Um, can I have approval of the minutes of March 3rd, 2026? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> At this time, um, we're going to do new public business. If you'd like to say something, please go up to the
microphone, introduce yourself. >> Bill. >> Yep. And then a bill or bill tonight. And the cler and the >> Okay. And the clerk will have her time for three minutes, please. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you, Bill Bates,
town meeting member, precinct 4. And uh as usual, I would like to thank the board members for your service to our town. Um I I rise tonight to talk about the RRFBs, the rectangular rapid flashing beacons that we've been talking about for a
couple of years now. um and and wanting to get them um at as many locations crosswalks as possible as soon as possible because as you can see from the information I've supplied to you there it's it's a proven safety measure um and
they cost between $10,000 for just the uh the units but then we may have to get into updating um ADA compliance at each one of the crosswalks before you can so if you touch you you have to do that. So, I'm here tonight to tell you that I
I'm I've got a citizens petition that's that is I'm going to consider um submitting before your noon time deadline this Friday, but I'm working with the town manager uh with Aaron Henry, the director of uh land use, and
everybody. And I don't want to make it worse. I want to make it better. I'm just concerned that the way we're going now, you were kind enough to put in the budget for uh one per year and that would take 5 years to get to where we want. Some of the crosswalks I'm talking
about, Popular Street at Belgian Road, crossing guard was hit there in uh January of 2020 where I'm a crossing guard, Maple Street at Burley A, a middle school bike rider had his tire hit while I was trying to cross him.
Maple Street at Forest Street. Kids from Spring, Autumn, and Nickel Street cross there. And Center Street at Southside Road is very poor sight lines from 95. And the last one I mention is High Street at Porter Street because we have
the elderly uh housing there and many elderly people crossing. I just want to get as many RRFBs installed as soon as possible because I believe they save lives. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Y >> Brad Street town meeting member precinct one. Uh I attend a lot of meetings as an observer. I occasionally ask questions if I may.
If I may, when it comes to running the town, all of the votes have their jobs to do. Danas is a nice community. I have to think that some other communities in the area might be envious of the way we're able to run our town as smoothly
as we do. Each board has been given direction, so to speak, on how they're supposed to operate. I wonder sometimes if any of these boards, we did the town manager of these
boards ever reviewed on a periodic time just to see if they have issues that need to be addressed or not. say three years, five years, uh 10 years, whatever, but address any questions that might be difficult for the board to
answer, saying we'll have to check with town council or what have you. Maybe town council can give them information before it's needed. It's having the information and not needing it, but needing it and not having it. Uh proactive, so to speak.
>> Okay, good. We'll look into that. Well, tell me and you'll look into that and get back to you on that. Working on it. >> You're working on it. Thank you. >> Something about it later today. >> Thank you. Okay. Good. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. All right.
The board will issue a proclamation in recognition of Arbor Day. Um, we have that. Mike, do you want to um Oh, should we Who's here to speak first? Yeah. Who's here to speak, please? On behalf of that. Hi. Hi. Do you want you want to go up and please introduce yourself?
Thank you. >> Mike, you want to read it afterwards? >> Oh, loud. >> Yeah. You want? >> Yeah, I will. >> Okay. >> Do you want me to go first or do you want to go? >> No, you go. >> Travis Varden, uh Dammer's DPW Forestry Department. Uh every year we do Arbor
Day, usually held last Friday of April, but with uh school vacation this week, uh or this year it falls during vacation week, so we're actually going to push it forward a week. Uh this year will be at Smith School. Uh be planting two two trees. One will be donated by the Corus brothers in Ipsswitch and the other from
the Deris Garden Club. And the seedlings this year will be a river birch which will be um given out to all elementary school students that want to participate and they'll be able to plant a river birch in their yard. >> Nice. Board members questions.
>> What day will that be done? >> That will be April 17th. >> Thank you. at Smith School this year at 10 o'clock. >> Thank you. >> You're very welcome. >> You have any questions? >> Uh, no. No questions. Thank you. >> Go now. >> All set. Thank you. >> Questions. Thank you.
