say welcome. Thank you for coming and welcome to the Monday, April 28th, 2025 special and annual town meetings for the town of Air. I'd like to start out with some stage introductions, our select board. Over here we have Sean Copeland, our chair,
Christopher Tvaris, vice chair, and Janice Livingston, the clerk. Sitting at the table with them is Robert Pontrion, our town manager. To my left, we have members of the finance committee. The far end, Eric Seekman,
Andrew Cely in the middle as vice chair and Kurt Frescowski is the chair. The other members I believe are here in the auditorium this evening. Jen Hong member and Bob France. I Oh, I want to introduce Carly Antelis,
our assistant town manager, who's sitting in the front row over here. Next to our town council, Mark Rich from the law firm of KP Law. And to my left, our town clerk, Susan Copeland. May I ask please that you
stand for the pledge of allegiance. The flag's over here this year. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and
justice for all. Thank you very much. As we do at our Springtown meeting, I'd like to read the names of folks who are no longer with us this year in memoriam this year. Carolyn
Filibbron, Frank Maxent, Calvin Moore, Mary Noeth, who was a Boston Post Cane recipient, Norin Oul, Donald Scalain, Richard
Scotchless, and Marian Smith. Next, I'd like to proceed with the special town meeting, at which point I'm going to ask Madame Clerk to read the return of the warrant. Good evening. Town of air, special town meeting warrant.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Middle Sex, SS. Greetings. In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you are hereby directed to notify and warn the inhabitants of the town of air qualified to vote in town elections and affairs to meet in the auditorium of the Air
Shirley Regional High School located at 141 Washington Street Air Massachusetts on Monday the 28th day of April 2025 at 7 o'clock in the evening then and there to act in the following articles. hereof fail not and make due return of
this warrant with your doings thereof to the town clerk before the date appointed for said meeting given under our hands this first day of April AD 2025 Shan Copelan chair Christopher E Tavvaris vice chair Janice Livingston
clerk a true copy of test Susan E Copeland town clerk dated April 4th 2025 as directed in the foregoing warrant I have this day posted to three attested copies in three public places, one of which was the town hall at least 7 days before said meeting, all as here and
directed. Samuel A. Goodwin Jr., constable, dated April 4th, 2025. Thank you, Susan. I have a couple more housekeeping items. One is the limits of the floor.
The seats in these three sections are for members of the town meeting, res registered voters of the town. The seats along the back are for folks here to observe. If you'd like to speak, please step up to one of the microphones. When
you speak, please give your name and your address. Additionally, we have other individuals who are admitted to the floor this evening who have business before the meeting. their town department heads and other town employee and town employees. They're typically sitting down here and I'll introduce them as they have
presentations. With that, let's jump right into the special town meeting. Mr. Copelan, article one, salaries of elected officials. No, Mr. Special meeting. I'm sorry. I
turned I turned over to the extra page. Sorry guys. And you didn't think I was nervous, did you? Article one, supplemental appropriation water enterprise fund. Thank you, Mr. Copeland. Mr. Moderator, I move that the town vote to transfer
$275,000 from the water enterprise retained earnings, of which $13,310 is for water capital costs and of which $261,690 is for water operational cost. in order to provide additional funding
for the fiscal year 2025 water enterprise operating budget as voted under article 10 of the April 22nd, 2024 annual town meeting as contained in article one and printed in the warrant. Seconded. Thank you, Mr. I'm sorry. Was
there a second? Yes, I seconded. Thank you. Seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I I opposed. Absentions. Motion passes. Thank you. Article 2, supplemental appropriation ambulance enterprise fund.
Mr. Devars. Um, Mr. Moderator, I move uh that the town vote to transfer 20 thou $20 20,000 from the ambulance retained earnings in order to provide additional funding for operational costs for the FY2025 ambulance enterprise operating
budget voted under article 8 of the April 22nd, 2024 annual town meeting as contained in article 2 and printed in the warrant. Seconded. Thank you. Moved and seconded. Any discussion?
Seeing none, all in favor? I opposed, abstensions. Article passes. Thank you. With that, I declare that the special town meeting, Mr. Mo, I'm sorry. I make a motion to end special town meeting.
Oh, I'm Thank you. Seconded. Moved and seconded to end the town the special town meeting. All in favor? I opposed. Thank you very much. The special town meeting has been is dissolved. Now on to the annual town meeting. Again, Madame
Clerk, when you have a moment, I'm sorry. That's okay. Just got to write everything down and keep up. Uh would you please read the return of the warrant? Town of Air annual town meeting warrant. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Middle Sex, SS. Greetings. In the name of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you are hereby directed to notify and warn the inhabitants of the town of air qualified to vote in town elections and affairs to meet in the auditorium of the Air Shirley Regional High School located at 141 Washington Street Air, Massachusetts
on Monday, the 28th day of April, 2025 at 7 and 5 minutes o'clock 7:05 p.m. in the evening then and there to act on the following articles. hereof fail not and make due return of this warrant with your doings thereof to the
town clerk before the date appointed for said meeting given under our hands this first day of April AD 2025 Sean Copelan chair Christopher E Tavaris vice chair and Janice Livingston clerk a true copy of test Susan E
Copeland town clerk dated April 4th 2025 as directed in the foregoing warrant I have this date posted three tested copies in three public places, one of which was the town hall at least 7 days before said meeting. All as herein directed, Samuel A. Goodwin, Jr.,
constable, dated April 4th, 2025. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. Article one, salaries of elected officials. Mr. Copeland. Mr. Moderator, I move that the town vote to fix the salary and compensation of elected officials of the town of Air as contained in article one
and printed in the warrant. Seconded. Moved and seconded. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. Article passes. Thank you. Article two, contract funding
air department of public works union local 1703. Mr. Dvarus, please. Mr. Moderator, I move the town vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $60,725 to fund the first year cost
items of the collective bargaining agreement between the town of Air and the Air Department of Public Works Union ASFCME93 local 1703 as contained in article 2 and printed in the warrant. Seconded. Moved and seconded. Any
discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. Thank you. Article passes. Article three, contract funding Air International Firefighters Association Local 2544. Mr. Moderator. Miss Livingston. I move that the town vote to raise and
appropriate the sum of $14,28 to fund the firstear cost items of the collective bargaining agreement between the town of air and the air international firefighters association local 2544 as contained in article 3
imprinted in the warrant. Seconded. Moved and seconded. Thank you. Any discussion on article three? Seeing none, all in favor? I opposed abstensions. Article passes. Thank you.
Article four, contract funding police superior officers any PBA number 32. Mr. Moderator, Mr. Copeland. I move that the town vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $37,458 to fund the firstear cost items of the collective bargaining agreement
between the town of air and the air police superiors officers NEPBA number 32 as contained in article 4 and printed in the warrant. Seconded. Thank you. Moved and seconded. Any discussion on article 4?
Seeing none, all in favor? I opposed abstensions. Article passes. Thank you. Article five, the fiscal year 2026 omnibus budget. Mr. moderator. Yes, sir. Mr. of ours. I
move the town vote to raise and appropriate the sum of 20 million uh 24 uh,48 to fund the FY2026 omnibus budget as contained in article 5 and printed in the warrant.
Seconded. Moved and seconded. Thank you. Um, typically with the omnibus I go through the departments n stating the amount that is expected to be spent in FY20 in next year's fiscal year. We also have a presentation on the
budget. If you would like if you would like to hold anything or discuss any of the item line item the categories please let me know as I read them. Department 100, General Government, 1,241,915. Department 200,
Finance, 7 uh 7,942,499. Department 300, public safety, 6,990,855. Department 400 public works 1,742,115. Department 500 human human services 1,479,97 Department 600 management
support 627,927 which brings us to a total operating budgets for this for FY26 of 20,24,48. Hearing no holds, would you like a presentation on the budget? I would say I would do it as a call.
Roll call. Yes and no. Mr. Moderator, I would do it as a calling. All those in favor? Yes. Thank you. All in favor of a budget presentation, please say I. I. Opposed. I Mr. Town Manager, please. Mr. Moderator,
uh through you. Uh good evening, uh town meeting. be very brief on a presentation of the omnibus budget. Um, next slide, Sam. So, we are coming into the FY26 budget from a position of fiscal
stability and financial strength. The certified free cash for 2024 was just over 3.2 million, which was the highest uh certified free cash uh that we've seen um over the last 10 years. Our stabilization fund has over 3.6 million
in it. Our capital stabilization fund has over five uh million in it. And our standard and poor bond rating is a double A2 which is the second highest rating you can have. And that rating is
a third-party um metric that poses to the strong local economy, strong management and gives us a a favorable uh borrowing rate. So we are very strong and stable and balanced um financially
uh which is not the case of many of our uh surrounding towns as we move into FY26. Next slide. This slide shows a total including uh the school's revenue of just over 40 million and the expenses and savings of
just over 40 million showing that we have a balanced budget and this will include over 2.7 million to stabilization and another 300,000 to post um employment benefit uh liabilities later uh in the town meeting. Next slide.
