welcome everyone to the select board meeting on Tuesday July 23rd um since Travis is joining us remotely he asked me if I would cheer the meeting tonight because it's quite a bit easier to do it in person than it is to do it via Zoom so um in order to begin the meeting I'll just do a quick roll call vote of the select board members since we're some of us are remote um I forget who starts I just say Arnold here Modell here read here Scott triola here and Travis actually we should have been Snell and then triola Travis are you there I see your name he's he may not be come on Travis you know we start promptly any anyway we'll come back Travis and you can say here but in any case there enough of us to open the meeting um so uh let me just quickly review the agenda we um have Community input at the beginning of the select board meetings then we have appointments and resignations we're having a joint meeting with the school committee uh then we'll discuss the hansam resolution we have a discussion with the friends of Center Park public facilities uh discussing um project managers for the police station and the fire station then the town administrator's report warrants liaison reports and then we close with Community input and let me just remind everyone in terms of community input um you know you can raise your hand or in some other way uh let me know that you would like to speak and then when I recognize you please give your name and your street address and then we're limiting um input to two minutes is that what we've been saying yeah so uh in any case U let me know if you would like to give any make any comments during Community input anyone in the audience no okay and uh is there anyone online that would like to offer a comment during Community input all right well seeing none um I'm going to move ahead then to the first item on the agenda which is some appointments and resignations I'm ready for that you ready to do that that's great I'd like to First acknowledge um the retirement of uh Gretchen kwood um with gratitude uh for her service lot of long years of service and uh we're also notified of the resignation of Melissa Roman from the position of social services manager for the cahs and I understand she was she is going to be very missed by the uh her clients so I want to uh recognize those two res Nations um I'd like to move to Appo the diam and I I don't know how it's pronounced but I'm pronouncing a diamond today um uh Park subcommittee Charter as presented um did we do we have it Charter we finally did because it got added in the second pack version to the packet okay um do you want to have a discuss do it one by one yeah well in that one I think that should be a yeah would you like to I'll second the motion thank you David uh it's open for discussion then about the Diamond Park sub committee Charter anybody who put it together recommission did okay sound fine to me yeah I soundify to me too it's basically a subcommittee of the um Rec commission oh yeah you put it up there thank you yeah um that will report to them and they will be meeting an open meeting and needs to have one member of the record commission great uh Travis or uh Scott do you have any comment hi Travis no comments no comments for me no comments for me okay well hearing none um let's do a roll call vote on the motion to establish the subcommittee Arnold I I Reed I Snell I triola I all right it passes unanimously so I now move to appoint Laura Harrison I'm going to do all these I think together uh 847 North Road as a member of the Safety Committee termed and June 30th 2027 moved to appoint Adele Grady as the planning board representative to the community preservation committee Steve huberman there's four appointments mine has oh maybe you better read it than David okay oh she there yeah okay let's do it over I move to appoint Laura Harrison of 47 North Road as a member of the Safety Committee term to end June 30 2027 to appoint Brian King of 49 conquer Street as a member of the Safety Committee term to end June 30 2027 and Steve huberman of 761 conquer Street as a member of the a commission term to end June 30 2025 further move to app Point ad Adelaide Grady as the planning board rep to the community preservation committee term to end June 30 2025 to appoint Sarah Cassidy Smith as planning board rep to the historical commission term to and June 30 2025 move to appoint Court herselman as the planning board rep to the conservation restriction advisory committee term to end June 30 2025 is that the second to last yes and finally then to appoint Chris gagas and William Guild as the planning board rep representatives to the Minuteman Advisory Group on interlocal coordination otherwise known as magic terms to end June 30 2025 second any discussion wow a lot of work usually you do oh uh yeah the only discussion is that um and I don't remember but I know I volunteered to be the um select board me member of the Safety Committee and I don't know if we finalize that on the liaison representative chart so we have U another at least one or two volunteers that we didn't verify residency in time but we know they're residents so the Safety Committee looks like it'll be stood up and and functional if not this month early in August and there's a lot of safety concerns especially with the uh the tragic accident in Congress Street so um it's a good time to to get together and talk about safety signage and other issues in town so I guess the question is did I get appointed or didn't I and well liaison no no this wasn't a liaison I would say you're not yet appointed because I don't recall that we let's see Safety Committee it's down at the bottom Safety Committee read you're in there did we approve this chart yes so that I'm already appointed already appointed okay so I just wanted to be sure that I go get sworn in okay okay Barney my my apologies my zoom uh shut down and restarted so so uh if you didn't get my vote I was uh just rebooting my we we haven't quite voted we're doing all of the appointments um from Laura Harrison down through Chris gagas and William Guild um and I I heard all the appointments I just lost connection for a couple moment oh okay we haven't yet voted so um okay thank you any other comments from anyone all right okay uh all those in favor we're going to do a roll call vote Arnold I Reed I did we lose Travis he's not oh yeah there he is yeah well maybe he's having some difficulty move on here he comes raise your hand if it's I Travis um doing a roll call vote on the appointments Europe up now ey is that what that means nod your head no he can't hear us all right Scott with us triola ey all right thank you I'm sorry if you couldn't hear me it's Snell ey hey just get in under the wire so just before we leave these um uh I just as a housekeeping you took over uh COA HS we haven't formalized that right correct should we move to do that yeah although for the Liaisons it's not a oh it's a leison it's not yeah the reason I was specifying is because this was an appointed M okay great thank you and I didn't want to go and get sworn in if I wasn't appointed that's all right go get sworn inie so now we have come to the Joint meeting with the school committee um Sharon do you want to open your meeting sure good afternoon Sharon school committee chair I call the July 23rd school committee meeting to order at 79 please and do you want to do any kind of a roll call or can do a roll I know some members are not we can go ahead dooll call members are here it's Scott Jameson is not going to join us so Viola I I mean sorry Viola present wat present with present do you have uh that's it that's that's it okay thank you well great welcome and and thank you for joining us tonight um so we've got two topics um at least that we know of and uh you know as as we all probably recall we we were going to discuss this a while back and then we had to uh and meeting yes yes yeah um it happens um so let's just take the first one which is the Highland building and um yeah some of us were in a discussion last night when it came up and there was some sentiment among folks that came to the um Community preservation committee meeting that um they they really would like to see something that building have a purpose um and so I think on the part of the select board we were interested in having the conversation with you all it's been a while I think since we've had a discussion with the school committee and there's been quite AIT I think it's a whole new committee at this point so um at least the three we see are new yeah it's got new four new yeah oh and I also I didn't want to uh did I just see M yeah and just mentioned that Jim is on the superintendent and then Mary's is also one hi um so what are your thoughts well actually I think we're interested to see what your thoughts are in the building and and what you're looking for from the school committee I think that will help us in our responses to you um I mean just from what I know being a new member this is has been a long conversation in the tongue of the town of carile and it's complicated on many different levels um so I think if we have a clear understanding of what you're looking for that will help guide our conversation on the Highland building I I would say um that it there may be some may this may be justified or not but there seems to be some sentiment in town that every idea that's been floated in the past has been knocked down by the school committee that they just have they've been didn't want this they didn't want that so I would say one of the things we would like to know for sure is what is it you really don't I mean do you have a list of what what you really don't want to have because we feel like some people feel that a lot of ideas have been floated and the school committee has not been receptive to those ideas so I think there's there's that's part of it um It's Complicated because it's our building on your land and people then don't know how to act and and and so it would be nice if we went you know in concert so and I'm just speaking for myself not for the rest of the committee but I would say if you thought you had any kind of use for that building I would personally love to just give it back to you and let you use it and decide on your own what you want to use it for and then we we could I think it would make the conversation a lot easier I think that would be one decision to make is do you have any uses for it ier to Jim for that if I may I think he has more of the his historical informational conversations and probably could speak to that Jim are you okay with absolutely yeah so I think um I mean the highlands beautiful building it's been there for quite some time um and I think the only I'm just going to from my recollection you can correct me if I'm wrong I think the only thing we were firmly kind of opposed to was the idea of residences that just seemed like an awkward place to have residences right on the school campus um so that was I think the major idea but um at that meeting that no longer exists right uh John Ballentine was doing a presentation on projections of um enrollment for carile and that probably the last two years so I'll go back the last two years we've had some conversations at the school committee um that even though our enrollment may be lower than it had been eight or 10 years ago by a good number um the way the school operates has changed in that time right we have a lot more smaller group instruction or individual service providers providing services and supports to students so and with that taking place we do feel a space crunch right our class sizes may not be that large right but we're still in a in a in a space crunch in the building so and I think that was what John Balentine was was saying the projections are that enrollment numbers will be going up in the next 5 10 15 years so that that kind of spread mind well maybe there there is some opportunity for us to utilize the Highland going of course I say that but I'm very hesitant to say that because I also know the cost to bring the Highland building into a place where that space would be usable is significant it's significant to the town um and then we were just had we as we have in the past we've had conversations about a hybrid use whether maybe the school and the town could look at possibly using it because we could have a use for maybe some administrative offices right that would open up some space in our school to have service providers provide services in those spaces and kind of address some of that that uh that space situation but we know that it comes with the significant cost yeah that's the real challenge it you know I I'm trying to think about how close that building is and if it could be if there could be a bridge from a elevator part that's already elevated in the school to the that would be way more expensive well not NE no not necessarily you're saying from the second floor go across yeah if it's not that if it's not very far no we could do that it's far that's okay I can't I couldn't remember what was right okay but that building regardless of for any use other than housing would have to be elevated but elev well not necessarily if you have if you have administrative offices yeah because of an elevator for Ada yeah yeah okay right but in any case I guess my one comment is um that I I just feel very strongly we don't want to continue to have that building be unused yeah it's structurally very sound the exterior has been well cared for and yes the inside definitely needs renovation and and it it it'll be a cost regardless of when we um or or what we decide to do with it when we decide to do it but I would like to see it in use um so maybe the idea of a either a hybrid or uh the town uses it for some uh period of time you know we have some agreement that you know for X years or until the school you know decides they need the space that we would do something with it and uh you know and we would have to build it into our Capital plan in terms of financing how we'd actually do the renovations um but that's my own feeling about it the only other thing we we all took a tour of it this morning and for some of us it was our first time in in the building we have to do that so it's still fairly fresh we haven't had a chance to fully reconvene as a as a whole group I think the only thing that um stands from my personal perspective after seeing it this morning is is a few things actually one I think we really need to look at what the evolution of a school is what the future holds um I think the second thing is is that um we obviously need certain administrative space potentially in the future but to go through the cost of everything I think we have to think bigger um in terms of like what does like a classroom of the future look like and when I say the future I mean for to three four five years out um and again these are just fresh thoughts off of my myour not speaking on behalf of the committee um I think the other piece is that from looking at the Strategic plan and having a couple conversations with folks on the preservation committee like this is a beautiful building and so if you spent the money on restoring the exterior love to to figure out how we can keep that character because there's not a lot of space in town that is there um I think the the last piece from a you standpoint is and again this is more of a a big thought and a Utopia to some degree thought but there's been a lot of conversation on vocational schooling we don't have an option for students um it would be great to figure out if there's some kind of innovation space that we can use there uh to to maybe have some space and that could be multi-use for Town and and uh and students but again we haven't had a chance to talk about that as a committtee so I don't want to go too deep into my brain ideas here but I think last thing is that because it is on school property even if it is a mixed Town use we just have to really be care like cautious of from a safety standpoint and whoever is going in and out of that building that it is on school property and that we're mind mindful of that um first and foremost I I one other thing I want to say about that building is the lack it has no parking for all intents and purposes and so it's really hard hard for some entities outside of the school Community right to access it so I think honestly it makes more sense