e e e e okay it being it being six o'clock I'm going to call this uh meeting of May 6 20124 of the select board uh and excuse me uh and um I just want to remind everybody that chancell tele media is broadcasting this meeting live and also taping it for later rebroadcast and if you join me now on a pledge of allegiance jice okay thank you so we have several public service announcements starting with a proclamation for National Public Works week and I know there's somebody here to um accept that Proclamation for us this evening so if you want to come up while we read it you can give it to no no and you can give it to Christine when it's when you're done reading it the official one read it oh well it's here the town of chelsford proclamation and celebration of National Public Works week whereas Public Works professionals focus on infrastructure facilities and services that are of vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and to the public health high quality of life and well-being of the people of chelsford mass Massachusetts and whereas these infrastructures facilities and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of Public Works professionals who are Engineers managers and employees at all levels of government and the private sector who are responsible for rebuilding improving and protecting our nation's Transportation water supply water treatment and Solid Waste Systems public buildings and other structures and Facilities essential for our residents and whereas it is in the public interest for the residents Civic leaders and children in chelsford Massachusetts to gain knowledge of and maintain an ongoing interest and understanding of the importance of Public Works and Public Works programs in their respective communities and whereas the year 2024 marks the 64th annual National Public Works week sponsored by the American public works Association Canadian Public Works Association be it now resolved we the chumford select board do hearby designate the week May 19th to 25th 2024 as national public Works week we urge all residents to join with representatives of the American public works Association and government agencies in activities events and ceremonies designed to pay tribute to our Public Works professionals Engineers managers and employees and to recognize the substantial contributions they make to protecting our national health safety and advancing quality of life for all presented this 6th day of May 2024 to Christine Clancy no director so thank you I just wanted to say thank you for this um Proclamation I also just wanted to make an announcement so that week we are kicking off on May 18th uh for a Touch a Truck Event and before I also have with me um TJ swis lower of our Highway Department we are also doing a food drive um that we're will'll be collecting food that week and we have locations around town can speak a little bit about to it but we're excited for that week um we have some events planned inhouse um and is part of the community with that open house and also the food drive good evening thank you uh my name is TJ swissler I'm a truck driver for the charford highway department and just like briefly talk about a food drive that we're having currently between now and May 18th uh back over the winter we were discussing some ways to give back to the community and we decided that maybe a food drive with all Don ations going to Chon food pantry would be a great idea so we sat down with Joe Erikson and and Christine Clancy and uh with their help we decided that maybe we could incorporate the food drive with the open house that we're having uh this month um so I'd like to just talk about a couple things that we have going currently we have over 16 locations in town with collection bins uh we have them at Town Hall all the fire stations the police station Adams Li Library um the cemetery department and the ppw and we're looking for donations um from residents and town employees um also on May 17th we'll be collecting food outside a Market Basket on chelsford Street uh between the hours of 8 a.m. and 300 p.m. and lastly the the main event will be our open house uh between 10:00 a.m. and 300 p.m. at um DPW headquarters on Alpa Road and during this time we're um we're hoping that any student in town that brings a donation for the food pantry uh will be entered into a Raff raffle um and we will be raffling that off for a ride to school uh in a DPW vehicle and um we're excited about that to get the children involved as well so we're hoping everybody can come out to our open house bring some uh donations for the PO food pantry and uh we' like to thank the select board uh Town manager Paul Cohen and uh Christine Clancy for getting this uh food drive in in place thank you what is the date of that open house again it is May 18th and it'll be at 9 Alpa Road between the hours at 10: a.m. and 3 p.m. thank you thank you so the the child that wins the the raffle to get the ride to school do they get to pick the vehicle it's actually it's called a DPW parade um there's requirements for them to be uh seat in seat belt so we're coordinating with police and fire so it'll be police fire and then DPW dump truck that will be involved so it'll be a DPW parade and we'll have to we're coordinating whether it be police or fire okay opportun for someone that's the problem okay thank you thank you thank you um next in public service announcement we have an announce from the Chelmsford Police Department um the chelsford police department is to recognized National Police Week and law enforcement officer Memorial Day on May 15 2024 in 1962 President John F Kennedy signed into law the designation of May 15th each year as National peace officer Memorial Day and the calendar week in which that day Falls as National Police Week this week pays tribute to local state and federal police officers who have died or have been disabled in the line of duty we also take this time to remember chelmsford's own Donald Adams who was killed in the line of duty in 1927 Constable Adams was 27 years old when he went on a trolley to arrest a suspect and was shot and killed Constable Donald Adams bravery and going after an armed suspect will not be forgotten also mentioned in the flyer are um three other officers who died suffering heart attacks in the line of duty Winslow P George uh Ralph Hollander and John P Campbell in observance of National Police Week the chelsford police department will hold a law enforcement memorial day ceremony at the forefathers cemetery on Wednesday May 15th at 11:00 a.m. and during the ceremony a wreath will be laid at the grave sites of constable Adams to honor those officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice we will also Place Rees at the graves of Winslow p George Ralph Hollander and John P Campbell next we have an announcement from the chumford Board of Health [Music] um announcing the wellness from within after school club open to all McCarthy middle school students it will be May 7th and May 21st from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. and says come join us as we learn and practice self-acceptance mindfulness and other strategies that will help you develop a healthier mind and a healthier you if you have any questions you can call 978 25052 41 also from the Board of Health we have an announcement about a free four-week meditation series with instructor Chris Connelly and that is at the North shsre Community Center at 31 Princeton Street on the second floor it's 11: to 12 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. every Wednesday starting May 1st through May 22nd and looks like you are required to register if you have questions again you can call the health department 978 25052 [Applause] 41 this is an announcement regarding the greater LEL digital Equity plan strategy sh ncog the regional planning Agency for communities in Northern Middle sex county is working on a plan to improve residents access to the internet technological devices like smartphones and computers and education about how to use these tools um this is located at the chelsford senior center 75 Gren Road May 9th from 5: to 7:00 p.m. and you can learn more at uh nmog that's n necco.org digital Equity another announcement from the chord Health Department caregiver series understanding the stress associated with caring for children with significant needs the series starts Thursday May 9th um it's a free series to discuss the stress associated with caring for children with mental health disorders and disabilities this group ensures that individuals can share their thoughts feelings and experiences without fear of judgment or breach of privacy uh children are welcome it is going to be held May 9th May 16th May 23rd and May 30th at the chumford public library in the McCarthy meeting room from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. also from the chumford health department let's talk about mental health uh Community Wellness series supporting the well-being of the lgbtqia and youth designed for Youth and adult community members this supportive interactive and engaging program invites participants to learn more about accessible actions they can take to be effective allies and create a more compassionate and inclusive community this is being held on Tuesday May 21st from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the chelsford public library and more information can be found with the health department next we have an announcement about the Memorial Day observance in veterans graveside Flags chelsford will absor observe Memorial Day on Monday May 27th in North chelsford with American Legion Post 313 as the host veterans organization there will be a parade and it will start promptly at 10:00 a.m. from the American Legion Post at 90 gron Road and proceed down GR road to vinyl square everyone is welcome and there will be a program immediately following the parade at vinyl square please note that Flags will be placed on Veterans Graves at our six Chelmsford public cemeteries prior to Memorial Day we will start on the 18th with the Scout volunteers at Pine Ridge Cemetery and there will be 2,000 marked veteran Graves if you have any questions about the parade or placement of grades side Flags please call the Veterans office at 978 25052 38 and last we have last another announcement from the chumford health department uh free youth Mental Health First Aid training presented by the he chumford Health Department um this is May 30th from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. M at the chumford Town Hall the fire training room at 50 Billa Road um it's for parents Educators and other community members and it informs adults about common mental health concerns among youth to register for questions you can contact Taran angel 978-250-5908 input uh if there's anybody here for uh 243 riverneck Road the 40b uh local initiative project that uh we will not be taking any testimony on that project tonight it's been it will be just continued until June 24th so just so you don't have to wait till we get to that on the agenda so next is public input if anybody has anything they'd like to uh talk to the board about this evening good evening everybody I'm Vivian Merill I'm with the dog park advisory committee um I know later on in your agenda you have a discussion about 54 Richardson Road the dog park is actually at 52 Richardson rad and has been part of this study all along and um unfortunately I got a meeting next door so I won't be here for that presentation but from what I was able to gather from the presentation it sounds like conditions are getting much better in the dog park area and I'm just hoping that we'll be able to use our irrigation soon cuz we'd like to grow some grass over there again and kind of cut down on the mud and the dust over there um traditionally I usually will email with Christine Clancy and she's been fabulous you know helping us out over there um I'm going to guess that I can probably keep doing that and um that was all I wanted to say okay thank you thank you anyone else for a public input no one online okay all right so next we'll go to committee vacancies so committee vacancies as of May 6th we have one threeyear term on the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee the Conservation Commission has one unexpired three-year term the commission on disabilities has two unexpired three-year terms the Community Action Program committee has one unexpired three-year term the cultural Council has one three-year term the diversity equity and inclusion committee has one three-year term available the historic district commission has an associate member um position available the holiday decorating committee has three unexpired one-year terms open the parade committee all applicants are welcome public records advisory committee has one unexpired term the Roberts field advisory committee has two unexpired terms and the recycling committee has one unexpired term term open if you are interested in serving on a Town border committee please complete an online application on the town website or contact the town manager's office at 978 25052 two okay thank you okay we have a couple public hearings uh this evening first of all we have a a wine and mount bever restaurant license um being requested for dod's diner uh I see we have the applicant and his attorney here St good evening uh members of the board Mr Town manager for the record Douglas howler representing the applicant Mr Paul doie Doug can you just push the mic towards you thank you towards there better that's better okay usually people can hear me [Laughter] Paul we have filed on behalf of the applicant all the required paperwork I've coordinated with the town manager's office we believe we filled out everything I have with me tonight the check for the cost of the Publications and we filed the uh required fee with the abcc this afternoon so all payments are in order um Mr Dodie is looking to get a beer and wine license at his establishment on Summer Street the hours are reflected in the application and uh he'll be the manager of record um I think we tried to lay it out very carefully we gave you the floor plan of the diner um the hours of operation when this would be available uh which days of the week um and I believe basically we're here to answer any questions that you may have okay does anybody on the board have any questions sorry about this application just an administrative one Paul you have the um a butter notice screen slips yes okay any other questions um I just have a question about experience um as far as the whoever will be serving the the beer and wine who can you I'm a little harder hearing sorry hearing he's just saying that he'll be the manager and they want to know about your relevant experience on oh you've asked for it pat okay it goes back a long way if you want in chumford alone uh way back uh in the uh 80s uh I worked as the manager of SOS which was a very popular thing so handle the throughout then after that period of time I managed uh venzo for 12 years uh with the liquor and now and during that other period of time I worked at various uh restaurants uh at we Paul's in uh Westford we didn't have a beer and wine license but the town allowed us to do a bring your own uh beer there and uh and that worked out quite well for the the customers we did special uh Events St Patrick's Day Valentine's Day so forth and so on now this was a an idea that came about uh when I decided to do uh increase our hours at nighttime to do uh real comfort food and things of that nature um and a lot of the uh my customers mentioned are you going to do anything about a beer a wine license or a liquor license and it it gave me an idea I thought about it for a period of time and I I decided to go forward with it so anyways I think it's it's a it's a great thing for the diner to have something like that uh and especially