e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e he give us a head sign one good go okay good evening we have a quorum thankfully so we're ready to start it's a line outside and hopefully they'll fill in in due time a couple of opening comments by May if I may you recall at the last uh special town meeting in the fall I noted the absence of Henry and Jackie Delica who always sit over here to my right and I got a very kind note from Jackie a couple of days following that uh appreci apprting my recognizing on behalf of town meeting their absence at that time little did I know that I wouldn't see either one of them again that they both passed away close together after that so I just want to have a moment of silence we all those of us have' been involved in town Town M Matt has understand how dedicated they were in the respective contributions to the town so I want us to have a moment of silence in their honor please thank you thank you uh following the last town meeting I received a comment con from constructive criticism from a citizen who suggests that when I introduce or call upon various speakers of town meeting some of them I warmly greet with respect to Prior contributions to town prior citizen of the Year prior select persons PRI this or that that they some that the public might take that as suggesting by me that that person's comment should be given greater weight than others and I strive to maintain Airness and objectivity in the matter so I I take that comment constructively and uh I'm going to have a different way of dealing with folks coming in I also want to note this evening John cronin's uh going off the board select board uh John's made terrific contributions to Talent over a lengthy period of time and I want to join with you and joining him wishing him the best in his next endeavors [Applause] prior to article one and and am going to call on the select board and the fincom to give us some comments but let's do a little housekeeping first prior article one the suggested motion is move that the following non-residents and non- voting Town officials and Consultants to committees be allowed to speak during the course of this annual town meeting Scott moles Health director/ Agent Derek Wilson labrary director Kevin Ruden principal assessor Susan kutka superintendent of holl and public schools Dan McLoud director of technology for the schools Sean ree DPW director Robert Walker Deputy DPW director Karen Sherman Town planner Mark caline Building Commissioner Matt Stone police chief Chris Mayo technology director John Evans superintendent ke tech school Dolores sharck Finance director ke Tech Travis aarn Town Administrator Chris hymans treasury collector jetah Patel Town accountant Adam Coster and Jay Talman we have J Talman here with us this evening Town Council Dan Brown special labor councel Jacqueline Winer Youth and Family Services director Lisa buchetta Senior Center Director donor Walsh Animal control officer Mark Frank director of Parx and Rec is there a second all those in favor say I yes sir Jack Blaze 25 metro road as uh you were aware on the uh invitation for town meeting it's in three languages are you going to be answering the questions in three languages or have we created a political challenging I know it's the 20s we have to be politically correct but how do we answer the people who are not in these three languages on on the uh invitation I I only at one time I was bilingual in French but that was a long time ago so I if we if I encounter that difficulty I'll see if I could call on a volunteer from the uh assemblage to assist me with it so are we saying that we will be giving the answers in three languages no then why did we advertise three languages Council I'm not sure why we advertise it in three languages so are we are you answering basically English will be the prominent language of town yes thank [Music] you consent agenda those of who have been with us before understand that there are a number of articles that we take up and consider as a uh as a group so to speak because they're generally non-controversial conval I'm going to do that this evening to help expedite this process but that doesn't preclude citizens from being heard on any one of the agenda articles that are included in the consent agenda in that respect if I see seven hands shown with respect to an individual article I'll call that out for separate consideration consent agenda in order to expedite the consideration of routine items articles 3 4 5 6 7 8 and 9 and 11 will be considered for approval in a single vote without debate I'll read each articles number and title and if seven of the town meeting rise to say hold the item will be removed so it may be debated in the normal course the remaining articles will be considered individually as printed in the warrant article three authorize treasury collected to sell foreclosed tax title properties article four tax workof program chapter 59 section 5K and 5n Article 5 authorized select board to sell Surplus equipment article six amend interest rate per anom article seven amend income requirements article 8 Veterans tax exemptions article 9 personal property tax limit of $5,000 and article 11 revolving fund spending limits the selected motion is moveed to approve the articles in the consent agenda as those articles are printed in the warrant is there a second any discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I all those oppos say no that passes article one to hear the report of the select board sponsored by uh Mr crin selectboard motion is to that the annual Town move that the annual Town rep that the annual report for the town for the 12-month period ending June 30th 2023 be accepted and that the town meeting here a report to to the to the select board is there a second Mr Cronin all right no to any future speaker don't play with that today that's not going to make it oh Mr CR before you start I'm encouraging you and Mr Shader to if you're able to get your message out within 10 minutes it would be appreciated thank you thank you Mr Mar good evening everyone welcome um Chris if you be so kind bring it up thank you um SL two this evening I'd like to recognize all of the boards commissions volunteers and the staff that produce this document um I'm accustomed to seeing these documents for quite a while but it never ceases to amaz me the depth of information that goes into every piece of uh paper and decision you'll see this evening and I think it's important that we recognize those folks over the last several months that have contributed their volunteer hours in paid to get it done they've done an Exquisite job again for us this evening as U the moderator mentioned we do have a consent agenda tonight which will help expedite some of the discussion 31 articles now trimmed down to 23 should give adequate time for this body to deliberate on a variety of topics um for an overview of our message this evening uh first I want to recognize holl's 300th anniversary it's a milestone that many of us have been celebrating throughout the year culminating in some way this past weekend with a tremendous parade that was well attended beautiful Skies uh just a phenomenal job by our friends at the celebrate halls and another volunteer organization that worked year round to bring us that particular event for our benefit and they did a very nice job thank you Ben um we uh we're going to focus on this particular presentation on five articles that um are kind of the meat of the matter uh one is a school special education fund I'll get into that in a minute the fy2 budget of course there's a lot to chew on in the budget but one item that we're particularly proud of is the continued evolution in funding of the fire department specifically its ALS or Advanced life support components there's a hollon um drugs and alcohol awareness commission Coalition that will be the recipient with the Europe approval this evening of $50,000 for programs that will help combat this particular reflection this evening we'll be discussing a town manager act um under article number 26 and then finally article 27 is this board's answer to some questions last fall about providing more enforcement relative to commercial heavy commercial vehicle exclusions on our roads slide four Chris I don't want to under underestimate the effects of um the volunteer organization I I'd like this body to be aware that Saturday was a culminating event of um a lot of planning but the year is um still full and ready for additional celebrate halls and events I'd like to promote that website for you to check out over the next several months the town will continue to embrace our heritage our history and uh learn from these family fund events so please go to their calendar check it out and uh certainly embrace our community's spirit and our thanks again for providing a fantastic parade now number five um I wanted to focus on some project and Personnel updates It's always important that you hear from the board the select board on the activities that are going on behind the scenes on projects you've already seen you've already funded but they're not done yet um the first is the DPW facility last year you approved funding through an override which was passed at the ballot to fund a new DPW facility we are currently working with the uh EPA region 1 in lanc court and receiving clearance for the project the project construction will be approximately 3 years from this clearance there is a challenge we we mentioned to you last year that that particular location which is off cross street is on previously contaminated ground so it does need the clearance of these environmental agencies before we can proceed with any bids in production and construction so be advised we'll monitor that there hasn't been a lot of progress I did use the words lanc court if you're familiar with that that's also known as glacial speed so we'll keep an eye on that Woodland Street bridge I know it's been an inconvenience for many in this community is that bridge has um been closed um where the dam and the bridge are being repaired we expect the bridge itself to be reopened in early 2025 as we seek grants to offset this cost through State uh Grant procedures uh stet grant opportunities downtown sewers this particular project has tremendous um benefits Downstream but it's going to take a lot of work to get there we've submitted a request through our um Federal stakeholders that's representative McGovern's office all as Senator Mary and Senators Warren we're seeking congressionally directed spending to help offset this cost um and the latest authorization for ma Mass D to establish a SE District commission so we're dealing with a lot of the bureaucratic front end work um and we do look ahead in 2025 for design engineering and use the site agreements to start the process early 2026 today is optimally viewed uh to begin the construction bid phase um with mid 2026 for the start of construction I expect future boards to kind of update this body on how this is progressing this particular project is very impactful to our community we recognize its location its potential um and certainly the cost associated with it so this will be a frequent item for future discussion the Marshall Street solar project um is expected to be active later this year this is an older project that began about four years ago it ran into uh some significant delay sponsored by the Commonwealth but we're happy to say that the vendor that we have signed up is expected to be active late 2024 producing significant Revenue benefits for the town of hollon and finally a Personnel update uh we hired Melanie H Melanie hlin as our New Economic Development coordinator um in late 2023 she's going to finally establish that direct connection between businesses and town government that's long been needed in our community to help us understand their needs our goals so we can collaborate collectively to help everybody involved so briefly and very briefly I know a lot of this material is in um found in the stuff you picked up in your warrant but I just wanted to go through these quickly the first item of Interest coming up later on is article number 17 it's an article that funds authorization allows the town to set aside funds to address an immediate concern for fy2 with respect to the timing of federal state and town funding for special educational costs um this funding will help smooth out not Peaks and valleys associated with this large school expense using state and federal reimbursement as available offsets I expect some discussion from the schools at that point to help justify this but uh it's an item that received a fair amount of conversation I know at our board the fy2 um balanced budget includes as I mentioned an item that we're highlighting regarding the fire department's progress and evolution into advanced life support also known as ALS the town hired a new assistant fire chief Brian Kelly on August 28th Town successfully transitioned our uh Public Safety dispatch to the hull Brook uh Regional emergency communications center in December of 2023 most of you probably never realized it but we no longer have locally supported dispatch it's now done by the holber wreck and that was all done seamlessly through our Public Safety stakeholders the fire department next year includes resources to address Recruitment and Retention of EMS Personnel at all certification levels it's a critical piece needed to staff the ambulance side and the Emergency Management side of the fire department it's an area we've not had before so it's all part of our licensure um with the state for an ALS um designation this application will be filed with the state in early fiscal year 25 we expect to receive license approval by the end of 2024 um that may sound like soon but the process of getting here has taken years and I want to compliment fire chief Mike Cassidy his staff and Brian as well in getting us to this point point the achievement which has been carefully planned over the last 2 years will Elevate the quality of Emergency Services care to halls and residents from what we now have known known as basic life support to Advanced life support as I mentioned the hdac opioid response initiatives um many of you may be aware that the opioid um epidemic in our country has taken many lives um many jurisdictions including Massachusetts Attorney General's office um have engaged in a lawsuit the lawsuit has provided funds from these makers of the drug to various units of government across Massachusetts hollon has begun to receive these funds and we're we're redirecting them into the benefit of um combating this particular um Affliction hstack aims to create a resilient and informed community that actively Works towards mitigating the harmful effects of this substance abuse you'll see during um the debate or the uh request under article number 23 the various areas that this $50,000 is expected to land um next slide Chris number 26 the town manager special legislation proposal uh would be to change our Town Administrator role established in 1994 through a special act to a town manager The Proposal would shift certain Authority from a select board to town manager to streamline administrative functions such as weekly bill payments warrants collective bargaining and so forth this particular role will now provide for day-to-day administrative support for the town boards and committees the passage if it passes tonight will move to the state legislature for approval as a spe another special act excuse me before it receives final enactment this proposal does not impact any existing bylaw of any boards or committees in towns um or the Authority for other Town departments this uh select board carefully worded this this particular article to uh avoid any conflict with existing existing bylaws and specifically the finance committee we wanted to make sure that this particular item reinforced the benefit for the citizens to see a seamless and streamlined benefit of support and administrative communication from town hall page 10 the commercial Motor Vehicle Enforcement item under n article number 27 we' listen and we heard last fall we had a debate about uh through a Citizens petition about certain neighborhood um problems with heavy commercial vehicles continuing to violate the exclusions one of the um uh areas of feedback that we received quite a lot of information on was enforcement enforce the law hulson PD's been doing tremendous work um pulling over alerting informing and in some cases ticketing drivers who continue to violate this this evening we're presenting a local option fine that would fine violators $300 per incident um this particular offense is um something that we feel um put some teeth into the enforcement angle currently as you may know from prior discussions and arguments the state provides for a violation to be handed over from a state violation perspective of $55 per event so there'll be some serious Financial consequences for these drivers as they continue to if they continue to violate that particular um exclusion uh I want to thank everybody this evening for a few minutes to allow us to introduce our warrant to you and I also wanted to thank you all personally as I did my last meeting for the privilege to serve you these last six years thank you very much good evening thank you John the motion is that we move that the annual report for the town for the 12-month period ending June 30th 2023 be accepted and the town meeting here the report of the select board all those in favor of accepting that report say I all those opposed so voted article two to hear an act upon the report of the finance committee the motion is moved that the annual report of the fincom be received is there a second second Ken it's a self-interested second I guess okay I got two controls here so I got to figure out which one actually works okay there we go first I want to start out by saying U echoing what Bill said earlier uh I personally have been and new Henry and Jackie for many years for in fact all the time I've been involved in the town and all the time I've lived in hon and I was saddened that both of them have passed since our last town meeting so I just want to recognize that they they invaluable contributions to the town throughout the many years they they were here okay let's talk money okay so this year I'm trying not to BL your ears off here this year uh things were very interesting to say the least our net state aid was up 3.4% 3.04% which actually is better than it has been in Prior years but it's still trailing the inflation rate so what that means as I've said in Prior years is it means that effectively more of the costs are being shifted to the town our local Revenue as you might imagine as the covid impacts started to WAN permit fees things like that started to level out because everybody did all their construction when they were home so we for next year we modeled uh local Revenue up only 27% which repes represents just modest increases in a couple of areas and decreases in things like the excise tax because a lot of people bought new cars that are now not buying new cars so those cars are collecting less tax every year we kept our usual New Growth model at 325,000 which is a good kind of the low Watermark and when you add up all this together you get a total you also get the tax levy up 3.04% uh no correlation with the net state agent just random coincidence um and that's largely because we had an adjustment that was made by do that reduced or effectively reduced the levy by about 400,000 this year that's basically a new growth adjustment from a prior year so when you add all this up we start out with uh 1.5 million in available funding for this year's budget okay there we go the problem is that the budget requests we have had totaled 4.4 million over fy4 so this is partly because of fixed cost increases there were also things that Mr Cronin alluded to the ALS and Staffing and Public Safety and there were also Education costs increases I'll say a little bit more about that later some of these items were must Fund in other words there are certain expenses that we don't have the discretion to say we're just not going to do it uh there are many unfunded mandates and many requirements that for example the school department has to educate every child regardless of their uh needs because of that when we looked at everything and we said okay we only have this 1.5 million and it's a little bit of rounding here but it comes out to about 3 million we were short to start the process and just to put that in perspective our entire budget is about 70 million or so so that's not a trivial number okay it seems to take two pushes okay so how did we get to a balanced budget well we had to do several things that personally I don't really like doing on a regular basis but we had to close the gap uh we took actions with the ta