Good evening everybody. Um, welcome to the select board meeting. Um, obviously I'm remote this evening. I'm not feeling all that great. I appreciate the the uh the willingness of the board to allow me to uh conduct the meeting from home.
Mike is aware that if if I run out of steam, uh he'll take over as uh as chair of the meeting um if that's necessary at any time. So, thank you Mike for volunteering for that. Um so because we are um somewhat remote tonight I have to
do a little brief introduction where I will say that in accordance with the open meeting law regulation 940 CMR 29.1 or10 rather please be advised that that I the the uh the chair David Gavin
are attending this meeting remotely in addition because I am attending remotely all votes at this meeting will be by roll call Lastly, if any select board members are not clearly audible to anybody, especially me or anybody else,
um or to the public, please notify us and uh we'll do what we can to resolve the problem. If the system goes down by any means, uh the board is instructed from my perspective to continue the meeting and Mike, you can take over at
that point should the uh should the live stream, you know, I mean the uh the Facebook thing go down or whatever we're on here. Um so from that we will we will move on. Um the initial item on the agenda tonight
is the pledge of allegiance. I'll ask Jeff, would you be willing to uh lead the board and the crowd in attendance in the pledge of allegiance 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. >> Thank you. First item, the the next item on the agenda is uh public comments. The board would like to hear public comments and if there are any further action that's
required by the board, we'll add the matter as appropriate to a forthcoming agenda. Uh depending on the comment, we may if we're able within the confines of the open meeting law respond with information as opposed to needing to deliberate on a particular issue. So,
having said that, I don't know if there's anybody in the room this evening, but if there is, are there any members of the public that would like to speak? I don't see anybody rushing to the to the four. Anybody online this evening with us that would like to speak on
public comments? And I don't see any hands raised. So, we will move on. The next item is consent. The consent agenda. Uh we have what four items on the
consent agenda. The use of town property for managed dough baseball. Uh the use of Crow Park for Metro West Yard Goats. Um also the first one is for the opening day parade on May 16th, 2025.
The Yard Goats is an adult baseball program at Crow Park for July and August. Then we have two cemetery deeds. Is there a motion to accept a consent agenda? >> I'll move to approve consent agenda items A through D as presented contingent upon adherence to all
federal, state, and local public health and safety guidance and to authorize the use of digital signatures if approved. >> Second. Second. >> Any further questions or comments? Hearing none, we'll vote. Mike, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes.
>> Lindsay, >> yes. >> Chris, >> yes. and I am a yes as well. Uh we now have two items for the use of town property. Uh the first one is the uh proposed art space maynard art in the
park um event on June 20th, 2026. Um is there anybody here from Artspace would like to tell us a little bit about what's going to happen?
>> There's Mr. is is mosying up. >> Mosing up. >> I didn't I can't hear you with that. What's that? >> Armen is about to speak. >> Yes. >> Oh, Armond is here. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Thank you everybody. >> You just walked in.
>> Yeah. >> Thank you everybody. Um just this is just our first event and it is part of our 25th anniversary celebration and um we're um hoping that this is going to become an annual event but this is the first time we're doing we're doing this.
The cultural district also was uh kind enough to give us a grant um to to have this event in the park. It'll be a a combination of art exhibits um and also some activity for uh interactive
activity for for kids and adults. Um it'll be some face painting and cotton candy and things like that. And we just want to create a little bit of a of a um what do you call community art combining community with the with
the artist and bring some of the artists to the park and um joining um everybody else to have a good time. We may have a little light music depends on we'll be able to get someone to do that. Basically, it's our our first attempt at doing this hopefully an annual thing,
but it's a it's part of the annual 25th anniversary celebration. >> Thanks, Armen. Uh, I will make the comment, Armen, just so you are aware, I think it's a great idea. I'm looking forward to it and I hope it works out well and I hope it
does become an annual event. But um I've seen on that it's been listed on public on social media already with the date. Uh I think the board would appreciate I as chair would appreciate that we wait until things are approved by the uh select board for the use of public
property before it's announced so that it doesn't cause problems if there were a conflict. >> Uh so for that was a little premature on our end. Yes. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, as we move forward, we want we want to have this consistent policy for
everybody cuz uh you know, there'll be a lot of people asking for public use of property and we want to make sure there's nobody that gets it because they might have asked because they might have published something first. So, but thank you. Any comments from the board members?
>> Congratulations for 25 years. >> Indeed. I'll make a motion >> I'll make a motion to approve the use of Memorial Park by Art Space Manager for Art and Park on Saturday, June 20th, 2026 from 2 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Contingent
upon adherence to all federal, state, and local public health and safety guidelines and authorized use of digital signatures if approved. >> Second. >> All right. Any further comments or questions? Hearing none, we'll roll call vote. Mike, >> yes. >> Jeff,
>> yes. Lindsay, >> yes. >> Chris, >> yes. >> And I am a yes as well. Good luck, Armen. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank Denise is welcome, please.
>> The next item is another use of town property. Specifically, it's an expansion of our outdoor dining. uh a request that came in from Barrels and Vines, the new very successful and popular um wine tasting place on at 115
Main Street um downtown. Um is there anybody here from Barrels and Vines? >> Yes, introduce yourself. >> Yep. Hi everybody. I think everyone knows me by now for the record. I'm Stephanie Pitman, owner of Barrels and Vines at 115 Main Street.
>> Welcome. Thank you for joining us. >> I can I can barely see you because you're so small on my screen, but it but it's nice to see you. Um, so tell us a little bit about your plan and uh what's happening. >> Yeah, so like a lot of the businesses
downtown, we'd like to extend for the summertime months outdoor seating. A lot of customers have asked for it. We'd like to do it. Um there's a huge sidewalk right in front of our property, so we're hoping that we can sort that out. And it'll just be five tables, 10
people maximum, just a little bit of outdoor space so people can enjoy in the evening sitting outside. >> Thank you. Are there any questions from the board members? >> Um, I have a question. So, I'm looking at the diagram. Um, and it looks like
the area that you're using extends into what I think is a handicap ramp. Is this just not an accurate drawing or is this actually going to cover part of the >> It shouldn't cover the handicap ramp, but I think that's something that the DPW has raised to just today as maybe a concern. So, we're going to have to have
them come down and like measure it out. When I measured it, it met all the requirements. You have to be 5T from the mobility ramp. You have to be 5t from the crosswalk. You have to be four feet from the sidewalk. And um so when I measured it, the space plan works, but
if we need to, it seems like we do have DPW come down and kind of take a closer look and then that's what we should do. It's a tough spot because on one end we're working with a fire hydrant, >> a box for a tree crosswalk, the other
end we have a crosswalk, a mobility ramp, right? And then the building is built on an angle so the sidewalk width isn't the same all the way across. So we put it in the place that we think meets all the requirements and that will work for us. But if they have to make some
modification, let me >> the one that raise you the CVS driveway still crosswalk that's fading and not >> It is fading and I'm not sure because I can read over almost >> I mean it's I think we repaint the lines but um
>> but are we going to repaint that one? I thought that that was to accommodate the construction. >> I can't say that. I'm not sure. >> Just wondering if the other side is a better option if that crosswalk is not no longer really in Hunter. >> Yeah. Tell us the challenges of the fire. Oh, that's a 500. >> Yeah. Well, I mean, if as long as this
the photo that you submitted with the lines over it, it is very much on the handicap ramp, but if BPW is going to measure it and it won't be, then >> Yeah, I think that's Wait, is that on the side of the >> Yeah, >> I >> No, it's it's the like if you're looking at the
>> Yeah. So, there's a mobility ramp there, but there's 5T of clearance, which should be enough, but again, we'll have to go through the DPW assessment. Yes, >> that's the crosswalk that goes over the mill side, isn't it? >> So, there's one on that side that goes to the mill side. And it sounds like Stephanie saying there's a minimum
distance requirement. On the other side of the building, um like to the right of the front door, there's that crosswalk that got added because of the construction. The whole sidewalk was unavailable last year, but that crosswalk kind of brings you into the CVS parking lot in a way that is not particularly helpful from a safety
perspective. So, that crosswalk's fading, and I'm not confident we're going to I don't know. I don't think we're gonna repaint it, but it sounds like that side is probably not viable anyway because fire can >> a lot of things to work around there on the sidewalk in front of
>> my my one concern and this partly personal experience from 30 years ago in the apartment I was living at the time when there was a road as there is with Walnut Street pointing directly to the thing. So, it's not just about traffic
going alongside the road. In this case, there's a road coming down. We had a woman who had an insulin blackout reaction when she was coming down the road and she smashed into the parking lot. Um, so in that case, there was uh
no protection in the event of whatever it might be losing control of a car that's heading directly to that spot. So, um I don't know, Chief Trayaniano, if this is something that um is considered. I I I appreciate that it's an extremely unlikely event, but in our
position, that's the sort of thing we have to consider. So, I I I don't know if you have any comments. >> Yeah, it's something we we kind of consider with all of the outdoor dining, even you driving straight down Main Street doing some of them off potentially cause damage. Um there's
always the the variable that that could you know occur on on any you know T intersection or just going straight as well but you point yeah it certainly could happen coming down along the street straight at him but depending on location but it's modified or not you
putting out maybe some reflective um you can't get a stable barrier there but maybe some reflective material which would help maybe a little bit cause from now along the tree be more visible to see it It's a good idea because the the the fencing or barrier that we're planning
for it's going to be black so we could easily put something reflective on there. >> Right. I mean obviously a truly protective barrier would presumably be um cost prohibitive but um yeah it's it's just stuck in my mind that kind of scenario and and I wanted to be sure
that it was being >> frankly there's nothing preventing someone from driving down the street and smashing into our front windows. >> Right. Mike, I I I had the exact same uh thought, not only with a vehicle. My mind wasn't going to the vehicle coming down the the hill on Walnut. That's a
great observation going straight into the building, but that could happen any day. Um thankfully, it it hasn't. Uh but rather just the opportunity for intersection accidents that cause that that are that could happen there where a car taking a left turn that spins out
because they got hit and whatever. there's just more in my eyes and I'm all in favor of this. I think it's a great opportunity for the business, but uh there's just it's a dangerous spot because the more opportunity for just incidents to happen um because of the
intersection that's right there. And I don't think we have another one. I guess you do down at um Tapus or whatever it is down uh next to uh across the street from uh Domino from Domino's there. um where there's an intersection, but the
traffic flow there is coming out of the side street is relatively minor and slow. Um never have a car at speed. You could have a car two cars at speed um at that particular intersection, but the
likelihood I'm sure the chief can comment on whether or not there's any accidents at that intersection uh or not. It's probably relatively minor, but just something to be aware of. >> I I just want to add that Spitman has been very responsive to my office. I
appreciate that a lot. Um and I think like any of the businesses when we started this years ago, there there was some adjustments like there was learning. We we found what worked and what didn't work. Businesses as well like and um but it takes a lot of effort um and resource expenditures to be able
to set this up. So I I will this considering you know pending the board's approval and then our issuance of the permit. Anyways, I think it's exciting that you're trying it and uh and it's a good addition to your new business. I chief this is maybe a question to you
or maybe it's very you know we have it um just down a little further where they're going to do the new construction pizza bar at the end. >> Okay. They have the they have the um there's a couple in town now the flashing lights, you know, push button
flashing lights. Yeah. Is there any thought or should there be any thought to put one of those in in the general vicinity of this because of the amount of increased foot traffic, >> you know, in that from that building in general, but just in that area in
general, there's more activity at that speed now than we've seen >> sometime in, you know, um just to see if there is there >> I can double check. I think it's a good idea. cost. I mean, I don't know that there's always cost, but >> just just the safety whether it's on one
side or the other. I don't know how the chief feels about it or where would be a better spot, but >> certainly um you know repainting the lines so people can see would help and you know they do that when they do lines annually once a year in the spring but I'm just wondering if something like that doesn't make sense somewhere in
that area just to kind of comment when people are crossing. I don't know if you've noticed, Chris, that um it's fairly new. I think that um at the bottom of the of Walnut Street, the stop sign there now has flashing red lights on it, which it didn't before. >> Um and that that was a you know, it
highlights the stop sign, I think, importantly, for just the reasons we're talking about. You get those cars that come down Walnut, take the quick right, the quick left, of course, into CVS and and uh you know, off they go. So, um but great point, Chris. I think that's
good good observation. >> It's a hight traffic area and if you you know if you're on the opposite side of the street Boston being the bookstore all those places you really you can park up on Wall Street but basically most people do >> cross on the other side and walk through
the CVS parking lot and that type of thing together. So it's just a an area that could could use some sort of safety bounding device. >> Yeah. and the occupants now that they're in the same building. Like I don't know for like 40 something plus hours a week.
I see it all. So there's a lot of challenges. People crossing the street. It's super dark over there at night. I think sometimes people just blow down the street. They don't know this crosswalk and it's too late by the time they see it and just people going into town or speed before they get to the
little island. >> That's I appreciate that point and we can bring it up. like he he does traffic calming measures and then DBW installs it. So that's a good question. >> Yeah. And maybe the prominade along the river will be completed and we'll have
even more reason for pedestrian safety. >> Yeah, >> absolutely. Any other comments from the board? I will move to approve the application for temporary extension of premises outdoor dining on private property parking lot municipal right away
submitted by Barrels and Vines LLC 115 Main Street which approval is subject to compliance with the terms and conditions of the board's policy including proof of insurance that meets the application and policy criteria and subject to compliance with plans submitted which plans are incorporated into this decision authorizing use of digital
signatures if approved. Second. >> Any further comments or questions? Hearing none, we'll vote. Chris, >> yes. >> Lindsay, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. >> Mike, >> yes. >> And I am a yes as well. Good luck.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And welcome again. Welcome to the business. It's a It's I hear a lot of positive comments about it. >> I've seen a lot of you in the bar, so I appreciate >> Have a good evening.
All right, the next item, uh, item number six on the agenda is licensing, uh, namely Maynard Liquors. This is a repeat item that we've had on the agenda several times over the course of time, uh, for 86 Powdermill Road, which is a,
uh, being converted into with some new doors or whatever uh, for a liquor store that's down there. Uh, there are representatives here, attorney Pearlman, you are here. Good evening. >> You can take the floor. Go right ahead.
>> Thank you. Um the uh the construction on the interior of the store uh has been completed. The building department came in yesterday and I'm told signed off on all the construction. Now that the
building inspector is satisfied, we're having the shelving installed. That I was told supposed to be happening this week. Uh once the shelving is installed, then the inventory will come in the following week. Um as far as the
landlord's work, they have completed uh the interior of the building leading up to the store, and I'm hopeful that the landlord might be online tonight to let you know as to when the door leading into the building will be
installed. I think it's shortly, but I'm not sure. hopefully uh I've t I sent some messages to his attorney and I'm hopeful that he uh asked if he would be here tonight to let you know when that door will be
installed because that's all that's needed now for operation to begin. >> Is there anybody from the landlord here? >> I don't see Mr. Coffin, Mr. Chair. >> No. Okay. Um All right. So, Greg, what are your
thoughts, comments on where we're at? >> Just as like a I appreciate that, Mr. Chair. Just as like a context, just to kind of catch everyone up where we are. So, um, after a lot of back and forth, there was bankruptcy involved and whatnot, and then Mr. Patel became the the you know,
the board issued the license to Mr. Patel. Um and then after months and months and months of you know no business being opened in the location uh the board um held a public hearing on June 17th, 2025
uh to put and the license uh on notice if you will uh that it could be considered a dormant license in which the board could um use math general law chapter 138 section 77 and cancel the license. Um the our attorneys had
recommended giving the license holder 6 months. So that came to January of 2026 where we heard from Mr. Patel and and uh attorney permanent and the board generously gave another three months um which is gets us up to today. So the
board has some options. The board can um extend the notification of the dormant period if you will. Again, I would recommend if you do so, come up with the sit date certain just like you did for this at the conclusion of this extension. Um, or else the board can
cancel the license. If the board cancels the license, according to the notes that I have from our council, um, the applicant, I'm sorry, the license holder um, may appeal uh, to the alcohol beverage control commission at the state. Um I though I appreciate you know
attorney Perman's update I and I was familiar with that building commissioner did inform myself and Greg Wilson yesterday that he did issue the permit. They needed flooring done so they completed the flooring. Um but I've not heard from Mr. Coffin and so I think on
the one hand we should um act in good faith that they are making progress. I appreciate that. Um, at the other hand, there is, as I reminded the board three months ago, there is an opportunity cost that that we are not receiving the tax revenue which we would be entitled to if
this this license was being used. And I know this topic comes up from time to time with the board where it's rare that government gets a chance to have like an economic influence in the town. This is it. You are the local licensing authority. This is a commodity. There's a value to this that is not being
realized. and and and and I have Greg Wilson and I have been contacted by other interested parties that would but that was not the case months ago and I'm I'm now it is I have been contacted by other parties that would like the opportunity to apply for that license.
Um and so the board not an easy task for you but you have to ask yourselves is it you know do you offer an extension um to Mr. Patel or do to cancel the license and and allow for it to be applied by brought by by another another applicant.
I would my my opinion, Craig Johnson's opinion, because I'm responsible for the business end of things around the town. I would cancel the lists, but I I was I was kind of blunt about that last time, too, and my opinion still stands. What what are your thoughts relative, Greg,
about um the fact that we're we were told that it's it's a apparently a week away from fully opening. We don't know what's going on with the landlord. >> I don't but I that sounds familiar. Um
uh not to patronize u Mr. Patel or attorney broman, but it's it sounded similar to what we heard 3 months ago that it was only a matter of weeks before it was going to open and they and they finished presumably. Well, I mean, so I'm not I've never run a business of this sort, never run a
business period, but I imagine once the floor is done, you have to stock the shelves, you have to set up your point of sale, you have to hire a staff, you have to maybe some signage you might want people to show up and then and all of that is within your control if you're the business owner presumably. And and then the thing that's not in your
control, who's not here tonight, you're not hearing from is the is the property owner. So I think the board would be and I and I appreciate this would be especially generously lenient and patient and I and I the board generally is and I and I appreciate that. But that
is a lot of variables that the board is now taking on good faith from Yeah. from the license order. >> Comments from the board. Uh can I ask a question? I don't remember exactly but perhaps you
can remind me. In January when we extended this additional grace period, what did we say? What was there were there specifications around what we wanted to see by this date? Was it opening? >> Good question. >> Progress or I don't. >> No, that's a great question. So, um in
order to not be considered dormant, um the license holder has to do one of three things. One, open the business and use the license. two, transfer the license, or three, return it back to the board. And then you're not canceling it. They're just offering it back to the board. So, one of those three things
should should happen or else the board after 6 months and now nine months of notification of a of a definition of dormcancy. You you're you're within your rights to cancel. >> But in January, when we had this conversation, what did we say to Mr. Kland and Mr. Patel that we wanted to
see by the state? Did we specify? >> I've got our minutes pulled up. I can just A quick read on the last section there. Um, landlord has received a building permit to create a new direct entrance to the store with doors scheduled to be delivered the following Monday. Once the landlord completes this
work, estimated four to six weeks, tenant can begin interior construction estimated 6 to 8 weeks. Ward expressed frustration with the extended delays. Mr. Johnson noted that the license had been officially dormant for over 6 months and expressed concern about the opportunity cost both to the property owner and to potentially other
businesses interested in a liquor license. After discussion, the board decided to put the matter on the April 7th agenda and expect substantial progress by then with the potential to revoke the license if the store is not close to opening. >> Thank you.
though if if the words were substantial progress and we would show we would express concern if they were not close to opening th those are the key words from me as I heard that. Um
and I'm just concerned because I don't I have I don't know what's going on with the building and I don't know how long that will last to allow the the store to open. Um, >> can I interject? Can I interject?
