It being six o'clock. Is this working? Yep. It being six o'clock, I'm calling to order the select board meeting of May 19th, 2025. If you would all join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And just so everyone knows, this meeting is being telecast live by Chumsford Teleia and being recorded for later viewing by the public. And we do have an announcement from Chelmsford Teledia
here. They would like viewers to know if that if you are viewing live on YouTube, please note that we are experiencing slight audio sync issues. For better viewing, go to chelmsfordv.org, click on live TV, then click on municipal channel and watch that stream, which is a mirror of the
cable broadcast. CTM is working to solve the problem. Um, and you'll notice that we have an empty seat here. We do have one member on Zoom. Pat Maloney is on Zoom tonight. And uh next up we have public service
announcements, but he'll read for us. Thanks, Aaron. Um hi Pat. Start with the Memorial Day observance 2025, uh which is Monday, May 26th. Chelsea will observe Memorial Day on Monday, May 26, 2025 in the Chumsford
Town Center. The Marramac Valley Vietnam Veterans will be the host veterans organization this year. The parade will end on the Town Center Common followed by a short Memorial Day program. The parade route will start at 10:00 a.m. from the
parking lot next to CVS and Max and Leo's on Route 4. They will proceed to the lights at the intersection of Route 129. Continue by the Chumpsuit Center for the Arts and take a left onto Academy Street and then another left
onto the back side of the Common. This is a wonderful opportunity for scouts and other civic civic groups to join them. Everyone is welcome. All veterans are invited to march with the Marramac Valley Vietnam veterans. If you have any questions about the parade, please call
the Veterans Office at 978-250-5238. And we have a pro proclamation in recognition of Memorial Day on May 26, 2025. Whereas Memorial Day, May 26, 2025, has been set aside as the annual day of remembrance for those men and
women who served our nation during times of conflict as members of the armed forces. And whereas we pause this day to especially remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives to defend the freedom of all
Americans. And whereas we honor the service and sacrifice of all veterans of all wars and conflicts and join the living veterans of the town of Chelford in expressing our gratitude to their fallen comrades. Now therefore, we, the
Chelford Select Board, do hereby proclaim Monday, May 26, 2025 as Memorial Day 2025, and join all residents of the town in recognizing this deceased veterans of Chelid on this solemn day. Sign this day, 19th day of
May, 2025. Um, the Chelsea Market on the Common is announcing their 2025 season. Um, the Market on the Common will be every Saturday from May 31st to October 11th
from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. And in memory of firefighter Richard St. Westford remembers and Chelford and Westford firefighters invite you to join them for a special dedication ceremony
honoring firefighter Richard St. an whose courage and devotion to service embody the spirit of brotherhood and sacrifice. Firefighters from Chelse and Westford will unveil a new permanent memorial sculpture in his honor. Together they will share memories, reflect on his life, and stand united as
one community to honor his legacy. That will be on June 1st, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. at the Chelsea Community Garden at Sunny Meadow Farm. That is at 168 Robin Hill Road, Chelford, Massachusetts. And the final notice this
evening is from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Central Massachusetts Mosquito Control Project. Um, Central Massachusetts mosquito uh control project personnel will be in your community in our community to respond to residents concerns about mosquitoes in
their area on the following dates in June. June 4th, June 10th, June 16th, June 23rd, and June 26th. Any of the above dates are tenative and all dates are subject to change due to weather conditions, mosquito populations,
mosquito virus activity, and special event spraying. Uh, this program will shut down when cool nighttime temperatures become predominant in the area. A detailed notice about the spray schedule is posted on the
CMMCP phone system after 3:30 p.m. each day and is also listed on the website at [Music] www.cmcp.org. Click the 2025 spray schedule button on the
right. And that's what we have for this evening. Thanks, Pat. Um, next up we have uh general public input. There's nobody on Zoom and there's nobody in the room. Thank you. No public. And next we have committee vacancies.
And for committee vacancies this week, um, as of May 19th, 2025, Agricultural Commission has one unexpired three-year term ending June 30th, 2026. Commission on Disabilities has one
unexpired three-year term ended on June 30th, 2025, one unexpired three-year term ending June 30th, 2026, and two three-year terms ending on June 30th, 2027. The Council on Aging Board has one
unexpired three-year term ending on June 30th, 2025. The conservation commission has one unexpired three-year term ending on June 30th, 2025. Historic district commission
alternate member has one three-year term ending on June 30th, 2027. The holiday holiday decorating committee has two unexpired one-year terms ending on December 31st, 2025. The parade committee has all applicants
welcome to one-year terms ending on July 31st, 2025. And the recycling committee has one unexpired three-year term ending on June 30th, 2026. If you're interested in serving on a town board or committee,
please complete an online application available on the town website. For more information, please contact the town manager's office at 2550-5202 or TM office at chumpsmass.gov.
Thank you, Pat. And next on the agenda, we have uh signing the warrant for the June to June 23rd, 2025 special town meeting. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the board, I have before you this evening for your vote of approval and signature the warrant for a special
town meeting on June 23rd, 2025. It's a five article warrant. The primary purpose of calling the meeting is article one, which is for the partial replacement of of the uh South Elementary School roof. Uh the other articles are article two which is a
supplemental funding for the high school, Westland School and McCarthy Middle School elevator projects. Um article three is a community preservation funding request um for a perimeter survey of the four parcels of
land uh commonly known as Kulis Farm which is part of the baseline survey. Uh article four is a placeholder uh article for to fund collective bargaining agreements and we anticipate we will we will be bringing forth an article for the library employees union. And then
article five is a article for the town meeting to approve regulations uh by the board of cemetery commissioners for private family mausoleums for at all public burial grounds uh which is required under the state statutes of state law chapter 114 section 23. Um, so
that's the warrant before you this evening. It has undergone legal review by town council and upon your signature this evening. We'll present it to the town clerk's office who will then hand it over to the constable for public posting. And then the finance committee is scheduled to meet a week from this
Thursday uh for to review the five articles. And then on June 2nd, your next regular meeting, you'll be presented with the presentations for your recommendations on the uh June 23rd town meeting. The reason it's that soon is because since it's a special town meeting, the finance committee report
has to be out 14 days uh as opposed to the seven days for an annual town meeting. Okay. Okay. Um and we do I think we do have to take a vote. Yes. A motion to approve the and sign the warrant as presented. So, does anyone have any questions or
comments? No. I'll take a motion then. Okay. Motion to approve the um uh special town meeting on the 23rd day of June at 7:30 p.m. in the meeting as presented.
I second that. I think you have a motion and a second. We'll do a roll call vote. Pat Woodus, yes. Pat Maloney, I. Jeff, yes. Aaron, yes. And I'm an I. The motion passes. Five in favor, zero opposed. Thank you.
And next on the agenda, we have the electricity aggregation procurement program options. So this is the conversation that we had last week or at our last meeting about um selecting the default
option for the green energy. Yeah. And and the clean energy and sustainability committee met earlier met last week following your meeting. I did exchange text messages with Baudrey and told him the board would be discussing this around 6:15. So, here's where we are. I
asked him if the clean energy and sustainability committee had any further information from its meeting last week. He wrote back no further information. Um, he thinks the best answers to get is for the select board to authorize the default greener option. and then the
parties meaning myself, the sustainability manager and the committee would work to get the best renewable percentage for the cost for the community. So again, it's just, you know, I guess it not much different than when we left last Monday, other than you've had a week to reflect upon it and
we just need to vote once receive comment from the community. Yeah. And once we vote on what the default will be tonight, yeah, we're we're scheduled to go out on June 17th to hit the market. So again, we it's been pushed back a little bit because you know of the the additional consideration. So even if
tonight you're not comfortable, June 2nd, we you know, is another time that you'll be meeting that would allow um you know, some some uh further input to the U procurement process. But um yeah, I think the question is is is it the lowest cost option, the default which is
been the traditional or is it do we use the default as the greener option with people could then elect to go either lower cost or higher you know higher um you know greener renewable components. Okay. So, um I mean I I agree with what
what you said the clean energy recommendation was that we we give the the town manager and whoever else is doing that negotiation the authority to obviously get the lowest price but with the expectation that the greener would be the the default. Um, I mean, it looks
like what these numbers show that, um, the biders can seem to be able to come pretty darn close to what the basic is right now with the greener. Um, and everybody still has the option to go down to the um the lower option, the basic if they if they choose to do that.
And as we know, there will be outreach to the community to show them how to do that and make it as easy as possible. So, that's my recommendation. Does anyone I have a question.
