okay good evening Littleton welcome to the May 13 2024 select board meeting uh this evening we're going to start off in executive session so we could have the motion please move the select board vote to enter into executive session number two pursuing to master and Law chapter 30A sections 21 A2 to conduct strategy and preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel through conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations non-union Personnel police and fire the select board will adjourn the executive session and will reconvene an open session after the executive session second with Mark s by Matthew we'll do a roll call vote Chu I'm in favor Mark I Karen I Matthew I and I'm an i as well I will be back in approximately 10 to 15 minutes thank you with the multiplier that means all right little welcome back we are out of executive session and ready to start our our normal meeting um I will start with the organization and the Pres Allegiance please to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all post town meeting hangover so we're here uh this evening we have a uh fairly light agenda um we'll be going over a reorganization um we will appoint um our board members to the reshuffling of the board for the upcoming year we had two items on the agenda that are are going to be moved to our next meeting it would be the recognition of a few individuals in town and also uh the director of Elder Human Services Department about the um naming of the the new Senior Center they they have asked that we move to the next meeting as well because they just met today and they all wanted to be here when we when we discuss that um so those two items come off and then so our next item after the SE board reorg discussion is uh discuss perspective chair of chairs committee meetings adopt the code of conduct we want to talk about next steps with the neog hill Orchard I know we've all got ideas but we we'll um get into some details on that get the ball rolling public hearing we have proposed amendments to regulations and fees for the town transfer station effective July 1st 2024 uh we have new common Victor license for high octane Brew ink doing bus as Gourmet Donuts um we'll have our member in public input we have uh a couple of appointments we we're going to do this evening one for the cultural Council and uh we have one for the finance committee reappointment and we will get into our annual town meeting discussion or kind of our post meeting review and then we will go over some minutes approve some minutes for March 28th and April 22nd and then we will adjourn so not a whole lot of discussion on the agenda tonight as we start our start off light for our new chair whoever that may be um so I I want to open that let's open that up for I know I said I might put it to the end because I didn't want to burden anybody with my agenda but we can we can talk about it now we can we can do the re since it is a nothing really heavy um so I I'll open it up I mean typically how this works is um I'll say historically how it works is We There usually you have the vice chair takes the chair and then we re nominate a clerk and we kind of Shuffle everybody but I know this board's uh things different we we we break mold so to speak so I I do want to um recognize uh anybody that is willing well Chuck I guess you first of all as being the vice chair um you know you know what it takes to be the chair but looking at the year ahead what I mean that's an important part if someone can't doesn't want to fill one of the office roles and that's why we have there's five of us we only have to fill three of them you know so um at any given time please feel comfortable with knowing that thank you some will step up yeah but I yeah what's your so I mean if nominated I'd gladly serve um I I do um if nominated and elected I gladly serve I If This Were 6 months ago even three two weeks ago it would have been very difficult based upon my my workload but um fortunately from a business perspective that's that's all changed of late last Wednesday and um you know a lot A lot has happened in my life over the last couple years got a new job and A lot's changed in my personal life as well so um I a lot of time is freed up and I would be willing to do it but I'm also aware of the fact that some others might be willing to do it some some of us have recently retired and might may have uh you know fair amount of time on their hands so um I'm I'm open to a discussion and uh you know if there's let me say i' I'd gladly serve but I'm open to um if there's there's someone else that's interested and being the vice chair right well you're Mr clerk right now i' gladly serve as well uh I have plenty of time on my hands okay as you do yeah no I know you're you're right you're in the middle of the mix right now so you're going to do something you're at least Vice chair I would actually I was gonna nominate Mark to be chair um Mark is incredibly active on the board he's very diligent he holds our feet to the fire every time we have some policy debate I think he'd be an excellent chair F you all of you I I that's fair but but you know I think that your your time spent you were talking about the time you spent outside of the meetings I think that made a huge difference in how effective this board was this past year and I think you know Mark I think has the time to do that as well and I think Mark is the temperament as well so I would hard I I would I think I would prefer Mark I think he would be great at chair I think he's a he's just an excellent choice we're going to have to talk later Matthew what's that we're going to have to talk later um I'm so pleased with the way this board works together and I think it's exactly one of the reasons I ran was so that we could work together the way we do and I'm very pleased that I know that no matter who becomes chair we're going to continue to work well together absolutely um that being said you know Mark just retired and so you know he should be punished yeah I mean I think we got to do something to make up for that so um yeah I would I would second I would second Mark and I would think I think everyone should have a chance to be chair while they're on the while they're on the board oh W what's going on next year what you doing we're up oh I know the way that he's making it s next June who knows know no that's a good point and there was a fair amount of I think there was a fair amount of ping ponging for a little bit right the year I was chair it happened because both of the incumbents lost but then I think two years ago you know you were nominated for Clerk and it wasn't your turn so I think like everything you know the the um tradition is fine but like let's just pick the people who are yeah I'm not you know I'm not stuck in Tradition this there's no rules to this who has a has the time and and and the commitment that's that's the first thing that I asked because I I recognized being chair of other boards of the commitment but there was nothing like this and I told you guys the hours that that were put in well you should announce it on camera I won't I if because I I think that it's maybe I you know I probably put in too much you did but we had a lot of transition as well I think there was a lot going on but um so I I I think it's that's recognized you guys all know the work that we have to do so I'll just to kind of pigy back on what Karen said I can argue for institutional knowledge and the whole clerk thing and you're right when people didn't reup or people didn't people didn't want it or didn't get reelected um you know the pieces didn't all fall perfectly as we had in the past um so institutional knowledge is still going to be there because I'm a phone call away from Market marks the chair so um it's not like well you wanted to be chair I'm not going to help to Karen's point we do work all together as a chair and know something that I was proud of during my campaign and I you know I mentioned candidat tonight um I am I I do take pride in the fact that we all may not agree on everything but we're very civil and uh we typically reach consensus so I'd do that tonight then have a contentious argument about I think we've we worked hard at that and I think it's it's been to the benefit of the town you know and the employees frankly what's that being said I'd like to nominate Mark as the vice chair hold on we have a nomination actually he said he would would I have an actually nomination I I will second sh's nomination we have a a nomination in a second on the floor um I will say that there has been discussion and I've realized it in the past when when a chairman uh um or chairperson is the chair on the their election year it does heat up for them the closer you get to the election the close you to get to town meeting as well and the work all the blame falls on the chair typically I just want you as long as you're comfortable with that happening I think that was a thought process too when we started to break it up a little bit is we part of the cycle I think Matthew probably remember that possible to do people are coming and going the election so but if you're it doesn't matter we have the normal teon a nomination in a second so um any other discussion as far as the chair let's let's get all three knocked up we'll do the chair first um so take the vote all right I have a nomination and I have a second um all those in favor of Mark ramacher as the chair for the upcoming year please say I I I all right it's unanimous iations talk to Vice chair um look right I'll do it okay yeah I assume you don't want to be Vice chair yeah I'm this like I said this is I think the backtack chair thing in this position is would be very very difficult not for me but um I would probably have suitcases in my front yard by when I got home if I said yes not my choice to Chairman again in two years in a row so that's that's the type unless you want to be VI chair yeah I was going to say you not served as a officer happy to give it to you I would like to be an officer this upcoming year I'm fine Vice chair or clerk either one I think if you're nominated as Vice chair and elected as Vice chair with Mark as the chair that gives you the opportunity next year to be the chair yeah so maybe you should be Vice chair so I mean if we follow we're not following anything yeah it is a natural progression the board could change you and Mark might not run next year I think it just it puts again that institutional knowledge somebody toar right it's very true but but you know we're we're we're getting it ready we're getting her on the on R yeah yeah so yeah you want to be Vice chair sure all right I will move that the select board vote to elect Karen Morrison as Vice chair of the board second Chuck second at that so we have a nomination for Matthew and second from Chuck to nominate Karen Morrison as the vice chair the upcoming year all those in favor all right congrats well thanks the clerk position I'll be clerk yeah yeah all right give up we have somebody that wants to be clerk so I'll nominate Matthew as clerk I'll second Markus nominated you as clerk Karen seconded Matthew nous as clerk um as a second nomination on a second all those in favor I I hope you can read motions better than I can sweet sweet clerk money coming my way all right I am going to move my seat I'm going you come visit do I need to sit over there by the by the ad no you're good I can do it anywhere yeah I I I clerked from over there yeah you need to sit wherever you can see everything I can see de five fine actually um wow How We Do It um fine next meeting is fine okay just for the formality can we just go through the just the Motions quick on the on the screen just what what we just voted look at that you were all ready right yep we're good how does that differ from what we did H it's the onee term so it isn't not like anybody indefinitely do you want me to read all three of them and yeah just we'll go through can we just make a motion that that the the previous nominations were all for the term do that too you could do that so move s all those in favor I okay all right that right that's good keeping the recognitions till the next meeting yes and the senior sen naming the senior senat look how fast we wow you're a great chair uh discuss perspective chair of chairs committee meeting so we had this many many years six or seven years ago SP I think Melissa was chair yeah right the time so it's probably been years or so seven or eight cuz I served with