clock. I am calling to order the select board meeting of September 8th, 2025. And if you join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible
liberty and justice for all. Um this meeting is being telecast live by Chumsford Teledia and being recorded for later viewing by the public. Um, and first up we have public service announcements. Uh, we do have one member
on Zoom tonight, Pat Maloney. Pat, are you there? I am. Yep. Thank you. Pat's going to do the public service announcements for us. Okay. Um, Joseph Fire Department is having a 911 911 remembrance ceremony
that'll be held September 11th, 2025 at fire headquarters on 50 Bil Rucker Road in Chelmsford. The um the event will start at 8:30 a.m. Refreshments uh will be served following the ceremony. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.
You can contact Deputy Chief Ryan HooL at 978-250-5268 or Rh at chsonmass.gov. Firefighter Rob Alban 351-322-9467. Chson local 1839@gmail.com.
Trump's military covenant um task force invites the community to a 911 remembrance ceremony. Please join them to honor those who perished that day. The first responsored who answer the call to serve. Saturday, September 13th, 2025, 9:00 a.m. at the Chelmsford 911
Memorial at 50 Bill Recre Mass. Uh the Chelmsford Health Department's monthly newsletter. Um so the uh fall festiv festival is almost here. Join them for a fun-filled day at the Chelmsford Health Department's annual
fall festival. This beloved community tradition brings together families, friends, and neighbors to celebrate the season with activities for all ages. Enjoy pre-entertainment, kids activities, community resources, and plenty of opportunities to connect with local organizations. Food trucks will also be on site for delicious fall
favorites. That event will be held September 27th from 11 to 4:00 p.m. uh on the Chumsford Town Common. Um, the next item is Buried in Treasures Workshop. Are you feeling overwhelmed by clutter? Buried in Treasures is a
supportive 15-week workshop designed to help individuals make lasting changes. Participants explore practical strategies, share encouragement, and learn tools to better manage clutter and create a healthier, more organized living space. Um, registration is
required. That um event is on September 9th from 5 to 6:00 at Chsa Town Hall. Um, the police and fire are providing uh for a free police versus fire softball game. Join them for a fun-filled evening as CHS police and fire departments face
off in a police versus fire soccerball game. This free familyfriendly event is a great way for the community to come together and share on our first responders. Bring your family, friends, and plenty of team spirit. The event is proudly presented by the Chumsson Suicide Prevention Coalition in partnership with the Chamster Police and
Fire Departments. That event is on se uh September 18th at 6 PM Crane Field at Saltwell Watton Street. Um annual overdose vigil to have your lost one's name read at at the annual o overdose
vigil. Um there is a um there's a scan that you could do. Um we can't show that here but join them as they honor the lost lives um to overdose support those struggling and stand united in hope, compassion and recovery. That event is September 4th starting at 6:30. So it's
gone by um blood pressure screenings. There is another blood pressure screening. Drop by the health department office located at Chelms Town Hall at Chelson Senior Center for a free blood pressure screening. Registration is not required. The next one is September 25th, 8:30 to
10:30 at the Chungford Senior Center. Narcan training. Learn to save a life. Join us for a free opioid overdose response and Narcan training. Participants will receive hands-on guidance on recognizing and responsing responding to an overdose plus free Narcan to take home. That event's on
September 25th, 300 p.m. to 3:30 at Chumpsa Town Hall. Breathe together, heal together. A free beginner friendly medication series for those in recovery, their loved ones. Find calm, healing, and connection every Wednesday, 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the North Chumps Community
Center. Roll up your sleeve to fight the flu. September 22nd, 3:00 to 7:00 at the Chumsford Senior Center. Uh, reserve your time. Um, um, I assume you can go to the Chumsford Senior Center website to do that. Um, uh, or you can contact
uh, tangelchmass.gov or or at 978-250-5241. Massachusetts Behavioral Health Helpline. Free confidential help is available 24/7 across Massachusetts for the Mass mental health and substance use
support. Call or text 8337337 I'm sorry 833773245 or chat at massalthline.com. Sobera karaoke. Join them for a fun alcohol-free evening of music, laughter, and community. Enjoy free pizza, plus
light refreshments and mocktails available for purchase. Whether you're singing on stage or cheering from the crowd, it's a safe and welcoming space to connect and have fun. That is September 12th from 7 to 10:00 p.m. at the Chumford Center for the Arts.
Uh fall book sale. The uh friends of the library are having a fourth the annual fall book sale at the town hall gym at 50 Bill Ricker Road in Chelmsford. Um those uh so enjoy a large selection of fiction, non-fiction, children, and
young adult books. DVDs and CV CDs are available. Friday, October 3rd, 9:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, October 4th, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sunday, October 5th, 9:00 a.m. to 100 p.m. There will be
a membersonly event Thursday evening, October 2nd from 5 to 8:00 p.m. Lower crow crowds and best selection. Join the friends of the library to attend at www.chumpster
library.orgget org/getinvolved slfriends. Take the LRT 5-year regional comprehensive transit plan survey. The LRTA survey will help guide the LRTA with planning for service coverage frequency and more access to transit
across the region, help the L LRTA determine priorities over the next five years by taking that short survey. You'll need to go to the LRTA website to find that. Um, choose Chelstrid Age Friendly Job Fair.
Save the date, September 24th, 11 to1 p.m. at the Chford Town Hall at 50 Bill Recre. Uh, contact Tabith Tao by phone 97805-4875 or by email th h avi.t
th h ao at mass hire local mass hire lowcc.com DPW is seeking plow contractors for the 2025 2026 winter season packets available at DPW 9 alpha road call
9785205 I think it's supposed to say 2550 sorry call 978-2502 228 or email m thomas@chumpsmass.gov. Rates begin at $110 per hour and up to $200 per hour. Incentive sign up bonus
of $1,500. New this year is a guaranteed maximum payment in addition to incentives $4,000 for pickups and $5,500 for six-wheeler and larger. And that completes the community announcements. Okay, thanks Pat. Um, next up we have
general public input. And do we have anyone here for general public input? No. No one on Zoom. No one on Zoom. Okay. Next up, committee vacancies. Okay. Committee vacancies
as of September 8th, 2025. Agricultural Commission has one unexpired three-year term ending June 30th, 2026. The board of assessors has one unexpired three-year term ending June 30th, 2027. The Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee uh has one three-year term
ending June 30th, 2028. The Capital Planning Committee has one three-year term ending June 30, 2028. Commission on Disabilities has one unexpired three-year term ending June 30, 2026, two unexpired three-year terms ending June 30th, 2027, and two three-year
terms ending June 30th, 2028. The Council on Aging Aging Board has one unexpired three-year term ending June 30th, 2026, and two three-year terms ending June 30th, 2028. Historic District Commission
alternate member one unexpired three-year term ending June 30th, 2027. The Holiday Decorating Committee has two unexpired one-year terms ending December 31st, 2025. Military Covenant Military Community Covenant Task Force has one
unexpired, three-year term ending June 30th, 2026. The Parade Committee, all applicants are welcome. One-year terms ending July 31st, 2026. Permanent Building Committee has two three-year term ending um June 30th, 2028. Vital
Square Strategic Action Plan Committee uh is looking for a business representative, one unexpired three-year term ending June 30th, 2026. If you're interested in serving on the town board or committee, please complete an online application available at the town website. For more information, please
contact the town manager's office at 978-250-52 or TM office at chumpsmass.gov. Thanks, Pat. Um, next up we have public hearings and we have a public hearing for National Grid and Verizon, a poll petition for Act and Road.
We have someone here. Hi. Hello. Vasna Ang 11:01 Turnpike Street here for National Grid. Thank you. Okay. So,
so what are we what are we looking at here? Uh, National Grid seeks the town's approval to install a uh, new pole 3-50 in the public way in order to facilitate the
uh, system improvement that is required on Actton Road. Sorry. DPWs examined. They have no concerns with the site and we've had no re concern report of any concerns from any of the residential butters at the location. I noticed DPW did um note the uh
existing stone wall has to remain in place. Right. But but there's no problem with the placement of the pole right by Bartlett Street. What's that? It's by Bartlett Street. just or for people watching it, you know, like we're we're in Actton Road, as you know, it goes from the center to the edge of
town. Is it going to block the I feel like people walk there and there's no sidewalk there. It's a little But there's already There's already poles on that side. Yeah, there's already poles on that side, so it doesn't really make much of
a difference. All right. Does anyone have any questions or anything concerns? No. Pat. Um, okay. If nobody has anything, I um I guess we need a we need a motion, right? Yeah, Pat, you're muted.
Oh, we have to close the public hearing. Okay. Um motion to close the public hearing. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Uh we do have to do a roll call vote because we have a member on Zoom. So Pat Wis, yes. Pat Maloney,
yes. Jeff, yes. Aaron, yes. And I'm a yes. So the public hearing is closed. Um, and if nobody has any other comments or concerns, no. I'll take another motion. I'll make a motion that the board
approve the poll petition as presented. I'll second that. Okay. We have a motion in a second and another roll call. Uh, Pat Wis. Yes. Pat Maloney. Yes. Jeff. Yes. Aaron. Yes. And I'm a yes. Approved. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Suggestion. We have the applicants here for the two licenses. It's a real brief and we probably get them on their way. Yes. As well as online. Yep. We can do that. So, we're going to skip reports and presentations for just a just a moment. And um yeah, and we'll
go straight to licenses. Um, and the first one we have is a one-day beer and wine license for David Soua at 75 Grten Road for October 4th, 2025. And you said we do have someone here. We have the ones we have the ones here for the entertainment license at Chelsea
Barbecue. Okay. But nobody's here for um the 75 Gren Road one. We can come back to that in case somebody show. I know Mr. Souza has had um events at the senior center before in which we
have granted him one day beer and wine licenses. I'm no surprised he's not here, but whatever. Um okay. Well, let's do the other one first. Why don't we see um um the entertainment license for the Chumsford Barbecue LLC DBA, the Smoke
Shop Barbecue at 18 Boston Road because we do have someone here for that. Yeah, they're on the Zoom. Okay. Hello. Hi, Andy Husbands from the Smoke Shop Barbecue. Hello, everybody. Welcome. Hi, Bill Goodwin from the Smoke Shop Bbecue. Hello.
Okay. Okay. So, what are you guys looking Oh, entertainment license for a a band party. Guitar player. Guitar player and trivia. And and trivia.
Yep. So, I have a question on the application. Um, it's it says application is a new license, but aren't you just amending your current license? Yes. I'm not sure um why it says that. Okay.
That might be our bad not knowing that it's the same thing. Oh, for a Huntington's disease fundraiser. looking at the right one. Is that No, you No, it's the one. This is for the per This will be a permanent entertainment
license for them to think. Wait a minute. Guitars. Okay. So, they would remove those two tables that you see circled in the corner in those activities. the exactly the same I said exactly this
previous uh operator at this location had a similar license and there were no issues. So this it's only good for it's only good for one week. No, it's good for forever. Oh, I was going to say I was like it says one week. Seven days. Why does it say seven days?
Seven days a week. Seven days a week. Seven days a week. Okay. Yeah. I was like this is not that doesn't make any sense. I was like that's hard to have a weekly trivia if you're uh in band. here. Okay. Seven days a week.
Okay. Does anyone have questions, comments? No. Good. Okay. I'll take a motion. Okay. I'll make a motion that the board approve the addition of an entertainment license to the common victual license
for Chelford Barbecue LLC DBA the smoke shop barbecue to be exercised on the premises at 18 Boston Road as presented. I'll second that. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Pat Oris, yes. Pat Maloney, I. Jeff, yes.
Aaron, yes. And I'm a yes. So, motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So now we will go back to um to David Souza for the one day beer and
wine license at 75 Grten Road. And there's no You like the motion? Uh yes. I'll take a motion since we've all I don't think nobody has any comments, questions. Okay. Yeah, I'll take a motion. I'll make a motion that the board approve a one-day beer and
wine license for a fundraiser being held October 4th, 2025 at Chelsea Senior Center, 75 Garten Road as presented. I'll second that. Okay. Okay. We have a motion, a second. Pat Wis, yes.
Pavaloney, I. Jeff, yes. Aaron, yes. And I'm an I. The license passes. Thank you. Um, okay. And now we have There's nobody else here for anything, is there? Nope.
Okay. I don't think there's anybody in the audience for anything on the agenda except for maybe this lady in purple. Are you here for something on the agenda? She's with the um presentation. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, next up we have reports and presentations. Um and first we have
Peter Spawn and Kevin Powers from the tree committee with a report and presentation for us. Hi Peter. Hey Peter. I'll pass it on. Um Paul, you going to do uh you'll do slides first. Well, thank you. Great. Hi everybody. Hey, thanks for having the
tree committee in. We just uh there's been a lot of activity the last couple years and wanted to give you all an update on what's been going on. Um so I'll talk about three topics or actually with my colleagues here which I'll introduce. Three topics. What we've been doing on tree activity. We would like to
get your feedback on a memorial tree program and use the whole conversation to kind of tee up the fact that tree canopy is in the strategic plan. So, thank you for approving that. So, next slide, Paul. Uh, just quickly, you know, what does a
tree committee do? I mean, there is a charter, but the way we look at it is trees are important for a bunch of reasons. Uh, aesthetics, open space, storm water, heat reduction. part of our carbon goals in the climate action plan and it aligns with the select board and
the strategic plan goal. I do need to apologize for a um mistake in this slide because it looks like the declining tree canopy that we've talked about before align with our strategic goal and of course it's the opposite. Our strategic
goal is to fix or work on the declining canopy. So, apologies for that. I do also want to mention that the trees are act mentioned in about five of our town strategic plans. Master plan, open space plan, climate vulnerability plan. I mean, it's more than just, you know, there's a pretty tree. So, next slide,
Paul. I want to uh point out that um there's a lot of players impact tree canopy. So, we emphasize partnerships. And I really want to thank town manager, the select board for your support on trees. um especially and and Paul, I'm
looking to you. I'm not even sure where the grants came from for the tree planting this year, but we really appreciate that. That kind of support is very important. Uh and I also want to thank our tree warden who's here tonight, Christine Clancy, for figuring
out how to plant 141 trees on relatively short notice um as tree planting goes. Um, and I also want to mention just briefly, um, I'm also on the concom I feel like developers and residents applying for new projects are starting
to pay more attention to either preserving trees if possible or planting new ones. And so, you know, again, there's sort of been an overall increase, I think, in in attention. So, next slide, Paul. I'll make this quick. Um, just a super quick recap of what's been
going on the last couple of years. We mentioned a bunch of these strategic plan, planting trees, partnerships, tree inventories, tree list and planting guide on the website. Uh, one thing that you may recall, we the town did establish a revolving tree fund, which
we'll talk about another time, but that's a mechanism to to in the future perhaps plant and fund more trees. And also established in the last year as part of the new planting program was a way to water the trees. And with the DPW leadership, the town bought a tractor
vehicle to help watering trees. Turns out if you don't water them once a week, they're going to die. And that turns out that is a big effort. Um, and a final thing, we did a calculation uh last bullet on this slide on what the US
Forest Service considers the value to be of a tree, value to a town like ours for all the tree benefits that we mentioned. And the number is 25,000 bucks for a 24in oak tree. So my hope is that down the road we can keep that number in mind
as we, you know, think about the town. So I'm going to wrap up. Uh next slide. Yeah, the plans coming up. Uh the big thing is the invasive and tree management plan that was funded by town meeting. Uh committee is working with our tree warden to get a consultant to
give us some expert advice on improving uh trees. Uh there is also a new program called Frontyard Sidewalk. You'll hear about that later, but um Evan Balansky and Christine Clancy and others on the uh vulnerability planning committee had
uh somehow magically ended up with a big chunk of money to fund private trees planted by the town on private land. You'll hear more about that as we develop it. Um, some other things we're working on. One big thing I'm interested
in speaking with the board down the road. We have tree canopy improvements in the strategic plan. How are we going to measure that? And we have some ideas on how to do that. We'll work together, figure that out over the next couple of months. And finally, uh, one of the
things we've been working on, I'd like to invite Kevin. Kevin Powers, um, our newest member of the tree committee. Thank you. And Kevin joined us as just a citizen volunteer a year before he was an official member with an idea that he'll tell you about.
