Good evening. It's nice to see a lot of interested folks come to town hall. Um so normally we start with residents concerns and the hook on that is resident
concerns. We'd like to hear issues that people bring up which are not otherwise addressed in the agenda. uh for those of you who might be here to discuss the situation um the site plan conditions
uh for the uh tennis facility. That'll be item three and we will take that up in due time um very shortly. So, anybody that has any any residents that have any concerns they'd like to bring
before the board uh that's not addressed in the agenda, please come forward. Hi folks. Uh this is uh for those watching at home and here in town hall in the select board. I'm Glen Cody. I'm I was elected this year to the school
committee representing Actton and um I'm the select board liaison on the school committee. I'm also on policy um also a liaison for the special education uh special education parents advisory committee and I'm on the wellness
committee. We're looking at um effects of social media on student anxiety among other things. I'm just here to give a quick update. I'll be brief because it's a big meeting tonight. Let's see where are my notes? Yep. So,
the restructuring process is chugging along. Uh, for those in the community who don't know, our school district has been with it in a pretty big budget crunch for a while now. Um, we simply don't have the financial resources to
keep the way our school is structured out to maintain our education levels that our communities come to expect. So, we need to restructure it. um that ranges in a lot of different possibilities ranging from doing nothing
on one hand to uh quite a few options. We hired a consultant to give us as thorough a briefing as we could on the different possible scenarios working with it ranges from doing nothing to consolidating or merging schools, closing aging buildings. uh grade
banding, which is where you take instead of having elementary schools being K through six, you can like have schools with like second and third graders, fourth and fifth graders, etc. There's you can set it up in a couple different ways that tends to be more efficient for staffing resources and deploying pair of professionals um teaching assistance
because not all third graders are behind in reading or math the same way as a fifth grader might be. Um we had we're taking community input very seriously. We had a virtual forum with almost 400 attendees over Zoom. Uh Tori was uh Tori
has been facilitating that. Tory Campbell is chair of the school committee. Um for those who care about the our schools and many of us moved into town uh to because our school districts are quite good. Um I encourage you please to go to
abschools.org/readthe org/readthepl and we have our community survey open until Sunday, November 9th. Um, one of the for people >> 30 seconds. >> Yep. And for people that are wondering what the main cost drivers are for our
school districts, a lot of it is health insurance rates, which are projected to rise 18% for employees and 54% for retirees. 54. And it's that's health insurance. So, it's already massive. Um, that's it for
now. Our next school committee meeting is Thursday, November 6. Um, I encourage community members to attend. One of the things on our agenda is hearing from our student liaison and also exploring uh more collaboration with ACTV who is
recording this and we're hoping to get them involved in a media and communications program too for the kids. So, happy to be here. Anyone reach out if you have any questions. Thank you. Anyone else in the room that has something they'd like to speak of that's
not on the agenda? >> David, did you say we have >> one? >> Hi. >> Hi. I'm Kha. Can you hear me? >> Go ahead, please. Corin. >> Hi. >> I'm on the acting finance committee, but my comments have nothing to do with
finance committee business. Um, I want to ask some questions and make make some comments about the Kelly's Corner traffic patterns. Um, they're kind of a mess. Um, there's too many lights, right? So, coming from
you're getting off Route Two and going up Massad, you hit three traffic lights within a quarter of a mile of each other. Um, at night, it's completely unnecessary. If you're trying to take a lefthand turn coming out of CVS or the community road, you just sit there and
wait for when there's no traffic to take a left-hand turn and um you know there there's been times where I've come through kind of later at night and those lights are perfectly out of sync. So you just get to a red light, you wait, you go, you get to another red light, you go, you get to another red light. the
light up at Charter Road and Stop and Shop that could probably just be um used only when buses are coming going and be blinking red yellow the rest of the time. So that's that's one thing there's just way too much control out there. The other my other comment is I've heard
this is temporary and so like I guess this is part question and part comment is the again I the direction I usually go from is coming from West Actton to me you know up to the Roach brothers and those two left-hand turning only lanes
turning into one lane is ridiculous. Nobody's using that middle lane anymore. They've realized it doesn't go anywhere. Meanwhile, people who are trying to go straight or take a righthand turn, everybody's in the far right turn. And so that people who just who might want to take a right on red have to sit
behind people who are waiting to go straight. Um if that's a temporary situation, I don't know what the weight is. I just they should just repaint those lanes. Um you know, have one go left, one go straight, one go right. Uh and I've heard people complain about coming from the other direction, too,
like if you're coming from Ace Hardware into that intersection. So if I guess my question is, is that temporary? Is that going to be addressed? Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I believe we've addressed similar questions a couple of times in the past
and certainly up to the town manager to correct me, but I will confirm that it is a temporary situation down there. The project is still ongoing. There are going to be some uh considerable changes still made
to the uh the traffic patterns and a lot of that work I believe will happen during the winter and into the spring. Um and I will defer to the town manager for any finer details. >> I think you covered it pretty well.
Thanks. Yeah, >> it's it's not a great situation right now, but it's a work in progress. Can I follow up? Can I I just want to follow up on that. Um, so why can't the lines just rep be repainted now? Like that's is that ever going to be There's
never going to be two lanes to turn into on the other side of that turn. >> Yeah, we we should probably take this offline. >> All right. Thank you. Uh, moving along. Uh, chair
update. I have nothing. Town manager. >> Uh thank you. Uh two items. Uh just a note that uh the the Veterans Day ceremony will be on u as usual this year on the the 11th day at 11:00 a.m. Um so
that's Tuesday of next week. And uh I encourage all all to be there. It's always a very uh thoughtful uh ceremony. And um if you have any questions about that, you can talk contact the veterans office. I also wanted to mention that
our fire department has going been going through some uh pilot study uh scenarios and if you recall we went to two stations about in February then we went to three stations in the uh summer and
we're at uh three stations currently. Um we're not using the center station at this time. Uh but we have some construction projects on both on the interior and the exterior of the West Actton Fire Station that are scheduled to start in December. And um so we're
going to be redeploying staffing out of the center station. Um and because of the the scheduling for the work, we're actually going to start to do that relocation in November. So again, hopefully no one noticed that the department staff were coming out of
different stations. They certainly noticed. It's been a pretty big impact on them to be moving them all over town. Uh but we're gonna do it one more time u this winter as we do that project. And then um so I just wanted to give a notice to the board uh that we'll be
sending out a more detailed news flash when the exact timing is con is determined, but it'll be in November and you shouldn't notice uh but just so you know. >> Thank you. Uh comments from my colleagues. David.
>> Uh, good evening. Um, I just wanted to reinforce what, uh, Mr. Cody said that, um, today's the final day to take the AB forward survey on school restructuring. Um, uh, go to abschools.org, click on AB
forward and then you can watch the video on the left and take the survey on the right of the page. I also want to say that the um uh a good outcome from the AB forward reorganization is required to prop properly fund our educational needs
moving forward. So it's very important. Um we may touch on that a bit more during item seven in our agenda this evening. >> Alissa, >> thank you. I just wanted to alert everyone that there is a public hearing
coming up um with the planning board. As you may remember at town meeting this year, we passed a zoning change to make cluster zoning the buy method for subdivisions. It's called open space residential development and it's also
known as habitat for all. It was article 31 and the planning board will be adopting the new rules and regulations um which cover subdivisions and that hearing is planned for November
18th at 7:05 p.m. and it's in this room 204 and also on Zoom. There was recently a news flash that was um sent out from the town and on the website on the homepage of the website. You can still
find that um news flash and access the documents that you would need um to read in order to familiarize yourself with those changes. And I encourage everybody to come um or watch the the planning board public hearing. Thanks.
Thank you, Jim. Um, I wanted everyone to know that I I won't be running for reelection in the spring for a third term as a select board member. Um, I've found this work
to be very rewarding. Um, but I have figured out that I have become quite overcommitted. Uh, leaving the board at the end of my term in April is the simplest way for me to have more time in my life for my other interests and commitments.
Um, I'm happy to share my thoughts and experiences on serving the board and running for the board with anyone that's considering running. Uh, I hope you will all do some thinking about who might be able and willing to run. Uh, I've been doing that. Uh, that would continue the
good work that we've been doing together. Um the board we developed a really wonderful way of listening to each other's different thoughts and opinions and finding ways of moving forward that represent the best thinking that we can
do together. Um it's what I was hoping for but it's not what I was expecting. Um that quality of being able to work well with others will be my main criteria in choosing who if anyone to support in the upcoming
election. uh in April and and I still have more than six months left. So I I have many board and committee related projects that I'm looking forward to completing and I glad I have some months to savor our remaining time working together.
That's it. Thank you very much, Jim. I look forward to the next six months. Okay. Uh with that we'll move on to new and special business. Item three is discuss and consider
resinment of s site plan special permit 05302025-494 use. Special permit number 06252025- 504 and use special permit 0612/2025506 select board decision from August 25th,
2025 for 45 Nog Park. Now, I suspect there's a few people here that are interested in this action. And I just want to let everybody know right up front, uh, all we're going to be discussing tonight is whether or not
to resend those approvals. We will not get into a site plan hearing. We will not get involved in the details of of the uh any of the points about the buildings themselves or the operation.
There will be a uh a site plan hearing which I believe we've scheduled for our next select board meeting and I would encourage folks that are interested to attend that hearing uh or send emails in advance.
Certainly, we will open this up so that people can make comments, but uh if there are any substantial comments, they won't since we will not have a uh a hearing open at the time, uh you would end up having to repeat all of that
information at a later point. We can't take that into consideration tonight. So, uh, certainly encourage folks to make their wishes known, but just be aware that, uh, if you really want to have an impact on what might or might
not happen out there, you should plan on coming back for the subsequent hearing. Uh, we will be, uh, strictly enforcing a threeminut limit for any comments that people might wish to make. So I will open this up uh for discussion
uh amongst my colleagues and then we will have uh time for hopefully brief comments uh from you folks. Uh John would you like to start off? >> Thank you. Yes. So this is a project um
over a 45 Nog Park was how it was in initially listed and it was a pickle ball facility uh proposed by Marcus Lewis Tennis Center and the hearings occurred over the summer and the board ultimately decided um August 25th to
approve um three different permits that were required to move the project forward. Recently uh within the last I I'd say week or or two uh we became aware that there was a defect in the notice that we provided to a Butters uh
as part of the process. You know with every public hearing we put something in the newspaper twice. Uh we post it online and then we send it out to a butters of a certain range uh around the project. and due to a clerical error um the range around the project was
slightly modified and didn't get to the full extent of people that it should have reached. Uh so with that defect now known to us uh the correct course of action is to a issue a stopwork order which we've already done as of Thursday
or Friday last week. B, um ask the board to resend the um decision and then C readvertise and reconduct the public hearing which we've already started the process to do as you mentioned. Uh assuming the board approves our
recommendation to rescend the public hearing for this project will be held on on um the 17th. So, uh, the motion or the the request I have for that we have for you tonight is to, uh, resend those
decisions as listed on the agenda. >> Thank you. Comments from my colleagues, Jim. Um the uh the extent of the error in the notification
um was mostly due to um we've all been calling this project 45 NGO. Um but if you look at the plans, it's also includes an adjacent parcel also owned by the church called 62 non-set path.
Um, and you you might gather by the name Nonset Path that that's that's the part parcel that's adjacent to the rest of the Nog Woods condominium. Um, and by leaving out that parcel and calculating
the uh 300 ft of butters, we left out um about a dozen households on Old Stonebrook and um more than that on Feeasant Hill. Um, so the list goes up from about 20 abutters to to more than
more than 50 abutters. And I'm certainly in favor of now that now that I understand that it's an option, um, which I didn't know a few days ago, I'm certainly in favor of of rescending and, um, redoing the hearing.
