e e e e e e Windows K as it says he's got an apple on the keyboard I'll try literally just what it says on the screen I I have no inside information here I'm just yeah I don't see the window read the words oh do they not have a Windows key on that thing that's hilarious I tried that tried that this one there should actually be a remote control on the table there are several um there's a Samsung and then there's that one there um what should I do with the remote control from the table the Samsung one should be the one for the TV and if you change the input you should get okay okay all right hold on where's the input button on this thing thanks Jackie uh Source that's like input which one I looking for oh Zoom huh how many finance committee members exactly the whole committee awesome thanks Jackie so we'll tell Sharon she's the one that's on camera hi Sharon we all see you now on the big screen here hi are the other committee members able to unmute and stuff yeah that's cool all right well I'll call meeting order and then I'll um I'll uh we'll do a roll call and then we'll be able to verify if everyone can hear us um okay I'll start with the folks that are on Zoom uh John here Emily present Mark yes Jeffrey yeah yeah Joe here Joe car again pleas spefic sorry about that to and present andry MCD here you want here so okay we're all we're all here in accounted for um trific so thanks everybody um so um just um agenda wise um um I mentioning to the folks in the room um gosh um that slight kind of change in the uh in the agenda um so we'll start off um uh just give a quick update on the Employments uh liaison reports um we the CPA update um the kilum discussion um and the um so the kilum discussion part we can definitely have the prek presentation um from Dr mileski um we're going to have to table that piece of that um Dr milesi um isn't available um and then we will um vote to reorganize and then approve minutes and then we'll talk about future meeting dates and then be on our way um so um so with that just um a quick thing um on the appointments uh congratulations to Jeffrey they're all set at the same time at the side of the table Jeffrey Joe and andry um on appointments are threee uh threeyear appointments um that was settled up at the end of June um so they're now officially starting the uh this is their first meeting in the new in their new appointment term so uh congrats fellas good to have you uh uh back and uh uh and on the committee so um uh good news there um go on to um liaison reports um I have one for kill but I'll let I'll kind of open it up for anyone else that wants to to do it um and then we can kind of go if anyone has something they want to start and then I I can end with kill them because I can bleed into the um into the kill discussion take that maybe we'll take that yeah go ahead Mar um I don't know I signed in on onto that MMA presentation that Karen did mentioned I don't know if anyone else watched it yeah I was just going to ask if anyone I had that so I listened to it and you know there was a lot to it but I did not realize that there's a thing called the inflation reduction act um and along with mass save that allows towns up in I'm sorry up until um 232 to um be able to get direct money back yeah like tax credits in advance towards certain energy improvements yeah um you know it's it's outside of msba so they kept emphasizing that in presentation because msba has their own path of it and um you know some questions even came up in the presentation given what's happening on the national stage and that's all I'm going to say on that like oh would some of this go away on if there's a change in the administration and they said well Congress can't even change this even mid year so you any any projects you would start in 2024 and 2025 would be okay and what I learned a lot from was they had the town manager from the town of Easton who's doing a a public um safety facility which Town Police and Fire and what they were doing and how they they somehow managed to get back in November um I think it was $150 million debt exclusion this is coming after a school they had some tips on you know getting that to pass and getting board boards on board places on board but what tying that into this inflation reduction act money that was the Tipping Point I got from the presentation and you can tell me if you agree that made made it cost wise worth it for them because they had these Columns of would it pay off and a lot of scenario like using geothermal or more energy efficient systems and what whether it would pay off or not and the only scenario on which it would fiscally make sense um for them was with being able to qualify for both Mass Save and inflation reduction act money so somewhere on MMA there's a presentation on that I'm sure in K youd go through that same thing so I wondered about that for our senior center CU I said well that's probably a consideration even though that's in the future but then I also and this is something for the permanent building committee because I may be talking on of my butt about about this part of it when I think of geothermal and Drilling and I think of drilling over on the Simon's Wayside of what are we going to find and maybe it's Drilling in totally different levels and maybe you're not not going to drill and find contaminants when you're doing geothermal and maybe that that has been addressed so I I don't know if it's a twole sword nobody in the audience was asking the question oh when you're looking for geothermal what if you find something else you know so those were my thoughts and there's people that have better knowledge of this than me and reading that can look into it but MMA definitely has some good resources and we should keep it in mind it sounds like for the senior center cuz it money that will go away but is available now yep and did you get anything else out of yeah no I agree everything you just said Mar and um the other thing too like I was even thinking of like this did you get the presentation I could Jackie yeah I haven't down I know they mentioned it I just haven't acquired it but a couple of things I liked about it is like it's a tax credit so immediate so you actually the town actually would file like a like a federal you know tax you you know which we've never done like as a obviously tax exempt entity right and there's no doesn't seem once you qualify it's not like a grant there's no competition for it so as long as you qualify it makes Financial sense yeah and you may be able to use I agree like the whether it's like the Living Center or whether it's even buying like um like you know electric vehicles right commercial energy efficient improvements it's very specific to that but but they did say like that it's not straightforward people are going to spend a lot of time even like you can imagine federal government state government being involved Prov in the process it's not going to be like just just sign here you know yeah I don't know if it fits into m point east lake has much more land they only worri about Wetland you know they they had tons of land to build this massive Center some of this has come up I can and I can go through it some of that kind of come up and where it's like if they were trying to say if you're with a project a project in process don't forget about this as an Avenue to help save you money yep but then there the also you know the getting you You' got to get the project approved and you know you can tell the public about this aspect of it C money the only other part of a of an update unrelated to this was and and sort of tying into the senior center a little bit was um as they in the most recent select board meeting the ice arena was there and some of us have wondered um well some in the community oh well can you even put anything over at Simon's way and the ice seran Authority said basically you know we're okay as long as we can keep our parking I can summarize what they said you know so and if you take any of our parking you've got to give us parking you know in your area because they said they have a lot of surge events that need more parking y so I gu that's thanks very that's it for me yeah thanks jump in and follow just the other thing about the ice arena um MC's presentation probably here he talked about how you know the ice arena has returned 3 and5 million I think he said over 31 years um also talked about the uh uh they just replaced the roof they're not expecting to return any money this year because they just replaced the roof um and that depleted their reserves um I