e okay being six o'cl I mean 5 o' uh we're going to call to order this uh meeting of the chancel select board for June 24th 2024 um and notify everyone that chancel tele media is uh uh broadcasting this meeting live and taping it for later rebroadcast and if there's anyone else who is um taping it um please let the chair know so we can let everybody else know and if you would join me in a pledge of allegiance Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep stand One Nation indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you okay so we'll start out with a public service announcements Aaron so first we have an announcement about the town of chelsford 2024 Independence Day program program um on Wednesday July 3rd there will be an art festival at the Center for the Arts from 3:00 to 9:00 and the country fair is going on from 5:00 to 9: on the common uh there the kitty train rides from 5: to 8 and there is a band concert from 7:00 to 8:30 and on Thursday the 4th we have the country fair at 8: a.m. on the common there will be a flag raising uh also on the common at 8:30 and from 8:30 to there's an art festival put on by the chumford art Society 9:30 a.m. there is the um annual John Carson 2 Mile Road Race and the annual Independence Day parade starts at 10 a.m. very exciting next we have a public notice from the town of chelur regarding fall 2024 annual town meeting the town of chumford will convene the 2024 file town meeting on Monday October 21st 2024 articles to be included on the warrant must be submitted to the office of the Town manager at 50 Bill rer Road prior to 4 p.m. on Monday August 5th 2024 petitioned articles must carry the signatures of at least 10 voters for more information please contact the town manager's office at 978 25052 2 the chelsford dog park advisory committee is looking for help they're looking for assistance with fundraising for the Chumps for dog park a rental area coordinator a maintenance coordinator for more information or to get involved in other ways please email or call a committee member um or come meet the committee at the dog park at their public open session on July 17th between 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. [Applause] the low Regional Transit Authority would like everyone to try Transit month the entire month of July 2024 you can ride for free on all LRTA buses and Roadrunner vehicles in an effort to introduce public transportation to everyone in our community for more information you can visit www.rta.com we just turn that off we just turned that off but that's okay um next we have an announcement from the open space and Recreation plan survey they are running a survey they'd like for everyone to tell them their favorite place to play and what other types of open space and Recreation does our town need and what could be improved on I have a QR code here but no website site um I think you can probably find more information on the town website um the municipality vulnerability preparedness 2.0 project would like feedback on what we think would make Chelmsford better and more resilient survey responses are being collected until July 12th um again I have a QR code it's url.com though so you should be able to find something there that's it okay thank you and we'll go next to committee vacancies the following committees have vacancies as of June 24th 2024 the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee Conservation Commission the commission on disabilities the Community Action Program committee the cultural Council historic district commission is looking for an associate member the holiday decorating committee the parade committee public records advisory committee the Robert field advisory committee and the recycling committee if you are interested in serving on a Town border committee please complete an online application available on the town website okay thank you um Paul do we have Virginia yet yeah Virginia's on the zoom oh okay yeah she's yeah she's not pictured but she's there okay are you able to hear me okay now we can can see you yeah yeah can you you can hear me yes I see you thank you okay thank you so the next item on the agenda is a uh an interview with representatives from KP law that are here to talk to us about being potentially being our new Town Council so Lauren if you'd like to come up to the microphone and tell us what you can do for us well Madam chair and members of the board we're excited to be before you um as you know we have uh been Town Council in the past and have very much enjoyed working with the town we have uh contined to have involvement with the town through special Council work um myself working with the Town Clerk and Michael dortenzio also working with the town clerk on elections and public records issues Tom mcenany from our office working on um some tax issues with u Mr susza and um uh Brian merer as you know who serves as your labor Council we have as as you probably already know but I'll repeat for the uh for those that don't uh we have a what we would refer to as a full service Law Firm we provide a broad range of representation to a significant number of municipalities in the state um we handle things from zoning and cable to bond Council work and Conservation Commission matters and uh really feel like we can manage your legal services in an efficient and effective way at a great price that's my my characterization um and uh so we um we um are are uh excited to to potentially work with the town uh we know you have um you know uh significant needs for your town meetings we know your department heads have significant needs and we feel like we've put together a team that will be able to uh handle those needs well um just so that you understand the way that we interact with the town is typically through a lead Council who um we have Joe far sitting here who would be acting as a lead and a backup who um we have Michael dortenzio here with the goal that they would essentially uh serve as with the town manager as a pass through for uh legal legal services so uh we take our our direction from the town we copy uh the uh Town manager on all that we do so that he know knows what um what's going on and and your staff would copy uh Joe far so that he would know what's going on um the uh Legal Services then would be handled from Joe and Michael if they weren't going to handle something themselves let's say it's a complicated contract litigation matter uh we would bring Tom mcin who would already be helping the town with its contracts um and uh tax issues and Tom is the person that you want doing contracts litigation and so he would be the person that we would bring to bear um as you know from previously uh you know if we need elections help that would be me or Mr dortenzio and um you know we could go through the different types of things that you face I know one significant one is land use and real estate and we have Jonathan ikeman who isn't here today but would be happy to come in and speak with you who has over 20 I think it's more than 20 but I'm going to say over 20 years of experience doing real estate and land use work and he actually has a very significant uh advantage in that from his perspective he can deal with both real estate and land use uh issues where they interact and as you know land use issues often have a real estate component and vice versa um so we really do uh are happy to present this team and rather than me talking for the entire time um I'd like to introduce uh Joe far who can talk to you a bit about his expertise um and just so you know um as it says in the proposal I would always be available uh you can't reach Joe or Michael for whatever reason and I can't imagine that that would happen but if it did I am available to to you all um you know on an as as needed basis okay thank you thank you Lauren and uh thank you members of the board for inviting us here today uh I've had the pleasure of meeting most of you with the exception of Mr Maloney so it's pleasure to meet you tonight sir um as you know one of the things that um you know we pride ourselves on is having responsive um you know communication so uh it with respect to the board members that are currently here um I think that's something I've done quite well in representing the town in The Limited capacity that I have thus far is being able to address some of the more General Municipal issues that have come up as well as some of the labor issues but primarily um more recently in the area of dealing with open meeting LW issues and minutes and public records and things like that so you know that as an area in addition to my labor and employment expertise and Brian Maser would continue on as labor Council um I certainly could serve as a backup to him um given my uh area there um but I also serve as a as the primary contact in several other communities in Massachusetts part of my job as the primary is as Lauren said to serve as the gatekeeper so we're in uh primary con uh communication with the town manager or potentially members of the board directly uh as your policy allows for and you know my job is to essentially triage look at what matters you have before you what needs immediate attention in many cases on the general Municipal side I'll be able to handle them myself directly um otherwise my job is to as Lauren said push that out to the Specialists that are on the team keep track of timelines keep track of what the requests are and sort of help to um not only make sure that you're getting timely responses back back because that's important it's obviously critical in many cases um but also just to make sure that I'm aware of everything that's going on so that where where matters come up or if there's an issue that that arises uh I'm in the loop um so I can keep you all in the loop uh I've been with KP law for over 20 years now uh this is an area of that I've been practicing in for the better part of my career uh so I have a quite uh a depth of experience and and handling uh not only just the laborate employment side but also the general Municipal matters so uh I appreciate the opportunity uh certainly look forward to um working with you if if the board will still have it um I think um we'd like to have Michael just give a little bit of a uh insight into his his background and experience if if that would be okay with the board of time permits sure thank you thank you very much Joe and Lauren and good evening members of the board Mr manager it's a pleasure to be here uh in Chelmsford I've uh really enjoyed working with your town clerk's office your Police Department uh in assisting with public records and elections over the past few months excellent staff that you have there uh and I'm excited to be here to introduce myself and hopefully be able to provide support to the town uh in the future I have been a town meeting member in my hometown since 2010 uh and I don't work with a lot of Representative Town meetings and so I'm excited that in Chelmsford you have a representative town meeting as well uh it certainly is different than the open town meeting you get to know uh the culture the flavor the people uh it very much uh has a particular way to it and so that's something uh in particular that I'm excited about uh you know the other thing I want to build on what Joe and Lauren said is that all of us at KP are sort of Municipal nerds so we we might not want to admit that on a recorded Zoom but that is generally what we are and so all of us in our hometowns have served over time in one capacity or another you know I'm on my Parks Board right now I know folks down the hall have been Selectmen school committee members uh members of the boards of registrars whatever it may be and so uh all of us do this of course as our vocation um but we also do this as an advocation uh because we we really enjoy this work we have tremendous respect for your hardworking mun ipal employees uh and it'd really be a privilege for us to continue to do that uh in a more full service way in Chelmsford and I know you have a a number of projects coming up you've got the fire station you're talking about next the Parker middle school project that's coming up uh so there's a lot on the docket uh and we are ready uh and able um to help you with those uh next year the year after uh and hopefully the years ahead so I know on behalf of Lauren and Joe we really appreciate you having us uh and I'd say we're happy to answer any questions uh as well if uh Madame chairwoman Mr manager members of the board you have any thank you for having us okay well I have one question I don't know who's best to answer it and since you're all Municipal nerds I probably could be any of the three um who would be our our primary contact when it would come to town meeting who would be there on nights of town meeting to answer questions legal questions that come up so Joe would be the the primary contact I know Lauren's available to attend uh as well if her schedule permits and so uh you know as we get each town meeting scheduled uh we can figure out who is available and and who the town needs to have okay would you like to add anything further L Madam chair thank you and members of the board as you know I have been to many of your town meetings in the past I very much like working with the moderator um you know town meeting is uh uh its own its own entity as as Michael referred to uh and we typically try to have the uh primary person who would be Joe attend those meetings however as you know John was your primary in the past John Georgio and I attended plenty of meetings Joe and I work very closely together in several towns and so um you know we will make it work so that one of us is there regardless of what other commitments we might have okay thank you all right so uh Virginia you have any questions uh yes thank you Pat um my first question is uh we have um in the last few years when we are working on say negotiations with the town manager or other matters that come up with the town manager we've had a special Council assigned to help insulate that process from the day-to-day operations with the town manager from from the law firm which may in this case be you so if that need arises again do you have someone available who could serve as an independent Council to the select board when it comes to labor matters with the town manager Madam chair through you uh yes we have a very uh deep uh labor and employment department with very qualified I would say the state's most qualified uh most experienced labor and employment uh public sector attorneys so yes we would ask someone who is not Brian Maser and someone who is not Joe far to assist okay and then I just have um two questions related to the fee structures uh PA Cohen there there's there's hourly rates given in here and then also an option to do um like a bundled retainer do you have a preference um I mean we we've traditionally gone on hourly rates uh as a as a community um you know for the years that we were served by kpr and even prior to my arrival 17 years ago um I like the hourly rate thing because I I think it works on both both mans one is it makes the town more conscious of How It's utilizing its legal services and then I think on the on the side of the provider I think they're conscious of it as well um the retainer thing I know is utilized in some communities um I just prefer straight hourly rates um and I just think it works effectively I don't I don't know if you folks have a preference I know you offer both because people look for both but I think that's that's generally what I prefer is straight hourly thank you Paul and then the second question I have I don't know if this is for KP law or Paul or other members of the board but with respect to the fee proposal um on page three there's a fee structure given and then it refers to uh specialty Legal Service rates in one of the appendices and I'm just having a I'm not accustomed to paying different rates for example for land matters um that's something that routinely comes up where our planning board and our zoning board of appeals need support um we've had bylaw revisions and I don't know what constitutes a comprehensive general or zoning bylaw revision the the planning board is working on some deconfliction right now that is really not may not necessarily be a what I think would be a comprehensive Z zoning bylaw so I'm just looking for a little bit of education and understanding about having a different rate structure which is considerably higher um for things like land and bylaws work um um Madam chair through you uh so we have a specialty rate structure for certain high-intensive uh work areas where the attorney who is doing that work really is uh able to do very little other work during that time um so a comprehensive zoning bylaw or um or general bylaw review is essentially the type of thing that a town makes a separate appropriation for we're going to have a thorough review of our bylaws or a thorough review of our um of our zoning and it is not the kind of what I would say you know typical periodic review of bylaws that goes along with preparing forti meeting or making small amendments again it would be the type of thing where a a special appropriation would be made um election recounts as you all may know um you know requires essentially uh specific EXP expertise and is um you know when a person is involved in a recount there's very little else they can do and then finally you know I can give you an example of chapter 40b work chapter 40b hearings can go on uh for weeks they're very intensive the individual who handles them has to have experience doing these uh types of of hearings and there are hours and hours and hours of work that um that are required again this is the type of thing that um you know we feel the value that we bring makes the dollar amount uh more than reasonable I can say um when we are at the table for uh you know a 40b uh matter for example we will be the lowest paid person persons at the table but all of the other attorneys involved will be asking us for our guidance and for our assistance and and how to to manage the the hearing and the you know the pre-filed testimony and all the things that um that go into that so those things are specifically called out uh there is no you know gotcha we want you to know from the start that we do have this rate and you know I I also think that our proposal as a whole really um you know recognizes that the town uh can and should be caring about the value that it's its Town Council brings I don't know if you focused on it but the uh labor and employment side uh which you've been getting at um a higher rate has been reduced by $20 to the 265 rate and that's because when we come in and we're doing comp you know work for the town and we represent the town we're not going to charge you a special counsel rate for that and so we adjusted that accordingly um you know uh again I think those those specific items are listed there so that there are no surprises and I think Paul can or town manager can tell you from working with us in the past that we're not just going to all of a