##VIDEO ID:qWVmOB9T6GM## yeah that's why uh good evening Littleton uh good evening welcome to the select board meeting for Monday January 27th we'll begin with the pledge I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all uh so uh we have a fairly full agenda after the reading of the mail we have a bunch of Department updates conservation recognizing Amy green pending for her pending retirement app Point Tim Pearson as new conservation agent town clerk recommendations for uh report dedication presentation from sustainability uh presentation from cultural Council Littleton country gardeners request to use the common and an affordable housing trust update to the select for at 7:15 we'll be having a joint meeting with the Conservation Commission to talk about um the parcel 107 and the ngog hill Orchard 7:45 will have public input and selectboard updates at 8:00 we'll have select board discussions uh executing a new contract for the King Street Commons public infrastructure update on the charter committee and vote to authorize the Town Administrator to execute a contract for green International followed by me minutes approval and 850 adjournment so let's start with the mail thank you Mr chairman members of the uh of the select board we've got uh some vacancies that we would uh that we would love and uh opportunities uh for people to uh with their input and and uh some of the expertise we have openings on agricultural commission conservation cultural Economic Development Committee historical commission the master plan implementation committee permanent Municipal Building committee Transportation advisory Council zoning board of appeals and an appointment by the school committee would be for the finance committee uh please sign up and receive public notifications for the town of Littleton and you can register at ww Littleton ma.org SLS subscribe uh get uh Community impacts Public Safety activity Transportation issues town meeting changes public health concerns town events stay informed we are in receipt from uh a letter from from FEMA uh that notify the town that uh final flood uh has a determination from middlex County Massachusetts um and uh it's a statutory 90-day appeal period that was initiated uh for the community when the Department of Homeland Security FEMA published a notice of proposed flood Hazard determinations for our community in the local newspaper and uh that is um the regul the regulations it's amending existing regulations to incorporate any additional requirements under of 44 CFR part part 60 . 3D adopting all standards of 44 CFR Part 60.3 D into one new comprehensive set of regulations or showing evidence that regulations have previously been adopted that meant or exceeded the minimum requirements of 44 CFR Part 60.3 D um that we would uh and um and we and part of also part of this is to uh final summary of map actions to assist our community in maintaining the flood insurance rate map uh summarized below the effects of the revised firm panels on previously issued letter of map change and uh there were no cases recorded Rec recorded on the project identifier and um there's a number of different actions uh final summary of map actions for that uh next communication we have Xfinity uh to the select board uh committed to keeping you and their customers informed about change to Xfinity TV services accordingly please note the following changes to the Xfinity channel lineup provided in your community effective January 14th nessen and nessen plus will move from extra popular TV sports news and and xinity TV starter Latino or Digital Preferred and ultimate TV customers are receiving notices of these changes in that bill that's a money gra Department of Public Utilities it is request for comments and data in regards of the next several years substantial electric distribution and Broadband infrastructure Investments are planned in the Commonwealth many of these investments will require work and access along public right of ways in particular work involv a utility polls and potential access to ducks and conduit uh see and moving forward uh again the notice continues a notice of inquiry request for comments this was something was dated on January 17th uh the Department of Public Utilities and the department of telecommunications at cable jointly issued an auto opening an inquiry to explore utility poll attachment conduit access double poll related considerations okay and that's it for mail thank you uh moving on to the department updates recognition of Amy green for her pending pending her retirement uh so Amy I believe is retiring at the end of February if we let her um and um you have I do um a list of her accomplishments well we have a a few things that over the 10 years that Amy has worked for the town some highlights of the success and what she has done uh for this community over the past 10 years uh she has won nearly $1 million in grant funding over the course of those 10 years that is no easy uh no easy fee uh she permitted and supported countless boardwalks kiosks and parking improvements on open space uh conservation land properties established guidance the Lakeshore projects to require permanent including docks reviewed all Town Parcels with assessors planning board and pox and W to determine accuracy of ownership and best use researched all the conservation restrictions in town and set up annual monitoring drove the AC accus acquisition of several very important pareles of land for conservation and passive recreational uses including Brown Browns Woods Webster land and Williams land land significantly expanded the town's relationship of two vital conservation organizations the Littleton conservation trust the Sudbury Valley trustees establish and led Community focused conservation programs including the weed Warrior program which trains residents to identify and remove invasive species the amphibian Crossing program has saved upwards of a thousand amphibians each year from Road strikes and the pollinat Gardens uh Amy's developed a culture in the conservation that balances adherence to standards that protects our Wetlands water and ecological Resources with service to Residents who are working in good faith to meet those goals Amy has uh was instrumental in crafting our Wetlands protection bylaw um in in in addition to all those accomplishments Amy is an open and patient teacher assisting new Commissioners to gain a deep understanding the Conservation Commission missions over her career with Littleton she has guided 14 conservation Commissioners many more associate members and one New Town Administrator so uh but there are some some things that are right there but uh very very impressive stuff and uh it's been an honor for for the for the short time that I have been here Amy to working with you and you've you've taught me a lot and uh helped me appreciate so much in uh in the conservation world uh and I sincerely appreciate that thank you so Amy nearly a million or over a million I thought you weren't allowed to retire until it was over and it's over okay just to be clear a million one uh so I have a certificate here of recognition the Littleton select board recognizes Amy green and recognition of your 10 years of loyal and exceptional service to the tun of Littleton January 27th 2015 to February 27th 2025 so you have an end uh thank you for your professionalism and dedication in protecting the natural resources of the community picture time used [Music] toled okay everybody that's out s okay thank you conratulations and now to the new Amy uh Point Tim Pearson is the conservation agent does the consc want to say anything or does t want to say anything sure Chase gig uh co-chair of the Litton Conservation Commission um was it about a week ago we voted to appoint Tim to the conservation agent Ro Tim's been with us for a few years now he has a couple years of experience prior to that doing arborist work uh I think we're we're really lucky to have Tim he's both grown up sort of working underneath Amy to to learn and grow both his technical capabilities as well as his knowledge of the community we're um we're we're really excited to to be able to bring Tim on board at the full-time conservation agent role and and really sort of marry his experience recently working at light and water with his assistant agent role and sort of grow his capabilities and grow his support of the community so we think he'll fill the role quite admirably in so much as anyone can fulfill am issues D you want to say anything come on up got get used to first I just like to to thank Amy for uh molding me into the conservation professional that I am today um I wouldn't be nearly the person I am today without her um I'm I'm honored to fulfill fulfill her position they're pretty big uh shoes to Phil um I look forward to support supporting the Conservation Commission and uh serving the residents of the Town Lon as well as the the town themselves so thank you welcome move that the select board vote to appoint Tim Pearson as conservation conservation agent effective upon the retirement of the current conservation agent on February 27th 2025 second by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor [Music] congratulations to Clerk good evening thank you for having me um so um every year I come before you for the dedication of the um Town report um this year we're looking at four residents um for the dedication and three honorable mentions um the first one is um Al shimel who worked for the town for almost 30 years um she touched the lives of thousands of children in this town and put a smile on faces every day they have named the lunchroom The shimal Shack I don't know if any of you know um the the lunchroom down there but they did um name it that um her dedication to the students and teachers alike um though she was battling cancer herself um she was making um handm handmade pillows uh for breast cancer patients at Emerson Hospital and made sure each week um her husband Jack um delivered them to to all the patients uh David witam um passed away this last year as well um he was a great historian um if you ever got a chance to sit down and have a conversation with David he could go on for hours and hours about our history um history of his own family um at the uh tur Centenary uh David gave a great talk um at the um lunchroom and had wonderful wonderful pictures um he's done um calendars of littleton's um beautiful history um lots of the um uh the buildings in Littleton some of the beautiful u pictures around town of just our um our our buildings as well as just the beautiful sites in Littleton he was a great historian and a lot of our history went away when he passed last year and there's nobody that can actually Express as much about little as he could um Barbara Homer um if you know Barbara Homer she's AKA Barbara Kimble of Kimble Farm and though um kimbles was in Westford a lot of people say that Kimble was part of Littleton and she expressed that each and every day um and she was our