##VIDEO ID:_RFJe4239U8## [Music] uh welcome Littleton to the select board meeting for Monday August 12th uh we're going to start with an executive session um and plan to be back at 6:30 so um is there a motion for the executive session motion to go into executive session for the purpose of any purpose of let me I don't have it there go okay move that the select board vote to enter into executive session number two pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 30A section 21 A2 to conduct strategy and preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union Personnel police the select board will adjourn to Executive session and will reconvene an open session after the executive session second moved by Matthew second by Gary a roll call vote Mr Wilson yes Mr Duos ious yes Mor morison hi and chairs in favor I uh will be back um around 6:30 little thank you Mike's here uh so welcome back we are going to uh resume our regular meeting uh we'll start with the pled aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all uh so we'll begin next we'll read the mail we have a joint meeting with the finance committee at 6:35 to approve the fin Financial policy um and a reserve fund transfer we have a bunch of Department updates for police town clerk DPW parks and W and fire department at 700 7:45 we'll do public input 8:00 we'll do appointments to the pmbc and the lctv advisory committee uh then we have licensing one day liquor licenses for durable 8:15 we'll hold a public hearing on a dog dangerous and nuisance dog uh 9:00 select board discussions bikes not bombs The Orchard and special town meeting uh town administrator updates for a SL letter for the deputy uh police chief and police lieutenant and 940 we'll be doing minutes and hopefully ajing adjourning on time so uh you want to start with a mail sure thank you thank you Mr chairman uh just to remind everybody out there that we do have um some available vacancies on on various Town boards we've got agricultural commission clean Lakes committee Conservation Commission cultural Council Economic Development Committee historical commission lctv uh Littleton Community television advisory committee master plan implementation committee permanent Municipal Building committee neog Hill Orchard ad hoc working group taxation Aid committee Transportation advisory councel and a zoning board of appeals I would like uh to encourage everyone to sign up to receive public notifications for the town of Littleton go to www. Littleton ma.org SLS subscribe and got an up to date on community impacts Transportation issues public health concerns town events town meeting changes Public Safety activity uh uh some very very uh generous uh individuals out there we have a uh a gift of $200 from Eleanor gentleman uh uh for EHS Outreach and program gift funds and we also have the hard work from the friends on the Littleton Council on Aging at $850 gift for the work that they've done to raise money for the senior breakfasts and like to make everyone AA everyone everyone notice that uh on um August 17th um from um 5 a.m. to 2: p.m. the community emergency response team will be doing training on Oak Hill Road uh be aware that there will be a first responder activities on oakill Road near the entrance to to the Oak Hill reservation the entrance parking area will be closed all Trails will remain open though to the public via the Harvard Road entrance and that's it for May okay uh finance committee are you in session we have in session okay so uh you want to drive the discussions um I i' first like to thank the selector for letting me bring this back to the the committee this this time for the policy I missed the July 15th meeting I watched it um there were there was a good discussion that was had um but I noticed that there wasn't many answers to questions that came up and you see in the memo that I wrote um answers a lot of the questions that were there and it it talks a little bit more about General stabilization and the things that that um Drive General stabilization put that way I did meet meet with Mark um and I believe he was okay with these changes but we can still discuss them if you'd like um i' leave it to the pleasure of the board how you'd like to move forward with these ask just for the for both chairs uh we just we had the minutes first actually so um this is the minutes of the the minutes for the um working group the policy working group from July 10th ju 10th it was sent around M members of the I think we're all here um I have a motion to accept motion to accept I have a second second we need somebody second second um any discussion was in second all in favor I I okay working group yeah I unanimous okay so the first thing with General stabilization um the board and the finance committee um at the July 15th meeting said a recommend change that to read a recommended minimum deposit of $100,000 and the work group when we met on this um if you remember the original policy was 5% Max in the account um there's a long history with with that stabilization account the original policy was at 3% because that's what the state was looking for it way back when probably in the mid um say around 2015 or so um the state changed the guidance to 5% we changed the policy to 5 5% and it took us a while to get up to that 5% limit probably the first budget that Cheryl did as Finance director so we're talking probably around 2019 or so um we were over the 5% she was a strong advocate for stabilization and she continued to make deposits um I was kind of you know Poli says this but we're still doing this why are we doing this and again she was an advocate for it I now look back at that and say that was a good thing that she did that so on the three budgets she put together she made deposits to there probably about 300,000 a piece Alicia Alicia Alicia um in the one budget that she did she also made a deposit into it Patty also made a deposit into it last year we didn't because we were over um and you see in the memo that I wrote 5% minimum is really not much money um I put the example of Indian Hill we're doing cosmetic changes to Indian Hill for $3 million and that's how we're going to support the town for the disaster at 5% of our budget is 3 million bucks it's not enough the working group came up with a 10% Max on the account continue to make a $100,000 uh deposits Mark vo is concern to me that it was kind of arbitrary where the 100,000 was coming from and what's the 10% we met we talked about it and I think the language that we're putting in or that I'm recommending that we change it to is that in budget years with the balance of the fund is already greater than the 5% minimum noted in number one above a minimum deposit of $100,000 shall be made from available free cash is outlined in section 12 item a until the balance of the account reaches a Target level of 8% further contributions to the account once over the 8% Target are optional so that was kind of from a discussion that we had and I'm asking that we add this language to the policy and take out the word recommended if that's okay with everyone so like the policy would be a minimum deposit of 100,000 not a recommended minimum deposit correct until the 8% Mark is until we hit the 8% and then it's depending on how much money we have I I I just like I like I mentioned in the memo I I don't look at the stabilization hopefully we never have to touch it put it that way right so it's going to build up having that 5% minimum I think one of Mack's recommendations was well just change the the minimum to 8% or 10% um but if you have the 5% minimum balance there if we ever do have to touch it the buildup to get back to that 5% balance is a lot different than having to get it to the 8% or the 10% over that 2-year period that the policy says so at a time when the town's going to be stressed to having just come out of a disaster say the two-year period afterwards is going to be less of an impact because we don't have to put as much money into stabilization to get it back so that's the way I look at it and I hope everybody looks at it the same way is that good with everybody finance committee I'm okay with it that V so I was the one that was advocating for this I think um I like Steve said I was saying why don't we raise the number up to 8% if that's what we really wanted and Steve's explanation of just trying to get back to the 5% makes sense um the 100,000 I also thought was a rather arbitrary number that we were throwing in there so I think the 8% Target um helps a lot from my perspective it makes things much clearer what what our goal is rather than 100,000 throwing into the account 100,000 just seemed arbitrary but now we're saying we're throwing in 100,000 to reach the 8% number so that's a Target so yeah I think the policy group we it was um I mean the 5% is there and it doesn't sound like it's going to move anytime soon far as the state's concerned is that I don't know whether the state has a recommendation for General stabilization anymore because back then it was that was the only stabilization account over the place now now it's they've opened it up and you're going to have all these special stabilization accounts so I don't think they have a and and Ryan I don't think they have a recommendation anymore to it so it's really about um Community our our health our financial health because so the 5% if we if we just left it at 5% and we had emergency and we had to go down to 2% or we we pulled that money out we'd be fighting to get it back up to five right is that what you're saying we'd be fighting back up to eight now we go down to five we're still in very right healthy situation that but but realistically I mean at 5% you're talking $3 million that's not a lot of money for for an emergency and again hopefully it's never needed but it's there yeah and it also it it counts with with the rating agencies it's part of your reserve levels they look favorably on on reserves of course okay uh the second change that that the um uh two committees made on the July 15th was a change to section 25 it says the new language is the unspent amount of the school appropriation will be will be deposited um it was just saying adding the word appropriation there so that that's fine uh the next one Capital exclusions and special stabilization accounts there was a term that that's used in that section that said general fund Capital plan and it was a question that came up from somebody that's was probably you this is what is a general fund Capital plan so the people the the working group um and I kind of talked about this at at those sessions there was a lot of language in this policy and we thought we got it all basically it was it was trying to get from um point A to point B so now we're going from point B to point C basically um so a lot of the language and there was a lot of redlined items in that original policy that was done that was just changing of [Music] language there was some things that that need to be made clearer um one of Mark's first suggestion was putting the a pit glossery in the back um and at first I says oh we're going to kill the policy by adding all this stuff to it but now I see it I I I thank you that this policy needs and and I think your discussion showed it on the 15th this policy needs to be able to be understood because boards change we have you know three relatively new members here select board change people need to understand this policy so I can go through and so the general fund Capital plan way back when when we were transitioning to using free cash um instead of borrowing for for Capital there was a time period where we weren't generating enough free cash so we were spending it in year one year two we didn't hit that second piece of that free cash equation we didn't have enough money so there was still Capital needs so what we did was we took general fund money from the decrease in The Debt Service which was all capital and we put it to the capital plan so one of the things that we came up with was we want we don't want to rely on the general fund to fund Capital we want to get away from that so we put this 1% in there um is kind of a penalty to ourselves to say okay you're going to fund something out of the general fund you're going to put one% of that total into Capital stabilization because we were trying to build up Capital stabilization at that point it wasn't much money I I think that most we used to put $2 $3,000 in it which is 1% of the amount we SP spent but it was still something so that's what a general fund Capital plan is the new language I changed it um to say a minimum appropriation to the capital stabilization fund we made annually in amount of at least 1% of the total amount of capital purchases made from the general fund as a raise in appropriate it's clear people should understand that now it's not just Steve speak anymore all right um section 2 debt exclusion again I think it was marked that that um there's two pieces to this there's um first piece in that exclusion says that we'll use the debt exclusion stabilization account to pay for um construction costs for excluded projects second piece is says we will pay the debt service for excluded projects um there was some conversation about getting rid of one because we don't do it and making two one and you decided to flip them and I think we decided to keep to so what I did is I kept it the way it was with the two pieces in there um and I added a footnote at the bottom referencing the town meeting vote and the article itself so that the use of the debt exclusion account is right in the policy now it's the two pieces the only reason we haven't done that first piece is we haven't had an excluded project since we did the debt exclusion account that's why um so in section 21 I added that same kind of footnote to the capital stabilization fund so it references the article on the use of the capital stabilization fund and the same thing in 25 for this new School building stabilization fund again reference the article and put the the language in the footnote as to exactly what it can be used for as I was doing that and rereading the policy one last time I did come up with this new language in section 12 so we in section 25 we said that any unspent money from the school appropriation um that's turned back to the the town after it's certified the town agrees to put it to the school building um stabilization fund but there was nothing back in the free cash thing that said this is what we're going to do that's one of the allowable things so I added this language above you know how it goes ABC D and those step pieces right above that so it's whatever free cash is certified by right off the top goes the school money that they contributed to that to go to the school building stabilization fund and then that net amount we run through the um ABCDs the only caveat is and and I ran this past uh Justin so we knew was that any year that we don't regenerate free cash which hasn't happened in years if that net amount after after we have the free cash certified we take out the school piece if that amount isn't at the 5% minimum then we don't make that transfer and the chances that happening a slim but I I think that safety net had to be there okay um and then I reference back to section 11 to section 25 so that they both look at each other so you can look to 25 and it says go to 11 and you go to 11 it says go look at 25 so hopefully this answers the questions that came up in that meeting and hopefully it it uh still makes the policy a little clear for the next time is okay with everyone okay I thank you I thank the policy committee meeting too cuz I know that was it's not the um most exciting document to be working on but important it and it's critical every single member of these two committees and schools should understand why money goes where it goes and you know and and next year when we look at it and this there could be some language I've been talking with Justin about some of the revenue pieces the next iteration really I mean when we sit down in that policy group it's if people don't really understand and we need to make the language in there so people understand it because I'm not always going to be here FRS are not always going to be here think people change and and we need to make sure that we're covered so I guess I would look for a motion from the two boards to uh approve the amended Financial management policy so I move that the select board vote to approve the amended Financial policy second move by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor I I have a motion spon uh I'll make a motion that the finance committee approved the amended financial management policy I have a motion I have a second I second I have a second ma Andre all in favor thank you so through the chair so I Justin did the so school has looked at this so some of the changes we yes the school committee has had a meeting the school being out we don't have one until some point in September um the timing of this is B cumbersome since your boards me frequently yeah and we don't um really only that section 25 applies to us and I think it's I think it's wor it just Define um we'll