##VIDEO ID:GscLxWszkG4## great thank you okay good evening we'll go ahead and call the or call to order the select board meeting for January 7th 2025 happy New Year uh Mr Manan will be participating remotely this evening all other members of the select board are present for this meeting at town hall room 215 216 and are in person at this time I will ensure that the select board members participating remotely can be heard loud and clear Mr Manan are you out there can you hear us okay I am Mr chair can you hear me okay yeah love the background very festive thank you Happy New Year happy New Year Happy New Year to you as well the public has the option of attending in person here at town hall or via zoom using a link posted in this meeting's agenda this meeting is being recorded all votes will be taken by roll call Vote with that we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance please I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for it stands one nation under indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you second item on the agenda public forum residents are invited to share ideas opinions or ask questions regarding their town government sir name and address please it's New Year some people may have forgotten Ken Weiss Manel 145 Ash Street let me start with a quick update on Wellhead protection uh the resident sand and salt pile at Fruit Street now has a tar covering part of the pile that's an improvement and a row of silk protection in front of it however because salt is so very solvable in water the sil protection probably offers little protection from the salt leeching into the aquifer and the tarp is not really compliant with the water protection bylaw which requires salt piles to be put in an enclosed structure the Legacy North Salt piles are still not in conformance with the water protection bylaw and the open space restrictions that they're located on in fact the salt is spread into a drainage ditch and into the parking areas on the North side now switching hats I would be happy to meet with the select board as chair of the community preservation committee to discuss our adapted playground recommendation I watched the video of your joint meeting with the school committee and the Appropriations Committee several statements were not quite factual first of all the CPC funding for the dog park was not a million doll project we spent a $130,000 on the initial dog park with a grant of $250 from another foundation and we're now trying to put some shade and some benches in for another $60,000 uh for the dog park second was there was kind of a misimpression on the sequence of requests for funding from the school department the first year the school asked for a million dollars for a regular playground to help supplement the needs of the marathon school because the school edition need with more kids needed more playground space and the CPC said you know with EMC Park next door this really benefits the educational part of um and therefore should be paid for out of school funds so we said no that year the next year they came back for a million doll for the mar a school uh playground at Marathon for adaptive playground uh we discussed that a lot we approved $100,000 for the design and a location study as CPC members were not really sure that the marathon was the right location and quite frankly we hoped that there would be a lower costs after they did some engineering well after the engineering we were presented with the same location and a higher cost so the location issue I think was addressed for the majority of the members not all of them but the majority majority of them however the school location does limit Public Access which is kind of one of our criteria uh for approving projects and um you know and and again if the payments if the playground serves the educational needs then it should be funded by School uh School funds I did some research on the other 45 CPC communities that spent money on a Dept to playgrounds we have a project that is roughly $1,320 th000 only two of the 45 cost more than that and quite frankly the scope on the one that cost the most had outdoor classrooms and was about three four times the size of of ours and and and three or four times the price most of those um so there was only four over a million dollars of the 45 CPC contributions were mostly in the $ 100 to $500,000 range and that is also typical that CPC funds only part of the project they get grants or town funding for the for the balance um the members of CPC have heard the select board's direction to carefully look at wants and needs and make hard choices we have several big opportunities including Center School reuse and we've looked at what CPC could contribute to the Adaptive playground to add on to CPC debt that limits future CPC projects we do not want to get our ratio of debt too high it is not an un debt is not an unlimited amount uh unlike the federal government 8% of our current project fe uh funds already go for The Debt Service of the high school Field improvements uh that we did several years ago so we were 8% is already funded thank you very much and we' be willing to meet with you at your next meeting great thank you thank you thanks can anybody else for public comment please good evening I won't waste too much of your time I know we're supposed to only do two minutes uh my name is Jen Halliday I'm here here not as the CPAC chair I'm here as a resident of four Hill Street so surely they can't mean the schools too I have to say I was deeply concerned with this new plan to slash the proposed school budget directive by nearly three qus to just 1.3% I mean we're halfway through this budget process that was started in good faith and from what I understand the directive was 5% so let's be clear education really isn't a place for cost cutting experiments our teachers work tirelessly every day often without recognition or support that they deserve to cut the funding especially after they've already worked to prepare a budget it sends a message that either we don't respect the effort and time of our Educators or education and Hopkinton is Expendable and imagine the best school district in the Commonwealth the the ripple effect of this will extend far beyond on the classroom this directive it doesn't even cover the uh cost of inflation for salaries so what that means I hope the community understands what that means because what that would mean is the town will be doing nothing to support the growth of what is the fastest growing School District in the Commonwealth and on top of that there'd be no choice but to cut programs and teachers that we have right now how long are we going to drag this out because eventually you're going to pit our community against one another and that erods our trust in you and you were elected to find Solutions not to balance the budget at the expense of our kids okay so if funding is short explore other avenues is there free cash somewhere do you have money tucked aside you know save it for a rainy day kind of thing I'm happy to come and help you find it but don't Target our children's education cutting the budget directive now will inevitably lead to increased teacher turnover and instability it just hurts our students especially those with special needs so I'm urging you reconsider this decision prioritize our schools our Educators and the future of our kids education is an investment it's not a needless expense and don't make us question whether we're prioritizing short-term savings over the long-term investment in our students so let's face it people don't move to hopkington for the snow clearing or the water I'm not saying it's not important I'm just saying it's different and it shouldn't be lumped in our education system shouldn't be just lumped in with all the other Town departments because they're not the same so we need to prioritize accordingly thank you thank you anybody else okay seeing none we'll move ahead item number three the consent agenda there are three items on the consent agenda this evening there's minutes from December 17 2024 the select board next item new employees the select board will consider confirming the town manager's appointment of Salis to Souza as custodial maintenance worker the second shift and we have a gift here a couple of gifts uh accepting a gift of $2,000 from the mesit Horticultural Foundation to be be evenly split between two projects in town and a donation from the genen family to use towards the library maker space in the amount of $500 does anybody want to break anything out from the consent agenda hearing none uh does anybody want to provide a motion to approve the consent agenda as submitted I move we accept the consent agenda as read okay second we have a motion and a second any discussion on the motion M Le frer how do you vote frer votes yes Brian her votes yes Joe Clark yes yes Mr Manan yes thank you okay it's unanimous and so carries all set there item number sorry go ahead I just want to add thanks to the people who've made these gifts and donations to the town absolutely we appreciate it and certainly a letter would go out saying that correct yeah okay uh item number four the annual license renewal the select board consider renewing the common vict is licensed for Angels Hilltop Cafe 285 West Main Street any discussion Elaine anything you want to provide specific to this item number no it's just a a separate agenda item from the other renewals because it came in after your last meeting okay for the record I go there fairly often and get the raspberry twist uh so there's a conflict there with me and that I really like the Las raspberry twist and I want to keep them going I like the muffin tops but I'm not going to recuse myself over raspberry twist okay you like the muffin tops any other feedback good to go all right so the chair will entertain a motion to approve the annual license renewal of the common Vic's license for Angels Hilltop Cafe I move to renew okay thank you I move to renew the common Victory license for Angels Hilltop Cafe 285 West Main Street okay and a second second great any discussion on the motion M the FR here how do you vote please FR here votes yes Brian her votes yes Joe Clark yes am yes Mr Man man yes great thank you all right it's unanimous and so carries item number five board and committee appointments 6:20 p.m. we're a little early uh so I think we should wait till 6:20 p.m or after to make sure we have everybody that might want to participate or see this um so let's move move in to the budget update um I think we could do that now uh Ela what