[Music] rip it
okay welcome to today's select board meeting of April 22nd my name is Roxanne Mustoto i'm filling in as chair for this meeting uh Chair Wells is not able to make it today so I'm going to call the meeting to order and we're going to stand for the pledge of allegiance
i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay next on the agenda is public
comment so public comment um we allow three minutes per speaker for a total of 21 minutes and if you're interested in speaking raise your hand if you're online and if you could sign in at the desk over here i don't know if people have already signed it okay
and Nick you'll the cumulative okay and just so folks know if you're here to speak um related to the assetainment of needs for the table license renewal that will be a separate public hearing at regular public comment this is the
public hearing the public hearing public hearing we'll wait on them oh we can put it here leave it up there do you want to leave it up there general counsel that's for the public hearing leave that one up there yes okay all right am I on i am not on
all right let me find my clock okay so first we have Meg Matthews if you'd like to come up and please just state your name and your address thank you hi can you hear me um so I'm Meg Matthews and I live at 59
Chver Street and I am here tonight because it is Aaron Bradley's last select board meeting and I'm here to thank her for her three years of service on the select board um she's been a steadfast supporter and an advocate for
our town our schools our community services our families and our elders she's been willing to say the hard things and ask the hard questions in the service of figuring out solutions and we're really lucky to have had her fighting for us erin I'm grateful for your
willingness to step up and serve our town and give so much of your time and talent i know it's a thankless job at times and I'm sure these three years have crept and raced all at the same time uh but you keep showing up and
working to make our town better and I know you'll find ways to continue to make your impact felt in positive ways moving forward in one of your last um initiatives and acts as a select board member you took the time um and initiative to research and record the
financial cost to date to the town as a result of our non-compliance with the MBTA Communities Act um and these amounts included funds expended like election fees and attorney fees as well as grants we're ineligible for because of our non-compliance things like funding for
COA Council on Aging Van we lost because of our non-compliance and the total um as you've recorded is over a million dollars in counting so I think this is important information for our community to have and I appreciate you doing the leg work to bring this to the town's
attention um and it's just one one example of uh many of the efforts you take um to dig in for the data to inform your constituents um and to form informed decision-m um so this tenacity
is going to serve you well as a lawyer down the road um and hopefully we won't have to knock on your door for any other legal things in Milton but we know you're going to be a great attorney um and I wish you all the best in your next adventures which will hopefully come
after a nice long post softboard rest so thank you thank you okay next we have Janet Ferrron hi everyone janet Ferrron 71 Central A town meeting member precinct 2 and unsurprisingly I'm also here to um
really honor Erin at her last select board meeting i um look at you as my hero or heroine but I don't like the sound of that word so we'll go with hero um just the courage that you have shown the commitment to
justice using your voice there's people in this town that are unheard and don't have the access and the thing that I love about you is that you've always been able to speak for people who just don't have the access so that as you
know that's a value of mine so I really appreciate that meg said a lot um but you've always been here for us um for the town and it's just been an honor to be part of your journey part of your campaign so we thank you for everything
you have done and if um you'll indulge me I just want to bring you something [Laughter] [Applause] um that's all that we have signed up is there anybody online it looks like we have Deborah Felton has raised her hand
online so I speak now okay thank you i wasn't prepared welld deserved okay well one more although um Meg and Janet I think summarized it
all but I want to thank Erin Bradley for um her dedication and service to the community um Erin we appreciate your transparency and honesty for the past 3 years and my family wish you wishes you
the best in finishing law school and embarking on your legal career we're excited to see where everything takes you and I have one other thing I would like to uh comment on i noticed on the agenda
um you're voting on Warren articles for the June 16th special meeting but there is nothing there on the MBTA community laws and I I thought that that was why we were having a special meeting in June
um so I that seems to be glaringly absent from your agenda thank you thank you um I don't see anybody else do you Nick nope okay um thank you for everybody that spoke during citizen
speak and we have some citations here which one is what uh let's see are they in a certain order here Nick uh they should be okay
i was not expecting that okay okay all right right so the next item on the agenda is we're going to have some citations here for the Mass Legacy Tree Program um if uh Nancy Chisum is here if you would like to come up and please
come to the microphone hello hello welcome thank you so the citations um that you'll be I'm guessing you'll be reading them Roxanne or Nick um are um to recognize as part of the I'm on part I am on the shade
tree committee i'm also here with the chair of the shade tree committee Laura BBE and we have focused the last couple of years on trees of significance in Milton uh the DCR has a program called the Legacy Tree Program and we any
anyone can recognize a tree in the state of Massachusetts for its significance primarily driven by its um size its beauty but also could be the location and um a few other criteria and um we decided to recognize two trees both
happen to be beach trees European beach trees in the town of Milton um one is located at or was located at the Forbes House Museum uh a mammoth uh tree and the other one is located at 45 Walnut
Street at Justin and Jen Ren's home um in fact the tree at the Ren's home was cited not just as a legacy tree but its significance is even greater because it is noted as the fifth largest beach tree in the state and if you haven't seen
this tree before it is really just beyond impressive so and it's right around the corner from where we're sitting at the Council on Aging so in 2024 we uh the Shade Tree Committee submitted the request to have these trees considered and we received
notification that they were recognized by the DCR the DCR in fact goes out to every tree that's nominated across the state and sees if it meets their criteria so we were thrilled to see that these two trees were recognized and we really want to say uh thank you uh to
these folks unfortunately the reason we want to thank them is because their love and care to these trees um unfortunately the beach trees are being impacted by a disease and most copper beaches if you look around or I'm sorry European beaches if you look around the town have
had to come down milton Hospital has just taken down a number um of them that were dead in the front um it's also driven by or prompted them because they're doing the expansion but they were gone cunningham Park the same thing um Forbes House Museum has lost we
believe there's two that were virtually identical um we may have lost one but we're not we lost one of the two but we we're hoping it wasn't the one that uh was recognized but either way that tree as well as Jen and Justin's were both up for nearly 200 years okay and again if
you you're able to go by 45 Walnut Street if you just think about the history of that um that tree there as well as the Forbes House were planted by the original owners and to think that it's been there gracing the property and giving the really the residents of Milton over 200 years now the pleasure
as they drive by it um is particularly significant so our hope is this is just the beginning of going around town recognizing trees for their significance it doesn't just have to be their size so if there's anything else you know if someone feels a specific attachment to a
tree for whatever reason and they want to just send us an email um and reach out to us we'd be happy to submit it or we don't even need to be to be involved they can go to the DCR website directly and submit the nomination form it's pretty straightforward but this um was really a way to thank these two
individuals and to bring attention to residents in town the significance of the trees that we have in the community that's great beach trees are beautiful and it seems like they're getting this beach leaf disease yes yeah so I'm going to read the citations the
first one as an official citation be it known that the Milton Select Board hereby extends its congratulations to Heidi Vaughn executive director of the Forbes House Museum in recognition of receiving the legacy tree distinction in 2024 for the European Beach Tree located
at the Forbes House Museum by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Foresty Forestry Program through your commitment to caretaking Milton Milton residents continue to enjoy its magnificent size magnificent
magnificent magnificent size and beauty uh which has graced the property for nearly 200 years be it further known that the Milton Select Board extends its deep appreciation that this citation be signed by the Select Board on this 22nd
day of April 2025 well thank you do you want to come we're going to sign it and then should we just sign it okay [Applause] um do you want to sign it and then just pass it around and then we'll give it to Heidi while you're signing it can they
hear me oh yeah yeah um first of all thank you very much thank you and I did want to reassure you that the tree in question still stands oh good no worries there we had to take down a different beach tree to the right of the driveway that was not nearly as magnificent so
the one in the center is still there and you can visit it perfect oh that's great good good thanks thank you thanks i have to get Richard to sign up richard yes we can send a copy to you okay want to pass in thank you okay thank you and
I don't know if Jen and Justin Ren are here i think Justin is here you can come up if you'd like and say anything about your tree that you'd like to say i think we all have to take a ride by and see the tree now it's literally two houses down at 48 Walnut yes thank
you thank you Roxan and so uh obviously it's a privilege the tree was there way before we were when we bought the house 15 years ago um as you mentioned the European beach is uh sometimes a challenge to maintain and take care of so Jen and I feel it's absolutely our
obligation to do everything we can to keep the tree as beautiful and healthy as possible so we do have an arborist that comes multiple times a year to check on it um and provide antibiotics and everything else we can and locally the Hunt family has done a great job in trimming it and maintaining the branches
and so forth the because at some point it it it is like everything else going to probably succumb ultimately so we're going to do everything we can to preserve its beauty and keep it for the town as long as pos for many years uh we had a swings from and the children u we have a bus stop on the corner it's in
the corner of Walnut and Fairbanks and um once once the kids got older and middle not mine but neighbors in middle school and they were going so high and they're like this could be a little bit of a liability we took it down but it it still is quite the hangout spot for for many people so it's a privilege to to
own the home and to have the tree in our yard and so we'll do everything we can we appreciate Nancy and everything everyone's done uh to recognize the tree and uh thank you again thank you and I'll just read this citation as well um so this is official citation be it known
