##VIDEO ID:hnEfBXYyDe4## I would like to call this meeting to order of the town of air select board on uh Tuesday August 20th 2024 um this meeting hearing of the air select board will be held in person at the location provided on this notice members of the public are welcome to attend this in-person meeting please note that while an option for remote attendance and or participation via Zoom is being provided as a courtesy to the public the meeting SL hearing will will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast unless otherwise required by law members of the public with particular interest in a specific item on this agenda should make plans for in-person vers virtual attendance accordingly this meeting will be live on zoom and channel 8 the public May access the proceedings by joining Zoom meeting ID 897 980 0793 or by calling 92925 6099 for additional information about remote participation please contact Cari antonellis assistant Town manager at ATM a.m. us or 978-772-4864 I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay um so review and approve the agenda I have no um amendments I do not either Noe okay um so I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as submitted seconded uh all in favor I I okay uh onto announcements we have the state primary election on Tuesday September 3rd 2024 from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. at air Town Hall One Main Street polling is held on the second floor in the Great Hall early voting will be offered in person at uh the air Town Hall Saturday August 24th 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday August 26th 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tuesday August 27th 8: a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Wednesday August 28th 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Thursday August 29 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Friday August 30th 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. August 24th uh 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. is the last day of register to vote or change party enrollment for this election August 26th by 5:00 p.m. vote by mail applications must be received by this date all absentee or early voting ballots must be returned by September 3rd 8:00 p.m. to the air Town Hall lock boxes you can call 978 772 8220 extension1 153 or email clerk a.m. us okay any other announcements okay move on to public input Max and SCH 17 T Street this is something that had has occurred um in 2019 I've been wanting to bring it to the board and Sh Robert since that time you have I still haven't recovered from my stroke fully so I probably best just to read things rather than try to speak them it doesn't connect sometime so in August of 2019 one of the select resigned leaving unfulfilled 2 and a half years of a three-year term the resignation was announced on August 13th selectman's meeting with a town clerk someone added that the person who would be elected would only serve until April and then the two snuck men we had left Doon fields to clein to spend the $5,000 for the election so I knew that this was not true that the town they would fulfill the term of the person who resigned and I wrote a letter to the town group and then Robert responded to that letter by writing saying I'm writing to clarify some erroneous information that the Town Clerk and I were initially provided by the Secretary of State's election division regarding the potential special election for the board of Selectmen the Secretary of State's ele election division originally advised the town on August 13 2016 when the slackman resigned that the winner in a special reection would serve until the end of the next annual election I'm sorry and would still have to run in the annual election for the remaining two years of vacated term we we have since learned this information is not true we have expressed our frustration to the Secretary of State election's Division regarding the importance of providing accurate information to the public in the event that a special election was held to fill the se s fill the selectman seat vacated by the selectman the winner of that special election would serve out the full balance on the vacated term and serve until the annual election in 2022 the winner would not have to win again in 2022 20 there it could go on about that but then I was very puzzled when I read that because he's saying the Secretary of State gave them bad information someone gave them what lman B information and he's saying a secretary of state so I wrote to the secret Secretary of State and asked and then they returned by saying thank you for forwarding the content of the notice from the town manager of whom I have called to clarify this matter we worked with the town clerk yesterday as she was preparing the calendar for the election and yet we remained unaware of this correspondence from the town manager until your email as such I can confirm that we have had no further commun Communications with the town between the August conversation with the clerk and with her emails yesterday about scheduling we certainly did not receive any communication regarding frustration with this office I spoken to the town clerk today who acknowledges that there was a misunderstanding rather than bad information being provided this confusion this confusion appears to have been with either holding a special election or leaving the position vacant until the next election if the special election is held the person elected serves the remainder of the turn I have also spoken with the town manager regarding the distribution of inaccurate information to avoid issues in the F future we have requested that all choirs and the town clerk being in writing I'm bringing that up because Robert apparently gave you bad information you acted on and you accused it to be the Secretary of State and then they were very unhappy with it it's one thing to lie about something you've done but then lie about the Secretary of State and tell them something and explain to the whole town that they were lying about it or that they were misunderstanding they and Mr Mis misunderstanding seems to be euphemism with Robert for lying point of order Mr chair no I got first thank you um Mr chair this first of all this was 5 years ago um at the time that the resignation of former selectman Hillman came in that night was when we found out okay and immediately we were asked some questions well of course we were all trying to figure out like which way was up okay a mistake was made okay a mistake 5 years ago it's a little interesting why you've waited 5 years to come to this to bring this forward to say that he was lying no a human being gave inacurate information that is true but it was immediately corrected okay and the special election was immediately held of which you even ran okay so I don't understand why you've decided to come here 5 years later to call our town manager a liar for something that a mistake was made which we all acknowledged and we all got after him like okay so you gave us inaccurate information and he said yes so it all was taken care of 5 years ago why you would come here today to complain about something that happened 5 years ago and and it was all corrected special election happened all was well with the world but I think it's pretty rude to come here 5 years later to call Robert a liar about a mistake that was made 5 years ago that lasted all of 10 minutes and was immediately corrected the 10 minutes is just an exaggeration okay but the special election had you ran so I don't understand what the confusion was because this type of activity from Robert goes on all whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa no no no no you can't come here and talk about something that happened 5 years ago and then try to say that it's a habit because it is not a habit and I think it's pretty rude of you to come here with one incident 5 years ago all of which got corrected an election happened you ran obviously didn't make it but now you've decided what you had nothing better to do tonight so you'd bring it up I don't understand I think that there's a Decor thing going on I think calling a rude is inappropriate so I think you should let calling a liar is inappropriate as well both of you though I think it should calm down a little so I don't I don't even understand the purpose of this conversation right well I would like to present to you I have other instances of proof see the problem isn't that he just lied to you he lied about the Secretary of State's office and that no he misspoke about something oh no oh no it's not a lie he misspoke and it was they gave him bad information he even he didn't even talked to and I would like to give you more proof of other cases where I have respectfully a point of order please if I'm going to be put on surprise trial by Miss Maxon in a public form I will reserve the right to retain my councel um to deal with this this is completely inappropriate unprofessional and unethical and uncalled for I agree okay well I wanted to give open okay meeting so I a chance so I'd have a chance at least to talk about it and you afforded that chance okay okay any other public input I'm sorry I have a question are you going to have a discussion about oh I'm sorry Mr chair Denise FR are you going to have a discussion about Michelle because I don't want to bring it up before the time frame okay I'll wait yep yep okay um all right so we will move on to the uh common uh vicker license uh the change of ownership at The Junction at 60 West Main Street come on Mr chairman members of the board as you have in your packet um The Junction RPD is going to have um is under new ownership and as such um they need a new common victur license which is in your um packet um everything has checked out as you can see in the packet the Serve Safe certification the allergen uh certification and it did go through the inter departmental review um and there were no issues um so the owner is in front of you you tonight for your consideration uh for approval for Signature by the board okay um any questions or concerns I anything to add not that you have to but okay um I mean I everything looks like it's in order here um so quick question I guess um so this change of ownership what exactly what just I don't what exactly happened is to why we're having a change of ownership I guess the old owner his name he just wanted to yeah he just wanted to sell the business we W the business and okay okay and you're planning on running it pretty much the same as the past ownership we're going to do the same be and bakery and Italian be as well so the whole thing okay good I have no concerns all right so I will make do you have it in front of you m i will make a motion that the board approve the vict license I don't think that's right uh to certify that St dadas sadas thank you very much Incorporated uh DBA Junction RF RPD 60 West Main Street air mass 01432 be approved by signature by the board I'll second that um all in