do you think about that I think we are we we waiting for a school committee Representatives we have a school Committee Member here I think is anybody else coming KY do know they in most of them are in negotiations right now yeah we can't wait on that so that'll go on all night I'm sorry it's not they're not coming so you think you're good to go right now all right if you would please kylo you can come up too K KY Square never happens okay Elaine please so um at um last week's budget Advisory Group meeting uh we discussed um changes to the sources and uses document um which um Kyla has I did distribute this evening um and since our last meeting uh when we discussed um the $4.5 million deficit we did uh reach out to town departments and ask them to look at their budgets again and submit something with no greater than a 1.3% increase so the town departments um responded um and provided their information to us by yesterday and so Kyla and I will be reviewing that tomorrow and so we'll be going through through uh everything that was received from town departments it wasn't necessarily A directive to the schools it was to all Town departments but Kyla can explain where that 1.3% came from so we're continuing on the in the budget process to look at all of the budgets and to make sure that everything is um you know we have to get to a balanced budget one way or another um and all services are important and we'll be looking at those and coming up with um you know ways we can get to a a BAL Balan budget okay thank you so K yeah the version that you have of the sources and uses does it have a deficit of 3 million or 4 million I did hand it out this evening 3 million and there's copies here for 3,66 that's the most updated one so there have been changes so it's improving which is the good news going in the right direction um I'll call out some highlights so um you'll see a r ction in state aid so it's actually flat to fy2 the reason for that is that we're hearing feedback from the do um that there could be a reduction in 26 not an increase as we originally um forecasted so I'm carrying it flat until we have more information it's not a significant change but it's it's a change nonetheless um we added in the meals tax so there's an additional $100,000 in here um we may use it to fund Economic Development I know that's been discussed but we wanted to include it as the revenue Source we reduced the amount of um the repayment of principal and interest that reduction included Enterprise money to begin with so the water and sewer is responsible to pay back their own debt however if they do not have money in their retained earnings the town is ultimately responsible to pay back that principal and interest so right now it's not included in the 11.9 it was included in the 13 million originally what was it originally 13 13 something yeah yeah 13 and change so the department um budget estimates have not been adjusted to the 1.3% elain and I will take a look at that tomorrow but the numbers here do represent the decrease in the special education Reserve fund which was not noted by the school committee prior to Christmas as well as the exact amount of their budget that we all um saw before Christmas so those are the material changes um it is important to know that the free cash will be certified by next week so the do is working on it we are eighth in the queue but they expect to have it completed next week um but there are there's still risk in these numbers okay anything else Kyla anything from the school committee's perspective you want to share at this time there was some you had there were some slides sent to you we I I assume they did they go to the whole select board Mrs RM Mitch said there was you had some questions she submitted some slides to you and she prepared me to answer some questions if there were questions it was about year-over-year increases in the school um budget and what has been left over for free cash okay Y and also our revenues I think for reimbursements from State funding okay anything else you good for right now because we might have some we may have come back to that right um so just a general couple of comments zero decisions have been made about the budget zero this is all fact finding this is all Gathering and this seeing this is we're Gathering the cards to see what we have to play the hand we have to play Zero decisions have been made about the budget this is my 14th time I think doing this I know what we're doing 13th Time Zero decisions have been made about the budget okay um the process will not end the budget process will not end likely until the night before town meeting if not the night of town meeting that's how it works okay so everybody should stay calm let us sort it out okay nobody is going to have a real problem with the budget when we get it done but it's going to take us several more months months to get it done it's just the way it works okay um with that Mr Clark questions comments about where we are to date um nothing new I like Kylie your point obviously we're heading in the right direction with this right with with the deficit so that's good um and as Brian alluded to there's a lot more work to be done how many meetings we have coming up over the next you know month or two alone on this so I'm good for now appreciate the update Mrs rder Bush yeah I attended the budget advisory meeting um last week and some of the concerns expressed were so we are as you said we're still in the middle of the budget process additional Revenue could be found or additional Cuts could be could be found things that we don't you know we might get grants for things but that if we require the schools to and all the Departments to reduce too much that um that it could scare off Educators could leave in advance good quality Educators and the school committee is required to vote their budget this month even though town meeting is not until um until May what is the date the school committee needs to they need to vote a budget without having the full picture correct uh I think they're uh doing a heav budget discussion this week on Thursday but I think the boote comes a couple of weeks later perhaps probably be the last Thursday of the month yes we have a definitely before we really get into the meat of it right so I think that is the fear then if if they reduce it too much well we're still kind of in flux here that it could be ad you know adversely affect stopping yeah I think that's a good point and that's kind of why I started saying zero decisions have been made about the budget and this will go on for several more months so everybody hang in there then sorry I did also have a question though too I I think I asked Alene earlier but is the excess Levy capacity that we the town has in this figure in the spreadsheet or it yes it includes the T so no but the excess that we didn't in Prior years we have little excess Levy capacity from oh look I think I had emailed that to you what was it 700,000 that sounds about right it's not very much but that would be something we could access without an over Revenue Source no I think you need that you need an override for that since it's greater than two and a half per. even if it's I believe even though it's even though it's in our excess Levy that we didn't use another year I believe so okay yeah we can let's let's all look at that cuz I think in years p P when we did those under rdes um one of the reasons we did the underride was so that if we were going to go over two and A2 that that excess Levy wasn't sitting there because it could have been used without going out to the taxpayers right so I think with this scenario maybe I don't know exactly because we didn't really go have to deal with it because of the under rdes so maybe you're maybe you're correct but let's just make sure we're all on the same page on that great thanks anything else and then I um I texted Ben who runs the zoom he said he does not have the slides so I don't know if they needed tonight or not but we don't need slides tonight we're good okay we're good okay M leener yeah well I I I have no questions yet I'm sitting here looking at this looking at figures watching what's happening and uh you know it's kind of a wait and see how people come up with their figures as we do each of the budgets so uh I've seen some some things have come in that we really need to consider but um it's it's still on hold we're still in the holding pattern okay yep Mr Manan questions comments about the budget discussion this evening thank you I'll keep it quick um I think the key items are that we definitely want to move in the right direction which seems like with the numbers going down a little bit um it is getting better but I would Echo the same that we need to message it appropriately and I'm glad s chair you mentioned it clearly and unequivocally that no decision has been made so that we don't uh demotivate our um Schools staff and wonderful teachers and especially because um we analyze the school I in my view we analyze the school's budget and the ini shall ask pretty thoroughly and we'll have more sessions to go over those we don't want to um you know jump any a gun no one is going to do that I I'm sure it's very thoughtful exercise and and process and I appreciate everyone's contribution thank you Kyla for building out the scenarios uh pretty well and um one other thing I would also emphasize on is that once we have all the scenarios and data at hand uh I am a proponent and that's how I have advocated couple of years of doing it sooner rather than later not wait until the um you know night before the town hall or town meeting um because I think once we have those and analyze those it's good to have that certainty and plan according to it um as it makes sense of course we don't want to rash either and one other uh thing I was talking to uh I spoke to KY I think some time ago and talk to elain also is uh is there a scenario and I'm just thinking out loud I have to crunch some of the numbers and I'm sure Kyla you'll do 500 times better than I do the that we hydrate our uh stabilization fund and our opep fund with the uh free cash which is not free cash uh for this round and use that money for our Opex I think it kind of fits the purpose for long-term risk management and managing our service es to the B so that is one scenario I would like to see when we have the next round of discussion so again U we want to also be very cautious not to hard our services to the extent it gets to the Bone uh that wouldn't be pretty either I know it's a tough game but a tough Challenge and I'm sure