I wish I knew how to do all that I'll show you I'll show you where you find them we just going to give it a second here to get zoom up and running good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting of the lunberg select board today is Tuesday March 19th please stand for the pledge of I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all in accordance to the requirements of meeting law please be advised this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live over the lunberg public access channel on Facebook live and the public access Facebook page and will be uploaded to the lenberg A's YouTube channel after the meeting the agenda is all the top offic which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the chair votes may be taken as a result of these discussions not all items listed May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted um by the open meeting law we're to begin tonight with public comments from the board we have any public comments this evening from the board oh I need to acknowledge that Caesar um nisolo select nzo is not with us this evening as oh there we go look at that I'll say he graduated so congratulations on your road trip back and uh so I do see Caesar is actually with us so public comments from the from the board this evening uh not yet I will just I was out at last week's meeting and I saw the uh the broadcast and I just wanted to comment uh on the board of assessors what a great job they have done going through a very difficult period through a re-evaluation and the amount of work and the amount of data that they have uh been able to achieve with the assessment Department in Reena and and the supporting staff and vision so I think it was really an incredible amount of energy focused in one area that has made a huge change from one year to the next and I wanted to publicly acknowledge that thank you selectman Alonzo I have nothing all right and any public comments Caesar s public comments all right and none for me any public comments from the public this evening yep Mary and then we'll call on Miss uh Deb Lincoln thank you uh yeah my name is Mary Wilson I'm the chair of the Conservation Commission and uh while I am on the formal agenda for later there is one topic that I wanted to socialize with the town and with the select board uh once again uh we're partnered with the uh Parks Commission to do an earthday event throughout the month of April uh the official dates are the 30th of March through the 28th of April we are uh still working with coordinators to finalize the project so uh for uh members of the select board or you know residents of town anybody that's interested in participating and sponsoring a project uh we would welcome your input you can contact me or col in Shapiro uh on the Parks Commission um and uh as it heads up we already have volunteers who are advocating for a town center uh roadway cleanup um and then also town beach Prospect Street uh cleanup uh the Town Center cleanup the volunteers were hoping for April 20th and then for the town Beach uh tentative for 413 I understand that that uh in order to do uh those types of cleanups we need to get uh select board approval so I just wanted to ask what what do you need from us to be able to approve like a town center clean up and and oh by the way I have already talked to Chief um gel and and he's very supportive of this as well saf yeah so let me I'm turning to the town manager because uh as a town entity it's a little different so I just want to clarify what what approvals are needed for this I would just say making sure all the proper safety precautions are if you're going to have people in the roadways um like we do for toll boo I me making sure so that the police department would be supporting us on this so I think if we go under the chief's advice would we be in good standing I think so yeah okay very good as a town entity and I my members or colleagues are can correct me if I'm incorrect on this but Town entities don't have to go through the formal process to I think it's Mr chair I I think it'd be best just to formalize it if you made a formal request via email about the dates and we would just approve them yeah okay very very good so it's official I'd be happy to do that uh once we get it uh formalized like I said the dates are still yeah I think the dates are firm it's just the times that are still uh under dialogue if Chief G if you can get Chief gaml to write you something and forward his response okay that way yeah would be happy to do that yeah just work with Annie that that I mean it's a pretty more detailed process for the public event and I don't you don't need to go through all that so okay very good okay um and then um we're going to be doing online signups uh that will be publishing shortly uh via The Ledger and then via social media so uh look for that and of course to the extent that you can help uh advocate for us we'd really appreciate it all right thank you thank you thank you Miss Lincoln Deb Debbie hi I'm Debbie L in 46 Hemlock Drive I would like to Echo selectman Alonzo's thanks to the board of assessors but in particular as a member of the Council on Aging I would like to thank Jack Rabbit for his excellent work I deeply care about your getting to bed on time so I didn't do this at the last meeting but I would like to thank Mr rabbit because the Council on Aging really doesn't know how to go out there and deal with all this business about changing ages and doing all the research that Mr rabbit did and we are deeply deeply grateful to him for suggesting these ways to help our seniors stay in their homes get reduction in ta taxes and I urge everyone to support this warrant article we don't have a number yet I don't think but we will keep you informed please come come out and vote for this it's very very important to lower this number from 70 to 60 and help our seniors in any possible way we can so again thank you to the board of assessors particularly Mr rabbit we really appreciate all your good work thank you thank you Miss Lincoln all right oh Jack's here good okay uh good evening my name is Jeff Bingham I live at 150 Peninsula Drive I would just like to remind everyone that the town caucus is Monday March 25th at 7 o'clock at the lunberg high school auditorium this is an important part of the election process for people running for elected Town positions I am hoping that the caucus runs for years to come with that I would like to also tell you I'm retiring uh after 4 years serving on the town committee that runs the caucus I will also include that the other two members John fortune and Wendy berran will be giving up their positions it has been an honor to serve with them so if anyone is interested in being nominated for the town committee come see me at the caucus next week it's not a stressful job it requires you one day of work and maybe an hour that day so thank you for allowing me to serve the town in this capacity thank you thank you Mr Bingham all right Mr rabit and then we're going to call Mr Tyler sorry and then we're going to call Mr Tyler thank you thank you very much uh Board of selectman uh I would like to just talk very I'll stay with him my three minutes otherwise I know I'll get thrown out and holled out by my wife so uh I'd like to talk to you about when we first took the position we T we did a survey to see what could we do better and at the top uh by far at the top was Communications and how can we commit better information to the public to help them make decisions and uh we Reena and I sat around and we said you know one of the the the groups to our closest to our heart and I believe yours as well is a senior group and uh we looked at what we could do and essentially that's part of what's going on in terms of the 41c exemption changes but I'd like to just point out that there are 9 million Americans uh likely qualified for uh this is ARP magazine my favorite uh that are qualified for property tax relief but only 8% only 8% of the applied for help and primarily it's because they just don't really know a lot about it and they're they're nervous about it so what we attempted to do was put together a conference that could help address those issues and offer them additional levels of help uh our conference is essentially on March the 21st next Monday at 3M and we have quite a lineup a very 2 on the 25th at 3 p.m. I'm sorry I got to stay close to the mic I remember that from no no you said 21st so they said the 21st yeah so 25th 25th March 25th yes thank you so anyway we're going to have get up there and explain all the exemptions and clauses including something that's not well known is the deferral clause and where trying to work that out a little bit further there's a dial Clause that means nobody has to lose their house or be thrown out of the house you may lose it over a long period of time but you we're there to help come and see us come in and talk to us and let's see what we can do so Reena will hit those particular pieces after that we have uh Margaret Scarsdale our represent pres ative come in and she's going to talk to us about uh the essentially the uh tweaking school funding uh Unitil update as well as assuring we continue to have cable access along with the two other topics after that we have two aare guests Tom and L thank you very much you're going to be coming in and providing the town with an update with regard to the bill uh okay I didn't ring my glasses but it's uh 14 3911 and essentially that's the bill uh that you two put together for the town and brought forward and the town unan not unanimously but agreed to to support that so you'll provide uh an update and more of an outline for more people that aren't aware of that that's that's moving along really well uh after that we'll look at uh basically the recommended changes to 41c and how people may be able to participate and what you can essentially uh expect to receive and I know the last meeting uh and I'm not really clear but I think you kind of voted to put it on the warrant and to go to level three and uh but I'm not real real clear about that I don't know if you voted on that Mr chairman I'm I'm a little confused on what exactly you're okay 41c no no yep yeah okay and there were three options four options do nothing one reduce the age secondly uh reduce the uh increase the payout and the last one was to do both together we I think we Ved on what was presented in front of us which was increasing and so that was essentially to lower the age of Eligibility and so uh I'm not I know there was some discussions but that'll be great and we'll share that with them and we expect that's going to continue to to help this big almost uh 2700 people in town are operating below the property level and of which that there's a really healthy number of of seniors that I think will be able to benefit some from that so the date again is March 25th at 3 3 p.m. where is it at it is in the senior center the adult activity yeah I someday I'll go in and uh where all my friends are for breakfast every so often and then uh we going to talk about a website that's going to blow your socks off and it'll capture everything the purpose of this website is to essentially make sure that not only we capturing all the relevant material that were associated with the voters but ALS Al to the work the uh toolbox that we've also it's gra Gathering all the laws all the anything you can imagine that we've ever done such that the next members don't have to spend an inord amount of time learning about all this stuff it's all going to be there and then uh we'll open up we'll have a uh Q&A session with that so we anticipate that it's going to be there uh it's being advertised uh and uh yeah that will be it so I hope you can attend and you two especially and uh thank you very much and really we're just getting started thank you very much thank you Mr I lost it but I'm will show up Mr Tyler good evening everybody good even Bill Tyler five gra Street uh first of all I want to thank Mr Franco for his service to the town on the select board I'm going to miss you but I'm sure we'll uh be spending some time together with the clock trying to get it keep it running but thank you for your for your service to the town very much I'm speaking this this evening as a lifelong lunenberg resident and also as a former member and chair of the lunberg cemetery commission I've been watching the recent select board meetings and the cemetery commission meetings and the public comments made concerning the management of the Town cemeteries the negativity of these comments especially on social media in according of incorrect facts and regulations taken out of context do nothing to help the real issue after six years on the commission and three as chair I'm confident that I know how it's supposed to be managed the issue that has and always will get in the way of a respectful and orderly relationship between the cemetery commission and the DPW is the charter it's convoluted and contradicting language as it applies to the duties of the cemetery commission has always been a source of friction and contentiousness since the cemetery Department was moved Under the Umbrella of the DPW when it comes to the term day-to-day care and maintenance I have suggested the previous DPW directors that they need to work work with the commission to Define in a written document what that term actually means instead of the Blurred Lines that currently exist which allow any number of meanings finally I would suggest that instead of promoting all this negativity and the public calling out of elected officials their time and effort would be better spent serving on a Bard commission all all they're accomplishing now is detering residents from volun caring to serve the town thank you thank you Mr Tyler do we have any other public comments this evening on Zoom or otherwise okay uh Communications from other boards uh from the water district and for those with scheduled appointments uh we will get to them we it's going to be a little a little late coming to them I will try to be brief uh my name is Mark bur I'm chairman of the board of water commissioner and I'm here to present the superintendent update uh for March 19th um we're currently working I only have I believe six items to go over it be short uh so item number one we're working on a pasas master plan um for a brief overview pasas is the forever chemical that's in the environment and it does not break down over time and it's related to um certain uh health issues with the public why a couple of reasons why we're here at the past master plan is uh the EPA uh proposed a national drinking water regulation for pasas that would Institute a maximum contamination level of 0.004 parts per trillion basically a a non detect for public drinking water by implementing this the EPA seeks to reduce the exposures of these chemicals which have been linked to serious health issues including cancer liver damage reduced fertility and developmental uh issues with children P has been found in all of the lunenberg water wells however one well was over the maximum contamination level of 20 parts per trillion and that's the Hickory Hills well we've moved forward with the money that was allotted to us from the selectman uh through Opa fun in uh and met on March 18th yesterday and had a presentation of our master plan from Ty and bond the Commissioners are presently reviewing this plan and we should be providing our feedback at our next meeting and hope to vote on this the second item that we have action item we have going on is the massav water main replacement this is on um massav from Northfield to conell drive um we've had numerous issues in that area uh one of the problems is that's a dead end main so there's no way to Loop water back in if there's a break from Northfield Road all the way to the Shirley line and down to Hickory Hills along with this um we are going to be updating our billing the district voted uh this project through and we are going to need to fund this uh and we will be sending something out with our our next quarter bills to notify the public that an increase is coming um for this project number four is we are currently working on our commity Outreach and engagement together with the assistance of capital strategic Solutions uh we have implemented uh per and poly floro Alkali so for those that want to know what past stands for uh web page uh lunberg water.com backpass uh to educate consumers about pasas we've also increased our engagement with the community members through our Facebook page and we have also established water quality lunenberg domnet an email address that will be sent out with a townwide mailer uh somewhere in the next week or so assuming that that's when that's what's going to happen um regarding past to every address within the town we have started an e subscriber list the lunenberg water district has placed an e subscriber registration on our website homepage to encourage the community to sign up for news updates from the district we encourage all community members to register to receive valuable information regarding what's going on within the district we have a number of dates coming up um for special meetings for the community outreach um most of those are in April and these are the dates that we have uh that are coming up we also do have our annual meeting coming up March 30th of this month nothing special on the agenda all normal items budget and uh we will be reelecting or electing another commissioner uh so the dates uh we are planning to try to reach out to departments boards and committees and have an open house uh to review the master plan uh this is scheduled for April 4th 1 p.m. at the water district office we are looking to do Outreach for the Hickory Hills Community all the residents boards there's a couple different boards down there there's a large uh residential Community down there um and that will be at the water district office on April 10th to review the master plan um we have a CommunityWide hybrid meeting scheduled at for past master plan at the high school so everybody in the community is welcome all of these meetings are public meetings that would be April 25th at 6:30 p.m. and we are looking to schedule a meeting for May 16th to vote to pass the master plan and funding for p p remediation um the meeting that we had with tyan Bond yesterday should Beyond Public Access uh they did a very good job explaining uh P what it is the our system and and um the different ways they looked into mitigating it that's all I have I don't know if the board has any specific questions this um this update was emailed to the town manager for for um you all to review if you have any questions and as well as a schedule and both will be posted on our various web Facebook pages so I know you had a lot to say here but if I can just highlight three kind of major points um you're noting that there's a website that anyone can go to to get more information on P and ke would you mind stating that website one more time time so I believe there will be links on the regular lunenberg water website but there's lunenberg water.com back pfas uh and we're also establishing water quality at Lunenburg water.net uh which will be sent out on a townwide mailer for people to try to get more information and and again all of our meetings are on public access as much of this information that we're going to that we have is on public is going to be on public access and we'll have links on Facebook as well so the website there's an email address you not to that residents