have to when I get there and I hope that we that you folks won have to see this again with an amendment but I can't promise that that's the goal okay thank you got uh the reserve fund transfer okay all right uh so I I sent something out um later this afternoon my apologies for the lateness of this to both the select board and the finance committee so this is um a request for Reserve fund transfer for two specific items the first is um for repairs at neog Hill Orchard um we've attached a quote from classic construction uh it's under the state contract so uh and that amount for those repairs is $1,926 so uh that reflects the um uh requested repairs um that uh have been put forward by the neog hill ad hoc working group uh uh I would note the group did also ask um to remove some of the items that were up on the second floor um that is not included in this because then the price really skyrocketed so we wanted to kind of scale that back and speaking with Matthew we we made a decision and uh to scale that back and uh present to you what you have before you which is really just tightening up the buildings security segment so that's the first item the second item is a uh $55,000 item for the metropolitan area Planning Commission otherwise known as MPC for a community uh engagement regarding the future planning of the neog Hill Orchard we have um uh we're going to be giving an update uh or the board will be giving an update uh later in this meeting regarding the RFP for leasing so that's pretty well along um and I think what this is uh this effort is to try to do something similar for what we did with the NBTA community commities uh many of you who are here tonight were uh at that meeting here in this room uh and what you know what that engagement meant um and trying to educate the public about uh the um the challenges that we had and why we were moving forward with uh and what other alternative sites we were looking at for U sites that could be zoned for NBT zoning and ultimately that was successful so I think what we're looking to do here is something similar to that and um and I leave it to Jim or um Matthew if you guys want to expound Karen um anything else on it so I think the charge to us was to get the get this information back to to the fincom and make the request to you to make a transfer from the reserve fund balance because these are things that up until um when we went to town meeting and article 11 was uh rejected by just a few votes but uh nonetheless we we have to um sort of regroup and come up with another plan and these are the interm steps that we're couldn't Li it uh to help us get through Mr chair so I can just give some very quick context on those these two numbers the repairs are the very bare minimum to keep the buildings intact for the next 6 months there there's nothing more than patching holes um the mapc honestly I saw it for the first time this afternoon it came in much higher than I expected um I guess looking at it as an investment in the future of the property you know if we don't sell it the town is on the hook for doing much more expensive repairs or you know maintenance on the on the property so we can discuss how to balance those costs um but that's where we're at and if I may if I can just add to what Matt said too some of we're looking to also apply for a grant um to offset the cost of the mnpc work so they uh I think there a one of the um Community compact grants opens up on the 19th MPC Works closely with the state so we may be able to put together an application for this I think there's a lot of reasons as to why they might support that but um I think we can make that commitment to you that we'd be doing that to knock that that amount down thank you so so does our approving this help us or hurt us in the grant process if we've already got the money approved why am I going to give gr right right I guess that depend just asking sure sure I think it depends on how you write the grant FR you know like to say that um you know that the commitment was made to go to go for it but uh to go for it and pursue the grant at the same time if we we feel like we need to take this action now to to be able to kick this off we can't you know we can't really wait too much more because um you know the orchard is not like wine it's not going to get better with more time we need to be able to come up with a plan and have that engagement so um I think it if anything it demonstrates a certain level of seriousness on it and you know I think we we just need to continue to to move ahead what what's the time frame for this for the grant I think it's probably I think it's like a I'd have to check it opens in the 19th and then uh from there um usually I think it's a month or two months that go and what about mapc was the time frame for them yes that's the time frame for them so the work for classic I think you know once you know once we get the okay with this they can they can pretty much Start you know start quickly we would we would be wanting to engage with mapc in in the runup to Springtown meeting so so we would bring a bring an article to Springtown meeting to sell the property and and uh this process would guide us through collecting feedback from residents who are opposed to it or on the fence about it as well as giving information about why it's the best the best choice if the lease doesn't produce if the lease doesn't if and we're going to talk later issuing an RFP for lease if the lease doesn't pan out I think the time frame for engaging mapc is we like the public Outreach won't be until like January or so I think right but we need to get them on board early so that we can start the process okay thank you and and who's driving the grant I'll yeah our office the office yeah could you just explain I apologize but what what exactly are we getting from the end yeah what do we what do we get Matthew do you want yeah sure so they they are going to uh work with us to they're going to facilitate a series of public meetings and the goal of those is to um create uh you to educate to to to get feedback from the from the public about what their desires are or what their objections are their their sort of concerns are about selling the orchard um and also quantify some criteria that we want to apply towards the um RFP for sale so that when we evaluate the respondents to that RFP those criteria are things that the the residents have set in stone as like these are the things that we need from a purchaser of the orchard in order to s in order for them to succeed in order for us to approve it in addition um there's going to be a fair amount of Outreach of information going out from those sessions to the public I think that we've heard a lot from several people in the meetings over the last few months that you know more more education of the public would have meant that that article in the fall would have passed because it only failed by a few votes and so just like the MBTA process everyone felt really strongly that it failed it failed and then we engaged with the public and had information sessions and it was very successful and the and the and it passed and it wasn't just because the information sessions I think it was also because the warrant article was shaped by those sessions to be sort of more attractive and more tolerable or palatable for the for the public okay is there any uh you said we're not going to engage them until January no we're actually going to start working immediately on on scoping and deciding what the goals are and how we're going to approach sessions won't be until the public Outreach won't be till January November December oh does it say November December in that okay and I think May Target Target in January February they they be preparing a report um and educa and additional educational activities prior to town meeting okay and the urgency on the 50,000 is it just convenient that we're talking about it so we added it or is there an urgency on the 50,000 between now and January we I think it would be the urgency would be to have it now so that we're you know we're putting the money aside and and and and making the investment toward uh the community engagement side of things so I think so what would it be spent on between now and when you engage the MPC so engageed well we we would begin the process of working with them this month if we start spending the money with them okay so all right I'm fine okay and I think when we spoke to them they felt like you know we we came to them saying we want to get this done by the Fall town meeting and they sort of laughed in our face so I think that they they felt like the Springtown meeting was a very reasonable even they felt like uh we can probably do it by the springtime meeting I do think that that we will be working with them straight through to the spring time meeting so this is really seed money to get it going I mean it's the it's the entire cost of of of all their engagement from from from now through Springtown meeting okay like I don't have any idea when we're going to spend it like whether it's all up front or not yeah no no I think it' be it's usually done based on the hours that they're that they're working on how many meetings they conduct so it's usually you know it's not all upfront it would be you know as they progress so we'll spend it over the next six months okay so we're just not getting on their calendar to do something in January we're actually starting to work with them is there a way to get something a little more formal as to what they're going to deliver to us the bullet points kind of just high level we're going to have to have a cont it's just I think for the purposes of tonight knowing you know we're in the summer we wanted to have something um you know have have some sort of scope of work that we could um at least come to vote on something for 55,000 when we don't exactly know what we're getting so I believe risk for it to go up so we'll still vote on the contract like I think that we will be bound by the transfer but the select board would have to approve the contract with all the details hourly rates and all the deliverables in it all right so this is just a request for the funding for it but it's putting forth 55,000 that could easily climb up to more than that you said it's build hour so I think the the requ I mean I think the thing is that we'd be saying to mapc that this would be a not to exceed number as well as to pursue the make a mention of that though so if they said that's not enough then they'll just give us less so we're giving you the money to to make that call but if then they try and charge more or if they run the project then we could get less for that same I think they're being probably a bit conservative I mean having worked with a lot of these vendors in the past it's a matter of them understanding that they're only so many resources that are available and right now that that cap won't exceed 555,000 so and as we refine the contract be working with Matthew and Karen to be able to come to terms with that but you know you're right it does need to be refined some more but um you know I don't I'm not worried about going over I don't think that's unusual I think the contract we had with the MBTA consultant was the same and when we were doing the um contracts with the open space planning I think there was the same type of contract where you know there a $30,000 whatever contract number out there and and and they're all billing hourly so it's it's less about the total amount for me it's more about just understanding what we would get for it and it seems like we have like five bullet points that suggests kind of some things that we might see in each of the coming months but it's not entirely clear they said I think at one point it said something along the lines of we'll do some Outreach might be digital might be something else so it just seems like there's a lot to be interpreted from it um and if we postpone the vote for a short period of time I mean at least then they could put something together but I don't know if they're willing to put together that proposal rather than just a you know email summary we also have to take into consideration here the MPC the relationship that they have a def they have a defined number of communities that they work with Littleton is is in one of them was next door right in Westford they don't they don't fall in metropolit are area planning uh Council uh commission they fall um it's out of a little what is it they greater planning yeah so but but the point is the relationship has been established with Littleton with mapc for for decades and it's something that I I understand that there there is some skepticism um in regards to the the specificities but they're excited about they're excited about the project I mean they they uh they want to see it they want to see they want to see it to be be successful um so we don't anticipate anything anything you know going going above that 55,000 and the cont as as Ryan had said there will be a scope that is going to defined it's uh a little tighter but not much tighter because it's going to give um um uh uh give room for interpretation and flexibility I think that Jonathan's point though I mean we we did have a tighter Scope when we um approved the money for the M communities we we kind of understood and we we often do ask for more details or or a better scope but that's a straight consultant I mean that consultant is hired all over the state this the mapc right so we're not going anywhere is is is defined and we are under their umbrella right yeah I this is one of those you know we have a town meeting we always get out of so we have we're running these by side I think we're being good stewards that way we're running the lease the RFP to get make sure we're doing all we can to see if this a last bit bit effort to to get this leased so if we waited that process out for this I don't we would probably be talking about another year on top of this so I um I'm not going to sit here I I won't say that they won't come back or we won't come back for more money that could H very easily happen in January all of a sudden the scope some of the Outreach we we find that a lot of public wants something else so they want another a couple more meetings to discuss it so you know it's not that uncharacteristic to have to come back to the finance committee for more money on something like this I think this this is going to kick it off and get it get it running so that we're if if this lease doesn't doesn't work we're going to have to uh speed this whole process up to get to get to May so I mean itat you guys come in I guess three or four times to talk about um you know this 55,000 I mean we we would have to to rely on the select board to to do the contract uh with the scope that's agreeable to them in the neog working group that's there this is the funding for it if it relieves some of your concerns Jonathan we could say 55,000 less the amount of inre received read in the motion that way it's not 55 plus the Grant and manage it that way I mean again for me it's less about the the total amount it's more about understanding what we're asking for and being able to measure our success we just say here's the 55,000 hopefully we get something back from them but knowing ahead of time that we expect I think in there talks about maybe four working sessions so there's a couple things highlighted but we don't know what we're getting for those working sessions and if there's a long-standing relationship and they've had strong uh I guess work deliveries in the past I mean that's something that I don't have the visibility on um but for me when I any of my business deals that I would be dealing with I would want to know what I'm asking for for what I'm paying I wouldn't want just a a couple bullet points that something so for me I'm asking for the clarity also because we got this this afternoon right so I read through it and it's it seems like it was trapped in last minute I don't have a lot of information to make that that vote so it we we got the number last minute we not blaming you guys for the delivery it was in the email we got Friday afternoon but you know it's it's we met with mapc probably a month ago and and had a discussion of what we were looking for with the Outreach sessions and things like that and then they got back to us fa very recently on you know what what they could do and um what the cost would be and we haven't went back and re and negotiated what they proposed versus what we asked for yet um um so that will be ongoing um all we know is right now it's won't exceed this cost they they also they also you know this is something they've done before something they have they have like a they have a template or you know a structure that they can work from so I would imagine that the contract we get from them is going to have a lot more detail on what the public sessions are going to consist of what kinds of surveys they're going to do what kind of information they're going to collect you know how many times they're going to meet with us so I'm not you know I'm obviously going to be overseeing I assume I'm going to be the one overseeing