Miss Oh, good. Paul, present. Mark, here. Jack, no. Maryanne, yes. Deb, yes. Josh, here. Thank you. Dan, yes, sir.
Amy, present. Here. Oh, there you are. Uh, Stephanie, I am here, but having trouble. I hope you can hear me. Uh, we can now. Yes. Great. Yes. Much better. Much better. Uh Linda Holton will be joining us, but probably not till 7:30. Um Christa
Silva, I did not see him on. Okay, with all that said, let's read the statement. Uh this over meeting of the senior senate committee is being uh conducted remote only this evening.
Speakers on the agenda may also be participating remotely and the chair may allow the public to provide comments after the agenda is completed. If a member of the public wishes to speak, please raise your hand on your computer and when called upon, please state your
name for the meeting minutes. The senior senate committee would welcome public comments and if there is excuse me any further action that is required by the committee. The clerk will add the matter as appropriate to the forthcoming agenda. Depending upon
the comment the committee may if they are able within the confines of the open meeting law respond with information as opposed to needing to deliberate on the matter. Please note that while an option for remote attendance and or participation is being provided as a
courtesy to the public, the meeting will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast to individual attendees unless otherwise required by law. Accordingly, please be aware that
other folks may be able to see you. So, please take care not to screen share your computer. Anything that you broadcast may be captured by the recording. The end. Um, going to the agenda. First item on
the agenda is approval of the uh meeting minutes from our last meeting which was April 3rd. I did not receive anything back and I don't know if Dan did. Uh, does anybody have any corrections that
are burning your gut that we need to make changes to? Sounds like the meeting minutes are okay. They look good to me. Uh, by roll call. Uh, oh, I know. Sorry, got out of step. Could I have a motion, please, to
and then a second also to approve the minutes of the April 3rd meeting? I make a motion to accept the minutes from the April 3rd meeting. Second.
Who was the second? Jack. Okay. Thanks, Jack. Jack. Uh, Mary. Yeah. Thank you, Paul. I was absent, so I must abstain. Okay, that's fine. That's fine. Mark, I did it
today. I saw Mark's mouth move, but he's still on mute, but I think he said yes. Jack, sorry. Yes, Maryanne. Yes. Deb, yes. I'm a yes. Josh, I will
abstain. Yeah, you were not in. Thank you. Dan, yes. Amy, yes. Stephanie, yes. Yeah. And Linda was not here. Okay. So, now we can get to the
agenda. So, the agenda tonight is relatively concise and short. It's actually one item to discuss the senior center committee draft presentation for the May town meeting. We talked about this last week. Thank
you. Everybody on this committee is aware that uh we are going to present at the town meeting in support of the council on aging um and the desire to get a lease and they get the financing for the lease. Um that is going to
happen with two articles. Uh I'm not going to try to explain the two articles because I think Jack and a few others might be a lot more uh skilled at explaining that than I am. But what I wanted to go through tonight was
um several of us got together and Josh sort of got nominated as the person to be the spokesperson for the senior center committee. Um Jack as you had we had talked about last week or two weeks ago
uh had done a draft of uh six slides. Uh we didn't have the slides up the last meeting, but we kind of talked to the slides. Josh has taken those slides, made some edits, and uh that's what I think either Dan or
Josh just put them up now. So, I'm going to turn this over to Josh and let Josh kind of walk through these slides and then we can ask questions along the way. Oh, sound okay? Yep. Yes. Go ahead, Josh. Thank you, Jerry. Um, so people
can jump right in anytime. Um, it's not a long presentation. I'm also I'm on vacation in Maine, so uh, the internet will occasionally fade out, but only for a second or two. So, um, so the first slide, and thank you to Jack. Jack put all of this together. Um, I really just
focused on a couple minor tweaks and then, uh, a different ending, and we'll get a sense from the the group what folks think. But, um, these first couple slides are pretty kind of textbook. Um, obviously we have to populate the article number. Uh, and I'll read this
out uh to see if the town will authorize the select board to enter into a lease agreement for for the property located at 141 Parker uh Maynard for the purpose of a senior center for a term not to exceed 20 years on such terms and uh the
select board deem most advantageous to the town uh to do or act thereon. Yeah. Um Josh, there's there's a typo in there. The terms as the and should be an as. Thank you. It felt a little weird
reading that. Yeah. The other thing that um the first and it's a little confusing about how this works out. The this slide should now be the second slide or perhaps the last slide because
the order according to the draft thing at the last select board meeting is they're going to go for the money first. Article 8 and then article nine will be authorizing the lease. Okay, that works. I think uh I think at
the end makes sense then. Yeah, if that works for everybody else. Yes, we'll double back. We'll double back to that slide in a sec. Um all right, so thank you, Jack. Uh so our new slide one would be the one that we're looking at here. And we do need to get
the article number in there. Uh all right. So, this is going to be a contingent budget for Council on Aging to see if the town will vote yes to raise and appropriate the following amounts from the tax levy for fiscal year 2026 for the operating and
programming of the Council on Aging contingent upon passage of a Proposition 2 and a half ballot question under under general laws chapter 59 section 21C. Uh, I won't read through all of this,
but it's $200,000. So, it's important that we all agree on that number because after after today, uh, it uh it would be difficult to change. And then, Jack, on the fin recommendation, when would that get
populated? Do you know? I do not know. I know they have a deadline, but I don't know what it is. I can I I can answer when they're going to populate it. I don't know, but I can answer what they did. Uh, Linda will be on about 7:30 tonight, but she sent me a note today uh
that when they met this week, Fincom approved the lease and the override 70 100% approval on both articles. Yippee. Okay. So, we got their support. And I think it's tradition
that the head of the committee that's involved or the individual if it's a citizen petition does get notified like Jerry just said, but that it may not be widely
advertised until the very last minute. Okay. And that's okay as long as we know and you know we can sort of address the issue with the slides forever. Go ahead Josh. Awesome. Thank you. All right. That's getting out
getting the kind of formal stuff out of the way. Now we're going to move into the meat and potatoes. So uh slide two serving our seniors. It's time for a new senior center. Um, and just so folks understand kind of how I'm thinking about this the at least for presenting that night, I'm going to go through the
presentation and then at the end of this article, I'm going to give my kind of impassion speech. Um, and then we'll take up I'm less worried about the the authorization for lease because if we get through if folks support $200,000 and putting that on the ballot, I'm going to I'm going to go out on a limb
and say they'll probably support allowing us to enter into a lease agreement. So, um, I figure my impassion speech will go at the end of this and then we'll take up the next article. Um, all right. So, serving our seniors, it's time for a new senior center. Um, so number one, Maynard has
been seeking a permanent senior center for more than four decades. Number two, Maynard has well over 3,000 citizens 60 or older. So, question for the group. Do we want to get really specific?