know there was there folks that had you know rld and some folks on the cyboard who were interested in the possibility of solar panels on that new roof but they red out because it would just taken it would yes it would void the warranty on the roof and take 25 years to pay for itself and they you know not financially and also it would raise snow removal lisal challenges that they weren't sure how they would be able to address so taken together they went with without that so they got a new roof 284k anybody else in the room uh anybody on uh online just a quick update from Wreck uh pickle ball Community has raised a significant amount of funds and are starting to explore um options for repurpose or rebuild or new um new courts and so that will affect the capital plan at some point but uh early stages of talks with with the town about where they can been but good for them they've raised a ton of money and have organized and um they're really rolling so yeah that's awesome yeah that's that that that that's super I I I I don't know where I saw that but um um I saw something about that so I think that's fantastic thrilled for that great did did they I just have to ask how much is tons of funds like did they give a even a ballpark figure number of digits did they what how much how much did they did they me they mention the amount Emily that they raced yeah I I I I I I I I couldn't I I think I saw a figure but I but I I couldn't tell you exactly what it was I'll look through um every little bit helps just curious um anybody else um with with an update John or Mark I know I just thought of one more thing that's not quite related to us but just coming up as a reminder to everyone that a week from today is the MBTA communities update and I I know from talking to um Andrew and the assistant Town manager that they're going to be presenting four new options and they're going to have um kind of tables like set up like the half of the half of this they talked about it in the recent cbtc meeting so it's going to be a lot more interactive where each options people will be able to interact with the town and see more details about it and see close up there'll be a brief presentation and and they're really hoping you know based on the feedback for that they'll be able to come back with something um to finalize in time for the fall warrant so it's not quite a financial issue but it's it's important for the town for for compliance and um non compliance would be a financial I think cpdc has seen what the options are and I think that they it was I've heard that they're very responsive to our our feedback so I think it'll be good for people um and they're going to have it in the Library so um people will be able to it won't be like the school you know every's trying to read on a screen not the public feedback not just fincom right oh yeah no fincom doesn't have to be there no yeah no when you said hour I'm like I'm like I think I me we the citizens bring I'm sorry no no no no no don't need to no we're not posted yeah no I just want to clarify uh I didn't think we carry that much weight um I'd like should we be posted for that just in case a bunch of us show uh I'll take that uh I'll take that back and see if maybe yeah maybe each maybe even s probably probably should be posted all right so I'll um I'll give a um because there's a lot happening oh Jeff did you have anything okay um so I'll give a a killum update and and again some of this will kind of bleed into the um some of the aspects of the discussion um that we have of the bullet um and there's a couple takeways from that but um so A lot's been happening um as it relates to kilum um we've had two of our meetings we've actually also had a community meeting in between um since since our last meeting um and we've made you know kind of a a lot of progress um and just you know kind of more on the meeting front um the kilum school building committee has a few subgroups as well one on education one on Communications and one on sustainability uh the sustainability U one is you know education's kind of already um kind of gone through its Arc um and um probably doesn't have as much because that's was really kind of informing the design team as far as what we wanted to be able to set up in for space so um so that's you know I think a little bit Plateau they probably will re-engage at some point but sustainability and it really gets back to what you were um mentioning from the um the MMA presentation um a lot of talk about um just the overall uh kind of footprint um and then um a lot of talk about uh the inflation reduction act um what types of options um and that process so so we''re been very fortunate from a um from a school building committee uh perspective uh both um RM and designers are well versed in it and so they're you know um have been able to educate us on you know exactly you know how what the process is um and um what like and I think it was even to 's point like when you qualify for it it's basically you have to perform basically after you build the building you have to like the performance on the back end is what dictates some of the points that you get off um you know uh from msba but then also um for the inflation reduction act as well so there's you know some of these are um um their Performance Based on the back end once you once you kind of build the building um so and still more to be happening on the uh we haven't uh made any determinations um as far as the type of um you know um Heat or you know anything along those lines um that's still uh to be determined um we did vote in uh not our last meeting but the meeting prior um we had you know kind of 10 different uh schematic designs we voted them down from 10 to four uh two of them and these were all kind of msba kind of mandated um you need to have one that's a complete renovation um you need to have one that's a renovation addition and then uh in both of those are kind of non-starters for us but you you required to have those as far as your msba um uh submission um uh and then we had two preferred uh designs um we as a committee voted on a couple to to be able to reduce those um selections down to those to those four um but the qualifications we also had votes on um including all of rise prek in in the building um and so we voted uh to be able to do that um to include that and and the interesting note on on that one is that we've kind of learned throughout the process um in uh some of the discussions back with the msba on cost estimates Etc that I think early on there was some questions and debate on whether if we did that if any if the MSB was going to reimburse any of that uh because it really was kind of out of scope what we thought was out of scope because it's an you know kind of a K through five elementary and this would be um introducing something new come to find out that um the way that we did our submission um initially our application in the MBA we included that um as a possibility and because we did um and it's not everything um there's it's a it's probably I think maybe about 60% of the estimated cost because it's for classrooms any kind of and Administration um or you know kind of non-classroom that's not necessarily reimbursable um but um but so a pretty significant amount of what that additional cost would be for that would be you know kind of reimbursed by the msba so um that's what you know kind of informed us um as a committee to be able to vote for it um the other aspect that we um uh that we voted uh voted on was basically just the kind of schematic design of the of the building whether it should be two FL three floors and so um the other one was that it's we've uh uh voted to um recommend like a three story building um and so there's a couple different you know kind of designs of it um and um but you know one of the things that you were talking about Maran from the MMA piece about about uh you know kind of ground sourced geothermal geothermal actually geotherm um even though the site that we have is tight um there's you know there's thought that they can do it all kind of underneath you know the whether underneath the building or underneath the parking lots to be able to do it um on it's on side there's quite a few Wells that they would have to drill um but um given how we're going to have to where where the position of the building is going to be which is going to be on the where the ball fields are now and then you'll end up raising the um uh the existing building afterwards that given that and and the areas where you could um to do that uh that would