e e e e all right I got to call the select board to order on May 21st I'm going to go over the agenda quickly first I would like to welcome our newest select board member Melissa Murphy to the board and thank her for running I think I saw Taran here thank Tara for running so welcome and uh so tonight we have public com oh sorry we're on rctv all the fun channels you guys know that and uh so public comment we're muted sorry oh yeah great okay not that sorry my bad all right all right awesome I'll rewind all right rewind calling the select board to order sorry about that and um May 21st I'd like go over the agenda like to welcome Melissa newly elected select board member I like to thank Tara Tara is here for running and tonight we have public comment lead on Town manager reports um Eagles Scouts proclamations we're going to interview three candidates for the CPA study committee we're going to have an EMS Proclamation week a pride month resolution a killing killum School building update and then we have a hearer hearing for a non-union classification conversation schedules and then um at approximately 9 o'clock we have discuss and vote on new liaison assignments and uh vasque as well and then after that we're going to appoint a new member hopefully to the Retirement Board three applicants as well and then we have future agenda minutes and uh all that stuff so it is um so public comment is first so would anyone like to speak on public comment please Nancy Nancy Dr Pearl Street ASN one meeting member now that there's a full board congratulations I'm hoping this board will finally um discuss and adopt the code of e ethics that you all had presented a few months ago um if the board chooses not to I do believe you owe the community at least some discussion as to the arguments against adopting such a Cod thank you thank you anyone else Carol hi also it's nice to see five people up here again congratulations Melissa could you state your name and address please oh sorry um Carolyn Johnson Thorndyke Street I know every select board member sitting here is passionate about reic unfortunately at the February 17th meeting Chris Haley's passion took us down a wrong path at that meeting Mr Haley re lessly and publicly pounced when he arranged his colleague Mark doxer with unsubstantiated allegations that Mr doxer had played a nefarious role in former chair Jackie McCarthy's resignation Mr Haley's irresponsible Behavior continued in subsequent meetings when his accusations became suggestions of criminal activity including bribery and extortion as a result mark doxer reputation was viciously and unfairly dragged through the mud for months Mr Haley has been trying to out any perceived wrongdoing by his colleagues and other members of our community his improper handling of the situation has fueled endless public speculation and insinuations of extortion and blackmail are still present on local social media whatever anyone thinks about what happened one thing is clear Jackie McCarthy never wrote in any of her recent letters that she feels she was the victim of a crime since the February 17th meeting Mr Haley has made some attempts to explain his actions however a full public apology from him is long overdue moreover Mr doxer deserves a sincere apology not one filled with justifications excuses and deflection I hope Mr Haley will demonstrate some real leadership by apologizing ing for his behavior towards Mr doxer in addition to an apology for Mr doxer the select board may still want to consider an investigation focused only on the actions of board members during the town manager search process including the open meeting law violation as well as what happened after Miss McCarthy's resignation both could help our community heal from the events of the past several months I know that Mr Haley cares about reading just as we all do and I believe we all want to move on to focus on the pressing issues facing our town thank you anyone else I forget to mention I don't like interrupting anybody but just try to keep it at two minutes you know yeah that looks short that one look short yeah just yeah thank you I'm Linda snow doxer and I live on Beaver Road in Reading first of all I want to thank you all for your service to our town thank you for running Melissa and Tara um it's huge service you do to our town a lot of time I've seen it intimately um it's common knowledge I'm also Mark docker's wife um but I'm here actually as a member of ko the Coalition of us and we want to for Al welcome Melissa to the board and to publicly say that we're looking forward to meeting with the select board on June 18th the agenda item is scheduled to follow up our December 5th proposal for an ad hoc committee to help the select board follow through on its August 9th 2022 proclamation to annually celebrate and educate about Bill Russell's history and Legacy of civil rights and sportsmanship in Reading we look forward to meeting with our new town manager with our select board chair and with Melissa being a new member of this committee before the larger meeting so that we can answer and any and all of your questions and hear your concerns thank you all for playing such an important role in our town we look forward to working with you to make this great town make this a great town for everyone who lives works worships and visits here thank you thank you would anyone in the room anyone else in the room like to speak please seeing none Caitlyn anyone on Zoom um no one raising their hand all right so we are on to theone reports I'll start with Chris please thank you Carline um not much really has transpired in the last two weeks other than the school committee met um with the metco uh program ended up getting Level funded so uh we might be losing 60 Grand based off that but Tom wise is currently working I believe he wrote a letter uh to see about maybe recuperating that funding um but other than that um they also received um Excellence on these uh uh Food Service program at the schools so Katherine Fran's been doing a great job over there um they got celebrated by that from I think Jason Lewis was the other one maybe Brad Jones was there too um but that sums up that um I did uh just want to thank obviously Melissa for for running for being here um also Lura gem again for running back-to-back elections and then is going to have to run another election uh in November um I know it's a lot of work that they put in to go ahead and do that so kudos to them for pulling it off uh once again um and lastly uh I I did uh weigh uh different scenarios from what else I was going to say uh regarding this um but I kind of wanted to uh move the board forward so I wouldn't be going uh in that direction but simply state that I stand by each and everything that I have ever said up here on the select everything I regret nothing only decision I ever regret making is giving up the EV parking spots outside of Christopher's Restaurant um because we lost a parking spot for that other than that I regret nothing else um and I I would just like to also reiterate uh what happened to Jackie McCarthy should never happen to another person in this town again and uh I think it's Crystal Clear that uh a majority of the Town agrees with me as well so thank you Karen please sure um so the kilum school building committee is is going at 100 miles an hour so that is keeping us very very busy meeting two or three times a week in um main committee meetings leadership meetings and our um today the sustainability working group kicked off um we had an amazing presentation from um our HVAC engineer Specialists about the range of possibilities that could could um heat and cool our new school and as well as their relative inefficient uh energy efficiencies and and U maintenance and long-term reliability it it was wonderful um thank you Jenny she's here tonight and she'll talk to us more about where the project is at um we also yesterday conducted another community meeting at the senior center um shair Carla nar's in the audience she headed up a panel where we had um uh people who regularly visit the senior center those was open to the community so we had all ages in the audience and and there'll be more of them coming up and again we have a website now kilum school.com and as the project moves along all of these um Community meetings um are are committee meetings and traffic studies and and the like are all being posted so if you want to get regular updates you can also submit your name there and you will get reminders of upcoming Community meetings so um I sorry to M miss the badge pinning ceremony I was under the weather the last week or so but I did get to meet one of our newest firefighters in person and congratulate him personally but I just wanted to again congratulate everybody who is promoted and pinned from um RPD and RFD and um yesterday I did have an opportunity to catch up with Senator Lewis and and we talked about the millionaires tax and um you know I was alerted there was a Boston Globe article about this yesterday and as state revenues are softening a bit from their highs during the um pandemic um the good news is that the millionaires tax is is on track for at least a billion I don't know what the newspaper said but our Senator said it's on track for a billion as planned and next year they expect it to go up by about 30% so maybe 1.3 billion and that will be used for roads transportation and schools so what that means for us what that will likely mean for us this year um continuation of School meals which are award-winning School meals um the tuition free college program the first two years um also I understand there's going to be some investment in early literacy or at least that's what the senator is hoping for and putting forward in the Senate budget um chapter 90 um more money for our roads and and Lord knows we could use the help because I don't know there wasn't that much snow but we still get a lot of potholes anyway so that was great and um yep that's it thanks Mark thanks car um so three things one um I was able to attend the badge pinning ceremony um to represent the board which was great it was a wonderful event that next to Matt and the entire State delegation which too so yeah that was really nice um second so recal um has been meeting continues to meet to talk about taking next steps with the active Living Center and um what we are planning to do and I see it's on the June 18th agenda is to present to the select board where we are um we did go in front of or I went in front of the permanent building committee and shared um the proposal for them to consider to take on as project um they their preliminary read was yes they think that they should do that the timing is perfect for before site selection and they're planning to have a meeting on June 3D I think so I think June 3D a kind of a a follow-up meeting to have discussions they're all planning to walk to the sites and explore the the different areas um and we'll see where they are at that point in terms of recommendations for next steps I don't know whether or not they'll be able to say this is a recommended site or these sites are all okay but let's see what I think what their next step is I think that's going to be the the guidance in terms of where we go recal a schedule to sunset at the end of June um so maybe on the 18th we'll we'll have to decide if the board wants to consider extending slightly or not but let let's see where what we get from the the building committee I think first um and then last item um just I will bring this up again under uh future agenda items but this board desperately needs to live by its code of conduct and that has not happened and that needs to to come back to the surface and I think it's a a good future agenda item for us to tackle I agree thank you all right normally Melissa uh would speak but if you have take one second yeah you want to plug something or say something sure go right ahead go right ahead um I just want to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone especially the residents who took the time to go the pool and vote on May 14th I'm indebted to all the residents who volunteered and supported me in various ways throughout my campaign I'm incredibly grateful for my campaign's team support encouragement and advice your help was invaluable in the Su in the success of my campaign I also wanted to thank Tara for your willingness to run and I look forward to working with you on Town matters in the future I'm eager to begin working with this board Matt Town staff volunteers from all the various boards and committees and our entire Community to working for the betterment of read together we can achieve great things once again I want to express my greatest gratitude to everyone thank you thank you all right our next agenda item which we haven't done in a while and um excuse me oh yeah yeah me um yes or no no but um I Echo Karen sent ments I uh just got back from Belgium um the night of the pinning so I was not able to attend I'm glad Mark attended and I Echo Cameron's comments and uh yeah just looking forward to do our looking forward to our Memorial Day celebration and um so we have coming up in the next several weeks uh we're going to be interviewing and then uh eventually appointing new people to boards and committees so if anyone out there has any interest in a board of committee that they want to serve on please apply go to the town website it's a simple onepage application send it to Lara and then you'll have an interview so uh we're town of volunteers we're all volunteers so I encourage anyone who has any interest there are a lot of boards a lot of open positions uh we don't know who's not re-upping yet so there might be more seats than normal uh some people fall off and don't uh you know retire from their board and um but I know we have openings so I encourage that and that's all I have Matt thank you so we mentioned the badge pitting that was a great event thanks to all and congratulations to all um I also intended the reading Garden Club annual plant sale on the common which was very well attended and so congrats to the Garden Club on another great year big success also the police department held their open house on Saturday so I attended that event as well it's like a two for run Saturday so went very well um Memorial Day is the 9:00 am um at the American Legion we'll start the parade and then move on to the um Cemetery uh for some speeches and remarks there and also the Boston 25 uh zip trip is scheduled for the 21st of June that was um a little long time in the making but we can finally announce it now they've announced it on social media um it's going to be at Camp Curtis and we'll have more details to follow but I think it's going to be a great event for the community so that's a little wrap up of the events coming up and just uh last time we were we were lucky enough when we own the chocolate truffle to be part of it are they going to allow vendors I I think they are I think there's a fee to like like we mentioned a fee to be a vendor there the TV station is really taking the lead on that okay um but there will be vendors there and obviously the public can come and go as they wish so we have to need to figure out how to reach out and how I think they're already doing that but I'll touch base of the TV station again so yeah was last time I he it was a great great event beautiful day and uh yeah it's been several years now but a lot yeah so so that's the uh those are the updates on the events great thank you uh thank you on to uh Eagle Scout recognitions we have um what would be your title I'm sorry the scout master scout master uh Ian Nelson who's also a police officer in town uniform yeah also police officer in town and I wear many uniforms thank you for thank you for your service of the town and thank you for even extending yourself to these fine young men so if you want to share a few words absolutely absolutely um my name is Ian Nelson I am the scout master the current scout master troop 702 I'll just take a few minutes of your time but I want to start off by saying thank you very much thank you to the chair for inviting us thank you for the board for having us and um humoring me I want to thank all the volunteers and all the the Town volunteers and the town employees that work with my Scouts um I want to give a particular Shout out to both Bill Sullivan of the Town Forest committee but also Kathy Kelly of Trails um the amount of work that these two guys next to me and all our Eagles and all our Scouts do is is immense and uh and the the work that