Littleton connection to Westford um and she actually uh was on many many boards and communes back in the day um and Unice mat our final um person for dedication um is the last living Survivor of her graduating class um of LHS I believe was 1944 I have to double check that year um and she was the matriarch of the familyowned and run Spring Book farm that was um operate has been operating since 17713 long before Littleton the year before Littleton was actually Incorporated so um she's been around for she was around for a long time um honorable mention another farmer uh Gary Wilkins owner and operator of Gary's Farmstand he will be remed not only for his contributions to the local um agriculture but for his kindness that extended to others um George Sanders actually made a comment to me and said that um when he first moved to Littleton that Gary used to put out um a box at his farm that if you didn't have the money for that day to pay for your food that you got from the farm you could come back and and put your money in this box that he trusted everyone um George Davis um many of you may remember Little Peach um the people used to say Littleton issues were figured out at Little Peach and people would go there meet together and have conversations about what was going on in Littleton and lots of the issues were figured out at um Littleton um littleton's little Peach and last but not least Rick H he was a former Littleton resident um and he contributed countless hours to the Littleton conservation trust he he was a resident who who had moved away from Littleton but we'll never forget them and so you received U from me a couple of lists um the first list was uh persons that lived in Littleton that passed in 2024 and the second list um you received was actually persons that um passed away in Littleton um but didn't necessarily live in Littleton they may have been um at the nursing home and things like that and some of them were on actually both lists so um but those were my recommendations um obviously it's entirely up to this board as to you know who they choose but um those are all people that I feel are were truly little tonians and and persons that are deserving of the honor thank you does anyone have any I will endorse this list wholeheartedly yeah I think thank you for going through this and presenting it to us because it's there's I think 81 Souls on on one list and it's a lot to go through and you you mentioned um Mr whitcom being a historian but you've got that that line of sight to who these folks are and what they've contributed to Lion as well so thank you for that you know it it's tough to you know to always know who to bring forward and and quite often it's it's you you're looking at the list and you're thinking just persons that are on boards and committees but these people you know touch the lives of many people in Littleton so do we we don't need a motion I don't think so as long as you're endorsing it thank you thank you so much appreciate it sustainability good evening I'm Sarah rambacher from the sustainability committee and we're here this evening to provide an update on the committee's activities as specified under our Charter um when the committee was created in 2012 just to refresh everyone on the Mandate of the sustainability committee it's our mission to help promote the culture of sustainability uh in our community by developing Partnerships with all the residents um government businesses using Innovation education and communication and to do comprehensive and strategic planning um I'm the current chair of the committee and in addition we have long-standing members Margaret Gibbs and Don mcgyver and in the past couple of years we've welcomed Rob Houston Emily Squires Charlotte Dolan and John Hagberg to the committee and we'd also like to recognize our select board liaison Karen Morrison and Connor Reen from lwd and we'd also like to give special thanks to Diane Dickerson from the T ta's office who've been working with a lot um all of these people have given thoughtful contributions um and partnership over the past year and as we've pursued this Mission and we really appreciate all that work over the past year our committee has sought continuous engagement in three main areas of focus versus education we participated in Outreach at the third Thursdays and at the holiday bazaar and we've also contributed to the new town newsletter to help some actionable ideas that residents can take towards becoming more sustainable we also focused on advocacy and giving input to the open space and Recreation plan Hazard mitigation planning we partnered with Connor and lld to evaluate usage of the town's EV Chargers and we identified some opportunities to drive better adoption there and they've restructured their rate fees as part of that um work that we did with them uh we're also working to expand opportunities for residents to take action like we've put candy wrapper recycling containers in schools and the libraries and we're we've worked with the high school students to run zero waste day to encourage reuse and Recycling and that was a great partnership with with them as a committee we're committed to learning and gaining perspective from the best practices of other organizations across the state and as you can see here we've um we're active participants in a variety of councils and those are great Partnerships and we bring back a lot of ideas to to Littleton um more knowledge and connections to to help make sure that we're taking advantage of all the resources just over 18 months ago we launched launched the energized Littleton site in connection with mass energized this site allows residents to engage and have visibility into local events um residents can learn how to take actions in small steps like beginning to compost and also large steps like installing solar panels or heat pumps um converting to electric vehicles there's a lot of information on there we encourage everyone to visit the site and by registering your email you can opt in to get notifications so that when we put things up there you'll find out about it um where and you can find a link to that on on the sustainability page we're continuing to focus on opportunities to drive further adoption uh because as the the theme of the the site is many small changes lead to Big outcomes all right and um so at the end of 2024 we hosted our climate action Forum which was our opportunity to jump start a conversation with many of you here in this room around how a climate action plan might take shape in Littleton we heard from local leaders who have successfully implemented climate action plans in their towns and we learned about the value that that brought to their Community it was a great opportunity to build an early coalition with all the citizens and fellow board members Comm committee members and town employees to identify and think about how to address littleton's needs through the climate action plan which leads us to 2025 and what we're excited about we have three key initiatives on our plate that we expect to take to U make progress on in 2025 the first is a shared sustainability resource with the towns of peppol Townsen and dunable made possible through an Energy Efficiency and conservation block grant we're partnering with the ta's office to focus on developing a path to create a CLI climate action plan and we'll be coming back to you for your advocacy and support and feedback uh as that plan becomes clearer secondly we're excited about our engagement with the ta's office and working with the mass Fleet advisor to identify opportunities for our Municipal Fleet to be electrified as uh Vehicles need to be replaced we can look at whether it makes sense to replace those with electric vehicles also to um look at the overall charging uh structure in Littleton and how the town can can charge their vehicles efficiently we're committed to ensuring sustainable growth in Littleton and we look forward to engaging on the Shaker Lane school project and the 550 King Street development we welcome your feedback and engagement on how we can best support you in ensuring that that uh we take significant sustainable actions with these and any other major investments in town so thank you for your sponsorship and for having us here for the update and um if you have any questions I'm happy someone is paying attention to all of this stuff and I think we're getting a bargain based on your budget so I appreciate I appreciate I appreciate all the time and effort that you're spending on this I do think it's very important um I think it has an outsize impact on uh what we do in the future so Forge ahead you I just am continually surprised and amazed at the amount that you all can accomplish with the resources you have at your disposal and I think it's uh says a lot about who you are and how well you all work together to get that done um I thought the The Forum especially on the climate action plan it was so well attended and it was it was really informative and it brought a lot of people in who who we don't see all the time and that's that's a big accomplishment so thank you for that just thank you for you know all that you've done it's um it's it's good to for us to get this update so not only for us to understand all that you're doing but also so everybody else you know the thousands that are watching at home um to be updated as well but thank you to everybody on the committee and with every committee it's it's uh it's a labor love it takes a lot of time and um you dedication and volunteerism is definitely appreciate it thank you yeah e what everybody said also just as I looked at some of the um dealing with the electric um vehicle parking spaces do we are you part of the um I guess when a new like Northern Bank and Trust for instance putting in or they're up in building as does your group ever been invited to conversations with them on what their plan is you um I'm just saying I'm not sure we've been invited we did I I I know when the the um that development was in front of the planning board we did actually attend and we did um provide some feedback asking for them to put in that infrastructure for charging okay that was the yeah I just think we could make that part of just if you're G to do business with Littleton this this the sustainability committee needs to be brought in at least for discussion and awareness seems like the planning board would I going to say that building to bring them into the conversation building department and the planning board can make sure that like when we approve any kind of anything we input in the police to fire the UN we can ask at least that it be yeah part of the yeah checklist just to make sure that it is all right thank you yeah great and through all those those different organizations and and um meetings that we do attend Statewide we we gain a lot of information that that can be helpful um for us to provide input to projects like that awesome thank you I think you guys do a great job um I am