##VIDEO ID:JIJjKBE5nk4## welcome everyone to the select board meeting for Monday September 23rd 2024 we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God IND with liy and justice for all so we have a fairly full meeting tonight we'll go through uh mail Town Administrator updates noova Valley Medical Center I'll appoint a new fire chief and building inspector and park and direct program supervisor we'll have 650 we'll have a presentation on the tennis court and wicker field renovation um with in as part of a joint meeting with the finance committee also discuss expanding the park and W um uh Enterprise re revolving fund expenditures and review the warrant at 750 we'll do a one day liquid license for durable and we'll do appoint uh Department updates a couple of appointments a presentation from the bicycle and pedestrian committee about a potential Trail approve an IMA with uh Aaron Littleton for mun municipal sewer uh review a government study committee uh reducing uh town clerk uh voting hours and uh then we'll have public input and minutes with an adjournment promptly at 9:20 so kept us ear yes okay well she can run this up uh we'll start with mail thank you Mr chairman uh members of the select board we have we still have a a good number of uh current vacancies on our town boards uh any agricultural commission all the way to the zoning board of appeals so anybody who is interested in um um volunteering for any of these fine boards please uh reach out to the uh to the select board's office and uh we would love to have a conversation with you uh here we up to uh sign up please everyone sign up to receive public notifications for the town of Littleton get community impacts Transportation Public Safety activity town meeting changes town events public health concerns at Civic ready uh please sign up two uh very generous uh uh donors to the town uh one to um pox and wreck as a donation to the youth scholarship fund by the uh Denise flarity p pagas p thank you I'm sorry I mispronounced it in the amount of $2,375 thank you very very much that's very very generous and also uh the Digital Federal Credit Union on behalf of the gift fund of the Littleton fire department would of a donation of $1,000 and that's it for the mail thank you um an update on the closure of nooba Valley go ahead Chief I didn't know if you were sorry no thank you energy yeah should I do this so I can say anything in this particular now right um so a really quick update on Thea Valley um We are continuing to monitor the status of Emergency Services throughout the region we are now starting to see that stress that I indicated was probably not far down the road in the EMS system so we're starting to see um um a wider use of mutual Aid resources in order to cover um various calls and communities certainly what I can tell you is the towns of air and Gren have seen uh their fair share of changes due to the closure of the hospital and we are getting some trickle down into uh into our call volume so when we look at this month we can attribute a small number of calls around 14 of them directly to the nooba closure um typically 14 calls is not going to be a big deal for us however um this year our um average number of calls has gone up by about 5% by the calendar year um so we're dealing with an already increased call volume um certainly the folks at the back of the room here can attest to the fact that that call volume has been increasing this year um they're the ones that are on the front line doing a phenomenal job every day and every night um and especially at nights because it seems like a massive portion has gone to those overnight calls um I had an opportunity last week to actually speak to the lieutenant governor for a brief period of time about the nooba closure the impacts that the region is seeing and what the state can do in order to help us certainly one of the things that we're still very actively pursuing as the Fire Chiefs and and leaders of communities is finding an Avenue to reopen noova even if it's 6 months eight months a year down the road um it's certainly something that is overall beneficial to the health of the entire re region um she had asked about the immediate impacts and we did talk about the fact that uh many of these communities are um experiencing some some budget um issues with the nooba close certainly as we start to have more calls we need to adjust our staffing in order to meet that one of the things that we've done in the Littleton fire department specifically is making sure that each shift is filled to five Personnel currently that's being accomplished by using money for uh currently vacant positions in order to create an offset so it is budget neutral um however we do need to continue to maintain that level of Staffing um the lieutenants and shift commanders have done an absolutely marvelous job making sure that as multiple calls drop in town that they're able to take these resources and move them appropriately so that we're not part of the regional problem of multiple calls we're part of the regional solution to the multiple calls so um I applaud these folks at the back of the room for for everything they've done there um in other communities they have committed overtime money um Rotton has actually committed to um adding two additional uh full-time positions to their staff so each Community is is trying to make some adjustments in order to offset these challenges created by noova um and I guess with that because I said short and then wasn't short I'll take any questions I you out of Staffing so I'm going to kind of go on with that um I I haven't seen obviously the budgets being worked I is that are you considering that as part part of a your budget plan is potential for personnel increase yeah so it's something that's that's um that we're looking into um whether it's overtime or additional Staffing those are both certainly on the table you said 14 calls could you you give me in 5% overall improve what how does 14 compared percentage wise that's 1% 2% so that'll create um so when we look at the month of September as a whole which ultimately two weeks ago when I was here said hey it's been fairly slow they proceeded to hate me the next day because it didn't stop for days um after that so um in September um our average is actually closer to 7% um when you factor that in against the year so um you're looking at um Grant at a higher percentage in order to get there but you're looking at 12 to 15% in that small data set that we have uh based on the NOA closure okay thank you anyone else have any questions thank you thank you okay next is to appoint steel mcer as fire chief [Music] who was talking to us just now the interim fire chief do we need to just do a motion I believe so is there any debate well okay you still want it a small window just nod your heads in the back yes or nove feel like I'm doing move that the select board vote to appoint steel mcer as fire chief for a turn beginning on September 13th 2024 and ending on June 30th 2027 second moved by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor all right congratulations we need a picture you guys want to come up take a picture with your new absolutely who's the new guy yeah this is great okay everyone okay good good thank you I feel sa I do the street all right that's locked in nice our work is done this far if I do nothing else yeah right the mic okay Building Commissioner uh so we have appoint Henry Fontaine is the Building Commissioner zoning enforcement officer at grade 16 step 9 do you want to come up and say hello Henry Mr chair and members of the board um been a Building Commissioner bu building official for since 2009 so bilding commission now for the last 7 years so um looking forward to working with you folks and and uh you know anything I can do to help out I'll be happy to do it cool thank you welcome thank you any questions comments I mean great resume um you obviously been doing this a long time and I we love the fact that you've got all your certifications and everything so Fant welcome to welcome to l I'm glad you made the choice if happy to be a boy thank you if I may Ryan and I have um had a couple discussions with uh with Henry and uh we were we very very impressed and uh you know as as Gary mentioned about uh his credentials but it's just uh you know over the course of a of having a discussion interview you know there were certain things that really come out and one of the things that I thought was was was key is the is the fact that he is very team oriented and and and it's another issue is um he views as he views anybody that comes in asking questions looking for guidance or compliance issues or anything it's a teaching moment it's something it's not going to be a Guta moment it's a learning experience for those people and to help them be successful in what they're trying to do as long as it's you know obviously within the boundaries of the laws and Ryan and I were uh very impressed with that um you know so we were appreciative that uh he is uh uh wants to come aboard looking forward to it all right good luck thank you we're ready for motion I move that the select board vote to appoint Henry Fontaine as the Building Commissioner zoning enforcement officer at a grade 16 step n second move by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor I thank you welcome aboard and Henry will be starting October 4th third now it's third it was okay the third sounds great we get a picture yeah another picture that's true conratulations okay everybody get much closer on this this is good this is good that's [Music] it yeah okay approve the hiring of John kazangian and Park and Rec Community Education Program supervis super position at grade 12 step five right uh thank you all this evening um so we we're looking at the rec department and one of the things as we've grown as a Rec Department that we realized is um we needed to get a Rec supervisor position into um into the department somebody who was really overseeing uh the program coordinator s and more inclined to the day today um as far as uh programming and uh the way our operations are currently running uh in doing so um we worked with HR we researched um across uh kind of the Nation on what these positions look like and how they fit um and every single year the uh nrpa does a uh survey study a salary survey study they also do uh different groupings of positions so in working through this um we came out to you know the the national average for this job uh currently as we're trying to to make it work is right around uh the 737 74,000 Mark uh in creating this position and going through with Personnel Board um and working with Michelle uh we were able to get this Rec supervisor position graded um and we were lucky enough to um have an internal candidate uh John kazangian who's been with uh our department for seven years and if anybody knows John knows the amazing work that he does uh knows the dedication that he has and um he was definitely the right fit for this position uh in you know putting all of this together uh we did have a uh Park commission meeting last Friday uh where the park commission did vote to approve John's uh hiring into this position as well as um they also voted to uh vote that he be put in at a grade 12 step five as we came before you tonight with uh with that said I'll open it up to any questions or um this position is funded out of the revolving F portion of the budget or the town's portion of the yes so this position is out of the revolving the the town portion is Alicia salary my salary and um it was part of the admin salary which no longer is in there I think PRC is well served with John and I'm glad to see him being taken care of and growing with the department so kudos to all of you yeah I mean the passion he brings is unparalleled so he's just he's great for Littleton and great for the the programs and the kids and everybody so glad he's staying with us awesome taking on the responsibility okay move that the select board approved the promotion of John kazangian in the Parks Recreation and Community Education Program to the program supervisor position at grade 12 step five second by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor thank you thank you thank you want take a picture John apologize Chris had a football game tonight of course okay Park and direct presentation for changes to the tennis court location in wikim field renovation we joint yet yeah yes let's make ourselves Jo come on down you can be the next contestant 2 3 are you in session we have a COR we are in session thank you all right uh thank you for having us tonight to discuss this project uh I have Mike Lynn who is our athletic director uh joining me tonight uh we have Dave mcmanis and Norm Young from bball and Brad L from soccer in the audience as well uh in the interest of time uh We've presented this slideshow to the um school committee we also did fincom uh finance committee last week Alisha presented that I'm just going to run through the slides really quick and then we'll do questions at the end um and Mike jump in wherever you want to add anything so how did we get here uh everybody knows we've this is the second this will now be the third town meeting that we are addressing the tennis courts um in 20122 uh we started with places and Associates and they came up with the idea of putting the project out at Cooper Farm uh for various reasons $1.1 million price tag along with having to bus uh our high school t tennis team over to that location that was uh not taken to town meeting floor um we went back to the drawing board and we looked at renovating the Litton High School tennis courts to Four Courts uh at fall town meeting uh this was uh given to us at a total of uh $734,000 from CPC and that was approved uh going through the process of really kind of finalizing this project um after we went to uh the park and wreck conference and started looking at some of the contractors that were available uh we had a meeting myself Mike Lynn um out on the tennis courts with the architect uh and it became very quickly apparent that the uh design that we had been given by places the estimates that we had been given by places at that point were really just estimations um there really wasn't anything that uh was put in or surveyed the scope of work um seemed to be a little bit lacking as you'll see in the next slide uh after we met with them Mike and I we said well what can we do how can we sit down what do we do here and we started you know having a larger uh conversation um we asked activitas to put together uh fee proposal for design permitting bidding and construction uh Administration which came out at $112,000 um so if we take that number out of our original 734 we're left with 651 for the current project that we're looking at Town Council has been and re uh reviewed all of this uh we did ask if we could pay for the 112,000 out of the rec revolving and unfortunately Town Council ruled that this is not something that could be used as Services out of the recreation revolving to help cover that cost next slide please um so this was activitas this was the drawing they gave us um as you can see uh one of the um there's two options here one of the things that was brought up uh was that the original design by places was oriented incorrectly so tennis court should run to South um the first proposal was east to west is what we had um in this uh initial drawing two things so running east to west is where you see the biggest obstruction with the school buses uh which was a concern by the school department at the time um the or the proper orientation which is the slide that is on the right um would really have us cutting way back into that Hill uh and require a pretty significant retention wall uh adjacent to the Indian Hill parking lot next slide please so like I said we went back to the drawing board um we have the Youth Sports Council uh we included them in part of the conversation Mike and I sat down along with Steve Mark and a couple of the other school officials and we looked at a couple things so we have been looking at many projects in this town when it comes related to sports field since 2016 uh in the first open space and Recreation plan and again in 2023 this is uh the same uh items are addressed back in 20 17 we did have a study done uh it was 2017 gild Fields needs assessment and all of this um that we're going to talk about and address tonight are all things that were addressed back in 2017 in that study what are the objectives of our plan uh to replace the courts that were behind us at Town Hall that are now going to be the center on shat Street which was two tennis courts and four pickle ball courts uh that was our 734 estimate that we were going to look at at the high school plans to build new ball courts that was a separate project that was going to come along later um that project came around another $700,000 if we were going to build Those Behind the Indian Hill building um with the current plan that we're putting before you uh the tennis courts that exist at the high school will be the two tennis courts and the four pickle ball courts um they've already been resurfaced and redone and exist so what we lost out back exists at the high school uh currently we want to address the shortage of uh field space in town so this was listed in the two uh in the capital plan since 2016 uh which was the reason for the FI uh 2017 field needs study uh overall the Gale estimated a cost of building a new soccer field at the time in 2016 at approximately $1.1 million uh in that study we also had an improvement to whis Wickham baseball field um to bring it up to the level of jet softball field uh and that in the study came out to approximately 6 50,000 all so the estimated total of all these suggested projects if they were done all by themselves is about $ 3.24 million um with this new plan we feel that we could save approximately $2.2 million and achieve all the goals that we were trying to get done So the plan is to convert the existing High School tennis courts to multi-use courts and replace the courts that were demolished to town hall so that's a wash that's already been done uh that part of the project is set build the new tennis courts at the Littleton Middle School field uh which the school board did vote to support renovate the existing Wickham baseball field and bring it to the level of jet um it's kind of a reverse Title 9 thing here we have this awesome softball field we don't have a baseball field that's comparable move all Town soccer and all grass field sports to the Litton High School uh not only does this create space for everybody but it helps with a lot of the traffic problems with a lot of the uh adjacent Sports practices and all of the other issues that we run into uh especially with the schools being back in time that window has clly tightly closed on everybody as far as getting on and off the field and then we would essentially mothball The Varsity High School baseball field it's been unused since the sewer project and the softball field in the back which has been unused since 2020 um and we would use those as placeholders for fields that you'll see in the next slide please the tennis court project would be on the right hand side of the middle school parking lot this is what the courts would look like oriented properly from north to south it would also allow for the um 8v8 size soccer field that you see um closest to the gym next slide please the wiom renovation what we would look at is Wickam field as you can see it sits on the my left um and then on the right is the drawing how that would look uh there is an opportunity for us to reorient that field and gain some more green space in the Outfield to possibly address other issues um we're looking at 305 ft fences in the corners and 325t fence in the Outfield so why does Wick matter on this project so one thing that we've been chasing is the soccer fields and one thing that we have is if we move varsity baseball field back soccer is something that continues to grow in our town um and we really have a need for all of this green space so superimposing what it looks like in the spring if we have the varsity baseball field there essentially we lose three full-size soccer fields that we could utilize for other spaces in my reference to the Gale study um we had the two soccer fields that are closest to the high school parking lot um the Third Field that's kind of in the out the center field of the baseball field was uh formally used for football practice um so that we were able to bring that one on board and then the fourth field currently there's water issues in the uh leftand field side of the softball field but that's something that we could address in the future and be positive uh to soccer fields next slide please ultimately uh in the end end game this would become all of our Green Space we would play all of our Field Sports that weren't on alumni at the high school and try to move everything around so we're working to amend the CPC article uh uh Ryan helped to make that happen this week so that article has been Rewritten um our activitas estimate on cost so for four asphalt tennis courts with fencing surfacing equipment and a 20% contingency that is600 000 uh baseball improvements including new back stop net and fence team areas so dugouts with concrete pads benches and shelters and an outfield fence also with a 20% contingency it's approximately $350,000 uh on September 12th we were at the school board meeting and they voted to approve the locations at for the new tennis courts as well as the rehabilitation of Wickham field uh Alisha presented to the finance committee on September 17th uh we still have not had an opportunity to sit down and speak with CPC in person um we just got these numbers at about 3:00 today um from activitas uh so what we're talking about is to achieve everything we're looking for an additional $299,000 $300,000 um to add to this article Town Council determined that the rehabilitation of whip field is eligible for CPC funding because it's not a stadium so uh with that said Mike did you have anything you want to add no I'm on board with everything you just said I mean I can answer questions as well from the school side of things but yeah you have a couple I I should note that this started Tim mentioned a meeting at the tennis courts it was Tim myself Alissa and the architect when he started laying out exactly was going to need to happen there it became somewhat apparent that this maybe wasn't the best location for this what we're going to try to do a shoe ho and there in there um you know one one would take away a lot of parking and sidewalk and I think there was some drainage issues too or um it just it wasn't making sense and those aren't great locations anyways because if we're going to continue to park the buses there those buses are coming and going while kids are actively playing tennis matches so if you're familiar