[music] 6 2026. We only have one set of minutes. Were there any corrections that were not ministerial in nature? Madam Chair, I had
one um just on the the front page under the joint appointment with the Freetown Lakeville School Committee. Um would should it be moderator Kate Goodfellow called the joint meeting? >> Yep.
>> Yeah. Yep. As amended. >> I know she chaired it, but >> Yep. Yeah. >> Okay. and and I just had administrative but I'll just pass on. >> Thank you Punka. Anything?
>> All right. I'll enterit Well, I'll entertain it. >> I'll enterain I'll make a motion um to approve the select board and wage and personnel meeting minutes of January 6th, 2026. >> Seconded. >> I have a motion in a second. Any further discuss discussion hearing? None. Roll
call. >> Hunt. >> Hug I. >> Candido I >> Carbone I. Fantastic. Next, I'd like to invite our fire chief up. Um, we have two items that he's going to be working with us on, and one of them is
introduction to a new firefighter, and the other one is some recognition for some existing firefighters. Chief, please have a seat. >> Thank you. Please stand. >> Like to thank the board for uh making time for the fire department tonight and uh for uh welcoming our newest
firefighter to the town, uh firefighter Liam Holy. >> All right, cool. >> I always say his last name wrong. Uh replaces outgoing uh Tyler Knight who was promoted uh received a a deputy chief position in Berkeley. Uh Liam
comes to us from uh basically he's recently separated, not separated, he's uh moved into the National Guard, Army National Guard where he serves as a special forces medic with the 20th special forces group uh based here in Massachusetts. Uh he has he joined the he grew up in nearby Reign. He joined
the Marines when he was 18 and he uh transitioned after his commitment in the Marines, he transitioned over to Army. He's also done some contract work uh where he delivered uh humanitarian aid uh in Gaza which is probably a quite the experience. Uh part of the special
forces medicraining is pretty intensive. He does rotations uh in trauma centers level one trauma centers. He's done u right along with busy uh busy EMS services like St. Louis Fire Department uh ambulance service. Um, so he we were happy to see, you know, see his
credentials and his application and performed really well in our in our latest permit process. So, >> uh, do you have anything to say or share or >> I just want to thank the members for giving me such a warm welcome. Everybody in Lakeville so far has been topnotch from the fire department to you guys.
The hospitality has been awesome. I'm very happy that I could land here in Lakeville and and actually get some uh roots back in Massachusetts. So, it's good to be back. >> Fantastic. We're very excited to have you come aboard. >> Yeah. Very good. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Now you get to do an obstacle course and make sure you don't trip as part of your first duty while you're walking past these things. >> Welcome. Welcome. I just squint. I'm just Don't fall. Hold >> tight. [clears throat] Is it okay if I
call the next girl? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Um firefighter Cam Cochran, um Mike McCabe, and firefighter Paul. Uh can you please come for us? This is kind of a
this is kind of a cool cool little story. uh before you are relatively junior firefighters uh that are new to Lakeville. Um various degrees of of other experience, you know, as far as firefighting in other parts of of the area or of the country. Um, but there every now and then there's an
opportunity for me to have my eyes up and kind of realize some some really uh some positive things or good things and and this story is one of those moments where I I was able to watch people in action have very little to do with the performance other than to take pride in
in the outcome. And uh so on January 7th there was a a pretty significant car accident on a round road and um we had multiple calls going on a little bit of chaos and just because of the way that calls marched out I had a junior crew in the building and my office is a bit remote from the floor and as I I'm
rushing down the stairs trying to dive in and organize the troops it was already done for me. There was no instructions to be to be made. Uh you know Jerry jumped in, sorted out the manpower, got them on the trucks. Um, out the door they went. As I'm sizing up the scene, I spot a uh a young young
girl um who looks after 33 years of doing this, you can spot sick people without having to put equipment on them. And before I could open my mouth, um, firefighter McCabe was on her convincing her despite her objections and those of her family that she needed to go to the hospital. And she very aggressively
abdicated to that child. And what we learned about her injuries at a later time, she probably saved that child's life. Um it was she said very significant injuries. Um and I just was kind of filled with a sense of pride because I absolutely had nothing directly to do with this these outcomes that day. I was more of an observer than
anything. Um and there's really nothing as a supervisor you can't be more proud of. >> What a great feeling. >> I know I did nothing. [laughter] And but the the outcome was it spoke for itself. And just being to see our new people uh uh take that initiative and
and dedicate their skills was it was pretty gratifying to see. And I just wanted to share that story with the board and and and with uh with Andrew and um because it was I was just so filled with pride. And then we have Cam over here. Cam's a young nonqual firefighter with aspirations of being uh
a full-time firefighter. And to see him operate that scene with confidence, jumping in that learning mode, like how can I help? And and being hands-on, being in the back of the ambulance and and taking that instruction from me was it was just seriously I walked it just recharged my batteries. It'll be like
another another week or two before I I let the stress get to me. [laughter] >> Well, we're very thankful for your involvement and we're very thankful for you bringing us to us. >> So, we have a letter written. I'm not going to read the whole thing for sake of time, but this is going to go in the record and hope you have you have a copy. >> We have a couple nice little things
here. We like I'd love you to do our team. >> So, um we're not really professional here and this is probably very professional for us. So, we printed out certificates [laughter] We're getting fancy around here. Do >> I get one for doing nothing? [laughter]
>> I was going to make a joke, but it was going to be bad. >> Yeah. >> He's a [laughter] congratulations. >> Congratulations. Good job. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate you. >> Appreciate it. Thank you.
>> Thank you so much. If you want to do the If you want to do the gauntlet, [laughter] Do you mind if we break for our photos? You go right ahead. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Well done. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you.
>> Great job. Well done. >> Thank you. Great job. >> Thank you very much. >> Great job. Little do they know it's a coordination test. Keep marking them down every time. [laughter] >> I love it. >> Fantastic. Thank you everyone.
[applause] All right, that's item one and two. Now we are going to move on to item three on discussion and possible vote to authorize Twisted Growers Retail LLC to hold an in-person community outreach
meeting. Um, it did say virtual on there, but it is actually an in-person meeting or uh, Yep. Inerson meeting. Andrew, do you want to speak to this? >> Yeah, I can turn it over to >> Did I miss something? >> It's just the notice. >> Okay.
Um, so they did originally request approval for a virtual meeting, but they ended up going with an inerson meeting. So, um I don't believe that they need any sort of vote from the board, but um in your supplemental packet, another thing was their community outreach
meeting notice. They sent it to us today, so it's coming up on on February 4th. I'm just going to read it into the record then. Um, notice of community outreach meeting. Notice is hereby given that Twisted Growers Retail LLC will hold a community outreach meeting on
February 5th, 2026 at 4:15 Millennium Drive in Lakeville at 5:00 p.m. to discuss marijuana retailer to be cited at 8 Harding Street in Lakeville. Copy of the meeting and presentation will be made available at least 24 hours prior to meeting by emailing P. Silverman at
vince uh v i n v i c n [clears throat and snorts] tlp.com. Interested members of the community will have the opportunity to ask questions, receive answers from company representatives about the proposed facility and operations. Questions can
be submitted in advance by emailing same address as before and that's all in the packet. Correct or eligible for anyone to read. Make sure we have it out there. um or asked during the meeting. Um it is to be noted that if this goes through,
this will be Lakeville's first retail marijuana. Currently, we have medical and we have grow uh manufacturing. We do not have retail, so this will be a change of operations for Lakeville. Any
questions from the board members? Um if I can, Madam Chair, um in the past, [clears throat] um I know that this is a requirement, um of all, um cannabis companies to hold a community outreach before they actually, you know, begin operation. Um the select board,
you know, in the past has attended. I'm happy to, you know, try to get this into my schedule to go. I'd like to learn a little bit more as well, but I'm happy to have you. Is anyone else interested as well? I'll I'll try to attend as well. >> Huh?
>> I will not be in attendance, >> but if there's three of them, can we please post just in case? Yes. Thank you. Great. Um, do we need to do a vote or did we just need to read it into the records? We just need to read the
record. All right. PR fantastic. um 6:30. We'll move back on that. We're going to skip item five and move to item six, discussion and possible vote on
FY27 budget update. >> Do we want to go with number four? Um, you know what is Is it Is Shelly here? >> She was supposed to be on the Zoom. >> Oh, I DIDN'T SEE ANYBODY HERE. SO, I'M
LIKE I looked up like Oh, is Shelly, are you in attendance? >> Yes, I'm here. >> Oh, okay. Sorry about that. Um, let us actually start with number four. Shelley is a senior program manager for
community assistance at the Mass Housing Partnership and will be providing an overview of affordable housing trust and answering questions from the board. The Lakeville Affordable Housing Trust was established in 2005 and has a fund balance of 122,541.
The trust has generated revenue through the sale of formally formally affordable housing units. Currently, the town does not have a mechanism to utilize the Lake Fellow Affordable Housing Trust. The town bylaw establishes a board of trustees to manage the funds, but no members have ever been appointed. The
attached overview sets forth powers of the board of trustees um and potential initiatives they may undertake. Statutory members may include one board member of the select board, one of the board of appeals, one of the planning board, and two members at large. Um
Shelley, I'm going to let you present. And I heard that you had a slide deck to present or Yep. >> Yep. Is it showing on your side? >> I'm now I'm seeing it. >> Fantastic.
So, thanks so much for having me here tonight. Uh my name is Shelly and I am a program manager at MHP, part of our community assistance team. And I just wanted to take maybe 10 minutes to go through some slides, a little bit of an overview of trusts and what trusts
around the state are are um investing in and then to allow some time for Q&A if that seems useful for your your board tonight. >> Thank you. So, just very uh briefly, I'm going to go through some basics about the housing trust statute and then I'm
going to talk about some of the things that trusts are investing in and then just a few online resources that MHP has available and my contact information will be at the end as well. And I will send these slides in a [clears throat] PDF form so that they can be shared or posted as you like.
So, some very basics and I don't need to um talk down to anyone if you're very familiar with the statute. I'm just going to assume that you know very little and just start with that. But the municipal affordable housing trust fund is um an enabling act under Mass General
Law Chapter 44 section 55C. It's created by your local legislative board. So, your town meeting um voted with just a majority vote. Um it's led by a board of trustees that are appointed locally and then because it is a municipal entity it's subject to public procurement designer selection
confident of interest and public meeting laws like all of your other municipal boards. The purpose in the statute is to proide the creation and preservation of affordable housing and municipalities for the benefit of low and moderate income households and for the funding of community housing as defined in
accordance with the community preservation act. So, it's actually a more narrow definition. Some people, some communities want to put everything housing under the trust, and it really isn't structured that way. It's really about creating and preserving affordable
housing. And then, um, tying it to CPA is means that the the support verb under CPA is allowable for trust as well. So under the support verb, I'll get into a little bit of what that means, but the statutes are closely tied because having
the community preservation act is often times the impetus of why a community creates an affordable housing trust fund. The trust, it does say in the trust statute that the trust should be reporting back to the community preservation committee on an annual basis of how they're spending CK funds,
if they are spending CPK funds. This is so that the CPC can be um reporting how CPA funds are spent by the trust in their annual CP3 report to the department of revenue. The um inset the document there is a document a fillable
document that I created with Stuart from the community preservation coalition to um make it easier for trust to be reporting back to the CPC. So, it's a fillable form and it's using all the language, the the verbiage that the
state uses in the CP3 form. Really generally the kinds of things that an affordable housing trust can do is one, address affordable housing needs, support local control of housing initiatives. The trust can engage in real estate activity, buying and selling real estate
if that seems um important to a particular trust. The trust can make timely decisions. So unlike the community preservation coalition that must go back to town meeting for votes on allocations, the trusts can move more nimly in the market, which can be useful
in a couple different ways. One, if there's a a property or a building that's for sale that could be um feasible for affordable housing, if the trust has funds, then they can move more nibbly instead of having to wait for town meeting for an allocation. two is
that um if there's a developer that's working on an affordable housing development and needs to apply to the state for federal and state resources, the state only only has typically one um round of funding and so it's very
limited and for a developer to have to work around a local time frame and a state time frame can be really challenging. So the trust can move can respond typically if they have funds in their account more um quickly instead of having to wait for town meeting and
getting that to line up with the state round for um allocations as well. So that can be useful and then the trust as a miscal board can be collecting funds from a variety of sources and I think that I have have included a slide to talk about the many different ways that
communities are funding their trust these days. The statute says very little. It's it's not very prescriptive. There are some basics. You must have a minimum of five trustees. You must include the chief executive officer, which is a member of
the select board in a town. Um they're appointed by the mayor or city council or the select board. It's a um two-year terms or kind of a max of twoear terms. I know that your bylaw says oneyear
terms. And then trustees are public agents. They're special uh municipal employees similar to your other boards. I just put read your bylaw because these are the basics. These are the basic things [laughter] that the the statute requires, but your bylaw um has some
particular um um um specific requirements and and those were read just a minute ago. And then the the the state statute has 16 explicit powers that are allowed. And some of the big ones are just accept and receive real property, personal property
money, purchase and retain real [laughter] personal property, sell these, exchange or convey any personal mix of real property. These are just some of the big ones. There are 16 total. And again, you want to read your bylaw because some communities have modified the the powers which is allowed
under the statute. And so you just want to make sure that you're always referring back to your bylaw. I just wanted to bring up one case study, one example of a community. The town of Brewster had a a different form
of a housing trust that wasn't as um uh flexible as the municipal affordable housing trust fund. So they decided to um dissolve that trust and create a municipal affordable housing trust. In 2018, they had $80,000 from the previous
one. They transferred that to the new trust. And then when setting up the trust, they spent some time on creating a mission statement, goals with priority initiatives, and then they sponsored a housing forum to get some feedback from the community on the direction that they were heading to make sure that they were
um open with the community. But the way that they've structured their trust, their bylaw specifies that they have a have to have a member from the select board which is in line with the statute and then they've actually given a seat to their town administrator or a design designated the town administrator
in the in the years that they've had a trust. The town administrator has appointed the assistant town administrator. And I I find this really useful to have a a staff person particularly at the level of town administrator or assistant town
administrator that knows pretty much all the key players, knows the boards and the leaders of the boards, knows key staff. I think it really helps with conversations between different boards and keeping things um helping to build trust as well. But we don't actually have that many
communities that that provide a seat for staff. Um, the other community that I know of is Beverly actually has five trustees and three of them are town staff. Only two of them are residents at large. So, back to Brewster, they also
require a representative of their housing partnership, their affordable housing partnership. They require a representative from their community preservation committee and a member of their planning board to sit on their trust. And then they have two citizens
at large, two residents at large. Brewster has modified one one power. Um they have required that allocations over $50,000 are subject to the select board approval. this is um
quite restrictive um more so than any other bylaw that I've seen, but they just felt that for their community at the time that they were setting up their trust that they that that was would be useful in building kind of trust and comfort in the community and they have
been really um should I use the word lucky? I don't know if I should use the word lucky, but lucky that they have a select board and just a general attitude. The community have seen the urgency of needing to invest in affordable housing. So, it's it's worked okay for them where it hasn't been um restrictive for them. Um,
we do u while we do acknowledge that some communities put limits on powers, we do just kind of put out the warning that you you want to make sure how you do that so that you're not too restrictive where you take away kind of the some of the the benefits of having a municipal affordable housing trust fund.
Okay, good. Good. So, these are the many different ways that communities are now working on investing in their housing trusts. Um, many different ways. So CPA is clearly the most common. Um over 80% of our trust communities also have the community preservation act and it's not
a given in every community that it's easy to get CPA funds but but it it's common to have some CPA funds. Um we have some communities that they have inclusionary zoning bylaws and in some it's written into the bylaw to allow for in le of payments in some cases and that
those be transferred to the trust. So we have some communities like Swanson Scott that receive funds from inclusionary zoning in of payments. We have one community on the Cape that has a cell phone tower and the lease payments are directed to their trust. It's not a lot of money but it's a little bit of money
they can count on every year. There may be there are some communities that transfer free cash. um Brookline as an example, Truro as an example, and tax title sales um can be a little bit more tricky today
with kind of the some of the guidance from the Supreme Court more recently, but we do have the community of Chelsea that has actually transferred some tax federal properties to their trust to redevelop into affordable housing. There may be a special bylaw or
ordinance payments in some in some communities. Um Somerville is an example of that where they have a special ordinance that um brings in some funds and those are transferred to the trust. We have uh at least one community that's had some developer negotiated fees. You need to be very careful about that, but
there was a community in Norfol that had a friendly 40b development home ownership development years ago and they negotiated with the developer that out of all the market rate units that were sold that $10,000 of the profit would be contributed to the community. and the select board directed that to their
trust. We have one community that has the ability to um uh to borrow through a bond. Um they they have up to the community has voted to allow them to
bond up to a million dollars against the municipal budget to use affordable housing. I don't know if they've used that yet, but they have that tool. And then we have one community, Orleans, on the Cape, that has a tax override of $275,000 that they see as a permanent override
that they receive each year. So that's the only community that I know of that where their trust has been able to draw on um a line of credit with the bank because they have this the source of income. Donations can be directed to the trust. That can be in cash, it can be in
land or a building. And then some communities are transferring short-term rental fees. Um Gloucester is an example of that. Some of the communities on the Cape are talking about that a lot about transferring some of those fees to their trust. Communities talk a bit about marijuana tax, but I don't know if I
have yet actually heard any [clears throat] community um transferring any of that tax income to the trust. And then you may be aware of the effort among many communities and there's a statewide bill that would allow real estate transfer fees. Um so there's there's a bill that would be
enabling legislation for any community in the state and then a [clears throat] a variety of communities have their own um home petition before the legislature. So what's exciting is that we're seeing in recent years a variety of ways that communities are trying to build the resources that their trust have
available to them. And then I wanted to go a little bit through just examples of what communities are investing in. And I'm using the language of the verbs in CPA, acquire, create, preserve, and support
because these statutes are closely tied. And just to make it simpler, um, and I know that you are a CP community. So starting with acquire, this is is an example and I should say that not each of these examples were necessarily funded by an affordable housing trust.