that's working with them I think that they're pulling in the same direction that we are as far as the goal so I'm not I'm not really concerned that they're not going to give us like good value and I think if the hours do go over like we can structure the contract in a way so that we make sure we get a deliverable at each juncture and you know we have alternate or you know add-ons that we don't go for if they if they don't have the they hours to do them I'm pretty confident we can do we can structure it that way have we considered any other vendors if we're just going for the Outreach I say this because I've recently done a couple surveys I know it's the private sector it's different but they gave me a 15 or 20 Page proposal exactly what I'm getting I got live feed on you know the surveys as they were going out it was very clear on what I'm getting and it was you know less uh significantly cheaper than this so so we we actually we we went out and we asked everywhere for for for this this process I guess you would call it it's not just a survey right it's information gathering from the municipality and from the public it's you know um information it it's writing up documentation to to distribute to the public at these sessions and it's going to be crafting criteria a specific criteria for a municipal you know like lease or or RFP for sale of a of a municipal property which is not a common thing in fact mapc was that we couldn't find anybody who would do it mapc was like we can do some of the stuff but not all of it so this A specialized venue A specialized you know process here we couldn't find anyone else who was interested in doing the whole thing and they have experience doing something just like this but it's much more than a survey okay so it sounds like from your discussions you have that I just I I appreciate you letting me ask you all questions because that is not Apparent from what was given from their from their response there's a lot of there's a lot of like backstory in context here of like the last several years of trying to deal with this this process and this property again this the select Bo is going to have to go through the contract make sure the deliverables are there make sure we're getting what we're paying for so whereas that little overview that was there has some details in it their documents should be very detailed okay and the pred what you s so we have to rely on the select board for that so if we if we don't find anyone to lease the orchard do we sell it then we would like to yeah so we still have to vote this board still has to discuss go back to town meeting potentially do just to so I guess when you said you met with them and you guys were kind of pulling in the same [Applause] direction I if if we can't lease it I just want to make sure we're not putting our thumb on the scale I mean we we vote the town voted not to sell it it was close I know that but are they going to work with you guys to educate the community on selling the orchard they yeah so I mean like honestly like we are putting our thumb on the scale like we like the the the working group spent several years and we have tried to lease it four times now or three times this is the the fourth and the the property is is becoming derelict and disintegrating because no one will take care of it and the realities of the Agricultural situation are that no one's going to run that as an orchard and especially not leasing it and it's just it's really a matter of like trying to come to to bring the public along to the point where the experts who spent a couple years looking at this and trying to figure it out came to the conclusion that the best thing that we can do for this property is to sell it it's the highest and best use so in my opinion yeah I'm putting my thumb on the scale because I think that's what needs to happen Mike I you know I've been outs spoking probably to the the other side of this so I um and I think that's what we're doing um with trying to get this leased another year of trying to get this lease basically is what we're doing yeah and if and if it we don't get something that hits a home run here that's going to take care of that property then I mean I'm I'm at a point where I'm I had to agree with the rest of the board or you know with with Matthew's Point um we have to get this back in front of the community and educate them as much as possible on you know what it looks like what a sale looks like and and get as much comp Community involv but so um this definitely wasn't something that we just stroke of a pen and I know the neog working group worked a lot to get to that point in the recommendation but so we're jumping a little ahead in the meeting but we will be talking about the or later we will be putting on an RFP for lease if that if we are successful in the lease we don't have to necessarily go forward with the mapc education and Outreach because then we have a disposition of the orchard right for some candidate for lease this is like getting ready if for the contingency that we don't get it at lease yeah so I appreciate the trans I think um something that's getting lost year is that it's not just a one-way direction that we're in that for which we're engaging them in PC right we want them it's supposed to be a two-way street so it's not just us educating the public on why we have to sell it's about understanding from the public what the reservations are and what their priorities are um for the community in terms of the disposition of the property so that if we get to sell if we get to that point that we're crafting the RFP we're CRA um in such a way that it will have the highest likelihood of Meeting those needs or Meeting those desires of the public so you know the thumbs on the scale but it's also very much we're trying to make sure that um the way we structure this is as is answering to the as answerable to the public as as we can be okay so clar thank you um just one quick question so if the leasing were to happen you know all the money that we spend on this one would be wasted at that time uh we won't be spending most of the money most of it will be coming after we there'll be there's probably limited engagement until the point where we know whether the the leases lease will be du back in about a month yeah well we'll know we we'll know well before time meeting most of the money will be spent after time meeting okay we'll give it back if we don't spend it and on the smaller piece of the uh Reserve fund transfer is the 18,000 to basically put them on a leaky boat um assuming we're going to have to spend more money on the property you're assuming that that will come back to either fall town meeting or to Spring Town Meeting rather than flowing back through Reserve fund is is if we approve this tonight that's 30% of our Reserve fund um and and we're a month into the year so I'm just is the thought process that if you guys decide whoever decides that we need to spend more money to keep the buildings afloat that'll come back to town meeting and an warrant article or I think it's going to have to okay I think I think what'll what may happen if we do find someone to lease it there may be some asks from them which we' obviously come to fall town meeting with right if if we don't lease it and let's say we make it through the winter without any more major repairs either we're going to have to put some investment in it in the spring um or a and or after that when we do go for the RFP for sale and we find someone to purchase it they may have asks and that would be I would assume next fall but I think we would always try to bring it to get it through to town meeting and not through a reserve fund transfer we had talked about that in last um go around with the budget cycle is waiting till the fall but now looks like we'll wait till the spring and run it through Capital stabilization put it through as a regular Capital project yeah a lot of these are Public Safety it's not just keeping the keeping things up it's keeping kids out right that kind of thing liabil reducing our liability okay okay so we have two Reserve fund transfers one for $1,920 six for repairs to the orchard building have a motion to approve make a motion that we approve the reserve fund transfer for 18,9 19,000 or whatever it is for repairs to the structures now second second Mo seconding do we have a okay yeah hi yeah and we have a second one 55,000 We Do It um less Any Grant funds received um for familyc uh for the planning sessions your contract uh to be approved by the board of select the S excuse me have a motion I'll move that we approve the reserve fund transfer for 55,000 to engage the MPC have a second all second move in second and all in favor all right there you go thank you thank you you have some quick things have some couple quick quick things um town clerk uh wouldn't let let us meet out there so we have to do it here we have um four meeting minutes I sent them around um we can do them all at once from November 1st 23 February 6 24 May 7th 24 and 7524 these are all joint sessions with the select board do have a motion to approve sure so who's in second all in favor and we have one invoice um to the association of town finance committees for $196 for our annual dues I have a motion to approve so moved second second move in second all in favor the annual meeting is November 2nd 24 we'll get more information about it it's in Sharon um the sessions are very good so would encourage in members to attend okay thank you my favorite motion motion to adour have a motion second thank you don't hung up on that whole Robert R [Music] okay Department updates Police [Music] Department thank you so much good evening everybody uh thank you for allowing us to be here tonight be with you appreciate it we're here um to discuss Adam zapis uh he is our new hire our newest hire for the Littleton Police Department um little background for this we've been at full staff for a little while which is a great thing for us it's not uh that common and policeing right now but uh we've got a great team great department and so we've been at 22 officers and uh our fiscal 25 budget afforded an additional uh Personnel Employee hire so little with that I was brought in in 2013 so over the last 10 years I was a 13th officer in 2013 so we're 10 officers up in 10 years I think that's a credit to the the previous Chiefs the previous Town leadership uh the community just recognizing the as the town grows so so does the police department so are the needs of the of our agency so we appreciate that we want to come out and you know put that right in front of everyone and say thank you uh for this opportunity uh I know Adam appreciates it right so he's here uh tonight and a little bit about Adam so uh we met Adam when he was 17 years old yeah he was a high school senior at the um Littleton high school and uh got an internship so 3 days a week Adam was at our station um for the whole senior year we were fortunate enough to have him uh and he did anything you can imagine I had an internship my senior year but he was sitting with dispatch he was riding with officers uh he was really someone who was just here to help and uh really started our relationship um through that senior year after he graduated decided to stick with us which we were half happy about became a part-time dispatcher so went through all the training um we didn't have any full-time positions but wanted to stick in in with us and uh took on that role and then uh we brought Adam in front of you in 2021 at the end of uh 2021 as a full-time dispatcher so stuck with us was working a ton of shifts um and we did have an opening in dispatch he was too young to be a police officer I think that was his ultimate goal while we're here today but um in the profession in the career field Public Safety so did an excellent job as a dispatcher and then when this opportunity for a new hire Came Upon Us um we open it up internally first uh for our uh for our hire um we open up to the people we knew inside um we felt it was a great opportunity to offer to someone that we had a relationship with already um who we kind of knew fit with our team already um so Adam obviously appli and here we are today um Adams week 14 in the police academy the old police academy he's going to set to graduate in October and by all accounts he's doing amazing um he's doing a great job we're happy for him uh coming out in October he'll start his fto program uh we'll get him on the road with some senior officers and establish his training for his uh you know his hopefully 32ye profession with us so will you know um but again you know Adam grew up in town his family's in town High School um he's been part of our team he's he's developed the relationships and the friendships already in our department um he's he's in college currently he's working for his uh his degree in criminal justice while working full-time so uh it's something we're proud of Adam um and we're just happy to present him here tonight for you guys for position for the full-time police officer so that if you have any questions for him I'm sure he's ready for you you know he's uh but uh thank you all I have a question lieuten lard does does he do you smile I I know teque come on relax I was last time strike that from the r he does he does um gets along with everyone great so but smiles through the through the chair just you know thank you for staying with Littleton I mean it's almost uh it's almost old school to have um a an officer you know fire department individual that's in town stays in town and we develop so thank you for that because you know all the streets you know a lot of the it's it's a big benefit right out of the gate so thank you and um make sure know where all the bad stuff happens yeah make sure you uh invite us to your graduation please that'd be fantastic thank you well to that to that end I you do know where all the stuff happens and I'm not saying that you've ever done any of that Adam um but um I'm sure they're teaching you a lot and I'm sure the the department and Leadership has taught you a lot but it it can be as as much of a curse as a blessing to patrol in in your hometown so just um you know go Eyes Wide Open relative to that um I think you're a mature enough guy and and uh I've known you a long time and I I'm really looking forward to seeing you continue to develop congratulations I'll just say congratulations and welcome thank you thanks very much I'm glad you're here you should ask him at least one question what's your favorite color red siremy he he should have said sir yes sir you not my favorite BL he's already Building Bridges fire academy so all right so thank you do a picture yeah I don't think there's a motion no there's no motion cuz he's just being so we can take a picture yeah right that's great yeah got my phone hopefully okay okay thank you [Music] oh yeah Monday through Friday must be Monday all for your time I'll bring you something never with I I have no idea what that just said something for the hear uh next up is the town clerk approval of the warrant for the September primary excuse me hey Ryan what's that what said hey Ryan yeah exactly let's hit n hit n n n d letter here you go go next no discussion I don't this is just the warrant for the primary yeah oh yeah any discussion uh move that the select board vote to approve and sign the election warrant for the September 3rd 2024 State primary second move by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor I thank you DPW [Music] [Music] Johnny on the spot Steve I'm coming going to make us late I'll catch you back up real quick watch this all right what's on first us the easan um good evening uh thank you members of the board Steven y director Public Works uh first item of the three things ton T is uh Grant of easement with mot this the final piece of the fosil street project and what this does is uh dot is basically giving us an easement to maintain the soon Tobe constructed shed youth path under the route two overpass so typically anything within the state layout falls on do this being the large scale project that it is this has almost become the stand Ed with do uh so basically once the project is turned back over to the town we will then be responsible for maintenance and upkeep of the path under the rout two over pass I know there's a lot of papers that go with this to say that but that's the the simple version The Gist it's like 50 ft by 100 or something like that so the state layout uh typically for a highway l p 300 ft mhm so it's a little bit either side of the overpass and then under the overpass any comments or this is just showing that we've got a project about to kick off great so this is good good stuff move that the select board vote to endorse a grant of easement from Mass doot for the Foster Street Improvement project is outlined in the attached documentation second move by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor I uh the second is approval uh of the contract with Weston and Samson Engineers for the feasibility study for the public works facility uh I had included the uh scope of work and stuff with the memo but it's basically and I uh went