>> Okay. Other comments now? >> Yeah, if you care to put put a motion up and then we can take comments. >> Um, Mr. Chair, I move to uh resend our decision of August 25th, 2025. Um, and at at that time that we approve
the um uh use special permit for 45 Nagok Park. >> Second. >> Thank you. Uh motion made and seconded. Uh we'll open up for uh for comments from the public. Uh please come forward
and use use your mic be a three minute um time limit and please identify give us your name and your street address. Thank you. >> Thank you better. My name is Liz Reinhardt. Um, I am a resident of the
village of Nagok Woods, 160 Split Rock. I'm also this year the president of the Nag Woods Community Corporation. Um, we are a captive management company and our voting members are all residents of the four associations in the village. I just
briefly want to thank you for your prompt attention to our concerns about notice. We do support resimment and hope the stop work order goes along with that. We do support a public hearing and anticipate that we'll share information with you. Then we've already on behalf
of the village filed a notice from our attorney with explaining the notice concerns and also a summary on behalf of the village and the abuters within the village. The only other request I would make would be to consider some team from
the town doing a site visit so that you can see from our perspective how the construction is impacting the village. And our village manager is Jude Marott. He's been in touch with um the planning board and we'd be happy to set up a
meeting if you'd consider it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hello, my name is Leon Mince and I am from Naga 646 Fezant Hill. I was a little upset when I noticed all these trees cut. We reviewed the information
that was not our land. We are building a wrecket club, not a cement factory after all. Marcus Lewis fulfilled all town requirements for construction to the letter. Fire department required emergency vehicle access road from
nonset path. Considering that Marcus had to pay for every tree cut, I assume that not a single tree had been cut beyond requirements. Demand of the nega president and vice president are totally unreasonable. Stop work order will freeze with ugly
construction site for a very long time. We plan to complete main construction before winter. Any stop order leave this mess at least until summer. I understand when construction made a mistake but not installing fence immediately. On our
other hand claims that the tree removal was done with revenue energy confirms that they didn't plan to drag a work forever but plan to complete work fast and move to landscaping. Actions of our president can result in expensive and useless litigation but
cannot restore cut trees. Directors do not understand the purpose of emergency vehicles road. This road will be used only if the main road from Nagak Mall is blocked or if fire trucks need second access to the club. That can happen very
rarely or hopefully never. There will be no safety threat to our residents. Plans for this club include landscaping and planting of trees that will make it practically invisible from us. There will be no noise from the club and after
some time no light people will not park on path. In worst case one no parking sign will solve the problem. I see no problem if people will be walking between the club and Nagak woods. Contrary to the claims in this letter,
this club will be good for Actton. Many businesses abandoned Nagak Mall Road. A new taxpaying business servicing Actton residents will be beneficial for Actton. Also, the club will be paying for the use of the wastewater treatment plant
that is owned by Nega Woods. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, Kate Chang. Um Oh, I'm forgetting my address. 254 Bomb Bear Crossing. Um just trying to understand if we all as residents
have ownership in NOG, why would notification just be limited to the few residents on Feeasant Hill Lane and Old Stonebrook? Why wouldn't all residents be notified?
>> We'll try to get you get you an answer. >> Uh we we were required to notify people that live within 300 ft. Um, and that's that's uh we didn't do that properly initially, but we intend to do that this time. I think that um there's
certainly a lot of knowledge about the project in in the neighborhood at this point. So hopefully the same concerns that happened last time won't happen this time. >> So it's only residents who are notified, not owners, cuz we all own collectively.
Um it's it's the notification goes to the owners. Yes. >> So wouldn't that be everyone in NOG? >> It depends on how uh the owners association distributes information. Um we can get back to you on that um
specific point, but um the hearing will be on the 17th at um do we have a time? >> 6:15 I believe. >> Okay. I just was curious about the you know the theory there. Thank you.
>> Can can I add to that? >> So so just to add a little bit of detail, state law requires notification goes to a butters and a butters of a butters within 300 ft of a parcel. So that's the answer to your question
about, you know, Jim mentioned earlier the properties that are within that distance from the project. And so the and the initial notice did go to the corporation that manages the whole neighborhood. So technically the
last one was sent to everyone um because it went to the corporation. Uh but I think what you're asking is does everyone that lives everyone that has ownership of the common path for example get notified? Um our planning
staff can get back to you on that specific legal >> and it's my understanding that the corporation didn't receive notification. There was they would looked like it was mailed to them but it was not received. That's a that's a male that's a US
postal issue that I I can't control. But uh Lindon, longtime resident of Bangogwoods, uh unfortunately because of what's happened, the uh a number of trees have been taken down which are uh they've been there a long time. Uh, and
I hope you will make a site plan um, visit. And related to that, I noticed if you look up Google Earth and look, there is an aerial view of what it looked like and the number of trees that were there beforehand. And I think to see the
contrast really gives you a sense of what a number of us are reacting to. Thank you. >> Thank you. My name is Martha Belden and I'm the president of the Condo 3 Association. Mine is kind of a technical question.
Um, what is the regulation in effect in the town of Actton regarding fire lanes? Who has to have them? How many does it have to be? Where does it have to be?
Um, that's my question. We can we can get back to you on that question. Thank you. >> That would helpful. Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Michael Watkins. I live at 607 Old Stonebrook and I I appreciate considering the stop work order and
getting a motion in in line for that. I fully support it. I'm sure everybody from the village supports that. Um, just for contrast, we like I I don't think I live within that limit, uh, the 300 foot limit, but we I found out got a
mail about the cell tower that's going up, which is probably further than this lot is from my unit, and the car dealership when all the permits were going through. So I'm just giving an example of two other projects in the neighborhood where I did receive notice
but not for for this one. Um to the point of u notifying the village I somebody told me that the notice went to our mail kiosk instead of the office and the mail kiosk in the past it had we had
a mail person there on premises but a few years ago that changed and there's there's nobody on premise to receive mail on behalf of the village at the at the kiosk. So, mail needs to go to to
the office for the for the village. Um, and I guess just because I didn't get notice and the most of us didn't get notice, it was quite a shock to go get our mail, which is in in sight of all this and and have this lot clearcut
essentially. And I had also, you know, it's rumor to me, but the it's my understanding the permits have not been approved yet. Um, that's what I was told. But that the developer was given permission to go ahead and do the site work. And if that
is true, I don't think that that's a condition that should be allowed going forward. The developers should have the completed permits with all the public input before they do any site work. And I will reserve other comments about the project until the hearing which I plan
to attend. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, David. >> So, just for clarification, the permits were approved. It's just that we improperly noticed the noticed people um uh or the notices were not correct
because of the uh it went around one parcel rather than both parcels. Um and so, uh we did we're resending that approval tonight if we vote in favor. Good evening. Uh my name is Angela Valoo. I live on 515 Tumbling Hawk,
village of Nog Woods. I reviewed all of your meetings um about the hearings that you had for this project and I want to say I'm very impressed with all the questions that were asked because many of them were questions that I had. So, thank you for doing your job. Um, I do
want to ask about who checks on compliance. So maybe the site visit that uh we've requested would do that. But regarding the trees, I've looked at some of the trees and there's no way that they needed to be cut. And that was one of the conditions you placed on Marcus
Lewis to not cut every tree of a certain size if it didn't need to be cut. And I walked through there yesterday. The building has a the existing building has a Lshape and in that crook of the elbow there must have been 20 30 trees were
cut and you know they're not putting anything there. And also where the fire lane is supposed to go there's trees at the very extreme edge large 200y old trees that were cut. I don't think they needed to be cut. Of course I don't know for sure. It didn't appear that way to
me. So I don't think there is compliance with some of the things that you put forth uh as conditions. So I hope that you do come out and take a look and address that. And regarding the fire lanes, well I don't know if I should say but there are other options why only one
path was considered rather than two or three other routes that he could have put a fire lane in that would be less disturbing to our community. It does seem that he's made this a thoroughfare on his website that says it's a quick
walk from one of his facilities to the other which is on our property. So I I have a little bit of a problem with him using his business thor as a thoroughare through our neighborhood. But I am a tennis player. I'm not
opposed to a tennis facility. I just don't think it was done properly. And I hope that you guys look at it a little more closely. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we've got a motion that's been seconded to resend uh these
approvals. All in favor of rescending the approvals, please say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed, abstensions. Okay. Uh we'll next those approvals have
been rescended. Uh we will be discussing this again at our meeting on November 17th in this room. Thank you. >> Thank you. [Applause] What else? Okay. Uh, moving on. We have some posted
public hearings which were supposed to have been noticed at 6:30. >> Um, The uh the first one, the actton select board will hold a public hearing on November 3rd, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. continues from
October 6, 2025 in the Francis Falner Hearing Room 204 at the town hall, 472 Main Street, Actton, and virtually at acttonma.gov/meing/bos GV/meing/bos on the application of suburban glass and
mirror for a site plan special permit under zoning bylaw section 10.4 at 60 Powdermill 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 doc.actton-ma.gov/ gov/tbu/colction-9076. The applicant has requested a continuation to December 1st, 2025.
>> Would you like a motion, Mr. >> I would. I move to continue this uh public hearing to December 1st, uh, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. in this room. >> Second. >> Moved and second to continue. All in favor say I. >> I. I
>> opposed abstensions. Thank you. Next, the select board will hold their annual tax classification hearing on November 3rd, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. continued from
October 20th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. in the Francis Faulner Hearing Room 204 to Actton Town Hall, 472 Main Street. Select board holds this hearing annually to vote on required tax levby allocation questions to determine if classes of
taxable property will be taxed at the same rate or whether different tax rates shall be applied. These allocations are outlined in Mass General Law Chapter 40 section 56. Votes include the adoption of
residential factor, the residential exemption, the small commercial exemption, and the open space discount. The hearing will include a presentation by the board of assessors. Before we do that though, since it's now
7 o'clock, under Mass General Law 140 section 58, the Actton Select Board will hold a public hearing on November 3rd, 2025 at 7 p.m. in the Francis Faulner hearing room 204 act and town hall 472 Main Street and by video conference and call
in for a class 2 auto dealers license for cars of Lebanon located at 132 High Street Act and for a non-dison sales login instructions for computers can be found here from a computer please click
on the link to join the public meeting actton.gov/meing GV/meing/sb or from a telephone dial 646876-9923 and enter webinar ID number 503-918-785. Telephone users may dial star 7 to
request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the raise hand feature to request to speak. Um is the applicant here? Please come forward.
>> Yes, my name is Antoan Akuri from 132 High Street flying for cars of Lebanon and uh my plan is to sell cars online. Okay. Um, questions from my colleagues.
David. >> Hi. Good evening. Um, are you're building another structure on your property? Is that right? >> Yeah, we're building a a greenhouse. Not a greenhouse, a sun room. >> Oh, okay. And that that has nothing to do with this application?
>> No, no, no, no. Nothing to do with that. No. >> Okay. And um >> we didn't have this. >> We didn't have this. >> Press press again. It went off. >> Yeah, we did have this kind of license a few years ago and we just operate online. >> We don't have nothing to do with it. I
don't even go to the auction. I don't even meet the people. Just somebody will call me tell me I need to use a license and that use my license and I get a percentage from it. >> Okay. I just want to ask a couple of uh other things just to confirm. Uh you don't intend to park any cars on the
property? >> Absolutely. But just you keep you keep shutting it off. The light comes on when it's on. There you go. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not planning to park any >> and you're not going to be servicing any cars like changing or anything on the property. >> No. >> No car would be parked in my plot. I
don't even see the people. >> Okay. >> Um Thank you. >> Sorry about that. >> Hi, welcome. Um I just have a question about how online sales work where you are connecting customers and sellers. Um
do you have do you take on any liability for any issues with the vehicles that are sold or does that liability remain with the seller? >> When when you buy a car from the auction is no liability on me. None at all. >> Okay. >> Just only the people using my license
and I get a percentage. I don't even involve with the money. I don't involve with anything. just a person put a deposit and this is my percentage. If he bit on it and he he buy it, he's responsible for it. I don't have no responsibility not whatever. >> Okay. Thank you for that.
>> Um I just have a a comment about the the application and I don't know if this is a change that we can make. Um, I I noticed that on page two of the license to sell motor vehicles application, um,
the police chief, um, and fire chief use a his pronoun, which is unfortunate with our current fire chief. Um, the building commissioner and treasures office use their pronoun, and the zoning enforcement officer section has no
pronoun. It's just uh written in a way that no pronoun is necessary. So, I'm hoping that we might be able to update that, but I don't know if what's involved in that. If staff can just go in and make that
fix to an application or if that requires board action, we can talk about it later. Maybe >> we talk about it later. >> Okay, fine. [Music] Okay, other comments, Jim.