with the type of food that we're going to be serving and even maybe on a Sunday Sunday maybe have a a champagne with orange juice and for uh breakfast and with your uh beautiful omelette lobster omelet or anything like that but anyways uh I want thank the board for going forward I hopefully give us the uh the license to go forward to the ABC I appreciate that very much and it's a pleasure to work in chumford I I was 18 years in Westford I felt like I was in a an island somewhere else but it was nice to be home I live in chumford I want to what to work hard for the people of chumford and make sure they get the best out of me okay Paul you you've you've described a lot of experience now do you have a current tip certificate yes okay all right uh this is a public hearing is there anybody here that would like to speak either for or against or have any questions about this application any no one online okay take a motion to close the public hearing I'll make a motion to close the public hearing second okay you have a motion in a second all in favor uh any other any other last questions from the board just to reconfirm the hour um the hours are as stated in the application correct okay you just mentioned hours and I wasn't sure if you were looking to expand set forth in the application perfect thank you okay um no other questions we'll take a motion I will make a motion to approve the wine and Malt Beverages restaurant license for jod diner Inc at 7 Summer Street Unit 25 as presented second okay we have a motion in a second all in favor okay congratulations good luck thank you very much thank you to see you at the restaurant Lu thank you again okay our next uh public hearing is uh for a um a transfer of an all alcohol uh license for noo restaurant good evening everyone my name is Chris Coleman I'm here on behalf of the applicant uh Jeff Chen is here with me here he's going to be the proposed manager um the location we're talking about is 18 Boston Road Suite 600 the location has approximately 4,800 Square ft it's got 140 seats two of them or 20 of them in the lounge uh there's proposed hours I believe they're the same as the old establishment that was there but they are at Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday to Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and then Sunday 12:00 noon to 10 p.m. uh still Asian Cuisine um Sushi involved as well uh there's no alterations proposed there'll be some spruce up but there's not going to be any significant structural changes there or the layout uh Mr Chen has excellent restaurant experience currently he's the sushi bar operator at uh level in Newbury port but prior to that uh the year before that he was the co-owner of the fui restaurant in Westford and for six years prior to that he was an owner at Sushi time in plown New Hampshire he is tips trained he's a US citizen and he will be spending more than 40 hours a week there um we also have an entertainment license on the agenda uh it's really just radio background music uh and two t Tel visions and that's pretty much it so we'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have okay anyone on the board have any questions about this application so this is a change in ownership of the restaurant yes the former owners were uh U Restaurant Group Corp thank you to transfer okay this is a public hearing is there anybody here that has any questions or wants to make any statements for or against this uh change of uh um change of license okay no one on Zoom either okay I'll take a motion and to close public hearing make a motion to close the public hearing second there a motion in a second all in favor okay last chance anybody else on the board have any questions concerns so are we the entertainment license goes with yes all the all together yes okay we don't need to do both we don't need to do them separately do the all restaurant and live entertainment license and and non live entertainment license okay good yep I'll make a motion to approve the transfer of the all alcoholic beverages restaurant license for ukan noo Inc um doing business as NOA restaurant from Ur Restaurant Group Corporation as presented that'll work second second is that okay and yeah and include the entertainment license uh and that's to include the all alcohol common vict and non-live entertainment license second all right we have a motion in a second all in favor okay thank you all right conrat have a nice evening thank you very much thank you yet okay um and our our last public hearing has to do with the the local initiative project that I mentioned earlier at 243 Rivnick Road uh the applicant has uh requested that the uh hearing be continued to uh June our meeting on June 24th uh so we won't take any testimony this evening and just continue it so if we could have a motion to that effect I'll make a motion to continue the local initiative project for the proposed affordable housing project at 243 riverneck road to to oh to be continued to June 24th 20 24 second okay we have a motion and a second all in favor so George Christina can you tell George he can come back I don't I think he meant to leave for Richards okay we have um a couple um announcements about new license regulations and I think uh Christina Bruce is going to explain those to us good evening members of the board uh for the record I'm Christina Bruce support services manager for the town of chelsford um and I just wanted to let you know about new legislation signed into law by Governor morah Hy on April 30th uh these both pertain to making permanent previously temporary Provisions um that were put in place during covid-19 um the first is related to uh the sale of mixed drinks for off premises consumption by establishments that are licensed for um all alcoholic beverages on premises consumption so uh during the pandemic uh this provision was put into place to allow the sale of mixed drinks so someone um in conjunction with the sale of food for takeout or delivery um could be sold a mixed drink um and this was just made permanent the uh provision it can only go until midnight or the hour of closing whichever is earlier um this cannot be for the sale of wine or beer this is for mixed drinks only so this would not apply to our um wine and Malt Beverages lenses um if the wine or beer is mixed into a cocktail and it is mixed on site then it can be included but it can't be by itself and it can't be in a pre-made mixed sand angria or prepackage something like that um the only difference that I find in the permanent provision compared to the temporary provision um the state issues Transportation permits uh they didn't require a transportation permit for this delivery of alcohol during the pandemic um now if the restaurant uses its own vehicles or its employees vehicles to deliver alcohol with takeout they will need to get uh licenses for those vehicles uh Transportation permits for those vehicles that doesn't go through the town that's all just directly with the state and um The lenses have been made aware of that so that's the mixed strength so there any questions about that one so have have the restaurants been notified of this of this change yes yep I did send them I sent them an email notifying them about the legislation and then I sent them another email when I noticed that difference um it is in the in the advisory um which they all would have received but uh it seemed worth pointing out okay uh the second change is uh related to the approval of the addition of or the expansion to um outdoor service of alcohol for existing licens premises so that used to require local approval then abcc approval with a full process prescribed by the abcc that involved um u a butter notific if ation advertisement in the newspaper during the pandemic they allowed for local approval only without going through a public hearing and notice um process and they have now made that permanent that does not pertain to amendments um alterations of the premises indoors this is only related to outdoor seating so if you have a restaurant that already has approved permanent outdoor seating like Max and Leo's but they want to add some extra in the parking lot like they did during the pandemic they now can um apply for one time to make that permanent with the select board no abcc approval needed um the the biggest takeaway here is that the legislation requires that this board uh must establish a process for approving these requests so the board will have to decide um how it wants to proceed with these requests um previously a lot of that process was dictated by the statute and by the abcc process um we always would have our local amendment fee our own internal departmental review um we would obviously require the proposed plan so the board could see what it is they were asking for but most of what was done previously in addition to that was required by the abcc a financial statement a vote by the corporate entity um supporting Financial records the the lease showing their right to occup p and most importantly the butter notification and the advertisement so that is no longer required by the state so it's now up to the board what if any of those um you'll require um and once the board goes through a process to make that determination we can then notify our lenses so the the restaurants that have been doing this during covid um are they are they doing it this this uh summer this season that you're aware of any of them or uh no those temporary Provisions expired so now we're under this new process the only establishment that took advantage of the the temporary provision in the last couple of years was Max and Leo's they have that um the the permanent patio area which is on their on their permanent license um and then they would expand using a temporary license into the Park area the parking area so last year they added a couple of picnic tables they may be interested in continuing that on a seasonal basis um we'll see but they'll have to go through whatever process we determine first correct if we just carry over what we were applying from the abcc what would that look like uh so what we were doing was just our internal departmental review um yeah and then we weren't even coming to the select board the select board did um take a vote early on on the pandemic to allow just administrative approval so okay I see yep so if we continued that it wouldn't even come to the board it would just be an administrative review and so the rationale as I recall we were already thoroughly scrubbing the LI the alcohol license so at this point though we couldn't continue that way because this does require approval by the local licensing Authority which is the select Bo okay so we talking are we talking about just the outdoor seating is the only thing that we need to MH and or so that to go alcohol uh there's no action required by the board um so so for the outdoor seating approval of of new and expanded outdoor seating the action required um soon by the board would be to decide the determine the process going forward for approval of these requests and so what you did for the outdoor seating was just the departmental reviews and then yes provide your judgment based on that yes so the fire department the building department the police and and DPW would all uh do a review Community Development would take a look right and and they do have you know the last page was is the guidelines that that they would be required to follow so the email that the abcc sent about the um outdoor seating guidelines approved by the abcc in 2022 um their email said that it is their hope that these will serve as um as as guidance for the board it doesn't sound like that as something that is going to be required um for instance I think the first thing in that guidance talks about uh the requirement of a public hearing and that would no longer be required be required yeah that number one of those guidelines talks about um following the process provided in in Mass General Law chapter 138 for application and approval so I think the intention at this point is for that to be a guideline for the board um and that is the board has looked at that for for previous applications for outdoor seating for permanent outdoor seating okay any thoughts about how we want to move forward with this I mean I don't I don't know if we need to reinvent a process I think if the departmental reviews and attaching some guidelines was working before now we have to add the step of bringing it to the board board but I'm very comfortable with if the town manager's office is comfortable with how it was working I'm comfortable just repeating that well um according to what Christina said um we wouldn't even they wouldn't even have to bring it to the board if we if we're okay with them making that decision and then if there's a complaint oh we can decide I thought we I thought we were required now to bring it to the board well it requires approval by the local licensing Authority whether you could defer that approval could we delegate it is what I'm I'm not sure I think we'd have to check that with the abcc or with Council sounds like they want an executive approval um read the language but executive approval could be right but but the licensing Authority though P that's yeah when you have when you when an applicant comes in like noo or what these others who who who may have outdoor seating or or they've got to go before you the legal hearing the whole notice everything else um and and if you if you go back to the times that we had um Dr fagio here going back years ago all the restrictions on the outdoor seating had to be a secured area all those are in there so what they're basically saying now is you have to follow that procedure but yet if you want to address this modification just for outdoor service you don't have to notify the abcc right so I mean I think the simplest thing is is the board should just vote you know somebody wants to do a quick policy on this bring back a policy for the board to adopt saying this is how we're going to adopt the outdoor seating in accordance with the new state guidelines and then probably the easiest thing to do is to bring it before the board for a formal vote uh in the future um because there's really not a high activity usage right now in the town um you know we we have one we've had one which was you know Max we we can do that and then you're we're probably talking early June before it's done because we have a one cycle review unless we it's simple enough that we wave it well you said we haven't had any requests yet we may get one from Max and Leo and yeah they did come in to ask prior to the expiration of the temporary legislation uh at the time we couldn't really answer what the process would be because we didn't even know if the legislation would pass so um I I expect that they'll come in and and request those extra a couple of tables off into the parking area Okay so is it abcc just gets notified if if there's a change made correct so um when there were a couple of other types of license amendments like a change of DBA name or change of hours that the abcc currently doesn't approve they just require notification if this board approves it um so this would be that would follow the same process once the the board approved a request for seating Outdoors um our office would complete a certification document with the new description um we would amend the the license which would need to be posted and show all the areas where alcohol is served and then we would send a copy of that certification to the abcc and they would they retain all of their their typical enforcement Authority and um rights of appeal and everything else that they do for other amendments and applications as well so what we want to have is on record that if the ABC ever inquired we could say hey the select board adopted this policy on xate in 2024 and know by the way here's the application and approval