uh of course the TA is an integral part of this whole process uh we took actions to reduce the budget requests by $1.3 million wherever we could we reduced the capital appropriation by 650,000 versus last year and that puts us back if you have been listening to me for many years we've been growing this appropriation because we have Capital needs throughout the town and we were getting to a level of sustain Ain funding that was kind of getting close to matching our needs well now we're taking a step back from that we're going back down somewhat substantially this year okay um obviously we we're going to look at increasing that again in future years in addition we decided that it was the Gap the ramifications of not closing the Gap were significant enough that we recommended the one-time use of the stabilization fund for $750,000 but I want to point out something very important about this this is for one time partly reimbursable costs we are not using it to fund operations because doing that would just create a budget hole we'd have to deal with next year and every succeeding year we also reduced the opep contribution as you know I stood up here in 2013 or 2012 and said we're going to be doing 1 a. half million for 30 years well there's good news and bad news on that front uh the bad news is we reduced that contribution this year by 250,000 to close the budget Gap so it's now going to be 1.25 million the original plan when that reduction we were going to look at the investment returns look at our liability and adjust as we went through the process and the plan was when we got to the point where we were going to make this step down that we would use the money to fund the pension stabilization fund but because of the need this year that money is going into the operating budget and I point that out as I'll mention this a little more when I talk about the opioid uh the opioid the OPB fund because that does have an impact to things Downstream okay and of of course as Mr Cronin referenced uh we also used some money from the opioid settlement fund specifically for one position that had prior been funded before by covid money but now would be funded from the settlement fund totally legitimate use of the fund so it's not like it's any funny business um but obviously in in better times we'd like to put that just in the operating budget if we could so all the recommendations you see for articles 17 20 and 21 reflect these actions okay so what are the ramifications of doing this okay well as I said the reduction in capital appropriation is going to take away money that we could have used for Capital purchases in October our intent is to use available free cash when it's certified before the fall town meeting to try to supplement the appropriation more we've done that in Prior years frequently uh however with some of the approvals from last year of the sidewalk and the DPW overrides things like that some of that money is already allocated for several projects that are approved so in Prior years we didn't have these allocations we would have a large free cash number we could easily say toss another million into into the capital expenditure fund now we've got a kind of a minimum run rate of free cash that we have as already is already allocated going in so we're only able to allocate what's above that going forward the use of the stabilization fund is going to reduce the balance to near the policy goal so this too will need more than likely some additional small funding in October to maintain our Target balance and as I said the opep reduction is going to delay the full funding of the liability the good news is it could be offset by investment gains or liability reduction I'll say more about that in a minute um but the plan the biggest message I'd like to put out there is that the planned redirection to the pens pension stabilization fund will not happen unless future funding is available and I wrote highly unlikely on this slide because one of the reasons I've tried to stick to and I've come to you every year and recommended that we stick to the financing plan is because we're well aware that once the money gets cut it it's going to be much harder to put it back so okay so where are we on the budget the school recommendation is based on app approval of article 17 to cover the expenses that are partially reimbursed in FY 26 and I'll say more about that in just a moment okay the wage table article article 16 reflects a 1.5% Cola and adjustments to the ambulance pay rates to reflect the pending ALS status we have one additional police officer which will uh get our Public Safety up to full Staffing and as mentioned before we're going to maintain the one position in the Youth and Family Services budget that was previously funded from Co money but is now going to be funded using the opioid settlement fund okay on the school side the Town Administrator and the finance committee both agreed that on a recommended operational budget of 41,8 47,1 $57 that's an increase of 3.25% over fy4 uh we're also recommending the $750,000 for the onetime cost in article 17 and what I wanted to say about that I keep saying partially reimbursable so there are several things that occur in the town's finances where the town expends money and then gets a portion of that money back with a one-year delay so basically you expend the money in one fiscal year and then whatever program it is that monitors that spending says okay we cover this percentage of those costs we're going to give it back to you the next year so the reason I keep saying partially reimbursable is because this 750,000 is going to be used to cover costs that are partially reimbursable and the whole reason for doing this and the reason we chose to do this was because we viewed it as a one-time thing there was a there was a state approved cost increase that caused a big expense jump for the town but that big expense will get partially offset in FY 26 so the schools next year will be getting money back that will offset the need for anything like this next year that's why that's why in our mind it's kind of a onetime thing okay in addition if you add that in that brings the schools to about a 5.1% increase uh year-over-year in addition we have another 535,000 or so in May Capital requests you see that in the warrant and of course the schools are one of the beneficiaries of our OPB trust funding so I always like to point out that part of your school costs also involve the money we put aside for opep okay so with our opep fund I've had this same first line for many years we've invested since 2015 into prit the Massachusetts pension reserves Investment Trust as of February 29th our value of our fund was 28,36 7,000 in change and our liability at our last report which was June as of June 30th 2022 was about 60 million so using Fuzzy Math that comes out to about 47% funded ratio but the reason I said sort of is because we're kind of doing an incorrect comparison we're using the liability from two years ago with the balance today what we really need is an updated valuation of our liability and that is set to occur after June 30th of this year we'll get so going into next into October's town meeting for example we'll have the 63024 valuation hopefully and then we'll know exactly where we are the select board over the last few years has taken steps to reduce the liability but we haven't seen the data because we haven't been revalid since 2022 so we're hope our expectation is that we'll see a better liability a lower liability in the next valuation the problem is there are things like healthcare inflation and other things that counter that um but once we see that we'll have a much better read on is moving to 1.25 a good model are we still on a funding plan to reach full funding in a Target timeline we anticipated so we'll give you an update when we have that new report but right now we're in Fairly good shape with the opep trust okay so notable articles I've covered some of this article 17 we already talked about article 20 is the Omnibus budget as I said if you look at it as schools and everything else which I think I don't know if that's how it's put in in the warrant because I look at a different view of it but uh the schools are up 3.25% and if you look at everything else non-school it's up about 2.22% so it's not like we're talking massive increases here and that's driven almost entirely by Personnel costs many budgets are 70% plus Personnel costs so that's what you see that there article 22 are the make Capital purchases 1.53 million so just to put in perspective we're recommending a set aside of 1.7 million we're spending 1.1 of it already here so in theory if we don't put any additional money in if we want to maintain the balance in the cap expenditure fund we would only be able to spend about 500,000 more in in October we'll obviously hope that that will be increased with free cash but that's that's why we're talking about the capital appropriation article 23 as Mr Cronin mentioned is going to allocate some of the op opioid settlement money for its legally authorized uses as listed in the warrant uh on article 26 the town manager act the finance committee said we'd make a recommended sh town toown meeting we voted before uh before we came here and the vote was 5 to two to recommend indefinite postponement uh article 29 uh we also said we were going to make a recommendation at town meeting and on the sunset provision for Goodwill Park funding and we voted against extending the sunset that was largely because the CPC told us that they are planning to scrap that funding and rebid the project and come in October with a new number so there's no need to extend that funding further okay in summary the budget presented tonight reflects fiscal discipline and maintaining this level of service the town expects however uh and I want to emphasize this we had to take extraordinary steps to close a large shortfall um this is not something we want to be doing every year in fact I don't want to ever be doing it again if we can avoid it okay I have information on the slide about when our meetings are and how to get in touch with us but I would focus everybody on the the message at the bottom I came here the last three years and said we're going to see inflation and it's going to be bad well the bad is here this year so we had the expected it had the expected negative impact this year or the coming fiscal year um but we were able to get to a balanced budget largely because we've adhered to Good Financial practices in the other times uh we'll need to get back on a positive trajectory in 26 but for tonight I think we figured out a way to get by the short-term issues while keeping the town in a uh at least a a better financial position thank you thank you thank you Ken the motion is that the an report of the fincom be received all those in favor say I I those opposed so voted I'm sorry can I have a second on that motion may I missed it second yes so noted right now as we've dealt with the consent agenda we can advance to a Le 10 right article 10 sponsored by the uh Board of assessors to see if the town will vote to transfer from available funds a sum of money for the purpose of filing documents the middle SE South District registry of deeds to address outdated leans on chapter 61 61a and 61b properties are take any action relative theret the motion is move that the town appropriate a sum of 26 $75 from the overlay account for the purpose stated in the article is there a second the finance committee recommends that the town appropriate $2,675 from the overlay account for the purpose stated in the article 60 with Mr Nar absent the explanation offer is that there are 25 leans dating back to the early 1980s that should be released to eliminate potential tital problems for land owners this action will also eliminate a potential issue in the mass do recertifies the town's fiscal values in 20 26 is there any discussion yes yeah Dr Liz Tyler 17 New Orleans Street um I just wondered if you want to continue if you want to vote when there are so many people out there in line waiting to get in yes thank you I do want to continue I you do want to continue all those people have waited in line maybe do I understand we a lot of the meeting is properly posted in time and it would be unfair to all the citizens we and we have a large crew here that have showed up on time so I I I regret that we can't start with everybody but if I were to wait I think it'll be too long but thank you for the thought okay any further discussion yes sir we still have a long line out there mhm yeah shinaya goini 425 Underwood Street I would just like to um respond to what you just said we all did show up on time I think the setup and Arrangement was not um sufficient to handle the influx of people so I don't think it's a Citizens issue that we're not able to admit them fast enough thank you okay you're welcome okay I have I have the right to change my mind this support a town meeting for delay so we'll delay until the line breaks [Applause] down no that's okay we just and it's on an informal hold it takes time to check people in three people checking them in we got three oh three people checking in need to realize that they need to be here early to check in 250 probably right now how you oh Paul leau yeah Kevin Kevin is it going to help check in said well I haven't had this problem in a while oh it's a good one I guess it is time you have to check in you can't just show up and I don't discourage them from coming back by being too heavy-handed about it right how's Dan Alin the school committee doing Dan show Dy it didn't well I went wanted turn lot of his p e e very went what e doesn't matter AUM right e spe e okay folks I'm advised that the Line is now gone so we can advance do we have a motion made and seconded on 10 on 10 um no we we had yes we do have the motion made in second okay we have the motion made in seconded on on article 10 with respect to the release of outdated leans is there any discussion on the topic seeing none all those in favor say I those opposed so voted article 11 was included in the consent agenda we can advance to article 12 Golf Course improvements see if the town will vote to transfer from available funds a sum of money for the purpose of making improvements to the storage of electronic carts iea carport and for the replacement of the roof of the clubhouse or take any action relative there to the fincom recommends that the town appropriate $325,000 on the Pine Crest Golf Course revolving fund for the purpose stated the motion 7 to nothing the suggest suggested motion is moved to appropriate the sum of $325,000 from the Pine Crest revolving fund for the purpose stated in article 12 of the Motions there second any discussion yes Deb Deb Mo good evening everyone I'm Deb Mo 183 Mill Street and chair of the golf course advisory committee just for a little history for those new to town the town uh purchased the golf course in 1986 and um preserved 183 Acres of recreational and open space land in 1988 there were 22,000 rounds of golf played at the golf course and we received in 1987 $33,000 of Revenue back to the town as you can see the clubhouse and the maintenance building that was on top of the clubhouse and the Pro Shop in the clubhouse was in very poor condition and in 2001 we were very fortunate that we could build a new Clubhouse restaurant Pro Shop and maintenance building on another pastel of land over the years $1.7 million has gone into the town's general fund about $60,000 a year $8 million in Revenue has been turned over to the town so far in 2023 we had the best season yet 42,500 rounds of golf were played up from the 22,000 when we bought the course in this year starting year one we entered into a new contract and the revenue we will realize from that is $520,000 and the restaurant contract will be at $45,000 each year this um and because we have done that we are now increasing the um total amount to the town for this year at $17 $500,000 um of Revenue and the rest of it will go into the revolving account to pay for improvements that I'll be talking about now in fiscal year 2024 we are um looking to put in a new a second well uh the walk and cool for the clubhouse was just installed today we have new benches coming two new te's will be reconstrued constructed at holes 9 and 18 and we've already installed new t- markers n FY 2025 we have a project for holes 2 through eight to improve and reconstruct C pass and improve drainage we're also looking at constructing a carport which I'll talk to in a moment and we will be reconstructing four new T's at 1 10 15 and 16 and we need to do that because of the increased play at the golf course um we're also looking to repair the clubhouse roof the clubhouse roof um is 4300 ft roof it's made of asphalt shingles and it's 24 years old next year the roof was professionally inspected in June of 2022 and classified at the time as in poor condition with significant GR loss the roof is pasted its useful life and needs to be replaced for an estimated cost of $65,000 with State mandated prevailing wage labor after the roof is replaced the town plans to install solar panels to offset the electrical usage from the building and you can see a picture of the roof here and some of the improvements that we need to make with the new roof the golf um cart storage structure or carport um we are replacing halfof Fleet that have been gasoline CS um we have half a fleet that are electric we're going to have an entire fleet of electric fully electric carts the new electric carts need a covered structure to store and charge the carts the most economical structure is made from metal and will store 40 cards it's estimated to cost $260,000 for the structure installation and electrical work the Town plans on installing solar panels on the roof to offset the electrical usage from charging the carts and um that gives you an idea of what it may look like and I'd just like everyone to um recognize the people that are on the golf course advisory committee they may be your friends or neighbors but I'd like to thank them for all their hard work and um we've always had a great committee and that's why we're in the position we're in with great contracts and um the support from town meeting so thank you very much any further discussion seeing none the motion is to appropriate the sum of $325,000 from the Pine Crest revolving fund for the purposes stated in the stated in article 12 of the warrant all those in favor say I those opposed so voted compensation of town officials to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds for the purposes of fixing the salaries and compensation while elected offices of the Town effective July 1 23 which salaries and compensation are printed below Board of assesses for this fiscal year was $2,500 the amount proposed for next year is zero select board this year was $25 next year proposed is zero town clerk salary including certification a relative action there too is 90 what is presently 990,000 and would advance to 92225 the fincom recommends favorable action of the amounts listed in the FY 25 column 70 the SE suggested motion is moved that the town fix the salaries and compensation of all elected officers for the town fiscal year 92225 presented an article three is there a second second any discussion seeing none all those in favor say I those opposed so voted on to article 14 to see if the town will vote to raise an appropriate transfer from available funds a sum of money for the unpaid bills from prior years or take any action relative their too there are none known at this time the fincom therefore rep recommends indefinite postponement any changement to that Travis no thank you the motion is moved to inde definitely postpone article 14 in the warrant is there a second second all those in favor say I who opposed so voted oh I'm sorry that required a four fifths vote may I hear there's any opposition there is none it's unanimous thank you thank you Jay current fiscal year transfers to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds a sum of money for the purpose of supplementing various Town accounts of the town's fiscal year 24 annual operating budget previously voted the town under Article 15 of the warrant for the May 15 2023 annual town meeting will take any action relative there to snow and ice Department 79 ,000 select board Communications 2700 fincom professional and Tech 1319 accountant professional and Tech 35,000 treasury collector professional and Tech 35,000 board of health nurse 3025 concom professional and Tech 10,000 EDC professional and Tech 10,000 fire proof and Tech 30,000 fire training 21,000 ambulance training 22,00 ,000 unemployment 177,000 liability insurance 33062 the the motion is moved that the town approve the current fiscal year transfers as presented in Article 15 of the warrant is there a second thank