Noting the hour, I'm calling the actton select board meeting to order. And first up is resident concerns. Uh yes, Tara from Massav here. I um have a question and then a comment and I'm concerned about the uh ICE
presence in Actton and I have a statement that reportedly is from um police chief Kogan and in it it says Actton police have a duty to respond when other law enforcement agencies request our assistance. And I want to
ask the board, where in our charter or our bylaws or your direction as elected officials have you directed the police to respond when other law enforcement agencies request our assistance? I don't need the answer now, but I'd like to
understand that because the Brooklyn Police Chief signed an agreement with um the sheriff's association, which has contracts with ICE like bounty hunters. uh they get money uh by person to uh incarcerate people and transport them.
And so Brookline was one of many uh police uh chiefs that signed an agreement to respond to assist other agencies. He since resigned uh when uh the citizens uh understood that he had signed this without permission of the
select board uh to um direct the police to do that responding. Um so I think we need to look into that because it's my understanding that the uh policees the actton public safety officers
responsibility is so the law first to the constitution first not in aiding other agencies. And so protecting our residents from uh unlawful abduction is I believe their duty first
before assisting other law uh law enforcement agencies. So I urge you when um because I've heard that at least one of you guys have said there's nothing we can do. Well, I believe there's a lot you can do. I provided a bunch of references to legal opinions um and
recommendations and I hope you look into them. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other residents concerns? Oh, uh, online caller. Hi, Nijan Da Cliff Drive. Um, I'm
calling about the article seven that we finally voted to authorize $150,000 uh for that. Uh, I mean it's my opinion. Nan, um, if you could back up, you you kind of cut out, so we didn't hear the first thing you said. Oh, okay. So, uh,
article 7, which was, you know, the the the override got defeated and then we passed $150,000, uh, to restudy the thing. And I did mention at at the meeting itself like I I did not want the $150,000 because I think you and the U finance
committee are so close. I think you are on balance on the right side here because I don't know what the consultant is going to do because you can't come up with a with a building that is much smaller. It'll be meaningless. It'll be ridiculously small. And so uh you know but but even that it's
almost like that's not even the main thing. The main reason it's going to lose again if you bring it forward is because of the school committee overrides that are school overrides that are coming up in in about two years and uh after one that happened last year. I
think the focus really if you want the DPW building to pass to push back on the schools to make sure that the their expenses are tailored in such a way that and there are whatever budget cuts or whatever that the citizen cannot have uh
an override in two years going forward. I mean just a family member when I mentioned about this thing and I said oh there's a override coming up uh in for the schools in two years and she goes oh forget it. I mean, it's just like it's it's just I don't think people want to hear that. So, if you want your DPW
building to go through in a meaningful way, you know, about the same size as what you already have right now, uh I think it's almost like you got to put that aside for now. Have the school comm school committee make sure that their budgets can get pushed back so there's no override for a few more years and
then you I feel confident that the citizens will vote for this DPW building. I think the combination of last year, the coming school overrides, and this DPW building uh is is is is a failure destined to happen. So before you spend $150,000, I think it's imperative that
the schools uh do their part first. Thank you. Thank you. Any other residents concerns? No one online. Madam Chair, there are 10 people online. No one with their hands
raised. And I don't have a a lot. I just wanted to mention the um forum, the community forum that's taking place in this room on May 21st. Uh there's a great panel. They'll be talking about
um immigration, immigration policy, and you know, uh Chief Kogan will also be here answering questions. So that might be um a good time to get some answers. Um I also wanted to say how how I thought town meeting
was uh more or less successful. It was a long two nights, but um it's unfortunate that the DPW and the um the town HVAC items didn't pass. Um but I feel like it was pretty successful and fairly
tame. Tom, do you have any? Uh, yes. Thank you. Um, I I just wanted to speaking of town meeting, uh, it was uh, it wasn't as well attended as last town meeting. Um, and I think that's
something that we can continue to look at, but I do want to just recognize the work of the town staff that um, put the whole thing together. It's it's a fullervice uh production that has to go has to happen that day. It's like a live TV show and all the staff that you need
for that except there's hundreds of people that are in the studio audience. And so it was a lot of work and and and I appreciate the moderator and her approach to running the meeting and I thought it went really well. But I want to recognize the IT staff, the facility staff, the management staff, Tom, and
everyone else that worked really hard. We we also rolled out new clickers which I think the learning curve is always there's always a little bit of learning curve with a new device but I think people got it pretty quickly and uh we got those about 4 days before town meeting. So uh we also learned about
them really quickly and I thought I thought they did a great job. So just wanted to mention that. Um, switching gears to tomorrow. Um, we published a notice over the weekend that there'll be some sub substantial road work, I guess I could say continue to be substantial
road work in Kelly's Corner, Community Lane, which is uh now formally or officially called Carol Spinny Way, although the street signs are still community lane. So, the street that connects uh Main Street to Massav, there's going to be major reconstruction
of that road over the next two weeks. And so we initially said that the road will be closed all week. Uh it looks like they're going to be trying to keep one lane open for most of the day, but it's better off to people plan on it being closed. Uh but the businesses will be open. We're working with them.
Patricia Costa, our new economic development director, is working with Kristen Gishard, our planning director, to make sure that each business knows what's happening and how they'll be impacted so that they can tell their customers and navigate it. And um it's going to look really good when it's all completed. So, thank you all for your
patience. Thank you, Melissa. Thank you. I just have a couple of announcements. Um, the water resources advisory committee is going to be
presenting a public workshop on storm water management and funding that storm water management. Um they're going to be doing a preview tomorrow at the finance committee meeting which starts at 7:30 I believe
right here in this room. A public workshop will be held on Thursday, May 29th. Also in this room and I believe that's at 7:00. You can find out by checking out the town website or the most recent municipal monthly. There are
a couple of events upcoming at the DPW site at 14 Forest Road. This Saturday, May 17th, from 10 to 1, is the monthly polystyrene recycling day. And then on Saturday, June 21st, the hazardous waste day. And again, this is the only
hazardous waste day that will be happening this year. Um, I also would like to share an update on some guidelines that municipal staff have received um on how to respond if approached by immigration and customs
enforcement agents. Um, so this is, you know, legal uh requirements for them that have been vetted by town council. So, ICE agents may enter public areas of municipal facilities without restriction, but they do not have access
to non-public or staff only areas unless there is a judicial warrant signed by a judge. Um, they are not to disclose any personal information or records of community members, again, without a valid judicial warrant. If they are
presented with a warrant, um then they will uh contact the department head or um counsel. Um and they do this all the time, maintaining professionalism and composure. Um they're not obligated to
answer any questions by federal agents without having legal counsel present. and they are expected to um document and report the incident and they um will be receiving training um relative to to
this. So, I just wanted to make sure that the public is aware that the town is committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment for all community members and that they will be adhering to these protocols um to uphold
community values while also complying with legal obligations. Thank you. Any other member minutes? No. Any Jim Um just my heart's really full with all the ice activity. It
it's it just really uh is causing a big rearrangement in my brain that we have, you know, looking at reading the news and looking at court cases. uh we have um agents of the federal government who
are doing things that um courts are often finding after the fact to be illegal. Um and clearly, you know, this was it was very easy to get a
really big turnout. It was uh wonderful to read about and see the pictures um for a rally right in front of town hall to say, you know, we're going to keep Actton families safe. Um but um I'm still wrapping my head
around the notion that we have um we have people who are, you know, dressed in the normal uniforms of respect um who might be doing illegal things. Um, and it does not surprise me
at all that the community is, you know, also vibrating about this. Um, I saw, you know, many different, some reliable, some unreliable reports of ongoing ICE activity today. Um, and I I don't doubt
that each of those had a, you know, a fair number of of residents show up to express their concern, to document what's happening. Um and um so we're entering uncertain times.
Um and I don't understand yet what the right role of the select board is in this. So I look forward to a future agenda item where we can uh sort that through maybe with some uh guidance from town council and questions from the
board. Um so I'm just that's that's where I'm at. Thank you. So, moving on to our um public hearings. We had one scheduled for 7:10 which um this applicant has requested to
schedule to June 12th, 2025 at 7:10 p.m. Oh, we need to open the hearing and only continue with no deliberation. So, should we open a hearing? The hearing? Do we need to open the hearing? Yeah, you would have to read the notice and
then one of us would have to move to continue. The act and select board will hold a public hearing on May 12th, 2025 at 7:10 p.m. in the Francis Faulner hearing room, 205 at the town hall, 472 Main Street, Actton, and virtually at
acttonmass.gov/meing GV/meing SLSB on the application of sub suburban glass and mirror for a site plan special permit number 3192025-493 under zoning bylaw section
10.4 at 60 Powder Mill Road. The proposed project consists of redesigning and expanding the existing parking lot. Application materials and how to participate remotely are available online and at Actton Town Hall.
Yeah. David. Uh yeah. I move to continue this uh public hearing uh to uh June 16th, 2025 at 7:10 p.m. in this room. Is it June 16th or 12th? It says I have on this notice the 12th that I read. I
don't know if it so is it could could Lisa comment whether 16th is Monday. It's the 16th. Okay. Sorry. My motion. Oh, 16th is a Monday. Thanks, Michaela. It takes a village. Second.
All in favor? I I Yes. So, moving on to our second um public hearing. Um, under Mass General Law Chapter 40, Mass General Law 140,
Chapter 40, uh, section 22, the Actton Select Board will hold a public hearing on May 12th, 2025 at 7:15 p.m. in the Francis Faulner Hearing Room, 204 Actton Town Hall, 472 Main Street, and by video
conference and call in for a delivery license for a news transportation operating out of 120 Parker Street, Unit 14, Actton. From a computer, please click on the link to join the public meeting. www.acttonmass.gov/meb
GV/meing SLSB or from a telephone dial 6468769923 and enter webinar ID 503918785. Telephone users may dial star9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the raised hand feature to request
to speak. is our um requesty Anus transportation here. Are you if you would like to um come to the microphone, you could either stand or be seated and
just tell us a little bit about your um business. Yeah, I like to open the small business delivery service transportation. people bring it to the food shopping doctors if I move to the home bring back that's
what a small business start to open it well that's great thank you any other members have questions Jim um will you also be um serving as a a lift or an Uber driver no not Uber
driver not Uber driver just me myself and a small one at the beginning and then later it's getting bigger then put the CLC what they call and just the beginning right now a small one. Great.
Thank you. No more questions from any other questions. There's definitely a need. Sure. Oh, I move to approve the um livery service license for Anus Transportation
120 Parker Street, unit 14. Second. All in favor? I I Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Any
knows that was unanimous. Yeah. So, now we're going to take things a little out of order. We are now you can see we're having a uh our planning board has joined us and we'll have a joint meeting um uh to approve the housing production
plan. Is the um planning board chair going to call their meeting to order? Yep. Good evening. Yes, I'd like to call the planning board meeting to order. Uh 7:22 May 12th, 2025.
Thank you. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Forgot about roll call. Um, James, would you get us started with that, please? Thank you. Yep. Okay. So, I can see a few people and if there's somebody I'm missing
that's off screen, I'll Yep, I can help you with that. She's helped me out a little bit, but uh just to call the role. Patricia present. John, I'm here. Is somebody to your left? So, to my left, I got three three more folks.
We got Michaela, Sam, and Ron. Okay, Michaela present. Sam, I don't know if he said present, but Ron present. Okay, great. Thanks, James.
Thank you very much. Sorry about that. Thank you. And thank you, Kristen. Um, hi. Good evening, select board and planning board members. Um, tonight I'm excited to be here to help present the
final draft housing production plan for Actton. Um, which will help guide Actton's housing goals for the next 5 years. Um, it's an exciting thing, I think, to think about the last plan. Um, because Actton just recently surpassed one of its housing production goals of
meeting the subsidized housing inventory. Um, but that's not the only goal and there's there are other goals and desires and needs of the community. Um so tonight we're looking for the planning board and select board to um discuss hear a presentation um from our consultant team um and also take a look
at the comments public comments that have been reviewed um or that have been received over the last two weeks during the public comment period and then consider um adopting the plan tonight for submission to the executive office of housing and livable communities. Um
over the last few years, Actton has had robust conversations about its housing needs and desires. Um and this past year, Actton really focused in on two housing initiatives, the housing production plan, which is in front of you tonight, and Habitat for all, which
resulted in the open space development and inclusionary zoning adoption at the last town meeting just last week. Um, and we're fortunate to have worked with JM Goldson, um, who helped us through both of those public planning initiatives. Um, they're joining us virtually here tonight. Um, we have Jen
Goldson, um, the owner of JM Goldson, and Noah Harper, who helped us with both initiatives, but they're going to walk us through, um, a presentation on the final plan and help to answer any questions that you might have. So, thank you. Thank you. Welcome.
Thank you so much. We're very happy to be here. Um, Noah has a presentation we've prepared. Is he able to share his screen? Perfect. All right. Great. Well, we're very happy to be here. Um, uh, just let
me know if the audio is coming through. If if you folks can't hear me, uh, or see our presentation, let me know. Sounds great. We Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. I'm Jen Goldson, founder and managing director of JM Goldson. It's a planning firm I established in
Boston 19 years ago this summer. And uh and Noah Harper is one of our is one of our community planners and his specialty is housing and equity. Uh Noah's worked really closely with um Kristen and her and her staff to prepare the plan. Uh
and um we also worked very closely with the regional housing services office. they prepared the housing needs assessment as well as um other pieces of the plan and we all worked you know very collaboratively along with the oversight committee. So we're really happy to be
here and we'll try to make this brief so that you can get into any comments that you questions that you have and other comments. All right. Uh next slide. So I will talk um hopefully if this if this advances go ahead no you
can advance that. Yep. Perfect. I will just talk a little bit about the work that we did uh and the engagement that we ran through. Next slide. And then Noah's going to take it over. So what is a housing production plan? So you've done several of these. In fact, we helped you with uh with the
last one and um can't remember maybe the one before that, but but uh but it looks at your housing needs. It looks at how actton fits into the regional housing needs and it also looks at development straight uh constraints things like zoning barriers, environmental
constraints, uh historic preservation um as well as as other constraints and like like uh in infrastructure for example. And then it looks at local capacity. What boards and commissions and and capacity do you have to to basically
implement this plan? Uh and then and then the main thing that we'll focus on tonight is the goals and strategies. That's really the policy piece. And if you go to the next slide, um what we wanted to just review first was the former housing production plan goals. So we listed them here. There were six
goals. And you'll see that we really did tweak them based on the based on the public comment and based on the work that you've been doing. You've been doing a lot over the past five or so years since you first created this former housing production plan. Next slide.