Thanks Peter. Hi. Hi. So just want to start off with this slide here. Um it's a uh design of a flyer that the tree committee put together um to try to roll out this um
program. Uh the idea is to put a a tag down the bottom where you can scan to get to um a website that will give you additional um information about the program itself and an application.
You can go to the next slide. Thanks. So this is just um to highlight what other towns in the area are doing. Um this is just a few towns that I brought up. Belmont uh being the first is probably the closest to what we're trying to roll out. Uh you can see that for their
donation uh you get the the tree the planting of the tree um the the bach mouch as well as watering which is a big effort as Peter um has already stated um and also a replacement in two years if
it dies within the two years of Blandon. Um and along with that, Belmont offers a small plaque. Um Worcester on the other hand, um they give you the tree, they plant it, but you know the fee
difference or the donation difference, there's no water involved, so the cost is less. And the last example of SwampScott is, you know, um they don't offer the replacement. So these are the the factors that make it, you know, different from town to town.
Um if you go to the next slide. So we kind of you know looked at Belmont and we kind of like that model but we did a little bit we wanted to offer two options. The first option is pretty much the same. You know you get the tree the
water in uh the replacement of the tree within two years uh the mouch um as well as a a small plaque. And I can show you kind of a mockup of that in a few seconds. Um and then the second option is if you don't want a plaque, you get
all the benefits of the tree um as option one. Uh so the idea is to take applications um through the year. Uh have a maximum what um I think right now we're thinking a target of 10 to 15 for
the first year. Um and then first come first serve. Uh they fill out the application. Uh we're going to have um some pre um selected locations um as well as pre-selected tree species
that will fit those locations that people can pick. Um then at the beginning of uh the year January, February, we'll go through it uh decide uh you know which how much we can take on and then for the spring
planting around May I guess. And the next slide and this is an example of the plaque that we're offering. Not the exact I'm still working on different options uh trying to get a little bit better quality. uh working with a local vendor. Um but this
is a small plaque on a stake. Um they the one the one we have marked up right now is about 8 and 12 in x 5 and it's just for the small tree and that's the program.
Thank you. Hello. Good evening. So, I guess the request tonight is to um request that this program be adopted. So, there's been a lot there's a lot of requests brought before uh to the select board, especially benches. I know there's a bench on tonight. We just had
another bench request as well. So, we just thought this would be another opportunity for people to um provide a memorial. I mean, often it's been benches. Um trees have popped up in previous years and so the tree committee thought it'd be a great idea to memorialize as a program. Um we first thought it could go through the select
board which it can but also thinking if I guess with an adoption of a um or motion to allow the the um tree committee to run them with the program. We would still provide annual updates. Um as stated this would be the pilot. This would be the first year we thought
to 10 to 15 locations. Um we still have to identify the locations. They would be on town property. So you know Friendship Park is a popular place. We do want to pick the locations of some of a cluster just so we can focus on the watering um more in clusters. So maybe a handful of friendship, maybe a handful, it could be
the town offices. Well, we would pick areas around town on an annual basis. Um and in terms of the pricing, um we had proposed, you know, two options. Um looking at the cost of the tree, the mulch and watering, which we would be doing the watering in house, but still
that is effort and cost as well. So the request I guess would be to get feedback on the program and also see if there's opportunity to um have a motion to allow the tree committee to um pilot this program for the first year.
How many a year is it that you So we're targeting for the first year about 10 to 15 just this first year. So, we would start if you know assuming this was a go-ahehead tonight, we would start with the um the social media and the the PR piece of it probably over the next
month or two request applications by probably either end of January, maybe midFebruary. Um and it would be a first come first serve. Um and we would also by all as part of this we would be provide we'd be providing a list of species and locations they would they
would pick. It wouldn't be just putting in an application not knowing what tree or where it's going. So we would plan that over the next few months and then come the spring we'd be planting 10 to 15 locations assuming that all 10 to 15 were you know were selected. If we only had five we five applications we would
do five but I think up to 15 for the first year. And how are the plaques? They're just staked in the ground. So that's what we were working on. The first one was a little shallow. So working on a a large a longer stake and maybe a little more sturdy. So the state
the plaques um when we get the plaques for the benches like that bronze those tend to be 220 $225. So that's why we put that price about $200 on the plaque because that's what they are costing. So they would be sturdy enough they could go into the ground and not like you know easily knocked over and they would be in
that mulched pit. Our typical tree um planting detail is a 4ft mulch pit. So it would be within that pit so it would be protected from lawnmowers or or weed whackers. Um, and it would be, I mean, granted, someone could pull it out, but it would be pretty hard. It would be, you know, I think it's about 12 or 18
inches in the ground that we're working on that that stake. So, I know there's a that the cost of watering is probably the the big upkeep. How long until the tree is established that we have to do that watering? So, two watering seasons is what we're
planning for all of our new trees. Um, I would say the watering program here, as you see, has been very successful. So, that tractor you see behind it, that John Deere repurchased, it was about $17,000. We did purchase it through a grant that that it's not um it can't have a
license plate. So, that vehicle is going to stay on that whole parcel, which includes the high school, Harrington, the Harrington Fields, Graniteville. So, potentially some loca, some donations could be in that area thinking because we will be have that vehicle there for at least the next year or two. So, we
could fold in maybe five, six, or even 10 trees to that watering program. Um, we do have a cooling quarter grant out right now to request additional plantings and I did target trees in the Friendship Park area. Um, just knowing we eventually want to add more tree
canopy in that area as well. Um, and I'm looking to maybe if we so if we start to add clusters of trees in that area, you could have another vehicle potentially in that area. I mean, $17,000 is a lot, but it's not when you're doing a watering program because a watering
program um just for I think for one season for 20 trees can be $67,000. So, if you have multiple trees in multiple years, you almost pay for the vehicle and the vehicle can be used for other you know, it could be used for various other source resources too. So, it's
it's a asset to the town. Um and we've been very fortunate with the senior volunteer program. Um so, we have two people right now that are doing this. They're rotating every other week. They go out early in the morning. Um, and it's been a very successful program. So, um, the watering is a challenge, which
is why we want to pilot it, see how it goes, and put clusters. I think it would be difficult if we said, "Okay, here's 15 locations, 15 locations sprinkled throughout the town." We do need to focus on two or three locations um that first year or first couple years. So two
years two. So it would be you plant by beginning of June. You would water through September and then you would start watering again next season sometime in probably May. If you have a rainy spring, it might be a little later, but definitely it's really important during that following summer.
So typically two years to establish that tree. So I I guess I I would favor this um on a on a couple of conditions. one that you do cluster and you know that you identify where those clusters were going to be because I know there are some locations where we probably would not
want something like this. Um so um you know if it's going to be a pilot I don't know how you know Paul do you have any any thoughts on that about No I I I mean I would support the pilot. Um, I think Christine, you know, is aware of an issues that may arise that
would cause concern that I think she would come back, you know, to the board if there was something and then but barring the unforeseen, as you said, locations like by the schools or Friendship Park, I think would work out fine. But if there's something that's cause of concern, we would bring it back to the board. Yeah,
those are likely the two locations. We just didn't we didn't publish anything yet because we wanted some feedback. But likely for the first year in where we already have equipment in that the high school grounds that would just be potentially that had that's such a large area um that we could potentially pilot
it along with Friendship Park based on how many requests you you currently are getting. Do you think that you will get 10 to 15 a year? So this is we don't we do not know. So we've only I guess this it was actually Kevin that brought it to our he thought this was a great program something he
wanted to do and I we thought it was a great idea to promote you know people might think oh I want to donate let's donate for a tree because people I think what I'm hearing from the donations people don't know what to donate when I met a resident uh last week about the bench that she's like I we have some money and we want to donate something
back to the town so I think by advertising and posting it you would hopefully get more than we typically see and this is something I I mean benches are great too but it's just another purpose for people might want to donate for a tree. So I guess it's a test to see. So if we we get 30 applications and
that's a very successful program and we could only take so many all the trees but for some reason my brain is picturing all of the plaques if you were doing 20 a year over the course of 10 or 20 years that's a lot of
plaques kind of all over the ground everywhere. And I I don't think we're going to we're going to honor the replacement of those plaques in perpetuity because they start disappearing. You're purchasing for two years, but those plaques stay in place. I mean, we're not going to remove them in two years, but when the and hopefully the tree survives, too. But yeah, those
plaques would be there. I mean, thing is we have benches that when the benches do rot, we do we have replaced some benches and so we we try to try to keep a memorial in place and we'll put those plaques back on. So, it's not a policy required, but um it's something that
happens when the plaques become But that's what happened like the old fire station site on North Road. There are some original donations there that have to be replaced. And so, we're we're doing that to replace the the you know, some of the tables and such that were placed there just because they age out. But,
but I think I what I hear you saying is like if we're doing 20 trees a year, it's 20 plaques a year. In five years, it's 100 trees. In 20 years, that's 400 plaques around town that are just sticking out of the you know ground around all these trees and you're maintaining. No, if you want an example,
I like the idea of the trees. It's just the plaques that you want an example of the plaques go through the cemetery because they're very similar to the temporary markers that they put before headstones put in the grave space. But these are not flat. These are No, no, these ones stick up. Same type of thing. I mean, they're they're small enough
that they're not going to you're not going to walk by a tree and say like you it's still you almost have to go up to it and see what it says. We did talk about maybe putting this tree species on there, too. So, we're still working out the details of the plaque. Um, with somebody who has children, like I can tell you right now, my children are going to be trying to rip every single
one of those plaques out of the ground. Giving you some some work. Um, I So, I I think it's fair to say as a pilot 10 is probably a good number. Like I think 20 years aggressive. I think if we say we're targeting I just don't want to say we're targeting two or three and
then people think I think 10 is a good number to pilot. See, because what if I only have two applications come in? What if I have 10? Then I guess we have to revisit. Say next year, do we want next year to be 20? Do we want it to be 15? So, we say 10 to 15. Um, we say 10 to
15. Um, but I I leaning towards 10 for that first year at least. I think it's worth it and see how they look. And again, if it's a pilot and they don't pop out right, we can always discuss making changes to it and we can continue to give updates,
too. So, we'll see how we we're interested to see how popular it is and and um we also will be launching other programs back of sidewalk uh programs as well or front front yard um programs and that. So, there'll be other opportunities for people to plant trees
in their front yard too. This is particularly for town property and in memorial of someone. So Christine, if once everything if if we go forward with this, once everything's put together, I would suggest going to the business association, ask them to put it in their newsletter because I know a lot of local
businesses would probably like to do something like that. So So are there going to be any restrictions on what what it says what it says on the plaque? I mean, so we'll we usually in any memorial we ask what they're what they want it to say. You know, sometimes they'll be but
it can't it can't be very very long. it has to be fit a certain size. Um, and I think we will also put parameters on like there'll basically be a form that they fill out. We give a little bit of sometimes if there's like a phrase or if they're in loving memory of so I guess there'll be a little bit of wiggle room
but there will be a format for them to follow and we did talk about putting the tree species potentially on there as well. Okay. So I guess two things I mean one having to do with what Jeff just said. I mean wouldn't that be considered an advertisement if it was a a business that wanted the business name on on that
plaque? I mean would that be allowed? Yeah, I'm trying. I mean, right now we don't have do not have any restriction. Right now when we do the benches we say what do you want it to say and then they but it's usually basically in gives you in loving memory of and so it's I guess
it's been kind of a standard format. Um we don't have any written policy but it's typically it's very similar every time in terms of in memory of um so it's just like our monuments and memorials policy basically but the DPW
wants discretion over managing it for trees. Yeah. But like we have a policy we would I guess adhere to that policy if there's certain parameters in that policy in terms of like uh what it can say or
Yeah. I don't think there's anything in about what what the plaque could say. So no there isn't it's kind of at our discretion. Yeah. So you're just asking for do you like Aaron mentioned that if it starts looking like a bunch of billboards we can revisit it and modify it. Yeah. The intent is it's I guess in
memory of some one and not I guess an advertisement. So that's the intent and we'll try to stick to that intent. It's called the memorial tree program, not tree advertising program. Yeah. Adopt a park or Yeah. No, it's not adopt a corn a corner.
