A quorum being present, we're ready to begin the meeting. It'll come to order. Okay. Um, I wanted to welcome everyone. Uh, thank you for attending. I know sometimes the October town meeting
doesn't seem to have as many people, but this is a nice crowd for October. So, thank you to everyone. Um, before we begin with the warrant, HCAT had a brief presentation that they wanted to give. I don't think that's >> that's not on. That's not on.
>> John, your mic isn't on. There you go. Sorry. Once again, uh John Drohan for Cassandra Lane. I'm also a member of the Hollist Hub/HCAT board uh who has asked me tonight to deliver an important message uh to the people of Hollist about your local
multimedia information center known as the Hollist Hub or sometimes we refer to it as the artist formerly known as HCAT. It's a little prince joke there. Uh the message uh this message is a financial message uh about the financial future uh
and what we will need help uh with everyone uh for us moving forward in the future. So first a little history going on two years now we changed the name of and brand of HCAT to the Hollison hub because we wanted to better capture uh what it was that we actually were trying
to be a part of or what we were actually trying to be. We see this organization as the information and entertainment epicenter of Holliston. Many of you don't realize that not only do we provide uh captivating programming for your local cable access channel owners,
uh Verizon Xfinity, I I'll get to them in a second. Um but also we stream programming on social media sites such as uh live YouTube and Facebook. Um, I could go on and on discussing all the different programming uh ranging from uh
informative interviews at just thinking uh live uh streaming live of Hollist High School sports information about the different businesses in Hollist together. Um your fire chief uh reading children's stories that's an actually award-winning program as well uh several
awards um and also the coverage of government meetings that we are sitting in right now. So people at home get to watch and they get to learn about Hollist. Uh all because of Hollist Hub. So let me talk a little about finance.
So the organization is primarily funded through two contracts of the cable TV companies Verizon and Xfinity. I told you I'd get back to them. The amount of funding that we receive is directly proportional to the number of cable subscribers in the town. So, you may have heard this kind of new trend of
people saying, "I'm going to cut my cable and I'm so psyched about that." There's a downside to that. The downside is is that the number as the number of cable subscribers fall, so does the revenue for Hollist Hub. Uh since the beginning of COVID in 2020,
our annual income has decreased over 5% per year and is continuing in that downward direction. If we stay on this path, we will not be able to sustain our current operations at this time next year. That is fall of 2026.
Uh so everything that we all enjoy now will change dramatically or it'll simply just go away. So we've kind of read the tea leaves on this and you know we said all right we need to do something. So, we've uh adopting we're in the process right now
of adopting an NPR model um where we are we are an act we're a nonprofit organization. So, we will have an ongoing fundraising campaign through uh several different means. One is program sponsoring uh sponsorship uh which we've started back in 2024 uh with the
Hollison High School sports um through uh as well as and several upcoming annual fundraising events as well as uh direct donations from people just like you and me. Depending on the success of this fundraising effort, it'll determine
whether we need to ask the town to augment operational costs because up to this point in the history of Hollist Hub, formerly HCAT, we've never had to do this. So, what what is this? Um, so in the military,
uh, we would call this a warning order. So it allows the troops to understand uh kind of what the upcoming mission was to enable them to start to prepare for it. So what's the mission? Our task is we're our task is to raise enough money to continue our current and ongoing
operational expenses. Uh and the purpose is uh to continue to provide the coverage of well pretty much everything that is going on in Hollist. So stay tuned. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for listening and thank you for your support.
[Applause] Um I have the notice that this the warrant for this town meeting has been posted. Um I have this 8th day of October 2025 posted true copies thereof
attested on and within the town hall public library police department senior center and on the town website as here in directed and it's signed by constable Barry Sims. Um it's also signed by Liz Greenale.
So we're Okay. I have a motion to hear the report of the select board. Is there a second? >> Okay, select board. >> Good evening everyone. Can you hear me? Okay. Yeah. Good. Uh it's great to be
here and welcome everyone to town meeting this evening. Um this is our opportunity to follow up. There we go. To follow up with the progress that we've been making and what we've done in May. Um of course today is
a lot of uh work on free cash and capital expenditures. We have 19 articles in front of you this evening. 12 sponsored by the select board, three from the planning board, one from school committee, one from CPC, one from the board of assessors, and a citizens
petition for the select board. Uh, as as the chair, um, I speak on behalf of the select board. Um, our priorities this evening are focusing on town employees and the important work that they do every day to help residents,
maintaining our infrastructure, collaborating with organizations, departments, and boards throughout the town, and looking to plan strategically to ensure that we meet all the priorities and goals of the town. As for us, the select board, we have a
few updates to mention. Uh the first is one of the great uh the the uh Boston's Boston Hollist's Big Dig, Woodland Street, is finally reopened. Um yeah, and with the project, it opened on time
when it was supposed to open and uh the town will be returning at least $925,000 to capex from that project. >> We had a few departures over the past few months. our uh assistant town manager, Kathleen Buckley, and our
senior center director, uh Lisa Borchetta, have uh moved on to other things. Um we do have some new uh new faces at uh town hall. We have our new sustainability coordinator, Amelia Lando, who's terrific. If you haven't met her,
she's got a lot of energy and great ideas to hit the ground running. Um she's uh she's very passionate about sustainability and it's great to have her on the team and town hall. And also welcome to our new town manager uh Frank Jvazio >> Hollist resident and uh he put a lot of
uh time and effort to uh be ready for tonight. So thank you Frank for all that. So now let's get into some of the details and I'm going to talk a little bit more specifically about the articles that the select board is sponsoring uh in general and we can get into specifics
when we get to the actual articles. So uh the first four articles are uh financial policies maintained uh with the finance committee. We work with them uh every two years to update those financial policies. So article one will be updating general stabilization um
adding money to that uh that stabilization fund. Uh article two is the pension stabilization. Then we have article three for capex the capital expenditure fund and article four is the programmatic stabilization. And uh those updates uh that that money went came
from um that programmatic stabilization to help uh seed the uh ALS services and uh ALS being up and running has produced a little bit more revenue and is now paying back some of that money to the fund. So the the select board feel does
feel it's very important to make sure that we're following those policies and maintaining those agreements that we're making to ensure that we have a strong financial framework. I got to point it to you. Um making some changes to help some of our employees uh this evening. Uh article six is a town
clerk salary adjustment. She is an elected official so we have to treat it a little bit differently than other uh uh jobs um within town hall. Um, article 7 is a job reclassification plan and article 8 is a budget adjustment that would pay for the town clerk salary
adjustment. And just to emphasize too that our town employees are critical to maintaining services to the community that you expect every single day. We are continuing to invest in our infrastructure. Um, article 9 is a capital article and we're proud to uh
partner with the schools to make sure that the some of the sidewalk money that's been set aside through articles uh previously can be used towards paying for the costs of the Plantino Miller parking lot upgrades. Um, article 10 is a water main replacement on Washington
Street. Article 11 is a PAS POS assessment. Um, article 12 is just an update from our sewer commission and uh, article 15 is uh, the DPW facility putting the DPW facility at Art Street. That's a design engineering article.
Uh, the other contributions to the warrant um, article five, the board of assessors um, are moving to want to move overlay funds to uh, aid them in reertification. Uh, article 13 are some CPC projects. the uh community preservation committee
and article 14 is the school's solar lease authorization. The planning board has three articles uh ADUs which are uh alternative dwelling units. The state made some updates to what was already passed by this body uh last October and uh there's an industrial zoning changes
that's article 17 and a road acceptance for Katie way on article 18 and there's a citizens petition for article 19. So how do these articles fit into the strategic plan that we have? Uh for DEI we have uh town meeting continues to
have translation services available for people who uh need them or um then uh we have education and enrichment. We have capital investments in our schools. Environmental sustainability and natural resources uh the PAS article and DPW
update um project. Then we have uh financial stability. We're continuing to fund the reserves uh to policy, a flourishing economy through um updates through the sewer commission. Hopefully that's moving forward um adequately. Uh robust infrastructure, again, DPW
capital and sewer updates, and a thriving and engaged community. We're grateful that all of you are coming here this evening and hope people will also volunteer to participate in some of the boards and committees that have openings. Looking ahead to May,
um we're hopeful that with design engineering uh approved this evening for Arch Street, we can talk about debt exclusion for May for the DPW. We're looking to perhaps make some uh bylaw changes to select board bylaws that need updating as well as other
potential bylaws that will be proposed and considered. Um we look forward to working on the FY27 budget with the finance committee and the school committee to come up with a reasonable approach for uh next year. And further we're also looking to propose a long
range capital planning to start looking at some of the big ticket items um with facilities with maintenance and replacement to see if there's an um an opportunity to work together. We have a lot of different facilities and big ticket items across different departments and trying to get everybody
sort of together on the same page to see if there's ways that we can work through some of those things and if are there places that we can combine things or are there ways that we can make sure that the you don't get a big hit of too many things of that are too large to that the capital can't handle.
I want to uh take a moment also to say thank you to a number of people. Um, I want to say thank you to Donna Muzzy and Peg Driscoll in the town manager's office. They work tirelessly uh to help Frank and certainly help me on a regular basis and I'm forever in their debt for
all the hard work that they put forward. Uh, thanks to HCAP for recording this and presenting this to uh the public and those people who can't be here tonight. Thanks to Chris Mayo um the technology desk who's helping to make sure that the presentations, my presentation and Ken's presentation is ready to go. Um, thanks
to uh Jay, Liz, and Kevin on the uh the dis for helping make this work. Um, and all the counters for tabulating the votes. And uh, welcome to Michelle Zeamer for being moderator. We look forward to uh, your new role for years to come. And, you know, thanks to so
many of our other uh, town employees. Um, got a little note to just make sure I thank uh, you know, uh, Zoe and, uh, Jackie from HDAK and uh, youth and family services are here and making sure that they, uh, hear thanks, uh, from us for their, uh, all the things that
they're doing in the community to combat substance abuse. Thank you. And all and lastly, last thing to say is I wanted to say thank you to all of you for coming here this evening, taking some time out of your day to help the town do its business. We really appreciate it. We wouldn't be able to do
these things without you, of course, by law, but also it's also important. That's why we're here to help and serve your the community, serve you. And so, thank you very much for coming here this evening. And uh we'll have a good night. Thank you.
[Applause] Next, I have a motion to hear the report of the finance committee. If there's a second, good evening. Thank you for being here. U the first question I was asked when I was preparing this presentation was are
you going to use the yellow on blue still and I said absolutely. So here it is again. Okay. Uh so I'm here to give you a financial update and um I think I wanted to start I promised people I would start with this slide and I got to figure out which direction I'm
going in here. There we go. The party's over. Okay. And I I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we have to start understanding the fiscal realities the town faces these days. The free money from the pandemic is
gone. And as you recall in prior to the pandemic, we were in good financial shape. And we still are. I'm not trying to yell fire in a crowded theater, but we got a lot of things kickstarted because the federal government was giving us a lot of money. The state government was giving us a lot of money.
We had a lot of pandemic assistance and other programs. A lot of those programs have either already ended or are ending soon. All the pandemic programs have already ended. Last year was the last of them. So all that free money is gone. In addition, the state has not been hitting
its revenue benchmarks so far for FY26. And as all of you know, I'm sure costs are still rising and we're still dealing with things like tariffs and other uncertainties in the economy. Okay. So, we did reap a lot of financial benefits from all these programs, but we have to
now return to living within our means. And I don't want to say, again, I'm not trying to be too Armageddon, but I do think it's important that everybody here understand that we have a lot of projects that are in process and we're going to have to start prioritizing what
gets done unless we want to see a big impact to our tax bills. Okay. So, since the last town meeting, and I think I got the right direction this time. Wrong way. This way. There we go. Okay. The final net state aid for Hollston was slightly higher than what we modeled in May, $14,000, which is really noise in
the long grand scheme of things. But I wanted to point out that unrestricted state aid is down 25% on an inflationadjusted statewide basis since 2010. That's a number that came directly from the Mass Municipal Association last week. Okay. Our free cash, which we got
an estimate of this morning, it has not yet been certified by the Department of Revenue, is hopefully going to come in at certified at 3.4, just under $3.5 million here, but it could change. And it is good that it represents a 14% increase from last fiscal year if it
gets certified at that amount. So, what we're recommending is, as Ben pointed out, put some in our reserves to keep our reserves at the healthy levels they need to be. And we're also recommending putting at least 1.85 85 million into the capital expenditure fund. The
finance committee would ordinarily put the entire remaining balance of the free cash into the capital expenditure fund to plan for future purchases and I'll get to that in a minute. Um, but because we don't have a certified number yet, we're going to start with the 1.85 and then we'll go from there probably
allocate the rest in May. Our intention certainly as is to put it into a capital expenditure fund. Okay. Now, I always have this slide in here just because people always say to me, "What's free cash?" It's basically unexpended money. It's the leftover
money from the budget from last year. It represents differences in our model between what we expected to receive in revenue and what we actually got. And it represents unanticipated or one-time things like legal settlements. You've heard about tobacco settlements, PAS settlements we're talking about later in
this town meeting. Things like that. Things that are unallocated go into free cash. So, in essence, it's it's a misnomer to call it free cash because you're all paying it in some way. It's money that comes into the town. Okay. The state recommends that we buy us for
3 to 5% of that free 3 to 5% of the omnibus for free cash. And we're currently in that range. So, we're we're financial practices from the state and from every good financial analyst says, "Use it for only one-time items." And there's a simple reason for that. This
is non-recurring revenue. This is not something we can guarantee to have every year. So, it's highly volatile. And in fact, just to give you an example, if we moved forward with a 3.4 million number I just showed you on the prior slide and the state certified less, we'd have a
problem, right? If we planned on having 2 million, it's possible it could even be negative if your receipts don't meet your expectations. So from a free cash perspective, we always want to be cautious and make sure we're not using that in any kind of operational budget where we require annual revenue because
there's no guarantee the revenue will be there from year to year. Okay, so Ben talked a little bit about our reserves. I have to get back on that slide. Okay, our policies require require a minimum of 12% a target of 18%
of general fund expenditures in to maintain our rating. This is not something we made up. This is what basically the rating agencies look for. Uh our article one recommendation will keep us in that target range. This rating is critical as we consider debt funded projects and I'll get to
those a couple of slides from now where I'll tell we'll talk about some of the things that are kind of in the queue and how they might affect you and how you should be thinking about those before they become a an issue. Okay. Now I have on this slide
uh oh no I did change it back. Okay I'm looking at my own presentation. Um so I did mentioned 1.85 million to capital expenditure fund that will raise the total capital allocation for calendar year 25 meaning what we put into the fund to 3.65 million
between May and October and this town meeting if everything goes through as appropriated will have appropriated 6.5 million. So you see right there there's a structural issue. Now, the good news is we don't do this every year. Some large purchases don't occur every year. We have some years where we spend a lot
in capital, some years where we spend less, but as I'll discuss in a minute, we're on a trend that's not favorable, and we have to start looking out for where this trend is going. Okay. And finally, the 250,000 to the pension stabilization fund will bring that
balance up to 1.8, just over 1.8 million, which is good as we still continue to work down our uh pension liability. Okay. Of note, uh just these are kind of comments on things that if you look in
what was handed out, you'll see the finance committee recommendations in there and some of them said we would make a recommendation at town meeting. So, I just want to clarify. Um I I have here updated recommendation to appropriate 1.85 million. That's actually not changed because we went to
something else and came back to that. Okay. The finance committee is recommending the appropriation of $1.35 million for the first phase of the Placino Mill and Miller roof uh roof restoration project. Um just to be clear to everybody
that total cost of that project is probably double that in the range of 2.7 million. We're appropriating this first half now because we have the schools have an MSBA an application in with the state to potentially get the other half funded from the state. If that doesn't come
through then in May we'll probably be talking about the other half of this project. So be aware of that. For article 13 I just wanted to clarify the CPC had recommended Oh, I didn't realize it hadn't moved. Okay.