with buses they make that beeping noise and they're blown diesel off the back and they're backing into those spaces that are right where our parents are sitting um and wherever the kids are playing it's not a great location I will also acknowledge we don't ever want to lose a field but as we started looking at this you just you couldn't gain this without giving up something so that field beside the middle school is a modified somewhat small field um it's it's a beautiful location for tennis courts it's a great location for a small field um so something had to give and then as far as what we're talking about at the high school um you know I've been working for I think 24 years I've been athletic for 20 there's an annual meeting Chuck and Gary will probably get a laugh out of this I think they've attended that meeting maybe an annual meeting in the spring where they try and Hammer out who gets what between baseball softball lacrosse and softball and that meeting is challenging and we were trying to maybe solve that once and for all because soccer has great field needs falling and spring at the Youth Level the high school part really isn't about High School's soccer teams it's more about trying to solve this massive Youth Soccer 5 to 600 kids in the fall and spring how do we get them in a field space and also give lacrosse and baseball and softball in a field space we what we're doing this fall right now we've done that I mean we have basically a soccer complex at the high school and then they have corporate field and pretty much everything's being played out of there uh it's very comfortable there's there's more than enough room honestly there's field space all the way to the left in that slide where there was four fields we we haven't even tapped into that space all the way to the left um as we're living this this fall I will say I do want to start tapping into that fourth field because it might we might be able to siphon some of the youth soccer off those first two Fields um and that would it's just a nuisance sometimes we're moving nets all around because there's so many different sizes of Nets but that's a small small problem for um how much how much soccer volume we're able to handle at high school and at corer and um you know going back a number of years again like the turf solved a lot of problems for us um this I think solves problems for us as well and then last piece I think I want to comment on is the Wham piece I know maybe there's some concern about um Bo we're moving all these Sports to to the Middle School complex one thing we learned over the last three seasons of giving up the high school Fields two of them in the spring we thought it was going to be major convenience in the spring it is a major inconvenience wasn't in the fall but in the spring we actually learned that we kind of like that setting better the softball players are never going to want to go to the back corner of the high school again and play that field doesn't even come Clos to comparing to the jet field which is um beautiful field like the grass is perfect the infields perfect your steps away from bathrooms you're in a location that's easy to access for people um even people who have uh you know issues as far is being able to walk far to a field or something of that nature the baseball field is also in somewhat of an advantageous location too because it's you know it's it's right along the road there um so that complex in the spring is got a lot going on and there's a lot of people and you get a lot of traffic good good traffic at all of our locations you know maybe track practice ends and those kids come over to catch a baseball game or lacrosse ends or vice versa the baseball kids are done practice they go over the lacrosse game so you know the only thing I would say is if we could go back 25 years ago and not move the high school up to 56 King Street that probably would have been awesome because our best facilities are all over at the middle school that's never going to change the track is over there and the turf field is over there and our softball field is over there so the only thing was really missing the spring Sports is the baseball field which we have one it just it'd be nice to bring it up to the standard of the softball field and now we're off obviously talking about tennis too we already um whether it's me or or or the next athletic director you are always going to have to Bus kids from the high school to the middle school in order to keep the kids safe in the fall and in the spring we run a shutle bus every day at 2:45 that will never change it might just mean that there'll be a few more kids getting on that bus who don't drive in the afternoon to go to that location uh in the spring because uh we're always going to need that bus I covered everything I cover I wrote down a few questions because thank you um so just the can the public use the tennis courts absolutely so the the four not the two but the four they'll be able to have access to those as well yeah absolutely and U Tim touched upon this that the school department we weren't doing much for those two tennis courts beside the high school because we were thinking this was coming but once we had some meetings and it seemed like this was taking shape um the school department was able to renovate the those two tennis courts and put the pickle ball courts on and those parts are a good location for pickle ball because I'm sure most people are aware that pickle ball presents a problem when it's in a residential location and that's not really a residential location because of the noise pickle ball probably wouldn't be a great fit at that Middle School field you've got homes right on the other side of that tree line and that that in other communities that's been problematic one of the things that we did discuss uh that was brought up by principal everheart at our meeting was um limiting public use of the Middle School location during school hours and now that we have Indian Hill uh anything that happens during school hours during the school year um we would we would use those utilize those at the public court similar to how they were before where people would come to town hall and utilize those during hours so you would park at Indian Hill and basically access the backside of Courts during school hours obviously during the summer and everything else if they're not booked yeah that was going to be my next I had a couple questions obviously it's going to be a few us that need to be done between the schools and park and wreck for all these fields um maintenance and repair of these are they still falling under Schools are they falling under Park and wreck I mean it's those are discussions that I'm sure they're going to have to happen none of the things we're talking about I think impacts the way we're functioning currently or as stated in the last time that thatou was updated which was a number of years ago probably should be updated and signed off on again but um I I'm fairly comfortable speaking for DPW that um they feel like having two full-size diamonds in this town we haven't maintained two fullsize diamonds in I don't even know 10 years maybe um if you go up to the high school right now that fulls siiz Diamond has not been maintained um in several years and before that the Wickam Diamond wasn't being maintained because we haven't needed two full-size diamonds so I think most people know that um as far as if you look at field maintenance needs nothing comes close to a baseball di what what it takes to maintain a mound properly and an infield which is cut with grass inside and to keep all that infield mix to where it needs to be and keep the grass where it needs to be it's a it's a whole it's a quite comprehensive uh compared to say a rectangular field okay but yeah but theou it doesn't really change much because they're already Main wi field we're just talking about enhancements to Wi field um they're actually going to lose graphs right because if tennis courts go beside the middle school they just lost some grass that they had to take care of um so it doesn't really change much there okay the so when I look at this picture we have up I'm glad it's here um was there any thought to push this field even a little bit further to the right I guess if you will to uh create more parking I I mean parking is already an issue um so so where the parking currently exists yeah do you see that little green kind of square up in just above if you took home plate and went towards parking lot there's a green Square in the middle so that's if we wanted to reorient the field um the highest number we got it would be about $6,000 to to move the actual home plate to that location but that's really as far back as we could go and if we went back that far back we'd have to have a pretty heavily modified back stop in order to keep the balls from going out at that point the poles and The netting probably would not um do the job so yeah I was talking pushing it further out cuz you have it looks like you have 20 30 or more feet in the Outfield to push that whole St Stadium to that side I know what to call it the tracks towards the track and that would give you more space for Park I just know parking eventually just planning ahead it might not happen in this project being able to think that far out where maybe 5 years from now we we need to pay for some some more parking or when they repave that ire area we we we can steal some spaces even if it's 20 30 spaces would be huge so the reorientation that I was talking the one ask of the school department was if in the future you know they looked similar to what they looked at for Shaker Lane as far as property that they could extend out the school uh that was one of the asss that they had looked at uh because they were exploring that site originally um which is one of the reasons if anybody wants to know why we held off so long and presenting this to everybody as we're waiting to see what that's middle was going to be um I think I have just I'm sorry just I can jump on the parking thing I think what Gary's talking about is um where the out house is where the gate is to get onto the field along the first Baseline yep that whole grassy area by the by the sh yeah and that's absolutely we could look into doing that uh we would at that point I think be inside that 100 buffer so we' need to work with conservation as well at that point okay you do some improv yep that area over there are we talking about the area more towards the the um Pond the first Baseline great to where the porter potty sits at the bottom of the uh Town Hall Road yeah I think that would I'm not saying it's a bad idea I'm just saying it would probably increase the scope of the project because I think there's some drainage issues over there definitely a wet area a lot of times um and now you're talking about reorientated a diamond and getting everything we'd probably lose I think we'd at least lose a season uh in that that uh scenario yeah my is just since you're origin you're designing this if you're going to move it anyway just move it a little further out so later on we have even if we had to expand the uh the drive-thru there we already know football games lacrosse it gets really packed in there when you this two sports going on um really the only other uh I I brought the same thing you did why the heck did we ever I wanted to move the high school back to the Middle School building it would have been a perfect fit but um you can do that now cuz Mike said that it would be better if the high school was with all the fields and we can put a couple of the grades in the Middle School a couple of grades in in Russell Street and move all the other kids up to the soccer and and Mike's happy look at all the money he's going to save busing kids from an Athletics perspective it just you know many many years ago the the the decision was made to build the high school land I understand that but they just the town just put back fields back there you know we just have green space back there so and as the turf and the track have come up over the years while I've been here you know we looked at should we build a track where it currently sits or should we put up at the high school and it was like double the cost and then you'd still have a track at the current location that was in you know basically was in need of replacement too so what were you going to do with that and the same thing with alumni it's like we had this field that the baches were failing the buildings were failing the field wasn't in great was in bad shape the pavement the fencing all of it so we looked at the high school but then now you still we still have to remedy this situation here so the decisions were made to stay the course and it's a great facility down here it's a great setting the only issue is the high school is across 495 and up the road but we make it work nobody is complaining and saying a perfect world we probably be on the same complex but we make it work my my last point is is lbs I'm assuming there's still an entity here that Y in back how are you um on board with this is something that's going to work I know that program can be pretty robust you know it's cyclical but especially we're getting up in when you get up into the senior grade kids that jump up to the bigger diamonds is this work going to work for that as well that by 10 for a second come up here so sorry not my would hi Norm froms um yeah so right now as a matter of fact we have a Babe Ruth program in fact we had a game we got rained out yesterday and um one of the reasons we did get rained out is because the field is in wham's in tough shape so um we are in full support of it um bab Ruth is going to use the field and you know beab Ruth we've struggled over the last couple years having excitement around this program is starting to bring kids back and it happens my son also plays on the varsity baseball team and as Mike said the excitement around that baseball team and the kids they had their first home playoff game in seven years um this past spring and we had our little kids come and I think Chuck St by there was kids the most kids I've seen at a baseball game in years um and we didn't have that when it was behind the high school and like I said that excitement around these fields like air redid theirs a couple years ago and um that's a lot of the field we're going for is to get the you get the kids showing up just like Mike said they're coming from track they're coming from everywhere the only kids that came when they were at the old up at the high school where the girls walking back when their game was over so those boys didn't have anybody watching them play it was just the kids you know the girls walking by couple of them Stu but not many but um in fact the the high school the varsity coach called his grandmother after that playoff game to tell him like you wouldn't believe what we had here today and it was the first time that he had seen that many kids come so the you know we are that like I said that we are fully on board just that excitement and building the excitement around the program thank you you're um you guys wouldn't Happ to have a couple hundred th000 kicking around in your phone we staff it thank just say I have to put lights on this field thank you can I just ask question since we're talking Fields uh anyone want to touch the whole what's going on at St an's with that field yeah Ian I'm happy to I think uh a lot of people in this room uh were part of at least uh seeing the conversation that went back and forth um unfortunately the relationship between uh theou and the agreement that we had with them uh there were things that they were asking for that uh as a town we just can't provide them so seal coding of parking lots painting um the agreement was always with uh that was to utilize the grass fields in trade for uh the maintenance the mowing the fertilization all of those things um outside of you know really the what we were up against this year when when we had our final meeting I think the ass they had was in the neighborhood of40 to $60,000 worth of work um that they were asking for and ultimately that there were things that we couldn't do as a town even if we wanted to just because of the way that um the finance and the and the laws work uh we were able to sit down and negotiate a contract with the Bible Church on so hadwan Road um So currently the youth sport the youth soccer program in has utilized that um I believe with us you know really kind of working the plan out and you know why this plan seems to work and Brad can speak to this is you know I don't really think we've had a need to really go to the Bible Church since we put most of the fields up the high school said correct I we have we average 500 players um each season for fall and spring and this every year we're fighting to put all of our teams for practices and last spring we actually had to go rent space at Teamworks every week because we didn't have enough field space um we've already implemented this with going after to the high school and corpor and it's been a blessing for field space and I bet if you ask um Tigers then it's been a blessing not having 100 cars cycle through there to drop off to come practice so from a soccer standpoint this is in fantastic yeah no this this is this is a great project totally supported I just figure we're always going to need we're never going to say no to another field should one become available I just to raise that issue partically yeah through the chair Brian brings up a good point I wouldn't i' continue that relationship with Finance because Mike you were just talking about anytime we go under a construction or we're changing fields that we need field space and even if it was for a one season type thing just having that relationship we might be able to use it for a year and make some time so I wanted to touch upon something um that I thought of when noran was talking um so the jet field now is is a fenced field it's beautiful it's perfect it's honestly just an incredible venue for softball it's a dedicated softball field I was uh I think I was maybe it was the Saturday we had we had we had Saturday soccer on one night there was structured softball practice of some sort going on that day so I'm just assuming there some kind of false softball program in place okay so you have false softball going on which in the past most of our baseball softball diamonds had soccer fields in the Outfield so you can now just you don't have to check with me check with soccer whatever you want to run fall softball you just do it because you know the field is available again trying to get that same thing for baseball because year round sport is kind of become reality I'm not a huge fan of it but you know fall and spring salker is a reality fall baseball in Fall softball the realities now kids want it parents want it that uh jet field if it goes through and we get a full uh fenced in tight tight field that will be a baseball field so if baseball wants to run fall programming they can run fall programming the only field that could potentially go across that out field is a middle school is a middle school field hockey field that's the only potential right now because that is actually where the tennis courts current we're currently playing that where the tennis courts will go um but that's one team one sport in this whole thing that could potentially go across the Wickam Outfield but there will be no soccer programming in that Outfield that will be a baseball diamond and will be maintained properly because it's going to be the only full-size Diamond that by Design is maintained the high school one will sit as Tim mentioned mothball never heard that the ships um so with that also you know we do need to address you know Middle School sports as Mike mentioned Middle School field hockey we look at moving it from where originally they were always in Wickham Outfield we've moved them since over to the Middle School site that we're going to you know hopefully utilize for the tennis courts uh Middle School soccer would then go inside the track so every other sport that we've ever had inside the track is a pretty heavily modified uh field because the infield of the track is not quite large enough to fit most sports fields on them um so Middle School soccer that would become their dedicated uh location if you can just flip back to that baseball slide one more time um we as part of this we have been thinking about every scenario and how does it impact the town do we have space um so to that point you know one thing that we talked about is with the Shaker Lane project going on the reason we say we're going to moth all these fields we're not just going to saw them over right away and create this fourth base this fourth soccer field uh one of the things is if you can see under you obviously can't see underneath the big bar seed picture but if you can see in the back corner um if we had to take the Shaker Lane Fields offline during the construction project very easily we can put those two smaller Fields Ken white and Cooper we could skim these INF fields and have a quick replacement for them and then once that project's done and the new fields are built out as they are in the design we would then sod these and that then that finishes this out and we can fix the drainage issue in right field have the fourth you know full size soccer field and then the two little baseball field areas could essentially become two more 8b8 fields in the future which would um be basically the space that we're looking for it's chasing at St ANS uh one other one other piece too that and we're already there with this honestly is uh we're trying to get um free up the infield of the track as much possible I really wanted Youth Soccer off of that infield um I just feel like it doesn't work we we get too many people misusing the track when we have activities like that inside like maybe kids bring their bikes down or roller blad of that nature but kids are going back onto the track to get soccer balls and if you pivot on a track with cleats it's not great for the Plexi track surface um so we were trying to get that which we've already done um at the most with this plan what we would put back inside the track is just Middle School soccer but not Youth Soccer because we don't need that space we used to have three 7 v7s inside the track now there's zero 7 v7s inside the track and that should continue in the spring provided the high school is essentially like a soccer complex like what you've seen on the slides and we keep saying soccer but these are full-size Fields lacrosse really any field sport that needed to be up there um could be something that we can put up there um so when you when you're at the middle school field you have the tennis courts fit in there it looks great um you're saying you're looking at it um 8 Field behind that is that essentially on top of the uh the drainage sale that's there no so