##VIDEO ID:lA8M5hHXU-8## today is Monday November 4th um and this is a meeting of the senior center site selection and building committee this meeting will be held in person at the location provided on this notice members of the public are welcome to attend this inperson meeting please note that while an option for remote attendance and or participation via Zoom is being provided as a courtesy to the public this meeting or hearing will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast unless otherwise required by law members of the public with a particular interest in a specific item on this agenda should make plans for in-person versus virtual attendance accordingly this meeting will be live on Zoom the public May access the proceedings by joining Zoom meeting ID 375 414 6055 or by calling 92925 6099 for additional information about remote participation please contact Carly antonelis assistant Town manager at ATM a.m. us or 978-772-4864 [Music] [Music] St all right so we'll strike those um can I get any other revisions the 1023 minutes oh no to the agenda you have to approve the agenda first so I would that we approve the agenda as amended second all in favor I CH says I and I can do just a vote like that when everybody's here in person correct it was just because I was correct remote last time okay okay good okay um wonderful okay so did everyone have a chance to review the October 23rd minutes and I already discovered there were a couple places where Dan's name got um only because I was trying to because I was trying to make life easier for myself and use find and replace and I so I've taken those out um any other edits besides that then just remove there's a couple duplications tillet in um yes yeah yeah there was a couple of places that Dan's name appeared in weird places so yeah I I fixed those I fixed all of the name replacement errors who do no Bonnie did the minutes and then I looked them over and I switched them out from first names to the initial and the last name as that we typically do and I did it correctly but also incorrectly yeah yeah and thank you for all your edits yeah you shortened it by a page and a half I think yeah is good I think at some point it would be great if we could decide that we don't need minutes that are this long but um it's really comprehensive good thank you actually I told Jess that I had the shorter version she kind of pooed it and and then I I I then I went back to the meeting and I'm like yeah maybe I'll just put put everything in there she like thank you so much for doing that can I get them edit um yes was so under habitat environmental assessment the second bullet was it the electrical cond it coming in or the water name I I don't remember maybe I made a mistake under the the second paragraph yeah the second bullet I think the habitat assessment is going to include everything that we are disrupting right for the project so it will include the roadway along that that way right I think is what we said last meeting right right I think that actually yeah okay okay I move that we accept the meeting minutes for October 23rd 2024 as amended second all in favor you um does anyone want to volunteer to be the minute taker for today and you don't have to take any minutes right now if you don't want to I can send you the recording afterwards I will you will so you're going to do right after I do the 911 okay he's counting on a short meeting all right awesome all right thank you Dennis okay so um that brings us to the public input um preparation so everyone got um both you have here in front of you um the one pager that was um John I'm sorry I think I didn't send that one out um I'll send that to you um that was revised after town meeting actually it's not a one pager it's a four pager so thank you thank you to um Ellen and Linda for revising and working on this with me and we fixed a couple of things after town meetings so this is the new copy um if anyone has any additional edits um please let me know otherwise this will be this version will be what's handed out um on Thursday for the public input session great nice nice work wow yeah that that graphic there with the picture of the this one here Linda did that very nice yeah very Scenic and think that for this the what happens next in the blue box we can just change that periodically yes yep we will have to we'll have to change that out um on November 8th on November 8th so and then and and then I also sent out um the slides you have been here in front of you as well the slides for Thursday's presentation and again thank you to Ellen and Linda for um refining this with me and getting it to look better in color Sav a little in I'm just trying to save a little ink right now um I are you looking for comments on it yes absolutely okay um on on the schematics slides 13 14 and 15 um I I would put them in the order 14 15 and then 13 because you know if you look at 13 first it's all you see is parking lot we don't we don't want them to have that in bra put the two floor PL next one another and then ping lot at the end yeah yeah a good idea the 14 first yeah 14 15 13 yeah you could even you could even put the building before have 16 first okay 16 14 15 13 all right how's that that's great and and I think you know we we need you know people have commented at these meetings about you know seeing it parking lot first and I I I think we haven't and C catlyn hasn't explained very well why the parking lot's out front I mean what I see if the parking lot's out front because the users of this of the center actually will be seeing toward the back and so the users will have this great view um and it's d by that they're gonna it's actually the parking lot is on the north side of the building and is that and that the outside you space is on the south side of the building where in New England that's where your daylight is and warmth so the parking lot is on the is set up on the North side also um it's it's it's easier for people with with driving issues to navigate better arriving immediately off the main road to the center and seeing where the drop off is so it's it it has a couple different reasons for that but primarily north south is a big part of it and and John did did you look at the potential to move the parking somewhat more to the side so that we can project a building closer to the road are there any you been to Wilbraham and um some of these other centers North Andover the parking is sits out in front the building really stands out very obviously across the parking lot because it's it's a low a low visual item but you know um I I also I think that um the we haven't really decided on the exact size of the site I I haven't gotten a final survey I think um uh we want to make sure that we have space around the building for pick a ball court septic U retaining uh um uh Pond um and I usually we put the parking in front but you know that certainly is up for negotiation no that's you know the septic and the pickle ball and all the rest all right all right no it's just okay all right I appreciate that input actually yeah I think that's a great response if someone's inquiring about why it's that way it has to do with the orientation of the building and it's reasonable but and the response I I think the response should always include the fact that we're in a feasibility study we're doing the best we can to get through this phase that the Final Phase and final decisions have not really been made you know they're going to get close but they're still in the study phase at this point in time okay things can change somewh that gives you flexibility which is not bad yeah all right what else you guys got for me um just the wording on of slide four Aging in air 25% of the residents are 60 plus unexpected to grow and maybe say this percentage is expected to grow or but um I I can make it say and growing how about that 25% of air residents are 60 plus comma and growing well then it refers to the 60 plus rather than the percentage growing yeah but is it both the same but it's not yeah I think it's fine to say it's just 25% of air residents are 60 plus yeah and that you know and that percentage is expected to grow over the next yeah I'll say that verbally um when we went through these edits um the last week yeah last week our goal was to bring down some of the wordiness on the slides because there was a lot of words on each slide so um so how's it going to we just get rid of the and expected to grow right yeah oh are you making edits and bless you thank you I mean Just for future and again I'm not expecting this for Thursday but coming up with the graph of the population da da da and this is where we are now and the slope of the line is going to be like this you know up until 2040 or whatever 2060 yeah 2050 um I mean it give you a nice visual for where the popul where the over 60 population was expected to grow what about and like me you just say 25% of the residents 25% of air residents are 60 plus yes and the expectation is that percentage will increase in the future is that too much but we were trying to keep the words out I can say that verbally it's just a matter of what's on the slide just just to get up out of the 60 plus go from there yeah you might also note that um that the U the the mass population um uh statistics I think it's Miser Mis they actually give you your projections and you could you could use those projections to um make a statement that I believe um the general direction of this is going up to around 35 to 40% and it the statistics are really provided by the state of Massachusetts if you don't have those I'll dig them up for you um but it it projects out and shows where it's going it's pretty dramatic too 35 to 40 by about what year holy cow no not one year no I'm sure it's over a five or six year period but to give you an idea right now in the cape we're running 48% yeah wow yeah I did see that online okay it's pretty dramatic a lot of baby boomers you know were quickly reach 65 it's it's the largest growing demographic if if knowing exactly what rate it's growing is important to people then I can certainly no it was more just if you wanted the visual instead of the words that's one way to get graph I have typical graphs showing that and why don't Katie why don't I go back into my numbers that I have okay and I'll send it to you and I think I think um Dennis is right the graph will be that visual is a lot easier than saying 20% 40% what have you okay great that'd be awesome thank you say this is this is good and I mean it's going to get the conversation going that's most important the um and have you thought and how did you want the logistics of the meeting to work in terms of our input you calling us if you want us to chime in or we chime in if we have a particularly Salient point or we just keep quiet and let you do your thing or you just run away so I I think we that's up to the committee to decide um you know when Ellen and Linda and I were discussing it I said I'm perfectly happy to give the whole presentation but I also think if there are particular slides that someone else wants to wants to give wants to present then that's fine too but if we change speakers too much it interrupts the flow of the presentation I I think you should do the whole thing yeah you know I mean it's it's you know it's not that slides and it it feels disruptive if if a speaker is interrupted and you have a lot of like within each slide you have so much more information that you'll deliver so as you're going through you'll be reminded you're gonna remind yourself like what so but maybe in in answering potential questions from the audience that one thing I'm concerned about is that that the air population understand that this is init this is an initiative driven by the air population right that is that it is not the management of the town they have a professional responsibility to manage the town and provide professional but that the impetus for the town's need for this and the political will are there because the people who live in the town feel like this is important and you know Katie KH doesn't get to vote on that right um but that we people who live in the town have to be able to respond to other people who live in the town if if there are objections or questions Etc um that if the burden for saying this is a good thing for the town should not fall exclusively on on Katie or or any town oflo so I was I was thinking at the end of the presentation if you'll notice that second to last slide is breaking up into groups I was thinking that each one of us could sit with a group of people um and what I'm hoping is that people will tell us you know how valuable like why is this important to you I'm hoping that from that we will get some good quotes to use in future pre presentations um and that they can tell us about which features are most important which programs are most important to them and then would they vote Yes or no um and why or why not I'm hoping that will give us and then if each group gets to report back and then we can all debrief afterwards based on the larger conversation that we each had with our people so so so how long are you envisioning the I mean how half hour then groups for half hour I mean how I don't know that it needs to be a half an hour for the groups um so I've got what 18 slides I don't think that'll be more than half an hour at the most right right yeah um and then uh question from the audience I was I'd like to do the small group discussions first I think um to so question is gonna be asked as you're doing this slides of your way having them all way I always prefer that people wait and hold questions until the end um because oftentimes when people bud in the middle to ask a question it's something that you're going to present later yeah uh and it gets everybody off track and then they get too deep into one piece of the information before seeing the whole picture um I'm open