surprised you guys don't ask more from us on things that we can help you with um so please feel you know reach out when there's things that you're struggling with um that you need our helps with help with right yes through me gladly um I will also um I know Acton has their um climate coaches is that what their fault they inv their energy coaches and things and is their talk of starting that expanding that program to Littleton too or we we haven't specifically talked about that we are aware of it um if it's something that the especially if there's Community interest because that does pull in community members to be trained as as coaches and then sort of spread the information out so if if anyone wants to get in touch with us sustainability at open master um we would definitely be willing to make the connections to make that happen they want award at the MMA for Innovation or something inov Innovative yeah yeah they they work closely with U Mass energized um and mass energized uh they did four uh towns doing a plug-in campaign where they they did a lot of focused help on to to those towns um it was funded through I believe through um some State funding through Jamie Aldridge and um they did a lot of helping them Reach Out through social media and run programs and um so that's that's a pilot program since we're connected into the mass energize ecosystem will um you know the lessons that they've learned they're passing along and so we're going to benefit from those effs so the other thing at the MMA conference for those that aren't aware the um Welsley police department has a now has a EV um it's a Chevy Equinox that's in a fully electric Patrol vehicle it um it's the first one that's been certified for the state to my the first model that's been certified for the state so um I spent some time talking to them about their experience uh with that and it's something that we should you know socialize more and get more um people involved with um a lot of their I was talking to the one of the police officers who uh sounded more um most of the issues were like not understanding how enough about EVS in general then specific issues with the car like they still have range anxiety um a lot so but it might be nice to for someone to reach out to Welsley and get their experience and help on sharing it back yeah and hopefully we can get some um good advice from I mentioned the fleet advisor and we've done our our committee has helped um together with with Diane Dickerson um and then inputs from a lot of the Departments we've buil an inventory of all the vehicles and the mileage that they're driven the age of them and their fuel efficiency that goes to um the state program called Mass Fleet advisor and they'll look at that and they'll um make some recommendations on what vehicles would be best to to replace okay and police cars are are one of those Cruisers are one of those uh they're apparently not substant they're slightly more expensive before the credits but after the all the energy credits I think they're roughly the same price as a hybrid so so thank you thank you great thank you cultural Council thank you for letting me slip into to this very busy evening so Kim albertelli cultural Council and last year we planted flowers and butterflies and we put that in the common and we didn't have a firm beginning date we didn't have a firm ending date so we thought we'd ask this year as to when the mowing starts when the ground thaws and when we can start planting because last year everybody that did this and provided this for us wanted more we gave each other we gave people like 10 or 15 and they all wanted 50 so we think it's going to be bigger each year and that sounds fun and we thought well we better ask can we do it in front of the police station can we do it in front of the fire station is there other buildings that we we should avoid can we do that so that's why I'm here I think it's great yeah just all the ab yeah just so you know if you limit it that means I have U more storage in my garage but if you give us ad hoc permission I'm gonna need a I'm gonna need a bigger garage so then I'll go to the planning board go forth and it was awesome yeah so basically we're looking we understand that last year we planted a lot on the grass we avoided all of the mulched areas thinking that that was the right thing to do but now we are taught that perhaps The Mulch is the better place to go because then they can mow around us so our goal is to do that this year and we'll obviously wait for the thought and then we understand that if somebody shoots us a date when the high school things go out we will get out of the way for the graduates okay so maybe we'll be there for four or six weeks yeah I I don't know who's doing the high school also we have somebody dating us at the cultural Council coming to our meeting so maybe the ninth uh slot will be filled after all so yeah we might be good okay great yeah okay thank you I can say yes yes yeah thank hold on yeah wait hold on that the select board vote to approve the cultural council's request to place 12in flowers and butterflies on town own property locations including the town common police and fire stations and the park at the Crossing of Harwood inwan roads second by Matthew second my Karen all those in favor he now you can go thank I appreciate your I think m mington in May that yeah you should probably check with DPW on where the best locations are and timing it's usually May thank you affordable housing actually country oh no that was oh country garders I'm sorry good evening one one second is there anyone for Country gardeners or we just not sure is there anyone here from country gardeners straightforward request so they just want to use the town common for their annual plant sale correct Mother's Day just before Mother's Day yeah yeah I'll set move that the select board vote to approve the use of the Littleton common for the Littleton country Gardener annual plant sale scheduled for May 10th 2025 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. including set up set up on May 9th 2025 second mve by Matthew second M Karen all those in favor I thank you okay now you're up sorry my Mist Angus Michaels I'm here on behalf of the affordable housing trust and uh we want to talk about the uh homeowner small grant program that L recently uh was awarded by the um housing Choice uh Grant uh Office of the executive office of Housing and livable communities it's a total of $120,000 and uh it offers uh $7,500 for critical home repairs uh for qualified uh Litton residents uh there are strict eligibility criteria and these are the property must be the primary residence and in need of critical repair uh the income must not exceed 80% of litton's median income and the occupant must intend to live in the home for at least the next 12 months so those are the basic eligibility criteria um they also list what the grant can be used for it's it's an extensive list I'm not sure you want to um sit here and list listen to all of that it can be looked up somewhere else um and the town does have incentives that the town can offer uh obviously the wave uh permit uh building permit fees are waved and the town makes uh payment directly to the contractor upon completion of the approved uh repairs the uh affordable housing trust has gone ahead and uh um prepared agreements and uh procedural flow for administering this grant uh these are in process and hopefully should be ready soon uh we also have uh prepared an award letter that is also in the works and these will be made available as soon as um they're all uh set to go so this in a nutshell is the program it's fairly simple and straightforward if the residents qualify are there any questions so um this program um we applied for the state Grant and we awarded $120,000 to spend over the next two years uh to help residents basically stay in their homes and uh the affordable housing trust is ready to go live with this program now after several months of uh back and forth on setting it up and contract work and everything so um it's a partnership with um U uh executive yeah yeah EHS is going to uh oversee the um a lot of the uh paperwork at EHS and the building department right are going to vet everything so the Building Commissioner is going to vet the contractors yes and the work of course yes yes so so uh I believe we're ready Martin are we ready to go live So the plan is for it to go live next week I think you know this one I mean I'm on the disability commission I think I'll bring this up because this is one that we want to make sure that members of that board as well are yes for accessibility right we might have might know individuals needs that aren't being that's great thank you thank you than you very much thank you do um we're a little bit ahead maren are you here for anything other than the last item so can we take maren out of order so she can go home uh 5c the contract for green International thank you very much um so planning board uses U green International Affiliates um for peer reviews and for um construction oversight for uh new subdivision roadways um realize that their contract was due for Renewal so the request is for the select board to vote to authorize uh a new contract new three-year contract with green uh there's no funding required for this contract each TK order under the contract is funded um by the applicants by the developers so the only question I well there was two things one is the contract had the wrong year for the start date it said okay stting 2024 okay um um my only other question was it said like a $50,000 limit is that um okay so the 50,000 it's since we would expect um green International to earn over $50,000 throughout the three years that's what triggered the need to come to the select board for approval okay authorizing Jim off yeah so this isn't anything that costs the town any money it's build back to the developers it's just it's over 50,000 so we have to approve no one have any questions any okay M let the select board vote to authorize a town administrator's office to execute a contract with green International Affiliates for the provision of Engineering Services for peer reviews of development and Redevelopment proposals on behalf of the planning board second move by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor thank you very much thank you good night okay now we can move back to Conservation Commission a [Music] evening again Chase gerig co-chair of the Conservation Commission um we're here to talk about lot 107a neog Hill Orchard area um I guess let me set the stage what I'm hoping to get from you all tonight is a sense of direction how we want to go about looking at subdividing well subdividing this parcel and then um transferring it to the care custody and control the Conservation Commission that's what we're suggesting is the the right disposition but we understand there are a lot of ideas about what needs to be done here so um what I'd like to do is lay out sort of our