##VIDEO ID:o0F3axG96nY## [Music] f good evening um thank you for coming to the selectboard zoom meeting tonight of Tuesday Tuesday December 17th my name is Roxanne Musto I am the vice chair of the select board and I'm filling in for chair Richard Wells who will be joining us later in the meeting I'd like to first uh call the meeting to order and take the opportunity to introduce everybody who's on the screen so if my fellow select board members can introduce themselves and our staff that would be great thank you John um John cohain um select board member Ben select board member Erin Aaron Bradley select board member okay and uh Nick we have two Nicks here so Nicholas Milano Tom administrator Nick Conor's assistant Town Administrator and ly ly app executive assistant of the SL board okay thank you um so number two we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance okay the pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands which it stands one na one nation under God indivisible indivisible liberty and justice for all Justice for All thank you okay number three is public comment um we allow 21 minutes three minutes per person is there anybody here that would like to speak please raise your hand in the zoom and I'll ask um Mr Milano if he could take a look and see if there's anybody who would like to speak I don't see anybody right now but is there anybody that you see no not at the time okay all right thank you so we'll go on to number four if we could have uh Chief mad and I see that he is in the attendees if we could promote him um he's going to speak about the Blue Hills brushfires number four in the agenda how are you good how are you very good thank you uh thank you I appreciate all the support that um you have given us over the last month the last month was uh extremely busy the last couple of months have been extremely busy um looking through the numbers you know the brush bues extremely dry out um I think we had eight brush bues in in September we had 11 in in uh October and then we had three uh in November and uh those three and November uh one of them was well two of them were extremely memorable um I'm sure you've seen the news and I I appreciate uh everything that everyone has reached out um so I I will just St on the uh the the end of October we had the fire up on Walcott Hill uh was about two to three acres um we extinguished that in about two days um and then it it was stayed dormant for a few days and then uh about two weeks later it it it came back alive and and uh spread to another two acres that fire at the top of the hill was very difficult for Access that was the one that we actually had the Air National Guard helicopter doing the water drops out of hotton pond um so that was a unique experience to uh to work on that fire uh something that you'd never think you'd see in the town of Milton is water drops um so after that that that was put out um and it was pretty quiet for for a little while just small fires the the dry um areas you know one of the things that we had was was um we had a couple lawn mower fires where people la like picking up their leaves mowing the lawn and and the lawn mowers caught on fire from the from the dry vegetation uh so we had a few of those um and then the the the weekend of of November 8th uh until the 20th we got extremely busy uh brain tree had probably a four alarm brush fire with multiple houses um it that were in danger and U Milton we sent a an engine or a brush truck over there and uh I can honestly s you tell you that the first time in my life I've seen California like conditions uh in in this area where winds were blown 30 m hour and fire was blowing over houses and rry did an unbelievable job and and our engine one uh brought a brush truck over and the the amount of work that they did from about 7:00 at night to about 3:30 in the morning uh was exceptional um once that fire was knocked down uh we came home got everything back together again and then we were called in the morning for the reignition uh we're over there for a few hours on on uh November 9th um and that weekend that was when we had the second alarm fire on the 10th on Lincoln Street and then that was followed up on Veterans Day where we were part of a task force that um from North norfor County and uh we went up to North Andover and fought a 200 acre fire um that was an extremely uh busy weekend for the Department uh the men and women did an exceptional job it is just uh you know watching them uh do the work and everything else impressive um then that followed up on the 18th was the one that we all know about is the hoton hillfire on the eight you know and I sent that long email and I appreciate you guys reading it and everybody commenting on it um there was a lot that went into that um that fire started off with about a 2 to three acre fire it was spotted by by the Sharon fir Tower uh called it in and um within about 2 hours it exploded to over 30 Acres up the hill with wind driven fire we had uh you know some of the exposures that we were trying to protect was the the um the stables in in the state police barracks uh so and then obviously if you look at the other side of that that area was um was um Blue Hill River Road ien and uh Adrien silver Rook uh those streets up in there so you know with the fire fast moving fire it was one of those things where we were just trying to contain the fire and we weren't trying to put it out at all and um by about 9 or 10:00 at night we we we had it contained and we were pretty good with it and um we were able to clear the companies I think we had 80 firefighters from across the the county in the area uh up there fighting fires and then uh the next day uh I called for uh two two forestry task forces to kind of just just get at it and and and and uh you know put the fires out and uh so that day we had one from Plymouth County one from norol County so that was about five or six units from each County they came in we had the DCR we had uh the state the department of fire Services we had uh multiple agencies up there I think on that day on the 19th we had uh almost 100 uh firefighters 100 Personnel up there um with 30 agencies represented on that fire um we were able to uh really put a lot of work into it and uh almost 90% put that fire out that that second day um and then on the 20th we were up there just just mopping up some of the the the hotpots and uh when you look at across the the the state for that region you know for this region you know a lot of these fires quickly exploded to 500 400 500 Acres uh we were able to uh keep it to about 50 acres on that one so um I appreciate your support and I know you have a very very busy meeting I checked the agenda and so uh I don't want to take up too much of your time so anybody have any comments from the board uh Mr z may I oh Mr Z first he raised his hand thanks thanks Mr mustow um Chief Madden thank you so much for this and thank you also for the timely updates that you were providing the select board during the fires I'm sure that you had uh a lot on your hands and so that just keeping us uh apprised of the situation was deeply appreciated um just a quick comment and then a quick question um you know I I I fear that this is not the uh an an anomaly but potentially the start of a different kind of Fire season in in Milton and um so I guess it's great that we've had some practice now with it um but uh it's unfortunately something I think we're going to have to anticipate looking at more and more in the future um what advice could you give to Milton residents uh you know there's certain things that people can do you mentioned lawn mower fires uh to sort of lower the risk of uh of perhaps inadvertently starting a fire or making fire conditions um more aggravated