Paul, um I had asked last week about mailings. Um I'm fine with going with the greener option, but um is there and to Pat's point, she just mentioned that uh there would be some comm communication with the town. Is there a mailing that would go out to explain to
the residents how to opt down um or up uh as they choose? Um, yes. Yes. Yeah, there there will be a it's required actually under the program, we're required to do a mailing given that this is in November, it would probably go out just after Labor Day so that people have
enough notice and time and if they have questions, the letter instructs them who to contact for further information. And as you noted in your question, here's how you can elect to choose a greener, you know, product or a less costly one which is more aligned with the default
product. So yes, there will be a letter that goes out uh in a town letter head and town, you know, so that so that people know it's not just junk, you know, another piece of junk mail that they get. Um so yes, there is a letter that goes out. We'll also post notice on our website. We'll also make announcements at this table uh and try
to get the word out to folks and uh yeah, we'll put it in the newsletter and everything else to let people know that change is coming because no matter what's going to happen, something's going to change whether it's the price andor, you know, obviously the uh the mix of the power. So yes. Okay. Um I
would be comfortable endorsing this if there is such a letter that um explains it uh very clearly to the residents what their options are. U and with that I'm good. Thank you. So um I I actually agree a lot with um
what um Pat had said about um going with the greener option. I do want to acknowledge though that I, you know, I've heard from a handful of people that, um, kind of fell both ways on this. Um, I won't say that it was one more than the other. Um, I am very
cognizant about asking for people in today's environment to pay more. Um I think under the presentation uh data points we saw last week that um at at the end of the day they they can craft the greener option that will be
similar to price to what we're paying today. So we're not asking people to pay more. It may have sounded like that. So I just wanted to clarify that that's kind of the goal in under their worst case scenarios. They were talking of you know $5 a month. And I I don't want to
minimize even $5 a month for folks, but um you know, people are concerned that the country is going in a different direction with green and other people are very concerned we're not going fast enough towards green and and just to acknowledge um both of those things. Um I can support this at the greener option
because we're not asking people for more money. Um and if we're very very clear to Pat's point on how to opt down, you can opt out of green or you can opt down to a cheaper price. Um, as long as that's clearly communicated, which I think in the past it has been, then I
would support the middle greener option um, at similar rates to what we pay today. And, um, I I don't know if if part of our motion is going to be how long the contract should be. I would encourage a longer the better because I don't I don't think the prices are going to go down and it looks like if we go
for a longer contract, we get a lower price also. Yeah. So, I think that's another benefit. We'll pursue three. Historically, it had been three years, but the last contract was two years because the market was more volatile uh coming out of the pandemic and so forth. But I I would tend to agree that I think
given that you're not going to see an administration change and anything else in the next three years, it's probably better to go with a three-year certainty because, as you know, historically prices have gone up. Jeeoff, any thoughts? I agree with pretty much what everybody said to this
point because I think to Erin's point that the greener option with the futures looking the way they are are going to be the most sensible and um plus people have the option to get out of it if they don't agree with what
we're doing and that's fine. Um but I think we should go with the green. Okay. So, I I personally am kind of in the same boat that I was when we had this conversation two years ago. Um, where in theory I like the idea of
defaulting into the greener option, but I I in principle I have a really hard time defaulting people into a more expensive electric bill. Um, and I think even with all the communication in the world, you have people who pay their
bills online these days and don't read what they get in the mail and don't read the flyers, and you have elderly people who don't want to navigate the flyers and have to make phone calls and have to switch their electricity over, and they get confused. And um
and I I am still I'm still kind of on the uh fence, but I leaned probably towards staying in the default least expensive option as the default. Um but yeah, to each their own, but we can
um I think we can vote tonight if you guys I think you sound like you're all ready. So can I ask one more question? Sure. Yeah, of course. Um Paul, so um based on that communication and knowing that I mean if we lock in for 3 years or
if we vote this for 3 years, is that rate locked in for 3 years or is that subject to change in a year or or so or No, it's locked. It's locked in unless there was a mandated exemption. And you know in other words a change of law that could
that in other words that was passed on by the government that mandated an increase in electricity cost then we would have to absorb that but from that no it's a fixed rate for three years known rate for three years. Yep. Okay. When when we go out to bid do they give
us rates for for each option depending how long we lock in for? Like when we go out to bid can they will they give us back rates if we lock in for one year or two years or three years? Yes. That'll be part of the procurement. So then we'll be able to see what the difference is. So then we can we can actually decide at that time whether No, you won't decide because I got to decide I
got to decide in like two hours and because it's a market. So we actually have to decide tonight also how many years we're locking in for. Well, what I'm hearing from the board is a three-year preference barring the unforeseen which is always the case. Yeah. So just I think I think Paul has the judgment that if it comes out that the third year is going they're going to
jack it up that not to do that to do it just for two. Yeah. If you I think we have to give him some. Yeah. So you'll Yeah, you can decide. No, we've done that. bar in the unforeseen. Like it's no different than if you have flukes and interest rates and you see that a 10-year note is better worse than a 5-year note, you would do a 5-year. So, it' be the same thing. We'll we'll um
you know, we'll I understand the board's direction. Yeah. So, Erin, I got one last question. If um somebody decides to go to the greener option, then decides in a year from now they want to go back down, they can change that. Yeah. Yeah, we can.
So, do we take one vote? We need a motion. Yeah. Is it one vote for the default and one vote to authorize one vote? There's one vote to authorize the manager to proceed with the electricity aggregation procurement uh and with the greener as the what I'm understanding is the greener as the default product at
approximately the same price as the current uh rate for for for the aggregation program and with the preference for a three-year option. That's kind of how I understand the direction from the board. And you just need a majority so I can still Okay. If nobody has anything else, I'll do I'll
take a motion if you'd like to. Yeah, I'll make a motion to um approve the town manager to enter into negotiations to um for the municipal electricity aggregation uh for a period of 3 years with the
greener um middle option um being the preferred option by the board. Do I second? Second the motion. We have a motion and a second. We'll do a roll call vote because we have a participant on Zoom. Pat Wis. Yes. Pat Maloney. Hi.
And Jeff? Yes. Aaron? Yes. And I am a nay. So, we're going to The motion passes with four in favor and one opposed. [Music] Thank you. Okay. Next on our agenda, we have
the town council appointment for FY26. Um, Pat, do you want to speak to this? Pat Pat reached out to town council to confirm that they um would like to continue to serve the town for another year. Um, and we do have a letter from
them confirming that. Um, or I'll just Do you want to read it? I mean, that's that's basically it. Yeah. I mean, that's all that's what the next step was, just to get that confirmation. Yep. So, Yep. Uh, so KP Law says, "Pat, thank you for this wonderful news. Joe and I on behalf of the firm are thrilled to be reappointed and will gladly continue to
serve the town as town council. We consider it a great honor to represent the town as town council. Should you need any additional information from Joe or me, please let us know. Looking forward to working with you, the rest of the board and the town manager in the upcoming fiscal year." So with that, uh, from what I understand, at our next
meeting, we'll make the formal appointment. Yeah, we'll have annual appointments in June. it maybe the 16th because the there's three meetings in June this year and we're just getting out the notices now for all the annual appointments. But it'll be on your list in June. Sounds
good. Okay. Next on the agenda, we have a select board policy. We have the town manager appointment process. And I think we went over this at the last meeting. I don't know if anyone has any other comments. Nobody got in touch with me about any edits or anything. So I don't know if anybody has
anything else. they weren't, you know, discussed. Now, still have an an opportunity. I'm fine with it. Yeah, I think uh last week I in principle I was fine with it, too. Um I just went over some of the the wording.
I didn't send it to you because I didn't think it was it was something that um was critical to change, but I just wanted to make sure I understood the idea of of it says a select board shall decide if a search firm should be employed by the screening committee. So
at that point um and then we direct the search committee on how to choose the firm. But is at that point that this appointed search committee is gonna will be handling everything directly with the um with the search firm and and sourcing
all the resumes or is that usually the screening committee is the one that that does yeah reviews the gets to first look at all the the résumés that come in and and narrow that does the initial I guess you could uh say uh you know scaling the
the ones that that don't meet and then the ones that do you And those meetings are done in close session to pro protect the identity of those who apply and then when it's turned over to the select board whether it's three or five candidates then that becomes public and then that's when the select board acts. So that's that's how
that's how the process works. That way you know you're encouraging people to apply and obviously they don't want to jeopardize or take a risk if they're not going to be a finalist. So that so basically as as you noted the select board would decide whether the town's
going to utilize a search uh search committee search firm to assist the screening committee or not and then once that's decided then the ad goes out and everything else and then people and then just based on how this was done in the past right it says that you know um at
least one no more than two select board members representative from the town and then some town residents is that how it was done in the past we've only actually had had done one one time. Um, and that it was very done very quickly because
the the incumbent town manager left with very little notice. I mean, and that was agreeable between the town between the the select board and that town manager. Um, so they put together very quickly a screening committee that that was composed of four select board members and five members of the community which
seemed to be heavily weighted on the on the select board side. Um, so it's typically not that many on select board members on the the screening committee. Um, just because one reason being because I I guess you want a little bit more of the input from the community and
the select board all five members get the final say no matter what anyway. I mean, if you're going to put all of them on the screening committee, what's the point in, you know, coming back with the to the select board with your finalists? You know what I mean? That's kind of my logic on it. Um, and and I can see that.