for any any particular establishment so we don't we don't have to go through a public hearing you wouldn't have to do a legalized we could you could go through an administ however you'd want to handle it could it go through an administrative review at your office and then you would just bring us the paperwork no I think it would come before you for have to come come before you to vote it yeah yeah as the ex as a licing Authority control okay so I guess that makes sense yeah we can we can come forward with a a policy and um you know in in in the meantime if we have a request um I mean it it would only be four weeks from now would be the time that it would be voted at the latest um if somebody has a request before that time we can figure out how to handle it sure yeah we can let them know that the process is pending okay anything else on this all right thank you very much thank you okay we have a report this evening from Weston and Samson about the pfast sampling results good evening um Paul McKinley from Weston and Samson great to be here in person for change Frank gel also from Weston and Samson um is going to be renting a few slides um Paul are you going to be open those tell me when you go next slide um to set the table a little bit so 54 Richardson the DPW facility um posos or these forever chemicals there was a presumed release um at the site um posos uh you know again also referred to as forever chemicals is a suite of um U man-made chemicals there's thousands of them uh in this presentation little technical um we're going to focus in on on eight of the of these posos chemicals and one of particular note is posos so pfos is uh one of particular note so uh just as we go through that please um um just make note of that so uh just a few um um you know notes overall again I'm here to sort of you know Frank and I are both here to present uh sort of a status update on both the assessment and the remediation uh as far as remediation goes uh we installed a pump and treat system it began operation on July 5th 20122 so it's great time here to come and give a check-in we're about two years into the operations and you'll see a uh a graph of of how we're doing um but uh 80 million gallons pumped and treated so far so that's a lot um a lot of water um systems been running pretty much flawlessly almost no downtime um and we haven't had any exceedances uh of of the massachusett standards just a quick note on the standard uh Massachusetts has a what's called a posos 6 standard and it's 20 parts per trillion and what that is is they've identified six key compounds in this posos suite and lumped together if their sum total is over 20 parts per trillion then that's an exceedence that's the current standard so with meeting that it's basically been non-detect in the effluent so far we infiltrate that downg gradient of where we extract um the water um and that's been having really really um some some great positive effects Frank can talk about that a little more um but uh but so far so good on the pump and treat we'll show some graphs and a few slides here and show you the positive overall effects uh so we we are uh monitor quarterly ground water surface water um Peters that are installed in Cold Springs Brook and we also last couple rounds um North chumford Water District allowed us to sample their individual Wells as well um and we've got some some data um sort of Diagnostics there to to give you some of those results um but uh the the overall the pump and treat system has really been doing its job in the area of capture um everything's been decreasing out there for the most part in the area of capture and again we got some graphs to show you that um one of our key key Wells monitoring well one which is uh really what started this this this whole exercise um it it really has decreased significantly it's where we're um we call The Source area and uh where we've been treating from it's down from a maximum of 1,417 parts per trillion and then all the way down to our February result which was actually 17 so uh below that current massachus standards so it's come a long way not all the wells have met standards we've still got some ways to go um and unfortunately the standard our our goal line might be changing shortly but uh but really come a long way 14,000 down to 17 so in in less than two years great Trend um what we designed for and what we really looking for so what's coming down the pike that um that over here P what's coming down the pike that you're concerned about the changes you said yeah we can get into that a little bit but um ma uh I'm sorry EPA just listed a few of the pasos chemicals on the cira sort of hazardous substances list and um and they're publishing some some risk-based values that are decreasing so um what they're going to uh name is a couple compounds specifically will go from you know instead of a aggregate standard of six compounds of 20 there's going to be a couple individuals that go down to four and there's you know other changes that are seem to be uh coming down the pike pretty shortly probably this year um are these the same CH we're over here are these the same changes that we've discussed previously or are these new changes yep no these are the same changes that we we've known these are coming for a little while so uh we actually Incorporated some of the system modifications that may you know need mean to be necessary right so the standards going down want to be a little bit more protective in our treatment uh we actually anticipated some of that in our current scope so uh this is a a a little bit of a busy slide here it shows the site um and this shows a lot of the actually some of the hydro geology that we we've been doing in conjunction with our sampling program um if you can if you can see on the figure there the the Speckles is an area of of uh capture groundwater capture from our from our recovery well which is right in front of the DPW building I don't know Paul if you have a cursor I don't know if you can put it on the the one by mw1 right by mw1 yeah so that's our recovery well you have to blow it up I'll blow it up yeah perfect yeah it's it's the scale is getting a little blown up because now we want to Encompass sort of the north Chels water district Wells as well it's right there in the middle but um but if you can see on this figure it's showing the the capture zone of our recovery well which again is yet right right there where U Town manager is pointing to um so that's our recovery point and groundwater has really been funneled into that point uh we capture it from the um from the speckled sort of yellowy area there it's called our zone of capture um couple things to note here on this figure that you know wide area is right in with our area where we think the release happened um what it doesn't Encompass is the dog park I know we had a question earlier about the dog park not quite capturing that we can show you a little bit of the data trans over in the dog park I think there's overall a net positive effect and and just to answer that question we can go back and take a look at the groundwater concentrations and talk to D about the sort of risk of exposure one thing about posos is is a lot of the the toxicity is from ingestion so if we're using it to water the grass out there um it may not be as much of an issue as it is with the nor North Chums water district and people actually drinking the impact so um so we can actually go back to to to sort of get get at that question that was raised earlier we can certainly look at the at the data and the toxicity and see if watering with that impacted water over there would be acceptable and pose a risk or not uh a couple other things to note on this figure so so sort of north of north of the area of treatment is the dog park area obviously to the to the left on this figure um to the um to the West is the North chsw Water District Wells where we um have individual sampling results uh Cold Springs Brook um circumnavigates the site to the South um and riches and Road sort of bisects this figure there were a few Wells we we T them 119 120 and 21 I'll actually be referring to those but that's indicative of groundwater quality as it leaves the site after injection so just a couple points here before we move on to the next slides and Paul if you could pump it ahead that would be appreci uh just getting into some graphs some some good oldfashioned graphs here to show the data Trends uh the the Peak at the top there this is the mw1 right in our source area that I was talking about went from, 1400 uh down to that low point is in August of 2022 a month after we started treating so you can see the precipitous drop off of the P 6 concentrations um and then it's been trailing off ever since continues on a downward Trend so um really effective the uh next slide this again this is a um is is a really good slide to show the overall Trends right outside the source area and you can see the these Wells are de decreasing and actually almost right at that that 20 parts per trillion standard so if you see that's uh yeah right at that line and these Wells um we term them as offsite um offsite shallow monitoring well Trends so these include that the wells the 119 120 and 121 right on the side of richeson road as the water groundwater leaves the site and it also includes a couple of the shallow shall Wells that are on the North chsw Water District in between our site and the portable public water supply Wells so again uh love this graph it's you know showing that the remedial system not only affecting the source area but also groundwater that's leaving the site and it's been trending you know it's almost right at standards now current standard so uh really you know the system's been doing you know as design what it was supposed to be doing here um Dog Park area Wells so as I said said before this is a little bit outside of the zone of capture of a recovery well and you can see the concentrations um certainly that 104 well this is right in the middle of the dog park been bouncing around a little bit so uh I'm not so sure we'll be able to use that water for irrigation but we certainly question is noted and we'll take back um and take a look at it and we call this out specifically this is one of the concerns that D had when we were originally installing the system is it going to be you know enough to capture all of the impacts on site and one of the things as Frank will talk about um some of the signatures and the sources of posos um we're not sure that it's actually the same as what we're treating over in the building so maybe a few things going on here it's not in our area of treatment and actually maybe uh as a result of of another source Paul how so um MW 104 peaked and then it went down again how much time do you give it before you say it's down yeah great question I I think we look at the seasonal variations is one of the reasons that we're out there sampling quarterly or every 3 months okay um once we get a you know a years or more worth of data and it's not jumping around like it it has been I think we'll be safe to say that it's you know trending in the right direction and we can aay D spares thank you so again this this one you know there there's a problematic well or so uh maybe result of again other a different source and or not capturing it from the system uh here is a graphical depiction of the concentrations we call this an isopleth map depicting the concentrations um and uh actually if you if you bounce ahead um click ahead of slide unfortunately it's not animated we were having a jump from uh basically 6 months ago in August 2023 to currently um the current most current data set February 2024 and you can see the overall reduction in the plume size so just a graphical depiction what what Define what makes it a plume is it over a certain yeah so what we have depicted here is that 20 parts per trillion standard that's the so yellow is over 20 parts per trillion white is over 20 white is over yellow yellow I think is over 50 I I can't I can't see it but it's just it's a 50 Contour so that's that's showing the area the yellow is showing the area that's you know we where the P 6 concentrations are over 50 Gray is showing where it's over 20 which is the standard and just in the 6 months um the last 6 months you can actually see the reduction um for those of you seen these presentations over over we've been doing them now for a couple years we're actually going to animate this we couldn't quite get it together for for uh for this meeting but we're actually going to animate like a lot of the quarters here so you actually see the the the the reduction in size but this is just the last 6 months you can see it's really um you know making a big dent you want to go back or you want to go forward no I think we should go let's move forward so uh Frank's going to take over from here so as Paul is mentioning obviously there's one of the things we've been looking at actually early on is the possibility be there you got to get to the microphone or people at home hear you about there being other sources that dog park well is one of the ones that we've suspected there may be another source and it may not necessarily be an on-site Source it may be a source that's actually to the north um and obviously with respect to North chelmsford's concerns one of the things that we've been looking at also you know are there other sources contributing that have nothing to do with the DPW not saying the DPW doesn't have a contribution but it may not be the only one so Paul was mentioning you know pretty much that whole monitor Well network has kind of grown over time and the per the reason is that as we started to establish the hydrogeologic conditions you know there's actually three water bearing units there there's a shallower sand and gravel there's a deeper sand and gravel which are in communication with each other and then there's the Bedrock underneath it when you flip over across the street to North chelsford their wellfield four of their Wells are in the sand and gravel and two of the wells are in the Bedrock and early on um when we started taking a look at the data it looked like it was a little bit different the past distributions so what I want to do is just concentrate some of the tools we've been looking at to kind of uh pretty much established that and I think to support that conclusion where we go with it in the future you know as more data comes in uh the intent is to hopefully start to look at where these other directions are um Paul could you okay so these are radar plots and I can't see them yeah there's a microphone above you in front of that monitor right there yeah great so as Paul was mentioning we've actually put together these are a different way to look at the past concentrations they're called radar plots and you can use them for different purposes you can use them at a a particular location to compare what happens over time you know as these little things they shrink do they grow do they start to deviate where they are these axes represent the um the current p uh six actually P 8 compounds that we've seen at the site the six that currently are regulated by mass D are on there also and and what will happen is over time they may change they may stay the same what have you but it's a really useful tool for us to be able to see what's going on and to compare so here's mw1 we like to call this the source well as Paul's mentioning the system's been doing a really good job so here is what the typical distribution of those apas compounds look like okay when we first started on the site and you can see what's happened over time pretty much all we're seeing over at mw1 is Con concentration of posos so all those other contaminants pasas compounds they're gone they're not in that Source now part of that is the result of what we're doing is controlling with the recovery well and so we're