##VIDEO ID:Suk0-n4Dquc## December 3rd D would you lead us in the pledge please sure I to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you can we have an motion to approve the minutes on November 19th please make the motion to approve the minutes so November 19th 2024 is there a second second thank you any discussion changes hearing none all in favor I I oppose none Thank you new business at this time anyone in the audience that has any new business to bring up now's the time to do so Mr Brad street please Bill Brad street town meeting member Precinct one in the past when I've asked for some help from the town I've always ended my request with tell me you're working on it could I get an update on the Mill Pond and removing the silt how that's going i' also like the town to deal with the traffic Island I think it's purchased in Ash Street it looks terrible uh the other thing was the uh I think it's the human rights inclusion they read a paper at the beginning of their meeting recognizing the American Indians who lived here before we in a sense took their land away from them I think the town deserves a uh or they deserve some recognition a proper plaque Place someplace where people will see it and can read it and that uh let me know you're working on that one but I would like to and update on the other if I could so the plaque for the Native Americans I think is a new request okay okay and we can ask human rights inclusion committee to maybe come back to us with recommendation and I see somebody in the audience that may be able to help us with that thank you okay um Rodney do you want to address purchase and as uh I have nothing at this time but we are working on it I'll find out give you more information that's all I ask and the mil that's a little deeper okay conversation needed with engineers environmentalists and others as to what can be done with a mil Pond and nobody at this board up here has the expertise to comment on it okay I I understand your it's a deep subject however the sil is building up so the pond is not as deep as it C should be thank you thank you appreciate it anyone else with new business please introduce yourself um Joanne maguchi uh toini member Precinct 2 uh I wanted to present to the board tonight some takeaways from last night's uh zoning board meeting um and especially to the item regarding uh number 180 through 182 Street and 75 silven Street development a large number of residents uh of our neighborhood last night came out to the zoning board meeting and what the developer just to give a little background once was in front of the zoning board last night was to get a zoning change for um some indust a piece of the property that is still zoned as industrial to make it residential it's going to be an eight well they were proposing an 8 unit condominium um development uh gladly that the the board the zoning board I think pushed it to January 13th but they did not have the votes to pass uh the zoning change and residents were happy with I think with that so it's only seven units I think as it stands now but a large um number of concerns were raised by residents and myself at this meeting although we are aware that the zoning board is does not have the authority to fix these problems we're hoping that raising these issues before the town tonight can start a conversation with the board our community um in the area of Hyde and pine um and Collins sort of the Highlands area about this development one of the major concerns that Rose quickly to the top was the environmental concerns as a lot of you probably know 75 silven street is the former Sylvania plant lighting plant there's concerns uh about after it was closed in the 90s um I think the soil was capped I believe I'm not sure about all the en what environmental steps were taken but there are many concerns from the residents about disturbing this soil not only for the groundwater but for what particles are going to be presented in the air um from the construction dust uh it may be a good thing to get in the mind of the town that if this development through the planning board is approved that there needs to be uh an environmental study done or mandated through the EPA by the town for this developer before anything is built there 180 and 182 Pine Street that piece of the parcel it's no longer owned by 75 silen Street it was sold to a different developer I believe last year that in a piece of the 75 silven Street which is on a buts Adams Street um so the 180 and 182 Pine Street is a buffer for the neighborhood it was promised as a buffer 20 years ago when the property was redeveloped so the neighborhood would have a buffer from the noise and and such and it was made into a nice green space a nice park um I know a lot of um folks bring their dog there they play fetch and you know just hang out you know and it's it's it's a nice thing for the neighborhood and now that is going to be removed that promise um one of the things I think the town needs to be reflective on is that why at the time when this was promised to the neighborhood that the town didn't rezone 180 and 182 as an open Green Space protected it you know I I would like the town to look into that why that wasn't done um and what we can do now um other concerns that were raised and I know many residents have complained in the past about the corner of Hyde and Pine Street it is a treacherous intersection we have many cars that are from the one I think it's two cars from the 174 condominium complex since that was built has caused a lot of problems on that corner for those residents that live on that corner with parking parking vehicles that are not allowed in that condominium complex because they're not they don't have an update registration um or they have uh expired inspection stickers so now they're on our town streets illegally and they haven't moved they're using it as their own person personal parking lot on the corner of Hyde and pine for weeks on end nights on end other concerns are the traffic on Pine there have been complaints by myself and others to the traffic advisory board last year about the speed on hide it's a cut through from Collins to pine to pine to Collins if if I may yes I hear your concern about the development yep I'm aware at one point in time was supposed to been left as a buffer an open space yes so that's something that needs to be investigated yes I'm aware of the traffic problems on hide yes and you've come before the traffic advisory yes I have you know that I have Dan right and they've never come back to W with any nothing's been done they did a they did a speed um one of those speed right um counters up on the light pole well I think the concern was the parking on the parking and and the speed and the speed and the speed um and the speed is still 30 miles an hour on hiy street it's way that's a rural road there's no sidewalks and you have children walking to the school bus at the end of hide on Collins you have a lot if I may yep the open space the speeding parking traffic those are all issues that need to be looked at right before we can make a decision it's not for us to tell oh absolutely I'm just I'm just saying these are the concerns that were raised last night so I'll move on quickly because I know I only have two minutes um so a lot of the residents were also angry about not finding out about this development until very late in the game some didn't get notice some got noticed very late and even though they did they rallied a lot of the residents in the area to come to the meeting last night I would like the town to look into um a different way to notify residents at an earlier date about these developments there's a lot that is proposed in this town and I think there's going to be a lot of more Angry meetings if some things aren't done to negate that um maybe a first notice and a second notice maybe something on Facebook there's things that I'm willing to discuss um with some ideas so but I'd like the board to can you know to kind of look inward into the planning department on how that process can improve for our residents um I know a lot of residents don't feel they have a voice in this process people are very busy they have families they have other things they need to take care of of in their lives everybody knows it we rely on the town to do right by the residents and I don't think the residents are feeling that love um so thank you so much for your time I thank you for bringing this to our I hope we can work together and and find some solutions I think we can ask the uh interim Town manager want to look at the notification process I mean I have an issue with that myself y um the traffic um can we lower the speed limit that's up to the police chief whether or not he we lower the the speed limit in a in a given area a number of years ago there was a um law passed that towns could establish 25 mph speed limit um at that time we didn't do that we left it for the chief to make a recommendation to this board so I'd like a recommendation from the chief whether to lower the speed limit in that area or not to yeah okay okay and just my last Point very quickly Dan is that where we do have a lot of developers coming into town now because of the new zoning laws that were passed and the MBTA law that was passed you know residents kind of throw their arms up in the a oh all this building we can't they feel like they have no control over it I'm going to say that the feeling that I get from a lot of residents including myself is that the majority do not want this development and the town needs to also look inward as to ways [Music] to make to ease it into into the town if there's going to be development it's it's got to be the right kind and what worried me last night was a comment made by the developers lawyer was that if there's open space we're going to build on it that is not what this town needs any Town needs and that Disturbed me that it is open game in daners one last request to the manager um I know you're working on updating the open space um we've got a firm going out taking pictures of it in Cate C Cate cator categorizing thank you um where are we on that process uh through you Mr chairman that's still very exploratory at this point but it'll be a multi-month process y all right we should identify open space and absolutely stuff that is not allowed for and if I could Mr chairman Jolan thank you for your concerns and speaking up to the neighbors um if they're unregistered