sudden start Billing at a higher rate without uh you know talking about it first explaining why um um and you know we are I one of the reasons that we put the uh potential retainer uh agreement before you is because you know we believe in long-term relationships we want you to have the services that you want at the price that you can afford and um you know in in a few towns where we did negotiate a retainer uh amount I think for the reasons that the manager highlighted they determined that they really didn't need all of the services that they thought they were going to and we immediately reduce the retainer and other towns we do it the other way where we they're paying um by the hour and they decide you know we need more access to council and we don't want to have to be watching every penny how can we you know how can we change that uh and we've negotiated a retainer agreement and done that um so you know we want to work collaboratively with you um and that's that's essentially the explanation for that thank you I appreciate the explanation um Pat I don't I I just would I don't have the history with different rates so as you go around the the table with the board members and with the town manager I would just be interested in anyone's perspective they have because in those situations where we're getting charged higher rates as um as Lauren said uh we're also going to be paying for a lot more hours at those higher rates okay thanks Jo jny questions comments no actually I I haven't given that much thought now that I mean it makes a little bit of sense uh I'm sure we're not going to make a decision tonight are we or are we well I was hoping we could because our other contract expires on July 1st with with u Paul H's firm well I mean I'm sure that you know we could start out one way maybe and and then if there's a right we can do that you know I guess you know we can always make an adjustment if both sides are amicable to it you know what I mean so I'll go along with the majority but uh you know I mean Virginia makes some good points and you know we're trying to save money and it's going to be a tough year so right every nickel we can save I guess is good but I hadn't had a opportunity to think of it that way so uh uh I'll go along with what whatever everybody else thanks and I'm sure that if we're not comfortable that um you know we can make an adjustment right I'm yeah I'm sure that's that's absolutely doable yeah okay Pat um I'm I'm fine with the the the hourly fee as Paul described I think it's something that if we're diligent our efforts which we are we can figure out if we need to change along the way so think that's a good way to start out it's a better way to track it as far as I'm concerned Lauren who's the principles these days is you're the president now correct yes and I I should have started off with that Madam chair I am I'm the president of KP law I've been the president since 2013 uh we have a five member management committee and um you know we have 23 shareholders or 23 owners out of our 45 attorneys as you can see nearly half or a little a little less than half um of the attorneys at the firm have uh you know have skin in the game and uh you know as compared to before 2013 when really there was just two owners or three owners so we really feel like we bring you know as Michael said our kind of our hearts to the table with all this um we really care about how municipalities fair and I think with response to the um the prior comment about um about cost one of the things that I think we really um provide that's a bit different than a person who um you know mostly practices in in by themselves in the municipal context I mean we have seen a lot we have heard a lot one of the things that makes us really special as compared to any of the other firms that do this kind of work is that we have clients all over the state so just like the MMA you know they're aware of Trends they have ideas about things that might work better they see implications for things like you know the um MBTA zoning uh short-term rental stuff um you know we are on top of those and we we confer with the MMA actually on things like that we also have great relationships with uh the the state uh through the Attorney General's office the um the public records division the elections Division and more and so our work is very efficient and uh we take it very seriously that you only get charged for work that should be charged meaning if someone's learning on the job and they spend too long doing something you will not see that on the bill you will see what we think is an appropriate amount of time very good um um I don't know who to ask this question of um Virginia you had mentioned something about special Council related to Paul and Labor uh negotiations what um could what was that question about so when we've had matters come before us related to the town manager and ALS so when we've done his contract negotiations we um instead of using our regular labor Council who was working with Paul on a routine basis for our Union contracts and other labor matters we asked KP law to assign um someone who was insulated from that so that we would um basically just have someone who is independent not already involved with Paul helping us with matters related to the town manag manager and that person happened to be Joe far um and I think in so so we had Joe far help us with Paul's contract and with other matters that came before us instead of having Brian Maser who's working on a routine basis with Paul do that and it just provided a little bit of um insulation and um assured you know impartiality and things like that not and I'm not saying that to imply that Brian would be impartial but it was a decision that the board at the time made and it it we were very comfortable with that Arrangement and um having the independent Council from Joe far instead of from our regular labor attorney when we had to deal with matters related to the town manager that's all okay so this wouldn't come into play unless we were in contract negotiations with Paul if we if we negotiate another contract or if some other matter comes up yeah we don't need to decide it now my question was only could we do that again if the board wanted to do that fine thank you I just looking for some back ground on that and just to clarify my question with the relative to the rates had to do with the ones that were in exhibit 4 y okay thank you P thank you okay Arin so so this in regards to paying a higher rate for specialty Legal Services is that something we've done in the past with our past Council it doesn't strike me as particularly no um but it's It's Not Unusual out there now um and particularly with the larger firms in the state it's not an you know there's often times is a litigation fee that we'll often see that if you're dealing with litigation is one fee versus versus General fee and again I think it's the same explanation is if they're tied up basically you know in a courtroom with you or an active litigation they generally the industry charges a higher rate than than regular services so so that's why I said it's not it's not atypical anything else okay um so I I I guess Paul to kind of follow up on that I know it's a couple things on this list for special fees we already have other Council anyway like cable for our cable licenses and uh and bond Council we we use we use others right now yeah and that's that's even back when we had K KP law and predecessor cultman a page we retained separate uh cable Council and um and bond Council um yeah that's just been the the pattern in the town so and and I don't see that being an issue even going forward right with maintaining that um those again those are issues that and I think this this whole thing about the extra fees should be seen as they're rare they're rare occurrences you know our cable license that you just did for Comcast is 10 years we probably won't have to revisit that license till nine years from now you'll be seeing within a month or two a five-year license renewal with Verizon again that'll go away for five years so those are rare occurrences um and then in terms of bond counsel again we we do Bond issuance every year we we've generally used utilized our same financial advisor Bond counsel you know we we use our same credit rating you know we tend to rely on standard and pores as opposed to Moody so again if the practices would have been if it isn't broke don't fix it you know it's it's it's a cycle that's worked well so um and you know I think one thing to point out to the board is we do not have an exceptional legal case load even prior when they were representing town and even to current we're sort of in a bit of an anomaly right now with 40b projects as you know but again once we cross that 10% threshold again you're likely not going to see the volume or activity because think about when was the last time prior to the new census data that we saw 40b project it was years and so again I just would point out um and um you know that those type of occurrences and and fortunately we've only had one election recount in recent times as well fortunately so again I think as was noted those were ordinary circumstances but they do require a concentration of effort that that is again seen in in the industry with the major firms okay thank you may I ask a followup clarification question sure so Paul from what you're saying it sounds like you're comfortable with the rates yes okay and and just again from my own understanding if an attorney is asked to come support a matter at the planning board or at the zoning Board of appeals does that constitute specialty Legal Service rates or is that a different rate Madam chair if I may that's just hourly Legal Services these are for Extraordinary that's where my misunderstanding came in thank you yes we we have a blended rate which means um you pay one rate for everything except for the this very limited list um and again it's because of the intensity of the work that's required and the expertise that's required um all all of your other work is charged at the single hourly rate and we proposed at 245 okay um and I wonder if if you could talk too about some of the um the the added value I think you might you referred to it with me at one point that that your your firm provides to the town yeah certainly Madam chair so um I I would just repeat uh that one of the things that really makes us special and really makes us I think um you know an extraordinary uh value brings extraordinary value to the town is the fact that we have this Statewide presence and we're able to predict rate um uh um not rate we're able to predict Trends um and you know look at the way that different things are happening all over the state um in addition we very intentionally have uh factored into our provision of Legal Services uh a whole series of um training programs of which you're automatically entitled to two and they're at no cost to the town um but I have to admit we do far more than two in some municipalities and as of yet and in all the years I've been doing this I have never uh charged a municipality for doing one um we really think that that helps uh number one everybody kind of hear the same thing at the same time uh and two we believe in preventative legal action uh I mean preventative action so you don't wind up with a lawsuit and we really think that our uh seminar program helps with that uh another thing that we do is we have these um uh subject matter cards which really summarize the law and the steps that need to be taken and um key areas uh and finally we do what we call eupdates which are memoranda timely memoranda on you know topics of the moment that we think our clients need to know about and uh those will those go out through a list serve and they're you know it could be two a month it could be five a month uh it's really kind of what happens in the world so with the baron vend cas the Southboro public participation case you know we sent out something on that we um sent out uh information on the um you know during covid on anything and everything that was asked we sent out uh we did the research and posted and we have the ability to do that research about um you know new cases new laws new regulations uh the CCC the Cannabis Control Commission I know that's not an issue here but they have uh decisions and regulations and things happening on a regular basis and we follow along and and track that um we also look at all of the new legislation again to look at Trends but also because these uh these special acts can have significant impacts for our other clients so for example uh with licensing through licensing through special acts there's a particular way that um the current uh committee at the legislature likes these bills to be written so that's something that we keep an eye on and we you know integrate into the the legal services that we provide okay thank you you want to touch upon what you haven't mentioned is the class action work such as the opioid and the paa so yes oh thank you that might be helpful yes um so we um we are not we don't work on a commission we don't get a portion of proceeds of cases that we win for cities and towns and so it uh we we were very moved by the work that the attorneys were doing uh you know all over the country in the opio crisis and we were invited to participate uh we you know notified and helped our clients get through the process uh as you know the Attorney General jumped in at the last minute but every single City in town wound up benefiting from the work that we did um we did trainings uh you know um not trainings we did webinars on kind of what the issues were and what different cities and towns would need to to to provide and to show and we assisted every single City and town that we represent and some that we do not uh prepare their PL uh statement which essentially laid out all of the different areas where they were impacted um very heavy lift no cost to cities and towns um we we uh do get paid from that for that through a Lawyers Fund that came off the kind of off the the to the side basically after the attorney general has got involved um but you know we've been able to see all of our our cities and towns get get direct benefits from that in addition we uh work with another group who uh is involved in the pasas legislation and again we've done webinars and we send out e updates and we have worked with some of our clients to um to seek out representation from this National Group in the pasas um legislation and I think uh litigation one of the things that really benefits the clients and that is that we vetted all the legal agreements and all the things that you're signing we monitor what's required for cities and towns in terms of responding by X dates and and doing reporting and that kind of thing so uh we work directly with this National Group and we filter that information to you in a way that's readable and understandable and not so legal okay thank you anything else you wanted to Y okay any other board members have any more questions concerns um any suggestions on how to move forward um if everybody's satisfied um I would I would welcome us taking a vote and bringing them on board for July 1st I don't know how others feel I'm okay with that I'm fine with that okay George any thoughts that's fine okay Virginia yes I'm okay with that and I think we should also appoint a transitional period for our existing Council I know he will be here later could we hold off on that till he comes okay sure so could we have a motion thereor the motion to authorize to appoint to too k for until when until next June 30th June 30th next year I'll make a motion to appoint KP law [Music] um Town Council as Town Council until June 30th [Music] 2025 beginning July 1st beginning July 1st 2024 thank you second okay we have a motion in a second any further discussion on oh I have to do a roll call since Virginia's remote so Virginia hi George hi Pat hi I and I'm an i five five Z so thank you for coming well thank you uh we very much appreciate this and we look forward to working with you and we will uh wait for your direction okay thank you again thanks thank you okay next on our agenda is the fire station study committee update and a a um proposition two and a half debt exclusion authorization so Virginia if you want to begin this discussion thank you Pat um is someone projecting the slides yes I am I am I am V I'm sorry I can't see them it's okay I'll there we go um so this is uh as Pat said we wanted to give an update to the select board I'll try to step through this um the review material relatively quickly I did put some things in there just to um calibrate um our newer board members and the public as as we step through the new information and ultimately um if the board is so inclined we would like to um conduct a vote to place the debt exclusion on the ballot in November in order to give us enough time to process that um under the requirements of the state which requires the language in August go ahead Paul okay so I'll first just review the um the current status of the committee um the next slide is a chart that you've seen before um identifying the members of the committee and the approach that we took I believe um in the room we have Paul Cohen Chief ran uh Rob Alban and Cheryl odonnell is that correct yes yes okay I know Greg um Bob could not make it this evening so I'll just go to the next slide just a quick review on the station conditions we did take extensive tours of the stations and as we went through the study um we looked at the conditions as it related to our critical success factors uh and really what it came down to is the uh patients three and five are past their um longevity of 50 a typical 50-year lifespan uh they are not able to accommodate a modern fire day equipment in terms of any increased Staffing that we do multiple genders and they also present some significant safety hazards uh with respect to uh separating our firefighters from contaminated environments and the ability to decontaminate their gear which I'll talk about a little bit more later um the next slide is also just a quick review of one you've seen before these are the five critical success factors that we identified looking at the station conditions um Staffing and firefighter safety the apparatus that we have in the in the stations and then how all that plays into response times and Public Safety as well as the Investments that will be required in the different colors of money so as we did our current and Future State analysis um if you go to the next slide where we left off with you before was um that two scenarios Rose to this the top the four station and F five station configurations five stations would be exactly where we have the stations today a four station configuration would eliminate um the East chelsford station and if um with each of those we created a person shift immediately and with a desire to go to 14 at a future point and I just wanted to State again for the record that um Paul could only commit to the 13 person shift from a fiduciary