Thank you very much and welcome to the select board meeting of Tuesday, January 27th, 2026. Um, we have four select board members present. Uh, David Modell is not yet present and is not online. Let me just run through uh the agenda. We're going
to open with community input as usual, followed by a meeting with Representative Katalo, who is here with us tonight. Um, then appointments. Then we're going to uh discuss item four, approval of loan documents for the fire station renovation project design. Then
we have a joint meeting with the conservation commission. Um and members of LSC may also be present, but they are not having uh they did not post a meeting, so that will not be a joint meeting for the LSC. Uh 9:00. Item six is discussion of the Proctor Road Taller Tower cellular lease. Item seven is a
policy discussion on our volunteer code of conduct, followed by the TA report, review of warrants and minutes, cemetery deeds, liaison reports, and we'll close with community input. Um, so with that, let me open it up to community input.
Does anyone in the room have any comm community input they want to provide? Seeing none, I'll ask online. Does anyone online have any community input? Okay, seeing none, we'll proceed to uh meet with Representative Katala if you want to step up to the the mic. Welcome.
Thank you for coming. We always appreciate it uh when you visit us here in Carile and give us the chance to ask you some questions and have a discussion about matters related to Carlile, the state um and all other matters of governance. Um I know in advance our TA
had asked us to provide questions for representative Katalo which we had sent to to Ryan and I believe he has shared with you. >> Um I don't know if >> Ryan do we just want to open with with some of those questions or how do we want to proceed with that? >> I think you're prepared for that.
>> I'd be happy to run through some responses to the questions and you're h you're obviously welcome to interrupt me or we can do questions at the end however you'd like to do it. Uh but Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank you board, thank you so much for
having me. I always love coming here. Um it's my first time with you, Christine. Uh and uh thanks so much again for giving me the opportunity and I just want to make sure that members of the public know that this isn't the only time that we communicate. Uh the members
of the board and especially the town administrator are so good about uh communicating to me, making sure that I'm aware of what the town's needs are and how I can be helpful. So, thank you so much for uh doing that uh with such frequency and effectiveness. Um and I
also just want to note uh a note of thanks for your service. I know that this is a hard time to work in municipal government uh both fiscally and we're going to be talking about that as well as politically. So, thank you so much for everything that you're doing. Um so,
I'm just going to go down the list of the questions or issues that you posed to me and as I said, feel free to interrupt. Uh so there was a question about Prop Two and a half. Do I see uh or predict any movement on Prop Two and a half within the legislature? As you
know, Prop 2 and a half was a statewide ballot measure. It passed in 1980 uh before I was born. It's been a it's been a long time. Uh and uh things have changed. inflation has gone up very significantly which is significant as it
concerns two and a half and 44% only 44% of the municipalities in the Commonwealth thus far have even had overrides. So it's been fairly infrequent since it was passed. Yeah. Um or sorry since uh 2010.
>> Since 2010. >> So it's been fairly infrequent. my temperature, if this is responsive to the question, my gauge of uh where the legislature is, where colleagues are,
where people are in general, is that it's unlikely that we're going to see significant change to that >> ballot measure. I think that you and and I've said this to you before, I've said this to the other select boards that I've appeared before. I think that when
things become an MMA priority in particular, that really elevates the issue. And so, you know, we've looked at the MMA priorities, they have some suggestions about maybe doing phasins of increased uh like going above two and a
half. I think that's a a thoughtful approach. you know, I'd like to see I'd like to see next session some, you know, legislation and some serious kind of political effort lobbying by the MMA around that to to really to really elevate that because I think it's time
to have that conversation in particular for our smaller communities. Uh the costs of an override are really really significant and for the larger ones too, they're they're politically costly. They can be financially costly and it's a lot of effort. So as we're in this situation
and to me that should be tied in some sense to inflation you know the the best argument for having uh some kind of change at two and a half I think is for these years when uh in successive years in particular when we're above 2 and a half% inflation. Um it's not the only
argument but I think it's one of them. So, you know, if there's something that the board itself, you know, the people of Carlile through the board want to see be a priority, please do communicate that uh to me. This was posed in the nature of a question. Um and and that will obviously, you know, very
significantly affect my thinking. Um >> but do you know um >> whether u >> you said only 44% of towns had no right which some towns probably had multiple but you have do we have access to any
statistics about how close uh towns are coming to the levy limit because that's really the if what you say is true which I think it kind of is then um more towns and maybe Ryan you know this in your extracurricular
job Um, you know, a lot of towns must be getting close to where they're getting in trouble. Haven't historically because really high inflation's only been a thing like for two or three years, but prolonged it's not immediate. Like you shouldn't be that close that one year is
going to tip you over, but many years of higher inflation is what's going to drive these towns to have to confront that. That would be probably a more um compelling statistic. I think that probably the MMA has that
right at their fingertips and I'm happy to go and try to get that information and um get back to you all. The municipal empowerment act is something that the governor has filed now successive sessions um and it's with
the committee on revenue right now and so I expect that you know there's going to be there's going to be a report on that. I don't serve on that committee, but my my assumption for the bills that so the rules in the legislature are a little bit different this year with the bills that have not been reported out or
sent to study so far. We basically been looking at March, February or March for decisions on those. So those are that's a discussion that's happening right now. I think it's good that it's going to happen right in conjunction with our fiscal year budget because those are obviously related conversations.
Um, there were a couple of questions about federal immigration enforcement and ICE. And obviously this is a big topic of conversation. I'm sure you're getting asked about it. Um, so you can correct me if I'm wrong. It's my understanding that the Carlile Police
Department has had some communication about their policies on this and policy of basically uh non-olaboration or at least in the affirmative sense. Um, I did want to point out, if you didn't already know, that conquered several years ago did a bylaw. It's a welcoming
communities bylaw, but it basically put as a bylaw a policy for the conquered police department to follow as it concerns uh communication and collaboration with federal immigration
enforcement. And more recently, and it's been widely reported, so I'm not breaking news here, there has been adherence, and not saying there wasn't before, but there has been reported adherence to that policy. And I just want to get specific for a moment in terms of my understanding to the extent
it's helpful for your constituents and our shared constituents. Um, so when a uh a person in in many cases in our in our communities in this district, it's it's a motorist uh gets pulled over um
and might be for a traffic violation, a headlight, something like that, something a police officer would pull pull somebody over for. Um and there's uh some kind of like arrest warrant for that person. It might be for a serious crime, might be for a fairly minor
crime. At that point, you know, consistent with procedure, the the police officer would would typically detain that person, not having anything to do with immigration enforcement. But when an when a detention is when an arrest is made, it pings the federal
agencies, right? And so ICE might see that and say, "Oh, that person, you know, separate from the traffic or the domestic issue or whatever they're being detained for, uh, has an immigration detainer." At which point in the case at
least once I think at least twice actually in conquered recently there was a call made from the federal enforcement agent to the conquered police department um with an inquiry about this person saying we want you to hold this person
uh so that we can come and get them. And there there was basically a non-s substantive response by the police department consistent with the bylaw, the conquered bylaw. Um and uh and at least one of those cases, the
immigration agent came anyway and waited outside of the police station. Um and in one of those cases, uh they ended up also detaining for a alleged immigration violation the person who came and picked up the person.
So, um, but I I point you to that because Conquered is not the only community that currently has on its books in its bylaws one of these, uh, kind of provisions spec giving specific instructions for the police officers in the town on how to how to respond and
act or not respond. Um, I believe Lexington also has one and I'm sure a Google search could find many others. Um there's also a uh question here, an issue raised about civil protest. This
may be something that's on the mind of folks in Carlile. Um I don't have much guidance for that. You know, I think it's something that certainly folks would want to uh communicate with the police department to make sure that there's uh there are areas set up,
especially when somebody applies for a permit or something like that. I will say that and I and I want to just take a second to compliment our area police departments, NEMLEC, um which I know you've had some recent uh recent work with NMLC uh and uh the state police
have been just really I think excellent, very professional, very steadfast in their work to ensure that protests uh that are peaceful, large and small, can happen uh in a in a manner that is not disruptive and that is reflective of the
first amendment civil liberties that we have here in the United States. Um so there you know there's been uh recently there have been some large protests uh in our surrounding area and those have gone off uh quite well. So I you know I always try to thank those police
officers and state police officers, local police officers who have uh been doing that work to make sure that we can exercise our our rights. >> Um >> Simon you there. So those are my questions and I want to circle back. So on the Carile police guidance, can you Ryan, not tonight, but can you shed
light? Is there a formal position that Carlile PD has taken on? >> Yeah, I looked it up assuming that might be asked. So the Carile Police Department will neither participate in nor obstruct noncriminal ICE federal >> sort of hands away. So my question then
gets back to you Sam, not you personally, but so if ICE or some other arm of the federal government were to come in and grab somebody and do all the kind of I mean hopefully a low probability event for
here, but we watching it all over, right? So this happens and the police are like, you know, it's feds. I can't do anything. We're elected officials of the town, right? We're effectively the mayor of the town. What is our appropriately? What is our role in that? Do we just stand by say sorry you do
what you want. I mean they're our citizens. I I feel like we have a moral if not a legal obligation to sort of stand up for them. So but do you have any thoughts on that? >> Yeah. Do you David do you want to be a little bit more specific so I can just
kind of wrap my head around what you what you have in mind? You know I think first of all I think it's it's not to be taken for granted. Right. >> Right. You have long history of this country of state, local, and federal collaboration, right? >> You have a police department here in conquered who based on what the town
administrator has just said is that we're going to depart from that >> long tradition. That's that's not to be glossed over. Right. >> Right. Um, you know, I I I will tell you I have constituents emailing me every day, including today, multiple times a
day, saying um that the state should do something to basically create violence >> against the federal law enforcement agents who are coming in. Right. So I I take that's not what you're saying, but I just want to be clear that like >> Well, I'm saying that defensively. So
>> yeah, >> you know, we're I mean, again, I don't want to extrapolate too much out of Minneapolis, but I mean, certainly the mayor >> and the other officials of the city are being pretty vocal. There's not at the end of the day much we can do against the federal law enforcement. Really?
Really? But we I we maybe we have to think about it ourselves. I mean, >> just publicly. >> Yeah. What is it we would say? Would we intervene? Would we go down a court and you know I mean I don't know but I'm not getting a lot of prescriptive action from the Carile PD are there other does
conquer does conquer select board have you know you you represent enough towns and you're in the mix maybe you don't know tonight but I would like to have an understanding of what other select boards are saying about what they feel their responsibility is >> so I want to send you what conquer has
done and we can send it along a couple of other examples. I was at a meeting in Actton which I also represent >> uh where they they had taken some you know some some formal but verbal steps >> uh to make statements um and and that
might that might be responsive in terms of what other municipalities are doing you know on the on the state level uh we have recently and I think we will again and I I'm leading one component of this in the legislature uh the uh the funding
of civil legal legal aid and in particular last fiscal year budget for the first time we funded uh civil immigrant legal assistance for the folks who need it. >> The state did >> the state did uh we also have and we're
actually tomorrow is the walk to the hill. There are a number of I think conquered and carile lawyers who are going to that hundreds and hundreds of lawyers come to the state house and advocate for civil legal aid. >> Um those are lobbyists. Um uh I'm I'm
the the house sponsor of that um one of the house sponsors of that budget amendment. So um that's something that you know we're doing on the state level and I think that's an important kind component of protecting people's rights. >> Okay. And then lastly, going back to the protest, my question was less about I
mean, yes, if they're planning a protest here, I presume they should go to Carl >> BD and hermit or whatever you do to have civil disobedience, right? >> But I mean, I did attend a pretty interesting ACLU event here at our uh
church at the first religious arrest. Were you there? Did you? >> I did not. uh it was a guy he's some I guess professional agitator I don't know but he gave some pretty good guidelines and that's people going and we know lots of people who go downtown or wherever
>> and say they get in tr I mean you know they're adults and they should be on their own recgnizance but let's say they get in trouble like do we do anything and people get in trouble do we go down try to bail them out or figure it out I mean I don't know what responsibility do
we again maybe it's more this direction But what responsibility we have those citizens? They're acting on their own cognizance. It wasn't here in town. I just don't know. I just think we ought to give some thought to that just in case. So appreciate your feedback. Thank you.
>> Just just so you know, I have not heard of towns doing that and extending that to its residents. Um not to say you should or shouldn't, but >> should we give them guidance? I mean, >> certainly if I hear of that, yeah, I'll >> don't go and if you do go, don't bring your cell phone. And I mean there's all kinds of things the guy was saying.
Don't bring your kids. I mean that was one of the things like people bring their kids to these like stupid. Thank you. The next one's probably the hardest question to ask on on to answer on my list which is the property tax increases
that are largely driven in Carlile as they are in many towns with by municipal buildings. Um there is a bill which I support to create a municipal building authority similar to the uh the MSBA. Um and you know our surrounding
communities have seen some of that money from the MSBA. Uh and you're probably familiar with the technicalities that go into applying for that and receiving those funds. Um if there is a municipal building
authority that is created it will need to be funded by the legislature and there will be a process of course um but I think that you know in particular this uh smaller communities uh where like here a very very substantial portion of the town's budget separate from the
school side uh are dedicated towards those buildings. I think that that is a that is a prudent measure. Um, kind of on local aid more broadly, you know, I think that we saw a very significant uh increase from 200 million to 300 million
in chapter 90 aid uh last last year. You know, that's paid for partially by the fair share amendment. Uh, Governor Healey just uh filed a 1.2 billion dollar bond bill. um if there are specific transportation or road related related projects that you would like to
see bonded out in that bill, it's important for me to know that over the next I would say month or so would be good. Um and so that I can try to get earmarks funds for the bond bill. Um questions on that one?
You said road and transportation. So would that include infrastructure? >> Yes. Culverts and Yes. things. >> Yes. Culverts. Absolutely. >> Um >> no. >> Simon, the going back to the municipal building authority, um what's your sense
of its um what kind of support there is and when it's likely to move? It's a fairly new idea. I think it was filed for the first time last session. Um, I have not
heard a lot about it. Um, but you know, I think it'll be more clear over the next five, six, seven weeks as things really kind of move this session >> uh where where we are on that. >> And is and Ryan, I should probably have asked you this too. Is there any sense
of the smaller towns kind of working together to lobby for this or at least put pressure on their state reps and senators? >> I have not heard of that specifically with respect to the municipal municipal building idea, but I think it would be a great idea.
>> Yeah. And nothing's happening through MMA right there >> through through the president and the small town administrators. It it is one of our top top legislative priorities. >> This is >> so the the number one It's it's cyclical. I mean, it's a
cycle. You defer buildings, then the buildings cost more, and you don't have the ability to fund them because it's all through ballots and overrides. And as you know, we don't pass overrides. So, the the problem just keeps getting moved and without without any assistance. Small towns are going to continue to focus on operational
overrides for school and and town costs and not on infrastructure. It's just going to get worse. >> So, infrastructure is aging across the Commonwealth. So Carell's story with its buildings is everyone every small town's story. >> Oh, Carell, but what Carell seems to do
is it'll let let it get to a certain amount of decrepitude and then we spend a bunch of money and then kind of repeat the cycle. But at least we rejuvenate the physical plant. But there's got to be towns that just I'm sorry, that's it. >> If they even have a facility at all. Yeah,
>> that actually the town administrator's point just now is probably a good time to note um he and I meet every year um usually after this meeting and I think he probably would have told me about that in the meeting that we do every year after this meeting and one of the
things we talk about are the legisl legislative priorities for the small towns and also of course earmarks and funding priorities which we'll we'll get to in a minute. um in Carlile. I think it's lucky that it has, you know, somebody who's uh the head of that that
entity here uh on the town staff. Um next question is, what's the most effective way to keep Carlile residents apprised of your projects and communicate their support to house leadership? Thank you so much for asking the question. Um so we've had uh very vigorous and well attended constituent
office hours both here. Thank you for hosting me here. And then more recently, we've done a couple at the library down the street, which has been which has been great. Um, so folks, if they can come to my office hours, I uh we advertise them in the mosquito. Thank you to the mosquito for doing that. Um,
I always advertise them on my social media and I say everything I'm doing on my social media. And I have a constituent newsletter which you can uh sign up for at repataldo.com. It's not a political newsletter, it's a constituent newsletter. Um, so, uh, feel
free to sign up for updates on that. Um, I try to, you know, really be responsive to the feedback of what people want to see in those newsletters. So, love to have folks read those and let me know what else they would like in them. Also, you can just email me at simon.cataldo mahous.gov.
Uh, you can, uh, call me. I don't have my office number memorized, but it's very easy to find online on the legislaturator's website. Uh so any of those ways uh my legislative aid is Anna Sullivan. Uh she is uh will be in touch with you or I will be in touch with you
directly. I love it when people leave their phone numbers. Um it's sometimes a lot because I'm always on the go. It's sometimes a lot easier for me to just call you um than be in front of a laptop which I find myself in front of a laptop less and less frequently these days. Um
so I you know I'm happy to email you back if I don't have a phone number but if you leave me a number I'll probably call you. Um, so in the second part of that question though is um, and let me just say on on social media on Instagram and Facebook in particular, you know, I post multiple
times a week to let folks know what I'm working on and sometimes there's information there like what like just a couple days ago, what is the uh, Massachusetts Emergency Management Office saying about what you can do for safety during a big snowstorm? So I try to put information out like that um, in
terms of communicating support to house leadership. So when it's in the form of a a major budget item or a piece of legislation, yes, that is how I decide what I am going to communicate to house leadership, it's from hearing from you. So uh that that's how those decisions
are made. Um, and so I love when people email me and when I speak with House leadership, which is more and more frequently, uh, the, uh, ability to say, "My constituents are really on me about this," is something that, uh, makes a
difference to them. I, I know for sure. Um, speaking of, uh, speaking with House leadership and, uh, legislative items, uh, there was a question about, uh, literacy. Um the my top priority piece of legislation that I filed this session
uh passed 155 to zero in the house. It was for uh to require uh evidence-based literacy instruction in K through uh three in Massachusetts. Only 40% of Massachusetts third graders read at grade level >> right now.
