Good evening, Holliston. Welcome to the April 27th meeting of the select board. We have completed our executive session and we're into our regular business for this evening. So, we have a uh we're going to get started with our agenda and
we have a uh let's see, oh, Jackie's here. Okay. Uh hello, Jackie. Jackie Winer is here. So, we have a proclamation recognizing May 3rd through the 9th as Children's Mental Health Awareness Week. Uh, Jackie, if you want to introduce this and uh,
>> go ahead. >> Yeah, I'm Jackie. I'm with Speak and Family Services and I'm joined with Luke, Julia, did I get that right? >> And Max Harington. And they are going to
read for the viewers and tonight our proclamation for children's mental health awareness week. >> Wonderful. Uh whoever would like to make sure they can unmute and uh if you can unmute yourselves, the three of you, thank you for coming in and um whoever
is going to get started uh feel free to begin. >> Good evening. We are from here tonight. We represent our schools, our community and together. working to raise awareness, break down stigma and remind other young
people that they are not alone. This matters to us women's health about mental health more understanding, more support and more health of children and youth is essential to overall development and longterm well.
Whereas many children and adolescence experience challenges such as anxiety, depression, trauma, and family stress, which can impact their ability to thrive at home, in school and in their community. And >> whereas parents and caregivers are among
the most important protective factors in child life and supporting family strength and outcomes for children. And >> whereas early identification, timely access to services, and strong partnerships between families, schools, and community organizations
resilience and promote healing. And >> whereas the town of Hollist is committed to fostering a caring, inclusive, and supportive community where all children feel seen, heard, and valued. And >> whereas the town of joins communities
across the Commonwealth and nation and recognizing as mental health awareness month with a special focus on children's mental health during the week of May, May 9th, 2026. Now therefore, we the board of the tunnels do hereby proclaim
the week of May 3rd to 96 as children mental health awareness week >> in the town of Holl and encourage all residents to learn about the mental health needs of children and youth. Support local programs and initiatives including those led by Holl Youth and
Family Services and our school community and work together to ensure that every child feels supported, connected, and hopeful. sign this 27th day of April 2026 on behalf of the Select Board.
>> Thank you, Luke, Julia, Max. Thank you very much. That was great. Great job. We appreciate it. >> Jackie, do you have any comments you want to make before we >> I just want to give Luke and Max maybe five seconds to share their initiative for mental health. >> Oh, sure. Great. Yes.
>> Couple weeks, >> please. >> Yeah. Thank you. So, actually this Saturday May Max and I for our national honor society project are hosting we're calling it May Miles for Minds is a mental health fundraiser run and walk at
the rail trail just including some details this Saturday it begins at 9:30 and you can sign up for either a 3K or a 5K and the registration proceeds all go to Ben speaks which is a local basal
service provider. Um so we registration links on the Holl website calendar and on happy on Facebook. So, we would hope we'll hope to see all of you there if you can make it. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Thanks for doing that. That's great. We appreciate it. And uh yeah, we hope people uh can check that out. Go to the website or Hollison Happy and uh get the link that uh Luke's Luke and Max brought forward. And uh thank you very much. And yeah,
>> did you have something to add, Jackie? >> Nope. I just wanted to say thank you for your time and for the opportunity tonight. >> My pleasure. So, we're we're going to take a vote to sign the petition. Uh, sign the proclamation. Excuse me. So, uh, if we could have a motion, please.
>> Move to sign the proclamation just read. Uh, recognizing May 3rd through 9th, 2026 as Children's Mental Health Awareness Week. >> Enthusiastically seconded. >> All right. All those in favor? >> Yes. Yes. >> Thank you very much. Much appreciated. Have a wonderful evening and thank you
for uh Max, Julia, and Luke for coming in this evening. Thank you. >> Awesome. Take care. >> You too. >> Thanks, guys. >> All right. Moving on. Number two, Mr. Bradford.
Always a pleasure to see you, sir. Please come on up. We're going to talk about the Memorial Day observance and events. >> Yes. Thank you for having me. >> Our pleasure. Thank you for coming in. >> So
like to use this annual stop here to announce who our grand marshal is. >> Okay. >> And a unanimous decision by the committee. >> Okay. Wonderful.
>> I just tell you about her. history. >> Yes. >> So, she was an E6 AT1 electronics technician first class.
She did okay. She was in 1984 to 1997. in six years a based out field in California and NAS Barbers Point Hawaii NASA station.
>> Okay. >> I told her that it would be announced tonight's probably the meeting. >> Okay. Congratulations to her. >> Okay. >> One of the things people might not
realize was so far she has organized two suicide awareness meetings that we had. They're called the Columbia protocols and they're put on by
Columbia University looking having another one coming up. >> Okay. >> And we've invited the last one we did in conjunction with Jackie. >> Police to attend.
>> Wonderful. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> Okay. There'll be some changes coming off
of the ceremony here at town hall. and commander BFW will be marshalling the parade. >> So he'll be doing what I was doing and
I'll be doing the officer of the day work. We expect we've invited Senate President the prep and of course the board and
town manager and uh so I'm not sure who's speaking or who sometimes senate president sends someone else. Okay. >> Usually the state rep tries to be here
because >> I know where he lives >> and >> yes, >> you guys will be in transition flowing into that. We have >> town elections. We'll plug for town elections. Yes. >> Coming up.
>> So I would assume that you'll let me know >> when you decide who will speak. Usually it's the uh the senior person unless they've been designated someone else. So we'll say who do you >> and of course we'll have Father Mark and
Pastor Scott for the invocation and the benediction. >> Okay. So, what we've uh tried to do is in the past is um we put
out a schedule of what we're doing for that week, >> right? And one of the things that's not on that schedule because we've lost brothers and sisters over in the Mid East and uh we'll be
putting up the posters and flags >> on the Sunday before Memorial Day. Um the week before. >> Okay. >> So that they'll be up through the day after Memorial Day. >> Okay. >> So that'll happen this year. And then
on Wednesday, we'll address the outline cemeteries in the veteran squares. >> That's done by Walter McGrath and his daughter. This is one of the things like when you guys
honored Walter last year, the humanitarian award. >> Yeah. >> One of the things he does. >> So, um Then on Thursday, we'll dress the graves and the two large cemeteries and have
the flag retirement ceremony up at Lake Grove. >> And then on Monday, we'll visit the cemeteries, have the parade, and have the ceremony
here, and then finish up at uh HPD and over across the street. So, um I think that's what we have. Okay. And what we'll be doing. >> Is there any changes to the parade route from what we've been doing?
>> It's the same as it's been the last couple of years where we >> jog down um front street >> so that we can go to the monument there. >> Y >> and then come around. >> Okay. >> That's the only change in the route.
>> Okay. And that's been that way for a couple years now. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> And as of right now, we still have the oldest veteran will be in the parade. >> Okay. >> We'll do as we did last year. He'll be
in a wheelchair. He can't straighten his legs out. >> Okay. >> So, um we'll have brought to the school in a van. >> Okay. >> And he'll be pushed and escorted by Deputy Delica from
>> Okay. >> Well, actually Deputy Delica and Deputy Greenale. >> Okay. >> From HFD. >> Okay. >> And two Girl Scouts holding signs saying dispatch. >> Okay.
>> And like I say, that's the plan right now. Hoping that it does happen. >> Wonderful. >> That's still Charlie. So still Charlie Merson. >> Yeah.
>> So looking forward to seeing you all there. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Thank you for coming in and doing all this. Um Tina, any comments, questions? >> No, just thank you for your service in this way and every other way.
>> Yeah, many things. I think it's it's important to remember these kinds of sacrifices. I think they're easily forgotten, but always good to keep them top of mind. >> And I I I I'll thank you too for, you know, all all those things, but also all the hard work you do behind the scenes to do these schedules, to organize all
these people and these organizations to to to continue to do these things. You and the people that you work with, best to everyone, and we just really appreciate everything and we look forward to seeing you um on Memorial Day
in a somber occasion, of course. Thank you. >> Thank you for having >> Thank you for coming in. >> Enjoy your meeting. >> We will. >> Can I see? >> All right. Um, >> so uh, next we have we put it in as a
joint meeting with the school committee, but there's only one member of the school committee here. The chair is here. Do you want to come up? You don't have to, but you certainly can. If you wanted to like ask any questions while we watch the see the uh the presentation from Beth, why don't you come on up that way if you you know, you certainly can
chime in. Um we have Beth Greenblat who's our uh uh expert in solar. Um we're here to talk a little bit about the projects with the uh middle school in Placentino uh Miller with um for uh solar on those particular facilities. And that's why we invited the school
committee to come in. So that way um if there were any questions you could see the same pro you could see the uh the same proposal and you'd have an opportunity to you know ask or know and then it's this isformational but just so that way you at least have the understanding of what's uh what's what's
happening and things like that. We can all see the same thing. So >> so I have uh Beth we have uh Sarah Fitzgerald from the um uh the school committee here as well. So, she might uh have some questions, but Beth, we really appreciate you taking some time to talk to us tonight and uh we're uh looking
forward to hearing your uh your presentation. >> Thank you very much, folks. Mr. Shariff, I appreciate the opportunity to talk about something that I know has been long in the works and we're all very excited. I'm I'm joined tonight um by
Byron Woodman, who is from Select Energy, the vendor that would design, develop, construct, and own the asset. and I'm sure he'd be happy to answer any questions you have. I will first say that the last presentation is a very hard one to follow and I'm very humbled
by by you know his service and others. Um so let's if we could let's if we could first slide. >> Awesome. I thought I would I thought I would take an opportunity just to do a very quick overview of the two different projects, one at Pleasantino and and the
other atoms and talk to the highlights of the not only of the the systems themselves but the sort of financial implication of implementing those systems at those at the two locations with more to come in the future. Um
there was a more detailed memo and this is really a summary of that memo to bring out the highlights of of what I think are are critical for folks to understand. So for Plastentino um the size of the array the DC capacity the
modules are about 26 little under 269 KWDC with AC capacity of 200 kilowatt and on an annual basis the the existing usage of the building is about 581,000
kilwatt hours and the solar will generate an offset about 325,000 kilwatt watt hours which is about 56% um the total electric requirements of the building. So it's a it's a meaningful contribution toward the
electric utilization at the building. Next slide please. In terms of atoms similar u systems a little bigger it's 358 kW DC 240 AC um the building
hours the solar will generate um a little under 426,000 kilwatt hours and that represents about 50% of the total electricity consumption of the building. Next slide, please.
So, I'd like to speak to the attributes so that it's clear where benefits are coming from. Um, so the design of the solar array, both of them, is that it's designed as a behind the meter installation, meaning it's literally plugged into the back of the building or
behind the meter of the building. And that results in the direct purchase of solar generated electricity from the arrays supplemented by electricity provided by Eversource um in in terms of supply and delivery.