than they normally would be um if there's any sort of advice you would like to put out for uh for our residents in that front and be appreciated yeah that that's actually a great question and and um you know some of the things that we look at and you know um in the service I learned on being on a ship uh cleanliness is Next to Godliness and and Good Housekeeping Good Housekeeping you know keeping the excessive brush away from your house uh making sure that you know not the overgrown bushes and trees uh stay away from your house um disposal of of of um materials burning materials so if you have a a fireplace and you have the ashes or if you you know use a wood stove or or uh you have a campfire at night or you know just just making sure that you you just discard your ashes or you know in a safe manner you know put them in a in a in a metal container and and leave them away from any kind of structure for for you know a couple of days make sure that they're out wet them down um you know careless disposal of of of um smoking materials that's that's one of those ones that you know uh it happens you know um and then you know for the brush fires you know some of the things that we see is that you know if you take trash in take the trash out when you go hiking in the Blue Hills a lot of times we find broken ball and you know working with the the the the State Fire Warden you know he he said like 99% of all outside fires are a man caused you know they're human caused and and yeah sometimes you do have the people like the person down an anabor that was actually going out and lighting the fires um if if if you break a a glass bottle in the woods and you know the sun gets it just right and the extreme dry conditions that we had could spark a fire um you know if somebody just driving down the road throws a cigarette out the out the window that could start a fire so um you th those are the things is just that I would suggest you know um just making sure that you know keep everything away from your house you know if you do if you do create any kind of Ashes make sure that they're they're scouted properly and away from the house so thank you thank you again did you have a question Mr cohane did I I I just wanted to say um I I can't that just every day knowing that you're there and your staff is there I am amazed on the news how many house fires there are across the area every single night um very comforting knowing you're there um thank you thank you I appreciate it and you know the men and women of the Milton Fire Department they're the ones that go out and do it on a day-to-day basis I'm the lucky one that just gets to get some of the accolades but it's really just them you know the people that are here day in and day out they um they do an exceptional job it's a it's a tough job but they do they do it exceptionally well so thank you very much and we appreciate the support thank you I just wanted to add one other thing um I think it's already been said by both members you know thank you for what you all do and um thank you for the updates that you give us on all of the fires that are going on in town because I think sometimes people don't realize how much is going on behind the scenes and I think with these forest fires that just happened I think a lot of people were watching everything on the uh the west coast and were really sort of surprised how quickly things could change you know nearby you know especially the Blue Hills for instance um and it the other thing that's great is that there were other units that could be called in um I have a cousin who lives in another town and on their Facebook for one of the fire departments they had their brush truck I think it was Easton or something um that came and assisted and there were many that did so um I think that's really great that you you know all work together as well across departments to help each other thank you the fire service does a really really good job of um Mutual Aid we give out help and you know because we know that we're going to expect it back or ask for it back and and uh the cities and towns around us that first night when I was you know in the command center with with Deputy sner um the stoen chief the Norwood Chief the Foxboro Chief and the Sharon Chief were all there and you know I was thinking about who to call the second day for those task forces and uh they all of them just said we'll come we'll come and it was good to know it was comforting to know that they they were offering their support and um their time and effort so it it's good and you know um you know the fact that we went to brain tree and then had the opportunity to go to northand over uh for one of their brush fires is just it's unheard of these days to to to go to so much Mutual Aid and just like Mr Cain said the amount of fires that are happening on a regular basis now is just uh it's I don't know if it's just one it newsworthy or it's just happening a lot so um but thank you very much thank you anybody else okay thank you for coming appreciate it thanks for the update thank you okay number six we have discussion update the Massachusetts school building authority application status um do we want to defer that until Mr Wells can join fine whatever you would want to do Nick uh Mr Milano I think in talking to said to just progress through the agenda and he'll jump on as soon as he can okay so no I appreciate it I was just um Mr um melen I was wondering if we could do that and then maybe what we could do is we could jump ahead to some of these um pretty straightforward liquor licenses those are those are very straightforward so maybe we could in you know uh the Articles we could get to it afterwards if there's a thought process on that looks like Miss Bradley has a question yeah I just um I I want to Echo what Mr Z just said I I find it interesting that we're about to talk about a major piece that has been under discussion without the chair of the board here so I miss mustow agree with you that we should skip ahead possibly and do the liquor licenses and some other routine stuff before we start talking about you know the great news that happened that many don't know about that our chair isn't here for do we have any idea what time the chair will be here Mr M I think he was hoping for by 7:30 um he should be able to join us so um no issue with um from here in terms of what order do things been Mis so why don't we jump ahead then um if that is the consensus of the board we can jump ahead a little bit so we'll skip over a few items and we're going to move ahead on the agenda um um why don't we do you want to go to number right to number 11 we can just skip a whole section we can always go back to that those other questions and we'll start with number 11 which are discussion approval 2025 liquor license renewals is that okay with everybody uh Miss Bradley yep that sounds great miss m it's okay with you I would like to make a motion sure go ahead great I'd like to make a motion to approve the 2025 liquor license rals for the following organizations American Legion Post number 114 Williston Golf Club NPP Inc doing business as Central Liquor Mar there needs to be another comment in there Delaney linkers liquor Inc doing business as East Milton Wine and Spirits Inc bin 98 LLC doing business as craft and crew the fruit center Inc Milton housing Corporation DBA Milton Fuller Village at two locations 88 Warf Hospitality LLC doing business as Madre ostra Welsh restaurant Management LLC doing business as Abby Park 556 Adam Street LLC doing business as Navaro Milton Opus LLC doing business as Steen Ry hjar Inc doing business as Mr chance B and D Ichiro Inc doing business as Ichiro Sushi do we have a second I'll second Mr zel seconded um do we do roll call here um Mr