Melissa I just finished my ninth year so um when with the chair chairs it was basically all of the boards getting together um on a roughly a monthly um Cadence to discuss what was going on with their boards and the other things in town and there was discussion whether we wanted to bring this back so I don't know how exactly do you Chuck do you have any recollection of how it actually came into Paul ofll I believe is the one that uh was the impetus that to put it all together so that all the boards are communicating with one another and um um we can't dictate that they do this we're suggesting that we have these meetings and the way Paul worked was he'd go around and get consensus before you know presenting it wholly um so I I think it's a worthy board to have but I think it's tough to sustain cuz there is a lot of turnover and you know it's I frankly I think we have pretty good communication right now but it can always improve um so again I'll go with what we what we think as a board but um if there's if there's an objective that we have as the reason for reconvening or reestablishing the chairi of chairs I think that would be important otherwise it's just going to be meeting for the sake of meeting well I know there was discussion with the with like uh before I was on the select board the year before there was the the study commission that you got you and Gary were both on and then Co hit and basically so um that was one impetus that was um many chair of chairs that was the planning board select board didn't come yeah so this is just a larger chair of chair so yeah I had talked to um Joe Knox a little bit about it he was on during that the I think it it got some criticism because there were seeming ly decisions were being made in those meetings without the actual y boards that should be make governing making those decisions so it seemed as long as we're very careful about um it not being fully agenda driven in that regard more so like Chuck just mentioned I think when we have these critical mass things going on we can say the orchard say BTA we can we have a lot of them but building that it's very specific to we're all in the same sheet of music um I think we'd be able to prevent um kind of what happened in November's town meeting with um MBTA because we we all could have gotten in front of that I think if the chairs had a little bit bit more on sync we could have said don't it's not a good time or the Indian Hill bid so can we could you list for example what you think some of those things might be for this coming year I mean a 550 King Street and super probably or two that and and probably yeah might not be the chair of chairs doesn't have to be boards that aren't involved in those I mean I don't know how much planning is going to be involved in the Nega work but they could be somewhere in there but I I think well if they're talking about like tearing the someone's talking about tearing the house right back up town yeah we need the storical commission maybe the chair and yeah um so yeah I like so I'll reach out to the other yeah I'll reach out to the other boards and see what the temperature is and see about setting something El I do think having like as Chuck said make it driven by policy or or agendas of some sort have an objective an objective so that yeah so that it's not meeting for the sake of meeting yeah um but it always does feel like there's really good having conversations with other board members there's almost always something to get surfaced that I didn't know about or they didn't know about it's like oh we should really get together and talk about well it's both you know discuss the issues and it's also in way of disseminating what's happening at the different boards without having to watch the meetings in coup minutes yeah I was going to say I don't think meeting for the sake of meeting is such a bad thing in this case um especially when we've got think yeah one one frequent refrain that we all hear is how many silos we have in town and so I think just some time to catch each other up on what you've been doing is is also helpful okay um I mean to your point it's probably not uh not going to sustain a Year's worth of monthly meetings but yeah but it's help B monthly qu meetings or something so it's helpful I think okay I'll work on setting that up can I just pckg you back on that if if you're setting that up I I'd love to get back together with all the employees again yes preo setting so that we kind of have an understanding of what they're thinking you know try to get some input from them so we've done that before you with in 103 where it might take more than just room 103 but do just a a session with emplo the budget cycle wasn't here last year for that but that was when do you think that would be when when did we do it before we set our goals I think just to sit down July yeah and then that that lays into our goals which lays into the budget you know so I'd rather have some input from the employees and just kind of keep that dialogue open so that they we they need to be heard yeah 100% we could line it up with your you have a meeting right now with all your department heads and that that's kind of we just kind of sat in on that we kind of were driven we wanted every Department to give us what was it was it with our goals or kind of a didn't have to be it was well when we did it yeah it was right after you and I got elected we sat down and all the department heads came and they basically said what their goals were for the coming year and what their challenges were right whether it be budget or something else and then we took that feedback to help set our goals for the com that did that was very helpful I think needs wants and challenges or something like that have them compared with something that's in that framework and we listened we didn't actually contribute correct right it was more of a listening section correct so yeah we should try and set that up so I'm not sure it was appropriate to do it right now but we're kind of kind of going down that same vein with the chair chairs so so good at a time that's convenient for the employees not for us right we did it like on a Friday at lunchtime or something it before or something was it yeah okay so we didn't want them to stay late have to work stay late yes yeah during the work day it was during the work day I think it was like two hours during the work day so yeah okay good uh review and vote to affirm the select court code of conduct so what's what's up hasn't been changed from last year I believe it's basically the same thing I don't know if anyone had any uh comments or concerns with what we did last year or they wanted to do anything different this year or make any changes to it I will say the one thing that I struggled with is from the code of conduct is that um sometimes you're acting as a select board member when you go to talk to someone and sometimes you're acting as another uh on another board right when I have to talk for affordable housing and then I'm always struggling with what the process I should be following is so I don't know if others felt that same way yeah I think we we definitely went very very conservative on contact with all the town employees after you know after last year or two years ago and I think maybe that swung a little bit too far um I'm happy to keep it the way it is and keep the status quo but I but there are times when I have a question for Kathy or Steve or you know someone and I just want to do a quick email and ask them and I can copy the Tas on it to make sure that they're aware U but I've been I've actually been holding off and going through you know Ryan or Jim in order to do that um so I don't know if we want to revisit that policy so so what from your perspective how has the worked what we've done doing what would what interactions with interaction would you like something change what your feel from your office I mean since since I've been here I think it's been I think it's been very respectful it's been um um it's always uh uh the the the office has always been notified um in regards to any any uh predominantly of any communication with department heads or town staff at all which I I think is uh is is is very much appreciated um and uh and these I mean these are these are obviously a general requ ask general questions or anything like that so it's it's nothing of sensitivity that would obviously I think you would you would feel more comfortable coming through coming through Ryan on myself to on how to address uh some concerns that you may have but the general stuff as long as I think as long as we're you know we're in the loop it's all good by us you agree you okay yeah I I think honestly what you're doing now is fine you know um and you know I I said be careful about going you know changing it too much because I think that the I think sometimes staff get a little confused you know when when they have um board members coming in like well who am I reporting to am I reporting to Mark who's coming in and asking a question about something like that it may be contradictory so sometimes it gets a little confusing for them and I know that was a theme um that when the you know when you came in um and talked to staff um I don't know about a year ago well it wouldn't been a year ago but one of the last times that you had that engagement and I know that was with Matthew and and and Gary so um and I think that they you know I think that the building is benefited you know from that that Cas like let's not change anything that's fine think so there's no reason to you know I think the whole point of this was to make it easier on the staff you know it was clearly dysfunctional before so if it's working well like let's not change it I would um I would I would say that we maybe um we keep hearing some of the other boards say that they might adopt that maybe we should really maybe push this forward to can you guys put this on these on your agenda see if some of the other the elected boards um those are the toughest ones to do because we don't appoint them we don't but you know maybe we could put it ask to be put on their agenda to discuss it with the board in a public meeting and and explain the benefits that we've we've realized yeah we could we can obviously I believe we have the authority wion fin fincom they not it's a pretty decent board right now as far as but getting along and things but is that something that we could I don't know what the legality behind you guys will sign a code of conduct based on as you're an appointed board I is that is that an authority driven thing that we would have you'd offer it to them right because you're you're giving it to right I just didn't I think it's really important that the boards have I agree and I think we've shared this with with those boards at different times but whether what you know honestly what they've done with them I don't think anyone responded back to say that they yeah but we can you know remind them again if it's the board's wish to say you know we want you know new election re you know Weir their board affirmed this and would ask you again to consider adopting it for your own border committee so a couple ideas we could have since now that we've got the new appointments now that we've just adopted it we can send an email with the code of conduct attached to the chairs asking them to please have it on you know respectfully we would encourage you to have this on your agenda within the next month let us know how it goes um it could go through it could be a chair chairs thing um and then the other my other thought was that for the boards that aren't elected for those of us that are Liaisons we can present it yeah I I agree with that and like we should also say that you know for the boards that are elected you know they want us to come and talk to it and how it's helped our board you know one of us will be there at uh at one of the meetings to help support it yeah so okay if I could have through the chair if I could have one clarification um uh Matthew how explain to me when you said let's just keep it the same what because in the four municipalities I've been with in my during my career I mean you have uh DPW has always had access to to the elected to the legislative body they've always reached out and said hey this is can this and that it just I mean I'm okay with that you know in terms of you know 10,000 foot level things uh I don't have I don't have an issue with that I think if and you've been very everyone's