the volunteers and employees do with them wouldn't none of this would happen without them so I really want to thank them I also want to take a moment and thank the uh 702 parents all the adult volunteers that wear the tan shirts and don't wear the tan shirt to make it all work um scouting is strong and reading we have four units plus a parent organization um that that makes hundreds of our youth are uh involved in it um I want to talk a little bit about troop 702 we are the troop in town right now we have over 60 boys and girls that are registered that participate uh we have weekly meetings that have over 40 Scouts we do monthly trips that are extremely well attended and then we have um uh high adventure trips where our older Scouts get to go for week long backpacking trips everything you would imagine that we do uh we also do countless uh service hours these kids volunteer themselves over and over and over again throughout their entire career we take a lot of pride in that uh troop 702 itself is over 100 years old we've been out of the Old South church since basically since scouting began we've had over 140 Eagles in that time but I don't want to uh just concentrate on just them so many kids come through and uh every single one of them participate they learn the great skills getting to Eagle is not an easy Road I'm going to talk very briefly about that uh it's a very small percentage that make it so I want to uh congratulate all our youths that participate in such a great program um so the vision statement of scouting America the recently ranted scouting America reads uh scouting America will prepare every eligible youth in America to become a responsible participating Citizen and leader who's Guided by the Scout Oath and the Scout Law um one of the reasons why I'm a big supporter my family's a big supporter and obviously these guys here in the troop is exactly what the pillars are I'm going to go real briefly into them when people think of scouting they think of outdoorsmanship certainly we do that we teach them how to uh Camp tent cook in the woods St fires do all the tie knots do all that stuff however I think what people uh misunderstand is how much civic responsibility and education that we do um I'll talk as I said I'm going to mention briefly about Eagle uh getting to Eagle they have to learn an awful lot they have to learn how to be a good citizen in the nation a good citizen in the community and a good citizen and Society along a vast array of other things um and then the last pillar is just general education they explore a lot uh with their merit badges they learn so many different life skills they can apply and uh some of them even figure out what they want to do in uh life just because of all that all these pillars are super important we take all of them very um very uh seriously so lastly why are we here Eagle Scouts so Eagle Scouts is a lot both these guys worked at it for about seven years in order to get there um you got to get there before your 18th birthday they have to earn 21 merit badges 14 are required that's exactly they all uh embody what the pillars are uh things like cooking and first aid and citizenship and all those they have to function as Leaders both of these uh young men behind me uh did exactly that they start down at just Patrol leading leading a small number of Young Middle School age Scouts and they go all the way up until they run the troop themselves um it's quite impressive they set the agendas they gather all the gear they do all of it themselves the adults you know we're just kind of there hanging out guiding making sure no one's getting hurt everyone knows what an eagle most people know exactly what an Eagle project is an Eagle project is a extreme undertaking that they take that they literally come up with an idea and they carry it all the way through fruition I'm going to speak about both these Scouts um Eagle project but I did want to say one comment the mother said to me recently as one of my other uh Scouts just achieved Eagle she came up to me after the fact and she basically said something I'm paraphrasing something along the lines of it's amazing how much work that these Scouts put in um and that so many people don't actually see the amount of work so that's why I want to thank the board for this time so I can get up here speak briefly about uh you know not a lot of kids work seven years selflessly for other people in order to achieve something and that's exactly what these Eagle Scouts did so first on my right this is Nicholas Bellos I've uh had the joy of actually knowing both of them since they were first graders and watch them grow up into the young men they are just bring pictures say again did you bring pictures of when they were first oh I you should see some of the pictures I have lot small you bring some oh while next time uh yeah thank you um he's graduating um he just gra is graduating reading Memorial High School class of 24 he eagled back in September prior to his 18th birthday um he had the unique experience of being our senior patrol leader that is the guy who's in charge of everything during covid he kept us together he ran the zoom meetings when we were able to get back outside he uh did all that together that was unique and he did it at a younger age as well he what 14 at the time uh he was 14 at the time he kept us together during that very difficult time he's going to head up to UMass L and study I mean sorry UMass Amherst and study computer science and then briefly about his project uh he picked his project because as he said his parents came to this country and English was a second language for both of them as such he was made aware of a program out of Lynn that does little libraries uh that concentrates as English as a second language so he with a lot of uh adult guidance but with his own hands and uh his hard work he uh created over 20 of those little libraries got them set up and then gave you know all donated raised the money to build them saw them built and then had them delivered and donated to that um that um charity that then will paint them and then see them spread around the city of L so he did that very difficult infrastructure and uh uh completed it very successfully so congratulations so my left is Jeffrey Longs Jeff Longs he eagled back in December he's graduating the Northeast Regional Vocational School again this year in 2024 he's moving forward and secured employment in the construction industry um he ended actually as my junior Assistant Scout Master that meant that uh he was responsible not for the whole troop but for the youngest troop uh the youngest in that troop which you can imagine is uh quite a lot of work um a lot of the bridges you guys walk on I mentioned the trails committee and stuff in the town Community a lot of the you were able to walk on the Scouts have built and maintained them over the years and one of the longest ones I nickname alligator Aly I'm not sure have a better name for it but a quite long section Jeff saw it so we see the removal and we see the replacement of these Bridges um and we work uh he worked handing glove with the trails committee and the Town Forest committee to see it done uh so that was his project so again I want to thank you guys for the few minutes to get up here and speak about these two Scouts um the program and what we're trying to achieve there so thank you so much thank you so much uh I feel very inadequate um right now so thank you um so Chris has a few things to mention and then we'll take a group picture and um there's one Scout not here but you know you can present that as well I guess yeah if you want me to speak on Charles mace right he's the one that's not here yeah Charlie M unfortunately wasn't able to make it uh so it looks as if he did uh the bridge over at bar Maro Conservation Area um was that the one that someone did a GoFundMe for that I recall seeing or is that someone else uh thankfully the internet has allowed a lot of our fundraising to take place um with the gofund means it's pretty popular that we do and then uh again working with trails and with Town Forest they're able to uh amplify that message get it out there and these Scouts are able to raise the funds to get the projects done and there's a lot of generous groups downtown as well that that donate to the Troops projects awesome so yeah I do have certificates for uh Nicholas and uh Jeff as well so um do you want to sign them first K and then give them to him no we W can wait we'll we'll sign them later okay do a picture with these guys [Music] okay you want to take the Charles one absolutely yeah I hav let fall in thank you very yeah guys come on we get a picture you separately P call guys in the back thank you so much I love congratulations good job J congratulations [Music] congratulations get a certificate thank you very much guys angle yeah angle yeah you go it's okay to smile Jeff who we looking at first do Carla first yeah and then Bob next Bob do you got a good one we Wen looking at you B take it again look at that Bob come on look at Bob all right thank you so much thank you appreciate it thank you can the board me can the board members up here please shouldn't we sign before they leave yeah yeah we'll sign we're going to do a group picture for the website we don't have a picture good idea we just guys hang up for two minutes just you no just you oh just me sorry board only for minut okay ready one two three all right thank you all right we're GNA sign these okay be prepared right yeah backwards c yeah thanks that one [Music] Ming in the FR very that it was there you're an adult all right thank you guys thank you thank you so much [Applause] all right now we're going to interview and uh appoint a resident member to the CPA Community preservation act study committee we have three applicants I'm just going to go on order uh that is in our packet so Elanor is Elanor here hi I don't know if you can come up to the podium please just maybe take a few minutes introduce yourself and then we'll ask you some questions okay hi um my name is Elanor acus I'm a fairly new resident in reading and really excited to live here and put down roots and I've done um a lot of volunteer work for years and um animal welfare and civil rights and my kids school in my previous town and um I want my volunteer Focus to be hyper local help me settle into reading and um I really appreciate what a beautiful town this is I'm from an ugly suburb of Chicago called skoki Illinois with full of ticky tacky little houses from the 50s and strip malls and um I high tailed it out of there to New England for college um because I love New England the architecture the town setups with the town squares and the history so the subject matter of this um Community preservation Act is really interesting to me so that's why I wanted to volunteer thank you R an order first thank you Carlo uh thank you Elanor um I guess what is your philosophy on the on the CPA are you for it against it and if you are for it what percentage is would you be looking for I have an open mind on that I mean I would need to do um research on it I love the things that it can fund um the Open Spaces the historical preservation the housing but um I don't think anything is a slam dunk until we do research and see if it's a fit for reading and I would want to I'm I'm very Adept at researching I I work um a complex technical content at a software company and I work with subject matter experts so I'm good at researching taking in feedback um I'd want to see take the Pulse of the community and weigh it against other priorities that the town has any questions yeah um well so we didn't I don't think you meant were you asking her if she's going to vote for it because we definitely didn't want to ask you that um and that makes a lot of sense that you you don't have to make that decision how we uh we're advised to have this working study group to um be kind of a publicity this is an initiative that the select board would like to pursue um for our previous discussions and having Consultants come in so what we need are volunteers who's who are willing to dig in and come up with a solution that would uh work for the community so that really is the the goal of the committee but um the good news is lots of other communities including Winchester and they're admitting and writing in the newspapers that you know this kind of writes itself and it's been done a lot of times before so hopefully it won't take too much time but we appreciate you stepping out thank you yeah thank you I just uh appreciate it I probably should have mentioned there's three applicants and you know we're selecting one which I don't want if either two don't get chosen I don't want them to disway any from volunteering for other boards and committees um but um it makes our job tougher we have more than one applicant for one spot but uh thank you for you know putting your name in the Hat and um I don't really have much because you answered it already um so thanks for volunteering um I not that you talked about the CPA committee the climate advisory committee and the historic district commission just wondering kind of how are those three areas of interest to you kind of where do they where do they come from great that you want to volunteer I'm wondering why you chose those three okay which ones did I choose again this one the climate Community preservation climate advisory and historic district okay well I already touched on how I love the the history of New England I'm I'm like that Mom who brings her kid to every Historical house we drive by I'm like oh look so you know I love that too and that's why apply for the community preservation and then for the climate I've always been interested in environmental issues I've been a longtime volunteer like since I was a teenager on Animal Welfare issues with I which I think ties in to the climate so I've done everything from dog walking to lobbying at the state local and federal level um for Animal Welfare bills um so I think all these interests tie in cool and just one of the thing um so I very much appreciate your mentioning and I think it's really important for this role as well as for others um to be very open-minded and to be willing to explore understand what's going on um you know everything has a cost and everything has a benefit yes and um just want to make sure that we understand what those are so we can present them to the community yes exactly would this um volunteer position involve any Outreach to the community like sharing the findings so I assume it's going to report back to the select board directly and then um that would kind of be the main Communications mechanism outward from there absolutely okay I love that I mean I would love to you know get whatever Community feedback is is possible and I'm a good communicator writer I could synthesize a lot of information research it first so that I can synthesize it in a good way not to pitch myself but that's what I'm here to do so thank you AA um no I don't have any questions for you I do appreciate you mentioning you know the the pulse of the community with all the other big projects we have going on currently so um but again thank you for volunteering thank you thank you next we have Sanford Sanford here oh great hello hi hi I'm I go by Sandy um unlike your prior applicant uh I've been around for a while um I might say that I don't have the fresh uh that she does but um I come with um a lot of history and reading with in here excuse me 35 40 years or so uh raised a family here uh built a house here um I was pretty busy with career in Boston um and didn't quite have the time that I now have um to do other things so I'd love to contribute some of my experience and my time to this particular cause um I think I'm coming to the subject matter with a leg up on a lot of the uh different interests uh that uh play into this topic and I'm aware of the history back 20 or so years ago where it was a very close vote uh didn't go in favor adoption um and I think this time around that hopefully the process will give rise to a good Recon consideration of whether or not this town wants to bring this tool into its kit uh in employ it um in ways that uh have a a very rich mix of possibilities as well as challenges I might add because every community that I know of that's adopted this uh there's a lot of infighting among um whether my my white hat if you will is whiter than your white hat because all all the ideas that kind of spring up under CPA are good ideas and they have to compete on their merits with