[Music] Ladies and gentlemen, please come to order. >> Likewise. Welcome to night two of our
October 2025 special town meeting. If everybody can go ahead and find their seats. Having been advised by the town clerk, Susan Galvin, that a majority of the town meeting members are present, I hereby declare that a quorum is present for the transaction of business and the
meeting is now open. The meeting will come to order. There has been some question regarding points of order. So I just wanted to touch on that briefly. In section 7.2 of the fourth volume of town meeting time,
points of order may not be deate debated, amended or reconsidered but may interrupt the speaker. The proper form of the motion is I rise to a point of order. The point of order is not a motion but a question and is set forth in town meeting time. What sets a point of order apart from any other questions
which may introduce into the debate which the speaker may introduce into the debate is that they raise a question so important as to justify the interruption of a speaker. For this reason, it needs to be carefully defined since some have the erroneous impression that it is merely a label which being prefixed to
whatever the interrupter has to say gives uninhabited license to break in and seize the floor. For example, many town meeting members believe that a point of order may be raised when the speaker has shared an incorrect or debatable fact with the body. Raising a point of order for this purpose is
inappropriate. Any attempt to use it as a device to usurp the floor shall be dealt with firmly. So an appropriate point of order is to question if the speaker speaker is entitled to the floor. For example, if you believe somebody might be past time or not a
voter that hasn't been given permission to speak. If what the person is saying is irrelevant, contrary to popular, contrary to proper procedure, out of scope, if the pending action is so frivolous, irrelevant, illegal or contrary to pop to proper procedure that
it must be interrupted. And then also we have questions of privilege which are separate but can also interrupt the speaker. We often refer to those here as points of order, but they're really a different thing. These include requests for a speaker to be louder for quiet
during discussions in the event of a disturbance nearby or to alert the moderator of an issue such as a medical issue or temperature concerns or another emergency. So, I just wanted to share that with you because some people had questions about what a point of order is.
That being said, we will now move on to article six to see if the town will vote to authorize the select board to petition the general court to enact legislation for the purpose of amending chapter 147 of the acts of 2024, provided that the general
court may reasonably vary the form and substance of the petition of the requested legislation within the scope of the general objectives of this petition. an act authorizing the town of Milton to use certain land acquired for conservation purposes for school
purposes. Section one, chapter 147 of the acts of 2024 is hereby amended in section two by striking out the words June 30th, 2028 and inserting in its place the following words June 30th,
2023. Section two, this act shall take effect upon its passage and to act on anything relating there too. This article was submitted by the school building committee. Accordingly, we will hear from its chair, Mr. Shauna Oor. Mr. Oor, you are recognized.
>> Oh my goodness. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> See, I get so excited to move right on ahead. I appreciate you. Okay. So, we're going to see if we enjoy watching the leaves change color. Yes is A. B is no. C is
abstain. Or you can click nothing. If you have any issues, please see Mr. Mallet in the front of the room. I didn't see the numbers, but I assume most people voted that they enjoy watching the Yes. 139 yes, 13 no, 12
people abstained. Perfect. And if you can go through and check and see if your response matches what you indicated. And if you have any problems, if you could please see Mr. Mallet in the front. Oh my god. That's
That should be everyone. Again, if you have any difficulty with your clicker, please go see Mr. Mallet in the front of the room. With that, I'll repeat article six. Again, article six is to see if the town
will vote to authorize the select board to petition the general court to enact legislation for the purpose of amending chapter 147 of the acts of 2024, provided that the general court may reasonably vary the form and substance of the requested legislation within the
scope of the general objectives of this petition, an act authorizing the town of Milton to use certain land acquired for conservation purposes for school purposes. Section one, chapter 147 of the acts of 2024 is hereby amended in
section two by striking out the words June 30th, 2028 and inserting in its place the following words June 30, 2033. Section two, this act shall take effect upon its passage and to act on anything relating there to. Again, this article
was submitted by the school building committee and accordingly we will hear from its chair, Mr. Shauna Oor. Mr. Oor, you are now recognized. Thank you. There we go. Uh, good evening. Uh, Sean Oor, uh, town meeting member, precinct day, chair of the school building
committee. Uh, next slide, please. So, the school building committee, uh, has, uh, recently been modified since our last town meeting. Uh, there are five new non- voting members. We did this to align with MSBA. Uh also uh appointed by
the school committee is Nathan Hutau and we also welcome Megan Hagerty from the select board. Um one thing I want to note about this is the five appointees by the town moderator and also Glenn Hoffman from the uh select board appointee uh have been with the committee since its inception over six
years ago. So each year I check with the committee make sure people are ready, willing, and able to participate. And just to let you all know there is no fatigue on the committee. were all willing and excited to get going on the process. Uh, next slide. So, this slide is our kind of overall
timeline. We're formed in February 2019. Uh, we spent the first two years looking for land and identifying um the educational program that we're going to do. In 2021, we came in uh to the conclusion of Gile Road was our preferred site for the school. Uh we
followed that up in May 2022 with an article or we proposed an article for town meeting. Uh school building committee at that time voluntarily pulled it back. Uh we basically revised it, came back to town meeting the following year in May 2023
uh with what is known as the land swap. As part of that article, there was a five-year uh reverter clause as part of that. So, uh, after we passed that through town meeting, it took a year to get through the mass legislature and have the governor sign it. Uh, and then
essentially shortly thereafter, um, we got invited to the MSBA. Uh, the MSBA invite didn't allow us to start till May 2025, essentially two years into our our reverter clause. Uh, we started in May. We'll jump into a little more of the progress in coming slides. uh we're
about to complete module one and transition to module two in February, but as you can see, it's basically eating into that reverta clause uh uh pretty pretty significantly. Next slide. So with MSBA, they break down the the
project overall to these nine modules. What we're in, as I mentioned here, is module one. We're about to graduate to module two. Module two is essentially forming a project team. We're going to onboard known as project manager and architect. And basically that will feed into a schemat a feasibility study which
then feeds into a schematic design. I point out module five here because this is where we talk about the funding or where we'll come to a vote for the funding. That is the point where the reverter clause uh intersect with this timeline. So when when we're when I'm looking at the future slides uh just pay
attention for module five. So in each of these modules are substeps. So as you can see this is module one. We were given 270 days to complete this. Um, we worked over the beginning of the summer and completed it
within 90 days. Uh, some thanks. Superintendent Failen, Assistant Superintendent Katie Blake, uh, worked pretty hard at the end of the school year before their summer vacation to complete their portions of it. Uh, town administrator Nick Milano uh, did a lot for housing production, some of the
stuff that feeds into this uh, portion of the module. And then also um one of the things MSBA is investing a lot of money, tens of millions of dollars into this project. They want to make sure the capital they invest is maintained. Uh so Tom McCarthy who's a consolidated
facilities director uh weighed in very heavily on maintenance records uh applications of how he maintains, you know, our existing infrastructure. He also referenced back to Bill Richie who actually came out to help with us. So it was nice to hear his name. Uh next slide.
So what you see here uh what we've done is take other um school programs that are similar to what we have now. Uh the one you see here on the top is Canton. And essentially what we do is a graphical representation of the schedule. It's called a Gant chart. So
each of those chunks that you see there are blocks for each module. And then what we've done is take that schedule that was there, apply it to where we are. So we're going to be starting module two in February. On the right hand of the bottom chart, the red line there is when the reverbera clause would
kick in. So as you can see with this one, if we were to follow a similar timeline for what Canton had, we would go beyond the the timeline for the reverta clause. Next slide. Similarly, Marorrow Marboro uh very same thing, similar timeline. It brings us right up
against it for an initial vote. And as we know with the past school project, it didn't pass on the first vote. So the anticipation here when we wouldn't pass on the first vote. And then uh DTEM. So as you can see with DTOM, this is a much longer timeline.
Again, runs way beyond the the when the reverter clause would kick in. Last one. Similar Quinsey Squantum, same exact thing. They all go beyond this deadline. So, us as a school building committee as we were digging into this and looking at these timelines, uh, it became very
evident that we were going to need to extend this reverta clause mainly due to getting accepted to MSBA. Um, and you know, with that, I'm sure there may be questions. I'll be up front to answer any. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. AOR. We will now hear
from the warrant committee. Mr. Funding, you are recognized. Thank you, madam moderator Jay Funling, town meeting member precinct 3 and chair of the warrant committee. The warrant committee supports this article uh as it would support our participation in the MSBA funding.
>> Thank you, Mr. Funding. Mr. Zul, would you like to speak on behalf of the select board regarding this article? >> Thank you. Madam moderator Benzel, chair of the select board, town meeting member uh precinct 5. Uh the select board unanimously supports this article uh and
also extends its thanks and gratitude to the school building committee uh who has done true yman's work over the last several years and clearly over the next several years as well. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Zul. We will now open article six for discussion. Does anyone
wish to be heard on article six? Yes, Miss Agugustino, you are recognized. Good trippy. Thank you, madam moderator. I rise tonight
for the second opportunity regarding the preservation of the Lamb Woods by recommending a no vote after we review the legality of what has transpired to get us to this issue.
I want to briefly read from the state forers comments. Miss Agustinino, may I ask, is this related to the extension of time? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> Because by not extending the time, then it wouldn't proceed, right?
>> Okay. Are you discussing about the fact that the land swap, if you will, happened in the first place, or are you discussing about the extension of time for this additional time period? >> I couldn't hear your last comment. >> I'm sorry. Are you discussing whether or not the land swap as it were, if you'll
call it that, should have happened in the first place, or are you discussing about the extension of time? >> It has not been processed through the land court. So, it was it may have been processed through town meeting, but it's not documented in the land court yet. So, it's all inclusive. >> I don't think that really answered my
question. Are you going to talk about the land swap itself or are you talking about the extension of time? >> If the land swap has not officially been documented in the land court, then it's all tied together with this article.
>> Hold please. I would ask our town council briefly, attorney Klene to provide his guidance on the scope of this this discussion. >> Uh Darren Klene uh through the moderator. Good evening everybody. Um there is no no litigation pending in the
land court over the land swap. As as most of you know this a special act was passed in 2004 uh confirming the land swap and the article before you tonight is simply whether to extend the deadline for the reverter clause to take place uh
to take advantage of the school funding. So um anything that's not on that issue in my opinion would be outside the scope of the article. Thank you. Therefore, Miss Agustinino, if your comments have to do with the extension, they'll be permitted. But if
they have to do with the land swap having occurred, we're going to say that's out of scope. >> Madam moderated, first of all, I forgot to introduce myself. Diane Dulio Agustinino, precinct 9, um, town meeting member, chair of the commission on disability. Town council's comment
referenced there is no land court. Um, what was the word? There's no pending litigation. That's not the issue. The issue is that we're discussing at filing for an extension. The land
court has had the information for several years and there's a legal issue why it's not going through the land court. I mean, I have many points that can be made and divided up. However, I believe the new town council may not be
aware of all the actions involved and that they do relate to this article or I would not have um risen to address the article. >> But can you speak specifically to the extension piece? That additional extension of time is what we're discussing here tonight.
>> Right. So by voting on this article to extend the land stop the the land swap to extend it when it has not officially been documented not litigated just documented in land court. Um you're
requesting a further extension of something that's not proceeding. It's not about any litigation. If you'd like me to p to discuss the the key points >> again, you can discuss the extension
question, but not the issue of whether or not the land swap was >> voted upon or occurred. >> So, my comments are to vote no on the extension, and they're based on the facts of what got us to this date, which
I can, if you'd like to pick and choose what you feel is most prevalent, but they are all prevalent. >> I don't need to pick and choose as long as they're related to the extension specifically. You can go ahead. >> All right. So, the some of the new members may not even know what the
Lambwoods is and we're talking about an extension of the land swap related to Lambwoods. So, that's why I was beginning with what Lambwoods is an educational background. I think that we should just stick to extending the time and what effect extending the time has,
>> not the issue of the lamb woods in the first place. Extending the time of the land swap continues to drag out the use of the conservation land of Lambwoods completely related and that's
why the Lambwoods conservation property is the key to the discussions. Um, for those who are new to the issue, I will actually post this so you can
read it. The Lamb Woods property is the finest upland according to the state forester in the entire state of Massachusetts. >> I'll ask town council for his opinion on that.
Can I move this? >> Uh Darren Klein through the moderator. Respectfully, I still think this is out of scope. Again, there was a special act that was passed by the legislature which supersedes any law to the to the that's in conflict with it. Um so I I don't see
how this is within the scope uh respectfully at least at this from from what's been said so far. Thank you. >> Thank you again, Miss Agustinino. We're going to limit it solely to the question of the extension, not whether the land swap should or should not have occurred
or did or did not occur in the first place. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, moderator Dylan. And then we will go directly to the question of um how we got to the state approving what they did approve if the facts provided
to them were true or false. Again, I'm not sure how that relates to >> Well, because town council just said that it's already passed the state, so it's a done deal. >> As long as it relates to the question of the extension, Miss Agustinino, then I will allow it. But anything regarding
the history of the land swap, we cannot allow. That would be out of scope according to my opinion based on attorney Klein's advice. So, can you please justify his uh town
council's point that it's out of scope because the state house approved something? >> No, I decide the scope and I decided the scope. The scope will be limited to the extension of time >> because there are various points that
deal with voting no. And while I have full expectation that this particular town meeting will proceed to vote yes, the facts do need to be on the record that the town meeting should vote no
because of legal issues. The land um swap extension simply perpetuates additional recognition of false statements.