Some of them are CPA. This case was um through the CDC. However, all of these are examples that the that the trust could in invest in. So this is just an example of an existing apartment building in Barsville several years ago that [clears throat] a nonprofit organization was able to it had a
portion maybe it was it might have been permitted under 40B where a portion was affordable [clears throat] but not not all them. So a nonprofit was able to acquire this development utilizing $500,000 of local funds. They use that to leverage additional resources to buy
the entire development. And now all but just a few units are affordable in perpetuity. A few units were kept at market rate because they um they had tenants that were not inqualified and they didn't want to displace anyone, but the majority are affordable. So just
using uh fairly small amount given that they received um over like 120 units affordable a little bit of local money leveraged much more money and then were able to um basically buy down these units in perpetuity.
We also have examples where trusts are managing small-cale buy downs, what are oftenimes called buy down programs, where they're helping incomequalified households purchase an existing home in town and then they're adding an affordability restriction at the time of purchase. These are structured
differently in different communities. It typically is a high cost per unit, but it can be a way to um create home ownership opportunities. It can spread the home ownership units throughout the community. And it can also help to preserve the more modest size housing in
our communities, particularly for communities where tearing down more modest homes is still common to build really large ones. So we have we do have different trusts that are managing some kind of program like this. We have seen many trusts invest in a new
construction of affordable housing and in Beverly they did this development with a nonprofit developer. They also created a 40R district in this area. So they the town the city received additional funds from the state for one zoning the area as a 40R district. I
think you might have a 40-year district so you may be familiar but um and then when the units were occupied then the the city received additional funds from the state for that. Brewster invested in a 30 unit development of rental housing
with $550,000. And this was actually on surplus housing authority land. So the the town worked actively with the housing authority to bring this development forward. The town submitted for a a mass works grant in order to do some of the infrastructure
on the site. And then in Hudson, this was a had been a um it uh I believe it was a police station and it was considered surplus. And so they put it out as a request for proposals to build affordable housing and they now have 40
units of rental housing. The local contribution was $650,000 and a land donation. And the trust was actively engaged in the process of some of the community process around reusing the site and creating the the request for proposals.
And then we oftent times see adaptive reuse of existing buildings. Um in Little Burough, the shoe shop place not too far from you was had been a factory that's now 25 units of rental housing. The local contribution was really small, $25,000 at the time. They
were a new community preservation act community. They didn't have that many local resources, but they did have some. and the nonprofits leading the development were able to use that to acquire the state resources that they needed to finish the development in Williamstown. This had been a um uh a
mill building and a for-profit developer was able to redevelop it into affordable housing using a local contribution of $200,000. And then the Swarm Scott and Auburn developments were both schools. So they they were considered surplus schools. They weren't being used any longer and
they were redeveloped into affordable housing. In Swamot, it's 38 units of age restricted, so senior rental housing. And then on the right in Auburn, um it's 50 55 units of also age restricted housing. In both incidences with the
schools, there's a there was an addition added to the building because the the building itself wasn't large enough to provide enough units for it to be financially feasible. So in the Auburn photo, you can kind of see in the back if your screen is big enough um the addition in the Swanson Scotland one.
You can't quite see it in that photo. And then when we talk about preserve with affordable housing, we are typically talking about preserving an expiring affordability restriction. So, this example in Ammerst was a 204 unit
development, rental development that had um 41 units affordable, but only 15-year restrictions that were set to expire. And Ammerst, as you likely know, with UMass and with the other universities, their rental market is is particularly
tight. And um the community was really concerned about losing these 41 units that served a lot of families in the town. So they engaged MHP and kind of some do [clears throat] some strategizing um reached out to the a large developer Beacon Communities that
has a lot of experience with multif family housing with 40B with affordable housing and um Beacon actually negotiated to purchase the development because the owner hadn't wanted to renew the restrictions. So Beacon purchased it
but utilizing $1.25 $25 million of CPA money that was bonded. So, a trust would not be able to bond because they don't have the same kind of income, but a trust could be helping to monitor any expiry restrictions and be working collaboratively with the CPC and the
town to be making sure that your restrictions um [clears throat] continue beyond any expirations. One other way that we can look at preservation is um if buildings are declining to a point where units are no longer livable. So um in Gloucester, the
housing authority had already shuttered one unit because of leaking a roof that was leaking and there were others that were at risk and so they requested a small amount of CPA funds to supplement state modernization formula funding in order to replace this 30-year-old roof
roof. So, um, addressing some of those kind of umbrella issues, um, exterior building risks to units being livable, that can fall under preserve with, um, CPA. And so, we see
that as, um, a a good, um, way for the trust to consider preserve as well. And then under support, things that have historically been considered allowable with CPA funds is some potential predevelopment work on a municipal site
that you're considering for affordable housing in order to prepare a request for proposals, updating [clears throat] your housing, your housing plans, and rent assistance is explicitly allowed in the CPA statute. So, these are things that your housing trust could also actively participate in.
And then just quickly, we have uh many different online resources for affordable housing trusts and for communities that are looking to do more housing work. And you may be familiar with some of these or all these. Oops, I forgot to take off the December um bullet. I used that from another presentation. I'm so sorry. Um
uh so we have many different resources and then we always want to be a resource for your community as well and and welcome any kind of follow-up questions. I'm going to stop sharing and then if there are just questions among your board or anything that you want to talk about, I'm I'm happy to stick around for a little bit. >> Shel, thank you for the presentation. Um
it it helped answer a few questions I had um about the process and about what's included and what's not. I know I still have a few questions, but I want to open it up to my board to allow them to have questions first, then I'll also open it up to the public after the board
if they had any questions specific. Member Carboni, did you have anything you wanted an answer to or do you still going through the information? >> I'm still going through the information, but um I guess the [snorts] one question that that does come to mind that's kind
of sitting out there is like who if if money is put into this, who becomes the owner of the of the property and maintains the property? I guess if it becomes >> so we we actually so we do not suggest
that trusts actually own or manage affordable housing. [clears throat] It's a volunteer board. Managing affordable housing is very complex and expensive. So, we wouldn't actually suggest that the trust hold property or that the trust develop it, but that the
trust help to potentially facilitate any disposal of municipal land for affordable housing, be engaged in that process to help invest in funding affordable housing development, but to not actually be the developer or to hold the property just because it's a volunteer board. >> Okay, that's what I wanted to hear.
>> Yeah. Mhm. >> Yeah. >> Member Planka. Uh my [clears throat] first assessment is this sounds like a way to subsidize developers when it comes to affordable housing. Um
I'm I'm I'm so I read the overview. I I understand that town voted for this bylaw in 2005. In my opinion, it seems to be a lot of work for very little return. 20 years. Uh we've raised $122,000.
I understand we haven't appointed anybody yet, but it just seems to be an awful lot of work for very little return. Um the the affordable housing and high density housing picture back in
2005 was a lot different in Lville than it is today. We all know we're under enormous uh 40b pressures for multiple proposed projects and I don't see the need why why we would even want to take on this
additional workload um considering the high density housing pressures that this community faces. I I would like to see now it was um Shelley, you noted that um a lot of examples it
was noted that the trust could invest in was kind of like a qualification. So I I would like to see um more examples in communities the size of Lakeville, not Beverly, not not um some of the other larger cities that you cited. I think a
lot of those projects that you cited were were projects uh taken on by much larger municipalities than Lakefield with the exception of Middbor. I I didn't know that one, but that was a relatively small investment. So I I would like to Shelley, if possible, if you could provide some more examples
where this housing trust fund was established and some of the accomplishments and municipalities equivalent in size to Lakeville. So, first of all, I I want to just say that I don't necessarily think that a affordable housing trust is the right
choice for every community. We don't we don't suggest that. It it does need to be, I think, thoughtfully considered for each community really against what some of your go your local goals are and if you have a housing production plan or housing needs analysis, what that says and to see if what's already happening
is filling those needs. And if it is, then great. But what a housing trust can do is it has a board that's just focused on affordable housing. So versus the community preservation committee where they're having to focus on four different categories and there's often
times only one housing person on that board. um affordable housing is really complicated and for um a board to have to get into the nitty-gritty of that along with recreation, open space and um
historic preservation is a lot. So that could be one benefit of having a group of people that's just focused on housing, particularly if you already have um a housing plan and you you don't really have a way to implement it. It can be a board that focuses on that. There are um plenty of communities that
are smaller that are doing some housing as well. I don't know all the ins and outs of Lakeville and um you know that better than I do. Um a 40B development oftent times only has a percentage that's affordable and it's
usually at 80% of the area median income. So a benefit of a different model like investing through a trust where it's investing in with developers that are seeking state and federal resources. It means that deeper affordability. So if there's a need for
60% of area median income, some 30% of area median income to meet the needs of your existing residents or your workforce, then what you're doing now currently through 40b is likely not reaching that. Um just to put that out there. Um I don't know exactly what um
what your size of your community is in comparison to Brewster or to Hudson off the top of my head. Um Middleboro was a smaller development and partly that's that was the site and just the time and we do have developers that are doing um
a bit smaller like that. It is it is trickier to finance. Um typically more like 40 high30s 40 units is um if you're going to have a fully affordable development then that's typically is what required to get
low-income housing tax credits which is the the most significant funding source for affordable housing. But I I I'm not here to say that that every community should do this or that it's the best for your community. But just to provide you a little bit of context about um the
statute and how some communities have been using their trust. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. Again, if possible again, so I you can you can look us up. Our population sitting at about 12,000. So if it's possible, if you could get provide additional uh examples of investments uh by the
legsized communities, I I would appreciate that if possible. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Yeah, I'll do that. >> Thank you. >> Member Hunt. >> Nothing at this point. >> Nothing at this point. All right. So, I just had a few call outs here. Um, this really does circumvent town meeting
for the appropri appropriation of funds and then the housing trust keeps the funds indefinitely uh year-over-year. I did have two questions related to that. So when it talked about going for bonds and for grants, it could only go
against what it had in income coming in for bonds and grants or could it in debt us? So, so the community that that um the trust on itself could not bond. The community Medfield voted um at the
ballot to allow um the trust specifically to allow the trust to bond up to a million dollars against the budget, but that was a special action. So, just how you have the have um accepted the statute, it does not allow bonding because there
isn't a steady income source for the trust. Um so >> the the other part was grants >> use they would just use the funds that they have. >> Okay. And the other part was grants. A lot of grants as you know are matching
fund grants or any other type of grants that require participation on the town. Um, could this group potentially agree to a grant that would force the town into using
town money? >> So, I actually don't know of any municipal affordable housing trust that's received a grant. I might just not know, but I [laughter] haven't actually heard of that. So, it's that's not most because they're municipal
boards. The idea typically is that the town find ways to fund it because it's providing a service to the community. It's helping to address the housing needs in the community. It's the trust should be working in partnership with the community um on the identified
housing needs in the community. So the idea really is that the trust should be starting with the housing production plan or the housing needs analysis, whatever, or the housing section of your master plan and take what's been identified as needs and what have been identified as potential goals or
strategies and should start there in the work that they do. So it's it's a municipal board. A select board member has to be on the board. Um yours is set up where you have other board members appointed. Um, I think the zoning board is a little bit could be tricky because
a development would likely be be before the ZBA as well. So, that seems maybe a bit of a conflict, but like planning board is common to have a planning board member. You'll have a select board member. So, it's not it shouldn't be outside of the municipality. It's a municipal board that is should be working with other [snorts] boards and
with staff. >> Okay. And then I had one question. I I couldn't look it up online. Um, we do have 40R. Um, and under the current bylaw, the way it's worded, um, and if
if we accepted, um, and and act act on the affordable trust, would 40R and 40s money go into the trust or would that be a would we have to make allowances for it? Would it naturally flow into it?
Like, how would that work? So I I don't think that it would naturally flow in and I I I don't actually know what the process would be to direct it to the trust if you wanted to do that. >> Okay. >> I don't know. >> I'm going to unless the board members have additional questions. I'm going to
open up to the audience in case some town >> Madam Chair, can we get planning board? >> Well, we can get a member of the planning board or two. The planning board can't vote on it. they can come speak as individuals >> and as CPC >> as well. >> Speak away.
>> Um Michelle McGregor on CPC and planning board. So just so you know, Chris, you're exactly right. Residents don't want to see their tax dollars, especially CPA funds, which is an additional tax go towards new 40b developments. And I think we talked to Shelby about this. And so what can be
done in order to utilize those CPA housing funds is at town meeting have a development agreement drafted which is what we're what we're doing currently um with CPA funds if it's not a municipal um allocation of funds they have to have a grant agreement. So we would have an
agreement between the CPA and the trust saying that these funds can only be expended for this specific purpose. Um and then the most um acceptable way or use of these housing
funds that I've gathered from speaking with residents is to maintain the existing unit. So you know right now we're in safe harbor until you know for one more year unless the project doesn't move forward. So we have 100 units set to expire in I think it's about 10
years. Um and that was one of the questions that CPC had had for Shelley. How do we work with um maintaining those units? So to lose a 100 units, that's huge because you know, so for rental units, yes, all the rental units count towards our SHI, but when you have for
sale units like a big development proposed in um Rocky Woods, it only 20% of those uh for sale units have to be deed restricted affordable. So you're only getting 50 out of 200 units that are going towards that SHI. So it's hard to build that SHI number without, you
know, specifically um >> and you could use CPA funds for that as well for the housing CPA funds, right? >> So exactly. So right now CPA we or CPC I should say we can't apply for a project. We can't apply to CPC for CPA funds. Um
so it needs to be done by someone else. And so this trust would work with the select board or whoever like she's saying. So we have a housing production plan. That's what enables us to be in safe harbor right now because that's one of the caveats. Um and and I think the
main focus and hope would be to have the ability to work to maintain those 100 units so we don't lose them. >> Okay. And followup question. So clarify how those CBC funds would be used to preserve those affordable units beyond
the 10 or 15 year agreement. You're [clears throat] you're buying them. You're >> something that's my question to Shel was how does that happen? If she wouldn't mind speaking to how the town would go about it's a process that takes I think um and help from multiple people as well
as the current owner. Um please Shelley if you could. So I'm I'm not an expert on this, but one is just understanding how the development is currently financed and the parameters around the restriction.
So it'd be doing a little bit of that um search and uh clearly knowing who the owner is and building that relationship and showing the intention of the community to have the the affordability restrictions um last beyond the the
deadline. Um, so the example of Ammerst is that the the community reached out to the trust reached out to um or staff at the town reached out to the developer, the owner of the apartment building. They learned that he was not interested
in extending the affordability restrictions. They did negotiations for as long as they could. He was not interested. So then they the strategy that we came up with with them was to reach out to a developer who was committed to
affordability, had a lot of experience in the space and so they reached out to Beacon Communities who you may be familiar with and Beacon then um negotiated with the with the owner to purchase it and then worked with the
community to um work on the the local CPA funds through bonding. So Ammerst didn't have enough. They didn't have 1.25 million in their account that they could bond to contribute that to keep the 41 units uh now affordable in perpetuity. So it was a bit of a
process. It took probably 2 or 3 years. So I think what I have told the CBC and Lakevilles that now is pretty early unless you want to do some of the initial like who is the owner. Learn what you can about the structuring of the the financing. But like three maybe
3 years out do um really start um more intentionally on building that relationship, seeing what the intentions are and then considering your options. And and MHP will still I I know that we we're 40 years old. We will be around at that point to also assist. But um but
those are the kinds of things that that would go into um trying to negotiate an extension. And so it would take some local resources. It may take depending on the time. It may take um more of those kind of resist. It may take bonding. Um
but I think it definitely should be on your radar and be talking about it. But it's a little early to be more in the aggressive like 10 years off is a long time for development. But so like at MHP we we lend for affordable housing development and when loans are coming up
to um mature we start the conversation like a year out. But with this kind of a thing where it's it's more compension more complicated, I perhaps three years may make sense. >> Thank you very much. >> You hold on.