to thoughts on that I just think if we do questions if we do the presentation and questions people aren't going to stay for this small group and if they feel like they need to give their input through the small group first as way to the larger discussion I think we're going to get more engagement from people and I'm just throwing this out there do the small group first not the big presentation you don't get the direction that you want yeah you don't get the direction yeah so all over the place so you give the presentation then you say you know before we open it up to broader questions I'd like everyone to First discuss it in small groups and talk about some of these you know these four questions here and then we'll come back to share our responses and answer broader more general questions and then for each of you guys you're in listen mode unless there's a particular question like that's a factual answer you could provide but otherwise we're listening I mean sometimes you'll get like you say if you have a group of say I don't know eight people right you will get maybe you you'll get the top three concerns right right pretty much and I think those top three will be that you can say okay we'll at the end we we you know raise these top three concerns or questions to The Wider right y yeah now that yeah your question about what concerns you have is not one of these four questions that um you have to discuss back so in the you're on the last page but small discussions I I just wanted to there's actually a chance when we I've done we've done these before you know and we did them for planning board things we did um other community activities and whatnot reaching home with the garage and all that other forums MH so typically there'll be someone who will go all the way back now so how did you pick Bishop Road you know there's G to be someone who throws it all the way back sure so are we all we were all handy with that answer and all that stuff because we need to get out that really quickly SP a lot of time um basically you're going to give them what we're looking at right now no excuse me you're going to give them this I'm going to give them this the rest is going to be up on the slide that maybe so I guess I would emphasize to them that write your questions down on on a piece of paper or whatever write down you know your questions somewhere so you're ready to ask them at the end or something like that so people if they're halfway through the thing they will write the question down at that point and they'll still have it instead of them having to wait all the way to the end just give them a reminder that you know we're going to go through the just tell them we're going to go through a slide presentation we anticipate you're going to have questions along the way potentially find a piece of we may have to give them something write on this yeah I'll give what I was what I was thinking we would do is and I've got give them a place to write their question so they have it at the end I'm meeting with chuck on tomorrow morning to talk about the room setup yeah and I was thinking we could either do we considered each each one of us considered a different t something yeah I'm trying to think of what the tables look like up there big round ones yeah so we can do big round tables with like four seats around the forward facing not eight seats right and we can put paper at each one of them along with you know we can put these four I can put these four questions with room to write on it at each of the seats along with it okay I'm just giv trying to get people a away to not have to REM remember it all the way to the end write it down and you'll have it there okay and then when we sit at each table we'll cover it oh yep it get summarized at the end it's a great suggestion Carolyn coming back to so you can usually bring all the questions then even if we do the questions at the table and get a list of questions then all those questions can be brought to the to you at the end and they can be answered for the whole oh that's a good idea yeah basically goodidea I just find people really like to this table over here this question this one had this question let's let's answer it for the whole room yeah yeah yeah absolutely so I it's coming back to your question Caroline I didn't put what concerns you on here because people are going to tell me no matter what they're going to tell me what concerns them um so I didn't put it on there again for the sake of here's four simple questions you guys could persuade me otherwise but I just think when people have questions concerned doubts they put them out there I only said that because Bonnie was talking in terms of you know what are your concerns and well it's not really one of our questions for them yeah nor nor do I think it should be okay that that you know like you said that the concerns will come out right you know yeah you know we're we don't we don't have to ask for negatives that's gonna happen yeah yeah oh yeah yeah and and to Dennis's Point part of why asking questions one through three is to really help establish in a public meeting I'm hoping there'll be lots of supporters who will come out to establish that this is something that's important to the seniors in town um so that's my goal with it to encourage conversation the meaning of it and to to gather that that supporting you know I changed the wording I changed the wording in the first question to exactly what you just said how important is more rather than valuable okay all right you just said we want to know how important it is for residents but valuable I think someone's gonna say about money you okay that's a good that's a good did we again just throwing this out did we want to ask a question if if a did have a senior center like this would you be more likely to attend the senior center or visit the senior center that is so that we can show that a senior center is likely to lead to increased usage and you you kind of touch on that um about what's most important but will you actually go into this new building if we have it I guess it's not would you use it that's really that's an excellent point and I would like to bring up the fact that almost every one of the new senior centers that we've done they've quad tripled their attendance in fact if you called Paula over at Wilbraham or um or or um um Mary Beth over at long metal or any any of those centers it's astounding in fact in in ducksbury we had we you know they had a very small Center like yours and when we built that Center what happened was we had a parking lot for 75 cars within a year they had to double the size of the parking lot to 140 and they were stilling out so you give me an idea um it's a sounding how fast you know uh people once they find it in fact I think in ducksbury what was amazing I won't go on too long here but what happened in Duxbury was at at the town meeting I may have mentioned this the town meeting we had a lot of naysayers who became some of the most active members of the new center it just they just didn't know what they were getting so I mean it really increases it's a good point Dennis um it just it more than triples so are we adding that as a second part question or we're just gonna well I you know maybe question a new question four or instead you know reording question three or even putting those backs in why do we need new Senior Center or you know what is this what is this Center going to we have this question why do you need a new Senior Center is your for this slide whatever um just I don't know add another slide that says you know this is what another yeah you're right that's pretty much where the current Senior Center is inadequate pretty all negative you you could you need a POS you could add to Bullet number one and make it a longer sentence seni how important is a modern senior to you and would you be more willing to use use it would you visit it more of visit it more often that is I'm trying to come up with for the people who are in the room hopefully there are a substantial amount who are you know favorably disposed and on our side on this there are some Skeptics I I want to give the people who are favorably disposed something to tell the Skeptics right and and one of those things would be well I know I don't use the center much now but if we had this I would because you know there's more parking available and you know the dining thing would be much more robust and that the fitness classes would be more comfortable or whatever so I want I'm hoping to kind of generate some way of the people who are favorably disposed communicating to the Skeptics yes we need this because I will go there more often well I I think that people often have a hard time imagining something different and how they would react to something different that I think perhaps it's better to to to use you know John's examples and say this is what senior centers have new senior centers have done for for other um communities um don't we want that I could get you some stats on that from I could reach out to wiam long metal Walpole and Welsley some of those more recent ones and give you some statistics because they keep very very detailed numbers and I know in Walpole it was amazing what happened so I I Katie I'll reach out tomorrow to a few folks get some numbers so that you will have that information I don't think it needs to be in your presentation but you'll have that available as a and it'll be based on reality I I think that's right thank you sorry I was say we could put it in as a second part of question number one um I think that would be fine how how important is a modern Senior Center to you would you would you would you would you visit would you visit this new center um as the second part or give it its own question um and then if we wanted to add it into um why we should invest we could come back to say um to that last point you know the town should be proud in of the way it invests in its people Now's the Time to invest in seniors maybe right before that one um you could say something to that effect like uh utilization increases dramatically with new senior centers like a space for everyone um because we we talk about a modern Senior Center has accessibility for all or we could put it there in that accessibility for all so I thought you could slip it in seven and eight yeah in seven or eight some place to say that um um well you know accommodate maybe in seven it it could say that you know uh room to accommodate expected growth or something like that right and now that and now that you've said it I when I was going through these I um on on slide eight that last bullet the town should be but you know those words should be um I find a little offensive you're right yeah it was the when we it's a good point when we were going through this we were trying to make sure that we were being positive that we weren't saying you've done things for other groups and you haven't done it yet for us we were trying to frame it in a positive way saying um the town should be proud of the way it does it but I see how I can see the other alternate you know interpretation think it's an easy fix okay yeah yeah just say the town is proud of take out there should be turn it into it is exactly yeah we are that's true well you could you could you could make it a little bit broader so you could say the CH the town is proud of the way it invests in its people and its buildings or in its you know facilities whatever you want to say because we built schools and DPW and Fire Department police department I'm fine with that people in facilities people in facilities is that sound right to you guys yeah yeah yeah okay could say now is the time to invest seniors and a facility for seniors or something like that BR makes yeah okay that EDI in Chief editing I like it thank you right we have the um on the everyone benefits in the financial advantage to the town and school budgets we've got the back up on that sure is why is this an advantage to the school budget and you don't have to answer the question for me now but right maybe just want to take just say Town budgets so that was the one question I don't understand that I asked about the other day so the idea is that the the average the average tax bill in town is a $5500 and the average per pupil spend in the town of air is over $188,000 not all of that is local funds some of those are State funds of course but that is the Department of education's published number so but surely but per pupil spend is per pup spend right so right yeah so if you if you understand at the broader if you try to conceptualize it at the broader level that if you are a family paying in $5,500 but you've got three children who are at $188,000 per kid we need a balance of at without getting into the exact dollars and cents it's important to know you need a balance of families with children and families without children to help keep the school budget and the town budget that's a comp Che discuss right but the $18,000 per pupil spend does not all come from air that some portion of that 18,000 comes from Shirley taxpayers until like 12 when you take the state everything right but but the the Shirley it's each each being educated irrelevant whether Shirley's got people there or not Air's students are costing $188,000 per person yes but they're not costing air $18,000 per person yes they are paying for A's people Shirley's paying for Shirley's people Shirley isn't paying more in than than air is right it's not like Shirley's not subsidizing what we're providing because we're educating their kids too right so again the idea is to not it's the idea is you're paying in taxes towards the school district whether you have kids or don't and when you have kids you are more than likely paying in less than you are receiving whereas you need the balance of older adult families who are paying in but not receiving Services out um but do we do we