I think that that makes sense. Um I think just you know for me I I didn't have I never had a whole lot of personal faith in HR screening resumes. So I understand we have to have a search committee to do that and I certainly
don't want to screen a 100 resumes but um getting down to you know the choice of three to five um if I was not to be the one of the members on the committee I would just feel a little out of the loop on that. But I can agree with the logic of why we wouldn't all be on that. Okay. But being
a member of the select board, and you can correct me if on this, would other select board not screening committee members be able to go to those executive sessions when they're doing the screening of the resumes? Yeah. I don't think it would violate anything. Yeah. Right. So you you can you can observe
and then you can always pull members of the screening committee aside and say, you know, I wish you would do this instead of that. Well, yeah. I know. I mean, if I wasn't a part of the committee, I don't know if I'd want to necessarily I just If you had strong opinions, you might It's a big It It's a It's It's critical for the town's
future if and when we have to, you know, when we have to address this type of thing. Um so, you know, I I like to have more information, not less like to be a participant, not Yeah. line. So, um but again, otherwise, I think it it lays things out pretty clearly and I I
wouldn't edit any of these things. They were just more clarifying for me. Okay. So, are you volunteering for the committee now already? Just keep that in mind. Maybe Okay. Um, so we have to vote on this if there's no nothing else that anybody has
any issues with. No, I'll take a motion then, Pat, if you're up to it. Yeah. Um, I'll make a motion that we uh approve the um the draft of the town manager appointment process and policies uh as
presented. I second the motion. We have a motion and a second. We'll do a roll call vote. Pat Wess, yes. Pat Maloney, I. Jeff, yes. Aaron, yes. And I am also an I. So, the motion passes. Five in favor, zero
opposed. Thank you, Pat, for putting that together. Yep. And next up, we have a status report on the FY25 select board and town manager goals. Yeah, Madam Chair, members of the board, um the purpose of tonight's meeting is
one week after last week's session and following town meeting is is for the board to look to the future. what does it want to accomplish in the in the next you know year until the uh town election and so forth upcoming fiscal year. Um what we have here is what the board did
a year ago. Uh and and per that under the town's policies I provide a quarterly update. So this is the fourth quarter update on what was done a year ago and I'm not going to go through it extensively because one you've had it many of you have heard it before. Uh and
second of all, um really the only purpose to go through it is is just to to prod members of saying, "Oh, is that something we want to continue in the future?" So, so I'll go through it quickly and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to slow me down or or stop. Um the first goal from a year ago
uh for the current fiscal year was early notification of financial issues. Obviously, the budget and the fiscal condition being paramount. Um, obviously we're now at a more elevated state of that given what's going on with the economy and you know and what's happening with the federal funding
situation and so forth. And so um, and as you can see, you know, I did that in the past year. We talked, you know, and we will continue to hear again, you'll see these themes about what's going on with the retirement assist system assessment, health insurance premiums, utility costs. Uh, and we'll have a
five-year financial forecast at Falltown meeting. Uh we'll have a tri board meeting uh in December and probably before any of those things um I'll probably do another three-year outlook which was helpful a year ago to sort of
you know continue to ring the bell and draw attention to where we're looking at particularly now that we've um we're the legislaturator's moving on the budget for the state which is our local aid and also we will if things go right by next month we should have four of our six collective bargaining agreements in
place for the upcoming three fiscal years. Um, next one was fee structure. Obviously looking at fees and department will continue to do that. Uh, financial management and visibility exploring grant opportunities obviously will continue to do that. I noted all the grants that we received because it is
noteworthy and notable all the items that we receive funding for and again you know they go through that and then obviously the legislative funding opportunities the airmarks and once again we have earmarks submitted that are in the House and Senate versions of the budget. We'll see how they come out
with the budget adopted probably in July and then hopefully they'll remain whatever actions the state is taking once the year begins. Um because for example, we've seen the warnings coming from the state including the governor announcing a hiring freeze for basically
non-essential public safety positions uh effective you know in the next couple of weeks. And then obviously we're watching what happens in Washington which which money comes to the state and then towns. Fiscal management and visibility. A year ago the goals of the current ski was to look at the marijuana question as a
revenue source. Um the board opted to place a question on the ballot to whether the town should join many neighboring of our neighboring communities for a 3% uh excise fee and that vote failed by a 34 a.5% to 58.33%
uh margin. Um, also collective bargaining, as I mentioned, um, we continue our negotiations. Um, as I mentioned earlier, we have a tenative agreement with the library employee unions, which we'll talk about in the close session this evening. Um, that just would leave the firefighters and
public safety dispatches remaining. ARPA funding that was allocated in in time for the December 31st, 2024 deadline. Christine Clancy will be in probably next month with an updated report. We were doing monthly reports, but that was more because we wanted to be sure we
allocated the funding and we're managing it. Now she's going to give periodic reports when there's substantive conditions to report, but you know, she's she's we're still working on it. Uh anyway, manage ongoing projects. Uh again, that was part of the ARPA uh process improvements, the gap analysis,
that's continuing with the consultant. Um so again, is we may see something in the next month or two in terms of the assessment. um sewer storm water drainage um again we're continuing the inflow reduction work by public works
um including the reserve capacity the MWR options long-term report in terms of the ability to connect to the MW sewer in Bedford or Burlington we should see that report in July as noted um regional again we're still communicating but
there's really no promise for regional cooperation on the sewer capacity issue. Again, the infiltration DPW continues to explore infiltration sources that are adding to our flow. And then they're continuing the infrastructure maintenance. Um most
notably the uh sewer force main along Progress Avenue infrastructure, roads and sidewalks. Obviously, that work is now uh commencing with the construction season. Um and um and then we anticipate that continuing. And then we'll look
when we close out this fiscal year to see if we can put more money into infrastructure because we will as we noted that town meeting and here we will finish the year in the black and we will have some cash to put towards infrastructure particularly roads underground utilities as as you know
town meeting approved the appropriation from the community preservation fund. I have a call with council next week to um meet with virtually we'll do it with um Verizon and National Grid to get that design process underway. Uh town
government focused areas 54 Richardson Road as you know that's ongoing. We'll have an executive session tonight about that uh dealing with the PAS regulations and contamination. the Warren Pole conservation restriction that is uh we're awaiting feedback from the Mass
Division of Conservation Services regarding the restriction that the town submitted. Traffic issues, traffic safety committee meets. In fact, we met this morning uh and we're continuing and we again we'll report back to the board when there's particular regulations that the board needs to approve like we did
with the stop sign with the bridge project or if there's issues that arise. As you can imagine, we've had some feedback with the new crosswalk and speed tables on Mill Road. Um, anytime you make a change, you get feedback. Um, that should be fully operational with the flashing lights uh in the next later
this week. Um, and which is good because now it's starting to gear up with uh the soccer and the season. Um, so again, we'll continue to update the board. And then the central square project um we um we did we opted not to pursue the acquisition of the parcel in the in
central square uh because of the liability issues from the groundwater contamination. Uh town government focus areas of tree planting that is underway there. The DPW is out there um literally this week and was doing some last week planting trees in the community at the
dog park and they'll be planting soon at the uh school uh uh by Harrington and the high school. uh consolidated regional services. Uh we continue to do that. As noted, we're we're we're now we're now the lead uh community for the seal of weights and measures with TSbury
and Westford. And also in the earlier slide, we we are we're the lead for the grant with Bill Ricker for the uh energy conservation services. Um strategic plan uh that's been completed. Uh again, a copy of that is in this document. And again, we're not going to go through that page by
page, but um we're working uh to implement and imple and we have a meeting this Thursday with department heads to discuss implementation of the strategic plan board and committee initiatives. The fire station study committee is moving forward. As you know, we've hired a designer
um uh and a project manager uh and with the board's approval. So, that's moving. Open space recreation that plan has been updated. We're we're looking town meeting funded uh accessible improvements on open space lands. There's also some grant opportunities
potentially out there. Uh clean energy and sustainability. As I mentioned a moment ago, we did secure a $240,000 grant from Massave to fund a regional energy advocate with the channel Thompson serving as the lead with the town of Bara as part of the grant. Um
again, sometimes you get more grant money if you do regional projects. MBTA zoning, as you know, the town approved that. Um, and uh, the Traml Crow at 255 Princeton Street, they're they are now going to be in the next few days receiving their occupancy permit as well
as beginning rental showings. So, basically means the road's going to be open and you're going to hear people uh, at that site. The good news for the town is is that the town houses at the entrance and one of the main buildings as well as the sewage treatment plant are operational. And so that will affect
the town's growth for property revaluation um because that deadline is June 30th. And then we'll have partial on the remaining buildings which are scheduled to be completed this fall. And then the housing plan production plan update uh has is NIMCOG is in the final touches with the committee on that
project. ADA's housing. Um the the with the adoption of the new accessory dwelling unit zoning bylaw on February 2nd, the planning board obtained town meeting approval and we're now awaiting the decision from the attorney general's office which should be here by the end
of next month because it was 90 days and they asked for 45day extension. The 40B Save Haven, uh the community development director submitted the affordable housing approvals for Marose Avenue and 255 Princeton Street. um to obtain the 10% which is the 1470 units subsidized
housing inventory. Um as the board knows I sent information that came in today the board of appeals met uh on June May 5th I'm sorry May last week two weeks ago the beginning of May and asserted safe harbor that we were at 10%. That letter
went out today in in accordance with the deadlines. So now that the because the property applicant appealed this is on Crosby Village off of you know off of North Road um by the by Crosby Lane. Um and so that notice has gone out. Now the
applicant will have 30 days um or the town depending upon the decision by the executive office of housing livable communities regarding the 10% uh safe harbor. And then this afternoon about three hours ago, the 40V application was
submitted for 243 Rivenneck Road, which is the residence at Rivenneck. Uh which and the project there is 16 rent rental units and seven townhouse units at 243 Rivven Road, which is therandle property. The applicant is a
Shock Patel. Many people may know this from decades ago. This has been a site under under 40B considerations um for the I think for the last two decades. It's an environmentally sensitive site. There's also some concerns that were noted in the town's comment letter about
the grades and so forth. And so I anticipate the same process will happen that the board of appeals has to schedule a hearing within 30 days. They'll assert they would open the hearing and then they may elect, you know, logic would dictate that since
they just asserted it for um the Crosby Village one that they may take a similar action for um 243 Rivven and my understanding is is the applicant uh is aware of what's happening at for 243 Rivven is aware of what's happening at
at Crosby Village. Um so again that's where we are on the 40B safe haven MBTA school MSBA school project. Um as Pat has updated the board uh as the chair of the school parker school building project. We're at the feasibility stage uh and we've obtained the board's
approval to hire the owners project manager and we're now submitting the documents um for the design of services uh which will probably take place towards the end of the summer um so that we can get going in the fall on the you know op the exploration of options for
that project and also we've submitted the documents for the MSBA accelerated repair program for the southro elementary school which is the reason we're having the special town meeting uh to fund that project because we we we did not have that information available at the spring annual town meeting. Uh
the 250th USA birthday celebration. Um we were not funded in the first round which were the events that took place recently at the Lexington and Conquered. We anticipate there'll be another funding round for the um n yeah 2026
um celebration of 250 year anniversary. The word's not coming to me. I know it's not by it's independency. Yeah. Of Yeah. Declaration of Independence. Yeah. Um so that's what's coming up there and we'll look at that. And then the senior center
inclusiveness again we reported on that back in February. We're continuing to work at the senior center to open up to different cultures and outreach. Uh volunteer appreciation. As we know we we held a volunteer appreciation day at the volunteer fair back in March. Policy
updates. You approved the town council uh appointment policy at your March 10th meeting and then you've appointed this evening the town manager process uh timeline policy. Charter updates. This is sort of the one thing that's left outstanding is the board had looked
about whether we should be removing some committees that are no longer uh active like the celebrations committee which is called for in the charter. It's you. It's really something you could do for fall town meeting because if you want to amend the charter, you have to bring it to fall town meeting and then vote it in the spring uh by ballot approval. That's
how you'd submit the the approval for the ballot change. And that concludes the uh goals update report for the current fiscal year. Thank you, Paul. Next up, we have the um we have to establish select board and town manager