other ideas so were it to be adopted that's the way I kind of see it playing out thank you start in this direction MOA um I have congratulations thank you um I don't think I have any questions for you but I appreciate you volunteering volunteers of the stff desperately so thank you um in your note to us you mentioned that you participated in hundreds of Massachusetts prog projects involving affordable housing Recreation facilities historic preservation and land conservation which are basically the CPA candidat can you talk a little bit about just kind of some of the different kinds of things you've seen um sure um many of these go back a number of years here so um one that I can think of was um I happen to be doing some volunteer work representing the scholar the thow scholars so-called um who were trying to preserve um deep cut Woods in conquered across route two from Walton Pond and the town uh was interested in putting um some artificial turff Recreation fields in the in that Woodland um and so it was um uh a fight if you will locally between historic interests and recreational interests at uh in that particular um project and um uh it was a town meeting boat um under CPA uh and the fields were there today and the woods are gone but it was an interesting um uh and very challenging uh competition if you will between different interests that are both protected under this particular law and all the constituencies that kind of came to bear on that particular dialogue and and both it's one okay so you've been in the mix on different kinds of projects one wrong time no no sorry thank you I appreciate it I to me I think that part of what we're trying to understand is U what do you get out of this thing and and you don't need to answer that yeah I mean a lot of this is playing forward a couple of steps I mean the first step here as as as I think the charter for this the study committee is is you know um how you might go about putting this in front of the voters and that's a pretty uh rigorous procedure uh particularly in view of the timeline that you youve set out um there's sever steps that really kind of need to be almost rushed through in order to get to um the state election ballot yeah we are being a little aggressive so we'll have to see how that plays out but um that was a great question and thank you it seems like you've been in the weeds uh pardon the pun um for a while with um various outdoor space and other interests so I uh you know you have your brief statement here what you've done we've spoken on the phone so I I I think uh same thing as I said before if you're not chosen please apply to a different committee that you have interest in sounds like conservation would be a great one for you I'm just throwing that out there I have no idea but um that's all I have Karen okay yeah I would I would totally add Town Forest Trails yeah um but thank you um uh you know I see this as um I do see this as Outreach to the community we've had we've had a couple Consultants come in we've had a couple of presentations you know we we've made steps as to what this could mean to our community kind of projects might we be able to go forward with but certainly we as a board don't have the bandwidth to really dig in and as you said really kind of come up with something that we could present to the community and lay out steps to get there whether it is aligning with state election or having a special election so I appreciate you stepping up and if that's of interest to you this is a nice opportunity and I think it's going to be a good group too so anyway thank you for volunteering and yes there are definitely other areas where I can see your talents fitting in thank you thanks Carin um yeah pretty much same question to you do you believe in CPA for it against it and at what percentage it already seems like you are for it because you were a decade ago but I could be mistaken was I for a decade ago no you mentioned that previous vote on CPA that that had failed were you for it back then as or against it back then or um yeah I would say that 20 20 plus years ago I thought it was a good idea um my experience uh uh over the course of that time uh I think I'm more thoughtful about all the interests that are in play of kind of seeing a lot of different sides of um that that come to um to interplay here I think to answer your question um the front end of this process is really designed to get all the interest groups that have um an opinion an agenda a position a perspective um into play and I see that all coming out in another vote and if if if that goes one way or the other I'm fine with either way it goes um uh the reason I'm stepping in or putting my hat in the ring to step in at this round is to see that that process runs its course to whatever end it runs its to what whatever end yeah to your point it seems uh the reason for me asking the question is not to be like I'm I'm stacking the deck five verse two or whatever scenario it's more of if it is an echo chamber it is going to fail One Direction or the other is my opinion and if you can flip someone like me that is against it I love what I can do but not right now if you can flip someone against me if flip me to be for from the results from this committee then you're going to get what you want and I'm just one person my answer to that is in the process U whatever I I I think if it's a robust process um uh and everyone is engage everyone who has an interest in it is engaged in it that the result uh will stand um uh on the merits and um I would hope that it goes to um the ballot and um I think it's going to be a close call to tell you the truth based on history and based on what I kind of sense in terms of politics and i' very much like to be part of that process I'm not weighing in to one and to the other I'd like to be a legis in process and make sure that process is as good as anybody could think it could be thank you thank you appreciate it up yep thanks so much Bob hi Bob Wen I'm a 19-year running resident um very active in the community some of you may know me others may not know me um I've I'm on the recreation committee Karen was just out a meeting a little while ago thank you for coming thank you for joining um I was past president reading Little League I'm still involved with Little League a very strong um you know interest in you know Recreation Youth Sports youth activities I'm also on a reading youth football board um you that's where my my interest lies is you know trying to you know make this a better place and you know more opportunities for kids to you know succeed in physical activities you know whether it be organized sports nonorganized sports um you know that's that's where my interest lies and that's why I'm uh you know that's why I want to you know hopefully you know join this committee and you lend my input thank you I'll start this then Chris please same question Bob are you for against CPA and if you are for it what percentage are you kind of looking at or I'm at this point and knowing what it could potentially do I'd say I'm like 75 25 for I saw that you know there's you know Recreation you know what the money can be spent on Recreation open space I think those you know that's a big opportunity for this town to You Know Field space is a humongous problem and you know if that if this can solve that then I am onard with that obviously you know there are other factors that have to go into it that's where the 25% comes into play but I am you know I am more for it just at this point that I am against it and again in my you know in with you know being involved in Little League what I found is that if you go to the community with something they're going to support it and you if you want to get Buy in from the community um I feel I'm a a strong candidate for this position to help you get that buy you know you might get people that may not be for it that you know if they see that it's going to you know improve you know field conditions field you know opportunities you know there's multiple sports that need field space in this town and I I feel I can help you you know if you if the goal of this committee is to for the betterment of the town then how place like I said I feel I'm a very strong C for that thanks um thank you no you answer my questions thank you you're welcome thank you thank you for St up thank you appreciate I appreciate yeah that was kind of my uh my interest in thanking these guys for letting me be in this committee because you know we we're called taxachusetts for a reason and you know but this has a lot of benefits to it so you know I want to be part of this process I look forward to it um my knee-jerk reaction was no um no no no more taxes not no to the CPA but um given that it's not a huge amount but we have a lot going on and I I I think your answer was honest and you know I think everyone that's already spoken um said that they want to listen and they want to contribute and they want to go through the process and I think that's what we'll do as a committee um with assistance um and guidance uh that we may need ourselves because it is going to go to a Townline vote which is you crucial so that's what I have thank you Mark thanks car um love your enthusiasm love the discussion of wreck um can you find some space to think about affordable housing as well and Community preservation inside I can I am open to anything and everything I you know I obviously that's another facet of it that you know that could be beneficial to the town I like to like to think that I'm a critical thinker an open-minded thinker you know I don't like to be in that box you know put me outside of that box and I absolutely you know am willing to to come up with creative you know creative opportunities to meet those needs as well I am not close-minded it at all awesome and and I think you brought it up also if if the decision is to take it forward to the town white vote it needs support of the the town so obviously that not just connections but the ability to talk to people about what it can do would be an important part I I feel I I bring that to the table I'm you know you want get community Buy in you need the community to buy in so and there it is thank you well well Point Melissa I don't have any questions for you Bob but I just want to say thank you for volunteering and volunteering for everything else you well thank you and thank you guys thank all of you as well you know this is this is not an easy job not an easy task that you know you guys are you know have to do thank you as well not fun saying no to people that want to volunteer that's for sure none of us none of us like that so I just want to end it thank you I just want to mention that um not that you know I'm a member of this committee but I'm going to encourage I want to try to get a meeting next week to organize and then given all our different schedules try to you set a a schedule up for us that we can meet on a regular basis and and I think we need to hit the ground running um and meet this is just my opinion you know every two to three weeks in the beginning before summer hits and just kind of get start coalescing and you want to invite and um you know participate obviously they all open public meetings but you know have historic come have Recreation come have affordable house you know conserv so I just want to put that other to you three that my intention is to have a our first meeting next week organize uh select a chair and a vice chair and then go over our schedules and see what the best time to meet that we as many of us can attend we may not be able to all the meetings and I can't tell you now how many they're going to be but uh we kind of have a a deadline to get this on a on an election and it's pretty tight so I don't want to rush this but if we need more time we're gonna need more time um so I just want to put that out to to to you three thank you thank you I just might I guess one other question when will you guys be voting on this right now right now okay aome stay tuned stay tuned yeah this is uh the fun part of uh Goa a quick question so do we have we have a recreation Committee Member on the we we do so Bob is also on Recreation yes I correct I was just curious had yep um so I'll you know I I'll kick it off this is very uh I don't want see yeah it's not fun it's not fun I've been on vasque uh several times and when you get multiple applicants then we always encourage you don't get this one apply for something else I know several of you um aside from Bob who's on a committee right now expressed interest in other committees so uh you know I I right now I guess we'll take a pulse I guess maybe first is that I mean I don't know I don't know if much to vote maybe take a pulse and right now I'm leading towards Eleanor and I'll leave it there Mark um so I think all great candidates thank you I think we have kind of a more analytical point of view a more kind of process and experience point of view and a more kind of enthusiastic U you know dig point of view between the three candidates so I'd love all three uh but we can only have one um so my gut actually I'm I'm leaning toward Sandy as the the voice of the process getting it done seeing the different things that can happen and bringing forward this part of the process really is kind of figuring out hey what do we bring to the community how how do we share all this information how do we let them know what this is so that if it goes to a vote they know they have full information and ready to go I think Sandy would that thank you well said Karen I'm not voting just a comments know three great candidates um I love Bob's like how did you just describe is um get going the bumper Snicker what's his bumper Snicker bumper Snicker uh yeah enthusiasm and buying the buying thing yeah the that that was those were Bob's words yeah community community buy it buy buy I like those words kind of leaning towards Bob yeah I like and they're all great candidates all right Chris you can get a hat too we can get a hat it's a tough CH it's a tough choice tough choice I mean every decision I make uh I will explain my thought process um we already have a wreck member uh so I would kind of lean towards not Bob unfortunately sorry Bob um between Sandy and Elanor I know Elanor replied for the town manager screening thing back in the day um I think she did pretty good uh back then I think her interview now was uh good as well I would hate to say no to her again on something um I I I think Sandy gave a pretty uh not a not a wellth thought out answer to the questions that uh you know I had posed but I think I would be leaning towards uh Sandy as my person this is going to be fun um great three great candidates and again I thank you all for volunteering um I uh blob I'm sorry I think because we have a wreck Committee Member although the Buy in thing would be great if you could switch me I feel like you could flip anyone in this town um elanar I really loved elan's approach of getting pulse of the community because I think this is going to be really important with all the other things that we have on deck for debt exclusion so I really appreciate ellar um mentioning that Sandy I think you have a ton of experience in this general area too so I do like um that you may you would do well in getting the process started appropriately and you know getting that information out to the the members of the community um at this point I think I'm leaning towards eler okay Matt you're next just just Kidd I don't get I know just that would help us a lot a sixth member knew who knew this would be such a problem it would help us a lot yeah so two2 uh yeah we have a not an issue we'll get through this um So currently we have pulsing you not voting uh two for Elanor two for Sandy and one for BOB So based on comments Karen do you I I I would s's great candidate I would be happy to join the consensus okay so I think we should take a vote okay I don't want to vote on all three we should just uh start with the get through yeah um okay do we have a motion we motion right no not we do but I guess as to approve right the motion is to approve no it's moved to a point to CP yeah yeah yeah but we need a name correct yeah well if it doesn't get enough to pass then we just keep going right keep going all right so I will start with so we have three Sandy two Elanor am I correct that's want mistake anything pulse pulse pulse right okay so we'll start with Sandy I know it say Sanford we'll start with Sandy um all those in favor the motion first oh sorry well okay sorry yes move to a point Sanford