you the fincom recommends that the town appropriate 192,000 from the reserve fund $50,605 from EDC salaries 1,319 from finance committee salar 3,25 from Health salaries 10,000 from conservation salaries and 30,000 from fire capital outlay for the purpose stated for the purpose is stated the vote was 60 with Mr NS absent motion having been made and second any further discussion seeing none all those in favor say I those requires a handful oh I'm sorry I didn't see you Mr Tyler come up list Tyler 17 New Orleans Street I want to thank all the elected officials who supported the current fiscal transfers for the benefit of the ambulance services the ambulance service is critical to the health of all the res residents of Holliston from newborn to the elderly let us look at two aspects of ambulance service care and finance which includes costs and revenue let me take a minute to talk about the care side two weeks ago the ambulance went out 21 times that's three times a day within this time frame seven residents in an emergency situation were required to wait for paramedics to come from Ashland Medway or Hopedale last week the ambulance went out 20 times and three times residents were required to wait for ALS from ashin Millis and Hopedale and there's someone in this audience who had to wait for Hope Dale because EMTs could not help him this could happen to you it happened to me in 2023 the ambulance went out 1,096 times we have a very busy Ambulance Service Holliston needs to stop the continued dependence on neighboring town pounds for critical care let us look at the finance side of it the ambulance budget for this year is 1,1 187,000 but Holliston was reimbursed $435,000 186 for EMT ambulance services paid by insurances that is 37% % of the present ambulance budget is reimbursed further the town increased ambulance rates in March of this year and the rate for advanced Life Services is at least $500 more and up to 1,500 more per call than EMT Services improving to ALS is a financial win for Holliston tax tax payers now the good news fortunately Advanced Life Services is on the horizon for fiscal 2025 there are applications to complete inspections to be performed by the state and time sensitive purchases to be performed but this is possible with the support of Chief Cassidy and the leadership of assistant fire chief Brian Kelly who is also our EMS director I would like to acknowledge assistant fire chief Brian Kelly for his amazing work and assuring that there are two or three EMTs at the station 24 hours a day and in bringing Holliston toward its a in a very at a very good Pace he only began working Holliston in August and I'd like to ask assistant fire chief Brian Kelly to [Applause] stand so in this short time he's hired the Personnel he's purchased the equipment so is well on its way to having a ALS ambulance services this is a win healthwise for Holliston and revenue wise for taxpayers thank you Chief oh I'm sorry I didn't see Chief you yield to the oh you work it out thank you Mr M moderator Michael Cassy Fire Chief and Emergency Management director I appreciate the uh kind words that were stated with regards to the Improvement that we've been able to make to our service as well as the planned uh improvements which we'll come to later on with the Omnibus budget for fiscal year 25 uh this is thanks to the support of town meeting in the past the leadership of the select board they're the ones that came up with the job plan which the assistant fire chief has been following which have made the improvements thus far uh I do want to clarify uh some misstatements that were made earlier if you call 911 you request an ambulance you're not waiting for a paramedic from any of those other communities the holl an ambulance responds we be initiate transport we start to transport to the hospital and if the person needs Al Services which is only 25% of our run volume We Meet the Medics on route to the hospital we initiate transport we meet them on the way to the hospital so there is no delay of people waiting for a paramedic just wanted to clarify that yes sir David Dean 72 Water Street also commander of the hollon BFW I if if you're like me you've attended many Town meetings over the years and I I probably didn't know because it's not scheduled but that you would have you would be treated by uh treated to another episode of The Never Ending an eternal campaign to to get the hollon fire department to be professional Iz privatized and otherwise different uh and so I've sat in my hands for many meetings listening to the things that have been said and the plans that are being forwarded and uh I just felt the need to say something at this point I I also want to take the opportunity to thank everybody who I I for their support and condolences after uh the passing of my stepfather Jim Moore I the town the the outpouring of people and the the communication from from the town uh it was was deeply touching I appreciate it uh New England is not New York is not Colorado is not Virginia is not Montana is not Michigan different parts of the countries have different cultures they have different places that they come from there's a certain amount of the things that we do from year to year in modernizing the way that we do things I that's kind of inevitable the world's a more complex place now than it was 25 years ago I it requires more money and technology and know how than it did back then because of this we have to adjust from time to time and there are things that need to be changed from time to time the reason I'm standing here today is just to bring attention to the fact that in New England I this tradition that we have of volunteer fire departments it didn't just Sprout out of nowhere as a finan fincial decision it came from a part of New England culture that uh that culturally speaking descends back to the militias of and the Minutemen you know if you were at the celebrate Holliston parade there was an awful lot of militia Marine actors well in a in a town like Holliston if this town were if we were visiting it in 1750 the people that you would see and in the militias would largely be the people that you see in your volunteer fire department now that's part of the way that New England culture works we are communitarians we don't do these things because they're necessarily the most cost-efficient way although we try to do that we don't do it because they're the uh uh there a more uh effective and efficient way to use the money that we're we're the people are doing it because it's good to take part in your community in a way that actually puts skin in the game so I wanted to interrupt you mon because damn it if we're going to interrupt it for for uh articles that don't that seem very tangentially related in my opinion I I would like to interrupt it and just be a voice for that part that might eventually go away eventually Holliston may be just like every other town in Gary Indiana or or you know it's it might be that we end up being like every other town in the country right now we're a bubble into a world that uh is quickly fading and I really couldn't uh stand being me uh if I just let that happen without ever saying a word so I'm saying the word I thank you for your time thank you sir any any further discussion seeing none the the motion is that the town approved the current fiscal year transfers as presented in Article 15 in the warrant all those in favor say I I those opposed so voted article 16 the article is to amend Consolidated Personnel bylaw section 29 job and wage classification plan it's sponsored by the Town Administrator and it states that the article is to see the town will vote to amend the Consolidated Personnel bylaw section 29 job and wage classification plan by reflecting those revisions soltions or additions to be effective on July as of July 21 2024 the explanation is that these charts incorp that attach incorporate a 1.5 cost of living adjustment for the FY 25 that all steps are increased by 1.5% of the prior year there are no new positions added U to the charts the motion is moved that article 16 be approved as presented in the warrant is there a second second second any further dis any discussion rather than further discussion any discussion seeing none we'll advance to a vote all those in favor say I those opposed so voted article 17 special education temporary funding respons by the select board to see if the town will vote to transfer from available funds for the purpose of funding special education costs that are normally paid by the federal funding known as the circuit breaker namely I special education personal L costs double I specialed programmatic expenses and triple i special educations Transportation costs or take any action relative there to the motion is that the town appropriate $750,000 from the general stabilization fund for FY 2025 special education programmatic and pation expenses is there a second the explanation I can offer is as follows this article and funding authorization allows the town to set aside funds to address an immediate concern for fy2 with the timing of federal state and town funding for special education costs including but not limited to circuit breaker funding in recent years the holl and public schools along with most school districts in the commw have seen a significant increase in the need and cost for special services the state only reimburses a relatively small amount of these costs and does not reimburse until the year after the costs were incurred as Dr Shader explained to us earlier this is a result in large increases in costs where the timing and the amount of reimbursements have not kept up with expenditures this funding authorization will keep will be used to help offset increases that are reasonably expected to be covered by future increases in reimbursements from the state and federal governments the fincom recommends that the fund that the town appropriate $750,000 from the general stabilization fund for fy22 special education programmatic expenses and FY 2025 special education Transportation costs approved unanimously with Mr NS absent is there discussion and as this involves the use of the general stabilization fund we will require a two-thirds vote any discussion yes good evening Robert prin pay 203 turn Ro Holliston um I'm here to support this as as it sounds like there's a lot of support for this but I'd like to use it as an opportunity to contextualize what this represents as for example the funding for veterans tax exemption as for example the opioid response monies um I I heard one of the candidates one of the positions in town recently discuss you know the question was the budget and and we need to cut we need to cut we need to cut and and and and this individual said something that just struck me so effectively and the individual said you know what I think it's we have to get off of this deficit deficit cut cut cut what do we going to do how are we going to balance the budget idea we need to talk about what we're going to invest in find where the most significant gaps and needs are that we have as a community and invest invest our dollars there and I just think that psychological shift is so important why because when we talk about the issues of equity equity and inclusion I so often people say what what are we really talking about well when we talk about students that have needs I don't even want to put the word special need in there they have particular needs then the that's a gap that's an excellent investment we talk about veterans and I'm pulling things together just to make my point we talk about veterans that the survivors of the families of they have distinctive needs we need to address that's Equity when certainly we talk about members of our community that struggle with with drug challenges substance abuse they have a need they are us we are us so I'm again I'm using this more as an opportunity to say yes certainly to this article 17 but yes for us to get a greater understanding what it looks like for us to invest in what we need that's Equity equity for more of us than just some of us the the basic needs of what some of us need are different and turning to address those not just say oh what we going to you know literally how are we going to be include these no these are places that's going to make us our our overall health and well be stronger our right so so I just want to use this as an opportunity to say that for for this for example voting yes for this to spend these monies is not just about getting you know a shortfall taken care of it's not just about another time where the government is taking money away from us we had prior and now we're going to put money out to try to fill the Gap it's about us becoming stronger as a community a greater public will for the common good greater health and well-being for for more of us not just some of us thank you thank you sir any any further discussion okay you're seeing none again this requires a two-thirds vote the motion is moved that the town appropriate $750,000 from the general stabilization fund for FY 2025 special education programmatic and transportation expenses all those in favor say I I those opposed so that's unanimous article 18 transfer from available funds a sum of money for the programmatic stabilization fund sponsored by the select board the motion is mov to indefinitely postpone article 18 in the warrant the fincom recommends indefinite postponement 60 of Mr n absence is there a second to the motion is there a motion to in depthly postpone is there a second any discussion seeing none all those in favor say I those opposed so voted Article 19 similar in fashion transfer the article seeks to transfer from available funds a sum of money for the general stabilization fund responsed by the select board to see if the town will vote to raise an appropriate a transfer from available funds a sum of money for the general stabilization fund the motion is moved to indefinitely postpone the article and the fincom recommends indef postponement 6 Z with Mr Nas abson is there a motion is there a second any discussion all those in favor say I those opposed so voted all let's move on to article 20 where we can address how the town is going to spend $70 million sponsored by the select board Mr Hearn Mr Shader to see what sums of money is the town will vote to raise an appropriate a transfer from available funds to meet expenses and outlays to town departments salaries of town offices sunry and miscellaneous but regular expenditures for a reserve fund and to appoint trustees or caretakers or authorize a select board to appoint caretakers Akers of the cemeteries of the Town not otherwise provided for in the ensuing year take any action relative there too the motion is moved that the town raise and appropriate a sum of a sum of 70,000 7, 480,000 $987 and appropriate $30,000 from the opid settlement stabilization fund and further that the town appropriate 3 m347 N9 from the enter water Enterprise fund to meet the expenses and outlays for the town departments salaries of town offices sunry and miscellaneous but regular expenditures for a reserve fund and for other expenses of the Town not otherwise provided for with all departmental expenses reflected in the level four column of the Omnibus budget as printed in the warrant is there a second to the motion we will now proceed by Department to deal with the appropriation and allocation of funds select board personnel and you need not wait until uh we finished the listing of the department budgets we're going to vote by line by line so if you have a a comment or question please call out so I make sure that I I see you or hear you thank you select board Personnel 3 $338,900 450 for a total operating budget of 67 is there a motion to approve that sum a second all those in favor say I I those opposed so voted fincom Personnel $1,580 operating budget $220 for total of $1,800 motion to that effect is second all those in favor those opposed so voted Reserve fund total $325,000 there a second all those in favor those opposed so voted Town accountant under Personnel $165,500 3,200 total $28,750 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted Board of assessors personnel $214,700 9,105 total 293,2mb 31739 operating 3,960 for total for human resources of 162 699 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted technology Personnel $3,586 operating 175,176 5,976 for a total operating budget of all those in favor say I those opposed so voted town clerk Personnel 175 357 operating 11,550 total 186,50 7 all those in favor those opposed so voted elections Personnel 4,841 operating 16595 for a total of 57,4 36 all those in favor those opposed so voted concom person that's excuse me Conservation Commission Personnel 64319 operating 3,650 total 67,900 planning board Personnel $3,295 operating budget 4,550 for a total of 17845 all those in favor yes discussion yes which one was that on planning planning board yeah good evening everyone uh Devon how 10 Dixon Circle uh here tonight speaking as a resident of town not speaking on behalf of any business uh business I've represented in Town speaking as myself a resident of Holliston um I'm standing here tonight um to discuss the planning board and what I believe we should do with the budget um the planning board uh for those who don't watch the uh public meetings that they host um has significantly in my opinion uh financially harmed uh the town um the planning board uh typically meets uh twice a month uh where they hear uh public meetings public hearings um from developers uh business owners in town um and people who want to come to this town as small businesses and start a start a business uh become part of hollist and um and what we've done over the over the past at least the couple years I've been in town is really limit and make it extraordinarily difficult um sometimes it feels like they are intending to make it impossible um to really present your project uh provide all the information that the planning board needs to make a decision um and it it it is uh preventing these businesses uh from coming into town uh we've seen uh obviously signs of you know the hopping Brook uh where a lot of people have come out beh humanly against it um and a lot of people see that as a a tax revenue um and could have been a positive to the town where it was on the The Far Side of Town in an industrial district um where it could have brought an enormous tax revenue for a relatively short distance uh through the hallon town line uh to the abing Milford I think that they also are causing us as the town to in the case of crg enter a legal battle um against them where we've gone from the ability to have a lot of uh local control of the project and now it's in the Court's hands what it feels like at least to me is that the planning board really doesn't respect uh the uh Town planner um and what uh the the planner's opinions may be because at least in my experience in towns across the state um I I've never uh really seen a town ever this tried to limit such uh input from developers uh from their 7 to 9:00 meetings because they have a hard 9:00 curfew where they shut off um all discussion from both the uh business owners Developers as well as the residents uh for that reason I would make a motion to reduce the uh the planning board's budget by $50,000 um to account for the fact that why do we even really need a full-time planning department um when they don't appear to in my opinion uh respect uh how that process should go he needs to say which are the two line items thank you [Applause] sir any further discussion see none yes [Applause] okay so he he made a motion to amend to reduce it by 50,000 but didn't say oh I okay I'm sorry excuse me before the next comment the gentleman made a motion to amend the article to affect the appropriation is there a second to his motion and ask the gentleman to identify which Li item he's seeking to reduce yes please for the benefit of the public at home the motion would be for the uh planning board line item um specifically personel or okay it's your motion would be either directed to Personnel or operating Personnel okay can you give that to us in writing please we have a form you can use it's a simple motion you understand but the protocol is to have it done in writing for the record English e you thank you okay the motion to amend is made and seconded that's open for debate somebody want to be heard up in the back oh can go ahead good evening my name is Karen auso lton I am the chair of the planning board uh Mr how has suggested that we cut the full-time planners budget by 50% Karen Sherman works every single day in the town of Holliston she mans the if you excuse me she staffs thank you Barbara she staffs the counter she fields questions she helps individuals fill out their applications she takes questions from the community she goes out on field visits