>> Yep. >> I'm not sure if the question was answered, but I just didn't understand it. So again, how how were those trust funds and CBC funds used to preserve those units? You're you're back to my original opening comment, which was
you're subsidizing these developers. So because the in order to um charge lower rents, below market rents, >> you need to subsidize. >> That's a loss. So it's it is subsidizing. Yes. >> Thank you. You answer my question. >> Okay. Yep. But we're subsidizing
developers. Thank you. >> Do we have anyone else from the audience that would like to have a comment and then I'd like to wrap it up. >> It's really subsidi it's it's really subsidizing the renters. It's making it affordable for renters, for low-inccome renters, >> but in the end, that's really the
developers or owners responsibility. So, we're subs. Okay. >> Gotcha. >> Thank you. >> We got you. >> No, no, it's it's not their responsibility. Their responsibility really would be market rate, but we're asking them to to rent for lower so that people who don't make enough to afford
market rate can have a place to live. So instead of giving it as rent assistance directly to the tenant, it's it's buying down the units so that the units are affordable in a longer period of time. Thank you, Shel, for the presentation. I really appreciate the thoughtful
answers. if you could follow up with the board and send us some like communities or maybe some ways that some of the communities have maybe altered a little bit of the language um on it to suit a smaller town. That would be great and
very helpful for us to bring this back in and make a decision. >> Great. Thank you so much. Nice to be with you tonight. >> Thank you. I appreciate your time. Uh, we are now up to Oh, I wasn't planning on calling for a vote because we're just getting educated on this. I
know the language says vote, but I wasn't planning on a vote for that. Just to throw everyone out there. Um, we are up to number five, joint meeting with planning board. However, the planning board was unable to post because of a holiday issue and they will be
attending, but they are unable to deliberate or vote. But they can talk to us um briefly about anything that they've already voted on. >> So I thought we were here to listen.
>> You are here to listen but no votes. >> We can't even deliver because we don't have >> Yeah. Uh in invite the members up and the new town plan. >> So is the developer going to >> Do we have >> Do you want them to sit there or us to sit there?
>> I'm going to have them sit there. You guys can sit there. It's a numbers game. It's a numbers game. >> Welcome and thank you. >> Do they have a presentation? They do a slide presentation. Okay. We are
One second. We're way There we go. Do we have everyone? Okay. All right. Take it away. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Lloyd from the record. Lloyd from the cornite development. Cal Harvey McNight is here with me this evening. Uh we also have
Craig Seymour um on Zoom and uh he is our physical impact analyst. Um Craig was the uh president of RKG Associates for many many years which is one of the if not the premier physical impact
company in New England. Um he's somewhat retired but doesn't really know how to retire and now he continues to do this work for old clients like me. Um Craig is uh created uh has done two drafts of
the study that he's going to present to you this evening. Uh the first was presented to the task force that Chris sits on. Andrew has been there as well, David Lodge. And um we received comments um on that draft. Um and uh and then um
Craig updated that report and uh that's what he'll be presenting to you this evening. Um before we get started on this, I'd also like to mention that one of the uh suggestions that was made is that uh this study be peer-reviewed.
um which we think is a great idea actually um and are are more than willing to fund um so that uh ultimately um when we come before town meeting an independent source that the town has hired um would be able to opine on the
uh underlying analysis that uh you'll be seeing this evening. Um just by way of introduction before Craig gets started um the main event here is the physical impact analysis that Craig uh will go through momentarily. We've also put in a couple of slides on some of the other
topics that I've been working with Andrew on and Chris has been a part of. Um we just wanted to touch on them to give everyone an update. Um we're going to be diving into those over the coming weeks and reporting back. um including some very exciting news we have from Bridgewater State's continuing education
program. Um and we'll get into that. Um I since there not sure who has been involved in the past um just by way of introduction uh we're talking about the Lakeville Country Club. Um and the the dot on the uh screen there or the star I
should say is the location. Um, presently it's accessed and will continue to be accessed from Clear Pond Road directly across from Clear Pond Park. And as most of you, I'm sure are familiar, currently it is a um full service 18-hole golf
course with a clubhouse. Um the plan that we have put before the town calls for um this to be converted to a 9-hole golf course with a driving range and then 418 units of senior housing um a
combination of multif family buildings and town houses. Um and with that as an introduction, I'm going to turn it over to Craig if we can coordinate this. I'm pressing the cursor, but Craig is doing the talking. So, um, somehow we'll get
it right. Go ahead, Greg. [laughter] >> Thank you, Lloyd, and and good evening, everyone. Can everyone hear me? Okay. >> Yep. >> Yep. >> Yep. >> Okay, [clears throat] great. Um, I'm I've done this fiscal impact analysis and I've updated it with the new site plan and the new numbers and have added
a little bit of a of a a new approach to it, looking at the actual costs that may occur to the community. If you go to the first slide, uh, that would help. Um, first of all, for those who are not familiar with fiscal impact analysis, it's actually a it looks at the financial impact on the town's general
fund. It looks at the revenues that a project may bring in versus the uh direct and indirect cost to the various municipal services uh that provide that are provided to that uh new part of the community. And it it provides a snapshot
kind of a balance sheet which is saying when this is completely fully built out, it's going to have this kind of revolution. these kinds of expenses and the meth of that is the fiscal impact. There's several ways of doing this but the two primary methodologies are the average cost approach which I'll discuss
in a minute which looks at costs in community and revenues on a per capita or per household basis or in this case per employee basis. Um and also a marginal cost approach which looks at the specifics for a project and tries to estimate to the greatest extent possible
what the actual cost might be of that. um [clears throat] this kind of hybrid approach. I use both of these in this. So we can go to the next slide. There's some key assumptions uh that go with any discipline analysis. And and the first one is that the way the way
the account operates now is the way it's going to operate in the future. In other words, the current cost operating expenses are revenues and expenses the best basis for determining what the future is going to be. Uh it also assumes that this project is fully built
out as it suddenly appears overnight and so it's paying full taxes and using services um immediately. This project is going to take years to develop and but the the rationale here is as those revenues are going to grow over time so
will the cost grow over time. And so it doesn't throw uh it doesn't detract from the uh the ultimate assistance that this provides in terms of the the account judging what the exact is going to be on its um on its own. And third, the third
assumption is that the costs that we're dealing with music service costs are directly or directly related to this project. uh we don't look at the costs for example that that are fixed in the town that don't change uh the number of households the number of people change in the town on an incremental basis. Um
it also should be noted that this really looks only at the uh general fund costs the local public costs and expenditure state aids grants and those types of things are not they're discussed but they're not really included in this. Those are one time sources of revenue or
of expenses that may change over time. So we try to isolate out that goes and look at this as uh as if it is really in business and is going to be uh generating revenues for the town. Next one please. Uh property details. Uh we
just went over this uh nine old cores uh 418 condominium homes. Some of them are are duplexed garden style plus the golf course and the restaurant has been included in this. Next one. >> Next slide, please.
>> Yep. It's not working. >> We're [snorts] one moment. Why don't you just stay there, Cal? >> There we go. Um the research methodology we I use in this is to look at basically collect and analyze budget data from the town for several years uh from town reports and
state agencies. Look at the demographics the most recent demographics that are available. Um look at the assessment data of like kind property how the town currently assesses uh homes uh condominiums restaurants property and golf courses and we have several of
those so that data was available. We also came out to interview the department heads, the police chief, the fire chief, Cesar, and everyone else, and get their ideas on this and see how they believe this may impact their the services that they provide. Uh, and
lastly, I take this information and develop this fiscal model, this Excel model that the numbers go into in order to come up with the uh the net fiscal impact. Next one. some of the just the background demographic information for Lakeville
and the data most recent data we used on population number of of residents number of households business base number of firms and housing unit data which is all there these are factors that then play into the calculations
and we focus on the average cost approach looking at the municipal service costs and what I do here is I take the general the major categories of the general fund expenditures um and look at those on the future date this year is this fiscal year 25 budget and
break those down between both the residential component and the commercial industrial component in the town. Town services are provided to everyone in town whether they live there or they work there or own property there. And so you look at each of these and you the
way this is done traditionally is to take the tax base the difference between the residential or the mix of the residential and the industrial and um take these take the the departmental revenue or take departmental expenditures and divide them or allocate
them to the residential based upon the tax factor. in Lakeville. Um, in fiscal year 25, 895.5% of the tax base was the residential component and 10 and a half was the industrial component. So, as you can see in this table, each of these
departmental expenditures was allocated to either the residential or the commercial industrial side of it. Now, there are several of these costs are fixed. um they don't change in the short or medium even in the long run in many cases with incremental changes in um
population or households or the number of uh jobs that come to the town. Uh should you go to the next slide please? Uh here this table is a little hard to read a little more information into it. What we do is take those those
departmental costs and divide them into by the number of households in the community for 4,191 households by the number of employees in the town and the number of people in the town number of residents. Then for each of these categories, general government, public
safety, public works, we make a judgment decision. And then we and from our experience for the most part is that general government [clears throat] um administration of the government serves the population serves the residents of the community as does human services, culture and recreation. Public safety
and public works really serves the households [snorts] in the community more than anything else. And so these factors the the per capita or per household factors as you can see in the table are then allocated to either per household or per capita
for each of those uh [clears throat] departmental um expenditure areas and these are then used and combined in total for the total project costs. As an example for general government uh per
household is $588 per capita is $210 per person. So in this case there you know services from the general government are really provided to the residents. So the 210 is multiplied by the 636 estimated people who are going to live
in in this project to get a total cost of $66,778. Um, plus there are, you know, 3,162 employees in town. And so the per employment cost of general government,
$92 is multiplied by the estimated 26 um commercial employees that will [clears throat] come from the uh restaurant and golf course uh for a total of 1194. So those two numbers are added together to get the total on the right hand side. Um similar for the other categories, the fixed cost debt
service and the other fixed costs are not utilized because they're not going to change on even if the number of housing units change or the number of people change on an incremental basis. Uh so the [clears throat] total of this using this average cost approach for the annual impact of the general fund is
$686,18 per year. On the next slide, we're going to look at the revenues. In this case again on an average cost basis I look at primary source of revenues for any town in Lakeville in particular is from property
tax because 92% of revenues on a general company um these will be assessed uh by the assessor um at [clears throat] whatever rate that they apply to that using the factors that they do. On average, the average household in Lakeville pays 66
$6,428 in property tax while businesses pay a little over $1,000 per employee. So, these factors were added uh were applied to the estimated number of households and a number of of employees that this project will generate comes up with about $2.7 million in new tax
revenue. But there's other revenues are generated as well and those come from motor vehicle excise tax and other direct payments to the town um which are estimated 631 per household um townwide. There's also uh majority management
services the revenues are generated uh through [clears throat] current reimbursement rates that the fire department collects for a cent when someone uses those services and they work out right now to 259 household or about $40 per employee. So these revenues are then allocated to the new
households from annual new revenues along with the property taxes totaling $3 million. And you can see in the table that's the breakout of how that was done um for this. The next uh slide just summarizes this uh looks at total general fund revenues
on an average cost approach. It's a little over $3 million and $686,000 in expenditures. So that each year uh this project on an average basis will net the town almost $2.4 million per year. Now,
it's it's important to read this notion that [snorts] represents an increase in the general fund, which will provide the town on completion of the project the opportunity to augment other department budgets to reduce the tax levy to pay off or borrow additional debt to invest
in any other things. But as determined by the board selected in the county, this is just a net increase as a result of this project. How those excess funds are used is really the town's determination. Next one, please. Then we went over to the marginal cost because after
community after our discussion of some of the department heads, we they wanted us to look a little bit more specifically at how this project might impact it. Um now, property taxes are looking at the revenue side first. We
based upon the sales price that are anticipated for these this project for these homes uh we've estimated what the act the assessment might be for it. Now the actual assessments can be set by the assessor based on a number of factors but this is uh what we believe is a
reasonable estimate for revenue that'll be brought in. Uh you've [clears throat] got homes assessed at these rates. You've got a restaurant building based upon commercial property, new relatively new commercial property in town and a [clears throat] golf course uh based upon the way the other golf courses have
been assessed and are assessed. Now, what this calculation comes up with is a total assessment of over $235 million for this project and it's about 9% of the town's residential base right now. [clears throat] Applying the current tax rate to that generates about $2.4 $4
million per year in uh property tax revenues. Now, that [clears throat] is net of the $20,000 a year that Lakeville Country Club currently pays netted out of that. Now, other [clears throat] revenues uh include Community Preservation Act, which is 1% of property taxes, motor vehicle excise,
gas tax, EMS revenues, and other sources about $440,000. And it does not include the building department fee, which I talked about in just a second. Next one, please. Um um on the marginal cost, we primarily looked at the uh public safety public
police department and fire department. So the police um the latest data they had was fiscal year 24. They responded to 14,321 incidents. If you take their their current budget at 2.7, last year's budget at 2.7 million, uh that works out
to be about $189 uh per incident is the cost to their budget. Um and on average uh in those years there's 3.42 calls per household in 2024. So simply applying that to the new 418 new homes uh will result in an
estimated 1428 incidents and multiplying that by 189 comes out to 269,39 which means this in theory their costs to operate department are going to go up by $269,395.
Now [clears throat] reality is this is a brand new constructed independent 55y old community 55 plus community which is likely to generate far fewer residents uh than the average throughout the community. So it may um may overstate
those costs a little bit but for the left in the air we talked about them before uh just to be conservative. I also wanted to let you know earlier including this police chief reported that uh the oper the the um department operates less or
below the national standard which is 2.5 officers per thousand population. It's currently 1.7 and just as uh some information here in terms of how many they have now and they discussed that a new officer to bring them along with salaries, training benefits is about
$100,000 a year. So that's just an information piece. Next slide, please. The fire department responded to a little over 2,000 calls last year or about half a call, 25 calls per household. Um the EMS calls
accounted for 69% of that total, 1500 calls. The fire budget was 17 or 1.77 million and that works out to $790 per call. But it was brought up and the research that both the chief provided me
and the other research we looked at indicates that senior communities uh do use EMS at higher than average rates. Um roughly 30 to 35% of EMS calls are for older people which corresponds [clears throat] to the fact that about 30 to 35% of the households generate
[cough] demographic for people [snorts] age uh 55 or 60 or older. Um so on average the new units would generate 223 calls with 155 of them being EMS calls. What we did in this case being to skew
it uh to the conservative side. I added 15% to those numbers for the additional EMS calls due to the age of this population and which resulted in 254 calls uh which works out to a cost just under $195,000
for the department. Now, if things continue, if the reimbursements and insurance rates that are paid to the fire department for the US calls u are continue as they have in the past, that also generates about $190,000 under $92,000 in uh nuclear revenues. So, by
excluding that just on the cost side, the public safety cost would be about over half a million, a little bit higher, 14% higher than what the average cost approach. Uh so, this is a number we point out what that would be. [clears throat] Next, please. Some of the other considerations on
costs and found the building inspection department. Now, this is not considered as an annual expenditure because this is really a fixed cost for one time over the course of construction. Um, current budget about $316,000 for building inspection department or $83 per
household. But this project based on the current rates that are charged uh for inspection services will generate about $258,000 in new fees that come in during construction, which at least in my opinion is more than enough to cover the additional costs that will be incurred
by the department. And any balance of that is returned to the account. Um on large projects like this, inspections are typically carried out by third parties uh that are then paid for by the developer, by the the contractor, by the architects. And so the department's responsibility is really to review those
professionals reports that come in uh and they obviously go out and double check things themselves, but uh much of that work that goes into all the inspections you get done uh is carried out by others. So it's not quite the load on the uh department as a new new
single family house for example. We also discussed with the council of aging and looked at what they provide for services and there will be an increase in their demand. We're not sure what it's going to be. Um, but there [clears throat] some of their services they may have greater demand, but they're also going to have greater participation in many of
the recreational programs and and social programs that they provide. Um, now education costs obviously a very large part of the general fund budget, but in this case it' be no short uh so that it will not impact the education cost to the community. The
issue was raised in our discussions uh with the department heads and with the administrator that the fact that you have this new project, these empty nesters who live in a big single family house in Lakeville now are going to move into this hope their house is going to be then available for families with
children which is inre it's going to increase the number of children uh in the community and my [clears throat] approach to this or my answer to this is yes that might happen. Uh but this project is going to attract people [clears throat] from throughout south southeastern Massachusetts are actually in New England back because it's a very
desirable area to go to. Um but those people who are living in St. Nesters who are out here now when they make a decision to move, they're going to move regardless of whether they're going to move down the street or the next town over or down to one of Norway's other um
55 plus communities. uh and those that those houses are going to open up and be put on work and they're going to be filled possibly with children if they can afford those homes uh if they have children. Um and that's going to happen anyway. So really we can't judge that this project by itself is going to
increase the number of kids in school systems. Uh and from my research I've looked around research that I've looked out in Wland there's really no data that that supports that. Next one please. So on the marginal cost approach, the total revenues worked out to be $2.8 million
from 857 and the middle cost $750,000 for net fiscal impact of 2.1. Um the next slide summarizes these two approaches. 2.38 million uh for the average cost, 2.1 for
the incremental cost. Uh and both of them show that there is a very positive fiscal impact ratio. um impact ratio there. So fiscal impact sometimes uh is described as a ratio of in this case it's 3.8 to 4.5 but essentially what it
says is that for every dollar [clears throat] the town spent of general fund is spent on this project it's going to get $4 or or more than $4 back in revenue. Um, and if it was built today, it would represent these revenues with roughly a 6% increase in
Lakeville's general fund budget. Or if you take out the education budget, it's about 13 to 14% increase. And again, just to reiterate, this is this estimates the general fund. The increase in the general fund is a result of this
project. and but the opportunity and gives a town the opportunity to augment or do whatever it wants to do with the money frankly augment other department budgets to reduce a tax levy pay off additional or pay off debt or invest in other things however um the select board
and town need this so with that I will close and turn it back over to Louis to continue with his agenda >> well I think the first thing would be questions >> I just add one comment. Can we get these
numbers redone with the current tax rate 974 not 1035? >> Um, sure. Of course, >> just before it gets peer reviewed. >> They I mean they started this before so it was kind of a tough >> right
>> not criticizing just before. Yeah. I mean the numbers were based Yes. The answer is yes. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> We can do that. What you try to do is match the the tax rate and the basis budget. >> I I think it would make sense to pause
here and take questions on because this is the main event for our presentation. So, >> and I will open it up for the select board to ask questions first. Was there any plan? It just was brought to my attention um
the last few days that um the golf course itself would be deed back to the town in 10 years. >> We have had discussion about that internally. It's something that we would
be open to. Um, right now, uh, that's not part of our plan, but it's certainly something we can put on the agenda. >> Not that I was looking for it, but I just heard it and I just wanted to put it out there in case others had heard it as well. So,
>> yeah. Anything else for you or I'll come back to you after we do a go around me? >> Uh, no. I I I've seen this presentation before. I'm part of the the working group. So, and I appreciate the work that Lloyd has done and certainly
services that that Craig has provided. Um, I'm optimistic with the numbers that are presented here. I look forward to the peer review, but uh I have a lot of faith and confidence in Lloyd and Craig's work. >> Uh, and I think [clears throat] this is a great opportunity for Lakeville. In fact, these numbers, uh, pan out. I
think any anything that's a net revenue generator is a win for the community, right? End of the day. >> If I could just make one comment, Madam Chairman, on this. Um, >> absolutely. I I meant to do this when Craig finished. Uh from my perspective, having done a number of these, I think it's important to step back from all the
detail that Craig has done, and he does a terrific job at this, but at a base level, uh tax rates and and budgets for communities across Massachusetts are fundamentally grounded in the need to
educate children. It's a huge part of every town's budget. And so as you develop tax rates, especially in heavily residential communities like Lakeville and towns across Massachusetts, it is the it's it's the 800 lb gorilla. When
you take a community like this and you remove that cost and then add in the fact that these will be privately maintained roads and that the value of these homes since they're new
construction in general just because they're new construction will be higher than the average tax rate in town. You have more positive revenue coming in. you have less cost because of the because there's no education cost and
there's no maintenance of the roads. So just stepping back from it, it makes sense that if you're building a budget as a community that is grounded in educating your children as you need to by meeting this additional need, namely
uh providing appropriate homes for seniors, you're able to supplement that budget. And we have done these over and over again and these numbers pan out. It's very hard. I'd love to be able to get Plymouth, convince Plymouth to
separate out the revenue that it gets from the number of over 55 communities that we've built. They don't have the ability to do that. But anecdotally, um I I hope you understand what you know what I'm saying. Um we will have this
peer reviewed. Um I'm confident that and Craig has on many occasions been the peer reviewer for other fiscal impact analysts. So um I have no doubt that these will stand up to scrutiny. We we'll adjust the tax rate as he requested. >> Thank you very much. Member H.