>> Son still we I think they gave us a tree at Smith School and I still have it. >> Still got it. >> Yeah. He's what, 24 years old now. >> It's growing. >> What was it? What was What was it? >> I think it was a birch. >> Birch. >> Yeah. It's very nice. >> Excellent. >> Mike, you want to read birch?
>> Sure. So the proclamation for Aubber day April 26th whereas when Massachusetts Bay Colony was settled in 1630 the town of Boston had no trees although there were thick forests in the areas around the settlement and on the harbor
islands. And whereas when the first settlers arrived on the great plains in the 1800s, they found miles of lush rolling grassland, but few if any trees. And whereas the planting, maintenance, care, and removal of shade trees is a
service purely public in its nature undertaken for the common good. And whereas the general law laws of the Commonwealth State, the governor shall annually issue a proclamation setting apart the last Friday in April as Arbor
and Bird Day, recommending its observance by the public in the planting of trees, shrubs, and vines, particularly those attractive toss and the promotion of forest growth and culture. And whereas we realize the
benefits derived from trees, they help beautify and landscape, cleanse and purify the air, moderate temperatures, reduce noise pollution, provide windbreaks, reduce runoff and erosion, provide habitat for wildlife, increase
property values, and are part of our social fabric. Whereas we the select board do hereby proclaim Friday the 24th of April 2026 as Arbor Day in the town of Danvas. >> Seconded. >> Second. Okay. All in favor?
>> I opposed. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. At this time, the board will hear a presentation on open space by land use and community services. Our director, Aaron Henry.
>> Good evening, everybody. Thank you. Just let me keep make sure that things are working here. Okay. Um again, hi Aaron Henry, director of land use and community services. Um thank you for having time to discuss uh
our current work on the open space and recreation plan. Um this is just intended to be kind of a high-level overview. We do intend to come back to the board um maybe in a month, month and a half or so when your schedule is a little bit lighter. Um looking for more
substantive comment and looking for potentially a vote. Um but tonight just kind of trying to walk you through a very high level explanation of of the project and what we're doing. I know a few of you got hard copies of the document. All of you got an email version. It's 400 something pages. Yeah.
Um it's a big document. Um, so this >> harbor day we killed four trees. >> I did not. I did not. >> Mike, too. >> So, I do want to say the version that you received is still considered a
draft. Um, in particular, the only real element we still have to finalize are the maps in the plan. There are some placeholder maps and those are accurate, but we want to kind of gloss that up a little bit um and make them all look similar. So, that's the biggest piece of work that we still have to go.
Obviously, we're going to various boards and committees over the next couple of months, and there'll be, I would imagine, there'll be some fine-tuning um and corrections, clarifications, etc. as we go. So, when we come back to you, you'll probably have a slightly different version of the 400page document. Um
>> what's that? >> Yeah. Um >> no, that's quite all right. So, what is an open space and recreation plan? In short, it is the definitive resource on a community's natural areas, open spaces, and playing fields. Um, based on
state feedback on our last open space plan, we were highly encouraged to do a complete rewrite. And I think what that was based on was that um, essentially the last couple of iterations were just updates. So, we went in and tweaked the
language that we needed to tweak to make it time-sensitive. and the state finally told us, hey, you probably need to redo this whole thing. So, this was started a new from the ground up. Um, it was also a particular emphasis on chapter 5. So,
chapter 5 is the townowned inventory of property. Um, we've looked at that in depth in 2019 under town manager, Mr. Martha um to figure out if there was any properties that we might be able to use for affordable housing, to see if there was anything we were missing, uh to see
if um there was any remnants that might be sa sailable to in a butter. Um so we had a pretty good start on our inventory, but we went even deeper with this plan and I hope I I believe what you'll find in this plan is the deepest
most thorough dive we've ever done on that. we went into the registry of deeds and made sure we tracked down the deeds of all these properties. Um, so again, we really went hard into that. And then a specific add-on that we uh built into
this plan, not required by the state, but what we wanted to do was go that take that inventory even further and try to really inventory the facilities themselves. Um, you have to do what's called an ADA self assessment. And so you do have to go out to the parks and the facilities and see how people use
those parks and how people can access them. But we what we also wanted to do was really try to figure out um you know this back stop, how old is that back stop? And when it's up, how much is that going to cost to replace? Um we bid off