in my mind I think right to give it back to you yeah I like I like that I like that opening thought you know really if you guys could come up with a use then that makes the most sense the so the conditions the boundary conditions are that yeah as Jim said you don't want people living there so that's out as Kate's saying parking's a problem so you might create a maker space or a meeting room space that can be used just like we use the auditorium but people have to drive you know to the school parking lot and park and walk and that's okay the question is whether that would be okay as a community center function something you guys really need to debate because it would be cars parking on your lot and walking around but I think what I would encourage you to do and I agree with Kate's approach is you know have meetings about how you'd use it clearly if you could move some admin you lost the brick the brick at one point was going to be an admin overflow that went to reccom which I think was a good use the admin spaces that you now use could be better used for these mini classrooms and all your educational needs but then the leadership might be physically detached from the students I know Jim for example loves to have kids come in and take candy from them and stuff so I mean those are the kind of things you guys need to think about I love your idea I wouldn't say it's replacing voge but making a maker space and increasing the those kind of shop you know related things would be great um and then finally I would say and this comes out of uh Jack hess's IDE ideation as a as a one thing that should be considered is it's space it's not a building we all love the Highland building but you know what it's going to take a lot of money to bring it to code as a space it's really interesting it's perfectly situated to make an Amphitheater an outdoor meeting outdoor aded all kinds of things that uh are right in the right spot you know they're right in the right spot and they're school things so those are kind of some range of things from negative space to you know offices to classrooms to all that that I think you guys should come back with some ideas then we can say all right given the building like and I Ryan we must know ballpark like just to bring it to code to make it I don't know a general use space no nothing special an elevator and uses do we have any kind of ballpark figure of cost I would just be guessing couple Mill at least yeah no so with the elevator yeah yeah so you start you start at netive -2 million just to kind of create the shell but on the other hand as we're learning from our Public Safety buildings new construction is pretty pricey so it's not opt if you had a get an empty lot you would and you decided let's say you wanted more classrooms or we want a community center you designed something different but that's going to be like a $5 million project so if you couldn't so just speaking with my financial hat on if you if it costs three million to both bring it up to code and make something useful but not not like specialty construction you know general purpose that's still cheaper and it's there and it's pretty well there's grants I mean yeah when you're getting into historical preservation and that's something again I talked to somebody on the commission but you know again I'm I'm I'm open to all me this is just my my reaction and environmentally there's all that there's all the um embodied carbon that you're not you know putting back in theere to fix an old Greener yeah and you could solar panel and all that stuff I guess but so I mean I think that would be a great you know mission for you guys to take on over the course of the year and we can meet again I mean if you came up with ideas I think it's great yeah I mean I think I mean one of our goals I think our stated goals is to use the the building not to let to use our buildings and spaces we we have some spaces that are not that are going unused and uh and it by the way it costs us money every time there's a fire alarm or a humidity alarm over there costs $400 for the the fire guys to come out there so it's not you know you can't just say oh well it just sits there you know no it doesn't just sit there the drain I mean I would love to finally see a solution going in today it's probably been about 5 years since I was last and I was surprised just in the 5 years the deterioration of the space I mean today's point maybe one of our goal school committee goals for this year can be plan with come up with a plan my concern is just $3 million for roughly $3 million for a handful of offices that's a I I need more than just offices yeah yeah I I think you don't want to look at it that way because when you have those offices gone that are currently there now those are those are teaching spaces tutoring spaces um small group spaces um you know I I mean I was in an elementary school that was newly built and they had classroom classroom small T tutoring room between the two you know and those those tutoring spaces were used constantly so you could take some of your classrooms and reconfigure them at so that you have you know they become a couple tuning spaces cuz you know have a classroom downstairs where the ad admin is you know so I think yeah um did did I hear um Scott or Travis wanting to make a comment I I'd like to make a comment if that's okay um you know to build on what Kate and David had said uh Kate you know I think our goal for the year is really to establish not necessarily how we use it per se of of actual use but really to figure out what direction were headed with the Highland building and obviously the school committee is really driving or would have a major driving impact on that but I think it's because putting as David said your financial hat on we have a lot of things with the town that were focused on at the moment with the police station renovation we're proposing and kind of moving down the path of a proposed fire station renovation there are other things coming forward which will be related to the DPW there are a lot of needs within the town so I would just you know say and and really Advocate that you think of this in lots of different ways not only reuse but as David or may originally who would said you know think about it as a space and and I know we value our historic preservation and there may be a way to preserve it and and move the building or there are lots of Alternatives but I think that we we really Advocate spending some time thinking about what might be best but in the context of thinking about the whole town and what we have needs for we have a lot of needs in the town at the moment and so you know if we can you know kind of thrill down and figure out what makes the most sense that would be helpful so I wanted yeah Scott did you have something you want to say uh no I think Travis said it well and I you know it the Highland building that topic has been around for as long as I've been involved in town um I do think it's probably prudent to just say it needs to be related to the school whatever use so you know putting that sandbox in place and having the school committee think about that is important um and I also think really looking creatively about what grants are available um that may be a way to defer some cost and and make it a cost effective project that we can actually undertake because practically you know we're all talking about what could we use this for we know we have a lot of critical needs in town that need to be addressed and will require significant investment so I think for the Highland building a way to to move that up in the queue would be to find some some grants or some uses that would uh defer the cost so that does become more cost effective yeah Sharon did you want to comment I agree you know it's unfortunate that the space is not being utilized and I don't think anyone wants that to to be uh the story I just think to I was just doing some research you just kind of being new to the conversation it sounds very simple to just hand it back to the school but I can't imagine there got to it's got to be more complicated than that I I'm thinking I was reading through some of the articles in the mosquito and I think every idea possible has been discussed and I'm thinking if it was that simple if we would have moved forward on it a little we would have some progress in place so I I think definitely I would ask for time for us to really come up with the plan and just discuss it because I I think every stone has been turned in how do we make the Highland building viable and um useful uh I I say just be patient with us give us some time to discuss that because as you know this is has been a long story and I think some of the greatest Minds in car have been part of the conversation and we haven't had a solution yet so I I think that speaks to how complicated it is right but I would say that most of the ideas that I recall are non-school uses they're Community uses and I think the conversation has to Kate's Point conversation has mostly been driven on the town side like what can we the town use the building for and you know gym and firemen residents and blah blah blah and the school committee not this school committee but prior School committees basically said you they said what Kate's saying to you they're saying they said to us like you guys figure out to use I don't recall a time where we gave a blank slate to the school committee and said you know what just open your minds in the way that Julie's doing it you know or that uh Jack did you know just think of things that if you just have it let's I I use this term a lot but they call the the U bill principle if you're unconstrained by finances think about solutions that are unconstrained by finances because that will if you were Bill Gates what would you do that will point you in the right direction then you have to re it in because you've got Financial considerations but think about what you would do either with the building or the space what could you do how would that help your mission and come up with kind of a short list and let's start that dialogue I think if we I don't believe we've started this conversation from that perspective previously yeah I agite and so you know it's a fresh start okay I just I would just again say be patient with us I don't think this is decision going anywhere you want to make the right decision um we'll take it back we can discuss it and um yeah I I think maybe that that's for now that's fair you know certainly you know good I think Ryan wanted to say something at a certain point um so also oh and well let Scott go then okay Scott well and a question that I know nobody wants to ask or answer is but if there is no strong use for the Highland building is is the decision we just leave it there and maintain the facade do we take it down I mean at some point um if if we can't find a use for it or the use is too cost prohibitive what do we do with the building um so we don't just keep kicking the can down the road and and maybe even maintaining it in a way that's sub optimal I mean I think at some point we just need to decide what is going on with the Highland building we finding use or if there's no use that's cost effective what's the plan yeah us give us a chance yeah I mean we're this schol there's no rush on this this this has been batted around for decades decades decades I mean indeed um but I mean I also want to just kind of remind us all that we had the Greeno bar um which has just now been successfully repurposed in somebody else's Town um so you know for those people who want preservation are afraid to lose like a big asset I think that is something that really that we should also consider that maybe we it doesn't have to be just you know knocked down maybe it can be repurposed somewhere else which would be you know sort of kind of threading the needle yeah yeah sorry Ryan yeah just this someone new to the Highland building conversations and someone who talks about the Highland building a lot to a lot of people I would just like to just point out a couple things using our GFS which I hope everyone uses yes used today parking so here is a school parking lot here is the Highland building yeah this significant amount of very unused parking is closer to the Highland building than the school parking lot the church the church so Julie and I encourage you to talk to Julie about this but talks about this a lot so she does not believe that car has a parking problem she just believes we don't use it well would like you to consider so when I do park right here when there's kids here I park a little farther away but when it's right here and I walk up to the uh to school Building from here is there a path actually no oh see that's what treacherous but we'd have to add okay so we would have to add some sort ofx Church on the lot or do we on the lot they do but we have an agreement with them in exchange for services to use a parking lot so it would have to be more formalized yeah secondly however elderly people may not want that want you know but they can't get from the other other parking lot either so keep going I think we would have to create a pathway that that works um if we were to use that space secondly we have more problems Capital wise than we can solve with the tax constraints as discussed by the select board and the finance committee so that leads me to think multi-use and then also when I'm thinking about the master plan we also talk about multigenerational and um places to gather yes right those are all carile problems so if the school committee could let's say the school committee decides we would have some future use of this building if it wasn't all of the building it would be interesting to know how much because if the school say used the second floor and the first floor was available you could have one of our biggest problems which is Senior dropin Services during the morning right from 9: to 3: and then our next biggest problem is uh places for for youth to go young adults from 3 to 3 to 9 with programming and it it matches nice because the uh brick building is right there as well which is our Recreation program so it combines all those services but it would take an incredible amount of um talking about it is that acceptable to the school is it acceptable to the town uh that would mean a little bit less space for a community center but it would also allow for school expansion and create some resiliency I was involved in a project like that over um if if done collaboratively there's some really cool things we can do from a multi multigenerational component so if your community center was to if you're able to do that for less than some of the numbers being put out but you also allowed for school expansion you're looking taking a $10 million project down to a or $5 million project done correctly solves a couple problems okay great thank you any last comments questions okay well great thank you all um thanks we have one other item services not quite done um yeah so uh is anybody on the board or Ryan do you want to lead off on the shared services notion yeah so we're about to um me but on behalf of the select board is about to put in a grant for the study of shared services in in discussions that select reports had many of the targets were internal shared services so what can we continue to develop what should we not be looking to develop what might be able to share with other towns to help guide uh future Financial constraint conversations so it would be it would be good if the select board and the school committee could discuss um absolutely not we're not sharing this or we're open to learning more about this or maybe even ideas that the school committee has about shared services that that the town hasn't seen so the the ones that are talked about a lot are it Finance maintenance which is already well underway um and Human Resources as well and then who knows uh recreational programming and other things of course um even many towns are looking at sharing things like Mental Health Resources and Etc so it would be great if the two important bodies here could talk about noos definitely shoulds would like to hear more that type of thing well and maybe maybe I could interject there a little bit um I I know on the MFC the municipal facilities committee you know we have worked um as as kind of intergral to this this joint School Town