So the building will be buying electricity from the sun and electricity from the grid. The economic benefits to Hollist is really coming from two sources. One is avoided cost savings. what you don't have to buy from the
grid, supply and delivery, but instead you're buying from select energy, from electricity generated by the sun, which is really the supply because it is immediately delivered to the building. And so that's really where the savings
are, what you're not buying from the grid because you're buying from the sun and the delta between those two values. And that's called avoided costs. So it's what you're not in the the solar arrays only generate 50
to 56% of each building's usage. There will may be times where the solar array actually exports. The building consumes everything it can and the rest of it exports to Eversource. And for
exported energy, the Eversource is required to buy it at their cost of supply and that gets provided back to the town in the form of a financial credit on the building account. So there's
obviously more avoided cost benefits and some limited amount of exported generation but it's important to understand that to the extent there's generation that is exported like for an example in the month of August when
there may be less activity going on in the schools and yet the solar array is humming along because there's lots of sun in the sky. So those are the two main sources of benefits that the school will be getting each school. Next slide
please. So in terms of the financial attributes the base power purchase rate that select has offered for placentino is 5.63 63 cents with a maximum not to exceed fixed
PE power purchase rate of 6.16. Why the difference? Well, there are that is um for items that are not fully known at this time. There may be some other um part of the due diligence
process and that information is not yet known. And so the max PPA rate reflects the those contingencies that could occur. They're very specific. They're defined in the contract. And right now, we have limited reason to believe that
we would see a power purchase rate in excess of 5.63. But again, we need to allow for the potential situation where some of those contingencies need to be drawn on. The estimated voided cost value is a little
over 18 cents. So for every kilowatt hour that you're buying from the sun through select at 5.63, you're avoiding buying it from the grid at 18 cents. So that's where your savings comes in. The overall net
savings over 20 years for the project is a little over eight projected at a little over $866,000. Um, and that's after accounting for what you have to pay to select for generating those kilowatt hours from the sun. The
net the annual net savings on an annual basis if you annualize the $866,000 is about $43,000 a year. I am making some very very conservative assumptions as to the
because of that um we're sort of looking to underpromise and overd deliver. If electricity costs are higher than that 18 cent rate on average for supply and delivery, then the savings to the to the
school is even greater because the rate for the the solar provided electricity is fixed for 20 years. So it's a hedge. a portion of the electricity costs for the school are at
are delivered at a fixed rate without any escalation. Just some some carbon offset equivalents. Um if you could scooch up a little. Um this level of electricity generation from the sun is the
equivalent ofund of reducing um your carbon footprint if you will by 143 metric tons per year. It equates to over 17 million smartphones charged a year. I
love that statistic. and it reflects about 46 homes of electricity use. So it's a meaningful contribution toward decarbonizing your community. Similarly for atoms um next slide
please. The base power purchase rate is a little higher um because of a variety of of factors but substantially similar with a of 5.67 cents per kilowatt hour. ificant opportunity here. 18 cents per
kilowatt hour of avoided cost for a net savings over 20 years of about a little over $1.1 million. And annualized, it's about $57,000 a year. Again, for both schools, we've been ultraconervative with escalation rates for electricity.
for traditional electricity. Again, in both scenarios, your electricity rate from the solar is fixed for 20 years. At Adams, the um annual carbon offset equivalents, if you could scooch up,
it's about 188 metric tons of CO2 reduced, 23 over 23 million smartphones charged, and about 60 homes of electricity usage. Next slide, please. So, I thought I'd just spend a few minutes to go over the
sort of the commercial provisions um and how the contract documents which are extraordinarily dense have been negotiated between the town, your representatives, Frank and James and others um town council Lisa me
directly um and myself with select energy to make sure that these contract documents because they are long-term term agreements um properly protect the town. And
the two commercial agreements are a power purchase agreement and a select board will if approved enter into the power purchase agreement and the school committee will enter into um the agreement the lease agreement.
Um, both contracts, as I mentioned, have been fully vetted by the town and town council with support by myself from Beacon and and Select Energy and Power Options because this is their solar
program has reviewed and approved the the pricing that Select Energy has offered to the town. On a financial basis, the offer the power purchase rate is fixed for 20 years. And again, it's a
long-term hedge for del delivered electricity. The town/school owner of the building has the right to purchase the system in certain defined years. That's well articulated in the power purchase
agreement that there is a right to purchase provision during the construction period. There are specific provisions and protections um specifically including limited and defined access rights, Corey requirements, uh
structural analysis requirements, some of which select energy has already done, but to certify that the roof can in fact receive solar and is has reserve structural capacity to have the solar installed on the roof. There are roof
warranty protections sort of pre installation. There are specific insurance provisions and protections and then there's construction coordination. Um while Select Energy is doing the
installation of the system, they will coordinate with building staff to make sure that there's no disruptions um through the through the process. Next slide, please. During operations, there's also um some significant protections and provisions. There's
limited and defined access rights for maintenance purposes. Select energy under this construct that we're we're discussing tonight will own the asset and therefore need needs access to be able to maintain, repair
and and check on the asset from time to time. But there are very defined requirements um for that level of of involvement in the buildings um including Corey requirements and coordination with building staff.
There are roof warranty protections that follow through during the operations period to make sure that the roof warranty is not in any way um impacted. Um there are roof maintenance and repair provisions for the town in the event
there is some level of damage on the roof in areas that aren't and in in areas that were not caused by the solar array that the town needs to address. There are provisions in the contract to allow the town to address those concerns
to shut down the array so some limited amount of repair can occur. If it goes longer, there are provisions in the contract to allow for a longer period of time if needed. Um, again, provisions for emergencies and repairs,
protections for safety, reliability, and performance of the system. There is a performance guarantee of 85% of the estimated annual solar generated electricity. So, Select is guaranteeing 85%
of what they're estimating to to happen. Um, that will change. The solar generation is all dependent on how sunny we have. You know, how much sun we see in a year. But Select is using 30-year
historical data to be able to normalize the data in a way that they feel very confident that we will see at least 85% of what they're projecting um we we would see um from the solar generation. And then again there's insurance
provisions and protections to make sure your assets are your assets the school building um both of the school buildings are are are properly protected. Next slide please. So in terms of next steps, our hope um
with concurrence by the select board and the school committee um would vote in the case of the power purchase agreement vetted by town council as to form and content. Um the lease agreements would
we would ask that the school committee authorized the superintendent to execute the contracts on their behalf and if not the superintendent the chair in in either case um would would be fine. Um, Select has indicated, and I'll defer to
Byron on this if anyone has any questions, um, that if we're able to close everything out, get approvals, and work toward getting those contracts executed by the end of this week, the projects will be put into the queue for
construction to start this summer and hopefully be completed before school year, which is a great and and speedy turnaround. If not, they'll get pushed out and can still be um implemented during the
school year. Select would have to obviously coordinate to make sure that there was no there was nothing that was disruptive. They will need to potentially crane equipment to the top of the roof. They would coordinate around that. and any summer programs that are going on at either school,
Select would still coordinate with building um management and maintenance to make sure that any of the construction activities didn't cause minimal disruption to um the ongoings of the buildings. And with that, I'm happy to take some
questions. >> Well, uh uh before we take any questions, Byron, did you have any comments that you wanted to make for Beth's presentation? and she always does a very comprehensive presentation. So there's probably not much you can add, but just wanted to give you this opportunity before we ask
any questions. >> Thank Thank you. No additional comments. Uh no, thank you. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Um I think my my big comment here is we appreciate it. I my main question was timeline and I I heard that and Beth, you know, it's
always good working with you because we always know we get uh lots of comprehensive information presented from you and we're very grateful for that. Uh there may be some other questions from some of the other people here. I'm going to certainly uh defer to Sarah first. If you have any questions at this time if
you want to ask if you certainly >> um I was gonna piggy back on the timeline question. I think it would be great to do in progress. Yeah, certainly. Certainly. >> And is it working with James and David Jordan in terms of
>> We still do have summer programs going on. Um so it's not like the buildings are empty. So just coordinating >> understand what's >> Yeah. Yeah. I'll manage the project on behalf of the town. >> Yeah. >> That was my biggest concern just making
sure that >> Yeah. that the timing was good and that it wasn't disruptive to the programs that are taking place at those facilities. >> Just too, Beth, you mentioned, excuse me, early on in your presentation that uh August as the example, the sun is
shining bright and long and there's uh electricity energy being produced that doesn't isn't needed for the school's consumption. It flows back to Eversource. They pay by way of a credit. Who does that how does that credit flow back to the town of Hollist? Does it
flow back to an account we have? Does it flow back to the schools? How does that come back into Hollist? That credit or how does it come to Hollist? >> That's actually determined by you folks ever look for an account number to flow that financial credit back to one or
more financial one or more account numbers. Is that is that plan needed before we vote to you know authorize Frank to sign the contract? Do we need to square that up before ahead of time or that's something we can do administratively after the fact?
>> You can do it administratively after the fact. And and I'd also like to note that you can also change. >> Okay. >> Right. You can shift credits around if there is an abundance of excess exported credits that needs to be socialized over a broader or a different set of
accounts. that can happen on a se, you know, on on a several times per year, they it's a process that you work through with the utility for alternative ongo. >> Okay, thank you. That was one question. The second question is, are the roofs both at Placentino and Adams in working
condition to receive? I mean, it sounds like they are. If the timeline is this summer, both of those roofs are are adequate for there's no repair work that has to happen in order for the the panels to go up this summer. Yes. So I I'll answer in general and
then Byron you can talk about this the structural analysis and and the reviews that that you guys have already done but there are areas and if you go back and look at the graph it's not the entire roofs are not covered. Okay. So we we focused on the newer portions >> okay
>> collected a structural analysis on on the roofs to determine their structural integrity. Byron if you want to speak to that. >> No I mean I think that that's really it. There's there's two things that really three things that we look at. One is the age of the roof. These are new roofs, so
that's that's not a concern. Uh we'll look at uh weight loading considerations and then we'll look at uplift considerations. Uh in terms of weight loading loading, we did look at weight loading for both the schools and
specifically for Adams, we have uh locations. We looked at all the different groups that are there, probably about eight different group sections or more and identified the ones that um that would both get the best sun hours and were also had the had the
necessary capacity. Um and then we did the uplift anal as part of the balance plans. So, we checked all three boxes for both schools and and feel good about it. >> Okay. Thank you. And then Frank, will how how do you see the us moving forward
on the credit flowing back to accounts and so on? >> So, I think currently and I know James and Dr. Jordan have been working together and getting a bunch of uh account numbers changed um or I think one school had another school's account
number and all that. Yeah, there was a lot of Anyway, so I think currently all of it after we got all that settled, um I think all the credits right now are are staying with school facilities. >> Okay. >> Um but that's certainly open to, you know, as Beth alluded to, we can
certainly change that. >> Okay. All right. Thank you, David. >> Yeah, just one short one on the uh performance guarantee portion, which if I recall you said was 85% of the estimate based on solar throughput. How does that work in practice if there's a
shortfall? Is that a financial transaction? Is it a transaction in form of credits to remediate energy consumption through Eversource? What's the actual kind of brick and mortar of that? >> Yeah. So, in the power purchase agreement, there is the guarantee
provision which points back to what your avoided cost would be, >> right? So if you're avoiding 18 cents and you're paying them six I'm just rounding out six cents, right? The savings would be 12 cents. So we're
looking at your loss savings that they would compensate if they um if they drop below the guarantee amount. >> And is that is that compensation like a financial transfer? ates this amount of dollars or a credits transfer of some
kind towards like the purchase of energy. >> It's a physical payment. >> Understood. Excellent. Thank you. >> Um Frank, >> no. Thank you, Beth. We've spent a lot of time working on this one and on the
other one on Marshall Street, obviously. So, thank you as always for your diligence and uh making it easy to understand. I I think the other thing I'd want to say is, you know, we we worked hard to negotiate um these two agreements which are exactly the same form just with different details for the specific
projects and I think they'll serve as a really good model as we work with James on some of the other locations that he's very anxious to start to pursue. So the contracting details piece we're hoping is done and now it's just getting to the
technical and financial piece of the other locations that interest pursuit. >> Um, actually one other quick question here too is that you know as we look for a uh DPW facility um and thinking about
that I think that's probably we'd probably want to pursue and see what that looks like and trying to find a a solar agreement and arrangement for that facility um at some particular point in time as well.