I thought we'd be further along. I think we bit off a bit more than we thought we were uh biting into when we started, but we were able to kind of create a bit of a of a backbone that we are using as part of the capital planning process here. And we did start that process with
this current budget. So again, we did this little extra work to try to help us understand our obligations long term and what our open space inventory really costs us. So, um, grants. Why are we doing this
plan? A big reason we do this plan is that the state has made having an active and approved open space and wreck plan a prerequ a prerequisite for many grants that are out there. Um, this is just a list of some of the grants that are specifically contingent on having an
open space and recreation plan. More broadly, the state has a a thing called the onetop, which they're starting to fold more and more into that program. But these are the grants that are specifically um you must have an open space plan on file in order to um access
these grants. Over the years, we've used many of these. Most recently, we did use a mass trails grant um that paid for the bulk of the cost associated with what we call phase three of the new rails grove. So again, these plans are great. They're
good to have on file, but selfishly, there's also a reason we do them because we want to make sure that we can tap into those grant resources when we have a project that fits one fits the bill. Um, again, I'm sure someone here will say, I don't remember you guys doing any
engagement, community engagement with this. So, I will say we jumped on the back of resilient Danvers and then there was strategic Danvers and then that last summer we did some outreach. I will admit I think the community was feeling a bit fatigued with all the surveys and
the questions. Nonetheless, we got um almost 500 comments on the open space plan specifically. Um we had almost 700 interactions. Uh so o over half the people that came to the website to review the the open space plan submitted
a comment to us. Um so again understanding that that might have we would love to have have had more feedback but I think the feedback we got was really good. Um and on that I will say um the feedback we received was
largely consistent with that of resilient danvers and strategic danvers. Um existing spaces like Endicott Park, the rail trails plural. Um and Sandy Beach were consistently me mentioned, label's Grove was mentioned a lot. Um
connectivity was mentioned. Um, and this has been a trend nationally kind of leading up to the COVID pandemic, but since the pandemic, those requests have seemed to accelerate um, accelerated. And DTAC has gotten a lot of comments over the last couple years about
sidewalks, crosswalks, um, the like. And that seems I think that that's a national trend, but like I said, I think the the pandemic seemed to kind of accelerate those those trends. Um I'd also like to highlight again as part of this exercise we did that deep dive
um and the back part of the plan maybe the last 150 pages or so are the open space atlas where we tried to objectively review each of those facilities. So you'll see there's like a scoring system on each of those and that's again to try to feed back into
the staff process about the capital planning and like what rises to the top when you actually look at what the needs are at on those facilities, not just um you know today let's just invest in this playground. Like we're trying to take a more objective uh approach to that and
you'll see those scoring results in the back of the plan. And again, those are things that we've gotten a lot of feedback on, but as you dive into that plan, we'd love to get your comments on that. Okay, next steps. As I said, this is just part one. I'm happy to answer any
questions on the plan, although I will tell you I probably can't give you a definitive answer tonight, but I'm happy to take the question down and get back to you. That said, we plan on coming back to you in, you know, maybe four to six weeks. Um, we are also in the process of going to the planning board
and the recreation committee specifically. Those are uh boards that have to weigh in on the open space and recreation plan in order for it to be approved. Um, there's also been some interest um in bringing it to accessibility to river committee. So, there's some other committees out there that um if they express an interest,
we're absolutely happy to go um and talk to them about this. So, there'll be a little bit more process over the uh coming weeks with our aim uh to submit to the state by the end of May. But again, we're not going to put the hard push on you all to take a vote if we
need to work something out and we need more time. We're happy to have that time. We're not under any duress as far as we're not looking for a grant application that needs this in tomorrow. Um we do have a grant strategy and we're working on that, too. But again, we want to make sure the boards and committees that have to tell us that this plan is
good have the time and space they need to digest it properly and give us that feedback. >> So, I think that's it. >> Like I said, very short summary. >> I know I know we'll have questions for you afterwards, but uh go ahead, do you have any questions for Aaron at this time?