>> Madam Chair through you. Um you discussed road maintenance and so forth. Has there been any input from Franklin Monies on what may occur on Crooked Lane, which is a very quiet side street and Clipon Road, which is a little bit busier, but certainly not a
primary roadway in town. >> Yeah, I think when we met with Craig, I mean, obviously Frank was there, got interviewed, he said there would be a concern because there's going to be more cars entering our next thing and there's a lot of just kind of old country roads that's in Clare Pond. um [snorts]
crooked Wayne. Um but I think I forget exactly what correct explanation was. Um do you remember Lloyd? >> Well, one of the things and thank you for bringing that up that we committed to when we were meeting with our group was to do a traffic study. Um and so we've engaged Vanessa Hang and Brussell
VHB which is a leading engineering firm in New England as our overall engineers and um and and part of their scope is to do a traffic study and as a first step in doing that traffic study it will be to work with Andrew and Stephanie to
identify this appropriate scope as to what roads need to be included in that scope and how it should be done and something we're basically getting ready to do right now. Okay. Any further questions on that? >> No. >> Did you think of anything else that over there? I just
>> Andrew, >> I don't think it's ever come up, Lloyd, but if you could like snap your fingers, let's say tomorrow, and get approval for all this, how long will construction take? >> Realistically, I think from the are sitting here today until the last customer is living there, it's 10 years. >> 10 years.
>> Um, we are a uh we are a uh productionoriented development company. And what I mean by that is our first priority is to maintain pace of sales. Our first priority is not to get the top dollar out of every home. It's pace of sales
[clears throat] because pace of sales keeps everyone moving, keeps everything uh uh moving in a positive direction. And we have regularly uh targeted and be successful in a community like this of delivering between 50 and 75 homes per
year. So 400 units at 50 a year would be 8 years. Um there's a there's obviously a a ramp up and a tail down. Um but I think planning purposes without blowing smoke. It's a 10-year project.
>> I'm going to open it up to other members planning board and planner. >> Uh just a question about um the traffic study reference. Now, do you see getting that done in during this process or are you talking about during site plan review process?
>> No, we we it's come up enough times that we were going to do the study right now over the next couple of months to be able to answer questions answer your questions, answer questions at town meeting. Yes. >> Did you have anything on the other
questions? No. And then uh for the peer review for the fiscal, who is the town using? >> We don't know yet. Um I think Craig was going to reach out to four or five regional. There's not many people that do this, so we're going to get those contacts, but we don't know yet.
[clears throat] >> I [snorts] was a part of the working group, so I have questions answered. >> You've already you've already seen this. >> There was extensive discussion, so I'm all set. I think there's members of the audience that would like to speak on it. Um, Mr. Marshall, can I ask one of the
members to vacate so we can accommodate? Thank you so much. It's very kind of you. >> Good evening. Um, Bob Ashel from 16 Barstow Street. Uh these kinds of projects uh we built in
town before and one of my very longstanding concerns about them [clears throat] uh has been after a period of time when the the um
apartments are up for sale. They sometimes don't meet expectations in terms of how desirable they are and and landlords or the developers complain that they can't sell them so they want
to do away with the 55 and over um part of the agreement. And one of the things I implore you to make certain of is that that element of any agreement, if we go
forward with it, is ironclad and that it cannot be changed because you can >> I I know exactly where you're going. >> That's that's going to that's going to drive educational services, you know, right through the roof. Um or
educational expenses, I should say. So, that's been a long-standing concern of mine. Uh, so I I ask you to put that number one on your parade. >> If I could address that cuz I have a we've heard this before. We understand
it completely. Um, the draft overlay zoning that is on Andrew's desk includes the fact that this must remain over 55 in perpetuity as part of the zoning that's approved. And the draft overlay
zoning also uh explicitly states that no school age children can be permanent residents. >> I I thought I saw that in the presentation. >> Yeah. So the the way to make it ironclad is to put it in the zoning and then the only way it can be changed >> town meeting
>> would be for town meeting to to make that decision >> right >> it will also appear in our condominium documents [clears throat] and uh while that is not ironclad in that theoretically um a 75% or 2/3 majority could change
the condominium documents um I've never seen that happen people move into these comm community but it doesn't matter because it's going to be in the zoning and that's that's you know >> and words like in perpetuity are going to be in that zoning language. >> Yes.
>> Uh cuz I I I just know that this has happened before. >> I agree. >> Um and it's it's not right in my opinion. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Well noted. other members of the community would like to speak. Uh Rich the camera 32 Old Powder House
Road. Um I had the same issue that Barber brought up. you know, we had uh Lebaron was approved and um then all of a sudden the uh Board of Appeals lifted the restriction and we got 70 new single family houses. We certainly don't want
that to happen at all. Um I was at the original presentation uh at the COA and I don't know how long it's been. What What is the price point of these units? >> So um it's on the website. Um, uh,
[clears throat] Andrew, maybe you can speak to where they can find that, but we, it was part of the Q&A from that first meeting and we responded to it and, um, it's on the website. I did not come prepared with that information this evening, but it's on your town website. >> I asked a question specifically and
nobody ever got back to me, but that's okay. Um, but on your presentation, you had a price point of $339,000. No, I think that that was um I'm not going to speak to it cuz I don't have it at the top of my head, but when
you asked the question last time, we said we were going to answer the questions and put them on the town website and that's where they are. [snorts] >> Okay. I went to your website, you know, to look up price points and stuff and >> none of your units are 339, >> right? I I have to go back and look at
my notes as to what I said. Okay. Um, >> pulling it up, boy, just so you know. >> Pardon me. >> I'm I'm going to pull it up now. >> Okay. Thank you. Keep going. >> Um, the um, [snorts] how many acres I asked this question, too. How many acres is the golf course
and how many acres is the development? >> Madam Chairman, I not to cut you off, but I thought we were focused on the physical impact study at this point. >> We are, but if you have the answers, Andrew, if you can make sure that Mr. Lameron gets those answers. Um, >> okay. that was asked before and is on the website also.
>> Yeah. >> Okay. Um so the um the number of units, you know, it's going to be a 10% increase in the number of residential units in the town of Lakeville. >> This project, it's huge.
Why does this project have to be so big? This is this is the project that we've presented to the town. Um it's a very expensive proposition principally because we have to build a sewer treatment plant on the site and um this
is the size of the project that we need in order to make economic sense of it. >> So you're saying that in order to put in a a treatment plant you need 400 units to >> I'm saying that that's a upfront very expensive proposition that drives a good
deal of the of the density of this project. Yes. >> Okay. because um that's 40% time times allowed by the existing zoning. So if you use the existing zoning, you would nowhere near near those number of units.
And I I just I disagree with it. I think it's too big. But [clears throat] whatever, we'll see what happens from there. >> Do you have anything on um specifically um regarding the uh the fiscal impacts? >> Yes, I do. >> Thank you. Great. Um
the the other thing I I think you said, correct me if I'm wrong, you said you want to use Clay Pond Road as the exit. >> Yes. >> What about Crooked Lane? >> There's a second entrance down there as well. >> Okay. So, both >> Yes. >> are going to be used.
>> Yes. >> Right. So, um you said you were going to be doing a traffic study, which is good. Um, and I'll get when we get to the um the other thing you're going to talk about, I'll talk about that. But some of
your numbers on the assessments for the uh the operations part, you know, you valued the uh golf course at $3.7 million and then a uh a restaurant for $1.1 million, which is $5 million. I
mean, it's only a nine a 9hawk nine course golf course. I read other golf courses and one of them is a very good golf course doesn't even come close to that assessment. So I don't understand how you come up with the assessment of that kind of money for the golf course.
>> Well, it's going to be peer review. Go ahead, Craig. I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> Yeah, I can I can address that. What I did is I did look at those other golf course assessments and there's three things that are assessed there. You have the improvements to the land, the buildings, uh the restaurants and those types of things that go along with that.
And those are basically assessed at cost. And since this is going to be a um fullervice 9-hole course, but it's also going to have a lot of other activities going on there. So, it's going to be brand new and assessed at current market rates for new construction. Also is
included in golf course assessments is the improvements to the land. The land itself has a value, but then the improvements, the holes and those kinds of things, those are going to be relative. Most of those happens on this and those are going to be assessed by an assessor at uh whatever it cost to put
those in there um based upon the data they have. So this is my best estimate of what the golf course is going to be assessed at which is about $3.7 million. >> All of our golf course are full service golf courses. >> Okay, >> all of our golf courses are full service
golf courses. >> This is going to have this supporting buildings. It's going to have a driving range. Um, and it's going to have these other things with it. For example, the restaurant and the other the golf the clubhouse itself that adds value. And again, these this can be new
construction. Many of the old the golf courses you have now uh were built several years ago and they've been depreciated some substantially, some of them less so, but they're not brand new like this one would be. >> Okay. So, um I I think I so I can get
this clear. I I believe you said that >> I believe you said your company is going to own the golf course. >> Here you go. >> Okay. >> Um yes. Uh yes. Uh initially we we are
contracting with a professional golf management company that would be managing the the golf course um and be responsible for all aspects of it. But yes, a subsidiary or related company to Thornike would own the golf course.
>> Okay. I have a question to the development agreement when we get there. >> I have the answer to the uh question you had before. >> Please read it out. So, the condos uh will be low 400s to mid 500s and then the duplex town houses will be low 600s
to low 700s. Y >> do we have any other members of the audience that would like to speak or ask questions? Please [clears throat] identify yourself for the record and welcome. Thank you. Melissa Turkot San
Mark Way. So, I live um my driveway is across the street from the full disclosure 18th T. Um fiscal impact super important. I know the town needs it. So, my I'm still up in the air. Like, as soon as it came on, I'm like,
I'm selling my house [clears throat] like some of our other neighbors have done. Um but I'm holding off. Fiscal impact. There's other impacts. There's noise impact, there's light impact, light pollution, all kinds of impacts.
Um, the trees that are separating the most of the majority of the golf course from our houses are gone in your development. Um, so that is just I think of it as like a shopping plaza. We have
nine three-story buildings and all these houses with street lights and I'm just thinking we're going to drive down the street and it's just going to be this big glow like the impact. I don't know. We have 60 houses in our development.
So maybe Claron Road has like 75 houses that drive through. You're putting 425 in. Clampon can't clampon road cannot substant support that many cars. You'll see that in your study. But I just I don't know.
And I have to tell you, the on-site waste water treatment plant, again, not in the phys fiscal impact, but that scares the Jesus out of me >> because we all have well water. [laughter] You're welcome. We all have wells. Um,
who may monitors that to make sure there's no problems or anything? >> That's a good question. These are all good questions and and they all need to be answered. um uh and they most of it falls within the purview of the planning board review and that process and we
would expect to collect those questions and put thoughtful answers to them. I don't have those answers this evening. >> Okay. Something to think about. Thank you all. >> If Thank you for madam chair holding back just for the portion uh pertaining to planning board the lighting we do um
ask for >> to see the lighting fixtures >> because we have the dark side compliant. >> Okay. So that is one thing that planning board does look at. Planning board would not oversee the wastewater treatment plant that is a mass D. It's not even our local board of health. It's mass D.
So I do think in talking about the development agreement and knowing that there's other places that have had issues with smell. >> We will have all of that definitely in addition to any water infrastructure as well. >> Perfect. Thank you.
>> Thank you. I appreciate it. And last call. Anyone else? Okay, nothing else. I'm gonna hand it back to [snorts] you. >> Um, if we're done with Craig, um, >> can we let him >> We're all done with Craig, everyone.
Craig, have a great night. >> Thank you. I appreciate your time. >> Thank Thank you all. >> Um, I'm just going to fly through the rest of this cuz I know this has taken uh quite a bit longer. And um Andrew and I talked earlier today and agreed that
um most of this should be first brought up with the task force uh that that you folks have very graciously created to work with us and then reporting back to the select board and the planning board. But I did want to go over quickly a few
things. Is this working? No. So you're Did that work? Uh no, we jumped way ahead. Can Can you go back? Okay. Um, so the um I'm sorry, go back
one slide for a moment, Cal. So the the the additional items that we have in this um presentation touch on the uh an outline of the master development agreement, uh ongoing conversations that we've had with Bridgewwater State about continuing education, um beginning to
think about community outreach, and then milestones uh in the schedule that we would need to go through. Um, I'm just going to touch very lightly on each of these this evening because we could spend a couple hours going through this stuff in detail and it needs to be
broken out into other sessions. So, if you would Cal, um, we have supplied uh, the task force and Andrew um, with an outline of a master development agreement. It's an item that ultimately would come before the select board um
because it would be the select board that would need to sign a master development agreement um with the with us. Um and the purpose of the master development agreement is really to address a number of the issues that are being raised here that the board feels
need to be ironclad um and would reflect an agreement between the the town and Thornike Development. It will outline very specifically what our obligations are to the town as they will be detailed and it
would also um describe what the town's obligations are to us and and that's a very important document um that essentially is a contract between us that gets into more detail than the overlay zoning. So that's the purpose at
the core. We've talked about the project quite a bit already. I'm going to look over here because I can't see over there with the heads. Um and and um there are there are several elements uh beyond the uh 418 age restricted condominiums that
are in play. We are in active discussions with um a uh continuing care uh provider um in which uh there might be an opportunity here whether it's now or in the future to introduce independent living and assisted living
and memory care as part of a a continuing uh senior community. Um, one of the things that we want to get into a little bit more in detail is from experience I can tell you the only thing I'm certain of is that whatever we approve is going to change. This is a
10-year project and um it is market driven. And so as we think about this collectively, I [clears throat] think it's it's very important for us collaboratively to try and understand how and to what extent we build
flexibility into this process. Um there are certain things that I suspect the town would be very comfortable including even though we may not have them on the agenda at the moment such as a continuum care facility. um an urgent care medical
facility might be something that would make sense that would be a benefit to the town as a whole that might view this core uh commu community as enough of a critical mass to locate a um urgent care or medical office facility. So, those
are the types of things that we want to discuss um with the boards, with the task force um that might get baked into an overlay zoning bylaw as well as a master development agreement. Um next slide. Yeah.