And this slide here shows a breakdown on the left here of the revenue. Our principal revenue 81.6% comes from the tax levy. And then as you can see our state aid is just 2.9% local receipts 7% our free cash
8.4% and the other graph the general fund expenditures uh the largest at 41.9% is education. Next would be public safety. Sorry, Sam. Uh, next would be public safety at 18
uh% and then the breakdown uh just to show the town meeting, the revenue and the expenditures. Next, here is the revenue trend. Uh you'll see for FY26, we're at just over 38 um million
on that end. This does not include the enterprise fund impacts. Next. And on the revenue side, the breakdown um for town meeting to show uh the the increase and the percentage
increase along each of the of the revenue uh categories. Next slide. Expenses. Uh so article uh five is just over the 20 million 24,48
uh for FY uh FY26 which is just over uh a million dollar increase from last year or 5 uh.6% increase and the average increase of the omnibus is
5.2%. Next slide. And then our expenses uh over 50 50% our wages uh for personnel benefits are another 28% debt five just over 5% and then all other
expenses at 16.3%. Next. And then for this year, the major drivers of the budget, the the largest increases, um, education at 5.1% or 793,000, the fire department at 18.3% or
459,828 increase. It's important to note this is the last year of the safer grant that we were able to fund the four firefighters uh for three years with the federal grant. So next year, this there's about a $200,000 impact there that won't be in the budget next year.
There's also approximately another $50,000 in uh the fire budget for overtime with the closure of the Nshoba Hospital. Uh Chief Johnson and Deputy Jennis Gvich and the department have done a proactive job to estimate what
the potential overtime impacts could be um from the closure of the hospital. So that that's a larger increase that we don't anticipate to see in FY27. Health insurance went up to 12%. We were hoping for 10% is what our
target is. We did budget for 15%, so it's still it came in a little um lower um than we had feared, but it higher than we had hoped. Um again, we hope that that will the balance out in FY27. And then the
Middle Sex retirement assessment increased by 11% or $247,000. That's based on a bianual census that's done by Middle Sex Retirement. And so the last time since the last time it was done, the town had
new positions as well as salary changes that um increased that. We anticipate for the next uh census on that for that to come down. But out of the whole budget, those were the the four principal drivers.
Next, and that's it, Mr. Moderator, if there any questions through you. Thank you very much, Mr. Pont Brian. I would ask if anybody has any questions for the town manager. Please, Miss Nering. Lori nearing 35 Highland Avenue. Could
you elaborate a little bit on why the attorney fees have gone up so substantially and if there's a way that we can keep those down somehow? Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Uh through you to uh Miss Nearing's uh question. It was about the
legal fees for town council. Yes. So, the the town council um line item uh there's an increase of $10,000 uh in FY25. 75,000 was budgeted for the year. We're proposing 85,000 for
this year. About $10,000 increase or 13% increase based on three factors. One is we haven't increased this line over the last five years. in the last two years I had to go for a small reserve fund transfer as
there was some a small overage. The second factor is uh KP Law like any professional um firm and they don't do this every year um but there's a small increase to their fees for FY26 that that takes into account and there have
been in two areas some um enforcement areas and some labor issues uh that were un unforeseen that have uh driven that uh budget a little um bit. So the increase of of 10,000 uh is to be proactive on on that
front. Thank you Mr. Pontreion. Other questions seeing none all in favor? I opposed. Motion passes with the majority. Thank you very much. Article six fiscal 2026 air surely regional
school district assessment and I believe Dr. Renda is here for a presentation. Thank you. Do you want me to do the motion before the presentation or the presentation after the motion? I I can barely hear you. I'm sorry. Do you want me to do the motion before the presentation or the
Okay. I didn't know where Dr. Brenda was. Thank you. Okay. Um, I move that the town vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $14,18,177 to fund the town's FY2026 assessment for the Air Shirley Regional School District and to raise and appropriate the sum
of1,195 $195 303 to fund the town's portion of the Air Shirley Regional School District High School building and fields project debt service as contained in article six and printed in the warrant. Seconded. Moved and seconded. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Renda.
Thank you. Good evening. My name is Adam Renda. I'm the superintendent of Ashley Regional School District. And with me tonight is Mr. Plunkett, the finance director. So, developing this budget, we worked with both town managers to try to present to you a fiscally responsible
budget that meets the needs of our students and is manageable for the towns. Uh this budget was created during a federal funding uncertainty uh including the expiration of the ESSER grants. Uh despite of that in spite of that challenges we were able to maintain
our staffing levels. We've negotiated a fair and sustainable teachers contract. We will be able to complete critical facilities work next year. We are not looking for an override and we won't be uh will not be closing any buildings.
We remain committed to responsible budget management. It is a priority for us and we will continue to use competitive grants to supplement local funding. There are two specific context areas that I believe you should know about u for this budget for air. One is
that this is the final year fiscal year 26 will be the final year for the CPA repayment on the turf fields projects. In two, the state has assigned a 2% increment towards heir's targeted local contribution which has increased the um required assessment. This is something
that that we cannot control. Um this is also happening in Shirley and in many other towns um across the Commonwealth. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. Got a little ahead of myself. My apologies. Um we're going to talk to you a little bit about enrollment. Uh the enrollment
is really what drives the budget. Our student enrollment has now surpassed pre- pandemic levels. Um as of today, we have 1,750 students enrolled in Air Shirley public schools. But along with this growth, the needs of our students are also increasing. Over the past five
years, the number of multilingual learners in our district has risen by 39%. and we are currently as of today supporting 120 multilingual learners. Additionally, while the percentage of our economically disadvantaged students has remained steady at 24%, the overall
increase in enrollment means that we are now supporting approximately 100 more economically disadvantaged students than we were 5 years ago. Now, Mr. Plunkett will present to you some of the budget specifics. Good evening. I'm Bill Punket, air
resident and director of finance for the air regional district. Uh next slide, please. This is our budget rollup uh all of our accounts, our expenditure accounts. When we roll up to the highest uh category, uh you can see that 70% are
salaries. um contracted services at 22% supplies 2% and other expense 7%. So salaries are a big component of our budget. Next slide please. These are the budget drivers and projections. The top
section is our revenue uh planning for the budget. We have the FY25 uh in the left column. The right column is FY26 and then the change. As far as revenue for the from the state, we're up $274,000 over last year's budget, which
is a 2.8% increase. We uh realized a $90 per student um aid from chapter 70, uh which is the first time we've been a minimum hold harmless district since we were uh formed in 2011. This is the first year we're over the minimum aid.
So, uh that was good to see. And uh the House Budget is out. It's about $100,000 more than the governor's budget, but we're going to hang on to where we are to be conservative on our revenue side for now, but we'll watch it as it goes through the process. The middle is our
our uh bud budget drivers for expenditures. Uh some of our highest are uh health insurance for employees. We too uh realize a 12% increase. I believe we have the same uh third party administrator, Maya. Uh and that was in
like the middle of the range for them. Uh so we had health insurance, charter out uh which I have a slide in a couple of slides I'm going to show you uh what that entails, transportation uh both over a million dollars, and then uh contract salary increases for all our
staff. Uh those are our main drivers. So when we take these drivers of 800,000 and subtract the u increase of revenue, the impact to the general fund is about 525,000. The bottom section we have two of our revolving funds that we use in
the budget, but they're not part of the assessment. Uh these these numbers, we tweaked them down a little bit because our school choice numbers are a little bit lower than they had been previously in the previous budgets. and circuit breaker has also been decreased a little bit for this year. So we had to decrease
what we use in the budget for this year. Next slide please. Now when we're talking about charter tuition out uh we have 59 students that uh charter out to other districts uh and most of them 52 of them
are at the Parker uh charter school which is right here on Devons. Uh and it's really nice having that school that comm that that school in our community. Uh but you can see there are 52 students that the families opt to choose to send them there and that's about
$874,000. Uh you can see the calculation to the right the right column just for the Parker Charter School for Air Shirley. So we have a million total tuition out for charter uh that we budgeted for. Next slide please.
