and call the meeting to order if all members are in the meeting room all members are participating in the meeting are present and the meeting in the meeting room the uh public has the option of attending in person here
at town hall or via zoom using the link posted in the meeting agenda this meeting is being recorded okay uh I'll motion to go into executive session do you want to read that motion
yeah thank you and then just hand it back to me I move to convene in executive session pursuant to mgl c30a 21A purpose 3 to discuss strategy with respect to litigation Costa Brothers masary Inc versus cotch in Insurance
Corporation DBA Markel CI and others middle sex Superior Court number 2281 CV 3 297 because an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the board person to mgl c30a
21A purpose 6 to consider the purchase exchange lease or value of real estate land at assessors map R34 26b u26 70 70
and u 268a because an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the negotiating position of the board to allow Brian betam Christopher Brown Ela Lazarus and Lance Del prier to participate in
executive session to convene in open session after the conclusion of the executive session second okay and we'll have a roll call vote please yes sh man
yes yes and we will we'll be back call this uh session to order and we're going start with the Pledge of Allegiance flag of the United States of America and to the Republic stands one nation under God indivisible Li and
justice for all okay public form everybody will have uh up to two minutes to speak and and uh they can give their opinions ask questions regarding town government
and I think Ken is going to be the first one up thank you Ken Weiss Manel 145 Ash Street two items tonight the annual ton meeting article before you tonight for the on the
warrant to fund the mwa connection engineering is in my opinion written too narrow uh in approving an interbase and transfer the Water Resources Commission must find that there are no viable sources in the Basin for water water
supplies this is not a town decision but based on a recommendation to the Water Resources Commission by their staff with input from the Clean Water side of the D if they determine that our existing
wells should be used then the engineering must pivot towards some treatment it's not our current desire but given the the time on that you need to broaden the article I think I suggest wordings like to continue engineering to
provide future water needs for clean water including possible mwa connection or something like that I talked with Elaine on that on Monday and I also talked with Paul Gallagher your chair of your water sewer Advisory Board and he agrees that a broader article might be
in the best interest in case the Water Resources Commission would decide the treatment is needed on some or any of the wells okay uh second p in private Wells is a big
reason for the large ask in the quantity of water uh in this uh interbasin transfer the current assumption is that the water department will provide water to all houses in in Hopkinton yet there's very little data
beyond that is behind that assumption the cost estimates don't include costs for main extensions we have some limited data where testing is required by the Commonwealth for Town Wells on other
smaller Public Water Supplies such as restaurants the YMCA condos that are on private Wells think of these as canaries in the coal mine because we have data there we have very little data on public are around on private
homes so I started doing some studying of the limited data and tried to figure out how the sources uh all fit together and last week uh made a lot of phone calls studied some maps spent some time with my friends at the
D and finally I had my Aaron V brovich moment now don't confuse this face with Julia Roberts but I now have a theory that with some verification testing could explain how a source on some of
the on the east side and a source on the West Side results in the test results found in smaller private water uh supplies more testing would help of course to get more data but we may have identified the neighborhoods to look at
where we think Pas is likely in private Wells thank you very much thank you thank you Ken anyone else we have anybody on oh no Zoom it's no one has their hands up there's two people nobody has their hands up
okay moving on to the consent agenda uh select board will consider the following consent agenda minutes to select vote will consider to approve the minutes of the February 18th
2025 meeting we will uh the select board will consider confirming the town manager appointment of theas gho duza as a custodial maintenance worker for the weekends we will accept a gift for
$2,200 from the marathon committee to the Friends of the Hoppington to be used for the Hoppington family accept the and we will accept the resignation with heartfelt thanks uh to
Nancy Stevenson from the historical commission I understand she has been on that for many years and we want to thank her for her dedication to that commission and to the town of hackington thank you very much I she's been on that
committee a very long time huh she's been on that committee a very long time years does a good job something like that yeah it's amazing um okay does anybody want to take anything out no no no okay can I have a motion to move the
consent agenda is written I move I move the motion to to approve the consent agenda to accept the content agenda as written second okay uh and we don't need a roll
call vot right and we need a roll call vote oh we can just say that was when Brian was going to be remote oh I see oh okay so we can just all in favor I I okay okay and now we have a temporary
alcohol license for the Knights of Columbus uh anybody want to read that motion I think they're here if we have any questions oh they hi good Joe Alman with the nights clus EXC yeah my name's Joe Alman with knights col is
I'm the grand Knight okay I'm glad to see you folks back again I uh have enjoyed that night a number of times and um it's a lot of fun and I think I actually won on a horse one night there
but uh I I will hope you can make it this year now I did see you the police and the fire had a couple of questions have those been answered or yes uh yeah I I contacted them and uh took a uh um a