FY26 goals and it looks like we have some proposed I've given you some proposed um which is why my initials are on it. So it's no it's nobody's other you know meaning you know everybody contributes and I don't you know but just like I went over the goals report and and I've included the
strategic plan in the document which we're not going to go through by line by line but I I sort of advanced what I thought would get the ball going on this discussion. We do have an easel and and marker boards if the board wants to utilize that. to start it out. Um what I
reflected upon this and I've shared this with the chair and vice chair when looking at sort of what's ahead of us in the year ahead and what's most that we can see and what's most to the community. Obviously the major one uh major investment in infrastructure in the community is the feasibility study
for the new Parker school. Um and um I think that you know that really has to remain a focus of the community. Um because you don't want to get to a case or you want to minimize the extent possible that people saying gee we weren't aware of that the town was looking for you know a new school project when the vote comes in a couple
of years and also you want the community's input in terms of what grades could should be in that school um whether it should be renovation or replacement and and again the educational value and benefits and opportunities with the new building. So again, uh working with the owner's
project manager and then ultimately the designer that's selected um to explore these alternative grade configurations and associated cost estimates. Um I'll just go through these and then we can go for discussion. Next one was sewer capacity resolution. As I mentioned earlier, you know, we'll receive the
report in July regarding the the cost to connect to the MJ sewer system in in Burlington or Bedford um via the installation of a sewer main along route 3A, which basically would go from the town's business corridor on Burka Road down basically what we we you know
towards uh Burlington that way off of 3A. um and consider what that would mean in terms of cost as well as what it would provide for uh economic development. Um ledge road commercial trucks as you know that's an ongoing
issue that's going back to the board of appeals at their first meeting the first Thursday in June which I believe is the 5th um for for I think will be a resolution. Um the the board of appeals stayed action on it to allow the the
town officials to meet with representative Newport aggregate as well as other property owners uh in owning the quaries in that area. After a series of meetings, we've been unable to come to a resolution. Uh and so therefore, it's going to go back to the board of
appeals. Council was will be present. Obviously, the at Newport will be present. The building commission will be present. uh and we'll see where that goes, but there's likely to be appeals from either side depending on what the board of appeals decides to do. But
obviously that's an important issue um and has been budgetary again predominant issue. Um, you know, we have we have a budget in place just like the state does, but we don't know what's ultimately going to happen. But we really have got to transition to doing
what's coming up in FY27 because that process will start in October. Uh, at which time we could be amending the current year's budget and then as we talked about earlier, there'll be a trio board meeting once uh in December and then a budget release uh in early
February. Um part of that you know as we know from our financial forecast is we can't it doesn't appear that we'll be able to maintain level service. So the question does become do we explore revenue options you know and that goes from everything as you know we talked marijuana earlier we talked billboards
we talked whether we look at regional public safety dispatch wireless communication tower sites that we talked about last meeting look perhaps at 54 Richardson road or otherwise and then I guess the addition of of efficiencies and sort of one of the all of above
approach you know do we look at possible modifications to solid waste and recycling collection such is, you know, do do we still want to remain as one of the few communities and certainly in this area that collects from four or more unit condominium projects? Uh do we
do we want to require property owners to remove snow from sidewalks? Do we want to investigate consolidation of water districts? None of these are popular, which is why they don't exist today. Uh and they are controversial, but I I think it's sort of like, well, if you don't like some of these options, then
you may not like the alternatives because they're going to become cuts. And quite frankly, the cuts are going to come and fall heavily in education because that's where the money goes. Um, as well as public public works and so forth. Uh, and then finally, some what I would call secondary or other items.
West and South Fire Stations, we talked earlier, um, will monitor the building committee's progress on the design, cost estimates, schematic design, and bidding uh, for that project. And that's that you know certainly that wouldn't go out to bid till a year from now or or maybe
earlier in this you know nine or so months but the the board needs to keep an eye on that project and we are and we'll report regularly you know Pat's the Maloney is the leazison to the permanent building committee to see how that project unfolds in what's a very turbulent and uncertain environment with
tariffs and inflation and so forth. uh strategic plan. Mentioned earlier a couple times about monitoring the implementation of this the newly adopted strategic plan. Open space land accessibility. We talked about that briefly about increasing the accessibility on open space lands and
pursuing grant and other funding opportunities. And then again another one from town meeting as we mentioned a moment ago underground utilities uh monitoring the progress on the phase of the underground utilities to the town center. So that's that's sort of what I
had as a u starting point. Um but again this is this is our meeting tonight. There's you know it's almost like a work session. There's no audience. There's nobody on Zoom other than our Pat and Maloney our board member. And this purpose of tonight's meeting is to you know figure out what does the board want
to do and then and where we get tonight we can come back at a future meeting if necessary with a formal document and adoption in final form. But tonight's really a brainstorming and discussion of like what does the board want to do in the next year? Uh and what should we
highlight? Um so I'll stop there. So does anybody have anything they want to Paul? I know we're waiting on the report from Weston and Samson, but do you see any negative with us tying in with the sewer with these other communities? I think it's going to be
cost. Um but we're kind of up against it right now. Yeah, we're here and and it's also it's not only cost but it's also going to be what what's the impact of the additional sewer capacity because if you add where I've had a preliminary
discussion with the consultant along with the public works director it's going to be costly and part of the cost is what they envision is is we would probably install a new sewer main from the chumps line down to Bedford or
Burlington connection MWR sewer And why we say what why would you tie a line? Don't they have lines in the road? Well, they do, but the problem is is they don't have the capacity to take the flow from Chelmswood. And in some cases, what we're seeing in Burlington especially, they have their own capacity
constraints. So therefore, it also keeps it cleaner. In other words, you also don't want to get people in those other communities anxious that they're going to have sewer problems or sewer backups or whatever because, oh, you tie chumps in. I mean, you can imagine the angst if we said, "Oh, we're going to let Westford come through
Chford sewer lines." You know, people like, "Oh, is that going to work? Is it going to be okay?" Um, so the the thinking preliminarily, and again, I haven't seen it in a written form or final report would be is you install a sewer main, you know, basically from
129. Uh, and you may also involve additional sewer main within our portion of 129. So therefore because remember everything else is going to lol and and because again our pipes have certain capacity and l has certain capacity. So we may install almost a second line
let's say in 129 and then what does that do for that flow? Um the also thing becomes what does it cost because you know how do you get the return? What do you then charge people for that work? Because not only you going to pay for
the construction, the town's going to have to maintain that line going forward. So let's say we stall a line, it's not just, oh, what's it cost to put it in the ground? You then have an ongoing maintenance just like we have an ongoing maintenance for our existing sewer lines. And then you and then are those towns of Burlington, Bedford, Indo, Baricka are
going to ask for a privilege fee to go through their rightway to go through their town. So those are those are questions that the consultant is trying to get answers to uh to be able to evaluate that. Um and then then the question becomes okay then what does that mean?
Right now, our zoning on 129 allows not only economic development, but part of that is also residential development because it, you know, so therefore it could have an impact on not only economic development opportunities, but residential development, which would then what does that spill over into the
town's infrastructure, which which as we know from town meeting, we can't discuss, you know, a project what that is, but it's obviously going to be in the back of people's minds is what would this mean if this were to result in additional housing development and what's the impact on the town's infrastructure, you
know, whether it's schools, whether it's trans traffic, whether it's whatever you have out there. So, that's that's the discussion, Jeff. And I know it's a long-winded answer, but I just want you to understand it's a really it's a really complex question. And then the other thing is you got to have the water
to support the sewer because you if you're increasing this flow, you then have to look at, well, what are your sources of water? um because as you know they're they're regulated and monitored as well about how much you can draw from the river basins and and and as we know
in in uh you know water conservation uh times. So, I think in addition to that, you know, we have to um analyze and look at the cost of not doing something like that um because I think um if I heard
you uh recently, Paul, we uh we might be losing businesses on 129 um because they wanted to expand and um you know, couldn't get the sewer capacity that they needed and also additional consu you know, sewer capacity
um uh would draw in certain types of businesses if we had it to to give out. Um so uh I think you know we you need to analyze the cost of not doing something like that along with the cost of doing something like that um as well because
uh we can't afford to be losing business and we need to be drawing business in and um you know more residents and uh right now it's just um it's just tough to to do that. And uh by my way of um looking at things, it doesn't look
like unless there's a regional solution that the state gets behind to increase capacity or to do something with the um wastewater treatment plant in Wall. Um you know, we're going to be we'll be
talking about this 10 20 years from now. Yeah. Exactly right. That's the problem. There's an opportunity cost no matter which way you go. And that's the struggle that we're going to deal with. So that's why we're getting this report. Yep. We'll get this report hopefully by July. We we had we had thought it would be here sooner. We kind of expressed our
concerns to Wes and Samson of, you know, we need this thing. We need answers, not more questions. Um, but yeah, I think it's kind of a longterm conversation. This report will be the good a good baseline to start. Exactly. But I am curious the other my other comment under
the sewer capacity was um collaboration with the surrounding towns because I still I always feel like that should be part of the conversation, but I know it's tricky. And I don't know about Numcog like what is does what is Numcog? What kind of conversation does Numcog have about the sewer stuff? I mean, she's had conversations with the
managers. The the problem is nobody wants to give up their capacity. And we've explored this, but has capacity, but but they're not 100% sewer. Tukbury has capacity, but they're not 100% sewer. But their plan is to increase the sewerization in their communities. Yeah. And they sort of look, they don't want
to be in the situation that we're in. And then Drakuit is is you know is at capacity and they're that's why they've explored you know solutions out through Methuan and then the same thing with Tingsboro. Tings looks towards you know which side of the river to go to the plant but also looks towards NSHA as
solutions because you know it's it's part of the as you said but there's everyone's kind of doing the and then the problem is is nobody we had even looked you know because we looked at this so many years about well couldn't we go into with a regional plant that would serve like Westford, Kingsboro and JSford. The problem is where do you put
it because nobody wants it in their neighborhood and the state and the federal government no longer allow you to put it on a water body like the Marramac River. So a place like Southwell which was originally envisioned for that you can't do anymore. And then you you know you got you hear people complain you know I mean
we know from the experience in the city of L the complaints they have from the odor at their sewage treatment plant at Duck Island as well as the trucks. Now that's obviously a busy commercial road 110 and l um as you go to the little drak it line but you can imagine what
push back you got if you were running septic and and commercial trucks to a sewage treatment plant. Yeah. In any neighborhood in any town. And so that's so between the odor and the disruption of traffic and otherwise it just that that's why you just don't see these things being built. And again the
problem with the l plant is they physically don't have expansion capacity. And obviously with LOL's growth, if there is some capacity, LOL's not obligated to offer it to the communities and with their growth, they're likely not going to. Yeah. They're going to need it. They're going to need it for themselves. And and
rightfully, if they own the plant and you know, they're a city of 120,000 people. They're that's growing. They're going to if you were in their seats, you would do the same thing. You'd save it for yourself. So we're not here to solve the problem. No, no, but I know put it on a list. I
guess it's on the list. Yeah. So that's the only the only thing that I would kind of add to that under this through a capacity resolution is I don't know maybe looking into collaboration with the surrounding towns. But again, I know I I think that this getting this report back is is a good that's the first step. Then we can see where we are. But and I
don't know what that collaboration looks like anyways. I'm not sure how to how I would put that into um words on here. And I know Nemco is kind of doing some of that work too. So, so if I may,
um, just to, uh, mimic some of the FY25 goals, um, just starting right at the the beginning of the report, I think some of these items should stay on, um, as goals for the following year being, um, you know, if we start with the first
one, the fiscal management and visibility, early notification of financial issues, uh, mostly based on the times that we're living in and what we think um may and will likely become uh come before us over the next um year.