>> Absolutely unacceptable. And uh that is not solely due to but in significant part due to some outdated methods of non-fotnics based uh reading instruction that have persisted uh unfortunately and so uh that is actually going before the
Senate on Thursday this week. Uh so really excited about that. I think it'll be at the governor's desk soon. But there was a question about that and related to that that are the library and funding for the library renovation. So, just to back up a couple of years, the state funded through the Mass Cultural
Council a $200,000 grant in fiscal year 23 for the library, and that was a matching program. Uh, so thanks again to all the Carlile residents and friends who who supported uh that and made sure that that grant reached its um uh its
its highest possible level. Uh I had some discussion with members of the community about doing an earmark last uh year. We decided not to do it because there were some other in particular one Carlile related thing that really needed the state's urgent support which was uh DCR fixing the parking lot of the cross
country ski area at Greybrook which we did get done and that ended up being the largest earmark that I did for any of the communities last year. Um but this year it's kind of tabularasa on the on the earmark conversation. So really I just need to hear from you. You a lot of times those conversations get funneled
through through Ryan. I don't only need to hear from Ryan, but you know, Ryan and I will be speaking soon. So, feel free to kind of speak through him or, you know, communicate with with me directly. I think, look, it's going to be a tough it's going to be a tough fiscal year. Um, we had nine C cuts a couple years ago, uh, where a lot of
the, um, a lot of the ear marks got cut in half. Um, you know, I will do one for Carlilele, at least one for Carlilele. So, I just need to know, you know, what the community wants to see. And if it's the library, I'd be thrilled to support the library. And if it's something else, that's um that's perfectly fine with me.
Um >> and the excuse me, just to follow up, Christine, do you know has the library >> put in made that formal request to you? No, >> we raised their hand last year, but it didn't prevail. We lost out to the great book Farm. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Okay. But in terms of this year, >> we would like to raise it again. >> The trustees though have not formally >> They have not. No, I mean, we've talked about it and then we've we have a few measures kind of that we're still exploring, but probably all of them will be implemented because we're kind of in
the last stages of fundraising and um you know, we the costs just keep outpacing the fundraising. >> So, but you're probably looking for some agreement among us, right, through
Ryan or directly about what what we think our top earmarks should be request should be right >> and and I think you probably all already know this but if not for you for the public so an earmarked uh an earmark has to be spent in that fiscal year so if
it's the library project for example it would have to be actually paid to whoever is doing the work before the end of the fiscal year which um is is would be in June of 2027. >> Okay. Um, >> so June of 27, not this year.
>> Yes. >> Okay. Um, >> yeah. So get approved this year, this fiscal year, but >> then has to be spent the next fiscal year. >> Yeah. It will be signed into law in August of this summer, 2026, and then it has to be spent by June. >> Okay.
>> Um, there is a question about online fraud. Um the one of the committees that I serve on is the financial services committee. There has been a lot of cryptocurrency fraud specifically geared towards seniors but geared toward a lot
of people. Um we we uh advanced a bill to deal with uh cryptocurrency fraud at those these cryptocurrency ATMs that you may see around the uh our area all across Massachusetts. Folks are being uh
called by scammers. They are being kept on the phone, told to go to one of these to make a transfer, and they're losing, you know, all their money. Um it's really, really sad. We had a ton of people come testify, people have been
victims, people in law enforcement, um sheriffs who came and testified about all these horrible situations. That's one one kind of small part of it. Uh there are a lot of resources on the attorney general's office uh about consumer protection uh fraud. Encourage
people to to seek those out. And uh you know I'm I'm sorry for the genesis of this question. I'm sure that there's there are more than one resident of Carlile that's been victimized by this recently. Um there are also if you if you're on social media and you follow kind of
government pages like with the RMV in particular, one of the more recent uh very frequent scams is that you will get a text message from the RMV. Do not click on that. The RMV doesn't text you. And so just, you know, for folks to be aware of, you know, these text scams
that come in, these people that call, they ask your social security number, all that stuff. that's, you know, typically not legitimate. Um, there was a question about Ferns, our beloved Ferns. Um, so I >> update. Did you Are you guys on the mailing list? >> No.
>> It was a very long comprehensive update that they sent out, which was pretty impressive. >> Forward. >> They are. They actually exercise their options to buy. I mean, so the email is structured. It's like hurdle this, hurdle, like 47 hurdles, all of which sound very expensive. And at the end of
it, they say, "So, we're exercising our options to buy home." Well, okay. >> Great. >> Breaking good news. Well, um, >> as it concerns the mass D, uh, we reached out to them on Thursday. Uh, and
if it would be helpful to kind of collaborate on a a letter of support from me, I'm glad to get the help of the rest of the legislative delegation, which is one other person, Senator Barrett. um uh you know have whatever I can do. You know I I don't get to I don't have the authority to fasttrack an
approval process or change regulations or anything like that but sometimes it can help for the state rep. So just tell me the direction to go and and I'll and I'll go in that direction. Um but I have reached out and told them that this is a priority. It's important for the community and um we really want to see things move forward as quickly as is
responsible >> doubling or re Yeah. any anything that you can do to like emphasize that we have um no retail presence in town almost this is hugely important to many different I mean middle schoolers bicyclists
uh you know the mom who's caught with no milk on a Saturday morning at 6 a.m. I mean it's it happens. Everyone uses ferns a little bit here and there. So yeah, >> I also reached out and just personally and said if they have any questions about anything related to the town or
the processes to please reach out and um we'll offer our guidance as much as we can because it is important to our community. >> But it was a it was a really great update they sent. >> It was very comprehensive. Yeah. And who sent that?
>> Uh the prospective owners. >> Okay. They have a on their they have a sign on the front if you drive by it's a sign up for a mailing list >> and they send out updates. >> Great. >> Yeah. >> Like to see the next is home rule
petitions. Um so there's a pending home rule petition uh relative to the town administrators appointment authority. I think you guys are going to be working on that later this meeting. Um that's H4414. So that has been ordered to third
reading which is the last level in the house. Um the committee needed the certified vote. So we sorted through that uh just a few days ago and I think that will be moving soon. Um the last uh last session we did an act authorizing the town of Carlile to establish a means tested citizen senior citizen property
tax exemption and that that was passed and signed until December of 2024. Um, >> I think that that is it in terms of your questions, but if I did miss something, oh, there was a question about this. Um, it's not on my list, but I know there was a question about the state
commission on combating anti-semitism, which uh concluded its work November 30th of 2025. And that question was basically how have communities across the state been responding? So we did something um the commission lasted a year and we did something very atypical
for commissions which is that we uh released a preliminary report on K through 12 education which I think was the focus of the question uh in August so prior to the start of the school year and what we saw was actually pretty incredible. But we saw rapid adherence
by many many communities across the Commonwealth spec in a few specific areas that I think were real points of emphasis for the special commission. So one had to do with um the way that communication happens after an incident after an incident of anti-semitism or or
any type of racism discrimination things like that from school leadership to the members of the community. What kind of information goes into that communication? uh when does that happen and what kind of resources are shared and we're seeing major major
improvements in that level on that level and we get very prescriptive in the uh in the special commission report which is 65 pages but we include also links uh to letters that we think are um you know reflective of what the recommendations
are. So big big in terms of communication also in terms of the existence and the publication of uh the procedures that school districts follow when there is a reported incident of hate uh whether it's anti-semitism or
anything else over 80% of the recommendations are not solely about anti-semitism uh and so we are seeing major major changes uh the conquered and conquered carile regional school district has completely completely redone. Uh it's it's
procedures and the way those are communicated and posted online so that if you your kid comes home and you know many folks in our communities have been in this situation. The kid comes home uh and they tell you something um and you're the parent, you're thinking,
okay, what do I what do I do? Who do I talk to? I think in many school districts around the Commonwealth that has not been clear in prior years and uh we're seeing a lot of movement on that. here's who you call, here's how the process plays out, these are the whistleblower protections or the
reporters protections, things like that. One of the main issues we saw is that in uh you know 2020 2021 kind of the George Florida era a lot of school districts and institutions generally in the Commonwealth kind of built up uh whether
you want to call it DEI anti-discrimination like frameworks policies procedures uh including many districts that had a history of repeated anti-semitic incidents and uh for some reason those frameworks and trainings
things did not have anything about anti-semitism in them. >> Um whether you want to call that a fish, you know, a feature or a bug. Um I think that's it's a hard question to answer. But in any event, those were absent. And so what we continue to see is like
swastika on the chalkboard just teacher erases it, moves on, right? Or like kid says hell Hitler, you know, just it gets ignored, right? Um, so we're seeing a lot more uh and we recommend training about like how do you deal with that issue in particular? That issue has its
own history. Um, things like that. Those are just a few examples. So the the the short answer and it wasn't a short answer is that um we're seeing a lot of really positive changes in inheritance with the recommendations. We've seen a ton of political support as well. So the
governor uh endorsed the report and then uh appointed the lieutenant governor Kim Driscoll to basically quarterback the changes much many of which have to do with what Desi does uh but also the department of higher red and some other agencies state law enforcement. Uh and
the report was endorsed by both of our US senators, our congresswoman um and and the Senate President and House Speaker. So, I think that, you know, it's and it's possible we'll see some legislative action on that as well, but we're already seeing changes as a result of the report. >> Good.
>> And specifically at Conquered Carile High School, I know you participated in the public discussion this summer. Um, since that time, have you seen the positive changes you were describing at at the school particularly? >> Yeah, and I'll get I'll get real specific about it. I mean, um, because I
think it's it goes farther than just the anti-semitism issue. So, you know, there was obviously like tragedy happening in the spring. There was a lot going on. There was a swastika at the on the skate park on the at Kona Cara High School, right? It wasn't reported to the broader community. It was painted over. It
wasn't reported to the police. And in fact, the reporter approached the police chief of conquered u about a month or two later and asked about it and the police chief didn't know about it. Right. Um because it had not been reported. So, and then there was a
letter. There was a lot of people upset. You saw an actual a grassroots group was created uh out of that that um the fact that so many people were upset which has been very robust in the community. Fast forward to the very first day of school
at the high school at CCHS this fall. A swasa is found in the bathroom. Before the end of the school day, the superintendent had uh written and distributed a letter to the entire school community which had every best
practice thing that that you could have including resources of how to talk to your child about this. Uh commending the person who came forward uh putting out and showing online how the process would go from there. And um they've also been
working um I'm not sure if it was added to since then on kind of what you see on the landing page for that part of the school district's website, the regional school district. So um there have been I think a lot of positive changes. There's also uh the the first Jewish student
union uh was created and is active at um at the high school as well. And I know and I believe one of the co-chairs of that is a Carlile resident actually possibly both of them. Okay. >> So yeah. Great. >> Can I just make So, um I'm I'm going to
show you this math and we have the meeting that you you referenced, but >> Great. >> Lexington is building a $660 million school, very very famous in the this area. >> The impact on the average tax bill at its peak for that project is 1,700. The
35 million that Carile is spending on its buildings, the average impact is 1300. And if you add the roads and culverts that Carile is trying to address in the backlog, it's 1,700 per resident. >> So the the deferred maintenance that this small town is facing, even though
the numbers aren't as glamorous, are the same as what Lexington is proposing with a similar median household income and a similar average tax bill. So the challenges in Carlile are equivalent, just not as flashy.
>> They're flashy to us. Um, >> thank you. >> That's where I would put your remarks. Okay. >> If I was a resident. >> Okay. >> But is that politically is it politically tenable to hear much of the rich towns? I mean, those are rich towns, right?
>> I would think that the poor towns in the West are like, "Hey, I can't even keep the heat on them building. You're giving these guys all this money to build another." >> It's politically tenable to me and I've done it for the last three years and intend to do it for a fourth year. >> All right. Great.
>> Well, thank you very much. I know we're a bit beyond our aotted time, but I appreciate you spending time. >> One last question. >> 16. It was 16 degrees as I drove in and you're wearing a blazer and a sweater. So, I have two questions. What temperature does it need to be for you to wear a coat? And what temperature
does it need to be where you just kind of walk in with just like a sweater? >> Well, I'll respond that to that with a non-response. I was at Carlile school for footsol on Saturday and it was the coldest day that I can remember. >> Um and I I still went outside to make
phone calls. >> So >> um but I was wearing more clothes. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Take care. >> Thank you. Um, I think in the interest of time in the agenda, I think we'll push uh appointments to a little bit later this
evening and go directly to the approval of loan documents which is scheduled for 7:45. >> Um, and I see >> Sandy is on the line. >> So, let's let's just pick that up and again, we'll do appointments um later in
the evening depending on on the timing of the other items. So where do we want to with with regard to the approval of loan documents? >> So this is a this is the 1.4 million approved by Carlile town meeting voters
and ballot voters. Sandy put this out to bid so that we can get the money in order to pay for this design service that's ongoing currently. And she's here to tell you how that went and to describe to you what she's asking you to approve on behalf of the town and to
sign this evening. Good evening. >> Hi, Sandy. >> Hi. Um, so we put the 1.4 million out to bid and we received only one bid uh from
Uni Bank for savings for 3.5% for one year for the duration of this loan. Um, so we had to go with it. Um and uh the documents are there for you
to sign. There are three uh places where you would need to sign and that's about it, you know. Um so when we did the projection for this, we conservatively estimated the interest rate to be 4.5%. So this is 1% lower than we thought, which is always good
news. >> Good. >> About 140,000 over the course of the loan. Uh we're hoping this gets rolled into a larger construction project, but for right now, we just have to pay for the approved design costs. >> So, if we do move forward with the project and that funding is approved,
this would ultimately get rolled into that >> in a permanent borrow. >> Yeah. Okay. But we need to do this now because we've approved the 1.4 >> and cash flow. So, as the bills come in, we're using these funds to pay them. And this should design project should be done in in time for annual town meeting
which is your goal. So we're spending this 1.4 million >> relatively fast for us. >> Yeah. >> All right. Well, I move to approve the motions titled vote of the select board and dated January 27th, 2026 as presented in the packet.
>> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any further discussion or deliberation? All right, seeing none, let's just do a uh voice vote. All in favor say I. >> I opposed. >> Okay, the motion passes. So, we will
just sign this and everyone must sign in three places. >> All of you have to sign and then place those documents back in the sparkly folder for Gretchen >> and return the folder to Gretchen. >> Yes. >> Any of you who have purchased a home, Sandy has to do this every time we borrow. It's her job, but it's also a
lot of work and extremely tedious. So, thank you, Sandy. >> Yeah. Thank you, Sandy. >> Thank you, Sandy. >> Oh, thank you. Just reading through all the documents in the packet, I'm thinking, "Oh, geez, this is >> it was very comprehensive." >> Yes. Yeah. All right.
>> Great. So, that was quick. So, now we can go back to uh appointments, I think, because we still have 10 minutes before we're scheduled to start the discussion with and joint meeting with KNSCOM and discussion with the LSC. So, going back to appointments, um
first We have a couple more items uh carrying over from last week. Uh we had discussed with regard to the uh DPW building project um to to amend the charter to
add a seat or change a seat to a FINCOM representative and to appoint uh Mark Bernstein to that seat contingent on FINCOM support. And I I've been in touch with James and I believe they're going to discuss that tomorrow night. But tonight we can make both that amendment
to the charter and the appointment. Correct. Now with regard to the amendment to the seat, are we just are we making one are we converting one of the seats to fin? >> You do have a candidate nominee or appointment from
the consom. >> Yep. >> Melissa Webster. Um, the board of health has not responded to me. I don't know if they've responded to any of you about any potential applicants. Okay.
So, you can either to be more helpful, you can either add a seat and hope that the board of health selects somebody as you as you wanted for the charter or you could replace that board of health seat with a finance committee or any other thing you can dream up. But those are the two most obvious options.
Why don't I would recommend we convert the seat and then if if the board of health does want to appoint someone we can make an additional change if needed but I don't know that adding a seat >> because we have how many on there now? Seven. >> It would be five. >> It would be five. It's five
>> if we add this the FinCom representative. >> This would be the fifth. >> Yeah. >> Member. Okay. So, what we'd want to do is amend the DPW building renovation committee charter to um
uh uh substitute the board of health representative with a finance committee representative. >> Yes. >> Is that the motion? >> That would be the motion. >> Okay. Can I amend the motion? >> Yes, you may amend the motion. >> I noticed in that the number five of the
five voting members says one large members from the residents of Carile. So I think this would be amended to at large one at large. >> I think that would be a separate amendment but I think we I think we can make that correction. >> Why don't we stick with the original
amendment and then we'll uh make sure that >> okay >> you like sturdy DPW. >> That's right. >> So we have a motion to amend the charter to change uh >> one of the five voting members from board of health to the finance committee.