I think we should. Okay. Okay. The number is 3,332. Did you check to see if anybody uh had a birthday in the last couple days, Jack? No, I didn't. By the by the way, um I went to town hall and got this and nothing to do with
the slide, but what town hall came back with is 3,332 against a population of 10,286. We are at 32.99%. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
Yeah, that's good, Josh. Impressive. That is impressive. Yeah. It also tells me we need to have more kids, but that's another story for another night. That's up to you, Josh. I'm doing my part.
All right. Uh the next one, number three. Current center at 1,200 square feet is too small, remote, and accessible, and the building is deteriorating. Number four, greater than 98% of the more than 750 attendees at the October
2023 town meeting voted to support funding a larger senior center. So, the other thing I should say is that I don't plan on reading these to the the audience. I'm going to use these as cues. Um I I like to just let it flow. Um, you know, I'm going to point at the
audience and say it was not too long ago at one of the the largest turnouts for town meeting that you all overwhelmingly supported um, you know, addressing our senior center. And while, you know, tonight we're asking for you to to follow through with that um, and we
would love your support to fund it. Um, I think it it rang true loud and clear the last time we were together that Maynard supports our seniors. I think that's good, Josh. Yeah. Awesome. Um, number five, select board formed and
charged a senior center committee in December of 2023. So, this I'm going to between this and the next one. I'm going to kind of wrap this all together to make sure that people understand because I don't want first of all, I don't want people thinking that I'm I'm a lone wolf out there. I want to make sure they
understand that there's a large amount of people who've been working on this for a long time that we have the Council on Aging. We have the senior center focus group. I believe we have the senior center committee and then we have all kinds of people who are just big advocates. Um I'm not missing any groups
there, right? No. Okay, good. Um, so and I I also think this uh this might be the point at which I talk about and there might be another slide where I talk too, but I want to make sure people understand that our our role as a senior center committee is to help, you know,
kind of get this thing going and off its feet. But then we're going to turn this over to the Council on Aging because they are the authoritative body that that programs and and kind of manages this this uh this entity. So, um, I want to make sure that folks know that that's
that's going to be a transition coming. Yep. Go ahead. Go ahead, Dan. Item number two. Um I think I saw a previous presentation that said Maynard has well over 3,000 citizens or something like that and now there's a
specific number. 3332. Was that as of a certain date? Yeah, Jack just went door to door and counted. Okay. So, so perhaps it should say Maynard has
3332 citizens as of whatever date. Three days ago. It it No, I don't need to say that. I don't think so. But you can't you can't say well over and have a specific number. I mean, it Oh, oh, oh. Yep.