>> Go right ahead. Mr. Mr. Pearl, >> if if the if the town requires it, we would open without the front door being installed. You can get in from some stairs on the far side and come in. If if the board says no, we don't want to
wait and we're not hearing from the landlord, which I hope he would. And I heard from his account uh yesterday. Uh he sent me an email and said that there had been delays. I'm presuming they're talking about weather delays that c kept this from happening because it should
have happened by now. Uh but he said but it is still getting done. He he promised me it was getting done. If need be, we can have the the shelving is being installed this week. We can have inventory in next week. This is not Mr.
Patel's first store that he's ever had. He's had other stores. We can get employees in there and open it up and use the door down by the pizza shop and people can come in that way. It's not direct access. It's not going to be
great for business. That's why we were fighting so hard to get that front door installed. And we're the people that hired the architects who gave them the plans. They required us to create the plans to make the door and we did. We gave them those architectural plans. So,
I'm not sure and I can't speak for the landlord as to why he hasn't got it done, but I do understand the frustration of the town. And if the town's saying, "We don't want to wait for the landlord to get those doors in. We want it active, even if you have to do it in a way that's not great for
business, we'll open the store up." Uh, I say we could get it open in about two weeks. Uh if if I'm a little bit off pavement, am I off or am I am I right? >> No, you're right, Arthur. So, we have lined up. So, we were waiting for that
as you said, you know, the door to be installed because we don't want it to be that door is right front of the entrance of our door and we don't want it to any uh you know claim uh for the fallings or anything like that you know because it's active construction site in right in
front of the door. So uh we are ready uh you know this as you say the salvings are in we have a lined up uh u Mr. Johnson that you mentioned about the delay but we have everything lined up to open the store as quickly as possible.
Uh so uh and uh yes we are trying to get in the shelving this week and then following week then uh in a couple weeks that we have a inventory coming. So uh that you are right that we are kind of very in a crunch time that to opening it.
>> So if we have if the if the town feels it's doesn't want to you know hang in for the landlord even though it's like I say it's not the best way to open. We'd like to open properly will open with a side door because I don't want to see my client lose a license when he's like two
weeks three weeks from from opening. He he couldn't open. So, if you tell us that you want it open, then then we'll open the the way without the doors. I I do believe that and I I I haven't heard back again from the landlord's council.
I sent him another email today again requesting that he give me a timetable. Uh and and I didn't hear back from him. I'll probably hear back from him tomorrow. He's uh he's he's a good guy. I'm not I'm not demeaning saying anything bad about him. I just haven't
heard back from him. >> Well, our next meeting, just for the record, is the 21st and then after that, we don't meet again until May the 6th um due to the election day on May the 5th. Um so again, board members, feel free to
speak up. >> Mr. Chair, oops, sorry. >> I feel there's an element of recklessness to the Mr. Pearlman's giving us anything we want, including offering a a completely different entrance with no, you know, thought on routes of egress or or contact with the
landlord. Um, it seems like he's simply trying to appease us and get us to simply do whatever he needs to do right now for an approval. I I don't appreciate that. So, I'll make that note. I'll also note that we we talked three months ago, almost to the date,
about this door. And 3 months ago, almost to the date, it was imminent that the door was going to be delivered and installed. And here we are 3 months later on that particular piece of the project. Gardens. >> No, that's fine. I'll say that I agree with both of Jeff's points. Also, I'm
curious. I don't know if this is a question for Mr. Patel or Mr. Pearlman, but what has precluded you from completing all of the um internal inside parts that are within your power while the door has been under construction? like why are there still not shelves or
inventory or US system or staff? >> I'm sorry I I'm I'm not hearing that clearly. >> I'll see if I can repeat the question. What has precluded Mr. Patel from completing all of the interior um work
regardless of what was going on with the door issue with the landlord? What has precluded that from happening up until now given the fact that we'd spoke about this three months ago? Well, at first because the landlord said they were going to have it done in January,
Mr. Patel didn't want construction people from two different jobs, one doing the store and one doing the front door to interfere with each other. So, he gave the landlord time. He finally contacted me and said, "Arthur, the
landlord still hasn't got it in." I said, "Then you can't wait." I said, "Just get the store built. you know, whatever you have to spend, spend it, get the store built. So, that that probably killed over a month because we kept waiting for the landlord. Like I say, we gave the landlord the
architectural plans to do the door. I mean, this isn't Mr. Patel's fault, this part. So then when he when it still wasn't done, I said, "You can't wait any longer." I said, "Get your people to build out the store and get that part done, and then we'll deal with the
landlord later." Don't forget the the uh store that had been there previously, the liquor store, they didn't have a door at the front. Now, I don't know if that's what caused them finally to go out of business or what, but they entered through the side entrances. And if we have to do that, we will enter
through the side entrances. So, I'm not saying something that's ridiculous. I mean, they did do that. It's not the best way to run a business. is not the way the best way to have a successful business, but you can run a business. And so, as I'm saying, we won't wait for
the landlord. If the board feels that the landlord's not doing it, you can clearly see that Mr. Patel has been doing it. The whole inside of the store is built out. It's looks nice. The floor looks great, the ceilings look great, everything looks great, and and the other stuff is ordered and coming in
this week for the shelving. It's going to be a good-look store. Uh, but we wanted to open with a front. If we have to open without the front door, we'll open without it. And they'll come in from the sides from the side doors as
they did for the previous business until we get the landlord to finish it up. But I don't want to take the chance of the of the town feeling that we're not doing what we're what we're doing. We're we're getting it done. It is virtually done.
If you if you have that meeting uh before what do you say the 4th of May, the store will be operational. It will be operational the 4th of May. And like I said, with or without that front door giving direct access to the
store, it'll be open. >> Have a question. Um >> go right ahead. >> Yeah. So if uh it as is apparently true that the the amount of investment that's gone into the inside of the store is at
this stage, are we in a position to uh do a one-mon extension? I know we gave a three-month one before. Um is a one-mon one extension a viable option? Uh, I mean, I went down to the to the business yesterday and had a look and
and I could see that the inside was looking uh it was bare, but it was it was in in a pretty good shape. But you're right, the the the front door, the uh the sidewalk there, the pavement leading up to the door is still under construction. So, it is a problem. So, I
I I think we are faced with having to deal with two different entities, Mr. Patel's business and the landlord. Um, and it seems to me that if we uh turn it down now, then there's still going to be
lead time. As far as um Mr. Johnson, your your comment that we're losing revenue for the town, that's still going to be the case for the next month uh in terms of what it the time it would take to to reissue the license to somebody. And then there's an appeal process
apparently to the to the uh the ABCC that would allow for a further delay. Um from what Greg said, that may not um change our our our timing. Anyway, >> we could put the license in a longer
time frame in the hands of a business owner who can actually get a hold of their own landlord, which seems that would be conducive to running a business that would generate revenue for the town. Great. When did um Tony Pman Patel know that they were
going to be expected to be here on this date, 7th of April? >> We said this, I believe I said it during the meeting, >> three months ago. >> So, so >> we've had three months to get the um the landlord here to talk about this. We know about 3 months you guys were coming
tonight and the fact that the landlord is not here is somewhat very much disappointing at least to me that he's not here to discuss this. I mean it's a it's a door we're talking about. It's not a big deal. If you go 100 yards down the road they built a um you know 100
unit condo building since January 26. They finished the final building in in two and a half months and we we can't get a door in. And we've been running around in circles on this in circles and circles. And you're saying, "Oh, we can be there in a month by May 4th." But his letter of April 2nd suggests we'd be
ready to go in a couple weeks, which would say, you know, a couple weeks. That's not April 4th. That's by, you know, a much shorter time frame. I'm not in favor of let's extend him another month. Why? We've been extending months and months and months and months and months and three months and six months.
It's it's it's enough. You're you're not in favor of the extension. >> Yeah. >> Where where is the landlord in this? The fact that you can't get the landlord to at least jump on a Zoom call and make a phone call and get in here and say, you know, what's going on? And the fact that Mike goes down and sees it's all still
dug up and torn up. I mean, that's that's we've been pretty lenient and pretty fair and we have continued to get, you know, run around in circles and with different things every time we come up. But the fact that the landlord is in here is is very troubling to me. I mean,
I understand you guys are not legal partners, but your partners in the enterprise of, you know, operating that building and paying the rent and everything else that he wouldn't come and you can't get him to come because a three-month notices. >> The the only thing I don't represent the
landlord, but the only thing I can say is I don't know if he got a notice of this hearing. Um, I know that Pavin got it and sent it to me. I don't know if he got a notice of the hearing and I contacted his attorney the other yesterday. So he for all I know he's not
even in town because I know that he was here at the last meeting at the last meeting of the town. He was he was online. He did talk to you >> just for for the record. This isn't a hearing per se. This is an an issue on
the agenda. It was not a hearing per se, but I think there was an instruction based on the uh the the last meeting that we were going to have this meeting heard. If I if I heard the minutes read cor uh correctly that we were going to have this meeting on this date,
>> but I don't >> I'm sorry. I didn't mean to miss >> No, no. I I I understand and I'm just setting it for the record >> because this isn't this isn't a public hearing or a hearing of any sort. It's just an an item on the agenda. Okay. I >> think our readings of that minute
suggest that we have this as a date certain to have a conversation or >> I think we did. I think we did. That's right. >> And we've been very lenient and you know this is not the first issue that has surrounded this dormant license which has been dormant for much longer than
six months. But um you know it's been dormant for a very long time. I think >> the one the Go ahead Chris. I just think we've been more than fair and more than accommodating and you know it hasn't got us anywhere
and if we've got other people that are willing to get involved and put an active business somewhere in town we should take advantage of that at this point. >> Well, my comment would be I'm just troubled by the investment that has gone on inside that particular space as Mike
referred to. Um, and I I'd hate to uh pull the license and then have that that effort um albeit delayed in in the eyes of of the board um be wasted in many ways. Um
so my my sense is that we have we set a hard stop uh and it's up to the landlord and Mr. Patel to to finalize things. This is just me. I'm holding one one voice obviously. And uh the hard stop is
is the end of April. Uh not the May meeting but our next meeting two weeks. So, so that that's kind of an interesting statement because you seem, you know, we're concerned that he may
have um put some money into the building, but we're not concerned about the lack of revenue to the town that we should be expecting. There's there's got to be there's two separate concerns and they they you know, they they kind of don't work together and it's >> I I appreciate that, Chris. the the the
point that I that I think I made earlier is that there's going to be an appeal on it anyway. And if if we if we take away the license, it's going to be appealed. That's going to take a month. And by that time, we're going to be right where
we are anyway. >> There's no shelving in there. There's no inventory in there. They're not set up. They're not ready to go. The door, they can't even get in contact with the landlord who's doing the work on the door. So, that's not even close to being ready to go. there just there's just too much to do still.
>> Yeah. And I'd also say that all of these things that are that are going to happen in the next couple weeks, they haven't happened for going on what, nine months at this point. >> And then that there were several years as I understand it that this license has
not been generating any income for the town. So, I don't I'll be entirely honest using all of that as the as the history and the data points that we have, it doesn't seem like another week is going to get anybody there or nine
months didn't. >> Greg, do we know if if there is an appeal if if the license is revoked and there's an appeal how that process goes as far as timing? I don't that's a good question. Um I
mean it goes to the ABCC and no offense to the good people working at the ABCC but they seem overwhelmed in the first place just processing regular license. I mean there's a frustration from other applicants when we submit as soon as we do we you know and the board's motion includes we issue the
license. It comes back to the ACC and the board has approved it we issue it and that takes time. Um and that's not an appeal. So I don't know how often >> and we can't we can't use that license during the period of time that's under appeal. Is that accurate? >> Good question. I my guess is council would advise against that because if
because we wouldn't want to be sort of like not acting in good faith too applicant. >> I mean I can understand I can understand David your point and Mike's point but to Lindsay's point this isn't the first time this has come out. This is this is
you know this is I agree >> multiple conversations over multiple years about this piece of property y >> and and we're no further along or no closer to opening at least as far as I can tell we're no closer to opening than we were in January because we can't have
a conversation with the and I know we want to use different doors and everything but we're closer than we were because the landlord's not telling us where we're at and you know what what about the you know the torn up concrete everything else we're going to We're not any closer when we've had this conversation. It's not like it appeared
on the agenda and we voted to do something. We, you know, we voted to do something >> long ago and to extend I don't what does extension get us more than other than just a headache. >> One of the ways I'm looking at this is um how we frame the problem. Are we
framing the problem as what can we do to generate revenue or are we framing the problem as um being upset that an attempt to get that into business has not worked. Um and I I go back to the um
Mr. Parlman has suggested that there could be major progress within the next two weeks. Um, as we've already discussed, there are other factors that are going to take a lot longer than 2 weeks um, if we um, head towards uh, not
approving the license or not extending the license. So, I I feel like under the circumstances given the what has been stated tonight that if if nothing happens in the next two weeks, then we will be sure that, you know, our
concerns are indeed warranted. Um but um you know if we see in the next two weeks that there is substantial progress then that that will be proof uh for them that okay they they really are able to follow through. Um I'm just concerned about
>> can we identify Mike can we identify and I'm I'm with you. I I follow you and I I tend to agree, but can we identify what substantial progress is? >> Shelving and uh stock in place, that's what Mr. Parliament suggested could
happen in the next two weeks >> because we had substantial progress as a as a term in our last that Greg gets um Jeff read earlier in the minutes. Yeah, I I'll note in December that um in a
letter to from um Mr. Pearlman, they they noted that interior construction, including stocking the shelves, uh installing security cameras and POS systems would take about 6 to 8 weeks. And they were planning at that point in December to be done with everything and
open in 10 to 12 weeks. So, it's another sign that they're coming back. And now they're telling us something in December that they said was going to be 6 to8 weeks, total of 10 to 12 weeks. And they're now coming back and saying we can have it done in two, but with no indication that they've been able to move faster than anticipated in any other part of the project and especially
without that connection to the landlord for for the door and that part that they're trying to get through which is also referenced in the same letter. >> I don't email I should say. >> I don't think I don't think this has anything to do with revenue for the town or income to the town. The cost of a
liquor license is is inconsequential. It's under $2,000. I think it's $1,200. So, yeah, I mean, it's not a money. This is not a money issue, right? This is an issue of >> we're back we're back at this table again discussing this issue, taking up
time and taking up time, resources, and and and waiting is something that we've been waiting and we've been we've been very very um accommodating for a very long time. And at some point it has to be enough. And I think we I think we've
reached that point. But again, as people in this table like to say, I'm only one person. What are we going to do, David? Are we voting? Are we What is our >> Well, that that if there's a motion, we can certainly move to whatever the
motion may be. I will move to cancel the off premise all alcohol license issued to Mayor Liquors of 86 Powder Mill Road. >> Second. >> Motion's made and seconded. Any further comments? Hearing none, we will vote. Chris,
>> yes. >> Lindsay, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. >> Mike, >> yes. And >> I'll vote yes as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Pearlman.
Thank you, Mr. Patel. Uh hopefully we can work something where you'll be back with uh an operating business in the near future. >> Oh, leave the attorney leave. >> No, Mr. B's still there. They're both
still there. >> All right. So, attorney Pearlman. >> Yes. Given given the vote we just took and this maybe is a question for both you and Greg. >> Yeah. >> And I and I assume that you know as soon as you get the notice you will appeal.
What is your thought on in the interim if something is to be done while appeal is pending? Well, if if if you appeal if you file your
decision to revoke the license, I will obviously appeal. >> Yeah, >> you can appeal within 10 days. >> They will take it under advisement. They will eventually, the last time we did a trial
at the ABC, it took months. It It was months before they even scheduled it. And then it kept taking longer and longer. It will go on forever. What's going to happen is I'll appeal. My client will continue to fix the store up, but we continue to hold the license.
The fact that you vote to repeal it doesn't mean it goes away. It's still our license. My client will finish the store hopefully within a couple of weeks. by the time your next meeting comes, I'll come back before you again and ask you to reconsider cuz now the
store is open and that we have done what we said we're doing, although it took longer. Things, you know, life keeps interfering. I I make plans, you know, and God laughs. Uh it just that's how it works. Uh
>> well hopefully that's gonna be solved and I I you know I I think we made the right decision for the town but you know I have no problem with Mr. Patel. I hope he I hope he succeeds and I hope that in the interim before we get to that point he can come back and say I'm done. I'm
ready to go and you know show us some photographs or something to indicate to us that the thing is ready to go and then we can take another vote and and be on our way. If nothing else, it takes us out of the the the business decisions between the the developer, I mean the
the building owner and the b the business owner and we're just we're just sitting on the side until the ABCC rules, >> right? And like hopefully I'll get you to withdraw it if we have the store open and you see we're open for business because they're not going to take it away from us either. If we've got an
operating store and the reason you took it away is because we weren't operating, the ABC is not going to do that. I mean, I I've been doing le law for 35 years. I mean, I understand how it works. >> When you're ready to come back, just contact town hall and we're good to go.
>> And I appreciate that. I take nothing as as being in bad faith. I think you've acted in in good faith and I think you've you've tried to help us as much as you can. And I appreciate that. But we will show you that you weren't wrong to continue to work with us. We will open a store. It'll be a nicel lookinging store. It'll be a store that
works well. >> Thank you. Oh, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good luck, Mr. Patel. We'll hopefully see you soon. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. All right. We'll move on. Um item seven is the Green Meet School building project. >> Uh
>> so, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm looking if there's anyone on from the project team besides myself and a couple other members who are on the building committee. Um but I don't see any. So this is similar to um what the board had already done I believe for Comcast. In
this case though it's Verizon. So uh the board has asked to approve an easement to allow Verizon to you know do its utilities work towards the new uh elementary school. So it's it's it's kind of boilerplate if you will. Um and as I said it's a it's kind of a copy
of what we already offered to I think it was Comcast but it might might have been Eversource. I >> think it was Eversource. I think so. >> Yeah. >> All right. So, it's just to allow them to to gain access to property that uh to
to put in their piping or lining, whatever the hell the heck they have to put in. >> Yeah. Utility connection. Yep. >> Yep. >> Any questions from the board members? >> I I just have one question which maybe I should know from being on the building committee. is the intent to have
essentially um duplicate systems, one overground and one overground like a a backup for the power lines going from the great road to the school because some as I was reading through it and I may have got this wrong but it seems like some lines are buried and some are
overhead and I wonder is that a um a long-term solution or or temporary with regards to the construction? I'm not familiar. Actually, I'm not I want to I couldn't say, but I can >> I hope that most of the I hope that most
of the electric and other wiring is underground because that's been the goal for the town for any building. Uh and I believe the planning board uses that as a rule now for any development that's go goes in that everything has to be underground. So, I hope for certain that
that uh town project does the same. Uh it only makes sense. >> I hope that's the case. ever sources on the ground. I mean, we just hit like the subcontract. >> That's true. >> Yeah. But I I can I can follow up with
that. Like it's a good question. Or don't we have a building committee on >> 13th? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It's a um it's a um >> Oh, yeah. >> Inerson meeting then I'll follow up with um colors.
>> All right. Um, so is anyone prepared to make the motion on this topic? >> Move to approve the easement related to Verizon job number. You just didn't want to read this job number. I need to screw that up. >> Move to approve the easement related to
Verizon job number 1 A7H K5V to place utilities by Verizon New England Inc. at five Tiger Drive for the new Green Meadow School construction project as presented. Authorizing use of digital signatures if approved. >> Second. >> Any further comments or questions?
