##VIDEO ID:zfnMUo_KLwc## e all right 7:00 I am calling the select Bo to order me broadcast on rctv and um going to go to the agenda we have public comment we have le leison Tom reports Carl Sone to associate member of conservation public hearing on traffic Amendment closing the warrant uh we have presentation and vote to amend uh Community preservation act study committee charge discuss and vote to allow second water meters P pilot program sets of minutes and future agendas and executive session so just by a show a hands just so I can need to use the timer not who's planning to speak how many all right so I'm going to time everybody I'm not going to cut anybody off but I'm want to keep it you know on schedule so two minutes approximately I'm not going to cut anybody off but if you start to ramble and then say let's move on all right so uh public comment I don't know if I should go by the sheet or you me what sorry can you mute please I think she wants to speak public comment okay you call names I wasn't sure what you did sorry I going to call everybody in the room first okay hi folks GNA palowski Paramount Avenue uh so my public comments pertaining to the split meters split uh water rates we uh set the split water rates about a a little bit over a year ago and since then there's been quite a few individuals that came out for multif family housing advocating that there is some form of an adjustment that is made to the way that we currently um build them uh no roll out is perfect right but there is about an 80% or sorry there's about 20% of the population that lives in multif family homes so you had multiple people come up here encouraging or asking you folks to take a look and devise a solution we also had the town meeting uh pass an instructional motion um last time to also encouraging you to take a look at it and figure out how to proceed so I believe it was a month ago or two meetings ago you had a discussion on this topic and you had a discussion on thep topic of split uh water meters I'm going to get these two confused the split rate and second second water second water viiew uh so you had a discussion on both those topics that's fine last week or last meeting I didn't see anything on the agenda pertaining to these two topics um that's fine this uh this meeting I don't see anything pertaining to the discussion on these two topics again that's fine it seems that the discussion has had been had uh we're good on that end and you're moving forward with uh I'm going to surmise that this is um you know approval of a concept of a plan the suppos plan uh otherwise you would have listed uh tangible you know um um you would listed uh Logistics uh tangible things that you would be tracking during the pilot program the expected outcome so I'm assuming you correct me if I'm wrong that you're rolling out uh a concept of a plan and I think There's an opportunity here to actually couple the two uh so I would encourage the board to take a moment during that time and maybe make an amendment to the motion that will be at the table in front of you to uh also address the split rate split rate for multif family homes in the same motion thank you good timing all right before I let the next I'm not trying to dissuade anybody but the topic of the multif family housing is on the next agenda so when I'm not ignoring it as the chair so if no one looked at the future agendas it is on there so I just want to put that out there I'm not trying to dissuade anybody from speaking on this topic but we're not ignoring it I'm not ignoring it so I just want to make that comment thank you anyone else Z David Zeke G sandborn Street and yeah I'm talking on water rates uh so almost a year ago town meeting asked you to come up with a plan to address the inequities in water rates and Sewer rates that apply to reading residents and multif family housing town meeting members although that that was instructional motion town meeting members are selected by the community and they Merit your respect they respected members of this community at that meeting not one person spoke against the request to fix the water rates for multif family housing three members of the select board uh agreed that something should and would be done not one of you spoke against that that uh that request at the time yet to my knowledge nothing whatever has been done to fix the problem or even attempt to fix the problem you are however willing to to toy with a proposal for the secondary water meters that would increase increase everyone's sewer rates potentially totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars but benefiting uh benefiting very few people so it's hard to see how fairness for the community RIT large plays into your thinking so I just ask you to get your your priorities straight and and to address the uh the water rates at least as expeditiously as you're addressing secondary water meters thank you thanks anyone else Sor hand over there John sullivan1 Street same topic as you know um I'm glad to hear that it's going to be on agenda I was very worried I've been waiting I know that I was at a meeting where were a consultant uh addressed this topic in a half housed way saying it's not worth doing anything he didn't say what we would do to solve it there was no cost benefit it was a sham as far as I'm concerned if that's your answer that's a sh but I thought I'd bring you some updates in the real world I've got our latest postmark bill here water bill now as you know we have a restaurant now restaurant is 40% of our water usage 80 90% of their bill is at the highest tier that flows down to the other 52 units so that 85% of our bills is at the highest TI I don't think that's what tiered billing is supposed to be doing uh we have 53 units 46 of them should be a tier one 46 five at tier would get into tier two there's one who fell a little bit into tier three and of course the restaurant is 90% tier five and as an ex and what that means is I should be in tier one I should be Tak for water 1075 per 100 Cub feet I'm paying 1241 for 100 Cub feet Sora should be 1020 it's 119 that's what that's what we're being charged those are the rates those are the rates we give our we have to give our billing company to apply to everybody those Blended rates of everybody even with other restaurant they'd be high there'd be a lot of it in tier five but that's the problem we have with you mixed use you'll have other buildings like that the number of multiple family homes is only increasing in this town far greater than single family homes so I really look forward to seeing a good discussion and people looking for I know that I've talked to you before I Know M Mrs McCarthy was not in the board then but I know in your campaign literature you talked about this ision was something you were interested in in so I look forward to Solutions thank you thank you anyone else I [Music] hand okay thank you very much I'm Paul Silva from 12 autum Lane in reading and I'm here to support the complete elimination of the irrigation mea moratorium it and the watering restriction are no longer necessary they are wrong for reading the board used to have the responsibility over water supply when it used Wells as a water source now all of our water comes from the MW which does a tremendous job of water management the last MW restriction was in 1989 if the MW ra sees No Limit no need to limit the water use then why do we in my opinion it is because one or more members of this board and members of Prior boards have wrong wrongfully impose their own individual biases and opinions on us there may be water supply concerns else elsewhere in the world there are none here an example a member of this board wrote to me just last week on the subject of irrigation meetings if people want to use water for other purposes it should come at a higher price think about that for a minute what gives this board member the right to decide what is and what is not an appropriate use of water for me if I pay for the water it is my decision and no one else is to determine what is an appropriate use personal opinions and biases have no place and formulating governmental policy it is the interest of town residents that should drive it what does this wrongful exercise of board authority cost irrigation uses if just 10% of reading's water usage is for outside purposes then the amount they pay for sewer Services they don't use is more than 900,000 this year alone approximately 4.5 million over the last 5 years we don't have a water shortage here and anything we do here does nothing to reduce water shortages around the globe if board members want to solve a world problem they should use their own money and not mine I looked at 22 other cities and towns that buy all of their water and all of their sewer from the MW none of them have a watering restriction and all but six allow irrigation a lot irrigation Meers why is this so it is because their elected bodies recognize that their duty is to serve the people that elected them not the world this board's own code of conduct states that members shall work together to serve the interest of town residents makes no reference to the world reading clearly is an outlier from all other peer towns on both of these water policies there are other reasons why increased use of water can actually reduce the combined rate that we charge for water and sewer which is the highest among our prmw communities in short it would allow us to spread the fixed cost portion of the water budget in the entire sewer budget over many more units of water I have provided this information to every member of the board but respect the fact that water rates are not tonight's issue but don't be mistaken the two issues are closely closely related the changes I am proposing would reduce both the water rate and the soil rate that we all see on our bills to summarize the MW the MW sees No Rest no sees no reason to restrict water use or artificially increased charge rates for irrigation to reduce demand we shouldn't either rating is the only one of 23 similarly situated towns that has a water restriction ours should be eliminated lastly this notion that we need to have a pilot program is nonsense a pilot program that will apply to a very limited number of residents is nothing more in my view Than A continuing employed by this board to continue to impose personal opinions and biases on all of us it will continue the process of double charging the vast majority of irrigation users people who out of their lawn should not be forced to buy something they don't use at the last meeting there was some discussion about there's a shift we have to worry about this shift if there was no increase in volume that shift is something that has to be dealt with and it would need to be have an adjustment on the sewer rate but when the rate for the water goes down our usage is going to go up and that usage that goes up is going to be priced to us from the MW at $3.75 you're going to charge me and probably at the third tier at 1225 so whatever that shift is first of all I think the whole shift will be totally recovered by The increased water usage that we have um but it certainly I think will'll make money be able in the future to be able to reduce the rates further thank you Paul U one more last I'm almost done any information that we need to implement the changes can be determined by reviewing the water volumes from 154 irrigation meters that are now in place in ready we should also seek information from stonum on how to do it stonum reversed its moratorium for all residents in one single action in September 2014 there had no problems and no issues we should be able to accomplish the same change that stonum did with these 10 years ago as stonum did without the need for a pilot program thank you anyone else in the room [Applause] hi uh my name is Philip Santoro I live at 15 Autumn Lane um thank you for the opportunity to speak on this water issue um I think there is something wrong water and reading in terms of the prices we're paying so I checked with a couple of my friends who live in houses similar to mine there a 2400t houses um they have in each of them they have three people living there as I do in Burlington my friend paid $157 last quarter for his water 3 months 157 my friend in Lexington again same size house same number of occupants he paid $278 for the quarter my house here in Reading same siiz house three occupants will it surprise you to know again 157 in Burlington 278 in Lexington my house last quarter $1 1,45 you got the numbers um when I told my friends about this they thought I was kidding until I brought my water bills with me I brought him here tonight in case you have any doubt about what I'm paying for water um I don't know if you'd agree with me but as representatives of your community of us I hope you take these prices into consideration I ask you whether or not you think I show of hands whether $ 1,45 is outrageous for what for one anyone so so we need to look at what we're paying for water we shouldn't be paying this kind of money I'm paying $4,000 a year for water I had a plumber come to the house to check for leaks there are no leaks when I talk to someone here in the clerk's Department about the bill the response I got was that's not outrageous that's about what we all pay fetting none of you pays $1,400 a quarter for water so I just urge you to please look carefully at the water uh rates that we're paying and just investigate whether or not it's fair thank you thank you anyone else in the room raise your I'll I'll trade so um but he's coming up I didn't see him I'm sorry go ahead so this is not about the water it's about the roads in this town I bike I only bike oh could you state your name and address oh I'm sorry my name is Joseph white I live live at 65 Prescott Street in running thank you I bike I only bike I know other people who bike who tell me the same damn thing the roads in this town of potholes and patches I have pictures here of two locations where the potholes are serious and in fact caus me to have an accident basic services are not being taken care of and I'm really kind of annoyed about it because that puts me at at risk of having a serious accident and um I'm not one who really I don't ride fast I don't ride um dangerously but when there's potholes that are shallow they tend to be more dangerous than the deeper ones and they don't look like potholes so you wind up riding over them and you wind up off the road the potholes are not being fixed Prescott Street where I live is full of patches it is I don't even know if it's going to be fixed anytime soon but nobody likes driving on or riding on it and that's a basic service for this town I don't know why it's not being taken care of so I can enter these into whatever record you wish but that's all I have to say about it thank you do you have the names of the streets on the back I can put them there they're Charles Street and Prescott Street if you could do that you can leave with us that'd be great thank you thank you TR hi there uh my name is uh John gotwald I live uh on 25 bottom Lane and ready and uh my first message in coming up here is a little bit contrary I'd like to thank you all for the great work you do in support of our town making our town a better place dedicating your time in the evenings like tonight and uh I'm sure that um you're continuously striving to to better everything in the town and I know that's not an easy task to do and uh um but it's a great thing to do that um but I I did also want to say that I can beat Phil out on my uh t on my uh water bill so Phil I'll take your bill if you take mine um my bill is about $1,560 is this quarter now that was quite a shocker to me and I'm one of those people that have the two um meters uh one from 30 years ago and in uh the the original in the house and um I was kind of shocked with uh the latest bill that I've received as well so uh I think that there is something that's at issue here and I was also going to do the same thing filed apparently and that is to have somebody check to see if I had a leak or whatever but I do water my lawn I mean I