can email and then the third thing was the that there's an opportunity to sign up for subscription uh to get updates coming out of the water district correct yep and that's uh on the E subscriber list on the lunenberg water.com okay Mr chair course just want to take the opportunity to thank Mr Burch on behalf of you and the water Commissioners and the water district uh for coming forward with these things these kind of updates are invaluable the fact that you're on uh Public Access now is invaluable for you know there was this time when there was a black hole of information if you didn't go there in person you didn't know what was going on uh and I think this is a world of change that's all positive and I want to thank you and the Commissioners and everybody for making that possible thank you thank you you're here and I think I also want to acknowledge your Consultants that you've hired I them here with us and uh the great work that they've done to kind of lay out a good way for community outreach you know this really is I think a good as we're going into this and and the as Mr Alonzo just noted the updates you've provided but also just the path that you've laid out it's a really good model and a really good path so I just want to give some credit to that as well thank you I know there's a lot going on in town and um uh we have a pretty aggressive schedule uh the the aggressiveness of our schedule is is due to the Sr funding that we've applied for and have we've been approved for um and you know we're looking at 0% interest with uh principal forgiveness and that's that's huge because right now if we didn't have this we'd be looking at we called our bank the other day it was 4 and a half% and on the numbers we're looking that's somewhere in a vicinity of around $12 million in interest so that's a huge huge Sav savings going this way we are we are working on everybody I know is concerned about finances we are working on getting as much financial information as we can so we can lay this out to to show uh you know the economic impact if we if we don't take this aggressive route and try to be in front of this so thank you very much have a good night all right any other Communications from other boards all right we're going go to our 705 live appointment uh this is for flammable storage license Amendment for 998 Reservoir Road PJ keing to update the existing tanks list of materials if I may ask a representative to come forward please state your name and then if you can give us an overview of what you are um requesting um and and what our approval will do for you hello everyone my name is Jacob I am serving as the assistant environmental compliance manager for PJ keing and while I'm relatively new to the company I am no stranger to this town whatsoever I've lived here my entire life growing up down the street it's been a pleasure um and while I am here today as an observer my colleague here will be the one doing most of the chitter chatter so thank you Jacob did you graduate from Lun High School I did excellent did 2019 excellent sir good evening my name is DAV LMP I'm the site manager for PJ kidding in lunenberg um the uh the storage that we are Chang we're not changing on site we're we're ask we're having 172,000 gallons of storage on site um you will note that the permit's been quite an old permit and when we put in the new storage tank of 30,000 gallons the uh Massachusetts Department of fire Services asked us to update uh our storage in terms of they had it on their uh documentation that we had 172,000 gallons of gasoline on site we said that's not correct over the years we've had many changes from underground storage to other storage tanks and the types of materials that we do store on site so we took this opportunity to uh provide you with some information of the the volumes that we do store um and what those quantities are and what those descriptions are so not asking for any change in the volume that we store uh we've just tried to be more transparent with the volumes of materials that we store on site and as I said the mass Massachusetts Department of fire service had asked us for that information for the public benefit would you mind just reading through what you're storing and the quantities you're storing sure and then afterwards you know if you wouldn't mind just explaining how they're protected how they're secured that's good question um we have uh cooling oil we have uh maximum quantity of 667 gallons stored on site we have dialectric fluid uh 395 Gall we have number two fuel oil 2,838 Gall we have gasoline 1,000 Gall we have hot oil 1,75 Gall hydraulic oil 180 gallons liquid ashf 120,000 gallons motor oil 500 Gall transmission oil uh 1,000 Gall waste oil 650 gallons and future use of 24,6 195 Gall and that would bring us up to 172,000 gallons and how are these secured and protected and and forgive me because I I don't know all of the those that are most of those uh those storage tanks are obviously double skinned with the you know Environmental Protection around them so that you can't have the leaks the and and sorry I couldn't speak well enough to the to the storage of those I know of the gasoline the storage on those I know the waste oil in terms of how they're treated and double storage and and their ability inability to for spill and spill kits and those types of things but I couldn't speak about the liquid I'm sorry any questions from the board I have one is uh we have a email from the fire chief that he's okay with this yep but I have a question and I would ask him but he's not here and you are so should these get inspected by the fire department for fire codes every year do you know I believe they do okay I believe they do too but I just want to make sure no more questions any other questions from any other member of the board okay and just to recap you had stated this at the beginning but I'll so the the license um dates to as our note in the from the fire chief uh notes it dates to 1976 and it has been updated since uh so we're doing as you guys are going through your process this is a um you know just a kind of crossing the te's and Dot in the eyes and making sure that what you have on far with us better reflects kind of what you're doing and and just again updating the license all right if there are no remaining questions from the board is there a motion I move that we approve the flammable storage license Amendment for 998 Reservoir Road PJ Kings as presented second all right we have a motion in a second any additional discussion it's going to be a roll call vote uh Mr nulo new hi I butchered your last name there Mr newo thank you U Miss zimy hi Mr Alonzo hi Mr Franco and I for myself so the license is approved uh and I want to thank you for the work that you do for our community I want to thank Jacob for uh being a resident here in lunenberg and work contining to work here in lunenberg as well you guys are a really valuable part of our community uh and we really we again we value you guys being forthcoming you know the lack of any kind of issues that go on down there you guys have been a good corporate um partner for the good to hear we we like to keep a breast with our community and we well within the community so we enjoy being part um and we're looking forward to being in the future excellent thank you thank you David all right we're going to go to our 7:15 I'm going to turn to the chair of the cemetery commission to begin her meeting um and uh to lead us into what we are doing here tonight do you want me up there or nope there is fine is be sure to hit your microphone it's on okay they're both on I see them they're on already okay can you hear me so the cemetery commission opens their meeting jointly with the select board on Tuesday March 19th 2024 okay you don't need to read all the other stuff we already and then so we're basically um with this joint appointment uh what we're trying to do is again is have the appointment hearing of Michael Clark all right so typically when we have these joint appointments uh as per the charter when we appoint into elected vacancy it is a double a joint appointment by the remaining members of the existing board and also by the select board so we'll start um if you wouldn't mind just kind of laying out a little history have you met with the applicant um if so you know how did that go and then we'll turn to this board for any or and if you have any questions if you want to ask them of the applicant at this time and then I'll we'll switch over to the select board and we'll ask the applicant questions if we have any okay I think um we did have Michael he came to one of our meetings last week um and he gave us a well wealth of information um he professionally he's been employed for over 40 years and he is a manager he's an engineering manager um he has been involved in lunenberg from day one with the youth soccer the school health advisory uh Council the school committee and also the Boy Scouts um and I want to just point out with the Boy Scouts as a boy scouts to us have meant so much especially at the cemetery um because of what they've done at the cemetery to redo those stones that are so old and and historically try to write them put the right kind of loving touch that the Boy Scouts um do and we felt very honored that they picked up as far as to try to help us in in that uh project um he's been an adult leader for the Boy Scouts for over 12 years um and he is he has a certific certification on the youth protection program um and is involved in many organizations and I think he'll be well served for the cemetery commission and we're looking forward hopefully that um you will also vote for him to step on with us all right thank you for that Nancy and to this board um I'll just turn to any um all the board we don't have to go in order but are there any questions or comments for the applicant Mr chair yes just a point of note that we usually hear from the applicant before we ask any questions if you would be so willing you can stay there m there's a microphone there Mike if you want or you can come up all right if you want to as uh give us a overview of why you're interested in this oh sure sure yeah um it was interesting uh to to see Jacob Brer here uh he he's also an eagle scout at a lunenberg uh troop 1728 and he helped my son out um tremendously on his Eagle project um my son Mike uh in the North Cemetery doing the apron around the flag pole and the uh military uh flag tribute so it's it's always good to see see them back in the community and uh yeah he he he did a lot of work too and it's key when you're doing these Eagle projects not just to be the Scout um working on it for their badge and coordinating it but to have these other Scouts show up and Jacob was always there so um but anyways um yeah I've been in lunberg since uh we moved here in 1992 my wife and I U my daughter 5 years old she was uh expecting my second daughter so um two more kids in uh through the lunenberg school systems all graduates of lunenberg High um and and they're on and off doing good things thanks to the the town in part uh a lot of good people um uh with with the scouts we've done a number of projects in the cemetery and and that's a good part of my interest I'm also chair of the lunenberg Republican Town committee I met Lance May there uh we had a good working relationship uh on Mike's uh Eagle project I met uh Bill Tyler I know uh Todd Holman was great with the scouts so I I think it's a good fit uh I I was on the school committee for three years uh and know the the scope and breath of of of uh that type of uh committee position um so I think this is a good fit right now for me um and so I'm interested in in serving on the board and serving the town um with various experiences I'm I'm used to policies and procedures um you know I went to school committee training up uh Whittier vocational Tech I think up around um past havil so I did that you know because that was a that was a recommended obligation to go through um being in uh the Republican Town committee I thought that was kind of a casual group um and and then I was asked uh to chair it when the chair uh moved out of town and uh worked with Lance and he introduced me to the Mass general laws that uh that govern everything and I realized okay there's this's a serious part of this and uh you know I I I diligently went through that uh the office of campaign Finance and all and so I'm I'm I'm accustomed to what it takes to comply with State rules and regulations too and I um I was the treasur of my wife's campaign for State Rep so and more repertoire with with the state and uh you know I always found they they're very helpful they always want to answer your questions they want they want you to contact them ahead of time through the right channels and and they're on your side so so that that's probably the scope of my background and I think this is a good a good um position for me right now all right thank you Mr Clark um if you would you can stand or you can sit but I'll turn to the board for any questions or comments the board may have we'll start with selecting uh noo who's on zoom and I apologize that's fine uh I don't have any questions all right thank you um first I want to thank you for volunteering um and just to um clarify and confirm I see that the term expires at the next annual election I assume you will be running considering the election is what two months away right right yeah yeah I I plan on attending the town caucus and hopefully being nominated and and uh getting the position okay or on the ballot right caucus is to get your name on the ballot okay Uh I that was my question but otherwise I mean Mr Clark I've known Mr Clark a long time obviously lot of different levels of service to the town so he's as he says he's it would be an excellent candidate for the position so I support it yeah you obviously have thank you number one I will I'll Echo thank you for stepping forward to do this um and uh this some of this was a reiteration for me because I I uh saw you I stumbled into your uh presentation and uh interview with the cemetery commission cuz I watch the cemetery commission meetings now you never know what's going to happen uh so uh so I I already felt good about your stepping forward and I uh so thank you and I support it you as well all right same here um so this is going to be pretty quick so we're going to look for a motion it'll be one motion we'll um and and second it and then we will take I'll collect the votes or I'll count the votes amongst your members as well um so is there a motion to I would move that we approve uh with the cemetery commission the appointment of Mike Clark of 275 Crossroad to the cemetery commission with his term to expire until the next annual election of May 2024 second all right we have a motion in a second it's going to be a roll call vote um starting with selectman newo hi selectman mki hi selectman Alonzo Selman Franco hi and we're now we're going to go to Madam chair I and miss and Dave I'm blink on your last name Dave D Doran that's right Mr Doran all right that is unanimous congratulations the motion passes congratulations Mr Clark uh the next steps will be to go to the town clerk get sworn into the role uh as noted caucus is coming up on the 25th and uh please be sure to um be nominated and we and we again thank you for coming forward to the town um you know I think this is a really a great appointment for us and for our community you know I look forward to you being in this role um so thank you Mike for stepping up into this thank you and then I will turn to you to adjourn your meeting right Cemetary commission adjourns uh the meeting at 20 minutes to 8 on the 19th of March 2024 all in favor hi hi okay thank you thank you you are adjourned thank you all right and Mike you're going to get sworn in right so that you can be at the next meeting and I'm sure ny's excited to get this rule filled all right so we're going to go now to our 7:30 this is a meeting with the Conservation Commission chair um regarding proposals including the use of consultations Consultants Consultants thank you thank you thank you Mr chair uh my name is Mary Wilson again chair of the Conservation Commission 138 whing Street so I've been to the uh select board a couple of times now uh to make you aware of uh challenges we've been having uh in large part due to vacancies in the in the office uh those are ongoing uh we do currently have a uh full-time administrator that started in uh I think December the end of November at the very least uh we now have a vacancy uh and are looking for a part-time Administrative Assistant as well um our new resource has been inundated with ongoing project load uh backlog from vacancies roll down from previous resources uh the new and ongoing workload uh the office is behind and we will continue likely continue experiencing uh significant delays in processing the workflow for many months to come um this will adversely affect businesses and residents that are applying through the Conservation Commission for projects uh to make you aware uh we have been working with the town manager and our administrators come up with some interim and long-term Solutions um and I think we're uh we've got a plan uh that's uh at least will start making some improvements uh but it'll take a little bit of time to get there uh so first and foremost is to identify and hire the part-time administrative assistant and I think those interviews are ongoing yeah and looks like we have a candidate to offer the position too oh excellent yay uh uh second uh adopt open goov software and workflow as soon as possible uh this is a software application that is uh tailored to support online mitting with a workflow uh management and document archival features uh this will help uh we expect this will help with the bandwidth for the clerical task and also with the technical uh bandwidth on application processing our administrator is doing an assessment right now to determine how long it will take for us to Port over to open um gov we'll have to set up our forms there and she will have to set up uh a workflow uh so it'll take a a little bit of time uh I expect by the next time we meet that she will have that initial assessment um and then we'll uh she's prioritize in her time right now uh at least a couple hours a week to uh get those documents ported over to this platform uh longer term we expect that will enhance our throughput and efficiency in the office but you know a little bit of a short-term sacrifice um we uh we also uh need to start using our application fees to generate a budget for technical consultant uh resource that's the technical consultant that you just referred to Mr chair uh this uh what we have estimated in terms of what we need for uh bringing in that expertise uh is uh 250 hours per year that's uh 5 hours average per week uh the current fee structure uh is expected to provide us 60 hours so the Conservation Commission will also be uh reviewing our fees and considering whether we should increase those fees uh my initial look at surrounding communities is that uh we're very inexpensive compared to our peers so we'll be undertaking that as a project uh with a uh hope to provide uh at least some additional support towards that 250 uh Consulting hour support uh we also have within our our current um bylaws the ability to charge uh projects uh for Consulting support um and I think Heather you said that we need to set up a revolving account in order to exercise that correct I did submit an article um by the deadline to because I worked