favor I I okay so okay we'll get this signed yeah we'll get it signed at the at the end it that's it congratulations yes thank you for coming thank you some things are very easy um okay next on the agenda is the Devin Crest tenants Association presentation I'd like to invite a Mr Rick hanin to the table with me if I may please uh Connie Sullivan uh from 79 East Main Street here and air um just wanted to update the board on the efforts of the Devin cross tenants Association on what's happened to date um and um and where we hope to to go in the near future so to I know you're a new new selectman and like to give you a little bit of background to the extent that you're not up to speed on on what the uh uh devans Crest tenants Association has been doing as you know devans Crest it's a neighborhood on the east side of town consists of approximately 110 units is what we have been referring to as naturally uh occurring affordable housing uh meaning the rents were just kept Low by the uh the landlord the prior landlord uh for many many years years and as a result people of modest means uh the workers in our town were able to afford those apartments um that changed three years ago and a firm by the name of Brady Sullivan purchased the entire complex um and they did so for 11.6 million uh and one of the first orders of business uh by Brady Sullivan was to then issue notices to quit which begin eviction processes eviction actions um and there was about 40 of those or so that were uh issued and those were what we refer to as no fault evictions it wasn't because we had tenants at Devon crust that were behind in rent it was because Brady Sullivan wanted to get possession of the units so they could renovate put them back on the market and uh they did so in a number of instances uhu where tenants left voluntarily uh but did so in a number of instances for rents that were more than double what uh the prior tenants were paying um certainly far above what the remaining tenants are able to afford um so you know one of the challenges not only for our town but throughout Massachusetts and the rest of our country has been what are we doing how how can we preserve um housing uh to be affordable uh for the people and although the town of air has made some great strides in that uh that regard uh you can never have too much affordable housing um you know one of the um the reasons my wife wife and I moved to town 37 years ago was because air was in fact affordable it was the cheapest place to live at that point in time and we could buy a house which we did and um worked on renovating it for over 10 years before we got it to the place that we wanted it to be um and because air had a history of having affordable housing we also had something very unique uh occur in our town and that's where we had multiple generations of the same families living here in town um go anywhere else families get split up because the the younger generation just can't afford to live in town and when you have uh multiple generations of the same family living in town it just helps make raising a child a little bit easier uh and as we all know that certainly has its challenges today um so in the late summer early uh fall of 2021 uh the uh tenants of Crest brought their Dilemma to the board uh the board certainly was able to give us the board and and your town manager uh our town manager was able to give us some guidance on um you know issues that we needed to address um as a as a tenants group um and that was you know where would we get the financial uh resources to acquire and preserve the devans crest neighborhood as an affordable community and where do we get the Personnel to man something like that so um over the last three years the Devens crust uh tenants have worked and and uh built a team an incredible team uh uh to join with them in their efforts to preserve the affordability of Devon's Crest one of which is the mass law reform uh Institute it's a law firm in Boston uh specializes in housing and U and anti-poverty issues uh they were uh actually the custodians of a $250,000 Grant which our state senator Jamie Eldridge was successful in uh securing uh to help preserve Devon crust as affordable and uh the mass law reform Institute helps manage uh that Grant uh we have Matt Thal who is from Brookline Massachusetts he is an expert in U affordable housing financing and Matt uh together with some fun ing from sedak Community Economic and Development um Corporation was able to develop uh an economic model to show that preserving uh Devon's crust long-term uh as an affordable Community uh certainly was viable to do so uh we attracted Jeff Mullen uh who is an attorney he's also the former Secretary of Transportation for the state of Massachusetts uh a partner with the law firm Foley hog in in downtown Boston one of our Premier law firms in in downtown Boston and Jeff uh and his firm have a great deal of experience with um uh affordable housing and eminent domain issues on behalf of the state of Massachusetts it certainly has been um a great mentor uh to the devans crust tenants um on their issue David abowitz uh another attorney from goulston and stores uh another Premier law firm in downtown Boston uh also with a great deal of expertise and affordable housing and Cliff Bonner an architect who with David Davis Square architects who works very closely with a number of state agencies uh in building affordable housing uh projects so that's the team that we developed and have been working with uh once we were able to uh uh put together that economic feasibility study a presentation was made to Kate racer uh who's the assistant director of the Mass Department of Housing and Community uh development uh also known as dhcd uh Kate was uh M racer was very impressed with uh what our team had been able to do and the economic model that we were able to put forth um and of course the big issue that kept coming up was well so what do you do about U ownership um so with the prompting of uh Mr pomon and members of your board uh we uh also issued um a RFQ a request for qualifications of a number of developers that had uh experience with affordable uh housing and U that was sent out to approximately 12 different firms um the uh uh devans Crest tenants Association then reviewed those uh uh applications narrowed the choices down to two and chose one uh which was the shocket companies and I have uh Rick henin from the shocket companies with us today uh Rick has agreed to act as the partner and the development partner with the devans crust tenants Association for the preservation the acquisition and preservation of U uh Devin Crest as an affordable community so I'd like to just uh have Mr shocket if I will uh give a little bit of presentation about himself and his firm uh if I may Mr chair I thank you Connie thank you Mr chair thank you for giving us all the time here um it has been an amazing privilege to have won the the beauty contest uh to be selected to work with with the folks at at Devin Crest um I've made some good real friends over the process um the team that that that Connie and the others have assembled really is the A Team um of the affordable housing industry in this state uh uh uh Davis Square is a spectacular architect David AR bramowitz um pound-for-pound is the best affordable housing lawyer uh uh uh probably in the country certainly in in in the state um and it's easy to see why these folks signed up willingly and joyously to to to help solve this problem for this group of people so um and the town has been great everybody has been just so welcoming uh Mr pomon um has been open and honest and and paid attention um and and and it's just it it's really meant a lot um so the shocky companies um we are we've been in business for over 50 years we just celebrated our 50th Anniversary um couple years ago now um we are um almost exclusively developers owners operators of affordable hous um and just in New England um we we we've not ventured outside New England um we we we built a long and solid reputation in New England and people know us and we know people and and and and so we're able to get things done here um I'd say about 2third we we we own and operate about 5,500 Apartments of which 90% 95% are affordable under one program or another uh and probably 3,000 of those are are in Massachusetts um we've got some stuff in in in Boston Proper um you know out towards this way we've got a 312 unit development in lemonster um you know further out we're in Garder um uh we're in Worcester with a 302 unit deal I know not exactly air uh not exactly nishoba Valley but but but close um you know so we know this part of the state as well um we've um we've done a lot of work um with the lawyers and and with the tenant association on modeling a transaction um that will allow for the long-term preservation of as many units as possible as affordable at as low level as as as possible um part of our program and why the architect um has been so integral is um as part of any acquisition um and and preservation transaction um we would be spending um uh uh significant amounts on thoroughly rehabilitating the property bringing everything up to current codes making everything fresh and beautiful um and and you know as we sit here today we had estimated in our models that we would spend at least $100,000 per dwelling unit um as as you know part of our uses of funds to to to make the units fantastic so that people can have you know really really good housing um the the the the Dynamics change every day as to as to what the the tenant profile is going to look like what the income mixes are going to be potentially um we've gotten um as Connie said um uh uh we've gotten really good support um from the state and at the end of the day um there's going to be uh uh based on the rents there's going to be um a an amount of debt that the property can support and the plan would get be to get low-income housing tax credits which would be another source of funds probably some real cash Equity um and there's going to be a gap because the only way to pay the seller what he thinks is fair market value to get him to to to convey to us so that we can preserve is to somehow find sources to make up that difference between what the property's worth at his $2,200 a month rents and what we can support at 1,200 a month or 1,400 a month or whatever the number is that we settle in on and the really good news is that um the Kate racer uh has expressed an interest and is impressed and thinks it is viable um her boss uh secretary Augustus um was out here visiting uh has been very involved and taken a real personal interest in this um and so we're working through now as we speak trying to figure out how much public money is going to be needed and and make sure that the state's appetite is such that that they'll provide enough for us to be able to do what we need to do and preserve rents at the levels where we want to preserve the rents um so we're working every day um trying to trying to you know hone our numbers and and um you