want to go down that I don't want to get into I I don't want to get into that what I'm saying is that it's important to to note that having a myx having a senior center that helps keep older adults independent and in their homes and providing um taxes as an empty nester helps keep the town financially healthy and leave it at that yes not you're inaccurate unfor just because you're an elderly person doesn't mean you're a taxpayer number one you could be renting well that goes first yeah no no no no wait wait wait wait even you're a renter you're paying taxes because r i get it yeah good good so the point is that whether we need to make a even an approach to the fact that they're helping the tax rate may not even be a logical discussion is what I'm getting so it's a complicated thing but when you're does it help us making that statement I don't think it does I I agree that this sort of I mean I I understand why why it is Financial benefit but like you said it's it gets kind of complicated and then you can get down these rabbit holes and you know do we want seniors in I think just leave yeah I I think unfortunately the discussion got into the weeds there basically com down to the fact that it costs about $1.2 million to educate a child three four kids in a family and when when the kids leave you want the elders to stay in their home homes because they continue to pay back that debt it's a very simple argument we've used it a lot in presentations and town meetings it's very effective but it has to be written in a way that is not the rout hole we just went down and I can that information if you want sure that would be great why don't why don't we just put something like first of all I don't know if you the term again everyone benefits I think I'd be better off saying you know in general the town benefits I'm much sure of everyone benefits I I think that for me then it goes somewhere along the line that healthy seniors staying in their home longer uh is advantageous to the tax base that's enough and diversity in the town which we all like get into diversity get into something like that that having a broad-based population is a positive I get that I mean something like for me the we don't want everybody to move out of town and have to you know leave if they when they get older I want for me the more compelling economic argu and I'm not asking that this we go down this rabbit hole at this for this presentation but I think for me if we conceive a the senior center as providing the fitness to nutrition and the socialization that allows people to live independently in their own homes longer which is if that is in fact true yes which is bullet number two then your ability to live in your home longer saves you money in the end because if you look at if you had to go into assisted living 18 months before or if you right but but this that bullet that third one that we're we're discussing right now isn't for the senior that third the the second bullet that's for the senior the third bullet is for everybody else in town that's not a senior that we need some of their votes that's I see that's who that's for there's it's a different audience I see the point I definitely see the point I think it would be okay to edit that to everyone benefits healthy seniors staying in their homes longer is a is an advantage to the tax base and town diversity to your point that's fine I don't think I think that's a safer bullet thing it is I don't think it's compelling to a young family I don't think that bullet will compel a younger family but it but it is a safer it is a safer bullet to stay away from the rapbit hole but what does everyone else think that's a point I I would leave it in and yeah say tax base and and diversity you take out Town School budgets or School budgets take out School budgets because you know I think let everyone benefits healthy seniors staying in their homes longer advantage to the tax Town's tax base Town's tax base in Town's diversity a population diversity would call yeah population diversity I like that I mean I think more people are going to ask than that question because that's more vague but I don't suspect there will be tons of young families on Thursday so let's float this idea on Thursday and see how it goes because I fully anticipate you guys are I'm going to be making the presentation and I'm going to be trying to remember what I have to say next but you guys are going to be able to sit in the audience or be up there in the front facing the audience engaging facial expressions and reactions a l yeah well but seeing what what is flying what's falling flat so that we can edit this afterwards because there will be things that will fall flat as is generally understood I have no ability to read a [Laughter] you're gonna hear my perspective whatever the room is telling me that's thank you for that point I want to mention something quickly we're in this little area of taxes I you guys I don't know if you guys read the local newspapers around like C gr you know whatever we have all newspapers the towns around us are all struggling dun just had there was just article today I read in the BR B about dunable who was struggling because these towns have up to 85 to 90 or even above 90% of their tax base is the residential tax base this is something we never talk about and add the benefit that we only pay 50% of the taxes so the residents in the town of here are only going to pay 50% of this the other 50% are going to be paid by the commercial industrial tax based in the town because that's about the break so we never get we're not going to get into that with the public but I'm getting at but it's an over over it's an issue in town in our surrounding towns that they do not have enough commercial industrial tax Bas and the fascinating part about it is you never hear anything at town meeting about a problem from somebody from a commercial industrial tax base putting up the hand complaining about taxes in the town of here yet they pay 50% of it our costs so you get right down to it the residents are still only going to pay to half this building the rest will be paid for by the commercial residential tax payers the commercial industrial people the big tax payers will be paying for a lot of it we're not going to broadcast that but it helps this town get what we've got absolutely in a big way just as on the side because I don't know the answer what happens with the hospital was the hospital paying hospital paying their taxes as far as I know right now as if I had checked it back in the spring I checked they had they were up to date on having paid their taxes up through March but they won't oh now yeah now they won't well the new owner would have to they're going to pay the taxes yeah so I they may ask for payment because it's an empty building but they're gonna have to pay but remember that was a community hospital until 10 like 2010 or 2008 which PA was tax free um was a taxfree properties at one time who knows I mean actually okay so any other edits I think we're probably good but anybody else so on the on the logistics of the room we'll just leave it to you to decide where you want a sitting or standing or yeah so um if you guys wanna if you guys want to spread out amongst the tables during the presentation that would that would be great and yeah yeah I'd like to do that so that there's a I think we should do that yeah should be around in about and then we'll have um when people come in we'll have some refreshments off to the side the friends I know doing Refreshments um feed them and they will come hopefully um so then the friends of the air seniors will have a little table at the end of the refreshment table so that they can um you know try and talk to people to get the membership going um so that would be good and then like I said I'm meeting with Chuck um tomorrow to go over um I have a a list of things I need to bring and everything but um the finance committee is meeting at 6 I issued them an official invitation today to attend our quum and I I invited the select board okay thank you the members of the select board so we'll see you at any show ouring board didn't think of it hon with you I could though yeah do you want to invite the planning board guess I'm sure okay I think one planning board be easy one way right right yeah sure okay great can have Jess invite thec okay yeah yeah reach out okay you should have as many people in as we can get yeah have a good healthy discussion about it so do we have any um larger diagrams of any of this little layouts or anything yeah she's got the we have the 20 what are they 24 by no they're 18 by 24s um from did you see the ones at Newton Street Festival no okay I've got um their like this so they're so it's yeah Al I almost thought about putting them up today and then I thought that's a little bring them back but I got those in BO yeah we had um backdrop and hung the boards on at the new Festival is this is this on the town website on the front page yet no and actually I was gonna bring that up I didn't see oh yeah good so we'll have those set up as well for people to look at what it's 24 by 36 is that 24 by 36 okay so I've got those I've got the easel that's all on my list so these questions will be printed out for each table yes I will print those out for each table and along with the this four pager pamphlet for everyone um I was planning to do 50 I would be estatic if we had 50 um you can do an over under and see who gets closer there you go k Katie was skeptical about audience size I assumed it would be 100 to 120 I'll take the 100 wow we barely we barely have a hundred at town meeting I know right so I was yeah I was not thinking we would have that many but we'll see I would love it if that so wrong before so it was posted I posted a graphic today um to the senior centers Facebook page it's in the newsletter this this forum is in the senior center newsletter I posted it to my Facebook account today um Carly shared it over to the town of air so the town of air has a Facebook page and then each of the off-site Departments H so the town of Air One covers Town Hall operations essentially um and then you know police fire library and the senior center and DPW all have their own Facebook pages so it's posted to my Facebook page Carly shared it onto the town of air I'm hoping someone here who's on Facebook would like to share it into the air Community page um and then um it is I posted I requested a posting of a an agenda because we will have a quorum um for Thursday that agenda is in um I'm not did someone look right before we came here to see if it was on the town calendar yet I I would is okay so last I didn't say anything under the announcements or meetings or anything like that okay that might have been yesterday I mean I look I look today at around you know when we got those emails meeting today well today around I check since two yeah I can look right now oh I was looking at no it's not so um it's not there so the protocol for getting it there is um you submit an agenda and then when the town clerk approves the agenda then it's added to the town C Cal so it has the agenda was submitted earlier today obviously the town clerk's office is very busy today getting ready for tomorrow um the town IT director is aware she sent me an email today she said I'm GNA get this posted as soon as possible so they're on it that's why I was really hoping someone would share it into the Community page if no one does it on their own today then the Community page oh no I can put it in there I was just hoping someone else would do it besides me like so that it wouldn't be me as the department head putting it in there if it isn't in there by the time I get home tonight I will share I can share it in can we advertise tomorrow somehow at at at the town at the voting at the voting yeah people come in to vote so I think you have to stay a certain number of feet that might be political but it's 150 Fe I don't think I don't think no I I think I don't think Su wants any lobby of the Town yeah we couldn't even get we couldn't even get the lobby the school building I mean I think if someone if someone wanted to stand across the street where all the campaign people will be able to stand if someone wants a stack I'm happy to print out a stack I I'm not sure that I can do that tomorrow night but I don't know I was just curious yeah and you know the the way our town is set up you know it's all the way across the street Street to go get something sure was it announcements of the Town yeah so you don't you use that for announcements you don't put stuff like that we always oh the select board could announce it at their meeting tomorrow night meeting tonight that's why Robert and Dan aren't here they're meeting tonight because they the election election tomorrow election oh tomorrow's the election the way I look at it is doing the best you can to get this meeting this could be the first we may have to just do the same thing over again to make sure we publicize it better and get get it out earlier or whatever the case might be yeah we're gonna have to do this many many many times so yeah we'll do this to many subgroups then we will do this again in January several times again right before the town meeting so this is really I'm considering this like a trial run to see I I do think it's I do think it's advertis like I said we put out 500 newsletters um yesterday Saturday and today um those are all out um it went out to 350 people seniors via email um that's that's how many you have on that email I have 350 on my email distribution list broadcast at live um that is part of the logistics meeting tomorrow with Chuck is to make sure that that's that's happening I'm intending to conduct it if APAC is not there I will have the out the audio will be terrible I understand that but we will do our best with it um and if apack is there how would people see the apack thing they would