Uh we will begin this evening's meeting with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and
justice for all. >> Good evening everybody. As I say, happy new year and welcome. We do have one member of the board that will be joining us remotely this evening. So, uh, in accordance with the open meeting law
regulation 940 CMR 2910. Uh, please be advised that Chris Silva is attending this meeting remotely. Because he is attending remotely, all votes taken at this meeting will be by roll call. Lastly, if any select board
members are not clearly audible to any of us or to Chris, please let us know and we will do our best to remedy the problem and we'll inform the public whether the meeting will continue. So, with that, first item on the agenda
is public comments. So, if there's anybody in the audience here this evening who would like to speak, now would be your time. The board would like to hear public comments. Um, and if there's further action that is required by the board, I will add it to the ma add the matter as appropriate to the
forthcoming agenda. 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 the issue. So, is there anybody here in the room that would like to speak to public comments?
Seeing none, is there anybody online that would like to speak to public comments? I don't see any hands raised. So, we will move on. Um, the first item beyond that on the agenda is the consent agenda. There are two items on the
consent agenda. They are amended. Cemetery deeds numbers 48 and 728. They're fairly straightforward. Uh, is there a motion or any questions? Or if no, that is motion.
I'll move to approve consent agenda items A and B as presented and authorize the use of digital signatures if approved. >> Second. >> Motion's made and seconded as we have to do a roll call mobile start. Chris, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. Mike,
>> yes. >> Yes. As well. We then have appointments the golf course advisory task force. >> Hello. you are here to be appointed. I
don't know if we're going to need any comments, although he did hear comments from the ones that were appointed last week. So, any comments that you would have? Also, is Tom Hesp with us? >> I don't think Tom can make it. >> No, he's not here. >> No. >> So, N you're going to be a member
appointed as we get the votes. You'll be appointed as a member at large. Tom will be the CPC liaison um appointed through that group. So Navi, do you have any thoughts on why your interest it lies in
the U golf course advisory task force? >> Great. Yeah, just briefly um I was on the CC for a while as the running board rep and I did learn about the t the history of the golf course and um I guess it just led me to wondering what
the future of it is. I know about some of the issues that it's faced in terms of maintenance. So like to be able to think about it creatively. >> Okay. Greg, any questions from the board? >> Chris, any questions? >> Nope. No questions for me.
>> Take a motion. I will move to amend the charge to six members. And I will also move to appoint Natalie Robert as a member at large and Tom Hespach as the community preservation committee liaison to the golf course advisory task force for a term to end June 30th, 2028 and
authorized use of digital signatures if approved. >> Okay, any further comments or questions hearing? None. Chris, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. Mike, >> yes. I'm a yes as well. Congratulations. You know the routine. you need to get
someone in. >> Thank you, Nelly. >> Thank you very much for your volunteers. Uh the next item is actually Department of Public Works, but I I probably should have adjusted this when I was doing the uh agenda when I did it. I'd like to ask
the housing authority to go before that so that we don't have to have them hang around uh for the presentations if they don't wish to. And I think we have the chair of the housing authority with us, Matt. >> Yes, I'm here.
>> I hope you don't mind me moving you up. >> Nope, it's perfectly fine. >> A little bit so that you can stay if you wish, obviously, but obviously get out of here if um you don't have any other business with us that you need to listen to or are interested in. >> All right.
>> So, you're here with the annual plan for fiscal year 2025. Uh so why don't you give us a little background on what it's all about and what you got for us. >> Okay. Um so this is a change in process by HUD. Um generally we would submit an
annual plan directly to them based upon their template. However um they seem to have faced a um force reduction this year and have streamlined what we need to do. So, we are presenting our 2025
annual plan that we submit to the state based upon the state's template. Um, this was submitted and reviewed by the state in December 2024. Um, uh, we should have done this in
September, but the template we received, we didn't quite understand what it we weren't expecting this template. Um, so we need to do this template in order to get our um, fund grant for 2026.
Um, if you have any questions about what's in the annual plan, I can try and entertain them. Um, been adopted differently >> from previous >> I'm sorry I didn't catch that. Is there is there anything significant that we
should know about any changes or um from any prior reports that have been made to us? >> Um I don't think so. We we have been fairly consistent over the past several years in our um facility maintenance and management style. Um we recently adopted
a um non-discrimination policy that that was something we had overlooked. Um that's about it really. Any questions from members? >> There there is one statement that the second half in relation to the analysis
of impediments to fair housing. Um the mainet housing authority um resident population does not reflect the geostatistical area that we reside in. So, we will continue to make efforts and
outreach to um uh what's the word? >> Um >> to to underrepresented communities. >> Yeah. >> Great. Thank you. Any questions from board members?
>> Uh yes, I do. Thank you, Matt. Appreciate the work that uh went into this report. Um a couple of things. I'm far from being an expert on um uh the housing authority and their work. Um I noticed at one point that uh it says
that the housing authority, excuse me, is not currently pursuing any energy or water saving audits or grants that could um uh affect spending. Um is that because the the management of the
the grants is is prohibitive or other other reasons why uh funding would not be pursued in this area? >> Um one there aren't any well we haven't applied to any grants but we haven't looked for any grants and the state
isn't pushing us to to to water conserve or energy conserve. if they really wanted us to conserve, they would provide the money and they're they're they're the ones who are actually paying the bills when it comes to water and electricity.
>> So that so there's no incentive then to uh to try to make reductions in this area. >> Correct. >> Is that what you're saying? Okay. That's a shame. Um I noticed the uh the vacancy rate is uh suitably very low around
about uh 2% for one group of the housing. Um is there uh so I saw that there were 15 turnovers last year. Is that typical? Um has there been any change in turnovers? And can we read
anything into the sort of the economic conditions for uh under reppresented communities um to have accessibility to this housing? >> Uh that's a lot. Um it >> is a lot. Sorry. Can break it down. Yeah.
>> We'll we'll start with the the last part. the underrepresented >> the the underrepresented communities um anecdotally they don't like coming to Maynard because there is no public transportation >> and the other issue
um of which we have many tenants currently they do not self identify as an underrepresentative community member >> and they skew our numbers and for whatever reason they do they
refuse to identify as an underrepresented community member. >> Um as for turnovers 15 a year that's a good about number. We're generally in the mid- teens. Um
evictions are up. This the state kind of yelled at us for um letting things go too long for being a little too nice. Um, what else was in your question? >> No, I think you've you've answered my main point. Just trying to to look at
the patterns of of what's happening and and how it might affect our community. Yeah. Um, that's it for now. I mean, I would have many more questions in a private conversation, but um, thank you for for your time. Yeah. >> Yeah.
>> Nothing from mind. Chris, any questions? >> No. >> No, I'm good. Thanks. >> No questions. >> There's a motion for us to accept the plan. >> To approve the plan. >> I will move to approve the Mayor Housing
Authority annual plan for fiscal year 2025 for state aided public housing and authorize the use of digital signatures if approved. >> Any further questions, comments? Hearing none. Chris, >> yes. >> Yes. Jeff, >> yes.
>> Mike, >> yes. >> I am a yes as well. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you for the indulgence in allowing us to move that forward. And next on the agenda is the Department of Public Works. Uh and we're going to continue
with our Department overview. Um uh Department of Public Works will be they know that we're we have a time stamp on it. So, um, we're here to hear what's going on in the DPW
and answer any questions we may have. >> Thank you, Greg. Wilson, >> cool. Evening everyone. David, I will absolutely respect uh the timeline. Um
anious cinema. >> Yes, exactly. Yeah. So, part of the reason I'll just give you a quick brief on why it's 54 is we um outside of just the board's interest in our department, we actually receive interest from all of our stakeholders. All of our residents
ask a lot of questions because the department of public works is a very complex uh department with a uh comprehensive array of programming. So part of this slide deck being as large as it is is also part of our region
education. So that's why it's um quite large. But tonight's presentation will be a general overview as the board um was looking forward to that. So, where would you start with the Department of Our Magnitude without a mission statement? The Department of Public
Works strives to deliver essential public services uh that maintain and enhance the town's infrastructure, its facilities, and the quality of life of all of our residents and residents of Massachusetts and those who pass through our community. Uh we do this through a
comprehensive approach of several divisions representing administration, our highway division, our cemetery and parks division, our water and sewer utilities division, our facilities division, and our solid waste and recycling program. Uh we strive to
provide safe drinking water, reliable and safe environmentally sensitive wastewater treatment processes and storm water management. Um we strive for well-maintained and upkept roads and public spaces. Um and we continue to
push forward programmatic approaches for efficient and effective waste and recycling services. We have guided principles that we um hammer home throughout our entire operation. That is professionalism, safety, and responsiveness to all of our
community advocacy. Whether it's a resident, a leader, a stakeholder in a committee, or just somebody who passes through our community, we hold everybody to the highest standard. Um, we do this through a combination of teamwork, technical
expertise, and collaboration. not only internally through our operation and not only through other um departments but through our mission process with stakeholders such as the site board um other committees such as Mario sitting
behind me uh road safety committees tree committees all of our committees I know Natalie still here through planning board collaboration etc. The Department of Public Works in a nutshell touches every single aspect of this community more than any other department. We uh work with the schools, we work with
police, we work with fire, we work with MS, we work with the treasury collector's office, you name it. Any department that sits in in Maynard, including the housing authority, we touch in one way or another. So when you hear me in the past describe the Department of Public Works for the town
of Maynard, I have to start with how we classify the town of Mayor. Even though we're a town, we provide every single city service that you would see in any metropolitan area, including Boston, Wester, Springfield. We just do it on a smaller scale. Our programs are
cumbersome and vast, including the management of a public golf course, whether it's managing the contract of the facility um upkeep. We do that on a small scale, but that doesn't diminish the need for the programmatic
programmatic approach. When I say that, I'm talking about our department is very vast in what we're asked to do. Um, and through that process, it becomes a challenge essentially
taking a department unlike any other department that you have in the town of Maynard outside of the schools. Schools work in a very horizontal pattern as well. Every other department that is managed under a typical public municipal setting has a very hierarchy approach in
a singular mission with subsets. The department of public works like a school department is very horizontal. We collaborate through a multi- vast technical overlap process to accomplish many challenges
from solid waste curbside collection to producing and treating public drinking water to acting potholes to athletic field maintenance etc. Within that you can see in front of me which is a slide deck that is actually something that I
really want to stay on for a second here. You can see that through this hierarchy of over of operations oversight within this operational oversight. You can kind of see that the horizontal pattern starts at that top level. At that point then you see
divisions. So you'll see a division that's very cumbersome with the water and sewer division that is managed under our water and sewer superintendent Michael Ash. Then we go into our highway which is managed by our highway foreman that is a subset into a fleet program
subset into parks and uh forestry uh excuse me cemetery and parks a facility subset but we also have very unique challenges. The department of public works for over 40 years has been the one department in most municipalities when
new programs come about that they're just thrown at the department of public works. We like to call ourselves the the island of misfit toys. So with that said is if you're unaware a lot of communities prior to operation like the current mayor department of public works
the cemetery department would report to a cemetery commission and not be part of the DPW. Water and sewer utilities have um in other communities are not under the umbrella of DPW. They sometimes have their own complete departments i.e. Actton Sbury etc. Um, a lot of
communities do not lump their facilities department under public works. They're their own subset as well. Um, and then there's new program approaches that you're seeing hitting our industry such as energy management, sustainability. Mike asked, they talked about a couple of questions recently with housing with
housing authority. We also offer a curbside collection program. With that being said, typical curbside or solid waste programs in the past are managed by the border health and health agent. So what you find here is in an effort of the last 30 or 40 years, MAR has consistently looked at trying to do more
with less, right? We we strive ourselves on efficient and effective process, right? Trying to save as much money as humanly possible while offering as many programs to our residents. That's a reflection of what this looks like. Within that, you'll see through the
conversation, there's tweaks every year that we need to start to look at from an operational perspective. But I just want to make sure you understand this holistically that we are essentially one department made up of several divisions within this. This is a quick breakdown of really where our staff is outside of
the hierarchy tree. Um you know it breaks it down from full-time to part-time to contractors and vacancies. Some of the uniqueness of the department of public works under the town of Mater is again we full city style service but we do it on really a very limited
resource budget. Um a perfect example is your your director of public works manages multiple department head positions i.e. facility managers tree warden assistant emergency manager. We also contract out certain divisions such as engineering. I'm joined by our
contracted engine. Um, we also parttime staff to accomplish goals that communities use full-time staff. I know I was not able to put our new solid waste uh part-time solace coordinator Linda Gear into the
PowerPoint presentation, but I assure you she's here working uh hard as well. And we do this through a very challenging and comprehensive approach. I'll do just quick division overviews. The administration division consists of
the director our management staff such as our water and sewer superintendent and our on call um engineer. The administrative staff is um vital to to um excuse me to develop and oversee budgeting,
planning, engineering operations for all divisions. We provide leadership management and we provide um process improvements throughout our operation. We rely heavily on other departments to also subsidize a lot of what our administration does. When I talked about
the public works touches every single department. We do overlap with other other departments and utilize their skill set in an overall pattern of efficient and effective approaches. An example of this is we as the water and sewer department we issue all the usage
bills but we rely on the treasur collector to actually collect those bills and issue those bills. Right? So we have a lot of overlap. Um these are things that we rely heavily on and administration works very intimately with every single department in one way
or another. So typical processes and administration we just kind of have a uh diagram here to kind of show the variety of what our administrative staff deals with. Uh you know on average uh yearly average we receive over 11,000 emails. On average,
we receive over 7,300 calls. Our administrative staff isn't just dispatching. We also manage our entire uh formalized process such as our tree warden chapter 37 program which is public shade tree improvements
administration and process. We also implement all of our water and sewer billing. It starts with the water and sewer department and our administrative staff doing the reads which then gets transferred over the treasure collector's department to read such as what we talked about before. So again
our administrative staff is um has a multi-talented portfolio of programmatic approaches within that. Our administrative support team also focuses on grant processes to support a lot of our operations not only from a daily uh
excuse me a yearly operational cost but from upfront capital improvement cost. So perfect example is over the past uh two years we have um in collaboration with some other opportunities such as working with MS we've collaborated on
over $4 million worth of grants over the past two years which is a huge uh huge contagious approach for the town of Mayor but also comes with a heavy lift from an operational perspective. We can skip through some of the
analytics. I did that for Jeff. Thank you, Justin. So, no, but we can we'll talk about it as a whole. So, um within our administrative staff, you know, the first uh diagram of that portfolio is really focused on our administrative staff that does the day-to-day operation. But within our administrative
staff, we also manage an engineering department. That engineering department consists of me and my eight hour a week consultant behind me as well. So with that also becomes a challenge. We have um city style infrastructure and city
style responsibilities. We also have an extreme amount of federal and state permitting requirements such as MS4 which you'll see here which is our storm water program and compliance with that under federal and state process. But we also do a significant amount of capital
improvement. You know, I've been in town now for close to six years and there is we hear feedback from residents talk about we don't put enough resources into capital improvement. We're not seeing a lot of bang for our buck. And sometimes that gets convoluted with what
operational costs are versus capital allocation. But there is times where we as departments can do better job of making sure we put it out there of what we're doing because sometimes a lot of residents don't don't always see those capital improvements. Perfect example is
we pave eight streets. That doesn't sound like a lot for a town like Maynard. That is a significant amount of improvements. But if those streets aren't near you and you don't pass them every day, which sometimes you may never, you don't realize that streets are getting paid. Perfect example is the heights pass heights terrace and
Fletcher. If you don't drive in that neighborhood, you wouldn't know the difference in those roads. And as we know, as the board may recall, those roads were almost impassible. So there is major improvements and we do that really on a very very short resource process and we kind of squeeze the lemon
on what we can provide um with our resources. Without going into too much with MS4 compliance, just kind of a general overview. When we're talking about MS4 and storm water, it's very, very complex. The permanent process requires a significant amount of hours operation.