with Town Council on that because after reviewing the bylaw and its reference to a revolving fund which did not exist in our bylaw revolving fund bylaw um we he helped draft the amendment to that bylaw to include such so thank you for doing that welome yeah thank you so with with those two measures increasing the fee structure and uh hopefully being able to create that revolving fund we hope to be able to bring in the Consulting resources that we need um in order to uh you know bring in the expertise that we need we have a great resource right now um that uh Julian Heather identified and brought on board in December that resource has been out of school for about a year and a half um and uh you know you may recall two years ago we had somebody with more than 20 years of experience so uh we need to invest continue investing in our younger resource our junior staff resource and helping them grow in their career and in the interim we need to hire the uh Consultants to bring that expertise back into the office and then uh ongoing support uh the Town manager I I know you have been working with um with Sophie our Administrative Assistant to identify other opportunities for training um and I do appreciate that thank youcome um and I I know you're really busy and there's not a land use director uh that would generally be the Frontline manager for our office resource so um you know you've you've met with us and it's clear that you've met with our administrator a couple of times to try to figure out how to help um and bridge the gap there um again there will be ongoing delays uh because we're you know it's going to take a little bit of time to get ahead of things uh and uh we'll be continuing to work with the town manager hopefully we get a land use director soon uh that can also help us with uh continuing to improve the office uh efficiencies but for the short term there may be some noise about delays any questions or comments any questions or comments on the for I will say my only comment would be I think it's a reasonable and sensible plan and I I support that what you outlined there absolutely especially especially the part about putting the effort into training somebody who's new to the staff and then while we're doing that bringing in Consultants to bring in the experience that I think is a very critical component of the plan for it to work I do have one question comment I believe that kind kind of hybrid model is common more common now than in the past perhaps in other towns is that I have heard that uh from the uh couple of uh friends that I have that are in this industry I've I've only been able to identify one town that was doing it specifically in um the Conservation Commission area uh but uh several towns that were doing it in other um in other functional areas thank thank you Mary for bringing this to our attention um you know I think that you know anything that improves workflow uh especially digital software keeps a good record and I know that one of the hard things when you're coming into a job is what was done before me and when it's a paperwork Trail and a lot of records and then handwriting but when you have a software system that someone can go into and that keeps that record for you um that's just a better way to manage and so I think that that's a really you know smart idea um it sounds like you guys have a good plan for um getting the resources that you need to be able to just like all you know I think conservation um similar with conservation you know you guys need to be able to go out and and re-evaluate similar to what the planning board does or the zoning board of appeals and someone comes to you with a plan and you might need to get a second opinion you might need to have your own um analysis done and so having that fund set up and completing that second piece of the puzzle you know I'm glad that you're able to work with the town manager and kind of figure out a good way forward here um and so that that makes a lot of sense and so I just want to acknowledge that uh you know application fees should be you know on par with with what is done regionally I know that we just had this update on the um we just had this update with our inspectors and so you know our building inspectors electrical inspectors pling and which we you know identifi that we were a little below uh well below the median and so we need to to to remedy that and then the ongoing support you know if you can categorize your backlog because you say we're going to probably hear some noise here what is the backlog how long is it taking right now for you guys to move forward uh well it depends because all the projects are different right um and so uh any on a any given day we could have you know an administrative determination request somebody wants to take down a couple of trees is this okay all the way to uh currently we have uh 3 390 Howard Street which a very complex um project of I think 149 um uh potential houses right and a and a very large uh tract of land and all of those take a different amount of time uh I've asked the uh our uh full-time administrator to prioritize violations because since we've had you know extended vacancies there have been a lot of people that have you know um there's always people who don't know uh but there have also been uh a lot of people that have just kind of Taken measures into their own hands uh so there are a lot of violations that uh currently uh we need to work on and uh you know in case you don't know I'll let you know there's a 2-year um kind of uh statute of limitations on uh getting those violations actually corrected so it's very important that we act promptly there um can you clarify that um so is it when the violation becomes known to you no is when the violation occurs um and there's a kind of a tiered uh there's kind of a tiered class on violations as well so uh for example if somebody fills in a wetland that violation persists right so uh if we found out about it 3 years later uh it's still an ongoing viol ation so we can uh act on that and require that the Wetland be restored we would only be able to apply for fees um and enforcement measures back to two years right so we couldn't go back three years later and say ah you've we now we're going to find you for three years of this violation and and of course we'd only want to apply that if we had somebody who really was um being you know negligent uh and not uh working with us to correct the problem uh and in the case of uh you know other types of violations uh they may be more of an instance in time uh so that we may lose our opportunity to go back and ask for the corrective action okay so so for example somebody cutting down trees right we may lose our opportunity to go back and make them plant the tree again so that would be a long-term or permanent um you know degradation of the Welling and the buffer zone so I mean I know that people can walk and chew gum but I mean what you're describing is uh that in the process of walking that we're going to need a little bit more support here uh so I just want to get clarification um you know obviously we don't want to have violations of the Wetland protection act but as you guys are prioritizing what to address are you prioritizing those things that have that to your limitation kind of only while you guys get caught up to speed on everything else yes okay I don't have any of but I don't I don't expect that to be like maybe two months of just doing violations I think we're going to continue to be able to inter leave the uh support of violations with the ongoing requests for um you know certificates of uh completion as well as the you know the nois and the rdas right um but we won't probably won't be able to provide as much help to people that don't know how to do the applications um which is unfortunate right um and and therefore by default would be prioritizing people that know how to do the um applications and the engineering firms that do it you know professionally is a day job broadly speaking I mean the we and protection act is a bit complicated so broadly speaking um if you I'm asking for the back of the napkin kind of just guess here what of all the people who come and get things approved by you what percentage of them end up being in violation at some point is it low is it high is it most uh so I think I think what you're asking is uh because a lot of times when we find find people in violation uh the first thing we ask them to do is to do a retroactive uh type of application um and go through the process and then we determine you know what exactly they need to correct and do they need to do it promptly or can they go through the normal three-year um uh cycle time on the permit uh I would say probably 25% uh is some type of retroactive sort of uh issue yeah and you know so then if you looked at that kind of retroactively looking uh from like December back to July um it's a pile up of work and you know I think I was asking that's good that's a good to note but I think I was just asking of the people who aren't those retroactive violations with the people who knowingly come to you to say hey I need to complete this you know get your approval um I'm just curious as to if the rules are so complicated that a big chunk of them no no no no yeah sorry I totally misunderstood where you were going with that no um yeah that I think um of the violations you know there's a subset of people who knew and said well let me see if I get caught right um and there's a you know a subset of people who genuinely don't know right I mean they just have no idea I'm on my land I wanted to cut down that tree and they have no idea that that stream that was 10 ft away uh put that tree in a regulated buffer zone right uh one of the things that the commission has uh voted to uh do this year is uh you know put another flyer in the one of the Town um property tax mailers uh so that we increase the um visibility to the rules and not the complexity of the rules just the hey if you're doing something with 100 feet of a wetland you need to come and talk to us about it right to raise visibility uh we would like to when we have have more Cycles with our um with our office get some of those brushers PL um printed up and posted on Town bulletin boards maybe over at the library maybe you know here in town hall over in the Ritter building as well so that as people are kind of bumping around doing their usual stuff they you know have an opportunity to see that and go oh hey maybe that applies to me um to raise more awareness all right thank you Mary do we have any other follow-ups or questions all right I just want to um things I wanted to add just on the conversation um open gov um Brian gingr has been really pivotal in that move he is considered our in-house expert open goov he really knows the full capabilities of the system so he's been helping the conservation administrator our Building Commissioner yes our Building Commissioner thank you um for anyone who doesn't know him by name um and I also want to um recognize Sophie's the conservation administrators work on trying to create written um protocols and directions for people coming to the office to try to divert people to a instruction format of how to fill out applications um because that will divert a lot of questions and phone calls as well that's excellent all right thank you Mary thank you thanks all right we are going to go to interviews appointments reappointments and resign ations um so first we have an appointment to the cultural Council this is for Christine folz of 284 Lancaster AV so I'll ask Christine a shooting mine coming forward good to see you Christine and uh Mr chair as this is my wife I will recuse myself thank you Mr Lonzo does not want to be put in the awkward position of voting against an aesthetic point of view I'd like to switch your name tags who's it says Tom Alonzo need to go are they really wrong yes they are thank you aesthetically speak I wish I would know that all right so Christine good to see you um I want to just acknowledge that that um Mr Lonzo recused himself and normally when members recused they remove themselves from being part of the conversation and Mr Lonzo has done just that Christine if you wouldn't mind just stating your interest in being in the culture Council and uh could you I want to comment as well I was at the Museum the other day not the museum the library the other day and I saw some art pieces like these are beautiful and they told me that you made them which I had no idea no I didn't my father made them and uh they are all registered with the Smithsonian my father's all of my father's artwork is registered at the Smithsonian my father was a small town doctor and this was what he did in his free time to relax wow so the sculptures are there I think everyone should view art at different points and it should be public for a lot of us so therefore I've put them up there in the library thank you if you wouldn't mind expressing your interest I think you kind of just did a little bit but if you would mind I was once the chair of this committee back about 15 years ago and um I was on the committee when we just uh offered grants and pretty much now the committee is changing they've got some funds and they're working with the high school to do uh types of um I guess it's visiting artists type things so that the the young students can see what artists do whether it's in music dance um visual or craft and I have a background in art my um my education was at the Royal College G excuse me the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen um Denmark and I'm a textile designer and I still do design work I'm a prototype designer and a textile artist for for engineering companies including the Army which is where I'm doing most of my work right now um I also have um a studio at home I have looms I have I help as many people as I can to learn about textiles and I believe that everyone should be introduced to art at some point in their lives and this is a our cultural Council has the opportunities to do that at this point in time so that therefore I'd like to be on you thank you I'm going to turn to the members for any questions or comments on members behalf I'm going to start with slman newo who's on the screen behind us hi Christine I don't have any questions I mean it sounds like you'd be a fabulous fit so thank you for uh stepping up and wanting to volunteer thank you I also want to thank you for stepping up um have you met with the other members of the cultural Council yes I have I've been a couple of their meetings to to assess what's going on and therefore I offered to join them um after the meetings good thank you thank you number one and also you and your some of your work and and certainly your background is familiar to me and uh I think you may recall we had some discussions my dad was in the textile business uh all all of his working life uh so I I have nothing further ex except a thank you Christine I I ask your uh husband often about how you're doing I tell him to tell you hello all the time and I'm sure it's a little bit annoying to him somewhat um but you know I really I think you have a really good presence and so there's no question for me and and a good mind for all of this so there's no question that you're going to that I'm going to app point that going support the appointment to the culture Council well why are you here I want to take the opportunity to make a plug for something that I would like to see um I would I think the culture council is best primed to kind of Take the Lead and and what a void that we have in town um which is uh the coordination of cultural events and you know I think that you know it's kind of hard to pinpoint who do we you know who should carry this burden or who should I wouldn't say burden but who should carry the responsibility of of you know kind of putting together some of these events that we have promoting them um and it would be nice especially as we you know as we think about um how Society is Shifting and becoming more digital and the opportunities to interact face to face become more and more limited um that having those opportunities in our community and focusing on that in addition to supporting the artists in our community but also creating those opportunities for young people as you said to interact with art you know it's important to me um you know I I I you know I donate money in certain ways but I you know I make I a the one that I that I prioritize the most are my donations annual donations to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston um and supporting art programs and so it would be great if I think you know the cultural Council can help shift and move in addition to their current charge and maybe come back to us and say Here's how we can uh expand the charge but I I do think you guys are better suited than really anyone else to kind of take that point in the community and I believe there have been some discussions about that kind of thing of ha of having art interactions with the whole community and in the past there have been a few but they are far between I do know that there are some cultural things coming up in a few years but we for the um what is it the 300th birthday and we need to do things before then so and and also you can always donate to our local Museum which is the fburg art museum which I am also um on their collection committee Okay so thank you all right any other comments or questions this evening and uh and I will I I will commit to that you know I recently went to the fitzburg art museum um when the Community Foundation had a kind of a Gala there as they were supporting some of the expansion and uh very impressive the renovations the work going on at BF Brown I think you guys are loosely associated with that um but yeah BF Brown becoming like an artist kind of Studio and residents um so it really is good to see the art scene in the region it's in the back backyard of the museum yep there we spent a lot of time talking about that and working on it yep my husband went there when for Middle School BF Brown it's going to change all right um is there a motion this evening I move to appoint Christine folz to the uh to the cultural Council for a term to expire June 30th 2027 any additional discussion it's going to be a roll call vote Mr nuo hi U Miss zy hi Mr Franco hi and an i for myself thank you so please be sure to get sworn in um from the Town Clerk and then also uh it's not so relevant today but we do have an appointment policy I just encourage you we recently revised it encourage you to um we'll make sure we email it over to you but just encourage you to read it through we did have some really good revisions so thank you and thank you for being here tonight thank you thank you all right so let's yell out to Mr Tom Alonzo he can rejoin the board so uh next and good to see you Donna good to see you thank you very much all right so next tonight we have an appointment of an alternate to the historical commission member this is for Mr pasos of 56 Whiting Street Mr pasos if you wouldn't mind coming forward and just uh explaining your interest then also if you would mind kind of us walking us through why you're looking to be an alternate um and what that really means uh Dave pasos 56 waiting Street I know nobody knows me in town but uh anyway um yeah I'll I'll bro the how this came about first uh with the appointments that you guys made and then didn't make u a few weeks ago I um immediately put in a uh volunteer form uh with the concern that there could very well be an issue trying