see it via Zoom they could watch it live in on Zoom they could also watch it live on Channel 8 then they could watch it afterwards on the APAC YouTube channel and live on Channel 8 is on contest yeah if I've never yeah so the SL board meetings are live the town town meeting is live on on television yeah so it's just a a matter of what else they have going on um and what their availability is their staff availability is ask a question going back to Dennis's question earlier so when they have questions at the end who will be answering those so do we want to agree on who's going to answer which topics or [Music] um um again I think it's so we come so we have the small group discussion we all come back into the larger venue um questions have been written down and I mean I think it would be good to hear from other people that is so yeah I'm sitting at a table people ask some questions y y y I come back to the larger group and I say something to the effect of well at our table one of the questions that came up was yes second that's what happens right or do we want the person who had that question to so it's not us talking to you know that is no we should not be talking to each other like I would love for you guys to spread out at the different tables but that doesn't automatically make you the spokesperson for the questions and the answers coming back to the so how do I I mean I think it's important that we encourage people who are in support of this idea to stand up in a public meeting and say something or ask a ask a leading question or just kind of have their doubts assuaged or something other than they sit there they listen to us we interpret the things that they say and talk to each other and then you know I I that is the community I think has to Beyond us has to be talking about this in a positive way and how do we encourage them to talk to each other right so after there after we give the presentation we do the small groups each of the small group can report back on their answers so then you've got all these people talking about what they talked about in their group we're not going to be their spokesperson they are going to talk about it and then they're going to ask their questions and we provide answers and then hopefully from there their conversations continue but that's that's why when we're going to share our answers each those four each person assigned to be the spokesman for the table even if it's not a committee person yeah it shouldn't be a committee person not I mean I don't know yeah I feel like some of these are basics of small like everybody's been in a meeting before we had a small group I mean I can say it in the in the session but okay well but I'll say we'll break out into small groups and you know take let's take 10 minutes to talk about each of these four and a half questions or whatever it ends up being and the end of it if you guys will'll go around and and have people share their answers if each of you can appoint somebody to to be the spokesperson for your group when we share it that would be great and then when it comes up in the discussion you guys just don't be the spokesperson so let's unless we have to I was gonna say I mean spokes person pardon if no one agrees to be at the table but again as but but again as long as we're keeping in mind that the goal is when we're sharing this to get legitimate sincere public input and feedback and to get a resident other than us to say in their own words what how important it is what it means to them what they're looking forward to doing in the room that's what we're trying to get we're trying to get the input and we're also trying to get the quote so maybe this please dissuade you know dissuade yourself from being that person okay so let maybe the small group idea although I hate to say that this was your idea um you shouldn't against that Alicia her's idea okay so then I feel better about that because Alicia's not here and I'm about to drive a St might not be the answer they just may not be answer no I'm tending to think maybe a better approach for people they just feel more comfortable to be in the audience and they could stand up one by one and ask their questions we can just be spread around the audience or not stand up and just take try it I'd like to try the small groups because that's that's an approach that we did use before in town in small groups for other projects so was it has a history did you get do we tend to get more input I can say that when we use the last time that it was for affordable housing and whatnot with Alicia and the forums that we did for affordable housing I'm pretty much sure that all the affordable housing people including myself sat at a table and we came back as the committee told the you know the head of the room what the response was from the table right was not someone that wasn't on the committee because they just thought about yeah I mean let it flow in the moment then I I'm saying if you have the opportunity here to Dennis's point about needing to hear from people Beyond just our committee needing to hear from the population as a whole so if someone else is volunteering to be the spokesperson okay yeah I you know and and because then otherwise how are we gonna know what I'd love to have is by the time we're in a January um public forum process to have either written quotes or even little videos embedded in into this presentation where someone says I'm really looking for I'm you know Janet and I'm 73 or and I'm really looking forward to coming to the new center for X Y and Z but we're it's gonna be hard to tease those out if we the only ones reporting it I mean what I'm hoping to the and I don't know whether we can get there on Thursday but at some point it would be great for me to hear somebody steps up to the mic and says I don't like this idea it's gonna cost too much it's in the wrong place da da d da somebody else from the audience then steps up and rebuts that because they are informed about what's that is so that we don't have to be the ones to you know be rebutting the anti- senior center crowd but that the the population at large is willing to stand again willing to stand up publicly and say to their friends neighbors whatever this is a good idea because it's going to help me or I think it would be good for the community generally or what have you um and how do we get them to that point because it you know I'm tired of talking about it a little bit and I don't want to have to be seen as the one who's always arguing with somebody else in the audience about why this is a good idea um okay I think those are fair points and we're going to have to that's why we just need to have many conversations about it and leave the space open to allow other people to do that that makes sense so let's try it I'd love to be an advocate for Dennis's point just not so sure that we're there yet I think we still are in the convincing mode at this point in time right it's I just think people just don't quite understand it they don't attend enough meetings than us they typically just like I want a positive approach but I think coming from I think that the questions that that we're posing are are questions that you know lead people to understand how you know to vision of of how this Senior Center could work and you know so I I don't know I just I really like the the projection of these questions you know they're not you know they're not questions about well what kind of senior center do we want and right you know it's very general no I think it's it you're using this as an educational tool it's basically it's more it's bringing it to light right to the biggest population so far right and and then maybe people learn and read and then and then become negative right maybe it or they learn and read and become Champions and as we're sharing we will start to learn who some other champ May right because we need those we need we need Champions I think this is great this P there's more information here than we could have put on the slides broader base than the slid so you almost have to pull this in front of you go through it while the slide is being mentioned so there will be a sign in sheet for the Forum and there will be a separate sign in sheet for their friends of a seniors okay because we can grab them all right how many small groups do you think we will have tables bet you're saying more and I'm thinking 15 but because what we could maybe do is sit down and we're going to be taking notes like if there's four people or five people at a table write down what people are offering you know how important is they might have five different answers then when we come back we can go someone can read the questions how important is a modern C you and one person from each table a resident or answer yes and then go to the next question and hopefully a different person from each table will answer that way we're Gathering all the answers so we'll have five depending on how many people our table then hopefully when we review them one person from each table that's their involvement can present what's you know their answers that's exactly what they did yeah and I don't think these questions will it's it's not they're not going to be expressing their concerns it's going to be what they want right um the concern part will probably come down the road right yeah yeah okay I want to say the other thing that I can recall now from the affordable housing stuff when we did it with Alicia in Allen annoying was that we don't we don't want to assume that anyone in the room will know who's on the committee right they don't they don't know some people I see right I agree just because we sit down at a table we're not announcing that we're on the committee we're sitting down at the table staying Anonymous like anyone to and that's what happens okay no I I considered that but you're right yeah yeah it's not like I don't know how you going to announce the people in the committee at the beginning uh it's in that first or second slide necessarily know we know how to tag yeah that's why she's saying as committee members let's be mindful to not fill the space right with our own thoughts of it our goal is for the other people at the table to be talking and sharing right okay all right so let's keep moving forward here unless there's anything so um site due diligence updates um so there's no update on the owner's project manager process because Dan and Robert were going to meet on that and I haven't heard any update from them and there neither one of them here so I'm going to assume there's no update on that one um as um do you Bonnie did did you get a copy of that timeline document so that you can start making edits to it or do you need to get that from Dan I did and I I don't have a software um okay the Microsoft software so I convert I basically um used PowerPoint it's it's the Gant chart right yeah U feature and I haven't gotten back uh word from Dan yet whether he likes it or not okay it's more for for me it's more simple to do and more simplistic sort of to view a timeline and then it has a nice feature you know you can actually you know add where you are currently and then you know your goals and like complet completions of certain tasks right along the timeline which I like um but I I haven't I haven't gotten any that and I asked she has been quite busy lately but I asked the town cleric to give us a timeline and to pin down the the the length of time between a potential town meeting vote and a ballot question you know how long that has to be how that would work has to be 10 days right how did you decide to go to the clerk what's that how' you decide to go to the clerk well because the town clerk governs or administrates town elections and the ballot question would have to go through the town clerk because she would set up I think it's under the supervision of the select board they they set up the times and up in then yeah but there probably amount minimum amount of I think that's such a minutia level of detail right now between how much space is between those two yeah but we're going to need February or March is not that far away agreed agreed and we're going to have to know how long to that is I think it's um all right I mean I no I'm just saying I think you have much better luck maybe next week after the election is over getting her to respond to you on oh no no she seemed quite open to wanting I mean I did not impose but I think that we will need the town clerk's input into how that election piece of approve assuming right that we get town meeting approval sure we will need the town clerk to kind of guide us through the process of how that election is going to work agreed okay um so and then we are G to I'll owe you Bonnie as well like we can put on Thursday's public forum I was thinking can we put um like can we color code them like site tasks in one color public input um efforts in another color and then like the town election timeline um like the capital process to town election yeah you know all of those in in another juste them topics that would be great okay awesome um then um John did I see you got the have you given Dan the placement for the borings yet for the deep borings that was a task from the last meeting yes we gave that to um to Dan okay great thank you um so uh Dan of course isn't able to make it tonight he asked me to report that he has one proposal and he's waiting on another for the Deep borings um the one he received is just under 10,000 could be slightly higher if it's a long day of overtime is required um which is more cost effective than going to two days um he recommends that the committee approve funding for the geotechnical borings He suggests up to $111,000 which would cover um the first quote of 9500 plus some overtime if necessary um just so that you know he can keep that process moving so the number is 11,000 was 95 that was it so the first company which was geot technical