with everyone's thoughtful understanding analysis and consideration we get there like we always do thank you okay great thank you than you um just a couple of quick comments from the chair um so everybody knows this uh this deficit right now that sits at $3 million uh is fairly normal honestly I'd say we're always in a$2 to4 million hole when we start this process for various reasons uh each year it's a little bit different but this is not this is not an insane number uh we have always figured it out um you know we have all departments needing funding all departments make up hopkington Massachusetts and we'll continue to make sure that happens specific to the schools just so everybody has a little history uh fy20 the schools increase was 6.63% voted at town meeting fy21 the school increase was 6.58% voted at town meeting fy22 5.54% increase vot voted at town meeting FY 23 23 2.88% increase FY 24 7.95% increase and FY 25 F 5.83% increase and the proposed FY 26 today is 6.4% increase the town always supports the schools we will figure it out okay uh anything else around the budget this evening I just wanted to bring up the water too cuz I I know when selectboard did our selectboard values a couple years ago it was really important to us that clean water is um is a human right and that I don't I don't think we need cuts to the water department or DPW and the water sewer fund is separate from the regular budget anyway because it's just paid by the rate payers not by the general fund although we are um I guess if if we defaulted and didn't have the funds we would have to pay it from the general fund but the plan is to raise rates enough that the water and sewer owners pay for it but everyone is very nervous about the pasas and we want to we want to get that cleaned up so that that is not an area to be cut okay great thank you all right with that I think we can move on to the next agenda item if everybody's good you guys good anything else you want to share um I just can't agree with um Mrs Ritter Bush enough that faculty could begin to panic should Cuts be made because that's one area that has any room every um everything else in the budget is bone and um I I think what Amy has said needs to be considered great thank you all right let's move on to the next item please that is item five now we're going to go backwards right elain now uh to board and committee appointments the select board will consider appointing members to the following boards and committees will take them in order Council on Aging there is one vacancy with a term expiring on June 30th 2027 the applicant is Ira Steckler there two applicants rather Ira Steckler and Anna levit are either Ira or Anna here this evening okay bla do you want is on Zoom Anna's on Zoom thank you good cuz I want to ask her a question all right um Elaine anything about Ira do you know if he was he or she was planning to join this evening or I've not heard okay got it all right so we do have one of the applicants with us this evening through Zoom Anna can you hear me oh she's not lived up yet there she comes okay comes and I'm sorry is it Anna or Anna we'll have to wait tell us it doesn't matter you can say Anna Anna great welcome thank you for joining us this evening uh we're just going to have a couple of quick questions perhaps and then we'll see what we can sort out here miss lafrenier I I want to thank you for your volunteering but I do want to ask you you have volunteered for every one of these categories tonight uh the Council on Aging the trails committee and the Arts cultural Council I'd like to know what your real preference is which which one is your love which one is the one you want to really go for U that's a very fair question I was inspired to apply for a board the committee meeting when I attended the town meetings in May and also the special one in November that was my first time ever being involved a municipal level politics I have been involved uh at the companies I have worked at in different volunteer committees I'm a healthc care professional I'm a pharmacist so counil aging was in to me because of that it's I have worked a lot with elderly patients in my professional capacity as well as I have a lot of elderly family members so that was the reason I applied for that position than the cultural counil was because I am a very very interested in arts and crafts myself that's one of the things I appreciate the most about Massachusetts is how strong that scene is and even Hopkinson there is a art center and then the trails committee I don't know much about I believe it's a new one being newly established but I do love walking in hopkington state park and in other places around town so I would be happy to serve on any committee where you can basically [Music] utilizing I think if I had if I wanted to just choose one I would probably choose the cultural the culture okay that's easy all right any other questions for Anna on the Council on Aging no I mean so as you said you know Trails was kind of new to you um and appreciate you applying for all these um we've got a lot of people applying for the trails one so it looks like between the Council of Aging and cultural Council you've got a great opportunity to be on both of those would you be okay if you weren't on the trails one well yes go ahead good no that's that was my question so you're good I'm good okay thank you Mrs Rush um well I was going to say um since Anna had a applied for the other two um I thought it might be better to to I read um Iris dear's resume it might be good to have let him have the Council of Aging spot because we definitely can get on on the cultural Council because there's three openings and then I I think she should also be considered for the trails too because I think we've been wanting but we're that's a much bigger discussion about Trails because there's a lot more applicants than there are right but I yeah I would I would lean towards giving it to Ira for the um Council and a myself okay all right so uh we have one position for the Council on Aging um and Anna seems more inclined on to be on the cultural councel uh and if she hasn't done any volunteering in town yet I think it would probably be better to do one before doing two um because that it gives you a chance to kind of understand how it all works and some of the time commitments and some of the other things that can come up so uh with that uh the chair will entertain a motion uh to a point Iris Mrs R Bo that yep I would make a motion to appoint Iris Deckler okay Council and aging to a term expiring um June 30th 2027 all right second and there's a second any further discussion on that motion to appoint Ira all those in favor I'm sorry Mrs lefer M leerer yes Brian her yes Joe Clark yes am yes Mr Manan yes thank you it is unanimous and so carries I will be pointed to the Council on Aging for a term expiring June 30th 2027 thank you let's tackle the cultural Council next okay okay um the cultural Council we have three plus one upcoming vacancies with threeyear terms ending on January 7th 2028 we have three three applicants including Anna and uh anybody have any questions or comments is any are shata or Carla here by chance hi would you mind coming up and saying hello if you could just introduce yourself please and share your interest for the cultural Council um hi I'm kala Pepa I live um I've been in Hopkinson for three years but I know the area well my um previous career I was was a uh program director with seniors and I planned cultural and social events uh presently I do volunteer for the friends of the Hopkinson Senior Center so I've been doing that for over a year great so I'd just like to get more involved in the town great well thank you for coming this evening and thank you for your interest thank you questions for Carlo anybody Mr fer questions no I the Senor Center okay okay you good yeah so I'm good appreciate you coming tonight thank you Amy no I'm happy that we have three spots and three applicants so I think that'll be a great fit and then I'm glad you can take on a role Mr Manan any questions for Carla specific to the cultural Council no questions thank you for stepping forward and willing to serve our community I appreciate your um stepping forward thank you we do have three positions we'll deal with the one upcoming when it comes up right um and we have three applicants everybody good so the chair will entertain a motion to approve the three they have different terms I kuna Kanan and kala peper and Anna levit to the cultural Council for the terms expiring 117 2028 okay oh oh they're all the same term length okay sorry I'm reading the trails got it is there a second please second second Mr Clark thank you uh any discussion on the motion M Le friend how do you vote please Le friend yes Brian her yes Joe Clark yes yes Mr Manan yes great see NS and so carries all set there welcome Anna and Carla thank you and uh to shata as well thank you for stepping forward next up is the trails committee the new committee has nine vacancies we're going to have an initial one two and threeyear term terms uh for the various appointments and then uh you know as time goes on we'll get everybody kind of slide into a three-year term uh through a process you know couple years out uh M Lazarus your thoughts on this committee appointment and how the board might want to consider looking at it it's great to have so much interest in this new committee um I did distribute this evening a matrix indicating which of the members have served on on either the trail coordination and management committee or the upper Char Trail committee so you have that before um and um you know I just recommend that asking them uh questions to get to U what's in the uh basically the charge for the committee for the membership which says all members shall have a demonstrated interest in the development management and use of public Trails membership should reflect a balanced cross-section of the community and will provide a mix of needed skills such as Trail planning and construction Communications and Engineering that's what um you had voted to include in this committee um and it's just great to have some people uh who have not volunteered before on a Trails committee and if I is that noted in here how many what is the total number of applicants again 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 11 12 13 okay 13 eight spots n spots 13 for nine spots right is it nine yeah nine spots okay could do 12 now with Anna joining the cultural 12 now with Anna joining the cultural gotcha thank you I I guess I'm going to say I