she goes out on field site visits she has a full-time job here and it is necessary the planning board is a volunteer group that is voted on in town election we volunteer we work to hear applications people apply they apply in a formal setting at the Town counter they fill out all of the information and when the information is complete they get put onto the agenda they come to the they come to the meetings they have deadlines to meet they do their presentations the board asks questions residents ask questions sometimes these are complicated and they take more than one night I think that most of you understand that Holliston is a unique and special place and I believe that what's happening in this room at this moment is an attack on the fact that we are being we are trying to protect you and I honestly have never met a business and I think that Travis would like to speak on the budget sure I I think um the the fincom chair was going to speak as well so we'll probably have similar type comments uh and if you don't mind Mr moderator but thank you very much um so I would just point out I think the the the gentleman's points Travis Aur Town Administration um the gentleman's points were about the efficiency of the the planning board I think that's his opinion um and and he's certainly entitled to that I think certainly if we were looking for uh to increase efficiency of the planning board removing the ability to have the town planner would not accomplish that uh that would be my fear obviously um the rest of the the points are again you know opinions the the board meets two times per month to move through I think it was stated that there were um deadlines at the end of meetings to to close them out again that is about uh taking um good care of the time of the people who are there elected to that board to do business uh the town planner obviously works with individuals during um you know during town all town office hours excuse me and is available to help a number of businesses so again I think the point that was made and reducing the budget uh seem to conflict with the the purpose of of the motion um and I'm happy to answer any other questions on the actual budget if if those come up thanks thank you any further discussion yes sir again Devon how 10 Dix and circle um it it seems to have been suggested at least the way I interpreted it um that the board uh has deadlines well that's partially true um a lot of application that are made to the planning board does not actually have deadlines um the um for uh subdivisions there's usually a statutory time frame that the planning board has to act uh for other applications such as a site plan review um there may not actually be a statutory requirement a time frame that uh the planning board has to uh review a project so what a planning board could do in the case of uh Holliston is they could uh continue projects uh for two three four months at a time you can pick whatever time frame you'd like in your head the planning board has the ability to continue to extend those projects as long as they so choose if there is no State statutory requirement um the the reason why I believe the the planning board Personnel uh salary should or at least the budget should be reduced by half is because I do not believe there's any reason to have a planning department if there is no planning going on where we just as a town just say no development at all it it's much easier to just say that as opposed to put on a dog and pony show um at meetings um and I think as a town we could save money and be more efficient with our money um to potentially even allocate that to to somewhere else as opposed to the planning board uh Personnel thank you any further discussion I'm sorry okay okay come up to the point you can ask your question for mic so the others can hear you at home hi Liz jiter 45 Franklin Street um I'm a zoning Board member so I just asked Travis if this proposed amendment would affect Karen Sherman's work with the zoning board he said it would so if you remove Karen Sherman's salary from the zoning board it uh it would also mean that anyone who comes before the board seeking a variance or a special permit for their property we wouldn't be able to function without her I just wanted to clarify that thank you any further discussion yes uh Ben spel 9 Forest Park Drive um I just want to make a comment here that I think the uh the person making this uh um Amendment to the budget is conflating disagreements with the board with the hard work of uh Professionals in this town and I take exception with that I understand the point they're trying to make and they may have a difference of opinion and that's fine but the person in this particular case works very hard and is an important member of this community as a municipal official and we have many of those and I think they deserve our respect and admiration for the work they do every day so thank you I think the Topic's been fairly debated so let's move first to a moe on the mo motion to amend the motion is as I recall to reduce the Personnel line item by $50,000 and that thereby reduce the total operating budget by $50,000 all those in favor of the amendment say I those opposed so voted that that motion goes down we turned to the main motion which is to approve funding for the planning board Personnel 13,920 operating budget 4,550 total 117 845 all those in favor say I I those opposed so voted zoning board Personnel $751 16 operating 2875 for total budget of $1,391 all those in favor say I I those opposed so voted Economic Development Personnel $ 48,8 74 operating budget 2950 total 51824 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted no appropriation for public buildings a sustainability $51,500 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted Police Department Personnel 3, 35,5 operating budget $281,200 m586 $771 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted apparently no funds being S for auxiliary police under the fire department personnel 852 572 operating budget $171,700 for total for the fire department of 1,593 49 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted ambulance Personnel $977,000 for total for the ambulance of 1,187 239 all those in favor say hi those opposed I'm sorry yes sorry I didn't mean to be rude no all right all right um I I just cannot let this go um from the point of view of if you have an A if you are a resident and you need a paramedic to come to your home because of your situation that means you need ALS Services if you live in Holliston and you call uh 911 you will get as I understand it an EMT how however if you have a more serious situation you do need to wait because it takes longer to travel from Hope Dale or from Millis or from Ashlin or from Medway to your home so at this point in time if you need ALS service you will wait longer than if you need EMT I had that personal experience I called an EMT I called 911 the EMTs from Holliston came and then I had to wait I waited 15 15 minutes with a hot problem for Ashlin to come and someone in this room this evening indicated the same situation the EMTs from Holliston came but he waited for Hope Dale no matter if you're your ambulance is called at the same time if you live in Holliston you are going to wait for someone to come from Millis from Medway from H Dale maybe other towns before you were being treated so we are very happy that we are moving towards ALS and you will no longer have to wait any further discussion hearing none we'll vote on the ambulance budget Personnel 977 239 operating 210,000 for a total of 1,187 239 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted building inspection Personnel 28,2 35 operating 19,200 total of 237,000 those opposed so voted Emergency Management Personnel 10,000 operating 11,811 total budget 2,811 all those in favor say I please I those opposed so voted Animal Control $38,000 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted DPW Highway Personnel 1,613 59 operating $ 47,2 33 Capital outlay 200,000 for total for the highway department of DPW 1,668 592 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted facilities maintenance Personnel 117,649 12,27 total for facilities maintenance $329 371 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted snow and ice well we remember snow and ice Personnel 50,000 operating 200,000 for total for snow and ice $250,000 all those in favor I those opposed so voted Street lighting the total is $ 75,7 182 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted solid waste1 m549 683 all those in favor say I I those are po oh yes sir Solid Waste yeah Jack blae 25 metro road uh on the solid waste I have a question for the commissioner of Public Works what percentage do we get when we ship our trash to javies and it goes to Wheeler and it's go converted from trash to energy Mr ree here I'm sorry Mr H thank you I apologize I'm going have to pull out my uh my budget book which is available online uh going through the finance committee's web page you'll find uh all the levels of the budget I'm going to try to pull out here the solid waste Budget on the Fly it's a budget of million5 49683 but that was not my question no I understand your question question was uh about what we get back from wheeler was that correct that was your question soash energy um let me just pull up here sorry I have to go through the whole budget um so what we lay out here in the uh explanation is how the entire Solid Waste budget is is composed the majority of it goes to Harvey's for a contract that has been renewed for a three-year contract starting this coming fiscal year um that has two two-year options at the end of it um and so within that no I understand I'm going to I'm just trying to answer my question and as I'm give an opportunity to research it Mr BL I'm looking it up for you what language should we do this we've had enough of the language talk all right this is serious business um so so can you answer do we get a piece of the action on our trash or no do we get a piece of the action we pay them a lot of money to remove our trash do we get a piece of the action on the trash at wheel from trash to energy which is sold for electricity do we get a piece of that action there is not a dollar amount that comes to us it is all within the contract itself so do we get compensated in your trash fees with hobes knowing that if you spend 200 bucks a ton pick a number that they're going to get 10 bucks a ton a trash energy so shouldn't we get that piece of the action the way that that market has gone that is certainly not the case we are not in the driver seat as it relates to our our negotiations for solid waste contracts so as we have it broken out here you can't go trash to energy can you no but they pay a lot of money to mass DP based on the ability to uh incinerate that trash so then on that same note so we get we get zero percentage on Recycle fees back the recycling Market has also gone against all the municipalities yes thank you any further discussion if you don't mind I just want to highlight long up so the way that the budget is broken down is for solid waste recycling which is the Harvey's contract we have disposal expenses which is wheel abor as the gentleman mentioned that is $351,000 of the total budget uh the majority otherwise is for um the El Harvey's contract that's a side agreement with wheeler for the incineration we also have within here some smaller amounts the Hazardous Waste day we pay Harvey's actually sends us back $10,000 to defay the cost of what is $220,000 otherwise and also within this budget is the operation um of the recycling center on Marshall Street thank you thank you Travis okay the motion is to approve for the uh Solid Waste division a 1,549 683 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted wastewater treatment operating $134,800 department is the same number 134,135 th000 all those in favor those opposed so voted board of health personnel $1 164,384 the total $174,000 $18 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted Council on aging Personnel $238,800 Youth and Family Personnel $1 192,193 operating 9,420 for a total of $2,553 all in favor say I who opposed so voted veteran services benefits $50,000 operating 501833 for veteran services all those in favor say I those opposed so voted Library personel $437,500 operating $193,600 for a total for the library of $63,900 all those in favor say I please hi those opposed so voted getting close pox and wck Personnel $169,200 that's the total amount sought for appropriation for pox and wreck all those in favor say I those opposed so voted the rail trail $5,000 all those in favor say I I those opposed so voted that seems like quite a bin doesn't it celebrations total 25 00 all those in favor say I I anyone opposed anyone opposed to celebrations at that level seeing none all so voted County Retirement 2,617 1865 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted workers comp $377,500 all in favor say I those opposed so voted unemployment $50,000 all those in favor say I who was opposed so voted employee benefits 8,400,000 $34 all in favor say I I those opposed so voted liability insurance $401,500 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted that subtotal just for purposes of clarifying making sure the record is clear the total for those accounts as proposed is 26,4 76,800 hollon public schools 41,8 47,1 157 any discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I those opposed so voted Kei technical 1, 82482 all those in favor say I those opposed that passes I thank the representative Kei tech for Lending us their time here in case there were questions to be heard the education sub total is 43,6 72,2 all those in favor say I I those opposed so voted Debt Service operating four $4,000 Debt Service $358,500 for a total of 36 $2,650 all in favor say I I those opposed so voted total general fund budget 7,510 n87 all those in favor say I I those opposed so voted water div division Enterprise Personnel $877,500 benefits $297,900 15 Capital outlay 15,000 debt service6 $1,647 for a total of $3,347 all those in favor say I I any oppose yes Mr bla Jack Blaze 25 Mitchell Road I'm curious who would answer a question on the Water Department would that be the commissioner of public work works it depends who it's okay put out the question we'll decide who answer it okay here's my question we pay annually $30 a month for a water meter rental and so that's I heard there's over 6,000 M simple math that's 180,000 a year 10 years would be 1.8 million so on our investment only if you have gray hair you can appreciate this years ago the telephone company used to charge your rental for your telephone and we ended up buying our phone and we don't have to do that anymore so why is a Hollis and water resident why can't we buy a meter or if we're paying $180,000 a year that you're getting on a a fee you got to be making money on that so how much we making on $180,000 a year I'm Ken go right ahead thank you I just really wanted to stand up I've been sitting too long okay so the short answer is we're not renting the meters the $750 or $30 a year that you pay for the meter fee is because the meters get replaced every 10 years by law and years ago when we started replacing the meters we said you know it's pretty stupid to every 10 years have to come up with a bunch of money to replace all these meters we should be charging for it all along the way so when you get to year 10 we have enough money to replace all the meters that's why we do it we buy the meters but they need to be replaced cost to replace the meters what you're being charged basically the fee is adjusted to cover the costs that we expect in 10 years time obviously we don't know what the 10-year cost will be well you have 1.8 million plus interest because you're making interest on the money every year you're not putting 180,000 in the petty cash flow are you no the the reason it's broken out on your water bill as a separate meter fee is because it is kept in a separate meter fee account so where do what do you do with that money for an investment if you're not using a water meter for 10 years that in terms of what actually happens in terms of the interest bearing on the account that would be more appropriately answered by our town Treasurer because these funds are to to to answer the short answer is the money doesn't just sit there and earn no interest okay all the towns funds are either invested where they can be or interest in interest bearing accounts because obviously the seven of us the three of them the Town Administrator and our finance director are not idiots so we we invest the money to get interest okay so so so if you're not so if you're not an idiot what kind of investment we get back on on our deposit as I said the finance director the the treasurer can give you the details guy no I'm I'm the chair of the finance committee but the treasurer is the one who handles the town's Investments and could tell you exactly what the returns are but as I said the money is not it's accumulated over 10 years earning interest the whole time so that at the end of year 10 we don't have to come back and say we're going to charge everybody for meters or it's just prudent financial planning which is one thing that everybody who's listening to me for many years knows is I'm very big on we don't want to get surprised by expenses we can see coming 10 years in advance so let's collect the money along the way so that when the time comes we have the money okay thank you Travis is going to be heard on the topic all right I just want to clarify a couple things that uh uh the finance committee chair just said if you're following along in the book so if you go to page 59 that's where all the water finances are broken out so you can see uh the normal cash balance which was referred to as retain earnings the infrastructure fee which is how we replace water Ms and then the water meter fee and if you look at that on the balance what you'll see is and and for anybody who was at town meeting last year uh we've appropriated $95,000 uh and the procurement process has begun on what is going to going to be a widespread townwide replacement of water meters so the procurement of that is being overseen um by not only the DPW director who apologizes he's on the road at the moment um but also the facilities director who's in the back of the room who's uh public procurement certified as well as myself who's running that procurement there's any questions on the water meter replacement and then as the finance committee chair mentioned the treasurers in the room Finance director uh who's investing that money if there are additional questions on how it's being invested uh pretty much every investment that a town can make with public funds is regulated at the state level of how that can be invested and the treasurer's job is to maximize that while minimizing risk thank you thank you okay we'll proceed to a vote on the Water Division Enterprise Personnel 87758374242 fore total of3 , 34,7 N9 all those in favor say I those opposed so voted that completes the omnious buzet thank you for your attention I know that a good portion of it is quite routine but it's a legal obligation that we have to identify how the funds are being spent and so we have to go through it in that that fashion article 21 yes well take your time any sing uh 129 Westfield Road Drive I don't even know what is it a roo or a drive it's a drive I just wanted to say um I do appreciate the gentleman's questions um for me I take it as a a way for me I hear I here a a request for a little like more transparency about what goes on in our government and and in this in this particular example the finances um and I think that's legit thank you okay thank you article C 21 to transfer from available funds a sum of money for the capital expenditure fund the motion is moved that the town raise and appropriate the sum of $1,700,000 for the capital expenditure fund the offer explanation is it's been the custom of the town to annually transfer from from reserves a sum of money to the capital expenditure fund to be used at the October special town meeting to fund Capital requests is there a second the finance committee recommends that the town raise an appropriate $1,700,000 for the capital expenditure fund any discussion seeing none all those in favor say I those opposed say no the next article Capital expend additionally requires a 2/3 majority vote to see if the town will vote to raise an appropriate a transfer from available funds or borrow a sum of money for the purpose of capital expenditures including replacement in new vehicles and equipment for the schools select board facilities maintenance fire and ambulance and public works department and authorize the select board to trade or sell used equipment to a part of the purchase price or take any action relative there