consultants um gave a quote for uh 9500 right but Dan asked that up to 11 right okay yeah so that would be that would be the motion if we were wanting to do that okay so I I moved that the committee approved the expenditure of up to $1,000 for the purposes of geotechnical borings on the proposed Senior Center building site second favor i i w have any discussion after the no any discussion oh yeah is there any discussion no no oh okay it's an appropriate State oh yes all right Fair Fair Point J said I too so is this the one and done once they do the borns once and they get the results that's it that's it that's okay Bing be the last step through all right um all those in favor yeah everybody said I yeah everyone said I I I think it was unanimously I yep ch said I okay uh did I miss any of the site due diligence tasks from last time okay no um I want to step back for just a minute to the OPM because I'm not sure everyone's clear I want to make my thought clear on that because I think I brought it up I'm trying to get an answer from Robert and Dan about the OPM own as project manager to get us through this phase this early phase not the final construction phase just to make it clear to John and others just to get us through the earliest part of the project we know later on when construction starts and we get to that phase we're going to need a full-time person pretty much doing it what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to avoid the cost for an OPM early in the project and just get us a little further down the road with with Dan supervision and Dan help and without having to hire another professional so I don't know if I made that play before but that's what my intent was no it's clear to me I I think for perhaps Robert and and for the committee I know that the state of Massachusetts requires the OPM on on projects of this size right and at what point in the project does that requirement kick in and I'm a I'm unclear in that I mean I'm comfortable with where we're at now but my sense is that um more people would feel more comfortable sooner rather than later with the OPM being on board right and how do we engineer that it is it is John follow up but I believe that that's a fact that could be on board right now yeah technically you're supposed to have him on board but Dan is a PE right he is a PE yes Li have two pees there Town engineer and Dan was the former Town engineer they're both pees quite often towns have provided their own OPM within the town it's much too difficult for somebody like Dan to be involved in the uh bidding and and construction process because it's very very time consuming I will go and ask my I have an adviser that I work with um I I know that in the past towns have provided opms they've gotten a little bit more formal about it but technically you're supposed to have them on board prior to the architect but that I can tell you right now my last three jobs the opms weren't involved at the start they came in later and primarily for the same reason reason reason that Ken mentioned it's very expensive to get them on board early and in the early phases um there's a lot of room in the future for the OPM to have some input um I don't have a problem with it but I do believe you you really want an OPM who provides the clerk the clerk in the OPM works for you the town not for the architect and they're they're the advisor even though the town has a lot of experience in this that they're the adviser to the town on technical problems that crop crop up between Architects and contractors and outside people so it is really important to have a formal OPM on and um you can advertise you advertise for it too because it's it's a um it's a requirement uh uh to put it in the central register and solicit opms to submit and and do we have an understanding of how that process should unfold how long it takes from the time we say we want to hire an OPM to the time we actually have them sitting in the chair it's a very similar problem to The Architects but not a little less complicated they submit you decide whether you want to interview or not I I would recommend an interview because the open Ms in this business very extensively on their expertise I mean I've dealt with great ones and I've dealt with people that should never have hung that the problem is for opms the state set this up they've gotten better about it but almost anybody can hang a shingle and say I'm experienced and I can be an OPM that's not necessarily the case there's some really good ones out there um and um and I can send you a typical RFQ for them and um you guys I'll send it to Katie and she can pass it around to everybody it's a pretty standard thing the fees though vary um uh I'm sorry you said the fees don't vary they do they vary lot you can set the fee and and most lpms will abide by it they may have some you know maybe generally if you combine the clerk with the old OPM there's enough money in there for the OPM and and again they both represent you the town the clerk doesn't work for me um but he does advise us his job is to tell tell the architect when there's a problem with the um with the contractor and generally a good clerk will be just like a good site supervisor he he studies he or she studies the drawings knows what's coming up next checks with everybody to make sure it's being done right the worst clerks are the ones that look after the fact and that and we don't want somebody like that no that's good information to have John I'll send you that information thanks you want to summary of what's going on on the site right now for the engineering aspect of it so um I don't know if anyone's been D driven by but I have a couple times and u David Russ Associates has been out there and they finishing up the uh size of the the pass the survey and what not the topography they have uh they had teams out there maybe three days last week um and they're doing the work as well for the town down the road you know because remember he had a little piece of work for them down the street to establish the rideway down the street U the other I believe everyone's working actually Omni environmental should be working in go should be also be working so they're all working towards the U creation of the lot they have time the Blazing star was underground did you walk around and see if you could find any walk around I'm gonna leave it up to them through the fence yeah but that's why you can it's open open for them yeah that's what I did you just drive by and last week I I drove by it wasn't open it's open now oh was today maybe they're going to close well you don't mean the DPW fence you mean the road the one the one the DPW gate has been left open because the engineers are driving actually driving right in there so naal Heritage should have yeah natural heritage should be able to if they're in there they should be able to tell it's there or not we'll see there's quite a few Stakes out there already you know they put in U what they call benchmarks around you know to establish the grave that kind of work so it's comeing along so the borings are done that's it we'll pretty much know everything yeah and I know that the phase one environmental is underway because I got copied on the public records request that was issued okay of all the town departments relative to that land so yeah all underway um great any other site due diligence updates oh want talk to uh Na trust they their last survey was 2016 oh okay and they yeah so they said that um that they hadn't been out since then and if there is a if there was a survey done it would have been national natural heritage would have done it but they couldn't tell me like they have they have some um like they're not they're not pry to to tell people that you know where the site is and yeah yeah it's it didn't tell me okay all right this is aite for what the uh blazing star blazing star that's it's one of the the town of is lucky enough to have some in this town but all those rounds around us don't have guess who else on their part but they're readily available to buy we're going to play just end up moving and buring them spr they're going to emerge you can dig them up and burm them till they're relocated okay not going to be issue for us but you have to go to it yeah yeah all right uh I think everyone got a copy of the uh report I the memo I issued to Capital planning that was due October 31st um that is you know we have to go through the process that um Robert outlined for us at the last meeting whether we are on a timeline to February or a timeline to April um that's the process we have to go through um we're using clear. goov for the first time this year for all the Departments to submit um their Capital requests so this memo went in along with all of the renderings and floor plans from um Catlin as well as as um the select board memos to date and the cost estimate and the this this version this updated one um went in so then I think Capital planning meets on November 9th is that right no that's a Saturday sometime early November and then they will at that meeting order up like put in order the Departments or projects that they want to hear from so we will be invited to a future Capital planning one and then from there it goes through finance committee which we've already started to have conversations and then through select board and we are course have been keeping the select board updated as we go um I I texted Jimmy Bernard who was also on the capital planning committee just to give them the heads up that that is in fact there um so just you know you sent him an email I did yeah it's coming technically from him what that I said since it was coming technically from him yes yeah yeah yeah um as he is a member of that committee so and I apologize when I printed this I flipped it on the short side instead of the long side it's a cognitive exercise designed to keep us all on our toes and flip on this side um all right so stay tuned um I'll let you know so the way that clar goov uh c.gov or yeah cleargov works is that um everything was due on Thursday last week and so then it's opened up no one can see what I was working on until um it's submitted and then Friday was a buffer day for the town to look at it make sure everything was there and then it capital planning would have seen it starting today and then they can all make their comments and then I get like an email in the in the portal that tells me hey there's a question or a comment or something and so there's the opportunity to uh if they want to see additional documents before our meeting or something like that it just creates a um Consolidated place to have communication about it I don't want to make a negative comment but have you used it before no this is everyone's this is everyone's first year using it oh yep we experienc with something else in the first year as well with another software program one that took all the zoning regulations and everything else and all all the town's regulations and put them up on it found out later in the contract that we weren't allowed to make adjustments to it till nine months later or a year later oh interesting so as we made the zoning changes at town meeting they never posted on oh yeah change because contrac didn't include change updates for like 12 months or something very okay people coming in looking for changes figure it out talking on the phone I think this particular software is designed to be dynamic of course it is you know so yeah yeah so hopefully on and when does it become publicly available um publicly available so the the digital budget book I think they they put last year's budget book on it um and so then it comes available I think I think it's going to become available don't quote me on this I think it's like January for the budget as a whole when budgets are in um I I am not sure if the capital planning piece of it but I'm not sure that I'm not sure yeah I'm not using it but our division our department is they all they we have meetings regularly each week but yeah they ran into some big glitch today or something um I'm going to actually well so moving on to number six the next contract um I might ask that we sort of skip over this one just because because um you know we have the funds left in in our housing Choice Grant and I apologize I just didn't get a chance to do the line item for you guys as the update for that but um I don't think we're going to have quite enough money but I'm trying to clarify how we can get or that if we do have enough money I think we're going to we're going to be pretty pretty close um because when we were giving our estimates we did not have the Deep borings for example in our list of things a $50,000 well had an estimate well that's what I'm saying is we had the $50,000 estimate that's the placeholder for it so my hope is as these as we're completing all of these site things that they're going to come in at or below what we had set aside for it and then I would be able then I would be able to more definitively say Okay of the 37 75,000 we have 260 left or we have 245 left or whatever um so I'm hesitant to really talk in more detail and John you were going to and I don't think there I don't think it has to be done right now gonna send um a follow-up contract that had just that next yeah it what what you could do is just peel off the first step one I think it is and I could send the contract with the wording saying each phase has to be approved before it can you know funding have to be has to be available otherwise you have no obligation you know and um let let me uh let me just have my um my little crew work on that I'll send it to you tomorrow okay thank you all right anything else before we go to oh I'm sorry yeah yeah I just want to mention I I reached out to the community preservation asking them for when their next meeting would be and uh asking to be heard about their perspective on this project and what they may