standpoint so we want to honor that we're holding at the five station because both stations would require a rebuild and renovation of stations three and five and that five station configuration creates flexibility for the fire chief to operate in four station conf configuration if um if he should need to so getting into that a little bit more in terms of the Staffing um the approach initially to get to the complement of 13 per shift would be to add four firefighters and promote 8 to 11 to Lieutenant um Chief Ryan has applied for a FEMA safer Grant and that would give us the funding to add four additional firefighters for I believe a three-year period and we could apply for extensions beyond that he's gotten um congresswoman tryan and Senators Warren and Mary engaged to write letters of support and that award is expected in September if you go to the next Slide the next two slides show you the layout of the five station scenario and the four station scenario um showing the 14ers shift we'd initially start with 13 but just to compare the two um you can see that the five station scenario will provide you that improved shift strength it gives you an officer at three of the five stations um some of the problems or challenges that are still left unresolved is that we still need to provide cross Staffing at the center Station um for that for the apparatus there and that we still have two stations staffed with uh two firefighters and no officer um again this provides the flexibility to oper in a for station scenario at the fire chief's discrection which is on the next slide and I won't read what's on the right side but really what pulled us away besides the operational flexibility what pulled us away toward the four station to lean more towards the five station is that if we go to a four station scenario uh and the center Station would be left with essentially covering what the East Chumps the um East e station covers now and so um that Center Station could provide uh either equivalent or increased first due response times for 20% of the calls that go into station 4 in the East District um but it would wind up reducing uh response times I'm sorry it would wind up keeping equal or reducing response times for 80% of the calls in the East chumford District so um with that we chose to stay with the five station scenario and then the next slide shows you the heat Maps comparing the two which um is a different way of looking at the 80% reduction in calls in East chelsford so if you look at these heat Maps the colors um starting with red to orange are the highest or shortest response times and then going from the yellow to Green you're talking like 5 to 8 second response times and so on the left side where you have the four station scenario over in East Chelmsford you see a lot more yellow and green uh and that's where the areas would most significantly be affected if we were to drop to four stations if you go to the next slide this is also a review slide um I just put it in here again to recalibrate on how our population has grown over time relative to when stations three and five were built um and also how our call Dat data and response data has changed over time in particular if you look at the table in the bottom left um our overall responses are going up uh decade by decade but also significantly increasing is the number of medical calls and then on the right side we have other factors coming on board in terms of um our group homes and senior housing the UMass West development we've got a number of affordable housing proposals the MBTA zoning M mandate Ates and some of the migrant and homeless housing mandates the other thing I would point out at the bottom of the green table is that our Personnel per shift is the same today as it was 25 years ago and we um have no lieutenants um as officers on the scene right now so if you go to the next slide Paul um these are a couple slides showing considerations we gave to response time um and the the first is preserving an acceptable second due response time and it I don't know if you recall but when we briefed you in December um this was the reason why we eliminated the three station scenario because we did not have an acceptable second due response time the first due company is responsible for victim safety getting people out of the house and conducting immediate fire suppression but if the water expended on the truck is expended at its maximum flow rate they only have enough water to last for 3 minutes and so the second due company uh needs to arrive in time to provide water on scene beyond that 3 minutes the second consideration that I'll I'd like to talk about with respect to response times involves the um stages of a fire and these are um detailed in a in an A supplement that was attached to the agenda but essentially um the fire will progress from an incipient stage up through growth and fully develop to a degay stage and there's a point I'll mention between the growth and fully developed stage where the flasho temperatures can reach over a th000 degrees fahr and the building becomes uninhabitable meaning even the um firefighters cannot go inside the building and some of the factors that are changing over time it used to be with old building conru construction uh people had you know upwards of 15 minutes or more to get out of a house today considering building materials how the space in homes um and some of the new interior materials uh with Furnishings the fire spreads quickly enough that people really need to get out within 3 minutes of the fire if you go to the next slide um this just is a description of what's in the white paper the incipient stage is when the fire first starts and this is can typically um be handled with a small handheld fire extinguisher in the growth stage that's typically when someone has called 911 for help um the fire is increasing in size and intensity and uh it is typically something that can be addressed by the firefighters again as you go from growth to fully developed there is that uh flash point where the house the structure becomes uninhabitable and in the fully developed stage this is the longest stage where the fire is running its hottest and it provides the greatest danger in terms of both heat and structural collapse and then you have the Decay stage where the property is completely lost um and there's possibility of more Backdraft or smoldering on the next slide um there's four scenario papers attached to your agenda but what we wanted to just give um the public and the board uh sense for um some of the more common emergency response scenarios that firefighters take namely a a structure fire a medical emergency a motor vehicle uh accident or a mutual Aid request and these basically have combinations of considerations in terms of who arrives and how soon they arrive what kinds of equipment and supplies arrive on scene um and whether we have you know officers and chains of command on scene to effectively run the operations But ultimately it comes down to without um ad quate response times we're really risking death over life and we're risking loss of property over preservation of property and these are I there's a note there on the NFPA 1710 response time um the response times that uh standards that we looked at are based on scientific data from the NFPA I'd like to transition now to the station three and five um oops I'm sorry I missed that the OSHA slide um this was another major consideration in terms of new standards that are coming out from OSHA in February OSHA announced that it is in its intent to replace the fire brigade standard which was established back in 1980 with an updated emergency response standard and you can see down the left side um the different topic areas in that standard there's a white paper attached to your packet but with respect to facility safety um we're at a high risk right now of not meeting these new standards when it comes to uh risk mitigation relative to carbon monoxide and risk mitigation relative to First Responders exposure to and living within contamination and sleeping in and living areas um so this is really an important thing to address from a requirement standpoint and from the standpoint of the safety of our firefighters if we go next next to the station three and five renovation builds um this data is all taken from the Weston and Samson report that was part of your packet the next slide shows the um proposed layout for station three um where we would be doing a combination of renovation and um also expanding the station the uh gray area in the upper right there is the existing apparatus Bay and the yellow area is where we would build out um more space um and adequate living conditions for those firefighters and specifically if you go into the next slide with the floor plan you can see the existing apparatus Bay in the gray and then the rectangle to the right is equivalent to that yellow rectangle on the satellite view um you now in the green area you have sufficient insulation in terms of contamination and um facilities to decontaminate gear which we don't have today uh segregating that from the living space and the uh other bedroom quarters and then there's also an adequate gym space so that the firefighters can maintain their health and fitness goals required to do the job the next slide shows the aerial view of station five um this station is on a a odd-shaped piece of land and um because it is uh much narrower and smaller in order to build this station out we would have to do a complete rebuild and do a two-story building in the next slide you can see the um first floor plan with the apparatus Bay again in the green providing DEC decontamination capabilities and insulation from living quarters that we don't have today and then on the next slide is the second floor plan um which shows the living space and the um bedroom quarters for the firefighters the Weston and Samson report then went into some detailed cost analysis for the these concepts for stations three they looked at a um the stick versus modular both hard cost and soft cost and you can see on the left side that ranged from 10.4 to 8.4 million depending on the approach and these are 2026 costs and then on the next slide for station five uh similar approach station five would likely have to be all stick or a hybrid combination of stick and modular because of the two-story configuration and the size of the lot and so that that um drives the cost up a little bit into the 13.9 to the 12.3 range and so the total possible range for the station Renovations is between 20.8 and 24.4 million in 2026 so Paul Cohen and uh John Susa then looked at okay what is The Debt Service impact to the average household and if you go to the next slide again the high end of our range was 24.36% interest rate and what um an average household uh value T from a tax perspective uh in our town right now is $629,000 so what that means is that for the average household you would see approximately 157 in the first year reducing to about $90 per year increase in year 20 um and again that 157 translates to about $3 per week we're also still tracking Senate Bill 1599 which is um an act to create a Massachusetts Public Building Safety Authority which may provide a small amount of support to municipalities for Capital Improvements needed in public safety buildings and that bill has now cleared both the house and the Senate and has been referred um to the Senate Ways and Means Committee uh this chart just shows the details of The Debt Service um the conclusion is the same so I won't I won't go I won't belabor that we go to the next slide um we also worked on an education plan for town meeting and for the public assuming that we'll be going to the ballot in November to make sure that everyone is informed to the best extent that that we can ensure that happens so um this first slide on the education plan just shows some specific events if you look across the top the reason we're asking for a vote today unless there's other actions you want us to take is that we need to get the ballot language to the state by August 7th um and then from there you can see the layout going to town meeting and the ballot so we will um the fire department has a space at the July 3rd Country Fair and um the the the committee worked on a flyer uh which Greg had printed I don't know if you've got copies of that in front of you but there's a a trifold pamphlet um that was also part of your package it has a QR code that we'll send you to a website of a public information repository and I'll talk about that in the next slide and then we're looking um over the summer and early fall we're going to create videos basically giving you tours of the stations so that people who can't go to the tours in person um can get a sense for for what we're dealing with and the fire department is also looking at trying to create some videos um when they do extra ation drills and do some live training in in buildings and then looking at um going out into September October you can see some other community events uh in October when we send the tax bill we'd like to include an insert um asking them to vote in favor of raising the tax bill to support this and then um we're going to give fire station tours in early October in advance of town meeting in the boote and also um provide some other forums for education uh well in terms of social media we will also try to do that but we're going to do it through the chumford fire department page we're not going to create a separate initiative on social media for this the second slide is the public information repository and this is just an outline of what we're going what is going into it um I'm I want to thank Ted lutter uh Ted's in the process of working with me and some other committee members to get much this information populated right now so that we can go live with what we have by July 3rd uh and then as we get video tours and things like uh videos and other um information established we'll put that on the website the other thing I'll point out is the second item in the left column called calculator for my home uh so uh manager Cohen Chief Ryan and finance director soua are working with Ted to put a calculator on the website where you could put in um the way it worked in Westford was you put in your address and it tells you what your approximate tax increase will be so with that um we'll take any questions and I also invite uh Chief Ryan or Paul or anyone else in the room if I left anything out or misspoke to please join in um but what what we're asking for tonight if the board is so inclined is to vote to um put the debt exclusion question on the November ballot okay does anyone have any questions about this presentation Pat George anything right now so um Paul or chief Ryan or um Mr Alban anyone else back there that's on the committee if you have anything you'd like to add now's your chance okay um any thoughts then about the the vote to put a Deb exclusion on the November ballot we can do that today or we can hold till our next meeting if there are any if there's any other information anybody needs does it still require a vote of town meeting yeah would require a two-thirds vote at town meeting uh to approve the debt issuance and then you need a majority vote at the uh November election for the de exclusion and the the and is noted there in order for the this to get placed on the ballot then it needs to be a two3 vote of the select board that's always rounded up so if you got five members 2/3 is not three it's four so that's that's this is the initial step that process well I think I think we should move forward to the people so let you know the town I I agree I mean it makes sense to bring it to the to the public and um see what their reaction is um we're not going to know unless we unless we ask them and this is the best way to ask them agreed so if we could have a motion I'll make a motion to place it's right on it's right there on on the screen the language of the motion oh this all of this no just the first paragraph which says I move oh thank you um I move that in accordance with the provisions of Massachusetts general laws chapter 59 section 21 C that the select board notifi the secretary of the Commonwealth prior to the August 7th deadline of the following proposition 2 and a half debt exclusion petition to be placed on the November 5th 2024 state election ballot second does she need to read the question no I no right okay we have a motion and a second any further discussion okay Virginia I George hi Pat hi Aaron hi and I'm and ISO five thank you for your support thank you okay um so um I'll have it is in the room now so um we um a little while ago we did uh uh interview with uh KP law and voted to have them as successor counsel and we just uh wanted to see how you wanted to move forward as far as yourself do you would you like some kind of temporary transition contract are you okay with just acting in transition and being paid for your hourly um time that yeah that's fine okay you don't need anything more formal than that okay thank you very much that was easy what does the transition look like Paul if you want to talk okay I didn't know which you were asking it doesn't matter basically what what'll happen is is and again it's with preference there's two ways it's done one is is often a transition document where outgoing Council would produce a summary of the matters that are active to uh uh on litigation and then provide that to the board and to new councel and then there's the informal communication that occurs you know over the next several weeks in terms of transitioning the cases there also have to be notices like for example we've got a hearing tonight for example a complaint against the town regarding Charles Way Council would have to file a notice that he's withdrawing his appearance on before the town and then the new Council would would notify the court that they're you know uh now serving in a capacity for the town um that's generally how it works out and you know I don't know if there's anything you want to add to that Paul no I mean that pretty much covers it um you know when I took over in 2017 it was pretty much the same um you know we had some Communications between myself and KP law they withdrew from any uh ongoing litigation that they had and if there was a particular um matter that I needed some information from them I would contact them and make the request and they would provide it same thing okay Virginia do you have a question no I'm Al s so we don't need to make a formal appointment of then correct that's that's my understanding and Paul hav you're okay with that I I'm perfectly fine with that I did want some clarification in terms of is KP going to be starting on July 1st yes so I know that the Board of Health has a hearing that they were looking for some coverage so I just want to make sure that if I'm not covering it that someone from KP is okay they have a meeting that night yes okay all right we will check and confirm that but uh we'll be starting quickly yeah okay thank you okay so why don't we go