>> No, thank you. I'll look forward to reading the document. >> Mike, >> yes. >> Go ahead. >> It's not questions. I I just have uh you kind of ruined the plot. I was looking to get through this whole thing and I I told him the last 150 pages. >> Well, we'll I can send you a test.
>> Um I did have an idea. You know how we have uh adopt an island in town? >> Yep. >> And so uh a business or anybody could what is it $100 or something? $150 or something to adopt an island. >> I don't remember the exact price but >> around there maybe. >> Yeah. It's not super expensive. I was
looking around and so Southbridge does adopt a park. So you could have businesses or anybody could kick in. Uh you'd have a little board in there that says who's, you know, contributing and then you raise funds towards park, the beach. Um
>> I just wanted to put it out there. It may be a way to raise some money. >> Yep. >> Um and it could turn out to be something >> pretty cool. >> Yep. Great idea. >> That was really it. Thank you. >> Excellent. That's a good idea, D. >> Yeah. Thank you. Uh couple of questions,
comments, food for thought. Um the result uh on the result slide you had there it says um part of it is to need for better the need for better communication and marketing of recreational
opportunities. How do you how do you think of increasing that? >> It's a good question. We got to work on that one. That's part of the problem. Um is that we have to come up with those solutions. I think in general in the recreation space, everything has gone
online over the last five plus years. Um and so we're having good results with the folks and our families that are already in the system. Um, obviously the the feedback we got was not everybody's fully aware of all of the programs that
we offer. Um, and so again, part of that would be putting that atlas that's part of that plan kind of out there for people to see. So like if they have an, you know, if they want to know about what open space opportunities are in their neighborhoods that that's easily accessible to them. Um, but that's one of those strategies that we have to talk
more about and and kind of come to a conclusion on how we reach more people. >> Yeah. And and this may be a crazy idea. Maybe select board member Bernard and and Den can help. When when >> Oh, you're volunteering them. >> Yeah. When houses are listed
>> when houses are listed >> on zillas and things like that, it usually talks about amenities and the things that are in the town and who who gives who gives that information like who puts that information up? >> Do not know. That's a no. We've wondered
that same thing. There's sometimes you'll see a walkability score. >> We we're not sure where that comes from. My guess is I'm going to say AI, but um answer today that you can just throw that out there. new cuz I think that would be a great place to update
>> our housing listings within the town or or update that database so that people know that in Danvers you have Indicut Park, you have these things, you have those things that >> the one thing that's good about the open
space distribution in Danvers and there are other towns that have this but there are some towns that do not have it. The good news about Danvers is for the most part most neighborhoods are close to an open space amenity. Um, so we've and I don't know if that was planned or or by
chance, but the good news is is that no one's very far from open space. So the town has done a good job of of having kind of something in most neighborhoods. Again, there are certainly neighborhoods I will tell you they wish they had more and were or were closer to something,
but very few neighborhoods are completely landlocked from finding an open space parcel within a reasonable distance of them >> except Harton where if you want the trail, you have to go to Militton. >> Yeah, there definitely some there are
definitely some neighborhoods that are >> I'll keep bugging you with that. the rail trail project that the state's taking phase two the basically the animal hospital to Kirkbride Drive supposedly there's going to be some work in between around Texas Roadhouse.
>> Okay. >> So we're at we're at it's a state project but we're advocating hard for some sort of pedestrian amenity so that those folks can come down and actually connect. >> Exactly. >> And not have to walk this shoulder of 62 through that section.
>> Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Couple uh you answer my question about the accessibility commission and the river commission. I I you you said something about like if they show interest. I think it'll be a good idea to get them involved uh one way or another. Either I
don't know survey or just getting some ideas from them. I think they they're great resources that can help with some of this. Um, I now one of the goals I didn't read all the 400 pages. I I read the
>> the summary and and then kind of skimmed through it. I didn't study all the maps, but one of the goals was to acquire and protect additional open space and natural resource areas. Is that an attainable goal?