or may not be willing to contribute or just discuss I mean just putting I sent them an email which officially puts on their radar that we would be looking to engage Eng with them about the potential for Community preservation to working with us on their public manday okay think the first Wednesday of the month think it's first Wednesday but it's not they didn't the meeting wasn't posted for tomorrow I mean Wednesday or yeah I we don't have anything going um okay um there's is there any public input Megan part of CH do I have public input you can have public input if you as as as a non as a non-resident you don't get to vote but you can certainly Chim in I'll i i i wisely keep quiet well when do we want to meet meet again what's the most important thing that we need to know just to say my Wednesday Wednesday evenings have freed up you know we were yeah my my group is wants to meet during the day you my wonderful so so if we want to go back to Wednesday nights I think I can attend right yeah I cannot 13th Public Works commission meeting is that is that two weeks from two oh no that's one that's only one week if we met two weeks from now which has been our normal schedule that would and we went back to Wednesdays that would be the 20th 14 and four 18 I know but what I'm saying is if we if you want stay on Monday night we can stay on Monday night but if you wanted to go back to I don't have a preference either way to yep I just can't meet the second Wednesday of the month yeah for 10 months okay yep that that will not conflict with that um because I think we're we're waiting to hear back some more of the uh the site due diligence will we don't know yet when we're going to be slated in for Capital planning and we'll have feedback or debriefing to do after Thursday's session so and the select board on the 19 the select board on the 19 and do we want to talk briefly about what we're gonna so if we don't meet prior to the 19 right what we will be going to the select board with or asking for or informing them about is yeah so I had started to draft and it's very similar to what's in the capital plan so um we don't need page one or [Music] to three um so we could give an update on the site due diligence but what we're really updating them on is a refined total project cost and timeline so I think we would be asking for them is for their support for uh February late February early March a special town meeting within that time frame okay but we're not going to add within that so we we're not looking for a specific date yet but we are simply asking for their Indulgence and right and and to with the expectation that we would be back to them in early December because we have thought that by early December we would be able to confirm some of these things that were hanging out there as far as the site due diligence so we would know um I think we said last meeting or two meetings ago that by early December we would know whether there was going to be a take or not um whether we would be entering into the phase two we would know whether or not we were going to need to do the full summertime um part of the habitat assessment so that would give us a better sense of how many um still to be determined things would be hanging out there when we would go to town meeting so the suggested 19th was that was Robert's suggestion right the last meaning yeah so I kind of drafted a would be nice if we met with the capital committee before we won't col yeah I would think yeah since they're gonna have they have the more documents now that anyone has based on what you sent them yes you are get some kind of a you know feeling just tell us you know whatever you know you came come back Toc us until so Capital planning is meeting the 6 they're meeting Wednesday this week at five that's two days yeah so we going are we going to that meeting we're just observing I mean I think we could let's see I'm just looking at the it's posted let's see so they're going to get an overview on use of clear gov they're going to get an initial overview of the FY 26 Department Capital requests and they're going to schedule meetings with the town departments to discuss to present those okay so I mean I don't there's no reason for us to go I'm not sure there's really any reason for us to go because they're not getting into the meet of any of these on Wednesday so it's number five that you would want to scheduling meeting with the town departments that's the one where you're going to be right they're going to lay out a schedule that's they're going to lay out a schedule and let us know when we're I mean if we were if we attended that meeting we would know at that meeting when we're coming otherwise they will notify us when we're would it be um to our benefit be more specific that we would be interested in being the first meeting that they had since we're not going to grind it out all week along like other department it's out the other departments will have a preliminary meeting they'll have given back going back and forth and they to have another meeting well when's their next meeting after the six oh no they don't they don't post they don't post they don't so they things go the way the current current Clerk and IT department flow goes is that when you when a department head or a committee submits an agenda and the town clerk receives it and posts it for open meeting law purposes then it's forwarded to the IT department who then posts it on the town calendar each Town Department it is not able to post to the town calendar so but on would you say on average they meet once a month that I don't know I don't think they meet they have to meet more often as it gets tighter to the budget yeah get into the end of the year right right so it's a general startup and then later on they I think they tighten it up going into the so I would assume if they're gonna still have another meeting in November right probably on the 20th or somewhere that but let me ask a question so to is it our thought that when we go to Capital planning we we simp going in there as an explanation of where we are or we trying to get some kind of an endorsement I mean I think that we are asking them to confirm our understanding that the town's finances can in fact take a 16.6 Capital request and that our uh you know there's there's room within the tax levy there is room within the capital planning $50 million budget that is what I'm looking for hoping to hear is that yes the town can't afford it um it does not risk our bond rating it does not risk you know excessive taxation it does not do any of that and that yeah so from a financial perspective we feel we the capital planning committee kind of understand that the town manager's assessment of this is in fact accurate so I I don't intend to I have not attended in the last three years any Capital meetings because I haven't had any Capital because we've been making due here right um I don't I'm not sure it would be reasonable to expect them to come to that conclusion in the one meeting like following the normal you're following the normal process would meet with all the department heads and then make recommendations for what goes into there's that set of money that's set aside that you vote all those things together and then there's the ones that are separated out into their separate projects and then they get the endorsement yeah I'm not expecting that they would endorse it at the first meeting well the second meeting but sometime before the time that we need to schedule the special town meeting that they would have weighed in on whether or not it falls within you know right and I think the timeline is certainly certainly a big piece of that and that's why that's that there's a lot of time spent on the the timeline in the memo so it should be clear that what we're asking is not for the regular timeline and I think that's being communicated um through the town manager hopefully that's being you know B because Jimmy Perard's on this committee and that committee hopefully that's information but that that would be a piece of it is because you are going to want their endorsement for that shortened time frame I don't know if anyone else has a comment on this one see I don't see it as capital so I'm not sure they can endorse it number one this is my own personal thought okay so I'm not exactly sure that that that Capital planning committee even has a say on it because it's an outside bonding agent one counil and all the other I see them as being specific to a particular piece of capital a fire engine a additional piece of this or a piece of that and this is totally different than that that's why I'm curious about the steps you know I think it's a good point to inform them I think we want to inform them and let let them know but I'm not sure that they had the ability to make a decision but don't you want there and I think you want the endorsement because it's written in the warrant isn't it no down the bottom seriously everything is Warr either got the it's a select Bo but Finance but finance committee different okay yes I could I say goodbye definitely dinner can I eat dinner and go to bed good night thanks joh thanks John all right so can I tentatively suggest that we meet November 20th at 6 yep if we find that we're going to meet with capital before then we'll swing back around and maybe have a meeting beforehand to further discuss the presentation and all of that stuff uh because we can always schedule an additional meeting um but that is an point and that's something I'm sure that Robert could clarify if you here tonight but we just happen to be conflicting with the tonight um okay all right and it's fine to meet with um Capal planning before we have all the findings from the assessments and everything or is that would be better to have them but yeah I mean I think you know in the memo I mentioned what's you know in progress what's completed did a great job um really good job so that they they will know that I'm unless their unless their opinion is we don't want to give an endorsement of it until this is done otherwise I don't know that they're they're really going to get that involved in it we can't to right yeah think that this the 16.6 number is is the one that we we worked on getting a number out there important we worked on getting a number out there that's important thing that sticker shock or that that doesn't take anyone's breath away and that the town feels comfortable at that number as being financially prudent given wherever we are at yep and you sent them um you can think at the breakdown um one of the breakdowns Robert asked me to send the October 2nd one I can certainly bring the other one I suggest that we I suggest that we vote on be sent out to different departments rather than taking Le all the time from someone else that's a fair point that is a fair point um he was looking for the official one but official one there are estimates there's no official anything their estimates right but the one the official one that came out of this committee is the one I just yeah that's a fair point thank you yeah I can certainly add additional documents if you guys want what have your sentiments good at this point in time well but I mean that's part of the beauty of clear is that you can add additional you additional documentation that's seeit so do you want do way I'm bringing these technical points of only because they sometimes come up in the future as to a sequence and who did what who gone first and why are you doing from over here um I'd like to take for this committee to take responsibility for what this puled from this commit I think that's that's a good point I agree I agree and I I mean for me the that is I think we need to kind of maintain the momentum that we have gained right now in move the process forward um expeditiously shall we say that is we not that just we have to continue to kind of press press the timeline and keep moving the project forward um because you know February you know mid-February early March is not that far away and um you know we want to have all our ducks in a row we get there I think this committee has done a really good job on the land but we're not doing anything different than a developer would had to do to assess the value of the land and what you can do there we're right on board and now I know it's John's not here but he' agreed obviously we've done what he's asked us to do as well so the only little thing he had left was the barings that's going to be done we had no we had no misunderstanding that we weren't going to do them we were going to do them anyway oh s so these four or five steps that we've taken and we talked about this before are already ahead of what we would have done in some other situation she could have had the land and then pushed it all down the road you know but they're gonna have that all cleared up yeah so anything that happen will speed up the process down the road know to get it going and hopefully unlike the West Main Street proposal in 2020 that will give the voter the confidence that they need in order to approve the funding for it it's a little different price yeah I think we've done good as a group I think we are too we have like a we do have a really varied group with a lot of different skills that really are coming together to build a beautiful building well mean just this paperwork that you had to do last week at the last minute oh I know yeah yeah okay all right do I have do I have a motion to adjourn before someone starts crying all right all in favor all right adjourned at 7:51 --------- ##VIDEO ID:bvtHIcLIMlk## call to order the town of air select board meeting for Monday November 4th 2024 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 inperson 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 not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast unless otherwise required by law members of the public with a particular