>> Yeah. Do you need somebody to move that or? >> Well, no, that's the motion you made. >> What I said? Yeah. Okay. >> Is there a second on that? >> Second. >> Okay. Any further discussion or deliberate? >> Why was board of health on there to begin with? It doesn't seem like a thing. >> I I think that the board of health would
play into this because there's there um implications that may take place with the DPW facility. >> Is that true of every facility? >> It is. That's why it would be good to have a representative. being another essential one because you have wetlands in the area, >> right? Okay.
>> But if if that's not going to play out, then we'll just >> Okay. All right. >> And we have a lot of building committees right now. So, I do recognize it's tough to staff them all with all the >> So, board of health is on some of the committees. >> They're on the fire station committee. Yeah. >> And the police, too, or not? >> Uh, no, I don't think they're on that
committee. And I think part of the learning of that was to get them involved earlier. And the fing is also on. >> No, >> they haven't been on the past. >> And there's no statutory reason to not be on, right? >> No. >> Good. All right. Thank you. >> It's just more carryover from previous building committees.
>> Okay. >> More of a insistence to have them on rather than not. >> Yeah, >> I would think. Yeah. Right. Okay. >> In the future, we can recommend to the board of health as a pointing authority that the health director, health agent be a ex official member of that board.
>> Okay. >> Future. Okay. So, we ready for a vote on the amendment on the seat and then we'll do the appointment to that seat. So, all in favor do a voice vote. All in favor of the amendment say I >> opposed. >> Motion passes. Now, the second piece of
this would be to appoint Mark Bernstein to the FINCOM seat contingent on FINCOM's approval. I move that the select board appoint Bernstein as the finance committee representative to the DPW building
renovation committee subject to the subsequent approval of the finance committee. >> I'll second that. Any further discussion? >> Sub it's a contingent on the Finham approving that he's he is the rep. >> He is their rep. Yeah, there will be a rep. >> They're meeting tomorrow night. So,
yeah. And I I talked to James and he's aware of this. So, okay. Okay. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? Voice vote. >> I >> opposed.
>> Great. Other appointment. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> Did you want his phone to the charter? >> Do we need an amendment to change to correct? I think it's >> just a typo. >> It's a typo. >> All right. >> Okay. So, other appointments. Um, as long as we're on, we had another appointment for I'm sorry, I don't have
the >> a commission. >> A commission. Yeah, why don't you do that one? >> Um, I move that the select board appoint as a member of the agricultural commission, otherwise known as Mac Heisy, term to end June 30th, 2028.
>> Second. Is there a second? Okay. Any further discussion or deliberation? Seeing none, we'll do a voice vote. All in favor say I. >> I. I opposed. >> The motion passes and then we have a
um recommendation to appoint Melissa Webster to the DPW building committee >> representing the >> concom. Yep. >> I move that we appoint uh Melissa Webster
uh to the DPW building renovation committee uh representing the conservation commission. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion or deliberation? Seeing none, we'll do a voice vote. All in favor? >> I opposed.
>> Motion passes. >> All right, that committee is scheduled to meet already. So, we'll add the add these folks to it, but the >> they're full up now, right? And the abuter, did we make a policy decision or just we just decided that wasn't >> there's no policy decision.
Got it. All right. So, the next up is Let me get the agenda in front of me. >> You want this? >> No, I got we got item five is the joint meeting with the Conservation Commission and LSC. We're running a few minutes ahead of schedule, so we'll just uh
check and and see who's here. Uh my understanding is conservation commission has posted a meeting um and they can open that meeting. Um LSC did not post a meeting as they did not expect a quorum. So are there any LSC members? I know there are some cons members who also on
LSC. Are there any additional LLSC members? >> Yep. On remote. Okay. And from from conservation commission is let's see where is >> see Georgeette. >> Okay. I see Sylvia neat. Hi.
>> I'm on that one. >> And you're on that one. So you have a And >> is Nick of Okay. >> Are you expecting George I thought he was going to try to make it, but I'm not sure. >> I think we are expecting
>> and I think Melissa was going to try to make it too. >> Okay. >> She's away right now. >> What about Dan? >> I don't know. >> Okay. Well, we'll we'll give him a couple of minutes since we're ahead of schedule. And um I'll use the time to kind of open this section of the meeting. And what I wanted to do at the
outset was to just provide some context and background for uh folks at home and maybe some members of the select board or or respective committees that um aren't familiar with all the history the long history of conservation in the LSC.
The town of Carlile, if people don't know, owns over 30 conservation parcels totaling almost 1100 acres of land. Many of the properties have unique features and offer wonderful opportunities for activities like hiking, biking, horseback riding, gardening, nature, and a wide range of other activities. These
conserv conservation lands are at the heart of what we refer to as the Carile character, and that's discussed further in the Carile master plan. And their management and maintenance is critical importance and significance to our entire community. So, it's the jurisdiction of KNSCOM and the LFC, but
this is an issue that's important to all of us. So our conservation land parcels were acquired by town meeting vote all of them and are permanently protected under article 97 and their management maintenance the management maintenance and land use falls under the jurisdiction of the carile conservation
commission by that law. In 2005com formed the LSC as a subcommittee to quote manage town owned conservation land and other lands as directed by the town to protect maintain and enhance conservation interests. And at the time of its formation, the charter described
its two guiding principles as one, organize and coordinate land maintenance and management activities to balance a number of potentially competing interests, eg conservation versus agriculture versus recreation, and two, foster communication with town committees and other organizations with related interests. So at its forming,
the LLSC was responsible for a defined list of core tasks, but final authority on land use decisions, licenses, and permits remained with KNSCOM. In May of 2024, KNSCOM voted to approve the LSC's revised charter, which is uh up on the website, which delegated to the LSC the
additional responsibilities and authority, including management of Carlile conservation land agricultural licenses and issuing of land permits. Per the meeting minutes, this was done with the expectation that the LSC would work in partnership with KSCOM in fulfilling these new responsibilities.
This was also done at the time with an understanding that there would be a trial period. It was discussed maybe two years, October 2026. I don't know if anything was officially designated, but there would be a trial period for the revised charter and that after some time LSE and KNCOM would get together and see how things were tracking. So, in the
past year, the select board has received multiple points of feedback, concerns, and complaints from volunteers, residents, and staff related to the responsibilities delegated to the LSC. Recurring feedback is that the current process for managing agricultural licenses and land use permits is not being managed properly, is not
collaborative or transparent, and does not reflect the values and priorities of the community. We acknowledge that some of these decisions are inherently divisive and will naturally generate push back. It is the concerns about process, collaboration, and transparency that is a particular concern to the
select board. In addition, concerns about proper conservation, land maintenance, and lack of land use planning are also issues that have been raised. In June, I read a statement supporting the LSC's decisions to date, but acknowledged that process issues did exist, and I commented and committed
that we would identify and implement actionable steps that will be taken going forward to ensure fair and transparent land use processes and comprehensive outreach to all stakeholders. Since that time, my understanding is that some changes and process improvements have been made, but we continue to receive the select board
additional feedback that problems persist, particularly with regard to the Woodward property and more recently Foss Farm, as you can read from the emails included in the meeting packet. As our liaison to both consom and LSC, Barney Arnold will speak to this a bit more in a moment. Today, our goal is to have an
open and frank discussion with the consom and members of the LSC to take stock of where things stand today and what needs to be done to improve the conservation land management process going forward. Specifically, I would like to hear from members of KSCOM about the following. What is your assessment
of how things are going? How is it working? Have you been working in partnership with the LSC as intended? Have you been working jointly on key license and land use decisions? Do you feel consom is providing the LSC with sufficient direction and oversight? And in return, do you feel like you're getting enough information from KNSCOM
or from from the LSC? And what changes or improvements, if any, do you recommend making to address concerns that have been raised? In terms of this meeting, I'll turn it over to Barney for a few minutes and then I'd like to hear from member of KNSCOM on this topic. Following that, I welcome
additional comments from LSC members in attendance and the public. I will allocate time at the end for select board members to provide their individual perspectives. >> Can I ask a question before we go to Barney? >> Yep. >> The LSC is a subcommittee of the KNSCOM. >> Yes.
>> And per the rules, are they is the subcommittee made up of members of KSCOM. Are there people who are not on KNCO? >> There is a Brian Murphy is on KNSCOM and serves as the chair of LSC, but they the members that are appointed are not on
KSCOM. So how does it become a subcommittee if it's not to my understanding a subcommittee is a subset of the members of a committee? How does that even happen? >> Mr. Chair, so George is here. You might want to open the concom meeting and then
>> So George, do you want to open the cons meeting? >> He's muted. >> Yeah, it's where I can't even find him. the top one just the paper showing. >> Okay. Yeah, George, if you could unmute. >> You can hear us. >> Sorry about that.
>> Yeah, there you go. We hear you now. >> So, I'm just I'm just dialed in trying to see who's here from Conscom. I gather we have three members plus Megan Sullivan who's the administrator. >> George, I was hoping there was more, but
that's all there is. >> George, we have he might not be able to hear you. We have Navni and Sylvia here >> and Brian Murphy. >> So we have three members here in the room. >> I was looking at the members and Sylvia.
Thank you. >> Nick and Melissa are here remotely. >> Okay. >> So um let me just relay what I think and I've >> But can you can you open your meeting please George? >> Maybe with a roll call.
>> Um I guess I can. I didn't know we were doing a formal meeting. >> It's a joint meeting. >> Yeah. You know, you can just do a roll call of the members that are here >> both online and in person and then call the meeting to order.
>> All right. So, let me call this meeting of the conservation commission to order and take a roll call vote, please. Nick, >> I. >> Um, let's see. Melissa >> I
>> Melissa good. Uh Brian >> I >> Navnet >> I >> Sylvia >> I >> and the chair votes I we have a uh six person majority.
So let me call this meeting to order for the conservation commission. >> Okay. >> Okay. Okay. So there so the cons meeting is open and I I would like to turn it over to Barney as the leazison from the select board to to say a few comments.
>> Okay. Thanks Scott. Um yes in uh June uh late June when we were the select board was making their liaison assignments. I took on being the liaison for the land stewardship committee and the conservation
committee. Um, and I had the opportunity to work with Brian and Suki, Suki Provenzano, who's also online, and she's the vice chair of the LSC. Um, and in fact, after their first meeting, which I was not able to attend, I think both of
them called me and said, you know, we really need to talk about how these meetings are working and see if we can improve. Um and I know uh a good effort has been made by them to get the agendas
posted and make the agendas more clear uh provide information ahead of time. Um but the the main thing that became clear to me after u attending a number of the meetings was that um you know conflicts came up immediately were were evident
immediately uh among the committee members and some of that is I think um some of the history of the last year or so uh since the LSC charter was changed to give them responsibility for the
maintenance of the lands, our conservation land. Um, but I think what what um makes it from my vantage point, uh, I think the the LSC has a has
difficulty moving forward on its agenda because there's not an agreement among the committee members about the overall purpose and uh, management plan for Carlile's conservation land. So
you have members on the LSC um who have different points of view and in fact you know over time uh in my uh observation of the meetings began to be called you know well let's have this side represented by this person and this side represented by a different person you
know even an acknowledgement that their sides on the LSC >> um and so I know there are a lot of specific concerns and and people feel that something happened this way and that no others feel it happened a
different way. But I I think it's not particularly helpful to get into the kind of back and forth about what may have specifically happened on a you know at a particular meeting, but to recognize
that without a shared um understanding of what uh the long-term plan is for our conservation lands. And that's something that the LSC doesn't decide on its own. I mean, that's something that the KNSCOM
has to play a very significant role in, but also it's a something that our entire community wants to weigh in on. As Scott said, it's a very important resource we have here in town. So >> I I I identify that as one of the very
uh significant reasons that the committee has had a hard time moving forward because there's been a lot of disagreement and um I think they've you know it's it's been a learning process for uh the leadership on LSC figuring out how to manage conflict sometimes
done well sometimes not done well and so it's it's not a very um functional group. Uh and and that's not to say anything about anybody's intent. I think everybody on the committee really wants to really cares about
Carile, wants to make sure our town has um you know protects its conservation land, but there's just not a shared plan for what that means going forward. >> That's intra LSC and also between LSC and >> KSCON, >> both of those.
>> Yeah. and and KNCOM, you know, if you um if you look at the conservation commission, they've not had a gone through a process um over the over at least my time, you know, being involved in town government
to uh develop a five 10 year plan for what's happening with our conservation lands. I mean there's a >> is there a plan use management? Don't we have this 10-year look at all periodically?
>> Well, that's that's that's described in that very first uh 2005 establishment of a need for an LSC, but my understanding is we don't have an individual management plan for any of the conservation lands. That that whole
description has not happened. Um, so >> could I invite consom if you guys want to come up to the table just so we as we move to a discussion with with the committee >> because I you know we we discuss this or we we get this feedback we'll have
discussions on our end and in our meetings um but I'm I'm curious to hear from from consom about your perspective on on some of these topics >> LSC is not having a public meeting >> no I'm You're not having a public meeting. No,
>> no, because we couldn't get a quorum together. >> So, you can't speak for the committee. What are the rules? >> He's representing consom. He's also >> I understand that, but members, >> they can they can comment. They can deliberate. >> Yeah.
Anyway, >> so >> I don't know if George wants it. So from my perspective that this change in the LSC charter came about at a time where it was overwhelming some of the land management
uh issues that arose and I expressed some concerns which is why I think and and as a conservation commission as a whole I think there was some concerns like let's test this out let's see hence the you know one year twoyear and reassess thought process us
um for this very reason because there are pretty distinct sets of opinions that we could even see even before the charter was changed um in in kind of running through your bullet point questions. I don't think it's working well and I have some
serious concerns that um in the past several weeks to months but more poignantly uh after getting the CCF letter yesterday evening that I am I I'm speaking for myself not as the entire
commission of course um am concerned that I am responsible for decisions that are being made that are not in line with how I think they should be made and that we could potentially fix if we had a one
direction, one voice from LSC and we had better communication, but I'm afraid that that's not the case. And so in my opinion, if we were going to make edits to the LSC charter, it would include that any sort of licensing permitting
that is um legal in nature like where you have to consult with CRS etc. that needs to come from the conservation commission those decisions and I know that might not everybody will agree with me on that because it again puts the onus on us. Um, and it's a lot it's
potentially a lot of work. Um, I think the other thing I'd love to see edited is that um if there's major changes in land use um sort of theme or you know um
>> mowing >> um it needs to it needs to be a bigger discussion um with the conservation commission um and that if money from one line item is to be moved to another line item,
another use that needs to be approved by the conscom. I think the issue still is there that it's a lot of work. The LSC does a lot of good work and I don't think the conscom has the bandwidth to do all of
that sort of really important uh observation and care and maintenance of these very valued pieces of property. But I think that the conscom seems to have a better grasp
of balancing out everybody's point of view across the town. It's not just my opinion. I'm I'm I'm sitting on this board, this committee, trying to represent everybody's wishes, the entire town, because it's not
Concom's land. It's not the select board's land. It's not LSC's land. It's the town's land. and we all want to enjoy it and take care of it. So, I think that has been lost a little bit. So, these are this is my point of view.
I don't I I'm eager to hear my uh fellow committee members thoughts. >> Could I could I possibly weigh in or I'm on a on a mobile phone and I'm not sure how to This is Melissa. I'm not
sure exactly how to uh you use this app. >> We hear you. >> Fine. I'm really sorry. I'm in Vermont. >> You're doing fine, Melissa. Keep going. >> All right. Um I uh concur with NAVNET's
uh three points on uh where the charter should be modified and KNCOM should um uh step up and take a stronger role uh or the role. Um and
and I also concur with her that I uh b I I greatly um value uh the efforts of land stewards members in uh endeavoring to formulate um baselines
and and and think about the future. Uh I also agree that um with the earlier comments on the select board that we lack um visionary statements uh you know long-term plans for these lands. Um I
also agree that uh I'm I'm quite uncomfortable with the notion of um I think KCOM is you know in some areas the deed holder for many of these lands and uh and so u from legal responsibility I
think uh KCOM must re-engage there. Um, so anyway, I'm I'm in accord uh and and thank you NE I for speaking up. >> Well, let me jump in here at my turn. And that beat me, I think you phrased it
very well. Uh, I must admit I'm at a a loss a little bit because I've only been the chairman for what 11 months now. And I when I came on board, there was a big motion to work
with the Woodward property to change what was actually happening. And I must admit I got persuaded by um the proponents to say this looks like a good idea and trying to manage the
property in a different way. Um I don't have the history to talk about the farmers and so on and how they interact. I don't know exactly which ones are part of the ACCOM and how much they're
looking forward to using particular property within Carlile. So I must admit I'm I'm a poor representative from that standpoint. That said, I I agree with what Nabit and Melissa
are saying that I think the the U operation of the LSC needs to be tied more closely to the KNCOM with a role on the KNCOM to make approvals for things that the decisions
that LSC makes. So, I'd like to hear about more of the issues that are before the select board at this time. >> You want to hear now what the issues are that >> Well, no. I've seen a lot of the paperwork that just happened.
>> Yeah. And and I think that's uh it's a good summary, but I need to we need to work with the LSC and the cons and the select board to define specifically what whose function is what.