starting to pull stuff back and this is a good sign so it's an indication that the source area is clean but we're going to come back to this later on because I want to take a look at this relative to what's been going on over at North chelsford and then as an example these are some of the other monitor Wells there's 11 19 120 121 these are the ones I believe that are across the street that give you an idea of the other side so of Richardson Road they're kind of beyond the recovery well and what they do is they show the signature of the plume over there there's very much a consistency in this area the pfba posos PF if you look at how these things are set up there's a lot of similarity to where this was here this here is the the treatment well okay and you can see so we have the same source as what I'm getting at you know generally speaking within the footprint of the DPW area the recovery well and like immediately across the street over at Richardson excellent okay okay now if you take a look at some of these other Wells here is north chelsford and if you notice in terms of their water quality and this is recent we had seen something like this earlier on but in terms of the not the reliability but the usability of that data they would mix Wells so what we've done as part of the more recent work is we've actually uh individually sampled each one of their Wells so we can get an idea of what the impact is well for well without mixing because when you mix things potentially you can kind of you know trying to figure out what came from where it's pretty consistent all right and if you take this here and take a look at it relative to our source area our mw1 you can see it's a little different especially with respect to uh some of these compounds like the pfba the pfbs they're not as high as they are over at North chelsford also this is now this is now so our source is already gone in terms of control wise and meanwhile contributions consistency of these p compounds over at North chelsford still there um we suspect that there is actually when you look at the aquifer map the DPW is just a small it's kind of like a think about the wellfield being in the middle of a river okay most of the water that comes to that is coming from the West actually and it actually travels towards the wellfields that's the main part of the river we're just a little tributary and so as a result result of that it's not out of the it wouldn't be out of what's expected that there's another contribution to what's being seen over there um I believe PA which is the I can't is there a can this come up a little B that's good if you notice uh as an example one of the things that we did I mentioned there's a shallow and then there's a deep sand and then there's a Bedrock one of the things that Paul's group had done early on when we went across the street to start putting monitor wells in we actually put the wells so that they were in the shallow and in the deep and there's actually different signatures between the shallow and the Deep which again supports this whole concept that there is another source that's impacting like in the Dork Park well but also over at North chelsford so it's not just the DPW I don't want to go into more detail than that at this point but that was one of the things we were tasked with and it's one of the things that actually D recognized very early on when they were looking at some of these signatures so what's been happening is besides evaluating the effectiveness of the system what we've also been doing is starting to set the set the foundation for there being other sources where D goes to that that's not your problem it's somebody else's but the whole point is at least solidifying that Paul could you go up one more please I think there's one more slide yeah and this is a surface water Paul was mentioning about cold Springbrook we have a suspicion that Cold Spring Brook which drains over to the east to the Northeast other parts of the town uh not off of Richardson Road it actually comes through the DPW and then goes over to the uh to the um to the wellfield actually has a different signature and the surface water there actually has elevated past in it groundwater flow direction that Mt Paul showed earlier on is actually from the stream towards the DPW Yard so we believe that the stream is actually a s one of the sources that's bringing in pasas from somewhere else unfortunately we get impacted with it at the DPW but some of it then continues over to North chelsford and we know from other data which I don't have here but we have water level data that we've monitored we know that these all respond when North chelsford pumps their Wells and so that means that they're they're actually kind of like our recovery well they're doing the same thing over at the wellfield and then they're bringing some of that contaminant there so um that I think is it for me Paul go to the next slide so just uh I I'll jump in where Frank um left off here is is just a another look at the data signatures that we're looking at what again you know posos pfas are a suite of thousands of chemicals a lot of them um we're focusing in on on on just a few specific ones that are indicators here but of note on this figure here Wells 1 through six are actually the individual ual North chsw Water District Wells and U just what we've highlighted here is you know a plot of um of of some of the wells but you'll note here that there's another compound this uh uh pfbs and then this ore this uh I guess it's yellowish pfhpa a couple different compounds you you'll know that hey why are they they're over here but uh and also in these well these are MW 1114 s& D are actually on the North CHS water district um so we could sort of extend that Circle a little bit but what's do this show is that there's individual compounds on the North chur water district that we're not seeing on 54 Richardson so just another we call this lines of evidence you know we're we're we're trying to evaluate where the um p is coming from and a better way to to treat it but also looking at alternate sources so just another you know indication on this slide looking at the data sort of presenting it a different way um one of the lines of evidence we're looking at as we complete the assessment to figure out you know where's the source and how do we get to a solution go to the next slide um another way of looking at this so as we were crunching this data the relative percent of of posos with posos so again this is the pfos I mentioned right at the beginning of the of the talk that's one individual compound that we think is a key indicator of the 54 Richardson plume versus what's at um um you know downgrading or potentially due to other sources what this is is a plot of uh perly we just threw threw Wells up here and asked them the plot Wells that had greater than 50% P4 pfos which is the signature on on our side and you'll notice here these Wells again it's 119 120 and 121 which are leaving our site so it's the groundwater quality that's leaving but the rest of them you know mw1 we have our our influent concentrations from our our treatment system MW2 which is you know right in between the buildings as well again it shows that the the P fos is a key component of the on-site um signature versus uh if you pull up the next slide um what we did here is is is throw the opposite let's let's plot Wells that have less than 30% posos F pfos not the posos full suite and again you can see all of the um North Cher water de uh District Wells fall into this um as do some of the Pomers and surface water locations um and a lot of the offsite levs so it's just a another way of looking at the data which seem to indicate there are multiple sources and I think we got a wrap-up slide here yeah so um I'll just speak over here it's easier for me to see so the pump and Street system I think we covered that the concentrations are are uh you know have been decreasing over the last I think we're at 22 months of operation um really been doing its job it it doesn't cover the full site so the dog park again is an area that we're watching closely DP noted this uh to begin with but overall concentrations are are decreasing um anticipate the standards just I think I hit on this earlier but unfortunately EPA doesn't designated pooa and posos one of our key compounds um as circle of hazardous substances and we we anticipate the standard will go down um and um this is a great check-in we have a large report due to mass d uh at end of this year it's called a phase two comprehensive site assessment we're really trying to wrap up a lot of our assessment and and draw some conclusions so with that any questions okay any questions for Paul or Frank why are you thinking of that you're going to be sampling again this month may may it is that was February day so they they sample every three months and then they usually takes a month or so six weeks or whatever to get the data so we'll we'll probably have data sometime late June or so forth so you'll we'll have more evidence at that time and I think the other thing to note as he stated and if probably been reading in the Press is the EPA has designated the stricter standards uh last month and the mass D our state regulatory agency is on board there going to adopt them Statewide probably within a few months as well so that'll be the new uh goal line but the goal line is obviously significant uh change to four parts per trillion um going forward is it four parts per trillion for everything uh no there's uh two individual compounds I think they're going to four and then we're not quite sure how can just can we just like get a table that says here's today's standard here's where we are here's where we expect the standard to go yeah absolutely our data today and where we so we know relative to where we expect the standard to go sure we we we don't quite know how D is going to interpret the you know EPA regulations so states have to be at least as stringent as EPA so Mass D um they have you know pretty sophisticated risk-based system not quite sure how they're they're going to adopt those rules so that would be you know one piece we have to probably wait until those standards get at least the draft standards get promulgated then we can do that comparon I understand I'm just trying to say where we are today right we're measuring let's say for one of them we're measuring against 40 parts per trillion and we have data that says we are falling in this range and then the the last column is we think Mass D is going to this number Y no absolutely know where we are relative to where the standards going since we know it's changing yeah no absolutely we can do that and then and we also um again I think I mentioned this before we we we're running a remedial system and we have to meet those same standards for discharge so that's one of our also primary concerns we want to make sure that our discharge is meeting this new more stringent you know standard when it goes into effect so we're trying to be a little proactive on both the the remedial side and also the goalpost right we need to know where we're getting to so absolutely we've been looking at at the the data Trends you know and and for some of those Wells I think I pointed out in the second graph there that we were actually getting close to our current standard but then they're going to move the the goal poost on us so you know how far they're going to move it and what's that going to result in time operating the system is is probably what you're going with that that's where we've been looking at this as well so as an example Paul saying you got to get to the mic and nobody can hear you sorry as Paul's saying is the P 6 okay those six compounds the cumulative concentration can't exceed 20 the federal the currently now adopted regs for the state for the feds is that two of those pooa and posos have to be four or less and then the other ones that are in the pasas 6 what happens is they've got an equation that you have to use what's called a hazard score and so it's not straightforward like there's a number and it's going to be based on the concentration it's going to be based on the concentrations of the other four compounds so it won't so there's a formula that says what your level is right now that's the federal like Paul said Mass d will probably either they can adopt that or come up with something more stringent but when you're trying to compare it's not going to be comparing Apples to Apples it'll be difficult okay and what this what this has done the new federal standards is water district across the Comm we we can forget about the rest of the country but but for our discussion across the Comm some that were not previously uh had concerns with posos are now subject to it and I think that's been reported in the media and then the other thing is how do you treat it and and I guess the question is is we've seen the north Chon water district got a substantial Grant they're putting in treatment plants for posos and so forth the I guess the question I'd have is would the current carbon filter system that's in existence for this facility would will that work for these new standards or do we know do we know that for the north chord water district yeah because that's really the question that we have in this consideration is they they've been using a system as we know that wasn't built for posos yeah and it's carbon based and obviously that carbon media has to get replaced and that's really been the driver of cost and I guess the question is that I have is with the new standards will that system still be effective to meet at least the new federal regulations as we know them yeah the way I answer that we did have a a technical discussion you know many months ago with the North chelsford Water districts consultants and their technical experts and I I think there may be other treatment Technologies like we employ resin out on this site um that may be you know more efficient than carbon um is probably the easiest way to say that so I I think we had a really productive discussion with them and um and we look at those kind of treatment options are available rather than carbon so if that answers your question I think there are other Technologies and there's still being developed I mean posos is relatively new in the suite of of of chem of uh you know toxic chemicals that have been identified as an issue these days and so uh the the treatment Technologies are always being developed but um but even on our side we we we've developed the carbon you know with a couple resin Chambers and really the the the heavy lifting is done by the resin so um something similar analogous might might benefit North chelsford and and help with their treatment and reduce cost and then last question obviously what's leaving our site today doesn't meet the new federal standards and we're just about there for the current standards but it also indicates your data saying that even if our site wasn't didn't exist there'd be a posos Sit situation that's occurring in that well field that has to be treated as well is that sort of your conclusion is that you've got from your sampling data there's there's more than one contributing Source it's not limited to the DPW 54 which is in roadside is that that's that's that's what the you know the data as we're as we're into the assessment and and it was very helpful to be able to collect individual samples from the north chars water district but it looks like there are some differences in the signatures as Frank was was indicating with the radar plots and sort of the bar graph um you know plots as well show there's other compounds present in North chelms Water District that aren't at 54 Richardson so it it and and Cold Springs Brook coming from offsite there certainly you know appears to be several you know contributing sources you know and so our lines of evidence we that's how