I think it's important to leave um early notification of financial issues on I think fee structure evaluation which Paul indicated that it's u it's constantly reviewed and I think um you know that's another one that as we um get into some more of this um uh
perilous times that um you know we um constantly go back and take a look at that because revenues are going to become an important uh uh discussion topic um as well as Um, you know, again, under fiscal management and visibility,
any grant opportunities that may um arise and legislative funding opportunities, I think that should stay on as well. Um, not ready to uh reconsider marijuana, but maybe next year we will. Um but I think uh an
update um uh maybe uh midy year um Paul to uh just again look at more recent fiscal year um revenues that maybe some of the towns around us have um um
um have uh received um by allowing um that in their towns which is always um in usually in industrial areas and such. And so not something that would ever be in the town center or anything like that. But I think uh you know it's too
early to reconsider that again. But I I think um we should maybe report on um what uh some of these other towns that uh directly above but us and I think almost every town that does above Chsford allows it. So uh I think we're leaving money on the table on that. Um
collective bargaining um you know we're moving through now. Um any process improvements going forward I think are important to help um just uh manage the town a little bit better. Um so sewer storm water drainage
um is an ongoing thing as well. So I see many of these as um you know staying on our goals for coming forward. Uh infrastructure you touched on in the way of um sidewalks and and um and preparing for that. So I see that staying uh as
well. Um you know uh town government focus areas I think is a good heading to cover again the um the 54 Richardson road situation I think should stay on there. uh the Warren Pole conservation
restriction as well as now um you know one of my items separate from all this was for to um monitor and support the CR for coolers that I understand you know we need to um you know move through uh surveys and things like that prior to
doing that but um I think that should stay on and and be added to for for Kulas um traffic certainly is an ongoing problem in the town and we've recently heard from folks in town of um some traffic issues um uh here at our
meetings. So I think that should stay on and uh be monitored as well. Um so uh that under the town uh government focus areas strategic plan is going to going to obviously be uh on our
radar and then board and committee initiatives uh just ongoing. Um I think that should stay on um in in as much as you know the uh permanent building committee's work um regarding the fire stations um and uh some of the other items open space and recreation and
clean energy and sustainability um so and board and committee initiatives should stay on as well um as uh as we work through the what we need to work through with the ADUs 40B safe
havens and the MSBA school project. Um so those are all things that I see staying on for the next year. Um volunteer appreciation should be ongoing uh as well and um you know policy updates and charter updates um should
probably stay as well. Other than that, and I think I've mentioned this to the board before when we were talking about NWR sewer, um I think we should um and I and I think we're doing this at some point, but I think we should look at um
possibly um uh tying into MWR water at some point because I'm just not sure that uh the town well system is going to be able to sustain and provide um good drinking water um in the future here in
Chelsford. So I think it's something that we should be looking at now just um uh ahead of time. Um so uh not just looking at MWR sewer and I know again we talked about this um at some point uh in the past few months, but I'd like to add
the water to that and I believe we were going to, you know, get some kind of report on that later on. Um and then um to some of the uh items in your um in your list, Paul, I think um you know, and one of the things that was on my
list was water department consolidation just because of all the problems that each department seems to be having at this point. Um and I think water needs to become much more of a um uh visible issue um townwide. So I think um you
know that will encompass you know probably MWR water uh water department consolidation etc. Uh and then um again to your point explore revenue options um anything that we can do um to increase
revenues for the town um in this time that uh we're going to need them I think we should be doing. So um um that's what I have this evening. Um, on the Ledge Road thing, I was lucky enough to uh attend a fundraiser for
Rodney Elliot last week and Virginia, former select board member Virginia Crockett Timonss was there as well. Rodney was appreciative to see a chumps chumpsford contingency and he brought up Ledge Road to me. I didn't bring it up. He asked if I was going to be going to the the meetings. I said that's not my
liaison. I said, 'But if it's beneficial that I attend, I said, 'I'll be happy to, but it's showing me the state's keeping an eye on Ledge Road as well, which is a good good news as far as I'm concerned. Um, so, uh, Pat went through
a lot of the things. So, I actually took last year's select board list and town manager list and went through and said, "These are the things I definitely want to see again." And then I took a look at the strategic plan which um you know I assumed would be implementing and tried
to lay a few things out that the thing that I'm kind of happy to report on is that I think a lot of the things that Pat just mentioned um I agree they're they're probably staples for a while now that we continue to to do and monitor and report on because I think keeping up
um with a lot of those things is really important. Um, and I I do appreciate what what Paul laid out here in a little bit more detail than I was thinking about it. Um, because I, you know, I kind of look at the the top of the list here and it's it's the budget, it's the sewer. I wasn't considering the water,
but that's come up on more than one conversation. um the school completing the fire stations um and then kind of implementing the strategic plan because we are dealing with the today problems and the next year budget problems. But
we can't take our eye off of that that long-term ball which is why um you know making sure that we implement the strategic plan and get it going and and modifying where we need to as the future evolves um is is pretty important. And so I think kind of everything that we've
we've covered now, I'd like to take some notes back and kind of reorganize them. But um the the one thing that I that I want to figure out a way to incorporate and I'm not sure I'm I'm quite seeing it yet is that um and and
maybe it does maybe it's under the kind of the revenue option idea. Um it's just business development. So I we talked about it tonight. I think it's important if if um if we have property owners or or businesses that want to come in and
they can't expand or if a property owner has something they want to do something different with the property um if we don't have the zoning or or it gets rejected by town meeting or the planning board. I think ensuring that that people know that the town is actively working business development issues because that
is additional revenue. I mean, we have revenue today, but it's arguably a potentially um incremental revenue. And I rather I rather put something in that that we could kind of live with that not everybody loves than turn around and say, "Okay, we have to, you know, let go
of somebody from the DPW so no potholes get filled this year." Like those are the the conversations I think we just have to be honest with each other about having um so incorporating some sort of um periodic business development update. And again, I'm sure some of that, you
know, happens because Evan sits on the on the planning board, but I feel like we ought to be reporting out if a business said, "Okay, I can't do business here." I'd like to do business here, but I can't fit within the the boundaries that you've had. And I'm not saying we change anything, but if people
don't understand what we're losing, then they're not going to be able to be informed when they have to make a town meeting vote or if the planning board has to make a um a vote. So I think that's other than that all the things mentioned and what's on your list. I think just organize it a little bit more
for me and and you know kind of I don't want you to have to report out on 27 things every quarter because I don't want it to get lost in the detail. So I want to make sure that we cover the bigger topics um with that. So that's all I got.