We consult out a majority of that, but that also has a demand on our administrative staff. As I often say to Greg is it it consultants are very advantageous to fill gaps for technical expertise knowledge that we need in
specialized process. But you have to be aware that even consultants still lean on our administrative staff to provide the information needed to actually still execute which can still be a challenge. Right? So when we always have a conversation of can we move towards
consulting out something i.e. viol wastewater treatment plant or through we have it in house. It's not as simple as we just give it to them and walk away. There's still an operational uh oversight process that has to happen internally. So I just want you to keep that in mind as we continue to move
forward throughout the years and when we're talking about operational improvements, you know, we can discuss that in major detail. So we'll move on to our highway division. Our highway division is um consists of almost two subsets. So it is a fleet department division and it is a highway division
but on on our umbrella it really falls under one. Our highway department is responsible for over 83 lane miles of roads and 30 m we don't call them lane miles but 30 miles of sidewalks. Um we oversee all municipal parking lots. We manage the entire storm water drainage
infrastructure which is actually close to um over 83 miles of storm water piping culverts etc. far more expensive. I just kind of fit it on our five bullet points. Um we also handle the entire fleet of the DPW and also provide
support services in fleet for the mayor PD for the small equipment um for the f uh for the fire department and we also assist the school department with some of their uh fleet programs. The gray opportunity boxes in the hierarchy are all vacant positions currently affecting
our operation as we speak. Um, I actually broke this down a little bit to help you understand the subset. So, we are technically making our lead mechanic and our assistant mechanic is in a different blue color so that they don't always get convoluted. Sometimes people
look at our budget and say, "Well, you have five to six staff members on the highway. Why aren't we paving more roads or why aren't we fixing more things?" Well, it's because it's a subset. We really only have three on the boots on the ground highway department that has to maintain the entire highway system
with a foreman for oversight that that has to also actually oversight our mechanic complete process. So sometimes that gets convoluted when people only look at budget line items and that's what I wanted to make sure we target today. Again another portfolio of kind of what we do. We do anything from our
within our highway anything from street sweeping that we do by annually both in the spring and fall. We our highway department is our major function and primary operation response team for our snow and ice and deicing process as it is winter. I have been on the text message with Brian Hos as we speak. We
are preparing for tomorrow's storm. So these are things that we you know that are constantly being worked on. Um we also our highway department also manages our recycle center which is located our highway garage which also is a programmatic advantage for our community
to take advantage. Um, we'll get past this, speak to that later. Um, snow and ice. We'll get past that as well. Another division essentially is our solid waste and recycling program. Uh, it's our curbside collection program which is has for the past five years
been managed by the director and the director only. Prior to that was managed by the director and prior to that was managed by the health. So, I just want to make sure we see the rendition as we start to talk about this. The reason that I wanted to kind of give a a a backlog of opportunity for our solar
waste program is as the board knows but the community may not is we're moving to advance our program model. Um we had a task force that worked very hard. Um I worked with that task force to um create a program model that advances our
automation service which also may help reduce some of our cost measures in the future. We've adopted an enterprise fund which will reallocate the process of how we budget for that. Um, again, I would love to introduce Linda Gear. I know
she's not here with me. I'm sure she's listening and those in the community that know her. She's a valuable opportunity uh for the town of Manor to move our process forward. Um, but we essentially serve over 4,000 customers currently. We have a recycle curbside recycling program that's automated and
we have a um a pay as you throw sticker program as you all are residents truly understand. Um and that program should be advancing prior to uh July 1st 2026. >> When would we expect the update on that? >> So as we speak right now we are working
on the RFP. RFP is a request for proposals so that we can acquire costly metrics for any vendors who are willing to do our program or operate our program. At that point, we will see a budget line and then we will start to punch out an outreach and education
program with costs. We didn't want to necessarily put out outreach and education if we don't know the cost to the resident yet. So within RFP, we can award the RFP with the contract back data from dated all the way to July 1st, 2026, which should buy us four to five
months of outreach and education while we build the costing. >> So you're expecting two months from there till the RFP comes back. >> No, so yeah, we our deadline So Lindy has our
deadline for me, but she's up to the up to the task by the end of the month. where we're going to issue the RFP. Um we'll have an award maybe early February and at that point you'll have a region education program that's already launched >> at the time of award.
>> So we're at So I'm not going to put out any mailings until we have an exact cost per >> So once we have the RFP we will essentially know what the cost is and at that point we will launch an outreach and education program. a month and a
half though until >> Yeah. hang >> essentially before July 1st for six months is our was our time. We're a little behind because of the vacancy that took from July. >> Understood. Thank you. >> So another division that we have is our
cemetery and parks division. We don't actually have a forestry division. We do operate a forestry program. So I'll talk about that after. But our cemetery and park division um is very singular in our hierarchy. Um it is not a subset division. Um the majority of their work
is actually focused at Glenwood Cemetery. Um we support the entire athletic program for the schools. Um when I say we support the athletic program, we maintain all athletic fields on school property including Dark. So we
actually manage alumni fields, we manage crow, we manage all of the athletic fields um from a maintenance program. We don't manage the actual process of permanent etc. We manage the maintenance program. >> Curious are those costs captured and
associated costs through the budget process or is it just a town? >> Perfect question David. So we have an intermunicipal agreement. We have an MLO with the schools that the select board has signed and the school committee has signed. we recoup the cost of our
salaries that we utilize instead. And then uh the school has a cost line item to support some expenditure products, so fertilizers, etc., but the town also has a line item that's dedicated. Now, I want to make this very clear to that
question. We do not recoup our expenditure line items for costs such as line painting and pestic excuse me, not pest says, fertilization, etc., which could be up to $40,000 a year that the town pays for. The schools also have a line item that they expend close to 20
or $40,000 a year in process and product as well. We provide our salary service. So our cemetery and parks division operates on those fields and we recoup their salary. So essentially the
salaries null town does support function of athletic fields under a town budget that is not come back and the schools also support their function which we don't support as well. We can break that down in more detail later but we have in the past for um and that's something
that we've done for years. I'm not saying the board shouldn't reconsider having but we can have those conversations. Outside of that though, um, our department maintains over, excuse me, over over a million square feet of grass areas. This includes, um,
small pocket parks throughout the community. Uh, Glenwood Cemetery is a very vast public cemetery. We only have one cemetery in town, public cemetery, and that is Glenwood. Um, we support three major parks, Memorial Park, Kage Park, Croll Park, um, and again the school athletic fields. I do want to
also make this clear that our sanitary parks division under the DPW which consistently gets confused by residents and sometimes some of our own committees and commissions within the within the town is the department of public works sanitary parks division only maintains
property under the select board authority and the schoolou. So when I say that what does that mean? Rio Road is under the coolage uh under excuse me under the conservation commission. So there's other locations throughout the community that are
actually owned by authority of responsibility by other commissions and departments. We only maintain those under the select board authority and or the school's authority.