Partnership of the of Maintenance and Facilities and I think you know we have kind of a a trial period that we've done for what a year now Ryan or has it been a year and a half um a little more than a year yeah that that seems to have worked reasonably well and and I think that you know we're just so fortunate to have you know a wonderful superintendent as well as a wonderful town administrator and they've worked well in kind of trying to put this together but I think we should as two separate boards and really the kind of um entities that that have the real say in the the structure of Carlile um think about how we might want to formalize this because I think it's more an efficiency and operationally makes a lot of sense for a facilities uh to rather than have every building within town I mean we I've seen this over my time in carile and we've talked about how we have all these silos and know you have the library has its own facilities people and now they've started to kind of work with the town and and have been integrated because rather than having a library that says oh we need to you know be in charge of our own facility we we really need to have this kind of collective um process I think and we've put a program in place so that if you have a toilet or an issue um you know it goes to the facility to um and I don't know exactly but I think stepen uh kery deals with it and then Subs it out but they have a process in place and that's been used for within the school as well as within the town and now it's kind of a joint uh process but I think it would be helpful thinking about it longer term and Beyond the existing you know managers who are emplo Town employees who are here but to think about it from a policy standpoint from these two boards what what we want to codify and to really um put into place longer term and I think the municipal facilities committee's looked at it and thinks that the there's a benefit to having a single kind of facilities department and you know we we've kind of been headed that way with this trial and I I think it would be helpful to talk about this and find out if we wanted to um you know move this into something more formal um and I know that there are some concerns and issues and we should just talk about those but I think it would be helpful from a bigger picture running the town and financial perspective and Ryan if there's anything else that you want wanted to add or anyone else wants to chime in just Travis when you say more formal what do you mean specifically by that well I I think right now we just have a a kind of understanding um we we don't have a a essentially a facilities department and and maybe Ryan can talk to this a little bit more about on the the day-to-day or the operational side how that that could work or does work and and could continue to work or work better yeah I think as long as Jim and I are here and we understand the history of it and work very well with Jim I have a ton of respect for Jim um it you can manage it but for your long term you'd want to decide what your facilities Department looks like so uh some challenges I see it's not really on the school side it's more on the town side but uh step is managing five different budgets so we're trying to consolidate those budgets he has to get approval from two sometimes three different entities to to spend money on facilities or it's not very efficient so we're working on consolidating that and then his HR approvals um I'm not sure on the school side but he says to me he has three different it systems for managing acrs and then his pay comes from two different spots in the town budget two different pay systems um so on the finance side we have to have layers of accounts in order to make sure that everything is paid So eventually I think that needs to be consolidated either on the school or is there I mean is that are we Our Own Worst Enemy here can that just be done like are there statutory reasons that you have to separate or could you create a building department it's a service we provide the school and that's the end of that the the main thing is um school committee and select board both have Financial Authority and then right but if we so okay we need anou well we're one town that's why I'm asking I mean when we go to cchs we have anou we have an agreement and they give us an assessment for a basket basket of services and we pay the bill and that's the end of that right so I'm wondering if we're over complicated since we're one town we're one legal entity do we really need anou or can we rejigger it so that the the town provides a set of services to the to the school and it costs X and they get an allocation each year like we do for the region like don't one thought would be to to take it out of you know and this again this is a political discussion because you know the school and the school obviously has its its jurisdiction and its its Authority and and so does the the select board and so one thought is that you could have a facility department and take the budget right now that is currently being allocated for maintenance from the schools and throw that into more of the town or the the town budget and so it comes out of the school um and then as part of the capital planning we continue to do Capital planning with the schools um as as it's been done but I I I think you know Ryan might have some more thoughts specifically or if the anyone else wants to chime in but I think that's a One Direction that this could head that that might make more sense because we're sharing I think you said what I said just slightly differently right well one one one issue I know from fincom was trying to create a centralized for the town a centralized maintenance budget yes that would require taking the maintenance budgets from each department and then putting in a central fund and there it's not as straightforward as it sounds um in some cases I know those those maintenance funds were used to kind of as a buffer when when you have budget overruns in other cases there are very specific maintenance needs like our department has where they don't want to see maintenance funds or maintenance Authority um so you know even on the town side we'd have to start by just consolidating the town maintenance budgets so at least we were down to a town maintenance budget and school maintenance budget but that's that's one practical it's not a statutory challenge but it's a it's a budgetary process challenge yep he summed it up really well so the library is a great example um the library has statutory Authority by Mass General law and if you cut their budget you also risk their state aid because they have minimum contributions so maintenance has been built into the library budget but you could have a line item where the maintenance charge comes over to the town's building department it still would be the same budget for them right yes but Library funds are approved by the library trustees well again we're I feel like we're over I realized you know Scott I've been through that that it's not as simple as it sounds but I also feel like we're making it more complicated than we need to make it I'm not suggesting that the the independent boards the library the schools and so forth would not have a say in how we allocate the budget each year we could still budget but this idea that later expenses have to be approved by three different budgets and the guy into two or three different cost centers it's silly it's just silly if if we we can get together and Hammer around a budget and then hand that budget to a unified department where there's a you know it's your department right and you run it and and I I realize that guys like the fire chief are going to say well I really want my guy to go change the light bulb I don't want to call okay fine change your light bulb but I mean M regular things would be done by maintenance you know and and but I I just feel like we're not we're approaching it the wrong way we're approaching it from all the problems historical problems and we ought to say no how would again how would we design like just like we said H like how would you design it like if you were designing it again and you know one of the things like I come out of the aviation industry and Herb kellerer who founded Southwest Airlines I mean he was a proponent like my job is to fly people from A to B everything else I should vend out cuz it's not flying from a to be your job is to educate kids and you know fire department fight fires like let's we should have a unified I really believe we should have a unified approach to managing our built infrastructure any comments from either Jim or the school committee folks more questions I mean are you on like the like a payroll system is everyone on the same platform maybe that's one thing no kidding yeah because I mean when we first had this discussion and we've had a committee meeting Jim and I worked on a technology survey to other towns right like software obviously LS itself to to licensing you get a lot of economies of scale with that same thing with platform so I mean that's just lwh hanging fruit from everything we've researched um to anywhere there's software if there's opportunities to share I I think most of us would be very open to that but I don't want to speak for for Jim um but I think that's the the easiest ones and then we can focus on like you're saying like our core competencies of what we want to do um but I I don't know enough about I agree yeah we are IM munist together because then it's then it's just Cost transfer B Point bills are paid yeah but the a the payroll is not they're not on bamboo they how yeah well Bamboo's are tracking our payment goes through munus payroll is combined yeah so payroll is combined okay yeah I was surprised yeah no I know you're right I mean we should have where we can become and we're a little town 5,000 we're like we're like a a knit on you know Worcester or say nothing of Boston I we're Department like in those cities right yeah well and that yeah I think from a budget perspective when I left incom it was the push to try to do a centralized maintenance budget and I I think it was well let's try it out and see how it works first it sounds like we've tried it out so I think one thing to talk about with fincom and the budget discussions is is one of our goals to create a uh centralized maintenance department budget that would combine at least the town side of things and then you can layer the school on that but you know we when I was on fincom we were pushing for that and I know we were trying and doing some trials to make sure it worked and before we before we move funds over to a central Town account for the maintenance if we've had that trial it seems appropriate to to look at that now and say is this something we're going to do in the upcoming fiscal year but I mean just like the simple one talking about with Steph payments I mean stream one and that into one system I mean that sounds like cost transfers happen all day long at different companies and municipalities you know allocating seeing those line line item transfers but well and then there's things like you know where the elevators if they could come once to check all the elevators in town because every time they come to uh do elevator I think was I forget what the charge was just for the traveling to get there was ridiculous and so uh it it's important to if you have one person coordinating all that that really you know helps he's got and part of the reason we're in this maintenance backlog is we putting it all on the individual departments to manage their buildings and so you know the library director didn't know what they were supposed to be doing with the heating system and and it's not only getting the the benefit of cost savings it's also making sure we have a centralized professional maintenance plan for buildings and for equipment and an inventory and all the things that we've been lacking yeah yeah okay so there seems to be green what's the action plan well let me just ask Jim if he wants to say anything on this topic yeah Jim sure yeah so I I would I would agree with pretty much everything that's been said right we did a soft merger which became kind of a full merger um and we are operating as if we have a fairely kind of towns Side schools side centralized facility Department um and that seems to be going well right so that's that's great so I think the next step is for look at how can we kind of merge the the funds and the funding and um and I know Ryan was working on that last year kind of looking to unify the town different line items and bring their facilities together and as Travis said then we could merge the school I mean the school committee can talk about merging the school and the town facility budgets together I think that when we spoke I think two years ago right that was the intended outcome that we were all looking to make happen so um I think that's that seems to be the next step because knock on wood right the that soft merge of the operation seems to be going well and I I see Jeremy there in the audience and kind of with Stephen and with Ryan collaborating and with Jeremy's absolute active participation like that Auditorium project is moving forward but it's only through that their collaboration that that's happened so I think um I think that's the next feasible step or the next step for us with regard to the facilities Department I think the other items you mentioned regarding kind of how we can look to merge departments those are some topics for the school committee to unpack a little more right whether it's it finances maintenance we get the maintenance by human resources um those are some conversations the school committee can have over the next couple of months as we look at that and at the same time we can talk with the town side to see what the needs are with got to something like it or human resources and how we can how we can look to bring those together hopefully find the same success that I think we're finding with the facilities Department right now as we move into phase two let's say as we unify the finances what about procurement is that also been discussed yeah so Andy and I talked a lot about that today um so procurement under the capital plan will be under me okay with Andy checking it and even if it's school and then on the school side goods and services and and other school related procurements he's handling that um there's a little gray there for a while but but we figured that out okay um because we didn't want Steven going to to two different two different procur yes so and so Capital uh items are going through you basically procur for yes for procurement that's we're working on a process uh with Stephen in order to a lot of the decentralized procurement in town has resulted in you know myth-based procurement so if I get three quotes I'm good right so we want to make sure you submit an order to that's not Stephen that's like no yeah old carile so the and the idea of having a process that that all departments understand and once they realize it's helpful and protective then it's not preventative that that's good yeah and then a lot of the pro problem with the maintenance also was that well there was a lot of deferred maintenance because they really did know how to oh that all goes under the rubric of you know professional Department that's yeah going to look at the big picture so it sounds like building on what Jim said we could we could move the maintenance merger into phase two which would be maybe more formalized processes I'm not sure exactly what they'd be yet but that could be a thing we that gets worked on and then initiate phase one or maybe it's at 1.5 I don't know things like ITR some of that's already being Done Right Aubrey's doing some HR she doing some of benefits are common right some good sharing of talent between town and school informally aren't benefits managed as one yes platform right so that's already done right by the towns side and uh it we use driveth through drive by Drive called the 20 they're called the 20 now the 20 but we used to use Drive Tech Drive Tech we used to use the individual expertise of Scotty and those guys in school are we using them at all anymore Scott's pretty good if I ever reach out with a question he'll answer it but he's not not formally he's not connected to town it except where it overlaps and and