Guess I wasn't pointing. There we go. Sorry. Uh, for article 13, the purchase of 52 Jasper Hill Road has been withdrawn and is no longer under consideration. So, uh, just strike that from the article basically. Okay. And one final thing that I didn't put on
this slide that I have in front of me is for article 14, which is the solar project at the schools. The finance committee did vote to recommend favorable action on that proposal to allow the schools and the select board to move forward with negotiations on that project.
Now, let's talk about the future. Okay, I don't know why I've had all sorts of slide problems tonight. Um, an early look at FY27 shows a significant deficit in the range of $1 million. Okay. And this is despite adding
$250,000 we took out of the OPED trust funding in 2025, the annual funding for that in fiscal 25. So we basically added $250,000 to our operation budget in 25. And now we're looking at a million dollar deficit two years later.
This is based only on models and known expenses, but we have things we already know are going into the FY27 budget, and they're listed here. Okay. The addition of the town engineer, which is in the range of 130. I don't know what the final salary end will end up being, but
somewhere around $150,000. The increase in the pension assessment from MCRS, which we do know already, is going up another 300 change,000. the ending of the RECCC grant for regional dispatch. Uh that's the remainder we have to start picking that
up in FY27. That's another $167,000. So those three alone are in the range of $6 to $700,000. And of course we have anticipated benefit cost increase and everybody knows that benefits are not getting any cheaper. Okay, this assumes a baseline
for the schools that was per the model that was agreed on by the town manager and the finance committee and the schools going into their override request. Uh that basically they were building their financial models around a certain appropriation from the schools over the three-year period of the
contract they were talking about that he wanted the override for. This is significantly larger than what would be considered typical and that's why I wanted to point it out. We are looking at an FY27 that if things don't change between now and May and they will. So
that's why I said we have time to look at things. But if the number remains that high or even comes down but not enough, remember we have to pass a balanced budget in May, okay? If that number stays that high, we're going to be looking at some tough choices.
Spending reductions, overrides, you know, making priority calls. And that's what I want everybody to understand as we go into the future. Okay. Further adding to that is that the overrides that were
approved, the override that was approved for the sidewalks a couple years ago, uh, and the DPW, I'll get to that in a second, are not on your tax bills yet. Okay? So, you haven't even seen the effect of those on your taxes. The sidewalk debt exclusion is likely to hit
in the next year. It depends on how that project goes and when the debt funding occurs. The DPW debt exclusion was approved for Cross Street, but if the project proceeds elsewhere, then that will be another debt exclusion vote that will be
required at the town election next May. Okay. Keith Tech has already been accepted into the MSBA program for examination of their school for renovation or replacement. and we are a member of the Keefe district. So that means we are going to have a financial
obligation related to that. Okay. And of course, as those of you who are paying attention to the school committee meeting recently found out, uh it's looking like we might be in a good position, although there are no guarantees, but it's very possible that this is the year we get accepted into
the program for our high school. That doesn't mean you get a new high school, but it means we'd have to fund a feasibility study, of which partly would be partly reimbursed by MSBA, but we could be looking at a significant debt exclusion for a possible renovation or replacement of our high school as
well. In addition, the downtown sewer project you've heard about and you'll hear more about tonight could require funding. It does, there's no guarantee it will. It could be all grants, could be all federal. you know, maybe we get lucky and we don't have to pay anything for it. However, if that
turns out to need money, too, then add that to the list of things we have to pay for. So, the messaging I'm trying to give you here is we have to start thinking about what our priorities are as a community. Okay? Our capital spending exceeded our allocation by 11.6
million in the calendar years 2023 to 2025, excluding the DPW allocation, which was $7 billion. This is a net draw down of over 5 million in three years. Okay? And that's because there's 500,000 for the coverts and the $7 million. Keep in
mind, so we have to start focusing our money on the real capital needs of this town. We have to start prioritizing what is most important. And we also need to start getting back to raising the annual capital appropriation that we do as part of the budget in May. We had been raising it
for many years, well over a decade until the pandemic hit, okay? And then we kind of have backtracked, gone up and down, waffled around a little bit the last couple of years. Um, but it's still woefully inadequate to fund the capital
needs this town has. Okay. So with that in mind, with that in mind, I I ask that you just, you know, think carefully about what is most important to you as we proceed through the coming months and years
because that's the quest. Those are the questions we're going to have to answer. We can no longer rely on the federal government or the state government to give us money to do everything we want. And that's the key message I wanted to give everybody tonight. Okay.
Okay. As a reminder, our meetings are at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays, obviously, pretty much weekly during budget season and before the town meetings. You can always tune in to hear this good news anytime you want. Okay. And finally, I just give you this
summary. This town meeting is largely capital and one-time spending. It's not too tough. We're addressing several significant capital needs. So there is going to be a decent amount of spending tonight, but we're also dealing with the capital plan
that we've put in place that hopefully plans for these big expenses when they come up. Okay. But I think it's important that you to stress again, we should be very cautious about what the future holds, especially in light of the fact that with the
amount of debt we're be we're going to be considering over the next few years, potentially our AAA rating will be one of the most important things we have to maintain. It will cost us a lot of money for every downgrade we get. So, it's very
important that we maintain our AAA rating as we look to some of these higher cost debt funded projects. We've benefited greatly from many federal and state programs in recent years, but those funds I I I said drying up, they're dried up. Okay? We now have
to adjust our spending to account for the new reality. And as I said, I don't mean to yell fire in a crowded theater. will do our best as a town government to get through these stormy waters, but I also think it would be disingenuous for me to get up here and say everything's
great and then have you all come to me next year and say why did my taxes go up 30%. Right? You're going to have to vote to approve some of these debts. And unless you want significant tax increases, which obviously that's the town's decision, we're going to have to start
thinking carefully about which projects we fund and which ones we don't. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Um, now we'll move on to the warrant. Article one, general
stabilization fund. It's sponsored by the select board to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds a sum of money for the general stabilization fund or take any action relative there too. The motion is move that the town
appropriate $150,000 from free cash to the general stabilization fund subject to free cash certification by the department of revenue. Um, and the finance committee voted unanimously uh
in favor of this. Does anyone from the select board want to be heard? >> Oh, I'm sorry. Is there a second to the motion? Okay. Does anyone from the select board want to be heard? Okay. Does anyone want to be heard?
I Pam Ziko 185th Street. I see that this article takes money out of free cash and I heard Ken say that hasn't been certified with the state and I'm wondering why that hasn't been certified with the state by now and if it has been
sent to the state to be certified free cash. >> So great question. It has not been certification. The amount that we expect to send in will be about 3.4 million. As Ken mentioned, all the motions that we'll be making tonight for free cash as of now
um will uh sort of have the proviso at the end that says subject to free cash certification by the department of revenue. Um so we should be covered in terms of in the fact that it's not certified by now. As far as to why it's not certified just yet, um you know, unfortunately there's no real excuse for
that. Um so after this town meeting, we're going to try and figure out some things operationally to improve. um because we'd all like to have it certified in hand by the time we get to 7 PM on October 20th or whenever time meeting is. Um but we're comfortable with the way after speaking with council the way that the the motions will be
written to make sure that we'll be safe. Um you know should should the do certify our free cash shortly. >> Thank you. >> Okay. If no one else wants Oh, Jack. >> Jack Blaze, 25 Mitchell Road. To follow
up on what Mr. Shader just said, before we talk about spending money, can we get kind of a new pulse on the $60 million DPW facility? Are we looking at 500 million for the uh
new high school? >> Hey, Mr. Blae. >> Yes. >> There will be an article later to discuss the >> But how can we sit appropriately and vote on spending money if we don't know these big numbers? >> Do we have a report like from the Hollison Office of Government
Efficiency? >> I don't think such an office exists. Um >> are we planning an override? I I can't answer that. Would someone from the select board care to briefly
answer that? >> Um I can't answer anything about the uh cost of a school, but I can say about the DPW facility. Part of what we're asking for tonight in article 15 is to design and engineer a facility so we have a firm cost. The current estimates
were at $45 million, not 60. As you had stated, they're 40 >> if you if you want to speak. >> Don't remember, but the the the reality. So, it's $45 million was the current estimate, but that includes an enormous amount of contingencies and um also uh
cost escalators. And until we have the design engineering, we won't have the firm cost. It will go down from 45. It is not going to go up. That is a very conservative estimate. And that's intentional because it's always better to have something that's too high than too low when we when we're doing this this conversation.
>> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Um if we're ready to move on to a vote, this is a simple majority. Everyone in favor of the motion say I. >> I. >> Everyone opposed to the motion say no.
Okay. So that's unanimous. Thank you. Article two is the pension stabilization fund sponsored by the select board to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds a sum of money for the pension stabilization fund or take any action
relative thereto. The motion is move that the town appropriate $250,000 from free cash to the pension stabilization fund subject to free cash certification by the department of revenue. Uh the finance committee recommends that the town appropriate
$250,000 from free cash to the pension stabilization fund and that was unanimous. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you for the reminder. Um, does anyone wish to be heard from the select board or anyone else? Okay, then
we'll go right to a vote. All those in favor say I. >> All those opposed say nay. Okay, so that passes unanimously. Article three, capital expenditure fund, sponsored by the select board to see if the town will vote to raise and
appropriate or transfer from available funds a sum of money for the for the capital expenditure fund or take any action relative thereto. The motion is move that the town appropriate $1,850,000 from free cash to the capital
stabilization fund subject to free cash certification by the department of revenue. The finance committee recommends that town that the town appropriate $1,850,000 from free cash to the capital expenditure fund. Is there a second?
>> Okay. Does anyone wish to be heard? >> Okay. All those in favor say I. >> All those opposed say nay. Okay, that passes. Article four, programmatic stabilization
fund, to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds a sum of money for the programmatic stabilization fund or take any action relative there too. Okay. Uh the finance committee recommends that the town appropriate $250,000 from free
cash to the programmatic stabilization fund. The motion is move that the town appropriate $250,000 from free cash to the programmatic stabilization fund subject to free cash certification by the department of revenue.
>> Does anyone want to be heard on this? >> Oh, second. Do I have a second? >> Okay, thank you. Um, does anyone wish to be heard on this? Okay, so we'll go to a vote. All those in favor say I.
>> All those opposed say nay. Okay, that passes. Article five, transfer funds for department of revenue reertification. And this is um sponsored by the board of assessors to see if the town will vote to transfer a sum of money from the
assessor's overlay surplus account to the fiscal year 2026 reertification account for the purposes of paying consultant expenses associated with the town of Holliston's fiscal year 2026 reertification by the Massachusetts
Department of Revenue or take any action relative there too. The finance committee recommends that the town appropriate $100,000 from the overlay surplus for the purpose stated in the article and that was unanimous. The motion is move that the town appropriate
$100,000 from the assessor's overlay surplus to the fiscal year 2026 reertification account for purposes stated in the warrant. Is there a second? >> Okay. Anyone want to be heard on this?
Okay. All those in favor of the motion say I. >> All those opposed say nay. Okay, that passes. Article six, town clerk salary adjustments sponsored by the select board to see if the town will vote to
raise and appropriate a transfer from available funds for the purposes of mending the salary and compensation of the town clerk with the effective July 1st, 2025 with the effect uh with the effective I think the word date is missing. July
1st, 2025 is printed below. Um so the town clerk certification there's a chart um town clerk salary including certification or take any action relative there too. The current her current salary is $95,874
and the proposed salary is $15,874. The finance committee recommends indefinite postponement. The vote was four to three with Miss Winston, Mr. Smith and Mr. Lowski against. The motion is move that the town adjust the town clerk's salary and compensation approved
at the May 25th annual town meeting as depicted in the warrant. Okay. Does is there a second? >> Does anyone want to be heard on this, Mr. Sparrow? >> Yeah, just a brief comment here. Um so the promise was made that for uh the
clerk to receive the raise in May and she was asked to wait until October and she did and this is under uh this type of an article because she's an elected official. So according to state law a town meeting has to approve the salary of elected officials and the numbers
that you see in front of you are based on a market analysis. So we look at this with department heads through the market to determine um what is the right salary to uh for a department head in within the town government. So that's why you're seeing this in front of you and I
urge you to vote in in favor of it. We have a great town clerk and she deserves the race. Thank you. >> Does anyone else wish to be heard? Dr. Shada. Okay. Yeah, I have a couple of things I'd like to go over um in line with the
discussion I just had about money. So, Chris, if you could uh pull up my article six presentation. There we go. Okay. I want to show you the town provided market analysis. I think you all should see this for yourself. Okay. Look at those numbers very carefully.
