##VIDEO ID:PrNQeoqfgtU## e e e e e OHP nice flipping off must do this last year [Music] last okay good evening everyone I'd like to call the reading select board to order and um happy New Year to all and um I'll do a quick overview of our meeting then we'll open for public comment um and there are the bells great so tonight's lineup includes um our usual select board Le on reports and the town manager report we have a public hearing to uh vote to approve amendments to the FY 25 classification plan at 7:45 we're very excited um to present some Eagle Scout awards um I think that'll be the highlight of the evening at 8:15 we will discuss and vote the senior property tax worker program updates at 8:45 we will discuss a performance review of Tom Andre matralis at 9:15 we will do future agenda discussions at 9:30 we will approve prior meeting minutes at 9:45 10 and 10:15 we have three executive section items all of which um if were held as a discussion in Open Session may have a detrimental effect on the town's litigating position it looks like we will not be returning to open session after our executive sessions and those items are number one discussion of strategy for pending lawsuit by the town against dely Construction Inc discussed litigation strategy with respect to davonport versus the town of reading and to conduct strategy session in preparation for contract negotiations with non-us P non-un Personnel Town manager Matt cralis okay so with that um we can open to public comment in the room and as our tradition we keep public comments to two minutes if possible and we look forward to hearing oh I see a couple of raised hands excellent would you like to go first and you could just come up to the podium and introduce yourself and let us know where you live and it's all yours okay so we've been given um a letter to the select board with a number of Resident signatures thank you yes as we know I'm Pete CR at 3 343 Franklin Street I spoke the four years about the halfhazard plowing of the sidewalks in this town which are disgusting at the at best at best how many how many years have we talked six six and what's got done out of it nothing so boys and girls it's time to get off our butts I watched the lady walk down Main Street this last storm because the sidewalks weren't plowed I talked to Carlo Carlo was saying in the Square the sidewalks hadn't been plowed wake Fields were done at 3:00 in the morning North readings were done at 4:00 in the morning reading did not even go out you have three things in plowing snow you have equipment you have Manpower and you have management you have the best equipment in the world you have the best guys in the world sadly you have no management it was a Management's call to send the men out it did not go I'd like to know why can you give me an answer this is public participation we don't um usually respond give a call give right I would cuz nobody got back to me after my complaint this last St nobody got back I talk to you you you and K nobody got back to me I pay a lot of taxes in this town my fam pays a lot of taxes in this town I live on a Schools Franklin Street I have 80-year-old neighbors that walk dogs they can't walk their dog because the sidewalks AR plowed worry about parking in Reading Square worry about the plowing of the sidewalk they should be done the minute you're done plowing the streets you have 45 miles you have four pieces of equipment that's 11.25 miles per equipment it should be done right after it's done plowing not 3 days later like you're famous for doing when you're pushing ice and it doesn't go you watch too many people slip if anybody gets hurt out that street it's on your shoulders now let's boys and girls get the state DPW director on theol can we do that please thank you Mr Kramer what's your address on Franklin 343 Franklin got it can't miss it no okay hello Tom gotad Dar from Vine Street Great you signed in welcome thank you and we have three or four people to speak after me yep I saw the hands yep okay so thank you um I have handouts if that would be okay sure and I have presentation it's already been thank you it's been talked about and if you say it's okay they can sure thanks thanks do you want to leave one from for car to we are expecting count okay great thank you and do we have them up here yes so Kaitlyn was emailed the presentation if it's okay with the chair we can put it up if it's fine with the rest of the board it's fine with me four look like four slides maybe four five okay all right so we're we're trying to keep it to two minutes but thank you I think it'll be helpful yep I'll bring them up one moment okay thank you kay but while she's doing that I can say this is uh about the mbta's proposed new siding down near Vine Street it's supposed to be 4,500 ft long to turn a truck to turn a train around and just for people that aren't that familiar with trains turning a Terrain around is like a car you don't do a you turn you just go from the front of the train to the back of the train and then the back becomes the front they have controls at each end so it's 5 10 minutes tops and then the t is talking about parking with the engines idling on the siding for an hour and they claim that they can't afford the 10 minutes of turnaround time because our proposal would had one extra turnaround so it would be 10 more minutes and they're talking about an idling for an hour and we have a an option which is an existing sighting near the DPW this first slide is the proposed siding in yellow going from Wen Street to Willow Street just short of Willow Street um and these are the schools would be in that area Wetlands would be in that area and Tanner bill is in that area he could we have number two I have to each one individually [Music] okay this is the siding that already exists down near DPW it's roughly the same size as the one that they want to install and it's as you can see it's all industrial area and a small bit of wetland down at the near the end it ends it starts um near Walgreens and it ends at Wakefield Subaru so there's plenty of room to accomplish what they want to do and it's an existing sing and we have the next one okay these these are pictures that I didn't take them there Global uh Google roads for streets this is taken at new Crossing you can see there's already the three sets of tracks there and it's straight as an arrow you can I put a little arrow to the bridge at 128 you can't see them very good from here and then when you turn around you can almost see back to Main Street still straight as an arrow because that was another thing they said is they need line of sight kind of thing okay we have the next one this is an aerial view of the siding you can see that is the entire siding so up to the left you can see Walgreens and the back entrance to M that's um Ash Street going straight up and down and then there's the train tracks to 12 8 and Wakefield Subaru is down on the right and it's the entire distance and it's roughly 4,000 ft of existing siding can we have the next [Music] one this is just an aerial view of the beginning of the sighting and the end of the sighting so if you could see on the top one you can see that the switch is going to three tracks from the single track going into the station and on the lower one you can see that there's three tracks going into a a switching Network headed back towards Bost is there one more was that the last one that's all I have okay so that's just an introduction to what's coming up yeah okay thank you thank you very much very much hi I'm Pat Crowley I live at 71 buying Street I've been a ring resident for 45 years in a Commuter for 40 and um in a granddaughter of a train conductor I Love Trains and I'm in support of having more trains faster trains but not this one like total opposition to this one and I just want to clarify when Tom was talking siding it's he uses technical terms it's tracks so it's adding 4500 square feet of tracks versus um on the residential part this came to us as a conservation issue and truthfully it's more than a conservation issue it's a town issue this um is something that the MBTA has put out as being in their jurisdiction to do there's an exception to that it's not essential government function it's an add-on it's nice to have when I used to commute we had Express trains that we had other means going from Reading to wak field we flew right in you don't have to disrupt those 80 unit people living at tannerville disabled elderly with trains that will be sitting there and the MBTA has now changed their tune first they told us two weeks ago they'd be sitting there for 15 minutes now they're saying an hour there's an anti-idling law in Massachusetts 5 minutes other communities have sued because of this and they have won there are other options which we show and they're saying well you would have to take the conductor and move them to the front very is a year and a half of construction all the disruption that would cause they're talking about putting propane tanks now they are using our backyards in our neighborhoods that John Hopkins has already showed a link to the hazards of all the pollution and all the fumes causing serious um diseases when we already have people who are dis abled so I I don't know if I've used up my time but um I asked that this not just be a conservation issue I ask that this is something the town I have sent letters register letters to the governor to the Secretary of Transportation CEO of the MBTA kolis the state and uh in representatives and I've heard back and also the I switch watershed this is something we're very very serious about and we need the support of the town now we do have a student here Kaden who is very enthusiastic to talk to you about how it affects him as a student thank and I'm very proud of hi I'm Kaden bosski I'm 10 years old and I go to Barrow's Elementary School here in R I live very close to the train tracks and conservation land where they are trying to do this I love spending time down at the conservation land ice skating riding bikes and enjoying the sights and sounds people mainly go down to the conservation land to enjoy peace and quiet and that would be all stopped if there's trains running and there fumes and smoke polluting the air I love to spend time outside doing lawn care and I don't want to get a headache due to the air pollution also in the spring my great is going on a field trip to the conservation land but that might have to be changed due to the air quality and noise thank you for letting me speak tonight hopefully we do not have to do this taking away from our conservation land and neighbors backyards thank you thank [Applause] you hi my my name is Patty McGrath and I live at 76 Vine Street um my husband and I have lived in reading for 46 years I was a teacher and reading for many years I'm here because of my concerns over the attempts of the MBTA to expand into our neighborhood the implications are so many but I wish to speak about the health concerns for The Hundreds who live in this area my husband and others nearby are currently battling Parkinson's disease this disease has no cure and it is a daily struggle for those with it the impact of air pollution exposure to Fuels and Diesel and deicing and constant noise are compromised immune systems are well documented the effects they have unfortunately in our neighborhood we also have sever several neighbors children and adults who are living with various types of cancer many have been through long treatment surgeries and live in a fragile state many more suffer from asthma and other respiratory illnesses this attempt to put in more tracks amidst our neighborhood would have no positive impact as we see it it could in fact threaten the health of our community if in fact there is a real need to have a layover area why not put it in a location that is industrial and already exists the area from the train station Northwest about senior housing two schools playing fields and conservation land with un AER that was recently improved greatly at a great expense and time and there are many homes in this area the NBTA has so far not listened to our concerns hopefully after tonight they will consider more valid options that would have little to no impact on the people of FR thank you my turn uh F thank you for letting me talk oh excuse me did you have a chance to sign in could you just tell us who you are and where you live I'm Jim Riley and I'm signed in 87 handcar got you yes I am Jim Riley 87 handcar thank you I've lived in this town 60 years or more uh I was notified by the Conservation Commission by a hand delivered letter that the MBT was going to do the second rail turn back track uh when I heard that I attended the local meetings and gave my piece my house borders the single rail now that goes from up to Lawrence but it don't it also borders the Linea theen bird reserve and that's the only reason I was notified nobody else was notified if IED if they run beside the track that self is wrong I believe when we're going to have a major change to our society in our town the town needs to know not select people and the only reason the MBTA notified the Conservation Commission is the state laws I I I'm going to start reading uh my major concerns is I believe that the reading residents should have been made aware of the mdta change and able to comment before the MBTA starts any work I had personal phone call with the Reading Town manager on this issue raising issues and concerns air and sound the sound of these I live beside the track when they're idling they're not quiet but the pollution is enormous as people mentioned where they're recommending to put this is tannerville by the parer Middle School running under the bridge along people's private properties that they had no knowledge of this is going to go on my concern with if they put it where they're talking our property values are going to devalue and that's not anything I want to see uh I wrote a letter to the town manager and the chief executive officer you pass uh of the MBTA and I sent the one to the MBTA is a registered return receipt letter I got answered that they came back but I've never heard a thing nothing I also sent a letter email letter to Andrew McKinnon and I didn't hear anything back uh I'm almost done prior to having my phone conversation