through this process in Chumps uh with them starting 2007 uh similar similar process they'll come in we'll analyze existing needs Uh current Vehicles equipment Personnel take a 5 year and a 10e lookout see if uh they plug it into Matrix tells us the square footage we need you know bathrooms we need training rooms we need um and then basically see if we can renovate on site or possibly look at outside uh properties different options either town home property or private property type of thing uh and then at the end of this about about a 90day um start to finish timeline then we'll come back uh to the board uh with a presentation on the findings exciting what do you actually come out of this with you come out with you need a building X size and it's going to cost about yde to build correct or renovate will they identify locations as well in town yeah I'm going to part of this is I'll work with them on either some Town owned property or some privately owned property uh throughout the community try to identify some sites that would fit our needs or rehabbing or expanding the building building on that site or whatever corre great and um are we including the fac new facilities manager in this discussion ER Eric I'm happy to bring him down if he wants to be part of the uh he does this level study he do no that's fine absolutely okay great and through the chair just is just knowing that you're going to need more space there's no doubt about that is there a do you have the possibility of being able to split your um Department into two locations in other words are you allowed to is there is that a possibility will you potentially could have two pieces of property that you have you have X here and well uh I guess anything's possible I I wouldn't want to do that okay uh I'll go back to chumford uh five different divisions in public works at the time and we're in five different locations extremely inefficient okay uh here I only got you know Parks Highway and you know the admin staff um it's preferable that we're all in the same place okay uh it's good to know yeah as as it is now we have stuff stored at partly Lumber you know when light and water bought the building the the one the larger building so all the stuff that's been stored outside for years I can at least get undercover but then for a couple days spring and fall we do the parade back and forth you know bringing uh so the ultimate goal is to avoid stuff like that okay if possible um but we'll see what chees out I think I heard him asked for two more departments bring them on if that means more help bring them on all right any other questions has Council seen this um it's subject to any contract subject to council approval right correct they haven't they have not seen the the the feasibility not that I'm aware of but this is this was brought up before I believe it was before it was tabled before okay so um at this point Town Council hasn't seen hasn't seen anything so are we approving to council to town council's yes please good all right move that the select board vote to authorize the Town Administrator to enter into a contract for $54,600 with Weston and Samson for feasibility study for the Department of Public Works facility subject to Town Council approval second move by Matthew second by Gary all those in favor and lastly um we have a road work bid uh that was opened last week on Thursday uh this is for resurfacing and Associated work on Hartwell AV Lawrence Street uh Jillian way and then the small portion of Foster Street that's kind of in between where I did some uh quick Paving a few years ago and with the state project is going to stop um R bids again last Thursday uh pricing came in uh very good uh well under what I had estimated at uh competitive market uh we had five biders ranging from a little over 500,000 to just under 600,000 um Sunshine Paving was the out of North Chumps was the low bidder on the project worked with them in the past they've done work here in town in the past uh very good contractor uh so we look for the board's approval for this contract so um I do you know when this work is going to start are we notifying people so in the in the bid I put uh tenative date of the week after Labor Day so assuming you approve tonight uh we will start getting notifications of upcoming road work starting within you know 30 days uh the drop their date was before the week before Thanksgiving so work should be completed by then uh and we'll tell people that if they want to do a new water service gas service all that type of thing they should be doing it now okay um and my my other question is not specifically tied to this project but is there a an update to the paving plan or what when do you expect an update to the general Paving plan to come so we know what road people will know what roads are coming when so uh Ryan had asked me kind of late Thursday to put something together real quick so i' get you back on schedule and now I'll slow you down real quick um but just just a little bit of what we've done this year and just kind of a look ahead into next year so um the stuff that we've done this year we did a lot of the pavement preservation work uh C seal work crack sealing we did the entire M wany neighborhood in the double Micro Surface um you see if you go up the far end of tailor the sidewalk work that was mostly funded by Amazon is under construction soon to be completed probably next week um and then obviously the bid we were just talking about with the the resurfacing on those roads um some of the larger projects the Foster Street uh that we just did the grant easement for preconstruction meeting was at dot last week uh Onyx is the contractor with uh through mot that work you see survey baselines already laid out up the center of the road they're going to start utility coordination meetings soon probably see some mobilization and possibly some tree work and star to move utilities this fall um the Great Road Beaver Brook Road intersection one that's been kind of hanging on for a while was tabled a little bit mot changed their engineering directives there were Co traffic counts formulas now they wanted new traffic counts we kind of delayed a little bit we just had had a a scheduling meeting on that last week it's anticip there seem to be settled in on a uh design to Lane roundabout with uh not sidewalk shed used path as well uh that will eventually tie into the Culvert replacement by the police station that's a whole separate project but that's few years down the road uh the anticipated schedule on this is 25% plan set early in the winter said around the 1st of the year maybe uh then there will be design public hearing on it and start and then after that we stop funding the project Do's taking that over for funding through the rest of the design and then they'll fund construction through the chair Steve is that they still talking about a rotary type system yes two lane two lane roundabout roundabout rotary I was I was signing my brain wasn't so so that construction is well out it's not in 25 then probably no that'll be that'll once it hits 25% it'll get programmed into the tip the transportation Improvement program with uh the Boston no so you're probably once it gets programmed in it's usually four to six years depending on how the funding slots um again larger projects the rest of the phases of Foster Street which is continuing either a Shad use path or sidewalks going the rest of the way uh all the way down to to hatwan Road and then uh Russell Street uh where the soil went through last year My Hope was honestly to do it this summer uh ran into some rightaway issues property issues some of the sidewalk is currently on private property as it sits today so trying to figure out a good way to get that all cleaned up uh and then the initial construction estimate as you see on my slide came in at well over $2.5 million so once I get up off the floor and tried to yeah because it just it's not going to happen at that amount of money being locally funded anyway so we've we've turned it back a little bit scaled it back I got to work through the RightWay issues uh probably have to be the town meeting for an easement to two uh maybe in the fall if not last you know ditch in the spring um and then for construction next year when school gets out that's currently the plan on that and then looking ahead again to next year uh we'll do a a regular crack seal and tend to prepare that list um after the winter see what the winter does to any of the roads obviously the Russell Street project I just spoke of the streets listed on hero ones um currently looking at to pave next year some we're waiting for like Adams Conant that stretch and then Robinson Road waiting for sore stubs to go up uh so then we can come in afterwards don't want to PVE a road and then tear it up again um see Warren Street Mill a lot of this is tentative we'll see again what the win it does um and then how the funding shakes out uh based on because I I really want to plan a lot of my money for Russell Street you know uh it's a good stretch for the community get schools you get your sports field it's a connection to the point uh town community deserves good stretch of road right there and then some Kevin real quick Steve um is there anything rol is going to do to make it better than it is right now and before before you engage in the full project Russell Street yeah I'm getting heat up everybody no I'm I'm sure uh we're just kind of babysitting for now I mean I can it's it's a bigger question let see yeah I can put a number to to making it a little better knowing that I'm saying I'm not saying that the town should be making it better I'm saying that roli should be making it better yeah yeah as a contractor sure sure some of the agreement was to not have them they pulled that out of the contract so cuz why have them come in do it if I'm going to come in and then tear it all up for new sidewalk and some drainage improvements right okay so it was working with you know Nick and Cory at lwd to kind of coordinate some of that they did a little extra in some other spots okay you know what I mean for horse trading I guess if you will uh and then just lastly uh some other larger projects to possibly start looking at I know shake elain has been a topic uh off and on Through The Years uh for potential to add sidewalk with uh the being the truck cut through and the road is starting to fall into a little bit of disrepair um and then ultimately a biggest stretch is uh Harwood from the depot uh across the pond to Lake Warren remember a couple of years ago we had a sidewalk design uh funded through like a bond bill or something that got a sidewalk from Foster Street or at least the design anyway from Foster Street down to Lake Warren but now looking at it and this will also be some coordination with water because they want to replace the main through there um but the big item there is crossing where the pond is right not wide enough for sidewalk so we got to widen all that out so a little bit of work something to at least maybe get the ball rolling cuz that'll be a you know a lot costly project you need more the fish in there well like a mud hole may maybe we can do what like Malboro did at the reservoir see that the the aluminum sidewalk that they put in we can do that around the bridge we could we could certainly do that a lot of walk is he and then uh just lastly um the last slide just shows you know a little bit of kind of where we're at for funding um as of this morning my current chapter 90 uncommitted balance was 731 th000 um the bid that's in front of you I was funding out of chapter 90 kind of been stockpiling that cuz you can stockpile that so I've been kind of saving that for Russell Street so I saw the like I said the initial number um annually Town gets right around 400,000 dips a little bit up a little bit um the end of June we did get kind of the extra chapter 90 they called it the fair share allotment this time it's been the pothole um money last time it was the rap funds winter recovery assistance program you know they give it a catchy name but whatever it's an extra 210 $1,000 um locally it's been right around that 900 920 you know fortunate enough uh that everybody continues to support that um and then there's some grant opportunities we can look at for some of the sidewalk construction work anyway complete streets is the uh shared streets and spaces program that stuff we could kind of couple in for one project um other than that that's kind of where we're at what we're doing one road workwise anyway I just finally uh question or recommendation would be to to update the website yep yeah that's all just still with this information really even if it's that slides sure that'd be great sure and um Mr chair back to your point about the uh payment Management program my hope is to um get some proposals in over the next couple weeks and get that done this fall so we can update 2021 was the last time it was done um so I'm kind of freshen that up so we can again do a little bit more prep over the win thank you any more comments before I make the motion move that the select board vote to approve the awarding of a contract for resurfacing and related work for Hartwell Avenue in various locations in the amount of $ 56,3 4675 cents to Sunshine Paving of North chelsford Mass second Mo by Matthew second by chuck all those in favor I I thank you thank you very much thanks [Music] Steve hello uh good evening thank you for uh letting me be here tonight to talk about uh this position that we're bringing before you um I'm Alicia day Parks and Recreation um so we have worked with the HR department and the um Personnel advisory committee to develop a job description that we're calling the recreation supervisor um so the memo uh was given to you as well as the job description uh with the memo um and the the need for this position is something that um actually Steve hit on a little bit uh ago of you know we're moving into a place where we're going to be having multiple locations um so being able to have one individual that's going to be able to supervise those uh Recreation uh the program coordinators uh is definitely something that's needed uh one of the things that the uh Park commission has been um talking about and has tasked me as of last year was to look at the organizational chart and see where um we kind of need to amend that so um we're ahead of the growth rather than working behind um so this is one of the positions that um we uh feel like we need to be able to bring in uh at this time so um this position specifically it like I said is going to be working with the program coordinators we'll give them tasks that are more advanced so for example um there's things that we need to do as far as procurements uh concerned we have bus contracts um trip contracts uniform tracks all of those things so we would be looking for that person uh to take that on on um also doing all of the staff training and running that making sure that everything um is the same across the board so to speak um and that everyone's getting that training all year round uh that's specifically for our seasonal staff um so to kind of keep it a little bit short because I know you have a very long evening um like I said it's uh this job job description was written with Michelle vibert um Human Resources Director uh was reviewed graded and approved by the Personnel advisory committee uh on July 31st and uh the park commission uh is in support of this they know about this job description but their um next meeting isn't until August 21st where we'll get that uh go ahead from them so um this was an opportunity to bring it before because it has to be approved by the select board um so that's kind of the the short of it uh are if you have any questions I'm happy to answer what's the program coordinator grade do you know it's 11 yeah it's on 11 okay yep and this is this is basically pulling from within it's this we're not adding did you mention that correct So currently we have three program coordinators uh what we would be doing is um we would be creating this role uh and not adding in an additional program coordinator so there be adding promoting one of those corre okay yeah good okay any other questions move that the select board vote for the recommendation of the Personnel advisory committee to approve a job description for a recreation supervisor and establish the recreation supervisor position on grade 12 of Compensation Plan schedule a permanent full and part-time employees second move by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor thank you very much have a wonderful evening always like your recomendation on this Mr mcer okay yes sir thank you I brought the muscle with me too that's good all right so tonight I'm here to just give you a brief update on the nooba closure as everybody's aware nooba Hospital in air will be closing um at the end of this month anytime a medical facility closes they are supposed to give 120-day notification of said closure however the money that is available to keep the hospital running is not going to get to that 120-day Mark so as of right now Theo will be closing as of August 31st and there