>> Okay. So, Okay. Okay. I'll I'll read the key numbers to you unless Chris can figure out a way to blow them up a little bit here. So, I should have I should have anticipated that people had the same vision I have at this age, but um in any case, I'll
I'll read a couple of key figures to you. Okay, there are several communities, six communities that were considered by the town other than Hollist. The salaries of this position in those six communities was 95,000. And I'll just read the numbers. 95,000 96500
96037 9518,665 and $137,627. Okay. Okay. Now, the I want to point out one thing that's a couple of notes that are on this analysis. One says
the North Borough Town Clerk, which is the one that is the 108,6665 number, is retired and her replacement uh the successor was is hired at $91,000. Okay, so that 108,000 data point is no
longer technically valid. The Wayland number is obviously a significant outlier from what you see. Okay. So, and I want to start out before I go into this analysis, I want to point out none of this is personal. This is not based
on any discussion of the town's clerk's performance. This is just basically a salary analysis of the market. Okay? When you look at that table, which you couldn't really see, the highest two salaries aren't really comparable to our town clerk position.
First of all, Wayland, which was the tremendous outlier that you saw there, routinely targets the top of the scale. Hollistston has always targeted midscale in our for our staff. So, everybody knows that Wayland pays well more than other communities.
And as I mentioned, the North Borough clerk is retired and the new salary is $91,000. The remaining salaries other than those top two, one of which is no longer valid, are all in the 95K to 97K range in line with the current town meeting
approved salary. The new north row clerk is below this as you might expect as somebody who is coming in new. If you look at the median, the current town clerk salary is the median of that
list if you include Hollist and the current North Clerk salary, even including Wayland's outlier. And anybody who's ever worked in HR knows that you always deal with medians, not averages, because of the skewing of the averages by the outliers. Okay. Also on
that prior slide, the town had the median listed as 102,583. The median of that list by their definition is actually 96,269, not 102,583. And as all of you know, in almost every
comparison we ever see of Holl, we see Hopkin included because they're a neighboring town of similar size. Their town clerk pay is getting paid $88,887,000 a year and they have 10 years experience. Okay.
So when you look at the salary history of this position, okay, town meeting approved 95874 in May, that was a 4% increase. That was there. The request now is to change that to a 14.8% increase.
In FY2025, the tal this town approved a salary of 922 to225. That was a 2.5% increase. That was in line with what all other department heads received last year. In FY24, the position was a town meeting approved a salary of $90,000,
which was a 9.9% increase from the FY23 salary of 81860. So, with no change, no change to the number that we approved in May, that's a 5.4% annual increase over the last
several years. Ask yourself if you've gotten that kind of increase at your job over the last several years. With the requested change, that'll bump it up to a 9% average annual increase over those years. And I also want to point out that the
total compensation for the position typically exceeds the salary you approve by a little bit because of stipens and other things like that. If you go back to our annual town report for fiscal 24, you will see that even though we approved a $90,000 salary, the position
was actually paid 91,000 and change. So the proposed change is well above what other departments heads have received during the same period. And in our mind, at least the majority of the finance committee, it would create parity issues, which is why the majority of the fincom
recommends including this as part of a broader analysis next May, which if you read the select board's comments, they themselves point out that that is their plan. So with that in mind, I would like to make a motion to indefinitely postpone this article. >> Okay. Now, we will be heard on the
motion to indefinitely postpone. >> Do I have a sec? Is there a Okay, >> thank you. Um, Mr. Sparrow. >> So, uh, couple quick things here. Uh, first, the the, uh, experience is an important part of that. And the challenge with some of the, uh,
comparative towns is the, uh, size of what the clerk does. I don't want to get into too deep into that for the simple fact of the matter is I don't think this is appropriate for us to be having this kind of scrutiny for department head salaries. I recognize this is a separate article and
if we want to talk about par issues, we have a parity issue because we have an elected official who has to have their salary scrutinized like this in front of this body. I don't think that's appropriate. Are we going to be doing that for all department heads? And the answer is no because it's part of the budget process, but I don't think it's really fair to do that to one particular
department head. Thank you. Does anyone else want to be heard on the motion to indefinitely postpone? Hello, my name is Bob Smith uh from 11 Old Card Path. I'm a new member of the finance committee and as
you can see in the in the warrant I was one of the people who voted against indefinite postponement. Um I have to say I'm really enjoying my my service on the finance committee with these amazing individuals. Um it's it has been great. Um, since joining the finance committee,
uh, this is the only time, the only article I've actually disagreed with with my colleagues and the recommendations, um, that were made. The finance committee does a lot of an amazing work. I can tell already. Um, but I I sincerely
personally feel that um, we we were wrong on this one, and I hope the town can actually make it right. Um, one of the I'm that I'm the clerk on the committee. And one of the benefits of being the clerk is that you get to re-review and watch the uh finds
committee meetings over. You get to um reinvestigate the data and all the evidence. And I've done a lot of that. And uh sometimes it takes uh new people with a fresh eye to see when perhaps an
injustice has been done. and um and hopefully it could be made made right. Um in this case, what do I what do I know about Liz Greenale? The my uh I saw everything I needed to know um
during the the recount actually of the election. Uh I got an up up close and personal view of Liz's work um during the recount last year. Um, it was really my first interaction with Liz and
uh, she ran that recount like as a like a field general with amazing competence and military precision. I was very very impressed. There were a lot of people, a lot of moving parts um, and zero margin of error because in that case, as you remember the recount, the stakes were
very high and it was literally down to to one vote. Um, if you can't tell, I was imp impressed mightily by by Liz's uh performance and professionalism during that um critical
event in the town's election history. She really delivered when the town needed her to. And to anyone who would say, well, that's uh that was her job. She was just doing her job. Um, I would offer the following.
I uh I have to admit I'm pretty green to um town government, but I did spend 25 years working in state government and during some of that time I supervised uh government employees, state employees and was responsible for reviewing their
performance. Um, so in that vein, I'm I feel uniquely qualified to offer an opinion about my observations of the town clerk's performance and what I've seen firsthand is an exceptional exceptional administrator
um whom the town is fortunate to have in such an important leadership position. So having thoroughly reviewed this request um again as the as the clerk uh to adjust the town clerk's salary um
around the um to around the mean or the median of the neighboring comparable towns along with uh all the verified data and evidence. I I think it's only right for the town to decide favorably in uh Liz
Greenale's favor for the request for fair compensation. Um, I think the town should approve this salary increase as specified in in this article. And in doing so, an outstanding
town leader with 14 years of experience and loyally serving the town of Hollist will receive the fair compensation that she rightfully deserves. Um, so thank you. And, uh, my my final comment I'll direct
to Liz. Um, I do not think you should be paid at the median salary of your um, peers. I think you should be at the top end of that salary. And thank you for all you do. Are there any more comments on the
motion to indefinitely postpone? Hi, Barbara Ryan, 14 Irving Place. Thank you, Liz Greenale, for what you do. I value experience as a leader. I value people. I've led large organizations and small. Experience matters. People
matter. I've had great service not only from Liz but many members of the town and equal pay for equal work. Okay. Um Dr. Shada
just to clarify just clarify a couple of things that were just said. Okay. The issue the finance committee had is one of parody. No one is disputing whether Liz is a good clerk or not. In fact, we this should be considered somewhat
dispassionately, right? We have other employees in other positions that you could say other great things about that are also deserving of probably additional compensation as well. Our opposition to this has nothing to do with
uh uh you know an evaluation of the job performance of the current town clerk. It's a parity issue. It's a parody issue. Other department heads deserve the same consideration and they haven't been given it. The select board has said their plan is to look at everybody for May, but we've already talked about how
the budget may be tight in May. What do we do? What do we do? Is it fair to give somebody an increase now when the rest of the department heads who may be equally deserving of an increase? Uh have to have to say to them next May, well, you know, money's tight, so maybe
we'll have to put that off. This has nothing to do with the position itself, the person. This is not a statement on dissatisfaction with Liz or anything bent against Liz's job uh job performance, right? It's merely fairness
to all the other good town employees that deserve the same consideration. We should do it for everybody. That was the reason the finance committee wants to indefinitely postpone so that it can be looked at for everybody and we can plan for it and plan to implement it across the board. I already know talking to
other town employees. Obviously, I've talked to several of them over the years. I already talked to one town employee who said to me, "I had an assistant who went to another town and became the the head in that town and
is getting paid $5,000 more than me." And that's somebody who has So, this person has experience in their position and their underling went to another town and got paid more. So, is it fair to look at this position and say, "We're happy with this particular job. Let's
give it a big increase while that person sits there watching their peer, their underling basically go to another town and get paid more. We need to do this townwide. We need to take a holistic look. And and just to be clear, it has
nothing to do with pay equity. The data I just showed you or tried to show you made it very clear and this was our other point. The compensation that is being paid right now is on par with what it's paid in other positions. Hopington
has a 10-year experienced town clerk getting paid less than our 13-year experienced town clerk by a fairly significant amount. So, as I said, I would continue I would urge you to vote to indefinitely postpone so that we can consider this
raise as part of raises for everyone next May. Thank you, >> Mr. Cronin. [Applause] >> Good evening. John Cronin, 40 Holly Lane.
Few comments. To be clear, madam moderator, we are act upon the motion for inde. Yes. >> So the vote upon the body would be yes to indefinitely postpone, no >> to go back to the original article. Is that correct? >> Right. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. First question to the
town manager, Mr. Travasio, did you validate the number that is in the warrant as an eligible number for compensation? as a result of looking at the comps that Mr. Shada took the liberty to uh cherrypick and show the audience a few
minutes ago. >> Uh yes, I did. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Shader. I'm speaking. Thank you, sir. Thank you. I would strongly encourage each of you to vote no on this motion. Why? Well, you've heard performance, but where's
the performance coming from? And why are some of these salaries looking so skewed? It's because a lot's changed in that world. And we've seen it. Started with the pandemic. The voters act immediately upended that world. Over the last 5 years, the early voting by mail,
the early voting in person, voter registration deadlines decreased from 20 days to 10 days. To say the town clerk's job has changed dramatically is an understatement. That's why you can see the market change in some of these salaries when you look at them more closely. What Mr. Shader did is he re he
reviewed the numbers based on revenue. I quibble with that number. I want to look at population. The population numbers are the numbers that the town clerk serves and that service is ultimately which he or she has to get paid upon. So
regarding performance, I've watched all of these elections. Hollison is in good shape. We've never had a problem. other communities have. You read about them. When an election goes bad, a lot of things happen. Voter distrust, voter trust, things like that
diminish dramatically, and it's years before you get it back. We've never had that problem. Somebody said she's been serving us for 14 years she has. And so I think I think service and performance really matter. And guess who reviews her? You do. And what's
different between what you do for her and what the department heads that Mr. Shader was just talking about? The department heads are not reviewed by you. They're reviewed by them. So when they look at the salary survey, as I did when I was on that board, all
those sal all those department heads are on a tiered salary schedule. They're all individually marked out according to market. And the town should look at that every several years. And I hope they plan to do that. It's been said multiple times and it seems to be lost in some people in this room. We're
here talking about this because the town clerk is different. She's different because she's elected. When some people got stipens as elected officials, it had to be approved by you. So, please don't conflate the fact that
we should bundle the town clerk salary in with all the department head salaries. It's quite different. The numbers are here in front of you. The town manager has validated the number that is before you tonight. Chris, if you could just bring up the letter so people could see. The town
clerk followed the rules. Back in March, she sent her select board leaison and her finance committee leaison a letter. She said, I'd like to talk about my salaries. And she said there was she was told, "See you in the fall. Here we are.
We're talking about it now." She followed the rules. This is not a money grab. She went to the finance committee. She explained to them where she got her comp numbers. You know what they said? Hh, wait a minute. Validate those numbers.
So, she did. She validated them. She did. Tom manager validated them. He came back at a second meeting. Yep, those numbers are correct. Yes, the 104,000 is correct. Yes, we support that. Finance committee then
changed the rubric again. Well, we don't care about the validation. Vote was taken. That's before you tonight. What is the precedent? Why are we here talking about the town clerk in the fall? Because we have to. Have we done it before? Yes, we have.
We've looked at two articles in the last several years that have dealt with compensation. And guess what? In a few minutes, look at article 17 for a minute. Excuse me, Article 7. That's a reclassification of a town employee. Why? Because the market analysis says she
needs a raise. Look at the finance committee vote on that one. Seven to nothing. No problem. And by the way, I hope Cheryl gets every penny. She's one of the best employees in town hall. We've got some really great people. So, folks, I see some problems with the way the finance
committees approach this, but I wanted to lay bear to you a couple of things. performance-wise, I don't think there's any argument. What is the reason for the justification? The job changed dramatically. Dramatically. We all know that. If you
go to vote now, you can see the burden put on the town clerk's office. No room for error. She's following the rules. She's doing what she was told to do. She found a market analysis that holds up based on
population. It is senseless that we have to spend this amount of time talking about funding for a position that is so critical to us. Folks, if you bother to look, don't look now. And no offense to our librarian who was just hired at
$100,000. Liz has been here 14 years. She's paid 94. Think about that. When you when you assess this particular request, some might be saying based on the catastrophic vision of the finance
committee chairs uh presentation a few minutes ago, where's the money coming from? That's an important question. That's article 8. The money's already been identified. The select board has favorability as a as a result of some
fees coming back. Problem solved. This is what they call in the business a ground ball, folks. I hope you defeat the motion for indefinite postponement. Move forward with the vote on article six favorably. Thank you.
>> Okay. Um I'd like to um our bylaws require that no one can speak more than two times except to answer a question or a rebuttal. So I'm going to let Dr. Shada go next to >> Right. I just I just want to point out you guys have seen me present here for
many many years. You know, I try to stick to the facts and to the numbers. I don't get personal. What you just heard was shameful. Okay? And I'll tell you why it's shameful. He used the phrase, "The finance committee cherrypicked the
data." That data was the data given to us by the town manager verbatim. It was not cherrypicked in any way, shape, or form. I literally cut and paste it so you couldn't even see it.