I have uh one other uh question. Oh, it's actually for James Keith. Beth, thank you for the information specifically on reduction in and carbon CO2 uh production. Will our action plan because we're currently developing a
climate action plan. This information will flow towards that plan like they'll update it with it. That's great. That's great. >> Okay. >> All right. We'll we'll work with Amelia she gets all of the details she needs. In fact, both of these projects will
have what's called a data acquisition system and the town and school department will have a URL link to be able to see the performance of the systems. So you'll be able to see some key metrics that are very sort of
consumerf facing. So you'll see kilowatt hours generated this week, this month, this year. You'll also see the equivalent carbon offsets that can be used. The the data can be retrieved, can be manipulated. A great thing to work with some of you know students in the
schools. >> And Beth, I don't want to put you on the spot, but triggered another thought. Do you see other municipalities, other school districts, do you see them using those credits because that generates that generates cash, right? Real like currency. Do you see them taking that
that money coming in and then using it for future projects? So to the point that we have a DPW where we would want to in the future consider panels on that. Do you see other communities taking that credit coming back from Eversource and sort of stockpiling it,
saving it for a future um project that has solar on another municipal or school or other building. >> So that is as Frank smile and test is one of those municipal finance questions
of what do how do allows you okay >> to address these things I would say you're probably getting a better opportunity to do that reinvestment in projects from the um project at the
landfill once that's operational >> right >> just because it's a pure net metering It's a financial transaction in this case because these assets are smaller than the annual loan. There isn't going
to be significant. >> Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. All set. >> Okay. Um I think that's everything here. I think we do we have a motion to authorize the power purchase agreement if everyone's comfortable with that.
>> Yes. Move to authorize the town manager to execute the contract for power purchase agreement with select. Seconded. >> All right. All those in favor? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> I think that's what you needed, Beth. We're gonna authorize the town manager and I believe the school committee is
meeting on Thursday. >> Yes. >> And they're going to take it up on Thursday. Um and we'll get that presentation to you and the committee. Um everything. >> Do we have to approve this? We I know we >> you have to do the leasing. You already
submitted. >> Okay. Well, they I think what they're what Beth's looking for is it needs to get be able to get it sounds like it needs to be signed this week to be able to be executed >> by April 30th. >> By April 30th so that way they can get get construction over the summer.
>> I mean, it's on April 30th. So, >> I think you know I I I like we can work with Beth behind the scenes. I think if you have questions, you should >> like let's get you those answers. >> I would I would guess that if the school
committee votes to authorize either the chair or the superintendent to exease on the 30th and then the and then executes the next day. That would be sufficient information for select to put both
projects in the queue for construction this summer. Would you agree, Byron? I don't want to >> Yeah, I I think if the vote occurs on the 30th, that's that's right. And just as a a technicality, I think it's the the superintendent the vote would be for the superintendent
uh to sign. And then just one other thing as as it occurred to me, uh the approval of the vote and thank you very much um for the vote this evening. Um just wanted to confirm in that it specifies that it's both for
Adams and Placetino. >> Yes. >> And and we we will use uh that vote to memorialize as part of the financing and everything else. >> Yeah. We'll make sure >> Yeah. >> to note that >> we will make sure in the minutes that it it denotes that it's for both projects
at Miller and for at Placentino and at Adams. Yes. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh anything else? Okay. and then just work with Frank to try to get your if you have the questions sooner, let's get them.
>> I think they've been answered. >> Yep. Yeah, we we've been sort of working behind the scenes to get the answers to the uh questions, so I think >> just, you know, whatever whatever we can do to get you what you need to to feel comfortable. Great. >> All right, Beth. Byron, thank you so much for your time this evening. The sun
has gone down, so we're uh we hope you enjoy the rest of your evening and appreciate all your time today. >> Nothing more productive to come. >> I know. Oh. Oh, yeah. Another thing. >> Good night. >> All right. Um, so we're gonna move on to the next item.
We're going to talk about the approve the charge of the Hollston School Building Committee. Um, go through like the charge and Okay. So, I think we've all had a chance to look at this. Is everybody comfortable
with this language here? Tina, do you have any comments about I know you you did a lot of the negotiation there. So, >> just worked with uh Frank uh Agoro Aguro and Hillary Breznahan from the Hollson School Committee. We met last week. Uh they brought it back to their committee
with Sarah and uh other members. No edits on their part. So, confirm that last week. They're okay with it as written. So, we're good to go tonight. and I appreciate uh the work that you did with Hillary and Frank to get this stuff forward for us. It's a it's a big help to have this uh something like this
instead of us trying to knock it out in the middle of in our meeting. So >> there's beauty and simplicity here. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Um I did have one um I'm comfortable with this. Do you have any comments? >> Yeah, that's very fun. >> I think the only thing I wanted to sort of bring up here is that the for the school building the the the makeup of
the building committee, there was one question that was on there. It was um it was the m person in charge of maintenance and it had James Kee or David Jordan and I was just going to I was just going to suggest if people are comfortable to say we should make it
David Jordan because James Ke is already on it as the procurement officer. So I think it would be nice to be able to have both of them. I think they would be good to have both of them on the committee instead of James wearing two hats. >> Agreed. >> In my opinion >> and we'll do all those appointments by vote at this board table. So >> another time. Yep. Right.
>> Yeah. I just I just wanted to bring that up that while I I was thinking about it. So, >> uh, Chair Ben, in voting the charge tonight, um, we will then I'd look to direct Frank to work with Chris Mayo and Dan Mloud over at the school um on the school side of things for a press
release to say that we are open to letters of interest. >> Yes. And I think the we we had talked about letters of interest going to Frank, right, >> just to make sure that we had a central point of contact. So, it would go to the town manager's office. So anybody if they contact the schools they would forward it to forward it to Frank just
so that there's one person collecting it and then we can >> and then I think we had talked about you and the the working group sort of to to sort of vet the the the opportunities for people before that got up and running and then once that group was running they would handle >> you know future appointments or changes
if they they needed to be made >> right so we'll so um >> yes >> in the motion we can also or we can have a separate motion or we can just have consensus that >> I think the cons I think it's consensus for a press release I don't I think he needs a motion for that. >> Uh, and then there will be, just to fill
that out, there will be a open office hours at the center on Wednesday. >> Okay. >> This week it'll be myself, Hillary, and Frank um from the school committee coming over to the center to meet with anyone really uh who wants to come in and learn more. There's a another event
planned like a office hours, an evening one. I'm not going to that, but there will be a second. And then >> what time is it at the center? uh one o'clock I think it is one o'clock on the 29th. >> Okay. >> Which is this Wednesday. >> Okay. >> Then the final piece is there will be a Just Thinking episode that Frank Hillary
and I will um sit down and and be interviewed >> um for early May. So that is out in time. The goal is to have things lined up with the application the SOI letters of interest rather open on the website. People sending them in. >> Yeah. by the time of town meeting and
but by the time of town election so that people can speak to it on those two big community events where everybody's coming forward. Um so we are up and running and ready >> and I think yeah we want that too because I think the eligibility period starts on June 1st. So what like so having it sort of like we're having all
our ducks in a row and that way when we hit June 1st we can send all this to them and they can um because I think they won't even look at it until then but at least we have everything ready for them uh for that particular point of time. So That sounds good. Damon Frank, any other comments here for
>> Very ease. >> Awesome. All right. So, let's uh take a vote to approve the charge of the Holl School Building Committee. >> Okay. Move to approve uh the Holl School Building Committee as presented this evening effective tomorrow morning.
>> Second. >> All right. All those in favor? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you very much, Tina. Thank you for your work and thank you to Frank and Hillary for all that you've done to uh bring this forward. We appreciate it and uh All right. Great.