give you sufficient area to be able to do that drilling um uh again some of the devil's still in the details some of that still yet to be determined but it it wasn't like it was a non-starter yeah the thing I didn't understand when I and I was actually listening to it while walking not watching it so I wasn't seeing your slide is how they could manage that and build a school while kids are in the school like how you how you Dr while yeah so yeah so I think yeah some of that and and and it was actually a really good um that's a really good point because I think um uh the designer was talking about it depending on the timing as far as when you start construction if you start some of this stuff and you're starting the summer then you know that I think that's part of the availability as far as and it's also when the ground is easiest to drill you so it's both I think it's both of those you know um um but so it's you know kind of really um we're making a lot of progress um um um you know a town meeting approved um from free cash like the 2.2 million for the feasibility study which is kind of where we're in the you know kind of later stages of that now but we're still on budget um and on time um we're waiting for uh some final feedback from our um latest submission to the msba um but then our next meeting is in August I think it's August 5th and that's where we're going to determine amongst other things the preferred schematic design so we'll have feedback um back from msba on what we've submitted and then on our end we'll uh prefer uh we'll choose a preferred design on that August 5th meeting um and then I think how that um um you kind of extends um I do think um and and and part of that was in the packet and what I wanted uh uh Tom to uh Dr milesy to be able to present is that whole prek presentation he's done it once at the killer meeting he also did it at the community meeting um last week or yeah last week I think it was last week um and it's really it's it's really uh good um uh presentation and it kind of just describes the you know um the knock on effects of actually moving everything into kill uh because then it frees up space in Wood end it frees up space at the in in the major point is is Fring up a bunch of space um in the high school and so just that one you know kind of it's not minor but that one change has such a drastic effect for the just about the entire student population uh because you're hitting so many different uh schools with it um so I it was it was really kind of fascinating I think what we'll end up doing is um um having him uh do that presentation as part of like the next community meeting that we do um like you know Financial form light you know type of things that we did that we did at the end of May um that next one um doing it you know towards the end of August or early September probably makes a lot of sense timing wise because we've also made some progress on uh the preferred uh schematic design as well um so that's just something to be able to kind of um uh you know keep in mind toward us but um you know uh really we've come along way um lot's been happening um and um when it's generally kind of a quiet time in the summer but um it's been kind of full steam ahead it's been I've been super impressed you you definitely learned something you know kind of every every meeting um it's it's a long process and um but yet but we're doing well with it um anybody have any uh anything to add or any any questions um uh regarding kill so sorry Joe I took um I just took that kilum discussion a little bit out of order just because I know um kind of Segway with my le on report but we'll go back now and then um so um when we were putting the agenda together Joe and I um we you know kind of Joe our representative um on the CPA um committee um and um had enough you know kind of you guys have made enough progress to kind of give an update so just kind of passing over to you to give that I I was originally thinking this would just be my le on the report you made it a separate P of the agenda same difference um uh real quick two two um or three depending on how you count things that you might be of interest to the group um that I've had to look into in my role as the finom representative one is looking at our you know we finance committee have a policy designates our 23 peer communities uh it's interesting like to our peer communties adop CPA they are split right down the middle it's sort of 11 and a half out of uh 23 because when Winchester is voting in November so if Winchester adopts CPA will go from 11 out of 23 to 12 out of 23 um so it's interesting they're all over the place several of them adopted when the CPA was brand new in 2001 um uh and then you know four of them have adopted in the last uh four years um so it's kind of all over the place there um what are their percentages uh so that's yeah so that's interesting so it's it's one thing this this pattern is not limited to our peer communities it's on a spreadsheet it's kind of yeah the um so when the CPA was first um created um many communities adopted it maybe most communities adopted it at the full 3% rate um they were also getting a full 100% match at the time because there were so few communities so this pop was not being anyways nice um and now of course they're just used to it they do it um uh most you know most adoptions after the first wave have been less thanks so you can go to half a percent I just noticed you can yes one commun did did in fact do that um wo did that um originally I'm looking at this thinking okay this is proportional to wealth of the community but then Milton takes that away and actually it yes it's really it's proportional to adoption it's inversely proportional to adoption date to well because the thing is too you you you you want to spend your money sometimes on projects other than what's allowed on this you need you to keep your money for that too yeah well the other thing so we had a um so our last meeting um we had uh Chase Mack communications director for the community preservation Coalition come and talk to us for hours great discussion um and you know one thing that they've observed is patterns in terms of the um the absolute amount that that you intend to get passed um because they look very closely at what does and does not you know get passed by the voters um you'll see you know several our peer communities you know tried it can't be tried three or four times before they finally got it um and uh Ring Of course tried in 2002 uh we actually only tried a 1% It didn't include us on our this table which is kind of a funny thing I think about it um but uh I didn't you know that we did that Yes actually tell me then I remember yeah it wasn't presented that well I think that was part of the challeng I'm not trying to Le either way but it was I'll get to this it was a failed override back then too right so it was the same and CPA was presented in the same election as a Deb exclusion for the high school uh which is strongly not recommended in terms of if you want to pass you don't want to um Put It Forward at the same time as a Deb exclusion um which is obviously relevant to considerations because we are looking a couple exclusions yes so um at our um uh at our at our uh while I'm talking about this at our next meeting on the agenda we actually have um to talk about um some kind of initial recommendation to the select board because our Charter is technically to provide a recommendation or charge is to provide a recommendation to the select board with respect to uh putting on the ballot in November um the the you know I can't speak to commit because we haven't voted on it but I can speak I can certainly quote Chas Mac who was very emphatically negative about our prospects for being able to get it done in November um uh of 2024 that is um so you know we'll talk about other options the other I mean the following elections are it has to be part of a regular election you can't call special election for it yeah Winchester in the past they delayed to make it to the presidential election because they thought oh historically that brings people out but they got their school debt exclusion done you know last a year ago January their timing different than ours the um so April April 2025 is an option um speak for myself and say I'm not looking towards that um that's would be J yes yeah he would be effectively be and the senior center is on I've looked at the bid documents that's in Spring of 2026 that's that when that would be yes there or no I thought that was spring of 2025 