We used and you're you're aware of this uh madame moderator. We actually used and it's documented at the attorney general's office electronic voting devices to originally pass the land swap. >> I agree this is out of scope. Miss
Agustinino, I've asked you a few times now if you could please limit your comments only to the extension. Again, not the history of the vote that took place, but the extension only. Thank you. >> With related to the extension, if you
vote tonight, you are handing the legal opposition to those who have all the arguments on the presentations made that were perpetuated on false information, perpetuated over and over and over
again. In fact, the biggest issue is um that to extend the land swap and you can clearly confer with town council and give me your ruling, but to extend the
land swap once again denies that the deed was in perpetuity when in fact >> again we're not going to talk about that, Miss Agustinino. just the extension, not what led to it. >> And as I said,
>> the issue is the legality and we can extend the lamb swap. >> Hold on, please. A point of order interrupts the speaker. Somebody raised a point of order and I want to hear what it was. Somebody had a point of order. Yes, ma'am. Say your name and your precinct, please.
the legal side of this. She should be take a seat because she does not have a point for this. >> Okay. Ma'am, one more time, I'm going to ask that you limit your comments only to the extension and not what has happened
before leading up to the land swap article being passed at town meeting. >> And that's exactly what I was stating when I was referring to passage of this article will continue to perpetuate the issue. So could you please clarify
how my standing here and saying that if you vote yes, you are perpetuating um additional legal issues. That's what I am there's no clarification. I can say I'm going to
vote no because I feel it does not stand on truth and the public statements and the public issues are well documented. So that's why I am standing here. We don't have to I I could give
you the whole list of why voting no because and the the point of order was about the legality and that's what I'm saying. passage of this article will perpetuate and it's very concerning if false
statements are made at town meeting and they're perpetuated through additional people. It's just concern. So, you will vote yes. I have no doubt about it. But I would recommend you vote no because I also Whoops, somebody's
computer. because I also want to see a school built and I don't want to see it um tied up any further. It's been tied up long enough. >> Thank you, ma'am. Yes, Mr. Zul, you are recognized.
>> Two quick things. Uh first, I I misrepresented the select board vote earlier. Uh we actually had one abstension on it, so it was three uh four and one abstension. I just want to clarify that for the record. Uh secondly, madam moderator, I just want to salute you the job that you're doing and I hope that more people listen to you.
>> Okay, no clapping, not for me or anybody. Okay. Um limited limited clapping. Um I see the gentleman over here if you would like to speak regarding this article. Thank you. >> Yes, indeed. Thank you very much. Uh good evening, John Kieran, uh precinct
6, uh town meeting member and chair of the conservation commission. At a properlyannounced open public meeting on the 23rd of October, the conservation commission considered this article and voted to pass a resolution in favor of
this and recommend to this body uh to support article six. And that's the official position of the Milton Conservation Commission. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Kieran. Ma'am, would you like to speak?
Hi everyone. I'm Kendra Quinsey Noff precinct 3 and I'm simply here to say we got the MSBA funding. We didn't think we would. Let's do it. So just vote yes, please. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Knoff. Would anybody else like to be
heard on this article? Okay, seeing none, we will now open article six for a vote. The motion on the floor is to vote to authorize the select board to petition the general court to enact
legislation for the purpose of amending chapter 147 of the acts of 2024, provided that the general court may reasonably vary the form and substance of the requested legislation within the scope of the general objectives of this petition, an act authorizing the town of
Milton to use certain land acquired for conservation purposes for school purposes. Section 1, chapter 147 of the acts of 2024 is hereby amended in section two by striking out the words June 30, 2028 and inserting in place the
following words June 30, 2033. Section two, this act shall take effect upon its passage and to act on anything related thereto this is a majority vote. The article passes. 83% yes. 12% no,
150 yes, 21 no. Okay. We will now move to article 7. Please note that the warrant committee's recommendation differs from the article submitted by the select board. Accordingly, the motion on the floor is the recommendation of the warrant
committee as set forth in bold in the October 2025 special town meeting warrant. The article reads to see if the town will vote to amend chapter 105 alcoholic beverages of the general bylaws by amending section 105-1
consumption on town property and lease premises by deleting the current text of section 105-1 and inserting in its place the language set forth in the October 2025 special town meeting warrant. This article was submitted by the select board. Mr. Zul, would you like to speak
on this article? And you are recognized. Thank you, madam moderator Benzole, um, town meeting member, precinct 5, and chair of the select board. Um, in breaking with last night's tradition, I am going to say a few words about this. Um, I am no I'm under no illusion that
we're going to have some sort of unanimous consensus around this article. Uh, I just want to review a little bit about the process that got us to this point and what we can do going forward. Uh so I think many of you but not all of you were here uh in uh February when we
considered this as part of a larger uh article that included land both town land as well as inside town structures. Uh this part was pulled out uh and discussed and ultimately sent back to committee. Following that, uh the select
board held a public hearing session uh inviting members of the town uh to come and uh and express their thoughts and ideas about this article. As a result of those uh of those discussions, the select board uh went above and beyond
the previous article uh by including uh requirements for non-transferable wristbands uh by requiring uh sketch plans for the use of the land and by reserving the right to require uh uh an event to have a location that is
specifically designated only for alcohol consumption. I believe that we uh I believe we did our uh our job well. I'm sure that we didn't do it perfectly. I know the warrant committee has then uh taken this up and uh had some initial or some additional hearings and they've
made a couple of suggestions uh in their article. I will uh later uh be making a motion to amend and return back to the original select board article. However, I just want to sort of emphasize here that our job as the select board and also as I mentioned earlier to my
colleague uh Mr. Funding on the warrant committee, our job is to put before you what we think would be the best, most enforcable and um ultimately best for the community uh rules uh around this topic and other topics. Your job as a legislative body
is to tell us the rules that you would really like to have. Then our job as the select board is to enforce those rules. So ultimately the select board will be the enforcement mechanism of whatever we decide to pass tonight.
Because of that we ask that you both in this as well as in many other respects place your faith in the select board. I know some of you don't have a lot of faith in me but I think a lot of you have faith in the process of the select board and that we try to make the best decisions possible for the town. If we
decide at the end of this evening that we have certain requirements that we want to put in on this and we go for a year and we find those requirements to be ownorous then we can revert. We are not writing the ten commandments here. We can come back and change. Similarly,
if we feel like we have passed something and then later we discover that we should have more restrictions on it again. We can come back and fix that. That is your job as the town meeting and your job as residents of the town to both inform the select board about what you expect to see as well as to set
forth the legislation that will govern this town. So at this point we are turning this discussion over to you. We did have a potential opportunity I think to negotiate and try to come up with a solution behind the scenes uh with individuals to you know to hash
something out. But the end result of that would have been a green sheet that would have been new to most of you in this room and that you would have had to have read and consumed and processed before making your decisions. And I personally don't think that that's the way that government works. I think government works when you come in
knowing what you're supposed to be voting on and then voting on it accordingly. Uh if you have individual changes or suggestions that you would like to make, of course you should be making those. But I don't think that we should be cutting deals to try to make things easier. I think ultimately, as much as we'd all like to go home at
9:00, it turns out if we go home at 11, we can still catch most of a World Series baseball game. So, let's just go forward with this process. Let's be polite to each other. Let's know that we all this the point of this article is that we would like to have some events in town that are outdoors that take
advantage of some of the spaces in town um that could attract a diverse audience that would include people that would be interested in in having a drink. Uh that's that's the extent of it. Um I believe that there is an argument to be made for that. That is why this article
is here. The select board agrees that there's an argument to be made for it and that's why we've voted unanimously the way that we have. So with that I will turn over to my colleague on the warrant committee but madam moderator I would like to rise to make an amendment after he finishes his uh his remarks if I may.
>> Thank you. >> Mr. Mr. funding with the warrant committee. Um, would you like to speak on behalf of the warrant committee with respect to this article? >> Yes. Thank you, madam moderator. Uh, Jay Funing, town meeting member, precinct 3 and chair of the warrant
committee. I do have a few slides that will help my presentation. Some of it will be be repeating what uh, Chair Zol said and some of it will be new. So, town meeting having finished article six. Seven is an article revisiting an issue the town meeting discussed in February. The goal of this article is to
allow some outdoor events to serve alcohol, which some entities in town like the Chamber of Commerce and the Milton Arts Center think will lead to more community gatherings that aren't just child focused. Next slide, please. Oh, we're already there. Great. Nope. Uh
so last February there was an article to allow alcohol in town buildings and on town land under certain conditions including that the select board must approve in each case. There are a few other conditions. Uh town meeting in its wisdom amended this article to be
restricted only to allow alcohol inside town buildings and not outside on town land. This was due town meetings action as far as I can tell was due largely to public health concerns expressed at that meeting. Next slide please. The next action was that the select
board held a public hearing on this article where they collected more views on this topic. This was in last April. This hearing had some speakers who supported the movement towards alcohol on townland with no changes and others who either opposed it or wanted changes
to the uh changes to the article before it was before it was enacted. Uh two speakers at this is it because I'm Oops. Okay, nobody move. Uh, two speakers specifically at this April forum listed
several things that they would like to see in uh, sorry, where was where was I? Yeah, listed several things they would like to see in any article involving alcohol on public land. Now, I've obviously summarized in one or two words what took several sentences to express.
I'm just doing this to sort of keep track of what's been raised, what's been brought to the town's attention and what have we noted. So, this brings us to the article as approved by the select board and printed in the warrant. This article, as Mr. Z, as Chair Zol said, it
adds restrictions to the article that was considered in February. One of the most obvious one is wristbands. You have to have a wristband if you want alcohol. The select board uh decided that would be appropriate for an outdoor event. And also the select board has the option to limit alcohol to a section of the
property. Uh next slide. Yeah, next slide. Um so now I wanted to compare this to you know sort of see have we been taking feedback from residents as we should. And if I look at the specific items that residents requested in the
April meeting, you can see that some of their some of their requests were incorporated into this article and some were not. I'd rather be glasses half full and think recognizing that yes, when this article was put together, the select board and working in handinand
with the town administrator looked at things that were mentioned at that April meeting and deliberately incorporated them into this article. Uh, and these the other articles that are not incorporated in the bylaw could be incorporated on a case-byase basis at the select board's discretion.
So, next slide is slide six. Thank you. Okay. So then what happened then in I believe it was August a group of residents proposed an article to the select board and this uh this article I've listed out I think they had nine
bullet points and it said uh I've listed out the nine bullet points that these residents asked for and again I've summarized in one or two words what takes several sentences but briefly uh they raised nine points and of the nine points that they raised
Four of them are addressed by the select board article. Having wristbands, having a sketch plan, uh limiting someone to only two drinks at a time. One of the items they raised is optional under the select board. The select board can choose to have a designated artic area,
a beer garden or not. Um so that's call it four and a half out of nine. And uh where does that lead us? Then the warrant committee took up this issue. I'm going to leave it at this slide for now. have to preserve the suspense. Uh then the warrant committee took up this issue. As I said last night, the warrant
committee for each issue assigned two members to be the experts on this article. And the the experts on this article, they earned their paycheck. They went out and discussed this with many people in town. They discussed it with the board of health. They discussed it with the select board members. They
discussed it with the chamber of commerce. Milton Arts Center, turn the page. Uh, also one of the warrant committee experts spent an hour discussing this issue with the local public health professionals who feel strongly about this issue and who are
the ones that suggested the nine items here. No, no, no, no. Still have to preserve the suspense. Thank you. Um, sorry. So, one of our one of our one of our members spent an hour discussing with the uh public health professionals. So then came back to the warrant
committee and the warrant committee had most of one one of our meetings was devoted to this issue. And when we discussed it, we discussed all nine of the things you see up there. Well, not so much the ones that the select board had already approved, but all the ones that either select board had as optional
or the select board had not approved. We discussed every single one. The logic was this is probably going to come up and be discussed at town meeting. If it's going to be discussed in town meeting, we should discuss it here first to see what we think about it. Um, now is probably a good time for the next
slide. Thank you very much. Uh, we made at the end of the day, we made one change of substance, I would say. Uh, in general, you'll see we didn't make very many changes to select board's recommendation. In general, the feeling of the warrant committee was that we
wanted to trust to this select board and future select boards. We wanted to trust their discretion. Every event is going to be different. It's going to be a different time of year. It's going to be a different location. It's going to be aimed at families, going to be aimed at adults. Every event is going to be different. We didn't want to bind the
hands of select board. We figure they're answerable to all the voters. We wanted to in general, as much as reasonable, trust their discretion in granting these licenses. The one change we did make is we made a requirement that the person
hosting the event had to post the alcohol concentration of every drink. This beer is this alcohol concentration. This wine is that alcohol concentration. We made that change. That was one of the recommendations of the public health experts in town. We made that change because we thought a it's helpful. It's
helpful to the people consuming the alcohol to know how strong they are. We also thought that this would neither encumber the host nor interfere with the select board judgment. So we felt fine making that change. Uh so now where does this take us? Uh one last thing I will
add. After we discussed and voted on this and after your warrant went to print, the board of health of the town of Milton addressed this issue. The board of health supports the article as printed in the warrant. Now you will see as printed in the warrant, this is a new thing. Instead of reprinting the whole
article, it just says we support the article as printed. Then we make a couple changes. One change about wristbands and the change I just mentioned about saying the alcohol strength of each uh each drink. So we hope that this article leads to more outdoor events to adults in town. And we
encourage a yes vote on this article. >> Thank you, Mr. Funling. We will now open the article for discussion. Mr. Zul stated that he would like to make a motion. Go ahead, Mr. Zul. Uh thank you madam moderator. Um I I will be very
brief about this. Um while uh I think if the warrant committee had only recommended the uh wristband change to include both purchasers and consumers, we would have had no issue with this. Um the question of the ABV for each product um uh in addition to working at school
of public health uh for the last four years, I also have brewed my own beer. It may not come as a surprise to some of you. And I can tell you that ABV is something that I know a little bit about. And uh while it's easy to understand what an ABV would be on uh
for example a a beer or a wine uh which usually labels that um for a mixed drink uh ABV can vary and it can vary in ways that won't be able to be measured by a bartender. So, for example, if you know what the ABV is for a a a one unit of a
liquor and you know that that's 80 per or it said 80 proof or 40%. If you add some ginger ale on top of that and squeeze a lime into it, you no longer know what the ABV is. You can guesstimate, but you don't know. And so what that would do would basically uh uh
remove the ability for anyone to serve uh anything other than prepackaged cocktails that they where they'd know and probably have purchased uh the the pre-made cocktails so that they know specifically what the ABV is. We also felt that this was ownorous and that it
was a requirement that not uh the indoor events didn't require. Um so again while out while the wristband section to us we could have gone either way the ABV we felt was ownorous. Um I would like to commend again Mr. Funding and his group and the work that they did. Uh we feel
that they uh as as much as we did spent time thinking about this what was appropriate what wasn't appropriate. So if if I may, madam moderator, what I would like to do is prop propose a amendment to uh to for the body to consider the article as uh put forward
by the select board uh rather than the article as recommended by the warrant committee. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Now this time I'm going to remember do I hear a second? >> Okay, perfect. Now we'll open the motion to amend for discussion
after we hear from the warrant committee. Thank you, Mr. Funland. Thank you, madam moderator. Jay Funling, town meeting member precinct 3 and chair of the warrant committee. Uh the chair of the select board just raised two good issues. I'd like to address them in
reverse order. The second one I heard was why is this more restrictive than indoor gatherings? And I have a very easy answer to that. This is more restrictive than the rules around indoor gatherings because that's what we heard town meetings say last February. Town
meeting had a choice of voting to have the same rules apply to indoor events and outdoor events. Town meetings said no to that. My interpretation of that is they want some more rules around outdoor events. This is a this is in fact a rule that
applies to outdoor events and not indoor events. Trying to respond what town meeting asked for. similar to wristbands. The the select board uh in their initial article required wristbands outdoors, not indoors. That's a change. We think that's responsive to
what uh what town meeting had. Um and the second question is about mixed drinks. I I I have full confidence in the ability of professional caterers to to comply with this. There are lots of
ways. For one thing, how much you know, first of all, if an event only has wine or beer, this is not a burden at all. You just say how strong each wine and beer is. Let's say you are planning on having mixed drinks. If a professional bartender is serving a mixed drink to
someone and that bartender doesn't know how much alcohol is in it, we've got a bigger problem. So, the bartender knows how much alcohol is in it. And I'm I'm sure I'm sure I'm sure he he raised questions like, "What if you have a rum and coke, but you ask for a little more
Coke in there? Does that change the alcohol by volume?" Again, I'm certain the caterers can handle this issue. One way they could handle is just say, "Here's the alcohol by volume of the rum. We've got rum. We've got whiskey. We've got tequila. Here's the alcohol volume of those. We're going to make you
drinks out of it." I think that would satisfy this law. Another way is to say, okay, I assume that everything is going to have 1 ounce of alcohol and 3 ounces of non-alcohol. So, rum drinks are this, vodka drinks are this, tequila drinks are this. Now, are they worried about a
police officer in Milton ordering a rum and coke and then getting more Coke in there and then the ice melts and then the alcohol by volume has changed? They might take it to the police lab and say, "Ah, the alcohol by volume is off." I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being sarcastic. This is a serious issue. I just think
it's a professional caterer can solve this problem. I'm not worried about it. So that is the comment from the warrant committee at this time. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Funling. Would anybody else like to speak? Yes. Thank you.