can you please go back to the 10 Court slide so if you look at that picture y see at the very bottom of that picture you can see the drain swell fence so it's fence yeah you see the black fence so it it's outside of that and from from the preliminary survey uh it seems like that retention Pond is is large enough for the storm water mitigation that we would need when Mike can mentioned that the original High School site we had a lot of storm water mitigation we're going to have to address because we're going to have to take out a lot of the islands that existed in that parking lot in order to address at the time the bus um concerns uh this is is a little easier for us okay and that field doesn't fit if you slide if you reverse it I'm just thinking of the impervious material that the tennis cour is going to be built on drainage correct you know it's grass right now so it absorbs it right so if you if you're going on to a solid surface this where does that run off go type of thing you know so um correct and that's what I was saying in the initial assessment by activitas they felt that that drainage soil was large was oversized enough to to probably take care a lot of that that's not an exact answer there's you know once we get in engineering construction we're going to find those things out um but it it appeared that it would handle it are those courts oriented east to west on on that picture East courts yeah north south okay the C they're about they're about 5° tilted West but they are North the South that's a that's a home court advantage sh don't wheel without having to do any drastic you know we don't really have the property to be able to ship them that little bit towards the parking lot they they really need to come about 5° this way to be perfectly north or south and you think the soccer fields the soccer fields at the high school are going to hold up to the use that they're going to be put to so the nice piece is is if we get to that four four um field field thank you uh thing we'll be able to rest one or two Fields a season so that's one of the reasons we wanted to Pilot it this year with soccer before we put the proposal all the way forth because right now we're using three we're resting the Middle School field if we got that fourth one online now we can rest cper and something else and we can keep working our way through and keep the quality of our Playing Fields up because that's what really hurts us right now is when we have to take something offline like we took Kerper offline the past two years because it got so much use why the high school was shut down and we have these long periods so now we can put this rotation in process so when we say this gives us 5 year 5 to 10 year growth potential not only do we have room for soccer lacrosse everybody else to grow a little bit and still have field space for them it also gives us the ability to rest our Fields appropriately and hopefully save some money on maintenance down the road because we're not beating them up so but that fourth field isn't part of the budget numbers that you're proposing tonight that fourth field as soon as we we could put that fourth field in we don't need it right now if we wanted to take the tight uh the paint and paint it the only thing we don't have for it is $8,000 worth of soccer Debs we don't own and we don't in the last set of goals that we would need to bring it online I thought you said it was really wet it gets wet in the uh left field corner of the Outfield okay it's it's not that we would ever have to you know that's something that we would say okay we got a lot of rain it's wet and we're going to shut it down for today and tomorrow whatever that would be it doesn't take away completely from utilizing it we played softball up there for 10 years and we've always had that situation the wetness issues there have been there for 2020 3 years so um it does seem like it's gotten a little better recently I don't know why I was on it today uh we had girl soccer off back today and I was over there and we put a plate on it today honestly in that area but the spring has been tricky over in that that area there and um we have like a couple areas that have where there's some sink some areas where it's depressed right now but again we haven't been using that site for 2 years so the maintenance cycle hasn't quite been there but those are issues that we've been fighting for over 20 years but the the green space is there it's already there so there's nothing to really do there I I will tell you that the two new fields that are on top of the um discharge site we are having some issues there with um wetness that we've never had before so they're super compacted um and we're now you know looking at this we had an inch of rain and fi all the way right today wasn't playable I'm just making people aware of that uh it'll probably take a couple days we never had those issues there but DPW is aware of it and they're working on it um but that's maybe something people in this room are already aware of and so what is the warant article going to ask for so we would be looking for an additional $300,000 worth of funding um in order to complete this project as it was presented and you're intending on taking that out of CBC you're intending on that being funded by CBC funds correct that would be the ask but like I said we haven't with these numbers we Haven conversation with them uh I did you know make a call to Saul who is our Park commissioner he's also on CPC and just kind of put this but as far as Carolyn's here I haven't had an opportunity to get her up the speed on thank I just had a couple of questions um the original um estimate that places did that didn't take into account the the things what was your expectation from that estimate I mean was it were you expecting it to be a a a firmer number so it it's it's it was right around what we would have expected the tennis court to come in at unfortunately because there was no survey um the initial number that we had the initial amount that we had given them for design uh we used on the Cooper property design and there was a small amount left over I believe it was just under $50,000 so what we were given was more of a wasn't really a design as much as it was just a here's a visual lookover um and in doing so you know when AC when activitas basically they took my picture not activitas places had taken my picture I drew on my computer and just really put it on there and gave us a number for for town meeting and when we sat down with activitas and we were out there for the first time we started realizing that you know places never took into account for the 25t setbacks that they need in all of the Courts never took into account well if we Orient the field this way that we're going to need to significantly dig into the hill and we're going to need some sort of a retention wall over here in order to orient the fields the correct way so as we started looking at that um and had our conversation that was what really started to say okay how do we what can we do and how do we fix this problem and still come in at this number and how do we look at these other projects at the same time okay so I guess my question on that was I just trying to understand whether you think you got the value from them that you wanted so you think for what they gave you on the first field on corpor to do it was what you had asked for and this was just kind of a little extra thing they threw in when you burning that site correct so then where did the prices from you had said that um to get the pickle ball would be 750 a new field 1.1 million and uh to improve W who Who provided those estimates so in 2016 uh the town paid for a field needs assessment so this was gal and Associates so those numbers are taken directly from that report and those are 200 like I said those are 2016 num perf thank you so one of the things to um if you go to the can you go to the picture with the high school no not the tennis court sorry that uh the one comparing the the so um I'm not sure why the picture on the right has takes over the trees rather than moving the buses but one of the things that we had actually originally talked about was building a road that went from the Indian Hill parking lot through and now we're not gaining that correct so there's no access from Indian Hill through I mean I think we could have thought about this a little more we could park the buses over at indan Hill potentially put the road through that we had talked about so that people could get from the old Indian Hill to the traffic light and not have to act so none of that was ever considered so all of that was considered I think one of the one of the things that we spoke about was if we oriented the the ports properly north to south because that building sits uh the there's a little shed right there um that's part of Light and Water um we couldn't push any farther to the to the north so we were going to lose that road because because of the set we needed on the on the tennis courts losing okay there's a shed there's a building there's a a p the I don't know if it's the current it's well it's still being used to get the up there so in order to complete this for another right in the timetable that originally was looked at in order to complete this that wouldn't have been an option and you would have had no way to build the roads to achieve the proper setbacks and fencing and the way the retaining wall would have to be on the corner of that property um which is what it was looked at now if we build this these tennis coures at the other site you have as much you can that road still fits if we wanted to address that in the future well you I don't and to my knowledge I don't think that was part of the original scope not sure how the road still fits because the tennis courts are in the exact same position but anyway could you also tell me the you had 734 from CPC you said the tennis scores are across 650 and the Wickam or six and Wickam fueld was 300 you're I'm wondering why you're asking for an extra 300 it sounds like more money than your the two projects added up to or did I miss something can you uh go to that slide right this one no keep going keep going to the activi okay so 734 is the number if we take out the $112,000 for the design construction bid that gets us down to that 651 number so in looking at this it's $600,000 to build the tennis courts with a 20% contingency build in so that leaves us with 51,000 if we want to complete the baseball field that's 350,000 so if you say take that 51,000 off you're you know at $299 that's where we get the $300,000 from so you have 950 plus the 112 is what you're saying okay okay thank you car sure do you have any Carolyn from CPC do you have anything so I I haven't seen the uh the updated warrant article is it all together are these two projects all going to be considered under one article that's the plan yeah that would be the plan so basically if you remember there was some portion of it that was debt and then there was other that would be taken up from the balance so um The Proposal would be that uh the additional 300,000 would be taken from your fund from the CPC fund balance because to me it seems like two SE I I mean I haven't talked to the committee at all but it seems like two separate projects and if we're amending a project that we've already I mean it seems like quite an amendment it's it's you know totally different in scope I think you had come I guess if they had if you had come to us you know 3 months ago and we had some time and you had presented us with one article for both of these projects I would have advocated to split them um and I know that you you need all of them done at once however we could do tennis courts without doing whitcom field and I feel like especially if we're amending an art that has already been passed by the town for tennis courts that now we're going to ask for an amendment to not just do tennis courts but also to put in a baseball field as well and it just seems like it's I don't know like I say I haven't talked to the committee we haven't had a chance to meet on this yet so so K just to clarify so what I think we I agree with you that it was is confusing as such so what the proposal will be to just to resend the initial amount and just have it as as a new article that includes both components because if you were trying to just amend okay what's there round I agree with you it would be too too complex so the idea was to just strike the entire amount ENT or the the entire article freeing up the 734 th000 uh but then the new article would be keeping the component for which you were barwing for and then expanding that additional amount the 300,000 that's being requested here for both components okay makes me feel a little better but still I think it should I would like to see it as two separate articles but me and we just to clarify um we did ask and if we were to bid this out twice so if we went to construction design and bidding for the baseball field not in conjunction with this essentially this project would come down about $20,000 $30,000 by taking that off the table but the other package put that together just for Whi and would cost us between 60 and 70,000 to do this as a separate construction bid and everything else so when we looked at that that was one of the one of the pieces that we're looking at packaging it together of the 734 that was originally allocated has anything been spent no I would just say we could we can we have to we voting on articles tonight we are we have to walk in then um right but I think that if if say the CPC came back and said they wanted to do it as two separate articles I mean we could we do a placeholder for it yeah it's not the it's not the end of the one yeah we don't have a meeting set yet I you know we typically meet the third Wednesday but I warned everyone we may need to meet early it's just there's like nine people on the committee so sometimes it's difficult to rearrange around other meetings but um we'll meet as soon as we can once we get the details it'll be good K I know your committee hasn't met um but for this extra 300,000 that they be asking for do they have that in their Recreation bucket or would you have to be hitting the unallocated no we do have enough there was about 1.3 million at the end of last year before all the the fiscal year stuff went through for the for a town meeting but that almost is a wash so there'll be plcy okay and just to remind us that 334 that were borrowing The Debt Service is paid from CPC but the town said we would contribute that extra money to CPC to pay for it there's also there's also the money that from the water department through CPC that we could petition true that we could ,000 200,000 yeah we have to just get water commissioner's approval for that but we could do that too so we if we do that run we're running up against time for you right uh yes yes I mean I know um they uh uh lwd is meeting Wednesday night so um would they can amend their agenda so that's a possibility try to make that work if that's you know if that's the Spirit of you know if Carolyn Liv my yeah what better project to send it on than this you guys agree yeah I do do we had also Steve um there was 118,000 that was put in the um Debt Service that we voted on at town meeting will that need to be changed as well um jeez that's that's part of the the budget that they had mhm right but I think we'd have to report back to yeah what I don't care one way or the other just want to get to overlooked depends when the payment become due how much they right and and so far they haven't done anything but yeah all right so we'll get that wording from you and then we'll meet and I have this this is at least a draft for you look at I'll okay article okay thank you on that 100 on that Debt Service money worst comes to worse it sits with your fund and you can use that pay first wasn't sure where we were descending and all that needed to be addressed now that was a separate article a separate article yes okay okay when does this go to print so uh I close the business on Thursday this week I'm sorry close the business by Thursday of this week BR okay we done with that think par revolving sure this is this is just um this is something um that uh we've been doing a fair share of uh this is a request to increase uh for uh increase the cap for the FY 25 Department revolving fund expenditure limit for parks and wreck uh from 1.5 to 8 million 1.8 million um just seeing where the spending Trends are we're anticipating even this early in the year that the spending will uh increase up to 1.8 million um this is just demonstrating the more the popularity of their programs and bringing in um some more Revenue so um we could have put this on as an article at town meeting but um great recommendation by Town moderator saying that we basically um could do this where um the vote uh of the finance committee and the select board so with both of your approval we can make this adjustment and not have to bring this in as a separate article Tim what's causing the extra spend so as as we see an increase in our number of participants um it's it's really essentially money and money out so we need to get additional supplies so if we have 180 campers you we need 180 t-shirts as that you know really goes up um that's where we see a lot of our expenditures uh we've seen a lot of increase just with everything else inflation of the products that we buy so you know we're doing the same programs but they're costing us more to run uh and then on top of that our field trips and other you know venues that we're taking people to is their Staffing you know cost go up their ticket prices go up um so we've seen it across the board in all aspects of of the of the department so it's not just where we're going what we're buying but it's we've had more kids than ever this year utilizing our programming and our fees keeping up with the extra expenses yes so our fees are keeping up with the extra expenses um we John and I regularly meet with the program coordinators in elition we talk about you know how much does Camp te need to go up this year in order to uh tolerate some of the things that we're seeing uh you know one of the things that we do try to do and is part of our mission statement is to try to be as low cost um as we can to the residents of Littleton uh and you know in our camp cost if you look across the board um you know we we joke about a lot but we are one of the cheapest games in town for what we offer uh and we do you know give incremental uh increases between 3 to 5% per year um and we want to make cuts uh in other places so that we don't have to increase the the user fees drastically uh if you look at Camp T the number really hasn't changed uh we I believe that we haven't increased more than like $40 or $50 over the past seven years that I've been here so we try to we try to build it in and keep it as low as we can okay there something you guys continuously look at all the time okay we have a finance meeting once once a month that's that's all we talk about is you know where is where are our programs what are we charging how are we doing it um you know it's one of our highest grossing programs is is nooba and you know year after year they raise the rates on that but families love it because it's right around the corner so that's something that we have to you know keep up with okay any other [Music] questions thank you everybody for your time tonight thanks for keeping it PR should we two two should we do two motions a move that the select board vote to amend the fiscal year 2025 Department revolving fund for parks recreation and Community Education from 1.5 million to 1.8 million second move by Matthew second by Ken all in favor I have a motion same motion uh I'll move that the finance committee vote to amend the fiscal year 2025 Department revolving fund for parks recreation and community ucation from $1.5 million to $1.8 million not good mic second by Fred all in favor hi hi yeah okay thank you uh review the war okay now you can use the extra 300,000 to build the uh field hey so um so uh we love the copies of for those of you um uh who we have the warrant in front of you um my hope is to go through each one of the Articles and where there is a recommendation um that uh both boards could respectfully make a recommendation that we can then add to the draft as I mentioned to Fred earlier uh the uh draft is due back to um the uh uh the prer um on that uh on Thursday so so um without any further Ado some of these things you've already heard about so let's just go through it uh first is the report of the Shaker Lane School building committee uh so uh We've made kind of moderator um actually actually Tim want to come up actually if you like seats please if uh we get some extra seats so um but um the first is a report of the Shaker Lane School building committee um as uh as as the finance committee and select board know we're going to be doing some joint meetings um in October uh and some Community listening sessions to try to refine this presentation for that meeting um it um so and that's also going to include the school committee as well so as we further refine that that's when that report will be provided uh I have it down at the select board make a recommendation but generally speaking for the report um I don't think uh we would be asking that at this time although I certainly don't want to presume anything if I in on the report and what's that general rule for any reports we in terms of making it I don't think we need right I don't think we need a recommendation so this is more of an FYI that this is happening and then you'll be participating in uh those updates so there there had been a question whether Tim would find it acceptable once that report is given um whether they'd be allowed to be discussion by the audience in I don't recall there being discussions on those reports but this could it be hard to imagine that this wouldn't generate audience participation requests it it wouldn't be my intention to open have discussion I mean it it's a report and the action found meeting is taking voting literally voting to hear the report we hear the report that will that'll that'll for that for that sound meeting that'll be it I mean there'll be other forums so that should just be clear before the report is heard sure yeah FYI I I do think that there going to be people who are eager to speak about it but but it won't be productive to talk about something that they're not going to vote on it would be better to talk there going to be forums it's going to be lot of other sessions I was going to say if the if the committee could include in their presentation what the next meeting date is where they'll take questions that would probably help yeah okay it's going to be on Friday good good luck on people they can't ask questions I mean you're up to it man but not my office hours yeah okay all right um okay article