know uh uh uh are working through the process and hopefully um we'll be at a point in the relatively near term where we've got a number that that that will allow us to buy the property um and we won't make an offer and we won't nail that down until we've got all of our ducks in a row lined up to make sure that all of our financing sources are going to be there because it's really bad when you know you're leading the troops in a war into battle and you look behind you and somehow nobody's there so um we've done this my company has done things like this um on many occasions um For Better or For Worse um this would be the fourth um situation for us where we've done what I call putting the toothpaste back in the tube um whatever affordability existed is potentially gone and now to go back and put the pieces together and go back to affordability um is a is a much bigger challenge than preserving something as affordable while it's still under programs and in a position where it is Affordable so we've got some experience it's it's it's a challenge um it's it's really a labor of love for us it's it's what we do um and we're hoping to get to a good result so we we are thrilled to have uh Mr henen and his company is uh our development uh partner U with this project and I I did want to just uh uh mention uh you said the state was very involved Ed Augustus Ed Augustus who's the Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Liv living livable communi actually made a trip out here at a back in January uh toward uh Devon's Crest and as Rick said he's been very supportive in U uh our efforts and in trying to make this project a uh a re a reality um so um we also are working with our local Housing Authority by the way not to uh leave out uh Ken Martin the director the executive director of the Housing Authority we've met with him several times and hope um in the near future to actually be going uh to a meeting with the Housing Authority with some kind of a proposal uh we are actively engaged in trying to get a dialogue with the owner of Devin crust the Brady Sullivan company and Mr henen has been instrumental in those efforts and uh we hope to have some good news in in the N so distant future so with that uh my purpose in coming tonight uh was to formally ask uh this board for its support of the efforts of the devans crest tenants Association the formally organized nonprofit organization that represents all of the tenants at Devin Crest um to support their efforts and to also support uh the housing authorities efforts working with the devons crust tenants Association in again acquiring and preserving uh de the Devin crust Community as long-term affordable housing so I did have a proposed motion uh that got to your packets probably late uh I didn't get it to your office until yesterday um but um certainly would appreciate the support of the board okay um you know I obviously always want to support affordable housing um you know I I I do see your motions here um but you know I want to discuss um you know if we actually want to use this wording or um you know discuss amongst ourselves can I peek at it again yeah thank you cuz I don't have on understand we're not asking for any kind of a financial contribution from the town uh we're just asking for a public uh public motion of support for all of the efforts that uh the group that that the Devin cross tenants Association has pulled together uh and their support for their efforts over the last three years and uh where we currently are in trying to uh again set up that dialogue with the the current property owners okay um I mean I have no problem throwing some support I don't think that that particular motion would be right um the way it's worded I think it can it I think it it's a little problematic but I can kind of see where um how I give me a second while I TR to figure out how I'm wording this um it's I see our affordable housing people are here I mean we have a number of people from Devin Crest here the our committee do we want to ask them anything or or I don't yeah I mean if anyone chooses to speak or um well I mean I'm like cuz I mean this kind of motion like they gone before you and and like yeah I I mean we haven't seen any you know any of the what the motion is and everything right um private agency okay on the affordable housing committee as well as a commissioner on the housing authorities um with the the wording um the there there was like two things but we do support you know trying to get affordable housing for sure and then uh the other thing to is um attorney Selvin um did State something with regards to the um Housing Authority well the the T even though it's air housing uh Authority it's a state run organization so know that they would have to go ahead and go back to um whatever dhcd is new happening is um but uh I again I think we've had conversations where the affordable housing committee would definitely support it um and same thing with I I think I've spoken with um attorney Sullivan as well Community preservation committee I'm the chair of that as well you know would support it because again our drive is to get more affordable housing right all right um if that helps out at all well I guess I'm a little concerned as far as the the part where it's talking about the acquisition um so I'm cautious as to using this particular written uh motion that has been brought to our attention um because it's talking about like basically the town acquiring the property the acquisition it wouldn't be so and I and I want to be cautious about that because we've kind of talked about that before cuz that kind of goes into what I'm thinking you might be thinking about I think is eminent domain and and that's where we have a problem so that's why I I so I'm I'm concerned about the wording but I can certainly throw my support and figure out a way to reward something so that it it gives you what you're looking for we are actively engaged through our development partner Mr henin company uh in trying to purchase the Devin Crest neighborhood uh not through eminent domain okay okay no that that clears that up we had an initial offer uh of several million dollars over Brady Sullivan's initial purchase price which was rejected um and we have been sharpening our pencils to try to re-engage with Brady Sullivan to talk about a further purchase price for the property so that purchase price would be funded in part by borrowing power of the shocket company uh and all of the state subsidies and tax credits that are available through dhcd and the uh uh Mr augustus's agency uh community and livable uh I can never remember some took okay good okay so I cleared that right because because this came late to our packet you know I I I just glanced at it very quickly and and that was my first thought and I know talking through your presentation that was never brought up but still if we're going to make any kind of motion I have to make sure that that's not you know part of it is the eminent domain that it's yeah okay um should talk to Janet after and the how Housing Authority would be involved because it would be actually a purchase by the Housing Authority which would in turn the day after transfer ownership to the shocket company which would then have a ground lease for 99 years but that's how the Housing Authority it would just be a conduit for the purchase of of the property and then the management uh the burden wouldn't be on our Housing Authority it would be on Mr henin's company yeah so it's it's like an ideal situation if we can hit the right number with Brady Sullivan for a purchase price it's the ideal situation to preserve uh that number of units as affordable and certainly put the town way above uh its uh 5% 5 or 10% threshold for affordable housing uh we we we we we we did this in um uh Franklin Mass where we acquired 288 units where the toothpaste had gone out of the tube and we put them back into a long-term use restriction with the state and so the town of Franklin got 288 units added to their 40b inventory without adding one unit now I know part of the goal is to add units but when obviously when you're over the 10% you put the units where you want to put the units and where it's best for the town as opposed to having a developer come in and stick it wherever he wants um so in that it and that that was a big win and and the town of Franklin you know loved us for that and and it wasn't it was something that sort of occurred to me well into the process right and it's like oh wow look at that you know you're you're you're they're concerned about adding kids to the schools I'm like the kids are already in the schools and now you're getting the unit so correct know via conos um uh well like we said we needed to you know this we got this motion like right before the meeting so we needed to kind of discuss this um before we um I think I think that kind of that was my big question that was my big question and I in reading it and now that we've we've had that explained and everything um and and it it will be it will be it be yeah it'll be public and private sources that that that that that that that pay for it yeah and I hear we have like9 billion in a rainy day fund by the state so just saying you might want to call them just saying and they're bragging about the $65 billion doll revolutionary housing B while they're eating their ice cream so excuse me Mr chair yes hi Jeff Tillson um drive and current chairman of the of the air affordable housing trust I came because I want to know what was all about I'm sorry that we haven't had a chance to talk Connie before you came to speak to the select board um I'll speak for myself not for the trust um absolutely 100% supportive affordable housing got a couple quick questions um this will be a imp perpetuity of portable housing or this will be portable housing for a period of time um it will be um effectively it will be in perpetuity the the the the the plan is it'll be destricted affordable forever it'll it for for sure it will have a 30-year use restriction so we'll be clear and for a period of time it'll be restricted thank you that's the clear answer to the question um but but but that certainly could be Perpetual right I mean the standard deal is is 30 years but but and and and I'm not I'm I'm not going to own anything right my company's not going to own anything the association will own it and which is so unique about will this be excuse me will this Beed restricted inity that's my only it absolutely can be thank you well the Democrat tenant association non voting it's attention of bcta end of theity to own properties and have it affordable forever is that correct I've got four DCA members here correct thank you and I didn't mean to be I slippery at all at the at the transaction it will remain smly affordable and smly affordable in in perpetuity at this point that's all that's just the question I'm asking 30 years then DCA hased for small aord we have the buy we have to range financing under the current under the current plan that's right