with the town manager I I sent this letter making my recommendations and at those recommendations which I made in a a town Conservation Commission in front of the people from mpta in kolis they were almost amazed that that we were talking about uh this ex extended line that's already there three rails are there down by the DPW that are unused it's almost and one of the concerns they raised I'm not sure you people seen it but the NBTA came back with point of subject that said one of concerns is it's going to take trains 10 minutes longer to turn around if they went into the area by the DPW because the engineers have to walk back and forth on the train twice to get where they want to go but the pollution and the sound is is way more dangerous to us reading residents than a guy walking 10 additional minutes on the track uh I believe the second rail turnback track should be positioned in the reading DPW area I've read many MBTA response to this suggestion in in and if an increases times for the train engineer to move back and forth that has minimal impact to us as residents here in the town of reading I truly am asking you to make this an issue that the town works on not just a bunch of residents trying to work on I appreciate thank you you Mr want to sign in you know who I am okay I'm gonna write down Miss where do you live again 10 Orchard Park D 10 Orchard Park than thank you okay um thank you Angela Venda Orchard Park Drive town meeting member Precinct 5 um happy New Year to the select board I would like to talk about a couple things primarily the open meeting law violation that the select board committed on December 3rd from 10:22 to 10:43 21 minute period when the select board discussed a meeting select board chair bot she had with the town manager assistant Town manager other staff and representatives from Edge Sports this discussion was not listed as an agenda item it lasted 21 minutes and while Mr B bot characterized it as an update and not a discussion he's wrong he's just plain wrong after five years on the slack board I believe Mr Bachi does understand open meeting law he's just not concerned with it let me repeat I don't think he's concerned with it he doesn't care about transparency he cares about his own personal interest at the December 3rd select board meeting Mr Bachi stated that he had an update not in the agenda not a discussion member he failed to give this update during his own report Mr Bachi stated and I'm concerned about the content of the discussion that he met with the town manager assistant Town manager the OPM for recal and Edge boards to see if they were interested in the rec project and they were not they responded that they might be interested in another project however Mr Bachi should have stopped there but he did not Edge Sports said that they might be interested in a public private partnership sports complex behind the ice arena and Mr Boni without select board authorization or knowledge reached out to Mr mcfaden the representative for the ice arena Mr bot stated that Edge Sports is going to look into feasibility for a Fieldhouse he was not authorized to do that having served as a member of the Simon Way exploratory committee and the vice chair of the recreation committee I can say that this was not a priority for the town although Mr Bachi stated that these two projects were separate and that his Fieldhouse would not impact the senior center Center for active living in what world might that actually occur a second building project which has not been vetted at all down the street from from kilum school construction I believe that Mr botch used a recal as a pretext to speak to Edge Sports as Mr Bachi stated the meeting was just an exploratory meeting to see if they were interested and they are Mr Bachi further stated that we discussed that we would issue an RFI or RFP when time comes so we're not limiting ourselves to just Edge fors he further discussed allowing the ice arena to use Senior Center Parking should it be built this complete lack of transparency back room deal politics and disregard for the law that allows citizenry the ability to understand how decisions are made is really discouraging how is a 21 minute back back and forth amongst four select board members and highest level Town staff not a discussion and deserving to be put on the agenda so that the town knows what is going on why at 10:20 and not during the report someone should have shut that down someone should have shut it all down the senior center active been you're at two plus minutes okay the senior center active Living Center will be affected by this project if it is pursued and I imagine that might be the goal Mr Bach's lack of open process and pursuit of this agenda needs to be stopped I do hope you will address this matter in your reports at or at another time I don't want to see any building behind the arena pursued at this time it was not a priority for it doesn't appear to be a priority for the town or the swack and the town should be concentrating on and the senior center I hope that in 2025 the select board works together congen in the best interest of the town in an open transparent and honest manner for the good of all thank you ncy Doctor Pearl Street precinct one uh T meeting member um in reading the agenda items um I'm reminded that no matter how long you live with someone the first year of marriage can be tough and um I wanted to actually make a comment because what I was the most impressed by um is the comments of people who work the most with the town manager and that is the town employees and I was actually incredibly um pleased to hear how staff morale has been increased and stabilized so with that in mind the first anniversary is paper so happy first anniversary and taking a suggestion from someone um in the Town Forest committee we usually celebrate um mil milestones and achievements okay so hopefully uh during um executive sessions okay um that might come in handy with your paper D thank you alcohol we can't drink on a camera thank you very much I appreciate thank you speak good evening everyone uh select board members uh account manager melis I just wanted to uh thank the people that showed up for Vine Street and talk about this MBTA turnaround track uh and just let you know that uh the Conservation Commission can't address health issues but uh we are concerned with the environment and this particular track and this work goes through two uh buffer zones and some resource areas so our meetings tomorrow night will be in this very room and uh I would appreciate if everyone came here that was here tonight uh show up tomorrow night and give that same presentation so it was very nice I liked it but I think my commission would like to hear it too so thank you very much for showing up got everybody in the room K is there anyone online who'd like to participate public comment uh there's no one raising their hand nope okay thank you um and I'll just say I was remiss this tonight's meeting is being broadcast by rctv Studios on um Verizon 31 Comcast 9 oh or I should say Verizon 33 Comcast 22 for government meetings thank you okay um all right select board liazon reports and town manager report would anybody like to go first just want to say oh thank you everyone we will have about 100 people okay might need a bigger room thanks for warning cupc [Music] [Applause] de happy New Year everyone um so at the December 5th school committee um meeting I wanted to say congratulations to reading cross country team they won States for the first time in 50 years so I think that was a um great achievement for them there was also a discussion on the professional learning um for the staff at the high school at that meeting um and on the December 19 meeting um the reading High School Deca team which is a business Club has now has 68 members and they competed recently 16 of them are going to a state conference which ring has never qualified so I thought those were two big achievements for the high school thanks Karen um happy New Year unless you're Larry David it's passed the deadline to say Happy New Year to people so um uh the biggest thing I think from last year was the kilum school building committee met and finalized the energy um they ended up selecting the um hybrid geothermal option not the full geothermal not the lowest one uh right in the middle um it's still roughly around the same um price but the maintenance um and the ability to have two differen system systems uh functioning at the same time was one of the biggest factors with that um and then at an upcoming uh towards the end of the month meeting uh the uh biggest thing that everybody has been waiting for is the actual price on the project so that's lated to be discussed at that um I don't want to take away the Shine from the chair of the meeting but the number is well under what we thought it was going to be and I'll leave that for her to end up saying what it was so that's good news for everything um and I think that's pretty much it nothing else other than kill them and I'm sure there's other stuff I'm forgetting but it's been a month so could I um ask you to take back to that committee um there's a section on the website for FAQs for this project still like a big empty section maybe the committee in the New Year could start thinking about um I think they had a meeting the other last week or something Matt right are you talking about the town website or the website I think there was ago we decided and and feedback has been given about specific FAQs but it's still empty I think there was a communication meeting and I could take that back to the committee too as well thanks for the update thanks Karen so again Happy New Year to everybody that's that's the biggest highlight of all the activities um recal did have a community meeting on Tuesday December 17th um probably you somewh 60 to 100 people probably came to the meeting and and board members attended which was great thank you for for joining that um a good open discussion of what's going on what the plans are at this point the project is moving forward in terms of developing design ideas and bringing forward um what are going to be the schematic designs which would be required to do the cost estimat um the timing is um hoping to be ready to share with the community I think very end of Feb is that I'm looking at Jenna I'm looking at Jane very end of Feb thank you um to be able to share more information on costs and plans and activities to have a series of community meetings that would follow that um and then to have um the opportunity to U bring forward two town meeting somewhere in the spring time frame whether it's specifically April town meeting or not is a little bit to be determined um it was a good meeting there were a lot of good questions that were raised um differ opinions on things which was great to hear and to get the input and to listen to where people are most concerned um there were a lot of folks that would qualify to be 60 plus and others that weren't necessarily 60 plus but I can't tell which ones who they were um but it was a really good opportunity to get the discussion going again he had kind of had a Slowdown with the summer while we were waiting to hire the owner's project manager now it's back on track and up looking forward to now that we're in January February doesn't seem so far off does it so we'll be going on that and that's really the only update I have good one um oh I should do one other which is we had uh very successful holiday activities but I guess that actually was was that before our last meeting I think the theal lighting was after no it was the it was my daughter bir thank you thank you um very successful activity on the common a lot of folks came out wasn't too cold wasn't rainy snowy the weather operate this year for that one so that was a good event that was very nice so thank you thank you I concur I was able to attend the recal meeting it was a full house lots of enthusiasm and um very well done by The Architects thanks and the bonus project manager um I was also able to attend a Trails committee meeting that Chuck facilitated I don't know if he's still here um and I'm actually um really wanted to communicate to people what what great work the trails committee is doing and and to make sure that everyone understands that um we owe a DB of gratitude to um Bob and Diane weel for an extremely generous donation which will underwrite the extensive Trail work and that needs to be done for current Trails future Trails believe the number was $100,000 is that correct thank you that's an amazingly generous donation we are thrilled if anybody else wants to top that that's cool too but you know you know thank you we're we're so lucky to have these hardworking volunteers and generous residents that are willing they understand the importance of our open space it's one of the things writing is known about and we're desperately in need of resources to maintain them appropriately safely and uh and to the standards of the Conservation Commission too so that's very very exciting um and I did um see that the um rmld they have a charge for the climate law as well to have green energy and they did um invite all of the legislative our legislative team to join them so they could update them and they were all attended so so in terms of us moving forward to our climate goals I'd like to see that happening and wanted to communicate that that was happening so that's all I have um okay Matt your turn yeah so thank you Happy New Year to everybody as well and I was at the killum meeting that was discussed and also the recal open house that was discussed and the manur lighting so I wanted to Second all that that was great and and the generous gift that was given to us that doesn't happen very often and really want to extend a thank you for that gift $100,000 so just a couple brief updates the reading Coalition is sponsoring a mental health first aid training beginning February 4th um I think there's five or six sessions that last through March 4th and there'll be at the reading public library I've heard this training is excellent you can go to the website to sign up so that's a great resource we have in town um I wanted to give a shout out to DPW employee Paul lefave who is retiring ing after 37 years of service to the town um that's