It's not adopting a tree. I mean there'll be like I said there'll be the front yard front yard sidewalk program that will also be launching. We actually talked about bringing that to you tonight as well. That's something we're going to la but I think we're not quite there yet. Um, we wanted to focus on this and then that but that will be soon right behind it where people will be
able to put trees in their front yard. Um, which is I think great. Other communities are doing that as well because it's hard. We're limited in being able to put those trees in the sidewalk area given how you know you need to have four feet now clearance um for ADA and you sidewalks are only five
and a half feet typically. So So have have you ever are you aware of the the program that they had many many years ago at Redwing Farm? uh which was similar to this. I think I think they were apple trees that were planted in the in the grove in the back and they a
lot of them had had plaques and I know my sister got one from my mother and I can't even find the plaque anymore and I don't know if it grew into the tree or what. It was very small. It was you know not much bigger than a 3x5 card. Okay. Was it staked into the ground or was it
like on the tree? I think it was close to the tree. So it I mean a tree could have grown around it quite frankly. So I've seen them at various like estates like in know Rhode Island where they're in the tree and I just don't understand
how like the tree grows with it. I don't know if they're put on a certain D or they upkeep. So the thought was you put this separately just so there's no interaction I guess with how the tree grows. Okay. I mean, I'm I'm fine with a pilot um
give it a go for sure. All right. Okay. So, do we need a do we need a motion to support? Yep. Okay. Pat, I'll take a motion if you don't have anything. Okay. I'll um I'll make a motion that the select board approve and allow the
uh tree committee to adopt their memorial tree program of Chelmsford to allow them to develop, initiate, and oversee a firstear pilot program of the
uh memorial tree program. I'll second that. Okay, we have a motion to second. Pat Wess. Yes. Pat Maloney. Hi. Jeff. Yes. Aaron. Yes. And I'm a yes. So, good luck. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Can't wait to see all those trees.
Thank you. Okay. So, next up we have another report and presentation um from John Pototts from Weston and Samson regarding the MWR sewer connection feasibility study.
Hi. Hi. Good evening. Could you just say your name for us? My name is John Pots. I'm with Weston and Samson Engineers and we're here to discuss the MWA feasibility study. Welcome. So, thank you for your time and I appreciate it. I'm also here with Lily Orural who is a colleague of mine.
She'll be helping you with the presentation. So the first slide we just talked about what the objectives of the project was is um we understand that there's a capacity a sewer capacity issue in Chelmsford. So we've been exploring options over the years and one of those
options was to connect to an MWA community. So we're going to talk about the objectives what the average daily flows and peak flows were of what we could transfer to the communities. We looked at alternative routes. Uh we also looked at what the permitting that and
inter intermunicipal agreements that would be necessary. Uh we looked at a timeline projected costs and then we looked at the impacts to the sewer users and what our conclusions were. So as you guys know that the the flow from Chelmsford goes to the LOL's duck
island treatment plant. Uh the city uh the town has a agreement of 3.01 01 million gallons a day that can go there of which 350,000 is been allotted or allocated to Tingsboro. So the town's share is 2.66
million gallons a day that can go. Um we looked at the past 11 fiscal years and occasionally the 2.66 does get exceeded. As you see in the next slide, it happened in 2018, 2019 and again in 2024 you exceeded and this is for the total
for the year. This was uh the entire fiscal year that was the ending point. So you were slightly above on those three years out of the 11. So basically what got us to this point was in 2020 the town instituted a sewer moratorum due to the capacity. Um in
2023 the moratorium was lifted and you went to the sewer uh the credit transfer policy. During that time we also did some studies uh for the town. Uh the next slide. In 2021, we did a full town capacity
issue that uh was basically exploring the ability to put an in town wastewater treatment plant uh within the town, but unfortunately that would was going to meet roadblocks with D because they're not issuing groundwater discharge permits. So that wasn't really a viable
option. We also as part of uh infiltration and inflow we've been studying um we studied four target areas in 2022 really uh we didn't really find any infiltration in the pipes. I think I came in and gave a presentation on that
years ago but we did find some infiltration in the manholes. So we actually sealed approximately 200 manholes which is just going in putting a cementitious liner from the top all the way down to the bottom of the manual plugging leaks and sealing them. that pro uh that program was just completed
over the summer. Uh we uh the town also instituted a sump pump program and there's also another option is to wait for the city of uh the oil treatment plant to rerate their plant to get a higher effluent which
would therefore the communities that go there. share would also go up, but they're many years away from that because they're right now doing a cso project that's going to take probably at least another five to eight years to complete. So, the town is being proactive with
regard to the II in town. We are also going to be inspecting more sewer manholes over the next few years since we found that that was more cost effective than looking at the pipes when we because we basically did looked at about 300,000 ft of pipe and we found basically no leaks essentially. But
again, the manholes we did so we're going to focus on the manholes over the next few years and that was presented to D and they bought into that program. So that leads us to to this study which was to uh to look at an MWA community to see if that was a feasible option to go
to. So the nearest MWA communities are the town of Bedford and Burlington. And the treat uh the pump stations that could get flow there are the Progress Avenue pump station and the Mill Road pump station. uh by transferring some of
your flows to MWA, it would increase your capacities on paper. So, next slide is just shows the two pump stations. And so, in talking flows, we started to look at the flows at the two pump
stations. The for the last few years, the flow data at progress has been a little inconsistent. And so, we looked at a new flow measuring device that was installed at that pump station. So we have the 2025 data which shows here at the 170,000 but because this has been a
dry year we added 15% on top of that because based on seeing that the other flows in the years have exceeded we thought that that was a decent bump to get the flow. So the flow from the progress avenue that we're looking at is about 195,000 gallons per day.
Then at the mill road pump station uh for the last six years we looked at all the data that again in 2024 the data was unavailable but the flows from progress I mean from mil road is approximately 392,000 gallons a day. So those are the flows
that could be transferred if we rerouted the force mans from those two pump stations into an MW community. uh in accordance with uh the design guidelines those flows need to get uh converted from an average daily flow to a peak flow to size the pipe. So once we
did that the flow from progress the peak flow is approx approximately just under a million gallons a day and the flow from mill road peak flow is about 1.7 u million gallons a day. So based on when we did the designs, the pipes would be an 8 in force mane from Progress and
a 10-in force mane from Mill Road. And at this point, I'm going to pass it off to Lily to present the options. Hello, I'm Lily Orup from Weston Samson and I'm just going to give you a overview of the different alternative routes that we looked at. Um, so we
looked at five possible routes uh to send some of Chumsburg's wastewater to the nearby communities. Um, as John mentioned, the closest communities are Burlington and Bedford. And, uh, we also looked at some routes that took the wastewater directly to the MWR
interceptors. There's one in Wuburn and one in Lexington. Next slide, please. Um so alternatives one and two connect into neighboring town sewer system uh flowing through those town sewer pipes to reach the MWRA infrastructure whereas
alternatives three four and five all connect directly into MWR inter interceptors either in Wuburn or Lexington. Um, I'll note that all the routes uh flow through Bill Rka and would and all the routes would also have
to um you would have to upgrade the pump stations uh progress of and mil road before the construction begins. Um, next slide please. Alternative one is approximately 8 miles of new force main from progress a pump
station to the Burlington sewer system. The path through Bel Reka is mainly commercial with some residential area by the Burlington line. Um the crossings add a complexity and cost to design. So we wanted to highlight the different
types of crossings um that would or that are part of each alternative. As you can see, there are four total here. One highway, a railroad, and two bridge crossings. Next slide, please. Alternative 2 is approximately 5 miles of new force main from the mill road
pump station to Bedford sewer system. The path through uh bill record to Bedford is mainly residential uh towards the Bedford um line. Uh there's only two bridge crossings on this route. However, it uh we identified
uh Bedford system has a potential of uh Bedford system has two pump stations that would potentially also need to be upgraded before construction begin on top of upgrading Mills uh road pump station. Uh next slide please. Alternative three
extends alternate one to the MWR interceptor in Wuburn. So, uh, this would add approximately five more miles, um, totaling 13 miles of new force main. Um, the added path through Burlington and Wuburn is mainly residential with a
small industrial area right before the interceptor. There is also a short easement right before the interceptor that would require special permission to build through. Um, and there are a total of five crossings on this route. Next slide, please.
Alternative four. um is an extension of alternative 2 into Lexington to the other MWR interceptor. This route is a total of 11 miles of new force main. Um the pass through Bedford and Lexington is a mix of residential and commercial
and there's a total of four crossings here. Unlike alternative, this would only require upgrading the pump station at Mill Road. Next slide, please. Alternative five. um uh diverts the flow from progress a pump
station into Mill road pump station and then this would follow alternative 4 all the way down to the interceptor in Lexington. So this captures uh capacity from both pump stations um but just from those uh pump station tributary areas
and this is approximately uh 13 miles in length. is the longest one, but you theoretically get the most capacity out of this route. Um, and both Mill Road and Progress would need to be upgraded. Next slide, please.
Um, so any of these options will require a lot of coordination and approvals. Uh, you'll need permits from MWR, the federal, state, and local agencies. The intermutable agreements would um will are key in all this and they will need
to be made with bill raka and depending on which alternative is either Burlington and Wuburn or Bedford and Lexington. Next slide please. Um these projects are long-term investments. So planning and design can
take up to four years. um the permitting and bidding would take another year and then construction could last three to five years depending on uh the route. So you were looking at a total timeline of about 10 years uh to
finish. some of the fun stuff. But we started looking into the costs of all of this. Um we use linear foot prices uh for the pipe. Uh there's various structures that are going to be required along a force main rate. Typically they're every thousand feet you'll require a structure
to be able to gain access to that force man. Uh we put a cost in for pump station upgrades. And then we carried percentages uh for pavement, construction contingencies, design, uh police details, other admin stuff to get
into all the costs. So now the first look at the first thing I I do want to stress is when you look at options one and two on all these for the cost for the pricing they do appear to be lower and I don't know maybe feasible but these do not include any upgrades
that could be required in either Bedford or Burlington at this time. We don't know what their capacity issues are. We've worked in both communities and we do know that they they have their own capacity issues. So it's too hard to put a cost on what the upgrades would be right now to that. So these are only the
costs for options one and two to basically get it to the Bedford line or the Burlington line whereas the other options three, four and five get it all the way to the M M Debur's interceptor. So as as you can see in the first slide we looked at the present worths and the
costs for options one through five are all range from 54 million to 38 million to 103 million. And this this is uh present worth cost and then looking ahead 10 years the the future worth costs
which is what I said I read the wrong column. So as part of this if you connect to an MD community you're going to get an annual assessment from them. So we looked at the annual assessments for all the communities uh that in the area Bedford, Burlington, Lexington and
Wuburn over the last five years and we got what their average assessment was over those five years and then based on their gallonage we determined that it's approximately a$145 per gallon per day is what you would pay MBA on an annual
basis and that could also go up each year. Sometimes it goes down but it typically would go up. So uh next slide we based on the on the flows that I talked about earlier on the average daily flows from progress and mill and then the combination at the $145 a
gallon and then we looked at it in present worth and projected it again 10 years into the future. Uh this time we used a 3.1% increase because that's what the five communities are seeing over the last five years. They've seen an increase of approximately 3.1%. So the future
assessments that could be related to that if you move if you sent progress a by itself it would be 385,000 a year Mil road 771 and if you did both it would be approximately 1.15 million. So, putting these flows into um
something tangible, 195,000 gallons is representative of about approximately 1,800 bedrooms or 2.6 million square ft of commercial or retail space for warehouses. 392,000 gallons a day is translates to
approximately 3,500 bedrooms and just over 5 million square feet of uh commercial and office space. And if the 587,000 translates to just over 5,000 bedrooms and just under 8 million square
feet of office and industrial space. So one of the last things we started to look at was the cost per gallon of removal. So as you can see as I was saying through options one and two, like option two is only se it comes out to be $70 per gallon, but again that's only
getting you to the town line in Bedford. doesn't get you to the MWR. So that cost is I think artificially low in that case. You're looking at costs that range from $70 to $310 per gallon in present worth. The next slide will present uh
the future worths. So the future worth costs for these same options range from $100 per gallon per day up to approximately 440 gallons per day. As you can see, option five being the most expensive though, that is the lowest gallons
because that's you're getting the most you're sending the most gallons to another community. Next slide. So now we looked at the uh impact to the town sewer users. There's approximately 13,000 sewer users in Chelmsford. So, we
looked at the construction borrowing based on all the future worth costs and that had a payment of 30 years with 2% interest. And that would the middle column shows the annual payments to pay back the 30-year loan and spread among the 13,000. That would be the uh each
sewer user's share uh on their annual basis. So, ranges from 130 for option two up to 355 uh dollars a year for option five. Uh then we took the MWA's assessment and did the same thing to spread that out
among the 13,000 and based on the flows it ranged from $30 to $90 a year. And then finally we put them all together and we also included a percent increase. The average sewer bill right now in Chelmsford is approximately 360
gallon uh $360 per year. So if you add the total annual costs as a result of these two projects, you're looking at increases between 50 to 124% on the sewer user bill. You said two projects. You mean the
sewer and sewer and water? No, you mean the two lines. No, just two lines. So this is all there's no he's just going to wrap up right now. He's going to he's just going to wrap up the summary here. So the summary is basically this isn't a project that we
believe that Chsford can do alone. It's very cost prohibitive as I think is evident here. It's possibly you could partner with a neighboring community. If Bedford or Burlington was possibly looking into upgrading their system to increase their capacity, it might be a
time to do something cooperatively. Um, it wouldn't also hurt to have to start discussions if this seemed to be a viable route. Um, also should continue discussions with LOL to find out where they're really at with rerating the plant, how
long it's going to take them to see if the increase can happen sooner than later. And the last thing to point out is it's I think this is probably the most critical thing is even if you transfer the flows to an MWA community depending
on where the new flows would come into town, you'd still have to look at your capacities because there still be may there still may be localized capacity issues in the existing pipes and pump stations not being designed for another say 500,000 gallons. So it it isn't
necessarily going to solve all the problems. It will increase capacity particularly in the Mill Road area and in the progress area because that that's where you're taking the flow out of. But if you wanted to go somewhere else in Shelford, we'd you'd have to look at those pipes and pump stations as well
before proceeding with anything. Yeah, that that that point shouldn't be overlooked. As he mentioned at the end, you Pat remembers she was here at the time. We for example, we have a flow issue on Littleton Road. Um, meaning that if if we were able to send all this
flow to MWRA or even if magically we got flow to the city of L by some miracle, we have internal issues with our system because they weren't they they weren't designed to enhance the flow above the forecasted purchase that the town made. So, in other words, we want to make
people aware that okay, you've got somewhere to go. But on the other hand, if let's say they wanted to redevelop the mobile home park into some mega development of housing and and so forth or commercial development can't do it because if you go to that main line that's going down Littleton Road, it's
near capacity. So now you're looking at a whole cost of new pipes, pump stations, and so forth to get you out of town. And so that sort of is the big thing of caution because and then you can imagine start rippling that fact and and we saw that
firsthand when we were talking with the west campus redevelopment and you may may recall they built a sewer treatment plant on site but even if we had the capacity they would have had real issues because you couldn't get through you couldn't get taken the flow from those 400 units and just sent them you know
through our current system to l and we had a similar issue with the town of Tingsboro about a half dozen years ago. ago. They wanted to expand their capacity out of Tingsboro by basically moving some capacity from one side of the you know the Voke school side in LOL side of the river to the Chumpswood side
and we couldn't accommodate them through Southwell because we just didn't have the flow and so we told them what the cost would be to upgrade Southwell basically it just became a non-starter for Tingsboro so we want to make this aware that this was an external treatment system but if you even if the
town wanted to absorb a you know 100% increase in its sewer rates that you then would still have internal issues as well to deal with. Um and where I think my conclusion where this comes with this is very valuable because right now the managed growth study
committee is getting launched and this I think is going to be very helpful for those discussions in terms of what does this mean and where do we go and um and so I think that sort of now at least we have something to to go on as opposed to thoughts of well maybe we could go to
Burlington or you know or or to Bedford and so forth. Um and you know so that's that's sort of where we were left and why we're here this evening is to um you know sort of bring it to you together to say we looked at this and to go to your
your point Erin we tangentally as we were discussing this you said well if you're out there doing the work what about running a water water man back from MWRA to to Chelmsford and again you're looking at similar cost because obviously you know you you've now got to
expand your trench you still got the main lines and everything else. So, we did do that, but we didn't focus on that in this summary because we didn't want to distract people from the real core of this, which was sewer. But yes, theoretically, you could run water the other way, which has been discussed by the legislature and others. But it just
goes to show you the issues, not to mention the same type of issues with water, sewer flow you'd have with water flow. You just because you can get water doesn't mean you can move water. And the same thing with sewer. Just because you can treat sewer doesn't mean you've got the capacity to process it in terms of
your pipes. Um and so what that and that's actually happened to us in l as Christine can allude when they're doing their main replace in l we get assessments on that because our flow is going through those pipes in l and so that's part of the ongoing maintenance of that system to get our our effluent
currently from the chumps line across the city of l to the marac river at the uh duck island treatment plant. So yeah, to your point, this does not address our our current facilities as far as water intake. No,
this is just Yeah, this is this is just because we wanted to keep it real clean. Yeah. But we wanted to let you know that while we were doing this, we did look at the fact as well, gee, is there some benefit? Could we be running a water man the other direction? And like you said, it it you've just got some major issues.