staff or a crowd manager course with the fire department so that's satisfied yes okay so we l all set that okay I'll take a motion I move to approve a special temporary Al alcohol license for the kns
of Columbus Bishop rice Council 4822 for an annual fundraiser on May 3 2025 from 6:00 p.m. to 10: p.m. at St John's Parish Hall second okay can we have a roll call
vote I think we can just do we can just do yeah okay all in favor I I okay thank you thank you have a good one comprehensive budget all right Kayla ela's GNA kick I'll go first okay elain I'm
sorry so Kier uh Chief Financial Officer is joing us this evening um and I just wanted to review uh with the board the um the comprehensive budget transmittal update uh that I provided uh so on January 26 I transmitted a budget to the board that was about 1.8 million out of
balance um at that time we were looking at Revenue estimates available at that time and town Department budgets um had also been reduced from their original submittal by about a million dollars at that point so I'm glad to say that now we do have the balance budget um and the
changes made to get there include um the amount of free cash used has increased by a little over 3 million um free cash would be used to fund Capital expenses the special education Reserve General stabilization fund uh OPB and T meeting
articles for budgeting purposes we have to assume that all of the financial requests on the warrant are funded and so everything on the warrant that asks for money is included and then ultimately it's up to the voters as to whether those are approved so those are all included in the budget um also uh
since January the governor's budget uh came out and it showed a 3% increase in local Aid uh in January we were assuming no increase so that's been a change um also the budget is supported by a little over 109,000 in additional revenue from the overlay Surplus which was released by The Board of
assessors and um the school committee recommended budget has been reduced by $415,000 resulting in a 5.8% increase instead of a 6.4 increase per increase um and employee benefits and insurance for Town and school will increase 11.3%
largely driven by our health insurance costs so overall the town operating budget would increase by 3.28% the school's operating budget by 5.8% uh the payment of debt principle and interest is up over 40% from last
year so that's that's the big change and the overall increase for everything is 12% for the entire budget so our free cash was certified today for a little over $18 million uh way more than that's great right so more than uh more than we had planned for so we will have access
that's not budgeted which will be carried over to the next fiscal year because we're not planning to use all of that in this budget there are many nice to haves that have been reduced from budgets this year and so when we have a discussion about the excess free cash I'm asking that we resist using it to
fund operating budgets um by reversing those decisions we stick to the the reductions in requests that have been made along the way um that will uh put us in a better position for next year and instead we should discuss the best use of the funds in the longer term um
the town will still have in infrastructure and capital needs and the economic Outlook is uncertain uh for next year so with that kyli will'll talk a little bit about the debt and so forth yeah so a couple of things I think it's important to note that that 18 million
is not normal and one of the questions that may come up at town meeting is how did we acquire so much so it's important to note that 6 million of it came from the arpa funds that we used to fund um health and
insurance benefits so and then 2.2 million of it was um interest income on the Investments that wasn't um projected when we did the budget in 2025 so that accounts for over 8 million
of it so last year when we certified free cash it was certified at 9.5 million so that's where the big swing comes from this year and I think it's important to get that on record that this is not normal that's the first thing so the
second thing is um if you look at the payers you go um proposed projects not everything has been recommended by cic yet so as we discussed in the last select
board meeting they will take another look at the projects that weren't recommended the first round knowing how much money we have available however it's going to be on priority and need of the Town not just because we have the
money we need to spend it so I had a conversation with Matt the chair of the committee today um and we'll get together as soon as possible within the next two weeks to review those other five projects
um residents may ask what can we use the money for so we're going to have money left in the overlay Surplus account um from the LG Reserve that moved to the overlay Surplus that does
not become free cash until FY 27 we're also going to have money left over in free cash because we're only spending 11 11.4 and we have a little over 18 my recommendation is not to pay down
debt um the reason why I'm saying that I talked to uni bank yesterday and you can't just pay down principal you actually have to look at the cable bonds that the town has we have two callable bonds at this point one for
2013 and one for and multiple ones for 2016 the 2013 is roughly 5 $100,000 that's going to not going to make a dent in our overall debt projection the 28 the 2016 is over 188
million so we could make a little bit of a dent in that one but the interest rates we're PL paying on those bonds are not comparable to the interest that we're actually earning on our investments so it's not going to be
worth the town paying down the debt cuz we're making more money than we would be if we pay down the debt so at this point my recommendation is to um leave the debt as is um we have a good debt projection we
know what we're up against in the next couple of years um we also know that we have capital projects in our 5-year plan for so for FY 27 our five our projection for
capital is $9.7 million just in capital for the general fund that does not include MW and the Enterprise requests so if we were to put that extra money in let's say Capital
stabilization which only has 375,000 at this given time that could be in the best interest of the Town knowing the capital expenses that we are going to incur in the Years coming so in the chart here um it's enclosure