that's quite a bit of service with the DPW there was a little gett together for him at the get get together at the DPW office today um and I know he's going to enjoy his retirement so I wanted to give him a little shout out um the staff and I will be T touring the dance schoolchurch next door I sent an email about this the tour is on January 16th it's for sale we just wanted to see if there is any sort of you know municipal or um purpose that we could we may be able to utilize it for I know that you know we're far away from saying there'd be any sort of purchase but I think it would beho us to go and we check out the space we have needs for Office Space Storage programming and whatnot so I just wanted to let the selectboard in the community know that we were moving in that direction um I wanted to mention we are keeping the list for those wanting smaller trash and recycling bins as we roll that out in the spring I know there's going to be an update from DPW I believe at the next meeting um if you're interested you can contact the DPW office at Town Hall um or you can call them 781 942 9077 um to be on the list for small smaller barrels the town has a limited number of smaller barrels so we are giving priority um to those 60 plus and disabled um but I believe that we will be able to accommodate those who need the smaller Barrel so um I think it said first we had said eligibility we changed that to priority to make that more clear so um also um it's going to be a busy couple weeks coming up we get ready for annual town meeting we're working very hard on the budget um so that's something we really want to keep on track and we are on track with and um NBTA you know I I'm a little disappointed because I found out through the notice of intent as well so it wasn't like the mpta contacted me and said hey Town manager we want to come in have a neighborhood meeting I feel bad about that I've reached out to the MBTA about it I've als reached out to Town Council and a few others I'll have an update for you um probably at the next meeting on that but I've talked to most of the residents that were here tonight I hear their concerns I I know the te wants to have that 30 minute ride to Boston um and trains going every 30 minutes to Boston and that's sort of the reason behind it um which does improve our time to Boston but also you know at what cost so I just wanted to make sure that everybody knew we were on and uh give a shout out to the town manager minute newsletter as well excellent source of Community Information I forget half the stuff I want to say during my report so that's always there and sign up for that if um if you don't already uh you can there's a link on the town website so that is a report thank you very much can I just uh when is the actual vote on the MBTA thing well tomorrow night the Conservation Commission will hear the case I don't know that there's a vote scheduled tomorrow night I think it it there was one meeting it got continued to tomorrow night I can't speak for conservation and conservation is is from what I understand a small part of this um but still has jurisdiction there and I'm looking into what other jurisdiction we might have as well okay so anyone who wants to attend should just go tomorrow night yeah tomorrow night would be the conservation piece of it and it sounds like there's going to be quite a crowd there yes is it going to be in this room um i' have to check if not we can move okay is going to be in this room if they mentioned 100 people we going to see yeah and be next door too yeah we we would we've done overflow in the Next Room sometimes we'll have to play it by ear a little bit I I didn't expect a 100 people I mean I've talked to the five or six people that came tonight so Chuck did you did you have something or no no no I just came back in Chuck coming in I'm talking conservation so I didn't want to you know step in his boots but I appreciate that because I was already wondering whether at our future agenda items we need to talk about what our next steps are in the process so if we could take that up then that'd be great yeah it wasn't on the agenda tonight because it just course so we don't want to break any open meeting law right yes can I just ask Chuck are you voting on that tomorrow night is it on your agenda to vote on the MBTA um track sorry so uh so you know I'm I'm just the administrator so the Conservation Commission votes and they can do anything they want I don't expect a vote tomorrow night um we had a pretty uh pre meeting uh discussion and we're going to ask for a site visit and we weren't satisfied with the letter that we got back it seemed to be uh lacking details so I think that's what we're going to be concentrating on plus there was some good testimony here tonight that needs to be discussed so I think it'll at least go another meeting and uh hopefully that will uh give time for everything else to kind of catch up that'll start at 7 so our meeting starts at 7 but this is the third item on the agenda so I expect it to be at uh closer to 8 o' when zero Vine Street zero Vine Street is the MBTA meeting and all the information for this meeting can be found on the conservation division page and uh if you have any problems just reach out to me Chuck terone conservation administrator and I can send you anything you want or give me a call and we'll work it out that way so whatever is needed do we expect the MBTA representative to be this yes they're well aware of um what's been happening and they uh have called me a couple of times and they're going to have their represent representatives there they had at least four at the last meeting and so it was NBTA it was kolis it was some others uh engineer that they brought for all the questions so um they're going to answer all the questions and they'll have enough staff there to uh I guess satisfy most of the questions tomorrow night question um do we know is this what do they need to proceed other words are they able to proceed without anything happening from conservation or the town or something that has to happen before they can yeah so they need to have uh conservation order of conditions so we did ask them uh you know in our Zone we talk about the EnV so we reached out and said are there any other environmental permits you need for this project and the answer was no they're only looking for readings uh approval from their Conservation Commission for where this project is currently proposed okay want to be careful not violate open meeting law but I have lots of questions okay well you could we could ask him tomorrow as well uh so it's a it's hybrid meeting so you can come to this room or you can sign in and be on the zoom all right so we can't we're not posted so okay all right I just had not related to that okay speaking of open meeting law though did did the board receive an open meeting law complaint that should have been forwarded to us because I didn't see anything so I my knowledge but sometimes that comes to the time cour no no thanks thank you okay thank Youk you okay next public hearing vote to approve Amendment to the fy2 classification plan so do we have a motion yep Mark did you have a question I was wondering if there is a a motion to open the hearing Excuse me yes well I have the the notice first yep that too thank you uh to the inhabitants of the town of Reading Please take notice that the select Board of the town of reading will hold a public hearing on January 7 2025 at 700 p.m. in the select board meting meeting room 16 L Street ring Massachusetts and remotely by Zoom to approve amendments to the fy2 classification plan a copy of the proposed documents regarding this topic will be in the selectboard packet on the website at www.ma.gov all interested parties are invited to attend the hearing or may submit their comments in writing or by email prior to town manager ring ma.gov by order of Matthew a cornelis Esquire Town manager and then I have a motion to open the public hearing on the FY 25 classification plan second you has to read it first oh oh that's it okay good okay um any discussion on motion okay um all those in favor okay hearing is open yeah I'll just say there's just one small change to this that was approved uh by town meeting if you look at line H all the way at the end treasury analyst that's the new position that was actually formed by joining a few other positions together that's to give Sharon the help she desperately needs in in her office she explained it well to town meeting um and they approved it and so this is now seeking your approval to be on the cocation plan yes so so what we see is what's proposed are there changes that are made here other than what you just mentioned that's that's it that's the the treasury just that's the only change the only change yes that's the only change sorry that's the only change that we're approving everything else was as is yes I'm sorry everything else was as is before this is the way it looks with the new position on it mind say conservation where where is the treasury analyst specific each all the way acoss scrolling and it's and it's bolded but you can't really see the Bold all that well there it is I see it thank you I mean maybe maybe a bigger font next time Sean I Weir okay thank you interesting okay any other discussion questions okay um do we close the hearing and then take public comment uh no take public comment okay is there any public input on this topic I see none in the room k um Caitlyn is there any interest in public comment online on this topic yeah on this topic class updated okay okay speak take a motion y move to close the public hearing on the fy2 classification plan second any discussion all those in favor okay closing the hearing um so do we have a motion yeah move to approve the amendments to the fy2 classification plan second any discussion not appearing all those in favor okay 4 Z thank you thank you oh yes good good good fun stuff yes okay okay um okay we're only five minutes behind now we get to talk about the Eagle Scout awards um I'm so excited there's all kinds of neat projects and um please do Nelson we'll discuss those thank all right could I ask as well we would love to take a photo with you with the certificates AB before you leave for the evening absolutely right after I'm done I get a very short little thing we'll from there all right Perfect all right so uh first of all I want to thank you guys awesome to thank the select board for inviting us up town manager all the staff everyone like that uh my name is Ian Nelson I'm the scout master of a troop 702 and I have five of my six most recent Eagle Scouts right here behind me so if um you guys will humor me I'm just going to give a quick little update on what's going on kind of with scouting here for both the residents here and at home I actually want to mention real at home I want to say hi to some of my Scouts that are uh watching this one of the requirements to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout is that you have to um Ober observe a local government meeting and then discuss where the differences of opinion were and then why the Scout agrees more with one or the other so when they heard that I was coming down here to speak they said they were going to uh uh log in and make sure that they were watching so hi to all them out there all right so scouting America's troop 702 we're in our 110th year of service for the Youth of reading and we're going strong we currently have 57 total Scouts 40 um 40 boys and 17 girls and that's just at the troop level there's a whole mess of Cubbies as well scattered about the uh throughout the elementary schools that uh hopefully will be moving up into the troop uh at some point soon um we continue to meet every Thursday night 7:02 right across the street at Old South Church whenever reading public schools held classes we hold a troop meeting that night uh that's a tradition that weigh is way before me we do monthly trips trips we do uh summer camps all the things you think of we volunteer as much as we can uh We've also really started taking to these high adventure trips yearly high adventure trips which allows the out uh the high school age Scouts to go out and really uh explore the Wilderness this year in the summer they're going to be sending 24 Scouts down we're going to be sending 24 Scouts down to cbase which is in the Florida Keys um I got to take a moment to say some thanks to some people uh throughout the scouting year we bump into all types of both volunteers and St employees here for the town of reading and um I can't tell you how awesome they all are um taken right from the mission statement of scouting America one of the goals is to um help uh raise self-fulfilled individuals that play a constructive role in society and when I tell you that both the staff the volunteers and all that stuff they all do their part uh in attaining that goal whenever we bump into them um it's wonderful um the town's always so supportive of us uh a couple I want to actually mention by name uh Bill Sullivan he's the chair of the Town Forest committee Kathy Kelly Trails committee they're always so helpful they always work as beneficiaries for our Eagle Scouts um Town employees Jeff Cummings he's the director of the dpd DPW Highway he's awesome he's uh always got our back uh recently Aaron overberg of Forestry is their Foreman down there he's done us a couple favors and of course will berer the veteran service officer he's just great but they're all great I could go on and on um I am going to take a quick moment a big thing did happen after 10 uh um since uh 19 195 we were ched across the street with old sou Church a few years ago due to uh some pending lawsuits and things like that along that lines the United Methodist Church they um they weren't going to be able to Charter us anymore the CH every troop has a charter or rep that's somebody who sponsors us supports us and goes along those lines so the United Methodist um church not just this one the uh Regional one they uh decided that they weren't going to be chartering uh troop Scouts anymore so Steve Goodfellow who's our adult um committee chair he let a very extensive search we uh were able to interact with multiple organizations throughout here in town looking for a Chad um to take us uh to take us on um after a vote that