Um and as I mentioned a moment ago, uh ultimately this gets tied into developer commitments and town uh commitments. I'm not [cough] going to get into this in in in detail, just trying to give folks an overview. Next slide, Cal. Um, we and uh
we've talked about uh the the zoning structure uh would be in the master development agreement as well. There would be a senior housing overlay district and ultimately that would uh if approved would wind up requiring site plan approval through the planning board
and everything that goes along with that. Um and and we would be as part of that looking to make sure that whatever zoning the town approved we could rely on for the life of the project. Um we're going to need to um address uh the
elephant in the room a little bit, namely affordable housing. Um there is a in my judgment a disconnect between uh building affordable housing as part of a senior housing community where the primary need for affordable housing
tends to be a a different population. Um we have in the past worked with communities to make and it was brought up earlier this evening inlue payments of one sort or another. Um we at one of our first meetings had suggested sharing
in the revenue from the golf course um as a mitigation fund a portion of which could be used to fund the affordable housing trust that was talked about earlier or to provide different types of housing um where it's needed. Um we have
some ideas on this. We worked with the uh town of Plymouth when we built Sawyer's Reach, which was a 224 unit over 55 community. We committed to identifying finding another piece of land in town
and we built a 30 unit um affordable housing community where 30% of the units were affordable and the remainder were a lower market rate. they were a uh smaller homes that targeted a more
moderate income. So there are a number of ideas that we have that we'll that we hope to explore um over the coming weeks um months more weeks than months as as town meetings start to loom. Uh next slide count
I think we've uh been through this. Let's just keep going. Um we've talked a little bit about this. Um we would very much like to participate and by that I mean fund um a reconstruction of Clear Pond Park. Um
and that would we would expect to be part of the master development agreement. Um we view this as a tremendous amenity um for our residents and something that um we think uh would would could be expanded somewhat uh or
enhanced uh for the residents of Lakeville in general. Um, one of the things that might be thought about is to add pickle ball courts uh to the park. That's just a thought. Um, as well as um introducing new play equipment, a
refurbished um area. And so that's something that we wanted to talk with parks and recreation about. Uh something that we thought would would be of mutual benefit. Cal um Bridgewater State Continuing Education. I don't know how
many of you are aware of it, but Bridgewwater State has an actual continuing education college embedded at Bridgewwater State University. It is a very very important part of their curriculum and they their mission you go
to the next slide. Their mission is to outreach to communities like Lakeville uh and create uh continuing education uh largely for seniors uh by by coming to the community and putting on a
curriculum uh that will uh that will roll from semester to semester. Um we've been and this is a program curriculum that uh Bridgewwater State provided to us to share with you. um as to how they
would they are proposing to work with us. Um we would uh commit to building uh out a facil as part of our um seniors activity center creating space that would be appropriate for ongoing
continuing education with appropriate audiovisisual uh rooms that could be of several different sizes. and they in turn uh will commit to initially as you can see under the level of commitment down below to four in-person courses per
semester. Next slide council. Um and uh [clears throat] and and that could that they're very interested and willing to expand on that. Um there's a if you go on their website, there's a quite an array of courses um that they're
offering right now. I've forgotten off the top of my head how many communities they're in right now, but this would become a a primary commitment for Bridgewater State to service Lake residents and residents in the surrounding area. Um it's really a
terrific program. $95 per semester for all the courses you take. Uh they also have a scholarship program which from my understanding anyone who asks for it if they're in need at all, that $95 gets waved. Um, Cal,
uh, community outreach. Next slide, Cal. So, we've gone ahead and and listed a long list of of of various um organizations that that connect with Lakeville. Um, we would we
would expect to put a presentation together and in the month of February we would like to talk to anyone who will talk to us and um would look for some input uh from this group as to uh who
you think would would be the most important groups to meet with. But from our perspective, uh the more uh touch points we can have whether it's a group of five people or a group of 25 people um and basically put a presentation
together that outlines the key elements and start to get feedback by we've been getting this evening from residents and reporting back uh to you and just starting to expand that. So, this is um this is just a list that we were able to glean um that we would hope to uh
fine-tune uh with Andrew and uh Stephanie and the group. Cal, keep going. Next. Um schedule. Next slide. So, um this is a list of the major tasks
as we see them. um without actually putting any dates on these uh that we would expect to work with Andrew and Stephanie and the task force to put a schedule on over the next week or two, but we've um you've uh seen the fiscal
impact study now. We've talked about putting a peer review on that. There's an outline of a master development agreement that is in the town's hands. Uh the next step there would be to get feedback on that. Um, we have also just a few days ago provided Andrew with a
draft of the overlay zoning bylaw which we had discussed with Copman and Paige that we would do a first draft and and they would obviously input to. Um, that will then lead into warrant articles. Um, we talked about the community
outreach. Ultimately, there will need to be public meetings and public hearings. planning board of course needs to officially uh review and then comment on the warrant articles. The master development agreement will need to come be before this board um which will also
require a public hearing or at least a public meeting uh to discuss and obviously you need to consult the town council on that. Um, and uh, and so that's that's kind of a a menu, if you will, without actually putting dates on
it as to what we see coming up uh, over the next few months. >> Next slide, Cal. That's it. >> That's it. I thought I thought we were done. >> All right. Very good. Um, I know we have
some conversations to have in small groups for the steering committee. um the working group, technical group, whatever we're calling it these days. So, um I know there's a lot to be discussed and a lot to look over and I'm looking forward to hearing where
people's comments and questions are and making sure the public's very involved at every juncture for all of their questions to be answered. Some of them will be not answers they're happy with, but um those are important to know as we
as we go through a process here. Is there any other comments from any of the boards? >> Um I just had a question. Well, so about the um outreach. That's great. I love that list. I just wanted to mention our parks commission. Melissa Turkot, you did meet her. She's on parks. Maybe add
parks to that list. I think it' be good to have. >> They're high on our list. If it if it's not there, it should have been. >> Okay. All right. Okay. And call out. >> It's just like February in general. No dates yet. >> No dates yet. I mean, that's over the next few days. >> Okay. >> Yeah.
>> All right. >> Question. >> Yes. Please come up. >> Once again, Rich Cameron, 325 House Road. Um you say um mitigation the water line is a is a benefit to uh the town of
Lakeville. We don't need a water line on Clare Point Road. So there's no benefit, you know, to us going from the golf course down to Route 79. We already put the water in for the for the park. So I don't know why you consider that a
mitigation for the town >> was the idea behind that that residents could tap on to that line. >> That was the idea. And I and I want to emphasize that this was a draft that we put together that we have not received feedback yet. Um you know whose ledger
that particular item goes into um is certainly uh but we need the water. Without the water we can't do the project. So it brings up the point is that u you know they're asking for 80,000 gallons of water and we don't have 80,000 gallons of water to give at
this point and I think it's 70,000 we have available. I don't know if you double checked that or not a do. >> It's about 90 >> about 90. >> It's about 90. Y >> So if we give up that water, we have no other water for the town. >> So >> no other development at all. Businesses
or whatever. >> So we are actually actively doing an exercise with Taton right now about the actual water use compared to what has been allocated. Well, you better do that before you allocate this project cuz that's a pretty significant, you know,
uh number um that they're asking for. Um the other thing that's in here, we talk about the zoning articles uh being a simple majority at the town meeting. We have never done simple majority at time
meeting. They've all been 2/3. So I think that would be unfair >> for the taxpayers in Lakeville to give a simple majority >> changed. So >> this this is something that first of all we would have to take a vote of the board and recommend it and then I
believe the select board would also have to take a vote and recommend it in order to be designated as I think it says it right in there >> an eligible location. >> An eligible location. So that's not something that is a given. That's I know it's in the development agreement draft. I don't know if that's going to be
agreed upon or not. This is just the draft because as I said there has to be multiple votes taken before that's even >> Thank you. >> I Yeah, I'm just giving you my opinion that it would not be fair to the residents of Lakeville to allow a simple
majority for this major major zoning change in town. That's just my opinion. Um, I got a lot of questions on the funding for the golf course, but I'm not going to get into that because it's too complicated right now to figure that
out. Um, oh, the other the other thing is that I assume you have a purchase and sale agreement on the property. >> Yes, we do. So, um, in my opinion, you ought to submit it to the town for their approval to reject the 61A. In this agreement, it says you want the town to
wave it. I don't think that's right either. >> U, we haven't weighed in on any of that yet. So, we have, but I appreciate your feedback, but we haven't even had a conversation about that yet. >> Okay. So, when's this going to be discussed? >> We've been consulting with town council
about it. So, Okay. We are doing due diligence on that. >> Hasn't come to us yet. Why? >> It hasn't come to the select board yet. >> Okay. But it's I mean the documents on the agenda understand but this is their proposal. >> I mean I understand. So do you agree with that?
>> Do I agree with it? I have to see where it falls in the overall statute. I don't even know if it stayed in for October. >> Pardon me. >> Was it re-upted the 61A for October? >> I'm talking about the purchase of the
property. I'm not talking about taking it out of 16. >> You're talking about right of first refusal. Yes. Okay. >> You agree with that? >> Do I agree with that? I haven't seen all the numbers yet. I will let you know if I agree with it. And >> you haven't seen any numbers yet? >> Yep.
>> Thank you. >> Great. I'm going to >> Hold on. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you everyone. Um just one more thing. So the thing was we didn't have a majority this evening. We just kind of gave some comments back for the
development agreement planner and planning board on the back. >> Okay. >> And we'll share it with you guys and we're going to we're going to meet on Thursday. Okay. >> We're going to discuss with you additional comments. >> Okay. >> I appreciate your work. >> Can I get this electronically? Great.
Thanks. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Anyone need a break? Everyone's power through. Uh item six, discuss and vote of FY27
budget update. Difficult stuff yet. This was easy. [clears throat] >> It'll be a late night, kids. Thank you. Feel free to come up, Mike, when you get
a chance. [clears throat] >> [clears throat] >> All right, everyone situated? All right. Item number six, discussion, possible vote, FY27 update on budget. Uh, Free Lake School Administration presented their proposed budget on
January 14th, 2025. There are no assessment sheets available at this point in time, but we've made some assumptions based on the total increase presented, which is $3.7 million. We have attached a draft sources and uses document that outlines what myself,
the finance director um have estimated where we are with the budget. Some estimates are purely that state aid numbers come out shortly and with some other budget variables that will be known in the coming months. While those are estimates, we feel they are close to where the numbers will land. We made no assumptions yet on budgetary increases
for townwide expenses. With the with these eventually added, we're looking for a potential FY27 budget deficit of 3.5 million for the town. There are some budget tactics we can use to shorten the gap to balance the budget. However, the
numbers are overwhelming and extremely difficult. Decisions will have to shortly be made. We're looking for guidance from the select board on what options to pursue and what overall priorities are important to the community. Andrew, is there anything else that I've left out of here? That's
the um basically the summary of it. Mike and I were going to go over the sources and uses document in your packets and kind of do some highlights and then we can kind of go out into stuff afterwards. >> Thank you. >> So, I don't know if Mike has it up yet,
but you're going to be looking at these documents. You'll be looking at the kind of Excel looking documents. What are you trying to plug in? >> HDMI on the screen.
>> Um, there should be some other plugs in that cabinet. Does anyone else put it over Zoom? >> No. >> Uh, there should be a plug in the floor, but it might be too far for the HDMI.
recording. Stop. >> This one over here. >> Uh, I've used the one that's right under their floor box, too. But what are you saying? >> There was one over here.
>> Yeah. Uh, try to open that up. You might be able to. Is there an HDMI in there? >> Sorry, everyone. while we sort out this technical issue. >> Uh, yeah, I'm not sure. We've usually used the floor box that's right under the chairwoman's seat, but um,
>> I can switch with you, Mike. Would you like a hot seat? >> Yeah. >> We haven't really tested that in a while, so I'm not really that confident. >> Plugged into that one. >> Went into over here. >> What's that? >> Over here in Andrew's side.
>> That's the one I plugged into the other day. behind. >> Yeah, >> we're bumping you over there. We >> all work together here. >> One tea and one dream. >> I can go there.
>> It's very relaxing. It's [laughter] very relaxing season. >> [clears throat] >> It's the one There we go. >> Oh, my head's in the way. Okay, Dr.
So, everyone is looking at the sources and uses, which is a fancy way of saying revenues and expenses. Um, we'll go through the projected revenues for fiscal 27. Then we'll hit the expenses, and then we'll kind of show you what situation we're in. Um, revenues. Um,
this is where we this this is, so this is what me and Mike work on 12 months of the year. Go back and forth probably dozens of times with different documents. Some of these numbers are starting to become more real to us. Uh obviously we have some numbers that aren't known, but these are probably 95%
accurate if I had to guess. Um obviously our 2 and 1/2 um grow 2 1/2% is not a lot. Takes us about 750 grand. New growth, while there's a lot of projects in the pipeline, Lakeville Country Club
included, those are years away. Um we're not seeing a whole lot of construction across town. And uh we just got certified for 201,000 for 26 and we're projecting 125 for 27. Um some of the
other stuff is excluded debt that really just gets raised. Um it's essentially a net zero. We budget for it in the debt service budget and we raise the 1,187 on the tax rate. So it's a it's a net zero. You'll see that further down in the expense side.
>> Um if you want to go down just a little bit. Sure. Um, this is what a lot of towns and cities across the Commonwealth are complaining about. Um, is the lack of cherry sheet, which is state aid. Um, is it goes up minuscule amounts, maybe 1 or 2% uh, per year. Um, for us, it
doesn't really take us a whole lot. Um, Cherry Sheet Education, that is our smart growth funding that we typically get. Um, that is actually a pretty um it's it's I don't know if we're going to get 495, but it's pretty optimistic. Um, we kept it level funded from the prior
year. Um, >> and is that 40R >> 40s? >> 40s. Yeah. >> Which it's 40s money from 40 districts. >> Yeah. Um, >> 40 something. [clears throat] One of our biggest uh sources of revenue
uh I think it's about four um and a half million or so comes from local receipts. Think a motor vehicle excise uh EMS fees, transfer station fees. Um fines, this is where a lot of towns uh go to
town on investment income. Um ideally what we what you would do is you estimate 85% from prior year actuals. Lakeville over the years pretty much goes 95 to 99% from prior actuals which
leaves us very little room to grow. We're very consistent with our local receipts but doesn't really let us go anywhere with it. Um this is why our free cash isn't as high as some other small towns around us. Um so this is a
lot of towns like investment income like Matapoet. I think they they uh they raise about 500 grand in investment income, but they only put about 100 in the budget. So they get 400,000 right from there on their free cash. Um so we don't have that luxury. We we estimate
pretty much what we get. So it's good and bad. Um if you want to keep going, Mike. Sure. Um there's some indirects that we get from the parks that's coming from the enterprise account. Um and then
we actually last year for the first time put free cash and paid it out of the reserve fund with free cash is from the reserve fund um which is a oneet one time um revenue source. Um and then the last piece we paid for our capital
stabilization debt service. I believe that's for uh the doors and windows. Yeah, as windows and doors uh just mandatory interest payment on the short-term borrowing >> and we took that out of our capital stabilization account which is another one-time revenue source. Um so that's in
in ideal world our our best our best news we can give is our revenues. Um unfortunately our expenses have grown exponentially. Um for this exercise we didn't include any steps or core increases. Um, this
will probably come out to about 200 to 500 grand if I had to guess, depending on how collective bargaining goes. Um, obviously the schools last week came out with a big number, 3.7 million. Um, that's about what we're projecting about a 14% increase on our amount, which is
about 2.5 million. Um, Old Colony, we we're hearing is going to have probably 10 new students into the district. Just looking at what that meant for Carver, Rochester, and a cushion it last year. We thought that is in the realm of 200,000.
It might be higher. We don't quite know. Um big X factor is the minimum contribution numbers and uh generally state aid comes out next week. So, we don't know a lot of this. And then we took some stabs at um Bristol County and
North County um agricultural schools. Um and then the last piece is uh fixed costs. Um fixed costs are blown apart. Um pretty much every city and town across the state. Um Plymouth
County retirement continues to go up. Um and then group insurance. Um that is a budget killer which is our health insurance. Um there's really no way of stopping it. Um but that number is just higher. It's higher than we can pay it. So, um, [clears throat]
when you get to the very bottom of the spreadsheet, you see a big, uh, you know, red number. Uh, we have it right now 3.095 million. Obviously, that doesn't include any increases on town side whatsoever. So, that number is
probably going to look like 3.5 million. Um, and there's just no way to pay to get that to zero. Um, we have tactics. We could skip a debt payment. Um, that was one piece I didn't mention. Mike, if you want to go over that.