vision for this and then engage with you all and what you see the right process to be to go forward with it uh for the although I think you're all familiar with it let me set the stage real quickly um when we talk about neog Hill Orchard here we're talking about portion of the orchard that is not part of what's being leased the non-leed portion this is um you can see on this map up here that little hatched area is the the portion of lot 107 that we propose subdividing and transferring to the car cust control of the Conservation Commission that is sort of across the streets in multiple ways from the the actual orchard right so this not part of the Agricultural is not part of the APR it is not part of um the apple orchard as as people know it that said that the town acquired this parcel in Am 2001 rest yeah yeah there thereabouts um and what we would like to do what the the conservation commission's objective here is to conserve this particular parcel of land not the entirety of it but just a portion of lot 107 and Jim or Ryan if you wouldn't mind to flip to that actually the very end picture here I think does a better job of telling the story than any map does um what you see here is is the road and the top right is um is the lake and then you see a pond here you see an Open Meadow and and one of the challenges of this parcel is it's sort of well equipped to grow a lot of invasive species we've had troubles with invasive species here 2019 we had to to do an invasive species management plan with the support of the trust so there's conser like just pure conservation pieces of it there's an element of this that is associated with passive Recreation what we're proposing to subdivide is 7. Nish Acres that's a useful amount of land to do passive Recreation on it's also immediately across the street from the trust Sarah dublet Forest so the ability to access both the sad dublet forest and this piece of the conservation land is is very valuable right from a passive Recreation perspective so so Chase just to set this picture the buildings in I guess it's on the lower left is like the cottage right yes and that outside of that yeah I'm gonna Flip Flip back to another picture yeah um why don't we go with down one right the the assessors map version assess yep so what I did is I turned this picture on its side but here now at the bottom you have Nega in yellow is the 7.9 Acres that we're talking about potentially conserving um and then to the right of that is we're talking about subdividing this parcel the the portion of this parcel in white the big open space there that is not colored is part of this parcel currently what we're looking to do with your support is to subdivide this parcel and conserve the yellow portion while not separating out and conserving the white portion and the we've talked about this I think our boards have but for the sake of the public part of our argument for not conserving that is that it's got uh two structures on it and I I will tell you I mean I think the commission would be willing to work with you if if if you really wanted to see conservation control that I would say we're really good at a few things and managing true conservation land without structures is something we're really good with with the help of the trust you put structures on it that's a little outside of our wheelhouse we could probably do it if that was something you wanted we're proposing to keep those in the sort of town controlled parel right now um notably that that yellow area I want to point out a couple features um that really speak to the importance of conserving it you see the pond adjacent to nigag that that pond sort of has a a large riparian area around it there's also a stream that comes across this all sort of really beautiful Vistas right that's the other sort of main driver you stand on the road you walk this just the the views are probably some of the best in Littleton and that's frankly that was part of the motivation in 2019 of managing invasive species is that um they had sort of grown up and overtaken what was historically honestly one of the most beautiful parts of town so um so with that you know we talked about this last fall we understand I got a email from Mark to the water department that the water department is also um interested in understanding what options they might have in this area with respect to some treatment plant sighting for water from cobs uh right now I've had a brief dialogue with Nick Lawler plan would be to sort of sit down with Nick and understand what they would need and does this boundary work for them we think it probably does in fact before we brought this to the select board in the fall we had met with Corey for a while and I think Amy you and Sarah had walked the land with Corey so we we're very confident that there's a solution there Corey was was good with this this uh delineation but we'll go back to the the water department and for the public the dividing line is basically the stone wall there's an existing stone wall there so that's effectively the dividing line and so the the question we have for you is process well I I guess let me step back one is General support right conceptually does this make sense to you all and because we we know that there's some legal and administrative processes that we need to go through so first is generally at a high level does this make sense to you and if it does what process would you envision to go forward with the effort to conserve this understanding that our goal conservation's goal is to bring this forward to to town meeting with your support um dis Sprint do you know if the partial has been legally subdivided survey plan you see there sorry work for us conservation the um the plan you see there is a surveyed plan uh for the subdivision we haven't gone to plane of board yet because we wanted to make sure it was approved before okay that step but it's that's just not that this is Germain would that subdivision have to be approved by town meeting because it's Municipal land or is it just a planning board not the subject the transfer the transfer needs to be approved okay thank well we're going we we first will have to give make it excess okay right then surus Surplus excuse me we have to declare a surplus yeah we will well do we we just transfer control I believe I don't think we'd have to clear it cus we have to agree to transfer control because it's not worth selling the property uncertainty I think what what would make the most sense is if you are generally supportive and willing to give us license to work with the Town Administrator and Town Council we can come back to you with what's the right process because I I think there's some questions around so I'm generally supportive I think that there was a there was a town meeting warrant there's a warrant article from 2015 which it it seemed from my reading of it the intention was to put this under conservation at is that is that what you think that article was that is that is my understanding but I wasn't there Sarah seaward was has been involved with the acquisition of this property Sarah SE word co-chair of the Conservation Commission this property RIT large going back to when the Morrison owned it and her understanding is that the intent longterm was exactly that and the intent of the 2015 town meeting article to approve the subdivision was with that in mind understanding that the reason we are in front of you is that it doesn't actually say that if it said that we would just go forward so that that is her understanding dating back to when the morison over so I'm generally in favor of allow of giving you control of this to to conserve it yeah I mean I'd like to see a more flushed out plan I mean you have some great ideas you were mentioning just to control to be able to actually access it view it get as close close to the water as possible obviously without um getting into too much trouble there but um I think it's a beautiful location and um the the Light and Water piece um outside of the well discussion is also the piping of water from neog so we know that in maybe not next year in the next 10 but we will have access to that water um which who know if if we'll need it um and I will point out Gary right that although the on this picture the planed left version conserves the shorefront for a portion of that on plan right there's a lot of exposed access to Nega and and it just looks like there that they this if something had to be done it could be run to the right of this y I'm I'm have to assume 107 yeah it's 107b I I would actually argue you would almost always want to because otherwise you've either got to cross through that pond or you've got to cross that stream that runs to the edge it's setting aside sort of all current subdivision lines and so on you be hard pressed to find and there's also there's already structures in the white portion right there's barns there's a bunch of uh old stuff from the orchard some dilapidated out buildings yeah and and also old sprayer tanks and stuff so I mean it's not like that's pristine Wilderness um and if the if that would be a good location for a treatment if there was going to be a treatment plan because it's completely invisible and hidden as far as I know from any any residences and the road my only concern was access and yeah from from this picture there looks like there's a lot of Street access off of nagog Hill off of that other parcel I don't know how true that is when you actually go out there and look because I think it drops off fairly substantially so my only my only concern is like that little section by the AG there whether they would have to come in that direction to get access park behind the barn well to kind of come in either they're going to have to come in between the barn in the cottage which kind of limits the use of the barn in the cottage or they come around it which is conservation on this picture right definitely and there there is a a driveway that goes all the way down to the pond in the white part okay between the between the barn in the cottage right it's where it goes starts there and and then Works its way down interestingly enough if you swing to the ins set to the top right you can actually see the the driveway marked as a road up there non let's say the nonconserved portion and we didn't speak with Nick it was just Corey Corey was looking at at the top part now whether or not they you know things change but that's initially where he was looking by top part Amy if I may um what the white the white the plan the corner between up sah dou Nega pretty much there's a field up there y so you're facing the bar just the stop to the left okay um and could you clarify if conservation had this would it there wouldn't be any restrictions like if the town or someone wanted to if the Conservation Commission decided to turn it into put a gazebo up or turn it into something more than just completely passive that's still possible under conservation that would still be possible you