But that's a completely different facilities and like Exactly. I would yeah like I would have liked to see more about the water in in the report itself there is an alternative 4A that discusses some of the water from Lexington.
Oh where is that? Oh not it's in the body of the report. We didn't put it in the presentation but in the body of the report itself there was an alternative 4A that talks about getting water potentially from Lexington but we didn't uh pursue that too much because the focus of this was the sewer.
I mean, aren't they kind of intertwined? And that's what I was kind of trying to understand was do we do we can we can we start some of these projects based on what we need now and have it kind of in place for I don't know and how the two how the two can be done at the same time
potentially for a cost savings if needed. You know what I mean? That's I wouldn't say they're intertwined because you can't really put them in the same trench with water and sewer because DP is not going to go in favor of that. So it would probably double the construction cost because you'd be wider
trenches, separate trenches. Um MWA doesn't have a restriction typically. There are some communities that are sewer only. There's some that are sewer and water. There's some that are water only. Yeah. So I mean it is an option and I think Lexington was the nearest water uh place
you could tap. So the piping in is probably similar as to what we see here. the facility the ability of our current facilities to be able to the impact on our facilities would be you almost double the cost basically to get the pipes in the same one because you can't put it
like a sewer force man and a gravity sewer. Yes. So you can put those in the same trench and that saves you money. Yeah. But with water and sewer they don't always like that. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. And then the other thing is this is distributing the cost over all 13,000 users. Obviously, if you try to do a
localized sewer treatment like, oh, we're going to provide this to the business corridor on 129, you could just see the cost would skyrocket because now you're not stripping over 13 sewer account, just stripping it over a minor amount. Um, you know, you'd have to do all or nothing. So, so that the impact is Yeah.
So, would there be any So, some of this the capacity then would not be going to lower. Would there be a reduction in what we would pay to lower? I mean you you but then you would No, there couldn't be because then you wouldn't have any additional flow. So in other words, you would still send your flow to LOL, but
the problem is if you divert, you said we don't have we can't get any additional flow without upgrading the pipes anyway. So it the flow staying exactly as it is, right? You wouldn't pay for treatment, right? You wouldn't pay for the treatment because we'd be sending theoretically lower lower amounts of of
u of capacity to LOL because you're right, you couldn't send the same amount. you the only way you could avoid that would be is if if we were then installing sewer mains, you know, like if we wanted to do the 129 corridor and run a separate line that would then not divert anything from low and then divert
it down into the MRA. But it's just costly. But the other thing to point out is yeah, then we wouldn't pay low anything. But when you look at the number of bedrooms and the capacity, the other thing is this should be seen in perspective. This was if you saw that rerouting the Progress Avenue pump station would be the equivalent of 1,800
new bedrooms. The UMass West campus redevelopment has 400 units. That would probably take, you know, almost about half this capacity if we were to build that kind of of a development. And so that just puts into perspective, in other words, this, you
know, we're talking 2.6 million gallons a day where we have now we're obvious you can talk in here about 195,000 gallons. So trying to put it in perspective that this isn't like oh we're now you know and and and and then reality in which I think the ME growth
task force the initial demand on this is going to be residential right the market out there right now even in 129 as we've seen would be residential and so you would have this issue of bedroom capacity as opposed to new retailoff
space. Um and then the other thing is if you then introduce that level of bedrooms into what does that do then do to your other infrastructure i.e. bedroom bedrooms come with people who come with traffic who also come with
school kids who also come with limited space and facilities to address these issues. And that that was the other issue that we had to be mindful of is oh wait a minute and in fact this is even going on to discussion it's going to the planning board tomorrow Wednesday night the former Rison as you know it's
been developed into the new hotel and then the new senior adult care now they want to put 15 apartments above on the second floor above where the ballroom is that area. So that's 15 probably two mostly two-bedroom units. And when we
met with them last week in discussion going into the planning board for preliminary discussion last week, we're like, "Where's your bus stop?" And they're like, "What are you talking about?" It's like, "If you put 15 two-bedroom units in the Rison, you're going to need a bus stop because you're going to have some children." Not saying
you're going to have 15 children, but even if you have five or, you know, five children, then again, you've got to accommodate that. meaning you've got a where's the bus going to kin where they going to drop off where they going to pick them up and so and so again that just it's it's sort of the whole thing and that's
why I'm referencing the growth strategy thing is every action has a reaction and therefore when you looking at this in addition to being breathing you know tightly when we looked at the cost of almost 100% increase in sewer rates it then became well what are the what are
the results of this development both internal to the town in terms of what does that do for your sewer treatment ability and flow Because what's the reaction going to be from a business owner in Vinyl Square who says, "Wait a minute, my rates just went up 100%." But I can't add any more flow from my project in my area to also
the impacts of what does that then do um to the other uh infrastructure needs in the community. So what I'm hearing here, even with a major upgrade to Duck Island, it really wouldn't help because we don't have the ability to send more than we are,
right? But the problem with Duck Island and LOL is there's no it's an island that's appropriately named. There's no expansion capacity. And what LOL's doing as part of their efforts, one is they're they're growing and they're becoming this, you know, front runner city and they're going to have growth and so
forth. They're putting in these temporary holding stations like up by the stadium. But the problem with that is you can only hold so much for so long because you've got to treat and you know the math only goes so far. So the short answer to your question is you're right Jeeoff even if l could open up the
and say send as much sewer flow as you want becomes an issue of what have we got in the ground in terms of what you can send capacity to and they said that was a real issue you know years ago when Tingro wanted to change their flow and it was a discussion going back to the west campus about they wanted to send
their flow like okay you can do that but you're going to have to rebuild the pump station and and the pipe to get to get it to all do we have the full report for this yes sent to us. Yes, that's that's in the packet. That's the um that's the document right there. The um
dated um August 29th and that and that has the brief mention of the MW water. Oh, at the end here. Yeah. Yeah, we put it afterwards. Yeah. Oh, so that is the only page No, not page 17. Which page is it?
Page 14. Is that the only mention of um drinking water? Is that the only reference to drinking water in here? Yes. So, so what are we looking for tonight? Just to It's just a status report with you at this point. As I said, our our next
thoughts are one is we we we share with the growth management committee that's going on going forward from here. And then two is, you know, when we're at the Middle Sex 3 and we're talking to our colleagues in in Bedford and, you know, which is obviously the town manager there we know well, Matt Hansen and then
Burlington who has a new manager and so forth. you know that we obviously continue dialogue with those folks to say, "Hey, look, if if if there's a need, you know, in terms of what you have in your community or a need arises, I guess the only solution and that really may get the that could be the
magic fund because the only funding we know that's available right now would be a low interest or grant loans from the state through its, you know, infrastructure programs. However, if the if there was some development that created jobs and and economic development along the Route 3 corridor, then there might be the impetus to get
the the Commonwealth to invest significant money in in order to create that kind of growth on the Route 3 corridor that could benefit the Bedfords and the Burlingtons and Chsfords um in terms of that flow. But right now, those that doesn't exist, but
that would just be other cost offset. We still have issues, right, in in the rest of town. So, so just real quick, and if I cut you off, Pat, sorry. Um, that's all right. If so, if we do nothing
and we we hope that there's some future capacity, if we just say there's there's no there's no growth opportunity because this is truly limiting um it is what would cause sewer
um volume to increase. So if we don't allow any just draconian we don't allow any more building right is the sewer capacity to lol ever going to increase is there other ways that that's in other words do we have to do we may
not like this answer and it may not be the right solution but do we have to do something in the future because there's going to be some level of growth I just can't imagine we're going to have maintain zero yeah the the the biggest threat you're going to have is inflow and infilt ation in the future. Our
sewer system is relatively new. Yeah. When a system ages, you get more inflow and infiltration because the aging and that's when you get, you know, the cracks and all this and it comes in and we we saw some of that early on even in our system. That's
going to be the issue over time in terms of that system ages and then you're getting flow in. The bigger challenge is, and this is one, if if if you think about it, if we were going to spend $100 million, it would be a heck of a lot easier and cheaper and more effective to go and get
and disconnect everybody's sump pump that's illegally tied into the sewer system and put a drain to the storm drain because that's the problem. The problem that they didn't uh include in the calculations for the chumps of buildout was the inflow and infiltration into the system. And as John noted in
his comments earlier, 15% differential on a dry year versus a wet year. And and if you saw that issue of the flows, we that's that's the story right there is is like very go back to the very beginning of his presentation. Look at
these look at these flows in 2025. You know, you're down to the 2.33 million gallons per day. In 2024, where it rained, it was 2.92. That's a factor of of 20%. Okay, you know that's the that's the
story. So why did you see why were we doing all the moratoriums and everything and because of 18 and 19 we were exceeding capacity but you can see the last three out of the last four years have been dry years that's the story that's the inflow and infiltration. So the most effective thing that Chamsford
could do is, you know, forgetting about 100 million and all the risk and the unknowns and the big dig overruns and everything you get connecting down to Bedford or Burlington. The biggest thing we could do is is get to the residents and actually physically it'd be cheaper
for them to for the town to pay to to just to run the lines from their, you know, sump pump connections to the town storm drains. You'd be a winner. But the problem is nobody wants to open their home. Because even when we offered a program for free,
nobody came. That's because nobody I get it. Nobody wants nobody's going to rely on the trust. Oh yeah, trust us. We're there'll be no charge, right? Because people rightfully have been burnt in the past by other, you know, government and and private uh promises. But that's the
real the real story in Jumpsford is and everywhere is is is the fact that it's the inflow and infiltration that's killing the systems and understandably so. Nobody wants water in their basements or or and all the health implications from mold and everything else that you have around your home. So
rather than saying put it out in your yard, it's like no, I'm going to put it into the basement line into the sewer and it goes away. But that's the real issue and the real solution. not not doing something though is not also an option. Again, look at these numbers today on the surface.
It's a lot to digest and I wanted to hear the presentation um before I really digest it at all, but um yeah, I think we we're going to need to be creative. Madam Chairwoman, when I can, please. Sure. Go ahead. Thanks.