to Capital request time meeting articles there's transfer to special education Reserve transfer to op transfer to stabilization is that what you're saying or there's an additional stabilization for Capital there's an additional we have four Reserve funds that we in capital stabilization we have not
funded um consistently okay so I think that makes sense to fund it a little more than we have in recent years yeah if you what is the withdrawal process from the capital stabilization is it um it just has to um as long as
whatever we use is within the definition of capital So within our bylaws there's four different criteria for Capital as long as it falls within the bylaw then we can withdraw it from stabilization okay it does require a
tell meeting vote right yeah but it's not time bound or no the funding source would just say Capital stabilization okay I think that makes sense yeah keeping it there and uh but I would also say um given some of the capital
projects I remember especially the um special ed children's playground one uh I'd like to see that happen sooner other than later so I know it's going to go back to cic right like you mentioned
so that would be one of the High prior higher priority ones that I remember I don't remember them all but I'm sure every one of them have you know some level of priority and probably are um requires closer attention so I'm yeah
within the sources and uses budgeted document I assumed everything was moving forward including the playground however it may not have the recommendation of cic or
committees um but I assume that we would use free cash to fund those if the town approves it oh that's right so it can be approved in the town meeting and we'll have to fund that so that is accounted for in the 10.8 that you have allocated
11.4 11.4 oh okay that's that's good then then it's healthier than what I thought yeah good now that all the more reason to keep it in capital good work yeah uh one thing I was thinking it would be helpful for the town meeting is if we can provide a breakdown of the
free cash whether in a presentation when you talk through this uh just to give more visibility and understanding for the presidents sure as you said it's not going to happen every year and um the second part is as you hear me saying all the time that I don't want it to happen
as high as we get uh every year so we can hydrate the funds ahead of time so that' be a good addition I think good and how much are you Rec recommending we transfer to the capital stabilization I don't see that in the sheet but yeah I haven't recommended I just wanted to
have the general conversation that I think we should take a portion of free cash Andor um what's going to be left over in the overlay Surplus to transfer to that I think what we transfer is open
for discussion but should it should be at least multi-million oh we have a hand raised hello Brian welcome can you guys hear me yes we can
hear you great thanks sorry I couldn't uh be there or be there on time either uh I did come in as you guys were getting into the discussion about paying down the debt I did talk to Kyla about this previously and uh I understand what you're saying Kyla and I appreciate you
looking into it but I think it makes sense to do what you're proposing uh that playground is in for the numbers for this you know this coming fiscal year so if town meeting supports it we do have the funds for that and then everything else can go as as planned as Kyla laid out we still need to hang on
with as much money as we can because we still have many years of big big interest coming at us we're just borrowing I think it was 20 million Kyla uh that's raising our debt service right now we're planning to borrow 80 million in
26 40 million in 27 and 20 million in 28 just for the school projects and this year's numbers based on a $20 million borrow correct 80 million 80 million I thought we were doing 20 and
25 that were putting that service against and then the 80 was in the following year though we did 17 in FY 25 we're going to do 80 in FY 26 40 and FY 27 and 20 and FY 28 okay got it got it
thanks okay no I'm good though thank you thank you Brian um do we have did I see an article for this stabilization Fund in in the town meeting yes Capital so we don't have that right now but we will have it when
it's voted on it town meeting right so we we always put the article on town meeting warrant should anyone uh decide to should we decide to do uh so this is for a capital stabilization fund and it is in the town meeting as an article we have arle post to remove and to put in
and then eventually take one of those off thank you anybody else sh do no I think we are all in agreement it sounds like and we want to put it in the capital and totally agree we don't want to reduce the de using this because it doesn't
give us much much Advantage at this time so it makes sense the good news we are um within our financial policies um our 5% of our operating budget will um be included in our general fund stabilization already so we're we're
within our policy great good work Amy um no I think I've got all my questions answered so I appreciate the presentation and answers yeah so the budget now doesn't include um it was actually created before the free cash was certified so the
discussion of what to do or you know how much money goes into Capital stabilization will continue U as we go forward yeah the amount meeting sorry Lane can you outline what's going to be the next steps for the budget process I mean this vote we're taking this evening
is not the end of it if you could just outlay that for everybody that's correct so tonight the board will vote to um accept the budget and to forward it to the appropriation committee and their meetings start tomorrow evening on the budget and go forward over the next couple of weeks and then they will
formulate their recommendations as well and they will hold a public hearing on the bu they'll hold public hearing as well yes so the public is welcome to to participate and then after all that they come back to us one more time and we take it and send it the town meeting is
that correct that's right they will come back here yes we can still modify if we have to yes and in parallel to that cic will meet one more time to review the five items that were not discussed pre-