>> Not to um pile on here, but Nick, another consol uh commission member. Um I I I don't want to um belabor the point, but I I agree wholeheartedly with Navni's um thorough and thoughtful summary of the the issue here. And I
think at the risk of stating the obvious, I think that a lot of this was brought about by the process of um reallocating the um license for use of the Woodward land. And I think that um it's probably pretty apparent, but that
decision was pretty unpopular with a large uh portion of the town and the key stakeholders involved in the Woodward land. Um and both the outcome and I think the process uh by which it was attained um to me showed a sort of
disregard for the interests and concerns valid you know conservationdriven concerns of other >> other stakeholders beyond the plan that was conceived by at least some portion of the LSC harder easier to diagnose hard harder to to address but I think
that um I think that Navnet's uh points are good ones and that that's a good um sort of framework for how to try to deal with this situation moving forward. >> Looking at me. >> Yeah. So, I'm curious. I mean, you have a long history. >> Yes, I do.
>> You used to work here before you joined the con, didn't you? and I uh as as the uh conservation administrator in 2004 and five who approached the then chair of the
conservation commission and said, you know, I'm reading that some towns have land stewardship committees. And so we went through a process to review what that would be. And um and it was really established in 2006. Um the
the existing one. Um the town had just been through um most of but not quite finished with a subdivision called Tul Pines and was already entering into
other subdivisions projects three in parallel and finding the bandwidth to manage conservation land was very difficult. yours was one of them, by the way.
Um, anyway, uh, so the the land stewardship got started. They did they determined that they needed to look at all the conservation lands and do baseline assessments and then come up with management plans.
baseline assessments have been done, I believe, on all the major uh conservation lands that we have. Um, and they're up on the land stewardship section of the website. There are
management plans as well that are there for some of them. The the issue with management plans is you can do the baseline assessments and you review it with the conservation commission. so they see what's there. Management plans
have to be a public hearing and I think some of their frustration has been that it's been difficult to integrate that part of the process in with >> when you say there you mean the LSC's frustration. >> Yeah. I mean I think that they they have
wanted to move a little further on and come up with management plans for some of these parcels. And am I wrong here? can't um and sometimes it lags because it just there's been so much work with
wetland stuff, but we have to make you have to do that. I mean, it just has to be done. Um and along the way, goals seem to change and people think, well, this would be a good idea. Why don't we try this? And it might not be
exactly the way it's been done in the past. And sometimes they make these these big decisions get made without really always looking at the consequences. And I think need to do
more of that. Um so and that's just study a section of of change for example on a pro property and see what happens as a result before you do it for the whole property. Um but anyway um we're
here. I completely endorse what Navni and the others have said. Uh I I believe that um the town hall staff in the conservation commission uh itself should be
responsible for legal documents such as agricultural agreements to make sure they're done right. And there it's it's a basically a canned process. It's in a folder all the different steps that you
have to do uh and go through. It takes a couple months to go through the whole process. And I worked hard to get all of the license agreements on the same schedule. When I started, they were all over the place because we got these lands at different times. And so I
worked to get them so they were all ending at the same time and we'd start them all over. And there we are. So you might be surprised, but I don't disagree with what's being said. Um I I do think that
we need better coordination. Um I would disagree on the land use permits. If the Boy Scouts want a campfire, you know, I think we could probably approve that >> land use, but a licenses obviously and uh you know, for me it's difficult
because I've only been the chair of LSC since June, since July, and we inherited this stuff. uh the Woodward property that was all something we talked about in Conscom before it got taken over and I think like other commissioners we
didn't really focus on all the LSC stuff. So I didn't really get how involved it was until I was on the LSC side because we would say oh yeah okay and it seemed like a good idea to to take the Boy Scouts out of KNCOM or a
walk and put it in LSC. Um, and I don't know, I guess in the past Sylvia sort of was a repository for all those documents. We certainly make sure now they all go, they all go back. The night of a meeting, something gets signed, it
gets scanned and sent right over. Um, so it should all be in the record, but I think we need a lot more feedback. We don't have any really have any joint meetings between LSC and KNSCOM. And maybe we should at least every two months to get the feedback from either
way. >> So I'm here. Yep. Do you have a comment? >> Brian, >> you through. Brian, >> are you through? >> Yes. Sorry. >> Okay. When we have a the floor for a moment. >> Yeah. Your name, please. >> Um,
join my friend. >> Yep. Just so we have the full This is Warren Lyman. He actually was the first con uh LSC chair. >> I mean before we from a cons. So what I'm hearing from the cons members in
attendance is agreement that general agreement on the points Nebat was making which would entail some specific changes to the charter and some procedural changes joint meetings and all that. So given that I mean is that something that
consom is going to look to address? Are you looking for the select board or and we'll hear from the select board too at the end in terms of the role we can play? I mean my view is this is cons jurisdiction and we're here to support the process but I also want
to give you the leeway to manage the process. >> Yeah. I so I won't speak for George, but the way I see it is that um I appreciate the select board bringing this up in an open sort of joint approach because I
don't think I have been privy to all of the conversations that are happening on the sides and I am you know this is a volunteer position so like I don't hear of every single going on that happens outside of meetings and
I think that that's a problem and so now that it's this in this forum that we are and through emails that are you know public emails but they're they're bringing to light the issue. I think now I'm more firm in in like okay at our
next meeting we we're going to we're going to rework this charter. I don't think I I had that clarity um you know a few weeks ago or a few months ago because I wasn't aware of all of the goings on and that's a problem
and that's a huge problem because again ultimately I feel responsible you know I'm in a profession that's very much a aware of you know liability and I don't want to be um tacidly making you know
decisions when I don't know what's happening actually. >> So, I would propose that Consom and LSC meet and and discuss what our issues are maybe in a I don't know, not executive session, but a meeting that doesn't
involve other a special meeting. Um, right. >> And then come back and uh maybe we agree, maybe we don't agree. If we don't agree, we come back and well, I don't say we can't agree because we're a subset of, right? But to me we come back to the select board
and say you know these are what we proposed for changes. Um you know I know one of them is uh somebody didn't like that the LSC we need more members you know because we have a lot of properties and it's a variable uh I get 10 to 12 members or something
kind of an odd >> and some people don't >> like that. I don't know if that's supposed to be that way or not. I mean, if that's even allowed under statute to have certainly cons members. >> You're looking at me. So, typically the
larger >> I think you know everything. >> I don't typically the larger more nebulous committees are are doer committees. So, you need a lot of volunteers and bodies to like trails for example to go out and do trail work or
to to do land stewardship. But if you're if you're a policy board and you're making decisions that are difficult in the public sometimes, then having a set number really matters because then you can't have a nebulous quorum and people can't point to that as
a as a source of lack of authority. But if we're inherently going to change the charter where some of those more policy decisions are no no longer residing in the LSC, then they can have a larger membership to help manage all of the properties, I would assume.
>> Correct. But if you're if you're a staff member like me and >> someone says a majority of the board believes this and it's contentious, well, is a majority five of 10, >> seven of 12, right? So that can be used to make decisions
less. Would it be okay to have that larger number and then that >> the line change from meeting to meeting if it's just for land use permits or is that also you need a set number because we may we may end up defining it
that you know licenses and you know overarching land use decisions are going to reside with consom but like like you said the boy scouts wanting to uh use property that would have to be
>> if the committee can vote this is just generally speaking not talking about this committee >> I would have a set number but there is a mechanism for associate members or non- voting members that you can get as big as you want okay ESC does that well so they have a set core group >> but there's a lot of volunteers who just
want to participate in the in the mission >> okay >> and the town of Actton does that I'm sorry go ahead >> the town of Actton does that because they I don't know what their core is for their LSC But they have a big group of associate members or volunteer and and another layer of volunteers
>> to get things done. >> And Nav, I would say um that as the conservation commission, if the LSC, you know, is is working well as a group, I think you would want them to to come
to you and recommend Oh, yes. >> Right. supporting this license for this amount of time and here's why. Yep. >> So having a defined number of people that are actually voting members of the LSC >> is is much um is going to work much
better from that standpoint. >> Yeah. >> Since since I was able Can I add one thing? So the the staff was involved initially when this was proposed as moving to the LSC and it was specifically because there was members
of the public and members of the LSC who didn't feel like their input was being heard by the consom not because the consom wasn't receptive but because they were too too busy >> right so then they took over the authority this is just a staff perspective and then it went the other
way so people who had who had the same process over in many many years decided over many years were saying well now it's flipped but initially it was because that that perspective wasn't being heard whether it was a minority or not >> sure >> secondly I agree with Sylvia when she says that the staff should execute
these documents these legal documents but I would add only after the direction of that document has been decided so all we should be doing is >> so so that has also been a problem here is to to understand what it is that these policym boards want us to execute
and then it's very easy. You give it to us and we make sure the lawyers look at it and it's very clear but deciding what goes in the document is very hard and that that should be a policy decision on the boards and committees. >> I I remember when the the issue of grazing came up on conservation land. We
didn't have ever any grazing on conservation land. And I worked very hard with town council to come up with a special um license agreement that would allow for grazing, but also uh take up
the issue of what happens if one of these critters gets loose and gets out on a a highway, for example. And we really you don't normally think of that in in agriculture, the regular agriculture. we had been using. But um
so uh I think working inhouse and making sure that all of the stuff is is in the license agreement is important. One of the other things that I think has been >> Sia just remember though when you were doing it you cared more about the
outcome than than the staff would now or future staff will >> because I live here. Yeah. >> And you were involved in the creation of it and so that's that's gone. Mhm. >> It's unlikely to produce another Sylvia. So, it's really important that these decisions be made and given to staff
decided. >> Yes. >> Whereas you were, you know, you were born from that era, right? So, >> is a staff member, so kind of a hybrid staff member. >> Megan cares about this and so do I, but we >> not to the point where we would ever influence the decision or or even be
involved, right? Like it's just to execute. One one of the other things that I have uh noticed over the past more recent years is that as land stewards took on more responsibility
um they first of all they had a harder time getting through their agendas but also they only met once a month whereas Kanscom met twice a month and as a result um when somebody for example wanted a permit for something they had
to really go way in advance of the the meetings in order to to to get it permitted. And sometimes um like the I keep bring keep bringing up the scouts, but it could be any organization.
Um if they got an um if they got a request in on a Monday of a week that we were going to be meeting, we can tackle it at that meeting. But now it might be over a month before that and that
that's kind of hard on the people who wanted to plan for using something and the whole purpose at least I was told when I started between for the land use permits was one for making sure that
what the person or the outfit wanted to do was legitimately allowed for that property but also to make sure that there wasn't somebody else that was planning to use that property. It was
sort of a gatekeeping thing and not, you know, I want to ride my horse, so you need a permit. That isn't anything like that. >> So, Sylvia's example is good. We had the Carile Boy Scouts wanted to have I don't remember it was Thanksgiving or
whatever. Uh LSC had just met. They came, we want to go next weekend and crap, what am I going to do? So I took it to cons and they decided because there was no LSC meeting and we weren't going to disappoint the Boy Scouts. So
we we sort of did a hybrid and moved it over and there was no issue with the CNCcom approving it, but there was no LSC to approve it that week. I mean, it seems like you there's a lot of different instances you need to work through to determine where it lives,
>> what how it needs to be managed, and we're not going to do that tonight. No. >> But I think having that commitment to doing it from the consom is important. >> Um >> I unless there's any other new comments from I do want to open it up to LSC
members and the public as well for for additional comment. brief and I don't want to get into specific decisions that were made or this and that, but just comments in general about what we're talking about tonight. So, do you want to >> Okay, >> just state your name and >> Yeah. Uh uh Warren Lyman. >> Yep.
>> And um uh I like what a lot of people have said, including you, Barney, and and I'll get back to what Brian said a minute ago, and Sylvia, too. Sylvia has been so key. uh she and another cons member were the ones that said we need a
land stewardship committee. Uh I volunteered and uh then I've been on it for 20 years and I've probably been on five or other cons subcommittees. I started volunteering in 1978 on the cons
and so I think all total I've been over I what I call 30 committee years most of it all except two committees for conservation. So some general comments flying from maybe
50,000 ft. I would urge no select board initiated mandate right away. I like Brian's comment of getting cons and LSC together and coming to you
if necessary with something to review. Um, and I have to tell you in the days when Sylvia was a conservation administrator, she was the only glue between the two committees. She would
come and go to every meeting. She would tell us what was going on at Kanscom. And I presume she would tell Kanscom what was going on at LSC. And if we were in the middle of doing something important or sensitive, she would say this is the probably the best way to do
it. When she was not available and we got more work, we were left with no administrative support. We could have done a lot better with it. We had no support and we're still not
getting it unless we ask. I mean, it's not Nobody tells us you can do this. We should have had them involved for some of those critical decisions. It would have been a lot better. >> You mean on the LSC? >> What? >> In the LSC's work you're referring to.
>> Yes. Yeah. Way better. Now I have to tell you you know this is going to take two to tango and my experience with conscom members not Sylvia is that they are >> remember
back back then I'm talking when she was the administrative assistant and to some extent now too that they're very busy and they have no
desire desire to be any busier or to do >> I don't know that you need to speak for the KNC comp members. I think you know they're making a commitment tonight to do this work and I think I just tell you as my personal >> No, I I understand that >> that if I asked them >> in a minute
>> to get a report reviewed, forget it. I don't think they ever reviewed a report that the LLC put out for 15 years in spite of requests and and um occasionally when other subcommittees have gotten into trouble.
>> Do you have any comments just again based on what's being proposed? It sounds like you support. >> Yeah. Yeah. I'm saying I'm saying people are making criticisms about our actions when we have been working with another committee who has their own problems.
So, I think that there's nobody has said that and some of their problems are really big. I won't name them now. >> And I don't want to get into that, but I I hear what you're saying and I think we'll move on to the next Yeah. comment if you don't mind, John. You want >> Excuse me, but I'm on >> Excuse me. >> Can I have my turn before he goes?
>> No, I'm going to I'm going to let him just speak. >> Why are you doing that? >> Well, because he had his hand raised before you did. >> Yeah, but we you did all the con. >> Yeah, I'm chair and I' I've recognized him. >> I'll come back to you. No worries. bite my tongue, but I rather resent being
portrayed as being a conservationist of the year and 15 years on the conservation commission. I rather resent Sorry, state your name. State your name and >> John Lee, 65 street. >> Thank you. And again, I I do not want this to
transition into personal attacks or or criticism. I mean, I think we've identified there's an issue. uh consom is in agreement about steps to take that issue and the select board is committing to make sure those those steps are taken. I don't think and we'll hear from the select board members. I don't have
an appetite to prescribe or dictate anything. But I I am committed to making sure that the process is improved and some of these issues are addressed proactively and that going forward this receives the required attention because back to the original point, these conservation lands are critical to
Carlile. They're the town's lands and they need to be managed. they need to be made a priority and the community needs to have a say in how they're used and so the processes need to support that. So with that I'll allow you to >> Thank you. >> Wait, John. Was John finished? >> Are we finished, John? Sorry. No, I'm I'm finished for the moment. Thank you.
>> Yeah, I appreciate it. >> So uh I just wanted to say in terms of the LSC and uh you know, land management and some of these other factors, we have you know I I certainly regret that we ever got into the Woodward property. It's just a it's just a bees nest that
attack that takes all of our meetings every every single meeting we have a butters there whether it's LSC or the subcommittee you know and we're getting hammered all the time over this decision that was made um which came from cons originally it didn't come from
>> again not my point is that >> part part of the responsibility is when you're embarking on making those decisions is to do all the things to ensure that you have support and you've done the outreach and all that. So again, some of these decisions are going to be divisive, but having having a
well-run, wellsupported, well-communicated, transparent process is then critical to to meeting those those complaints. >> So Barney as our leazison had that idea and we made a a a subcommittee just to try to deal with the Woodward issues and and we could for other things, but it's
it's a tremendous amount of time. >> Yeah, I I understand that. Yeah. And I think that's part of what needs to be determined is how do you this is a tremendous amount of work managing the thousand acres of conservation land but it needs to be managed and so you
have to work together to to figure out the best way forward. Sorry, there's a comment online from upper left. >> Upper left. >> It's Adam. >> Adam. Sorry, I can't see. >> Yeah, Lance on. >> Oh, hi Adam. Adam, you want to say
something? You're >> good. Good evening. Yeah, Adam Hansski. Um I guess though I'm an LSC member, uh I'm I suppose I'm here as a citizen because uh during the last LSC meeting, the the LSC chose um or argued that the committee wasn't prepared to meet today.
So, not sure if I'm here as an LLC member, as a citizen. Um, nonetheless, uh, as I am a member of LSC, uh, I do request some real and meaningful changes to the LSC charter. So, I wanted to share that
perspective this evening. Um, it's not something that that I believe the LSC and the Conscom will solve just by going back and continuing to be told to to work better together. Um from from my last two years, so it'll it'll be almost three years that I've served in the LLC.
Um and and from my perspective, it has not been about disagreement um among the committee on a particular subject. It stems from a broader disagreement on process and authority. And I know you use that word process as well. Um I think that's ultimately the scope of the
charter. So since the the push for autonomy, um I think what we have observed is is a repetitive disregard for the collaboration that we all trust takes part in in in these committees and in these groups across the town. Um, I appreciate the member's dedication as
much as everyone else to conservation and respect many of the ideas that that have been brought forward, but but I've for one been very uncomfortable as a member of the committee who who isn't allowing for community input and and at the end of the day respecting the community's wishes. So, um, that has
been a fairly frustrating, I think, situation to forget our um, obligation as to the town and to its citizens. So, um, as stated in my letter letter to the board back in August, um, I continue to urge the subcommittee to to to to serve
its citizens, uh, I continue to to urge the board and consom to revise the charter um to ultimately limit this autonomy. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Do you have a comment? >> Thank you.