Mal Mal Mark said to the CPA study committee second second any discussion all those in favor three all those opposed two all right that's it great conratulations congratulations and thank you to everybody in'll be getting an email you'll be getting an email thank you thank you thank you to all of you that applied and uh please don't stop all great candidates please don't stop please don't stop thank you Community mine remember that have a shing Team all right next on the agenda we have EMS Emergency Medical Services uh week Proclamation and I don't know if uh Chief BRS is gonna say anything or we're gonna if you like me to I can yeah sure briefly that'd be great the ony yeah that'd be great bring them in good to see you good to see you thanks for having us here tonight are you gonna fit how many how many you got coming look it this is everybody who's on on tonight okay so um thanks for having us tonight it's EMS we and reading has a very strong EMS system and we have a long history of providing EMS that began in the early 1970s and that was when they staffed the Cadillac Ambulance with very little training the first training was um with Winchester Hospital the ER Physicians and nurses gave them training and then they got formal EMT training and it was like that up until 2003 when we moved to the advanced life support club uh Captain mayette is one of the founding members of our of our paramedic uh program um that allowed us to give all kinds of medications and treat uh with more sophisticated treatment techniques and then we've continued to expand that um out so now uh every fir Tru we have is a registered ambulance it's a class five ambulance uh our newest apparatus have refrigerators on it to carry medications um so they are stored properly so they have their their best efficacy so um it's it's really a robust system now if our in is out we have a fire truck we have ALS level of care because all people par Medics so um I just want to say thank you to to everybody that that does such a great job today and know just kind The Entity of Vargus is one of most our newest people B Madden uh who's been with us for a while Lindsay Gartner um we have Lieutenant fer Jim Kelly joined us recently we stole him from Belmont Max Madden is is in the back we have Lieutenant Dole and we have five fighter demogo it's his birthday tonight but we won't say anything and we have Captain mayette and assistant chief uh Rick Nelson so thanks for having us here tonight appreciate it it's a nice opportunity to to recognize for they're they're providing EMS really high level of care every day 247 so thanks no thank you thank you and going from presentations past aren't we one of the leaders in this area as far as what we can provide for service we are like on our border there's two communities that at Advanced life support level lynfield and North North ring the other communities aren't but nobody around us puts ALS equipment on the engines and lad truck we we started putting it on our lad truck first and then we went to our Westside engine and now it's it's a downtown engine as well so every every truck that's in service is is carrying a a a 12 defibrillated Monitor and a post of medications and a in a highly trained uh paramedic which most important but we wanted to make sure that when we arrived on scene with the trained person that we gave them the tools and you know it's all about life safety and uh it's it's been very effective you know it's when somebody has a a heart attack you know the the seconds count and you can't always bring them back but we have each year we bring people back because of this level of care so it's it's it's really significant and people who are um who had a significant trauma or or stroke you know they're able to get um very high quality care right away and in many cases it's same level of care that they first get at the ER so they get stabilized and then uh another treatment so um it's quite a system so no that's excellent if you if you want to have an episode have and ready it's gonna happen we never meet you guys but thank you for all you do yeah I think Chris has something to I believe you stole that from me last time by the way what we have an episode or have been r sorry sorry um no I I just like to say as well i' unfortunately met a couple of them a couple of times uh you never want to be meeting EMS people but um everything turned out the way that it was supposed to so I appreciate all their hard work um and then also uh my daughter had won the fir truck raffle last week so it was good for her to get the ride along with uh with you Chief and assistant chief over there um but no just thank you and anything happens you want to be in Reading thank you there's clearly a couple ride because my son and daughter got ride La last week almost AUM all right so the proclamation for EMS week whereas Emergency Medical Services is a vital public service and whereas the members of Emer Emergency Medical Services teams are ready to provide life-saving care to those in need 24 hours a day 7 days a week and whereas access to Quality Emergency Care dramatically improves the survival and recovery rate of those who experience sudden in illness or injury and whereas Emergency Medical Services has grown to fill the Gap providing important outof hospital care including preventative maintenance follow-up care and access to Tele medicine in whereas the Emergency Medical Service System consists of First Responders emergency medical technicians paramedics emergency medical dispatchers firefighters police officers Educators administrators prehospital nurses emergency Nur nurses emergency physicians trained members of the public and other Hospital medical care providers and whereas the members of Emergency Medical Service teams whether care or volunteer engage in thousands of hours of specialized training and continuing education to enance their life saving skills and whereas it is appropriate to recognize the value and the accomplishments of emergency medical service providers by designating the Emergency Medical Services week now therefore we the select Bo of the town of Reading Massachusetts do hereby Proclaim May 19th through the 25th 2024 as Emergency Medical Service this week the select board are ready thank you Chris all right you thank you we'll be signing this and thank you very much thank you thank [Applause] is there a motion that goes with it or just a proclamation uh that is it just thank you you guys safe all right as we're getting that signed we have a pride month resolution uh June is pride month and that's all it says in the agenda I know we have a a resolution uh to read and we've done this for several years now and at least at least the third year 2020 the first year that was that was hard Co it's be next year yeah but yeah so we'd like to fourth year as a board and uh you know as a community recognize June as pride month and Chris has another proclamation to read resolution sorry resolution reading select board a resolution for pride month whereas the reading select board believes the inherit Dignity of everyone who helps to form our community whereas pride month commemorates The Stonewall op rising of June 1969 and elevates the pursuit of equal justice and opportunity the lgbtq plus Americans and whereas the reading select board values diversity equity and inclusion is committed to equal rights and opportunities for readings lgbtq plus residents and it's designated to fostering the acceptance of all members of the reading community and whereas the reading select board recognizes the important contributions of its lgbtq plus residents to the town's history culture economy and Civic life and whereas it is imperative that residents of all sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions feel valued safe empowered and supported by their peers Educators and Community leaders and whereas we affirm our support for our lgbtq plus residents and stand with them to protect their civil rights and ability to live openly without fear now therefore be it resolved that we the reading select board do hereby resolve that June 2024 be recognized as pride month in the town reading and urge members of the reading Community to recognize that contributions made by members of the lgbtq plus community in the importance of this month the select Board of read thank you Chris all right bring on June all right as we signing that I think we have a presentation uh on kilum school building project and it's G be a slideshow yes I'm going to be projecting are you going to share with Caitlyn or Caitlyn has it I'm going to share okay oh um she just needs to give me permission to share my screen kayin there we go got thank you so uh my name is shall I go ahead y my name is Jenny Kaki I am an architect um and the project project manager uh for the kilum school um building project at La valy brensinger Architects we the designer that's been hired by the town and um I am here um and to give you an update on what we have been doing since uh we started work in January and I've been working closely with Carla Susanna Matt Karen Jane um and um have had a great experience working with the town so far and um really you know commend the town on um a number of decisions that were made before we joined that have set us up for success and just generally it's been a really great grp to work with so um I'm going to kind of take you through the whole thing because I know you have some new members and just maybe some of this is covering territory that you all know so um bear with me but hopefully it'll get everyone on the same page so first I want to EXP explain a little bit about um how the um whole project process works so um the town of reading is partnered with um the mass Massachusetts State Building Authority which is um a state agency that funds um School construction throughout the state through a one one penny of our sales tax um and um the kilum School building committee represents uh the town's um interests in this process they are the owner and um the town has hired um two firms to uh manage and design the school so coler's project leaders um has been hired as the owners project manager Susanna is you're representing them and lavali brenzinger as the project Ander also known as the architect um so if we kind of scoot down that um chart um these are some of the the folks who are um working on the project um from colier Project leaders um Susanna and Mike Carol um are the people who are most involved and then laali brensinger um myself and Lee shood Sherwood the principal in charge are your main contacts and we also have this huge see all these people down below have a huge team of subc Consultants um Engineers geot technical engineers and um Co Specialists and all kinds of folks who are um contributing their individual expertise um throughout the process where we need them um so this is kind of a this is a chart from the msba sorry it's a little small and hard to read um but um the msba requires that all communities that participate in its process and its funding go through a very clear and rigorous process and the advantage of that is is that um by the time that communities get to the construction phase you're have a very wellth thought out project um you've kind of been forced to go through all of these considerations so that you know that this is really the best investment for your town um so in June 2021 um the town submitted a statement of Interest that's where you first kind of put your hat in the ring and say we we have a project we want to do and get funded um they were in the eligibility period and then in March 2022 the msba invited them um invited the town said yes we're going to fund your project you can now come into the msba project pipeline a huge um deal for the town because it means that you're going to get a lot of M funding money from the state um the first um or the next step was forming the project team which went um hiring um Colliers the OPM and L and and my firm and that was completed in December and um in January we started the feasibility study phase so here is another also hardto read um diagram apologies for that um so this is a just a project schedule at a very high level to kind of show you how um we expect um you know based on certain assumptions kind of how we expect the project process to go so we've just completed our first submitt to the msba actually yesterday um which was an interim submitt in the feasibility study phase in August we'll be doing our final submitt of the feasibility study phase um and then going on to schematic design so in schematic design is where we start to develop the design of the project and and at the end of that that phase we'll have um your budget number which will then go to a town boat in June 2025 um if the vote passes then we will continue the design process um through summer of 20 um bidding and summer of 2026 and then um assuming certain things about it being a relatively straightforward construction with limited phases and new construction we don't need to get into the nitty-gritty but given certain assumptions we think that the building construction can be completed in 2 years um for fall 2028 move in and then there would be another year approximately of um site construction because then the old building has to be demolished and the site work completed so fall 2028 move in I think that's the the key number the key date that everyone wants to know so that was kind of the the project introduction and now I'll give you like a update on the tasks that we have completed so we started out by establishing a set of um project and Community goals um for this project those are um that we want to create a a new school that is built around the student that's Community Center centered that um engages in responsible sustainability it's safe and healthy and creates a sense of belonging and the these um goals will guide us throughout the process um we will use these to create evaluation criteria that will help us to decide which of these options that we're considering is the one that aligns with the values and the goals of the Town um and the school school and we arrived at those um goals through a series of public meetings both with school staff and with the broader community um where we you know really took the pulse and people brainstormed and people voted um to figure out what are the real priorities of this community so we've had um so far we've had five um public Community meetings on the first was on the project Charter then we had one about sustainability goals we had true two meetings about traffic because we know that's a really important issue for the community and we had um one meeting about the preliminary design Alternatives which I will show you at the and we're going to continue having more Community meetings um throughout the design process we conducted an educational visioning process which included taking a educational visioning um working group on um tours of some newly completed schools in Massachusetts so that we can understand and see what um new schools look like these days because they are quite quite different um than the kilum school which was built in 1968 and then we had a series of workshops um to better develop and understand a vision of how um teaching and learning is going to happen in this new space and then from that understanding then we developed um a space program which is a list of all the spaces that will be in the new school and an adjacency diagram which is this um crazy diagram you see here which is how are those how should those spaces be related to one another so we want to understand that first before we start to design the building so that we um have those um that educational piece is at the part of the process we are looking at two different enrollment options um so one option option two here on the right is um that there would be there are currently two rise classrooms so option two is that we would have four wise classrooms that's just accommodating for some natural growth in the program um and then option one would be bringing all of the rise prek classrooms from across the whole District together in one location at the new kilum school that would be 12 R rise classrooms and a student population of 635 um option two with a fewer classrooms is uh student population at 515 and the current enrollment is 450 3 so the school building committee continues to look at the impacts um of those options and the costs and the benefits um as we continue in the process we also did a very thorough evaluation of the existing building