ly that's great and um in terms of the budget current state that we are going to move tonight um are we going to have a quick summary of the latest and greatest I what does it look like now is it fully balanced after the recent
adjustments and everything yes it is and it was in the packet uh the sources and uses document is the summary and then there's also the line items included nice and it tells you exactly what the pay youo projects and all the contributions for free cash
excellent do we have the date for the Appropriations public hearing yet or I guess not until they meet not yet so we are meeting every Wednesday for the next four weeks probably the last one correct okay I it will probably be a so probably be the fifth week yeah okay and if the
last meeting is April 2nd then it will probably be the 9th of April okay I want to thank you elain and Kyla for doing this exceptional work it's it's
very difficult and it's ongoing and uh but right as of right now we're balanced so that is quite an achievement and I thank you both for doing the work you've done on it I'd like to thank the Fantastic Finance team Finance team yes
work okay I'll entertain a motion you want to I move to adop the FY 26 comprehensive budget operating in capital and submit to the Appropriations Committee second all in favor roll call okay oh because Brian's
remember okay am Brian her yes sh yes yes Jer yes thank you good
work very good work two months ahead of the meeting so good time okay we have the annual town meeting articles to discuss a lot of them here
uh and I don't know have gone over them well since sh is here maybe we could go over that Economic Development Advisory Board One yeah you board article Brian yeah would it be possible for Elaine to kind of walk us through because she
knows which ones we need to weigh in them and which ones we don't need to weigh in the economic development one for sure we do uh but I don't if we know if we need to go down a path with all of them so I think she's got a plan for walking us through it thank you uh the first um thing is
that the we've invited the general bylaw proponents to the next meeting to describe their articles um and allow the public to ask some questions of them so they will plan to be here next week uh to describe their articles so don't need to discuss those tonight they'll be
discussed uh at the next meeting so those are the ones in the general bylaw category um any of those proposed by us or they all so the economic development ones hosed by the select board so you would want to discuss those this evening okay so I would start with those since
next week um those will be coming up next week at the meeting okay and then there are a number of Articles uh on the warrant that eventually the board will need to make recommendations on um and there it's not a Time quench
to do that right now um you can wait on some of those okay so tonight I think the priority is the economic development ones do you want to go over the economic development articles uh sure oh I had
made some suggestions in red oh which is what do you have there this is on the print out mhm okay how do you want to do it I think everyone read it do I you want me to read through the whole thing would you want to introduce it since it was your
um yeah sure yeah just and introduce it I want to introduce it and before I go into the details one thing I wanted to understand uh from you all and U uh Brian we talked about it in the last one is that we have two paths this one is going with the
uh warrant and one is having the board form it here so do we want to decide on that first or uh do we want to go in parallel still so I think if you're going to go a different route other than town meeting
that's important for us to know now so we can take it off the warrant that's that's the reason I bring it up um any comments or thoughts Brian Amy Mar Jo yeah I think from my persp perspective um I think if if it comes from the
select board um we put it together I think there's some more flexibility with that uh I think it can be a little bit more Nimble uh and it may need to be nimble as it gets up and running for the first couple of years so I think for those reasons I would prefer that we not
have it be on the warrant and have it come from the select board yeah I agree and I said that at the I think the last couple meetings I think it'd be better if it came from the select board so that we could um adjust as needed yeah and I appreciate those comments and as I mentioned before I put
it as a placeholder and my preference is also that we form it here for the same reason that it's more flexible and you know more can be iterative if we need to so for those reasons what I would propose if you are all okay that in the next meeting we put it as an agenda item
for discussion and formation if we all agree and also invite Chambers or other uh stakeholders who would be interested to contribute to the commentary or formation of it and um uh at that time we can you know if everyone agrees we
can form it here and uh remove this warrant from the list at that time does that sound uh okay to to everyone yeah could we discuss a little it does sound okay to me but could we discuss the suggestions so far maybe with yeah sure
so I'll read through the suggestion um for discussion and it would be reflected on when we discuss next week as well or next time uh so the purposes um uh of the economic development Advisory Board is to advise the town of Hopkinton on
strategies and actions to promote Economic Development initiatives and programs that Foster business retention and attraction support local businesses and sustainable development and expand the commercial industrial tax base in order to address the town's structural
deficit and improve the quality of life for residents and the charge is the economic development Advisory Board will recommend Economic Development strategies and initiatives programs grants and actions that will Foster business retention and attraction
support local businesses and sustainable development and expand the commercial industrial tax base in hopkington the edab adab will conduct public Outreach on economic development issues plans and ideas to inform its recommendations and
collect data as needed the adab will coordinate and collaborate with Town staff in developing its recommendations and in data collection the composition the iTab shall consist of seven members who are hopkington residents appointed by the select board membership shall be