Milano okay so roll call Mr cohain yes Mr zo yes Miss Bradley yep and myself yes thank you and we'll go on to number 12 who would like to do that one miss I'd like to make a motion thank you I'd like to make a motion to approve the 2025 Sunday opening permanent renewals Delaney linkers Inc doing business as East Milton Wine and Spirits Inc bin 98 LLC doing business as craf and crew nnp Inc oh sorry C crafting crew nnp Inc doing business as Central Liquor Mart the fruit center Inc do I have a second go ahead John you were on mute but if you want to Second it oh you're still on mute I think you're still on mute there I am there I am I'll second okay so Mr Goan is seconded roll call uh Mr cohane yes Mr Z yes Miss Bradley yes and myself yes okay very good going on to the next one number 13 anybody want to make the motion Miss must I'd like to make a motion thank you like to make a motion to approve the 2025 entertainment license renewals Milton Opus LLC doing business as steal and Ry Welsh restaurant Management LLC doing business as Abby Park 556 Adam Street LLC doing business as Novara 88 Warf Hospitality LLC doing business as Madre ostra and hojar Inc doing business as Mr chance great do I have a second I'll second okay Mr cohane a second roll call Mr cohane yes Mr Z yes and I'm getting hungry listening to all these fants Miss Bradley yes and myself yes okay uh number 14 all right anybody that one Miss Bradley do you want do you want a break Erin oh I'm not even looking at the screen sure if somebody else wants to do it that's fine I'll do I'll do it um discussion and approval um I'm sorry it's just an approval you just just read off all of the ones for discussion approval of of the common Vic license renewals you have to read all of those DBA didn't we do this brers oh no um B&D EO Inc DBA Mr C you have you have to make a motion okay I make a motion that we approve the following y you approve okay the common vict license renewals okay that the common vict Li renewals D B and icho Inc DBA Ichiro Sushi bugers Enterprises Inc DBA bugers Bagels number 3801 Coffee Break Cafe Inc El bario Grill at two locations ho John Inc DBA Mr chance kme Milton DBA Steves Milton LLC DBA Dunkin Donuts Milton housing cop DB full of Village at two locations Milton's Opus LLC DBA seal and Ry Nukem Farms peel Holdings LLC DBA Peel Pizza Company um PB Milton LLC DBA viables uh Reviving company M LLC Starbucks Coffee number 7565 tnv Milton LLC DBA Stella's restaurant 556 Adams Street LLC DBA Novara wels restaurant Management LLC DBA Abby Park 88 wolf Hospitality LLC DBA M Austria okay do we have a second I'll second okay Mr Z is a second and we'll do a roll call Mr cohane yes Mr zo yes Miss Bradley yes and myself yes okay okay um I think we could go on to number 15 which is a discussion approval of a class to dealer license renewal um so somebody want to make that motion or do you want me to make the motion yes I'd like to make a motion thank you go ahead I'd like to make a motion to approve theowing class two dealer license renewal for 2025 RBM motor Masters Inc doing business as Milton Auto Repair located at 944 Canton AV in Milton Massachusetts great do I hear a second I'll second Mr cohan's a second roll call Mr cohane yes Mr zo yes Miss Bradley yes and myself yes um I think that we could go on to number 16 if everybody agrees on that one which is um a boarding committee appointment for the Chade tree committee sure miss mustow I'd like to make a motion to change things up a little bit okay uh I would like to uh make a motion that the select board approve the nomin the appointment of Fiona Javon to the shade tree advisory committee for a term ending but when when will it end it says a one-year term one a one-year term so ending on June 30th I guess 2025 is that right Mr Milano yes okay all right so um second do I hear a second second oh oh there's a tie there Miss Bradley we'll give you that one all right roll call um Mr Caine yes Mr zo yes Miss Bradley yes and myself yes um okay let's we could probably go and do the minutes if that's okay approve the minutes um were were every was everybody here for both sets of these minutes or we'll have to separate no I was not here for the November one okay and how about the February Mr cohain would not have been here for the February February one right okay um so we would have I think we would have a majority though three of us right for each one um so we'll take them separately then um so uh who would like to make a motion I'll make a motion to approve oh sorry Erin you got your hand I just have a question you can make a motion I'll ask it afterwards it's fine uh well I'll make a motion then to approve the meeting minutes for February 26 2024 okay do we have a second I'll second okay um we'll do a roll call had a question question sorry somebody put my hand down um I was wondering I didn't ever see um any revisions to these two meeting minutes which we usually we do get they go out and then we usually get a second one that says that there was revisions were these two fine the way that they were the first time um Miss denapoli was there any Reis Visions nope no one had Provisions for me love it okay thanks Lynn me too thank you great job Lyn okay so Mr made the motion and Miss Bradley did you second that then I did okay so um we're gonna go around and do a vote Mr cohane abstain abstain Mr Z yes Miss Bradley yes and myself yes okay so now we'll go on to the second set of minutes for approval which are those from November 12th um somebody want to make a motion for that set so miss must I'd like to make a motion sure go ahead Miss mro I'd like to make a motion to approve the meeting minutes from November 12th 2024 do I hear a second I can second them you can yeah I'll second them so I'll do the second um and we'll do a roll call M Mr cohain yes Mr Z abstain okay Miss Bradley yes and myself yes okay so we've got through some of these things let me go back um looking at the time so it's about 7:30 let's see if there's anything I'm sorry go ahead I said we did good good J right Richard will be pleased when he comes and discovers that we've knocked off half the agenda yes he will all right so let me just look back um so do we want to look at um let me just see do you want to talk about the traffic Commission in information on that or ar arpa I mean I don't know how you want to handle that the rest of the board what your thoughts are we could start with one of those perhaps traffic traffic commission may be the the least uh well not the least important but the least controversial maybe is that is that a report from you Mr Milano on where are we with that if you want to give us an update on that at least start with that that's number nine on the agenda thank you um yes uh so there are no recommendations from the traffic commission at this time so no action items from the selectboard um I can provide a brief update on each of the items listed um the traffic commission met on Tuesday December 12th I think is that right last week the traffic commission met let me start that um to take up these three agenda items um then and I'll go actually in reverse order just it's a little bit easier so um the two-hour parking request was uh emanated from some businesses down at the um Central AV Elliot Street area um if folks on the board Might Recall but a couple years ago uh the planning department had done some extens of planning around uh parking designations in that area and um through surveys of the business district um to try to more clearly and easily delineate um areas so that's when some 15-minute parking spaces were implemented the loading zone was implemented um and signed better and all the most of the spots around Milton and Central were flipped over to one hour um some