>> Sometimes there's a question so like using Rio road as an example. So, are they contracting out some other company to like mow the grass? >> No. So, we will mow the grass, but it is the lowest priority, almost like an unaccepted road, but outside of that,
there's not much more that we provided. So, I know Julie as a former, but as a former conservation agent uh works with the commission to uh fund raise for um support. They have their own funding through other mechanisms that they can put there. I know that actually
Natalie's here. They focused on some CPC programs to upgrade their playgrounds, etc. So outside of that, we do the bare bone to make sure that there's no ticks growing there, but that's about it. >> But then, but you sometimes will like go
to CBC meetings and comment on those projects, but it sounds like they're not under your purview. >> I don't I actually don't comment on projects. If anything just like planning board if there is a comment request of the DPW to comment on a project we will provide technical support. So perfect
for example right so let's take planning or CPC and I don't want to speak I'm sure N would love to speak for for CPC but essentially right if if the conservation or a resident brought a project forward for real let's say it was a resident project that there we want to improve the playground and we
want to put X Y and Z the department of public works is always there as your technical advisor and if CPC is like hey Justin what's your thoughts on this playground structure is this like something that we would be comfortable putting installing they can come to us. They don't have to come to us. We're
always there for um to any committee in any commission. Even if I report to them or not, we're always there. But essentially, sometimes that's where the confusion comes in is we're always there as technical support, but technically I can't even give them authority up or down. I can't say don't put that playground there. Technically only the
conservation commission. Even you as the select board could you may challenge the conservation commission if it's something that you don't deem is appropriate. But outside of that, that's where kind of those lines can get confusing. The reason that I bring that up is
sometimes we get a lot of calls of why does Rio look like this and coolage look like that? Well, we don't control we control, right? And so, and David can go back in time is like Crow Park is one of these new ones technically is under the schools, but the select has been
managing it forever, right? It's it's just one of those. But I want to make that clear because that is something that is confusing to many residents and this is the opportunity that I can break. >> Well, and I think it's confusing because it's kind of convoluted. I don't know how we ended up having all of these
various areas of purview for basically the same function across what is ultimately all >> I can easily >> I mean I know like >> yeah partially you know and now I mean I don't want to delay the >> right I can give it to you in a nutshell
most of the time when it comes to public parks public parks back in the day and even now are usually a gift by a developer so let's take Rio that subdivision gifted that location at the time they gifted it to conservation and
then once it's in conservation they are the authority. Now, if you wanted to clean this up, which we tried to do a couple years ago when we wanted to have universal parks, rules, regulations, things like that, is what Mayard hasn't done, which still can be done, is change ownership, which can be challenging,
right? If you said, "Hey, we want to own Crow Park." And the school committee doesn't, it can sometimes become a political wash, which is for the most part not always something that towns want to do. Other municipalities do streamline approach, others do what we
do. and it just kind of falls in alignment that way. Um, but those are large policy conversations. We are just research into uh when they were deed over, how they were deed over, what the requirements are within the deed. There
might be legal investigation that needs to becomes a big party discussion. we can't do anything because there are such restrictions that are placed dating back to 18, you know, 76 or whatever. >> That's right. Yeah. Crow Park's a
perfect example is that entire area where Green metal school sits including Crow Park was gifted as the first park in Mayor public park and it was a bigger parcel. It's a huge farmland and then iterations of the town meeting chunked
it out for different uses. So at the time they needed a school because they abandoned Coolage school and they needed a new elementary school. That was an open opportunity. So they parcled and chunked it out and put the green the first rendition of the green metal school at that time. They wanted to save
the park which was the baseball field of crow park. But when they did it now we can't speak too much but I I did a lot of this research when they sold the project is at the time the town chose to transfer all parcels to the school committee including car park. So that's
the town meeting voted it up and down and entertainment act law under master law >> related I'm jumping to the next slide. What um is our obligation to the rail trail and and what do we do? >> So the rail trail is essentially a public rightway. It's not classified as
a park. So it's is it's classified as a sidewalk or a roadway. So it's public right away. Um we maintain the >> the town owns it. >> Yes. So same thing. So at one point that was a railroad mass DOT through the federal government had a project that
they kind of like the bridge on Florida. They asked the town to take it install the rail trail and then they asked the town if they wanted it back. The town voted it and they now own it. We own it. We maintain the rail trail. We maintain it as a public right away not as what's
the actual manage process look like on end? >> The management process is is uh non-active recreational. When I say non-active, so essentially we operate it like we would a sidewalk or a or a roadway,
>> but we do not for the record uh plow in the winter. >> Correct. Yep. >> We do not. So it's it's essentially it's natural >> passive recreation is what it's defined as. So passive recreation means that just on conservation is how it is is how
you use it. >> And I don't think we're unique in that. I think some members of the community feel, you know, oh, Actton maintains their they do not >> correct. >> Um, you know, Sudbury, I don't believe they do. I see snow on their uh on their rail trail.
>> What sometimes people get confused with when they compare rail trails because I used to manage the rail trail mall. That's the rail, right? It goes all the way through is some of the portions of the rail trail will go through an urban environment. Perfect example, let's take the sidewalk on the mill, right? So, it
essentially crosses then hits a sidewalk which we maintain because it's downtown and then goes back to the rail trail. So sometimes that could be confusing. In other communities, there's large areas of the rail trail that are urban that are maintained, but then when it gets back to rural, it's not. And essentially
the argument can be made in either direction. When it's passive recreation, there is cross country skiing that can be had on it. There's snowshoeing. There's many opportunities. And that's how DCR operates their rail trails as well, which is a state entity that controls theirs. Who's responsible for repaving when it's necessary?
>> All the towns. >> Yep. So that will be our responsibility. So like anything, Florida road bridge, same thing. What we would never pass up a free bridge from the state, but essentially as it starts to degrade, it is our responsibility to keep and maintain it. It is technically a town of
mater. Um so that's one of those things, right? And uh the same with the railroad. Great opportunity, but like anything, there is long-term operational cost. Anytime you increase a program, right? I started this with these are all the programs. We lump them together. We do have to consistently as policy makers
and leaders have to understand that every new program comes with long-term operational costs. Um, back to cemetery and parks. A lot of our cemetery again focuses on burials, cremations. Um, we support all the athletic programs from a field maintenance standpoint. Um, we
also support um our forestry program. I'll kind of go back to that. that forestry program consists of one tree warden and a concept. So um a lot of that is kind of falls on our shoulders. Um but we do sub out all of that and we have a very limited budget which is a very intense program to begin with. Um
they also are our number two and our secondary support for our snow and ice program. So they back up our highway department um and they operate our entirety of our snow and ice program. So in order of our snow and ice program it is highway cemetery parks water and sewer facilities. So that's kind of the
high market how we support our snow ice program. And here we get to our big our big department, our biggest division. Our biggest division is our water and sewer department that actually consists of four utilities. So you may or may not
have heard me say this in the past. Um this is for all those new viewers. We operate an entire department which is water treatment and production. We offer another do entire department which is water distribution. We offer another department which is sewer collection and
another department which is wastewater treatment process. Those in DP who is our regulatory environment are classified as four different entities. We then break those into two entities with our enterprise funding which is our financial structure which is essentially
a hierarchy of water and sewer within that four compound process. We under the department of public works manage all four from administrative focus but we actually operate three of those four. So we operate our entire water treatment
and production capacity within our staff distribution sewer collection. All of that is done with in-house staff. Our wastewater treatment facility is a contracted service that we have with operations and maintenance through Polia. We service over 4,200 customers um both
water and sewer. We operate three water treatment plants um that pull water from eight ground water wells. Um those are wells in the ground as you've heard me say before. Um we have an abandoned surface water source which is Whites Pond. We do not pull from that at this time. Um we operate over 471 hydrants
and valves that go with those. We have two water storage tanks which support both pressure fire suppression and excess capacity when needed which consist of a 1.5 million gallon tank and a 3.1 million gallon tank. We have over 60 plus miles of water man. Um this also
includes over 60 plus miles of sewer main. We operate 717 gate valves and we conduct uh water sampling that we'll get to in a second at 16 plus locations. Again, if you look to this um structure, this is a subset structure. This is our
water department is actually our most unique department and it is our most heavily regulated department in the entire town. Within that we um we actually have two subsets which is really administrative environmental compliance process which Julia Fleiner is our newest
environmental compliance coordinator. Underneath uh Julia there is a vacant water and sewer sampling analyst which will help we'll discuss where that is in regards to operations but that's something that was approved with our five-year uh staffing operation plan that's already been approved in the past
as we've discussed from several iterations of our rate process. We are currently operating um with two vacant FTEEs under our operations staff. And when I say that, that means that we essentially uh maintain four water treatment operators and one distribution
collection system operator. Uh we are essentially down 50% of our water and sewer uh excuse me, our water treatment operators at this time. So we are operating at 50% operational capacity. Could you just elaborate a little bit please on uh what impact that is having
and whether or not you feel like those positions are imminently fillable or we having trouble filling those positions. >> Yeah. So they they absolutely have a detrimental impact over time. Um our staff um that currently operates um they
put in 80 to 90 hours a week on average. Um they're working we again with water production we work seven days a week. um our water staff um even on the weekends the treatment plants are operating and we work at staff levels of that of that magnitude. Part of the issue that we're seeing isn't just a maintenance specific
uh issue. I want to make sure we speak to this as a industry issue. The water utility uh industry is actually decimating is becoming decimated by backfilling resources. When I say that is because if you looked at a bell curve and you may or may not have
heard me speak to this over the past 40 years, if you looked at a bell curve on policy imple implementation from both the federal and state standard process, we're going like this. Meaning that that the increase in policies is becoming cumbersome. At the same time, most water
utilities and sewer utilities are managed by municipalities which have a flat curve when it comes to resource improvement. And when I say resource improvement, I'm talking about compensation and benefits packages. So what's happening is you have longtime operators or DPW workers such as myself,
20 plus years, 30 years, etc. that don't necessarily move from their positions until they retire. That was a stay in place process. Unfortunately, we're not seeing a backfill. So this is a this is a bigger this is a bigger issue. It's a national issue. You hear a lot about
should we be revitalization revitalizing our vocational programs nationally versus some of our collegiate programs. This is an example of an industry that absolutely has neither. There is no vocational programs that support operation processes when it comes to water treatment plant uh processes or
wastewater treatment plant processes or distribution. There is no collegiate aspect outside of the fact of engineering specialization in water and sewer. These have always survived with in-house training and support processes. The
problem is these departments such as ours with our infrastructure such as ours are failing at an alarming rate across the nation. This isn't a mayor issue. This is a national issue and younger
labor force does not want to penetrate this market at a rate of $35 an hour to acquire five licenses that are overly scrutinized and operate equipment that's 40 years past its life expectancy. So, nobody's coming into the industry. And
what what's happening now is it's a bull market for operators that are in their 30s and 40s that have all their license that are now cherrypicking municipalities that have financial flexibility. I.e. we're losing operators to Cambridge who is going to operate and
provide a benefit package and compensation package which is about 30% more than we can. We actually lost an operator to one town next to a Sbury for a $5 raise we couldn't match. Right? So there's a lot of complexity to that and it's something that I think we need to
have bigger discussions with. We discuss this quite often uh internally. Um but right now that is something that we're going to get pinched on. We've survived. Um something that I didn't bring up at the beginning of this is the Department of Public Works in the town of Maynard
has survived for so long because 90% of our staff is Maynard residents and or original Maynard residents. Meaning when I say original, they may not be current Mayor residents, but they may have grown up here and they have ties back to Mayor.
That is common in the public works world, but it's failing throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts because the city of Boston isn't paying their water and sewer department enough money to live in the city of Boston. So, they're taking people from the Metro
West and we're doing the same, etc. So, you you no longer have a work in place. You hear a lot you guys talk about live in place and how long you can do that. Our industry is having a work in place issue and the complexities of our system are driving people away. So we lost one
operator to a compensation package we could not match which was a major kid who grew up here. He trained in our situation. We lost another to the fact that he no longer can take the stress of operating our system. Our system is very complex. Our system is um very ancient,
very old. It's very hard to manage. And when we get those discoloration calls, which we do not want to produce for our residents, that is a heavy toll on our operators. We can't do anything about it because it's simply the infrastructure, right? So, part of that is a combination of many things. Um, we have some
strategies and we're going to continue to target um opportunities. Um, but this is a bigger issue than just Maynard. But in Maynard, we do need to think about competing against our surrounding communities when it comes to us. Switching gears. The water that we use
in this building or at the schools or through hydrogen flushing, is that charged for does that go into revenues or is that >> Yeah, I love All right. So, this is something Justine asked several years ago. So, I don't know if everybody knows this, right? So, when it comes to hydrant flushing, there's two ways to
look at it. We operate hydrant flushing to clean our pipes, which means we actually have to flush the hydrant at its highest pressure, which you can't meter. So we don't meter that. So the answer is no. But but nope. But there is but there is hydrant use. So if someone
wanted to use a hydrant to fill a tank or things like that at a low pressure, we needed that and then we charged. So let's take the example of like the pavement company that wanted to use our water. They used it illegally and we went through that issue. But if they came to us, we would have charged them and recouped that.
>> That's one aspect. That's the hydrant commercial. >> Yep. And then when we're talking about town subsets, the water commissioner commissioners well prior to you decided to not charge in-house fees to municipality. Now it's a policy decision >> including the schools.