as follows one member of the planning board are representative of the hopkington Chamber of Commerce five at large members and the members shall initially be appointed to one two and three year terms to achieve staggered
terms and all members thereafter Shall Serve threeyear terms the board shall annually elect a chair and vice chair from among its members and the Quorum um this is a correction I think I I think that correction makes sense is the
corrected version is a majority of the membership shall constitute a forum Quorum laws and regulations the adab shall comply with the open meeting Law Public Records law procurement law and any other laws and regulations relative to public officials and public processes
as applicable the adab is responsible for creating and posting its meeting agendas and for creating and approving its meeting minutes um so that's kind of the outline and the verbiage that we have and I think the context we all um discussed quite a few times which is
that our with our Rising raising taxes we need to balance our um uh budget and the budget and cost is also Rising so with that we need to uh add more Revenue stream and um not depend only on residential taxes currently 11% comes
from commercial real estate 8% or 7 or 8% about from our um U commercial equipments uh but that percentage is growing down because we are not growing the business at the pace we are growing
our budget overall so this is a great time to start focusing on that if not P time that we uh focus on attracting new business small and large not only to generate Revenue but also to enhance the quality of the residents lives and U
having various services and also attract large businesses as we know the revenue stream from delh MC is also has been going down so that is kind of the context and uh purpose of this so we can establish some establish the uh office
with the excise tax that we discussed and have this board at advice on the strategy and the various uh activities of that office with a focus laser beam focus on generating additional Revenue through attract business attracting business and adding more to our retail
and business entities that's kind of the internatal what the context and the content is for this the items that I changed that were originally in the packet or that my suggestions are to add that piece about the structural deficit and improving the quality of life because um I've heard a lot of comments
from the public that they're not really they're not real excited about expanding business they bought a house in a residential town they like living in a residential town so I just thought it was important that we're trying to address the structural deficit and improve quality of life like try to bring businesses that people will welcome and will
want um that would be compatible with the town let's see and then I because we ran into this problem with the water sewer committee I thought it should be a majority of the membership not the majority of the appointed members because I don't want it to be where we only appoint three members and then two Quorum is two and then there's only two
people making these decisions um and I did reach out to the planning board um they're going to think about it and get back to me about whether they wanted um you know we could be one member of the planning board or a designate of the planning board maybe if if they felt like the planning board has a lot of long meetings I didn't know if
they wanted to go to another meeting so but I'm waiting to hear back from them s your anything anything else just a question those are my suggestions y just a question if we don't have feedback uh from from the planning board before the next meeting should we
postpone this until we have their feedback uh yeah we got a can you guys hear me yep y we just got to be careful with the agenda for the next meeting um I think that might be filling in so I I would say within the next couple of
meetings we could definitely get to it without disrupting some other things so if we could consider that and then we'll nail down sort of the the language uh and the the the the charge if you will uh at that meeting uh I don't want to get into it tonight
because it'll be be here for a while sure makes sense and in terms of the verbiage I think uh in my original one I had another one that is um somewhat that the businesses that are uh in line with the
town's character and our aspirations uh I think that's also important because um there are concerns that we don't want to lose the character and you know the natural as well as um the homely look and feel of our town so a little bit touching on those I think would be
helpful okay I'm just going to make a a short comment having uh been on the board of assessors and and worked in the town for like well I won't say how many years but
more than 30 and the ratio between business and residential has not changed by a couple of points every year we're like an 80/20 ratio and we really
need that really needs to be changed and I think it's something like this looking at all the possibilities uh and having someone pursuing it that we might finally see a change but we are a residential Community uh and even with all the
growth and everything that we've had that ratio just doesn't change and it's it's time we need to add some to the commercial industrial to help the residents that we do have here okay all right is there another warrant article Lane you want us to look
at the other one uh for economic development is the economic development office and that's also uh something that does not need to go to town meeting same basic discussion we just had though right correct we're going to keep if we're going to be nimble on about the committee or the board
whatever we're going to call it I would think we'd want to be nimble with this position too right yeah and it is dependent on Revenue as well do we have to take votes to take both of these sort of we can't take it off the warrant now we just take no
action right uh the board does have to vote to remove them since uh the board voted to put them on the warrant so we can remove them at this point or just take no action against it you can remove them up until what date up until the warrant is signed uh we can remove articles so that's the beginning of