or anything like that the police should be called and they should be to they have um it's one particular resident from that condo complex it's still happening I mean they were parking boats on that corner on trailers I mean it was it's just maner if you could look into that for so I have you know I can pass along the information on those Vehicles because it it it it doesn't even they don't even be they need to stop parking there you know that's this isn't their parking lot and the residents are just beside themselves and rightfully so well I would call the chief Joan again and then if Rodney could maybe follow up on that too that would be great that would be wonderful thank you thank you all for your time tonight thank you thank you okay please Mr Bates good evening Bill Bates town meeting member Precinct four um I want to First follow up on the issue of the closed roads under construction and apologize to the board November 19th I I completely missed your meeting and it was not on my calendar and somebody said to me the next day did you see the selectman's meeting I said there was no meeting last night they said oh yes there was um I appreciate that the board followed up uh and after I watched the video um to and I continue to work with Chief level and the the town manager um and we need to look at there was a time Massachusetts passed a law that said you could have civilian flag people if a chief cannot get enough details and that's the initial what I'm hearing is sometimes that's why they're closing a road versus detouring it's because they can't get enough details so we're going to do some homework Rodney just told me that there's a letter that he's sending to me to follow up on this and uh I will keep you posted and stay informed please the other thing I'd like to mention is um the code of conduct for residents perhaps I went back in in my town meeting book I have a 2007 uh code of contact conduct excuse me from Wayne Mae and the bard of selectman on September 24th 2007 and it talks about the code of conduct if you're on a board if you're a volunteer here and how you interact I want to suggest to you that we need to also educate our residents about how they need to interact with the boards there was a selectman's meeting not too long ago where we had a citizen and he's a business person in this town used profanity and then went after a selectman's son I find that disgusting and out of order and I hope and and also last night at the zoning board meeting a comment was made to the attorney that she ought to be ashamed of herself and the chairwoman was was kind enough to to say that that was out of order also the lady is doing her job she has every right she's partaking in a process like we're all trying to do so the bottom line is um what can we do to restore respect when we're debating they're tough issues but we got to be respectful and I hope that the board will entertain some idea of a uh code of conduct uh for residents thank you thank you Bill I do have a comment to make and a followup not too long ago the state supreme court made a ruling that allows the audience leeway freedom of speech and have taken away some of our Authority sitting here to try to control a meeting my response was to put in public business is welcome but we try to limit to two minutes so that we don't have 10 minutes of a triade I don't know what else we can do that's up to the town's attorney to advise us seriously um we've looked at profanity is is allowed you know it shouldn't be allowed and the next time that I have if I'm still here next year and we have a large crowd there will be rules requesting no profanity allow everybody to speak before you jump up and try to speak two or three times let the everybody in the crowd or the audience have a chance to speak first US those are some simple things that we can do from this side I volunteer to help in any way I can thank you Bill thank you anyone else new public business all right thank you all very much number three the board will consider the application of boo events might derian manager for one-day wine and malt license at copyright Center 222 Rosewood Drive December 12 24 12-2 somebody here to speak to that please introduce yourself to the folks at home hello thank you my name is Michael deman and I'm a partner in BYO events okay and what do you want to do uh we're looking to bartend an event that um the copyright Clearance Center has called us back for we did this same event last year it's essentially a corporate function for their staff has a little holiday gathering and they plan on serving beer and wine having food from Henry's and having a good time Madam clier all the paperwork in order the paperwork is in order thank you questions David nothing thank you Mike uh no questions thank you Moren no almost set thank you my goodness D no questions thank you oh wow you're getting off scotf free tonight but this is not the first first time you've done this event correct thank you what's the will of the board so moved that we approve and consider the application Bo well as presented as presented thank you any is there a second second discussion caring none all in favor I I oppose none good luck thank you thank you very much number four the board will consider the application of Lisa morotti and Carrie Spyros event coordinators for a firsttime block party on Saturday December 1424 4 to 6:30 p.m. blocking Fowler Street between 16 and 19 Fowler rain date Sunday December 15th 4 to 6:30 welcome please introduce yourself for the folks at home hi my name is Lisa morti and I'm here on behalf of Fowler Street crane Arthur for this uh danver's Christmas lights event um some of you may remember um Arthur Street used to have this beautiful beautiful de um Christmas light set up and once they moved uh the neighborhood kind of wanted to keep that up so we've been slowly building back up this is our second year of um doing a fundraiser for Boston Children's Hospital as well so besides the light display on this particular day we're having um the Lynn Public Schools music department that's where I work uh some of my high school students are coming to perform as well as having space for a lot of the kids in our neighborhood to um we're going to be making cookies hot cocoa making some crafts and we're going to have some music and a movie plan playing so we were looking to block off space for the safety of everybody okay all the paperwork in order it is thank you questions d uh just a quick questions uh um are all the neighbors notified yes and how did that happen um the paperwork that was sent in was also given to everyone in our neighborhood it's the same paper that was given last year and you got the thumbs up got thumbs UPS thank you that sounds fun and is it just for the people on the street or no we put it in the mailboxes of our neighborhood and then I know um Carrie who I'm working with also posted it on Facebook and I've posted it on Facebook as well so anyone in daners is welcome to come to the fundraiser should be a fun day thank you thank you Al it Morin I think it's great um I remember driving by all the lights there and uh the proceeds to go to uh Boston Children's Hospital is great thank you yeah good job Mike uh no great idea perfect bring the neighborhood together thank you David thank you chairman on F Street aren't there a couple houses with a lot of beautiful lights that they put up yeah there's one up on hobot street too and down on uh Liberty Street there are some really festive houses they make that that out in Winchester that Jerry jingle Highway always had like the the greatest lights in Massachusetts and now I think we have them in danvas no good luck with your project thank you okay thank you what's the will of the board um I say we approve as presented is there a second second Mike second thank you all in favor I I oppose none good luck hope you have a good weather thank you number five Paul Pollock representing HC will speak about upcoming events Mr poock it's welcome Paul thank you chairman uh as mentioned my name is Paul Pollock I'm chairman of the human rights and inclusion committee and I just here to mention a couple of events that we're having one is in December on December 30th it's the annual manora lighting which will take place in Danver square right by the big Christmas tree right there and it's um we do this annually um during the Hana season so that um we have the fire the police we have a dropping of the GT candy yeah and uh we raised the hook and ladder pretty high and the kids have a great time we're looking to get something maybe a little different I won't mention it right now it would be a surprise if it can work out uh but it's a it's a fun time for uh and we celebrate the Jewish Community here as we always do what time any questions on that event the time oh yes that's a good point 6 o'clock 6 p.m. um it probably runs for 45 to an hour maybe U but uh the rabbi uh Barber will run the whole show I'll just introduce him okay uh anything on that event no that's fine okay and then the last one I'm just going to pre-announce it it's upcoming uh you'll know about it the in January the uh annual Martin Luther King celebration which will be on January 20th at the Danver High School uh from 4 to 6 p.m. and we'll give you more information on that as we approach that date now was there a question about the American Indian uh plaque well it's a thought what if your committee would look at that and think we're doing this before Bill brought it up but Bill comes to our meetings all the time and I think he's stealing our uh Thunder a little bit but he knows what's going on we've uh we we're we're looking forward to trying to do something right now uh we're working beginning work with the Historical Society so uh to try to do this the right way it's not going to happen right away we're going to we're going to have some meetings uh try to coordinate some ideas and uh not knowing where we're going whether it would be a plaque or a small statue or something that would honor those folks that were here before we came and there there was a mention of the site down near um the port where originally I believe there was an Indian settlement years and years ago and I'm not familiar with the two the the Indian uh tribes were but um that's that's possible so that was probably a seasonal site where they came and did their fishing in the warm weather yep right on the you know with the tide in and out