Mr. Wells, you are recognized. I know how to work this because my wife has one. Thank you, madam moderator. I rise to speak in support of the original article that's is presented by the select board. I'll
be very honest. I'm the one who created this. I'm the one who brought this forward. This started probably four years ago. And and I'll be very brief in how I came to this. What what the chair of the um war committee fails to tell you is that under chapter 138, a select
board or a city mayor is the per person who issues a one-day liqu. The agency charge of reviewing that license is the police department and the chief of police. The chief of police signs off on it and having been in that job for many
years, I signed many of them. I first came with this idea. I first presented this even before Mr. Milano was here going back when um Amry Fagger was interim after Mr. Denah because many of you in this group in this room belong to different charitable groups in town
whether it's a parish MF and so under the law under chapter 138 you can apply for a one day license it's reviewed by the police department and it's then approved by the select board. One of the things that started to bother me years
ago was the liability attached to that. So, say you're the president of the whatever church and you're going to have a fundraiser. You come and get a one-day liquor license. You go out get the liquor. You buy it. You you get a bunch of donors to, you know, people in your group to sell the liquor, but they're
not tipster certified. There's no liability insuranceances, all of that. A few years ago, I realized that Massachusetts had in fact passed under Chapter 138, what is known as the provisions of a caterer's license. And what that means is instead of you, the
organization doing it, I am very honored as Kathy Fagan and and um Linder Lee Sheridan to sit on the board of the Milton Music Fest. We're 13 years into this. We started out in a you know getting someone ourselves getting for
the past nine years we've used a cater license because they meet all the standards set forth in 138. You can tell them wristbands, things like that you want. You can create a beer garden. But as far as, you know, posting of alcohols, we don't do that in any of the
establishments here in this town. We don't do that. Any of the private, there are many privates now that apply for workers. Historic New England, Forbes House, uh, Curry College, Milton Academy, many, many that apply. We don't attach this to any of them. So, I
created this as a reasonable way to protect those who are the applicants. you who are going to apply for whatever organization or whatever event you're running. And I even went so far to to approach both Steel and Ry and and um
Nvara years ago suggesting that they do this because it cost them $1,500 a year just to have that license. And Navara created you'll see the choice called Cypress Cading. That is the caterers license which to do. It can't be a primary. It can't be Richard Wells and Winston say we're gonna start a cater and so you can't
have you have to have a primary established place to do it the cater's licenses subsequent I'll leave you with this I tell you this as someone who devoted most of my professional life to protecting people in this town if I thought that what we
proposed in any way was either unreasonable unsafe I would be the first one to vote no I am thrilled if we adapt as written by the slug But I don't think you need you don't need any. It's not in the if if those things were required, they would have been in the statute and
they are not. So I ask that you please support the select board's recommendation with the amended amended here. Thank you very much for hearing me on this. >> Thank you, Mr. Wells. Sir, would you like to speak on the motion to amend? Go ahead.
>> Good evening. Uh Joe Parvecio, town meeting member, precinct 9. Um, I'm also president of the Milton Chamber, so I want to kind of give a little pers a little of our little of our perspective. U, but I rise in favor of the article.
Uh, the Milton Chamber of Commerce is a not for-p profofit group of about 125 plus business local businesses and we hold a handful of events over the course of of the year uh to bring the community together. Um, some of those are, you
know, the Halloween stroll, the holiday stroll and tree lighting, and more recently now the, uh, back to business that we do in September. And, um, at these events under the prior, uh, you know, prior to this, uh, prior to the
changes, uh, we did make alcohol available and, um, we followed all the rules. We um filed a an application with the town for approval. We brought in a
vendor that that um was licensed. We had a li limited seasonal uh we had a limited seasonal menu of of drinks and and beers. Uh we IDed everybody that was IDed all the consumers. We had a police
detail to monitor um monitor everything and make sure nothing got out of hand. And we also uh had event liability insurance. And of all the events that we had, which were, you know, numerous, we
never had an incident um or even had anything close to an incident. They were all peaceful social gatherings of the community to come enjoy each other, celebrate the local businesses, support the local businesses. And so
frank quite frankly I was we were all kind of a little surprised maybe a little you know disappointed to hear that we were kind of an example of why alcohol should not be provided at you know these controlled events and um in
fact I'd argue that we demonstrated how it could be offered and consumed responsibly. Um, so thank you for listening and I ask that you vote in support of the article. Thank you. >> Thank you. Would anybody else like to be
heard on the motion to amend? >> This is the amendment. This is they're moving to amend to the original article which is what's on the screen. Yes, sir. Mr. Chimman, you're recognized. >> Thank you, madam moderator. Michael Chimman, Precinct 2. Uh, I
speak to oppose this amendment. No, wait. I'm getting confused. To support this amendment and oppose the warrant committee's um recommended changes to the original article. Um, I want to say at the
beginning that I'm tremendously impressed by this warrant committee at this town meeting. And uh, in past 10 years, the warrant committee recommendations have gotten shorter and shorter and shorter until they were just a sentence almost sometimes. And town
meetings willingness to uh, vote down the recommendation also went up during that time. And I'm glad to see a very thorough recommendation printed in the warrant here and a wonderful explanation by the warrant
committee chair. That said, I don't think the warrant committee's role is to pretend that they are the select board and make these kinds of changes to what the elected members of the select board have put forth. They can they can stay
in the recommendation what they feel or disapprove but this is getting nitpicky these what the warrant committee changes do to what the select board said did the warrant committee is an appointed and madam moderator did a wonderful job appointing them but
they're not elected and I think uh the elected members of the select board deserve more respect about what they are doing here and they're the ones who are accountable to the voters. So, I I
endorse this uh amendment. >> Thank you, Mr. Chimman. Would anybody else like to speak to the motion to amend? >> Okay, seeing none, we will now
open the vote on the motion to amend. The amendment is the article that is printed under article 7 in the warrant. >> Let me explain again. >> Thank you. So what happened was
the warrant committee had originally made a recommendation that was different than article 7 in the additions that Mr. Funling explained. Mr. Zul, the chair of the select board has asked that we revert back to the
original article. In order to do that, because the warrant committee's recommendation is the motion before the body, it's a little bit of a procedural uh strange thing, but Mr. Zul had to move to amend the recommendation of the
warrant committee back to the original article. So, what we're voting on now is whether or not to move to amend back to the original article. If you vote no, we will then move back to the warrant committee's recommendation, which is the
motion on the floor. If you vote yes, then we will move to the motion as amended, which is the article in the first place. So, right now, if you vote yes to amend, you go back to article 7.
We will then vote on article 7 effectively. If you vote no, we will go back to the warrant committee's recommendation. Does that make sense? Okay. Happy to explain it again if people need. So, we are now voting on
the motion to amend the recommendation back to effectively article 7. So, if you wish to amend it back to article 7, vote yes. If you do not, and we will go back to the warrant committee's recommendation and discuss that, vote
no. Otherwise, you can abstain by pressing C or pressing nothing. And thank you, Miss Potter, for uh raising that issue. Okay. The emotion to amend passes. 87%
yes, 12% no, 162 yes, 22 no. So we are now back to what article 7 said. So does anybody else have discussion on article 7? Yes sir, you are recognized.
>> Thank you madam moderator Mike Zulas precinct 3 town meeting member. God forgive me. I have a motion to amend. And I think uh I think you probably have it. >> Yes. So, for those of us that um have
requested printouts, I did put printouts of Mr. Zulus's motion in the front of the room. There are limited copies, and I would ask that the warrant clerk, uh the warrant committee clerk can pull that up when she gets a chance. Nick. >> Madam moderator, if I may, um perhaps we
can change the um document with the amendments to reflect the now passed amendments of the select board. Is that possible, Karen? >> Yes. You'd have to speak to the warrant committee clerk regarding that. Let's take a quick 5m minute break.
We'll come back at 8:43. Not great at math. If people need copies, it's over there on the table. 8:43. We'll come back. Thank you. Okay, if everybody can come back to order. Thank you for indulging us on that
break. Mr. Zulus, if you'd like to continue, sir. >> Thank you, madam moderator. Uh, Mike Zulis, precinct three town meeting member. Um, thank you all. After that delay, we will hope to get, you know,
maybe double digit votes possibly. Um, I want to thank the uh chair of the war committee and the chair of the select board for reviewing some of the history. Oh, do you want to put the amendment up, Karen? Um, so uh the the difficulty that um we
had was uh accepting some of the warrant committee's recent changes and then also putting in uh the suggested amendment from the public health professionals. And so that's what we have here. It's not quite as complicated as it looks.
There are three essential issues. Uh one is uh whether the age identifying wristbands will go to purchase or consume. Um two u and this is the one that I'll discuss a little bit more at
length. Whether there will be a beer garden for these events required or whether it will be left to the discretion of the select board. and three uh and whe three whether the um beer gardens will allow individuals uh
under 21 years of age. And then four actually um whether there could be um uh alcohol um alcohol events in um on town land with playgrounds. So that's it uh
in a nutshell. I am not the expert in this. Um, and Karen, if you could put that first slide, I'd appreciate it. So, um, we are fortunate in this town, uh, to have residents who have expertise in various
walks walks of life. One of those is in public health. and the listing that you see there um of the seven individuals and their credentials. These are the individuals that led us back in February when we considered this issue before.