>> Um, I'm I'm very much in favor of this business. I'm glad there's creative ways for people to do to be employed and do business out of their homes. Um, I was just curious about um, Cars of Lebanon, the name, and and how you came up with the name.
>> I'm originally from Lebanon. >> Mhm. >> Okay. And in the past I used to uh buy car for people in Lebanon and ship them to over there and this is how the company start. >> Well great. Thank you. I I I I like enjoy I like hearing the stories of the
business. >> This is what it is. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> I would try to keep it as it is because I have it before. I have the license before but I didn't use it for few years. >> Thank you. >> I gonna make a motion.
>> You may. Uh, I move to approve uh a class 2 auto dealer license for Cars of Lebanon, 132 High Street, Act and Mass for non-dis internet only sales. >> Second.
>> Okay. Moved and seconded. >> I call for public comment. >> Sure. >> Okay. Um, >> are there any public comments? Appears not. Okay. All in favor of the motion, please say I.
>> I. I. >> Opposed, abstensions. Thank you very much. >> Thanks a lot. Thank you. Okay, we have one more hearing of the schedule 710. I can't announce it yet because it's not yet 710. So, we'll
let the assessor begin his presentation knowing that you'll be interrupted in 2 and 1/2 minutes. >> All right. Thank you, Dean. Um, hello select board. Good to see you all again. My name is CJ Carroll. I'm the principal assessor here in Actton. Um, been here I
believe about 2 and a half years. Um, today I'll be presenting to you the tax classification hearing on behalf of the board of assessors, Carol Lightner Shrebnik, who's the chair, and Leo Faulman. Um, on the agenda today, uh, we have
what is a classification hearing. I'll go over a little bit what we do each year around this time. Um, changes in property valuations and average tax bills as I've done in the past few years. Um and then we'll move on to the four votes um that are levy allocation
votes. Um the first is whether to adopt an open space discount, whether to adopt a small commercial exemption, whether to adopt a residential factor, and whether to adopt a residential exemption. Um so we'll get started first talking a
little bit about what is a classification hearing. So the purpose of the classification hearing is um following the the certification of values by the Massachusetts DOR. Uh the assessors provide you all the select board with the data necessary to um make
these the votes that I just mentioned um to allocate the tax levy and then you know at that time it is always a good opportunity to present you with changes in valuation, changes in tax bills and answer any questions related to those things that you might have. So tax
classification is the allocation of the tax levy among the four classes of property. Those classes being residential, commercial, industrial and personal property. Um so the annual assessment pro the annual property assessment process. Uh this year it was called a certification
year. So every 5 years the state comes in and and I think the best way to put it is they they audit our system. So I do thank you all for continuing the meeting. we needed just a little bit more time for them to finish that up. Um, but as of October 24th this year, we
did get values certified. At that point, we um did the public disclosure of values. You may have seen that the news flash. It was also available at a few spots throughout town. Those and that that that is part of the certification of values that happens once every 5
years. So in terms of those values, Mass General law requires that assessors value properties annually as of January 1st of each year by reviewing sales in town from the prior calendar year. So in this case, the fiscal 2026 values took
into account 2024 sales. Um the assessors are required to by law to value property at 100% of full and fair cash value every year. Uh and these values are certified by the Mass Department of Revenue. And that's a part really kind of the first step of the tax
rate recapitulation process, the tax rate, the tax recap. All right, so the average valuations um this chart shows the trends in what's happened uh this past year in values. Um as well as on the far right there, you
can kind of see and compare how last year's fiscal year changes looked. uh single family residences, we're looking at about a $938,000 average single family value. Um that's up just short of $68,000 from last year, 7.81%.
It's a higher percentage increase than we saw in single family specifically last year. Last year was a relatively low um year for single family increases when compared to other recent years. Uh, condominiums on the other hand um decreased slightly in their um
assessment increase. Uh they are now at $554,000 on average which is 45 almost $46,000 more than last year for a 9% increase. Uh commercial only increased 2.1. Uh personal property increased
about five. And then industrial, you'll notice I did put that little asterisk there. The reason that you're seeing a negative industrial um value change is not necessarily because industrial values decreased. That is because
the we did reclassify some solar property that will that it is on industrial lots. But it is typically best practice to have those on separate taxable parcels. So that's that's more of a technicality that that that those that that went down. um it didn't
actually impact the town's uh industrial taxable value. It's more of a classification difference. Um one thing I want to note is that the percent changes you see here versus the percent changes that you may have seen in the
proposed values uh during the um during the disclosure process uh do differ slightly. it's a percent here or there and the reason for that is because the state calculations they sent those calculations to us um in those me
medians are typically used and um only t previously taxed property is used. The reason for that primarily is the state wants to look at trends and they want to see how our values are changing. Whereas these numbers that I calculated here are more for the purpose of calculating
average tax bills um and looking at how the values um have changed from previous years. So I just wanted to to address that in case anybody looked back at those numbers and and they didn't match up exactly. It's because the the way of
calculating is slightly different. Um and then the asterisk there on fiscal 25 that you see under personal property just as a reminder that that was the um that was the personal property minimum
that I came to you all with in for fiscal 25 where only personal property accounts over $2500 in value are taxed. All right. So talk about tax bills. So,
for our primary class, single family homes, um the average tax bill for fiscal 25 was 14,918. For fiscal 26, it's going to be 15,220
for a a fairly standard increase of $32, which is a 2% increase. Uh that is pretty significantly reduced from fiscal 25. And the reason for that is is the override that we saw in fiscal 25. you know, 6.6% increase isn't typically
standard. That's that's because of the the levy override that we did. Um, we already went over some value um changes in the previous slide. That tax rate, so we're looking at a 1623 tax rate. As always in the classification
hearing, this is a proposed tax rate because this classification hearing is one of the things that needs to be done before this the state will give us a tax rate. So just a reminder that could change as the recap is finalized. It is very close to what it will be if it's not exact. But just a reminder that that
tax rate is not is proposed not yet finalized for the commercial tax bill. Um we're seeing a not terribly common decrease. Uh the reason for that is because as you can see the tax rate is going down quite a
bit. um the the values overall are up which does create that uh decrease. There is also some debt falling off. And then so we have a tax bill of $21,000 or 21254
for fiscal 26. That's down from the 21,997 from fiscal 25. Um just to give a little bit more context about the votes. Um I'll go through them and we can do some questions if you have any regarding the
four votes and then after that I do have slides on on the votes themselves. So we can just run through them and and get some details first. The first is to adopt an open space discount. Um this one's fairly simple. Actton has no parcels classified as open space. The
reason for that is the majority of parcels that could qualify for open space um are typically in something else like chapter 61 or um an APR restriction. The that's often time typically considered a more productive
um classification of of properties of that type. Uh vote number two, whether or not to adopt a small commercial exemption. Um, so the way this one works is it reduces the taxable value of eligible businesses up
to 10%. Um, these eligible businesses are determined by the Department of Workforce Development. Um, the the criteria they use is that valuation must be less than $1 million. And uh, the business must have no more than 10 employees on average. outside of this
workforce uh department of workforce development list. Um the assessors can use their discretion to grant any other eligible businesses that are not on the list the exemption. Um and the uh levy for commercial industrial class remains the same if this is put in place. Um so
a new effective tax rate is calculated. Um and then the so the commercial and industrial parcels that do not qualify for this um would end up paying that that slightly increased tax rate to make sure that the levy burden for that class
of properties remain the same despite some of them having a decrease in tax burden. Uh 14 of 351 Massachusetts communities have this implemented. Uh the third is whether or not to adopt a residential factor. This is also
called a split tax rate. Uh the creating a split tax rate shifts the levy burden similar to how I just described where um except that this shift is between classes not within a class. So uh the residential and CIP which is commercial
industrial personal property classes if if a single tax rate is kept are responsible for their own relative burden of the tax levy. Um but actton could shift up to 50% of additional
taxes to the CIP class. The residential factor does have a minimum of 0.65 meaning that the that residential does always need to pay at least 65% of their relative tax burden but because of the significant
um residential value versus commercial value in Actton you could never get to 65%. So just to give a little bit of context as to how this how this works. Uh if the residential levy were to go from 100 million to 95 million which
would be a 0.95 factor uh to to split the rate then that $5 million from the residential levy would be attached to the CIP levy bringing uh their levy burden from 8 million to 13 million. Um so the the tax rate for CIP would be
signific significantly impacted for a relatively small um savings for the average residential. Uh the reason for this drastic effect is a 90.4 to 9.6 ratio of value in actton
that is um slightly weighted toward residential more than last year. Last year was almost exactly a 9010 split. Um, this is just a a chart. Um, this is a screenshot of a tool that the do has to show what a split tax rate would look
like for the community and I've highlighted it. It it goes by $50,000 increments. So, it's not exactly what the average um values that we just discussed are, but it's the closest thing on this chart. So, if we were to shift the burden, um I believe this is
this is either a five or 10% shift, but it would be a savings of $55 for the average condominium owner and $95 for the average single family owner, and it would represent um almost a $1,200 additional tax burden on the commercial
side. All those are for averages. Uh the fourth and probably most complicated vote is the residential exemption. So the way that this works is that a
percentage is voted by the select board if this is adopted and that percent of the average residential value in town is exempt from every qualifying property in
town. Um then that then a new tax rate is calculated and from there that increased tax rate applied to the partially exempted property values allows for lower value properties to
have a lower tax bill and higher value properties to have a higher tax bill. Reason for that is because um let's see I have a have a a number example here I believe. So a $200,000 property would see this is
with a 10% um reduction. A $200,000 property would see a 25% value reduction because of a $50,000 exemption. a million-doll property would see with that same $50,000
exemption would would be valued at $950,000. So, relatively that $50,000 reduction would um be a much smaller reduction for the higher value property. Um
let's see. So this is often confused with other means tested programs and I think you know that conversation's come up in past years as well. Um but it is based only on the value of the property not the needs of the owner. Uh 19 communities
have adopted this as of last year. Um and about half of those communities also adopt a split tax rate. The reason for this is because it um it's typically adopted by metropolitan areas, vacation communities, um folks
with second homes who who may not who would not qualify because it's owner occupied properties only or um it does shift uh tax burden you know to a large landlord or corporation who may manage larger properties in that way.
Any questions? Any questions from my colleagues? It appears not. >> All right. >> Oh, Alyssa. >> Um, thank you, CJ. Can you say the
number of communities once more that have adopted the small commercial exemption? I think I think you listed you said it, but it's not in the slide. >> I believe it's 14 as of now. Well, so as of last year, that number will change as every community does their
classification hearing, but I believe the most up-to-date number was 14. >> Okay. I heard 314 out of 351. >> I'm glad I asked. >> Okay. So, only 14 in Massachusetts. >> I I guess the only comment I would make
is um it's interesting that the commercial tax bill, the average commercial tax bill went down. So, Don't ever say your taxes can't go down. >> Fran,
>> CJ, does the state offer something like this at the state level um for small businesses? >> That's a good question. I'm not sure. >> I think they might. >> Okay. >> Like uh some sort of tip program. So, I
just wondered how interesting it would be to adopt something like that. Yeah, I'd be curious to learn. >> Yeah, definitely. >> Thank you, >> David. Um, if we were to consider a residential exemption, do you already know whether
all the properties in town are own or occupied, or is that information we'd have to gather? >> Um, that that's information that we would likely find out through people applying. >> Oh, I see. So, you'd have to apply for
the we if in in theory if we voted for it then uh individual property owners would have to apply in >> as far as I know I guess I've never worked for a community with um a residential exemption. Um I I believe that at least in the first year everyone
would need to apply. >> Okay. It's not something we do auto would do automatically. >> Yeah. I'm not sure some there may be something to implement like that but I'm I'm not aware of it. I don't know the the administr how to actually administrate this. I'm not aware of it. >> That kind of answers my question because I was wondering how you would know.