>> Yep. Including the school. >> Is that normal? If I were to look at other municipalities split between is there 90 and what what does that look like if I were to look at Massachusetts? >> So the best way I would describe it is kind of how the kingdoms and how I started this operation. >> So it's a mix is what you're >> It's a mix. So like in active let's take
active. I don't need the details. I I think you've answered my question. >> It is a mix. >> Yes. >> And so we don't charge ourselves through general fund or we don't charge the schools. >> Thank you. >> You legally can if you want to. >> Understood. >> Okay. Kind of always a big one when it comes to water. As as the board is
aware, we do complex structures with water, but just anything from pipe repairs to uh advanced o OTI. So recently you're hearing a lot of uh process nationally about um cyber hacking and and utility attacks such as
Littleton. Um we implement a lot of process to protect our system. We rely heavily on an automated process. So when you hear me talk about those operators, those are operators that have to uh operate our treatment processes. But we also rely on almost 50% of it being
automated. So that's where you hear that that word SCADA which is an automated system. Now that puts us at risk for hacking. We do have automated system that also puts us at risk. So we we rely heavily on improvements across our portfolio from anything from it to hard
infrastructure to regular maintenance. >> Justin, I'm going to say you've done a great job at keeping it to five minutes. Five minutes talks. >> I love it. Okay, perfect. So I'm going to skip the bunch of stuff. We we've been asking a lot of questions and it depends on this. >> That's right. I can I can shift by. Um
so one of our last uh departments is our facilities department. Our facilities department again is a very singular hierarchy. Um it's a very limited resource department. So the facilities department consists of me and Kyle Brainard. Uh we're supported by part-time staff members who are really
essentially our custodians. Um but we don't they don't actually operate custodial work. They actually just operate janetary work. There's a difference between the two. Custodians will do minor repairs. Jan janitors just do cleaning. So we do not have any technical support staff in house to do
electrical wiring to do plumbing repairs. Everything in the facilities department outside of administration for the most part. 98% of it is contracted up. Um we oversee 25 properties across the town of Maynard. Uh we're responsible. We also have a centralized
um procurement process and inventory supply oversight that we manage through the facilities department. So the facilities department supports almost every single department in procurement of process such as things like paper outside of singular department. So when
I say things like paper, we support everything under the department of public works for ordering through the facilities department. But there is some overlap with the facilities department will support someone like MS to um h um buy theirs desks things of that nature.
So there's a lot of centralization of procurement through the facilities department if that makes any sense. So he has a lot of responsibility and overlap and works with every single department is the best way I would say that and really the facilities team consists of brainard and as your facilities manager I really help focus
on the grants and the overall strategy and process. Um Kyle's responsible with his team to upkeep um those 24 properties, but that is sometimes too cumbersome. So a lot of department heads
who operate their own facilities, i.e. COA, the library, those department heads maintain their little kingdoms. That's I'm going to steal that from Greg. He likes to call them their little kingdoms. They maintain a lot of their day-to-day facility operation and we support them through larger scale
projects. All right, >> Justin, I would recommend because you're doing great, but I would I I know the board would be particularly interested and I'm not saying you have to like not speak to any of the slides. If you do, the board can say what they do or don't want to hear. The second to last slide is really important because that talks
to like where you want to go. >> Absolutely. Okay. >> Yep. Exactly. So, we're almost there. >> Okay. >> Yep. Um, but I do want to make sure that we we truly understand that the Department of Public Works also supports many other opportunities and or staff within the within the town of Mayor
including the energy manager Rebecca. Um, we support her through the facilities overlap. Rebecca does not fall under our umbrella though. It is a support structure. So technical support. She technically reports to the town administrator and we provide facility support for for her. I also want to make
sure I highlight that the Department of Public Works is supported by a number of committees and volunteer organizations that help our operation uh strive for success. Uh one of our main um committees that has provided actionable
support that you see within the community is the tree community. They essentially I am their liaison as the tree warden but they are essentially a town administrator appointed committee which helps meet a lot of our forestry and urban forestry goals. Uh they do a
significant amount of work on almost a zero budget. They also require grants for the town to continue to move process. Um, with that being said, we also have a newly formed but very very um, ambitious roadway safety and safe streets task force which is essentially
a committee to help support our gap in engineering. So you heard me talk about engineering gaps and where we are on our operation. Um the roadway safety committee led by the chair behind me, Mario, as a very very aggressive yet very very technically sound and prepared
uh committee to attack a lot of the issues that we see in town for pedestrian safety and improvements across the community. It's something that we see often through a lot of correspondents from our residents and people who pass through town. They want
consistent improvements across the portfolio of our infrastructure, whether it's roadway improvements for speed reduction, whether it's pedestrian crossing improvements, things of that nature. Um Mario and his team is going to assist our engineering team um for the upcoming several years accomplish
some of those goals. So, this is um this is something just to try kind of hammer home the differences between our department and some comparable towns that we're constantly compared to. Not from a budget standpoint, but a lot of the issues that
we see and bad feedback that we see from residents is why can't Mayor be like Sbury? Why can't Mayor be like a Those are not perfect apples to apples. And in our industry, in the department of public worlds, Department of Public Works industry across the Commonwealth, there is no apple to apple comparison
when you're talking about public works. As I alluded to, everyone does different programs. But essentially, this slide is to help residents and the board understand that we get a lot for a little. So, we provide a lot of services
on a very, very small budget. So, perfect example is Town of Mandard's overall budget, including our water and sewer. Everything that we do from this entire slide is under $9 million. The town of Sunbury, outside of not offering water,
not offering sewer, their DPW operates on the same budget outside water and sewer, which is millions of dollars. So, if you then took Subbury Waters and put it in there, they're essentially doing the same thing for 13 to 14 million. The
same goes for acting. People don't truly understand where their money goes or how far it goes, but this slide is to help them understand that. And comparing us to certain talents is not easy. And this is another example of that. Perfect example is the overall budget comparison's
overall public works if you put them all together like our umbrella puts in $18 million. Mann puts in eight. Subbury puts in 14. So this is another slide to kind of >> are all bigger than us though, right? In population, >> correct? >> Yep. But they offer the exact same
program. Population means nothing. >> Size and population. I think both activants are very bigger. >> He's basically speaking to the perception. It's the so the infrastructure comparison. So I will never tell you that this comparison is a budget to budget in regards to per per
resident tax rate and where they're going. But essentially this is an easy comparison when you're talking about program to program. So we offer the same water program roughly close to the same customer base. We offer the their road lineal mileage is not more than 10% of
ours etc etc. So um they have they have to operate under the same federal and state standards that we do. All of the same standards apply to our programs. kind of what I talked about when I started this is we provide the same programs that Boston does and nothing
changes from the way that we have to provide that program. It's just scaling. That's it. So with that being said, this is another example of comparison of resource levels and resource support levels. So as you can see
mayor DPW with the inclusion of every program we we put forward we have a totality of 30 total employees two of them are part-time and one of them is contracted uh subbury operates under a 41 uh employees but if you're at their water district and they don't operate
sewer by the way they don't have sewer they're talking about close to 53 etc with actton you can see this on the next slide is we operate at close to uh 40% reduction in resource um resources to provide the same services. One of the things that most people also
don't understand is in any municipality, the one department that is actually um takes the biggest beating when it comes to the way that the economy works, whether it's through revenue increases, through taxation, or inflation, is that
the Department of Public Works. A lot of slides that I skipped over are representative of this, but I can speak to it at a very high level. Unlike a majority of town departments, most of the Department of Public Works operates on a 50% expenditure rate and a 50% salary rate where most other departments
operate on an 80% salary and a 20% expenditure. What does that mean? That means when CPI changes and inflation happens, we're getting less for the same budget. So when we hear residents say, well, you know, we're paying X, but
we're not getting Y. Well, it's not necessarily what you're paying more, but it's how we're paying for it. So, when inflation is at 8% and we have to pay for a widget at $8 versus what we were paying $1 and our budget didn't change
up or down, that means we can only buy one widget or we were buying eight widgets, now we can only buy one. So that has a huge impact on how our operation moves forward and how we make either improvements to the town or how we maintain the town.
Another large statistic and this is something that I know that the board has trouble with, the department of public work has trouble with getting out there for the community to understand is Maynard is not alone in our water issue. The entire nation is struggling with the lack of infrastructure improvement in
water utilities. This is a perfect example of where money is starting to be allocated nationally and what is required nationally to maintain the new policies that are put in both federal, state, and local and to keep up with
aging and failing water infrastructure. So, when we talk about rates that we're going to talk about, as we do every year, and when we talk about why is our rates going up on a yearly basis, this is an example of the why. Not only do we have to make improvements to acquire
more capacity, we have to make improvements just to replace what we currently have. And this is a statistic that helps show that. So we have one >> spike at the end is from ARPA funding largely. Would that not be true as opposed to locally generated taxes or water rates?
>> So yeah, there's you could correlate a spike to the IAS and ARPA, but you can also correlate a spike to the need, meaning that the failure is creating the need as well. So, the failure triggered the IRA funds to go to, right? But with that, this is a great lead. There's no
more federal funding that's operating. That means this burden is going to be on us, which we've talked about for a while, right? So, that's one of those things where we continue to advocate, right, as much as we can, but we have to be be prepared for the local burden. So, this slide is conducive. We can talk to
that after, but we can talk about kind of what what these end slides are. So, if you're unaware, um, when I came into the Department of Public Works over 5 years ago, I conduct SWAT analysis. If you don't know what a SWAT analysis is, it's a strength, weaknesses,
opportunity, and threat analysis. It's a management process that I do yearly. Um, I did it when I first came in at a very high level, and every year we update and modify that. um when we're talking about our operation um within that over the past six years the board may or may not
be aware but I believe that Greg Johnson has iterated that that the department of public works saw a significant amount of operational deficiencies um with that we provide our budget yearly that um requests certain operational gaps be closed. Those operational gaps include a
full-time town engineer um prior to they also included a full-time water and sewer superintendent. So, some of those gaps have been closed over the six years, but some of them that still linger as a full-time town engineer, a full-time operations manager, excuse me, um, and a full-time facilities manager. Those are some of
the high level gaps that we've uh, consistently seen internally. Um, with that being said, sometimes it's hard to self- advocate. Um, so I always like to provide a third-party option. Um, and we were able to have a colleague that I've known in industry for a very long time
that uh has been a board member for the AWA. It's American uh waterworks association, also sat on the uh public works association. I had him look at our analysis and look at our operational plan to also provide a recommendation for the board to consider as well. So,
it's not just always from the department head, but it is also from a third party. Uh their recommendation differs slightly from ours, but it essentially equates to the same thing, which is an established deploy director. You could subsidize that with an operations manager. Um they do also uh confer with part-time
engineer turning to a full-time engineer. Um and their classification highway form is really a reorganization which you'll see later on and some of the things I've talked about as well. So essentially the recommended staffing from the third party reviewer is a deputy director as you can see here
operating as an operations manager um full-time town engineer inhouse no longer consulted out absorbing the solid waste coordinator and energy manager under one umbrella which also consists of a facilities team and then essentially compartmentalizing out the
highway department. This isn't necessarily my recommendation, but I wanted the board to understand multiple ways to attack this operational gap. My recommendation was a full-time town engineer, an operations manager that would essentially take on the role of both deputy director and highway
superintendent. I think we can get I think we can squeeze it tighter. Um, and then a full-time facilities manager as we advance through and navigate what we know as a committee as a select board and as a facility manager. We're going to be tackling a lot of end of life
facilities in the next 10 years, which is why it would be vital to have a 40-hour facilities manager focusing on this. Right now, I'm lucky if I can give you five hours a week out of this. Um, so essentially, I will do what I can and you don't have to change anything. And if you're comfortable with that, those
would be my goals and my recommendation. Essentially, this model right here from the third party actually is something that you would see across the Commonwealth. I'm a little bit more progressive. I'm younger in this industry where most that provide
consulting services are much older. They would use a traditional model which this is. I think we can squeeze it tight for a progressive model, but essentially it all aligns with gaps in our operation that affect our operation as a whole. So with that being said, is there any
>> Chris? Do you have any questions? >> Yeah. Who is who who is John Duca and why do we have a picture of him? >> Yeah. So, yeah, John Duca is the third party consultant that I had do an overview of our SWAT analysis and our overall operation to provide a um
to provide a recommendation on our operational improvements as I have for six years, but I wanted to make sure you also had a different perspective outside of just your department. >> Okay. And and what does he cost? because I work with AWA and um public
works associations. We do this for colleagues across our >> So he's free. >> I support a lot of uh I I speak a lot for free on behalf of our >> He was free. I bet if we needed more from So essentially their services you can
pay for as much as this was this was a very simple overview. We had an operational review. We took advantage similarly when we went through uh the fire chief assessment center and we asked the consultant at the time that was running that just a similar sort of like how would what would staffing model would recommend for the fire department
and and in that case similarly they recommended a deputy fire chief. So like we this is sort of like >> yeah a lot of it kind of goes back to the conversation I had about consultants and admin support. We already have a SWAT analysis. If we paid for all of that, then it would be different. Like if we didn't have a SWAT analysis
already provided, an operational plan set, all they did is review a plan set that I I would do for another community for free as well, just that's what we would do. So we already have all those things in place and all they did was review our SWAT analysis. >> Okay. So I guess the the followup for me
is based on that conversation, what what is and I don't need this tonight. Maybe at another time you can just we can just talk about it and David could add it to a future agenda to have the conversation. What what is the additional cost of all the additional
small blue, green and um gray boxes to your page 54 as opposed to your page four, five or six that had the same chart with different names. What's the addition to the town in dollars and cents to get
from the page five to page 54? >> So, what I would what I would encourage you, we skipped a lot of the budget, but if you look at >> all of the pie charts after each don't don't let me interrupt you, but I
don't want to look at pie charts. I don't want to go through all that pain and suffering. >> I just all three level >> Justin. >> Try not to interrupt me for a second. >> Oh, sorry about >> Okay. I don't want to go through pie
charts. I don't want to play all those games. I want you to tell us as a board or me as a board member. I don't care if anyone else wants to know, but I want to know what's the difference between page five or six, the same chart and page 54. What's the difference in dollars and
cents without asking me to go through convoluted pie charts and graphs and everything else? You don't have to do it tonight, but at some point, could you provide us that information? >> I I could probably do it, but >> yeah, I can do it right now in two seconds. >> Well, I can just tell you if you want. That's up to you.