Okay. I think it's very disingenuous to sit here and say we're we're that somehow the finance committee is stepping into performance reviews. The position, just to be clear, is not reviewed by the
select board at all because it is an elected position. Okay, so that was another misstatement that somehow the select board does performance reviews. The town manager does performance reviews of every town employee except the town clerk because it is an elected position. Her
performance review is every three years at the ballot box. But again, this has nothing to do with performance reviews. This has everything to do with are we as a town paying reasonable compensation right now for the position so that we
can do we need to take emergency action or can this be put off till May when we look at it for everybody. That letter you saw that Mr. Cronin put up was sent to the liaison who never sent it to the finance committee. I never saw that until just five minutes
ago. Okay. But regardless, regardless I showed you the data the town manager had, the data was wrong. And by when you look at it correctly, it shows that the position right now is being paid fairly relative to the
market. We will look at that again when hopefully we have a new HR director because our former HR director left. When that person comes in, tasked them with looking across all departments, all jobs, and coming up with recommendations for how we move everybody. As Mr. Cronin
said, that is good practice. The finance committee's opposition has nothing to do with any performance of the position. It has to do entirely with does this position deserve special consideration above all the other positions in town?
And the answer is it doesn't. Right? Cherry-picking who gets paid more than the town clerk doesn't help either. Our superintendent of schools is the highest paid employee in town. Okay? But that doesn't mean every employee should get that salary. It's there because that's
what the market says it is. And the data we were given that I showed to you shows that we are right in the middle of the market where we have always strived to be. Paying this increase now
not only adds a significant uh u increase to the position over the last three years, but again it it puts it way out of whack with what is occurring for all department heads. We need to consider this as a town
issue. I agree. Let the select board look at it. Nobody's saying no. The select board in their own comments to in your warrant in front of you said we plan on looking this at this in May. With that in mind, there is no need to consider it right now. The position is
currently being paid fairly. If it isn't, we'll find out when we find that out from our new HR director in May when an analysis is completed across all town department heads. And then we can consider as a group what we do for everybody. That's the fair thing to do.
And I urge you to vote to indefinitely postpone to allow the process to play out fairly for all town employees because John Cronin is right. Some of them are great and they deserve raises too. Thank you. >> Okay.
>> Yeah. Um I will entertain that motion in a minute. Um Mr. Cronin, >> excuse me. >> Mr. Cronin for rebuttal and then there were two people who have had their hands up for a while
and then we will take a vote on this motion to indefinitely postpone. Thank you, madam moderator and rebuttal to Mr. Shada. My apologies, Mr. Shader, if you felt that that was um shameless. You've been around a while, Ken. It wasn't shameless. It's facts. One of the things
that um he mentioned was in this case, I mentioned that the town department heads are evaluated by the select board. I did. And I also said you evaluate the town clerk. That's what I said. That's what you're doing tonight.
That's exactly what you're voting on. I disagree with him wholeheartedly on the review. He cherrypicked certain communities as you do. I stand behind the numbers that the town did. They validated those numbers. They put them in the warrant. In this case, he
compared he compared the communities to individuals who don't have nearly the amount of 14 years of experience that Liz does. Those are the facts and those are the numbers that were identified by the town manager. Thank you very much.
>> Okay, this gentleman over here. >> Thank you. I appreciate you. And I I I feel like we should apologize to the clerk for the fact that we're discussing >> Oh, could we have your name and address, please? >> Yes. Sorry. Amin from 38 Franklin Street here in Holl. And um Could you repeat something?
>> I'm sorry. Could you just repeat that, please? >> Yes. Um, Amin Benali, 38 Franklin Street. >> Okay, thank you. >> Okay, so I want to point out that we just went breezed through $2.5 million in the previous articles in a matter of seconds and we've spent a fair amount of
time on a $10,000 pay raise. And so I just want to point that out. Um, you know, and I I I do appreciate the lesson on statistics and medians and averages, but it is more concerning to me that a letter that is so central to
the ask itself was not seen until now. That that is confusing and concerning as well because it is central to the ask itself. So, I think somebody needs to take responsibility for that. But even more confusing to me was what are we voting for? Because the article says the vote is on the increase and I'm hearing
the motion on the vote to postpone. So could you state for us so that when we say yes, what are we saying yes to? Um because the what's written on the paper seems to be different from what you're saying on the microphone. And that's a lot more
concerning to me than a lot of what's happening here. So I appreciate that. >> Yeah. A motion to indefinitely postpone supersedes the original motion. So if that passes, we'll go on to the next article. But it this could be brought back at future town me excuse me future
town meetings. If you vote no to indefinitely postpone, we go back to the original motion. So if we So the the it says here to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available
funds for the purposes of amending the salary and compensation of the town clerk with the effective July 1st, 2025 as printed below. So when it comes the time for me to say yes, am I saying yes to a pay raise or am I saying yes to
>> you? If you vote yes to indefinitely postpone that supersedes this motion. So you we don't vote on the motion itself. A no vote a no vote is a vote against indefinitely postponing and then we return to the
original motion. >> Okay. which is the one that you're referring to. >> Okay. I >> I'm sorry. Am I >> I have more questions, but I I yield until maybe somebody can clarify. But this is too much time to be spending on $10,000 and we have just too much money
that's being asked for legitimately. So, and at some point we have to be reasonable as well and practical, okay? And and we appreciate the service of all of you guys in our local government. So, thank you very much. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. There was one more person who's had his hand up and then we will go to a vote on the motion
to indefinitely postpone. >> I'm Jimmy Reid, 45 Pleasant Street. First time ever standing up here, not even in high school. So, I'm a little bit nervous. I don't have any spreadsheets. I don't have any graphs. I never intended on
coming up here today, but I would ask you all, you would think that we were talking about the DPW right now. This is crazy. Uh Liz Greenale deserves this. I would ask you all think about your experiences with Liz Greenale over the
last 14 years. To think that we're talking about $10,000 and we've spent all this time is absolute absolutely crazy. Uh, I would ask you to support uh the increase in her pay. I would say uh I would ask you to vote no on this uh
tableabling. I think we should vote and I think we need to support Liz Greenale. I think this is has gotten totally out of control. My opinion. >> Okay, we will now go to a vote. And to make it clear, this is a vote to
indefinitely postpone. It isn't a vote on the main motion. Okay. All those in favor of indefinite postponement postponement say I. >> I. >> All those against say nay.
>> Nay. >> Okay. So that failed. We're now going back to the original motion. If anyone has anything to say on the original motion. Um I I I think we've discussed the original motion enough, but if
anyone has a overwhelming need. Okay, no one. So we'll go to a vote on the original motion. Excuse. This was the nightmare I had that I was going to lose my voice tonight just so you all know. Um so now we are voting on the motion itself. All
those in favor say I. >> I. All those against say nay. >> Okay, the eyes pass. So the motion passes. Okay, we're on to article seven, job reclassification plan adjustment. This
is sponsored by the select board to see if the town will vote to amend the job classification plan for full and part-time employees effective July 1st, 2025 as approved at the May 2025 annual town meeting by reclassifying the
following reclassifications. The position is assistant town accountant. The current grade is 50. The proposed grade, I'm sorry, is 500. The proposed grade is 600. The finance committee recommends favorable action
that was unanimous. The motion is move that the town amend the job classification plan for full and part-time employees by reclassifying the grade of the assistant town accountant as depicted in the warrant. Does anyone want to be heard on this?
>> Oh, second. Is there a second? Second. Um, I should have like a light flashing here. Um, all those in favor say I. >> All those opposed. Okay, that that passes unanimously.
Thank you. Article eight, fiscal year 2026 budget adjustments sponsored by the select board to see if the town will vote to transfer from available funds a sum of money for the purpose of supplementing various accounts for the town's fiscal year 2026 annual budget
previously voted by the town under article 15 of the warrant for May 2025 annual town meeting or take any action relative there too. And it's a transfer from KEF Tech Assessment, which is account 01371-56902.
The amount of $10,000 transferred to town clerk administrative salaries number 01161-511 0. Uh the town Hold
hold on a second. Oh, okay. I'm not ex The finance committee recommends indefinite postponement, but I think that's um making certain assumptions. Um move
that the the motion is move that the town approve the current fiscal year transfer as depicted in the warrant. Is there a second? >> Okay. Okay. Does anyone wish to be heard on this? Okay. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say nay.
>> Okay. That article passes. Okay. Hold. I just have to ask a question. Two motions together now. It's just one motion. >> I mean the recommendation.
>> Okay. Okay. Okay. Article 9 is the capital budget sponsored by the select board to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate transfer from available funds or borrow a sum of money for the purpose of capital expenditures including replacement of old vehicles and equipment for the following
departments: public safety, police, fire, public works, facilities, and schools, including the expenditures listed below, and authorize the select board to trade or sell equipment toward part of the purchase price or take any action relative there too. And this is
the tables printed in the warrant. Um the motion is Oh, maybe I should No, I'm sorry. Um the finance committee recommends that the town appropriate 2,257,761
from the capital expenditure fund as follows. 12,500 for traffic signals for traffic signs and equipment. 36,300 for firefighting gear, 112,354 for replacement of the forest fire
vehicle 1, $723,13 for the replacement of the fire engine of fire engine 4, $197,41 for police department vehicles, $12,000 for ecitation printers, $93,000 for a
DPW dump truck with a plow, $85,00 9994 for a DPW mower, $10,900 for a DPW equipment trailer, $52,000 for a Chevy Blazer EV, $232,750
for school classroom technology, $175,000 for paving at the Miller and Placentino schools, $135,910 for paving of the access road at the former Flag school site, and $378,99
for the school department HVAC reserve. Then um the fi in the warrant you'll see that the finance committee will make a recommendation at town meeting concerning the $1,350,000 for completion of the roof restoration at the Placentino and Miller schools and
they um voted favorable action for that unanimously. Okay. The motion is move that the town appropriate $3,67,761 from the capital expenditure fund for the purposes listed in the warrant subject to free cash certification by
the department of revenue. Is there a second? >> Okay. Does anyone want to be heard on this? Hello, Jamie Ring, 427 Apprentice Street. Um, I am looking for some clarification just because I find all
this very confusing. Um, I am wondering about the 1.3 uh $150,000 for the um flat section roofs uh work. Uh something said that it was
uh the last phase and I believe somebody also said that we're going to be needing twice that next year. I don't understand how replacing a school roof can cost $3 million and I don't know what's already been spent.
Um, but I want to know also how does it relate to um, article 14? Because if we're asking about putting solar equipment on top of the roofs that
we just spent $3 million to fix that we then lease out and no longer own the roof. That brings up a lot of questions for me. Hold on a moment. I apologize. I didn't have out my paper because I wrote some of these things down.
Um, I want to know does that increase our taxes or is this part of the budgets that already exist? Um, I don't understand. I realize we'll discuss it later, but for the solar
project, are we looking to put solar on the roof so that we can get cheaper electric for our schools or are we looking to basically rent out the real estate? So, a commercial company can make money off
of our town and then we still have to pay them at a contracted rate to get cheaper electricity because all over Hollist there are solar farms everywhere and my electric bill is no lower. I get um destination charges from Texas. So, I
don't understand I I don't understand the whole solar thing very well anyway, but I don't understand how that helps us and I'm more concerned about how that impacts being able to use the school property because I think it's also the parking lot. Um, I don't understand how
it uh affects how we can use our own facilities moving forward for 30 years that we're going to lock into. And then if we're using the parking lot, are we getting rid of parking? Are we getting rid of space that in 20 years or 15
years we could build an addition for classrooms if we needed to? Or are they looking to cover it like uh I don't know like at REI where there's covered parking and then the solar is on top. Um, so there's just a lot of different
variables and I think that they all play into each other as to, you know, why are we spending the money on it? And, um, since we haven't had the discussion yet about the solar, I think it's important to bring it up now. Um, and then
who becomes responsible to fix the roof because we no longer have control over it because we've given it away to a 30-year lease. Um, but we've had to foot the bill for it. Um, and then I don't understand about the flag access paving.
Um, is this so that we can make a recreational facility for another uh $733,000. So, we're paving a road to get to a facility that we may or may not decide to even vote on. So, these are questions that just
because of my own, you know, forgive me, my l my own lack of understanding of how some of this works, I do think that they're important to bring up and have somebody explain it in a very plain language. Thank you. >> Okay.
[Applause] >> Do you mind just sticking around just in just in case you have any follow-ups? Uh so the first question about the uh use of capital expenditure funds for the paving of the road. Sure. How's this
>> better? Okay. Uh so the first question about Sorry, I just want to make sure I look at you. Um uh the first question you the last question you had about the the paving of the access road. So, uh, in total that project, um, only partially is going to be covered by CPC
funds, about $700 and some odd thousand, $733, I believe it is. The access road that comes off of Lynen Street into the back through the over the site of uh, where the sort of maintenance shed and the flag, former site of the flag school was, that access road is not eligible
for uh, CPC funding for repaving because it already has a municipal purpose. So that's the road that is now used for drop off and pickup. So because it has other sources or excuse me other uses, we can't use CPA funds for the repaving. I think initially we thought that we and
I was of the belief that we'd be able to do it, but because we use it for other reasons, we can't use CPA funds. Fair question though. I to I I understand that it's not really black and white. Why are we funding it in this article and then again in the other article? Um the other question you had about
increases in taxes for the um the uh the solar or excuse me the roof repair work. So this money the funding for the project is coming out of the capital expenditure fund. That fund is funded by money that's uh already built into our tax rate and then free cash which is Ken
alluded to earlier is sort of the money that's left over. We collected more money than we anticipated. So that money is already collected. It's not we're not asking for more money over and above from you know what we already have. So the answer to that question is no. The questions that you have about the uh the
lease agreement for the solar I know that that's a separate article. I would I would just urge um or maybe just clarify this that article only allows for the school committee and other committee select board and board of assessors to enter into a negotiations
uh for those types of agreements that'll be needed to allow those units to go online. Um it doesn't actually agree to anything. school committee, board of assessors, and select board all need authorization to enter into th those types of negotiations. Much like if the select board were trying to uh enter
into a similar agreement, sell a piece of property, buy a piece of property, they would need time meeting approval to to do something like that. um the $1.35 million for roof replacements or excuse me for roof repairs if we were to get into the MSBA grant program for that
work. Um in many cases, and James can keep me honest on this, in many cases, the MSBA will actually require you to make sure that uh your roof is solar ready. So, we're obviously not going to put anything on the roofs until um after
everything is repaired. Um, but the MSBA will actually in in in most cases require us after if we go through if we utilize their funding, we have to make sure that the roof again is is solar ready, be ready to put solar on top of it. I know you mentioned the parking lots as well, but that that would actually cover the roof portion. Um, the
Placentino and Miller sections. Um, this is the I think you asked if this was the last sort of chunk of money that would be spent. This is actually the first chunk of money. So, at the last town meeting, we appropriated money for uh the middle school next door. and that's
in its um that that work has started. Um we were actually up there over the summer looking at the uh looking at the progress that they've made. But this would be the first um this would be the the $ 1.35 million is in anticipation of hopefully receiving MS MSBA money for
the project. And if they don't, we would anticipate appropriating an additional $1.35 million in the spring. So, if we if we don't get so the $1.35 million that we're appropriating right now for the school roofs, that would be
ideal scenario, we'd all leave in a couple weeks. We'd hear from the MSBA that we're getting funding for the project. We wouldn't need to for the No, we wouldn't have to pay for uh the entirety of the project. Thank you, Dr. Shada. Um,
but if we don't, then we'll have to come back in in May and appropriate more money for the remainder of the project. How'd I do? >> How does it that I can't answer you. >> If you have a question, um, please raise
your hand. Mr. Alfred, >> uh Dan Alfred, 315 High Street, uh budget chair of the school committee. Thanks, Frank. Appreciate you giving me the the the warm intro there, but um okay, so can um Chris.