Um the former HPPP strategies, we have these categorized into what you've completed, what you're and what we are in progress on essentially. And uh and so the completed strategies are conducting a study to establish uh and fund the down payment program and uh
studying and passing new zoning to allow compact housing near the computer rail station in South Actton and passing a bylaw to limit fossil fuel infrastructure. So these were things that had come out of the prior housing production plan that you did complete. So really job well done. Uh sometimes we
do these presentations and the the community hasn't been able to complete for various reasons. Um not not usually for lack of trying. So that's something to be proud of. And then you have several strategies that are in in progress right now. um uh reszoning uh
vacant and underutilized areas, maintaining housing choice community status, and uh and reviewing and enhancing affordable housing overlay districts. Next slide. And then just more ongoing things that
you've been you've been working on. Uh expanding ACC's capital improvement program for seniors and disability access home modifications, revisiting um mixed use for Kelly's Corner and Great Road to allow infill development and as
well as redevelopment. And then by annually access the assess the accessible housing needs with local organizations. So, a lot a lot to be proud of, a lot of momentum. And uh let's go to the next slide. So, I'm going to hand this off to
Noah Harper, who will just go over you did lots of community engagement for this. You had several forums and focus groups. So, I'll let him go over those results and then uh and then um and then he'll go over what's in the in the the updated plan. Thank you. Thank you, Jen.
Yeah, I will just uh briefly touch on uh and I spoke to you guys I believe back in February or or maybe it was early March and gave a little update. So some of this is is is old information, but just to review the community engagement we worked on with this HPP update. Three community forums um since we last spoke,
we did a third in person over at the library. Uh had had some folks come in and learn a little bit more and provide input on those draft goals and strategies which were really helpful. And then of course in the last two weeks we also released the draft plan for public comment and and received a
handful of uh of comments on saying things like supporting for mixed use zoning down in in South Aton or interest in expanding municipal wastewater capacity. It's really been trying to take what we're hearing from folks and helping that to mold the goals and strategies that are coming from your
your last housing production plan. We heard things like, yeah, support for expanding municipal sewer uh annual municipal intermunicipal meetings uh to implement the plan. We want it to be something that doesn't just sit on the shelf after we put all this hard work
into it, but something that is is implemented that uh is is helping to achieve the goals that I'll I'll be sharing in just a moment. And here's us at that inerson event again um with folks going around the room and and providing their comments. Uh I believe there was one suggestion the last time
we spoke about ranking the draft goal. So we had a board there and folks folks really ranked uh reszoning underutilized land in the village centers and commercial areas for mixeduse housing as the highest there. Um didn't have a huge amount of turnout but I will note that
um at our second forum as well that we did virtually we also asked for folks to rank it virtually. Um and that was also ranked rather highly. Um, we've got nine goals and 23 strategies. I'm going to touch on just one or two from each because I want to make sure we have time for you guys' questions and comments,
but we'll launch into it. Number one is is perhaps the most important, the reason that we're here working on a housing production plan, which is maintaining Actton's subsidized housing inventory, that 10% that you so recently were able to get to, and ensuring that uh it stays above 10%. And that means
that Actton with with meeting a few other requirements can have a little more say over affordable housing development in the town. It's a proactive housing production plan. And there's a lot of really cool ideas for how how acting can help promote promote affordable housing and and both maintain
existing subsidized units and create some more ones. Number two is encouraging a diversity of housing types for a range of income levels, ages, and abilities. And I'll just say one big strategy number five that comes out of this is looking to reszone vacant
underutilized areas and village centers or other activity areas like commercial corridors for multif family and/or mixeduse housing places that it it might make sense where folks already are where where there are amenities and we're hearing um interest from from folks throughout both this community
engagement process and the Habitat for all one that Kristen had mentioned. people want to live in a in a walkable place and so continuing to to think about that to consider where that could be um or or promoting and enhancing existing ones. Number three, uh touching
on another comment that we heard in the in just the HPP public draft comment period, prioritizing resources, thinking about infrastructure capacity for new and existing housing development. Wastewater I think always comes to mind here and and that goes back to strategy number three which is studying options
for municipal sewer expansion consistent with action items in other plans like the 2024 South Actton vision plan uh in your 2021 rapid recovery plan. Number four, Actton's made such great progress on this as Jen shared with just encouraging the construction and
renovation of sustainable, climatefriendly and resilient housing. Part of that is is building off another plan, your 2021 climate action plan. Continuing to support and educate residents, providing those incentives, those requirements for new buildings so that residents and businesses are
continuing to improve energy efficiency uh and transition to to cleaner methods of of clean of of heating and cooling. I'm just touching on on one or two from each of these goals, and I'll note that there are there are many more that I I could cover today. So, so please do take
a look through and um yeah, looking forward to hearing thoughts on that. Number five, again going back to the theme of of locating mixeduse residential development in places that it might make this most sense, where there's existing infrastructure where it's walkable, where there might be places folks want to go to. It's it's an
idea in planning called smart growth of being thoughtful about about where you put things and and prioritizing more compact development that helps to conserve land as well. Strategy number nine is is a little interesting. It's it's actually monitoring the progress of your MBTA overlay district over in South
Aton and making sure is it working as intended? Are you receiving building permits? Are you hearing from developers that it's not great or or are there other parts of it that might need to be tweaked? Um and it's it's just sort of a best practice, a housekeeping idea of of monitoring how your existing zoning is working and then using that to inform
potential future areas that you might be considering um putting some new zoning in. Number six is uh more on the capacity section of of collaboration and coordination with existing community groups. Um exists increasing Actton's capacity to implement housing
initiatives through enhancing that local and regional coordination and community outreach. One idea here and I think this goes back to the idea of implementation. you know, we make sure that this plan is is realistic that um it's it's something that that doesn't just sit on the shelf is hosting an annual intermunicipal
meeting uh for local boards and committees to come together, go over the plan. And what I I'll just add is in this goals and strategies chapter, we've created a matrix that goes through every single strategy and who the lead agency or organization or the department might be and who supporting ones might be.
We've also phased in what fiscal year that we would suggest considering working on these initiatives. So, it's not overwhelming. It happens all at once. All suggestions of course. Um but these are way things that could be reviewed at this annual intermunicipal meeting. Um and some of it's inspired by
um local municipalities just um a town or two over like conquered hosts a housing round table on a quarterly basis where they talk through various various uh initiatives and make sure folks are on the same page figuring out how resources can be shared and um just a
really another another best practice for this kind of work. Number seven, uh an important goal to ensure that you you can maintain that 10% shi that you can maintain the existing affordable housing in your community, continuing to preserve and support the long-term affordability of
existing affordable units. Um this is encapsulated in strategy number five which says if new scattered site units say this is just if it was financially feasible for uh say the housing authority or the orc to acquire a new
unit and make it affordable to create a small capital reserves fund um was suggested from RHSO maybe $30,000. Uh and this funding could help to fund say uh if a new roof was needed or or some other capital improvements for the unit to make sure that it uh stays in good
repair that that it can stay occupied that folks are able to stay there and uh you make good use of of what you guys already have. I'll uh and just got two more for you all. So hopefully I'm not taking up too much of your time. But goal number eight is about stabilizing housing, providing services and
resources for vulnerable residents. maybe those that are living um in housing that might not be accessible or um at risk of homelessness. One idea there is is strategy number 20, which is coordinating with local organizations to promote housing initiatives. Like one
idea is is working with Habitat to fund those critical home repairs, ensuring that that seniors that maybe want to stay in the community but are having issues with accessibility, which is something that we heard in the survey, um get a chance to to do exactly that. And our last one, last but not least, is
combining new residential developments with conservation through the creation of market rate and affordable homes that are densely clustered to preserve the open space, natural resources, and scenic vistas. Um, most recently saw that at town meeting, uh, the the revisions to the town subdivision
regulations have been approved. Um, adding a little more density in areas that preserve up to 60% or 60% or more for open space. So, so while that strategy is also in the plan of implementing those habitat initiatives, we also have another strategy, strategy
number three, which is exploring creating a policy to support conservation land purchases that set aside a portion of that just for affordable housing. So, maybe there's a way to similarly do both to conserve more land and use a portion of it for affordable housing in town. Um, and
that's a a real big, I think, just guiding theme in our goals and strategies is how can we we conserve both the land, how can we preserve folks that want to stay in the community and also promote more affordability here at large. And so with that, I'm going to unshare my screen uh and pass it over
for any questions that you all might have for myself, for Jen, or for Christa. Thank you all so much. Thank you, Noah. Um, any select board questions or Jim?
Sure. Thanks. Um, it's great to get this all laid out like this. I appreciate it a lot. Um, I I think my first question might be the longest one, so maybe I should ask it first. Um, I I asked for um I asked over the weekend for um a
list of uh comments that have been made by the public in that in the official public comment period that um um ended recently and uh you we have that now in our packet. um and you summarized the
concerns um about infrastructure limitations and some particular areas and an emphasis on uh rehab over new construction. And I wondered if um you could sort of go over um if and how uh those concerns are uh are either are
reflected in the draft uh plan or will be reflected in the plan or shouldn't be reflected in the plan. just sort of so we know where we're at with those with those with those three concerns. Yeah, absolutely. And I' I'd say two of them I wouldn't even categorize perhaps
as concerns. They're more um advocating for. First one being mixeduse development in in South Aton, which is something I think we encapsulate pretty well in our strategies. The second um saying yes, we do need to consider expanding municipal infrastructure like
wastewater treatment capacity for new housing and basically urging going along with that that goal and strategy. Um did receive another comment just uh just yesterday asking for additional time with the with the public comment period which I believe we had open for for two
weeks. Um only received the three comments there. Um and and I will say that that other third comment also asks for additional consideration. of um sort of the the idea of of the town buying down existing units to become affordable. Uh and I'll note um as Jen
had gone over the old strategies from the last housing production plan, a feasibility study was conducted that wouldn't be feasible at that time. Um, and when I got a little into into the weeds there on that capital improvements fund, it's sort of an idea that if at some point that does become feasible
down the road, we would want uh want the town to consider um if it does go and acquire a unit to become affordable in a scattered site way to make sure to save some of those funds. Um, so I think that's a sort of a quick way of of going through those three comments and how we how we felt that they were they were
encapsulated u in in the goals and strategies. Hopefully that answers your question. Um thanks. Um so then to the specific comments um you mentioned uh in a couple of places an intermunicipal meeting
which I think of as between different municipalities but what you're mentioning is um uh boards and committees within Actton. It's sort of maybe it's more of an intramunicipal meeting or maybe you meant it would
include the actton water district or I was just confused by the phrase intermunicipal and wondered if it meant that I I was missing something about how we needed to work with um conquered and little and westford and so on. No, I
think you you just really seized on on a lapse in language right there. I think intro would be the word for it in that in that strategy bringing together groups inside the town. Um yeah rather than than that regional collaboration but yeah app I think that's a good tweak that we could really easily go in there
and fix. Um the next one was um in number seven goal and in some other places uh you were there's this phrase existing affordable housing and I think we always go through this confusion about whether we mean um you know deed
affordable housing you know or housing that's naturally affordable. Uh and we have an interest in protecting both of those things. So, um I I I wonder if we want to be clear in number seven that we mean both um uh naturally affordable and
um the deed affordable housing. Absolutely. I think being um being clear with and and precise with their language is always helpful. And sometimes in presentations I'll I'll call it capital A affordable housing if talking about deed restricted versus our our more broadly affordable housing that might be
affordable to folks that don't u meet those income requirements or was affordable at a point in time. So I think that's a a great idea to be a little more a little more precise with our language there in goal number seven. Um thanks.
Um, another general process question is, um, so, uh, I I I think I understood the role of the HPP more clearly when we were under 10% because I knew it was a requirement of the state. It gave us a little bit of extra slack in terms of
um, you know, it it was an important sort of contractual piece of what we're doing with the state. Now, I I I know we're doing more than that because we're also talking about our own internal goals and process, but I wondered if you could say anything more about what our
uh obligation is to the to the state at this point now that we've hit our 10%. And um and and with respect to that um the request to you know open up for comments again um whether there is now a uh a
consequence uh with the state if we um you know if for some reason we all decide to uh uh delay the um the actual filing of this. Absolutely. Yeah, I think um one one general way I like to think about it and
I'll pass over you real quickly, Jen, is when you're over 10%. Uh the HPP helps you to simply be proactive about housing, maybe in a more general sense. There's these statutory requirements, but also folks have so many issues and and concerns and and needs with housing and it's way for the town to work on
that. It's it's not something the state's going to come after you and say you didn't do strategy number 20. Um you're you're falling out of out of safe harbor. But I'll pass it over to you, Jen, to go into a little more detail. Yeah, I'm happy to. So, the housing production plan is always an incentive based plan. The state has no, you know,
penalties for not having one. Uh, you don't need a housing production plan. It's only if you feel that having the ability to be in safe harbor would be beneficial to you as a community rather than reaching that full 10%, then the housing production plan allows that
certification showing that incremental progress. But for communities that have already reached 10%, uh it's really something that's completely voluntary. Sometimes communities feel as though perhaps if we fall below that 10% in the next 5 years, this will put us in a
position where we can then have the ability to reach that safe harbor and be certified. Other communities feel like it's just a matter of good good practice to be, you know, always forward thinking, keeping our housing policies fresh. Um, but either way, whether
you're below 10% or over 10%, having a housing production plan, as Noah said, doesn't require you to do any of the implementation that's suggested as a part of the plan. So, I hope that answers the question appropriately.
And I just had a few additional comments. Um, we also here at Actton apply for a lot of grants and have been very successful um with that. Um, and the housing production plan, having an active one, um, is very important because that's one of the boxes that you
typically check off for a lot of the grants that we apply for, um, not just in in the planning division. Um, and I'd also add, you know, the subsidized housing inventory, although it's a really good metric to keep um, your eye on, it's also including all of the units
in a 40B that are rental units. So, it's not really giving you a clear indication of how many deed restricted affordable units you have because all like for example Avalon or Powdermill, every single rental unit is counted towards that subsidized housing inventory. Um,
basing it off of the denominator of overall housing in Actton. So, it's just good to keep that in mind that there are still needs in the community and so it helps us to kind of think of what are those needs and how do we want to tackle them.
Thank you, Kristen. Thank you. Um on to my next comment. Um in goal number two, um it talks about um housing for a range of income levels. Um and I I think that might be
um an inappropriate euphemism. Um I don't think for example that we actually have a need or an interest in creating more um you know really expensive houses. Um the market seems to be taking care of that just fine maybe a little
too well. Um I think what we want to encourage is um you know housing options appropriate for low to moderate income uh households. Um yeah so that was that was my thought about goal number two. I I didn't know if he had wanted to
comment on that or not. My my quick comment would just be uh yeah, I really like again the precision language. I want to make sure when we say low to moderate, there's those official ways that we measure it. Um but there's also those households that earn a little bit more than say the according
to the official guidelines that um still can't afford to buy a home or rent an act. And we want to make sure that we can uh encompass encompass maybe low to moderate to middle income folks that um like you said are not not not our huge high earners potentially but everyone
else who might be might not be so well served by the housing market. Um but but certainly I think that's a great point that could be a little more precise and who we're going for. Thank you. Um
um there was a few places where um sometimes the language was about expanding municipal sewers. In some places it was about expanding infrastructure. In some places it was about expanding wastewater solutions.