that the Milton Select Board hereby extends its congratulations to Jen and Justin Rens in recognition of receiving the legacy tree distinction in 2024 for the European Beach Tree located at their home at 45 Walnut Street by the Department of Conservation and
Recreation Forestry Program the Beach Tree is the fifth largest European beach in the state wow that's pretty impressive I have to say through your commitment uh um through your commitment in to caretaking Milton residents
continue to enjoy its magnificent size and beauty which has graced the property for over 125 years be it further known that the Milton Select Board extends its deep appreciation that this citation be signed by the select board on this 22nd day of April 2025
i never [Music] wait while we're signing it I'll go on so the next thing is number five oh sure you did get dressed up [Music] kind of an odd background
yeah there you go why don't you take a step forward it' be nice if the beach I'll hand off oh okay okay so now we have two other proclamations we have one for Earth and one for our day
i'll read one thank you go ahead John um whereas in 1872 the Nebraska Board of Agriculture established a special day to be set aside for the planting of trees
and whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska and whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world and whereas trees can be a solution to
combating climate change by reducing the erosion i didn't sorry by by um reducing the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water cutting heating and cooling costs
moderating the temperature cleaning the air producing life-giving oxygen and providing habitat for wildlife and whereas trees are a renewable resource giving us paper wood for our homes fuel for our fires and countless other wood
products and whereas trees increase the property values enhance the economic vitality of business areas beautify our community and are a source of joy and spiritual renewal now therefore we the Milton Select Board do hereby recognize
April 25th 2025 as Arbor Day in the town of Milton Mass thank you all right i think I am on yeah whereas the first Earth Day was enacted in se 1970
and engaged over 20 million Americans to advocate for a cleaner environment and whereas Earth Day now has become a worldwide event and has highlighted some of the most critical environmental issues on the world stage and whereas Milton is blessed with a wealth of bountiful woodlands and waterways often
most visibly showcased in the Blue Hills Reservation as well as our parks and riverside walking paths and whereas Milton supports projects that demonstrate and encourage energy conservation sustainability and the usage of renewable energy and whereas
the town of Melton challenges every resident to help in conserving and protecting the environment via green activities such as recycling water and energy conservation tree planting and active education about environmental issues and whereas this year Earth Day
will celebrate its 55th anniversary of promoting the value of our planet and respect for all who live on it now therefore we the Milton Select Board do h hereby recognize April 22nd 2025 as Earth Day in Milton Mass we encourage all citizens to join us in efforts to
help and pro protect and preserve our environment for future generations given this day Tuesday April 22nd 2025 all right very good uh next thing is we have a public hearing which is uh item number six but
we're going to start that at 8:00 um so we'll go on to number seven discussion update report of the municipal um broadband committee regarding the inet replacement project and the fiber to the home feasibility study thank you welcome
hi uh madam chair members of the select board uh I'm Mark Day and I am joined by my uh fellow committee members uh Joe Chamberlain and Rob Lynch and we're here to talk to you about the uh master plan
that we recently sent to you uh so uh can we go to the next slide uh the quick summary here is that we're going to review what the original vision was how we've progressed on it we'll talk through a summary of the consultant's findings and
recommendations and end with a call to action uh the vision is to think of internet access as a utility for the residents and businesses of Milton and concretely to have a townowned fiber optic network
as municipal infrastructure comparable for example to the way that the water lines and sewers and roads are municipal infrastructure uh we have progressed to the point where on the uh issue of replacing the INET
that we have completed a detailed network design and we are on the verge of starting construction of that network next uh the INET the institutional network replacement is inherently dual purpose
the core reason for it being funded was to replace the existing institutional network and to be a drop in replacement for the existing network that was obsolete uh it was modestly changed so as to adapt to changed circumstances but
the existence of the new Inet creates an opportunity uh the nature of uh this kind of network is that it is very easy to uh overbuild it in terms of having substantial excess capacity
substantially more capacity than is needed just for the InET itself and so this new network that we're about to build also could be the backbone of a new piece of infrastructure for the town uh that could reach to the homes and
businesses uh it is an option not in any sense a requirement next slide please so if we took the previous slide showing progress and we uh uh divided it slightly differently we'd find that there are a few things that have to do
with the INAT uh in terms of the detailed network design about to go to construction and there are some pieces that relate more to the fiber to the home idea in particular Town Meeting has established a uh municipal light plant
which would be the legal entity that would operate a fiber to the home network were the town to do such a thing but most of the remaining steps uh to achieve fiber to the home uh still lay ahead uh next slide
please uh yeah let's go forward one more so uh we're going to summarize uh the report from a consultant that that we engaged uh that the select board funded using uh unallocated ARPA funds and that
report is on the town website on the municipal broadband committee's page uh and we're just going to go through some highlights there uh there's a lot in the report next please so uh before getting into it it's important to keep in mind
that the costs in here uh give a sensible sort of sanity checking idea of what could happen but they're not in any sense definitive or guaranteed the overall conclusion of feasibility is likely to hold up for at least a few
years but uh it does have a shelf life there will come a point at which these conclusions are no longer valid and the study would have to be redone uh certainly if there were another uh uh provider of broadband services to enter
the town or exit the town many of the the conclusions of the report would need to be revisited next please uh we asked the consultant to consider what we saw as the political constraints
of doing this project in the town so this is uh something that would be voluntary people would sign up for it it would not be funded by taxes uh the capital costs would be uh bonded the
bonds would be repaid by the revenue from service subscriptions and that the homeowners uh who signed up for the service could be asked to provide capital uh in order to make this work
out financially so the the highle summary here is that the capital cost involved would be 23 to $25 million roughly and that the subscriber cost for doing gigabit
service would be 66 to $69 a month that would drop to about $42 a month after the financing is paid off this is uh below the comparable
incumbent services from RCN Verizon and Comcast this is again just a a highle take on it there's lots of ways in which this data is further analyzed in the report uh just to note that there are a variety
of utility models currently in the town uh for water and sewer uh it's a municipally owned infrastructure that the town maintains uh has essential interconnections with the water supplier and the town bill's
property owners for trash pickup there's a municipally owned infrastructure in the bins that the uh town maintains there's a contracted pickup service and again the town bill's property owners uh next slide please uh there are also
examples of utilities that are not uh municipally uh run in Milton for electricity Eversource does everything uh for gas national grid does everything next slide uh our current
internet is uh more like gas and electricity than it is like water or trash pickup in that for all of the current incumbents the company owns the infrastructure it maintains and repairs it it takes care of the interconnections
with the internet and it does the billing next slide uh the utility model for a hypothetical Milton fiber to the home is something that would have to be decided and it's partly a political choice or partly a
best interests of the town choice the piece that's clear is that the town owns the infrastructure but then there are open questions about who is it that maintains and repairs it who uh ensures that there's the appropriate connections to
the wider internet and who does the billing next please uh a simple municipal model is that the town does everything uh maintains and repairs interconnects to internet does the billing uh that would
require personnel who are not currently employed by the town and expertise that the town doesn't currently have next please there's an outsourced municipal model in which the town owns the infrastructure but engages outside
vendors to do repairs and to do the uh what you might call the the software side of things uh this vendor one and vendor two are just kind of placeholder concepts they could be the same entity but they don't have to be next
please uh and in an open access model the town owns the infrastructure there is a particular vendor who supports that infrastructure and then there is a set of vendors who are taking care of the
ISP duties the job of connecting customers to the internet and billing them for it uh this is like the previous model but it allows the multiple ISPs to compete while they are on the same municipal infrastructure uh I want to
draw your attention to the fact that this is the model that Quinsey is currently pursuing next please so things that are open for decision uh there is the question of the degree to
which the town wants to control or influence the desired outcomes for digital access uh there is the possibility that the town could invest in a municipal broadband infrastructure and take a position on that but as I
said before that is not in any sense required if the town wants to build such a thing then there needs to be a decision about what the governance structure should be and in particular to choose between varieties in which the
town is operating the service versus outsourcing it in some way and then the question of whether this vertically integrated single ISP or a competitive market is more in line with what the
town wants to have next slide please so uh our consultant noted that it is likely to be very helpful for us in making this decision to keep an eye on Quinzy that they developed a master plan in 2020 and that they are currently
engaged in the construction of a fiber to the home network and so there are documents explaining that and there are definitely opportunities for us to simply stay in touch with them and find out how it's going um next
please so our concluding call to action is that the select board and the town as a whole needs to decide at some point whether the town should pursue fiber to the home that doesn't have to happen right away
uh it can be deferred but not indefinitely uh and the Quinsey experience is likely to be an important input in deciding what the town wants to do uh if the town wants to pursue fiber
to the home uh the select board uh might well consider setting some sort of timeline for what the next steps in that process might be and that is our presentation thank you thank you any questions
Mr z can always be counted on for a question um this is uh I think really interesting and and um you know I I I have to imagine uh you know it's fun to think about the select board maybe 125 years ago thinking about electricity in
the same way um you know like do you really need it is it really gonna make a difference um you know should we It's true right these are the sort of things that that happen um over the course of of the lifetime of of a town and so we're kind of at this really fascinating