They led us to amend the article and they led us to take a cautionary approach with respect to alcohol on town land with the idea that we would try to come up with a workable solution that worked for everyone. And that's what these seven public health professionals
spent several months doing. uh these they they attended the select board's hearing on this and um researched uh best practices, researched what was done in other communities and came up in May
actually just uh Jay in May they came up with a proposed amendment and circulated it to everyone to the select board to the chamber to the town administrator um and um and that was the the best practice as determined by these seven
public health professionals. Um there wasn't any there wasn't much discussion after that and we don't need to go into that because we we we are where we are. Um and so where we are is um uh we have and you'll hear from some of these
public health professionals and they'll tell you why some of these things are important and why some of these things work work together to protect to to provide a work workable solution for the town. And it I think there was a valiant effort uh without public health
professional uh consultation. There was a val valiant effort by the town administrator and the select board uh and and the warrant committee to kind of pick and choose uh what they thought would work. But these things work together. It's almost like a Jenga game,
right? And if you pull out one tile, it's possible that the whole the whole structure comes down. So, um, as I said, I don't have expertise in public health, but I do know a little bit about how
sometimes these bylaws take effect in practice. And what um, what I would like to just focus on very briefly is the idea of discretion and the select board's discretion with respect to a
beer garden. Right? So, the proposal from the uh public health professionals and Karen, would you mind putting that amendment back up because it might be easier? So, the proposal from the public health professionals is you need to have a
separate beer garden for these events. Um, and um that would be required and would be required by the applicant and then the select board would have to determine exactly how big it would be and where it would go. Um, but you would need a separate beer garden. The select
boards and the warrant committee's view is the select board should have discretion to determine whether it whether there will be a beer garden, a separate beer garden in these events. And what I'm here to tell you is that if
there is select board discretion to determine whether there will be a beer garden, there never will be a beer garden. It will never happen. because this is the only opportunity to get public health expertise to weigh in
on this public health. Uh when when the select board considers a one-day license, they will not con they will not consult with public health experts. Those decisions are made in about 30 seconds. Those decisions are not vetted. They're not reviewed. They're made in
about 30 seconds. And there will not be a beer garden. Now, let's say I'm wrong. Let's say I'm sometimes it happens, right? I'm always in error, but never in doubt. So sometimes I'm wrong. Let's say I'm wrong. Maybe someday a select board
will say, you know what, for this event, we do need a beer garden. Let's put a beer garden here for this event, even though we haven't done it on prior occasions. What will happen in that case? What will that applicant have to say? That applicant will say, "Look, you've never required a beer garden
before. you've never required a beer guard in this event and this event and this event and all of a sudden you're going to require a beer guard in me. That will lead to claims of arbitrary and capriccious decisions, perhaps prejudice, bias, um perhaps
discrimination. It will be an untenable position for the select board to have to decide when to have a beer garden, when not to have a beer garden. If we have a standard, if we have a standard that our public health professionals have said, look, it's important to have a beer
garden, that will make the decision more workable for the select board and not less workable. If if a if a beer garden is not required, we won't have beer gardens. If it is required, we will have them. Now, why is that important? Why is it? Now, you'll hear from the public
health prof professionals why it's important. Um, let me just give you my quick two cents. Um, uh, look, um, I, uh, my favorite drink is called a
kipadinia, right? It's a It's a It's a drink that's made with um a a sugarcane based alcohol from Brazil. And you muddle the uh the kashasa, right, with with limes and with sugar. And it's like a it's like a it's like a vodka gimlet
on steroids, right? And and from fall through spring, I I like Keianti. I like Bordeaux. In the summer, I like Procco. If I'm going to have a beer, I like a well poured Guinness, right? And I would love to enjoy any of
those with anyone in this crowd at an event on townowned land. Right? But let's do it the right way. Let's do it in a way that the families who attend these events who don't want to have alcohol in their faces for the whole
event don't have it. Let's do it in a way so that the adults who don't want alcohol in their faces for these whole events don't have to have it. Let's do it in a way that works for everyone. Let's do it in a way that works for all the residents of this town so that everyone can enjoy these events. And and
that's what that's what this amendment does. That's what the amendment does with respect to the beer garden. That's what the amendment does with respect to having having um uh people under 21 in the beer garden. And that's what the amendment does with respect respective
playgrounds. It allows all of our residents to enjoy these events and to enjoy that. So, um I appreciate your time. Um I I will say one final thing. Um um we just had an event um that the
chamber sponsored, the the um the Halloween event on um this past weekend. Um and it was a huge success. So on one level, I'm really not sure what problem we're trying to solve here, right? But I
recognize that there is a desire for this and I recognize that we should come up with a compromise to do it, but let's do it in the right way. Let's do it in a way that all the residents can enjoy it. And so I I look forward to hearing from the the the people who have the real
expertise on this, which are the public health professionals. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Zulus. Mr. has made a motion is set forth on the screen. Do I hear a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Thank you. And does anybody wish
to be heard on Mr. Zulus' motion? Ma'am, you are recognized. And we'll come over here and go back. Thank you very much, madame moderator. Uh, and thank you to our select board and our warrant committee for your
consideration of the article and this subject matter. Um, I agree with uh, chair Zull that this is the correct form to be discussing this. This is a very important uh decision for our community
and I think we are the people to make this decision. So I I appreciate your attention. Um I rise to speak in favor of the amendment to article 7 offered by fellow member Mr. Zulus. I'm speaking on behalf
of a group of Milton residents who have decades of experience in public health and substance use prevention in particular. And I'd like to offer my own little history of how we got here. And I am going to be brief. The sale and consumption of alcohol and town
property, buildings, and land has been against our bylaw for decades. Before about 2005, Milton was in fact a dry town. Changing that law so we're not a dry town. >> Miss Carol, can you hold on a second? I think they had a point of order in the back. Did you have a point of order,
ma'am? >> Oh, sorry. Next slide. >> Did you want to change the slide? Okay, go ahead. >> That's my fault. >> Um, changing that law allowed us to have the wonderful destination dining options that we enjoy and that help increase our
town's revenue, but the restriction on alcohol on town property remained. Despite the bylaw in recent years, very, thank you. Um, there have been events where alcohol was available on town land. Um, oversightes happen. After a
few years of this, somebody noticed that it was actually against the bylaw and that's why the alcohol bylaw came to last February's town meeting. Next slide. At that last town meeting, we ultimately approved, as you heard, alcohol sale and consumption in town buildings, but not
on town land by close vote. The group of public health professionals who drafted tonight's amendment supported that outcome. Next slide. Uh, a quote I heard again tonight
uh was that we did it, meaning we sold and consumed alcohol outside for years and nothing bad ever happened. This is where I'd like to clarify something for everyone. Milton has done a good job mitigating the public safety
effects of alcohol use. It is time to pay attention to the public health effects. Next slide. Public health is about prevention. I'm only I've only been working in public health for about seven years. And this was a hard concept for me to wrap
my head around because when you do prevention well, there's nothing to see. Next slide. Public health efforts around the world have saved more lives than have been lost by all wars combined. Preventative
efforts have drastically reduced or eliminated these devastating diseases and accidents. What would our world look like if these advances in public health science had not been made? I can't imagine. I don't think we'd be here.
Next slide. Public health takes community effort and collective responsibility. When we all embrace public health strategies, speeds li speed limits, vaccinations, seat belts, pollution regulations, limiting youth access to
alcohol as examples, we can have a safer and healthier world for everyone. We can do this together and it's really more important now than ever. Next slide. So, why is alcohol a public health
concern and not only a public safety concern? Consuming alcohol increases the risk of developing at least seven kinds of cancer. 170,000 people die each year from excessive alcohol use in the US and
4,000 of those are young people. Alcohol also contributes to violence, suicide, depression, individual and family trauma. These are not the effects that that we're often thinking about.
These are things that happen over time because people are exposed and using alcohol over decades. And this is what we're trying to prevent. Um, alcohol use costs this country billions and billions of dollars. Next
slide. Milton is not immune. Alcohol is the most commonly used drug among Milton youth. Milton adults consider alcohol to be a top health challenge. 14% of older adults in Milton drink
excessively versus only 9% in the state. In Massachusetts, 55,000 ER visits were alcohol-related. In 2019, alcohol-related disorders were among the top 10 most common primary diagnosis in Massachusetts. Another
stat, teen focused groups in Milton and where they said alcohol is normalized in our town. Next slide. Alcohol policies impact the health of our community. They should be informed
by public health evidence and goals. Next slide. We provided evidence-based strategies to reduce the public health harms from alcohol to the select board and the warrant committee. Some of those are were included in both versions of
article 7. However, they don't go far enough to protect our youth. Next slide. The public health goals of our amendment support the enforcement of minimum legal drinking age limit and limit youth exposure to alcohol. All clauses in our
amendment work together to provide clear and unambigu ambiguous public health guidelines for one-day liquor licenses. In our view, we're we're helping the select board um who have to make who are required to make these decisions on
one-day licenses. It's providing them some guidelines so they don't have to worry about it. It's there. These are the rules that people have to follow. It's very clear. Next slide. Enforcement of the minimum legal drinking age is an effective strategy
for reducing underage sales and consumption. When having outdoor events, Milton should designate a space for the sale and consumption of alcohol, allow access only to those 21 and up, require the wristbands, and this is important
because people who start drinking earlier in life have a higher risk for using alcohol excessively or developing an alcohol use disorder later in life, as well as all the other negative health outcomes that I referred to earlier.
We also recommend the additional clause of restricting licenses from town land that includes playgrounds. Also focusing on limiting exposure to youth. Next slide. I'm sorry, one more.
These are just some of the resources that we use to inform our recommendations. The federal government has an interest in providing communities with the best possible research so that evidence-based strategies can be implemented locally. They want to decrease substance use because, as I
said, it costs our country billions of dollars every year. This is what public health does. I'm the former director of the Milton Coalition. We were solely focused on preventing youth substance use.
We worked hard, the coalition as a whole, the health department worked hard to prevent youth substance use and those numbers over the 10 years decreased dramatically. We made terrific progress.
Um, not including this amendment would be a step backwards. I pick one more. I'm standing here representing a group of these highly qualified public health practitioners. We've worked hard to
draft this amendment for you that will protect the health of our community, especially our youth at events with alcohol. You know, we could have just voted no on the whole thing. This is our compromise.
and I encourage you to vote yes on this amendment. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Carol. Ma'am, you're recognized. I have given permission to you to speak here tonight, although you're not a town meeting member. Go ahead. >> Thank you very much, Madam Moderator.
Dear members of the Milton Town Meeting, thank you so much for the opportunity to speak on the topic of article 7 and this amendment. My name is Dr. Margie Skar and I reside in precinct 7. I've lived in Milton for over 11 years and I have
two kids in the Milton public school system who are probably often in this auditorium. I'm also a professor and chair of the department of public health and community medicine at the Tus University School of Medicine. And for the past two
decades and even more than that, my research has focused on designing interventions around adolescent substance use prevention. I started out as a clinical social worker working in drug rehabilitation centers with adolescence and young adults who were
addicted to drugs. And I have spent my life working to prevent substance use disorders among adolescents because we know what happens when young people start using even if it seems innocuous, even without incident. We know what the long-term ramifications are.
So in addition to having a vested interest in youth in our town, I'm also recognized nationally as an expert in this field in adolescent substance use. And the majority of my research focuses on the family environment and the role that adults play in adolescent sub
substance use. Therefore, I feel particularly equipped to provide context and recommendations for this article and this amendment. If we are going to allow drinking on public property in our town, there really need to be safeguards in place.
Teens model behaviors of adults that engage that they engage with the most. And research has demonstrated that family socialization around alcohol, which includes not only when parents approve or are permissive of their child drinking, but also how parents drink in
front of their kids, impacts their kids alcohol use. Research also shows that there are stronger impacts of parental socialization on al of alcohol on younger compared to older teens. So it's not and it's also not just the
parents. It's teens are influenced by other adults in their lives as well such as their parents' friends or their friends parents. And this is especially true at outdoor events when where drinking is often visible and normalized. And this is not to say that parents
should never have alcohol in front of their kids. We're talking about something specific. But we also don't need alcohol everywhere all the time without limitations. And again, we are talking about events on our town property.
In my expert opinion, having this uh article with outdoor spaces without commonly used safeguards, including restricting it to designated places, increases the risk of youth drinking in our town.
And even without obvious incidents, again thinking public safety, even without those incidents that we may see, um something that may seem harmless may not be over time. And with teens, we actually need to think about playing the
long game. It's not just about what happens day in and day out. It's actually what they see day in and day out that affects them over time. During the teen years, the brain is still growing and changing in significant ways. And the part of the brain that's responsible for
decision-making, controlling impulses, and thinking through consequences is not fully developed. The part of the brain that is most fully developed in this in this developmental period is around emotions, which is why teens are naturally more likely to take risks, act
on impulse, and not always think through the long-term effects of their choices. Furthermore, alcohol use during this stage of life can dramatically impact brain development and increase the risk of alcohol alcoholism later in life. And we know that nine out of 10 adults with
a substance use disorder started using before the age of 18. This includes sips of alcohol, sips, right? So when people think, "Oh, it's not a big deal for my teen to have a sip," that actually starts a trajectory. There is strong
science and evidence behind this. We have come so far in Milton and seeing incredible reductions in youth drinking over the past decade and we need to do everything that we can to continue this trend. Young people have so much
socialization around alcohol in Milton and we really need to have these safeguards in place around events in our town property and for these reasons I ask that you vote yes on this amendment. Thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you, Dr. Skier. Now we're moving
over here. Yes, sir. You are recognized. >> Thank you, madam moderator. Tomaso, town meeting member, precinct 2. I oppose this amendment uh on two grounds. One, I don't like restricting the discretion of
the select board. I feel painting ourselves into a corner across the board just limits our flexibility. for what the spirit of this bylaw is intended. For me, I see this as
allowing the community to responsibly consume alcohol at community events. So, I'd like the select board to have the discretion to decide whether a beer garden is appropriate, which locations are appropriate. There
might be instances where in my neighborhood, Shields Park may be ideal for what somebody's looking to do. Happens to be a playground there. We adopt this. Shields Park is just categorically off the table.
I mentioned the community aspect. This is where I want to talk about the beer garden notion and the sort of the look of that. It was a wonderful event few weeks back. Manning Park, the deck, East Milton Square, Milton Art Center had a bunch of
bands play, including mine. And it was it was fantastic. And there were food trucks, vendors, information booths, people mingling. It's the mingling. It's the community coming together, drifting, talking to
each other. and now all of a sudden you want to put a corral in the corner for those that want to drink. It just immediately feels different and in a way that I don't think is what we're looking
to do as a community. So, thank you for listening. I urge a no vote on this amendment. >> Thank you, sir. >> I see no one over here. Mr. Humphre, go ahead.
Thank you. Jackson Humphrey's precinct date. Um well, I I do have a question for Mr. Zulus. And I I um regarding the the playground provision. Um I'm aware that that at the town landing there's a sand pit area with some play structure
plastic equipment. And so while it may not be the intention of your amendment to restrict events with alcohol at the landing, my concern is maybe this is a matter of parcelage, but the the land where the uh the farmers market is is
occurs that this this amendment could accidentally or inadvertently be banning any events with alcohol down by the town landing. So, I'm interested if you if you had considered that question because the word playground um in in a way could
be vague and I'm I'm concerned that that sand pit area could be considered a playground. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Humphre. Mr. Zulus, if you can answer that question. Yes, sure. Yeah, Oh, we're waiting. I see one, two, Mr.
Chimman, three people wishing to speak on this. Okay, if there are other people that wish to speak on this, they can feel free to come down. Mr. Zulus, do you have an answer to Mr. Humphrey's question? >> So, thank you, Madam Mo. Mike Zulus, precinct three town meeting member. So the member's question is um what how do
we define a playground is that so so the the intention was um townowned playgrounds but recognizing that um that definition could be ambiguous the group is is um is willing to delete that
portion of the amendment. Okay. So you can you can delete the number number six. >> So you're asking effectively to change your amendment then. >> Yes.
>> To delete that. >> Yes, madam. >> Okay, that's fine. And now we will hear from Mr. Chinman. the lady in the front, Mr. Walker. And
then um >> go ahead. Yes, Mr. Walker. >> Loy Walker, town meeting member, precinct 10. Uh madam moderator, just a a question which may be a point of order. I don't see this as an amendment.
I see it as a series of amendments. How do you see it? >> Yes. So, Mr. Walker. There's two ways that we can handle that specific issue. If the body wishes, we can either divide
the question, which would require seven, I believe town council can correct me, seven people to agree that they wish to divide the question. We can vote on each sequentially, or we can make them three separate motions to amend. I would put myself in the category that
asks that each of these be considered a separate amendment so that we can vote on them separately. >> Okay. Sorry, I couldn't really hear you. Could you uh repeat yourself? >> I would put myself in a category uh where we should consider each of these separate amendments and therefore we should vote on them separately.
>> Okay. Thank you. Let me um confer with town council for a moment. Let's try this. So, Mr. Walker having confirmed with town council what we could do. It's 10
people, excuse me, 10 people would have to agree that they wouldn't want to divide it. Could you clarify what you would want to be divided keeping in mind that that playground language has now been um deleted by Mr. Zulus and his group?