>> No, I don't want it right now. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> I I want part of a different because it's a different conversation. It's not part of your report. I'm sorry. I'm trying not to interrupt. >> What's your estimate question? >> Okay, perfect. So, let's just start with
this. So, right now, we can sell a line item for town engineer of over $150,000 a year. I believe we can on board an in-house town engineer for roughly $120 to $130,000, which is the average industry for our area right now with
support for 30,000 to remain meaning total. We don't need the whole >> We'll wait. We'll wait. We'll get it offline if that's the >> There's three. Yeah, there's three. But each one So each one is close to a six figure salary. Operation 3 is 90 grand.
So at the 130 to 90 and then facilities manager is typically 120 in industry 130. That's why I would million US. It's 210. >> That's why I was breaking it down. Just just assuming that there's always going
to be benefits. >> No, it's it's so I So, we were pretty close. >> So, so Justin does recommend these every year. So, and I've been doing budget like at Nauseium for the last couple weeks. So, I know these a little little faster >> and I also do calculate the benefits as we were describing. So, it comes to total is about 325 for those three
positions he was saying. And then you would add about 20 grand per position. Okay. And and again, Justin has been advocating for this as he said in the slides like for many many years as his predecessor did before him. So it's not it but it's it's um some of the recommendations and again this is confusing some of those last slides was
was also this the adisement advising. So that includes like the deputy chief I'm sorry the deputy director and the highway superintendent version and those are possible in other ways as just described like instead of an operations superintendent you could it could be the deputy director. So you or like the the
highway superintendent, we already have a highway foreman. You could either add a decision or you can maybe somehow convert it. >> Budget discussion relative to increase the question also said let's not we don't need the numbers.
>> Yeah. >> I thought it was just a number that was getting thrown out. didn't realize. >> So when you begin to discuss budgetary issues comes a much more deeper conversation that then we have to talk about not just how it affects his this but then all of the budget and everything else. It's not a discussion
for this particular meeting >> and come February whenever seven whenever the joint budget you'll see my recommendations which is a which is an interpretation a filtering of what of what he recommended and then I say this is what I think we could do this next year. So based on his recommendations and that's what I do.
>> Yeah. Essentially, this was an overview. That's why I skipped all the budget. Yeah. >> And this is an advocacy, which we always do. Um, our plan, or at least my plan, would actually be cheaper than the consult. That's what I would tell you. >> Chris, anything else? >> Best five minutes of my vacation.
>> Thank you. >> Yeah. No, I got my questions online. >> Yeah. We addressed earlier the the challenges of finding uh the technical staff. Um would the same problems likely occur in
building this um the the bigger plan for staffing that you got for example finding an engineer? No. >> And I know we have a part-time one here. Thank you Wayne. Um but uh are we likely to affect to to get the same kind of challenges in those positions as well?
It 100% is based on are you paying market rate or are you paying undermarket rate. So the challenge between the two essentially also encompasses collective bargaining. >> Yeah. >> So you're lumping technical staff such as operators in a collective bargaining
unit with other non-technical staff which sometimes is counterproductive. Something that we discuss in our industry all the time. Outside of that, when you're talking about management gaps or management staff, typically they're non-union. At that point, you're going to get what you pay for. If you
want to pay under market value, then yes, you may contend with that or you may get a product that's less than like anything else like any industry. It's um the difference with operators market is the market the industry market is below
other industries in which a new labor force person would have to put the time and energy they would get essentially a 40% more increase in benefits and compensation for the same traveled and
that's the issue with the industry with local effect you're essentially We're now like if you looked at this as a corporate model, we're essentially competing against our other adversaries and if they have more flexibility or
focusing on that, then we're not keeping up with one the local market, never mind the national issue. >> Thank you. >> Lindsay, you have a >> I do have a question and I wish I had thought to ask this of the other departments and I didn't. So, it's going to feel like I'm singling you out. I'm
not that I didn't I thought of this now. I'm curious. So, I feel like I have a very good sense after this of what's challenging uh for DVW. Um I don't know if that was the goal, but it feels like that's been the focus, you know, based on our questions. I'm curious in your opinion, what do you think the
department does well and what do you think you could do better? >> Yeah, perfect. I love it. See, right into the spot on this. What do we do well? Just like the town of Mayard, the department of public works, we are a multiaceted different technical portfolio. Because we have limited
resources, we work together and overlap extremely well. I come from a department in Mro that had a significant amount of resources, but each division worked very siloed from each other. Meaning, if there was a water mane break and they needed support staff, cemetery staff
would tell them to go pound sand. We're not helping you. and the town of Mainard. It's all hand on deck in our operation. Everybody comes outside of their job description. If we need support on something that has to do with water and sewer and I need to pull in the secretary department, I have zero
complaints and everybody knows the priorities. We work together collaboratively in an efficient process very well. What do we do poorly? So, what we do poorly is our response time on a lot of
correspondents. So, as you can see, we receive a significant amount of correspondence. Our correspondents are actually very intriguing and very in-depth. So, we have a residential portfolio of of members of the community that
actually ask very technical advanced questioning, which means that we have a a a bad time at providing answers in an efficient and concise manner. because of the call volume and our ability to kind of shift on the fly. It's one of our
biggest weaknesses. It's something that we've actually been attacking for about five years. I know Lindsay, you you're you probably weren't part of our five-year staffing improvement plan from our water and sewer department, but a lot of the focus was on um increasing
both our admin administrative staff, our operational staff, and our technical support staff. So, we've closed some of the gap on that and you'll still hear it. I will say we hear a lot of complaints that DPW doesn't get back to us. They don't answer our questions
appropriately. Some of that is true and some of that is convoluted, but I will tell you from us internal operations, we can do a better job at. >> Okay. Thanks. >> All right. And uh I will make one
comment relative to just general uh relative to the DPW. Um the DPW and you sort of touched upon this at the beginning of your presentation is sort of an in-your-face department where um fire department people need it when they
have an emergency with a medical condition or when their house is on fire. police department. They need when there are various crimes going on or just they want somebody to stop speeding on their street. DPW is in people's face every day. They turn on the water that
people go out onto the street every day to drive their car. They walk along the sidewalks. If they have sidewalks in their neighborhood, they walk along them. And they have reason to visit the cemetery. They have reason to visit the high school football field. they have
reason to visit everything that you've discussed that you're involved in. And people can find some place to criticize in every single one of those things if they want to. And many people unfortunately want to. And it's unfair
and it's it's not proper. And we see with the small amount of people that you have working in a department that's doing so many different things, you do a remarkable job at keeping the the trains running, so to say. And I think we do
more than just keep the trains running. Uh I I get a lot of positive comments in the wintertime about how good our roads are in comparison relative to uh safety and uh dismissal snow compared to other
uh communities. I travel from here to Quinsey and I see it as you go into a different town, you can see it. It's it's remarkable difference in various towns. We do a fantastic job and we deserve you deserve your department
deserves and we as a board as water commissioners and as the selectmen that are overseeing what's going on deserve some uh some compliments about how well we do with limited resources and I think it's that people need to be appreciative
of that and I certainly am and having said that the other thing I am appreciative that of our our employees who have um spent so much time working hard, they want to do a good job. To hear the story about the person who left because they felt because there was too
much pressure because they that's that's disappointing and and unfortunate. But I also want to um give my uh condolences to your department on the loss of your recent longtime employee Morando who
many of us knew for many many years who as I put on a post that I put out on social media was the face of the DPW for many many years. She was the person who answered the phone. She was the person who when people walked in and had a question she was the one who was there.
And so mayor just lost her and I wanted to recognize that this evening with this presentation. >> I appreciate that. >> Thank you very much. We're moving on to the next agenda. I hope >> it's going to sit there for a little bit
longer. Yeah. >> What's that? >> First he can come up. But first it's um the Sant costing analysis. Yeah. >> So he doesn't do water but you want to do water
>> stand contract. >> So I'll I'll give a give Justin a rest. Um Dustin's been working with um our regional partnerships act and conquered a number of others to be able to pursue advocacy for getting the um the state's
water um supply which is the to come towards us to get that pipe to down to us so that we can have this long range vision of providing sustainable and consistent water supply for the for the our town as well as well as surrounding towns because we're not alone in this.
we all we all need to sort of meet our growth demands um in this partnership that Justin has uh largely I don't want to say well I won't say leads alone but you like is is very much a part of um uh Justin asked for my
assistance and I was glad to give it in support of a request for qualifications to seek a design firm to be able to provide an analysis as to what it might cost if we were if we were going to if we're going to fish something through the state they're going to want to know what's the what's it going to cost us to be able to get that pipe over to you guys.
>> That is towards this end. >> Um and so everyone's shipping in. This uh this contract is with Santech Consulting Services. They happen to be our longtime um uh uh water engineering consultant. However, if this was a follow process, they they were the most
qualified. Um the cost is $119,000 364. Um and again, this is shared costs amongst those those partnerships. We've been informing D about this. Yeah, I can jump on. Go ahead. >> Yeah, so Greg kind of alluded to this is piggy back off of the MWA study that was
conducted by MWA, which is the Metro West expansion. There's three expansion studies. Metro West was one of them that encompassed over 15 communities Maynard including and within that 15 communities. 10 of those communities executed an inter intermunicipal agreement as you as the board may
recall. Uh Mayor, Conquered and Actton are leading the charge out of the 10 communities to continue this process. Um the 10 communities have already pledged towards this um towards this contract. It's a fair cost sharing. So if it's 10
communities that are involved, we will split that 10 ways. Um that financial study is actually to look at each community's capital improvement plan master plan in comparison to the Metro West expansion cost. So as you may recall if MWA was to provide Metro West
communities with water resources, the estimated cost was $1.6 billion. Every community that is within the Metro West expansion area has different issues with their water, whether it's capacity or treatment. Unfortunately for me it is
both. Um but all of us have signed on because the only way to attack the potential of an MD connection whether it be 10 20 30 years from now is doing that in a regional approach. And in order for each one of our community stakeholders groups to truly
understand if they want to continue to move forward with the cost sharing process of paying for that connection, we have to have a regional analysis done and this is what that is. So it will compare our master plan with our phasing approach as the board may recall where
we're talking about our our phase two, phase three and phase four is MWA. It will then provide the cost to fill the void gap in that master plan. Our master plan provided costs for phase two and phase three and not phase four yet because we can't provide a cost without
the regional collaboration. So that's what this encompasses. Essentially Mayor is paying about $10,000 a little over $10,000. So this 119,000 is not our >> split 10 ways. Yeah, we are just leading this contract because Maynard Con and active are leading this initiative. We
already have an intermunicipal agreement with all of the 10 uh 10 communities and they will reimburse uh the invoice after the conference. >> Any questions? >> Press. >> No, almost set.
>> All right. Anybody has no question move to approve the contract with Sant Consulting Services, Inc. for NWR connection cost allocation analysis in the amount of $119,364 is presented authorizing use of digital signatures if approved.