All right, so I'm very excited because I usually make these presentations and no one asks questions and so I don't get to give them. So um I appreciate the question. So, just a little bit of background. Okay, first of all, the total cost of the flat section. So, we're talking about the flat membrane section of the roof is $2.7 million.
We've applied for a grant from the state. It's called, you know, the MSBA, which is Mass State uh building association, school, sorry, building association. Um, they have an accelerated roof repair program. It's separate from the school buildings program. We had hoped that we'd have an
indication by this point. They're meeting on the 29th. We will know on the 29th. So, we had hoped to have the full sort of um answer for you now. Um what happens in May, we we're going to figure out whether if we do not get the money, whether we come back for that, depending
on what happens with the high school. So, there's a lot going on there. But the full cost of the program is $2.7 million. We're asking for 1.35 now. Um so um in 2023 we replace the shingled section of the roof and that that's what
we're looking to put the solar on later on. We'll we'll maybe we can address the solar project um when we talk about article 14, but right now there's there's no cost to the town anticipated from the solar project. There could be a small amount for the connection study. Um the savings in electricity are are
relatively modest. There's a whole bunch of things that go into that. Uh, but there's a little bit of savings, but it also helps with our sustainability footprint. We're not currently looking at anything on the um on the uh in the parking area. So, Plastina Miller's roof
25 years old. We replaced part of it in 2023. The remaining cost 2.7. Um, and I will go through a little bit more uh about that. The the Rams roof, which is is slightly smaller, was in worse shape. We did that for $2 million total. And we really appreciate the town's support for
doing that project. It helped a lot and it is done. It is done. So everyone there is dry. Um okay, next slide. So what did the roof audit that we did a couple years ago find? It found deteriorating
flashing throughout the roof, openings in the roof, uh water was ponding sitting on top of the roof. I don't know much about roofs, but I have a I I just know that when you have water sitting on the roof, that's not a good thing. Um there were multiple areas of wet insulation, water getting in under the
roof. Um while there is no mold, we we've checked for these things. Obviously, if you have water sitting and in an insulation, you obviously have the risk of mold. Um and there are other areas where we did extensive repairs already and those were already deteriorating. Um so we'll go through a couple pictures
here. Um I'm not confident that most people will be able to see them, but I tried. Um so this is this is the the entire roof section that you can see. Um the gray areas to the left and the little one over to the right, those are the shingled sections. So that's the kind of the areas where we're talking about putting uh solar for for this
part. That also is the shingled section that cost about $900,000. So you can see that's I don't know 25% or so of the total roof. So 2.7 seems to be relatively in line with that. Next slide. Um, so these are big pictures.
Um, this is after a big rain event, but clearly the the roof is not draining. Next, next slide. A lot of repairs have already been done. Next slide. I'll just kind of go through these quickly because people don't want to
hear me talk um, beside myself. Um, so I don't know if people can see these, but these are different areas of So the one on the top left is just showing deteriorating flashing in the middle open areas where water is seeping under the membrane. Um, more deteriorating
flashing, broken insula, broken skylights. Um, suspected wet insulation is on the bottom right. Uh, next one, more pictures of of uh, you know, deteriorating roof conditions.
Can everyone see these? >> Okay, next slide. Okay, more ponding. Um, more holes, you know, more rust. Okay,
going to slide 13. So looking at the interior um areas of wet and uh you know leaking roofs internally more water damage inside the inside the roof. I mean these are in Kea these are in classrooms right these are where your
your your kids your grandkids uh our teachers our educators our pair professionals are working. Um next slide. Good. We'll just keep going through these. But, you know, and then this this is I don't know if
you can Chris if you can play the video. It kind of you can hear the dripping, but maybe not. But anyway, that that that's a pan above the ceiling that there are many of those throughout the building that we have to continuously sort of replace um empty during during rain
events to try to keep water from from the bomb. So anyway, our point is that this is a very important project and we're we're trying to, you know, up up keep our schools. It is expensive. We recognize that, but um most roofs are 20 to 30 year roofs. We're now at 25 years.
So um hopefully that answers your your question, but if not, I'm happy to answer more. >> Mr. Murphy. >> Um, I'd like to have a question regarding the roof. So, if we do >> Could we have your name? >> So, sorry. Vincent Murphy, 432 Northfor
Street. Uh, Mr. Alfred, if we don't pass Well, we've passed this, but the MSBA does not approve the 1.3 million 35 million, we're going to have to come back here in May. Correct. Will you be ready to go
and start repairing this roof come the summer or how long does it take to do the bid documents and then get the bid and the thing? And my question is really should we be approving the whole thing contingent on if you get the MSBA then we take the 1.35
half back. I'd rather get this done looking at their horrible sites and we're only getting worse and worse. And not to Ken's being upset and being concerned, but we're going to probably spend the money regardless. So,
>> okay. So, I'd like to ask that question, >> Mr. Alfred. >> Excuse me. >> Well, I just ask the the decision on on how we do it. Jame James James can obviously uh you know answer as far as the the the timeline goes, but based
upon Rams we were able to do the work the following um summer, but the issue will be if we get into the MSBA, things will actually take a little bit longer because they have to there's a lot there's more uh hoops of course that the state makes you run through. Um if we don't get into the MSBA,
um then you start getting into a little bit of game theory given how much money that we have. If we get into if we get invited into the high school program and we have to do a $2 million study for a new high school, you start talking about >> No, no. Well, but you're talking about
cash >> and you're talking about Correct. But there's only so much money that we have because we spent down. So, um, we would look into potentially doing part of the roof like we did with Rams and then, you know, consider other things in May. But James, if you want to get up and talk about the timeline and
and stuff if you think Okay. James says I did okay, but you know, he's the expert. >> Mr. Ke, >> uh James Key, facility director for the town of Hollston, also a resident, 104 Fairview Street. Uh the timeline would be uh if we do appropriate the money
tonight uh we would go to uh to bid uh late sum or late winter uh and start the work this summer for phase one of the project. We would then go into phase two with potential appropriation in May or if we do get the MSBA funding we would
go follow that process which is likely a two-year cycle. as far as >> as far as why we wouldn't want to fund the entire thing now and potentially uh you know give that money back if we don't get it >> if >> well I mean that's more of a finance
committee decision that wasn't what we asked for >> now if if you want to speak please come up to the podium because there are people at home and other people can't hear you okay so that's I saw a hand up. This
gentleman over there, right? >> Good evening. Uh, Simony Zalia, 17 Tammy Road. Uh, just a quick question in terms of the plans. Thank you for all the pictures. Obviously, it's in huge disrepair. Um,
in other areas I've also seen that kind of puddling, etc., etc. Do we have any ideas of what to do to prevent that in the future after other than just patching it up? >> Oh, sorry. >> Oh, Mr. Keys.
>> James Keys, facility director. Uh, yeah. So the uh process uh which we did at the Rams roof is uh it's a fluid membrane restoration. So you literally apply a fluid membrane over the top of the existing surface, put a fabric mesh
down, and then put another layer of fluid on top of that. And that's guaranteed for 20 years with a life expectancy of 30 years. And of course, regular maintenance, making sure the roof drains are cleared and those kinds of things would be ongoing. Okay.
Okay, if there are no further questions, I'll take a vote. All those in favor of this of article 9 say I. >> All those opposed say nay. Okay, that passes. Thank you.
[Applause] Article 10 is water main replacement Washington Street sponsored by the select board to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from the water infrastructure account $2 million for the purpose of
engineering and construction related costs for water main replacement along the sections of Washington and conquered streets. The finance committee recommends that the town appropriate $2 million from the water infrastructure account. And that was a unanimous vote.
The motion is move that the town appropriate $2 million from the water infrastructure account for the purpose stated in the warrant. Is there a second? >> Okay. Does anyone want to be heard on this? Okay, we'll take a vote. All those in
favor say I. I. >> All those opposed. Okay, that passes. Article 11, PAS POS assessment sponsored by the select board to see if the town will authorize
expenditure from the PAS settlement special revenue fund the amount of $58,766 to conduct systemwide PAS and PAS I hope I'm pronouncing that right assessment and treatment investigations engineering
and pilot testing of selected PAS and PAS treatment processes to support a PAS and POS compliance schedule. The finance committee recommends that the town appropriate $58,766 from the monies previously received from
the PAS PAS settlement fund that was unanimous. And the motion is moved that the town appropriate $58,766 from the PAS legal settlement special revenue account for the purposes stated in the warrant. Is there a second?
>> Okay. Does anyone want to be heard? Miss Tyler or Dr. Tyler? Dr. Liz Tyler, 17, excuse me, 17 New Orleans Street. This is a plea to all residents to
support protecting your drinking water. It affects every day. It affects you every day. And even if you have a filter, there are children in our school who drink Holliston water. This is a plea to the water department
employees and to elected officials, especially the select board who are overseers of the water department to support protect your drinking water. More than 20 years ago, the DP
recommended in a source water assessment and protection report for the Holliston Water Department. They recommended that the Holliston Water Department develop a wellhead protection plan. What that
means is a protection plan for our zone 2. A zone 2 is an area that feeds our wells. This was never done. And I asked the water department employees and the select board, when
will this critical plan critical to the safety of our drinking water be done? 20 years and nothing. They also recommended more than 20 years ago that they establish a well-head protection committee, including
representatives from citizens groups, neighboring communities, and the business community. More than 20 years and waiting, and I asked the water department and the select board when this committee will be
formed. I understand that the select board are very busy with a number of issues, but perhaps we should consider that like in most departments in town, we have elected representatives to guide the heads of the department. For
example, the board of health, the concoming board. Why not the water department? It seems that we are asking much of the select board to oversee our drinking water.
Additionally, the D report recommended that the board of health conduct inspections of industrial and commercial activities within our zone 2. Holliston's board of health does not
conduct inspections 20 years after this recommendation. Milis has zone bylaws to protect their zone 2 wellhead protection area. Holliston has none.
Yes, we have PAS forever chemicals in our drinking water. And it is good that the select board is requesting to conduct a systemwide PAS and POS assessment and
treatment investigations, engineering, and pilot testing of selected POS and PAS treatment processes. So we're looking at re conducting a systemwide assessment.
What took so long for the water department and the select board to decide to do something to reduce forever chemicals in Hollist's drinking water. Hopington built their PAS treatment plant in June
of 24. And what what what are we doing for our forever chemicals? We are now going to do an investigation, an engineering report, and who knows when this treatment system
is going to be in place? When is Hollist going to see how important drinking water is to everyone's health? Protection of our drinking water has been a stepchild in Hollist. It is time
to hire a full-time head of the water department and a compliance officer. Why should we drink forever chemicals in our drinking water when with staffing and proper planning
as in Hopkington, we would have non-detectable levels. It's time for a change in our water department. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to be heard? Okay, then we'll
>> Oh, sorry. >> So, I'll just uh provide some context around the uh the funding. So, this was a uh or this is a class action lawsuit that the select board decided to join in November of 2022. Uh we're being
represented by Sandman Law. They've taken a number of clients uh in a sort of nationwide class action suit uh going against companies like 3M, Tao, DuPont, folks that um or companies rather that would include PAS in the goods that they
manufacture technically or typically, excuse me. Um they have a number of Massachusetts clients. Um a handful of towns. I know my previous employer utilized them. Um I think it's probably upwards of 10 or 20 that they've that they've taken on across Massachusetts.
Um and so the Department of Revenue recognized that these suits were ongoing. Funds were being received and they've recognized or excuse me recommended this special revenue fund um that uh the funds are now flowing into from the settlements and we're appropriating that 58,000 that we've
received to date for the purposes that are outlined in the warrant. Um as far as our testing levels are concerned uh we are below the sort of um reportable limit. Uh so we do test for PFAS in our water PAS. Uh our most recent consumer
confidence report uh had us at uh the highest detect. So the the testing is done quarterly. The highest detect was at 9.62 parts per million or trillion. And I'll have to look at the million or trillion now. But 9.62 62. The reportable limit is 20. Um,
and you can go back in the years pre prior, excuse me, and check and see where we are. But all the the prior years since we started testing, we are below the detect. I can't speak for Hopington. I'm not sure what their levels were. Um, but uh that's sort of the story behind why we're receiving
this money. The restricted purpose of the funds is to use for remediation. So, we can't go out and buy we can't put a new roof on the schools or anything like that with it. It has to be used for PAS remediation. Um and again this is set aside in a special account um that we
account for separately on the books and again it must be used for PAS remediation services. Uh happy to answer any of the questions about that. Apologies if there's any confusion in the warrant about where the money came from or what it has to be used for. >> Dr. Tyler
Dr. Tyler, Dr. Liz Tyler, 17 New Orleans Street. um our PAS levels um according to our um Holliston 2024 annual report.