been very respectful of that so I don't I just want to make sure that I understand what we're talking about here so it's not that DPW doesn't have access to us it's that we don't have access to them without going through you Okay and like I said I'm I'm okay with that at the 10,000 ft level because they're a they're a major uh Department with within municipal government I'm just if and I and and I think Steve is um comfortable enough that he would say you know timeout to me I need a timeout or something like that I don't see that going down that road here so so before we had that it was much more of a before we had this code of conduct that was happening I bet with I think the department heads and the rank and file employees did not feel comfortable saying time out yeah they felt like they were going to get in trouble or there was going to be some so that's why we went to the way we're doing it now and we're just it's just a formal I mean I understand there's gray area everywhere yep what I meant when I said keep it the same as like I have this mental image in my head of what I should do in order to get to anybody who works for you or you know and and I will continue to do that exactly fair enough fair enough and Jim if I can give you an example of that too we're going to talk a little bit about the Orchard and next steps for that and so part of the I think what we'll be looking for from um the select board and and the working group is you know you know what's the vision you know who who do we go to and and and having Clarity on that front because it's a little hard for you know whatever board me you know for a department head when one board member comes in is that are they speaking for the entire board or is it just for themselves so and it and it's that's sort of a similar example it helps provide continuity and Clarity for all the parties is involved knowing you know yeah what everybody's role is yeah I could easily see how that happens y yep okay so do we have a motion we do are we ready for a motion yeah I think so move to approve the town of Littleton select board code of conduct policy second uh it's been moved by Matthew second by Gary all those in favor haven't done that in a while do we were we going to sign uh we didn't actually sign it last year we just voted it sign I thought we signed it as well you still the sign signature is on we can you know what we can do is we can update it where um if you notice at the top of it it it says when uh you last approved it so we can add you know right you can we can add it and say it's adopted by the Litton select board at the May 2023 meeting and re you know reaffirm voted unanimously again that' be great do that and then we're going to then also per the direction send an email to all of the uh board and committee chairs and encourage them to place the U code on their respective agenda agendas and um let us know how it goes but also offer that we can have board select board members go and attend those meetings and represent um what the code does yep okay that that consistent okay okay okay okay Nill Orchard discussion of next steps we have an orchard working group meeting on Wednesday night no week from Wednesday night week from Wednesday um we have had there have been a few email exchanges with with proposals but not but basically they were just summarizing what we heard during town meeting I think um we haven't there's been no debate deliberations no no deliberations but like people have said here's what I heard during town meeting and then there's been some discussion about when we're going to meet and stuff so I think that we are all basically we don't know what to do next so yeah I think this board's going to need to I I I was at was at uh Jim's office today and I I was um thinking about the vote and everything over the week over the weekend and I I thought we we we really need to change the direction and come up with what what we want the next steps to be I I mean the I respect the work what they're doing for us and they did exactly what we asked them to do but now that has shifted I know it doesn't matter by how many votes it has shifted and right now we own the orchard right and for the foreseeable future we have to what what is the game plan and what is the cost to owning the orchard um for the foreseeable future and getting it to a situation where someone would want to lease it because that just seems like where we're headed again we have to just kind of take sale off the table for now so if we're thinking that way whether we just are going to own it perpetually forever what's that look like cost wise or if we're going to own it with the ability to lease it and make it attractive whether that means removing trees cutting down the amount of apple trees and creating other options for us to Hay certain areas while we're sitting there maintaining it so that someone can potentially lease it or we can go back out that way that that's kind of what I was I I was racking my brain in this and I you guys have put a lot of work into it and I was also going to ask that are you that's a lot of work you guys put in if you are you both want to continue doing that or do you want other I think it a little bit depends on on where we where we want to go with it um but I do think that there's a little bit of overlap I guess in terms of mandates I think we do need to figure out an overarching for the for the orchard um working group I think the orchard working group is going to have to inform us to a certain extent about what those possibilities are um so I I do I would my recommendation would be that we call a joint meeting or request a joint meeting with the orchard working group and have a dialogue about it and try to figure out what what the next steps are there's some immediate next steps that need to happen public safety issues right um that need to be addressed immediately um that the orchard working group is in a position to take care of um but in terms of in terms of the mission of the orchard working group yeah we're going to have to work that out I think like in my mind what it comes down to is the orchard working group was charged with figuring out the best and highest used of this property and we did and then it failed so there might be a mandate from this board and there was obviously the vote sort of indicated that what we determined was the best use wasn't what the town felt was the best use I mean right really close really close but nevertheless like let's let's just say that for now that that we're that a dangerous game to play though because we people massive policy changes federally locally state are one razor sharp votes so we I I thought that same thing I got thinking well this is how government's run so I'm taking it fully for granted that we we are owning owners of the so and where do we go from here so I think so I think one of the things to discuss with the orchard working group is I mean that's not a policy that's a fact right the thought this the thought of sale and us just kind of coming up with okay well let's so kick it down the road so we try to sell it in two years I don't think that's a strategy no and I think the or working group would tell you that's not going to that's not feasible so I think that if we decide if this board decides like okay we're not going to continue with the sale um there's going to be some reorganization or some change in that membership because I think some of those some of the people and I'm part of it is like well I don't think that's a good idea and I'm not sure I want to chase that I mean I probably will because I think the orchard is a beautiful place but I think that we that's a that's the first decision we have to make do we do we make sure that the working group has their mandate based on what they think is best or do we overlay the policies of the select board to say we have to to lease it I think the second then after that is if we do lease it I think we have to be very clear about what that means and I think it means unless we want to spend a lot of money we're going to have to cut trees down which is going to be expensive we're going to probably hay it turn into pasture it's going to be a substantial change to the way that is and I think people are going to be very upset by that but matth the land's not going anywhere right well okay okay but it it's if you're I think you guys have done enough work to know why people are skeptical about leasing it right and if that means a million dollar needs to be dumped into the orchard to do certain things and that's where we're at this is what the town wanted to do we wanted but I don't think we actually sold no one actually got up and said if we spend a million dollar on the orchard what are you willing to give up for that million dollars right if we if we didn't we never did that so I I think the orchard partially failed because of an educational campaign we just didn't have enough time to educate people on why selling it was potentially the right thing to do um I've talked to several people after the meeting that says I wish I would have known more about this I would have changed my vote right so and I'm not suggesting that we go necessarily and hold another town meeting tomorrow and try and get a different group of people because that's that's not necessarily the right thing but we should sit down I agree we should sit down with the or working group and say for the foreseeable future whatever we decide that is we own it so what can we do over that period of time and if and if that period of time is 6 months a year let's figure out that if we're going to see we're going to own it forever let's figure that out right but we need to start doing the short term at least now and figure out what that means and short term is we've got to get into compliance we've got to get into compliance really quickly because we are on mdar radar as non-compliant they were well aware that this was happening and that this vote was going to happen and they're going to be aware of the fact that it failed and that we've got no plan for compliance so compliance I think has to be a number one a top priority for this year immediately yeah and I also think you know last year we went down the played the game of let's lease it and we got one one potential Lei and that fell through so now we're going through and saying well sell it and then the town rejected that so we go through this game beginning that one more one more bite at leasing and then that fails and I mean how many times do we want to play that game too right so yeah I'm I'm not sure what what's issuing another RFP for lease is going to get us well I'm saying we own it yeah so what is that's what does that look like we own it now so we've always own it but I'm saying get that number I think the groups the two groups together can get it is it a million dollars a year to run I don't think it is though initially it might to do what to to hire a a manager a a farm manager I'm use Chalan as an ex I know we're getting I think we could still discuss yeah we're discussing this I wanted to make sure I wasn't off track but and I know this should discussion should probably take place with the orchard working G it I value a lot of that opinion as well but I if you if you look at what they did they have there are some strategies that absolutely 100% worked and they don't get a penny from lemonster to run it so I I just wanted to see what good stuff we can get from them potentially that they cut their Orchard back to 20 acres 20 acres are their trees they got rid of a lot of trees harvestable 20 acres and then they started planting blueberries and other Berry type things and they you know farming they do a lot of other stuff there and that's that's what I'm talking about what does that look like cost wise and and on top of a farm manager um that might be a hired position from the town maybe I don't know I it I I just think that if the town if we're going to own it let's not play like we don't own it and keeps hoping well we're going to sell it there aren't many there aren't many um futures for the orchard either short-term or long-term that don't involve getting um getting rid of the trees they are spreading diseases to their neighbors potentially um they are not commercially viable so they can't be part of a compliance program right so um that's absolutely I mean I don't I don't see any way around getting rid of and we should I think it's it's a responsible thing to do we know that only 50% of