we we work on this we develop lines of evidence between the hydrology um the the signatures straight up concentrations there's there's um you know many factors that go into it but it seems to be pointing towards several sources the EAS way would have they can't hear I'm sorry the easy way would have been just to approach it based on the chemistry okay and then you just have that one line of EV evidence and so you could just keep going back and forth well you have the same thing as we have but when you then look at the Hydraulics how the water levels respond to pumping the gradient that's in that figure there and all of that comes together it puts together it's it's not that simple it's more complicated and what you wind up with is not just the chemistry but what we call the groundwater Hydraulics work also to establishing other routes by which these other sources can impact their wellfield so this was from the February data we also took data last fall so can you remind me why we didn't do this from the fall dat we didn't do the report out from the fall data oh I don't know who the question was I don't remember what happened we s you sampled light in in nov November but we didn't have this meeting after that data yeah I think we were waiting for the two rounds like we don't we don't like to draw conclusions on or hang a hat on one sort of so Paul just said we're going to sample again in May so can we expect to get another report after May or should we not have that expectation we we can we can present uh on the quarterly data but I will say we had two rounds uh for the north chenford individual water sampling which we did in November of 2023 and February 2024 just for ease of reference you know we included the most recent February 2024 which was generally very consistent with the November data um but we don't have another round for North chelsford plan but we certainly do for all the other you know the Well Network on 54 richs in and Cold Springs Brook so we H happy to come in and present on on all the quarters of data um and show progress as we go along um it's really just um how the board would like to see it what were you what were you suggesting we do to finish answering the dog park question oh so um I I will take I will uh both consult with d and look at the um the concentrations at the dog park so this is I think you asked a great question how many rounds of data before we think it's stable and and and uh are able to make that kind of conclusion is it safe or not to run the irrigation while at the dog park um and we can look at even though the the groundwater days that it doesn't quite meet standards over at the dog park the toxicity is really due to ingestion so if we're using it to spread and water the grass that exposure route actually might not be completed so something we can take a look at and and see if it's allow you know permissible and doesn't pose a risk to turn on the irrigation while at the dog park I think was the request and if I could add something to that too along those same lines is if you start to pump that well if you start to pump that well just like our recovery well it can influence what's going on in the local groundwater so the other thing that we have to look at is are we going to be concerned about pulling something in if there's an off-site source and and we did have that question posed to us before and we looked at uh actually using the treated groundwater which has been you know it's clean um 80 million gallons of it and see if we could you know reroute some over there the logistics of that are a little little tricky but and and there would be an expense associated with that but that's an option too thank you so I'm just this is I'm just starting to learn about all this um how do you identify offsite contamination like what's coming in and where it's coming from and and who does that how do you identify it and how do we go about figuring out where this is all coming from I'll go first and then maybe Frank can chime in yeah but uh but this is really like the um really what we're trying to get at with those um with those radar plots and the bar graphs is looking at the chemical signature and determine you know first of all is there another source is it all attributed to One Source is it multiple sources and I think we're getting getting to those answers with that you know presentation of the and the crunching of it you could you could see that there's different compounds in north chelsford and um and and the way those radar plots plotted out like the ratios between the different posos compounds uh certainly indicate there's another source so that's the the second part of your question how do you identify those and go about it that's the tricky part right so so we we establish sampling locations in Cold Springs Brooks so it flows from you know upgrading and offsite onto onto the around the the 54 rides in property and um and I think it's as Frank was showing you on some of the radar plots the signature that's even coming onto the site through the surface water stream are different so you know as we look at it the dog park has a little bit of a different signature the the cold springs Brook has a little bit of a different signature some of the compounds of north chalford um have a little different signature so that's where Frank was looking at the both the Hydraulics the hydrology out there where it's where water is Flowing where the contribution to the north Cher water district Wells and our wells are are uh you know where that's coming from and then try and identify sources so you know looking at the immediate area there's nothing you know nothing really jumps out it's a fairly residential neighborhood out there so okay thank you okay any other questions yeah we do have yeah do we have any questions water district yeah would I be able to good uh my name is Paul pyes um the superintendent up in north chumford um I do want to thank Wes and putting all this together there's a lot of data uh got this just last week and I'm just trying to analyze it and put it all together we do want to thank you guys also Mr Cohen for inviting us out here um to uh see this presentation uh very knowledgeable some of the questions that we have and it will get into a lot of detail um but I don't know if this is the setting for those detailed questions or at some point we'd like to get together with with everyone all the parties just so we can get into deeper detail but one of the I guess the easier question is a lot of the different sources or signatures that are coming into North chumford we have um pz3 I believe Peter right on Stony Brook on the top have we ever thought about moving further north just to see if there really is anything coming down Stony Brook um I think it's one of the things we've been testing for since 21 don't quote me on that uh but it's something that we could look at and and see if it's something that's doable um we do excuse me uh through Mass DP we also have the source water assessment protection uh program we are going to contribute our time and help look into this uh this is something that's affecting us and since there is different sources signatures coming in we do intend to do some more extensive testing around the wellfields to see if there is other things coming in from different areas um I understand I'm still relatively new to chumford I uh have only been here for about a year and a half and when I got into this past I you guys were pretty much in the mid in the middle of it so it was kind of difficult to adapt it all and learn about it all in a very short time uh as a superintendent we do a lot of different things not just focus on pfest but it is one of our main concerns that we do have up there to provide Clean safe water I did bring my uh engineer also with me she did have some questions about the plume and some other um issues that were going on out there if we're not going to take up too much of your time but it's just some easy questions that we just figure out if we don't mind okay I think we don't want to get into too much technical detail that will'll be way over all of our heads but yeah whatever you have sure absolutely thank you can everyone hear me um so I want to Echo your name for the record I'm sorry my name is Aurora I'm the environmental engineer for the North chumford Water District um and similar to Paul I haven't been there for too too long um but I'm trying to play catchup um with the data also um and I want to Echo Paul's sentiments and express my gratitude to both of you um obviously being in the industry we know that there's a lot of work behind the scenes uh just besides putting together a presentation um and as suggested by the board I won't go into to too many technical questions um but I did have at least three that I wanted to ask um if we could perhaps go back to the slide uh with the title pfast 6 Source area decrease with hydraulic control which was the plume thank you um I wanted to ask if you had calculated the surface area difference between the August 2023 and the February 2024 plume seeing as the title suggests that it's decreased but it certainly suggests that it has migrated um so I wanted to pose that question to you no we didn't but you got to go to the mic again no we haven't but when you take a look at the August data and you see where the 20 PFS as uh pretty much border is you can see there no longer any on the other side of Richardson Road groundwater flow Direction even if it isn't pumping is going from the lower right to the upper left and so anything on the other side of Richardson is no longer there if you look at the the 20 Contour you can see and again I don't have numbers but obviously that's we're basing on the other thing is if you look at the extent of the 50 parts per trillion that's significantly reduced and then if you notice there's a small red BLB I believe that's a 100 that's no longer there so that's the type of information for the purpose of this presentation that we're relying on but obviously with GIS it could be calculated thank you I'd like to move to the slide titled key takeaways if you could thank you there is mention of further analysis on the second bullet point and I wanted to ask whether these results were included as part of this presentation and if they were not um what analysis are they being utilized in so I put that up there further analysis is you know the continued on ongoing um groundwater surface water Peter monitoring um well monitoring uh the system monitoring which is key to you know indicate the concentrations that are coming in um but you know to Paul's Point earlier Mr Perez um happy you know if we want to try and expand you know cold strings Brook and and and open to suggestions I will say uh we had a super I think I alluded to before we had a very productive I thought meeting with um some of your you know consultants and um happy to continue that discussion both on the assessment and the treatment side so okay and thank you for your patience I only have one final question um we mentioned the new EPA regulations and potentially more stringent Mass DP regulations moving forward and I wanted to ask um how you plan to adapt your treatment methods to meet the new regulatory requirements I think we're looking at a fifth vessel so right now we have four um vessels out there there're are 500 um pound uh treatment vessels I don't know if anybody's been out to the Richardson Road um you know system out there but we have four treatment vessels two are carbon two are um resin Mass DP actually asked us to reconfigure that so right now currently we're operating one carbon vessel and two resin um vessels I think we probably will add a third just to be ultra conservative make sure we don't have any discharge limits and that was what we cost out and included in our scope so I'm thinking um have to reach out to um Miss Clancy and and and Paul Howard but I think we're we're looking to get that vessel online as a proactive measure at least in place we don't have to um throw the valve on and operate it but we're looking at a fifth vessel thank you for your time I appreciate the opportunity to speak okay thank you thank you very much uh that's all we have right now but we would like to continue some more detailed questions at some time if we can invite everybody want to have to come down here or wherever and we can continue this conversation sure I mean that's that sounds good I think you know Paul you can probably coordinate so forth the only other thing I'd mention um is there there may be another source of data out there as we know the chamon water district has Wells out there at metal Brook and they may have sampling results from the brook and and their um their Wells at metal Brook and so from the brook from the brook and metal Brook uh and that may may be able to acquire them since their public record as well from the chood water district and that may also help give a bigger scope of of the area that people have been inquiring about um so that that should be something else we should be gathering at this time as well okay thank you thank you very much okay thanks for coming we'll see you next time thank you Christina can can you get George and to let him know where're all at okay next on our agenda is a proposed revision to the select board's local initiative uh policy and Virginia you were the one that brought this up if you want to tell us about your proposal so um I'm going to start with the second one first in section six 2.6 um there's a requirement that the developer provide uh notification to a Butters no later than not less than S days in advance of the public hearing and um this is what I had brought up a couple meetings ago I'd like to suggest that we change that to 14 days um it's consistent with where there are statutory requirements they give 14 days I know we don't have a statutory requirement but I also think it's um In fairness to the abuts to just give them more notification to prepare and adjust their schedules and then with that if you go back to section 62 and I talked to manager Cohen about this the application materials are currently required to be filed not less than two weeks and so my suggestion was to change that to three weeks um one that would give more time to notice the abutters within uh 14 days but also um it seems like that's a little bit sporty now because if for the Department reviews um if they get the material two weeks they really have less than two weeks to review it with the agenda cycle publication so those are my two suggestions and Paul I just wanted to ask you in also in section 62 um the second line from the bottom says changes submitted to not less than 7 days prior to the board to again fac facilitate review is that what you would want or would you want to bump that out too does that work okay right now I mean I think it's okay right yeah um it doesn't happen all that often and I think what we have we have been able to turn it around quick but okay so those then then I would just leave it at those two suggestions okay any questions for Virginia about this proposed change logical and and my only my only other thought if the board wanted to I know we have a policy to wait two meetings these are such simple changes and we've been getting a high volume of 40b applications in I didn't know if the board might want to wave that two meeting period and just put this in place yeah I'm okay with that although we haven't had this is we've only had one lip we've only had one lip right fortunately um I'm okay with that I don't know how the rest of the board feels about that okay so if we don't have any more questions we can take a motion um I will make a [Music] motion I will make a motion to approve the proposed revision to the select board's local initiative policy as presented second okay we have a motion in a second all in favor I okay thank you thank you okay next is