And um we've had this conversation a lot as as a select board because we're also uh sewer commissioners. Uh and I would say that um um in many cases what we really mean is expanding wastewater solutions
whether they are onsite or um you know a package treatment plant or or or or actually expanding our sewer system um because we are up against um uh we're at a very steep cost curve now
about increasing uh sewer capacity. So it's a real challenge. Um and often um for a lot of a a lot of housing and other needs uh we're now uh you know needing or and even encouraging the look
at um you know local local solutions. Um so there was that. Um and maybe this last one's a question for Kristen, but it was a it was a hangover from the previous uh housing production plan. This was in goal number
nine uh where it talked about preserving um scenic vistas and I don't think we included any language about that in our recent um habitat for all project um which was just talking about changing
the way we're doing um you know subdivision permitting um and I'm wondering where did that language come from somewhere and do we need it? Um, great question. So, um, Habitat for All through that planning process, we heard
a lot about this people having the desire to have a little bit more regulation on the, um, street tree plantings, um, vegetative buffers that people see um, from existing roads into
new developments. So, what we were able to do um was incorporate that as um a zoning bylaw change for the special permit option for inclusionary zoning. Um and with the requirements, it
requires larger trees to be planted at the time of construction. Um but the next step that we need to do um is update the subdivision rules and regulations with the planning board at a public hearing. And so that next step
will include updating the um the buffer zone from the frontage along the roadway um into the new development um area in the property. So um throughout the public engagement period, we have specific design requirements that we
worked on with the design review board to create um those regulations. So, they have not been adopted yet, but um they're ready to to be considered by the planning board and the community. Great. Thanks so much for that explanation. I you know, I think where I got confused
was when I hear the word scenic vista, I think of like a long distance view. Um and I was thinking, oh, are we going to try to, you know, like preserve uh you know, long distance views by cutting down trees? And I thought, no, that that can't be what they're talking
about. So, uh, it's good to hear that and it's good to know that that becomes clarified when you get to rules and regulations. Um, that's it. Thanks so much, David. Do you have any other comments? Melissa,
thank you. Um, thank you, Jen, who disappeared and Noah. um and Kristen for for this presentation. Um I I do want to just make a comment about the public comment period. I think that um having
it open for a couple of weeks when those two weeks coincided with the town election and the town meeting um is unfortunate. So, I think if there isn't a penalty and we have capacity for um
opening that back up again, that would be great. Or even I know there were a lot of comments that were left on posters and sticky notes at uh public forums and workshops. If you know even those could be incorporated. um because
it it does look a little sad with just three folks who have um submitted public comment on this very important document that's going to guide us for the next 5 years. And I'm thinking back to the 2020 update and we had um 246 unique comments
that were tabulated and responded to. Um, so I I think that it is important to have the community input somehow incorporated if that's, you know, the input that they've already provided or or reopening the comment period.
Um, I also wanted to just say that I I really love the um inclusion of a strategy to expand or enhance the acting community housing corporation's capital improvement program um and the
establishment of a capital reserves fund. It's so critical that we not only support people um to access housing but also keep it in good repair. And I have a question about that, but I just want to make one more comment before I ask
that question. Um another thing that I really appreciate is this introduction of an annual intramunicipal meeting so that we can track progress on our on our goals because I've always wondered about that. We have this great table with um
organizations, entities, departments that are assigned each of these strategies and then you know where is the mechanism to to have folks um update other folks in in the organization about work that they're doing and an
opportunity for potential collaboration I think is key. So that that meeting would would really help. Um my question about the capital improvement program, my understanding is that the ACC
um funding is only available to folks that are in subsidized housing. I could be wrong about that. Um but if that is the case, I'm wondering if there's a way that we can open it up to folks who um
are low income, meet some sort of threshold. Because I'm thinking about the folks who have been in town, they have homes that they've raised families in. They've been here for 30, 40, 50 years, and yet they're at a point in their life where they're on a fixed income, and they may have limited um
funds to be able to maintain their home. And it would be great if they can't access that program now if they could um moving forward. Thank you. One one thought I would have there that I think could relate to an existing strategy um thank you so much for your
comment uh is the idea of partnering with uh Metro West Habitat on their critical home repair program and that can also include accessibility improvements but also state of good repair projects. Um and I will defer to Jen because she's an expert on on CPA funds and things that we can do um for
for existing affordable housing. But I think uh for those that don't don't live in existing deed restricted capital affordable homes uh we would have to to think a little bit more outside of the box there and there would be more strings attached to funds and believe we do go into a bit of detail there in the
write up of the strategy. Um but it would just want to urge some some thoughtfulness there and creative thinking. Um so I can add a little bit to that as well. I think um you know Actton's acting community housing corporation you're you're correct um because the the
source is community preservation act funding that's the reason why um but I think Noah um answered that question well um and calling out Habitat for Humanity which is now posted on um the regional housing services office website um so if people in the community are um
qualified they are eligible for for those funding sources and they should reach out to Habitat for Humanity But I think there's a lot we can do to try to connect people and broadcast that and make sure that we're advertising things like that. Um, in your comments about
the public comment period, you know, two weeks is is typical. I hear you. I think Actton has a lot going on at once, which it was a little bit different than the previous housing production plan. I think that was really the only main initiative happening that year. Um and
since that time I think Actton has continued to take on more and more um initiatives and endeavors. Um so I think there's a capacity thing there as well. Um but you're right during town meeting time definitely pulls people away. Um I
will note that Noah has incorporated all of the public comments um from all the sticky notes at the last engagement session. So, the last engagement session um displayed all of these goals um and strategies and provided an opportunity
for the public to comment on them in person. Um and they were slightly modified, some language tweaks here and there. And then what you see in front of you now is the result of that and then putting all of the plan together with the data analysis collected by um the
regional housing services office. The review of the previous plan and then the goals and strategies as a final draft is what you have in front of you tonight. Um in terms of what would it mean if we pushed it off, um we've looked at what would happen if we looked out to the
19th. um if we went to the 19th, that would be our drop dead date with having to request um a shortened timeline from EOHLC. So, we would have to submit a special request to them um to shorten their timeline to 30 days. Um so, that's
what we would be looking at. We would need to basically have a a special request in order for our plan not to lapse, which has implications for some of our our grants that we've applied for. So Kristen, what you're saying is that
the public input from that forum is already incorporated into this. Correct. Okay. So I apologize for missing that. Thank you, Dean. I know we're talking about the the housing production plan. I think this is
great, but I just want to make note of the the economic development plan which is sort of running side alongside of this and also you know calling for in infrastructure whatever that looks like.
So that's that was my comment. Yes. John, would you like to um Thank you Noah and Jen. I don't really have for me at the moment I don't have any questions. I just I just think
it's important for me to share that anytime we can have more chances for folks to share their ideas that are citizens of our town the better. And I think that was just one thing that strikes me continually even when John was talking about the perhaps the
numbers were lower at town meeting was there is a sense of you know those talking to my my students um sorry my wife and my family not my students sorry um there's some important decisions
being made by all of us but in some ways town meeting had what 300 people It's a long-winded way of saying I just hope we continue to have ways that we can get together and talk as citizens and obviously as the boards that we work together. So, I'm just sort of picking
up on that energy that we need to be very noticeable and aware that we I I want to get as much input as we can. This is really important to me. So, but thank you Noah Jan for sharing tonight as well.
So at the moment I don't have any questions at the moment. Gentlemen, do you want to say anything? I had a couple of questions. If
the the rehab loan from CPA or however it's done is restricted to deedrestricted properties and we want to increase the number of dwelling units in the
town and we want to support our seniors or whoever is struggling with their housing. Why can't we offer to help someone make an ADU in
their home for in in exchange for a deed restriction that way some folks that could never afford to do an ADU might be able to do that
and get a little support for themselves in the meanwhile. have someone else live in their house with them in a in a separate unit. Um, that's just an aside. Uh, I do agree with Alyssa's
thought about expanding the time that people have to comment on this because I'm on the a I'm on the planning board and I didn't know we had a comment period for the HPP.
Maybe it was because we were all distracted by town meeting and so on. I think we do need to expand that and maybe ask for the 30-day uh grace period from the the authority
that you need it from. Uh, I think it's very important that all those folks that got to give a little bit of input at the beginning get to say what they think about the final product.
And that's um, while we're all really happy that everybody was there commenting, and it's not everybody because there were only maybe 20 people at each of these things. In fact, the last in-person workshop was how many
attendees? Oh, just just 11. Not too many. Yeah. So, I'm thinking, you know, we need to expand this a little bit. Um I'm I would uh be very happy to see
an expanded comment period on this. Uh there was something else here I wanted to ask. [Music] Uh I too had questions about scenic vistas. I was thinking Grand Canyon too, but you know that's not
it. Thank you. I think that's what I have to say about it. Kristen, did were did you have answers to the ADU questions and and the you know, I think it's a I I think I was just going to answer part of it, but I think some of it would need to be
investigated a little bit. Um, anyone is eligible to deed restrict their home um and sell it to an eligible buyer um or to create an ADU and put a deed restriction on it. Anyone could do that today. Um, but it's very costly. So, if
the town were to provide funding to an individual to do that, we would have to look at um how that process would work out because then, you know, how does that individual qualify for those funds over other people? So, that's something we'd probably have to seek council on
unless I'm not sure if JM Goldson has has seen that before, but yeah, you know, the town of Bernstable has um implemented a affordable ADU program for many many many years and it um we've
done some work down in Barnstable helping them with their housing plan and there just some logistical challenges. Um the first is just the level of admin required on the part of the town or some other organization that you might you
know want to basically pay to do this for you. But to to um verify incomes every year of all of the tenants living in the ADUs has been has been challenging. Um it just has taken a lot
of staff time to try to verify the tenant incomes. They I don't know how many ADUs they're up to now that have been affordable, but they used to have dozens and dozens. Each ADU was created uh as a mini 40B, if you can believe it,
as a comprehensive permit, and they would take a a group of ADUs and go forward to the ZBA, the zoning board of appeals, and and through a comprehensive permit get them to be basically affordable and counted on the subsidized housing inventory. So the just the
verification of incomes was was real challenging for the staff. They spent a lot of time hunting down uh paperwork from every from every uh ADU tenant. Um but the other piece of it is it's tricky for the property owner as well because the property owner in order for it to
actually be affordable um it would need to to adhere to the state's affirmative fair marketing requirements. And that means that you know typically that requires a lottery to choose the tenant that lives there um based on se you know several criteria. You could have some
local preference but the property owner then you know may have some issues with not being able to have full control you know a little more limitation over who they're choosing to live in the unit. Um I think that in Barnstable they have worked through that but but it is a
concern of property owners just feeling like they might not have total control over who's living on their property um because they would need to then adhere to the affordable a fair marketing plan and implement that. So it's just a little logistical challenges in in those regards to comply with you know the fair
housing act and and to um to verify those incomes as well. So just some things to put out not impossible. Barnstable would certainly be a good community to talk with about the logistics of it. Thank you. Um, I want to thank Noah and Jennifer
for all the information that you put out. I moved to Actton almost 50 years ago and I'm now beginning to understand the town's profile and I'm very proud to be living in this town and this state as well. Um, so thank you for all the
information that you guys put out. I'm sure it took a lot of effort. It was very useful. I also tend to agree with Alyssa and Michaela. I think it's very important to widen our sort of community
feedback into the into the document into our plans. And Michaela raised a very good point which is a lot of people gave gave a lot of input but they haven't seen the final product to see how some of the input did go in or how it might
have changed or whatever and I think it's it would be good on the other hand I want to make sure Christian that we don't miss the window so you need to balance both of those things and but we managed to get some more input to to
sort you know, finalize things a little better. But thank you a lot. Done. All done. Yeah. All right. Thanks. Thanks for
inviting us to the hearing. Um, yeah. So, a lot of good information in the report. I had a couple of thoughts. Um the first one is I I strongly agree with the idea of um somehow encouraging
more input and comment. Um and I don't I'm not sure if another week would really do it but um in this particular case but I think certainly in the future we need to fix this that nobody is basic to me if
11 people come to a major feedback session on a major u you know element of the town namely housing people aren't participating. So we need to come up with new strategies um to to let people know what's
happening and to encourage them to uh to give input. So certainly I would encourage figuring out a way to at least publicize it a little more and give a at least a few more days for people to comment. Um I have a couple specific thoughts. The first is um Jim's comment
I strongly agree and maybe uh a nuance on it. So the the the question you know it is one of the key infrastructure challenges if you have more development is wastewater treatment and um there is
this challenge of the um steep cost curve we face if we have centralized waste treatment that we've therefore I think three proposals have already been turned down in the past few years by the town by the citizens. Um,
so I would suggest I agree with I support going back and doing more study, but maybe not quite in the way that it was prescribed in the goals. It was pretty prescriptive to follow on some previous studies. I would say try a
whole new approach and go back and screen across the various types of waste treatment that you can do. And I think there's new methods to do that now to take the data and maybe use find a firm that can do use AI to do screening in an
intelligent way and come up with some approaches to either local or centralized treatment. I think it's important if we go back and do another traditional engineering study, we'll spend I think the amount that was
mentioned in the report was $1500 $200,000 on a traditional engineering study that'll look at maybe one or two options. We need a way to look at more options at a reasonable cost to the citizens. Um the other thing that caught
my attention was this idea of making a database of all properties. As someone who owns property, I'm not comfortable with having building databases which potentially unless we're first of all, we're sure the databases are secure
because this is going to have a lot of sensitive information in it and we're sure it's not going to get sold or given to people who want to use it for different purposes. So, and I'm not sure why we need it because we have data sets of, you know, the grand list and all
sorts of other things like that. So I think we need analysis but I don't know if we need to build databases. Um yeah I think it's one final comment and when I went through that whole list and the matrix of which people were going to be responsible for which things
there are a lot of things on that list. I I don't think you can manage that many things on a list in the space of a couple of years. I would recommend what are the you know what you presented here was good because it was just I think you had nine goals but um when you expand
out the list to the whole report it's what 37 or more things on a list what are the important things that everybody agrees we're going to do and then have a way to report back on it every year I think is really important. Um yeah so
those are my thoughts. Oh, one final comment on the I also have been in the town for a long time and I'm getting to the age where um although I'm fortunate in my personal situation um you realize what being on a fixed
income means and um one thing that's not considered in this report is probably one of the biggest issues that can make the town more unaffordable is constantly increasing taxes because the older you get, the less you're paying for your
property and the more you're paying in taxes and you're on a fixed income. So, I think all of these things that are proposed need to look very carefully, especially things like wastewater and storm water management, how to do them effectively and that should be part of a
study like this. how what what is the burden of the taxes and what are the proposed items going to do in terms of imposing cost that will further exacerbate that situation. Yeah. Pat, you Yeah.