we after a long process that Steve headlined and uh after a vote in which both the adult committee and the leadership of the scouts took um I'm happy to say that reading rifle and revolver has uh stepped up to the plate and willing to uh Charter us as a representation uh Bob Ward their president his whole eboard has been wonderful we're excited to uh move forward with them um on what's going forward uh I did pull right off their website they have a wonderful youth program and uh right off that it says the uh running rifle and revolver a club youth program are dedicated to the respect for the safe handling of firearms but also instilling patriotism and discipline youth participants they have a history uh including a couple olympiads that have come out of their programs down there so they have some work with youth before it was one of the reasons so we're very excited to work with Bob Ward and his team down there however and I got this on my notes we get uh we get to have our cake and we get to eat it too so Pastor Jean wuk over at the old at the United Methodist Church as well as the trustees at Old South uh they continue to support us and we're pledged to keep supporting them um we're signing agreements with them we're still going to be meeting there Thursday nights uh as we told people and some of the uh adults and stuff like that nothing's changing for troop 702 we get an extra opportunity uh we're still going to be doing the exact same thing our necro Chiefs the line we say is our necro Chiefs aren't changing we still got the steeple and bell tower of Old South and nothing's changing over there um all right so let's get into the reason why we're here the Eagle Scouts so first Jack Nelson Jack Nelson earned his Eagle rank in June of 2024 in the Wayback machine of 2020 I'll remind you that's during covid he served as our senior patrol leader senior patrol leader we are a scoutr run Troop that means this I think he was 15 at the time 14 to 15 at the time he had to run the whole troop he had 40 50 people we were battling Co that means we were finally able to get outside a little bit in the middle of the winter light and fires in the Town Forest don't worry Bill Sullivan approved it um lightning FES in the town forest and doing what we can during that time um during his career he's gone on tons of trips some of the big ones the Florida sea base he went out to New Mexico to filmont Scout Ranch so film mod Scout Ranch that's kind of a big deal if anyone who grew up in The Scouting knows that 1938 out in the deserts of New Mexico there is a place that you can go and hike and explore as a scout um we're now at Fourth generations of um of scouters that head out there and spend a week 10 days 12 days right in the back country really um learning an awful lot so Jack was able to go out there and bring back to the troop a whole lot of uh Knowledge and Skills that uh we Implement now to this day so his Eagle project itself in bare metal conservation there was quite this uh quite a few paths that go over some wet sunken grounds well one of them you get to go over in a nice safe Trails committee approved path because Jack uh fundraised built constructed lugged out the old one and made that all work um all these Eagle projects they got to what's it called they got to stop from the ground up from an idea and work forward from there couple other things Jack graduated class of uh 24 out of reading Memorial High School he's currently attending Springfield College majoring athletic training and when I asked him if he had anything in particular to say he wanted to mention his two sisters that are still in the troop that they are grinding through the requirements that hopefully someday they can stand in front of you guys as Eagle Scouts as well thank you all right John house next he earned thanks John he earned his Eagle rank in August of 24 uh most recently he served as a troop guide in B 23 24 what is a troop guide that is one of our oldest Scouts that spends all the time with those young Scouts and you can imagine how much of a headache that could be at times uh he's the one that teaches them all the skills and uh signs off on the requirements and make things work John's also gone out to film on Scout ranch with the troop um John himself uh you know you always hear about summer camp The Troop goes up to summer camp John himself instead he headed up to Deerfield Lodge uh we' spent a couple weeks there and most recently he spent the whole summer there working with the youth as a TR as a um guide up there um that puts a little bit of uh stress summer camp is where we really gel as a unit as a troop um he was doing his own thing as his uh Brothers had done before him so if I had to sum up John's career is as in the troop is that he persevered he got through it he showed that grit that's so uh necessary nowadays his eagal project was part of the Runing Forest uh restoration project in particular up on scrub Hill which is all the way up where you overlook and you can see conet Street um he planted a bunch of mature trees so not little trees but big old trees you to drag them all up there make big old holes and put these things in there that's because you couldn't just put little saplings because the way the weather whips up over that um Hill there it's going to kill everything so he had the uh hurdle of getting that all done working with the Town Forest committee and the scouts to get those planted to get the forest up and running again he's currently a seen at St John's Prep he hopes to uh in the fall head towards studying um towards a pre-law degree maybe down in Texas where his brother Tommy is right now at St John he also plays football baseball and he's an accomplished trumpet player all right next Alex Downer Alex dower earned his Eagle rank in September of 24 so uh we are at Higgins Hall during the quiet months that's the downstairs of their church over there um unfortunately it gets really loud as you can expect with 40 50 kids running around down there so Alex along with his mother uh they pioneered a new program for the troop it was nicknamed at the time the quiet Patrol and what it is is it's an opportunity for Scouts who just can't for whatever reason handle the craziness of 40 Scouts running around playing games in a confined space during those months and instead had an opportunity to explore the scouting program experience a scouting program in a smaller environment so Alex along with his mother took that on head on and they formed up the quiet Patrol and he um headed that for a time and uh it continues to this day he's eagled he's moved on but um they continue to go and we continue to be able to offer services to all the uh Youth and reading that want to participate in our program this project Isel he went up to the mass AUD Society he did a big old raised bed that included some protection from the animals that would go there it's used as an educational resource for anyone that would visit um part of the highlight of that is he got to do some Ching of some of the uh uh Construction materials because you don't want to use any type of preserv preservatives or anything but instead if you do some chering with literally a flamethrower um you'll get a whole lot more person preservation out of all of it he's currently a junior at stonum high and when I asked him if he wanted to mention anything we had a wonderful trip out to the islands the Habor Islands in Boston out to Georgia's Island in particular uh the interesting part of that is uh as wonderful as DCR is allowing us to get out there and use it the rules are we can't set up until it's dark we have to be broken down before it's light uh in the morning so it's quite a little Adventure but then the scouts get to spend the rest of the day out there so next is Josh Boren Josh bne earned his Eagle rank in October 24 so we used to have multiple troops here in town went down to one troop 702 he was the SPL he was the leader of 728 um when unfortunately couldn't sustain anymore and um Josh and many other Scouts moved over and they joined us and we were happy to have him um he also ended up taking over some of the leadership of the choir Patrol that I had previous mentioned his Eagle project is he built a small library or carts or however you want to put it for the reading food pantry before there'd just be a mess of uh books that the um customers would have to come in and pick through and take through so instead now it's a nice organized way for him to be able to make sure for them to be able to make sure that uh not only is the community uh service through uh any nutritional needs but also through um just like a little libraries just with um uh coming out of the reading food pantry as well it's a service they offer he's currently a senior at reing Memorial High School uh in the fall he'll be attending Rochester Institute of Technology where he's going to be an electrical engineer and uh currently is the president of the robotics team up at the high school so you can see these Scouts they don't just do scouting they do a whole lot of stuff last is Charlie weld Charlie weld earned his Eagle rank also in October 24 he served as a troop SPL in 2023 that also happened to be my first year as a scoutm so he had to help me as much as I might have helped him in just a tiny bit uh he's currently a senior at St John's Prep and as we speak he's attempting to secure his Congressional recommendation because his hope is to attend one of the military cies in the fall so if you guys have any strings to pull or phone numbers to call by all means i' love to get Charlie his recommendation because he certainly deserves it um he's currently the president of the Civics Debate Club there uh he plays on The Varsity tennis team and he's also participated in the model un and then also for his Eagle project he also participated in the um Town Forest vitalization revitalization project but unlike John who planted a whole bunch of big trees instead what was it 140 or 180 140 saplings with metal cages to protect them from the uh uh deer just eating them right up uh he set them up uh out there did a bunch of buck for polling as well and stuff like that so conservation uh ran a whole bunch of Scouts through that so that's all I got again I just want to say thank you to give the opportunity really appreciate to come up here uh talk a briefly about each of these Scouts up here it is a long haul takes them seven eight years to get where they're at here now and they've certainly all earned it so thank you I just wanted to ask because we've talked about what it takes to maintain our open space and um so these are considerable projects I didn't know if the scouts could share you know what you know what the fundraising involved for these what was the you know what was was the C not only your free organization and labor and all that stuff but you're buying cages and trees and sapling and wood to be charred uh yes ma'am so I went to Mahoney's gardening center up in Winchester I worked with someone named Elliot who was the arborist of that area and so he found local trees that are local to the Reading Town Forest and as a wide variety I was very thankful because when I went the trees were about to be mulched in a month or so so they were 50% off so that was definitely a blessing right there but uh yeah I went through my whole skelling Patrol I asked friends and family if they could come help and volunteer with fundraising I went around and I also asked friends and family I would talk to some businesses and we got ma mainly local support for this Eagle Scout project because I've been told I ALS oh I also went to the town Forest committee with Mr svin he was a big part of helping me get this project up and running but I would say a lot of it was local help which is now the trees are now out there for the for the town to enjoy so what is a are we talking $10,000 20 I mean even no not even I would say three so GoFundMe is a big thing they share that and stuff like that we do have a basic rule where the troop doesn't necessarily Supply the money we Supply the Manpower um there are a lot of generous people and organizations here in town so we have a lot of them we reach out to the rotary always has our back the Masonic Lodge always has our back um reading rifle and revolver is now saying they're going to have our back everybody I mean and then as he mentions a lot of the times when the scouts come as soon as they hear that a scouting thing people want to uh help out and they want to assist so they're um willing to give things uh donations Andor a lot less that's something we see quite regularly so no I'm actually just looking for the amounts oh oh they they stra i' have to pull out the books they're probably about $2,000 a piece for each project is about on average some are a little bit less but yeah well we do all the way lior labor it's all the kids a lot of trees are not cheap so thank you we have a um we have a line item where we're trying to support the open space as well it's not a huge line item and that's partly my curiosity is just making sure we all understand what things cost because we're certainly don't have time to run around and get all those knock on all those doors and get those donations so thank you y yep exactly thank you all right great job we have some certific it's for you and they're going to take a picture with us sign yeah no whatever next all right was i' want to hear more about the meetings you guys watch that'd be great see who disagreed with me any hands no all right good I'll get over there real quick he's not here getting front right here yes sir thank congratulations congratulations thank you very youash we need turn like sideways yeah we turn a little bit turn a little bit you [Music] guys what are we looking at Bob first Bob again all right good good thank youbody thankk you think all right next on our agenda is senior property tax worker program presentation and vote on policy amendments who's doing that so Chris is here okay Janet and Jenna I believe presentation tonight all right yes um I think we have a SL show yep K yes pulling up now um while we're um waiting for that to come up I want to say thank you for having us uh tonight I appreciate the SL board taking the time to listen uh tonight um if you haven't um if you haven't met the