does not appear to be any Avenue U that exists within the state government to keep the hospital opening operating past there some of the things that we are looking at is nooba has about 16,000 patient contacts per year this is not just the emergency department this is uh systemwide for them um that are going to have to disperse to other hospitals so this is going to cause a cascading effect of other hospitals having to absorb these 16,000 patients and even now uh before the hospital is closed there's already a marked increase in the number of patients that that are coming into Emerson Hospital Lemer Hospital Clinton hospital and L general and this is only expected to rise as time goes on so how does that affect us locally uh locally we're going to see increased periods of time to drop off patients fromal calls so currently we can get it turned around meaning to a hospital patient dropped off and leave the hospital in 10 to 15 minutes maybe uh 20 on a longer day we're already seeing these weight times go up to 40 and 45 minutes and it's not going to be an uncommon circumstance that we're waiting an hour to an hour and a half to drop patients off now this doesn't mean that patients will not be treated they will still be treated by our paramedics um in the hall or in the ambulance waiting to get their spot um and there will be the additional resources if it's something extremely severe um but everybody should expect that um ambulances are going to be tied up at a much more uh a much higher rate than what we currently see um fortunately in Massachusetts we have a very robust Mutual Aid System um this is going to however tax that Mutual Aid System significantly you're going to have ambulances moving all over this region answering calls um in order to uh combat what we're likely to to run into we can look to the Norwood Hospital floods of 2020 as kind of the example where wall times and the wall times again or that time you're standing in the hospital waiting for a bed went from 15 minutes to an hour and a half and some ambulances we coming from as far away as three or four communities in order to pick up a patient and bring them to other parts of the State uh for treatment so some other key things that we're having to worry about here locally our medical control our doctor that oversees our treatment protocols was out of nooba um just today we signed uh a new affiliation with Emerson Hospital which will allow us to continue operating past August 31st had we not done this our operation would have ceased with noova so clearly that was Priority One for us um and that was taken care of today Emerson Hospital has been a great partner um typically these um affiliation agreements can take 30 609 days to execute we've been able to do it in the last two weeks um and they have been great Partners in in making sure that we have what we need to continue operating at the paramedic level um there will also be a cascading impact that we have to be cognizant of is it's not just the immediate hospitals around noova that are going to get impacted this can be two or three hospitals away so there may actually be an influx as far away as Lawrence Worcester out towards uh Garder and AOL all created um by this kind of snowballing effect at each of the other hospitals um so to say this is a step back in uh EMS in our area is an absolute understatment I think it's a a Monumental step back in all of healthc care for this area one thing that nooba um has been doing very well is dealing with the mental mental health aspect there's already a great need for mental health services in this area and dph and the Department of Mental Health are working uh who is the word they use today Jim uh vigorously I believe in order to increase capacities in this area which is certainly going to be helpful but it's going to take time for this to all uh come about um Chief penard and I have been working on that aspect of it as well trying to get more uh Mental Health Services in town um one concern that we certainly do have is that coming into the flu season that is going to be the true test of how much of a disaster this is every year January February time frame you get a massive influx of patients that on a good year um overwhelms the hospital system this year it's actually going to be far worse uh or I guess technically that's next year but the next flu season uh will be far worse so I know I've thrown a lot of bad news at you um the good news if there is any good news um is that the fire chiefs are planning aggressively in order to figure out the best ways to provide service and continue to provide service to the various uh entities within their communities and communities as a whole um that said it's going to create significant changes there is no doubt about that there are going to be times where uh certainly calls are going to be waiting a little bit longer for um an ambulance to arrive so it may be um myself the deputy other firefighters or paramedics or the police um that are having extended on scene times with folks in town um but we're putting in best practices in order to hopefully alleviate some of that that stress to the state um the state I think um I'll come out and say it I think drop the ball on this entire thing one of the things that I have been asking for is that the state um have a supplemental appropriation to help all the communities this is a region-wide issue that has now been pushed very quickly to the local level um and once it gets to the local level there's no next step down except for just throwing our hands up and say we can't do um and that's not in my and I don't think anybody on the board or in the community I don't think it's in their DNA um so I'll take uh take questions I guess or Jim is there anything you want to add no no you did well Chief you've been working staying on top of this thank you very much for for everything and Reporting back very well thanks is there I mean I know that the if I may I know that the um a select board presented something is is their resolution yeah resolution um do you think there's um you kind of I said there's nothing that anybody can do at this point is there anything you would recommend that we could potentially do to try to uh Mo the needle in anyway so I think the biggest thing that we can do is talk to the elected officials at the state level um and really make sure that they understand that this local impact is significant um that it is going to impact this entire area um in terms of the resolution I'll that to to your U your judgment there um I know other communities are considering doing the same thing so it may be worthwhile just to have a unified front in that respect um but again I will defer that completely to you I remember at some point I Emerson was working on alleviating the impact that um the Urgent Care here in Littleton is going to feel can you tell us a little bit more about that so we expect that Urgent Care is actually going to get busier here in Littleton uh certainly people that say you know hey I can I can make it to erson I'll be fine stop into urgent care with with truly dire medical conditions uh so I think that that's another impact that we potentially could see here is urgent care getting people who are sicker and more often um and lots of times when they have those uh truly critically ill patients they can only deal with certain issues there it's going to fall on EMS in order to get them transferred out uh to definitive care whether it's l general for a heart attack uh or someplace like Ley for uh trauma so how does the board feel about writing a resolution like er did yeah I mean there're the the hosting Community if you will but this is really a regional thing so I mean I would almost I've read over their resolution and it's everything that we would say you know I so I almost you know wish we had all gotten together and kind of signed the same resolution but multiple ones is fine too I we can almost forbid them that our concerns are the the same concerns that they put in their resolutions so um it's it's really all we can do besides speaking to the representative which I know we're all doing um and we're it just becomes a waiting game we're in 120-day window of all you can do is um you know I've seen the sign starting to pop throughout town it's not 120 days though H we wish it was 120 days right yeah I know but um you know that's all I think our do is a resolution at very least and then continue speaking with our you know our state representation there's hearings on Wednesday right yeah uh Thursday 6 correct yeah so just continue to make be president you know have representation at those make sure we coordinate so we have someone always at those events yeah at the um the hearing on Thursday night there will be uh in order in how people speak speak apparently so State officials will speak then it'll go to the local um government and then I think it goes to the public so if anybody wants to to speak at that good that's a lot thanks for the yeah I wish I had great news to tell you and we're about to see a growth spurt here in housing and our community so it's y for sure okay all right than Chief thank you thank you you excuse me thank you both uh three weeks ago you got from Emerson to Emerson the point down to the thing and they were awesome thank I think that's one thing we should mention is that you know if the governor is going to push MBTA communities and push growth unbelievable you there Services support taking away taking away that's something we could add that's a valid that's a really valid point you where we are in a BT yeah we're adding 750 units for you and you're taking away medical care for them you're taking away so many hospital beds we could probably leave that in here some good call good call okay I I I think to answer your question mark I'm I'm in favor of us putting forth something um because we're good not only is it thing patient care certainly but we've got a number of employees of the the hospital system that are residents of Littleton as well so does anyone want to take the lead on writing one or me who wants to take the lead on writing or crafting something I think we have it written I mean I think we just build on airs right okay yeah okay I can do that okay you're okay doing the and then just try to add in that yep okay little bu just added yep thank you C public input um you want to start Gary excuse me you have members update oh I I don't I I I don't want to sit I you know we haven't been we haven't met in a while but I'm enjoying the summer I don't um and this you know then obviously didn't I show the closing came up so dealing with a lot of that um and a lot of littleton's under construction the roads are under construction so we're getting a lot of a lot of that and it's it's tough I know uh the roads right now and I I fear for um February when the F will start popping up but um I I really don't have anything I'm com on the same boat the only thing I'd say is um third Thursday all right is um it's Thursday right yeah so um just as a reminder to Folks at park on Thursday evening so uh come out see your neighbors and support the town and businesses that's last one are we allowed to talk Carnival is it is it an absolute I don't there I don't know it's an absolute or not okay I think I think it's happening so they they had asked for it come by the office today asking for that so the thought would be that um at least the licenses would be required meeting again next week on the 21st so we might try to squeeze that in mid September mid September I think like the third week of September is that fth fifth yeah oh goodness yeah that's why we have to our next meeting yeah okay um we're going to talk about the orchard later um the only other thing I guess would be the habitat house which is just slowly moving forward no significant news on that all except that we have uh voted to support it from the affordable housing trust and um yeah very little uh am I going to steal your thunder if I talk about the road race so road race is coming up and registration is open it'll be on September 14th 2024 and it support um track and field so uh with Littleton and the facilities so hope folks will register and come on out and if you don't can't run or walk come out and cheer thank you um I attended um one of the MMA talks on the climate action talks last week where they talked about EVS um and all the incentives available um there's huge incentives for charging stations around like it's I think it's $100,000 per site that um the state will give you um for charging stations of level two or level three um and there's a lot of incentives re you can participate in the more EV for all of the municipal vehicle fleets um with the rebate starting at $7,500 for full electric and going up to um well school buses are like4 or $60,000 rebate you can get trash trucks are really high too so there's a lot of things going on there so um that's all I have um any updates on the projects Ryan or Jim um so I can give a quick update on Sher Lane um we are scheduling a meeting for next Wednesday it'll be a joint meeting with the school uh school committee select board finance committee and the shager lane building committee at the time our OPM and our architect will be coming forward giving a presentation on the different options that be looking to submit to um uh to the msba uh as well as some preliminary cost estimates of what that what that would look like so uh that's sort of our next big thing that's that's happening u in terms of msba 36 King Street's coming along um well uh meaning weekly on that project uh so um you know continuing to make adjustments and and you know as you open things up things will look a little different than or what maybe you hope for but um but that's coming along as well Shad Center is now green Shad Center is now green that's right yes okay uh public input good evening uh hi Hospital news is a tough act to follow um how about something positive for you sir uh yeah that's right Ian fasic wi M um uh here tonight to just announce uh my wife's scholarship uh fundraiser has happening September 7th it's a cornhole tournament at the tiki um during the day Saturday September 7th starting uh registration at 10:30 uh it's to benefit Littleton Park and wreck and uh education scholarships uh my wife worked at Litteton Park those of you who don't know that um and she thoroughly enjoyed uh making sure kids participated in activities so um we did this a couple years ago uh and um proceed benefit the scholarship and make sure that um uh families uh struggling in in town uh have an Avenue for their kids to to participate in activities uh so it is it's it's on the Littleton park and rec website Cass is helping out uh you can talk to him go on the website register again September 7 live music cash bar all in all great day that it is and lot of people have benefited from it thank you thank you for doing it again exactly thank you thanks [Music] hi my name is Leonard Leo we live at three Maple Hurst Road littleon um we had a dog incident and uh they requested that we come to this meeting tonight you're for the public hearing coming up yes we'll get to that next is that okay is that later okay I wasn't sure when that was Rob Browns 25 Juniper wrote um grateful that the 55k was approved I think some of the q& just presented to me another perspective of how this very very critical issue isn't getting enough open conversation I know many of you are working diligently I appreciate all the stuff that all the work that you're doing I feel badly that since the last meeting you attended um or convened that Amy tarlo Lewis and Jen clency of her joining Brad Mitchell grateful that Sarah Seward still on and will still on but the loss of the folks that gave three years of their lives and so much effort is is really a blow um I just want to throw out it seemed to me like some of the people and I thought the questions were very good and very appropriate but it I just don't think the community is prepared I even question now whether with the m in January you know are you going to get enough seed material I I've spoken I believe that a public hearing I you know whether you can be in a public hearing whether from a open meeting you know laws Etc that I not knowledgeable of even if there was like two of you I know many of you you see me on Fridays during your office hours I need to stop taking up your time but I think the urgency is what brings me there to just kind of push forward different aspects of what I'm hearing in from other people I think if two of you were to hold a public hearing more almost on a instead maybe an addition to you guys have no time but I don't know paying 55 grand and I know there's many other things not just the MPC meetings that scheduled but seems like there's an ongoing thing here about socializing and getting input and I throw out you know if if you guys were to hold a public hearing maybe you would better pre prepare the community so thanks thanks for your time thank you okay uh there's no one else we'll move on to appointments I'm appointing Henry Harvey to the permanent Municipal Building committee yep that's yeah fairly