know frankly I think the biggest constraint here is going to be from conquered water yeah um they they were very cautious when we did the clearing and there's a lot of communication and and actually they reached out to me Melissa suon they see over there reached out to me just because she happen to see it on our agenda and said hey what's going on you know because they're fully supportive of of this piece of it um they don't want Trails down to the reservoir they want to conserve as much they do not want yeah they wouldn't want Trails past that Little Beaver Pond thing um they don't want the public there's been fishing Trails down there but they're pretty much overgrown well Gaza wouldn't go any further than that anyway it would it would be on this side yeah it would be up top where you get the views yeah but yeah so we could do something as long as we're cognizant of our neighbors yeah so I mean worst case you could build a nature center under on conservation land so it's you get latitude yeah so it's really just access and the parking I mean Sarah dou got such a small lot this this would definitely add some interest um well we'll we'll cross that bridge I guess when it comes because there is land there is space behind that Barn for we've talked about that it's almost it's kind of a rough soil almost like it was used for parking back in there we could probably it's a pretty good area back there for it was parking 20 30 cars yeah so it's something maybe we keep in mind for you that doesn't have to be in conservation so but but from my point of view that's why I I wouldn't want to see you know the white part because there's buildings on it there's more things you can do if you subdivide it you have to worry about setbacks and you know it's a lot of if just leave a big if you will massive of land up there yeah I'm I'm in favor so yeah so is a matter of process will engage with light and water are there any other um are there any other sort of evaluations that you would like to see before we come back to you with what we would propose you're going to figure out the declaring it Surplus and who needs to get permission all as long as you're good with us accessing some time from Town Council yes yeah sure any other yeah I mean I certainly want to make sure that we we're crossing all te's you but all the eyes uh relative to light and water and um certainly Amy you've got the input relative to conquer to make sure that we're not um you know we're doing something that's not going to cause them to raise some Flags L we want to keep them at at pay as much as possible um but nothing I mean in principle it seems like if we start putties down by the water will they give us more money or annual Bond our annual bonfire right there put a PTY down by the pond oh yeah that don't poke the bear um yeah just make it beautiful already it's already a beautiful spot like you said I think it's yeah that challenge honest keep that down you can just yeah it's a beautiful spot so what I'd like to do then is um I was we work with with Jim and Ryan but um keep a fairly consistent drum beats of engaging with light and water engaging with Town Council I don't know if two weeks from now is sufficient time let you know but I would imagine at the furthest four weeks from now to come back to you with a um where are we at with light and water where are we at with Town Council do you envision after that let's say we come back light and water says yes uh and Town Council gives us the process do you envision any other sort of public discussion sessions around what to do with that this was one of my understandings from the fall was we hadn't talked about it enough and I want to make sure we're talking about it enough I mean this it's going to go on warrant like March 15th or March yeah but it was on the warrant article to write it's already written not I love you guys I don't need to be here anym than you want me I would like to see one more you know obviously we need to speak Town Council you're G to come back and then I think we are going to have to declare it Surplus okay I believe that was a discussion that was one of the issues we had in May um the second so I would suggest once you have all your ducks in a row with Town Council we we'll hold a public hearing okay and then people can come and speak for or against it and um and then we'll know effectively is like any other planning Bard zoning article that would go forward we can put it out that way very good so awesome thanks J thank you all thank you thank you thanks the committee thanks uh public input members updates you want to start with members updates sure okay I don't have anything to uh attended the MMA conference um from Thursday to Saturday it's um a really great opportunity that we have on the select board to get together with other folks that are also on select boards across the state and talk about what they're experiencing um and how they're handling their problems and a little bit of brainstorming lots of inspiration um I would just like to thank all of Littleton um my mom as is saying be grateful for your own problems um and after uh after the conference I'm definitely grateful that we have the problems we have and not the problems some of our neighbors have um yes but um I think it's it's a great opportunity there's a lot to you know be able to take in um there was a lot of discussion about civil communication and where you can have effective discussions it was an interesting conversation with one session where only about half the folks in the room had local newspapers and it was astonishing how different the perspectives were the folks that had the local newspapers really couldn't understand you know why the folks who don't have local newspapers like Littleton um are are experiencing some of the issues we're having and vice versa we're like you don't you don't have this problem you know um so I would just um like to thank the town honestly for making that that opportunity um available to us because it's it's a great learning experience and there's a lot to be learned and and uh we did our best to learn it yeah I'll I'll Echo that having attended as well and um I there's there's a lot of scheduled sessions that um there specific agendas in you know uh learning sessions and in um introducing us to different topics um which are great um but you're you know you're in a classroom watching the PowerPoint deck not another one um which is awesome but a lot of discussions to your point Karen like at the coffee bar or you know just just between sessions you just get so much more even if if anybody does it professionally goes to a trade show or something like that conversations that you have on the trade show floor or um just again between sessions um the networking meeting other folks that do what we do um Jim introduced me to um the mayor of hail and I had a great conversation um the poing development has done some development in hail and has some other proposed development to happen in hail so we just it was a good introduction just to kind of let's keep an eye on each other and make sure that keep each other in check and and updated and make sure we're holding everybody to the fire kind of thing so um yeah it was definitely beneficial and I definitely appreciate the opportunity to be able to do that and um learn can always learn something I really don't have anything to add just you know I think your work and the you know the board's work to push forward an electronic um mailing and you know the podcast I think is going to help reach a reach a few more people um and you know I think thousands technology leaning that way almost as many as who are watching tonight I think we we will Littleton will get and I think our goal is to get to a point where we can do a mail out yeah you know and that that's just going to require but we'll get there um so I was also at the MMA conference I it was great information um I I also like the one where we were just around the select board members and they were asking like what your level of stress was um and um uh I think about half of the members said it was moderate and um another 30% said it was high but not very high there were very few on the extremes um so um and I agree with Karen that based on what some of the other stores uh were there we have it pretty good here in Littleton um so um a couple other things I have I attended the um Eagle Scout presentation for Matias lacroy a couple weeks ago um it uh he put in the um the um little little free little free food pantries in around town um and there will be another one going in over at the 36 King Street once the uh construction's farther far enough along so congratulations to Matias um the Littleton Lum is holding a program uh this Friday I believe it's at 7:30 at um the the high school I think it's Alex the jester um I went to the Newsies performance for the Middle School um yesterday at the um Performing Art Center it was an incredible performance it was packed in there it was great to see everyone out supporting um the middle school I believe there were 57 uh middle schoolers in the production and about 18 high schoolers to help support them it would uh it went off really well they did a great job congratulations to everyone um and thanks to Tracy O'Neal and uh the music director whose name's escaping me yes um for all their hard work um Gary and I met with the finance team uh last week um to try and reduce um the the cost of um the over what the override for Shaker Lane will be um there's been a a lot of work going on and I can't thank the finance team enough for all the work they've put into this um there'll be more information coming out at our meeting on Saturday our budget meeting on Super Saturday about this but there's been a ton of work to go in to make this much um not necessarily cheap but more affordable for the residents and more palatable and um I can't say enough about the amount of effort that people have put in so so thank you so do you have any updates on projects you want to give uh let's see so um let's see so for um 36 King We are continuing to meet weekly um we are working to determine a Way Forward specifically about some of our hpac uh aspects of it um kindy of work with our team in terms of some um some things that came up that weren't exactly what we had hoped for uh but we'll be reporting back on that hopefully soon and um as far as the senior center uh we are still on target uh for opening the center on Shad Street uh for substantial completion on March 11th um the we're discussing uh potential uh ribbon cutting dates and then it'll probably be pushed to um after town meeting and after the election um at a time when the weather's a little better we'll be able to do some Landscaping at that point so um that's our Our Hope for the center in satic street are are you intentionally being vague about the aack problems well we're still trying there most of the building is is okay it's just that there are there's another segment that um we're