Pat, did you want to speak? Yes, please. Um, just just two comments. I I echo everybody's thanks. This is the public outreach may not have been well attended, but I think those of us who took advantage of it learned a lot. So,
um I don't know how to solve that problem, but I do think the quality was well worth the effort and um I've been to some that aren't so good. So, I'll leave it at that. Um, two, is there any way with this idea of
an intra municipal meeting that we could have some kind of community engagement piece as part of that? Um, some of this idea of getting feedback and say we had a meeting next year and
we said of the list of the 35 to 40 items, we just can't do them all. So, let's focus. um that would be a good time to have community engagement. Um so if you could help us structure um a little bit more than you know a
bunch of people sitting around the table. Um and and as part of that could we if we have collected names of people and I honestly don't remember whether we signed in for these focus groups or not
or the workshops but if you can get that list of emails maybe that's a start. Maybe we can do a little outreach at least to those people. um if they put their boots on and came in in the rain, then they probably cared enough to come back. So, that was that
one. Um and the other one I would like to ask about is um capital money. Um some of these ideas are very um enticing, but the reality is um we
pretty much use up all our CPA money already in various programs and I'm not sure those are ready to be abandoned. Um I think they've been most of them probably pretty successful. Where else can we go and what kinds of suggestions
would you have us looking at? um if we if we wanted to do one or two of these um at least experientially if not um could we actually fund it? So that's it. That's all I had.
Yeah, I'm happy to chime in if it's okay, please. Okay. Yeah, I mean I think including engagement in the round table is a brilliant idea. Um and I think you're right. It needs to be more than just a bunch of people talking around a table. If if community members are going
to be invited, you want to have some kind of interactive way for them to engage. And thank you for the compliments on our on our workshop designs. We do pride ourselves and we always we always, you know, try to help get the word out, but sometimes um for various reasons people don't come, but
but um I also think if you do the roundts, having guest speakers is often another way to draw people in. something that's, you know, like you said, not just about people talking around the updates on what what each committee is doing, but some kind of a a guest speaker and then you could include some
kind of a interactive engagement activity to be part of it. So something to think about for sure and I think we can revise our write up to include those some of those ideas so you can start to think about that. Um I think yeah absolutely we can give you the list of uh who signed in. I think um we
collected that at every event. And then in terms of funding, you know, Kristen is more um in tune with the funding available. Um I know the one-stop application provides uh access to various to various resources, which is how this was funded, this project. Um
different, you know, state funding such as the mass works and other things like that can fund some of the other it depends on the nature um of the of the project. But there are um I guess you know more state funding that I would look for uh not so much federal funding
at this moment in time. And I hear you saying that the CPA funding is already being allocated for for other kind of ongoing things that you're funding over and over again. So Kristen, you you may have other ideas uh than I just kind of blurted out, but um but that's all I
could think of at the moment. Yeah. Um I I mean I think you hit most of what I would say. I can add a little bit to that. Um, in Actton, typically every year, the Actton Community Housing Corporation um, seeks funding for their
like set aside fund. Um, and that's a resource that is used when um, a nonprofit housing developer like the Actton Community um, like the Actton Housing Authority or like Common Ground has a project that the the town wants to
sign on and support. Um and so thinking about how the town can um utilize CPA funds to make sure that every year what ACC AC asks for is funded. Um or even trying to look at how they can increase
certain categories of funding for you know for things like that. Um, and I think you know the the different one, you know, the one-stop grant application has been able to support infrastructure components that really help projects
like common ground um, be a reality and like the housing authorities project because they're looking for every bit of money that they can to make deed restricted affordable housing possible. And so they're really trying to pull every little piece together. So, um, I
think all of those things combined are important to think about when we're trying to think of of funding. Thank you, Kristen. I just had a quick question in that do you have active applications now that if delaying this would would muck those up?
Um, we have applied for the um, housing choice community designation for the town. We submitted that. I'm not sure if what their um, what the if I don't think we've heard back yet and I can't remember what the deadline or what the response back
um, for acceptance of the application is. That's the one that I can think of. Um, I I believe the uh, one stop is due the first week of June also. So that may or may not be impacted by this directly. I'm not sure. And and I will add, you know, I'm I'm
all for as much public engagement as we possibly can because that's actually one of my favorite parts about my job. That's what we enjoy planning for the most and um and and doing. Um, we did have, you know, I don't remember the number in the townwide survey that went
out, um, earlier in the project, but just a few weeks before that survey, we had the housing um, the sorry, the Habitat for all survey that went out that had about like 500 responses. Um, and when we look at the town meeting
attendance, you know, which was around 300, um, I think that we I feel good about the amount of comments that we've gotten. I think we can always do more. Um, and you know, I I think that's something that we're continually trying
to do. Um, the plan was sent out two weeks ago to all boards and committees. Um, as well as our community contact list. So, we have contacts with all local uh religious um and nonprofit organizations in the community that kind of then disseminate the information out
to their local groups um as well as the town website. Um but but again, it's you can never have enough and I think we're always here to support that. That's that's part of our our job as planners. So, we hear you. Thank you, Jim.
Um a couple I had a thought one thought about process which was that um rather than trying to figure out here exactly what happens next with um you know dates and comment periods uh if if one or both boards simply you know don't take a vote
so that we're not approving the plan yet then I I totally trust the the chairs and staff to work out what's next. um you know whether that's a quick outreach event, whether it's an more announcements, whether it's whatever and then we we do you know then we have to plan either se you know separate
meetings or or another joint meeting to actually do the approval. So that was going to be my process suggestion. Yeah. Um so what we would suggest if the boards wanted to extend the public comment period, we kind of tried to plan ahead to see what what we would need to do if people felt that way um based on
the comment that we've received today. And it looks like the 19th is like our our drop dead. So if you wanted to open it back up, we would reach out to EOHLC to see if we could try to get them to shorten that timeline. Um and then we would need to have the meeting on that night cuz I believe that is the next
scheduled select board meeting. Um and that's assuming planning board members are available to meet um in a quorum. David, oh Michaela, do you have a comment? it. We've been talking about sewer
capacity a lot, but nobody has mentioned water and I really am concerned that that was that big piece of everyone's lives has been left out of this plan and these these goals and I really would
like to call in act and water district and others so that we really understand what this means to increase our population so much and
what we would do about it about water. Um because as we know our water bills have gone up tremendously even in the face of uh measures to help reduce that usage.
So what what will we do about water? Um I can comment. That was a great great comment. U Michaela I think I would um refer you to goal number three um which is prioritize resources for infrastructure capacity to ensure that sufficient capacity exists for new and
existing housing developments. Um and in this we talk about um develop and implement a targeted plan to allocate resources for the modernization and expansion of water wastewater to Ron's comment um and electric uh infrastructure for new cluster and
mixeduse development. So it goes on but um it does address that. So once out of the 100 it's a main goal. That's one of the the goal the part of one of the goals. Yeah. So does everyone feel good about the May
19th? Uh David I I have several things. One is I don't think an extra week is going to make that much difference. You'd never be able to call a public forum in a week. I also want to point out that the forums at the beginning of this process were well attended. They were better
attended. Why that is, I can't tell you, but people came in the beginning and they gave your their input into the process and then they didn't come out back after the draft. I don't know why that is, but there were lots of people involved in the in the involved in the
process um uh all the way along. Um, I also want to point out that um, the town consumes 14% less water than we did a decade ago. So I think we should wait another decade and then it'll be down 30%. Um so
um so no I the the reason our water bills are a lot uh is because the the water district has prioritized removal of PAS from our waters and and so um it's not so much a quantity thing but they've also actually put things in
place to increase in increase capacity as well. Um, so I I think that the current we we can like I said consume 15% less water now even though the population's gone up uh in the past decade. So I I think water is not as as
uh as a a big concern. I also want to point out that when we're talking about the cost of wastewater that the last proposal we had in front of the town which as people pointed out here lost it was less expensive than what the school district has in invested in the septic
system for the boardwalk campus. So and and this that system would have served the the boardwalk campus as well as the people along Massav. Um and right now this the septic system at the boardwalk campus emits too much nitrogen and that's a potential problem. Right? So um
they've invested more money than we would have invested in hooking them to the sewer and we still have problems there. So um uh back to the the form thing I don't think an extra week is going to make a huge difference here. People have had a chance to do this. I love uh Pat's
suggestion um to in the intra municipal meetings to include um public engagement and I think we should we should do that. Oh, Alyssa and then John. Sorry. So, I I would still be supportive of opening the public comment for another week. Um
David, you said we couldn't organize a public forum. That's not what we're asking here. It's just sending out another news flashash um sharing information that this draft is available to to comment on because like Michaela I
I missed this um the news flashash well the the all boards and committee email said was sent out on the 28th which was you know the day before the election. and the news flash came out on the 29th which was election day and you know I was a little preoccupied with you know
the election and and town meeting. So I apologize that I did not open up and read that all boards and committee email. Um does all boards and committee include the water district? I know that the district manager is on the open
space committee so he would have received it. Um he's also on rack. So um but I is all boards and committee does that go I know it goes to the schools. Does it go to the water district and the housing authority? And I don't know. I
believe it's all it's just the boards and committees that are under this government structure. So I I would say no. It does go to the housing authority. I think we should send it to the water district. um the things that we would announce to cuz I know the school gets
it as well. That might help improve communications, but I I would be in favor of of taking a vote on the 19th and just sending out a a news flash and a social media blast and the folks who are concerned about the lack of
public comment can also help with that outreach. John, I was just going to add, can I just hear the and for those of you that know me, I always do this because I need to hear it again. I I'm supporting of
the 19th, but what exactly is that going to mean in terms of what we're juggling or the dates? Can I just hear that again? I think just getting more public outreach. But sorry, I guess my more specific,
what was the fear of why can't we go past the 19th? I just want to hear it again. I know you probably told me 10 times. So, so the um the 19th would give us exactly 30 days to allow EOHLC or the Executive Office
of Housing and Livable Communities um to have 30 days to review. So, they have from what we understand taken that up upon special request, but we need to make that special request. We know that it's possible to make that request. Um, and so that's that's what we would need
to do, but beyond that date, it would be under the 30-day review period. Thanks, Kristen. Um, we're ready for public comment if you'd like. Terra gun here. And uh first of all, I want to say that I if that was my
idea about the ADUs, I'm going to take it back because I meant to fund um people's non40B like we've already subsidized. So what about the people who aren't subsidized? We talk about equity, but equity is a mention way at the end of the report. How about the people who
are struggling to stay in Actton? We could have a program using municipal borrowing, not CPA money, so it's limited to only 40bs to help people stay in their homes, make them accessible, get the repairs, and you can have a deed rest, you can have a restriction or a
lean that uh upon sale it gets deed restricted. Okay, so just to clarify that, thank you about the comment period. Last three, last year it was like six, last time, five years ago was like six weeks. We got two chances at the draft. I think it was a much better
document because of that. um in terms of the dots on the things, you know, like 11 people, six people driving the majority of of of a plan like this. I think that's just terrible. Um I think that the increasing the
senior tax the income levels on senior tax relief, the the the right now the the income level is at $40,000. Try paying taxes and acting and still living on $40,000. Okay. I think that if we have affordable housing and
our programs and policies are set for moderate income for affordable housing, that's what our senior tax relief should be. 80,000 $100,000 a year. At least do the analysis and see what it the impact is on working families compared to the people who are struggling. Uh 90% of
this this plan what I got through on it because I didn't even realize it was a deadline because we we have we've we've spent months before. Uh suddenly it's a two-eek deadline. I I opened up the agenda for today and it said approve the plan. It was like wait a second. Where's the discussion part of after seeing the plan? So, thank you for that. But 90% of
this plan is about new building trickle down. You know, I just don't understand why we keep doing that. We say we want equity and yet our policies are not about equity. It's not it's charity, not solidarity. A trickle down just does not work. If we're going to have a commitment to affordable housing and
helping people that are most vulnerable, we have to actually do it. not depend on the market and we'll reszone and hope for the best. You know, that's just BS. I'm sorry. I Somebody's got to say it. Um, wow. Did I do everything? I think I might have done everything. Anyway,
yeah. So, I hope you uh open the comment period. Uh, I don't know anybody that uh that gave comments this time and last time I knew at least 50 people that that gave comments and I could get more people to comment um if we had time. I I really the thing didn't even say and by the way we're going to approve it in two
weeks the announcement at least I didn't read that so oh and just um Sam I think said thank you for the profiles the other doc the other five years and all that those other ones had the same profile information what I loved about this one is it told you the difference and so it says that we went from 1%
black people to 2% black people yay us okay that part of that is because it's a trickle down approach where you um Please zone and hope for people that make $80,000 a year. You know, maybe these things will happen, maybe they won't. The average black family makes
$60,000 a year. Practically none of these policies, you know, are a tiny little part of these policies serve them. So, I I feel like it's unfortunate that we hold out poor people, lower income people as, oh my god, look at this housing crisis, and yet our
policies don't actually serve them. So, in my opinion, we're using people as pawns to pass a a trickle down policy so that we can feel good about ourselves, that we have an affordable housing pro uh policies, but they don't actually
serve the people that we claim to care about. So, I hope either we just say at the front, hey, we don't really care about you, but we're going to use you. Just be honest at the front as opposed to people finally figuring it out. I mean, when I first did this, one last two, three seconds here. When I first
joined up and I was elected here, I thought I was like, "Affordable housing, that's great." I went around and placed out flyers to get people here. They got here and they were mad at me. They said, "These affordable housing units aren't things we can afford." And I was just like, "What?" I had to face the fact
that our policies weren't serving the people we claim to care about. So I thank you again and I hope oh the last thing is just 5 seconds is that if you want people to comment besides people who have lots of time the luxury and
privilege of time go to them go set up at the apartments and ask them what they think whether they think new building is going to serve them or whether they actually just want subsidies to help them stay in town okay to to fix their apartments and stuff. Go to the senior center and ask them to take the survey on whether they think new building is
going to serve them. Thank you. One last thing, if you're going to encourage new building, which we just did at a town meeting, that we have to have a capital plan to serve that growth and we don't. And that's really disappointing because we're all have lots of smart people, lots of doctorates in this room or masters at least. And so
I think we need to sit down and have a real planning about capital impact studies don't include capital. So that's a that's a shortcoming. Thank you. Okay, I just want to just add one comment is like the there are lots of
different types of people that have different types of salaries. So anywho, I I'm hoping that we can get, you know, a an agreement on the 19th if
that's where we're headed. Yep. Is that a uh vote separate select board discuss vote planning board vote discuss discuss vote? Okay. Are we going to vote tonight or just wait?
Oh, are we going to vote tonight or um wait until the 19th? I thought we were voting about the 19th. Oh, okay. You mean voting to continue to the
Sure, we can do that. Yeah, David, I think I think we can just agree. We don't have to vote on that. We can just all it's not it's not a hearing or anything. So we can just agree to if you guys are available for the 19th to have another joint meeting on the 19th.
So in that case can I ask the planning board folks? I'm available. Uh can actually and then I to myself I don't want to forget Sam and James about uh next week the 19th being
available because we need a quorum for the planning board. So, I'm putting James and Pat on the spot first and then Sam and Ron. Sam can make it. Yes. Michaela, Ron, me gave a thumbs up and James is not shaking. All
right. So, I saw Pat. Yes. James at the moment. No. Okay. still meets a quorum right for us planning board. Okay. Thank you, Kristen. Yeah. Thank you. These closed guys have to guys have to
adjourn or something. Oh. Oh, that's it. That's Yep. Miss Mr. Chair, um planning board chair. Um would you mind just making sure the public knows that the planning board is taking a recess and moving to room 9? Yes, thank you. We are taking a
brief recess and the planning board's going to be moving down to room nine in a few moments. Thank you select board for having us here. Thank you. So it's my understanding that we're going to see you on the 19th. Yes. Okay. Same
different date, same place. Great. All right. So, do I need to officially close the my meeting, my planning board meeting? Okay. No. No, cuz we're moving downstairs. Thank you, Noah, and and Jen, if she's still there.