This is the required local contribution that's part of the chapter 70 calculation from the state. Uh it breaks out Aaron and Shirley's foundation enrollment. Uh you can see in FY25 we were at 1,698 students and this uh for FY26
we're up to 1,759 students. And that's an increase of 69 students for air and a decrease of eight students for Shirley. And those numbers are important because we multiply our total foundation enrollment
times the number of students uh to get uh what we have to pay uh for to educate each student. So it it affects the foundation budget uh which is up this year and also the required local contribution is up uh for air is up
$899,526 and surely is uh just up over $400,000 uh for the required local contribution which is set by the state um and we have no control over that that piece of it. The next slide shows the
totals. Again, the top section is our general fund expenditures. Um, we have a budget of 34,820,000. It's a 3.5% increase over last year. Uh, we subtract the revenues,
the revenue section of 9.9 million from the general fund expenditure budget and that gives our assessment of 24,916,000. that gets a portion between air and Shirley based on the required local contribution set by the state and
the regional agreement for anything above u the required local contribution. And the the most bottom section again is our revolving funds and our grants that we use in the budget and that do not affect the assessment. The next slide is the
assessment. Uh we have the top five rows. The first row is the required local contribution. I've highlighted for air uh 10,635,000 and for Shirley 6.3 million and that is the uh preliminary RLC or
required local contribution that's set by the state. Uh row number two is anything above the required local contribution that the towns contribute and this is allocated by the regional agreement based on a five-year rolling
average of our foundation enrollment. Transportation again is is handled the same way. It it is allocated by that same process I just process I just explained. Um and then we have excluded debt added in this in the
middle section uh which is basically the high school renovation that was a 30-year note that we're halfway through and the field project which uh I think we're two years into our debt on that which is a 14-year uh note. Uh so those
two um notes together make the how we assess the capital debt service to Aaron and Shirley and again that is based on uh the number of students in the buildings and the resident students in each building depending on if it's a middle school or the high school we have
to uh split it by resident and foundation enrollment 5050 blend to get the uh assessments to each town and that's added to the operating assessment for the total total increases over last year uh for air. Uh they're coming in
debt and operating uh budget of 15,33,000. Uh and that's a increase of 931,000 over last year, 6.5% increase over last year. And Shirley is coming in at 9.6 million uh 255,000 over uh last
year's budget, which is a 2.7 uh percent increase. Now I just wanted to dive the next uh next slide dives into it that last the components a little bit deeper uh because when they're the state is
calculating chapter 70 uh they have a target that they want each town to be able to pay. So, AIR has been assessed or allocate or an increment has been added to AIR's portion of the uh required local contribution of
$213,000 and that is to move air towards their target uh in a in a quick at a quicker pace. Uh so again, that is set by the state and that is in the $899,000 increase. The second thing I wanted to point out was that's a 9.2% 2
2% increase uh just for the required local contribution and you can see the required uh the net school spending above RLC uh goes down cord accordingly. So we had a 9.2% increase in the uh um
required local contribution. So the above the contribution above net school spending goes down uh almost the same amount that the increase the required local contribution is. uh transportation uh that comes
across and it's allocated as per the regional agreement and the debt is also uh a portion as as per the regional agreement. One more note on this slide is the re the CPA money for the field project debt
uh earmarked 300,000 from the CPA funding uh CPA funds that were available and so we lowered debt assessment for the field project in FY24 and FY25 we did
$150,000 each of each each year and FY26 uh that has that has gone gone away. So there was about a 1% increase to heir's debt assessment because of that that funding that no longer no longer there. And the last slide, this is just
a bragging slide. We have the uh 2023 uh expenditures per pupil. Uh we air Shirley uh is at 19664 $19,644 per student. That's higher than
Ludenberg and Littleton. Uh we're right behind North Middle Sex. North Middle Sex is at 19,800. And then Grot and Dunville and uh the state average is 21,000. Uh just under 219. Uh so compared to some of the
surrounding districts uh we're doing pretty well as far as uh the per pupil expenditures. Thank you very much. Any questions or discussion? Seeing none all in favor of article six please
say I. I opposed. The article passes. Thank you very much. Next, article 7 is the FY2 2026 Valley Technical High School assessment. Mr. Moderator, I was going to say, Mr. Copen, I move that the town vote to
raise and appropriate the sum of 936,772 to fund the FY2026 assessment for the Nshoba Valley Technical High School as contained in article 7 and printed in the warrant. Seconded. Thank you. moved and seconded. We do have a brief presentation um this
evening by Michelle Bouvet, I believe, and who is a business manager for Nshoba Valley Tech and uh Chris Prell, who is the air representative to uh the school committee at NOA Valley. Good evening. Dr. Pigeon can't be with
us this evening. She apologizes. She's out of the state on some business, so I'm here to fill in her shoes. The Showa Valley Tech proudly serves the town of Heir, Chelsford, Groten, Littleton, Peril, Shirley, Townsen, and Westford.
The school district is governed by a school committee of 13 members and appointed by a town committee, which is the moderator, your local school committee, and the select board. As the moderator said, my name is Chris Pral. I am your representative for the town of
Air to Nishovetch. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. Okay. As part of the budget presentation, we share the vocational
program enrollment to provide the context as to what our annual annual budget funds. As you see, 47% of our students enrolled at NHobate Techch participate in one of the construction or transportation programs. 31% of the
students enrolled participating in one of the health and services programs. And 22% of the students participate in one of the arts and technology programs. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. This is out
of order for some reason. So yeah, next slide please. Yeah, this isn't the right presentation. This isn't the right presentation. Okay. Um All right.
Yep. Why don't we we can skip over this. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. Um, next slide, please. There we go. There it is. All right. Next slide,
please. We got the complete one tonight, right? Yep. Next slide. All right. Here we go. We'll get a little bit rolling. We're a little bit back on track. Sorry about that, folks. This is a 10-year look back in the
enrollment history at Nshobetech from the town of Air. Air's enrollment has increased from the last year, the decrease from last year uh to this year by eight students, 63 students to 55. However, the overall when looking at the
10-year enrollment at Nshobetch, you see um we go up and down. It's the roller coaster. So, this year we are down. Next slide. This one is mine.
Yeah. All right. This slide shows the overall changes in enrollment at NHobate. As you can see, air is decreased by eight students. So's enrollment at NHobate is 7.2% 2% of a total population of the student body
which is slightly down by 1% from last year. Next slide. Next slide please. Next slide please. Next slide please. All right, capital
projects. When talking about budgets, we feel it's important to keep you updated on current capital projects and upcoming projects. One of our ongoing projects is the fire suppression system renovation. This is a five-phase plan and we're
working on phase three. We have been fortunate to to expand engineering and programming, able to get a $3.75 million grant to expand these programs. With moving these programs, we were able to add space through another
$2.5 million state grant for electrical and vet assisting, our two fastest growing technical programs. Next slide, please. As a result of a workforce grant funds, we're al also able to upgrade and move
our cosmetology program in our salon. We are fortunate enough that our construction students were able to participate in the first phase of this project. Similar to the Habitat project as you see behind town hall and downtown
air, the new Cosmo program is now open for business. And the students love their new facility. As it says right there, the robots, robotics and technology, that's a modular, those are modular buildings
that we had put on to the school. And as it said, it is a $3.75 million grant that we received for that. Next slide. Next slide, please. All right.
I will turn this over to Michelle. So the budget drivers for the FY26 budget are going to look very similar to what any school district is presenting this year. As Mr. Prell mentioned in previous slides, our capital needs are increasing due to building being over 50
years old and the increases in costs to maintain and repair the buildings are always a concern. We do fund some areas using state and federal grants. And while we're always optimistic that grants will continue to be available to us, we are on in uncertain times
regarding grant funding. We continue to reduce our reliance on one-time funds as a revenue source, especially since we have not taken in new school choice students or non-resident students in a few years. Health insurance costs are rising across the state and the is
experiencing those increases as well. We have our contractually obligated step and lane changes for staff and also anticipate increases in other fixed costs and vendor related costs. When you think of educational supplies, it's
important to note that the supplies needed to educate students in a vocational setting not only includes the typical supplies for academics but also includes all of the materials that the programs will need in the technical areas, especially in the construction trades. All materials such as plumbing,
carpentry and electrical supplies and materials that are needed to train these students are increasing as well. Next slide please. Uh next slide please. Next slide please.