interest in a specific item on this agenda should make plans for in-person versus virtual attendance accordingly this meeting will be live on zoom and channel 8 the public May access the proceedings by joining Zoom meeting ID number 897 98 0793 or by calling 929 25699 for additional information about remote participation please contact contct Carly antonellis assistant Town manager at ATM a.m. us or [Applause] 978-772-4864 and justice for all um any amendments to the agenda Mr P brand Mr chairman uh members of the board uh at the 6:15 Mark the Department of Public Works report the execution of contract we're asked to just withdraw that on the DPW director hasn't received the uh contract paperwork yet so we'll move that to the meeting on the 19th so moved okay yeah a second all those in favor I I chair says I um no announcements this evening um anybody here for public input or online okay um not seeing any um G I'll turn it over to you open the public hearing for the application for multiple amendments from page more Cafe Inc doing business as Billard Cafe at 39 M Street you practicly read the whole thing town of air NOS the public hearing air select board the air select board will conduct an inperson and remote public hearing on Monday November 4th 2024 at 600 p.m. at the air Town Hall 1 Main Street air mass 01432 regarding an application for multiple Amendments of current General Law chapter 138 section 12 General on premises on premise from paage Moore Cafe Incorporated uh doing business as Billiards Cafe C Jonathan Moore manager for premises located at 39 Main Street air mass 01432 including change of office officers directors LLC managers change of stock interest and change of manager for Zoom call and information please contact ATM a.m. us or 978-772-4864 couple I don't know a month ago we did this what happened was when uh Mr Moore's attorney called the abcc they gave him the wrong package to fill out so this is just correcting that okay so there was no issues last time there's no issues this time they're not recharging him to apply because it was a mistake on their end um you know all of our department heads have looked at it so I would recommend approval okay any questions just seems clerical yeah MH yeah yeah um any questions from the public no okay if not I'll take a motion um I'll make a motion that the application for multiple amendments from page more Cafe Incorporated doing business as Billiards Cafe on 39 Main Street be approved as submitted seconded all those in favor I I chair says I is approved make a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn from the public hearing regarding page more Cafe seconded all those in favor I I jar says I next item public hearing for the calendar year 20125 solid waste Transfer Station rates okay there it is I was looking for it uh town of air notice a public hearing air select Board calendar year 2025 solid waste Transfer Station public hearing the air select board will be conducting a remote and in-person public hearing on Monday November 4th 2024 at 605 p.m. air Town Hall One Main Street air mass the select board in their legal capacity is the rate setting Authority for the solid waste Enterprise fund transfer station will hear the report and recommendations of the town's rate Review Committee take public comments and consider approval and Adoption of the calendar year 2025 solid waste Transfer Station rates resume call in information information please contact assistant Town manager Carly antonellis at 978 77282 to0 extension 10000 or ATM a.m. us um Dan good evening evening Mr chair and board members do you want me to um you can do it okay so um so on behalf of the rate Review Committee I've put together presentation very similar to years past on the um recommended rates so we can go forward so just a reminder the rate Review Committee purpose is to evaluate and recommend transfer station Water and Sewer rates to the select board um the goal of this meeting is to provide the recommendation for the transfer station rates so that's the perview at this time um copyright from the website as well next rate review committee members um here's a list of the committee members and I I just like to point out um we did have an SIU representative just recently join from Noya Mr Justin Lee so we're grateful to have him especially as water and sewer rates are the next uh coming up towards the end of this year we'll start looking at those um as well as the um the other um Representatives we have I'm not going to go through the list but uh next on this slide so a brief overview of the transfer station and solid waste budget budget um it's an operation it's an Enterprise fund so separate accounting uh fees and rates are charged for the services the Solway Services revenue is primarily obtained from two sources the annual permit sticker sales and the pay as you throw bag sales the blue bags and a portion of the budget is subsidized by the general fund the operation at the transfer station um there's trash Municipal Solid Waste dispos osal zero short recycling so basically anything that's recyclable can go into one bin except our cardboard up there food waste collection bulk items yard waste the swap shed book textile and metal recycling among other major things of their services up there uh here's the current fees the annual sticker permit for those under 65 years of age is 105 65 and over 60 for a senior citizen rate and then we have second permit 30 1 day 15 our current bag fees as well as the bulk tag fees or bulk tag I guess how much one bulk tag is worth is $5 here's the next slide shows the actual fees for bulk items so I won't go through the list but um kind of a breakdown briefly the fy2 solid waste budget and it's very similar to previous years you'll notice the blue are the wages 25% % of the budget comes from wages disposal and recycling which has increased um since you know about 2018 has gone up um pretty good is uh 31% of the budget and then the remainder is filled out by a few other sources but wages and the huling disposal recycling are the most costly so the revenue needed through the sales of our permit stickers and the pay you throw bags so what we do is we look at the total budget The General fund subsidy that was authorized at town meeting in April for fy2 retained earnings were also authorized at fy2 town meeting and then other Revenue sources we we know are where we're going to be receiving um to calculate hey here's how much we need to to get from paisy throw bags and the stickers so that turns out to be about $ 32,44 that's what we want to get from the the bags and the stickers to to have a a break even budget um I can go to the next slide so just some notable budget considerations the contracts for Sol waste disposal and recycling collection they've increased over the years due to increased hauling and Disposal costs um we are in a a current three-year contract so you know this this year wouldn't I wouldn't expect anything out of the ordinary cost wise um recycling Commodities Market this is kind of your wild card are we paying for recycling are we getting paid for recycling what's the Commodities market like it's been more favorable than in past years recently so our costs have gone down a little bit which is good um tough one to to forecast but uh it's been better general cost increases due to inflation that's you know in every sector um tax levy retained earnings subsidy so obviously those are are um are part of what we we factor into I mentioned on the previous slide and then our our user Trends how many people are are paying to use the station so here's trends of waste and recycling expenses I mentioned since so you can look back here to fy7 these are what our costs were um to the yellow would be for Waste Disposal so trash disposal hauling in disposal you can see that significantly increased to FY 24 and you can see recycling as well used to be down close to $30,000 back in FY 17 you know that would be our budget for the year and it got up all the way over 70,00 000 and fy20 which is kind of leveled off in that region um you know based on the recycling Commodities Market next this is um transfer station users uh the permits we've been selling um by group so the Top Line the blue one is all of the sticker sales combined the red line is your regular permits we call them the $15 non senior the green line are your senior permit sales the number of permits sold and the purple is your second sticker so you know it's been pretty pretty level on the trend nothing too high too low um significantly to tell about we can go to the next so rate Review Committee um uses a rate model to to estimate the revenue generated from the permit and pays you throw bag sales so kind of using past Year's Trends on the bag sales and past year Trends on the number of users we've we've had at the station forecasting ahead um so we look at many different rate scenarios for modification to the permit and bag fees to meet that $312,000 uh number that I showed on a previous slide for the re Revenue required next okay so um in short so the rate Review Committee evaluated many different scenarios I mentioned for the bag fees and permit fees and under the current rates it's anticipated to generate the 39,4 $125 so this is short of the $312,000 I don't have the number up there by about $33,000 so it's um it's very close so some key notes from the discussion that the uh committee had was the collective bargaining agreement for the DPW Union that actually expires um at the end of this fiscal year so we'll soon be going into negotiations for a new agreement and so as part of that we're going to be looking at the work hours um to try to reduce the cost on that end of uh of the wages cost um there's potential future reduction in cost there that's what I'm I mean by review of ours um and then revenue from bulk tag sales so I I think it was two years ago we increased the price of bulk tags uh not of bulk items to be more reflective of current prices and what we need to be able to to be able to break even on those and even potentially get some Revenue into the um solid ways budget so that's been um around $10,000 now per year and it used to be maybe a third of that not even um so that's been significant so I I did factor that into this this number we're at with the short Revenue required $3,000 so that's um that's something to kind of we'll be looking at as we go forward in the future aside from just the stickers and the blue pays you throw bags uh the annual Solid Waste budget versus the actual I I don't have a graphic of it up here but we're typically under budget you know we're budget conscious so $3,000 is not a lot to be to be making up in a budget year um to be making sure we don't spend so you know with that those kind of three components there um some other discussion as well the rate Review Committee did recommend no changes to the fees feeling that you know with a potential reduction in cost in the future that's potential based on the collective bargaining agreement um we don't want to raise the fees now and then potentially next year we're actually you know are we don't have to make up as much revenue because there's a a cost reduction um next slide so recommendation no change to fees so these are the same fees that we shown on the the slide near the beginning of the presentation and um and just the list of recent fee increases as well but I won't go through that right now this is something the committee takes into consideration as well as we look at at as our annual um fees okay estimated cost to Residents so every year I put this slide on here um transfer station assuming a permit of $105 plus say $350 uh for bags so that'd be 70 medium bags it would cost a household about $455 per year so I did put a cavat there and asterisk the above cost include assumptions on the number of bags used it would vary by us user and family like for example my family we use a transfer station we use medium bags one like one per week so we'd probably actually be a little lower um family of four but everyone every family is different in usage uh senior permit similarly just doing a projection and assumptions around 160 per year if we're accounting for small bags could be more than that if more bags are used but the permit would always hold the 60 and then a private trash hauler the least expensive one I was able to find was around $600 per year you know I would keep in mind it doesn't have all the services the transfer station does as well um as it's just Recycling and trash and and I'm sure you probably have to pay for bulk items and things like that as well um is that it yep that's it questions comments um so just looking at this the slide that says the recommendation no change to fees yeah um and it says annual permit 105 but it says $5 increase oh that's an error okay sorry about that okay yeah it should just say annual permit and no change no change okay um and um another question that I I've noticed is you know the different bags they're not linear in cost so you know the 15 gallon bag is $4 you know opposed to the 50 gallon bag that's six so you know it it it kind of follows like almost an economies of scale however that wouldn't really come into play with this so it's 26 cents per gallon if you get a 15 gallon one all the way down to 12 cents per gallon if you get a 50 gallon bag so I was just curious on how that is is figured out um there a good question uh Chris and i' you know I'd have to kind of look at how we've done it in the past cuz we really haven't raised them since I've been in um in charge so I'd really want to look at it um and kind of get you a better answer I don't I don't really want to speculate right now but um I could do that okay we've often used the bags when instead of R raising the permit we've used the bags to increase to get our income um Theory being is that people might conserve more if the price of the bag goes