according to the um the agenda we have and do these couple reports and presentations um they shouldn't take take too long I don't think so yeah next up is K bishof with the Warren pole conservation [Applause] restriction good evening for the record Carl bishof with the chman Conservation Commission um 15 Lock Road um Madam chair members of the board um we have uh submitted a copy of the conservation restriction for the Warren pole reservation um we're looking for your approval of that so that we can submit this to the state your signatures would come after it comes back from the state um what you have in the document um is essentially what you got about 3 weeks ago uh with a couple of minor changes the changes are an um we've added an agreement on the meadow that that was actually in that version we made some changes to on that the that was the meal management that was actually from back in I think it was January um we had some changes to the wording for um and educational walks and outings it is permitted without grantee approval and we also added wording for events being permitted weddings and receptions and overnight camping and things like that that is also permitted but with grantee approval the grantee being the land trust on this and then there was some typos and formatting changes so those are the those are really what's what's changed from actually we had done a presentation back in August last year um and so that that's where we are right now the Conservation Commission has approved this the land trust uh Dale is here but the land trust has approved this so we're ready to go and uh and submit it and we're looking for your approval take any questions okay I I have a question on page 11 um under number three on page 11 about resubmittal it says um grantees failure to respond within 60 days of receipt shall not constitute approval of the request grantor May subsequently submit the same or similar request request for approval um so it's I guess I don't understand why there's not some deadline for the grantee to respond without something being done you know what I mean yeah all I can say is this is what's in the in the state template okay yeah we're following what they put in there all right Paul do do you see where the I see what you're referring to I I don't have an explanation for it okay I don't have a good explanation other we we went with the template okay it's odd because the paragraph before that does require that they respond yeah but then this one says not really at least that's the way I read it they don't really have to respond so we'll take a look at that and see if there's anything but this is what we got out of the template okay it's what's past muster in many other places okay Virginia you have any questions any other questions about it no I assume Council has reviewed this Paul yes yes yes yes yes yes chis Chris Chris Alin did yes from my office thank you ge any questions I just I just want to say thank you to the land trust and concom for working this oh I actually did have one question at what point do we bring this forward to change it says the grantor is the select board but really I think in the end game we want the Conservation Commission to have responsibility for the property no no the town meeting vote authorizes a select board to issue the preservation restriction conservation restriction what would happen after this and probably as soon as fall town meeting if it's approved uh or even if not then the town meeting would vote by a two-thirds vote to tr transfer the care custody and control formally from the select board to the Conservation Commission thank you okay do any questions oh thank you now my only question was Council and it's been reviewed okay Aon okay um kle um yeah it looks pretty complete except for that that one one paragraph um I did have some typos can I just send them to you to more yeah okay the ones you sent last time yeah I noticed that you did I know of one that I already fixed that's I saw yesterday or this morning so is it a another you sent them you sent them to me but they're typos we we're going to go through one more time just typos and yeah there not going to change the meaning of anything as far as I I can see okay so if we don't have any other questions we can take a motion I will make a motion to approve the um Grant of conservation restriction sub the submitt to the Commonwealth of the because it's gonna come back to you for formal approval afterwards I'll make a motion to submit to the commonweal the grant of conservation restriction for the Warren pole conservation as presented second okay Motion in a second any other discussion if not uh Virginia I jge hi Pat I Aon I and I'm and I okay thank you very much thank you very much you be glad to get that one out of the email okay and uh DPW director Christine Clancy is going to give us an opera update good evening wait to so this is the monthly Opera review um since last month we are we are reflecting um on the spreadsheet I'll wait to all right thank you so since since last month we um we update this monthly and so we have 61 arer projects um of that so 9.97 funds have been allocated to the 61 projects which currently leaves a balance of about $610,000 of unallocated funds um we also track the amount of project funds that have been procured and then amount spent so 93% of all the projects that have been allocated have been um procured and of that 66% have been invoiced or spent um a a reminder we have uh till the end of this year this calendar year December 2024 to allocate the remaining remainder of the funds which right now is estimated at $610,000 terms of the they've been procured but they just need to be um installed or completed so a lot of especially these rtus a lot of that should occur this this summer um I guess we still have some projects that I were highlighting in red um 14 17 18 192 on the spreadsheet and this is all the testing and balancing projects we just haven't prioritized them over some of the other time sensitive um school or other Town Projects but that's something on our plate for this summer to procure um and then moving further down um a lot of the projects the Watershed assessment the drainage projects those have all been procured so a lot of that work is also occurring this summer um a little more up and then projects 57 58 59 we're working on procurement this this summer for those um we're just about to put out the number 60 the oil water separator installation project and then the latest project 61 that was what we was approved by select board at the last meeting to allocate to uh as Opa project um that has been procured because we're using State contract so that is right now we're just getting receiving some sizing on that um to move forward with that so I don't know if there's any particular questions on for particular projects um I think we had talked last month about at some point looking at the $610,000 and see how we want to allocate it um my recommendation is I think August would be a really good time I think July might be a little too soon but there's going to be a lot of work that's occurring the next couple months so that's something that um I can still provide an update in July but I think August will'll have more substantial updates in terms of procurement and also in terms of installation of work completed okay thank you thank you so uh Virginia any questions no I have none thank you very much okay George any questions oh that you okay thank you that was easy thank you okay um so you'll notice that our our meeting is a little bit out of order than um it has been before so right now we're at our public input section is that you here for public input no I didn't think so following that all right so anybody that wants to talk to the board about anything that's not part of a public hearing or something else that they're allowed to talk to during that section can come and speak to us now so Jen you get to be first good evening everyone Jen M lansen community services coordinator um I come here on great terms tonight both with information and with thanks for the board um this past Saturday the town um the diversity equity and inclusion committee held um a juneth celebration on the common that was very successful very well attended terrific speakers terrific performers food vendors all that kind of stuff we think um chair pat Wes for attending and also Town manager Paul Cohen and I just wanted to bring to light um for the other members of the the board that um the committee actually received a um certificate of special Congressional recognition from Lori Tran's office so it reads in recognition of your committee's exceptional dedication to illuminating the history of juneth your efforts have not only brought our community together but also enriched our Collective understanding of this important national holiday through your leadership we have celebrated with great awareness and unity honoring the significance of juneth in a meaningful way signed June 22nd 2024 from our congresswoman Lori Tran so I just wanted to stand up here and thank the board for um continuing the diversity equity and inclusion committee and the work that it does um in a time when actually um a lot of Institutions are are doing away with Dei committees despite the fact that um the social inequities that were present um at the time that these Dei committees were formed are still present now so thank you for continuing the Dei committee I also want to personally thank you for appointing me to the Dei committee um it's made a tremendous impact on my work as the community services coordinator here as you all know I'm a department of one with an occasional intern um and you know by being a part of the committee it means that the that I have a really great working relationship with the committee and it means that I have eight other members who are able to help um in the work that I do in providing services to the community so thank you for for that and I know that you have couple of appointments on the agenda later so we're glad to see the committee still going strong and I have a a copy of this um of this uh Commendation from Lori Trahan for all of you and I'll leave I know Virginia's on Zoom so I'll leave her copy with the town manager thank you so if if you wanted to have the town do a proclamation for this next year let us know ahead of time we be glad to do that yeah we would we definitely do that thank you thank you [Applause] thanks okay is there anyone else for public input Chris good evening Chris Lali I'm the vice chair of the planning board and also Precinct 10 uh town meeting rep tonight I'm not here uh for the planning board uh but I am here as the uh town meeting rep for Precinct 10 I'd like to speak tonight on the topic that you'll have later on the agenda for the 40b project at 199 and 2011 riverneck you will have an opportunity then to speak if you'd rather wait I was I was not sure that that was a public it's not a public hearing but we will take public input oh great excellent I will wait then okay thank Youk you anyone else there's no one on the zoom call looking to speak okay so we're done with public input okay next up is licenses so the first one is for for a brick house center Brick House pizza now it's your turn hey guys uh Jimmy spaling my wife Diana owner of uh Brick House pizza we are requesting to extend the entertainment license and uh request for one day beer and wine licensed to participate in the July 3rd celebration okay anybody have any questions for Mrs balding about this event and this request I'm sorry about see H oh it's for tents no say that again it's one day it's for outdoor oh for outside I say so you are aware of the requirements that the police and fire have have put on on this any question yes you um I don't have a question my comment is more for um for the town or for Paul I just noticed in the input between the police fire and uh building inspector that I think the building inspector wants things ready to inspect by noon in the fire department by two and I didn't know if it would make sense to coordinate that and get to a common time when the town inspections are happening at once so that um the applicant isn't getting multiple or conflicting inputs we'll coordinate that okay yeah Paul Cohen said he'll take care of coordinating that yeah they I'm sure that would be help yeah whatever needed yeah okay uh anybody else have any questions concerns at this point on that okay make a motion I'll make a motion to approve the one day wine and Malt Beverages license and expansion of entertainment license for sener brook house pizza for July 3rd 2024 as presented second okay we have a motion in a second uh Virginia I George hi hi Aon hi and I'm so you're all set thank you all see you on the third okay um next up is a change of manager for bci's uh restaurant do we have anybody here from with we do good evening folks how we doing um my name is Cory Martin I'm the kitchen manager at beris and I am here representing for the change of management okay anything you want to tell us about it um no no it's pretty standard fair I guess I just started there a couple months ago just got with the company about three months ago very much liking it so far I actually enjoy the area um I actually used to work at papaginos when it was still in Westford years ago so um other than that if have any questions for me kind of feel like I'm in school right now give giveing a book report um I I did notice we have all our our departments send if they have any concerns and the tax collector's office did note about um a fiscal 24 personal property tax balance I don't know if you're aware of that no um so you might want to follow up with the tax collector's office okay um very soon to to clear that up okay was that is that big Bally through berui something going on with financial wise apparently yeah all right all right I can absolutely follow up with my company and we'll go with that okay anybody else have any questions concerns are the um police and DPW inputs not required for this doesn't don't the police usually do a Cory check they they they did do a check on that I don't know why it they're blank in the packet that's why I'm asking I'm not aware of any concerns from police DPW had would would not examine on a change of license manager okay and could could the applicant could you please clarify are your hours and capacity unchanged uh correct okay okay anything else and we can make a motion I'll make a motion to approve the application for change of manager on all alcoholic beverages restaurant license for bruchi's restaurant as presented um could you say subject to um respondents with the collector's office for the personal property tax balance subject to required correspondence with the treasur collector's office regarding their fy2 24 personal property tax balance second okay we have a motion in a second Virginia I George hi Pat I and I and I'm I okay thank you very much have a great night okay all right we're on to public hearings uh first public hearing we have is for thermofisher scientific for a storage license Amendment just before that last excuse me one prob leave the last one it was pointed out to me by our assistant abcc does a Corey check on the license so that's why yeah so that just to make that clear that there will be a Cory on the applicant I'm sorry no problem you all right so if you want to identify yourself absolutely um I'm attorney Pam Brown with brown and brown and Bedford representing thermofisher um it's been a couple years since this one I think the original license we did on Zoom during covid but thermofisher is quite happy to be up in operation all constructed and moving along um the original application was done based on you know pre-construction planning um they've been in operation a couple of years now and happy to be here um at this time uh we had what we believe is a quite minor um change or alteration to the license um essentially the total quantity of 85 5,000 gallons remains but um the the um proportion of the um the flammables um versus combustibles changes a little bit based on and primary uh reason is for the um size of the generators and the fuel needed for the generators and life life support um functions um so as I mentioned it's not an increase in the total volume but we are switching a little bit um I do have with me this evening um h an USF who is representative of thermofisher and Tony Caputo who is our fire protection engineer um consultant and Tony's probably either of them may be much more suited to answer any detailed questions than I U but we did submit the site plan essentially as it was the last round um and the detail really comes from with a um a change in um the uh flammables is actually reduced from 83,000 gallons to 81,000 gallons and those 2,000 gallons go over to combustibles um for the generator and so forth um the total um facility occupancy doesn't change um although the diesel um fuel tank capacity for both the emergency generator and the fire pump are increased lately um to accommodate this change but okay my team is here to help me answer any questions you might have okay does anybody have any questions about this request for an amendment um I I have a question just for the for chief Ryan then if he could come up to the microphone for a second um just just I I saw that you have checked to approve this this request so correct thank you for checking it out have there been any issues at all in the past four years that you've encountered with the um the the storage as it currently exists no I I agree with the attorney Brown that it is a minor change it's actually a safer change because we are going with less flammable liquids which have a um lower flash point to combustible uh liquids which you have a higher flash point so it's that plus in terms of safety having a larger tank for diesel will actually minimize how many times they have to fill it up which helps eliminate potential spillage in issues so I'm in favor of this change okay but as far as your question no no issues okay thank you very much thank you okay a question forer okay go ahead um so the diesel generator exists as we speak so what have you been have you just been filling it with 1,000 gallons or have you been filling it with I mean it's got a 2,000 gallon day tank right if you to the microphone to respond whoever's going to respond to that yeah when the diesel was delivered it was much larger uh because of the loads that were required in the plant and initially the I think was 1,040 gallons was required it was a 500 uh kilowatt generator now it's 2, Kow generator so that tank that's inter internal to the diesel generator itself is a 2,000 gallon tank and that's what's been used and that's ex so so you didn't come back when we made that CH when you made that change not no okay all right all right okay any other questions I have a question sure um when we approved the um original license one of the contingencies that was put in um was relative to the outdoor storage um if you recall there was a discussion about the elevation of