point now where uh we can think of and I think we should think of the internet as an essential utility comparable to electricity or or to water or uh or sewer um and I say that for a couple of reasons i think one we have our you know
students in this town um who rely uh extensively on the internet to be able to interact with their teachers submit assignments um this is at the high school level um but also from a business perspective um you know not having the internet at your at at a business is not
acceptable and for the for senior citizens many of them uh rely on the internet for contact with family and friends uh you know access to information so I really deeply appreciate the thought that's gone into this because I I do think that this is
kind of one of those um tipping point moments for the town um I uh I'm also grateful to Quinsey for sort of being a guinea pig for us uh and being a couple of years ahead of us in this model um I guess uh my my big question here is
obviously we we can't sort of continue to delay this forever and we've talked about this a little bit before uh but I think it would be helpful for residents to understand when you talk about overbuilding uh overbuilding the network and and it's relatively easy and relatively costefficient to do i think
people can hear that and they can worry that this you know would be wasteful if we decided to overbuild and then we decided not to take full advantage of it that we would be you know obviously everybody in Milton is very concerned about finances probably now more than ever so I'm just I would be curious for you guys to explain a little bit um for
folks that maybe aren't familiar with what overbuilding the the the capacity would look like yeah as soon as I said overbuilding I thought "Oh that's not the right word because everyone's going to get very very squirly and very unhappy about that." And and so the thing to realize is that the the fiber
that is laid is is probably the cheapest part of the entire experience it's all of the cost of building a network like this is in the fact that you have to have people out there digging trenches and putting things up on poles and so on
and what that in turn means is that uh it's it's very cost-effective to uh instead of buying the the the fiber that sort of has the minimal capacity that the town needs right now it's basically
a trivial amount of additional money to be getting something that is you know 10 times more uh and in fact depending on what the details are there it may in fact be more economical to buy the fiber that offers more capacity because that
may be a more popular choice and may accordingly be be priced lower and so it's a it's an area in which if we attempted to sort of minimize the overbuilding we might actually be uh
practicing a false economy not only would we be giving up capacity that we could have had for uh relatively little we might actually wind up spending more money so I think that the right way of thinking about it is to say we're building the Inet for sound reasons of
replacing something that was obsolete we're basically getting um more capacity than the town needs for right now for free right it's not that we've sort of gone and done something crazy to get it
it's just the way that fiber optic networks work and so that's what's really creating the opportunity for us to go and do something more interesting if we so choose that's very helpful would you mind if I as a follow go ahead sure
um so I know um I so from that perspective again I I do think it's helpful for us to put that if you could travel back in time look because when folks were installing electricity for the first time they had no idea the pace of change that would happen with you
know the uptake of electricity we have the benefits of the 20th century and understanding how quickly technology moves to think about you know planning for future capacity in a way that maybe we didn't think about 125 years ago and if I'm aligning this select board 125 years ago I apologize i'm sure there
were some very forward-looking individuals then too um but I so I one of the things that I've heard um that I would love to to kind of get your response to is that fiber optic and wired in internet is sort of a thing of
the past and everything is going to be wireless my understanding is that obviously you well you still need to connect to the internet somehow you can't just have Wi-Fi on your computer it has to be hooked up to a network um but could you explain a little bit about why you think that fiber optic would
still be you know from a wireless capacity and that with that you know sort of forward-looking vision why this would still make sense so the the uh the observation there basically is that the uh wireless simplifies the question of
getting the access from uh the the network to the house if you like uh wireless is is marvelous for that kind of thing um it's not necessarily great in terms of trying to
have a lot of capacity and so what you would find if we were sort of rolling this forward and saying now we're doing all kinds of 5G things or 6G things and there are little micro cells on the the phone tower and and so on um that might
well be how the uh the houses were getting on the network but the municipal uh fiber infrastructure would still be valuable because basically all of those wireless access points would be trying to get to a piece of fiber as rapidly as
they could um so I think that you might well find that uh the the buildout of getting um focusing on fibers connecting houses might have some of the quality that
you're describing that we might say "Oh we were we were working very hard on on putting a fiber to everyone's house and in retrospect we didn't need to do that." the part about getting to neighborhoods or getting to blocks I think is going to be uh a stable value
kind of regardless of what you imagine happening with the wireless thank you that's it i I excuse me i appreciate what you've done and I'm new to this how many towns and cities in Massachusetts do this have
their own the there's there's quite a number that either have it or are considering it uh and so I don't know the number off the top of my head but it's it's in the it's in the neighborhood like 45 or 50 it's basically the uh any town or city that
has a municipal light plant is a great example you know they own their electric company build uh so uh they're a good example um not of not of cable they got rid of that but Norwood is another good example of a
town that has a a municipal u broadband network as well so they have combined the two like in in Norwood uh a little little rusty for background so some towns what's called a municipal plan so
that that town operates the electric utility as well they have and it would make sense they do and others are in city fireworks it's a regional approach these communities that have gas sorry gas
so out there they have they do gas and electric and then also provide uh broadband norwood does electric and broadband um as you mentioned for so there's a few communities that have already built up that infrastructure already from an operational perspective that naturally were in position to jump on this um some number of years ago and
I would say in position because they had the legal structure not necessarily because of the services they were providing so they had the MLP because they were providing electric but the fact that they like for in our case where we're not we don't have electric provided through the town that doesn't foreclose us doing internet only or
doesn't really they don't really relate or or or complement each other in that way i've just been in a business where it's more reasonable i don't know if this is the correct word but subcontract has its
like fixed cost whereas in-house is more variable you know what I mean so there's advantages and disadvantages to both yeah i mean that's a real question for the town is to to bring it inhouse in some ways would have the the best
control the best customer experience but on the other hand it's it's more people on the payroll it's more complexity about making sure you have the right people when you need them right thank you anybody else could I ask do you mind if
unless you have question i was going to ask a question after okay so you know we had as as we were working on this Verizon built out BIOS and I know from your survey and from the feasibility study it's had a bit of an impact but it doesn't feel like and just looking at
the survey you know reliability people didn't really have a lot to complain about um speed people didn't have a lot to complain about although I know the older Verizon DSL users may um but cost was obviously I think it was something like more than 70% of folks were written
cost as poor or fair so has now that Verizon's built out have you noticed or heard as it's not driving costs down everything kind of stayed status quo there's just another provider to choose from any feedback on that i I don't
think we've seen a notable change in the way that people talk about their internet service and I also do think that overall it's better to think about it as a a kind of a political or a an infrastructure approach rather than a
cost-saving thing because the if if we do this as sort of a a promise that it will it will be cheaper it's very easy for the incumbents at least over the short run to falsify that by just dropping their prices um and so I think
it it's more about saying uh if this is a thing that we think is important for various kinds of practical and political reasons um wouldn't we rather have it be a situation where the people who are
getting our access to the internet are people who are as close as town hall as opposed to being people working for s some gigantic corporation in Philadelphia or wherever thank you for your presentation can you speak a little bit about um number one
brain tree i know that it seemed like they got out of this business and also with the use of satellites now sure um you've seen that during different wars and things satellites are you know that may be the future sure so I would like to hear about that um I can um describe
um a little bit about the brain tree decision just pull that mic a little bit closer yeah thank you so my understanding uh the Brainree decision a few years ago to discontinue uh their cable system um uh was really
came down to a technical decision uh they had basically painted themselves into a corner technically o speaking um over the years um using uh basically cable uh technology um uh you know from
the 70s and 80s that wasn't scaling um that um plus um uh underinvestment over the years um um in the network really degraded to a point where um it was you know wasn't worth
Um so that's my understanding of what's going on uh of what happened down in Brainree there there's actually a good report on their website i don't know what the URL is off the top of my head but that's where I found that description um and what was the second
question satellite satellite i mean I would put satellite into the same uh um category uh and I'm speaking for myself now not necessarily for the for the committee uh as another commercial
vendor um and I would like to echo uh what uh Ben's analogy to um electricity 125 years ago uh that's a often made um comparison to towns today um looking at
uh internet access as a uh uh as a as a utility and as a municipality as a town as a community uh we get together and build that infrastructure uh to lower costs for everybody uh for uh residents
for businesses um right across the board um and uh um that analogy going back to electricity was very preent uh by all of those folks um and look what happened
over the next 50 years i mean uh just think of all the industries that exploded uh that you had to uh plug into like making uh appliances and cars early on and etc etc and so that's a big
motivation for a lot of towns uh and m municipalities uh both in the state a lot of towns pursuing this in Massachusetts uh as well as nationally is to achieve that economy of scale um for all residents and businesses so and
a follow-up question and with regard to the cost that you you said it said uh 23 to 25 million uh that's a huge amount of money obviously we're we're looking at you know some tough situations here i'm wondering you did mention for instance on Brainree you said that they had the