April we sign it right okay so uh any more questions no ran I do no but if we if we all in agreement that we want to do this at the board level we probably should take a vote
this evening to remove them from the warrant so I'm comfortable removing it from the warrant if we're committed to reading at um our too yeah I think that that's fine all right you want to make a motion so I would make a motion to remove the article for the establishment
of the economic development Advisory Board from the warrant [Music] second uh all in favor I oh am no roll call Brian Brian her yes Amy yes sh man
yes Mary J F yes and then the same about the creation of the E economic development office because we'll wait on that till this committee meets yeah think so okay so I would make a motion to remove the article titled the creation of an econ office of Economic Development from the
warrant second okay Brian Brian her yes am yes yes Mary Jo yes okay and now I need a motion to
adopt the fiscal 26 comprehensive bud budget operating budget and capital and submit it to the Appropriations Committee oh did we not do that you did that I think we did that already did we we didn't have a vote did Lance record the vote because I
don't want to not have done it yeah okay but regard to to meeting um if there are other articles that you've identified you have questions about or need information on uh we're happy to gather those so um if you uh have noticed anything anything you'd like us
to to be working on to provide to you um let us one article I couldn't quickly find it but I think it is there uh is about the library uh related ones maybe for
awareness or we probably don't need to take any actions but for awareness it would be good to discuss I think um do you want me to pull it up the one to um include appointment powers for the Board of Trustees is that right
yeah okay which number is that well they're not numbered yet it's on page uh for the end page 83 of the packet or page 48 of the warrant yeah there are page numbers that's it no article number sorry I mean which page number is
that so page 83 of the packet 83 or you could do page 48 of the warrant okay yeah found it um so this is a board of Library trustees is the sponsor of this
elain do you want to elaborate on that uh so the board of Library trustees uh would like to have the authority to appoint the the library director and to amend the charter to give them that Authority I think they're happy to come and discuss that with the board if if the
board would like to do so did you say in agreement with the charter be an amendment to the Charter an amendment to the Charter that and how would that go amendment that the director appoints right now
it's the town manager Town manager so on the board that would appoint it okay and that would have to go through two Town meetings right to make a change to the Charter or uh it would be an amendment that would um it would uh it' be a special act okay so then it wouldn't
have to go just tell meeting once just one okay but then the special Act is a special act and that it goes to the legislature and who knows when that would happen right or how long it will take I'd be curious to have them join us
for a meeting and explain the rationale because I think the yeah the the the process they're assum maybe they're assuming maybe they're not I don't know I don't want to speak for them it's it's quite laborious and I'm not sure what the end game is though really yeah I think that would be good
to have them here and discuss through this they were here actually in the last meeting but we didn't get to discuss um through that so I support the same and suggest the same generally I think um but I'll let them explain uh they were
saying that it is now becoming or pretty common among the 341 towns to have this structure but again I don't have the full data and I don't want to speak um or what they may have already well thought out so let's have them here I
mean at the end of the day they the library you know Board of Trustees can put an article warrant on town meeting floor which they have done so it's not that we can't we can't stop I no interest in stopping I'm just curious what their thinking is that's all makes sense yeah
so for the change day and time of annual town meeting I've been thinking about that one a lot um I know it's not art article it's the town clerk but I guess I was wondering if he might be amendable to switching it to have the town meeting start no later than the first Monday the
no later than the first Saturday of May each year because I have this fear that if we change it to Saturday and attendance is worse or it can't happen easily because it's the middle school play that day um I I'd like us to be able to try it on Saturday if that's what people want but to have the
flexibility of switching back to Monday if it turned out it was not great attendance and I I thought some towns do have it on their Charter that not the specific exact day and time but within a certain time frame so that town clerk will be present at the next meeting at the next meeting talk about
it uh what's the home R petition we have in there the um The Economic Development Fund for the funds for the the Mills tax the Mills tax tax what we're going to do with the Mills
tax and that they want to earmark that for economic development and U that's what we also discussed when we um proposed it the last time in the town m i i remember yeah that's already in process isn't it
well doesn't have a fund to go into right now yeah yeah I think to actually allocate it we need the specific warrant it's a special act yeah yes it goes into the general fund right now by default yeah and I did want to note that
since um since we published this in the packet uh the open space preservation commission withdrew their land uh purchase uh article that's will be out in the next draft okay okay
any other questions any comments I'm good I think I'm good thanks for reminding me just reminded me we do need to at some point discuss the P article as well oh right oh that's right oh P article has that come back
from uh Brand's review uh bran betam was reviewing it and so what we see here is his um edited version um which made it a resolution so it's a non-binding resolution okay okay so that's on page
49 I'm sorry I missed that that was a change it's the last article right now I would like to encourage people to get their Wells tested we know what we're against so we all set on the warrant articles for tonight anyway I'm still