Good. It's either well over 3,000 or it's something else, but you can't say. Yeah. Thank you. Yep. So, so how really how old is that information? Three. The quote from town hall as of the most recent census information which
was delivered to my inbox April 14th. Census 2020. No, it's the town census. Census. Oh, okay. 25. All right. So, that's fine. I mean, we probably don't have to
add any more words there. Um, and and just the building is deteriorating. I mean, I know it's just a a nitpick, but while we're talking, no, I don't mind that at all. Keep in mind, I'm going to be showing this to hundreds of residents, so nitpick away. Okay. That
what what, Mary? the current the current senior center the the current senior center. But we're not that's what we're already talking about. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Very good. I have a question or a thought. Go ahead. One or the other. Um I'm wondering if if when we say the current center at 1,200 square f feet is
too small if we should put what the recommended what the state recommended size would be. Some people might not think 1,200 square feet is too small is my concern. I would personally stay away from it because it takes you off down a track
when you try to throw in well you know four to five square feet per senior and we really should have 13,000. I'm just my personal opinion. Yeah, it's it's it's a bit of a trap because if I'm being honest, the um the
the the 141 Parker is too small based on the state guidelines by by a large amount. Now, it's significantly larger than what you have now. And I think it's going to be a great solution for many to come. Um, but this is one where when I'm
reading this, I can add lib a little bit. Like for instance, I know right off the top of my head that this works out to about six square inches per senior. Um, that just intuitively sounds wrong, too. I think almost anybody would understand that six square inches. And I'll hold my hands up and show people
like that's that's not that's not adequate. Okay. And I could even I you know if folks think it's it's good I could even mention the four to five square feet per senior. Um yeah somebody could do have them figure it out from there but I think they would understand if I say
that we're at six square inches right now and we should be at you know four to five square feet. People get it. But we'll see how the night goes too. I'll read the room a bit. So, so the other thing too though, Josh, is if you just stated that the new
center is going to be x times larger than the existing center is one way of saying it. The the only reason why I I agree with you about not going with what the state sort of recommends because we be at 15,000 something square feet and there are some people in town already
that are questioning why are we going for this? Why aren't we just building the senior center? Yep. you know, for another million dollars or so. Well, that million dollars is not the right number, but and it's a number of years, but this is so much larger than what we
have right now without getting into what the state recommends per senior. That's my thought. Okay, Jackie, don't don't lose sight of the fact this slide is looking backwards. You don't want to start mixing this slide with, hey, the
future is going to be true. This is establishing credibility, need, history, so forth and so on. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Uh, all right, Jack. Somebody's
calling. All right. Uh, I think I kind of covered these last two, so let's jump to the next one. Uh, progress to date. So, oops. I don't know what that is. Get rid of that. Um, all right. Progress to
date, senior center makeup. Uh, so this is where I can talk about our representation. Uh, I me, you know, I'll mention the different groups that we have a broad, you know, kind of smattering of people from different parts of the community, um, with different interests, uh, that are
representing different groups. So, I think that that's that's that's going to be great. And I can even this is where I can mention I'm, you know, here I am. I'm 44 years old. I'm not a senior yet, but this is important to me because it needs to be something that's important to the community.
Um, let's see. Uh, the senior center committee kind of I can go over the the steps. We've had 20 meetings. Uh, we've had select board presentation. We issued an RFI or a request for information. Um, trying to to figure out if you what
options we might have out there for lease. Um, and it indicated that we have some options um, and some opportunities at manageable costs. Yep. Dan, go ahead. I'm sorry. It's another minutia thing.
I'm just reminded last October when Jack's presentation was being worked on, um, we we discussed whether select board is one root, one word like this or two words with a capital S and a capital B.
and and I think the previous slide had can can we go look at the previous slide for a minute? It's two words capitalized. Okay. So, yeah, it's two different ways in that slide and Maryanne gets credit for that. Just she saw it. Um but it triggered that thought
that you know what I I know that legally it could be said as one word but um yeah. All right. Thanks. Perfect. Thank you. All right, Josh. One of the things that I flagged in some of my emails, you
can address it from the podium, but all the acronyms are going to be mud for the audience. So, the question becomes, do we spell them all out and then have to explain, you know, request for information, request for a proposal, senior senate
committee, COA, TM, the rules traditionally that you spell them out the first time. it appears and then you don't need to do it for the rest of the presentation. Yep. Just you you all don't have to watch me do that. I will uh I will
update that accordingly. Okay. Um All right. Um the next one I wanted to double check on this language because if that Jack clarified that there were two options submitted by um the the
market. Yeah, exactly. Um, so I want to make sure that this reads clear to that this will read clear to the community. So, select board authorized RFP with guidance from the Council on Aging. Um, responses confirmed, three possible
options. Uh, and by the way, I'm saying RFP in this meeting. When it's town meeting, I will I'm going to say it all the way out all for all of these acronyms. Um, responses confirm three possible options. So, I think most people in the
community right now are thinking there are two options um or that there were two options. I understand there's three. Do I say three and do I explain it? Do we say two locations? Suggestion responses were received from
two vendors or whatever the the board is. Yeah, there there were two responders. That was it. One off at two locations, one off at one location. Yeah, that's good. There were two responses. Yeah,
two responses. And that way there we don't get into Oh, what's the third one? Yeah. We don't have to We don't want to get down that rabbit hole. Jury's house. That's fine.
Uh separate request for proposal evaluation group selected the best option. Oops, sorry about that. Uh proposed funding would be part of the council on aging budget and the lease agreement terms and
cost reach contingent on funding approval by town meeting or town meeting voters. Um and I'll explain, you know, I'll explain a couple things here. I'm going to um get a little further into uh the kind of what types of things the
evaluation committee would be looking at whether it be you know what are the terms of the lease what are the cost factors you know what is the space that's offered how does it you know kind of conform to a senior center so those will be I'll I'll I'll just I'll add lib some of that in there um and then same
thing with uh when we get to the lease agreement just going to explain it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation Um, we have a solid proposal uh that that we very much support, but the final details need to get worked out once uh the town meeting authorizes it and uh
ultimately the the residents vote on it and then town manager uh will take it from there. Uh nail down the details and we'll be off to the races. Would it help to have a comma after reached? No, excuse me. Let let me override you
because this is a conversation I had with the town administrator specifically. I was trying to find out with Greg. Greg, will you be done with the negotiations in order for us to make a statement at town meeting that said an
agreement has been reached? And he said no. Don't don't get into that level of certainty. So this line needs to be changed. The lease agreement is scratch reached put in is And that sets up the ongoing discussion that you were trying to get to, Josh. It
said, "Folks, you know, we we can negotiate all we want, but unless the voters Got it. Perfect. All right, next slide. So, senior center lease 141 Parker Street and I'll while I'm up there, I'll explain um looking
you're looking back towards Market Basket and uh you know Parker Street right right here. Dunkin Donuts off to the right. I'm not going to make a joke about people cutting through. Um it's been really bad, I tell you.