I just have one quick question, Paul. Um is there any initiatives to um find out what the cost to upgrade the internal systems um so that so that we could have a complete look when the managed growth strategy group starts to look at this
and not just the Western Samson report is there any initiatives for any in-house um estimates of uh upgrades of our own systems uh that would be required to increase capacity we don't have that now that's something we could look at but that would be huge
U we we could look at that and um I mean what we could probably do is do a pilot like we could start with Littleton Road pick an area like Littleton Road as we described about and say what would it take to replace that main on Littleton Road the length of that main and then from there
then you know sort of do analysis going forward with 41 pump stations and a lot of them interacting with each other you're right it's not going to it isn't just a quick thing you could be impacting four different sub areas is in three different pump stations that are all
linked. One goes to the next, one goes to the next. So, but the Wesson and Samson report does not give the complete picture that it would take to to put to increase flows. I think Christine Christine, did you have something to add to that? Did you
something did you want to address Pat's I think Chris Christine is Christine is standing up. I think she might be able to address the question. We didn't do that because we know it's just a very very large cost. And so I guess you'd have to look at each system, each road, each roadway segment to see where it
increased capacity. But we have 190 miles of sewer. So we'd have to I guess look at maybe maybe the trunk lines and see. But so updating some portion of that. I mean, if you're looking at hundreds of millions of dollars, you're talking the whole, you know, the whole system, but then you have pump station
upgrades. So it has to be some percentage of that. We can we could probably do that internally. what my role with because it's not just the pipe, it's it's sometimes you have to relocate a water, you have to repair the roadway. So, it's like a thousand dollars a linear foot is just a really
like high level. Um, that's all it needs to be is high level 190. I mean, I just did the math. You're at a bill over a billion dollars right there. So, that I mean that's just without that's looking at the whole road the whole system. I mean, we could look a little more to see like if you look at the arterial roadways and um we could we
can put that together, but I mean, you're you're talking hundreds of millions of dollars is my my estimate without, you know, pulling out a calculator. Um maybe it might be in the billions, but we we can run that. Um and then the other I think what and what Paul kind of tag what Paul said is like
really the answer is to start really building out the storm storm drain system. So, our storm drain system is our newest system. We have that's the newest division we have. Um we are still updating the GIS to make sure we're accurately reflecting where everything is. Um in the connections of that we
have our CCTV truck for storm water now separate from our sewer. So we've done a lot of CCTV inspections. Um you can do more in-depth inspections where you basically sit in a line and see what type of in sources of inflow can come in sewer mains. Um, so that's what we're we're trying to target, you know,
between smoke testing, between additional popping manhole covers. I think that's part of the solution to try to tackle that 10 to 20%. Um, that's not, I guess, a good long-term solution, but it is an answer. And so that's where we, you know, we're trying to target
that annually. Um, what will be before Falltown meeting too is the Westford Street, you know, adding an extension of storm drain so that we can offload some people from the sump pumps. There were about 200 people that re um townwide that responded to that program. Of the
200, only 15 potentially have um eligible um pumps that could be disconnected. Um and a couple of them are on West Westward Street. And that's where if we add if we can add a storm drain system that offloads a sewer system and that also provides um the
separation. So, so separation or inflow removal is is the short-term answer for um as we you know as we still allow de some development and so what do we do in the short term and medium term is for so for example going back to the Rison redevelopment if
they're going to pay to if they're going to put the 15 apartments in they're going to pay a sewer capacity fee of of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the DPW which we could then take that money and do some of this inflow work to make you know keep the system running.
Yeah. So that's right now it's at a 2 to1 ratio. So $35 um a gallon really $70 a gallon. So some of these fees are costing $100s of dollars um for you know the larger developments. And I think we have two that are right now in the
actually signed and executed and then we're working on um three or four right now. And so that what we do is we I guess to be responsible we've created this sewer bank where we have we take inflow out of the system and then we track that and then we're adding inflow in the system whether whether it be ADUs
or developments and so we're trying to always replenish that bank as we're selling from that bank. I guess that's the responsible um way to track that. Um, obviously inflow and infiltration as infrastructure ages, you know, that's going to be kind of it's hard to track every source of infiltration because
it's kind of a fluid situation because you could have new new infiltration appear. But that's what we're doing is tracking what we're adding to the system and what we're taking out of the system to try to I guess um summarize that annual bank of what's coming in, what's coming out.
I So I think you know Christine brings up the the most obvious one. So we don't necessarily have to allow any sort of growth, but we're going to get growth because you can build ADUs. Now that could be two people. How many more gallons per day times per year? Like so so something has to be done. Again,
anything we can get infiltration makes sense, but um you know whether to Pat's point whether this is even just another hundred million is already cost prohibitive as it's presented today. I know there's a lot more detail that that probably doesn't mean cheaper either.
Okay, Pat, did you have any other any other questions? Pat Maloney. No, no, thank you. Thank you for I just have one more question. Did we have did we get any numbers on the um the impact I see the numbers on the impact to sewer users, but do we have
any numbers on the impact to water users in here? I don't. Is it similar percentagewise or probably I I really not positive? Okay. But okay, anybody? Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate it.
One thing to add for the water just to add on too is well I guess we started down that path, but the thought was I guess if we do need to add water, there is the opportunity to add water from l. And so the thought was okay if we're adding water, you can add from LOL. They do they don't have as much of a capacity
restraint as Duck Island. So I guess I don't know why we would be adding water when it's potentially double the cost. So I guess there is always an ability there is an ability to add wa an easier ability to add water to the the town system from low and that would probably
be you know much uh cost effective and also when you look at the dollar like what we're charging for water versus MWA. MWA is the heart one of you know the it's it's great water but it's it's very expensive. So I guess the impact Yeah, I was wondering how expensive exactly that was. We didn't So we didn't go down that path
just because we knew it was much more it would probably not be cost effective just from looking at high level at you know where we have low water still available to us. Yeah. You're not going to install 11 miles of pipe down to Bedford and Burlington when you're already connected
in East Chole. Just a no-brainer. I thought we were talking about water later. We are talking about waterway, but it was just to explain why we didn't like continue to emphasize the the water cost coming like no, that's nobody would nobody rationally would make that choice
because the cost is just prohibitive. Not not to mention the cost uncertainty. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Christine. So, I guess the town needs to start playing Powerball on a regular basis. Yeah.
Okay. Um, licenses is done. So, next up we have um the installation of a memorial bench at Robert's Field for Sandy Rainey. So, um I can speak to this. I fielded
this and I met with um Christine and Bob Silk at Friendship Park a couple of weeks ago and I looked at where they were talking about putting this bench that they want to place for Sandy Rainey who um was fairly involved in things at
Robert's Field and who I think everyone um a lot of people in town are familiar with. uh she was involved in a lot of things and the um Bob Silk from the Lions Club um wanted to donate this
bench to Friendship Park in her honor. Um they were thinking of a couple of spots on one side of the park and then as we were walking around we realized that there is a big kind of blank space in the back left corner there right
between two fairly young trees. um that looks like it could use something and where there's no other benches or anything really. So, uh there's a couple pictures here. You can see the bench. You can see the
spot between the trees. Christine Clancy was with us and had no issue with the spot. and we discussed that the bench looks a little bit different than some of the other ones that have been donated around town, but she um she approves of
that as well. She didn't have any concerns. Um yeah, and that's it. It's a nice bench. Um Yep. and they said if the bench becomes unusable due to normal wear and tear or
anytime in the future um they would be okay with its disposal. Um that's about it. It's pretty we found a good spot where there's there's nothing there. So I think it'll be a nice addition to to the playground.
There's a few over on the right hand side or in the depending which way you go in, but over on the Jun's Place side, there's a few there, but this particular side of the park uh of the playground doesn't have anything. So,
that's it. So, I think I just have have a question. Obviously, I support these things. Um, but I think there's a a standard, and Christine can correct me if I'm wrong, but there's there's a standard for the benches and stuff that have gone along
the rail trail. So, um, why would we I'm assuming that maybe they've already bought this bench or donated it and that's the example. So, they just want a place to put it um versus putting in a standard bench that would last a lot longer than So, Christine, do you want to Yeah. So I
I think the ones that I've done over the past couple years have been the the metal ones but so we talked about this when we were here Christie. Sure. So yeah, we've kind of shifted towards more the metal and then along the rail trail, uh we do have a composite material similar to this, but
we have a certain standard. Um and so that is I guess our desire to kind of have these picked from these two standards, but when we met with um Bob Silk, they had already purchased this bench. Okay. And so that's why I was like, well, I I don't want to have to replace that bench
with that bench in a couple years. So he said they, you know, if in three years it's vandalized, they're okay with it being um at that point abandoned. And so that was I guess the agreement. I did also, you know, at least before I could say yes, I had to also have it checked
to make sure we can easily put it, you know, we wanted something that is placed in the ground. So our highway department picked it up and looked at it and it's going to be anchored a little differently. Um but we can do it and actually we could start it this week. Um so it's it is composite. It's not wood, which is, you know, it's that's much
better than some other um I guess in the Yes, we do have we don't have official standards written anywhere um in our policy, but we we've kind of leaned towards the that one metal bench and then the the composite ones you see along the rail trail. But part of the reason, and she
explained to us that the material on this bench is fine, but it's the the metal ones are less prone to um the vandalism, you know what I mean? They're it's easier to to clean them up or whatever. or so and these ones are a little bit more difficult which is the only kind of downside but
yeah again they they made the investment in the bench and I support these but you know I think we've talked a lot about it and again I think these things are important and they they every bench again I've had people say you can't get enough benches along some of the walking paths. So um
uh I just you know I prefer a little bit of the standard so that they they last and that they're not maintenance nightmares and those things but I'm fine with that. Anybody else? Pat, you have anything? No.
Okay. Make a motion. You ever need a motion? Motion. Yep. I'll take a motion. I'll make a motion that the board approve the request for a memorial bench as presented. I'll second that. Okay. We have a motion and a second and
we're going to do a roll call. Pat Wess. Yes. Pat Maloney. Hi, Jeff. Yes, Aaron. Yes. And I'm a Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Um, next up we have signing the
warrant for the October 20th call annual town meeting. Yeah, Madam Chair, members of the board, uh, before you this evening is the warrant um for the October 20th fall annual town meeting. Uh there's 35 articles 17 of which are zoning of which
those 17 zoning 12 of them in speaking to the planning board chair Crystal Valley would be considered under a consent agenda meaning they'd be bundled uh and taken up at one time. So the thinking in terms of my communication with the moderator uh and with planning
board chair Chris Levali is town meeting would open on Monday the 20th. We'd start with the beginning of the warrant, you know, as you can see, beginning of the warrant traditional traditionally in its format. Um, get as far as we can with all the financial articles and
other articles. Uh, and then the second session on Thursday would be the start with the bundling and then whatever isn't completed, um, you know, left over from Monday night aside from the bundle would then be then would resume and finish at that point. So, the hope and goal is to have
it be a two session town meeting. Um but what why I mention that is is where there is you know 12 articles under consent agenda bundle and it starts under article 15 you don't want to get partially through and say oh let's journ and pick this up on Thursday night
because then it just gets repetitive and unwieldy so so that's the thinking uh in terms of that um the only changes from what I presented to you two weeks ago at your previous meeting was article 11 was added at the request of the school superintendent school committee
This had to do with the close out of the town's fiscal year and free cash. Long story short, a an early payment at the end of fiscal 24 that was provided by the state for special ed circuit breaker art of district tuitions. Um these they they
had to close out the subsequent fiscal year. And I guess where the miscommunication was, they thought where it was an early payment for 25 that the state was providing assistance at the end of 24 that that that payment would then carry into 26. But when Darling went to close the books, the Department
of Revenue said, "No, you've got to close that out." So because that was a loss of over $400,000 in incorporated into their financial plan that then got pushed into the free cash, we're just going to basically restore it into the budget. So there's no net no cost to the
tax levy, no cost to taxpayer. It just it just was, you know, a sort of a snafu or miscommunication on that. And then the other article is article 35 or 3035, which was this request that town meeting authorization for this to dispose of a
tax possession parcel on Monmouth Avenue. John Souzer, who's our finance director, treasurer, collector, he's the one obviously who administers the sale of tax collection properties. Um the last time we did this, we we had to bring it to town meeting for the
direction of council for authorization. Um, so we're putting this place holder on and then John will continue to work with council uh to and and when we get into the presentations at your next meeting and coming up to the finance committee, you know, this is a vacant, you know, third of an acre parcel of
land that's non-buildable and in the past the interest has always been interest tend to be the direct abutters because they could then expand their yard or put an accessory dwelling unit on and so forth. So that's the intent here. Um, so that's that's what the
warrant is. this evening. And so with your vote this evening, um we'll and your signatures, we'll send it out to the constable tomorrow for posting and then FinCom will be in this room on Thursday evening. Uh this Thursday evening and the following Thursday evening to hear presentations on the articles and then they'll wrap up their
votes um on the at the end of this month. Um and then two weeks from tonight, we'll do the re review to the select board and then you'll have that meeting and then your first meeting in October for any concerns. our recommendations two weeks, right? Two weeks from today.
And if there's anything of concern, we can visit that at your meeting on October 6th. So, we won't know the finance committees. No, you will. You will know the finance committee's recommendations. Okay. Uh before um before um second your votes. Yeah. Yep. When you come back in two weeks because they're
meeting this Thursday and next Thursday. So, they'll they'll they'll hear the presentations and they're going to vote on in three weeks. Um so, you'll have your presentations before knowing their votes. if you want to hold off on your vote so you hear their recommendations and we could do it on October 6th. The reason we don't wait everything till
October 6th is it doesn't give you any time because that's our last meeting before town meeting, right? So that's why we'll do the presentations in two weeks and you can decide whether to vote at that time or if there's anything you want further information on, we can come back and and and deal with that on the um October 6 meeting.
And also I know select member Maloney is not going to be here on the 22nd. So that could be another reason to if you want to it's however the board wants to handle it. My preference is in the passive as you know is to once we get a presentation to make a vote then just a as a courtesy to
the presenter. So yeah and we've been looking at these most of them for a month already. So by then you pretty much figured out and so we'll and we'll have um we've invited Chair Levali to present you know the 17 zoning articles. He'll be there.
He'll also be there at the town meeting information session on the Wednesday before town meeting to present it to the town meeting as well. Caught some of the planning board meetings discussing these articles and they put a ton of work into this. Yeah. So, so the action now is we need a
motion to uh approve and sign the warrant as presented. Okay. If nobody has anything, I'll take a motion. I'll make a motion that the board approve um and sign the warrant as presented. I'll second that.