Our PAS levels are Whoops, here they are. They are um 9.62. They range from 5.6 to 9.62. >> I'm not sure if people could hear you. Could you hear Dr. Tyler?
>> Can you hear me? I can hear you, but I don't know if everyone else can >> I'm sorry. Is this better? >> Okay. I'm sorry. Thank you. Okay. Our P um our PAS levels uh they were taken quarterly and we have the highest detectable is 9.62.
Um we range from 5.6 to 9.62 and Hopington is zero. and Hopkington has been zero. Um Hopington lists their levels from
July 24th. They have a a monthly um record. We have a quarterly record and they are zero. They did have a short period of time where it was two. I really recommend that we're using this funding that we have received, but I
think it's a little bit late to the issue and I think we need to look at getting some um I think we need to look at our water department and um looking at our well protection area, why we
don't have a well protection area. Thank you. Okay. Um, if no one else wants to be heard, we'll go to a vote. Excuse me. Um, all those in favor of
article 11, all those in favor say I. >> All those opposed say nay. Okay, so that passes. Article 12 is um the sore commission update sponsored by the select board. Uh
I'm the motion is move to hear the report of the sewer commission. Is there a second? >> Okay. So I guess we take a vote before we hear. >> There's no vote needed.
>> No, just hearing the report. >> Oh, we're just hearing the report. >> All clear. >> All clear. You're set. >> Good evening. My name is John Cronin. the chair of Hollson Sewer Commission. Joining me is Kevin Cormal, our vice chair. And at home with her brand new
baby is excuse me, Staca Gelano. Excuse me. We're uh just going to take a few minutes. Um thank you very much for putting up the slide uh to give you all an update on your relatively new sewer commission. This will only take a few minutes of your time as the hour is late, but basically about a year ago,
article 13 of the fall town meeting established this commission. Three commissioners were appointed uh just before Christmas. Uh we were charged with con uh to be the primary contact with regulatory agencies such as Mass D on the development of a sewer district
and we'll focus on the financial components of the project including federal state funding and sewer rate methodology. We'll also develop bylaws to establish the bounds of the sewer district which would include a map of the proposed sewer district. Our first meeting was held on January 8th. Uh we
mapped out several purpose areas that we wanted to focus on immediately. That included reviewing existing system infrastructure including our treatment plant, discussing financial modeling for a system uh for the system development. Uh discussion of Hollston sewer history.
I just briefly want to pause because with us tonight is Paul Leau, our former town administrator, who um helped us a lot understand in a very interesting meeting some of Hollist's sketchy history on sewers. I guess that's probably a polite term, but uh many of people who have been around a while probably appreciate that. Um we met with
stakeholders, board of health, concom conservation, local businesses, as well as some residents. Um we had a discussion of a proposed system design in the engineering with P Lombardo. We also talked about project costs. And finally, uh, we we set our sights on
applying for anything that moved that could, uh, provide funding for the system, including what's known as the onetop for growth grant program through the Massachusetts, uh, state application process. Um, we relied heavily on the November
2024 engineering report from Labato Associates. Uh, that information along with all of our content is on the town's website. I know some of this content can be a little dense. I do, if you're interested in this project, if it affects you or your neighbors, read the report, familiarize yourself with it.
It's fascinating. It's an above ground system. Um, it's welldesigned, it's well tested, and it makes use of existing infrastructure at the school. Um, you'll hear more about this down the road as we provide you additional updates in the coming years. But simply, this report
scopes a system that's estimated to cost $7.3 million. We examine numerous funding streams, as I mentioned. and finally uh identified a state program, the community one-stop growth um grants. There were two prongs
to that. The first was the larger one. It's called Mass Works. That's within the one-stop portal. Um the 7.3 that we applied for back in May. Um will cover consultant professional fees, pre-construction, design, engineering, construction administration,
construction of the system, and contingency costs. So obviously we we we went for the whole loaf. Um we thought that was the right thing to do. In addition, there was a second grant, excuse me, um for housing choice was up
to $150,000 to cover public infrastruct excuse me, public infrastructure to support mixed use developments. There's a possibility if we get this grant, we can help energize um local um up to about 11 different um residential spots
on the in the within the district. The grant submissions when they were submitted, we reached out to the stakeholders. We got 22 property business owners letter support as well as Rep. McGovern, Senator Karen Spilker, and Rep. James Serena D. Rosa. So, we got a lot of strong support behind our
grant application. We expect to hear from the state in late October 2025. That's right about now. Um, so we we'll we'll announce our next meeting as soon as we know publicly what is available for us. But it's reasonable
to expect if you look at how the Mass Works program works that we'll probably get doses of that total 7.3 as we progress with the program. But we'll wait to see what the state gives us. Um, but we want to be reasonable. Um, we expect to be at this for several years
to come. It'll be used to build out the treatment plant capacity as well as the infrastructure to connect homes and businesses. And as the entire infrastructure system is being built, the commission will begin drafting those bylaws uh for this body's approval. So further
uh rate modeling, which will be very complicated, uh will also be put together to maintain the system. Our goal is to seek outside funding to build the system, stand it up, and have the rate users pay for the maintenance of the system. That's the model that we're
we're geared towards. Um earlier the finance committee put up a screen indicating there's potentially sewer funding, excuse me, sewer funding that is in in the queue. We have not asked for any state uh community funding. We don't intend to at this point, especially in FY27. On behalf of my peers, Kevin uh and
Staca, I want to thank you for supporting our efforts to date. We're in the early phases of something that will be measured in years. This is a commitment that we hope if we do it right, can prove to be a model where years to come, long after I'm gone, maybe the sewer commissioners then can look at different areas of our community
and build small treatment plants to energize business and development um that this town thinks is worthy. But we're in the middle right now of trying to get that proof of concept ready. You'll hear from us soon, but I thank you very much for taking a few minutes to hear our update. Kevin, all set? >> Good. >> Sounds good. Thanks everyone.
>> Thank you. Okay. Next is article 13, community preservation committee. It's sponsored by the community preservation committee to see if the town will vote to transfer from available preservation funds a sum of money for this for the following uses
or take any action relative there too. And this is printed in your warrant. I just want to call your attention to the second item, the purchase of 52 Jasper Hill Road for $415,000. That's been withdrawn, so that is not in
consideration right now. Um, the finance committee recommends that the town appropriate $951,899 from the community preservation fund as follows. $733,240 for recreational facilities at the
former Flag school site, $100,000 for repair restoration of windows at the library, $72,149 for bike park engineering at 260 Woodland Street, $35,10 for health 12 assessment of Lake
Winthrop, $500 for preservation supplies for the historical commission $9,000 for paint restoration of the historical society barn and $2,000 for restoration of the wind braces on the historical society barn. And that vote was
unanimous. The finance Well, that's irrelevant. Um, so this is move that the town appropriate this. These are the motions. Move that the town and I'm going to read them all
together. If someone has a question about any one in particular, I can separate it, but for right now, I'm going to put it all together. Move that the town appropriate $500 from the CPA Historic R reserve for the purchase of archival materials as described in the
application submitted by the Hollist Historical Commission dated 731 2025 with a sunset date of October 31st, 2026. move that the town appropriate $2,000 from the CPA historic reserve for the
restoration of the missing wind braces in the circa 1818 Whiting barn as described in the application entitled replace barn loft support column braces submitted by the Holliston Historical Society with a sunset date of October 31st, 2027.
Move that the town appropriate $9,000 from the CPA historic reserve for the restoration of failed paint surfaces on the north and west sides of the circa 1818 whiting barn is described in the application entitled restore failed paint on the north and west side above
the kitchen of the barn submitted by the Hollist Historical Society with a sunset date of October 31st, 2027. Move that the town appropriate $35,10 from the CPA general reserve for the preparation of health assessment for
Lake Winthrop as described in the application entitled Lake Winthrop health assessment from Friends of Winrop Lake, Inc. dated 73, 2022 with the sunset date of October 31st, 2027.
move that the town appropriate $72,149 from the CPA general reserve for the design and engineering of recreational facilities as described in the application submitted by the Blackstone Valley NEMBA entitled Holliston Bike
Path dated 922 2025 with the sunset date of October 31st, 2027. move that the town appropriate $84,000 from the CPA historic reserve and up to $16,000 from the general reserve for a
total of $100,000 for the restoration of windows at the Hollist public library is described in the application entitled public library window restoration submitted by the facilities director for the town of Holliston dated 820 2025
with a sunset date of October 31st 2027 move that the town appropri create $733 $733,240 from the CPA general reserve for the design and construction of recreational facilities as described in the application submitted by the Hollist
Parks and Recreation Department entitled Old Flag School Space Development dated 813 2025 with the sunset date of October 31st, 2027. Is there a second? Okay. I believe that Parks and Recre was
going to make a >> Oh, Frank. >> Okay. >> Uh, good evening everybody. Frank Chamberlain, 333 Holl Street. I'm the chairman of the Community Preservation Committee and I'm going to make this very fast. We've got a very busy had a
very busy fall. We've got a ton of things on our agenda. It's an exciting time to be on the CPA uh or the CPC rather. And I just wanted to before I turn this over to Mark Frank, the park and recck director to talk about the uh recreational facility at Flag School, I just want to invite anyone who has any
questions on any of the other articles that they would like to ask to hold those thoughts and please, you know, raise your hand as soon as Mr. Frank is vis. So, thank you Mark. Okay,
>> Mr. Frank. All right, Mark Frank. I'm the parks and recreation director. I'll be quick here, too. Um, this is I we usually don't on individual items come up and give a presentation, but this is a particularly big ticket item. So, I just wanted to quickly talk a little bit about the project. Uh, we're proposing um some
recreational facilities at the space of where the old flag school was. So about 10 years ago, they demolished this uh addition on the middle school and we've had this sort of vacant space that we've been looking to develop for some time. Uh this space wasn't under consideration during our master planning process in
2019 2020. Uh but our greater plan for sort of courts in town was um and we identified a need to find additional basketball space based on the fact that we'd like to create additional tennis space in the current basketball space at
Goodwill Park as well as find viable space for pickle ball which we were thinking about the possibility for this site but we found uh a more suitable site for us at Mission Springs which is under construction right now should be ready for the end of the upcoming
summer. Um, so we worked with our friends of the school committee for the last two years on this plan. Um, they got feedback from students from years back. We've worked with the admin team, public safety, just everybody we could think of that would have be a
stakeholder in this. Um, the plan, as you can see it over my head, is for a basketball space, sort of the premier outdoor basketball space here in town, as well as covered classroom space, a walking track with some track elements
to help support the really popular middle school track program, um, and, uh, just some sort of leisure, like passive, uh, recreation space as well. So, we're really excited about the opportunity to uh give the community and
our students a better opportunity for ba basketball amongst other things. And um we appreciate your support. Thank you. >> Are there any questions? Does anyone want to be heard? Okay, then we'll take a vote on this
article. All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed? Nay. Okay, that passes. [Applause]
Article 14, authorized lease of school property for solar f photovalttaic installation and to enter into power purchase agreements and tax agreements. And this is sponsored by the school committee to see if the town will vote to one authorize the school committee to
negotiate and execute one or more lease or leases on a portion of the rooftop and parking lot of the San Plastantino Elementary School located at 235 Woodland Street and a portion of the rooftop parking lot at Robert Adams Middle School located at 323 Woodland
Street with a commercial solar firm for the installation and operation of solar f photovalttaic facilities for electric generation for periods of up to 30 years upon such terms and conditions as determined by the school committee. Two,
to authorize the select board to enter into power purchase agreements for said parcels for periods of up to 30 years for the purchase of solar energy generated by the facilities. And three, pursuant to the provisions of general law, chapter 59, section 5, clause 45,
to authorize the select board in the board of assessors to negotiate and enter into a structure tax agreement for real property with the lei of the solar voltaic energy generating facility to be developed on the rooftops or parking lots of San Plazentino Elementary School
located at 235 Woodland Street and Robert Adams Middle School located at 323 Woodland Street upon such terms and conditions as the select board and board of assessors shall deem to be in the best interest of the town or take any action relative there too. The finance
committee um voted prior to this meeting favorable action on this unanimously. The motion is move that the town authorize the select board, school committee, and board of assessors to negotiate and enter into respective agreements identified in the warrant for
the purposes of installing of installing um solar photovalttaic facilities at the locations identified in article 14. Is there a second? >> Okay. Does anyone wish to be heard on this?
Okay, then we'll take a vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say nay. Okay, that passes. Article 15, Department of Public Works facility, Arch Street Design,
Engineering, and Related Services, sponsored by the Select Board to see if the town will vote to direct funds previously appropriated through article 19 at the May 2025 town meeting for the feasibility, engineering, and design studies for a public works facility to
be used for said purposes at the existing Art Street location, and also to include environmental assessment at the site as acceptable expenditures or take any action relative there too. The finance committee recommends favorable action unanimously.