the plant relative to surrounding homes and um although like double tank measures and things the standard measures were being put in place we requested that an additional measure be put in place in case there was leakage that there would be something to um catch the leakage before it went into the residential area or into the habitat and Wildlife surrounding does this affect that at all no nothing has changed that's that's all still there where is the location of this diesel tank is it outside is it in that area or is it really outside of the plant on the backside near the tank farm uh where the existing generator was and it's just it's it's been there it's again it's double wall tank and trle to the actual generate itself okay so those additional measures were put in then in case the double wall tanks leaked there's something to catch the leak the whole site has a containment system okay thank you welcome okay this is a public hearing is there anybody here that would like to speak um for against or just about this uh this application for a change is there anyone on Zoom no okay all right I'll make a motion to approve close the public hearing oh oh I don't close the public hearing no you do oh I do oh I'll make a motion to close the public hearing yes second all right we have a motion and a second to close the public hearing Virginia I George hi Pat hi Aaron hi I okay now we can make motion to approve I'll make a motion to approve the storage license Amendment for thermofisher scientific at 220 mil Road as presented second okay we have a motion and a second uh Virginia I George I and I'm I 5 Z okay thank you very much thank you okay and next up we have um another storage license Amendment for sonoko on ad Chum street is there anybody here for on Zoom they're on Zoom [Applause] okay right uh good evening select board so I am Kristen schaler I work for seven multi-site Solutions I'm the agent for sonoko um sonoko submitted a request for an amendment to the license for the storage of flammable and combustible liquids stored in underground storage tanks um in accordance with the Massachusetts General law chapter 148 section 13 um the sinoco is located at 80 Chelmsford Street um and this site currently has three underground storage tanks two tanks contain 8,000 gallons for regular and Ultra unloaded fuels the third tank contains 10,000 gallons of regular unloaded fuels so due to the age and the condition of the equipment um sooko is going to be doing a maintenance project where where we're going to remove those existing storage tanks um and we're proposing to install two 16,000g double wall fiberglass underground storage tanks um this is consistent with the current industry size in a lot of petroleum uh sites so one of the new tanks it's 16,000 Gall and it's going to contain regular unloaded Fuel and the second um underground storage tank is a compartment tank uh so that kind that means it's got basically two um separate containers inside so we can put two different types of fuel so we'll have um 8,000 gallons of premium unlet and 8,000 gallons of diesel um so in in kind of summary the existing conditions are you know three underground storage tanks with a total of 26,000 gallons of fuel um and our future conditions will be two underground storage tanks with 32,000 gallons of fuel so we are um requesting the amendment to the ex existing license to account for the um the upgrade of these U of the site okay thank you um I note that the the fire chief has also um noted approval of of this amendment too so do anybody have any questions for the applicant here and I can't see Virginia could we hear from chief chief Lan yeah good evening board I would um I would agree with the assessment that we're starting to see this in an industry where they're pulling older tanks out instead of three tanks they're going with two and one is a split tank kind of like what we have at the police station where we have diesel for our apparatus but also we have unlet for staff Vehicles so I'm in favor of this change okay thank you thank you okay do you have anything else Virginia is that it no I don't thank you okay this again is a public hearing is there anybody here that would like to speak about this application for an amendment to their license nobody here nobody on Zoom okay I'll make a motion to close the public hearing second okay we're a motion to close public hearing Virginia I George Pat I I okay and now and I'll make a motion to approve the storage license Amendment for sonoko llc at ad chelsford Street as presented second okay a motion and a second Virginia I George I I I I okay thank you okay next up we have uh the continuation of a public hearing um for a local initiative project um on 243 riverneck road so do you have a you have a presentation correct I do thank you madam chair uh if it pleases the board um thank you for having us again this evening U my name is Lisa me me tment Costa 30 Green Street uh you've been working with my partner Adam Costa who was at a different hearing this evening so I get the pleasure of coming to um see all of you um I'm here this evening on behalf of 243 riverneck Road LLC uh and its manager Ashok uh patelis here this evening I also have Neu our architect as well as Tim the engineer Tim power is the engineer um we're here as I remind the board to discuss the 23 unit proposed project at 243 riverneck Road um of which There are 16 town home units two to three bedrooms each and there are seven single family homes uh four four bedrooms each on this proposal uh since this last meeting uh the board had in April there's been a couple of things that we've done at the board's request um namely was to take a look at some of the plans um and also uh do a site visit and visit again with the um housing Advisory Board um all of which we've done and so what I would do is go through the changes that have occurred and to respond to some of the questions that the board had um s uh first specifically with regards to the site plan amendments there were questions um from the fire chief uh who seems to be a popular guy tonight um relative to uh the fire department's ability to turn around uh in um the in part of the project um in addition to some Wetlands flagging so what I'd like to do is have Tim come up and go through those changes so you could see those um on the plans thank you Tim power with PV site design I did see someone scrolling through on the site plan um I did bring a board but we'll use the TVs uh a little bit more as a um uh plan with the green lines near the top if you keep going up so uh while we get there we're going to go through all the architecture of renderings um so the two things uh we really did the site plan not a lot of changes we moved the turnaround um before it was kind of at the bottom of the hill ahead of all the single family houses and we moved it to the end such that the last house is less than 150 ft away if you keep going a little more there a full sight plan uh from the last house yep there's the one there um if you could pan a little bit to the right yeah perfect uh so you can see it there um just to the top of the the screen where the turnaround is now and again we tried to make sure that was uh close enough that the truck could be 150 ft away um before it had to turn around um from that last house uh that was there there is a little room this a sort of a u proof of concept if you will a little more room if we want to uh improve with things with the fire department if assuming we move forward uh we could sort of shift the the middle house back but we wanted to make sure we had um we were able to show that the fire truck could could turn and make a turnaround there uh at the end of the road uh we also uh just to make sure it was clear that on the tow houses up above I would did the same turning movement uh that it could um turn into the tow houses and then back up into the road and make a threo turn to get out um again making sure that it's it's close enough to that last unit um that was the turnaround we also did uh had a wetland scientist come out um from noris environmental uh and what we did was we hung the uh flags from the original the older permit in place as people saw in the sidewalk uh uh and then had the Wetland scientists go out and verify that they um there was no change to the wetlands um over time and as you saw on the S sidewalk there a fairly steep embankment going down to that Wetlands which is why we didn't really see any or experience any creep of wetlands um since the original flagging so she did verify and gave us a memo that it's it's reasonable uh Wetland flagging and no changes so what we were hopeful what's before you is representative of what's there in the field as far as Wetlands go okay anybody have any questions about uh that part of the presentation what lens or anything like that has the fire has the fire department reviewed the new access plans no they have not no did your uh engineer provide any affidavit as to um the adequacy of the existing Wetlands flagging um she uh we submitted the her letter yes yeah we provided a letter who uh who recorded her findings there as part of that last submission so that letter is her it's it's attached to the package that you received which I think is being shown yes that's correct okay so kind of as an O overall on the site plan so the site itself is about 9.41 Acres um we don't have that exactly delineated between which lot is going to be the lot as you know um with the development and which is not um but we think right now it's a little bit over three acres more or less related to the portion of the lot which will be um where the the homes will be located um so there was somewhat of a question of that last time um but the final delineation of exactly what splits the lot has not yet been made and that will be refined before we get to the zoning board of appeals okay uh the next question um had to do with the architectural plans I will say that the changes that have come out of the archit texal plans were a result of the neighborhood meeting that was held so I can um address the neighborhood meeting but essentially the ne uh the applicant met with the neighbors um they as a result uh the neighbors weren't happy with the designs and the architect uh listened to what they had to say and went back and did a redesign on the architecture of the town homes and so with that I'm going to have the architect come up and go through the plans with you good evening board Madam nalis from CA design uh yes so as uh mentioned we met uh we had a productive meeting with the with the Ws um and main thing we we heard that um we they wanted to see more traditional look they wanted to see Gable Dro at the Town Homes where previously we had flat roofs um and if we scroll down couple Pages we we can look yeah thank you yeah so this is what instead of flat roof now we're going to have gild roof uh at the Dormers and we created those uh like a faux faux Gables um uh on the sides uh the portion of the building we still have some some of the flat roof at the top but uh you know from street view perspective it will uh look uh like repetition of uh um just uh repetition of uh uh town homes with alternate uh color uh with alternate colors uh as well we added uh some uh Shake siding uh versus uh you know board siding with the reg that we had before um that was U those that was the biggest change for the town homes and U I don't know the plans did not change um and if you have any other questions I I can answer okay any questions about this part of it I guess not right now okay thank you oh sure Virginia I don't have a question about what he's saying but the comments prior to that you uh um the previous speaker said there's three acres where the homes will be delineated when we go to the zba but the question that um I asked in the last meeting is what is the density and you're telling me that you you'll decide that before you go to the CBA I don't I don't I don't understand what the answer to my question is so the density on the 9.41 Acres was 2.4 units um per acre uh we put that in the cover letter to you uh the so the building coverage would be 5% so they they don't have the the actual site hasn't been uh shaped for the actual application for um the zba so if you do 23 Acres excuse me three acres and 27 homes don't ever let a lawyer do your math um so you're telling me you don't know how many homes you're going to put on no no no that there are 27 proposed homes oh 23 excuse me 23 proposed homes there are um so 23 homes on three acres is basically what you're saying the density is that's correct okay what what are you saying you're not going to do till we go to the zba finally Define the line that divides the three acres between the remainder of the land thank you so just to reiterate there's 16 town homes and seven single family homes 23 homes um one of the other questions had to do with traffic um and while there hasn't been a full traffic study done yet uh Mr pow has done a traffic memorandum for the board which we've provided as our submission um which was Exhibit C in the submission uh his traffic assessment says that it evaluates the expected change in traffic generation due to the Project based upon historical data um and based upon the it trip generation handbook and it concludes that the increase in traffic uh would be considered negligible compared to the exist existing traffic patterns in the area such a conclusion is expected um given the existing traffic csil along River Neck Road the annual uh average daily trips which would include during covid have been between 2779 and 3,368 um and the at the tra the project is estimated to add only 161 average trips per day um additionally they uh review the line of sight um from the existing uh and proposed driveway to evaluate the layout of the proposed driveway and determine that there is adequate site stopping distance under the ashto standards um the westbound SSD exceeds the minimum required distance and the eastbound is more than twice the minimum required distance so there's no issue with site distance at the site entry as well that also is provided to you um in your fi in our filing U Mr power's address address the uh redelineation of the wetlands um so as he suggested Moren heral of Norris environmental went out and redid the wetlands on May 14th 2024 and indicated that um he they she thought that the flags were still consistent with what the wetlands is we will however have to make a new notice of intent filing with the Conservation Commission um under this um new application as the old order of conditions has expired however the um application which we're going to talk about a little bit to natural heritage is still um outstanding until uh 20 26 I believe January 13 2026 so we will have to do the order conditions with a concom again then you ask us to reappear before the housing Advisory Board again the housing Advisory Board supported the project with a 4 to one vote however that vote was contingent upon the subject of addition add um to add an additional number of affordable units and greater extent of affordability of some of those units which we have said we would do in this um proposal to you and we've provided the proforma to reflect that um so I'm going to talk about that in a second as well exactly what um that resulted in again on April 24th then there was the neighborhood meeting to which the architect referred um and um due to the consensus of the townhouse design was Ill suited for the surrounding area there was a full redesign of the tow houses in addition there was some discussion about screening of some of the town houses on the uh southernly side I believe of the site um but as you know as you can see from um the renderings um there's a significant amount of vegetation that's not going to be touched as part of the development on the site which continues all the way excuse me all the way around the site um also the board wanted a site visit and as you know last week many of you went out on a site visit on June 17th um the town manager U Mr Cohen was there U Mr balinsky was there um Mr nran was there um of course the applicant was there um as was Mr power and then uh Mr Costa attended as well um I think um that you could see from the site visit for those who went um you could see the the way that the town homes will sit on the top of the site and the single family homes will be down within the site um and understood the top topography and the vegetation that exists around the site also the slope in the back and where the wetlands um comes in the back and not up the slope um as is was obvious should have been obvious from your um observations um then there was a discussion related to or questions related to the existing permits and approvals for the property um I want to point out that when we submitted this proposal last week uh not the proposal but the supplemental filing last week uh related to the existing or recently expired comprehensive permit for the 48 original units on the site that were approved in 2008 um Adam was basing his representation to you on prior emails from March where it was understood that the comprehensive permit was still good and had not yet expired that information is incorrect um the Town Council advised us today um that the board um zoning board of appeals actually voted that the extension and the covid extension ran concurrently and not consecutively um although the decision of the zoning board of appeals did not say that um if you went back to the minutes of the meeting the minutes of the meeting have that in the vote and so that permit expired in March of this year uh notwithstanding uh the owner of the property's attempt to extend it uh and he was told by staff it wasn't necessary not withstanding we're here for a new lip application and a new permit regardless of the existence of the prior comprehensive permit but I wanted to straighten that out um the order of conditions as I said earlier has already expired however as Moren indicated the um Wetlands line is essentially what the wetlands line was before and then as I indicated the Massachusetts division of fisheries and wildlife conservation and management permit um has been extended through January 13th of 2026 so that permit is still good on the site so the other question the board ask and this um circles back around to the affordable housing committee's question about addition what's the benefit to the town why why should you do a lip endorsement here if we're going to do 25% at 80% uh and the answer is the asuk is going to uh increase the amount of affordability and the number of affordable units and as we said in our letter to you and as requested by the affordable housing committee um specifically eight units in total as opposed to six which are required uh will be deemed affordable uh two of the seven single family homes will be affordable and six of the 16 Town Homes will be affordable um the six affordable Town Homes will be made available to households earning 60% median income instead of 80% so just to give you a comparison um the