they had a system and they didn't maintain and they underinvested under um you know kept up with it basically so is that also factored into this so do you mind so the difference here is with with
fiber optic the speeds that the potential speeds are are unlimited they're limited by the end electronics that are used so the benefit here is that where where with coaxial cable there was there was a maximum speed that it was going to hit because it's not it's not fiberactic it's not it's not
flowing at the speed of light right so we know we don't have electronics right now that can capture the speed of light right now but we have so we can switch out as as we so let's say we say okay we have we have electronics that provide for 10 gig speed as a maximum right now
if in the future if we develop ones that have 20 we're fixing the end electronics versus replacing all the fiber because the fiber is still there and then with the the satellite question it's an interesting question it's um it's if we
think back to the the models that we were presenting there's still the the satellites are owned by a third party company right so it's more of it's back to that political question of would the town be launching its own satellite for not you know what I mean like right like if we're just going into that model
right they're not going to do that right so would there be so many companies that could that would have their own satellites where there'd be so much competition where the cost would come down that's certainly possible i think more of the way that we're presenting it
is not just about cost-saving but how is what does the town and does the select board see a political value in controlling that actual infrastructure and so that so the way in the satellite version yeah it would be it would be the town launching a satellite instead
a slightly different way of answering your question would be to observe that in the report the useful life of the fiber optic network was estimated to be 50 years whereas the uh buildout and so on was was built
around the idea of the electronics having a useful life of 5 to 10 years and so that was taken account of at least a very gross level it wasn't sort of the assumption that said we'll we'll do it once and we're done and the cost per subscriber included in operations
and m and m maintenance charge of I think it was $27 per subscriber so it was baked into the number that Mark presented included $25 a month essentially for operations maintenance um for a variety of services to maintain and and invest in the system on an
ongoing basis okay thank you any other questions okay thank you for coming thank you very much thank you it's almost eight i don't know it's not quite eight so we can We want to do the Yes let's do the next one traffic
commission okay report don't you want this meeting to last as long as possible discussion update approval report of the traffic commission a temporary conversion of Franklin Street to a one-way from Adams to Basset sure thank you uh so this traffic commission had met last week to
uh revisit the conversation about converting Franklin from a one-way this would be for just the portion from Adam Street to Basset Street um we had previously talked about the traffic uh the construction management plan for the 40B projects and had signed off on that but that it did include um as a piece of
it being this conversion and the purpose uh that developer had approached us on this is um twofold there's a history here in terms of the town looking at possibly um making this a oneway um it's not legal to take that left anyway if you're coming up Franklin to Adams it's
an illegal left so the only um turn at that point is supposed to be a right-hand turn to head back towards Granite A um I wouldn't say everybody abides by that but that is a posted no lefthand turn um so it's in terms of an impact on traffic through the
neighborhood uh it was anticipated or had always been anticipated something that may actually help with some flow rather than um impact it and then as the project came closer to um construction the developer was looking at ways to minimize truck traffic and truck and
truck delays um in this area so their construction management plan included a truck circulation route of coming in off of Granadav onto Adam Street left onto Franklin and then into the site and then exiting the site onto Basset back out to
Granad and out of Milton from there uh so the goal is to keep that truck traffic uh as limited as possible um throughout the neighborhood um I will note that there uh traffic commission and the developer agreed to um conduct
some uh traffic counts uh once this is underway to get a sense of what that impact is looking like particularly on church and um to re-evaluate as needed um so the recommendation from the traffic commission is to move forward with making Franklin a one-way again from Adams to Basset um as a temporary
basis for at least the period of construction and then evaluate from there um whether it should be permanent uh but it will be continuously evaluated throughout uh the project um and that's uh the action from the select board at this time um quick question how long do
we anticipate that to be time wise so the construction total construction starting with abatement was I think about 27 months um abatement started about 2 months ago so it was about a 24 to 27 month time period so another two years um and hopefully it'll rem not
extend past that and they will be done ASAP any questions does this change you know the plan the the construction plan was to move the barriers back every night that will remain that'll be the plan the barriers will move so during the day um
the road will be narrowed that'll impact park parking on Franklin and then um after the construction day ends the barriers will be moved back against the sidewalk so the road will be wider the parking will be restored but in order to maintain access um both emergency access and get traffic through um that will be
um an impact during construction hours okay um I'll make a motion to approve traffic commission's recommendation for the temporary conversion of Franklin Street to a oneway from Adams to pass it do I have a second i'll second okay Mr
cole and all in favor i I Okay next well now it's eight so I think we can you can move to the um public hearing okay so um I'd like to open the public hearing for
um the ascertainment of needs for Stone Peak Cable license renewal is that a motion we need a second or uh we might as well open it with a vote right just to be safe i don't think we need it but just to be sure we don't need don't need it to not to open a
public hearing you're right so okay where are you going to be i don't I'm telling you we'll send you notes from the audience to come up doing this wrong do you want me to see TV that's right okay so I'm going to just read this um good even this is an opening statement
for cable public hearing good evening and welcome to the town of Milton Select Board public hearing on RCN's cable license renewal the select board is the cable license um issuing authority under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 166A and federal and state law
requires holding public proceedings to provide public uh to an opportunity to comment on local cable needs including the holding of this hearing by way of background RCN's cable license expires on October 31st 2025 notice of this hearing was in the local newspaper for
two successive weeks and copies of the legal ads are entered into the record as hearing exhibits one and two we will receive comments and testimony from the public and interested parties about what cable related needs and interests are important to the town and public about
and about how RCN has performed under its existing license for before proceeding to public comment i would like to thank the members of the public for their participation and thank Milton's local community TV provider Milton Access TV for diligent assistance
in the cable license renewal process and also thank RCN for their participation and assistance in the ongoing license renewal process comments from the public may address all RCN cable related matters including but not limited to
customer service license administration the town's needs regarding the local studio community programming and maintaining support for the town's very important local channels and video origination capabilities please keep your comments to no longer than 3
minutes in lie of reading of lie of reading full statements you may make a brief comment and then submit your full statement in writing to us note that this process of accepting comments on cable needs and interest will remain open until further notice so that even
after closing of tonight's hearing the public will have further opportunity to submit um written statements to the town and care of Nicholas Connors assistant town administrator by mail or by email to an connor at townofmilton.org for the
license renewal needed for consideration by the town at this time we will proceed with going right to the public comment process thank you all and let us proceed to hear from the public and interested parties i would suggest that uh we invite um Shane Brandenburg and Milton Access TV
up to um open comments um and I will note that for anybody who has submitted them in writing which we received a number of uh from today that we've shared those with the select board those are part of the record um so if you've previously submitted in writing we do have it um already thank you and there
may be some people that already signed in there's another sheet up there oh extra thank you thank you and I'll note that um special counsel August has joined um us as well uh by
Zoom hi Bill thank you hi uh good evening uh thank you uh for allowing us to testify and participate in this hearing um on behalf of the Milton Access TV Board of Directors and its staff I want to extend our sincere
thank you and appreciation to the members of the select board our town administrator and his staff attorney Epstein our loyal supporters and producers and of course um RCN for this opportunity to speak u for those of you who don't know me my name is Michael Lynch i'm the current vice chair of the
board of directors Smilton Access TV um I have to say uh and historically I kind of feel honored to sit here um I started volunteering at Milton Access when I was in middle school um and I worked there when I was uh in high school i came back when I was in college and um was the
director for 12 years um I always sat at these hearings with the founding fathers of MATV so it's um quite an honor to be up here making that on their behalf um uh Meg Access is the 501c3 nonprofit nonprofit that oversees Milton Access TV
um that provides public education and government services to the town uh we're contracted through the select board and we've been in existence since 2008 our members uh on the board of directors our chair Becky Padera um our own select board member Roxan MTO uh school
committee member Anna Varis and membership and Bruce Pearson uh our staff is led under direction of Shane Brandenburg um our oper operations director Tom Pillah Ted Elmo who is our director of editing and Shawn Doyle our production coordinator milton Access TV
also employs several part-time um employees and has a wellestablished internship program at Curry College uh tonight is about the hearing about tonight is a hearing about the renewal of the RCN cable license with the town of Milton in that license uh by law there are provisions for public access
support uh which is why I'm here tonight uh tonight we're joined by a handful of our producers and supporters who you'll hear from um and as U Mr milano said we've had a number of our friends and supporters uh submit written testimony for the hearing that's been submitted um most of our viewers uh it's a testament
to Milton Access have become so comfortable viewing at home um they're remotely um viewing the meeting um our president is in Arizona right now watching um so I know that a lot of um people um really value being able to participate and watch our meetings
remotely um tonight is about a need uh why does Milton need Milton Access TV um some of you might think that's an easy answer or some of you might be wondering does Milton really need a cable uh station um
kind of uh piggybacking off the last uh presenter is cable TV a thing anymore um and that's kind of what we're here to talk about um so let's dive into our need um and I want to start by um saying to ask yourself some of these questions that I'll present um have you ever