we're just trying to kind of get again get our arms around um we you know we we have we're trying to figure out a strategy and trying to do something that potentially um meets our our goals with in terms of the sustainability committee and looking at potential heat pumps on it maybe as as a way to as an alternate than what's to what's already there we're continuing to uh uh as as you have tonight to authorize uh for me to sign the contract with uh with the company that's doing the infrastructure up at 550 King Street uh we continue to have conversations with the owner of that of uh for the timing of when that's going to the timing of 550 King Street with the timing of when that's that's going to occur um and also uh thinking long long range in regards to when they go vertical um and what is going to be really particularly honed down into what's going to be phase one with within vertical another area that has really um uh taken up a some a lot of our our time in the uh in the office has been with the with the closure of nooba Valley Medical Center uh the the efforts that have been put forth by uh the public safety um departments in all 13 communities is is is quite taxing and we have had multiple meetings uh with uh as we all know UMass is uh is interested uh in doing something on a um on an emergency room level they'll also be able to have do some Radiology do some do some things like that it's a it's an environment it is nothing to it's nothing like an urgent care care whatsoever so and I know some people have turned around and they've expressed that it is nothing like that this is uh trauma uh go in and typically approximately 80 to 90% of the people uh are brought to the emergency room they will have a bed capacity there for approximately 24 hours uh and then at that point they'll be discharged or they'll be transfer to a hospital or you know something like that uh and talking with UMass uh there is uh there's in-depth conversations about uh location location location and it is not going to be at where uh stward had uh exited uh at the at that site uh that is uh that is absolutely fair and uh apparently there is a uh there there is still connection with Steward to have ownership of that it's just really it's a it's a it's an offshoot of of Steward actually owns the property and uh there's been a level of of difficulty to say the least want nothing to do with it correct they just they're not walking away from them they're running away from them so uh but we uh the chief and I are going to meet with the chair of the Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday afternoon and it's something that uh going back to the what was the a letter that was written by the 13 Chiefs and and and the community the state representatives the Senators uh and uh advocating that the um the impact that it's had on the public safety personnel is is is is alarming the the emotional stability is absolutely when you go from one uh very very critical emotional accident or occurrence or event to another to another to another without without a breather and without days off because uh there are uh call backs all the time so we are going to to give uh we're advocating on behalf of the 13 communities uh to uh for a financial investment by the state uh that because we are right now at 117% of our overtime for the fight dep Department we've over spent it we're halfway through and it's something that uh we are very concerned about um their emot everyone's emotional stability but we want to be able to give the flexibility to communities to hire someone to bring them on board or to use it for overtime because some of those communities out there don't have the difficulty of of bringing anybody bringing people back and they don't have it because they don't have enough personnel and the Personnel are just refus it so there a lot of there's a lot of uh Mutual Aid that's going on with neighboring communities to help pick up the slack a little bit so we are uh we have been working very hard in uh in doing that and uh I will make sure I report back and that'll be our next podcast episode it will be Wednesday that's right that's right exactly so on 550 there's another potential Grant or there was uh $1 million that was uh that was provided by the executive office of Housing and live uh livable communities and that really is as a result of funds that for projects that have been awarded but are not shovel ready all the way so they do have a tendency uh the state does have have the flexibility to be able to um distribute funds that are that are shovel ready for projects that are shovel ready considering here we are going to sign a $2 and A5 million infrastructure we we can be able to continue that and that will help us uh further on down the road whether it be phase two or with engineering or anything like that but we'll be we'll be spending it pretty quickly and we will be submitting for uh Mass Works Grant again every year we can correct correct yeah exactly and there has been very optimistic on the uh on the on the governor's office side with supporting supporting that project well there's a lot of MBTA Community money out there that towns aren't getting so right and on the sewer project we saw a completion schedule with repaving and things we should see if we can get that in the newsletter and share that out I believe they were restarting the they have a little bit more of uh work on uh King Street that they'll be doing once the Tha happens and then right a final Paving over the course of the summer into the early fall well we really and that's the other thing we've really been communicating we've worked hard uh Ryan and I have worked hard in in talking with lwd we would like to be able to see that done by June 30th yeah you know not go into the fall that's our push um and I have um two updates on the orchard that uh we are working we believe uh we'll have a meeting with bransfield on February 12th in the community room of the police station to talk about uh where the public can ask him questions about his proposal it's the time and everything is still it's not firm yet but that's what we're shooting for and we're reached out to mapc to schedule more informational meetings and we're waiting to hear back from them on dates so uh I had a question um yank I Haven I haven't been around still up is it still up yeah I will send an email before the evening is I the record is there sitting there it has been yeah exactly so I will uh uh I will absolutely send that off uh before tonight's over when we do that could we also just mention that elm tree again keep it top of mind for them okay it's outside the fence which is a good sign I think they're going to say that I think it's because it is outside the fence it won't be part of yeah they're going to say yeah you know we know we know we know but just okay absolutely several hundred years old you sure thing okay so we'll do public input uh 10 minutes I'll limited to two minutes each please thank you Amy Chara Lewis at 3A away um so just to go to Chase's uh presentation as a former member of the um apple orchard committee and as a res former resident of conquer I think seems like a good plan to me um I did have one request so that um Bend in the road um where the David Sullivan and Ro Sullivan live my corner is so so dangerous I drive that route um that road several times a week people come flying around that corner and it's super narrow and David Sullivan can attest to how many accidents how he's seen since he's been living there at that intersection because kids drive super fast like there was an accident with a teenager who had literally got his driver's license that day um to H to make sure that there's some safety for pedestrians Crossing back and forth um I think it's a real potential Hazard um my second point was just to kind of bring people aware so I'm at 3 omega way and there's a project uh sitting with a planning board at 550 New Town Road where the storage facility is I just wanted to make sure people understood that building that they're proposing is bigger than Market Basket like it's square footage will literally be bigger than Market Basket and how inappropriate it is for that um project to be there it it needs to be redirected to the industrialized area because that's why we did all the planning for the different zones and that's where they need to go to um additionally I know this is like the third rail Comet um I'm really concerned um about our new Administration and um loss of funding in our state um and I'm wondering what your plan is if we lose Educational Funding um just like anything like what is your what's your plan because like I I do grant writing for agriculture and so many grants have literally just been put on hold so there are are farmers and producers who have been awarded grants and are accepting money and their projects are being executed and they've been put on hold thank you so far this the AFF dris schol Administration has been very supportive of schools they've announced at um at the MMA conference that they've increased the minimum Aid per student and they're waiting for the legislature so uh petition your local legislators to make sure that they continue to support the schools and and Chapter 70 chapter 90 in the budgets we will continue you haven't seen anything I mean so far it's looking good for this year yeah they seem so yeah thank you impending doom right thank you that brings up a good point like we we own that road obviously by yeah by the conservation land we could put in a a raay strip even that you know really make it people are going to have to slow down they're going to feel it or Rumble it or whatever we have to do there because that's it is a I know when we go down there to visit it it's like wow yeah so anything we can do to force slowdown I guess what you would call it cor so I'll have to talk to uh Vincent stolo Sarah dubl um I wanted to uh first of all the corner that you're talking about I I live right there and um it is uh as as Amy mentioned it is it is treacherous uh the um the speed limits are not they're not nearly uh enforced is the wrong word they're not near followed um and it it causes tremendous amount of problems um but uh I'm I wanted to uh get some clarification when it came to the uh the Orchard and the discussion sessions that um you folks had mentioned and there a little bit of confusion um because I've I've kind of heard two different things over the last few weeks um with regard to public input and questions uh and I want to uh understand when that uh is happening Visa V the decision on the whether or not to move forward with the lease with the this prospective new tenant um it was always my understanding that the public would have uh the opportunity to address things prior to a lease decision being made but it seems like maybe it's going to be like sort of a meet and greet with the new um occupant of the uh of the land and just wanted to get some feedback as to what the thinking was and uh