Okay, we have a motion and a second. Pat Wes. Yes. Pat Maloney. I. Jeff. Hi. Aaron? Yes. And I'm an I. Approved. Quick question, Paul. Um uh do you how do I go about uh providing
my signature? um when you when I don't know when you're going to be by, but uh it can go out without your signature or we we can find some other way of getting your signature on there. I won't be back in town until um the weekend. So, my earliest time that I
could get in to sign would be next Monday. Okay. Yeah, it'll go out without it and then we can we can get it afterwards. Yeah, that's okay. Thank you. Okay. Next on our agenda, we have um independent assessment of the consolidation of the water districts
located within the town of Chumsford. Yeah, let let me just give some intro on this. Back at our meeting on June 2nd, we discussed the consolidation of the water districts. At that time, the board said, "Let's provide the three water districts with three months notice that we want to have a discussion on
September 15th, which would be a week from tonight." That correspondence, as you can see, a copy of it, went out on June 6th to the three water districts. And then on August 4th, I sent a reminder to the three water districts saying, "The board wants to meet with you on Monday, September
15th at 6 p.m. to discuss the consolidation of three water districts." A week later, I heard from the chair of the council water district who informed me that the uh representatives of the three water districts would not be honoring the request of the select board. um back on June 6 to meet on
September 15th to discuss the consolidation of the water districts and I informed them that the uh board members would be discussing this matter this evening on September 8th. Um so that's sort of the prelude to this. What I have for you um is a proposal that
gives it gives a scope. Yeah. Public works director Christine Clansancy and I have talked to multiple consultants over the summer. Um and I think this proposal just gives a clear understanding. I'm not saying in terms of what it is we're looking for, why we're what we're
talking about and and hopefully it gives you that understanding and then we can see where that brings us. And so I'll just quickly uh summarize a couple of things. First one is we we've chosen companies that that have not done any business to our knowledge with any of
the players. So we didn't go at Weston and Samson because somebody my feeling was if we went to Weston Samson say oh they do business with the town they've got a they've got a you know an interest or bias um far as you know so that was the first thing we stayed away from and
what we're looking to do is have an independent assessment regarding the potential consolidation of the water districts the three water districts and really the point of this is whether the water takers from the three water districts would be better served by consolidation
we're at into one unified district. Um, and the reason for this is is in the year 2025, the cost and expertise required to address issues such as PAS, the regulatory requirements, the capital
infrastructure needs warrant this type of analysis. Um the how this would unfold is any consultant that's brought on board would meet with the relative officials meaning select board members of the district staff and so forth um to
discuss the expectation and and cl clarify objectives uh and and the framework for the collection. Um and then they basically would go from there as you would expect a consultant would do is they would step back, look at the district's governance and
organizational models, their structure. Um and then look at whether a change could improve transparency, increase voter participation, and strengthen accountability. Um and the but the core of the assessment is to compare the district's operating
budgets, debt service obligations, staffing models and rate structures and to see whether efficiencies could be gained through consolidation in terms of billing, purchasing, emergency response administration. um
in both the short and long term in terms of what impact that would have on water takers um under a consolidated model as opposed to three separate organizations. Um and as you're doing that, what would have to take place is you need an assessment of the condition of the
infrastructure and equipment across all three districts. Evaluate the age, adequacy, and investment history of the systems. um to identify any disparities across the districts, which we know there are. There has to be just by the fact that there are three in terms of their
capital investment and long-term sustainability. And then where those inequities exist, then you would recommend, well, how would you, you know, account for that in terms of rates or search charges with, you know, within those legacy districts in order to be
fairness in terms of a unified district. um so that you're not overburdening any one subset of the rateayers. Um and then at the final stage would be a review of the legislative and legal framework for consolidation. Um you know with a final report with presentations, finances, you
know, comprehensive uh scenarios and recommendations. They estimate uh this could take up to six months to do this work and you're probably talking somewhere around you know $37,000 or so or about a $1,000 about a dollar per
resident of the community to get this done. So that's sort of my perspective is is what's being sought here. this has you know that's I think it hasn't been looked at in generations and I just
think it's it it would be helpful just like what we just did earlier this evening we have a great better understanding in terms of our sewer capacity constraints and needs and I think in this case you know the issue of consolidation
you know is worthy to look at because if it were if it's a great idea that they stay independent then that's what the study will show and that hopefully be the outcome. But on the other hand, if it says that geez, similar to communities like Tukbury and Bo Ricker and so forth, one system may more
adequately be more cost-effective just like in our own community, we have one housing authority. We have multiple elementary schools, but we don't have separate school committees and school ops. That's sort of what we're trying to get at. So, I'm going to stop there because I'm sure you may have questions. and
Christine's here also address any questions or concerns that you may have. Um because that's I think hopefully a good scenario, but what what would this entail? How long would it take? What would it cost and why? So regardless of what an assessment may
show, it's still we'd still have to go in front of the state for this, right? Yeah. You'd have to bring it to the legislature. They're the ones who who create the districts. Um, and they would have, you know, they would um would would would want local uh action and I
think they'd look for the town and whether that would be through some kind of a meeting or ballot question or what have you. I think they'd want some indication with the community. Is this what you want? Because as you know, when you submit a petition to the legislature, they're going to basically say, well, who's who's submitting this
and and is this what the community is looking for? But but this is not I think there's a couple of things. First of all, it it would have been much nicer to be able to have everybody here in the room. Um, but first question is we can't do this unless they choose to participate,
right? This is not a study that can be No, you can't because as noted in the thing, you can do this by the public records law. You basically, in other words, okay, you could basically say if you choose not to cooperate, we're going to submit you freedom of information act request thing. Okay, present us with your your
capital plan. Present us with your building system. present us with your infrastructure just like if somebody asked that of us. And and the other thing is this is not about the town taking over water. This would be about consolidating into an a single independent
district the board and all that stuff. So I think that's really important for people to know um because there's been good and bad across the country of towns taking over water or not. Um and and so I as long as people understand that and
as long as we can get the data um I think the investment of $37,000 to to see if it makes sense um to keep them separate or not. I think I worry about you know independently can they survive especially as costs for PAS and those things come up. So I I want to make sure
that the people that that Chumsford all residents are serviced by the equivalent service of water. Yeah. If I may, one of the concerns that that sort of piqued my interest in this, we have one water district, the you know, say with this East Water District
has 750 you customers, users. H how does that survive in the year 2025 when we're dealing with PAS, the infrastructure needs and so forth. Um, and when I've had and I' and I've met with them, as you know, and I've also
met with the Chsford Water District, and when I met with the Chsford Water District, they're like, "Well, we don't know what we'd be taking on. So, we're concerned about the unknown in terms of the liability to the, you know, water payers and rate and water takers in the Chsford Water District." And so, that's exactly what we're trying to get at is
let's get data, objective data by a disinterested third party who can come in and say, "Okay, these are the facts." And then the community can decide. But no, going back to your initial statement, I I can't state a benefit at this point in time, and it's not an effort by the
town to take over the water districts. And that was the previous effort by by that would that manager Lynch tried to do over 30 years ago was the town consolidation of the districts. And that gets derailed by all different things such as, well, where's the money going to go and all such. No, the idea was
just like you've got an independent housing authority who gets elected and everything else, you know, you'd still have an independent water district, but it would be a unified water district, not three sub subdists of that comprise the town.
So, I I guess my thoughts on this um as you said, it's been a long time since it was really studied in in depth. Um and quite frankly, I think um the request to to have that meeting um did spur the the all three districts to start talking
about it among themselves. Um I think that's going to happen. I don't know what will come of it. I don't know if they'll come up with any good ideas. Um I think us doing this is premature at this at this time. Um so I would like to see I mean I know they're all meeting this later this week. I'd like to see
what comes from that meeting and before we just, you know, go spend $37,000 to do something on our own. And I will and I also wanted to ask like where would that $37,000 come from? We we have a $50,000 appropriation from Springtown meeting that could be
utilized to do this. That was for efficiencies and consolidation and and all that could that could utilize that. The other question I have for you Pat and it's don't take it anything to what I'm saying is is that a posted meeting and has the agenda been posted for that meeting? Because I've been looking over
the last three months and I've not seen anything on any of the three districts about the subject of consolidation or discussion about mergers or otherwise amongst the three districts. And so that that troubles me the same reason it troubles me that they wouldn't come to our meeting an invitation a week from
that we had for for meeting next week with the select board and and so the fact that they've had consolidations and when and apparently the stuff going on either without the consent of all the board members or it's going on without the public or it's illegal.
Yeah. I just don't understand how they're having discussions outside of their meetings. um because I don't see anything in terms of a posted agenda or any discussions because if there were I'd be interested in in and I would be attend attending those meetings.
Okay. I mean I I guess the way they're doing it is just have one representative from each from each water district which that's the way to begin the discussion without having to without violating open meeting law. And that as far as I know is legal. But I mean I'm not going to defend them or
or defend the town. Uh, I I think as as I said, um, I think we've gotten their attention and I would be interested in seeing what they have to say within the next weeks or months if they have ideas on how to move forward or why not and if
they do, how it how it would happen. I mean, oh, go ahead, Pat. Go ahead. If Pat's done. Pat, are you done for now? Okay. Okay. All right. Um I Well, I I too am disappointed that we, you know, took so
long to get a response that they were not going to come. There's many questions um for each of the districts. So, it just perpetuates that um you know, I wonder, you know, what they're maybe hiding or or maybe what they don't
want to fess up. I disagree that um we should give them more time um because you know there was adequate time for them to have that meeting back you know July August um and then come before the board um so I don't think we're making any
unreasonable requests. I myself am a am a water taker in two districts um both in my business and my personal um so and I see the differences um by
the two districts. I um I um reiterate what Paul said about east um the other two districts. I get letters all the time that you know about the PAS and I have um no um
I guess I have no um confidence that any of um their planning or anything else uh provides us any sustainability with quality water going into the future. So I really think we're derelct in our responsibilities by not um looking very
closely at this with or without the water departments. Um, you know, I also, um, have a real problem, you know, that, um, you know, East is is borderline very problematic,
um, center. Um, I know they're they're planning on doing a plant, but I have no, again, confidence that that will solve the PAS um, problem. And then when you look at North um you know threatening to sue the town for um you
know um providing you know from the old DPW yard um you know so the you know I mean under threat of that to have to provide you know the whole town provide just the North District if we were to lose a potential suit like that. uh you
know for the whole town they have to pay for the you know for NOTH alone to you know have a uh treatment plant. So I have a lot of different issues with all the different um programs and uh I just
have no confidence that um um that uh we're going to have good water in the future, you know, 20 years down the road. And I really do believe that we're derelct in our responsibilities and and not pursuing this mostly so that we just have one group that's in charge of the
entire town and worrying about the entire town. The town does not want to take this over. Um there's no need for the town to take this over. One independent water district is what the town needs. And having said that, I'll
go back to the chair. Well, to kind of add to Pat's point, seems to me they're kicking the can down the road, you know, not responding, not be willing to come in front of us or and and if they fight us on an independent
study, I you know, I think that speaks volumes. So, I I I guess I would say I mean, that's what I'm not looking for is is a fight. Um, I I think this I I would hope that there would be a way that could this could be handled without being
confrontational. Um, and the Senate District, as you know, this week they're having a groundbreaking for a a specific PAST treatment plant. That's what it's for. Um, so I am confident that they will have I mean it's going to be a few years, but they will have a treatment
plant that will adequately address the PAS issues in the in their in that district in that water for that district. So, so I agree with Pat. I think which one I with Pat Wes um in terms of
confrontational um I don't think we need to approach anything confrontational. However, I I think the not at least coming in and saying we're not prepared to talk or addressing it a different way, I feel like was a little confrontational in and of itself. Um, they're going to need
this. If they're going to talk about consolidating, they're going to need the data we're offering to pay for. Um, and I don't like the idea of having a PAS plant built for one district because what if East can't afford one when they need one? and what if North needs to
build one and their rates go skyhigh like maybe it makes sense for one organization to build a PALS plant for the town. So, and again, I know some of these things are already moving forward. Um, and again, I think there's been adequate time. I would say, you know, if there's
some sort of meeting and the chairs going on and they want to come back in a week and say, "Okay, hey, we'll we'll take your study or hey, we don't want to do this. We don't want to make this a, you know, a collaborative effort." I I I think our intention here is to be collaborative and provide support to the
districts and the residents. Yeah, again, I'm going to assume right now that everybody's doing things transparently and and and if they're not that, you know, we'll we'll figure that out in the future again to not be confrontational, but I I do think it's
just I think it's time to probably get the the study going and and you know, if there's a meeting that, you know, Pat, that's going on that we want to give them a another week to do, you know, another week's not going to make or break my bank, but um I don't want to wait months for them to come to us and
say, "Hey, we got an idea. we're going to consolidate or not consolidate, but I'm going to also want to see the data because I think we owe that to the residents. So, if we don't get it, then they need to provide it. Yeah. But I guess if they have this meeting and they
what's going to come out of the meeting? Either they're going to say, "No, we don't want to study consolidation." Or they're going to say, "Yes, we study consolidation." Like, "Okay, great. Then give us then let's all contribute $10,000 and let's get the study done." So I I I mean I I I don't I can't
understand why there wouldn't be a basis to look at it because it hasn't been looked at for 30 plus years. Um and that's I think that's sort of what's the part of this underneath it all is like look I'm not trying to be confrontational or anything else but the point is is
let's let's have an a you know a a you know an independent party do the analysis and then see where it is. And yes, like any other report, if something comes back in the report that you take exception to, then let's hear about it. But if you don't get the work done, I don't understand. And and if you're comfortable that thinking staying as
three separate districts is fine, well then you shouldn't be concerned about the study because the study should come back with the same conclusion. But if you don't get going, you're never going to know. I think Paul, I'm just saying, you know, if another week we don't hear anything, then then I would say fire this off and
get going. I'm not saying I don't want to do it. I want to do it either way and I don't I'm fine if they don't contribute 10,000 a piece. I'm fine with us paying for it because I think it's the right thing to do. I I just So I would um say that if if you're going to wait then I prefer that you
wait until after the September 22nd meeting to take a vote because I won't be there and I want to vote on this. I don't know how it could happen within a week because again they don't have posted meetings. So if there is a meeting of the chairs and superintendent that's not a represent that's not a
meeting that anybody can go into to my knowledge and say this is on behalf of their board because their boards haven't voted to take to their board. So you're right it's not going to be a week. You're probably talking probably a month at least a month right considering this this schedule of their meetings.