Um well this is not part of the presentation that I have but I can speak to this that we continue to uh have a per pupil expenditure comparison that we we educate all of our students um but we
are not ex overly uh going too much over uh the foundation budget each year. So we are 27 out of 28 vocational schools in the district while maintaining a quality education for the students. Next slide
please. Okay. Uh that is not okay. So this here is the highle overview of the expense budget at Nshobate. Uh this indicates a 4.66 increase over last year. The total
proposed budget for FY26 is $19,371,233. Our largest increases are where you would expect them to be, which are in the 2000s, which are the instructional costs, benefits, and operations and maintenance of the buildings. So, big picture, if you add up the instructional services, which are
yellow at five, 52.1% of the budget, the the blue pupil services at 12.2, two and dark blue benefits and fixed charges at 16.3% over 80% of our proposed budget is directly related to serving students which is what you would want to see in a
school budget. Next slide please. No total budget is funded through two types of revenue. The non-town assessment related revenue and the town assessment revenue. The top of the slide provides an overview of revenue that does not come directly from
the state, excuse me, for not come directly from our member towns through assessment. This includes direct chapter 70 school aid, which is the funding that comes directly from the state. And Nesha Tech is anticipating about a a $100,000
additional funding increase when compared to next last year. We are also anticipating a slight increase of $68,53 in transportation costs reimbursements. Lastly, Nshobetch annually utilizes a portion of its
excess and deficiency, which is similar to a town's free cash to fund the overall budget. This year, Nishobetch is utilizing all but about $200,000 from its excess and deficiency to lower town assessments. The bottom of the slide provides an overview of the funding that
comes directly from our town budgets to fund the budget. Excuse me. The this year the town assessments will fund about 67% of Nishobetek's total budget which is the orange part of the pi graph. Assessments from all eight member
towns total 13,51,015. Next slide, please. Let me make sure this is correct. Looks like the end is cut off, but I will give you the information. This is an overview of the total assessments to towns in the amount of
$13,51,015 and how it's broken down by town. As noted earlier in the presentation, the assessment begins with a review of the number of students by town and the town's overall percentage of students that are attending to. The third column is not a number calculated
calculated by the tech school. It is provided by the state and driven by a state funding formula and is the largest piece of the town's assessments. The remaining columns of transportation, capital, additional assessment, and debt service are calculated based on the
enrollment percentages of each town. Next slide, please. So, this is a comparison of the total assessment to all member towns with last year as compared to this year. As you can see, the total district enrollment is up by seven students. The
largest increase is in the next column which is the to town's minimum contribution which again is a state calculated number. Transportation and capital is relatively the same. Although transportation contract costs and capital are increasing, we were able to
decrease some special transportation costs and that has leveled this portion of the assessment. Additional assessment is slightly up by about 77,000 and our debt service is decreasing as we continue to pay off two different project debt payments. As
noted earlier, one large piece of debt from the building project during the 2003 2005 project build is soon to be paid off and the district is planning the next phase of major capital improvements to potentially time new debt coming on as old death comes old
debt comes off the books. And well, this will minimize increases in towns assessments. The total assessment from FY25 to FY26 is up about $553,000. And again, this is over all eight towns. And the majority of this
increase is in the state calculated minimum contribution. The next slide will be the assessment as it pertains to AIR based on their enrollment numbers and percentages. Nope. Next slide, please. Okay. So I'm going to since this is not
the presentation that I we have prepared for you. Um so this slide which you don't see is an overview of just a town assessment and I will give you this information. So because there is a decrease in eight students since last fiscal year the percentage of students
from air attending was reduced to 8.32% of the total students in the school down to 7.20%. 20%. And that is for FY26. Now that is important because the town's minimum contribution is
calculated by the state and represents what they determine each town is able to contribute towards education. This year your contribution for Nohoba Techch as determined by the state has decreased due again to foundation enrollment going down and that has decreased uh by over
uh $120,000. All of the other areas of the assessment are a direct result of the enrollment in the percentage of students from each town. So when you take the decrease in the town's minimum and combine it with the decrease in the other areas of the
assessment, you're slightly down in transportation, slightly down in debt service, and a slight increase in the additional assessment which is used to balance the budget. It brings heir to assessment this year that is $137,93 less than last fiscal
year and I think we're back to you but we don't yet. So thank you very is that the conclusion? Um we were just supposed to wind up with just some public services that we have at Nishoba Techch. It was supposed to be
another slide on here. Um, currently open for service at NHobate is our auto tech and our collision repair services. You can bring your automobile over there. That's all you would have to pay for is materials. The labor is done by our students. Design and visual and communication services are offered to
any local town. Uh, marketing programs, the Cosmo Cut Salon, as I said, that's a salon you can come over and get your nails done, your hair done for minimal cost. programming, web services we offer. And last but not least, our culinary art, Viking Beastro, which is
the best kept secret in Westford. That restaurant is open Tuesday through Friday, 11:30 to 1. If you haven't gotten there, please do. And uh we were supposed to have some nice pictures of the Habitat home, but we don't. But um we want to thank air and habitat for
humanity for including the showc uh the wonderful project that we are doing downtown for the habitat home. And once again we want to thank the town of air for being a member and part of the family at Michetek. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Do we have any questions? Any discussion for article 7? Seeing none, all in favor of article 7, please say I. I. Opposed. Thank you very much. The article
passes. This brings me to the consent agenda. This was a handout. May I take a moment and explain what we're doing? Thank you. There was a handout at the door, but we've used the consent agenda before. We're grouping
together some articles. We're grouping together some articles as a these are articles we do every year and we do it as a way to speed up the meeting a little bit. In a moment, Mr. Copen will read a motion. The articles we're grouping
under this consent are articles eight, the solid waste enterprise fund, article 9, the ambulance enterprise fund, article 10, the sewer enterprise fund, article 11, the water enterprise fund, article 12, storm water enterprise fund, article 15, gazby 45 oped fund. Article
16, the fund of reserve, sorry, funding of reserve fund for future payments of acred liabilities. Article 17, forward funding of the town's pension assessment. Article 18, UDAG fund replacement. Article 20, reauthorization of resol of revolving funds. And article
21, first year's interest on general fund borrowing. Mr. Copelan. Mr. Moderator, I move that the town vote to authorize by consent agenda the approval of articles 8, 9,
10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, and 21 as printed in the warrant. Seconded. Thank you. Moved and seconded. We have any questions on these articles? Miss Nearing. Thank you. Lori Nearing. Um I'm not following this process. Are
we not able to talk about the individual articles? If you would like to. Yes, we may. Okay. Um, so I do I want to express a little bit of concern that this is lumping a lot of things that are dissimilar together. So
I for one am not comfortable with this process. I do have questions on article 22. Are we going to read through that? What's the process? I'm sorry. 22 is not part of this consent agreement. A consent agenda. I didn't hear the the article 22 is not part of this consent
agenda. It stops at 21. Stops at 21. Okay. I'll wait till we get to 22, but just to express my concern that um these articles are quite dissimilar and I'm I'm uncomfortable with this process. Thank you.
I have questions on article 22. Thank you. But that's not part of I understand that. I just want to make sure she understand. Yes. You would you we'll get to 22 in a moment. Thank you. Okay. Yep. Further discussion hearing? None. All in favor? I
opposed. Consent agenda passes. Thank you very much. Now I've got to do some bookkeeping. Give me a second, please. Article 12, storm water. Miss Livingston. No. No. I'm sorry. 13. 13.
You're right. I missed my note. I'm very sorry. Thank you for catching me. Article 13, capital budget request borrow article. Mr. moderator. Thank you. I move that the town vote to authorize the treasurer with the approval of the select board to borrow
the total sum of 7,151,668 for the purposes of funding the equipment, services, and projects and all costs incidental or related thereto and to authorize the treasurer with the approval of the select board under the pursuant under and pursuant to
Mass General Laws chapter 44 section 7 and 8 or any other enabling authority to issue bonds or notes the town therefore as contained in article 13 imprinted in the warrant seconded. Thank you. Moved and seconded. Any questions on this
article discussion? Miss Gino. Yeah. Just Jessica Gino 8 Mountain View Avenue. Um just would like an explanation of the 120 thou $120,000 to
design the uh beach house. Is this the parks design you're asking about? Yes. Okay. Good question. Mr. Don Skullquick through you Mr. Moderator. Um Dan Vankeelquick the DPW director. So I've
been assisting parks department with this project. Um but essentially a feasibility study has been done at this point and a p a preferred alternative um is being selected and from that there'll be design development done which includes schematic design um design
development and final design for the beach house project. So that's what this is related to. the design work in anticipation there'd be a future town meeting article later on after design is completed further construction of the uh of the beach house. So that's
essentially it. Thank you. Mr. Kelly, do you have a question? Yes. Ed Kelly, 20 Oakidge Drive here. I noticed we were buying four vehicles today and I was just curious, do we package that? Do we go out and ask for
the best deal we can get on four vehicles together or do we just each department get their vehicles separately? Thank you, Mr. Gulp. Did you get that? Yes, I did. Oh. Um, so yeah, the vehicles. Um, so we use the state
bid. That's the way that uh we procure our vehicles. And so we don't package them together. We do, you know, and the needs are a little bit different. So we the vehicles we are ordering they the ones that um I'm thinking of the the trucks um do come with the plow packages
things like that. It's a fully ready vehicle but we don't like bundle them all together um in a in a sense to get a better price. It's it's already pre-procured through the state bid process. Okay. Thank you. Thank you Miss Vanska. Mr. Dela Williams Susan Tordella
5 Hedgeway. Um I have a question on the acoustical renovation for town hall. That's for the main the big room. How often is that room used? Mr. Moderator um to the question is the use of the great hall has been greatly
limited over the years due to the acoustic issues as many of you have probably attended especially a meeting in there. It was designed 19th century acoustics and the room has become largely not used because of that. So
what was proposed by the facilities director um through the capital process and at the request of the select board a presentation was done about a year ago is a proposal to make the improvements to the great hall so that it can be used
more for meetings uh larger groups to address all of the sound issues as well as some of the audio visual issues. What rooms are being used now instead of that? So through the moderator right now the first floor meeting room is our
primary space and the facilities director did create a small sort of temporary conference room area in the great hall. But as far as meeting space at the town hall uh we're we're very limited. So part of the uh purpose of
this project is to expand the usage of the building. So they're going to fix the acoustics so it's easier to use. You're saying correct. Okay. All right. I also have a question on under fire self-contained breathing apparatus. Could you could someone
explain what that is? Chief, do you mind? Thank you, Miss M. Uh, so the self-contained breathing apparatus, these are the backbone of the fire department. So, if you think of a movie, the tank that's on a firefighter's back, that is uh what's self-contained uh breathing apparatus. That's the backbone
of what we do in the environment we work in. Uh let the firemen work and breathe in fresh air. We don't have them already. Yeah, we have them already. So what happens is they we purchase them in 2013. They like most fire department things have a
lifespan that's coming up. Yeah. And it's in revisions. We expect that revision to come out this coming summer. So they would be non-compliant after that. And the least we would want is to have a non-compliant uh air pack that we would wear. You're
welcome. Further questions? See, thank you, Chief. Seeing none, this is a two-thirds majority. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. The motion passes. Thank you very much.
vote. I declare that. Yes. Thank you. If you would declare I declare that that passed by a two-thirds vote. Thank you, Attorney Reich, Rich. Article 14, capital budget requests capital stabilization.