>> Sure. Um, so [clears throat] you saw the 1,187 up top in the revenue source. That's our excluded debt. As I said, it's a net zero. So, we raise the 1 million1 here in our budget and we pay it on the tax rate. This 425,000 is operating debt. So, it's it's debt
payments we have to find. Um this includes um a septic uh borrowing that we have. This includes a $67,000 mandatory interest payment on the aswams at windows and doors. And then we plugged in about $300,000 for a
um actual uh payown on the asams at windows and doors project which is optional. Um we could remove this. Um, however, when you start to remove non-mandatory debt payments, it gets gobbled up somewhere else and uh, inevitably we have to pay it. So,
[clears throat] >> another way we could try to save is uh, is bring the receipts. We we moved it to about 85%. We could jack that up to what we did last year, which is like 99%. Um, but there's a lot of taxes we can do, but we can't get to zero. Um, one
another way is to not give the schools the request of 2.5 million. We could give 400,000. It it leads to severe consequences. Obviously, probably layoffs. Um, the way the minimum contribution was at least last year, let's say we gave 400,000, that's probably going to give Freetown
negative 300. And so, essentially, it's going to act as a 0 increase. um that's up to what is going to be the budget process, but I don't know if that's going to lead to some good consequences if you're going to just not
give any increases. Um so what Mike and I wanted to kind of bring to the board's attention is that there's this big deficit and there's ways we could do it's the big O words the override. Um, but we don't want to do that without the board's blessing before we do that because it's
a lot of uh it's a lot of work. Um, takes a lot of commitment, public outreach. So, Andrew, and I I know the number, but for the for the record, historically the
override have a what percent success rate over the last few years in this state? >> I believe the number gives is about 17%. Quick question about interest that 1785 [clears throat] that you show there penalties and interest.
>> Yes. >> So I know that we have stabilization accounts that are interest bearing. >> Mhm. Am I to understand that we only on a $3 million stabilization we're only getting 178?
>> No. So this penalties and interest 1785 is a local receipt. This is penalties and interest on late tax payments or different fines or fees in the town. This is not investment income. If you actually look down at the very bottom of that square, this is our investment income. However, this would just be
general fund money. The stabilization interest stays with the stabilization fund. So that's not reflected on here. >> Um, so this is just what we're making off of what's in our general fund operational >> bank, if you will. [clears throat]
>> We all set? Are you presenting more? I just want to n >> speak over it. So um, we've known there's been problems that we've been able to stave it off for the last two years. Um the budget deficits on the town side are mostly related to the
three additional firefighters that we took on that were ARPA funded um for the last few years um and that's about 400,000 plus of the 500,000 that we would be short um in in our
calculations. Um but having a 2.6 6 million 2.56 million um coming from the schools is obviously unsustainable and it it's it's very difficult to hear something that big be presented as part of a a request in a in a down budget
cycle or an up budget cycle. Uh 14% increase over anything um is is a massive increase. Um I know we have people here um today from the school. Uh we have the superintendent and the business manager. Um are they here to
speak to that at this juncture or do we want to have other conversations before they speak to it? >> We could have other conversation before we get to it. I don't want to Well, we could just invite them up and then we can just >> I think we should invite them up. Please. Welcome. I wish it was under better
circumstances, but welcome. And um please um >> I know thank you for the opportunity to speak. Um we are aware that uh it's a significant budget ask. Uh, but I'd like to be clear that what we're presenting or what we presented last week to the school
committee is a a level service budget that represents um much like you're you're noting here in the town some things that have occurred over the past few years. Um John Higgins can speak to that. Uh you know, we walked into this budget cycle
already knowing we were about $1.3 million um off of where we wanted to be at the start of the school year. We also know, much like you do, there are a number of unknowns. We don't know what the governor's budget is going to be. We don't know what cherish sheet money is
going to look like. We are in contract negotiations uh with our teachers, par professionals, and secretaries. So, we too have uh a number of unknowns and concerns. >> So, are you saying in the contract negotiations it would go higher than the
number that was already presented today? >> Um I I can't say that it won't. It's a contract negotiation between the Freetown Lakeville [snorts] Regional School Committee and the EFL may >> absolutely >> questions. Um,
this budget assumes a what percent increase for the next year for the teachers? >> I believe it's 3.5 >> 3.5 impact on the budget. >> Right. And so I'm aware [clears throat] the negotiations are ongoing. If you're unable to come to that reach that agreement with the union, how will you
cover those how will you cover that those additional costs? Anything above 3.5%. >> If we don't reach an agreement with the union by the conclusion of the school year, we we we're in a stay put contract situation. We would have an obligation, I believe, to meet steps and levels.
>> Yes. But the question is if you negotiate a number that's higher than 3.5%, how do you cover that gap? I I >> in the prior year the school committee used utilized END U >> right which is not sound fiscal policy >> that's
>> right >> and how much is in your END right now >> uh 2.1 million >> and it's also correct that last year negotiated a 5% raise which was more than what was budgeted for and you closed that by using END so that was
already occurred in the past >> y right >> and that's why we're >> right where we are >> according to the it's a If I may, it's part of it's cumulative. >> It is part of why you are where we are. >> Right. >> And $1.2 million of that is resulting
from salary increases. >> Correct. >> Right. So I >> But 1.2 would be um that includes salary increases for our custodians who are not in not who are in a contract for our secretaries, our paras teachers who are
in negotiations. Um, so those are and some some of that number is also what in what currently exists in the state put contract with steps and levels. >> That's it. >> Can you let the board know the impact of
funding this at a 2.5% rate or what we would have normally funded it from? >> There would be significant cuts across the district. >> Can I have do you have the that data? I'm sure >> we can provide you with that data. I didn't come with that this evening. Okay.
>> Question. [snorts] Um, >> you are the leazison. >> Um, God, I've got my question. Don't worry. >> There we are. [laughter] >> Not there.
>> Um, technology, the 545,000. Um, is that the one time or is that So you guys have done capital projects, right? >> So there's two pieces of of what would
be identified as onetime capital. One is the phase two of the um fire suppression on the campus which is the upgrade of um smoke alarm, smoke detectors um and um um and connections to the the fire uh
board. Uh we did phase one in in the past year. Um and then the second piece would be the technology. So the there's three listed items. Um well the Chromebooks uh we're on a cycle to uh so that we don't reach end of life with our
Chromebooks and we're doing it in a cycle. So this would be about 1/3 of the Chromebooks needed um to replace and then they'll be each year they'd be a replacement or we could stretch it out over 5 years and do with 20% each time. Uh we have a replacement of our infrastructure switches. The switches
were installed in the district in 2012. um at in 2012 they were not um how do I put this they did they were out of they had already done upgrades by 2014 in other words the newest version
was 2 years later um so that doesn't make them out of date it just simply means that um had we you know let's say upgraded in 2014 we would have gotten a longer run on um the length of time that these can be used we they are now 13 years old uh and in need of replacement.
What we're they're actually the cost is about 500,000 but through um -ate we can actually bring that down to under 200,000 or 175,000 and then we are uh we have the the currently the teachers have Chromebooks and then in the classrooms
they have desktops. Desktops can be pretty expensive to keep upgrading. So, we're moving away from desktops, but in order to do that, we have to put docking stations so they can put their Chromebooks and it connects to all of the equipment in the room uh for instruction. So, that would be reducing
cost going forward with desktops, but it there there is a cost of the docking stations. So, these would be things that are all onetime costs though in this budget. I I will if I may, I'm sorry. I will say these were also presented last year um and were not added were not
included in the budget because they needed they wanted the number to come down. So I guess my question is that um I don't know what your END balance is but >> 2.1 right >> um we just >> if there were those one time expenses I
know taking it out of that versus using the END for operational you set yourself up again >> we would be we would be waiting for that director from school committee okay >> so they received this information last Wednesday we're anticipating that perhaps some of that will come up in
conversation tomorrow Okay. I mean, it's certainly not, you know, taking it down for a million, but >> Mhm. >> It's just a practice, I guess, >> right? >> But that 1.2 is pretty is high.
>> The 2.1 or the 1.2? >> No, the staff salaries, like I'm still trying to wrap my head around that, too, listening to what you're saying. Um, so that's only the steps and levels. >> No, that includes three and a half%. three and a half steps and levels.
>> Right. Right. >> Is the math not mathing for you? >> Yeah. Just Yeah. I'm just trying to wrap my head around that. >> So, when you do a step in level and you're getting the increase as well, the the percentage jump can be pretty significant for someone who's in their second year teaching. They're moving
down, you know, they're moving from step two to step three and they're changing to the year, right? So, the new year. So um that includes custodians, paras, secretaries, teachers
at the 3 and 12% impact on the budget with including all the potential steps and levels as well. >> I haven't seen the steps and levels in quite a long time. So I'm just a little disconnected. >> I don't think they were in the book. Were they in the book? >> They're not. No,
>> we can provide. >> Yeah. Is there even steps in levels in between? Is it like >> So there's 12 steps and then there's seven lanes. >> Is it like 3% in between each step as you're going? We had similar situation
where it's like 5% 4% 3% 1% 2% we >> leveled. There's some fluctuation in the changes between the steps and quite honestly I think it's something that has been adapted year after year in contracts without really looking at sort of a reset of it. It's it is the same
one that's been used or the same structure that's been used for several contracts. >> Is there any other context that you'd like to add to the requests um before I open up for more questions? Um I know you have a lot you have a lot of data in
here. I didn't know how you want to share it. >> We we do. I didn't realize we were going to be asked to give a presentation today. >> I wasn't thinking I wasn't thinking on it, but we do have >> I'm more than I'm more than happy to come back and give a presentation. and we could walk you through the same presentation that we that we gave to school committee. Uh but the simplest
intent of the budget is to offer the students in the Freetown Link Regional School District the same experience that they had this year. >> And in order to be able to do that, this is the level service budget that we've presented to you. Mhm. >> In the simplest terms, >> without any staff reductions.
>> Without any staff without any staff reductions, without any reductions in technology, without any any reductions in instructional supplies, professional development, without any reductions in anything. >> I know you found your >> I remember my question. The So I I
understand the adjustment worksheets have not been provided yet. I understand why you're waiting for final chapter 70 numbers, minimum contributions, so we don't run the issue we had last year. We had to revise them. I appreciate that. The number that Andrew [clears throat] Mike pencled in here is 2.55 million.
What's your confidence level in that? >> High. >> I would say it's a little high, but just a little. >> You You have high confidence? >> No. >> Oh, you have Oh, you have low confidence in that number? >> No, I'm saying it's I think it's a little high. >> Oh, you think I It's not It's not tremendously far off. No.
>> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Thank you, member. I defer a lot of this to member Plona because of his experience and his hands-on uh with this. I of course have concerns
with long-term building maintenance as well and and stuff that's going to come up with this as soon as they start uh trying to do some repairs on on different buildings and what we're going to find as those move forward. And those costs are always going to fluctuate up
more than down. >> Mhm. Andrew, is there anything you'd like to add for context? >> Yeah. Um, depending on what is gets decided tonight, I think we should have a joint meeting. >> Yes. >> But like pretty much every interested party between us and then our counterparts in Freetown as well. >> Yep.
>> And school committ >> and I think Emily, you were heading that up coordinating. >> I appreciate that. >> Absolutely. We haven't had the opportunity to have a second conversation with our own school committee about it, but I I I do believe a joint meeting. I It's my understanding that was a a practice that occurred last
year. And I I fully support that happening again. >> So uncomfortably there is no fiscal way it [clears throat] can support this with our existing budget obviously. Um
we don't want the schools to suffer obviously but it it's not what we want to do. It's what we can afford to do. Um I know I spoke to you briefly over the summer about you know was it summer? Was it spring? it was a long time ago over
you know what happens when you come to us with a a big number. Have you have you put the feelers out for an override for for your constituency for the for the parents and had those conversations with the parents cuz it hasn't come from
the school to us in that way until this number. >> Correct. So, no official feelers. I I've believed our obligation to be to present our budget to the school committee and then see what the school committee wanted to do with it, for lack of a better way to say it. I can tell you that, you know, anecdotally, for what
that's worth, I do have conversations with parents all the time who are very aware of town finance on both sides uh in both towns uh but do want their students experiences to be consistent. More often than not, the parent that I speak to uh is the parent saying, "How
can we help Dr. Starky, what can we do? Um, I have have had some parents talk to me about overrides and being supportive of that. You know, do I have data on that? Have we surveyed? No. Okay. >> Um, you know, Mr. Planco pointed out before I had Mr. Sukwa talk about the
17% that pass. Um, my job is to advocate for the students in the district and the needs of the students in the district. I I can't sit here and focus on the 17%. I have to think about what we can do to unify and link arms and ask the
taxpayers to support what the students need. And and I'll I'll end with we are certainly more than willing to do that. I believe um we have a teaching staff who and a and an employment uh staff of people who live in both Freetown and
Lakeville. Speaking just for Lakeville, I believe we can garner their support and I think if we link arms, we can get the job done. I'm going to open it up to >> Yeah. Just um there's just a couple pieces of information if if maybe get it
distributed to the rest of the >> um I didn't see the the 101 enrollment numbers. Usually we get a sheet that breaks down all the the enrollment numbers. Um and then >> there was enrollment in this one. >> Um the draft assessment sheet
>> just a draft. I'd like to see kind of like a snapshot based on what's here. >> Sure. I the only issue and the reason why I didn't we [clears throat] didn't do an assessment sheet, we're a little early than than we are. Um, usually we're not doing this until the second week in February and we've got a little bit more data is is that when we did the
assessment sheet last year, um, the minimum contributions between the two towns create a situation where Freetown had a decrease in their in their assessment. No one would have predicted that when we were starting the process, but the minimum contribution numbers were pretty different than they had been the year before.
>> It's definitely a fluid document. I know I know that having worked on it >> previously, but you know, I'm just curious to see what snapshot looks like based on what you have presented here. That's all thing. >> Yeah, no problem. >> So to to this point, I just want to clarify so that we can make sure we get you all the information that you'd like.
So you'd like to see the potential impact of Lakeville funding 2.5% of the ask. You'd like a copy of the teacher steps and levels. You're looking for the 101 enrollment and a draft assessment sheet. >> Do we have anything else that we can
help make everyone understand the situation? >> I think we're just taking this all in right at the moment. >> I mean, it was different just reading it this weekend. >> Yeah.
>> But then actually, you know, hearing it. >> Mhm. Mhm. >> Yeah. >> I mean, I think we have a situation and we have a come up with a solution. So, with no good solutions to be had as far as a solution, but um I would open it up
to the audience. I know we have some interested members that would like to speak. >> Personal camera 32 Ohio road. Um, this is really upsetting, you know, cuz this is going to cause a lot of layoffs both at the region and the time
if we don't do something about this. The governor's uh state aid numbers are coming out Friday, so you'll know what those numbers are, which they're not going to be good. I mean, you get level funded. Maybe the region will get more than that, but no way are they covering
$3.7 million in the regional school budget. Then you get the minimum contribution. And we know this is the last year of the where that thing was called. Um, so the minimum contributions for light are going to go up again, you know, so that's going to be a problem.
So the situation here is uh very serious, you know, needs to be addressed now because if you don't July 1, you're going to be laying people off, >> you know, both the town level and the regional level. We're at the end of January now. And so what I'm telling you
to do is try to do it as quickly as possible to get an override if that's the direction you want to go in. And that's why we're meeting with all all boards for Freetown and our finance committees and and the select boards and that's already in process of scheduling
that. But same same thoughts. >> Well, they may not need an override, you know, free time. >> No, but at the same time, if they they vote a number, it would force us to vote a number. >> The the this has been building for a couple of years. >> This is no nothing new as far as a
regional school is concerned. We knew it was a fiscal cliff. >> $800,000 error. Okay, that you know caused a problem. They turn around and use $1 million to balance their budget last year from onetime revenue and they carried that $1
million into this year's budget. So, you know, >> the numbers are staggering. Yep. There was no way it was going to, >> you know, if you if you were talking a million dollar increase, you know, in the [snorts] budget or whatever, you can probably deal with that, you know, collectively, but you can't deal with
$3.7 million. >> I agree. >> No way. >> So, just for context, I think that's the the sum of the entire police and fire salaries put together.
So just to put it in in those terms how big this is for the town of Lakeville. Um should we invite um everyone to the next meeting with the dual select board do finance?
>> I would say as soon as possible. >> Yeah. >> Um >> but I was going to ask if we should invite the superintendent the business manager as well. >> Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking the full school committee. Yeah, >> I would love it if you would be able to present fully what the options look like
and you know the scary option obviously um sharing what 2.5 would look like um and what this does and what this budget doesn't do because you do have a lot of capital needs that haven't been addressed.