they're mov real fast well the bid document I downloaded the I'm nosy so I downloaded the bid documents for the C Center because I was curious oh how come we're looking for an OPM and I was I was explained to me we should have had an OPM all along but the bid documents have a timing chart in them and I was like looked at all this and and then the way it worked out to be it's like oh they're not really seeking for the those bid documents they're not seeking to vote till spring of 2026 which is in different than what we're all understanding but that's what the bid doc that's that's a no all right uh and then yeah so where where this is probably going you know is um you know we'll also consider November 2026 so we'll probably um make some sort of initial recommendation select board to you know ask to to uh you know could be November and between the two uh there is no election in November 2025 to uh to go along with oh so you'd have to have the dedicated you you can't and you can so you're you're not allowed to hold a special election for the CPA it has to be part of a Rego scheduled local or state election which is interesting weird and there's not like a September State ballot initiative not not currently planned I mean I don't I don't know what can cause I don't know things can trigger elections but um there's not currently supposed to be a state election in November of 2025 interesting um so yeah that's um so yeah we we'll see about um you know making some recommendation with respect to November and if the recommendation is negative with respect to November then probably asking this like Bo to uh modify our charge so we can go ahead and do thorough research on much later dates and then finally um the last thing that was um and uh your cost is the cost estimates and this was um this was my favorite part uh Victor sent me spreadsheets of the value of every property in Reading um and uh the assessed value I should say which interestingly is not the same as like I bought my house for more than its current assessed value don't tell Victor good thing no I'm not I'm not complaining I'm not complaining I do not want the assess value of my house to increase um find where it is thank you but uh it is it is that is worth noting though because when people look at these numbers they're going to say oh I have a million dollar house and uh you may have bought your house last week for a million dollars that does not necessarily mean that it is assessed at a million people know their assessed value because they know what they're I had to look it up I didn't I didn't know all stop my head a difference of it's a six figure difference between I think people might know what their assessed value is relative to the average in reading so you can say oh my tax is higher or lower than than the $10,000 average at least that's what I do so yeah so doing the math and this was I wasn't able to um there's a bunch of exceptions um actually can you mind scrolling to the projected Revenue section of the little memo thingy I wrote impact there's two parts there's how much total we would take in and there's how much it would impact various representative properties there we go um so yeah uh there are various exemptions that the you can adopt when adopting the community preservation Act um one which seems to be very widely adopted is to exempt the first $100,000 of assessed value um $100,000 isn't what it used to be but um that's one thing the committee asked was like can we get it more no it's in the statute you have to get be can help to change the law in order to have an option of exempting anything other than $100,000 cuz I suspect that if you propose doubling that um a lot of towns will probably get for it um because certainly property values have more than doubled since 2001 200 so um but in any case yeah so you're looking at um and then there's a whether or not res commercial properties included is another decision to make um you can also have exemptions for um uh uh properties um that belong to to low income or low and moderate income seniors um but I don't have information on you know the incomes of people who live in all these properties so I just omitted those exemptions um the do any Comm do that I mean yeah I think that's pretty beyond seniors like looking at income of residents uh well for purposes of of adop adopting the CPA uh is I don't it this just feels kind of intrusive I don't well it's it's a question of whether you are I mean you could apply for for whe whether the when the town adopts CPA whether exempt lowincome properties from it so or properties belong to low-income residents I but see it's not not terribly unlike the you know the senior um like income restricted properties CU people's income can vary and people it's not I don't believe it's deed restricted it's not about it's not about deed restricted properties I think it's about the income so you have to apply it's probably an application yes the default is you'll get assessed and then you go in and you the owner could apply provide you know you know evidence of what their income is and then they would get they would um the CPA sech charge would be removed from their property tax bill I see so but I couldn't estimate that because I have no idea what that would be Jo Joe do you know can you have different by the different class could you have different SE charge rates or it has to be one search charge rate across all property all classes yeah so you can exempt so you can you can you can exempt commercial or not but you can't assess different search charges do commercial what do communities do for commercial oh that's a good question I don't think I I will take an action item to look that up because I don't actually remember um uh look what exemptions are adopted by peer communities um it's not hard they have the the the community pres if you want to you know look into this yourself Community conservation.org is a amazing website just a treasure of data there um you know get reports on how communities are spending their money the do it seems like on all the failed attempts since we've seen commercial properties drop and you know there's been some push to increase the the split yeah it it seems unlikely that we would want to exempt commercial properties and increase the burden on the residents I this will be you know the study committee will have to make a recommendation this either way if you have an opinion feel free to to the study committee um did you on um uh who's I know Carlo and you were on it who else is on the committee so um Eric Gaffin representative from RE okay um Martha Moore is a representative of conservation sir bachio is a representative from uh the historical commission um uh Margaret Dolly Moran is the representative from uh the um uh Housing Authority um did you already say Carlo from I I said car so I did that one and then we had uh just to make it an odd number we have one at large resident um uh said yeah no okay yeah thanks I just was curious I didn't know I wasn't sure who was the of the committee so on the website that um Joe mentioned so some communities they do the exemption on um um on Residential Properties only and then some do it on residential and Commercial yeah so you can actually do either both or one one that that is true if you wanted to sort of effectively have a higher rate on Commercial you could apply the $100,000 first 100,000 exception on residential only ah so effectively would increase the value of commercial properties by $100,000 artificially relative to their assess values yeah do you know like the I kind find this like the historical reimbursement rate if we did like say 1% right like that's something that I I put in here like it's gone way up and down and actually 39 and 14 are among the recent extremes um but it's it's um the match is funded by a uh a fee that's assessed when anytime you file anything in the registry of deeds so every property transaction which what what ends up meaning is the match basically tracks real estate activity levels so when interest rates are low and everyone is selling their house or refinancing or refinancing their house the match is um is high uh interest rates of course currently High and the match is at the pretty abysmal 14% this year so 14 would apply to all whether it's 1% two three exactly there is there are complicated rules for if you if you adopt at the 3% rate which is very hypothetical I don't think that's really a possibility but um for communities that did adopt it back when that was politically feasible in 2001 uh there are additional