wondered what's happening in Milton'stown government um did you miss an important meeting uh that you'd want to watch a replay uh what about the development going up at the end of your street where do you tune in to find out what is happening uh have you ever watched your grandchild's high school
graduation live from another state or have you ever wanted to um has your child been on the football team the volleyball team the hockey team or been at a championship game and you have been able to send the game link out to your family members to watch it live or even catch the replay um what about keeping
track of what's going on at town meeting if you're a town meeting member have you tuned into the preview show so that you're more informed about the articles to be voted on what about during a winter storm instead of waiting for the WBZ ticker of school closings to go by and buy and buy and buy have you checked your local TV station or maybe you're
looking for a quick and easy recipe on the way home and can cooking in with Stephanie come to your rescue uh if you've answered yes to any of those questions uh that proves why we're here tonight uh Milton Access needs Milton and Milton uh Access TV needs Milton uh
the miss the mission of Milton Access TV is to provide gavveltogavile coverage of Milton'stown government to help create hyperlocal highquality content and to put tech tools and media into the hands of our residents uh for our government meetings MATV provides unedited unfiltered looks into our government
operations in Milton we cover over 10 boards and committees help with subcommittee recordings and make our available our resources to get the meeting recordings turned around and on our stations and social media pages within 48 hours of a meeting but knowing my staff it's usually a few hours so um
MATV covers multiple meetings a night uh and we can cover meetings simultaneously um there are two crews out tonight one crew is here with us today for the select board meeting and another crew is with the uh board of appeals meeting uh I'd be remiss if I didn't mention our election season programming just one
week before the election um but we also help foster election programming uh we co-host the annual Milton Speaks Candidates forum with the Milton High School debate team uh in which the forum is moderated and questions are thought of by the students it's one of our most respected programs and uh Milton Access
TV is proud to provide the students with a candidate forum and live TV experience uh and on election night as always residents can tune in to get these live results when the polls close at 8 uh in March of 2020 when COVID hit and upended all of our daily routines Milton
Access TV stepped in without question to make sure residents were still getting the information they needed in a remote fashion i can remember the first meeting we broadcasted was um a phone with a microphone on a table um to get an emergency select board message out um
and now look at how far we've come um we are uh sitting in uh a room that is now a hybrid meeting room um Milaxis TV was also integral in the coronation directing of the first remote town meeting um no Milton town meeting members were standing in a field or
sitting in their cars or um in a school spread out uh town meeting was accomplished right here in this room um with a core group of people and um all the town meeting members were at home um we also deliver Chromebooks in that time of need uh from the testimonials you
hear hear later Milton Access TV has their doors open to residents who want to create highquality content that's relatable to Milton some producers have been with us from the beginning from the days before we had a studio at the Pierce Middle School uh nothing excites our board more that when during our
monthly board meeting it's time to see the half the staff highlight reel of the past month's activities uh whether Mike Vega is on location at Gillette Stadium uh Jackson's giving the live commentary at a hockey game uh Susette's interviewing the newest hit author the sports highlighted a week or getting a
refresher on recycling and composting from the DPW Milt Max's TV helps provide more than just median coverage uh through capital support uh from the cable providers Milton Access TV has had the ability to put the most uh up-to-date high-tech tools of media into
the hands of Milton residents allowing them to take their ideas from print to picture with ease uh over the last 17 years Milton Access TV has built a full production studio and office space at the Pierce Middle School a full production studio at Milton High School uh this room we're in tonight two
conference room at town hall and in partnership with the town uh the new meeting room at the old fire station will be the newest hybrid meeting room available uh the staff has also grown the checkout equipment that's available to the residents of the town um allowing for full productions to be filmed
remotely uh finally one of the best investments I think that um was made by Milton Access TV is called the Comrax Live Shot uh it allows Milton Access TV to broadcast live anywhere there's a cellular network um so that was a big accomplishment for us i was very proud
um when we got that and it really allows us to um sort of act like a news station i mean we are now we were limited to a cable we were limited to a plug on the wall um I can remember the 350th committee we had to run a cable from town hall across over the gazebo and
down to Camp Nav to broadcast and now we can do it um wirelessly uh none of these benefits uh to the residents of Milton would be possible without the capital support we uh got from the cable providers so we're very thankful for that uh public access stations are vital
to the community they serve and it wouldn't be possible without the support of the cable subscribers and the franchise agreements uh public access TV public it's it's right in the name um and at its basic core it's a service by the people for the people uh most towns
in the commonwealth have their own uh so when you say Milton Access TV is for Milton residents by Milton residents it's really a true reflection of our operation uh all that all of what MATV accomplishes is by a staff of four a handful of volunteers and a small budget
uh two common themes you've heard tonight are transparency and need uh transparency is the benefit Milton Access TV and Milton needs Milton Access TV uh in a time of growing uncertainty cable cutters and declining revenue MATV relies heavily on the franchise fees
provided to the town from the cable providers um from what you've heard tonight uh what you read from the written submitts and hear from a few of our producers is that Milton needs Milton Access TV to continue provide the services that we do uh the residents
value our programming our services and our knowledge and expertise and help uh we really look forward to the opportunity to work with the select board um in RCN on the franchise renewal um I want to thank the board uh for the opportunity to testify tonight and I can't wait to turn it over um to Shane
and our um producers to hear from them um I just want to thank uh the select board um for your service to the town and your volunteer hours and um making Milton the best place to be so thank you for your leting me to speak tonight
thank you thank you thank you thank you uh hi Shane Brandenburgg executive director Milton Access um Michael said quite a lot there so I will not repeat uh myself or him uh I'm going to actually share a video right now real
quick there we go [Music] i don't even know where we're at we just want to wish you a very merry Christmas [Music] public access TV offers a hyper local
look at the community [Music] it offers transparency for local government showing what decisions are being made and what residents think it covers the stories and events that larger media outlets never would
shedding light on the good things happening just down the street and in your neighborhood and it provides a way for connection from anywhere in the world in a different town state or even country and you want to watch Milton football take the field at Brooks with public
access you can [Music] [Music] you with your support public access can continue to do the work that informs and
entertains inspires and connects the work that gives local residents the power to create educate share ideas and foster a deeper bond with the people they call neighbors cool always fun little glitches every once in
a while um but yeah just basically to echo what Michael Winch said and from the video um we're a very very small group of passionate people very tenured i think our shortest employee has been here for seven years now i myself 13 um
we're very passionate about what we do we know Milton we have some people from Milton who are actually on our team so um even as someone who's not from Milton I think it's great that I get to do something that's fulfilling and just be part of a community that I don't live in
but I love coming to work every single day and seeing what's going to happen here and seeing how we can help the community um and yeah I think that's it like to hear from our producers and people who come to speak okay thank you
should we start with Yeah three minutes yes okay susette standing if you'd like to come up please [Music] good evening and thank you for the chance to speak tonight um a special
thanks to Erin Bradley for all she's done and congratulations on your new adventure thank you my name is Susette Martinez Standing and for over a decade I produced and hosted It's All Right With Susette an a Milton Access TV show
about authors their books and their writing process i took a hiatus for the last 5 years and I'm happy to report that I'm in remission for lung cancer and that my show is running again i've seen the growth of MATV from the early
days of the staff filming in homes and shleing cameras now a state-of-the-art TV studio exists that takes TV shows to a higher level of education entertainment and enjoyment this growth exists because of Milton's positive
response yes there is a need for information and community engagement on a local level which is offered by show hosts and studio staff milton is a highly literary and educated town and enjoys its creative programming
matv allows residents to not only watch local government committees work but it inspires them to get involved for example my show just aired regarding a May 10th fundraiser at Milton High School hosted by Firefighters Versus Cancer and we are going to give free
early cancer screening kits to our Milton firefighters matv was a powerful way to get the word out to serve our community newspapers are diminishing social media is slanted and divisive milton Access TV is a vital community
hub not only for current events but also for us to enjoy and to better know our community and our neighbors i hate the idea of costcutting or cancelling MATV which forces our town to look to homogeneous non-local corporate media
programming there is so much about Milton that is diverse interesting and enriching let's allow MATV to not only survive but to thrive and grow with even greater support thank you for your time thank you
okay uh next Jay Funling thank you hello i'm Jay Funling 39 Scias Lane coming up here to also express my support for MATV uh MATV is the primary way that people in town can learn about the activities of our town boards and
committees without the videos of these meetings everyone in town would be dependent on either word of mouth descriptions or minutes word of mouth descriptions no matter how how well-intentioned are always imperfect and minutes no matter how thorough are
always incomplete video shows you everything that happened at the meetings that broadcast their videos on YouTube and Facebook and the TV channels make the videos very accessible uh I've also I personally have been able to download the videos and turn the audio into a podcast so that people can listen to
meetings while driving washing the dishes that's what I do etc none of this would be possible without MATV and finally I'd just like to compliment the MATV staff they're always professional and pleasant to work with and as you know many meetings can go late into the