All right. So, done with number four. Moving right along. Thank you, Sarah. >> Have a wonderful evening. >> Thanks, Sarah. No, >> all right. Uh moving on to the tax workoff program update. And this is Yur. Sure. If you want to, that's fine. You got a microphone over there, but I can't
see you over there. So you can talk about this. So we have our assistant town manager, Cheryl Pool, is here to talk a little bit about the tax workoff program updates. Hello. >> Hello. >> And I think as I understand it, you're just going to kind of go over what's in
place now before we start making any changes. Is that kind of what we're doing? >> Yeah, I'm happy to do that. We're really making no substantive changes to the program. We were just um sort of making the guidelines consistent for the veterans program and the senior textbook program. There were some discrepancies
in the policies that were written by um people here before >> think we can take down 23 by the way. >> Okay. >> Was the last time you looked at this um okay >> I'd say the only significant change that Well, I'll tell you the way it works. Um
>> we had selection criteria. People would submit an application. The thing is that it was Houston, we literally have one participant right now in the program. >> You know, other towns have upwards of 60 people. So, this is something that I was charged with when I first came to get
this revitalized. So, I've been working with Kevin Rudden, Cynthia Stevnik, Mallerie Francesci, myself, and consult a little bit with Kathy Lang, the veteran services officer. Um, and the main thing that we
changed was the income guidelines. the income guidelines that were being used before were the federal poverty level and they felt that they just weren't going to get um it wasn't going to help enough people to use that. So they thought it was more sensible to use um the fuel assistance guidelines that used
by the center. Um I did check with the town of South Borrow. There are other towns that do that do it that way as well. So that seems to be the common um income guideline. The maximum abatement is is set um by state 1500. the same for
veterans and for seniors. Um the big well and another thing is it was included in the language last time but from what I understand it was never promoted or used. But um we will allow proxies to do the work for our seniors and veterans. And so we're going to work
very hard at um communicating this. We have a flyer that's in construction right now or in design I should say. Um we've been talking a lot about promoting to the benefit will be available. These flyers will be placed um throughout the
town hall. So when people come visit, they can be found at the treasury collector's office, the assessor's office at the center, the veteran services office. We will share it out to um the food pantries, Hollston Housing Authority. We're just going to try to get the word out on this program. We are
going to limit the participation for the first year um just so we can iron out the bugs and you know make sure that we sure >> get it going. The other thing is I will be working with department heads complete the next department head meeting to explain this to them and that
you know there are so many instances where they can use help to just get projects done that need to be done. In my last community, I had a dedicated worker like covered phones if we had meetings. Like there was a lot there are a lot of uses and we help these people
can help ourselves. So that's what I plan to work on is focusing on implementation. We've redesigned the application a little bit to ask more questions about their skills and experience so I can hopefully make more positive placements. Um, we don't it's
not an employment though, so we hesitate to do anything like job descriptions or um skills requirements. It's just seeing where people's interests lie and experience that can help the town. Um, one community I talked with, I thought this was a great idea and everyone in
the community as well. I think it was actually Kevin who brought it up. Um, but South does it is they have greeters at the front of the town hall. So when tax payments are coming in and you can someone say, "Oh, where do you need to go? Upstairs, downstairs building." So, I think
there's a lot of opportunities just to help out. So, I'm excited about it. Okay. >> Um, so that was all we changed was the income guidelines and I just made the maximums consistent. It was incorrect on the veteran services one. >> Okay. >> Excellent.
>> I had two questions. Um, and that kind of I think uh it's a great program and it's too bad more people are using it. I hope more people take advantage of it. Um my two questions kind of go more towards the department head guidelines. Um when I was looking at those um and the first one was is that is there or
should there be any language about like privacy and making sure like you know private information and stuff like that is sort of uh considered or uh taken into account or anything like that. just to make sure like you know sometimes you know if they're filing something or they're working in a particular place that there might be some personal
information that could be available and just making sure that they're sort of we're monitoring and ensuring that you know personal information is is protected in that respect. I think that was one thing. >> Absolutely. That's a great idea. And then the other thing I was looking at too um is that you know um should there
be any language about like where the like I don't mean it necessarily like they have to be in certain kinds of spaces but just more like along the lines of like they have to be in person or they have to be like in a town facility kind of thing like you know like where are they you know because we
don't necess is it something that is the program something where they're taking work to their house or something like that which is probably not really appropriate but maybe having some language that say like you know the expectation is the person would be in a town facility they might be at 1750 they because there certainly like lots of
different kinds of places but like a town some kind of a town facility where they would be >> engaging with that those are my two comments about it but I think it's a wonderful program and I hope people take advantage of it if they know but Tina any comments or questions >> uh just a question you mentioned proxy so the the senior can recruit a proxy
and some recruit use a proxy to perform the services or the the work required um is there any vetting of the proxy Or does a senior just on their own word say this person can act on my behalf or does the town like vet the proxy somehow? >> Okay.
>> There are the assessor's office first of all is responsible for reviewing the applications and approving. So they would be the ones vetting that the um the participant or the proxy met their requirements. Um okay we would have to
complete paperwork the check all that sort of thing. They will receive the W2 for the wages. So it's going to be very important that we communicate that to the proxies that they are doing this work for the benefit of their their senior but they are the ones getting the income. >> The senior is getting the income.
>> The senior gets the income in the form of a tax payment. >> Yeah. that the wages earned are ferally taxable. So we are required to look at federal taxes. Okay, we're um FICA and we will um issue a we also have to mandatory retirement but
I found out that they can after each season they can withdraw their >> proxy would get the tax. So okay >> that will be vetted by the assessment to make sure they do >> the core check is what I was hoping you would say. So yes,
>> you know, we've seen all good actors out there helping seniors, but you wonder how >> they um anyone who works in a town building will do a core and this program will also be opened up to the school and so they will also have storage. >> Okay, great. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Actually, I had a question for you because I was I'm riffing off of the
point that you made about location. Um, do you do you imagine that we would want them to be in a town facility just for purposes of monitoring the work or because of the idea that the work would necessarily require physical presence?
>> Probably a little both. I I would I would think because I think the idea here is is we want we wouldn't want them taking the work home with them or something like that. I think we want to make sure that whatever work was something that they were coming to a play I would assume that they >> I would assume. I really can't think of anything that I mean, you know, if the
department has come to me, it's something of course we'll consider, but you're also talking resources for setup and >> it's probably >> then you avoid OSHA stuff, too. >> Yeah, it's probably, you know, it's probably the easiest thing is probably to say it should be on site. >> Yes.
>> But, you know, but I I you know, >> I'm at ease with that. No problem. So, no further questions. Thank you. >> Okay. >> And great. I think that's I don't I think you're just you're looking for >> I'm just looking Yeah, just for a review of the >> Yeah, the policy just to update the date. Last time you reviewed it was
>> Yeah. >> sign that tonight. >> Um well, is the is the policy ready to be signed or are you >> It is okay. I thought you were uh >> you would like a motion. I don't need any updates, but I will update the department head guidelines as requested. >> Yes. Okay. Those >> don't need to Great. So, we can take a
vote. We can take a vote on the uh >> guidelines. Okay. Move to approve the updated Town of Hollist Veterans Tax Workoff Program guidelines as presented with the changes as presented this evening. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> I >> I
>> um I see. Yeah. So we we will approve that. Um I guess the one last thing about that is um you can they're good. It's just uh is this something we probably should be reviewing like every two three couple years reasonably >> I think at least because the guidelines
change periodically you know they were at 24 they raised the abatement limit so yeah we'll look at it on a regular basis I think now they have this committee it's going to be good to get feedback at the end of the year to inform how useful was it you know okay I've seen it in use
can be a very successful program >> and for the benefits of the meeting minutes it's both the veterans tax workoff program and the senior tax work program. >> We approve both of those policies. >> Okay. Wonderful, Cheryl. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. >> All right. Moving on to let's talk about
the appro the acceptance of a donation of Pren Street Bonnie Drive open space parcels. Now, before you bring as you're bringing it up, um my question for you was it wasn't nec wasn't really clear to me what we were looking at. like I I saw
lots of different parcels, but like >> what's already there? Are we approving all of them? Approving some of them? So, just needed a little bit of clarification about that as you're bringing these forward. >> Sure. So, okay. Okay. So, what we are looking at Oops. I'm going to load these documents
because they're always so gigantic. You can never >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> So, um what we are looking at is a uh a parcel on parcel, excuse me, a parcel on Apprentice Street. Okay. Um so um just
to orient this is um this is partial excuse me this is street down at the bottom and then towards the rear of the site uh up here is uh uh Bonnie Drive. >> Okay, >> which I don't know if you can >> right over here is Bonnie Drive.
>> Um so uh >> looks like there's three parcels in my understanding that the 3.92, 2.7, and a 9 because the document itself said something about 30 acres if I remember right. I'm just trying to understand what we're talking about here. >> Yes. So, it's the it is the combination
of these sort of three um they sort of make an upside down U I guess. >> Okay. >> Um um that the town would take into uh its ownership and basically for free and uh would be conveyed to the care custody and control of the conservation
commission. Um the conservation commission this so this was actually in the works probably over a year ago at this point. Um the concern about this parcel was that this was the site where um last August the tree fell from that um
tragically, you know, struck and and ultimately killed the the passer by the um the the driver of the vehicle. Um and so we immediately, you know, once once that happened, we obviously pumped the brakes on taking the taking the parcel
into our ownership. Um, and so, uh, in the meantime, the DPW and conservation commission and specifically a conservation agent have worked with, uh, the developer who owns the site and or excuse me, who is developing the, uh, the Bonnie Drive parcels, who's managing
these, uh, sites currently on behalf of the land owner. Um, and DPW and the, uh, the owner have addressed the trees that are, um, or that were a threat to the public way. um that all of that work was done at the expense of the property
owner. None of that was done by the DPW and so um at this point um we're comfortable after conferring with DPW conservation and also town council uh we are comfortable um taking the parcel on u but it does require a vote of the select board to make it official.
>> Okay. >> Okay. And not you know all of that with state this even if this was a quote unquote normal parcel all of this would be part of the process >> right and then the intention obviously just to sort of state it out loud again is that this this land would be open space and remain as it is which is
um basically forest green space there's looks like there's probably some wetlands in there of course there are everything's a wetland >> um so there's you know the that is how it is going to remain there's no other intention do anything else with that. >> Correct.
>> So, okay. Tina, >> just moving forward to do for preparing the motion. Uh, could I get the parcel numbers and the acreage or square footage? >> Uh, sure. >> Acres, I think, just to call it out. The motion.
>> I'll pull it up. It's in the document. >> While that's going on, just a note of clarification. Is the acceptance sorry is the donation of this contingent upon keeping the land in its current condition? Is is that part of the donation requirement or do we as a town
have options in the future? We have no plans at the moment, right? Yeah. Curious to >> I believe the intention of the property owner was to keep it as open space. Um and to Ben's point, I think most of it is um is >> Yeah. There's not there's not much going to happen over >> correct. We we have all the the language
because there was one of the in our packet there was a yeah language. >> Oh, I'm going to read the whole thing. Let me find it that way. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> We have to read this whole motion. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. >> It is in the um it's in our share drive.
It's under the >> Sure. You have to be very specific because there's this is when it's fun to be the clerk. >> Fun. >> The hard the hardest one was when we had to do a bond. >> Frank, could you resend? >> Yep.