Mr. Dvaris, Mr. Moderator, I move that the town vote to transfer the sum of $285,000 from the capital stabilization for the purposes of funding of the equipment, services, and projects and all costs incidental or related thereto
contained in article 14 and printed in the warrant. Seconded. Moved and seconded. Any questions on this article? This is simple. Majority needed. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed.
Thank you very much. Article passes. Let me see if I get this correct. Article 19, stabilization fund. Mr. Moderator, I move that the town vote to transfer $2,761,88 from free cash with
$761,88 to be credited to the stabilization fund and $2 million to be credited to the capital stabilization fund as contained in article 19 and printed in the warrant. Seconded. Moved and seconded. Any questions on this art article 19?
Seeing none, all in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Article 22, funding for aquatic weed control for town ponds is next. Mr. Moderator, Mr. Copeland, I move that the town vote to raise and appropriate the
sum of $20,000 for the purpose of funding the aquatic weed control program for the town's ponds as contained in article 22 imprinted in the warrant. Seconded. Thank you. Any questions on article 22?
Miss Naring. Thank you, Lori Naring. Um, I would appreciate um further explanation. I'm not sure if this is a DPW uh request, uh, conservation commission. Yeah, I would appreciate um hearing more information
about the $20,000 that we're spending, how many years we've been spending this money, exactly what it's used for, and what town ponds we're talking about. and then I will have some follow-up questions once I have a better understanding of this article. Thank you. I believe Heather Hansen
or conservation agent, excuse me. So, yes. Uh, thank you, Mr. Moderator. So, I'm sorry. Uh, Lori, what was the question? So, which ponds are we using these on? Yes. And if you could please speak into the mic so I can hear you better. Yeah. No, I'm sorry. Um, yes. I want to know what the money is used for, how many years we've been using this
$20,000 and which ponds. Yep. So the amount of requested for each town meeting has actually varied over the years. It's last year I believe it was higher is at 25,000. This year we're down to 20 and that's just due to the fact that we don't always use the full amount. So we have enough in there to
cover this year's treatment of the ponds. The ponds that we're doing this year are the same that we've been doing in the past I think for the last at least four to five years. And one of the commission members may be able to correct me on that. I unfortunately don't have the exact amount of years on there, but it has been for the last at
least four to five. And we do Sandy Pond, Flanigan Pond, and Pine Meadow Pond on those treatments. Say those ponds again, please. Sandy Pond, Flanigan Pond, and Pine Meadow Pond, or some people call it Upper Flanigan Pond. And these are weed
killers that these are um state approved um uh aquatic treatments that we do. Uh the all the project does have a um permit through the state through D for um the order of conditions for the treatments at the pond. Okay.
Um and after we use and apply these weed killers according to um the instructions, we cannot what are the what are the safety precautions that happen after we use it? So, that the company that we use will have uh signage on the ponds for the pre-treatment, the
day of the treatment, and the post. And I think it's just the two treatments that we do. They typically do the first one um before Labor Day, and they do the second one, I think, sometime in the middle of the summer, and it's usually only a 24-hour uh and they just have an advisory up for
24 hours. It's not a long period. They coordinate with the parks department to ensure that it doesn't affect with the um any of the swim lessons or anything that activities that go on the pond and all the signage goes up through the company that we use for that and and the signage is for humans as well as pets.
Correct. Okay. Um and so you're saying that um the pond that is not treated is Grove Pond, which also has a weed problem. Um, does this money include any outreach to people who are a butters to the pond to educate them to stop using
fertilizers on their lawns or is there regulation that doesn't allow that? So, this is for aquatic retreatment on the ponds for the contracts that we do hire out. The company that we do hire for that does do a year year-end uh report that is found on the town's website. anybody can go back through and read
those for the last several years that will have um factors of what's causing may that may be causing some of the effects of on those ponds. Um the company will come in at the request of the commission and give a presentation on the treatment of the ponds throughout
that year. Um as as far as public outreach, I do the best I can on my end. And as some of you may not know may know we we do have a new sustainability committee throughout the town that hopefully one of those one of those the project that that committee will do is
for public outreach. Okay. Of course I would like to see an improvement in the outreach part of this so we don't have to keep using these weed killers every year. Um I would like town meeting to know that the concerns I have about grove pond are kind of connected to this
and uh um my organization that I led for quite some time but have stepped down from PACE have been involved in a water chestnut pulling to remove by hand the to avoid using the chemicals where we get our drinking water from. Um, and we want to continue that, but the town had
requested that we get liability insurance because that's what the insurance advis. But this is outside of the scope of this article. Um, I'm going to connect in just a moment. One more sentence, please. Um, in the future, we're going to need some additional money to help pay for that. And I want
the town to be aware that if the town wants us to continue that, we don't want to hire a consultant to have to pay for this if people are willing to volunteer. And Lori, on behalf of myself and the rest of the conservation commission, I'm sure those are people of the town, we thank you and pace for the work that you've done to eradicate the water chestnuts in Grove Pond. It was a
fabulous project. Thank you very much. That's what I wanted to point out to the town. Thank you. Thank Thank you, Lori. Any other questions on article 22? Thank you very much, Heather. Seeing hearing none, all in favor of article
22? I I opposed. Article 22 passes. Thank you very much. Article 23 brings us to the first of the Community Preservation Act articles. Mr. Moderator, Mr. Tvaris, I move that the town vote to appropriate um the
estimated uh estimated fiscal year 2026 community preservation funds as follows. $50,515 to meet the administrative expenses and all other necessary and proper expenses for the community
preservation committee for FY 2026. $11,029 for reserve for acquisition, creation, and preservation of open space, including land for authorized recreational use.
$31,029 for reserve for acquisition, preservation, restoration, and rehabilitation of historical resources. $31,29 for reserve for acquis acquisition, preservation, and support of community
housing. $256,689 for the undesated fund balance as contained in article 23 and printed in the warrant. Second. Seconded. Moved and seconded. Thank you. If you have questions or discussion on
this seeing none, all in favor? I opposed. Article passes. Thank you. Article 24 community preservation fund aer library roof. Mr. Miss Livingston. Mr. Moderator. I move that the town vote to transfer
$214,250 from the community preservation fund FY2026 balance reserve from the historic category to support the replacement and repair of the air library roof as contained in article 24 imprinted in the warrant. Second. Moved and seconded. Any
discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. Article 25 community preservation fund affordable housing trust. I'm sorry. 24. Article 24.
Article 24 passed. Yes. Use of 25. Oh, I was jumping on I was jumping. Thank you very much. Article 24 passes. Thank you. Article 25. I didn't take a breath. Community Preservation Fund Air affordable housing trust. A a Mr. Moderator. Mr. Copeland. I move that the
town vote to transfer $200,000 from the community preservation fund for fiscal year 2026 balance reserve from the housing category for the air affordable housing trust as contained in article 25 and printed in the warrant. Seconded. Moved and seconded. Thank you. Do we
have any questions or discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? I I oppose. Article 25 passes. Thank you. Article 26, bylaw, collection of local taxes payment agreements.
Mr. Moderator, Mr. Tvaris, I move that the town vote to amend the town's general bylaws by adding a new chapter entitled tax title payment agreements authorizing payment agreements between the town treasurer and persons entitled
to redeem parcels in tax title in accordance with the provisions of general law. Chapter 60, section 62A, and further to authorize the town clerk to assign such numbering and to make
nonsubstantive changes to the format of this bylaw in order that it be in compliance with the numbering format of the town's general bylaws as contained in article 26 imprinted in the warrant. Second. Second. Moved and seconded. Thank you very much. We have discussion
on this article. Seeing none, all in favor? I opposed. Article 26 passes. Thank you. Brings us to a zoning bylaw amendment articles. Article 27, zoning bylaw
amendment required updates to the town's flood plane overlay district. And the next four 27 through 31 are zoning articles. Please stay with us. Mr. Moderator, Miss Livingston. I move that the town vote to amend the air
zoning map and air zoning bylaw section 3 320-8.2 flood plane overlay district as contained in article 27 imprinted in the warrant. Seconded. Thank you. After each one of these articles, because they are planning articles, I'm going to ask the chairman of the planning board who is
sitting out here in the front to give a report on how the planning board voted per article. Mr. uh CR how did the planning board on 27 meeting thank you if you all didn't hear that it was a municipal vote of the board any
discussion on this article all in favor of presentation say I please say I opposed what no presentation thank you No, I said they'd want a president. Oh, do you want Oh, I Okay. I Mr. Ruiz. Thank you, Mr. Moderator.
Donnie Ruiz is our town planner. Thank you. Um, thank you. Uh, Sam, can you go on to the next page? It's frozen. Keep going. Okay. Uh I believe my my uh slideshow is
actually out of order compared to the articles. Um see seems to be the way the day is going. Uh can you go keep going to the next one? Next one. One more. One more. Right there.