where you know where that falls on the timeline so as far as the potential February 12th meeting with the new tenant it will be before we sign any lease um as far as the MPC meetings they're still up in the air exactly when they'll be scheduled versus a agreement the original idea when we were talking about the mapc meetings were help us more when we were planning on going for a sale um and to help this time of year uh build a consensus behind this uh a sale of the property on if the lease proceeds we don't need to go towards the sale so they'll be structured slightly differently on what we're coming out with but the the MBC meetings are not strictly re reference to the lease process understood okay thank you there thank you Dustin Neil 17 Lakeshore Drive um I'm currently serving as president of the Littleton conservation trust I also wanted to address this issue and um although I was the principal author of the letter I hope you all read this week from Littleton conservation trust it was written collectively from our group and I wanted to extend and make sure that in the past there's been some perceived conflict between conservation and town government that's not our intent whatsoever we really do want to collaborate as much as possible because we know that we can all accomplish more the more that we collaborate um that said I'm really glad to hear that a leas decision will not be made until after that uh February 12th meeting as was just mentioned um this group and many others in town have put a Herculean effort into the process that we were given the problem is that it's an imperfect process so when we get a process even when executed correctly when it creates a really deeply imperfect solution it's incumbent on us to do everything that we can to look for Alternatives and that's what Littleton conservation trust is asking for we want to help make any alternatives we find happen and take the power of the conservation trust the other organizations we're tied with all of the residents Littleton um to support that um and I wish we had been able to do that that or known before the May 2024 meeting or the timing had been a little bit different town meeting because we could have easily gotten those extra votes and I know we could get them this time if we take a different course I appreciate your time thank you thank you oh I do have one other quote I just wanted to um mention to you I'm going to read this quote it's from a local landscaping company who uh in part specializes in removing invasive plants their website says they are deeply it is deeply gratifying work to preserve and restore indigenous plant communities for the benefit of Wildlife and the preservation of extent genetic diversity I'm going to read it again I'm going to remove one word and replace it with another it is deeply gratifying work to preserve and restore indigen excuse me indigenous communities for the benefit of Wildlife and preservation of extent genetic diversity that quote is from the website of bran F tree company we share a lot of goals with them our problem with is with the process not with that than Rob R 25 Juniper Road uh I appreciate you when I'm done it might not sound like that but I appreciate you um I disagree with you on too many aspects about the nagog hill Orchard um I seriously considered petitioning you to convene a special meeting I was talked out of that I deeply regret being talked out of that at this Point uh as one of you said months ago on that unsuccessful third RFP for lease process can serve as a data point uh the select board can use that data point to justify bringing forward another RFP to sell um I remember another one of you saying Kristen's point is well taken it's illustrative of why we would be terrible landlords despite our best efforts during that October 21st select board meeting you collectively discussed bending and doing gymnastics in order to try to rationalize how to continue on with the process you essentially debated whether the process was tainted Beyond repair and yet you decided to open the envelope you decided you want to proceed I mistakenly believed what you said when you said that a couple of you would get together for office hours and listen to people with their comments I thought it would be more than just oneof comment ments which I appreciate you doing office hours and hearing from people like me with one offs but I want to hear from other people I want you to hear from other people I want us all to hear collectively so we can figure it out um how many times if I asked you convene a public hearing um I I'm asking the potential Lessie to withdraw I don't think it's a process that serves us well um I want the orchard to have the opportunity to become a beacon of Littleton Pride some of you spoke in July about your dreams about the orchard some of you recently speak as if the new leie is going to have rose-colored future you know all around it's going to solve our problems I want to remind you our experience with the last le e was horrible that left the orchard in a terrible spot it needs work too little has been done not enough was done before that may vote too little has been done to communicate how bad the situation is I fear this RFP for leas process is going to be another terrible chapter for the orchard it deserved better Littleton deserves better uh I believe I'm happy to hear some aspect of white heard tonight I think it's the first time that I've heard about MPC involvement I know they interviewed me weeks ago I think you've effectively walled off mapc with regard to the public imp that they have that they're should be ready to give you um I know such public inut would make your jobs extremely more challenging to have to confront everything that's out there um you know they're very good candidates uh out there who want to buy the orchard the potential leie is one of them the Sha pray Indians are another and you know there are others out there as well the RFI revealed them um uh L littleton's ownership of the orchard appears at this point to be a failure um please don't execute this lease mdar notice of compliance can be managed you just need to be open to the outcomes but the outcomes can only only happen if you open up for other opportunities thank you thank you carola Mueller 8 East Roxberry Drive uh not on the orchard I wanted to um address a comment that Gary had made during uh the January 13th meeting for during your member update uh you gave a well-deserved kudos to Joe catalo and Ryan the project manager and the crew and all the extra effort that they put into the renovation of 12 Robinson Road there's really some nice elements in it and while it's different than what we first envisioned um we definitely are considering it a reuse and a preservation win um I'd like to kind of give the historical commission uh some thanks for their hard work I should have done that too I yeah this is the first time a project like this has been done in Littleton um so we had no local Road mapap and they especially their chair lindstein put in a lot of time learning about how to get it done and getting the the uh preservation deed completed so I'd like them recognize too and then you spoke a little bit about the cost of developer um in projects that um I might have to give to an old building and I certainly don't dis dispute that but I hope that we don't just give up trying to save some of these links to littleton's past you know hope when you walk into the next building that's older than 1950 you don't see a stain or a you know broken board and say better tear it down um and I could kind of sense in your voice what you were thinking um about you know future projects we have because there's always ways to partner with developers or nonprofits um to revitalize and reuse the buildings um may have to do something creative something that littleton's never done before and there are a number of unique projects in the Commonwealth um between municipalities and uh development companies nonprofits there's been some great ones big city like walam but even the small Sunderland has a really great example of something they have done um we're going to see a huge transformation in the common in the next decade it's going to make it it's going to look like a new town so I feel like we need to kind of be the caretaker ERS for the um historical project um historical properties in town everyone that comes to Litton says there's a field there's this historic field the small town field and I think we really are going to have to pay attention to that in the future um you know those of us who have lived here all our lives we kind of have to pass on that feeling to people moving into town who don't have the ties to Littleton like we do um our history I also say it's not like Harvard's which is in your face you go to Harvard Center and it's there ours is a little more hidden and it's going to become even more hidden with um all the work up at up town so our oldness is kind of hidden so I hope that with subsequent projects and subsequent properties that come up we just don't have that tear it down mentality and that we're open to saving some of littleton's historic past thank you so um I think the historical commission is on our agenda to come and speak at a meeting towards the end of Fe February one of the last meetings and Carolyn if you can either have them or if you can share with us some of those things you found that would be very helpful so thank you uh we have time for one more if anyone else wants to [Music] speak have two minutes Street I think that tan has made a really strong effort in bringing more um public education to the four through podcast through newsletter but with you know Facebook rumor mail being one of our only public um forums for for information it's really unfortunate and I I think that this vote failed at the town meeting because of lack of information and I think it failed by three votes and I really wish that we could pause this process and and put this up for for revote just like we were able to with the Webster property with the MBTA create better cultivate more public education and then change the vote and you know a lot of people can't attend meetings who have families who go to the town meetings and are learning about things for the first time and I think that we're working hard to to change that but we need a better disseminated out there and I think we're really in a historical moment here um as you know a member of LCT with an emotional I would call myself an em an emotional stakeholder um with being Sarah dublet being in a butter to the orchard this is a really potent powerful property and we're we're in a moment here that I just don't think we can let let go I know that everyone is very fatigued and this has been a long process for the orchard working group for the board of Select people but I think it would be a mistake to rush into leasing this property and I did have an interview with the um MPC this week and they were incredibly openhearted