>> You sure? Yeah. >> I would think a high percentage. Very high. >> Yeah. Thank you, >> Jim. >> Um, thanks for explaining this again. Um, I always appreciate it. Uh, I always
um yet at the same time I always end up in the same place, which is uh we don't have these now. There's problems with any of them. Let's not do any of them. Um, but there'll be a series of votes about that. >> Alissa,
>> I I just have one additional question. Do we have any information about the reasoning um behind the lower increase in value for the commercial properties?
>> There's not particular reasoning. Um that's something that if you look at recent years has been a trend sale prices are are high for residential and those along with income data are considered for commercial valuations and
when you look at when you look at the the income data and the sales in commercial it's simply it's not increasing at the rate that residential is >> and when you say trend do you mean for actton or for the region or for the whole state or for the country.
>> I can speak definitively to Actton, but I can say fairly confidently that that it's at least regional, too. >> Okay. Thank you, >> David. This is just out of my own curiosity, but other people may also be curious. If
a business in town turns over and is, let's say, more successful, um um does the value of their uh property taxes themselves remain the same and only the personal
property go up or if a business is more successful, does the value of the business go up and therefore their taxes go up? >> That's a good question. So when I talk income based when speaking about perh commercial and industrial property values that's income on income producing
properties. So it's it's property owners who lease to typically businesses. As far as a business being successful that may be indirectly reflected in their personal property valuation through the um equipment that they own and use. But
a company's success and and income would not impact their real estate value. It would only impact the real estate value if the lease or or however that
property owner were charging whoever were using the property if that were to increase the income in that way. >> Okay. I believe we have one at least one caller online that has some questions. >> Do we have an online question?
>> Uh yes. Uh this is Terra FedEx from up here in Matav and I have a couple questions and a comment. Um the first question is that this $2,500 um point does that can the town change
that and if so what does it take to do that? Because I'm interested in more progressive taxation and um like the minimum level car to you know have reliable enough to go to a job uh is in the order of like 10,000 and that's
probably somebody that doesn't make a whole lot of money. So, I'm thinking that we could make that, you know, 15,000 and raise the tax rate so that the people with the huge luxury cars are not only paying more because they could afford it, but paying more because they're probably uh I don't know if they
are, but spending more on uh gas, etc. So, I'd like to get the answer about the 2500. And I have another question and then a comment. >> DJ, >> uh thanks for the question. So, this doesn't have to do with motor vehicle
access. It's personal property for businesses in town. >> Okay. Then still, I'd like to get that to be higher and to have the rate increase dramatically so that people have more money can pay. Um, and then
I'd like to also um explore uh a way to um I'm good, by the way. I'm good with a uh split rate. I just want to figure out how to minimize the impact to small businesses. And one way and I hope this
is possible um that we can have categories whereby like huge companies get taxed large and the small businesses get taxed small. And if you do it by square feet or number of employees, that
would be an equitable way to do that. so that you get like a TJ Maxx or uh CVS that's owned internationally so that the money isn't getting sucked out of we everybody pays money to these companies and like 10% or 8% or whatever the
numbers say um is stays local and the rest of it gets sucked out whereas if you pay money to a local business and most of that money 80% of it stays local. So the companies that are owned by international companies um I see there's an opportunity there to charge
them more in taxation and I hope that we'll explore some progressive uh taxation techniques um in the next year if you don't decide to adopt them tonight. And I will note that there are a lot of uh towns uh in particular I can
talk about air that has a split rate. uh the businesses didn't run away and they have more money to spend on things like affordable housing. Um so I will uh uh take my answer uh offline. Thank you.
>> Thank you. All right. I believe that we need to take some actions on this. Do we have uh draft motions? >> Yes. Um so the slides after the question slide are draft motions and the first vote is whether or not to
adopt an open space discount. Your options are one do not adopt an open space discount or two to adopt an open space discount of up to 25% of class 2 open space levy. >> I move to not adopt an open space discount.
Second. Moved and seconded to not adopt an open space discount. Any discussion? Not recall a question. All in favor of that motion to not adopt an open space discount, please say I.
>> I. >> I. >> Opposed. Abstensions. Okay. We will not adopt that. >> The second vote is whether or not to adopt a small commercial exemption. The options are one, do not adopt a small commercial exemption, or two, determine
and adopt an exemption percentage of 10% or less. >> I move to not adopt a small commercial exemption. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded to not adopt a small commercial exemption. Any questions,
comments? All in favor of the motion to not adopt a small commercial exemption, please say I. I. >> I. opposed extensions. Okay, we will not adopt that.
>> Uh the third item is whether to adopt a residential factor. The options are one, adopt a residential factor of one. This would be no shift and all property would be taxed at the same rate. Or two, to determine and adopt a residential factor of less than one, shift the tax rate and
increase the CIP percentage of the tax levy. >> I move to adopt a residential factor of one. Second. Moved and seconded to adopt residential factor of one. Any comments?
All in favor of that motion, please say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed. Abstensions. Okay. Residential factor one is set. The fourth item is whether or not to adopt a residential exemption. The
options are do not adopt a residential exemption or do not implement a residential exemption or to determine and adopt a residential exemption that reflects a specific percentage of the average residential value. >> I move to not implement a residential
exemption. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded to not implement a residential exemption. Any questions? >> All in favor of the motion? David. Yeah, >> David. >> So, the of the the five questions, this
is one that I I would consider um uh I I I'm not, you know, insistent on it, but I think um that it um you know, uh favors are um the the uh homeowners that own the small
condos especially. um the difference, you know, a small residential exemption would not affect single family homeowners that much, but would make a big difference for um uh uh small ren uh uh
properties. And I also think it's interesting that they have to be owner occupied. um which means, you know, firms that invest in in in renting housing would, you know, be taxed um at the full value
of the house. Um whether that's an Airbnb or a um u you know, some some other rental. I I think that's also fair as a business rather as opposed to someone's primary residence. So, I
I just put put that put that out there of the five of these things. Um, this is one that I would consider. CJ said 19 communities, I think, have have done this. So, it's a little bit complicated. Um, you know, it we'd be making more
work for CJ. Um, to, you know, to figure out how people would apply for it and to figure out what we needed to ask them. Um, I mean, another thing that we could do is, uh, you know, vote not to do this this year, but maybe indicate that we
might want to do it in a future year such that maybe some of those that we could prepare for doing it. >> Alissa, >> um, I just wanted to remind the board that one of the um, projects that I've
been working on is following the work of the conquered tax relief task force. So, I've met with a couple of members. Um, I've tried to attend some of their meetings. Um, I have a list of questions after listening to their discussions and
I've asked the town manager to sometime meet with CJ to get answers to those questions if he has them. Um, so I'm hoping that at some point um in the near term I can provide a report on an agenda to the board um because that might um
inform us the work that other communities are doing. They're not only looking at their residential exemption that they adopted but other communities um um and what kinds of tax relief programs other communities have. So I think that they like meeting with me um
they've also met with select board representatives from other towns. So we might be have the information that we need to pursue this or we might decide that we need to set up our own task force. David.
>> Um, again, I'm fine with delaying it if that's what the board wants to do, but I'll say that in in this year where um federal heating assistance has gone away, um you know, people who um you know, have to pay to heat their homes,
you know, smaller homes where they're likely to be lower income. That's going to be a bigger burden this winter. And it's just just something to consider. Um, again, I'm fine waiting for uh, you know, to, like I said, prep for next
year, including uh, and especially Alyssa's report to us, but I I just throw that out there. >> Thank you, Jim. >> Um, yeah, I also look forward to a report on this um, from Melissa and and her research. I will say that um one of
the among the reasons that I'm inclined against this uh is that um value of house is uh not necessarily closely related to the financial means of the people that live in it. I think the most
important uh example here is going to be um large apartment buildings which won't be able to participate in this but will their taxes will go up and um that will presumably get passed on to the renters. So that's a concern I have. It may be
that we could deal with that in the design of the program. I don't know how much flexibility there is. Um um the other two classes of people that I'm concerned about are um people with larger families often need larger
houses, but that doesn't mean that they have more means to to pay. Um and the last would the last cons concern of mine is um larger houses occupied by empty nesters um who you know don't don't have
the financial means to to to absorb um the the rise in taxes that would be caused by reducing the taxes of people living in smaller houses. >> Thank you. I believe we have a motion on the table
to not >> Oh, okay. Believe you have one question online. Go ahead. >> Okay. Apparently not. We'll take the vote. Uh it's been moved and seconded to not implement a resial
>> Hello. Hello. Go. Go ahead. >> Yes. I just hope that you do the more progressive taxation with the uh residents um the uh sorry the out of town people paying the out of town the nonowners
that are using having rental properties. I think that they people should do that. I know it would probably come back in rent increases, but I feel like it's time to do something. Um, I also like this idea um that that um David was talking about and I hope that you do that now and not just I mean it's a lot
of privileged people in this process and um they may not realize how much of a difference it makes and so I hope you do it now and not wait a year. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, we'll proceed with a vote. All in favor of the motion to not implement a residential exemption,
please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? abstensions. Okay. We will not implement a residential exemption. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you, CJ. >> So, before we go any further,
I have another notice to read. Find it. Here we go. The actton select board will hold a public hearing on November 3rd, 2025 at 7:10 p.m. Continued from October 6, 2025
in the Francis Falner hearing room, room 204 at Town Hall 472 Main Street, Actton, and virtually at acttonma.gov/meingb GV/meing SB on the application of Hawthon Realy Company for a site plan special permit under zoning
bylaw section 10.4. The applicant proposes to combine the properties at 471 Great Road and 465 to 469 Great Road and construct two buildings to be used as building trade shops. No hazards, materials or waste are to be
generated on site. Application materials and how to participate remotely are available online and at Actton Town Hall doc.acttonmma.govdeb/view/collection-19387. The applicant is requested to continue to December 15, 2025 at 6:30 p.m.
I have a motion. I I move to um continue this public hearing until uh December 15th at 6:30 p.m. in this room. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. >> All in favor of uh continuing until
December 15th, please say I. >> I opposed extensions. Okay, we will continue that. So, next up on the agenda is item four,
approved letter of support for foreign trade zone for methods machines at 976 Main Street. >> Uh thank you for for this item. Uh Patricia Costa, our economic development director, is going to provide a brief overview of what a foreign trade zone is
and why Methods Machine is interested in pursuing one. Um good evening. Uh I was recently contacted by a representative of methods machine tools. Um um they have been in business for uh many years since 19 the
1980s in Actton and since the 1950s as an operating business and uh the company is established at uh 976 Main Street. uh they own the facility and uh their scope of activity consists of um importing
machinery and customizing machinery here in Actton to distribute to many different segments uh but mostly automotive and medical industry. So uh their model of business consists of bringing this equipment to the United
States, customizing it and then selling it. Uh so it creates a very long operational cycle for them and uh given the context of uh increase in tariffs and uncertainties surrounding tariffs in
particular and the fact that the machine that they the equipment that they import and customize here is made basically of steel and aluminum. Uh it has posed a very um high burden on the company and uh they see the establishment of a
foreign trade zone as an opportunity for them to uh bring the equipment tax-free and defer the payment of these tariffs uh which would be very beneficial for the company at this moment. Um so I uh had a site visit next last week and I
pres I prepared the report which I submitted previously to the appreciation of the select board uh as uh some some elements to support the establishment of this foreign trade zone. They it would create new jobs uh in the midterm and it
would also uh enhance uh Actton as a a businessfriendly uh town. Uh opening opportunities for other businesses with the same um u scope uh businesses that uh potentially depend on these uh uh foreign uh
materials and equipment to also see Acton as an opportunity to establish their their businesses. uh we have here today I just want to bring to your attention that we have here uh Kevin Sahu the controller of uh methods machine tools to provide you with any additional information that is
deemed necessary >> thank you um questions from my colleagues >> thank you Patricia I I don't have any questions I'm fully in support of um establishing this foreign trade zone um
it makes sense to um to have the company be able to realize the income from the sales before they are forced to pay the taxes and the tariffs. And there's a lot of unpredictability um and uncertainty.