So I I would see item two as separate. Item three and four as related. I'm sorry. Item items three, four and five as related. >> So are you asking to divide it into three separate
parts? One being paragraph two, the age identifying non-transferable wristbands provided individuals 25 years and older. One with three and four regarding the beer garden and then one regarding five individuals 25 years of age shall not be
allowed in the beer garden. Those three separate things. Okay. >> If there are 10 people that would stand. >> Yes, sir. Hold on. Yes, sir. understand. >> Thank you, sir. So to your point, town
council reminded me that we're actually going to have to vote on the motion to amend first before we can divide because the motion to amend is a higher level motion, higher priority. So we can come back to your point, Mr. Walker, in a moment. Mr. Chimman, did you wish to
speak on the motion to amend? >> Thank you, madam moderator. Michael Chimman, precinct 2. I think often I don't know often but multiple times issues have come before the body that I believe enjoy broad support and the argument is made think of the children
and that applies to all sorts of things. um the the uh what's the development? The ice house development. Town meeting members got up and said, "Think of the children that will be harmed by that
proposal, either being hit by cars or being exposed to the inevitable lottery and cigarette sales at the convenience store." And uh when we discussed zoning changes regarding uh allowing marijuana sales in Milton,
boy did we get think of the children. And now Milton does not have a dispensary. In all the towns that we like to think we're like in envy, there's dispensaries all over. I I'm tired to tell you the truth of the think
of the children argument because the influence on children of alcohol at town events is an eyropper squeeze into an ocean compared to the private drinking that goes on, the social drinking that
goes on, the uh parties at people's houses, the drinking at the crater at Cunningham Park where parents drive their kids to drop them off. This is this is the things where children learn about alcohol drinking and where the
delir delirious effects of alcohol uh form on children. The the town property events is not even close to that kind of influence. And I think
trying to water down this article, not trusting the select board. I agree completely um with two speakers before me, his point about we don't need to do this and I I oppose this amendment.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ma'am, you are recognized. Yes. I'm going to disclose right now. That's my mother. >> Please. Okay. I know >> that was an unnecessary disclosure. Madam moderator,
>> no clapping. >> Please disregard that disclosure. >> My name is Susan Janeiro. I'm a precinct member from precinct 8, a fairly new precinct member. I stand against this
amendment. I stand for what we heard from the select board. And the reason that I do is because I consider myself to also be very knowledgeable about public health. I'm a doctorally prepared nurse. I was the dean of the school of
nursing at Boston College for 13 years where I am now a full professor. I am teaching our public health course to our undergraduate students, wonderful students, we all agree, who will be providing health care, I hope for many of us in excellent fashion. And I also
teach evidence-based practice. I believe in the evidence. I think the people who spoke, who are public health experts, made excellent points that I'm tremendously in support of. So, thank you very much. Nobody wants more cancer deaths from alcohol. Nobody wants more
kids drinking. What I don't see is the evidence that supports having a beer garden is leading to that. I understand that there might be times and places that I'll use these words coring people
off is not possible makes a difference for what you can or can't have and it just logically doesn't fit together. So the original amendment that spoke to all the safeguards that were in place made sense to me from a public health perspective and I stand to just let you
know because nobody wants to vote against public health. We all believe in public health. So I think that if you support vote this down and support the select board, you are not voting against public health. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you, Mom. I know it's kind of funny. All right, sir. You're recognized. >> David Cornish, precinct 10. I think Mr. Zulus, when he first stood to uh bring up the amendment, he mentioned something about correlating it with the previous
amendment that we we just uh voted for. And so I'm looking at number six here. The vendor shall post the product description. That's the one we just voted to delete. Right. So did you want to delete that one? >> Oh, okay. All right. I didn't see it on
the original. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. >> Yes, Mr. Zo. >> Thank you, Ma. Madam moderator, after consultation with my uh peers on the select board, uh we are prepared to accept the second one, age identifying
non-transferable wristbands, etc. uh or consume alcoholic beverages uh as a friendly amendment. Uh and then we we would recommend that the uh body then uh votes on 345 as a as a group. >> Okay.
>> Mr. Zulus >> and that is acceptable and agreed to. >> Okay. Mr. Funling >> Jay Funling Tommy member precinct 3 chair of the warrant committee as it is still the warrant committee's motion before the body the warrant committee
also accepts it as a friendly amendment. >> Thank you. Does anybody else wish to speak on the motion to amend? >> Yes, Mr. Walker.
Loy Walker, town meeting member, precinct 10. So, this is um this is a town meeting that's been quite heartening. The warrant committee is back and providing thoughtful recommendations that guide us in our thinking.
The uh select board is giving us their view of what is best for the town as chief executives and town meeting is providing uh food for thought
on each of these articles. Uh I need to do full disclosure. Mike Zulus is a friend. I'm a client of his law firm. And I know I'm not supposed to name any names, but I'm doing it anyway. Um, and uh, he and I serve together on
the war committee and on the school committee. >> Yeah. No. Uh that said, I I find it interesting that uh we have trust in the elected officials
that uh we've elected and that we think that they should have discretion and then perhaps when we're former select board members, we think that they shouldn't have discretion. So I think that uh this matter has been
fully vetted. The warrant committee has done an outstanding job. The select board has as well and just recently as a few minutes ago has been willing to compromise on the remaining motion to amend. I
recommend a no vote simply because I think that we need to give our elected officials, particularly the chief executives of the town, discretion. And what discretion means is that as they are posed with questions that we might
not have thought about that they make their best judgments and what is best in the best interest of the town. So, uh, with all due respect to the public health experts, some of whom think this is a great idea or a threat
and others who you just heard from who say um, evidence may not be there. I don't think we have to figure that out. Let's trust the select board. That's why we elected them. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Walker. Miss Musta, would you like to speak?
Yes, ma'am. Go ahead. Thank you, madame moderator. My name is Caroline Canella. I am the health director and also a public health nurse. And actually, I started the Milton Coalition and I started as a Milton Coalition uh for prevention of substance
abuse. And I just wanted to say that the board of health voted to support this original amendment. I personally am not in favor of all these new amendments that have been put forth. So, the board
of health does support the original amendment and I hope that you vote no for this new amendment. Thank you. >> Thank you, ma'am. Miss MTO, >> thank you. I just wanted to say just a quick word. I I'm the chair of the board of health. My name is Roxan Mto, also
town meeting member, precinct 5. We did discuss this um at one of our board of health meetings and it was unanimously decided that we would support the original article by the select board. Our um board of health is made up of health professionals. Our health
director is a nurse by profession. I was a nurse for many years, a nurse practitioner practicing. We have another nurse on the board and we have an attorney. Um and we were all in agreement with this. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Mto. Would anybody else like to be heard on the motion to amend?
Yes, ma'am. >> Uh hello, my name is Susan Copaser, town meeting member, precinct 4. Um I arise to speak in support of the amendments which are intended to add basic public health protections to this article. Um in preparing for this meeting, I looked
at photos of past community events at our public parks. They're on the Milton Arts MA on the MAX website. and they're great pictures. Um, and these are the parks that are supported by our tax dollars intended to enhance the well-being of us all. Um, I was
looking at the Halloween stroll from this year and these images make it clear that families and children are the heart of these ga of some of these gatherings. Um, the Halloween stroll this year, the children may have actually outnumbered adults and in past years an alcohol
license was issued. I have yet to hear a convincing case that alcohol meaningfully enhances some of these events. Um that said, we're here to compromise and think about mitigation. So if the town is going in the direction and thinking
that we really do need to have alcohol at these events, um some have argued that our amendments should be left to the select board's discretion. But if these guidelines aren't in the bylaw, they won't appear on the licensed applications. Event organizers won't
plan for them, and the select board won't have the information needed to evaluate the applications carefully. Um, in fact, they're not really I mean, my uh the original, you know, in the presentation, um, these are passed very
quickly, right? The B the one-day liquor licenses. And I did look at the minutes from the last three years of select board meetings and there was rarely uh discussion of the one-day liquor licenses. They were just passed. Um so
it's simply unrealistic to expect the select board to begin scrutinizing each application in detail, sending organizers back to revise plans and then re-reviewing them. So, if we want these public health protections in our bylaw, I mean, in our events, then they should
be in our bylaw. And that's why it's essential to include them now um and not rely on discretionary afterthought. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Ko, sir. Would anybody else like to be heard on the motion to amend?
>> Yes, Miss Carols. Thank you. Uh once again, Margaret Carol's precinct 4 town meeting member. Um I just want to say that our group of public health professionals has been working on this for many many months,
many oh probably over a year and respectfully we disagree with the stance that the board of health took in their meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Would anybody else like to be
heard on the motion to amend? Okay, seeing none. >> Yes. I'm so sorry. >> Mr. Funling, would you like to speak or Mr. Zul go ahead?
>> Notice I will not stick out my tongue at Mr. Fundling, >> please. >> But I am going first um at his suggestion. Um just a just a couple of quick comments. Um I I I want first and foremost to say that uh you know I I
really I want to echo what Mr. Walker said earlier. I think this is a great uh exchange of ideas. I think that for the most part it has not been personal. It's been on facts and I think for that the body is to be commended. Um that said uh I would like to say that this is not a uh the idea of this is not alcohol all
the time without limitations in your face. I would be shocked if we get more than three or four applications for this on an annual basis. These uh applications are going to be taken very seriously. Um and I think as Mr. Zulus knows, regardless of what you do, there
will be claims of bias and targeting regardless of your decision. So we can't let that uh cow our ability to uh to have uh faith in our elected officials uh to to carry out their duties. Um I do just want to add a couple of quick
things. Um, as noted earlier, Milton was a dry town in 2005. Today, we are not a dry town. Uh, the the rate of alcohol use among youth has been dropping over time. So, we are we are making success, but we are making success uh in a way
that doesn't require restaurants to have no drinking sections. Um, I would also like to say that uh I'm a huge fan of the coalition and their work. uh when I was assigned to the youth task force my first year on the select board uh we tackled youth drinking in the woods which was a huge problem and we've seen
that uh diminish greatly and thanks to their efforts uh and I uh I I agree that the standard that we want to be setting for our youth is for them to see when they see alcohol which they are going to see in their lives they see it being consumed respons responsibly and
respectfully uh in ways that um maybe they would imitate one day and Maybe they won't. Uh but certainly uh there is no uh there's no interest here to turn Milton into Mardigra. We are we're we're talking about a couple of events. Uh
we're talking about um organizations like the chamber that aren't going to have the funds to create fences and beer gardens and other structures like that. So let's see how this works. Um please vote no on the amendment. Uh the select
board has unanimously agreed uh to vote no on the amendment. Uh we are we're happy to accept part of it as a friendly uh and we encourage you to vote accordingly. Thank you very much. >> Thank you Mr. Zul Mr. um Funling.
>> Thank you madam moderator Jay Funling town meeting member precinct 3 and chair of the warrant committee. First, I would like to be absolutely clear. The item number two that both the select board and the warrant committee said we would accept as a friendly amendment, that's set, right?
That's done. >> Correct. >> Okay. Just just being absolutely clear. Thank you. Uh I would like to say on behalf of myself and on behalf of the warrant committee, I would like to thank the public health experts who've been so involved in this in this issue. They've
worked with us. They spent an hour discussing with our subject matter expert on their own time. They emailed all of the warrant committee with very uh interesting and useful documents and I I just appreciate all their hard work. I think they're the best of citizen
involvement in town government which makes Milton town so strong. Uh no clapping. No clapping. Um >> you tend to recognize people. So all right go ahead. Despite that, uh, the warrant committee does recommend a no vote on this
amendment. Uh, there have been a lot of high level talk about philosophy and who should be in charge of who. Uh, I'd like to get sort of down on the ground level with one issue with the beer garden. If it's limited to people over 21, what about a parent who has like an infant on
a baby bejorn? Maybe you think that person should not be drinking alcohol, and that is perfectly fine. But if they do want to drink alcohol, they can't go in the beer garden with a baby on them. What if the baby's not an infant? What if the baby's two, three, four? You don't want them going in the beer garden
without the kids. That's one thing that the warrant committee talked about when we had this discussion. Uh I think everything else has been said. The warrant committee recommends a no vote, but uh thanks everyone here and especially the public health experts for their time and thought. >> Thank you, Mr. Funing. Okay. So, what
you have in front of you on the screen is the motion to amend two is no longer in red line because that has been agreed upon by all three groups here, the warrant committee, the select board as well as Mr. Zulus. So, what we have is
three, four, and five. Mr. Zulus has agreed to take out the language that was previously included in his amendment regarding the playground. We are now voting on Mr. Zulus's motion to amend which includes the red line set forth here. Does anybody have any questions
about that? Perfect. Okay, then I'm going to open it up for a motion to amend and then we'll go back to the article. Okay, we have 23% yes, 77% no, 42 yes, 141 no. So, the motion to amend fails.
We're back to the article. Now, an important point is that the select board has agreed to include that language in um the recommendation number two. So, I'm going to have the
warrant committee clerk put back up what the article now says, and then if people wish to discuss the article, they're invited to come up to do so. Hello again, Tomas Brio, town meeting member, precinct 2. I said most of what
I really wanted to say in discussing the amendment. Uh, but I do want to highlight, please vote yes for this. As mentioned, this is not to turn this into Marty GR or have some, you know, Midsummer Bakanal at the gazebo. It's just not.
This is just so that a couple times a year when it makes sense, there can be adult beverages at a community event. That's it. So, vote yes, please. >> Thank you, sir. Does anybody over here wish to speak?
>> Yes. Go ahead, ma'am. Okay, thank you. Uh Deborah Felton, precinct to town meeting member. I spoke at the select board about this. I am opposed to this article. Um I believe that we do
not need a public display of drinking at events and is this what we are telling our children that to have a good time we need to hold a beer or a glass of wine in our own hand. Um, I was really surprised that the public health health
experts were not listened to. Um, especially Dr. Scare who, um, I've known and, uh, the other members of the Milton Coalition. That was very surprising. Um, a lot of, um, what is informed, we
brought up three girls. Thank goodness they all survived. All those Cunningham Park and drinking parties. Um and um I just um there's a risk and I think I
suggest that we avoid that risk. Uh madame moderator, I would like to know if town council or the town administrator has spoken to our insurance company about this and any liability that the town would assume
even if a caterer got um some insurance. So, young people, remember, young people are the ones you must consider. They are the risktakers and the ones who get into a car after having a few drinks. Please vote no on this article. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Attorney Klein or Mr. Milano, can you speak to Miss Felton's question? >> Good evening, Nicholas Milano, town administrator. Uh, yes. Um the town's insurance is provided through Maya which is a um insurer that works with a lot of
cities and towns. Um cab risk um is the broker essentially. Uh we had this conversation a few different times over the past several months. Um just kind of bringing it to their attention, validating it. Again, their recommendation is um this is not unusual
for the cities and towns that they work with that this happens. In the two previous communities I worked in, um, events were held on town lands. Um, we have obviously application paperwork, paperwork that, um, applicants who use land have to indemnify the town and adhere to our insurance requirements,
which as recommended by the insurer generally to match our limits and to name the town as an additional insured and then for any alcohol-related event also require um, inclusion of an alcohol liability policy. So, we've had those conversations. we'd be prepared to um
implement those requirements um if this is approved. >> Thank you, Mr. Milano. Yes, Miss Noff, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Kendra Quinsey. N Precinct 3. Um I actually just want to say that I think that there's nothing wrong with
having a higher standard for our town from the state law. So, I think that we should take all the information we got tonight, listen to it, and then vote for your gut and just know that like some have said, if you have a kid, you're
thinking about them all the time. We don't need to think about it or be told to think about it in addition. We all know how we think about this stuff. So, please just think about how we're going to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Nothing wrong with that. Thank you.