Uh so dedicated 5,590 square ft uh which is about five times what uh the the current senior center offers uh on the ground floor of the existing building. Uh it's going to be finished to the council on aging
guided senior center needs. It includes uh user and council on aging van parking uh at ground level. It is ADA compliant as well. has a large multi-purpose room, two classrooms, a kitchen, private offices for counseling, uh, reception
area, and storage. Uh, question. Do we want to throw in on that second bullet? Um, the the RFP required 35 parking places. sitting aside the vans for a moment. Is that a
thing important enough that we want to point out that there will be 35 parking places? Anybody got a opinion? Don't think so, Jack. But that's my opinion. Yeah, I would agree. I I I think I think
the word sufficient or ample parking uh ample level ample level parking it's I I think people happy with that adequate yeah parking yeah adequate is a good
word yep sufficient I I think covering it even under adequate is appropriate because one of the things that keeps getting mentioned at the current place is there's parking issues, you know, in the summer, yada yada yada. So, good.
Yeah, good point. You said parking twice. Van parking user and COA B. The adequate really goes to the word user somehow. And I don't you may need to monkey around with the words there. Yeah.
Yeah. Yep. You can sort that out later. Yep. I'm gonna just highlight this. I can I just put adequate above the after the van parking user and COA van parking. Oh,
adequate parking. Yes, adequate user and COA van parking. I think yes, adequate parking for users and COA van. Yeah, perfect. All right. Includes adequate user and COA van parking. Ground level ADA
compliant. Okay. Yep. Perfect. All right. Yeah. Get rid of the semicolon. Yep. Not unless something follows it. Not unless somebody has something to add. I don't think
so. No. Uh, a detail again in that second bullet. ground level. The intent was level ground can draw the contrast between having to climb up to get to the right. Oh, see it's interesting. The way I read that,
Jack, was it is on the ground floor uh which is a benefit as well, but Yep. I think both are important. How about ground floor? Ground floor level parking area. Something like that. I
don't know. Level sight. Good level. That's good. Yep. Yep. Perfect. Okay. And this is where I really want some input because I want to make sure that I didn't hit too hard on this. So, I will read this to you. And my intent
is that this is the slide that would stay up while I'm giving my impassion speech. Um, I'll read through this to the group and then then I'll jump right into my speech. But, um, so senior center funding, what are you voting on tonight? A yes vote. A majority yes vote will allow these items to be placed on
Actually, I'm going to have to change that, right, Jack? Because it's just one article. Yep. Yeah, I'm going to have to rewrite this then. Okay. Um I will work on this, but uh so I'll read it as it as it stood. A majority yes vote will allow this item
to be placed on the ballot so voters can decide if they are willing to authorize the town to sign a lease up of up to 20 years at an annual cost of $200,000 and at an annual individual taxpayer cost of roughly $50 a year based on the average
assessed home value in Maynard. These funds will provide an appropriate senior center for the We'll get specific here. 3,332 seniors in Maynard. So, that is the yes. And again, I'll clean that up so
that it's referencing just the the one article. Uh, a no vote. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Um, do we want to get picky again, the current 3,332 seniors or just leave it as 333? Yeah, whatever. because that's going to still go up for
a while. Yeah, it works. It didn't change the formatting, so I'll I'll I'll take it. All right. Um, a no vote, a majority no vote will prevent the voters of Maynard from being able to vote to express if they are willing to fund a new senior
center. This would result in the current aging, failing, inaccessible, undersized, and inappropriate locker room to continue to be used as a senior center for the more than well for the Yeah, that's fine.
Well, it'll wrap to another line. You may not have to say current twice. Um, I have I have a a thing to say about the locker room. I think Christa Silva would not appreciate us saying that word. He's actually who I got it from.
Oh, because I've said that to him and he's saying, "Don't ever call it a locker room anymore." Yeah. It's funny. He said it at the uh meeting in the library the other night. Referenced it locker room. Um Okay. So I I thought honestly Deb that's the one piece of
this where I felt it was a little strong but I don't know what that's where I did keep my golf clubs for many years. Um folk is right. I was at that meeting. Chris is the one who actually described
it in public at a meeting held there were about 130 people total online and in person and Chris called it the locker room. Um well I'm shocked whether we use it or not you know is is you know our decision to make. It's fine with me. He
was always he always bristled when I would say that. So now that maybe he's accepted it. So as a backup plan the word would be facility if you had to change locker room. Is that what you would say?
No. The point was the senior center is in what used to be the locker room. That's right. So, it's not I think we should just leave it. Yep. Okay. Agreed. Okay, Josh, I have two comments here.