Not interested. Yeah. So how long how long has this been this um been on this agenda was posted last week? Yes. So I mean they still could have responded in the last week once they know that we intended to do this analysis and and agreed to come let next week and speak with us
in in my email to them on August 13th. I told them that the board would be discussing this at their August 19th. I thought the board would be discussing this on Monday, September 8th. So I mean I think that goes back over three weeks. Yeah. So, you know, several months ago, we reached out to them and asked them to
come in and just kind of have a a casual discussion about where we're going with our water, and we do not get a response. Um, I don't know what kind of meetings they're having. Um, but I'm I'm on board with going ahead with the analysis. I
don't I don't they're not going to do an analysis that is independent and neutral. So, you know, we need a neutral analysis. We need um full transparency of their financials and um yeah, I mean I have concerns. I don't I don't even
understand why we're building a PAS treatment plant, why they're not collaborating amongst themselves to do such a massive massive project knowing that if one district does it, they'll have to do another one in the other district. That cannot be efficient use
of water taker funds. I just um it can't be the most efficient and effective way to do those projects. Um and I would have liked to discuss it with them, but I don't I don't know that that's going to happen. So I would I'm very much
looking forward to seeing what comes back from a study like this. Um and you know I think it it will be useful to them if they are having the discussions and they are looking for solutions to make you know their operations run more efficiently cost
effectively then this proposal this assessment will also be beneficial to them you know and in turn to all of us who live in town. So I'm I'm okay with it. I think it's time I don't want to I don't want to kick the can down the road
anymore. It's been a long discussion that's gone on off and on for decades from what I understand. So I think it's time to just go ahead and get some data and and then see what's what,
you know. So that's my take. Um having said that I do we need to do we need to vote whether to appropriate funds or author what would it be to authorize you could direct them. you could authorize the manager to execute the
prop proposal and move forward. Accept the proposal and move forward if Okay. If there's a motion to in a vote to that effect. Um I mean I guess one one thing I would say is you mentioned it would come from the $50,000 that was appropriated in the so
so almost I mean basically 37,000 out of that 50 is going to be spent on this. Um, you know, quite frankly, I think there's other things that we could spend that money on at this point. Um, what is that money earmarked first for efficiencies and and consolidation
and I can what I can tell the board and it's on this agenda is as you can see and it's late later on so I'm not telling out of school it's in perspective. I'm we are engaged with the towns of Tukbury to talk about public safety dispatch consolidation. We're
engaged. We're also engaging towns like Tingsboro and Carile to see if we could do public safety dispatch to them on a regional basis. I'm not aware at this point in my discussion that there's any need for that a portion of that 50,000 for those studies. Um so, you know, so
that's an example of work that we're we're looking for in those communities in terms of the the budgetary aspects of it. Um and then we're also looking at the whole range of solid waste and recycling alternatives for a similar thing. But we we I guess we're saying is
we're doing that those works either inhouse or with our expertise and in some cases we'd look for NIMICOG for help. So I don't think I'm for we'd be foreclosing anything by allocating like I said 80% of the 50,000 to this study. That's for you. Yeah.
I think it's a big chunk. I agree. It's a big chunk. But I also think that like our our water districts this is tackling a massive it's a massive thing. if this were to actually be something that were to happen, the consolidation of our water districts, the financial impact on
the town could be huge. So, I think that allocating 80% of that those funds to something like this is it's not also out of line of what we just expended to do this sewer analysis you heard earlier this evening. And, you know, this is another massive part. This is a massive that wasn't, you know,
that wasn't a $4,000 study that we just received. Yeah. We're not talking about, you know, a couple of sidewalks study for a couple of sidewalks here and there. You're talking about a study that impacts the water for the entire town. I mean, I think that's a a a good cause.
So, it is a lot of money. It's a lot of it. Yeah. And it's being directed towards all three districts. It's not just for one, you know. Yes. I mean, okay. If nobody has anything else, I'll take a I'll take a motion. Pat, if you
want to I'll make a motion that the board direct the town manager to enter into a um uh to um to enter into the contract for the proposal and quotation from Capital Strategy Solutions
of Hudson Mass as presented. I'll second that. Okay, we have a motion in a second and another roll call vote. Pat Wess. No. Pat Maloney. I Jeff I Aaron yes
and I'm an I. So the motion passes. Thank you everybody for your input. Okay. Next next one's a little bit easier. This is a request from the traffic safety advisory committee to for the board's
approval for the installation of stop signs on Brentwood Road at the intersections of Lock Road and at Westford Street. Um this as you know we we hear concerns from residents and and you know and and obviously the Westford you know street one with with the construction of the
bridge going on um and I think this was forwarded to me by you Pat as as a concern and so we're we're seeking the committee looked at it you know which is the police chief fire chief public works director town engineer and so forth and we we recommend that the board install stop signs at these locations that it it
does meet the criteria and re recommendations that are established under the uniform traffic code. Are they putting it at the end of Lockwood? Not on the end of Brentwood. Yeah, the end the end of Brentwood. At each end of Brentwood. So, as you leave Brentwood, when you get to the Westwood Street end, you have a stop sign and you're at the
other end at Lock Road, you have a stop sign. But there is one there. There is one there. Yeah, but we need to vote it because we found out it wasn't formally voted. So, Oh, so the lock say we want you to formally bless that because we couldn't find the vote. There is one at Lock Road, but we want one more importantly at
Westford. Yeah. And the other one is is that stop sign coming out? Not to deviate, but I still noticed the other day, yesterday, that the stop sign at the Dalton and Westford. I thought we voted to take that out. Yeah, Christine can answer.
Sorry, I'm not trying to go off topic. It just popped into my head when I'm looking at the map. I believe we were going to monitor traffic fall and the feedback initially is that everything seems to be I mean obviously traffic has increased with school starting but we're monitoring that to see if it needs to come out.
I mean I was thinking it was out so I'm driving along and all a sudden everybody in front of me comes to a complete stop for traffic that's not coming from the left. I'll I'll double check with our town engineer but I have imagine I think we're more we're monitoring it to see if it needs I know it's there. It's all right but I just thought we I think I stopped at that the other just
have it. Yeah, I stopped it. because I had to. Um, you just need a motion. Yeah, I'll take a motion if nobody has anything else. I'll make a motion that the board authorize the installation of stop signs
on Brentwood Road at the intersections of Lock Road and Westford Street as presented. I'll second that. Have a motion and a second. Pois, yes. Pavaloney. I. Jeff, yes. Aaron, yes. I'm a yes. Thank you.
Next up, town manager but awards. You just won this evening. This is for public works for the fire protection and fire suppression at the town clerk's record storage project. Uh as you can see in the memo, the we DPW held a bill bid opening on August 20th. There were
two bids received. This was a project that was we estimated was going to cost $155,000. The low bid was $ 209,500. Then the other bid um was over 400,000 413796
um checking the references and every and information provided by the low bidder at 2095 everything comes back responsive positive uh and basically we want to move forward with this project and the um clerks and the DPW will will fund the
shortfall from election reimbursement funds that come from the state and other funding sources. So, we want to get, you know, get moving on this because it, you know, the this does, you know, pertain to the vital storage of records in our system. So, we're seeking the board's approval of the bid award uh in the
amount of $29,500 to Rustic Fire Protection out of Norton, Mass um as presented. So, I just have a question. Generally, our estimates are just right on or or pretty close. Why is this one so far off? Any thoughts? uh the you know the
the bidding climate uh is still un you know uncertain out there and in speaking to the clerk and and Christine can speak to this as well they the some of the technology is enhanced from when the original bid that was developed and also to add to that I think this is
industry specific so it just seems like some of the pricing around fire protection seems to be um I guess in the favor of the the biders and maybe less competition. We also are seeing um some companies are being bought up by um by
like a monopoly company. So like you think you're see you think you there's three three different contractors out there but they're actually owned by one entity. So there is some consolidation happening across the industry and I think that is allowing for some price inflation particularly in that industry
for um fire protection. So that's that's what we perce but it was we did have an independent cost estimate that wasn't something we did in house. um in that you know estimate 155 I think we had a budget of 160 so um it's just it's just how the industry is still volatile I
guess um okay thank you but you sorry Paul you said that they were going to make up the difference so we voting the 155 you no you have to vote the bid award in the 209500 yeah and then and then we'll we'll we'll
we'll we'll back with reimbursement money from the state from elections and so forth Okay. Um, okay. I'll take a motion if nobody has anything else. I'll make a motion that the board
approved the town manager's bid award to Rustic Fire Protection, Inc. of 320 West Main Street, Norton, um, in the amount of $29,500 as presented. I'll second that.
A motion and a second. Pat Orus. Yes. Pat Maloney. Hi. Jeff. Yes. Aaron. Yes. And I'm an I. Motion passes. Uh, next up, town manager reports. Okay. I'll be brief. I know we're into our third hour. First one I just want to
let the board formally know is now that we've passed Labor Day, we're we're commencing the FY27 budgetary process. Um the most notable one that you'll see first will be the finance director will be presenting a five-year financial forecast that fall annual town meeting
next month. What the final piece of information we're waiting for that is the new growth certification uh from the assessor's office. So once that comes in, we'll be able to finalize that. Um we we've asked department heads to prepare um level service budgets. So
those will be worked on the next several weeks. Um, we've also asked them to again look at their fee schedules to see, you know, again, if if our fees continue to be representative of the market. Um, we've I also had a meeting
last week with our employee health uh and retirey health insurance provider um and to get estimates on our claims and cost trends and you'll see that in the next memo. Um uh we're also working with our actuarial uh consultant for the um
update on our oped on funded liability schedule. This is the adjustment year. Next year be the full valuation and that in Middle Sex County retirement will also have a full valuation at the end of this calendar year which means next year. Um and then as I mentioned earlier
we we are looking at different possibilities in terms of regional public safety dispatch as I said whether we join one or we provide one or we stay the same. Uh and then similarly we're looking at a myriad on solid waste and recycling to the the sticky issues of we
we want to at least have the answers you know do what is it costing us to collect our condominiums since we're the only community that we know of that does that. Um what you know what if the town were to because we see what's going on with the Republic strike and the wages and if they really are paying people six
figure salaries um to collect solid waste and recycling you know kind of like the school busing thing well maybe it's t time for a town to look at collection and we know that in recent years town like nic moved back into the business of doing collection so that you
know that that kind of stuff um you know or doing the dramatic thing that Draco did which wasn't popular which was a solid waste and recycling fee like LOL has and Draco has and so forth. What we're trying to do here as you can see is we're we're and and we're also
looking to sell you know whatever we can in terms of getting properties back on the tax roles like we we heard earlier on the article on the warrant. We want to be able to prepare be so whatever those analysis brings us we're at least going to have answers to. We're not saying what we want to do, but I think
it's the theme that hopefully you're seeing come across is is let's have answers and then once it's informed, we can make decisions. And so that brings me to my last bullet point of my memo and it's something I am asking you for this evening is I think it would be helpful if we had two tri board meetings
this year. One in traditionally we have one in the beginning of December, the second Monday in December. And if you recall how that went that went last year, it was sort of not wellreceived and it was sort of like, well, come back in January and then see where you are uh and work it out with the superintendent
and the town manager. What I'm suggesting is is let's let's have a discussion in November following the fall town meeting, following the tax rate approval and then see where we are and then provides then we can at least start having these initial discussions on
approaches and then come back in December a month later and see where we are and then if need be hopefully we get it resolved by January because my concern is that if we wait till December we're not going to have enough time. I I hate to ask the board to put another Monday night out in your schedule, but
looking at the schedule, what I'm thinking would be would be the second Monday in November as well as the second Monday in December. Uh which we're not scheduled to meet, but to have those special meetings. um because I just think it's necessary because I as you
can see everything that's out there in in the horizon indicates it's going to be more difficult than ever um terms of to sustain to sustain the town's operations and I just think having a second trio meeting you know may be more
helpful particularly the second time we gather as opposed to the initial data and information and discussion that the boards can then go back from there and then come back and then say how are we going to tackle this uh issue? So that's that's my ask this evening and
you can either say no just stick with December or you can say yeah we'll meet ask the school committee if they can and finance committee if they can come in November and December. I think we're in challenging times and I think it makes sense. Okay. Absolutely. Okay. All right. I'll I'll um I'll send
a word out to the the other two boards. And then the other thing on my report this evening is the health insurance claims. And and again, this sort of gives you what my concern is. Last week we um we met with our
insurance representative. Um, and again, the end of the story is we're probably looking at a well, double-digit increase, which I at this point would use would be 13%. We have our claims data, and what what
what we do know is we have 680 active employee subscriber plans across the community, the town, and the schools. We have a thousand retirees taking a health insurance plan. So therefore, our total premiums are $20.6 6 million. Our total claims
unfortunately for the last fiscal year were almost 21 million. So we basically were over 100% as you can see 101.73% loss ratio. Ideally you don't want to be at one because an idea a good insurance ratio is is closer to 90% because you
also have administrative costs and other things beyond claims that cost you for insurance. So you can see the good news is our loss ratio was better than the prior fiscal year where it was 105%. So we're down to 101.7. But what we're also seeing is is the
evolving phase of health care is what's leading the concerns going forward. Um the most notable one you see on there is these GLP1 anti-obesity. This is not people taking the GLP drugs for for diabetes. These are people who
are taking it for obesity claims. We have 118 of our 680 subscribers are have are are active, you know, claimments on that. So that's a pretty good percentage.