two is bills of Prior years we have some bills from uh wind waste Innovations this is the dumpster services at the Neoga Orchard when we were doing our initial cleaning after the um Last Tenant left uh so it's fairly straightforward needs to be a 9910 vote and uh we request both um boards uh support here on that matter we got to group all these we we can do I mean we can go through each one yeah I think we go through let's vote one vote to recommend all the articles of the select like to do okay that's fine that's fine okay so number two is a yes okay all right um article three is to amend article 11 from the October 17th 2020 special town meeting so this is um when we went out and borrowed um 2 m $2.5 million which was our I think our first borrowing on the sewer we made a specific reference to massworks uh Grant being funds that we would be using to pay back uh that uh loan and uh as we got into the project we realized that uh we would probably be we were expending money um out of that amount for what were non uh massw Works Grant eligible uh pieces and this is um this included expenses like the design and engineering and construction of the font recharge site at the Littleton High School which we talked a little bit about which is currently under the field so this is basically just a small tweak in language so that we can keep um Bond Council uh happy and that we spending it in a way consistent what town meeting allowed us to pretty much housekeeping basically housekeeping long as that long as that's explained too that'll be another buch of question sure okay um article four is our tennis court and renovation of wh field article so um as I was discussing um uh with our CPC chair uh it it would get confusing to keep it in as currently um written so the proposal would be to strike that past article and um uh and then basically make those uh funds available it's the $734,000 from the initial article um we would then amend it um these numbers have not been updated uh because we just got the numbers in about 3:00 today so the IDE a would be that you would be keeping the $334,000 uh dollar to be borrowed and then the difference then would be added in those um in that line line above so um this basically would allow us to move forward with the plan at Tim um and the athletic director had outlined for you earlier today so the form of that again we'd have a little time to um you know to maybe tweak uh but but um you know we still need to go to the CPC and it was had a suggestion made about whether lwd could uh be able to entain this prior to their meeting or at their meeting on Wednesday night so maybe hold off for a recommendation we could do that we could do that Y and Ryan just one question um they've already spent about $100,000 of the 734 said they yeah it really hasn't been anything that like the design that they talked about for uh the earlier design at the high school um was that uh that that that coer jery was asking about was was paid out of the Cooper um article so this should this should be there's no reduction okay so all right I just want to make sure the math works at the end of the day and if you're comfortable it's fair enough yeah he talked about taking the 734 down to 750 right right so I think so where's the 80 grand that's all right right so then we we would just adjust it on um yes uh give the numbers to add up but I think at this point where we have this other $200,000 been introduced this maybe the best thing for both boys save the recommendation for the floor yeah save the recommendation for the Flor well that's let me gu speak to that Mr chair um can we make a recommendation conditional on Light and Water Department light light and water contributing $200,000 to that 334 well you've got two two things one is a CPC vote they haven't even voted which is hopefully okay but maybe not and you've got the uh magnanimous uh just activity by the El Commissioners to spend the money that they were keep keep in mind we can write this up in any way like if we if we can say that the report was given and that both Ford it favorably but however these other uh factors were uh still in play and thus it was determined that the recommendation it would be more responsible to make a recommendations what time being so you can at least still signal that you know that it was viewed positively but that you wanted to wait until all the information all the information so so that's a way another way around thank you I have a quick one if I may um so as it stands now obviously could be reduced based on further conversations but we're we're going to borrow 334,000 mhm who pays the interest on that CPC pays yeah the town agreed last year with this original project that's one of the ways that we make an extra contribution to CPC we cover it give them donate the money to CPC they repay the town with those same funds okay so we'll get the matching funds on the money we give them seasoning money right back okay that it sells better if we can say it's not coming out of the general fund what yeah for sure right right everyone will say it's free free cash cash okay um article uh I think I think I have enough on that one so uh Article Five uh is to add the schedule D permanent parttime employees these are our call Firefighters uh so right now before we jump off of that I'm just thinking with the 200,000 still in play MH should we reduce the amount we borrow instead of reducing the amount that we're taking out of CPC okay yes that way we just ban at once paid off that first year and we're done you could I think that's I was thinking you didn't but sure I don't no I had it that way that's how I was understanding it but it wasn't that way I was wrong I was right for the wrong reasons car does that make sense to you sounds good and again I think um we'll have some other conversation with L lwd tomorrow and see if they can make this have okay uh Article Five is to add um the schedule D permanent part-time employees so when we approved of um the uh Personnel BW classification Compensation Plan back on May 7th uh we we excluded the um on call folks with the hope that we would be able to um this is fire on call uh and the Hope was that maybe we would be able to uh uh wait a little bit or we get more information presuming that the uh Union had U reached agreement with the town at that time uh they still have not um we have a placeholder later on in this um in this warrant if if we are able to reach agreement with them uh but uh we also thought that it wouldn't make sense for us to stop uh and and and sort of bring them up this is a 2 and 1 12% consistent essentially with how we're handling this cas La employees which is 22% Cola as well as um a 22% change from steps uh as they've moved their way up so we just didn't want to um hold that back and thought it would be appropriate to bring it back to the special any questions on okay uh let's see um article 6 is to amend Article 4 of November 1 2023 special town meeting so uh when we set aside 400,000 from the capital stabilization fund we specifically set that aside for uh this is for um renovation of 36 King otherwise known as the Indian Hill Music School for Professional Services and um what we're asking here is to expand that and to allow for Professional Services and construction expenses I think a total total spending for um the OPM and the architect actually came in a little B less this allows us to expend those monies on the project and was always sort of uh what we thought of as the total project budget this is uh this just basically again another housekeeping thing for us doesn't add any additional money but U reallocates the money to allow it to be used for construction specifically to who got what the 400,000 is p time um right so it just expands it it's just putting another another piece of language in it allowing it to be used for construction as well yeah we had to do this with the library we save 400 and then we decided to it instead of saving the 400 so we don't have to borrow it I'm not sure following that one um you mean no what what you said was y all I thought I heard you say was the 400 uh was not spent all it wasn't right right yeah not all 300 300 something roughly yeah roughly speaking for our OPM and our architect um so now there's a little bit of the 400 there's a little bit left over and we're proposing to make that available for construction that's and that's how when we presented the project in total to town meeting was the thinking that we'd be using the entire amount this just allows us to do so okay same project same project yeah and it's not adding anything to what the numbers that we presented maybe okay any other questions on that okay um all right article seven um this is something we do on a regular basis where we clear out our old warrant articles uh the qu one of um looking for change in the couch uh and uh make that available for other things so the first piece is to um from the list that you have here in the table would be to clear this out and do two specific things one is the transfer $135,400 uh for um various capital projects uh for buildings under the care custody and control of the select board so basically if we have with with having this funding set aside if we run into an emergency situation where we we have a collapse roof we have a boiler uh Break um a lot of older buildings and a lot of risk that's associated with that so having something that we don't necessarily have to go to the finance committee for an immediate uh um Reserve fund transfer or um waiting for town meeting if it's something more substantive than that um this is a this is a resource uh that we have that we can tie into um in addition we're requesting $25,000 uh be set aside for to support our 5year recertification of residential commercial and industrial property so mass the mass do wants us to be going through and uh looking at all of our um uh our residential commercial industrial an industrial property he also wants to do our personal property reup that um through a service partnering with companies that'll go in and look look at all of these um sites so so um they we're hoping for in talking with the uh Town assessor that they'll she'll be able to afford this in her uh operating leg here without making any changes for uh personal property but she wanted to get ahead and hire this other company because what they're what they're finding is that uh uh the people who wait too long and put this money in say the May town meeting uh are finding themselves further behind behind and she didn't want to get behind she wanted to be able to put the money aside and get them right to work on this so um seemed like a reasonable thing to do uh and we had a funding source for it so um I always tell people that uh the assessors is office is the uh cash register of the community so um it's it's critical that we stay on top of that and this gives us a jump reflecting the fact that many of these groups that do do this type of work are already overwhelmed and committed to other communities so any questions on that the only question I have is so you've got sounds like you have some of this earmarked for these things you mentioned why isn't the rest going to the the the reserve fund so yes it was just basically a split right so the uh the total am that um that we have here we just split that uh that everything in the transfers out is just the 25,000 and then the 135 added together so it we give you a balance here in that I can maybe try to make that a little bit more explicit in the article as to you know to show the map there are a few other elements here because there's different articles um here uh one of them was to resend the unspent balance of $10,000 uh from article 11 of the June 12th 2020 Town 2021 town meeting uh to fund the design and construction of a sidewalk sidewalk on on Foster Street our recommendation on this it this was monies that we had set aside for um uh the bicycle and pedestrian master plan I think that I think we had set aside 30,000 and only needed 20 so um in keeping with the um kind of the spirit of bicycle of pedestrian master plan talking with the DPW director he suggested These funds be uh used for um a future um extension of the sidewalk project on Foster Street so this would be a form of extension from the work that they're currently doing now uh adjacent to the train station so they to go further what other options are there other than earmarking these monies for something can it just go back into the general fund can it go into Capital fund I mean what other options are there um well I mean there there are you know they um you can assign it back to free cash but then free cash is then it's going to full cycle so the idea of it is to say if you have needs that you can address Now Jerry you might as well take care of it so we try to be thoughtful to try to keep it in with thematically with the types of things that do that do come up and um and and U you know not have to add uh you know add to the you know anying of the tax burden at this point so what happens at the end of the fiscal year do these funds do they stay in these accounts they do yeah so anything that's an article that's set aside rolls forward to the next fiscal year that's why it's an Express vote of town meeting to uh close out that account to free up the funding as well so unlike the operating budget where at the end of the fiscal year you know the money whatever is not used gets gets swept this is a this is an instance unless uh a specific action is taken by town meeting the M stays in that account so there's 135,000 we're moving into the select board account how much is in the select board account already um so uh we do have there have been a few other articles with this so um there's a few I think there's probably roughly speaking probably about 200,000 as well so but I mean the thing you have to keep in mind is if you lose a boiler that's you have to replace that in the scale of it the needs and buildings yeah I'm just wondering there seems like a we have the reserve fund and this fund and I don't know where the two and the stabilization fund as well I mean St the stabilization fund something different cuz that has to come the point of this fund is to have um you know basically have cash on hand for you want to you say emergencies but there are things that regularly come up we spend a good portion of our week last week trying to chase down uh roots that had taken over a drain uh and we were able to you know to fix that with uh with it being jetted out but um we were also kind of cont lating what that would be like if we needed to actually uh replace the line itself so then you're cutting into you know you're cutting into the cement and having to then replace and Patch it so that there aren't things that you know when when you're dealing with a municipality like this that with the types of projects we're in they aren't Small Things often times that come up it's it's it's more significant I'm just wondering where the reserve funded this fund the overlap well because we see this every year I mean this is this is every year we have these so you I'll just take the orchard right we asked everybody out for the orchard from the reserve fund should it come from the select board fund versus that there doesn't seem to be a policy for other to be expensive but we are going to talk some about an orchard article so we'll get to that maybe we need to put that into the policy or have a policy own it so who controls the 135 is this something happens in Yep this would be you and Jim just say yes go ahead and spend back you know for the right it would be the same sort of rules that you know that we have most of the things that we I would imagine that we're going to need out of this is going to be select board driven to begin with OR emergency driven such that we probably wouldn't want to wait until okay you know when's the next time at the finance committee is going to join if it get together so um but it would the proposal is that it would be under the under the select point so to to Max point should now that we have a facilities director on board should some type of account be set up during the budget process and out of the capital funds to fund an account like this or these funds FS being the start I think I think that's a good point it could become yeah it absolutely could be a funding source um especially to with this next TR to to think about that because again the objective is that we're not coming back and asking money out of the operating budget or if you can take existing resources and allocate it especially to us this is going to hopefully get better defined with our facilities director for these types of needs it's a good point and it would be a logical Pro so if if you don't mind can we pause and do a couple appointments real quick so we we can let the people go um move to 5A appoint Juliana C to the cultural [Music] Council she's here oh there you are understand you I'm sorry Juliana sorry no problem so yeah I'm Juliana castanos I'm from Mexico originally I just moved here to Littleton a little over a month ago from Houston and thank you it's been wonderful and I am excited to be a part of the culture committee and hopefully give back to the community that has welcomed Us in the most wonderful way so um have you seen snow yet my life yes all right I just want to make sure because this be we Liv in in the northern part of Italy before Houston so we did get some I don't think we've ever experienced a real winter like we will now but we excited we're going to experience for sure all right move that the select board vote to appoint Juliana castanos as a member of the cultural Council for a term expiring June 30 2027 second move by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor thank you volunteering thank you so much um yeah um Maran here to the affordable housing trust Juliana just the town clerk's right behind you you have to you have to go see her to get sworn in not right now raise your right hand sorry you too hey so um thanks for the opportunity I um have been around quite a bit longer than Juliana so years and um yeah I'd be really honored to be part of this affordable housing trust you know I think some of my experience that I have recently um has been helpful working with a lot of the low-income folks in town in Littleton and a but you know obviously be focused on Littleton and um yeah I retired recently so I've got a lot of time awesome congrats on that thank you move at the select board vote to appoint Marian hus a member of the affordable housing trust or me in here right oh here oh so I'm sorry there's a typo yeah it is hear us here on my my B uh move that the select board vote to appoint and here as as a member of the affordable housing trust fund Board of Trustees for a term expiring June 30th 2025 second good by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor I so you both will need to go see the Town Clerk and get sworn in right now or no no before your first meeting super all right thank thank you should we do the license too just I think they're here we'll do Diane though okay Diane oh Diane Dian she said she loves staying for the entire meeting I told nothing um good evening um Diane Cy town clerk I'm here this evening because as you all know we have an election coming up in November and during um the two weeks prior to the election we have early voting in person um on October 29th you also know that we have a special town meeting I'm here this evening to ask you uh this black board to allow um my office to hold the iners only from 8 a.m. in the morning until 12:30 in the afternoon um typically it is the entire time that the office is open but due to the fact that we have to prepare for special town meeting um we would like to close the um inperson early voting early um the state tells us that we need to have at least 4 hours um we're giving you 4 and 1/2 hours so we're going extra as it is above beond um we're asking for okay your approval excuse me before we vote on this question for you what's the minimum amount of hours that you you the town is required to have iners early voting I've sat there for hours and hours hours and hours and hours and had literally nobody come through the door um there and I don't mind you know the the suggested I drink but the suggested is they they tell us that we should be doing whatever we have for business hours but they tell you that you can go as few as four hours but they frown upon it for how long who's going to tell them soon well we have to um put into our state system the hours that we're actually going to be over just being Punk and they approve it or disapprove it from what date to what date is this so it starts on the 19th and it goes until the 1 so two Saturdays and two full weeks okay move that the select board vote to approve the request from the town clerk to reduce the hours for early inperson voting on Tuesday at October 29th 2024 to 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. second mve by Matthew second by car all those in favor I we'll be open 8 hours for the rest of the time well some longer nights were open till right just want people to know that it's not just that one day we're okay thank you than thank you thank you now we can get back to the war okay good back to the think I'm boring everybody to death but that's all right no we love this we love this this is what that's this is our so um so item so we went through the first list and how we wanted to break that down in terms of monies for buildings and another 25,000 related to the assessor's office item number two was to resend monies that we had set aside for um the bicycle and pedestrian master plan that we didn't need to spend and put that uh toward the design and construction of a sidewalk on Foster Street um just I think if you look at some of our laws there's actually a sidewalk fund should this just go into the sidewalk fund rather than a specific sidewalk we were debating whether or not um because we we were working with the town accountant I mean I I don't know if we've established we do we do you know do we have an established sidewalk fund I I don't we can we can I mean we can check um I think the difference in this case though is that with a fund specifically uh Mark are um were delineated for um you from the Amazon Project it has to be kind of connected to that so what this is is um it is essentially a identifying it more more appropriate this is a the Human Services bicycle and pedestrian master plan right that was one of the things that was allowed for under that and that was part of of the agreement and so what we're trying to say is all right thematically I I still need to get Town council's perspective on this but I think I think we should be okay that that it would be used specifically on a sidewalk and allowing in theory the employees there to be able to walk well we've also talked I me Gary and I have talked about needing sidewalks