so they uh but that that sounds like a good idea but we don't we're I'm just throwing that out as a that type of an idea throwing it out maybe the fish but anyway we'll see how it works out we're we're going to move forward on it thank you any other questions board members questions for Mr poock yes David Paul perhaps you have already thought about including dick tras in your discussions about the concept and location um he probably knows a lot about where the uh original owners of the land lived and uh so I hope you'll be in touch with dick we will be yes yeah great idea thank you Paul encyclopedia on Danvers anything else uh I mean I can't help but put a plug in for the MLK event in January uh it's it's an amazing event that happens of the high school and and I believe that the mar takeing holiday is more than a holiday um it's is really a vision of the world we we all want to live in uh regardless of race religion background and and everything um so it's for everyone it's not just for some and whether you're a long-term resident or new in the community uh I'll really encourage you to to attend that event it's a time for us to pause reflect on where we've been where we are and where we want to go so um as Dr King said himself one time the time is always right to do what's right and we may have all come from different ships but we all on the same boat now so please uh attend that event it's a good one thank you thank you D okay thank you Mr chairman thank you the board will consider a vote to accept a gift in accordance with Mass general laws chapter 44 section 53a from Home Depot to the danas fire department somebody here speak to this Chief Barry welcome good evening thank you Mr chair uh Chief Brian Barry from the fire department so last week the refrigerator at fire headquarters failed it was an older refrigerator and it was uh not worthy of repairing so a couple of our on duty Crews were heading to Home Depot to purchase some cleaning supplies for the station um in an effort to be Rodney you'll appreciate this in an effort to be fiscally responsible I asked them to see if if they had any sometimes they have like scratch and dent refrigerators there something that we could get that would be a reasonable price for the station uh they did they reported back to me and later on that afternoon the manager of Home Depot uh at 92 Newbury Street reached out to the department said he had a display model on the floor that he would be willing to donate to the department and I appreciate his offer of generosity and I asked the board to uh consider accepting that gift Mr um Town manager do we need a monetary value in this motion I don't believe so as they're gifting the product okay thank you all right questions d uh no questions thank you thank you to Home Dep Morin I think it's great think I'll Mike um Chief can you tell us where the dent is on the doors I'll let you know I haven't seen it yet it's great David be there than nothing Mr chairman all right very good what's the will of the board approve as presented Mr chairman okay um perhaps with let it to go to Home Depot thanking them thank you is there a second second discussion hearing none all in favor I oppose none thank you great thank you boy thank you the board will meet graduates of the 2024 Citizens Academy I guess that's why everybody's here tonight Mr Town manager thank you through you Mr chairman yes it's graduation day for the 2024 Citizens Academy um I believe most if not all of them are here we also have some distinguished alumnus in the audience as well so uh I'll turn it over to assistant Town manager Jen breaker who tell us about what these uh Cadets experience over the past two and a half months welcome Jen thank you good evening I'm Jen breaker I'm the assistant Town manager and I'm very excited to be here tonight to recognize our fifth graduating class uh at this point we have graduated almost a 100 Cadets from the program and as the interm town manager pointed out we have four former Cadets in the room or almost in the room tonight um all right so Citizens Academy was developed as a way for residents to take a deep dive into their local government uh the program is a 10 week up close view of danver's municipal government participants who we kindly call Cadets explore various departments through a variety of classes and interactive activities uh over the summer we advertised the program in an early September we accepted 18 Cadets into the program in this Cadet we have some in this class we have some folks that have lived in daners from 3 months to many who have lived in damers their whole lives we have three couples two sisters who also happen to be Town employees starting on Saturday September 12th and going through November 21st the academy was held at various locations around town uh from 6 to 8:30 before we dive into what the cadetes did every week I have to thank the many uh town and dver team members who make the Citizens Academy possible this includes folks who presented who help set up presentations and activities who set up the room each week um everyone did their part to make sure the academy was a huge success additionally I have to thank Anne frus in the town manager's office who is key in helping me put together the program before it kicks off and Cheryl Stanford uh who ordered the pizza every week and made sure it got to the locations as we moved around town a very important responsibility on September 12th the cadets joined staff right here in the room for their first night of the academy welcome bags awaited them on their chairs inside the bags was the binder which contained PowerPoint presentations for each week budget books annual Town reports recycling of trash information and so much more Cadets were welcomed by select board member Mills then heard a general town government overview from the town manager they also heard about the work of the finance committee uh a town meeting overview by Town moderator Pat Frasier and to close out the night the cadets learned all about elections in the town clerk's office for week five the cadetes heard from the finance division which included assessing accounting treasure collector and retirement they discussed the work they do to support the finances of the town the finance director led the cadets through a riveting budget activity where Cadets had to balance a budget deciding and justifying where to make Cuts uh all of the cadet said they love the budget activity and it helped them understand the process better for the third week we headed to the fire department which which was determined to have the best chairs in the town of Danvers Cadets heard from Chief Barry and Deputy Schaffner on all aspects of the department including a very unexpected 40-minute Deep dive into the org chart and the Staffing of the department they went on a tour they got to to see the extraction equipment in use and they were able to go up in the tower truck if they signed a waiver one Cadet said they were able to appreciate the emotional toll that must be felt by firefighters but also the wor e work ethic and ultimate goals of rescue and safety displayed by the firefighters for week four we headed to Hobart Street to hear from the divisions in the public works department forestry buildings equipment streets trash and recycling water water treatment engineering and the business office presented it was a Content full week night the DPW shared the work they do to support the community ongoing projects Fleet Maintenance and one Cadet commented that with each session I'm developing a greater appreciation for what it takes to run and maintain the town and the people who do it a compliment to all of the DPW divisions on October 10th the cadets heard from inspectional services and planning and E economic development in the library The Building Commissioner chatted with us about the rules and regulations laws in zoning the office must follow uh and the inspectional services team highlighted some current projects happening around town planning was ready to really get the cadets thinking after discussing the work of the office and helping the cadetes learn more about zoning they let the cadets rezone the Endicott Street quarter Cadets were provided with a map of the area posted notes that were colorcoded for different types of zoning and worked as a team to develop what they' want to see planning took the maps back to the office for inspiration and have recently referenced some of the ideas they heard during this night uh in a budget meeting we continued to move through Danvers and week six of the program heading to Endicott Park to hear from Recreation and Library the library team busted some Library myths there's no late fees they shared the work they do in the community and highlighted the library of things then the recreation team took over to chat with the cadetes about the fun glub programming and how endicot Park develops programming and the cadets work together to develop new programming they'd like to see Recreation offer where the recreation director promised them all of their ideas would be implemented during week seven Chief level welcomed the cadets and took them on a tour of police and dispatch followed by an overview of the department that included statistics and Community needs the department addresses the PD team covered Criminal investigations and shared about community services and the work and challenges the division encounters including including various programs they offer in the public schools a Cadet commented commented that each and every time they've interacted with the police officer and damers they were always polite and professional hats off to them set up in the senior center Cadets heard from the veteran service officer on the programs the division overseas and the resources available to danver's Veterans and their families the Senior Center staff spoke about programs and services they provide and how they're funded Cadet learned Cadets learned what makes a good newsletter and worked in teams to develop a monthly newsletter to end the night the cadets heard from public health and learned about the various ways Public Health interacts with the community Beyond flu shots Cadets were very impressed about the amount of information shared on the community resources available from all three departments in week nine the cadets headed to another garage Bay I promise it was clean the electric Department garage Bays became the