would still be open to appointing on on to the new committee too I'm sorry I am still open to appointing on up to the new committee unless she doesn't want to okay all right so we'll leave it open in that grouping all right um so this this this uh this Trails committee is the culmination of a lot of years work by those that have served on other Trails related committees in town uh and the select board's um interest in kind of consolidating and better organizing and streamlining the process to manage the trails in town get some more things done um so it makes sense in my mind anyway to try and balance this out a little bit uh but it also really makes sense in my mind uh for the two former chairs to uh join this committee and help us move our Trails efforts forward so what I was thinking perhaps is and tell me if you guys are okay with it we do a couple of different motions along the way here and we can kind of Whittle down and sort of sort through how we get to the final slots if you will um but I think to start with a motion specific to those two individuals Peter and Jane uh in my mind anyway would make good it' be a good place to start and then we can kind of go from there did we have a suggestion from Town Council or anything sometimes they When It's Tricky like this they have a recommendation for voting because I had thought in the past we had maybe each set our top nine and everybody who had a majority would get on and then and then the ones that didn't get a majority we would talk through but I understand the chair's Point too that he okay do you have thought procedure for runoff voting which is similar to that nine is a lot of people to I know yeah we could be counting to the we hours Hing Chads and life so we have I I mean I similar to what you said you know going Beyond just the chairs we've got what seven members here that represented both of the Committees before um and I think the intent was to you know as we disbanded those committees was to build one that kind of encompassed the vision of both of them working together so I would you know for nine positions I would probably start with the seven that we have um based off their previous time in those committees and then that would shorten the list to really would that leave us you know five for two spots that we could kind of dig into with the new people so you're advocating that we do a block of seven all those that had prior experience and then point2 additional after that just just to there was so much work done on both those committees over the years and I want to respect that and you know when we disbanded them you know a lot of people felt like it was you know a very quick decision but I think the intent was to keep all of those people involved with the trails working together all right Mar Jo thoughts on the process um one second seven um no I don't have any problems with that seven I I I have a question for Jack Buckley though let me let me before we go out to to the candidates let me just make sure process wise we're all good well I thought he was on one of these committees at one time were you not no no okay all right you good for right now process wise yeah Mr Manan process wise your thoughts process wise I'm okay on what's on the okay do you have any thoughts on the the the original seven if you will that Mr Clark is proposing uh I I tend to think that makes sense um there's institutional knowledge and this kind of um aligns with the original vision and thought of um dismantling which is to bring them together and bring the force together and find the best path forward so I think um you know starting with the original Seven would make sense uh but I'm also uh Keen to hear from the candidates and see if you know we have fresh voice that could also add U additional strength to the body okay so if we go with the seven proposal and we have two spots after that so I'm going to I'm going to vote no on that if that's the case but that I I think I but it sounds like I'm outvoted which is fine but I just feel like the committee needs a little bit more new um new member so I was thinking more might be a five five four new people you know five experienced people and four new people so that we can but anyway if I'm if I'm in the minority that's fine all right uh does anybody want to make a motion at this time let's see I make a motion that we appoint the seven previous members of the Committees together uh to form the new committee and they are and they are Francis di young Kenneth Parker Jane Moran Steve can uh Peter legoy Linda chow and Charles doy Scott canos yet Scott Scott can oh Scott yeah pety Linda and Charles okay second so we have a motion and a table and a second for the um seven experienced members from previous committees any further discussion on that motion you would just have to identify the term length for each of them got it one what two or three years yeah the going to reach up so who made the motion I did go ahead that should be in the motion right yes yeah you want to try that should we ask if any any of those seven are here if they have a preference towards any of them someone might want one year or two year they might all want three years so that might not help at all and realistically each is less than that because it's going to be June 30th of each of those years so yeah and they can't all have three years yeah well no well we're working through a motion so I got to kind of stick with the motion person and you're the second right so then you can still in there too sounds good so Mary Jo thoughts on who goes what term I think we just have to bite the bullet and decide because we we'll be voting on new members every year now um so I I would like to go with Right Down the Line and three right yeah okay so the the onee position I would give to uh Francis and the twoyear uh well you get three ones three twos and three threes this motion is only for seven how about so go ahead okay one so hold on so we've we've got some new people coming I think the first thing we should do is look look at our previous chairs and put them in as threeyear members put them in where as threeyear members Peter and Jane as three years Peter that's what I was going to say Peter and J three oh we've got S I know I know okay so you're suggesting three years for Peter and three years for Jane all right so let me just make that note so I don't get confused here now we need one more I generally don't do this but because we're it's a little convoluted Mr legoy please but you got to come up here please Peter legoy 21 Hayden rad Street just a point of clarification so is this a halfe term or is this a year and a half term because it goes through June 30th so it's a one-year term for example that ends June 30th of 202 so it's a halfe term technically for the one years okay one years are just going to get a few so there's no way to move that to a 1 and 1/2 year 2 and 1/2 year three and 1/2 year term which would make then it would exceed the three-year term that's in the administrative order okay got it so it's half year one and a half one and a half two and a half okay good um yep and I would be interested in the 2-year term personally two let take you that well it's two and a half one and a half okay all right uh all right well since we did that does any anybody else have a preference on the term that they would serve we can't just let one person speak up Scott let do three three okay anybody else have a preference on the term Linda no but I have a question could you do one and a half two and a half and three no it it's not one and a half it's it's technically a half one and a half two and a half technically okay we're gonna get through this this is a this is a lot this is a little odd so hang in there with us um did you have a preference Linda and checked out you has his hand up Mr chair I think Mr hang on one sec Mr man I'm sorry Linda no I don't I guess not okay so two or three all right Mr Manan and Chuck has his hand raised Brian on the zoom okay Mr Man did you have a question or a comment oh I just wanted to point out that Mr Chuck do doi's has raised his hand yeah yeah we we know he's got his hand raised so we're going to come to him next are you all good for right now I think Jane's here for her perence okay um Chuck are you out there oh you're muted there you go uh for uh term uh length U uh two year or one and a half such as it is okay thank you uh anybody else here that's for the committee that's been it's in this motion Jane do you have any preference Jane I serve at the pleasure of the board okay so Jane is flexible all right um anybody else I also serve at the pleasure of the board for the one year half year turn got it Fran thank you Fran okay I think that's it in terms of input so let's try and go through this so we have Fran at one year Ken Parker I thought I saw Ken I saw him the other day at the library yeah um Ken Parker has been on both he's been on both and I would put him for the third three third three okay it's your remember this is your motion how about Jame J is at the pleasure of the board Scott is interested in a three Scott's a three Peter's interested in a two Linda is interested in two two and Charles is a two so we have there's three twos I have for twos Charles Linda and Peter I have Scott and Jan for threes and Ken was a three and I have FR of one so that's 1 2 3 4 5 6 seven that's seven right there there so then then the two new folks would be ones that kind of makes sense give chance to see what it's all about and they can decide from there the other folks know what they're getting into I'm sure I'm sure people here we do have some new folks here we're going to come to that in a sec we're not on that yet cuz we're in the first seven your motions for the first seven okay right okay right okay so let me see if I got this right so we have a motion on the table with a second for Mr Clark for the seven folks that had served previously and we've assigned Fran a one-year term one Ken 3 K Jane three Scott three Peter 2 Linda 2 and Chuck two and Chuck two that's a s so that's the motion that's been seconded everybody give with the motion L do you see that motion being in order yes okay any further discussion on the motion for the original Seven okay ready for a vote M lrer lrer votes yes Brian her votes yes Joe Clark yes r r stains just because I was hoping to have more new people in the committee not I don't have anything against any of these people they've all done great work okay thank you Mr Manan yes okay so that motion passes for to to zero with one exstension congratulations folks and