to get Quorum with a seven member board uh that is a mute point at now um but I'm still concerned um and the actually the chair reached out to me after the form was sent to him by a Wayne and said you know I'd like to have you brought to the uh select board to be appointed as an alternate so it was was his idea originally for me to be appointed as an alternate I was in there in the file in case there was a a vacancy but I'm very willing to go in as an alternate um over the past six months or so maybe longer I've already been collaborating with the commission and the Historical Society working on recovering uh historical documents pictures and so on from the Paso Elementary School um I'm sure there's still more stuff in there but we have recovered a couple boxes worth of uh newspaper cuttings and so on and so forth that go back to 1953 um also involved in in a couple of other things that uh the commission is working on I'm excited to hear that uh they expect to have grant money available soon to hire a consultant to finally do the complete uh inventory of historical locations in lunenberg I hope to help expedite that along in any way I can um and just in general help out uh been here all my life um family came to town in 1953 and I was born that year later in that year and um I think I've got a wealth of knowledge uh some of it's starting to fade a little bit uh from the earlier years but um you know I've got a pretty good knowledge of the history in town and I'm I hope I can help out the commission excellent all I'm going to turn to the members of the board for any uh questions or comments they may have I start oh you want to start I was waiting for to move but sorry I didn't know how we were doing this okay um first of all it's not really that important but I was a little confused when I saw you walk up to the podium because it looks like you're also signed in on Zoom or did you like call in or yeah I signed into zoom and case is anything uh screen shared so that I can uh oh I see it better on my screen on the computer DAV is part of just a hologram I didn't know if we yeah I'm I'm actually a hologram right here in front of the board I'm sorry say that last part again who me sorry there was a lot a lot of talking just now I just said I didn't know if there was like a Mr pasos impersonator or something after I saw up but anyway I mean I can't think of anyone more qualified to be on this commission I'm sure project that you're a part of will benefit tremendously so I'm more than happy to support this that's all thank you so my question is what is an alternate member well I'm going to have to polish up on that to be 100% sure and to do it right um I made that comment to uh your chair a couple weeks ago that you know between um alternates and and what's the other term Associates Associates are pretty easy they just show up and you know they uh get to know what a particular committee is doing an alternate to my understanding is a member that uh attends as many meetings as possible and especially if the chair knows he's going to be short for Quorum I my understanding is the alternate can sit in and be voting member for a meeting that does not have enough members for a quorum now I'm going to definitely fact check that to make sure we've got it all right um but that's that's the plan only vote at meetings when you're needed to make a quorum correct okay um I know there's an article going in town meeting to the size is alternate addressed anywhere in our bylaws does it exist do we need to create it the last question the last question is not that's a subjective question the first two were objective questions yes we have an article that it seeks to finally after what happened several weeks ago codify in the bylaws what it is what the historical commission is so we don't ever not have the definition at our hand and secondly again objectively there is no mention of alternates to which I would add we just like we couldn't appoint people to positions that don't exist we cannot appoint an alternate because there is no such thing as an alternate member as of tonight so you're standing before us there is no alternate position to appoint you to so officially this I will take the same stand as I did then which is this is not a this is not a duly uh authorized appointment because we can't appoint you to something that doesn't exist and to my point the the the process has always been vague I don't I think it's spelled out word for word anywhere is it or if it is no there I mean there are some commit like the Zoning Board of appeal has associate members as as part of the definition of the body you know I've said in the past and I will reiterate here that I think to be first of all I would not be in favor of an alternate member in the way you defined it this is not like a football team that if somebody gets hurt somebody runs in like you have five people or seven people or nine people depending on the board and that's the people you have to play and you know there's not a quorum you don't like oh well so and so can it's not not like a a free form poker game you're just going to fill it right so I would not before that now as far as an associate member we have done that unofficially like with the Conservation Commission just sit in they can let you sit into every meeting they want and you'd be the first one obviously with that kind of background if somebody says I've sat into every meeting of this body that I want to be part of for two years I would find it hard pressed to be find a a board that wouldn't be the first to appoint you if you if that was known so you don't need an official position to do that but as far as setting up a system of alternates to accomplish What You just defined I would not be in favor of that okay uh just in the back of my mind you you brought up the zoning board of appeals it's my understanding that there's at least one member that's an associate or an alternate that also steps in but that's defined in their role that's it's defined in the zoning board that's perect and that's because they have because they have deadlines of projects that by State Statute need to be done so you're allowed to do that Y and I totally agree I don't want to be involved in something that no I appreciate it and again as I said that night has nothing to do with the person it has to do with the process and I'm just not okay you do look vag Vaguely Familiar uh I I uh if there were a such thing as an alternate I would have no problem appointing you to it I'll say that for the record and are we sure we don't want to try to mess up the historical commission stuff anymore you know and I know you well enough to know that's a joke but no I will be serious for a moment to say no I don't would like not not to mess it up anymore my only point and I'm not arguing what we've just discussed is that it came from the chair it didn't come from me to go for this alternate and I didn't shy away from it but I knew there may be some challenges yeah I take a critical so that's all i' take a different read if I may Mr frankco just jump in of course you I take as Vice chair I say the chair can jump in I I take it I take a different read so I think that previously I think there was some ambiguity on on on my part about how many members were comprised or the board was comprised of and with a reading of 3 to 7 I certainly didn't have conflict with with appointing more than the current membership of five I think that you know we do have this kind of unofficial associate thing here in town and whatever that means you know it's not always defined uh sometimes this board of points Associates and sometimes they're kind of appointed by the existing multi-member bodies I mean I don't have a conflict with appointing an alternate um and I know this request came from the chair of the historical commission I mean a board comprised of five members to me does notes I I I can understand that on one hand and the other side have a have a pool of six people that can be that five I don't necessarily have a conflict with that so I I understand that that the the necessity of the request is that um is that um my understanding is that a member um uh has some life things that that sometimes interferes with attendance um and the commission given the breath of what you guys are trying to work on or what the commission is trying to work on and do that it's important for them to maintain their membership um and so I I think the request is a healthy compromise that there's the static members and in the absence of the static members that uh another a sixth member functions as as as one of those missing static members um I don't have a conflict in that but that's I'm one member of the board and so you know I'm hearing that uh another at least one other member I I didn't capture of two uh have a conflict with that I caught that another member didn't so but it is something that maybe has to be better defined um if I could uh go ahead uh I would say that I think it's important where other boards and commissions Etc specifically have these roles defined it would sort of eviscerate the meaning of doing that if we were to just sort of like for lack of a better term by case law just decide that we can plug another member onto this board I think it does have to be clearly defined it isn't unfortunately and we do I do agree with Mr Alonzo here that we just it's not defined we can't invent it so um the email we have from the chair of the historical commission I think came before Mr Alonzo discovered the in The Archives of uh Town meetings that uh we couldn't go to a seven member board and so the the email reads the issue with the Quorum was getting four for Quorum as a seven member commission so with five three is a quorum so I think maybe it's less they've been functioning as five I haven't heard complaints about getting a quorum as if that's been an issue um functioning as five members um and I'm I'm not comfortable if voting on something that doesn't exist I don't want to vote to not to be a non- voted again if the alternate isn't defin I mean I think green communities has associate members right yes but that was those were created when the uh when that committee went from a task force to a committee that was a suggestion I actually made that we add to Associates to the list of uh possible members my understanding is the associate members are well documented when we have them so I I think Mr pios that you know we're certainly not going to make a negative motion here today um you know and this is something that again you know I I I know we put on the agenda at the request of uh the chair of the historical commission I understood that alternate didn't fully uh exist I understood that this would be a point of conversation um and so I don't think there's an appointment for us to make this evening but I do believe um that the historical commission um would be wise to put forward a request for us to um make a modification to permit this I'm perfectly fine with that and it doesn't shine me away from my collaborations with them that are already in place and continuing forward okay is the board comfortable with this approach yeah yeah okay whether whether the historical commission I I wouldn't encourage them to put something forward but they certainly have the right to put something forward want I would as I said then if they put it forward or somebody else put it Forward I'd be against it but that's fine not for Mr pasos I just want to bring up one other point though is that I think it would even worse to do to take the step an appoint make an appointment to an alternate where the understanding is that an alternate actually has an elevated Authority relative to say an associate who never has voting Authority so um it would be even worse I I think so we love you so I I would I would move that we that we dismiss the non-appointment without prejudice good call thank you thank you Mr pasio um Mr Alonzo I I know that next kind of comes the composition of the historical commission um do you want to just lead straight into this yeah I didn't know this was on until the revised addition of the agenda but all I've done in my proposed article was exactly what I said I would do which is take exactly the existing two votes from from the 1979 Maytown meeting the two articles there that created the uh that adopted Mass General law and uh also created a that at that point a six-member body and then the May 2008 annual town meeting uh article that changed it to five this addition that would be added to the bylaws uh under the proper chapter just incorporates that wording in the form that the bodies exist under like the capital planning committee or the Council on Aging Etc so therefore it won't get lost by saying it's not in the bylaws anymore it just puts it in the bylaws that's all it does doesn't change anything about what we've been doing with it just codifies it all right so I think this has been provided to all members is pretty straightforward any questions for Mr Lonzo on that we can also discuss it under uh War articles later in the agenda okay discuss next on our agenda discuss committed and uncommitted manager oh yeah I sure did all my cross outs that's all right so we're going to go to the town manager report to the town manager thank you thank you a announcement the annual town meeting is Saturday May 4th at 9:00 a.m. and the Middle School High School auditorium and the annual Town election is Saturday May 18th 7 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the TC pasos building for board committee commission vacancies we have one vacancy on the architectural preservation District commission one vacancy on the Council on Aging two associate vacancies on the green communities committee one member at large vacancy on the open space committee and one vacancy on the Personnel committee anyone interested in any of these positions can complete the volunteer applications found on the town website return it to the select board's office and if you have any questions on the roles and responsibilities you can contact our office at 978 582 4130 extension 144 for employment opportunities with the town we have the following positions open conservation Administrative Assistant 10 hours a week facilities custodian 40 hours a week land use director 40 hours a week planning board Administrative Assistant 36 hours hours a week seasonal Cemetery laborers seasonal lifeguards and temporary administrative assessing assistant for 32 hours a week information on these positions can be found on the town website under job opportunities for current bids and rfps we received four responses to the request for qualifications for the owner's project manager services for Marshall Park and they are currently being reviewed and will be discuss discussed at the park commission meeting invitation for bids for the fla Hill Culvert project are due March 27th invitation for bids for cleaning services for Town buildings are due April 4th and requests for proposals for data collection services for the assessing department for cyclical inspections for fiscal 25 through fiscal 27 are due April 8th an update on our natural gas contract I worked with our energy broker to secure a new rate for our natural gas accounts for when our current contract with spra expires in November of 2025 our new rate will be $5 and 5668 per decm for a three-year contract from December 2025 until November 2028 currently the rate is $4.39 per decm until November 30th 2025 knowing this pricing now will assist the town and school in planning these related costs When developing future year budgets an update on Solid Waste and Recycling as our three-year contract with eel Harvey expires this year we have been requesting a meeting with them to negotiate an extension to our contract last Thursday the DPW director our recycling trash consultant Jamie tol and I met with our representative from eel Harvey and learned that in order to extend our contract under the same conditions it would be an approximately 70% price increase it was explained to us that they bid our contract assuming 80 hours of Labor a week and it is currently taking them about 120 hours of Labor a week to finish the roots in order to accomplish this in the time needed to make it profitable they would need to purchase new trucks which would add to the cost of the contract it was understood that we would go out to bed shortly with the same model that we currently have in place as an option and we also discussed that moving to a cart system was another alternative that we will be looking at speaking with other trash haulers most are only bidding on contracts that have a cart system in place due to the the being less labor intensive and a more automated system that reduces their costs we will work uh with looking at that model with eel RV while simultaneously going out to bid using our current pay as you throw curbside collection model per a letter we sent in early February that served as a protection in the event the contract was not extended in time for June 30th we formally notified eel Harvey that we were requesting a 90-day extension and therefore our pricing will remain the same until the end of September 2024 70% increase and so we're going to go out to bid for trash got it Mr chair yes or look um work with them on an alternative model with the cart system what is can you can you explain the not being somebody a cart model what the cart model um meaning you'd have the bins the totes oh okay basically totor model so you'd have one for trash and one for recycling um and there's all different models out there as far as size of containers um but so we would be looking at probably 265 gallon toter um and that and how to implement that system how many actual users we have because in our last bid we put in approximately 4,000 households do we actually pick up at 4,000 households um that's not something that's tracked um so we're going to be working with them to see if they can um get an idea as well cuz it's going to very weak to week some people only use the recycling for down and have their own curbside holler right so Shirley uses this system it's basically those toters and the and the um truck instead of having a person that's throwing the bags in the back that it's it's a mechanical arm that comes out knocks them over instead correct which I've seen yes okay I just want to make sure I get the method right yep so it's an automated system yes okay did you like it uh I yeah I don't have a problem with it now or or then actually do do the homeowners have to buy the bins or are they provided how we would look at doing it is not the town managing the the bins the toter is through El Harvey or um as them um maintaining those toor so that would probably you know it's going to be a cost to the town to do that upfront um purchase of all of those but after that point they monitor and maintain those and if a person loses their tote or a neighbor takes their tracked they have a whole tracking system for I'm more concerned with if if they have to purchase it that it gets damaged by the machinery and therefore you have to buy another one so if they're saying you know cuz I'm sure they'd be quick to say well we didn't do that there neighborhoods what all their trucks have cameras um so they we've actually had to use those in some cases to look back on an um incident so they've provided footage and that would be the so if we went with a cart system that would be the end of the bags is that correct not necessarily um that has been a good way for us to um recover costs