school doesn't use Drive tech 20 whatever well I mean so what's the best way to kind of on the first question on the what's your recommendation on how to progress on the phase two of the building side and the phase one and whatever else we did so I'll try to be as as clear as Jim was so I I think a lot of the times it's said we could just do this and it would be easy right like we could consolidate Supply we could consolidate maintenance we can consolidate it I don't think it's easy I think there's a lot of there's a lot of tfom there's a lot of um historical processes and procedures that are that are just unknown to to the policy makers so it would be good if there were some things that you definitely wanted to dig into we could um have some grants information come to to show you what it would actually look like what the difficulties might be and whether or not that's worth doing what I don't want to do is look for a grant where you're just like no we're not sharing that you know it would be great to say the nose and then we can get you the maybe and you can actually see but consolidating things like people Define supplies and maintenance differently so some of your departments you be surprised how much they're going to fight over like that's not really maintenance that's okay but I you're kind of answering a different question if if we have consensus that the trial period on the combined Maintenance building department the soft merger as uh Jim said worked we've done it for a year plus it's working it's got some Kinks so we have to unkink but it's working so the validation of that which is step one well maybe Step Zero is to coales around something that could be shared which we did with that step one is to try which we did that so let's set aside for the moment it and all the other stuff and say just with that what we've been talking about what is the recommended path forward to go the next level on a centralized building department where we have a single budget we figure out how it's built and you know a single they work for one they work under vertical structure and you know blah blah blah I mean that's where I think I'm asking your guidance of how to how you would recommend progressing that wouldn't wouldn't it be appropriate to since we're getting into the budget season in the fall to use this time to think about figure out how we would use that development of the budget to end up with a combined uh budget uh amount or what however you want to you know Define it but that basically that would be the the um Pathway to combining funds and having a single maintenance department yes identifying which funds to combine who's in charge of those funds how it's executed is is key and I I do think you'll be surprising the details you there's more to it than just yeah but that would teach us we have to try something right yeah so why don't we do that it may not be 100% of the maintenance funds in year one it may be let's right you know P 50% or whatever is agreeable and you just slowly refine it over time right so I think and the goal would be to remove the obstacles for for Steph so he doesn't have to get free signatures and he doesn't have to do all this stuff and what's the best way to remove those obstacles yeah let me just just give a quick you know anecdote so you can understand so Steven's pay right was a discussion this point in the budget so his pay was increased because of the increased responsibility so part of it in the town budget tiny bit of it and and the majority it's in the school budget so Kelly had to create a separate tracking account to put the town money into it we had to write anou and sign it to make sure that Steven paid and then we had to decipher whether or not he got the school Cola or the town Cola right so there's a whole separate account for a very small part of his salary in order to to pay what he deserves which is a good living wage um that exists in a lot of places right and it's not a ton of work but when you add it up for Kelly and all that like it's just time wasted and inefficiencies that we you you know we'd rather spend money somewhere else not just Steven's time that's wasted yeah it's Kelly it's me and Jim yeah but it's because we had to he came his his salar is being paid out of two bit separate buckets if you create a to you know Bar M if you create one bucket if you commit I don't want to be too prescriptive in this meeting but as you point out we're about to enter budging season we got a lot of season professionals and volunteers who know how to budget we should figure out a process we should have maybe fcom with helping figure out a process where we can budget one bucket and the finance staff right got a professional staff and we a little I mean thinking what you said wouldn't we designed contracts that all the like the cola and types of information are Consolidated so it' be a lot of work upfront but then it would would live on so it might be a little upfront work for Kelly for anything we do in in collaboration with the schools but then we would come with agreements and build out into the budget for whatever the colas are that in any shared services I would just say do I think Cola is I'm using col is one of the cola is probably not the great example because the true we're not suggesting a merger of the cola on school which is largely driven by your Collective Bing agre I don't even want to touch that so I'm just saying trust me a guy like Stephen would have again I'm I'm going to you know make up a scenario that may not be the true one but if the building department is on the town side then he's a town employee and he lives with the town side rules and he'd have to be okay with that and you know there's other ways to make people whole I think approaching it by trying to do some weird hybrid of school school colas and town colas are different for a very different reason is what I'm saying so trying to make this mixture is probably not the best thing it's like you're a town employee let's negotiate what your compensation is and that's the end of that I shouldn't have touched that I just meant more The Upfront work for whatever the so each of those little things has to be tackled so my question was is that best by a little task force what I'm again I'm looking for your guidance Ryan I I think it has to be school committee incom select board figuring that out yeah you know but again they got other thing I think it's personally I think it's more at the administrative level to come up with the identify the issue come up with recommendation approaches and then come back to us than rather us trying to work out well as it Cola and is it this and that I don't think that's a good use of either board's time I think we have a consensus that we want to make it happen we should flip it back to the daytime government to come up with a plan well I guess that's the question do we have a consensus do we have consensus yeah I think so I'm not even asking the school committee I think we all want the same thing I know okay we show that we share well collaborate well just the processes and we have to understand there's some unended consequences already and expect more and we're going to work through them I think it makes sense I think and I think that like what I'm hearing though and I guess may this is the gist of what I was saying is outside of the Committees I think like this also sounds like an HR thing right because I also worry about I want Stephen to be happy and that sounds like a a thorn so um if we're going to scale this I think having HR be a part of that is important too again day government yeah maybe that's daytime government function I see that Jim has his hand up and then we I'm also conscious of the time so we're going to need to wrap this up shortly yeah Jim yeah I was just thinking we're we're at a point as you said like we're going to be developing our budgets pretty soon right yeah September usually October so like as we go through that process we'll develop a facility Budget on the school side which have a good grasp of mid October and if the town's developing their budgets I know there's a couple of different facility budgets and Ryan's trying to bring them all together um but we could have kind of Alla facility numbers like pretty close by December right so at that point in time we all the entities will have identified the funds that they think they need in order to operate at which time we might consider okay what do we need to do in order to be able to bring these funds together under that one facilities department and then school committee select board everybody has their conversations and votes to endorse and sign on to that approach is that is that to that's that's what I was referring to as theou that we have a memorandum of agreement or understanding about how those funds once you've identified yours and we have identified ours and then we pull them how they're either accounted for or you know how put together again I I view that as a daytime government J the mechanics of merging yes yeah the budgets can be at the committee's levels but I think the mechanics which is the details that Scott's mentioning and Ryan's mentioning and Julie's mention it's daytime government together but as I said the thing is that once this daytime government were to leave it's nice to have that memorandum so that we of course we memorialize it yeah as they do all yes okay all right well I think this is the this is the direction that we want to head at least it sounds like from the select board standpoint and and possibly from the school committee so if the daytime government would take that responsibility and move that forward I think that sounds great all right school committee good all right great excellent take the rest of the evening off thanks take the rest of the evening off yes do you have to close your meeting okay to I'll take make a motion to the car school committee meeting second okay oh yeah Bola I wat I with I good meeting now it's all B's and W's I was just GNA say it's the first time in my life I've ever gone first than youim Brian all thank you Sharon thank you all right next item is the um under the sustainability agenda item the hansam resolution which is in our packets and um is are we uh we're just ready to review this and vote on it I believe right so thank you Scott for a masterful job of putting together this resolution um does uh why don't we take the motion to and a second and then we can see if there's any discussion hang on oh that's the that's not the thing um I I move we uh can you see it in here yeah I I have it David do you want to read it can you get it Kate or here okay I'll read it I boy Kate's just dishing off his responsibility from you okay I move to Proclaim opposition to the LG hansam Field North Airfield development and requests the governor of Massachusetts to take all possible actions to prevent the project as stated in the included resolution second Okie do uh any discussion I thought it was well well done Scott did the draft to this thought it was excellent and I think it's in keeping with what we discussed and we had a hearing on this um and seems to make a lot of sense I agree any other comments all right well let's take a roll call vote then on this resolution Arnold I model Reed ey now triola I all right the resolution is passed unanimously thank you all right at yeah look at that so friends of Center Park hi Allison thank you for joining us and if you'd say um your name and your street address please Allison sailor Stern Street and I represent friends of Central Park thank you and we have in our packet the um revised agreement that you you know went back and forth a few times but we have in our packet the um agreement that you was the last draft that you did and provided to us right do you want to make a short presentation yes I was told I have a few minutes to talk so I will take advantage of that so friends of Center Park was created in 2019 and a lot of people think we're part of the Garden Club the Carl Garden Club and we are not although some of us are garden club members um we took the money from the town that had been um set aside for Center Park and we took a mandate at the time and the agreement that's in place right now to set up a nonprofit organization so that we could accept donations on behalf of ten Park and we had it since 2019 that the DPW would do The Lawns and that the Garden Club would do one cleanup and one uh in the spring one clean up in the fall as a joint vent but that most of the keeping um maintaining of the rather complicated and complex and delightful um garden beds uh would be done by friends of Santa Park so we did that we set up a task force um and then it turned into a 501c3 and we have a president I am the President of friends of Center Park we should have nine uh directors but we have six at the time at this time we have um an events director Emily Richardson we have a Treasurer Chris Cox Communications director um Cecil sandwi secretary is Elizabeth boasi um a member at large is Dana booth and I am the Horticultural director as well we're missing a VP and a fundraising director and Barney is our um select board liazon in the calendar of events for Center Park we'll start with January um if there's a nice snowstorm or very cold weather we'll have ice sculptures or snow sculptures but um basically it's open dawn to dusk 365 days a year and it's not used as much in January in February we organize a public input meeting where we have a um a zoom meeting where we ask people to give input because we as friends of Center Park have a cycle of getting our plans together in March and having that be our plans for the season so February we get some input in March we do a pruning event and have our um plans organized for the year so that we can start in April and go all the way through the end of October having free community garden classes um organized by the Master Gardeners of Massachusetts of which I am the project leader for Carlile Center Park is an official project and we run classes um open to all um every Monday um November we have that last cleanup with a Garden Club and then December we do very little because it's December our biggest event of the year is Halloween where we have 4 to 500 uh people coming through to our spooky Trail um but in general our the amount of events at center park has increased tenfold because of our Preen classes and are promoting of events um Carla cultural council do do activities the library has activities um during Co when things wanted everyone wanted to be outside we were perfect um for that so in looking back over we're almost at the 5year mark of what we have done we started with um a beautiful Park professionally uh designed and maintained uh with a lawn and uh extensive um garden beds around that what we did um in our uh stewardship is take a new model of using volunteers to do a lot of the work and we decided that a lot of the park was not being used the Woodland Gardens you could see them um the stone walls are the lot lines that you can that Define you know don't blink it's a very tiny little park but we have pushed in Pathways into the Woodland Gardens we have uh revealed some beautiful stones that are um sitting you know 10 stones that are if we had paid for them it would have been a budget Buster but we found them there when we were trying to do some of our plantings we have uh fundraised and created three beautiful benches for the Woodland Gardens we have um some new planting areas it's a funny word it's hul culture it's a German word meaning Hill culture we have a um hul culture we have two of them now but the first one we put in took uh a lot of the tree trunks that were um culled from some congested trees and then you lay down the branches then you L down the sticks and the leaves and then you plant in it and we have a living fence with a um made out of willows that is thriving in that area it the removing of some of the trees allowed for a pollinator Garden to be put in we remove poison ivy Bittersweet multiflor Rose and burning bushes we added a little bistro table um we sponsor events we have a new website we've been planting new um flowers and plants and shrubs we even planted a tree even though we have a lot of trees already but we're promoting in the Woodland Gardens we promote native plants and in the um the Charming lawn area public park area