night unexpectedly and they they're always there putting in the hours no complaints pleasant to work with sometimes people joke or compete about which committee puts in the longest hours compared to all of us the MATV staff blows us all away so I want to
thank the staff and thank them for the product they produce thank you yes you may come up and I just would like to I would just like to note that um David von Mortz who represents RCNA is here and and watching the meeting so I
appreciate you coming and and being in attendance thank you sorry I didn't sign in that's okay good evening i'm Linda Lee Sheridan 57 Clifton Road i'm here tonight to speak in support of Milton Access TV and the
very important role that they play in our community sorry the word access in their name really identifies the crux of the importance of the role that they play to our in our town milton Access provides the
opportunity for all citizens to be engaged with town government and education by filming meetings of major boards and committees and town meeting too that can be watched often live or on their website or later on YouTube
school sports and the high school graduation musical performances um and many other activities are also recorded most citizens don't have time to attend all of these meetings or events but MATV provides them with
access to these meetings that wouldn't otherwise be possible at a time in our community when transparency is increasingly important to us I'm so sorry milton Access TV is the vehicle that can bring information
to light for us they also provide educational training as has been said previously in different media areas including editing studio and field production filming as well as original programming by Milton residents
this is access to free training and information programming like cooking and learning about our town history was made in 2012 when Milton celebrated our 350th anniversary and Milton Access TV was there to record
it as one of the organizers of Milton Musicfest and Fireworks and Celtic Sunday held each year on the fourth weekend of June we are truly grateful to the coverage that Milton Access TV provides for this event one quick call
to Shane to tell him the date and we can rest assured that this event will be truly appe appreciated by all Milton residents hours and hours of live musical performances are recorded and
accessible on YouTube following the event shane Brandenburgg the executive director and his team of Tom Pila Ted Omo and the many students and volunteers who help with filming are the easiest people to work with 30 seconds i find
them professional and go above and beyond when filming so that the organizers are supported while the viewers can access the event from their home at a later date or time i know I speak for many who appreciate the programming of Milton Access TV and it's
an honor to speak tonight in support of this critical media center for Milton thank you thank you thank you is there anybody else anybody on the board any comments
mr cohane I did want to comment um it it is critical and and one of the speakers had mentioned community engagement and it's critical um it was I was at an event the other night and it was joked that and it wouldn't be possible without
you that their meetings were mustsee TV and and that wouldn't be possible without you um and I'd also like to say hi to my wife ha but anyway I I think it's critical also I do thank you thank you i would just like to add I sit on the
board um of MATV and they do a fantastic job and Shane for every meeting always has a terrific rail to show us of highlights of what's been going on you know sports and you know plays and all sorts of things so they do a terrific terrific job um and as was mentioned
before they're often up you know setting up before we get here and they're breaking it down when we when we leave some of these nights are long nights and they're doing it you know many nights a week there are many meetings different locations so I think they do a terrific job and it's important for the community
because you know people like to watch these meetings and find out what's going on they don't always read a paper but they'll watch it on TV thank you we did have um somebody raise their hand sure so uh John Lang I'll allow you to speak
you can unmute yourself now can you hear me now yes okay excellent thank you for for giving me a moment and I promise to be brief i did did submit a a letter of support and I promise not to not to read it here but um all of the folks that have spoken have talked about
the great work that the MATV crew uh have done um I want to take it just from a slightly different angle um and Michael mentioned uh my son Jackson uh who has been fortunate enough to work with with Tom and Shane and the great team at at MATV for the past several
years uh being able to announce the the boys uh girls and boys hockey games the football games as well as the baseball games but one of the things that has stood out to my wife and I the most is the feedback that we've received from the fans and the parents uh at the games
really talking about how much it means to to their extended families to their their parents uh the grandparents of the kids who get the ability to be able to watch these games and and kind of follow along with their uh grandchildren's sports when they're not able to make it live either for uh personal reasons or
health concerns uh and that feedback has just been tremendous um Tom and and the team taking Jackson under their wing at such a young age uh he's only 12 years old now and has been doing this now for for 3 years and some of the insights that they've given him um that's really
been the the biggest takeaway uh for my wife and I uh and for Jackson as well is just the the feedback and the support uh or the feedback rather from the uh from the parents and the fans about how much this truly means to them to be able to watch the live stream uh even when they may not be in the uh in the Milton
Township so just wanted to say thank you to the whole team uh and thank you for giving me a minute to speak thank you is there anybody else so are we keeping this open then the meeting I mean the hearing the the
public hearing can be closed now um with a motion and a vote um but as noted in the statement um you know we continue to accept comments um to speak to the need that exists in terms of ensuring um
funding uh from the cable providers continues to flow uh to Milton into Milton Access TV okay take a motion i'll make a motion to close the public hearing a second second okay all in favor i I thank you thank you
okay uh discussion update approval annual town meeting Monday May 5th Tuesday May 6th Wednesday May 7th warrant articles review and discussion um any discussion on these and not I don't have anything this evening um members do certainly but I
the warrant has been printed uh dropped at the mailbox hopefully folks start to get them in the mail uh it's available on the town website as well the town report actually is also available on the town website now and it's also in the mail to town meeting members Um now
I got the warrant in the mail today i did too i did the other day i got a few other days i did too i did that was a quick turn around last year's took forever to arrive so that makes me very happy i remember that too i remember the days when there weren't with like a small little book i do like the bigger
books it was hard to like open yeah much better yes all right um so we've done that okay discussion update approval special town meeting June 16th and war warrant articles are on here like to speak to that Mr milano yes
thank you uh so um we have received from the planning board two warrant articles that are listed here uh the East Milton Overlay district uh bylaw amendment and the flood plane bylaw amendment uh the planning board is meeting with the warrant committee tomorrow night to discuss those two warrant articles uh it
was mentioned in public comment tonight about um why an MBTA community's article isn't listed here um we have not received one i didn't want to start listing it until it's received i can do that going forward if the board would like me to but you know that was the purpose of the June special town meeting
we do expect a um article to be submitted um the planning board held a forum last week uh last Thursday um presented a few different options so um they're meeting Thursday night hope that they'll narrow those options then as
well um but um we do expect an article related to MBTA community zoning for the June special town meeting um and then the other ones that I've listed I don't have a draft yet on the alcohol and town property one that was based on the
public hearing at our prior meeting um we've received some further feedback on that so I'll I'll work on a draft and circulate it to members um if there's an interest in having that included in the June meeting um I did include three others here i'd just like to speak to
briefly um an article to accept match general laws chapter 40 section 57 um to allow denial or revocation of licenses and permits for failure to pay micable taxes or charges so um this is a an special act that can be implemented in a
community if the town meeting so votes to accept it and to establish a bylaw to that effect so it would enable the town um to refuse to issue permits or issue licenses if a property owner is delinquent on property taxes um or other
municipal fines or charges um the the law and the bylaw is pretty standard it has to be specific um the one variable is the duration of that delinquency which would trigger the denial or revocation of anything so uh we've drafted it as a six months if
you're 6 months behind in property taxes then you can't come into the building department and get a permit until either you get into a payment plan with the town or um or u make full payment there are a few um significant um property tax
um cases out there that are moving through the system to to get those but it's just another tool to encourage payment of those taxes um beyond just um going through a foreclosure proceeding um so that's the first one uh the second
one is um related to veterans property tax exemptions uh the stat the state legislature approved some changes to veterans property tax exemptions um last fall um so we're looking at that i don't have um a warrant article tonight for review with specificity but there are
two um tweaks that would increase um would allow veterans exemptions to increase with um the CPI index or with inflation so right now they're static number if the town were to accept this it could increase yearly with inflation um and the other one is to just increase
the overall um exemption limit that is allowed uh but we've noticed um in cleaning up some of the um tax exemptions that there may be other local options that the town has not discussed in some time that might be worth um discussing some more so I'll I'll come back with a full list of what those
could be um and our recommendations on that and then lastly um kind of all related here uh there's a special law that a special act um mass general laws chapter 60 section 3D where uh there could be a question on tax bills that
ask if you would like to make a donation to an elderly it's called an elderly and disabled taxation fund so if you would like to make a contribution to that the money will flow to a fund which would then be administered by a committee the members of which are stipulated by the law um so this would be a way to um ask
for voluntary donations that could then be um provided to those um in need to to assist in property tax payments um so I included that in the packet i don't have a presentation to provide more background but if that's something of interest and the board would like me to
continue to work on that uh we can come back with a more concrete proposal so these last three I'm just look really looking for feedback and if if there is interest in potentially pursuing these then we can develop them further and bring them back for more um detailed discussion about them
any comments i have a I have a couple comments Bradley thank you so um I think that those last three should absolutely be looked into more um anything we can do to help um our elderly and disabled um with their property taxes that would
be amazing um and I like the fact that if you don't pay your taxes in six months you can't get a building per permit we might actually get some people paying their taxes um my question is about the MBTA communities and the fact that it's not on here yeah um when does