thank you for your patience as we work through that next up we have two additional positions where we have one 2 3 4 five six people did I do my math right yes um we have two positions for we have six people for two positions um and we have some of those folks here if you're here you're for this as a new member of this committee please raise your hand again so we have four of those six here if you guys could just call out your names for us please so we can note that Sean Sean great thank you D David freed thank you David Andrew Bru Andrew thank you Jack Buckley and Jack Buckley great thank you Jack okay Anna is on Zoom I'm sorry Anna is on Zoom Anna is still on Zoom okay is she still there m okay great all right so now um maybe the best way to do this is to give each one of these folks an opportunity to say hello and share their interest in joining and you know we can kind of take it from there does that work uh I would TR like to keep this to um a minimum in terms of questions but I think everybody should be able at least ask one and I it probably in order that the same question would be asked of all the candidates so if you have a question maybe ask the same question each time so that we're fair and Equitable on how we do this okay so why don't we start uh in the order they're on our sheet here uh James Lennon is not here with us this evening uh Anna is on Zoom so why don't we start with Anna Anna do you want to talk a little bit about the trails committee and your interest there sure as I mentioned before I don't have a lot of knowledge but I do love walking in nature I have always loved it and especially since Co when it was about the only activity available I really have walked a lot and uh that's about only qualifications I can offer for this position great thank you questions for Anna M frer a question you said you were in the health business yes I'm a pharmacist and I have recently I have been working just in the pharmaceutical industry but I have also worked retail for 18 years okay just want to know thank you all set yeah Joe um so with the idea of keeping things consistent so with this being a new committee combined of two previous ones you know I'll be asking everyone kind of what do you think are the priorities you know in the first six months with this new committee I don't think I have an opinion I think I was should probably be dra given that I have a b position on the cultural Council I don't think I can start off a bad with two I don't think that would be fair appreciate you saying that Anna I'll set y yeah I was interested to hear about experience with community outreach and consensus building because I thought that was a a particular issue with the last committee well I um my my full-time job is market research so what I do at work is essentially I get to get marketing team to agree on what they need and then get vendors to implement that so essentially that's my day job is building consensus and implementing what we need and then taking the learnings from market research and taking that back to marketing and getting them to use what learning in uh whatever Pro we have going forward thank you what set Mr Manan a question for Anna uh no question thank thanks for stepping forward and and I appreciate your interest in serving the community and I'm glad um that uh you are committed to that I see you um fitting in many but um we'll probably have uh something that suitable thank you great thank you okay Anna thank you very much if you want to just sit tight we'll sort this out here over the next few minutes Jack Buckley if you could join us at the table briefly if you want to just say hello state your name address and share your reachers to the committee just my background I'm retired I've lived in the town for 27 years when I worked I worked at the division of fisheries and wildlife I was the deputy director for 28 years I oversaw the endangered species program the realy program public educ ation Etc the last three years there I served as a director of the division of fisheries and wildlife um when I retired uh I always had an interest in parks and Governor Baker appointed me to the Stewardship Council which oversees DCR Department of Conservation and Recreation and for the last three years I've served as the chair of the Stewardship Council um just last month I decided to step down as chair after three years so my time budget changed a little I had some extra time I I'm an active Trail user in town I just think trails are really important to town in terms of just not Public Health also but you know context for the town and um so I saw this an opportunity to budget some time for the trails and that's why I applied for the position great thank you m frer questions question singular yeah no I know I know that Jack has been interested for a very long time because I I met him at a Trails meeting meeting at the library one time a number of years ago and he was interested at that time and uh so I I do believe that that he is still very active and actively interested in the Trails um he's got a good background for it and uh he plays a mean Irish fiddle so I you know thank you Jack for stepping forward okay Mr Clark um kind of same question as I asked the previous person just kind of what what do you think the priorities are of this new committee getting started I I think the the the the real first priority of the trail committee should be to sort of get a work plan and agenda and then the second part of that means is how do you sell that to the citizens of hopkington the whole concept of trails one of the things I've found that's really interesting is people I found this in the state park system people like their Parks but they don't get the whole park system you know and I've preached that many times and I think in the town we need a concept of what trails are and how they stretch across the town and how the how people can interact with them so I think that's the first job awesome thank you Jack Amy okay in the same question could you talk about your experience with community outreach and consensus building I've done a lot of that I've um at Fish and Wild Life I supervised information and education and one of the first things that I did in there was BAS basically created the same look and feel for everything we once had we have five we had five hatcheries every one of them had a different sign and I've done the same thing with DCR and DCR is actually in going up randing effort now so when you drive by a state park if you look at that sign you know what you're in I think we need to do the same thing for the trails so let people so people understand when they go on a trail they're in a trail system and and I think that the other thing that does it gets people more interested in other trails and Etc so I think that's just sort of stuff I've done thank you Mr Manan question comments from Mr Buckley thank you Mr Bley for stepping forward um you have a great background and uh I think there's um here and see a lot of interest uh my question is U what do you see as the biggest challenge and what would you draw from your experience and expertise to help lead through that I'm going to have to have someone to repeat that question for Mr Man one more time please sure sorry I'm I don't have a great my hearing is not the best so no no I don't have a great voice today my cold is really buing me uh my question is what do you see as the biggest challenge um in front of the trails committee and what would you draw from your experience and expertise uh which is deep and uh very diverse uh to help help resolve those or lead through that biggest challenge the trails committee faces and how would you address that I think I think as a sort of outside Observer I think there's been a lot of I wouldn't call it conflct but differences of opinion and organization and I think the trails committee the new committee needs to deal with that and find a way forward so we take advantage of all the really good work that's been done by both Trail committees and and make that work and try and get a unified Vision that the whole committee can work on so great great thank you okay I think that uh is good for now right Jack if you don't mind hanging out for a little bit we'll sort through this and we appreciate you very much coming inks thanks for your uh thanks for your input David freed is here David if you would join us please welcome and thanks for coming out this evening thank you thank you for entertaining my application uh David freed 73 Winter Street great uh your interest in joining the trails committee well I've always been interested in Trails as a trail user I mean been cross country skiing mountain biking hiking all through Trails through my whole life I like to see them expand to provide additional opportunities and recently uh actually last summer I was on a a long-distance tour through a a couple of rail trails from Pittsburgh to Washington and I saw the effect that long-distance Trails could have on communities especially like in rural Pennsylvania Maryland West uh not West Virginia but um uh Virginia and the impact that these Trails have on the communities by bringing in tourists bringing in uh additional dollars and that got me interested in sort of longdistance trails and I looked around the area and there's a lot of trails rail Trails coming up uh Bruce Freeman Trail up like Sudbury up into Westford uh Mass Central going from Boston to Northampton I noce the upper Charles is trying to become extend itself through hopkington to become a long-distance trail and I see the impact that that has on the communities and I'm interested in helping that out uh in addition to just like the local Trails through the neighborhoods and the opportunities that that brings for recreation and health and fitness okay great thank you m lrer I think I think where did you where did you say you took the ride from where to where uh from Pittsburgh to Washington DC there's two separate uh Trails one was a rail trail from Pittsburgh to Cumberland Maryland and then the other was a cnno Canal Trail from Cumberland to Washington DC now I know that there are some connected trails north of here through towns um I know Senator spiler and her husband used them frequently um and I I'm interested in connecting up to other trails and expanding the trail system throughout the state uh which I which I think is is a great thing and uh as well as our own Trails which are which are wonderful as as they are right now I think and they could be expanded and uh I'm glad to hear your perspective now how would you go about in uh