classroom the IT department kicked off the night and covered the work they do to maintain the municipal technology how we send and receive emails in recent projects and future projects the Electric Division discussed our power portfolio simplified the power grid and discussed energy conservation they finished the night with a power safety demonstration for the final week of the academy the cadets headed over to the Danver High School library to learn more about the public schools they were greeted by superintendent Bower and assistant superintend intendent warmers an overview of the district started the presentation it included things about cost per pupil strategic plan student engagement and more then students took over the night they joined Cadets and led them in an activity they do during Community block during this activity you sit back to back with one partner looking at the screen that might have an image like the one in the lower left corner and the partner who can see the screen describes what they're seeing without using words like apple fruit and the second partner tries to draw what they are being described to like you may see in the top right hand corner uh Cadets did a very good job of this they each took turns the students said it was some of the best work they've seen Cadets then headed down the hall to see the manufacturing program and students demonstrated the work they do to end the night the cadets were invited to the opening night of the High School Musical Mean Girls it was the perfect way to close out the academy sessions and that brings us to tonight the cadets have worked very hard they have shown up every Thursday almost perfect attendance class they asked great questions engaged in the discussions and group work and they made us very proud to serve them and the Danver Community uh before we recognize the graduating graduating C debts by calling them up to receive their certificate I would be happy to take any questions the board may have thank you D well no question this is a feel-good moment it's F maybe we should have one of these Mr chairman for the select M we're going to sign up seems like it was really fun um well I just want to say thank you to all the cadet um this is a big commitment 10 weeks is not a small amount of time and and thank Jen and godney for putting this together uh your dedication for the cadet of learning about the local government is really commendable um because every small effort that you make count and and our quote someone I like to quote Margaret GED Margaret me who once said never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world indeed it is the only thing that ever has so stay engaged stay curious and together we can make a difference so thank you and congratulations that's it all congratulations to everybody and I think that's a good idea we should do it next year yes right me in yeah you J this is the fourth year this is the fifth year fifth year the program thank you good great David thank you Dan I just wanted to say to and as I've said before this is one of the most impressive things that I have seen not just in my 12 years on this board but in my many years I'm forbidden to say the number by Mr Brad street U of being in the community phenomenal job Jen and U everything that D said I would just like to say ditto and I'm reminded of my father who was Town moderator for 23 years and before that um he had been on the finance committee and he was devoted to the town of danvas and he would often say embrace your government because if you don't somebody else will and you have proven that you are embracing our government for your benefit and for ours thank you very much for doing that thank you Michael uh D and Dave stole only words I'm not going to be able to say it as well as they did but um congratulations to everybody I think it's uh awesome to be involed D I think we have to um be involved and get our neighbors involved um I think I can make this mesh into last night's meeting that um the more people that are involved the more things can get done that you need to have happen the way you want your community to go um it's just that simple the more of us that participate the more better ideas good ideas we're going to have and the more we're going to get done everybody does a little bit we get it done instead of a few people having to do a lot but thank you congratulations M so I was asked yesterday in an interview what it is it that I like about Damas and my answer is the community is involved when they care we have the friends of danas Recreation friends of indart Park Friends of the library Friends of the senior center friends of recreation we have Kanas we have rotary we have a small Lions Club and now we have the Citizens Academy where the citizens contribute to the community's welfare they're interested in their care it's very important thank you thank you I would like to have the chair and the interm town manager come up and help me give out the certificates do we have a choice no you do not and if all the kids can stick around we will take a group photo of the class out on the stairs before you all leave have two mics make a difference thank you first of all I want to thank selectman Mills for stepping in for me and welcome you folks I was away and couldn't make it and David was gracious enough to do that thank you David so we're going to hand out these individually Paul [Applause] Dan well you want them up stay up here sit down they can sit down we'll take photo the stairs Kyle [Applause] Donovan thank you Britney [Applause] Dove Nicole Dove must be the [Applause] system Paul [Applause] Ellsworth thank you thank you so much hband Philip free this is a wonderful experience was congratulations thank you very much very welcome congratulations thank you Henry felle [Applause] Stephen gorf congratulations thank you Elan Harris thank you did you have fun thank you I did it was great it was really a good learning experience and good to see a lot of things Alicia lindsy we move to the conratulations we'll take that thank you congratulations thank you congratulations thank you thank you Deborah molski [Applause] thank you congratulations thank you Steven [Applause] molski thank you Thomas Moore Larry paral [Applause] great time congratulations Mary paral thank you Gregory [Applause] snows great thank very much congratulations thank you there you go congratulations thank you do you mind joining us for a photo no I don't mind first usually get my picture tap Dan do you want to take we're going to take a five minute recess for the photo walk so you can all relax you should all e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e come back into order please you need a yeah well I have one for you I have one I have two okay welcome back danas and we'll move on to the main event of the night yep the board will conduct the annual tax classification hearing Mr Town manager thank you through you Mr chairman is our tax classification hearing uh there'll be multiple votes towards the end of it but first we'll hear a presentation uh from our chief assessor John leel welcome John introduce yourself for the folks at home please good evening I'm John leel I'm the chief assessor for the town the chief assessor thank you assessor yes sorry I don't have any colorful photos for you I just have charts and graphs but uh the purpose of this meeting is to uh to set basically to set the tax rate for the town for the fiscal year 25 um as well as there's a couple other options that we have to vote for um like Rodney likes to say we've already kind of bought the meal now we have to divvy up the check so that's the uh the purpose of this meeting so in addition to choosing a residential Factor um you'll need to vote to adopt or not adopt an open space discount a residential exemption and or a small commercial exemption we'll go over those a little bit more in in in a little bit historically the board has never adopted any of these three all right so um so in summary we're going to select a minimum residential factor or CIP shift select or or don't select an open space discount Grant or not Grant a residential exemption as well as a small commercial exemption so this chart just shows briefly the makeup of the distribution of values within the to before any shifts take place um 7 almost 79% residential it's a heavy residential town and it's it's kind of been that that way if you look at the the chart down below um it's the residential has grown about 2% over the last 5 years so it's m maintained fairly stable that majority of the town is residential uh this is a breakdown of the valuation changes overall um total residential is up a little over 4% uh we don't have any open what the state classifies as open space there's none of that in town um commercial overall commercial values are up a little over 3% industrial 2% personal property 1% and um overall it's 3.8% roughly total valuation change from last year uh with this the residential class um apartment buildings are up uh about four 4.85% three families a little just under 2% uh two families about 5 and a half% condos 5.8% and single families about 3.4% feel free to stop me along the way if you have any questions here's a levy comparison comparing last year's Levy to this year's Levy um on the right side you'll see um the prior Levy limit we add our 2% two and a half% for prop two and a half to that we add our new growth um for a total Levy limit of 95.8 so that's our Max our actual Levy what we're actually spending is 95.7 this kind of explain this chart here explains uh how we came up with the growth um a majority of it is uh in the residential class um closely followed by the personal property um commercial industrial growth has been a little slow the last couple years so I don't know if you want to skip over the oh no we'll go into the the comparing towns right so um a residential factor of one would be a single tax rate which the town hasn't done in a long time um but I will tell you how we calculate that next because that's kind of the starting point so to do that um the left side of the screen is what we call the a 4 um that's addendum number two in the actual report that I gave you um this sums up all the the total values in town by class so the total taxable value is circle down in red to 7.5 billion you get the the uniform tax rate uh we we divide that by the actual Levy and that gives us a uniform tax rate of uh 1264 so that's a if