Hearing none. Chris, >> yes. >> Lindsay, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. >> Mike, >> yes. And >> I am a yes as well. Uh the next item was the status of the Green Meadow School and there was a there was a question that was raised
about why we're getting these reports. Um then generally it was asked for by the by the board at the beginning of the project that we have a status update uh regularly as the project moves on. it may be appropriate that we continue to end it, but I think it's good to have it
at least as public record uh as to the status reports so maybe it can come in as correspondence as opposed to an an agenda item. But that's neither there. But I do want for the record, Greg, um just so that we can talk about it in case anybody's watching the meeting that
has questions because uh students were affected etc. Can you talk a little bit about what happened over there at the site recently relative to the uh the I think it was a power outage that we had at the schools and it was on a big day because I think it was uh the day of
MCCAST testing and it may have impacted students and and whatever and then also talk quickly about what we as a town are doing to recoup any expenses that we may have incurred. >> Uh thank you for asking Mr. Chair. So um
um was it last week? Was it last Wednesday? I feel like it's been months already, but >> I had the house last week for the middle school, >> right? >> Thursday and Friday. So, it was one of those days. >> One of those days. So, um >> maybe >> Superintendent Hos is here to fill in the blanks. But, but I I would say um I
was notified and then I followed up with Superintendent Hos to find out what what he knew. And what we were told is that the subcontractor for the general contractor for the elementary school um was excavating in the area and hit the lines that are buried. They are underground, the Everource lines that
leads towards the school complex, specifically the Fowler school, but those lines also feed our water treatment plant behind the schools. So there's there are costs, if you will. We we did had to go to the to the generator system um for the for the water plant.
Um but it's you know it did its job and it kept kicking. Um uh for the elementary school we identified some some good redundancies we needed we I'm sorry for the fer school that we need that we need to um >> that we need to implement. Um but everforce was responsive and they um
identified the issue which largely means we need a conduit um meaning pipe that underground cables and that those cables were probably laid 30 some years ago when the fer school was built. So obviously changed and we need to conduit
it now that my understanding is that will be a project for Eversource to undertake not not for us. It is their lines and and we are their customers. Um I'm sure they don't want to lose you know we were not paying them because we were not using their power when when
that subcontract hit their line. Um what I am interested in is uh continuing like how do I make sure there's a redundancy potentially conduiting if it's not already there to the water water site behind the school. We'll we'll tackle that as well. Um as far as costs go,
yes, largely was a cost to operations. So Superintendent Hos can speak more to this, but um as you pointed out Lindsay, MCCAST had to be postponed for the day. That is stressful from a parent standpoint. I can only imagine what it would be for the school district. And
then um um school is still able to function. Uh they had to make a tough game day call. Um um but you know their their operation um you know had to make a big shift for that day. So um staff has been told that any costs related to
this mishap uh need to be accounted for and reported to our project manager who is in receipt of those and understands my marching orders which is to identify who's going to pay. Um, if it's going to be the general contractor, so be it. And my suspicion is they'll have that will impact their relationship with the with
the sub. Um, I also expect this will come up at the next building committee or or however in the near future. >> That's like the concern I guess that I would express, if you want to call it a concern or what the correct word is, who knows? But this is, I think, the third
or fourth major incident that they've had on this de on this building project. and you know maybe they happen regularly on other building projects but I don't hear about them uh because I'm not involved in building but um it's
frustrating when you know here we go whether it's water or electricity or cable or whatever it is and uh especially on a day like that where the students are impacted um I I think Greg you mentioned parents stress and
administration and staff stress I I'm concerned erned about the students stress. Um, you know, they prepare for that day, they know it's the day and then they go in and suddenly, oh boy, I have to prepare again. >> U, I know if I were one of the kids, I wouldn't have been happy. But, um, so
anyway, any questions from the board on the issue and where we're at? >> Um, I don't have a question, just a comment and clarification, Mr. Chair, for you. Um, so I had asked what the purpose of these reports are. uh not
intending to suggest that we shouldn't get them, but I was trying to understand why something like the um hitting the Eversource line would not be included in the weekly field reports. Um, additionally, I've noticed that uh like the water main break was not included in
this report. The theft that happened was not included in this report. So, it occurred to me that maybe these reports are meant to be exclusively construction focused. However, it seems like it would be helpful for the board to know when these things happen um without hear I mean I knew about this because I have
children in the school system. Um so if it's appropriate my I I don't know that we need to move these into correspondences or take this standing item off the agenda. I would just ask if it's appropriate maybe this is consideration for the building committee. I don't know exactly where this would live that um these things be
included in the weekly build report um because they haven't been this far. >> Okay. Okay, I appreciate that feedback. >> Okay. >> I think it is to your point. I think it is a you know the kid is um person who does it and the person before him they
both very much only on the >> just that's all we've ever seen because as we've gone through some of the um updates to different parts of the contract and different parts of the uh MSB MSB arguments none of that has ever
been any reports you know what's going on outside >> like what's changed from A to B. >> Yeah. >> But that's I I don't know. It's good feedback anyway. >> We would see some sort of notification when this >> Yeah. that probably took place.
>> Yeah. >> And thanks for the clarification, Lindsay, on your question. I didn't I didn't know it had come from you. >> I only knew it came from a board member. So, uh Greg Greg didn't say who it was. Uh but anyway, so thank you for the
clarification and uh may I think the uh the representatives on the school building committee can ask that uh important details like that get included on the monthly report or the weekly report, whatever, however frequently they come in these days.
>> Uh so otherwise, Mr. Chair, progress continues. We're scheduling for our building committee. It'll be our on-site MI meeting. It's exciting. Um weather's getting nice. Uh we're charging ahead. So >> that was scheduled for the for the 13th.
Is it still on for the 13th? >> Yeah. Yes. >> Yes. >> Is there a time for the actual tour? >> I believe it's 4:45. >> 4:45, I think. Yeah. >> Okay. And it is there a place where the tour will start like the
>> I don't I >> You could We can take it offline when when we know. I don't want the whole I don't want the whole town showing up because they think it's a a public tour. Uh >> the tour is scheduled for the green blue building committee, but I don't think that they would be disappointed or upset
if any members of the select would wanted to join us. >> Yeah, you're signing all the contracts, so if you want to show up. >> But um just to follow up before we go to the next topic on the point of who they notify. >> Yeah. >> Um so callers and those folks, who do
they notify? Like that's that's who would be know by us. >> Good question. So I think it's might be circumstantial. So in that case they contacted Verizon of course and then the public safety knew. How'd you find out Chief? >> I know everything. >> That's true. And then and then usually
word gets around to me somehow like some someone is very kind and be like do you know about this? And then and then everyone's phones start blowing up. >> But to the point whenever something like that happens call yours is contacting somebody. >> Yeah. Yeah. They are our agent. you know, they're contacting somebody. >> Yes.
>> And that's the somebody that would be contacting you >> usually me and then I let you guys >> Yeah. >> But just just to you know because I don't think the people that are board involved that have any you know they're not necessarily on the front line.
They're just getting draw pictures and writing down what's >> uh yeah I guess that's probably true. I think you know >> the purpose of having these things in board docs is so the public can see them and if these things are happening then I feel like the public they should also be
included in these reports or in some other if there's some other format that makes sense so that everyone is >> great and I just have one question for right ahead >> that's okay um Brian were you uh despite
the fact that the problem happened and the schools were affected Were you okay with the uh at least the communication that occurred and how the school was informed or the schools? >> Yeah, we get informed very quickly. I get a phone call typically from the the
one of the people on the Collier's team who contacts me immediately. Um and so they're very responsive to us. Uh we did lose power. We did lose internet because our hub is at Fowler. Um but that was temporary. Our own generators had some
issues and Eversource quickly brought a very large generator on a trailer to the follower school, hooked it up so that we were back online relatively quickly. Um, we did not have to cancel school. It did impact MCCAST as you all have talked
about, but the communication between collers and the schools and uh the other members is strong. Good. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Any other questions on that topic?
All right. Uh item eight on our agenda is an appointment to the board of registars. Um this is a Republican nominee to to fill the board of registars uh requirements. Um
and the town committees submit to us a list of candidates to be named to the board of registars and it has to be balanced in some fashion and I think there was an opening on the uh on the Republican side of the the ledger. Greg, do you have anything to add?
>> Oh, that's it. Got it. And the candidate that's been proposed is uh Daryl Whitney as a uh board of registar for the uh on the Republican side. If there's any no question, no other
questions. Uh if there's a motion, we can accept it. >> The responsibilities of a member of the board. >> Oh man, Chris, you know, they're crazy, but what do they do? Not
entirely sure. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> I'll figure it out. I just didn't anybody in the room know >> I have a strong clerk who keeps him in line so I don't have to be involved. So >> I believe the board of registars is
responsible to uh observe the election procedures and if there are any disputes etc relative to the election process they are the ones that are involved in uh overseeing. That's my understanding. No, that sounds right. But I don't know if they have more clerical work as well.
The language is because it says he's and in the background to it, it says he's being reappointed. >> Yeah. So, for clarification, Daryl uh filled the vacancy that showed up I think in November, December. So, we approved him in that position and then I think this pulls us into the actual
regular cycle. >> It's going into the regular cycle. >> Yeah, he has been serving in this position since late last year. That sounds >> so so should we change the motion to move to reappoint? >> No, it's okay because you're filling the appointment for that term. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I think that's a appointing a
reappoint is the same function. >> I just two different terms, but okay. >> Yeah. >> I will move to appoint Republican nominee Daryl Whitney to the board of registars for a term from April 7th, 2026 to March 31st, 2029. >> Second.
>> Any further comments or questions? Hearing none, we'll vote. Mike, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. >> Lindsay, >> yes. >> Chris, >> yes. >> And I am a yes as well. I'm just looking it up to get a definition if there is
one. Uh, under the general laws, um, if I can read it quickly, Board of Election Commissioners in every town appointed the approval. Uh, just
seeing what their instructions are. Doesn't say. Uh, >> I'll get it clear pretty quick. I'm sure she's probably >> Okay. >> All right. But it is required by state law.
>> Yep. >> Okay. The 2026 item number nine, 2026 annual town election. We need to approve the warrant. Um, >> and I also want to say I apologize, Mr. Chair, that the agenda is not correct
that had last year's and we because we duplicated and didn't catch that, but the motion is correct for for this for this town election. >> Thank you. Yeah, the date. >> Yep. Um, do you need an actual signature? So, my signature didn't
count. >> Um, yeah, you're right. That's what the clerk says. She needs wet signatures. That's okay. >> So, as long as we have a majority. >> Yep. If we need yours, we'll get you. >> If we need it, you'll know how to find me. All right. Is there a motion?
>> Move to approve the warrant for the annual TAL election scheduled for Tuesday, May 5th, 2026, authorizing use of digital signatures if approved. >> Second. >> Roll call. Mike, >> yes. >> Jeff,
>> yes. >> Lindsay, >> yes. Chris, >> I am a yes as well. >> Thank you. >> Good luck to all the candidates. >> Thank you, David.
>> Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Uh, so, okay. Um, Hometown Heroes, uh, acquisition of flags. Do we have a representative from the Hometown Heroes here, Kim? Is Kim
Lai here? >> I don't see her. Um, Greg, do you have some insight? >> Yeah, I do, but I don't want to take her thunder. So, but I will introduce her. Kim >> Oh, is she here? I Oh, she's in the room. >> Kim has been a long time big supporter
of um many many of these sort of um you know, patriotic events and gestures and whatnot. and I'm very um appreciative of your hard work and responsiveness to my office and the crazy emails back and forth about accounting procedures. >> Um and she she wants to do some more
good, but she has a she has a request for the board. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Kim. I didn't see you in the room. I can't see the uh the folks in the room, so I apologize. I was looking online. I didn't see you. >> Not a problem. Huh.
>> So, I am here because we need to replace a lot of the American flags that we have the hometown hero banners. They're very it was so faded and it really needed to be retired. So, I was worked with Greg and he said that I could do a fundraiser
which I did and we have raised um over $2,000 and the and applied for a grant from the cultural society which we also have some money coming from from them. So, um I would like to purchase as many flags
as we can so that we can do this at a one one time and um so we're asking for the additional money from the community >> needed. Yeah. >> So um so that's why we're here today to
do that. And you're asking >> this is for this is for the the US flags that go up on Nepal's not for the flags themselves with the veterans names on them. Is that correct? >> Exactly. This is the American flags, >> not the >> Y. So, yes.
>> No, you So, I was just pointing out the accounting end of it. So, um but correct me if I'm wrong. I really I'm not trying to put words in your mouth. Are you asking for 2500? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, she's asking for 2,500 which equates to a certain amount of blacks which I don't remember off the top of my head. And then
>> 75. Thank you. >> And then um and the board might recognize in the in the contents that you have $6,62 in in balance right now. U the board recently had or like months ago had approved the use of $1,500 to support
the EDC awards brunch which just which just happened. Uh so I think you have the means. Um but it's up it's at the discretion of the board. This is kind of like your this I think this falls in line with the intentions of this particular account to support this but it's it's up to you.
>> So is the the uh the 1500 for the EDC awards branch the invoice for 736 does that 64 went back into the >> That's a good question. So I we didn't
take it out of the fund. We will process that invoice from account. We didn't give a check to EDC. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. So, you're right. So, like you're asking it's about half the amount still left over. >> Yeah. >> I would say that's true, but I don't know if there's any more further um invoices coming from that.
>> Do we have any other potential events in the pipeline? >> Uh, not that I know of. These are kind of random that you guys get these questions. >> How um long ago did we put the original flags up? >> Well, this is the sixth year. >> Six of the original. And would we expect
about the same lifespan out of the >> We're hoping. Yes. Okay. Yes, definitely. >> Kim, is there a is there a direction as to how long those flags should fly? Um, are they supposed to be up year round? Are they only supposed to be up during the period of time that the uh that the
penants with the the the veterans names and photos are on. Um, >> sometimes I wonder if we leave them up too long. >> No, >> not that I not that I ever hate seeing the American flag flying, but you you know what I'm saying? It's like, you know, is it supposed to be just during
Veterans Day and Memorial Day area or is it supposed to be year round? >> The flags go with the banners and the banners are up right right before Memorial Day through after Veterans Day. So, they're up for that that period of time. >> So, essentially they're they're intended to be up all summer.
>> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. All right. >> Any other comments or questions from the board? I think this is a great use of the uh of the funds. >> I will move to approve the use of the community events fund in support of the
acquisition of flags and other supplies for hometown heroes. Second. >> Any further questions or comments? Hearing none. Mike, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. >> Lindsay, >> yes. >> Chris, >> yes. >> And I am a yes as well.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you for your advocacy, Kim. Continue at it. >> Thank you very much. We appreciate it. >> All right. Uh, special education reserve special education stabilization reserve fund transfer.
Uh, I will turn the chair the uh the uh the floor over to Brian and Wayne and Maro, whoever wants to speak as to what this is all about. fill us in and we can chat.
>> Sure. So, there is the special education uh stabilization account that has a little over $200,000 in it for unexpected special education expenses. Unfortunately, we actually have those types of expenses this year. Um we're a
member of Aspen Valley Collaborative, which is you probably know that. So, we're a member of two collaboratives. This is one of them. our special most of our special education transportation runs through um Aspet Valley. They contract it out,
they provide it, etc. Um and it's we've been in consultation with um Vanpool, that's the company, for many many months. Um they didn't provide accurate billing. So none of the districts that are part of the Aspen
Valley Collaborative um have paid their full bills. But now we're going into the next year. It imp it impact circuit breaker and we have agreed as a group with recommendation from Desi to pay 33%
of the overall bill. So for Maynard right now with nothing changing that's around Wayne will correct me if I'm wrong but it's around $69,000 is that could that go up? Absolutely. Um it'll go to mediation and I don't know
where it'll actually end up but it's from FY25. So it's the prior year so we can't use our operational money to pay that. So, it seemed that this fund made the
most amount of sense to pay this expense. Wayne, if I forgot anything pertinent, please feel free to chime in. >> Yeah, >> go ahead, Wayne. Go ahead.
Now, I was going to say um that this bill could go up. We're asking for up to 200,000. Uh like Brian said, we're going to pay um you know, in the 60s in terms of
right now, but as mediation progresses, um the rest of uh the bill could be authorized to be paid. Um, the last I saw from Asabet Valley Collaborative,
the original bill was a little north of around 200,000. So that's why we're asking up to 200 because um later on if we find out that we um through mediation and then the
approval of the board of uh of the Aspen Valley that uh you know they want us to pay. I want to be able to pay that bill. >> Questions from the board? >> Maro, do you have anything to add? >> Oh, thank you, David. Um, no I don't.
They've they've done a great job um summarizing and I think that um that um somebody also from from your board um had questions that they also answered. I'm I'm hoping that they got that um th those questions answered that that
information. >> We all did. Thankfully, >> we all got we all got the response. So, thank you. Uh questions from our board. >> I don't hear any. >> So, this is a an expected approximately
$200,000 bill. We're talking about a third of it here that was supposed to hit an FY25 but was larger than anticipated due to inaccurate billing. Is that did I was that statement correct first of all?
>> So inaccurate billing. Yes. Vanpool that was their struggle within their business office was providing accurate billing to Asipet Valley who's kind of the keeper of the books if you will and then they dispersed the bills to the districts who are members.
So because the bills were inaccurate, the district said, "Well, we're not going to pay an inaccurate bill, right? Because then that's not responsible." And so now we're in mediation to figure out exactly what that amount is that's. That's fair and true that we will pay.
>> And so give me a sense of magnitude here. It seems like so Vanpool is asking for some amount and mayor's fraction is 200,000. That would roughly be the highest amount that I we think that it would be. We as
a group Go ahead. >> No, no, please finish your answer. >> I was going to say as a group of superintendants with the recommendation from business managers and the Department of Education have said, "Well, we think what they're requesting
is higher than reasonable and 33% is reasonable." which is why that number sticks that we've said we'll pay 33% we as in the superintendent um of all those districts. So the number is a little bit different depending on the size of your district.
>> And and what services is Vanpool providing >> busing for special education students >> and so in a in I'm assuming Vanpool is no longer providing that service in FY26. They are for some because they they are
for some. We're using um several companies to fill that void, but they're not out of business. They're just is a disagreement on this particular fiscal year of their billing practices. >> And and was Vanpool used in prior years
in FY24 and before then? >> And so what's the difference between FY24 and before and FY25 in terms of the building practices here? So the difference was their billing. I don't know if they changed internally
to be honest in terms of their business office but the bills that we received through Asabet were not correct. Whereas in the past 20 you know I can assume 2023 2024 the information that
came through was validated and checked and paid on time you know paid normally. And and when you say not correct, we're talking about something that's and you're saying three times higher than you were expecting. >> So it's not that we're what they were
giving as Valley would be they for example they would say that a monitor was on a bus when a monitor wasn't on a bus or they would be charging for a monitor to be on the bus from home to the to the school. Things like that
on a bigger magnitude. What I'm trying to get is a sense of what's what's the difference in what we would normally pay to van poolool in a normal year for 24 versus what happened in 25. So independent of the services provided, what how much of a delta is there
between say a normal year in FY24 and then in FY25 where it seems like we think we'd owe a significant fraction less than what they're asking for. Well, I don't think the there was a delta where that number a third came up.
I think that was something that in consult with Desi and legal that they thought that that was fair to pay. Also, if we paid nothing, it would affect circuit breaker reimbursement.
And since we did receive services, we thought we owed something. So, Greg, can you help? Yeah, here. Um, I think coach chef is trying to to understand is like,
although I don't think any of us would hold you jumped to this, we're just trying to sort of understand on a normal year for FY25 and normal might be in consideration of FY24, what what might have been the district's cost to ban pool?