interacting with the public on trails and the possibility of trails and things like that we seem to have had problems with public messaging David okay well I guess messaging is probably not one of my strengths uh but I would certainly uh promote it through through the uh social media through the the Town Newspaper get out sort of what the plan is and then ask for for public feedback on that okay thank you good Mr Clark David um same question your opinion on priorities of this committee getting off the ground well I guess the highest priority I know there's been a lot of discussions over the last couple years I haven't R following it too closely but the upper Charles Trail and connecting it to to Milford and then uh I forget where the other side is going but I think that would probably be the highest priority because that is the biggest connection to other Trail systems uh trying to find a way to connect Trails within town is also a high priority you know I lived in Westboro before moving to Hopkinton and they have the what they call the charm bracelet so they have these individual pockets of trails and public spaces and they found a way to connect them uh through neighborhoods and through little used Parcels to form like a 26 Mile loop around town and I think that would be a priority for this committee is to take the existing parcels and try to find a way to connect them so that people who wanted to do like longdistance rides or or even just like over the summer to say okay well I did the whole loop around town over the course of the summer through hiking or or biking or whatever so those would be my biggest priorities is try to find ways to to connect our existing trails to within themselves and then into other towns awesome thank you Mrs R Bush yep the same question so what's your experience with community outreach and um and consensus building uh not a lot in community outreach but uh my profession is a as a project manager for product development projects so I work with Marketing sales operations manufacturing uh research and development engineering and in my work there's there's always differences of opinion on most Topics in in a development project so sort of finding out people's perspective trying to form uh common bonds between them and seeing what they have in common rather than sort of what their differences are thank you great Mr Man a question for David thank you David for stepping forward same question um what do you see as the biggest challenge and how do you go about resolving it I think the the the two biggest challenges really are well I don't know about the two biggest but uh identifying opportunities like identifying Town lands where you can put Trails through or possibly contacting uh a budding homeowners to allow Trails through their property I think just the way the town is growing the available land is shrinking and it's important to act quickly before that that land is gone and and gone forever okay great thank you very much so David if you just hang out for a little bit we're going to sort through this shouldn't take much longer thank you for coming this evening appreciate it very much you're welcome okay next up uh Sean Kimble hi Sean just say hello and share your interest in joining the trails committee please yeah hello Sean gimble 64 Teresa Road uh like Jack I'll give you a little bit of background I've been in hopkington for 16 years before we came to hopkington um I've been I'm an accountant I'm a CPA so my professional experience has really nothing it's not Germain to this committee um I do enjoy hiking biking I have my whole life and I was actually a professional kayak guide and I used to do on the main island Trail they call a trail it's a water trail that goes up the coast of Main in the town of hopkington when we moved in I was very active with uh this Sports youth sports whether it was soccer Little League Baseball even de did a season of Pop Warner and then I also volunteered with the scouts Hopkinton Scout leaders Association I served on their board hopkington Troop One hopkington Cub scale Pack 4 I was the chairperson when I was with hopkington troop one I was the eagle coach for six years and you know I've sat here well not me I sat the sidelines the scouts sat here and presented on their Eagle projects I think I had I think two dozen Scouts went and got their Eagle while I was advising as an eagle uh Eagle Coach and I of those two dozen maybe half if not more were on Trails benches Bridges clearing new trails you guys all saw them right uh excellent projects I I volunteered with these Scouts and then outside I've also volunteered with halt I volunteered with the town just doing regular Trail work whenever the trails club would do stuff and so I I I think over the last 16 years been in hackington I spent a lot of time on the trails either working on them or enjoying them and that's my passion um with regards to what I think is a road map or what I think is a priority would be a road map for the group you look at the direction that either this committee or the town set up and the committee description has seven major different categories which I think is is really really good what I think the problem would be is the prioritization of those you can't do all seven at once and so what you would do is you would set up this road map and say okay how do we want to tackle these seven how we going to prioritize these seven right and then you set up the road MPP like we're going to do this in 6 months 12 months etc etc um with regards to the Outreach Amy your question um one of the Scout projects actually was my son we were doing some Bridge work on a trail that's not cont ious but some of the neighbors were not really fond of having more traffic go through and so that required a lot of Outreach you know what I mean getting everybody involved around the neighborhood that they're aware of and that we did that numerous times numerous projects and I would coach this scout would say listen you got to reach out to the neighbors who's going to be infected obviously this committee it's a bigger scale it's the whole town and so you not need to figure out what's the mechanism on how to communicate with these people and then getting the message out one of the biggest problems I think this is manan's com question one of the biggest problems is there's no single source of Truth when it comes to the trails right we had two different committees we got a whole bunch of different groups whether it's the trails Club the halt or you know concom or even the preservation committee um there's no single source of Truth you can go to the town website and you can find Trail information there you can go to the hawk and trails Club find Trail information there you can go to the H and find Trail information there and so I would say one of the biggest problems is get that single source of Truth and um and I think those I just want to address you did a nice job saying hello and answering all the questions but we'll just double check do you have any other questions for Sean I I like your enthusiasm you you're very enthusiastic about the town and U and I like your connection with the Boy Scouts uh actually I was treasure for Troop One at one time a long time ago uh and I I think it would be a real asset uh when it comes to the public and and interacting with the public and explaining things to them I I think that that's probably a forte of yours dealing with people like that uh how do you feel about that how do you feel about getting your message out well whenever it comes to I Don't Do Anything by myself it would be a group effort right you'd vet what is the message that we're going to be sending are we unanimous maybe you're not going to get unan unanimity but you will get some type of consensus because you may have one person who's sending the message out but the whole team the whole committee is going to be getting pained with questions and so you want to make sure that these nine people are we all in the same conveying the same message and that's that's part of the the effort right getting that consensus amongst the committee and it's sending the message out and then Fielding it how do you get it out I again back to that single source of Truth and making it easy for folks I heard some already say social media which I think is great but not everybody's on social media you know the age demographic of the Town goes from you know for the people and the senior citizens down to the Cub Scouts right and it's just like they're all going to be accessing this information in questions different ways so how do you get that single source of Truth great thank you Mr Clark no uh thank you you answered I think all of our questions coming up so I appreciate you replying and coming in tonight yeah I agree I think the questions have been answered thank you man did he answer your question already yeah I think you you did a nice job answering all the questions thank you for okay great thank you Sean please hang out for a little bit we'll be almost right there um and Andrew PR Andrew please join us thank you thanks for coming in tonight so Andy cruce hi I am uh relatively new new arrival in um hington moved here about a year and a half ago welcome no specific um Town level involvement in government before uh but I very strong interest in the trails in town one of the reasons we moved here actually we live at 20 Bandon Lane now so a frequent uh visitor to the state park with our dogs and hiking and whatnot um by profession I'm a physician um kind of moving into retirement so I do have the bandwidth to to start being coming involved in my community so that's basically what brings me here tonight um I did a lot of work in my profession as a um am I doing the same thing I'm probably going over the questions s I'll stop there with my with my introduction how's that and play go with okay fair enough thank you for that M frer okay um how do you feel about being on the committee what do you think the goals and and the Direction the committee should be going in or how do you feel about the trails as you've used them so far um it's it's it's there's a lot of separate areas of trails that need to be brought together I mean I think that's what I see when I look um you know I arrive in town I think a lot of the things that have been mentioned I would Echo I I think you're kind of on your own a little bit trying to find information about Trails it would be nice to have a single Source where this is what we have and and and really I think they're working on connecting everything would be the big thing