Thank you, ma'am. >> Agugustino >> Diane Dulio Agustinino, Precinct 9, chair of the Commission on Disability. I rise to make a motion and I would not do so if um I did not have new facts. So, I
hope there's a um new information. I hope there's a second to the following which would be to add number five in which is exactly what number six was. No such one day license shall be issued for townland that includes a playground. I
believe that was the language and there would be new information. That's why I asked for a second. So you you're making a motion to amend to add back in that language, >> right? As number five, it would be not number six. >> Hold on.
Do I hear a second? >> Okay. So, the motion to amend is to add back in the previous paragraph six regarding the playgrounds. Thank you moderator Dylan Diane Dulio
Agassino Precinct 9 chair of the commission on disability and I only made the motion because has I am always looking for safety. I was born into the insurance industry. So that's one of the reasons I look for safety and one of the
biggest um volunteer jobs I did was designing playgrounds for the town of Milton. um starting with the original playground planners. So my concern what I've seen these days, you know, you go to birthday parties at playgrounds, you go with your grandkids to the
playgrounds, you go with your own children. Eyes on the children is so important at a playground. And yet a lot of we all have phones and we're all looking down at the phones. So for the
playground, it's very concerning to think that there might be what's called a beer garden or there might be alcohol. It's not the impact of the discussion that was brought up by the coalition. It's the fact that children sometimes
disappear from playgrounds. They also get injured at playgrounds quite often. and to protect and we're talking about the younger children. I'm not talking about the you know middle school and the high school children and that whole impact. This is simply for the safety of
our younger children playing on playgrounds that the eyes of the parents would not be distracted by the fact in addition to their phones that they're somewhere off in a beer garden or separately having a drink. Because
playgrounds are dangerous even though the newer ones are more welld designed than the old ones. You know, there are less injuries these days, but I would really um implore that that be added. You can
always amend it a year from now depending on how other things go, but that's the motion and I appreciate your consideration for the children that don't have a voice in it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um,
Mr. Funley, would you like to speak to that motion to amend? >> Uh, yes. Thank you, Madam Moderator. Jay Funing, chair of the warrant committee, precinct three town meeting member. The uh the warrant committee has already voted. We oppose this amendment. Uh,
what we think about this this issue is think about something like Kelly Field. Kellyfield is long and narrow and on one end is a playground and there's lots of other areas of Kellyfield that are nowhere near the playground. U again,
it's it all goes back to the select board discretion. If someone wants to put a keg at second base on little league opening day, the select board is going to say no. But should we say that under no circumstances will Andrews Park or Kelly Field under no circumstances
will there ever be an event there? that's appropriate for alcohol. Uh we weren't prepared to say that. We think that in some situations there may be appropriate to have alcohol and a lot of situations there are not. So the warrant committee opposes this amendment. >> Thank you. Mr. Zul, do you have any
comments on behalf of the select board about the motion to amend regarding the playground? >> We're a simple no and we hope that we can move forward. Thank you. >> Okay. Would anybody else like to discuss the motion to amend with respect to the playground? Okay, I don't see anybody. So, we will
open the motion to amend. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Chimman. >> We're on the article, correct? >> We're on the motion to amend. Yeah. Okay, perfect. >> Okay, I see nobody else. So, we're going to open the motion to amends to include
the language previously shown with the language of the playground. So, it would be the article with that additional amendment of the playground. And to clarify also the wristbands, I'm sorry, the wristbands because that was agreed before. And then Miss
Agustinino's motion to amend was specifically for the playground. And this would be a majority. Just the playground. No problem. Okay. 13% yes, 86% no, 155 no, 23 yes. We are back to the article.
If the warrant committee clerk can please put that up on the screen and I saw that Mr. Chimman had a comment on that. Mr. Chimman on the article. >> Thank you, madam moderator, Michael Chimman, precinct 2. Um, I'm a criminal defense lawyer and my ears perked up at
the last provision about a $300 fine for violating any part of this proposed bylaw. Um, there are actual crimes in Massachusetts that don't carry $300 fines. Uh, shoplifting first offense,
for example, is only $250 fine. And I went through the bylaws and this would vault if this business is a bylaw. It would vault it up to the I think the very top of fines for first offense violations of
bylaws. The only one I could find is that someone who destroys a wetlands is fined $300. Um I don't think these provisions rise to that level. And uh for example,
to look at a bylaw that might be thought comparable is there already are bylaws about consumption on town property being prohibited. Alcohol um public consumption of alcohol
um consumption of alcohol on town property. Uh, someone who violates that shall be fined not less than 25 nor more than 100 for each offense. Um,
public consumption of alcohol uh not less than 25 and again not more than 100. My my point is I think 300 is is stiff and I'm wondering if the select board uh how they came to that. I'm not ready to propose an amendment to strike that provision, but I'm wondering how
the select board came to that number and did they compare it to our existing bylaws for other violations or other statutes regarding crimes. >> Um, >> thank you, Mr. Zole, if you can answer that question. >> Thank you, madam moderator. Benzel, uh,
chair of the select board precinct member, precinct 5 town meeting member. Uh, the the $300 was the same amount that we used in the February one. So, it was just a continuation of of that uh amount. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Zul. Mr. Chimman,
>> I don't think that's a satisfactory explanation, and I move to strike that um fine from the U article. So you would move to amends to take that
fine >> take out the the the one section C >> section C. Whoever violates any provision of the section shall find an amount of 300 for each offense. You would strike that as a motion to amend. Is that correct? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. Do I hear a second?
>> Second. >> Okay. Does the warrant committee or select board wish to speak to that? Thank you, Madam Moderator. Jay Funing, town meeting member, precinct three, chair of the warrant committee. I'd like to follow up not only what my colleague
on the select board said, not only was that approved at February town meeting, the specific dollar amount was increased from, I believe it was 25 to 300 by an amendment made on the floor at town meeting in February. So, this didn't just slide under the radar in February.
Town meeting in February deliberately chose to make the fine $300. town meeting tonight might deliberately choose to make the opposite choice, but just wonder us how we got here. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Soul. >> Thank you, madam moderator. If I may just ask Mr. Chimman a quick question.
Are you proposing an alternative dollar amount for that or are you just striking the whole provision? >> I I could be wrong, but I think there is a general uh provision in the bylaw for bylaw violations that don't specify fine. Perhaps town council can correct
me if I'm wrong about that. So, I I think there would be a fall back. Um, does anybody else wish to speak to Mr. Chinman's motion to amend to strike out paragraph C regarding the $300 fine?
Yes, sir. Mr. Matthews, you're recognized. >> Hi. Scott Matthews, town meeting member, precinct 10. Um, since this was voted in another article in town meeting and that $300 were there, doesn't striking this put it out of balance where you have
>> Sorry. Doesn't striking this put this out of balance with the other article that we already voted in where this wouldn't have a fine but the other one would could Could someone clarify because that it seems a little out of balance to strike it from here and still have it in
the other. >> Thank you. >> Does anybody else wish to speak to Mr. Chinman's motion to amend to strike the fine of $300 from paragraph C. Mr. Zul. >> Uh, thank you, Madam Moderator. Just our
town council is going to have uh more answers, but just to Mr. Matthew's question, uh, this article includes the language for the indoor as well as the outdoor license. So, what it would do in effect is remove the penalty from both as as if you want if uh you could scroll
up on the Sorry, did you get a baseball score by any chance while you were looking at your phone? No. Um, if you could scroll up on this all the way here to the A section is the indoor section. So, essentially it would remove the penalty for both uh indoor
and outdoor. and I'll I'll see if we could recognize town council. >> Yes, that's fine. Attorney Klein, you're recognized. [Music] uh Darren Klein uh through the moderator uh in section 16 of your bylaws, it
says, "Whoever violates any of the provisions of these bylaws whereby an act or thing is enjoined or prohibited shall unless other provision is expressly made forfeit and pay a fine not exceeding $300 on each offense. So,
it means that the board you you may uh the board may may enforce a fine up to $300 for the first offense. It does also allow you to have a bylaw with a different amount if so passed.
>> Thank you. Does anybody else wish to speak to the motion to amend? >> I see none. Mr. Funling and no. >> Sure. >> Jay Funing, town meeting member precinct
3, chair of the warrant committee. The warrant committee recommends a no vote on this amendment. >> Thank you, Mr. Zoul. >> Thank you. Madam moderator Benzole, town meeting member, precinct 5, chair of the select board. The select board unanimously recommends a no vote on this. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. Zul. And we can now open this motion to amends. Just striking that language in paragraph C up for a vote. Again, this would be a majority. Okay. The motion to amend fails. 93% no,
7% yes. 168 no, 12 yes. We're back to the article. Does anybody else wish to speak to the article? I see no one. All right. Then we will open it up for a vote. Article 7 as
amended as discussed previously. explain the article. >> Yes. Can we pause the vote for a second? Okay. If the warrant committee clerk can bring back up the article as amended. The select board has previously agreed,
the warrant committee did as well, that to add in the age identifying non-transferable wristbands. The playground language was not adopted, nor was any of the rest of the amendments proposed by Mr. Zulus,
nor was that playground amendment made by Miss Agugustino adopted, nor was um the motion to strike out that fine adopted. Therefore, the only change to the article as you have in front of you is these age identifying
non-transferable wristbands. The language has been changed as reflected on the screen as a concession made by the select board to Mr. Zulus earlier tonight. Does anybody else have any questions?
With that, we will open back up the vote. >> Yes, please. Please vote again. Yes, please vote again. Yes is A. No is B. C is abstain. Or you can press nothing. Thank you for that question.
The article passes. 83% yes, 17% no, 147 yes, 30 no. We are now going to move to article 8. A note about article 8. The warrant committee's recommendation differs from the article in the manner set forth in
the October 2025 special town meeting warrant. The warrant committee's recommendation is the motion before town meeting. The article reads to see if the town will vote to amend the general bylaws by inserting the following new bylaw, chapter XX, protection against
light enforcement, as set forth in the October 2025 special town meeting warrant. Mr. Zul, would you like to speak on behalf of the select board? >> Thank you, madam moderator. Uh, I'm going to try to keep this very short. uh we the select board have uh unanimously
voted to support the article as uh suggested by the warrant committee. Uh we believe that they have done some great work here in terms of particularly thinking about the appeals process. Um finally I would note that while uh this removes some of the dark sky provisions,
I think they were correct to point out that dark sky uh laws and light uh uh light trespass laws are two inherently different things. And if you're interested in seeing a Dark Skies uh warrant article, um please talk to the select board and we could put something
like that together if uh that's of interest to you. Thank you, Madam Moderator. >> Thank you, Mr. Funling. >> Thank you, Madam Moderator. Jay Funling, town meeting member, precinct 3 and chair of the warrant committee. Uh yes, I would like to address this light
trespass bylaw. First of all, I'd like to point out that the avid readers of the warrant will notice that this has the old school throwback uh format of the recommendation in which the entire article is printed in the recommendation. It is multiple pages. As
Mr. Zulus noted, there are a number of differences between the Z. It starts with a Z. Um >> it is too late for humor, Mr. Funding. Uh there are a number of differences
between the original recommendation and our recommendation. And so to keep it simple, we recommend, you know, our recommendation is what you will be voted on. Uh so I'll quickly tell you how we got here. The light trespass bylaw, the first light trespass bylaw was proposed
at the February town meeting of this year, which uh tonight is very much a throwback of that meeting. Um the trespass bylaw was pulled back at that meeting before it was discussed I believe because it still required was thought to still require some work. Uh and then at the May town meeting again
it was proposed but pulled back I believe before it was even discussed. It still required some work and then uh it was going to be on the warrant at the June town meeting but the town decided to slim down the June town meeting and keep it focused. So it's here. I would like to note that none of those times
that it was pulled back was it because was because people thought we shouldn't have a light trespass bylaw. In general, my conclusion would be that lots of people wanted to see a light trans bylaw. We were just trying to get the wording right and we hope we've gotten it right at this point. Uh the point of
this bylaw is to prevent excessive light shining into other people's properties. If my porch light is shining into your bedroom window and keeping you awake, that's what this light is for. That's what this law is for. I would like to point out as Mr. Zul said, this is not a so-called dark
skies law. The point isn't to have u no light shining so you can see the Milky Way. This is specifically for trespass from one neighbor's house into another neighbor's house. Uh if there is a complaint, the inspectional services department will determine if it's a nuisance by using a light meter as well
as using their judgment. There are a number of protections for people accused of light trespass in this bylaw, including a 30-day period where they can fix the problem. They can point the light at a different direction. They can get a dimmer light, other things. So, 30 days to uh fix the problem.
There's also an appeal process appealing to a committee which will be established by the select board. Uh we also have a number of protections for things like if there's a motion sensing light, that's protected. We wanted to make sure that this new law which we were creating was
not going to be ownorous. Uh and finally, I'd like to say the hope for this bylaw is not that there will be lots of violations and enforcements and fines. We will hope there will be no fines issued under this bylaw. We hope that as always neighbors will talk to each other. This bylaw might give a
little bit of heft to some of those conversations. A neighbor might say, "Your light is shining in my bedroom. Did you know there's a new bylaw? Can you please turn that down?" Maybe even they'll have to report it to the select board and get it measured, but then the offending neighbor has 30 days to fix it. We really hope this just helps
neighbors be neighborly to neighbors. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Funling. Keeping in mind the late hour, I ask that people have their comments but keep their comments as succinct as possible.