rounds of matching uh on top of the initial I think that those deed fees are taken and like 80% of them are just split up in proportion to what people collected and you know so um and then the remaining 20% is given but it's a formula that is U so it's it's it's means tested so depending on the affluence of the community and reading is in the I think second highest tier uh by their standards so we would get extremely little in the second and third rounds matching even if we did it on to 3% which is part of why I don't foresee 3% consideration I didn't bother including it here especially not with the other things that'll be on everyone's Bill also true but gu it's nobody has I mean I think I I don't want to say nobody there are still lot very different communities around but um it is not been a lot of uh the pattern you saw on our Pure communities where recent adoptions are 1% and adoptions 20 years ago 3% it holds pretty LLY so and you can take the community can you might have already said this community can take votes to go up or down to and change their percent how common that is but uh it has happened like one of our peer communities did uh they changed the exemptions at one point I think um that's the only example I was aware of seems like I was looking for commercial exemption commercial and I couldn't find it but it does seem like most communities have no exemptions for commercial like I was finding that with Framingham tuxbury Belmont yes which is interesting because I mean usually commercial taxes are something certainly in Reading politics or something of a Hot Topic but but yeah I I don't have example of that I think yes Canton uh changed their exemptions and I didn't write down exactly which exemptions they changed in 2014 they held on their vote two years after they adopted in 2012 so probably somewhere actually um maybe I don't know um yes so yeah so we'll we'll um so we'll have an initial recommendation the select board after our next meeting and and you know my individual prediction not that you know word of the committee is that will recommend against November and ask the cbard to extend our charge research something like November 2026 or something between awes a lot of work that went into thanks Jo that that's a um there's a lot that goes into that and uh and understanding the the timing of that stuff is and stuff like that the next yeah the next page is really important too the one that we want to know how much we make we don't want to know how much we cost so maybe extracts of this can be in a presentation of the next financial Forum or something or yeah absolutely if we have another Financial Forum I think that I think this would this would this would be an excellent thing like even just this page people the bottom line yes exactly so and plus by that time you'll have more of what your recommendations are as well potentially potentially I don't know how long we go I mean it's it's like we have a bunch of ideas for ways to do more research um like I've been in touch with uh um uh the gentleman who ran basically ran the na CPA Asha campaign in 2022 which is something of a model example they did a um they ran a really slick campaign um and uh so we'd like to get them to talk to us um we'd like to talk to some from Winchester about their because obviously they have very recent experience yeah see how they do well I guess we'll probably invite them it'll either be a postmortem or or or a Victory lap but either way we'll talk months yes we'll find out soon enough and uh there's also um we have a ton of information from uh people who worked on the um uh study committee in 2002 um of course it was 2002 so it's all paper notes so we've got to go through those which might take a little while um but um that would be interesting to try to learn what that how that went no I think that would be I think those are those are great ideas I think you know um you know it's obviously in our uh one of the our meeting minutes U was from you know from that um the initial one I think you know extending what you know kind of Carlo presented um in the first one having something like this in the second one that just shows progress and shows some um uh some additional points I think that would be I think that would be excellent did you guys assess like assuming we say this past and we had the money what are the most likely things that reading would spend it on because probably we've acquired a lot of the open space that can be acquired in run maybe I don't know if that's an answerable question and historical properties maybe we've acquired most of what's historical and so it would be more Recreation like is there an area that is if you said okay say we're getting a million in CPA money a year or two million what is the most likely thing that reing would be using it for has that come up so this is another thing that we need more time to research and this is part of why what we don't have time to research between now and November um but the by Design the committee contains people from conservation rack historical and housing and so they um will all um you know be asked to report on what the opportunities are in their respective areas we've done this informally so far but I don't think we' tried to weigh like the sizes like how much you know these things and some of them are are very differently shaped some of the you know housing things typically what ends up happening is you save up the money for several years and then it's actually used as it's usually your contribution that's matched by some much larger Grant because housing is really expensive yeah so it's not you can't get a lot of think you can use the money to like maintain our town forest or something like that I mean there's some cutting the bad pine trees or actually could be used for that the um yeah invasive species management be used for that this is that's something the um um uh so those are definitely possibilities um I know I know it could build pickleball courts I know if the senior center didn't have a gymnasium and built it without a gymnasium later we could build a gymnasium with it if we held right if we print if we print a report I'm putting a pickle ball court on the cover sorry um uh but yes that's uh so can I just add one more thing um so this is another type of Revenue stream and with every Revenue stream you can actually borrow against it and I see that a lot of other towns they actually funding projects with the um with the CPA uh in anticipating our Revenue but only certain projects uh yeah they have to fall within the the qualification but some them like I'm looking at them right now is um they have TF a athletic fields and track so they they paid 1 they borrowed 1.2 million and that's one of them was um for um a park buz buzzer Bay Park they borrowed half a million for it uh one of them was the the bo Forest so they actually using it for Forest projects my guess is in the in the beginning you probably don't have enough money to to do large projects but if a large project come up you can borrow for it and actually do it because you have this set Revenue stream that it's going to pay for it could you you could still borrow like we have enough terms of way our Deb is structure now right we could just have go and borrow too this is a new Revenue Stream So if you if you Bor I'm not saying yeah I'm just saying is it do we do we need that I guess I'm Revenue if if it passes if the CPA passes it can fund projects that and you're paying the interest back to yourself uh what do you mean by that when you say you're borrowing against it is it it's just like any regular Bor you pay the interest but guess you you're because it's a revenue stream and the CPA you're getting money it's a revenu every year you pay for it every year just like any other but you're doing a a large project that you would never never have done it if you didn't have this so yeah so like don't something yeah you don't have to necessarily do like small Wednesdays and Tuesdays you could do a Bigg project you know you'd have to get consensus amongst all the stakeholders that this is what we want to be able to do but then now that you have that Revenue stream that can help fund and so you're not borrowing it's it's a way to pay off another way to pay off your debt I so it doesn't crowd out would a lot pressure yeah wouldn't make approach on our FL that's that's a really good point for Deb Capital so yeah um that'll be uh see we we'll certainly have lists of pro and one more bit of homework that I haven't done yet is look back at all the