it h have when do we need to have this before I I'm looking for a couple things one I'm going to look for a timeline of when it needs to be for the warrant so when does the select board need to see it to get it out to make the warrant and
two where are we in the MBTA process the final rags came out they were promulgated correctly um I know that the planning board had I was at the meeting they had three recommendations only one of them is compliant um so I'm wondering
is there talks is there what's going on and what is the timeline so timeline um we're already running up against it um so ideally um and I reached out to the chair of the planning board this week just to kind of
reiterate so what I had said and that was we expect the print the warrant to go to the printer May 14th so that will give us the ample time to have it printed in the mailbox um it for a special town meeting it has to be in mailboxes 14 days before the t special
so um a little bit longer of a duration for us to meet so if if we have it printed on May 14th and delivered to the post office that week we should that should give us enough wiggle room if anything were to go wrong so um but that's not necessarily a deadline to have an article because the warrant
committee um should have it have had an opportunity to review it and comment on it and for those comments to also be printed in the warrant so really we're talking in the next I in a perfect world it would be Thursday at their meeting thursday the planning board would say "This is the plan we're going to submit it to the select board." I don't think
that's um based on their public form and they're still soliciting feedback i don't think that's fully realistic and then with the town election and the town meeting it gets tricky so I I believe that they're planning to meet May 8th the week of town meeting so if if if the article is not ready by May by this week
I think May 8th would be um the next opportunity that we'd have to have resolution on that and that would still be a tight turnaround for the warrant committee and for their comments to be fully ready and printed in the warrant so um it's been tricky with the special town meeting rolling right into budget season rolling into the annual rolling
into the true special so I think we all recognize that but I time is slipping away in terms of having an opportunity to have I don't think I'm not worried about having an article it's more about the planning board just wrapping up their final pieces and deciding which version to go with it's more about having that opportunity to meet with the warrant committee engage with the
warrant committee and have them write their comments right um so it's the timeline is ASAP May 14th where the warrant will be going to the printer um in terms of status yes final regulations came out April 14th um the there has
been no real substantive change from my perspective and what those regulations what the regulations are what the emergency regulations were and what the guidelines were before that uh so Milton in the eyes of HLC and the regs is a rapid transit community um there that's
the expectation that I believe the state is looking for from Milton um while we submitted comments in the regulatory process about the town's classification the select board's comment letter uh was very much focused on classification the planning board's um letter focused on
classification a lot of other more technical kind of zoning related items um those were submitted uh we did have a meeting with HLC as you mentioned where we again advocated and talked about classification um that was prior to the regs being established that was back in March and unfortunately or depending on
how you look at the situation the regs are what they are um so the question is in terms of the process with the state we are a rapid transit community um there are certainly other options the town can pursue um but right now um all
indications are the town is and HLC is is um sticking to that to that definition classification okay thank you we haven't had Oh sorry how does the How does the unfunded mandate fit into this picture so it's been declared to be an unfunded
mandate and what that portends is is an open question so a few communities um as we've discussed um briefly before did file um preliminary injunctions related to or requests for injunctions related to the unfunded mandate question and
other items related to the promulgation of the regulations and how the regulations work um there a couple of those cases were consolidated in Plymouth Superior Court there was a hearing held on April 2nd briefs are submitted by both the towns involved and
the commonwealth uh but as of earlier today still no decision has been rendered in that so that will be the first indication of if the courts how the courts may rule on that question and if they and depending on how they rule what that impact is um still a bit of an open question uh what that might mean
and the auditor's letter um did note that they're doing some continued fiscal analysis to arrive at a full accounting um as well so it may be more of an unfunded mandate potentially or less of a unfunded mandate depending on what their final analysis determines
mr z thank you mop um I'm I'm mindful that we're on you know that the subject here is the warrant for uh June um my I I guess my my recommendation would be that we should probably have some sort of a filler to indicate that
we're expecting to receive something from the planning board um I was also and I know Miss Miss Mto was as well uh at the meeting that Miss Bradley was at um that the planning board held uh to present their plans um the uh in in the comments at that meeting that uh
planning board suggested that it was the select board that put the article forward uh for this but um my understanding is is the planning board puts it forward for us to include in the warrant so it's not something that we we we are waiting for their work to then include into the warrant um so I just
want folks to be cognizant of the fact that it's the planning board that puts forward the work that we then include in the warrant the select board may yes right but I think in this case we are expecting unless we've been doing work that I'm not aware of i don't think we're planning on doing that right thank
you okay any other questions or just to close the loop on timeline while there there is a need for the um planning board to hold a public hearing um I think it's 10 days prior to the town meeting um they are planning to schedule that
and I know a draft legal ad is being worked on so they are putting all the um everything into motion it's just a question of when that final article will be received when the warrant committee can begin its work as well okay thank you um okay we'll go on to number 11
discussion update approval letter to the executive office of health and human services regarding hospital capacity and ongoing impacts of recent hospital closures um so I don't know if you want to talk about it or Sure yeah happy to so I just um for so we included in the
packet um the board of health's letter on this on this matter um and then I know we've had this on the agenda for a couple of meetings here um but in the meantime the state has responded um I included that response um from the Mass Department of Public Health to Milton um
in the packet and they've offered to have a conversation and to connect with the town um related to some of the issues that health department um raised in its letter so we plan to take them up on that um and we'll follow up with the select board um after that conversation
so no action tonight um but um appreciate uh their reaching out and um offering to to connect with the town uh and just as a followup for that just so everyone knows we the letter that the board of health sent out was January maybe maybe beginning of February end of
January and we just got this letter April 2nd so it was quite a long time and I think um after reading it there are some concerns I would say in it that things certain things weren't really mentioned um clearly in here and I think for the residents in Milton it's very
important with regards to hospital bed capacity because um as you know I I work in healthcare and I see what's going on on a receiving end of things and and from families i hear the stories of the local hospitals within the catchman area
including Milton and Nem and uh Norfar County that there is a real need for hospital beds um and people are waiting days in the emergency room to get an actual bed and then once they get in oftent times people aren't um they they
discharge them sometimes a little too early and um it's almost like a revolving door for some so I think I would love to see a conversation around that i think it's very important because you know we care about the health of our community and want to make sure that residents can get into the hospital and
admitted if they need to be in a timely manner thank you okay so next um these are a bunch of uh one day liquor licenses um Madam Chair would you like me to do
my speed reading sure i like that speed reading is great go ahead um I'd like to move and can we do these collectively or we have to do them individually uh we can read them all okay let's read them all uh move to approve the following one day liquor licenses first Parish Milton located at 535 Canton Avenue May 3rd
2025 from 6:30 to 9 uh Oh yeah 6:30 uh p.m to 9:40 p.m milton Creates Community Arts Festival catholic parishes of the Blue Hills St pius 10th located at 101 Walcott Road may 10th 2025 from 6:30 p.m to 9:30 p.m for trivia night glenn Pavle
check for We Are Milton June 28th 5:00 p.m to 10:30 p.m and June 29th 2 p.m to 8:00 p.m for Milton Music Festival that's it i'll second okay all in favor i I I all right next number 13 discussion approval youth task force
change and membership request to add a parks commissioner Ted Carroll to the youth task force any discussion or do we have a motion i I'd like to make a motion but I want to just say it's not parks it is park commissioner that's what the motion says well that not on
the Yeah it says S too yeah there's no S right you can I just looked up that's true actually no it says parks commissioner here it really is it really is a park commissioner it's not parks um so anybody who's got more parks is wrong um you should get a marker and change
okay so I would like to make a motion to um add Ted Carroll the park commissioner to the youth task force second i'll second okay all in favor i I I Okay do we have to appoint him then for in a separate motion or no we have to amend
the charge and then we have to appoint him sorry no that's a good upate i think maybe just revise the motion to add a position to be represented by the board of park commissioners and then point
tied into that position just um yep no problem so um I'm going to revise my motion and I'm going to ask that we make a motion to approve a park commissioner to be added to the youth task force um and then I would like to appoint Tag
Carroll the park commissioner to said youth task force i'll second continue okay all in favor i okay uh number 14 discussion town administrator evaluation everybody got theirs in no who hasn't gotten theirs in
well they're also Richard's supposed to they're supposed to right but it's supposed to go to Carla so we don't know if people have gotten them in am I the only person that has gotten this in this is a real shame this is a real shame well this actually
probably should have been done when you had your new contract back when well you could do an annual report it should have and he's been bringing it up now for at least two or three months uh I will pick up the sword for Aaron at the next meeting um and I'll um maybe ask um so
we can ask for an agenda item to put back on let's let's put it as an agenda item for the next one and maybe we can have Carla send a sternly worded email to the select board requiring us to uh to do that that would be a nice reminder
okay y'all get it done yes so it'll be an agenda item under number 20 we'll add that in sorry Nick i was busy approving 19 uh executive committee meeting light meeting all right uh next number uh 15
discussion approval meeting minutes March 11th 2025 and March 25th do we need to take these separate or can they Yeah I wasn't there on the 25th i'll make a motion to approve the minutes for March 11th 2025 second second okay we're in second all in favor i I Okay and