there's no shift at all that's what the tax rate would be um and just to kind of make a point um that uniform tax rate's been going as values have been going up the last few years that uniform tax rate has actually been going down last year the uh uniform tax rate was 1272 and FY 23 was 1354 so as values go up tax rates tend to come down uh this chart shows uh the history of the average single family tax bill this year's to be determined uh this is the average tax bill of the some of the surrounding communities this is uh last year's numbers um to date only three of these towns have actually chosen a a tax rate so far um so I don't have updated fy2 uh data for you what do you have um mlon who doesn't shift North Reading who doesn't shift they've both Chosen and the other one is Burlington I don't have what their shift number was I can tell you what their tax rates are but I can't tell you the percentage okay thank you so again on this chart damers is the red line the state average is the yellow line and the other communities there are there in blue so this is the town's historic uh shifts over the last few years as you can see we we started out usually around 78 79% and historically over the last few years we've kind of come into this 2/3 one3 ratio is what's what's been happening but we'll figure that out tonight where that ends up uh this is the historic shifts of those uh same surrounding towns again this is last year's data so while we're on this page John if I can ask a question sure so last year we had the ability to go over 1.5 correct we were in that upper tier where y a lot of the other communities are Yep this year we're not correct allowed why is that um well how could we do it last year not this year it's it's based on uh and I have an example of it I believe in the report let me see we did it's based on it's a mathematical equation so we take um if I go back on slide here I go back to what we ended up we take that that 31.3 two where we were at last year we multiply that by one and a half because the law says you can shift one and a half% of the commercial rate rate over we take that number times 1.5 and we compare that to where the um we compare that number to let me find it in the it's allowable shift tax for 25 we take this uh oh sorry I said that wrong we take this year's commercial um percentage before the shift multiply by 1.5 and we compare it to that number we compare it to the shifted residential if it's under we can go over if it's over we can't so the math said we can't do it this year if you go to page eight of the the report which I don't have on the slides but we have last last year's chosen residential percentage okay and then we take this year's current CIP before shift times 1.5 and since that number is below last year's chosen shifted residential percentage we can't go beyond it last year it was percentage points higher through through M through you Mr chairman if I could so first of all if uh anyone wants to follow along these documents are on the town's website under the assessing section as well and again just to Echo it's a very convoluted formula it's recalculated each year but essentially because this year just going to 1.5 we could lower that residential Factor below what we did last year that means we can't go to 1.75 is the clearest way in seven years of doing this I figured out how to explain that so so was it predictable that when we set the rate last year that this year would would not go over the 1.5 no because we we never know know where the numbers are going to be next year um based on the values exactly it's based on the values yeah um we want to explain that to the people at home yeah so like this this year the commercial sector this year is kind of it's kind of funky parts of it are going up parts of it are going down for instance the office space the values have dramatically gone down right due to vacancy so that impacts the overall value portion that that class makes up so you know retail was a little bit better so some of those went up but office space going down a lot we have a lot of office space in town that it's 40 50% vacant so those values so is it reasonable to assume for the next couple of years will not be able to go above 1.50 because of the value of if if the market rebounds then you you may be able to do it in the future it's it's hard to say it's not going to rebound overnight overnight no next year or two but sometime in the future we the what you choose this year impacts it next year as well I just can't predict what it is right and I think my point is last year when we had the opportunity we didn't do it but we weren't told that picking what we did would affect next year correct again I can't predict the future um with with the office space and things like that right okay all right thank you anyone else has questions up to this time um if I can you may um so with the down of the commercial side that hurts us on the residential side right because we're working with the same end product Right End number just shifting it it uh is it more complicated than that well no your residential is still going to make up a majority of of the value no matter what the commercial does it's just how far they dip um no one's really building a lot of new commercial space in town right now you know you have the new Fidelity building going up um but other than that there's not a lot of large commercial things you know we had some some stuff over on Cherry Hill some expansions and things like that but there's no new buildings going up in the commercial and industrial space through you Mr chairman but to your point Mike that's correct so if commercial's flat and residential you know you see this when the residential Market's hot you're creating a natural shift that more of the levies is being made up by the residential right and and will the new buildings that are being uh built and proposed will they inflate the commercial side the ones in the Square yeah I haven't seen as far as like the hardware store I haven't seen those plans to see how much of that is commercial um the one under construction now is I think less than 10% commercial when you look at the total square footage of the building so that that will have a mixed rate so yeah that will help the commercial a little bit but not it's mostly residential that you're getting out of that so again through where that will help would be creating the new growth that you know there a new value will create a new tax bill for that property okay so that helps us on our residential tax but then our residential output goes out more services right we'll need more services for more people so okay I'll set mic yeah thank you okay continue John all right I was yes we good with the slide we're good all right so this is just an example again you have the the full um number of options as a as an addendum to your report these are just some showing all residential all commercial this year with potential shifts these are all kind of in the range of where the town has been the last handful of years just an example but again there's you have the the full libr to choose from tonight um then this breaks it down a little bit more within the residential class as far as potential for the single family condo two family average bills and what the potential increase in in yearly taxes would be and at this point that's all the the numbers I had for you okay so at this point board members I'll open up to questions hold your comments till later questions Moren um no I just want to hear what everybody else is saying right now um but I was concerned with what you said about us doing the 175 and not knowing it was going to have an impact this year and we can't this year now okay no I'm going to hold it for afterward D questions uh no no questions thank you Mike and any other questions um no no I don't at the moment David no thank you Mr chairman all right I'm going to open up with comments if I may thank you and as the assistant um noted the rates go down but he didn't say the taxpayers can pay more so I'm going to quote from a Boston Globe article of July 7th of this year nationally home prices have jumped about 50% Over The Last 5 Years here in Massachusetts the medium sales price of single family homes and greater Boston soed to a record high $95,500 in May John you agree with that or dispute it I don't dispute it according to a report of the greater boss Association of Realtors released in June State ride the average single family tax bill clocked in at $7,400 for fiscal 2024 roughly a 19% increase since 2019 when bills averaged $5,995 data compiled by the state's division of local Services show that the total was actually 3% higher than the jump recorded in the previous 5-year period between 2014 and 2019 Rising property taxes also have a real impact on income restricted residents including seniors so and I think those are all pretty obvious comments um as we set the tax classification rate this year year I would ask my fellow board members to look at the dollar increase across the board in the residential condos two families and ignore the percentages that's a distraction the last couple of years we look at the apprent increase for this and for that let's focus in on the dollars this year and see where we can be um helpful if you will to the residents the single family homeowners the cont home owners if we had been allowed to go to the 175 I would have thought of going to a factor of about7 this year we can't do that we're limited to 1.50 so other comments Morin no I I agree uh that was great data Mr chairman that you um let's look at the dollars for the residents this year you know I'm I'm all for that than please thank you d uh yes I just um I want to thank um John the tax assessor in his office for the hard work in compiling and analyzing all these numbers when I received my book I was like whoa what is this so and thanks Rodney uh we spent countless hours for them to explain to me uh what this was all about and I also want to officially thank some residents that I reach out to including Mr bit sitting back there to kind of talk about this issue uh spoke to some former Selectmen including Mr kit Lucy to understand what this means uh for us and the resident my goal is to ensure that tax classification remains fair and balanced for everyone I I review over 20 years of data and the numbers uh I'm hoping we approved today uh do lean slightly uh toward favoring residents as