the land has to be farmed agriculturally culturally so of the protected land M that doesn't include conservation that's separate right so CPR land okay so what we where's let's do that math out on the property and say well these are the younger trees all right well we have something there I I haven't been in your meetings I've watched some of them and I but the the mission was different and somehow we have to craft this so and where the orchard working group can help us is by saying you know okay so if you want to be farming 25 acres you're not going to need just a farm manager you're going need a farm manager and you know 15 seasonal employees and five you know year round employees this level this type of equipment and this type of capital investment this you know but that's that's I think that's a great conversation to have we should do work because they will also say well here's here's how shman Farm actually works right and and let's go into that there's a lot of context with all this discussion that we need that we don't have right so I think all the discussions so far have been about leasing or selling and not managing it ourselves correct and the cost and maybe we start down that path and figure out what it's going to cost and decide it's it's not within our budget or I mean I think part of it too is we've always assumed we wanted to keep it as an orchard when we're talking about running it yeah and I think that that is now we we we everyone should be aware that's just not going to like if we're going to spend money we're going to spend way more money if we try to use it as a do it as an orchard because the only income you get is from you know is from basically pick your up life Mr chair can I can I offer something too because I think that that Point's important right it's it's it's part of that same education because trying to get back to an orchard has its own set of challenges and um I think that the point you had raised earlier about education isn't important and this is a suggestion I believe we would actually agreed to with the working group was about having uh a specific Community engagement event or events um I think hiring MPC was was a thought that you know one of the things that I saw a lot with NBTA communities for example that really turned it is when we had that Workshop here in this room I think all the members were there or most of the members were here at that meeting and the so that was both education to the members and really kind of rolling their sleeves up and seeing what those options were and in this case you'd be looking at three options potentially sale potentially leasing potentially Town ownership and really kind of engaging with the community about those things to I I think um you know when when you go back to the working group to say that is that something that's still of interest because I think we we should find the resources to make that happen because I think um seeing especially to what how the how the conversation evolved with NBTA communities another hard issue for us as a community to get through and with the survey and with the uh engagement session we had was really effective I think in changing uh the tone of that conversation such that when we got to town meeting seeing what happened in the November town meeting versus what happened in the Maytown meeting was was a big difference but it had a lot to do with of everything you were talking about it's a great point so with that in mind should we actually have a joint meeting with them or should we have a public info session where we attend let's have a joint meeting first because I think the public the public info sessions at this point are not time critical they were going to be when we but we can do those over the next month or two so but I do think the first step is having a meeting with the working group and let's get all the information that we need in order to decide how to go forward okay so okay yeah and our next scheduled one is a week from Wednesday I don't know if that matters to you or to the select board but so our next meeting is the 28 yeah the day after Memorial day do we squeeze a joint meeting before the 28th or do we well we could unless we want to go to their meeting and we we could theoretically do it on our regular meeting night so what are you guys discussing right now we we are discussing next steps for maybe we should maybe that makes sense um so post most your meeting is it what I'm wondering I'm thinking we might want to might want to let something shake out in terms of uh membership and let the orchard working group go through their process yeah like get through their process a little bit first and we can discuss a meeting after that that's okay say we're having our meeting now let's let them have a meeting and then let's get together and in the meantime did we fund them yeah $220,000 for the immediate needs which is public safety issue basically you were talking taking down some of the dangerous stuff and patching up some of the holes if we we still need to go before the fincom and and do that so U we need to make that's a transfer request from the reserve fund so um yeah and you're going to discuss the specifics at our next meeting Sarah yeah I think right we're looking for clarity at at that meeting right exactly that we want to do and exactly and okay goad moving on proposed to ments to the regulations and fees for the town transfer station effect of July 1st I should have had Darth Vader music play we should do walk up music everything yeah totally all right good evening uh stepen all director of public work um was here public hearing for the setting of the fees for the transfer station um Power Point here just touching on kind of the last 3 years when you get a little bit further back than fy22 you drifting into Co years and the numbers are all screwy cuz everybody was home and everybody threw everything away so it kind of it it wrecks all the numbers but um first slide here kind of start over up damn um so Ryan just back okay sorry so just looking at the um stick of fees uh was the same 22 and 23 and then last year actually uh excuse me the the senior sticker dropped um in one of those years dropped down to $50 uh from 70 and then last year kind of remember the discussion with this board kind of split the difference on the stickers last year um the next slide is kind of the bag fees over the last 3 years if I could stop Mr chair so just I I think that's an important point because I I know we get a lot of emails um regarding that why are we raising senior fees well we because during the we actually reduced the fee we brought the fee down so it's really just getting when there's any discussion about it that that's probably something that kind of gets lost we're not back where we were before the co corre price so that just something to be said that we're not trying to raise fees Beyond preco year it's just getting back we we thought we were um doing a good thing by lowering prices and rightly so yep um and not that it's going to happen this year anyway but I'm just saying that that's something that I think people gets it gets lost that's actually we're not raising sticker fees this year in the in the packet two things said that we weren't and the third thing said we were yeah there was a discrepancy I wasn't sure either a clarification that the fees aren't stick of fees not changing I will fall on the sword uh my own uh my own kind of OCD engineering uh background wanting to line everything up in the format right and copying and P and I did this of course the one number I did not change was promptly uh put on notice for that one yeah the sticker fees are not proposed to change and the bag fees are not going to change either the bag fees are going to this is the last 3 years my proposed fees in a minute so just showing that in 22 um they were $125 225 and 325 and then uh 23 and 24 they had gone to 150 250 and 350 uh so no change in the last 2 years on the bag fees um next slide is just kind of uh totals of sticker sales the last 3 years uh for this year FY 24 it's kind of through the end of April I don't really expect any you know we might sell one more a couple more uh through the month but then the new ones will be available June 1st but in total uh 752 uh regular price stickers and then 1,33 Senior stickers wow uh and that is um your first sticker and then including the uh homes that do get a second sticker and then two Replacements the last few years I don't know if the same people keep losing the sticker or what's going on there but uh it's funny that is just two on The Replacements uh next slide is just kind of showing you know sort of an increase in solid waste tonnage every year uh fy22 625 tons over the course of the year to currently and I'm projecting out over the next couple months but it's looking like it's going to be somewhere around 780 tons so we we're seeing you know a fairly significant increase over the last 3 years in in solid waste tonnage uh sort of similar on the next slide uh with recycling tonnage again you know showing a kind of a steady increase over the last 3 years in the recycling Tage so with that uh the proposed FY 25 fees again sticker cost remain the same I am proposing to the board a 25 C increase in each bag uh some of that is driven by uh when we extended the contract with Waste Management about a year and a half ago it's extended through 202 5 there is a a contractual 5% increase uh in solid waste disposal so obviously the bags are to cover solid waste and sort of my plan is we'll a little bit on the bags this year and then next year we'll sort of leave the bags alone and look at the stickers so maybe kind of every other year we'll do one every year right that type of thing um and also with the proposed FY 25 fees some of the miscellaneous items uh dropping a TV a mattress we're seeing some increased cost in some of that stuff so uh proposing to go up on like bulk items TVs um you can go to the next one right so this slide here kind of shows current rate and the proposed rate as you see the stickers are the same the 25 increase across the board in the bags and then on the next one is just s some of the miscellaneous fees up $3 on on the uh TVs and CRTs uh a do on the propane tanks $5 on the bulky Furniture uh which is you know the bulk dumpster uh $3 on uh scrap metal items and then a $5 increase in the uh mattress disposal uh just again a lot of that is just to cover the the costs uh that are coming from the different vendors where like mattresses go to Lawrence to a vendor uh to get taken apart and recycled um um disposal of the electronic stuff is is starting to tick up and just to speak back to the uh obviously I said the solid waste is ticking at a 5% per a contract the recycling tonnage is fluctuating the last 3 months bills we've been paying anywhere from $71 a ton to $91 a ton so it's kind it's bouncing all over the place so it's a little tough to predict what the uh recycling cost at this point but uh that's quick presentation Happ to to answer any questions do you know can you give us some sense of how much of the revenue comes from the stickers versus the bags uh the bags we get deposits once a month from was Zero uh it's how it's reported it's it's kind of weird we pay we buy the bags the town buys the bags up front they sit in the warehouse and then when Market Basket aashan donin whoever uh gets them they buy them by the case so we get reported how many cases go off to the different vendors but then we don't get any reporting on when for all I know aashan has 25 cases of bags in the back I don't know right so we get deposits from waste zero every month so I I didn't include it in the slide but I can certainly tell you um fy22 there was $222,000 in bag Revenue 23 there's 233,000 a little over that in bag revenue and uh through the end of March current fiscal year we're at 165,000 so we're tracking pretty close to to last year and so and the sticker the sticker income would be 700 time 150 bucks for the regular price and 65,000 for the seniors so it's a little bit more bags than stickers it sounds like 2/3 bags one3 stickers or something okay those numbers you gave St the $230,000 on bags that's that's net that's have to cost a good Soul that's net that's that's our Revenue coming back from way zero to us uh through the chair is there any way we can hook up with Hefty super strong bags and pay a couple extra bucks at least give us the option of buying good purple bags instead of so P