thanks thank you so much um Pauline I see your hand up it is than you Chris um a question or a point a question and a suggestion the point I want to make is as I recall last year the board went on record not to uh involve any public funds Town funds in any acquisition of Devon Crest um we just don't have those kind of funds and we're all in a quagar now over noova Valley Medical Center so that's my point my question is will the motion that m Mr Sullivan submitted late for your meeting be available online tomorrow yeah yep yes we we'll get that on there and then my suggestion given the importance and delicacy of this particular request that you wait for a full board you are two members of a three- member board and this kind of issue needs the um representation of the entire board so like my suggestion so I thank you for that thank you Pauline yes please Cindy Lavin also air affordable housing trust with Jeff um as we're looking at this it just one thing that sticks out is the idea of the board offering its support to the air Housing Authority in Ken should here right this this can't be done without keny and at that might be what it was that you were buling at and not wanting to sign it but my question is does the board have the authority not Authority but is it appropriate for the select board to to interfere at all not inter say I I think what you're trying to say is we don't normally kind of get involved in some of those decisions until town meeting because air Housing Authority is a state right organization is not a town board so to ask for the um I don't know con maybe maybe can explain that the although the air Housing Authority is is a state board or agency if you will um they're part of our town I mean they their membership consists of people that live in our town uh so you know they're they're want to make sure that the town supports us as well mhm okay I think some the points have been brought up as far as you know even having um Mr Martin here um and correct so we could have this on our next meeting yeah I me it's not time sensitive as in two weeks if we discuss this at our next meeting that's not going to derail it's uh not from our perspective but that Housing Authority is the one that actually through Mr Martin requested see if we can get the town to say they support this as well well just to just to say I don't think he sent us an email to say hey dealing with your administrative board huh we've been dealing with the town manager and the assistant Town manager right but you said our Housing Authority that they they said to you know that's what you just said that they said to come to us so if they are Housing Authority wants us to support them they should kind of send a note um they so they may not have directly to the board members but they certainly have to Mr pomon and Carly antonellis but they formally and we normally those things are like kind of formal and he would forward us say here's a here's a you know something from their are housing um but I I agree I think we should just um postpone this until our next meeting yeah I mean again this coming in a little bit late um you know I and I would like to the points that brought up table it to the next meeting um you know I I think we all are in support but to then formally support it I would like to have just those couple more weeks Mr chair when um just want to um say that um Mr um the person from the housing with our we Ken um there's been there's been discussions since like I think January maybe even before that so it's not like we that he doesn't know anything about this so there there have been several discussions and the meeting that we had on January 30th with the Housing Authority he was there as well so it's it's something that we about for while with the secretary of Mass housing thank you yes I was just a question because it was my understanding that this motion was not for any material support and that it wasn't any kind of legal thing it was more like an emotional support that that we're on the right track is that is that what I understand but our Housing Authority has even expressed a a little bit of a question as to the rewarding of the motion and they too feel um that Mr Martin maybe should be here no we're going to have a meeting affordable yeah so it's just so I we we are absolutely 100% in favor of it oh absolutely my only question is just that that's that way of wording it that's all and I think if Ken we're here and we're saying yeah that's fine that's fine I wish you were yeah that's all did we I mean yeah I mean we support it absolutely but that motion and whatnot and coming in kind of late and now there's all the questions and everything um can I make a suggestion so um I used to be a select board member town and often if you don't like the exact words you could make you know a motion to say we support us and us and let the town man work out true um but the second part of this motion does directly cite the air Housing Authority so I mean if if you could just read what the motion someone took my copy of it if you could read what the motion says so everybody everybody knows what we're asking the board do you can write it any way you want we just but we also it's also been brought up by a resident that maybe we should wait for the full board so if I may Mr chairman just read what the second part of the motion is that seems to be of concern excuse me Mr chairman you want the whole motion whole motion sure it was uh uh the board hereby moves that the air select board offer its support on behalf of the town of air for the devans crest tenants association's efforts to acquire and preserve the dev Crest community as a long-term affordable housing and offer its support to the housing air Housing Authority working with the Devin crust ten Association for the acquisition and preservation of the devans Crest community as long-term affordable housing Mr chair that's what Mr sh was saying when he mentioned that to get the you know the support from also the Housing Authority in that it was only going to be a temporary um thing that happened between the air Housing Authority then it went it's going over to the um to the developer so they don't it's not something that they're going to be sitting on top of and being in charge of it it's going to go from the air housing authority and then to the developer so it's something that it's something that's done many times but I guess you know like when you're not something that's done across the state various times but maybe it hasn't been done in so thank you Mr chair I I've got no problem coming back before the board I I don't know if we can make it back at the very next meeting of the board but uh certainly we can schedule this when you have a full board um and we can invite Ken Martin if you'd like I think that would be for the best yeah if we could do that as you said I mean we you have our support you know I mean we it's just those you know couple things and I agree we should have the full board here and if if Ken can be here that that would kind of cinch it so and we can make sure that the motion is written exactly beautifully yeah not that it isn't but you did a nice job like I don't want it to sound like you didn't do a nice job we we also and we we we hear you loud and clear that that you're supportive of this effort and and we do that that mean that means when it comes to a motion it's got to be I got it so but but it it clearly this is a town that Embraces the idea of affordable housing and as you know Connie said it's a multigenerational town and there aren't that many of those towns left in this great Commonwealth so so thank you it's really appreciated one last comment what if we modify it so just the first part foret theing we come back that part I'm not going to make the motion so no we're going to just wait um so and just so everyone knows we're we're rescheduling the September 3rd meeting it's on the agenda later on will be rescheduling because that's the state primary we can't have a meeting that day okay so so your point being uh uh select well it'll be after September 3rd Mr chair would you I make a motion that we take that particular agenda item up right now so that that an that question can be answered yes um moved okay so Mr chair as you know September 3rd um is the uh State primary hold on a second while I get to the page people and so we cannot have a meeting on that day due to the primary and so it has been put in the packet um that it is proposed that the select board meet on Wednesday September 4th 2024 at 5:00 P p.m. now for everyone asking why it's at that time it's because of the meeting schedules that are going on and it was more important that we have a meeting okay so uh with that Mr chair unless you uh disagree I'd like to make a motion that the select board meeting of September 3rd be changed to Wednesday September 4th 2024 at 5:00 p.m. I'll second that uh all in favor I I September 4th at 5:00 p.m. because that falls right after Labor Day we may have a difficult time with some schedules and if we could just have the flexibility of either that date or your next meeting and we can certainly be in touch with the town absolutely tell manager on on that issue yeah great and like we said I mean you did a great presentation we we supported it's just that official part um you know I I would just like to wait till the next meeting so good it was thank you very much for your time nice meeting you yes very nice meeting you thank you for by way thank you to the board on all your efforts with respect to Valley Medical Center and thank you for all your effort because yes affordable housing is absolutely on top of the list thank you for your time okay we will move on to um uh Dan Van skull quick director of Department of Public Works good evening Mr chair board members board M um okay for DP W tonight I have couple items the first is a change order uh change order one for our current um water system hydrant replacement project and so the change order was really requests from the DPW to add a another hydrant which was within within the um limits of the um current Sandy Pond Road reconstruction project and also to um to do additional valving in a location on West Main Street and so um these are really you know important things to do while we were there with the contractor already so I you know we uh recommended doing that so um if I don't know if there's any questions but there's a requested motion written in the packet uh for Signature by the chair and the change order is change order one and the amount is $ 229,230 185 okay uh any discussion I looked it over yeah so I'll make a motion that the select board approved change order number one for the hydrant replacement replacement project in the amount of $ 229,230 185 for Signature by the chair I second um all uh all in favor I I okay great all right I'll begin uh the next item are DPW updates and first um water supply monthly update so um Kimberly gave me some bullet points with details of of how we've been doing and