related to trash and um so people could still we could still use the pay as you throw program except those bags would go into the toer right but if nobody is looking then how if the person is automated the person who's running the truck is automatically just picking them up I mean are they are they supposed to stop and look they would um as explained to me they also would be able to monitor that from and inside the truck as well so they're seeing as those barrels go in what's going okay the ones we have now they go up pretty high mhm and that the arm comes out and dumps it one side is the recycling and one is the trash I don't unless they have the camera right there well not only that I mean that and the camera has to be working I mean these are these are garbage companies that can't keep their trucks working forget about the cameras working it's already dumped by the time you know oh that was regular that was Glad bags not Town bags how much debris gets spread around from this I haven't seen a lot in my culde saac honestly do you guys have covered Lids yes that helps a lot yeah cuz I noticed it around waste management but I mean they didn't have the card system but they provided us with the bins when I first moved to lunberg and they had the cover these would be with lids yeah they would are key with the animals too I can put it out the night before yeah my dad's trash you can't do that right it's a mess I can't put it out the night before yeah so okay well so 70% price increase with the current model not with the so the current model current model if we kept everything the same that's what it would um if we negotiated a new contract with eel Harvey that's why they understood completely why we wanted to put that out to bid there were no hard feelings of that we um I think their service has been um pretty good with the town as far as recently yeah doesn't have a great history I mean it didn't start only right we had there's going to be hookups when you're transferring from we had cassella for 10 years and going to an entirely new holler who's learning all the different routes there were private roads mixed in there that shouldn't have been um in the beginning so there were well there was there were reports on social media about constant Mis streets and you know I'm not talking about I'm not talking about people complaining that for things that should have obviously considered for weather events that is understandable but I mean there were there were issues I mean they were they've been much better and when we got the the recycling and trash coordinator that really sented everything so everybody could go through the same person that was usually helpful yes so I don't know if this would help or not but in manard we alternated recycling so it trash every week but recycling was every other week that is something to consider as well for espe if you if you go to a cart system that would probably be a lot easier because of the size of the card so shley does that but I will say most households are generating far more recycling than they're generating trash I know I am and so it ends up being that that you know we our tenants and surely just throw things in the trash that because they run out of space in the recycling bent so that's something that has to be managed um for sure so if I did my math right with the natural gas it's a 29% increase at least not 70 we're going into a fact at the end of 2025 yeah yeah and that was an abnormally uh low rate um at that time for natural gas this is locked we've signed with this already yes so that will be our rate yes no matter what prices do and it is a very good rate R now I don't know prices of natural gas we did some analysis and it's cheaper than uh what I'm paying and I think except for I think there was I think it's almost every property that I'm paying gas at it was less money um than what I'm I honestly don't know what money and through the um Market um link yeah through the market analysis it's also really low the town man and I had talked about this um previously and I did a comparison with properties that all around the state that I pay gas bills for and it was lower than what I'm paying yeah I'm just saying looking to next year we already know some of the increases we're going to be facing yeah so this will be the following fiscal year yeah okay any other questions for the town manager related to the related to the town manager report all right so I know that we kind of already did the discussion of composition of historical commission so now we're going to discuss committed and uncommitted arpa funds and I will ask for um Dr Burnham and for Carol Areno the chair of the school committee to be a part of this conversation if you wouldn't mind uh either joining us at the table with the microphones provided both are on or if you want to stand at the podium you're welcome to do that as well so I'll start the conversation here so um the town manager and I uh Miss Areno and Dr Burnham uh met toward the end of last week we also met again yesterday um to try to further work to bridge the gap um between what was identified as a as a minimum budget which I believe is 5.4 4% um and how we can better bridge that Gap so one of the things that we identified and and I want to also give some uh credit to um selectman imy for her conversations as the liaison for the school committee I know she's met with um Miss Areno they've met I think coffee they've talked to over the phone I know she's interacted with the superintendent and so what the request is uh today is taking another look at the arpa allocations that we have and specifically um looking at the funds that have been previously allocated for sidewalks for the schools uh and this again was sidewalk extension coming from Turkey Hill Middle School down to um Turkey Hill Road and then also going up um Highland um kind of down towards Marshall Park and I'm blinking on the name of that street right Chestnut going down Chestnut so continuing the sidewalks that kind of stop near Highland picking them up and continue them out so this project as per our report came to $11,600 and this is what the board has previously allocated for arpa the town Manager work with DPW director to identify if uh chapter I believe 90 funding um could be utilized for those sidewalks and the answer is yes and so the request from the school uh from the chair of the school committee uh is to is for the select board to reallocate the 101,000 $640 from sidewalks to the schools uh and then also to allocate of the remaining balance we see on our sheet of $165,000 to reallocate $1 1220 of those dollars 120,000 that is um also toward the school so that would be a total allocation of about 22,6 40 bucks um and then they had very specific projects in the budget that were going to come out of this I don't know if you're prepared to speak to what those are but I'll come back to that one in a second um but that's going to fund certain projects that would help bridge The Divide um and then also unrelated to this but the town manager also identified um uh pausing the pavement management plan for one year which is a $50,000 ad and reallocating those funds toward the school district uh that that would also help further bridge that Gap so if we wouldn't mind just picking up kind of where I left off on what would the 210 uh roughly 21 almost $212,000 fund uh from the school budget well first I want to um just say that I appreciate the efforts put in by the town manager by Mr Jeff and by miss m because um it was her creative thinking and her going through um the budget so very completely that helped us to try to figure out how to do this uh we had determined that the town manager's budget wasn't going to work there there just wasn't enough money and I appreciate this attempt to put it back together so what the intent is and I'm going to have the superintendent jump in with the exact numbers but the intent is that we had um asked for two ear marks from the um legislative group I received a call from Margaret Scarsdale yesterday saying you might get 30,000 maybe so that wasn't going to work so um this as as we talked about would be a sure way of not worrying about the earmark issue the iffiness of it it covers um the enhanced 911 that we need in all our buildings that is a requirement that another requirement that is not um funded um we need that and it would also cover the network security along with some Chromebooks and by taking those things out of our budget and putting them using oper funds to cover them we are able to bridge the gap so that I am comfortable recommending to the school committee that the um what would then be I think a 4.1 One n one n budget is going we're going to tread water we're going to be okay we'll be able to to tread water through the next school year so I'll I'll let Dr Burnham jump off beyond that um so just to reiterate um the 911 compliance um would total $3,676 can you get that to me more time 63,600 $ 63,65 thank you the network um security upgrades $882,000 $119 and then the Chromebook purchases that we would do annually for um new devices for those entering grade six they maintain those devices as their own one to one until they exit grade eight and then um as ninth graders they are issued brand new Chrome books again that they maintain as their onetoone learning device until they graduate high school so those uh purchases purchases of Chromebooks for us is an annual expense um taking a look at uh the Chromebook purchases um in including some replacement Chromebooks for the Turkey Hill Elementary School for any devices that are outdated and can't support the mcass assessment because it's all done online um that project or that purchase would have totaled $12,000 so the remaining $76,000 isll of the Opera money uh would be put towards that uh $12,000 uh purchase of Chromebooks okay so to count um I could be off by doing 210 instead of 220 and that maybe why our numbers aren't driving here 63 66 I believe I believe that the superintendent gave us a total and she said that the Chromebooks wouldn't totally be covered but the total is about $248,000 and we and we have 221 to give so there'll be correct so 20 27 or so will stay in there butd y so the three numbers then and I'm going to repeat them back to you the three numbers are enhanced 911 $ 63,64 network security $82,900 25 for a total of 220 right that's the total of two 220 yes okay y so can I ask how we got to 220 yes um because the two ear marks come to 145 795 and the current balance of arpa is 165 894 we're not according to the chair he didn't allocate all of it so it's the 101 640 from the P from the sidewalks and then of the 165 he mentioned 120 going to them but the 101 is not included in this 165 894 remaining correct didn't he didn't allocate all of it correct was what his motion well not his motion but that's what introduction said yeah so that would leave then in arpa remaining balance of 45 roughly $4,895 uh um and I know that part of that is that we had mentioned um and um solar panels the old dump that there's going to be that to move forward on that product would require us to hire a consultant for about $25 to $30,000 and so that preserves enough money for us to engage in a revenue generating Enterprise um but again those if we decide not to pursue that those funds do remain available to allocate to you know whatever we want to allocate it towards but that was why when we were working through the numbers why I said 220 was probably um or 120 was probably the ceiling Mr chair just for my own edif we've we've we've heard you talk about it how close are we to getting somebody to do that yeah we we are I I have not scheduled it in March but it is ready I can schedule it uh in April we're close so okay all the all of the sidewalk 101 640 is going towards the ear marks m mhm and then a portion of this remaining balance of 165 is going to cover Chromebooks and how close does that get us to the needs based what's the Gap now oh also the I guess the $50,000 $50,000 from theay management 43,000 so if you if you were to take a look um because I've done this analysis because I anticipated that I would have to help um parents to understand um how far we were from that 5.44 budget right so if you were to um incorporate the 220,000 into the operational budget plus the 50,000 uh from the paving the new growth um starting with the town manager 2.9 for Budget um that gets us to about a a five 0.19% so there's there's still a little bit of a gap but um I've had my department heads and um principles hyp scrutinizing expense lines um and we have made some additional uh cuts to expense lines um that'll put us in a place where our budget is going to be really tight next year um so we will have to walk that line very carefully um we are also um applying um all of the uh grant funding that we possibly can uh towards offsetting uh salaries for positions like our intervention teaching staff um our tutors and Par professionals um additionally uh we will be applying some um some of our uh school choice revolving account uh Monies to to offset some of this as well and these Chromebooks it's okay to use arpa money on them they're they're it's not a recurring it's just for staff not for they're Capital no they're for the students but it's Capital are they for the students yes are they for okay cuz you mentioned there was a high school the additionally we will still have uh funded in our budget uh the Monies to purchase uh devices replacement cycle devices for High School staff that that's the staff that's up for next year and that's your biggest group of Staff that's my biggest group of Staff one of the other things like with m key is that um in addition to the School District kind of taking another look at their expenses um I think that the um I know the town manager was taking a look at some income projections from local receipts which are always conservative um but um I know that the Gap here we're talking about is like4 something, roughly um and so you know there could be an opportunity to find that middle ground um and then of course there's the unknowns of the things that we may find out are coming in um this year um over the next week or so so well and the other thing is are the unknowns on our end and as long as you know everyone is clear this is an extremely tight budget so if we get two kids move into town with a $100 out of District placement $100,000 out of District placement um we may be scrambling you may see us visit but um we 100% % appreciate the everybody working together to try and Bridge this so that in the next year we'll be able to fund the school at least at a point where we're not panicked about it that hopefully our achievement that is coming up and has been coming up steadily will continue to grow and that's the goal Mr chair yes so first of all I want to thank you both for coming in and sharing ing this and and your recognition that the town manager has worked hard to with all the funding coming in uh I wish that sentiment was shared among your whole committee but that's not shared among your whole committee but uh I will address the elephant in the room and I just want to make sure that I'm hearing this correctly if you're saying that we get to this and let's just say the local receipts come in a little higher whether we're $43,000 short or we get to the total 5.4 am I un under the understanding that that that there will be no need for the override is that what I'm hearing because we have gotten literally inundated with emails supporting something that now may not even be needed I just want to make sure I know because this change is so fluid it changes every meeting I want to make sure where we stand by the end of this meeting at least well I I would say that at some point in time there would have to be an override I would be the first one behind you saying I've been saying that for 15 years okay so I totally understand that I totally agree and I know that we have a group of citizens that are working very hard to put one together for now and I don't we have not had this conversation with them to be honest I am one person on the board my preference would be to wait and do it carefully next year with the town and to work together towards an override but I'm not the only voice and and I again fully support your position and that would be my position I think I've said that from the beginning as well my only concern is that I think don't we have till today to put it on the ballot no we have a meeting for next Tuesday as well Town Council is actually gonna okay so that meeting as well we'll have that meeting okay so I I'm pre I I thought tonight was the meeting because if it just playing this out if it gets on the ballot even if somebody decides to pass it over a town meeting the ballot is the ballot and then if people if if all of a sudden people oh it's not going to do anything and then it winds up passing then you have there's going to be an impetus of people saying well of course we we don't have to allocate and you have X amount of time to allocate it which you can ignore but I think there'll be a clamor of people saying well you got the money so now we should do something and that's my concern and so I want to make sure we're all on the same all of us are on the same page at least about that no I understand that point Thank you Mr chair of course I think for the public the board is committed to putting a town meeting article and a ballot vote vote before the voters um I think that should proceed because that's what was told to the public um I think what is being presented is for the balanc budget article is the needs-based budget that we've come to an agreement and the school committee we'll vote tomorrow night on what the needs based budget will be and that will be what will be presented at under the Omnibus balanced budget article the next article after that will be the difference between what the level service funded budget and the the needs based Min assessor the level service right I I don't well I don't want to speak for the board but we didn't take a vote on the ballot which needs a vote and therefore I I I had conditions that I would approve it under that was not discussed so I want it to be clear that I am I have not committed me personally I have not committed to put it on I'm not against it but I want to make sure that we're not going to put something on that even the school committee is not going to vote for either so if we put something that there have you voted on a final decision on the budget that's tomorrow see this before we have not done that right because if the if the school committee and I don't want to preempt their vote but if if it were in the world of hypothetical if they were to say hey the 5.4 budget would be the one they go with and then therefore who is who is there supporting the override well the 5.4 budget is what as I I agree with the town manager is what goes into the Omnibus budget which makes a balanced budget so we are set a town meeting which was a concern um our vote on the over ride was the level service budget minus Esser and the distance it took to the recommended budget at town meeting so we voted okay go with the over so that is a definite vote that we voted the override we did vote to do that okay I think the Gap um is just going to be smaller so yes it will be smaller it's I I don't I I didn't do the math yet but cuz the numbers keep changing so I didn't do the math yet but I think it will fall somewhere around 715 or 720,000 something like that that's not NE well compared to West it's