>> Maple Street. >> Thank you. Yeah, if you can if you want to approach. >> Can you hear me? Yeah, I think Are we picking them up? >> Picking up. >> Sketchy, why don't you come up and have a seat? >> I'll be brief, but good. And then we're going to hear from the select board.
>> Yeah. Thank you. I'll bet you next >> again. San Propo, Maple Street. Y >> uh really two quick comments, but uh first, thank you again for pulling a meeting like this together and really refreshing to hear the candid uh dialogue and decor that's gone on tonight. Um, I don't want to give life
to it because Adam just addressed my first point much more eloquently than I can, but I just want to say labels and characterizations of the public quote unquote hammering is kind of indicative of sort of what you've heard tonight, how the public is received at some of
these meetings. And I think asking questions, factchecking is part of everything that you all have been saying about process. So asking questions is part of the process. It's not hammering, undermining. And so I just would love for that to come through in those future discussions that public discourse is is
has good intention not ill intention. Um listening to the direction that you all are t seem to be taking this. I'm wondering if there's any commentary from conscom or LSC or the select board the current situations in front Woodward uh
FOS that was mentioned at this point will those also get wrapped in and brought back to get more input from consom I know there's a lot of work going on but there's talk about how we going to do things in the future but we still have things in front of us so that that's the question and then all set but
thank you >> I I don't even know where that stands at the moment So that's not a select board. >> Yeah, it's not a select board. >> Can I just briefly tell you on a couple of sentences? So we have a subcommittee for the Woodward to take input. Uh the next meeting is on Tuesday which will be
public input from the abutters. Um one of the things they said before is >> some people they live right next door to they didn't even know about it. So uh cons or board of health sends out a certified butter list and tells everybody. So we did that for this next
meeting and and the one prior but it was out late so that we will be more transparent. They get the information they can go on the website. They can see the documents. Following that we'll have a meeting with uh the the stakeholders again except CCF can't make that
meeting. >> I think you're going to have to look at all this and get >> it all back and we'll bring >> a big pause button is probably the best >> the best item >> process and then revisit. >> Yeah. because I think charging forward when you're going to be looking at potential changes, I think you just want to be careful about that.
>> I can't say that this is exactly how it's going to be done, but how I see it is that we go back, we rework the charter and these two major issues that are points of contention, come back and reside with the KCON. That's how I see it. But but I see that the LSC the work
that they're doing the communications the meetings the the talk of it >> distilling it down because of what has been mentioned the other responsibilities KNCOM has and then presenting that and then the conscom ultimately makes a decision. That's how I would like to see it happen but I'm not I
>> that seems to make a lot of sense. No thanks. >> Thank you. >> I agree. This is Melissa. I just want to say I agree with what Navney just said. Great. Speak your name. >> Jonathan Decock, 13 Oak Road. Um,
so I've been listening to everything that people have said tonight and I agree with a lot of what Nav said, but I don't think it goes far enough because what they were talking about was that the LSC and the KCOM would get together and come up with a new charter. And I
think that's insufficient. Um, LSC and KCOM interact with a lot of other constituents throughout uh the town. And I think we need to get input from those constituents as well um in order to make a much better charter. Um and I would
caution everyone to not try to patch it and get something out quick. I think uh one of the problems that I have seen repeatedly with the land stewardship committee is doing things in haste and I would much rather see a more
deliberative process that comes out with a better solution than a repeated patching of something especially something as important as a charter. So to your point, the original charter, the guiding principle, outreach, communication with other groups and organizations was critical to the
process to so to your point, any new charter should should be vetted with all the different stakeholders, public organizations, groups. Again, these are the community lands that that that we're looking to adjudicate. >> Yeah. Um I did also want to mention uh a
couple other things. I know you've gotten lots of letters about this. Um I have not sent you a letter about this >> oddly, >> but I do want to say a few things uh you know in the meeting. Um >> a couple of the the issues that I've
seen specifically with the land stewardship committee is uh this failure to collaborate that you've heard about repeatedly. Before you go into the I I guess my question is rather than I don't I don't want to to use their words hammer the LSC tonight but is there anything that
>> in our discussion that is a different issue that that hasn't been raised tonight. Yes. Okay. >> There's one if you could just focus on that. >> So I do think the the haste thing is something to think about. Y >> um but more importantly what I have seen repeatedly is violations of open meeting law.
>> I have not filed any. However, I have seen six, seven at least. Mostly in the land stewardship committee. Sometimes they even extend out beyond the land stewardship committee and involve consom. Last your last joint meeting
actually had a violation of open meeting law where the select board and consom and LSC were meeting together. You discussed a document. Barney caught it during the meeting and said, "You need to publish this document." That document is still not on the town's website. So that's a requirement of open meeting law
that if you present a document or discuss a document, it has to be available. >> So that that that is true, but available means if you request it, the town gives it to you. >> However, it did not make your minutes. It did not make the concom minutes and it did not make LSC minutes. So
>> transparency is transparency >> and Mr. Chair, let's keep it on the high level. >> Okay. Thank So, I would just recommend that something happen in order to do better with open meeting law compliance. I know the state is very loosey goosey
about this. You basically sign something that says you agree that you read it. Um I think we need to do better. >> Yep. And that's I think true across all committees. >> Yep. Okay. I want to turn it over to the select board for your individual comments. Christine, do you want to
start? >> Yeah. Uh, I mean, just to reiterate what Barney said, there needs to be a shared understanding of a long-term plan, and that requires dialogue. Um, I will say that second only to the MBTA, we've had more mail on this topic than anything
else. And that's saying something, you guys. >> Um, in general, when you look at a committee that's functioning really well, you should be able to line up all the stakeholders and everyone's nodding in the same direction, saying even if they don't agree with the decision, they understand the rationale behind it. None of that is happening here. You guys have
upset the Butters, the uh Pony Club for goodness sake. You know, CCF, everyone has come out on this. And really, all the select board is interested in is well, at least from my perspective, I'm very concerned about risk. Um Jonathan brought it up. There are serious and
persistent OML violations. I did a spot check on the website. I found 15. Does anyone know off the top of their head what the consequence is if the AGO finds us in violation? >> $1,000 per infraction. I counted 15 just
in a random check. So that's a risk. We need to fix that. It can't just be signing off on OML training. We need everyone like heads down actually absorbing the process. Um I know that there are a number of plot
holders. Sylvia I believe is one at Foss Farm. Seed cataloges are lining my mailbox every day. Um, I want to make sure that Foss Farm is plowed by March 15th. Do we have arrangements for that?
>> It had been plowed by Farmer Duffy. Is that still happening or do you have someone else lined up? >> Yeah. >> Okay, keep going. >> You keep it at the >> You guys You guys will figure it out. Just make sure we don't have a number of unhappy gardeners coming to the select board because that's one constituency we
haven't heard from yet. Um, we just heard from >> what's that? >> We just heard from them. >> Yes. Yes, we did. Um, we did have that action from the June meeting to submit the process for license agreements. That's kind of you guys need to figure out the overarching process and then
carry forward with the tactical. And then just in general, you know, Scott meant uh mentioned the charter in an effort to educate myself. I went back and read the original 2005 charter. Very interesting that in the early pages page
seven two guiding principles would be to one is to organize and coordinate land maintenance and management activities to balance and that's a key word here balance a number of potentially competing interests such as conservation, agriculture and recreation. So there needs to be a
balance among all those three things. And then second is to foster communication with town committees and other organizations with related interests. So all your stakeholders should be informed of your decision-m. If that's not taking place, then you haven't done your job. I think that's it from me.
>> Don't sugarcoat it. >> Um I I like to ask first of all, Sylvia, since you originated the LSC, is do other towns do it that way as well? They have a LSC is a subcommittee of a because I think that's like a crazy construct.
>> It is. >> Why do we have a subcommittee of a committee where there don't have members in common? Why don't we just create a separate committee? >> I I I don't know if I I suspect other towns have their own land stewardship committees. Uh whether they are cons
called the subcommittee. I don't know. I I do know in one town that I contacted early on, >> I felt as though the land management that was going on that they were talking with me about was um completely
irresponsiblely managed. I mean, they they were they wouldn't use an example of a town that's not well, but did you you didn't see other examples of >> in that original uh document, the 2005 study that um
>> Warren referred to and Greg Peterson and a lot of other people on it. >> They reviewed various towns and I don't remember the specifics, but a lot of them had some version of this. >> Okay. So, it's not unusual. >> No. So in in the way we set it up then
were you when you were administrator were you a resource for both of them or only for the concom I mean >> we set up LSC without a professional resource I guess >> professional resource like staff support >> staff support >> no there was no staff support except
that I'm a resident and I went to all of them as a >> volunteer we didn't we gave them a really hard assignment >> as articulated by Christine and no staff support Right. >> So, we have assigned Sarah Wasserman who's online right now. >> So, now we have that. >> She's our sustainability coordinator in
town and I've given her the duty to help the LSC with long >> because they clearly need help. You can't just give them a big old >> Well, you Yes. >> Okay. All right. So, let me finish my So, these are kind of quick questions. I just want to be clear. Um, and I didn't
I'm sorry I didn't read the charters, but is there a pretty clear parting line? I'll ask you because you probably know between the roles and responsibilities of the two the committee and the subcommittee >> or is there is it >> not in the current charter? >> Okay. So that's that's again that's kind of on us, right? They're our committee. We got to like make sure it's clear.
Okay. So then um can the LSC make its own rulings? >> They're not your committee. So they're the >> Well, the consom is our committee. >> So you appoint the consom and then >> she'll fix it. No, I agree with Christine. You got problems. What I'm saying, we the town allowed a crappy
delineation. We didn't give them staff support. I don't want to just pile on. >> There's a new the new I think the new sub committee policy. We'll at least make sure we get our eyes. >> I don't want to dwell on it. I just want to understand the facts. So, the LSC can make its own rulings. I know there's a
time the boy scouts and stuff or do they only recommend through the cons? I think that's what we're going to work through the the details of it, but it has to change from what it is. Currently now they can they do what they want. >> Well, no, it says specifically they can
>> determine permits and something related to campus. >> Originally, originally it was >> that the conservation commission made the decisions. They provided the true subcom. >> So that was a true subcommittee, right?
we recommend and then the big committee decides. Okay, fair enough. And then finally, my last question is >> um uh do does the LLSC have or did did they have budgetary authority? >> No. >> No. Okay. So, all right. So, it sounds
like it just reiterates I guess it needs real basic fixing like basic fixing get it sorted, run it right and then start you know addressing parities. I don't disagree with Thank you. Travis, I'll jump to you.
>> I think you all said it. All the the issues I think this has been really helpful for me. And you know, one difference I will say is that I thought about is that as a select board, we're all elected officials. And sometimes,
you know, if you're appointed, we're all live in the community here. We all care about the town, but sometimes if you're appointed, you may not it may not occur to you as often as it does to us. like you're really representing the town. And so even though you come with we all have
our biases or our things that we're trying to accomplish, but we really do work for the community that we're in. And I just hope you all consider that as you as you go forward. Um and then again what you were saying about training and and um I think it is really helpful.
It's something that I've learned here on the select board, but is how important this process is. And we certainly I was on the zoning board of appeals for years, had a very definitive process on how we ran meetings and took notes and published minutes and, you know, all did
all those things. And it's really key because ultimately you're seeing the what happens when that doesn't work well is the public gets upset that things aren't you know being minutes aren't being kept or whatever that is. So and I
I look to all of you um to work at that all have to say. Can I make a if Sarah is going to be taking over or helping land stewards with land management, I
highly recommend that she take the MACC uh units that are available that goes into all the legal backgrounds on managing conservation lands. >> So, this is something that gets I just want to clarify staff involvement. So if
by staffing you mean is she going to write agendas and post minutes then no. Can she execute the the policies and decisions that that are made? No. What she's going to be there for is to help with long-term planning. A great example
is I was told to create a capital plan. So I brought together stakeholders. Not once did I say you should do a dump truck or buy this piece of land. All I did was gather all the information and create a plan and help help build that agreement. So, what we want Sarah to do, and I've instructed her to do, is to
start researching these properties and putting together all of the history and and all of everything so that when these boards are ready to have a discussion about building a plan, it's already built and you don't have to do that exercise because none of you have the time to do that. What what Sarah or I
are not going to do is to tell you how to manage your land or what should be done. And in my opinion, that has to be decided first. Otherwise, we're just going to be here arbitrating fights about OML and other things when we really should be discussing like what does the land look like in 2050
>> right >> it seems to me though Ryan that that's somewhat setting up for failure okay because the we've acknowledge that the issues that they have are complex in the same way say planning board issues Julie's tremendously talented she will
do the background but she also guides that committee through the rocks that are created through these conflicts. I don't think it's fair to give a volunteer committee, non-elected volunteer committee, this heavy agenda
that's fraught with conflict, as Christine points out, we acknowledge that there's going to be conflict and not give them the level of professionals. If we're prepared to say this is important to the town, I think we've got to give it a better level of professional support than you're articulating. You can't just say here's
the history and blah blah blah when you have you know the a people are fighting against the you know natural thing. You just can't you can't give non-professionals that difficult of an assignment and simply expect it to be uh managed properly. I have to say >> so my professional advice is that
everybody is focused on tomorrow and nobody is focused on the future. So what I want to assign the staff to to do is to help move the conversation forward. No, that too. I'm not negating that one. >> In the same way that when you gave me directions on what is the problem here in terms of our deferred maintenance,
>> I helped build a plan with you in order to address future costs and understand the problem. I'd like to do the same with Sarah, but what happens with staff sometimes is because we don't want to do the day-to-day minutia, staff ends up doing that. And I don't think that's >> No, no, I agree. I agree with her. So
maybe you bury the lead. I mean, I think that what you are now saying is better. It's long-term vision, but also guidance through the process. Not just here's the long-term vision, here's the background. Thank you. Go come back to me when you have a solution. Because that's the way
it sounded in the beginning. I think it's better articulated. We'll help you frame the plan. We'll help you identify constituent groups and needs and we'll help guide you through, you know, the process of navigation, not decision- making, but navigation. >> I I agree. But there's a lot of times
these boards and committees when you do guide them, they don't take well to that. >> If you don't, they push back heavily. >> Advice is only as good as you take it. >> Well, and we've hired Ryan and we hire our professional staff to implement what our boards want to put in place. So, you
know, that's what Ryan is saying, I think, in speaking. Um, but you know, let's let's have the boards figure out the policy, you know, and and you had some specific changes tonight to a charter and have that discussion, involve all the
stakeholders, and then let the administrators administrate it once you've figured out what you want to do. I just want to rewind to before this this revision of the charter was made short time ago. Although things weren't
perfect by any means, they were better than what they are now. they were we weren't hearing we were cons I think did an okay job of at least identifying the stakeholders and
you know inviting the best we can that conversation and she was definitely like has been mentioned Sylvia was the glue to that and but I also want as Ryan's saying I want to have a system in place that when I'm not here when you're not
there when Brian's not there that it still works. because um I don't have the same knowledge that you have nor will any other administrator have the same knowledge you have. So so I want the
charter to reflect how things were done before more closely to how it was done before but better does right because I I agree with you >> or evolved >> evolved. Yes. Um >> write it down. I mean, define the process and you can change it and do all
those things, but that's we're doing a lot of that in town right now is putting processes in place, putting policies in place. It's all about >> documenting it so people can understand the process and succession planning and all this other stuff. And you need to do that in this case and it can change, but
you need to start. I just also want to state one more time that it is an exorbitant amount of work to like go through just the wetland filings. That in and of itself is like a majority of
the thought process, the premeating readings, the you know whether it's site visits like this was born out of a need for some better support from LSC and more responsibility for them. And I just want
to recognize that because I understand there's a lot of tension, but like some of those decisions were made a little bit more streamlined before and now they're not because of all these opposing, you know, I'm not going to get into the nitty-gritty, but opposing v viewpoints and then nothing was
happening well and but not also communicated to us, right? I just want to say that because I'm it's hard to be putting so much time in and then hear about how you're doing everything wrong. >> Yeah, >> we're we're running late. I I
>> if you have very brief comments, >> I have a very brief question. >> Okay. Given tonight's discussion, John Lee, 65 L Street, is it safe to assume that the current proposals for both Foss and Woodward can be held in obeyance till we can find some way of agreeing
between like the AGCOM and the LSC and the conservation commission and board of selectmen because it seems like we have a very uh dysfunctional uh situation right now and coming to an acceptable agreement with an outside ly or an
inside lency seems to be difficult. >> But we have those licenses in place now. I don't know if there's a legal, >> you know, >> I think based on what the CCS wrote sent out yesterday um that I saw yesterday. I don't know when it was originally sent out. I don't know that that that's
actually accurate. I I think that that l those licenses might not be we might not be able to uphold those and and and we might have to pull back legally. I don't have an answer to your question that >> Mass General need that direction.