Sir, go ahead. >> Thank you, moderator Dylan. Good evening. Kevin Chrysom Jr. town meeting member precinct 7. I will be brief. Um I do have some questions and overall concerns um regarding this article, article 8,
the light trespass bylaw. Uh first and foremost, it's not clear to me that this light trespass is an epidemic here in Milton. I'd like to know how many actual complaints the town has received currently to justify this new layer of
regulation, inspections, and fines. To me, most residents seem fairly capable of resolving lighting issues as neighbors without formal intervention. Before creating a bylaw of this complexity, we should know the scale of the problem, if it even exists at all.
The proposed enforcement as it is reddrafted now falls to the inspectional services department which already operates with a small staff and a heavy workload between the building inspector, the wire inspector, the code enforcement officer and other uh inspectors in that
department. Uh it's not clear and not obvious who would take responsibility for enforcement of this. Certainly wouldn't be the plumbing inspector, I wouldn't imagine, but presumingly it would be the building inspector in charge of this. But currently, if the town can answer this, are they trained
or are they certified to measure the certain light levels and understand technical lighting standards? Do they have the proper equipment to do this? And if not, will the town pay for the training for light meters and calibration tools and teach the
inspectors how to properly evaluate these glares and lux readings, which we're all still learning about here today. This also raises real scheduling and staffing questions for the department. Light trans light trespass inspections can't be done during the day. They must
be done during at night. That means someone from the inspectional services department would need to go out after dark to measure light levels, often at private homes. Is the town expecting its inspectors to be on call during non-working hours for these complaints?
The bylaw says there's a 10-day response window, but what happens if someone files a complaint at, say, 3:00 in the morning? Are we creating a system where staff will be pressured to respond to nighttime complaints outside normal hours? Just finally, the inspectional
service department is overworked dealing with building permits, code compliance, and the demands of all new development projects happening across town. Adding a complicated and subjective lighting enforcement process, complete with appeals and measurements, written
findings, stretches that department even thinner. So, thank you. And I'd like some of those questions answered if we could. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, Mr. Chrysum, your questions were specifically regarding what complaints there are and then also what training the department of
inspectional services people have had. Is that correct? >> They are trained. Who would be responsible for that? >> Thank you. If they are trained and which portion of that the people would be responsible. Thank you. If somebody can answer that, Mr. Milano or otherwise, I'd appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chrysom.
>> Yes, Mr. Zull, you're recognized. >> Uh, thank you. Um that was a lot of questions and a succinct comment. Uh but I'll try to do my best. Um first uh this is never about uh do we get a thousand calls uh a week on light trespass. Everyone will be pleased to know that
that is not the case. Uh the this really has risen in a couple of specific instances where people have made repeated complaints and found no redress and they've found themselves in the absence of having a law that protects them. Of course, if we're going to create something like this, we're going
to try to do a thorough job of it. Uh we've consulted multiple experts on this topic. So, we're not going to create a uh the uh the less profane uh version of this escapes me, but we're creating a a full law that has full uh transparency
and full full uh clarification on the different uh lumens and everything else. Second question. If you file a complaint to the select board at 3 in the morning, nobody is going to read that. I can tell you I will not read that. Mr. Milano will not read that. We will wake up the
next morning and we will read it. And that is when the process will kick off. Um I also hate to disappoint Mr. Chisum, but if he was outside at 6:00 tonight, he will have noticed that it was dark. Uh if he goes outside at 5:00 next week, he will notice that it is dark. So,
while you do need to uh have an officer out and there will be some costs uh around that, we don't expect that there will be full-time 24-hour surveillance uh from our full-time code enforcement officer. Um finally, um on in terms of
the equipment, we do not currently own the equipment. Uh we won't buy the equipment unless this is actually triggered, which as Mr. Funding said earlier, we hope that it will not be. We hope that this will be an incentive for people to resolve the problems that they have with their neighbors without
resorting to this. Uh but if they do, our understanding through consultation with experts is the equipment is not is neither expensive nor difficult to understand. Thank you, madam moderator. >> Thank you. Did that answer your questions, Mr. Chrysom? Okay. Thank you, Miss Mosto.
>> I see that they're working on the microphone. So, thank you. >> Perfect timing. Thank you. Um my name is Roxanne Mau, precinct 5 town meeting member and um I have several questions that are specific to the article and a few comments. The first one is that was
previously mentioned um I think that neighbors should be neighborly and try to work things out with their neighbors. I think that when you um can talk with your neighbor and try to work something out first, I think that's always the best thing to do. And I would hope that um people could do that and it wouldn't
be a decisive divisive issue. I think that um if you don't like your neighbor, it could become used in a very negative manner. And I have a couple questions about some of these terms and I would like to have town council weigh in on a few of these. Uh the first one is under
glare. It says um virt virtual discomfort and I want to know what is um com just a comment too is what might be comfortable for me to look at might not be comfortable comfortable for you and so that seems rather arbitrary
um for for a description the other one is um public hazard or nuisance how do you measure that physical harm or damage that's listed in there I wanted to get some clarity on that I think that the other thing with this particular
proposal is that it's really um it could become something that's become a little bit non-equitable because um it could place a disproportionate burden on compliance with some people that might not be able to comply due to cost um if they are found that they need to make
some changes. And I Googled how many lux are needed for average use. Um, I don't really understand the lux and I don't know how many people here really understand that term. So, it said for general yard use 10 to 50 lux, but can increase to 50 to
100 for entertaining areas like patios. Pathways and uh stairs aim for 10 to 20 lux for basic safety. Security 500 to,500 lumens for deterring intruders um
and for camera visibility. And on page 24, I have another question. I hope that someone could answer this one for me. Um, I want to know under exemptions. I'm curious under number three, the way that
it's written. I'm wondering if things like town buildings, police, fire, schools, and all town properties are exempt from this bylaw because it it has a weird writing where it says legal jurisdiction with broader authority than that of the town. So, I'm wondering um
who you know if there is broader authority than that or if this applies to that. What about something like BI Milton or other nonprofits or schools like Curry College? Um things like that. And and on that same page on number um
six, they talk about athletic fields and um I want to know with that particular by 10 p.m. you know, we have private schools in our town that have events such as the college um and Milton Academy. And so,
who's going to be going over there after 10 if their lights are on until 10:30 or 11 for some event? And um are they exempt at some level too? And what lux can they use for their lighting at those fields?
And then finally on the next page on um page 25 on number nine under sorry under number um nine uh it talks about luminaries pointing downward and I would um like to alert people that most
landscaping low light low voltage lighting is up lighting and it's up it use it to um illuminate trees in people's yards or um accents on homes and many people have those features. So
I think that would have to be or I would hope that would be added because I think that's a relevant fact. Um the appeals committee of three, who makes up that committee? What are their terms and what are their backgrounds of the people on the committee? So these are some of my
questions. Um and that I will say that I did speak with the police chief um several years ago, maybe about 10 years ago. Some of my neighbors in the Brushell area will will know this that we had uh Chief King come and speak with us because we had a rash of breakins in
our area. And people asked him what is helpful in preventing breakins in our area. And he said the single most important thing you can do is have good lighting around your home because if somebody's going to break into your house, they will go to the house that's
unlit uh with lighting around it versus the house that's lit well. So, I think safety is very important. And as someone who worked off shift for many years, coming in at 11:30, 12 o'clock at night from Boston all alone, I certainly would want that lighting around my house for
safety. I think that's very important. So, I would want to make sure that there's nothing in this that will deter from that. And as far as I know there are several cases in town where people have issues, and I know that this was what this bylaw was trying to address.
there is an a way to do this um already I believe um and we could ask attorney Klein on this one. My understanding is that there is a pathway where people could um go under um uh a certain way to
sue a neighbor if they didn't comply and it didn't involve the town at all to get someone with a nuisance complaint for lighting. So, I I guess I just would would want to rise to to bring these points forward because I think that it's a little bit more involved than we all
think it is. Um it's not as straightforward as we think it is. There are a lot of issues here. I've pointed out some of them and I'm hoping that um Attorney Klein could address some of them, but I hope that this body will think about this and vote no on this
article. Thank you. [Music] uh Darren Klein through the moderator. Uh so I I think I will address I think you sort of had an initial legal question and a legal question at the end. Um, as far as the definition of
glare, and you know, with any law, whether it's from the state or the federal government or from your own local bylaws, you try to get as precise as possible, but there's going to be in most laws a degree of subjectivity or ambiguity. But to your specific
question, um, you asked about visual discomfort. And again it says glare intense and blinding light eliminated by luminire that reduces visibility and creates visual discomfort was your question about the visual discomfort. Later in that definition it states that
discomfort glare causes a nuisance due to overly bright light sources in the field of view. And then if you look at the definition of nuisance which is later down in the definitions it says nuisance the unreasonable unwarranted or andor unlawful use of property which
causes inconvenience, disruption of enjoyment or damage to others either to individuals and or to the general public. So that is how you would read that entire definition of of glare. But you have to look at multiple definitions that are listed right there um in the
definitions. As to your last question, yes, a person could try to sue a neighbor for a nuisance caused by a light trespass, even without a bylaw, but it would be a I mean, you can be
sued for anything. It would be a pretty difficult lawsuit without there being some sort of local bylaw to point to um or without some sort of you know clear violation that they were doing something wrong. Yes, if it was something
outrageous there could be a nuisance uh nuisance action taken out but it would be difficult. >> Thank you. Can somebody please speak to answer Miss Mto's questions regarding the following things?
Those were the terms. Her questions regarding athletic fields, private schools with events past 10 p.m. Curry College, Milton Academy, and then also who comprises of the appeals committee and what are their terms? Those were the
two other questions that I had that you had asked, Miss MTO. Is that correct? There are one or two others but >> okay >> can somebody please answer those two questions and then we'll come back if you have additional thank you >> yes and I'll try to be as succinct as possible uh we haven't created the
committee yet so we don't know who's on it if you want to be on it we're always looking for volunteers uh the the question on the athletic fields um there are some pretty strict rules and regul ations already around athletic fields um that they're required to have their
lights off. We don't expect this to happen uh around athletic fields. If somebody has a problem with an athletic field, they usually call the school and the school tells them what's going on on the athletic field. So again, I would not try to take this and turn it into
some sort of crazy change like Marty GR and Milton that we're going to see. This is not going to affect 99% of you and the other 1% of you. I hope as Miss Mto said, if your neighbor rang your doorbell and said your lights are too bright, can you point them in a different direction? You would just do
that. Thank you, madam moderator. >> Thank you, Miss Mto. Did you have additional questions? >> Uh, madam moderator, I believe I can address a few. >> Oh, thank you, Mr. Fun. Go ahead. >> Uh, Jay Funling, how many member precinct 3, chair of the warrant committee. I heard a couple questions from Miss Muster that I think I can
address. There was point number nine about outdoor lighting. Uh you know points one through nine are saying there are exceptions for these things and point number nine is an exception for outdoor lighting that is focused directly at the target. If you have a
tree that you really want to illuminate, you focus it directly at the tree. That's an exception. Um and there's another question about lux. I've learned a little bit about light in the past uh month or two. So lux is the amount of light that's hitting something. If I
walk farther away from a light, I get less lux. We looked at other towns and they had some lux cut offs. They have lux cut offs at two lux, five lux. The highest we saw was Welssley, which said for non-residential, the highest allowable to light trespasses, 10 lux.
So our measurement of 10 lux is the highest of any town around us. Um, again, we're going for highest because our we don't want to create a law that's going to make everybody in violation right away. Uh, also I did a little bit of math. I shared it with the warrant committee. It involved pi. They yelled
at me, but my math said that if I have three, I'll call them old school 100 watt bulbs. If I have 300 watt bulbs next to my door and my sidewalk is 20 ft away, that's about 10 lux. So, if you can imagine 300 watt bulbs 20 ft away,
that's 10 lux. And uh you know, if it's going to go as far as intruding my neighbor, it's going to be even farther and less lux and I won't be in violation. Hope that's helpful. >> Thank you, Miss Mau. Go ahead. >> One final thing. >> Sure. >> Thank you. >> Uh Roxan Mau, town meeting member,
precinct 5. Thank you for your answers on all the questions. I do just want to make this one or two quick final points. One is that there is going to be a cost to this because it will involve overtime of town personnel. Yes, this time of the year it gets light out. Um, you know, it's going to with the clocks changing
and everything, it'll will be 4:00 and it'll be dark, but in the summer and all these other times of the year it is not. Um, so there will be a cost to that. And the other thing is we're a town of over 28,000 people and we're looking at enacting a bylaw that affects a handful
of people and we're going to affect every household and every neighborhood has a different issue. Some houses are closer together and their lighting issues are going to be different and so now we're going to put a burden I think potentially if you have a neighbor you don't like and you report that neighbor
you know here we go. So, I rise again in and I'm not in support of this. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Mr. Humphre, did you wish to speak to the article and then we'll go over here. >> Thank you, Jackson Humphrey's precinct date. Um, well, I I have a question for
town council and and I'd like to reserve the right to respond afterwards. Um my my my understanding is that this article will take immediate effect after review by the attorney general's municipal law unit. Is that is my understanding correct as to as to the the the the
timeline with which this article would would um be the law of the land? >> Yes, it would take effect after approval by the attorney general. >> Okay. Thank you. So um I am supportive of the dark sky movement. and I believe
it's the direction that we should go as a community, but I have grave concerns with the timeline with which this these provisions would be implemented. Um I if if this article were immediately implemented and there were no grace
period afforded to homeowners or businesses, a complaint could be lodged. Then there would be a 45day review period. If a violation were to have been found, then the individual homeowner
would be given 30 days to um fix the violation. But I I just simply do not believe that we're giving our our homeowners um and business owners enough time to come into compliance of the article if it is true that the effect is
immediate. Um I I also think that there's many in this town who might not be able to afford the light fixture light fixtures or remediations required to come into compliance. I wonder if the select board might consider a grace
period perhaps of one year where we could say no provision of this article would be enforced for one year so that we could give ample notice to our community that here are the rules um and that they could proactively take steps
to come into compliance because right now the way this is written I do not believe residents are aware of this and they ought to have a little more time to come into compliance. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Humphre. Um, Mr. Zul, would you like to address that comment
question to you? >> Thank you. So, we have 30 days to submit this bylaw. The attorney general usually has around 90 days to approve it. So, uh, you know, you can do the math there. It's it's it's several months. Um, also I think very important to notice that in
section five, the committee can consider mitigating circumstances particular to properties in question and may make such orders reversing or affirming in whole or in part the finding of the inspectional services department. In other words, if somebody feels like they didn't get any notice and they didn't
get a chance to change things around, the committee can make that decision. And I would like to think that we are all reasonable people in this room and that we could understand that if somebody felt like they had no redress but to go to the town because their neighbor refused to turn off their lights and the inspection found that the
lights were refused to turn off, this committee asked them if they would want to remove the lights or turn the lights in a different direction and they continued to refuse that that person is committing light trespass on their neighbors. I would submit it to this group that such an act
would not be neighborly. Uh but the neighbor themselves are trying their best to resolve the situation. This is a last chance effort for folks that have been unable to talk to our neighbors. And as much as we love each other and I know so many people who love me, as much
as we love each other, we don't always manage to settle our differences as neighbors. And so there has to be a a relief mechanism for someone who is suffering. As anyone who has ever spent any time in any bedroom where there's a light on that you can't turn off, that's
torture. And this is you shouldn't be required to live in torture because your neighbor doesn't listen to you about their lights. That's what this is. So I would encourage us, speaking of the time, I would encourage us to finish the debate on this quickly. Move forward. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Okay. Okay, I see two more people wishing to speak on this article. No, one more person wishing to speak on this article. Mr. Chimman, go ahead. Michael Chinman, precinct 2. Um, there
is a lighting problem in Milton and I think anybody who's experienced it recognizes it's a big problem of Blitz Creek lights shining onto Turner's Pond at the edge of the property owner's property. um neighborly efforts to
resolve that have failed. And uh I'm going to support this article anyway, but I would like the article to make clear that that situation could be addressed. And I'm not sure as it exists right now it does address it. I see that nuisance includes the general public,
but the general public is not supposed to be at Turner's Pond uh at nighttime after death. I can tell you sometimes someone does walk a dog there. Um and public hazard or nuisance references the
definition references adjacent property. Um but speaks to uh interference with the use and enjoyment of such property. And again, people aren't supposed to be there. Um the animals are there all the
time. And if you've witnessed these Blitz Creek lights, you I think you'd agree that this is a problem that needs to be addressed. So my proposal is to amend the definition of public hazard or nuisance to put after the words
uh adjacent property. It's in the second line of the definition to amend it to say comma including town property. >> Okay, I heard the motion and a second. Can we hear from the select board or the
warrant committee regarding that motion to amend? >> Could I say one more thing in support of my motion? >> Sure. >> Uh I think the town has an interest in protecting and preserving natural spaces
and the property it owns. So I think if the town property was included then the select board would have discretion to determine that a particular light source did interfere with the use of that town property.
