas impacted for the ball field and the um basketball court itself will be rebuilt to the to new condition that's it thank you Margaret uh Joe good evening I'm Joe Callen and I'm Town Council and you've heard from Margaret the kind of years of discussions that we've had about the Pierce school project and also years of discussion about geothermal Wells under the playground and Alternatives so I get to tell you about kind of why you're here today in the present and then Adrian will talk about what the future holds for our regulatory approval but um article 97 is a Amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution and it is a additional land use public land protection um that Massachusetts law has on public land um and I'm familiar with this issue I in the early 90s I was a legislative Aid and first was introduced the idea of article 97 bills in the mid90s I was the legislative director for the uh State's then Secretary of environmental Affairs so I enforced this policy before it was a written policy it was an Unwritten policy and I got got into a screamy match where at least the state senator was screaming at me about when I told him that the secretary was going to recommend um vetoing his bill because it didn't comply with his policy so I'm familiar with this policy for the past 30 years because also in my 15 years of the uh service of the Attorney General's office I defended public land I left as a supervisory Assistant Attorney General in regards to all real estate claims against the state so I've been protecting public land for 30 years um but when I heard about this use of public land I thought of course this is exactly what 90 article 97 process is for the extra protections that the constitution builds in when you change the use of public land so here we have a playground and we're going to we're proposing to use the just a portion of the subsurface conditions of this playground to create a net zero a heating ventilation and air conditioning um component to the school next door that's exactly what this process is for but the process though is complex and hard and requires multiple local approvals and state approval and that's why we're bringing together the Conservation Commission the parks and rec commission tonight to seek their unanimous approval the 1998 environmental Affairs no net loss article 97 land disposition requires this that's what the policy has been for almost 30 years if a municipality wants to use protective Parkland for another use and that's why we're here today before you and we're asking your permission and approval to go through the next steps in that prop uh uh process so we need the the unanimous consent of the Conservation Commission the unanimous consent of the parks and rec commission and then we'll go before a town meeting as a warrant AR and that town meeting approval we need 2/3 approval of town meeting and after that we need 2third approval of the select board that's the process that builds in extra protection for use of public land after that we'll go before the legislature and have a home rule petition that we've already working with representative AO on and have them pass that article 97 land disposition agreement but again this is a home roll petition unlike most most others because it requires a recorded 2/3 recorded roll call vote to pass most hor R petitions are passed on on voice votes in informal sessions this has to be passed in a formal session of the legislature by both houses and not just a majority vote but 2third and we expect to have that done be before the legislature ends its formal session in July 31st representative AO is aware of this compressed time frame we''re already working with him he's already working with his legislative committee members inform them that this is coming he's asked us to have the warrant article as a special on the first night of town meeting which is a way to provide him 10 to two weeks more time to be able to get this home rule petition through the legislature but we're working with both the local bodies that we need approval with but also our state uh representative ATO and the legislative delegation and the executive office of energy environmental Affairs that's going to need where their approval for this home roll ition too so Adrian can talk about the meetings that she's had um with EA staff but they're aware of it they support the idea they like the idea of Net Zero Solutions to comply with their climate uh goals they understand that we need to comply with article 97 and they understand that we're doing that so this is just one more step and the many steps that we've taken to get the peer school project built it's just one more Stu that we need to do but we have many more that we need to do but we have also had many many meetings before many many boards to get here so that's why we're available to answer any questions and we ask for you your unanimous support of the warrant article to be able to use the subsurface conditions under the playground in support of a net zero fossil fuel-free heating ventilation and air conditioning solution for the peer school project so uh I'll turn it over to Adrian this is Adrien linen uh a ecologist at our civil engineering firm Adrien thank you chairperson green um good evening board members Commissioners and committee members uh for the record Adrienne Lennon I'm a senior scientist with BSC group and I'm supporting the project as an environmental consultant I'm going to share my screen and can everyone see these slides yes okay great so I'm happy to be with you you here tonight to share some information about the land use actions and permitting steps that are going to be required to conduct this geothermal installation um this is an excellent project and uh it's a great opportunity for Brook line to advance its Net Zero efforts by 2050 and I really commend you for trying to do this it's not easy on the project team tonight is a very robust group of people um we have members from leftfield project management which is the owner's project manager the project architect which you just heard from Margaret Clark myself uh members from the landscape architecture team the geothermal consultant and the project general contractor I'm not going to go through all the names right now but in the interest of time um at the very end I will repost the slide so if you have specific questions for example for the geothermal consultant or the L ape architect or myself um you'll be able to see everybody's name again so um this is an extremely challenging and complex site Urban Redevelopment is always that way and um we're often working inside of extremely constrained conditions I know Margaret went through some of the uh exercise that it took to actually get to this place and understand that this would even be possible in this site and we have done some other preliminary research on this s it to ensure the feasibility of the project before even bringing it to you um this is the Practical side of implementing brookline's uh Net Zero policy uh it does take a certain amount of planning and mechanics to get to it and uh we need everybody to be a participant in that exercise so that we can really achieve the common goal so um just as uh Joe had mentioned there are two sides to the article 97 disposition action there's the legislative actions which involve the local decisions of the Conservation Commission the Parks and Recreation Commission the town meeting and select board and then it's Advanced to State decisions of the House of Representative and Senate and finally with the governor and then um running parallel to that are the executive actions where you will have local decisions of the Conservation Commission the planning board and zba if needed in this case so far we have found those are not needed but you also always need the state decision and that decision is made by the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act office also known as the meepa office and what meepa is and does is a body of the executive office of energy and environmental Affairs that conducts a multi- agency review for projects that are um anticipated to have a negative impact on the environment so because we're conducting a disposition of land we are triggering one of the thresholds that the meepa office is said to review so specifically the proposed project meets or exceeds the meepa review threshold contained at 301 cmr1 for land and that is um the disposition or change of use in land or an interest in land subject to article 97 protection so we are actually going to conduct this temporary disposition of the parcel and a permanent disposition of the land underneath the actual subsurface soils of the parcel so that we can install the geothermal wellfield and then we'll be returning that article 97 limited protection to the surface of the parcel and reestablishing its existing state as a diamond ball field and basketball courts so that we are able to comply with the use of the land under article 97 and all also make this additional change in use to the subsurface um this is a very long and protracting process uh in addition to that the parcel is subject to the interest of the land and water conservation fund which is a funding mechanism of the National Park Service and uh the National Park Service requires that any impact to its interest less than 12 months long so in addition to um the temporary disposition of the parcel itself The Sur the surface of the parcel we actually cannot um conduct any change in use to that parcel for more than 12 consecutive months so the longest period of time that that Park is able that portion of the park is able to be out of service is for 12 months um because um the project for the installation is attached to the school when we met with the meepa office initially to talk about the scope uh they suggested that we should consider the entire school project in the scope of the meepa review so when you see the meepa review documents you are going to see the whole entire story of the school in addition to this particular um piece of it that is the threshold requirement that we need to report and um request feedback on on top of that Brookline um by 2020 census data does host uh almost in its entirety environmental justice block groups and the block groups that are in yellow are specifically minority populations equal to or greater than 40% of the whole or uh the block group minority population is greater than 25% and the median household income of the municipality in the block group is less than 150% of the Massachusetts median household income in addition to that there is a small little segment in the top that's purple and that is a minority income and English isolation census block group according to the 2020 census so when you have this um condition of being in a designated geographic area by the 2020 census of environmental justice community you uh draw a one M radius around the project site and then you consider all the individuals inside of that radi um this requires significantly enhanced uh community outreach public Outreach and Community engagement um the executive office of energy and environmental Affairs promulgated an EJ Outreach policy um in 2021 and in addition to the community outreach and engagement it also requires that any project that is subject to an environmental notification threshold be automatically upgraded to also having to submit a second round of review that's called an environmental impact report so for this particular project there will be two submissions to meepa um the first of which is going to be the environmental notification form and then the second of which will be an environmental impact report before we do that we need to do this public Outreach and Community engagement work and so for us that means we will be Distributing information about the project in print digital and inperson um mechanisms and using multiple different Mech methods to try to engage everyone in the community and bring awareness to the project so I will tell you tonight we have two forums planned to discuss and present the project the first will be on um Wednesday April 24th from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. it is in the school committee room in town hall on the fifth floor we will also have a tabling event in the park I believe it's tentatively scheduled for May 10th we'll be out there with a table and hands outs and information to try to engage people and make sure everyone knows that this is the portion of the park that will be closed for the 12 months for the installation of the geothermal and ask or answer any questions that anybody may have as they're passing by if they are Park user or feel they may be impacted and then we're going to come back for a second Forum talk a little bit about what we've gathered from the community and um share it with you all and if possible try to incorporate that into the project so that second Forum will be on Wednesday May 22nd also from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. and also in the school committee room um in town hall on the fifth floor so finally um there's been some discussion about the actual execution on the executive side of the article 97 action and how it relates to the newly uh established public lands preservation act also known as plpa um that act is the act conser preserving open space in the Commonwealth it is act number chapter 274 of the acts of 2022 and is also known as plpa it is in addition to the article 97 policy that was dated uh February 19 1998 which is still in effect today that Joe mentioned earlier so the public lands preservation act requires an analysis be submitted that um recognizes all of the Alternatives of the project and it's fairly Pres descriptive what goes into this Alternatives analysis um you have to describe the disposition itself which is the transfer conveyance of ownership or another interest in the property by deed easement or lease or other instrument um exactly what the scope of the article 97 action is um and then the change of physical or legal control and then the change of use of the land and then you further have to communicate to the executive office of energy and environmental Affairs the proposed actions and make the submission that um explains the scope of the project the need for the project the Alternatives that were considered to develop that and the path forward for um the the parcel that is going to be impacted by the action that you also make this request at that time um for the secretary to wave or modify the real um teeth of the public lands preservation act which is the replacement land requirement and it's also known as no net loss so uh for any amount of space in the surface area of a parcel that you are going to change the use of um you have to replace it in Ono one by the public lands preservation act and finally um you request that the secretary make a finding uh with respect to the provision of fund in in L if for example your a community like Brookline where probably all of your open space is already protected by article 97 and um you do not have replacement land to offer um finally you uh make the submission and um going through the meepa process the secretary of the executive office of energy and environmental Affairs will comment on the environmental notification form sub mission that will communicate how to move forward from there um prior to making any submission to the EA under meepa the proponents must engage in the discussions with the public entity who has care custody in control of the involved article 97 land and that's what we're here to do tonight so we're here engaging with you all as you can see it's very early days in this process on the legislative side and we are beginning to develop the exercise on the executive side of the process um we are not able to file to meepa until 45 days have passed after we have made an environmental justice Advanced notifications submission and public notice so we are a couple of steps away even from starting that 45 day clock and um we're working on that now it's going to trigger those forums in the tabling event and um we're hoping to be able to start this local decision-making process here at this time so that we have it moving along as we prep for the meepa filing I'm happy to answer any questions anyone may have um again we have many different individuals who are working on the project on the design team available so um if you feel it's helpful I will leave this up for you to see um who's on the team and who you may want to try to ask your questions of thank you sorry t uh I see that Tom Brady is in the audience and uh he has to leave early so there are any questions regarding uh trees uh with respect to the uh parcel um PA I got TR a question for okay has a a tree question but after after that I want to give the Conservation Commission and the Park and Recreation Commission first crack at questions because they are the critical uh votes at this meeting you want to see if they have questions well if you have a tree question why don't we uh yep uh very simple uh so uh thank you for the presentation uh and Tom Brady um I I attended uh I think a an extensive discussion by the land use subcommittee of the advisor committee where where trees were uh discussed at length and I just uh wanted to confirm if I uh your opinion about um the ability to have trees uh mature trees large trees Shrubbery and others uh uh within proximity or on top of uh the the wells uh as I think as done in other locations uh nearby where where these Wells have been installed under the parks uh thank you for the question uh that your our collection is correct um the that is because the tree root zone for the trees in this part of the country is in the top 18 in 18 to 24 in so um in root and the root balls that come with the trees and we install them generally are no longer no deeper than 32 in so we have ample space between the trees when we're planting them in ample space for the roots to grow because the piping itself is uh plastic enclosed without joints it's an it's continuous run there's also a limited opportunity for the roots to intrude into the system itself so you put all those factors together um and conferring with colleagues across the state um it there will be opportunities um uh to plant significant trees and vegetation on the site um without any restrictions associated with the geothermal system and just a a quick followup and that's in fact because the the well system is starting at five feet below uh the actual surface of the park is that correct that is the information that I reviewed yes okay thank you yes Jim Caroll and Jim yep um you can speak to click clip my buttons so yeah so okay what I'm what I'm doing now is giving the two commissions an opportunity to ask questions first because their votes are really critical to this process so Jim go ahead right so I'm a member of the Park and Recreation Commission and I'm also a member of the peer School building uh commission I started very late in the game I'm trying to fill Dan Lion's uh shoes on the committee uh so there's a lot of work that's been done before I became involved so I'm a little bit naive about the system so I'm going to ask some basic questions um that everybody probably knows the answer to um so you know I'm not that familiar with geothermal so I'm just trying to figure out is there a is there a redundant system I mean does geothermal ever fail and if it did fail um what would be the uh the second means of providing U heat and air conditioning to the school and um then also I wanted to just uh say as a member of the the Park and Recreation Commission that um you know we are I am very concerned uh with the use of the park land um for activities and uh that are outside of the original scope of uh the park use uh you know we just had uh agreed to install some charging stations uh for some electric vehicles um and I think we're all in agreement that we need to uh lower our carbon footprint but I just want to make sure that the uh the parks and Open Spaces are not seen as you know the area the go-to uh for um all of the uh um resources and solutions uh to uh provide uh green energy so um but I do appreciate all the work at being on the um the building committee for a short period of time uh I mean the staff uh is incredibly uh you know welldeveloped