six at 60% would be for a two-bedroom around $1,788 this is on your proforma that we provided to you and a three-bedroom affordable unit at 60% would be around $265 um under the 80% which was originally proposed the two-bedroom would be around $2,130 and the three-bedroom would be around $2,366 so that's the difference that you can find between the 60% and 80% affordable rents uh and again the um two of the single family homes will be sold at 80% um area meeting income um with I'm happy to um answer any questions that the the board might have okay does anybody have any questions at at this time for the applicant okay are we going to are we going to go back at some point to the departmental comments and look at how they're being addressed yes okay yeah that was that was on my list to do yeah okay oh oh hold for now then thank you okay oh could I just ask one other there were a couple comments made about um you you uh your discussions with Town Council um about the zoning board of appeals extension expiring um I just wanted to check with our Town Council are are you um in agreement or have you looked at the mass fish and wildlife permitting and that is still good through January 2026 I have not reviewed the natural heritage permit um to see when it expires I can certainly take a look at that um with regard the discussion that was being held um regarded the expiration of the previously issued comprehensive permit um and there was a lack of clar clarity in the discussion regarding that and I will acknowledge that I had um indicated to the property owner um back in March that presuming the um the extension issued by the board um back in 2022 um was without Reliance on the covid tolling Provisions that it would extend until June 12th and I actually wrote 2024 but it was supposed to say 2025 um but I had not been a participant in the hearing process in front of the board of appeals when the extension was granted um and I hadn't read the minutes and the minutes make it very clear that that extension was intended to run concurrently with the co extension to set a drop dead date on the permit to March 7th 2024 um so that was um discussed with uh Council earlier today um just to get that clarification P most of my other questions have to do with the um departmental comments or resolution of them so I'll hold okay all right anybody else have questions um okay why don't we open it up to the public this is a public hearing if anyone has anything they would like to bring up yes Joel Luna 10 Carter Drive uh originally uh Ruth was going to be here to present but she isn't feeling well she was she did manage however to get out three letters to you this weekend yes you did um and so I was elected to come and present this to you maybe elected isn't the right word for the process but I'm here nonetheless um just to make it clear I'm going to ask you to vote no on endorsing this project and also just want to clarify that in asking you to vote no to endorse that doesn't mean that I'm saying that you are that you are voting no on the project that you there there may be redeeming things about this project that you have I'm not asking you to say that we don't want this project what I'm asking you to say is that you're not going to endorse it and the reason for that is in part because for things that we have in our letters we think there's a number of significant issues that have not been resolved that will need to be addressed both within the Conservation Commission and within the zoning board of appeals and having been a former zba member through the Heyday of 40 BS it makes a big difference if when you have an application before you if the select board has endorsed it then they put puts a lot more pressure on you in terms of what you look at and what your latitude is and the things that you're able to do so that's in part that's really my main point I wanted to ask is that you not endorse it so that you give both the Conservation Commission and the zoning board of appeals the greatest latitude that they could possibly have to resolve a number of these issues the the first thing I wanted to do was to look at the rare species issue it was it was mentioned that there is there is an existing conservation and management permit so there is a permit on this site that is currently active so that permit was granted because the division determined that the proposed project would the original proposed project would result in a take so that means that the natural heritage determined that what was proposed was going to actually take habitat away and that this permit is being issued because it has conditions under which work May proceed on a project now it's important because this management permit essentially identifies the conditions the restrictions on this site for development so we heard earlier discussions about they haven't divided it yet and so forth and so on this permit specifically addresses a majority of the site that says in its rare species habitat that was set aside not to be developed and furthermore that this uh permit has plans associated with it and those plans show a 5ft chain link fence around the developed area so essentially the area that you're showing where you have housing right now is essentially the amount of space that those residents are going to have they will not have access according to the current permit that is currently active they will not have access to the other six acres so they don't have that as open space so you're you're looking at a project essentially the footprint of what's developed as being the full amount of open space that those residents are going to have that is going to be an issue for the zbi I can tell you that right now um the other thing too is that a conservation restriction was supposed to have been put in place and that work uh basically says it's tied to the work shall cease if that conservation restriction is not submitted by May 1st 20 5 the latest amount of Acres that the conservation restriction was to have was 6.66 Acres so already that you can see that because of this permit that's in place now with a conservation restriction That was supposed to have put into place in 2005 would have already establish the size of this the developable area of this project so it's a fairly safe to assume that you're talking about a 2.8 or so project just based on what the restrictions of the conservation management permit are so I I wanted to emphasize that because that is an active ongoing permit on this project right now uh we also uh brought up a couple of other issues about Wetland related questions and this it wasn't so much for you to to adjudicate what the Wetland issues are but rather to identify that there are certain things on the site which have not yet been addressed because the Wetland line has not been peer-reviewed and frequently in one case and actually it was with nor with Walnut we had that peer reviewed where originally nor said that the Wetland line was down at the bottom of the slope and then when our peer review came in they actually said actually was quite significantly up on the slope and that makes a big difference when you're setting buffer zones in terms of how it impacts the houses that are being developed also Ruth identified in looking at previous plans that there are there is a question of two different potentially isolated Wetlands those could also impact two houses again not asking you to decide that what I'm just saying is there are potential issues here that could be significantly affecting the project and so I ask that you not restrict for example Conservation Commission when they're looking at those kinds of things and then also the the very last thing was the uh the fact that previously there was from pre from uh previous records that we saw uh that there was a Mr Piero who lived on the site who sought for but was denied a variance to operated used car business repair shop we we had always wondered about the the many tires that were on the property and according to the testimony of a neighbor across the street he basically was ran basically conducted a lot of car repair and so forth and so on the reason they bring that up is because we've now had two different submittals most recently 93 brick kill where there was a small area where there was some there was like six or seven cars if you look at old old radio maps and it turns out then they found P there and I'm not ra raising alarms about P I'm just saying that those are issues that would need to be carefully looked at so you want to be sure who who both as EBA and or the commission want to look into having that soil test to make sure that the what the situation is with regards to that and how it should be mitigated so only to identify number of significant issues they're not going to get resolved tonight they're not going to get resolved by you and so I ask that you do not endorse this project give the full latitude to both the commission and the zba to do their work because they will need to resolve these things all right thank you very much thank you hello again Crystal Valley Precinct 10 town meeting rep um I would also like to Echo uh Mr Luna's uh request to not uh for you to not endorse this this as a lip um one some of the things that uh I just noticed on the updated plans and since the previous uh hearings um there's another 40b project being proposed um down the road on riverneck um it would be good to hear the uh traffic report for both projects include the other project as potential um uh uh alternatives or or scenarios also the while the benefit there is a benefit to affordable housing units in chelsford that benefit is really in a vacuum in reality in this project the benefits of a few additional affordable units does not balance out the burden of the additional market value units that we're going to end up getting as well and lastly in my work on the zoning board or the the zoning work on the planning board um we really look to have a gradient of housing forms uh throughout our areas and what I notice tonight is that this has the opposite across the the road on riverneck you have single family units then across in on this property you go from single family to the the four unit tow houses and then you drop back down to single family I'm not sure why they're proposing that um but if this were zoning that we were looking at we would have flipped it in the planning board zoning so you'd have single family homes on the road kind of hiding and masking the additional uh tow houses in the back um so a lot of these are are issues that still have to be addressed and topics that still need to be brought up so it ask that you not endorse this as a lip at this point and let the process continue through the zoning Board of Appeals thank you okay thank you anyone else that would like to make any comments about this uh proposal is there anyone on no okay um so regarding um some of the the comments that had been made uh at the prior meeting um from the Departments um I mean I could I don't want to go through to all of them individually the DPW had mentioned several things that they they expected to see in the or want to see in the site plan uh dumpster uh location and dumpster pad utilities um pedestrian accommodation snow storage um location as well as um the on-site uh treatment plant where that would be and how that would work uh police department is only asking for a stop sign which that's probably easily easily done um the fire department um we just heard that the fire chief has not looked at the revised plan for the emergency access and how that how the um the fire trucks would would uh be able to turn around in the on the property the other um the other um parts that they had asked for probably would come later in the process uh let's see um border of Health um again was concerned about the septic system um and the commercial dumpster uh Community Development had concerns had questions about visitor parking um cut and fill analysis to be provided um and again the um the uh a su uh wastewater treatment system and what would be proposed for the remainder of the site with a uh despite the other part of the site where the the houses would not be and um the Conservation Commission Mr lunar I think um handled those concerns very well um the Conservation Commission uh maintains that the property is incompatible with the um with what they want to do there um know that the Conservation Commission has twice denied a similar project and that this habitat has become more precious in in chamford as the town becomes more developed uh so Virginia do you have anything additional you'd like to add um no just I think there's still a lot of departmental comments that are unanswered I think that the Community Development input on number seven regarding the applicant regard asking for a sewer waiver conflicts with dpw's inputs regarding on-site septic treatment um um the building commissioner's comments in terms of the project should also meet the dimensional requirements per the bylaw my question is as it's laid out does it or doesn't it I think that if there's enough information we should know whether it meets it or not gu and as you said there's just a lot of outstanding open questions that the Departments raised that I don't think have been addressed right I I I guess I would suggest if if we're going to continue this public hearing I'm I mean unless is it a an upswell to uh end it today and take a vote I would I would recommend that we yeah um send the new um proposal to all the department heads again to get to for them to look at it again and see if there's you know what has been addressed and what has not been addressed um and there's some that probably they can't at this point as has been mentioned um some of the conservation issues that will be determined by conservation some is pretty much in the ZB A's perview not in ours is if I understand that correctly Mr havy and um you know there but there are some that still we could um look to have changed or you know more closely aligned with what the Departments are are looking for so yes miss me so I'm going to kind of take these in Reverse um relative to compliance with um zoning uh there are two um requirements that we need from right now and obviously we provided our list to you they're attached to the initial filing that um Mr Costa provided attorney Coster provided to the board uh there's a 22 front yard setback where 40 ft is required and a 9 and2 foot side set back where 25 feet are required also we're seeking a waiver for more than one residential structure on a lot um and then there um are a couple there's the Conservation Commission waiver um related to the 50 Foot uh no build there are two um three two parts of a building that are slightly in the 50ft no build um which is shown on the plan and then there's some parking so um we're looking for uh we would um be looking for those waivers obviously um we're also looking for a waiver for the sewer moratorium which is a nice segue back into some of the departmental comments related to the on-site uh treatment system so we're looking not looking to do an on-site treatment system we're looking for a sewer waiver as part of our um application to the zba um given that there was a sewer reservation for 48 units on the site um before um it doesn't obviously doesn't apply because that permit is gone um but it there would be a reduction so we are looking for um a sewer moratorium waiver from the zba related to that um uh as as far as the dumpster location snow storage utilities um typically that would come in a more um refined plan that we would be submitting to um the to the um zba but if those three things are important for you to see on the plan then you know I think that we can put them on the plan um that stop sign obviously we understand that um the fire chief hasn't had a chance to review the turnarounds yet um that are shown on the plan the the mechanism is shown on the plan as well uh fire chief um and the DPW comments so those are related to that so we're happy to address those comments if the board wants to continue or whatever the board's pleasure is okay um so is anybody may I add one other may I add one other comment sure I'm very concerned about the encroachment on to the 50ft no build buffer and the 100 foot buffer zone lines and I think if you're going into a 50 foot no build Zone uh make it smaller and make it fit I I just I don't know why there's a reason why there's a 50 foot no build buffer and I don't know why um you would want to encroach on that so I I that that's a big question in my mind right now um I I heard you loud and clear I I will show you just just so you know where they are and so if we bring back a revised plan you can see where they're revised so um Tim maybe you can come up and point out the two places in the back here you're going to have to verbally describe it because I can't see Tim pointing so uh as you're coming down the main road the first single family home on the right uh the back of the house uh touches the the 50ft buffer zone yeah I understand that and my question is why does it need to um I think it I think I think you guys should take a look at that sure and again as Lisa said loud and clear too I think we can look at it we're trying to uh balance um sort of Aesthetics of the whole Road and everything else but it's a valid point so happy to look at it okay and I guess and I guess I would say kind of to Echo with what Mr lavali said um about possibly reversing some of the um locations of the structures it seems to me that having the single family homes closer to the road and the the larger town houses towards the rear would would make the view from the road um less obtrusive I guess would be one way to put it so certainly I'm not the designer so we can take a look at that but I think that it becomes obvious from the dimensions um why the tow houses which are more compact development are up against the more narrow um part of the lot okay um but certainly we can look at it and see what what can be done okay could Town Council clarify if the board were to endorse this what latitude are we taking away from the Conservation Commission in the CBA you're not taking any latitude away from the Conservation Commission or the zba by endorsing a lip um I do agree that a board may feel a little bit more constrained if there is uh full throated support for a development by the select board um however you know you could address that by if if you're you're considering granting lip approval you could you could put language in it that would you know express your concerns about some of these issues and ask for the board of appeals to take a closer look at them um the Conservation Commission their jurisdiction is only under the wetlands protection act not under the local Wetlands bylaw on a 40b application so your endorsement of a lip um would not have any impact on the the commission whatsoever okay so do we have any thoughts about how we want to move forward with this aarin any thoughts I am happy to make a decision tonight if everybody wants or to extend it