since the last week in July we've had um we've been more resilient we've been starting each day with the Washington Street tank in the elevations in the 50s and normally we'd kind of work our way through the week and end up starting in the 40s and sometimes even get to the high 30s so so that's very good um August 9th was our highest demand day of the year and um and we were able to um get through it you know some days will fluctuate up and down but that was our highest day of the year it's probably a hot one um each treatment plant has actually been having some breaks on the weekends which is good for them um roughly 10 hours of of break time so you know with that constant pumping it's it's good to give the um pumps and and uh and Equipment some rest um we've been monitoring our large users they're still uh doing good not to waste water or um or increase their consumption significantly and we have been working on enforcement as well for the the outdoor water ban there's been 24 violation warning letters mailed out and perhaps some of the people just didn't get the message um and we're generally seeing lots of compliance so so things have been going well with the water supply and and we're obviously continuing with the design of the clearw storage tank in the background where will that be finished the clearw tank the goal is to have it done for the 2025 high demand season so the spring of spring of next year late spring of next year be done no early spring yeah that's what I no don't give don't give it this late you know spring late spring no no early spring yeah so so far it's on track and you know we are working with the Army on it so if there are any hiccups there we're we're ready to get ahead of that um okay next item storm water utility advisory work group um so briefly the website has been updated lately um with some of the items from our uh June 24th public input and information Forum including an online Parcel Viewer so the public can go online look at a map and see how many equivalent residential units um of certain Parcels have of course every single family residential will pay a flat fee there's a lot more details on the website and um from the meetings we've had um the draft rates regulations and credit policy are also up on the web and also some academic papers on impervious area as well and the you know impact it has on storm water in our water quality in water bodies um so moving forward the uh there is a business um informational meeting tomorrow that uh the work group's holding and uh several businesses are invited and we hope to get participation just to inform them of this process so more Outreach coming um and uh and the work groups uh continuing so um their next meeting will be September 11th next month what time uh 4: no do you have something because September 11th is also the djfc meeting and it would still be going on to it has to be later if you want Robert and I there I will talk yeah I can work around it okay yeah cuz it's on the calendar Okay so um let's see okay talked all that uh Sandy Pond complete streets project so many of you have probably driven out here by the Sandy Palm Beach and off toward Patriot Way the paving has been completed they've backfilled behind the sidewalk and curbs what's left to do is striping and signage um so that's upcoming I don't have a set schedule for it but I really want to also acknowledge Matt Hernan the town Engineers efforts we were able to we just learned a few weeks ago secure $100,000 shared streets Grant to in addition to the $500,000 complete streets Grant which will now pay for the whole Project without having to use any local funds so um good job by Matt and he also engineered it inhouse so just wanted to point that out yeah that's and then um my kids just Ed the sidewalk today so they people use it yeah a lot clean soon yeah um and last is the West Main Street Bridge Project update so I I put up a brief presentation to kind of go through what has been recently going on and why this hasn't happened yet so let August 14th oops yeah it should be the 20th that's when I made the uh presentation anyways um yeah go to the first slide so the recent project background what we've been working on is utility coordination and just a a little background it should they should be completed during the design phase and this wasn't completed previously when it went out to bid and this was known at the time um it was just we KN we kind of knew the bids would probably come in high and that's why the decision was made to bid it before to know what we were looking at and just a few reasons coordination is advantageous um it'll be safer faster construction we know where everyone's utility is we know who's going when when does the gas company have to shut down their transmission main Etc um less unknowns less change orders um and less utility conflicts so that would lower construction so we don't want to go out there and find an unknown and get delayed um next slide so in late January uh utility coordination was substantially complete with all utilities except for Verizon and one critical component was the location of the Verizon duct bank so they have um 12 conduits in a duct bank and we didn't know exactly where it was so it may have interfered with our temporary sheet piling that needs to go down to construct the bridge so we needed to know that so um The Next Step was to find that if we if we got out there and it wasn't in a proper location we had the designs ready then we could have been looking at you know at delaying it through the year Verizon would have to move their conduit and it would take at least like 6 months uh next slide so this is kind of funky but it's you can kind of this is the sheet piling if you've ever seen them Drive sheet piles they look like these zigzag shapes so the ones that are kind of going horizontal on the page within the roadway it's kind of tough to see those are what we were trying to make sure we're not in the uh same location as the Verizon duct Bank otherwise we would have to move it so now next slide a little more background of the you know amount of utilities that we're working with here there's gas transmission Gas Distribution gas regulator station 12 communication conduits the town's water sewer and also three unknown underground conduits and then um besides your overhead utility companies so in early 2024 we did complete subsurface utility evaluation the main goal locating the Verizon duck Bank in relation to the sheet piling at the same time we did find three unknown utilities so you know this was important we know know a lot so we might run into less later uh next slide so the um paper here the subsurface utility exploration did prove the Verizon conduit was not in conflict with the temporary sheeting which was good so we're able to accommodate them with the existing design the existing sheeting into the new bridge um three unknown utilities were investigated and um there was potentially they could have been related to the Old Fort Devin's Communications there just anecdotally I've heard the old Security Agency building used to connect down to the Communication Center on Pleasant Street that's just anecdotal but the uh Reserve forces DPW director told me that it's not the armies um no other company is aware of those unknown so at this time they're they're still unknown so we'll just um when we get out there constructing we'll find out um recent project background so this is where things went arai with utility coordination so we had issues and frustrations with Verizon um they hadn't done any design work even though we'd been talking to them since 2018 initially but also August of 2023 and we've been working on them with the scope and exactly what had to be done so this was extremely you know hit hit us in against the wall um and this is kind of when somebody a new person came in they were and then they started requesting payment for their work and they indicated there's no slack in their wiring so they can't temporarily support it so where you know like what's going on um so if you want to go to the next slide uh Cindy so at that point myself my Consultants um we start you know reaching out to mass do we had a few meetings with them deputy chief engineer project development engineer who knows Verizon and after that in a long story short we did go back to Verizon and kind of put some heat on them and they did change their stance and they were saying oh there is we can there'll be slack in the line we can do that and they understood that they have to pay so you know it gets the point where we almost have to go political with it um and kind of had to Carly Carly actually came to one of the meetings with me with Verizon to get them going um so at that time it really upsets the schedule because we had this delay and Verizon hadn't even started their design which they told us they were working on um so um really we had the project schedule major constraints the National Grid transmission main that can only be shut down during April to September non-winter time frame and it needs to be scheduled well in advance because it will upset Gas users even at that time because it's a main transmission line so National Grid's been great to work with on that I've sent them a request on it indicating our special need for our bridge and they've worked well to get that set up but that's a huge constraint we need to work around also the pre-cast structure has a 4 to six month lead time so by the time we approve the submitt for a contractor we're waiting that long to get that on site so with Verizon pushing us out this was not able to occur at this year in short um your bidding is going to take two months so you know to a two to 3 months for a bidding in a contract and submitt take another month so you're already looking at four months and we were originally supposed to have the bid open in May so once we pushed a few months it really upset our year um so that's essentially what's it there has been some work going on I should mention the regulator station that's located to jent to the bridge National Grid is relocating that and you probably might have seen them they're working down near the West Main Street bridge that goes up and over the railroad tracks so they're relocating that over there and they're relaying a distribution main um from that location to the old regulator station so that's happening now and they're going to be working their way to the bridge to have that ready to do a tie in when we're ready um next year so um I should mention to the Bridge condition is still maintaining Mast doot was out there in April and did an inspection and everything looked very similar to previous so there's no weight restrictions weight limit or anything and um and now the plans are do reflect you know proper coordination with the utilities we do have Verizon's consultant working with us and giving us the plans to incorporate into our drawingwings as we bid this out so that's the what's going on right now with the West Main Bridge extremely