You just read mine if you want. >> Yeah. All right. I'll just But I would like it for my record. >> Yeah, it's in the Yeah. >> You ready for the motion? >> Uh, yes. Yes. >> Okay. I hereby move that the select board approve the acceptance of the donation of certain parcels of land to be held under the care, custody, and control of the conservation commission
pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 40 section 8C known as one parcel A and parcel B on a plan entitled definitive open space subdivision triangle farm prepared for Thomas Merch and all trustee of the Merch apprentice realy trust prepared by GL GLM Engineering
Consultants Incorporated dated May 8th, 2020 and recorded as plan number 673 of 2021 in the Middle Sex South Registry of Deeds and two, parcel D and parcel D3 on a plan of land entitled Plan of Land, Hollston, Massachusetts, scale 1 equals
100 dated February 11th, 2025 prepared for Thomas Merch and all trustee by uh GLM Engineering Consultants Incorporated 19 Exchange Street, Hollist, Mass 01741 to be recorded in the middle Middle Sex South, excuse me, in the Middle Sex
South Registry of Deans And three, the land referred to as lot four on a plan entitled definitive open space subdivision Bonnie Drive extension prepared for Thomas Merch at all and all trustee of the Merch apprentice realy trust dated August 28th, 2023 and
recorded as plan number 446 of 2024 in Middle Sex Registry of Deeds. >> Second. >> Okay. >> All those in favor? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Tina, thank you. That was a mouthful. >> All right. Um, think we're good on that.
Okay. Moving on to vote to authorize the town's participation in the remnant defendant opioid settlement agreement. Frank, if you could introduce this and tell us a little bit what we're talking about this week. >> Sure. So, the um uh the firm
representing the town in opioid settlement um litigation has approached us about participating in uh another settlement. Um this one is called the six remnant defendant settlement agreements. >> There there are uh as the name suggests
there are uh six um uh companies out there that were not included in previous settlement agreements. Um the total estimated value of the settlement and this isn't the amount that would go just to the town. This is basically the the big pot that's out there that would be distributed to all the participating
entities is roughly $97.6 million. Um so um as we have in the past um the the again the firm who's representing us on these matters has has recommended that the town participate uh which again requires the select board's approval. >> Okay.
>> Any comments or questions from the select board about that? >> None. >> Not from me. >> I do not have any. Um I think we can uh take a motion to authorize the town's participation in the remnant defendant opioid settlement agreement. I am having trouble finding that agenda
pack. I just want to make sure there's not specific language in order to do that. I don't think so. It sounds like as written is fine as a motion. >> Uh yes, that's totally fine. >> Move to And we're not we're authorizing you uh the town manager. Yeah. >> Move to authorize uh town man the town
manager to um >> sign on behalf >> Yeah. sign on behalf of the town the participation in the town's participation in the remnant defendant opioid settlement agreement. >> Second. >> All right. All right. All those in favor? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> All right. That's good. Um
Okay. Um I'm going to move the number nine to go before public comment this evening. Um because we have some updates here about the DPW facility project and and there might be some people who have public comment. I'd rather them hear
before public comment what we're talking about so that way they don't necessarily have to make comments about something that could be changing before they get there. So, that being said, so we're going to take nine out of order before public comment.
So, um talk about the town meeting warrants. Um before this meeting, we had uh conversation um about Cross Street. So, uh, just to let people know, like we
had voted on using Cross Street for a DPW facility in 2023 and, uh, I got up in front of town meeting and asked people to support it and people supported it. We got um over a debt override um passed uh all sorts
of things happening and um as land court was slow and did not appear to be moving in any direction to come forward, we um decided to pursue other options. So that led us to the Art Street location. Um
and um now we're hearing like literally within days of the uh decision to go forward with uh a with a potential debt exclusion for Arch Street, we're hearing that Cross Street is possibly coming out of Lane Court very very soon.
And in the interest of full transparency and doing our full due diligence, um, we want to have the discussion about potentially pausing on Arch Street until we can have better answers about Cross Street. So, that's kind of what we're
here to talk about right now. And since there's an article on the town meeting warrant about the Arch Street location, we wanted to see if it makes sense to press pause on that article at this time.
and it wouldn't meaningfully impact things if we waited till October to to go forward with that. We could still do that if we needed to, but at least to find out more information about Cross Street and to see how that potential site looks going forward. Part
of what we would want to be looking at with Cross Street is Cross Street could potentially be less expensive than our street for a number of reasons. Um, obviously we don't have a mockup, we don't have drawings, but there's certain things that are happening. For example,
the the amount of fill that has to go in, the retaining wall that has to go in at Arch Street. Those would not be needed at a cross street location and those are have some significant cost to the R Street. So therefore, it's sort of in our interest
to of the town's interest to look at whether or not uh the cross street location is viable to see if it is coming out of Lancor soon and what we can we do with that. So, the reason we're sort of bringing this up at this point is to sort of ask the question to the board whether or not it makes sense
to pause on the DPW facility at Arch Street at this time and potentially take it off the warrant entirely and was interested to hear Tina Damon your thoughts about that. I
believe in the interest of not confusing people, probably the best answer would be if we're going to if we I think we should wait to find out what's going on with Cross Street. I think there's meaningful savings and there's meaningful um interest in doing so. And I think we
should take it off the Art Street location off the warrant because to leave it on would be confusing for people and could potentially generate conversations that don't necessarily need to happen at this time. But I'm interested to hear your thoughts about it. So that's my my
position in sort of bringing this forward. I think I I think I got everything right, Frank. I think so. Okay. >> Okay. So we're just talking generally the immediate thing at hand is the warrant for town meeting and the Arch Street location >> given cross street potential um as an
option. So uh Tina, I'm interested to hear what you think about Cross Street and what we should do for 10 years. >> We we've been at this work since 2021. Uh and you know >> feels like longer. Right. Uh this has been an iterative it
iterative process from from the get-go. We have been looking continually to fine-tune this project uh so that it it comes across best to meet the operational needs, best to improve efficiency, most importantly address the safety concerns we have for our staff
who work in the DPW facilities um at a cost and a and a lift for residents that and taxpayers um that is manageable. So, we have constantly been refining um this project over the years. So, this feels
like a very natural next step to reopen consideration of Cross Street with new information. I think that's a commitment we have always made and um I'm pleased that we're going to continue. So, I support the idea of pulling the article uh from the warrant in order to do due
diligence on the cross street site. I think that when we I know that when we hear from residents and voters, taxpayers, uh on the impact uh either because it's going to be near them or because it's going to affect them in uh when the property tax bill, uh we hear a
number of concerns come up and we've been trying to address them through the process we've been engaged in. Cross Street offers some solutions for some of the major concerns that we have heard. We know that site work at Cross Street will be different and likely less. We
know that Cross Street is an industrialzoned area currently. Uh whereas other parcels we've looked at over the years have been not have been either open space or residential. Um we know that with the news from Land
Court, the timeline has accelerated on the town being able to take ownership of Cross Street. uh timeline has been one of the pressing pressures on the select board and the town to to address the the DPW facilities. Uh and so it's very good
news to hear that cross street is close to foreclosure. The town is close to ownership of that. So this feels very much like the right thing to do. I wholeheartedly support it. >> Okay. And I I think one thing as I was listening to Tina just to bring up is also, you know, there are concerns about
what's in the ground there and we haven't been able to get on site to test it. Um, but we also have heard from D and the EPA that they're very interested in supporting the town in that respect um still. So that would be uh very
helpful for the town to be able to know that we're, you know, we're not going this alone. we wouldn't have to necessarily um do all the work ourselves, but that's also is a consideration here as well. >> And Ben, it's probably worth stating that um you know, in my whole heart support of this, I understand it is not a commitment
>> to move the project to Cross Street. It is a look at it. Yeah. Commitment to the due diligence to understand what we need to understand to continue to put forward the very best most cost effective project for the the town of Hollist. So, yes. Thank you. we could do. >> Yeah, the I think the cross street
location has been talked about well before my tenure on this board and uh having some familiarity where that it offers some big fiscal and logistical upsides but also some big caveats that I think we still have to look into. I think um as a select board for a town
that does not want to be pennywise and pound foolish, we have a fiscal responsibility or fiduciary responsibility to look into this a little bit further because some of those upsides could spell um some significant savings, but we don't want to go in there blind. So, I agree that what you're proposing is the right move. Um I
think I'm hopeful for what the outcome could be. Y >> but again, this is not a commitment. It is, however, something that we I think we absolutely must do. We owe it to the taxpayer and to the public. >> Yeah. and we're pushing pause for now. It's not, you know, it's it's we'll have better answers um in the fall and we can
figure out what the right course of action is at that time. So, I think um so the first motion um if uh people are amendable, I'd like to take a motion to reopen the May 2026 town meeting warrants. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. All those in favor? >> Yep. >> Yes. Yep.
>> All right. So the meeting Okay. >> I said yep. And I'm like no, not yep. Yes. It's a yes. Um, and so what uh we're proposing to do, I think the best thing we sort of talked about was we would remove article 20, which is the feasibility, the uh the the funding for
a DPW facility at Art Street, >> and we would remove it entirely, and I will speak to it at the at town meeting, and we will um we should also include it like in a letter in front to say, hey, this has been removed. But um we remove it and then um we would renumber
everything past that. >> Yep. >> Is that >> And just to be clear, the ballot has to remain. I know we already discussed, but the ballot uh deadline has passed. It's too late to withdraw it, but >> um even if for some reason it were to pass, it would have basically no impact. Um so, um
>> okay, >> no worries there. And just a a point of information to add. Um I think we've discussed this in the past, but the challenges with the current DBW location are very real and I imagine we'll still have to take some action in the near future to make sure that place stays
functional. Yes. What we're talking about here is the investment in the full new property for new facilities, not in pausing any fixes that we might need. I I think we're still moving forward as quickly as possible that it may that's reasonable, but you know, if there's
material savings from from moving the facility and there's, you know, some of the concerns about location, I think it's in our best interest to explore them to make sure that it works >> because that's the best interest of the town is to save money and do right by residents. So, I agree.
>> Uh we need to make sure that cross street is uh we do our due diligence on cross street. So yes, it does not preclude us from fixing this situation. It's just >> Is remediation still needed? >> We still need to fix the Arch Street and Central Street locations. There's still
a major issue. >> Okay. So, we have a motion on the floor. Uh oh, no. We have we have not made a motion. >> We need a motion to close the war with the reumbering. >> Why don't we Well, we let's we let's let's remove the article and we can say that it's the part of the motion that we're going to remember and then we can as a separate motion.
>> Sure. Uh, I move to remove article 20, the DPW funding article, uh, with renumbering of all articles to follow. Second. >> All right. All those in favor? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> So, we'll do that. We will remove it entirely. Um, like to have some language
in a letter that says that we're doing that. And so, like, we can have a letter. we can come up with something that says here's what we're going to here's what's happening um in the um in the uh the warrant and here's the and this change has been made at this time and it's not going to significantly
>> sideline project >> be a couple changes on the town website the sooner the better because it's certainly posted that we'll be voting on May 16 May 11th rather for the DPW article and then some careful wording on the ballot question because that's also on the town website so how you how you
choose to do that but >> update the website. >> Yeah. Okay. All right. Uh so we've taken that article off. We've renumbered and now let's vote to close the war. >> All right. Move to close the >> Can I just add one quick thing? Just there were those few uh minor things
that Liz Lighten had sent over about um using the word adapt as opposed to excuse me adopt as opposed to accept or vice versa. >> Oh, for the tech for the assessor's articles. Um so I changed those as well. I would like to change like I mean I think we can you know, authorize the
town manager like uh we can accept those changes. Why don't we just accept those changes because they're part because they're actually part of the the article itself. They're not the correct. Okay. If they're actually part of the article. So, >> all right. So, the warrant's still open. >> Yes. So, move to accept the changes. Yeah. >> Do you want to specify which article numbers or
>> they are articles uh 9 through 16. >> All right. Move to a amend article the language of articles 9 through 16 for nonsubstantive changes as presented this evening.