Okay. So I'll I'll give my input then. Um, uh, yeah, I agree that, you know, some of the things on the on the current year need to stay, but there are some obviously that can be removed that we finished. Um, and and I don't know, it's I guess it's a philosophical thing
about how long we want our goals to be. I mean, some of those things are just automatic that they're going to be covered anyway, whether they're on our goals or not. So, I don't know how we, you know, we had a tier one and tier two at one point, but I don't know if that if that really works, but anyway, it might be something to look at later. But
I do have one um a question on on your list under under cost efficiency. No, under revenue options you have regional public safety dispatch. Did you mean to put that there? Yeah. How do you figure that a revenue option? Uh I
would if we were pro if we were the provider of the regional dispatch, we'd receive revenue from another community. Oh, okay. So let's say we let's say we were a regionalized dispatch for Tingsboro. What's this? And again, I'm not not uh okay. We haven't had a talk. We haven't had a discussion with Tingsboro, right? But obviously, if that
were the case, then then the just like we we provide the animal control services for Tingsboro, they provide us, you know, with with a payment every month for providing the animal control officer. Um, so if we were providing the dispatch, so let's say it cost Tings X
to provide their own dispatch and it's costing us Y, then if we if if we were to take on a regional role, you'd get some state money. So that's revenue. But then also you'd get some money from the town of Kingsboro, if if unless it were
a regional wreck, then it would be a separate government entity. You're right. It'd be outside of us, right? So that's what I'm saying. You got to look at the model, but you could see how let's if it was costing Tesboro X to do dispatch, costing us Y and it's going to cost Z to do combined and therefore our net cost would be lower and their net
cost would be lower. Revenue would come in to us from Tingsboro to do it. That's why I threw it as a revenue option. It would be an it would be a budgetary savings if we left and said, "Oh, we're going to go join we're going to join the dispatch in uh Tuksbury that's doing Drake at Tuksbury and they were going to do Chelmswood." Okay. Then that would be
right. That's that's that's why I left it there because I I guess I was just being put on either one. It could be either one, but the problem is no matter what you put it on, you're going to get somebody's hackles up. So, well, kind of kind of on that topic then, um, I wrote down like the weights and measures as
we're as we're kind of ramping up to do a regional thing on that. Yeah, we're actually operating right now. Is there a possibility that could be expanded for more more revenue options? I mean, I I know it's hard. Nimcog failed. I know. I know. So I don't I don't want to bite off more than we could chew, but we we
the reason we're doing it with Westford and Tukbury because between the three of them, one person can do it. I guess you're right. We could look, well, what if we took on, you know, other communities then we'd have to add staff and I guess we could look at it, but I guess I'm sort of a little bit gunshy
because if Nimco wasn't able to do it, sure, you know, was I going to say, oh, well, it's new, too. So you might want to capacity to add, right? But I I want to make sure it works for us. But Nimco was doing it for years. Yeah. Yeah. And obviously there was a change of administration. There may have been a
change of philosophy to be honest. But so yeah, I didn't want to bite off more than we could chew and say, "Hey, Nimco, I I can do it if you can't, you know, and then, you know, kind of know then fall flat on our face and have us deal with the economic fallout of that." Yeah. I guess the point being there might be other opportunities like that,
too. I mean, it's good that we're looking at at other things where we can regionalize and and be the, you know, I guess even that the um um that grant that we're doing with Bara where we're the host community, right? So, I mean, the money is coming to us, not that we're going to make any profit from that
or anything like that, but um when that when that finishes up, you know, perhaps we could look at doing some kind of, you know, regional advocacy that would include more than just Bill Rick and and have some kind of charge for them or something. We do as as you may I don't
know how how well the director reports to the NIMCOG board but we do have these discussions monthly at at the managers NIMCOG managers meetings where we talk about you know gee you know particularly the smaller towns out you know the pepper and the dunstables they're always looking to regionalize and they and they
do it more effectively because they're at the size and scale they have to uh and so anyway we'll keep looking at it but yeah we'll keep doing that okay I mean some of the things that that I was thinking that you know um I've been kind of focused on polic policy stuff for for a while. And there's a few more policy
things I think maybe that we could look at or so, you know, I could take a first crack at them. Since we've we have a policy now for appoint council and town manager, we should have one for town accountant because we're also responsible for hiring a town town accountant. So, that one should be a
little bit easier to do because it's a more traditional hire. It's So, anyway, so I was going to maybe take a crack at that and we put that on our goals. Um, I think we've looked at the the minutes that we have in our policy, the minutes policy that seems kind of cumbersome to
me and I think others have commented the same thing that it's it's not the most straightforward um easy to follow logical process. Um, so maybe to take a look at at that again. Um, and there might be some other policies that that need updating. I know there's there's
there's some things in our policies that maybe we never do and maybe if we never do them, we should take them out because they're not necessary. Um, on the volunteer stuff and resident engagement, um, I was approached by uh a couple members of one
of the one of the committees in town asking if um if we had a uh like a a best practices manual for for committees. And I thought we don't, but you know, that's an an excellent idea. and these committee members offered to work with me to come up with one, but we
could put that on our goals and maybe, you know, do some more outreach, maybe form a committee on that, but maybe just make it be a informal work group that we collect ideas. Um, and that might involve um I I watched a webinar a few
weeks ago that MMA did where a lot of communities are doing these civicmies and I know a while ago they used to do them all, you know, MMA used to always brag about them and I thought, well, who would go to one of those things? Basically, it uh residents would have to
have to commit to say 10 or 12 weeks, one one day a week to go to a meeting where they would learn about the different departments in the town. you know, the the public safety would have one one uh night, the DPW would have another one, the schools would have
another one, and then at the end of the the 12 week or 10 week period, the the the students would get a a you know, there'd be a graduation. They'd get a certificate of having um completed going through all through this
process. And supposedly it increases participation. the people that usually would attend these and usually it's a not a big group maybe 15 to 20 people at most. They're more likely to then be more engaged in committees in town and
and and tell their friends and neighbors about all the wonderful things that the town does to get them more engaged. Um maybe it's something we could try to get more people involved so we so we have we have even less people on our on our list of committee vacancies. I mean it is
looking good right now but probably at the end of next month it's going to grow a little bit right as as people look so good right now though I've never seen it so short it's yeah right um so that's you know a couple of things and then something that came up from from town
meeting the you know the evaluating the options for the pet cemetery I I think we need to do that and just you know decide if we can do that if we can't do that why we can why we can't and just to put it to rest so that we don't have people constantly coming back and saying
we have to do this, we can do this. I know we can do this, but not everybody knows we can do this. So, um I don't know how we do that if it's a oneperson thing or or how that that should definitely be on here though. We we're literally tasked with it per town meeting. So, yeah, that's Yeah, that's I
think that needs to be a report. Yeah, by the what um maybe the end of this calendar year, no later than spring town meeting. A year, you know, less than a year from now. Um, so Pat, just a quick question on the the committee book. Are are you thinking something are you thinking that
different than what the clerk's office put together? Yeah, because that's that's more formal. You know, that's open meeting law. That's right. Um, you know um that has to do with minutes that has to do but this would be more like like how how to get people more engaged.
Um, I mean like one thing I know there there's probably, you know, the the civic academy being one one option and some committees and I I don't know I think this really works well. They they keep a list of of people that are interested in the committee but not
interested enough to join it and they're basically called basically the the friends of the recycling committee or something like that. And then the recycling committee once a month will send out a newsletter to everybody that's on their their email list about what they're doing. And if they need
help for hazardous waste day or something, they'll ask for volunteers to do that. And I think I think that's a way to get people more engaged, more involved, so they get a sense for what's going on, but without the commitment of coming to a meeting if they're not ready.
um you know, maybe it's um reaching out maybe more to the to the schools. I mean um I know some committees have uh have have student representatives on on their committees and and that seems to help get people engaged in a at at the beginning. I
mean, library trustees is a guy that's been on library trustees since he was an elected member since I think he was a senior in high school and now he's finishing up college. So, he's finishing his basically his second term on the library. And that's where he got started was, you know, coming to the meetings
and seeing what what it's all about. I think, you know, I I think we need to get we've said been saying this forever, we need to get younger folks involved. We need to start, you know, reaching out to them early and getting them hooked on on something that they can do for the
community. You know, that's not what Chumpswood can do for you. who ask what you can do for Chamsford to paraphrase somebody. So anyway, that's my thoughts and and yeah, I definitely agree with the other the other um items that have
been brought up. Okay. Does anybody else? Yeah, I got a couple of quick things. Um Paul, as you know, I was contacted by somebody at the high school wanting to learn more about traffic. He's going to do a civics report in his class, which I mean that's a great to do dubtail what you were
saying. You to get a student to get together with that commit, the traffic committee. I mean, I didn't even real I mean, I wouldn't just put it right off to them immediately because they they look at that stuff much more than we do, I'm sure. Um, by the same token, coming
out of town meeting, I had a lot of business people ask me what happened to the uh the lighting article and I explained that, you know, Kelly didn't feel it was completely the way he would like to see it. So, they decided to roll it back.
And out of those conversations, somebody brought up, well, what about the sign advisory committee? I said, "We haven't had one for years." But, and so the thought was, well, if we had that committee that would help new businesses, they could help me understand what they can and can't do with
signage. Um, instead of having them design something, come to the town, the town say, "Nope, nope, doesn't doesn't work." So, I that was one suggestion that came to me was, "Do we consider bringing back the sign advisory committee?" We do have some stuff in our in our um
zoning bylaws though around signage I believe. So we do have some guidelines in zoning that they have to meet. Yeah. And that is that's a billing commissioner. Yeah. And there's if the requests the variance they go to the board of appeals. Yeah. And the advis signed
advisory committee statutoily was an advisory committee to the board of appeals and and and that's why they went defunct is because there was never anything for them to do because the building inspector pretty much Yeah. Yeah. And they weren't coming to it wasn't meant it wasn't meant to be an advisory committee to businesses. Not
saying it shouldn't be, but I'm saying that's what it was. Their statutory in the bylaw was advisory committee to the board of appeals. Uh and you know, Fran McDougall used to joke that she was on it. So, but they never met because it was never an application that for them to consider. Um and then also at the
time that was when the town wasn't allowing the uh sandwich board signs and other stuff and then the town ended up modifying the bylaws to allow the sandwich board signs. Um now because that was a as you remember how that was really contentious as people were putting those out and now that's been
relaxed. Um so again we can give it some thought. That's it. Okay. Anybody else have anything? I don't have much except for the like I mentioned the collaboration with around the sewer and water conversation.