service zone parking was designated and some two-hour parking was designated on Elliot Street um since then we've had some requests from some of the businesses closer to the central and Elliott requesting some um locations for twoh hour spaces for businesses that might have somebody with a hair appointment that's not going to be an hour um so you know to support their customers to give them some more flexibility around the time that they have to um and you know participate in the business they're doing down there so uh we're going to regroup the traffic commission um just uh agreed by consensus that we would um Circle back with the business owners reach back out to everybody get a sense of um uh folks feelings on that and uh take it from there but we understand the request around you know some of the businesses naturally if you're a customer maybe your appointment might be longer than just the hour so um look just uh revisit that and come back with some potential changes uh to that uh area Okay um Mr z uh thank you Miss Musto um so Mr Milano uh have there been a lot of parking tickets that have been given out in this area uh since we have a new parking enforcement officer I the the numbers are increasing uh every day so we've been uh enforcement's been really stepped up so I appreciate the Jerry and his efforts um it's an area we we pay close attention to especially around the loading zone um so things are on the uptick and it the one hour parking it's it's not like um people getting inundated but it is it has become noticeable to a few folks so that's uh where we're trying to react okay that makes sense to me thank you sure any other questions oh go ahead Miss Bradley sorry thanks so much Miss Musto um Nick I've been getting so I know that that we had a change in leadership um and now Marina would be the one in charge of the traffic commission is that correct yes okay so they're starting and they meet how regularly it's not quite uh as regular as monthly I'd say every six to eight weeks oh okay um and if we get notices from residents um I've been getting multiple emails regarding a couple of streets in town that they would like to see a traffic study done on or some type of remedial ideas I would bring that to Marina or you or what are we doing now what's the process no the DPW commissioner by the bylaw is the chair of the traffic commission so feel free to either reach out to her directly yourself I'm happy to um Sol facilitate if necessary but you can reach out to Marina or have folks reach out to Marina directly and we have a running list of um you know Hotpot issues that people bring to attention so but no we're all years in terms of places to focus on okay thank you oh I got one more question and brush Hill Road is a historic Road right like it's a histo we can't there's nothing we can do on that road because it's a Historic Landmark or whatever they designated it recently Scenic Road but that you can still make changes as long as you restore for you know the the walls and stuff but there are more um restrictions around what you can do on those older roads the issue is more like the right of way that we may or may not have we might only have a narrow strip yeah um of RightWay okay cool thanks so much Nick sure uh Mr cohane yeah and Nick at the at that traffic uh meeting um it speaking of um traffic studies it did come up about traffic studies around making the one way how how did that end up or is that going to the next meeting I and speak to that now that that's helpful um so the next two items that the traffic commission uh dealt with were a request that's in your packet for a loading zone and Valley parking in East Mountain Square as well as a potential conversion of Franklin Street between Adams and Basset to a oneway um and these issues are pretty much interrelated uh because you know having the additional roadway space on Franklin if it were one way opens up some additional opportunities to make some changes in the Square to hopefully um get some of those trucks off atoms um as well as locate some belly in response to request uh from a business owner in the area um with there was some feedback or concern about what the change to um making Franklin a one way might mean particularly for Church Street or other portions of Franklin um so we're in the process of viewing existing data that we have and traffic accounts that we have to to get a better uh grasp of what what are we seeing on a regular basis and what could change as a result of this conversion and we'll report back to the traffic Commission in um in January and then this all is also um done with an eye towards the East Milton 40b project which is expecting to start demo and abatement in February um so folks are starting to already see some of the um preparations for that um down in square the commercial building is is empty now um so that project uh just by the nature of the construction a six-story building will require a significant increase in truck traffic um and the developers had approached us trying to think about ways to to manage that truck traffic uh and their proposal is to bring the traffic in from Adams onto uh sorry off the highway off Granite onto Adams uh left onto Franklin and then leave the site by way of Basset and then right back on granite and gone and and minimize any truck traffic that would go through the neighborhood and again having the additional roadway space on Franklin would be beneficial to their efforts as well as ours to try to keep that truck traffic from impacting uh congestion in in the area and limit um trucks going through uh neighborhood streets so it's all kind of tied together um and we're trying to come up with a solution that um you know affects everything a little bit that help uh mitigate the problems over the next couple of years so John to to your question Mr Kane um we are evaluating the data that we have currently uh we've been reaching out to our Traffic Engineers in terms of if we feel there's a need for additional new counts um or if or if we feel the data that we have is is reliable enough and and good enough and then um if if any chains are implemented um have a have new counts taken at a later point in time to compare and respond to in case there are uh issues that arise so that's the current planning and then we'll be regrouping with the traffic commission prior to making any recommendation back to this body uh in January one last thing I just I I know at the meeting there were comments from the Neighbors about the fact that doing this changes everything so traffic studies done absent this are a lot less relevant and they were talking about you know ongoing traffic track of some sort that's how I took it anyway and they've said to me yeah no I think I think the point of going back to the data we have is just to understand um what has changed over time and and if anything has changed over time and to understand because that tells us um the movements that have been are typically being made and what the numbers are and so that um helps us inform kind of what we need to study if anything um ahead of regrouping with the traffic commission Miss Bradley thank you thank you Nick what was the discussions about people taking or trucks taking a left on that onto Franklin was there discussions around a light was there discussions around blocking it off so that people don't sit and wait for the light to change in front of that backing it up even more you mean just cuz that um area is often blocked due to the con taking a left hand turn onto you know from Adams onto Franklin am I saying that right yeah I think I am yeah that's just going to be a nightmare like now even now when cars are waiting it is what it is fine but you talking about trucks they're a lot larger