And are we thinking about >> well >> eminent or >> no we're not we this plan we don't we're not contemplating this plan any strategy to actually you know take this but what we've learned and this is a label's grove is a great example of how this
works >> part of the inventory work of chapter 5 is to identify privatelyowned parcels that might be considered open space at some point down the mode. Any parcel
included in chapter 5 is eligible for some of these programs. So the town had put Lebell's Grove on I think it was the 2001 open space plan. So then years later when the family decided to sell and approached us for purchasing it because we had it in the plan, we were
able to tap into a grant program to help us acquire that. So to your point, it doesn't mean we have to acquire those properties, but we do have to think about what land is out there that we might want to acquire if we want to leverage funds to help us obtain those.
And I would say there are some larger parcels still out there that again, I mean, if we could fire up the printing press in the basement that um doesn't exist. Um you know, I think there are parcels out there that people would say we should acquire that a few years ago.
I I shouldn't I won't go sight specific but there are some opportunities that have come up that okay >> ideally we would have had the ability to acquire. >> Oh that's fine. I I wasn't aware of that. Last question comments and I was going to talk about this during
um select board member updates. But I think this is really fitting uh because one of the open open space inventory is the Crane River Marina which I understand is uh the only public marina in Danver with
about 68 boat slips and enhancing water-based recreational opportunities. So, um, the Crane River shoreline climate adaptation and resiliency presentation meeting is scheduled. Uh,
and this was going to be my update from the river committee. So, just for the public, that's schedu uh at 6:30 at the senior center. And because the the town uh has observed
coastal bank erosion along the shoreline of the Crane River, especially on the northern shoreline from John George Park East, uh to approximately number 57 River Street. So this is uh an
opportunity for the residents to actually come and and hear some updates about that. I was going to bring that up during my update of subcommittee but I think talking about open space plan this is really fitting >> y to we appreciate the plug
>> do that. Yes and I will also reiterate to to you madame chair that I think as a board we probably should visit some of those things when the weather gets nice >> because the there's a lot of volunteers at the river committee would do amazing work. >> Yep.
>> Thank you. >> Excellent. Good. Thank you. Dan, did you have any comments at all? >> A couple of um follow on De's comments and questions. When the rail trail was approved, that became a great selling
point for real estate listings. Any good listing agent would put in there near the rail trail >> to help make that property more appealing and the community more appealing. So, it's things like open
space, rail trails, education that people look at when they're looking to buy a house. So, it's very true. And the Crane River, I'm glad they're having a presentation. Uh that's been an issue for
time. >> Yeah. >> The the the river banks >> disappear. And it's always been a question, what do you do? What do you put on it to stabilize them? That's the big question. Am I right, Aaron? >> Yeah. And as I understand, we've tried a couple of times a couple of different
things and nothing has worked. >> Nothing has worked, right? >> This is another bite at the apple. >> That is um a serious problem down there. >> Um Aaron, thank you for this 400 and something pages. Um I got the two-sided version. Um less
paper. Um a lot of good information. For some reason, and you can help me, there's no mention of the swamp walk in here. It's not identified. There's no picture. There's no description. So, is
not the swamp walk a town resource or is it just something sticks in the marsh? >> No. No. It should I didn't realize it wasn't in there. I know. >> The only place it's mentioned is in a public forum where somebody said swamp war. that that's the only place in this
document that's mentioned. >> So, is it a town owned property? Is it town supported? >> Yep. >> Okay. Um I guess you got to add an addendum. >> We can we will make that correction. >> Thank you. Um I look forward to coming back. I did um look at it um pretty
close familiar with most of it. I served on the open space and recreation committee. I can't remember when it was. Yeah, >> it might have been 08 06 or something like that, but uh you've done you've done a lot. You're right. A couple of years a couple of times you just updated
the previous work. There's really nothing ever new. >> Yeah, I mean we did borrow we still borrowed some language from the older plans, but the state basically said it's clear you guys are just, >> you know, can you actually start over? >> No, this is good. Um I look forward to you coming back and and like to hear
what other committees have to say about it. Um, it's great that we have all these parks, the schools, the different resources. It's very good. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> Excellent. Some points well taken. Thank you, Aaron. So, we'll see you in about
six weeks or so. >> Yeah, we'll figure it out. >> The manager lets me bother you again. >> Okay. No, you never bother. Thank you. So, this isn't a vote board members. Aaron will be back. And madam chair, if I may, I want to just um acknowledge and thank Travis for sticking around. The um
interaction between the land use team and the DPW team, particularly the grounds um and parks team is incredible and we're very lucky to have both of those dedicated groups. So, they're out there kind of planning the work and Travis's team is out there doing the
work. So, I appreciate that very much and we're working together as um as Aaron mentioned to put together the 5-year capital plan. So when you are approving and and it starts this year when you're approving grounds warrants um at town meeting we have taken the
time starting with this plan to start to build that 5-year capital plan. So you will see kind of an outlook five years out um so each time know that um it underwent this kind of rigorous um review. So thank you. Thank you for staying Travis too. Thank you. Thank you Aaron.