you know the whole team work and I know that the people have been doing a lot of very thoughtful and uh detailed work on this project that okay miam you wanted to respond so I I'm gonna let somebody else answer about the redundancy but um I'm a co-chair of the M masazi select board and I'm co-chair uh with Val Fus on the Driscoll um building committee and we are in the process literally right now of install installing the geothermal Wells so first Jim and anyone else actually I invite you to come and have a tour we're going to set up some days and times where people can come and see the wells um and we're going to have the students come and learn from the wells but we are building the Driscoll playground over those Wells so we're going to have 800 kids playing over those Wells every day so I think to your concern about what's going to happen after and what's going to be on there returning it to play Space is is I think very much uh on the agenda so I just want to address that from what I understand there's a lot of redundancy because I'm seeing the wells go in there's like 80 Wells 120 Wells I can't even remember how many we have now um but uh I'll let somebody else who's actually okay I think is Margaret or or who can answer the question regarding redundancy um perhaps Jerry wants to to provide the answer on the redundancy yeah sure so I I think you know when we talk about redundancy maybe we can confirm in the ggd on the you know the GEOS whe field and then there there might be a separate backup on the you know building side of the you know the hiding cooling for the rund but but for whe itself we just talk about we have Ed well we already consider you know to to be able to meet the you know the maximum demount for the he and Cooling and in addition so we have a 8 whe and if you see the drawing it's I think we have a 10 circuit each you know each circuit has like a valve you can turn on and off in case there's some issue right and for example if one Circ some issue you can turn that off and the rest will be you know still will be able to keep running and then I think that's of redundancy you know if we talk about you know so if some some issue will not affect you know the entire system yet but the the capacity wise we do yeah yeah we have the redundancy consider in the design yeah and you've also spoken about the that there's you know the the all of these are pressure tested before um you know it's it's all finalized and um you know there's been very few failures in any of these Wells um SM that's correct you know during construction of you know the whe field we have a uh multi St testing for example we start you know the Dre in well and inst Loop we test with make sure the loop you know the Integrity of the loop itself and we connect you know the loop into the circuit we'll do another round and then when when you know when everything connected the entire system will be you know tested again so we'll have multistage testing to ensure the Integrity of the system before tend to connect to the building here so uh there is an electrical system that heats or cools the liquids coming from the well field is that system uh usable if the well Fields fail EXC no I'm try to your question I'm sorry so you talk about the the separate system there is no completely redundant system to the geothermal Wells field in terms of the the cooling and heating there is an emergency system so if if uh for for power you know going off that can can uh U keep the the building it's very large generator that we're we're placing next to the historic building to be able to keep the building running and keep it from freezing if there were any problems but um we don't anticipate you know Global failure of the entire system great thank you uh any other questions from the commissions I I have a followup question Bernard if I meant um so this is really gets to the bottom of my my concern is and um I think Margaret said it you know the very rare um are their failures in the system uh but what I think about and I'm concerned about is if there is a failure now we have to uh disrupt the park again um and I don't know what sort of disruption that would cause for how long um so you know I know everything is tested um you know standard fair in the industry and when before you uh bury it it's all inspected and all that and you know that's that's the best you can do that's highest and best practices so so I appreciate that but I just always want to just um you know make everybody aware uh that we are using precious uh park lands and that we just have to be cognizant of the fact that we can't be going back um in there um on any type of a regular basis in um uh to disrupt the park uh experience thank you Jim I see Lauren Bernard has her hand up yes hi good evening everyone um this is Lauren Bernard from the Park and Recreation Commission so um I have a number of question questions SL comments some of them are directed to Town Council some to the people who just presented um I'd like to start by saying that uh and I don't think I'm alone in saying this that I'm I'm still perplexed despite the thousands of pages of documents why we're actually here taking this vote when we already took a vote in August of 22 um that said uh it seems that we have to vote again um I also Lauren hold on one second hold on one you're getting some clapping based on your statement oh really oh great I've had a bad day I'm glad somebody's happy with something I'm saying um okay uh you know to that point um to have already voted and then uh you know for the commission that is to have already voted and then be asked to vote again and then get an email less than 7 days before this meeting with 1,400 pages to read online um I feel is very disrespectful uh of our time and that said uh in the 1,400 pages that I could not read all of in those 1,400 pages I did find things that I found were very inconsistent with um tonight's presentation and uh I'd like to highlight a couple of those uh the first being that um I I I can't I apologize I I I left my notes at home but one of the documents we were asked to read said that the project was you know this was going to be five months and then it's eight months and then it's 12 months um you know is this going to keep changing uh you know I'm I'm I I am not against this project I mean just to give you some some history here it was my warrant article along with two other town meeting members I was previously a town meeting member in November of 2017 that started the whole discussion about renovating Pierce so I have been um favorable to the renovation of Pierce for quite some time so I want that to be clear secondly uh what I guess I'm getting at is that there just seems to be a lot of inconsistency in the documents uh you know in terms of timeline in terms of uh for example in tonight's motion that we're being asked to vote on it says that we are to seed control of the park the Pierce playground during the the project itself whether it's five months 12 months whatever it is and then it comes back to us but I think that motion there needs to be language that says the park will be returned to us in the same condition it was given to to the building project um and I don't see that language uh and and thirdly uh you know we want if we want that doesn't sound right but it is expected that the commission takes back control of the park but then there's this confusing language about the disposition so I guess my my Mo my my biggest question is can a timeline be confirmed if the timeline doesn't work out you know know is there going to be money put in some kind of almost escrow that will take care of the you know overage of time and and money and thirdly um could someone explain to me this discrepancy between the seating of control of the park then we get control back of the park but then there's this weird language in the motion about the permanent disposition so if someone very I mean I suspect these are some questions for Town Council if Town Council could perhaps respond to these concerns in the first place and then whoever else can respond to the others in the second place I'd be very grateful thank you sure Joe Callen and Town Council let me take a start and see if I can answer um I think all your questions uh if you're uh unhappy with my answers let me know or if uh someone from the design team wants to add more please do um there are two dispositions involved in this um what we're asking the boards to do a permanent disposition of a column of the subsurface um soils under the playground from 5 feet below the ground level to uh 6 700 800 feet that is going to be occupied uh in the future by geothermal Wells so you're you're not going to be able to use it again okay so that's the permanent disposition just that portion of the column of subsurface soils underneath the Parkland um that's the permanent disposition that's the change in use of this subsurface of the park land the surface is not being disposed of Aires the rest of the subsurface is not being changed it's just that portion of the column of subsurface conditions there's a temporary um disposition during construction you might have the inconsistency I think you're referring to is you know um how long this is going to be there's an outside limit set by the National Park Service of 12 months because this um lot this this land received the land water and conservation fund so the National Park Service has given us a outside limit of 12 months the various days less than that um the inconsistency I think is just because of the planning and design and construction project you know construction timeline you might have a schematic design earlier we're now at 60% design but it hasn't gone out to bid which is planned for the fall so those ideas that you might have on the back of the envelope in the conceptual stage gets finer during the substantial design and gets even more detailed and a higher level of confidence of these details as you go along the design process so the fact that two years ago we might have said something and it's different today that's because the answer that we have today is has a higher level of confidence and has more details and facts and process to be able to be informed as to We Now think it's only going to be an eight-month process from the fall to the U the spring to the fall in either 25 or 26 but the actual year will be up to the con the contractor because that's up to their means and methods so when we put out to bid they'll decide I think I can do it in 2025 but I don't have uh uh um driller availability so I won't be able to do it until 2026 but again it will only be during that period from the spring to the fall probably about 8 months it could be even less so five months but again that's up to the contractor so you may even see an inconsistent number with the contractor actually doing the work but again that's the just the Natural Evolution of a project from concept to construction um the idea that you know we dumped on you a lot of pages my apologies but the start of that was a seven-page summary but we also heard that that seven-page summary was inadequate and where was the rest of the information so we backed it up with the 20 26 other public meetings that had been held on geothermal there have been a lot of you know there's members of the Pierce building committee they've been in a lot of other meetings but we're able to identify 26 different meetings that discuss geothermal Wells before the full community the part the teacher the parent teachers organization the select board park and wreck and other bodies so what we gave you is all the information that has been discussed over the past three years about why we got here and what alternative did we consider and why we got here tonight and we can't just rely on your vote from August of 2022 is because of that article 97 policy we can't just use a we think the park and wreck uh you know supports this they support the concept so you know EA requires a specific motion specific authorization and a specific vote so that's why in front of you you'll hear the motion it is very detailed because that's what EA wants to hear from these bodies that they went through this process knowingly they know all the facts they understand the process and it's not just relying on hey I found this authorization in a in a meeting minutes years ago and that's good enough for us no that's the that's the protection that article 97 gives and when it was before the parking Rec Commission in August of 2022 they specifically excluded an article 97 disposition so the vote the commission took was to support the project but it did not include a vote to support an article 97 disposition so that's why we're in front of you today and I think that answers all your questions but if I didn't and I overlooked one please tell me and if the design team wants to add anything feel free I'll just quickly comment on timeline and I do apologize to all the members of the commission for having you out on short notice to this and I appreciate your volunteer service to the community um I will own the timeline issue uh the reason and the rationale for this was the building commission is another key component of the Pierce project more generally they have to take a vote on whether to begin the early demolition process of Pierce over the summer into the fall they were nervous about taking that vote before you had voted uh and they have a bid that is expiring on some of that work at the end of this week so the only time that we were able to get Forum of your bodies was today we did our best to accommodate everyone's schedules we do apologize as we understand for you coming out on a Tuesday and talking through very technical issues with all the backup that Joe mentioned is is a lot to ask but we're very grateful for you for answering that call and being here to be a part of this process so thank you and apologies I I would like to let the uh commissions make sure that they have their questions answered but remember we have a public hearing and we have to conclude by8 but you know it's important because your votes are are critical that any questions you have get get answered um I yes go to go to the um Podium um good evening my name is Antonia B you talk directly into the mic my name is Antonia beelta I'm a member of Park and W commission for the past 15 years and I want to preface what I have to say that I am in support of the Pierce building my children went there I saw the conditions of Pierce 30 years ago so I can only imagine and you know with the tours what it's like and what the experience is like now and I also support geothermal Wells but for the past 15 years our role as Park and right commission has been to protect the limited open space that we have and to provide as much um Recreation for our increasingly growing community so I think the thing that's missing for me personally and some of the questions that have been asked tonight is to really feel that this portion of open space is taken just as seriously as geothermal Wells and this new school and to look at this project as a holistic project I was dismayed to see how many trees are coming down and I'm not sure even where they are coming down um as a park protector I'm dismayed a little bit that we haven't been presented with a plan that says this is what is coming down I did see of course that they're being replaced so but still there's a role here that apparently we feel or I feel I should speak for myself that some of the transparency or collaboration is missing so from here on out and as Jim said and somebody tonight said even you know we don't have even land to replace what the school building is taking for geothermal Wells which I think is a great thing but even more so we have to protect our open space carefully and with um you know where the care custodians and stewards geothermal well and open space and our green uh our Green living environment is an asset to everybody so um I hope it goes through but there are also so the last thing is that I did see in the 1,00 pages that we tried to read was uh the plan that was presented to us and the the amount of space that wants to be taken for this project I think really needs to be clarified there are some documents that show that the entire park and basketball court is being used Solomon showed that they had construction trailers on our newly renovated basketball newly created basketball court that does affect sports for a community that used those courts after hours so just let's work together and figure out how this is um you know all more moving forward that's the only thing that I ask thank you yeah great just I just wonder if maybe the project team could clarify that because I think she made a statement and I think it was based on a question about the what is the actual impact on the park well the park my understanding is the park is being affected below grade so five feet and Below um it will be disrupted but it will be returned to its original state and probably better uh for both the basketball court and the ball field um and I I don't believe there's any trees being removed from the Pierce Park there are from the from the school building lot because they have to do that then they're going to replace a whole bunch of trees but that that's me speaking and not the project team but I do think it would be helpful to hear the project team speak specifically to this question um what is the impact on the recreational aspect of the park um and will there be trees removed and will it be put back to to original I can take that question if you'd like um all of the the trees on the park uh playground side are anticipated to be uh protected and to remain and the geothermal wellfields will be out of the drip lines um and uh far enough away from the sewer and and drain lines that are there um we're going to be coordinating that and um and and we would welcome any any any parking wreck to just confirm before the the actual drill first drill actually happens that the protection is in place um to their satisfaction so all trees in in the park will be will remain the um we are just making uh to tear take down the existing building and and build um the large structure on the tight School site um it's the trees that are in the proximity of the building and we're reconfiguring the street Edge and so the the trees in we've already gone through with the tree Warden with Tom Brady and identified which trees um could possibly remain which ones could be transplanted and which ones would be replaced um so that process along all the street Scapes has already um happened with Tom the ones on site close to the building just um simply wouldn't survive the substantial construction with the removal of the old building and the and the building of the new um so those will be there will be more trees uh planted on this side so it will and we're in in improving increasing the open space on this side um on the school side of the property um and increasing its perviousness um as well as well as the tree coverage in the in the construction thank you um go ahead um yes Marcus quickley I'm the chair of the Conservation Commission um as the commission we're often tasked with dealing with complex issues in very tight space um we are responsible for the open space plan as well as protection of wetland resource areas and in a community that has um a lot going on um and a lot of open spaces with um multi-functional um needs and uh and capacities um we really applaud the consideration of Creative Solutions um we live in a community where we cannot uh afford to not use our resources effectively to solve our most complex problems and I think this pro project does exactly that so thank you for I think holding this process too it's great to see so many people engaged uh speaking about geothermal Wells who thought so um pretty exciting and um we're looking forward to voting on this this year great thank you good evening I'm Pamela Harvey I'm also a member of the Conservation Commission I just wanted to emphasize that the at the commission we take our article 97 responsibilities very seriously in protecting of open space that's certainly a a concern we share with Parks and Recreation and and and many members of the Rook line community and um just as an example in the last open space plan we U me and another member of the commission