Perfect. All right. So on March uh 4th, 2025, the uh board of selectmen uh made the select board, sorry, um uh voted to uh move the five articles that are before you to town uh to the planning
board and on March 11th and March 25th, the planning board held uh public hearings to vote to unanimously move these five articles uh to town meeting for vote. Um so the first one is the floodplane overlay district. Uh the floodplane
overlay district is being updated to comply with the uh new FEMA maps as well as the 2020 uh Massachusetts uh model flood plane bylaw. So we're just updating our current bylaw to meet the
uh state's newest uh regulation and um uh model for the bylaw. The flood plane maps will be updated through FEMA. Those come out I believe in June. And um once we have uh voted on this uh bylaw change
the and the maps uh come out in July, this the town will have to provide the state and uh FEMA uh proof that these uh changes were um voted on and have come before town meeting. Um the proposed
changes to the bylaw. Uh so this is just um the proposed changes add more detail within the flood plane bylaw so that there's no confusion um on a couple of things uh within the model like who is the flood plane administrator
um where to send flood plane changes and ways of how to change that as well. Um the please see the uh 2020 u Massachusetts model flood plane bylaw to compare to the current one. It's a very large um bylaw. Uh in the warrant, you
can see all the changes that are being proposed. I'm not going to go specifically through each of them, but there's quite a bit in there. Um the proposed there's also going to be some proposed additions to the definition section added in section 2.2. Uh that's
required through this floodplane bylaw. So that uh definitions that are used within the model bylaw um have a a definition specifically for each se uh each of those words and you can go to the next page. This is what the current flood plane by
uh flood pl maps look like right now. Um the red is the uh 100 and the pinkish color is the 500year. Uh these will be updated. We don't know what they're going to look like as of right now, but
they may expand. They may get smaller. We don't know until they come out. Thank you. Further questions, discussion, Miss Stodder. So I M I I I have a couple of of
questions and one of my questions is is does the town of of air have authority to issue variances
And uh if so why this is to issue variances on on permitting structures to be placed in floodplane areas. Mr. and the other question is his historically I'd say we
haven't had any since I've been here. Um it is allowed through the bylaw through the state law. So we have to put it within the bylaw. So under what circumstances would would such permission be granted since we I by law
I mean is designed to prevent building in flood planes typically there's a process that would have to go through the zoning board at that point um and uh they would or I
actually I don't think it's it goes through the zoning board it actually goes through the state the and through FEMA themselves to apply for the variance. And another question that I have is u I
see that you the town would have a a building commissioner and so who who would be the building commissioner? So currently the building commissioner is uh Charlie Schultz. Um the flood
plane administrator is the is the building commissioner as well. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Ruiz. Thank you, Miss Stoddard. Further questions? Miss Nearing? Thank you. Um Mr. Ruez, you mentioned that you had
no idea if the flood plane is going to shrink or enlarge. And I'm guessing that other people, the conservation commission, other members of the planning board, even people here have some ideas about whether the flood plane is going to expand or contract. And I
would like just your impressions or other people I'd invite if if it's okay with moderator. I'm I'm curious about whether the flood plane is going to get larger. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm going to jump in here and say I'm very curious also, but until we see the FEMA maps, I think that's a
hypothetical and won't get us anything this evening. That's that's correct. Yeah, the FEMA maps are done by FEMA. We have nothing to say nothing to do with that. Okay. Follow-up question. If people um are there are projects that are underway
right now, are they following these new FEMA maps or they uh will they be required if they're under review right now or will they be grandfathered into previous flood plane laws? M Mr.
Rich, town council attorney Rich. Thank you, Mr. Monitor. through you. So with respect to zoning, uh once a zoning article is published, once the planning board public hearing for a zoning article is published, then any project
for which there has not been either a a building permit issued or a uh uh uh special permit issued a a a uh uh such as for for subdivision approval, then they that project would come under the new bylaw. Obviously, anything that that
exists or has already been constructed would be uh so-called grandfathered, but the zoning freeze would only apply if a building permit had already been issued pursuant to chapter 48 section six. And that's assuming we pass this tonight. Any future assuming it's passed and then
of course it has to be approved by the attorney general. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Further questions or discussion? Article 27. This article needs a twothirds majority to pass. All in favor, please say I. I. Oppose.
I will declare that as a two-thirds majority for article 27, article 28. Mr. Copel, I believe, Mr. Moderator, I move that the town vote to amend the air zoning bylaw section 2.0 definitions as contained in article 28 imprinted in
the warrant. Seconded. Moved and seconded. Your questions on article 28. If I may, Mr. Ruiz spoke about definitions that go with the flood plane. This is the article that lays out the definitions. Is that fair, Mr. Ruiz?
Yes. Thank you. Seeing no discussion, all in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Thank you. This also needs a two-thirds majority. And I believe it has it. I declare it passed by twothirds. Article 29, zoning bylaw amendment, accessory
dwelling units. Mr. Moderator, please go ahead. I move that the town vote to amend the air zoning bylaw section 320- 5.3 accessory uses contained in
article 29 imprinted in the warrant. Seconded. Moved and seconded. Thank you. Uh we do have a small presentation on this from Mr. Louise, in uh in August of 2024, the state legisl uh legislature passed the affordable homes act. And
within this uh this uh act, they uh passed several different things and which specifically um talking about the accessory dwelling units which were made by right in the entire state. Currently our by the way our bylaw works it's a
special permit through the zoning board. This makes it by right so that it doesn't have that process anymore. Um the legislation went into effect on February 2nd, 2025. So as of that date, it is now by right uh to build an ADU in
air. Um due to the ADU now being by right, our bylaw will also um the table of use regulation will also need to be updated along with that to properly show it permitted by right because it shows it as a special permit. Um and then
there are um uh state regulations. So to refer to those requirements, it's under 760 CMR71. That's the draft regulations for uh ADUs from the state. You can go to the next
page. And currently uh what you see before you this is uh the proposed changes that we're we are uh having for section 5.32C which is our section on the uh accessory dwelling units. And this is just kind of explaining what the um uh
requirements are uh for accessory dwelling units. An accessory dwelling unit is allowed by right in all single family residential zone districts as defined as 760 CMR. Um the accessory dwelling units, these are the requirements set forth by the state. Um
maintains a separate entrance either directly from the outside or through an entry hall or corridor shared by the princip shared with the principal dwelling sufficient to meet requirements of the state building code for safe egress is no larger than the gross floor
area uh than the gross floor area of half the gross floor area of the principal dwelling or 900 square feet, whichever is smaller. and is subject to additional restrictions as may be imposed by the municipality, including not limited to additional size restrictions, restrictions or
prohibitions on short-term rental. Uh provided, however, the no municipality shall unreasonably restrict the creation or rental of an ADU that is not a short-term rental. The accessory dwelling units shall only be subject to building permit process. and uh multiple
ADUs uh on the same lot shall be required a shall require a special permit on in a single family residential zoning district SF4th and 760 CMR 71 uh 03 number five. Thank you. Any questions or
discussion? Mr. Raatti Oakidge Drive 19 Oakidge Drive. Um I noticed uh the strike through of number three on on the current one. The owners of the dwelling or property with the accessory apartment shall occupy one of the units. Is that no longer um a
requirement? That's correct. So, um I guess my thought on that is if the principal owner is not there, then we have two apartments in a in a single dwelling. Could that is that accurate?
That would be accurate. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, M. Susan Tordell with Five Hedgeway. Could you explain what it what you're saying about uh no short-term rental? What what is the definition of short-term rental? And
I can't tell from that wording they're prohibited or is that town by town or is the state prohibiting? So that wording is comes straight from the uh state regulations. Interpret it. Yeah. So short-term rental is uh what you typically see in certain areas like uh
tourist towns, beach towns. Um they allow for you to rent it from, you know, a couple of for a couple of months. Uh we don't allow that in in in air I I don't believe. Um so that's in certain towns it is allowed and some towns it's
not. So there's just a restriction on how long you're renting it. But you haven't defined it. Has heir defined it at some point? That sounds like a no. I I'm just going to ask the building commissioner as he's the zoning enforcement officer.
Typically, it's please come up, Mr. Schultz. Thank you. When was that? Typically, it's under six months. Is a short-term rental. And when did the town of air pass that?
It's not in our bylaw, so it doesn't exist. Excuse me. I'm going to jump in for a moment. I think what's confusing is this language is being given to us by given to us by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Yes, we do not have bylaws that it applies to. We do not
have a short-term rental bylaw. Okay. However, we cannot strike the language out because it is being given to us by we're adopting the Commonwealth language. Thank you for clarifying. I think that's where we were going. I hope that's helpful. It is. Thank you for clarifying that. What about tiny houses?
You can put a tiny house as a ADU. Okay. And what about the sanitary? Does it have to have a flush toilet? Does that have to be connected to Excuse me. We're kind of talking about something out of the scope of this. I think that might be a It's an accessory dwelling unit. Okay.
I'm sorry. So, you can have it connected to your house, cut up part of your house, or at a separate dwelling on your property as long as it meets zoning. So, if you were to use a tiny house, it would still have to be hooked up to sewer and water and meet all the
setbacks in our zoning bylaw today. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Further questions. This needs a two-thirds majority. All in favor, please say I. I.