will say to you that uh and and I'm sure that Paul and Phil will live in the same street will say you the same thing I water on my lawn right and uh that second meter is the uh the culprit in terms of uh you know the magnitude of the uh the pricing at this quarter though but having said that uh I think you know I 100% support uh what's been said said here today in terms of um you know the the the water bill uh is being an issue uh and uh the opportunity for a second water meter um in recognition of of uh of what has been said so far would be a great thing I would think um uh to to separate out uh uh discreetly uh charges that that are going in one place that don't don't have any any Merit right you know with the surge against the uh the LA of the irrigation bills uh and and uh I would also say that I support I saw the note that Paul has sent to all of you uh and I outlin in the four different categories of uh water issues and I 100% support what uh he stated in his uh message he's become uh really quite an an expert at understanding where we are with uh the Water uh issues in in the town and uh I applaud him for that effort and uh would hope that you know what I'm most keen on tonight is really listening uh I want to listen to what your feedback is and what you've uh been able to deliberate on your own and uh collaborating here together to come up with what you think is the right thing to to help us move forward uh as a as a town with that thank you very much thank you you anyone else in the room seeing none uh Caitlin how many on Zoom um just one on Zoom okay Linda thank you how are you all good how are you good good and thank you too I was going to thank you as well because I know it's a thankless job so you should get some things um are you hearing me all right yeah if you could have your name and address please yeah it's Linda wils I'm a 68 Redgate Lane thank you okay water um issue as well um I'm advocating for the use for the implementation of second meters for irrigation outside use um I water my lawn too I just moved in a couple of years ago spent a gajillion dollars on plantings made the place look great up the value of my of everybody's property in my neighborhood um but I can't not water my plants um I'm happy to pay for the water I use and whatever rates you set I assume MW helps you do that don't mind about that I don't want to pay for sewer that I'm not using so a simple solution is to have water meters for people that want to use outside water that don't want to pay for sewer I don't like paying for nothing um and I'm happy to work on a committee or with people with the select board if you need somebody that kind of I don't know do whatever work you need to try to find out if there's interest if people want to do this or whatever happy to do that um but it is hard to get charged for something that you don't use my water bill just I mean again I understand water cost money and that's fine but the same period last year uh my water bill was $170 and that was with the new plantings um my bill this time for the same period was $8 $25 um the water usage was 1,68 whatevers units I don't know um and the uh one that was a little higher was 112 units so I'm not sure where all that you know where the money where the charges came from um so I guess I'd like to look at that also but may basically a second water meter for outside use is a no-brainer every town around has them stonum has them Burlington has them Newton um bill rer I I just went online and looked um so I couldn't find a list of all the towns and cities that use that but I did make a number of calls I spoke with Chris um Christopher is it Haley yeah um about this issue and he was very help us so thank you Chris um again happy to help happy to do work but something needs to be done with both the water rates looking at why they're so high all of a sudden and um getting rid of sewer charges for people that aren't using the sewer by using a second water meter thanks thank you so much Caitlyn I think you said that was the only one Zoom correct thank you all right um so uh Le on reports Melissa sure um I attended the cpdc meeting on Monday SE 16 or good portion of it um I just want to thank everyone that has um spent all the time um putting that those two options together um C DC Andrew Town staff just want to thank everyone I also want to encourage residents to reach out to their town meeting members on their thoughts on the concepts because it will be town meeting members that are voting on the concept so I think it's really important for town meeting members to hear from the residents of this town um school committee meeting last night uh school committee actually returned $80,000 to free cash uh they also added $200,000 to the special education Reserve fund um they are recruiting for both a Director of Finance and a Meco director and lastly school committee is co-sponsoring a viewing of the right to read on October 15th at the pack and they'll be uh a panel discussion following the review on the topic of adolescent reading that's October 15th at 6m at the pack that's it thank you Mark thanks Carlo so um I to joined the cpdc meeting um which was was very good a good chance to kind of hear what's going on I think Town staff has done an amazing job of uh bringing things together finding ways to get us in compliance um and to show kind of what options we may have to accomplish our goals as well as what is being required by MBTA communities um also attend to the financial Forum last week um which also was a chance to kind of hear where where we are as a town um hear that the operating budget um is very tight and we have some some new challenges that we're facing from that um and to have a discussion more discussion about kind of what's where things headed finance committee will come forward with some guidance obviously going forward from there um third meeting was the permanent building committee met last week we um our mission was to find an owner's project manager for the Runing Center for active living um there were interviews that were held we narrowed down to our our top candidates there negotiations going on or completed um almost completed almost completed but we have been talking so awesome okay so hopefully there'll be an OPM coming on board very quickly get that uh company up to speed and then um recal kind of went on break over summer as a result of not having sorry recal finished and sunset but the recal project went on break a little bit um pending getting the owner's project manager in place so once that person excuse me once that company is in place we should be able to get that rolling again and uh hopefully get on to the timeline for sharing more detailed information with the community late in the year having a lot of of meetings and discussions and being ready to get to town meeting in April and that's it thanks thanks Carlo um the town uh the trout Review Committee uh had our followup meeting last night from the last Forum that we had uh and we went over the various public feedback that we got from that um IA was there as well to go over all our uh legal questions um mainly center around rmld and chapter 164 and whatever Avenue knew that they're looking to go as opposed to um how we currently are uh so that's going to get hashed out between uh her legal memo they already gave us that we already received rld's memo that they have and then we have to come up with the decision of what is final it's a policy decision just like everything else for the most part is policy decisions um so that's pretty much it our next meeting is October 23rd for that um but for the most part we're just winding down and it's not obviously On This Town warrant um it would be April is when we'd be good to end up doing a report Etc and then presenting it um some stuff might have to go to the state for review some stuff might have to go to the ballot some might go through um our state delegation Etc it's every is going to give us a rundown and in a document at the end um when we're all find it um and then the other thing um I just want to commend the RPD for uh the incident that happened last night that some people might not might have gotten woken up from I sleep without a my ringers off so I didn't get it um but I will say that um in the four years that I've been paying attention to things uh this I think is one of the only incidents that warranted a reverse 911 call and reading all the other handful of ones with street closures Etc I don't think were warranted they still happened it is what it is but uh they made the right move by doing what they did last night and alerting the residents of the area because you never know what could have happened and if it's a couple minutes inconvenience uh to your sleep pattern it's unfortunate I have kids that's my life every day for the most part so uh they're great though and that's that thank you um yes I Echo ch's comments on bring police I believe other towns responded as well to help out uh for me I was away a little bit but I did attend the second night of the public hearing for cpdc um as a resident and and made some comments and listened and uh Andrew staff and cpdc have you know done a tremendous amount of work on this and we're getting to the finish line so I commend them on that and that's all I have um so next we have oh sorry yes Matt says yeah just a few things it's going to be busy October so the sixth Annual Arts and Cultural Festival will take place on October 5th um right out on the common thanks to Arts reading for putting that on again this year um on that same day the fire department is having its open house um that'll be at 10:00 a.m. at the fire department that's always a great event um bring the kids there's plenty for kids kids to do get to touch the fire trucks and um and hang out with the firefighters for the day so that's a great event um also coming up on October 1st we we've had some publicity about this the mlet SS Morgan uh conservation land is finally open to the public we're going to have a ribbon cutting there with several officials that's at 3:45 and the public is welcome parking is at Austin prep that day um because parking is at a premium in that area um and also on the same day on October 1st um from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 Chief Clark and I will be at the last cor corner for a coffee with a cop so please drop by and say hello I'm really looking forward to doing that this year um and I also wanted to thank the the reading police and the EMTs who responded to the incident the situation last night um your responsiveness and dedication do not go unnoticed um by the select board and the town manager I'd like to say that um just a a couple quick Personnel updates that i' like to give every meeting um we do have a new health inspector that started this week uh her name is Amelia so we are fully staffed in the health department we also have a new person in operations as an executive assistant his name is Joshua he came to us from Texas to work here in Reading believe it or not so um long distance but we're happy to have him and I wanted to mention we also promoted officer Cody Costa to the position of Sergeant last week congratulations to him and and his family and we are now um almost fully staffed in every Department I think we're still looking for an entry-level engineer if anybody knows a civil engineer other than that thanks to the department heads and the HR department for their persistence in getting uh top employees that's my report thank you thank you all right next we have uh appoint Carl Sone to an associate position on the Conservation Commission with a term expiring June 30th 2026 um is Carl in the room no okay uh Chris want me to do a motion first and then discussion yep uh move to appoint Carl Sone to an associate position on the Conservation Commission with the term expiring June 30th 2026 second thank you any discussion this is just a formality and thank you Kyle for contributing to the Conservation Commission um all right all those in favor 4 Z thank you all right next we have a hearing and I see Lieutenant is here traffic Amendment Amendment that's in our [Music] packet so we got to read notice oh yeah 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 September 24th at 7:00 p.m. in the select board meeting room in town hall 16 low Street Reading Mass are available remotely on Zoom to act on the following proposed amendments to the traffic and parking regulations amendment number 20247 improve traffic and pedestrian safety at the intersection of Emerson Street and dividends road with an official placement of an isolated stop sign heading Northbound on Emerson Street at the intersection with dividends Ro the copy of the proposed document regarding this topic will be in the select board packet on the website at www. reading ma.gov all interested parties are invited to attend the hearing in person or remotely via Zoom or may submit their comments and writing to town manager at ci. ring. ma.us by order of Matthew a corelis town manager thank you Chris good evening um so this is another uh traic minut that came in is a complaint to uh through C click fix uh went to pttf um basically the end of Emison uh at dividends gets uh busy especially at school times it's the kind of a back area where people will uh pick up kids um and dividends is a throughway there even though at the end at Emerson some people get confused um kind of think that they could just kind of blow through that intersection um so we just think that putting a stop sign there makes it more visible to stop before um going through uh going through uh we get some complaints of of near collisions there um so again they you're supposed to stop there uh at the end of Emerson anyway um so all this is pling an official stop sign in to make it more visible has there been any recent incidents in or said near near um yeah we had a couple complaints in uh recently both about the park for the school and then two for the um for the intersection um for people not not stopping almost almost causing crashes I've I've actually driven up there and when cars park there if someone is coming from the dead end side and someone's coming up Emerson to take the right they can't see because of the car is parked on the left so would be better and if they just go the other car are coming the other way it's not going to see them right right so it kind kind of makes up a blind spot so putting the stops sign there it's kind of reinforces you're supposed to stop here anyway so yeah to look yeah left or right yes any um uh thanks first of all for putting some pictures in really appreciate that makes it so much easier it comes to life um it also brought up the question for me looking at the placement is that far enough forward that you can see down dividends on your left shoulder or are you going to stop there and then you actually have to roll forward a little bit no that that's just my no so it'll be at the uh the appropriate uh Place uh according to the mutcd has to be within so many feet of the actual intersection so the the stop sign will be at the the actual place not just my terrible photoshopping I appreciate having you here thank you I just want to make sure thank you I'm good thanks Carlo I guess if Caitlyn can just put up put up the pictures online real quick so everybody can see them because I know we have them just so the public can see but I also agree that having these pictures is the entire point so it it makes it night and day once we give the approval just watch she pulling that up yeah how long does it take to install this a week two weeks usually uh probably within a couple days depending on if all the supplies are at the DPW at the time um put in the work or what and then depending on how busy they are and uh if they already have in stock then all right and it's great anything for more safety you know it's an extra 5 10 seconds so thanks the public hearing yep oh yeah sorry Mr AR um could you get to the podium please sure thank you John Arena 26 Francis town meeting cbdc former board member line of sight on the left coming in from Emerson is