March 25th I'll make a motion to approve the meeting minutes from March 25th 2025 i'll second all in favor i I abstain okay all right town Administrator's report uh thank you uh just a reminder a town election is a week from today April
29th um if you did choose to vote by mail uh just a reminder return that um either by mail uh by the end of the day on April 29th or you can bring it to town hall uh town clerk's office will be open the dropbox will be open and
checked um right at 8:00 uh as we mentioned earlier the town meeting um warrant has arrived in mailboxes thankfully it's also available on the town website we sent out a blast uh through the town website that that was posted uh last week uh likewise the town
report um is available on the town website under the town reports page uh just a reminder for town meeting members and anybody who may be elected at town meeting it's Monday Tuesday Wednesday of week one this year if necessary if we need a third night we can certainly wrap it up sooner if folks would like um but
uh Monday Tuesday Wednesday not Monday Tuesday Thursday um okay we have readvertised the building commissioner position um after working um to um get that position uh closer to market so if anybody's interested in the building
commissioner position that has been reposted uh we are working through um for a vets uh veterans service officer with the town of Randolph um for our regional district uh interviews are well underway and we're working awaiting a short list uh for recommended for final
interviews for that um and hopefully we'll have that wrapped up soon i I know um Kevin had written a letter in the Milton Times this week and I just wanted to just again thanks Kevin for his service um and just reiterate that the town is part of a district with Randolph it has served us well we we look forward
to continuing that and you know and opportunities to regionalize um we want to pursue there are opportunities to um work together with our communities around us save costs um and provide good services and I I just wanted to point out one piece and that um in
Massachusetts the law that every city and town have a veteran service officer um it's a requirement that that person be a full-time employee or that a municipality municipality be part of a district so the option in front of Milton is to hire a full-time veterans agent or to be part of a district with
Randolph and share that cost um we have for many years now chosen to share that district which a lot of communities do um and which we continue to look forward to doing um and um lastly just we did um as this board knows apply for a grant uh
energy an energy manager through a grant program that the mass pro program put out we partnered with Randolph on that grant application and we were successful and have been awarded a three-year grant for a um energy manager um with the town
of Randolph so um some good news on the grant front which has been not so much good news lately but we appreciate uh the massive program support and for um our partners in Randolph and that application and that's it for me thank you okay I'm going to do an acting
chairs report and I'm going to say I wanted to wish Miss Bradley at her last meeting here with me as one of the other female on the females on the board i wanted to wish her well and congratulate her she's going to law school and what do you have another year one more year
one more year so I wish her well it's always been a very spirited conversation having Erin on the board or Miss Bradley on the board so um I I do want to wish you well with everything and thank you for your service for being on here thank you thank you thank you thank you okay
and next um public comment response do we have anybody so can I say a few words sure thank you so much um I wanted to thank the folks that came forward and and all of you for the kind words and and Richard last week for his words um I did want to just I wanted to to say a
few things i've been um a volunteer an elected official for the last eight years for the town of Milton um for those of you that don't know I um am a single mom and I have my kids on Mondays and Tuesdays every week um for the first five years I served on the
warrant committee which met on Monday nights and um we meet on Tuesday nights so um I have missed many meals with my kids they have macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets back on Mondays and now Bobby eats raviolis on Tuesdays so um so
I just I wanted to say that I I didn't do this and I never had done this just for um just for anything other than to give back to this town um I from the day I was elected to the select board I started receiving um horrible emails um
about my sexuality um and I'm proud to say that I am the first openly out LGBTQ member to serve on the select board um it's not something I would ever hide and it's something that I am proud of and I hope inspires our young folks that they can also be out and open and it's okay
um I have received multiple people that have stood in front of my house for months on end yelling at me anytime that I left my house because of a mistake um that I made a couple years ago it's funny i mentioned it to John the other day and um and he said "What's the big
deal everybody swears." And and I just want to say "Yes John everybody does." Um so so thank you for that because um I put up with a lot during that time in that summer um yeah it was really hard um with people yelling at me
yelling at my children um and so I will not miss that um but I wanted to say some thank yous before I left because if I didn't um I this is probably my last time I'll be able to do this so I want to start with thank you to Milton Access TV to all you guys in that room over
there um thank you if you notice I'm a pro at turning my microphone off and on now and um I hope that I will always hold the record of the most views of any um any ever um so thank you guys for all that
you do all the time i really appreciate it i want to thank the town employees um all of you who do do the work um it's it's a tough job when I was running three years ago I uh went and met with every town director that would meet with me and um one of the guys said he's now
long gone but he said uh you know you're the first person i've been here for 19 years and you're the first person that's ever came and sat with me and um and I I just want to say to all of them that that your work matters and I really appreciate it i know how hard it is i want to call out Rob Mallet who um is just the greatest IT guy on the planet
um thank you Rob i want to call out the clerk's office Gail and Sue who have always not only just been fabulous at getting things done for our town but have also just been cheery and I don't know how they do it because they are the cheeriest people on the planet so thank you to our newly elected uh or appointed
treasurer Johanna uh thank you for diving in and figuring out our books um on the select board i wanted to thank Lynn who has just been amazing i don't think we would all function without Lynn um and she doesn't get enough credit for what she does and so thank you Lynn for
everything um to Amy who's not here but Amy and I have worked together for eight years on budgets um I will miss our conversations and knowing where all the money trees are i know people don't like me calling that but I think it's you got to laugh at some things um and then of
course to Nick I've really enjoyed working with you you have given me hope again in the next generation of folks giving back to public service and going for these ridiculous jobs working in small towns so thank you Nick um and thank you to Amarie Fagan who I worked with briefly but thank you Amarie for
all you taught me to all of you guys um it has been a pleasure working with you um thank you Roxanne um for coming to LGBTQ Pride Day that first year i really appreciated that it meant a lot to me um so thank you for that i want to specifically call out Arthur Mike and
Ben for always using your privilege to advocate for those of us that don't um don't have that voice so thank you to the three white guys um who have always used your your voice for those of us that are less fortunate um to the women
who worked so hard all of them back three years ago to get me elected um to get me here to give me confidence to do this thank you thank you thank you to my brothers and sisters in the black and brown community thank you for standing next to me um when I was scared to stand
by myself um I couldn't have done a lot of things without you um I have always thought that the only opinion that matters is my family's opinion so I'm just going to close with my my parents or my family my dad every time I would come home from select board meeting
would come out of his little space and clap his hands he won't tonight because the Red Sox are on and I never I never get to go before the Red Sox in my house so um so thanks to my dad for always thinking that I um that I was doing the
right thing and talking through some of the concerns that come through it to my daughter Carolyn who is so happy that after 8 years I am finally done um doing these meetings um she got to see what a strong woman looks like when the town is coming after somebody for making a
mistake and I think it taught her a lot of lessons and also showed her how difficult it is to be a woman who has a voice that sometimes people don't like and last to my son Bobby um who has eaten raviolis and peas every Tuesday
for the last three years um I'm looking forward to us having dinners together again and um and I thank you for my your support that you've given me every every Tuesday night um you give me a hug every time I leave for the h leave the house so thank you for that um it has been a
true honor to serve eight years working on our town's budget i am probably outside of Amy Dexter the longest person who's been working with our budget and um and I just really appreciate it i appreciate this town i moved to this town because it is exactly what I wanted it's how I grew up in a small community
my kids can ride their bikes it's it's just I've made some of the best friends I'll ever have um living in this town so thank you thank you to everybody and please go vote April 29th it it matters community engagement matters and then after you vote go sign up for a committee because we have a lot of
openings and I'm going to keep saying that till the cows come home that we should have more people on those committees so thank you everybody thank you to all of you guys and um and good night thank you thank you all right we have two executive sessions um I believe the
second is which one are we not having the second one correct correct so we can skip item 22 okay so 22 so we're going to go into the future meeting dates oh sorry about that uh future meeting dates Wednesday April 30th which is an organizational meeting and then the town
meeting dates Monday the 5th Tuesday the 6th Wednesday the 7th oh future agenda items does the 30th work at 7 uh yes the swearing in ceremony I believe is at 6 if I remember right so then a brief
meeting at 7 is okay on the 30th did it work it doesn't matter if it works for me just fine all right and that'll be at uh finally just right at town hall at town hall okay all right so we'll keep that if if anything's changed
just let me know all right and then future agenda items uh we talked about your evaluation Nick is there anything else anybody has uh at this point really just working towards this June town meeting okay very good so um we're going to go into
executive session we as as we said a minute ago we're not going to go in for number 22 we're going to go in for number 21 so I'm going to move to adjourn from the open session and enter executive session to approve executive session minutes meeting minutes dated
March 11th 2024 March 12th 2024 March 15 2024 March 26th 2024 April 23rd 2024 May 28th 2024 June 30th 2024 June 25th 2024
July 23rd 2024 August 14th 2024 August 27th 7th 2024 september 10th 2024 september 24th 2024 december 17th 2024 january 17th 2025 january 28th 2025 february 7th 2025
february 11th 2025 February 14th 2025 and March 11th 2025 the select board will not return to open session so second okay all those in favor i roll call roll call oh yeah oh yeah okay Mr cohane yes miss Bradley yes mr zo yes
and myself yes thank you and have a great [Music] night [Music] rip rip rip
[Music]