frustrating I hate this bridge yeah that makes he said wetel first brought this bridge to our attention and said it was an emergency the sky is falling right it's like the sort of damic oh my gosh yeah so we are in in a good Pro positive proceeding process right now so so the um expectation I didn't mention is to bid it this fall and I'm having bi-weekly meetings with my consultant to make sure this stays on yeah Mr chair and members of the board if I could just Echo um that the DPW director juggled six or seven glass balls while some of them were on fire on this utility coordination um I do want to just publicly said that the DPW director did everything in his power Dan's doing great on on and I appreciate it because the number of meetings with these utilities and it was all all spring and summer and we're almost there dealing with utilities I know for stand is miserable he did a fabulous job uh on the utility coordination yeah thanks Robert appreciate I think once this bridge is done it should be like you know special paint to say you know just the amount of work and how special this thing is that's how long this thing's been going on okay that's um all I have for tonight okay well thank you thanks Mr chair than you all right must be 6:40 right because yes well are just approximate times you know very much so okay um so we're going to speak to the opening of the special town uh special fall town meeting warrant for October 28th 2024 yes um Mr chair uh the board has in uh your packet as every time um you open the warrant a memo to ask the board to officially open the warrant for the special fall town meeting scheduled for Monday October 28th at 7:00 p.m. at the high school and in the memo is the warrant schedule um just to point out that the the first key date is uh Friday uh September 27th at noon time is the absolute deadline for all warrant articles and all citizens petitions to the town clerk uh the select board uh will review and approve the warrant on October the 1st and then the warrant will be publicly posted uh that Friday which is October the 4th and will also be sent to Printing and mailing at that time and it will arrive at all of the households um within uh a week from that and then of course there'll be uh a town meeting um on the on the 28th so we're respectfully uh requesting that the board uh vote to officially open the warrant and we will begin to advertise and post this process for the public okay um I make a motion to open the uh fall special town meeting warrant for October 28th 2024 seconded all in favor I I Mr chair members of the board I believe I'm up for the town manager report um so in your packet you have all of the Town warrants that were reviewed and approved since the board last met on July 16th in terms of the administrative update uh since the board last met on July 16th as you are well aware because you've been extremely involved in all of this and we'll talk about this in just a moment but the last four weeks have largely been all things uh related to the proposed closure for the nooba hospital and we'll we'll talk about those things under item number three in just a second um not related to the hospital um the 71 Sandy Pond Road Community project um planning process uh on September 4th I will be coming with the DPW director to uh present to the board um sort of The Next Step plans for 71 71 Sandy Pond uh which will include um not only a working group but uh robust public Outreach and public involvement process and we do appreciate the board's previous support to use some Opera funing towards a consultant for that so for September 4th uh we'll have a whole uh plan to stop um that that process and really want to stress the involvement of the community on that because as we said from the beginning we know it's going to be for Park recreation open space purposes uh but we really want it to be um a community effort and Community input on that also uh for the final Opera spending plan proposal for September 4th um we will have a plan I believe unless the DPW has any other efficiencies we will have a plan for the board to consider that will close out the last of of the funding um one of the projects um proposed is a complete upgrade of this room at you've heard of the term sort of like a zoom room but improving everything in here um so that's one of the projects what about and then we're going great hall and the Great Hall is going to be part of the capital yes for sure Chuck is going to be back on the on the fourth have the BMW he can't have the no the the not the BMW we're going to go for I mean yeah yeah I mean with all due respect we've talked about the great ball for a long long long long long time agreed agreed and and we really need to actually get her done this time yes I couldn't agree more as we do in this room we could have no I'm with you so September 4th we will be here for both we'll talk about that but specifically on the oper piece we have to upgrade um some of the things in here um for a better experience for everybody how much do we have how much we have now I believe there was 77,000 was we had 40 something thousand and then there was some cost savings so I don't know what's coming in front of us but I see at least 20 grand for the Great Hall that's my opinion but I'll see what comes for get rid of that Echo oh my goodness um the next item is as we've been talking about as has been a priority for the Parks Commission is the assistant Parks director uh position the grading of that position has been um completed would like to have a update um on the fourth uh with the select board obviously the funding for the position would be subject to to the certification of free cash and ultimately up to up to town meeting which we will be you prepared for so we'll have an update on that the last piece will be of the funding consideration which ultimately um will be up to uh town meeting um additionally we've already started some initial FY 26 budget preparation hard to believe where did Summer go uh we're making some further improvements to the clear gov um budget platform so again also for the public on the town's website it's called budget book and also clear go it's all over the spots check that out um this is going to be a work in progress this week uh this year we're open to any suggestions of or improvements on that and we are going to be in a position that we can use the clear gov for the capital planning process this year so what that will mean is all departments will be able to submit their Capital requests uh through the cleargov platform both the Departments the select board the fincom and the public will be able to follow that process um electronically as it moves um moves forward so we believe that's a a good Improvement on that process initial fall town meeting prep has started and we'll talk in more detail on the fourth but uh as mentioned there'll be a article for the consideration of the storm water utility the MBTA zoning which all uh municipalities of Massachusetts have to adopt by December 31st uh there'll be on MBTA zoning in the town uh planner we'll give a presentation to the board on that it also have to go through the the planning board as well an inclusionary housing bylaw also uh under development the update of the zoning map if the MBTA zoning passes we'll have to update the zoning map which we require a warrant article uh and uh as I mentioned the potential um funding for for the assistant uh Parks director position and there may be a street acceptance as well those are the items we know now but the warrant is open until the uh 27th and we'll keep you updated on that two last uh points um on the senior center Front um just so the uh board is aware the site selection uh committee uh continues to to meet uh they are looking towards their next August meeting to hopefully have a recommendation for the select board uh they've narrowed it down to two sites um I will be going with uh Katie patasi the senior center director tomorrow to the school committee meeting as one of the sites um on gr Havard Road would be on the school campus just to talk about that process and and answer any questions they have again a decision by the committee has not been formally made but I anticipate a recommendation will be coming to the select board um very shortly um on that last um the fourth annual Newton Street Festival is going to happen this year it'll be on Saturday October 5th from 10:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. the rain date will be Sunday October 6th vendor applications for Crafters Artisans uh food entertainment uh are going to go out this Friday August 23rd and be due back by September 13th and they'll be on the town web site and what have you and any any people interested in volunteering uh just please contact my office and we'd like to obviously this is a volunteer effort and folks that are just interested in getting involved would be great even if it's just the day of the event we can always use uh help so um there'll be more to come on on that the um next item uh Mr chair so unless there's any questions from the board on the report um the next um item is under under appointments there were there are two matters for your consideration the first one under appointments is the air cultural Council I'm respectfully recommending that the select board vote to appoint Katie Hampton of air to the air cultural Council to a term to expire on June 30th of 2027 so moved all right so all in favor I I okay and then um the next item uh is a correspondence from the Council on Aging board uh regarding a board appointment and in your packet um there is a letter dated August 13th from the air Council on Aging um signed by the board um just to paraphrase on August 13th the air Council on Aging voted unanimously board a zero to respectfully request that the select board uh their the term they use dismiss uh Miss Janine uh nichipor from the Council on Aging board so that the board vacancy may be posted in a new more actively engaged member appointed we do not make this request lightly this request is consistent with the coa's board's policies adopted on May 14th of 2024 where she has been absent from the last eight meetings uh records indicate she last attended a board meeting on November 14th of 2023 um individuals have made efforts to reach out to encourage her to engage with the board but those Communications have not been responded while we are very appreciative of her work on the board prior to November 2023 and do not minimize her past service to the community we feel it is important the select board I mean important that the Council on Aging have a full compliment of current members actively participating in the ongoing work of the board thank you for your attention to this matter respectfully submitted the the COA board with the four members signatures um I also know that the director of the COA is in attendance as is the chair of the COA board uh Miss uh Marge withy okay um any comments or I mean you don't have to I'm just since since you're