Yeah. Yes. Uh, we have one final comment, Jim. the um so one of the next things that the select board does um you know in June or late May or something is to come up with our annual goals short-term and
long-term. So if the HPP working group uh looking over their you know many uh goals uh has a few that they think they would be particularly helped by being part of the select board goal structure. be great to bubble that up in our
direction either directly or or or through staff, whichever whichever works better for your for the way you work. Thank you. So, yes, Alyssa, I just have one more comment. I would like to
um express my appreciation for you recognizing that folks of a variety of ethnicities and races have a variety of incomes. Um, so I know that there are statistics out
there um, available that that spell out average family income for white m people in Massachusetts, Asian people and black people. Um, but I want to recognize that there are plenty of folks of all different ethnicities who have low
income and and high income. I had a landlord in Boston um who owned the town home that I rented and she was black. So, moving on to um number six, announce public listening session for
select board goal setting. Yeah. Are we doing number five? I thought I I was going to do it at the seven slot, but we can do it now. I didn't know if somebody was waiting for that. Um, no, that's fine. If nobody's waiting, that's fine. I don't think so.
Yep. I just swapped seven and five. Yep. Announce public listening session for select board goal setting. So, I believe the board uh through Lisa's help has tenatively set a goal setting meeting for June 9th, which is
which is just about a month from now. And so, in the past few rounds of goal setting, the board made a point to announce that date uh several weeks in advance and invite public input and comments. Um, and so I think this agenda
item is saying just that. Uh, but I think that there was also in the past a listening session which would just be a a period of time where the board could have people come up and say, "We think you should work on this and we think we need more of that." Um, and so given that there are only two meetings between
now and June 9th, I think the the board could invite the public to attend one of those uh for a listening session. Mhm. And start the listening now, I suppose.
That that's really all this is just just making sure it's out there and people know about it. Yeah. Should we Jim um one thing that might be helpful for that um if you thought it was appropriate John would be that I I
because I'd like to hear somehow from departments about uh key goals from the plans that they're working from that they think would benefit from being on a select board goal list. So like you know the housing production plan, uh the action 2020 plan, the climate action plan, and the
OSRP all have really extensive goals. And some of those goals are just, you know, they're just going to be worked on anyway. That's not a problem. But some uh I think I'm imagining that people that know those goal knows well would be able to say, you know what, we don't
really have a way of this. This one's important. We don't have a way of getting to it. So, we'd like the select board to know that, you know, this one might fall off the table unless it becomes a a goal. I So, I guess I'm wondering if that would be okay to include that as
part of the um either as as part of our public listening session or as a separate report from you uh about about that. Absolutely. We could do that internally. Um we have a department head meeting maybe even next week, I think, where that can be initiated. The board
also sends out, and maybe it's our office that does it, but every year we send out an email to all boards and committees, the reference that we just made earlier to the email list, I think, telling people about the listening session and I believe a news flash as well. And so that's sort of hitting the
volunteers, the general public. We we could add a third tier which would be direct requests for staff input because I've always tried to incorporate staff input but if the board's asking it in a more direct way that that's even better.
And do we have a date? Yeah, you mentioned two meetings that there's two meetings between now and June 9th. So, do we need do we want to select a date? Do you have a date in mind already? So, we can do May 19th if our next select board meeting. Yeah, it'll be a busy
planning board, select board meeting. David, I'm wondering if we want to make it June 2nd so that we have a little bit more notice for folks. Okay. But I I it could be either. I mean, two sessions or just one? No, no, I think just one session is fine, but I think
the fact that this week and our next meeting is only one week away um is just very short. Okay. Was that Yeah. Good. Good. Thumbs up. Thumbs up. June 2nd. Then moving on to approve fossil fuelfree bylaw waiver application. Sri
Chatania Samachi Sami to Betty Lane. So before you is the first official application in the new process that was approved at the last meeting from which a building permit applicant can seek a waiver from the fossil fuel bylaw. Uh
the way that this was presented is the the information is before the board. Uh and if however you would like to proceed, we'll we can work with the building department. Um I think at the last time that this actual application
was discussed there was um reference to alternative technologies that may be available. uh in discussing that with the building department, there was some concern about um UL listing and other things that
electricians uh and co the codes speak to, but I think that there's enough products out there depending on the specific use that they may be they may that may not be a barrier uh in this case. So that that's really all I have from the building from the building department is that um they they're
looking forward to hearing how you want to proceed with with this one. U oh Jim then David sorry thanks. Um well is is the applicant online by chance? No. Okay. Um so
um so here's a slightly different version of the information I passed out last time. Um and I agree that um staying away from uh particular electrical devices or kinds of stoves is probably a good thing. So I just looked
at um u uh you know uh cooking implements uh pans and pots. So we've heard about uh um uh two kinds of uh cooking styles um uh that are used uh generally in India but also all over the
world where high heat is important. Um the first is um we're call uh this that's the Indian style where spices are heated up in oil. Um and there are it turns out that induction stoves are actually um selling really well in
India. So, there's a lot of information there. Uh, some of it in languages that I I confess I don't understand, but there's plenty in English as well. Um, and there are Todd Capans that um that are flat on the bottom and are
compatible with induction cooking. That is, you know, the a magnet will stick to them and the heat heat goes very quickly. Um and in fact the the the word that I read uh is that um and that this is very different than the old uh you know electric stoves that we might have
grown up with um which the difference is both that induction stoves are can heat very rapidly uh can drop the heat very rapidly. So there's a lot of control uh and in fact the highest heat setting for induction stoves is generally much
higher than uh the heat that you can get out of uh out of an electric the old style electric stove. So you really can get the heat that you want. And sometimes the the cooks as they communicate with each other on various forms say you know I had to learn how to not go to the highest heat setting um and bring it down a bit to get just the
right level of high heat that I wanted. Um the other the other style of cooking that's um that's relevant here is um um uh it's basically stir fry uh which which uh you know an Indian uh cooking
there's a there's a kadai uh Chinese style is you know like walks but very similar um and those two are available with flat bottoms that are appropriate for induction uh regular induction uh stoves um and um the heat uh travels up
uh relatively quickly up the sides. Um although um I couldn't find this in in the kadai cooking but when I read about walk cooking there there are people that are using um kitchen style little kitchen style blowtorrches um right before or right as the vegetables are
being added to add that extra you know super high heat to give it you know a little bit of burnt taste. um and that that's you know this is this is there there are millions of people successfully doing uh Indian and Chinese cooking uh on induction stove. So uh my
recommendation is that we uh don't grant the waiver uh and that I would be happy u if the board wants to pass on this information through the building department back to the uh to the applicant. Um I I I agree with that. I you know in
the in the it' be interesting to talk with the applicant. Um unfortunately they're not here. Um most of the things that they mentioned in their request are actually excuse me better on um uh
induction stoves. Um, the only one that might not be is uh using a round bottom pan, but as u uh Jim mentions, there are alternatives uh there. And things like u pressure cookers and things like that. A stove
top pressure cooker would work much better with an induction stove than with a gas stove. And it's e easier to regulate. You set it and it works the same way every time. So, um uh I I agree that um I I think we should uh deny this
appeal. My thoughts are not so much on the equipment and the the waiver, but do we feel comfortable not having the applicant here? Should we? That That's my feeling, Alyssa.
So, I would I would agree that um you know, I think that this request went in in March, not this application because it wasn't available. The application is dated May 5th. But I'm super disappointed to hear that this
information was gathered but not shared with the buyer. I don't know if it's a home owner yet or if they've they've actually purchased the home. Um, and I I don't I don't think that it's appropriate for us to approve or deny a
waiver without having that communication. And I also don't think that it's um necessarily appropriate to ask staff to be the conduit for this information. And I do recall that um there was an applicant, I think it was um for Nine
School Street, and someone reached out to them about um the fossil fuel free, you know, sort I I I assume it was one of you, Jim, David, and and that person was very receptable recept sorry, receptive
receptical receptive to the information. Oh, you know, I didn't know this information. And yes, this would be something I'm willing to do. So, I would be much more comfortable if that happened first. And I think it is appropriate to unless town manager has a
different opinion about how he'd like his staff to be directed. It seems um appropriate if the two of you have gotten this information to one of to have one of you reach out to the applicant. David. So, it makes a difference to me
is if the um the applicant knew, do you know, John, if they were informed about the date of this our discussion tonight or not? Because if they chose not to be here, that's different to me is that if they didn't know that we were discussing this tonight. Yeah. So, this is a process that we're just working out. And
I think that's one piece of it that needs a little further clarification. um that uh I don't know that he was that this person was invited specifically. Um I do believe that they know they're they're aware it's being considered, but
maybe they weren't provided the the information that they could come and speak to it. Um so we could we could do that next time. Sorry. We we'll keep working on it. Jim. Um, based on what people have said, uh, I I'd be happy to have us delay the decision until the
19th and, um, um, you know, reach out directly to the applicant, share the information. I have, talk with him. Um, and then if he wants to, you know, come back on the 19th, he can, you know, make his case. Uh, and if not, then we can just, you know, go ahead and vote at
that point. I I doesn't seem like a week delay is going to make much difference. Thank you, Dean. Do you have Yeah, great. Thumbs up. Thank you. Number eight, uh vote to approve the issuance of uh
$6,150,000 general obligation municipal purpose loan of 2025 as more particularly described in the document prepared by bond council distributed to the board. So, let me please, if you don't mind,
introduce this topic. Um, this is a good I think I mentioned this is a good news and not so good news scenario here. Um, and I'll start with the good news cuz I've made that mistake before. Um, the good news is that we u our bond rating was reaffirmed and it remains a AAA. We
went out to the market uh for borrowing for some projects that Toming authorized over the last few years, including the purchase of the Weatherbe property. and we received a pretty good rate considering the market these days. It was 3.5 effectively uh even though it was a little bit more than that on paper
and Maryanne will be able to explain that. So that's the good news. Um in a market that we're in right now getting a rate like that is pretty exciting. The not so good news is that our treasurer collector Terresa Olri uh has accepted a position in another community closer to where she lives. And so she she'll be
this will be her last uh big project for us uh as she transitions to that new role uh next month uh in a community near her home. So first thank you to Teresa for her uh several years of service here. Uh but over the last uh year and a half or so
as treasur collector and other roles before that and um and I'll pass it on to Marian and I can talk more about that transition if if you'd like, but we can also just get to the the borrowing too. Thanks. Okay. So, real quick is that on Friday,
April 18th, um John and a few of us along with Lynn Welsh of Unib, we met with Standard and Poor uh for our rating call. And then on April 28th, we got reaffirmed for the AAA rating. So, that was great news. And the reason why I say that is that that's used considerably
for us to be able to go out to bond and get the great interest rate that John just mentioned, the 3.51%. Um, we went out to bid for this bond on May 6th. Uh, we have two hours to respond with with any questions. Uh,
there were 11 biders. Uh, Raymond James, which is great. Um Raymond James was the award e and uh that is um uh out of the 11 they were very very close but the
3.517% was the uh lowest interest. Um as John had mentioned is that when you receive the paperwork you'll see a uh interest rate. Another name for that is coupon rate. But because we are rated as AAA, we are able to um issue at a
premium. And so the premium is approximately $427,000. And so with that is that the yield, which is the interest that you pay, um overall goes down to the 3.517%. So that's great news. And again,
we're able to do that because there are um a number of companies that um have their own internal policies where they will only bid on AAA bonded communities. Um some will go lower than that, but because we're in a position where
anyone's looking to buy when we issue. So that's really good news. And also is that we were budgeting still for about 4.25%. So, we're very happy with the 3.51 that we got. Um, what we have to do
tonight is that there is a pile of paperwork. I apologize for that. It doesn't take long though. But what we do need the clerk to do is read the form of vote which is right there on top. So, Alyssa, are you the clerk? You it it is
the whole thing, but you'll see. I'm just going to go over just for a minute just to make sure. So, I thought it was what was in bold from the email from Teresa. Um, that's
the motion and you have to and I have to read everything else. Fantastic. Great. Can I just ask a question before she starts reading? Is am I correct that the term here is 15 years? Yes.
She said yes. Yes. Question. Another procedural question. Um it looks like logically we should do the motion first before the clerk says all that stuff or um does it matter? So that is
correct. The instructions are right there. So okay, the motion and then it will be voted voted voted. I the clerk. Mhm. Correct. Well, in that case, I would move to approve the issuance of
$6,150,000 general obligation municipal purpose loan of 2025 as Morris particularly described in the document prepared by bond council and distributed to the board. Do I have to do that? Jim could make the motion. I second.
Or maybe should we should actually vote? I think you vote after she read. Oh, okay. Yes, great. I the clerk of the select board of the town of Actton, Massachusetts, the town certify that at a meeting of the board held May 12th, 2025, of which meeting all members of the board were duly notified and at
which a quorum was present, the following votes were unanimously passed, all of which appear upon the official record of the board in my custody. voted that the sale of the 6,150,000 general obligation municipal
purpose loan of 225 bonds of the town dated May 20th, 2025. The bonds to Raymond James and Associates Inc. at the price of 6,556,228 and acred interest if any is hereby approved and confirmed. The bonds
shall be payable on May 15 of the years and in the principal amounts and bear interest at the respective rates as follows. I have to read all of this. You do. 2026
$300,000 interest rate 5%. 2027 $315,000 interest rate 5%. 2028 $325,000 5% interest rate. 2029
$335,000 5% interest rate 2030 $360,000 5% interest rate 2031 $380,000 5% interest rate 2032 $400,000 5% interest rate 2033
$415,000 5% interest rate 2034 $425,000 5% interest rate 2035 $450,000 5% interest rate 2036 $465,000 4% interest rate 2037
$480,000 4% interest rate 2038 $490,000 4% interest rate 2039 $500,000 4% interest rate and 2040 $510,000 4% interest rate further voted
that in connection with the marketing and sale of the bonds, the preparation and distribution of a notice of sale and preliminary official statement dated April 29, 2025, and a final official statement dated May 6, 2025. The official statement each in such form as
may be approved by the town treasurer be and hereby are ratified confirmed approved and adopted. Further voted that the bonds shall be subject to redemption at the option of the town upon such terms and conditions as are set forth in the official statement. further voted
that the town treasurer and the select board be and hereby are authorized to execute and deliver a continuing disclosure undertaking in compliance with SEC rule 15C2-12 in such form as may be approved by bond council to the town which
undertaking shall be incorporated by reference in the bonds for the benefit of the holders of the bonds from time to time further voted that we authorize and direct the town treasur to establish postisssuance federal tax compliance finance procedures and continuing disclosure procedures in such forms as
the town treasurer and bond council deem sufficient or if such procedures are currently in place to review and update said procedures in order to monitor and maintain the tax exempt status of the bonds and to comply with relevant securities laws. further voted that each
member of the select board, the town clerk, and the town treasur be and hereby are authorized to take any and all such actions and execute and deliver such certificates, receipts, or other documents as may be determined by them or any of them to be necessary or convenient to carry into effect the
provisions of the foregoing votes. I further certify that the votes were taken at a meeting open to the public. That no vote was taken by secret ballot. That a notice stating the place or method of accessing date, time, and agenda for the meeting. Which agenda included the adoption of the above votes
was filed with the town clerk and a copy thereof posted in a manner conspicuously visible to the public at all hours in or on the municipal building at which the office of the town clerk is located. or if applicable in accordance with an alternative method of notice prescribed
or approved by the attorney general as set forth in 940 CMR 29.03 03 2B at least 48 hours not including Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays prior to the time of the meeting and remain so posted at the time of the meeting that no
deliberations or decision in connection with the sale of the bonds were taken in executive session. all in accordance with GLC C30A sections 18- 25 as amended and if applicable the meeting was called and conducted in accordance with section 20
of chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 as amended. That was a runon sentence there. So a motion was made by Jim. It was seconded by Alyssa. All in favor? I I I
kne unanimous. And now you'll see in that packet there are signature pages and they are colorcoded for the select board to sign and that could probably be done while we could do that during this
meeting or or or afterwards. Yeah. But you need we need it we need it before we go home. Before you go home. Correct. Okay. two things at once, can't we? And so is that conclude the work that's needed.