>> Second. >> Any further questions, Chris? >> Yes, I'm good. >> Oh, yeah. We're voting. >> Yeah. No. Yeah. Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. Yes. >> And I'm a yes as well. In fact, the
other one is a steel co chain link fence uh installation. >> Yeah, >> I'll make this real quick. Summarize it real quick. DP dinged us on their sanitary survey last year and said, "You need a new fence around one of your concrete around one of your two water
tanks. We have a steel and a concrete the concrete tank." We put it out the bid. We got five biders. The low bidder was 55,800. We're looking for your circuits around the contract. >> Is that kind of ding normal >> per sanitary survey? Security fencing is
high due to cyber security and the the implications of how we are essentially at risk for issues when we're talking about water supply. >> How often do they do those surveys? >> Uh 3 to five years. >> Okay. Thank you. >> How high is this? >> Seven feet. >> 10 feet. >> Seven feet.
>> Seven feet. Is that like a regular What's the Is this a I guess my question is if I were to get a fence in my at my house $55,800 tie >> Oh close to 850 people.
>> We got real lucky for you. He had anticipated about $150,000 to put this fence in. We got a rough quote from one of our vend local vendors that we work with all the time. about 100. We put it out and we got five bids and we got 55A as a low bidder and
they they're qualified. >> We did have ranges of 55 to 136. >> So this is the issue when we talk about expenditure cost, right? But essentially David, it is uh chain link fence, security fence. It has to be concreted in um and encompasses a large scale water tank. So
>> okay, >> any other questions? President, anything? >> No, I'm good. >> Anybody else? We will vote then. Roll call. Chris, >> do we move it? >> Yes. >> Oh, we need a motion. Sorry. >> Motion. >> I'll move to authorize the town
administrator to approve the contract with Steel Co. Chainlink Fence Erecting Co. Inc. for the installation of a secure fence at the town's concrete water tank storage structure in the vicinity of Summer Street and Tower Road in the amount of $55,800
and authorizing the use of digital signatures if approved. >> Second. Any other questions? Mike, uh, we're gonna go Mike. >> Yes. Jeff, >> yes. Lindsay. >> Yeah. >> Chris, >> yes. >> And I'm yes as well. Thank you.
>> Is >> good job, guys. >> Are you in on the fair? >> It's all me after that. >> Thank you guys. >> Enjoy vacation. >> Sure. >> I'm trying.
>> Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. >> Thank you for hanging in for the second week in a row. Second meeting in a row. >> Murray, do you want to stick around? No. Just >> want to stay for the rest of the >> You want me to take it, Mr. Chair?
>> Yeah. >> Okay. So, the two contracts that I have for you, one is Clear Go. So clear gov has been our longtime um uh budgeting and and fiscal financial transparency and now capital planning platform. So clear gov also happens to be headquartered across the street in
middle um and we initially got them many years ago through a grant and since then I think we've had a good relationship. I I I use I use clear gov every day and you know and the capital planning committee relies on it a lot too and I think there is still a great value to having the fiscal transference module on
our website. So this is uh the time to renew. So, this is a three-year deal. Um, cost is $19,395. It's a little bit of savings because we'll get So, we do three of one. Um, >> yeah. So, I I recommend I recommend that
the board read this. >> Okay. Any questions? >> Press any questions? >> No, thank you. >> Okay. Well, you will uh we will vote then that motion is made. Move to authorize the town administrator to
approve the three-year renewal of terms for clear vote online budgeting platforms provided. >> Second further questions. All right, we'll vote. All in favor? Chris? >> Yes. >> Lindsay? >> Yes. >> Jeff? Yes. >> I'm a yes, too. The record will show
that Mike is out of the room not voting. >> Yeah. >> Mike, you just did your vote on that one. That's >> You missed one. Greg, you got that? It was just All right. He's got the minutes. >> Okay. >> Um, next item is >> if if the board recalls, um, for a
number of years, the town has been engaging with design firms to just be, you know, held um, on call, if you will, as house doctors. It's a, which is a strange term, but that's what it is in the procurement manual. Um, and so, so is a firm that we've already had in the past. Um, we use Soitech to do an
analysis of the golf course. Uh, they did the roof over the gold green medal pool. So, we've known so for a while. So, um, they wrapped it up and and answered the RFQ and said they'd be willing to still be on call or whenever we need them. >> This is a renewal
>> somewhat. Yeah, it is a new contract. Um, >> a new contract, but of a of a company that we already done business with. >> That's great. >> Yeah. >> Nothing substantially different. >> And there's no cost at this time, but I don't They're just like on call. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> They just become a member of our list. >> Yeah. We don't have a lot. Uh, we only
have one. Lero is the only one you have right now. Um, I wanted to add at least three, but that's okay. >> All right, any questions? All right, we'll take a motion. >> I'll move to approve the House Doctor contract for design services with Soo Tech for a term to expire June 21st,
2028 and authorize the use of digital signatures if approved. >> Second. >> Any further questions? We'll vote. Chris, >> yes. >> Lindsay, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. >> Mike, >> yes. >> Tommy, yes. As well, thank you. Uh we've
already done item number six. Now we move on to item number seven. Uh did everybody see the email that came out today on this topic? I did. >> Yeah. >> Um this was added on because we hadn't
discussed this particular um this is Mayor Liquors by the way for uh for the record. Um we hadn't discussed this issue where a license had possibly become dormant. today if we learned some information. I wanted it to be on the
agenda because the word hadn't had a discussion relative to what we should do. So if everybody has seen today's email which essentially indicated that this uh license will become undormant or
active within an expected 30 to 60 days I think is what the the letter suggested based on some work that's being done at the location at this point to finally apparently there was a log jam that was broken and allowed the uh the landlord and the business owner to cooperate to
get some things done. the expectation per >> Oh, sorry. Keep going. >> Council's on there. I think >> like that happened before. >> We might be going without >> Can you guys hear us?
>> We can now. And now >> Oh, perfect. >> But we can't see you. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> You can see us. >> I'm sorry. >> I'm sorry. This is Atha Pearlman. How are you?
>> I'm good. Thank you, sir. Um, did did you hear my brief explanation when before we were violently cut off? >> Violently? >> Yeah. what we what we've been doing and the last update I gave to the uh town was on December 15th and at that time I
advised you that the uh uh attorney for the landlord had submitted a plan to the uh building department and the building department requested changes. The architect was going to work on those changes and there was going to be a meeting scheduled for December 15th. My
understanding now, I contacted the uh attorney for the landlord. The landlord is here, but if you don't mind, I'll speak Jonathan if that's okay. Um I spoke to the attorney for the landlord and he advised me that the doors for the front had been ordered and that he
believed the building permit had been given for the landlord to do that work. Uh previous to that, the store owner had applied for a building permit for the inside. He'd been granted that and he had already contacted the vendors and
the contractors and coordinated all that to get the store open. However, we weren't going to do that construction until the landlord completed his because we didn't want two contractors interfering with each other. So, that's what was doing at that time. Uh we
anticipated and the landlord again can correct me if I'm if I've missed something. It will probably take three or four weeks for the landlord to complete or his contract, excuse me, to complete that portion of the work. Once that portion of the work and I believe, Jonathan, am I right that you did get
the building permit? >> So, we have the building permit. And so, they're going to be doing the front of the building with the entrances. Once that's done, it should take about six to eight weeks to complete the whole interior of the of the building. And at
that time it's just a matter of getting a certificate of occupancy from the uh building department, the fire department, whoever has to inspect and then we should be open for business. So if we take your estimate 8 weeks for the
interior work and the 30 days or a month apparently of the door to be ordered and installed. Is that what I heard? >> That's our anticipation. Yeah. So we think that's realistic. That's an additional three months. >> Uh, it would be about that. Yes,
>> about three months. Okay. >> But that means but that means also stalking the store. That means training the people. That means putting in the security system. All those types of things that take a little bit of time. >> I understand that. I'm I'm not going to speak for the entire board, but as long
as I see progress, I'm I'm okay when I realize that this is going to actually happen and we're not going to have a a dormant license. I'll open it up for the board to ask any questions. My thought is we give an extension out for 90 days
and have them back if nothing has if nothing's finalized or if they're not close and uh see where things are at. But what is the board thought? >> I agree. As long as progress being made, I'm aligned. Um my only question would be for Greg. Is there anything from you or MS's point of view that we should be
aware of? >> So thank you for if I don't want to speak before the rest of the board if that >> Okay. I'll give my second questions or answers. >> I I am frustrated with this uh the license holder. It it is a dormant license by the definition of the policy
of the board. It is a dormant license. It has not been used for six months. The the license holder has neither used it, transferred it or or return it back to the town. And I am a little skeptical that at the conclusion of the six-month,
which again was after many many months of it already not being utilized, there's an opportunity cost to the property owner. There's an opportunity cost to the town. If there was if I had a line out the door, which I don't, and it's not very often that we have someone
asking for a package store license, but we do have it. And and this license again, which is controlled by the state. The town does not control how many electric licenses we have of this. This is they got it. He's Mr. Mr. Patel has had it, you know, like if you will in
his pocket, which is often called a pocket license for that reason, for more than a year that I am disappointed in in the in the I don't I don't um attorney, I am disappointed in the applicant and the I'm sorry, the license holder. He's
not an applicant. He's a license holder. And um I think I think the board is being correctly patient and I think another 3 months would be I I could accept that as well. I just wanted to voice my frustration for that because we get Craig Wilson and I get the calls from people who are asking and all of us
as well people who are asking is there a like there's there are people who are not fulfilling dreams to I know to be exaggerated of opening their own store because there's been a pocket license in the town. Certainly that's concern if there's business we are
>> there is not right now but it is still an opportunity cost um I would recommend that the board that a date uh I I think three months is fine so we could say June April the first meeting in April we could say that's about it's about three
months out and >> you might have missed something but what I'm looking at is an email from Mr. Kaufman from today. Yeah. And the time estimate is 4 to 6 weeks to opening >> and asking for a 30 to 60 day extension, but based on So, how did we get to 90 days?
>> 90 days because when uh attorney Pearlman described what was going on, it went up to 90 days. I was going >> I see. This is now information. I got it. >> So, the So, I think it's fine. I think given another three months because again
if I if I if I did have another I mean again I might be maybe Greg knows of one but um I don't have a strong recommendation against this because I don't have someone else who's asking for the license. If I did I would have recommended the board not issue this because they have not um and I and I
don't I wouldn't mind if it still went to Mr. Kaufman's property. It doesn't bother me. Mr. Coffman has been very open and very communative and so is so is attorney Pearlman. I appreciate that. Um um but and then this is and largely this is a cost to Mr. Kaufman because
he's not he's it's a vacant storefront that he hasn't been getting many any money off of for more than a year. Um so I I he's probably more patient than we are at this point. But uh anyway, I I wanted to say my two cents. I've said it now. I think I think uh being very clear
on our expectation whether it be the first meeting in April, that's where the board wants to go. I think that's fine. Um and I think we should hold them to it. Chris, do you have any thoughts? I >> I I think I think we should all have the same frustrations as Greg in this this
situation which is dragged on now for well over a year. That's that's the kindest estimate I ever heard that it's a year and now we're now we're sitting here. We've got the three principles or three people who claim to know the most about it from the lency standpoint. And
we have three different time frames of when it might get done. When is it going to get done? And when is this and when is the store going to open? >> I'm sorry if I was if I was confusing. That's my fault. Once we get the
building permit, which we now have and the doors have ordered, we believe it'll take three to four weeks to do that construction. Then we believe that once that construction's done, John, am I am I missing something? I apologize. >> I I I can get the work done in in four
to six weeks. That's what I'm being told by my contractor. As far as when you commence your work, the sooner the better as far as I'm concerned. I I I don't know what's holding you up, but I I understand you want to see me start my work, and I'm doing that as quickly as I can. >> Right. I I just don't want to I've
represented construction companies in the past, and I don't want two contractors starting to try to over, you know, go over the other person's work, and that work is essential, and it's going to be at the front of the store. So, I'm just saying it should take about
six weeks, maybe eight, to get the construction of the interior done, get people trained, get the store stock, which takes a little bit of time, and entered into the POS system, and then open. So, I was trying not to give an
unrealistic time and have you say, well, you told me this and it didn't happen. So, I guess maybe I was giving you a little bit of flexibility there to make sure that we didn't come back another time. And you're saying we're still not quite there. Work, Jonathan, is work going to begin very shortly. When do you
expect the construction to start on the front? >> Uh the doors were ordered four weeks ago and I'm being told they're going to be delivered on Monday and then when as soon as they're delivered, we'll start. >> Okay. So that's going to be the start date. So the start date you're talking about about a weekday >> and then it's going to take Jonathan,
did you just say four to six weeks to get that done? >> That's what I'm being told. So four to six and then six figure biggest six weeks we should be just about there. I was saying 6 to 8 but let's cut six. So we're talking 12 12 weeks we're talking
3 months. So if it's right now January 6th February March yeah beginning of if you have a meeting in April we should be open at that we should be open at that time. So, so you expect to get the doors
on Monday or are you just doing doors or you doing fac? >> No, you're going to have to have an entrance to get into the store. There's more than just putting doors in because right now there's a big pit there because they you at one time there was a supermarket that had people come in from
the right hand side of the store and I guess there was a ramp that they needed so that people that needed wheelchairs or whatever would have access. They got to somehow close that or or cross that. I'm not sure what Jonathan's people are doing.