purple bag when we there was a bad run uh of bags maybe 6 months ago they were sliced yeah we had a we had a few complaints on that in the last I'll call it year um could be 15 months was Zero has only received 12 complaints from people in town we have them all itemized and some of one complaint was the town seal was Fuzzy on the bag you know I know the draw Springs rip out draw meun I lived in town I tried this stuff as much as I could in those things uh so you know okay there's not a lot of complaints but I was talking cheek but it's no no absolutely something that needs but we get that question job so if you go back to the slide that showed the distribution of seniors versus uh that this one does anyone else feel uncomfortable that there's six 60 70% of our stickers or seniors I was a little surprised by it honestly but what are you trying to say why am comfortable I seem there's a lot more senior stickers versus annual stickers than I would exp we're not 60% of our community isn't seniors but it could be that 60% but it could be that the people who use trash services are the ones it's all curbside yeah it's it's private curbside yep it seems like a very high I think output like I think if you've got you know three kids in your house you put out a lot more trash and you're not willing to to go toag go transfer station as often as you might need to otherwise and if I had a mother and father in my health right now I'd definitely say you're going to get us a sticker I know people to do that too I'm sure that's part of it as well there's that um and we're and the senior stickers are 60 60 same as last one well same as con and did you do age 60 sorry oh yes I'm sorry yes oh I get one in three years um couple more years did you do that and you did the the um projections for Revenue like are we looking at roughly breaking even this year on the transfer station yes okay cool uh Mr chair we do have a question do any no I appreciate all the public hearing so Steve yeah thanks a lot Steve that's a lot can you come up in who are you uh bran Harbo 16 fetcher Lane I may have imagined this but I thought somewhere during last year I heard that we were considering going to single stream recycling that's ask so technically all the stuff goes to a single stream facility it's just separated at the transfer station Plastics uh glass now we're throwing newspapers in with the cardboard at some point we are looking at possibly adding a another compactor and kind of rearranging the setup so everything but glass can go in one they like to have the glass separate so then we' have Plastics card board newspapers and uh the like tin aluminum cans all going in a compact so that will ultimately the goal is to cut my trips down to Bara right so instead of going four or five times a week to Bara maybe I go two or three you know what I mean so ultimately it all does go to a single screen facility where it gets sorted it's just we're still set up to have it all simp I'll just say if we could avoid my household would love if we could avoid yep thank you yep so I know two other um items have come up on the transfer station that aren't necessarily sticker related one is a um a composting dumpster for um invasives uh yeah and another is a possibility of styrofoam recycling so I talk Wast I'll touch on the styrofoam first I talked to them about having a specific styrofoam dumpster I guess and they will not take it they will just throw it away if it has a speck of dirt in it so it has to be super super clean otherwise it's just going in the trash like you do not and there's different types of materials that yeah so they um were a little hesitant on something like that uh and as far as the invasives in a dumpster uh we would have to figure out what then to do with it solely because my uh the solid waste here I say my stuff uh the solid waste still goes to a landfill a lot of the invasives go to an incinerator which closest one's in hav because they're not building incinerators everywhere so you know you're going a wheelator and hav and dependent on timing up there if we were going to haul it we' need different permitting to bring it there um so not saying it's not possible but uh a little unlikely right now okay and I just can't I just to touch on that again I don't have a space down by like where the compost is and the brush and the logs end up to put it we we have our own invasive problem down there so I don't want to introduce anything else fair enough okay ready for a motion so I'm good yeah than move that the select board vote pursuant to town code chapter 181 to establish the following fee structure for use of the town of Littleton transfer station effect of July 1st 2024 open stickers full price $155 senior $60 second sticker $70 senior second sticker $35 per bag 33 gallons $3.75 15 Gallons $2.75 8.5 gallons $17 5 and miscellaneous item fees for CRTs and TVs $24 propane tanks $15 bulky Furniture $30 large metal items $25 mattresses $40 before we that motion can you make a motion to close the public sorry I move that we close the public hearing second all those in favor of closing the public hearing we have a second for the second Matthew motion move the thing I just wrote yeah mhm second to that okay uh move to it's been moved by Matthew second by Chuck to uh change the sticker fees the transportation fees all those in favor I I oppose okay good thank you thank you excellent new common victure license for high octane Brew so do we need to read the public hearing notice on this one no uh well we don't have one so uh it is I guess we don't so yeah chair how are you good go ahead um I operate um I'm Gary arer from arer mobile lion Mass 500 K Street and um I operate the Mobile station at the common and I currently have um on my property um I have a 10 at coret donuts and uh the gentleman that runs it he has two other operations and he's looking to downsize and concentrate more on the other um business house and uh we had talked a while ago a while ago about if he uh ever decided to um to sell the uh business I like an opportunity so we gave him that opportunity and um and need purchas the business so I want to come from the board and ask um that you accept the business and if I can get a conviction license so you're not actually asking for a change of anything other than working conditions it's just change of ownership in name change of ownership okay name change as well name changes well High arain Brew in cool name okay the employees remain the same the operation remain the same um I think everything is pretty much same employees say again the quality the quality I'm hoping to folks with these um offbrand uh uh drinks here to a more Superior drinkade Donuts to me it it comes down to what your um marketing is going to look like I want to see what a picture what this is going to be in the front of your building it'll be the same it will don't jail oh okay but the the actual corporate name will be high okay so remain under the umbrella's 14 locations great okay you seem disappointed that there isn't going to be a new a new logo you are you invested it's like a 70s no congratulations that's a big venture cool so it's literally you're just you're essentially buying a franchise I am I'm buying the franchise the uh other own like I said is going to step onto his other locations and try to operate those more efficient okay and um he gave me the opportunity we had talked about it a while ago said if ER comes up I'd like the opportunity to step in and run the operation and I'm there all the time Mond through Friday I spend many hours there probably more than I I like to but I'm there all the time I get I I'm hands on I'm a Hands-On person um I have good employees and I strive on making you know right the right decisions and make sure the customer is always right and make sure that um we have a good offering and um people com into a clean neat operation that's that's um appealing to people and we have a a fresh offering each and every time I will say that thank you for the the tidiness of your facility I mean outside the the the curbs are all painted perfectly White and the Landscaping is always you know well well it's well groomed it's well taken care of and it's it's in the center of town so it really it's a nice Gateway for us you know it's uh it's for me it's very much appreciated thank you means a lot inside the bathrooms everything I age8 my dad started in 66 he's employee he bought the business and then I took over in 1996 outstanding it would be nice if people respect the Do Not exit sign but that's not your yeah so any further discussion no I think it's a great change and my hats off and wish much success in this new Venture the old Venture exting we know who to come to do we need to close the public hearing we do motion to close the public hearing second second sorry motion by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor of closing the public hearing I I I move that the select board vote to approve the application submitted by owner manager Gary W Archer for a common victual victual license under M Law chapter 140 section 2 for high octane Brewing Inc DBA Gourmet Donuts located at 500 King Street Littleton Mass second by Matthew second by Gary all those in favor I thank you thank you very much thanks for your time and support luck thank you thank you thank you for the investment before we get into the public input our members up do you want to we skipped the mail so do we want to cover that thank you Mr chairman um okay ahead of myself be with me one second please okay uh I I think it's uh we'd like to start out by making um and uh making the announcement for team 6328 that went to the world championships in Houston um and what they uh uh what what they accomplished they were up against a total of 600 other teams throughout the world across eight divisions and in which uh they played well on Thursday and Friday and uh they ended up uh uh and did their qual qualification matches on Friday ranked number two in their division uh this put the team in a position to pick playoff Partners based on the robust scouting data provided by their incredible strategy team as the second seat Alliance captain on Saturday and they selected F FRC 4481 team uh from the Netherlands um and uh uh one from um one from Maryland and one from Vermont uh ultimately I believe uh they came in four was it four I think they came in fourth out of near 3500 teams out of six uh total of I think it was 600 teams there 3500 teams worldwide that narrowed down to 600 at the worlds which are held in was it Houston thank you thank you very incredible incredible feat yeah uh just very very impressive um moving on actually if I may just before we move on um there Katie boner and her husband Brett and a number of people dedicate a ton of time using the facility at Patriot beverage the old R&D facility at Patriot beverage in Harvard Road um so thank you to those folks and all the folks they they they receive a ton of donations from a lot of local businesses and um it's it's um it's just typical Littleton right everybody pitching in for this is so cool that kids are you know using stem skills and and doing something it's not it's not supporting the football team or the band it's it's just something else that kids can do in Littleton and um I just wanted to give kudos to all the people that I've been on to their open houses the past years they're incredible they have everyone rotates through different skills like you know the kids have to learn how to Market and raise funds as well as how to do the building the robot and things so I think it's an incredible job that the Bonners are doing and everyone else is volunteer right and I'm grateful they don't do the pie in the face anymore because I think Matt Pat broke my nose when he did it um thank you uh to help to help with that message um National Grid is notified notifying the uh the Littleton uh select board that uh they are doing as part of their uh this year is part of their uh ve vegetation management plan they will be doing treatments on on rights of way and we'll be seeing uh to be applied to Target vegetation by experience Massachusetts licensed certified applicators and there's approximately eight companies that have been that deem certified that will be around the community um through the end of uh this uh this calendar year applying uh the uh the management plan to them uh also we received a a donation uh a gift from Kristen Grimes for $69548 cense for tread fund uh and this was