went through very carefully looked at the deeds and the votes on land that had been given to the town so we'd have a accurate um uh sensus of our article 977 land so I just and I I also just want to say that I the geothermal Wells that I'm most familiar with they're the ones in Copley Square actually Trinity Church has um geothermal Wells there and I just from seeing that you would never know that there was anything under there it's just open open space that's open to the public there but um so I'm I'm confident that the result here after construction is done will be very similar the use of subsurface use may have changed but the surface use will not be changed at all thank you thank you um I was just gonna answer the question oh okay okay there's a question in the chat Mariam yes so again geothermal Wells going in Driscoll I know more about geothermal Wells than I ever thought I would there is a question in the chat asking about how long do geothermal Wells how what is the lifespan of a geothermal system and I will say it really depends on what you look at but some of these Wells started going in in the 70s and these are still functioning and in use now so it can be quite long um but I don't have an actual number for you just to say that that there are wells now functioning that have been functioning for 50 years so expected lifespan is anywhere from 50 to 100 years the the warranty is 50 years warranty is 50 well there's a warranty I love it yes okay unless there are any other questions from the commissions um that exceeds I'd like to move on to the public hearing all right um we have uh folks we have folks signed up in advance for the public sorry yeah uh let me introduce because I want to point out one person um so before we hear from the broader public I want to let our state representative Tommy bolo speak to give us some background uh on what the next steps would be if we approve the installation of the geothermal Wells I'm going to give him a couple extra minutes uh to make sure that it's clear to everyone you know this process that he will be quarterbacking to some degree to a significant degree good evening I am Tommy vlo and I represent the 15th northr District roughly defined as North Brookline including where we are now and the other side of School Street I thank you for your service on the park and recck commission the Conservation Commission the select board and town staff and I thank the public particularly the little ones and by little I mean peer school students for being here and for doing an awesome job supporting your school and your community we're here tonight to discuss a specific article 97 consideration and I'd like to frame the conversation a little bit as a state representative I have two specific roles in this context one role is to Shepherd this article 97 petition through the legislature should Brookline choose to send it along because the legislative session expires on July 31st 2024 which is rather soon in legislative time I've already begun laying the groundwork the second role is to act as a liaison between state government and local government in that role I've met with staff at the executive office of energy and environmental affairs with staff and the committee chair of the joint committee on municipalities with the House Majority Leader and chair of ways and means and even discussed it briefly with lieutenant governor Driscoll if members of any Brookline board committee or commission or if a member of the public has any questions or concerns at any time you should feel free to call me 617 872 8921 try me now my phone's on mute I thought of that having discussed my role briefly I'd like to give a minute of attention to the roles of other boards committees Commissions in town meeting our legislative body and although I'm neither a particular fan of the New England Patriots nor the NFL in general I'm a college football guy I do want to channel coach Bill bellich each of us has an important role to play and we must focus on on our role not the role of some other entity we must do our jobs we should draw our assignments directly from the law promulgated regulations and our appointing authorities we should all certainly listen to the general public but we should not Define our roles based on their thoughtful speculation as Commissioners know the park and wreck commission derives powers from mgl chapter 84 section 7 and from chapter 87 and with respect to article 97 eeo EA's policy from February 19 1998 remains Crystal Clear obtain a unanimous vote of the Municipal Park commission if the land proposed for disposition is Park land you will note that the regulation does not require any specific reports or analyses nor does it ask require or expect that the park and W commission review the city or Town's article 97 process to ensure the entire application dots the eyes or crosses teas if you the park and wck Commissioners are comfortable that this article 97 process is consistent with the letter and spirit of chapters 84 and 8887 and if you are comfortable that the completion of this article 97 process will not have a permanent material negative impact on the use of the Pierce Park Ballfield you should feel empowered to vote Yes tonight similarly as the Commissioners know the Conservation Commission exists for the promotion and development of natural resources and for the protection of watershed resources of the community with respect to article 97 eeo EA's policy from February 19th 1998 is slightly different from the park and wreck policy but similarly Crystal Clear obtain a unanimous vote of the municipal Conservation Commission that the article 97 land is Surplus to Municipal conservation and open space needs the Conservation Commission must consider whether or not the proposed article 97 installation and use has no negative impact on the municipal conservation and open space needs if the commission believes that for the foreseeable future the use of this land will remain a diamond ball field and that the installation will have no deleterious impact on conservation in fact the status quo from the purview of the commission is unchanged the Delta between the future use and the current use is zero there is no use Sur us or otherwise that is lost like the eoea instructions for the Park and Recreation Commission this guidance does not require that the Conservation Commission weigh consider or otherwise discuss the town's process RIT large any conversation of for example an Alternatives analysis is simply not relevant for the Conservation Commission decision and I hope that the commission will have the wisdom to leave that question to the appro Town Authority the select board and that gets me to the select board thank you for including me in your process and for including the public thank you also for including Town Council the Town Administrator and relevant Consultants our local experts on this article 97 process I urge you to heed their counsel and to assemble an article 97 applic ation package consistent with the checklist provided by the eoea including the novel requirements created by the plpa which I will remind the public I voted for because the legislative intent is to replace lost square miles Acres even square feet of Park land rendering the plpa a side note in this conversation precisely because under this proposal every square inch of grass every bit of playing field infrastructure every step in the walkway will be returned to existing or better condition upon completion of this project town government requires incredible teamwork I'm honored to do my part as I know you are all honored to do yours let's each of us do our jobs and not be tempted to replicate the work of our teammates or to take instructions from folks in the cheap seats thank you and I'm happy to answer any questions you have now or anytime in the future again call me 617 872 8921 okay let's so there we have a large number of people who want to speaks so I'm going to have to give each person just two minutes uh remember we're not requ iring you to speak for two minutes there's no penalty if you speak for less than two minutes uh so if you can say what you need to say in less than two minutes do it and if someone already already has said what you want to say you can just say you agree with so and so which will probably take 10 to 15 seconds leaving time for others as well as emphasizing the points that you want to make so uh let's start off uh Charlie who do we have uh first sure the first person signed up for public comment is Jeff Rudolph Jeff I I don't see you online right there please approach the presentation station and your two minutes will begin on Deck are Daniel Fishman and Laura KN great thank you um thank you for allowing me to speak tonight my name is Jeff Rudolph I'm a Precinct six town meeting member and I was the campaign manager for last year's Pierce ballot measure um however today I'm speaking for myself as a pierce parent and asking the Park and Recreation Commission and the Conservation Commission to vote in favor of using a portion of the peer School playground for geothermal Wells and the select board for their continued support for the Pierce building project 43 years before article 97 was approved and 95 years ago overall the peer School playground opened in 1929 as the first playground available for the students of Pierce grammar in primary schools I can assure you that not a soul at the ribbon cutting ceremony that day uttered the words geothermal Wells the Pierce primary school is still with us it's the historic building the Pierce grammar school was built in 1900 and was then replaced in 1974 by the buildings we have today that are units a b and c I'm in favor of adding geothermal Wells joining existing water sewer and drainage infrastructure to allow the third school that will be built to be completely fossil fuel-free geothermal wells will enable the lowest possible all electric operating costs and our the design we have submitted to the msba who have awarded the town $45 million for this project open space parks and playgrounds are vital highly valuable spaces in our community we should think carefully you have 30 seconds study everything and hold public hearings like this one before making decisions on their usage 95 years from now in the year 2119 I'm confident that the people at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the fourth Pier School of which I'm not running the campaign for we'll be talking about new technologies that we have never uttered but we'll still want the pierced playground to be available for the kids of the school along with everyone in the town just like they were intended 190 years prior to that in closing I want to thank Ken Liss for a lot of the information has had in history I do have to stop you and thank you very much next person signed up for the next person signed up for public common is Daniel Fishman after that is Laura not and Lawrence Whitney hi my name is Daniel Fishman I'm 35 years old this is Elijah Fishman Brooklyn High class of 2038 future Pierce he's four uh we we live at 138 Davis we used to live at herd road we've lived in Brookline Village for a decade plus well I've lived with us it on my shoulders great I love it y I chose I chose to buy here twice raise a family here because I love the village and because I've heard excellent things about Pierce's education during the campaign last year I toured Pierce and saw the horrible and partially legally non-compliant shape that it's in Pierce has been on the to-do list since 2006 since then I've graduated high school College Law School and practice law for eight years since then I met my wife dated for four years got engaged got married had two kids four-year-old Elijah and one-year-old Sammy who could not make it tonight this process has been long some say too long we're now talking about the field my kids play on that Park in w for several years to come now I'll be honest with you given the quantity of fisherman genetics in my kids my kids will likely be hurt on that Park tripping while running falling off jungle gyms stupidly going head first down a slide they will never face a single shred of danger because of what is underneath it these geothermal wells will not affect my kids whatsoever you want to speak okay one second I'm confident that my kids will Thrive at Pierce and be on for decades to come will our planet will our environment we need this ge thermos will protect the park we need it for our client for our climate it's also the lowest cost you have 30 seconds thank you sir so we can allocate more Town resources for priorities other than paying for fossil Foods my son will miss Pierce Park for the season it's closed just like he missed Cypress and Murphy when they were closed the closure of this park for a season should not delay this project anymore thank you all the next person signed up for public comment is Laura KN and after and after that is Lawrence Whitney and we after that Jesse hefter speak right into it moves yeah thank you my name is Laura notd I'm a town meeting member in Precinct 13 and the co-coordinator of Brookline mothers outfront I'm speaking for Brookline mothers out front whose leadership team has voted enthusiastically to support the in ation of geothermal Wells under the peer School playground every action the Brooklyn mothers out front takes is based in a simple statement of a gigantic goal we work to ensure a livable climate for all children not a perfect climate not a world without risk or difficulty or controversy not a livable climate just in Brooklyn or just for the peer kids but a livable climate for all children we frame our work within what the United Nations calls the triple planetary crisis that is climate change environmental pollution and the loss of biodiversity as as activists we understand and we work in all three areas of the triple planetary crisis we understand too that benefits to one part of the crisis May imbalance another providing fossil fuel-free Heating and Cooling to a large Municipal Building will require giving up rights to land underneath the park it will mean losing public access to at least part of the park for a number of months unexpected engineering challenges may arise it will be disruptive and it will be expensive but what will be the cost of failure we cannot afford to fail we must reimagine alternatives to an intolerable status quo and most of all we must act with all possible speed to do the best that we can do in difficult complex and uncertain circumstances approving the ground Source geothermal Wells under the peerce playground is such a small small step toward a livable climate for all children let's take that step thank you the next person signed up for public comment is Lawrence Whitney good evening my name is Lawrence Whitney and I'm the resident of Precinct six here in brookln and a parent of two peer school students second and fifth grades I'm here this evening to speak in favor of moving forward expeditiously with the peer school project overall and the geothermal installation under Pierce Park in particular and I come bearing very good news on the financial front moving forward with the geothermal project as planned is the most cost-effective solution under present circumstances materials for the building commission meeting scheduled to begin at 8:00 pm this evening indicate that the cost to the overall peer school project of not moving forward with the geothermal P plan will be over $4 million assuming that the building commission approves the early release package at tonight's meeting the cost of failure to move forward with the geothermal plan if they do not approv the early release package is estimated at 9,665 338 the Consultants hired to manage the Pierce reconstruction project further indicate that they do not believe that they would be able to Value engineer this much cost out of the project and so additional funding from the town would be required for these reasons I very much ENC urge the Parks and Recreation Commission and uh the Conservation Commission to unanimously approve the geothermal plan for the peer school project so that we can keep the project moving forward preserve Pierce Park as an open space by policy and practicality make good on our commitments as a town regarding climate change and save ourselves from cost escalations in the process thank you the next person signed up for public comment is Jesse hefter and Marissa vote they will each be sharing a minute one minute each right that's right hi my name is Dr Jesse hefer I'm a town meeting member from precin 14 also a candidate for a seat on the school committee coming up I am proud to have two grandchildren in the Roland Hay School I speak tonight to urge the Park and Recreation Commission the Conservation Commission and the select board to approve the construction and installation of geothermal Wells below the park adjacent to the existing school to provide heating and cooling for the new school approval of this request is critical to keep the project moving on time and forward there are 650 families teachers and School staff waiting to move into a new building any delays may increase the project cost and needlessly frustrate the School Community one benefit of a geothermal system is improved indoor air quality there are no fumes or emitted gases consequently the school building would be a healthier environment for our students and staff I plan to be con to to continue to be involved in this project as I have been for the last several months the work must move forward without DeLay So that we stay on track financially practically and strategically thank you hi um I'm Marissa vote I'm a town meeting member in Precinct 6 and I'm a pierce parent and also a beat parent um I represent Precinct six which of buts Pierce Park and along with uh Precinct seven which uh over uh which includes Pierce Park overwhelmingly voted um in favor of the project with geothermal Wells um and tonight I'm going to read a statement from Susie ma a pier and BHS parent and a member of the Pierce site Council um she's asking you today to please vote in favor of installing geothermal Wells under Pierce Park the commission voted in favor of plans to use Pierce Park for geothermal wells in August of 2022 followed up by favorable votes from the select board in September of 2022 and Brooklyn voters and town meeting members both in May of 2023 clearly the community wants geothermal Wells to be installed and everyone in Brooklyn will benefit from the installation of Wells as a renewable alternative to fossil fuels that does not contribute to global warming if this community is Ser about impacting climate change then we should put our money where our mouths are and install the Wells thank you the next person signed up for public comment is felce Vito after Feliz we have uh Shir Fisher online sheira please be ready after Feliz it's feliche feliche feliche thank you hi I'm feliche Vito I'm a seventh grader at Pierce School me and my friends like to play basketball together a lot we're all on a team together and we play at the parkon sometimes uh we also go there before school and shoot around and um and voting yes on this would mean we lose our park for a whole season and that'd be tough but we should still do this because it's important for the community and also we can just go to Cypress Park or maybe you guys can open up so please vote Yes tonight the next person signed up for public comment is Shar fiser Shar is online being promoted to a panelist now Sher you've been promoted to a panelist you may speak your two minutes will begin thanks so much hi folks thanks to everybody who's been so involved in the many years of planning this I'm sorry I can't be there in person um but I am apparent to three kids and it's dinner time so I appreciate having this access as well I'm Shear Fisher I'm a town meeting member from Precinct 11 and I just want to um express my support for this project moving forward so it's not to hold up kids getting access to a new school and to an um school that's as environmental as possible and a park that's as environmental as possible uh this will hopefully be around for Generations we owe these kids in future generations to make this investment to make it um fossil fuel free and as environmental as possible and it's very hard to follow feliche so I'll end