on other places down Taylor Street right right a very that corner yeah so I think it would be better if we could put it into a general fund General sidewalk fund I can ask CS to about that so um the last thing is to uh resend an unspent balance of $122,000 uh that was used or set aside for master plan implementation uh land use coordination I think uh the town U planner has informed me is that that was money that been set aside uh just before Co and things kind of uh changed from that so we have 12,000 available The Proposal from uh to from the town planner is that we set aside $6,000 for support uh for a zoning our our zoning Diagnostic and recodification I think those monies had already been set aside but this allows us to connect it to our GIS system and fund $6,000 for Professional Services in support of the new fee flood insurance ratee Maps which is something um the planning uh department is working on and we'll probably see something at the annual town meeting associated with that and uh the updated zoning bylaw to meet the accessory drilling unit requirements uh of the state's 2024 affordable homes act so these are all things that we know that are coming and this uh sets the side this relatively small amount of money to support those efforts and it's recommended by our town planner any questions on that okay none now move forward uh okay article 8 um this is uh this is sort of a Choose Your Own Adventure article uh so we um we we talked a little bit with the finance committee about this and we've talked a little bit about a little bit about this with the select board so there's $50,000 that the May 2nd 2022 annual town meeting set aside for a neog Orchard building feasibility study so um in talking about it with the select board um the select board was interested in setting aside the entire $50,000 to support Neill Orchard related expenditures uh we talked about it with the finance committee they recognized that um there had already been a a fiscal year 2025 transfer from the reserve fund for um repairs at the neog hill Orchard in the amount of $18,995 so um it was the feeling and please my colleagues on the uh on the finance committee correct me but if if uh uh they wanted to basically pay that back so that there there would be funds we wouldn't otherwise need to draw from the reserve fund and then the balance would be set aside for further neog Hill or related expenditure so it could be either or or we could do something else entirely so there's $50,000 right now available for an old article uh that we like to repurpose so so we discussed this at at our meeting on Tuesday night and we felt option b was the better choice not moving the money out of the reserve fund putting it back taking that money out of this 50,000 leaving an extra 31,000 to spend and if there's extra money that's needed just come back for another Reserve fund transfer I agree with that I think there's I don't see a reason why we wouldn't use this funds to cover the cost of the repairs so that would be my preference as well okay we can do that and then and then the other money is set aside so that as we look at the responses to the RFD um this is potentially some of the thing that we does it delay anything what's that does it delay anything we haven't started the repairs we haven't no no because basically what um we can still pay for but we would just do a change charge um in the accounting after straight forward okay um article nine this is a remind the select board you had this presentation from the Conservation Commission regarding setting aside a portion of the neog Hill Orchard um we're able to get a map uh here uh you can see uh that the portion um that we're talking about here that would be um uh removed is uh estimated 7.9 Acres adjacent to the reservoir and would not include either the lower barn or the lower house so um we may need to tweak this language a little bit more make sure we uh because right now it currently doesn't reference this we got this map today um so um that is but but I think it accurately depicts what was presented to you uh in terms of um from from the conspiration commissioner so there's no agricultural restriction on not on that whole A or B no conservation nothing okay and in why cut it in half I mean why primarily because the Conservation Commission doesn't want to take responsibility for the structures but they do the lower part but the the lower part is also very prown to invasives they want to make sure that it's maned properly okay does this require a survey and yes which yes which they are going to cover but they are going to pay for the survey in fact they've already started it or they've already done the survey or they they will short it's the prettiest I the prettiest spot in town be honest that's that's my concern Gary not a concern because I know they'll take good care of it but it may restrict us the town from doing something else if we had other plans to do something with that en parcel I'm not saying you know put in a a casino or anything I'm just I'm thinking I keep bring up the the Acton operation in aced and if we I mean that's a that's a pretty hefty yeah parcel there it's 20 acres or so or a small half shell little it's got that yeah the the natural drum yeah it's um it lends itself to something like the arum you got the wooded area down along the pond um there just this this potential for parking out behind the lower Barn um I just don't want to be Hasty and this are personally preclude the select board from doing something between now and Springtown meeting to decide what the or is is there any likelihood that was it 107b will end up tied to a sale or relase or anything we're not not selling anything this point it's since it's not part of the APR we have never considered it to be part of the item bu sale so so it is it could be part of a lease but not sale okay yeah so this incremental parcel of land is basically in the care custody and control of the select boort currently and if some other project comes up it would be possibly joint between the kcom and you guys or the select board project potentially okay so what do we gain by doing this conson fights and the invasives well we ar I mean DPW is down and cuts that right they cut it right now lct's been doing a lot of work on a Rick and they go down yeah he done a lot down there 2019 2017 20 19 he did quite a job down there to open it up quite a bit yeah because it's not all trees tell he's getting cut down so if this goes through you lose control of the parel it goes to conservation correct so you can't do the things that you wanted to unless there's some agreement with kcom I just don't want to be Hasty and you know not that we've proven that wi rates the woods of land but um the whole thing is a beautiful piece of land I just want to make sure that carving it up didn't kind of mess mess ups something you want to do in the future that's all it doesn't fundamentally change the the ownership of it it does change who who is under control of it but if you read the warrant article well or the the report in November of 2015 T meeting voted to approve pursuant to an agreement between the board of Select and kcom that the non lease parcel be separated that the bard of Select were authorized to PR engineered plan so this was already approved in 2015 just codifying that we are just basically codifying that decision that town meeting has already voted for so I I think we should I would I would I would also argue that I since we are as a board giving up control of it we would make a recommendation on this and also because of all of the swirling conflagration of confusion and angst around the orchard that we make it clear that this is not a subdivision as in a housing subdivision this is a transfer of control from one Municipal agent to another and that it still will never be developed I mean I would argue what I did in the last meeting is I I wouldn't break the piece up I should all go to conservation if or not then let's start talking to them about taking the rest of it yeah we will but I I just think that the how we can talk about what we want to do with that building you know from the time perspective but I you probably also have to ask them as to what they're willing to take as well you know that's two sides definitely not the that's what they when we ask this is their first take account okay I I mean you asked exactly the question that I've asking and we don't apply none this so it's all your choice anything else on article n okay well we if we're moving on is that just assume that it's a in favor of well uh I because I'm not we can debate yeah you can debate it I I just don't want it to be Matthew's ke on list of which ones are going to no that's fine I agree no we should talk about it if it's a split vote can we hold off one yeah CU I'd like to research it okay thanks Mar that to okay um article 10 is basically a placeholder um we if for funding uh collective bargaining agreements we have two outstanding collective bargaining agreements with the police and the fire unions uh we're hoping we planning on meeting one more time uh at least with each one of those uh uh groups prior to town meeting so um there'd be nothing really to recommend at this point because we been just putting here's placeholder and if there is a motion will be provided on the floor town meeting um article 11 authorizes the town clerk to scribers erors uh to town bylaws and so this is something that was uh recommended by the town clerk uh to essentially allow the town clerk to make non-sub of editorial revisions to General bylaws so basically numbering spelling errors things of that nature because otherwise you'd be waiting to fix this for another town meeting and um uh cler still there see she didn't want to stay she wanted to she wanted so uh this is worked out by Town Council and uh we've seen this in a few other communities uh allowing the tax work some Liberty uh at least in terms of um bylaws to uh make those Justice and um any questions on that and the last item is our loan uh plan board article for uh the Zone bylaw Amendment uh to uh registered marijuana dispensaries and adult use marijuana establishments so think um sure probably some other members here more informed on this uh article than I am um uh but basically this is a planning board article this is something that the select board typically willins on but you certainly would have that option um um same same goes with the finance debate what are the actual changes I I'm reading just PES and P but I'm trying to figure out what what they changed yeah I just think Brian's Point um for confusion purpose I think this kind of turns into a little bit of the MBTA issue we had first time around with planning board it needs to really be highlighted what's changed and why because this is this is very difficult to read the select board point of view I'm sitting here like right it's very it's hard to read it's my getting the primary change was at least in terms of growth facilities was that it would uh one growth facility currently in town that site would be stays but it would be it basically limits it in terms of f the grow faili would be a lot which and that's great and if they say that outstanding but five pages can't so I I thought the planning board was going to bring this as two articles One is updating the article to reflect the current CCC regulation and the other was to reduce the number of growth facilities for one which I know I don't agree with the article so I'll say right now this article is written this whole I'm I'm a no so so I I don't know where to go I mean it'll still go through probably if we have enough F but I just I the Restriction of it it's way too restrictive and we're basing it on a smell for one facility that's in a neighborhood and that's the problem that I have we're saying we're only going to ever have one when what if there's one that St Monarch Drive way way in the back when no one smells anything and they're perfect stewards otherwise so that's why I thought two I thought there were two one to update the regulations yeah what I wish they were here well and again I think it's something you can ask um for an updated at the next meeting but you don't have to make a recommendation on it we won't but if it's going to printing in two days I mean so what you do is you put in you say the recommendation if a recommendation is going to be provided it's going to be provided in the FL time meeting this is option b we want to read there's a lot of great stuff in there there is I just but just a procedural I mean the warrant is up to y'all I mean you could can you say this is in no shape ready and it's it's out yeah when it comes to we could vote not to put it on on we could we could do that I don't want to do that believe me I'm not saying I want to do that I want the town to be able to vote as written if this is what the plan board wants to go forward with but I'm just saying this is very difficult to read if I'm a a citizen which I am and there's things in here that should should be broken up into more than one article right I just see I think they very different things discussed that's just my is there any urgency to pass this uh they tried this was actually on our warrant last year and they pulled it different but same they didn't have enough inform it was a citizen petition I me there was a Citizens petition and so this is somewhat of a react of a response to that so I agree I had a question about order I mean if this article is this controversial just amongst us I think we can expect a fair amount of discussion and I don't know about anybody else I've heard a lot of feedback that from residents that they want the controversial stuff handled first so that if they want to go home they can I mean I'm probably making it controversial just I we're restricting a business model to one because there is there are people that are upset of a smell of the one that we have there's two I just think there two different issues at play here sure and yeah I'm not Jud on that one way or another but I mean if you're having a you know if you've got questions I think we can expect a lot of other people to have questions and this to generate a fair amount of discussion um and I think and I think that in general the stuff that is going to be the most controversial that we would want the most input on should be towards the beginning of the meeting where do you want I can agree it's a very light I mean that the warrant this is pretty light if there is that would be the only one that maybe has yeah that that is one of the questions too and you just never know no I know but I I'm think as I look at this it's very descriptive there's a lot of language in that article um so yeah I would say five so can we make that number five okay would you want to go earlier than that I mean it's well I think the tennis course is the potential other one that would be C right so we put it right there with the tennis court just because that's a discussion okay so it would be yeah okay right after 4 okay okay thank you good and that's one of the questions too because this is your agenda and and and what you want to have to order is one of those questions so thank you so for the select Board of recommendations I believe that what has been relatively non-controversial are the Bills number two bills of Prior years the number three amend the sewer borrowing article the compensation grid number five uh amend the Indian Hill borrowing number six resend the prior bills of Prior cap capital bills of Prior years number seven um The nagog Orchard funding number eight and the scrier errors number 11 and number eight is option b right I'm sorry number eight is B option option b y That's fine does that sound right so I'll will make a motion that the select board recommend articles as currently listed number 2 3 5 6 7 8 and 11 and 10 um uh 10 we wouldn't be because if there's no numbers in there's no numbers to vote on yeah we're going to wait okay okay so good who by Matthew second by Chuck all those in favor I okay did you get those right I did I can I ask a question about article six special okay what is the balance that's left that wasn't spent on um Professional Services I I think Gary it's about I think it's roughly about 100,000 so when we presented it I was saying my thinking was all of it was available but realize that there's still that technicality of the fact that okay yes we we time meetings raised the money but it's specifically allocated for Professional Services but it was a separate vote for the construction correct fund corre based on the estimate So based on the based on the you know Bas based on the estimate um but with the with the whole budget in mind because we had we had the 400,000 set aside we and then said okay to get everything else done we ask for the difference at time so it's um you know and and one of the things too that we're uh as we're getting toward more toward brass tax at the uh at 36 king um it's interesting when you're renovating a building versus starting new like we're doing in the senior center you know there are things that are coming up here so um and it we're um you know working with our our OPM and trying to find Solutions but when you say no not you like when uh we get into finding rod on the side of the building because they're sitting water there for a while they're chasing that down things that you know you you just really can't fully fully anticipate until you actually start digging in underneath it's it's just there's a lot of those types of things that we're finding uh with 36 King and probably anticipate using most of the contingency on that it it's no different than the million half dollars that we remember that we did in the annual for the senior center that was the article was specifically written for design and but it was still part of the entire project we didn't spend all that so you push it to the whole project but it doesn't add so it's the same doesn't add to the the number that we you're worried about that it adds to the bottom line no no I just think if the project if it doesn't cost what you know we don't to spend 100,000 more just because we have it right it should take away from the Bor right right right and if we get to or it's available as a take back next year yeah and again I think and Jerry's I understand Jerry's point and I think that when we conceived of it um at the time it was saying okay we've got 100,000 plus the difference we need to get to our construction and that's how we we came up with the number so as opposed to doing the specifics on that so yeah that's but I understand the point so do we want to recommend motion motion yeah okay okay I'll uh make a motion that K con vote to support uh article number two article number three five 6 7 8 option b as presented I'll second second mooving second in all in favor I okay thank you article four is okay what other motions do we need uh let's see so um we I I have down the assignment of the article both of you um I think we don't necessar have to come to terms on that tonight but um we'll probably come back both committees can come back and the assignment I just got to have that there more of as a flag as we have to return back to we discussed the order of the Articles so have a motion for that um no I think that's we were all pretty good so that basically 12 becomes the new number five and everything else gets bounced down um so um so I think that's fine I don't think you I think we were not having to vote that and um uh I know we this typically will go right into um having to post the uh post the warrant so if the select board wouldn't mind voted to approve and sign the annual time meeting warrant which is not the report an entirely different document uh but essentially the same information if if I could get a vote on that that would be appreciated move that the select board vote to approve and sign the annual town meeting warrant for post second move by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor I we don't have that here tonight so what we would probably have you do would be to do um uh electronic signature that we send out to you after that so um that's that's pretty much it so you give me a little bit of homework uh to follow up on but I think otherwise uh we should be out there than from here I just wanted to ask at the uh for the annual town meeting the B we had some information on electronic voting I just asked the board could maybe reprint that for this right book Tim I can tell you that I I tweaked that out of it because it was the first time but I tell you what why don't you and I work on something that okay that's no problem because I think what it said the way if you read I was I was looking at that today and it was basically this is the first time we're doing this if you've got questions that kind of thing this would be the second time but I think we can work on something a yeah that was just one of those quick things that I had but we don't you know that's that that's your that's that's your report and um and your update in the beginning doesn't have to be as long that's no no we we we'll make a note of that and then you and I can work about that and and I think I just want to be clear just to recommend certain articles number five was one of them that's that's the original number five not the yes [Music] Tim does bring up a good point mark that we probably have to keep um every we're assuming that the same people show up to every town meeting you don't want people sitting there going it's not working or you don't know so I think we actually have to do a very quick announcement every single town meeting yeah we us click as a reminder and Tim too we also have sort of the the standard Evergreen items in fact actually not should have been in this trap but you're uh you know year update that we put in every year about you know how long people should this is our town meeting works this is uh oh right so we have that as well so but but I think it's something you and I can work on between when it okay okay that sounds good all right anything else they're done are we done yeah make a motion to adjourn second second I didn't even get thank you thank you finance thank you guys have something yeah um you on this week yeah yeah go figure out one day liquor license a lot of damage day this is for Farm 359 uh for uh a day sorry Saturday October 26th okay hi move that the select board vote pursuant to Mass General La chapter 138 section 14 to issue a special license also known as a one-day liquor license to Colin kerk of derable Brewing Company LLC for wine and Malt Beverages for a community event located at Farm 359 359 King Street Littleton Mass on Saturday October 26th 2024 between the hours of 1: p.m. and 6: p.m. second Mo by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor I okay we did the appointment so we're on to Bic pedestrian that's two sorry two good evening Jerry Galo I represent the bicycle and