that a concern you see the the agriculture obscures the view um we can have the uh tpw check is that the plan of record or no that's just a check you wouldn't touch it uh no so in cases where it's either a town tree um the um DPW GOI in trim it if it's a personal tree they'll they'll check with the uh the resident first um and see if they want to do it or if they'll agree to us doing it and dividends has the right away Emerson is the intersecting Road correct that's why the stop is on there's no need there for two or three-way on this intersection your view uh no we we talked about that because that end of div uh dividends is a dead end I think there's only two or three houses on it anyways right okay perfect thank you I guess I would just add these are Google Images they're not actual photos you took so they could be a year or two all and I think they are because there's a new house there I don't think that tree is even there anymore do you good point comes in handy I guess um anyone else in the room anyone on Zoom kayin NOP all right y move to close the hearing regarding safety Amendment 20247 second any discussion see none all those in favor cling public hearing thank you zero and then move to approve Amendment 2024 -07 of the traffic and parking regulations as presented second thank you any discussion seeing none all those in favor 4 Z thank you thank you uh do you guys want these FL did you if I ask him if I can take them because we have pttf tomorrow anyways yeah we going to end up there anyway [Music] [Music] Bally while we're getting this done uh next item on the agenda is to close the town meeting warrant is Karen available well I don't think we can technically do it until 8:00 says 8:00 um we can go next so maybe if you could take at least the presentation vote on the next agenda Joe are you doing that be great Kaitlyn yeah thanks uh so we're GNA take some things out of order do the timing Kaitlin if you can get that up on the screen please Kaitlyn I was on the zoom on my phone earlier and I didn't see anyone else from the CPA study committee so I'm assuming we don't need to call order but please let me know if NOP no one else still awesome all right thank you um so hello everyone uh Joe carahan I'm here is the U representing the uh ad hoc Community preservation act study committee uh which I can almost get out in one breath for one sec what's your Quorum how many uh four four four okay is behind you right thanks we're not we're not only two yes three three [Music] oh you're supposed to be here um but yes we we're still with no one on the zoom we don't have Forum so all right so I will not call that committee to order but um I'm here to talk about that committee which um you all organized earlier this year um uh with representatives from uh the uh the select board again I'm really sorry about that uh finance committee conservation Recreation historical and housing um uh the community preservation act um I'm not going to review that because you all pres on before but since it does uh provide the town a way to raise money for uh open space preservation historical preservation and uh affordable housing uh creation and preservation um so uh we uh on did not actually get together uh we were until May is when we were first convened um we have been meeting we met every two weeks for the first couple months there the blistering Pace um uh because our initial charge was to try to figure out if we could consider the CPA at the uh November this upcoming November election um spoiler alert uh we can't um so um but to you know we we sort of broke down these questions that we're trying to consider and these been like agenda items for us um understanding benefits of the CPA how do we decide what to recommend uh the CPA has some Flex a lot of flexibility in terms of what the surcharge rate is and what the exemptions are and then there are several ways it could be put to a vote so talk about that as well uh next slide please um so you know we gathered some information about you know things that could be funded it's all very informal at this point though um uh put together some estimates for how much revenue would be raised Based on data from Victor and town assessor um based on last available year FY 24 um property values um how much the state match would be given that amount of Revenue collected um and how much that would cost the taxpayers um uh you know median high low percentiles things like that um we met with uh the community preservation Co Coalition which is an organization that um helps communities um they actually spend most of their time helping communities that have already adopted CPA like sort of uh work on their process for how they approve projects or consider projects but they also help communities like ours that are considering whether we should adopt it um we did look at our peer communities um it's interesting actually of our 23 peer communities um using the finance committee's definition of pure communities um uh 11 have adopted CPA and one is considering it no so that's like as close to 5050 as you could possibly get um we talked a lot about the process um uh ultimately it's up to the voters um you can get on the ballot either of the two ways that things normally get on the ballot um town meeting could put something on the ballot or you can have a petition of residents um you know typically there are ballot question committees um uh made process not unlike um the one for an override which is probably the most recent ballot question we had committees for here in Reading um interestingly it must be considered at a regularly scheduled election so uh that means that if you are having a special election for something else you can't consider this at the same time nor can you consider this in a special election by itself uh this is relevant because we will probably have a special election in 2025 to uh um for a Deb exclusion for killing and um but apparently the law that creates the CPA does not permit us to bundle this election with that one so our options are uh April 2025 uh April 2026 November 2026 um there is no November 2025 election interestingly um and then uh yes um another interesting thing is sort of the recommendation is to to favor higher turnout elections um as those are ones where it's more likely to be approved um more people vote the more people Pro it interesting fact in itself uh but uh that means since we have missed the deadline for the uh November 2024 election the next you know state election which has the higher turnout than local would not be until November 2026 next slide please so yes there was a deadline at the beginning of September if we were to actually submit a ballot question to the town clerk um there was not a chance of that um the committee would really like to research these questions um give you all the most you know authoritative and correct information we possibly can um uh you know we look at possible projects in more detail um so we try to make this concrete what would be actually people would be residents would be paying for something what would they be paying for we can be specific about that and then uh uh reading did consider the CPA once over 20 years ago um we'd like to learn more about that um we connected with uh someone from the uh the previous CPA study committee over 20 years ago um so we um to learn from that and then obviously we haven't had time to present anything to you before now uh we did vote in July to uh support adopting the CPA in abstract um but not in November 2024 um uh the committee has not made a Rec a recommendation of when it should be considered for what it's worth the committee preservation Coalition uh representative strongly recommending November 2026 next slide please so if we're going to consider this at a future election uh if if if this CPA study committee is to um uh do the research necessary in order to consider CPA at a future election uh we need to amend our charge um which was originally structured for this November election and to sunset at the end of the year so there's one tiny wording change I'll call out um we don't presume there's a need for uh the CPA so we prefer to talk about studying the merits of um and then uh the rest of it is just updating it to refer to the um it's kind of a latest time we would do this would be the April 2026 annual town meeting I actually did say April because uh at the time I was drafting this you all were considering moving the election which might move town meeting uh you still might in the next year or two um so this should be robust against that um and then yes AES for a sunset actually just uh in May so the the come Falls after town meeting um because this committee does not need to continue to exist after town meeting after it's gotten on the ballot um this committee is not a bid question committee it's a town committee um that can get confusing for some people but um so we do not need to be around for the actual election and then yeah the last slide is just with those changes applied so you can see what it is that we're requesting and I would be happy to answer any questions you all have about committee or the proposed changes or anything else thanks anyone Mark thanks Carl um thanks Joe just thinking about dates for a minute too so I I hear the CPA Group saying hey um you'll have more people at a focused election that has either state or federal going on I get it on the other hand that kind of rolls things out two years um and then if it were to roll out two years do you folks feel that you would would um move forward now in preparation for something that's in 2026 I'm trying to put together all the timing pieces here so I think the way um this would work we would certainly not continue at the meeting Pace that we were doing when we were Racing for November um uh this hasn't been discussed in the committee but you know monthly might be a reasonable pace for us to try to cover each of these topics that we want to cover um allowing for the facts that we might you know not meet during the summer or something like that um so the the idea is to do this you know a marathon out of Sprint Pace ourselves and um uh take the time to produce you know hopefully a nice informative report that answers all your questions so so the proposal would be to work on a a pretty regular meeting schedule move it along it may not take you until 2026 to to have the feedback correct and I will definitely not if I have anything to do with it we will not meet more than we need to um I have enough meetings thank you yeah I'm just trying to so if the notion is to kind of you know continue having meetings at a a more measured Pace thank you measured Pace um and then bring it forward and then maybe part of that discussion does come back to say hey 2026 is the right time or maybe sooner is the right time but yes my concern would be that given a long period of time to work on it there might be a tendency to kind of let it slide or and I just want to make sure that committee is feeling like hey this makes sense we can work on it regularly uh we we'll certainly you know work on it to meet that deadline but we might be even sooner than that so I think I can speak with authority on this because I'm the chair and I can just call meetings and my intention is to keep calling meetings at least monthly so as to not let this fall off of our radar thank you anyone else thanks Carl and thank you Joe for that um I was on board with this back in the day even though that I really wasn't but you know it wasn't in my opinion that I should be voting against the formation of this being explored um back then um and My Philosophy really didn't change between then and a week ago um it still should be you know up to the voters Etc and then as you heard the other night by Sharon that you just mentioned the override in 2027 potentially thinking about it uh going forward um I can't in good conscience even attempt to start putting something into CPA like this knowing that an override is coming um sooner rather than later with that as well um I know all the good that the CPA would have done if it was a decade ago believe me I understand all that um as I've said 10,000 times I can afford whatever if CPA got passed I'm good with it but it isn't about me um so uh I appreciate the time that you've put into this Etc but uh hearing that the other night should have been a roote Awakening for all of us because none of us should be sitting up here in 2027 when an override happens because everyone is going to ask what did you guys do how did you allow this to happen because no one's going to be happy with it and if we have priorities like Kellum in the senior center that absolutely should take precedent if a domino has to fall this is the Domino I mean you got to pick one you can't just keep chugging along at the pace that we've been doing so that's just my opinion um I thank you for your time on the committee as as well as everyone else that's put their time into this and if it continues it continues yeah um so um I guess I don't agree with that um in a lot of ways the the issue of of the town's operating budget is the issue of the town's operating budget and when we finance activities operations schools Etc um that are growing at a rate courtesy largely of wages faster than the roughly 3% that we're going to get from prop two and a half plus New Growth there's a mismatch in the operating budget and when we do overrides we understand that they are they happen we work as long as we can before we need another one and then we got to come back to the voters with another one and either the voters will approve it and we we move ahead on that pace or we make Cuts those are kind of the two options separate from that however is a capital budget and capital activities and CPA is all about Capital activities and and doing the things that we as a community are kind of already doing the difference is that CPA offers potentially uh whatever the rate's going to be but let's just call it 20% I guess that's what it's one second y so um I need to call the um the cpy committee in order because we know have Forum um so uh Caitlyn no one's joined on Zoom correct might as well check correct all right okay all in person thanks so we're all in person let let me rewind up a little bit so this is about a capital budget uh in terms of what's going on and in municipalities businesses homes you operate on two different kinds of budgets there's the operating stuff that you got to do to keep the household going or the town going and there's Capital kinds of things the CPA as I think we will learn as we've been told um offers a a strong return so basically it's getting a a bank account with a 20% return if they continue with a 20% rate I think it's really important that the residents of the of the community understand what it is and have a chance to to vote on that realizing again that many of the projects the town does already anyway the difference is that here we can get a 20% or whatever it is going to be um extra for working with CPA um to me that's that's something that I want to understand better I want to see what it means I want to make sure that if we can get it we're going to get it the kinds of projects we're talking about and again the don't want to Short Circuit the committee and the and the work that you're doing but a lot of it relates to the kinds of activities that we are we're currently supporting uh the Birch Meadow projects um all sorts of other you know recreation activities housing activities um there are a lot of things in there that we could be supporting at a higher rate basically by getting back some of the real estate tax that's coming out of homeowners that move into the town of rening I would love to see that come here so I I feel it's critical that we understand it explain it and get it there I also hear you that you can't do everything all at the same time but I think that the community deserves to kind of hear what it is and they're going to make their decisions I too agree with you that the two most important projects for this community going forward are going to be the center for active living and