the chairman said uh because we all know everyone could use a little bit of relief especially in these challenging times um uh it's also worth noting and I will apologize to select board member David M for bringing this up uh it's also worth noting that the trash fee last year was um it's something that the resident had to incure that the the businesses did not so so as we look at the numbers this year um I I hope that we we make sure that the the tax classification is Equitable and that it reflects the needs and the circumstances of the members of our community uh so I'll be leaning more toward giving a break to the to the residents as well so thank you thank you David nothing thank you Mr chairman Michael I can't speak as well as God bless you as well as D does but uh I'm on the same track I uh I want to keep it as lean as we can for the taxpayers uh and it's a tricky balance because you don't want to hurt commercial um we don't want to scare commercial uh businesses away and and there's plenty of businesses that are residents here too um but the uh 78% of the base is uh residents so um I'm just hoping we can do the best on that end so I like to build some consensus and I think I hear consensus on the board about looking at somewhat favoring residential tax rate bosle to offset the increase in the trash fee last year his way to help uh there's no number here that will set the tax um residential factor is a zero increase it doesn't exist unfortunately so if we look at the last page in the book is where I'm at and if you're all on that same page with me and if we drop down to the bottom one two three four five numbers if there's somebody um that wants to step up and pick a number that we can consider for conversation I would like to hear that number ie 1.49 five through 1.5 one point what do you say 1. 495 yeah 1.9 495 you said uh six I'm sorry six to 1.5 if anybody likes one of those numbers and can you explain to the residents well we're on TV what the in what we're looking at the increase for a single family this year would be between 15 $141 to $147 that's on the condominium side the single family would be 14912 to 14219 a difference um between $2 and $5 increase yeah what's that amount well um the single family at 1.5 increases 1.4 219 142 $219 condominium 147 two family 3498 and all residential 17508 and just for disclosure I don't own a single family but I own property in four of the other categories so whichever way this goes my three families are going to get bumped my condo is going to get bumped my personal property is going to get bumped and my business office is GNA get bumped I'm still I'm leaning this way we could buy you dinner we could buy you dinner thank you I'll pick up the tip Mr chairman yes I if I uh I and I know you said not to look at the percentage and look at the numbers um I mean you can look at the percentages but it's still a distraction it's the real numbers once some when I get my tax bill I look at the number yeah I was because like um select board member Mike said we I mean we want to be sensitive to the business also would I mean they just came out of Co they still could so I was leaning more toward the 1 8 1.48 eight because that way is the increase across the board is about 3.3% for resident commercial and new good um when when I when I do the calculation again this is not a heal to die on um but the the difference is as you go down incremental when you're starting at 1.48 eight up to the 1.5 it's really a matter of what everybody is comfortable with Mike do you have a preference or a number we had D's preference um I like uh what they said um I'm right there with that okay Moren I'm gonna go with you Dean okay David sounds good what do you want to do um avoid the whole thing David called me last night are we doing tax classification tomorrow you g to call him sick I was going to call it um I have I don't know I'm going to be guided by the board and by Rodney and by it's not Rodney's Choice he has no opinion on this he's going to spend the money what are you going to tell him how much he has or where it's going to come from so we don't have a we don't get a 50 50 call um and and if I can explain my please do so um just so people at home can see this if we go with the uniform tax rate which we are not even considering it means everybody's tax is going to go up $1,300 about 18% for the residential and the the the businesses are going to go down 30% we don't want that so uh when we go to the 1.88 uh for example the businesses are seeing their tax increased by $1300 $355 but if we go to 1. 94 then it's about $1600 for the businesses you're correct that's it's given it's right there in front of us mhm it's it's what number do we want to pick so I was thinking we the the resident will have a 170 74 no 169 169 and then the businesses will have 13 you're you're correctly those those are the numbers it's right that's those are the numbers it's what do we want to do Mike I'm gonna hang out with Dave over here wish I was someplace else so so the 1.48 6 Dan what's that one point I'm sorry Meine could you 1. 486 well that's even lower than D that would be 170 176 176 that's what I'm going to go with I'm going to agree on that you're going to agree on that yeah so that would be am I reading this right 175 176 176 the 1486 is single family $176 86 the condominium would be 16903 so I would say thank you um two family [Music] 35159 commercial industrial 13143 one point 486 is uh 1098 that's oh on which one one my glasses which one it's $10.98 10199 is that your motion moring that's my motion so there's a motion for 1. 1486 is there a second second by Mike any conversation discussion I mean that's that's I mean that's pretty close from the 1. 488 I had so I I would leave with that and generally D when we have this discussion we're usually within the same um within a couple of lines of each other um I'm not going to support either one of those this year but we have a motion in a second any other conversation hearing none all in favor I I oppose no okay you have it John the 86 David what was your vote I didn't vote you abstained yes abstain 1. 1486 okay so it's 311 31 one and abstain okay thank you and that's for this right that's for number one you can fact okay the next motion that I'm looking for is to adopt or not adopt an open space discount and as John says we typically do not this is the easy one because there's nothing classified in town as this so whether you do it or don't do it it's not really going to change so we can do it doesn't matter yeah or not do it so I need a motion the town of Bedford is the only community that I know if that has classified open space what is the motion motion to not adopt an open space discount is there a second second discussion heing none all in favor I thank you you voting David he did thank you motion to Grant or not Grant a residential exemption if granting the percentage may be up to 35% we've never adopted that John uh not that I'm aware of so this is a shift within the residential class so the residents are still going to have to make up that same portion of the levy that you just chose uh it would just shift things from lower pric properties to higher pric properties okay is there a motion motion to not Grant thank you is there a second second discussion hearing none all in favor I oppose done thank you motion to Grant and not Grant a small commercial exemption if granting the percentage may be up to 10% we've never adopted that either John correct correct is there a motion I'll make the motion not to Grant a small commercial exemption is there a second second discussion hearing none all in favor I oppose none thank you madam CL you got all that I no I do have one question what goes what is the uh industrial personal property shift of nothing the the shift is the 1. 1486 the residential factor is 8691 8691 is the residential factor and the shift is 1.48 okay all right all right that's all I have for you that's the main event thank you John thanks for your hard work appreciate it see you next year see you next the board is requested to renew liquor licenses for the calendar year 2025 as presented Madame clerk uh I have all of the Lial licenses need to be uh returned and signed um per the abcc in the month of November um this my staff worked very hard to make sure that all of those um applications and check and paperwork were returned within the month of November I have um all of that material available um the only two administrative adjustments we need to make on the form um in order to get um TGI Fridays off of our book at the abcc and The Onion toown Grill we're putting those that they did not they failed to renew other than that everybody um is compliant and has renewed so board members if there's somebody you want to pull out and not vote on and have a discussion you may do so otherwise I need a motion to approve the list as presented I'll second that motion no you're going to make it I'll make the motion to approve as presented than you is there a second second discussion um I'm sorry did the clerk said that it does everybody all of the licenses so uh generally what happens is let's say we have the 50 licenses that we currently have active um if for some reason they did not return their paperwork they would have to completely reapply as a new applicant so in order to make sure that they do that we send out the paperwork we work with them we call them we make them come in fill out the paperwork so that we can have everything in hand for this meeting so that has all been done okay so we have everyone I'm feeling really good about it thank you Kathy do we have a do we have a cap on the amount of licenses we do I don't have that exact number we still have some open ones we do have open restaurant licenses we do not have any store licenses so um we had at one point in time got um six from the uh approved from the state for uh location specific licenses which we um have issued some of those I believe there are still two location specific licenses and then and at some time we added or requested an additional 10 Zone licenses um which of those I think we have three that are in use and seven that are um available and the Zone licenses are um available they're two different zones and and the way they worked it out was there's the highway Corridor Zone which would be like your route one 128 um and then there's the downtown Zone which those two areas cover everything that would