straightforward y Mr Harvey here doesn't appear to be all right I thought it's right I mean like is qualified so move that the select board vote to appoint Henry Harvey as a member of the permanent Municipal Building committee for a term expiring June 30th 2027 second by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor I I and appointing Adam Doos to the lctv advisory committee forget about it this is a real do we support this one he's currently on the committee he's the chair right now so move that the select board vote to appoint Adam to Coast no relation as a member of the Littleton Community television advisory committee for a term expiring June 30th 2027 second move by m second by Karen all those in favor I go get sworn in uh one day liquor licenses for durable there's five of them looks like they smartened up and yeah put put them all together they are not here this evening but um they really smart but here we go but this has been reviewed by both police and fire and uh they approve uh recommend are we ready to dive into this move that the select board vote pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 138 section 14 to issue a special license also known as a one-day liquor license to Colin kerk of D dirigible Brewing Company LLC for wine and Malt Beverages for the Littleton Road Race located at Fay Park 19 Foster Street Littleton Mass on Saturday September 15th 2024 between the hours of 12:00 p.m. and 4 P p.m. and move that the select board vote pursuant to Mass General La chapter 138 section 14 to issue a special license also known as a one-day liquor license to call and nerk of derable Brewing Company LLC for wine and Malt Beverages for the Littleton October Fest located at Fay Park 19 Foster Street Littleton Mass on Sunday September 28th 2024 between the hours of 12:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. and move that the select board vote pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 1 138 section 14 to issue a special license also known as a one-day liquor license to Colin kerk of derable Brewing Company LLC for wine and Malt Beverages for three separate community events at Theo's Market Garden located at 571 Great Road Littleton Mass for the following in time September 20 September 14 2024 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. October 19th 2024 from 4: p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and December 14th 2024 from 11:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. I missed the last got cut move by Matthew second up by Chuck all those in favor okay uh the public hearing on can we just take a we just take a a brief recess is for me to give you a few documents and let everyone sign [Music] really [Music] yeah not I was my third line third line line it's really great tell you why but [Music] listen e e five more there okay [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] mark thank you Wilson [Music] these it's almost like race can't come in one do attacks the or whatever [Music] okay okay so this is uh going to be the dangerous dog hearing um so this is a hearing of the select board H pursuant uh General Law chapter 140 section 157 and chapter 84 the town's General bylaws for the purposes of determining whether the dog named Missy of three Maple Hurst road is a nuisance or dangerous dog and to determine the appropriate remedial action to be taken so is Trisha sessi um so so Master General Law chapter 140 section 157 states that the hearing Authority shall investigate or cause the investigation of the complaint including an examination under the oath of the complainant um so accordingly um the chair sh I need to swear in Trisha sessi as follows in accordance with chapter 140 section 157 the complainant Trisha Cy must be examined under oath as part of the therefore please stand raise your right hand and repeat after me I Trisha sessi I Trish sessi do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that the testimony I about to give that the testimony I'm about to give is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth is the truth truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth okay thank you um so um so we're going to begin the hearing with the testimony of the complainant um to be followed by the testimony of any other witnesses that wish to testify and the dog's owner and other members of the public who would speak so um and yeah okay good evening my name is Jeremy Cohen and I'm an attorney from Boston dog Warriers for Trish so if I can just give a few brief opening remarks and then uh we can turn over to her uh we're here because Trisha's dog Peach was injured on July 3rd of this year when Trish was walking her dog on her on her street and um belong to Leo was being walked on the opposite side of the street Trisha's dog is about 35 lbs and Mary Leo's dog Missy is 50 55 lb boxer dog and the Missy got loose from Miss Leo and ran over to our side of the street and attacked Peach the attack was multiple bites first bite was to her right side uh which created a a skin flat of sizeable portion then the dog retreated was brought back and then got loose again and attacked Peach on her left leg and she's still recovering we're only a month or 5 weeks post and we're here because um and it's about a $4,400 bill so this this certainly ruined the summer for peach and for her owner but we're not here for punishment but we're here because it's an obligation of a pet owner I believe that when an attack like this happens which is significant uh they have to come forward and have to seek the seek out the town to do something about it to prevent it from the next time happening so the people we're here to protect right now don't even know that they're being protected and maybe nothing else will ever happen but I think at this point given the nature of that particular incident on July 3rd we're asking the board at taking some basic remedial measures again this is we're not here to punish the dog we're not here to euthanize the dog we're here for some basic measures but ordinarily I don't even think we'd have to come here but of concern to me in the business that I'm in is that this person knew that dog attacked another dog where there was fur everywhere had to be carried home she did nothing about it for 7 Days Mario not contact Animal Control Office she we the police had to do a stake out trying to figure out from other neighbors cameras each day when does this person walk this dog in this area and it was only then after a few days of tracking this that they finally were able to approach Miss Leo and get her to understand and admit to the attack then as they're talking to her the police are talking to her with her dog Missy there Missy starts lunging and trying to attack another dog so I've read a statement from Miss Leo where I am not convinced that this woman understands the scope of this bite she's here for 20 years perhaps Missy has had no priors but on this day on July 3rd at this time in the morning this was a dangerous dog and we're asking you to do something about it and the definition under 140 157 that we're operating under is a d dog without justification attacks a person domestic animal causing physical injury or behaves in a in a manner a reasonable person would believe poses an unjustified imminent threat of physical injury death or harm to a domestic or owned animal that is what occurred that day I've read a statement from Miss Leo that she said our dog got loose and ran to the other side of the street or perhaps her theory that these dogs were protecting their owners no there shouldn't have been any protection having to happen that day we were on our side of the street she was on hers and her dog got loose and because of her failure to understand and explain the story truthly like that including a very vague explanation of what happened to the leashing Coller that we don't need to get into but we're here tonight the neighborhood has to be safer my client didn't isn't didn't bring out all of her neighbors and the Pitchfork crowd that we see at these hearings she just here to say look this is what happened and Missy uh while she was quarantined to with a muzzle um that order it wasn't an order under the quarantine by AC Tower so what we're asking here is that Missy be de dangerous dog that she be ordered to be muzzled when off the property and that a harness uh especially ited harness be used in terms of the restraint being because Missy is just not controllable by whatever leash that the owner is using so we're just suggesting proper restraint with a harness and a muzzle went off the prop property and this most likely will never happen again I understand she's had a good history as a dog Missy but on this day she didn't so we're asking to take some some safety measures and to the extent what I've had to say isn't testimony certainly um will come up and speak to the board thank you hi sorry nervous don't shm just a difficult thing to um talk about if I don't look you in the eye it's just to keep it moving no worries um on Wednesday July 2nd excuse me Wednesday July 3rd um I was walking Peach she's a 35 lb Cattle Dog TR mix on Lincoln drive towards Grove on the the number side of the street I see another dog an owner turn from Grove on heading towards Goldsmith so we're kind of like ships passing in the in the night uh the the dog pulls and begins to bark at Peach so I step further left essentially into someone else's driveway to give as much distance as possible um and my dog barks back so I'm like all right let's keep it going and all of a sudden uh the other dog crosses the street and begins to Maul my dog L the owner comes over and tries to get control of her dog which she does and I think it's over but she loses control a second time and for a second time the dog proceeds to B my dog finally she gets full control and I look down and my dog's side is hanging off of her so I scream and I look to the person and I said do you have a phone because that moment I was going to call 911 which I now realize you don't do for a dog but I'm like I got to get to the hospital um the owner does not answer me a neighbor who at that point must have stepped out said do you need me to call someone and I shouted I don't know who to call I have to get my dog to the hospital at that point I and uh thankfully I I live up the street I get my dog in the car and I take off to the emergency vet on 495 and breakdown Lane like a bat out of hell I've got one hand on the steing wheel the other hand is holding my dog they take her in for for surgery and send me home around noon um while Peach is still in surgery I call Littleton Police Department and I say uh I would need to report a dog attack they put me uh in contact with animal control tower contacts me and um I was very blunt I said I don't know if my dog live she was attacked and I need to report this and that's where she kind of took things from there that was on Wednesday on Friday at the urging of a neighbor I went to Littleton Police dep Department to file a police report with officer Jones um and for the S days between the incident and when the dog and owner were identified my neighbors were Vigilant looking at their ring cameras and they started to learn that the individual and her dog continue to hold the the same routine and pass that information to myself and to animal control um so they were able to interest her now that they've known her um at that point it's my understanding for the police report I wasn't involved in in that conversation that the individual acknowledged it was her involved um and during that conversation uh officer Jones in his narrative noted that the owner um had difficulty controlling the dog as another dog passed by so um that's kind of where we we left things thank you thank you thank you I'm not sure if the board if there was a packet the board to include the vill yes okay [Applause] and thank you um are there any other witnesses that wish to speak then we just neighbors Ryan neighbors yeah so yeah if there no other Witnesses um um so I think um um basically now we would move on um got we got them in the email but they're not in the packet um can I ask you a couple questions have you spoken to miss Leo at all I I have not I I wasn't aware of her identity until she was identified um and um I did not choose to reach out to her at that point okay who there hasn't been any off for a um financial payment for the the she and I have been in no contact thank you Leo would you like [Music] to hi my name is Leo just you want to swear so I have sorry um I have to swear you both in and your firsto so um um I'll swear you want I repeat after me please I Leonard Leo iard Leo do s swear that the testimony about to give is the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth the testimony I'm about to give is the truth nothing but the truth I Mario I Mar do Solly swear that the testimony I'm about to givey is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth truth truth thank [Music] you okay my name is Leonard Leo um my wife has some cognitive problems she took a fall a year and ago she's disabled work um so I'd like to speak um I didn't we were bringing lawyers in this I've lived in Littleton for 39 years I've had dogs for all 39 years of that we've never had any kind of a problem at all um this dog is a rescue all dogs have been rescued dogs but this dog is a rescued dog that hasn't been difficult but about two years ago it was attacked by two smaller dogs and since that time there's a c siiz dog that just sets her off and we try to correct it um but that's the way it is and all I'm very sorry about your dog I really really am we've never had any kind of an issue um but this was call that she was wearing that day it was from Petco it was for the right siiz dog but it's got one of those plastic snap things on it and that's what broke when this all happened the day after that happened we went down we bought her a big leash that's buckled so this cannot happen again and the muzzle that she's been on every single day um since the quarantine period Marana watchs the dog every single day it's a comfort dog for her um we've never ever had a problem any of our neighbors I mean nobody has ever had a problem with this like I said it did get attacked a while ago and it have a problem but as far as the dog itself when the officer was you guys have this packet when the officer was uh interviewing Mariana it wasn't what we had just heard the officer actually [Applause] stated another dog was being walked past while Mary Leos appeared to be wanting playful and pulled towards the other dog I mean it was playful this is what the officer saying it's not like it was mad this this dog really isn't a vicious dog in any way like I said there's a certain size dog that kind of gets to her because she was attacked by two smaller dogs at one point down by the lake um I don't know what else to say you know we didn't know lawyers were coming down and everything else we just got this notice last Friday from the police I went to the police department today to find out what time the meeting was tonight and we're just here and like I said I'm very sorry about your dog since that time she's been walked with a muzzle and a different collar and that's all I said I mean that collar we didn't know we bought it from Petco and I thought it would hold the dog back but it broke right through that plastic thing that's all I can really say thank you thank you I got some questions hey oh yeah there's any question so with the um dog being carried or or walked I'm a little confused our dog yes walking it's a it's a 55 55 to 60 lb dog but once it broke loose she didn't know how to you know put the car back on it it restrained properly um if I can just some of the questions I had so you would you mentioned that you you acknowledge that the dog has had a problem with smaller dog had a fight in the past right um You said you've been trying to work on it what have if anything have have you tried or what has well actually two of my kids have smaller dogs and she fine with them it's just she'll walk by most dogs and want to play and wagger tail and everything else but like there's a certain sized dog that just kind of kind of just snaps her I guess but um like I said we've never had a problem and usually you can just hold the dog but this collar broke loose and that's what H and even the collar that we had it's kind of like a light show collar like it doesn't have spikes in it but it's got these like beads on it that are supposed to go into the dog I mean we try to do whatever we can for it she's a sweetheart really but um that was a bad circumstance any other questions I might have one but you go ahead no go ahead I'm still writing anyone else think you ask if there's anyone else like to speak anyone in the audience wish to say anything I say something do I vo please name address [Music] please Aon hey 12 linol Drive I just want to make sure you all have the picture yes so if you look at the picture you can see what the attack looked like um I have a a puppy if you go around on Long Lake any time of day there's lots of people walking their dogs there we should be able