The motion is move that the town allow funds previously appropriated by article 19 of the May 2025 town meeting to be used for feasibility engineering design and environmental study cost related to the potential construction of a public
works facility as stated in the warrant. Is there a second? >> Okay. Does anyone want to be heard on this? Mr. Sparrow. Uh, so, um, I just want to speak up a little bit about, uh, what we're doing here and what what's going on with the
DPW. Um, if you've been paying attention to the select board for the past year, you're probably sick of us talking about the DPW. I know I am. Um, in fact, I came in front of this body a few years ago saying that Cross Street was the location and I'm back here to talk about Art Street. So, what we're asking you to
do, uh, if we go to the next slide because I don't have the clicker. Thank you. Do you have it? Um, so what we're asking you to do tonight is, uh, in May we had approved, uh, $7 million from an article, uh, to
towards the DPW facility, and we're asking you to approve $3 million from that article to go towards design engineering for placing the DPW, a combined DPW facility at the Art Street location as a where currently where the highway department is. Right now we have
a we have a facility on Central Street which is the water department and Art Street which is the highway department. And these facilities are well beyond their useful life. They were built um I want to say one of was built in the 30s and one was built in the 60s and they probably should have been replaced 20
years ago but here we are. They really need to be replaced. They're on an unacceptable condition for our employees and for the assets that we purchase for the DPW. Um, what we're doing here is we're trying to make sure we're being as transparent as possible. And what we
had, what I had said to you several years ago about Cross Street was to talk about tying a um, tying the money to a location. So, what we were doing is we're asking you to approve Art Street as that location. And there's additional
money in that article and that would be used for making sure we have temporary housing for staff as we had discussed in May. uh cleanup of the location and to offset tax impacts. We had uh previously worked with the finance committee a few years ago with a working group. Uh obviously we're going to have to
rekindle that a little bit to to work through the the finances of this, but what we had done is we had agreed to use some capex to try to offset some of the uh tax impact for the uh for the residents here. So what we hope to have
in May is enough information to be able to come forward to you with a project because right now it's very much in preliminary infeasibility. So the question might come up, why aren't we working with Cross Street? Well, Cross Street has been in land
court for eternity and continues to be in land court apparently. It's purgatory. It doesn't go anywhere. And uh even if it came out tomorrow from Cross Street, the cleanup would take years. At the time that we had agreed to use Cross Street as the location, we
also had assurances from the EPA that we would get funding to clean up that location. And as you might expect, we don't expect that money to be forthcoming. And even if it was, it would still take a long time to happen. And we need a solution now. We have the
facilities are in absolute disrepair. and we wanted to make sure that we're coming to you to talk to you about what we're asking for and what we are trying to accomplish. So, uh why was Arch Street chosen? Uh originally the original uh uh program uh
building was too large for Arch Street. Uh we asked um the the town to go out for several uh rounds of requests for proposals to see other locations and we've had three public forums to discuss a number of issues with residents and
we've heard lots of people talking about a lot of different things and we're listening and what we want to make sure we are hearing those concerns and we are addressing those concerns and we have decided to put forward Art Street as the location because we don't have
acquisition ition costs. We don't have to buy anything. We already own that facility. So, there's and there's also less cleanup that's required because it is town owned. We're not taking anything off the tax roles. Um there are certainly environmental concerns about some of the other locations that we did not we did not
feel comfortable going for with those locations and it's more more efficient. It's already closer to downtown and the school complexes which is uh very important in an emergency particularly a snow event where uh a lot of uh equipment is coming from. So we got a
lot of participation from lots of different people and we got a lot of information and we feel comfortable that saying that our street is the right location. Now one thing I want people to keep in mind here is that this article is for design engineering. So what we have seen
if you go on the town's website go if you go to the main page you can go to the town projects there's a a button for town projects and you can click on the top one is the DPW and you can see a lot of different information. So we're talking about what was discussed at the September 25th 2025 presentation which
was a reduction in the size of the DPW facility that was being was determined if it could be feasible to go located in this in a location. So, one thing we there's a couple things we want to keep in mind as we look at this is that said those cost numbers are going to come
down. There's a lot of contingencies and there's a lot of escalators in there and we need a lot more information to be able to understand exactly what the cost of a facility would be. We also have to recognize that the size will likely change as well. So, the numbers that are
in there, it's around 37,000 ft². Please don't quote me. I forget. There's been a lot of numbers. I apologize. It was around 37,000 ft² was the location that was determined if it could be feasible. That doesn't mean a 37,000 foot building is what will be built. It could be more
likely it would be smaller than that. And we would be looking at a lot of different things to try to to value engineer as they would say to try to find ways to cut costs to make things more amendable for residents. But we're talking about this in theoretical terms to make sure that we can get what we
need in the location that we have chosen. So, what we're asking you to do tonight is to approve that $3 million and tie it to Art Street so we can move forward with design engineering and we can have a real DPW facility that can maintain the uh the infrastructure for
the town, both the water department and the highway department, which are critical infrastructure. And for all of you who might say, well, things are working out okay so far, and they are, but if it doesn't work, you notice. You notice when the roads don't work. you notice when there's a water pipe that bursts and we need to be able to make
sure that we have the equipment and the ability to maintain those critical infrastructure for you every day. Those are a vital interest and making sure that we have a facility that can meet those criteria for the 21st century is important. So, uh I urge you to vote yes
and I thank you for your time. [Applause] Jamie Ring, 427 Apprentice Street. I have been uh getting to know the select
board well as I learn about town government and I have been impressed and I want to thank the board because um there was a lot of friction at the beginning. Actually I missed I missed the beginning. I missed the last uh few
years of this. I came into this when the apprentice street uh behind the golf course uh came up on the table and I know a lot of people in the community including myself were opposed to that for so many reasons. Uh go back and watch the videos if you want to know uh
all that happened. Um there's been a lot of friction, there's been a lot of comments and there has been a lot of back and forth and it has been very clear that the select board has listened very carefully. They have weighed very
professionally and very uh very well uh what the what the options are, what the limited options are, what the limitations are of the options that are available and they have heard uh the people about uh protecting the aquifer
and about reducing cost uh Arch Street although we went for other options and we went uh on a path and came back to Arch street which delayed us and is increasing the costs. Uh it it was a necessary step that I do think you know
was probably prudent at the time and it's unfortunate that we ended up here with the cost that it's going to be. But the uh board has been very uh keen to to uh to hear hear what it is that we're saying about needing to have the costs
as low as possible and to redesign the facility and make it smaller and make it uh more palatable and uh better use of space and that sort of thing. So, I want to thank the board because it's clear that you
have been listening to us and I trust that through the process you will keep the engineers in check and you will keep our our wallets uh in mind. So, thank you Mr. Bla. Excuse me, Mr. Blae.
Jack Blaze, 25 Mitchell Road. Couple of things. I wonder if we can get an update on what we spent for the engineering fees between Cross Street and the golf course. And why I'm bringing this up. I have nothing against one uh Western
and Samson. They're a great outfit. But when I brought up earlier, why don't we have a Hollist Office of Government Efficiency? I just heard the school mention they want to spend $2 million on a study for the high school. The the
school come out with model schools. I don't understand why we're not using that. Now we're looking to spend another $3 million on engineering studies. Now the one thing I forgot to ask the selectman earlier, how has your
conversation gone or communication with Mr. Gates on a donation? As you well aware, the man's giving away billions of dollars. So why not correspond and say, "Hey, we have a re we have a spending problem in Hollister, not a revenue."
And ask him, maybe he'll give you a couple billion and then we won't need to have any more conversations here. So, if you can give an answer on the uh what was spent so far on engineering for cross street and the golf course because
maybe engineering is getting out of control fees. Uh the cost to date have been about $50,000 for both sites. >> Correct. Anyone
else want to be heard on this? Okay, then we'll move to take a vote. Um, this is article 15. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say nay. >> Okay, that carries.
Article 16 to see if the town will vote to amend sections 1E definitions three use regulations and VGA accessory dwelling unit in order to be consistent with 760 CMR71.00
00 protected use accessory dr dwelling units effective 2225. Prior amendments adopted in October 2024 reflected um state ST 2024 chapter 150 section 8
and MGL chapter 4A section 3 paragraph 11 some okay and it's in your warrant it's published the changes um some additions are being proposed now for compliance with the CMR
and as directed by the attorney general's office in their review and approval of the 2024 amendments. And in your warrant, the strikethroughs are text of text is meant to be deleted and the bold itallic text is proposed. Um,
we have a letter from the town of Holliston Planning Board dated October 17th. Read article 16 sections I through E definitions three use regulations and B-GA accessory dwelling units zoning bylaw
amendments. With regards to the proposed amendments to the zoning bylaws at the sections noted above, I would respectfully report that the planning board held a public hearing as required by MGL chapter 4A section 5 on October 2, 2025. The
members voted five to zero in support of the proposed article as printed in the warrant. Um, and that's signed by Jason Santos, chairman of the planning board. Okay. And the motion is move that the town amends sections I
through E definitions three use regulations and B-G A, accessory dwelling units as stated in the warrant. Is there a second? Okay. the planning board have a presentation or
to be heard will you >> okay? >> So you want to do the two of them together? >> No, she's going to hold to see if there's question. >> Oh, are there any questions? If there are, someone is prepared to answer them.
Okay, there are no questions. We'll move to a vote. All those in favor say I. I. >> All those opposed. Okay, so that passes. >> That was unanimous. Okay.
Article 17, Industrial Zoning Changes sponsored by the planning board to see if the town will amend section 2B of the zoning bylaws to modify the zoning map as follows. changed the area known as 1629 to 1633 Washington Street with the
Pope Industrial Park within the Pope Industrial Park map 5, block 3, lots 78, 81, and 82 from residential to industrial zoning district per request of the owner or take any action relative there too. um move that the the motion
is move that the town amend sections 2B of the zoning bylaws and to modify the zoning map as stated in the warrant and also I'm going to ask this vote has to or should I do okay ask for permission
to declare a twothirds vote um if I feel it's a twothirds vote >> so I need consent of of you so I'll ask for that first. Do I have consent of that? Yes or no? Any nos?
Okay. Um, I have a letter. Oh, wait. I'm sorry. Did I get a second on the >> No. Yeah, that's you haven't move made the motion. >> Okay. So, now I'm making a motion. Move that the town amend section 2B of the
zoning bylaws and to modify the zoning map as stated in the warrant. Is there a second for that? >> Okay. Um, and the map is in the back of your warrant. Um, I have a letter from the planning board dated October 17th
with regards to the proposed amendment to the zoning bylaws at the section noted above, which is article 17, sections 3B, location of districts, and the town of Hollison zoning map zoning bylaw amendment. I would respectfully report that the planning board held a
public hearing as required by Mass General Law Chapter 4A section 5 on October 2nd, 2025. The members voted 5 to zero in support of the proposed articles printed in the warrant. This proposal was sponsored by the planning board at the request of the owner,
Hollistind Industrial LLC, and it's signed by Jason Santos, chairman of the planning board. Okay. Does anyone want to be heard or have any questions on this? Okay, we'll proceed to a vote. All those
in in this is a twothirds vote. All those in favor say I. >> All those opposed. Okay, so that's unanimous. Thank you. Article 18, road acceptance, sponsored by the planning board to see if the town
will vote to accept as a public way Katy Way station 0 + 25.0. 02 to 4 plus 79.34 as shown on the plans entitled roadway acceptance plan Katie's way in Holliston
Mass dated August 19th 2025 prepared by Connorstone Engineering such way having been laid out as a town way by the select board and to authorize the select board to accept deeds or easements in such way along with any related drainage
or utility easements or take any action relative there too. Um the motion is moved that the town accept Katy Way as a public way and to authorize the select board to acquire easements andor fee interest in relation to such acceptance as stated in the warrant. Is there a
second? >> Okay. Does anyone wish to be heard on this? Okay, we'll proceed to a vote. All those in favor say I. I. >> All those opposed say nay. Okay, that passes unanimously.
Article 19 is a citizens petition uh warrant bylaw amendment sponsored by citizens petition to see if the town will vote to amend article I or article one I'm sorry number three notice of annual meeting parts B and C of the
general bylaws to read B sending a copy of the warrant to the moderator and the chairperson of the finance committee forth with after the completion of the warrant by the select board no later than 30 days before the date of the meeting and C posting an attested copy of the warrant on the town's website and
a consp and in a conspicuous place or places within the town hall at at least 30 days before the date of the meeting and Okay. And the motion is you have it right there. Oh, and the motion is
move that the town amend article one number three notice of annual meeting parts B and C of the general bylaws to read. B, sending a copy of the warrant to the moderator and chairperson of the finance committee. Fourth, with after the completion of the warrant by the select board, no later than 30 days
before the date of the meeting, and C, posting an attested copy of the warrant on the town's website and in a conspicuous place or places within the town hall at least 30 days before the date of the meeting. And is there a second? >> Okay. Would the sponsor of the article
wish to speak? Yes. Thank you everybody. I will try to make this quick. I know everybody wants to go home, including me. >> Could you state your name and address? >> Yes. I'm Ken Shada, the petitioner. I'm doing this by myself, not on behalf of the finance committee, just for the record. Okay. But I'm hoping to do this
for the benefit of the finance committee and for you. Okay. So, I prepared three quick slides. I don't even have them. I'm going to turn and read them because I didn't feel I I want to do this quickly. This addresses a current deficiency in our bylaws, which is our bylaws currently state that the warrant
has to be published seven days before a town meeting. But it also states that the finance committee report has to be published 7 days before a town meeting, which essentially leaves us no time to do our job. This was not usually an issue. And as you see here, right, the select board raised this issue in May
and stood before you and said, one member said, "I'm dismayed that the finance committee made their recommendations so late because we had to have a special meeting on April 24th, just ahead of our April 30th deadline for publishing the report because they didn't get us the warrant till April
22nd." Okay? So, this changes nothing about the process. This only establishes that the warrant has to be before the finance committee report with enough time for us to do our job, which helps both the finance committee and the select board.