potentially have um a liquor license request so if we were to um issue one um in the downtown area uh and then that person gave that license up that license would need to stay within the downtown area we could reissue it to someone else but it would have to stay in that area okay thank so we do have plenty I do get a request every now and again somebody looking for a store license um those are based on the uh federal census numbers um and our numbers did not change for those um store licenses okay thank you we have a first and a second all in favor I I oppose none thank you okay so for the next meeting so we've approved the licenses I have the paper work here for you people to sign now we have to sign them and then so for the next meeting I've actually got the new licenses for 2025 printed they're ready to go so if the board um would prefer to stop to see me between now and the next meeting you can sit and sign the 50 licenses or we could come early to the next meeting and you could do it here the next time but if you're in the building for some reason and you want to stop in you can um sign away if you like if you're here for something else thank you yes okay now manager report to the board on various items of Interest Rodney thank you Mr chairman uh a couple things we wanted to mention this evening um first at our December 17th meeting we'll be join joed by Gabriel Hanahan the airport manager of the Beverly airport to provide some update and address some concerns so we invite the public to attend that meeting on December 17th um also last week uh the MBTA general manager Philip ing was in town he took a tour of the downtown and met with us here in the T room uh to to discuss the long-term public transportation needs of the community it's the start of it will be several discussions but it was a positive discussion and now um our planning department will be in contact with his staff to see what happens from there um Mr Town manager is um is any of those meetings with the MBTA uh public meetings um I can look into that we there will be eventually public meetings absolutely but okay I think right now it's sort of just background exploratory stuff thank you yeah um Town reports went out uh to town meeting members um uh so kudos to an freedus who wanted me to point out that they are ahead of schedule so good news there um and I believe that's all I have for this evening um Rodney you're very modest on November 19th Rodney and I met with Aaron Bonnie casy um with Mike cus over coffee to talk about the ipswitch River Water Association and all the educational efforts that they do they actually had a program in our fifth grade last year in the classrooms engaging students with an understanding of the Watershed and they also hope to Pilot a program in our seventh grade we brought that up to Mr Bower to make him aware of it um in the dpws it's Sharon Clement Clement correct who works with the iwit river Association and they have a good relationship on November 25th um well myself Dan bow met with the Headmaster and the principal of St John's prepper to talk about areas where we can collaborate and thank them for their contribution to the tra rail trail in indart park over the years on Friday November 26 through the efforts of Mike Landers he set up a meeting where we could meet with the S6 Tech superintendent Seuss assistant superintendent number of their program directors our high school principal Aaron Henry Chief leville and Barry to talk about a number of ways to support each other Rodney is going through to hop to open up communication with the entities in the community we actually with um Northshore Community College the prep and Essex Tech have over 7500 students in damis Monday through Friday obviously the colleges other times so that's a big part of the population are using our services and we're trying to reach out and have a collaborative working relationship with all of them um I don't know President William hen hman at Northshore Community College I don't know why he's been there for five years but through you we can set something up in the near future absolutely now these these aren't public meetings they just meet and greet say hello what can we do and establish relationships to go forwards so thank you Rodney for those efforts okay board will consider consent calendar can I have a motion on the consent calendar make a motion to um as presented there was a I didn't see what's that where is the consent I didn't get the consent cend you do it's it's it's the ban is it starts on the it's all that it starts at the bottom of the first page and then goes on the back common viic class dealers class two dealers entertainment so uh um a a question or a mistake here smile Earth LLC doing business as McDonald without a d am I correct or a typographical error okay so there there is a d two D's in McDonald's it would be yes thank you yep so do we have a motion to accept as corrected I'll make the motion to accept the cons second okay all in favor I I oppose none thank you so let me just um most of the licensing for 2025 has been um most of it has been returned between the last meeting for approval and this meeting here so um we should see we'll still see some but the numbers will um go down this is most of them this is most last week was the bulk okay this is some followup and then you know there'll be some stragglers along the way all right right thank you but we're in good shape good to glad to hear that correspondent select with new business David nothing thank you d uh yes I have a couple of items uh if you haven't yet please stop by taple Hall for the parade of trees I was just there this evening beautiful and they have they running a raffle and you can walk home with a tree in a few days so please stop by uh I also have a question um for the chairman about the the town New Town manager hiring process I will get to that when my when it's my turn to speak okay I you just want an update correct that's correct and especially how we choosing the resident who are going to participate in the search committee okay okay anything else uh yes I would also like to address some of what Mr bit uh had just spoken to about the the the tone and tenner of the discussions that have become very contentious uh during our meeting and and I know the Supreme Court said what they can say is Free Speech anyone can say whatever they want but I can't help but implore our fellow residents to T it down uh especially this holiday season let's start the year on new footings none of us here deserve to be insulted uh especially not our chairman and I would just we can't make anyone not say what they want to say but all I can do is just implore our resident to tone it down uh this isn't about limiting anyone's speech or sensorship it's about creating space where we can express different opinion while treading each other with dignity and respect uh so please neighbor let's respect respect each other and treat each other with compassion let's disagree without being disagreeable uh I know we can do it and I'm also hoping that as a board we model that for the resident um thank you thank you Morin um thank you Mr chairman excuse me um I just want to say to the residents that we do try to keep the tax rate down you know expenses everything costs could you yep we do try to keep the tax rate down for people um as we pick that tax Factor it was you know really one of the the best ones to do we do want to encourage people to stay in our town and we do want to encourage Commercial Business too um we want to keep the businesses here because that's going to help us right um we want to revitalize our downtown we want it to be a welcoming Community um I love the new uh restaurants that are going in I think everybody should take advantage of that I'd like to see some ribbon cuttings maybe with the chamber Mr Town manager if you could look into that for us um I think it's it's nice that like d said um going forward we are the board let's be respectful of everybody um I do want to ask Mr through uh Mr chairman the town manager if we can have an update to um the chief to come in and find you know let the residents know what's happening you know with with what happened to ducky you know we're all concerned about what happened to ducky and we want to um have maybe the superintendent of schools come in too we talked about that Dan about having him come in and invite him in we've got the airport next and then January we'll have the other we'll have we'll have the superintendent come in and update us on school safety for the kids and um there is a lot of events going on uh this Saturday December 7th in the Square uh Falcon Fest is going to be doing a lot you know a lot of activities for the kids so um hopefully see everybody and we'll ask the town manager I mean not the town manager the town clerk to update us on the um business holiday party that will be coming up it's on uh Tuesday uh the 10th of December uh at Barry Tavern from 5 to 7 for the um downtown businesses yep so I think that's really good and the when the kids are singing early the kids will sing early um the acella group from the high school usually sings at 6 o' however they have somewhere else they have to be at 6:00 so they will be singing at 5:30 5:30 they will be out the door at the high school by 6 so um 530 sharp I think is what he said okay wonderful and then I one last thing that I wanted to say is that um I did have the chance um and every board member will have the chance to speak with um Bernard Lynch how funny is that Bernard my name and Lynch was my maiden name um so I like the guy right from the GetGo but we had some really great conversation where he was asking myself what it is that we want to see for our town and for our new town manager so I gave him a lot of pointers and then I believe uh Dan was next and then he wants everybody else he's going to be contacting the other board members and Dan will go through the process of you know selection committee but we want this is this is something we really want to take a deep dive into and we want to make the right choice so I just want to say thank you to everybody and please come to our meetings Dan thank you yes before you speak could I just comment on that state supreme court uh I'm gonna let Mike speak first and then come back to you excuse me that's okay okay Mike yes uh couple things I I meant to comment at a previous meeting that the Vietnam uh Vietnam Jesus um