Opposed? Declare as two/3s majority. Thank you. Article 30. [Applause] Mr. Copelan. Well, usually you read the title. I'm sorry, Miss Livingston. So, zoning
bylaw, article 30, zoning bylaw amendment, update table of use regulations for accessory dwelling units. I move that the town vote to amend the air zoning bylaw, table of use regulations for accessory dwelling units as contained in article 30 and printed
in the warrant. Second. Moved in. Second, Mr. Ruiz. Uh, so the table of use regulations, you'll see up up there. Um, what's highlighted in orange is what's being um added to the table of use regulations. The P just means
permitted by right. The SPB, which is the multiple ADUs on a lot, is just means a special permit through the planning board. Any questions on this? Seeing none, this again needs twothirds majority. All in favor, please say I. I.
Opposed. 2/3 majority carries. Article 31 zoning bylaw amendment amend zoning map for lot 25-23 as general residence. Mr. Moderator. Mr. Copeland. I move that the town vote to
amend the revised town of air zoning map showing the reszoning of lot 25-23 from Devon's Enterprise Zone to general residence as contained in article 31 and printed in the warrant. Seconded moved and seconded Mr.
Ruiz. Uh so as you see right here this is the overall zoning map for the town of air. uh at the lot in question. If you go to the next slide, so it's outlined in red, that is
the parcel that we're talking about. Previously, it was shown as the Devon Enterprise Zone. Uh but in in the 1970s, it was uh sold back to uh the town of Air from the Army. Um at that point uh when the when the town of air became the
owner of that it should have then been removed out of the um Devon's enterprise zone um you can see the Devon's boundary map on the right hand side and it just kind of coincides and showing that that's not considered part of Devon's in
their map. Uh this is to clean this up. Any questions or discussions? This needs a twothirds majority. All in favor, please say I. I oppose. Thank you. Article 31 carries. Mr. Moer,
you could just declare that 2/3. Yes, I declare. Thank you, Mr. The article passed by two/3. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Article 32 home rule petition amendments to chapter 123 of the acts of 1894 and chapter 371 of the
acts of 1991 intact regarding the air library act of incorporation. Mr. moderator moderator please. Uh, I move uh that the town vote to authorize the select board to petition the general
court for special legislation to amend uh of the Air Library Act as contained in article 32 imprinted in the warrant. Second. Moved and seconded. Thank you. I believe we have a short presentation from our library director,
Luke Kirkland. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Um, yes. So, we're acting asking for an amendment to our act of incorporation um to be sent via home rule petition to the state legislature um to make a few
adjustments. And let me I'll just go through next slide a brief history of the library to kind of give a little bit of context here. Um so there are three types of uh libraries in Massachusetts. There are city libraries, there are town libraries and then there are association or
corporation libraries. That's what air library is. It's established as an independent entity. Um air library was established in 1894 through an act of state legislature um state legislation to uh to be an independent corporation
that will oversee the operation of a free public library. uh in the funded by the town of air. In 1991, that act of incorporation was amended to prepare for fundraising for the the addition that
was put on in 1997 to the building and um in the 2010s the air library which had been functioning as a 501c3 that 501c3 lapsed. Um this this adjustment is in part an attempt to
correct that. Uh go ahead. Uh next slide. There are four different adjustments that would be made uh to the act of incorporation. The first one is to remove language that limits the board of trustees uh from possessing anything
more than $200,000. So in 1894 money uh $200,000 uh you know it's 2025 or 7.5 million approximately. So that that limitation is really nonsense.
Um by removing it, it allows the trustees to to do additional fundraising or receive additional gifts for um potential largecale future um capital projects. Next slide. Uh the second edit is kind of a
housekeeping item recommended by town council and that just clarifies that the board does have the power to accept and expend gifts and grants. Next slide. The third edit is reconciling a
difference in the officers between the active incorporation and the bylaws. Our the air library board of trustees bylaws include a vice president. the act of incorporation only has a president uh treasurer and secretary. So um we're
trying to get those two documents to agree. Next slide. And the final edit I think is probably the most significant of these items and that is so when the library was established uh there were nine
trustees and the six incorporators the founders um placed themselves as permanent trustees uh with no turn limit. Then the remaining three were elected and as over the over the you
know 130 years since that was established um as trustees are elected to those three elected positions um and vacancies appear in the permanent positions elected uh trustees are elevated into permanent positions and um
what the trustees unanimously would like to do at this time um this process really started uh to eliminate that $200,000 um limit, but it's an opportunity to make a what I think is an important correction and everybody is on
the same page that um we want to make the nine positions all elected to three-year terms. um that gives more uh democratic governance to the town of air and uh um essentially you would see on
the ballot every three years three seats uh up for election. Next slide. So just a little bit more context about why we want to do this. Um library is growing, the community is
growing. We are trying to put an architecture, fundraising architecture together to try and make preparations for um future possible capital plans. And to do so, we need to remove that $200,000 cap.
Um the first step in reinstating the 501c3, which we have started down that path to do, is making sure that active incorporation and the bylaws agree. these changes would would start us down that path as well. Um, and then finally,
like I said, this is uh the an opportunity to to reform the board to make sure that it's um the most democratically represented uh body as possible and to make sure that you're receiving the best invest return on your investment in the
library. Thank you. So, a little bit about process. So approval of this would send this to um the state legislature. We would await them uh their passage of this and uh would go into effect as soon
as the state legislature approved it. Thank you Luke. Do we have any questions for Mr. Kirkland? [Applause] Ruth Ruth Maxon Schultz Taff Street. It says that the vacancies on the board shall be filled until the next annual
election or special direction called by the select board for this purposes. Who would be doing the filling of the of this? Um yeah. So yeah, in addition to making all of these seats elected,
um the the there it places a mechanism for a filling vacancies. And that would be through a joint meeting of the select board and the and the select board, I'm sorry, the select board and the and the air library board air library board of
trustees together, which is what is required by state law. the the current act of incorporation, it does not explicitly um include that, but so this adjustment would would make sure that it complies with state law. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions on
article 32? Yes, sir. Please. David Kaine, sorry. David Kaine, 28 West Street. I just remember in the last town election where a library trustee was
elected that it was not a contested race and there was only one that year. Are we going to be able to fill three every year or were we not going to have enough people run? That's a that's a fair question and it was one that was considered by the
trustees as we uh as we looked at possible adjustments to the act of incorporation. Um we ultimately concluded that uh we would see um how things turned out. But uh you know um it will be a change and there will be a
different uh practice for the library and library board of trustees about u making sure that those seats are filled and um we certainly encourage you know we're trying to make these changes to make the dem the the library as um democratically governed as possible. And
we we are uh you know we've grown a lot over the last year and in the first two years uh well between FY22 and FY24 we've doubled attendance um increased the number of programs we've offered by six times uh and seen four times the
number of program attendees. So we're we're trying to just increase the engagement in the library and the life of the library. Um we're grateful for the funding of the library roof. We consider ourselves the the community center of the library and we just uh we hope that people who are interested in
the library um look to fill those seats as they come up each year. I have noticed those things that you've done and thank you. Um if we end up with not enough people on the board, will the board just be able to vote by majority? Yeah. Yeah. So that's what we were just
talking about. the um the the filling of any vacancies would be a joint meeting of the select board and the air library board of trustees. Um it is not necessary that we fill those vacancies. Um but should the board choose to do so
then it would be through that process. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion or questions for article 32? Seeing none, all in favor, please. I I
opposed passes from the majority. Thank you very much. This brings us to our last article of the evening of the citizens petition and I'm going to ask Miss Sarah Wy proponent for the article to come forward and make a motion.
Um Sarah Wy 11 and Shirley Road. I move that the town vote to approve the citizen petition electronic voting devices at annual town meeting and special town meeting as contained in the warrant. Second. Moved and seconded. Thank
you. And we have a Do you have a quick presentation you'd like to make, Zara? Yeah. You don't have my slideshow? Okay. Okay. Come on down. Okay. So, here's my presentation. Here's my presentation.
Can you hear me better? Okay. Exploring an idea. Bringing electronic voting devices to air town meeting. Next slide. Um, just quickly like what are electronic voting devices in the town meeting context? They're just remote controls and you can vote yes, no, or
abstain. And ideally, the town would project the overall vote results on a screen like this. Next slide. Um, here's a results screen from a town meeting. And you'll notice those the colors, they actually match the colors on the remote, which is kind of
cool. Um, but yes, 266, no, 114, two abstensions, total 382. It's just nice and clean and um, it's instant, too. Next slide. So just quickly the use in Massachusetts. Um I I learned that Whan
was the first town meeting to use these and that was in 2011. Um in 2025 there I don't have the exact count but there are more towns using them. Um one vendor reports that more than 70 communities have used their
device. Next next slide. Um, so over the last year I've tried to ask as many people in different towns about these and here are some of the benefits. Um, privacy. You know, residents are going to be able to vote anonymously. There's going to not going to be a voice vote in front of like town employees,
committee members, family members, neighbors, your boss or others you work with or may in the future. Parents don't have to vote in front of other parents. Next slide. So, the integrity of the vote, like it's going to be more accurate, more precise than a voice vote. Like, we're actually
going to have the number of people that voted for or against on these zoning articles. Um, and it's going to give more integrity to all the articles, but then there's just individual fairness. I think if you go to town meeting, you want to see the vote for yourself. Um, especially if you disagree with the
vote. Um, next slide. So, improve meeting experience. Um, this is a visual tool, so I think it's really going to be helpful. And it it tabulates in real time. So, like I think that just makes it easier to process and go between the different articles.