here um no we had adopted a new policy that went into that if you miss three meetings in a row um you're off the board yeah no I support that um you know one of the things I always say if you're going to it's it's a volunteer or elected position you got to show up um yes in resp respond so she hasn't spoken to any of us on the board yep yep I understand um and we have reached out to her okay all right um we don't take it lightly but we need to fill oh I understand I mean eight eight meetings in a row and no responses I think this is the proper this the proper procedure we need correct right okay all right well with that Mr chair I make a motion that the select board um how do we usually dismiss dis dismiss cancel poll recall Recall release I let's go with release release okay um that the select board release Miss Janine nichipor I hope I SP uh pronounced that correctly from the Council on Aging board and so that the vacancy may be posted immediately a second all in favor I I okay okay so Michel B Valley Medical Center update the first time hearing of any of this that's a joke if it's on record so so Channel five's here everybody behave so M Mr chair um members of the board um just to to start this section on the nooba Valley Medical Center update um first and foremost as I said earlier the last four weeks have really demonstrated not only the strength of the town of air but frankly the strength of the whole nooba valley and I know that uh you have been uh very involved uh with this uh starting uh with uh Senator eldridge's press conference on July 29th and then your special meeting uh that was very well attended on August 6th where you passed uh a formal resolution are requesting three specific things um from the governor one to declare a state of emergency um which uh there's been no response to to date crickets secondly that the governor um enforce and the dph enforc the 120-day state law um regarding closure of hospitals though we all understand that the Federal Bankruptcy Court in Texas uh ruled that they could close on August 31st the governor herself said on August 1st in lemonster to a few of the nurses and mayor mazarella that well it should really adhere to the 120 days and as this sport asked we asking her to take action in her power to enforce that and unfortunately that has not happened uh to date and then most importantly was the third item that the board put forth is that the governor exert her leadership uh with the dph commissioner and the dph uh to meet to work with our federal and state legislative delegation this board in the 15 towns of this region let's come together put together transition plan and solution that would keep the hospital open while we secure a qualified operator and then transition to that and that closure is just not in anybody's interest and I know that selectman tarus you specifically gave her an open invitation to come on August the August the 6th I also just want to highlight that last Thursday night's Department of Public Health hearing on devans had over 400 people not only from air but across the region um you both spoke excellent as did many it was very powerful Senator Eldridge indicated to me that um even in Boston the hearing had made a profound impact um in the sense of the the the passion and the support and the the ongoing uh plea to the governor and the dph to do the right thing and to work with us uh to to solve this problem the the frustrating part was less than 13 hours later on Friday uh the governor's press conference uh though we expected the plan to to save the other existing Steward hospitals which nobody takes issue with um she also announced that she was going to take action to save St Elizabeth's Hospital and nobody has anything against St Elizabeth's and saving any hospital and saving all hospitals is important including ours but what was really concerning I think for all of us is that 13 hours later after the commissioner Goldstein and others said well there's really nothing we can do the governor announced that they'd been working on a plan something we've been asking for nooba actively working on a plan that they have she's decided to use eminent domain as a pathway um to take St Elizabeth's that they're going to access over $4 million in funding uh to acquire the hospital and then other um resources this is the exact thing that this board that everybody across this region has been asking for from her since uh July 26th and we've been told nothing we can really do and then we see uh 13 hours after our hearing that there is a pathway right do so to conclude and as I know others want want to speak um to this I'm sure I think the first thing cuz people keep asking they calling the office and and so forth well what what do we need to do so the first thing we need to continue to put forth the public and political pressure and I think mayor mazarella and my others said he perhaps said it best at the hearing is that they're expecting us to go away they're expecting when school goes back and the holidays are go that we we cannot give up and I think that is true even though it gets exhausting like a marathon though I've never run one but this is a is the Publican political pressure in this board in everybody uh in the town has continues to step up there is no question we need to secure a qualified operator to operate in aoba and we know that efforts are are underway to find that qualified operator that's the hardest piece but it's even harder when your governor in the dph that has expertise and as selectman Livingston and other said there's significant stabilization funds that the state have in expertise that we have to think outside of the box and work to get this qualified operator to keep the hospital um open and the state frankly hasn't stepped up on finding an operator um the I just wanted to speak briefly because many ask Mr chair about this eminent domain option especially where the governor has decided that the state which can declare eminent domain to take a hospital and there's a whole process on the state level for that people have asked why doesn't the town or can the town or the towns collectively take the hospital by eminent domain there's a couple of challenges with that and that's why it's so frustrating that the state is actually the logical entity to do eminent domain because of its size expertise funding and scope for a small town like air or even the other 15 to go by eminent domain you have to pay a fair market value those are significant financial resources in the millions we'd still have to have an operator or somebody to to run it and so the eminent domain um fit um for a municipality or for the towns as a collective to proceed is just not realistic but the state as we saw on Friday can and frankly should do it if that's part of the pathway the other thing that came up uh last night and some folks have reached out to the office about this at the yesterday's uh virtual hearing uh and individual had brought up about a critical care hospital designation and one that comes to mind there's a hospital in AOL that has a specific Critical Care designation where the hospital um serves a unique population also a unique demographic whether it's rural or so forth is designated as critical care and Camp clo we are actively looking into as of today since it came up last night as well why can't the nooba Valley Hospital be de declared as a critical care facility especially when we've made the compelling case it is a rural Hospital 17 towns there's nothing else out here um there's all kinds of information that would support that so that that is a pathway at least worth um exploring the final um point that I'd like to bring up and we just received this I know selectman Livingston just received it as I think I did at the same time about an hour an hour before this meeting and it's going to be public record we just received the closure plan if you want to call it that from Steward to the Department of Public Health and the closure Plan G at first glance has a lot of concerns to it but what's even more concerning is the Department of Public Health uh the executive office of Health and Human Services um response to the plan uh of August 20th and and they're asking Steward to respond in two days to some of the following questions one of the things an assessment of Transportation needs post hosp closure and the dph writes in your response dated August 12th you failed to include an assessment of Transportation needs post hosp closure we've been talking about that right since July 26th and we are fundamentally concerned on the 31st there is no trans Transportation plan and there is no mass transit out here but right here you can see this flagged then under another point a protocol that details mechanisms to maintain the continuity of care for current patients and the dph writes based on this in testimony received at the hearings held on August 15th and August 19th the department is concerned that the plan lacks detail as to what how and when current patients will receive information about options for care another area obtaining service at alternative delivery sites which is a issue the town has been raising against since July 26th and I just note the department is concerned that patients are not receiving the necessary support to arrange ongoing Services elsewhere another area under another directive the department requires an assessment of specific runtime changes resulting from the closure of the hospital including Outreach to local EMS providers to gain insight into the impact of the closure on their services well as this board articulated in your August 6th uh resolution we know at least in Air's case we're going to go from an estimated 20 minute roundtrip ambulance to an hour to an hour and a half assuming optimal traffic and weather conditions and furthermore um we heard at the hearing story after story about the concern about this emergency response and that people are going to die and then um again just to highlight um another section in the report it talks about stewards supposed to have signed agreements by closure with all these other service providers and they dph Flags there's no timeline uh in the plan for the sign of these um agreements and so this will be available and I'm sure um it will we'll make it available to the public we just got it I just want to highlight what is if there's ever been a case where 120 days is needed it's right in the dph's own uh response dated August 20th which we got about an hour before this meeting and at the end which is very concerning it says and keep in mind we're asking Steward the dph the hospital must submit a timely response to the comments of the department within 2 days so and the hospital scheduled to close on Saturday so to conclude Mr chair um if the governor or others are listening this is just further proof from our own Department of Public Health we need more time give us the more time just for the sake of these concerns and so we will continue to work on this we'll continue to provide