Great. Um, I I sent you a note. The in the no vote thing, the first paragraph I think you could take out because it is technically incorrect. Okay. Um, and let me back up and cover
some other things. If people haven't looked at the select board stuff, the vote date for the ballot vote has already been set. It'll be May 27th. So, it's like eight days after the thing. So, that the article is going to appear
on that ballot anyway. And under override kind of procedures, even if town meeting turned it down. So, one, the vote will be held anyway. Even if town meeting turned it down, if the popular vote said yes, you
can do it, the town can call another town meeting and go back and revisit the town meeting vote. So it's technically not exactly correct. So that the even if you vote no, it is going to be on an existing
ballot. Now the second comment I have here um the last line in in both sides is the same. Do we need to be repetitive or is that a point we want to hammer
home? That's Can we table that for one sec? So um you're you're Thank you very much. You're you're as always right, Jack, on um the the process from a vote standpoint. So, how do I explain what the no vote is? Because I don't want to stand up there and say, "Folks, believe
it or not, you have no authority in this." So, it doesn't really matter how you vote. I don't think that would go over very well. Yeah. Um, we might have to do a little work, but um, if you vote
no, what you're really saying is I don't know. I I wouldn't want to get into it from the stage. What I just went through that says, "Hey, there's going to be a ballot anyway, and you know, there'll be another chance to revisit it." some of it.
May maybe just a a less defined sentence. A no vote would Yes. I'm sorry. I've got other noise in the room. Yes. Uh a no vote would cause the risk that we might end
up staying in the current status quo. I sorry I got a lot of distraction going on. Um but without saying anything that's legally binding or referring to a particular voting event. Yeah, just some sort of general wording. Um let me let
me pick up Dan's comment. Um a no vote would force us to stay in the current aging failing yada yada yada.
Yep. Correct. or would would force continued use of. Yep. We don't need a state of lot at that point. That that makes the statement right there. Yeah. So, is it So, we've already talked about the size. It was too small. It's an old locker
room. You vote no. That's where they stay. That's it. So, Josh, it would be a no vote would force continued usage of the current aging failing, yada yada yada. Well, let me just uh play devil's
advocate. Okay, somebody might say, "I'm not forcing you to continue to use it. I'm just not going to pay more so that you can go elsewhere. The town should find another facility to move you to. Let me read this and let me know if it if it works for you. A no vote would indicate that you would prefer to
maintain the current aging, failing, inaccessible, undersized, and inappropriate locker room to continue to be used as a senior center for the current 3,332 seniors in Maynard. No, I think that's I would say
uh it's too long, but I wanted to add something like as we've already evaluated all other town- owned properties and there are no other spaces for uh an appropriate senior center. But that's way too long a sentence. Yeah. And I don't know that we want to
go there because I, you know, I I I know there's still a number of people in town who are still complaining, well, why are we tearing the whole the entire old Green Meadow school down? Why aren't we keeping a portion of that and having that be the senior center? It's
as you have to say, asbestos. Correct. But I I guess what I'm trying to say is I'd like to see us try to avoid uh making a statement that brings that into play. To your point, Josh, you
know, you know, we looked and we didn't find any other town facilities appropriate. Or somebody might say, well, we can keep part of the building, take all the aspesas out of it, put a new roof on it, new entry. You know, things could be done for some number of
millions. I' I'd rather we didn't get into that discussion because it's it won't go well there. There's if I can interject there's Yep. The
question has come up. I received a question through the Jerry and I received a question through the SEC's mailbox, the public mail email box. And the the person who was writing
the questions was basically in favor of why don't we just go build a new one and get everything we need now? And and I think that question probably is better being handled verbally from the floor and from you
standing up on the stage than trying to articulated in a slide because there are too many rabbit holes that could be gone down. If you put something on a slide, then someone's going to ask another question. Um, but just be ready for that question. I think Josh, we had email on
this already where I forwarded you that. Um, so it's probably better to have this just kind of shiny and tight like you've got it now instead of trying to answer every conceivable question.
You're right, Dan. Yep. Address it verbally, not in writing on here. Um, let me add a little bit to that. Again, not for the context of, you know, Josh trying to fiddle with the words here. At the Tuesday meeting, there was
an individual after hearing about the $200,000 did the mental gymnastics and say, "Hey, you know, five-year lease, that's a million dollars. Why don't we just buy a building?" the same that's the same person the same person that spoke at the town hall and
also in the email just to close loop on that. Okay. Yeah. And I actually um I went the distance with him on social media too. I believe he is I believe I have resolved all of his questions. I think I got him on board. Um but I welcome him asking all those questions
again at town meeting. I can do that. I think Josh, I think you did handle that very well with him online. Yeah. No, and they were they were good questions. You it was a cordial conversation and those were very intelligent questions that people should be asking. Yes.
Um, back to what you're working on here, Josh, on the yes vote thing. I really react a yes vote would suggest. I mean, a yes vote is not a suggesting. A yes vote says you support indicates your support.
Yeah. Take out wood. Yeah. Nice. Yep. Now another thing that comes in here is do we want to make any indication relative to
um the ballot which is going to follow on May 27th in the sense of okay yes vote indicates your support for an increase in property taxes and validates a well this gets confusing so
maybe not what I was headed for was validates the ballot vote which will take place on May 27th or something like that. I mean, I'm trying to introduce because some people still won't understand that this is a two-step process. There's a town meeting vote
tonight and it has to be approved in a townwide vote, you know, on May 27th. I don't think this is the slide you should use it for, though, Jack. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. because this is what they're voting on tonight. It says at the top.