>> Thank you. No that's great. Excellent. With that being said, we'll have the town manager will report to the board on various items of interest. >> My turn already. Thank you. I didn't realize I was next. Um, okay.
So, I will start with um what I meant to bring copies for you of, but printed on strange paper. I just want to remind the board and I sent an email today um and members of other committees that the town council is doing a training for board members on Thursday, April 2nd,
6:00 to 7:30 here in the TUMI room uh to go through open meeting law and how to hold the municipal hearing training. Um I sent you an email today. So if you have uh member Tras had shared some questions with me at a previous with all of us at a previous meeting, those have been submitted. But if anybody else has
questions in advance that you want to make sure town council reviews, please do. All staff that um that support boards and commissions are required to attend the training. Um and we highly encourage chairs in particular, but all members of boards. Um and that speaks a
little bit to Mr. Brad Street's comment at the beginning. >> What time is that, Jill? >> 6 o'clock >> in this room. >> Yes. See if I had other papers here. I we're going to do a lot of scheduling tonight. Um I want to thank everyone who
participated on March 7th at our budget meeting. Thank you board members. Um I think it went really well. I was um really happy with the interaction between the board, the public, the the administration. Um I think it really reflected well on how this t town operates and I was happy to be part of
my first select board budget review. Um but onward we march towards annual town meeting. Um, a few important dates to bring up. March 20th, which is this Friday at noon, um, the warrant closes, so closes. So, if citizens are considering submitting citizens
petitions, please do so in the clerk's office uh, by noon on this Friday, March 20th. April 1st, um, we will be sending out the budget books to all town meeting members in preparation for the budget review
on April 7th, um, starting at 5:30. Thank you. Select board members um have agreed to start the meeting early on April 7th um to start this uh warrant review. Um we will potentially and most likely be continuing on April 9th. Um the board will take public comment at
those meetings and the materials will be available. The draft warrant will be available online uh the week before and of course members you'll receive it. Um, April 13th, 15th, and 16th is the finance committee budget review and
public hearing. April that same week, we will be mailing the select board warrant out to town meeting members. Then we get a short reprieve during uh, school vacation week. And following that, April 27th,
28th, 29th, the finance committee will review the warrant and have a public hearing. And May 1st, we will be sending out those committee finance committee recommendations to town meeting members all leading up to town meeting on Monday, May 18th.
Uh so any so just trying to keep the public aware of those upcoming meetings. April will be very busy. Um and looking forward to working with everyone as we move forward on that. Uh update on road work I shared with the select board via
email. Starting next week, weather permitting construction on the water main replacement project on Winnham Street from Locust Street to the town line in Welsley Road will take place. Um the weather is expected to last approximately 6 months and will occur Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 400
p.m. If you have questions, um they should be directed to the DPW. And this came up in our leadership team meeting. I just want to reinforce this is very much weather permitting at at this early stage in in uh spring. So um stay tuned.