whatever is pretty will be fine for us we we um Asian Beauties Europeans Delights are fine too we're very proud of the sign that we got through the historical commission and it now hangs um from the tree and um we have in the past been in charge of the irrigation we have money that we have spent on behalf of Center Park includes some very irritating bills on irrigation uh the sign plants soil labels benches and tree pruning the money that we'd like spent in the future um is irrigation tree pruning tree removal shed um and these are things which we think are beyond the scope of our uh little nonprofit these are things that I think the town should do that's sort of the discussion for today we'd like a picnic table um we'd like a trash can and a few more benches we have a very good working relationship with the DPW we love them they do a good job mowing on and clearing snow and giving us wood chips when we asked for it and cutting down some of the um trees we had uh this past month we had a Catalpa removed leab butter agreed that it was going to get too large and might damage her house so we agreed to take it down and the DPW took care of it um we've been working with hisorical commission um they've approved our shed request um but they denied our picnic table and we're in a current disagreement because they consider Furniture to be an acement and therefore in their jurisdiction but it's disappointing because in 2020 um I went to them and that committee at the time said that only things that were bolted into the ground were considered their jurisdiction and that furniture was not so that still hasn't quite played out um but it's uh it it's something that we're working on the irrigation um is shared with the police station and for the first few years the water and the electrical line came through under the onto the street and was fine and then last year the uh electrical line got ruined somehow and so we had to go to a um battery operated system and this year we haven't used it at all because they said the water doesn't work and I don't know the story of it but we're not as worried about it because we handw water our new plants as we give them TLC to get them through their first year and irrigation is not important we're with our movement to more native plants it's just not a big deal for us but it's if it's needed it's expensive and then also another thing that just happened very sad there's a big elm tree in the front um between the oak tree with the lovely sign and fern and it leafed out beautifully as it has done for the past I don't know 40 years or so and then suddenly shriveled up its leaves and is dying and uh we had um Andrew Joselyn say to us that it seems to have the uh dreaded Dutch elm disease and probably will need to come out down within a year uh he said it's not an emergency like you don't have to do it this week but he said within a year so anyone can go look at it it's very sad what friends of Center Park would like for the future is to get money for the shed um we'd like a picnic table we'd like a really nice trash can not one big enough that people have a wild urge to put their own domestic trash in there um but one that is waterproof and looks pretty and they're expensive and we haven't found one yet and I like a few more benches but mostly we're here to do the 5year reup because we think the agreement we have with friends of Center Park is working great thanks Allison um just as someone who's been the liaison for a little while um I'll say that um Allison and I when Allison first uh provided a revised agreement um we had the opportunity to sit down and talk about it which I thought was very helpful and um if if you were looking at the original 2019 agreement and comparing it to this agreement um most of this is the same as that original agreement um if you look at the revised agreement uh this current proposed agreement if you're looking at item number two what's changing here is um indicating that the DPW would be responsible for the management the irrigation system as opposed to the oversight everything else in that item too is the same as it was in the 2019 agreement the the new part is in um bullet number three um which includes the shed uh everything else that is mentioned there it says you know the town agrees to pay for well uh the um irrigation system and the tree ring is already included in item number two above there for the DPW so I'm not sure that we need to have that there I think the the issues for us to really discuss tonight are um the request that the town agrees to pay for ongoing Capital um and then also the uh request to pay for shed and when that's that's the same thing shed is the capital there's no other Capital well then it would be good to just clarify that it's just to pay for the shed because that you know if you just leave it as um ongoing Capital so so then it boils down to the shed um and when Allison and I spoke I said that um I thought the way to handle that would be for the friends of Center Park to go through the process that any other department does in terms of the budget and coming forward and making a request in the budg process of us developing the budget um but Allison wanted to keep it in the agreement so I I said we that would be then probably the heart of the discussion tonight to figure that out the rest of the agreement um if you the the only other thing that's been added is item number seven um which is actually that was in about the friends of Center Park agreeing to work with the historic Commission on proposed structures for the park and that comes out of some of the experience that's that's happened over the last 5 years and um I think both parties will benefit from having discussions about plans earlier you know early on in the process and then maintaining good communication so I think that was that's a good thing to have in this new agreement um but uh I want to know if others have different questions um or we if we're if we're okay with the the basic agreement which is fundamental like the previous one um then it's really the the shed that we're talking about I'm not seeing the shed identified as a well you've got a blue I don't know what here you're looking number number three yeah I I don't know we had a new H packet come out this afternoon this is from the new packet I can put on the screen here yeah yeah that this is it right here yeah well that part I see but it's the number three mhm you see where it says line including the shed I'm Al I'm looking at the markup which I thought was the markup of that to the original it was very our pockets were very confusing around this that's that's which is why I had questions so we don't have a real markup we don't have a red line from that to that we don't right we have that to Something in the middle and then they CH because because there's a a lot of stuff that doesn't you know they need to become there was another markup so I didn't include it or let ask let me ask a basic question the you raise money you're in 501c3 so you raise money to do stuff do you also submit a budget to the town for stuff you want the town to do we have never done that before we so where do we how is the stuff the town does do not the new DPW into the DPW budget yeah yeah yeah I I have a problem with number three okay um because first of all we did see a request for shed already ready which we said no to so I I certainly would not agree to say I wouldn't say that I agree that we're going to pay for the shed in this uh document um so I full stop I don't have to say any further and um you know I I don't think I don't know if I think it was more can I just point out that it's more that I think that the shed is an identified need when we get a said uh you know what it's going to look like is identified because the staral commission have approved it but when we get it it's going to have to be paid for it by the town because friends of Santa Park just don't have the funds well then you're not going to have a shed I mean that that might be but you are the whole idea of the original agreement was that the town gave some seed money to get you started but that there was going to be a a 501c3 to do fundraising for operating the um Park going forward and that if you became unable to maintain the garden beds and the beds that the the park would revert to the town so if you're unable to get a shed and you can't operate the the park without a shed then the park reverts to the shed is to store the stuff you need to do right currently I have to use my own personal tools and bring them every single Monday and I've done it for 5 years and I'm a little tired of it I'd like a shed I'd like to be able to I can get grant money to buy tools for the shed I get money from Grants from the Master Gardeners and we can buy tools we can um you know put tools that would be belong to the town in the shed but it's you don't think you could raise your money for sh I think it would be challenging I don't have a fundraising director you have an estimate though right for what the cost, $10,000 it less than that if we can if we can if all the things align in the economy stays ra the same it'll be under 10,000 but the historical commission have added a few things to it that made it a little pricier but that's that's their prog I if the library can raise a few million dollars I don't know I think it is I agree with you I think it's incumbent on the town to say we need to be pushing these fundraisings to the groups that want them yeah I like the analogy of of friends gleon library and friends of Council on Aging you don't expect them to pay for the library salaries for the Librarians therefore for the extras we consider us for the extras and so a shed is just beyond us it's we'll help we'll try I'll write grant money I'll talk to people I'll present it I have already I getting it through the historical commission was not easy but I'm just being realistic we we are in debt the the town said that they would pay for things for senart with the exception of us becoming Incorporated and it turns out it cost several thousand dollars to become Incorporated so we are we have no money we have negative money and we're trying to pay it off and we get more money from Grants than we do than people giving us money and if I sound pathetic I'm I am a little pathetic it's it's that's all we can do and I'm saying it's going to be very helpful to run it in this sustainable way with volunteers doing the work to have a shed and that's all you're not I'm not asking you to promise you'll pay for Shad well that this does say that we promis for that's why I recommended we take it out of the agreement and then have you put it you know present it as you go through as we start going through our budget process I agree to that but I want the select board to realize that I am expecting the town to help with the shed because it is too much you don't ask for the LI the friends of gon library to pay for things that are for the library actually we do the the analogies I mean you're not not trying pay but yeah we pay for the CHS director we pay for the staff we pay for Library staff but we expect the library to raise for special projects I think right we do for special projects and I this a special project I mean I think what I'm hearing sounds pretty good like let's not make it a requirement of the agreement all right but you can come and petition like I mean if fire department needs something they have to come in and they have to get in the racken St back and so it shouldn't be any different right um what department would this if it's if it's a budget request it's going to have to go through one of the Departments so what is the DPW maybe so you would have to you would have to talk to DTW and have them request that as part of your budget so I think it as part of their budget we're not looking to create a new Department here it would have to go through a departmental budget I think this would be a select board request a select board request administrator did you hear what Ryan said you go ahead I from a budget standpoint it would be go under what the select board budget yes well it's a capital item so it's a capital yeah yeah I that just sounds it doesn't sound in line with our process I mean ultimately it has to come through fincom the budget process has to be vetted through the budget process versus the select board committing to something say you know obviously it can't go in the agreement but it should be treated like any other budget request yeah uh Travis I just don't I'm just not clear which department it's through and I I wouldn't see the select board it going in the select board budget well we could figure that out I think but between now and the start of the budget process but um Travis did you want to comment no I'm I'm in agreement with what Kate and Scott and David have said and I Barney if you have other thoughts love to hear those too but I think it is a you know something that is a should be privately raised at this point uh for funding and you know if you want to come before us during the budget process you you know that's however that mechanics of that work out that's fine but I just think U we have I'm not supporting it at this point so I advocate that it comes out of this agreement too so ready oh I can make a motion if you yeah so we'll strike item three entirely accept the terms of agreement between the town of Carlile and Friends of the Center Park um with um the elimination of number three all of number three or just all of number three because the other items are included in number the other items are already included in number two um y okay and is there is there any anything I'm missing about item the oversight versus management of the irrigation system is that a trivial thing change that's a good question what um has there been a second before we have this conversation oh wait hold on let's have get a second on the table second all right David seconded um yeah I think was that your change from oversight to maintenance yes do you want me to explain why uh for no reason that we configure the water supply uh broke and there was a big leak in the parking lot of centa Park and it PE the irrigation company had to come and that was the same year that the wire got broken and they had to put in all the new valves and put battery system so we had a $2,000 uh irrigation bill that year we usually get something on the 500 and that we can sort of put up with although seriously most money goes into irrigation um and then we have another you know thing this year saying something else went wrong and we don't need the irrigation that much we would like a water supply with a spigot so we can hand water but having it automatically irrigate to the point where the police station can't flush their toilets which is what we heard um I don't need it I don't need it so so so what you're trying to what you're trying to say here is that it to the DP it's the responsibility of the DPW or somebody management of the irrigation system could be shutting it off right yeah okay fine so all right everybody okay with that is is DPW on board with that change we talk to DPW Al who looks after town hall and some of the Landscaping said he was looking into it um a couple shutting off his recommendation how would they not friends of Santa Park do not need the irrigation right so the management of it means just not using it you would like the water supp I would like the water supply we've had it before and it's there ready to go and I don't understand quite why a pipe goes from wherever the source is across the road or under it's the police station's water and it goes under the road May Cynthia sa I don't want to interrupt but Travis you know the answer to this from MFC Travis run away I think he's there I'm here but I don't know what what she's referring to well I'll be glad to speak but I can speak at the end if you prer no take no go ahead Cynthia if you can um I apologize Cynthia sa 433 Ron street at the last Municipal facilities committee they learned that the ramp project at the police station uh when the Sono tubes were sunk they broke the irrigation system and when they repaired it they did not repair the branch that went to the center Park and the MFC discussed about how they would take on the cost of repairing it to provide the water to Center Park who would cover the cost MFC the MFC discussed this yes