conditions um and the site conditions so we looked at the building together with our Engineers um and evaluated its state which is required by the MBA um so that we can get um um understand what it would take if we um to to renovate the building again no one this is required by the msba I'll just say that um and the building in summary it is um much too small for your for your program um it lacks um spaces for special education um and um other spaces the the gym is half the size that it should be the program is very program spaces are very much undersized the building systems are at the end of their life the building envelope um does has actually no instulation in the exterior walls it's very energy and efficient the windows are aged they're original many of them are original to the building and um the structure would also need to be um upgraded to meet current size requirements um we did a similar study of the site um on the um environmental we've not um identified any concerns to date there's still some more testing to be done to to finaly that finding um on the geotechnical side we did find some unsuitable soils that will need to be removed um and the biggest concern probably on the site is that it's a It's seems big because there's this big field but it very quickly when we look at the construction phase going to build a new school on that field and it's very quickly going to become a very constrained site so the logistics of um having enough space for construction um we're looking at geothermal Wells as an option but those require a lot of sight area um so the constrained site is one of our challenges and um we completed a full survey we completed a geotechnical investigation we also completed a um very detailed traffic survey um where our Consultants um GPI um completed a traffic analysis where they did um observations of the situation at arrival UND dismissal and this was um they did this during like one of the coldest weeks in January which is really great because that's when the most kids are driven to school so you get to kind of observe the worst traffic conditions um and kind of how the queuing works and and all the problems that occur there at arrival and dismissal they also did um a speed study on hiil street and looked at the crash history based on um State um information that's available and um we developed a set of recommendations both for upgrades that can be made beyond the School site and um an approach to dealing with traffic on the School site that will be a vast improve improvement from the current situation on sustainability um we established a set of goals around sustainability in um five categories indoor Environmental Quality sight energy water and materials and resources um we um have understand that there are a certain set of Baseline requirements um that we will have to meet msba has some of their own um requirements not so much requirements as much as incentives they give you additional uh reimbursement percentage points of reimbursement for meeting a um higher sustainability standard um and reading is a stretch code community so we know the stretch energy code um is very rigorous and um requires a high degree of Energy Efficiency for new buildings we're also um understanding and considering all the incentives that are available um to the project and factoring those into our decision- making process um we have developed um actually 10 Alternatives I know that you see five wait eight nine no we have nine Alternatives sorry it's very confusing because there are five on the screen um all of these so this is a b c d and e um all but e are actually two options because there's the um partial pre option and the full prek option um so we have looked at a number of different options two story options three story options um options that require some demolition of the existing building options that require no demolition of the existing building and also an option that looks at renovating and and preserving part the classroom wing of the existing building again that's an msba requirement that we look at the option and then this is kind of um actively where we are at um uh in the process is developing an evaluation of these um nine I think Alternatives based on those um five goals we have some criteria established under each goal um that will help us evaluate um which option will be the preferred option so the next step in the process um we're looking ahead to finishing the feasibility phase in the end of August and um between now and then we will uh refine our evaluation of these 10 Alternatives we'll continue to develop them and then at the end of the feasibility study we'll have a preferred option that we will then take forward into the schematic design phase any questions uh I have one I wasn't aware shame on me that we have to have a SE separate election for this is that yeah true voters do does right right no I know we had to take it to the voters but I'm seeing June it it's it's it most likely will be um in May and it will be after town meeting so town meeting will um for and then we will discuss with Laura the time frame that we need after that so we'll have a special election then next spring that could change it could change did you want to tell us who you are Carin aaro I'm ready Lawrence Road ready school committee School building comme uh okay that was uh you know I guess that's a next year problem next year problem but yeah it's uh it's built our schedule yeah yeah I got it I knew it was an election sorry I'm not that naive I just didn't know it was going to be separate I didn't know potentially potentially separate progress yeah yeah yeah okay that's all I had I went to your presentation I kill him on the on the designs oh okay great former killum parent so um look forward traffic good over there look forward to uh right and live in that area but it was kill parent oh I no I but you had to navigate the traffic you tell us been going on for decades the horrendous traffic no all right you have no scars okay off yeah TR off yeah go ahead um so when it comes I was at the traffic both tra traffic studies so when it comes to the traffic issues that we have over there is that on the select board or will that be resolved with the building of the new school and in your project So currently um because of the traffic study there we have identified certain issues that the town is already working on so just so you know that um we're working on certain issues now the school project will be responsible for the school issues um I I am imagining that there will be some Road issues in the area that um the town will want to get on their radar yeah I think having that meeting and making us aware we really should try to resolve them otherwise that could be a boss okay thank you thanks so um thank you the timing here is um cost estimates in August is that is that what we're kind of talking about here we we will have estimates for different scenarios they will be not total project costs they will be construction costs and the purpose of them they'll be in ranges and we will use them to evaluate the different Alternatives so um I I know the town is really hammering for we want numbers right because we have so many different priorities between CPA the senior centers and and different things like that so um we just want to be really careful that we won't have a number until next spring but in terms of evaluation of um not total project cost but of construction cost just in terms of evaluating against different Alternatives okay the goal is to help us take us from nine alternatives to one preferred solution got it and as it relates to to traffic and location and different things depending on sites that may or or may not be selected for the center for active living obviously this is an area where um the town is involved in both the permanent building committee will be involved in both um all the different groups will be involved in both so there there's not a scenario where things are happening and nobody's aware very much coordinated again depending on the paths that get chosen that'll that'll get moving which I think is a bonus with our our permanent building Committee in their engagement so thank you and certainly like the traffic study can be used that yeah and that just to to follow so there are potentially infrastructure needs if there if anything is going to be developed on at Simon's way that that's this infrastructure that would be requ ir ired and depending on what maybe maybe that also certainly traffic sters are helpful and that's going to there's G to be a bigger discussion at that point I think um yeah I think the traffic analysis has been a huge um eye opener and a a win for the town as for the reasons you mentioned um and yesterday the senior center some of the um folks asked about you know where're we're looking at Simon's way for a Pleasant Street Center and telling us they didn't see the slide that we saw tonight where showing the excessive speeds on hail but they figure like they're well aware of it so um and Matt has um told us that these Engineers which were you know they were terrific um they've worked for the town before so I'm really hoping there's some really good Synergy you know depending which way the center for active living goes and I'm really glad we've done this deep dive now before that project got far enough to select a site also um about costs and since Ana could confirm I think part of what the work will be done this summer will also be kind of narrowing the focus on potential reimbursement levels from msba so that feeds into the construction cost Chris thanks Carlo um yeah I think we've all been well versed uh including Melissa here for the last you know however many months this has been going on for um I do think that the the traffic scenario has to be resolved sooner rather than later and I don't think we have control of aaval right that's the state um but that has always been a racetrack over there people going 50 60 whatever that speed thing is up there they don't have been close to that um but yeah it's it's good to see it's unfortunate that it would have to go to a vote after town meeting whatever that is um but you know it is what it is 30 grand is nothing compared to whatever this is going to be be so thank you yep I just want to be clear so town meeting does have to approve it it doesn't get to the vote until it's time meeting does so we have to factor that in as well just just to be clear to everybody okay sorry Yen listen first just one other quick question um can you decipher these symbols for me I'm sorry oh I'm sorry yeah I should have put that on there no it's fine um the O is like neutral okay um the plus is good the minus is not so good perfect okay thank you thanks with the uh potential additional reimbursement for different types of energy certifications whatever um do those increases in percentages potentially cover like a big amount of the cost difference or even toward all of it or how how might that work so the msba provides up to 4% additional reimbursement um of reimburse costs so it gets to be like a kind of a complicated um equation which Susanna and Mike are working on um because they don't reimburse for everything there's certain costs that are not reimbursable 3 to 4% yeah and is there intent with that three to 4% to um strongly incentivize almost equalize the costs of of certain Advanced call it Advanced Energy incentive um how close is it I'm just trying to figure out is that like a big deal that we should be saying saying yeah go for it this is great I would say that we will evaluate the in the impact of incentives as we're evaluating the systems that we select so you could say very generically that the more efficient is not 100% true but generally the most efficient systems are the most costly in terms of first cost and the least efficient systems are the lowest cost right um so the 3 to 4% incentive certainly helps but um it's not going to cover the additional cost of for example 100% geothermal project um the there is additional um incentives from the uh federal government the inflation reduction act provides very significant incentives um and I would say that we have to just continue to evaluate them all as we look at a systems cost um its benefits the incentives there are so many criteria that we have to evaluate so the operating savings is part of that too exactly operting cost yes when the costs come out also it will show a an MSP a percentage that they will participate in of reimbursable costs and then it will show the overall costs so you know people think oh 50% well it's 50% of reimbursable costs so it it's it's not 50% of project costs let's just be really clear so we'll get we'll certainly get a lot of benefit from the msba but um yeah so the past couple years what has been the average reimbursement on an elementary school so the reimbursement varies by community so there's different rates for different communities and then the other big kicker is that they only reimburse um certain um amount per square foot and the amount per square foot that they reimburse is much less than the amount per square foot that it costs to build a building and they've recently readjusted that square foot number in October so we're in a very good position that we're going to you know be benefiting from that higher number that they they elevated um but um I think most of that information is um available on the msba website I may we could yeah it um just for some background um the if you you stand up so the people watching could hear you hi suzan young with callers um just for some background information the highest um rainb people said right there have been numbers since the beginning of the project right we had Gap do a study for us and those numbers came out two years or three years ago and some people will have those numbers in their head and as we go through this process and when we come up with all of these options alternates they're going to have numbers associated and some of these numbers are going to stick in people's heads when we get to the final product because this process takes us through you know we're the msba process within Massachusetts is one of the best of of its kind out of any state so we're we're going through this process we're going to get to a point where we're going to decide is is this for us right the voters are going to decide there will be a cost payer so um you know if we throw it number now and things change so many things reimbursable cost from the msba change they per square footage amount changes so it it's hard to talk numbers and and I and I I feel the pain of the community everybody wants numbers and I totally get that I want numbers too but we have to get through this process yeah I was asking a historical question not our situation I mean 80% is not even close obviously but historically you know has it been 30 40 50 and it's in different communities you know the numbers I've heard is 30 to 50% of reimbursable costs that mean you need to understand what the reimbursable costs are I think I heard from Senator Lewis that one of the Winchester schools were reimbursed at 20% and again because inflation also kind of Hit the schools during that bubble we went through so it is it's all of the M I haven't heard anything higher than 50 so I wouldn't never go yeah we're gonna find out 80 that sounds great right no other questions oh Chris Chris not more of a question but a comment um I guess if we have to be Net Zero by 20150 and we're looking at the the reimbursable cost and everything you mentioned 3 4% and everything why is it only 3 to 4% that doesn't make sense to me if we have to be Net Zero by 2050 it seems to me that if I was making the decision I'd be going towards 80% or something that someone would actually do to actually get to the goal that the state is setting as opposed to 3 to 4% which nobody would ever make that bet on anything at least just going off that blanket number like that so I just don't know why that didn't get readjusted they readjusted the other numbers like you mentioned in October um but that stayed the same or something pitiful 3 to 4% is is nothing in any in any scenario actually so it's a did didn't adjust a little bit but it is um we're mixing programs all the B it is like a bonus reimbursement so there's the standard program and I think it's on one of these slides um so this 3 to 4% that we're focusing on on that specific like a green bonus and what and I think the slide is in there that says you know how you get there um including designing to the optimize