Yeah. Then maybe at the end of the whole presentation. Yeah, that's fair. Yep. Yeah, that would be a good one. Almost like a reminder slide or next step slide. Okay. Yeah, next steps is perfect. Well,
okay. Let let me The sequence as it's currently set up and I assume it'll stay there. Article eight is vote for an override for a senior center. Article nine is authorize the lease for the senior center. Article 10 is the override vote for the
schools. So somewhere in that process there's I suspect going to be reminders of hey folks there's a you know a ballot vote coming. Did you say, Jack, did you say nine is for the money and eight is for the lease
or the other way around? Other way around. Okay. The other way around. Thanks. I'm not writing the school one for him. Oh, come on, Josh. I'm not touching that one. Yeah. And the other and the other thing that we should probably do
is the opening slide and the closing slide which have the article things on them. We probably should close to the meeting or whatever make sure we get the accurate article language because it may get changed or whatever.
Yeah, at this point I was going to mention that as well because the language that was approved on Tuesday is slightly different than what we have. So the the draft warrant is actually on board docs from Tuesday. Um and of course that could I I think Lisa's been
through it, but I'm pretty sure it's pretty final at that at that stage. So but I can certainly get more information on that. But um yeah, the article 9 verbiage is on there and it's slightly different than this. Okay. Okay,
perfect. Um on the next steps one that that uh indicates the special election, do folks think I should have it that I should put it on this slide at the bottom or on a separate slide at the end? Um separate slide. Yeah.
Yeah, I would put a separate slide in. So, the only the only thing is and this I probably a good question for Jack who's Okay, Josh just froze. Oh, sorry. Can you hear me? There he is. He's up in Maine, that's why. Yeah.
Okay. Um, let me make a comment. Okay. Um, the way it is set up, and Steph, if it's been changed, let me know. The two articles are grouped in the sense that they're discussed together vote
separately. So both discussions will go on and then the votes will be taken separately. So that could shape where we put a slide etc etc. Given that is part of the discussion, it would probably work to
put at the end of the slide Josh has up now the what we were just talking about the you know next steps. So put it on this slide rather than having a separate slide that that
highlights next steps. That's my thought process and one of the other things that um shapes that there are again Steph current there are 45 articles there is concern that we're going to go to a twoight town
meeting now we're good at being you know 8 and nine with the schools at 10 so we're we're early but you know as a service to people who are going to be bearing on a lot butts and chairs for a long time
and I have not heard um the moderator usually has a a say so in how he's going to take that and I don't I haven't heard how he's planning on doing that yet so that's still kind of up in the air. Yeah. And and the usual in terms of
number of slides or the two night thing. Well, the the the in terms of what he takes to try to vote together and obviously he always offers us if you want to take them apart, we can, but um by vote, but um I I think that the
twoight thing may or may not happen. That's right. And we're ready for that. But um as far as the timing of these presentations, I'm hearing that he is putting a cap on the length of time that people are doing
presentations to try to quell that as well. I don't know what that timeline is at the moment. But um I I think he's also trying to do that. So that's another consideration as to like how many slides and things like that.
Yeah. Um I think it for citizen petition I've seen it from him in email to somebody who's making a citizen petition as two minutes and I saw somewhere else that for for one of the earlier ones
that the town is sponsoring it was going to be three minutes so it's going to be pretty quick. Yeah. And I I I hear you, Dan, and I know Dick tries to be very structured with the thing, but when you get into an override vote, I would be really
surprised if it's Yeah. going to put that He'll put a limit on it, but I don't think it's going to be that much. I I mean, just the opening remarks, the the the slideshow, but then there's going to be questions from the floor and that's going to have to go longer. Yeah.
Even with that, like for instance, I would be blown away if Dick tells Mayor public schools they have three minutes. Go. Right. But you know it could happen. Yeah. Given they had 27 slides at
the recent public meeting. But I will keep it quick. I actually go very quick. So actually I think a time limit plays to our advantage. Yeah. Um you know one
Josh you can walk through this pretty quickly. Yeah. You know we're discussing it tonight. That night you're just going to have it up there. You're going to talk to it and you're going to move to the next slide. You're going to keep talking. You got to move to the next slide and just keep on talking. You're
just going to keep on rolling. Yep. Now we we could end up with three people in the audience that want to ask question. We could have 33 people. That's when the moderator was going to hop in I think after a certain number of people and say
you know that's the next two that's it. I I think so I think you know condensing things down I think is going to play to our advantage. Otherwise, if it was a short town meeting, there were only, you know, 12 articles, uh, you could have 30 people
up asking questions and that would not be to our benefit long term. Okay. So, the action item here for the first and last slides is to get accurate warrant article language. Yep.
I froze for a brief second there. So, we want it on this slide. The the uh special election date. Um I think you want recommending isn't that what you were recommending, Jack, to put that up on the on the Well,
the the whole thing I was pushing out and I was using the length of the town meeting as a as a envelope for us to keep pressure on making it short. Um, yes. Personally, I would put at the bottom of the slide in a separate
box, please vote tonight and you know, please support us with a yes vote tonight and at the town election, townwide election on September 27th,
but I'm one person's opinion here. No, I agree. Not September, is it? I'm sorry. It's May. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Did I say something September? Yeah, I think so.