fabulous Janet dubau um she is our volunteer coordinator at the uh Senior Center um she started uh just over a year ago um and she has done an amazing job um she has completely revamped our volunteer program she has really grown it in uh such a short period of time and she has done some amazing work and built a lot of good relationships with with different organizations and people in the community so I want to say thank you to Jesus for that and I think we are ready so um we're here tonight for the uh Town ring property tax workof abatement program proposal um the goal um this program encourages seniors and Veteran taxpayers to V volunteer for the town um for the town of breing earning a reduction in their property tax bill designed to assist seniors over 60 with their annual property tax the initiative uh not only addresses financial needs but also enhances the involvement of local elders and Veterans and municipal government leveraging their valuable skills and knowledge um next slide um the current existing uh program that we um have been following as you can see current age requirements were 62 6570 um current income caps for a single person was $ 47,1 15 and for a married couple um if you were married uh $53,900 um wages um they could work um up to$ 1225 hours at $8 an hour for a total of $1,000 off their uh tax uh tax bill um we were um we've had uh positions available 30 um for seniors only no opportunities for veterans only one um as of lately um coming out of covid um we've only had one position filled lately um funding sources cited from April uh2 um 2007 uh program um total program funding was 15,750 um 10,500 contributions from the town 5,250 contributions from the Burbank fund from the Council on Aging what we are proposing and um what um we've been working on is the age requirement um would be 60 plus um sorry next slide um income guidelines we would increase the income guidelines so we would be looking at 75,00 for uh single individuals um that reside in reading and then 102,000 for married couples filing a joint return um the guidelines were selected following a review of surrounding communities and discussions with key Town officials including guidelines based on the five um 500,000 or 500% of the 2024 Pro Federal property levels um and then our the big thing would be to increase the hourly ra wage from $8 up to $15 um an hour uh we are proposing a number of volunteer opportunities would be to start off with for the next year would be 10 positions so it would be 10 positions they could work up to 100 hours uh for a total deduction off the tax bill of $1,500 um program timeline official uh program launch would be roughly January uh 2025 this month um accept applications um February 1st through March 1st uh notified of positions April 30th service um service um would be from July 1st 2025 to June 30th 2026 um the taxpayers ACT um actual tax bill should only show a credit for the amount of earned net of any federal withholdings um eligibility um 60 plus um applic applicants should um be able to verify household income of no more than 75,00 for single 102,000 for married couple uh filing a joint return um own and occupy property um principal residents in reading only one tax credit per family per calendar year would be allowed um be current with property tax water sewer payments complete the application and provide necessary income verification um possesses um identify identify employable skills complete a quy check and provide references if required by the work site be interviewed for job placement by Senior Center staff and potential supervisors um documents would be uh completed an application ID such as driver's license copy of property tax bill complete a quy proof of income next slide and then again compensation uh $15 an hour participants will receive an batment for up to 100 hours of service um any hours work Beyond 100 hours cannot be accumulated for the program so we stop at hours um so they can get a total of 1,500 off their uh Bill participants are entitled to no Town employee benefits maximum amount of a abatement is, 1500 per person hours of service include 100 hours of service for 1500 payment will be made via an abatement on the tax bills the following year a paycheck will not be issued to the program participants uh the town will issue a W2 form for federal income tax purposes and a statement of credit to all participants next slide um job placement no applicant um is guaranteed a position um individuals will be chosen based on the best match between the applications qualific applicants qualifications and the skill required for each job applicants will be interviewed by Senior Center staff and Department supervisors such of the position for which they will be uh placed um if there are more applicants and openings a lottery system will be used to fill positions um to keep Fair there will be a two-e probationary period to assess the appropriateness of the pl placement program participants may not work for relatives who were Town employees um and participants must re uh reapply every year if they want to continue um that is the overview of the old system and the new system um what we're looking at is um we are increasing the amount hourly um but because we're for this first year at least we are limiting it to 10 folks we're not asking for any more money we're just looking for that same amount that essentially 15,000 that we already currently have so we're looking the big change though is that hourly rate rather than $8 up to $15 an hour R um why why we're doing this it became stagnant during covid and the late $8 an hour was back from during covid we did a comparison of all com of 20 towns surrounding reading all of the towns are paying minimum wage um and what we want to do is we reached out to all the department heads in the town we have interest from the DPW the school department Pleasant Street Center Town Clerk and the department of equity in placing seniors um and we will be holding on February 5th with the town assess or lunch and learn at the senior center so to educate all the seniors about the availability of this program so we've done a really good job or I shouldn't say we but really Janet has done a really good job she has reached out to all departments within the town um to let them know uh and be aware of the program again and what it involves we've had a lot of interest um we've also reached out to the uh school system as well and had a meeting with a superintendent Tom um quite a few months ago um to look for Vol if they needed volunteers as well they have openings at the killum school for us um and we're hoping since this program has been stagnant so for so long we're hoping to start with these 10 positions and we're hoping to grow it each year surrounding towns have up to 40 senior workers in their towns so I'm hoping we'll get more interest from other departments once they see success in our first rebooting year if you will now we're already sold out for the lunch question uh sure so so yeah it's um this looks great those those numbers are awful so ni I agree with your proposals um it's uh my comments are it's a shame since it's an abatement program that it has to be a W2 type of tax things um but what I was also wondering is so I don't recall seeing so the town is not given any line items for this in a couple years and neither has the Burbank trust fund because it was kind of defun because during Co it went stagnant and so the town clerk's office maintained a volunteer um a property tax worker but it just it it died out and so when I came on board last December in addition to recruiting General volunteers for um the senior center we Del dove into this made comparisons talked I met with several other towns in the area to see how they're running their program how we can build up to be a successful program again go I'd love to see well you're only at 10 positions so if you get to 30 that's great we need to start this way because we also need the Buy in from the Departments we're trying we always a lot of times we start things slowly um to make sure they're sustainable um we want to make sure they work through the first time um and Jenna has done an amazing job getting this set up making sure we had a lot of interest um seeing what other towns doing and everything so um want to make sure it's successful thank you for doing this thanks Carl um so sounds great in terms of getting started um my fear is that you there probably is a lot more interest out there than 10 people yes especially now that you're not paying you know horrific wage right so um I I applaud kind of starting out but I'd love for you to keep track of how many applicants there are levels of interest and figure how do we get above 10 assuming that it's working right because I bet there's a lot more interest oh no I I feel we will have a lot a lot more interest um I have to get the buying from the departments in the town so I I feel once you know we see success once the school department sees success with the kilum school they had a request for you know lunch monitors and that type of thing and once we build that back up I think I think it's hard for departments who haven't been a part of it before to understand what can what this program can be I think once we have some success stories to share it will grow awesome and and I'm sure you'll tell stories from other the communities in terms of what they've done and how they've done it oh yes I mean we the other towns I mean they're they're fully involved they're they have you know even going to making in swamps scut they have seniors digitizing all of the records for the town you know these are all things that the seniors can do they want to be a part of it and and then for those people who have those type of skills but then if not like the DPW we're going to be re Staffing the compost site that is the goal for them because they have trouble Staffing the compost site so that's where they're providing us positions for the seniors yeah I I would bet that it'll get much more popular with the department heads also when they see what I think that's what we just need to we need to show success we need to show the quality of candies we get because the old program there was not a lot of consistency as we saw like the age there was no consistency with the age so now when we're going a solid 60 plus we're getting a lot more we'll be getting a lot more candidates who have more computer skills you know and people who are semi-retired or retired who may want to participate so I think we're going to be able to hit a wide um swath of requirements I predict that you'll be back soon asking for more funding so you we hope we're hoping yes hope so good thank you thanks Carla and thank you both uh I'm going conversely off of Mark's question what if we don't get enough people to do it why are we limiting them to um just the 100 hours that they can do is there well because there's a there's a state the state this is a Statewide program and the limit is actually it was just raised to two it could go up to 2,000 some towns vary some Stone them to 700 $50 some do $1,000 batement some do 15500 some people will be starting in the next fiscal year with 2,000 the maximum allowed by the state is 2,000 so we're going we went up from 1,000 to, 1500 for this trial because when we did all this planning and research it was still at, 1500 it was just recently went up to 2,000 yeah so my my question is why are we limiting ourselves if you get seven or so great candidates um why are we limiting them that they can only work x amount of hours if they could do the 2,000 are you able to well I mean that would we could we could change the budget and we could change that amount you know but this is we had a base it we had to start when we started this research in this process it was 1,500 it only recently changed so we could go back and change the numbers but that would be you know that would be changing what we have allocated for funds so we're trying to keep the we're not trying to increase any funds we're trying to keep the funds what we have so we don't have to ask the town for any more money on top of that you have 15,000 already Yes um so we're we we're trying not to increase that um we are if I had to I don't want to be a betting person but I I don't see us not getting 10 people um I think it's going to be very easy for us to get 10 people um since all our programs at the center and everything is growing our interest um just our numbers in general have increased um you know especially now that we're talking about reca kilum school um one of the concerns you know is um you know we have a lot of older adults in town that are on fixed incomes um and they're starting to hear about this program and this is a way that they can give back to the town but also save a little bit of money on their taxes um you know so for an older adult who's leaving off Social Security $1,500 is you know if if we increase from kill him and recal um that can that can really kind of offset that increase I don't know what the increases are going to be but any increase in taxes so I wasn't I wasn't saying to increase it beyond the 1500 amount I was saying if you had seven people to be able to that one of those people could go further to not increase our total budget just if you have a good person that's doing something you're like you hit the limit you got to stop and you're not getting paid anymore why are we not saying well we have we only had seven people so we have three you know what I mean we we could but we were just when we're pres my understanding I'm new to town politics we had to present a policy and this is the the way we had to present it um so but I think I think it's fair to if we get let's say we only get five or so I think it's fair to reexamine fairly quickly and see if we can't uh tweak some things because the state does allow up to 2,000 so we could potentially if we don't get a whole lot of applicants or interest I don't see why we couldn't come back to um talk with Matt and Jane Jenna and discuss you know looking at okay we have this but we only have five or seven people let's let's just max it out to the 2,000 I don't see that being an issue my last question is uh so uh for the last couple years there's been one person or something or or no real interest so