um I've haven't quite figured out the situation coming through town with that trail but it it seems like there's a lot of work to do linking up you know the the upper Charles um you know and the various trails that are available now I would think it's an exciting time where there's a lot of enthusiasm out there to start doing these type of things so great thank you thank you Mr Clark um I think you answered my question was around you know priorities going into the new committee so I think you just kind of answer that so I but thank you for applying welcome to town so I'll ask the same question about um can you talk about your experience with community outreach and um consensus building yeah um so not community outreach none essentially um in my job I I had administrative and and quality improvement type of um responsibilities which that's what it is it's getting people to buy what you know the the best practices they there so I I think that I I've um over the years I I think I've done a good job or been had some talent in being able to make complicated things a little bit more simple and get consensus with a group of people we can come to agreement on on what the best path forward with me um a little bit different venue to do that obviously um but uh I would be excited to uh be able to invest some time and uh and see if I can help out all right thank you Mr Mani question um thank you for stepping forward and uh the same question um just to be well rounded and fair um what do you see as the biggest challenge for our trails and how do you go about uh coring solution for that um I I think most of the things that have been mentioned I think the biggest challenge is the trying to get coordination where there's so many groups that have done a lot of work to to bring us to the point where we're at now where we we have uh many separate areas of trails and I think uh getting the figure out how to bring them together would be the uh main um you know the main challenge to that I do think having it be more prominent in the community too um and I was out on the rail trail a while ago and it occurred to me that it's 13 miles long you know there's there's that would be uh you know there are events that you could do on the trails and perhaps publicize them and get a little bit of community involvement um and awareness just that they're there um um that would be an approach that I don't think has been mentioned yet but I think might be valuable so a road race through one of the trails in the park or what not so great thank you all set Mr Manan yes okay thank you very much for coming this evening okay so with that we've heard from all those folks that are here this evening um it's interesting and it has nothing to do with the new applicants per se has nothing to do with the experienced applicants per se but this is a new committee coming forward so just a quick little um a small piece of advice if I could don't worry about all nine of you agreeing debate discuss put a motion on the table get a second take the vote and move on okay that's what we need to do to build our trails in hopkington getting all nine of you to agree isn't going to happen so don't waste your time debate discuss put motions under table and get on with it you see it here it works so my little piece of advice cuz this is a new thing where the past we were trying to get the two committees to agree that was never going to happen right so I wouldn't worry about it in the single committee either move on like let's just get get things done for for the town okay with that anybody want to try and Tackle what they would like to do next in terms of appointing the last two positions I wish we had two CU we've got great candidates we could all give our top two and if anyone that a majority would be appointed and then move on uh to the chair we have uh Mr Chi raising hand I'm sorry Mr man I can't hear you uh we have Mr Chu Doshi uh raising his hand oh we already appointed him yeah we already appointed Chuck so I think we're all set for now Chuck I to the chair yeah um I I have been really impressed by the um you know enthusiasm uh the breath the new ideas that these additional candidates bring um I am I think uh in a at a point of beginning to wind down uh at 81 um and uh I would like to uh request that my uh name be withdrawn uh opening up an additional uh position for New Blood uh I will still uh uh work to uh use my uh technical uh experience and expertise uh to support the committee uh as needed but I think think uh for the future of the committee um I really am impressed by um those who uh come forward offering interest so uh U sorry to complicate your considerations but uh I would like to withdraw my name okay Chuck thank you for that I appreciate that very much I think I'm kidding no that's great that's really nice of you to do that but it does create a little bit of a complication Elaine what do you think uh so uh he's declining the appointment right so uh there's now an additional vacancy to be filled and so when you make your motion you can indicate that in there and so there would be two oneyear seats left and one twoyear seat we don't have to go back and vote the original Seven motion again correct I think you he's declining that in a public meeting we have a record of that so that means we still have another opening correct correct and so we can do three instead of two for the positions does everybody agree to that no because well I do but Charles asked for twoe he he's been appointed to a twoyear term so we get three people two for three years and one for two no we get two for one year and one for two of the three one okay yeah okay y so that was your only concern everybody else okay with what uh is for being proposed here Mr Manan are you okay with that I am and I want to thank Chu for the graciousness and thoughtfulness and commitment to our community this shows a lot about the character and personality I'm really moved and appreciate all your service and your thoughtful um thoughtful decline okay great all right so with that and again Chuck thank you very much for stepping in and and making those comments uh we're now able to consider three individuals uh to join the committee uh from those four that spoke with us this evening unless or five folks what was it one two three four five um and James lenen uh I don't know James we have his application so we could still consider him if we wanted yeah okay all right so with that we want to do our top three and we'll go from there is that I think that makes sense reasonable M frer do you want to start and how do you want to do this do you want each one of us to name a few names and then see which three names three names okay how about maybe we do this real real quick for those of us that for those that don't get on the committee this time this is you're making it a very difficult decision for us everybody is making a very difficult decision for us so please know that on June 30th of 2025 some more positions could open up so it's going to be like that that maybe some folks are going to be doing it saying you know what this isn't for me I'm going to step out and there could be another opening come up and through the chair but there's going to be positions for the next couple of years so I wouldn't lose faith in this committee opportunity uh and we hate to say no to anybody but we have to just because of the numbers if I could add we have current openings that are unfilled as well on cultural Council has an opening coming historical commission has two Personnel committee has one veterans I think has three or more openings water stew has two so anyway so if they have another interest they could apply for those two or wait till to June and we'll have a lot more yeah we'll have some more okay great excellent point thank you okay you ready for three or you want to pass for now no I I will uh like to put Jacko and David and Sean okay Mr Clark um I would do jack John and Andy okay Mrs rush I would do um Sean David and Anna Mr Manan uh give me one second I have to the name sorry yeah I'm sorry I'm checking out the names no worries first of all all candidates and I really love the enthusiasm and thoughtful uh remarks so please please stay engaged and come back for this or other U boards we do have a lot of interesting positions as well and I think water board still has some which is kind of um related structurally um but um uh infrastructure project wise but um I am leaning towards Sean I'm sorry I'm scrolling down I'm a little slow today David and Jack and I'm sorry the last one again uh Jack okay all right um and as I said I hate to say no to anybody but I for this particular round with where we are and just seeing where the board is headed I would suggest Jack Andrew and Shawn so um I think it was wasn't it Jack David and Sean had the three uh hang on let me see I had Sean for four David 3 and Jack 3 on my yeah no I'm just s giving mine oh I see I'm just giving mine I yeah I'm getting confused there okay yeah so with that uh uh Let's do let's add them up here so one two three I have four for Jack everybody agree one two three for David Jack 4 David three I have one two three four five for sea I have one two for Andrew and I have one for Anna does that make sense y okay everybody agrees so it's Sean Jack and David you agreed y yes everybody agreed okay again those those that didn't get through that cers some little process our apologies we highly encourage all of you to come back those of you that want to come back and apply for other things there's tons of opportunities in the town of Hopkinson to volunteer and certainly on the trails committee which is a great committee um there's a lot of passion there and there'll be openings uh in the future for that as well so please please keep us keep us in mind with your time okay so the chair motion to appoint uh Sean Jack and David the names in front of me at the moment to the Joe you want to do it sure I move to appoint uh Jack Buckley and David freed to the trails committee to a term expiring 63025 and I also move to appoint Shan Kimble to the trails committee to a term expiring 63026 second move second okay we have a motion on the table by Mr Clark and we'll give the second to Mr Manan on the line there um any further discussion on the motion okay hearing none M leer your vote please lrer votes yes Brian her votes yes Joe Clark yes amush yes Mr Manan okay it's unanimous and so carries with the three person slate thank you all very very much uh great conversation this evening around trails and we look forward to the committee's work