zark request for the state senator yeah um thank you madam chair um tomorrow the Senate Ways and Means Committee is going to release its version of the state's Senate's fy2 state budget uh we we saw U just over a week ago The house's actions um in terms of the approvals uh of its version of the state budget uh the ear marks that was submitted were were included some were funding was reduced um but the requests were submitted um and so now the question becomes the Senators will have um until the end of the week to submit amendments to the Senate budget and then week after next they'll act on the Senate budget and then it will go to conference committee sometime in June and since it hasn't happened in 13 years ideally it's done by the 1 of July but sometimes they'll do an interim one month budget and then have it done hopefully by the end of July because they've got a end of formal session and then it's also an election year long preview is uh is we have an opportunity to submit an earmark to Senate the Barrett on behalf of the town of chelsford um we don't want to duplicate what's in the house side um because oftentimes you you'll sort of get the best of both worlds um so since all of them were funded I reached out and spoke to Christine Clancy our public work director and and recognizing again that even though senat the Barrett would re would sure we consider any request from the town of chelsford we also know he has he's the chair of the Senate you know energy committee and and is very outspoken on environmental Affairs so in speaking to Christine developed this proposal U for a $75,000 earmark um and really is to address you know the effects of climate change and en environmental but also Al have a concrete effort of of new tree planting So This falls in the wake of the tree committee recognizing that the tree canopy is declining at about 1% per per year over the last 10 years um and the tree committee did an inventory and management document um on the toar tree canopy but where would this would sort of bring us to the level where a tree and invasive space species inventory and management plan would actually document that and get them on to our GIS system um and what we're proposing is this initial $75,000 step is to do the town Scenic roads um because on the sound Scenic roads one the designated Scenic because of the significance of them but also anytime you have a issue with a tree or a stone wall on a Scenic Road it has to be go to a public hearing um by the planning board and so forth so we identified the initial roots to be the scenic roads as well as an additional 20 mies of of basically major routs through the community um that go through the town centers the environmental justice area which is up near um Drum Hill off of um Park Hurst um and then residential and Commercial areas um so again the end result would be a product that would be incorporated into our GIS system as a layer it would have in species invasive species management and identify those areas uh where additional trees uh planting opportunities would take place um with a tree management plan and and in fact if you look at the air mark that Senate that representative um um Rodney Elliot submitted uh for the tree planting that would actually coincide with this but would not be dup duplicative to this and in fact this work could be done in a matter of months and so by the end of the fiscal year you would have the plan done as well as a tree planting done probably next spring um so that's what um is we're we're asking the board to consider is to submit this request to um to Senate a Barrett uh and um see where that brings us um and and again we would know by the end of this month and then we' just await the end of the budget process for what exists in the final stage the good news as as came out last Friday is the state got a bump in revenues unexpectedly in April um so the climate's a little more relaxed than it was um you know two months ago uh when they were sort of going through that that streak of Revenue shortfalls so that's what I have for your consideration this evening um and if the board approves I will you know confirm this with Senator Barrett's office and that way we meet their Friday deadline okay any questions about this potential aark everybody okay with it all right why don't we take a vote so am I are we authorizing the DPW you just said Town manager to submit the ear Mark request to sen Barrett on I'll make a motion to authorize the town manager to submit an earmark for the state's Senate's proposed fy2 state operating budget for a tree and invasive SP species inventory and management plan for the town of chumford second okay a motion in a second all in favor thank you thank you okay um next we have a proclamation request from the um to declare Municipal Clerk's week May 5th through 11th um everybody have a chance to look at the proposed Proclamation and I see we have a representative from the town clerk's office here if we have any questions for him about what's what's in this Proclamation I'm okay with it and I I would be supportive of waving the review cycle to issue it in a timely manner since it's this week either that we'd have to we'd have to make Harrison wait till next year I'm fine with that okay so did we want to George are you okay that would be great thank you okay do you have anything you want to add about it no no nothing in particular um just thank you um to the Town manager and select board for um enabling us to do great work and for the other departments for uh supporting our operations so can we read the proclamation and present it to him now absolutely so uh in celebration of Municipal Clerk's week May 5th to May 11th 2024 whereas the town clerk's office serves as the professional link between the residents the local governing bodies and agents of government at other levels and plays a vital role in the public interactions with local government and whereas the town clerk's office has pledged to be ever mindful of their neutrality and impartiality rendering equal service to all and whereas the position of the town clerk a time-honored and vital part of local government exists throughout the world and is the oldest among public servants and whereas the town clerk staff in the town of chelsford mass continually strive to improve the administration of the Affairs of the town clerk's office through participation in education programs seminars workshops and the annual meetings of their state Regional County and international professional organizations and whereas it is the most appropriate or it is most appropriate that we recognize the accomplishments of the town clerk's office and whereas the week of May 5th through May 11th 2024 marks the annual observance of Municipal clerks week which is sponsored by The International Institute of Municipal clerks now therefore we the chelsford select board do hereby designate the week of May 5th through 11th 2024 as Municipal Clerk's week in Chelmsford Massachusetts we encourage all residents to recognize the contributions of the town clerk's office to our community with appropriate activities events and expressions of appreciation presented the 6th day of May 2024 so did the clerk seal her own Proclamation there you go thank you thank you thank you thanks Sison thanks thanks okay time manager bid Awards yeah uh thank you we have two bid awards for you this evening the first one is for the Strategic plan process um I'm not going to go through it in detail you you have the packet but basically the in in following the town meeting vote to fund the Strategic plan strategic plan committee was was was formed um the Dozen people um reviewed seven proposals were received from the formal advertisement solicitation that went out uh from that seven four companies were interviewed um and over two successive nights and at the end of the uh review of the documentation materials and the interviews with the firm Representatives the each Committee Member had a chance we went Roundtable to express their preference and at the end of the day the overwhelming preference from the committee was to accept the proposal from Barry Dunn um once that was uh completed we then opened the price proposal because that's how a request for proposal Works under massachusett procurement law and fortunately the price proposal for the berry dun uh was $90,500 which actually was within our budget uh and therefore gives us a little bit of cushion in the event something arises during the 12 months that it will take take um to complete the strategic planning process I think in Virginia obviously she may want to comment on it but I think what I can tell you is the committee as they said it was an overwhelming consensus uh of of ranking I mean we had good firms it wasn't a no-brainer there were many of the four we interviewed they were qualified firms I think the focus of the committee was getting robust citizen participation particularly from those who may not normally contribute uh to town Affairs or town input sessions and then also the the output being that there'd be items that are measurable and um in a living in a document that actually you know has uh defined outcomes and measurable and and and a document that can bring us forward so I'll pause there I know Virginia as a Committee Member wants to add any further I think you've covered it Paul thank you so we can expect the um the final deliverable about a year from now about a year from now yeah the committee is uh meeting tomorrow night and then next week uh if if this is awarded um the RFP had a draft contract so I've I've sent that uh you know with the dates and numbers filled in to the company and and they've committed that they would have a representative at the meeting next week and then the timing actually works out well because they'll sort of spend the next few months until um sort of gathering the data working with the committee and then you're really going to see the big push probably post post Labor Day when everybody's back in town and focused uh and then that's when you'll get a lot of the public input uh and participation and then the other thing I think you're going to see uh because I was on a call last week with Nim Cog uh and Evan balansky um there are other planning documents that are going out right now uh Center Village has a master plan the open space Recreation committee is working on a plan uh and I think we're going to try to see if there's a way to coordinate those activities so that you know it it we don't confuse people like oh I I already answered a survey oh no that was the center plan survey not the master plan not the not the uh housing production Plan update not the open space plan thing so I think what there will be is there will be some effort to try to coordinate the those activities going forward but I think people on the committee is excited um going forward with very d uh and um like I said hopefully we'll have this done just over a year from now okay any questions um just reading through the proposal over the weekend so is this geared towards just a five year span and then you would look at doing it again for the next five years is that how this is I mean because he sort of a 10 it's it's a 10-year Outlook but it's really a five-year action item plan because I think realistically any items that you would do after five years are just too far out to to do anything but it really is sort of a 10-year Outlook but five years of measurable action items and then you're right what companies do and nonprofits and government would do is probably after five years you'd come back and revisit it saying okay what have been our results and and accomplishments over the five years what's changed in five years uh and then probably doing some kind of an update process in five years yeah okay anything else okay I think we need a motion for this I'll make a motion I'll make a motion to approve the town manager's bid award for the Strategic plan Consulting Services from bar Dunn as presented second okay a motion in a second all in favor I okay thank you great thank you and then the second bid award this evening is for Public Works uh this is for the drainage studies for drainage improvements um the the Public Works did a bid opening on April 25th uh there were three biders received uh this is for the drainage improvements at robertsfield Friendship Park ancy and Jesse Road area and mil Road near ready way um the low qualified bid which was the low bid was in the amount of $365,000 225 to Peter amarello construction out of Sutton Mass uh and I'd seek the board's confirmation of that proposal so I have a question so this was issued in just as just one bid is that correct yes yeah okay any questions okay we'll take a motion I'll make a motion to approve the town manager bid award uh for the DPW drainage improvements project as presented second okay a motion in the second all in favor okay thank you thank you and appointments yeah uh I'm seeking the board confirmation evening for the appointment of Lisa as Human Resources Director as the board's aware um next month our Human Resources Director Jee palii will be retiring after 30 years of service to the town um process here was we did a formal bid advertisement process used the MMA uh and HR list serves um we receive applicants for the position um reviewed resumés on the town's part at the interview table is myself uh Christina Bruce in my office and uh Jean par allei um we conducted interviews and at the end of it we all felt that the best fit was Lisa um Lisa doesn't have the HR background and and other candidates did have an HR background but what we were concerned about and what we're excited about is we think Lisa is the right fit for the job this is a different job and quite frankly is I was surprised I didn't recruit her I was surprised when I heard that her name was submitted by Genie uh when when the deadline had closed um I went in with an open mind um I think from two perspectives from from Lisa's perspective it it does two things one is it provides career advancement um and an opportunity to further developer clearly the HR position and director is a higher responsible position obviously it's got a a higher pay range than that so it offers career advancement it also provides new learning skills for her and quite frankly I think it also provides her with career stability with that saying is there was a concern on Lisa's part and I think there's a concern out there is if things continue on the trend that they are we're seeing communities you know having to carefully decide what positions they keep going forward for example the town of drait has already given notice to their economic development director business development director that that position will be eliminated uh we've seen a vacancy now arise with tingor with the person from tingbo went over to Bedford um Eric solerno took the job in Bedford as a and we don't know what Tings br's do going going forward and I think Lisa's concern was is you know you sort of the the old inventory thing you know last in first out um I wasn't at that point I I had not had a a preconceived notion that oh a year from now I don't know that least or that position would be with the town um but what I did see from the town's perspective is and I also and this was sort of confirmed to me by the reaction from from because from the employees when they learned about it was an excitement because she has shown herself to be a hard worker she's shown herself to be discreet uh and insensitive to people and I and and I've seen that and I think that's the one of the most valuable things that happens with the HR position position is you're dealing with retirees spouses at often challenging points of their life in terms of dealing with either benefits for for or you know for for Health Care uh or death benefits you've also have issues of also Recruitment and so forth and