the killum school the next two projects absolutely completely agree um this some people may view as well heck this supports other things I still want to do it or they may view it differently and that's fine I just want that information to be there so people can can decide thanks can I ask a followup so where did the 20% number come from because I would be careful to throw it out if 20% isn't the 20% number because I've never even heard a definitive number on the CPA return and I know it's based off whatever percentage that we choose Etc and you only get a higher percent if you go towards the max of 3% or whatever it is so I just be careful about mentioning a 20% return that might not actually be it might but I don't know if Joe knows if I I can comment on this so the um one of the more confusing aspects of the CPA is the formula they use for um uh how much they um add on to the because the town you know the town raises money the search charge and then the state adds money to that and so the how much money the state adds is what we're talking about here um uh so there is a fund that is uh funded every year by a fee on every uh transaction I think the registry of deeds uh and uh the it's not by the size of the transactions a flat fee per transaction so it's basically just what is the rate of things property turning over um when interest rates were low a couple years ago uh the reimbursement rate was something like 32% was over 30% um because there was a lot of real estate activity um interest rates way up um the real estate market froze I think and the reimbursement rate last year was something like 14% um so I'm those are probably two extremes I'm expecting things to bounce around within those two extremes 20% is on the lower end of that range but I don't want to overpromise so I think that's why it's not a not a crazy number to talk about and I would just mention it's probably the higher percentage if we went with 3% okay is let you finish that so so that is um Chris is alluding to the fact that the formula is even more complicated than I just said there are three rounds of funding the first round so what it is is there's that fund that's with the D that's um uh the the D transaction fees they take 80% of that and they split it among all the CPA communities in proportion to how much money the each CPA commity raised um so uh and then the other 20% is distributed to communities that have uh applied the maximum surcharge 3% uh based on a formula that takes into account Financial need um we have the the good news and the bad news is that we would not get anything from that we are in something like the second highest tier in terms of of um for the purposes of the process they use for for um affluence so uh there is um and the committee hasn't made any recommendations about percentages but um I can tell you that when I was putting together the revenue estimates I didn't bother looking above one and a half% uh the vast majority it's interesting pure communities the the only ones that adopted 3% were the ones that adopted right away when the CPA was first passed um uh and then uh it has tapered over time um I think the most recent one actually approved it at a half percent um Winchester I think is considering at 1% um but yes so speaking for myself committee hasn't made any recommendations on this I do not foresee any numbers above 1% being considered I want to be caught set of time because Karen is joining us I just want to mindful oh yeah camera's joining us so we can close the wi um I just want to make a last comment that I think the committee did a lot of great groundwork in in setting us up to do the the finite stuff the percentage the exemptions and everything else so uh I'm not going to say if monthly is too much or not enough but given how much runway we have we'll figure that out I'm sure pretty quickly uh but I I think the committee is uh uh is doing its job of gathering information and just going to present it to us and then to the town so um I I I I agree with both of you on on what you've said and and and that's why I wanted to be on the committee and I think it's going well and we've had a lot of good input and Chase was very helpful and I think as we go forward um you know but we'll we'll see what happens and how many of the communities join because the more communities join the more money that goes into the well actually it kind of goes against us but I'll take that back all right thank you Joe have a motion oh yeah for the charge yes yes unless Karen wants K do you have any comment on the uh CPA charge no I appreciate that thank you okay can you hear me y we can y good move no I'm good thank you very much move to amend the charge for the community preservation act study committee as presented second any discussion K if you I'm just not gonna I know you're here but if you ever want to chime in just chime in um any discussion seeing none okay all those in favor a roll call oh sorry roll call now thank you um I'll sign with you Karen yeah thank you Chris no uh Melissa yes Mark yes Carlo yes all right thank you I'd like to adjourn the CPA study committee so so just adjourning the CPA study committee thank you everyone thanks all right so now thank you so now we are on to the uh the warrant uh which is in our packet and if memory serves me correctly um we can do this two different ways we can close the warrant as a whole or we can do it article by article so um and you know that's what we we've done in the past so I'll just open up to get a consensus okay yeah um my only question is is do we have to do it article by article because I believe you and Chris can't vote on some of these articles any article that we can't partake in we will recuse ourselves I know individual article so that's my my my thing my question is should we do it article by article so that oh oh right so because you guys can't vote on some of them corre it makes sense to go yeah just to just to let people know that uh I'm not going to speak for Chris but because of a conflict I don't agree with um that I have um because of where I live I cannot uh comment or partake in the NBC community's article nor can I officially close the warrant so Karen has been nice enough to join us from overseas to help us close the warrant so that'll be the last thing we do is close the warrant so if we're going to go to article by article yes I I whatever number it is I cannot uh partake in that I can partake in the other ones and then at the very end we have a motion to approve Tom meeting warrant then I'm speaking for myself I will recuse myself again U because I've been informed by uh state ethics that I canot uh contribute or partake in that so that's what I plan to do uh in in either case um if it's you know I know at the end I can and that's why we asked Karen uh to join us and she was nice enough to do that because without Karen we would have been stuck um just four of us and only two of us um not being able to close the walk so so that's why Karen is on the phone and she is away and we that's very nice of her to join us so I'll I'll take a pulse I guess how we want to do it you want to just take 1 through 15 as a as a group as a group and then do 16 and 17 separately I have to skip oh sorry seven I think seven no nine nine it's nine yes in that case I might say just why don't we just do them one at a time in that way it's clear yeah yeah I think that's I think it's safer just that's safer all right know the numbers so we have to do these are all the Motions yeah I I I guess um so you would do it one at a time but then there would be one vote at the end to C warrant you Chris will not participate in I'm only speaking for myself yes I can't yeah so yeah you could do it by motion one by one if you wanted to vote on each article um we haven't done it that way in the past but given the situation that I think that's fine to do as long as we vote on you know closing the entire yeah that that's why we here sure we y y so whichever way you want I do have um Sharon is on as well in case there's any questions on the financial articles that are here thank you all right so we're gonna need individual motions for each article Chris lucky for you yeah no it's fine you didn't write them up that way but it could be just a simp motion no I think I don't think we need motions on those it's just taking a pulse of how we would vote on things because no matter what you close the warrant it is what it is we did that like two years ago where we gave our feedback on various topics remember yeah yeah but it's not binding but yes it would go that the select board voted XYZ for this uh uh uh uh for amending the capital program fy2 motion right that wouldn't be a motion not everything's nothing's changing it's just our our feedback on each article our comments in support or not in support putting it on the warrant right putting on the warrant it's going on the warrant but I think the support part is the on the ones that are attached to us that's what we did last time yeah so so did we end up kind of going through and saying okay is there any discussion article one no is there any yeah I think what we did previously is what Mark had said we would do what before it was easy because it was a whole block that we'd pull out one to8 and we you know vote on this it was EAS unanimous and then there's the other hot button items that we felt that we had to give our opinion on Etc but then we all would close the warranty I think to be uniform let's just go through them all real quick I think just to be any issues with how let you take the lead I guess I I can introduce chair yes Karen yeah um you know I apologize um because you have one number on mine we have to do a roll call for every single vot so if there's any way we can a motion that says you know a motion for our goes enter numbers and we get that done once that might make it more expedient for us you could do one to one to eight and then 10 through 15 15 and then SE on the other three yeah Okay C did you hear that okay we're going to do 1 through eight I heard 1 through eight and 10 through 15 yeah I'm hearing you yeah and then the last two um which are the MBTA ones we will step out of the r and Chris has a conflict on N yes that's what I do yeah that might work right okay so I guess do a motion on the F Well was they were given a presentation of what were you doing yeah so what I what I've done before is I just introduced the article tell you a little bit you know some of them is self-explanatory right take it from there so I st going through it want to do that so all right thank you okay so there are 17 articles as you can see um you have all the materials before you article one is reports that's the proformer done every town meeting article two is instructions um we usually defer that to the last night and I believe we'll do that again this this time um article three is amending the capital Improvement program um Sharon is on Sharon we'll have a few things to amend on article is that correct she can hear me she's on Sharon there Sharon sorry I couldn't get my M the [Music] scre article am on article three just moving things around um we had um inis 25 we had something planned for facilties that must St with some sort of back they were able to purchase it in fisal 24 but it was planned for fisal 25 with some excess they had and so we have taking that off the have in and putting other things and there's normally that change that um we try and move things around as we update pricing sometimes we have to move things out things in because of priorities where the condition of the assets kind of we have to do it um and so are normal kind of R but I do know that pretty5 we have a couple things that just s down I think was like an $85,000 asset that was planned for fiso 25 and Facilities were a to purchase in fiso 24 bringing up a little bit of space to bring in a couple of items that are needed so it there like a net net zero impact there okay artic Article 4 is amending the FY 25 budget and I think we will have a few amendments there any more you want to add on that one Sharon um we're still kind of compiling it but it's you know kind of more routine things I end up having to adjust for instance report um okay the the Regional School um I need to add to ,000 for that related to you know so obviously that St by enrollment but also we have the capital charge for the building that they're building so there's a for an additional 10,000 there mcom had approved some 130 135,000 for BW trucks that we had some issues they were from prior years where he had ordered a truck and thought the truck was been be um you know delivered at that price point and then there was a fire ATU factur and cancel quar so we ended up having to cancel the PO and with another manufacturer price so we're replenish same time we also have um on close collection at the schools the requests um out a program across all the schools they have S school that was doing black some posting and it was very successful and asked for 50,000 there so just some typical things that we typically ask for trying to take savings from other places it was also um an ask in my department um since we took on the um the budget a couple years ago I've been you know delegating CR training and doing everything I can to maximize staff that I have and we had been using a temporary person to help fill the void a little bit um and it seems like it's it's more of a permanent need and so you are moving money around savings retirement savings from other um from other departments um to try and frund um this position on a permanent basis there's a net zero there because the savings are com from public department and when I requested that for public departments like you have a retirement the new hire is much cheaper than the person retired that sort of thing people willing to help follow build their budget exract their budget and so having more resources helps follow us so but that again The Net Zero of moving salary month around from Public Safety public into the finance department make this more permanent so that we have more assist iness okay thank you um Article Five is payment of Prior year year bills um we'll see if we have any to present we'll know more before to meeting on that TR article six transfer of the 40R funds into the smart growth stabilization fund it's pretty much pro forma although we need town meeting approval to do it um article 7 would allow us to do that in the future without town meeting approval so without further appropriation um that's why there's a a 2third vote needed on that it's essentially accepting a local option to do that so that's article six and seven um quick question so the 40R funds those are the funds where where we build stuff we get kind of a reimbursement payment and right now it comes in and it's not designated and this is designating it to the smart growth stabilization exactly yeah and and that's where it should go but it comes in and it sort of sits there so that will be corrected in the future if article 7 passes so okay that's what I understand about that um article 8 transfer um from free cash into the opioid settlements receipts Special Reserve fund um that that's sort of similar we get we get money from the opioid settlement um Sharon could talk more if you have questions but we put it in free cash now and it really should be moved into that Special Reserve fund um for future appropriation so that's that would take care of that issue can I a question what's your what's the size of that the size of go ahead Sharon so first let me give you a little background that op we can't hear you we can't hear you yeah if you could speak up a little laptop CL can you hear me now yes much better okay so the the opioid settlement funds were from 2023 um we started getting them in 2023 um and we didn't have the legislation in place to allow us to set up a special revenue account to keep track of the funds because there is a requirement with the settlement funds to use them for programming related to drug abuse and that so to Ideal but any Revenue that comes into the general fund is any money that comes has to go