That is Thank you very much. Um it is needed as John mentioned before midnight. And so I just want to thank Maryanne for her leadership and and uh taking this on. She she will be appointed as town treasurer tomorrow. One of the many hats that she wears. She's going to need a
bigger hat rack uh with all the hats that she has. But um I think uh she she's going to continue to be a big leader in this organization as we work through this transition in that office. And as you may have noticed, I don't know if you checked the job boards, but we posted that job earlier today. Uh and
we are excited to see if if uh we I expect we'll be able to have somebody on board before the end of the fiscal year in that role. Um that's about, you know, the time it takes to do the recruitment, have somebody give their notice. So
that's uh that's the plan. David, do we need to appoint Maryanne treasurer? No, it's um it's a it's not a select port appointment. In the past, we've had him on the agenda just for just to keep you in the loop, but I I feel like
you're in the loop at this point. Um the the master general law says that that the town my position can appoint a treasurer or a collector but only with the select board's approval a treasurer collector. And so earlier this year or
maybe it was about a year ago we asked the board to confirm that you're comfortable that we have a treasurer collector position. And so we still have that treasurer collector position and we're actively recruiting to get another one. So, in the meantime, we'll appoint an an interim
treasurer cuz the treasurer is the one who signs all the checks that go out to the town to vendors and and to staff. And then an interim collector uh will be needed, but the tax bills aren't going to be issued until August so we can sort through
that. And we have a strong team in finance, a good uh group of team members that are going to help with this transition as well. It's not just Maryanne by herself. Got a great team down there. Thank you. Yeah. And John had mentioned is that the uh warrant in the bills and
the next time the tax bills go out that would be the uh collector signature on those. And it was when um I think it was time flies by it was the uh confirmation as John mentioned the
creation of the treasurer collector because at the time the finance director was finance director/treasurer. So that's when John went to you to confirm the treasure collector, the creation of So it looks like it's going to uh the
signatures are going to be coming around to you. So thank you. And I'll just I'm going to be here just to do a couple more things so I can just check in if there's anything else you need, John. All right. Thank you. Would you guys mind if I did the consent agenda
quickly? Is that okay? Yeah. And then we'll go on to number nine. Yep. Um the first item, approve amended town manager contract. 15. Accept a gift of 2500 from
town of Westford to support the 2025 Pride Festival. 16. Accept a gift from McKinnon Printing Company for $2,63.50 50 cents to be deposited in the Actton 250 celebrations account. Approve
a 1-day malt and line license for House Rabbit Network at Nara Park Pavilion Wing 2 on August 9th, 2025. 18. Authorize disposition of surplus equipment. 19. Accept gifts to support
the 2025 summer concert series and special events. $1,000 from Deborah's Natural Gourmet, 1,000 from Duncan the Peshy Network, 500 from Kitchen Outfitters, 1,000 from Insulate, and
finally 20 approved filming permit for Anowan Studios. Move to approve consent items 14 through 20 inclusive. Second. All in favor? I. No.
Next up, update on fire department pilot program and introduction of next phase. Thank you. So earlier at the beginning of this year in January, we announced that uh we were starting some pilot programs to look at the way that our fire and EMS services are provided
to the community. Uh we had hired using a grant, we hired a consultant to help facilitate this process. We've done some internal surveys, external surveys, uh, and we're doing more of that as we go on. But one of the the main components
of this pilot of this study program was to try different operational deployments of our fire staffing. Um, up until that point, we had been operating with four stations and spreading out the 10 members on each shift amongst those four
stations. Uh and then starting February 10th, we started a two-station pilot program, and we put five members in South Station, which is on School Street, and five members on North in North Station, uh which is in Harris
Street. And we essentially created we split the town in half by Route 2, put an ambulance in each station and then appropriately staffed other um fire apparatus in in each of them. And since that time, it's worked out pretty well. I think uh we have had some actually
some pretty serious fires and some medicals that were all handled pretty well. I think there was one in particular on Arlington Street uh which is which we were able to get to in a way that people were were pleased with. Uh having more people on scene faster helped facilitate a better response. But
as with anything, um we we're going to wait to see some of the data that we're going to get. uh we've been analyzing response data both in the past and then during that period and one of the main purposes of this thing was
to get get the staffing in groups so that they respond to places but also so that they can train more effectively instead of having have to all drive to north station they can they can train in two groups and also not be as isolated as they are when they're working in twos they were working in pairs in each of
the four stations and it really created not a great great environment for for training, leader, leadership, development, supervision, etc. So, it's been great to have them all together, but South Station has never had five people in it. It was not built that for
that purpose. And so, they've been squeezed in there. Um, they had to repurpose some spaces and they've three, it's pretty tight. Um, and so I think that's the only thing that hasn't worked in the two-station model. Station four, which the community just built in in the
last few years, was perfectly set up to have five people there. Um, so that's gone that's been perfect. Uh, but cell station, it's been too cramped. And so, uh, starting on May 18th, I believe the third week of May, which I guess is next
week, uh, we're going to be transitioning to a three-station pilot program to see how that goes. And that's essentially keeping North Station exactly the way it is with five people in it. And then [Music] um no it's it's putting four people in
north station and having uh three go to the other two stations uh being west station west actton station which is on central street and um south act the same one in south actton essentially taking the responsibilities that are currently out of station two and splitting it
between south and west and we think that will um we think the coverage of the town will be comparable to the two-station model. Um, and we we think it's going to work out pretty well and we're um we're looking forward to trying that out. And I think the plan for that
is to try it out for at least 3 months and see how it goes. And uh we know we've had some we had an additional staff person added uh in the budget which we're excited about. And we've had some contractual uh language changes in
the collective bargain agreement that were ratified by town meeting last week. And so we think that we'll be able to have a little bit of a boost to our recruitment which is, you know, vacancies have been one of the issues that also we've been working through in the fire department. So all those things
combined we hope will work themselves out this summer and we'll be able to to decide whether it makes sense to go back to the way it was at four or or keep rolling with three. Um, I don't think going back to two is is an option unless there's a major improvement or
renovation to to that station or to a to one of the stations because they're just not big enough. Uh, but I think we're pretty excited about it. the fire department leadership, the chief and the deputy have really been engaged in this, the the union leadership, the members, you know, there's all different types of
feedback that we're getting, but generally, uh, I think it's been okay. And, um, we're they're excited to try out this next phase. And if anyone from the public that's listening hasn't taken our survey, we published a survey
available at acttonma.gov. We had 350 responses before town meeting and we put the the the QR code up at town meeting. So maybe we grabbed a few more that night. Um and maybe we'll get a few more in the next few weeks and then that'll be part of the reporting that this this
consultant it's the Collins Center at UMass Boston. They're going to compile data from internal surveys, from the external surveys. We're going to have a public hearing in June uh which I will announce when I have the date u confirmed u just to talk about
the program and we may get 100 people in here or we may get five but we're going to basically lay out the whole thing and and talk about the fire department services and see if there's anyone that wants to share feedback or questions uh at that time. So, so the purpose of this
agenda item was to announce the relative success of the pilot program so far and announce that we're transitioning to a three-station model starting next week. And I guess just a check check-in point with with the board to see if there's anything that you wanted to mention about this as we continue this this
process. I will just take the opportunity once again to reiterate for the public that we do need a station in North Actton. So
the message is not that we built a station a few years ago and now you're telling us we don't need it. That is not what we're saying. The location um of that station was critical and had been known to be a need for decades before it
was built. This is improving safety and improving working conditions. And hopefully at the public forum in June, we can once again reiterate that message um because it's still floating around in the ether that um this was not good
planning on the town's part. Will the Collins Center work um consider um uh facilities in their adequacy um or is it just personnel?
I think part of the it's about operations. So, it's not about they're not going to bring in an architect to update our facility condition assessments that we've done recently, but they'll provide feedback on how they believe the facilities are
operating effectively or not um going forward. So I I I would be interested in not not any a kind of architecture questions but whether um um the adequacy of of facilities to the
ideal purpose for operations. For example, if the ideal purpose of operations uh would be the two-station model, if only we had an extra 500 square feet in South Aton or whatever it is, right? It's probably that I'd be
interested in that, right? um uh or whether is the three-station model better um you know even if we had the extra space in South Aton is the three-station model back better and is do all the stations and I I know that the the north station is definitely like
you said um definitely sufficient for purpose but the other two have are are a little bit different and they have uh pros and cons. I mean, I I'm interested in that because, you know, as you know, at the uh uh late last year, one of the
things that we were discussing was um improvements to the stations. And I think, you know, we we'd want to make those from a well-informed point of view. Um, in the three-station model, where where are the ambulances?
They they so they remain having one ambulance north of Route 2, one ambulance south of Route Two. And exactly which station it will run out of between south and west. I don't remember, but either south or west. Sorry. Okay. I I can take my answer
later. Dean, did you have something? No. Alyssa. So, I just want to um say that I second wholeheartedly what David said. If we're going to look at um renovations or improvements to either south or west,
we should make sure we know that an improvement to both stations is best for operations. Or maybe a renovation and an addition to the South Actton station is best for operations.
So, let's not do renovations that are not going to get us to the ideal place. Thank you. Yeah. So, moving on. Number 10, review of town meeting results.
Yeah. We published a a brief summary of each article on the actton.gov/towning page. Uh the town clerk's office will be publishing their official town meeting minutes, which I think that used to be called the abstract. We're trying to use more
common language. So I think we're going to call them the official town meeting results or something like that. Uh so people know what it is. Uh but I think every you know I think so th this is just an opportunity for the board to reflect on articles that passed or
didn't pass and um any specific directives that were given from town meeting voters through through resolutions or other other other actions that were taken. So I don't have anything in particular to present um on that note,
but there is something under item 11 that I'm asking as a followup um which I suppose I could cover now if for efficiency. So the so the town meeting approved three home rule petitions. Uh one was related to the citizens library
and the memorial library. One was related to um the distance for public safety first responders and the other was related to bag uh paper bags um sir charges. So we want to get
particularly the 15 mile thing we want to get that going as soon as possible and and all the other ones we certainly want to do fast as as quickly as possible too. So, I'd ask you to authorize the chair to send this letter uh to our state representative to get the process going cuz I think as soon as
we send it to them, we can then start pressuring them to act on it. But until we give it to him, the ball's in our court. So, Tom Meing said yes, we just need to send it send it to Beacon Hill. Dean, I move that we authorize the chair to
send letters to our legislative delegation regarding the three recently approved home rule petitions. Second. All in favor? I I I unanimous. No
nazs. Thank you. Next up, update on DPW building. Are we We're not Yeah. So, so there are other items that Y um may may want discussion. It was a
little left. Uh yes, Alyssa. So, I would love to hear um an update about the article 6 A. Is that right? the town hall HVAC
um because I think a lot of folks uh are disappointed that that did not pass that that failed by one vote. So, I'd like to to hear some good news about the the timeline. I will report that I have already scolded the other voters in my
house for not attending town meeting because I think that if they had been there, it would have passed. Um, and then I just have one comment about the the statement um that was read uh
communicating the board's recommendation um on article 40. Um, thank you Jim for going to a mic on town meeting floor to more accurately represent the board's
deliberation. Um, but I think just for for future we need to be reflective of of what we voted uh or not what we voted what we discussed. So I didn't think David that your statement did really um
characterize our deliberation especially given that it was not a unanimous vote. So I think just you know h having included what Jim shared would have would have fixed that issue. That's it
to the question of article 6A which was the town hall's u replacement of the HVAC system and emergency standby generator. Um we we proposed that as a full project. Uh we currently are at nearly just about 25% design and our
cost estimate was based on that information. The borrowing authorization was proposed to be funded um 60 or 70% from the general fund borrowing authorization and the remaining from the energy efficiency
fund. The energy efficiency fund is appropriated by the select board. Um and so we were going to come to you maybe at this meeting and say good news town meeting supported article 6. Can you just approve the rest? Um, so one option
that we think uh is worthwhile to keep momentum on this project because it's it's another one of those things where it's not like we can decide not to replace the HVA system there. There's environmental concerns that that it's not being comfortable. It's
environmental uh air quality concerns that we need to address. So to keep the project going, uh we are recommending that the board appropriate some amount of energy efficiency funds to get us to the next phase of design and bring this project further along to get another cost
estimate which would which be would be more refined and hopefully less. Um but if not less at least it'll be more refined. And I think at least from my perspective, what I heard at town meeting wasn't so much no, we don't
think so. It was more what tell me more about it. And I think taking doing this additional study and and design work will allow us to better explain what it is and what it isn't. Um because there's a lot of talk about geothermal versus uh
airsource and and all that. And I think there's a lot more nuts and bolts and core components of the project that I think we'll be able to better explain next year. And if we do that and if we what what did we say we needed not
we didn't need I think it was 150 250 which we'll come we'll come next meeting or or soon to a meeting with an official request but it's certainly enough it's money that we have and that was allocated for this project. uh it would just be allocating in a different
order than we we had initially thought of. And um it wouldn't necessarily knock us off schedule um because even if it was approved, it would still be a while before we get the project to where we need it to be. And if we have to wait an
extra few months to get the full authorization, it wouldn't be as bad as waiting a year to just to have to start the process to continue the process. I mean, so that's the good news. I guess you could call it on this. Is there any other questions about
that or No, thank you. That's exactly what I wanted the public to hear. Um, and also the public should hear that every vote counts. So, come to town meeting. Jim, do you a couple things. One is
about 6A. Um, one of the disadvantages is that we, you know, hadn't, we hadn't prepared a actual presentation with, you know, background information and, you know, there was a lot of, um, there were some misinformed comments
made from the floor that we didn't really have time to go over and having this come back to town meeting gives us a chance to, you know, do it right. Like even even to explain what coefficient of performance is. So that you know when when somebody says oh you can't have
300% efficiency then you can explain no what we mean is that for every unit of energy you pay for you get this much energy out and airsource heat pumps and ground source heat pumps actually give you more energy out than you pay for because you're getting the energy for
free from the air or the ground. Um so you know that kind of thing you know it would be great to be able to say that out loud in a at a time meeting. It's a chance to do some some great uh education. Um I think that was also true for I mean
it did pass the um you know the other stuff that got pulled off consent like the checkout bag fee. Um but I I think it would have been better for us to have actually you know had a presentation prepared and and you know ex and gone
ahead and done it. So, I think the next time we have we have to reauthorize a home rule petition. I mean, we can put it on consent, but we should expect to have to talk about it and we could be prepared for that. Um, and there was one other piece. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Um, so we
did pass I think I was going to double check because it was kind of late by then, but I think we uh we the town meeting narrowly passed the the request to have a a hearing about um the Hayward
and Maine intersection. Is that true? Okay. Um so that's just something we should keep in mind. Um, it's g, you know, presumably we'll want to think about it and figure out, you know, how we want to do it, if we want to do it, when we want to do it, and all that. But
I just wanted us not to lose track of that. That might be, uh, you know, something for a for a new chair to take on um, you know, sometime later. That's all. Thank you. on on uh 6A. Uh you
know, I agree with what's said. I heard a number of speakers um ask for things like cost breakdowns and things like that for for 6A. I think it's a perfectly reasonable request. And maybe in hindsight um
uh something that's of a certain size in the in the borrowing article might need to be brought out in its own article. Right. that that was more expensive than what we usually do in in um in in um the
composite article and it's more complex than sidewalks. I think people you know sidewalks first of all less expensive but sidewalks are pretty straightforward. we're going to build some sidewalks generally based on the order of need and you know we have this much money but I think the the town hall
HVAC is a more complicated issue and people had um more complicated questions and it was it's expensive and so um you know I think you know people deserve the the answers there. Um, I was also very
glad to see that um town meeting um uh funded the small appropriation so we can um uh cost out some things for the DPW building, right? because I I think that's extremely important because if we're to go back to a future town
meeting um with some alternatives or at least some answers, right, to say that we we looked into this suggestion, that suggestion, and some other suggestion and either was there was a big cost benefit or it's about the same or it's cost more. You know, we need to be able
to um have some answers to those questions for town meetings. So, I think that's that was that's important as well. Thank you. Any other reflections? No. Alyssa, just to follow up on what Jim
suggested about having presentations ready to go for reauthorization of of prior prior approved home rule petition. Um there was a comment that was made
that it shouldn't have been on consent. Um, so I'm just looking at I mean it did say in the summary that town meeting voters approved it in 2022 in the warrant, but not everybody was
reading their warrant. Yeah. Like the folks who were holding all of the CPA items. Um, so I think a lesson learned there is that we need to say it upfront. So, you know, that should be the first thing that's said is that this
was approved um by town meeting in this year and we need to reauthorize it because the legislature didn't act on it. And and with um whoever is the I think Dean, you're the liaison to CPC just, you know, we're we're going to
have to always have what is CPA and what can it be spent on. Um, and I know that there was a a deliberate move to be more efficient um, and s succinct, but people move into town. Um, people haven't been
to a town meeting before and they're coming for some, you know, one thing that interests them. And so I think that in the presentation it needs to be spelled out right at the beginning so people understand. Dean.