small but well yes compared to some other places it is quite small but it's still a lot of money over it's still a lot of money8 million I see gr's doing one too yeah grotton's got like six I mean and if anybody's interested I'm happy to forward you the article from the Boston Globe from last Wednesday that talked about why all these school districts are in this mess that would be helpful yeah they said exactly what we said only we've got maintenance on top of it um the but the article stated the transportation the co the upsc the increasing cost of out of District placements the health insurance utilities thank you and utilities um I I I I'll sum it up with one just a location I think it's a gold Dome building in Boston oh well that is the major problem yeah the one on the hill that is the major problem right now and um they did leave a tiny tiny shred of maybe they'll look at Chapter 70 I'm not excited about it though because until they decide that holding communities harmless is in fact quite harmful we are going to be stuck in this problem so I've actually been following West pretty closely watching their meetings too cuz iess I don't have a life you don't have meetings here yeah no not enough I can't get not enough meetings um they also interestingly mentioned their trash yeah contract I guess they had uh some local guy doing it and I think he's retiring or something and and so it's it's not just school it's it's outside of school they have a huge Library project I mean it's there's just a lot a lot but but it's you hear the same messaging you hear the same issues it's it's almost like if you want to see a crystal ball look at a look at Westford I feel like I mean I I think they have a much bigger Gap but but what I liked about it um they formed a budget task force in the spring of 2023 that looked at overall cross of town projects places to gain efficienc es and everything and they presented in October uh a plan this is how they arrived at their override number they actually proposed a higher number than they settled on because the number they initially proposed was never going to get by I don't know if this one will um but they spent months they spent the entire summer doing that and it had it was a nine member committee it had uh I have it actually here it included the select board chairs school committee uh their case was a vice chair superintendent Town manager Finance director from the schools from the town um and a few uh residents was a nine member committee it was a lot of work it's like a 9500 page report really nice I think that's a great road map I'd love to see us after may look at a forming a budget task force to look at this did you say a 9500 PID 95 2800 oh 95200 that's a lot that's a lot of work of like 9500 yeah can we can we boil that down to like 50 I'm not signing up for that no me NE I thought I heard that too yeah no God please I'm sitting right next to her so like but I think that would be I'd really like to see us do that because I think we're facing a number of of issues on the horizon and I'd rather try to get ahead of it be smart about it people have you know there's been comments about why doesn't a town put a number forward I haven't heard a number from the town for Nova ride I mean what where are we going to get that number now in two months I mean that would be foolish it just oh I'm feeling you know maybe what 500,000 yeah that sounds good we actually have a request yeah um I have questions about that too but anyway I I do have I thought I understood this and now I'm confused again the warrant article and the ballot does it not does an override not need to pass both doesn't it need to pass that town meeting do but if you pass right but if you if the ballot if the article fails but the ballot passes you can call a special town meeting because it doesn't matter the order that they pass so therefore if the ballot you could try again an article again they're contingent though like the way need both of them right if so if the town meeting article fails yeah it doesn't move forward I thought the ballot was was moved theot question was moved it's still vote it's still voters still vote on it at the ballot but they both have to pass for it to for an override to pass for contingent vote no no I know that but I mean in the same regard that and and we're going to have Town Council here so maybe if you if you had the if the warrant article passed and the ballot failed you could call another special election for the same warrant article I think the reverse is also true if you if the warrant article fails but the ballot passes you could call a special town meeting to try to pass the warrant again within you have a a time frame to do that both have to pass within a specific time frame that's the only it doesn't matter if one fails or the other one doesn't you have a chance to recall it is my understand I and just keep doing it until and people do and 5,000 for every the last one the last one I think in in lunberg that passed which is in the early '90s 92 I think I think called like I think it took two either two special Town meetings or two ballots before they got it that's like another $10,000 y yeah good Mr chair I I just want to clarify something that um for the public and and also for this board I I in previous weeks I do not believe that you the language that was used earlier this board has committed to putting it on the warrant and on the ballot I don't don't think that's true as a body members of this board enough to actually get it there have individually expressed as individual members of this board that they would strongly support putting it on the warrant and the ballot but we have not taken a vote as a body and we put we did however acknowledge at our last meeting that we put a placeholder on the warrant um so we will we will be looking to take that vote um but we the hardship is that we need a number so you know before I believe we can vote to put it on the on the war as far as formalizing the language we need the school committee to meet give us the number and then next week when we meet that we can do it that's why we're calling next week's meeting um so that way we can formalizes but right now we do have the placeholder on the uh so Mr chair if getting back to the agenda item of arpa if it is appropriate I would say that I am in favor and would make a motion to such a degree that we would reallocate the $1,640 previously designated for sidewalks to repurpose it to the school department along with an additional $120,000 of uncommitted arpa funds to the school department for the purposes of the 911 uh emergency service item on their their budget for the want to those network security for the network security and Chromebooks and for a a part of the uh part of the Chromebooks so much as the remainder will allow second I think you may have beat me to that I actually didn't verbalize that I nodded verbalized so we have a motion and a second and again this is reallocating our per funds uh to the school district any additional discussion conversation on this okay we're going to take this going to be a roll call vote um and I I will ask whoever controls our back screen in the room if we can pin Caesar um to the screen uh that' be helpful we're going to start with Selman nuo hi Selman mki hi Selman Alonzo hi San Franco and an i for myself thank you very much thank you very much and thank you for working with us to get this all get out appreciate that see you tomorrow to you all right um while we're on arpa not related to the schools yep um is is there any update on the the money allocated for the municipal building design the engineering um architect and Engineering cost no we haven't got out to bit on it yet so it's we had this conversation um with the with the school committee um not not with the full school committee but with with Dr Burnham and with um uh the school committee chair Carol Areno just to count out about where we're at so the town manager in a previous meeting um made a comment to this board that uh now is um not this is not a good year to go before the town to ask to borrow any money um and we were leading up to the town manager making that statement a few weeks ago um we were kind of waiting to see where we were at with is this a good year to go before the town act borrow some money um there's also another component to it which is TC pasos so as we all remember how we got into this was looking not how we got but TC pasos was the start of kind of looking to repurpose that building and as we did that analysis and we identified that the code requirements meeting the new building code um that that the code requirements alone were going to be $14 million on TC pasos and the total product was so around 28 with inflation at the time 28 to $30 million to be able to move forward under the consolidation of town offices School offices and Community uses and the big hanging chad so to speak was it didn't address this building town hall and it didn't address Ritter building so the pivoted approach um was to prioritize Ritter building to be the new um school district offices this building to become the meeting house to do an Annex onto town to Ritter building to be the new town hall and so the question then is what does TC paals become and what we identified for uses is the gem um that we need to maintain use of the the kitchen area for food pantry um pack Studio was kind of the the big glaring thing there was the was the pack studio um and and and then the other thing was um those were kind of the major things now do you need a 55,000 ft building for that no and so part of the vision was you would tear down most of the building you leave that first wing and that that would satisfy those kinds of needs the hardship is there's a lot of cost associated with it so there's a question to the school district of what is the plan with Turkey Hill because if they were going to be in the process of building a new school Turkey Hill given that the school district has already made investments in it that if they continue to make investments into the roof into the boiler system that that that would be a building we could walk into similar to how we walked into TC pasos but with without any overarching huge large cost and that that building would then provide expansion potential for boys and girls club which we know they're interested in um it provides um all the things that we need a TC passal to do but it would be an entry into that building for closer for a lower dollar amount so the school committee this year in part of the capital plan they're asking for about $275,000 if I recall to do an analysis of Turkey Hill fully and and and in as they end that analysis they're going to my view come to two kind of conclusions one is minimal investment to keep the building going um and the second is investment to keep the building going for 15 20 years maybe there's three options and third is build a new school I think that all indications are and we've looked into whether or not they can touch some of the state funds to make you know the windows have as best as cocking and they're old and outdated you know can they touch State funds for those kind of building renovations and the answer there is if you do you're locked into that building or that money ties you to the life of the building or the life of that item so if we then replace windows on the tax and the state pays for half of them you know if we leave that building for being a school we will owe that money back and so you know we were trying to finagle to see is there a way to get the state to help pay for these building upgrades so bottom line is the plan for TC pasos is tied to the plan for Turkey Hill um that if we do not uh if the school department and then it's also budget capacity that we need to keep whatever project we're doing really below 20 million and preferably close to 15 million so that way we don't box out the schools from what's going to be a costly renovation of Turkey Hill or a rebuild of a new school and so those are kind of the limiting factors so what the next phases and what this money needs to go to is visualize the plan for the buildings that we have I think we didn't want to we delayed a bit because the TC passal piece uh you know we didn't want to really pay to visualize what that's going to be if it's not really part of the plan so the intent now is to move forward with with these three buildings building one being new but Ritter town hall and then as a school wraps up their analysis of Turkey Hill we will be in a better position to decide is is it a good time to move forward with Turkey Hill being this community center with minimal need for Innovation or do we invest the money at TC pasos or do we tear down TC pasos and potentially build a new school build more athletic fields Etc so the point is the conversations are tied together so we're expecting that now that we are at this point that we should be out to bid over the summer for this work so we can be ready because it does have to be under contract by the end of this year right correct and do you think is it still going to is that amount it sounds like three schools are going to be part I mean three buildings are going to be part of the um our architect and Engineering costs will you think it'll be two that high 225,000 for three buildings So based on the analysis that we use it's it's um in the state system of schematic design and how much of a percentage of total project you need to contribute to it yes that we actually think it might be a little low any other questions on arpa any other discussion on arpa did I misstate anything in that one okay okay good looks like everything else is in progress like bids are going out or something it's something's happening okay all right so as we vote on recommendations um so on our agenda we noted warant articles and vote and recommendations excuse me um let me pull to the town manager so before we get into this let me actually make an acknowledgement here we received today uh an email and I just need to and I did forward it to the board because it came in this afternoon okay so we received what is a uh what was emailed over as a Citizens petition for the warrant and the request was to add to the override and I will I will read the email that came through it's not too lengthy uh dear chairman Jeff and members of the select board um I know that town warrants closed yesterday but I hope you will all that uh I hope you will allow the citizen petition to fund several Town departments through an override amount of $265,500 W an additional 96,4 facilities $76,500 Library 24,000 Eagle house $2,020 and police 20,000 and this was uh received from Gan Russell um who um submitted this individually but is a member of the finance committee so the I'm bringing this up now because I think that they my view is that there's no action we can take that there are some complications here uh number one is that this was not uh we don't have signatures and this was not submitted to the town clerk on time the timeline even though we can set the dates the timeline is set by bylaw and we don't have the ability to wave it so I think with the request being late it's it's not actionable um with the request being late is not actional I think that's probably the simplest bottom line here and so I don't think we can actually act on this request um and I don't with and then in the absence of signatures is not a complete citizens petion am I right do I remember right a Citizens petition requires 10 signature okay 10 citizens bring for okay yes BR annual I would concur with you Mr chair yeah okay that was my sense of it when it came in yeah so unfortunately um I I will get back to J I did advise her that I was concerned that we were not going to be able to do any action on this because of the bylaw requirement and that we didn't have the ability to to wave it but I you know can't make that statement definitively until we are in agreement definitively is you not an agreement that we cannot act on this request okay hearing no objections um we're all in agreement so I'm going to turn to the town manager for uh any updates to the articles that we have um if if we have um sh you're sharing yes I'm sharing the document so when at home can see and let's just note the order as presented may not be the final order that happens correct and um it has the order has slightly changed too since last the last version I inserted articles where I think they would typically belong um and a natural progression so article a is the to hear regular written reports that's always on the annual town meeting warrant article B is to vote to reauthorize the spending limits for revolving funds that any changes on these any changes on these no changes on those too article c i highlighted in green because that's a a new addition um that was mentioned tonight during the Conservation Commission chair's report and Discovery um when I reviewed the Wetland bylaw in reference to a revolving fund there exists no revolving Fund in our revolving fund bylaw so this would create the said revolving fund that's referenced in that um chapter 138 uh the only thing that needs to be determined is a spending limit and that I would work with the SE uh the Conservation Commission on that spending limit and what they think is the maximum amount that would be annually D is for the payment of Prior year expenses and that nothing has changed there e is the current fiscal year budget any amendments to the current fiscal Year's budget F is for uh the transfer free cash of $82,900 security upgrades which after tonight's vote I would think the board could reconsider and remove this article cuz the arpa funding that was allocated for the network security upgrades would be covered so if we can just pause this I think we're really speaking to uh to Dr Burnham and and Miss Areno that we have an article for the town of vote rais and appropriate and transfer for free cash a sum of 82,9 we were just saying we should withdraw that okay so much should we consider it withdrawn or do you need to formally meet to withdraw you probably need to formally meet okay tomor okay and for anyone who couldn't hear that on television I was be speaking with uh miss aren boo this is related to article f as on the screen today uh that they will likely um amend their agenda to vote to repeal or or withdraw this request thank you thank you okay thank you article G is for the fiscal 25 Capital plan to fund that plan H is for the Omnibus budget article um for a present a balanced budget article I is the draft language for an override which would be the contingent amount for the difference between the let's can we pause here for a moment in light of our conversation earlier so that way we don't find ourselves was in a position where if if somehow um one part of this passes and the other part does not pass should we tie the two together by S by putting in a date so in other words I upon the passage of second half of the the statement contingent upon the passage of a proposition to an half balot question on you know the date of the actual election my so this is a question for Town Council but I will attempt to play Town Council surrogate I think that it stated prop two and a half is a state statute and it gives all the deadlines and how this can be done there so you so long as what you are just saying doesn't supersede which it sounds like it does sounds like what you're doing is superseding what the law says I don't think you can do it all right so but you can try I mean again I I certainly