the veterans program that they had at the high school a few weeks ago um what an excellent job they did um I don't know how they could have made it any better it was really really awesome so I don't have any names to thank everybody but there was a a lot of damis people there obviously and uh they did a great job um tonight we talked about um Communications I think that is important I think in the area that we live in um that we have to do more um just because everybody's too busy and um a lot of people were at that meeting last night and the the board last night was had to they were confronted with stuff that they can't couldn't control so um there was like no winning in the room when some of the topics but it was good to hear here a lot of people had a lot of information uh things obviously I didn't know about uh so it was good to see a lot of people there um and then um to the Mr chairman I didn't know I know Morin just brought her up but um did you say in a uh the meeting after the next that the chief would come in and would he be accompanied by Ada from uh made that request okay all right that's it thank you David thank you Dan um I just want wanted to comment upon the deorum at public meetings and what the citizen can say which is protected by law Dan mentioned um a decision from this first of all I've been going to public meetings for more than 50 years all kinds and in danvas from time to time historically perhaps six times in 50 years there was a personal attack upon somebody and the the genuine the regular routine comment from the town moderators through the years has been personal attacks are in a front to the town meeting and will not be tolerated you are out of order bang it happened maybe five or six times in 50 years stuff that has happened in this room over the last year scares me and people know I've been s over and over I've been a lawyer 55 years and I don't practice it anymore because it's too hard everybody fights the state supreme court was confronted with a case perhaps a year ago or six months ago it may have involved the town of Burlington I forget but there was a public hearing and citizen one or more citizens in the room uh made personal attacks upon one or more members of the sitting board which I think was the select board on some licensing matter or before it and the uh chair of that meeting um asked the person to not speak that way and I believe when the the the citizen persisted I don't know if it was four-letter words um but it was a personal attack and outside the scope actually of what was being considered by the board so the chair as I remember the case declared a recess and went outside and I think they went to another room to continue the meeting in any event there was a court case and I'm embarrassed to say that in this nation in my lifetime lawyers do awful stupid things I don't know why probably for money so the state supreme court had before it a case in which a citizen complained that her um civil rights were violated by the chair who acted that way and cut off for a free speech and to some extent the state supreme court wrote a decision and said the citizen is right the rights of the citizen were unlawfully curtailed and I think the sup and I'll find out and I'll have a brief summary at the our next meeting I think the Supreme Court sent the case back to the trial court and said figure this out and figure out what you can do and what you can't do well at that time I was the chair of this board and um I don't scare easily but I don't want someone filing a federal civil rights complaint against me for something with respect to the citizens right to free speech but there was no guidance um and I expected and hoped that our town lawyer there's very very good lawyer I think from a very good Law Firm would collaborate with other law firms and come out with a 20 minute video distributable to every chair of a public meeting in Massachusetts to explain the law and to say in black and white what you can and you can't do and what is permitted and what isn't permitted that has happened so our chair tonight um says that he excuse me you heard whatever Dan said with respect to the ambiguity of what he can and can't do as a chair I felt the same way and so um it is unsettled in uh the state supreme court I'll be there tomorrow morning they do the best they can but you know they're a committee of seven people too and they ruled by committee and everybody has to agree on what they say um yeah it's not clear there's going to have to be more clarification and so to I just will say I'll sympathize with Dan and the chair of whoever was chairing the meeting last night that got problematic as to what could or couldn't in any event uh I just want you to know that I'll try to do something to get some clarification and Rodney perhaps you and I might connect with uh your lawyer the town's lawyer and say what the hell is your firm and the other there are three or four very good firms in Massachusetts who do all the municipal work for cities and towns the cities and towns benefit greatly because there's no duplication people like Rodney look over their bills very carefully so um they don't duplicate effort and the things that they do are often collaborative and something ought to be done done by way of a teaching reassuring instructional piece so that chairs of the various we have I don't know 4 16762 cities and towns in uh Massachusetts and each of those towns and municipalities and it wouldn't just be cities and towns it would be other agencies so um there's a huge gap um as far as what exactly can and can't be said at public meetings and it ought to be uh it ought to be clarified maybe Our Town Council not putting all the cost on us but sharing it uh around could produce something like that just an idea I have thank you for listening thank you David a question Rodney um and it was brought up to me during the recess lot of development in town was brought up early how can we get information out to the community the community they they they they're interested they're concerned and it's just how can we we don't have any local newspaper anymore unfortunately Town Hall puts together a nice newsletter every month but who does that go to it just posted so maybe some thoughts on that area yep that's you Mr I mean we do try to utilize the town website not to say that we couldn't do a better job of utilizing the town website but I think that would be the primary spot uh in addition to whatever we have for local news but we can surely work with Planning and Development on right and I know when somebody comes into the planning department with some idea what they want might want to do till they actually take out a permit there's nothing to talk about exactly a lot of time it is still yeah we may not even be aware of it it's just kicking the tires on something so we want tot yeah all right and um as Moren said she spoke with Bernie Lynch in a zoom call yesterday morning I spoke with him at noon time this is the start of the process the company is going to interview members of this board so fellow board members you need to reach out to Mr Lynch and give him 45 minutes um to answer his questions and tell them what it is you like about Damas tell them what you think a manager should look like so to speak and give him your thoughts and he's going to take those ideas and go to staff members and get their thoughts and develop a marketing piece to send out for interested parties to apply for the job once that process is underway we will start to look at putting together the subcommittee that will interview the candidates this there's no candidate to interview until we get resumés and he'll vet them and bring them to us at that point we'll put together he suggested five members seven is not out of the question Moren and I are sub commom committee sub chairing that committee and we'll sit down sometime right after Christmas and talk about some folks to bring to this board for a vote up and down on those members but until Mr Lynch gets to do as interviews and gets to put together the marketing piece we're we're on a hold okay so please fellow members reach out to him and I'm very Mr chairman if I may on that point uh given the fact that uh there might be residents that we have helped out in the search committee uh we can I think it might be wise to do it concurrently so that they can plan accordingly like like we if we reach out to someone and say we want you to help with this process a week before they might not be able to make the proper arrangement we won't be doing any interviews till February there's plenty of time for people to adjust their schedules so with that being said Mr chairman through you if anybody's interested I'm not saying that I'm not asking for people to reach out no but they could reach out to you you they could and just say be considered some have reached out to me but I don't need 50 people reaching out to me to pick five five to seven than five to seven okay so the process will be that the subcommittee will suggest people to this board to approve yep or does each board member suggest one person I'm not asking for that you'll interview them too I'm not asking for each of you to submit your favorite friend we've got a subcommittee doing of town meeting members looking at the Town managers act we will have a subcommittee of people from finance committee zoning planning those type of folks that involved and committed do to to serve in the search committee correct okay cuz the my problem not the problem just want to clarify how those people are get how we choosing those people uh and it's my understanding that the subcommittee will suggest to this board people that we think should serve on that search committee correct um and if you disagree you'll say so I I was suggesting that each select board member the three of us I'm not asking you to do that no the it's a proposition I was just saying would it be a possibility that one of each of the three select board member that are not on the subcommittee suggest a propos a name that's still going to come to this that's fine that's still going to come to this committee for approval yeah if you got somebody you want to suggest suggest them okay thank you okay where was I we talked about the newsletter well I guess we're do um if you see a vet say thank you to the vet for this service and there's any other business to come before this board hearing none media John good night canvas e