Uh thrilled to uh announce that I and I think I I maybe mentioned it at the last meeting, but we were recently informed uh that we did receive uh grant funding for a an additional speed trailer to um
to the police department. So, thank you to Lieutenant Sullivan for taking the initiative to submit that application and stay tuned. We will keep you posted on when it arrives and and where and how they intend to use it. Um, some more good news. Uh, Danver's electric has
received diamond status uh for reliable public power design and status reliable public power designation from the American public power association. So they call the RP3 designation lasts for three years and
recognizes public power utilities that demonstrate excellence in four key disciplines. Reliability, safety, workforce development, and system improvement. Criteria for the diamond level designation include sound business practices, a utilitywide commitment to safe and reliable delivery of electricity, and a focus on innovative
and sustainable system improvements. Um, this ranks D Stambber Electric in the top 2% of more than 2,000 public power utilities in the United States. So, I think this is something to be incredibly proud of. Um, kudos and thank you on a job well done to the entire team at
Danvers Electric and they will be officially presented with this award at the conference I think this spring. Um, so I I for me top 2% in the country, I'll take it. Um, a couple of interesting um, community engagement activities for
folks. The there's a project happening called the wall of heroes um, at Danvers High School. It's led by Sophia Hter. She's creating a wall of heroes to honor Danver's veterans and those serving in the military. The wall will serve as a communitywide thank you and is dedicated
to honoring the stories of pain, bravery, and quiet service within our local families. You can nominate someone for placement on the wall by visiting the wall of heroes website or picking up a form here at town hall or the senior center. And more details are available on the town website and social media. I think I saw a post on social media
today. Um and Sophia was at the operation troop support dinner this past Sunday, two Sundays ago. Two Sundays ago. Um she did an incredible job uh speaking about her project and is very passionate. So if you need more information, please reach out. Uh our
cultural council um is launch is updating their funding priorities and needs to hear from residents, community groups and businesses in town um on priorities for the funding that comes through the state to the local cultural council. Um you can visit our website or
take to take their 2026 community input survey. I also recently saw this on social media and that survey is open until April 10th. Some um events of note coming up. The governor's conference on travel and tourism is hosted here in Danvers next
week on March 24th and 25th. Uh this year's conference focuses on innovative strate strategies to position Massachusetts as a premier destination. Um Madame Chairwoman and I offered a welcome message in their printed conference materials and I will be joining them on day one to welcome
attendees to our wonderful town. uh MMA legislative breakfast and the MAPC legislative breakfast are both this Friday. Um MMA's in Boxford and MAPC's in Salem. Um myself um and Aaron will be
splitting our time and covering both of them. Uh really important opportunities to hear from especially at this time of year to hear from our advocacy groups. both the Mass Municipal Association and the Massachusetts or Massachusetts area planning council um are really our biggest advocacy groups for
municipalities in the state legislature. So, we'll get updates on the budget and other legislative priorities at the state level. So, I will bring that information back to the board. Um and you've already heard a little bit about Arbor Day. So, we're planting the
tree at Smith Elementary School on Friday, April 17th at 10 a.m. to celebrate Arbor Day. and we hope everyone will join us. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> All right. Next, we're going to the town clerk will
provide an update on the May 5th, 2026 annual town election. Okay. So, uh what we have the ballot is really shaping up at this point. Uh most precincts have enough candidates. I'm still waiting for some nomination papers to come back. Um,
I do have one, um, uncalled seat in precinct 4, one opening there, and in precinct 7, I still have two seats that don't have candidates for them. Um, I would welcome any anybody in any precinct who wants to pull papers. The
deadline, you have one week from today to get your 10 signatures to get on the ballot. Uh the deadline is 3:24 at 5:00 p.m. Ballot placement will be on Thursday next week, 6:00 p.m. in the TUMI room
here. We have one day of early voting on Saturday, April 25th from 10 to 4:00 p.m. in this room as well. And then vote by mail is allowed. So if somebody wants to vote by mail, you can get an application online
or you can stop by our office and fill one out. And I think that's it unless somebody has any questions. >> Any questions for the clerk? >> Gonna Mike? >> No. >> Dave, >> Dan. Okay. Thank you very much. That's Thank you for keeping us informed.