the general fund just 24 we got the legislation we needed to set up the reserve fund that we have that we needed to keep track of the funds and keep track of the spending of what we were using those funds for and we're able to automatically based on that legislation move all the fisal 24 funds that came in but anything that came in in fisal 23 um it closed to free cash and so if it's in free cash you need a town meeting vote to move it um and so that's what this article fors about $881,000 F to free cash in 23 um and it's a matter of just transferring it to this new um special Revenue fund that was cre by thanks you okay thank you okay I'll skip over nine and and continue Sor right um yeah so I'll skip over n no they want to stop now oh we're going to stop okay stop blocks yeah yeah I mean can yeah let's do that okay okay so I guess I don't have a so you would probably have a motion to add Article 1 through eight to the warrant to Tom meeting it's probably what to support maybe the motion CU it's it's kind of irrelevant is but it's just showing support or not for an article I guess it's not binding it just this elect board voted for zero on this like fincom gives their a report Etc so right but I don't have an issue with anything one through a so maybe the motion would be uh move to support articles 1 through eight on the November warrant all right any discussion Cameron any discussion no I'm good thank you all right roll call vote [Music] Karen yes Chris yes Melissa yes Mark yes Carlo yes okay so um article nine we're skipping that right well no we're not skipping it we're doing it without doting Chris is going to leave for you or whatever discussion you're giving okay wait till Chris leaves the room okay so article 9 is a debt authorization for the Haven Street infrastructure project I won't go too much into it because at the last meeting Ryan came and gave a really good overview what the project would be um we will end end up having to borrow for some of it but we also have in the back so to speak um $2.6 million from massw Works Grant already there we're hoping to get some more money from a federal earmark we're not counting on it but it would be another $2.5 million uh to to go to help out this project um the total project cost is $8 million and um if we didn't get the federal earmark the current borrowing would be 5.4 million U so it's a it's a matter for town meeting to decide about funding um like I said we are partway there anyway um so that's that that's that article all right any Melissa ohel um un unfortunately I know they've put a lot of work into this I can't support this article at this time um I don't think it's responsible of us to be spending probably close to 6 million I mean without the federal funds um just with two debt exclusions the talk of an override and just everything else it's not responsible of us to be spending $6 million on a beautification project I consider that a want not a need so I cannot support this article Mark thanks car um I feel similarly I'd love to see um us find additional outside funds to do as much of it as we can and then come back with a smaller request I think with an open end of potentially 5.5 million MH it's it's not it's not one of the top two priorities right now so I I wouldn't support it either okay Karen do you have any comments on the Haven Street project yeah I hear what you're saying as um the other like numberers that is and um what I would like to do is I would like to support this article so that meeting can wa but I hear conern all right thank you yeah I uh I agree with my colleagues in the room right now there bad timing unfortunately and uh this is the area where I live and walk um I I'd like to see it but I I think we have other priorities right now so again this is going to go to town meeting but if uh you know when Caitlyn records this on article 9 I think she should you name us uh not just to vote so we know the town meeting knows where we commented so for the record you know Karen wants to see this move forward Carlo Mark and Melissa are not in favor at this time for article nine do you want to entertain a motion to so correction there Mr chair oh sorry Mr chair I I I am sorry to be very clear I would like this motion to go before town meeting I'm not necessarily voting to a personal vote of support at this point I I if that makes sense so do you want to abstain then so are we so um are we voting so here's the question we have this um the grant funding so if we do not put this article forward um does that mean that um staff goes back to the drawing board and figures out what we could do with it because you can't accept Grand money and not spend it on something on Haven Street that we we may still be able to I'll have to double check with Ryan but we may still be able to spend at least the $2.6 million on something smaller down there if they could work out the engineering on it which you know wouldn't be any Town Money it wouldn't be it wouldn't be the project that they were looking for but we can we can look look to do that um if it doesn't if the funding doesn't pass is the mass work Grant predicated on any an amount that we spend or that's the grant that we no I think that's the grant we were awarded and you know I don't think it was a matching Grant I I can double check with Ryan just to be sure but I think it was we were awarded that for this project we were also ask for a federal E mark that is conditioned you know maybe we'll get it maybe not but the whole project you know the like everything else the the uh prices keep going up so Ryan's estimate now is about $8 million for the whole project right so but yeah to like some of the points that we made if it was to me the the the nicest part of this project is down by the depot yeah that's the safety and the crosswalk saw last time yeah all of Haven Street with the trees and the bump outs and to me that that was never needed okay um because we did Haven Street not too long ago but maybe Ryan could I'm speaking for myself you know I I I could support okay we'll take I have a meeting with with about this tomorrow actually so we'll take a look and maybe come back with something different if that's the feeling of the board so y so is our vote that we're supporting it or not or removing it from the warrant no not removing it no supporting or not okay yeah supporting or not thank you so it'll still stay on but we'll I'm I'm going to need to talk given that that's your opinion I'm going to need to talk to staff about how we can maybe yeah do something little different so okay so so have a a motion to support article 9 on the warrant so a yes vote would be to support it and a no vote would be to not support it correct I'll make the motion to support it all right you a second then oh second yes sorry thank you I was still trying to process what Mark said the your vote to support I apologize any more discussion before the vote all right Karen I'll go to you first okay I am um I'm going to abstain at this point um I'm this needs to go before town meeting for a healthy discussion but um again I hear the concerns about priorities at this point um so I'm just gonna abstain from the F okay thank you Melissa no Mark no and Carlo no all right Chris come back in thank you [Applause] article 10 yes okay so Chris is back article 10 so this is the adoption of mandatory kilowatt hours um this is the one of the final pieces needed to qualify for green communities which we've been working on for a number of years um it does require a town meeting vote we had checked with um the attorneys and the state so we'd like to bring this to town meeting and ask them um to allow us to do that and Al and also authorize the select board to um execute an agreement uh any sort of necessary documents there's a whole I'll have more for town meeting so they can see it but there's a whole package that goes along with this good job so that's green communities um the next did you want to no I just yes yeah I just want to know do we know what kind of fee that we're looking is it still the nominal dollar or we up it's I we double I actually double checked with the state and it it comes out to $3 to4 um for a family of four per year so it's 0.00005 per Kil so it's it's di minous okay okay so that's article 10 article 11 um this is you had a presentation last meeting from Bill Selvin regarding the town from the Town Forest committee regarding uh animals and voice control um since then on these two articles the Board of Health took up as well and decided to co-sponsor the two Town Forest articles as well regarding um unleash dogs and regarding voice control so that's that we'll have two we'll now have two sponsors for those two articles so that's article 11 article 12 Article 13 you heard Bill Sullivan speak about that that's transfer funds uh for removal of the red Pines and invasive species um that's roughly $150,000 I believe is what he was counting on for that um for that transfer um lot five is article 14 that's the new parking area for the Town Forest um that that came with some restrictions that we have to fill fulfill so we're going to be transferring that land to the Conservation Commission and then they could carry out um their duties there and that would restrict the the land for further sale by the town I think that was one of the one of the uh Provisions in acquiring the land so that's article 14 um Article 15 this this came in fairly late if you remember on the last warrant we had asked for borrowing regarding the Fieldhouse floor so town meeting approved $1.7 million for that um in talking to the superintendent and the facilities director um they would like more money for the floor I I believe they're going to be asking for an additional 1.3 million in borrowing which you I understand is a sort of a surprise and not what we said at the last town meeting but because prices have gone up and this is the Flor that they want they've asked me to include that on the warrant so so what's the total now so um roughly $3 million oh my God yeah yep and the superintendent will be there at town meeting to make that presentation probably with some um comments from Joe Huggins as well floor and bleachers just floor floor and bleachers um it'll be I I'll double check on that but I believe it's for that the same project that we had before so good so um I I hear it but I think it needs more discussion I'm not comfortable just kind of almost doubling the budget right um it may require kind of rethinking getting the floor done and maybe not the bleachers or finding a different way to do it but just to kind of add to it and double it is not Yeah by that one I don't know Sharon did you have anything I know you talked directly to the school department about this did you have anything more to add on that regarding the Fieldhouse floor yeah I I asked them for some backup because I wasn't familiar with you know what what the decision was to go with the more expensive floor was and and why um and they had stated that they wanted to well sh we can barely hear you I don't know what's going on I don't think it's you but not really be a bad connection don't know if I can turn the volume I know she said that she'd ask for more background on it and why they want to go with the more expensive Flor can you hear me now yeah that's a little bit better yeah I have to put my face right up to my computer my computer's been having a lot of problems this year okay so essentially at April town meeting I believe it was we had asked for this debt authorization for 1.7 million to replace the existing FL and bleachers with the same material that they currently have um and then at that town meeting we were asking for the debt authorization because we were transferring some money from Parker root and bond Council had stated it won't qualify unless you have a debt authorization already um approved and so so that's why we had to do the debt authorization that evening we were told they were were looking at different options for the floor and that they may need to come back for um additional debt authorization if they chose a more expensive option the option they're looking to go with is a maple floor um and I'm not entirely clear why that's the best option I've got um some backup I'm going to close the file but I asked ask them for um some background and for somebody to present like what is the difference between the floors it's a dramatic difference in price you need to convince you know the select for bom town meeting why this is a better option um is there a longer life to the floor so those are the sorts of things I kind of prompted them for because 1.7 will replace the existing floor that they currently have with the bleachers um but they want to go with a higher quality floor for whatever reasons so I can't really speak to those reasons except they feel the maple floor is the I don't know if it's going to have a longer life um I'm not sure if it's going to yield less injuries those are the things that I think they're going to need to speak to when this is presented because I wasn't involved in those discussions yeah I think I'm not ready to support it yet I go ahead Chris I I love Dr michy everything he's done I've supported every single thing that he has brought forward Etc but I agree with Mark this is a I mean you just heard what I said on CPA and I'm going to be like oh yeah let's just spend three million on the floor it's just be like things right themselves so I I mean this is going to be an extremely tough sell um I can read to you what they sent me so far um just I I don't know that it provides the answers just to give you a little bit more background but I don't have I didn't feel like I came away with all the answers I would want but I can give you what they gave me I'm pulling it up right now C can they rebid it huh can they rebid it send it out again um I think it's just the difference of what they're what they think the best floor they could do the $1.7 million floor but there's still another option that they consider to be better so they have some estimates for a rubber inine replacement which is what they have a Luma Flex synthetic real wood composite material for a maple hardwood FL and it basically says the recommendation that they have is in reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of each it became apparent that the material of choice is maple Hardwood this is for several reasons it says one Maple hardwood has been used as a plain surface for many years and is the preferred material in the athletic world the second reason is maple hardwood provides a softer surface than a rubber material directly on the slat they also say that Maple hardwood is durable and stable um and then it says we are able to review another local flooring layout that utilized a rubber track track surrounding a CBO Center Court which the owner was very satisfied with so they were you know that they were basing on that and then they also put Maple hardwood Flur is more available than the lumaflex and more local contractors have experienced installing it so um and then the main disadvantage to the maple hardwood Flor is the cost however it's not expodentially more expensive than lumaflex I think what we have is a rubber I'm not entirely sure so I felt like this was going to be um a lot more money so I feel like that statement isn't necessarily true um and then we believe the benefit to cost ratio makes it the best option the rubber flooring that will replace the areas outside the comp competition Court will increase in thickness slightly currently there is a 3mm rubber surface the fling product that will be the basis of the design for the new floor has ranges from 4 mm to 8 mm in thickness so I would gather that's kind of um provide more safety but it's a lot more money so I get it thank you so I think we should take 10 and 14 as a block and then do 15 oh oh yeah good point yeah I if I could if I could Sharon so we have like what was mentioned during the financial Forum like 480 or something in that Burbank fund can we not just use that to make this sting less or we can't do that or what's the deal why do we even