there thank you the next person signed up for public comment is Dave Porter Dave you may approach the P presentation station your two minutes will begin after that we have Carolyn Thal and Dan Salzman hi uh thank you for having me here tonight um my name is Dave Porter I live here in Precinct 6 but way over on Clark Road so my kids go to rle uh I am here to lend my voice to that of the Pierce community and let everyone know that over at rle we have your back this project is a fantastic use of our precious public space I'd like to use my time to read into the record uh the names and some brief statements from folks who couldn't be here tonight uh who are closer to the project than I am Michelle Smith starting with Michelle Smith second grade mom and a butter to the Pierce playground strong support quote strong support for using the ground under Pierce Park for geothermal Wells Rod masara first grade Pierce mom and a butter to pierce playground in full favor and support of the geothermal project at Pierce Park Julia Barnes a butter to pierce playground as a renewable source of energy I'm in favor of geothermal and would be happy to see this project move forward and Eliza Adler and sea Dustin Halliday abutters uh to the little kids playground quote and we definitely want the project to move forward so I'm Dave Porter and I'm here to join all of these Pierce parents and the kids that are still here and all of the folks in calling on the commissions of Park and wreck and conservation to unanimously approve the fully underground climate forward urgently critical path geothermal plan for beneath Pierce playground tonight thank you the next person signed up for public comment is Carolyn Thal uh who is sharing time with Dan Saltzman um Carolyn if you're in the room please approach the presentation station I don't see Carolyn online um I do see Daniel Saltzman I'm gonna promote Daniel now Daniel you have been promoted to panelist you can share your video and your audio and your two minutes will begin not seeing Daniel there you are hi Daniel hi thank you I'm Dan Salzman town meeting member Precinct 6 I've been involved with the Brooklyn Public Schools issues for quite some time as a town meeting member neighborhood Advocate and a parent of three children in our schools all of whom attended Pierce and one still does attend Pierce I will always deeply care about the future and quality of brookly schools in 2017 I was part of a small group previously mentioned by Lauren Bernard just a few minutes ago that led the effort to raise awareness of the conditions that pierce with the hopes of moving renovation or rebuild forward as quickly as possible I was also part of the effort to pass the most recent ballot measure to fund the current Pierce project so it should come as no surprise I support overcoming whatever obstacles come up and the Pierce project moving ahead Qui quickly Carolyn Tha who is a school committee candidate but can't be here tonight due to a campaign event shares my feelings and my view on this current issue because she's unable to be here I offered to read the following statement on her behalf as a candidate for school committee I'd like to offer a few comments about the Pierce project P Pierce building project in whatever role the school committee has in the Pierce project in the coming years if elected I would Endeavor to support smooth transitions for students and staff to their temporary locations good operations in those facilities and a FOC focus on spending the money that was voted last year to build the new school as efficiently as possible I have experienced supporting my neighborhood through a Major Impact construction project and would bring that sensitivity sensitivity to Bear here as well I would have something to offer to the important mitigation and communication efforts I hope the decision makers and the Pierce Community have a smooth ride as this project launches and moves forward thank you very much the next person signed up for public comment is L uh Wendy stall Wendy you may approach the president presentation station after that we have Neil Gordon and Lisa Cunningham hi I'm Wendy stall I'm a medical doctor town meeting member Precinct 5 and chair of Brookline zero emissions Advisory Board as a board we are strongly infavor of installing geothermal also known as ground Source heat pumps for the Pierce school I'm going to focus on two points first geothermal is best for the climate and second geothermal is the best for our wallets the engineering team looked at four different all electric heating systems for the Pierce School even though the school will be fossil fuel free no matter which system is installed there are still carbon emissions associated with each of the four systems because the electricity used to power them will rely to some degree on fossil fuels for Generation our schools are not on 100% green electricity program geothermal was projected to have the lowest carbon pollution of all four Alternatives saving 179 tons of carbon pollution every year over the next best option the idea has been floating around that potentially the Pierce field could be used for a mini forest in the future according to the EPA the carbon emissions saved each year from using geothermal at Pierce is equivalent to the carbon stored by over a 100 acres of forest the Pierce field is just over 2 Acres what about solar panels Pierce is planning on adding solar panels unfortunately there's not enough space to install an array large enough to cover 100% of the electricity use even with a highly efficient GE thermal system if we use a less efficient system not only will solar cover an even smaller portion of the electricity 30 seconds but the solar array will have to be downsized due to the need to place mechanical systems on the roof a lose lose situation but I really want to emphasize the costs here today according to the engineers geothermal has the lowest lifetime cost without any state or federal incentives this is because even though it costs more upfront each year we save $135,000 over the alternatives on combined operational and maintenance costs but there's more there are significant state and federal rebates available your time has expireds I do have to let you I have to stop you there thank you what I can finish I know I do have to stop you there sorry we got we got too many folks to talk the next person signed up for public com US 10 million over the lifetime okay I gotta gotta stop you st you I'm ready if you're ready I'm I'm Neil Gordon Precinct one town meeting member and a member of the advisory committee do we've heard a lot about geothermal and Pierce Park in chapter inv verse of state law and I want to talk numbers and more specifically two and a half as impr prop two and a half when the advisory committee was considering the question of geothermal for the new Driscoll School members were not quite reaching consensus on that subject that led one AC member to do a return on investment analys is which showed that the planed geothermal would more than pay for itself over time but there's an interesting added benefit directly related to the machinations of prop 2 and a half the cost of geothermal is a capital cost funded through debt excluded borrowing principal and interest are appropriated and paid annually just as the cost of non- geothermal energy is appropriated and paid annually but principal and interest on Pierce project debt will be excluded from the tax cap set by prop two and a half for the will of the voters the reduced spending on fossil fuels though will free up budget capacity under prop two and a half that capacity can be used for Park maintenance to fund new recreation programs or for Street trees for example as a town meeting member and a member of the advisory committee I support all of those let's not lose this opportunity let's approve all we need to approve and move the Pierce project forward I thank you for your time the next person signed up for public comment is Lisa Cunningham Lisa I believe you have been promoted to a panelist and you may I'm here can you hear me okay yes we can hear you your two minutes will begin great thank you good evening my name is Lisa Cunningham and I live at 397 Newton Street I'm the co-founder of the Statewide nonprofit organization zeroc carbon Ma and I'm also one of the main coop coopetition of Brook Line's 2019 bylaw on fossil fuel free construction as well as many others a bylaw that passed with a near unanimous vote and became the Catalyst for our movement and the 10 Community fossil fuel free demonstration program that just got implemented in Brookline I am also AR an architect with my own practice working in Brookline for over 30 years over the past four years my firm has worked on six groundw worth heat pump projects that's geothermal and I'm very familiar with this decades old technology the incredibly compelling cost advantages of the project are clear so were the critically important climate impacts I am looking out my window and I can still see out the window from my own home at a yard that is three Wells underneath it while construction was going on my backyard looked like a construction site with a rig as tall as our three-story home it was exciting and wonderful a few months later with absolutely no Landscaping help our yard looked identical to the way it did before the drill rig arrived we got a a bag of grass seed literally threw it around our yard which is also full of old growth trees and that was that I grew up in Brookline raise my children in Brookline and my grandchildren now go to get daycare D directly across from Pierce I could not be more thrilled that the park where they play will be doing double duty going forward not only preserving 30 wonderful open space but also invisibly Heating and Cooling a badly needed new school the fact that children will see these magnificent Grill rigs in action is thrilling let's get on with the important vote of getting a unanimous vote at town meeting I am the third out of a five generations of my family to live in and serve Brooklyn my grandfather served on the parks and recs commission and I'm sure he would be voting for his great great grandchildren's future were he alive today thank you very much the next person signed up for public comment is Alec libowitz after Alec is Lisa Shotz and Kenneth say good evening my name is Alec Lebovitz I'm a town meeting member from Precinct date and a candidate for the Brookline select board and I'm here tonight to stand in solidarity with the Pierce Community the voters went to the polls last year they weighed the costs and the benefits of the pier school program they were informed by a rigorous yes and no campaign and in the midst of a fair and free election they made an informed choice to build a new pier school since that election this project has faced repeated delays and occasional efforts to derail the project which has all served to create uncertainty for Pierce families and place an unfair burden on them many of whom may not even know where their children will go to school next year we owe it to this community and to our town to stand by the results of our last election and make sure this project gets done uh installing geothermal wells will provide an opportunity to even better align this project with our aggressive climate and sustainability goals as we heard tonight geothermal installation will have a minimal impact on playground facilities which will remain open during installation and park spaces can quickly be receded and restored to their original function and in uh additionally adequate tree protection considerations have been taken in the case of the peer school project we literally cannot afford to delay as we heard article 97 actions are lengthy processes and we've already and we further risk the funds we've already committed to design the demolition plan that we've negotiated that offers millions in savings and the T of millions of dollars of mass School building authority funds that we've secured through our earlier efforts you have 30 seconds I want to offer my sincere thanks to the many Town boards commissions and volunteers who have thoroughly vetted this proposal but I think we need to feel urgency here tonight supporting this warn article is an opportunity to vote for climate action educational equity and financial Prudence it's time to move this forward and do the right thing I ask that you all please vote favorable action thank you very much the next person signed up for public comment is Lisa shatz uh after that will be Kenneth St amand Lisa you may approach the presentation station didn't see Lisa online when I just checked um seeing no Lisa Kenneth St amand Kenneth you may approach the presentation station hello I'm Ken Simon I live at 19 School Street uh right across the street from Pierce that's all the exciting data I have to offer you I'm sure you all know it more than I do um I consider the Pierce playground to be part of my backyard my kid has played there since uh she could walk and uh we are ready and willing to make the sacrifice to lose that precious playground for a short period of time um I know that you need a Butters to speak and I wish I could speak um louder and more clearly to you that this is what we want we want this badly we're very excited about it we're willing to make the sacrifice so all of those people in Parks and Recreation who are have the misgivings about uh using the park like this or taking up the space um I assure you the people who live next to it are ready and willing to make that that short sacrifice for the long-term benefit of our community and and um what part we play in the world itself so thank you um again for your time I appreciate it bye the next person signed up for public comment is John Harris John you may approach the presentation station after that is josn Murphy yeah thank you uh my name is John Harris I'm a town meeting member in Precinct 8 and I'm actually speaking officially as co-chair of climate action Brookline which is brookline's oldest climate action uh group citizen group uh the board of climate action Brookline unanimously supports geothermal at the peer School playground uh we also agree with all of the G the pro geothermal remarks already made and so won't repeat just have I think it's just two quick points in our discussion we recognized the the vital importance of the article 97 process in preserving our Parks wanted to make that sure uh make that very clear and as part of that uh there was discussion of possible alternative uses of the underground space which we had heard was critical to this decision and the only idea we uh we could come up with that had any traction at all was underground car parking and the feeling was that there was some space near by as part of the government complex right here for that so geothermal we felt very strongly is the highest and best use of the underground space below the Pierce playground finally the GE geothermal system at Pierce like the one at Driscoll will make a significant difference in our desire to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels and can and will serve as a proud symbol of Brooklyn's desire to firmly address the climate crisis and the students of that school I'm sure will be very proud of the geothermal system there thank you very much next person signed up for public comment is Joselyn Murphy after that is Susie ma good evening thank you Jon Murphy I'm a town meeting member in Precinct 16 I'm going to talk about process tonight and I'm speaking in support of the peer School families who support a cost efficient fossil free school of brookline's taxpayers who are currently shouldering $750 million of acred debt of the Pierce playground of protected public park and in support of improved public transparency and process in the future these are my questions I had to curate this because I was cut from three minutes to two minutes so my apologies these are my questions is the public aware that the geothermal feasibility consultant in in this project recommended unequivocally at the outset that the wells be installed underneath the school where there is adequate space a shorter path of travel and no need for geothermal vaults for the complexity of this article 97 action is the public aware that the consultant referred to this complexity again in September 2022 and that he informed the SBC that the use of photo Volta voltaic cells at Pierce without geothermal Wells would result in a fossil free school with eui comparable to Driscoll with with geothermal Wells were the recommendations and concerns expressed by the consultant regarding the long-term efficiency and anticipated cost of a distant well field in the park have they been resolved is the public aware that red flags concerning the use of the park were raised as early as May 2022 and yet we still don't know what the state will be requiring of Brookline are we eligible for a waiver will a land swap or mitigation for the loss of the subservice land being required by the EA and if so at what cost what will happen if this petition is not supported by 2third of both branches of the legislature are Town officials and the public aware that a taxpayer lawsuit concerning the disposition of a protected playground in Westfield stop the msba supported construction of a school in its tracks this process has not inspired confidence in me that this project will not be delayed or that these risks have been adequately considered thank you time is the next person signed up for public comment is suie ma after that is Ben Rosen please I just want to point out that somebody did read a statement from me can I still speak again sure okay thank you very much one minute my my name is Susie Ma I'm a BHS and a pierce parent and um also a member of the pier site Council um somebody already spoke and I'm asking you all to vote in favor of the geothermal Wells I just also W to we have some teacher testimonials from Pierce and I just want to get those on the record just as a reminder of the alternative to not doing this project uh these are Pierce teacher testimonials uh direct quotes last year when unplugging a student Chromebook from an outlet in my room an electric shock ran up my arm and it was left tingling and the nurse had to check me out when someone came to fix the outlet to prevent this from happening again to a student it broke within a few days second statement my room is above 90° at the end of the year and at the beginning of the year during the winter there are days when they were lucky to crack above 65 a few weeks ago an aid was plugging a Chromebook charger into an outlet it literally exploded blowing the fuses destroying the charger we're very lucky she didn't get hurt unlike other colleagues who have been electrocuted another statement my student can't hear the librarian give them lessons because about 150 other students kids are having class in a two-story Silo with no walls separating any of this number another one my room is 105 degrees literally for about two months people walk through my classroom all day while I am teaching to get to the school offices kindergarten recess happens right outside my door the violin class meets next door during our meetings I am separated from my team most of the school and you can't I'm separated from my team most of the school and you can't get to my classroom if you're in a wheelchair on hot days it's unbearable as there's no way to manage the temperature um about a month ago a second grade teacher appears severely broke her ankle the teacher had not been able to return to her room or to the second grade wing of the school her whole classroom and all her teaching and student materials had to be relocated your time has expired you have to stop you there thank you very much thank you the next person signed up for public comment is Ben Rosen B after that is Bernardine elto Chan hello I'm Ben Rosen B and I live at six th right across Washington Street here uh so I'm not an expert not going to go into the intricacies of Environmental Studies and technical details but what I can offer is a view of a husband and of a parent and of a resident um and hopefully a future Pierce parent um the usage of the park for geothermal is what is keeping this whole project from moving forward which includes using a land underneath a park for Wells so it