pedestrian committee tonight um bpack advocates for safety and access for cyclists and pedestrians but as an advisory committee we have no funding or authority so we need funding and Authority so we come to the select board for that and I come to you tonight with an opportunity not a problem tonight I bring an opportunity to use the recently available parcel of town property on Long Lake in order to connect Lake Shore Drive two brothers Trail and by making that connection with an ada8 compliant Boardwalk across the lakeef front toown property will allow for persons with disabilities from from the town beach to the lakefront interface with two brothers Trail to Traverse from the town beach to the lakefront area in front brothera so that's it in a nutshell I'd like to go over the uh what you have up there quickly for a background so in background in 1998 the Litton conservation trust received a grant to build a trail between Conan Park and Long Lake Beach Conan Park is down on White Street I think it is down by the Buon Lumber um Don and his brother Roger gave us permission for a trail to pass over their land and also went over some Town property like Morgan land and U and subsequently that land was bought by nef and that right of continues to exist So Long Lake Park is the area we're talking about is a Nar and a lot of this will come to focus a little better when I show you the pictures of this but there's this place called Long Lake Park and it's a narrow strip of land which extends to the end of the proudy property which is uh by two Aspen Road to Long Lake Beach this was established by Warren smadbeck in 1925 so that all the people in his development could have access to the lake not just the people who were actually on the lake and and somewhere along the line I guess the town took over that uh smadbeck uh common property there along the lake um so the property when we were building the trail we got to the end of Two Brothers Trail on the nef property and and then we were going to cross over that was called Long Lake Park to uh to Long Lake Road and the property owner of two Aspen blocked the complet completion of the trail disputing the ownership of the land south of two Aspen road which encompasses the unimproved Lake Shore Drive and the park along the entire lake so in July 2008 um 10 years later the dispute was filed with the Massachusetts land Court in September 2010 a judgment was issued that allowed the town to use the Long Lake Park for a trail at and that was 10 years after the day of the judgment and I provided you with the uh the judgment and what I sent ahead of time um so the project scope then is to build the 128 ft 88 um and wetlands compliant Boardwalk connecting Lakes Shore Drive to Two Brothers Trail the the purpose of doing this is to complete the scope of the two brothers Trail which would go from Conan Park uh across Lake Shore Park to its Terminus at Long Beach it would also allow persons with disabilities to Traverse the entire length of the Lakes Shore Park from the border of the nef property to the parking lot at the town beach utilizing the new Boardwalk which we hope to build uh Lake Shore Drive which we hope to make some improvements on to make it more Ada acceptable and the existing walkway which uh Park and recck just built this year connecting lak Shore Drive to the town beach parking lot the town beach parking lot is sort of key because that's only used really heavily in the summertime so it's a great place for people to park if they want to go for a walk they can park there get the wheelchairs out and go all the way down to the spot and also this uh this particular Trail around Long Lake is supported uh in both the bicycle and pedestrian Master plant in 2023 which I hear we spent $20,000 on today and the open space and Recreation plan in 2024 uh they both um talk about having a a a trail around Long Lake so the schedule is um prior to today we socialize this Con concept with the long lake neighborhood association Park and wreck Conservation Commission and disabilities commission and what we're looking for today from the select board is to allow use of specified Town property contingent upon approval of various Town boards and commissions that would have a say on it such as Park and wreck kcom and disabilities commission afterwards after today if we get that permission then we go talk to the CPC and probably get on the next round of funding but just sort of put in a little tab in there that we might be coming to them uh coordinate with the town commissions produce a plan uh come up with a design for the boardwalk and any other improvements and cost estimates so on this picture this is the length of the entire scope that we're talking about on the right on the top where the yellow line starts on the upper right hand corner that's the town beach you can see it comes around Lake Shore driveing goes all the way down and then at the end it has a little red tip on the end so if you can go to the next picture that's the red tip again so that's where Lakes Shore and Aspen Lake Shore Drive and Aspen meet and we that red represents what the where the bo Boardwalk would be and it connects across the town property to the uh two brothers Trail now there's no intent to have people with disabilities go on Two Brothers Trail it's just not at this point that's not uh part of this project hopefully sometime in the future they could we could do that but this would at least get the ada8 compliant boardwalk in place and uh yeah it's shown on this one too if you good keep going up so we can see the part the trail yeah so that dotted line also represents the boardwalk and once again um we have to get in there with kcom and figure out the length that we have to go and look at the slope and uh in order to determine how long it's going to be but I calculate out was 128 ft when I looked at it and that would be uh the boardwalks that we're currently building like over at Hartwell Hill the well family preserve uh those according to uh folks that put it in cost $280 per 8 section that's where I came up the $4,400 from but uh K con tells me you probably have to put screws in like we did at Town Forest or someplace instead of using these corrugated pipes so we'll have to look at that cost as well next slide here's a couple examples of uh boardwalks going through wetlands in town we got Cloverdale on the left and on the right is the the Hartwell uh Family Trust conservation area and we bring it up a little bit there's another picture there this is the one taken uh I think this the assessors maps and it has some yellow lines on there that show where the town property is where the lak Shore Drive Extension is but it's hard to see but Amy said you can only come up with yellow lines so that's uh that's our plan on how we're going to uh create this ADA Compliant walk from the town beach to the beginning of Two Brothers Trail and to after all these years from 1998 and the scouts that work with us the conservation conservation trust in 1998 and now 43 years old and so I think it's high time now that the property officially belongs to the town that we should use this property which is lakefront property which is I don't think there's a current a trail that goes behind to Aspen road but I I wouldn't be so willing to just say we should use that because lakefront property is more valuable everybody you know the assessor would tell you that and I think people want to when they take a walk would rather be on the lakefront than like in the Town Forest where you're just walking through the woods on a trail I mean we have lots of trails like that that walk through the woods there are five great ponds in Littleton and Long Lake is the only one that's been developed for people to walk on two of them have uh boat launches and then uh neog has a exception to the uh the Great Pond thing it says if it's used for water you don't have to make it accessible to people and then uh for pond for some reason doesn't have any public access either so long lake is really the only place we'll ever get a trail around yeah and it's already because of the wiom land on the far side and uh the two brothers Trail and and nef allowing us to use property this is the only one we have that we can really get some traction on to have a nice walking path so as I said what we're looking for is the select board to uh to give us a go- ahead to work with the various Town authorities um it was kcom that told me come to the select board because they said you know they can't really take it too seriously if we don't have a approval to use the property so so that's what we're looking for to U allow use Town property contingent upon approval of Park and Rec commission Conservation Commission disabilities commission and any other folks that you think would be appropriate okay thank you can I ask Ryan to put up a different image Ryan the one that has the dotted line for the path of the boardwalk the red the red line that one right there that one okay so it's essentially going from that the end of um Le short drive on that side I'm talking about from the woods oh yeah and basically the back side of the silberg's property essentially same as lot line the silber's property right it's the end of nef it's the end of the old crowy property that nef owns yes there's a stone wall that runs up and there's a post marker that that says you know go no further right so from there along the the beach Lake the lake yeah the lake shore out to um that 60 foot wide swath that comes to yes M dve and then we we thought that the lower the speed limit on Lake Shore Drive or put some way to segment out so when people on wheelchairs or in Walkers and whatnot can have a protected way so that's another thing we we want to do as well okay so all right so that would be at grade to the road so that folks that are coming from the beach say can come down lore drive and then enter the the boardwalk right and talking to disabilities commission they would like to see some turnaround at the end rather than just have a straight Boardwalk maybe even put a little bench in um you know that's all part of the design phase just a little cynical of being at grade with bikes and scooters and I guess I'm I'm a little hesitant I'm wondering why you would like to do the Boardwalk now it strikes me that to to spend I mean whether or not there's a trail that goes through on and all around like through to prow to the nef land which is you know we can talk about that separately but I just strikes me that spending the time and money on a boardwalk there might not be the best place for it like that there's there's not you know it's very shrubby it's not like you're going down there to get great views of the lake and the sunset um it really would be useful as a pass through if someone was hiking but it's clear that someone in a wheelchair with mobility issues isn't going to be walking along the two brothers Trail along the lake shore oh no not at this point no I know but but I'm saying like and so at this point does it make sense to spend on this Boardwalk if you're going to go for a more accessible Trail along in proudy that's great and maybe then would be the time but is there another place where this could be you know something could be done that would connect two places that someone with disabilities could can't get across well let me bring up on Willow Drive you've gone by there where they're doing the work down by the light and see these 6ft boardwalks I uh sidewalks I put on each side on each end they go to nowhere but you know this is what bpack is all about we try to get developers to put in sections of sidewalk someday they'll be connected yeah this is the way it works you can't you know if you try to get a trail that connects to Two Brothers Trail and goes all the way around the lake and then we get a floating Boardwalk C the lake and do that all at one shot it's not going to happen but this is a piece that now the town owns we didn't before uh Trails need to be inviting for people they're not going to go on we have lots of trails in town that are not very well utilized cuz they just go through a swamp and a wooded area and they're very buggy um this is this gives you a nice view of the lake and it's something I think would be a destination for people with disabilities and a through at the same time it's a through path which is encouraged by both the bicycle and pedestrian master plan we spend $20,000 on and the town all came in and everybody had these public sessions and whatnot and this made the cut and then also uh um Recreation and open space uh it also was in there as well people came in and they said this we want something like this so unfortunately you don't get a lot of representation at these meetings from you know other Town folks other than people who live right in the area there and if you went by that then we would all be in our houses and and never get out to walk if everybody protects their their area the fact is this is Town's property we should look at it for the good of the entire town and um that's that's the position of the bicycle indrian advisory Comm I guess the the only other thing I will add is um a boardwalk that in Wetlands would be less expensive because there might be mitigation that you need to do in order because you're going to be disturbing wetlands and there's going to have to be some sort of offset right I don't know okay so that we go and find that out from you typically don't build boardwalks at are with Wetlands well fair enough they're always over for Wetlands any so um I attended a lot of the open space meetings and have talked to conservation and I know um there has been a goal in town of making um a complete walking path all the way around Long Lake right so this is one of the missing sections effectively right I mean there's other missing sections too on the toan side but this completes this gets you 3/4 78 of the way around the lake now so um which we didn't have before so but in what in what sense is this I mean this is what 50 ft difference between the easement and the proposed Boardwalk I mean so and why why is why is that connection so much better than the connection that that currently exists by the easement well this is on to and the easement is not well that doesn't make it better that doesn't I mean you said it connects things but the easement connects them as well well you got some geography difference there the lake is fairly level although there are some Wetlands there but the existing easement is very Steep and you'll never make that 88 compliant MH so you know when you do a TR project like this as the state did down at Willow area if you're going to be breaking ground you you make it future proof and and as I said this is this is Lake Front property this is what people like to go for a walk on they don't you know how many people just walk in the woods so for us to not use this property and take the bypass route up back it would be giving up something of value and I think we have to have a really good reason why we're not going to do that because certainly there's other places in town that we've built Trails uh boardwalks much longer boardwalks through Wetlands so it's not the Wetland thing it's should prevent this I mean just because we've built boardwalks in Wetlands doesn't mean that we're not potentially disturbing something that's unique here not you know Wetlands aren't interchangeable right just because it's a wetland doesn't mean it's the same Wetland as as what we've Disturbed before and I think the argument about you know this Boardwalk is that it this would disturb a unique habitat um and I'm not hearing anything about that and so my question for you is is that excuse me my question for you is because you don't view the wildlife question as within the purview of BAC which would be fair enough or do you think that you know those assertions are untrue and if so why so I'm just talking from my personal experience it's more enjoyable walking along Lake I would leave it up to uh kcom to decide if this is possible and if there's really going to be any damage to leopard frogs from putting a raised Board Walk in over a wetland like we have done in many places in the town so so you haven't really your your be hasn't considered that your thought is let's leave that to kcom yes okay I think I agree with that approach actually too I mean I'm not an expert on where the frogs are there what um I read the report of all the species that were there and beavers aren't not necessarily on that side of the lake the Dam's on the other side redwing black birds are everywhere I mean we have a species of frog potentially if k says it can't be built there then then they're the ones that should be deciding that they're the experts we're not I'm just I'm challenged with the 130 ft of Boardwalk um I just don't see a whole lot of benefit it's smaller than a lot of the boardwalks I mean they just built 130t boardwalk at Cloverdale and if you ask me I not even sure why we did that when it wasn't wet so and the Town Forest has miles of boardwalk in it so understood I just I mean this is kind of 130 ft to practicly Nowhere it's not to Nowhere it's to the other end of the two brothers Trail so it's not connecting to the two brothers Trail because the two brothers Trails they're going to put a do talk about putting some sort of a turnaround there with disability it would connect it would just be a turnaround for people with disabilities at this point they could not continue on true brother sh at this point hopefully sometime in the future we can make that IDE f as well cuz it is pretty level the trail all the way down to that I don't know the name of that person where the where the bench is old boat do the boat dock there the so it's pretty Lev and that could be made 88 L but you know I keep bringing up the Willow Road thing I don't know how we're going to make the connection in the future but we just want to take it eat eat the elephant a bite at the time like they say I mean who knows it could turn it's something like the lake Williams board the float in maror where they have the floating well it's not actually a floating Boardwalk the boardwalk above the lake right I mean I I'm going to just as far as boardwalks go in town you know where when this is a very important piece beautiful piece of property obviously it runs along the lake but we've never questioned boardwalks in Littleton before and we count on conservation to make the determinations it's what I'm not smart enough it's not it's not my field of study to know what I can step on and can so I count on the professionals that study that to be able to tell me that it's safe to put a boardwalk here it actually preserves the space better or not um and they do that um so as far as that goes I I I would have to put my trust in them but I don't know they haven't voted you said they they're kind of waiting for for us to decide which it's kind of backwards I didn't ask anybody to vote uh we just social and told people what we're doing okay CU I I mean I'm I like to make my decisions based on those professionals that whatever we're talking about Specialists the specialization field that they have and I so that's one thing that concerns me is I just don't know enough you know besides me just saying okay well they put boardwalks over everywhere in Littleton and it's in Ada I know you presented to um the disabilities Commission on Friday and it was recommended by the disabilities commission that this yes it would be something that um they believe would be beneficial to that population um but my only issue right now is I need I would need conservation to say yeah this this is a place where we could do we'll do a study we will look at this and we yes it's a place where a boardwalk would so so I think so I think what Mr gaval is asking is for us to approve it so that he can take the next step and go to kcom and say I have per say no s Court has given permission for this land to be used as a boardwalk or as a trail pending your approval right and we're not allocating the funds we're not giving final approval we're not designing the boardwalk we're not doing any of that all we're saying is you can go to the next po we're eliminating well the way I worded it was contingent upon the approval of the other boards you would approve the use of it contingent upon the other boards that I listed here add any other ones you want but yeah um because con doesn't want to spend any time with this if we don't have the property because that's that's Town money they be using with their time I think this is just an example of how broken some of our processes are right bpac is looking at this because in terms of pedestrians like to walk along and the disabilities commission is looking at this in terms of you know this improves access to the folks that we serving conservation is going to look at it in terms of you know does it protect the leopard frogs Le frogs you know whatever else yeah and I guess you know we're here to look at the overview right um so I so I think the only reason this has to come in front of us is because it's our land correct yeah right if it if if was conservation I would conservation if this was controlled by the Conservation Commission they wouldn't he wouldn't even be here well that's self-evident yeah yeah so I mean I think the thing that and I SP I spoke to Sarah seaward about this at some length and my impression is that there's going to be a pretty robust process of review at the state level as well to look at this and get approved in order for it to be built so I'm I'm I guess I'm with Gary I'm I'm comfortable saying we're not the experts on building boardwalks in sensitive areas if there's mitigation or an offset land or some other trade that has to happen kcom I'm confident that kcom is going to come up with with a fair you know a fair process to do that but we are the experts on on what we do with Town land yeah that's true the best use of town land is a boardwalk the best use of that piece of land I would when it comes to roads we bring in Steve yanley we try to get his opinion on you know you know so I I think just having the opinion of of whether it's Amy or or kcom and that doesn't cost us any more money because that's that's a volunteer board um I'd like to have that information from I'd also turn and say if we're not going to do the why is this property under the control of the select board we're not going to be doing anything with this ever right it has been since 1974 right but if you're going to look at who should be this property really should be under the control of the conso it's a formality that he has to come here cuz this really should be yeah an entirely a concom decision not ours land would have to go to town meeting so right now we have that right so I I'm yes so I'd rather have them in the room and and explain explain to us or or you have that I don't see any point there's no difference between us saying yes and