>> All right. The board will consider the consent calendar as items as they appear below. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I to to you, Madam Chair. Should we change the time the start time of the
meeting for April 7? >> April 7th should be at 5:30 we said, right? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> 5:30. >> 5:30. Yes. >> On the reminders. >> Yes. >> Yep. 5:30. >> Thank you for picking that up. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Anything else? We have a second.
All in favor? I oppose. Okay. At this time, we'll do correspondence, select board, new business, previous, new business, updates, and select board closing comments. Mike, you want to start? >> Um, I don't have anything this time. Sorry. >> Okay. >> Well, thank you.
>> You're welcome. >> D. >> Yeah. Couple of leazison updates. um the HIC meeting the their next meeting is uh this coming Thursday right here at 700 p.m. Uh they did not have a meeting in
February cuz um when we had the snow day they they we were closed on Monday and Tuesday. So they didn't have enough time to get the 48 hour notice to to to post the agenda. So the the Tuesday the
February meeting was cancelled. Uh another update from the river committee. Um just want to give a thank and a shout out to uh a member Bill Senziski. I think that's his name. >> Sanski. >> Sanski.
>> Okay. >> Yeah. um him and the Denver uh Sport Yach Club Association did um have a border safety course back in the middle of February
and that was free and he offered that to the residents and it seems like there were about 55 people who attended the course. So um because I I don't know if people know but as of January 8, 2025,
the Massachusetts governor had um so there was a new law that established that uh all the border had to take this class before they can operate. Uh so it was really nice for them to to offer
this class um free of charge to the resident. I think they might have another one upcoming in April. >> Uh if they do offer another one, I I will keep you posted for anyone who would want to attend and get their certificate. >> That's awesome. >> Thank you. Thank you,
>> Pet. Does that mean my certificate from 1978 is no longer valid? >> Maybe not. Uh I think the law the law it's true. The law states that uh if you were born after January 1989,
you must obtain this new certificate by April 1st, 2026. >> So I'm grandfathered. >> But for people that were born before January uh 1989, they given until April 1st, 2028. >> Oh, okay. >> So you are not grandfathered, but they
giving you more time. Thank you. >> Cuz maybe they think >> you might need it to study. maybe have to study more or or take the exam a couple times to pass it. I'm not sure. >> But yes, thanks for that. No, thanks for that update. >> It's really important and and I think like I said
serving as a leazison to this committee. My mind is just blown away by the the amount of work that Chris Sandborn at the town and the volunteers of this committee do to to keep our waterfront what it is. So >> thank you. >> Thank you. Excellent. Ghana,
>> I don't have any. Oh, I did get a correspondence that I'll forward to the town manager about some damage from the snow plows and recommend that anybody who has similar concerns, please contact the your select board member or contact the town manager directly, they'll investigate.
>> Me too. That's the same thing. Um felt the damage, the snow plow, right? That good. That's good. Uh that we um have people uh contact the town manager and she can get in touch with DPW. We'll take care of that. Uh Dan, do you have anything?
>> I do. Um actually, the affordable housing committee will meet tomorrow night at 6:30 to review the revisions made to the housing production plan that's been in the works for the last so many months. I believe the planning department's already weighed in on it.
Um h affordable housing has to finalize it. So eventually we'll come to this board for review and adoption. So, we're getting close to the end on that. And the preservation commission, usually the meeting would be the 9th of
the month, but given the mural dedication here, perhaps our select board meeting, um, we I've asked Aaron to look at those dates and might have to revise the preservation date. And we do
every public hearing that we're going to have on the old firehouse. um it's for sale and somebody wants to make alterations and we've deemed it to be historically significant which calls for a public meeting >> within 45 days.
>> That's good. >> Those are my updates. >> All right. And I really have nothing. Do you want to close it out, Dan? >> If you're ready. >> I'm ready. >> Okay. Great. Folks, when you see a veteran, please say thank you for his or her service. >> Thank you. Good night, Danas. Thank you.
Thank you.