as covering it because it was part of their ramp project I see but but currently you have a spigot that produces water noig that does not produce water this year we've had it all the other years that's what you you want to have a spigot provides water but you don't need the irrigation of the lawn or any of that if it is needed in the future it's all there ready to be I think we have to rewrite actually instead of wiping out three we have to change three to refer to I guess MFC agreeing if they did agree to provide a water supply in the form of a spigot if you want to just cross off irrigation because friends of Center Park don't have anything to do really with irrigation other than please give us the water so we can right is what we're talking about no we would take we would get rid of irrigation but we're now interest new requirement which is the but we could be silent and just we just deal with it it I'll let you handle it because I don't know what to set right or change so you do it oh fine that's a can of worms I would think we would I'd want to hear from NFC now about we're we're not obligating anybody we just deal with that as request well here's my suggestion that um one we check in with the DPW with Jim two that we check in with MFC to determine whether that was a commitment they that they're going to follow through on in terms of the repair um and then uh third would be the question of uh are we do we want to include in this agreement that we're going to um provide uh access to water at Central Park at Center Park I think we have that requires another meeting yes I agree I'm going to withdraw my motion um to start with let's table it Y and we we don't need to sign this till November we can get it done actually September is when it runs out but right so what if it runs out in October November it's not going to AFF no we should be able to get it done before beginning of September so I don't have to do anything it's all just what your yeah we'll we'll someone will redo this after we've checked in with the relevant parties so we're good okay okay all right thank you thanks a lot Alison and thank you to Center Park folks okay why am I having trouble with this from there um okay all righty so we're uh at the public facilities discussion about the uh opms the project managers for the police station and the fire station I'm going take a quick break I will be right back may I ask a question yes Madam chair acting temporary chair in uh Jeremy are you just here for the lighting yeah so why don't we do the LI can we take an item out of yes we certainly can so this is that's in your ta report right report okay Julie just a short pause short uh detour no worries okay here all night so you're it's page 57 if you're doing your packet yeah and I have an updated one so I'm going to put it right on the screen for every oh [Music] okay okay and that's not but I will explain it can you minimize the thing in the comments and make that bigger okay great thank you okay so um some good news and then some options for the select board after three rounds of procurement and tons of free work from Jeremy we were able to get the Corey lighting under the state earmark and town meeting approved vote numbers and that doesn't include any energy incentives and rebates that the town would get back um and would would turn into free cash eventually so that's not a promise but it is hanging out there so that includes um full Up full upgrade of the system to include some of the safety requirements but part of the baiting process was to um and here are the costs broken out for you so the theater system from barbazon the engineering to get us down to this cost that we got and then the electrical construction so all that's ready to go and we're going to have a pre-construction meeting very soon in order to get this done by Thanksgiving which was which was our Target so the Deferred items here are alternate items that we are looking to see if the select board will support through arpa funding yeah and Jeremy's here to to talk you through um through what I can't but the the idea is that we want our emergency lights to come on when the power goes out and this bypass allows that to happen in a safe manner for the entire theater we need to treat the curtains to make sure that they're fireproof and as the ring comes down to add the new equipment we want to add uh safety items to that and then while the performers and other people using the stage to include like our cable company during town meeting um um they move around backstage it would be it would be in our best interest to add blue safety lights so the total cost for that which is a little bit different for your packet is $23,400 years so I mean that wasn't part of the systems um but the other thing that's on there is that uh you know we're we're putting lights up uh we're taking lights down that are existing we're going to put lights back on uh changing out the rigging um which is the the ropes and uh some of the the um the U the the cable um connections uh they're just at their end of their life right and that's something that we might as well do once uh and not have to do again a year from now uh you know take everything down again it's just an opportunistic time saying hey they're at the end of the life let's replace them uh and then the uh the backstage Blues is uh yep we've had uh kids trip uh it's very confined space back they are having some blue lights back stage so that when people come off of stage when they've been in light they can see what's going on when there's blackouts they can see what's going on and nobody gets uh going to get stripped up so all of these are safety related issues that are beyond the initial Stope that we discovered as we went so we know that everything is compared to every other priority in town but we do believe that providing this would increase safety at the school complete this project and it would be a lot cheaper doing it now we're going to have to do it again anyway as part of the capital plan so um the team of facilities Jim mosa and myself were recommending that we do this we do this now uh I was asked to provide a quick it doesn't have to be quick but an update on arpa there's a lot to this um but you do do have this funding available about 29,000 and I'll let Scott speak no you you do have you have 880,000 you got the green line yeah so um I met with Ryan and Kelly last week and I'm going to be doing an Outreach to the projects next week to close out and Claw back uned funds um essentially where we're at is we have 880,000 unallocated we have 14 in contingency I believe we're getting the 40,000 back for the the kitchen project and I think there's other monies to be clawed back so I think at the end of the day we'll probably have about $150,000 of ARA funds that we will look to allocate in the next 60 days just to ensure that we get everything allocated before the deadline so we we looked at the list of potential uses that that Ryan had priori this was one of them among some others there's some incomplete information I don't think we could necessarily do all those things with the remaining funds but um certainly this is this would be a priority okay so we can do this yeah we can do this uh Ryan can you just confirm does this meet the procurement requirements it does it would be a it was in the alternates during the bid so we have the pricing for it and there was only one bidder for each so this is really a change order okay y so we could certainly we can certainly do this with our the funds available right now do we want to take this motion then the first motion that's on page 57 and do that now this is the amount 2249 okay let's change from what's in the motion okay okay do you see that y I'm in the WR I'm move to approve $22,400 to purchase lighting and electrical equipment shouldn't we also include the curtains yes and saf to to purchase emergency lighting bypass fireproof curtains rigging safety paraphernalia and backstage blue safety lights necessary to improve the cut off here the safety of the Corey auditorium at the Carl Public Schools second any discussion thank you for doing that arpa presentation because I I just you know it's tempting to spend you know uh things that you think you may have and and to know that there's a list and to see where we were with clawbacks and everything like that so appreciate that um any other comments all righty roll call vote Arnold ey mod Reed ey sell ey Rola I all right right that motion carries so besides using being a super user of the equipment which is also volunteerism there's absolutely no reason for Germany to have saved us thousands and thousands of dollars on this project so I would like to thank him um thank you in many cases knew more than the engineers did so and we thank you as well thank you very much Jeremy to small town government nobody expects that no good goes [Music] unpunished learning experience and I got to thank Ryan and the entire staff for uh helping us through especially Town Council I think the procurement process is couldn't have imagined what Massachusetts does to small small down so but we're thrilled to have it with budget and uh we're going to have a great system for uh town for the community and the school that's great and Jeremy Bley 47 heart Farm Road I don't think I said that okay thank you Jeremy I would I would also like to add that Jeremy has lent the school his equipment for I don't know how many years now Jeremy but not only not only has he helped and spearheaded this design but he's a free of charge as far as I know um lent his personal equipment to the schools for many many Productions and they' really enhanced the production so thank you for that Jeremy yeah absolutely I'm looking forward to getting a fact it's been hanging there for a couple years so good load for one thing who knew yeah good you too thank you bye bye all right Julie a follow new glasses Julie just for fun okay so this um three OPM projects going at once here in town and I'll summarize them quickly just to put this in context for the board the library building committee is procuring their OPM for the renovation of the gleon public library that is under the trustees and Library Authority they have their own funding for that but it is ongoing this uh two requests in front of you tonight one is for the police station OPM this is already out to bid we're looking to to get these back I believe by the end of the month the primary question on the police station side is how you how you are what you're okay with in terms of the selection of the OPM so the process the final process whether that comes to you whether you are continuing to delegate that to the police station building renovation committee and I will say unlike the next OPM discussion this one is the oversight of the construction and final phases of the project there's really no design left it's complete and then the second one in your packet is is much more extensive and it was your direction to us to get this done but it's to bring on an OPM to help you finalize the design so this OPM is not only going to do the construction part in the finalizing the project but also help you um feel confident in the design line pick and the the right type of fire station for for Carlo for the next couple decades so um same questions are you okay with with the way we're procuring it and then how are you going to feel comfortable with the selection of this person so can we tackle the police station first because it's simpler yeah I mean I have to me as you said it's pretty straightforward we do have a committee that's done a lot of work I don't see any reason why we need to get more involved why we have to stick our or in yeah exactly totally agree yeah so I mean I'm all in favor of writing that committee the bidding is you you're you guys are procuring the yep we have a plan in place they're going to review it it's whether or not you want to interview the OPM at the end or we just bring you a name I'm good with the lad I am there's two more members on the yeah okay Scott sign yeah okay so that was easy don't feel the same way about the so now yeah I need to get I need to get caught up on the process of the fire station so we've had some back and forth we're nowhere near a design are you saying that the OPM would help pick the architect I mean I I'm not clear on what yeah I I understand OPM in the way the police station process does it you have a project you get a project manager you say here's our project please manage a cost effectively thank you very much right I'm not clear on an OPM in the design phase I don't know what an OPM would add to that well it I I'll speak to that at least for myself is um you know we've been in many conversations as a board and I have said pretty regularly that I didn't feel uh you know knowledgeable enough experienced enough to be able to say yes that's the design I think we should go with and so one of the conversations we had not too long ago was um about hiring an OPM whose first role was going to be to um I don't I don't know all the words right but yeah once once we've we put out the scope which is in here right we and that's something we do need to discuss but once that's done that then we would get bids back in this OPM a neutral you know experienced uh individual who's worked on projects like this before would be the one to really dig into the proposals and say you know and and vet them in a sense right am I talking about this the right way well very often are Architects and then and then be able to say to us for these reasons this particular bid looks to be the one that's going to do what you want it to do okay is that a fair description in Lay person's terms so the OPM it would likely be an architect someone who is interested in helping you guide this project would like to be an architect or like the OPM would likely be likely be and we could require it if you want the I don't think we need to require it the pre-design phase includes helping the select board and and I'm not sure that this needs to be you know a full-time job but helping the board walk through exactly what you want to procure from an architectural service in order to get the design that's necessary we did talk about this the fire chief also recommended it having in his discussion with you he said many smaller towns hire the OPM first during the design process in order to attract the type of designers that would be interested in this particular project so the main problem with the last couple design runs we've done is there there just wasn't enough confidence in the design or in the cost estimation and and whatever you want to consider for the select board to be willing to bring that forward to the to the town so this is this was our what we were told by you to do in order to bring someone to help you with that okay um just a couple questions when I was reading through this um and maybe it's just because the version for the fire station was copying the version for the police station but are you on the same timing for hiring the OPM yes you are well we could it's up to you well we we already missed the the June or July 16 so so the thinking is though we would we would try to find an OPM for each project by the end of the summer basically right is what that timing was yeah so the thought process was if you have an OPM you might have the ability to put out for design bit around the the fall town meeting and have a design that you could bring to the annual town meeting you still wanted to bring it done okay um and I wanted to just point out something that I really liked in both both of these is that um there's a stipulation that um you know we we can't we don't allow any going forward to the next phase unless the project is within budget right and and we're that's a specific thing that the OPM is responsible for yeah well of course in this case the OPM um might end up telling us well you know your budget is you know you guys yeah you know but but that's partly why we want an OPM exactly you know but it says in on page 48 of the packet the under appendix a the OPM shall not have responsibility for the design or the construction of the project such responsibilities shall remain with the designer capital D and the general contractor so I'm still confused because I get it that a design we need a designer I I don't know what you said the the designer and the