where has the money been going that should have been going into this program shouldn't you have 60 Grand waiting or do you not so um so part of the money came from the Burbank trust fund controlled by the COA so that has can just continued to stay in the Burbank trust fund and continue to grow um which has been nice um we've been trying to since we've had arpa funds um we've been trying to let our trust funds grow thinking long term when we don't have the arpa um so a big chunk of that was staying in the uh trust fund the ver Bank fund um and then the other uh went through assessing that goes to the town and it goes back to the town it's it's it's a similar program as a circuit breaker tax program there a certain amount allowed but it may not be used but um the assessor can answer that question for you okay thank you both do will the applicants get a menu to like I want to do this and only or well no we we there is an there's a job application and there will be job descriptions we will we will be inter I will be interviewing every candidate as well as the supervisors because there's a big difference in the job example with um the department of equity and the DPW there's a a wide SWAT there of skills that's what I mean so they're going to apply for the job so they will they can't pick what job they have no we will say congratulations you have been offered this position if you would like it okay and that's how it's written in the policy they will be offered a specific position gotta and if we have too many applicants for the positions we will do an on it will be a lottery that will be recorded so that everyone will know it was done fairly okay we we'll try to match the skills to just curious okay I think that do we have to vote on this is there a motion [Music] yes uh uh move to approve the amendments to the senior tax worker program policy as presented second thanks any discussion seeing none all those approved have zero thank you thank you guys thank you all appreciate it thank [Music] you all right main event cupcak we have performance review of town manager I don't see Sean in the room Sean if you're listening thank you together I just put him over there all right so thanks to Sean for putting all these together thanks to um the department heads that did the 360s thanks for the board thanks for everybody getting them in on time except for camera so just want to move on classy classy keep the class you're welcome um you can quote be Bob uh but it's the truth so so I I don't know how you guys want to kick this off everything's in the packet all the 360s all our reviews our comments and anyone wants to speak speak can I just thank everybody for their comments and feedback I read them all I thank you for that I I really appreciate the opportunity that you gave me to meet with you one-on-one I I felt those one-on-one meetings were very valuable to me um and to sort of flesh out things that were in the review so I appreciate that I think we've accomplished a lot I know you've read myself assessment which is in there um it's been a very busy year I think I went above and beyond the contract to accomplish things that you needed and wanted accomplished and the town needed so um there's room always room for improvement I I realize that so I don't think we have to sort of well on this thing for hours everybody's read it I've read it I'm open to more comments and feedback but really those one-on-one meetings were really really key for me so just want to state that thank you Matt thank you first tribute Mark thanks Carlo um you look at me so first of all this is a really difficult process to do in public and awkward sure awkward is the word sure we talk about um I think what what you can see in the comments as you said um are a number of concerns that I raised I'll speak for myself but certainly in reading all the other comments a number of other board members raised them as well there are a lot of accomplishments there are a lot of things that didn't happen as well as they could have there are a lot of things that I think need much more leadership than been has been demonstrated so far the very hard part for me is that the notion of this contract in the first place was to give you the opportunity to do that um and I think you're getting our feedback in terms of how we we think that went um I think there's some consistent feedback between the five of us uh in terms of higher expectations particularly on the leadership side sure um and I guess what I'd be hoping for would be a desire to want to get to that and to want to do that um we have one-on-one discussions that's great I think I've been consistent since before the hiring process took place yes um and I want to make sure that we this is this is reading first obviously I think that there's a lot that we want and need to do and to get done and to be able to help the community work through things part of that I think was you know related to some stability making sure that was there but it needs to go beyond that and to me that's the most important aspect that that needs to change needs to be different from how it's been done over the last 9 10 11 months whatever it's been so I would hope that you know whatever we we have in our discussions which I know will be executive sessions separately afterward um is wanting to make sure that you're comfortable changing in some ways I think that's what is being asked certainly it is for me to be able to do that and to to embrace that and to to take the town forward and and I think you got some very specific feedback on different areas different projects different expectations and and I hope that you know that's feedback that you can take and and work with um to kind of figure out how how to do that in a different way um I would love for this board to be giving you all ones and twos I think that's the expectation and goal and I think it's going to take some changes if that were to be able to happen right I think that you did know certain areas yes and that's that's great I think that things different pieces different areas but in areas like leadership communication um those are things that aren't okay right now and I would want to see major changes taking place and and a commitment to get there sure yeah and I agree and we we talked about that in our one-on-one meetings but yes um you know I'm open to changing to to give the board what it needs in terms of communications I mean obviously if you know I I think we've accomplished a lot done a lot but if the board doesn't know that or doesn't recognize it or see something in a different way you know I want to make sure you know you're the bosses and I want to make sure that you're happy with that and and the town itself is happy with that so that's something I am committed to doing and I think I'm you know like you said it's been nine months so but I think it means you need to on the pulse of that it's it's I was surprised to see just a list of accomplishments MH I was expecting a list of thoughts on how to improve change some of that was at the end but yes I think so I I think that kind of being on the pulse is something that would really make a difference and you know there are five of us yeah we have at least five opinions between the five of us right yeah but I think being on the pulse of that is is really important um regularly not not at the meeting not occasionally but kind of all the time and figuring out what that is I think is something that that I would want you to to think about changing pretty dramatically from from where you are right now okay I appreciate that feedback I do thank you Mark Chris thanks Carl uh and thank you Matt um I wholeheartedly agree agree with everything that Mark said I don't disagree with a single thing I think Mark Mark put it politely eloquently whatever word you want to use um I think in our one-on-one meeting obviously I I spoke to you about a bunch of things I know some stuff's already been um resolved I know when we at least for me um when whole process came up Etc it was you know all about town staff had your back they were all supporting you to get this position Etc and that for me was the biggest thing I want to hire somebody from within that's the way you know that I don't want to say it's supposed to go because obviously there's outside factors um but obviously for me taking care of of town staff and in making them happy obviously is is the greatest thing I I don't think we lost anyone while you were here other than maybe you know like retirements or something but um but no because they're the ones that deal with you on a day-to-day we don't obviously so they're going to see you more Etc I I agree with that I know I mentioned it to you then I knew the the reviews were going to come back glowing from town staff regardless of of what happened unless there was some Scandal or some crazy stuff had happened I mean I didn't see anything that was going to obviously deviate from that I mean like I mentioned in there you've been to almost every event that we've had here which is great I know you live in the thuan yes that was in Chelsea it's the same thing all of you you him commute come from far away uh to come to various events um I think there's some feedback in some of the reviews that I saw um should not be attributed to you at all I I disagree with some of the stuff that was said in there I don't think that we can fault you for certain items um that are listed you know what I mean uh but the biggest thing yes is communication we should be finding out from you for things I understand this MBTA scenario is is a one-off yeah um but any other big major scenarios has to be ran you know through us we can't find out from a resident sure no I agree with that you know what I mean um I have tried to do that but I I will try better yeah I I just I I think that um I think that you know now what has to change and hopefully um hopefully you can embrace it and see you know the goals that we put in here I agree we voted on them Etc half the stuff was negligible didn't matter you have no effect on CPA all this stuff like these kind of goals were like you know what I mean a lot of the stuff was going to happen without it so I think that we got to revise something going forward that's more quantitative if I could use that word yeah it wasn't ideal to put the goals in the contract that's not something that's generally done I do think that some of the stuff wouldn't have happened without me you know pushing it working on it leading um you know you mentioned CPA that there was a decision made to move that forward a couple years but you know kilum recal um green communities I've worked very diligently with staff on on all those things so so but I appreciate the comment um but yeah I I just I think that I don't want to say it's a wakeup call for you because I I don't want to be using you know what I mean like you deal with everyone that's in this room 20 people already here um on a daily basis it's it's more of just the communication bar has to go above and beyond um and you know at least from from our feedback that it wasn't there but this is something I think that you'll be able to accomplish you know what I mean um I didn't I mentioned to you the same thing I I wasn't this kind of person outspoken Etc my wife would um order me a pizza because I didn't make I didn't even want to make a phone call for that kind of stuff it's ridiculous you're like the guy up here that's you know arguing sometimes with people Etc I still like that's how I was and I don't want to say that's you but you have to go from me not ordering pizza to sitting in this chair nobody not even my mother would have expected this kind of transition and I don't want to say you have to go through the same thing but if I can do something like that that you got this in the bag you just really have to I think the switch got flicked and and and hopefully I'm not wrong in that assessment but I think that um a lot of people are happy um and it just doesn't have to be us five obviously um I don't know it's I guess we'll see what happens but I I think that in the last 30 60 days Etc how you've been if it can be that in then some right out of the gate I don't think we'd be having this conversation but I think you know now and I think uh you know yeah and again it was a short-term contract so it was 9 months um in any job you know you're going to take 9 months to a year to sort of get acclimated even though I've been here a long time sitting in this chair is a lot different than sitting in the other chairs here so you learn that by sitting in the chair but I I definitely take your comments to heart and appreciate them and we'll work in that direction for sure thank you saw you sure sure sure sure um yeah so so can I just say out there can this evaluation we have no visibility to reviews evaluation I said this to Mt I'm just saying it to you too um or ongoing continu educ education that's really important for for five years I've been asked to evaluate a town manager on that we have no visibility so either the evaluation needs to change or Matt's got another thing on his plate he's got to like be able to update us and and because as I said in our meeting the only way I know is if these reviews evaluations and ongoing continuing education are happening by the turnover and the staff so you had huge job this year filling all those positions and getting the and the getting the team to coals and you know you did that and yep and um so and you didn't have a lot of time to do it you had nine months to do it so we can't we can't take that away from you and you can't do everything in nine months um I would agree with Mark that we do have two critical at least two critical projects going forward and and at the top of this pyramid are the residents and they've asked us us to be their voices and then below that is you and the town accountant and um Town Council and the staff supporting all of our endeavors so so um as Mark mentioned this is this is an opportunity for you to take on the leadership you as you've rightly explained and I appreciate that you know you serve at the pleasure of the select board so you can be a champion um that's another way of looking at the leadership I think you're get that be more of a champion and that's based also on just some feedback sure but