stretch code so one of the things um colier found out from us early on is that we town meeting in the S board you know got the stretch code adopted um in order to go after green communities but we would have to take proactive steps to adopt the optimized stretch code but we do not have to adopt that to design a building to that level so that was kind of the kind of the questions that our OPM went back to the msba and clarified for us is that like do we have to have town meeting voting on another stretch code or can we just try to get that 3 to 4% bonus reimbursement by designing to that standard so so that's our option I think that's on one of those sleds it's like a big it's very messy right now you're asking a logical question onfor there's no logic in the state go no because if anyone here could get a three or 4% bonus at work be like you know that's pretty decent or you could get 80 and you're like whoa like I can retire off 80 we can't get 80 but like I'm with you on decent I'm like let's yeah but we kind of you know you have to incentivize people to go this direction and in on the surface I don't see the incentive and this building is going to be around for at least 50 years uh doesn't make sense I think Mark could ask you folks to clarify so um this bonus incentive would apply to all of the reimburse ible costs or all of the eligible costs so if we locked in at 35% suddenly it could go as high as 39% I'm reading that right right so it's on it's on everything so the everything covered it's on the reim everything that's cover so whatever we're getting reimbursed for whatever percent that is it's an additional potentially up to 4% more yes of everything in that cover so it could be it could be Millions dollar considerably it is going Millions it's going to be millions of it's not true it's it's you may not retire on it but it's worth it to me to me it's almost like the cart before the horse right we know that this carrot is out here dangling but we as a community need you know if we don't have enough space on the site for geothermal Wells we're not using you know you need a certain amount of space for geothermal Wells um so it so this incentive doesn't matter if we can't get there right so we need to determine where we're at and how what what our capabilities of with all of the different options and then you know to push ourselves to see how we can get there with um you know with life cycle costs and things like that so the beauty of this process it takes us through this whole you know it takes us through the process to get there but we we always have all of the reimbursements and all of the incentives in in the back of our heads right we all we want to maximize our reimbursement on right I want to wrap this up so all right all right I was going to make one comment um because I keep getting reminded by the designers that actually you're focusing on the building envelope which isn't that sexy but that's you're going to be spending a lot of money to make a tight building which then implies less spending on Heating and Cooling and less loss and More Energy Efficiency so it's not very sexy but that's kind of what we're all going to be doing these days to try to be energy efficient and save operational costs okay I'm done all right thank you thank you appreciate itk you this is awesome thank you thanks next we have a hearing so Chris could read the hearing notice please 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 May 21st 2024 at 7 p.m. in the select board meeting room 16 low Street Reading Mass remotely by Zoom to approve the FY 24 non-union classification and compensation plans a copy of the proposed documents regarding this topic will be in the selectboard packet uh on the website at www. ring ma.gov all interested parties are invited to end the attend the hearing or may submit their comments in writing or email prior to 4m on May 21st 2024 to town manager at ci. ring. ma.us by order of Matthew a corelis Esquire Town manager thank you Chris um all right so uh this is in our packet you know I got a preview when I sat down with Matt to go over the agenda this is just updating our um compensation and classifications that you know not is was not correct me if I'm wrong Matt was not part of the paying class study that we did because that was for Union um no the paying class study was for since then that was last year so this is something you do every year based on the budget all of this is with the within the parameters of the budget that was just passed by town meeting right so it's all funded um there's just some adjustments being made in different positions and I attached a memo explaining those some of those were approved by Fidel when he was here it's it's sort of a year-long process um I believe Sharon and Shan are on the zoom if there's any questions as well but um pretty prettyy basic if you remember last year because of the pay class study there were pages and pages of changes and and those changes still stand these were just a few in addition so if there's any specific questions we're happy to answer them um otherwise like I said it's in line with the budget and what time need passed thank you uh this this is a public hearing so is anyone uh in the room I'll go in the room first want to comment on the uh classification compensation schedule seeing none uh Caitlyn anyone on Zoom want to comment I don't believe so no all right so we close the hearing first right right right so Chris move to close a hearing regarding the non-union classification in compensation schedules all right ceron first any discussion seeing none motion to close the hearing 5 Z all those in favor thank you um anyone have any questions one yep um so the public health nurse is that also the position that's open that the Housing Authority was saying hope we F that soon because we missed that right exactly and so that's sort of merging with the nurse Advocate because that public health um position was open for some time it's hard to hire nurses um and then the nurse Advocate became vacant so what we decided to do is combine the two positions have at higher salary and that person will have hours both in the health department and at the senior center and everybody's in agreement with that the the health director Senior Center people um so we're hoping that's a model that works and we get a really good nurse um that will stay for a while so question so in terms of coverage of that person in the different roles that the is the senior center still giving the same nursing coverage yeah so I I believe um Fridays will be totally at the senior center in a half day uh during the week at the senior center the rest would be with the health department but that person would be going back and forth so if there's something that's needed at the senior center they could go and and I think it it makes it more attractive to have a wider scope um where somebody's just the health nurse they're doing food clinics and and things like that this allows a lot of advocacy work and and Outreach what we need as well so and they'll also be um combining the positions there will be a savings because some of our uh positions Senior Center were were funded you know in part by arpa and that'll help going forward so hopefully we can avoid Some Cuts there so that's the thank you thank you anyone else okay I don't have any questions um right motion please move to approve the FY 24 non-un classification compensation schedule as presented second Mark second it any discussion seeing none all those in favor 5 Z thank Youk you next on the agenda appoint a member to the Retirement Board um if if you guys remember not including Melissa we tried to get this done uh I don't know two months ago or so in uh because we're a board of four we were split so now we're a board of five and it's the same three people uh nothing's changed um and you know we we need to appoint someone so uh that board can be uh full so take a pulse to the board again or I uh go who you support last time could make a comment yeah sure so um thanks Matt for one of the things that Matt sent out to us was the current composition of the board which is a question that we had to see correct um and so there I guess three three of the members are are in public safety but all either current or retired fire correct correct so one of the discussions we were having was kind of you how do we set the board to have kind of broad coverage of the different types of retirees that go through the system um and so I I was advocating for Amy Lon because she represents a different group different groups basically um and still think that given that composition I think sorry that's what I kind of assumed the composition was um so that's why I thought she would be the right person to had right as the next member so I'm I guess I'm saying that I my gut is that that's still another group of people that won't otherwise be represented at all on that board I think it's a good idea to do that yeah let's maybe you know before go first I have a little more info to share um okay info in our agenda or nope info to the retirement um the composition of the retire retirees um I reached out to um Colleen and and she provided some data that um the the retirees in the system include 100 non-union members um roughly and um the breakdown roughly um with men and women was 312 women and 588 men so was that looks like it's 2/3 this looks like it's about oh wait what's 312 and 588 that's a round number is that 900 it's not quite 50% is like short 40% 40% of the retirement population are women she confirmed and reminded me that the school teachers are not included so these are Town Hall workers DPW workers safety workers so out of that currently there are 100 retirees that are nonunion out of that 900 so I yeah I kind of felt that it would be important to that for them to have some representation on this board okay Chris thanks Carlo um yeah the comments that I made last time I said that I would vote for Amy Lannon if they already had a police officer on the board Karen hinted at that they did they didn't who knows that's why we're here now and it turns out they don't it's uh three firefighters in the town account um so what I said then was that I would vote for uh richer B if that was the case and that is what I am going with them yeah I'm I'm I'm along the same uh line of uh I was I wasn't sure as well and um so you know that became clearer to us more recently or you know several months ago after that meeting and I am gonna you know support uh Rich body for the Retirement Board Whata um yep with having um our town accountant and More Union um members um and more firefighter or retired firefighters on it I would also support Rich of okay have a question sure ask is um Sharon non-union or Union she's non-union okay so there is some some non-union representation and does Sharon I know she's ex official but is she a full acting member of this Retirement Board yeah I think she might she may be on the zoom I'm not sure but um yeah she's she participates as a board member ex official because of her she's on yeah you do you want me to respond you want to respond oh yeah you have some I am a full voting member okay thank you all right so I I guess I'll I mean just by coincidence uh they went alphabetical here on the screen so uh on our in our packet sorry so uh given the pulse I'll just go in order like we did last time so um motion yep move to approve uh Richard abade to the Retirement Board with the term beginning immediately and expiring March 31st 2027 second car second all right any discussion seeing none all those in favor four all those opposed one all right uh Richard if you're watching congratulations you're on the Retirement Board all right uh mov on skipped over an agenda item regarding I did on assignments oh crap sorry oops oh yeah I did sorry oops you want to go back to that yeah I think that'd be helpful sorry apologize I know everyone is patiently waiting for that one I want to apologize first I did not rank um uh my top three um you know given I've been on the board for four years I haven't moved around too much um last year I did some moving around to different Boards of committee so um and I you know I'm fine with my selection now but I if anybody wants to obviously some of these are are gone or going away as far as swc you know recal will not be last be at we're adding CPA uh which I'm on so I I I think if anybody did anybody rank anything or was I the only one who didn't do anything some some did rank Kaitlyn's on and she's she's helping with the screen um I know um we heard from could you make that bigger Caitlyn if you can a little bit please sure we only asked for the top three anyway we each have like 50 no I know but the big boards the big boards the big boards and when I ranked I wasn't sure if we were if we were readjusting everything or so I don't know we can do whatever we want we can do whatever we want yeah so these are just last year's assignments I pulled up so if we need to adjust um some like SWS coming off just let me know right yeah sw's coming off and we can do this however you want not not recal yet but I mean swc is done um we're sunsetting I think in June so um then we'll add CPA to that which just got fully formed tonight um I don't think we've added you know anything anything else killum is on there um so who who did the did anyone's I guess did anyone's top three change I guess from last year of this year whoever did it do the ranking I I looked at kind of where I was places that I would like to be considered for yeah sure so the one I think that um there will be a permanent building committee um and once it's formed cability committee for the project of the recal project yeah right there'll be we the nominating committee will be bringing on new people and I would um like to be considered to be one of those people to be brought on to that committee so if that were to happen that would be a big slug of time a big lift yes yeah yes so um so that was kind of one that I I wanted to just kind of throw out there throw out there the other one is um rctv that you would like to okay volunteer for I think that they need so Jackie was there um they need a in the lift I think that their revenues are declining rapidly and they left and I would be willing to dig in to that so right but other than that I'm I'm fine with that are or flexible all right so I'm write that down rctv and then PBC for recount B all right Karen did you uh you know reshuffling of anything or are you uh I don't remember I'm G to pull yours up Ken sure if you have it because I'm searching for it thank you I know it was Kum and rld and yes yeah that would so I thought Kum and rld are still pretty important just to be able to make sure we're working in syn and getting them helping doing stuff for us making that go down um what was the other one uh Finance you put yeah I'm enough I'm happy doing that still um but the rest of it it's I'm pretty I'm fine I can move on the writing Housing Authority doesn't I don't mind popping in there occasionally but um yeah so I'm open Chris I thanks Carlo um I guess with absent from this is the charter under the at the top but this is obviously from from last year whatever um that would just have to get added okay and I didn't put that on my ranking but whatever you can continue with that I I think so um but yeah no I sent um I sent mine over it's uh school committee Public Safety and historic um are those the same or new same same same right yeah my comment with the school committee I don't mind supporting them but if most stuff you want to jump in I Chris goes more to more of the meetings that I can and I was saying I'm regularly talking to a lot of the folks anyway because of the kilm school so when we got it covered one way or another I'm happy to jump in on school committee all right and just uh you mentioned kilum kilum is not a liaison assignment correct it's okay yeah just want to make sure that sorry one sec so uh school committee is going to be who now and Melissa we usually have two sorry thank you yeah all right thanks so I guess oh in the bask well okay well let's let's do this first let's do this first so I I I mean not that I'm going to object to anyone want to do something but I I have no I guess issues or qualms about anything we've discussed so far and so I guess because we're I don't want to just say insert Melissa's name to Jackie but for the big boards you know we' kind of to tag teams you know so like for me Board of Health it was Jackie and myself so that LE it's just me uh Economic