as well as cases that come in from active employees you know whatever their concerns would be you know the HR is a direct contact person if somebody's having an issue with a department head and so forth and I think those personal qualities as well as her you know her diligence and work that is sort of what crystallized for me but not only me when when we finish up the interviews I didn't say anything I said I wanted to hear from um from from Christina Bruce and from Jean and they had the same uh conclusion and so that gave me confidence and then we sort of kept it under wraps until the agenda went out and then when the word get out to other department heads I I I was I was out of the office at the time off site I came back a few hours later saw Lisa I saw the emails that came in and it just showed me that the the expression of appreciation and support for her was beyond normal and I and I and I told her I said Lisa I think that should tell you something it should comfort you because I have no doubt that if Lisa wanted to leave here she could get a higher paying job doing what she's doing in in in the public sector or the private sector but I think this is what she wants to it it it does I think it also provides more uh personal contact which which is a little different than than in her role is business development and so I think it just works um for her and I think it'll work for the town uh in the years ahead so with that I I you know I I seek your um support for this nomination um and I just I just think you know the measure that we have whatever we're we're hiring and we we've we we're in a challenging hiring period My Philosophy is Don't force a hire uh and the big thing is organizational fit uh and I think this one is is right there so I I I respectfully seek your confirmation for her appointment this evening got any questions for Paul a couple um your last comment sticks out big with me because I've operated my business that way for 35 years in as much much as you got to find the right fit so that makes me feel better that everybody feels like she's the right fit I was concerned I was one of those people concerned because I don't see any human resource experience and I know enough about it to know that there's a pretty big learning curve to come for I would assume because of legalities and laws and things like that so have you discussed any kind of training yeah let me let me get on to that learning curve thing because what's happening now if you look at MMA and Municipal Publications because there's a shortage of employees and qualified employees what we've seen in the last 18 24 months because of the labor shortage is a stepped up training thing so believe it or not this Thursday out in Northampton there's a the mass Municipal Human Resources Association which is part of the MMA as an affiliate is actually doing a boot camp for newly hired HR directors and So Lisa will be attending if you confirm the appointment or if you table it I'm still going to cender until you you know decide but but the bottom line is is that's a good resource I've also encouraged her to join the organization into Network um because that's one of the keys is you know you have the back support of of myself who've been doing municipal government for 35 years you have Labor Council behind you um but a big resource is is your networking and your skill sets out there for um for for in this case HR um and you're seeing it regularly because whether it's Municipal finance and other positions and you you just see it regularly because right now we just have a shortage of qualified people um so I'm confident that that those training resources are there but more importantly not only are they there I'm confident that she's going to apply herself and and and develop those skills um so yeah I think that really will will be uh successful good how many uh rumes did you get seven wow believe that yeah it's it's and we we're it's it just telling um we had we had a situation uh where we're still looking I think we're on a we'll be going to our fourth iteration trying to find a procurement project manager for public works and we just can't find anybody and we've interviewed and and we've walked away from some people saying no that this isn't going to go well uh and then we had one person who we thought was going to start but then didn't show up you have those type of experiences but the problem is is just like in private sector the the the labor pool is shallow uh and um and it's it's it's just amazing uh what you're seeing out there yeah we see the same thing in business so almost set okay anybody else can we have a motion I will make a motion to approve the town manager's appointment of Lisa as the Human Resources Director second okay a motion and a second all in favor thank you okay all right the next one is uh Colonel Moses Parker School building committee um what you have is a template letter in your packet and what you you see in the uh in the in the in the uh the meeting binder um this letter is actually provided to you from the msba this is how I don't know you the word rigid or structured this is the new way that things are done that column on the left under description is what they provide saying this is this is what you shall put on your school building committee and so therefore you have to have um the local chief executive officer a school Committee Member superintendent of schools local official responsible for building maintenance representative uh authorized to construct school buildings School principal member a knowledgeable and educational Mission and education facility local budget official or member of local finance committee members of the community with agriculture engineering indor construction experience and then the all-inclusive other so in other words you you basically got to have these you know 11 positions and then you can go beyond that um so I sat down had discussions with Jay Lang um and said Jay you know a lot of these are pretty self-evident you know superintendent manager um you know uh facilities director for the town and so forth and then School principal uh and then we sort of said okay well Jay who on the school committee wants to do it you know in this case it's Dennis king um and then um and then for the local budget official um I approached Jim Clancy um because one is he has children in the schools uh and certainly as chair of the finance committee he's demonstrated his capability and even even if someday in the immediate or near future he decides he no longer wants to do finance committee you know he he's rooted in the community with two young children in for this project so he he willingly took on the uh school school committee uh I'm sorry the finance committee seat on that um Jay wanted to add the director of of business and finance Joanna Johnson Collins she's on there spoke to Pat Maloney who obviously Pat is the one who has experience in doing the previous school projects as well as other Municipal projects so we slotted him in um and so that's the configuration we have until May 31st um one and then the other individual you see very top is Brendan Kelly um he is mcpo which is massachus certification public procurement officer certification he's a town resident he's also the director of facilities in Lincoln he went to the presentation the school committee did in March on the um on the um New School Parker school and and at that after that meeting he introduced himself to those who were in attendance he sat with Jay I know he spoken to Pat Uh he's also got children he's also got children in the school so we're we're mindful of that you know you want to have people who are vested in the community who have children in the schools if possible uh and so um and then basically you also have to tell them who the chair is of the committee um and and and speaking to Jay I think the the at this point the obvious one based on his previous experience would be Pat Maloney um and then what'll happen is this will evolve over time I mean this is a six-year project as we heard at town meeting as we've been aware of this thing we can add or modify over time and I think you will see changes over time just naturally from attrition and otherwise um so again um I'm seeking your confirmation for this appointment the again the deadline is May 31st um to do this so um I welcome any edits and modifications uh Jay will also be discussing this with the school committee tomorrow night um I think the philosophy was was you know there are still people going to be involved with this project who who are going to be you know involved and actively involved with this you know John suer and others but I think in order to have an effectively sized Committee in terms of Quorum and those type of things that I think the size of 12 is how we sort of how we kept it so that's sort of where we're at at this point okay any questions you might have just started to address it Paul but from the finance perspective M um like I see Joanna Johnson Collins is on there however whenever we roll up Capital funding or you know funding for buildings and maintenance it's really John su's organization so um my question was where does that come into play here and should John Souza be on this list um because they do they they typically do the heavy lifting he could be I think what our immediate focus is I'm saying this I me tell you I'm saying this project has two phases you've got the phase from now to the ballot vote uh to approve this project when whatever form and cost it is and what and what and what this process prescribes right now it's not really heavily Finance focused we have to do this project eligibility and where it goes after this we we submit our building committee that part's done what's next up on the docket is enrollment projections which the school committee already has from nesdc and then we got to do maintenance reports to demonstrate to the state that you know we've done our you know our maintenance uh in that you know of our facilities and that we're qualified to go forward that helps our that helps it'll help our ratings for for feasibility and then feasibility again is going to be out in the community which will start next February okay here as Jay explained at town meeting Dr Lang explained to town meeting do you want a middle school of grades four through eight do you want one of of of four and five do you you know I'm sorry five and six do you want one of four 4 through six do you you know do you want one 4 through eight and so forth It's all the conceptual stage I'm not opposed putting John sus if you want to add John as a 13th I'm fine with it I I just JN will be involved but I think Jon's perspective is would be just The Debt Service in the numbers perspective he doesn't have ch his children have gra his daughter has graduated from the schools um and I just you know I I'm not opposed him being a member of the committee and I'd welcome it if the board prefers that I just didn't I'm just trying to keep the size manageable um so that's where I'm at when this so I'm sorry Pat it says for the school building committee so I guess my how what's the you said this is for the initial phase but what's the longevity of this oh it'll be it'll be for the project but what I'm thinking is going to happen over time is there'll be additions and deletions from this core 12 or 12 13 whatever you whatever you have um one is you know and Jay and I have spoken we'd like to have a Municipal official of the Town who's who's has MPP MPC yeah public procurement official certification right now we don't have anybody in school admin or DPW has that so that might be an addition that comes in then we would slot perhaps Mr Kelly down to the other category um because that that's really a procurement function um I think that other things that will happen over the next six years um you will see a number of these people no longer in the position uh whether whether they're elected officials or they're appointed officials but the the the the duration of the appointment would be for the project but what I'm saying to the board is you are going to see the composition of this committee evolve over time just because six years is a huge duration and so every time it changes you have to go back to the state and come back here yeah we have we have to notify the state so we come back here for any changes and then we submit it to the state and that's how that's how it will play out um so again if if you like me that John I'm sure you do it I think if John's okay with it I'm okay with it that was just kind of my question I'm okay with not having him if he's okay with not being on it but it just struck me as an omission and I guess the only other thing I would say Paul is I absolutely get what you're saying about getting people involved who have kids in the school system I would also just ask keep in mind I think that as this process progresses is there's a whole another Community out there that we have to get Buy in from who don't have kids in the school system probably probably a large majority of the town if not two third of the Town that's no question so from a perspective standpoint and like doing the roll up your sleeves work I get it I just would make sure we don't put blinders on to the rest of the community that has to buy into this now the cost is going to be a a community concern but I think we're would be helpful is is when people evaluate ating is it these are concept should it be 4 through six should it be 5 through eight should it be you know I I think we know where the school committee is leaning as we sit here today they want to free up the space but I think it would be help I think we were mindful of people with who had children in the schools who could give direct experience towards that thank you um so is it 11 voting members and then Joanna or we she would be 12 we can we can add we can add John if we should go to 13 we should have an odd number if they're going to be voting members because what the list I don't know if that's so critical but yeah I know what you're saying yeah yeah I I know what you're saying be overly cumbersome if we ended up with 13 or 15 or 17 people on a committee um it would just be unwieldy at that point is my in my opinion um so my understanding at 12 huh I said you're already at 12 right my yeah but we also reading the RS and being familiar with the RS we can do an 11 person committee and add as many non voting members as we'd like for consultation or anything like that I only get concerned the more voting members that you have the more unwieldy it gets to get to a decision and we saw that in L what happened with L if you saw some of the media accounts is they had people didn't attend the meetings they had problems getting quorums and I think that was sort of and that's my concern and I saw B reca with 16 people on their committee and it took a long time to get things done and consequently Town folk got you know frustrated msba got they got their job done but the other thing that I heard from the chairman over there was that you know we had a building inspector on the committee that didn't live in town we had all these other people on the committee that didn't live in town and they're voting our thing so we're not in that situation at this point but want to get in that situation either so I I we do have the option to to limit it to the the the amount that they spell out and then add non voting so I think you you know probably you and Jay may want to have a discussion about that but I have no problem Madden John and um Joanna Johnson to okay so I guess the question is whether you want them to be voting members and non voting we can go 11 plus two or we can do 13 whatever the board prefers um I you know I think it should be an odd number so and I I believe John should be have some involvement because he's going to be generating a lot of the