again nothing wrong with having a team and enabling a team I'm I am very confident and and when you go on vacation things keep running nothing falls apart that's important and that can't happen unless you're enabling your department heads and your team members and they know that you are trusting them to keep the ball moving and make the right dire decisions um so so that's awesome yeah great team here you're right yeah and and from my perspective in nine months in the kind of chaotic year with all of the balls that we had in the a um it's not an unreasonable approach and I do think you have started coming up from behind the carton because you you were this in the supporting role for so long so I would as Mark was elaborating I don't want to take the words out of your mouth I'd like to see I'd like to see more of that we need you charging up the hill with the flag okay and the team's going to be there to make sure you get there the other thing I maybe would be I'd like to see is our Charter specifically specifies an ombudsman and while residents should always feel comfortable calling the town manager M we have a lot of this board and the staff and the state have a lot of expectations of you and I would love to see someone else helping out with the on budsman en roll right um there's only so many hours in your day right yeah and so I was the UN budsman for years here um I've sort of passed that on to Jane as well as part of her duties of of assistant Town manager because of let me make the same tradition but and she does feel do I mean we're just getting Jane's been in that position about six months I've been nine months so we just Jane's the onsman but she's she is getting a lot of those calls and Felding to me if needed um but I do respect the charter okay that the UN budsman is the person that gets a of those calls at first and helps direct people my personal opinion is that we as an organization have not been respecting this role in the charter not not and by that I mean not funding it not funding it um it's like oh and someone has time let's do it and I've seen it in a town like Andover where you know I think they might even be using some of the scough I could be wrong there's just like somebody that you can go to a live person because you probably get a lot of pretty easy to answer questions I know some of them are always going to all right okay well so rather than using Facebook as the utsman if we had a face and it could potentially be some somebody working off a professional with lots of people experience who who has been engaged with the town who could maybe like give people a place besides Facebook to go to ask like yeah we don't really mundane questions right and we we don't Facebook's not a good tool for that it's really sad I understand y something we can thank you I appreciate all that you've done thank you appreciate that tooa um you know thank you for the opportunity to have a one-on-one with you I think that was helpful for both of us I'm the new person here too so right know how it feels to be sitting in that chair um so I think the biggest thing what I said in my review and what I said in our 101 is communication for me like I just felt like there was a little bit of a lack of communication when it came to certain things so I think that that needs to be increased and then the other big thing that I think we discussed was that not only do you work for us per se I hate to say it like that but like I want to see you um you have to be like the leader between all the different department heads when it comes to Big projects and I guess an example for me would be MBTA communities where that was on um Community Development but you know a lot of times in those public meetings residents were looking for answers on you know would this affect DPW stuff would this affect Public Services schools stuff and I feel like you need to be the person that gathers that information for those public meetings sure um so for me those were kind of the big stand outs but okay fair enough yeah but I appreciate your time here and I know that being on a one-year contract also isn't easy um when you know this review process has to happen again in nine months so yeah I appreciate that and that's something we can certainly work on thanks um I met with Matt as well and just looking in the room you know this is a testament uh I assume that if you didn't have support they wouldn't come that's what I would do but just looking out here and seeing everybody and showing their support means a lot to me I'm sure it means a lot to you and back in uh March you know I chose stability and uh we were going through a rough patch and definitely qualified and you know Mark said a lot of things and he probably said it much better because he's a better speaker than I am but I agree with a lot of Mark's comments and my fellow board members communication is a big one I mean I you know and nothing's ever going to be perfect you know I understand that we've always talked about communication on this board to the residents to us um but for the board I think now for me three town managers and knowing of Peter you know not really his style so much but knowing he was a town manager for a long time maybe too long but that's a different story from Bob to Fidel to you different styles different backgrounds and so when you look at that history okay what is the Frankenstein t manager right what is the perfect time manager there probably isn't but we want to take aspects of all those different people and try to mold that and that we can't do that we want someone that is going to take charge move us forward Champion the projects look for different ways you know out of the box type stuff you know we all know Fidel was a showman you know it was front and center out there get we out of hard covid different time for you right CO's pretty much over still exists but over and no more mandates no more stuff so now we're just trying to get these two big projects that are in front of us in in process and I agree with Chris's comments some of the goal objectives you know CPA Green community those were just going to happen yeah you were there we needed someone to um Shepherd them but you know so for me communication is a big one okay um being more engaging and active in meetings okay and again not easy trying to maybe get up to speed where not so much you have the answer on the spot but be you know be more engaging I I think is is is a good way to say it you know we we spoke privately uh we spoke speak at our agenda meetings every now and then I brought up a few things a few months ago sure um nothing major um like I said in person town is not on fire town is running great um we have a lot of great staff a lot of great volunteers and that's how we run the town right we just want to be the town manager want to be our spokesman spokesperson for the town for us and for them and I'm sure they want the same thing so I I just I know 9 months is an long time and the first several months were challenging let's call it that um politically so we've gotten past that we've got through town meeting we got through MBTA so we we've accomplished a lot of things we have a lot of things ahead of us and you know we got some big asks of the residents coming up soon with K and um uh the community active Living Center so I I just I don't have an exact answer but I think based on my review based on conversations and based on on the last one Speaking you've kind of heard from us and what we want to see what would like to be changed and that's either in you or it isn't it's a it's a it's a thing you know so yeah no it's certainly in me and I'll take that to heart like I said it was a short period of time it there was some volatility as you you know well know and so I'm trying to navigate that as well um and and not to take sides you know to be right down the middle which is I think part of the job of the Town manager so but still move the agendas forward and so you know I concentrated on what was in the contract and then other things as well and then keeping our team running and promoting people and bringing in new people um not a lot of people left but also people moved up as well through retirements and whatnot so um so we have a great team here I want to see that keep you know I want to see that moving forward and I think that we have I think the best really is yet to come I think we have a bright future I said that before I'll say it again um readings a great town otherwise I wouldn't stay here for 10 years obviously it's a great town I want to lead it through the future I hope you see me as that leader um and if you want to talk more about it again one-on-one meetings I'm happy to do more of those I want to do more of those anyway uh because I think that was something that I learned you know we we should have those meetings and those discussions so so I do appreciate the feedback and I appreciate the opportunity to meet with you um I don't know if there's much more I could say I hope you read my my written report and also the three 60 that was done by the employees I'm sure we all did I know I did so chair we allowed to speak I was going to mention that um briefly if you want to come up to the podium yeah I don't want to go crazy here but yeah you guys are here I don't mean to speak on behalf of Staff but appreciate you saying something and acknowledging we're all here on a night off to support our leader who's been a fantastic leader here for 9 years we wanted him to make the Tom manager because we knew his leadership style a great leader doesn't need to be on the front page the paper taking the lead on everything and taking all the credit he trusts in his staff to do the job done and helps us when we need it done and that's what we have in Matt he's yes he has a different leader than we've had especially with the previous leader but he's a great leader we trust him he trusts us and together we're working forward and he's only had nine months we are here to show support for him and we're here to hopefully ask that this board gives him an opportunity a long-term opportunity to continue to lead this town and let us do what we need to do to help this town and working together and that's why we're here and this is a testament to all of us here on a night off um department heads and assist department heads to show you and based on our evaluations our faith in him we've always had faith in him we're asking you to give the same faith that we have in him and let him move forward and continue to do his job um I'm a resident in reading and also a department head in reading and it's I'm I'm thrilled to have him leading this town into the future and I hope all you see that and hopefully you give him the opportunity and give us we need is some stability and a true leader to let us do what we need to do for our jobs so I just want to say thank you I didn't mean to speak for everybody but thank you thank you well said Thank You Chief second that anyone else I'll I'll open it up to anyone else that wants to speak I yeah sure my name is Greg Burns I'm a reading resident also the the fire chief for a few more months anyway U Matt's been a great guy to work for he's been very supportive work through some difficult issues he's provided good guidance um and you know when I pick up the phone if I if I have an issue he's right there to to to to uh to talk to we'll call me right back uh we have a great working relationship back and forth I I really lean on his opinion on on things I think he values my opinion so we have that great back and forth and I know that that's shared by other other department heads as well so I just just wanted to say say that so he he does um in in Department headed meetings he's he's clearly the leader clearly sets a directions uh clearly sets tone for us appreciate that thank you thank you thank you anyone in takers Final Call all right thank you guys feel free to stay here for the rest of the meeting we have future agendas coming up next oh we're getting a call there's cupcakes up there if anybody wants them why don't we take a 5 minute recess actually take a 5 minute recess 5 minute recess e e e e e e e e e e e uh back in session future agendas January 21st I already started it with Matt um we have some room but you know um yeah I definitely think that we need to add this MBTA rail conversation to our that meeting yep yeah yeah well I guess since yeah well okay but presentation from who M I don't know or a even just a conversation amongst us of or gather information of what our rights are what how we can do we have any say we have that conversation now but that's I I I agree would you put it on the agenda let me work on it get some information for you you weren't here when it came up but I have talked to Town Council about it and you know okay okay all right that's fine yeah you get that kayin okay I'd be open if y'all want to have a special like Zoom meeting for par this particular item as hold on she said the room is still muted so I don't know it twice sorry okay it's back on I don't know going to repeat whatever just said well we're talking about future agendas and we're talking about uh having a future agenda item on the train tracks that were discussed tonight good um and that's it and Matt's going to look into it Town Council I was saying if we um if the next agendas look long and we wanted to have a special Zoom for like a one agenda topic I'd be open to that any ask related to that just to Karen's suggestion if there is something that would push us to make a decision or someone like the mea is trying to make a decision before our next scheduled meeting okay then I would second Karen's motion that we want to get ahead of that right we don't want that to happen Okay um I know there's a conservation meeting so okay never mind I know there's a conservation meeting tomorrow night okay so we'll no more after um so so the when on the discuss options for future of uh Pleasant Street Center building you know we had that before and I would like to see I guess uh because it's we're going to be closing the warrant you know in a few more meetings uh a presentation or drawings on the prop osed building I think that should come before us I don't know if it's probably February I I got a February I got a February 4th but recal design update so um