and willing to help and willing to hold um open forums and they actually felt a little in the dark about what was going on here um uh in terms of this potential lease going forward so I just ask that we pause and regroup and I hope for um hope that we could consider rev voting on this to sell and that we have really wonderful potential buyers out there including the NPI thank you so just for clarification on the M mapc we um made a conscious decision not to hold the mapc for forms while we were in initiating the lease negotiations because it appear it's a it's a conflict with the lease we can't be holding a forum talking as if we wanted to sell it at the same time we're trying to negotiate in good faith elas so it was a conscious decision to hold off on the forums at the time so that we weren't in that conflict make it short please um Kristen kazok um Cottage Way off of that I think what it would have been great is um a lot of us didn't know that that was in your decision-making process when you guys voted to go with bransfield for the lease you said December 15th with your deadline then you extended to December 30th and then it was no deadline and we're kind of not knowing what's happening so I think that's another component of just the communication of your process um I also just wanted to take off of the mention of the historical component um I've listened in on your discussion in terms of the Shaker Lane school and all the other projects that are going on Town and wanting to compete with other towns about our development and what we're offering to bring people to town but we have a lot already here and um The Orchard that land the historical component what it brings it's a unique piece of property with a unique history and nothing else can replicate that um so instead of woring about competing so much with other towns why don't we shine the light on what we offer as a town and attract the people that want to come and participate in what we're offering our rural community our historical um houses the work that they're going to be working on in the common everything else is coming together and this Orchard land is a gem for us to link the history to our future and where we want to go you know we might be building this big huge school for all these kids and if we're just kicking this lease down the road have a great kid have a great school kids but you're going to have to deal with the orchard you know so um let's bring their education to a wider sense in what we as a community can offer not only to each other but to the Commonwealth and to a greater purpose thank you okay uh moving on select board discussions uh contract with Jay dorenzo company for King Street Commons public infrastructure right this is the this is the winning proposal from the is it 13 bids or 18 bids 17 17 uh bids we receive for the infrastructure of 550 King Street we ever work with them before no is anybody pretty reputable yeah I think actually the um uh they worked um as my understanding is that um Tec has worked with them before so have a good reputation in the area Che right so just for clarity based on this letter we were expecting the bids to come in at 3.2 million and it came in less um it was just just for clarity with people reading the letter because I was confused the first time I read it all right right actually 18 B Jim and I were saying this is probably what the most amount of bids we've seen come in so a lot of interest in that I'm impressed you invented them so quickly anyone have any comments I trust y'all if you're comfortable with this company that's all that's the main thing yeah no it's been um it's been vetted um to you know already knew them and and did some did some like work on their end as well there there's actually a lot of reputable companies that oh sure on the bed list I recognize I just didn't recognize them I don't I'm not they do a lot of State work move that the select board vote to authorize Town Administrator James dougen to execute execute a contract with Jay dorenzo company for the King Street Commons public infrastructure project in the amount of 25414 se2 second mve by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor I it's the biggest number I've ever said no the biggest dollar figure I've ever said where there was real money being spent update on the charter committee process and selp to appoint a member to the Charter committee yeah well right now um as of as of this morning uh the deadline or the deadline is is I believe it's Wednesday of this week uh we so far we have uh in hand 12 applic wow great good news it was the podcast actually definitely the podcast both people that watch thank you Gary and Chuck yes and um and this is for uh the appointment of a select board voting member who wants it goody stws I guess I thought I didn't realize this I thought we were gonna see all the applicants and then decide whether we were going to appoint a select board member I didn't realize we were selecting a appointing somebody from the select board in advance of everyone else I thought when we discussed the process we agreed that one of the members was going to be a select board member am I misremembering that I seem to remember Gary wanting to dat this is a this is a big commitment I I'm I'm aware and I know it's a tough thing to look out 18 months and say you know much time do we have all the other subcommittees around so I don't know we have to see what we're actually charged with but I I almost would like to see the main part of having a select board member on there obviously is the knowledge of um a lot of municip municipality work and things like that but um we don't know what that list is we don't know prior select board members yeah we don't know what's on that board so to your point um it might beho us to wait but I don't know does that that I don't know if we want to Forfeit a member on the board it the the charge that we I believe we settled on so the membership of the charter Review Committee shall consist of seven to nine members as determined by the select board membership shall include one member from the board of Selectmen one member from the finance committee but then there's question marks question marks after each other things I don't think like it looks like we sort of no I don't remember saying the finance I thought we changed that because so we didn't want to require memberships from other committe yeah I thought that yeah so we did not say that there's definitely a member of any of the boards off we weren't being prescriptive okay all right yeah so perhaps we wait to review the applicants before we decide whether there's going to be a me unless this group feels it's important to have one selectman well at the very least somebody should be appointed to um a Lea's on yes 100% you can't be a voting member if your Lea is on right that's fire yeah um I mean I don't know that it matters whether there's a board member who's voted or not I but I'm willing to be I don't have a strong opinion about it one way or the other well we could we could decide in the liaison and then if we determine that maybe it would be better well the be voting to be a voting member then we can just change it or we could go back or we could go the other way and appoint that's true too actually it's probably better to appoint a member and then we just change it to if we have a bunch of strong candidates yeah we feel like the mix of of you know knowledge and strengths and what you know different people bring to the table we put the charge forward is there anybody that really wants to be on the committee to help mve along I mean yeah I mean it's I I know how important it is to the town and the outcome yeah that that's why you know you know I I kind of I wanted to do the draft the charter and things like that but yeah um I second your nomination guy it's a I'll third it I I don't have a problem being a liaison I don't really want to be on the committee right I don't want to be I I I go to enough meetings already I don't want to be committed to going to 24 meetings in the next year for this I think we'd be better off appointing a liaison and an alternate to go um or that's the position I would take for myself if someone else wants to sign up for it and can commit to going to the meetings and I'm fine with that but I personally don't think I could commit to going can appoint you appoint a member in the in the alternate yeah but the alternate can't vote unless we come up with some other Arrangement where there's a yeah select board and an alternate that one of us can yeah transfer of power chairman just I found the charge that we actually posted so the refi the final version said the membership of the Littleton Charter committee shall consist of 7even to9 members as determined by the select board period yeah that's we took out the question I I don't want to give this away I I just I think I would like to see our comfort level with the committee with the make up that's fair for municipality and governance and understanding there's a huge impact here and and I want to we do want we all agree we want a diverse group yeah some that don't have much knowledge of of any municipality we have all the we have the control we don't we don't have to do anything until we're comfortable I'm glad we did change the language for that so I'm not saying no to this because I I yeah um I I do recognize the commitment to it um and you know we're in an election year so what happens then you know yes only that's got guaranteed the tenure okay okay so we have it come back up on our next meeting well we're meeting next Monday to appoint the appoint right so so part of the mix potentially at that meeting we'll de slide WEA to point point between six and nine members of the public and okay whether we have a leaz on or take one of those membership okay you've already voted on 5c yep I don't remember seeing anything yeah we follow up in the dangerous dog stuff are we oh um there I um so on the dangerous dog stuff I have um I didn't realize I had to do it at the time but I have a form that I had to fill out so it will be I don't know if it needs a what signatures or not so Council um I have it back from Town Council they just sent it this afternoon so it will either you'll either get a docu sign or a notice to come in and please sign it's a incredibly complicated form to fill out I thank Karen for her help because I couldn't understand the legal terms so good to the minute yeah I thought the there was a lot to summarize and um yeah they're excellent yeah great job this is extra big yep so I move I don't any corrections or updates anyone good move that the select board vote to approve the meeting minutes from the select board meeting on January 13th 2025 second by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor I move that we adjourned the January 27th 2025 Littleton select board meeting meeting at 8:19 p.m. a new record second move by Matthew second by Karen all those in favor I thank you good thank you