>> The Mass General law is very clear, the authority over the land is the conscoms, not the select boards. >> They can point them though. So it's a little gray. >> So then to answer John's question, that would be decided by the cons at the next
meeting. So again, the way I see it is we have at our next meeting top of the agenda is going to be to rework the the charter um and hopefully better not a patchwork um and um and then revisit
those licenses. >> So what do we do about our next meeting next Monday? I don't I I haven't Yeah, I think it's I think it's okay to talk about like pull those conversations because that is what I see the LSC to do is to pull those stakeholders into a
conversation that requires more time that the consom meetings which are twice a month don't have the ability to listen to every single person's viewpoint and and and allow the public to um the the residents of this community to express
their desires. and then you guys distill it so that then we can discuss it in the cons and make a final decision. >> Last comment if you don't mind. Sorry. >> Two quick things. S Petra Paulo Leap Street. Just two quick things about the confusion about the license.
>> When they when it was first signed, even the LSC said, "Oh, don't worry. We'll move forward. We can get out in 30 days." There's a no penalty clause of getting pulling out in 30 days. So, there's really that that drama doesn't really exist. >> Okay. And then Sarah, the Sarah comment. Oh, there's going to be a new member
helping >> Ryan. Yeah, Sarah. >> Fact. Will she be able to do factchecking? So, she'll also be responsible for finding like documentation on claims and not just saying, you know, reading online that someone made a document and this is the
best choice because I it's my opinion. I'm just wondering factecking will be part of her job. >> So, Sue, we talk a lot. >> Yeah, >> we're besties. I think I I don't know what you mean. >> Oh, >> let's take that offline. >> I'll take that offline. I'll come see you. Okay.
>> And then lastly, you lucky duck. >> And then lastly, the select board as as the conscom um I'm glad to hear the conscom and some of the LSC members want to rewrite some of the charter and figure out all that. Does the will the select board commit to having a
follow-up meeting to see how things are going unless it you are to see the charter and vote on it yourself? >> This will be certainly on our agenda like Okay. In terms Yeah, we're keeping a close eye on this and I'm sure the public will make sure we're keeping a close eye on this. So, we're we'll be
we'll monitor what's going on. Um we'll give our thoughts and comments as needed. Um whether that means another joint meeting, I don't know yet, but I mean we'll just stay on top of it and I know Barney will continue as leison on keeping us a breast of the situation. So this will this will remain a on our
radar. Clearly >> the reason I asked is because I think recently you got a bunch of letters and so I wasn't sure if this meeting was spawned by having to require you know having people reach out and write more letters. No. So I was >> the letters are are helpful, but this
meeting came out of um the ongoing monitoring of the of the situation and discussions we have and and the feeling that we we do need to have this meeting and that's that's prior to getting the last flurry of emails. >> Oh, perfect. >> I'll give you one last >> because I know >> one second. I just want to make sure
that we maintain the status quo while all this stuff is happening because, you know, the gardens need to continue to function and the gardens depend on the farmer that farms at FOS and so I don't want a disaster to happen because we're having these discussions. >> That's how I would like to see it. >> So, as long as we maintain the status
quo while we're continuing to find the future, that's good. >> So, I think cons you should make >> Yeah. George, do you have any >> That was a better articulation of my question. >> Yeah. George, do you have any final comments
before I guess you want to also then >> George close your meeting, but >> I know we're getting late. I just wanted to say I appreciate the uh inputs from the various speakers. Navit, I think you did a good summary of where we're
hopefully heading and we're going to work hard try to make that work. Thank you all. And then George motion motion to adjurnn. >> I I move to adjourn our cons meeting. >> Second.
>> So we take a roll call vote. Nick >> I. >> Melissa >> I. >> Ryan >> I. >> Navite. >> I. >> Sylvia >> I. >> And the chair votes I. The motion meeting is adjourned. >> Okay. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you everyone. Be continued.
>> Yes. Thank you. >> I appreciate everyone's time. All right, we're going to move along. What do we got? Oh, the Proctor Road Tower. >> Thank you all online, too. >> Um, but do we vote on their chart? Does
Cons come send it to us? Not really. Right. Clear charter. But we in our new policy we say it's not really >> we I forget the wording but it needs to come to us >> right it's not required but we want >> not legally required we said we want to see it so and if anything seems out of
sort we say whoa >> but I >> I'm hopeful that they there's some low hanging fruit >> yeah you know I mean I I'll talk to George behind the scenes but
You have highly confidence. >> No, they're going to have them separate separate. This is going to be a separate process. >> You can't just 10 minutes on agenda between >> bylaw number. >> We need a subcommittee.
>> You're funny. >> It's a subcommittee to evaluate subcommittees. >> Thanks, Jonathan. We're we're getting there. All right. It's all a work in progress. >> So, you can catch up, Mr. Chair. I think this is how fast. >> No, we're good. I've been watching. >> Yeah.
>> All right. We're gonna make it up here. Ryan, let's go. >> Okay. Um I sent to you today late a fairly boilerplate RFP for issuing out to the to the world um cellular leasing
on our our pole that's at two Proctor Road. We talked about this before. We we had a consultant come in. So essentially there are two there are two spots for cellular service and we want to put out an RFP. >> Right. >> The the main thing that the two things that I need you to to give me feedback
on is the the lawyers put out a 10-year lease with uh subsequent five-year agreements. The response we got back after talking to some of the contractors is they prefer a 20-year lease. There's a law >> okay >> there's a law that we think says that
the 10-year max is a thing and they say it's 20 um I don't think that it matters to the town but if you do I would need to know that now or if you need more information on it so if we can appeal to more providers and gain more cellular
service and revenue then we would do that unless >> that would be the theory you'd get a better deal if you go longer right >> and more more bitter If town council says absolutely not, we're not doing that, then we won't. But I just want to make sure I articulate that. >> Yeah. >> The evaluation criteria that was set up
was that uh someone is financially and technically responsible, that they make this aesthetically pleasing, >> which I think is important to the town. >> And the third one is that they have the tech technical expertise and capabilities to do this. the the people
that are going to be bidding on this are top level providers. So, um I don't think we have any worry there. But that is how we have to evaluate this. The hope is that we get multiple carriers, but maybe we get one or two. >> The last thing I wanted to >> to tell you before I take your questions
is so we can put out the RFP, we can get the bids back. That'll include how much they're going to pay us for this >> this lease. And then the lease itself has to go to town to town meeting. And what would be being leased is at that pole there would be additional ground
equipment that's surrounded by a fence and then the actual antennas that are put up onto our antenna. So that is a very brief summary of of this process heavily run and vetted by town council and we also sent it to uh
Igor who is here as a consultant who is representing the various people that are involved including their council. So we feel good about where we're at with this. But do you have any questions on what I just said? >> It'll improve cell service. >> Yes. >> And then the the fi ultimately you said
if you move with haste this could be something at town meeting. So the process the ultimate process is a vote at town meeting. >> So we would agree with a provider and then the town would have to allow us to sign the lease with the provider and then we're done. >> That's a town meeting >> and we think it could be done for the
May town meeting. >> Yes. >> Good. And then the equipment itself and the construction everything would be, you know, maybe another year. So this wouldn't be till this time next year, >> but I think moving with that goal would be >> would be good. >> Would be good. >> And it's income to the town. It's
revenue. >> Yeah. >> Yep. I'd say proceed. >> I'm comfortable with the 20 year. >> I'm good with 20 years. I did have a question about the evaluation criteria. And I may have missed this. I skimmed it. Yeah. It came out a little late, but
the um you know, you had these evaluation criteria. Is it are some more important than others? Do we want to link list them in order of priority or assign weightings or we just don't want to get into that? Because it seemed to me like I don't know technical competence was pretty important, you
know, where >> Yeah. So, we would um assign and then compare across categories. So, it wouldn't matter. So if if one's highly advantageous in that area and another isn't, then we could accept that as being as being a qualifier.
>> Yeah. >> And of course, we want to consider how much they're willing to pay, >> right? >> Yeah. >> But the intent here is not only do you have to do it this way, but you know, you want to make sure you're vetting out anyone who's not qualified, >> right? >> I don't think that's going to be a problem here. The companies we're hearing are Verizon and
>> Yeah. They're the CSPs. Yeah. Um >> Yeah. I can't think of anything, you know, 20 years sounds I mean continuity of service very important. I I I have no problem with that part. Um I suppose if legal counsel had a problem, I would ask the question, >> is it possible to do if if 10 years is
only allowed, can we do 10 years plus an option for 10 more if if for whatever reason 20 years is not allowed? >> There's a 10y year with four fiveyear renewals in this current RFP. >> Okay. >> They want to do 20 with two five years. So, I don't see a huge distinction
there. >> No. Okay. Gotcha. >> They wouldn't say that if there wasn't legal grounds to do it anyway, right? >> They're supposed to send us a document. They also seemed fine if we put it out without it. >> Okay. >> They just prefer it. So, >> if you put it out without it, they can only respond to what you put out. So,
you'd rather get it right. >> Correct. >> Um, the overarching problem that we're solving here is what? Better sell service in town or what is it we're doing? So this consultant came to us and said you have a hole in your cell service which anyone who's driven who knows >> a hole >> really
>> just one just oneole >> idea the best part about this is the >> all in my living room I can't even thank this >> so they identified it as a place that they want so we don't have to do anything except except the service being added to our poll and everybody agreeing
on that. >> Okay. Typically, they might say this hill would be good and then there'd be the construction of an antenna, but we already have one. So, this is just adding to something that exists. >> Okay. And I'm sorry, I' I've already forgotten since having skimmed this afternoon. Who owns this land? This is town land. >> It's ours.
>> Okay. >> And we have the communications tower on there. >> Yes, this already exists. >> Do we need to get any input from a Butters or anyone who's in whose line of sight it is since aesthetics was part of the criteria? Aesthetics according to whom? >> Yeah. Do they know where um anybody at
Proctor Road know this is coming? >> No, but they will >> before before uh it's in the mosquito. >> Well, it's Chelmsford. >> The butters are >> before tonight. No. >> Oh, the butterers are in Chelmsford.
>> Yeah. So, is that like or do we have to consider their rights as well? >> Right. I forgot that. >> Well, we as Yeah, we should. >> Right. >> Yeah, we should. But we did put a giant pole there. >> There's already a pole. >> Yeah, there's already a giant. This
would just be putting the antenna on the existing pole. >> Okay. >> Pole. >> Yes. >> Going up. >> I don't know. 80. >> We will do whatever is legally required and also the butters. >> Merely a flesh room. >> Okay. >> Okay. Um, and just would this be if it's
like a Verizon, is that just for Verizon users or is there offer multi- carrier? >> Yeah, you're beyond my expertise. >> Yeah, because I obviously we don't want to alienate AT&T customers or Verizon customers. What's their selling point?
>> There's an arrangement all the CSPs have with each other. >> Yeah. I mean, I just want more. Anyway, it's a question. Well, that'll come out in the process. >> Okay. >> All right. Good. So, what do you need from us? >> That there's multiple and a bidding war. >> We don't need anything except kind of voice of consent
>> just to approve this process, us working with council and then I'll likely be putting together a group that that includes one of you to um evaluate the the biders. >> Okay. >> And if they don't like any of them, we just put out the bid again. So,
>> this isn't a threatening process. >> I'd be interested in that new new information. >> Okay. So, you have what you need from us? Yes. >> Don't need an official proclamation or anything. >> All right, let's move on. Item number
seven, >> policy discussion, >> volunteer code of conduct. So Gretchen had sent out some information on this. Um, and I guess the question before us tonight is generally how do we want to proceed with this?
It's a high level the consideration points at the end of her her email. So this is a task that this board gave us was to to bring you a code of conduct policy and that's a that's very broad. So what we did was we went to the insurance provider first to give the
template that they give all towns to mitigate risk which is the main one of the main reasons for having a code of conduct policy that in addition to um many like towns we we sent out a request to say what are your what are your policies? Gresian put
that together and then she put together a memo with themes. >> Y >> So what we're looking to understand is I'm assuming that you'll work from the base. What else would you want to add or take away from that policy? >> We know that's not a one night
discussion, but we wanted to to frame it to you and and have you see different versions so that you may or may not add to it. And again, this can be a living document, so this isn't your one time at it, but >> well, I think the the comment of, you know, if someone were to violate a code of conduct policy, you know, and at the
end of her memo, the last thing she said, unless there's a provision in law for removal of a member from a specific office, that doesn't seem to be an option. So, is that does that mean it's not a policy decision? If we had someone that was in violation where we said, let's remove them, that would require a
bylaw. Is that what that or not? That just elected official >> or we can't do it. You just can't do it. >> Well, I'm just >> for a me a member on a committee that >> member of a specific from a specific office. >> Depends on the committee. >> Okay. But is that is that something that
we could that's something I' I'd want to specify that in the policy if that's an option or I didn't know if that just wasn't even an option. >> Okay. We'll have to get you that >> because I think a lot of this we want to set some standards but if we have yeah
>> someone that violates the standards we we would want a clear process to remove that person >> and well as Ryan points out I mean it's got to be a different process for elected officials. >> Yeah. >> Than appointed. Right. >> Right. You can't you can't remove an elected official except through a recall election.
>> Right. Through an election. >> So that's clear. So then there's that >> party time. >> Right. appointed appointed is the is the I guess in the question that you're going to research is it the purview of the committee or the like in the case of the select board we empower
the committee and appoint them right is it us or is it >> or you mean like if somebody on the trails committee violated would it >> trails do it or does it elevate I presume it elevates but I don't know that >> yeah I don't know the answers and then what would the
procedure be that would be a key For me, I think the code I think the conduct piece of it >> the code is pretty good. >> We could probably pull that. >> Yeah. Like it >> I don't think we're looking for anything exotic. I think we just want to get something on the books that we can remind people of
>> and then we have a process if someone violates it. You know, I also like this piece in the in the Monson uh description that Gretchen included just if you've gone through the other kind of obvious steps is um you could file a
formal complaint as as an individual um about somebody that you think is violating a code of conduct. Um and then it could go to the town administrator or it could go to the town clerk or whatever. But once that's filed, then there's some kind of investigation and a
report written about corrective action. So that I mean, let's say it's it's a violation, but there's some extenduating circumstances. You don't automatically want to be >> right >> necessarily removing the person. >> Um,
>> you mostly generally want to give in any situation like this, give people point it out and give them a chance to correct. Right. Right. That's true of any right oversight >> unless it's something really egregious. Yeah. >> See, I I thought it was kind of unclear some of these things like I you know
Douglas conduct themselves in a professional and dignified manner refraining from any activity that would reflect negatively on the town and its processes. Well, tonight we had that all over the place. Everyone, even I was saying, "Well, this is something you're not doing right." And and so I'm
reflecting on the town negatively. So, >> right. I don't think that's >> I mean I I honestly the MIAA policy is pretty good, right? There's some very specific things like anti-discrimination. I mean there's some things where clearly if you done that
you're going to run into it >> and I'd rather start from like that as a base and then we can add >> right >> parts as needed. >> Yeah. But I think starting with that >> and it says most towns sorry
>> most towns use the template designed by MIA Maya. So >> right >> and we could see if there's some way we in particular we might want to edit it for Carlile but >> that's the base. >> Yeah. So, if we were to take that approach, are there any
would you want us to kind of start from that or are there any specific recommendations that Aubrey would have based on a like something that's key to our personnel policy that's not reflected in there that we may want to consider? It would be helpful to know if there's any input from the staff on what
should be in there >> or >> so we we would not have any recommendations for you unless you wanted to add to this. >> Okay, let me rephrase Scott's question. Aubrey's pretty familiar with procedures
where employees may violate a conduct standard, harassment, whatever. Are there any best practices from the employer employee side that should find their way into this? I
realize it's not, you know, directly applicable. So, so having one certainly and then what is the proc so what is the process for investigating reporting and enforcing >> well that would be right so that would be a >> the difficult problem that staff will
have with this particularly myself is if the border committee does not care for my authority >> then um they would be >> less than >> like a lot of the findings if the consom had something I would bring it to the consom and say here's what we found
whether they do something with it or not is up to them. So >> isn't the cons come comes flows up to us then, right? >> Correct. >> There's only so it's only the elected I mean I maybe that's not really the right way to look at it. Only the elected
we've agreed that the elected boards if they find a elected member not conducting him or herself properly ain't much they can do. >> You can still you can still do an investig. >> You can investigate. You can is there censor? Yeah, there is that talks about it in some of these documents. You could
public >> censure somebody for behavior >> like the legislature does, right? But they can't remove, >> right? Okay. >> The town logo. >> So every other pretty much every other committee is appointed by us, right?
>> Um well >> certain MGL like once you appoint a consc member, they're there. You can't you can't yank you cannot reappoint. But there's certain boards and committees that once you appoint them, they are >> by law. >> Isn't the historic commission the same
way? >> The ones with authority. >> Yeah. >> And that's to create, you know, some distance between you and them, but um >> well, they're two different I mean, >> but you cannot reappoint them. >> Most behavior might be annoying
>> and suboptimal and blahy blah, but you know, at the end of the day, you wait them out. You just don't reappoint them or you don't re. It's when there's clear harassment or some other thing that risk this is a risk policy right so right
>> when an official I mean an appointed official or elected official of the town behaves in such an egregious manner that it presents a legal risk to the town or the employees or the citizens that's where I think there needs to be a good mechanism >> yes
>> I was pointing out earlier that it's not if it's it's too broad you you're going to have a problem. >> So that's why when I look at the MIA policy, it's more specific, right? >> Yeah. >> If you sexually harass, like that's a thing.