So, um I'm definitely wanting us to um be uh supportive of businesses generally, but also business that's been in the town for so many decades. Thank you for this report. Thanks for the site visit and hopefully we can maybe if this
gets approved the word will get out and we can have more companies. Yeah. >> Pursuing that. >> Thank you David. >> Um thank thank you. Uh once established um can um uh the foreign trade zone be
used for anything in their business? It doesn't have to be their the machinery that they do now. if they went into another area of business, they could import something and then sell it and pay the tariffs at that time. Is that right? >> Uh well um my understanding is that this
process uh will u um make the company uh still focused on what they currently do. it will not allow for them to uh go much beyond the scope that they currently have because as part of the process of establishment of a foreign trade zone.
Uh the border protection has to uh inspect their facility. So everything has to be according to what they have now. It will not imply any specific any substantial change in what they are currently doing nor which is very
important uh any immediate increase in the footprint that they currently have. So it will not generate any uh logistics uh changes in terms of logistics or vehicles or movement of equipment or uh
materials into the facility and out of the facility. They basically operate the same way that they operate now. >> Thank you. Other questions. Right. I'll entertain a motion. David, I move to approve the or recommend the uh foreign trade zone for
method machines at 976 Main Street. >> Second. moved and seconded to uh recommend uh foreign trade zone methods machine tools. All in favor? Jim. Um just want
to make sure we're getting the right motion. Uh there was a particular letter that had already been drafted. Um perhaps we're also approving the the sending of that letter. >> Um if that could be a friendly amendment.
>> Sure, that would that would be fine. >> Okay. and I second that amendment. >> Okay. C can I just make a comment on on that uh now that you remind me of that on that letter in the throughout the letter it says we but in the first paragraph it says I and I think the
first paragraph should say the select board recommends and then say we but right now it say it's from Dean and it says I in the first paragraph and we in all the other paragraphs. >> Make sure it's properly edited. May maybe we could as part of this motion
say that we uh endorse the sending of the letter in the packet with any edits that the chair thinks are appropriate. >> Go ahead. >> Um so I was going to make a similar suggestion for an edit to say on behalf of the board as as the opening. Um,
there's also a slight um change and I do not see it right now. I wrote it down. Um, sorry. It's just a it's just a grammatical. Um,
oh, it's um, in the second paragraph on the second line, it says, "Such inventory is sourced from countries as far as," so I just think we need to put away as far away as Germany, Japan, and Taiwan. So, that was the second edit that I was hoping we could put in there.
>> Make sure it's properly edited. Thank you. >> Sure. >> All right. We've got a We've got an amended motion uh that's been seconded. All in favor of the amended motion um the impact of which is to send the
letter uh promptly edited. All in favor please say I. >> I >> opposed extensions. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thanks pressure. >> Thank you. Item five, presentation, preliminary
level service estimates and capital needs for FY 2027. >> Thank you. Uh we we have this uh printed out for you because it didn't make it into the packet because we just finished it this afternoon. But no, no looking ahead. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. You can look
ahead. Um so, um we kicked off the budget. So, this is a presentation of uh the budget requests and the capital needs. Um and I will get right into it. So, if you recall in August, we presented to the
board a budget preview. uh we said uh this is what's going on with the budget that we just approved. Uh this is what we're thinking for the coming year. And by the way, here's a revenue update on where we are for revenues. And that leads us to the next step in the process where we had departments uh submit
budget requests. They were actually due a few weeks ago. uh in those in the in the last few weeks we've been meeting with each department head individually and reviewing what they had requested in their budget submitt both for capital items and for
uh just the operating budget items. the um this year we I gave some direction that we should do our best to find ways to deliver services without any increases in areas um that don't absolutely need increases and uh they
did their best to bring that forward. Um just to calibrate us to our timeline here, as I mentioned, we did the budget preview. CJ just did the tax classification hearing and the board just approved the uh the motions needed for that. We're doing the budget
updates. Two weeks from tonight, we'll be presenting the capital improvement plan and an update on the preliminary budget estimates. Uh two weeks after that, we'll be meeting with the board again after you've received that information and asking you if you have
any suggestions for prioritization. uh because uh about a month later I'll be presenting the town manager's recommended budget and capital plan. So, as we did the last few years, we're providing multiple presentations about
uh the budgets and about the capital needs so that the board members have a lot of time to think about uh what we're asking for, how and then as we spend the next month and a half figuring out how we're going to pay for things, we have we're able to get input from all of you about what's most important to you uh in
the coming year and and in the 10-year plan. So, uh, and then we we have schedule in the books and I need to follow up with the finance committee chair because, uh, we'd like to invite the finance committee to attend the 1117 presentation, the 15206
presentation, and of course the joint budget workshops with the select board and finance committee that we'll do in this room where all departments will come forward and talk about all the exciting and important things they do and why they need the budgets that they've requested. and all that needs to
be sorted out uh for the board to uh adopt a budget to submit to the finance committee by the first week of March. So pretty typical process u and we started early and um I think what we frame our
budgets in is is the goals that you establish uh particularly the short-term goals of which you know they're they're posted on the website and we also copied them in this presentation just as a reference but this is what the board prioritized as the things that need to happen. Uh, number one, I don't remember
if they're ordered by priority, but there's only five of them, so they're all important uh in my mind as short-term goals. Um, and then if you look at long-term goals on the next page, we have those in mind, too. As we prepare our budget requests, we're
making sure that if there's a way to address these long-term goals in the coming year, we find a way to work that in or to work towards that. Um, so the goals that you set are a big part of the budgets that we bring forward. So, let's get right to it. The requests
that we have uh that we've received from departments um are listed here. This is not a recommended spending plan. This is the requests that we received that are big enough to be considered for borrowing projects. Um so, the town hall
HVAC replacement, that's a project that you're familiar with. Uh we we are continuing that work. We have design underway. Uh we've applied for a grant that I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll get something from. Um and we'll
continue to advance that uh with the board's support. Uh the fire apparatus, it it seems like we're asking for a new one every year. It's because we are. Um but it's not because we necessarily need them all right now. It's just because of
the lead times to get these um pieces of equipment. for some reason it takes multiple years to have have an engine delivered. Um, so for example, we approved a ladder truck in 2024 and it's going to be delivered in 2028.
So this is something that I think we have on the docket uh for needing to be replaced in the next four years. And so that's why we're asking for it now. Uh if if the town meeting, you know, if you decide not to put that on the list, we could ask for it yet next year. it wouldn't be that far behind, but we need
to we need to think far in advance with these things. The next item is the public works facility. I think the last meeting of the board uh was some initial direction on how to move forward with the design after the peer review uh that was recommended uh by the DPW committee.
We have a path forward for what the design should look like now. Um and so additional funding is needed to take that to um be in a position to uh go out to bid and seek construction pricing. Uh as always we our public works department
is heavily interested in in implementing complete streets. Uh and every year we ask for funding to continue improving intersections and sidewalks uh and other things like that. Uh a new ambulance is needed. The lead times for ambulances are not as long as engines,
but they're they're long enough that we also need to authorize another one, even though we we had one authorized just just a year ago. Um, storm water program. I think there's a lot of knowledge about this uh the need for storm water infrastructure. Uh, it's
been reported to this board and in the study that we need to invest $800 to a million dollars a year over the next several years to catch up on our infrastructure. Um, in practice, it's hard to spend that money that fast. Um, so, uh, I think we're finding ways to
just ask for what we think we can actually spend in a given year. And so, we're asking for 700, uh, to add to the the storm water management program. Same thing with sidewalks. Uh, we we have a need for millions and millions of dollars worth of sidewalks, but we can't
practically do all that work. Uh so we're asking for money to continue advancing the work that we've been doing to uh add sidewalks and improve sidewalks in the community. And then finally for borrowing um the HVAC system
HVAC system at the public safety facility is uh at or is nearing end of life and we are working on design for replacement of that which we'd like to do in the next few years. This funding would help with starting that process.
So if you that that's $9.5 million worth of investments that were identified just for borrowing. Um this is not I think every year we have a number similar to this and every year uh it's reduced to a number that we know we need to do and
that is supported. Uh the next two slides are u additional projects that are smaller in nature uh typically happen every year and would be funded from sources such as free cash and these projects we wouldn't borrow for. We
would pay for them outright uh with funds appropriated. Um so police cruiser replacements those we used to be able to do um you used to be able to do five cruisers for 250,000. Now, I don't think we could even do four for 250,000, but
that's the that's the plan um is to try to uh building envelope and interior improvements. We are working hard to try to improve the way that our buildings are uh maintained and that requires investment.
Similarly, our IT infrastructure has been going through some major changes and we've identified significant needs for uh rebuilding some of the core components um core core switching root rooting enclosure replacements. Those are things that need to happen because
equipment is reaching end of life and it's the backbone to the the work that all of our departments do. A fire command vehicle is also on the list. uh roof design, more radios replacing fire escapes at at
fire stations. Uh the next page would be uh the town hall bell tower. I announced recently that uh we no longer are hearing the chimes of the bell tower from the clock because uh when our structural engineer was up there doing
some um conceptual design work, it happened to be I think 11:00 and the 11 bells that chimed um really shook the structure and made them nervous uh because of some rot they observed and so they said we shouldn't have this thing
chiming anymore until we sort out some structural components. So that's something that I think would be a good CPC project, but you never know if it if there's funding available in that program. So we have it here um because it needs to happen. Other things, this
is another um IT thing. And then the fireworks, uh this is something that if we don't get funding for the fireworks, then we wouldn't be able to have the celebration. Um and then these other things are are self-explanatory. So, in all $1.1
million worth of project funding requests that um I think some of them could be funded from alternative sources besides free cash, but I think the the bulk of them would be funded from free cash if if approved.
Okay. So, one of the projects that I mentioned was the DPW facility. And this is just sort of because we're doing a budget presentation. I didn't want to miss the opportunity to just codify what the direction that we received from the board on how to move this forward. So
online there's there's a whole page dedicated to this project acttonma.gov/dpw GV/DPW facility all one word. Uh but and on there we've published the peer study report that Arrow Street Consultants did. Uh the building committee and the select board
uh reviewed that information and selected one of the options which is labeled 4B. Um that doesn't mean much to people if they don't know the other options. But basically what the the design concept that we've moved forward with is instead of what we brought forward last year which was to build an
entirely new building with spaces for office administration, mechanics, uh, etc. and then a big apparatus uh, garage for the DPW equipment. We're going to instead build a new building next to the
existing building that will just be for staffing, uh, mechanics and shops. Uh and then we'll use the existing building retrofit in a way to increase the amount of vehicle storage that we have in there now. So this is a you know it's a
compromised pro proposal. Instead of getting a brand new um space for trucks, we're going to use reuse an old space for trucks and make it work. And then we'll have a new space for some of the more modern needs that you have in a in an office and a workshop environment.
We think we can do the design needed for that uh for 900,000 uh which would include the funding we need for just also the designer and also the owner's project manager because we just spent 6 months taking a a detour and we we've
needed services of the owner's project managers along the way. So that's the update on DPW. Um also included in departmental requests were staffing requests. Uh these are these are not included in the
actual budget proposals that I'll show you on the next slide, but these are things that are identified outside of the budget process that are needed um by our departments to continue to living services the way that um they believe meets the expectations of our residents,
the service levels that are our residents expect and in ways that uh we're able to provide them. So social work is something that uh there's a focus on in health and human services. Also the 30 Sbury facility has a pretty
active kitchen um with our meals on wheels program which produces hundreds of meals a week to distribute to the community. We also have the senior center cafe and we have various other activities that happen in that kitchen and our COA director has been managing
that. Um, but it's become a pretty big part of her week and it it might be better to have someone more dedicated to focusing on that on a daily basis. Um, so that was that's another one. Um, we have beautiful arboritum just down the
street where we've relied very heavily on volunteers. Uh, since it's since it was built, we've relied very heavily on volunteers. Uh, we believe that that's not a sustainable model for the future. And so, uh, adding a part-time seasonal position to help with some of the work
that goes on over there, uh, is something that we think that we need to do. If not this year, then we need to do it very soon. Uh, and then, as I mentioned, it has been we sort of rebuilt, um, a lot of things with the IT department this year and with the new
systems, we have some new requirements. So, uh, that's what that's what that is. Um, our police department has a lot of new people. Um, it's uh I don't know the exact breakdown, but definitely more than half of the people are that are in
the department have been here less than 5 years. U and so that with that amount of people there's a there's a need to increase supervision uh just so to help people with training and all the work that goes on. So the police department has asked to add a sergeant to uh to
help with that supervision. As you recall, we added a lieutenant last year. Um that was for supervision, but also a lot of the administrative work that has to happen in a police department. This this ad would be more for the supervisory needs that we have out there on the streets u on on a daily basis.