>> Second. >> All right. All those in favor? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. And uh anything else before we close the warrant? >> That is it. >> Okay. >> For the last time. >> Yes. Okay. We are going to close the warrant >> and uh can we have a motion to close? >> Yep. Move to close the warrant for the
annual May 2026 town meeting. Seconded. >> All those in favor? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> All right. And then the last thing to do here, um there's two other things. So, first is um comments. Everybody review the
comments that are in there and made any changes to their com to the comments. >> The comments. >> Yes. Oh, for the warrant. Yes. >> Yep. >> Okay. So, everybody's comfortable with the comments and then um >> I don't think we need to vote to sign it because I think we already approved everything on it. So, but
>> it's usually a working document anyway. >> So, I think we just I think we can, you know, we can sign the warrant >> tonight. >> Okay. >> It's because we've accepted everything that's in there and we're comfortable with the language and so and such. So, we're good with voting on it. Is everybody comfortable with that?
>> I mean, not signing. Excuse me. It's not even 9:00. I can't >> I say what are we signing? >> What are we signing? We are signing the the town meeting warrant so we can we can get it published officially and printed. Okay, great. All right, so we're done with number nine.
Okay, now we're going to backtrack. Thank you for your patience, everyone. I appreciate that. I just wanted to bring that forward because I know sometimes people might have had questions about the DPW and I did not want to them to think one thing and then we go and change it right there after. So, uh we are here
for public comments. Anyone in the room? Don't all jump at once. Okay. Uh, okay. Uh, I see Liz Tyler's hand raised. I'm just before I take your comments, Liz, I'm just going to say if anyone else on the Zoom has a comment at this time for
public comments, please raise your hand under the reaction button. Although Zoom likes to change things, so I'm sure I'm probably getting it wrong. So, just please raise your hand and we can um acknowledge you and hear your comment. And if for some reason you do not get heard, please also feel free to contact
the town manager's office and we can read your comment in at another time via email as well. That is also an option. So Liz Tyler, uh you can unmute yourself and you can give us your comment this evening. Welcome. Just uh name and address.
>> Dr. Liz Tyler, 17 New Orleans Street. I'd like to work with you to protect our drinking water supply. Um, this is a plea
to you as the only elected official, the select board who we can speak to uh about the water department. There are no meetings.
Um, every other department has a um a board. We have a board of health with um members. We have a conservation commission. We have a zone a zoning board. Um we have numerous other boards.
But for our water, which affects every single resident of Hollist every single day, um there is no recourse to a board.
Um, I want to focus uh specifically on the um issues that could be addressed, I hope will be addressed with regard to the 40B. Um, the water department has been silent
since October as far as I know. Um, I should say it wasn't the water department at the time, it was the select board. Um, and there's a presumption that the D has the last word on a 40B application,
but that is not true. As you saw in the uh copy of the Stow decision, in the Stow situation, the project's single septic system would have to be would
have been in close proximity to drinking water wells used by an abuing affordable housing complex and other single family residences. And that was a uh certainly a 30 it was
a 37 unit apartment building and we are talking about a 250 unit rental unit. the n the 194 land street. The entire complex is on the very shallow less than
20 feet aquifer in zone 2 of three of Holliston's wells producing 70% of our drinking water. Where are the public meetings of the water department providing info into the re for the residents? There are no
public meetings yet. The elected elected officials that should provide opportunities to keep the public informed are the select board. Perhaps you may want to just consider if the select board does not have time to deal
with water issues. Perhaps you should consider going back to our previous situation where we had water commissioners. We need the residents need to have access to some elected officials about this very important
commodity. The agenda for the April 27th that's tonight's meeting includes requests for agenda items. So, I'm requesting that you place the effect of 194 land on our
drinking water onto the agenda. >> Okay. Uh I'm asking you uh because we need one of the details is that
194 land is going to produce 46,000 gallons of effluent that are going to flow into our aquifer and flow directly to well number five. I have sent you all
this map and it's very clear that um well number five is here >> right here and the direction of this water flow is directly to well number five. Well number five is
the most productive of our wells. Um, and you know, if the agenda can include and you have time to think about liquor licenses, hall rentals, then maybe that's something that the town manager could do and you wouldn't have
to discuss it at your meetings. I just think that um, you personally know I know in our neighborhood there are concerns about the quality of our water. Um, everyone in my neighborhood has
either a filter or they and someone just told me she was moving over to reverse osmosis or they buy bottled water. There are concerns. This is a health issue and the water department. I'm asking you
to put this on the agenda so we know what is the water department doing? What kind of tests are they doing? How do they know that this 46,000 gallons of effluent is going to be is not going to
damage our the quality of our drinking water? What kind of tests have they done? >> Okay. All right. We can we can put it on a a future agenda to discuss. We don't we don't have it tonight, so we don't really have a lot to say at this time,
but we can put it on a future agenda. I would really appreciate that you put this important issue on the agenda. >> Okay. >> Uh specifically how it deals with the 194 Land Street. >> Understood. Thank you. Uh is that is
that uh Thank you, Liz. Appreciate it. >> Are there any other public comments tonight? Uh I see a raised hand on Ellen. If you could uh unmute yourself and give us your name and address and your public comment this evening. Sure. My name is Alan Trollland. I live at 101
Maryland Street and I want to speak to that water issue as well. I tried to get some information from Mr. Reese. I sent him an email. I wondered, you know, I asked him um in an email. Um I said, I wondered if you had done
any studies about whether our current system can handle the increased demand created by these apartments that are being offered by the state. Also, it would be nice to have current testing over there for current state of toxic fervor chemicals as a baseline. Are there any plans to do that before the meeting? I that was referring to a
meeting that was happening on on the 11th but the 11th probably of April. And his response to me was I am in charge of the water system. We can meet the anticipated pumping capacity and are in compliance with PFAS PFOS sampling. We
will not be doing any additional PFAS testing in the area. Again, please bring it forth your questions regarding this project to the public forums that we'll be having. Yes, there are multiple decisions to be made regarding public pedestrian safety and the project
itself. Please use the link to see all current information. And I replied that was an inadequate response because I'm a lay person that just had questions about the water, which has been an issue since 2013. I'm not drinking the water. I'm buying water in I'm paying for water
infrastructure improvements. I just hope somebody takes charge of this issue and speaks to the ZBA so they know what a concern it is for us because if it's not presented by the water people it's just going to get passed and it should this is our water supply that we rely on. We
just can't hook up on NW the staff of a thing. It would take a huge expense and huge construction and we're already building our you know pipes in the water. we have enough construction going on. >> Okay, >> that's all I wanted to say. And I I feel like there's a lot say fair attitude
among board of health too because they're like, "Oh, the D, we trust that they'll do a good job." It doesn't involve us. We're not the experts. These are quotes from various members and when we participate, it just doesn't seem like they take it serious enough. >> Okay,
>> that's my that's my final comment. I just appreciate you letting me talk. Thank you. >> Thank you, Ellen. Thank you for your comments tonight. >> Uh any other public comments this evening? All right. Hearing none, we're going to
move on to select board member updates. All right, Tina. >> Sure. Uh so on Saturday I attended the garden club hall and garden club Tree City USA and Arbor Day celebration read the proclamation. So many thanks to
Donna Muzzy uh for helping to draft that and and prepare it for a very nice presentation to again the Hollison Garden Club. The flag was flying Patrice City USA. That was great to see. there was a a huge crowd uh and they uh
planted a new tupelo tree um to the right of the pavilion as you're looking at and uh it was very nice. But what they also called out was the work that the garden club has been doing related to Tree City USA. So I'm going to share
just one two tidbits of uh fun fact here in Hollist. We have two trees of distinction that have been recognized I think by the Arbor Day foundation. They received some formal recognition um a bit like historic preservation kind of
recognition um or historic structure. One is the moon tree in front of the police station and the second is a silver maple that is on I think the corner of School Street and Mechanic Street. But it has a diameter of over 16
ft and is 350 years old. So I wanted to just pass that along. But many thanks to the Hollison Garden Club for doing the work that they do here in Hollston. I was pleased to represent the board in the town um and present the proclamation. I'll be, like I mentioned before, Wednesday at 1 PM at the center
with members of the Hollson School Committee to talk about the school building committee um being created and looking for uh membership. And then wanted to check in too with the two of you about both the police memorial event. I think it's Friday the 9th. Is that right? I was
>> No, it's the 15th. >> The 15th. Thank you. Uh so the event to go to the cemetery with the police. >> I'm I'm planning to attend. >> You are planning to attend? >> I'm planning to attend. Just wanted to make sure one of us, if not more, were going to be there. And then, do we want to talk about the Memorial Day parade? Um, I've got my calendar wide open. So,
>> I may be open at that point. I'll double check. >> Yeah, I >> I think um >> I would probably probably looking to attend. Um Okay. >> I think so. We can uh >> maybe we can talk about it at town
meeting and uh decide we have a little bit more uh clarity and then we can decide at that point who's good. the speech. >> Okay, that's all I have for uh subboard updates for me. >> A few things I want to chat about. Um, interestingly, one of them is 194 Lman
Street. >> Okay, >> so um might come as a bit of a surprise because I generally am in favor of highdensity housing and I'm not even against that location. I think it would be a fine use of it. Um, but after having looked into a little bit, I do have some slight concerns about the aquifer district and the well five
issues. Okay. Um, as you guys already know, the MAS EP, they did have a review, I think it was in January, and I'm sorry if I don't have the details wrong. This is all kind of flowing, but they did flag kind of um oil odors and stained soil in the area. And I'm thinking about the size of the septic
system that would go in there. And I'm I'm kind of curious to know I I actually don't know who would cover the costs, but I'd be interested in doing a contaminant transport study. Say, under these conditions, do the contaminants move in place? I really don't know. maybe we don't need a study for that. Um, I also believe that the developer
has proposed water resource recovery facility. So, it's not a pure septic system. It's kind of like the gold standard of septic systems. Again, not my area. I'll defer to other people in town who know that a little bit better. Um but even so there is a ton of effluent and you know I I'm aware of
other technologies that might be better and that we might be able to either insist on or ask for like membrane bioreactors which are really very good at filtering out a lot of these uh harmful chemicals that might come through a surge system. Um and I think it'll be it'll be interesting to tackle
those a little bit more headon. I do think that the D is trying to do its best and I actually do feel fairly comfortable deferring to them on quite a lot of issues, but I it seems like maybe a little bit of an extra push or us being a little bit more vocal might yield better results. I don't know where
to where I want to begin with that, but I'm just letting you all know that it's been on my mind a little bit. Um I don't know if I'm in a position to lead the charge on that per se, but there are some questions I want to start to provoke um just to make sure that if there are opportunities for improvements to that plan that we open. That's that's basically it. So, I I'll pause there if
anyone wants to chat about that. >> Well, hearing what you're saying, I'm just wondering about a select board um effort from one of the three of us to attend the ZBA hearing so we're tracking what's going on better. I mean, we always have the opportunity to watch a recording after and we certainly
communicate with others about before and after, but um in the past we've done that. It town meeting prep can be a heavy lift. >> Yes, absolutely. uh and certainly coming out of the budget season, but I wonder moving forward if that's not a good thing is to have representation from the
select board on the ZBA hearings to track and so when when residents show up to make comments were informed, one of us is informed to that level of detail. Yeah. >> Um is that something you'd be interested in doing? It's it's a heavy lift. >> Maybe the conversation after the after
we t I'm certainly somewhat open to it. I'm not an expert in this field though, which is what concerns me, right? So, I've had to do a lot of back filling of my own knowledge and my confidence level of my own knowledge is fairly low there. Um, it's just one of those things where >> as I'm putting together pieces, I'm like, well, there's probably there's
probably a bit more that could be done. Whether or not we can extract that bit more from the powers that be or if we would have to take responsibility for it is the question that I actually am not sure about municipal wise. So, I'll have to look into that a little. Yeah, I think I think probably the question becomes I mean we certainly have a conversation about it in in a in a in a
an agenda and I think there's no question that that's that's a totally reasonable thing to do. I think my um I think we have to get a little bit of clarity on what kind of conversations we can have in this case because 40Bs are so particular. Exactly.