seems to this clinical research professional that you guys have all the scientific details and technical information that is needed in order to approve this plan I'm in favor of using the park for geothermal Wells I feel the project must move forward for two reasons One Brookline voted and the override won geothermal Wells were a part of the design and hence our vote now at least according to this uneducated voter it feels like the voter's will is in Jeopardy and there's a real possibility of not honoring the intent of our vote I implore you to go forward with a plan as approved by the voters I want children like Obi my six-year-old son who had bilateral hearing loss to be able to attend the school with his friends he just wants to be as he said quote normal and go to the school in his neighborhood you have 30 seconds my daughter Ellie is three who has asthma she deserves clean air water and the best Brook line that we can offer an all electric geothermal well-based system helps make that happen please help AI please help Ellie please help me and help Brookline please vote in favor of using the park for geothermal Wells thank you hello I'm Bernardine ELO Chan I'm a pierce parent of four children a pierite council member and as a family who uses Pierce Park and is deeply concerned about climate change I'm in favor of using the park for geothermal Wells your excellent Pierce Park reservation a few years ago embodies your commission's um goal to provide high quality activities that are cost efficient we've endured that Park renovation before and we are we are willing to endure it again so that we have uh a playground um that the results again will be an improved Park in addition to financial savings to the town in terms of future energy costs as uh we know that you voted in favor of this in 2022 for the Pierce project with the geothermal Wells under Parkland to help keep costs down while protecting Parkland at the same time I hope you still feel the same way today and we'll repeat to vote of support for the geothermal Wells under Pierce Park as for the Conservation Commission one of your goals is to protect open space by adhering to Brook Lines no net loss principle this is the same as article 97 many people today pointed out there will be no net loss we believe that um this project aligns with all of your objectives as a as a commission unanimous approval by both of your commissions will accomplish each of your entities goals as well as assist the public schools of Brookland schals to provide Equitable and safe learning environments for all students however if you choose not to support the geothermal Wells the consequences are devastating and irreversible a no vote today means the release of funds for the early demolition package will likely be rejected tonight by the building commission 30s causing the bids to expire this week a delay in the project of six months possible for four4 to10 million added to the redesign cost putting $42 million of State funding in Jeopardy and all the things other people said today this is a lot of money instead of wasting it we can keep it for Brook line to use for open space and green initiatives and all the school improvements many things to keep for our town to use each one of you as an individual member of the Parks and Recreation and the conservation commissions has the power to make long lasting positive impact please do not throw away this chance now is the time to put your good Ste resour Earth Resources have to stop you there thank you this can be leg I do have to stop you there thank you the next person signed up for public comment is Brian Hawk lutner after that we have Scott Englander online and then Linda pelky who may have left for AC at this point hi excuse me sorry let me move the microphone I'm Brian hul Lightner I'm a 13-year Pierce parent and user of Pierce Park I'm also a real estate partner at d da Piper where my practice focuses on permitting and land use development projects um before law I was uh worked on building parks and playgrounds for New York City Parks so I'm I'm a longtime Park supporter um I'm here to respond to sort of a a narrow point which is a couple of times that came up tonight the idea of the study of Alternatives that we need to spend more time studying Alternatives that there's an alternative potentially of building Wells underneath the school and I think you know there's this is a very risky thing because it's picture a pile of10 million on the ground and lighting and on fire which is the cost of delaying the project I think we don't want to do that and I think that luckily if you look at the legal standards and the guidance under article 97 and the um public land preservation act um both of them support the idea that that the amount of study that's been done here of Alternatives is sufficient um the two key sources of law in this area are the eeoa article 97 policy from February 20 1998 and the public lands preservation act guidance from from February of 23 each of these make clear that you have to study Alternatives but they also make clear that context is very important and in particular focusing on the level of article 97 have 30 seconds the scope of the impact is very important and so here the impact is very small we're talking about below grade impacts no surface will be permanently impacted and so um under each of these sets of guidance the amount of study that's been done is more than sufficient the analysis can be limited in this fashion there's no need to slow down the project and spend more time studying theoretical Alternatives that have already been looked at and rejected your time has expired thank you the next person signed up for public comment is Scott Englander Scott you may unmute and your two minutes will begin thank you uh scotting llander town meeting member Precinct 6 I'm here to urge the board and commission to support the recommended design to install the building's geothermal wellfield under the peer School playground a ground Source heat pump system of all the Alternatives studied is by far the least expensive to build and operate and has the least emissions as an energy consultant professionally I reviewed during the design as a volunteer the economic analysis of hbac options prepared by the Consulting Engineers those economics are even more compelling now taking into account new federal guidance on the investment tax credit including tax credits and incentives the system will save 2 and a half million in capital cost and $135,000 a year in operating costs compared to the best alternative compared to that option it was estimated to reduce carbon emissions by 179 million tons annually add to that reduction and emissions of toxic pollutants and financially and environmentally we can't afford not to go with geothermal the wellfield location is the only one feasible as the project team explained earlier and as we've heard from the many professionals involved with the project here tonight it'll have no negative impact on the park finally on behalf of my constituents so many of whom are peerce families or future Pierce families I'd like to stress the urgency of moving forward with the new Pierce project thank you for your unan us approv the next person signed up for public Comon is Linda pelky who I believe has left okay for advisory okay so in that case the next person signed up for public comment um are the Cammy brothers who I am promoting now uh you'll have to just partner Camy and she I see it's listed as Cammy Brothers on the it's listed as Cammy Brothers on the signup sheet so please feel free to stand snap up and your two minutes will begin all right that was awesome uh I'm a pierce parent a scientist and advocate for Net Zero somehow the previous speakers mostly believe that the only option is to place the wells in our park that the sky will fall if you don't order now or act today this is not true and it seems to be illegal article 97 disposition requires exceptional circumstances and all other options to be explored instead this is just an issue of 720,000 K less than 50 basis points of the entire construction costs the cost analysis that compares putting the wells in the Park versus Under the building I also believe is flawed it ignores the Hefty time and legal cost for doing this article 9 7 disposition the idea that the surface of the park is the only thing that matters is flawed it conjures the flawed thinking from our past when we thought that things that were underground didn't matter for example things like fracking or dumping sewage underwater every future logistic operation on this field will require substantial maneuvering because of those particular Wells for example a few years ago the Emerson Park field was completely regraded to solve the drainage issues if you had those Wells there could you still do that type of red draining issue in that park it is well OD that if too many of these heat exchangers especially the densely deployed vertical bore Hool heat exchangers that are being used here are packed into the ground the ground will cool off I will forward to recent scientific articles that create a methodology for measuring this effect and it should be done to ensure that the neighbors of the park suffer no issues of equity I believe this is a serious issue of equity it will affect the ability for the Neighbors of that Park to deploy Geo in the future it's not okay to steal this resource from our future users you have 30 seconds simply put heating a building is an AC that is outside the scope of Park use this is clear and ethical and I don't think anybody could argue from this the ethical and moral calculus to approve the placement of these weals directly under the new school is clear and obvious there is no loser no lengthly legal process no description of the park no stealing from the future the stress and urgency is to avoid mistakes Lauren asked why are we here today it is to honor the intent of our bypass but in the most responsible and Equitable way because your time has expired thank proc and we do not enough that's enough that's enough sir that's enough thank you you must stop when I tell you to stop we have people signed up the next person signed up for public comment is Sean Lin Jones Sean you may unmute and your two minutes will begin thank you very much I'm sea Lyn Jones president of the Brookline greenspace Alliance I've already submitted um written comments on behalf of the Green Space Alliance so I'll try to keep this concise the Green Space Alliance supports the installation of geothermal Wells at the Pierce playground we regard geothermal energy as a key component in Brook Lin's efforts to reduce and eventually eliminate its Reliance on fossil fuels and I'll also point out that reducing Reliance on natural gas uh has the added benefit of potentially reducing the threat to trees posed by leaks gas leaks uh we hope that um Brook line as it goes forward will adopt um a set of plans and polic policies that make it possible for it to make maximum use of geothermal energy including Network geothermal that serves multiple buildings uh this Pierce project is one step but it's one step forward in the right direction toward broad use of geothermal energy and that's why the Green Space Alliance supports it thank you very much next person signed up for public comment is Susan Park Susan you are being promoted to a panelist now Susan you've been promoted to a panelist you may share your video unmute and your two minutes will begin okay thank you yes when I was being promoted I didn't hear you so okay good evening everyone my name is Susan Park I'm a town meeting member from Precinct 17 I'm a vice president of the town meeting m Association and um I'm very happy to be here tonight I can offer a story so when um at the time devotion uh was being renovated all the students uh used the um nursing home on Webster Street and the students you know this was a big change and the students had to get used to going into this smaller building um but they got used to it and they acclimated because our Brooklyn students and our peer students are resilient and they're strong and during the recess time you know the students had to acclimate and get used to a very very small black top and the playground basically had a metal fence around the black black top there was a four square B A four square um um game and for those of us who remember playing that when we were little you needed a ball and you know you would hit the ball and try to keep it in the four square so the children adapted to that and have 30 seconds I remember vividly my daughter saying that she really loved recess in that place so my point is um any changes where the kids can't use that playground for a small while in the long run it'll be all worth it so I support um these geothermal Wells and I support this we really need to honor the people honor the vote and let this pass thank you that concludes the list of folks signed up for public comment okay seeing no one in the audience or on the board I'm going to close the hearing now and unless there is some absolutely critical questions for either the commission or the select board I'd like to move into the voting uh part of this meeting um is that okay with the Conservation Commission and the Parks and Recreation Commission okay um so I'd like to take those votes because they have to be done before the building commission meets uh in about 20 minutes so I'll start by um uh moving the following motions of the select board um and unfortunately we have four um not short motions so I'll read them fast please listen first I move that the select board vote favorable action on Warren article one of the special town meeting to be held on May 28th 2024 for the submission of a home Ral petition to the general court to conduct the disposition of land identified on the town's accessor map as parcel 17127 z00 and is part of the lands acquired by the town of Brookline for playground and for other Municipal purposes pursuant to various Deeds recorded in norfor County registry of deeds all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak M question I thought we were gonna get the votes of the commission the Conservation Commission and the Park Rec commission I thought they voted first yeah okay if you want to have them vote first that's fine yeah that's what what's what's the my understanding that was my understand okay is there any okay I'll defer to you we we won't make you read it again for I sent this to you earlier so maybe you can just earlier we're we're okay with it okay yeah this said helps so is there a motion from the commissioner which which commission do you want to go first this is we're gonna do conservation first conservation yes I I move that the Conservation Commission vote favor favorable action on one the permanent dispos the permanent disposition of a portion of the subsurface soils below the Pierce playground on School Street for the purposes of construction and installation of geothermal Wells for the adjacent Pierce School building project and two the temporary transfer of the care custody and control of the blow listed parcel of land from The Parks and Recreation Commission to the peer School building committee for the purposes of construction and installation of the geothermal Wells for the adjacent peer School building project the parcel is also protected by the National Park Service Land and Water Conservation fund and to comply with the requirements of of this funding source the parcel shall not be closed to the public for more than 12 months and upon comption completion of construction the peer School build buing committee shall transfer the land back to the Parks and Recreation Commission for the purpose of which the parcel is currently held and to empower the town through its various boards to consider warrant article one under review or special town meeting scheduled for May 208 28 2024 and vote favorable action on a hom Ral petition to conduct this disposition the land is identified on the town's cessor Maps parcel 171 d2700 and as part of the lands acquired by the town of brookln for playground and for other Municipal purposes pursuant to various Deeds reported in the nor District registry of deeds uh that a unanimous vote will enable the chairperson to sign on behalf of this body a memo that will be addressed to the select board and school committee to this effect thanks Pam is there a second second Sam seconds all right we'll do a roll call vote so amam I Warner I Pam I and Roberta online I and I'll vote I as well the motion passes unanimously I'll call back we'll move now to the uh Parks and Recreation Commission the chair hi this is Clara Bachelor want to make a motion the Park and Recreation Commission votes favorable action on one the permanent disposition of portion of the subsurface soils below the Pierce playground on School Street for the purposes of construction and installation of D geothermal Wells for the adjacent peer School building project and two the temporary transfer of care custody and control of the below listed parcel of land from The Parks and Recreation Commission to the peer School building committee for the purposes of construction and installation of geothermal Wells for the adjacent peer School building project the parcel is also protected by the National Park Service Land and Water Conservation fund and to comply with the requirement of this funding source the partial shall not be closed to the public for more than 12 months and upon completion of construction the peer School building committee shall transfer the land back to the Park and Recreation Commission for the purpose of which the partial is currently held and to empower the town through its various boards to consider warrant article one under review for special town meeting scheduled for May 28 2024 and vote favorable action on a home rule petition to conduct this disposition the land is identified on the town assessor map as partial 171 d27 d00 and as part of the land acquired by the town of Brooklyn for playground and for other Municipal purposes pursuant to various Deeds recorded in the Nori District registry of deeds the unanimous vote enables the chairperson to sign on behalf of the body a memo to be dated and titled in the future and addressed to the select board and school committee do I hear a second from a commissioner second okay I will call the role now Antonio balata Bal I always say it wrong sorry Antonio we have a yes vote from the crowd yes okay thank you Lauren Bernard I vote Yes Jim Carrol yay Teresa Teresa Mooney yes John pan yes and the chair votes yes that's a unanimous vote thank you okay those are the two critical votes now let's take a vote on the select we're not critical well you know not yet not not not for the 8:00 meeting okay um I'm going to read them again first I move that the select board vote favorable action on Warren article one of the special town meeting to be held on May 28 2024 for the submission of a home R petition to the general court to conduct the disposition of land identified on the town assessor Maps uh and is part of the land acquired by the town of Brooklyn for playground and for other Municipal purposes pursuant to various Deeds recorded in the Nori County District registry of deeds all in favor please indicate by saying I John Van skak hi Miriam ashkanazi hi Mike Sandman hi Paul Warren hi J votes I so that that's our usual favorable action vote um and now we have other votes related to that I further move that the select board recommend one the permanent disposition of a portion of the subsurface soils below the Pierce playground on School Street for the purposes of construction and installation of geothermal Wells for the adjacent peer School building project and two the temporary transfer of care custody and control of the below listed parcel of land from The Parks and Recreation Commission to the Pierce School building committee for the purposes of construction and installation of geothermal Wells for the adjacent Pier School building project all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak hi Mary masazi I Mike snon I Paul Warren I and Cher v i okay I further move to approve and recommend that the disposition of land pursuant to article 97 also comply with the requirements of the federal land and water conservation fund including that