reading that P one with the changes if that's okay um so it says no Town disclosure requirements but if there were state or federal disclosures am I reading that correctly if there are state or federal disclosures people would have to
disclose that we can't prevent that okay who's the sponsor of that article select board it was proposed by me Brian and the select board we voted so the spirit of this is to
encourage uh testing without any binding um and so we get a better sense of what's happening and as well as uh people can make their own decision on their own property whether to test and if the test results are something that
they want to act upon entirely up to them uh but this is to encourage that um uh that action so to speak and it's voluntary and no Town disclosure requirements and statewise
um I was waiting for Brian's comments but my understanding is statewise it's not mandatory to report however uh if the results become um above the threshold during sales they have to disclose it something like that so I
some confirmation on that but generally um they don't have to disclose and then no legal obligation for remediation Town support and resources that's the other part that uh we want to promote and uh uh encourage
people to test from town we'll provide the education the support and guidance to do that and also uh you know basically to help them out with any advice where we can and then monitoring and
evaluation uh based on you know the results and whatnot from the town we can provide some mechanism to assess the effectiveness of the efforts but correct me if I'm wrong here but the state and the federal government would probably require residents to disclose this and
have a they may have a legal obligation for remediation it just wouldn't be imposed by the town would be imposed by the state and federal government so the town can't change those requirements no no I understand so I want to be clear that there still residents will still have to disclose that won't prevent that they just it won't be imposed by the
town that's a good question so that's what I wanted to kind of have um a legal expert to clarify from what I heard and my research it's little um you
know the way it's said is that the state does not say you I test my uh well today I don't have to disclose it to the um state but if the limits are above
threshold when I sail it I think that's when I have to disclose it but that law is also on the table it hasn't fully passed yet I think that was introduced in January but assuming that passes then that'll be the first time to legally uh
be obligated to disclose it that I found there's pfas in my well when I sell it I have to disclose it but remediation is not mandatory at that time it will be a negotiation just like raidon is today um between the seller and the buyer so
that's one thing and again I I'm not a law legal expert so I'm uh also leaving it to some interpretation but there is a caveat which is when the limit is above the threshold the labs have to report it
to the state so that way it becomes um visible and acknowledged by state that's my understanding if we put if we put rules in place as a single entity as as Hopkinson that don't line
up with the other communities in Massachusetts we are doing a huge disservice to the homeowners of hopkington when it comes to selling their home I think we have to be very careful I'm all for doing the testing and I'm all for reporting if it's Statewide if it's just Hopkinson reporting it's going to kill our real
estate market and I would be strongly opposed to it if it's just us if it's everybody then I'm all in I think it's the opposite that schedule's proposing that we don't have to report it right that's my understanding again
um we have Board of Health Sean is here if you want to chime in feel free it just also if I may I recommend that we uh since the Board of Health uh does regulate private wealth that we should work hand inand with with the health department on this is that's correct
that's why I sent it to Sean and the Board of Health when I first proposed it and uh to Brian's point I I totally agree we don't want to jeopardize anything here we the whole spirit is to promote public health and uh uh you know not knowing is not probably going to
help long term for uh from a public health perspective because that will lead to people not taking an action and probably in good faith drinking things that they could have done differently that's my personal opinion but I agree
that we don't want to do anything that will jeopardize or um you know risk anything for our Town's real estate as well um just for myself I'd be more comfortable if we remove items two and three because U but we could wait till
we hear from the Board of Health I guess um and and one last thing and is that this is completely voluntary this is kind of doing a fiduciary duty as to um make it a priority for all without any
binding so if someone says you know I'm not comfortable doing it they don't have to do anything I'm just not sure what it changes because already people don't have to do anything right like so it doesn't change it to put it in and is a
bylaw change is it just a resolution a resolution okay it's a resolution yeah that's why it's more of you know call to action okay U actually mandating that's the list I think we can do because I'm also concerned that we cannot mandate and put
you know people at um any form of obligation that other towns are not starting to do yet or that may incur other challenges this is more of a resolution call to action and uh awareness many people may already
already know know or uh think that it's a possibility as well right in their backyard so this is a first step to awareness and I think as U Town leaders it's our fiduciary duty to do what and when and as early as we can to build
that awareness and honestly these there are many instances of public health challenges issues and even disasters where not taking such actions early on results in adverse impact 10 years years 20 years later so it's just a first step
on that um so one one personal experience I had is uh back home in Bangladesh uh there was arsenic crisis for a long time uh there was arsenic in the water and it's not visible it looks fine it tastes fine and people didn't