we look forward to those of you here tonight jumping onto this uh joining us again we'll find a spot for you that'll bring some great opportunities for both yourselves and the town thank you all okay let us move ahead item number seven on the agenda is the 2025 annual town meeting Miss Lazarus so the warrant is now open for the annual town meeting which closes February 3rd so at this meeting and your next meeting can discuss what articles uh you would like to submit um I have a couple in mind that board has talked about over the last year and the first is the uh legislative petition to designate the meals tax uh for economic development purposes so that would be one and then the other would be to um uh regarding Center School to uh authorize a long-term lease for Center school and then that would allow us to issue an RFP to seek a nonprofit partner so those are the two that have come over the last six months to a year okay and the second one is in line with what we discussed with the permanent building committee recently cor okay all right they seem like reasonable ones to look at uh anything else from your desk nothing uh other than the usual recurring articles that we put on each year for financial purposes okay and the capital projects all right does the assistant Town manager have anything on his mind that he thinks we should be looking at uh not at this time okay thank you Mrs rsh anything on your mind I am a little curious about the designating for economic development I guess we'll discuss exactly how we want to word that later because that can mean a lot of things different things to different people if it's for a position or just general economic yes we'll have to come up with the wording for the legislative petition okay set Joe um I don't have anything specifically to your point though I think there's like a deep conversation that we need to have in the next meeting around it because I certain have some thoughts around it where we're not just saying hey it's just for this because at the end of the day we still don't know what that dollar amount is going to look like and I think the dollar amount dictates a lot of that my initial idea though is to get to get it on as a motion and we can always withdraw that because what is it so we should know in April basically what we're looking at we should get the first do um like credit back and so that should really give us our hey we're going to look at x amount for the the year and I think it'll be easier at that time to kind of like uh change the wording a little bit or make an amendment there at the meeting so that would be my recommendation yeah we have to disent the articles by February so we have to do that part quickly but I understand we can adjust the wording yeah that's yeah okay M the front a I'm just very anxious to see the various Town Department budgets and and how they come in uh I'm really really really interested in that and I can't wait I can't wait to see what the Departments come up with okay Mr Manan annual town meeting warrant articles possibilities yeah I I think the two that's mentioned are important and uh for the excise ones I think uh we need to perit up as we go and within the time of course but uh it's going to be a very critical uh step forward for our Economic Development vision and uh put some gas to it I'm hoping uh so hopefully we'll sort out some of the ks in between and then sort it out uh through the discussions in the town meeting as well uh and in the meantime I think um we should also have as we have in the agenda another discussion on economic development at large uh with the advisory committee and whatnot so we can give some you know clearer idea or uh thoughts structured to the vision and U step forward how and what so the town has some more idea about what we are planning to do with uh in conjunction with chambers of course uh some more work to do of course but this is a great step forward and um I think we should U have those in front great thank you I have nothing to add at this time I think in terms of town meeting in general I think less is more for FY 26 uh whether it be articles and or the budget so okay um anything else on this Elaine you good no I'm good thank thank you all right great we'll move on to item number eight the town manager report Miss Lazarus uh speak the chair yeah if I may be excused I'm a little out of gas with the fever but I pressed it's in good hands and I'll join you in the next round okay feel better thank you good night so just a quick update on the Main Street Carter project it's pretty quiet right now um the electric Connections in the undergrounding area are nearly complete uh Comcast is working on its cut over design and as anticipated they'll be pulling wires underground at the end of January um and starting connecting buildings in February if you have anything to add but that is spot on okay uh there's a town Department position vacancy and that is the maintenance mechanic position at the DPW uh Carrie Reid did provide information on the position and the um the position is currently vacant vacant and it's budgeted uh this year okay he wants to take action on that right now yes okay the chair entertain a motion to approve the posting for the mechanic open mechanics position within the vpw is that motion reasonable or that suggested motion you want to make that motion J yeah you first you recommended this though yes of course good um I move to authorize the posting of the maintenance mechanic position okay is there a second second any further discussion all those in favor please say well got to keep going with I think the roll call M friend here friend here votes yes Brian her yes Joe Clark yes Bain I do support the position but I don't think so that's a 301 to support the position go ahead uh next is uh continuing our uh budget listening um I did include the additional responses that we received on the budget Forum um and then uh we had talked about potentially having a member or two to be at a farmers's market um and so the dates uh that that's available are in my report basically it's every Sunday in January February and March so if you could pick one or two for one or two people to be there I was going to say my January has filled up but I think I could do any of the dates in February or March so we could have two of us could go right yes okay and I might stop by as well okay okay does anyone else want to go or if it's only me I'll I'll pick the date we can pick dates outside of this she sent an email but I was the only one that replied so yeah I I'm out or you replied that you were out yeah all right so we'll pick a few in February and then yeah I'll kind of you know the week of have a better idea for Sundays so I'll be able to make okay I'll try and do one this month if if you can't make this month I'll try and make one this month and then one in February March okay okay anything else Elaine uh the February can I add about that I was thinking it would be useful to have the same sort of materials we've had at the Hopkinton 101 about volunteer opportunities and links to the common things people ask for at the table if we can work on that again sure Y and we'll also provide a table T that would be great chair and a tablecloth maybe in a and chairs okay uh just the February meeting schedule um their board is scheduled to meet uh on our on our list the the 4th the 18th and the 25th the 18th is school vacation week and Others May conflicts for some of those other dates we'll be scheduling departments to come and talk about their budget requests so I didn't know if you had any um feedback on which dates are best for you uh or to have certain to have the Departments there and which may not work out okay just for planning ahead so 4th 18th and 25th if you got conflicts please let the office know all right anything else we are scheduled to have on our schedule a joint meeting at the school committee meeting on Thursday where the superintendent will describe the budget um doesn't it have to be a quorum there this coming Thursday this coming Thursday I would like to request the zoom link for that one I know they we have to tell them in advance I yes we can get a zoom link if okay because I have family visiting and I don't know if I'll be able to get away or not but I could join a zoom good Allan you all set mm okay great item number nine liaison reports Mrs ritterbush actually don't think I have anything this time it's been just holidays now that committees haven't really been meeting we are trying to coordinate with CPC to get them to come I think to or some CPC members to come and discuss at the next meeting yeah we're trying to have somebody some of the folks come in we don't have to have that they don't need a full Quorum need AUM joint the 21st 21st okay Mr Clark I'm good for right now m front air I'm all set I am all set with liaison reports okay item number 10 future board agenda items we tackled a major one it's been kicking around for a while which is the trails committee this evening um and I think all of of these others are advancing forward the Water and Sewer Commission Advisory Board we did commit connect or uh appoint some individuals have we seen any further applications for that board applications do you know you know if that board has got together as a group of three sure um so we have two members that have uh been sworn in but one of the members is currently residing in Mexico City so we've had a bit of an issue of swearing him in remotely I've been working with the uh town clerk to see if we can find a solution to that he's going to work with the applicant to uh see what what they can do to accommodate that but we can't have a meeting until we have at least three members as per the charge so an alternative to that may be the board changes the charge say that a quorum is a majority rather than three members or we get additional applicants to join so we can have three sworn in members so we're working through that right now with the town clerk but if we can't find a solution we're going to have to come back to the board to find an alternative path forward okay otherwise we won't be able to meet till March with the current members yeah we'll want to try and move that along if we can Yes sounds like you're on it all right thank you uh any other questions comments about future board genda items okay with that um I think we're ready to adjourn chair motion to adjourn so move second motion the second to adjourn all those in favor Mary J frer I Brian her yes Joe Clark yes bu yes great thank you all we're adjourned have a good night for