up maybe they'll compost a little bit more recycle a little bit more so they're not using that many bags rather than the permit um but I can tell you the consensus is everybody hates the bags but it's it is what it is yeah I mean I have no issue with charging pays you throw it's more just in benchmarking kind of the other programs that I saw in other towns that it is linear so it's like you're paying the same price per gallon it's just you know different bags so it's the same cost and it just comes to my head because sometimes I think you know the 15 gallon bag is nice when I just want to throw away a couple small things but I say actually I'm paying more if I do that rather than stuff full a 50 gallon and throw that so that's you know the only thing that I've really kind of just stuck up to me is just wondering you know how that got figured I think um I'm going to speculate but um what we pay for the bags to be generated and furnished I'd have to look at that because I'm guessing it it costs a little more to furnish the 15 Gallons as opposed to you know 55 um but I have to look at what our I don't have the price on the top of my head but that would probably factor into it yeah yeah when we're talking scale yeah no I mean you know I I add the caveat that we we have no idea what we're going to end up having to do next year um I you know one of the things that the committee talked about is uh you know as far as the retained earnings um what did we use like 30 about 37,000 this year why don't we use 50,000 um so that is something that will be looked at so when it goes to town meeting you know we might be asking to use a little bit more of the retained earnings um we tend to keep the subsidy um at probably just under 1% of the Town budget not don't we don't count the school when that's added in okay just to to make sure everybody knows um because we don't we don't want to go any higher than that and uh um one the other things that stopped us from even looking at uh changing any prices this year is one we were going to have a very small shortfall so we were like I think we can handle that um but two um with the contracts coming up we have we'll have more more information next year um to look at as far as you know that could affect a change um that needs to be brought forward to say hey we're going to you know raise this this much and everything um so but yeah so we we we've tried not to ra we don't I think we've gone a couple years without raising the rates which is which is good we try we try not to raise the rates unless we really need to I mean overall I mean inflation over the past 3 years I have like you 14% this is like N9 and a half um over the three years here so I mean it's it's good it's it's below what inflation is so overall it's it's excellent okay no there's no more questions I don't have any I think every resident will be happy not to have a fe raised um I'll take a motion okay um I will make a motion to um accept the um calendar year 2025 Solid Waste uh from the transfer transfer station rates as recommended by the rate Review Committee second all those in favor I hi Chair say I and with that I'll make a motion to close the public hearing uh seconded all in favor I I chair says I thanks K thanks Dan thank you Dan all right um so that brings us to our town manager's report Mr Mar Mr chairman members of the board uh good evening you have in your packet the town warrants that were reviewed and approved uh since the select board last met uh for the administrative update just a couple of things um reminder tomorrow is the election and polls are open 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. here at Town Hall uh the capital planning committee is going to meet on Wednesday Wednesday uh November 6th at 5:00 p.m. all of the capital requests were due October 31st and the committee will be meeting to start an initial review and to schedule who they want to meet with we'll have all of the capital plans up on the website uh tomorrow um and the committee is going to be using the capital uh the cleargov capital uh module uh this year through the capital planning process there's going to be an important senior Center public input meeting on Thursday November 7th at 700 p.m. in the Great Hall uh the committee the senior center site selection building committee uh will be looking for public input on the proposed Senior Center project as well as to present um important information of the 71 Sandy Pond working group meeting we're looking to schedule a meeting uh the week of November 11th we're just finalizing uh to nail that down for the week of November 11th and that'll also be posted um for the select board's charge of those meetings will be um publicly posted uh so we'll get looking forward to getting that underway and then coming attractions uh November 19th at the selectboard meeting will be the tax classification hearing with the board of assessors and the senior center site selection and building committee would like to come to the board um for a discussion and update on um some funding questions and timeline questions so there'll be information in your packet to that to that effect um I just want to offer brief Personnel update to the board since the board last met um max Goodwin our new it coordinator started November 1st and hit the ground running and as mentioned uh he'll be working with Miss Knox um till December 31st to transition uh the department um so that that's moving ahead um as mentioned to the board uh the town social worker Britney bowy um resigned on October 31st uh to take a position uh closer to her home and to pursue her her graduate degree um so we were going to be uh reassessing U the needs of that position it was a new position it was sort of the first year uh We'll advise back to the board as far as as next steps with respect uh to that position uh the director of Economic and Community Development position uh remains open at this time only as we're internally re-evaluating the scope of the position and We'll advise the board of course on next steps with respect to that as we move forward I also um the assistant Parks director uh position um we have posted that position as the board will recall uh we've discussed this a few times um since July uh that the position has been a priority of the Parks Commission and the parks department for a few years now uh the previous director Mr Thomas announced his retirement in April of May April of May this year so at that time we had planned um that he would continue in that position as the Director uh when he left um it further necessitated or brought UPF front the need for an assistant position for that department as that department has grown both in scope in terms of programs Personnel um and if you look at any of the other major Departments of which the parks department certainly is this the manager and an assistant and and so it moved um up quickly and so the first thing we did we put together a transition Bridge from May to November 1st in which Mr Thomas worked with Miss Ernst um to orientate the department similar to what we're doing in it and have done in other departments in the past um the commission the the original plan as I had reported to the board was to for the fall town meeting to make a request for supplemental funding based on the certification of free cash to fund this position yes it's a mid-year request um which is not always common but given the unique uh transition in the department and the needs uh the commission and I agreed felt that um it was important unfortunately free cash didn't get certified in time for town meeting as I reported and then um working with the town accountant and the finance manager Parks director commission we were able to put together um a plan that would meet the needs of the department sooner than July 1st have an assistant in place for the spring and summer um planning uh for the department and spring is one of the busiest um times for the department and um looking at the parks department budget uh there was uh we need to look at existing funding for personnel purposes from December to June 30th we would need $77,200 there's currently $89,700 remaining in the Personnel wage lines of the parks department budget and also the part-time positions some of them that are filled um in sort of the offseason could be funded through the revolving fund on a temporary part-time basis if needed um the takeaway is uh there is adequate funding in the parks department budget to cover this uh um it was a a midyear decision the full Position will be in the FY 26 budget that we'll be putting together um for December 1st for consideration uh for town meeting in April it's a grade nine position on the town's non-union Personnel grid which is a 56,000 to 59,000 entry entry um pay range um and as I mentioned the the budget can carry both of those positions we've advertise the position with the deadline of November 22nd that's preference it'll remain open um until filled and the anticipated budget impact for FY 26 when we put this in the budget will be approximately $60,000 so I just wanted to to clarify I know we've been talking about the assistant position for some time that's sort of the plan where we're at moving moving forward um the parks director would like to come uh to the November 9 19th meeting to just give a brief update of what the parks department has been doing just as an informational update um and so we look forward to having Sarah there so um some Personnel um changes um which are inevitable but also um I believe a proactive plan uh to address those um that's the conclusion of my administrative update I do have one action item this evening unless there's questions from the board on any Personnel or other administrative matters questions okay um the item the action item and you have in your packet uh and I know that selectman uh Livingston and tarus were at the exciting groundbreaking for 12 Newton Street for Habitat for Humanity and that project is really moving forward uh you have in your packet a request from Miss Carolyn Reed the executive director who is here this evening um from October 17th um requesting that the select board uh consider uh a waiver for the water and sewer connection fees for the 12 Newton Street habitat house uh which totals um the connection fees $21,600 uh and uh upon receipt of her request both the DPW director and I reviewed the request as the board will probably recall the last habitat project on on Central AV the board also um waved those fees where habitat is a nonprofit the emission of um affordable housing is a key importance uh to the town you have a second Memo from October 30th from the DPW director um having reviewed it as well and recommending um that waiver so our recommendation is that the select board vote to wave the water and sewer connection fees for 12 Newton Street and Miss Reed is here this evening if the board have any questions for her any questions I do not no I don't have any questions I'll take a motion uh I'll make a motion that the uh board approved the request to wave the connection fee for the Habitat for Humanity um what number 12 12 Newton Street um as requested seconded all those in favor I I and the chair says quy says I absolutely it's looking good over there yeah is it yeah they very busy over there today you you you you look turn your head for like five minutes and you turn back and you're like [Laughter] whoa yeah so yeah nice thank you Pauline it's nice to see you here in person but I was expecting feedback on our new system way to the [Music] 19th when that is right here this is the zoom screen so this is so we don't have to share so if we shared screens it would appear so we'd see it there you would see it there perfect yeah yep but yeah that that one is so Robert remember the fight we had to get the first onead I remember the first time Gary was using it and somebody tried to dial in and we were all like scared that should we answer this what do we do we were scared of what might happen I remember that support absolutely no problem good work you're doing over there and Mr just before I conclude my report I just wanted to mention I wanted to thank uh Chuck Schultz who I saw was here earlier the facilities director for all of his work in making these improvements happen also with APAC for their input and involvement and as you'll see in the capital request and Max is just joining us working closely with them you'll see in the capital requests the plan for the Great Hall which we'll have more to discuss so we'll continue to invest where we can uh to improve access and participation Town Hall so that concludes my report I thank the board for your time this evening thank you thank you um next item new business select board member questions so Mr chair my apologies for not bringing this up uh under an announcements but it totally I didn't even think about it until he was mentioning uh you know like a public hearing so this Saturday here at the Town Hall at 10:30 will be the Veterans Day ceremony um and then uh the the post will start collecting the flags from the cemeteries after the meeting so and I will send a note to to you guys so that you can post it on Facebook but there will be uh post 139 the air American Legion Post here in town will'll hold the ceremony for the veterans here uh in the monument area on 10:30 on Saturday okay thank you for that update all right if there's no other questions or um no we got meeting minutes no no no I oh okay the way you said that I was just like um next up would then be the approval of meeting minutes for October 15th 2024 I didn't see any issues I found no issues either same so I'll make a motion that the 80 minutes on Tuesday October 15 2024 be approved as submitted second it all those in favor I chair says I and with that Mr chair if there's nothing else I'd like to make a motion to adjourn I will second that all those in favor I I and chair