have all that money to begin with if we're not going to use it it can be used for um anything actually we could you know it has to I guess get a town meeting vat um to use it but I I don't think it won't take away all of the burn here but it it definitely could be utilized if that's what you so desire what your meeting desires to do yeah I I think Tom is going to have to do something spectacular because this isn't going to end up like killum with with zero discussion and just flying through it's facilities it's not Tom facil no I'm just but still like I hope he's speaking to it yeah he's speaking Yeah yeah obviously he's Advocate He's listed as the yeah yeah I know but because facilities that's make really making this recommendation as my point well I feel like the recommendation is is not facilities necessarily it's based on what they think the need is for the floors and the safety so it's definitely being driven by more than just facilities it's it's the pick that they think is the best option and that meeting might pick I I think it's a lot more expensive so we have we have an option that's in the price range that we've already authorized I think they want see if we want to go with the more high quality mle heart FL is what I gu yeah yeah they can't have to ask I get it right um so let's take 10 to four let's do block 10 to 14 and then if I could just end it on I have heard the stories of kids blowing their legs out over there so I understand that this is the original 1.7 1.3 or whatever definitely warranted cuz these kids are like L like it's a safety concern oh something has to be done Beyond this it's going to have to get explained you know in a way that you know I'm not going to be voting on it so someone's going to have to be clear and concise on on this big difference so but I can do 10 through 14 you said please unless Karen has something Karen anything to add no I am I'm concerned about asking to um almost double the price price of this project with with a new school on the horizon um so I just have reservations about this personally all right we're going to do 10 to 14 right now then separate um vote on 15 so we'll do 10 to 14 yep move to support articles 10 through 14 on the Tom La second any other discussion Chris if I could I I know I mentioned it last time how I thanked bill um Sullivan for the work that he did on this and I appreciate him compromising uh on the the leash law scenario um I think it's it's good to see people compromising on things uh and I'm very happy to see that he did it I'm like I told you I'm either all for or against something but I'm happy he did what he did so thanks thanks Karen and 10 and 14 in support or not not or no um yes Chris yes Melissa yes Mark yes Carlo yes 5 Z so let's do a motion we already talked about 15 let's do a motion on 15 or okay so how do we want to word this because I I'm I'm also in the camp of Karen is abstaining but I don't like abstaining from things I want to support it with an asterisk that I think it's you know I I don't it's very difficult in this one I I think we'll be allowed to ask questions and speak at at town meeting and make come voice is heard so I think you decide what you want to do but we did a motion on the other one that you didn't vote on as a motion to support the way it was and then the vote played out as it played out not yeah no all right yep uh so uh move to support article uh 15 on the town meeting La second any other discussion seeing or hearing none Karen on 15 the floor um yes Chris yes with an aster Melissa no Mark no and Carlo no all right um so now we're on to 16 Karen I know you're on Zoom or on the phone I'm just going to hand the gavel to mark because he's in the room to do the rest that'd be great thank you okay [Applause] all right mat okay yep so the the final two articles deal with MBTA communities um my understanding is cpdc is still you know discussing things um although they have at least given us indication that they wanted to see two articles um go to town meeting so we did draft two at least placeholder articles one for the business D which is article 16 one for the a80 which is article 17 the language in the Articles has been vetted by Andrew and by IA it will have to be probably expanded a little by motion which we're allowed to do after the fact um but we feel that this sort of covers us legally to get us to the next um phase and hopefully cpdc will make their decision and we can fi finalize the language for the town meeting warrant but um this language will suffice for the purposes of our meeting uh now until we have clearer langage from cpdc so if I could so d uh is representing kind of um the Main Street South Main and the property North Main yep that's the Y 16 and 17 focuses on uh smart smart growth that's that's correct okay any comments um just a couple comments is that one on the South Main Street um option that I know a lot of people discussed in the hearings and you know I've heard it throughout town is that you know we really want South Main Street to be developed with businesses and residential and all that and one thing that I learned from Andrew listening to some of the people that called in at the first meeting is that it's not a given that they have to build bu businesses there we're going to incentivize them to but that's not a given so that's one thing that I think that people need to understand um and also the other thing is is that when we started this one of the things that came out from cpdc is minimal compliance we wanted to you know letter of the law we're going to follow the state here and you know some people agree with it some people don't but I think that option article 17 which is the a80 concept is that correct y That's minimal paper compliance whatever you want to call it y so I will supp support article 17 and will not support article 16 Karen so I am um looking to support article 16 and I am not currently in support of Article 13 okay um and I think that they work together and need to be together and I not sure I understand separating them but I'm going to support both okay can I just sorry just more thing the other thing I I agree with you I actually don't love the idea of putting two options up to town meeting I think this going to turn into kind of a long will call it's a four-letter word yeah yeah I don't I don't love the idea of the two separate articles either so just my point of view yeah no I and and that's not what we had envisioned but that's sort of the direction we've gotten from cpdc so for now this is what we have and you know we'll finalize the land time so y so let's separate them let's take a vote on 16 then take a vote on 17 okay all right so um so why don't I'll make a motion to support point of point of information um point of information sorry to interrupt this is a mo a war these are two warrant articles brought by brought forward by an official committee um do we need to vote on these the charter says that these shall to there so this is not whether or not they're going to make the warrant right the the we're everything here is going to go on the warrant assuming we we close it as it is which I don't see any reason why we wouldn't what we've done separately here however is make um support votes on different articles so this would just be that the board is is voting support for it it's not related to putting it on or not putting it on the warrant did that clarify okay yeah I see I'm sorry I didn't have it in front of me and I see for town it's consistent with what we did for Town Force committee okay so why don't I just make a motion to um select board supports article 16 in the upcoming town warrant second second any discussion not appearing okay Karen I'm voting on article 16 the business D yes listen no I Mark yes all right and then I'll make a motion under article for article 17 the motion is for the select board to support article 17 on the town warrant second any discussion okay Karen how do you vote on article 17 which is the a80 no Melissa yes and Mark yes okay um now Carlo can't close the warrant no so and so Chris is Chris GNA participate I I don't believe Chris can close the warrant either because he was conflicted on one of the items so that's why we had to have Karen call in from Italy so we'll have three votes to cose the warrant so awesome okay so could I ask you Melissa to make a motion to close the the the warrant the 17 articles of the warrant for should make sure oh is there is there a motion hang on I've got a motion right here have a motion yeah I Y it was just do we have it yes well I can Pro yeah would be moved to close the subsequent town meeting warrant consisting of 17 articles by virtue of this nope it isor have it on paper if you needed to this one right there okay move to close the subsequent town meeting warrant consistent of 17 articles to take place on November 12th 2024 I will second that any discussion none appearing let's take a roll call vote Karen yes Melissa yes Mark yes okay so we successfully closed the warrant bring them bring them back okay come [Applause] back thank you right water right second yep uh we did y John Arena prct ONE cpdc does the matter which caused you members of the select board to recuse themselves similarly apply to all elected bodies on similar matters to be specific when this comes to town meeting floor to the elected members of town meeting consider this in the same light town meeting is exempt from conflicts of interest I don't want to dig into the details but some will ask you may want to have a prepared presentation thank you all right Mr chair yes uh it's almost it's almost 3:00 a.m. um I'm GNA drop off and um thank you Matt and um Caitlyn for setting those up and just to let you all know I have been able to hear Sharon clearly the whole time so I'm not sure what kind of technical difficulties there are but it doesn't it seems to be affecting the folks in the room more than the folks dialed it but thank you okay thanks Karen good night thank you very much good morning thanks Ken thanks okay all right we did CPA yeah we're all caught up so now we're going to go to discuss and vote second one meters and U the board received a few emails regarding why there was nothing in the packet um you know why are we putting this ahead of something which I stated earlier we're not yeah but this is meant to be a discussion um I talk with Town staff and we need to put a plan together and the reason I put this on the agenda a to move this forward and B to kind of discuss as a board what is the right thing um to do you know I don't like the word Lottery uh myself but um as you heard earlier if you if you forget there's a currently as we know of there's 150 more 154 second meters out there in reading so the way I've been thinking so I'll start the conversation is that those folks that made that investment that many years ago should receive a letter stating if they want to uh I guess call it reup uh because they they most likely are going to have to get reinspected uh the meter could be outdated it might not be so there'll be some expense and and then open it up to um a number of residents and that's the reason I put it on the agenda is kind of where do we want to land are we all comfortable with the lottery that word uh do we want open a townwide do we want want to open up to several hundred people and then uh Town staff will take the ball come back to us and then uh very shortly we will kind of vote I know it says discuss and vote but um you know Karen is not here and um but we've been talking about this for years this is nothing new um for you know Mark knows we've been talking about this for a while now um so that's why it's hot here so I I I'll start off the conversation with I think for year one um up to 300 is kind of where I'm landing and that includes whatever number of the 154 uh wants to partake um some of you might want to go higher go lower do a lottery but I I think we need to do something I mean and you know I am one of the fortunate ones that my water bill doesn't really vary much I don't know why with with three girls in the house or just two girls in the house I don't understand that and I also have a business on the first floor um what I heard tonight was not good at all and that's a separate issue um with rates but man I be the house would be for sale if I got those bills I'd be selling my house um so that's where I'm at so I'll start the conversation uh up to 300 first come first serve and uh I'll open it up Melissa um a couple things just because we had so many people that um came to public comment tonight and we've received so many emails I want to say that first off I fully support fixing the multi-unit um billing situation um and I've been pretty vocal about that um since the ti system went into place and we heard about that issue um we did have to wait for Sharon and the consultant to come back to us so it is on our next meeting we are not just pushing that off so I hope people know that um I also support Second water meters um I will full disclosure I have an irrigation system at my house but I don't know that the money makes sense for me to get a second water meter but just wanted to put that out there um but I think that fixing both of these issues is important and is makes it Equitable for everyone because just like the billing issue with the multi-unit housing and the residents ping the higher tear water rates people that use irrigation systems pools or anything that doesn't use the sewer are also paying for something they shouldn't be paying for so I think we need to fix both of these issues for everyone because I think then it makes the water rates Equitable for everyone um I'm okay with the pilot program if we want to go forward that way and see how that looks in a year um but I do think that we need to do something on both of these matters do you have a number um that would help I don't I mean I do think 300's a little low I'd probably go a little higher I I truly don't know how many people we're going to get to jump on this we we discussed what the costs were going to be and it's it's a thousands of dollars for someone to install this and to install it properly so I think people need to weigh that out so I I not afraid of saying a higher number because I don't think that we're going to have a mad rush of people that come to town hall and say I want a second water meter um because even the people that have Older second water meters may have to install some updates like the rain sensor and stuff like that to bring them up to a date so I there's going to be a cost that residents are going to have to incur to do that so all right anyone else thanks car so um I would advocate for a number like 200 but I think more importantly I think what the board should do here is instruct the town manager to other than the number which is going to be us to put together um a recommendation with a timeline when it's going to come back to us for how to do this and what they should do specifically for example many of the communities that offer second water meters also have tiered rates and what they do is they some of them at least this is Lexington in particular because I didn't grab all of them they take the highest tier and that's the rate that's assigned for the second meter the second the highest tier rate is what's used for the second beater I know that other communities do that or they use a 150% number in a couple of communities again I haven't done all the homework on it but we need to decide what the rate would be and it is very clear that many communities don't use the same they don't use it to what would be a lower on a t system yeah okay they take the highest rate I got you um second just in in in terms of discussions so in fact many of the communities around us do not have second meters um some do many do not I just went through MW to see what they had they have a list so Wu Winchester Wilmington Wakefield Lindfield and again this is their data on their on their website but some do some don't so obviously you know it's up to us in terms of how handle it I do remain very concerned that we we certainly don't want to um