than a car and they could back them up and back up over the the square like over that bridge I'm just I was wondering if anybody had conversations about that left-and turn and what they would do to mitigate the backup there I I think you know part of the one-way conversations really coest around some of the conversations with um the project because again creating that space on Franklin to facilitate those turns more easily is helpful and then um I think to to your point about if um if there's traffic backup on Adams that blocks Franklin entirely and a truck's trying to take a left they're going to be sitting there for a while um that's G to be management problem that uh we're going to have to try to handle with enforcement in markings um to the best of our ability but there isn't an intention to put any kind of light in there at all no okay because it's the same thing I mean you know not to beat my dead horse but the library still hasn't gotten their new markings in front of their entrance and people will still wait to take a leftand turn in and out of there um and it really does back things up not just on the road but within the library proper as well so if we are going to put lines on there to mark it we need to you know make it almost slap people in the face so they really do stop and not feel the need to get Bumper to Bumper to wait for a red light to turn like there's to me it's just mindboggling but um but you know people like to be right next to each other to wait so I just would hope that there's some looking into that about how to really get people to stop with the markings okay thank you thanks okay Mr z uh thank you Miss mustow um I like the idea of traffic things that can slap drivers in the face somehow that that's that's inspiring eron um Nick I'm just wondering yesterday or two days ago I think Somerville um made the decision that they were going to eliminate parking requirements for new developments because they felt that parking requirements uh encourage sort of sprawly growth and uh really don't do anything to reduce traffic or or you know create more parking spaces for folks and I was just wondering if the traffic commission has read about that thought about that this seems to be a trend that's that's uh that's picking up uh thinking thinking differently about parking requirements for new developments so if if just wondering if they have have discussed that no not to my knowledge I think their charges to deal with the um the rules and regulations of the streets themselves um and but um I had not seen that I can certainly share would that be more of a planning board just sorry just a clarification that would be a planning board issue okay thank you very yeah more of a planning board issue um I had a quick comment on this one I watched part of that meeting I didn't unfortunately U get in it at the right time and it was hard the video audio wasn't great at some points during it but um wondering if there's ever been any thought to somebody did bring this up about putting the loading zone on atams and the question I have with that is if you were if there was a way to talk with some of the bigger um users of big trucks coming in there for instance probably like Duncan um the two restaurants the liquor store and doing something like a a 7 AM to a 10: a. or 7 to9 loading zone on Adams where um you know you would have a designated spot and you know that you would meet with perhaps all the businesses and have them look at who their vengers are and when they're coming in and see if they can coordinate the bigger ones to come in at that time um you know and that way you you could leave it for maybe two spots where you could have a designated loading zone on atams so they're not bringing these big trucks through you know the neighborhood and then with the development sometimes what people have done and considered is um you know sometimes they get these big deliveries for these projects and they and they're not quick because then they have these big trucks and they have a little Moffet that comes up and unloads the truck so is there any thought to perhaps working out something where maybe there was an offsite whether it was um I don't even know like off the highway or something that they could do the unloading and bring in smaller trucks into the area um for for that because I think that those trucks you know having these huge trucks make this turns going through the neighborhood even if you make it a one way is not a great I don't think it's a great plan that's just my own personal thing um but I'm wondering if they could look at or would consider doing you know a specific loading zone like meeting with the businesses that are in the find out when they're getting their deliveries and you know try to coordinate so they're getting them you know for those restaurants and things um in the liquor store in the morning and not on a Friday at like 8 o'clock at night you know what I mean so that would be something I think you know to consider perhaps and then just on the development which is going on seeing if there is a way that they um were able to do something a little bit offsite whether it's on granite have um you know they work out something with I was going to say the state yard but even you know um the Legion or something and they could unload and bring in smaller trucks into the neighborhood to deliver so those are just some of my thoughts on that that's not a specific question I've asked I'm happy to do that and and we'll get that over to the development team uh something to consider um and they're still working on they sent us a later straft of their proposed um management plans um that we expect to um have a chance to dive into this week um and then on Adam Street I think where we were approaching the loading zone initially was trying to make it um if if in the scenario where Franklin's a one way wouldn't be sacrificing any parking because that that space isn't necessarily used for parking today so it's more about trying to find a place where parking is not um already an asset and take that away um but I think as to your point if it's a few hours um maybe that's something that's that's workable um and I I can speak to in I you know go down all the time in terms of at Elliot that that loading zone is working and folks notice not parking it trucks know to use it so it's it's just about making sure the businesses um educate their folks as well in terms of making those deliveries and coordinating them to to maximize uh what space we can provide them I mean it might be just something where you're you know maybe you're meeting with the different business owners down there and saying hey like when do you get your deliveries you know let's try to coordinate them and see if we can do it between you know seven and N or whatever um and then as far as the person that's doing the development to me with that you know uh manager and see how how to best you know mitigate um you know their they're using the the side street like so that they're not bringing these huge trucks down there because the other thing is they bring the truck down there and they have to unload it and that is you know that takes a while and that was so that's my thought was could they consider doing it or should we have them consider doing it offsite bringing in smaller truck into that area so it's not an issue um Mr Cohan thank you Mr Cohan similar similar conversation that um during the traffic meeting um Lieutenant Elba mentioned that their um the loading zone at Central is working real well um I have it on my list to go over there and walk through it with him because he he commented on that at the meeting that that loading zone was working out real well and that there was an enforcement policy they had