the partial shall not be closed to the public for more than 12 months and upon completion of construction the Pier's building committee shall transfer the land back to the Parks and Recreation Commission for the purpose of which the parcel is currently held and in the same condition as delivered originally all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I Mar ashkanazi I Mike Sandman hi Paul Warren hi your votes I uh finally I further move I think this is redundant to the first one but that's all right further move to recommend to town meeting in the town through its various boards and commissions to consider warrant article one under review for special Town meetings scheduled for May 28 2024 and vote favorable action on a home rule petition to conduct the disposition of land identified on the town assessor maps and is part of the land acquired by the town of Brookline for playground and for other Municipal purposes pursuing to various Deeds recorded in the norfor County Registry of Deeds office La favor please indicate by saying iak sorry I you think we have to second Mary masazi hi um Mike sanman hi Paul Warren hi J oai all right okay did want to say uh thank you to everyone who signed up for public comment I apologize if I cut you off um it is just a large group of people and we had to get through everything as always the select board does read every email that is sent to them at selectboard at selectboard at Brooklin ma.gov um it's an excellent way if you had additional comments that you weren't able to make in time to make there and again I want to thank the volunteer boards and commissions who were here tonight as part of this lengthy meeting uh to go through this process so thank you all Yes uh thank you also for a very enlightening and uh calm meeting on a subject that has generated some um uh he and emotion but I think it's been dealt with in a very appropriate and good way um with that this I'm sorry I don't know whether you want to go ahead and close the hearing before I ask my question oh why don't you ask a question well um okay the hearing is closed I me I think I closed that before um we we have an official from the state here who I and I apologize for the fact that I have forgotten your name um may I ask a question just for clarification as to what's going to happen next next on this yeah so um at the beginning of the meeting we heard a process described whereby there's going to be some you know public meetings and chances for people to comment and there's you know a process that has to take place involving impacted communities um process that has to take place involving a um uh analysis of Alternatives uh what happens if at the end of this process at the state level the view of the people who review this at the state level is um based on the Alternatives analysis that there is an alternative to what was voted tonight Adrian do you want to start or would you like me to start I can respond to that that's a very good question and thank you for asking that um just to reorient the um Ang Le of approach towards the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act review I think it's important to remember that the role of the meepa office and the agency individuals that actually will review the submission is to respond to what is presented to them it is not to make suggestions on other ways that the project could have been or should have been designed they do performance standards for which the project must arise to and that is for all of the thresholds for meepa um but the burden is upon the proponent to provide that information and to provide a compelling case towards the alternative that was preferred for the project okay yeah yes thank you for the answer okay with that this joint meeting in public hearing is ended uh but let's take a 10-minute break uh before the select board returns from adjournment uh to finish our meeting yeah yeah funny never did I anyway yes where are they meeting do you know where they yeah I don't think I don't think they're in Well Done Charlie thanks John no e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] l [Music] live in five 4 3 2 1 okay um we're back the select board is coming out of adjournment and uh completing the items on our agenda uh item number six Washington Street Corridor complete streets project update we're not voting or anything just just being updated on the project so who do we have uh presenting I I see Aaron sh and um good evening I'm glad to kick it off and introduce the team if that would be helpful yep all right very good so good evening everyone my name is Aon Chu it's a pleasure to be here this evening with our extraordinary team of Consultants uh staff and citizen volunteers to provide an update on the Washington Street Corridor complete streets Rehabilitation project it's currently valued at $29 million on the mass do Transportation Improvement program or tip as you will hear it referenced uh during our presentation uh this evening I'm joined by the chair of the transportation board Brian Kaine uh who is in the audience also Transportation uh the transportation division staff our transportation administrator uh Amy Eng Les is online uh as well as our senior Consultants from TY Bond rich benevento and Alan Claudia and Alan will be um uh sharing his screen and we have a presentation to share um with you this evening Alan if you want to go ahead what I'm going to do is I'm going to sort of um queue up the presentation tell you what the process has been to date um we'll go right into um sharing the agenda but um we can go to the second slide and then we're gonna get into the technical detail oh we can see that's just fine yep it's great so uh we are going to talk about uh we're going to review the community objectives that have shaped this project the project goals the uh public engagement process where we've been where we're going to um go with that project coordination to project limits existing versus proposed conditions uh we'll look at a visual representation of the corridor um talk about on street parking and the schedule moving forward uh after the presentation we welcome questions or comments from the board or public next slide so in terms of community objectives um these are the town's policies plans practices and federal or state requirements that are shaping project design through the public process we're designing the corridor to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the requirements of the Massachusetts architectural access board the design applies the town's complete streets policy that was voted by the select board in 2016 that considers safety comfort and convenience of all users and looks at roadway geometry traffic speed and volume crash summaries sidewalks and curve ramps among other factors um it incorporates the town's traffic calming policy the green routes Network plan Urban forest climate resiliency master plan traffic signal and pedestrian Corridor reports and walk signal reports these are all considered um as uh components that we're thinking about on the design and we know that these are um Town priorities also given that Transportation accounts for approximately 43% of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts the only way for the town to meet both the select board's commitment to become carbon neutral by 2050 and town meetings December 2019 healthy and sustainable Transportation resolution to achieve a mode split of 75% of trips by walking biking um multimodal and public transit is to invest in and prioritize projects that improve safety and access to Alternative modes over single single occupancy vehicle trips um with the eventual outcome of making these modes the norm next slide please um since safe bicycle accommodations has been a topic of conversation primarily how to do it and also support all the other needs in the corridor I wanted to share the green routes bicycle Network plan this was first adopted in 2008 the bicycle advisory committee reviews it annually uh with the intention of creating a framework for safe bicycling throughout town with safe low stress bicycle routes the plan recommends that major connector corridors such as Washington Street be improved with protected Lanes um as a priority for improved bike accommodations and safety and this recommended infrastructure um these improvements are based on what studies across the country have shown will encourage more people to bite among adults in the US only six to 10% of people generally feel comfortable riding in mixed traffic or painted bike Lanes but nearly 23ds of the population would bike more if there were separated bike Lanes uh available next slide so the primary goals and objectives of this project um it's not only to rehabilitate a critical arterial roadway that is in poor condition but to create a true complete street through the Washington uh Street Corridor Washington Street is currently constrained with a relatively narrow right of way with two lanes of traffic on street parking in both directions bicycling public transit via the route 65 bus and significant volumes of pedestrians uh Washington Street serves as an important connection between uh route n in Beacon Street it's utilized by high volumes of drivers pedestrians and cyclists alike and provides access to three commercial districts Public Safety facilities County pouse schools and other town government services including the library and Town Hall the roadway and sidewalks are in Port condition um in need of replacement the project includes improving safety and operations along the corridor for all of these users and successful completion will improve safety provide efficient uh traffic operations expand sidewalk and Street skates and placemaking enhancement this includes pedestrians fa lighting and employ complete streets and healthy Transportation Concepts all right the next slide so in terms of community engagement a design Review Committee was established by the transportation board uh this committee um through a public process will bring the design to 25% of a concept plan that'll then go back to the transportation board for a final vote uh the committee includes members from the Transportation board bike advisory committee pedestrian advisory committee shared Mobility Commission on disability both the Pierce and Driscoll school um safe RS to school um committee uh Brookline Village Merchant representative and um I Asis this because um this representative is is going to change and there'll be a representative from both Brookline uh Village and also Washington Square um Merchant uh Merchant Representatives so we'll have two merchant representatives and also a Washington Street of butter uh there is a project website uh Washington Street brookline.com you can also get there by going to the uh Department of Public Works website and go to engineering and transportation and look at our um projects and get to a very comprehensive PL page uh on the Washington Street project and um we are engaging with Economic Development to meet with Municipal leaders and stakeholders and uh specifically to also meet with the um small business um committee next slide please uh just a quick uh show this is our project page and um here you can see not only the goals and objectives but all of the previous meeting presentations um minutes they can all be found um here as well as a portal to submit inquiries and sign up for updates and next slide so design and coordination the design Review Committee was established in uh 2022 um this was established as I mentioned by the transportation board um and an overview of the the overall project and then information about process and funding um between that a survey was completed and existing conditions documented an oo an O an in October of 202 to um a meeting was held with mass do MBTA and various uh town of Brookline departments including Public Safety to review uh the project goals and walk the corridor we have had F uh four design review committee meetings to date and subsequent meetings with mot um and the MBTA not only these looking at bus stops um bu stop consolidations Lan with lanes and safety improvements but there have been um many um planning meetings with our partner agencies and the next slide please so in terms of future design and coordination we are really at well a good amount of time has passed in terms of getting um our survey complete and kind of Baseline uh information uh established there is a ways to go uh this project is in the FY 28 pick um in the near future we are looking to have uh two internal um Town coordination meetings with multiple departments that'll be uh both in the spring and the summer uh looking to meet with a small business develop committee meeting at their meeting uh in May and then we'll look to schedule future meetings with that group we have we'll have four design review committee meetings um coming up um leading into the fall of 2024 um so we're finalizing dates in May June September and October and then following um that there'll be a um vote of the transportation board mot will hold a 25% public input meeting and then from there once that is approved there'll be quarterly updates uh at the transportation board uh in terms of Outreach to the community we have direct mailing to the residential and Commercial abutters um about a thousand um pieces um through the transportation board we have notify me and the um meetings are post posted on the town calendar and going forward we are going to sending this to town meeting me the town meeting um member email list uh and also the head of the Brookline neighborhood association who can then distribute it to um the neighborhood association's townwide a press release Town Administrator newsletter we're looking at lawn signs that'll have the QR code because there are some um Civic spaces along the corridor where we can put this information and I think get more people engaged and involved in the project and will be communicating through um other Town departments all right next slide please so um with this the Washington Square Corridor I'm about to hand this over to um rich and Allan uh the project goes from Beacon Street um and continues to Gateway East where we left off it's an incredible connection um to I think a transformative project um you know in Gateway East and we're looking to see a real transformational Washington Street um that is hitting many um sort of Civic uh destinations can be a real Improvement for the community I want to add that the stretch of Washington Street from Beacon to the city the city line um is not part of the mass do tip but it is being designed by our design team and um it's being designed with the same um Concepts we're going to sort of do this piece and then that will follow um and will be constructed separately but we will have a full design for all of Washington Street uh in Brooklyn and so um with that I will turn it over to you rich thanks thank you uh commissioner and uh thank you to the board tonight for having us in um as the commissioner mentioned um there's been a lot of work that has happened thus far preliminary work just to kind of get to this point um but there is uh still much work to do um as the commissioner mentioned we have had several meetings with the DRC um with the uh partner agencies the MBTA and and mass doot and those uh those meetings continue um because of the of the process that we have to go through um we're doing a federally funded project um with mot um and uh and these other partner agencies um this project and Allan's going to get into some of the details in a minute but I I do want to say that this is a tremendous opportunity uh for the town of Brookline um to get close to $30 million to completely uh re reconstruct and and revision uh Washington Street in Brookline it is the Cadillac of improvements full depth Road reconstruction new sidewalks bike Lanes Landscaping um uh traffic signal uh high-tech traffic signal components uh all of that uh is part of the project that new drainage everything that you uh that would be part of a reconstructed project will be included uh in the Washington Street uh project so um alen's going to go through some of the details of the project and and he and I will tag team along and then at the end certainly we'll have uh will be available for questions uh uh from the board but again a tremendous opportunity this is a very exciting time uh and we're pleased to be part of uh of this the revision of uh of Brook Line's Washington Street so Alan why don't you get into some of the details sure good evening everybody and before I get into the proposed conditions and what we're envisioning along this quor and starting to design it's helpful to really look back at existing conditions what are the deficiencies um what are limitations um so just I don't want to spend too much time because you guys all know this roadway pretty well um so it's an urban minor arterial it is a busy road it's the main route to three different commercial districts um along it those commercial distri have a lot of pedestrian volumes because of all the businesses along there we have a couple uh we have the high school nearby and then we also have a couple um couple kr8 schools I think there was already a lot of discussion about one of them earlier tonight um Town Hall public safety building Main Library Public Health Building there's a lot of uses along this Corridor it's now one of those corridors that just uh you know everybody's traveling from point A all the way to the end um cutting through there's a lot of people that are using stuff on the corridor people who live on the corridor businesses along the corridor and the NBTA runs Route 65 um along the corridor as well so oh and I happen to skip all the way back to the beginning hit the wrong button so more some of the existing deficiencies there's a lot of um for pedestrians some of these Crossings are really long um especially when you have roadways that aren't really a 90 roadway means people are in the roadway longer um there's a lot of heaving of the sidewalk the bicycle accommodations are very inconsistent um just because it's a really tight Corridor um there's not a whole lot of roadway width to work with or really Cur um RightWay to RightWay um property lines to work with so there are some operational deficiencies at some of the intersections where you could have a lot of delay if you're in a vehicle um the roadway deterioration there was actually some safety deficiencies there's a couple Crush clusters not just with motor vehicles but also including bicycles as well um currently there's a lot of areas that lack ADA compliance again I mentioned earlier about some of the sidewalk heaving um and some of the ramp locations um that really just aren't ADA Compliant right now and it needs improved Transit and shared Mobility oh I hit the same button I got to stop hitting that one sorry that there we go I'll keep just I'm just gonna keep one finger on the keyboard now um so proposed improvements kind of as a general um overview we'll get into a little bit more of the details although we're going to try to not bog it down too much tonight because we could talk for a couple days on this project so it's going to be full depth roadway reconstruction so we're going to replace all of the the pavment the subbase um I know recently there's been um a little bit of a res micros surfacing um that's been taken more recently which is kind of a little bit more of a Band-Aid um it's that's to keep the roadway going for this project um new cement concrete sidewalks want sidewalk level separated bike lane so right now the bike lanes are in the road so people who are bicycling um they have to really deal with people who are driving as well um it is really constrained So the plan right now is to to separate the bicyclist from the motor vehicles sidewalk level that'll make it a lot easier for maintenance um it'll be safer accommodations also just a lot more pleasant as Erin mentioned before two-thirds of bicyclists are not comfortable really riding in the street with traffic especially heavy traffic um that's along this Corridor we plan improving the operations of MBTA bus routes including the bus stops we've had quite a few discussions already with the mvta um and then while we're doing it this is a chance to do utility upgrades as well um so there's already