Yeah. Regarding the the CPA articles, which gathered a great deal of flack this time compared to normal, um the uh CPC chair spoke to me immediately afterwards and the first thing he said was, you know, we were
told to cut down our presentations. I think we cut them down too much. So, I think the information that was presented in the warrant, we'd cut that down as well. Uh, I don't think there were many questions about that, but the presentation certainly
um th those were important items to remind everybody where the CPA money comes from. Um the other thing I think is important for certainly for CPA and and there might be other times when it's
important as well with a big committee like that we have sort of subject matter experts that shepherd these projects through the whole process and they should be there and available um to make presentations
to explain it and certainly uh at least the disc golf on that individual was not present. Um, and there were a lot of questions about that. It was amazing that almost one of the
smallest requests of, you know, $40,000 roughly for a disc golf received as much flak as it did. Um, and it's sort of a a repeat of the discussions had in the past. Well, gee, I don't play disc golf,
so I shouldn't be uh interested in providing the opportunity for anybody else. Well, you know, I I don't play soccer and I over 50 years I've paid for a lot of soccer fields and pickle ball fields, courts,
and what have you. I mean, it's we're all a community. Um, you know, a lot of this discussion goes in uh in great detail during the CPC process. uh CPC meetings are always very open and
you welcome everybody and we have very few attendees. So, um it's too bad more people aren't clue clued into this. Uh but um lessons for next year. David, yeah, just two minor things also
about CPC. one is I'm I'm wondering if after um a requesttor makes their presentation uh to uh the CPC um maybe the CPC could remind them if if we approve this request, you should plan on attending
town meeting and to answer any questions. So all the town requests, you know, the recreation director is there um or another town staff member is there, but the the ones that are requested by private organizations, um they really
need to be there to represent themselves in case there's I mean the town meeting has legitimate questions. Um, and the other thing which I mentioned to the town manager afterward is that we might want to um, group the debt service things together at the end of the CPC request.
So, they can't really be held. It would cause us to default on a bond, which is bad. Um, and so, uh, and also they've been pre-approved by, um, town, uh, by town meeting. It is true that um and the
town manager reminded me that you know every year we have to vote on any debt service uh whether it's part of the general budget or whatever it is but it really we can't say okay now we don't want to pay for right hill anymore or something um that's not really an an
option so maybe we should group those and and mark them in a special way in the warrant that says previously approved uh that I think one of the things different this year is we now have three of them Um, and so, um, uh, which I think is the most we've ever had
that I think ever because it's the most I remember since I've been in town in the CPC. I'm sure it predates me, but if it does, just by a little bit. So, um, anyway, all set. Yep. Now, um, update on
DPW building project. Well, um, deja vu. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how do you like the play? the uh I I think it was you know there are a couple of things that I caused us some
problems um I and I don't know how we would address them when we come back and do this again which we are going to do this again because this is not an option um but I think um certainly a lot of people were
confused by the the process of the uh the ballot first and then the vote at town meeting. Um there was misinformation that was spread out throughout the community that somebody somewhere said that if the
ballot vote fails then it's not even going to be discussed at town meeting. Well, that was certainly not ever said by anybody at this table. Um, so I think, you know, that certainly stirred up the folks and, uh, you know, you can
certainly get a lot of folks that have a lot of keyboard courage on Sunday morning, um, and just bomb you with stuff. So I think when we do this again, if we have a situation where we have the
ballot before the town meeting action, I think it's important to make sure that there's a very clear statement in the warrant exactly what will happen no matter which way the the vote goes.
Um because I think because of the misinformation that had been spread around uh most of us got accused of all sorts of nefarious things and double dealing and you know unfortunate comparisons with you know the regime in
Washington DC which you know is totally uncalled for but that's what happens. So I think that's that's one lesson that was learned. I think you know
I'm every big project that the town has done has required multiple iterations. The uh so I'm I'm not surprised by what happened. U disappointed but not surprised. Interestingly enough, I've had a number
of people contact me afterwards and have been disappointed as well that the project was defeated and have volunteered to help. So, I think we've got as we move ahead,
uh, we'll probably have to get building committee back together again. We still got some other folks that are interested in serving on the building committee, folks that have not been on the committee in the past. So might be coming back to uh try to expand the committee a little bit more.
Um especially if we can get more folks that are we had a lot of technical people on the committee this time around. I think we need probably some more political people. Um which is one of the things that happened fairly well when we got the
North Aton fire station approved. So, I think we need to to do a little more of that community outreach and probably have some more folks on the building committee as we move forward. Um, I'll leave it up to the town manager for his ideas about, you know, how we
approach what we're going to do next with 150,000. Um, whether a few of us get together and talk about this and then go to a building committee or or what the process is, I haven't figured that out yet. But, uh,
I I think that we'll be ready to come back with some kind of a plan next year and hopefully we'll have a better result. Um, you know, it's disappointing not to get the 50% at uh at the ballot,
but we didn't lose by that much at least on the ballot. So, I think there's there's hope there. And I think that as we educate folks about the needs and start to explain some of the decisions that were made, um I don't know what we could have done
that could have swayed the finance committee. We responded to every question they raised. We adjusted the size, the scope, and the cost of the building.
Um but it was just there was a brick wall and you know negotiation on these things takes two parties and if there's only one party is willing to negotiate that you know you're not going to move very
far. So but I'm hopeful uh we just keep going at it. Uh, I'll see if John or Tom have any comments he'd like to add, especially about how we move ahead with that, the
appropriation we did get. So, we've been we've been talking a lot since that night, even that night, about what we would do going forward and we do have some ideas what we want to bring forward. Um, also informed by the board's goal setting. I think that uh
goal has been on the docket for the last four or five years in different places and uh if there's any changes to that it would be helpful to know uh before we dive fully into it. So uh that's that's less than a month away. So I think between now and then uh we'll have some
some ideas to share about about how to uh move this forward and we have the OPM under contract and this additional funding could be used for design. Um anything else you wanted to add?
One thing uh there there was a lot of confusion too about the actual ballot and the way that that it read and it was confusing to a lot of folks. So I was just curious if there can be any tweaking of that in any way.
Well, I guess uh the town clerk and the town council talked about that and I think there in the past well I've only been here for a few years and only one such vote and I think the only thing that was significantly different between when we asked for North Actton Fire
Station and when we asked for this is that there was a big title at the top of the ballot that said North Actton Fire Station and then all that legal ease. Um, and so because if you remember there were three that year and so we if you put all three without any titles it would have been confusing. So I think
something as simple as that would have maybe made a difference just to kind of frame the voter of what they're actually seeing instead of having them read the hereby or whatever whatever it said cuz it is it is confusing but it is it's required to use that language. But um we
certainly should take the opportunity before it goes on a ballot again to see what other additional information we put can put on there. But I think we need to make sure that it doesn't you know it has to be factual objective and nothing more than
that. But we can I think we could do it. Thank you David. And then Jim uh yeah I have a a handful of things. I think we can also add a summary to a ballot question, right? So, uh if so that that's an that's another uh al
alternative. Um I you know I I would like to see a start part of the process for us to do um a planning division style outreach with with the interactive sessions. Um, I I think we need to engage the
public a little bit more in this in this process. And um, I think that the planning division has been really successful and they've kind of honed their skills over the past u several years and I think I think that we could learn uh something from them. Um, I
think we're going to have to be really judicious with the amount of money that town meeting appropriated. It's not enough to really cost a lot of different alternatives. We're going to have to kind of do some general, you know, several people um couple people on the
finance committee, other places have um made specific suggestions. Um you know, we should try to consider those in a way that uses this money best. you know, just start out on a path to see whether it might save money and
whether we should do a detailed costing or whether, you know, with some back of the envelope costing. We just don't see how it could make um, you know, a difference. You know, and I'm just saying that it's going to have to be clever with, you know, $150,000 is not
going to go allow us to design four different building alternatives, right? So, that's we're going to have to be pretty careful with that. Um one thing I think also that we need to emphasize going forward is um the workers in DPW. There are some um some of the
suggestions for example um to talked about um uh you know maybe building offices and leaving the crews in the building that exists. Um I think um you know everybody in town has to realize that the the you know the um we
need to consider all the employees in the DPW. We're not just talking about make making a nice office environment. I think some people who work in, you know, who live in town, they're used to working in an office and so they they kind of identify with the office
workers, but the um uh you know, the the crews that are the ones that go out and um you know, build our sidewalks and repair our roads. um they need, you know, a place to come back to that's safe and efficient and things like that.
And I think that we need to um put put those those folks um forward. Um I think we didn't do a a a super job in letting people know the need. I know we tried a lot, but there were
still a whole lot of people um who didn't understand the need. some of whom when I talked to them in detail they were able to understand the need. So somehow the general outreach didn't do that. I don't know how that is. I mean we offered they could come see the
DPW building what three times you know and a lot of things but somehow I you know the bottom line is I don't think we did a great job in in uh putting forth the need. Um and you know finally I think that um
you know uh uh the cost estimate for the um the design design plans um that we started with um you know the at at first
blush the the finance committee said that was about 20% too expensive and one um speaker on uh town meeting floor said that they said it was 20% too expensive and we reduced the price by 20%. And we
didn't get any other votes on from um the finance committee which was which was really disappointing because in you know I think in our view we did what they asked for and uh uh it it didn't sway anybody. So uh you know that's that was that was diff disappointing.
Jim I had a couple thoughts about next steps. Um the first is um uh resetting our um connection with the finance committee.
Um, which I think means lots of one-on-one conversations cuz when we met as a big group, it was like, okay, here's a group of people that have all decided one thing and a group of people that have all decided another thing and there was no room for
for flex. Um I think individual conversations uh between you know all of us and you know all of the finance committee members are going to help us both understand where the flex is you know
what different people are looking for what their ideas are um and you know I I'm sadly I'm not expecting to get to some you know like unanimous vote of the finance committee
on a revive plan that we come up with, but but a unanimous vote against was a really hard way to go forward. Uh, and that was visible to people before the ballot vote because they got their warrant. Um, so I think with individual
conversations, we might be able to understand, you know, what are the key things we might need to really figure think about changing. um and for them for the individuals on the finance committee to really grapple
with yeah this is way expensive and it's important what are we going to do and then you know then I think there's some opening for some um you know at least a not unanimous vote um the other piece
I'm thinking about is um when I think about the last uh override the operating override we did have a, you know, an independent organization that could do, you know, active advocacy and that's important when you're looking at a
ballot. You know, we can't we we, you know, as a board we can do with things in our official meetings, but we can't say, you know, let's spend money on lawn signs or, you know, that's beyond what we can do. But it's not beyond what an independent organization can do. uh an
independent organization or us, any group could do some of that basic education. And I agree that there is a lot of mystery in town about, you know, even where the DPW building is, what happens in it, who the people are. So, I
think there's a lot of just sort of humanizingformational stuff that could that could come out um that could be conveyed more uh efficiently and accurately and wider if there was an independent group. Um so, Dina, it was
really great to hear that people were coming up to you and saying, "Oh, I you know, I wasn't involved, but I'd like to be involved." And some of them might have a role instead of being on the building committee, maybe they're on this, maybe we encourage them to go off and do a thing on their own. And you
know, that was my other thought. Alyssa, thank you. So, I think that um Jim, you hit on something that I wanted to point out is that the suggestion to have new people come on to the building committee
who are maybe looking at this from a political angle is something that might not be copathetic because they would then be appointed officials and be li more limited in the kind of outreach.