for it making that happen okay thank you um anybody else so Mr Milan you'll get back to us on this yes we'll have a recommendations from the traffic commission head on hopefully one of the meetings in January okay thank you um do you want to do number 10 wait did we do sorry goe did we do c under did we do the two hour parking on Elliot was that the begin yes we're regrouping with business owners on that one all right um as long as Miss Bradley brought brought that up I did want to ask you how many spots were they thinking that they would possibly switch over to two hours any talk about that no and we want to understand what the demand is for that before we make those changes because there are to our spots they're a little bit farther away up Elliott heading towards um more towards Lower Mills and Milton Village so um just understand what the the need is and and if um they're on our Alternatives rather than um you know going in and making changes to some changes we just implemented but uh understanding first what the demand is for one hour versus for two hour versus one hour right now okay great everything everything currently on Central is one hour except for those few 15 minutes around the corner right yeah right on the correct we're not losing those no okay thank you [Laughter] all right um should we do number 10 um it's a discussion update approval final arpa funding allocation small business grants allocations I believe you sent this through fairly late today an update so I actually didn't have I saw it come in but I was actually at another meeting so I didn't even look at it yet yeah uh this is uh apologize for that but we are coming to the end of all the arpa programs and we're just finalizing a few things as late as today so um arpa has American Rescue plan act has really two deadlines the first deadline is December 31 2024 to incur or contract for projects and they have the monies have to be spent by December 20 31 2026 uh for the most part for the for all the money that's the town is receiv received directly uh we expect to spend it all by December 31st 2024 and be done for the county funds that we've received with approval of Nora County we have one project um one one Capital project the Broadband one that'll uh be has been contracted but will be completed in calendar year 25 well ahead of the 2026 deadline and a couple of um employees who are being paid with that money still um that will wind down in 2025 so uh what I'm specifically providing an update on is the treasury money that it came to the town directly uh from the treasury um so the accounting team through Lisa cool and Amy Dexter and our finance office have been finalizing um our projects and analyzing where they're where they're at in terms of final money so we expect um as things stand um to have $22,000 in Surplus arpa funding on the treasury side and as I um just mentioned we have a 12312 24 deadline by which to obligate that funding so my recommendation at this time is the cleanest way to spend down that money is to apply it to fiscal 25 our current budget year expenses that we've incurred between July 1 of 24 and uh December 31st of 24 um so that's so there you know one vote there in terms of um you know my recommendation is just to apply it to fiscal 25 DPW expenses um to to close out that money to offset some of our general fund expenses and then there are two small business grants that I can provide an update for um but I think it would be first make sense to talk about this um surplus of about $22,000 uh first okay um so I as I said I hadn't had a chance to really look at that um from other members any thoughts or questions Mr Milano Mr sorry if I could just the the there is just it we don't want to fund a new position with it the idea to to Target it towards DPW is to enable them to to spend that on projects around town and just put that money to work um so offset some current year expenses and then replace them uh throughout the balance of the year I just I should have provided that context sorry to interrupt you no that's fine thank you uh Mr Z thank you Miss mow and thank you Mr Milano for the summary um just as a uh you know for folks who are watching um 22k uh for DPW expenses that you know would you sort of identify that as the as the what why does that kind of stick out for you and I know that we have um you know expenses that are coming in the school side um and uh just wondering if that money could be applied over to to defr some of those costs and I understand that we don't want to necessarily spend it on new employees um but if there are is is it would school funding be eligible for this or uh is the is is or not that's just my question thank you so the way the rule is is currently for the the money that we've received directly from the treasury uh We've elected to spend it all under what's called uh Revenue replacement which means can be used on anything that government provides as a service so it's entirely broad we can basically it's a blank check to use as we see fit so to to answer your question yes it could um and my view on this is you know uh this is money that is we're sitting here on December 17th we've identified it a surplus the easiest way to allocate it is to allocate it to expenses we've already incurred for reporting purposes for um for the federal government um the schools have a couple of projects that they're still uh spending um through the county and others um so my my perspective on it is the easiest way to put it is to budget every year DPW uh holds back on spending because of snow and ice um so this would only help them um uh you know actually use their money um over the course of a fiscal year as we would like them to if I wer that makes sense thank you any other questions on this Miss must there aren't any other questions I can make a motion sure go ahead um so Nick you tell tell me if I'm doing this wrong uh but I I'll make a motion to approve the surpa arpa Surplus arpa funding uh uh on the treasury side for DPW expenses incurred in fiscal year 2025 that works thank you and do I hear a second a second okay um we'll do a roll call Mr cohane yes Mr zo yes Miss Bradley yes and myself yes okay and the second part thank you uh Mr well is joining us uh imminently he just joined as a participant so should as a panelist hello hi there go ahead keep going why why don't you just I don't have an agenda with me so why don't you just keep running it and I'll I'll all right well well at least we'll we'll deal with this item that we're on um Mr Milano do you want to explain that one it's about the arpa money sure uh thank you uh we have uh we had a number of small business grants that were awarded uh by the select board a couple years ago um a set of money was set aside specifically to support small businesses in Milton uh a bunch of entities applied and were awarded funding um and for the most part all of those entities have spent down their award um to approached us in recent weeks requesting that a little flexibility around their applications um and the first is least efficient photography who had been awarded $1 19,24 excuse me um she had uh requested for a number of categories including some assistance with marketing um some staff assistance some software assistant and Equipment um and she approached us requesting that uh some of the grant be allowed to be reality towards equipment to buy replacement cameras um as she didn't uh did not need the staff support she thought she did so she had requested $4,800 and staff assistance has used about half of that but is asking for the balance of it to be reallocated to equipment rather than staff support um so that she can um fund some replacement equipment for her for her business um and then the second one was from Andrew's