National Grid is already doing some work um and we're also planning on um improving the existing drainage system um part of it the curb Line's going to move so now just makes sense to to do that to do that work right now so we did some visualizations of the corridor because not everybody wants to look at the black and white um plans um like us Engineers do so this is kind of some Concepts to kind of help visualize the corridor so the the image down below um is a maybe a little bit more engineered and then it's kind of a another picture up top not in the same location actually the one to the top right is would be in front of the fire station um so essentially this kind of shows where we're planning on moving that bike lane to um being adjacent to the sidewalk um we are going to try to maintain the tree canopy as as much as possible we've had discussions already with the the tree Warden and a lot of this design really reflects trying to maintain that tree canopy that was really important um and then we also know the parking is important too so I we actually discuss parking a little bit later tonight um just kind of go through some more renderings and we can get in a little more detail so this is actually another photo this is I gu think a little back from the fire station right now so right now we essentially have a painted bike lane adjacent to where there's on street parking as you could see what happens is sometimes people Park in there kind of blocking the uh getting into the bike lane a little bit um part of that's because it's it's a narrow Corridor so we plan on shifting that and we're going to kind of put the the bike lane on the other side really next to the parking we it will have areas where the bike uh the bike line has to meander because we have trees we have a lot of stuff there we're trying to go around um it's not going to be a super high fast facility um but it but it will be nice more photos good Rich were you trying to starting to say something say and safe because out of all of the improvements that we're going to talk about tonight the thing that is Paramount with every design Safety First we'll sacrifice other things for safety we have to do that and I and I think that everybody would agree that that's of Paramount importance yep so essentially we'll still have one vehicle Aid in each Direction kind of like there is right now but whereas right now the bike lane is between the moving vehicles and the park cars where there are parked cars or sometimes against the curb we're essentially going to move that um essentially we're going to move the curb line so um the trees will be maintaining um but we're going to kind of in fact in a way in a lot of areas the bike Lan's staying where it is but it's it's going to be raised up this just an other renderings different areas of the corridor so here we have parking on one side so this is actually um just a little bit um south of gardener Road um if we're going along here we have parking on one side of the road um generally we were able to put parking a lot of areas on one side of the road but not usually on both sides of the road and now coming down the corter just a little further similar things so one thing that kind of varies a little bit as we come to along the corridor is the width of our buffers change just based off of usually where the EXA existing trees are that was really not only we uh do we have a limitation on the outside you know where the property lines are but where the trees are really dictated where a lot of a lot of stuff was going to be so so alen one thing I think that's important to also point out to the to the members of the board um with a project like this and you've heard Allan talking about bike Lanes parking tree cany sidewalks um really a project like this is finding the right balance uh and the meetings that we have had with the DRC a lot of the discussion has been that how do we get to uh a balance card or where we're trying to get all of these amenities in uh in in in a really uniform way um we often say at a public hearing that no one's going to walk out of the room and say I got everything I wanted uh but I but I can support this project because it's a good balance and I think that's what we need to do particularly with a constrained RightWay like we have here and so uh as we continue to go through this you you'll hear more and more about okay we're trying to do this and we're trying to do that but again at the end of the day it's really trying to find that balance and that has been a lot of the discussion with the DRC and uh and hats off to the DRC because they've been very helpful uh in in guiding us as well as we go through this preliminary design process so sorry for interrupting but I thought I'd say that no no no actually bring up a good point as far as balance I mean essentially I mentioned that we're constrained we really have about 60 feet to work with and we are not planning on doing uh major takings as part of this project um you know where the property line is including sometimes there's walls there that's kind of our limitations um so this is kind of an let me go back on this is kind of an aerial um this is down um we're still kind of looking westbound um towards Beacon Street so where some areas we're able to have parking um I'm going to get into parking in a little bit so so just another representation so at I guess really a couple but especially the last DRC meeting on street parking was definitely uh an issue that a lot of people cared about so want to give a little bit of update on that um because we've been refining the plan and we have different numbers than we presented there um so first of all just before we get into the exact numbers just some um I think this graphic was shown during the DRC meeting um and was kind of I think um misunderstood so this is actually kind of shows a a little heat map of the area over around Washington Square um so when we're dealing with businesses we will probably have some areas where Park is going to uh decrease in certain areas including you know potentially at this corner um So within a 500 foot SP uh distance of the Washington Square corner I guess from this corner of the intersection so we might have areas where we are going to have less parking on on Washington Street this might be areas where there's other parking along Beacon Street there's angled parking um along the median So within 500 ft that is usually kind of an area where maybe the customers um can walk from will be willing to walk from employees would kind of be represented by maybe this uh Outer Circle so you know maybe a th000 feet that's about a FIV minute walk um I think that's was shown just kind of as a little update this was shown during DRC but I think people were thinking it was referring more to Residents first um but I think it's more for commercial so kind of getting a little bit of the parking um some numbers so we are further along in the design of that portion of the corridor that goes from Beacon Street to Cypress Street we've kind of been pushing forward with that and that's actually the section of the plan that we showed during the the last DRC we're still we're maybe a little bit further behind on the section between Cypress to Station Street um we are proceeding with that one but uh we haven't shared any you know parking numbers so in the last DC meeting we did share so we currently there's about 126 parking spaces out there right now um in our last DRC meeting we had plan and it showed about 37 parking spaces right now because we've been kind of doing some more work we've you know squeezed some buffers we've you know identified a few trees that are not doing so well um that we can kind of do something there we are currently on the plans in that area showing 72 parking spaces now it is less than 126 that's out there now I'm I'm sorry but um I I I need to interrupt you at this point Mike uh Mike sandon um I the I was on the website and saw the 37 number is still there and I would urge you to make that correction as soon as you possibly can I think I'll just also say that we've been working with um with the design team this is actually the first time these numbers have been shared this hasn't this hasn't been presented yet back at the design review committee so I think what we're what we're showing and demonstrating to you is that we got a lot of feedback at the last meeting and have done work to try to really um see where we can adjust that number um but this is the first time we're we're sharing this information publicly well commissioner Shu I for one um want to thank you yeah or um I don't know if these numbers are the perfect numbers but certainly you've heard the feedback um in your in your responding again whether these are the final right numbers or not um and um I appreciate that they're being revealed for the first time this evening so thank you for waiting us be part of the the uh the R I just want you R right let them finish right I just want to make sure they get on the website soon soon right because it's such a hot issue and and just just as a follow on to that we we also heard some of the public outcry on relative to parking uh and we hear it on every project that uh that we're working on uh not just in Brookline and so uh it's important for us to go back and look and look again and look again and find that balance to uh in this case to expand the parking in this case we almost doubled it from the initial uh first round of uh of cross-sections that we we were developing continue to work uh to see if there is anything else that we can do to increase that uh that parking um that parking Supply issue uh but Alan continue no I think I think that was kind of the big thing that we really wanted to get I think out of this slide was really that we have been working hard we've gotten more um I'm sure you guys probably have heard about the the parking issues um and we take it very seriously we're we're still working if we can get find another space here here two we we're going to try to get that um one other thing too Ellen I just want to mention too when we're going through uh projects like this oftentimes and I'm not saying this is necessarily the case in Brookline but oftentimes there'll be a parking space that by all accounts is not a legal space whether it's too close to a driveway or it's too close to an intersection and so when we're going through our evaluation uh if a parking if a parking space is not uh quote unquote a legal space then it gets eliminated uh in this case we're also trying to find spots as Allan mentioned there maybe some trees that are uh that are not doing so well that we might be able to do something differently and that frees up a space so those are the kind of things that we're looking at uh because we do understand the uh the need for parking particularly in the residential sections of Washington Street yeah and there's a lot of driveways along this Corridor where obviously you can't park and block somebody's driveway in some of these areas it's getting awfully you know we didn't necessarily count it as a parking space but if somebody has a short enough car and maybe they're good good friends with their neighbor that might still be somewhere where they can fit a car but you know we're trying to kind of first of all compare an apple to Apple's comparison um and you know trying to be reasonable about what really should be a space and what shouldn't be um so schedule moving forward um so we are still in the design review committee meetings we're going to be revisiting the laundry parking uh for this section uh we will also be talking about the other area from Cypress to Brookland Village um that'll be in an upcoming design Review Committee uh bust up design and Transit accommodations we've been um coming along that pretty good uh MBTA definitely uh throw us a little throw has thrown us a couple curve balls on this project but um as far as some of their requirements but we're um getting there they as far as exactly what they wanted for bus stops Lanes um we are still reviewing a couple of the intersections to see what other tweaks we can make there um again the tree canopy we'll be working um with um Tom Brady on a number of these issues with the the trees we really trying to maintain in in areas where we can try to increase the tree canopy um at some point we'll be getting the need the approvals from the design Review Committee um and then it will'll Advance through the 25% design with massot um we are still in the pre 25% um section of the project so Mast do over the last couple years has really uh changed things a lot to have a lot more of the review early on prior to the 25% plans so we're still kind of in that section right now um we will have a design public hearing we already kind of mentioned design public hearing that is a major Milestone that's actually a legal requirement from massot um they do like to see these other meetings happening so that we're really making sure we're designing something that the that the town wants but that with design public hearing um is a big milestone Al Alan I just I want to also add something just in terms of the process um so as as alen mentioned you know the 25% design and then they call it 25% design but massot is actually considering changing it to just call it preliminary design because at at that point the plans are almost 50% uh complete uh although they call it 25% design and there's a lot of uh detail uh that goes into the preliminary design uh that Mast doot requires they've also added a lot of other components to this first phase of the work one of the things is called the intersection control evaluation the ice analysis and that's a whole level of uh review and Alternatives that we have to uh have to go through in order to satisfy mot's design uh guidelines and criteria uh the other thing too is relative to the reviews and and how long it takes for reviews um so when when we get to the point where we have uh the blessing from the DRC and the town and this this project finally gets submitted to mot uh the preliminary design for review it goes to Boston and in Boston there is the highway design section the traffic section the rightaway section the utility group The Landscape Group and I could go on and on and on so there's it's not just one person reviewing it it's several people who review the project in addition to that the project then goes to District Six in Boston and the district office has that same group of folks that go through the entire same review um it used to be daunting for us because we'd have Boston back in the early days Boston would say make it blue and the district offic would say make it green and would be trying to figure out what what they want H now they use a blue beam session and so everybody's commenting on the same uh topics uh on the project which streamlines things a bit but um the point I'm trying to make here is that it's an extensive extensive review by mot once this project goes in once mot approves the preliminary design and we address their comments uh they will then schedule the design public hearing once the design public hearing is finished uh we will then proceed to 75% design that's really where all the the nuts and bolts of the project are developed um there's also another estimate there's a preliminary design estimate that goes in at 75 per design there's another design estimate why I'm saying that is because the no will be very interested to know what the pr what the cost of this project is going to be they don't want to see scope creep and they want us to keep within the parameters of uh the project being programmed on the tip once the 75 goes in all those same folks review the project again and we get 75% design comments go through that whole review We submit our 75% design we address the comments goes to 100% design and you can see how this how long this takes once the 100% goes in we address their comments again and it finally goes to the final stage which is called PSN plan specs and estimate once we get there the Project's ready for advertisement uh so it's a long process there's a lot of work to do there's a lot of detail and the reason I'm bringing this up is number one to give the select board uh and other folks who maybe watching tonight the idea you know the understanding of how long these projects take but secondly we have built into this project reviews with the community and public Outreach with the community through this entire process uh so that the public is informed so we can get input the idea here is that we want to make sure that the project at the end is tailored to the specific needs of Brooklyn uh and so that's why it's important to get that that input so I know that was a little long commissioner I know maybe I I went a little too long with that but I think it's important just to understand the process for those members of the select board who may not be familiar with it yes and this is a federally funded project so the construction funding comes between the federal government and the state government the construction will not be funded by the town of Brook Line This is right that's right it's 100% construction funded 80% Federal 20% State there are some items of the project um that would be non-participating uh if the city chose the city if the town chose to do those uh non-participating work sometimes like a city or town will upgrade their water know they'll put decorative Lighting in uh things like that it uh it just provides the benefit of doing those kinds of things as part of a bigger project in an economy of scale with that so um that the town may decide that they they want to do some things you may have seen in an earlier slide there was uh pedestrian scale lighting uh that the town may want to consider is doing uh as part of this project as well so things like that can be included in the project uh Town funded okay um I think select board members want to ask questions uh Paul I just said could you go back I actually had a question on that slide could you go backward slide please there you go thank you so um first I'll say that I I appreciate the presentation um I actually hadn't thought you were going to be done with it but thank you so much uh it is very helpful uh to see all the work that's been done um with respect to 80% Federal funding 20% State funding 100% meeting the needs of Brookline um and so you're I the the topics or the points where you said that there'll be um opportunities for the public to weigh in I wanted to specifically understand and I would encourage you to update this slide to have the dates that the first star which is colored in its gold have we hit that date yet or is that the first star we are we've had four design review committee meetings but we are not done I don't know Erin do we know how many we anticipate we have four more that we're scheduling okay and those are so that's the blue arrow Aaron the the four more meetings would fit within this blue solid blue arrow correct yeah I'd say so okay not the best graphic maybe it's very simp I wan ask Alan were you have your 25% design stage that that's not colored is that 25 to 75 yeah so I think we're we haven't we're we're not in there yet we're still in the pre25 we're in that blue that that bluea right now okay and so that that's helpful so there's multiple opportunities within the blue arrow for feedback from the community I think is what I heard you say and then there's the dph uh what's that stand for again design design is that is that and is that a I'm sorry is that our public hearing is that the states the whose public hearing is that ours so that's that's the official Mast doot public hearing which is required Allan mentioned mot requires that Federal Federal Highway requires that because you're using Federal funding but by the time we get to the the official mot public hearing which which is hosted by the town it's in town but mot comes out they take a Verbatim transcript they have a stenographer it's a it's an official Mass do public hearing by the time we get to that point we it's our goal to have exhausted all the questions and got uh and and got you know approval uh from the town to submit the idea here is that when we get to the dph we want people to come out that are excited and want that project can't wait for the project to start okay so dph the dph