encourage High usage um of the communities around us many still have water restrictions in fact of the 23 communities that we use as our peers seven of them um have water restrictions there's a map on MW that shows who has water distri restrictions in the state um and it's quite a few I it could be pulled up I I sent it over to to U Caitlyn just just in case but I'm I'm very concerned in general about how that's done and there are many other communities that feel the same way about that that said I understand the desire I think having thank you if you can scroll down just a little bit to the map Caitlyn it's like maybe a just a screen y right there that's it so anything in color has restrictions they're all on NW though no no this is the state General the state in general okay yep so those aren't our peer communities though no I just so the peer communities seven of 23 have restrictions this is I wanted to see what it looks like this is I think is this the D site I forget what it is mass.gov mass.gov yeah okay so just in terms of kind of how it's done so so again you know we're going to make the decisions here um I believe that the compromise position is in fact to do some kind of a modest pilot I agree that the folks that already have meters should be given the option to to kind of Step Up um if they want to um and then I think the the reason one of the reasons to do the pilot is to kind of learn how to do this and to learn what it takes it will be a lot more work on the part of the town and town officials um and that's why I think they need to be the ones that kind of build the plan for how it's going to go they can look at other communities they can model it based on all those different things um let them start and I would start with a modest number modest in the scheme of things in terms of what's being discussed but I think 200 is is a is a reasonable starting point for that but letting giving Matt a date and saying hey we'd like you to come back on this and frankly on the other issue too with a plan yeah right how to do it yeah I think that's that's where it should lie and that's what I that's what I would suggest we we move forward tonight is to say Hey by date certain please come back with how you you would want to do this right I gotta no I I I talked about that as well so uh thank you Chris anything of course um I I've been advocating uh for this since day one um I know that we like to turn toss around the term of peer communities multiple times I know the other night which at the financial Forum we have 23 peer communities or whatever we have um uh that the list I think there has to get updated but um in any event in this scenario out of the MW communities not our Pure communities um it's like 23 have them and six don't have second water meters and there is zero outside restrictions on any one of the MW Community communities other than redit so we are conserving um with the you know a even kind of scenarios um that we have um the biggest question that uh so the biggest complaint that I've ever got by multiple people all the time even at school drop offs Etc is the trash scenario but like why is my trash getting picked up the biggest question I've always received is why don't we have second meters in ready like that's truly like you know there's not controversial stuff at at school pickup and drop offs but that's been the biggest thing that that I've seen is just why don't we have second meters and I understand that by doing this we are yes going to spread out the sewer across the other um households that don't have irrigation but like I've said since day one for the last 20 30 years however long it's been the irrigation customers have been subsidizing the non-irrigation customers in Reading Point Blank end of discussion because if a if the entire town of reading only used irrigation outside for 100 days the sewer bill on that would be next to zero I understand runoff and whatever negligible kind of stuff but the sewer charge on that should be zero because none of it went in there except all the irrigation people are making up the difference on that and it's been like that for 30 years so I understand that non- irrigation people uh you know the bill might go up a couple dollars obviously Matt's going to give us the number I asked him earlier how much an average bill would go up um hearing 1,400 like stuff like that is just nuts I understand that's a separate discussion uh completely because we do have to do something to somehow get these water rates to go down Beyond a year or two whenever it's gone the Buy in but like it it has been a long time coming for this actual inequity in Reading to be solved and I'm happy to be uh a part of it as I explained from the onset every single time I've discussed this I have AR I have irrigation meters at my house technically if you want to count my contractor cutting them and running off with my money Etc I don't have them sort of I'm going a quasi loop on there it doesn't matter I would not be getting the second meter to begin with anyway because it doesn't make Financial sense for me to dump like a grand or two into inspections getting a PL Etc doing all that it doesn't make it the difference when I scale it out based off my water bill and that's me and I care about money more than probably everyone in this room um so I will not be getting a second water meter but that's not my decision to make for everybody else they can make that decision if it's right for them and perhaps it will help with conservation as well because a lot of these systems that were put in like 20 30 years ago maybe they didn't have rain sensors back then for the irrigation systems um and they're going to have to put one in for this to happen I would just that's my caveat from that to just make sure when they do the inspections they have to have a rain sensor it's like 50 bucks it's wireless whatever but that might cut down on you're driving down the street it's pouring out you see people sprinklers on well under this scenario they're going to be uh saving some uh water on on that aspect if they get the second meter so uh long story short I I I feel uh Happy moving this forward I uh spoke with Paul and I believe he found out stonum has 780 800 people and they've had second water met since 2014 or whatever number he said so going off that number how I would feel to scale things back for reading because we can't just let uh the guard rails off on this I understand like 2,000 people tomorrow could show up at top home like we do have to put something on it uh so I agree with Paul's sentiment that we're kind of you know just finessing this or whatever but we do have to put a guardrail on this in the beginning I uh I would advocate for uh I think Melissa mentioned 500 I would be fine in the 500 range as well I don't think that's a significant um difference compared to like 10,000 residents or whatever we have here in Reading I mean that's 1% homes homes yes that's like 1% um right quick math has to be 1% I think but in any event um I think that yeah I think that uh you know we can just see how it is and feel it out we can have you know people can be put on notice that we're going to do this it's first come for serve um you have to rain sensor um inspections have to be done there's the backflow preventor whatever I think Chris had mentioned last time um so there's a lot of guard rails that Matt and Chris and uh the town can refine but the the sentiment in this is the paying for something that you did not not actually ever use uh ends with me tonight when I vote on this so that's how I feel yeah I think uh you know I think Town yes I I agree with Mark Town staff has to come up with the plan uh let's call it but I think they're going to want some direction and that's why I want to have this discussion tonight on the number uh I I I am not comfortable with open-ended right now uh just everybody that applies gets it uh that may be the case down the road um I Heard two 500s a 300 and a 200 that's what I heard good yeah right I can pick you the 300 um I look better so um we could compromise it four if you guys want to you guys going to go on three I I I know I'm not I'm not going to squabble over 100 but you know whole homes obviously there a h there not condos there's not you know probably the the the a lot of town homes that are out there and multifamilies that don't have a lot of grass but anyway um I think to staff would want some kind of number so so I added up 552 and three is 15 divided by four is you know three and some change so I I I'd go down to 400 if we were okay with that I think you know I don't want to say 379 or some awkward number right [Music] right I think your number is way too low because we have 154 if we if we have possible if we have that if we have that possible I I I I I I do with that so those folks are quote unquote easier they're going to need inspections and maybe upgrades everybody else is from scratch yes which means all the regulations being written figuring out how to do it assessing how long it takes to do it figureing out what the right fees should be right um and very importantly deciding what is the water rate to use correct so you know just to give you a specific example Lexington is they're tier one to tier three so tier let's say you're tier one for your usage um outside of irrigation yeah you pay 2x for your irrigation 2x 2x it's from 47 oh just under doubl 475 to 940 okay for anything that goes through the irrigation and and with that there's nothing on why is there rate so low that that was my question my question was how isal and I went back and forth in this a little bit so remember and we should take the stuff that was presented a couple of years ago before that it isn't what we're doing wrong it's the buying I know I know I know and the debt that we pay and they're largely interest free loans it's not interest that's killing us it's the amount we paid to get into the I know I know until it's gone but my understanding is that we're we've almost paid that off it's like two years we're getting close two years to some of it that the consultant presented not not all of it not all of it right he had it he had it in there but yes it's never for everything going in One Direction but is it never not even close to going to half of what we have yeah that's that's that's amazing that's incredible can we get their water how do we pipe their water up here they tried to do it through wuber and I agree and that's what I think the vote should be on with the five of us y right what tier um how do we how the heck do we get our rates lower if possible um yeah look we all want lower rates that's not yeah yeah right we all do right but I mean and how to get there would be lovely but at least for a few years we got to deal with the the capital cost the capital and debt cost that's still there when that comes off it better be a CH substantial change it better be hopefully great you think but the consultant always had the numbers going up so that's where I'm confused yeah I I don't know if he had it yeah I hope coming out he's coming in on October 8th yeah next meeting so I'm sure it should be yeah y should ask we can ask him so I never thought of Mark's scenario I I as I sit here and just think of it on first blush I would say absolutely not why would we increase the water rate for trying to fix water not going into the sewer doesn't make sense to me I'd have to see more numbers on how this would look but on first blusher would be I would say absolutely not what I we're just we're just trying putting a Band-Aid on something to put it on to something else don't forget it's not a huge spread I understand I just have to I would just have to we're not voting on that aspect now but I would have to see the spread uh to see what it what it kind of makes sense and we can base it off other people's water bills Etc and see what's fair but as I think of it it doesn't sound fair to me but yeah I might wrong that's something we're going to have in front of us and get presented and then you know but we we just we got to move this forward it's been years um you know since I've been on um probably you know before that but uh as of late with everything going up in One Direction we you know the flooring is an option not because of a cost per se which I thought was would be crazy at least it was a different U flooring style so it's hard to pick the number it really is and what and and it is if we do whatever number it is and only half apply do we allow that that that gap for the following year as an automatic you know I I I don't think you'll need to but I don't know you just have to base this off I know it was 30 years ago but if only 154 people got it while they could back then you scale it out double at 300 like I don't think we're going to hit a 500 number I'm okay with doing 400 for now we need a guard rail I understand stand but um I would just leave it open until get otherwise open open-ended no to the open to that number right number and then we come back and talk more about it yeah and it could take three years to get to that number it could but I think nobody can figure that out until the town comes back and says here's what you're going to have to do here's how much we're going to charge here's how much labor it's going to take take on our side which would support how much we're going to charge and all those pieces come together so that whoever goes through and says okay here's my decision here's how much impact I think it is on my water here's how much it's going to cost me to install it do I do it or not no no right right right right right some people it's going to be like an automatic decision obviously right and I know we get fees from the permits the inspections so there you know there is going to be a net positive in this for us to I know it's not a massive money-making win but like we are getting something so Town staff is going to put the effort in and we're going to get it as well as local plumbers or something else they're gonna I know we're not kickstarting the economy over here but we're at least doing something in the trade realm that's helping people you know it it there's a want to say something right now I'm not all right I don't know what I I I think I think I'm glad we had this discussion I'm glad everyone spoke tonight and um we're going to work on this with the town staff we're not going to let this just float in the atmosphere and I think we we heard we only just s a number right now right we are heard from the four of us and uh you know it'd be good to have the the you know our fifth members input on this obviously so I think that we should set a number right now so they have the direction well I I'm I'm GNA agree with Mark on this one that I don't think we we do right now I think we've got a sense of what we have and we we and and if it if it ends up being 400 or 500 that's the number I I I think 200's way too low that's just my opinion but again I you know I don't think that makes a difference to what Matt it's definitely you're not going to open like you said you're not taking the guard rails off you're not going to just say it's it's allowed for everybody so it'll be some pilot program yes say 500 or less not a lottery yeah 500 or less right yeah it should probably be enough to go on to get I think that's that that seems to be the consensus of what you're um I think without a a vote per se it just seems as if we are kicking this one also down the road again is my take on it I mean we could simply just uh vote to direct to direct vote to yes vote to uh allows a second water meter pilot program um by uh in in direct Matt corelis in town staff to explore the options regarding the pros and cons and come up with a plan capped at 500 users or sorry 400 users some mov can it's just adding a date to the back of it by so you don't think you can do it in two weeks I don't know October I think in October 1994 or something they when they put the moratory on it so um you know we could longer than two weeks um probably at least a month to because I'll want to meet with staff meet with the consultant try to put something