>> If you speak out against the town, I don't want to stifle someone's right to speak what they want, >> be critical. Yeah. >> But if there's incidents that are you've talked about is great risk, you know, of harassment or I don't know. >> Okay. So you have some direction I guess to what's the plan then to go
more work done or >> no this is the work. So >> I mean I think it's up to us to look at the if we want to the Maya policy as the framework you know are there specific parts of this >> or something we run this by Tom
Harrington or you know they might have ideas about that right >> we can but I think he would say that this is is the standard >> I mean he's going to look at it against does it comply with the law and yes >> no but he he'll be sensitive to what I just said right that you don't want it
should be written in such a way that the town has a way out of getting out of legal trouble. Right? If if an if an employee sues I guess the town because she says I've been harassed by one of your appointed members, it's got to be a
mechanism, right? >> Yes. Very few, but yes. So, why don't we re like >> individually review it >> and then we'll we'll put this on >> to Gretchen or something >> or someone and we can Yeah, we can we can schedule a a follow- on discussion
with the intention of voting in a code of conduct based on this and any edits. >> Sure. What's your time frame, Mr. Chair? Is that this session? You want this done in this? >> Yeah, we'll I mean, we'll get this done. I think we can get this done by um this session. Sure.
>> Okay. We'll take a look at the agendas and get it on there. But this doesn't seem like a heavy lift. Could at least get a get the basic policy and >> we should at least put in the basic policy. >> Yeah, we have no policy presently. >> No. >> Now we Does anti-hate come in under
this. Sorry, I know we're not really supposed to be discussing it in detail, but I'm looking anti-harassment and anti-discrimination and then anti- fraud is what Maya talks about >> for specific policies.
>> I think hate is probably inside anti-discrimination. I don't know, >> but you can add it if you want. >> You can add it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Anyway, so we should Is that what we want to do? Send >> homework. Okay, >> I'll send out a I'll send out an email about this just to remind people and
we'll >> we'll figure out when it's going to get on the agenda and give everyone a heads up. >> Yeah. >> Okay, moving on. We're on to the TA report. >> All right, we're four minutes ahead of schedule. >> Caught up here. >> Five minutes. We'll see how long he
takes. >> Here's my more than uh 10 minutes. >> Here is my town administrator report for January 27th, 2026. So, this says the TA coffee hour. The next one is going to be at the Gleon Public Library on February 17th. We're moving into February 18th.
That decision was made today, but we'll make sure that that's posted and it'll be in a a future TA report to you. February 18th, come to the library, talk about the renovation or the budget or anything that's coming up. And speaking of the budget and town meeting process, please make sure you're following our
municipal newsletter, our email alerts, and podcasts for information. We're up to 30 to 35 potential warrant articles now. There's going to be a lot of information flowing to people's um podcast feeds. >> Oh my gosh. 30 to 35
>> 28 in the consent agenda hopefully. >> Yeah. >> Fortunately, no. So for uh human resources reports, we don't we don't have any appointments to let you know about, but we do have some uh bittersweet retirement announcements. James Powderly, our plumbing and gas inspector, will retire effective March
31st after 18 years of dedicated service to the town of Carile. If you've done plumbing work in your house, you've you've at least had James come there and approve your project. Also, Linda Fantasia, and this is not a typo, 39 years of service to the town, will
retire effective March 1st. Her decades of commitment and institutional knowledge will leave a significant impact, and the board of health will have big shoes to fill. Also, Jim O'Shea, the superintendent of schools, will retire at the end of year after 10 years of service to the Carlile community. So, those are are three
pretty significant retirements that we're acknowledging and there'll obviously be more information about that coming up and some involvement from you as well for those um replacements, the wrong word, but for those continuities of service.
All right, department updates and information. We have officially certified our free cash. Thank you, Kelly, and financial management team in the amount of $4,676,426. This is all of prior year funds that are available for appropriation after outstanding obligation and liabilities have been counted. This is the amount
they're going to use to set your reserve levels and deal with capital planning and warn article requests at town meeting. So, it is important. It represents about 17% of the current year's uh current year's budget. well
above reserve as you know and uh something that will be used in becoming part of the budget discussion to come. All right. We did file a CPC project placeholder on your behalf seeking legal fees and support for the investigation of the article 97 transfer
as part of the boghouse project. We've talked about this a little bit. This submission does require your formal approval. So we have a placeholder now. We are asking you to fund a $15,000 request and this would alleviate pressure on the town's legal budget as
we go through go through the the process. So that is up for your consideration now or in the future. >> And I see there's a motion in the packet. Do we want to take up the motion now? >> Sure. >> Well, let's do it at the end. Let him
get Let's get through the This would be us requesting it at the CPA. Okay. >> Yes. approving the submission of the application. >> Okay. Not approving the >> gonna be a lot of article 97 work. We just wanted to make sure to interfere with the regular legal budget considering it's CPC elig CPA eligible.
>> Yeah, we'll do it at the end. >> All right. The representative, Representative Katalo, who's here tonight talked about this, but the amended TA bylaw special act was resubmitted with the non-substantive changes you approved. There's no timeline yet, but normally these are approved throughout the spring summer
session. So we hope by August it'll become it'll become law here in Carlile. The budget update the finance committee is done with its series of marathon meetings and tomorrow they are meeting to discuss and have in-depth conversations about the results of that.
This included significant conversations and presentations from the Carile public schools and the conquered Carile Regional High School. None of the numbers changed from the presentation that you got in December substantially changed. The goal of these discussions is to create a second draft in early fee,
early to late February, and that'll come back in front of the board for you guys to discuss draft three, which becomes the the town meeting budget, hopefully with consensus. We have a website up on the town administrator's page for all budget information. We've included both school
presentations, the the latest draft, and any information you need to stay up on the budget. We do not post a change until there is a draft two or draft three. So, we're still on draft one right now. Also going to uh present a a quick mid-year report to you at the end of this report that is um that has been
sent to you and will be included in this packet. For capital project updates, the town hall bathroom renovation, believe it or not, was going to start tonight, but we didn't want you to have to use a porta potty or something. So, we moved it to tomorrow. So, it's going to start tomorrow. Water will be shut down tomorrow night and then it'll return
with two bathrooms operational throughout the duration of the project which you expect will be one one month or so in duration. Hopefully quicker than that. That's good news. >> For CPA project updates, the big one is Cranberry Bog Dam number one. The
conservation commission will receive the results of the ground penetrating radar survey at their meeting this week and then they will uh either change or proceed with construction based on those findings. Once that's done, the consom has already approved the uh what are we
calling it? Phase one dam construction project. They approved that. I I met with them last week. They approved it. Thanks to Megan for working with me on that. And that means once this emergency repair is done, we'll bid the phase one project to get that going and then we'll start phase two which will be informed
by the hydraologic studies. Did everyone follow that? Cranberry bog dam number one. >> Three phases we're working on at once. >> A, B, and C. >> Okay. Speaking of those hydraologic studies, we're still waiting for them, but they're really important for phase two, which is coming in the summer. I am
working with Julie and the housing trust to finalize contracts with GANAP and niche. We're just going over the details right now. This would allow you to um look at a schematic design for that project with the CHT that is ongoing.
Stephen and I for Benfield, the keyless entry system, met with the system contractor and completed the uh the final phase of this project which focused on repairing three failed systems. We're still waiting for a part or two, but then those will be done. They also put stickers on each resident lock system and we hear from the
residents that they're working. They're very functional now. So, the last piece of this project is if available to add a Wi-Fi component which would allow Noah to uh remote lock and unlock these for residents, but we can consider that project to be uh substantially complete.
>> Is there money remaining in the CPA grant that would cover the cost of the um Wi-Fi, the remote So, it doesn't exist yet. So, we're not sure. >> Ah, >> we don't The patch that they're adding to this lock system doesn't exist yet.
So, >> okay. >> We're not sure. There's about 8,000 left and we don't know. >> Okay. >> If it's 8,000, I'd be thrilled. I'll say yes. >> Yeah. >> All right. Library renovation. This is an important update for you. So, the total project budget is now estimated at 3.5 million. This includes contingency
and soft costs. So, the actual construction costs are 2.8 million. To address the funding gap, the library trustees plan to continue fundraising and request CPA funding at annual town meeting. This is per the library trustees. To present the most accurate request possible, they intend to put
this project out to bid in March, obtain an estimate, and bring a final number to town meeting for consideration of those CPA dollars. it. Uh the project is also going to the scope will include alternates for the library coil replacement
and the proposed mechanical room expansion. >> We had a discussion about that last meeting with the CPA funding. Is it CBA's intent to fund the entire gap? >> Uh that is under discussion. I think um
I would say my sense of the committee just speaking as an individual is that um they would like to see uh the the fundraising plan for this po if if the CPA were to
provide funds um something similar to last time where there was a match >> so it would not >> so but >> speaking for yourself you're saying you' be less in favor of a fully funding, but rather another match. >> I mean, but we that's why we're we're
having the um library trustees come talk to us at our next meeting more specifically about >> and then also Ryan didn't jump in quickly enough, but >> you and Julie are working out some things for the Bog House. >> Is that also a CPA
funded thing? >> Yes, but from a vote a long time ago. Yeah, it's already in the >> 200k or something. >> Yeah, it's already in your >> right. Okay, good. So, it's housing trust money. >> Yeah. >> Given by the CPA see from CPA. >> A lot of acronyms,
>> but I think I I I believe there's also a new CPA application coming from CAT. >> They have to do it by FE or something, >> right? For the um what's the next step after you've done for the design
documents? right that they would want um the the town meeting to approve so they can move forward in the summer >> in the next right I think that's right so why and the 30k or 15k rather for legal isn't tucked into one of those
>> no >> it needs its own thing >> because statutoily or financially >> we just think it's better for tracking >> okay >> fair enough >> all right police station renovation this sounds very I don't know what it sounds
but it's on schedule and on budget we're telling you >> that sounds fantastic. What do you mean? What does it sound like? Well, it just seems like a it's kind of a hokey thing to say. >> No, that's a we budget. You need to expand even with all the dirty dirt. >> Yeah. So, I mean we're eating into
contingency but not at a pace that we're concerned. >> Okay, good. >> Uh there's contingency plans for the water. put the water back into the earth and for the um >> that's where it always goes >> for the basement, the foundation of the
garage to mitigate water and soil removal, which is what has been expensive. Your your your committee is all over this. Everything is is to your standard thus far and more because they are they're very involved. Uh this is some sections here about upcoming discussions
and approvals. Nothing nothing new. I would note that Senator Barrett is coming on March 24th to do what Representative Catalo did. So your entire leg delegation is coming before you. By that time we should know the House budget. So then it times well to talk to the Senate about their version
of the budget. For staff recognition, Aubrey recently uh is received her full reertification as a MCPPO official. This is require reertification requires 25 hours from the inspector general in
terms of procurement education and now she is a full MCPO uh given her time in the field not just an associate. So that's good news. We now have three MCPO certified officials on staff, two primaries uh me and Aubrey and Gretchen
as the associate member. And we're also going to be sending because we can send one school person for free, Steven Canary on the facility side. So that'll give us four good out of capacity. >> Yeah. >> I'd also like to commend Deputy Chief Booth, Sergeant Baxter, Chief Soros, Lieutenant Newman, Kathleen Bond, and
Laura Duff, who is our public health nurse, for their outstanding work on the town's interdisciplinary atrisisk group. This was established by Chief Amandola and is providing meaningful results for the community. Through close collaboration, members recently worked together to successfully connect an individual with appropriate services and
resources that um achieved a positive outcome that wouldn't have been possible with just one department acting alone. So more knitting together of departments and working together collaboratively not only saves the town money but improves services. So thank you to that team for
their professionalism and dedication. All right, briefly because you've seen it and I'll keep it high level. I would like to go over the midyear report. >> So, we're expanding the capacity of this report and hoping to provide it
quarterly, but this is this is the halfyear report. So, this is timely in terms of the budget process. How is the FY26 budget performing and how are we making sure that we're stewarding your finances correctly? >> And this will be available or is available on the town website? >> Yes. on the budget page under financial
monitoring. So besides some explanatory thing, it's it's pretty simple. Red, yellow, green, red, we're really concerned. Yellow we're monitoring it and green we're good to go. Not really concerned. That means there's some action item that needs to be taken. If it's more than red, we'll let you know, but nothing is more than
red. So towns have expended at the halfway point for 48.22% of the budget, which would return free cash around 500 to 700,000. We don't expect that number to hold. That's a that's a lot but we do expect there to be some return from the departments of appropriated funds which
is something we design in the budget. The only concerning item that we have is the dispatch department deserve uh absorbed costs related to it. So we used to just fix the computers when they needed to be fixed but because of uh
cyber security and computer systems they need to be moni they need to be managed systems. So, this added about 3,000 a month to the budget of unanticipated funds and um there'll be some need for a transfer at the end of the year. So, they're absorbing all the police and
communication costs with this. We have included this in the FY27 budget and brief the fincom on it. We do think that they might be able to transfer money within their department of the police department to cover it. So, it's not a huge concern, but it is definitely something we need to highlight. Maintenance costs townwide are something
we're monitoring. We do expect an end of the year transfer, but nothing nothing crazy. The reason for that is with the full-time maintenance staff, we're just uncovering more and more deferred deferred maintenance that needs to get done.
Uh, not a surprising comment to you. None of the others are significance, but definitely worth reading. On the revenue side, just some things to fix. We have solar lease revenue that we that we take in that we're not including in our local receipt estimates. So this is something that we'll you'll hear from the fincom
that we should be increasing our local receipt estimates. This is one of the reasons why. >> What's the sorry Ryan, but what's the possible level? >> 25,000. >> Okay. >> Recycling revenues continue to go down nationwide. So that is eating into our
projections of cost. >> It's disappointing. >> So there go your 20 there goes your 25,000. But it's good that it washes. And then department >> revenue on that one. revenue is going down because of the market is pricing it down, not because we're recycling. >> Right. That's right. Correct. >> We're recycling more actually. We're
just not getting as much for it. >> And then department revenues. A great example is this select board. If you look at the the line by line report, you uh no longer have a liquor license and that used to be revenue. So none of the revenues add up to to much. It's money. >> Are the newbies going to have liquor?
>> Yes. >> Okay. >> Two things that we're monitoring. uh gas permits seem to be underperforming in terms of our estimates. Uh we're not sure if that's an anomaly or will pick up in the spring, but we're watching it. And the charging stations are are currently losing funding.
>> The ones at the school, >> yeah, not a significant amount, but we're watching it to make sure that we're continuing to provide recommendations there. I I give you a pretty good update consistently on your capital and professional service items. So, you can review that if you if you want. The indicators are there whether the projects are closed or not. There
are some longstanding projects that you don't get regular updates on that that are interesting, but we do do all of the ones that exist in the budget in that report. I think you'll find the building renovation project funds section of this capital piece interesting. It is all the
money that has been both allocated and uh contracts that are awarded. So, you can see the balances and the contingencies there. We can dig as deep into this as you want in future reports. So take a look at that and let me know uh what's useful and what isn't. But that is that is all the large projects
that we have right now. The police station and fire station being the ones that are approved. Chapter 90 here is our current standing. Um the takeaway here is we believe this is the entirety of the things that you may you may fund with chapter 90 based
on discussions the top end of the Ottabon Lane discussion we had last time. the top end of the complete streets contingency and design. I told you your reserve going into next year was going to be 100,000. It's actually 238,000. So that's with these earmarked
here which >> So walk me through funds available at the end of the calendar year and then you're subtracting the next things to get the reserve. You're assuming full. What's that math there in those four lines? >> So this is what's available from the
last year's Tom Meing Warren article and chapter 90. This is what you've discussed maybe spending. >> Okay. >> So, we took that out for a reserve of this. >> So, it leaves you 238. >> So, 138,000 more than you thought. Still not enough to fund the entirety of the plan without a full 800,000 investment.
>> So, that so paving and everything has to come out of that >> plus next year's chapter 90 and a warrant article. So, that'll be in around a million if you did the 800,000. CPA projects. This is just the buckets that exist and how much money is in them
as of December 31st. And then an update on each project like you hear from my TA report and the way we reported on capital projects. Just another way to monitor what's going on. Then financial monitoring. This is important. So this is our taking of the
financial policies that you passed and telling you how we are doing in terms of the monitoring based off policy. So town reserves, you heard that tonight. We are we are at 17.41% well above the 12% high-end marker. Cash reconciliation.
This needs to be done within 30 days. By policy we are we are less than 30 days from the last reconciliation. Uh Sandy and Kelly do a great job of that and report to me when they do it and then I review it as well. So we're monitoring
cash. Well, our internal audit policy requires that we do two. Aubrey and Kelly went through the COS funds in depth and their processes when we switch directors. So that counts as one and Kelly will be doing another internal audit before the end of the year. So
this is cash receipt and other process. >> So you So you pick one department to do an audit on and that becomes your audit. >> Yeah. And we're required to do two >> internal. Yeah. >> But I mean next year you'll pick some other department. >> Yes. >> It's random or it's on a schedule or what? >> Right now it is not random. We're
selecting them because we have many to review but eventually it'll be a random >> not scheduled not a rolling schedule. >> Right. >> And the second audit is the same one as the first or a different >> different department. >> So you get two you do two departments a year. >> Yes. >> Out of And how many departments are
there roughly? >> A lot. >> 15. >> Okay. So every seven years >> everybody would get an audit every seven years basically. >> Is yeah. >> And why random and not scheduled? Uh this was a recommendation that we implement. So we're just slowly
seeing how it impacts our workload and implementing it. I do think we'll add more than two in the future. >> Okay. >> And which department's going to be next? Do you know that? >> We're not telling them. >> That way everybody's following the policy. >> Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Makes sense. >> Uh this was a suggestion from our external auditors.