I mean, isn't that a little bit because just because you have 680 subscribers, not lives. That's right. That's that's right. That's 600, right? Exactly. But the point is is you're you're roughly, you know, you're in the 20 percentile for for utilization. And what's troubling on
that is two things. One is the claims to date in the calendar year over $300,000. We're only halfway through the calendar year. The other the other thing that's going that the other thing that's happening with that is we're told that within the next several months and certainly by late winter, instead of people having to
inject it, you'll be able to take it in a pill form. One of the providers going to be offering a which which will increase utilization. Um and then the other thing is it's just a changing thing. thing. I don't know if you saw the commercial, if you've seen the commercial with Serena Williams, who basically injects herself and says this is a health, this is her health care
choice, and she injects herself with the GL1 drug. Um, and basically, it just shows you that it's it's really being marketing now as a lifestyle. Won't it become less expensive though if it's not injectable? It is becoming less expensive. And so, what's happening is the injectable is part
the the industry is dropping the prices on it. So now and and and as as you may know um Blue Cross Blue Shield is no longer offering it as the end of the calendar year and Harvard Pilgrim and Toughs already said they're no longer going to provide coverage. So that's why you're seeing the marketing going direct
to consumers. Um our plan goes to the fiscal year and then we're waiting to see what the GIC does which is a group insurance commission by the state because our plan mirrors the state plan. There's talk that they may either discontinue at the
end of the calendar year or wait till the end of the fiscal year. So, we think they're going to get out of the pipeline, but the bigger issue is is it's higher utilization um and just the changing utilization of people for health care. Um they thought
coming out of the pandemic it was a surge and it was going to come back, but instead what we're seeing is the attitude now is is just and the costs are just double digits. And unfortunately what's not happening in this state particularly is there's no discussion of reform
u either at the legislative level or by the private business you know level. Think about it. Everyone talks about the high cost of housing Massachusetts, the high cost of utilities, but nobody's beaten the door down talking about the high cost of health care. And part of the reason for that is is it so tied
into our economy is the Commonwealth. Our largest employer in Massachusetts is Blue Cross Blue Shield. I'm sorry is well their their largest employer our biggest employer is mass general Brigham Mims is the biggest employer in the state and we know the struggles the state's pharmaceutical industry is happening and so that may explain why
the business community in the legislature is not actively embracing reform like you're seeing in other states as close as Rhode Island and even out in Ohio and other places. So long story is this is not a market correction this is a trend. Um, so again, outside
of public schools, health care is our is our second largest uh cost driver. Uh, and we will see the rates probably double digits on the federal plans because those go on the calendar year for retirees. Uh, and then we'll know in February what it is for active employees
next summer. So that's that's a driving concern. Um, so can I ask a question and then and then I want to make I'll make the statement first actually. Um, I just think especially because none of us are doctors as far as I know. Um, I think it's just a little kind of
slippery slope because I know the state's calling it out and we're going to follow the state and I think that's what we should do. Um, but I think you I think you get on a slippery slope when you start telling people where it's expensive, we're not going to pay for it because for those 118 people, you don't
know what the health care cost is going to be if they don't have that. So, I just want to make I just I'll just say that's a personal opinion. No, I want to enter into a debate, but what what I'll say is when when I sat in the room with the vice president of Blue Cross in their municipal claims person three weeks ago,
they say there's no empirical evidence that they have that the idea would be, well, if you paid for this, you're not going to be paying for heart attacks or or or you know, liver damage or whatever other things down the road. They they don't they they don't it's still a new thing, right? They just
don't have the data yet. They don't have the data yet. So I just that's a again it's not a debate. It's just a it's a comment for the record. The question I have though is two years now in a row the the loss ratio has been greater than premiums. Is that because we unders
the premium cost was under scoped or we had no idea the claims were going to exceed that. Like how do we get that imbalance? We had no idea the claims and that's and that happened to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. They lost $115 million this year because they missed the target on the growth of health care costs.
Pharmaceuticals and let me let me also set the record straight. The biggest cost in pharmaceuticals is really the specialty pharmaceuticals. You know these special care, you know, experimental drugs which no one's knocking, they drive about 75% of the
pharmaceutical costs. Um part of it is research, part of it is also just the expensive nature of that. And again, nobody wants to deny that, but that's the real cost driver. They basically what's happening is those trends are exceeding their expectations. Now, again, we adjusted rates 18.8%.
So, that's why we're we're thinking that that correction because those rates only kicked in, you know, this past um July, but again, we're talking rates that are going to go next July through June 30th of 27. And that's why you're you're always in this game of forecasting what
rates are going to be. Um and then the other problem becomes it becomes a an actuarial game because if your costs grow then your reserves have to grow to match your costs because you have to have adequate reserves and so it becomes a pyramided game of why do your premiums
increase as your costs increase. Yeah. I just I think this that the unfunded middle sex the the other oped in in healthcare in particular I mean those are the things that are going to move the needle. There's going to be a lot of other things we can try to do from level service or adjustments that
are just not going to move the needle like these are, right? And my concern is is now that our labor costs are almost complete known for the next three, you know, two years beyond this one. Yeah. You know, we're going to have known numbers and the problem is going to be okay, what do we do? And that's why you
can see why we look at all these contingencies and possibilities is because it's going to be a challenge. And these were effectively non-negotiable. Correct. Yeah. We're we're basically rated on our claims. So whether if we walked out and said, "Oh, go go go to another provider. Forget Blue Cross Blue Shield, another
provider, they're going to rate you on your claims history. That's how we are." So doesn't matter who's providing it because whether you whether you go to your doctor's office, you offer them a Blue Cross card or Harvard Pilgrim Card, doesn't matter, right? It's going to hurt. Last thing on my
report uh sorry next to the last thing on my report coming to there is the fire station project schematic design um I put the copy of the proposal in there the we had a meeting on in the building um last week we had rep bone who's the
select woods leazison to the committee was present as was Tim Ple from the permanent building committee permanent building committee's meeting tomorrow night um the project is still moving forward uh we we we believe that the architect and the owners project manager
are very mindful of the town's budgetary constraints and concerns not exceeding the budget and I think the proof is going to come out of that in the next several weeks when we get the design development drawing cost estimates uh for this project. Um so that's where we
are with that. Um, in terms of the Parker Middle School building committee, um, tomorrow morning the superintendent of schools, the chair of the school committee, um, and I are participating in the Massachusett School Building Authority designer selection panel where
we will be choosing between two finalists for the um, designer architectural services for the new Parker School project and that's AI3 architects and TAPE um, associates. And so by about 10:30
tomorrow morning, I'll be able to tell you the results of that meeting and who've been selected. I will come before you at your next meeting for approval to enter into a contract with the uh chosen architectural firm per the MSPA format for contracts. Uh and and then and then
the ne at the next um park of school building committee meeting this month, uh we expect that we'd have our new architect present. and then then talking about a schedule and basically hitting the ground before the holidays in terms of getting the community sessions in to talk about grade configuration and so
forth. So um again where we are since your last meeting is the six finalists were winnowed down um by the MSBA process to two. The interviews are tomorrow morning at starting at 8:30 and then like I said by 10:30 uh we'll get
word out to you is who the firm is and and we'll get on that right away. And then the last thing is my monthly double pole report. Um, good news is the number of double polls is down to 40. Um, which was down 13 from a month ago and there
were 21 double polls removed last month, but eight new ones were added. And we'll we'll continue to do this and and really get this down to a small number, particularly the older ones. You know, we understand that double poles arrive, particularly when you have nasty weather, which we fortunately were
spared from, but we really want and and by construction projects, but we really want to get particularly the longer standing ones cleared out and we're trying to with the message that we're putting out to folks is we want this done uh before the onset of the winter weather conditions because then they won't work. So, that concludes my report
for this evening. So, we we're is everything still tracking from the school perspective kind of according to the timeline? We're still in line with what we could have. Yeah. Okay. Um, thanks Paul. Next up, we have appointments.
Yeah. What one that's a select board appointment. This is the vacancy on the housing authority. This is the stateapp appointed member and in accordance with the state law this the state hasn't appointed a member and David Hison reached out to his comm his contacts and
as you know David is very connected with the you know the governor and the administration they don't have a candidate um so David reached out to a former housing authority elected member Lynn Marcella and Lynn has agreed to come on back on to fill this vacancy now
the term runs through June 30th 2029 n because these are five-year terms and we'll see how it goes with Lynn, but you know, Lynn is willing to at least do it for a year and she'll take it like everything else on a year-to-year basis. But um so you have an appointment from Lynn Marcel who's obviously eminently
qualified um to serve in this capacity. So that's your appointment, but that's the background as to why this is before you because we did advertise it and promote it uh as for the vacancy and that's the only application and interest that we received. Okay. Anybody have
anything? I'm shocked that she's considering to be honest with you because I know she's trying to wind down, right? But David must have been very influential. Pulled her pulled her back in. I'm glad she I'm glad she agreed. Yeah, that's that's the town. I mean, that's what happens. I mean, people, you
know, they stay in certain positions for certain length of time and say, "Okay, it's time for somebody else." And then you run out of people. Y. So then you got to start going to the old school people who know what's going on and we'll probably do the best job.
All right, I'll take a motion. Pat. Pat, you're muted. You're muted. Muted. Oh, sorry. There you are. I'll make a motion that the board um appoint Lynn Marcella to the housing authority uh for a five-year term. Is
that what this is? It's an unexpired 5year ter. Unexpired 5year term as presented. I'll accept. I'll second that. Okay, we have a motion. A second. Pat Rogers. Yes. Pat Maloney. Hi. Jeff.
I just have to apologize to Lynn if she's watching. I didn't mean to call you old school, but you know, I love you, hun. You know that. Hi. It's a yes, Aaron. Yes, I'm a yes. approved. Congratulations, Lynn. Welcome back. And then I'm seeking your confirmation
of the appointment of Daniel Tang of Elm Street to the cultural council for a term ending June 30th, 2026. Okay. Um, nobody has anything. I'll take a motion. I'll make a motion that the board approved the town manager's appointment
of Daniel Tang to the cultural council. I got a second. I'll second Pat. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Pat Wes, yes. Pat Maloney, I. Jeff, yes. Aaron, yes. And I'm a yes. Need to learn how to spell council.
Congratulations, Mr. Tang. Um, okay. Next up, we have some meeting minutes from um August 18th, 2025. Does anyone have any comments or corrections? No. Okay. I'll take a motion.
I'll make a motion that the board approved the meeting minutes from August 18th, 2025. I'll second that. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Pat Wes. Yes. Pat Maloney. Hi. Jeff. Yes. Aaron? Yes.
Motion passes. Minister approved. Okay. Um, next up we have now if we're not going to go to executive report, you can do leazison reports. We can do it and then discuss it. Okay. Um, so okay. So we'll do leazison
reports. Um, Pat, would you like to go first? Sure. Uh, just a couple of things. Um, I went to the opening ceremonies for the 4 fair which was held last month. It was a I missed that this year. Yeah, it was it was really good. They had a a a good weekend to have the 4
fair. There were lots of kids there. it actually seems to be um increasing the amount of of kids activities. So I think it's a really good thing. So anyway, it was great last year. My kids loved it last year. It was good. Have to go back next year then. And when I was a kid walking down to that every year because I lived in
Salford. So okay. The other thing is um uh Paul and I are at the library a week ago Saturday for the dedication of a sculpture in honor of Becky Herman who was the uh longtime library director there. Um it's it's down in a little like patio type
area that you get to at the bottom of the stairways. Um take a look at it. It's uh it's really pretty impressive. And I know they're doing a couple other things too to u memorialize Becky. She was a a driving force in the library for sure. Amen.
That's all I have. Okay, Pat Maloney. Um, I'll just say that uh the town manager did a very excellent job um giving my referrals for the permanent building committee, the fire stations, and the uh Parker school update. So, um
nothing further. Okay, Jeff. I haven't really heard from the cemetery at all this summer, which is a good thing. Um I know parade committee is meeting next week. Unfortunately, I'm going to be out of town again. And uh I had a nice conversation with
Kyle Bishop about conservation. He told me they have a very pointed plan on their website referring to the coolest property and it basically followed the um the the task force recommendations and
anybody can go on and look at it and if they have any questions reach out to Carl. He'd be happy to answer it and volunteer their time and effort. Wonderful. Okay, nothing less, Erin. All right. Um I was able to get to the age friendly um implementation
committee. Um so again, good group of people um staying pretty busy over there. So they continue to work on their action plan updates and their 2026 plan. Um and working, you know, making sure that they're aligning their goals with the strategic plan goals. And there is a
new member, um Janine Madden, am I saying? I'm hope I'm saying her name correctly. So that was uh they were they were happy with that and again that's you can attend that that meeting online if anybody wants to go the next one is September 24th um final square action also met um as
you guys know they remains uh mean pretty busy there was some public comment regarding the the Freeman Lake treatment um so some residents came down um in both sessions of public comment um and they they kind of wound down um with
their uh with their roundt things. So, update on the the clock for Vinyl Square and some things to, you know, beautify and dress those things up. And then they're starting to prepare for the tree lighting um which is on December 6th this year. Um, and again, I I know what
was mentioned earlier, but um, you know, if there's a a business member that's willing to jump on that committee, um, they're very active and I think it benefits not only the Northsford community, but it benefits the businesses around there. And their next
meeting is on, uh, 9:29 if anybody wants to attend that as well. And then I'll have uh, board of health tomorrow, I think, and planning committee on Wednesday and now finance committee on Thursday. So, I'll have updates next time for this.
Thanks. Um, and I don't have anything. Um, so next up we have we are supposed to have executive session. If the board doesn't have any, we can just skip it and just just do the vote on the contract if uh if you Yeah, I reviewed the material. I'm ready to
vote. Me, too. Yeah, because it's just the cup. Yeah, I put it on there as a placeholder in case there were any questions that we could go out. But what I can tell you if that's the case is the uh public safety dispatchers union has ratified the memorandum of agreement. Um it mirrors
very similar to what we reached with the library employees at last town meeting back in June and sort of follows with this would be the penultimate agreement. So it follows where we are. So in in summary, it's a wage increase of 3% the first year, three and a quarter years
two and three which mirrors that of the library employees. We increased their uh shift differential by 50 cents an hour from a $150 to $2 per hour. And then there was language regarding shift coverage and vacation scheduling which is an administrative stuff that the that
chief Spence has no issue with and obviously the union is seeking and is comfortable with and similar what has happened with the basically semiannual scheduling uh that we're seeing with the police in the same building. And then we increased the longevity by $250 the schedule which again mirrors that of the
other groups and can also converting it to a percentage amount. Um which is again what we did with the other the other groups. Um so that's really where we're at. It's a three-year agreement that would run through uh June 30th of 2028. And the total cost that we'll be
requesting at town meeting for this group is $42,485 uh which has been confirmed by the town accountant and consultation with the police chief. So basically all you need to do is make a motion to uh approve the memorandum of agreement as presented and
then the next steps will be presentation to the finance committee on Thursday. This will be included in the presentation to you in two weeks and then brought the town meeting. you know, what we expect will be approval much like the others have in the past. And that would just leave us with the
firefighters as the only group at this point that doesn't have a uh contract um at this point in moving forward. Okay. Does anybody have anything? If not, no. I'll take a motion. Patton,
I'll make a motion that um the board approve the memorandum of agreement for the successive collective bargaining agreement by and between the town of Chelwood and the Chelmswood public safety dispatchers. Ask me uh council 93 local 1703 as
presented. I'll second that. Okay. Just we didn't need to do anything to formally let go of executive session. Okay. So, in that case, we have a motion and a second. Um Pat Wess. Yes. Pat Maloney. I Jeff. Yes. Aaron. Yes.
And I'm an I. The motion passes. And that is all we have. So I will take one more motion. Motion to adjurnn. I'll second it. Motion and a second. Pat Wess. Yes. Pat Maloney. I. Jeff. Yes. Aaron?
Yes. And I'm a yes. We're adjourned.