Maybe you don't know off the top of your heads, but >> I don't know off the top of my head. I can find out tomorrow. Wayne may know he's talking. Wayne, you're muted, I think, or I can't hear you. >> I mean, I wasn't prepared to answer those types of questions. I couldn't tell you what the exact number. >> That's fine. I think it's just like
we're we're the board is being asked to consider $200,000. And I can understand, you know, from a negotiating standpoint, it's good to know what you have to work with, I think. think but the board may be just curious about what what's what's at stake here like what what is the potential cost are we is it and that's
all I don't think you jump you're probably not at the meeting table or maybe you are but >> okay I I have a point of confusion um so there was some dispute and you couldn't if I get this right um the rules don't
allow us to pay out of the operating budget for 2025 five expenses. So, did we just not pay as much for uh the transportation in 2025
um in anticipation of this part of my head? Uh I guess I'm I'm confused. Is is this additional cost or just uh money that wasn't spent before that now is catching up with us? I'm just a bit
confused on that point. I Wayne maybe you can explain it better than I did. >> So I'm not sure I know what the question is. You're saying what what are you asking the money for?
>> Yeah. So, as as I understand it, what we're looking at here, the reason why you're asking for money um from the stabilization fund is because you're not allowed to use your operating costs for expenses incurred in 2025. Is that
correct? >> Yes. >> Right. So my question is in 2025 um did we still pay Vanpool or um the collaborative did we still pay them what
we thought was the right amount and that this is now more than we expected to pay or was the missilling did we end up paying less in 2025 as a result of this and now now we're being asked to catch up. No, we did not
pay the bill for 25. >> Okay. And what was the expected size of the bill in 25? What did what what did we budget for in 25? >> I don't remember what the budget is, but our operating budget doesn't cover
all of our transportation costs. We end up using circuit breaker funds to cover. It is never enough operational budget to cover all of our special education expenses. >> But regardless of the source of the funding in in FY25, what were you
anticipating paying for these expenses? >> Generally in this ballpark >> the $200,000. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I don't have in front of me directly because again these types of questions I wasn't prepared for but generally that in that ballpark.
>> Okay. So we were expecting to spend approximately $200,000 in FY25. We did not and now we need to cover probably around $200,000 of which we're expecting immediately to pay about a third but you're asking for approval for
the full 200,000. >> Correct. So, does that mean the special education does that mean the circuit breaker has an extra $200,000 in it now that you were not anticipating it to have at the end of FY25 if you're going to use that
funding source? >> Yes and no. Because you're right, I didn't dip in the circle breaker for that. But at any given time, I don't know what special education expenses are going to be because I can set a budget
of say 200,000 and a family move in two weeks before school starts and that budget is blown. So when you ask me what a typical what I expect and in special education, that almost doesn't apply. >> Well, but if you had an extra $200,000
in FY25, you would have had to pay for that somewhere. And if you don't have it into your base operating budget, that would come from the special education circuit. Would it not? >> Where else? >> Go ahead. >> You said that's true.
>> Okay. So, so you have extra because you you budgeted. I'm saying that's not necessarily true. >> My my poor choice of words. My point is there's $200,000 in special education circuit breaker funding right now that would not be there had we paid that bill in FY25.
Yes. >> Okay. Okay. >> Um, what's the expected timeline of the mediation effort? >> Honestly, it's unknown. >> Go ahead, Brian. >> I I was going to say it's unknown. I
know that the attorneys are meeting and they would love to get it resolved as soon as possible. Um, how do we normally fill the special education stabilization fund? Maybe that's a question. >> That's a good question. I'm not I'm not actually familiar how how's that how's
that piggy bank get filled with or Brian >> you guys put >> I have no idea. It was there. >> Does it come out of the general fund as part of the education budget like just a special line item? How how that that was my question, Jeff.
>> I realized back I realized it back maybe >> eight years ago or so, town meeting approved creating this special um >> uh special line item in the budget uh with having a um a special fund just for
these types of purposes. So my guess is the money must come out general fund to to fill it in. I just don't recall ever having a discussion about that money going in anywhere. >> I have to check. >> So and then where I'm leading is we're
about to take a $200,000 stabilization fund and nearly empty it out. Do we have a plan to refill it? And should that come from the circuit breaker fund if it has $200,000 that would not have been there had 25 budget been there? You can't move from circuit breaker into
a stabilization. >> Okay. >> No. >> Okay. >> So, where can it come from? Is that also a question, Jeff? >> Yeah, that is. Yes, that is the implication of the question. Absolutely, David. >> And I can work with Greg to find out how
it was um started and how it was where the money came from to build it up to its current state. And we can talk about that. I don't know like our operational budget clearly doesn't have extra money in it. So I would agree with David that it probably came out of the general fund
whether some of it was free cash but I don't know that for a fact. I'll work with Wayne and Greg on that. >> Does this require a approval as well? >> No. My understanding is just you and the school committee and the school committee approved it. And obviously results of mediation are
unpredictable. Is in a favorable result. Would we be getting some of that money back? Is that the idea? Or is this it? This is we we say I don't want to be flippant, but say goodbye to this money. I guess I
just don't understand fully what the mediation is about and what the results might be from that. >> So the mediations to come to resolution on what Vanpool's willing to accept and what the districts are willing to pay for that year's transportation bills. It's
>> is it mediation in the traditional sense or is it arbitration? In other words, does the mediator sort of work with both sides and say what are you willing to accept? What are you willing to accept? for is the decision left up to a mediator which what I would call an arbitration where somebody is given the
>> I think they're still working back and forth through the attorneys. So, I don't know if that completely answers your question, but I >> No, I just don't know if it's My point is is there to Mike's question. Um, could there be any wiggle room and that
the money might not all be paid because through a mediation, we do a good job and we end up with less money going out. But if it's an arbitration, then it's up in the air because it's up to somebody who we don't know how they're going to decide, but this is probably the best guess.
I think we're just going off the best information we have at the time. >> We don't have a lot of control. >> Walk out. In in my sense of mediation, it's just it's just semantics. In my sense of mediation, you come in. It's it's a negotiation. You can talk and you can walk out if you don't like where the
other side's coming from. Arbitration is is binding the person. You leave it up to a person, an arbiter, to make a decision. And arbitration and mediation are two different things. But some people use it interchangeably and it's really just arbitration where you you discuss your sides, you give your
arguments and then a person acts as as the adjudicator, the judge, and makes a decision and it's binding upon both sides. >> So I don't think we've gotten to that point because we're the the attorneys for both sides have still been going back and forth.
>> Is that what your understanding is, Wayne? Yes, my understanding is um that the two sides uh you know come with their offers and um that's kind of been what has
happened is there's been this big gulf between the two sides and you know from what I understand there's been no real progress because everybody's kind of said you know no your number's too low or your number's too high and in terms
terms of uh getting money back or whatever, we the the students were transported so we feel we owe something. It's just that uh what that number is, what Vampool says
it is, you know, the districts feel that uh either one that's too high and they don't have documentation. Like for example, I understood that there were some routing issues where they said drivers were in certain places and in the contract if we asked for
verification of that, they were unable or either unwilling to provide that. Um and so we're saying if you can't verify that, then we're not going to pay. Um and in concert with Desi, um you know,
again, the deadline for your circuit breaker reimbursement claims was coming up. If we paid nothing, we have zero expenses and and that obviously is going to negatively impact our potential for circuit breaker reimbursement. And so
it's like what do we do? I know at the annual meeting of my uh group MASBO last year on the cake, we spoke to uh Jay Sullivan who's associate commissioner about this. Um and so
the the the board of directors of which Brian is one uh came up with okay of the proposed number that Vanpool has given us to pay they
thought that paying a third of it that you know even in worst casing of of the arbitration or mediation I don't know which it is um in terms of legal terms. But anyway, that
you know, we felt comfortable that we wouldn't have paid too much because we did receive services and also it would allow us to submit uh some of those expenses for circuit breaker reimbursement so that the district
wouldn't lose out completely. Um so that's the layman's version of my understanding of where we are. But did we get less circuit breaker reimbursement as a result of this? In other words, were we eligible for a
larger reimbursement in 2025 had the billing from Vanpool been handled correctly? >> Um, yeah. I mean, because the more your reimbursement is based on your expenses. So, if you have fewer expenses, your
reimbursement uh in theory will be less. So we're at direct loss of revenue now from the actions of Vanpool if I'm hearing you correctly. >> Well, you it's always a year behind.
So we're filing this the the the the claims and stuff for FY25 circuit breaker reimbursements for always the money that for example that uh you get is for the previous year >> even if you're paying bills for the
previous year. >> I'm sorry. Even if you're paying bills for the previous year, even if there's been a lag in when the bills were due and when you're paying them, this the circuit breaker reimbursement still comes in for that previous year.
Um, I'm not sure what you're asking me, but what I know from I I don't do this special does. It is my understanding that they have a deadline to amend their
circuit breaker uh uh claims is April 10th and that that was why that that everybody felt that something needed to be done.
Now I don't know when the original claim went in if that's what you're asking. I don't know when that was. >> Uh, can I just uh maybe clarify or ask a a question about this? Um, Wayne, I
think maybe what what Lindsay is trying to say is if we're paying this this year, um, can will we be reimbursed through circuit breaker next year for this or is this
>> is this a Okay, >> so it's not that this money is going to be a loss. >> That's what I was trying to get. You said you you I'm sorry. You said this money is going to be a loss. I >> I'm saying that it's not going to be a
loss. We will get this money back through circuit breaker for next year because we're paying it this year. >> That's my understanding. I don't do the actual claiming. That's the special education department, but that is that
is my understanding. And what are the ramifications if this is not approved? >> Well, we have a $70,000 bill we need to pay. And it's a special expense in an unusual circumstance which pretty much meets the
definition for the reserve account. Just as a little bit of context to answer uh questions, um I found in May of 2023 at town meeting $50,000 of free cash was appropriated to this account that was and according to the comments
which I probably wrote um was from um sort of not I don't want to say excess meaning like it it wasn't I just meant there was a balance of unspent special education circuit breaker funds that fell to pre-cash and then that was captured back and $50,000 to go back to
this special education stabilization fund. So my suspicion is that's probably been the case in the past that has built up over time. Does that sound feasible? >> I'm going to take that's >> excess of circuit breaker.
>> Yeah. >> Okay. I don't think we have the capacity to take circuit breaker money and put it in a reserve account. >> No, no, that's true. The question was earlier where the money come from in the first place. It looks like it was unspent special education circuit breaker. So, and then and then we just
rolled that stabilization. >> So, it is possible to use circuit breaker reimbursement funding and health. I mean, that's what my comments were, but and and we the board, not this exact membership, but the board entertained a similar request in I just looked this
up. November of 2023 was the last time the board was asked to do something like this to to do a transfer, but I don't I don't remember the circumstances, what I don't remember what that was for. I remember that what that was was
um Desi came and said you have to spend X amount of dollars of of your circuit breaker money, whatever money you got the prior year. So if you got uh the prior year a
million dollars, you have to spend the next year that million dollars. Uh it can only sit there for a 12-month period. And I think that um
we had spent all of the money that we were required to spend and it was we missed it by that $50,000. And so by statute it gets taken away from us and goes into the general fund. That I think
that's what happened. Um and then it was voted that that money then would be put since it was earmarked for special education that it would be put in a stabilization fund. But we cannot take
circuit breaker money and move it into that. um that I know Desia said you can't do. >> Mr. Mr. Chair, one of my concerns here is that there's there's now $200,000 from REC by 25 that wouldn't have had to been spent out of somewhere,
whether that's their general fund or or most likely it's would be in in a revolving account that balances out regardless of those are for special education or not, they can be used for other funds. And so what we're doing here with if we don't have a way to replenish this is taking a one-time fund
and and giving a boost into those revolving accounts for operational funding without necessarily a way to do that again or a way to get that up back into the one-time amount. And that can change,
you know, those revolving funds can be depleted between meetings. We've seen how they've been used to cover short balls from what we put in there. Uh, and they eventually impact the timeline it might take for say another override, which we had a lot
of conversation. And so I'm apprehensive to deplete this fund down to zero without a way to fill it back up. Um I don't have a better solution immediately, but I feel I learned a lot about the problem just in that conversation that that we didn't get
previously um throughout the week. I guess the problem though is we have a bill to pay. Uh >> and we need to have a way to and this is as Brian outlined um sort of meets the
definition of what this fund is for. Um so any other comments from the board as to so we can decide where we're going to go with this? feel like I'm in the between a rock and a half.
>> What was the um what mora what was the uh school committee's debate about this? Like what kind of a debate did you guys have about this topic? >> Uh there was not much debate about this.
We did talk about how to uh bring that fund back up. You know, we were obviously also concerned about bringing that down to, you know, almost nothing. Um but we
overall I mean we are kind of stuck um where we do have to pay this bill and we don't have any other money to pay it out of. Um so um we did kind talk a little bit about where we could pull money
from. Um we did talk about um you know if we did have another um similar to what um um Greg was talking about where there was extra extra circuit breaker that we
have a similar um situation like that that the that money could go back into that fund. Um but that we would need to figure out some way to build it back up over time. or through free cashache. >> And sorry, I know that we've discussed
this. I'm just now confused. So the however whatever fund from the from which this would have originally been paid had everything gone the way it was supposed to and Vanpool had not you know made mistakes in FY25 whatever fund would have actually paid these bills
that fund cannot replenish the stabilization account >> corre I think that's correct the way you said Mike, any questions, comments? uh only that I'm I guess I'm still struggling to figure out how we can make
sure that uh or at least have a good chance of uh replenishing this fund either well for whatever means it might be I'm concerned about that but I understand that obviously this bill has to be paid >> and sorry can I ask one more just math
question so if you were anticipating about a $200,000 bill in FY20 25 and it didn't get paid. Did that money get spent elsewhere? >> No, >> that that was my question. >> Operating budget, which probably wasn't
because that's underfunded for special education. I would have taken it from uh circuit breaker. That was the co the conversation that Jeff and I had earlier. I see. So you would have taken it out of
the circuit breaker fund. So 200,000 you would have paid out of just your expected operating expenses came from circuit breaker. >> But circuit breaker isn't a fund. It's a reimbursement. >> So I don't understand how how that worked.
>> Circuit breaker is set up specifically you can only pay special education expenses from it. And the money that is in there are reimbursement from expenses from the previous year.
>> So, >> go ahead. I'm sorry. >> We're just trying to figure out where the $200,000 from FY25 is. It either would be accumulating in in a fund, one of the revolving funds somehow, or you would have deferred the bill through a
circuit breaker mechanism. So, if you had gotten the bill in FY25, it would have been paid through from circuit breaker, but you're telling me that only covers prior year expenses, correct? >> No, I said the operating budget only covers part of our expenses and we
augment the operating budget in terms of special education expenses with circuit breaker. >> So, if the bill >> Oh, so it would have been this year. It would have been out of So the 200,000 if you had paid 200,000 if you'd paid this
bill last year, but it sounds like this was FY25's bill for FY24's actions or was this an FY26 bill for FY25's actions? >> No, you're
it's easy to get confused that what you're referring to is the way expenses are reimbursed. This was an actual FY25 expense. So we got a bill from Vampool
an FY25 for FY25 expenses. What you're referring to is that in theory that expense I wouldn't see that money until later down the road. In other words, that
reimbursement. So you have to spend and then the state reimbures you x amount above and beyond and circuit breaker is in excess. It's usually like four times what your expense is and then they pay
75% above that. It's not a direct one to one reimbursement. But the actual bill, the $75,000 was expenses incurred in FY25. >> Yeah. So, we just we had the cash to
pay. We do this as a town, too, because we don't because we only cut taxes, but at the beginning of the fiscal year, I got to pay, you know, my pension or other assessments, and that's a huge check that goes out the door. But we but we know we're going to collect, you know, certain amount of taxes and revenues throughout the rest of the
fiscal year. so I can actually pay that check or have money at the end of the fiscal year. So what Wayne is saying they used the operating expenses to cover their bills knowing we're expecting that they would get reimbursed the following year and then some which which I am now curious
>> what's that they paid this they they've paid the bills that that ABC said they should pay is my understanding >> not the van >> no it sounds like they have not paid the van >> no it said the bills that ABC said they should pay maybe maybe excluding van poolool
we did a similar thing for I mean if we get through it prior year bills. I mean like there we there were some questions about some some embersource bills. So we don't weren't sure if we had to pay that until we reconciled that amount. So we we don't want to pay excess than what we than what we need to.
>> Is there a um a timeline maybe this was mentioned earlier in the conversation. Is there a timeline on this as far as when the money is needed to be ready to be spent? I'm asking this because I don't feel from this conversation right now that
I've heard tonight that the board is ready to take any action to finalize the position on it. But um >> really >> but I don't I don't know if maybe I'm wrong. >> Right. What So like when do you guys need the money?
>> Right. Wayne, how soon? I think soon because I think we want a payment. >> What' you say? I I've got the bill now that 33% is the 61 or 69,000 and if we don't pay
it now, you know, again, one of the things about kind of the timeline is the closing the window for the circuit breaker amendment to your claim. So, you know, in in theory, and again, I
don't do the report, but if you don't have an expense, if you don't pay it, then you can't get reimbursed. >> So, could the could the board theoretically approve that 60 whatever thousand out of the ex out of this account and then have
a continued discussion on the rest of the money that's being discussed? That would leave I think part of the conversation here is that people are concerned about depleting that account to essentially nothing. Giving 60,000 would leave an an amount in the account
and then the board could continue to discuss ramifications of doing it, not doing it or whatever. But rather than sit here, you know, it's we've been at it 20 minutes and I don't I don't know if we're making any progress towards making a motion with approval.
Board thought, board member thoughts. >> Yeah, I I I would like to delay until we have a clear understanding of where the $200,000 that was intended to be spent went. If it's sitting in a revolve count, if it's if it has been used operationally, if it's intended to be used, I mean, that's that's the basic math question I have is
where's the $200,000 of operational funding that was intended to cover this expense. Would it be beneficial or would you would you have objection, Jeff, if we were Wayne mentioned 60,000 that the bill exists today that needs to be paid. And if I'm wrong with that number, Wayne, I apologize. I'm just using a
number. >> We would prefer to simply wait on the entire question until the next meeting. It sounds like it's a reimbursement. >> Use the reimbursement. >> Would we? And why is that? >> She say >> the date is this week? >> It's April 10th is the deadline for
submit. So, okay, then I have a follow-up question back. So, in order to get the reimbursement for the $60,000, we have to pay the bill now because the deadline to submit the reimbursement for the prior fiscal year is April 10th, I think is what you said. >> Yeah. >> So, does this mean that after mediation,
if we pay further bills um for you, if we pay further invoices for these services that were from last year, we will not get the reimbursement because April 10th is the deadline for the entire previous fiscal year. My understanding is there's a window
that it can be amended. So if the everybody decides they're going to pay a little bit more, that number at this point I believe could be amended. But there's a window on that and I don't know the out outset of that. But we can't pay nothing and then amend
to something at a later date when everybody else is going to be and when I say everybody else, all the other districts are going to be paying their portion, I believe. >> So the deadline that we're up against is
specific to this 69,000, not the future amount of money we might pay. >> Correct. So, so do we do we solve part of the problem from your perspective, the
immediacy by approving 6 69,000 today? >> Yes, that would help. >> All right. So, that's at least a way to move forward so we're not sitting here talking for another two hours where it doesn't seem like we're making progress. And I think uh
again I would then that's that's my thought process but I'll listen to what the board members have to say about if they like that idea, don't like that idea or want to. Jeff seemed to suggest putting the whole thing off, which I don't I don't think is wise based from
what we've heard. But uh I think that would be a mistake uh from what Brian has said and what what Wayne has said. Uh but if we could if we could solve part of it by putting by releasing some of the funds so that we can at least pay a portion so that we're not getting
ourselves in trouble. Uh and then work on the the rest of it down the road. Uh again, I'm just making a suggestion so we can move the conversation. Can >> I just um
um I want to address this to uh to Jeff. I I I I tried I thought I answered your question. I don't want to come across as um being evasive or unclear.