I'm glad someone was paying attention. I was paying attention always. No, I was surprised because I thought it was going to be, you know, way out at the end of June. It was on the select board docket um this past Tuesday. It's uh May 27th,
like 8 days after the Well, I know the school committee was pushing to have it done early so that parents don't go on vacation and forget to vote. Tuesday, May 27th. Thank you.
Perfect. Um, can can you put in a hard space between May and 27th so that they aren't pulled apart from each other? Yeah, that works. Yep. Yeah. I would propose we leave this as a
separate slide for now. And if Dick wants to push it together, you know, he can. Yeah. It could work either way. Yep. It's and you know it's not going to change the speed at which I fly through this either. Nice job, Josh. Thank you. Jack did the
both of us and Jack was good. Guys did a good job. Yeah. And I'll probably make a very very brief um half kidding, half not kidding uh joke at the beginning, which is just I know we've got a massive agenda this evening and I'm going to do my best to
keep ours as short and sweet as possible and I'll roll right into it. Okay. Yeah, the school committee is going to try that too, but that's not going to work. No, it's not. Not for them. For you it will for them. It's not going to not this time. Oh, folks. Folks should
be aware the school committee has rather sharply reduced the amount of override they're going to look for. Yes. It's down to like 612,000. They saw the light. Well, it's a miracle. No, no. At at the select board meeting
the other day, the school committee finally admitted we heard the feedback at the public meeting. Yep. Go ahead. Yep. I sent a a strong email to the superintendent. Strong but respectful
email to the superintendent saying, "Which would you prefer? A failed override for 1.4 or whatever it was or a successful override at a a much more palatable uh value. So, and even with
that, I don't know if it'll be successful. This is a tough time." Well, the just just so folks are aware the insurance or whatever it was healthcare thing came in about 263,000 under.
So the basically tilted that give that to the schools school department had been proposing coming in uh at a larger number spread over two
years and a two-step kind of thing which is going to be really complicated to um explain. So I think Natasha the school folks did a common sense thing. They admitted that they were getting the feedback. They heard the feedback. They
dropped it to a single number one year. And in the end, if the 263 gets added to the 612, they get 875,000, which will still cause them to cut some people so forth and so on. But it's a much more palatable number. And there
was actually correspondence in the select board package where an individual basically said, "If it's over a million, I ain't going to vote for it." Mhm. So anyway, so that that a total that the voters will be asked for between seniors and
schools now is 812,000. Mhm. Yeah. Just uh one thing that I am going to say in the the meeting that I was it as I was looking through the presentation and I got to thinking about it. One line that I'm going to use with folks is that
I stand here before you as a 44 year old man and the fight for a senior center started before I was born and quite frankly I'm embarrassed to share that with you. Um that that needs to change that I'm also going to talk about and I
did a little bit of this on social media. You know, this community, our older adults, our seniors have supported everything from our high school to Fowler to Green Meadow to the fire station to town hall to police headquarters and all the while waiting
for their senior center. It's time. We there's we're never going to finish investing in everything that Maynard needs. So, if we're waiting for the end, the then the senior center will never come. The seniors have waited long enough and it's time. Thank you, Josh.
That's That's why I used on that slide. It's time for a new senior center. Yeah. And actually, Josh, I think it's really important. Basically, I'm saying thank you because I think it's really important for the senior community to
see you as a not yet senior up there advocating. I I think it's it it's a wonderful message in itself. Absolutely. Yep. For all people.
That's correct. And and and Josh is the biggest benefactor of the new senior center, too. I am. I'm playing the long game here. That's all. Yeah, you are. Yeah. Yeah, we can see. We can see it. We can see it. Josh. Josh. Josh, you could start off with I am enlightened. I
know I'm going to be using this. Yeah. Should should I make a motion to proclaim Josh an honorary senior as of now? Oh, we could. I'd second that motion. I would. Um, any other questions, issues
um that anybody has in the committee? Nope. Well, I think this was good. I think our next meeting. Well, that's the next thing I was going to ask, too. Next meeting technically is May 1st.
Now, are we having that meeting? Are we not having that meeting? And if we have that meeting, what are we talking about? I'm just, you know, I'm not saying don't have it, but I just want to make sure that we have a purpose for having the meeting.
I don't see any burning issues. I I don't right now either. I mean, if something comes up in the next week, we can send a note out. I'll send it out to everybody and say, "Hey, we're going to be on for for May 1st." I agree. I agree with you, Amy. You got anything you
think should be No, I think that I think everything is uh everything's is tidied up at this point. The Council on Aging Board, I think our next meeting is the second Tuesday.