could be wrong and Adam would be the the yep and this is wording taken directly from the division of local Services manual on proposition 2 and2 if do you want me to read that out loud uh no okay I'll ask the question next week Jay okay Jay relates to adding new POS um sorry reclassifying positions this was submitted by the Personnel committee um for positions for um beginning and fiscal 25 have we got we haven't gotten their final report have they no no okay K is for the funding of fiscal 24 and fiscal 25 related to the work that the Personnel committee has been doing for um for um Market adjustments for positions within the salary Administration plan I is another article submitted by the Personnel committee related to amending the definition of sick leave or use of sick time we have that as L I'm sorry we have that as L you just said I okay sorry L okay m is the stabilization fund article to deposit funds into the regular St stabilization fund n is to deposit funds into the special purpose stabilization fund o is to deposit money into the OPB trust fund p is the sewer Enterprise budget article I'm sorry the um yeah and that should be fiscal 205 yeah I just copied what they submitted uh so that should be 25 um P sorry Q is to transfer 35,000 into the sewer capital reserve stabilization fund R is to uh transfer 1,500 into the sewer OPB trust fund which we have historically combined the two OPB articles into one article so it just uh will restate the amounts um per um what's coming from the sewer Enterprise and they are segregated separately um accounting wise s is for the fiscal 25 Solid Waste Disposal program Enterprise T is for the water Enterprise fund for fiscal 25 U is for the public educational and government access otherwise known as Peg or um pack for fiscal 25 their budget V is for the Sala cemetery lots to appropriate $10,000 from that fund to be used for the care and Improvement embellishment of town cemeteries that's an annual article W and X relate to the board of assessors so it's was brought to our attention that we should be um voting every year on the personal exemptions and so that would be um defining that and it would they need to be um the same percentage across the board for all those categories for those exemptions X would be the article that the assessors presented on last week relating to changing the age of the exemption as allowed under Mass General Law chapter 59 Section 5 C Clause 41 C from 70 to 65 I think um it was mentioned 60 tonight but it's 65 so um we're working on finding the original article and Tom meeting boat when it was originally adopted why is to uh reopt the OPB trust fund statute so in 2016 as part of the municipal modernization act they changed that statute so towns um would need to reopt the statute and this would was advised to comply with the legal requirements that are set out by the government Accounting Standards um for creating a trust and a declaration of trust so I included the igr related to that in the Google Drive for the board this is also something DLS is working on updating and being going to be recommending policy updates and this is something that came up so we're doing this proactively because it's going to be one of their recommendations is that we I can say as 25th article this this if this was any dryer it would blow away in the wind you you will quickly put people to sleep by article why I realize the importance of it but still can't believe we're an AA coming out yes yeah this is not 28 28 is great usually it's in the 30s Z is to codify the town meeting vote that was taken and 2008 for the historical commission and the composition and put that into format of a baa which should have been done after that time meeting vote AA is from the planning board for to amend code regarding battery energy storage systems and the last article is regarding the um water District article that was addressed at the special town meeting and they're coming back with revisions to what's being presented is this attemp three the water supply Protection District this water protection water supply protection part three to BB so hopefully there's um some we can include in consent calendar to help oh yeah speed yeah try get try to get that op definitely going to be a longer town meeting let's get that op one in the so the read-option one if we can get a representative from the planning board to speak to the planning board article I don't I don't think it's going to be wise for us to go through this tonight and make recommendations I think we should save this for next meeting and the meeting after but what I would what I would encourage at least at this meeting Mr chair or encourage the planning board chair which I'm probably pretty sure he's already going to do that water supply Protection District was the subject of a lot of conversation it would be really helpful to advertise that either here or for their meeting so that people can the people who have the questions can ask them then not on town meeting floor because that took a lot of time last time and there were a lot of nuances people couldn't answer they do have their hearing what Monday Monday Monday of caucus yeah they're public hearing that was poor timing yeah because their last meeting didn't happen because there was a zoom link issue or something so their last meeting all right scheduled meeting didn't happen so I mean in the past I think we've kind of gone both ways of of moving to accept all the articles that they were they on the warrant sometimes we don't uh how do you guys want to proceed do we need to formally accept all the these I'm fine with accepting all of them I mean we're going to hear from the school committee whether they're the network article will be we sended or not all right so we have them okay and obviously there's going to be wording changes in some of them Town Council will still need to do final review that will be brought to back to the board at that point okay question uh with regard to article x uh when we had the uh uh Board of assessors in here last week uh option zero was to do nothing option one was to do what is now in article X option two was to increase the uh exemption from $750 to $1,000 and option three was to do both options one and options two at that point at that meeting I had said we decide the question that's before us which was whether or not we would put this on there but that you I I said in dicta which you know basically is as a side thing that you would have easily had my support to do option three which was to do both to to do to drop it and I believe you kind of kind of um concurred with that sentiment I forget if Miss mgy did or not uh I didn't comment yeah you say again I didn't comment okay okay so I I don't want to attribute anything there I mean if we're deciding only the question that's before us then yes we just decide on that and we decide whether or not this goes on the warrant I just kind of wanted to throw it out there again that I certainly would have been in support of doing both but they may not want it that way too because that may just T the uh the board of assessors I don't think they would have offered it if they didn't wanted no no no well I they may not actually want it the what they no no they actually did say this is what they want this is what they want to go on the warrant okay I don't know if that was out of concern that if they tried to do both in one bite it the whole thing would tank I'm just throwing it out there to see if you know for for for discussion and see what you know blasting it out to them too to see what what their inclinations are but for tonight I guess we decide only what is before us my opinion is um if anyone who's submitted an article I mean wants to revise what they've submitted I mean they have time um not a lot of time but they have like a week so I mean this one was submitted by the board of assessors it probably sort of come from the Council of Aging um but if the board of assessors meets and they submit a revision to x uh I mean I don't think historically we don't we don't that's not a conflictual as long as it's not you know substantially and that's basically way I'm just putting a putting a putting a circle around it basically just if they you know they're going to they're going to follow this or listen to this meeting or but I don't think we have a pattern of amending other people's submit no I agree with you fair enough yep but for the record Mr chair I would like to say that I support Mr Franco's assertion that I would also support the both option yep as as do I now also just mechanically I do want to ask if if there is a concern that if both of those were combined in the same article that the entire article would tank can is it too late at this point for like an article x a or X1 to include that that provision that the that the uh amount be raised from 750 to 1,000 or must it now be piggybacked onto a single article that includes I think we can ask Town counsel the question next week my assumption is um it's it it needs to be in the same article what I but I would argue yeah first of all I wouldn't add it and I don't think you need to if we want to expand it to go to both you could certainly listen to the comments and you can certainly amend away correct the the addition of the exemption the increase but you can't add it because it will increase the amount in the article so it would be better to have it in and be able to remove it because you won't be able to add it on town meeting for because it would add money so if the Council of Aging I mean you know we have to sign off on all this stuff by April the 2nd so if the Council of aing and this and the the article was submitted by the board of assessors the revision I would assume these will come from the board of assessors but the board of assessors and Council of Aging are able to submit a revision by April the 2nd that reflects I think what a majority of this board has expressed an interest in recommending approval of um then uh that is welcome and encouraged is that a summary of what you were getting uh yeah that that I just wanted to put it out there and just figure out how it gets properly y platformed okay any other discussion on budget Capital waren articles all right um I am far too tired to really have any substance of discussion tonight on anything else um it's not about me but if the board wants to do have some sort of discussion on environmental policies and bylaws you're welcome too uh I will sit here uh upcoming vacancies of boards and committees for fiscal year 25 this is something we do have to do today um so as per our policy and uh I don't I'm just looking to see if it's in this week's yes so as per our policy U this needs to go out uh and get noted so it's just we're being informed that the appointments vacancies this year uh we have one member on the agricultural commission two members on the architectural preservation District commission four members on the Conservation Commission three members on the Council of Aging three members on the cultural Council one member on the finance committee uh two members and and one associate on the green communities committee two members on the historical commission two members on the Personnel committee and two members on the public access cable committee so these vacancies are going to be published in posted for anyone from the public to apply to uh there will also be um communication sent out to any members who are currently sitting in these seats to ask them to submit an application to apply or reapply to them uh there's a whole process that our current um um policy change outlines that's going to happen and then the appointments themselves happen typically in June and the first couple of meetings in June um so anyone interested in joining up to these please go to the town website uh take a look at the volunteer application form uh and please be sure to submit these uh I think the deadline is the end of April uh end of May if I'm correct I have to double check but I think it's May 25th I'm interested Mr chair because I mean most of our committees are set so that the membership expires on an equal number per year and most of them are three-year uh with the exception of planning board that's elected so I don't see zba on here like is nobody from the zba up this year for instance that's an appointed committee y I mean that seems odd I think we're missing a couple things I I'm questioning why we have four members on conservation coming to yeah that's another one since right exactly that's another one why how that got to be on that cycle with four so if we can um if we can I know uh if we can ask Annie to take another look at this list um and then clarify especially on the conservation um and we always have someone from zv on conservation what would think well four well not if you look at the website well that's what I mean so this just mind yeah right there's two listed on the webite yeah so historical at some point got off so there's only two here right but there's um there were no positions for 25 they should have been all staggered one two and three terms they were all 24 and 26 w we have a tough time following rules okay we should at some point we should get these in the right Cadence so we have the list um and I think the request is uh is just to take another look at this and for us to discuss again all right okay vote required regarding early in person voting pull this up all right so I'll go ahead and read this um and this is a communication received and we're taking uh um recommending that we take an action on this tonight uh so I'll just go a and read the correspondence this is to the select board from the board of registers of uh voters and regarding early inperson voting for local elections um I don't know to the the clerk if you have this available to read if you want to read it or I can read it yeah I'll read it I have it up got it I'll leave off um I'll continue where you left off so in accordance with the votes Act of 2022 and effective June 23rd 2022 it is required that the select board vote upon a recommendation from the board of regist for inperson early voting options for the local annual Town election changes to early voting by mail and in person early voting according to section 25b A1 of the votes act early voting by mail is not required for all local elections and preliminaries unless the town opts out in order to opt out of early voting by mail for a local election the select board must hold a public hearing and public roll call vote to not allow early vote by mail no later than 45 days before the date of the election according to section 25 C1 for local elections towns may choose to have in-person early voting to opt in to inperson early voting for Municipal elections at least two registar need to recommend it and the select board must then vote to authorize in-person early voting no later than 5 days before early voting would begin it must include the early voting schedule a separate vote does need to happen in advance of each municipal election and a blanket vote for all future Municipal elections is not accept acceptable a meeting of the board of registar was held today March 13 2024 and following discussion it was unanimously voted to recommend to the select board not to hold in-person early voting for local elections in addition be advised that the votes Act of 2022 requires that early vote by mail is mandatory for local elections unless the select board holds a public hearing no later than 45 days a ail 3rd 2024 prior to the annual Town election and vote to opt out of early vote by May um should I read this last part please all right Wednesday March 13 2024 Shirley McBride made a motion to recommend to the select board to opt out of early voting by May Ruth Anderson seconded it none the registrars recommend having early inperson voting absente voting in the office is available during regular office hours 9: to noon on Friday May 17 2024 there is a typo in this oh there are several yeah well kind of important one it doesn't says uh Scher McBride made a motion to recommend to the select board to opt of early voting they left the out out I assume to opt out of yeah thank you uh s nuo for reading newo for reading that um let's kind of backwards this um yeah I was going to say so after that reading I have to say that I'm less certain about how this works than before it was read so I have no idea what this says especially with the typos and and everything so all right so if the elections are held on the 18th and 30 days before that is the so we have to act on this by by roughly the our meeting in April the 2nd so we need to we need to call a public hearing uh on the 2nd of April in order to be able to act on this request based on what I just read and and I understand it to be well let's just kind of figure out do we want to call a public hearing the request is for us to call a public hearing to um not allow inperson voting basically early voting early voting in person in person by mail or in person early voting right so let's look at the first chapter according the first paragraph 20 section 25b says early Mo voting by mail is not required for all local elections and preliminaries I'm assuming they mean primaries unless the town see I'm not sure why would the town have to opt out if it's not required so I have a funny hunch it is required unless the town opts out okay doesn't that make sense yep I think that that's a very big problem is anyone by chance on Zoom or otherwise at home listening from the board of registers uh ex the board of registers of Voters who can speak to this let me ask Mr chair before you ask that I mean does this have to pass tonight no that's I was backwards yeah April I think I think I think we should put this till next week cuz we're going to need to get clarification because yeah there's too many questions I have I mean I'm generally pretty good at reading this stuff but this one is very difficult and I'm not sure that it's correct yeah I I read this thing three times at home and I I'm glad you guys thought it was a mess too because well I wouldn't say it's a mess I would just say that there's a couple of Errors how far in advance we have to post the public hearing notice so if we want a public hearing on April second we would need to um generally have to post it tomorrow I think isn't it two weeks um well it sometimes it depends on the statute but reasonable so we can't wait till next week to post cuz we would have to have the public hearing on the second so I that's if we want to opt out see that last paragraph if I may Mr chair can't we cancel a public hearing yes okay okay yeah so we're better off posting a public hearing now correct yeah that's fine I'm fine yep yep I would advise that we post a public hearing we get some clarification and we discuss it um next week or at the public hearing I don't think this is actionable April I agree no it's confusing that last paragraph before they made the motion says in addition be advised that the votes Act of 2022 requires that early vote by mail is mandatory for local elections unless the select board holds a public hearing not later than that and votes to op out of early vote by mail which directly contradicts what that italicized first paragraph says which is says it's not required so yeah it's quite the contradiction yep sometimes mistakes happen so we just need Clarity vote in person all right so not actionable uh on that request but we will post the public hearing and um okay we are going to minutes warrants action items um Mr Alonzo if I may ask