>> Some of that some of that information was shared in last week's presentation. Tomorrow's presentation to school committee will be a little bit more detailed. Okay? >> So you get a sense for what level service continuity provides to the students in the district. So you'll certainly see that tomorrow night at school committee and then if the request
through the school committee is to come here and make that presentation again, we're more than happy to do that. >> That would be appreciated. Um also, can we can you make sure we're linking the school committee meetings and agendas on the town web page? It keeps >> not happening. If I can, Madam Chair, I
know I had a conversation with our town clerk about that coming from a communications committee perspective. Um, and I believe there has to be a vote. Um, I have to get confirmation, but um, there has to be a vote from um, is it this I think
it's the school committee to post on the individual towns websites >> because they are posting on Freetown. Not anymore. retail goes and grabs the agenda and puts it on >> correct >> their website. >> And why can't we do that?
>> Um, you're going to have to ask your town clerk. >> All right. >> But I think the school committee I think having talked to their chair um to bring up the discussion um because we want a more collaborative um information. >> If you would advocate for that, I would appreciate it. >> We will advocate for that. I can make
sure it's it's not on tomorrow night's agenda. it could perhaps come up in discussion and if not it'll certainly go on the February agenda >> because I want to say we asked for it in 2017 >> and >> yeah just a quick discussion quick vote that we post on the town's websites
>> I'm fine to go through protocol let's get it done um any more comments before we get two of the weeds with a horrible type of number I I know that you have been researching for the last few months Mhm.
>> on overrides and just like you said the dismal success rate on them. Um I would love to see what that looks like um for the town of Lakeville. What would be an action plan and have that action plan ready to go after our next meeting? What
you know depending on the vote. >> I assume that includes the impacts for the failed vote. >> Everything staff reductions. so forth, right? >> Yep. Everything you've got? >> Yeah. Yeah, we can do that >> because I know you guys have been
bouncing it back and forth for a while at this point. >> Yeah, overrides are tremendously uh difficult and timeconuming. Um pretty much everything else goes by the wayside. What what we've heard from people. >> The last override that we had in 2013 2013 2012
I I want to say 2014, >> but I could be wrong. It was it was that >> one of those years that isn't this year. It was really driven by the school and by the teachers and by, you know, community outreach >> and um >> I remember being on the phone.
>> Yeah. Yep. And it >> and it passed. >> And it did pass and everyone said the same thing there. Everyone said moverite will never pass in in Lakeville. >> I thank you for mentioning that tonight. >> Yep. Everyone said it'll never pass and
it and it overwhelmingly passed. So, um, I >> What was the amount on that? >> Come on, Andrew. I'm good. I'm not that good. >> It was over over below a million. >> I think it was 1.5 million. >> 1.5.
>> You might be right. I >> think so. >> I want to say 1.5 million. >> I can't speak with assurityity. >> Yep. >> It was a large number at the time. >> That was very large at the time. >> I was going to guess 800,000. I think I've seen that number. That was when the inter that was when Grace
operation budget I think was 800,000 eventually. Okay. you know, we can take the overunder and uh [laughter] go on that. But yes, I there is a pathway forward, but the the pathway forward really only
in my estimation speaking is one member and not for the board is the least palatable to all the citizens and that's a an override vote in order to support. It's not where we want to go first. We'll scope that out and we'll have
those conversations. But it's important that the people of Lakeville know that this is not an amount we can scrape together. We cannot find it in accounts. This would be massive layoffs um and a
lot of reconfiguring of town services and um and likewise in in the schools. So finding a pathway forward and then finding a sustainable budget and a pathway forward on a sustainable budget for the schools and the town um will be
of paramount importance indefinitely. But I really appreciate everyone's conversations today and very >> the opportunity to speak had you know had we known we would have we would have come >> a good number of these things but I can assure you have them before you meet again
>> and uh we're accessible to you always. >> Yep. and we'll we'll be here for all the uncomfortable conversations that have to happen but uh >> or comfortable >> or super com No, there'll be no [laughter] there'll be none but um I appreciate your willingness to come speak to it and um help educate all the
boards as we gather together to tackle the problem as one. Anyone else? Any final portions for this agenda? No. All right, Andrew, you got a lot of work. >> We've been kind of going.
>> I know. I know. We've been talking for a bit. >> Um, much appreciated. Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you. Good to see you. >> Item number seven, discussion, possible vote on Old Colony Regional Technical Vocational High School building project.
As the select board knows, the old colony building project districtwide election vote failed on November 18th, 2025. During this election, the debt exclusion component of the vote passed with a motion. The old colony old colony
hosted a meeting on December 18th which was attended by appointed elected officials from districts and communities. The goal of this meeting was to obtain feedback from the communities in the next step. Old Colony representatives presented five options which can be found in the attachment.
Do we have that to put up on the the board or or no? >> No, >> the options. Okay. >> No. Um, Colony will be hosting another one of those feedback meetings with elected appointed officials from all communities on January 26, 2026 at 6 p.m. The
purpose of the select board discussion on January 20th is to review all five options and discuss the pros and cons prior to joining the select um joining the meeting, the joint meeting. The Old Colony School Committee will be taking a vote on January 28th um on their
preferred option. Uh the preferred option would go to the MSBA which would be reviewed for action. Andrew, would you like to speak to this or would Chris rather speak to it? >> Uh I can just give a I mean a general sense of what happened on December 18th.
Uh most finance committees and select boards were there and uh it was kind of like a call response. It wasn't like a true like five community sat around a table. It was like one person got up and just kind of it was like a public comment confessed the whole time. Um
there was a lot of questions there. They went through all five options. Um, and then it's clear that the old colony building committee wants public like feedback from select boards. And I thought this would be a good time to go through all five and have whether we
want to take a vote on what the preferred option is for us or whether we want to ask questions or have a united front at the meeting. Um, cuz it's really not, like I said, it's not five communities sitting around a table. It's going to be probably public comment
again. Um, so I think that they're taking legitimately taking public comment and then they're going to act on what they think the communities feel. So we can go through all five options. I think Chris knows them more intimately than I do. Not to volunteer, Chris. Sorry.
>> I'm I'm willing to speak. So >> please do. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, so um just so everybody's aware, I am a member of the uh school building committee. have been since uh day one. Um and the the [clears throat]
school building Oh, okay. Let me back up a step. So, we have um we need to provide uh an official response to the Madison School Building Authority uh by the end of the month. Do you know the date? Well, the date
actually the first date actually has passed and I think they gave us a short extension for one response and then there is the final response the school committee. [clears throat] >> So, and that's and that's of those five
options and I and I'll summarize them really uh quickly. Um, so the way the process works is that you know the the uh the initial vote uh did not pass. Uh so now we have five options and we have
to provide that response uh to the MSBA within a couple weeks. I forget the exact date. Um so [clears throat] step one was the school building committee met and we reviewed these options. We voted on option. Uh the next step is as uh Andrew said, there's going to be
another um public meeting for um town officials appointed and elected as well as the public. Um that's coming up. um end of the month and and [clears throat] then based off of that ultimately it's going to be the old colony school committee. Uh they are the ones that are
going to take the vote on what option is going to be selected. Um so option one is a a multi-year manyear uh phased uh phased approach to to repairs. Um and
that's going to to address all the issues. uh we can only spend $5 million every three years. And that's key because that that avoids uh code triggers. Code triggers uh if you exceed the if the renovation costs exceed the
x% of the assessed value, uh it incurs initiates code triggers such as ADA compliance, fire suppression systems, and so forth, which is significant uh cost. So to avoid those code triggers, you can only we're limited to $5 million every 3 years. And to get through that
whole list, uh, it would wouldn't be completed until 2075, which is just crazy. And on top of that, it would require a debt exclusion vote be approved by all five communities every 3 years. Um, option two is to build is to
build an additional building. uh that would uh address capacity issues, increased capacities and so forth, but doesn't address the root the issues of the um of the existing building itself and all the critical and life safety repairs that are required that have been deferred over the last few years.
Option three is just a a another is a separate vote for large scale repairs. You do it all at once. Um that's estimated about $134 million. Uh whereas the new building the our our estimate when you when you subtract off the MSBA
funding uh the town's share is about $148 million. So we're going to spend almost that amount and we're not even we're not even going to get a new a new school. >> And when you say the towns, you mean the collective towns, not just the town of Flight. >> That's correct. The five the five sending communities, right? And there's other issues as well is disruption the
class services. When you try to renovate a school, you're moving kids. It's it's just totally disruptive to the alerting environment. Uh, [clears throat] option four is to resubmit um another statement of interest to the Massachusett School Building Authority. However, there's a
5-year minimum waiting period. Uh, and uh, then there's no guarantee that the MSBA would accept us because MSBA prioritizes the funding requests and funding priority is given to communities when it's their initial request. So it
kind of somewhat decreases our chances of getting funding from SBA. On top of that, a conservative OPM is estimated a conservative 4% uh annual cost um for supplies, materials, and so forth.
Compound that over 5 years, and a $288 million uh school could potentially cost close to $500 million in five to six years. Uh option five is the revote. Uh so you
know we we understand um that the residents um did not support it. Uh we believe that with if if we um present the alternatives to not doing
a revote and funding this now. uh we believe that we would uh hopefully that the residents would be supportive of understanding the issues of not voting for this. Now the bottom line is that
all those other opt all alternatives options one through four the repair building revote I mean the resubmitting and stuff like in the end of the day it's going to cost more significantly more and it's going to deliver less value over time. I I understand we all understand that is a significant burden
for the taxpayers. Um [clears throat] if we do not fund this solution today, it it it's going to have to be done in the future. The building is at the end of its useful lifespan. We've had engineers assess the the structural integrity of that building. It is at the
end of its lifespan. So it's not like you can say, "Well, throw some money into it, you know, and we'll worry about it in a few years." Yeah, we can do that, but it's going to cost significantly more. And also al also too the option five with the revote in five years there are some critical life
safety um repairs that are going to need to be addressed. So, even with option five, >> [clears throat] >> uh, waiting 5 years, we're probably going to spend a minimum of $5 million, potentially 10 depending on the time frame, um, that we got to make those critical infrastructure repairs that need to be done. And then we're going to
go before and the MSBA again, maybe we may not get funding, which case now we're on the hook for potentially a $500 million uh, facility. >> Question for you on option five. If they were to if everyone was to have interest
in the revote and it failed again, how likely is option four knowing that the support is >> option four would really be our our next
>> but does it push us much further down in the line to your point >> um with MSBA? >> Yeah, I can't say. or or are we at the lowest point? Who does know where to go? >> I I think we're Yeah. his historically from the numbers that the OPM has given
us, majority of these have passed over the last 5 or 10 years. Um I think we were there's multiple reasons why I won't go into that now. What why the vote was not successful. uh we recognized that part
of it was education and ensuring that the voters understand the full impacts of not supporting the vote now and and and specifically the the the financial impacts >> of not supporting the vote at this time. >> So um in all your conversations um
regarding this project, how would we mitigate the problems that we had with the vote? Um I know that education is a component but It's not the only component. >> Um I think outreach is is a big part of
that and we have already started some plenty of discussions on securing private funding for an advocate political political action. Yeah. An advocacy group that would do that grass build that grassroot support. And again all kind all comes down to education. I I'm confident that if the voters
understand the financial significant financial impacts by kicking this can down the road, I believe that we can gather the support that we need for this. Uh, I'm just concerned that the same thinking that got us here is is going to not get the vote done if we're
if we're really just relying on it being an educational portion and not um that the voters just don't support it because of the financial impacts >> and there's nothing we really can do to overcome that. It's yeah, it's just I'm sure that they fully understand like I
said and leave it up to them. And then my next question is who's paying for all of the votes now? >> Would you what do you mean the >> So if it comes back and we we revote who's >> who's going to fund the Oh, we're looking to tie tie it into the state
election. >> Okay. >> In the fall. >> Chair, I just had a couple questions. Um so just to break it down. Um so Lakeville's portion was um 31 million, correct? for the the overall
>> 39 39. Okay, >> you're correct. >> So that was 39 mil for random school. >> So if we went with option three, lower cost um you know 134 mil versus 148 mil, what is Lakeville's percentage?
>> Uh I do not have that. >> Okay. And that is the same question I have on number one with the 5 million every 3 years >> be 32.6 six million. >> I have to take it because I'm not sure what the school you know if the
population breakout but >> we certainly not advocating the option one occup significant disruptions to the learn the learning environment it would be and on top of that um for roughly 2 to 3 years um they need
to set up temporary teaching facilities and that's a huge task in itself. So we're talking 2 to 3 years of nothing being other than moving in modular classrooms and stuff like that. Uh and the other issue too is that the return on uh investment um for those options is smaller than new
construction because the contractors are limited to you know there's maybe they they can only work during the summer. They some of the work's got to be done at nights and weekends. A lot of and it's done peacemail work. Contractors most of the the the bigger contractors are not interested in that type of work.
So, and the number bids you're going to get back are not going to be very competitive. So, again, that's more cost for less value. >> And that's kind of where I was going. You know, when you're looking at, you know, um a return on your investment, you know, best bang for your bucket, that's not the way to go.
>> Exactly. >> No. Um >> one more question for me and then I'll open it up to everyone else. >> Um I I had a lot of feedback after the end of the vote. Um, and some of it was just
about the process in general and some of the education, but a lot of feedback was on the wording of the vote itself. Is that I know we can't change a lot of things if we do a revote. Is there a way
that we can even approach making the language >> more clear or between the vote and vote? Well, no. The vote the language of the vote before had the full amount of the borrowing. It didn't break out
Lakeville's portion in in the language. Um, and I know some people that just didn't vote on on it just for that individual reason. >> Okay. >> I'm not sure if that's something we can as the revote from what I understand is it's got to be the number is exactly
what it is. We get that >> but the numbers are the numbers. But how it it breaks out and is explained. >> We could. >> Yeah. If I can I I think Chris is >> You have to come. Sorry. I apologize. But >> no, that's okay. From a lethand point of view, I ought to know better.
>> I think Chris has done a a very nice job of explaining where we've been and the options and and so forth, but to the point of of the the wording on the votes, I I agree with you. the the wording on on actually both of them to
my mind is full of too much legal ease but that's me I don't they don't ask me to write those things um and as far as I know MSBA has said nothing gets to change you can't change the scope of the
project you can't change the wording of the votes I think we as a uh building committee uh could and should do a a must do a better job explaining
than what we did. Although I'll tell you there was a heck of a lot of work done by a lot of people to try to get the word out. I I would like to invite uh the folks in town to come to
the meetings and and to watch the meetings. I I think it would have Well, no, that was after the vote. I was going to say it would have been helpful I think if if you folks were able to come uh to the last meeting in December but that was post vote so that wouldn't have
uh had a lot of impact but I we we there's not much if anything we can actually change in the proposal and to go back and start over and you make a new proposal
the all the money you spent on the feasibility study you know that's gone. You got to do it all over again. You have to pay for it yourself. MSBA will not give you a scent on that. So, um I think as Chris said, outreach
is the key. getting to the people, you know, the presentation on September 9th and then I think it was November 10th or whenever it was presented again, the select board. Um,
it'd be great to get a lot of people there and then to have folks who can't be there to watch the program. And uh the superintendent has has said many times if you have a question please call him
directly. Uh and he isn't here tonight. He's had a death in the family. So we he wanted to be here. But um he means it. If any citizen has a question and they don't
understand something, please call him 763 8011. Ask the superintendent, Aaron Pollinsky. He'd be happy to chat with you. I'd be happy to chat with folks. Um I'm I'm sure Chris would as well. Um
I I don't think it should be missed that the school building committee met what a week or two ago [cough] and we went through all of the options again and unanimously we felt even given
the failed vote. It was only 54 votes that it failed by and I think it was 77 that the debt exclusion passed by. The voter turnout I think was 8.9%. >> Was it that high? What about that?
>> Yeah. >> What? I'm sorry. In Lakeville. >> Yeah. In Lakeville. >> Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Yes. In Lakeville. >> In Lakeville. Thank you. Let's clarify that. >> Yes. I'm sorry. I I I have my Lakeville hat on. You're right. in other towns. Um although
some other towns were close but not as close as we um we we voted unanimously to to go that way again because the other options as Chris pointed out uh flocked with so many negatives. Keep in mind that this
school was designed back in 1975 for an entirely different type of education. Much smaller classrooms than what we what the state requires and so forth. All sorts of um problems associated with uh with the original
building. It was not meant it was not built from materials meant to last like the school that I went to. uh even even aquit uh was was [snorts] built with better materials. Um however,
a building that was built at the same time just about uh 72, the old Grahams building no longer exists and it was I can tell you I I was spent a lot of time in that building. It was not well built. The
first year we had a wicked leak in the roof. I mean 55 gallon buckets in the hallways as the kids. So I mean [snorts] it it just wasn't built to last longer than what it
has. And if it hasn't reached the end of its useful life yet, it is just about to take a look at the water tank. Take a look at I I I spoke to someone who graduated last year, a young lady. um
very bright young lady. From your point of view, what what would you have them address? Said, "Well, having bathroom that works would be nice." I'm being uh somewhat um comical there. Uh but she said, you
know, you go to this one, it's it's leaking or it's shut down or what have you. There's a lot going on be behind the walls. There's a uh there was a u a grease trap. I think it was in culinary that was stopped up. They brought in uh
plumber, snake down, pulled out nothing but sand and dirt. I imagine they use cast iron for exit uh piping. And I think that means that it's all rotted,
>> infiltrated. Infilt There you go. Infiltrated. Yes. So, you know, all of those things and and now multiply that issue and the water tank and the and the gym floor and this and that. You multiply it and and the conclusion that
we came to was you compare the the base repair, the co up to code repair of 134 million and that doesn't deal with 150 kids every year. we have to turn away.