Development which we don't really have anything going on so we always we talked about this last year is Karen and Chris so that g stay the same but there's nothing going on um cpdc very big board to manage again Jackie and myself so I would ask someone to step up for those two mind stepping up for a CP to to tag team cpdc all right and then so we have Public Safety um I I I I just heard was it C no Chris Chris and then you're on it as well as a t te I mean yeah I mean I can if that's if someone else has a great desire I'm fine I've been on that I think for while ever yeah well I mean I'm Happ to jump on that public safety for Melissa did you get that Kaitlin yep Chris Melissa for Public Safety got it yeah boot Mark sorry and uh Library trustees again a big board uh that's Karen and myself I don't mind staying on that one but I I would like someone to jump in um and then we have Council on a no so Council on ad I like to stay on yeah I just notic the Coalition Jackie had taken my spot on that one okay so we got to fill that one unless yeah all right so we need someone for Coalition I can take that okay Kaitlin did you get that uh yeah I'm just looking for a coalition on this second Public Safety one oh okay got it all right and um uh so school committee we have two rmld uh is Karen and if you good have someone else on that one I'm just going to go through these again uh Finance I heard Mark wanted to stay I didn't mention it you didn't mention it right okay so finance committee another big board we have Mark and Karen Karen what did you say yes yeah you said yes so is it usually the chair of the the chair of the S board and one the second person is that what have done yeah that's why marks on there so it's up to you how I can't remember it's usually the the chair all right I'll do Finance all right so Carlo Finance uh with Karen ice arena is Karen and myself unless someone wants to arm wrestle us I'd like to stay on that one no at that can uh we have the so we need someone for Retirement Board that was Jackie position I can take that all right did you get that Caitlyn yep all right uh and and and then we have a lot so rctv we have Mark that was Jackie cultural Council uh I don't know if they even meet um but they do but I mean that came out wrong not not a heavy lift not a heavy lift um I apologize and that was that was Jackie yeah I could join all right Mark doxer for cultural Council thank you Mark climate is Karen I'm assuming you want to stay on that Karen okay um so that that page is done uh oh rld we need someone for rmld as as a backup I know Karen goes to most of them but and and I don't we go we you know we go to what we can go to no no right right I'm say it's good to have two trying to let M know that our policy say we go to as many meetings as possible it's really not possible we have this many assignments right so we if does anyone want to step up to rmld I'll take that all right that's Melissa for arml D Caitlyn got it affordable housing trust that yeah I can take that on okay um uh so we have councel on Aging we'll keep the same someone all we're doing is attaching a name to Board of Health you know I I Board of Health for me has been running great um full disclosure I posted us for Thursday because that's a public hearing that they haven't had in a while on this cigarette thing it's Thursday Thursday that I am 100% against but that's a side note is that also a zoom or just a public um it's in person only okay and personally in in this room I think right Kaylin 7 PM in this in the S Board Room yes okay so again um I've been paying attention on bard of Health but um I think they meet traditionally on Thursdays once night once a month so again we'll come back to that one so I would like someone to uh be a tag team with me on that one Economic Development I can pick that up with you all right bard of Health okay uh cpdc was Jackie and me uh you have meliss cpdc yes I need someone for zba zba again zba Jackie zba meets as needed as needed they meet as needed okay I can take that on then okay again like Karen said these are careful yeah like Karen said some of you can zoom into your stuff yeah yeah you can read the minutes or whatever I mean we we we have our we have our lives we have this and they need to know who on the select board they need to reach out to so it's two ways right um I didn't hear anything from Chris historic is okay um conservation I'm willing to trade willing to stay if anybody wants it I'm fine on that one reading housing reading housing is uh Melissa Public Safety is now I'm sorry wait writing Housing Authority I thought car was sing oh yeah oh I'm sorry oh my so she's going to do the affordable housing oh yeah my my my bad Public Safety is going to be as is Melissa Melissa and CH Melissa Chris Melissa sorry Chris Melissa Coalition is gonna be Melissa Melissa uh per PBC current PBC is Mark yep and then I'd like to be considered if there was yeah when there is a recal project part ch um Library trustees currently is Karen myself fine um I'm guessing okay all right uh SE Cemetary sorry board of secretary trustees Chris Trails committee uh was Jackie so we need to step on someone to step up that I don't mind doing that one you want to it's not that bad all right Karen for Trails they know where to find me in town farest I can with okay thanks all right so uh do you have any questions Caitlin to go over anything or we I think we c i I think I'm good okay all right so as uh we know it was Chris and Jackie on vasque and then Jackie resigned and then we had some people who wanted to be uh interviewed and appointed so Karen and myself uh stepped up to fill in that void and we didn't really interview anybody unfortunately um we just did some public uh interview interviews so I uh between CPA this and unfortunately my pickle ball schedule which is I hate to say that but it is real um I I I'm not going to be available for Ma vask so uh I'm not saying Karen has to stay on but I I need to be replaced and it's a lot of work in the coming month and a half so um if Karen's willing to stay we need one person if Karen wants to opt out then we need two people yeah yeah I'm happy to keep on doing it and um we have a bit of a challenge because last time we discussed that we got into a debate as a board as to whether this was a two-year commitment or a one-year commitment I think I figured out why we were having this miscommunication the selectboard policies that were printed out um and updated in 2019 are in this book but on the website they say they were updated in 2012 I think they're different like if you specifically go and look at the vasque policy it's different online so the good news this is kind of a it's a good committee because you get to meet people and they get to meet you um but it is a lot of work we have about if we do nothing we and we interview everyone we have about 50 people I'm hearing and that's about eight and a half hours worth of work now uh whoever's on the vas we can talk about whether we can streamline that for this year and we could also talk about whether we should do a midyear appointment process which I kind of think we need to do to to because otherwise we start getting emails from our boards and committees and there have been people that submitted applications in member that are still waiting so but the way it's written in this binder that Fidel prepared for us is that um we have two people and they're appointed for staggered two-year terms so that one term shall expire this each year so that actually makes it a little easier um for sharing the responsibility and and getting select board members in and out of there so um anyway so we're still putting two new members on tonight so that's fine but um next year we could have the discussion under our current policies about whether you know at that point somebody could say sure I'm good for this year I'll open up for somebody else maybe I'll be on next year and we stagger it as it says in our policies and hopefully we we can get our policies updated on the web because yeah find the original I don't know I was like I'm not making stuff up but it's in the book it's not online okay thank you for that and is anyone willing to be copy me uh this isn't worth the paper it's printed on why do you say that because it's our policy we can do whatever we want at any time but that's the current policy correct but that's essentially it did you print one out for everybody or just me no I didn't know who wanted one I was run out of time didn't want to be late so I printed one but I we have two copies if somebody wants to read it would you like to see it give it to the new girls until she gets her own copy of the book yes Mark that's yeah I I I I I I you know know my limitations I don't want to overextend myself and be fair and be available and so yes we need one new member um we can un wrestle three of you or to one two three shoot or someone could volunteer um what is the time commitment I understand that we have I heard looking at like 8 and 1 half hours right now between now and these are for terms starting July 1st so but we could potentially limit that there are a few people that might have gotten appointed six months ago and just and there's no competition so maybe we don't need to interview them again and there Carlo and I discussed briefly if we have people that are um reupping and there's nobody else interest in their position then maybe we unless they're dying to talk to us maybe we don't invite them in just usually we like to talk to everybody because we can ask him how the board's going available that's an option of course we're already talking about I'm already talk well yeah I'm talking about zooming 10 minute meetings I'm 50 candidates I came up with eight and a half hours it's daunting I can do that's great you no thank you oh yeah no we were I was totally all over Zoom I was like the only way we're going to crank this is by putting them all on zoom and we can do it during the day too if it's on Zoom I think easier is great for this person in person great second guessing it I'm also willing to jump in and help out so that works so everything come back comes back to the board we just crank through all of the we interview everybody for 10 minutes we let them ask questions we ask them questions and then it all comes back to the board so last time I uh Karen's very close to the number from what I was told there are 46 re-ups okay and that's good 46 re-ups as of last week we have no more than 30 four that are considering re-ups so that means there's 12 people that they're they're not reupping oh okay right well we need to find more volunteers right right so we have 12 people that and again it still may be a full board there could be Associates I I don't know you Jackie's working on that so 27 people as of last week said raise their hand I want to continue volunteering M seven uh as of last week she was waiting to hear from assuming those seven say yes that's 34 out of 46 so some people are saying No thank you you know I did my time or they're moving or whatever so at a minimum you're going to have 34 interviews a maximum right now we hope to get more applications um you know we should all be reaching out people five hours to people so um yeah so was six hours I know Mark loves talking to people so unless you guys want to they do it for a living yeah that's what I mean it's a compliment it's a compliment so if you know it's it's nice for the for the new people but you know keep in mind you do have four kids don't don't forget that yeah you remember so mad could be ask you to it it is current online at least the ones that I'm looking at there's different dates because different sections were modified at different times I went into this today and I went to the selectboard page maybe it's in different places maybe you get there if I go to the selectboard page it doesn't say what I know it says and it says here so I can try to recreate it somebody but I'm looking at it right now but that's okay we can work it so where are we for the two I mean I said I would do it your tribute and Cameron tributes yeah great a all right thank you oh so I was just going to ask actually I'm sure you guys were planning to do what I need but if you would help us recruit if um yeah oh sure Katie and Jane can like put put it out that we need more vol to put it out to that be great front page our office above the fold front page yeah and it's on you know a lot of our social media so yeah we can Contin because we you gotta get we gotta get get this the results of this on one of those June meetings right now it's on for June 18th our last meeting in June yes can we also get um the list of openings that would be refelctive of if we know people aren't reupping right Jackie is working on that that's what she's working on yes so I'll have her email to publish that to sh three people from trails are leaving we need you know whatever no I'm just saying whatever as an example all right I apologize I went out of order but we got that done so now we um we have our our friends and family day um in June at Birch Meadow um we've had a table there the past couple years and um we have to vote I believe oh we should take a vote do we oh discuss vote oh yeah the sub committee y okay yep sorry my bad it says it right there okay sorry chisco um no I just so so everything is is finalized for the most part you can put as amended I mean I don't know what you want to say yeah it's so I guess my my only two comments that I would have is that um I think the the most not best time but yeah the most appreciative time that I had was being on vasque um and uh interviewing the residents that's why originally we didn't do it flip-flop we've already been over this uh I'm ineligible to be it even though there's probably a loophole because you guys had it for like a week um but I don't think it's fair to to do that so um I understand that Mark and Karen wanted to do it but I I would still highly encourage Melissa to potentially um advocate for the bass but I mean it's ultimately her decision only because I understand you knew but not really knew um but I think it's a great way to get to know uh the community and other people that you've probably never even met before and I'm sure Mark is has met Everybody by this time yeah so I just want to comment that you and Jackie were on the bass for almost two years so it's I haven't been on bass since 2020 so Mark hasn't been on since two years so it's not I don't really it doesn't need to be a competition not saying that it's a competition I was just mentioning that I can't be on it so I'm not even advocating next year we're going to stagger it like that's our policy if we actually yeah if you want to I was under the impression because you wanted to be off that you were done for now I needed a break I I've never needed a break from anything um it's just that I was on it for two years uh same thing as Jackie so we were both Gonzo at that time it's essentially we would have voted somebody on like you and Carlo for like a month and that's what we did well exactly so I didn't see the the need to stay on for a month if you guys could have gone some stuff just need to get this done I get what Chris is saying I I did it my first two years as a new board member you know with Karen and then with Mark uh and and I thoroughly enjoyed it I mean first one was fully zoomed second one was kind of hybrid I think um so that's what Chris is saying as far as Melissa being a new SL board member she's going to be face to face on a screen or in person with 40 to 50 people um in a month and a half where that could take a year uh to do so that's all he's saying it's not a competition um and and and know if Mark wants to AC yes he wants to acquest that's up to you too you've both volunteered we thank you for that that's all Chris was saying as as a new member of the board yep it it is beneficial he's right to do it but we all have different schedules and different commitments I me if you have a strong desire fine or do it year I just would caution you that you have a lot on this list you're do um I mean I am happy to volunteer so I you know I would love the opportunity to meet more residents and you know meet the volunteers that are coming our way so if you don't mind I will take it on done thank you right checks in the mail all right so that changed Caitlyn changed back to the way you had it oh did did you I was confused that who said it that first all right Karen and Melissa all right thank you all right do we do we take a vote a separate Vote or