let me come back to you if I could let me see what they can have and when they can have it I know that the plan is to have um a lot more information for late February late February yeah yeah they're taking a three-month process and putting it into two I think all right but we needed to have the discussion before like a healthy discussion before we close the warrant yeah going to close the warrant on the 18th ex me usually for now you got me for war article we don't necessarily have all the final information before what we put on the warrant and in fact when we do the warrant it doesn't contain that information I know we did it last time I I know I I just don't I don't think we can push the process any faster right and we have until March 4th to actually Clos warrant if you needed to but it's better to do it early and you I did have a meeting we had a meeting today regarding some of the time Tim tabl so I don't you know Mark will get back with some information but okay but I think it's about right so PBC meets um tomorrow night tomorrow night no Monday sorry Monday Monday yeah right I'll bring it up there yep okay okay yep all right y could we put out there an agenda item placeholder um could probably be marches that um as the green communities application was submitted we have a final to-do which is to get the agreement with rmld signed and it would be good not to have that waiting until the last minute yes we just look at the agreement understand it ask any questions and arml has to vote on it first they sign it first armd I don't know that it matters they've seen it we can so what I'm asking I think Matt is for Matt to reach out and see if there been any updates to what they've already seen they could send us over the most recent copy then we just look at it nap Town Council look at it okay okay yeah that's you guys will do the same can ask to follow it's not agenda but it's specific to that item um maybe to ask you Matt to start looking into what projects should be considered that we should apply for Grants on sure and then come back to us for a later agenda to kind of share some of that so it's kind of a followup that same topic okay I I was at the um the preview meeting for the demo delay bylaw change that's going to happen tomorrow night a presentation so I went last night and what came up which we've spoken about I think we really need to drill down a little bit more is uh master plan this now 20 years so they brought that up because we were're talking about historic stuff and how that was part of the master plan and I happen to be there I'm like want a master plan agenda item I think we're gonna have to have a we're gonna have to get a committee and I think it's time Mark's been championing this for a while and 20 years sounds good right too long but I like 20 doesn't sound as good I like 20 years let's let's do it so that'll be I'll get that probably for March um I think we all on that one that's something that we need um you can't think of anything else right now I'm sure something will come up um we're going to get our parking Kos not a parking kiosk update but our We're Not Gonna that's not a parking kiosk update on the 21st yeah that's what I mean it well it's Downtown parking update I think first which will incorporate I asked Matt that how many tickets have been written what's been Bridget been has been dealing with because we can't talk about the Kos the Kos not working um we wanted to get an update on how it is in the both Lots I think for us to talk about and then we can decide what to do on the 4th discuss thenot so Deputy Ido will be here for that she's Gathering that information um I'm not sure about Bridget but Deputy amdor is the keep I'm not so but would I'd like some in you know should get the input but I don't know about having Bri yeah yeah yeah no that's fine that's fine okay no that's great can I ask also on that that part of that agenda should be um the information youve requested but also um this vendor we registered a lot of complaints yeah what change updates are they doing yeah that's what I'm expecting an update on all of the requested changes and issues yeah yeah that's part of that too yeah okay I just meant we're not voting to get rid of the kiosk keep them restart them on that night that's all I have a random agenda item and it doesn't have to come you know it's not urgent I don't think but I know Karen's mentioned it in the past but I would love an update on our trust accounts with um Chris mentioning fbank again tonight yeah I would love to know what's sitting in these accounts and how we can actually use the money for these accounts and I know all of them are very specific how they can be used but I mean it sounds like they're just adding up and sitting there and not really being used so good agenda item yeah I would love to get up what are they what are they what are the parameters what are the balances yeah I am the representative of for the select Board of the trust fund Commissioners yeah so um I can we actually we had a meeting scheduled for Thursday it just got close fall until February so um I may we we got a presentation that comes okay that' be good awesome thank you and and it's um I think you're asking not just for trust funds but for um designated funds yes and maybe you can help us work Shar and get a definition what does that mean right weird stuff that's out there that's oh that's not in the general fund it's actually in this bucket different just so we know what they are and what it choose for yeah M be great great thank you else last call last call no what are we doing with our Retreat scenario a new year new year 2025 Mark and I are two for two all's good in in the world two for two what it's a joke to earlier oh it's a joke to earlier okay see much I miss I'm late um a retreat well we tried we try again I think we should try again maybe what we had to do is talk about what have an agenda item talk about what it is that we would want to accomplish and how we would propose to to do something like that before we just kind of say yeah let's do something because didn't we do that last time and it didn't work um well I think we need to address people's concerns I think the five of us need to have some comfort that there can be a productive discussion that comes from it otherwise I'm I'm not against it I just I just you yeah sure last call again no I said let's kick baba bye he's had a leate we got to do we can all get home minutes minutes two minutes all right two oh shoot I only saw one sorry nothing personal can't go home until we're done okay so I can bring up the first set and um Chris had sent me a change and Mark had sent me a change which I added in to show you guys um so I'll bring those up to start if you want all right I could could we use I just have some clarification for the liaison reporta um yeah October 29 that's in the wrong spot Caitlyn oh that goes down under oh under the actual discussion yes I miss it yep keep going oh right here right yep okay all right that was one change from Chris and there's one from Mark I you said yeah Mark um just had me clarify in one of the votes who um voted against so it was down here in the pickle vote okay I thought all the bolded was changes no I bold all the votes got it y y makes sense okay K you had to change you said yeah um so it's the mass Municipal but it wasn't it wasn't just like an hourong seminar it was it was a conference let's use the word conference it was a two-day event spons Mass Municipal energy conference I was just looking for the specific name of it not really finding it energy conference is that you said oh Mass Municipal Association MH yep energy conference we have all events out there but for whatever reason it doesn't show up on there anything else on the 29th from you probably not all right do a motion for the 29th move to approve the meeting minutes from October 29 2024 as amended second thanks any discussion see none all those in favor 5 Z thank you December something 10 y um I didn't receive any change so do you want me to pull them up or no might as well just pull it up so people can see it but it's the budget meeting yeah we only met once in December right yeah no we met twice twice yeah I have some more for you for December I just haven't okay gotcha kayin have you been doing some um thcom minutes I noticed that your last comment on this one was we we voted 500 Z that's more of a a fincom kind of vote with the abstain at the end what was that sorry the um the last vote on these minutes says voted 500 to adjourn yes I was making a joke that's more instead of 5 Z bad joke bad joke sorry um under budget summ summary um um my request to increase the board Committee Fund I think we should be specific that's a a budget line item and what are the three Matt what do you know off the top of your head what that line item is called for the for the $20,000 yeah for the boards it's not just for trails whoever historic Trails whoever I don't know the actual name of the line item I know exactly what you're talking about all right well instead of calling that a fun because it isn't a fund but it's an annual budget line item I'm just change it from fund to budget lineup yeah does that work very bu mhm thank you all right move to approve the meeting M Mims minutes from December 10th 2024 as amended second thank you uh any discussion seeing none all those in favor 5 Z thank you all right we have some uh stuff to read yep uh move to enter executive session under purpose three to discuss doesn't make sense move to enter executive session under purpose three to discussion of strategy with respect to town of reading V Deli Construction Inc in Taven Port V town of reading because an open session may have a detrimental effect on the town position in these cases and under purpose to to conduct a strategy session in preparation for negotiations with the town manager to invite Town Council to attend the entire executive session Matthew cornelis and Caitlyn Noella to attend the portion of the executive session held under purpose 3 only and she Clark to attend the portion of the meeting relative to town of reading V Deli only and to adjourn from the executive session and not return to open session second did I hear you say dport also yeah sorry I tuned out for second round sorry so count seconded I'm going to say any discussion but I'm gonna ask the board given the last item do we want to come back to open session and say something or um I think we kind of need to don't we well I since I didn't know I announced earlier that we were coming back just like the motion says but the motion wasn't WR so it doesn't matter doesn't matter what we said the motion wasn't read yet I was thinking in my head that we would kind of come back and and and what not discuss this this last item till the next meeting well I have no information on these line items so do you have information on like what like are we making decisions on any of these like they're all executive sessions so we don't know what we're going to see yet we talking about the last item it's a strategy session it's not it's not a it's not a completion of something you know it may or may not be obviously it's your your discretion on that but I'm I'm asking for I don't I don't I I don't think it warrants a [Music] return I'll I'll I'll I'm listening I don't if we feel differently we could always start out the next meeting with an agenda item with an update from our strategy session I'm I'm I'm asking the question how do we let the public know what we're doing it's an executive session not this what was discussed in executive session about a contract so we have another week to let Matt know one week and we don't meet in that week we can meet in that week that's why I you know I'm sorry if I sound agitated I'm not but we have to notify him yeah it's the board's job yep and and the public will be notified when we me our decision then we're gonna have to have another meeting I'll just let you guys know we have another meeting because we have to let him know by the 15th right we can do it tonight or we can have another meeting I will be on the um you may want to you may want to ask her I can't really speak on it obviously but she on the call right now I think she's on already um IA can you hear us yes thank you so the board can discuss an executive session how we want to communicate statements related to the contract discussion so I think we can have that conversation in an executive session okay and then but we we we I know we need to notify Matt by the 15th and is that will that be the notification to the public as well that's a decision for the board yeah so it's not a legal mandate that we immediately tell no no it's not we have to vote all right so worst case we'd have to have another meeting before the 15th okay so or actually almost sounds like we will have another meeting oh we have to no we will it can be Zoom it can be in person um I don't think one way or the other a zoom meeting that nobody is going to pay attention to because it's a Off Script meeting is going to be beneficial you know what I mean I don't think anyone's gonna which contradicts what I just said that I don't think we have to come back out of yeah the other part is you know it's going to be 10:30 11:00 at night correct if we came back tonight and we can't change it IA that's hour and a half if we wanted to come I'm going to my C soon I get a chance going to be a long one I didn't hear the end of that conversation did so the so the motion says to adjourn from the executive session and not return to open session you can change the motion to come back to open session and I already announced to the public that we weren't coming back so like people went to bed okay that's the yeah I didn't hear that component so if we've already told the public we weren't coming back then we shouldn't come back you didn't have the motion how did you I kind of kind of like it doesn't we knew we were going to get out at 11: I didn't think we were coming back and I don't really know what's in that agenda item we'll post we'll post for next week that's I worry about it too much all right so we didn't change the motion Karen seconded we had the discussion all those in favor we call oh sorry we call touche Melissa yes Mark yes Karen yes Chris Carlo yes all right e