Um the if I had paid that bill I think what I was trying to say and I hope it came across is that chances are there wouldn't have been enough money in the operational budget to pay that because circuit break or excuse me the
operational budget is underfund for example let's say that every year I know total special education expenses are about $3 million there's only $2 million budgeted in the operation ational budget and so I would
use circuit breaker for that 100,000 in my example above and beyond the operational budget. So I hope to answer your question is that if I had paid that van pool bill chances are there wouldn't have been enough money in the
operational budget. I would have spent that from circuit breaker and you're right because I didn't spend it in theory it is still sitting in that revolving account. >> Okay. And that's the uh Thank you Wayne that's very helpful. The that's the
circuit breaker account in which reimbursements from the circuit breaker program get placed. >> Yes. >> Okay. And you're allowed to you're using that fund to pay prior year bills. So
you or you're using prior year funding to pay current year. So got it. So in FY25, you would have been using whatever had been placed in for FY24. So there should be $200,000 more now than there would have had you paid that bill in
FY25. >> Okay. The reason I hesitate, that's true, but this year I've been using circuit breaker and my point is because you never know what expenses
uh the popup that unbudgeted, a family move in or a a a student's IEP moves that student say to a residential program. So my point is, let's say that, use your example, that $200,000 is is
sitting there extra and all of a sudden now a student goes from a day program to a residential. I've spent that. And so when you look at my numbers, it could not be there because I've spent it because of this un unplanned expense.
And that's what makes it so hard to manage a circuit or a special education budget. Understood. All right. I think I have a clear picture of what's happening right now. Could I ask more between this meeting and the next meeting um the
start of year balance of that fund for like the last five years and then also what has gone into that fund for the last five years and then what's come out will be obvious from the balance. talking about the stabilization
>> uh actually both and I've got requests out on the the revolving funds for preschool and school choice as well. So I'd like to have that data set just so I can understand finance. >> You got all that. We've sent all that >> revoling. We just got it a couple hours ago. >> Okay. >> Um
but we did get just the revoling funds earlier today. >> Okay. But we don't have I don't think the circuit breaker the stabilization fund balances. >> We're happy to work on the circuit breaker when Greg will have to do the stabilization. It's his account, not ours. >> Okay.
>> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> And we would appreciate as David said the payment for the bill that's coming due this week if you're comfortable with that. >> I'm comfortable with that, David. >> All right. So, let's have a motion made
uh if we can draft one quickly to uh What's the actual number, Wayne? Do you have that? The actual number. Oh, you're on You're still on mute. >> Yeah, give me a second. I'll have to >> Okay, thank you. >> Just say 70,000. So then
>> if it was if we want to round it to 70,000 we know we're going to cover if it was in the 60 >> 69 and change 70 >> 70,000 would be appropriate then >> move to accept the special education stabilization reserve fund request in
the amount of $70,000 submitted by the school department for unanticipated expenses related to special education. >> All right, motion's made and seconded. Any further questions or comments? Hearing none, we'll vote. Chris, >> yes.
>> Lindsay, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. >> Mike, >> yes. >> I'm a yes as well. So, we need to continue this conversation. It's got to be on the agenda for next meeting so that we can talk about finalizing and getting the balance if the board so
approves um so that this can move forward. >> Thank you. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Wayne. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Marl. >> All right.
>> Okay. Next item is contracts. Uh, excuse me, Mr. Chair. We're joined by a couple of uh two goodters um or at least the one up front. So, um, uh, Mr.
William Denzer, the planning director, um, is joining us, and they've done him and his sometimes partner in crime, Steve Silverstein, um, and and the good work for the, um, you spending the money with the the grant they got, $59,986.
So, Bill, what do you want to do? >> Well, we also have uh, Piper Picarelli from the ADA. >> Oh, thank you. >> Commission joining us as well. Um this is uh we did uh receive a grant as the board knows 88 for our ADA self evaluation plan. It's a federal
requirement. Um Maynard has been behind on it for quite some time but this will fund our self-evaluation our transition plan completely. Um and uh the the end result is that we'll
have a plan that should be ready for uh different components to fund the uh for construction as of funding in terms of and so the board has for a um contract. We we received uh we only received one
qualifying bid um that um so it kind of made the choice easy. On the other hand, um we had researched this firm prior and we were familiar with them. Uh they um and we researched some of the work they've done. They've done extensive
work in the community. We're very confident. It's a good choice. We're very happy. Any questions from the board? Hearing none. Is there a motion? >> Move. Move to authorize the town administrator to approve a contract with the Institute for Human Center for an
EDA self-evaluation and transition plan as presented in the amount of $59,986. >> Second. >> Motion's made and seconded. Any further comments or questions? Hearing none, we'll vote. Mike, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes.
>> Lindsay, >> yes. Chris, >> yes. >> Naomi, yes. As well, >> uh, could I just add a comment here if I may? >> Sure, go right ahead. >> I was just looking into the background of this. I was very aware that the ADA
commission uh, the members uh, you know, faced with grant writing did it themselves or presumably with your help as well. And a lot of time and effort went into that. And I just wanted to express appreciation uh for those members who put in their hard work um to
to make this come to light. Thank you. Very diligent. >> Yeah. Thanks for saying that. >> Yeah. Very thorough hearing presented. So appreciate having the chance to read through that. >> All right. We'll move on to item number 13. Marijuana Commerce Licensing
Regulations. I see Steve has moved up along with is it William Charles >> William William Mark along with William Mark that's something we won't well I will forget but I I
remember that you you uh you were with esteemed with the middle with the middle name so >> all right so uh all right go ahead and talk about the marijuana regulation uh discussion that you wanted to bring up.
>> Steve Silverstein, executive director, municipal services. Uh following the conversation the select board had at its previous meeting, we looked into some of the ways in which the that your esteemed body and go ahead and uh impose
additional restrictions, if you will, on the presence of marijuana shops in certain places about town. Uh the headline basically and we're also joined by Liz Lie and Esquire from MTC lawyers is that
if the conversation is about keeping uh using your regulatory power to make it so that the downtown is not doesn't become overcrowded with marijuana shops. And the best way to do that is through the host community agreement uh
mechanism. And we can go into the details of that. the other ways to you know additionally curate the downtown would be essentially subject to town meeting vote. So the HCA we could with minor modifications we could make it so
that it would be again it's it's HCA is completely discretionary for the select board. So you could refuse anybody um who's applying to town as long as it's on a sound basis. Uh and if you wanted to do that for the downtown you could do that
a myriad of ways. If you have any questions, especially about the details, Lizard's here, Bill's here from the the planning zoning perspective. Um, and we can take it from there. >> Right. So, if wants to set some sort of restrictions on where you like establish
to be, the easiest path is to amend the HCA application. And then right out of the gate, someone has to tell you where they want to go and you get to say, "Nope, it's too close. Um, I have a question about HCAS in general. I know that the CCC is
undergoing lots of changes. I think I just read the other day that they're streamlining and reducing the size of their board. Are HBAS going to be around for much longer? Do we have any sense of what that's is that? >> I I would ask Liz, but I don't know. I'm not industry that close. >> Yeah.
>> Is it not? Is it the HCAs that are not going to be around or is it the the >> I'm asking because I'm seeing in the news that the cannabis console commission is undergoing changes and I think their board size review thing and so I'm wondering if they also are going
to change like some of the process and um regulations >> I think the community impact fees but uh turn it over to council >> already been through one iteration of changes to the ha but I'm stepping it on Liz Liz You're muted, Liz.
>> You're muted. >> Can everyone hear me? >> Yeah. >> Y >> Okay. So, I can't guarantee that they won't make any changes. They have been making constant changes since the laws were enacted. Um, but at this time,
there's no planned change for eliminating HCAS. So there is a process for allowing for a waiver where by the the town can say you don't need an HCA but without affirmatively granting a waiver an HCA
is still required. >> Thank you Lindsay. Does that answer your question? >> It does. Thank you. And so I'm understanding from the memo that you guys put together um for us thank you for that. that I think as you just said, the easiest path forward is to modify
the HCA agreement to prevent oversaturation in the downtown district because the other two options require going to town meeting and to a ballot. Correct. >> That's true. But I also want to as Jeff was about to uh the application. So we're not >> Sorry. Sorry.
>> No, no, it's okay because I don't think we're looking to reopen the agreements. >> Sorry. No, no. Absolutely. But that but the board would so if if that's the path the board wants to go we are also asking and we could help advise and you don't have to do this necessarily tonight either but what is
that distance what is too close for comfort small downtown so you'd have to decide like what you want how to balance the vital like the econ the economy of downtown but also not I presume you
don't want to sort of like um not allow for an establishment to open if if it was truly warranted and you liked the business proposal. So, I don't know. It's not easy. Uh but again, depends on where the board wants to go. And I >> Are there also are there are there also, Greg, statutory requirements already
built into the legislation with marijuana, for example? Does it have to be less than a 500 ft? I'm going just using that from a school or from a daycare center or from whatever. So, we have some of those already downtown. Um,
which would guide some of the distances and may limit as to where certain businesses can go. Um I'm sensitive to the issue that we've had the discussion on the last few night the last few meetings about the the the impact to the
um to to the pedestrian uh you know experience downtown and how these things impact uh a visitor to our town and how you know windows being blocked or windows not being able to look in and see you know just have a good you go to
conquered they don't have this issue um every store. I was there the other night, um, Friday night. Every store has a has a, you know, nice open window. You look in, you can, even when there's when they're closed, you can look into the bookstore, you can look into the the clothing stores, you can look into the
whatevers. Um, it's not the same experience when you're walking down the street at night and it is a blocked off window or even if it's just a window that you can look in and see a little something there because they don't have to block it entirely. You understand my point? I don't want to I don't want to
keep on going, but I think Lindsay had made that point several times at our meetings about the concern about having too many of these specifically downtown. >> Yes. But and my concern was just the saturation of marijuana businesses in
the downtown area given the impact on the pedestrian experience and everything you just outlined, David. Um, and we per that other article that's going to town meeting reszoned to allow medical mar marijuana establishments, which I think makes sense, but given that that's a
different industry that we're opening up the downtown area to, my thinking was, okay, well then do we want to limit in some way uh the number of marijuana establishments that are in this tiny little economic district to prevent that
we've talked about. Um, I understand we're probably not gonna have like a mad rush of medical challenges, but the case that I see no harm in creating some kind of limitation. Also, you know, just that
medical marijuana establishments do not earn any tax on it. So given that I'm I'm the one who opened this can of worms. I mean I'll say that my preference but I this you know as I said from the beginning this is subjective. Um my preference would be to
go with option B which is modifying the host community agreement application with language that basically gives us a right of refusal in some way. Um when this does come in front of us then we're not going to town meeting. we're not adding um a bylaw and it gives us some
future flexibility. >> If you're keen on that because I know he's chomping at the bit tell you that he's already planned and proposed proposals for setting distances. We've already sketched out Bill has already sketched out uh some ways in which we could um reform the policy the the
application process. If we're doing that, do we have to establish firm criteria before so that from the business point of view, we're not seem to be making up rules as we go along? >> Correct. You should identify in the HCA application whatever that distance may
be. >> Right. So, um, >> so we would need to do some work on that. >> Yeah. Like I I brought up Google Maps while we were talking. I was just curious between one storefront and another storefront what the distance was because I'm not I couldn't off the top of my head say like what 50 feet or 100 feet was. Um, so you you could do those
maths, but then you'd have to again you'd have to well I don't know what that magic number is. The board have to decide what you want to do >> and anything existing would be grandfathered obviously. >> Well, that's true because we have existing agreements. >> So we wouldn't be modifying anything. >> No, but when those agreements expire um
you might have an opportunity to renegotiate those if even if they apply forward. And am I correct that um uh to the question that Mike just asked in the HCA application like if we were to change that language and a business
came to us and said okay I understand that this is within the minimum distance that you've established but will you wave that we still have the right to wave it if we want to right >> uh I would ask councel she's nodding so yes >> yeah so the idea here is that because this isn't a it's not a bylaw we're not
doing it by bylaw and case law says that HCAs are still discretionary. The idea here is to give the board some reasonable criteria for for which to determine whether to grant an HCA. So by doing it in this way, by
putting in the application your preferences for distances um between other businesses, you can use that as a basis for not granting an HCA. It's not a requirement that you don't grant it.
What if what and I hate to play this game but what if we what if you what if the board does wave or you know like let's say you wanted to be 100 feet but then someone comes in I'm like you know I'm 85 can you can you cut me a deal and the board says sure 85 is fine then the next applicant comes says hey you gave
them 85 so can I get can I get within 85 ft what what exposure does the board have for any waivers or inconsistencies or is the board the board is covered because look the application said 100 ft Well, it should be based on um something
concrete. Like for example, if if the applicant requesting a waiver was a social equity applicant and you have a social equity policy in place that says you'll give first consideration to a social equity applicant, then you can use that as a basis for granting a waiver and then say the next one that
comes in is not and you can say no and you have two reasons to deny that. So basically there's multiple criteria that we could use to say on a case- by case basis yes for you in this location no for you
in a similar location as long as we're upfront with what those are from uh what those criteria are and how we define them so that everybody has starts from a level playing field >> right and you're also looking at um you know the ability to finance the business
um maybe references you can look at other things besides location. >> Liz helped us uh enact the language for the social equity policy that we have. So I mean it is a a strong consideration say we had somebody who was a social
equity applicant. We couldn't actually the next one the next business up actually has to be a social equity applicant according to the language of our policy. So if they're asking for some slight waiver maybe that makes sense to then grant it to them. But the next one, which doesn't have to be a
social equity applicant, uh could be denied. >> The next business up for retail marijuana has to do social equity or for any kind of marijuana establishment. >> Any ha yeah, >> we have a onetoone policy.
>> Wait, so now now you got me questioning. So the next HCA has to be do we anticipate any medical marijuana establishment applications after we um if town meeting votes on that zoning bylaw
>> right if Wellspring if Olaf moves from Powdermill to downtown does he need a new HCA because the HCA I believe we have with him is not recreation is recreation he's he's not social equity >> even though I don't think he
I don't think >> he requests an amendment to his existing license for the location. >> Oh, yeah. He's definitely not a social equity opt. >> Oh, so we have some work to do. Um,
cool. >> Liz, I have a question if I I may regarding zoning. So, you can send the board out with good information. Uh, in the event you had a renewal of an HCA that was existing, would that would that be uh a legally
conforming non conformity to that would just be grandfathered in, >> right? I mean, under zoning, yes, it would it would already be an established business. It already exists in that location. So if the if the board had
decided to make a a whatever number x number and it was uh pre-existing under y a lesser distance it would still be uh grand audited. >> Yep. Just like any other use. >> Thank you.
>> Any other questions or comments? >> To be clear, you no longer need to block out the windows completely. you just can't show uh products of cannabis. Um so that the idea being >> I I tried to allude to that by by saying you know that you look in it's it's just
you know it's just going to be stuffed animals or something. It's not going to be um it's not going to be looking into the business. >> Yeah. >> Again the experience you get in downtown conquered when you go when you walk through that. Now, I realize we're not
conquered downtown for various reasons, but it's different. There's there's it's it's just it's it's it's a a shopping environment there, and you lose that when it's uh establishments that you don't have people walking in and out of regularly,
whatever, which have been discussed over the last several days, several meetings. So, could the HCA be used to positively encourage window displays that are obviously still within the boundaries? Then you're putting in something that livens the activity instead of putting a restriction on economic activity
downtown. >> Yes, we could be done that could be done two ways. Uh the planning board any any marijuana use goes before the planning board um for a special permit. Um and uh in the case of like downtown Overly
District um there is a burden to uh conform with the criteria for the downtown uh and in that case there has to be a demonstrated contribution to the pedestrian environment to the walkability. So in
that sense you know it could take the form of art it could take the form of another enhancement of um something visual or to you know it might be something like we've used that's how we got a lot of the trees down now you know to to
>> so it was a question of tradeoffs too and and I think the the planning board has been very diligent in trying to >> um ensure that they're meeting the spirit of the downtown overlay district with any use, not simply marijuana, but
any any so that criteria remains and that's completely separate from an HCA or anything like that, the downtown relate special permit criteria. >> I'll also add that I don't think so there's like the window display issue which I feel like we've discussed at
Nazium and we're all pretty clear on also these businesses are under like 24 hours and have to be locked at all times and are not accessible to a good portion of the population. So just again when I'm talking about the experience like the pedestrian experience, it goes
beyond just the aesthetics of the space. >> It's not it's not overall consumer friendly is in addition to the pedestrian friendly because you've got a limited audience and it's not constant in and out during the day uh when a business is open.
At least that's my that's my read on what you've been saying, Lindsay. And I think it makes sense. >> I am I'll say lightly not in favor right now. I think the the counterveailing arguments of of generating any economic activity for the downtown and if there's
a revenue generating business that that can be a a tenant paying occupant of a downtown building a building um that brings in activity. I think these businesses do bring in their own foot traffic or customers from out of town who then come to Mayors from surrounding
regions and that is beneficial as well. Um, with the two active businesses we have, Mass Wellspring has a a very nice front. It's not got that window shopping appeal, but they have, you know, they're out there continuously making sure that the plants are are well trimmed and kemp up and they have a neat store burned
appearance and and better than I would say a vacant building might have. Um, the reason why I'm lightly against I don't see the big ruck right now. I think we're at market saturation and then maybe we get a medical maybe we have to look up uh the rules on on how
that would work. Um, so I don't but I just don't see the the the need for it there does not exist for me to put additional restriction in place at this time and in action doesn't prevent this from doing so in the future.
>> So that's fair enough. I would ask if there is no rush and we're not like precluding activity that would benefit us in all the ways that you're talking about filling a vacant space, then what's the harm in adding? >> Well, you could be preluding if there's
an open space within whatever distance you put and depends and and my comfort would go up with the distance being down, but you're preventing a business from moving downtown when they might otherwise be able to do so if you put in a distance restriction. Sure.
But if that's that's that's another building occupied. That's economic activity in the town. >> The the the HCA gives us the opportunity to kind of control it without the restriction without putting a
restriction. Our HCA allows us to control what what we do. And then if we find we need to put a restriction, we put a restriction in the HCA. Well, I agree. I don't I just don't see the rush to change it.
And if Steve's point and David said the same thing if we no longer have to worry about um the fact that the windows aren't frosted and the windows aren't, you know, it's a big thing as far as visuals go.
What's what's the rush to change when we have a pretty good HCA component from that aspect? Um, I have a question maybe for you, Liz. Um, if we wanted to change the HCA application, what's the process for doing that? And like how long does it
take and what what do we need to do? Can we change that like on whim? When when we feel like it? >> Yeah. So, you can just do that in a in a public meeting. And if um we knew we were about to get an application and we decided we did want to preclude saturation and we
changed the ACA in that moment, would that open us up to any um like you know legal exposure because it would look like we were meeting against someone? I mean, maybe if they watched this meeting, but if um No, if if you haven't
received an application, you're not doing it reactively to having already received one, then I don't think there's any issue. >> Mike, any comments? >> Uh, no additional comments? No. Um,
I'm inclined to other than to say that I'm inclined to uh maybe let things as they are, we can clearly respond in a fairly quick timeline if we think the uh you know the kind of concerns that you're addressing are coming up.
So out of curiosity, if you would and humor me when like what would feel like saturation to either of you so that you would decide to change the ACA agreement or take any other action?