And then the last one is the fire department who uh continues to request staffing uh increases uh to serve the community the way that the chief believes we need staffing. Uh particularly if we're going to be running out of four stations. This is a
staffing model that she believes we would need to implement to do that on on a long-term basis. Uh if you recall, we added one firefighter position last year, which helped us build out uh the shifts a little bit better to help with
coverage. This would be adding uh more people to each shift and adding more supervision to each shift so that every station has a supervisor in it. So those are things that you know in total there there's a
pretty significant amount of staffing requests. Again, we look at that. I focus heavily on looking at grants and reorganizations. If there's a way that we can fund some of these things by moving people around or changing the way our existing roles are, that's a win
because we meet an emerging need without adding to our headcount. There may be a few opportunities here to do that. Um, but not for all of these things. So, here's the operating budget request. It's a little bit difficult to read. I
printed it out for you. Um this is basically the orange column is what was requested and in total the requests increased by 5% 5 a 12%. That that's a number that's not unusual for this point
in the budget process. Um I'm fairly confident that we can u make some adjustments to this to bring this closer to uh what revenue we actually have available. But that's I just wanted to have on record the department's requests
so that the needs that are identified are clear to people and just like we do every year the the columns that go to the right of this orange column or yellow column will be different based on prioritization that we get from the board and the work that we do to try to
find ways to reduce costs um because we don't have this this funding. Um, a big item that I wanted to talk about, and I mentioned this at the August budget preview, is health insurance.
We've had some pretty volatile um we've had a lot of things happen with health insurance. That's created some some budget challenges for us. If you look at this chart, the blue bars that are going vertical are the the budget the budgeted amounts we had for health insurance over
the last several years. And then the red line is the actual expenditure on health insurance over the last few years. And things are going fine until 2024. And that's when we had the significant um spike in costs. It was a 22.8%
increase plus a one-time payment of I think it ended up being 228,000 or something like that. All that came out of the budget that year. So, we said, "Whoa, we need to make sure our budget next year covers this spike that we've
seen." Um, for several reasons, the increase in the budget that we had wasn't, we didn't need all of it. The actual for health insurance and FY25 was, I think, $6 to $700,000 less than what we budgeted. One of the primary
factors to that was the opt outs. we offered a new opt out incentive and that shifted I think um six individuals and 12 families to opt out. So that resulted in almost $300,000 in savings. That was
one thing. The other thing which I think has been mentioned in other forms is that we had a lot of vacancies last year in FY25. And when you have a vacant position that you budgeted $25 to $30,000 in health insurance for and there's no position, then that money is returned back at the end of the year.
We didn't know that right until June of this year. Uh going through the budget process for FY26. We had presented all that information over the winter and town meeting approved it in May before we had a true handle on our full cost
for health insurance. But as you can see, if you look at what's budgeted in the current fiscal year versus what the actual is, I think there's some capacity in there to absorb um increases in other areas because of health insurance. There's also capacity to make
potentially look at how we fund OPED. Um, so in the budget proposal for FY27, even though we're getting a 15% increase for activives and a 53, I think increase for retirees, we didn't
increase the budget by that amount because of the capacity that we know we have in the health insurance budget. Um, we've increased it uh a little bit. We're continuing to do some analysis to see if we can actually reduce that even more in FY27, but it's a little early
for us to to do that right now. So, that's some kind of good news about something that's been a big challenge for us over the last few years. And then debt service. This is another item that uh I really wanted to call to your attention. We've made a lot of
investments in capital in the last few years and a lot of those were borrowing projects. So those debt service amounts, we have the first year covered from a free cash appropriation, but then when the the first the second payment is due, it has
to come from our operating budget. And so if you look at this chart, it starts in FY26, which is the current year. The first the bottom column is excluded debt. That's I think entirely the North Actton Fire Station. The green, which is
the next level, is all the debt that's been inside the levy that we've borrowed for over the last seven, eight or nine, 10 years. Um, and then the red is the amount that we owe to the sewer fund based on the settlement with Grace uh 20
years ago. And then if you look at um so that amount is going up almost 25% in FY27 and that's fixed costs that we know. Uh so even if we approve no other projects that's what our costs are going
to be in FY27. And then if you look at 28 and beyond that yellow amount is the amount of debt service that we've already authorized but we haven't borrowed for yet. So this is a conservative amount that we've projected in here. It's based on four
and a quarter% on a maximum term level level um payments. There's a chance that we do better than this, but this is what we have on the books going forward. So anything that we add to our debt load, we need to have this in mind. Um,
so this is an important slide because it talks a little bit about what the future looks like. And then the next slide shows sort of how we do the budget every year is this this format where we have municipal
operations, offsets, subsidies. That's the total operations. Then we put the the capital in there and have that a total. And the bottom is actually the total spending which goes in the ALG plan and what we have considering our total spending. Uh and we're just at the
beginning of this process. So I just we're just showing here that the department's requested amount is just over 43 million. Um and all these other things are amounts that we're going to sort out um this month or over the next
month with input from from um you all and from the public and the finance committee. So it's, you know, this is not, I don't think this is information that is shocking. This is pretty normal for this point in the budget process, but we
don't always share this level of deo detail at this level in the process. So it may feel make you feel uncomfortable, but I'm not I don't feel uncomfortable about it. Um, and then next steps. I think I went through this already at the beginning of
the presentation, but the next steps are we're going to present the capital plan and keep working through the budgets until we present after the beginning of the new year. That is the presentation and happy to
answer any questions. Okay, we'll open up to questions from my colleagues. Alicia, >> thank you. Thank you, John, for this. Um, I'm not feeling uncomfortable, so that's
good. I like this uh additional detail. Um, I have a question about the non-excluded debt. Why does it jump for FY27 and FY28 and then go back down to the level
that it is for FY26 and FY29? What what is that? >> So, it's hard to see at this scale, but the the amounts change. Um for a long time we borrowed projects with principal
level um you can either do level payments or level principal. >> Mhm. >> And um when if you do level principal you um you pay it off in kind of a curve fashion. If you do level payments it's
just straight all the way across. Um, so there's some projects that we borrowed that are falling off and also we have projects that you borrow for, you know, you'll borrow for a some things and you only get 5 years of debt service. Some things you borrow for 15 years. So even though we borrow them the same time,
they fall off earlier. So when the green uh bar gets smaller, it's because projects are paid off. Um, and that opens up capacity for more. So I guess my question is what are the projects that um are coming? It looks
like there are projects coming on in FY27 because the green bar is taller. So I understand the projects falling off it would make the debt go down but do do you know like specifically all the ones
that we just borrowed for this spring are the ones that are now part of our debt service in FY27. And so that'd be the projects approved at FY24. >> So that was the fuel depot, >> sidewalks, complete streets, >> storm water, and maybe something else.
So all those things we we paid short-term with the money we got from town meeting. We did the borrowing. We got the returns. We we didn't we had a better rate than four and a quarter. I don't remember what it was, but it was better than better than four and a quarter. And now we start paying for it. And then the yellow, those are all the
things that were approved at last town meeting. And so we're not going to owe any money on those until 2028. >> Okay. Thank you. Um I guess these Yeah, I have another question. Um the public safety facility
HVAC was called a conceptual design. Um, is that because it is electrifying the building? Is that why we need a design rather than just I'm not an engineer, but I would think if you needed to replace the HVAC, you
just take it out and put put a new one in unless there's a significant change that requires engineering. Yeah, that that's precisely the difference is is so we have replaced a few components with you know the way that they are now but to replace the entire system
>> would trigger the need to electrify it uh based on uh local bylaw and local and local policy direction at least to date. So we're planning uh to do it that way. There is opportunities to use the energy efficiency fund to help offset these
costs. So, this would be another example of something that if if it were to move forward either some or all of it could be funded from a different source of free cash. >> Okay. And I don't have any other questions. Probably I will after I hear from you other folks. Um but I do want
to say that I'm very pleased to see the IT um capital in here. Fully support that. Definitely a critical need. So I'm be behind those items 100%. >> Thank you. Other comments,
>> I was just going to say thank you for this and I feel like it's in keeping with, you know, finding the important things that need to be done. And I was happy to see the IT person and the social worker for the health and human
services. Um, I think that th those are great additions. Um, that's all I have to say. >> Thank you, David. Um, thank you. I have a bunch of little things. Um, certainly not for tonight, but I would like to see
on the all the vehicle replacements, the details about what we're replacing. So, the details on the old ambulance, how old it is, what's the condition, details on engine 21, uh, etc. Uh last year we did this even for the um the the
police cruisers. Um uh so I would just like to under understand that that that detail. Um the public safety facilities uh design. I'm surprised to see that under borrowing. Um um
I think I might be more in favor of that being um not borrowed, but that's just maybe that's just me. Um, do we have a number for certified free cash? >> Um, we do we do not, but we've been doing a lot of work to get that uh work
worked on. I this is a great chance for me to thank um Ellie and Tom uh for their work in preparing this presentation. Uh you'll hear a lot from Tom on the 17th when we when we do capital and um so Ellie, why don't you take this question please?
Um, so I will say free cash has been submitted to the do, but they're busy right now certifying tax rates. We haven't even heard back from our do rep. There's typically a little bit of back and forth. So, we don't really have a number just yet that we're confident
with releasing, but we do hope to have certification within within the next few weeks for sure. >> Do you think it'll be done by the 17th? It sounds like that's very iffy. >> I surely hope so, but I don't want to make any promises. um when we're um
working with the do they're busy people. >> Thank you. Um the other another area we would like to see detail on is just for the um because the public will want to know this is as well as us is the for the bridge and culvert program and the
sidewalk program. What projects might we tackle um with the the money we'd u borrow um this year um for um uh the the bell tower in this uh
building? Do we have an assessment of how urgent that is? In other words, do we need to ask town meeting next year for the construction funds even ahead of the design? um or or or ask CP the CPA for
CPC for uh that uh money because uh if it's urgent you know maybe do we don't want to wait two years to do that that construction. >> Uh thank you that's a great question David. Um, so we are waiting for a
structural review report from structures north. At this time, they've indicated preliminary onsite that by shutting off the bell, we should be in fine until we're able to address the uh issues. Um, what we've asked them in the report is
to identify short-term and long-term stabilization efforts that we should be undertaking. Uh, so we should have that report in hand by the end of this month. >> Okay. that that'd be great because I'd be curious. I mean, we certainly don't want to be in a position that if we get something like a micro burst that the
top of the building comes off, right? So, um uh you know, it just seems a long time to me with a a structural problem to wait two years to to replace it. We I think town meeting would be understanding if we ask for the money and say that we're not going to spend it
in, you know, until we have a design in place and that kind of thing. I I think that's something to consider there even uh to ask for design and construction funds at at once. And I think that's all. Um oh, these fireworks would be for
2027. Is that right? It would be for July of 26. Um yeah, for July of 26. So, it's a little confusing because it's funded in FY27, but we'll be expending it in June 30th, 26 for the fireworks that year.
>> So, these >> I'm sorry, 27. You're correct. >> Oh, good. I apologize. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Can I make one other comment for the for the personnel things? Um uh Mr. manager, I would like
some uh indication from you as to what your prioritization of the new hires would be, right? Um you know, there's there's 16 people listed, right? Um counting
part-time as half and just my little count. Um, and so I think to to sort through that in the final budget request, I would want information from you to say these are the most critical, these are second tier critical, etc.
>> Thank you. We we I'll start that process on the 17th um in terms of early recommendations, but then when the budget recommendation comes out uh in January will be what I really think we we need to do. And the work that we're going to do is is to figure out other
ways to fund it in the meantime. >> Jim, >> um so if we chose none of these staffing positions for next year, uh that the proposed budget wouldn't go
down, right? because these are all in addition to the current operating budget requests. >> That's correct. >> Okay. Um the other question was um uh and maybe this is for my ALG reps. Um it
seems like you know as you get further in this process, you're really going to need to know uh you know what the revenue split is with with the schools. And I and David's been particularly eloquent at asking pushing for the ALG
to at least agree on a revenue split so that the entities have, you know, targets to work from. And I was just wondering how that process was going. >> Well, I think um you know, one of the important things we've got a little more time.