together look what other towns are doing that works and then have something we meeting on the 29th the 29th is's that a month yeah so back on the 29th I think I think right after town meeting starts you're going to be crazy busy working on town meeting stuff now yeah but you know whatever is 29th of um of October so right before time you're good with the date that's that's more important than what I think yeah well I mean we'll we'll do I'll talk to Chris we'll do the best we can but I I think we can get something together at least by that and I know that I mean this has more impact I guess people will start watering in the spring or whatnot but we'll try to we want to have something in place for that you know for when they that would be nice for the spring season you yeah can I suggest that you you know what that there is an agenda item for our next meeting maybe to be thinking about that as well as you're doing the planning you've got the consultant already in you're talking to Chris yeah oh yeah we have that would be a good thing to to also consider even though to talk for sure next agenda yeah okay so Mark so moved me I did he I amended all right second so it's it's up 400 yeah directing Town staff to come back to our meeting on October the 29th yes okay recommendations yes okay so so so you moved did you second it no we didn't do a second second any discussion see none all those in favor 4 Z thank you all right minutes three sets of minutes I think I counted about two yeah that could be long I think there's two two long ones yeah one set was pretty long sorry that's okay did anyone send anything to Caitlyn in in advance I did not receive any edits okay I was fine with everything I read through it I'm I'm fine with it I got through it once and I was fine with yep I'm good you kidding me wow oh my gosh yeah this is a hold on record this date call karon back no no exactly call her 322 wow are we going to do this for real all right let's do it quick move to approve the mean of minutes from July 16th 2024 and August 20th 2024 as presented second any discussion see none all those in favor it's a record in my my tenure that's a record wow I'm impressed impressed all right so I think we're on to Future agendas and um I I already set some things in place um I I I I can't I'm not going to say that I don't anticipate this changing much um so if anyone wants to look Mark I'm not ignoring your request of uh did they put it his yeah um I put it on the 29th future of the pleasantry Center so you made that request I'm not I'm not ignoring it I just don't think we're ready I don't think we're ready then yet it's my opinion because we're a yet um I come when we get a site so that's just the the odds of it being a different location are exceptionally high and if things are going to move forward to an April time frame and if this board decides you want a committee to explore it we want to give them time to explore it I don't know if we need a committee but again that's another discussion um yeah so I think it's it's good to have it on yeah I um if if the if you would allow I would be willing to try to draft an idea to share with the board at that meeting yeah sure that's F yeah that's fine it's going to be an agenda item yeah okay I I I that sounds great and and then it maybe that we want to at the no the next meeting is until November 19th yeah okay yeah I yeah I I committee I don't know I guess we'll just see what you I'm happy to have that discussion yeah just to think about it yeah that's fine so I I um so we get the e8th we get the 29th uh a little bit going on so correct me if I'm wrong Matt so we're doing um what we've done in the past but we just haven't had a preview uh on the 29th for tax classification so Victor is going to come on the 29th and um we're GNA hear it out his presentation and then we're going to vote which we normally do anyway usually we have Victor's kind of I don't want to put words in Victor's mouth but he we didn't do one over the summer or whatever we do one uh for a number of reasons and he's only that was a preview um four of us have seen this uh several times Melissa this would be her first go at it so she's happy to she happy she is uh more than welcome to meet with Victor to get an understanding but you know for me um because of timing and everything else I I that that's how we're doing it we're plan to do it I should say can I sure so um we we've been working pretty hard to try to when we don't have a time sensitive item to try to allow two meetings to have discussions and I think from our policies again when things aren't time sensitive we have full planning and and we're not against the wall I would like to see us keep that I think it's a good practice to have this is one where I don't think we're against the wall right now um I think I think we are well I mean I know he's not available on the eth because I I Sharon and I both checked with him so he couldn't come to the eth anyway um the 20 that's right around the time that we do the the tax classification he also has State guidelines and he was working with three other Town two other towns because we share him so his time is valuable so he offered you know to meet with it not just not just Melissa but any anybody individually to spend time during the day to talk about the the classification um but he's not available on the 8th we had a bit scheduled for the 29th and November's getting a little late in the game especially with no meeting scheduled because of town meeting so I I I know this year the schedule got a little pushed um and I and I sent an email he feels it would be even more confusing to people to present you know old numbers and then two weeks later present the the real numbers the new numbers for this year that's his opinion on that so that's what we're working with so couple thoughts one is that we we've been able to successfully do this for as long as we've been working with Victor yeah so I don't see why things have changed truthfully other than I understand his schedule is busier right um my biggest concern truthfully is if we were to entertain this I think that he needs to publish stuff it needs to go out as either an early agenda to the to to the public or in some way letting people see it because doing it all in one doesn't allow people to really comment sure it just kind of as soon as it's ready as soon as he says it's ready he puts the state State MERS the senior circuit breaker he's still working on that but as soon as it's ready we can put it out there that's no that's not a problem I I'd even like to suggest that um at least two weeks in advance okay that I think and I think that will that should be fine in advance of the 29th meeting okay and maybe allow Mr chair think about there's a if people want to have a comment what mechanism do you want to use so they can certainly email the board just how to do it I I I just we're trying to I I think I I hear what you're saying but I think when when when I meet with Matt and Jane to get ready for the eth if if I see any deviant from what is going to happen on the 29th and the weeks leading up to it per Victor's schedule I I I I think we can address it again at our next meeting on the 8th and then and and see where we are I I don't want to jump ahead too much I know it's uh September you know the end of September but um I know what you're saying but but I I think if this was a whole new board I I'd have a totally different attitude or if I was the only senior person or you were the only senior person but it's not and I know we have new residents in town and this and that but I this is pretty to me straightforward uh this this topic um you know I've spoken on this topic for 15 years plus um so I it takes a lot for for to you know change my mind but um that's you know I don't want to discuss things so yeah let let's stick for the 29th and for some crazy reason Victor just can't get things out um in mid October it's not like we can't have a meeting during town meeting for one agenda item I don't want to do that but it's not like we can't we've done it before we've met before to during half an hour early we've done it yeah so we've done it so uh that's always on the table you know we for because of our schedule we have one meeting in November and you know a few meetings in December um so and and then it's the holidays so that's where it stands right now so does anyone have any other future topics that aren't aren't on here Lista um not really future topics but to what Mark said I just I agree and I disagree with him and I just kind of wanted to mention it is that I do think our packet needs to be way more detailed I would like to see more information on the packet for residents to see I think it's important that they know what's going to happen in our meetings and when it comes to this tax classification I love the idea of getting it out to Residents earlier rather than later so then they can give us the feedback whether it's email conversations phone calls whatever that may be so I would like to see our packets more informative for our residents with that being said I like the idea of discussing and voting in one meeting I think it's more efficient I think we can get thing more things done that's how the school committee Works work really well at it actually they don't they work on two meetings is it just as a standard policy is two standard policy is first reading and second reading I will double check that but I don't think so I think they discuss and vote and I just think that if we can get information to the residents they can give us feedback discussing and voting on in one night is a way better approach I just feel like we just keep kicking things down the road constantly we're constantly like next meeting next meeting next meeting just my opinion yeah that's that's yeah I get it you have a comment I do I I think we just doing future agendas by the way now sorry sorry when future agenda oh sorry second water meters you got to put it on the 29th yeah okay sorry my I think at off CU there September 24th at 9:32 p.m. is the date that I disagree with you on this we we we have to have two meetings on the tax classification we just have to I I I it's okay it's not two meetings it's a presentation and then we I understand Victor questions then we have a a vote on the next meeting we're not g to see the presentation again I I think that that's one of two meetings the entire year that people weigh in on and I think that we have we we shouldn't do it all in the same meeting so if Victor has to give us a a 30 minute Zoom somewhere between the 29th and 8th it is what it is but we have to do something or if we vote on town meeting date or whatever 30 minute thing there it is what it is but we can't just have a hearing and then vote at the same one like that I I just not on something like this we all know what's happening we all know what's coming there's going to be 25ish emails people Etc it has to happen it's a public hearing yeah no I I mean in advance then as well we got to have something happen okay like I said it could be a 30 minute Zoom with with Victor in advance that we just hash out the questions then we have the information like Melissa had mentioned for that meeting in the packet Etc as we have it then uh uh you know it's a you're talking about a meeting before the 29th yeah that's what you're talking about right yes okay I got you just a simple Victor is animated he does what he does it's he's quick and efficient uh 30 minutes we ask a couple questions whatever and we move on what do people feel about that Mark I think it works I think that the main goal is to let people see and weigh in okay and you know are the other possibility so the 29th has other things on the agenda right yeah of course I'm just saying this just has to be a zoom meeting 30 minutes whenever we can do it nice draw poll with whatever dates that Victor has and just you know well let's let's let Matt reach out to Victor and um tomorrow and and see what's going on and listen I'm I'm I I think most of us are pretty settled in now with the fall other than Sports and and family stuff so uh we can always add meetings you know the more the merrier right no I I appreciate you explaining and Matt as well explaining the scenario how this transpired so for me that does make sense the the way that this it's not just we decided all of a sudden to just stop doing this I understand the the Bas and foundation on this so I agree with that but just I'm not trying to circumvent anything I think that this meeting is the same every year just different numbers yeah that's all it is it's nothing new that's where I'm coming from it's nothing new it's the same presentation you know Victor does the the commercial the residential the average home value I can do it myself and and and then we he has the rates and the implications of the rates and the scene you took so anyway with with we're deliberating too much so let's let's let's reach out to Victor uh I I am open to uh adding another quick meeting to to give the residents a preview and then the 29th is the 29th uh because I I really don't want to kick this to November uh I'd rather have it before so any other future agenda items I I'd like to get an update Matt maybe not agenda item just like what what did we ever do an environmental on station one wasn't that supposed to be done like over a year ago station wanted rmld yeah um thought we had some environmental work done there um thought we did lower one yeah that's what I thought I'm not sure what the I'll have to double check with RL I'm not sure what the results that was over a year ago that something supposed Jee was still here okay we were supposed to get at least a level one okay we did I I don't remember the results check the building just sits there just an update please on that y um and I would I would instruct the Tom meski or the facilities whoever is like sharing the pencil see what maybe we do half a floor yeah man which I would not be in support of doing half a floor just an idea yeah all right I think we have an executive session I don't know if I is uh oh yeah I need a motion hold on what time is the executive session 10 10 see if she's 10 of six yeah I know I keep I keep on looking at trying to fix it back to the future Mark it's right twice a day yeah um all right how about those Red Soxs huh I'm G make it just FYI you got a motion to move us to exact session I have't but I cheing yeah I was checking with E I mean she's she was going to be on a few minutes early I just texted her my goal is to be dumbb te not get lucky we could probably have a discussion till she gets on about executive session no yes we can just take a 5 minute recess and then get and then move regardless well I think we're moved anyway you go to Executive session right yeah we don't need everything for that you could go as long as you include her in the motion yeah let's do that is it just IA or anyone else it was well Council know I had him listed I'm not sure if he was coming or not but um not I mean he had a l tonight so I don't we start working on minutes we start working on approving executive session minutes yes we could okay all right folks thanks for coming U take a motion yeah move to enter into executive session under purpose three for the purpose of discussing strategy with respect to potential litigation pertaining to unpaid police detail invoices and involving b& services and Halen development and strategy with respect to the town of reading versus Deli Construction Inc and the town of reading brsh Champlain Excavating Inc because the chair finds that an open session may have a detrimental effect on the board's litigating position of the board and to invite into the executive session Town Council Lia freed Town manager M cornelis and executive assistant Kate and Noella Chief Clark and not to return to open session second any discussion see none all those in favor call V yes yes on the record on the record the teacher has become the students become the teacher hand up very good Chris very good you get a gold star on your forehead Chris yes Melissa yes Mark yes Carlo yes now