What's been approved by your building department, but whatever's been approved by the building department, they're going to do to give access directly into the store and then the store starts. So, we can't we can't kind of overshoot them when they're doing the front of the that
front. I don't know if you're familiar with the building, but there's that big >> I'm familiar with I'm very familiar with the building. >> Jonathan, since you're here, sir, >> maybe you can tell us what you guys are doing to the building because installation of doors is not four to six
weeks. Can you just kind of give us a brief summary of what's actually going to happen to the front of the building because four to six weeks seems like a long time to put in a couple doors. >> Yeah, so as you're like you said, you're familiar with the property. As you're aware, there's a there's an atrium where you enter into uh before you access the
the small shops, the pizza shop, the the hair salon, and the uh and the the liquor store. And the entrance to that atrium is on either ends. And uh the the change that the tenant has um has has requested has been a direct entrance
straight into the um the middle. So so that people can walk uh over that um that garden area and right into the uh right into his store. So so instead of having well in addition to the two entrances on either end, there will be a
new entrance in the middle. Um so it's a uh it is a double set of doors. It is a concrete ramp and uh just reconfiguration of the uh of the handrails. Uh that was um you know our tenant Mayor Lakers
architect had drawn. That took some time. We had to submit those plans to the building department. I'm sorry I don't have them right now. I I should have had them so I could share my screen so that you can see a picture is worth a thousand words. But as I said um you know the architect had to had to draw
those plans. We had to submit them to the building department. The department had comments, architect made changes, we resubmitted, they signed off, we got our building permit uh actually this morning and uh and the doors are being delivered on Monday. >> Thank you.
>> Yes. >> So, this is an external door, not an internal door to the uh to the office space for the or the store space, but an external door through the building itself
>> to allow personal access, for a lack of a better phrase, for a customer to walk in directly to the store >> as opposed to have to come in, walk past the uh pizza place, the the hair salon, and then go in.
>> And there's not even direct access to walk by that. If you came in that door, you're at Jonathan, correct? Correct me if I'm wrong. You're at a lower level like like a basement level and you have to walk up a ramp that goes across in front of all that and then turn around
and then come back down the upper walkway. >> So, what's happening is that you have to cross that lower ramp area which is many feet down. >> Yep. I I understand. Yeah. Okay. There is a set of stairs in there, but that's
that's irrelevant, but >> Okay. >> All right. Okay. Any other thoughts from the porn? >> No, just a question. I think probably for Greg. >> Okay. >> In terms of the license, um, so could we basically like our first meeting I think
will be April 7th, it looks like >> in April, I mean. >> Yeah. Yeah. Can can we basically right now set a deadline and say okay the store needs to be open by X date or on the April 7th meeting we will revoke the license >> or is there procedural stuff that has to
happen in between that? No, this um um so the board more than six months ago gave them six months, you know, did council had advised us and said and said give them six months, you know, like we had an official meeting. It was it was we had a hearing about it. Gave him six months that expired. That was December.
>> Yeah. >> So, um in December, uh attorney general did reach out to me and and in recognition of the end of that window and and sort of explained where we were, I followed up with Mr. Coffin to kind of get, you know, verification to find out where the building and here we are. So,
um, but if that if any of this doesn't satisfy you as a local licensing authority and you've given them the six months, you could you could resend right now. >> We we don't need to give him a deadline. We can we can just hold off and if we wanted to at our next meeting or two meetings from now, I'm assuming we could
resend the license. That's what >> But if you want but if you want to give because the deadline is passed, >> we're just holding off on on pulling the trigger on the resin. I think David is saying what I agree is if they're making forward progress and if they start to fail to make that forward progress we
>> okay so we evaluate that we've already to set it up right but I appreciate this clarity and I I think it's important to say like this is the expectation gentlemen like you have until April 7th >> yeah I don't want to be here on April 7th and being told we haven't stocked
the building yet or we haven't hired anybody and that'll take another six weeks Um we we need to see that there is substantial progress and that any reasonable person would say this place is going to open in days. That's sort of the feeling I have.
>> That's great. >> Let let if I may let me be clear. I have no problem if you want to have an interim date to make sure things are happening. I don't want you to take that I'm giving you smoke. I'm not and that's not how I do business. So, if you want
to have a date 30 days and say, "Well, let's see where you are in 30 days." Okay, that's moving along. We'll give you I have no problem with that. And and and and you allow us to come in virtually. So, it's I mean, I don't really want to have to learn any more
about the Department of Public Works. But notwithstanding that, uh, I I have no problem coming in and giving you an interim report, which you people can go buy the property and see that I'm being forthright with you and say, "Okay,
yeah, they're moving right along. We'll give come back in another 30 days and let me see where you are." I got no problem with that. I just didn't want to give you an unrealistic date and say, "In 30 days, you know, we're going to do wonderful things." It's taking certain amount of time, but you'll see the
progress. So, I've got no problem if you would like us to me to come back in 30 days and have you confirm that we're moving along. It's getting done. >> It's it's a little disingenuous of you to suggest that any of the five of us or
Greg Johnson are suggesting you're blowing smoke. You've been on this journey with us now for 15, 16, 18 months. So, >> no, not me. I've been only on it for you since we had that meeting. I had nothing to do. >> Well, regardless, you know the history
of the license, correct? >> You know, you might personally part of it. So, you know the history of it. So, for you to suggest that we're blow think you're blowing smoke or suggesting you're blowing smoke is disingenuous at best >> because you know the history of the license and the history of this whole
ridiculousness. So, you know, the boy that cried wolf is sitting in the corner and I think his name is Pavan Patel and we haven't been anywhere in that amount of time and no one can tell us when the last bottle of liquor or booze or wine was sold in that store. But you're you're suggesting we're saying something
is wrong with what you're saying. No, what you're saying is we're going to get to this date. You've passed many dates. this license, this group, this organization that wants to open this and is holding the license in their pocket has passed many dates with no no
information has ignored multiple letters and attempts to contact by the town over the past year and a half and now you're now now we're going to get somewhere and we should suddenly go oh and give you what you want and put put dates to it. No, get it done and if we decide you're
not getting fast enough, we'll pull it away. It's time. time to do the work. Never mind the nonsense, but to suggest that this board in the town of Maynard is suggesting anyone's blowing smoke. We've got plenty of smoke in the selectment quarters over this whole
process and this whole license. Don't don't go down that road. >> Any other comments? So, do we want to establish >> Let's just say bring them back April 7th or 4. And if the chair and the town administrator want to bring them back
earlier and pull the license or make that recommendation, I'd be willing to listen to it at any point in between now and then. >> So, we'll have it on the agenda on April 7th and expect that uh we'll be uh looking forward to a ribbon cutting.
>> April 7th. >> Yeah, that's right. I'll be in touch. And yeah, Attorney Perman, you can always reach out and and Jonathan, too. You guys know, right? Well, Greg Greg runs the town, but if you if you get if you get in touch with Greg, he knows I am.
>> Absolutely. >> All right. Thank you, gentlemen. >> Thank you. >> See you on April 7th hopefully with a really good news. >> Thank you very much. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you, sir. >> Really, really stuck. Maybe this is why
I get uh heated about because budget's on my mind. Um it's all about tax. So um budget is continuing to be in development. I do have today a balanced budget. Uh it's based on a lot of assumptions and gambling and risks and
and and hearsay and rumors. Um uh but um not literal gambling. You're >> So am I. No, I'm just kidding. So um >> we're not laundering money like we were last year. >> No. No. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, >> no, no, it's all um so so this is my
eighth annual budget, so like I I I I can handle the the preise, but it's like everything else. It's it's just what I don't know. So there's still a lot of information that I just don't have. Um I did get the school department's recommend recommendations from the school committee. So I I provided that to the boards for your context. Um and
they do they do note the difference between the school committee's uh recommended recommended budget and then what my initial recommendation for the school department budget which was I was recommending a three and a half% increase over this fiscal year and there's just more than that and that's standard that's in most departments that's what they do that's okay. So um
what you'll see um January 21st per charter is my recommendation which does consider all the department's requests as you as you've heard from all the departments. So um as well as capital planning. So again I continue to be in touch with the departments capital planning committee etc. And um so the
work continues I'm in like every day I'm in touch with the different departments or different or um whoever and we the accounting team will go over where revenues where we are with taxes where we are with marijuana money etc. That's just that's just how how the how how the
sausage is made. Um thought there was something I was going to mention. Oh, and then we did have a insurance advisory committee meeting the other day. This is also an ITA report. Um, and so that was that was really insightful because it talked about how um the group insurance commission which the GIC that's like the largest uh group
of of you know health health insurance subscribers um like all state employees in particular and a number of towns and just to see where where they're coming out. So um that was very informative. They have an eight to 12% increase in
their expected premium increases for their subscribers next year. >> That's within the range of what you >> No, that's lower. So I was told by Maya who's our insurance provider, it's actually we have Blue Cross Blue Shield that I was expecting between a 12 and 18%. >> Right.
>> And if GIC's between 8 and 12, but I won't know until I won't actually know my premium increase until February, March. Do you have any insight into the historic correlation between the two? >> Yeah, that's that's the right question.
And and and usually they're not that divergent. So usually they're they're aligned because the GIC is is is what most of consultants even look at because they have the most subscribers. They have the the broadest range. Um and so
um right so like and then and at the uh um at the uh 351 conference by the MMA at the end of January is when and if if you guys are there you'll be able to see we we have a big vote what what the sort of big policies may be that influence um
health insurance rates for the next fiscal year. But at that time they also say here's the range that you can expect. So that'll be in a couple but of course that's three days after my budget is due. So the the as you all are very familiar with my recommended budget in January 21st is like a snatch like it
just says as here's the column as of the 21st and then 3 days later I'll have slightly different information and then more columns go on until we get to 10 meeting. So it's um the process continues. I'm and I I appreciate the board's patience. I'm reluctant to go
into further detail because it's there's there's a thousand different accounts and different ways that but you'll get a powerful present presentation from me and I'll I'll I'll give you the highlights. >> Yeah. >> Questions. Chris,
>> you're on mute. I think you said no. >> Sorry. No, I'm good. Thank you. Greg, did you say this was your eighth budget? Thank you. This is my >> Yes, that's about right. >> That's pretty good. >> You hired me.
>> I didn't I didn't realize it was that many. Not Not to be funny, but I I did not realize it was the eighth that you've done. >> I think it is eighth annual budget. >> Makes sense. >> Yeah. >> And then we do we we amend the budget every Well, not every year, but most started with a budget, right?
>> Yeah. I >> started with a budget. I started in June or July and then I >> Okay. >> So I was able to like >> start. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Was able like I don't think we amended the budget that fall. I think we did a special time meeting in
the spring. >> Yeah. >> All right. Is that it? >> Uh senior center planning item is still being worked on based on what in your u in your TA report. That's right. I continue to be in touch with the book
council and the property, but we're making progress. I know I say that every time. >> Yeah. Well, similar to the conversation we just had, you know, >> Oh, man. >> Oh, man. >> It's not the same. >> Um,
Green Meadow School. >> Oh, work continues. Um um I was I kind of love seeing these pictures that even in the winter time you see those guys out there putting up walls doing insulation put lay down cement pads. So uh work continues. I don't recall if we I don't remember when
the next Oh, I'm sorry. The next building is Monday. >> Monday the 12th >> building committee meeting. >> Yeah. So that we'll get another update then and the subcommittee for finance continues to meet and go over the smaller work orders and all the prog progress continues.