then they're not going to recommend it they're going to recommend it or not and then if they don't recommend it we're going to say no then with pulling the yeah well if they don't recommend yeah if they don't recommend it I would I would like you know maybe either with you or someone on your board I either in groups of two that we I inless you guys all been down there and walked we do walk if just to visualize it I want to see exactly from where to where and just see what that what that feels like so that's all we have to go on as far as the conservation things I'll leave it to conservation Ada I'll leave it to disabilities commission but as far as the the visual from do we want this Boardwalk there from a visual point of view from on our piece of land in front of the lake that I can make that determination probably I went down and I tried to walk it the other day it's you can't really get there it's compl completely overr just shrubs all right so let's assume that's going to be leveled a little bit on this space you go up you go up on the other side of the two ASP and you can go where the board is completely it's it's impenetrable yes I should have walked if I am perfectly fine saying kicking this to kcom and saying if kcom wants to if kcom thinks it's a good idea then and can come with the funds from some Source then it's fine by me I feel I feel essentially the same way what's your timeline if this was the cas off that you would think about doing this um there's no rush with any of this okay it's taking so long at this point we just willing to go through all the necessary if I was to ask for you don't have to show up the next meeting if we put it on our next agenda to make it to have a vote and we kind of I'd like to go out there and with a group and even maybe I'll ask Amy to go out there with me as well but I I really need to just for me personally to see the visual of that where the road is I should have taken a picture but you really can't see anything yeah it's completely and I know it's different view in the summer and the spring and the winter I mean the winter you'll probably see it's Thicket it's up off two or three weeks okay okay um you might be able to see it from the other end I did that's my I'm not going to hold a vote I'm not going to well actually you can't go into the other end so I don't want to deny a vote I just I'll do it if I'm comfortable I'm comfortable with like you said the conservation um by all all accounts if it was conservation wouldn't have I don't think I would have an issue with a boardwalk along Long Lake it it's just to me it's appealing personally I park at the beach and I can walk around a area but probably easier than you could now right what you're saying but that's the only I yeah I want to see it and I know we've got some letters from um neighbors and I I want to be cognizant of you know some of those issues that they have with it as well um and not people that aren't neighbors that have issues with it that like a little bit more discussion about it so that's the only reason why I would ask so I can go down there and actually get a feel um what what that but as far as putting a boardwalk over some species or if conservation says it's fine then it's fine or if it's better for them because now they're not being trampled um but that's not for me to determine for sure what do you got I mean I'll vote tonight if you want you just want to move this to into conservation's perview and let them make a can do that but I would vote that way tonight I vote Yes but for slightly different reasons just I mean your point that if we were to give it to kcom or that it belongs in kcom is compelling to me um because if kcom was here right now saying can we have this piece of land I would be voting yes so there's no point in you know for that reason I would vote Yes I think the reason it wasn't it wasn't it was just because of the proximity of the lak shore drive I'm guessing you know to be able to put parking along there to build extra parking and things like that the town to have more space widen in the roads and things like that I'm I'm totally speculating but only reason I could think of [Music] Mr chair what do you want to do so I'm fine with the motion if if if if others are okay do we want to do that or want to speak absolutely so okay we'll take comments on this go ahead Al silver um I've lived in this land pretty much my entire adult life and I can say number one that the idea of putting a trail in there is directly contrary to pretty much what every Board of Health in this area has said where there's serious issues of ee mosquitoes and what you doing here by approving this Trail is saying it's possible to create a place where that you're going to bring people into the most heavily mosquito area of the entire Lake and I've lived there and walked this area many many times um not one Board of Health that's had ee has done anything but try to prevent people from having entered areas where the mosquitoes are populated um to me approving this would be a violation of um any issues of Health concerning the ee we had a case in Acton last week or the week before um I don't know if people here are familiar with the issues of ee how serious it is but what Mo almost every single Health Board that has examined this question has tried to keep the people away from mosquitoes this board if they approve it will be doing the opposite they'll be trying to bring people closer to the mosquitoes and making them much more susceptible to EE um i' as they say I've walked that entire Lake for 50 years more and I can tell you this is one of the most heavily mosquito area on the lake um secondly I can tell you that when the person from the Conservation Commission came down to examine the trail they included removing part of the stone wall that runs between along uh my my property and the lake um the um they don't you people don't own the store stone wall the ston wall is owned by nef I've been amazed that there hasn't been anybody at the three or four meetings that I've intended about this from nef to see whether they even want this I think that nef first of all has specific hours that they're open the land is open the land is open till sunset this Trail will not have any way of closing its Sunset so what you're going to do is introduce people and I'm having lived there in Long Lake as they say the entire adult life you're going to introduce this area when the mosquitoes stop if they stop to people who are going to enter after the um the hours that nef wants people there you're not going to have any Gates on this Boardwalk it's just going to be open to whoever wants to be there and there's no way you're going to eliminate people going there and when I say that I'm talking about the bunch of kids that are going to want to go there that are going to want to start fires that are going to want to um drink booze um you're just going to you're just inviting trouble I can honestly say that you will never put a path that's going to be susceptible going to be available for people with disabilities to get to the two brothers trail from here from this from this path also um I think one of the things that needs to be considered can I see the map again is it okay sure this land here not in front of my house from here to here that's exceptionally attractive um wooded land that's the wooded land that allows these creatures to um get by and just to take that down whether there was any good reason it's just not sufficient my wife and appearing before a local board is often to do whatever we can to make the trail on the far side of our house available for modification to make it more available to people with disabilities and without considering one the mosquito issue without considering the offer if you how this is going to be made um available to people to I don't care what the consumation Conservation Commission says they're not going to be able to take down that stone wall cuz that stone wall belongs to nef um I don't think neth's going to want to take the stone wall down I don't think neth's going to want to introduce people into this land at any hour with no restrictions nothing to do with their um closing at Sunset and I think you're going to find that these this area here you're immediately going to agonize 10 or 15 people who Park their canoes there canoes um kayaks various boats they're packed against a tree right along here if you try to put a trail in there you're going to eliminate that I speak to people that walk this area all the time the vast majority of the people that go around my house are there walking dogs many of them with two three dogs you're going to have these two or three dogs dos running down this Trail this pathway I don't know how you're going to handle that whether people are going to have to leash them and you can have a separate law that said leash the most people when they get to their W to these Woods if they have dogs under control they don't have to leas them leash them and I think you're just creating new and additional problems not counting the is safety and health issues of the ee mosquitoes there not one Board of Health in this entire um County that has the um ee warnings that we say G let's see if we can bring people closer to the main mosquito population as far as the issue of frauds and things my wife has a several degrees um in Environmental Education including a masters she's taught in the field for 20 years and I think she's probably able to explain it she wasn't able to be here tonight because of medical issues um it just makes no sense what you're talking about doing when you've got an adequate Solution on the other side of our house and we have offered as they say to try to make that trail more accessible to people with wheelchairs people that are disabled there's nothing about this Trail that's going to open these woods and in to people with disabilities I mean that's I think it's already been said but I think it needs to be said again and as they say we were happy to consider what could be done to improve the existing Trail um without spending money and aggravating a lot of people who go through this land regularly thank you would anyone else like to speak [Music] par around 25 Juniper Road there are many inconsistencies that this area presents um the easement area walking it it is a difficult grade slope the area that would be provided by the eement also presents itself in woods we have many locations that we can walk through with Woods the conservation town you you pick it they've looked the other way as numerous owners of nearby properties have placed boating docks boats almost keeping it like it's their personal property on Town property I'm interested in Access for all the residents and all the non-residents quite frankly the town has invested for what close to 50 years on this property and connecting it I would argue if you to through the chair to Matthew if you you look at this specific property it might be the only advantage point that somebody anybody whether you're disabled or not can get close to the water other than being on the water from the boat ramp or from the beach so it provides a unique spot to walk through Lakeshore Drive and get access to some of the vegetation some of the amphibians that are right there so I hope the board tonight will move this to conservation so it can get further review as has been discussed because there's inconsistencies that I've heard some of you say tonight and complexities that I think need to be better understood so thank you anyone else okay final thoughts or we should do a motion um I I appreciate both sides talking about certain things I mean the the health risk I I mean I definitely didn't think of the health risk but I mean people walk that every day all the time anyway that's that choice um I've been around has had the advisory about when not to be I mean but I've been I mean I I'm trying to think of the last time Triple E even presented itself we're talking about a snapshot in time as far as being a serious threat to our our community I I've lived little to a long time I would also say that of the seven entrances to that proudy Woods there's one with a gate and it has a path around it so there's no gate keeping there of any kind and as someone who lives immediately above it I guarantee you that the kids will be there drinking and making fires whether or not this Boardwalk is in place so if the boardwalk's not there they use these that that is correct tell the board's not uh I will tell them I'll yell Chuck says knock it off let your dog up uh I would say you know regarding mosquitoes the only thing that gave me pause was the thought that if we improve it right if we build a boardwalk then it would be more targeted for spraying and then we're just compounding the damage we've already done but I mean would kcom allow that I don't I don't think they would I don't know if it's I mean you can't spray that close to the lake I'm sure you can't spray that close to the lake but then if you're not going to spray that close to the lake because it's going to cause harm to the animals and why are you building a boardwalk there that causes harm to the animals and we don't why are you letting you know why are you making something more accessible to people because it's always a compromise between what people want to use the the the I would argue that's the wrong side of the compromise I think there's a fair point that you know we're making this you know we're making it more attractive in a more dangerous area I think if you walk through the the Town Forest you'll find plenty of mosquitoes around boardwalks well that's done and dusted to me to me it just boils down to um this is one of those things that I think benefits more people in Littleton by having it than the select few that don't want it because of certain other reasons that so I'm going that's why I'm going I I I recommend it if we're going to vote tonight because of that that I think it'll draw yes it'll draw more people to this area potentially sure but it would draw the people that couldn't go there otherwise because if I wanted to walk that area I'd walk it now and just walk up and through and to the wood so it it'll just allow the people that haven't been able to have that access have that access and that's why I I would be more in favor than not my primary concern isn't about people necessarily I mean I just think that there's a fair point there but my primary concern isn't you know whether people would be happier walking there or not my primary concern is whether you know impa yeah it's the environmental impact since I'm not in a good position to assess that I would seed that to kcom I agree with that too I concerned about the environmental impact too but I don't have the expertise so I'm hoping that kcom weighs in appropriately and that's DP and okay everyone else in that case I will move that the select board vote to approve the request from the bicycle and to an advisory committee to utilize Town land to build a trail connecting the two brothers Trail to Long Lake Park second moveed by Matthew second by Gary all those in favor I opposed I consensus was that a I or no consensus okay thank you thank [Music] you what's next the IMA with the with the condition that oh yeah yes yeah I mean yeah cons yeah with the condition Conservation Commission subject to approval by Conservation Commission and all any other regulatory boards permitting agencies I mean if Board of Health wants to give a pine on this although nef would just have to talk about the stone but if you're going to deny it you're going to deny it based on you're just denying it people disil I know them right now so can't make everybody happy I guess okay the IMA with air for sewer um Mr chairman you have uh this was something that was at the last select Bo meeting that um was for review and Town Council advise she was uh not ready to felt comfortable for the select board uh to sign it that has since changed it has been U signed by the town of air um and the lwd is scheduled to have it on their Wednesday Wednesday uh uh meeting uh in communication from Town Council she is uh um she is supportive of and and satisfied with uh that uh for this to sign for the select board to sign and um as as as it points out uh the the the be the town either town will bear any cost to towards this it will all be the the petitioners in addition to um the um there would be a maximum of 1220 I believe it's 1220 gallons per day of of Wastewater usage so if uh going into the town of air and uh recommend that uh to sign it please okay uh do we vote to sign it are signning contingent on the vote of approval of lld L and know like they're really waiting they were going to look to look to the select board and as long as you then they'll follow soon okay everybody got to wait for us do we have any any any conversation on this are we just going to are we ready to go yeah this has come in front of us before I think that you Town Council is our subject matter expert this area uh move that the select board vote to approve the intermunicipal agreement between the town of air and the town of Littleton for the provision of Municipal sewer services to a portion of the town of Littleton 254 to 260 Air Road second by Matthew all those in favor with oh sorry with all the conditions and what not that that as far as the gallons per day and all that kind of stuff that's all part of that's yeah that's in the hi okay [Music] government study review um Mr chairman and uh the select board uh we have for you is uh many weeks or a few months worth of work from uh the department of of Revenue uh that came out that talked to a number of um different uh department heads elected officials uh people on various boards boards and commissions uh to understand the challenges within the current form of government and they have recommendations uh Set uh that they presented uh to the select board and I'll just uh highlight those recommendations would uh be to consider a town Charter Elevate the role of the Town administr Administrator to a town manager redefine the finance director to a CFO position review elected boards and committees consider consolidating DPW functions and perform a comprehensive review of the bylaws and as you also are are aware that as part of the community uh compact program we were a we were successful in securing a grant um from Community from from the state in order for us to uh continue this uh uh um this review uh going forward uh and we have uh looked at the Colin Center who is well-versed in uh shepherding this uh process and helping communities go through this process to make such a similar change and right now because there are there's a there's a couple different ways of doing it at that's reflected within the report we would like to be able to uh at a later date uh after securing the services through an agreement uh with the Colin Center uh and to have a kickoff meeting with the select board on moving forward to uh what we need to do questions and it's on the Tom website this is also on the Tom website so based on this report we just kind of need to decide what the next steps are how we want to break it up and go forward so and I think forming a charter committee I think has been identified at least in the discussions we've had as as one of the risks or the hurdles that we're going to have to overcome it's finding nine people who are committed to 18 months of right yeah well I mean you know it's it is it is important but I think I think nine I think this typically between five seven oh okay I thought it okay yeah so I mean you can have nine but they they in having initial conversations with uh the calling center that have that has gone through this they typically uh find it uh better it's five to seven people seven fors a quum you can get that yeah okay yeah okay yeah but to your point though you know it's going to be it's going to be a a tremendous commitment yeah without a doubt without a doubt and then the various things of uh this you know does the select board how many appointments do you would you prefer and then do you how do we do that do you put do you have five do you have three two how many do you have is fincom school committee uh however you would like to um a portion it up okay okay what was this um well this was open to a motion tonight no not okay all right it would be awesome if there was some sort of a a session at MMA oh my goodness on this yeah we just got to I need to review this a little more oh yeah I mean it sounds like the calling center is the subject matter of experts that we're going to get we're going to get input from directly so so does the Colin Center who will the Colin Center work with they'll end up working with the committee or yes okay exactly so the high resources available yeah but to Chuck's point which is a good one what about us making informed decisions about how to approach the process yeah because I do not have an informed decision at this time yeah that's where I'm struggling is how we actually get started and I mean it's a huge nut to crack and it seems like if we try and do it all we're going to struggle would um would Sean or uh T secretary Cronin what's his title um Sean you're right from from DS he right would he be able to guide us to some communities that have recently um navigated think that's what the Callin Center would be that's what the col and Ryan and I met with uh a town manager who experienced this process in a in in a different community and um um Matt Hansen is his name and he is the town manager in Bedford Mass he was in the town of tingor at the to as as as the Town Administrator in transition over lot of good insight and he would absolutely come and share his experience and and the positives that uh uh for for the community in in being able to do this so but I think if you if you'd prefer once we sign the once the agreement I have not presented this for Signature or or asked who you wanted to say sign it whether it's myself whether it's you Mr chairman um but I'm holding off until we get the grant uh language from uh from Sean from Shan Cronin and uh from um from DLS to to make sure that uh and I'm sure it's going to be fine but I just want to make sure see I I you I mean there's at least three questions right then and I don't know how much they overlap there's Charter or no Charter right and then if you're doing the charter what's in it there's which board should be elected versus appointed right and then there's the TA versus TM discussion and I don't know how if these are all independent discussions how much they overlap no I know the tatm discussion um is more it's not it really this even kind of broke it out as the title isn't as important as the power that that you give the position so that one's a little bit different to me I think out of the charter we can determine okay there's a p the town is growing to a point now where the some of the power needs to switch some of the