we're voting on the whole K well so this is a subcommittee so I'm pretty sure we should take a vote I don't know if the Liaisons require a vote they're like Le yeah I didn't think they did Le sub committee Rees a vote just ask okay so just the vas not yeah just the vas killum swack recal affordable TR it says the chair is ultimately responsible for assigning it we've just done it collaboratively traditionally so yeah just do you have a motion to ask no I don't oh okay motion to appoint Karen and Melissa to the bask motion to uh appoint uh Karen and meliss to the volunteer assignment self committe I heard Mark first Mark second any discussion seeing none all those in favor 5 Z thank you for your service all right and [Music] now so okay so back to friends and family I I apologize again and um so we've had a booth um it's on a Saturday if I'm stand corrected June don't know June what June June 8th so uh coming up um I will do my best to attend but I can't commit to staff again because I'm in the same boat as pickle ball lessons so I'm if we can't if none of us can staff it then I don't see any sense of having one unless Matt wants to stand there all day no right and that's not fair so again I know I can't do it potentially or maybe stop by what time is it start well 12 to 3 something that I thought it was even earlier yeah they have early morning events any anyway it's a three to four hour uh time frame uh for and we expect no one to be there the whole time so it's if anyone knows a schedule for June 8th and they can commit to some time great and we got options did you see all the options what options okay sorry um options for booth or options for what oh so I spoke to lorine Barry and um for from the Lions um and the reason thank you Matt for putting this on the agenda tonight if there are options if we are unable to staff up both we can can participate um if we donate $100 we can say sponsored by the select board on their banner and they're going to design the banner tomorrow so it was good for us to discuss it tonight um there's an option to sponsor um inflatable axe throwing which was apparently a huge hit no one gets hurt $350 and then there was another option which was $700 um that one was a little more expensive but so I I just explained I didn't know which other members would be able to staff a booth so when we talked I asked her if there were other opportunities so um I think it would be nice if the select board sponsors friends and family they're trying to raise money so it's a contribution and I would like to be there and go and meet the people I don't want to stand at the booth if I make it there I'm not going to have time I will try to swing by but I just I can't def we have throwing 20 bucks no problem so what I think we have I mean we the town can do this the town on behalf of yes this that's what I'm saying we got the big guy here yeah does anyone have a desire I guess to have a booth and able to staff it I can't commit all right can't commit yeah yeah um thanks are we having is Andrew gonna have a booth there like he did last year for MBTA communities um I will have to check with him I'm not sure he's been he's been away um so I'll find out because I think that's more advantageous than us having one is having him I know several departments do have boots I'm not sure which exactly ones but um I'll check when he gets back yeah that's my feeling on it like the booth that we had we had I don't want to say it was a ghost town but it was a ghost town last time that we were there Andrew uh none of on the other hand was not so and he had a lot of materials to pass out and talk and discuss and it's more um you know getting the public involved with what's coming as opposed to us I felt the love walking around and thanking people for doing it and meeting seeing that way so you're saying it's hundred bucks to get our name on oh a banner the big banner for the overall event oh for the overall event okay yeah I think that's a given um for me um as far as the other two options fake axe throwing what's the other one um hang onow mini golf oh yeah mini golf that was it mini golf 700 mini golf inflatable a 350 was like ax throwing she's like oh no they're all inflable nobody gets hurt like okay what do we have in our in our uh piggy bank um I'll have to I'll have to check what's in your line item I know there's some money in the town manager discretionary fund that we can pay for out of that as well um that was just at town meeting we did the transfer back into that because we used that for the town manager search so yep so we can we can fund whatever you decide does anyone have a preference other than the big banner which I think we should do you my opinion I'm fine with that we could do something more exciting next year if we want great we have a heads up on what they'd like to do sumo wrestling yep sure used to have Sumo suits actually not anymore all right so Matt if you can uh okay so you want so the select board wants to sponsor on the banner for $100 that's please yeah yeah okay we'll take care of that yep can can we give more I think I think it says yeah it's the that's the price but I guess if you want to support I don't know is that if you want to give more I guess um any Don I guess over so any group is listed as a sponsor so you could more but as long as you give a 100 you'll be listed as a sponsor so that's fine yeah thank you they have't beer this I I'm sorry I had a couple presents asked why the fireworks are not happening on the friend and they are happening on a separate date this year I'm not sure why that was the LI club's decision um because they sponsor the whole thing but they are doing them I think it's a week later or two is it going to be at the same at the first yeah I didn't know that okay um future agendas um it's on agenda but I mentioned that we're going to be posted for Thursday night if anybody wants to attend um I'll be a little late but I plan on attending so just want to make sure we're posted thanks because it is a public hearing and it's and it's whatever they vote on is forever so that's not really future agenda um we do have to have our next meeting uh address an open meeting law complaint uh against the board so that'll be on June 4th so I'll work with Matt on what time we want to put that in usually we do uh oml stuff at the end uh because of executive session or at the very beginning so I'll I'll and then that's me right now I'm I have one more idea but if anyone wants to add anything to our or recommend yeah I think what I brought up before policy yeah of course yes is that what you were thinking of yes yes yes I I I I I think so far you know summer and then we should plan a retreat uh in the summer we traditionally do one in the summer but I I think July obviously uh 16th and August 20th I I I think it'd be a good time let's put it for July 16th uh review select board policies and code of ethics I think those are the two items we want to uh address uh for the 16th uh if you guys notic I I had I I spoke to Lara gem on Election Day um I know you can't guarantee a beautiful day in May but that was I don't think anyone minded standing out on that day um but Chris has brought up before and I just I have it on it was a discussion uh Lara is fine with moving the election um so I just have it on there as a discussion while while while the charter committee is still opening because it has to be part of the charter oh and so I'm sorry I missed the beginning move it to where move it to late April early May yeah that's not a b idea and then town meeting would get moved as well okay so that's just um I was kind of I was I want say I was surprised at Lara's answers but she didn't ref Flinch oh yeah do know so I'm sorry with that push town meeting later yes of course whatever day we pick for election if we change it town meeting is after so is that an absolute or are you just assuming that the town meeting thing oh that's absolute yeah election and then town meeting okay didn't know that yep she specifically brought that up to me so that that was and and since we going over the charter and it's only every 10 years y this is our opportunity if we want to move it okay so our annual election is in the charter yes okay thank yes and surrounding communities that are towns have theirs in late April I'm not saying may but I want to have a discussion about it that's all while we have the opportunity because the window's going to close and then we might regret it and um and then we what Mark has been talking about and I think definitely have to do it and then maybe at the next two meetings in June we can discuss a board retreat um in the summer you know on a Saturday morning or a week night because we're not meeting that much you know maybe we want to take a a weekend away from summer because summers are short but that's do we plan now to only meet once in August no a depends you know what I think that's a great idea if it happens but with you taking up a new committee and maybe to our later make a call well yeah we'll see we'll see again so anyone else have any future agenda items Chris thanks Carl um office hours have to get brought up again we uh stopped doing them I don't know how long ago we we've yeah we've done them off we we get on board then we fall off the wagon and then it's they're not well attended typically and that's not anyone's fault but I think that's the what the dissuades us from having them is that no one or one person comes when anyone can reach out to us for anything but I'm not opposed to it you know I prefer to do them before our meeting uh personally um but anyone have any comments on that I know we've talked about it many times I think it's not a bad thought to take them on the road so like for example the senior center I think is a good to be there and I know that like Senator Lewis is there and each the Reps I think go there well if you time it my thought was to maybe time it with one of them CU they draw a bigger crowd they have a lot of lunches they do a lot of yeah yeah no I'm not opposed to it I just yeah if we I think we're discussing it Road put it on all right yeah future agenda yeah good idea future agenda and then um what's falling off the Wayside is all the other various boards and committees coming in to give us an update um I believe that's same thing it's it's been quite a while um so I'd like to see about having uh possibly rctb come in first because I've uh I've sent some messages out and uh I have not received a response okay do do you is it I mean June 4th and June 18th are pretty busy are you okay with later or do you want to try to start ASAP or kind of no I just think that uh um in terms of of what we used to who should be next and other ones Matt can navigate with you or whatever but uh I would like to see that happen Okay I I'll put on for July 16th for now it's entirely your yeah unless something opens up right unless something opens up uh we have June 4th is uh you know water rates that'll be a healthy discussion uh pttf Kazo budget vote that we do every year and then recal as a presentation oh no are we doing that on the fourth discuss is that still or is that after we're going to move that to after the 18th or should we leave that there I think we should leave it there for now for now um okay sorry June 3rd is the permanent building committee beinge yes so this will be the day yeah so I think I think we should do that I think it in fact it's just discussion right because the vote actually is the PBC has to vote it first yeah so I think just discussion is fine okay yeah yeah in the 18th if everything lines up it's the yeah I think there should be some update Andor probably should add potential um extension of recal as a placeholder for the 18th for the 18 for the 18 okay right right okay as part of your presentation that night like what another another line item to EXT possibly extent um yeah so I think I if we're not ready to finish the whole thing and we haven't decided to extend then we need to make a presentation no no I get it what I'm saying is I think once we get PBC involved and another committee is there a need for recount so I think once PBC takes over right um I think and because all the recal was going to make a recommendation so that's the piece that's that's the question mark will it be ready to make the recommendation on the 18th okay and now it's pending where PPC is right so we're going to leave it here as a placeholder and if we have to move it we're going to move it yep you're going to keep me updated yes okay yeah and if it's got the flexibility of potentially if there were to be an extension it probably would just need to be a pretty short one yeah yeah that's fine yeah just just like CPA I know I don't yeah you may have some extens that's going to be a challenge yeah anyone else no all right 939 I'll take a motion got damn it sorry hit myself minutes yes we one set of minutes no changes my Belgium minutes so I actually sent in a couple of changes to K yeah I got um let me pull up marks real quick and I got one from Karen as well they're both um brief so so the first one's right here s Mark go ahead no no you're doing a great job um so I thought uh the presentation was made but again so the the minutes I think should kind of reflect what not just the topic what was discussed but kind of the what was the gist of what he was saying um and the gist you know did talk about how do you maximize the length of the time of the reserve staying healthy that's what he recommended I didn't put in anything else other than that's what he did okay fine and then I believe there's one [Music] more right there when you left the meeting then then Vice Cher to over yeah thank you I think that was it right Kaitlyn yep that was it and then I'll pull up Karen's real quick and Karen's is um this is to your liais on report right Ken I believe yes y let me make it bigger it's really small hold on actually just put this into the minutes that would be easier yeah I can't read that interesting okay so what's in blue is was her can you make it bigger please yeah so this is what was written before and the blue is what be it to to replace that to replace it I just didn't want to delete it without you seeing where I was reping all right yeah I didn't change that much but I did clarify some things okay so the bottom of that blue thing Kaylin where it says remove mapc mat with staff that actually needs to be removed cuz that was the original part and I was just replacing that with heric join stuff and rml blah blah okay thank you sorry it wasn't clear so is it two schools or three because it names two but says three there are two schools in Watertown and one school it's actually acting box I just said acting for clarity sakes it's the act the address is an act in so just leave it act in three schools to Watertown I don't know if it matters all right I I have a one I think we need to go over in the summer um Matt it's about the trash thing that we okay talked about yeah I think so do you want to I mean so basically short story is that Republic wants to renew now and so I'll leave it there and there's a lot of stuff that goes with it yeah but I don't want I don't I don't want to do a discussion I just want to so you want to run for future agendas you're saying say next meeting right well that no we don't do that fast have to Beast should talk okay yeah can we relate to that talk about and it will be related to the status of the barrels yeah a lot of questions that is related to that it is it correct okay um just go back for a second to can um DPW update us on on a few things that's one of them um the other is Town Forest uh status parking lot status I don't even know if that DPW should talk about lot five you mean yeah the yeah mostly about the great success it's yeah and we are planning um I have some information but we are planning um like an opening um celebration of that so maybe if that can be addressed comments that' be awesome yeah we'll have something on that soon yeah just wanted to make sure we invited all the correct parties so it's amazing down there it is yeah it looks great awesome came up great so friends and family okay um do you want me to approve the minut yeah it was Karen I mean do we all read the blue everything was good okay just a one yeah that was the only other edit yep okay move to approve the meeting minutes from May 7th 2024 as amended second uh any discussion I see none approve 5 Z thank you right I got ahead of myself last time 9:45 motion to adour Second Mark seconded all those in favor 5 thank you guys e