And it's not I mean certainly we you know we did provide information and then in in the letter that was provided that said you know we're concerned about this but I think we do need to sort of understand you know what is our role here. Has the ZBA solicited from others? Do they want us to give them a letter? Do they want us to give them like what kind of
information is appropriate to give to them to give to residents? I mean certainly for residents I think there could be an opportunity for a forum there >> um to have that conversation and we've done similar kinds of things about traffic and different kinds of locations but I think we're um I'd like to get some clarity is to understand um what
kind of product we can give to the ZBA if any you know do they want to get a technical letter do they want what kinds of things but we certainly can solicit feedback and give them that opportunity but uh for for residents but I think my concern in there isn't isn't giving
people that chance. It's more that, you know, if we're getting the same information that the ZBA is already getting, >> you know, we're just, you know, it's not necessarily adding to something. But, I mean, certainly from our perspective, like if they want to hear from us as a
board and and input, you know, I think that's reasonable, but if we're just sort of collecting more public comments about it, they're getting that. And I and I don't I don't that's not really going to add um value or really gonna move the needle significantly is as important as public comment is. It's
just not you know we want it to be we want to be adding and feel um generating conversation and helping things move forward not just doing the same thing. >> Brian Winter updated this board gave a presentation on how we how we work
through as a town how we work through a 40B application. Is it worth in your mind, Ben and Damon, getting maybe some input from Brian Wy on what's allowed under MGL, Mass General Law, for select boards to weigh in on or participate in first as like a a gate?
>> I mean, I think he gave us a document. I think he gave us a document and I think we have some information and I think that is certainly something we could certainly follow up with, but I would start with just with the ZBA just to say to them, you know, I know they've gotten I was just looking at the their stuff and they got some feedback from other
boards, you know, like I know I I've heard other communities doing this when it comes to the 40B is they'll have like, hey, today we're going to talk about traffic. We want to have input about traffic. This is the thing we have that consultant, you know, blah blah blah. are they doing something similar or are they just kind
of, you know, so that way we can add a piece to the conversation at the right time rather than just, you know, putting it out in the ether and not really being part of the conversation. So, I think I would just want to get some clarity on from the ZBA and I think we can
>> um one of the things like to to Tina's point, what I'll do is I'll collect all their summaries and minutes and then I can sort of figure out like what have they talked about so far and what is going on. we can have like a a general summary from that. >> I feel like I just made homework for you. I didn't that wasn't my
>> honestly. It took me five minutes. So, it's not it's not that hard. So, I'm sorry I hijacked your but I think I think it is something we should talk about, but I think we should go in with the understanding of what we're actually going to produce from the conversation and it you know and I think that's something that we need to be able to have >> and where we can actually have impact
>> and if we want to if we're able to have impact how and what is the the right way to to approach that to make sure that it is impactful. Uh I have another point. So just a quick a quick heads up on this something I've been working on. I've been speaking with Frank about it. Um problem statement. We
tend to evaluate capital expenditures um a little bit in isolation. And I think that we three have a pretty good sense of kind of like what the the costs and benefits are of various capital expenditures. Everything from a very small thing, you know, park benches, whatnot, uh sidewalks, all the way to
gigantic things like TPW and the school. Um, but I've been trying to figure out if there's a way we can make this information a little bit more public. And so I've been working on a scoring mechanism drawn a little bit uh from my corporate background but kind of fleshed out from municipality. Um, and I at some
point I will have Frank circulate some ideas. is I need to figure out how to do that because I guess it's sort offormational not yet a policy discussion but the idea is essentially to have a system that I'm calling price which is a combin basically a number generated from population served um risk
of inaction or deferment uh impact per resident served uh confidence in the documentation behind the project and the effective cost met of any grants relative to our spending borrowing capacity and the idea would be that um although that sounds complicated it would be like for any capital
expenditure We could basically chart on a one to five scale the impact of all of those factors and that would come up with a number that would give us a relative prioritization for how important something is. It's not a decision-making engine. It's not a thing that we'd say, oh that's a five, that's more important than a four. But it would give us a way to talk about it and to
actually say things like, oh, we see that although this is a a very large expenditure, it affects 90% of the population versus this thing over here which accept you like impacts 50% but maybe has a smaller cost balance. I'm I'm personally like hungry for something
like this because I find that our constituents, other boards and committees, and we ourselves often talk about things based on like a gut reckoning of how important something is. And I trust our gut reckoning, but I think it leaves us in a weird political position where when we start to get into the granularity of what should take
priority, we don't really have numbers at Helm to have that conversation. And so I'd like to have something like that, even if it's just something that we use as a board. And maybe it doesn't work, but based on my eyeballing, it probably means somewhere between like 10 and 23 projects a year uh might be able to be
charted this way. And it could just be an Excel spreadsheet just a way for us to have a conversation about what's worth spending a lot on, what's worth borrowing for. Do giant two giant things like a DPW and a high school really like converge? Are they are they things that need to fight for money? What do we do? These are real questions and we're going
to have to answer them. And right now, I think we are basically going on our own gut reckoning and internal knowledge of what things are worth. I'd like to expose these things and make numbers real and visible for people. >> Okay. >> Just something I'm working on. >> I see it as a great community engagement tool. Like when we go into a public
forum or we are presenting something new, uh it's a great way to present to the public, you know, why why this project? I see that as useful. I see it as a something to consider in much more detail potentially as we set priorities
for the year ahead. um you know once we reorganize for the next fiscal year, right? Because we're going to reorganize. Yeah. Anyway, fiscal year that it's a it's a way in which we frame the decisions for the year ahead. I think that's an appropriate time to have a conversation like that. Um
>> I'm not precious about it, by the way. Like I don't I don't have like a to the idea, but I'm yearning for something that >> kind of exposes our priors on things. You were also articulating thoughts that you hear often from residents like which is basically why this why why why is
this a priority for the town to spend money on and how much money is it going to cost and why are we doing it. So no I think it's it's a clever way important way to think about things. >> Yeah. I think the the hard part of of these kinds of things and you're kind of getting alluding to it. One of the
challenges we wind up having is that we we're we're very good at talking out. We're not good at talking horizontally. >> Yeah. So in the mind of one board, this is the most important thing in the poss in the universe and this is something we
have to critically work on and another board says this is something so critical and important and then we wind up all kind of bringing it to residents and hoping that they can parse through it and there needs to be some kind of mechanism and I think we have uh work to do on that on that end um to to get
there. I think my only concern about some of those things I think it's a great idea. My concern sometimes is that we wind up be the metric becomes the focus instead of a tool within it, you know, and so I think we just want to be careful >> um with with some of those things and I
you know you see it sometimes where you know like uh school testing you know like that the school testing was meant to be a metric to measure success and it wind up becoming the most important thing that you know that everybody like work towards. So the metrics become the thing. So I I'm not saying that's what it's going to happen, but I just my you
know I I perk up a little bit because if we're using it, I think it could be useful, but if we start evaluating, well, we evaluated your project and you're not under our under our jurisdiction and we think your project is less important. It sort of can I I think there I think there's other logistics, but I think, you know, from a
conceptual standpoint, I think it's a very interesting >> Yeah, the trick is to make it as objective as possible. So it's not like sentiment analysis like of course mine is a five. It's got to be like a specific number as some kind of a threshold probably logarithmically but we'll more to come. >> Cool. >> Yeah, I think it's I think it's a cool idea and I think we need to explore it
and figure out ways to to use it. >> Um that's it. >> Okay. >> Uh I got two things. Uh my Wednesday is very busy. I have uh we have a an OPED trust meeting on Wednesday afternoon. >> Um we'll go through that. I'm not Is the
uh is our consultant coming for that or is it just going to be us talking? I believe it's just us. Uh I can double check with Chris. >> Okay. But yeah, we have to do it every year. Go through it. It's the chair of the um select board, the chair of the school committee, um
uh the treasurer, the town manager, and >> chair of the finance committee. >> No, he's not he can't he he can be part of it, but he can't vote. Oh. >> Uh because by by law, he can't he's not a member. >> Uh a voting member. >> There's also an appointed member on >> And there is an appointed member. Yes,
there is an atlarge resident. >> You can designate Damon. >> H. >> No, you can't. The bylaw specifically states it's the chair because we tried that one year and we got in trouble for that. I >> think I just got volunteer specifically. >> No, because we try we did try we tried to do exactly that. >> Just making sure you're awake.
>> We designated we designated somebody and uh we got in trouble because we had to do it again. >> Did you not offer Tina the crawler? >> I did. I know. >> It's not even after nine. you suggest one framework and like under the bus. >> So, >> do you want to work?