you wouldn't you wouldn't expect to be making additional changes after the dph not major one do you have any idea that's helpful and one last question and I'll I'll let go um the that the dph do you have like a ballpark of when that might happen roughly we have the I do we have the dph somewhere around uh next year this time uh next year may may of 25 roughly okay so a year about a year from now okay thank you and that would obviously that depends on mot's review review time uh and that and that sort of thing as well okay thank you I think Mike had his hand mine's just a quick up okay building just voted approved the early package yeah great indeed so U I want to uh thanks very much I I want to stop by saying that I'm uh sort of two predecessors Transportation board chair before Brian Kan so I'm his great-grandfather or something like that um so I'm familiar with with what you folks are are talking about in terms of design so forth um I will say that your comment about how you know you hope to exhaust all of the questions before you get to the um a design public hearing that's not possible in Brook line I was being optimistic you just you know that won't happen um I I would I I looked at the website and I I must say I am massively relieved the hear 72 instead of 37 parking spaces uh and I would and you know urge you to get that word out as quickly as you possibly can having said that Washington Square gives me a great deal of concern because there are some businesses right on Washington Street people love to park right there and hop right in I'm one of those people I'm also a bicycle Rider I ride up that street and I know that you know that's a place where I've got to be really careful um but when you talk about balance I would urge you to take a very careful look at that and talk to the Washington Street store the merchants the the uh particularly concerned about the hardware store which has been there um probably since my great-grandfather was and they're now closing Mike and they're now are they closing yeah is closing ah all right that's a loss um the have two questions one is a specific one and one is a general one timeline you've given us you know 25% goes to 75% goes and so forth how many years months decades whatever until construction starts so so what's important is that the project is programmed on the tip and that's really that's really the critical path we need the financing right that's that's right so so the so the the Boston Metropolitan planning organization is responsible for taking federal and state funds and applying them to projects and once a project is programmed it's important to meet that date because we don't want to lose our place on the tip particularly with a project that's close to $30 million so um right now the Project's on the FY 28 tip which means that it can be advertised for construction anytime between October 1st of 2027 to September 30th of 2028 so let's now right now I I think the the the schedule although we're early um has the project being avertised in February of 28 which would be Q2 of the federal fiscal year um so that's when the project would be advertised for construction uh that's the current plan right now and we will do our darnest to make sure that we hit that because that's the critical path we do not want to uh have the project not be able to utilize those funds in FY 28 as programmed okay um and then the um the other question I have is uh you mentioned vehicle safety and there was a line there I think about uh uh dot crash clusters or I know there's there's there's accident data um sort of by intersection as you go up um and presumably what you're doing is paying attention to those and uh working the safety issue the safety issues that that you can with each um intersection uh it would probably be helpful for the public to understand what you're doing at East at East each intersection as you uh as you go along sure we actually had a we did a roadway safety audit a couple years ago for this project where we um we looked at really safety for again vehicles but also for pedestrians and bicyclists really along the entire Corridor um and we actually met with people from from the town um Engineers police police are always the most important they're uh fire U Mass safety to really come up with a plan about what are the existing safety issues what are potential Solutions and actually because of that which was required since we had these Crush clusters um we are required even to kind of address as many of those as we can right so I'm I'm not questioning that you've done the work what I'm what I want to make sure of is that you get the message out to the people who live along the street who use the street that the work has been done and here's what your steps to remediate those situations is is going to be suggestion and also thinking about we've we've been T showing some of the sort of intersection geometry and how we're trying to Crossing distance and so I think maybe pairing that with the safety audit information and why the design um were presenting looks the way it does a great and I do we have a a vision zero project this just a a plan project that's just getting off the ground here uh and it's probably a bit early to connect up with that but some of the things that you're doing will indeed feed directly into that this is actually a pretty good demonstration project for vision zero um and uh I would you know as I say I would I would just make urge you to get as much of this information into the hands of the public as soon as you can um the last question I'm gonna ask is probably is one that you really can't answer in fact it's kind of a rhetorical question um there's been a we talk about making it attractive for alternative means of transportation other than motor vehicles um but there's a shift in Motor Vehicles to electric vehicles uh which um uh mitigates the problem over time mitigates the problem of contributing to fossil fuel uh cont from to carbon to carbon emissions um and I wonder how that's going to affect the way the federal government state government view these kinds of projects in the future I realize this one W it won't affect this one but it's just an interesting thought that I that might be um interesting to drop into the conversation if you have any any uh uh any preliminary thoughts about that may not have any thoughts right now but I'm sure between uh tonight and tomorrow morning we'll be looking that up but um interesting interestingly enough um a a lot of uh a lot of what you're talking about um the big the big discussion lately has been you know charging stations and and where are they and where are they located they within are they are they are they on Street uh in my spare time I'm the chairman of the parking and traffic commission for the city of Beverly and this has recently come up are we going to put uh Charing station parking spaces on the street and then the question became okay well if we do what are we going to ticket people what's what's what's the price of a ticket for someone who's not charging parking in that space because everybody wants the space close to where they're going right so these are these are great points that you bring up because I think this is going to be a larger discussion moving forward okay thanks any other John uh just uh if it's possible to give me um and and all of us a ballpark estimate as to at the end of the day when when this is done um how what percentage of the funding of this is local sources what percentage is State what percentage is going to be Federal so I I can answer that one for you so um as as we mentioned the the construction barring uh the town deciding to do some non-participating work let's that take that off the table but this project right now is programmed on the tip for just under 30 million it is 100% construction funded there is no Town Money being spent for the construction of the project what the town is responsible for is the design any RightWay necessary and any permitting any environmental permitting that's the town's obligation to the project the design is typically around 12% of the construction value um by all accounts if you could get if you could get that at some lending institution that' be a good deal um but it's uh it's 100% construction funded so out of that close to $30 million none of that comes out of town coffers except for locally preferred Elements which we will discuss as we move through design review right so uh and my point in asking the question was simply to then follow up with a question um what what do we sacrifice if that's the right word um by um accepting the money what what what what do we agree to that um takes away from our local autonomy over some of these decisions that are going to have to be made you know about things such as you know how many parking spaces can we fit into this Corridor etc etc so uh I mean I'll try that one first uh commissioner and then you can add on but what I would what I would say is is that the project has to be designed to state and federal standards right and generally they most of that revolves around safety issues right so um when we when we're designing the project there a certain amount of design criteria that we have to follow and dealing with Mast doot there are some things that we cannot deviate from then there's other things that the town has a tremendous amount of latitude and then there's those gray areas in the middle that we try and negotiate for example where can we get another space or what's the width of the the buffer for the bike lane going to be and those are the areas where we try and balance things um with so many things within a restricted RightWay like we have on Washington Street um regardless of whether the federal government was doing it or the state was doing it or anyone else there is an obligation by the town to make sure that that the roadway is safe you're not going to you're not going to paint a a bike lane for example that's not safe uh and things like that so the the majority of the work in addition to having a complete upgrade of the corridor is really improving safety that's first and foremost so I I wouldn't necessarily say that you're giving up anything what you're doing is you're creating a corridor that meets standards that meets current standards right I I think I think I'll just add um Rich that um the project as conceived is in is um intended to really be transformative and I think balancing all of these users um is why the project scored the way it did and ultimately made its way onto the tip so if we eliminated elements um within the design um it probably would be rescored and then we'd have to see whether we still stayed in the in the tip um if we sort of deviated significantly from the goals um that were set forth at the outset and I'll just sum up if I may so my reason for asking all of this is um you know I do think you just said something extremely important um that you know if we didn't do this X Y and Z we wouldn't we would no longer qualify you know for the tip and and when we have people and especially right now people in the commercial core of the Washington Square area who are desperately pleading um to stay viable by virtue of you know H how the parking gets dealt with um in this plan and if if we've already for as part of the requirement for qualifying for funding agreed to certain things that they're going to have to lose they deserve to know that and and I just want to be sure we don't kind of string them along and and say oh we're still we're still working on this we're still working on this I think we just need to have a very honest conversation about all of this stuff hey Paul yep um so I I want to talk maybe it's related to what John just said and I'm glad John just brought up that issue of uh the park I think he's talking about parking in in the business area so um I the first thing I'd like to say is I think we got to a point where we needed to have this update uh based on a lot of concern that we heard from the community and I think it was concerned from two constituent groups the business Community uh and seniors and I think that potentially could have been a symptom of of lack a lack of representation and or lack of engaged representation I heard this evening that you're going to be uh uh replacing or having another individual from the business Community spe specifically in the Washington Square area I believe onto the design Review Committee and um commissioner Cain um chair of the transportation board has also committed to uh adding a senior uh representative from the senior center or who like that uh on to the design Review Committee um and you know we as a board have spoken quite a bit about the the strong desire that we have in making sure that seniors are representative on important boards and commissions especially those that impact them um I think this is one of those and I would hope that um we will follow through um and have an individual brought on to help bring that perspective of of the senior community um on onto the design Review Committee um so that's my my first comment is is representation I really think that's really really critical here and then the second point i' I'd like to make or get clarified is what John asked um is the elimination of parking uh in that first stretch between Beacon and the fire station is that needed in order to meet the tip to get I don't think that's a foregone conclusion like the big picture we're talking about the themes right we're talking about safy we're talking you know about pedestrian accommodation bicycle accommodation how we do that um yeah you know is is really what we're the process that we're going through now so we don't okay we don't have that solution yet I and I do want to give um chairman uh Kan an opportunity as well because I have some thoughts about the the design review process and um this this is a good process to go through um you know with the community there there certainly are more people we do have seniors on the committee we can have um additional that maybe that's um you know sort of certainly glad to to um add that but we're going through a process where there is some push and pole this this Corridor is only so wide the town has has very clearly given um Public Works Direction in terms of um what it wants with its roadway Network and we're trying to deliver that we we can't accommodate everyone in in every single inch um you know the same way and so it is going to be um some give and take along the corridor and we're trying to find that right balance and we want the input um from the residents from the businesses um in order to do that and just and er just to to kind of close the loop on this and and put a bow on it um I just I just want to make sure that we're hearing that seniors are not feeling represented um on this design Review Committee they're not feeling heard um and I think that you know one way to solve that is to make sure that there's a voice for them on the committee that looks at designs and uh and other other features of of this project uh through their lens and whether that ends up making significant changes or not I think represent representation matters I also would uh ask that um that Economic Development do an exit interview with connell's Hardware losing connell's Hardware after they they were going to close a couple of years ago and then they decided to stay um and and now that they're closing again is is really a significant loss but there could be some learning as to what's going on there there's a tremendous amount of activity construction difficulty parking uh you know uh construction equipment and such uh taking up space I I just wonder are they um a canary in the coal mine so to speak of what's to come if there's businesses that that don't have access to that level of pickup drop off parking so it might be helpful very helpful and instructive to do an exit interview with yeah Brian did you want to add add anything uh thank you if if you don't mind I just wanted to uh to thank you for tonight um as Paul you're absolutely right right so the process is working um this is the first design Review Committee we've ever done for a roadway project in Brooklyn uh in the past uh decision I'm sorry that's not correct oh well then I was I was misinformed Beacon Street in the 1990s list is to your grandfather I stand corrected I stand corrected this is certainly this is what we haven't done we haven't done one recently um but it but it is working and you know people are seeing the proverbial sausage being made and um we are correcting as we go uh there is no sense that we have this right out of the gate uh I think you're seeing the iterative processes that we are committed to doing or doing publicly uh I have committed to adding uh some folks from Washington Square uh as you've heard tonight Merchant Association Merchants area Representatives uh I've spoken to um the Small Business Development board about getting representative from them um I've B communication with Betsy Pollock from the senior center we're GNA add some of those folks um we are trying to you know build this airplane as we're flying it so to speak so we we are going to get better at communicating uh our messages especially the parking I take your point there Mike uh we're going to get better at uh ensuring that our story is being told and and I just want to reiterate um you know we we have the right folks working on this I'm very honored to work with uh with commissioner Shu and and Amy uh John Bowman is on the design Review Committee is here tonight um and tyan bond or as I like to call them World Tech are the the best in the business at doing this in Massachusetts um I serve on the Boston region Mo uh I don't represent Brookline I I do that as part of my day job uh commissioner Sho represents the town on the no and I can assure you she is fighting very hard at every meeting to keep that $30 million programmed because there is insane competition for that money um there are a myriad of projects that would love for us to just throw in the towel so they can take the money uh this has been no way guaranteed we're going have to fight really hard for this and I will do what I can uh from the seat that I hold but I I again I don't I don't represent Brooklyn on that board but Aaron does a great job at it we will continue to go through the process we will continue to um ask the the the team to to iterate and we're going to try to fit everybody in the 60 feet that we have to work with uh we're going to have to make some sacrifices and make some choices those choices will get made publicly and with full buying and and input from everybody as best we can um but at the end of the day we this is a Safety project and uh you know rich said Safety First and and that is not just hyperbole um by narrowing the roadway and by doing all the things we hope to do we want to slow down cars uh to me 20 miles per hour means 20 miles per hour and if we can use design to slow down cars um it's safer for everybody including seniors including Merchants including other drivers uh I'm not a bike guy I'm not a pet guy um I just want everybody to slow down so that we can all be safer so thanks for the opportunity to speak thank you uh anything else seeing nothing thank this was really helpful I just wanted to say this was help thank you so much there's a separate discussion that I would love to have with um commissioner Shu at some point uh something that raised Paul has raised uh and I think we all need to understand it when we're talking about um uh references made to the complete streets policy here the safety and so forth and I mentioned Vision zero um the impact that the policies have on the timeline for doing resurfacing routine res resurfacing is T in tun in next week next week okay we actually we actually we actually bumped that from this week for the article 97 discussion so tune in next week and we'll have that discussion yep okay okay any seeing no other questions i' um and this is is the L pardon me I didn't say anything she [Laughter] grunted she's H out the door yeah yeah okay um that that ends this discussion and ends this meeting thank you commission Jud and thanks thanks everyone thank you Brian thank you for having us I didn't mean to gr thanks Rich thanks Alan than you we're all getting so yeah when I ask that question about you