if people want to think about it any thoughts well what excuse me um what more are we going to receive in the meantime as far as more information I mean there's a lot of items you know has has been discussed um that are lacking or or however you want to put it so are we going to expect another package if we keep the public hearing open or I think that's what we heard that we would get another package if we if we kept it open um but again you know well but so it appears to me so far that um you know if if we were going to get a concerted package that um really cleans up a lot of these items I think I would be in favor of waiting to see what they propose but I also don't want to waste a lot of time on anybody um so you know I you know I mean for instance the the wetlands you know yes there's a letter from an engineer that says that generally it seems to be in in in compli with where the wetlands are but we don't know that you know um it's an old Wetlands um mapping and an engineer went out and just said Yep looks close but I you know there's no certification process and and the mapping has to be redone again anyway you know what I mean so um you know per Mr Luna's comments um you know there's just a lot to be left to be unsaid so I'm willing to you know go on and keep the public hearing open in an effort to see if there is something much better that comes but if it's the same type of situation then then I'd be you know ready to go tonight okay a vote again to your point I feel like the applicant just kind of provided some feedback on the things that we that we asked most of the feedback was was that it's not um that there isn't an answer at this time so I don't know that a lot of that will get a solid answer on next time anyways it kind of sounds like well you wish any comments well I'm in favor of uh postponing it if if they can come back and with the answers that you know to answer the questions that you know we received tonight okay all right what about you Virginia I agree with what Pat Maloney said so you know I'm willing to to give it another shot but you know I don't you know I just I'll be disappointed if it comes back in a period of time whereas you know there's there's no real money spent and it's just you know okay what's the what's the next best approach to to get this approved so um so I'm I'm willing to extend it and keep the public hearing open and not make a decision tonight um if that benefits the uh applicant okay do you have a thoughts on that I I do um so we're certainly um so we we thought we addressed the questions that were put to the applicant last time and that's what we've put in the package so we're happy to address the DBW comments as noted um uh the design issues related you know I don't know that we'll be able to be success uccessful on the design issues but we'll take a look at it and show you that we took a look at it um the issues related to the wetlands line I I want to be fair on that we we will delineate it when we have to apply to the Conservation Commission so I don't think in the next two weeks or three weeks we're going to go out and do a whole new delineation as Tim indicated the the flags were put up before and then we had the Wetland scientist go out and confirm those flag um and she did indicate in her letter that there would be some minor changes but nothing that would impact what um is being proposed so if the I just want to be fair given your comments that if the board thinks or wants an actually firm Wetland delineated line that can be confirmed that's not going to happen till we start to apply to the zba um however some of the comments by the resident related to the requirements of the cons restriction and the um the National Heritage permit um we can address some of those issues um and I think those are related to uh the density of the site by the member that's not present um and have that more refined so we can certainly do those things the only thing I think that we can't do is we're not going to go back out and red delineate the wetlands in the next three weeks okay and and I guess what what I would say is you know we do have a meeting on July 15th and then our next one after that is August 5th I believe um I I would not expect that we would continue this to July 15th because as I said I would hope that whatever you come up with we can then um submit to all our department heads to get a a another review of what has what has happened what's changed and what's still outstanding as far as they're concerned um and I wouldn't want them to rush you know to do that I don't imagine that you would have anything to us in less than two weeks um I'd like to give them at least two weeks on top of that to be able to do that okay so if we were to continue I would say is August 5th is that right Paul yes August 5th and then the 19 um so that would be where we' continue to would you know so I guess I I'll kind of leave it up to you if you if you're okay with us continuing it to then otherwise we we could take a vote tonight no I I think that would be fine I I've been as you can see turning around in kind of a confirming that so I think that would be fine with the goal of getting you revised plans two weeks before your August 5th meeting at which time you'll be able to have your department heads turn those around at least coms ahead yes right if we can do it would be it would be better three weeks ahead because they have an abbreviated time they don't have the full two weeks to review it before a meeting right and we have to have it on our agenda the you know almost a week ahead of our meeting so we'll get it to you as soon as we can okay hopefully three weeks not less than two but I hear you okay all right anything El okay that works okay so we'll have a motion I'll make a motion to continue the public hearing for the local initiative project proposed affordable housing project pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 40b for 23 units at 243 riverneck road until August 5th 2024 second okay we have a motion and a second Virginia I George hi Pat I I and I'm an I so we'll thank you very much then thank you thank you you can go okay rather not because if we take a quick recess it never ends I'm going to all right we'll take a three minute recess it's um 725 be back up by 728 e e e e e e e that was the only one right the only one apparently not okay so we are back uh next item on our agenda is um here's a discussion regarding the proposed chapter 40b affordable housing project residences on Riven at 199 and 2011 riverneck Road um so uh the way this is going to go is we've done this several times before this is not a public hearing but it is an opportunity for this board to get comments uh from various parties in preparation for presenting a letter to the Mass Housing Partnership um before they then issue their project eligib eligibility letter to the applicant who then um applies to the zba so we'll start with a presentation from the applicant followed by I'll read the department comments we have received from the various departments and other boards and commissions then board comments and then any public comments that we might have either here in person or on Zoom so with that we will start with the presentation um s board my name is Ben massink I'm here representing the Davis companies uh we submitted the pel application on May 14th um so I'm just here to give an overview um and answer any questions that you have if you want to jump to the next one uh so just site location I'm sure well aware of this site uh we're just south of 495 just west of Route 3 um the access is off of um riverneck Road um and from Route three you're going along Route 129 to access riverneck road um we own four Parcels in this area this application is only concerning the two Office Buildings at 199 and 2011 so just wanted to clarify that for the board um so existing condition itions as I mentioned there's two Office Buildings on site um 199 is on the East it was built in the mid 80s um by John Corran and then the uh West building is 2011 River Neck that was built in I think 1998 um that was home of mercury computers um for a long time until they vacated in 2017 um so these buildings have been vacant since 2017 we purchased the site in uh 21 um and went through a permitting effort to try and redevelop the site and ended up withdrawing that application um a little over a year ago um so um yeah I think you know we're here to talk about the P application so uh the Redevelopment of the site would involve demolishing those buildings um and building the residential development go next one um just some surrounding Conta uh this is and I'm pulling all these materials from the pal applications so you should have it um this is just pointing out it's it's in an industrial zoned area um but it is surrounded by residential and it's accessed along residential Road or the residential riverneck road so it does feel largely like a residential area despite being in the industrial district um that being said across the road um across to the other side of riverneck road are some uh office building so you know the scale of this development is not out of context uh with its surroundings and in terms of use it's very much in context with its surroundings um so here we have the site plan um it's five buildings UH 60 units each four stories um and we're staying underneath the uh height limitation um for the area uh there's an additional building an amenity Clubhouse with a pool behind it it um and then at the front of the site uh we're citing a wastewater treatment plant so as I'm sure you know there's a um sewer moratorium in town um so the way that we're solving sewer with this development would be taking advantage of the existing sewer capacity from the existing two Office Buildings and putting a a portion of the residential development on the existing sewer capacity and then we would install a new wastewater treatment uh plant below ground at the front of the site um which is kind of triangulated in relation to the wetlands that surround the area um so we're staying as far away as possible from any wetlands and the town well to the east um just a few other things on the um the residential buildings um as I said 300 units 25% affordable at 80% Ami um it's a mix of Studios one bedrooms two bedrooms and three bedrooms and then um um just one other thing I forgot to mention there's 10 detached garages um that provide additional parking or storage for the units um storm water was uh we were advantaged coming into this because we spent a lot of time on storm water during the previous permitting effort um I know that the existing Office Buildings dump basically it's you know it's all impervious across the buildings and parking area and basically all of that goes into the lands very little of it is retained um or treated to Modern standards um I know our previous development was going to um withhold up to 90% of that volume and then the remaining volume that was um uh you know uh pushed out into the wetlands would be much cleaner than what is today we haven't done a full storm water study for this development but it would be in line with all modern standards today so net effect showing what you have today versus redeveloped area would be a vast Improvement um setbacks and buffers um there is the 40 foot sidey yard uh setback that we're respecting um there is the town well to the West that I mentioned before that creates kind of this curved area that many of you saw when we did the site walk a few weeks ago um uh the existing development respects that and we would respect that as well we're not encroaching any further on that um there is a 100 yard um excuse me 100t residential setback um Clark Avenue is just to the kind of southwest side and there are some houses along Clark Avenue that kind of poke up into our site um so we are encroaching moderately on that 100 foot setback but I do want to point out that's a very steep slope there with very mature Landscaping so we would be retaining as much of that as possible so there's a very thick buffer there between um the closest building and the residence there um jump to the next one um as I said Landscaping we're maintaining as much of the existing Landscaping as possible and then supplementing that with a new landscape design uh so you'd have a uh well-designed and complete site here um and you can flip through these Paul but just some renderings here showing uh the aesthetic of the buildings that we would Envision um just a couple key project benefits so as I said before maintaining existing landscape buffers um the buildings are sighted near the rear of the parcels which I think is a pretty um important aspect of the design the site slopes down from riverneck so when you get to the back of the site that's a lot further down than uh your access off of River Neck Road so the buildings while taller than some of of the single families adjacent to it are cited lower than the existing single families so um it's not like they're towering above the single family hoses um uh substantial improvements of the storm water um I outlined that earlier um uh substantial reduction in outflow to the wetlands um Redevelopment of the existing vacant and obsolete buildings as I said Mercury computers left in 2017 and they've been vacant ever since so um we have looked for other users and we haven't had any success um so this is uh an an attempt to improve um the use on the site now uh residential use in a residential neighborhood again we looked at the context slide that gives you a sense that residential is very in keeping with its surroundings um it's within half a mile of existing public transit which is the low regional Bus um if you go to Apollo Drive that's there's a bus stop um there and so this is uh within half a mile of that walking distance um additional tax revenue for the town um we have um reduced our tax burden on the site given the nature that it's uh vacant and obsolete um so this Redevelopment would be Improvement to the tax revenue for the town um and then uh as I said more residents to support local businesses short drive from downtown so this is bringing um you know uh new and existing residents to this area of the Town um close to the downtown that um we would Envision would uh support the local businesses so I think that is it Paul yes so um I'm here to answer any questions um you know at a high level we see this as a vast Improvement to what's there today and we're really excited about um the opportunity okay so we do have some responses from department heads which I'll go through those uh now um Department of Public Works um notes that uh a full sight plan review was not conducted they're looking for you know more sewer and storm water management conditions upon your submit for the special permit application um as noted with the the previous 40b the enclosed dumpster pad in the dumpster Perpetual care for the dumpster um utilities to be clearly marked and labeled um any easements uh clearly and accurately labeled and snow storage on the site and as far as sewer comments um it's noted that based on the number of bedrooms you have there'll be a need for un onsite treatment system for 37,800 gallons per day um so um looking for that um the police department um they're looking for a a transportation impact assessment for the project and then they said they'll be able to offer more more commentary on it uh the fire department um notes that the proposal does not show fire hydrants um and requirements for where they need to be so they're looking for those the fire truck turning plan um uh they're looking for the the plan using the template that the fire department has all fire Lanes must be marked with approved payment pavement markings or signage um and the access must be designed to support the weight of the fire apparatus a snow storage plan to be submitted for review so it does not obstruct fire access roads of turnarounds building exits must have sidewalks providing a continuous path to a public way dumpster location again uh Fire Protection Systems automatic um sprinkler system required uh on the um the buildings mechanical spaces uh provide uh adequate interior access to any mechanical spaces located on the roof top or in within the attic nox boxes must be installed at locations acceptable to the fire prevention office and a requirement for address and numbering you need to apply to uh CH with e91 911 committee for that um Board of Health uh required to meet expectations for the uh groundwater protection Zone um Title Five regulations for an on-site septic or septic system will be required and again uh dumpster regulations they have uh uh regulations for licensing and operation of dumpsters um Evan balansky on Community Development has offered several comments um Paul hav I don't know if you're aware of the comments that um Evan bansky submitted having to do with um I guess some overlap as far as permits and things like that you're seeing it up on the screen here now I don't know you're aware I can't read that from okay I don't know if you can address any uh but I I'm going to presume it's dealing with the related application issue yes so the uh the property owner during its previous um process in in seeking permits sought to freeze the zoning by filing a preliminary subdivision plan followed by a definitive subdivision plan so under the housing appeals committee regulations um at 7 60 CMR 56.3 subsection 7 there is a safe harbor that's known as a related application Safe Harbor so that is if any time there was a an application for construction um of housing that featured less than 10% affordable housing on a property um it's a one-year cooling off period from the final resolution of that application process to the filing of a comprehensive permit application if a comprehensive permit application is filed sooner than that one year then the board has the right to F to assert A Safe Harbor and then there's a process um that the board would have to follow to assert that Safe Harbor so I do think that's something you're going to want going to want to note in your response letter to the subsidizing agency and I can give you some language for that okay all right thank you and I'm sure you're aware of yeah we for a number of reasons we don't believe it would um constitute a related project um I'm happy to talk about that here or I don't I don't know if that's yeah do do you cite an objection and then we respond or well we're just going to write a letter to uh Mass housing with with all our comments so we will put something in about that and then probably maybe I don't know how would it work with Mass housing then go to the applicant and say what are you going to do about this or how does that work well Mass housing will probably note it to the applicant they'll note it in any project eligibility letter that they issue but it's not going to prevent them from issuing a project eligibility letter they're not going to make a determination if the applicant disagrees with a an asserted Safe Harbor it's not their position to rule on that um that