painting um and again they had they had been awarded $50,000 35,000 of which was for vehicle repair and maintenance uh 5,000 for equipment 5,000 for advertising 5,000 to try to um Help U hire some additional staff and likewise he um was not uh did not end up hiring that additional staff um as the the help was not there and is requesting that in Li of spending the 5,000 additional staff again that he'd be able to buy some equipment um a paint sprayer um and equipment for his for his business uh in lie of what had been part of the application so those are two changes uh broadly similar in nature um a change for Lisa ficient photography to use um about $2,200 for um equipment and for Andrew's painting to use $5,000 for [Music] equipment okay any discussion uh Miss Bradley thank you uh Nick did they give you any reason why they could not hire staff for this they've had this I I can remember when Mike and I approved this they've had this for a while um was there issues just with getting staff or it's just interesting that they both have the same thing yeah I think um so to my understanding for Lisa Fischer um I think she just overestimated the kind of Staff support she thought she would need uh for her projects it turned it just didn't turn out it would um it made sense for a business to to um increase Staffing uh a lot of it was she was able to manage and she used some of it for Staffing she just didn't use all of it and then for Andrew's painting um what he explained to me is you know the market in terms of that the trades uh was in was in high demand so Staffing was finding the help was um harder than he had anticipated and he ended up not adding Staffing um that he had expected to when he was initially applying yeah that may that's kind of what I was looking for is whether or not it was just hard to find the Staffing um so in his original proposal I know that he had put in for equipment in hers she did not corre um was there any and I I can't remember it was a while ago but was there and I might have even been when amarie was here but was anything that said that that hers could not be used for equipment uh no that's why we're here is because she didn't it wasn't requested and it would be um a slight it would be a change in what um the board had approved for her uh it was yeah there was an equipment included and for Andrew's painting it was he was had he had asked for 5,000 equipment is now revising that's a 10,000 total equipment okay uh Mr zo thank you Miss Musto so um Mr Milano in Miss Fischer's original Grant application she had identified $4,800 for a staff assistant and that is so was she able to have she was able to spend 2,000 on a staff assistant and then uh but then not the remainder of it correct she has about $2,200 outstanding in that category okay but she doesn't have somebody in there that she would continue okay all right thank you Mr Milano yes um you keep saying 22 and in your email today it says 28 oh yeah no I misspoke in the email I had thought it was 2816 but it was 2186 so sorry $2,200 $2200 okay and is that what the if we if a motion was to be made it would be made for $2200 yes okay okay any other um Mr Wells I'm make that motion um Madam chair in the amount of 2200 for leas efficient photography and just give me the amount for the amount of painting yeah 5,000 5,000 yes 5,000 for the amount of for um Tom model painting I may have the name the company wrong is there a second I'll second I'll second okay so Mr Z is the second um and we can just we don't need any um roll call now do we we do because we're on zoom we're on Zoom okay so I'll start with chair Wells yes okay uh Mr cohane yes Mr Z yes Miss Bradley yes and myself yes okay thank you all right so um Mr Wells while you were gone we tried to do a lot of the um license renewals and things like that so we did get through quite a bit but the um but we're going to go back to um number uh to the Pledge of Allegiance I hope not easy easy do you want to leave the meeting Mr Wells no so I'll um so that's did you did you did Chief Madden did you did you handle Chief mad yeah so we did Chief Madden he came in uh we've done I I can lead you through where we've done but we've done basically Chief Madden and items number 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 so we're on number um five we'll start so we we're gonna go back to number five and then um then we're gonna talk about update M school msba so yeah Mr mil I want want to let you and then um I was there for most of it so then um why don't you start Nick and then John if you have M Mr um go if any of the members have any questions than go for but why don't you go and paint the picture Nick as to where we are and what H the good news about what happened uh so on um last week uh the mass School building authority uh board of directors meeting was posted that um for Friday uh December 13th they would be voting on invitations to what's called eligibility period which is the first step in the msba project and Milton was included on that list of communities at the board of directors meeting um on Friday afternoon um they the board of the board formally uh voted to approve uh Milton's um statement of Interest an application to the msba program um with a start date of May 1st so commencing May 1st Milton is in the msba program um for a school project uh they sent us a a letter on Friday afternoon uh with a little bit more details that Milton has been invited in to study um the application the school application was for Cunningham school for a prek to5 or a prek 78 uh facility um and so that official news came out on Friday uh which um you know as if we go through the msba process there is a significant source of funding uh that would be coming back to the town through the project um through the reimbursement um so it's it's an Avenue to secure uh significant grant funding for a school project uh that if the town were to take it on um I do have a couple slides to to go through what the MSP process is going to look like in a little more detail uh happy to go through those um if that would be helpful um can do that now or or after go ahead go ahead I think you should I've already seen it but go ahead okay so just give me a morning I'll get my screen up here um and just as kind of a the MBA process has a lot of uh nomen crature and terminology that we'll all get used to over the next couple of years but coming in uh kind of green uh it might be a little foreign so I'll try to explain it uh without necessarily using all of their terminology um anyway as I was mentioning uh the board approved um recommendation that Milton be invited into eligibility period which is the first step in the msba process that eligibility period will start on May 1st uh there are number of um tasks that the town has to complete during that period and I'll go through those in a moment in a little more detail um I'll just note that with the February special town meeting coming up um it is always helpful to get things out of the way as soon as possible uh just to keep that process moving the msba process can be long um so any actions um a town can take to check things off um is helpful just to kind of keep in that calendar moving um eligibility period uh is where you essentially uh commit to participating the msba program form a school building committee uh those are the first two actions the initial ICC is the initial compliance certification which says will abide by the msba rules that needs to be signed by the select board and the school committee a school building committee needs to be formed while Milton has a school building committee today um it has an it's a nine member committee uh and those members currently as comprised do not meet the mba's requirements for a school