So, I think your suggestion, Jim, to have a group who can campaign um champion the project, do do the outreach separate from the new folks um that might come on to the building committee.
Um yeah, it was it was very frustrating. I I reached out to quite a number of people to ask for some some help with outreach and I didn't really get any takers. um unfortunately. [Music]
Um so so I think that we need to re be really careful and clarify what different folks will be will be permitted to do um with campaign finance law. And I think that I think that it's accurate that we did have several
communication failures. You know, putting that personal face on the the staff um at the at the building and not just, you know, photographs of the the walls and the cracks in the walls and and and such. Um I've been thinking a lot about the
ballot question and the town meeting vote and I know that a lot has changed since 2019. Um, a lot has changed. However, I keep thinking about the order of that. You bring people to
town meeting and you present the project and and people get a chance to ask questions and get those questions answered and then deliberate on the town meeting floor and then going to the ballot to, you know, affirm their
support or their opposition to that project. I think that that's critical cuz I I keep thinking about the fact that the Minuteman Tech school, the borrowing for that was almost $200 million. Um the replacement of Gates and
Douglas and West Actton was $116 million and then the fire station 10 million. So those are, you know, a lot more collectively than this um 35 million that we were asking town meeting to borrow. Um, and I think that more more
outreach about the cost that that was really in alignment with with what facilities cost today. Um, so I think that that is another communication key. Also, this distinction between need and
want. Um, I think it's hard when you are presenting what exists today is a 19,000 square foot facility and then what you're proposing is a little bit more than twice that. Of course, people are going to go to, oh, they, you know,
they've been doing this work for 55 years in this smaller facility. So, why do we need to more than double the size? Even though that information was there in the details, I think that's a big leap for people to make like how do you distinguish and the project
changed because we went through the value engineering twice. So people were still at the ballot thinking that there were two conference rooms what not knowing that one of them the smaller one had been removed. So I wonder if Fran, you mentioned visiting a lot of DPW
facilities and other communities and you encouraged, you know, finance committee members to go and visit. Maybe we can get photographs. I know we had a photograph of the bunk room. I think it was in Westford. like these are the kinds of um extravagant, not that
they're extravagant because you want people to be able to sleep somewhere other than their truck in, you know, freezing weather, but these are some of the things that are in other communities, in other facilities that, you know, we're not
including in this one. This is the bare minimum. I mean, we had people on social media wondering why there's a need for a shower. Why can't they just go home and shower? Um like, well, the DPW director works um you know, an hour away from his
home, so maybe some of these staff who are out there cleaning storm drains don't want to sit in their vehicle smelly um for that drive home. Um and there's a lot of a lot of I think um outreach and communication. We just have to figure out who's going to do it and
in what form, right? you know, it might need to be um meet and greet style rather than an interactive planning division type forum at the library or maybe both. Going to go all out and do all the things. Can I just ask you a quick
question for clarification? So, and just to add, they don't sleep in a bunk, they sleep on a couch, which is even worse, but um is a couch. Yeah. So were you suggesting a ballot vote
after after the town meeting the different so annual we can't do it because it's in in the charter the dates of the annual election and the annual town meeting. was just thinking like maybe that is
partially, you know, a key element to be able to have this town meeting forum where people get the information, they see the presentation, they talk about it, they get their questions answered, and then the ballot happens later, a
week later, 3 years later in the case of Minute Man. Like maybe that is a key factor, and I don't know how to solve that. you know, whether or not we have a special town meeting. We spend $15,000 to I don't know, maybe we should have
maybe we should have made a presentation at the November town meeting where we where we purchased Weatherbe and and approved some of our union contracts. you know, if we had the people there in the auditorium, we could have provided this information, but we didn't know the
details about the project yet because the, you know, it was still going undergoing um value engineering. So, it wasn't a suggestion to do it that way. It was just a thought of like this is a piece that was missing here because of the timing.
Terra, um, yes. So I hope state your name and address. Oh m um so I has already been here. All right. Uh I feel like we got to take FinCom seriously. They don't want to spend that
150 grand on PR to try and sell a project that they don't like. I feel like the agreement was to scope it out with them and figure out how to fit within a budget.
The part about having um townsponsored advocacy groups, you know, is is really if you read chapter 55, I was really appreciative of Nina's uh reference to that in the memo to fin agreed with her disagree with her
interpretation that they can't post in the act and exchange. I feel like it provided every defense to be able to um support the fin composting anywhere they can as long as it's free and not town resources. It was very clear in chapter
55 that the town is not supposed to use its resources to promote a specific for or against ballot or town meeting votes. So I I urge you to take a look at that and stop trying to sell crap to us. It's insulting I feel like to think that if
you just educate me more, I'll be like so excited to spend the money that I don't want to spend. I mean, I'm not saying for or against anything. I'm just saying that that's the attitude that I was hearing in the balcony of town meeting with people saying, you know, what are you talking about? You're going to try and educate me to want something
I don't want. So, I it's not necessarily my feeling. I'm just broadcasting that to you. If you really care about public input, start from scratch. Take a look at what Sudbury is doing. They're doing theirs peace meal and it's cheap, cheap, cheap. They're replacing the roof. They
replace the floor. They're putting in the HVAC. They're I mean the uh heat pumps, you know what I mean? They're doing all this stuff really affordably. Look at Harvard's consultants. Maybe the Sunbury's building isn't as old as ours either. I'm just saying newer. It's actually Please don't be stuck on an
approach and try and sell us the same approach. Please be willing to consider alternatives. The uh Harvard who's uh built their facility. Yes, it has to be different than ours and all that, but it's $315 a square foot as opposed to Actton's over
700. So, just take a look at this stuff. So, do you want to It is not a back and forth, but I just feel like there's misinformation. I would like to correct that that is not accurate. The Harvard one. Yep. I went there and looked at the cost. So did I.
And divided by the number of Yep. And you were looking at a 2021 needs assessment, but they sent out the bid and it was a $10 million estimate. So with the same division, you end up with I think it was
657. You add 5% for 2024 to 2025 and the dollar amount was $696 a square foot, which is $4 less than than Actton's $700 a square foot. So I hear I think we all hear what
you're saying about, you know, advocacy. Um, town staff are permitted to share information. I I heard some complaints about the poster boards that were up. I mean, project page, tours of the facility. All of that is giving
information to the residents, to the taxpayers about the needs and the project. And it's all permitted um under state law. It's not advocacy for or against. It'sformational. The these are
the existing conditions and that is all that town resources um were spent on the elected officials. However, during, you know, public meetings or private conversations um or at ACT TV, we are as elected
officials permitted to use our own own time to do that. We don't have working hours like town staff do. Um so so we we hear you that you know there are people in the town who don't want to be sold on
something that they that they don't want. Um but this is the reality that this is a dire need and this is Actton and it's not Sudbury and it's not Harvard and the feasibility. I think we're just kind of to I said this at the
the premeating um before town meeting on on May 5th. Uh we're very far past, you know, four years beyond the 2021 feasibility study, but these alternatives were looked at. It's more expensive to renovate the building. It's
more costly to to fix it than to knock it down and build it again. So, we do need to use this appropriated $150,000 to do some study, you know, look at the the structural integrity of the
building, look at, you know, cost out different alternatives. We're not spending $150,000 on a PR campaign. We appropriated that at town meeting in order to to get us more information to be able to communicate to to residents.
Thank you. Um, I meant to u make sure that you scope it out with the fincom so that you understand what they're willing to live with and not try and sell us on the same project. Thank you. And I just wanted to add and correct me if I'm
wrong that more people when uh the moderator was asking who actually voted for the project um more people voted for the project than against it. It wasn't 2/3, but in the unofficial vote, I was
surprised. Are we moving forward? Yes. So, next up, select board reorg capacity to You you run it. You you run this. Yeah. I I run this. Yeah. Okay. As the current chair, you run this. Sorry.
[Laughter] I Yep. Um so norm normally you would uh accept nominations for one position at a time. Okay. And then um uh ask ask for
if um one only one person was nominated for a position, you just ask for an affirmation vote. If two or more people are nominated, you go around and ask for who they vote for. Okay. Um in the past few years, we've done kind of rank choice voting. Yes. So that if let's say
three people are nominated and uh it gets 2 to one, then you would drop the one and ask for vote on the other two. Um um and then go move down to the next position. Okay. So we usually do it from chair down. Yes. Great. Sorry, I was
focused on other things. Alyssa, I would like to nominate Dean for chair. I'll second. Any other nominations?
You have one this Oh, David. I would like to nominate myself for chair. I'll second that. Oh, sorry. Um, I say a few words. Yeah, I would accept the nomination. Um, you know, I've been on the board six
years. I've served as clerk for two years, chair for one year, uh vice chair for three years. So, um I think what I see would be my strength uh
to serve another term as chair is that I'm used to being in the minority of things. So I'm I try to work in a collaborative cooperative fashion. Um find things that
I can agree with everybody on and uh and try to move ahead with what's best for the entire town and reflect what's best for the entire board. Um I have never tried and I would not attempt to try to uh force my opinion on
this board. Thank you, David. Uh, do you have your hand raised? So, I Yeah, same way. Why would you like to be chair?
So, um, uh, for me, um, it's been the, uh, longest time since I was last chair, except for Alyssa. Um so um uh um and my my term was shortened. Um so I was only
chair for nine months because I started at the end of the pandemic um and a delayed town meeting and ended the following year with no pandemic. But before we changed the the time of town meeting and the vote. So um I had like between eight and nine months for my
that's um uh chair. Um so um uh and uh you know I uh uh during my my time I um you know uh always tried to allow anybody to to speak say what they'd like
to to say. I was highly criticized at the time for letting um Maline Cruz speak for a long time. Um um and uh and I uh you know I try to run an an efficient meeting and be fair to
everybody. I also um numerous times in the during the time I was chair, you know, individuals on the board asked me um for a particular um topic to be brought up at uh on um at
one of our meetings and I ma made sure that we worked out a plan to get that to happen. Um so um anyway, I would enjoy the opportunity again. Thank you. I was also going to nominate
myself, Dean. Pry it out. Fry it out. Um, it's been a great learning experience. Um, there is, uh, no doubt. Are you nominating yourself? I did nominate myself. And you need a second. Oh, I need a second. Sorry.
A second. Thank Thank you. Thank you. I am This is sort of a concession speech. I I just have enjoyed the time here. There is a little added level of stress to the chair position. Um and
uh the ALG process has been a huge learning curve. Um it would probably take another year or so to to really uh master that for me. But I I've I've
enjoyed my time as chair. Jim, um before we move right to the voting, would it be appropriate to say more about, you know, why why we're voting a particular way and we might be convincing each other of something? I
don't know. I'd like to say something about who I'm going to support. Or we could just vote. [Music] I don't have a real big reason. I've enjoyed um agenda setting. I think
that's an important part of of the process. I I think that um some agenda items from that I bring forth might look
different than other folks that that um set the agenda. So yeah, I think he was asking if he could make comments. Oh, sorry. I was just making I thought you were asking me a question. Oh, okay. Uh, I
was just asking if it was appropriate for me to say why I might vote the way I would vote. Oh, do it. Okay. Um, so what I've discovered during my time on the board is that to my surprise, I'm more of a institutionalist than I thought.
Um, that I am um um I I like I like the way we have a rotation where people go from being clerk to vice chair and chair. It seems reasonable. It seems fair. It seems, you know, so um from
from that perspective, I see Dean as the vice chair. He should be chair next. Um and you know, where where if I was, you know, maybe to draw a diagram of ideological connections, I might end up being closer to Mr. Martin here. Um, I I
think both of you did a very good job as chair in particular with the with making sure that all points of view were represented and that if people wanted to talk about things, you made you figured out a way you both figured out ways of getting them on the agenda. So, I'm not
concerned about um um you know uh Dean's more conservative point of view having some sort of detrimental effect on the functioning of the board. Um, so you know, so I'm torn. I think you guys will both do a good job, but I'm going to end up uh um voting for
Dean on the first ballot there. Well, I guess so. Alyssa Dean Dean Dean, if you can't beat him, join him. Right.
I'll I'll vote for for Dean as well. Dean, too. Thank you. Congrats. Appreciate it. Yep. Appreciate your conference. I'm still running.
So, you like bizarre, you know? Yeah, you can make a choice. We have done both. Yeah, that where the the gavl move. What do you think? What do you think? Hang on to that. We've done the one where the sorry where the gavl moved after that vote or where
the the old chair uh continued with all the positions and then the gavl moved. Yes. Thank you. Um, I will accept uh nominations for vice chair
and I would like to take the opportunity to nominate Alyssa as vice chair. Second. Third. I have nothing different to say. You say something. Yeah. You willing? Yeah. You should at least say you're
willing. I I am willing to serve as vice chair, although I'm really gonna miss being clerk. Are you? I am. Mhm. Because I make so many
additions and edits. And it's a lot easier to do that when I just have control of the Google Doc and I don't have to email somebody. Um, but I'm gonna I'm going to exercise some zen of letting go of a
little bit of that. Excellent. Excellent. And um, yeah, I'm going to I'm going to be having some more time this coming school year, not working.
So, I will be available for ALG meetings and ribbon cutings and swearing in of new firefighters and agenda setting meetings. Thank you.
Do we do we hit Yeah. Stop. Stop. Do we uh do we have any other nominees? I think we've already Yeah, I think effectively taken a That was unanimous. Okay, accept that as a unanimous vote.
Do we have to vote? Take the vote. Yep. Take the vote. Um Jim. Hi. Uh yes for Alyssa. David, also yes for Alyssa. Yes for Alyssa. Yes for Alyssa. Yes.
Thank you. It's unanimous. All right. Now, I know you don't want to give up the pen, but I I will accept nominations for clerk. I would like to nominate Fran for clerk.
Are you trying to torture me? No, no, no. I am happy to do a job. Yes, Jim. Um, I I would nominate David for clerk. Any other nominations? Do you um wait, did someone second Fran? I think Fran
did. Did I second? I I did kind of second myself. You just have to say second instead of I'll do it. I'll I'll second myself. Okay. Um, David, would you like to make any comments? So, I I was clerk a long long
time ago. I don't remember exactly. I think it was actually I think it was after I was chair. Um, but um because that was it was really weird in the beginning after the pandemic. But anyway, um yeah, I I I I don't think I'm
as fidious as uh Alyssa. Um uh um um but uh I'm very willing to do the job. Okay, thank you. Any other comments from anyone or shall I take a vote?
I I that sort of was my comment. I have never been clerk. I'm happy to throw my hat in and I too don't think I'd be able to live up to your expectation. Okay, we'll take the vote. Uh Jim,
uh David, I'll vote for me, too. I'll vote for David, too. I'll vote for David as well. I'll vote for David, too. So, it's unanimous. May I say that it's actually very nice
to have unanimous votes, not not for not for clerk, but for for all of us. And I think we did I think we did last time too. Um and uh um anyway, I think it's very nice. All
right. Well, so my first official action would be to uh ask for motion. I move to adjourn. Second. Moved and seconded to adjourn. All in favor say I. I. I.
opposed. We're adjourned.