to and from the benefit of the folks who at home who don't have the warrant available to ambulance uh f $ 57,8 128 fire structural firefighting gear 33,000 facilities Town Hall HVAC systems 12,150 F facilities Central fire improvements including Windows 135,000 facilities Central fire roof replacement $300,000 facilities wastewater treatment plant scad census 24,000 DPW Highway snowplow with angle with power angle 26,000 DPW heavy duty flatbed body 12,400 DPW Highway as asphalt burn machine and side bucket for skid gear 17,850 school department curriculum materials licenses 250,00 School Technology laptops and infrastructure 2ou 231,000 schools Highway Auditorium wall insulation $53,500 for Grant total of 1,1 153,00 328 uh the fincom recommends that the town appropriate 1,63 328 from the capital expenditure fund and 990,000 from the balance of Article 5 from the December 20 town meeting for the items listed in the article 60 of Mr NS absent the motion is move that the town appropriate the sum of 1,63 328 from the S capital expension fund and 990,000 from the balance of Article 5 from December 2020 town meeting for the purposes listed in article 22 in the warrant is there any second that any discussion seeing none all those in favor say I those oppose so voted Excuse me yes I declare that as unanimous vote article 23 hdac opioid response initiatives to see if the town will vote to raise an appropriate or transfer from available funds a sum of money for the purpose of addressing the opioid epidemic as defined by the opioid settlement received by the town or take any relative action theret moveed that the town appropriate $50,000 from the opioid stabilization fund for the purposes stated in the article a brief explanation is warranted here this is new to us the hdac is dedicated to fostering communication collaboration opportunities and support for the people of hollison by addressing the opioid crisis through the following strategic initiatives hdac aims to create a resilient and informed Community with that actively Works toward mitigating the harmful effects of substance abuse the intended Al ation of the funds is to support people in treatment and Recovery 15,000 connections to care 2500 harm reductions 15,000 needs of Criminal Justice involved persons 2500 need for pregnant app parenting women a th000 and prevent misuse of opioids implementation Implement private prevention education uh 14,000 the opioid stabilization fund received 73,9 40 and fiscal year 23 65,000 through March through this year for total available balance of 9,579 the FY 25 operating budget assumes the use of 30,000 for position with Youth and Family Services and the adle request an additional 50,000 be approved for the expenses above the remaining balance of these proposed costs would appr would approv would be 50 would leave 59,000 2579 of the fund with additional supplement funds to receive over the next 10 or 15 years is there a second to the motion any discussion all those in favor say I I those oppos so voted water Vision oh I excuse my hurry water division lead and copper roll revision compliance the article uh is has an estimated cost of $300,000 is sponsored by the select board to see if the town will vote to raise an appropriate transfer from available funds or borrow a sum of money for the purpose of authorizing the procurement of consulting services and Capital Improvements to comply with lead and copper R revisions all LCR from Mast D or take any action relative there to the motion is moved that the town appropriate $300,000 from the balance of the article 31 of the May 22 town meeting for the purpose stated in the article the fincom recommends that the town appropriate 300,000 from the balance of article 31 from the May 22 town meeting for the purpose stated in the article 60 with Mr NS absent is there a second the explanation offered is that in the category of unfunded mandates the town was given a directive for Mass D on December 4th 2023 regarding Le and corer Rule revisions LCR the town must hire third party consulting services to perform various duties to remain in compliance as a public water system including but law limited to submitting a service line inventory by October 16th 2024 this requires a majority vote all those in favor say I I those opposed that's unanimous Water Treatment Plant I take a little water we get to it thank you it's Hollis and water water treatment plan improvements to see estimated cost 500,000 to see if the town will vote to raise an appropriate transfer from available funds or borrow a sum of money for the purpose of upgrading filter media and making other facility improvements of existing water treatment plans to take any action relative there too the motion is move that the town appropriate $500,000 from the balances of previously approved warrant articles 880,000 from article 31 of the May 22 town meeting 250,000 from article 17 of the October 18 town meeting 24,000 from article 9 of the December 20 town meeting and 146,000 from Article 4 of October 19th 20 town meeting for the purpose stated in article in the article the finance committee recommends that the following Town recommends that the town appropriate 500,000 from the balances of the following articles 8 ,000 from article 31 of May 22 town meeting 250,000 from article 17 of the October 18 town meeting 24,000 from article 9 of the December 20 town meeting and 146,000 from the article Article 4 of the October 19th town meeting for the purpose stated in the article 60 with Mr NS absent is there a second to the motion any discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I those opposed so voted now we'll move to article 26 special legislation Town manager act sponsored by the select board to see if the town will vote to authorize the select board to petition the general court for special legislation creating a town manager position and prescribing the duties and responsibilities thereof and further to authorize the select board to accept any non-material revisions to set legislation as may be required by the general court the motion is moved that the town authorize the select board to petition the general court for special legislation for the town manager act as presented in article 26 of the warrant with three additional specific revisions denoted by asterisk and a printed version on cream colored paper handed out at the town clerk's counter at town meeting and available online at the town's website for those of you who who were unable to pick one up this evening with a offered amendments to it the suggested explanation the ACT is intended to streamline the data operations of the Town shifting responsibility of certain daily operations to the town manager from the select board to avoid requiring meetings for approval examples include applying for and accepting grants signing contracts that have been proc procured under the Attorney General's guidelines signing weekly AP I assume that's accounts payable and payroll warrants for timely vendors is there a second uh the fincom will make a recommendation a town meeting so we like and I have not that yet so I call on Dr Shader to give us fincom Rec recommendation the uh fincom voted 5 to2 as I mentioned in my presentation to recommend indefinite postponement of this article so okay yeah you want to be heard on that to explain okay so obviously individual members of the finance committee can comment on the reasons for their vote but I will just give you a brief history which is this first came to us in March of this year uh so it's only been about 8 weeks we had some significant questions about it just to be clear this is my personal opin opinion is I'm not opposed to a town manager I think this is a good way to go in the future but this act came to us there were some changes that were recommended it's being hastily discussed some of the other boards have issues with it you see the result of this haste tonight and that you were handed something tonight with edits that were not included in the warrant that went to the town so the issue isn't whether we support or don't support a town manager at least again this is my take on my vote it's that I asked for some changes that were not included some other members asked for some changes that weren't included some other boards asked for changes that weren't included and literally the last week of my life has been non-stop texting about changes to this act which says to me if we're going to do something this is not a bylaw where we can approve it and then change it next town meeting this is a law we are sending to the state house to go through the legislative process to become law changing it is really hard it requires a new act a new Act of the state house so our my personal opinion and the opinion I think of some of the other members of the finance committee they can speak for themselves was that this is a rush job and even if we support having a town manager this is not something to be done in 8 weeks and have all sorts of open questions about where we want to go with this and that's why we voted voted majority voted to to recommend indefinite postponement okay further discussion on the motion to indefinitely postpone been second Chief Michael Cassidy Fire Chief and Emergency Management director I will be speaking on behalf of myself as a resident and not as a uh department head but it's my understanding from parliamentary law that a uh motion to indefinitely postpone is often used to temporarily or permanently suppress a main motion without taking a view on its merits much of what you just heard as a justification for the vote that was taken the recommendation at town meeting sounded like it was getting into the merits so I would like to get into the merits of the article as presented in the warrant so I would urge you to vote down the motion to indefinitely postpone Mary do you want to be heard next I'll be very brief I just want to read you something that I wrote for the history book for those people who oh Mary Greendale 198 Highland Street thank you Paul I forget okay so I wrote this in the history book for those of you who are newcomers I just think you need to to be aware of this Holliston has often been reluctant by the way it was 30 years ago this very meeting when we passed the Town Administrator act and at that time we wanted to do what is being proposed tonight but never mind Holliston has often been reluctant you see what I mean it seems we needed a crisis to make us actually move forward in a direction that we had considered and indefinitely postponed indefinite postponement is the town meeting language for kicking the can down the road our government structure has not kept pace more to follow in the history book I also suggest that we vote against indefinite [Applause] postponing uh Vincent Murphy 432 nor fork street so I'm the one who recommended to the committee to basically post inde definitely postpone this the reason I did was I heard from several of the boards saying they heard one thing from the select board and then they looked at what was in the warrant and it was a different thing and I said well there's something coming out but I know you're hearing things and what your concerns are weren't being addressed with the revised motion so we're not kicking the can down inevitably or indefinitely we're saying let's de deal with this and let's talk about this in October what I didn't want is to extend this meeting until 11:00 at night or even past for something we could have been doing in committee I was getting Ken was getting text messages I was talking to people throughout the weekend and I said this is going to be an inevitable problem at town meeting if we waited and discussed this in open form and I don't think it's most efficient use of our time so I'd recommend inde definitely postponing this yes Ben go ah ahead Ben spel n Forest Park Drive and a member of the select board um I understand the consternation about this but I also think it's important that we hear some of the details and understand not only the history here I mean this has been 30 years in the making we haven't we haven't updated this in 30 years and it's important that I think we have these conversations and sometimes conversations are hard and we have to have them late into the evening because they're hard and they're important um so I think we should take the time to hear the merits and understand what's going on in the article and discuss it there um at this time rather than indefinitely postpone we have more information that we can present that's uh gerine to the actual uh article not toen postponing so thank you up against the wall yes sir Tom D excuse me 157 Winter Street hollison hav been in town for over 50 years and never missing one of these meetings I have to agree with Mary that we've been pushing this down the road too many years I would like to know some specifics about the indefinite postponement and who is actually for it not hearing well we need to hit have more time we've had plenty of time and wasn't this brought up some of this brought up in the past no no nothing no just direct your qu questions or comments to me sir okay just apologize that's right but so I recommend against indefinite postponement thank you Ken I'll get you next Brian Goodman 86 Church Street um I just want to I'll try to keep this pretty quick um but and fincom I have so much respect for you having now lived in hollison for about two and a half years this is my third town meeting I don't I anticipate living here at least another 28 I don't anticipate uh missing a town meeting and I think I I hope I speak for most of you where uh doing business in several different surrounding towns and seeing how so many are so close to receivership um it's kind of scary and I uh very confident that our finances are in very capable and intelligent hands with that said I got to agree with Mary I know all the talk is of Holliston 300 this year and celebrating the last 300 years I'm interested in the next 300 years and I want Holliston to have its best years ahead of it not behind it and the way we do that is updating Our Town leadership we've spent a lot of money I'm sure um over the last couple years with envisioning future Holliston we've been paid for vision but Vision ain't going to get you anywhere we need leadership to get there and postponing the leadership further is just going to keep us mired in the past not in the future I support uh voting down the in definite uh postponement and supporting the uh the positive vote to make Travis Hearn Town manager thank you John I'll get you next go ahead Ken so so just to be clear on a couple things first of all I want to straighten out one thing which is Jack and I go way back which is why when I was making fun of him it was because we're we're old friends the uh the other thing is uh with regards to this I was asked what the finance committee's opinion was I never actually made a motion to indefinitely postpone so I'm all for having debate about this here um if we want to get to the point if we want to have a long lengthy debate and get to something that we can approve I'm all for that and just to be clear to Mary's point I wasn't in town 30 years ago but I was here in March which is when this discussion started so you can talk about history all you want but and my argument as I said personally not speaking as a finance Committee Member my issue with this is not let's not do a town manager it's the fact that we were editing up until right before this town meeting is is a problem that's that's why I said don't take this as I'm anti- toown manager I think that with some more work rather than getting the first draft of this article in March less than 8 weeks from this town meeting was when we first saw it there are other boards in in in in the town that have not had a chance or that have had feedback that has not been discussed with the board there are changes that as I said we had requested that were not included um which could always be added but you're limited in the number of amendments you can make so my issue is not with let's not do a town manager let's stay mired in the past but we also don't leap into the future with something that's dropped in front of us 8 weeks for and say change you know so so this argument that it's been worked on for 30 years if that was the case then my first day on the finance committee I would have seen this article I didn't see it until March nobody on our committee saw it till March No Other Board saw it until till March so we're being asked to change our form of government in8 weeks when we have a town select board that told us two years ago it's going to take us a year to figure out whether we can go from three to five members okay we still haven't heard about that either so my point is back then it was a year of research to just do something like increase your board to members and now it's we only need 8 weeks to change our form of government so even if we all agree on the change of the form which we do I'm just saying that this is not the time to say let's do a rush job so and as I said I didn't actually make the motion so hold on John well let's address that procedural point you do not make a motion to uh indefinitely postpone Ken you asked me what the finance Comm I asked you and I said the finance committee recommended indefinite postponement okay I'm all for if we want to have some debate and then indefinitely postpone to talk about get some Town feedback on it and then if we get to someplace fine but I just I also think the flip side of it is I don't think we're going to be able to do that on the fly at a town meeting so So eventually I think it would I would recommend and definitely postponing but I'm not trying to stifle debate by saying I'm going to do that right up front if people want to have debate about okay I misunderstood and I had made a motion to indefinitely postpone some the article is open for debate and I'll entertain any motion that anybody wants to make at any point in time Mr Cronin and then Mary I'll call in you next please thank you Mr moderator Chris if you be so kind pull up my presentation thank you and good evening again um I'd like to present to this body some information relative to some of the questions you just had poed to you on the Readiness of this article the thoroughness that the board undertook to get it ready for this evening's discussion before you arrive this evening as you arrived I should say you received a copy of a brand new warrant um article relative to this matter our board took late um adjustments to it based on the feedback that we had received from across town government those changes are noted in the product that you have it's it's cream colored that is the most recent motion or article content in addition you were given a flyer when you came in that had an open letter associated with a grid that material has been on the town website for two months that open letter describes the benefits of this particular proposal I'll go through them briefly what is the goal of the proposal why are we doing this it's to improve efficiency yeah reallocating day-to-day operational responsibilities from elected officials such as the select board to the professional staff the town's current structure is considered decentralized meaning that questions of accountability and efficiency can often lead to multiple directions this proposal will reallocate the duties and allow the select board to focus on greater time and effort on the executive functions of the board such as policy development while the town manager coordinates administrative operational and financial functions for consistency across departments and boards has this been studied well you've heard a couple of speakers talk about Hon's history the matter has been the subject of studies dating back to 1970 but the most significant structural change happened 50 years ago excuse me the most significant change occurred in 1994 with the special act that created the Town Administrator we have this evening in front of us a gentleman who was on that committee Mr Sam Tyler who was the chair of our governance committee Sam knows the struggles the town's been through over the last several decades to evolve this position to empower this position to work for us in a professional and competent manner Sam has no peer in Massachusetts understanding the challenges that this position really does endure we met with Sam to discuss the governor's committee's feedback and the work that they had compiled in anticipation of this particular article not surprisingly Sam wants more from this particular article I'll let him speak for that himself but I have immense immense respect for Sam Tyler I think he's one of the gifts to our town he's somebody who's intelligence and commitment to Public Service I greatly admire and in this respect I wish to thank him for the job he he did on the