updates and I think it'll be a standing item of your agenda moving forward and I just want to say I appreciate the board's support and uh I wish that tonight under this report we had a definitive plan to save the hospital we don't yet but we will we have to we have to stay the course all working yeah I I mean I want to thank you for all the work that you've put in um you know going to the meeting speaking passionately at at the meetings one of the things that you said that kind of cracked me up unfortunately was if the governor's listening crickets and cricket cricket crickets I'm going to copyright that well it's your term you should copyright it that you know it's just always crickets yeah um you know now she's out in Chicago she had ice cream yesterday or or today she posted about ice cream honest to God she posted about ice cream I am beside myself about the ice cream and I just want to point out Governor Healey we have ice cream in the town of air um you we got nice pizza and on ice cream over at the cottage so you know if you'd like to stop by I know it's past the rotary but you know we we could meet you yep you know but just and we can go out there as well um I I I used to work in Cambridge I I know the commute I can go right to the state house um yeah so seeing this um from the dph as you said it was the email came in as I was starting to pack up and get ready to come here um but it it shows that there is no plan um to have two days that they're going to respond with anything of substance do you believe that got a bridge I can s you some ice cream too um but what's also maddening is that that was part of the purpose of the public hearing the other day was to listen to this closing plan that no one ever heard I mean and it was awful and it was just you know 3 minutes I think somebody should look at the video as to see what was really going on with who was being told they had to have 3 minutes and who wasn't being told they had to have 3 minutes cuz that was very very telling okay um the but the correspondents I had emailed uh Senator Eldridge and representative and he sent it to us right before this meeting and the Department of Public Health is also supposed to have it on their website tomorrow and but I think I think we need a special section on our website just for you know the hospital um so we can put everything on there um that's a great idea because as you said it's the ignore it maybe they'll go away and we're not going away no we're just going to get angrier to be honest um you know you have veterans who are now you know going to be denied um access uh so disabled veterans who've now been denied excess it's absolute chaos trying to figure out where we're going to go mhm you already have reports of you know young people passing away due to the fact of this turnaround time with ambulances and everything we already know that our health officials can get inundated even when all the hospitals are opened and now you're just going to increase that and and it and you know it's just so many errors and we have so much money in a raining day fund what exactly does the rain have to be tyon that this gets attention but what's also very disheartening is has anyone even heard her mention the names of the community that are being affected and and so you know she gives this well it should be 120 days I'm sorry did we have representation at the hearing in Texas we were supposed to did they speak well evidently not I mean don't you think it could have ended up being if we had representation at in in the Texas bankruptcy hearing that they said hey this a hospital our law is 120 days okay maybe the judge would have said well you know we got to do this and this I can give you 90 you know but we didn't even get that we didn't even give a give and take and then she just says yeah it should be 120 days and then just keeps walking and doesn't even tell her dph enforce the the 120 days why hasn't this been an appeal this is the most litigious Nation on the planet and we haven't filed an appeal this is just disgusting absolutely disgusting and I do want to thank um also you know air fire air police for everything they're doing um you know what they have to do is prepare for the worst case scenario right so I saw that you know airfire has trying to uh redesignate um you know their uh ambulances I I probably speaking incorrectly of the terms but um they had a very detailed plan and you know it's something that they shouldn't have to do because there is just this shouldn't be happening um but I I I know that our First Responders in town are going to do everything that they can possibly do it's going to tax them um on their personnel and their budget and again it makes me frustrated and angry because they're already doing everything they can do and now they're asked to do more um so um I I I sometimes just have stunned silence um and usually I'm not someone that has a loss for words um with all this but um we can't be silent so that's I also told the alri and Sen in my email to them like okay this thing closes you better be prepared to Shell out some money because the of air is going to need some money all the communities are going to need money and we don't want to hear any arguments out of you just give us the money cuz we're going to need it because our infrastructure has now been boom demolished yeah and Dr pety spoke very well about how it's going to affect the seniors I thought you did an excellent job I actually said we're going to need new vans so and we're going to need more money cuz we're going to need to hire more drivers for those vans yep yep that that that hit me pretty hard because you know you're thinking of all 15 different things 50 different things and you know and the way that you explained it was that's just another Hammer we just keep on hitting these Hammers and you know we'll get somewhere we're all working so anything else any other comments all right and then oh Pauline has a question oh sorry Pauline oh no worries I wanted to wait till you all were finished Robert first I want to thank you for bringing up the CMS option that we emailed about earlier um that came up during yesterday's virtual hearing I'm hoping that will save or create a solution I've passed it on to a couple of reporters or news media I should say but more importantly uh Janice and Chris you all have been so wonderful and I I just want everybody to know how great you have been in supporting this effort um we're not just going to need more uh Personnel for a number of thing we're going to need more fire Personnel we have three vehicles but every vehicle has to be manned by at least two people and we don't have six people on every ship and I hope I hope we all realize that I keep following it I check it every hour if I find anything new I'm sure to let Robert know but thank you thank you thank you for all you've done thank you we are in such uncharted waters we're in such uncharted waters but we're going to do this cuz never give up never surrender absolutely thank you PA have a good night you too thanks okay and then Mr chair just in the interest of time so number four and it's to just start the process uh in in the packet is the proposed draft uh FY 26 budget calendar um in the interest of time um the select board um historically has approved this no later than the first meeting in October and then it becomes the the tool if you will for everybody all boards committees departments um my office the fincom uh and and the public to follow the budget process so that's why we want to get a draft uh out there early so no decision needed for tonight you will see highlighted obviously various various uh budget related committees whether it's rate review buy board and so forth are about to to meet where they'll begin to set their schedule so we'll populate this so you'll see in many cases meeting date to be determined um in the interest of time I just want to point out two um proposed um uh changes uh one is um in November um The Proposal is to do the public hearing for the tax classification on Tuesday uh November 19th I thought we talked about this last year that we weren't going to do it before Thanksgiving and what we want to and we can talk about this in more detail with the new assessor and some other information we found we could do it sooner um if we did it the 19 Thanksgiving is the 28th this year I know it's still BB before but they'd like to to do it sooner so I'm just flagging that tonight you will ultimately decide so that's just one to consider historically it's been either the first meeting in December um or after Thanksgiving looking to do it a couple weeks earlier um again no decision you know tonight and then the other thing that we're open to suggestions on and I will be talking to the fincom about this if historically we've done the first budget presentation in January the problem with that is that so many building blocks of the municipal budget aren't available till February so what happens is we have all these placeholders or you'll hear us say we we're waiting to hear from the schools and and so forth what we're proposing and you'll see in here consideration is to do the first um public uh do the public budget presentation a little bit later so we have all of the information so we can have uh informed presentation discussion I want to keep just point out that doesn't obviously preclude this board and the other committees are going to be working on the budget which are public and the fincom I know uh the chair and the committee is planning to have a a robust review schedule as well well but we just felt that the January presentation we get everybody here and it's great to have everybody but if we did a little bit later we'd have more specifics so something to consider um and in the interest of time like I said I've highlighted um those changes um we'll put this on the agenda uh for your next uh meeting as well um and as the Committees and most of them begin to meet that's why we usually approve it by the beginning of October like rate review capital and so will have this schedule so again uh in the interest of time just wanted to get that started any questions let me know and then number five just to reiterate the board has already approved the next meeting for September 4th which is a Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. and then the board's other the September meeting will be the 17th so with that that's my report I thank the board for all of your uh time uh this evening good so we have any new business no yes can't can't handle it can't handle anything anything we've had so much new business that can't even yeah um all right so the approval of the meeting minutes on July 16th um I didn't see any issues I didn't see any um so I will make a motion that the select board approv the meeting minutes from July 16th 2024 seconded uh all in favor I I and with that Mr chair unless there's anything else I don't have anything else I make a motion to adjourn I second that all in favor I good night everybody