Um, the only other thing that I had, which is probably a much bigger conversation than anyone wants to get into, um, but I think Paul, you and I recently had a conversation about, um, parks and wreck and, um, you know, we don't have a parks
and wreck department in town and and people, the park and wreck discussion comes up under field maintenance. Yes. that that's not what a recreation department does and it's not what what what the recreation department when Holly Mansfield was here was doing. Yeah. And so it's a red herring that's
been put out by people who just want to take shots for whatever reason they want to do. It comes up for me because I have children that I want to put in summer camp and that's where it comes. That's a recreation program. But the idea that a parks and recreation department are going to manage conservation land. First of all, it's
not statutoily allowed because only conservation can do it. And so I I think it might be the better question was recreation department. Yeah. Um and and the problem with it is funding. Quite frankly, it it went defunct under under myself and and Don
Yman who was at that that time the superintendent of schools and because it got absorbed into community ed and they couldn't make it viable either. Well, that's kind of my question. Does it have to or could it be I mean could it be a department? Could it be absorbed into the DPW or because I know the DPW but what are they going to offer because
it's in the pro the the situation the reality in Chsford is you have Chford youth softball you have the Chsford youth baseball you have the lacrosse programs you have you know CBL the basketball program and so that they be have become the default they would go under an umbrella so so if you if unless
you're going to pull those organizations apart and put them into a recreation department which they're not going to want because we see what happens is when you try to step on the toes of volunteers very recently uh with the open space management of conservation lands. What would a recreation
department offer? Because what Holly was doing and why that went financially tanked is those you know those were the little summer programs after school programs and so forth. And it wasn't they didn't get enough enrollment. And then the original vision of the north
town hall was to be a community center. Remember that was the that was the vision. It was it was called the comm the child community center and they were going to have after school programs and so forth. It people idealize about it but when it comes to you know taking out the
checkbook or or the debit card or the electronic payment and paying it just never materializes driving the kid to the driving the kid there and everything else. And and that's and the sad part is is I just think it's it's a it's we just
don't see it existing with today's kids because it's it's just different. It's diff we all know it. It's different being a teenager or a young adult or or an older child today than it was 20 years ago, 30, 40 years ago. And so you just don't you just don't see those the
program. Not saying it can't happen. We can look at it, but I I just I I just don't see how we'll do it because you not only got to pay for the programs, now you have to pay for somebody to administer the programs. Well, yeah, and that's what we talked about whether it would be you'd have to create a position
with the town, which is then a Yeah, you're creating a head. I mean, yeah, you you just saw, you know, this this the fellow here on Summer Street who just relocated because he couldn't stay in town, you know, um he was running the the trolls and the program, everything else. And then and then you saw the you
also saw the one on Summer Street that was doing the coding. They just they it just they just don't they just not it's just not there. Meaning there doesn't seem to be economic viability for those programs. Yeah. I mean as well as a parent of young kids in town, I'll tell you that there's programs. They're
everywhere, but they're also scattered, right? So you have you have volunteers running like my daughter's softball. You have volunteers running the lacrosse all all the different all the different sporting things, all the different programs. that I9 program makes it complicated and even for them for the people who are do
running the programs I think it's complicated because they're all kind of se operating separately and then they have to vive for field time and you know it's not um under any umbrella and yeah I mean it would be great if there was like a coalition of them so they had the same registration system so that you as a parent didn't have to register all the
different I I get it sure but that would require right like some sort of like umbrella to oversee all of that and I don't know I just recently after um you know with all the conversation about increasing accessibility to the town's open spaces and things like that and
then you know my recent camp experience um camp hunt experience um you know I had a conversation with the guy who runs um the camp program in Raa for their parks and wreck and their program is insane they offered 50 million camps you
know and I was like tell me how tell me all the things how are you doing this you know and it's Um it's incredibly affordable. Um I mean I can't find anything else like it anywhere, you know. So it just it makes me wonder if um you know and we're growing and I
don't know if that's something that in in collaboration with our conversations about how we utilize our open spaces. Um oh why wouldn't it be a regional program and with the DPW? I mean maybe can we get Bel to combine theirs with us? I don't know. I mean, but that that's just something that I kind of, you know, when
we talk about our utilizing the open spaces, um, and we talk about, you know, um, child care for the families in town and things like that. And um it just it occurs to me that I don't know at some point we
might get to a point whether it's as a size of the town or whatever where something like that. Yeah. Might make sense or having a conversation about kind of consolidating some and maybe it's a conversation with the DPW because it's kind of in align with a lot of the work that I think they do also. I don't
know. I don't know. Or Yeah. Or the you know I don't know. Well, facilities took over a lot of the maintenance on those properties. Correct. On which properties? The activities, the fields and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. They work with, you know, with some of the volunteers and
that because part of the other problem is some of these volunteer organizations are having struggling to get the next generation of members, you know, who who go out there and do the work as well. I mean, that's, you know, that's the and and it's unorganized. That's the thing. I love it. I mean, I love I love the programs that my kids do, but it's that
they don't have the the structure, right, to do so. So, it's Yeah, but I think that's what I'm I'm hearing. It's It's not that we The services You didn't say the services weren't there. It's just there's not one place to go. And because they're all independently Yeah.
kind of operated regardless of how you're right because I I I've run into the battle of like the over at the pack being scheduled twice or you got to do this over at the McCarthy, you got to do. So, there there even even with the stuff that we do control, there seems to be a little bit of and they're all vying
for field time and all these things, but there's nobody kind of Yeah. But I but I think that if I heard everything that was said, it's not about where it goes. It's about getting the it's more about, you know, kind of find a way to get them all as I think you would use under one
umbrella. Um, and so I don't necessarily think that's a like an employee that the town would put on. And I think that's I' I'd want to look at a different solution to that versus hiring somebody to be the coordinator, but I don't know maybe that
is the solution and and if there's a way to make that kind of cost neutral then yeah I don't know if it's a parks I don't know if it's necessarily a parks and wreck or if it's something under the DPW as a recreation I don't know. I just think when we talk
about when we talk about increasing accessibility to open space lands, right, which is on here, and we talk about kind of using um the spaces that we have to enrich the lives of people in town, I think there's some opportunity there.
Um yeah, just a thought. I'm not even sure how I would bullet that on this on this um priority list, but and I'm I'm not I don't know how a traditional parks and recck department operates and you know the details of that.
So I don't know maybe that's maybe it's an offline conversation but I don't know. All right. So, worth talking about. So, we we can come back with a revised uh outline of a list for the board to
look at in two weeks of of the goals with based on the conversation we've had tonight. Are we back in two weeks? One week or two? Two weeks. June second. Yeah. Next week's the parade. It's been every week. Next Monday, you'll be in the parade. Memorial Day. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. Um hoping the weather works out. You're going to do that? Yeah, I'll do
that. I can share with you that and just Okay. Come back with something. Okay. Okay. What I'll do is I'll use the outline of the current one as the template and then just build on it and then and then pull some things out as you said and I can I can write it by you before I send it out. That sounds good. Okay. If any nobody has anything
else in the goals. Okay. We'll come back to it in a couple weeks. Um and with that it looks like we we don't have anything else. Leaison reports and referrals. Oh yeah. Sorry. I Yeah. I saw it and I said to James, I said is this bad? I said, "Why?" It's
not always like this. It's backwards, right? Okay. So, we're not coming back to do leaison reports. Yes. No, we're not coming back to do leazison reports. Um, so it is time for liaison reports and referrals. Um, we'll just go through those. Pat, do you have a report you'd like? Yeah, I just have a couple of
things. Uh first of all, the library is pleased to announce that um beginning on Wednesday uh June 4th, McKay Library in North will be open uh on Wednesdays from 12:30 to 8:30, you know, really expanding their hours on Wednesday. They're still going to be open also on
Mondays and Fridays, but expanding their hours on Wednesday. So, that's a good thing for them. And just wanted a note um that I noticed that there was a a gentleman who used to be a veterans agent in the town of Chford. His name is Kevin Cody who passed away recently u
doing some research. Uh Paul helped me with the research. He was a veterans agent in town in the early 90s. So uh you know I I didn't know him myself but I'm sure there were people that that did know him and and worked with him in the veterans office. That's all I have.
Thank you, Pat. Pat Maloney. Um, yeah, I just have a couple of quick things tonight. Um, um, Paul, myself, Dr. Lang, and Dennis King, the chair of the, uh, school committee, met with MSBA
last Monday. Uh, Mass School Building Authority last Monday to get our, um, owner's project manager approved. We received a letter a couple of days later um with that approval. So, uh, contract has been ex executed with, um, our OPM
Left Field LLC. Um, and, uh, very quickly after that, by Friday, the, um, request for services for an architectural firm. Um, the draft was submitted to the Mass School Building Authority for their uh,
review and comment and approval. So, we'll be looking forward to getting that back. um along with a few other caveats that we um we need to work through. But um but uh but the OBM is official and they are on board and under contract and
we're starting right off on um um getting the uh architect uh request for services out and uh that'll be our next order of business and hope to have an architect on board and approved by MSBA by the end of the summer. Uh, I think we
were slated for um later on in August for our um final meeting with MSBA regarding that. So, and that's all I have tonight. Jeeoff. Yeah, I got a little bit of a lengthy report from the parade committee. Um, I'll try to make it
quick. Many of the members of the committee started in 2006. Several have decided to leave after next year. It'll be 20 m 20 years for many of us. So, it's time for some new citizens to step up and continue our wonderful tradition.
Currently, we have our town leaison, town manager Cohen, select board member WJS and myself, and the committee members include Candy and Sam Chase, Paige Gillette, Sean Hanowway, Nick Hood, myself, Eric Lind,
Lindstead, Chuck and Lynn Marcella, Kirk Marshall, RJ McGawan, Karen Rei, and Rick Romano. We also would like to thank the chumps of police for all their assistant assistance with the permits, traffic issues, road closures, security, etc. In particular, Lieutenant Poor and
Chief Spence who have been working with us for years. We also would the chuffs prey committee would also like to thank the department of public works for all their help with ree erecting the reviewing stand and camera stand making sure the lawns are all cut and beautiful
in the center for the parade and helping with road closures. The the parade parade committee used to hang all the banners in town and because we've kind of aged out we've been fortunate that uh DPW has stepped up and helped us out with that. So now we have them not just
in the center but in Bono Square and Drum Hill as well. Thankfully we do DPW does have a bucket truck and they make sure it's done safely as opposed to the way it used to do it. Um thanks to Teledia for
all their work to broadcast the parade live and and also show the parade programs from past years which hopefully will get everyone in the mood to participate. We could not do do this without without these outstanding town departments. We are still accepting
applications from businesses and families who may like to participate in the parade or banner sponsor a banner. Thanks to all who have already done so. um their generosity helps us pay for the the events on the fourth and a little
bit with the county country fair which the Lions basically oversee and um and then the third you have the art show at the CCA and and then the parade concert on the common featuring um country star Jill Martin and her
band. Jill is a very talented hometown girl. Um July 4th we'll have the road race obviously sponsored by Sullivan Farms which has brought in over 2,000 runners. We'll have the Lions Club
country fair which I already mentioned the Art Society Show which I mentioned then the annual parade on July 4th. And congratulations to our parade marshal George Dixon Jr. Uh there is also a parade float competition and I want people to pay attention again this year.