from from Liz from EHS thank you very very much M Grimes uh also like to make everyone aware that you can see things that are on uh uh public notifications uh just go to www. Littleton ma.org SLS subscribe Community impacts Transportation issues public health concerns town events town meeting changes Public Safety activity also some of our current openings on Town boards that are appointed by the select board uh there's one opening on the clean lace committee it's one on the economic development committee one on the permanent Municipal Building committee one on the sustainability committee and three alternate citizen at large openings on the transportation advisory Council before we move off of that those there's three positions that are only for less than a month are a little over a month now when do those go to being 2027 or whatever terms um I don't have that answer right off the top of my head you have to talk to it you should yeah Mr gr might be able to you shed some light on that thank you uh also as uh I alerted the select board before but for everyone out out there uh uh Littleton was uh we received uh information that awarded recognition as a Tre City USA from the Au Day Foundation of 2023 which is uh quite a uh quite a feed in itself it's throughout throughout the country uh and with that brings um grant opportunities and it shows that the the town has made a a sincere effort in um uh uh the programs for meeting the four requirements maintaining a a tree board Department having a tree care ordinance dedicating an annual community forestry budget and uh and that's uh outstanding very very well done by I know a Conservation Commission has been uh uh involved in that tremendously that's and that's it for mail okay member updates you want to start Ken sure sorry it was all over uh we can go all the way back to April 26 had office hours uh so thanks to all who came in and to uh discuss um I believe we've got somebody scheduled for this Friday I'll be there yeah and I'll be there again in a couple weeks um zero waste day is um coming up from 10 to2 at Littleton Middle School this Saturday um if you go to the energized Littleton page um you will be able to get details on that it's um an opportunity to donate um information or information uh materials all sorts of household materials Electronics um clothes mattresses um either for recycling or reuse energize Littleton energize Littleton yep um I wanted to thank everyone who came to town meeting and everyone who came for the elections and voted um and many thanks to all those who uh volunteered to serve and uh I wanted to thank the orchard work group um they put in hundreds of hours this last year they attended meetings they walked the orchard uh presenting to the public cleaning out the barn talking to mdar DPW area Orchards and farms and the list goes on and on um and so while we did not always agree we always were able to work together effectively um and I truly appreciate every single uh member on that board and thank them for their uh support that's all from me I want to second that um just a couple things one is um there was um a mention in the packet of the animal control officer um contract is not going to be renewed as of July 1st I believe that is correct um I just was surprised at that I guess I thought it was all ready to go but did something change something had changed and uh uh box borrow being the lead agent on that and it's something that uh uh uh the chief is having an independent uh conversation with the Animal control officer to have and I believe that that is being that same practice is being an ex exercised by the other communities having their own independent uh um arrangement with with with that ACO okay so and the other one I have is rather unfortunate um the Dan bodon who uh works with the nishoba pray Indians sent an email to Littleton conservation trust and um I guess there was some vandalism of some of the ceremonial stones in that area um I'm just going to read a very brief thing the destruction there were two there were three places that were vandalized the destruction of the donation Niche isn't an oopsy one of the pedestal Stones has been ripped out of the earth and tossed aside and the lentil Stones cast down the hill um this structure is rare and unique to nooba there are very few of these around the only ones I know of are in nishoba and this was the very best of them um the pedestal Boulder has been pried off to the far left the pedest the pedestal Stone stacked on the right foreground it would have taken significant effort to do this a pry bar would have been needed it was intentional so it's very unfortunate these obviously those things predate the town it's not our you know place to do anything to them um I think the Littleton conservation trust is discussing rerouting one of the trails that goes near that and I'm not advocating that we do anything you know we're not going to obviously Patrol that area but um I do want to just make sure the public is aware that those are not you you know it's not your playground to go and and throw break things and throw stones around you can go and enjoy it and respect the land and um don't be bad so and if anyone knows anything I guess I don't know like we're not going to punish anyone but it's just it's unfortunate um I also know like the Smith land and the new Webster land they also have a lot of um culturally significant sites so I would really will appreciate it if people respected those that's all sure uh first to EO what Karen said as far as folks that came out of Tom median folks there's 1312 folks that showed up to vote on Saturday uh thank you to those folks I wish it were more it's about 17% of our registered voters which is 70 just under 75 7436 is the number of registered voters we have so it would be great if we could kind of increase those numbers in some way shapee or form um I'll like to thank everybody who did come out and uh for all the support for those that entrusted me um to help lead Littleton over the next three years and uh allow me to work together with the board and with um you know all the collaboration that we do with all the other boards and and departments in town um I look forward to continuing for the next three years and doing the best for the most that's it great thank you um well congratulations thank you welcome welcome back um and congratulations to all the other uh elected officials that over the uh over the weekends gets worn in thank yes gets worn in thank you for volunteering it's a um it's a it's a worthwhile cause working uh to make Littleton better place so um the thank the town meeting as well thank you for all those that that came come out I you know like what you said I I wish the number were more um but I think uh it was a decent sized town meeting so there was there was interest we had a lot of business going on but um thank you to those a lot of good input a lot of discussion um and I too wanted to thank the orchard working group I I know that's a lot of work went into getting to town meeting and the everything that uh happened um it's not a reflection you know what we tried to push through um it's it's there's a lot of everyone in this room knows the history of neog and 20 years uh you know of um we we we remember when it was vibrant and we saw it slowly deteriorate and and um there's there's a lot of blame to be thrown around on that but I think we're we're going to do um right by that property and we're going to continue to work on it so um let's see I had uh that was Orchard um I just want to see are you going to talk about the HCA meeting we had at all I so we had a phone call uh with every our our attorneys regarding the hcas so um we will be discussing um our HCS on the 28th is that yes um unfortunately they've they've got a lot of town meeting still going on so our attorneys that's when they they kind of free up a little bit so they'll be able to uh be at our 28th meeting to talk about hcas and their um they're currently working it looks like we're going to have something ready to sign if I heard it correctly yes you did um and what was the other major discussion um some of the the rule changes so a lot changed over the last 60 days expected from uh from the uh can cannabis Control Commission so um we do have some some templates that they're working with some of the HCA uh templates that we're going to be using um there's a lot of discussion uh with today that we're going to have to maybe talk about about the future of hcas we're seeing more and more communities just do away with them now that there's not a whole lot there's not a whole lot gained by hcas anymore because they've kind of been stripped down to the 3% um just like every every other business impact fees the impact fee thank you yeah um it's we don't expect an impact fee ever to really hit Littleton with and we can judge by what we have right now it's not at least we're not going to administrated we're not going to right manage it and account for it um what was the other discussion uh some of the policies we're not going to have till August right um just do deal with that when it comes up we also have uh I've got notification from from two separate entities that are looking to um submit a request to the select board for uh for hcas uh with with with with moving forward so I will uh I will was waiting for that meeting to make sure that we're still in line that's okay for me to to reach out and invite them to do such so I will do that tomorrow we never really clothed we're open for business it's just um so a lot lot of work on the next couple months on HCA um and how we're going to uh create our own policies and Things based on that um but be aware that the 28th will'll be able to pick our attorney's brains on how we want everything to look uh that's really I think that's it yeah I think we're good may I just interject real quick before you go um I've historically been involved with pretty much every HCA that of put forward relative to cannabis um which I'm happy to continue to do but I think it would be good to have an additional board member and I think with Karen's experience I don't want to voluntee you for anything but kid um but it I'm happy to keep doing it but um I'd be open to having somebody um join me yep I think that's a good idea yeah okay um so I met with um our HR Director last week to discuss some of the HR policies uh she brought the the vehicle use policy up a few meetings ago that I said I would update so I talked to her about that she also asked the drug testing policy to be updated so I will have those as a new draft hopefully for our next meeting um there was talk of whether those policies should also go to the personal advisory committee as well since they're in the handbook so um if they come to our next meeting they'll be in draft form prior to the personal advisory committee signing off on them um um I also wanted to thank everyone that showed up on Saturday and at town meeting um and wish more people showed up on Saturday so it was a disappointing turnout but um and it was nice weather for the most part so also on Saturday I Disappeared for a few hours I went to a garlic mustard pole um uh helped clean up um some of us went to the Heartwell preserve some went to Joyce Williams to uh pull the garlic mustard so thank you to everyone that shows up um this Thursday at 9:00 at the Smith property there going to be some clean up uh the Smith property they um took down the red pine trees which are considered non-native and invasive and there's some cleanup and things along the trails there so Thursday at 9:00 a.m. um the conservation trust and Historical Society are doing on Saturday May 18th meeting at the Heartwell preserve from 10: to noon to give you a little history of the Littleton ski area and a walk of the property there will be at 10:30 um also um this Thursday this Thursday at 730 uh there will be a talk on the history of the Conant Mill building over at the Congregational Church sponsored by the historical society it's Thursday at 7:30 so and those are free to attend so get you with the action unlimited over there well yeah he was doing the word fine no no I I I just wanted to add like I wanted to thank Diane cury for the clickers that was huge that was that that's that was that was huge I think that everybody really that was one of the best changes we've made to town meeting in 25 years so well done it worked perfectly and it was entertaining as well so it was it was a win-win all around