projects we've considered we being finance committee town meeting um uh because we have approved a number of projects in the past that could have been CPA and so I'd like to sort of compile those as a reference for like this is the sort of thing that happens in this town that you know yep um good perspective Birch meow I was going to say bir Birch Meadow even the turf fields and stuff like that yeah interesting so y thanks Joe thank you I thought it was going to be a short update that you all no yeah it's I mean it's it's pretty topical so can I chy question sorry um of course not okay cool see you is is there if it's adopted is there a threshold that has to be spent or is it something we could accumulate over time you don't have you so you have to uh the requirements about allocating some of it every year but there's not requirement to spend it so you have to allocate % of it every year to each of open space slre historical aning but that just basically means you just put it in a different account and set it aside um you don't have to spend any of it you can just take the whole thing and Bank it for 10 years and then do something that's where I've seen the Articles though where towns have allocated the money into affordable housing but it's never gotten spent because it's never been enough and that's been a criticism I think yeah and then you have some of other um some other towns that have actually Bor for affordable housing because they have the and they cannot do much with that but they can borrow and do the project and you'll see if you go through project there's a lot of them that that use it that way yeah for theable the other thing with portable housing that Margaret mentioned was um that because I think she's done work with um other CPA communities that to affordable housing that that have um use it for affordable housing and it's invariably it is the one it's a grant where the town or city is expected to put in some small share themselves and so they use CPA for that so they end up multiplying Mone considerably basically by being eligible for Grants to require personal matching that's interesting that's good to know too yeah excellent thanks Joe any other questions for Joe all righty um so we now um are on to um reorganize so Sharon am I am I passing it to you uh to run this part of the meeting yes you can yeah well I think yeah yeah so you'll just yeah so I'll pass it to you we'll do um um uh chair and then the chair can do Vice chair n uh I I do have a nomination um I I nominate uh Joe carahan um for uh for chair um second thanks um if I can um uh Sharon I just wanted to be able to kind of State uh just you know kind of given um the work that uh that Joe and I have uh I've worked with Joe just in the last year and um a lot of what we've kind of come up with from agenda perspective outside of what he does within the um um within the meetings uh but um it's been uh super helpful I've been a little bit more out of pocket over the last year um I've I've Tred a little bit more for work and so uh and so Joe's really kind of been able to step in um with a lot of the discussions that we've had with Sharon and um and Matt on on different pieces but then also kind of coming up with the um with with agendas he's been you know kind of uh you know really uh indispensable um as in regards to that so it's been uh it's been a huge help um and you know kind of already kind of stepping in doing chair duties when uh that I'm sure that's not what he signed up for so um oh um we cannot hear you Sharon slightly very quiet yeah I can't oh de lost it again are you waiting on me no no we were no we were uh no waiting for Sharon okay sorry my my audio has been funky once we can hear Sharon not that anyone asked me but yes I'm okay with being actually I'm sure that that was her next that was her next thing to ask if you accept maybe should can put on captions or something so we can I think she's trying to reconnect oh yeah she disc play I no longer see her on the list oh there she's back Jackie can let her in can you hear me now much better yeah so much better sorry no worries okay so we had the nomination for Joe any other nominations I have one so I'm sorry did you say something yeah sure yeah yeah I'll go ahead um I nominate Maran Downing and um yeah I I definitely you know like Joe I think what maranne like brings to the table um you know served her thr in the Opera committee I thought you did a great job as a chair of that oh I'll second I I'll second that first sorry uh sorry jar okay sorry about that didn't me um also some of the things that um for that Opera committee working across um beyond the finance committee she had work with you know select board um a lot of different constituents right A lot of people that you know came with different needs and you know trying to manage a large sum of money I thought she did a great job with it I'm always impressed with how prepared she is and how Thor she is with like following up on you know questions and you know members in the community so um yeah I I think she could be really effective in the position so well thank you I think I'm I'm okay with that I'm okay with a voice chair thing too you know that's I appreciate that nin I think's going to get you any other nominations so do we normally do a vote like on the first one first and then the second how do you typic first one first oh well well you know however yeah I think does it actually specify alphabetical I mean even alphabetical it I have always seen alphabetical uh yes I don't just say that CU my last name starts with the same specific in either case we're doing the same order okay so should we just do um Joseph first all those favorite Joseph as the chair we going have to we're going to have to roll call we have people online too okay we call so let's start with people on um in the room Ed uh yes Maran um I guess I'll even say yes you know thank you anyway I don't know if I should take away my it's vote your conscience Joe vote your I'll I'll vote no nothing against you Joe first I'll stick with my nomination so Andre yes Joseph Jo Gran yes and then um Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey yes and then we have John online yes and you got Emily and you got Emily and Mark too oh I don't see I I don't see their pictures sorry Emily yes Mark so I I'd like Mary and be so this isn't a vote against Joe as much as for Mary so um might be no for Joe and yes for okay so we had two no and was that what I heard two knows yes do we still do another vote when we have the majority no no all okay and you're off the be handing it over to Joe yes yep all right so now we are looking for nominations for vice chair Myan second I'm going to steal it too bad you got to show up in these meetings in person that's right Zoom lag gotcha it's so hard to make the Motions I know that's why we do it this way all right um already said you were okay with that so the question um all right uh any other nominations for vice chair all right this is obviously profal Let's Do It um uh I'll um actually do it U I guess I'll do it the same way Sharon did it because sure why not uh so Ed yes Maran yes Joe M I want to say no but I won't I say yes of course uh joean yes Jeffrey yes uh John suin yes uh Emily s yes with my thanks to both of you the Dream Team and uh and and Mark yes great thank you all right congrats awesome and thank you I knew I was going my time I only get one more term after well I'm still in my but then one more going to go in my last term you're going to you're in your last term right no three I still have I still have one more term one more term coming you get appointed get three three if if if the chair is willing to if the appointment committee that includes the uh vcom chair is willing to reappoint you to get exactly yes I'm eligible I'm eligible for one more yeah so are you up next summer uh I'm I might be although I actually so you should have asked you yeah know I might be although I know I've done one where I was the chair for and I was up so it's the last couple years three years ago was it three uh I was I was applying oh no two years ago two years ago I was applying for a 2year slot Emily was applying for a threeyear slot you were reapplying for 3 years and I forget is it you or I can't remember who someone else I was coming on in 2020 that was that the year no you you were on in 2019 so it was an odd an odd year yeah so yeah I remember I interviewed immediately before after Ed I remember Ed having to like recuse himself from his own yeah that's right that was yeah