would then that ultimately if the board asserts the Safe Harbor after a comprehens of permit application is filed there is an appeal process where they can appeal it to uh the the executive office of Housing and livable communities um the executive office of Housing and livable communities would have 30 days to render a decision and then either party would have the right to take an interlocutory appeal to the housing appeals committee so it's a whole process um that would resolve any dispute in terms of whether or not the Safe Harbor is applicable so that would be the zba that would be after the zoning board of appeals opens its public hearing they have 15 days to notify the applicant of its assertion of a safe haror okay all right so we'll we'll address that with the zba if they do cite that as an objection okay Vin do you have another question on that no he um attorney hary just answered my question I was going to ask if you could um read to him what item number two says on Evans uh Community Development inputs uh if he could clarify what is meant by the site control related to the 40b regulations all right so item number two says I am aware that Davis has issued purchase and sale agreements to two separate entities for the sale of 199 and 2011 riverneck Road it is my understanding that the two potential purchases are undergoing due diligence and no signed executed pns Agreements are in place this information is direct directly related to site control as defined in the 40b regulations so again that is an issue that can be brought up in a response letter to the subsidizing agency ultimately the subsidizing agency has exclusive jurisdiction to determine whether sufficient site control is present um and that is one of the findings that they are required to make uh along with the issuance of a project eligibility letter so that will be resolved as part of that process yeah we don't have any contracts for this land so okay it's not an issue okay all right uh Building Commissioner has uh has noted a need to comply with current building codes energy code Mechanical Code code AS deemed necessary um Conservation Commission um has noted that you know again portions of this site were originally uh wetlands and um storm water drainage believes is believed to drain uh directly into Jason Conservation Commission own land um there's still some I guess uh it's not clear if permission was ever granted for this so that would have to go through through the Conservation Commission properties adjacent to a CHC Zone one Wellhead um they would be looking for a hydrogeology study of the site and past investigation of the site and uh studies of uh the turtle habitat and uh would welcome low impact development design in any proposal okay so that is the extent of the department um comments is the board anyone on the board have any comments virginity do you have any that you wanted to bring up first not at this time thank you okay um George anything no Pat Aon okay um is there anybody from the public here that would like to make comments Chris L valy um Precinct 10 town meeting rep um the one qu one question I do have for you is it's it's unclear from the agenda if this is being presented as a lip or okay it's not okay it would be a public hearing if it were a lip Okay thank you that clears up right yeah that's what I mean well if it were if it were a lip it'd be a public hearing did I say that okay um so I have a couple comments um some based on the presentation tonight and some just uh in general um the applicant said that uh this is not out of context of the area because the residences on riverneck are uh residents um and even though it's an industrial area um and there are Office Buildings across River Neck um as well however it is out of context um because all of the residents that or most of the residents that are on riverneck are single family homes not apartment buildings um and there are some small businesses but also the buildings across riverneck um are only accessible or the Office Buildings um across riverneck are only accessible via Apollo Drive they are not accessible via River Neck um so while they AB but riverneck they're not accessible at all except through that fire lane um he also mentioned that there's a bus stop within walking distance on aollo Drive um the only way you can walk to that bus stop um in short order is through private property um you have to go down River Neck around and and uh go apoll drive so it's not really within walking distance um also most of the department letters um contain no objections because there wasn't enough information uh to to uh object to um the as the police letter mentioned there's no traffic impact study um I would ask that when there is one that it also takes into account the other proposed project on riverneck um the fire department department and DPW couldn't really comment because there are no plans um the two comments uh from from letters uh the concom and the Community Development um they did have significant concerns with this project um as do the the planning board uh members um some good points uh are in the plan but there are a lot of questions and issues um one of which is the very boxy form of the buildings something that's not at all in character of that neighborhood again um and the other project as we heard tonight met with the residents um the applicant on this project is seems to be sticking with the pattern of not meeting with residents um after the uh the last project they proposed to the planning board it was quite uh quite clear that they should be meeting with residents on a regular basis for anything that they propose next they have not met with residents um so I would recommend that if this does go forward they really do need to meet with residents um this is something that we tried to um get them to do last time uh with very little success because they did not listen even though they met with residents they didn't listen to the residents concerns they didn't respond um and they didn't address the concerns that were raised uh so I'm very concerned that they're doing the same thing again with this project um proposing it out of the blue not meeting with residents and uh so I have some significant concerns as a as a town meeting rep for this this area okay thank you is there anyone else is there anyone on Zoom no one on Zoom okay um so uh we have our comments does anybody else on the board have any additional comments concerns um if if not um I I'd just like to I'd just like to um say that I if this goes forward um I agree with the comments that were brought up about the Aesthetics of the building and the flat top roofs that's never really gone over well anywhere in town when someone proposes that so I would really consider more the Aesthetics of the buildings in the town okay um so I will put together a letter with all the concerns that we have heard this evening from the Departments from um uh the public from the board and that will be submitted by the end of this week to Mass housing um and anticipation of a project eligibility letter being sent to the applicant who then will apply to the zba for a comprehensive permit at which time um all the abuts will be notified officially of uh of that public hearing so I think that kind of wraps that up for now unless any anybody else has any comments okay thank you okay next on our agenda is Tom manager bid Awards yeah thank thank you madam chair um just one item for the board's uh consideration this evening that has to do with our Towing contract our current Towing contract which is administered by the police department for Public Safety uh response is is up for Renewal as of the end of this month um July 1 um this is a contract that's exempt from chapter 30b of the master general laws uniform procurement act um as the board knows every three year or the board may be aware every three years the contract comes up for Renewal um the recommendation here is to again extend the contract with our current vendor um Christopher's Towing for a three-year period um as noted in Chief uh Spence's letter um the police department did go out and conduct a full safety inspection of the site um the um there were no safety violations or concerns out there um and they did a background check as required and as we've done in the past and there were no significant issues or concerns there um so the chief recommends the renewal um they did they did come a comment U that came in by email about the appearance of of of the location and and and chief Spence was forwarded that comment and I believe he has spoken to the proprietor who's actually in the room this evening um so again we're seeking the board's confirmation to extend the uh Public Safety towing services contract to Christopher's Towing for a three-year period okay there any questions concerns Virginia anything no I guess that's a no okay okay all right we'll take a motion then I'll make a motion to uh approve the public safety towing services contract for Christopher's Towing expiring June 30th 2024 as presented no oh 2 sorry that would be for three days 27 expiring June 30th 2027 as presented thank you second okay we have a motion and a second Virginia I George hi hi I and I'm an i okay thank you congratulations CHR all right Tom manager reports yeah uh just a couple matters this evening um as we near the 8 o'clock hour and the end of the third hour of your meeting um some good news at your next meeting you will receive um the results of the bond sale that Finance director John suar is conducting uh on behalf of the town as is required and customary we we um town has received a bond rating from standard and pors um for the upcoming issuance of the bond sale uh in summary standed and Pa reaffirm the town's AAA rating which was first granted a year ago to the community and the Outlook is stable which is good news um and again they they just know they just note um the town's um you know fiscal management um and you know aggressive schedule in terms of you know paying down our debt and so forth um as well as to be fair the growing residential tax base in proximity to the Boston Market um again our strong budgetary performance um and well as embedded Financial policies and practices um and our strong debt and liability profile so uh again we we will be back uh in three weeks uh with the uh actions from the bond sale um the next item I have is the monthly double pole report from National Grid um the matter with the double pole report as you can see they really I think the summary is sort of at the bottom of the second page the summary was there really wasn't a lot of change from May to June uh in terms of of Clos double poles or activities um you can see for example there was there was six there's 60 um double polls as of May 2nd um and we're approximately at that same level now what we have done and and it's and when we as I explained to the board previously we um we Reed this now monthly the you know the beginning of every month from National Grid when that arrives um even though it doesn't come to you till later in the month I share it with Public Works director Christine Clancy she informed me that even though there was not a material change in the uh the town's work since the May to the June report that she thinks it just didn't get into into the system that we have had our vendor go out there and uh and perform some work and so again we anticipate that when we Comm in next month with the and and with the double poll report that you'll see that the polls that are in the town's Court which is currently um you know we closed we didn't close any last month that but we we the we believe the nine that are there will made significant progress again most of our polls are on North Road and Bela Road and that's where uh wave guide who performed our services did did their work uh so again we're we're we're hopefully making progress um National Grid you can see has a very small number of of double poles um just over a dozen or so and so again the they are we're we're making progress fortunately weather conditions have helped uh in terms of we haven't had any storms or adverse situations with double poles and so again I think we're we'll just continue to show you progress in the months ahead so again um I think it's it's it's a sign that we are finally getting them down to a reasonable number again just as we as the next time we meet the legisl legislator will have ended its actions we anticipate or nearing the end of its actions but at thus far we just don't see any traction on enhancement of double pole removal at the state house once again so we hopefully something we may get a meracle over the next month but we're just not seeing any evidence that the legislature is is going to tighten the municipal request on double pole removal but I I did see something about the there was something in some Bill that was going to allow the municipality to take them down and then build the utility but how can you do that yeah that's not practical no that's not going to happen they're not going to want us up there moving the wires of National Grid and Verizon and so forth but the idea is it's really it's sanctions meaning fines a couple and and we just you know we just don't see any teeth in it but anyway the good news is is we're we're we're staying on top of it um you know again it's a sequential process so as you get next to go and and our big focus is make sure that we're not the one holding the lineup and and then again we put pressure on for you know National GD you can see they they've been very active we're hoping that Verizon will step up a little bit more uh and that we can get this down again and again our Focus continues to be on the longer polls because it does seem to be polls that are outstanding for years that just aren't moving we'll do it that and then lastly um the other thing that happened since our last meeting speaking of the legislature is since our last meeting on June 12th um Governor Healey signed into law which now chapter 112 of the acts of 2024 which exempts the deputy fire chief um from the provisions of the Civil Service law um and again that was a home rule petition approve by town meeting uh and is now in effect so now we're at a place where um the um both the police department and fire department are sort of in parody that the chief and the deputy chief are no longer sub to civil service and again we think that will help help the town management of the two departments going forward so that's my report this evening thank you okay and next up is appointments uh we have several for the select board um anybody have any comments questions about the um appointments that we're um up here to make today first one being the uh Board of registr the Democratic town committee has reappointed has re nominated Thomas fall as their only nominee for for that position um and he would like to remain as a registar and then we have two applicants for the deity diversity equity and inclusion committee um both seem to have uh good backgrounds for that that committee and we do have two openings there and then a reappointment to the military Community Covenant task force so any questions comments if not we can do a motion for the select wood ones can we do all of them together um I was going to do the town managing one that but although Paul if you want to talk about that one sure I I just have um we have we have an opening on the Arts and Technology uh committee and we're seeking the appointment of Hannah Barker for a three-year term expiring June 30th 2027 and that's actually a reappointment too yes that's a reappointment so can I do them all together to manager wants to you can do them all together I'll make a motion to approve the appointments as presented second okay we have a motion and a second Virginia I George I Pat I aarin I and I 5 Z thank you okay um meeting minutes we have two sets of meeting minutes from uh May 20th and June 3rd anybody have any comments or Corrections on those if not we can do a motion I'll make a motion to approve the select board regular meeting minutes of May 20th 2024 and June 3rd 2024 as presented second a motion and a second Virginia I George I I Aaron and I'm five okay time for select board raison reports and referal Virginia since I've been calling on you first every night every time tonight I have I have nothing this week thank you okay George uh just one and we mentioned earlier about the uh the low uh Regional Transit Authority having free rides so the month of July and I hope that people in town take advantage of it and it's uh something new that they've tried and uh and if they go on www.l.com you'll have this two different routes uh that uh go through town and uh I think they go about eight times a day so um it'd be be fun you know and uh time saving I guess do they um do they run on Sunday or not no they run on Saturday though right yeah Saturday Okay six days okay Pat anything um just one uh meeting last week uh Community preservation wherein we voted um to um award $5,000 to the conservation agent for um uh Warren pole property for wetland uh resources and we also approved A 2.6 million uh request for David hederson chelid housing to redo the Smith Street um facilities okay that will go before town meeting as time goes on for further approvals but uh that's what happened at Community preservation last week okay Aaron anything okay I just have a couple of things um last week we had a ribbon cutting at Tangerine Organic Salon um that they they use all organic based products for everything they do and they are located um they're kind of tucked between the Java room and bouis on Ginger rail Plaza um it's very nice location um and I want to thank everybody who came out for the Municipal open house that we had a couple of weeks ago uh there was some very enthusiastic people that showed up I don't know if we've gotten any applicants from that but hopefully we we will at some point and just want to remind everybody that before our next meeting will be the Fourth of July parade so looking forward to seeing everybody out marching in the parade and with that I'll take a motion for who's buying all the candy for the select for to throw no I'll make a motion to no no no ex we're gonna we'll send you a link from the zoom room in 200 when we get there we're going toj to Executive I'll make a motion to adjourn to Executive session to discuss strategy with respect to potential litigation do I have to say this for ledge Road commercial Trucking strategy with respect to litigation for Charles way and to review the executive session minutes for February 15 2024 segment one for approval second okay motion amend could we amend the motion please not to return to open session okay I think we got a vote in no that's okay and I'll amend the uh motion not to return to Executive session it's it's actually that's not to return to open session that's actually the default but yeah it's good to say it anyway okay and you seconded that yes I did okay Virginia I George I I I and I'm an i so we'll we'll rejoin you Virginia shortly y thank you e e