to walk down the street without fearing that that's going to happen and that's the case right now and um I think it's it it's obvious that there there's a big problem here so I'm hoping that um you you'll be able to make a decision to to make some requirements for the dog thanks does anyone else wish to speak I actually had a question sorry um you mentioned that there's a certain type of dog that makes your dog snap what did that look like such what did that snapping look like oh no she just pulled like she just pulls you know what I mean like she just pulls but that uh collar that was on her broke and it she just pulls when it's a certain little dog because two small dogs attacked her last year down by Lake and that was the thing and like I said as soon as this happened I went out I got a different type of caller that could pull a Mac truck with and um we put a a muzzle on her I mean right away um and also just you know they were saying they couldn't find us for a while the day after that happened we went to Pennsylvania for a family reunion for 5 days and that's why because she walks the dog every single day and if we were home they would have got a hold of her the very next day but we went to Pennsylvania for a family reunion and we were gone for 5 days the day we got back she took him for a walk and that's when the police came up and asked her what was going on um it's not like there was any kind of avoidance or we were trying to avoid something like I said I've lived there for 39 years and we've been walking dogs there for 39 years and we've never had a problem before this and like I said I am sorry what for what happened to your dog and without any direction we went to a much larger call and we muzzle her every time that she's on a walk now so that's that's all I say about that thank you um yeah I I've read over all the like everybody here over the last week or so looking at all the information and I we only got this last Friday just so you know he you guys have been seeing it for a week we saw it sure no just it was more we needed it because we needed to see get clear picture I'm just saying we just got it on Friday afternoon um you know dog lover myself I you know had dogs my whole life since and uh all different breeds and and one thing that I I know is I would say out of all of the breeds 90% of dogs have the capacity to do what your dog did um but knowing that as the owner um I I would I would expect that the owner would make sure that um every POS everything in place the dog could not do this knowing if that dog you acknowledge that the dog had the capacity you mentioned that straight up um knowing that some of the some of the things that you're you're doing you did afterwards and I'm glad you did I'm glad there's the dog has been put on a muzzle um knowing that the dog has this capacity to do this to smaller dogs especially um but even any dog walking I I mean I I would feel comfortable walking by a Great Dane um that's on a leash and the owner's got it and you want to feel comfortable so I think any dog um and people need to feel comfortable walking whether it's walking a dog by themselves around other dogs I know if we grew up anyone that grew up in the and ' 80s it was like the wild west chasing on bicycles and everything else um but with the fact that the the dog had had the um the aggression within it to go after this smaller dog it could have been a larger dog it really doesn't matter um and and inflict the injury that it did I think tells me that a that breed most breeds do have the capacity um as play as they can be and the dog usually um in my opinion it's I would say it's I almost want to say 99% of the time it's not particularly the dog's fault it's the owner not knowing that the dog what the dog's capable of or the owner not properly restraining the dog well the leash I mean the call it broke you know what I mean I don't know what to say it's those plastic Walks Like I said we got it it was great size for the dog's neck I don't know how to I don't know I mean definitely was nothing on purpose and I tried to correct the situation as soon as I could no and it sounds like um some to me some of the things that you've done um seem sufficient to what we would expect you know I I personally um in vote on this would I wouldn't I don't believe the dog to be a dangerous dog um I believe the dog to you know I'd be more in the nuisance category where I'd be worried um but I'm more concerned with the making that the owner um the two of you have understand this is something that happen and take the you know the proper precautions and and it sounds like you've done that at least with the collar looks like musle non-destructible collar and and a and the mule um I mean I'm I'm comfortable with that those precautions that have been taking place I believe would prevent this from happening again if the exact exact same scenario were to happen we'll get there yeah but I don't know what else needs to be so um so just before we have to go through the one else wish to speak before we move go ahead just to sum up uh he hasn't taken the proper precautions because that is not the right muzzle to use in fact Phyllis Tower reported that she said what are you going to do she said said I'm going to purchase a basket muzzle that is not a basket that's a nylon uh that is not effective for this purpose that collar as big as it is it should be a harness and and the reason whether it's nuisance or dangerous to get an the key is to get an order in place the consequences of violing an order are the same and um but to get order in place because again I two I'm saries in eight excuses it rolls up to the owner as I I think you're getting so he cannot say anymore that this has never happened it's happened so I think the board understands that and it's just time to for for the Leo enter life knowing that they have a dog or recalling that they have a dog that has triggers and to just try to avoid that as much as possible or use the right the right tools they could engage in training too to try to desensitize the dog but I mean that's that can be expensive they're they're they're good people we just they have to recognize what they have for a dog does anyone us to speak before we close the earing my only hope in doing this was to ensure that we have a mutually agreeable solution I don't want any harm to come to Missy I want Mr miss Mr and Mrs Leo to continue their routine my concern is that the modifications that they are volunteering to do for which I'm grateful may not be appropriate for Missy's strength or Comfort or her own enjoyment I think an order will um be prescriptive around how to ensure that everybody continues to enjoy their area that the dog okay um and I sincerely appreciate the steps that Mr Mrs Leo are taking um I guess that's all I wanted thank you could I ask you a question please so if what what what um what would the qualif what what categories what items would you prefer what would be satisfactory to you what order would be satisfactory to you I think both a a basket muzzle um I'm not a a a dog I don't understand the detail but whatever is most appropriate for Missy's breed and her comfort and ability to pant I think it gets uh specific by a veterinarian is step one but also the harness because of her strength and size um I don't know I can't make the determination if it's appropriate I'm I'm hearing that it may not be and that a harness will be um more appropriate so that everyone can continue their routine with the knowledge that everybody is is also safe thank you thank you like to say we did try would would you stand thank you sorry um I we did try the basket muzzle and because of the shape of our head it slides right off so we couldn't do that that's why we got the other muzzle which actually covers her chin and her throat and goes around the back and it works great on her where did you get that muzzle um have you seen a Veterinary muscle regarding regarding the fit okay and they tried and they just said head but we don't mind putting a harness if you want to harest on we'll do just got the call because that's what I thought was good we don't mind basket muzzle it didn't work she another one it didn't work we took the dog PCO and they just said with the shape of the do head they didn't think that they onek thank you does anyone else for speak before we close the hearing okay so now uh we um everyone's talk spoken the to so we can whether we're ready to close the hearing and render a decision or whether we should continue it well we're going to are we going to have convers we're going to debate about it before we may render a decision yes but we have we can close the hearing so then and then it's just us I'm ready to close the hearing in that so I move that we close the public hearing second okay uh is that going to be a roll call right I think be yes yes yes Karen Y and I'm a yes okay so now we have to determine whether to find the dog is a nuisance or a dangerous dog or dis Mis complete and I'll read the standards for nuisance and dangerous dog so a dangerous dog is a dog that either without justification attacks a person or domestic animal causing physical injury or death or gaves an aand that a reasonable person would believe poses an unjustified imminent threat or physical injury or death to a person or to domestic or owned animal um a dog cannot be D dangerous solely based on growling or barking based on the breed of the dog if the dog is reacting to another animal or to a person and the dog re action was not grossly disproportionate to any following circumstances the dog was protecting or defending s it's Offspring another domestic anal or person from attack a person who was attacked or threatened by the dog was committing crime upon the person or property the person attacked or threatened by the dog was engaged in teasing tormenting battering assault injury or otherwise provoking the dog or time of the attack the person or animal that was attacked or threatened by the dog had breached an enclosure or struct within the which the dog was kept in okay a nuisance dog is if the dog does not rise to the level of dangerous the SB may find it constitutes the nuisance dog defined as excessive barking or other disturbance is a source of annoyance to a sick person residing in the vicinity or excessive barking causing damage or other influence other interference a reasonable person would find such Behavior disruptive to one's quiet and peaceful enjoyment or has threatened or attacked livestock a domestic animal or person but such a threat or attack was not grossly disproportionate reaction under all the circumstances so we have to decide whether it's a dangerous nuisance or none of the above so I'll begin um we should not we should not none of the above is not an option in my opinion um have many dogs I've had many dogs I'm well aware that as Mr Wilson pointed out any dog is capable of anything at any time um you know I own a 120 lb German shepherd and a 50 golden retriever the golden retriever is the one who has attacked the German Shepherd and put him in the hospital twice so I don't think that knowing about a dog or thinking that it's cute or sweet or the breed has anything to do with what might happen on any day I don't think that the Leos were irresponsible in any way I don't think anyone could reasonably have assumed that a decent collar that you purchased at a store would break like that I have a similar one I bug when I walk time um I don't think that this dog is necessar I mean I'm hesitant to declare it dangerous although you know but when you read that description when you read that definition it would be um a dangerous dog under the specific definitions that you just read I do think that um if the dog has a harness and a a properly fitted muzzle and whether that's a basket muzzle or some other muzzle type that the veterinarian can fit to it I I would rather that that the Leos speak with a vet instead of going to a pet kloyee um I think that that would be sufficient from my point of view um to remove the danger of this happening again I'd actually go a step further if if we were going to go down that road I would I would ask if the veterinarian prescribe essentially or measure for um whatever I guess that's sort of what I was saying just not I wouldn't have a Petco because you could have a part time high school or colge no that's what I'm saying like the vet not not before we go down too far down we should just go is do we agree by the definition it's aerous dog or a nuisance dog because there's a whole section on here on the remedies that we can apply sumarize those separately but we first we have to go through I mean so all okay I'll just tell you what the remedies are we can say that the dog has to be restrained let me finish I think Gary had something to to clarify that yeah I know you you read from the from the dangerous dog side but um an attack also falls under the nuisance but only if it's proportional and it didn't this one didn't strike me well that's what I want to discuss because I it attacked a domestic animal or a person but such a threat or attack not a grossly disportionate action under all uh the circumstances so I you know I'm thinking of a dangerous dog in that case actually is predatory and it's going after other dogs um it it appears that this dog has been um walked thousands of times um maybe bark like most dogs do at each other pass some do some don't but hasn't aggressively attacked other dogs so it's aggressively like trying to break leash every single time it passes another dog right right that's what kind I'm have a little bit more trouble just throwing this dog into a dangerous category as opposed to a Nuance I also have trouble putting it in dangerous category ultimately like the remedy to me it doesn't matter the I believe the remed REM should be I want to hear that part that Mark's going to read because I I think a we can we can discuss a harness or a a collar I think the muzzle is probably the most important piece cuz dog breaks away from you on a harness it's going to do the same thing yeah whether you're on a harness or on a collar so um I I just believe that it to me the muzzle is the more important part to this but I want to hear what the remedies would be on both so I'm going to summarize them because it's a whole page uh but it's so we can do things such as saying the dog has to be restrained that's one it could be we say the dog has to be confined to the owner's premises uh that when removed from the premises uh the person keeping the dog shall be humanely muzzled and restrained um on harness however we want right that the owner or Keeper of the dog provide proof of insurance an amount not less than $100,000 ensuring the owner or keeper against a claim lost damage or injury from acts of the dog uh the owner dog the that the owner keep the owner of the dog provide to the licensing Authority um in by which the dog may be identified um that the owner keep the dog uh the owner of the dog provide evidence that a vet is of the opinion that the dog is unfit for alterations because of a medical condition so examples we can say between the hours of 10 and 7 the dog should not be permitted to go outside unattended um other hours it has to be on a leash I we can put whatever kind of rests on it want stuff yeah yeah so and that's whether we declare it a dangerous or a new so I think it's clear that this is a dangerous dog push back a little bit it's the definition of Aur dog is that either without justification they attack a person or domestic animal causing physical injury or death or etc etc but we've already that first um element is fulfilled there was no justification he attacked another animal and he caused physical injury she pardon me um I I don't think there's any question that you know under legal definition of a dangerous dog Missy has fulfilled the conditions of that definition I tend to agree with Karen based on the Le definition that I read that it sounds like a dangerous St I was leaning that way until I saw the last paragraph in um 4B the last s attack livestock a domestic animal or person such threat or attack was not a grossly proportional reaction under all circumstances I guess we have to gross grossly disproportionate but as far as we I mean there's no testimony to the contrary as far as I can tell that peaches was doing other anything other than existing well passing another dog another strange animal passing I mean what I'm saying is a dog that isn't trying to break out of its enclosure breaking out of it yard not aggressively trying to attack other dogs they were both barking at each other and pulling pulling from each other I I think you know it sounds gross the grossly sounds grossly disproportionate disproportionate leash I mean the damage to the the damage to the dog absolutely drives you to the dangerous dog it actually cut into another animal so it has that appearance for certain but I mean a nuisance St a if finding of nuisance can can be the same thing if we're got the same discussion I what what what would be the different um remedy to in a dangerous dog to a nuisance dog to maybe it's just that you can that we we are