well well were I you know were I up for reappointment this year I would not want to be chair because that's that's right that's that's it's very delicate so um but yes so I'm for the record I'm strongly in favor of reappointing experienced members of the committee so assuming they want to all right um so then let's move along with the agenda um so okay sorry can I just say one thing certainly so um I I don't know how to say this but I think we should say like good like thank you or tip of the half to Ed for like all his like I'm so proud you seated your power Ed you know how hard this was em it was really hard there don't go there not necessary I and I've said it I think privately to a lot of folks uh I I thoroughly love working on uh finance committee and it's and a lot of it is because of all of every person that we have on it um it's been um it's been super fun and it's and I'm thrilled though to be not Jer some things a lot of work it's a lot of work depending on the timing of when you know the future chairs come in like that that'll be the person dealing with when we have to push dead exclusions and overrides so maybe this save the hard stuff for the future exactly but no it's I appreciate that Jo but completely unnecessary and yeah since we're since I don't expect the C study committee to be recommending a this I do not expect to be busy withe because when we know we're not sprinting till November we don't need to rush so when does the charter of the committee end uh the current charge ends ends the end of the year so obviously we have to select for whether or not they want to extend it but I think ask so we can research you for a future date strictly speaking they don't like I mean it was interesting apparently ni didn't have an officially Char committee it was just a group of like it wasn't a an ad hoc committee formed by S um I have to ask them about the details of how they did it but I mean it is the you know bottom line is that people get together and have a you know CPA Study Club or whatever has no association with local government and uh that then you know puts together a report distributes it and you know uses a petition to get something on the warrant or whatever or just you know asks the select Court to put something on the warrant I sensed read really wanted to emulate Winchester based on they you know they got the Winchester presentation in and all the tips were like the way Winchester so we'll see we didn't have to do Town manager search this year which is why they got ahead of us every town has their searches whatever they have we were on roughly the same schedule as them but hard um it's okay I'm very happy with him see anyway all right um anything else should we go on to minutes minutes anybody have [Music] any uh yeah so that actually no I can't thinking out a ter you've been maybe you have been chair too I you list of it all you have Secret challenge yeah [Music] no I got to I got to steal it from Brian next assuming um so uh yeah the um it's not on the agenda tonight um if I recall last year we did it we did leaon assignments in August and I figured we'd do that again this year in August so I think that's clear but um that was purposeful it was all right we put it up all right good question um um and we will need to actually of that so all right anything else or any other um so again approving prior meeting minutes uh any uh Corrections or questions or comments on the May 28th 2024 Financial Forum minutes I have one please have yeah um so I just um again looking at the minutes um I didn't have anything to um change I just comment wise um just the number of um just to show some appreciation we had a ton of people I like I don't know people looked we had probably the most people that we've had in in a fincom is meeting um um um uh uh present and I thought really that everyone that presented um Sharon I thought you did an awesome job um I thought um talking about you know just the kind of the finance pieces I thought injury was excellent as far as um adding to that I thought Carla did an amazing job and she's been doing an amazing job as chair but she did a great job her and Tom on killum um I thought Mark did excellent um you know kind of describing where they are with recal and and and we're already seeing some of the you know kind of the more structur to that on the back end thought Carlo you know kind of um you know reset the charge for uh for CPA I thought it was just an excellent meeting and I'm looking forward to the to the next one so I I I really was really happy with how I how it came out it's a lot lot of others presents it was a lot I I I I it was that kind of stuck out to me when I saw it so Jackie I'll just on those remote people are those some of them that they didn't provide their last name and that's why we just see Judy and Eric with last names okay I know Judy was Judy cman if that helps but if they didn't report it I guess you probably h see now I'm trying to see if there's any of these I can identify not sure so I I know just in the minutes here it's saying that we're going to have a financial Forum in September that was in May so we're 911 in September so is that and then so September 18th is still the finan I know we getting ahead to Future meeting agenda item so that's still yeah we're going to have enough information by that yeah I mean I mean I could be I mean it really could be I was looking at the other things I know that's what I said um um may have been wrong but it is what you said yeah this what I said but we could also do I mean you conceivably we could do some in August you know if we have an August 21st meeting we could we can conceivably um you know repurpose that meeting for first for for doing you know kind of an extension of this I heard Maran correctly she's concerned about not having information yet yeah no I just I'm just looking to say okay so we have one we have one meeting our next meeting right we're going to be reorg and then there'll be more kill them information by then and I guess by then me help will have their OPM possibly selected and then but then I guess what is going to be the new information by September 18th for financial for will mainly be kill information well I mean our normal CPA maybe decision so our normal Financial Forum um in September like then we start to get back to into into budget no I guess I guess that that would be the DAT yeah and I should be yeah talking about actually that was one thing we were talking about this last time it was a little trouble actually making it all fit it seemed like everything was going to go into the First Financial forum and nothing was going to go into the second one um because we have to talk about free cash in the First Financial Forum because we have to make our recommendation prior to the second one so uh if we can you know if the capital stuff gets put off to um the second Forum it's going to be fine yeah I guess this is this is it so well get don't want to get that past the minutes I just noticed we were referring to something in the minutes but okay the topic on the agenda so we're allowed to to discuss it get yes all right so I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes of our May 28th meeting presented second too slow I button is killing me yes all right thank you Ed thank you Jeffrey um got to do this by roll call sorry um I'll start go back to starting on Zoom uh John yep uh Emily yes Mark possibly muted is Mark still here checking the zo he's still here Emily or John can you hear anything I can we can hear you Mark Mark can you hear us if you approve the minutes Mark say yes he's M am I not audible on the zoom I'm usually no we can hear you okay I can hear you all right I mean is there a zoom chat that he can that's why loud just I am all right I can't hear you oh dear um all right it's probably on his side that might be on his side then I don't know if um everybody else here yeah all right okay well let's I guess that's anain anain all right a very important vote here I don't know all right Ed please yes Maran yes Joe yes hre yes Jeffrey yes and Joe yes Joe yes all right on to the minutes from uh June and June move to approve the minut of June 26 thank you Maran thank you Emily I don't think you can second the motion if it hasn't been made done with it you can give [Music] Emily she took a breath I had to sneak in I just I was just adding the year but that's okay I literally didn't wait for her to finish so I didn't um all right okay uh any discussion I didn't have any myself so all right uh roll call vote John y Emily