It doesn't even address that. Imagine 150 kids who want a vocational education and their dreams are dust, if you will. And and that's very unfair in in my view. And that we keep
that in mind when we when we're voting for those things. But compare the 134 for it. It doesn't get you what you need to the 148 >> that gets you a brand new school.
>> Y >> any questions? >> I just have one quick context. After speaking with the school's bond council, I don't believe we'd have to do a deb exclusion going forward. >> Okay. >> I wondered about that. >> That's what I've heard. So, um,
>> and [clears throat] you checked with bond council. >> Yeah, since it's the same same project, same amount, same everything. It's it's considered already passed. So, >> um, >> wow. >> Can we confirm that the absolute? >> Yeah. I mean, get someone to sign a
blood or something writing. So, [laughter] >> I will Yeah, I would say I could go with that. >> It makes sense. I can confirm it. >> So, it's a one part vote instead of a two-part vote. Oh, we don't have to vote on the death bill cuz I'd already asked. >> Correct. >> That would make our job
>> a bit easier, I hope. >> I will confirm it, but that's what I've had in writing so far. >> Interesting. >> Oh, you've had that in writing? Oh, okay. >> Interesting. Would anyone else like to speak? >> I think so. Um, I believe the idea here was to
have the board vote their decision and memorialize it if the board is so inclined. If the board is so inclined, I will take a motion. >> I'll make the motion that we um
I'm not on this. >> Option five. Yeah, I'm a motion that we support option five for a revote for the old colony school building project. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any
further discussion? >> Hearing none. Roll call. >> Hunt. Nay. >> Plug. Ide. Carbon. I >> Oh, one more note. Quick note, I know there was a um there's some question about the lottery, the new new lottery
system that the old colony has is has implemented. >> Uh and it was noted earlier that our operating costs are projected to go up next year in additional 10 students. Just so the public is aware, um the we
are obligated by the school uh agreement that the number of students that are offered those lottery opportunities is based off of the average class size. >> It's not based on the town. >> No, it's based off of the eighth grade average class size. So they they take
all the communities, right? And >> there's the historical average, there's the present average, and there's some other average uh that for you to look back. >> Yeah, I forget exactly where it was. And they come up with a number for each town. Going back when we first joined
back in '92, there was what was called a quotota, but somewhere in the arts that was struck down by the state and you couldn't you couldn't have that anymore. No more quotas. >> Makes it impossible to budget though.
Oh, well that's that's why this this averaging to create a class size for each town based on some history was brought up because it would create a nightmare to budget cuz you could never predict from one year to the other what
your number's going to be. You're absolutely right. And interestingly enough, we have we have the largest 8th grade class of all five communities, but we don't have the largest number of students that actually once they're offered selected, it's
>> a a Kushnet. >> A Kushet is number one. >> Kushet has has the largest class, >> right? So, we're still number two. >> Just just so folks understand how we're obligated uh based off of the So, it's not I know there's some questions that come up to me and I wasn't quite sure. So, I got clarification on that. Yeah,
>> mandated by the average eighth grade class. That's the number of slots that are offered. >> Anyone else? >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Andrew, do you want to go this or table yours till next?
>> I can go pretty quickly through if you like. >> Roll through. Um, so it's we have I had remember last time I had a bunch of like goals from the point of when I when I set them to the point where I gave the first update that now is 55 total goals
across five. So it's about averages about 11 for each. Um, goal number one was communication. A lot of that hinges on the new website. Um, I think so that kind of affects a lot of the other ones. We're getting to a point where we're thinking we're going to go live maybe in
three or four months. So, I think that's going to help out a lot. >> Um, >> may I ask a question? >> Yep. >> Who is going to be the liaison for the website? Do we have someone that is like in charge? Are you having captains?
Like, what's the structure that look like? >> It's a good question. Um, I'd like to have more, I think, cooks in the kitchen. Right now, it's kind of like who's doing what, who's in charge of what? Um, I want to have like probably supreme authority between myself, Emily, and Colleen, and the town clerk's
office, and then each person in each department should have >> access individual pages and all that. All right. I think that per me personally, I think that helps a lot because I've seen a lot in the past, not the recent past, but the past where
there's a big hold up um and something's not getting updated and there's like three people that need to talk to three other people before this other one person gets it and it's >> my only caveat was just keep that list short. I would say department heads because you got to that will show
consistency and >> or >> consistency. I guess >> I don't know. So I I'm going to say who's the most techsavvy and not [laughter] >> I'm just going to throw that out there cuz it's not always the same person. >> They can delegate down just you don't
want to blow it open cuz then you're going to have you'll lose consistency. >> Yeah. And it's most likely going to be their admin. >> Yeah. >> Like Yeah. Um goal number two, obviously the biggest one we've talked about tonight is presenting a fiscally responsible fiscal 27 capital and
operating budget. Um that's ongoing. Um a lot of work to do starting tomorrow. Um something we think will maybe help with that. Maybe not in 27, but um we can't bank on I should say is a meals tax. Um we've done a lot of research on it. Um I've actually put together what
the town warrant article is going to be. So that that that one's pretty much um done. We just have to maybe do a another presentation in front of the select board. Um and then uh a big one I think from the board was to explore a town council RFP. We've done that. We've gone
through the whole process. Um we're meeting I think on Thursday morning with the evaluation committee to then provide an update to the select board in the form of recommendation of who we want to go with. Um, so you'll all be hearing
about that very soon. Um, goal number three, um, I meet consistently with a land use team and an infrastructure team. This kind of cross goes over. Um, we try to give as many updates to the select board as we can with new
properties and new projects and everything. Um, we're trying to get better with that obviously, but I think something with the town website that's going to help with this is a town projects page. Um, a lot of communities are very good with it. You click it, it
pops up with like town projects, developer projects, and you can find information very quickly. So, I think what we'd like to do is once we kind of have a project in the midst, kind of add it there and people can kind of see what's going on with that. Um,
I think what you heard tonight from Thorn Dyke is that they want us to probably apply for a community onetop um, grant for a water line. Um, I'm just putting two and two together. >> So, I was going to ask for that and we
can't do that on behalf for community onetop. As far as I know, it would have to be a townowned waterline for the benefit of the town and not especially a business. That is
so if you take it down all the way clear on all the way down through down Vaughn to get to John Pawn, everybody else can tie into it. Yeah. >> Yes. My understanding we can we can do it all the way to Country Club whatever
that street is. >> Country Club Way. which either, but they would have to take it from there. Um, it would be through a mass works grant. I assume that's what they're kind of putting together. Um, just based on what they kind of put in their master development agreement. Um, but that's probably going to be a potentially
priority depending how things shake out. Um, and then we are tracking SHI and affordable housing. I think everyone's been aware that we've we're in safe harbor right now. Um, and that's something the building commissioner and I kind of put put together um, for
compliance. I think that's probably the first time in a while. >> But are we in safe harbor? >> It's it's depending on how you interpret it. I think we're probably not going to be in February >> because we lose the hospital.
>> Yeah. They had 12 months to pull a building permit which ends in about February. I'm guessing first week of February. So, yep. >> Worst of both worlds. >> Yep. Exactly. Um, goal number four, um,
as the board's aware, we're revising the employee personnel plan in the form of individual policies that will become part of a major plan. Um, and then a big focus is negotiating all the collective bargain agreements. There's four of them. Um, and that's ongoing. Um, and then the last one, goal five,
we're in the midst of creating a facility/townowned property improvement master plan. A lot of communities pay millions of dollars for this and we're doing it all in house and I think it's uh it's a lot of work, but I think it's going to be beneficial going forward.
Um, Route 79 project is obviously coming in. Um, it's a big obviously it's a big deal. We've mentioned it before. Um, so that's something we need to communicate to the residents. um in a big way cuz I know they're going to be knocking on our doors soon. Um and then we explored new
earth removal fee structures and we actually passed that and then the last component of that is actually passing a revised bylaw. So we're putting that together right now and should be ready for June town meeting. So it's 55 goals in total. Um, obviously
there's there's stuff that comes on and off depending on what the board's entertaining at that point in time, but these are the 55 I've been tracking officially. So, some don't have any updates. Um,
it's the problem when you put too many goals. It's hard to get to each one. >> It was pretty uh comprehensive. >> Yeah. Madam Ch one recommendation if you could just put for the for kind of like your status if you could say like not started cuz I'm not sure some of these
say no updates. I don't can't tell if it's been initiated or you just have an update or maybe you can just use like not started in process completed. >> Mhm. >> Yep. >> Just going to have them color coded but
that's >> [laughter] >> Green, yellow, red, green, yellow. Yeah. >> I always love a good green, yellow, red document. Always makes me feel like I can understand what's going on like that.
Um, I would like the board to weigh in on one of these for a very small one, but um for the item number eight um on we have agenda
>> what goal >> eight >> um >> no goal >> oh uh >> like 5 >> goal one eight subsection >> 1.8 eight. >> Um we have improved select board meeting agenda and review. Um so just to tell
you what it is now. Um it is uh on Thursdays. Um the draft review comes out from the select board's office with all the things that need to be on there, renewals, etc., etc. It goes to the select board in draft form. Then on
Wednesday, I sit down with the staff and we add in anything from me and then we add all of the other agenda items and then we push it >> for the following week. >> For the following week, >> right? Thursday, then Wednesday, then
Tuesday. >> Yeah. So, >> so Tuesday is the big day that everyone can weigh in. Yep. >> For the for the next meeting, and then I get it on a Wednesday. >> Okay. two. Oh, so Tuesday it Tuesday they [clears throat] solicit. >> Yep. >> Whoever wants stuff on the agenda. Yep. >> Yep. Anyone that wants something on the
agenda, I meet on Wednesday and then we >> Tuesday the meeting go through. >> Yep. >> Yep. >> That's the process now just in case like for that. And >> the enhancement that I'd love to see in there is you know what I mentioned anytime there's a slide deck or anything that we have those slide decks and
anytime there's anyone presenting to us we have all that information as well. they they should have to present it. I don't want anything coming from someone that doesn't already have it presented and is part of the agenda. Um it it should really be all part of the agenda
for any type of thing anyone else is bringing before the board. >> I agree. >> And it helps me look at it ahead of time, too, which which I always appreciate. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you for the update, Andrew. Yep.
>> Uh appointmentes and licenses. Um, we have a couple of them. Um, how do you say Cheryl's last name? Is it tag me or campaign? Like how? My French is a business. >> I would say campaign.
>> Campaign. If you want to say campaign >> campaign. Um, we have um some appointments. Um, would anyone like to make the motions? I'll make a motion um that we appoint Cheryl because I know we had the
campaign in Champagne. >> I know I don't know what it is. >> As an alternate to the Council on Aging um board um with the term to expire July 31st, 2026. >> I have a motion. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> And I have a motion and a second. Any
further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. >> Hunt. >> I do. >> Carbon I. Um, I'll make a motion for discussion um to appoint Kenneth Upam um to be
appointed as constable. Do we have a letter? >> There's Oh, yeah. >> Um, but that was the question I was asking cuz I didn't see anything from the chief, >> the police chief. >> The chief for sure. >> I know I asked for it on Wednesday and I
know you were getting it. Uh, wasn't it an email? >> Yeah, there was there was something that might have come up in the email packet. >> I printed it, but I got an email on that. Do not Yeah, we did. And I forwarded it to
everybody, but I also provided it. >> Yes. Today at 11:51. >> He had gotten back to me on Friday after I had left. I can read the email. Colleen, >> I know.
>> All right. I'm looking to see somewhere in this massive pile. >> You want to read it into the record? >> A copy of it. >> Read it to the record. >> Okay. >> Okay. So, uh, Colleen sent an email today, January 20th, 11:51.
Uh, Chief Perkins responded that up constable appointment is okay. I ask that civil processing only be added to the motion for tonight. >> There you go. >> Okay. So, the motion would be to reappoint Kevin up as conible for civil
>> processing only. >> Correct. >> Yeah. for the town label for the year 2026 with a term to expire January 19, 2027. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call.
>> Hunt. I >> plug I do I. I'll make a motion um to appoint um Louise Derry Wells and Cynthia um Chandran to the Middleboro Lakeville Herring Fishery Commission as an [clears throat] observer for the
one-year term to expire on 9:30 2026. >> I have a motion to second. >> Second. >> Second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. >> I I do. Oh yeah. >> Okay.
Subcommittee updates. Old colony. I think we I think we covered that pretty big with the agenda item. Did you have anything else? >> Yes. Our last meeting was on January 7th and as you noted earlier, uh we voted to support a revote.
Uh and the next the next meeting for Old Colony again as that we noted earlier for elected and appointed officials as well as the public to discuss those options one last time is on January 26. >> Okay. Fire station.
>> Um project's already started if you've driven by. Um we'll be working on scheduling a groundbreaking um ceremony in the next 3 to 4 weeks. >> Golden shovels.
>> Oh, golden shovel. Yes. [laughter] >> Yeah. Technology advisory subcommittee. >> We met on January 12th. Um Andrew provided updates to the committee on the website. Uh I pro I provided the committee uh status on migrating some of
the talent employees through SharePoint and one drive and working that with uh Bob Nelli and Blue River Associates making some progress there. Um we [clears throat] discussed uh cyber security training which was not a requirement last year. Um so based off
our recommendation uh we found some grant opportunities. We forward those over to Andrew and Emily Luke. So, they are working on that and we're also going to discuss how to maybe work that into our contracts. Um, we'll discuss that later to ensure
we get a better compliance rate is what we're looking for from county. Um, we also discussed uh meeting minutes that leverage artificial intelligence. Uh we identified three and Andrew is
working to schedule some demos with those vendors for us and the committee. >> Is audi one of them? >> Yes. >> Um and uh we also reviewed the cyber trust cyber security audit that was completed.
Oh my god, it was fall of 2024 I believe. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yes. Can I add something in really quick? >> Um uh just a caveat and I think someone alluded to something in one of the messages for um just talking about AI in
general. I would say um myself and we could take a vote on it as board very comfortable using AI for note takingaking and regular meetings not so much for executive session meetings because the contents sometimes like they
they leak. Well, we can I understand the risks. Um, we will come up with an AI policy. So, we want to make sure that those if not that hosting sensitive data, PII, HIPPA data and so forth. >> Yes. >> Um, with but we may be receptive to that
based off of if they provide evidence of compliance with other cyber security frameworks such as an ISO report or a sock to report and that's I that's kind of what I do in my real job. Um, so we can talk about >> real Do you have a real job? [laughter] >> How do you fit that in your committee?
>> Uh so yeah, I'm aware of those risks and we can have the discussions uh whether how we want to you know >> craft it >> the host of data to sensitive over. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> And then the last thing was the the cyber trust audit report. We had the cyber trust um
group. They're a private uh public private partnership that the state implemented a few years ago. They did an audit on our uh network and our environment. Um Kevin list of vulnerabilities uh and Bobby Nat associates are working to remediate
those v vulnerabilities. Um starting with the high uh high risk uh vulnerabilities working their way down. So he's continuing to make progress on it. >> All right. I like it. >> So I have Thank you. communication and committee outreach
subcommittee working on getting that the meeting scheduled. >> Okay. Approximately is it like a February or a January >> to be determined determined? >> Town hall building reuse subcommittee.
>> Uh we met yesterday. No. Um, we are still waiting on some updates from the overview of the building. Be very exciting to get those be able to visualize it all in one energy advisory
committee. Um, anything on that subs? >> Oh, they got a presentation from the climate leader. Um, Lisa Svin, Lisa Svin's the green community rep. She gave a presentation on climate leader, which
is like the updated green communities designation. Interesting. So, I think they're going to look into that more. >> The economic development committee, um, nothing new to report. We're just moving our meeting um to February so
that we can meet with Surf and get it get it rolling. Loren, this whole last half is you and the Veterans Park Committee. >> Well, we just put the >> It's just a placeholder for the moment, but yeah, [laughter] >> making progress.
Any new business to come before the board tonight? Any old business to come before the board tonight? I did have something, but I didn't write it down, so I'll never know what it is until probably next year, and then it'll just pop up in my head. Um,
new business, old business. Uh, next select board meeting date is February 3rd, 2026. We are now going to go into executive session. Executive session under rule number one
possible executive session pursuant to general law chapter 30A section 21A1 to discuss the reputation, character, physical condition or mental health rather than professional competence of an individual or discuss the discipline or dismissal of complaints or charges
against a public officer, employee, staff member or individual. And item number two, possible executive session pursuant to GL chapter 3A section 21 A3 to discuss its strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if
an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body. If the chair declares that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the negotiating position of the public body, clerical, labor, police, fire, dispatchers, educators, and not to
return into open session. >> I have a motion and a second. Roll call. Ide breathe while I'm saying that. That's all just