information that we're going to need to get out to the entire Community to Virginia's point because it's not just about one group it's about getting out to the whole community and John's going to take a big part in that so I don't have a problem with that at all I mean looking I don't know everybody on this list but most of them and I I can't I don't my gut says you're not going to have issues not getting a quorum with the people I mean these are committed individuals but uh my other comment is if you wind up in that spot it's time to change committee members you know we just we we don't have time so maybe it's better to go with the 13 and that's if people people get attrition then you still have some institutional memory from the beginning and and I guess to you know to to the comments we've heard I thought you and J already pretty much you know did this pretty you know comprehensively as far as who you decided to put on here but no I we got to add John to the list and then go with 13 that's fine and then that way you got a seven person Quorum which is fine and is there something else that's missing here after to the paragraph at the bottom seems to imply that it should be something else oh yeah there there's narrative you got to add you know providing people's background but that's yeah but we just wanted to get the committee appointed and then we'll provide the narrative so okay it's not going to go in just like this no all right again I would see your confirmation of the of the list as presented plus John Su are our finance director okay we have a motion I will make a motion to approve the list for the school building committee for the colonal Moses Parker middle school project as presented but with the addition of John Souza second okay we a motion and a second all in favor thank you all right time manager reports yeah just a couple quick items that keep the board and the community upd date what's happening and the first one has to the first one has to do with the um North chord fire station facade update um I don't know you want what I presented to you is the slide that just shows you where where this is going um basically the committee has has received the input from Architects Engineers had discussions on you know from from an initial site visit to a meeting down at Public Works last week or so and the direction is is to go to a metal panel cladding with banding and you see that Illustrated here um in the gray which was the uh Pro the request from the committee in terms of what would look appropriate out there um and I don't know Pat if there anything else you want to add to what's going on out there yeah just to give you some background so you know and this is going to be part of my uh liaison report from permanent building committee but in essence um anybody that's driven through North Chon in the past year has seen staging outside of the building um we had gone with a brick facing on this building when we completed the project in 22 that brick facing was falling off we've had good luck with other projects in town with the brick face and school admin Etc but this was done during Co so who knows what reasons we had for the latent defects that we experienced um so we went back to the uh contractor and said that you know we have these brick falling off and so they wanted to do some um uh remedial work that we didn't think would satisfy so I as the OPM had recommended to the committee that um uh we may think about that so they went and did some work came back and said no that wouldn't be acceptable so we did talk to with our legal counsel um we had a meeting with the contractor contractor agreed that this was a latent defect and that they should be responsible for replacing the siding here um so we have now sent this document to the contractor we're waiting for word back but um basically they just asked us to stay in a similar square foot cost as what was there um we think that is this um we don't want to go back with brick with them because we've been there and done that and we don't think that's a good idea so this was uh what we thought was a a reasonable solution so right here right now um the permanent building committee did vote to um go with this look and uh we just waiting for Triumph of Littleton to get back to us and say that yes they will uh go ahead and take this on and as soon as we hear word um we will um if they're ready to go we're going to turn them loose and hope to get this done by mid summer in July 4th being a Target date but it's getting a little late for that at this point but hopefully we have something this week any questions okay and then and then the final part of my report is we received the annual letter um in accordance with State sat regarding the underground utility project from National Grid um as noted there have been no expenditures obviously in the last year the there's there's roughly 3 um $3 million remaining in the account um the search charge was turned off years ago it's been 11 years since the project uh phase was done we had we had thought we had hoped that we might be able to move in some manner or form uh and we were actually looking consider ing we're going to bring before you whether to use some of the funds from National Grid um and to approach Verizon to to do chelsford street because that's going to be redone from the center to basically past Fletcher you know past Alpine Lane to to the highway to um to just to Golden Co edman in uh I think two years on the tip um unfortunately Mass uh dot Mass proper Transportation basically has provided no support and including Financial towards the an undergrounding project there um to refresh the board of the so that's Now sort of pushed aside to to to refresh the board and the community what the challenge is the the goal and the directive was always to go through the center you know past the Oddfellows building past Fishbones to the library underground the problem is the Verizon trunk lines that are there to go under that Brook and and AC and up um putting aside whatever contaminated soils might be there from the cleaners and everything else but the bottom line is it's in the millions of dollars um from Verizon and the problem with Verizon and why they bailed out of this project um is because they're they're collecting less than $100,000 per year in any availability of a search charge because they're only allowed to assess a search charge on landlines within the community and so again we're stuck in the Quagmire where we can get the work done for National Grid but we just can't get it to to Verizon and and it's the two factors one is the trunk lines that go through the center if you've ever looked what goes through that Center and two is the brook and the undergrounding that would involve trying to go underneath that Brook uh and then back up um and so again we're at this this Junction of how do we proceed um there is no provision in the statute on how money's are returned because you know those monies were paid years ago I imagine they would just distributed to the customers if that's who are here today if that were the direction the town ultimately decides um the only other means to do it would be to find another funding source um and what what some communities have done is they have utilized Community preservation as a funding source I'm not suggesting that I'm just informing you that that would be another funding stream that could support this type of a project because again the the the variant is is the funding source under the state law um that that provides the Verizon funding source to be landlines and as we know land lines are gone for the most part and they're not coming back and that's what's hindering and hamper this project which is why we did the first phase of the common um and basically we're we're stopped there because it took Verizon I think it was four years to collect the deficit from that and that cost doesn't even approach what it would be to um to go through um through the center into the brook and then the other problem is trying to go above ground out of the center saying okay don't bury them go you know you can't just the cost are prohibitive to to try to go oh just get down Summer Street or that other the it just doesn't work it's just a cost constraint so that's where we're at and I just again wanted to update the board and and perhaps when we do our goal setting we can tackle this again in terms of what do we do uh with this but I'm not looking for an answer tonight but I just wanted to let the board and provide the board with the the uh annual report from National Grid so that concludes my report chair thank you so Paul if we wanted to bail on that so if we said we're out we're done yeah I think the funds would just How would how would you decide who gets them back you can't I think we I'm just trying to yeah I think I think we'd have to I think we'd have to I think we'd have to ask councel and and and and basically I think they'd have to be some determination Maybe the Attorney General's office say what do we do in this instance where the town has a significant Surplus how is it returned I can't just refund it to the landline no no no there's nothing but the landline Verizon it's all the National Grid people yeah right and then what do you do for people who are unold I don't know but we I think we'd have to see guidance from the Attorney General's office in terms of how would you do this or get some kind of a special Act of the legislature you know to to govern the distribution because there is no there is no uh language in the statute about what you do with excess um funding be you know and and then so currently this is in an interest bearing account yeah and the problem is you can't use one's utilities for another you can't say oh we'll take some of the National Grid money and and apply it to Verizon they don't allow you to do that every they have to there may be some shared costs like if you're opening a trench and so forth but you can't sort of use electric money to pay for telephone utility stuff so that's how it works unfortunately but so I think in the weeks ahead I mean you know I can continue trying to get some effort from the legislators but again it's I I think the issue is is a funding source and and Verizon has you know been adamant that they they're not going to find fund something that's got a you know 100 plus year payback period for them to recover their cost no you know and again the only thing I've been able to see out there these products aren't very common these days but what what the only thing I've seen is in recent term is some communities did look to community preservation as a funding source because the again this Verizon problem landline um you know is is the constraint okay we have uh three sets of meeting minutes to look at this evening um I guess we could just take them all together anybody have any comments edits about any of them I I have one Amendment okay um it's for the April 22nd meet meeting minutes at the bottom of page two um the second line of the last paragraph says she also to told board member Timmons that she would correct the list of employees to provide the first and last names um I had submitted a correction that didn't get in there it should say that she would correct the list of Supervisors in section 10 C they're not employees this was the in that application so I would just like to amend those minutes to include that correction and Paul I can just give you this if you want to give that to James anything else a motion do we have to do them separately if one of them is amended no just mention that I'll make a motion to approve the meeting minutes of April 4th 2020 24 April 8th 2024 and April 22nd 2004 that that one with amendments yeah with with amendments and the others has presented this you have a second second okay we have a motion and a second all in favor I do that okay thank you and I just have an announcement about uh the the determination of the releasability of executive session minutes um the minutes from February 15th uh 2024 segment 2 um can be released okay we're two liaison reports uh George okay Pat um I pretty much um gave my report just uh prior here um but permanent building committee we had um they're looking at um redoing the um uh siding at the fire station up North so we're waiting word on that and then uh they were also they put together a budget um for the fire station study that they've turned over and U that's what I can tell you what's going on with permanent building committee okay Erin Virginia um the final Square committee met on April 23rd and they had some really good participation in that meeting and they wanted to thank um the residents that joined that meeting they're going to um be scheduling a public input session this summer to discuss the status of the vinyl square Improvement plan and um if there are any residents who want to be added to the vinyl square committee's email distribution list uh they can reach out to Joe Tierney at joseph. tyy 4@gmail.com um the North chelsford water district is going to be continuing to flush um the flushing on gron road and Main Street this week and then the following week they are moving on to dunable Road and their schedule for hydrant flushing is um on the website and then I just have a question um I was noticing news blurbs for Sudbury and other communities that it looks like they're starting to um assign people to think about next year and the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and I didn't know if that was something we were giving any thought to Paul or um it looked like Sudbury appointed a committee and I know it's early but I just thought know the I know the minim is going to be the last year marching to to uh conquered I'm not aware I don't maybe it's something for a future agenda or thought or okay but it it is next year and it could be in our goals it could be in our goals too yeah okay thank you all right thank you um so I have a few things first the chood friends of the library thank everybody who came to the book sale a couple of weeks ago uh they uh earned over $16,700 from the sale of used books so that was good um a couple of weeks ago we had a ribbon cutting for a bench at the Warren pole Farm um it's a really nice bench that was made from plastic bags recycled plastic bags and it was I think something definitely needed there there was no bench at Warren pole so now there is uh congratulations to new chord Police Officer James Hart he uh graduated from the academy last Friday and he was sworn in today so you'll soon see him out on patrol uh condolences to the family of Jim Murray you remember Jim Skipper Jim Skipper Jim yeah yeah he passed away recently so he will be missed for sure and I just wanted to to note last at our last meeting we went through our our meeting schedule for the upcoming meeting and one of the things on there was the municipal open house which we had set for June 10th unfortunately um the library did not have what we did not have the library available for that night and the only day in June that the library was available was June 12th so um I reserve that for our Municipal open house it has changed today that's a Wednesday um I hope people can make it I know there's you know a lot going on especially you know usually on Wednesday so I've already heard back from um six or eight different committee chairs that will be there and the library has offered to adopt this program as their own um and so they will help with uh Outreach and publicity for it so that's uh that'll be really good I mean not that we won't do any but uh they have a much bigger uh database of users and patrons than than we do so hopefully that'll be a good event and we'll hear more about that as it get as it gets closer but June 12th and that's all I have do we have another motion make a motion to adjourn a second have a motion and second all in favor thank you e