decision making needs to switch to that position um and then from there the boards and committees definitely I think is separate right I mean what what's appointed what's elected what's but I think like I think one of the reasons we started down this path was we identified some of the issues we were having as needing the town manager model and whether or not we call it that like what we're headed for is what someone would consider a more you know a town manager with more executive function and us as more as policy as the board of more as policy yeah that's right so so understood like it's fair to say like it's it's based on the role that you craft but I think what we're saying is we want to craft a town manager as people understand it it's my opion but that's perception well it is to some extent but you know I think if you looked at the job descriptions of town managers across the state you probably find more commonalities versus of town administrators across the state maybe not I think we definitely need to work towards a more professionalized government right where us volunteers are more um overseers and policy makers than down in the W than we are than we are now right on all of the not just our board but across the board boards I just don't know how we get there like which one of these steps comes first right it's the chicken or the egg problem type thing I don't know how we I can see where we need to go I just don't know how the steps to take to get there which one's first so is this something where we could hire on on it say it's the cins ETC they um they come in and then speak with us and then we get the process started and then we do the the committee right so that we at least that us we we can have that kickoff meeting that uh Anthony can answer that question you just had and and we and I can absolutely make sure that to prepare you we can make sure that we prepare you ahead of time uh with with the basically step by step you know the a road map and you'll have that ahead of time before that meeting with Anthony and any other questions you may have but I think we don't go into this thinking we necessarily want to go from the Town Administrator to town manager we think we want to professionalize things more across the board or whatever we come up with what our goal is and then try and structure it towards that that's the charter that's what it delineates it delineates Authority it delineates yeah I mean the structure of your government yeah I mean it seems to me that the first decision we have to make is do we want to do a government study committee in our to Charter commission we've all seemed to be leaning towards the government study committee based on what we've heard you know feedback we've gotten yeah that was and then from there it's it's the government study job to look into whether Town Administrator or town manager makes more sense that's but that's not us so I I feel like we can move to implement it though right right yeah it's up to us to implement it unless it's unless it's a uh I think the biggest I think the most challenging AC the recommendation special Act is is I think the most I think a challenging thing that you to put your thinking caps on is uh some of the one of the recommendations you're going to there's going to be need a u you know a strong very good chair of of of that Committee of the government study committee and they had there were suggestions of previous select board members planning board members school committee members as an appointment on there um and uh nothing I can just imagine um and uh but there are but all of those all of those areas those those suggestion can be uh can be brought out uh with uh from from Anthony or or the team from the Callin Senate to come down and these are these are some high points you would want to do okay so that sounds like that's next step okay okay okay public input you win do yeah don't cough on the microphone I'm not contagious anymore I anymore anymore sentence famous last words no I had the flu it was over a week ago I just have this lingering cough that's killing me okay so it's not I'm not contagious I'm not anything but I do apologize for I'm not a doctor but I did stay in a holiday in if I could just get rid of this cough I would be happy so my apologies for coughing at you folks I keep going like this all right you're not going to get too much public input ton but here I am the public actually I'm Mark hinger toan Road for over 2 years I've been working with mass D and Light and Water Department to make public EV charging available in a little to common area two DC fast charging stations are currently being installed should soon be operational yay thanks for your support in approving the use of the municipal parking lot on Stevens Street for this purpose I'm here tonight to inquire about the sign currently hanging in that parking lot which reads no trespassing 700 p.m. to 6: a.m. does anyone know the origin of the sign or its basis in the town bylaws it is it a hold over from the last century when Littleton would roll up the sidewalks after dinner where is the sign exactly I'm sorry I'm not yeah I can't picture on the common convenience side isn't it well so so where it is physically if you're if you're standing in that parking lot so common convenience is on your right for Sol law office is on your left Y and at the very back of the parking lot there is a utility pole and said sign is on the pole huh it's very prominent and it's been there like for years but it used to be that the overhanging tree branches were so thick that you wouldn't notice it but anyway um so my view is that the common area has come a long way in recent years it now has 24-hour gas stations and ATMs and elsewhere in Littleton the existing DC fast chargers at L Waters headquarters and the Tesla on over at the point are open 24 hours um Beyond Littleton in The Wider e Community nighttime charging is common and accepted in fact one of the conditions of the mass e PPC fast charging Grant which is helping to fund this project is 247 Public Access for vehicle charging I urge the board to consider removing that no trespassing sign in the municipal parking lot thank youing this one question is there is there a light going to be a street light going to be installed in that parking lot that's going to be on over the Chargers so the the area is is already somewhat well lit because there there are lights on the street there are lights at at common convenience I have encouraged Light and Water to put in additional lights as well as a security camera I think anytime you have a charging station you should have lights you should have a camera I don't know the answer to that it's their project not mine um Pro questioning the no trespassing I I agree it's time to move on that but if if these are fast Chargers I I would assume you'd want to put something like 2hour parking of an you had someone that would be plugged in for a whole night we don't want that light water charges you if your par no that is but I'm just saying you can't afford to stay over right it's like a hotel and you would like a dollar a minute after the first half an hour to an hour so do you put something in there so trespass is an unauthorized use so if we somehow adopted something that said charging your EV is an authorized use then anybody who's charging their EV by definition isn't trespassing but kids hanging out and or grown-ups hanging out and not charging their vehicles would be it is municiple parking lot correct yeah and and the PBS open yeah I would say I I would just to the side yes and just call it day is it a town pole utility poll do you think yeah let's just ask it's in the back of a lot let's just ask Steve to remove the sign I think that's absolutely appropriate and we have that's can we can I have it as a souvenir it's got to go to the Historical Society oh yeah okay that's fair that's within our purview so yeah right it is but if the sign is only giving notice to folks of what the law is I mean I think that that's worth researching yeah is there something in there that says is there something somewhere in our books that says it'll say public areas but like we don't have a sign on the common that says don't don't no trespassing on the grass 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. right no but actually I think there is such a sign at least there used to be F Park Cemetery inet you I think right here you're actually all trespassing and you would when you go out to your cars because there are signs that indicate that parking lot is closed at 9:00 p.m. well we we wouldn't have been trespassing if Karen was running the meeting moving on um we we can look into it if you want and we can report back I mean I guess they just probably want sure take down the right yeah it was an overnight thing they didn't want people parking there using it as a a park and ride yeah put a plastic bag over it until we find out that yeah for sure take down the sign but also let's make sure there's not a a deep seated you know so yeah another issue I can tell you the history I I mean good go take some robotussin would you go take some robot tus and send us an email with the history all right so we agree to they I think we just the chair can just ask Jim to take care of it yes yes so you'll look at do report back if there's a reason not to thanks for bringing it to our attention than do thank you thanks for all the work you did on that's awesome yeah I you put a gas pump there too from can we help you buy you have one across the screen pot sers uh Ro 55 Jennifer Street I just wanted a couple of comments about the the government study committee um I don't know what the magic number is but there's going to be a lot of interested people in the future government for our town I agree that it needs professionalized and it needs a path forward I don't know whether it's 7 five n my only suggestion is we need to include members of the public on that yeah um if you're going to be talking about changing boards from elected to appointed you're going to run into some issues with those boards so how you identify who goes on that committee because at the end of the day this has to be passed by the town and a town meeting and as I as I read that report it also has to be voted on y so it's the two-step process and in some cases it then has to be taken before the state legislature so um there's a lot that goes into it it's not looking at the speed by which we accomplish it it's about looking at accomplishing it in the best way for the town um I am interested as a citizen in this process and I would be interested in the committee so I just wanted to step up and tell you all that thank you thank you I would be interested in that committee also fantastic to and yes I can get along with okay uh members update I'm going to I'm going to pass um on the orchard front we did get four responses to our request for proposals for lease um we as a board will need to decide on next steps I am going to call a meeting of the orchard working group for next week to review the rfps and discuss but it's not clear to me that that working group has a mission anymore given that it was I think its mission was to determine the best use of the orchard which it has done so I'm interested in hearing from this board what you all believe the best course forward is um whether we dissolve the working group or reinstate it and expand it again are we responsible for reviewing the rfps and picking a picking a winner to start lease negotiations on Etc sorry how many members are left four so we have exactly enough for a quorum if everyone shows up then why don't we put them with us why don't we all why why don't we be part of this for so I mean yeah I'm I'm saying like what what exactly are you proposing and we don't have to actually I mean we don't have to decide it now but um I'm I don't know I mean I have opinions but I'm not sure I don't want to make be make some unilateral decision on what to do I feel like we kind of do need to decide now because the proposals are here waiting to be evaluated so I mean Maybe not maybe not like right this second but I do think that time is of the essence they they're public record so I think I believe they're public record are they Ryan the submissions the submissions they would be okay so I can distribute them to this board but they're sealed folder we can't no no the the non the non pric part of it is unsealed so so would we be comfortable individually looking at these and then then getting together to discuss to Matthew's point the working group did what they were charged with doing and they brought that to town meeting and this is the next except that we in conjunction with the working group decided to take this path and now it's really I think it falls on us to I mean i' like their opinion still I'd like them to be I would say yes but we're not the subject matter experts for for for commerci for nonprofit farming or for commercial farming that the people on the working group who both past and present are are and so I think like I would be more comfortable getting their opinion sure um and input on that decision and in including some who have resigned from the working group I still feel like they would have very valuable input on those on those rfps well they resign though so got be I understand so it to be public input but right they don't get a vote but still so so I guess I'm trying to I'm just kind of feeling my way through the process sounds like we need a joint meeting yeah well I I mean the thing to keep in mind is that for the RFP process you have um a grading component within that so typically you know you'd say you know there'd be some sort of subcommittee of the of the select board um and again you wanted to bring other people and okay but you know it it's um you want to be careful in the sense that you're going to be talking about these proposals in public um I'm not sure you know there''s been bearing appetites about how many people you know want to want this information known um I think one of the proposals said we're not going to name names of the people who participating because we don't want them to threaten their jobs things of that nature so I mean the question for the RP is a fairly specific one which is to say you've esta you've got four applications one of them we are going to actually dismiss because um it wasn't responsive it only had one envelope have two envelope of the price proposal so really you only have three to evaluate and then from that you have to look at it and and grade it uh from the RFP now um you know there's ways that you can do it with to bring the entire select board in there's you could expand it further but U you know it probably then becomes public meetings but you might just want to Think Through the consequences of what that looks like again considering some of the sensitivity of the people who put that information in and even though it's a public document may not necessarily you know want to do that so um and again it's just in the end you have to have people going through it and saying okay we're giving 25 points for x 25 points for y and then it's it's it it just count counting it up after that so and then making a decision as to who the selected party would be and then entering into negotiations with okay which we've done we've already gone through this whole process so it's we're not recreating the wheel which one from when you did last time well but there was only one applicant so but it's the same after you made the selection it's the same yeah right right right after you make for us so it sounds like your suggestion is that Matthew and I just review these I mean I'm not trying try I I I I you know it you know there is um and and and again it doesn't I don't I think you could maybe think about if Matthew to share some of this with some the other people's of the not necessarily of the orchard committee per se but subject experts in town be able to provide some more expertise with that um and they could be a party for whom could be scoring I mean it's it's really the my recommendation for the board you think about is a subcommittee to to go through and grade it okay and make a recommendation ultimately to the to the board as to how they want the select board as to how you want to proceed so I'm just trying to figure out how to do how how practically speaking to do this I don't think we can come up with a subcommittee tonight MH uh when's our next meeting um two weeks two weeks yeah um so we're going to the orchard working group is going to meet before that so maybe between now and two weeks you know I could come back with a proposal for a subcommittee to evaluate the rfps and move forward from there I'd like to still see them are we allowed that yeah mhm yeah I just want to make sure that we're all on the same we're allowed to see them okay that would be Ryan can you for even if I the office you them for sure for the rest of the board sure okay thanks does that sound exceptable okay that way I can ask we're not blind side we can ask yeah yeah yeah legitimate questions if when that board makes a decision like well why didn't we consider that you know instead of dis okay I guess that's all I got that's good we had I mean three applicants three you have any updates SC uh yeah I went to the pmbc meeting thanks very much pmbc for all your hard work uh went to the CLC meeting and um again just was kind of Blown Away by how much effort those folks are putting into to the Lakes issue um fundraising was a big question of course a big topic um and I think that they had some good ideas for potential sources of funding in the future so I'll let them bring that to us when they're ready but I was really encouraged by the conversation um and they um just wrapped up over the summer I guess four days of floating island removal from Long Lake saw them out there so that was um that was a major accomplishment so thank you to them for that um and then we had two Eagle Scouts that were honored on Sunday and John Beltrami right and lus neand so congratulations to them and uh they did amazing work really cool projects that uh helped our community so that's all I've got uh so I thank everyone for the participated in the Littleton Road Rays uh I guess a week ago Sunday I believe there were 435 Runners between the two events and it raised approximately $110,000 for the uh track and field that's great um so thank you for all the volunteers R Runners and looking forward to seeing everyone out there next year um I talked to Steve annuity recently and I uh um we talked about how to H handle Capital requests for the upcoming budget and the suggestion was that a few of us um meet with the ta's office to go through the capital um request when they're coming in and help start formulating more of a capital plan for both this year and the 5year plan so um the suggestion um was uh Gary and I will start meeting with um the TA um's office to go through the budget with a couple fincom numbers unless anyone else would like to step up and do it yeah I would say it's chair Vice chair but thanks Gary glad it's pain it's painful I'll gladly do it um I didn't want to take away from you I mean yeah no I it would be a great experience I don't think I have the bandwidth so thanks um last week I uh attended an event called building strong communities where they were talking about how to get more volunteers involved in your boards and and elected positions and one thing a couple things they said is one to keep the number of committees you have down and make sure all of them have a a a good charge on what they're supposed to do so um looking through our list we have a tremendous number of committees that I probably some of them probably haven't met in years we probably need to review so look for that on an upcoming I'm I think I'm going to work on with Diane Corey figure out who the chair of all these are see if they still meet and if they need to meet and um there was an affordable housing trust meeting last week we are looking to sign the contract with Habitat for Humanity to build the a duplex over in tadan probably at our next meeting and looking still about um what can be done with the derky Farmhouse property for affordable so that's all I have I I just want to throw I forgot we did have we did have another carnal yeah um over the what it didn't do that well it wasn't that well attended um I think people who did come had a good time there was you want me to say this should I shut up so you guys can get out of here um the car will guaranteed is $5,000 net profit we will put it to good use but the we're trying to decide having it in the spring having it in the fall the spring you're liable to get rained out which we did the fall kids have started back to school pool people have other things on their plate I don't know what we're going to do going forward um I think a acon has success because it's so visible on the Farmland where they put the big cow out there right on rout two and and a lot of people see it right before it even comes and I know the rotor did you the best they could do by bet getting signs out there but I think with a little four little more four winnings this one kind of snuck up on you tried to this one they came to us last minute and said Gee we have had a cancellation yeah do you want us back and it's hard to turn down $5,000 for charity yeah you know well it was tremendous amount of effort yeah so thank you maybe we get the big cow for the 119 Bridge of a 495 there you go suspended I think we can get a bowl down in put midd right at the end of the 550 parking lot so it's the trees also doing for the next coming weeks the dictionary projects where the rotary um Raina starts very lovely takes book plates and writes every third gr child's name on the book plate and we distribute these beautiful dictionaries with a child's third grade child's name in the book plate and I'm going to have to let you guys all know when we're going to do that hope you can show up because we shake every third grader's hand W that's great it's very fun awesome thank you thank you wash your hands first SI third graders and if anyone's cing don't go so I think we've covered all the other is there any updates on Sherling sir um jaine so um we meeting again as the committee October 2nd we've got the two other meetings we mentioned earlier with the select board finance committee and um um select finance committee and school committee uh so everything's kind of gearing up toward um our uh presentation at U at the special time meeting right [Music] now okay so that leaves minutes I didn't have any no I it's here look good okay um motion approve uh move that the board vote to approve the meeting minutes from the select board meetings on September 9th 2024 and September 12th 2024 move by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor I motion to adjourn second move by Karen second by Chuck damn all those in favor good night Litt