>> I would say I mean the concern has to do with the kind the sorry not the kind of business but the the impact on the nature of the downtown business. I think that's that's what you're concerned about, right? So I don't think things are going to happen so fast. I mean one
business might choose to move in. Uh and if we feel like um that is is indeed impacting the uh the the tone of the downtown then we can respond accordingly for any additional business that might
move in. I would be extremely surprised if we suddenly get like two or three businesses all at once saying, "Hey, look, this is a great place to go to." Um I I don't see that. When we were discussing this a couple of weeks ago, I looked into you know what, you know, the
number of businesses that applying and it's not not very many at this point. Um so that would be my take. I will say that the case law still remains that the decision to grant an HCA is discretionary. And if you had this conversation
while you were deciding whether or not to grant an HCA and you did have concerns and you expressed those concerns and that was a valid basis for not granting one, I I still think that you have the ability to do so, having it in writing in the application
um as a consideration just gives it extra support. All right. Where do we want to head? >> Uh I don't know if you're asking me, but >> anyone on this side or in general? >> Yeah, we don't there's the recommended action was just to consider
>> these options, which I feel like we've done pretty effectively. Um, and it doesn't seem like the majority of the board is interested in taking any specific action right now. So, I I feel like we could probably move on.
>> Okay. >> But, >> thank you, uh, Bill and Steve on this topic. I think you might be here for the next one, too. Maybe I'm wrong. Um this is the uh citizens petition for a
zoning bylaw amendment at 141 Parker Street. Um just for public consumption. That's the building that we have uh worked to sign a lease relative to the uh upcoming new senior center.
Uh there are representatives or a representative more than one from 141 Parker. Is that right? Correct. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, for the record, attorney Christopher Alfin from Blatman, Babrowski, HD, and Silverstein. And with me is the owner and operator, Matt
Blackham from, uh, Lex Vest Group. Um, I have a PowerPoint ready just as a visualization that maybe might be good to present to the board if that's if that. >> Sure. Go right ahead. Can we keep are you able to keep the presentation to, you know, under 10 minutes, five minutes?
>> Yes, it's going to be three minutes. >> Okay. Excellent. >> Is my screen sharing by any chance? >> It's up to Greg Wilson. >> Oh, >> it's not yet, but I granted you um permission to. >> Got it. Okay. You see that there now?
>> Yes. >> Great. So, our proposal is um is straightforward. We're just seeking to change the zoning map, not change any text of the zoning bylaw, just change a uh portion of the map, which is this property right here, as you alluded to,
Mr. Chairman, the uh office building, and there's a single family house right here. And all we're seeking is to change this from industrial zone to business zone. Um, we think that that makes a lot of sense for this particular property as being a budding uh digital way and all
the development that's happened in uh Maynard Crossing that this property kind of sits by itself and is sort of being underutilized because it's difficult to find industrial uses and we think that um business uses would make more sense.
Uh in addition, the single family house which is um in distressed is a pre-existing non-conforming structure in the industrial zoning district. And if we switch this to a business zoning district, then there's an opportunity to redevelop that single family house. Um
again, this is just a a a picture of it. A as the town is uh a fellow resident of Maynard, we all know what this property is that abuts right here uh in Lexington uh and and and Maynard crossing. Uh this is a photograph of just what this area
is going to be. I also think it's this little sliver right here. But regardless, we're just looking to again switch this from industrial to business. As you know, Digital Way is an overlay district and they got a lot of different permits to get uh different retail uses
approved here. Um industrial uses or things like warehouses uh and things like that. And obviously your business uses or more things like retail um stores and things like that. The other sort of concept behind this is that in the industrial zoning district, we're
sort of restricted because of dimensional regulations. um there's much higher thresholds as far as frontage and square footage of area goes. And if we're able to change this to a business district, that's going to give us a little bit more leeway as far as potentially subdividing the property um
and just make the property overall overall more developable. Um there's been over the years um difficulties in getting tenants that fit industrial uses in this building. Uh we've been before at boards and we've been in the planning board um about different operators and
different ways to develop this and we've gotten a letter from the planning board that is in support of this change and we just think that this change makes a a lot of planning sense. So um I'll just leave it at that and if the if the board has any questions we're here to answer
them. >> Uh I have one question probably pretty uh straightforward and a lot. What's the plan? Is there is there currently any business that's reaching out to um the landlord that is suggesting that they
want to move in? Um this does open the door at that location if I'm not mistaken to ironically enough given our previous conversation to marijuana businesses. I believe is there any intention to pursue that? And I reflect that because I'm I would be
concerned with I don't know how the seniors would react to having that done. Maybe they maybe they'd be overjoyed, but maybe they would not. I don't know. To that type of a business going in where they just got moved to thinking that they were going to have a nice Now doctor's offices and everything else
would make tremendous sense in a location where there is a senior center where they would just have to walk across the hallway to go to see a doctor. So or an eye doctor or whoever it happens to be. U so you get my point.
What what's the intent? Is there is there something that's driving this at this moment other than just uh what may happen down the road? >> We've had a lot of interest in the site. U one of the challenges we've had is it it's been cart before the horse. A lot
of retail uses um have expressed interest in the home. Uh we've had some interest in medical office in the past. Uh the challenge is that it's not zoned for any of those uses which we feel are the natural uses for for the house. Um
so we haven't been able to pursue or or really execute with any tenants. Um and our hope is that through the resoning process, we'll be better positioned in order to capture some of that interest in the future. Um, we don't have any current uh interest for uh marijuana
uses and and our pursuit of the resoning has nothing to do with marijuana user. Although I um I do believe that there are some marijuana uses that are allowed currently in the industrial zone uh that are actually much more intensive
um than than potentially the uses that are allowed in the business zone. uh in the past uh when they've approached us, we we we um haven't pursued them uh for a variety of different reasons. Um but um they they are currently allowed uh in
a more intensive use than they are in the business zone. >> Thank you. Yeah, I think um like what is like cultural cultural ice cream whatever use of water which would be a
problem for us anyway um in most of those types of uh of comments but anyway um members of the board any questions comments concerns can we take down the the or unless you want to keep it up that's up to you council um if you want to keep up the
benefits issue I don't want to take that away I just want see people because I'm remote. >> Mr. Chair, one clarification to uh the presentation. >> Yep. Please. >> Okay. Um the one clarification uh the
planning board has not heard this article yet. It's scheduled for next week. Um what was indicated was that the planning board had considered and would consider in other circumstances uh potentially sponsoring
uh the article. In this case, the property owner had sponsored it, but we have indicated that the planning board would likely view a favorable sponsorship of the article, but the planning board has not endorsed this article or sent a letter to that effect.
>> Bill is absolutely correct. >> No, that's okay. >> So, if the planning board sponsor then it wouldn't be a citizen sponsor. >> Correct. This is the property owner which has their right as well. property planning board um originally had
discussed sponsoring the article, but the time frame um didn't work out as and and this was the uh >> um and I'm sorry if I missed this when you said it. Is the plan to redevelop and put a different structure there or
to just use the house that is there? >> There's I don't want to speak for Matt, but there's no potential plans whatsoever. This is just a zoning change and then once we have a zoning change, we hope that we can bring in good tenants and potentially redevelop the the property.
>> I have a history question. Why was that area zoned industrial originally? >> I think digital that that building has historic uh I believe digital had some office space in there and they used to meet in there. uh quite frequently. So I
think it was digital property that was just zoned that way at the time. The house was definitely used for meetings by uh what's his name? The the digital uh >> Olen. >> Yeah. Ken Olsson.
>> He definitely had he definitely had office space and meeting space there. >> Yeah. I've only been in town for two years, so I don't know. I don't know enough. >> Welcome. >> Yes. Thank you for having me. >> Any other questions or comments?
>> I will move to refer the draft zoning bylaw amendment to the planning board as presented in the citizens petition as certified by the town clerk on March 18th, 2026. >> Second. >> All right. Roll call vote. M. Uh, Mike, >> yes.
>> Jeff, >> yes. >> Lindsay, >> yes. >> Chris, >> yes. >> And I am a yes as well. >> Thank you, gentlemen. >> Thank you, everybody. >> And but before you leave, Matthew, I wanted to say thank you to you and your team for all the work that you did with
our town staff in getting to where we are relative to the senior center. There is so much excitement and we're looking forward as a community as a and I'm a member of the senior team for for as
seniors to have a new senior center at your location and uh we anticipate that you're going to bring us uh a great partnership and thank you so much for your willingness to help us. >> Well, thank you. We appreciate the partnership and certainly the trust and
confidence you have in us. >> Yep. It's going to be it's going to be fun and exciting. I can't wait till when we have a ribbon cutting in, you know, several months. >> Indeed. Look forward to seeing you. >> Yeah, you too. >> Thanks, guys. >> Thank you.
Please. >> All right. Uh, general fund development, Greg. >> So, Mr. Chair, um, now it gets really complicated and fun. Um some actions I'm asking of the board this evening include to consider approval of uh these motions
that you see in board docs to close accounts um that are just passed past expense accounts. One is related to carpet in green man school and the other one is the demolition of the old Fowler gym at 6 to1 summer. So um the town of
accountage I identified that these were sort of lingering accounts that were still out there. We love closing accounts we don't need and uh the total is under $8,000 total. So um I think that's pretty straightforward and if if you do that that my recommendation
in um which is you know sort of co-sponsored by the town is to just put those funds into paying off debt services. That's millions of dollars. So uh $8,000 isn't really going to do much but it goes somewhere and and pays that
down. Um that's that's the easy part. If if you want if I can stop there, Mr. Chair, or I can keep going. >> No, keep going. >> Okay. Um otherwise, we have the FY27 budget development. Um which does lead into the next item on the select word
agenda. So, here's where we are at the budget. Not a significant change um as the last couple months have gone by. Um if there's going to be a significant change, it's going to be related to pre-cash and potentially the solid waste and recycling enterprise. Um those do of
course relate to the general fund. Uh they sort of support each other. In particular, let's say enterprise funds have some indirect costs which are transferred as revenue to the general fund to to to let's say offset benefits for employees that work
both in for an enterprise activity as well as general fund activity. um or pre-cash in that matter. And I'll get to the pre-cash sort of details in a minute. Um smaller items um related to the general fund um you know so that I
could sort of relieve some of the precache items related to the fire department. Uh we looked at how much we were collecting in ambulance receipts. So, my recommendation is to increase the amount of transfers uh as as local receipts revenue from the ambulance
receipts to pay for some some capital expenses related to the fire department. And those have been listed on the pre-cash items for a long time, but I'm I'm and I think I've said this in the past, I'm recommending that we just use ambulance receipts for those. Um, and that would be reflected in the general.
Then um uh I got contacted by Civic Plus um with a pitch to um acquire their services through additional plug-in software to our website so that we could be and I'm not going to get the acronym correct I don't
think but it's WIKAG compliant. So, municipalities, I think even private businesses, but I I can't speak for that, but municipalities have to be compliant to ADA um website accessibility by a certain deadline. I think it's next spring. And so, um, of
course, 7 plus is our website platform and they said they'll do it for us. So, um, it sounds enticing. Um, so that that it was hard to pass up, but I and and if we have the means, which I believe we do, we can pass that. But I would say um we are now into fourth quarter for the
fiscal year. Um the town accountant and I sat down to today and I uploaded it to for the board to look at but I'll go over this with the budget subcommittee next week is where we are. So revenues and expenses revenues is you can see this later. We're we're we're pretty much on on target. We're about
threequarters through the fiscal year and we're about 75% or if not more in a revenue collection. That's good. Um, things I got nervous about in in this town's budgets for both revenue and expenses is same thing any household would be. I don't know what fuel costs are going to be going forward. I don't
know what the cost to keep the lights on are going to be. Um, cost of everything continues to rise. And that's true in the town as well. Um, on the revenue side, um, we're doing okay. You, you know, as we talk about revenue from time
to time, restaurants open, restaurants close. It is what it is. What I do get nervous about is um investment return. So we in the last couple years, thanks to the hard work of the treasure collector, we made some smart investment moves and we were getting big returns and and I don't know if anyone's been
following the market these days, but who knows where it's going. So, um we may not see the same sort of returns as I was hoping for, but I I'm not I'm not losing sleep over it yet. I just I'm monitoring that. And it's um and I I feel confident going into FY27, if we go
to town meeting with the budget that I present to you today, we'll be fine. But if we if we need to amend it in the fall, we should. And those are the sort of questions I asked myself. Um but I I was sort of holding out until I met with the town today to see where we ended in March. And if it was like if we were
taking a nose dive in certain revenues or or if our costs were skyrocketing, I probably would have come to you and said, "We need to do something about this before we go into FY27." But I don't I don't see that right now. Um, cool. So, that's the big the big stuff.
Um, yeah. So, uh, I'm kind of I'm kind of torn, Mr. Chair, about moving into the I don't want to move too much into the next item, but I could. Um, do you want me to talk about free cash? Where would you like me to go? >> Uh, well, do do we need to make the a
motion and accept the motion on the um on the first item that you spoke of? That's what I would recommend before we move on to the >> Yeah, I I don't want to get lost. So, we uh get ahead behind ourselves or whatever. So, um we have two motions
that that were included in the general fund development item. Um the board can somebody on the board can make the motion that are necessary. We can move on. >> Move to close the account for the Green Meadow carpet replacement. Is this the right one? >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Sorry. Move to close the account for the Green Meadow Carpet replacement from article nine of town meeting in May 2011 and transfer the funds to the general funds debt service account. >> Second.
>> Uh can we do them both at once? >> Yes. >> Yes, you can. Okay. and move to close the account for the demolition of the old Bower Gymnasium from article 14 of town meeting in May 2012 and transfer
the funds to the general's fund debt service account. I still second. >> All right. Uh any further comments or questions? We'll vote. Mike, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. >> Lindsay,
>> yes. >> Chris, >> yes. I'm a yes as well. >> Great. Thank you. >> All right. And there's no motion on the last conversation. Um, so do you want to move on to the article acceptance conversation, Greg, or is
there another >> Yeah, I do. I do. I do. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, the to sort of like in the transition, I also want to point out what I where I wrote the contents uh for that for 14B, which leads into 14 C. So, it's been the direction of the board to have um articles accepted before the
board has to approve the entire warrant. So, with that intention in mind, um I cranked out what I believe to be all except for one of the of the articles for the board to consider accepting that would then move forward, you know, with whatever sort of if there needs to be
revisions in the numbers between now and two weeks, that's that that's fine. But except the the one article that you don't see is the solid waste and recycling enterprise and that is due to it's a complicated contract and we've been having conversations with Harvey
for the last uh two weeks and um we're coming we're getting there. We are close but as you can see you didn't see Lindy Gear or or Justin Dearco this evening um but they are expected to come on April 21st and I understand that is not ideal
not the preference of the board to see you know to get the pitch for the enterprise at the same time you have to finalize the warrant I I do I would recommend that the board um be open to accepting that article so that we can have a budget to start the new fiscal
year. Now, I I have to also say um the board has some considerations. Uh and now now I'm kind of transitioning into into 14C. In 14C, you'll see um there are two versions of pre-cash appropriations. And and there's here's
the significant difference. In one version of the free cash appropriation, there's a set aside of $210,000 to be able to pay for what comes out to be about three months of an extended current RV contract. So, if the board feels uncomfortable with starting the
new solid waste and recycling enterprise July 1st, which is what the intention has been this entire time, but if the board feels like it would be warranted to have 3 months, uh, then then you could. And then so that that calculation comes out to about $210,000 of free cash plus a 3month
expected continuation of receipt receipts from um trashers that we would that would because it comes out to about we need about $300,000. So let's say it's about I'm sorry it's four months. >> Why would we keep having revenue for trash? >> Because we would continue the current contracting program.
>> So I we wouldn't start the new billing >> maybe >> we wouldn't start the new billing system until October 1st in this proposal. So, so we I need about 300 grand. 210 210 will come free cash and then I expect it's comes out to about 100 grand worth of treasures we could project.
>> Wouldn't we be needing to rework the the whole budget that was based on bringing out both those revenues and those expenses into an enterprise fund? >> Well, yes and no. So the so no because
I'm going to cover the because I'm not extending it for the full year. I'm only I'm only I'm using free cash to cover what the general fund might have covered in in a normal period >> for that. Oh, so you're using free cash to cover what the three month delta >> correct. You're right. Right now, the
the general fund heavily subsidizes Yeah. >> the the the um draft program, trans um trash stickers barely they're not even half of the cost. So I'm I'm recognizing that ratio and I'm saying
instead of general fund be free cash but I would again I'm ask you're not I'm not even asking you to make that decision tonight but >> but you're setting yourself up in case you ask >> bingo. So I've showed you in that free cache article you'll see two columns you'll see one with and one without um
>> sorry why why we have that variable just the timing of >> yeah the board you guys want more first >> yeah I think hear from Lindy hear from Justin to see like how the roll out could look about and the board feels comfortable with like people having enough notice we'll get into this but as
you know regardless of any sort of roll out there's going to be people who still don't know so you'll you'll still we'll still get a phone calls. But either way, that that's that I otherwise, Mr. Chair, um you can see like list of of these um
and we can we can field questions, but um a lot of these are not surprises to the board. Salary ramen plan um ambulance receipts we we've talked in fact the ambulance receipts is the same one we do every year. It's just one less thing we have to pay for this year. and then various enterprise accounts. Um the
the zoning bylaw the board has already talked about for for um change of use for to allow for um medical marijuana dispensary, etc. So, it kind of goes down the list. Oh, except there was one more I wanted to point out. Um contract authorization. That's why we got the
chief here. So, um the chief has been super patient. Sorry, chief. And uh but he loves this stuff. Now, you know what the chief watches? Chief watches these but maybe the next day. >> You freed up my morning.
>> Yeah. So I have some free time. Thank you. Actually >> the chief was very responsive to the questions of the board regarding the body camera um uh acquisition and program. So the chief is here to answer your questions. Um additionally the chief is here to remind me uh maybe you
didn't know this that um I have I have a question for the board. How does the board feel about so the so the contract for the for the body cameras is five years. Um we need town meeting approval to approve any contract over three years.
So you have two options. You do an article that requests a fiveyear or or more contract length authorization for town meeting to allow you to contract with the state to guide those body cameras for 5 years. or on a whim, I asked town council and they
provided me an article that could allow for we'd never have to go back to town and and it sort of like allows the select board to authorize me to sign contracts of of I can't remember if he even has it a link so we don't have to go back to town meeting anytime we have
a contract that's over three years and I'm not saying that's very often in fact when I pitch this to the finance committee let's just say they were not so receptive because they because they they represent town meeting and so they they they like the idea of not taking power from town meeting in in in so much
as in this case contract like I'm offering the board to consider do you want to ask the town and maybe it would fail maybe town meeting would say like no no no no you have to come to us every time you want to go over three years in a contract but I I'm fine with this either way I I I
would appreciate the board's consideration at a minimum I would like the board's acceptance of the contract of five years for the years. >> Where does the three-year um limitation come from? Is that a bylaw, a charter requirement? >> No. Chapter 30B, state law.