Professor Mike, as members of the committee, anything to add? >> No. >> No. It's progressing. >> It look like a building. >> Yeah. >> And it'll be about a year from this week
when kids are scheduled to enter the building. >> Oh, and they did notify the project management team that the board would be interested in a tour at some point. >> Yeah. >> So, he's got that. >> All right. Next item is correspondence. We have three items of correspondence
and I want to make one comment. Um Verizon, I am a Verizon customer and you know it is incredible. First off, I don't watch much TV other than local access stuff like us and then sports and
some news. I don't watch much regular stuff but a lot of sports and Verizon is not carrying Fox and Fox carries the NFL >> and oh my god the impact on my life. So
I went out my wife told me on December 15 because I said you know NFL's on a box I'm going to miss games. No you're not. They'll be right back. They'll negotiate a settlement before the first game. Well, the first weekend went by, I
didn't I didn't watch a Fox Sports uh football. The following week came up and sure enough, the Patriots are on Fox, so I went out and bought myself an onair television antenna. I'm like living in
the 70s and I hooked it up to my TV and I have to watch Fox TV. But the point is, I know I'm not alone because I've seen a lot of comments online. I've seen a lot of comments not only from mayor people but from people all over this is ridiculous
>> that you know you buy cable and you can't get your local >> local channels because they're arguing with one another over finances it's ridiculous >> but I'll leave it at that u so there's three correspondents. Does anybody have any questions or comments on any of the
other ones or is there a motion >> especially this season? >> Move to accept correspondences A through C as shown. >> Second. >> Uh we'll vote. Roll call. Chris, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Jeff, >> yes.
>> Mike, >> yes. >> Yes. >> One set of minutes November 18th. Move to approve the meeting minutes of November 18, 2025 as shown and authorize the use of digital signatures if approved. >> Second. >> Any comments on those minutes? I didn't
have any. We'll vote. Chris, >> yes. >> Yeah. Jeff, >> yes. >> Mike, >> yes. >> And I'm a yes. >> Okay. Town administrator report. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I already mentioned a couple of things. The insurance advisory committee meeting. I'm going to ann 351 annual conference
at the end of uh January. continue with negotiations with various unions. I thought it was uh I thought it was um uh kind of a great gesture that um Harvey, who happens to be our trash technician collector as as referenced earlier this evening um provided uh donations of toys
and bikes to um the manor PD and DPW. That was great. And then uh DPW's been busy so as we all have. It's the holidays or past the holidays now. Um, I thought it was a great turnout um, uh, at the senior brunch and DPW was there to sort of like interact and and go over
water water bills with the seniors. That was wonderful. And you can see some of the other projects that DPW is up to. So, we're always busy. Um, I also want to take this opportunity to speak to the uh, complications with the recent tax bill. So, um, although I was on vacation, my staff did reach out to me
and I contacted the the the select board about this, but just sort of like make it give like an opportunity, never never a bad thing to overcommunicate. So, as as the message says on our website and in the mailings and hyperreach and etc. Um, uh, although town hall does take
ownership, the the error was with other printing companies. So, we've been using the same printing company for many years, a lot of towns do. Um although that being said, the responsibility does fall to town staff and so the printing company creates the proof and town staff does approve those proofs before it's released. And we and we missed that
there was a miscalculation. They added they gave fourth quarter bills instead of third quarter bills, but they included third quarter bill as if it was late. So a lot of people were very confused about that. >> Just step through that last sentence again for me just so I understand it. >> Yeah. Yeah. So the the bill that
everyone got showed the fourth quarter what you owe for the fourth quarter and it showed you had not paid third quarter. >> So it showed you were late. You were you missed a quarter's worth of tax bill even though this is only third quarter. You should have just gotten third quarter
>> and how is that the how did the printer make the mistake numbers come from >> that part? Well originally from us we get they get the they get the bill file. Why they did for the quarter I'm not sure. So, our treasure collector's office had a contact the owner of our of our printer and and and sort of
identified where the error was and the printer apologized so to speak and gave I can't I wasn't there but I don't remember what I don't know what the words were said but they recognized the issue they took some responsibility for it and they issued a correction by the way um I believe more than half of
mortgages are paid by the banks so this really only speaks and that those files are correct so the digital files were were not an error this is transfer of money happened that was incorrect based on >> this is just people in their mailbox got the wrong bill. >> It's weird to see the phrase the
calculation error done by the printing company, right? Because the calculation should all be >> initially from us. You're correct. And so and so I don't that's a good question. I sat down with the treasury collector's office trying to make sure this doesn't happen again as as she is also very like distraught about this.
This is this is >> it sounds like a date p the wrong date was put in >> that in all likelihood >> but it could be any number of things but >> right um either way it can happen again and so and there's there's there's that sort of like oversight that now needs to
be assured about happening um so right so there's there's uh so that's the case I mean we're we're we're sort of doubling down on on our on our checks and balances from now on >> yeah my my point was in the communication what residents have pointed out and I agree is the printer
is not doing the calculation. So there's some sort of language mix up in that sentence. The calculation error by the printing company or was it they they grabbed the wrong numbers which is not a calculation error. And I know it's >> I think it's a latter. I think they did grab the wrong numbers. >> So right so it makes it sound like our printer's doing the math which is not
true. They're not doing it wrong. So we should and most of the messaging has gone out so it's it's a little late for this but anywhere where it's still posted the website remove that phrasing. It's not that they made a calculation error, it's that they grabbed the wrong numbers or they they printed the wrong >> I'll get clarification on that. I I can
see that point. I think you're right. The data comes from us. They show the wrong data. It almost seems to me um that and it you know it gets confusing when here we are we're in January and we're releasing you know a third quarter
uh tax which you'd think January should be first quarter but because of the fiscal year never um that it's very possible and I don't know I'm not suggesting that this happened and it did it's just an honest human error somebody said oh this must be the fourth
quarter said thou please issue fourth quarter invoice and the computer gets it and says, "Okay, fourth quarter invoice. Oh, third quarter was never paid. You owe third quarter as well." That's what it almost seems like. And my my issue
here is that uh never want to, you know, you want to have at work they used to call it autopsy without blame where you sort of take a look at what happened. You don't put it point any fingers. Nobody's getting in trouble over it. you just make sure that whatever went wrong, you make sure that it doesn't happen
again. And I think we I think we've taken action to make sure that that's the case. I think the residents, the ones that are upset are saying we want to be absolutely sure that this isn't going to happen again, and you never can because we're human. Um, but I think
that it is likely that this will not happen again. I agree. >> Because of the uh the review that's being done in the process that's speaking. >> That's all correct. >> Chris, any questions on that topic? >> No.
>> I might suggest a clerical instead of a calculation error, which >> I think would be more in line with with what actually happened and less confusing for an already confusing situation for people reading the communication. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Again, >> does that assign blame to individuals?
No, I'm just I'm just the I'm just what I don't want people is to assume that the the printer was doing the math, right? Which was not true. And I just want to make sure that that is not adding to the >> confusion. Um and it doesn't need to point out even who made the error. I think I think >> I am the chief administrative officer.
So I did have a sit down with the team about this just to kind of because I do take ownership over it even though I'm not generally involved with this. But I was also asking very similar questions like where where did what what happened? What where did what went wrong in this? This is the first time in eight years and we get four tax bills. So like this
is I'm this is a marvelous sort of experience but it's important to sort of review and and how we could sort of like resolify fine and then um but at the same time as Justin was kind of alluding to how like all all hands on deck for the DPW team similar with town hall and people come into town hall they're
asking for help about tacticals we try to a lot of people seeing Greg this week and trying to and asking Greg like I don't understand what's this mean how do I also there's a little silver lining because people are getting the phone calls and now they want to get these phone calls when other notices like how do you sign up stuff on the website? So,
there's actually an advantage to this. Um I don't I don't need to like I didn't I was hoping it wouldn't have to come at this like at this cost where people are confused. But again, it's also like a small portion of tax of taxpayers that are confused because a lot of people don't I don't even know how many of you even saw the tax bill because if your
banks pay it, you don't see it. Yeah, I saw it and even though I'd seen the notice, I opened it up and I had I actually appreciate some of the humor that some people have put in that I ran into a person at the supermarket
who said, "I want to thank you for my $6,000 tax bill." And you know, essentially it's double what they're expecting to pay. Now, one other question on it. Do you was there interest factored into that?
for >> like an error fee. It doesn't really matter. I'm just I'm picking up my own kind of if there was uh you know how if you have a late fee. Um >> yeah, but that's all Yeah, that's fair. I'll I'll I'll check it.
>> Um and it is correct from what I understand. I have not gone on the website to look at the the detailed data on the assessor's page. The assessor's page is correct. Yeah, the data right is correct. It just was the wrong >> just it just seems like they said print
quarter four and >> I think that's something to that effect. So, >> so thank you for the time to >> Yeah, appreciate appreciate the the openness and the transparency about it. And I think when things like this happen from my perspective, as I said to you
the day that the whole thing went out, uh remember our responsibility is communication and getting the communication out as to what happened as soon as possible so that people don't get really upset about it. And I think we've been able to uh >> to control that in many ways. I think
people understand it and I think people appreciate, hey, it was an error. It happened. We saw it quickly and we addressed it. >> There you go. >> I Oh, uh I think that's all I have for my T report unless you have questions. >> Okay.
>> All right. U for the chair report. I don't think I have much. Um, Greg and I are going to be meeting with the leadership team of the superintendent and we apparently scheduled for yes tomorrow Thursday and
I have a work conflict and the name is rescheduled to tomorrow and I can't make it tomorrow either. So it's going to be next week uh where I assume we'll discuss the budget uh that you brought up earlier. >> That's a good idea >> part of the topic.
>> Yes. So we'll hear what's going on. Um but other than that I I think I want to echo again the comment u that I made the customers here relative to two things. One the um condition of our roads in these conditions that we've seen over
the last several weeks I think have been excellent. Um I don't think the managed roads are and I think they're in much better shape than the other some of the other roads that I that I travel on. This morning I felt ice underneath my tires. As soon as I got out of sub, I
did not feel that in Main. Um, and I also do again want to express condolences to everybody on staff who uh knew Marie Miranda and um had opportunity to know her and work with
her etc. Um she was a wonderful woman who um did a lot of work. be our first planning board and um she was their uh their secretary essentially doing minutes and whatever. She worked through the planning department and then moved
on into the DPW and was the face of the DPW for many many years and many in town knew her and uh got to know her expertise and her kindness. So, it's a tremendous loss and my condolences and I think all of our condolences go out to
her family and loved ones. So >> Mike, >> uh the only thing that came to mind and I I have enough faith in our fire and police departments to know that this hopefully isn't a problem in Mayan, but the uh one of the challenges with that
fire and the Swiss bar was uh uh it's coming out that apparently there had been no inspections for years. So, um I I just feel it appropriate to um to seek to make sure that that isn't a problem
that affects mainland. Um I don't suppose it is, but just the the horror of that event and how easily it could have been avoided with proper inspections and proper enforcement of um regulations.
um just just brought that to mind and um so I I hope that that isn't an issue. I I trust our institution. It's just something that came to mind. >> It's difficult to the main argument that Angela makes for a deputy director. >> That's correct.
>> She's not able to keep up with >> she categorizes all of it as >> that's correct. Should we do the regular like for license renewals we'll building permits etc. Um, but you really want to be consistent and and sort of stay on top of it. So, thank you for bringing it up.
>> That incident was so reminiscent of the station nightclub when you see the fire and the way it spread and how it spread, everything else is amazing. And maybe you recall the station nightclub was dramatic in changing some of the laws relative to how uh installation is done.
>> Well, yeah, it's a combination of institutional shortcomings and then blatant stupidity in the moment. Yep. Um >> another another um episode of pirate technics indoors. >> That's what it sounds like. Yeah.
>> Who runs around with with champagne bottles with like flares coming out? >> They did. >> 16 year olds. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> That's I think also part of the problem. >> Anything else, Mike? >> N for me. Happy New Year everybody. Yes.
>> Nothing for me. Happy New Year. Chris. Oh, >> I'm good, thanks. Happy New Year. >> All right. Is there a motion? >> I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second. >> Do a roll call. Chris. >> Yes. >> Lindsay. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Yes.
>> And I have a yes. Very good. >> Thank you everybody.