We're encouraging clubs, neighborhoods, families, friends to consider entering a float in our contest. We did not have many last year. We want to encourage this to make the parade more fun than ever. The prize money will be as follows. First place will receive
$1,500. Second place will receive a,000. Third place will receive 500 500. And then we'll have three honorable mentions of $100 a piece. Next year will be a big celebration for our country. In 1776, the Continental Congress voted for
independence from Great Britain on July 2nd and adopted the Declaration of Independence, formerly declaring the 13 American colonies as sovereign states on July 4th. That was 250 years ago. That's definitely something to celebrate. If you can't do a float this year, please
consider planning ahead for next year. And that's it. Thanks for the time. Thank you. Yeah, I got a uh I got two. Um and my apologies to the boards that I didn't reach out to in time to see if there was
anything they wanted me to bring up. Um but I attended my first council on agent meeting in in person and uh met with Debbie and Bob and the rest of the staff there um at the senior center. Um they are a very busy group. I don't know how many other people realize that. I had no
idea. Um they're they're active. they're they're working with, you know, they're getting all kinds of programming put into place. Um, and I think, you know, Debbie does a good job with that. One of the things that came up in this particular meeting was um that the the
friends of the senior center um is losing some board members and there's there's there an application and an interview process and I guess it's pretty lengthy, but um you know, there's some concern there that they need to fill some board seats. So if there are
people that are interested, they should should um should look them up. The um the senior center gets a lot of funding from them for a lot of their programming. So that funding um source is is important to ensuring that Deb can still do a lot of the things that she does. The other thing um and they asked
me because to not share a whole lot of details yet because it's not ready for prime time, but they've worked very diligently on a on a strategic plan. I've seen it. It's pretty interesting. Um, I think they've they've done a lot of good work there. Um, so there's there'll be more to come there. Um, and
then Bob indicated that they've got some some quotes coming for the potential paneling in the in the um and primarily in the senior center hall where we have town meeting. Um, so there'll be more to come on that. They only meet once a month, but I'll check with them before
each meeting going forward. Um the other uh assignment that I have that uh we recently had a meeting was for the planning board and um the uh on the meeting agenda was the strategic plan and the and the manage growth strategy
um that uh that we've asked the the planning board to take on. Um, so there's definitely I know Paul that Chris has reached out wants to get a meeting together to um with you, myself and and Evan to kind of go over and make sure that the planning board understands
the language and the idea behind asking them um you know to do this. So you know directly he was pretty blunt that um you know we we need to um align on what that terminology means. Um, you know, when Chris thinks about
it, he thinks about, you know, being controlling and limiting and not, I'm paraphrasing here, um, and not necessarily encouraging growth, which is where his gut says that he thinks that that um, manage growth term comes from.
So, there's definitely some um, some discussion to um, to have there. And why I think this is important um is that you know that they kind of look at the planning and planning board and zoning as you know not encouraging growth or
expansion but you know limiting and controlling and setting minimum standards. So I I think and and I knew this was going to happen when we were doing this in the strategic plan that there this idea of growth. There's there's going to be conflicts in sorting it out, but um you know I've started to
do some of the research in anticipation of this and and I do think planning boards um play a role in encouraging economic growth. In fact, it's in the Mass General laws that that's part of their charter. um you know and and I looked at our charter and I understand
what they're they're um um delegated to do for the town of Chumsford. So, I think getting that meeting together sooner so that we can um clarify where we think that needs to go or decide where we think that needs to go and then um and then get working
on it because again, I look at that as opportunities for um for ways for us to work with the planning board and and Evan and the rest of the the crowd to um encourage the right kind of development um you know, and the right kind of
redevelopment. So, I definitely want to make sure that we're getting that um on the books as soon as practical for the three of us. Yeah. Well, I think it's going to go beyond the three of us because that's that was the crux as you know, Aaron, you were on the planning board and it sort of goes to our early discussion tonight on
goals. The the strategic plan commit steering committee realized that they couldn't resolve the issue of what what does a town want in terms of growth going forward?
Um and here we are talking about sewer capacity. Well, that's growth. Uh and that was why the that was why that goal came into the planning uh into the strategic plan. And it was it was sort of input that came from some department heads as well as the community in terms
of what does the town want to do? and and clearly this current planning board as we saw at recent town meeting um and recently they tend you're right they tend to want to constrain growth or or not not encourage growth and that wasn't always the case. I know it hasn't
always been the case in the 18 years that I've been here. Um, and that's that's really something that we've got to get our hands around because as Pat Maloney talked earlier when he was talking about we need if we're going to be able to survive and sustain as a community and encourage communities to
remain in town or to grow in town. Well, you can't have that if the reputation of your planning board, which it currently exists in the Middle Sex 3 corridor, is, you know, is anti-growth. And that's, you know, and so the problem is is it's not oftenimes you're not even going to know that you were bypassed because
they're not going to come to your door to begin with. Um, and I think that's that's a I think that's this may end up being a fundamental discussion in the year ahead because we're just seeing that. Um, in terms of of of what what's
what's out there is you will never know who did who who didn't come knocking on your door because they've they've driven right by your community. And right now the reputation that the town has from the developments that and frustration that didn't occur whether was right or
wrong in terms of Rivenneck Road, their old Mercury computer site, you know, 129, the most late recent one being the proposal for the drive-throughs. You know, that owner was disappointed. Um and now you see even even the concern at
at 300 BA road where we thought we were going to have this innovative business you know the now it's as I formed the board last week they they've chain now changed their plan based upon what they told Evan our community development director was based upon their interaction with the planning
board is they're coming back with this facility instead uh as instead of what their original vision was because they felt that the planning board doesn't can never find a project that's good enough. Uh and and I think that's you know that's sort of been the
concern and and I think again not to manipulize your leaison report but I think that's that's something that is paramount um you know um and and I think we're going to feel the effects of that and so I I appreciate all that and I you
know with with some of that I I agree because I've observed it. Um, but you know, just so that that people know where I came from because I was, you know, that was part of some of the contribution I had to that plan is that it it needs to be managed because
there are very real things like sewer capacity and water capacity and those types of things that are constraints, but but when we're talking about managing growth, we need to we don't want it to get out of control. We don't want it to be unsustainable, but we also can't, to your point, we can't say no to
everything. And I kind of feel like we the default is say no to everything. And and the residents are very clear. They want the planning board to do exactly what the charter says to do, which is to kind of preserve the nature of Chumsford as it is, recognizing their historical
past. And I think what the residents say matters. I think what's important about this managed growth thing is it's educating the residents on that we can still have some of that, but without growth, we're not going to have anything. Without growth, we're going to start to degrade. Without new sources of
revenue, we're not going to be able to level service fund anymore. We're not going to be able to to attract businesses that may start to employ some people in this town. So, um it's again I I can't stress enough how for me and as a member of this board, I think that
that's really important that those discussions happen because I don't want to look at residents in the eye and say, "Okay, what are we not what sidewalk are we not going to repair this year? What potholes are we not going to fill? What teachers are we going to cut? What services are we not going to be able to provide anymore? Um because you've been
saying this now for years. Look at the budget projections. You're we're not been too far off. Um so, you know, again, I don't mean to use this time right now to get passionate about it, but I think it's really important that we need to start finding a way forward. And I'm I'm gonna just start being
honest with people and telling them if you're going to say no to these things. If you're gonna say no to incremental meals tax, if I get 10 of those, maybe that's somebody's job that we can level service fund. Otherwise, it's not going to be there. Now, I also don't think we need to be building up like Burlington
either. That's not my suggestion. Um but these discussions need to start happening as soon as practical is my is my point. So, um, anyway, sorry for the for the tangent, but the the planning board's very busy and they got a lot of initiatives ahead of them. They're going
to have a lot of articles on, um, or their plan is is to have a fair number of of, uh, zoning articles and updates and and their day-to-day work. Um, shouldn't get lost in my in my one statement here on that. So, they're they're very busy. Um, and like I said, we'll we'll look forward to hearing some
of their uh, zoning articles, which again, the the topics made sense to me the other day. So, I look forward to hearing more on that. And again, my apologies to the other chairs for not reaching out for liaison updates. Thank you. Um I was going to update a little bit on ZBA, but we talked about
their safe harbor um status earlier and the Crosby Lane and um Riverneck projects um being denied by the ZBA. Um the only thing other thing I wanted to mention about ZBA was that I think they still have the Ledge Road hearing coming up on June 5th, I believe. Did they pick
a location yet? I know that they was they were gonna police station community they are doing at the police station in the police chain training room right on June 5th. Um so if anyone's interested in that that will be going on and that is all I have. So
um that concludes this part of our meeting. We do have an executive session um for strategy with respect to litigation regarding the North Chsford Water District regarding PAS contamination and to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining
with the following employee labor unions, Chumsford Public Safety Dispatchers Association, the International Association of Firefighters, and the library employees. And I do have to declare that the meeting is being held in executive session because an open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the
bargaining position of the town. And um with that, I will take a motion. Okay. Uh quick side note, Paul, if you can send me a Zoom link to Yeah, I will. I'll send it to you on council. Yeah. Okay. Um so I move that the board um
move to uh executive session to discuss uh as Eron said to discuss strategy with respect to the litigation regarding North Chelsea water district regarding PAS contamination. also to discuss strategy with respect to the collective bargaining with the following labor uh
employee labor unions. Chelsea Public Safety Dispatchers Association, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 93, International Association of Firefighters Local 1839 and Library Employees, American
Federation of Teachers Local um 3569 not to return. Second the motion. Thank you. Okay, I have a motion and a second. Patas, yes. Pat Maloney, I. Jeff, yes. Aaron, yes. And I'm an I. And with that, we are
journed. Thank you.