Okay. What this does not do is change anything else. Okay. It doesn't require any change in the warrant closing dates. That's free. The select board is free to set those dates the way they choose. uh with this bylaw change. I mean, just to give you an example for this town
meeting, the the warrant was open from July 14th to September 8th. If this bylaw were in effect, they would have had to provide the the warrant to you and to us on September 20th for an October 20th town meeting. Okay? So, that gives the select board a couple of
weeks to finalize the warrant, gives the finance committee a few weeks to work with the warrant and do the financial recommendations. working with the select board who have requested that we work with them more but doesn't don't give us enough time to do that. Okay. This does not preclude in any way any commentary
from the select board. The warrant is not the finance committee report. The warrant is not select board comments. The warrant is not supplemental materials. It is just the listing of the articles to be considered by town meeting in a final format. Part of the problem we've had in recent years and
which makes to me it more confusing for you to follow is the warrant changes so much when the finance committee is trying to do its work that you may watch one of our meetings and we may be talking about an article number that changes in the final report and so you've watched and you may hear about article five but article five that you end up getting may be a different
article 5. Right? So the whole point here that I put this petition in was because I asked for this to be done after May when the select board member made that complaint and they took no action. So, I just decided I'd put it on because I know that one of the things will be we're going to look at this. We're going to come back with a new
bylaw in May, but that doesn't help me or the finance committee in May when we get to this problem again next April. Okay. Okay. So, in terms of late breaking information, remember that the warrant does not have to include all the financial information. That's in the
finance committee report. That can be in a select board report. That can be in a town manager report. All the supplemental information can be provided after the warrant is finalized. Okay. Okay. So, why now? As I said, the reason is simple. No action was taken when I
asked for this to be put on the warrant this time. So, I decided to do it myself. Okay. Um, you know, years ago, because obviously I'm an old-timer now and I've been doing this for a while. We used to have a kind of unofficial policy that the 30-day limit would apply. And
you know, as Pam Ziko, who's nodding her head in approval, remembers, right? We would have we would get the warrant even though it wouldn't be signed for a couple of weeks. It would be finalized for us pretty much about 30 days in advance. That was the policy that our oldtown administrator had and it made
things work very smoothly. Okay. The problem is that in the recent years that's been sliding further and further and further to the point where if you've been following this town meeting, I had told the town manager that the finance committee's intent was to get
all recommendations done by September 30th to give everybody plenty of time for the select board to review, for us to make the report and all stuff like that. And on September 29th, the select board changed something in the warrant and then they changed it back to something else a week later and then they signed the warrant on October 8th
when our whole plan was to get done on September 30th. So, I know everybody wants to go home and I know you're going to hear that this is there's there's something going to be promised, but we've been promised things before. To me, this is a very simple change. It does nothing but establish a 30-day deadline and undo the conflict we have
right now of having the warrant due the same day as the report. So I would please ask you to support this and I will not get into a long debate. I know everybody's wants to go home and so do I. So please I ask you to support this and thank you [Applause]
m Mr. Sparrow. >> Thank you. Um you as the uh the chair of the select board um I take responsibility for making sure the process works at this time and I recognize there needs to be process
there needs to be agreement. There needs to be conversation between the select board and the fin and the finance committee. Couple things here that I want to bring up. first was is that uh the petitioner mentioned that he would consulted with former select board
members, not the current ones and could have had the opportunity to talk to us about some of these things as well. I would also mention that the warrant that you have in front of you tonight has planning board articles, CPC articles, board of assessors, schools, all
contributing to this warrant. It's a process. It's collaboration between a number of different boards to get to this final product. I would also mention that the finance committee should also be able to weigh in and have some input on this. I think that there's this this is a major change that's being
proposed and we need to be able to have some time to have some conversations about that and to be able to work through the ideas that are being presented. So, I would like to make a motion to refer this to further study so we can do that and come forward with
something in May that does work for everybody. And I think in the meantime, we can also sit down and put together a process that just works and have a conversation. And you can always call me, you can always
talk. Do I need >> So, [Applause] so what was your motion? >> Motion to refer for further study. >> Okay. >> I made a a motion to refer this to f for further study. >> Okay. Is there a second for that motion?
>> Okay. So, who wishes to be heard on that motion? Mr. Cronin. >> Good evening. John Cronin, 40 Holly Lane. There's a bit of irony here where the petitioner wishes to uh put a very simple bylaw before you for your consideration.
A little over a year ago, a member of the committee to my right had some serious misgivings about a to my right. That's correct, Pam. Thank you for directing traffic. That's right. Thank you, Pam. Good job. That member thought it was bit premature
to talk about putting bylaws before you before these deep thoughts and very important decisions be made. This is a bylaw change folks. This is exactly what was contested back in May of 2024. Should not be before you to decide tonight. As Ben pointed out, these are
the kinds of things that should be discussed between professional groups. I urge you to embrace the motion by Mr. Sparrow. In my world, this is not a bylaw. Earlier tonight, very earlier tonight, the finance committee showed you how
close we are to getting certain um close to certain guidelines on stabilization. That's through the um the um the town's financial guidelines, which is an agreement between the select board and the finance committee. It's a document both boards sign. It's not a bylaw.
That's where this belongs. This doesn't belong in a bylaw. Work it out, as Ben said, between the boards, not here. So, I urge you to indefinitely postpone. Thank you, >> Mr. Murphy. >> You know, Mary wants to speak.
>> Oh, no. >> I got you. >> Uh, Vin Murphy, 432 North Fork Street. As the former chair of the Fincom, I was the recipient of said late uh warrant and we were meeting on several days
quote trying to make that deadline. So, I can totally appreciate Ken's concern and I thoroughly agree. We had talked about having deadlines put into place before. We had a whole committee that said, "Well, we need to codify the whole budget process." And his the
committee said, "Well, we need to have all these things including deadlines of getting the thing in part of the B bylaw." I think it's a simple thing to have 30 days. Everybody gets in place. They will have time. they being the fincom will have time to go through all the different war warrant articles and
it'll be cut off. We keep going through and get to the last minute then you're going to get problems because the finance committee will not have time to digest and analyzing poor people who they need to talk to about various things. We have a lot of money to spend.
we should allow them the fincom to go and assess it and provide a recommendation rather than being under the gun of having to have a report presented to the whole town in a very short period of time. Thank you,
>> Mary. Excuse me. >> Mary Greenale, 198 Highland Street. Um, I think this sounds like it's a a necessary intervention and that perhaps it does need to be considered. Maybe there maybe the schedule and timing is
off. But here's my current concern. our we have in the last couple of years hired a town manager and a finance director and I believe that some of the tension that you might hear between the
select board and the finance committee and maybe it's only me that hears this tension but what I'm saying is I think it's bigger than just this one little adjustment and before we amend the
bylaws as they exist We need to sit down and talk about something. And the something is we're growing up. We're getting to be big kids now. And we have these professionals who are paid comfortably or generously depending on
how you look at it. Bottom line is his job description says he's in charge of the budget. I really think we need to go back and not just look at this suggestion, but all of the bylaws that relate to the
finance committee and how it works with this new stuff. We've got a professional town manager and a professional finance director that we didn't have in 2015 when we created these bylaws. We need time, folks.
[Applause] >> Mr. Mr. Alfred, >> uh Dan Alfred, 315 High Street. Um so we already have a bylaw that says 7 days in uh in advance and that's the same time period that we have for the finance
committee report. I've seen how this is working. It's not working very well. Again, all we're trying to do, all you know, Ken is trying to do is is set the uh agenda 30 days in advance. And I I appreciate, Ben, that you said you want to study this, but in in 2022, I put forward a citizens petition to uh
increase the size of the select board from 3 to 5. The select board at the time said, "Let us give us some time. We'll we'll study it. We'll come back to you, you know, next town meeting or or within a year or so." Um has anyone seen anything about that? And I get you guys are busy. I get it. There's a lot going on. Um but you know this let us study it
some more. It it's uh it's it hasn't worked in the past. So I I would urge you to uh you know vote down the uh the whatever send it to this the study group and and vote yes on the underlying motion. >> Okay. Gentlemen over there.
>> Brian Goodman 86 Church Street. I don't know if I need the mic. you know, my voice carries naturally. Um, I don't think we need time. I feel so again, as somebody who's lived in this town for 4 years and intends on living this town in this town for a minimum of 26 more years. So, being a relative
newbie to this town, I can tell you guys, we wait on everything. Waiting on everything in this town. I know this is a small thing that seems like it makes perfect sense. Give them 30 days so everybody can get their homework done. Like, that's a reasonable, very reasonable thing. It's not complicated.
If we we need to wait on this and study everything, that's why we didn't get a sewer forever ago. That's why we don't have a DPW. We're going up to spending so much more money on a DPW than if we just made the decision four years ago when we should have. This is this it's a oneline change that is perfect reasonable, perfectly reasonable and
easy to understand. Let's all go home and just vote down the postponement and vote for the law so everything can be more organized and people have time to do their volunteer jobs. Perfectly reasonable. Thank you. Miss Hine,
Tina Hine, I'm the clerk of the select board, 142 Union Street. I actually have a genuine question. We did not as a select board have the opportunity to hear from the citizen petition. I'm not sure if that was a lack of time or if that was preference. I'm not sure, but the select board had no discussion about
the citizen petition. It was not brought to us by the citizen by the petitioner. Um so at the time I would have asked this question where this is for as stated by the petitioner the benefit of the finance committee uh and your process. I I have a question uh as to the deliberation of the finance
committee on this article and I'm wondering if the non-patitioner members of the finance committee could speak to the benefit uh that you you described that you debated that you deliberated on during your meeting. Thank you. >> Okay. I can't see. Um, if Allison, if you'd
like to speak, >> she >> But there was no no one from the finance committee raised their hand. I can't make them talk. >> Okay, that was just just to be clear. I was looking for a response from a non- petitioner member of the finance committee, but if there's none, thank
you. >> Okay, Ellison. >> Jay is coming. >> Oh. Oh, Allison, I'm sorry. >> Jay Robinson, 233 Chamberlain Street. We did not deliberate on it. >> Allison Allison Quinnon, 37 Pilgrim Road. Um,
while I appreciate that the finance committee would like to have more time and should have time to evaluate and make decisions regarding their recommendations on the warrant issues, I have several concerns which lead me to conclude that we should not be voting on
this tonight, but rather we should be postponing this. Um, I'm concerned that the bylaw change addresses the timing in the warrant only as it relates to the finance committee. There are other boards and committees that need to present materials and recommendations.
And it seems to me that this only addresses the finance committee where a systemic review of deadlines and and submissions would be more comprehensive and would allow for a a more holistic
look at at the process. Um, by requiring the 30 days, it significantly shortens the time allowed for submissions. Fall town meeting in particular comes right after summer vacation. A lot of people are on vacation and that really shortens the amount of time that boards
and committees, volunteer staff boards and committees have to work on their submissions. Um, bylaw changes should follow a process. The bylaws should be reviewed systemically and not on a peacemeal basis. Um, an appropriate
process for review and determination of bylaw changes I feel should include collaboration with and input from the select board given that it's the select board's warrant. Um, and it should be reviewed by the town's council to ensure
reasonleness and consistency throughout the bylaws. By making this one change tonight, we may be making things inconsistent with other portions of the general bylaws. I think now is not the time to be voting on this. It's late. Um
and the the general voting population hasn't been given a lot of time to consider this. Um so I would um encourage voters to um vote to postpone this indefinitely
or refer for further study. Thank you. >> Question. >> Okay. I have two hands up. I'll I'll entertain the motion to um move to a vote. >> Oh, I'm sorry. What?
>> The the per the last speaker can't make a motion to indefinitely postpone. >> She did. >> Oh. Oh, >> there's a motion. >> I mean to to move the question. Okay. Um, we have two people who want to speak. I'll let them speak to kind of
rebutt. So, Mr. Sparrow. Um, so, uh, I here, you know, the issue at hand is making sure that the process works and we can work with the finance committee to make a working process and then codify it. And I think that's the
way we should go about. And I I also would also ask council is does the state the state law have anything to say about what is appropriate or what we should be doing for for this type of exercise with a warrant? >> Do you want me to answer that?
>> Yes. >> Um it is this mic works? Yes. Jay Talerman Town Council. So without commenting on the uh whether or not it makes sense to adopt a policy, and it probably does make sense to adopt a
policy to have deadlines for this type of thing. This kind of cotification of a 30-day process is somewhat unusual, but it gives me some concern in that the language as it's drafted is inconsistent with state law and may actually result
in some uh con further confusion. For example, the language proposed talks about posting an attested copy of the warrant, but it doesn't speak to the actual deadline under the statute, which
is 7 days for an annual town meeting and 14 days for a special town meeting to actually officially post and endorse the warrant itself. That's not what this is saying. My concern is, and it is very typical, for towns to still be adjusting
a warrant up until that 14th day or that seventh day as the case may be. And that's a necessary process because there's a lot of moving parts as you get close to town meeting. So, I think this stat, this particular bylaw, while maybe
well-intentioned, could result in further confusion because we might be talking about two different warrants. My experience too is that select boards, town managers, and we have a new town manager, new town manager act, share warrant articles
through established policies or even ad hoc policies. And I think that's the kind of thing that's inherent in Ben's motion. But as a as legal counsel, I'm concerned that we will have an inconsistency between the official warrant and what is presented to the
finance committee 30 days before. I think we could reconcile those inconsistencies, but obviously this is a citizens petition. So I we can't really reconcile them here. So, I would like to work with the finance committee to develop a policy
just like we have for financial policies towards this end. And uh thank you. >> Okay. I I'm going to let Dr. Shada speak and then and then we'll take a vote. >> Make this quick. I promise. >> You just heard a lot of legal ease. I
did nothing but copy the exact language we have now and changed seven to 30 and added one little phrase because right now our bylaws are unclear about when it goes to the finance committee and added a phrase that says and no later than 30
days. So if there are all these legal problems with our bylaws, they existed before I proposed this and they will exist after. I I strongly urge you to please make our lives easier in May by supporting this so that we can do a better job for you, the people who
elected us. And by the way, I did consult with our current town manager about this before I put the petition in and his exact response was 30 days does not sound unreasonable to me. So I did do the consultation.
Okay, we're excuse me. We're now going to take a vote on the motion to refer it to a committee. So, all those in favor >> refer for further study. >> Refer it for I'm sorry, I'm going to
start all over again. This motion is to refer for further study. So, all those in favor say I. >> All those opposed saying Oh, I'm sorry. Is there a second? >> Okay. All those in favor say I.
>> I. >> All those opposed. [Applause] >> I think we need a hand count >> or just maybe a show of hands. >> Yeah. >> Give them something to do.
>> Okay. All those in All those in favor, please raise your hand with the pink slip. >> No pink slip count. >> Right. If you don't have a pink slip, >> all those in favor of referring for further study, please raise your hand.
If you don't have a pink slip, your vote won't be counted. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> 27. >> Okay, you can put your hands down. I believe everyone's been counted.
Okay. All those opposed to referring it for further study, please raise your hand with the pink slip. Should I tell that person to go? >> No. >> Okay. >> Okay. Um, I just wanted to remind the person
over there that you're in the non- voting section. I just want to make sure that your vote was counted. So, whoever counted that area, make sure you got that person. >> Okay.
>> Guess it was 86 to 68. Doesn't doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. It does. It's not going to make a difference. >> Okay. The final vote is 86 for referring it for further study. 61 against
referring it for further study. So it the the motion to refer passed. So we will not be voting on the main motion. So um I Okay, I heard a motion to adjurnn. Is there a second?
Okay, we're adjourned. Thank you. [Applause]