>> Thank you Mr. Chimman. >> Yes Mr. Funding you're recognized. Thank you, madam moderator. Jay Funling, Tommy Member, precinct 3, chair of the warrant committee. The warrant committee has not specifically voted on this amendment yet, but I can tell you that this issue came up in our discussions
and our discussions uh concluded that this bylaw as a whole is about one neighbor, one human affecting another human. We discussed if it should I mean, we're we're the we have the Blue Hills in our town. Should it cover things like
the blue hills or parks? Uh, we did not feel like we had done the research to know how do bright lights affect animals. We would just be making it up. Um, so sorry I'm a bit distracted. So for that
purpose and since it was talking about public hazard or nuisance bothering a person, we wanted to focus really on the person disturbance. As Mr. Z said earlier if we want a dark skies bylaw in the future that we were certainly town
meeting can certainly consider that. Um and finally even though the warrant committee has not yet voted I would say that this specific amendment saying adjacent property including town property is redundant. Property is property.
So, the warrant committee hasn't voted officially, but on that topic, we felt it was best to keep this focused on person on person, neighbor lighting. And if there's a bylaw about lighting disturbing nature, that should come up
at another time. Thank you. >> Thank you. I see that the select board is prepared to speak on this. Mr. Zul. >> Thank you. Um the select board agrees uh with uh Mr. Funding in that we we
believe that the definition of property includes town property, but if it would help clarify, we are uh amendable to adding that as a as a friendly amendment. Okay, we will wait to hear from the warrant committee as to whether or not they will
agree to that. Okay. Uh, the warrant committee has voted on this amendment. The warrant committee recommends a no vote on this amendment. Uh the warrant committee would also urge town meeting members to follow the request of the moderator and
please submit all uh proposed amendments on the Thursday before town meeting to help us work through the details efficiently. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Does anybody else wish to speak to
this motion to amend? Yes, Mr. Callahan. Uh Tom Callahan precinct 4 um 4a the is just a question because maybe I'm not understanding something but in section three
subsection B subsection um four number one lum luminire light sources shall not be visible from federal state or town designated wilderness conservation areas habitat or reserves and light trespass shall measure no
greater than five blocks. Is that addressing the issue? I I agree with the previous speaker. Uh the Turner's Pond issue is outrageous. Absolutely outrageous. And my understanding is that was the initial impetus, although there
I'm sure there are other issues around town, but that was the initial impetus for this bylaw. to not have it addressed I think seems um but I'm wondering if that section I just read does address it. >> Yes, Mr. Mr. Funling, if you can speak to that. And I would also like to remind
everybody since there has been several statements that this is originally directed towards one individual. I'm not aware that that individual was here tonight. So I would like to keep our comments relating to that person very respectful. Mr. Funling, go ahead. >> Thank you. J funding town meeting
precinct 3 chair of the warrant committee. Uh I would like to again remind town meeting to look at the bold recommendation not the initial uh not the initial article. The initial article did speak about um federal or state town
designated wilderness conservation areas waters of the United States. The warrant can immediately remove that for the reasons that I just recently gave which is that this is about neighbor on neighbor. I would also like to say since the most recent speaker mentioned Turner's Pond, this originally talked
about wilderness conservation areas, habitat or reserves. I asked our town park commissioner if uh if Turner's Pond is any of those, and he did not believe they were. >> Thank you. Okay.
Would anybody else like to be heard on Mr. Chimman's motion to amend which adds the language including town property as set forth on the screen. Okay, I see nobody. Does everybody understand? We're going to vote on this
motion to amend now to include this specific language. Yes, Mr. Chimman. >> They did, but it's the warrant committee's recommendation. That's the motion on the floor. Thank you for pointing that out though. Okay. But yes, you are correct that the select board
did agree and the warrant committee did not. Does everybody understand what we will be voting on this specific article with the recommendations made by the warrant committee with this change including town property. Okay. I see no questions. So, we're
going to open the motion to amend up for a vote with that addition made by Mr. Chimman. Yeah. The motion to amend passes 61% yes 35% no four% abstain 102 yes 59 no I have
received another motion to amends by Mr. Mr. Humphre, which states, "No provision of this article shall take effect before October 1st, 2026." Mr. Humphre, if you would like to speak on that, you may.
>> Please, if everybody can keep their comments to themselves. Go ahead, Mr. Humphre. >> Jackson Humphrey's precinct date. And recognizing the hours laid, I I would like to rehighlight my previous comments that I really do believe we should have a grace period. I understand that there's a um a u a process of appeals,
but let's give the residents about a year to come into compliance to give um and then the the provisions of the bylaw can be enforced thereafter, but let's give residents more time. So, you know, even if we pass this, we're we're going
to allow the homeowners um to make the necessary changes, give them a couple months to do it. Thank you. >> Mr. Mr. Humphre, may I ask, would you put this at the end of the article or someplace else so that the warrant committee clerk >> I would put it at the end of the article. >> Okay, perfect. Do I hear a second?
>> Okay, thank you. [Music] >> Mr. Z, you are recognized. Thank you. We're a no on this. As previously stated, this has is is already going to take several months to come into effect. We don't think this is useful. Um if you think that you know
somebody whose lights are too bright, tell them about it. Thank you. >> And the warrant committee, >> we're almost done. >> Okay. >> Jay Funding, how many member precinct 3 chair the warrant committee? The warrant committee recommends a no vote. Uh, two
comments. One is that this is the easiest bylaw in the world to comply with. You just turn off your light. Uh, and the second one is the last vote I counted 161 people here. We're in danger of losing quorum if we don't wrap things up. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. Funling. Okay. Does everybody understand? We will add the language. If this motion to amend passes, no provision of this article shall take effect before October 1, 2026. To Mr. Funling's second point about the time,
we do still have to vote on the article itself as well. Um, okay. So, we're going to open this up for a vote unless there are any questions about what we're voting on. Seeing none, we'll open it up for a vote. While we're waiting for a vote, I want
to thank everybody for really exhibiting a lot of decorum. While we've had a lot of motions to amend today, I know it's been very heated and a lot of discussion, but I think that everybody has been very polite and respectful and I really appreciate it. So, thank you all.
Yeah. Okay, we could clap for that. Thank you. That's enough. Here we go. >> Okay. 82% no, 17% yes. 136 no, 29 yes.
We're going to move back to the article >> with the recommendations made by the warrant committee as amended by Mr. Chinman. And if the warrant committee clerk can pull that up, we can proceed. Did anybody else have any comments that
they want to make? No. Great. Okay, perfect. This will be the motion that we are going to vote on. It is the recommendation by the warrant committee with the addition by Mr. Chinman as approved by town meeting to add the
language including town property to the recommendation of the warrant committee. Does anybody have any questions? We're now voting on the article and we will now open the vote. The article as amended passes. this 81%
yes, 18% no, 136 yes, 30 no. Now, I am aware that it is 8:52 p.m. And the reason why I'm aware is because unlike all the rest of you, I've been standing up this entire time. So, >> I
>> what? 10. Okay. 10:52. And then nobody laughed at my joke. So, I have been standing up this entire time. So, I am well aware of what time it is. However, I have been informed by the town administrator that article 9 should be fairly rapid. If people want to continue
to article 9 and not come back tomorrow, I am more than happy to do so. If people wish, okay, would take a voice vote? >> Yes. >> Okay. Anybody against it? >> Great. Okay. We're going to move on to article 9. And thank you so much for bearing with us. Article 9 says to see
if the town will vote to amend the zoning bylaw chapter 275 of the code of bylaws by amending section 27520 traffic impact mitigation as follows with all deleted language shown as being stricken through and all added language shown as
being underlined as set forth in the October 2025 special town meeting warrant. Just a note here is that this will require a twothirds vote. This was submitted by the planning board. So, we will hear from the submitting body, the planning board, and the chair, Meredith
Hall. Miss Hall, you are recognized. Good evening, Meredith Hall, town meeting member, precinct 3, and chairman of the planning board. Um, this evening, this is a very simple um hopefully a a simple um article. This is an article
that actually already exists in our zoning bylaws. Um, this just would update some of the language, um, which essentially would ensure that the requirements for traffic mitigation apply to projects in business districts. The original version of this bylaw did
not include this, which was an oversight. It incorporates the updated site plan approval bylaw that was passed at the TA annual town meeting in May of 2025 by updating the text to reflect that a project could be subject to a
special permit or to a site plan approval depending on the project. Number three, it strikes the requirement that the level of service LOS shall never be below a C for scenic roads or a D for all other new or existing
intersections. The town has existing intersections that are below these thresholds. So, this requirement is overly restrictive. And number four, this would strikes the requirement that the special permit or site plan approval
include conditions for how funds are spent. This change allows more flexibility to address traffic mitigation after projects are built rather than uh mandating changes based on predicted impacts. So uh the planning
board hopes that you will accept these um these updates to the language of this bylaw. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Hall. And now, if we may hear from the warrant committee. >> Thank you, madam moderator. Jay Funling, town meeting member precinct 3, chair of
the warrant committee. Just to paraphrase what Chair Hall said, uh, this in the in the warrant has another format. So, we currently have a bylaw about this subject. And if you look in the warrant, the things underlined are the things are being added, the things crossed out are things being removed. Uh
we currently have a law that says if a new development creates traffic congestion, they could be compelled to contribute to a fund that will be used to relieve that congestion. Uh the current law does not include business districts. So this is expanded to include business and residential districts. And the current law only
applied to special permits. This is being expanded to apply to special per require special permits but do require site plan approval. So this extends that slight site plan approval to project slight site plan approval and the war
committee recommends a yes vote. >> Thank you Mr. Funley. Mr. Zole, would you like to speak to this article? >> Thank you madam moderator Benzole precinct five town meeting member chair of the select board. The select board unanimously recommends a yes vote on
this article with thanks to the planning board for putting it together. >> Thank you. Would anybody else like to speak to this article? Yes, sir. You are recognized, Mr. Morang. >> Okay. >> Uh, good evening. Matt Morang, uh, town meeting member, precinct 2. Um, I also urge a yes vote on this, but with, um, one point that I'd like to make really
quickly. Um, section six for mitigation payments. I'm worried that they have no teeth. Um, that the the uh, financial cost here is extremely low being paid into the traffic mitigation fund. Um, so
I just urge the planning board in when you want to put it on your agenda in the future um to revisit that because I think that um it it really doesn't do enough as far as I'm concerned. But I think that this is good. We should pass it. Urge a yes vote. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. Morang. >> Mr. Chimman, would you like to speak to this article? >> Yes. I know everyone hates me at this microphone again. >> Nobody hates you. Go ahead. >> Michael Chimman, precinct 2. I just have a question for the town clerk or maybe town council about how this bylaw will
go into our bylaws. Will it include the underlined provisions and the strikethroughs or will those be taken out or added without the underlining? >> Thank you.
>> Attorney Klene, you're recognized. Um I believe it states in the first paragraph of the article that the um the deleted language uh the the the language that is deleted is being shown in the warrant is being stricken through and
the added language will be underlined. So, the bylaw that ultimately, if this passes, that will go to the attorney general and if approved into your bylaw book would have all of the underlined language added in like any other text. It would not be underlined in the bylaw
book and the stricken through language would be deleted and it wouldn't appear in the bylaw book if passed. >> Thank you. Would anybody else like to speak to this article? Seeing none, we can now open
up for a vote on article number nine. Don't leave because if something happens to the electronic voting, we're going to have to take another vote and we need to have a quorum. >> It's 48 seconds. >> You've been here the whole time. I
appreciate you. Please stay. What's up? It is a little >> the article passes. 98% yes. I can confidently say that that is 2/3 160 yes one no. Do I hear a motion to dismiss?
>> Okay. All in favor? >> Yes, I did. I declare twothirds. That concludes the business of the October 2025 special town meeting. Thank you so much, everyone, and we'll see you at the next town meeting.
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