governance committee and the work that brought us this far in 2020 that governance committee which was formed started to look at several elements including this upon the the disbanding of the governance committee that information has since been shared with us we also Eng engaged Mass do the division of local services for an evaluation DLS reported and issued a report to us on November 2nd 2021 that found hollis's government remains decentralized with only incremental changes to the management structure made over the last four to five decades internally the select board process began of studying models and advancing drafts to stakeholders in departments on March 13th 2024 I apologize for the next screen I know you probably can't read it very effectively but you'll have to take my word for it these 11 Benchmark dates show the progression of this particular item where it originated from how did it get to the form that you see this evening one of the things that you have to understand is that Massachusetts has many different town manager models we understood the need to look at a model that really recognized the administrative benefits um we focused on the town of Wayland which had recently passed a very similar article we were very deliberative we wanted to avoid any Collision of these duties specifically with the finance committee this body evaluated the finance committee's role several years ago we listened this proposal does not touch any of the finance committee's rules their regulations or their bylaws not at all as we progressed we started looking internally first among ourselves drafting editing we had Council weighin and then eventually as I mentioned on March 13th we distributed that working drive to the stakeholders we identified five boards and committees that would be directly affected by this model I always get them wrong but I'll try to get them all straight here Board of Health assessing planning Parks Library I think I always forget one put your hand up if I forgot you but there are five those particular boards and committees evaluated at their level we received feedback from all of them most of them embraced this particular model wholeheartedly and in some cases unanimously we received feedback anecdotally from other stakeholders including the schools and the finance committee we were curious is there something in here that you want us to tweak or look at I'm I'm happy to tell you we accepted virtually every single edit it was important to our board that those edits were inclusive in this model that's why that's why you have a cream colored version in front of you right now we waited until the last minute to put every single edit in to make sure there was a collective and spirited input of this material before you this evening I'll leave that uh particular uh screen um in your memory I know it's hard to read but I think it's important to know that the progress to get us here wasn't just 8 weeks ago it was years years ago it was progress towards analyzing talking to the right people and bringing together something that we believe you will support but why now well the town of hollison as an organization operates at over $70 million you just voted it due to a highly regulated environment with greater complexities each year coming from State local and federal policy decision makers I would venture to guess many of you have dropped in on a select board meeting on occasion try doing so during the budget season Tred doing so during the collective bargaining season Tred doing so during any complex discussion it all goes back to the stakeholders of town hall we're volunteers I work for you one day a week they worked for you five days a week the investment that we're trying to make is to professionalize this role at Town Hall indeed survey results from envisioning future hollison Illustrated the this community's desire for changes specifically residents who are looking for for increased transparency accountability and more centralized municipal government if somebody called the town manager's office Town administrator's office right now and asked a question about one of those other departments they'd be forwarded to the other department this makes your call a little bit more Central you'll get answers there's accountability behind that question this change is after all for you slide five what does it do well under the act the town manager is giving clear author and responsibility for managing the town in four areas Administration Finance personnel and facilities and property one of the items that was on the back page of that letter is a grid I invite you to read it and ju the pose what the Town Administrator currently does versus what the town manager will do we're happy to answer any questions that may come up as a result of your inquiries but we felt that that tool might be helpful for you to see where this is moving uh within the act as you can see administrative it clarifies the town manager's Authority and responsibility to ensure compliance with policies procedures and federal and state local laws the act clarifies the town manager's financial responsibilities reporting to various stakeholders including the separately elected finance committee whose role again is unchanged on Personnel the act centralizes the authority and responsibility from the select board to the town manager with regard to negotiations of collective bargaining agreements Personnel agreements and standardizing consistent and compliant hiring practices facilities and property the act clarifies the town manage responsibility for construction repair and maintenance of all Town buildings Etc next does the ACT make any other changes no there is no change to the makeup appointment process or authority of existing boards committees commissions with the except exception of the select board I know it's late but I want to repeat that there is no chance change to the makeup appointment process or authority of existing boards committees or commissions no change the ACT would confirm the practice that has been in the place for the hiring of certain boards and committee staff wherein the town manager will now consult with the elected boards and committees following screen is the one I mentioned is on the back I know it's hard to read it's on the back of your narrative page feel free to examine that thank you for your time to listen to this brief justification for the uh proposal I've heard some questions relative to haste or rush job it's hard for me to listen to those words and process all the work that's gone into what you have before you the select board feels very strongly now is the time to act on this particular item I will be listening intently I may have some questions for my peers across the way here as you consider this particular request thank you very much I appreciate it thank you f the debate yes Dan uh Dan Alfred 315 High Street uh speaking for myself so just a couple questions one why wasn't the uh an expansion of the select board uh considered as part of this given that it was a a prior town meeting article two what are the long-term financial implications of um moving to a town manager we when we I mean when I was a member of the finance committee we uh were looking at uh hiring a facilities manager and we actually delayed that by a uh I think it was one meeting as we asked for the select board to put together a plan a long-term plan what is it going to be what are the needs of the facilities manager what other resources the facilities manager going to to need um one of the um sort of offshoots of professional iing things is a general intends to cost more money so what other resources is the town manager going to need to run the government in the way that select board anticipates has that question been answered have we looked at that have we looked at what the sort of the long-term plan is going to be and then finally um why in section uh 4 C does it say that the town manager shall appoint on the basis of Merit Fitness alone with the ratification by a vote of majority of the select board so the select board has to approve uh the appointment of the police chief fire chief Public Works director and assistant Town manager while in Four B it says that the town manager shall ultimately be responsible appointing or for for appointing or hiring subordinates for to department heads or for boards and commissions in consultation therewith so in other words independently elected boards will only have a consultation role and not an approval role in the hiring of their department heads hollon has a long history of supporting its independently elected boards well this isn't to say we don't want the town to work better together with a with a with with potentially a town manager overseeing everything why don't these independently elected boards people who we elect to represent us to hire these department heads why are we not giving them an actual vote on approving their department heads further discussion Mary Greeno Mary green Deale 198 Highland Street got it thank you Paul um I currently serve on the board of assessors about two years ago I pushed the board to think about something we were asked to sign regularly and also to evaluate annually different pieces of paper that had to do with what was taking place in town hall during the day regular over s IT and management stuff that any of you who operate a business or sit in any kind of management role do all the time I pointed out that I was extremely uncomfortable and used to be on the board of Selectmen also feel uncomfortable that we often times were asked to sign things that we didn't really know for sure what was going on so we asked and worked with Travis to create a process that would enable us in the hiring of a new director sorry he's called something else full-time assessor principal assessor and an assistant principal assessor and together the board maintained all of its control in terms of knowing who these people were talking to the these people asking people questions getting feedback we had our role the time that it really paid off when it came to evaluation so during the evaluation process we were given a packet with all of the questions that we had to answer some of the questions as I said had to do with things like cooperating with other departments how do I know I'm not in town hall so we answered the questions that had a direct relationship to those things that we knew were we getting all of the materials we needed to make decisions was the tax rate being being set on time did we conform to everything that the Department of Revenue asked us to do all of that the things that we knew we did our evaluation Travis did a separate evaluation those evaluations came together and ultimately we all agreed on what the outcome was it was a seamless process and I never for one minute felt like I had betrayed you as an elected official and done less than I was supposed to do in hiring person Personnel or in reviewing Personnel I think it's a bogus [Music] [Applause] claim uh hi Ben Spar at dine Force Park Drive and a member of the select board um so I wanted to answer a couple of the questions that I heard from Mr Alfred so I just wanted to address a few of them um with some context for my own personal experience so uh his first question was talking about moving the select board from 3 to 5 and um I would say um in order to do that you need to profession you need to move responsibilities away from the select board and this does that so for context I have about I think it's about 48 meetings a year my Monday night every week I have a wonderful wife and a 5-year-old that I have to leave every week to do this and I do it willingly I want to do it but at the same time it's a major commitment and there's a lot of people who are unable to make that major commitment because of the time because of the energy that is required because there's a lot that goes into that and there's also a lot that goes into preparing us on the part of the Town Administrator because there's a lot of administrative acts that we have to do on a weekly basis I sign the warrant every week which is payroll I'm actually in our our responsibilities on the special acts in 1994 we appoint police officers we appoint EMTs there's a lot of responsibilities that should not be there because it's not appropriate for an elected official like myself to be involved in those kinds of responsibilities so I would say moving from 3 to 5 is certainly a conversation to be had and does not included in here because this has to happen first the second question was about uh potential pay changes so there's two parts to that the first part to consider is the fact that going through the general court might take uh 16 18 months something like that I'm not exactly sure I think whan put theirs through and it took about a year and a half so it takes some time and the contract for a present Town Administrator is not up for another uh two years I believe so that kind of conversation would be down the road pending the passing of uh this type of change the third claim that about independent boards I value that too I think we are a wonderful community that is driven by volunteers and I think that's a wonderful thing that we have but I would also point out that we're volunteers and many of us don't necessarily have the expertise in employment law and understanding what we're supposed to do in those kinds of situations it's not appropriate in my opinion and I would also further illustrate that for many of those boards those other boards that were brought up there is no language in the bylaws that says that they're responsible for the hiring of those of particular individuals that's not there in present by law there might be some state law of course this would not usurp that state law and that that uh instance so what I'm saying here is I think this is an important reform to move us into the 21st century to professionalize town hall I would also point out to you that many of the Departments within Town Hall work together they share resources they do so many things across departments and to completely limit them to only particular boards and committees based on hiring practices further limits the flexibility that's required for efficiency and for giving you the resident a better experience when you walk into town hall and you ask questions we have a wonderful professional staff and a large part of the reason we do is because of the leadership with Mr Hearn and I think it's important that we recognize that and that we impart the responsibility that is required for someone such as himself to be able to manage this town that yes we've celebrated 300 years but we're in the 21st century it's 2024 let's get there so um I hope I answered your questions Dan and thank you for them thank you for the discussion two things one thing I just wanted to clarify just identify yourself again Vincent Murphy 432 D thank which article are we discussing article 26 I guess which motion the this one or the one that's in the warrant we're discussing the one that's in the warrant as amended by that cream piece of pap one that governs okay to clarify there is one bylaw that has one appointment in there it's the Board of Health so you st made a statement that's incorrect but it's in the bylaw so I just want to clarify we bandi this about and that was my concern and the reason why I wanted to table this was basically I didn't want to get into a discussion here in this venue about let's talk about all these nitty-gritty things I thoroughly agree I think that's some of the things this elect board has to do appointing a fireman my nephew just just appointed as a fireman but he has to go through before the select board I totally agree I don't think it makes any sense at all however my concern this draft was only written I think we saw her up there marked something we're making a major change let's get this correct let's put this before the board this Commit This Town Meeting in October rather than hey we got this thing revised and Mr Cronin is going to make a motion before we vet this out because like I said I heard from several of the boards saying they did not hear get heard correctly because articles were incor did not get Incorporated the way they wanted it so I just want to go back we need time before I call on Mr croner I'm going to ask for any speakers who are suggesting they've heard from other boards to identify which boards so we're not waiting around in mystery go ahead Mr cron you want to be heard go ahead John I recognize um you were taking the words out of my mouth um I would like to hear from any of these boards and commissions that the finance committee has mentioned that found this process to be confusing I stood here a few minutes ago and I told you we have affirmative votes from virtually every single Department all of them it was one that had some misgivings they were confused of their own bylaws that was cleared up on Friday so we don't have a vote from that particular committee but all the other ones voted or gave us thumbs up on this language So to that point Mr moderator I'll open the floor to any other the boards and commissions that would like to share their misgivings about this because that be used to us okay thank you yes sir yes sir yeah thank than you uh Paul far ad Kim place I'm sitting here um just dumbfounded yeah we need a new car but like we have to rush and buy one tonight this is going to be like 12 Angry Men where we come up with some crap decision and we kick ourselves in the butt for another year or two if we if we went for October and said it has it's going to be voted on October and a discussion I don't have I don't have a problem with it but right now my stomach's turning we're going to agree on something that we don't even know cuz we're just going to lose the will to live to stay here any longer so can we just put this we vote in October we not saying it's we're not saying we killed the thing we're saying let's not rush it please thank you yes ma' Carla Alfred 315 High Street Holliston Library Board of Trustees chair my board was one of the boards that um took some question as it was said to some of the language involved wholeheartedly we agreed that the town manager position is important but we need more time to go over the language some of the pieces that we um disagreed with could have been written better to protect some of the other boards some boards were given um a little more allowance mine was one that was not and so although we do agree bylaws or not that we like the position of a town manager we would like to see some more language worked on particularly in section 4 to support elected boards in this town thank you further discussion yes sir Bruce Wood 128 Dalton Road what we've heard for the last about half hour is discussion between various people that we all respect who lead the town they can't tell us unanimously what they want therefore as a town meeting we're going to be asked to vote on something which has very specific language and it's going to go to the State House and personally I'm not ready to do that Mr moderator I don't believe there is a mechanism to postpone this only until October an indefinite a motion for indefinite postpone could have the correct motion would be a motion to indefinitely postpone this article and I'd like to formally make that motion second okay we now debate that motion which is similar in fashion to debating the merits of the article but it's open for discussion if the motion to indepthly postpone uh prevails then the article will go off the agenda uh and if it's denied then we revert to the main motion and vote on it again yes Julie Winston 45 country road as one of the finance committee members that uh did not want to postpone I just wanted to explain a few of the points why um I'm not sure if anyone in here has ever written WR a policy or paper with 35 other people but it's quite hard and 8 weeks is quite a long time to write something uh when you have a lot of people putting a lot of effort into it because it's a priority uh the last amended version I received from the town was on uh May 3rd and so although there's a lot of chatter about text message and phone calls and this and that that wasn't part of the uh meeting and the last I saw the Amendments that were requested were made um I have another perspective I suppose and it actually um aligns well with what Mary said um I was in the National Guard for 22 years and as was a part-timer so National Guard part-time and as a part-timer but also as a leader you have to learn how to work with your full-time people and you have to evaluate your full-time people and I relied on my full time people to do a lot of that work and it's the same thing with Travis in the select board or with the town manager administrator in the select board or with any board you have to collaborate with one another and you have to