able to order up to euthanization for a dangerous dog maybe that's the only difference I don't know I I don't I don't have a a strong feeling like we have to declare it as a nuisance or a dangerous as long as we as the remedies are appropriate and enfor but I think we have to I believe we have to is that no I mean I don't I we I would be okay with either yeah either identification in terms of remedies if I if I may Mr chairman um I mean it's it's the remnant in terms of the things that have been proposed would be as if you were finding the dog to be a dangerous dog so I think that at least the things that I've ever heard talking about you you first would need to declare the dog a dangerous dog and then then then come forward with the the remedy of the well it says if we deem the dog a nuisance the hearing Authority May further order that the owner or keeper take remedial action to amarate the cause of the nuisance Behavior so if the nuisance behavior is only defined as barking then we have to declare it a dangerous dog you if the nuisance behavior is defined as attacking another animal then we can declare it a nuisance dog and ask that the remedial action be the same as we declared a dangerous dog and we need to have it on a on a harness and a basket muzzle again I'm not strongly advocating one way or the other I I don't I mean we're we're talking the the remedy sounds like the owner has already decided that would be efficient agreed upon and it sounds like it's something that the um so yeah I think we're kind of agreed on the the remedy is uh um well I I think the remedy is um a harness and the muzzle and then we can decide whether it's either the vet or the Animal control officer that approves that right um but something along those lines and then whether it's dangers or nuisance is I'm kind of with Matthew that it's kind of semantics though I do feel that the semantics lean more towards dangers fair enough I will I will support dangerous because it does seem grossly disproportionate that's I don't I don't yeah that's I agree with that judgment that's that's fine but I want to make sure that the remedy is clear and that's what's more important do you think actually the maybe the um Animal control officer verifying that the muzzle is appropriate for the situation would be a good a good a fitted harness and things like that sure but but but to have an independent party identify that the that the harness and the muzzle are appropriate for the if I may there's nothing to stop you from asking for both the vet and and the Animal control officer to to both do it so that the Animal control officer will be verifying what's been prescribed okay by the vet I think I think I feel more comfortable for more prescribed by a vet okay regardless of what category [Music] okay just the the logistics of that we can't order a vet to prescribe anything it's can coming upon the owners right so the veterinarian would have to make the prescription and then that doesn't whatever the veterinarian prescribes doesn't necessarily coincide with what we deem is sufficient well we we we could we could put a condition that a veterinarian F harness has like you know has attested that the the muzzle is appropriately sized and it's well fitting and that the harness is appropriate size and is strong enough yes and we get a letter from that vet or from the Animal control officer saying that that would satisfy me that that that it has been done to that and I I believe that the Leos will follow up and they will the and the dog will wear the muzzle and the Arness every time that she goes out for a walk from now on because I don't think any any wants this to happen again okay does that seem reasonable yeah okay so Ryan is that enough like do you need more clarity on that I think it's okay um but I think um so then it's the question of the board is you know determine nuisance or dangerous and then if it from that what the you know what the remedy is which for me is that that the vet is going to um independently review the you know that the harness and the muzzle are sufficient to restrain the dog and um would you would you also want to have the ACO affirm that or is that is that it's just the works I I like the ACO confirming the ACO okay and I'm using the word prescribed but if the veterinarian CER signs off on that's that's absolutely adequate yeah and I would I guess the it sounds like the consensus is this is a dangerous dog unless Mr Wilson wants to make an impassioned plea no I I think the dog is a nuisance I I I believe that it I said it when I started it all dogs have or most dogs have the capacity to do this so knowing that I believe that this dog isn't aggressively going out looking for their dogs but I mean every dog has the capacity but this one did it and I guess that's where it that's where it because Broke Free of so now it falls on the owner and now we're remedying the owner's responsibility so I I mean it sounds it looks like you have three votes for the dangerous side I but I'm I know it's semantics to some degree I don't know if it's semantics to the attorney I mean it's present but I I think it's um the remedy um from the owner of the dog that was attacked is what is more important to me at the end of the day obviously he cares about both dogs and and that's where I want to end this up so I'm um I I without sitting here and seeing the the dog I see the damage that the dog did on that day that dog was dangerous no doubt about it but I keep falling back on I I just most breeds and most dogs most have that ability so it's up to the owner to make sure that they they understand that so I I it's more of a nuisance to me as opposed to an aggressive dog that's just really out to get other dogs cuz we've all seen those type of animals for whatever reason but so I I'm I kind of agree with you that this dog might not be dangerous but it also was dangerous on this day so you kind of have to say that you know this one day it kind of you know certainly set the course for the remainder of his life for lack of you know right so um I do have for you Ryan on this do we have to also then prescri put in our remedy that the dog always has to be harnessed and muzzled off property or on its outside or yes I I think yeah so we have to go that far correct do we need to or I would suggest that we include a time you know some sort of 30 days to you 7 Days however long comply for compliance okay sure I initially I was thinking nuisance was you know neighbor's dog is barking my baby can't sleep you that kind of stuff and wasn't until I actually opened Master La after 140 and did a little more digging while we're here and saw that last that last sentence but grossly disproportionate um but you know attacking or or a person or domestic animal that's when I decided initially I was thinking dangerous dog all the way but I I see the door open as a nuisance dog so I can definitely see uh Gary's point but um I don't think we're kind of again semantic we're right down the line we get away as long as the remedy satisfies what we're looking to get accomplished I'm good so so yeah I don't know I'm legally doesn't matter which way we go on this whether it's a dangerous or nuisance dog if we're prescribing the same remedy I'm I'm I mean I don't really know what happened I think the safer thing you know I mean I don't want that if you want to prescribe uh what you're discussing I think it's the safer thing to do would be to proclaim the dog a dangerous dog okay and flows from that okay and then you also mentioned some sort of time frame Karen so like you want to ask the owners of the dog whe what a reasonable time frame might be for them to do this as soon as we can get a vet appointment I mean you know we're up for this it's not not a problem two weeks you know once we can get a bed appointment which is usually within a week or so okay 15 days some time to coordinate with the control officer Mr chair this is can be it's not testimony um it just so happens this is probably my 180th dangerous dog here usually I'm defending them so I just want to point out the goal of the complainant was to make it safe and I can tell by not from the papers but by from hearing from them these are engaged owners the consequence of deeming the dog dangerous is just that she's young if they want a board and train uh if they want to go away the dangerous is it might prevent them from being able to do something like that with a nuisance I alluded to before the board has the same power the order of a nuisance or dangerous results in the same things under 157 little H uh it's a it's it 157 little H then 157 capital A and then 158 all three right after this 157 statute you can seize the dog you can euthanize the dog the owner can be brought up on criminal charges for failing to comply with an order they can be fined so um so the if we if you were to go nuisance I think uh Trish is fine with that and I think you can still get this accomplished with the safety and it's sort of like it's sort of like a they've got their warning and and also with some of the things that you want to like have the order a harness and have the vet look at things under the nuisance it's more of a catchall where you can throw all that stuff in not that these folks are going to appeal but nuisance gives you a little bit more leverage to order some of these particulars so uh I'm I guess I am trying to influence the board just by educating you because uh on this it's I only know one thing so I chose to just know this so uh not saying you don't know it but sharing historically what can Happ thank you thank you for that allow testimony valuable than very good since it is okay and 15 days is that acceptable to yes okay 15-day time period for this if you run into a issue just let us know let the board know yeah thank you okay do we need motions for Ryan or are we good motion for nuance yes so so think saying is that we're declaring U Missy a new dog um that from uh that request is that a veterinarian would uh determine whether the harness and muzzle are sufficient to contain Missy and that later the ACO will um confirm that's the case both the mule and harness um and that um there's a 15-day period to uh come compliance with this requir and that Missy will be required to wear these out like yeah and then miss right thank you and Missy right times Miss's out will be we'll have to wear this so moved yeah hear a second sorry y I'm sorry evidence of compliance I mean do we just want to have the ACO send her determination to us mhm sure that's fine that's employee of the town so yeah so so so moved I second I have a question yeah not to be technical just kidding um but when you say outside the premises even on their own property I'm sorry outside of their prop I guess I should have said outside their property thank you we're getting to a whole bunch of legal things when you start on a person's property it's a little different cuz all dogs would tend to protect their owner's property so it's it becomes a little bit different or dealing with that but definitely when the dog is outside the owner's property off the of right exactly no that's a given okay roll call vote Gary yes to the motion in the second already correct okay yes I'm in favor Matthew yes Karen yes and I'm in favor so so so ran will give you y a write up of we have to write all this up and um we'll be in'll be in contact with you and forward that to you as well should we call the the dog officer when everything's all set yes please please call her yes how's Peach is doing good on theend I'm I'm I'm very happy that there was a good outcome here I think that everybody's been very reasonable I understand these things happen and and I also understand how terribly upset it is um and so I'm I'm really glad that you are being responsible and taking care of what you need to take care of and I I pray it doesn't happen again but thank youate J's compassion too thank you thanks for the education counselor thank you sir thank you we don't we don't want to have to see you again so go away and never come back sure of course app make a motion uh here to close the appear public heing I thought we weed oh we closed it yeah we closed it after we stopped talking I see bites not [Music] bombs what are we at here uh so this is uh they did this last year and a for the past couple years right this just a bathon through town could you leave y thank you you must see some crazy stuff good night thank you good night guys thank you thank you it's good to see you CH thank you thank you good [Music] luck no issues obviously from the fire department from the police department on this on no issues okay no anyone have any comments spikes not bombs no this is move that the select board vote to approve the request of bikes not bomb the use of town roads for their bikeathon on Sunday September 8 2024 second move by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor let's get that out on the website so people know there going to be a lot of [Music] bik uh vote to open the special town meeting warrant for October 29th believe it or not have another really way we go yeah right right so um we included is that in the packet um so the schedule was in the packet and this kicks off uh kicks off the process for um um citizen petitions for uh stretch time meeting which in this case it's um 100 because it's special so 100 signatures so um but uh this kicks off the process and um ask for your approval okay move up select board vote Pursuit into Mass General La chapter 39 section 10 and town code section 411 to open the warrant for the Tuesday October 29th 2024 special town meeting forth with and to close said warrant on Saturday September 14th 2024 at noon said town meeting to be held in the Charles Forbes K gymnasium Littleton Middle School 55 Russell Street Littleton second by Matthew second by Karen Gary hi chff hi Matthew hi Karen hi I and I'm an i nagog Orchard update including the RFP to lease manage and operate so um Matthew and I and Ryan and Kathy and Jim and I don't know who else we've had involved Town Council Town Council have uh taken the the old lease agreement and updated it uh to try one more time um and we are in the I send it around for comments a few weeks ago um it's been updated with new tax information and better maps and the feedback of Town Council and I think we're ready to go to P post it later this week that's all so um that's going to go for 30 days yeah that's that's the aim we're talking a little bit about dates so basically 30 days out um and we give a window for we can um receive questions um I think is a day or two turn around for questions and then following Tuesday we would open bids you know once if any received we at time so so the one one other difference between the last lease agreement is the residents is not included in the lease agreement since it's not inhabitable um in the prior lease agreement it was um also not inhabitable as a house but it could be used as an office base uh We've basically taken it out of the agreement Al together it's not habitable not inhabitable that's a double negative means it's habitable it's not uninhabitable um we also took out requirements to run a Farm Stand require and there were a number of other smaller things wi exactly very basically just lease the land is what we're saying give us some proposals let's see what we got and um Matthew once the it's posted you'll send it out to EV did the RFI responses and actually together I need to get in touch with Nancy because the orchard responses email is going to Brad and Amy neither of whom are on the working group anymore so I'm I would ask her to redirect it to me and I also may need her to forward the old emails to me because have not I never got them okay okay okay would you like me to just get in touch with her directly no no I can take okay thank you and then you'll update the orchard website itself yeah I'll update the website when the RFP goes out okay yeah any other comments on the thank you Le and thank you to Mark Matthew for hope your work on okay moving on uh vote to approve the S letter of agreement between the town of Littleton and the Littleton Deputy police chief Patterson and police Lieutenant Landry um so this is uh what we were talking about earlier um or um their um [Music] detail move that the select board vote to approve the S side letter agreement between the town of Littleton and Lieutenant Doug Landry and move that the select board vote to approve the S side letter agreement between the town of Littleton and deputy chief Patterson by Matthew second by Chuck all those in favor I I woohoo minutes I had no [Music] comments anyone else just come up with it Mark go ahead and say I'm good okay move that the select board vote approve the meeting minutes from The Joint select board meeting within agog Hill Orchard ad hoc working group on May 30th 2024 the select board meeting on July 8th 2024 The Joint select board meeting with the finance committee July 15th 2024 and the select board retreat on July 17th 2024 looks move by Matthew second by Gary all those in favor motion to adjourn second move by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor good night THS