Um when's the next select board meeting? The 20th Which one? 29th. 29th. 29th. April. No. No. The select board isn't meeting again until the uh 6th of Sixth of May. Sixth
of May. Okay. Okay. And then that's And then the that must be the first is that the first Tuesday? Yep. Steph, that's election day. It'll probably be the seventh, the next day. Yeah. But that's their first meeting of the month. May. Yeah. They only meet
twice a month. Oh, yep. Yeah, will be May. Yeah, it'll be the seventh. Jack, you're right. So, back to the question of SEC meeting. Do we want to pencil in the 15th with the stipulation that it might
be earlier or later depending upon the events that arise between now and then? Yeah. I don't I don't know what events would even arrive. I don't think we need to. I don't I don't think we need to. I just
say it'll be determined at a later time by Jerry. Yeah. Yeah. If if something comes up that we're gonna have to do, we'll have a meeting. That's fine. Yeah. I just don't like scheduling them and having them for the purpose of saying we had a meeting, right? You know,
everybody's busy enough. We don't need to spend any extra time. I just wanted to take a minute. I noticed that uh Linda Holt has joined the meeting. And Linda, where are you? Oh, there you are. There she is. Thank
you for joining. And I just want to say, yeah, that um finance committee will have a hearing on May 12th, one week before town meeting um on all the warrant articles. So, if anyone wanted to weigh in, I mean, we we we I I sent
to Jerry that we recommended 70 on the two articles, the lease and the override. So, um, you know, but anyway, we'll have our public hearing on our recommendations May 12th if anyone wants to sit in on that. Thank you,
Jerry. One other thing, I don't think it's necessarily for this, well, I guess it's partially for this group. Are there people working on the get out the vote kind of campaigns? Spread the word. Make sure you show up to town meeting. Make sure you show up for the vote uh at special election. I am not aware. Wow.
No, Marian Marian Messa can take that. Yeah. Um uh the friends have um the friends are funding uh yard signs and we actually started a list today of people who are willing to have us put a sign in their yard. Uh so uh we were holding off
ordering them until everything got approved. The warrant articles got approved. So we're moving ahead with that. Nice. Um and putting together a list of people who are willing to um help out with the the whole process. Awesome. Yeah. the I mean actually well
quick question Jack. So I understand that if at town meeting the funding does not get authorized it still goes to special election. Is that true for the lease as well?
Um I don't think the lease thing is it's a good question. I don't think the lease thing would be subject to a ballot. I mean, you you you're Yeah. Yep. You're right. You're right. I think that's right. I think that's right.
Yeah. That that because that's why we had to vote two articles on Monday. Yep. For the lease, but then the the funding for the lease, the override for the funding for the lease. Yeah. Okay. I mean, Josh, you're the one who commented, wherever
it was recently, that a municipality wanting to lease beyond three years does require an authorization vote. That's a simple authorization vote um at town meeting and not subject to a ballot kind of thing. As far as I
know, the thing that I found curious in the um draft warrant thing that I was looking at, the funding is majority. The lease is 2/3. Yeah, I saw that too. I I don't
understand that, but okay. I think that's the way it is. But to your fundamental point, no, lease does not require a ballot. All right, that's actually a really good point then. So, just to cut to the chase, what I was thinking about is that this is a town meeting that has a good chance of having
a large parent turnout. Um, and if we need a twothirds majority vote to enter into a lease to enter into the lease, um, we really need to make sure that our that the seniors come out to that to that meeting. And what's going to be
interesting and fascinating to watch as a political junkie is these articles are going to come up before the school article. So, how do people how do people uh vote not knowing how the school vote is going to come out? It's actually very interesting. Yeah. Well, the the other
piece of that um and I flagged it in an email because both of these both of our votes are secret. They will still be counting the ballots for the funding while we vote on the lease. So, Anyway,
and they'll folks counting the lease votes while the school is up there on the stage. Yep. Yeah. Well, I've enjoyed our little get together this evening. Uh Josh, you did a great job. You're going to do a good job at town meeting. Uh I think this
interaction tonight was excellent. um a lot more discussion than I was thinking in my head before we before I dialed in tonight. I didn't think there'd be that much discussion, but there was and it was excellent. Um and
thank thank you everybody for uh being so vigorous about participating. Um if there are no other issues right now that are burning in somebody's heart, um I would accept a motion to adjourn.
That sounded about right. I don't think anybody else had any questions. I asked before. Well, we were we were basically going to let you decide when the next meeting was. I think was there a motion for that, but I think we decided we weren't going to have another meeting
until until unless there's a reason to. Yeah. Okay. Correct. Y I think that was the consensus. Yep. Yes. Yep. Yep. I move we adjourn. I second. Second. Boy, that's a lot of
seconds on that one. I can tell everybody's getting tired. Mary, yes. Paul, yes, please. You a yes, Mark. Yes. Uh, Jack, yes. Maryannne, yes. Deb, yes. I'm a yes.
Josh, yes. Dan, where did I think he said yes? Yes. Okay. All right. There you go. Amy, yes. Steph, sure. Sure. Sure. And a non- voting vote. A non- voting person.
Linda, you want to return? I'm for that. All right. Join late. Thank you for coming anyway, Linda. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Um, that's it. I
think we're I think we're done. Good meeting tonight and uh if something changes, we'll send a note out to everybody. Otherwise, we don't have another meeting until the party. Can we vote for the senior
center? Yeah. Yeah, that's right. So, victory. Victory party. Yeah, the victory party. So, technically I'll I'll certainly see you all at town meeting anyway. I will be at some point we should finish the written report. Yes.
Yes. Yes. We'll do that after the fact. Yep. Okay. Thanks, folks. All right. Good night everybody. Good night. Good night all. Bye.