and we don't say enough I we can't say enough thank you I mean just please everybody preparing for the meeting Finance team everybody coincides with an election there a ton of work that comes out of it was Flawless so thank you thanks do you have anything to add on the items on I do thank you can I jump in front of you again absolutely um something I forgot to do because I didn't get home before coming here um 20th anniversary of the applean this year it's July 21st and it's um half mile Swim 10m Bike 3mi Run uh looking for as many triathletes or teams to be involved and um certainly always looking for sponsors and Littleton rotary does a great deal in our community and this is their logest fundraiser and it's it's definitely something I wanted to get out there it's the 20th anniversary so anybody and everybody that can participate in whatever way whether you're volunteering at intersections and directing traffic or directing the runners and bikers or um if you want to write a check to donate to it please please do so that's it sorry scratch that off my list um no uh Al as uh Madame Vice chair uh was uh instrumental in uh identifying the need for a boardwalk over on the over at the beach uh and more of a a permanent permanent solution than the temporary the seasonal temporary one that is there uh they they have received the D permits and it goes before a Conservation Commission tomorrow night for approval for the installation of that so that's moving right along uh the ten the tennis courts uh refurbished refurbishment of those that is because of contract of schedules they are uh looking to do that work in in September and the athletic director uh at the high school had had said it's it's more imperative that they're on the court in the spring in the fall so he can he'll make uh he'll make appropriate accommodations for that also this uh this Wednesday uh Mr chairman you have your first deadline you have a uh uh the uh select board uh submission for the newsletter yes to for Wednesday and uh that will start for all department heads everyone is uh is is is scheduled to submit something that has something to submit and uh I can't I can't say enough about Nancy's uh taking the lead you know the role and taking the lead and and just uh with her creativity with the design and everything is just it was it was very very impressive it's been very very impressive but overall the team to get us to this this point has been has been uh has been excellent and um so uh and that will be be uh published on June 1st so everyone will be submitted for that and everything is uh is going to be published for June 1st um we are uh for for COA starting the enrollment for the senior tax workof program is uh is also coming up the construction of the new new Senior Center is on schedule and this week the water will be turned off uh from 9: to 2:30 is from the notice that I had given you over here um and uh what is it Wednesday or Thursday Thursday thank you 16 um 17 16th and uh the sweepers are out uh and uh the resurfacing that we're doing throughout the community is on the town website someone musts to check that with the neighborhoods that are being done uh from the police department uh the body the body um the body cameras are the training is all done the equipment is in place we also received $50,000 grant that takes care of the camera purchase and the data storage uh policies all policies and procedures I believe have been have been um they have been written but I just want I know that uh the the Union uh uh police Union were also involved and instrumental in making sure that those uh that that Loop was closed um and uh uh speaking of uh our town clerk um um she said uh she did get some um uh suggestions from from individuals from from the town meeting and some of those suggestions were maybe it could be uh the buttons could be a larger size uh the the Braille maybe some rail on the on the buttons uh and they would also like to see up on the uh on the screen what exactly what number do they have to hit to make it a 2/3 vote instead of just saying whether it passed or it didn't pass it just but this is the goal of what num to be be there through the Board of Health we've got the opioid settlement survey is out there that I'm sure you're all all aware of and then um our health director is also going to is in the midst of potentially having a a discussion with Westford with the town of Westford to team up for a community health specialist and a a health maybe a health agent to assist uh our uh with within the community and and the uh MBTA we will be submitting our plan to the MBTA for the MBTA communities I'm sorry to uh executive office of Housing and economic develop not housing executive office of economic development for our MBTA communities and uh plan uh waiting for that to uh to come back and uh that would be within the 90 days and um that's it thank you public input Mr Sanders why you walking up there CU I seem to be cutting off everybody tonight just to give a pat on the back and a thank you to the police St to to the Police Department chief Bernard and especially ilas Abu for writing that grant to get the body Cam Body camps for for us sorry about that sorry George sandon 6 head2 great I want to give you a little input here uh one at the town meeting it was Diane and myself that set up almost 500 chairs there okay it was just the two of us uh the next thing the town need to get information over to the school department for the election the lights was supposed to be in the gym on for 12:00 well they're lucky that they finished up around almost 10:00 because the lights went out and dying in and I was the only two people there because we was waiting for reick to come in with the key to lock the door cuz Dian did not have a key there a timer George suppos there I don't know the person name there at the school has all the lights on the timer well the Lights Went Out boom boom boom boom in the gym but they was in the hallway in the school they was on so I waited that with Diane because Diane was the only person left there I always do that with the election because normally she comes back to the town hall to put the information in but uh Nancy showed her how to do it at home so she put the information in from the election at home so I didn't have to go with her but I always uh look out for her because that's important um the other thing that I wanted to uh tell you about was um on the the Archer there uh I think um reason this thing fell and uh I know it was going to fail based on the number of people that spoke about it plus prior to the the town meeting uh a lot of talk was about it and this is what I see that was failed to given to us as voters you didn't tell us I don't think every Rock was turned with regards to cost involved if we keep it how much is going to cost the town where is the town going to get the money so those figures was not told to us as to how much it would cost if the town keeps this property because there was talk like the one gentleman said well you selling for 40 acres of land now you're buying 36 or 38 acres of land here uh what's the scoop here so I think that you have to come back and tell the people the taxpayers it will cost the town 2.5 million a year to do everything over there or whatever the case may be but at the same token how do we get that money I sent a letter to Steve today and I was asking I said can we raise the CPC um to use money for maintenance uh for the Archer there and he said well I think 100% I don't think you can do it he said but I'm not 100% sure so I talked to Kathy in the assessors she said no uh you can't do that so I said okay so she said I agree with you the money got to come from somewhere and I don't think the people in Litton is ready do a old ride just to support that Archer over there so we we we need to come up and give them the real true data is to keep this property somewhere somebody is going to have to come up and say we need to reach in our pocket and we need to come out with this unless you're going to take money out of the uh free cash and do it every year otherwise you know we looking at overrides around us that's been failing left and right and um I don't think um that's the way to go with regards to this I had one other thing I was going to uh mention about um something there I can't uh figure what it is but anyway the other thing Mr chairman I think since you're the new chairman here the other thing I think that you probably ought to do is a mere courtesy before you close the public hearing you ought to ask is there anybody else have anything to say thank you because I raised my hand but y'all was busy up here looking so you didn't see it so I wanted to ask a question you sit in the exact seat that can't be seen from here well well well you need you you need to grow we we'll get on to our seat next week next meeting telephone books yeah and U I think U that was there it was something else I to I can't remember what it is now thank you very much thank you and thank you for all your help at town meeting sir I 122 hour wow thank you not the town meeting the election anyone else for public input we need to find some like student volunteers or something to help with the setup I mean that's yeah I make to it yeah or get Gary there get credit for the class Town appointments oh I know what it was you're catching my disease George sand 6 head into Great Road Mr chairman I'm concerned about the money that the disability commission has asked the town for to do the survey of the town of lilton so we can get in on the money that the disability commission has at the state they got grant money up there going out of their ears up there two years ago they gave 40 44 communities over $4 million but what we need we need to survey to say what lilton lacks and send that into them and then we can request from them according to what we want to tackle with we we need to get that uh I think uh between 30 35 and $4,000 that we need to do that so we really need to do that thank you thank you okay appointments uh appoint C Katherine harlo to the cultural Council any discussion sounded like a great appointment okay yeah move that the select board vote to appoint Katherine harow as a member of the cultural Council for a term of two years expiring June 30th 202 second move by Matthew second by C Karen all those in favor I I uh reappoint Brian Tarbox to the finance committee I have a 20 Page do you want to say anything [Music] or you came down here you might as well just BR 16 cler cler L I figure disrespectful just to to show up and I I think we did uh our two boards um and the whole Finance team I think we did a great job we started in in a crazy impossible position and we had some bumps but we figured it out and we worked respectfully together and I I think we should all be really proud of how it worked and I'm looking forward to working with you all again thank you Brian thanks I noticed that you trimmed your beard was it for this let's say that there were discussions in home okay move the the select board vote to appoint Brian Tarbox for a three-year term on the finance committee expiring June 30th 2027 second move by Matthew second by Gary all those in favor thank [Music] you the annual Tom meeting post meeting review we have I think we we've said a lot of stuff I one thing I wanted to just before I forget which was two years ago there was some um confusion about approving the budget and I believe someone held an item which was then they it couldn't be debated because it had already been approved in another another section and last night or sorry you whenever it was we did the same thing as we did two years ago so we went through item we went through category by category to approve them but if someone had held one later that depended on it I think it was it was the stipend as I recall wasn't it two years ago was years yeah so I was wondering if we could revisit that and I'm sorry I jumped in yeah I think maybe something else we could talk to the moderator about because the moderator goes through every line too and I I think maybe some of the feedback we've received too is can we maybe try that differently as well because uh you know if you just said instead of going through every line maybe you said you know if anyone has holds on any of these lines that might be another way to do it so um but yeah I think that's something we can make a note of so but um I think we just have to with how we approved the budget and the chunks rather than