Um the next ALG meeting actually isn't until November 19th. >> So we've got a couple of weeks and we will have the next presentation from the uh from the town manager on the 17th. So we'll have more information that we
Alyssa and I will be able to bring to ALG. Um and I the schools are kind of working on sort of the same pathway as well. So, um I would say at at the select board meeting on
Monday, uh December 1st, uh we'll probably have some some better feedback from ALG and we'll kind of know we'll ask at that point where you folks sit.
>> Yes. Just to finish that off. Okay. So I see that making progress on developing this budget then allows you guys to turn around and explain what levels of pain happen at different revenue splits
because you'll be able to say oh yeah we won't be able to hire you know this this this we won't be able to do this capital project. Um so that's okay. I get it now. Thanks. >> Okay. Um, couple of points that I've got
in no particular order. Um, this has come up in the past. I I hope at some point during the budget process, you'll be able to bring forward a comprehensive plan on how we're going to deal with our aging street light infrastructure.
Um, you know, I brought this up. This is for at least the third year. And uh you know we've got street lights, many of which have been non-functioning for 2 years. And we talk a lot about you know traffic
safety, pedestrian safety. And here's you know kind of the oldest kind of safety issues for pedestrians having street lights especially at intersections. And a lot of them don't work. And a lot of the ones that do work have arked down so far.
Some of those LEDs are approaching 20 years old. And I know it's it's a it's a nasty problem. I've dealt with it in the past, but I think it's something that we really have to do. Amongst other things, but those my colleagues don't realize
this. Whether the light is working or not, it cost us money. We have to pay a tariff on each one of those lights whether it's producing anything or not. So I think even just from point of view of
guarding the taxpayers's uh pocketbook, we need to make sure that all the lights we're paying for actually work. So I really strongly strongly strongly encourage you to include that in your presentations in
the future. Um second point on on fireworks. Um, so my understanding is I got a little confused with back and forth. My understanding is that
the the cost of the fireworks which will be fired off this coming July, July 4th, 26 have been paid for in previous year. And >> allocation at town meeting last that just happened in May didn't pay for the
fireworks that we saw in July. They paid for the fireworks that we'll see in July of 26. >> They have been paid. >> We have the money. We have We have $40,000 which we'll use to pay for those fireworks. And then this request would be to pay for the following years.
>> The following year. All right. Just wanted to confirm that. You know, >> this we can certainly have a longer discussion about this, but this is just my own personal feeling. Um, you know, July 4th, 26 is the 250th anniversary of
the signing the Declaration of Independence. That's really important for me, and I think everybody supports that. Going forward, I personally would not be in favor of continuing the fireworks and the Fourth of July celebrations. Um, I
think now after this year be a good time to stop it. Um I'm concerned not only because of the the initial cost of blowing a lot of stuff up, but um more importantly all of the other costs which
I know are substantial and they're held in departmental budgets. Police, fire, um DPW, every department is paying for this. It's all hidden in there. It's a huge
operation. I frankly question, you know, looking at the percentage of folks that attend there, how many actually are acting taxpayers and how, you know, we've we've become a regional draw for this area. And I'm not sure that
when we're talking about, you know, checking in the couch cushions for money, whether we can afford to continue to be a regional draw. This whole thing got started. We had some very generous merchants that were financing a great deal of it. Um that hasn't happened
since co um and I frank frankly would feel bad about sending our economic development director out to try to encourage people to donate more money. I think it's I think it might be time. It might have run its course. Just my
personal feeling and I'm sure we'll have more discussions on this. Finally, uh when we're talking about interactions with the finance committee, I think it is important that we uh do have a meeting uh roundt discussion with
finome about the DPW project. So I think looking at the timing of meetings and such, we should probably try to figure out where that will go in there. It'd be great to get their feedback and to have a lot of details agreed upon before we
get into January and February as far as, you know, who's going to support a new building, especially we're asking for 900,000 for um redesign. Um that's it for me.
If any of my colleagues have any comments, final comments. Alyssa. Um, I just want to clarify with the fireworks budget. My understanding was that the 40,000
um included monies for staff so that it's not necessarily hidden in the department's budget like recreation, police, and fire. I thought only part of the 40,000 was for the fireworks. An additional was
for renting equipment and paying staff. and that it was all supplemented by donations because it actually costs like 75,000. >> That's a fair question. So the 40,000 goes for a number of things that include the fireworks, the portaotties, the ban
that costs because we're not charging fees to offset that expense. Um there's also a lot of different things that we put into it. Time for staff. We'll start planning here in the next couple of weeks um in early December. So there's a lot of meetings that professional staff,
police department, fire department, uh we attend and that ends up being a lot of time that doesn't get accounted for in this budget. Uh recreation staff that attends and works along with the park stewards, volunteers, um we have camp counselors who work that night as well.
That's paid out of the recreation revolving account. So there is a lot of funding that's not included in that 40,000 that's expended at least from recreation and then from other departments as well. >> David, >> uh a couple shorter uh um comments. I
mean I I understand that we might want to consider dropping the the fireworks after next year. I'd be interested in knowing if there was would any savings would there be any savings and if so how much for switching to something like a laser show is that about the same cost
is that half the cost is that um un unfortunately I believe it's more than what we're budgeted I've heard numbers in the past of being anywhere between 60 to 80,000 for a show that's similar to ours which is 20 minutes um I don't have any quotes to back that up
but I've been um in the field that it cost more than what we're we're paying for our fireworks. Interesting. So blowing stuff up is cheaper. Um um another comment completely separate area that I forgot to mention before the I
think you said uh John during your presentation that the fire station uh hiring proposal was modeled on having four stations. Um I would like to know what it would be for three stations. um uh or how that
would work because I think you know we've taken these steps to kind of move away from forest stations and so um um and you know in every year for the past several I've said that it's hard to do one without the other. I mean I don't want to hire people
until we've kind of committed to what our station plan is um or at least you know are pretty sure about it. So, that's something maybe you can bring ne next time. Um, you know, I don't need need an answer tonight, but I'd be I'll ask the
question again when we move forward with hiring. Um, and then um uh to to follow up on Jim's comment about um the the revenue split. I think there's a back and forth that has to happen here. Um, I think it's important that the ALG take a
a step. Um, but I think it'll take a couple months to settle. And I think if we don't get to a percentage this month, it's a it basically is irrelevant then, which is what has happened for the past two years, right? Because if the
percentage comes in in February or March or later, it doesn't matter. We've already figured it out. And and I think it makes it makes it more more difficult. I completely agree with you that both the the school district and and and the town are are better served
having a target and then being able to react to that target. Um so I hope I hope we do that. >> Thank you. Other comments, >> Alissa,
>> um I I have a question about the $700,000 for the storm water borrowing. um RACK is nearing completion on their report back to the board and um one of the things that they've discussed over
the past several months is the fact that um borrowing is not a great long-term solution and obviously we're not at long-term solution right now with this being only the third year um because you have to
pay interest when you borrow money. So, I guess I would want to know um if we can get the information from the DPW about whether or not there could be a pause in
that um 3/4 of a million dollar borrowing for a year or two before we have um in place a sustainable funding solution. whether that is a storm water utility
fee or something else increasing the DPW budget coming out of the general fund a combination of grants etc. So um I mean I've I've read the asset um report from
Woodard and Curr and I and I understand that there are several um critical needs. I'm just wondering if they if they need to happen or if there can be a a year or two pause because it does take a couple of years
to establish a utility if that's the the um path that we take. Um, and I also just want to mention that I listened in on the um, school committee's um, budget sub meeting and obviously that's a tiny
um, part of the school committee um, just a few members, not the entire committee. They have to then bring their their budget guidelines to the full school committee to vote. Um but they um in their recommended
budget guidance uh landed on a budget increase between 3.75 and 4.25%. So that's not been approved yet, but I think that that's important information for us to have um given David's comment
about, you know, how time is of the essence here. Um and the next ALG meeting is not until after our next select board meeting. So we might want to actually have a discussion um about the municipal percent increase and this
and the splits and get some input from the other board members. um to the question of deferring the storm water. Um certainly uh it's something that we'll have to discuss a after we present the capital needs on
the 17th. It'll have all the detail of not just these projects but all the projects for the next nine years after this. And in that you'll notice a few projects that we've deferred in the past. Um, and once we present that 10-year plan, we'll
take the next two weeks or so to figure out which projects we can defer. Realistically, I mean, that's those are decisions that we're going have to make. We're not we can't do all these things. We already know that. So, that could be a good candidate to to push. Um,
certainly. And then that's part of the prioritization work that um we hope to do with with you all. And I think um yeah, I think this and I just forgot to mention that we did do we did do a
street light study this summer uh partially and so that work is ongoing um and I can provide a better update to the board on that um next time. >> Thank you for that answer to the storm water question. I definitely don't it
might seem like something that oh we could easily defer but I don't want to do that too soon if we need this amount of funds to tackle these particular culverts and bridges because they are um
so deteriorated because the repair cost for an emergency um failure is significantly higher and it involves um you know potentially property damage. Um potentially economic um impacts if we
have to close a road on, you know, on a on a roadway that has a lot of businesses and people have to detour, etc. >> Okay. Um thank you very much. Uh item seven, discuss tri board meeting
takeaways. the uh I think just to kick off um you know sort of the first time that I'm aware of where we've had this sort of a back and forth and I
I was pleased to hear it. Um, and it's interesting to see the hear about the substantial challenges that are faced by our neighbors in Boxboro right now that sounds pretty much like they're going to have to have an operating override
regardless of what happens with the school budget. So, um, that's something to keep in mind. Um, I guess one of the questions that I would ask my colleagues is did you see
the value in this meeting? Um, do you think we should uh have some sort of a follow-up meeting? Um, going into maybe the January time frame or was this a oneoff? Maybe we'll do it again next
year. So, whatever input folks have got, I'd be happy to hear it. Jim. >> Um, my instinct is that the next useful step would involve more back and forth and thus should probably be a smaller
group. Um, so, you know, I was thinking, you know, maybe one or two people from each entity um getting together um might be a good next step.
Thank you, Fran. >> I I uh I thought it was very helpful. It was sort of like misery loves company in, you know, but I thought it was useful. Um and I could see that as an
annual kind of meeting um strategically maybe before budgets. Yeah, >> thank you David. I >> I agree with Fran that the as an annual
meeting uh makes makes sense. And the reason I say that is I think the the detailed work moving forward really doesn't involve both towns except through the school district, right? um and um
the most it would be very difficult for that body to do any detailed work and I think from this point on um the the work is detailed. I do think it's valuable for uh us to know you know each other's
challenges and I think that is extremely helpful and so I thought it was it was a very good meeting um and if we run into some um obstacle in the uh you know figuring out the A and B budgets for the schools based on Boxboro's override then
um I I there could be some value in some follow-up but I'm thinking that would be through the school committee anyway. way. So, um anyway, I think the annual meeting is good. Not convinced on more frequent. >> Thank you, >> Alissa.
>> Um I I think that I also agree that it was helpful to get together with folks from Boxboro and hear about their challenges. Um it it's also my understanding from listening on the budget subcommittee
meeting today that they will be preparing an AM budget for Boxboro's um override passage or or not. Um, I think that one of the things that I find
challenging is the um the followup uh communication that the board has received and and as well as as the finance committee. Um and there seemed to be different
perspectives on um percentage increases over the years of the act assessment and the municipal um operating plus debt. And it's just it's concerning to me that
we don't share the same num numbers. Like how are we getting different numbers if we are you know passing budgets at town meeting and we have you know spreadsheets um that have the the actual expenditures and the actual
figures that have been passed. So I think going forward um if there are more you know workshop dialogue that um meetings with just a couple members I mean that happens in in ALG so I don't know that it's going to happen any
differently outside of that because we're not going to be meeting with Boxboro. Um but that's just something for for us to keep in mind that we have different views on um how much pain each entity has
experienced over the last few years and how many um cuts have been made. We we might not see that um for the municipal as a cut, but we look at the budget and the requests from staff that they see
are necessary to meet needs from the public that they see every single day in their interactions with the public. So, we might not be cutting staff positions as they have um in the school district, but we are still
making cuts because we're not um we're not pursuing certain programs, projects, or new positions to to meet those needs. We're we're doing that in other ways. um like the ones that John mentioned
tonight um reorganization and changing roles and changing the way we do things and pursuing grants. >> Thank you, >> David. So, two two things. Um, just for
my I've shared this with um some members of the finance committee and and some others. Uh, but just for myself, I produced a 10-year retrospective on um uh spending. It kind of looks like the ALG sheet except it's all in the past
and it's all based on um numbers from town meeting uh results and so they're not projections or anything. It's all history. I'd be happy to put that in the packet next time if we want to if you want to have it during the the discussion um of ALG um for next time.