Um, that could save more time for discussion or to finish earlier. Um, it helps residents new to the meeting learn, I think, and I think it could also encourage residents to attend more at times. Next slide. Um so this is from the Whan electronic
voting subcommittee. Electronic voting has clearly fulfilled its original promise of speed, accuracy and privacy. More importantly, it has facilitated a more relaxed, deliberate, and methodical town meeting. Decisions made in this environment are better to the benefit of every Whan citizen whether they attend
town meeting or not. And then last slide. So please vote yes to ask the select board to review the idea of implementing electronic voting devices at town meeting. Thank you very much. I think we've got some questions. Mr.
Steven. Yes. James Steven, 93 Garden School Road. My question is, what is the cost of this voting machine? I got a verbal estimate. It was about $10,000 for 200 electronic voting devices. So we paid
$10,000 just to vote where we can be here voting and enjoy each other company for zero. I guess so. Over over here please. The best Jeff May 72 Pleasant Street. Um I just want to
point out as we as we said we enjoy each other's voting that uh from a privacy standpoint we can do that at any point in time during town meeting. we can request a private ballot. Um, as far as the integrity, we can also ask for that to be handc counted so that we can still
have that integrity. Um, I do have a question though as far as voting on these, you know, using this device. I'm very curious as to if we need to make amendments to articles or stuff, how on
the fly can we actually use this device? Are we simply voting on what was pre-programmed in as far as the articles or are we vote have the capability of adding in all these other votes that happen dynamically on the fly? I don't
know exactly what decisions a moderator would make, but I think towns tend to vote on just the articles. So, we would only So, we would only be using it for some stuff and not everything. I'm not I'm not a vendor. I mean, honestly. Excuse me, Jeff. Just
jump in. Yeah. Every meeting you ask me a question I don't know the answer to. You did it already and you did it in front of people tonight. Thank you. Mark, don't go anywhere. That's my job. Do you Do you have a Can you weigh in on it, Mark, please?
Thank you. That was a very good question. Obviously, you can't implement a mechanism that would limit the ability of town meeting uh voters to to amend articles. Usually what the vendors do is they're they're they're pretty flexible and they they will make every attempt to
place an amendment on the board and have you also electronically vote on the amendment itself. So they're pretty good at at responding to it. They could they could actually type in an amendment um while it's being discussed. Otherwise, we would probably be doing voice votes
on amendments and then take a final vote on the f on on the amended articles. There are there are ways to address this. Okay. This is not going to preclude amendments. Fair enough. Thank you. Thank you, Attorney. On this side, please, Mr. CR. Yeah. Jonathan Cray, 46 Washington Street. I have a followup on
the cost. So, you you got an estimate for from the vendor for $10,000 for 200 of the clickers. Uh my first question is, does that include all the setup costs? Because obviously there's back-end technology. It's not just the clickers. Um that was just a verbal estimate. I'm not a procurement officer, so the
electronic voting device vendor really didn't want to get too far into it without giving, you know. Yeah. So that the article just sort of asked the select board to review the I'm going to step in if you don't mind. The article is to direct the select board to look
into the pro look into what to do the work to figure out what it's going to take. That's what the article says. So we can't ask any further questions. We may not have the answers this evening is what I'm saying. That's fair enough. But I just wanted to see how far she had gone. Yeah. Um, would there be an annual service fee on top of the initial
capital investment? Um, I'm not a procurement officer. I don't know that. And and do you know what part of the budget this would come out of? Um, I do not know that either. Okay. Thank you. Uh, Carolyn McCreer, um, what Avenue. Um
I I also wanted to just reiterate what um Jeff has has said which is the article asks the the selectman to look into um this option and and to figure out the details. So um you know the
questions that we're asking here um would be answered before we actually vote whether to have these um machines or not. Thank you. Miss Titson. Yeah. Bonnie Tillitson 15 Oakidge Drive. I I guess in to follow Carolyn's question, but this
is just a question that came up Sarah in your research. Um were there any stat statistics townwide or or the towns that you researched? Um when they adopted these, was there an increase in attendance at
town meeting? Um, you know, I was reading the Whan's material, Wayland Town materials and I think they said it did go up and then it kind of evened off a little bit. Um, they've been doing it since 2011. So, um, I I don't remember specifics about
any other town. Okay. I mean, that this will be sort of an interesting question to to get at. Yeah. If adopted. Thank you. On this side, Mr. Kane. David Kaine, 28 West Street. Uh, first off, Sarah, thank you for putting this together. I really like this idea. I
think it would help town meeting go smoother, and I also appreciate that it kind of avoids the herd voting thing. The cost, I'm not that worried about the cost. If you think about the population
of our town, this is only a few dollars per resident. Also, I'm just thinking if all of these other nearby towns have these systems, why wouldn't the select board just check with some of those other towns, see if we can pay part of the cost of theirs,
and then share them? That would presumably bring the cost down a little bit. Thank you. On this side, please. Uh, thank you. My name is Chiron Junior, 40 Norwood Avenue. So my question is uh regarding
consistency. I know we have a town meeting here in the auditorium and I am presuming that we are going to be installing this program here and I we just voted a motion to update the audio visual system in the town hall where we
are going to be having other meetings there. Are we planning on installing this here in the town hall as well or is it just going to be used here and in the town hall we're going to be doing something else? Um they're just they're just they're different systems, right? I
mean actually maybe I shouldn't have even answered but my understanding is that like this is they're the audience is going to be using remote like handheld voting devices here and they're going to be connected and reporting on a screen here. And you know what happens
at town hall is is just completely separate. Does that answer your question? So my question is if there were to be a vote in the town hall the process is going to be different from if there were to be a vote here. So I think I understand the question. Oh yeah. At town meeting they
will be used wherever the town meeting is. If we have a large one we may have to be in the uh fieldhouse. We would use them there. They're portable with the town meeting. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's my understanding. On this side, please. Hi, I'm Julie Landy, 19 William Street. Um, I'm not sure who
this would be a question for, but just kind of procedurally, I want to make sure I understand. Um, when we vote on this, then if we vote it forward, the select board will kind of deliberate and factf find and kind of bring it back and we'll we'll vote again on whether to
adopt it or not. Is that right? Yes. Yes. In a nutshell. In a nutshell. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, James McN 16 Pawn Street. Now, what did you say when they get reprogrammed? There will be a reprogrammed cost, right?
Did you look into that? So, we we've determined that the cost is outside the scope this evening. Okay. And part of the work that's going to be done. Okay. Um do we have uh I'm assuming the machines have been there's certain ones that the state has approved. Do you know
how many types have been approved? Um, I actually don't even know if that that's true. Um, either way, yeah, I don't know. Okay. So, this might not be approved by the state's there's no standard, I guess. I'm not sure. Depends on the Excuse me. It
depends on the work that the if if this moves forward and we're directed to do it, that'll be part of the work we do. Okay, great. Miss Gino, you have Jessica Gino, Mountain View Avenue. Uh, just one question. You mentioned $10,000 for 200 units roughly. This is
just guessing, but what would what would be the metric to determine what's the appropriate number of devices to have? Because what would happen if you didn't have enough devices for on occasion we do get a very full house if we have more than 200 people in
attendance. Um, so so I'm going to answer um I don't actually know. I think it's a moderator's decision. And I was watching the town of Westboro's meeting the a few weeks ago and they that moderator said if anyone else comes in over 200, you're going to the other room
and you're we're going to do it by secret ballot. Um I think it is a moderator decision. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Anecdotally, there are ways to solve that problem. Okay. Thank you. Further
questions. Time to vote. All in favor? I opposed. Oh wow. Simple majority. I declare eyes got it. I think there should be a hand count.
Mr. moderator. I I think on behalf of I'm going to speak for them. I think there should be a hand count so that we actually know when we deliberate what the people want because honestly I think it was pretty even. Okay. So, I'm going to say our the rules of our meeting
require seven people to get together to request that. If you can find six friends, we'll do it. You got six. Good. Let's do it. May I ask to come forward, please? Actually, Julie, I have Susan Kennedy. Julie.
Hey, Julie. When did we tell Julie we don't need her? When did the six friends come about? Never heard that before. You've been You've been replaced. Bonnie, come forward. I had I had to swear in the tellers beforehand and I couldn't find Julie.
So, all in favor, please raise your blue card and hold it up so the tellers can count. Mr. Moderator, I have a question for you. You already called it. So, you are we are we are you It's been challenged, sir. So, we're going to go through the challenge. If if you're in favor, hold up your blue
card. This is in favor of the article. My arms are getting tired, but hold them up one more second or two. You have the numbers. Come on forward. the no votes. Please hold up your cards. Did you vote? I did. Just count your section, Janet. Just
your Okay, thank you. Thank you, Susan. Yes, I'm giving the data. Thank you. We have 68 votes in favor, 23 votes opposed. The motion passes.
Thank you. [Applause] Mr. Moderator, Mr. Copeland, I'd make a motion to adjurnn. Seconded. Uh, may if I may make a motion to motion to dissolve town meeting. Moved and second
to dissolve. All in favor? I. Thank you all. Good night.