yep mark it would be great if you can hear me sounds like we are still having technical difficulties it's unfortunate uh Ed yesam yes Joe yes and okay one abstain for hry uh Jeffrey yes and Joe Gran yes so seven 02 all right uh meeting schedule uh next meeting dates items we have a prospective schedule in the packet do people have uh comments questions or concerns does uh Sharon have anything on uh her for the 18th Sharon that was a question to you I'm sorry I didn't hear the question so Sharon did you have anything you know kind of already circled for the 18th on on your end for us well normally we do our financial form that that the First Financial form we give kind of like the projections of combinated cost and revenues and um if we have it free cash um so that could happen on the 18th if really early to do it on the 21st of August that's too early so do you have anything for the 21st then sorry I I'm I have my numbers uh trans okay the 21st nothing is coming to mind um I don't know we're you know as we approach budget season and we've got these projects I think we have one every month scheduled we don't always need them gotcha we already talked about for the August 21st on assignments assignments I don't know if we're going to we do weren't we talking a couple of meetings ago about getting an update on I don't was that the was it the RC rctv finances wasn't there some other Finance uh well there was we've talked on and off about getting a presentation from rmld that's it different yeah mark would Z would he our our Le on to that would know more but I think we wanted okay I think we have two on these two okay all right maybe he may have been in the past sure I'm just I was think maybe I was thinking of rctv Cu I thought somebody told me that the building that they're in is now up for rent so I don't know if rctv is moving or maybe that was just a rumor I don't want to like spread rumors in a meeting but they I know they were concerned about meeting their rent and I don't know I don't know I know the select board's having a discussion with rctv in in in September anyway they're concerned that their finances but we do want to have it that we could maybe in August we could plan something for when we can ourl in the fall any Financial update I mean we don't have a lot on that August 21st no dat other than planning what's going to happen in September I guess but if if rmld is available then it might be worth and having come so is this something that one of you two can ask ask about I I know there was talk about them there was a question of them borrowing and Y um if that's something that tell me you have to approve if we reach out to them is it just a financial update in general or are we focusing on a subject specific or I think it's you know if they have anything they want to talk to us about financially that would be relevant to the town I would think their focus would be on the potential borrowing so I would say August would be a good time foral to come in okay so so um yeah I can I can them so reach out um feel fre me on that or whatever you want I don't know don't if everybody has my email or not it's just okay I'll um Okay cool so to them um because I'm actually out of the country at the 21st so um I'm friend a m of the rctv board I can reach out that and there's a meeting tomorrow night too the president so um uh I can reach out to the president of the rctv board if there's anything they' like to talk to us about yeah I mean I think that they were reserving that that the select board I know they had their contract was coming up and the select board was going to talk to them like some issues got raised and then they said they were going to try to have time in September I don't know if they would talk to the select board before us I maybe I should just try to find out if the thing about I saw with the building was was going to change if they were looking for a different building or looking to sublet maybe some of their space or maybe it's just as a common address and what this person saw on Lut that they shared with me was erroneous or coincidental but they do return some money you know they do um sorry colle the town collects money that we then right or a pass through for but yes yeah but but they're running a def a continual deficit and they not able to you know we Sharon had given that a few months ago some of their financials to us remember it's in our I think it was May and they are having Financial issues all right I'll reach out to um the president of their board yeah well I I think to the mar first point if they're already scheduled to do it in the select board they should prob to the St board before they do us yeah maybe if there's anything then that's out of that that arise is on okay what does this I'd have to go look at a recent select board meeting to see okay what are their future agendas I can take an action though to see when when are they going to the select board and see how that fits into our timing because it may be later that makes sense do sound like end up on the August no no it's not urgent probably be in between the two well we may not even meet in between the two Financial forums like some time in October Maybe that will be closing the warrant do you think that um in August we might have some review of November town meeting like whatever articles have come up um I don't know if they finalize it by them but they might have um some information we can start sharing about the Articles we know about so I don't know sometimes you know Town manager would review I don't know if August is too early for next I don't know when they close that warrant I think it's a little bit early it's not closed by the select board do we normally wait till the select board closes the War I think we typically do yeah we do it I mean that being said if there is if there's literally anything that Matt wants to talk to us about I'm happy to listen the big all right so yes so anything that um we be in touch with um well didn't in the Springtown meeting didn't didn't he hold off on the borrowing for um lower Haven or something and uh that is and that we tabled that article remember so I guess we could ask if that was going to come back in the fall I don't know I don't know what was happening with that that might be the biggest cuz that was like 7 million in borrowing or something that that could be the biggest Financial potentially we all know what what we're actually going to spend three night liberating but maybe or maybe you know keep our fingers crossed next week I I I agree with your in that's I'm optimistic okay I'm not going to be here oer 9 the rest oh okay I'm going to be here oer I mean we can look at calendars when we get closer to none of this is right now yeah yeah I plan like six months yeah that's a that will be obviously a good one if we actually be discussing War articles but uh so if there's a different time that would work for more of us notic that we'll see more by September 18th because I think the select board usually closes them around like September 27th there's something they have to be ready for us to y all right so we got so Financial Forum 2 will likely be we have more info about capital projects at least kill them yeah now I want to learn more about the the changes on for rec all right um and then yeah we have our you know in case of last minute Warren article meeting hopefully don't have um do we even need to look at the 25 part of the schedule right now here if we want but I mean I sure I don't know what I'm doing on March 12th 2025 I mean I know what I'm doing I'm coming to finom assuming I don't have I know oh okay you might um uh but if you'll be busy I will definitely not get the flu that week this year um so all right cool anything else on the topics of future agendas and meetings motion to adjourn second second em Emily you got you got to come hang out with us that's all there's to it you know I was on single parent duty tonight and I just couldn't make the whole world work sorry guys appreciate we'll pick up we'll pick up your slack on motions and seconds I'm sorry we have to have a roll call to J you're one three y so all right um so uh roll call vote uh to adjourn uh John yes Emily yes please mark if you can hear me if you can't you'll see the Mee again ween yeah he'll see the Mee again he's there he's there and he is not muted according to the zoom black FR yeah the little black FR be joined don't know that anyway moving along with the vote uh Ed yes Maran yes Joe yes hry yes uh Jeffrey yes and Joe caran yes all right take e