And then the other thing is uh Envisioning Future Charleston is going to meet on Wednesday evening as well and we'll go through yeah got a busy day going through a couple different things and uh going to uh I think part of my pro uh my presentation for town meeting
I intend to sort of incorporate a little bit of the strategic plan and uh the pillars of the strategic plan in the uh the presentation to make sure that people are aware of it and uh make it as part of how things are looked at. >> So, uh just bringing those forward and
then um I don't we don't have a meeting next week. So, our next meeting will be May 11th before telling >> and we were talking about a a public forum. We're not doing that, of course, because it was specific to article 20. Okay. >> Exactly. >> Uh all right, warrants.
>> Okay. So, we have two warrants signed uh since our last meeting. Uh April 13th and 1,38,48583. Another on April the 21st 2,495,939. I also want to acknowledge a $400 donation from the Hollison Superet for
the cent's uh nutrition fund as well as a $1,000 gift from Hollison Oil for the Hollston Trails Committee gift account. So, very generous gifts from both of those organizations. >> Thank you very much. Okay. >> Comments from the town manager. >> Okay. I got to skip last week. So, uh a
few things to uh update the committee on this evening. Uh very pleased to announce that this coming Friday, May 1st, Congressman James McGovern will visit us here at town hall to talk about the importance of the downtown sewer initiative and highlight the federal funding that he's been able to secure
for the project so far. We'll start right out here in front of town hall to hear from town officials, Senate President Karen Spiloka, Representative James Arena D. Rosa, and the congressman obviously. Uh, and then we'll proceed towards the downtown to view the proposed district and the potential that
it offers. Please join us if you are interested in learning more. I also want to start tonight by thanking the Dull Men's Club for having me again last week. It was my pleasure to speak to this group about the issues that the town will be discussing and voting on at the May 2026 town meeting. This was my
second time meeting with the group and I'm already looking forward to the third later this year. If you're interested in learning more about the Dull Men's Club, contact the center and learn when their next meeting is. I'm sure they'll put you in touch with Ed. Just a awesome time and I'm encourage anyone who's interested in attending to do so. Uh, if
you are a member of a town board or committee, please consider joining us on April the 28th at noon or May 5th at 7 PM for a DEI training webinar, an offering to help the town meet its goals outlined in the strategic plan. The town
has partnered with equity inclusion inclusion specialists to host these two webinars. The sessions will focus on helping board and committee members to support a welcoming and inclusive community through their own strategic work. For additional information, please contact town manager's office. And also
a special shout out to Cheryl for getting all this together. >> Thank you. >> This coming Friday, um I will be sitting down for an episode of Just Thinking that will be released, I'm assuming shortly after that following week to go over the town meeting warrant. So keep your eyes peeled for that. Uh this
Saturday is Hollist History Day. to join us on in Blair Square from 1 to 4 for historic walking tours of the rail trail and to learn more about the history of the rail in Hollston and to spend an afternoon seeing what incredible local businesses downtown Hollist has to offer. Um, a number of businesses will
be offering specials, so keep an eye on the town website to learn what those are. Rushford and Suns will be donating $1 for every Hollison IPA sold to the Hollison Historical Society. TC Scoops will have a $5 ice cream special and uh we're also promoting a farewell event of
sorts for the Hollist Grill. We'll be closing its doors sometime in May. Uh so stop by to say farewell um to them as well. Uh looking ahead to town meeting, a reminder that this May's town meeting will be held on May 11th at the high school beginning promptly at 7 p.m. So
please arrive early to allow time for check-in. The town election will take place the following week on Tuesday, May 19th from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The deadline to register to vote is May 1st, and the deadline to apply to vote by mail is May 12th. There will be no
inerson early voting for the town election. Please contact the town clerk's office for additional questions or concerns. That is the town manager update for April 27th, 2026. To stay up to date with town events, please subscribe to the town hall digest for recaps of select board meetings,
important dates and deadlines, and more. >> That's all you got. >> Thank you. >> All right, moving on to request to approve the one-day beer and wine permit for September 17th in Upper Town Hall from 4:30 to 10 for Celebrate Hollist Citizen
of the Year Awards. I know they did this at Buchiis back in the day, but uh no Buchiis, so here we are. >> Whatever happened to >> I have no comments on that except to say it's a great event.
>> Awesome. >> All right. Um >> move to approve the one day beer and wine permit for the 17th of September upper town hall uh 4310 for the celebrate Hollist citizen of the year awards. >> Seconded. >> All those in favor? >> Yes. >> Yes. Yes.
>> And there was a request to wave the uh the license fee for said event. >> We have that under both 13 and 14 under our consent agenda. Would you like to leave it there or call it out specially? >> Oh, whoops.
>> Um well, the other one has uh uh we called it out. I think we can do that because I think uh the other the other request for waiver fees was the holiday stroller vendor space. So, there was two. >> Oh, there were two events. I'm seeing I didn't read all the way. Okay. All
right. So, move to uh wave the permit fee for a one-day beer and wine permit for the Celebrate Holl Citizen of the Year award on the 17th. >> Second. All those in favor? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yep. >> All right. Um
>> Celebrate Hollist. >> Yes. Any objections to the consent agenda? The only thing will change is that the um C will only be for the um waiver of fees for the holiday stroll vendor space. >> Okay. And I was wondering if we could
just read Sarah Barude. She's also on Sarah on the call. Oh, there she is. >> There she is. And uh yeah, uh uh Sarah, welcome. You don't have to say anything if you don't want to. You're certainly welcome to if you'd like to. Um we if you don't mind we could read your letter
um for your appointment to youth and family services advisory board. Um if you're amendable to that. >> Sure. Hi happy to be here. Thanks for having me. >> Thank you Sarah. Uh Tina you want to >> Oh Sarah would you like to read or would you like me to? Your choice.
>> I don't have it in front of me so that >> in Sarah Birut's voice which we just hear. Uh, dear select board members, I am delighted to be submitting my letter of intent to join the Hollist Youth and Family Services Advisory Committee. Um, comment here. I can't think of a better person, Sarah. Uh, I grew up in Milford,
Mass and have been a Hollist resident since 2011. My husband and I have two children in the Holl public schools, currently in kindergarten, second grade. I am a clinical social worker and received my master's degree in social work uh in 2010 from Simmons University. That's why I like you so much because I'm also an alum, Sarah. Um, I have
worked in outpatient settings and have learned a great deal about municipalities, having worked at Westwood Youth and Family Services for seven years as a clinician supervisor and interim director. Currently, I have my own private practice with the specialty in perinatal uh, mental health. I'm a I am proud to serve as a
treasurer for the mass chapter of postpartum support international. I'm a big believer in the importance of both macro and micro social work to best support people with community and communities. Advocating for policy change at the state level to improve maternal health outcomes is also important to me. I believe I would bring
a strong blend of perspective to this committee from both personal and professional lenses. Thank you for your consideration, Sarah Brood. >> Fantastic. >> Awesome. >> Um, I will make a motion to appoint Sarah. >> I'll happily second it. >> Okay. >> All right. All those in favor?
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> For a term to expire June 27th. >> Yes. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you very much for uh submitting your Sarah. Thanks everyone. I appreciate it. >> We appreciate you. Thank you. >> All right. Um and so let's take uh uh B
D and the citizen of the year waiver fees. >> Okay. And Frank, we do not have to call out uh B for there's no need for a public hearing on that. >> It's a junk license, I think. I think that's different than it's not it's not a um we're not talking about a um
>> um automobile sales. The junk licenses are handled. Uh, okay. We can, if you want me to triple check, I can pop. >> Nope. Nope. That sounds familiar. Uh, move to approve the consent agenda as presented. B, C, and D. >> Seconded. >> All right. All those in favor? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes.
>> All right. Other business, Tina. >> Um, so a couple things. I absolutely would like to see a museful building committee considered sooner rather than later. I'm thinking, what I'm thinking is to bring back the DPW article to town meeting, ideally October, although
whenever it's appropriate, um to have a school building, uh excuse me, a municipal building committee to back up to be engaged if if timelines allow. I understand October might be tight, but I I just feel like it is the step in the right direction for not only the DPW
project, but for some of the things that uh Damon was bringing up in terms of the overall capital needs for the town and some long range planning. It just makes a lot of sense to me. So, how and when that conversation starts, I'm eager to have it on a municipal building
committee. Uh I also wanted to just follow up in pulling the DPW article and pulling article 20 uh from the warrant right move on a number of different fronts. One of those which we didn't talk about is that the the finance committee voted 70 not to recommend that article. Uh we need to re-engage with
them on the reasons why they did not recommend the article. That's significant. Had article 20 stayed in the warrant. They did they didn't recommend moving forward because of the funding model uh because we went 60% in the override and they felt that there was too much being put onto the uh the
capital uh on a real basis. >> Sure. Um I think that there that this is something we need to re-engage with them on uh and so I would look to start those conversations earlier rather than sooner with an expectation that as an advisory
committee they're they're helping create solutions. Um I will speak for myself personally that was a significant surprise to have a 70 recommendation against uh which just speaks to me like Tina you have to be more proactive and the engagement has to start sooner. So
would look to do that with our decision tonight to pull the article. It seems like a great opportunity to engage with the finance committee and I hope they're open to that. I'm sure they are. Uh to your point Ben on the reasons why they they recommended against it's not the DBW project it was the funding mechanism
and model. So, let's get that conversation started, too. Um, those would be my two uh things for other business that I don't think either one are a next agenda item, next um agenda item, except this final one. And perhaps we can put it on the agenda for town
meeting night where we meet um just to update the traffic rules and regulations. >> Sure. >> We have language ready to go for that. But you and I can connect. But if I could just put a placeholder. >> Yes. for the May 11th uh meeting that >> if there's going to be changes, I'd
probably rather prefer it would be something not before town meeting. >> Okay. They're administrative, but um >> if they're just administrative, like we're just not like we're just doing like as is. I mean, it might be, you know, >> well, what to send the draft out?
>> Yeah. Just to sort of see like what are the changes that are coming just in case that people want to be able to see what they're >> we can put as a placeholder either May 11th or one after that if you prefer. I I I think just want to make sure we're not doing something that uh uh >> no up and down. >> Yeah. I don't I want people to have a
chance to uh to know what's what's going on. >> Fair enough. >> That's it. That's all I guess there's three things. >> Okay. >> Nothing major on my end. I sent a request to Frank about uh something for next meeting related to the Lions Club, but I think I've yapped enough. So, nothing. >> Okay. >> All right. I don't have anything either. Frank, you have any? >> I'm good.
>> Sure. >> No. >> All right. I'll take a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved at 9:10. >> Seconded. >> All right. All those in favor? >> Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. We are adjourned. Thank you very much. We will next be in session on May 11th at before town meeting at the library uh at 6
o'clock. So have a wonderful evening. >> Okay. >> And we will see you at town meeting. Thank you.