OPM would be one and the same no but then who's the designer the OPM will help you procure the designer that's what I asked earlier and then you guys said no it will be an architect well the OPM will be an architect so that you feel comfortable with the design that's procured it be double architecting is that is that really advantageous why wouldn't we interview Architects and find people who can design things we want I think we need an OPM with a skill set that knows what to look for and that understands codes and that can oversee whoever gets selected so we we would hire ARS who don't understand codes no we we would hire an OPM who has the skill set of an AR to understand doesn't the architect come with that code knowledge isn't that part of what you're paying for absolutely but this is something that Ryan and I can't necessarily over see because we don't have that exact skill set no but I guess I'm still kind of not understand so we did procure designers previously yeah and the designer selection committee did bring an architect and although the the architect was very qualified the board did not have a lot of confidence that the the design was the right fit for Carlile so they shouldn't have picked that Designer sounds like well but they did because they didn't know how to pick the right designer know but it's okay I mean I think it's going to go that we're going to prove it but I it sounds to me like we don't have confidence in our own ability to pick an architect who understands a town so we're going to assign it to somebody else who may also not understand it like then we're even one stepper moov what if they don't understand well that's the point of of finding the right OPM but if you can find the right OPM you ought to be able to find the right designer put that effort into finding the right designer you know what David we already made this decision we made this decision to do this let's not relitigate this just okay then let's just pass it it's okay well it just doesn't make a bunch of sense we're hoping that to be candid when this OPM says it's going to be x that you believe the designer or that if you need 7,000 ft for X Program you believe because why would we believe the OPM more than we believe the designer what special magic does the OPM walk in with a good designer would not help so you're hiring the the OPM is essentially an employee of the town so they have a vested interest in protecting the town the designer should be but they're they're more likely to protect their design if I thought we could do this without the OPM it's just we haven't been able to haven't been able right build consensus through three let's get back down okay let's move past we've agreed to an OPM now the question is who should have oversight we don't yet have a committee there's no committee to do that vetting right so we would agree to this and then we would form a committee and then we would AR how would that work I would like to be prescriptive and I would love to hear Julie's opinion but I think you should hire the OPM I think so too get through pre-design and then appoint a building committee because I think the building committee will do the work they'll bring it back to you and you're going to relitigate it so I think so you think we have enough expertise to evaluate the OPM we need to we yes we do not only do we have the expertise but this OPM is going to be our creature so to speak and so we need to really love this okay person um so that we have confidence have confidence in them so that's why I think it has to be us okay Travis or Scott hey I agree completely I think that this is a good path forward because it's been challenging because there are a lot of different interests that need to be represented and I think if we have an a person who's working for the select board and we're I think the key here is to be clear on what goals we want to achieve with this fire station project and what budget we want to have and if we are clear on both of those items we can hire this person to effectively match those up and give us an honest opinion of saying you know if you're going to you know have all these things it's going to cost X and if you want to cut back on a few of these things we can bring it in at y we have a better handle on making those decisions and I think if we can get a person who does that that'll be really effective to move this forward but they would be able to I agree with that and but like they would be able to give us that ballpark budget before before there's a design like if we go back with this list of needs and chief um Soros is saying well I need to store all my trucks inside or I need a training room or I need this or I need that and we're saying well GE do you really like would that OPM be able to give us the the menu of things and well I I don't what I hear so far in what we've done is Brian came in with napkin designs and wish lists and we've had no real like prioritization of like do all the trucks need to be inside that's that's what the opm's going to help us do because so but what what Travis is saying is then well let me ask it if he helps us decide then before he goes to design he's able to say based on I say he but I'm using generically they they are able to um say based on their experience that this size garage will cost roughly X this size garage will cost exactly so for instance earlier tonight you asked Ryan you know what do you think the ballpark of what was it Highland building Ryan doesn't have that but when I asked him I was trying to put his expertise on the car but I thought done that analysis and he may remember what that number was but it's irrelevant but the thing is that this LPM would have that okay all right let's try I think we're still going to have a bit of a money but that's it's okay we got it we can't have as much of a model as we have now Scott Scott has his hand up yeah Scott I haven't been part of this the fire station discussion in the process uh I just want to ask Ryan and Julie what's your recommendation and is this if your recommendation is to proceed in this way is this a standard approach I think you had mentioned other projects use this approach is what we're talking about doing here fairly common practice and best practice this is a hot potato yeah I do think it's done both ways I think I think this is a confidence issue so I think the select Board needs to feel confident that they're making the right decision it's a 20 30-year decision it's expensive decision and I think it impacts all the other Capital decisions so what I've seen is a lot of um I don't want to use that overly negative term but a lot of concentration on the smaller part of the project and not the bigger part of the project I think you need to bring in an expert that can help you feel confident that all the decisions are being made correctly so um I think this is what's needed to to get this project either going or to to not happen or to make a decision on it all right so are we um is there a motion we're going to adopt tonight on this that we're I think it's just general advice right is it general advice so the the things we need in order to finalize this are to make sure that your goals for the project are correct that we have some idea of the budget of the project where is all that well the goals are on page two of 20 beginning of the um it's um page 37 in our packet okay those to to expand the facility capacity I provide for property health and safety I think they yeah these are the ones we've gone over before we've gone over I think that's just not be much new here no right so this is you see it under item three that's and it if you go down to number three okay how about how much budget for this little piece and where is that budget coming the budget uh what do you mean so I can explain what I think so we're going to put it out to bid or we'll negotiate with whoever selected because that's the way design Works to partition the project off so we'll have a a cost for pre design I'm assuming that will be something that you will consider under arpa because it's been discussed before okay yes then we'll then we'll say what would the rest of the project we cost and'll only authorize it no I me it's the front end so so we can move quickly on that we get the people we have arpa we got to commit the arpa anyway pretty soon so boom boom boom and off we go as much arpa as we can use to get to where and if in Phase a we begin to lose confidence in this P this OPM we don't have to progress to we're not obligated beyond what we commit right yes correct yeah okay all right and but for the police department are we also going to use arpa funds it's already paid for it's already paid for in the it's in the vote a town meeting we can use that okay great great okay got it yeah this was our so um you just need a direction from us to uh go ahead use oura funds and and pursue the process if hiring we're not going to commit the we don't need the funding yet what we need is goals and then um the evaluation criteria is pretty standard I don't think we need to De I don't think we have to and then we've heard you do not want to select a building committee and that all of this you will be the design selection committee so all of it will run through we don't want to decide a building committee yet yet we might be the we might or might not be the design selection committee depending upon for the OPM does it we do we want to be for we want to be we want to be involved with the OPM but not necessarily we want to hire the OPM no we're delegating that though to well ran yes you'll present more than one choice I guess no we what we just discussed was that I'm not talking police police is done right for fire you're going to get a short list yeah okay yes right well you're going to get all of it and then you're going to decide who you want to interview public process but it's our H our Okay police is your hire police is your higher this one is our higher that's clear and the goals seem fine the goals seem fine certainly the criteria and the last thing that we need to say you know are we comfortable with the five to you know telling them up front 10 million 5 to 10 I mean that's like well remember that was that whole conversation we had and we could I think we sell them that and they're like they laugh at us and then we go back have to look at right I mean I sure all right well I just wanted to we have two more members I got we got okay I think I think it's all good and I think we should pull the Trigg did a nice job pull the trigger let's go did you have anything you want to add Julie I think so okay questions so just leave leave it as budget 5 to 10 million that range sure okay I mean is it possible Ryan that let's say you you put it out to bid and you put all that stuff in and the respon you get back are we can't do this in the 5 to 10 million I mean that may be data right they may come back just from what you've written and say we don't think we don't think the lower end of that range is practical when you interview them you can ask that and they'll probably answer you and then you can decide whether or not you agree okay so they won't no bid just on the basis of that more part you won't get bids from people that want to do a $25 million prog right which is okay because we don't want that but you might get people that are like hey I want to do your project but you're being unreasonable it's 10 to 15 yeah yeah okay but but this is part of the information we're trying that's the information we need because the question was asked is 5 to 10 a good number it's like me asking Ryan is 1 to two million a good number exactly okay yeah all right all right so you you need anything else from us about that you have your marching orders vote on this no you just put out the b great y put it out the bid so I need to figure out how to turn you into a design selection committee but that's my problem okay oh well yeah okay I don't want to shuffle through like 20 applications here in public meeting it would take 14 days so but I'll figure it out no can you can we Empower you to make the short list I'm happy to come and read them with you I think so okay I heard a volunteer that's going to help you all right uh anything more from Scott or Travis no I think it's good forward all right excellent so this one last I'm sorry the the on page seven of 20 the calendar will have to be re yeah right right okay okay all right good well thank you Julie thank you Julie make your way um all righty we are on to the TA report all right um just reminding everyone that and invite your friends but volunteer training on August 6 so this will focus on Town structure ethics budgeting managing public comments the appointment process finances Etc so it's really a boot camp for uh for new volunteers and specifically chairs who might want to know how to on board last year we had a bunch of people are we going to try to encourage people to come back yes but it's targeting new volunteers and then anyone who wants and who's going to be in charge of the invites Aubrey and you we've been inviting people been inviting like my committee like I don't have to worry about it you guys are extending invitations yes okay or through the chairs so maybe I'll have to check you have to let me know oh the the um master plan the town meeting town meeting thing okay they're dropping like flies out of that once top meeting's over okay well they just it's too late Okay so we've U Been conducting interviews for DPW driver labor dispatcher and public health nurse we should have some some employees to bring you soon and we're still collecting resumés for the electrical and Facilities technician planning zoning and land use assistant and now the CHS social services coordinator uh can I just ask one question has there was there any discussion around you know sharing yeah shared services in the public health nurse and or dispatcher positions Andor Social Services dispatcher we couldn't share Social Services yeah so dispatcher we can't share because it's Union so there would have to be a impact bargaining to that public health nurses under the purview of the Board of Health not under me and the um other positions have have been considered for planning okay or shared services yes are you reaching out to some towns on that I am yeah okay very good all right all right chapter 90 we have received all of our 2024 allotments this funding will support the road program as presented to you the Westford Street Culvert and um we are working with we brought our Engineers out to a couple of the roads without a commitment yet but to see what it would cost to fix some problems if you remember I know the name of the road just given me but the one I had the top coat and then oh yeah the finals l so you go out to pheen Hill Lane and you of course you realize why it was done the way it was done forever so there's a couple spots that are that are going to require some significant design in order to solve drainage problems and then we have to decide whether or not the drainage is going to cause another problem so that's why we brought the engineers so I don't want to just add a top coat or recommend to you that you add a top coat without understanding second and third or effects okay and we have a um a couple of those situations but we're trying to meet with resid Jim is doing a great job just triaging and going through some of the different requirements so we're we're hoping that the community feels like we're being responsive while um communicating that we only have so many resources all right Greeno Barn deconstruction so they were out there today they put a new lock on and uh we're starting to flag some of the perimeter the project will begin in Earnest next week the 29th uh after the various permitting boards and land use boards do their thing uh especially kcom so a lot of people helped with this we do expect select demo to be done by the end of August so they are keeping to their timeline they've been very communicative and I think we have a I think we have a good team in place for procurement and project updates the road repair program we're fully contracted with Newport construction and they'll be Paving between August 12th and August 30th Jim is working with Aubrey to make sure we're communicating this to Residents and um in addition the westward Street temporary culbert replacement we have a