get on the same page this document may not be perfect but if we wait for perfect we're never going to get there because there are too many people who have too many different opinions thank you the the only the last thing I would add is that when people say this Board needs a say and that board needs to say and this Board needs to say yes everybody needs a say but the vote is here tonight in this room and so you all do get to have a say and you have another say on Tuesday when you can vote for people and also notice how many spots there are that don't have candidates that someday may be candidates for a position that we're talking about right now and so it's important that we get this vote moving forward in my opinion thank you [Applause] [Music] K hi Pam ziko 180 Fisk Street I appreciate everything that's being said but this is a major change to our government and I'm reading this document and I keep having a hard time trying to get through certain sections if it's not written perfectly how are we supposed to send that to the mass and passes as law we have to have something that's written that gives all the information and takes everybody's opinion and everything and whether Mr Cronin likes it or not this is a rush job this is three or four months this isn't two years that we've been discussing this this is on the books this is a major change to our form of government and whether you know I'm not against a town manager either but if it's not written perfectly and I can't even get I can't even get through Section 8 I can't even get through that paragraph it just doesn't make any sense and that's just one I keep marking things down and I'm like if I can't get through it and I don't understand because it keeps rattling on and the ANS and the butts and the an fours I don't know so I I agree to definitely postpone this until October at least so that we can get more information second just one second Mr Talman did you want to be heard um just on the issue of the form of the again J talerman Town Council on the form of the act it first of all it follows the form of many other Town manager acts so a lot of the language which is actually borrowed from other towns Town manager acts I apologize on behalf of the legal profession for some of the the language and the ends and the butts but I can assure you that this isn't a form that is readily approvable by the Commonwealth thank you yes ma'am Michelle I'll get you next I'm sorry I good evening uh Barbara Fritz Warby 83 Rolling Meadow Drive um I think that this is a great idea I have an amendment I would like to propose um and I've never seen anybody do that until the last hour so oh no no it's not it's not amendable this is a motion to indefinitely postpone you can oh we're still talking about that okay it's okay okay um so then I I don't I don't know where this comment fits then but I I have a concern with the way that it's currently written um I think that there's a a bit of an over concentration um of power within the select board if they are hiring and then evaluating the town manager and I know that's the way it currently is with the Town Administrator position um but if this position of town manager is going to be overseeing and collaborating um all the other boards then I I think that the other boards should also have a say in who that person is um so I'm willing to talk more about that but I hear that we're talking about whether or not we're going to vote tonight so thank you Michelle Zima please Michelle zemer 583 Winter Street um I'm sitting here and I'm hearing things that oh thank you I'm hearing things that I don't think that they're lies um because I think that the people that are saying them truly believe them but when I hear that all of the requested changes were put into the document you have now I have four requests that I made multiple times that were not integrated into the document so don't think that they were um another thing that I'm here first of all it says in um I don't know if it's in the final warrant or in the copy that we received it says that the explanation is the act is intended to streamline the day-to-day operations of the Town manager from the select board if that was true and I believe 95% of it is true I would be supporting it I wouldn't be recommending indefinitely postponing but you are changing things if you vote for this the Town Administrator act the 30-year-old act repeatedly says boards commissions departments whatever under the jurisdiction of the select board that means that bodies in this town that are appointed by the select board are then under the Town Administrator for things like the hiring the budget you know things like that the new language doesn't say that it says all boards committees and I don't know why that that hasn't been brought up you know you you can't say there are no substantive changes when you take out a phrase like under the select board that that doesn't exist in the new version um the other thing is you know it says that it doesn't affect the the finance committee but it does because I'm sorry I I left a copy at home so I screenshotted I screen I took a screenshot of uh the language in the Town Administrator act um this is in the Town Administrator act it's number D it says the Town Administrator shall be responsible for the preparation of the annual budget for All Town departments and agencies under the jurisdiction of the select board prepare a uniform budget document in format that's acceptable to the finance committee um I don't think that's in here because one of the changes that we requested um actually that might be in here but one of the changes that we did request is in the t i I think more than one person requested this in section just to show you um in section three 3d2 II it says establish set budgetary guidelines to be used in development of annual ual budget um and we requested multiple people subject to finance committee approval and the reason we wanted that in there is the budget guidelines are the very first step in preparing a budget if we don't and we have the the final step we make the recommendation to town meeting the finance committee if we don't have approval of the first step by the time you get to the fourth step all of the assumptions are based on something that we didn't approve and that just makes no sense at all it's you know the the um the Departments come to us with their budget so that we could budget accordingly well it's based on those assumptions so it really makes no sense and I don't know why that line wasn't put in that's what I mean when I say that when they say that they Incorporated all the requests to me that's one of the most important things and it isn't in there um if we get far enough I do have a motion to amend with the four points but right now we're just dis but that's that's why I think if we postponed it we can come up with a document that serves the purpose of streamlining government taking away the day-to-day operations from the select board that they have to deal with once a week which is what I am 100% for and I repeatedly said at every uh meeting that we discuss this I want a document that I could say in in front of town meeting this is a wonderful document and I can't say that today thank you Jay Jay did you have a comment I think they were waiting we haven't heard from them so they next up so I just wanted to address a little bit some of those last changes without debating whether there was a good idea or a bad idea that that would brought up the the Amendments that were just discussed would add new powers to the finance committee that don't currently exist under their bylaw we scrutinized carefully because we wanted to make sure that when when we were reviewing Provisions that none of the actions taken under this act would change in any way the enumerated powers of the finance committee under Articles um four of the town's bylaws and none of them do but that particular amendment that was just referenced would add a new power and move us away from streamlining from what the the fincom has right now the fincom has a significant Authority more than the statutory Authority here under their existing bylaw and none of the provisions of the Town manager act change that in any way shape or form thank you Mr Tyler uh Sam Tyler 353 Chamberlain Street I've been involved with hollon governance and management issues for many years starting in about 1980 I was chair of the government study committee in 1994 after the work that was done in 93 and 94 and I was chair of the governance well I should say the chair of the government study committee in 1994 and the governance committee uh which started in 2021 ended in 2023 um in light of Mr cronin's comments I feel now that I have to explain a little bit more why I have been involved all these years and mainly because professionally for 46 years I served in an organization um involved in promoting fiscal responsibility and management efficiency in the city of Austin for the last 36 years I was the president of that organization and so over the years I've applied the experience that I've gained in my day-to-day work in Boston to Holliston and as a result I've served in number of different capacities starting with serving on the fincom during the time that the town was dealing with proposition two and a half um in 1993 and 1994 when the government study committee conducted its analysis we focus on increasing the authority of the executive secretary to a Town Administrator position however we Face vocal opposition to the creation of the Town Administrator it's Holliston after all uh positioned from a sitting member of the board and also from a former member of the board both concerned that this is take would take away I mean the creation of the Town Administrator would take power away from the uh Board of selectman consequently responsibilities of the Town Administrator were limited in comparison with the authority of town administrators and other neighboring and peer communities at that same time so we created unfortunately you know a less robust Town Administrator than other towns were enjoying at the same time and uh so article 26 really represents an important Improvement in the management and operating functioning of the Town than currently available to the Town Administrator but it is still starting us off the same spot we were in 1994 having to deal with a less strong Town manager than frankly if the governance committee were to make a recommendation um so we're sort of repeating that situation um the town manager can exercise under this act or this proposal the town manager can exercise a stronger coordinating role to ensure uniform management and operational policies among all departments and services um frankly what you know my years dealing with the governance committee and looking at other towns uh we find that hollon is really behind a lot of these towns because government has become over the 30 years since the creation of the Town Administrator government has become more complex more demanding and towns have responded by professionalizing their full-time staff and 30 years ago we started that but there's been no change in the legal authority of the Town Administrator in those 30 Years yet the environment of municipal government has changed dramatically and for those who were thinking wow this is going to be a big change to change the name to town manager as Mr croner knows I've read this proposal and I have told him I thought it was Town manager light because it doesn't provide in in the effort to try to accommodate other boards particularly the finance committee which is usually the board that tries to poo poo management changes speaking from experience dealing with my time as chair of the governance committee um and you know some some responsibilities of the town's daily operations are shifted from the select board to the town manager to strengthen the town manager's day-to-day responsibilities and give the select board more time to focus on policy you've heard that before um so I won't go I mean i' I won't go more into uh the responsibilities because you've heard that but the government committee when we were active recognized that a reallocation of responsibilities was essential between the select board and the Town Administrator um and that this this act is really the start of that uh the issue of of why wasn't the issue of uh five member select board included in this is exactly as was earlier described U that the issue of of the reallocation of of responsibilities hadn't been addressed and that would have created a a situation with a five member board would made it impossible for the Town Administrator or town manager to act if the select board continued to exercise the same responsibilities um so some of that reallocation of responsibilities the town manager is responsible for executing the weekly warrant and approving event permits that has been the responsibility of this slake board except again those those uh events requiring sale of alcohol because of of a uh state law um Town manager is able to accept allowable donations and Gifts except to those to the school department well will'll oversee Crisis Intervention in emergency situations uh and may execute all grants and Grant applications and execute all contracts uh binding on the town although the school department would be treated separately again you know Town manager is responsible with the financial management of town with the assistance of other full-time professionals uh Finance professionals uh employed by the town but nothing in this article really affects the legal author authority of the finance committee to meet the challenges as was already explained by Tom councel The Proposal that was you you just heard would have exceeded the authority legal State Authority for the finance committee so it was out of order it shouldn't have been included so uh one last thing just to double down on that issue state law which also is repeated in our bylaws about the finance committee is that the committee shall consider any and all Municipal questions for purpose of making reports or recommendations to the town it doesn't say anything about establishing guidelines or creating the initial budget um that should be the responsibility of the Town Administrator frankly that would have been if if the governance committee had the opportunity to come back with a recommendation to strengthen the town administrative position um we would have done that's one of the issues we would would have addressed so um state law regarding the finance committee responsibility is is limited to being uh to make recommendations the uh interesting enough the um I guess conquered uh finance committee website indicate says the the finance committee is a deliberative rather than a decisionmaking body I think the finance committee would like to have a larger role than the state law allows but it's an important role even in the terms of the responsibility of reviewing the budget and making recommendations to town meeting uh but they're not part of of their advisory and that's again an important role so I would argue that the changes that are being proposed are not major changes there are Town administrators that have more Authority than what's being proposed here but consistent with Holliston practice of incremental change and then wait years before there's any other change uh this is the right step at this time and that would have to be followed by other steps this the division of local Services uh issued a report on the financial management of hon in 2021 at our request made by the select board um their main recommendation was to create a charter which would really bring the structure together and explain the responsibilities and um so that's that really is another step that is needed um they also made a recommendation of a of a budget uh bylaw that's not addressed here so again nothing in this proposal right now um challenges the legal authority of the finance committee it really does create a structure that allows the town manager in a weaker State frankly to uh help coordinate the activities and as as uh Mary had described the process of working with even even independent boards and committees to uh deal with appointment process that has worked well so it's already in practice so for those reasons I would strongly recommend that indefinite postponement is not approved and article 26 is thank you next in line yes sir I'm just going to take you in line yes sir come on up be my intention to stop with Mr laau if this this gentleman's in line he'll be the last word go ahead sir um my name is Bob Cassidy I live 10 Regency Drive and uh just be able to let you know uh great motion of the fincom and the actions that have taken place 30 years ago well 30 years ago I was a vice chairman of the pcom and I have the bruises to point it point it out and I worked with uh Mary Greendale who was a tremendous and uh it's tremendous the select woman of the select what that time as she is an assessor now but I'm going to be able to speak on one simple thing uh due to the wording of this particular article I am in favor of the finance committee's recommendation for it states uh as far as the postponement indefinite postponement that's technical we can vote on this at the next special town meeting in August the reason for this statement of mine is that nobody here was provided a breakdown of salary benefits retirement and additional staff holding numbers of Staff Personnel was it money was not in a breakdown it was never submitted to the town which might have more people here if it was we're asking for a change in our Charter of our town government that's the bottom line and to hold on for a few months so all this information can be given to each and every one of us so we can make an intelligent decision and that decision just like the I was on the pcom when you when you we hired you by the way way and we're not related although it is L names of Cassidy I strongly hope that this room and each one and each individual Who's online will take a time to think because hon your house where we live in our house and what you would want if your house was being modified in any way possible and you can only do that with facts figures and intelligence and just saying that as we said 30 years ago when the hiring of Paul Lao came for us I hope to God this room takes the time time the ability and the intelligence to put this up at least to October thank you next speaker the question Melissa Leica 418 hand um 418 Halen Road I make a motion to move the question [Applause] not de just checking make sure I'm following it's not debatable we have a motion to move the question that's been seconded all those in favor of moving the moving the uh moving the question all those opposed so voted we'll return to the the article be the matter before is the motion from defin postponement I have that made and seconded no okay all those and I I anticipate this will not be an unanimous vote so we're going to have a vote by hand so we have counters in each section all those in favor of VES postponement please raise their hand they want it they want what's that know what they're voting on okay I'll clarify in case there's many misunderstanding will you what you're asking what you're being asked to vote on is whether or not to indefinitely postpone the motion IND that moved that the town authorized the select board to petition the general court for special legislation for the town manager act as presented in article 26 of the warrant with three specific revisions Den noted by ascaris and the printed version on cream P color paper handed out town cler's cter and available online it's the it's the actual motion you're being asked whether or not to indefinitely postpone all those in favor of inde postponement raise the hand please post no we didn't pass out green ones you all set say it louder thank you thank you thank you how many do we have five yeah 39 thank you okay we have those in favor all those opposed raise their hand please close P one three I can't 44 thank you 31 N I don't I'm sorry what they have to you have to count a purple slip they don't have a purple slip they don't vote so I have no idea what you just but if he has a purple slip that means he can vote 24 told them all they went Dan just hold off while we're voting go ahead close what do you guys get 127 yes 12 127 yes don't definitely postpone 127 no 121 no okay yes we have the vote the vote is 127 in favor of indefinite postponement and 121 opposed [Music] prison J do we have a provision to recount okay in order to have a recount we need to have seven people rise seven okay so noted we're going to revote it at the request of the citizen all those in favor of indefinite post pman please raise their hands again Mr bla I was going to say I've missed you but I'm not sure I'm to stay holding on okay I I just address one question