doing them a little bit at a time I agree that it would be better to approve the whole budget as one article rather than going through once it's been fully vetted fully vetted because otherwise you can't take from one bucket to another necessarily if there was a discrepancy okay okay um so just just the some uh we've been ping a lot of people today but I think just to make sure we we complete that list um I also wanted to uh express our thanks to the town moderator as well as Town Council who helped us along on that process Tim um brought us through with the with the new clickers we talked a little bit about that I think overall that's been was was a a good success for us um um Jim mentioned some of the things that we received feedback on that we'll try to work on for the next meeting but uh overall that was a big success wanted to thank Mark Cy and the team from lctv uh to get for the entire room set up um not a small Endeavor with the the the folks that they work with to get to that point and that's much appreciated wanted to thank Nancy and the IT team uh to uh all the work that they put in um there's a lot of behind the scenes effort to get things connected uh and um you know the reason we're able to present as we do is is a key part of what she and Tom uh do and um uh finally um I want to thank all the volunteers that uh you know are there uh at town meeting um you checking people in George for on 500 seats uh you and Dian putting that out that's not a small thing and of course um the the town clerk herself for all the work that she puts in it's a substantive effort um and um that's not lost and uh finally I just wanted to thank uh Diane and uh Lisa in our office for everything that they did uh to get to that point and just it's a lot of work and it's really a team effort but uh we're very appreciative of the team that we do have to make things look the way that they do so um it's not uh it's not by accident but through a lot of hard work yes I I heard several comments about how much people love the clickers and everything they wish there was Jeopardy or some other theme music playing during the whole countdown and Crea yeah um and I like the what we change tried different times too I think the 22s worked better than 30 and right I think we'll continue to refine it I think that's why I think part of what you know what this is a conversation of is to put it to the board members and what you heard from people cuz residents have never shy a sheer feedback with you so I'd say anything that you have in terms of feedback regarding Logistics and anything that you heard um I like that I 20 20 seconds is probably plenty um that's a good one budget that that's a good one we'll share that with the to moderator was there anything else in feedback you've received uh so that we can make it better for the next time I'm going to suggest that the first five votes of the evening are 30 seconds and then we switch to 20 because people are going to be what I can't where's my right by the end they're 5c votes yeah right well I noticed we did One Voice vote that was awfully quick as well through the CH so we we did get all the clickers back as far as I know that was a question I know that great I think there was some questions too like Logistics like if someone's going to the restroom should they take the clicker out so things like that they're still trying to uh kind of figure figure out did you just a a comment that I heard um BR 16 fler Lan um I know the moderator never really tries to stop people from saying a thing but especially during the orchard discussion there were a number of people who said hey can we do this thing that the previous speaker just discovered was illegal and somebody would say turns out that's illegal and then 5 minutes later another person would gra and say hey could we do this illegal thing cuz it would be really cool and um I don't know if we can ask the town meeting members to you know listen a little but but I I do wonder if it's possible for the moderator to occasionally say nicely asked and answered um because I think that that just made it go longer and also to to the point of like look there there are oh my God we appointed experts to do the thing they did the thing they did the research with experts so anyway I don't know thank you for letting me rant about experts and for Brian we're going to make sure that the batteries are fresh we don't want to have that happen I feel bad for Brian there in that one so I was convinced Mark was just put sabot but um um so in terms of the other pieces we had a long conversation about neog earlier um you know this was going to potentially be that placeholders so we talked about that the other J mention NBTA communities we're going to be getting that in um and and submitting that uh there's still a few other communities that voted against this um and and adding to that list I think marble had his new Marshfield U Milton of course so um they're going to that this is going to be an ongoing conversation but for us to be in this position is we bad so it's a good thing we're not Middleton right fair enough um the Webster property I think we've heard some feedback tonight uh about trying to get that squared away in a timely manner so um we working with Town Council on that um and uh we are uh touring um the um Indian Hill property tomorrow with the contractor so hope to get that contract signed uh and um so that happening at 10 to kind of go through with them and then for this have their first set of eyes actually won't be their first set of eyes they toured uh with this before so uh they're going to be looking at that and um um I think that's pretty much it everything else that went through should be fairly perform but again this is the board's opportunity or the Public's opportunity to any other ways to again things that we need to continue to work on or any other feedback that um you want to hit on yeah the only other we had the comment about um the parking situation I know that that's always been an issue I I don't you really can't cancel those Sports I mean I guess you could we could it's tough to coordinate but you know we know when town meeting is going to be I guess we could say that that's almost like a yeah no games on those fields Mike would have to have that in the fall but we know when it is it's pretty well in advance before any school well originally the high school band concert was scheduled the same night as they change they they change so there needs to be but it is possible a a really cross town communication coordination coordination when when well to Mr Sanders point about like coordinating with the school department and the lights we should probably coordinate with the school department on the dates right yeah which we always do I think part of it with the with um uh Sports is that that gets into when Maya makes those schedules so it's almost out of the school's hands but that that's the feedback we we had heard about that oh because we're into the tournament season it's no longer well it's just it's also to what they schedule so then at that point as I understand it the only parties who could if the two schools agreed that they were're going to mutually either cancel it or or change it to another venue they both have to agree to ad may be willing to do that but it's it's not these are some of the schedules are actually put in place as I understand even before we set our town meeting date could we set up a I know other towns set up satellite Lots could we use um could we use this lot yeah or a van or something to to get folks to and from a from a satellite lot we have the van and we could I mean just basically overtime for the drivers or just more hours for the drivers really be up here right you tobly they could shuttle down the path probably right especially for the folks with mobility issues so they so they have an option that doesn't require them to park a mile away do a long walk let's look into that like can you use the path for vehicles a shuttle in in that regard just for that night I've used it I'm not sure sure what time but yeah yeah we should look into something like that seems like we could do it somehow um I would say from my perspective um I heard a lot and you hear it every year or every vote but um you know I think I know there's a lot of different philosophies about how we schedule our votes um I am convinced at this point that all the big big votes need to be first very um this is a very difficult process in terms of getting turnout folks who have kids that need to go to bed or folks that have to get home and get their medication or folks who don't like to drive after a certain hour are not going to stay no matter when we schedule the big boats and so I think that the town is best served when we frontload the big votes after the budget after the budget yeah yeah so that's just my opinion should we look at starting in a different time then you conflict with practice times and you know dinner times and from work there's never a time that's going to work for everybody but I do think that um you know for the folks that can get there to to the idea that you know well if we schedule later and the you know time that you know they'll they'll stick it out they won't no they can't people leave when they when they have to leave I was actually surprised when we did the Saturday Town meetings that that more people didn't show up during Co and I don't know if that was Co but it seems like that would be a solution for many people but apparently not there's I am most a lot of young families are booked from 8:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. every Saturday so I don't know there's never a good time there's never a good time and I accept that part but again for the folks that show up let's let's maximize the opportunity for them to have their voice heard and maybe before the next time meeting we should promote the Mart service for folks too you know the new Mart um ride that we have so that people that may not be able to drive at night are uncomfortable we can say you need a ride to town meeting right here's here's a me um there actually is a policy regarding uh Karen's point that was passed years ago that said any vote requiring a super majority had to come immediately after the V so you already have a policy which one of those policies we forgotten thank you come on up Mr Sanders sorry j s 682 great Mr chairman I'm a firm believer that because you send the warrant to every house in the town of lion okay our resident get a chance to look through there and read and see what's there if there's something controversial about that warrant on an article here or there the people will be out because I've seen since I've been this town that that gymnasium was full and the Overflow was in the lunchroom up there so I think it's tough to pick a time as to when people have a certain amount of confidence in people I think here in lton I think Litton is unique in a lot of ways because we got a lot of smart people here and I would say that no matter how you mold or shape it I don't think you could pick a time that you going to get more out here or there the reason that you got the number out for the town meeting because you had a couple articles on there that people had some concern about that's why they came out they wasn't in drove but it was more than the norm that we normally get at the town meeting and I think that will always be the case thank you I I also wanted to thank Diane Cory for all the work she did to track down why people weren't getting their warrant books before town meeting yes um that was Yan's effort on her part to um you're here do that so thank you should give her a raise yeah I think a lot of people don't realize all the effort that she really put in there's a ton behind the scenes that yeah don't realize any other comments on y okay moving on minutes good is it want to approve the minutes of the March 28th and April yeah April 22nd I believe it's the March 28th yes yes just trying to test me yeah that's the new clerk I think is so be March 28th anyone have any issues with the minutes no move that the select board vote to approve the meeting minutes from The Joint select board school committee meeting on March 28th 2024 and the select board meeting on April 22nd 2024 second second uh move by Matthew second by Chuck all those in favor I all right motion to adjourn second move by m Matthew seconded by Gary all those in favor I thank you Littleton see you May 28th peace