low bidder today we'll be reaching out to that that finalized today we're going to be ready to go for that as well and that should be in the next 60 days there's going to be a lot of road work going on at once so we got to communicate that there will be a temporary closure of westbr street so um people will need to take that into consideration and we need to communicate that any idea how long at least a week so you're going to use the town lab site and stuff to get alternate back to Greeno I I think I mentioned you or Julie or somebody that based on my own interaction with the people who live on the street in b r even though I know it's the purview of the deconstruction company to do it I recommend that we make sure that we have reach out to those neighbors just to give them that same courtesy because they they were pretty annoyed when we moved all those those cars in the day we went and I so I perceive that they'll be yeah we're doing as much notification as we can okay okay knowing that it's not going to be enough but we're going to try okay well as long as we're communicating yeah there was a mail properties are in that neighborhood where the trucks are going to come actually we sent it okay from the town okay all thank you and the contractor has been communicating with people who've had specific concerns so I feel like again I don't think it's going to go swimmingly but we we have been responsive and will continue to be okay Cory Auditorium yay yay everyone from Town Council all the way down is thrilled we just need to get this done uh the dog park so we're probably at either The Empire Strikes Back or A New Hope of the dog park sequels however uh we've received all the funding uh the checks are in the mail and the $44,000 Gap has been closed so the the fincom did um a 2022 and change Reserve fund transfer and the recreation department is using some of their maintenance funds and anticipating not using them this year in order to close that Gap my question to the select board is that puts a lot of stress on the fy2 24 budget it's not a today problem but do you want to soften that stress by using arpa or would you rather Reserve arpa because of its flexibility so either we'll be waiting for the end of the year and maybe covering Gap gaps U with with transfers in the budget which historically we've been okay doing so I don't feel like um alarming you but if we Ed 20,000 now it would take a lot of pressure off the budget yeah but don't we have to see that full I mean Scott was saying there's some more clawbacks and there's more projects and there's money yes so don't we have to kind of see that picture to make that decision we can do that yep so we can present it this is 25 budget yeah right this is the fy2 budget Gap okay but we it is closed the Project's contracted we're going to move on it's just where we want to take the risk in the budget yeah and and I think sorry I think we should wait and see how some of these other things fall and what the OPM for the fire station is going to cost before we commit the additional I agree with you if it looks like we have enough we we we call back more and we have 20,000 and we should know more in the next 30 60 days we should have the answers to those then we can make that decision but not not tonight yeah right I agree and it's not urgent that we make that decision tonight because we have some time to do it yeah y let's just see the whole picture and then if if we again if the funds are available it's it's honestly a good use of arpa funds supports Community it supports outdoor activities but let's just get the full picture yeah all right so we won't move that motion tonight all right so uh resident Sandy Nash has donated for pickle ball equipment the select board is even though this goes to the record commission is required to accept this if you want to do that motion though I make a motion that we accept the $1,000 from Sandy Nash uh for the pickle ball equipment and you're accepting it for the town and the Recreation Commission accepting it for the town and the recreation Comm I second it with gratitude to Sandy Nash any discussion all right the roll call vote Arnold I Modell I Reed I I triola I yes thank you very much Sandy yes all right the Rotary will be adorned with this sign that you see here on the screen from August 24th to September 7th advertising the Carl congregational Church's block party okay notifying the board it's happening rain or shine it's a very committed block party employee disclosure so Tom mccon who uh was a full-time employee and is now part-time serves both as a DPW driver and a cohs driver his dual role requires an annual disclosure so uh because you have two Financial interests in the town you have to disclose that there is no risk no problem with it it's just required by state law recommending the select board approve this and authorize one of you to sign itce CH yeah this this seems very straightforward to me does anybody have any questions about this nope okay um I move do you want to sign tonight I do okay you okay Travis if I go ahead and sign it yes that's fine okay I move to approve the Municipal Employee disclosure form for Thomas mcconnan as presented in the town administrator's report and further to authorize the select board Vice chair to sign the disclosure seeing as she's already doing so I second it okay oh great um let's do a roll call vote Arnold i al REI Snell I triola I okay great that's uh unanimous excellent um all righty what else Mr Town Administrator all right so uh one of my goals this year was to receive icma certifications that is attending the icma or the international City County man association's conference Um this can be an expense so I was lucky enough to secure a triple ma scholarship which um essentially reduces the cost down to half of a Year's membership and it does cover $1,000 in expenses so I will be going to that conference but was able to defer some of the costs congratulations and thank you for doing this because I'm sure you will come back there's these things are always you know invigorating very often I don't I mean this is in here mostly because of it was one of my goals that you had me do so that's why it's in all right discussion points uh Town Hall hours still still hanging out there as a as a possible discussion point and then arpa closeout as you heard Scott who is the AR pazar in town is going to bring a full report and I I do think that we need a plan um by the end of the summer to execute arpa so the main risk so people understand is they need to be obligated which means you have to have an actual contract by December 31st and if you do contract um but don't spend it then that money does not return to the town it goes so you could Envision that we have a contract with the OPM but then we decide not to use the OPM right but if we for example if we did the budget Gap thing it's like instantaneous right right yeah it's instantaneous yes so that's why I'm saying that I think we could wait on that one so can we roll back to Town Hall hours are we on summer hours now we do not do summer hours we didn't do it this year M okay so same old hours this year so this note is really for standard like we haven't standardized the hours no okay Aubrey we're GNA potentially have it as a agenda item to discuss in an upcoming meeting all right I'm all for that all right and then uh lastly but most importantly in my opinion I want to recognize some staff so Al Miriam and Gretchen for organizing the employee summer barbecue and for for many of you for coming to that event uh went by pretty quick but it was nice to gather uh Al cooked a delicious meal was not happy with me adding squash to his grill he's very particular about what goes on in his grill and Miriam saved a lot of money for the town by combining the uh CHS barbecue with the town hall barbecue in order to save some funding so that's good and staff's always conscious of funding I think that's important for the community to know uh Steve bastic returned during this barbecue we did that on purpose so he'd have a chance to say goodbye to the town doing really well looks like he has some uh job job prospects lined up he really built up the town side of the maintenance department saved the town a lot of money by uh keeping things in house and allowed us to have the conversation we had earlier with the school about creating a facilities department so want to wish him luck and thank him for all he did for the town and then Gretchen completed uh the Inspector General offers one person to receive mcppo certification so we sent Gretchen to that school we didn't know that she would be taking on the town clerk duties at the same time and also but she was able to still finish that work it was a lot of work it's a very difficult program and um we now have three mcpo trained people in town myself Aubrey and Gretchen so that'll be a good ad to the town and it was free some dates um I am out of state for I'm just in New Hampshire for vacation we still be communicating and I will be back August 6 to do the volunteer training and I'll be in the office that day um and and just can I interrupt as a followup to that uh I had sent out an email based on our goals of seeing various facilities throughout the year and initially thought that with the school and the Highland building was a good place to start um I did get the scheduling emails back from you all and it seemed like August 6 was the best however that looks like we're going to hold off on the school potentially until fall or later in the year and instead I think focus on the bog house because um as a as an upcoming agenda item we're going to be discussing the B house and I think it would be helpful for everyone to meet out there on August 6 to not only see that but also the entire you know kind of cranberry bog and how how that operates so if um if that's amendable to everyone on August 6th I was thinking we could do either 8 or 8:30 a.m. um I don't know if there's a preference or Ryan if your availability at 8 I'll be there right yeah okay so eight are we going with eight yeah let's go with eight I think that and I would plan for an hour but I think that um this will be just a onsite meeting I think we do have to post it as a as a meeting uh for the select board and obviously anyone who wants to join I guess can attend this site visit unless there are requirements Ryan there are not um will the tenants uh will the tenants space be available for us to look at should then okay but I'm not sure because it would be really nice to be able to see that part have access to that part professionals on visibility to be there sure I me I'll be there no problem not me to coordinate be great I think it'd be helpful it would be great if you help coordinate and make sure that the interested parties are there great all right we'll meet at the bog house at 8 correct not here okay great this okay got it all right I have um I'm sorry I have one more motion for you this one is about the early inperson voting hours which does need to be voted tonight however the reason why it's not a regular agenda item we discussed is because uh Jim Jimmy our temporary town clerk has basically said that you can come when the town hall is open for inos and voting hours except adding the Saturday which is required by law so if you look up here these are the early voting hours it is during regular business hours good You' be able to vote right in the town clerk's office so nice not to be presumptive but so he'll he'll be here for those because he's not here every day well he doesn't work every here Monday Wednesday and Friday I mean is empowered to be that yeah and volunteers as well okay so you do have to vote to um accept these hour as presented for early voting in person okay for the 2024 State primary okay someone make that motion please where is it I get it see it's not in the TM Mo you're right okay vote to approve the um um election early voting uh election hours as presented in the memo uh from James Mullen on July 19th on July 19th for the 2024 did you already say that uh I said well for the 2040 2024 State primary election second any discussion all right hearing none roll call vote Arnold I mod Ali Reed I Snell I Rola I all right my last bit and I'll stop talking is the agenda that has been tentatively discussed just looking for any select board import so you will have the final climate leader vote it's been discussed a couple times uh perhaps a presentation about the bog house you'll have the treasure collector here to talk about uh online donations and tax bill frequency and then your first run at the TA bylaw um I would like us um maybe either this one or the next one to invite possibly the uh MBTA communities um so subcommittee to come and give us a presentation so that we're um connected all along the way with updates from that committee rather than to wait for them to do all the work and then kind of pick at the Ed you know once it's uh presented then to be asking questions and picking at the edges I I I really think this is a big enough um initiative that we need to be really plugged in okay early so you think what date was that well I don't know we'd have to check I I think would have to give thean and I can figure that out yeah what date was that August 13th and you're on the bu house presentation is also on this agenda that's I was wondering and also I can I want to make sure that the planning board has the most updated information first uh so we can do that on the 12th okay okay that would be good and then but we also I think it' be important for Addie to be the one to make the presentation so we would have to also check to see if she's available I mean there's room there's room in this agenda you have half an hour for climate leader vote we kind of cover hopefully we think 10 minutes right I think there's room to put this in if but are you saying you would be ready or you would not be ready I just have to check with the chair of the subcommittee but I mean that that date seems okay to me cuz I mean it's already it's a shorter meeting which is great but again there's half an hour for climate leader boat which I think is a 10minute thing so um well let's why don't we let uh you guys should sort it out but I I'm all I'm saying is it appears that there's a room in that meeting because things are going to get really busy really fast we have to run up to fall town meeting and then we're into budget season I mean we should take advantage of um little gaps in the summer schedule to get some of these I'm not looking at anymore but um do we also have sorry I missed it if I missed it do we have the TA by law on that one is on that one okay yeah okay good um and it I don't know that we need to do it at this next meeting but we should put the um Center Park Agreement on yeah it's you know for maybe the end of August yeah oh yeah end of August y all right that's my report great great temporary interim Madam chair anding the bar Travis she got done pretty early she's doing a great job like it I know we're GNA might I'll go away more often and uh anybody have a liaison report no I've attended a couple of my new assignments so it seems to be going well all right good and you I went to the cahs on Friday yep and it had a nice chat that is one change that we should um that I I was um planning to be the coah HS ref representative but I think based on the timing and the commitments I have I suggested to Barney that maybe she has some availability and she thought that that would work so as long as there's no objections with the board Barney will handle that okay and we did just I took the celebrations thing from Scott right I is that we talked about it I haven't reached out yet to Scott Evans but am I the celebrations lead on now I think so okay I don't have it in front of me so but I I think that's right okay that's all I need to know thank you all righty um then if there no liais on reports is there anyone that still remaining here that would like to offer Community input and we didn't have any minutes for some reason we didn't have minutes last time either we get three next time okay all right CPO thing is why you didn't get yeah okay right I get it I get it right seeing none uh I'd call for a motion to adjourn so moved second roll call vote Arnold I Reed I IA I excellent thank you all very much at 9:30 p.m. oh my go you're doing great put me to sh