at a time 21 I can't 38 38 okay these are ones in favor yep do we have them all no 29 130 okay all those opposed raise your hand please Chang that move yeah 46 that Chang was that more yeah this is just on the motion definitely postpone we still need to vote on the article if it doesn't right numb alth this 121 is the same 121 no 130 yes okay okay we have the vote 136 in favor of indefinite postponement 121 opposed the motion the article is uh indefinitely postponed what no we we just voted it thank you no no as a state representative I'm sorry go ahead M thank you Mr moderator James Arena D Roa n Mechanic Street I'm also your state representative um I know there been a little tension here and I just wanted to give everyone two-minute update the reality is we're at the end of the session I technically could file a home rule it was good that you on made the presentation but the reality is there wouldn't be hearing I won't be able to file until next January so the process should just continue with whatever uh wants to happen here whatever commentary needs to happen whatever tweaking needs to happen uh whatever gets passed in fall I will file it and then hopefully it'll go through just wanted everyone to have that context love you thank you Jim we'll move to article 27 General bylaw regulation of Industrial Vehicles to see if the town will vote to amend the town's General bylaw by adding a new article regulating Industrial Vehicles on public way as spelled out in the uh warrant article enforcement we by the halls and police department where's the motion on this one the motion on this a motion move that the town accept and adopt the joural bylaws Amendment as printed an article 27th of the warrant with numbering to be termined by the town clerk the explanation is as follows the town has various side streets that have been classified by mass doot as having heavy commercial vehicle exclusions meaning that the vehicles over 2 and a half tons are restricted access although a 2.5ton vehicle is exempt from the hcve it if it requires the roadway to do business per statute when mot approved the HV hcve the town was required to prove that heavy commercial vehicles have an alternate route meaning that trucks are using these residential side streets to avoid traffic not out of necessity one issue with enforcing the HV hcve is that the fine for such infraction is considered by some large companies to be worth the price of violation and this General bylaw allows the town to address the situation without greater fines the motion is again move that the town accept and adopt General bylaws Amendment as printed in article 27 of the warrant with numbering the determined by the town clerk is there a second that's open for discussion yes sir David elen Brook 180 fth Street I moved to Temporary I'm sorry go ahead ahead yeah I moved to inde definitely postpone you moveed to inde definitely postpone all right there's a second go right ahead sir this article gives the select word too much power to close and restrict vehicle traffic on roadways in town at their discretion without public input with every road you restrict you need to at least do due diligence on what impact the restrictions will have on other roadways because this was not done by restricting traffic at lowland SL on road this board decision has more than double traffic on fist Street Frankin Street and Central Street with Woodland Street closed and Detour signs that lead you nowhere makes you wonder if Woodland Street bridge is ever going to be repaired no matter what the select board is going to tell you this article is put in because of flan Road in Loland street because at the fall toown meeting we voted to not restrict what is going on and what they want to do at that road and this is their way of circumventing our vote I would like to to tell us what businesses are saying that the $50 fine is worth it to them they keep it's in the warrant an article like this asks the question on whether Town wants businesses in this town this board of Selectmen is so anti- business I can say that because I have written them a letter in the past on how anti-business they are and I have to say Mr Cronin got a hold of hold of me and we talked about it I disagree with him but at least he had the decency to talk to me none of the other board members had the decency to talk to me on it I asked this to be definitely postponed and I'm asking for your help in doing it businesses need trucks delivery people business people that are going from house to house do repairs should not have to go all the way around town to get where they're going so I'm asking you to definitely post B this Aro by passing it they can do and close whatever roads they want whenever they want when no public in put like I said select board is going to tell you differently because that's what they're going to do because they do not care about business in this town thank you thank you Mr clonin yes John thank you uh good evening we um we would ask for a rejection of that motion uh with respect um I greatly admire the prior speaker I've had many conversations with him he's a local business owner I understand his perspective as I mentioned at my opening remarks this Warren article is before you because of the request of this body last fall you implored us to embrace enforcement this is the tool to do it it's as simple as that regarding the impact on his neighborhood Hood uh we we also sympathize and completely agree with him um Fisk Street has been impacted excuse me as a result of the closure of Woodland Street um there's been some traffic rerouted in that direction and we expect once Woodland opens as we mention Pro possibly in early 2025 that that problem will be alleviated um however traffic is a chronic issue in this town we don't expect everything to be solved this particular item provides the uh enforcement item that the U the town needs to maintain the commercial vehicle exclusion Mr moderator through you if I could ask Our Town Council to inform this body of the select board's Powers as Road surveyors and U The Authority rested in us to control this matter as Mr the prior excuse me the prior speaker question thank you good J you have comment um when we were asked to to help carry out the directive to find a means of enforcement that was a goal of the select board to find meaningful enforce M existing inforcement um under the provisions available to the select board left them with a kind of a inadequate tool so pursuant to chapter 90 section 18 the select board has the authority well the select board has the authority to enforce bylaws and to recommend bylaws that this uh body can then adopt and under that they can um Implement fines up to $300 per incident or per violation which gives a little bit more teeth on the enforcement than the much smaller fines that they were previously empowered to meet out okay thank you Mr mury and this discussion is on the motion to indefinitely postpone the article yeah my concern with this motion Vincent Murphy from 430 to North Fork Street I did some Googling regarding uh sizes of vehicles that are over 5,000 PB we can go and do Ford F250s Chevy Expeditions I'm sorry chevry um chevry civil autos and several other things so I think 5,000 is way too low and it goes back to has this been vetted Enough by the people in hand to say yeah 5,000 is a reasonable so 5,000 let's get this example I have a I'm a construction worker I'm driving down I drive down aut a street just to pass through and my I'm driving a truck that's over 5,000 PBS has commercial plates because I use it in my trade I could get fine for $300 this isn't going after every little large truck this 5,000 5,000 lbs is very low and if you're going after semi-trailers or other things we should raise it but 5,000 is way too low further discussion I'm sorry yes sir welcome John roll South Street the address tells you where I'm coming from every day deu and a halfs 18 wheelers car carriers with 10 cars on them come tooling down our lane and a half wide street because it's the shortest route between 109 and Route 16 not the best route but the shortest they come down there the windows rattle they do damage to the house if God forbid you're driving or walking down South Street you're heading for somebody's lawn I would ask you not to indefinitely delay this let's get this on the police have been down to our street several times they sit on the side of the road wasting their time to pull over maybe a dozen trucks over the course of a couple of hours but 2555 I don't think they care there was one truck line that I actually emailed him some guy got back to me and said we didn't know there was a problem he asked me to email him pictures of the uh heavy duty exclusion from both ends of the street and a the best I could do was a Google maps of the top of the street where you can't see a street all you can see is trees uh as of a week later that particular company stopped driving their trucks down south street so there were good trucking companies but there are guys that just come down that street held Ben F leather and I would ask you to stop them from doing that thank you further discussion yes [Applause] sir uh Devon how 10 dickon Circle um I would just like to Echo the uh comment that was made on uh commercial vehicles really inclusive of pickup trucks where um trades people you know heading home want to get home just as much as everyone else after a long day's worth of work um especially those who uh work with their hands all day um I think the the number itself of just 5,000 lbs um seems way too low um and also it raises concern to me of the fact uh I'm curious as to how this is um enforcable um it really doesn't seem appropriate that a pickup truck um could get pulled over just for driving down a roadway um without necessarily committing any traffic infractions other than um having commercial plates on a on the side street um I I do understand and I happen to agree with the last individual who spoke regarding South Street um but it's irrelevant to the points I just made yes John just to clarify the uh the weight issue that was brought up um we are bound by this weight limited state law we didn't dictate that weight it's delivered to us via the Massachusetts General law regarding commercial motor vehicle exclusions thank thank you any further discussion yes sir Bill Roden Heiser uh 2113 Central Street um we might be bound by 5,000 lb but I think probably some of you might drive an SUV that would actually not be allowed to get down the street um we already have so many weight restrictions that have been put into place over the past and I'm not talking about the Woodland Street bridge I'm talking about the 22 ton limits basically everywhere around town that even when the Woodland Street Bridge goes back into play we've essentially lost a major bypass off of Central Street to Route 16 so to me this just seems like another way of creating enforcement for a certain particular group of people I mean I won't even be able to drive my pickup truck down Woodland Street so I live on Central Street and so I have to now go down Central Street cuz the bridge is out and because there's all these other areas that you can't access in town because of the 2 and2 ton weight restrictions so I I can't even go to my office and my building where I pay industrial taxes to the town without having to go all the way through downtown now and I'm wondering is there any way this is going to work I mean think about all the people that can't go down Woodland Street once the bridge opens I would like everybody to just think about that because it's going to happen to everybody and it and it impacts all of us because the track traffic is now a mess because of the restrictions that have already been put into place and now we're going to add more ability to add more restrictions I don't know thank you question I was just going to ask for a motion that i' entertain that motion Mr Alfred you read my mind is there a second to that motion okay we'll move now for uh the motion is to indefinitely postpone the article all those favis say I I those opposed we'll go to a hand vote I can't tell who prevailed by that no the motion was moving the question I'll I'll I'll let you know what you're vote on let's sit tight for a second the mo the motion before us was to move the question we decided to move the question now all those in favor and the question is indefinite postponement of the article all those in favor of indefinite postponement raise their hand move the question what Okay atast show up okay okay we're going to revote the motion to move the question to make sure there's no uncertainty here okay a Voice vote all those in favor of moving the question say I I all those opposed keep we have to have a hand vote on I can't tell moving the question I'm moving the question Okay Hand count all those in favor of moving the question raise the hand that's right don't even know voting on whether to move let's keep this civilized ask me a question and I'll answer it we're voting on whether or not to move the question meaning end the debate on the motion to and definitely postpone you should ask if they still want to debate no I don't want to get it many more time 18 32 huh we need one more who's the other teller okay they're not listening then just count the vote I've explained what it is they're voting on whether to move the question end the debate on the motion to indefinitely postpone what's the vote 147 yes to move the question yeah okay now all those opposed to moving the question raise their hand please if dis disappeared the vocal opponents have disappeared let's go through the process though for the record please count them up one appears to be the security of anonymity you two two what do we got 147 yes 4 no the vote is 147 yes 4 no we'll proceed to vote on the motion to indefinitely postpone made by the gentleman all those in favor of indefinite postponement please raise their hand 12 yes 21 okay okay that's everybody oh all those opposed to to the uh indefinite postponement six 31 25 98 okay those I have the vote those in favor of indefinite postponement total 98 those oppos total 85 the article stands and definely postponed Article 28 Library match Library Grant matched to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate a transfer from available funds a sum of money for the purpose of providing matching grant funding required for an application to the Mass Public Library construction program to consider Rehabilitation of the existing library or reconstruction of a public library to determined by a feasibility study if selected for the grant program and take any action relative there to the motion is move that the town appropriate $150,000 from free cash for the purpose stated in Article 28 and authorize the town or the library Trustees for to apply for accept and expend Massachusetts Public Library construction mlcp Grant funds if approved the fincom recommends that the town appropriate of $150,000 from free cash for the purpose stated in the article should they choose to enter the grant program 60 with Mr NS absent this requires a majority vote is a second to the motion any discussion if not seeing then all those in favor say I I those opposed so voted article 29 report of the community preservation committee the article reads to see if the town will vote to act on the report of the community preservation committee for the fiscal year 2025 Community preservation budget and to appropriate or reserve for later Appropriations monies from the community preservation fund annual revenues or available funds for the administrative expenses of the community preservation committee the payment of Debt Service the undertaking of community preservation projects and all other necessary Pro expenses and and for the year the reserves are community housing Reserve 98 9568 open space Reserve 95618 historic resources Reserve 95618 as with respect to Appropriations administrative functions to support the committee $5,000 Hollis and soral Society ADA Compliant rooms for ASA Whiting there was inquiry about that 54,3 Parx engineering design of basketball courts a flag field 50,000 hollison Community Farm engineering materials for Pilan 21,7 50 Conservation Commission Trail markers at Miller Hill gold gold award $551 the total is 131,132 or take any action relative there to the offer explanation is the total balance of community preservation funds as of May 2024 annual Town meetings approximately 4.85 million prior to the prior to approvals for the above requests comments may be coming from the from the community preservation if there are inquiries made by public the finance committee recommends that the town appropriat 77,000 from the community preservation fund General balance and 54,000 from the community pres preservation fund historic preservation reserve for the items listed in the article and will make a recommendation on town meeting on the Goodwill Park sunset provision of town meeting 60 Mr NS is there a second to the motion Mr Shader you want to be heard on that just very quickly since we have two minutes before you have to vote to extend that's okay uh kill the sunset provision because CPC doesn't want it and we're just going to vote forget about it so our recommendation is kill the sunset provision just let it expire okay well I need an I need an amendment to the article if I can't just kill something that request it's it's in the motion you have you should have a motion that says Mr moderator the suggested motion does not include the extension of the sunset soest is fine so I can go okay fine I stand corrected any discussion seeing none all those in favor of the motion please say I I those opposed so voted we have two left you got one minute one one left no two two that's okay article 30 Road acceptance Rebecca Lane select board to see if the town will vote to accept as a public way Rebecca Lane station 0 plus 00 to 5 plus6 and and the associated drainage easement in the Triangle Farm subdivision as shown on the plan entitled acceptance plan triangle Farms Rebecca Lane station similarly stated dated November 11 2023 prepared by glm engineering Consultants which such way having been laid out as Town WS by the select board and to authorize the select board to acquire Deeds or easements to effectuate the acceptance of the this road the explanations the planning board voted on February 2024 to send Rebecca Lane to the select board for consideration of acceptance at the chapter 82 sections 17-32 for which the select board held a public hearing on April 24th April 2024 the final punch list of items for the developer are considered minimal and the subdivision performance surely was reduced to meet the potential cost of the subdivision list the motion is move that the town accept Rebecca Lane as a public way and to authorize the select board to acquire easements and deeds in Rel ation to such acceptance as further described in article 30 of the warrant is there a second second any discussion seeing none all those in favor of that road acceptance say I I so voted and before we reach the last article I once again want to extend my professional compliments to Liz Greendale Jay Talman Travis aarn for the professional effort that they put together in putting this warrant together it's a significant amount of work it's always done in a very professional way and I and I thank them for it f the final article is water tower lease authorization sponsored by the select board to see if the town will vote to authorize the select board pursuant to masterin Law chapter 40 Section 3 and any other authority appertaining to lease to to lease to use and occupy a portion of the Town owned property located at zero Fairway Lane Mount Hollis water tank for a period of up to 30 years for the placement operation of s towers and Associated apperances under such terms and conditions as the select board May determine to be in the best interest of the town or take any Rec recommended action there too this is to secure the best financial terms for the town to lease space on water tanks to sell companies the lease Arrangements must be longer than normally Allowed by the select board to agree without a town meeting authorization by authorizing a lease of up to 30 years the town can negotiate the best financial terms which then benefit the general fund water Enterprise fund and capital expenditures fund as percentage of these it requires a 2/3 majority vote the fincom recommends favorable action 60 with Mr NS absent move that the town authorize the select board to lease to use and occupy a portion of town owned property located on zero fair line way for a period of up to 30 years all those in favor say I all those opposed so voted is there a second all those in favor say I I oppos okay I declare that vote unanimous thank you all good evening thank you for attending e e e e e