Um this the second thing I wanted to mention is at the school committee meeting um a after um the tri board meeting u and they alluded to this in the tri board meeting they had their kind of budget
outlook um and um which has a an over 6% budget increase for the next couple of years. Almost all of that is for personnel. Their percentage of personnel
is actually bigger than the towns. Um, plus our non-personnel's costs. We have more latitude as to when we take them on. Just like we were discussing, beginning to discuss tonight, you know, what
capital projects can we take on this year? And if we don't, we will postpone them till next year, right? And we do that based on a lot of factors. Some of the factor is how robust is free cash? Um how not robust is free cash? And free
cash doesn't drive the tax rate. Of course, it's tax money, but it it doesn't drive the tax rate. So anyway, they have a very big thing. And their non-personnel costs are There's a a lot of line items for the various schools and things, but they're
pretty modest. You could zero them all out and you wouldn't and you wouldn't um you know solve the problem. I'm not saying that there's nothing there that could be um uh tweaked and optimized. There certainly is, but it's not going
to be huge numbers. Um, the second thing I want to say about that is that the AB forward reorganization prog uh process, some people are discouraged about that. I've been I've talked to some people in in town that, you know, that says it's not going to fix everything. And I
absolutely agree that it's not going to fix everything, but it should not be underestimated. It is huge. If a sustainability a a option with high sustainability is selected um
the budget problem goes from um over 6% to over 5%. Right? And that it goes from having the needs for dire cuts to having the needs for serious cuts. Right? It's so that is not to we
we should not underestimate the the importance of that um um decision on the part of the the school district will have huge effects on um them and on the town's budget. >> Thank you. Uh and yes, David, that
retrospective that you suggested that would be very useful. So, if you can get it to the manager and get it in the packet, that would be great. Thank you. All right. Um, we'll move ahead to the
consent agenda. Uh, item eight, approve meeting minutes October 20th, 22nd, and 27, 2025. Item nine, approve minor modifications to condition 3.1.4 4 of the use special
permit number 4/22/2024-501. Let's roll 930 Main Street. >> Hold. >> Number 10. Approve appointment of Koki as a full member of the Council on Aging Board with a term to end on June 30th, 2028.
Number 11, approve appointment of Nikil Manny as an associate member of the land stewardship committee with a term to end on June 30th, 2026. >> Move to approve consent items 8, 10, and 11. >> Second.
>> Moved and seconded to approve consent items 8, 10, and 11. All in favor, please say I. I. >> Opposed? >> Extensions. Okay. Approved. Number nine to the hold.
>> Um, I held this one because I have a memory that we should that we have a proposed motion that we need to actually verbalize uh the change because it's not written down in the in the consent, but
now I can't find it. Of course, >> Jim, >> um the proposed there there was a late breaking uh 9.1 and at the bottom of it there's um the movement that we find the requested modification to be minor in
nature and move to amend the decision to allow for hours of operation from Sunday to Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. So it is laid out in that that's what you're asking right what the actual motion is. >> Yes. And I I agree it's good to make that explicit. Um it's good reason to
hold it. >> Okay, David. >> Yes. I was wondering I don't recall in our discussions that we were thinking of opening it up to essentially have no restrictions on
ours, which is what this does. I understand that's what's in here now, but that was that was not my understanding. I just moving my computer here so I can read and talk to you guys at the same time. Um,
we temporarily did um Monday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday hours to get them through and then they had a list of their ideal hours which were Monday, Tuesday through Thursday and Saturday. And um
somehow the the the item in the packet says basically they can be open whenever they want. Um I'm not sure I agree with they can be open whenever they want. And I would like one of the other um
I would rather continue what we did now, the Monday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday or the Monday, Tuesday, Saturday that they said is important to them. Um and unfortunately there's nobody here to dis discuss this. Um
um but um I and I know that the um economic development director did talk to the neighbors um um and didn't get huge objections, but still I I'm not sure that I and agreed to open it up all
all the time. >> The owner is online. >> Yeah. So, just to clarify, the hours would be 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. every every day, but not not anytime that within that time frame. And I think the business representative is here, Jeffrey
Reynolds. >> Yes, let's hear from the uh the applicant. >> I'm sorry. Can you Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can. Thank you. >> Okay. Um it's actually Kelly. I I apologize. Um so our hopes with with doing the
Saturday through Sunday um was strictly to avoid having to come back um on a regular basis uh to discuss any other changes because as a new business we're not exactly sure what's going to work best. Um, it might be that the days that
we think are good and ideal aren't going to be good for our customers. So, we're kind of in a fluctuation right now and we don't want to have to keep coming back over and over again. um
particularly where there's no other objections and we did our best to try to mitigate um the complaints and I'm really not sure what else we can do
but I I think that restricting our hours um I mean kind of just because of the type of business we are seems you know um well it it's concerning But
we're not trying to be open all of the hours listed. We're just trying to reduce the amount of time needed to change our hours to, you know, um, prosper and, um, we have
been taking into consideration our neighbors. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, so let me give you my perspective on this. Um, I I frankly don't see any problem with
approving the hours that they've requested. I don't see any reason why we should put some additional restriction on what's already an incredibly restrictive permit. Uh restrictive
process we've gone through. Um you know there the number of locations even that firearms business can can exist and act in is incredibly small. um
they're heavily restricted and heavily supervised by local police, by the state, and by the federal government. Um our economic development director reached out to all of the businesses and
there were no no complaints from anyone. Um so I don't understand it. um other than you know people might have a problem with a particular kind of business.
I might have a particular problem with a nail salon and yet I don't think it's within our purview to create artificial restrictions on nail salons. By the same token,
uh, firearms business is conducting their business in accordance with the permits. Um, legally, uh, I just don't understand it. And I, you know, thinking of the kind of clientele they likely have, I would
expect that they'd probably have a lot of people coming in, you know, hobbyists on Saturdays and Sundays that that might want to conduct business. So, I frankly don't understand what the uh problem is with allowing
um the kind of hours that they're requesting. I don't think that we've other than with a common virtual license or something like that, I don't think we've we've put that kind of restriction on any other business in town. Alyssa,
>> thanks. Um, I am comfortable with the proposed motions that were put in the packet, I believe, this afternoon. Um, I I they're definitely not um the hours that are proposed are definitely not
anytime, as the manager said, just 10 to 8, seven days a week. And I I agree that I don't think it's reasonable to expect the business owner to come to the board each time they want to shift
their hours to meet the customer's needs. So, you know, maybe Monday or Friday turns out to be a better day than Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Um although you know the the intent of the of the
bylaw um regulating where gun shops can be is and I I'm trying to find it so I can read it but I can't find it um because this bylaw is 214 pages long but but basically it's to um limit this type of
business from areas where residents live and children are and and you know the law is defined as educational meaning just schools um that are like public schools or private schools um you know
academic in nature um so I think um it's definitely it's you know Dean you're saying that you don't understand the point of this um but the point is that there are businesses there that are educational in nature and have children
as clients. Um that said, I think that um the staff and the board has done everything that we can to negotiate. You know, when I suggested that the the different tenants get together, I was
anticipating that the property owner would do that, would facilitate them conversing with, you know, all of the tenants at that address. Not that town staff would do that, but it's great that our economic development director did reach out um and you know spent a lot of
time negotiating this and it seems that there isn't an issue um as we were led to believe. So I think that um you know I would like to make this motion um to have the hours be Thank you, David. It's
here somewhere >> to to to be um I have well no I have I don't have it because I have the bylaw open. Um so can I make that motion? >> Please do. >> Okay. Do I need to make both motions? I move that we find the requested
modification to be minor in nature and allow it to proceed as a minor modification. I move to amend decision 04/224-501 condition 3.1.4 to allow for hours of operation from
Sunday to Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. >> Okay, that's the motion. Do I have a second? Well, I will second it. David. >> Yeah, I I don't have a strong uh objection to this and I completely
understand the business owner's uh desire to have flexibility to make her business uh succeed. Um, I I was asking the questions here because I've heard from residents who had concerns about the time um um and knowing and I you
know I have frankly mixed feelings about whether the check-in with the board is valuable and you know be if they propose to change their um uh times to a something that would be
that that some others people in town might think is a problem, right? And I think that they should have that that uh there should be a way of, you know, discussing that or bringing up anything
someone objects to to us so that we can figure out whether it's important enough to deal with or not. And so I was I was just bringing it up for that for that reason. Um again, I don't have a a really strong objection. I would be,
you know, kind of interested. I mean, maybe it doesn't even have a purpose if that the town was notified when the hours were changed, but maybe that doesn't have a purpose. So, I I'm I'm fine with the the motion as it as it is. >> Jim,
um I was looking at a couple of the numbers. Um so um the the hours that were listed in this memo as that the owners considered ideal
uh was um one two three four one two three four five days a week um for a total of 30 hours. Um the what we approved in the short run was 4 days a
week uh 32 hours and the current proposal that we're looking at that's been seconded is um 7 days a week um 70 hours. Um so it suggested to me that there
might be a way of um amending condition 3.14 to say to allow for hours of operation from Sunday to Saturday 10 to 8:00 p.m. um with a limit of you know 30 35 some
number of hours per week um and leaving at least one day a week uh where they're not open but that that would all be under their discretion um what day that would be and what 30 hours um or up to
30 hours seems like that would um deal with you know the concern that this is a sudden leap from you know 4 hours a week to 70 hours a week. Um, but give them some discretion to figure out, you know, how how to where they want to put their
hours. And if if that had any level of support, I'd be happy to try to turn that into language. Fran, >> I was under the impression that this was not a initially a a foot traffic store
that it was um more behind the scenes and internet kind of thing. So I I'm that's a lot of hours in my opinion. That's like a retail boutique. So to that I will ask um those of you
who ever go up to Highland Commons and go by Cabela's um which is has a fairly large gun and ammunition section, how many hours do they operate? And I'm it's probably in excess of 70 hours per week. And I mean
that's you know it's a business decision that folks make. Um the fact that a business started out as being a very modest operation with a lot of you know internet and has been
successful enough to grow. I think that's something that we should encourage when somebody is selling a legal and highly regulated product. So I don't have any particular problems with them being open 70 hours a week. And in point of fact they might decide that it
just doesn't make sense. I mean, lots of businesses shut down for Mondays or whatever, but I I don't think it's it's appropriate for the select board to be that involved in the day-to-day operations of a of a legal business.
Alicia, >> I am eager to vote so we can go home. But, um, I just want to say that I I don't think that it's reasonable and it's not in alignment with the intent of the bylaw for us to specify a certain
number of hours. And it's clear to me that they're not going to be operating 70 hours. And Cabela's is not a good example because they also sell really good socks there too and pants and shoes
um and fishing poles. Um so they're not going to be open 70 hours. Um I don't think it's reasonable for them to need to come back to the board every time there's a change in hours. And to David's point about um an issue, the
reason that we came initially was because an issue was brought to our attention that turns out to be not so much of an issue. So that could happen again in the future and and we could always open it back up again if it's if it's reasonable and and in alignment
with the intent of the bylaw. >> Okay, I'll call for a vote. All in favor of the motion, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Abstensions. >> Abstain.
>> Okay, I believe we passed. Thank you very much. I'll take one more motion. >> I move to adjourn. >> Second. >> Moved and second to adjurnn. All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed? Extensions. We're adjourned.
Thank you. See you in two weeks, if not sooner.