>> So, it's state law. And so, how would we overcome state law? >> Because town meeting would you the state law says you have to get town meeting authorization for any contract over three years. So, you if town meeting gives you that contract authorization,
they and if town meeting says any contract over three years, you don't have to come back to us. Yeah, I I I I don't know if I go back to my old finance committee days or whatever. I'm I'm hesitant to do that because I do like the authority of town
meeting to to be there and, you know, it's not always the same town administrator. So, you know, you're you know, you're looking at at it's not necessarily going to be Greg Johnson approving contracts that are uh that more than three years and they might go, you know, who knows? So, uh anyway,
that's a different discussion. Um, I do have a question for the chief, uh, relative to the body cam. Uh, having watched our meeting, you you probably saw my inquiries. I am a huge proponent of body cams videos, um, for many, many
reasons. Um, but I am concerned about the financial impact. I understand this covers us for a brief period of time, 3 to 5 years, whatever the thing is, the the um, the uh, grant that we got. I'm concerned about the future and not only
the the operational of the equipment themselves but the uh storage of them the the whole uh the issues with taking in freeman free uh public
public um information requests that come in that then require redaction people to sit there and watch these videos and redact things and take things out etc etc. Uh I'm I'm concerned about the costs associated with it. I get them
frequently with my professional position and I see the effort that goes in. They have to blur out licenses. They have to uh turn off the volume when somebody gives their license number or their phone number. It's a lot of technical work, I would imagine. Um I I get them
from the city of Boston. I get them from a lot of different venues. Um I don't know how that would impact us. over time and I'm concerned about the the uh the budget implications of having that and then having the storage on it etc because you have to keep it at least
three years for the statute of limitations if not longer on some things I would imagine. Um but comments on that chief >> I'll try to answer all those questions. I'll try to remember if but I don't uh >> No, that's okay. I I I apologize for for bulking them in.
>> That's right. I I as Greg mentioned, I watched a select of me, so of course I watched the last one. I know your questions were, so I trying to take notes so I could try and answer the best I could and I understand that they're they're legitimate questions and concerns. So hopefully I can answer some of those or all of them today. Um, so it
is a five I'll just kind of stop at the top of it. It is a five-year program. Um, I am in full favorites. I kind of initiated this. It's been my own kind of doing um because I am for a lot of reasons in favor of them. Um it's a lot of work, but I kind of put on myself because that's how much I believe in
them and I really think we'd benefit from them. So I'm willing to put the work in. I think we have um with with my team as well. We've kind of done a lot of research on it um to include the grant. So it is a five-year cycle as as Greg kind of mentioned. So if we were implement the body one camera program,
this program would take effect on uh on August 1st of 2026. The cycle would be for five years. what the town um would be obligated to pay is the town's portion would be uh so
the total program cost is $121$121,000 semi minimum $121,20030 that is everything in the program for five years there's no additional cost beyond that for five years we won't pay for storage we won't pay for any equipment that covers everything training suit and nuts equipment there
is no additional cost for five years once that's paid then we're done. Um, and that can be paid in any uh type of installments within the five years. We could pay the whole thing on day one. We could pay X amount of dollars in year one, year two, year. We can break it up in any way,
shape, or form we want it. That's how most body one camera vendors do it um over the fiveyear cycle. So, you can pay however much you want all at the end, however you can decide to. So again, $121,000 is the cost of the program for 21 body cameras, which is we have 21 uh
sworn officers. That would be >> Chief, it's Chief, one quick question. Does it also include the the costs of the manpower to do the redactions that I spoke of and to issue responses to public public requests for public information, all those things?
>> It does. Yeah. So when I put the program together and so how it kind of works is you buy the body cameras and that's kind of all cart. You can add different things to it. The redaction software is one of the things at an additional cost that you want to add to it to make your life easy, and I'll explain that, but that is included in that $121,000 price
that includes the redaction software. The redaction software um makes your life a lot easier uh because of kind of what you mentioned earlier, David. Um if you're watching a video of an officer at a call, that's 20 minutes. There might be three or four officers at the call. Now, you watch four cameras, 20 minutes.
And uh just for an example, as part of the redaction software, you have to redact a license plate, a license, a face, you just kind of mark it in the first port of the video and it follows it all the way through. There's no other redaction beyond. Without the redaction software, you almost have to go frame by
frame and blur out or redact whatever you want to. This redaction software that Axon provides allows us to be much more ease and seamless where you can redact what you want at the beginning of the video and it will follow it throughout. >> And what would be the plan? What would be the plan for after five years?
>> So after so after five years we'd have to uh again it's a cost I think of maybe build building it into our operating budget coupled with maybe uh capital to offset the cost beyond that and then fund the program beyond the five years
>> through through the operating budget. We'd have to we'd have to find a way to fund the program ourselves after five years. >> Correct. Unless >> and going forward. >> Correct. addition unless there's additional grants that become available, it's tough to say. We did get a $70,000 grant uh for this cycle. I know the
state grant is not offering another one. I know there's some federal grants out there that they do offer grants for for body, which we didn't look at in the federal side because we have the state one that existed. I don't think the state one's got to be existing beyond this, but again, there are some federal grants out there beyond this that we
could potentially look at and utilize to fund beyond the five-year program. I'm sorry for interrupting, but if uh if we were to do the five years, we're obligated to keep that to retain that in that that public information that we have in our possession beyond five for
for something that happens four years from now. We're then required to keep that and retain it and have all of it. So, we're we're obligating ourselves to go beyond 5 years because we have to retain that information by law for the
statute of limitations. Am I not correct? >> Correct. Yes. So all the all the body camera footage that we retain would go to the cloud uh which is through Axon that we that's accessible by us only not Axon but is stored in the cloud. And yes if at the
end of five years if we said we don't want to go forward with this program we're done with it. we would still have access to that video for those records requests beyond the five years because it's what we pay for now what we've put into the cloud >> but there's no there's no cost
associated with that additional time beyond the five years >> there's not so all the all the all the storage is built into this $121,000 initial price um I know there's been some some talk out there about you know you get into a contract with some of these bodybu came storage fees go up.
That's not true. Uh the what we pay now is uh is everything soup to not $121,000. Uh includes unlimited storage. So all the video we have the storage is unlimited. Now what we would do and what we set up is Massachusetts obviously has
retention laws. So you're aware of J3 network. Um we don't have to keep every piece of footage that we retain forever. there certain retentions and it's set up in the cameras automatically or the cloud is automatically set up to delete once that retention period ends. So uh
so say an unrest is a three-year retention period it knows to after three years to delete that. If we want to extend that then we can but the storage is unlimited. >> Okay. Sorry for interrupting. Go ahead. >> Um so that answer some of my bad points I
was going to get to. We got a grant of 70,000. So we it would cost the town $51,188.80 over the next five years to fund the program. Um and then again at the end of the five years we would be up for another five years. Cost we typically see maybe four to six% increase which is
probably typical you know five years from now. Um, speaking with with the Axon representatives, that's probably what we can expect. But if we were to implement this program now, again, we would be we would be uh unlocked for $51,188 uh between now and five years from now.
We'd have to pay that $51,000. And that would cover with our grant everything associated with training with it. Uh you know equipment, charging cables, everything that we would need associated with the body one care aside from this other question David too
was collective buying. That's that's an associated cost potentially too but that's for Greg and Stephanie to kind of decide but there are maybe some costs associated with that. Um I I would love it if the 5-year increase is only 1% per year, but I I
think the the the budgetary impact I think is well worth it. Could you talk a bit about um what will happen in terms of putting in place policy for the use of cameras with the officers? Um what outside resources we're looking at to develop that policy internally? How do
we handle sensitive events? We've read the news where there's been lost footage and that can um you know for a program that increases accountability in and transparency in in a way that is beneficial both the public and to the police department isolated it. So what kind of policies have in
place if something like that happens? So we have draft policy in place already. It's 13page policy on body 41 cameras and much like a lot of policies that we implement we kind of look to other pilots who have a policy in place and we bank our own state. We look at theirs, they look at ours, and we kind of take
what's best practice and then we implement our own policies. So, a lot of them are kind of very similar out there that are using body cameras. Have been for years, have policies in place. We're kind of going off their policies and then modifying them to our own best. Um, but we do have a trap policy in place,
13 pages. We haven't quite finished it, but we're working with the union to get their input as well, you know, because their input is valuable. Um, they had some question, they're very receptive to it. There really isn't any hiccups at all. So minor language things we're working through, but we do have a policy in place that we're kind of working
working through. As far as the stories and having the the the video available, Jeff, to your point, it's all through Axon. Um, extremely reputable company. Everything's stored on the cloud. They're probably the leader in body. Axon is the company, the vendor that we chose to go with. There's a lot of them out there, GTA and Lens Lock and some
other ones. There's about 70 police departments in Massachusetts that are using Axon. They're kind of the the premier um I think in body one cameras. Uh they're they're probably the lead in research and development. They're wellunded company. They've been around a long time. Our tasers that we carry
currently. Our axon products. So uh our body cameras integrate with our tasers automatically as well as if we with another vendor. We wouldn't have that. So if an officer deploys the taser, the body camera already turns on because they're both Axon products. We wouldn't have that advantage if we went with a a
different vendor for body cameras. miss some other benefits as well. Um, but all everything is stored on the cloud, extremely safe. Uh, they've never been breached. There's really no issues with with um the storage and the and the and the safety of the data. And >> and when would the camera be turned on
or off? >> So, it would be turned on basically any police function. So, obviously motor vehicle stop, an account with an individual, you know, it's all spelled out in the policy. uh anytime an arrest anytime the officer and sometimes we put in the policy they think that the body
camera should be turned on that they can turn it on and just notify the person or whoever they are that they're being audio video recorded that would be the same for road vehicle stop on the approach to the motor vehicle they would initially tell them that they're being audio video recorded it you know they're worn pretty much on your right shutter
on your chest with a light on pretty obvious that there's a camera on if there's a lot of people around but uh you know the the standard protocol through policies to notify people that they're the audio video be video be video be video be video be video be video be video be video be video be video recorded but again it's pretty much through any standard police action is kind of how we classified it
>> they have to be manually they have to be manually turned on or um are they uh operated by remote control through when a call comes in the police officer is saying that they're stopping somebody it comes on >> no it's turned automatically by the by
the police officer and what happens with the cameras is they're it actually they're actually constantly running on video without audio. So if I was to turn my body camera on right now, it would capture 30 seconds prior to me turning it on without any audio, just the video.
And the purpose of that obviously is because you encounter a situation very quickly. You turn your body camera on, it's going to miss kind of what just happened in front of you. Most body cameras or all body cameras are are uh designed to have that setting where it's already running kind of overlap in the
background. So when you turn it on, it's captured 30 seconds prior. You can change that to make it 60 or 90 seconds, but this pretty much standard is 30 seconds. do the um the policies that you're looking into include uh more about uh
audio surveillance and uh because I know one of the concerns is that with the increasing capability of microphones to pick up conversations that are 30 40 50 100 feet away um which would seem to me uh you know to be a potential invasion
of privacy um so are the policies looking to address that? So the policy doesn't specifically address how far away the microphone will pick up. Uh but it certainly addresses advising people if you're speaking to an area that they're being audio and video recorded to let them know. I can't say for
someone that's you know 40t away it's going to pick up the conversation. I don't think so. I think they're that sensitive to pick up something that far away. Certainly the people in the area the policy addresses advising everybody that they're being audio and video recorded. The video that I've seen um and I've
seen a lot does not suggest that there's any infringement on nearby people's conversations. It really pick it does pick up very well the conversation between the officer and the >> well in this case I have a question for
you chief. Yeah. So, in my um my trucks, you know, the cameras we have dash cams and all that, is there anything in a in a body warn camera that um we turn that camera on if there was a sudden significant event that was unanticipated,
you know, the guy if the if the officer got knocked down or is there anything that would like trigger camera to come on without the officer's intervention? >> There's not. There is the ability uh an additional ability I think to just more
cost to remotely monitor video cameras from say the police station or from a supervisor to actually watch it live on calls. That's an added cost not something that we're exploring at this time but they would not to point they would not turn automatically if something happened to the officer
they turn on automatically. >> Two more questions. One the first one would be what effect positive or negative does this have on your accreditation? So I assume it's a positive effect to have body on campus. >> It is it's not required by accreditation
impact mass police accreditation commission. However, if we do then we have to have a policy in place which we do. >> Okay. And the the final question I have is uh so they've been out for a while and obviously there are communities probably around us or close to us that
have um gone through the five year cycle the first five year cycle. Have you heard of any communities having difficulties on that second reup into the next period of you know the suddenly cost change or do they you know that
different things occur within the like you said venue is there any have you heard of anything along is a d point like we've heard all these you know online these big rumors whether it's you know where wherever you see them >> in social media otherwise these nightmare stories of different
communities Have you come across anyone that's talked about anything like that or you know once the first five year period aspires any lighting stories or any concerns that we should have about going forward? >> I haven't I haven't heard any actually
my first and I've heard none. Um in fact the department I've spoken to three up their five year contract the few that have they haven't been along around a long time we're kind of behind the eightball across the country. I talked to my law enforcement partners from across the country and they're actually shocked. One of my friends from Indiana
was laughing that is if you guys have body cameras like what do you mean? Like it's it's kind of a shock to some of these other police departments across the country who have them. Some states require in Connecticut requires every police department in Connecticut to have them. It's mandatory. There's just there's no option around it. Um you know, so could that be something in
Massachusetts at some point? I potentially um but I have not heard horror stories about them. I know there was there was one story um I think it was LOL there was some some issue some some talk about LOL B that that didn't re reop on on their contract it's not
true um what happened in LOL this was some of the confusion it's typically a five-year contract as Greg kind of explained earlier low rare two-year contract for whatever reason or there was a money issue within the city they entered into a two-year contract with Axon and then once that two years was up
they went back into a fiveyear cycle they did not get rid of the was after two years. Thank you. >> Uh Chief, what what do your officers say about them? >> Uh it's overwhelmingly positive. It's uh it's only positive. I really don't push
back at all. You know, I think I think the positives far outweigh the negatives on something like this. It can really I mean, talk about the millions you could potentially pay in a lawsuit. I think this is really to me it's a no-brainer. And I'll reference the uh you know the recent trial that was pretty public in in North. I know that some of you may
have watched maybe or read about from the news and uh that was a bench trial and it was a not guilty and we wanted to get into the particulars of the case but at the end the judge and it was it was quoted as him admonishing and I don't really think he admonished the police
department but he wasn't he spoke a little bit negatively about the police department because they didn't have body cameras. He said it would have made the case that much easier. It was a very public case if you were well aware what happened in North Aendo you can read about it but the judge was was disappointed that they didn't have body cameras and said if they did it would
have been a much clearer picture and things would have been much easier to understand for everybody involved if someone was wearing a body camera. They just weren't for whatever reason. Um but I mean there's there's a lot of reasons that that there's one of them. There's liabilities. Um there's frivolous complaints against officers. Um use of
force things like that we can review. I talked about training. I mean, the training is invaluable for the body camera footage and and being able to look at a case. We've had several recently. Um, really good job by our officers and, you know, to have that moment captured for the rest of the department to watch during a roll call
training. I think it's invaluable for for our officers to sit down, roll call, and watch what their fellow officers did in the call last night really, really well live, like on a video. I don't think you can really replace that through any type of training. And I think that's that's invaluable. Um and then some of the court cases I know a
lot of court cases are probably adjudicated before trial. I know they are because of the because of the presence of bond which you know we've had I don't know how many 12 or 15 no oi arresters in the past year. I can tell you probably or maybe almost all of them probably wouldn't even went to trial or
went to court with the with the presence of body camera footage. uh you know watches write very well you know documented reports take pictures but to actually play a video of someone trying to do fields Friday test that's a really paints a different picture and I think that there's a lot of value in that as
well with documenting crime scenes and things we do through pictures in writing that we try and you know replicate a courtroom or in front of a judge or a jury that a body camera could really do in our family >> just one uh bit of personal experience
in my chip work as a a school administrator. Went from a school that had three cameras to a school that had over a hundred cameras and boy did it add a lot of hours to my work of looking through it. Now obviously a school is a different setting from the public but uh
it was a big surprise to us just how much extra time it took um when we were suddenly realized we had this new tool available to us. It was a helpful tool >> but it was a time consuming one. Yeah. >> Right. And David, sorry I mentioned that earlier to the same point I put that in.
And uh it will is it going to add work to us? Absolutely. Is it going to be a little bit more cumbersome because we have to redact more videos. We get a lot of record requests now. You wouldn't believe how many people request reports from us and we have some software for reports that we do and we get them out to people. We have to get them with
provide within 10 business days. Um you know through public records lock and body camera footage will be no different. But a lot of people, a lot of departments are dealing with the same thing and we're no different. We we can certainly handle it. Is it going to be a little bit more of a heavy lift because we have to now provide body cam footage. And again, if I mentioned earlier,
there's four police officers on scene. We're talking four different cameras, maybe 20 minutes each try to, you know, go through that. Yeah, it's going to be a little bit of a heavy lift. Redaxis software will certainly take some of that lift off of us, but I don't think I don't think that would shy me away from
from wanting to to to implement body cameras because of the potential for records requests. I think I think that's more transparency for us. I think if people want our body camera footage, we'll give it to them because, you know, again, in the spirit of transparency, we have nothing to hide and we'll take that extra time, it delays things a little
bit to get that information out because I think that's part of what what all programs are about. Anybody else with questions? Thanks, Chief. Appreciate it. >> The grant for spearheading this in the first place. It also occurs to me. You must have just hit your oney year
anniversary. Please chief. Congratulations. >> Oh, congratulations. >> Hey, Chief, you mentioned um how they how body cam uh videos can help in certain circumstances. our neighbors in Actton maybe about a year ago, a year
and a half now, uh had a situation where somebody did make an accusation about having been treated as a result of a racial issue. And the body cam video was used in that to uh you know to really help diffuse what had actually gone
down. And I, you know, as I said at the outset, I have a I really believe that they are valuable tools for many many reasons. Um, and my only concern from from my perspective sitting in this
chair is uh the budget impact and not necessarily because it's all paid for under this grant. I'm concerned about the future, but what what are we getting ourselves into? You know, unintended consequences. >> No, absolutely understandable. And and I know the case of reference in actton um
it was in their favor but I also say if the officers are doing something wrong and it's not in favor then that will be dealt with accordingly as well. So it works it works both ways. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Thanks chief. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you J. >> Uh Mr. Chair if you will. I there was a couple other things I should point out about the consideration of acceptance articles. So um talk about free cash. I also want to point out that there's in the two versions of the precache in order to carve out money to extend the
current contract with Harvey um I had to make some other you know some some other decisions. So you'll see that in the pre-cash um allocation including um not enough money to go to buy two police cruisers. He just left thankfully. um it
it came out to be about $122,000 and and he's looking for 144 because each each cruiser is 72 grand. So in order to make up that extra that that I could buy the two cruisers which is at the urgence of both the police chief and the capital planning committee I I my proposal is
another article which which transfers from um capital stabilization. So it gets really complicated pretty quick depending on which of those two paths to take just for solid waste. Um and there
so we can cross that bridge and then um um oh and then um to close what you won't see in free cache is snow and ice and that's because as the I think we've mentioned this in the past um the town accountant and public works worked
together to identify a number of past free pre-cash articles that were just either we had just already expended and we had some balance left over or or we decided to go a different direction with and so that came out to $94,000. Unfortunately, my current deficit for
Snow and Ice is $860,000 and I thought it was going to be I thought it was already bad when I thought it was 700,000. Um so I round it up to $870 because there are unfortunately still vendors that have
not given us all the invoices and so um I put it at $870,000. So that means the great bulk of that, you know, closing out of past articles pays for just snow and ice for this year and then that remaining bit um I recommended for
have to get to it. But um suppose the good news is I didn't get called out this morning. Uh yeah. Yeah. Believe me, not happy about that. But um uh general stabilization. So I I said just put it
into general stabilization. So um yeah, it's uh it gets complicated pretty quickly. Um and we have a couple prior bills which I'm not happy about, of course. Um one of which I think we've discussed in the past it or maybe not. It was um um actually similar to the conversation
we were having earlier about um special education. So there was a bill that was outstanding identified by Eversource. It was not clear to us that we actually owed that money. um it would fell under the school department. The town had a similar bill but less because we have we
have less buildings but um we hadn't encumbered money so we didn't have the prior year bill and the school department had not encumbered that money to be able to cover that cost. So that came out to be I think it's $61,000 or so. And then um and then there's another there's another bill that came only on
my desk I think last week that I still have to I still have to kind of get cleared away um for the justification for but it's related to life insurance and it's for I think it's $7,000 but it's a lot less >> and there would be an EDA path alumni field is that is that out
>> that's in there too. So in that free cash allocation you'll see $55,000. So I had a conversation with with superintendent OS and he and I said, "So you you think you can demo the old bleachers for 45? How much does it cost to do this pathway?" And he got a couple
quotes. I think the lowest one was six or $7,000. And so we rounded up to 10 to, you know, to give him $55,000 >> and I changed that article title or I'm sorry that to alumni field improvements, right? So that includes both demolition
and and that pathway. That's a good question. Um, >> okay. >> Um, I emailed you about this and thank you for your thorough responses. I will just >> say out loud since it's on the record >> the dog owner responsibility law. >> Yeah,
>> that article. Personally, we're raising the late fee and it's a rolling late fee and I went and looked at like a whole bunch of other towns. the actual fees that we're charging for dogs are in keeping with what the 10 towns around us are. Um, our late fees are definitely
higher. Um, I don't love creating like a revenue stream out of out of a punitive fee. So, I personally am not in favor of that >> as written. I think that's why Bill's on this whole time. Mr. Coleman has been on waiting
for you to talk about dog license fees. >> Really? Yeah, he is. >> Hello, Bill. >> I I got out the popcorn when we were talking about the uh the school issues and stuff because it's like 11 years since I've had to deal with that. But um but no, I can try to answer the the
questions you have. Um the fees, um we did want to try to make it, and this is with in conjunction with the the the town clerk, um you know, somewhat punitive to get people to have them in on time. And I believe she sent an email to Greg and hopefully he had shared it
with you to sort of explain that the the continuation of of keeping it rolling as as like each month goes on gets you know further and further actually came from town council. >> So that was their suggestion to do that um for and it's really not not to make a
re revenue stream. It basically is it is the the stick to basically try to get the people in to get it done on time um for it. And I mean, the simplest way to avoid it is is get in on time and get the license in in a timely manner.