know it or even just ignored it right and then 20 years later there were all kind of horrible diseases across you know uh town after town Village after Village um and then there was remediation that took place and people's lives were saved
but many suffered and millions actually suffered cancer with deformity all kinds of stuff and if you Google it you'll see the horrible stories but that kind of taught me that you know there are ways even a small step can help for long a
long-term plan for Better Health Sean you want to chime in if everyone wants to hear shair I'd be I'd be pleased do we have other uh articles we want to discuss folks
yeah I I'd be pleased to come forward at a a meeting I not being on the agenda I don't know if I can yeah we can schedu so uh for those who can't hear in the audience Sean mcalla Health director is
offering to come to a future meeting to discuss okay see what excellent that's great thank you okay thank you very much anybody else any questions any comments
no okay so now we uh Town position posting the town manager report yep Town manager report so for the Main Street coridor project um the new ornamental street lights and pedestrian lights are
operational I've enjoyed using the flashing cross crosswalk Beacon um did you say it's on yes it works we'll try it tonight okay it works well um and then uh other than possible work to reinstall street lights our sources
scheduled be completed by their on their project by March 14th oh good so it was light out when we arrived so we didn't see the the lights were working that's good and the the street lights are working as well okay are we going to have everybody cutting not not yet you can just walk
out from the meeting Town Hall yeah from town hall so the uh just everybody knows the street lights are set at 85% right now they seem a little low I checked with Public Safety and they were wondering if they could be turned up a little bit as well so they're going to
turn them up to 100% uh as of this afternoon uh and we'll look at that for a few days and see what people think and then we can adjust a little bit uh as well going forward we we don't want them so bright that it's a Christmas tree like we were worried about a little bit before but we don't want them so low that they're not really adding to the
safety of downtown in the evenings or at night so more to come there but we are tweaking them and the way you change the the the the output is you click a button on a computer so it's a very simple process to adjust I like that approach one thing I would suggest how are we going to gather
any feedback on that to br's point oh we'll get plenty of feedback if they're too bright don't worry about it I think it'll be fine but we'll see it's only going to go up 15% it's going to go from 85 to 100 and see how that goes so um we'll
see well I look forward to it and then for the next item uh Town position uh vacancies so the uh the health department is recommending approval of the posting for a temporary prdm nurse um and I also recommend that
the board authorize that posting and they did include information on the importance of the position uh which will be working on public health um and uh we'll be working uh funded by the metro west Health Foundation Grant um the fy2
department budget and the friends of senior center Grant that's great are we going to get the vaccination back okay vaccination program back aome looking forward to getting some help so
I move to approve uh the posting of temporary partm Nars in the health department second all in favor oll call call Brian
Brian her yes am yes sh man yes Mary Jo yes uh L on reports anybody have any Le on reports oh on i t I'm good I don't have anything um let's see um I had a I think
I emailed about this a while ago and I've forgotten but I was wondering it it's a from a resident about the changing of the speed limit on Hayden row Street I wanted to add that for as a future agenda item changing of what how what's the process for changing the speed limit on Route 85 especially as we get more and more
schools okay cuz I think someone told it was under the select board but I'm sure there's a long complicated process speed stud that's a that's a state highway Amy 85 that's a state process it's not a local process we talked to the chief about that in the past typically it involves a speed study
as which does cost something so it cost the town to do the speed study okay did you say a former resident though Amy what son did you say a former resident no a current resident it's been brought up to me multiple times
got it by current residents yeah I know it's a I do know it's a state process that we would have to go through speed studies can also result in an increase in the speed limit depending on what's found in the study so it may be counter to what you're hoping for sometimes maybe what can also result in an
increase in the speed limit so it may be if you're hoping for reduction in speed limit you know may you may have the opposite effect yeah this was um when John mustering was the DPW director he did a what was it traffic and pedestrian safety before him with ehop a long time ago and I thought he had talked about
the process back then and that was one of the reasons I thought that we had installed those signs that measure your speed when you're coming off a chestnut from Milford um onto Hayden row so that we could measure if it would likely be a reduced speed or not so I think we might have that data but so I guess I would
like to request that as a future agenda item to understand the process better it could just be a memo I guess okay um and then I think and I think I'll look it up I think we were invited to another um ifar dinner I think that's been three okay I have any other
reports oh there's a uh Interfaith program uh at the mosque 14th and 16th on two Moses so are invited to ch yeah so it looks like it's on the the
14th is the one on the corner of um of South Street and West Main right and the one on the 16th is the one the mosque on Wood Street okay great anything else no okay uh any bu want to bring up in a
a future uh agenda item we talked about Economic Development uh all set thank you yeah I'm all set too I'm good too you too Amy I think I'm all set that was my only item okay I'll entertain a motion to
adjourn mam chair I move motion to adjourn today's meeting second all in favor yes Brian Brian heard no bye
bye yes and we'll see you on the 18 y