>> Yeah. >> Department reconciliation. We send out a budget versus actual every month. I look through it to make sure that I'm talking to departments that you would see in this report and so they're aware of what's going on and they report back. And then our external audit is is almost
complete and ready to present to my working group. So that's yellow, but we're we're on track. And then this part is something for you to review. I'm not going to go over each line, but these are all of the you >> green means we're under 50%. >> Yes.
>> In yellow, you're right at 50%. It's under 50% or where we expect it to be like we pay for the entirety of insurance and on July 1st. So, >> so okay. So, it's like weighted to >> it can be. Yeah. >> So, basically the reds are just over unexpectedly over budget like you
mentioned communications >> or under budget. >> Red red is there's a concern. >> He already said because they >> Well, but like wastewater treatment repairs is red, >> right? >> Because they're they didn't expect it. >> Yeah, that's in capital. So, so in this
one >> says they can skip expens. >> Yeah, we can skip it. Red is action taken or needed. >> Okay, got >> you right. >> The one I looked at the >> one red one I looked at was like >> all right. Um
and then on the revenue side, same thing. So it's just a quick snapshot and if we do it quarterly, the next one is really telling. So that's when we're going to start talking about transfers and other items that are necessary. >> So you've got a whole bunch there that are read near the end below
expectations. Yeah, it's tiny amounts. >> Oh, they're tiny. Okay. >> Revenue. >> Yeah. This is one I put in the report. We need to look. We're looking into this now. Why are why are our department revenues low? Is it season? >> What is What does select board collect revenue? >> It's the liquor that liquor. That's
right. We get the liquor revenue. That's great. >> But my favorite thing in this >> library fines >> is we projected to have one marriage and we've done the marriage. So the marriage. >> Congratulations. >> So we met that revenue standard. The big thing, the big takeaway from revenue is we haven't done excise transfer station
stickers or there's another one that's seasonal. Anyways, the seasonal revenues that make up the majority of our revenue. So, we are ahead. Even though we're at 47%, we're well ahead. Motor vehicle exercise is more than a million of this and we haven't taken in any of it yet because
it hasn't been charged. >> Okay. >> Stuck in a whole agenda item there. this last report. >> That's a tremendous amount of work. We're breezing through it because we don't have time, but it's incredibly valuable. Thank you. >> Um, >> it's meant to >> and it reflects and it reflects the
ongoing monitoring that that is happening. >> Good job. >> Yeah. >> Now, you got since you reserved the bathroom for us tonight, I >> All right, let's go. >> So, review of warrants and minutes. Um, they had circulated and updated minutes around 3:30.
I don't know if people had a chance to review that. >> I didn't have a >> but I'm confident that Christine found >> it reflected >> edits you submitted. Correct. >> Yeah. >> So >> it did. Yeah. >> Great. Yeah. >> Yeah. So does someone want to make a
motion to approve. >> I move to approve the minutes. I was going to let somebody else have a turn, but I move to approve the minutes of the January 13, 2026 select board meeting as presented this evening. as presented uh as amended
this afternoon. >> Good. >> I would second that. >> Okay. Any discussion, deliberation? Seeing none, let's do a uh I guess a roll call vote because David Modell is no longer present. >> You can still do voice. >> Okay, let's do voice vote. All in favor? I opposed
>> because we did >> and one one abstension. So, >> yeah. >> All right. Cemetery deeds. We have >> Wait and don't forget we have to go back and do the CPA vote, too. >> Oh, yes. Thank you. Legal >> fees. Let's do that right now. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Barney.
>> I'm like getting all >> I have it right here. >> Yeah. >> Do you have it? >> Yeah. It's Is there any reason I shouldn't do this since I'm the chair of the CPC? >> Yeah. Why don't Travis, you want to read that? >> Somebody else do it. Sure.
All right. I move to approve the submission of the Community Preservation Act grant application for legal and administrative fees associated with removal of the Cranberry Bog House and immediately surrounding land from article 97.
>> Do you want to second that? >> I'll second it. >> She can. I can't. All right. Any further discussion or deliberation? Okay. Seeing none, we'll do a voice vote. All in favor? I >> I opposed >> abstensions David. Okay.
>> Um and you think the estimate there is 15,000. Is that what I saw? Okay. Just just for the CPC. All right. >> Understanding. >> Cemetery deeds. >> Yeah. >> We have >> one motion.
>> Yeah. >> And is it two deeds? two signatures >> just for plots. >> Uh let's see. Where is that? Is that at the very end of the >> I have it right here if you need it. >> Okay,
>> these are all from the same. >> I move to transfer land in the public burial ground at the green cemetery as described. Deed 866, lot D1 171, graves one, two,
three, and four. to Deborah and Raymond Gonzalez of 19 Bellows Hill Road. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> I'll second that. >> Any discussion, deliberation? Seeing none, we'll do a voice vote. All in favor?
>> I opposed. Motion passes. So, we both >> need to sign that. >> I'll pass that around and then hit that one, Travis. Sure. And then we're on to liaison reports.
Um, so I attended the school committee meeting last week where they discuss I'm losing track of my weeks and I think that was after we met last >> where they discussed Highland building and that was reported um in the mosquito. Um the crux of the discussion
basically was uh we as a select board had kind of said to the school committee, you know, go figure out a use. was two cycles ago, a year and a half ago. >> Um, and the thinking there was at the time, if we're going to find a valid use, it should really come from the
schools because given the location, um, they deliberated, they will be voting at their next meeting based on that deliberation to likely say the school does not have a use for the Highland, >> right? >> Um, they may have space needs, but they don't see how the Highland building is
being the space that fulfills those needs. um what was reported and what was discussed. I don't know where they'll come across in the recommendation. Someone had suggested should we go a step further and say if the building wasn't there what we could use it for and um >> what we could use the space for
>> what you could use the space for. >> Um and there was some some discussion about that and there was some uses identified for that space. Um whether or not they include that in their formal recommendation to us, I don't know. But it will be coming back to us by all indication basically saying the school
doesn't have a use for Highland and then it would be incumbent on us to say okay now what? Um >> and that'll be a this year thing too or >> Well, they're going to they're going to have their formal recommendation next month. So I think we'll have to at least
>> lay out a timeline whether or not we resolve it. But there's no there's no course of action that's not going to cost money, >> right? No, I know that. But I'm also thinking of you just said 30 warrant articles or something. It's >> I don't know that we'll be in a position to do a warrant article. I think we as a select board will discuss it. Whether we
have a resolution is probably unlikely. >> And then tomorrow is school committee meeting again on >> tomorrow school committee is meeting to discuss uh preschool fees. Um, also in their last discussion they essentially confirmed that they're going to need
Sorry, let me pass this along. Um, the two preschool sections. >> Yeah. Right. >> Um, I don't know exactly what they're discussing tomorrow budget or something. They're doing something, right? >> Yeah. I know they were discussing preschool fees. I'm also FinCom is also meeting tomorrow and I'm going to go to that meeting.
>> Um, they're going to be meeting with the board of health again and also um discussing the budget. So, I'll be in attendance for that. Um >> so they have yeah tuition fees. Oh that's it intended succession plan. >> Yeah. So
>> we are going to discuss that. So, one of the things, you know, I think parent the community was was while there's still some questions in the air, all indications point to needing the extra extra section. And I think for the parents, it's like we need to I think there's a recognition you
need to give people a heads up on what availability is going to be and the fees because if they do add a second section, they can also let kids off the wait list, >> right? Yeah. I mean, that's sort of the minor one. The major one is the succession planning discussion. >> Yes. >> Right. So, that's so No. or anybody is
anybody attending that? >> You're not going to be able to. Are you? >> I'll attend what I can and um >> I'm having a meeting tomorrow with Brian and Jim separately. >> Okay. So, you're on that? >> Yeah. Okay. >> There were only two signatures there, right?
>> Yeah. Just two. Um, >> that was >> the only other thing I'll say that I've said at this fin is so I attended the the budget meeting and it it relates to CPA in that um, one of the things I'm
>> we're looking at is this this idea that >> the region is taking 250,000 in their END budget to offset some cost of the amenities building >> which is also using their own CPA I thought they were going to
>> well at Conquer's request apparently but that means >> we're not truly funding we wouldn't be truly funding the entirety of the project out of our CPA because it's using END which has already >> you know what I mean so we're looking into that more and
>> they shouldn't do that why our share is high >> do they have the right I guess they do have the right >> anyway so that I don't I don't know where that's going to go but it's a >> but they're going to they're going to pursue that though with >> the wording was they want to minimize the ask of the town I think to have a
higher chance of getting >> it approved. >> They build in this bias. Has that been pointed out to them? >> Yeah, we pointed out >> they like we're Yeah. So what? >> Well, I I think we have leverage in this situation because >> yeah, >> we vote second and they need our approval.
>> We're not Yeah, I think >> anyway it's >> they shouldn't do it. It's stupid. Well, and I think they were also that's they were also suggesting they would do that for Doug Whitefield, which is a bigger project in a couple years. And it's >> they shouldn't be doing that. That's not fair, >> right? So,
>> well, and they they >> it gets back to this larger thing of END and how you know and >> I mean, yes and no. I think what you pointed out just a minute ago is the thing. It's it's it's overweighting Carlos percentage of the capital
contribution. If you if both sides fund it separately, whether you use CPA or other town funds, I don't care. But if either if both towns do their proportional share, >> yeah, >> doing your proportional share, why monkey with that? I don't understand what what the motivation
unless I mean, unless they're so heavy on END that they're going to have to give it back. >> That's something. >> It seems bad. That seems bad. That seems like something >> the two select boards have to kind of come together on. from the finance. Yeah, it's >> I mean that should be elevated. It might be
>> No, I've sent that to Ryan and J. >> Is there any Speaking of which, I mean, we used to have chairs meetings down there, you know. Is there any >> chairs meeting down? >> We used to go down to townhouse once a quarter. >> Did you ever have
>> I did. Did you? >> Yeah. And I went to >> I went to a bunch of them. >> I don't think they're doing it anymore. No, you're not doing it, but I wonder if we ought to be >> resuscitating that. >> I mean, these are the kind of things that >> can drift out of control. Like, >> do you
interface with your select board chair down there? >> With my select board chairpart? >> I don't interface with the select board chair and conquer though. >> I mean, maybe you should. >> I don't know how engaged they are with the budget of the schools, though. >> You know, you got to raise it. I mean, you got to raise the thing. It's just like we're the two fins. I mean, we're
we're partners in this >> $35 million a year thing, right? So, I I just feel like in the old days, I mean, we did a lot more coordination that >> But our FinCom has been meeting with
their Fincom. >> They've had some meetings. >> I think it's >> You talk Ryan, you talked to the town manager, right? You have a relationship >> in the school administration. Yeah. Well, the administration's fine. I don't know. Anyway, my advice is you got to
think about maybe not this year because I got a lot going on, but there ought to be a venue. We used to have that venue. It wasn't a big lift. They have their meeting anyway. We just show up. But >> it gives an opportunity to start having that dialogue. It's it's not a big lift.
You know, it's once a quarter or something if that. >> Okay. Anything else? Leon reports. >> Uh, yeah. So, we had a CHT meeting. I think we're all lined up with the way you said, you know, they're putting their application in.
>> I think the path on Bog House is clear as Julie outlined in the presentation she gave us here. They we gave and but long, right? So, the larger picture that John Valentine, the chair, is wanting to
tee up is okay, now what? I mean, if that kind of goes on its path, there's a lot of stuff to do. Chapter 97, you know, all this jazz. And then eventually, presumably, we get a partner and we could go off and build now four
units, right? That's the total amount of units. >> So, is there some more like we're back to what else can we really do if we want to? And there's not really an answer >> with the boghouse or something. >> No, beyond the bog. >> I know the planning board has talked about that too in the
>> Yeah, the ing days of the MBTA discussion. So I don't know where I mean I'm John's certly he wants me to do a couple things but anyway so that's we haven't really done I mean it's taken up it'll take a lot of time it's a good thing to do >> right >> it ticks a lot of boxes in terms of
historic preservation and D but it doesn't really move the needle much on the primary objective of CHD which is provide some housing right so >> do you know if anyone off the CHT is met with the conquered
uh housing group and discussed what they do yearly you know there's a CPA >> right so that is something but I >> well to explain it you know they they have a this there's an understanding that every year the there's a certain
amount that is coming out of the CPA funds that is just sort of an automatic vote at town meeting to be given to their housing authorities >> but they still couldn't buy we've had this conversation They still couldn't buy land, right? Because it would require a town meeting vote. Or they
could >> No. Uh, no. Because it's already been approved. I um >> Well, that's how they've done a lot of these projects with Habitat already >> that they already could buy. >> Well, that's why it's worth discuss. Let's take that one offline.
>> Okay. So, that's a separate. And my last leazison report is Ting study committee. We're still sort of we're kind of in the final throws of writing our report and pushing it across the line and being done with that. So um uh but it was sort
of news to them that I told them that we had decided on a Monday Tuesday but I explained why because it's late in May and >> you know and then once once I explained that I think it was generally understood that >> while we like Sundays that particular
late Sunday would not be a good >> use of time. So, it sounds like from what you're saying though that we might be looking at a two-day meeting, right? >> And the warrant closes >> your next meeting. >> Next meeting. >> Oh, wow. >> In February. >> February.
>> It's only two weeks from now. >> I thought we were closing. >> Okay, that's it. Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> Two brief ones from my side. I know we're really late. Um, I had the pleasure of attending MMA with some of
our town staff. I attended one particular uh meeting given by the MA Massachusetts taxpayer associations panel and some other folks from um state house and uh they gave a national outlook and a state
revenue trends outlook and um you know it was it was very sobering. They are projecting a $1.3 billion federal budget impact in FY26. They said that the big beautiful bill had 105 different tax provisions, 30 to
35 of which directly impacted Massachusetts state revenues. >> Negatively, I >> negatively indeed. Yes. Uh so they are just so they are projecting that we are just going to squeak by. We need to grow revenues by at least 1.2% 2% each year
to meet expenses. And because all of our growth, our population growth has all been from international immigration for quite some time, uh, and all of the various hits from the budget, the federal budget, um, we are just barely going to make that. And so the net net is that we are more negatively
positioned for a downturn than we would like. So we're just barely going to make the budget, but no new discretionary. So, that was the digest from MMA. And then also the uh our town safety committee continues to
do great work. Um they fielded a request from Sylvia that I think we might be putting on uh one of our upcoming agendas. I'm not sure. Um and then they had welcomed a new member. Um we've already heard about the library. I think
that's my report for tonight. >> Any other things otherwise we can uh adjourn. Well, can I ask a quick question on calendar? Are we >> Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. We have a Benfield. >> Thank you again. You're saving me. Uh, Benfield, we have four potential dates for a visit. February 17th,
>> 18th, >> 24th, 24th, >> 24th, 25th. The week of the 17th is school vacation week for anyone that has. >> So, this is a morning thing, right? >> This would be a what? Morning, afternoon. It would be a day thing. >> Either morning or early afternoon. We
don't have a specific time, but I'm I'm likely out the week of the 17th. >> So that's >> So the following week, what were the two options? >> 24th or 25th. >> 24th or 25th. >> Not wild. >> 24th. We have a meeting, right? >> That night. >> Yes, we do.
>> I'm not great. I'm not wild about the 24th because I have a take care of my mom the day before. I can't predict. >> Yeah. >> What about the 25th? >> 25th. >> Is okay. >> Yes. What time? Um, what time works is
we should tell them. Um, do people prefer afternoon or morning? >> I think morning would be helpful because they'll see more lightwise. >> It goes late in the afternoon. Good point. Actually, it's getting lighter. I don't care. >> But also, yeah, I don't know if we There's a part of it that's going to
include meeting with residents, right? >> Yeah. They get up that early. >> Yeah. I think it's better morning than it is. >> I would have said earlier than that. 10. You're not when you you're not talking like 8 then you're talking >> I don't know >> I was thinking >> 8:30 11.
>> You're thinking like 8. >> I was thinking 8:30 or 9. >> I I really don't. >> Why don't we >> tell me I'll be there. >> Can people make nine work? Why don't we just pick a nine? >> You should ask the residents. >> Yeah, we'll ask them. And >> do people have a little bit of wiggle room? >> I do. >> I have wiggle room.
>> Let's put I'll put a placeholder in my >> What is it? The >> 25th. Okay. Well, it'll be a.m. We'll we'll we'll negotiate. Our starting position will be 9 and then we'll go from there. >> It's probably two hours, you think, or not that long? >> What do you think for timing? An hour?
>> 30 minute tour, 30 minute Q&A. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Great. >> I'll go 8:45 to 10:15. >> Oh, you're hedging. >> Well, no, because I got to get there and come back. So, I got to block. >> Oh, >> okay. Right. >> Okay, good. Um, so dog hearing's off, I
heard. Right. It is. >> Yay. >> Well done. >> Nobel Peace Pawn. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, we're truly not meeting again till the 10th. >> That's correct. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> So, moved.
>> Community input. >> Oh, Gosh, man. I'm like flying out of here. >> Is there any uh community input out there? >> Dave, see >> I see Dave's on there. Okay. >> Okay.
>> Seeing none, motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. All in favor? >> I. >> All right. Thank you everyone. >> Thank you. Um,