>> Yeah. No, that that reasoning makes sense. It's just steeper than every other town that I looked at. Most towns have a late fee. Most of it varies the date that you have to be in by, but most towns have a late fee that is imposed the day after you miss the deadline. And then like three or four months later,
there is a second fee. we, you know, within a couple months you're at like $150 with our fees, whereas most of the other towns around us, it takes you a couple months to get to like $70. And my thought is the people who don't get their dog license in on time, this is
speculative, but are either people who don't have the money for it or, you know, have to choose their disposable income. Um, or people whose lives are just so chaotic that they're not going to if they didn't notice the day it was due, they're certainly not noticing three or four months later. So when they
finally do realize seven months out, it's not because they were intentionally not paying, but now they're like $300 in on a dog license. So, it felt um it felt a little heavy-handed comparatively. >> How do you get the $300?
>> So, you your dog license, which you know they have 10 or 15 bucks, >> right? So, if you're late, so say it's due March 31st, if you're late, immediately what the the article is suggesting is it's a $35 fee plus the fees for $1. Then a month later, you get
another $35. Then a month after that, it's 15. Then the month after that ends 15 on an ongoing basis. So if you have $2 say it's pretty quick. >> Which article is this? >> Uh >> I didn't see those 29
>> on this stuff. Uh yeah. >> It's it's control >> AF. Okay. I see it. >> It's like red line stuff. Wait, yours red line stuff. I think you're looking at a different version. >> You might be looking at the warrant. >> You're looking at the warrant. This is
what shows you where they've made the changes and they've just increased the fees which makes sense. Um I just feel like the penalty part of it I understand the logic. It's just steeper than like all the other towns around us that I looked up. Um like
Lincoln has a $5 late fee. Actton $25 late fee. Stow no late fee that I could find. Sbury has $25.50 two months later. Berlin has $525 one monthly. >> So it just seems like it's um a little
bit aggressive as a schedule compared to what people are on. >> Bill, any other thoughts you want to add? >> Well, the the thing is is that when Lindsay saying about um somebody can't afford it, whatever kind of thing going on, and yes, I know uh I mean I have
pets um they're cats, so I don't have to license them. I don't have to worry about that. But when we got them, uh, after we got them from Buddy Dog, um, they had an adoption fee of $200 per cat, uh, and they had a note there saying, "We will not wave this fee if
you can't afford to pay this fee because of all the the services that were provided. You shouldn't have a pet because you have other expenses that you will come along and have to pay for, whether it's vets, the rabies, shots, going through, etc., etc." This is really just because it's been an
issue from the town clerk and you'd really have to talk with her about it. But but when she and I met to discuss this, it was very stressful in the sense that they were chasing down people trying to say, "Do you still have your dog? You come get in and kind of remind me." Or people would show up within the
deadline to say, "Oh yeah, I'm renewing the the license." It's like, "Oh, do you have the rabies certificate?" "Oh, no, I don't." "Well, you have to go and get that. we can't let give you a license unless we see that. And that was another thing where they said, "Well, I got in on time. I just have to now get the the the certificate." And it's like, "No,
no, you need to have everything completed and turned in on time." kind of thing was was her issue. So, I mean, if if the whole board was against it and not wanting to do this, I mean, we could take out the the recurring thing and just leave it. I believe it's just like
um after the the January, I forget. Wait, I need to bring it up up on my screen here so I can quote correctly. Um Oh, now it's No, it's not. >> It's a It's a It's a bylaw sponsored amendment, not ours. So, that's that's
up to your >> Yeah. Well, I mean, it's a kind of thing where obviously I I we'd like to have the the select board to be supportive of it. Um, and here, okay, wait, my Oh, unfortunately, my computer is just not acting right here. I'm trying to look
here that we have initially. Why is it doing that? >> Yeah. So, do you want me to read the fee part? >> Yeah. I mean, basically is that we have the the the fee $35 for the license above. Wait, late fees the first. So, that
I am like right at the bottom of that comment and my computer just my word is not responding and I don't have a hard copy printed because I am not in Maynard. come down in Harwitch. Um >> we don't need the reading of the >> Yeah. Well, BA basically is I believe we
have two different months initially where it would go up and then it was uh suggested to just continue with that. Um if that is really a concern, we and that since that was not really um a thought from town clerk or from the bylaw
committee um it was it was from town council. uh I wouldn't have any qu problem qualms about uh bringing that up and seeing that uh that little section removed. So it's just like okay just you know there's there's two in increments of the late fee and then it just stops
after that and and we are having a meeting um Thursday so we could bring it up at that point even though I I don't have it listed on the agenda >> not the warrant until the next meeting it's not the best but >> yeah if you guys were willing to
reconsider it. Do do we have any data on the uh the extent of this issue? Like how many late fees? >> You'd have to check with the town clerk on that. >> I mean, are we talking a handful, 20, 50? I don't remember
about the scope of the problem. That's a good question. >> Greg, I believe uh Melissa responded to that in email and actually now I'm trying to bring that up just to see. >> I'll don't worry about Bill. all sent to the board tomorrow.
>> I think when I'm done talking about what what control number is that one >> AF >> AF >> All right. So AF will be removed when we go through these um I see it. AF will be removed when we go through the uh
approvals. Um are there any questions on these other articles that are up for uh approval for the warrant? and we're going to leave AF out so the bylaw committee can reconsider if they desire and then come back to us with the final uh warrant article.
>> Mr. Chair, I just want to one one more clarification is what I'm I think what I'm asking the board and I apologize for not having this clear in the in the motion. I think what I'm asking the board is you have some options. the the option is for those one you and I maybe
I suggest this maybe this evening if at a minimum you consider accepting um the contract like authorization for body cameras unless you really like the idea of the uh the the sort of like longer term authorization. Um and then
secondly, um you can accept the pre-cache article for the nonextended of the of the solid waste recycling >> or or skip those tonight and do it next week. >> Uh AJ is the contract length which is
now not exceeding 20 years. It would give the ability Yeah. for a contract up to 20 years before it comes back to town meeting. Is that the way that would work? That's how I That's how I put it because I I felt a little uncomfortable doing indefinite but I guess and then um and then that last one AK is again if if
I uh for the transfer capital stabilization that was to cover the what I needed to for the police cruisers to get the two police cruisers but again that wouldn't be necessary if you don't extend the solid waste recycling contract. So, we'll definitely hold that back until we know what's happening next week. And um these will go to budget
subcommittee. And actually, if we have more numbers on solid waste, can we get that to budget subcommittee because I know we were meeting a week >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Uh you know, I'm just speaking for myself. I I am not I am not in favor of
the uh of extending a 5-year contract authority to the to the town administrator, but so whatever article that is, I'll vote no on. But um but the um I thought we were going to be moving to accept and approve this whole list and I
I certainly want to remove the ones that are now contentious, if you want to use that word. Um namely We do have to accept and approve from another body on the warrant, but if the the chair of the bylaw committee is willing to hold off
on that one until next meeting, I'm I'm totally fine with that. >> Correct. Yeah, I agree. >> Anything that's not select sponsored, we do have to put it on the warrant if it's a properly >> which which one which one is that? Uh, Jeff, >> I'm saying anything that's not uh select
board sponsored. >> Correct. We have we have to approve. Yeah. >> Right. So if if Bill says pull that tonight, he could resubmit it for next week. >> Oh, I understand your point. Okay, great. Yes. >> So, Bill, do you want us to pull it?
>> Yeah. I mean, if if I'd rather have all the members of the select board to be be able to say, "Yes, I'm in favor of it, and I, you know, not don't really want anybody to say at town meeting, no, I'm against it just because of this." Um, I'd rather have it, you know, unanimous
with it. And I don't think there'd be with all the other stuff. I don't think it'd be that much contentious. But if if Lindsay kind of says, "Well, that bothers her," then I'm just extrapolating that there are probably other people who would be at town meeting voting who it would bother them
and you know the whole thing might get voted down. >> So I understand. So we'll remove we'll remove draft control AF. >> Um >> so >> and then are we also removing AJ? So, well, might can we have a brief
discussion on that? Is it the length of time? Would we be comfortable at a 10-year interval instead of a 20-year interval? >> And then would you still want that or is it not worth it? >> Just do the 10 year contract. I'm okay with I'll take that. I listen I it is a to the point the finance committee
brought like how often is it that we have not very often and and I say the last eight years I've been doing town meetings the town meeting has never not accepted the longer like we do it for we've done it for um I don't know just it costs golf courses like it comes up
to time that we have to do really long contracts and it's never not been accepted. It was just a suggestion and I'll blame council because she's not here to >> that's what you do. >> Change it now on the spot to in the motion say 10 years and that approves it
or no? Does the whole thing have to get >> I would have to rewrite the article because you're accepting the article but I but um but but you could put a pin in that. You could you could accept I'm suggesting that you at a minimum I'm asking that you accept the five-year for the body cameras and then if you want to come back in two weeks to talk about
contract length in general you could do that >> because we need if you >> you're suggesting AJ to not exceed five years instead of 20 years written currently. >> Yep. >> I think that's a logical >> so I'm I'm sort of listening and editing
as we go so I can have the motions ready for you. But the the but the tricky part again is those those you know that the AK and the um and the free cache because those are sort of pending what you want to do. So maybe you could accept
everything but AK and for the free cache you're accepting the possibility of like I I know it's a little confusing but the draft article I included multiple columns. >> All right. Who wants to do the motion?
>> Uh, all right. So, just so I'm clear, I'm going to do the motion except for I want to just >> If you refresh your board docs, I I removed it. >> All right. Uh, but does AK stay? >> Yeah, because I didn't know if you wanted to do. So, you could skip it.
>> Am I reading AK or not? >> Do not read AK. Currently AK is written as if we will move forward on July 1st with the new solid waste. >> No, no, the other way. Sorry. >> It's a month delay. >> Correct. Because I won't have the
pre-ash. So I'll need I'll need capital sization. >> Why we hold on AK till two weeks from now. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Sorry. That was the cars. >> No, I just want to make sure. All right. So then everything else um let's see. Dogs are gone and 20
AJ is still in and that's contract length authorization for body cameras. >> Yeah. >> And AJ is a fiveyear. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> All right. Anything else before I start reading? >> No. Go right ahead. >> All right. I'll move to accept and approve the following draft controls. Draft control D, fiscal year 2027 salary
administration plan. Draft control F, transfer ambulance receipts reserve for lease appropriation. Draft Control J, Sewer Enterprise Fund Budget Fiscar 2027. Draft Control K, Water Enterprise Fund Budget, Fiscal Year 2027. Draft
Control V, Water Borrowing Authorization 3 million for engineering and design. Draft control AB, zoning bylaw update section 3.1.2, table business use regulation, registered marijuana dispensary. Draft Control AG, Citizens Petition,
Regulation of Outdoor Lighting. Draft Control AH, Citizens Petition, Zoning Change, 141 Park Harker Street. Draft Control AI, Citizens Petition, Tax Title Payment Agreements. Draft control AJ, contract length authorization for body
cameras. Draft control L, revolving funds authorization. Draft control C, pre cash appropriation. Draft control I, prior year bills. Draft control E general fund budget fiscal year 2027 draft control N transfer from
past precache articles as shown and forward to the finance committee for review and comments. >> Second. >> All right. Uh we'll vote. Mike, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. >> Lindsay, >> yes. >> Chris,
>> yes. >> I'm a yes as well. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, board. I know. I know it's a lot. That's a lot to get to this point. Yeah. >> All right. Anything anything on the senior center at all? >> Nope.
>> Okay. We have some correspondence to approve A through I. >> Move to accept correspondences A through I as shown. >> Second. >> Uh we'll vote. Uh Mike, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. >> Lindsay,
>> yes. >> Chris, >> yes. I'm a yes as well. We have one set of minutes from February 17th. >> Move to approve the meeting minutes of February 17th, 2026 as shown. Authorizing use of digital signatures if approved.
>> Second. >> Any questions or concerns about the minutes? If not, we'll vote. Mike, >> yes. >> Yes. Uh Jeff, >> yes. >> Lindsay, >> yes. >> Chris,
>> yes. I'm a yes as well. Uh, next item is the uh, town administrator report. >> Really fast. So, um, hey, we are moving away from board docs into diligent community. Greg Wilson, myself and Stephanie Dougen have been taking those courses. We we we get it. I have I have
a lot of confidence. It's it's a very similar platform to a lot of other things that we do. So, we'll make that transition. It'll be It takes a couple months, but anyway, so I'll start in May and then um uh I'm taking off next week, next
Thursday and Friday. And um we're closed for Patriots Day on April 20th. >> Wait, does that mean you're not around for the budget subcommittee? >> I am. That's the 15th. >> Thanks. Okay, thank you. >> I have one question. Yeah, I hate to ask
a question all the time, but what what matters of shared governance do we have with the city of Marvel? >> Uh, more than I more than I I didn't know. So, he he uh the the mayor of Marvel just is reaching out to peers and
just said, you know, want want to get some coffee? I said, sure. And then, as it turns out, cities and towns are very related. like it's a matter of >> specific drop that >> was a it was a yeah it was like good professional networking >> all right thanks >> kind of fascinating
>> thank you >> all right uh any questions other than that >> we'll move move on do we want to talk about the code of conduct tonight um this came up as a result of a couple of
events over the course of the last month or So, um, where it's evident that we need to, uh, at least propose a somewhat of a code of conduct for appointed
officials, elected officials, etc., so that everybody's on the same page and everybody understands uh what's expected of them as they sit on a committee, not only on the committee itself, but public uh what they post publicly and what they
say publicly. Uh you know, we as elected officials understand that we're always on the clock. Um, people who are uh appointed sometimes post things that are inappropriate and might not even realize that when they do
that they're coming across, hey, that person's a member of whatever committee and they're talking this way or they're saying this, whatever. Um, I would ask that everybody take a look at what Greg has written up as a code of conduct. Um
what I'd like to do is then have everybody sort of educated when they are uh appointed to a committee um and and go from there. Um but unless we want to have a discussion that takes us past 11:00, I don't know if we want to do
this this evening. >> I would prefer not to do it this evening. >> All right. Uh Greg, please keep that on the uh on the list. Okay, thank you. I'm going to skip chair report. Uh I don't
have anything to share um of of note. So we'll go to individual board member reports. Mike, >> uh just one quick one. Uh I was with the sustainability committee and they are developing a um climate action plan and
they discussed whether you know how they're going to release it and they wanted to be able to they had a couple of options but the one they favor is to be able to present it to the select board uh for review then go back for public comment and then bring it back to
the select board. So if anybody has any objections to that process I >> and what is it what is the topic >> this would be happening it's not for another month or two but >> it I know you said sustainability can subject matter >> the climate action plan
>> yeah and it it's been in the pipeline so anyway just just that that's discussion um and we figured just given the scope of that project for them to bring it to us uh for review and then go away and
then come back and seem to be a favored option. >> Yeah, I want to make as I expressed to you, Mike, I want to make sure that the board at least has some understanding and insight into what direction things are heading so that we don't then get presented with something that then people are like what where the heck this come from. it's not in alignment with
what I wouldn't expect that to happen, but I want to make sure that the board has insight into what's being done. So, there's not a lot of work spent by that committee to come back and have it uh you know, have to be reset and whatever. So, I I do think the board needs to be involved at least at a high level as to
where things are heading. >> That's that. >> All right, Jeff. Uh only uh one item I did have the opportunity to attend uh at sanctuary the business awards brunch um which which sponsor um and I think it was a
really well-run event. They're iteratively improving. uh they had a great keynote by Jason Weekes who highlighted how much energy mayor has get to see a lot of that from a broader set of state or some more populous communities or more wellunded
communities and and really highlighted not only the importance of the connection of the arts to community to livelihood and to to business but also the uniqueness of Maynard and energy that we have especially in that space. Um, Sanctuary took the business of the year award. Uh, and I thought overall it
was a nice event. So, wanted to report back. >> Yep. Thanks for bringing that up, Jeff. Uh, Lindsay, >> just a quick thanks to Representative Hogan for including us in a meeting that she facilitated with the Metro West
Regional Transit Authority about our possible full inclusion um with them just to increase public transport there. Seems like we have good a lot of good options. That's all.
>> Thank you. Thank you, Chris. >> Yes. Uh, just one thing about like tonight's meeting in particular, maybe going forward. I know you're I know you're remote, so I don't know if you realize it. The uh police chief was sitting here for three and a half hours to get his um conversation in about 41
cameras. But I think maybe if you were here, it might have been different because you could have seen him. But I just think for us to have our police chief or our fire chief or some of the other people in town um sit here for that length of time, I just I it kind of
felt bad for him because I know he comes in at 8:00 in the morning or so and now he's here for you know 14 hours and to no one's fault but it just seems when we have >> I appreciate the comment Chris and when
>> when I'm developing the the and especially on this particular um agenda in particular. Greg and I spoke specifically about placement and uh I I did not realize that the chief was going to be sitting there all night.
>> I don't think you had and I I I mean I'm not I'm sure he's not going to be bothered by it, but I just think maybe when we know that someone like that is here, you know, maybe we if you were in the room >> jumped agenda items and got to him a little quicker. >> Yeah. >> But that's all I Nothing else. Thank
you. >> I totally agree. Thank you for the comment and it's it's uh I I accept responsibility. All right. >> Is there a motion to motion to adjurnn? >> Second. >> Second. >> All right. Well, all in favor of we'll
go roll call. Mike, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. >> Lindsay, >> yes. >> Chris, >> yes, sir. Feel better. >> All right. Thank you.