yes um we've received a request um for the are you smarter than a is it sixth grader yeah um what's the date on that oh boy whole l so the while we're while you're pulling out the request is for the select last year the select board um opted into are you smarter than a sixth grader it was a lot of fun yep um Mr Alonzo you hosting this year I am okay so 10th year 10th anniversary wow so Mr Alonzo will be hosting the member of the teams are teams of four if I'm correct right uh yes up to four okay so the question is actually actually they usually want three okay so but I I can get that clarified all right so do once we get this date my next question for the board is are we going to volunteer I had so much fun doing this last year so I highly recommend it I see it is Friday April 26th all right which is the day after my birthday all right I will still make it because it's exciting all right so do we have at least three board members that are interested in me rsvping and saying that we're going to do this I see Caesar me Renee think L not to do it okay perfect it's your swong yeah not your not your swans song life swans song I won't be I'll be out of town I'll be out of the country actually that's how I'll that's how I'll go out you'll be out of town I'll be out of the country on the 26th all right so that week and you said three people April you said right three or four all right so we have three what was that I I I I I'm subject to availability yes I'm in so what is this what is this a limited time offer subject to availability usually when I'm trying to plan stuff like two months out you guys like too far out you know how much I'm going to miss those kind of statements that you make when you do stuff like that all right but wait there's more all right so um we have some warrants let's go through the warrants and while we're doing warrants actually we only have one big warrant okay so I'm going to make a request um to our new Finance person so when we get the warrants if we can I really appreciate the stickies um the sticky notes that come on them usually U that just kind of clarify some of this stuff but anyway all right first is an accounts that just excuse me accounts payable warrant in the amount of $291,500 and uh to the town manager this is two weeks in a row we're signing warrants um and usually we do them every other week no we've been doing them every week for a while okay okay for we used to do them every two weeks but we got into a cycle to do them every week make sure we were missing any invoices as yeah okay that my clarification is should we expect this to continue um that would be a discussion I'd want to have the finance director and departments to make sure that everything is getting processed in a Tim fashion I can see The Changing of the Guard already in the finance director is that it's he signs them digitally even though he's in there in person printing them he signs them digitally which I think is hysterical today he was actually at a conference oh he was okay all right so sorry Ezekiel all right do we have any action items for the town hearing non committee reports any committee reports this evening there was a Board of assessors last night that I got to help them deliver their laptop but I have not seen the recording because thank you thank you and fincom hears from well actually they they hear from uh school on well school on Thursday oh you going to announce him okay I'm going to defer to the pcom Committee Member when he comes up for public comment School committee meets tomorrow night I think I'm caught up I don't have any I cake breakfast any last week no last week right all right so the select board will be meeting a special meeting on March the 26th for 700 p.m. um we're going to have a very limited agenda uh just to kind of um again discuss the override and uh warrants and then I do want to ask the board as we look at our calendars um for the month of April the week of April the 16th so the meeting we have naturally schedule on April the 16th uh I think it may be um a good idea for us to not meet on April the 16th and to put a placeholder in for April the 30th as that leads into town meeting fine so it's school vacation week yep so um any objections to that planning to not meet on April the 16th and then putting a hold on you don't want to meet because it's the town of man is also taking vacation ah okay now I got now I got it is is there a meeting April 23rd who's meeting are we do we have a meeting schedule for the 23rd we do okay I won't be here that week okay it's also my birthday what yeah I know you and I to each other my birthdaya birthday she wants to avoid your birthday she wants to avoid any any fun I didn't say anything about that April 23rd is yes it's William Shakespeare's birth I know company I'm guess I'm guessing a different year though yeah you're keeping yourself really well preserved all right I believe 1564 if I'm not mistaken but that don't quote me on that one okay so okay you have to go 50 64 what all right so so so tentatively um Heather I hope you're not here on your birthday I hope you I'll be here all right so we're going to tentatively so just upcoming meeting schedule next week the 26th we're meeting at 7 P.M to finalize the language for the override warn article and for the ballot and then uh we'll have by that point the number back from the school committee and then we are meeting in April 2nd 9th we're skipping the 16th 23rd and a hold on the 30th all right and I did note that selectman M ke mentioned she will be unavailable on the 23rd is anyone else going to be unavailable any of these upcoming meetings the the first one what is it the 8th or the 9th April 2 what second the April the first Tuesday in April second April second no so it's the 9th it's it's the one after the eclipse cuz I'll be going away oh so I may be getting back in time I don't know exactly what hour so it's questionable okay all right okay the other thing for next week is the clarification on that early voting yes y okay yep all right any other we're down to public comments public comments from the town manager I have n tonight public comments from the public let's start with uh Mr pasos then we're calling then we're calling Mandy as I fall across the floor Dave pasos 56 Whiting Street uh first announcement this is a public service announcement as I am one of the members of the finance committee uh Wednesday tomorrow evening we are going to hear from monitech sewer department and unclassified and Debt Service on Thursday we have pack school department and other moneyed articles so those are the three appointments each night kind of backed up against the uh public hearing on the 28th so we had to get them all done this week um okay taking off the finance committee hat um I've gotten a couple of text messages since our previous uh discussion during the non-app appointing hearing and uh I will be over the next week or so doing some more research um above and beyond what Mr wanzo has already done in the the history of the uh formation of the uh historic commission um I'll leave it at that because there's I'm going to have to look back at the dates that he already looked at the other thing that would help me is if somebody could send me a copy of the proposed article that's uh going into the warrant it's actually and it's already in the finance committee drive you can have that anyway okay great thank you thank you Mr pasio Mandy good to see you hello everyone uh I'm Mandy Gilman 186 Reservoir Road um I readily admit I did not listen to the meeting tonight I have two little kids I have a husband who was at baseball Tri baseball draft tonight he helps run the softball and baseball league in town so I had to put my kids to bed um but I just wanted to come up here and reiterate that there's a group of us that are working really really hard and supportive and over override I feel as though this board committed to us that they are going to file an override petition um publicly um and I just want to make sure that publicly we are still here and I know we don't have a formal role in the town uh government but um you know we've been meeting I've spent the last week of my life on this um and we have a public meeting we are planning next Wednesday night at 7:00 at the library we have reserved a room we're called save our schools lunenberg and anyone who wouldd like to come and and learn how to volunteer can join us um so I don't want to comment because I don't know enough about what you guys talked about and I will watch the meeting tomorrow but I was sitting on my couch and I think it's important enough for you guys to know that I am very very passionate about this I changed out of my pajamas to come here and make sure that I didn't look like a total wreck uh to say I have heard from a few people there was a lot of discussion about whether you guys voted on an override and also you know including an override petition and the numbers and I understand the school committee is going to be meeting tomorrow night as well um but I just felt the need that I had to come up here and make sure that we were seen that we're here and there's a lot of us who really want to do this um and I know that there was some discussion of Westford and other towns I'm not necessarily against that but I fear the longer we let this stuff sit out there the less chance we do actually have of passing it um I used to work in the state legislature you can say good things or bad things about it they don't let bills sit out there for a year before they vote on them because there's a lot more time to pull pull stuff apart in 2012 we voted an override Down 2 to one in this town um because the school department asked for $1.2 million the town added on an extra $1.2 million and we lost two to one I'm not saying that we shouldn't consider that if other Town departments need it but I think politically waiting and adding a ton of money to it is not necess necessarily a win um I worry that that's actually a real loss so and you know my kid isn't going to go to fourth grade again so if next year he's in fourth grade and he doesn't get a music teacher because you know we don't pay for it or we don't get to it that's um that will be a shame so I hope you understand my passion I respect that you all are putting a lot of work into this and I don't ever want to come off as disrespectful in that sense um but I just feel really in L about this so that's why I'm here thank you Manny I know you missed it sounds like from your comments that you you sounds like you didn't watch you no no I told you I readily admit I didn't watch the meeting I I have two little kids they're six and eight my six-year-old will not go to bed without me or my husband laying with him for an hour and so Matt had to go has committed to coaching soft uh two bass baseball teams and helps run the you know the baseball league in town so we've never been involved in town government but we do do a lot here so I don't want to ever feel like just because I'm not here at the meetings doesn't mean that I'm not invested in this town um so yeah no we had some we did have some conversations earlier um and I I think the point was that we haven't formally voted on the override or the ballot but you do have as Mr Franco identified a majority of the board has committed to doing this and we are calling a meeting next week specifically to work out what this language for the ballot and the warrant article will be excellent and we have town counil with us yeah I convinced a group of people not to file a i CZ petition that was me I convinced the people not to vote not to file a Citizens petition because I have faith in you guys that you're going to do this for us the warrant article is on because just decided we just had a question if anybody had any objections so the warrant article is on the I don't mean to be I don't mean to be and you're not and you're not I I just passionately about coming up here and you seeing me that I'm here just cuz I didn't listen to the whole meeting like no we get it the ballot question requires an official vote and we just said that we didn't take an official vote okay and therefore individual members had committed or not committed or committed with with an asterisk but we hadn't voted that's what we said excellent so I'm glad it's 10 o'clock so hopefully nobody will watch this crazy speech that I just made um and also for any of you who know my my Uncle Dan Proctor um he has a history of watching meetings at home and then running up here and speaking so I can't wait to tell him tomorrow that I have followed in his footsteps there are a handful of people and he is one of them and there are others in town I could mention I'm not going to mention my name who also come quickly I'm sure I'm not the only person I'm sorry that I didn't I don't think I knew that you were H cousins with Jim Lany I am yeah well related yeah kind of I I I just want to add two things if I could what one thing is that we are the one reason we are not have not taken a formal vote yet is because we're waiting for the thing to to crystallize so that we actually taking a vote on something not just writing a blank check and saying hey we're going to do an override uh or we want to do an override the second thing is not only do I see you here but I check about every 30 minutes to see if there are any new comments in concerned citizens of Lunenburg so all right you know and that's at like 2: in the morning I do that too so people who know me are texting me I should just add I should just add doing fine so that's good if you're going to before something show some passion yeah that's what I just ask of you that's yeah thank you I I appreciate that I think you check that Bo I mean my husband is like how much time are you going to spend on this override and I'm like as much time as it takes he's he's really he's really loving it I'm just kidding he's great all right awesome I appreciate all of you thank you thank you Mr rabbit now I think I know why he's here oh I think so I think I think I know I didn't even get a chance change out into his the couch like I got to get down there okay 41c again okay just there's a lot of things that have been moving even today okay when we first proposed this we looked at what what could we do and with regard to changing the age there was no problem with regard to asking for uh additional funds taking it up to the $500 plus state contribution it was well within the 100% increase we went ahead with it our uh Reena came up and says you best check that out yest uh last night when we were at a meeting today we had a conference call with Reena myself and the do Becky however you say her last name and we got a clarification with regard to that and that is essentially we're still well with the limits we are not over the 100% we are fine to move ahead with both options if we so chose last night because we didn't know you know we're sensitive we're very very sensitive to the money situation with regard to the override and things hence that's why we came forward and we provided you with the the lowest cost option that was going to affect the most non people we thought we could get that and that's and Tom I didn't know you use the reference of a C cup of coffee before that but I didn't know that so anyway all laughing yeah so that was good thank you very much it's good good analogy so anyway did you do it he did I did he did why doesn't that surprise I didn't know that a third of the cup of coffee we're a half a cup of coffee now two meetings away from me saying just two meetings away from me saying it I know at least one grown but now we're up to a whole cup of coffee from somebody of the whole town so the other so once we went through with it in the meeting last night we had a discussion with regard to well we don't know what's going to happen we know it could be mended uh in the next week or so it wasn't locked in and that for that matter we weren't really sure why you guys how voted I I don't know if there was really a vote in in making the decision so that was hence my question to you Mr chairman was that had we voted we came back and we said let's now take the position we're going to ask for both elements within the 41c and if you make a decision to decide not to fund the that portion at least do the age and so again clarifying right now we can do both okay so I think I'm guessing you heard us commenting on this at home and rather than calling in you said I'm going to get the car and drive there but you don't dare fall asleep this is too good so I I think you guys I think it would be beneficial if the board of assessors who submitted the article formally submits a revision that the changes you talked about and to make sure do it before our meeting on April right there yeah I just wanted to make sure you knew oh by the way I forgot to do something I knew I was at the 3 minutes we need a replacement you weren't at three minutes at that point you were probably at the six minute Mar six yeah so I stopped I stopped it broke my heart to do that you know it really did so anyway yeah we need a replacement uh for Sarah who's going to be leaving and uh and she's super we hope we can find a Canon as good as she and and uh so I don't know how we can get out there and push any harder but that's what we're going to be trying to do and at the same time at the conference we're going to just keep talking it up but yes we need somebody that we can vote for okay thank you very much thank you and thank you Lou for really getting me fired up yeah well I mean it only took you about six minutes to get here after I spoke so you know all right thank you you thank you Mr rabbit do I have any other public comments this evening from the public on Zoom see none any public comments from the board this evening public comments from the board I if I could I'll I just want to say that it's kind of fortuitous that these two items were juxtaposed right here one after the other because not only would I have been in support of both options anyway just because I've that that's been a big thing for me senior tax relief so uh but I'm especially uh mindful of it in light of potential override going through because we have to make sure that if an override does go through that the most vulnerable people aren't crushed even more by it so those two things are this is the thing when you're when you're on the select board I mean you you there are a lot of moving parts and a lot of balls being juggled in the air and they none of them can be con many of them can't be considered an isolation you pull one lever it throws the other planets out of orbit you have to you just have to be thinking of all of this stuff real my only public comment is the caucus again next Monday 700 p.m. at the high school auditorium thank you we do have an open seat on this board um it's not open yet don't get excited change change a heart we have a seat that will be open on this board and so there is a select board seat available um and the incumbent is not seeking reelection all right I think that concludes our meeting tonight um is there a motion to adjourn so I moved second any additional discussion this going to be a roll call vote selectman newo hi Selman m San Alonzo hi s Franco hi and I for myself thank you all I have a wonderful evening again the select board will be meeting 7 p.m. uh next Tuesday for an abbreviated and targeted meeting uh and then we will resume our regular meeting schedule on April the 2nd with the pause as noted on April the 16th thank you all have a wonderful evening