building committee uh so the school committee to my understanding is working on a warant article that will um increase that membership to add uh the positions that are required under the msba program um which are a number of professional and staff positions more than anything the next um big thing in the um eligibility period is is reaching agreement with the msba about what configurations will be studied and what the enrollments would be at those schools so for Milton according to the board action letter it's a prek to5 building or prek 78 so um msba and the town need to reach an agreement on the enrollment of prek students that would be supported by a new facility or a a project I should say with msba and reach agreement on what the enrollment of those two configurations would be msba will review um Census Data um nesda projections and other projections that they do projections themselves and then meet with the town to review those so that's that's one of the key uh decisions so that'll be let's say just for argument sake it's a grade 78 uh with 575 students like that is that will be locked in during this initial eligibility period uh there's other work that the town and msba do together around uh maintenance of how how the town maintains school buildings its educational profile how it delivers its services um and then the big um task is to secure appropriation for the feasibility study um so the feasibility study will evaluate all the options um that you agree to study with msba resulting in a preferred option and then resulting in a schematic design of that preferred option that will then go to voters so it's it's a lengthy study process um the more number of configurations that are studied that more expensive these can be excuse me and last night the school building committee did recommend an article or did submit an article I should say to appropriate $1.5 million um for a feasibility study um and as with any um work that we do in conjunction with msba money spent during the feasibility study will be reimbursed at the reimbursement rate which we expect to be about 45% so if the town appropriates $1.5 million um it can expect to potentially it doesn't need to spend all of it depending on what our contracts with our professional Consultants are but whatever um dollars are spent will be reimbursed by the msba as long as they're for eligible expenses at 45% uh whatever the reimbursement rate is so once we complete all these tasks um and we have 270 days to do so uh the town needs to go back to a board of directors meeting to get approval to move into feasibility study um so that's that's initial first phase that commences technically May 1st but as I noted anything that can be done um now to kind of have things um lined up will be helpful and let us focus on the other action items that we need to complete with msba during this phase uh the module titles come from the msba themselves so this is module one this eligibility period um so after the board of directors meeting where they invite Milton to collaborate on a feasibility study um you have to form the project team that includes procuring an owners project manager um as you may know the town has already done that PMA Consultants is on board as an OPM uh we expect the msba will require uh the town to go through that procurement process again as they like to participate in reviewing um the process the town takes to select an OPM uh the town will also need to select a designer and again while we have a designer in the contract the msba um has its own designer selection process and its own designer selection panel uh so we'll have to we we'll have to go through that process as well the designer selection panel is comprised of msba Staff board direct board members as well as three representatives from Milton so it's not a town selection on the designer but it's a decision made with um other members of the designer selection panel this process can take six months to go through the two procurements um maybe longer depending on um how long it takes to to get documents out get people back and start interviewing once the project team is formed then you're diving into the plary design program where you're actually studying all the various configurations that the msba requires which includes um uh by law you have to do you have to study a repair of the building you apply for so a repair to Cunningham you have to you have to study by law and addition renovation at the building we applied for so kind of here would be looking at addition renovation option um and then any new options um that are included uh would be studied at this phase um those put all the initial ones together submitted to msba get review comments then move um to another study called the preferred schematic report which is another report submitting to the fbaa and at the end of that the town or District States the school building Committee in this case would State what its preferred option is and that report will include all the various options that have been studied estimated costs and and identify what the um preferred option is at that point the msba board of directors would then approve to uh approve that preferred option at a board meeting and the town would move into schematic design where that design gets flushed out a lot more to a point where um we have cost estimates uh you go to town meeting um you go to the ballot and you um need a vote for this msba um and it's at that point once the schematic design is finished where you know you would say the project is 100 and $73 million Middle School the reimbursement rate is 45% the mba's maximum Grant will be $50 million using round numbers so all of that information will be clear and finalized at the end of the schematic uh report in terms of what the maximum cost um will be for the cost estimate and the maximum grants that we can expect from the msba um and I just I drew I was looking to msba website and just pulled a couple of examples um of what timelines look like and what processes look like Canton um is doing a middle school as well this is a five to eight about more than a thousand students so it's a big project um and they just had their votes in the past few weeks but they're invited in um for eligibility period back in March of 22 and as you can see they got to project scope and budget which is completion of the schematic design in August of um 2024 so that's like two and a half years um quiny for their Elementary School which the City Council in quiny I don't believe has voted on quite yet but is expected too soon they started in April of 2021 that was about a three-year process to get to um the town vote and um two other examples bam again they were invited in April 21 they're voting uh now so another you know two and a half years is um excuse me three and a half years um roughly and then I I worked on a project in malro so I just pulled those numbers and that again was close to that two-year timeline um but that's a City so a much faster process in terms of getting approvals so I think you can picture uh between eligibility period starting started um getting to a schematic design where the town is voting on a school project is anywhere within that two two and a half to threee time frame um and that's that's just what I put together in terms of the background and processs um happy to take any questions if folks have any um at this I know there was a lot questions so go ahead John Mr Goan um on the formation of the school committee you mentioned early on um and you talked about how we will we have two School committees building committees or just one no there there needs to be just one school building committee for Milton that the msba would recognize so um since I think there's you know there's really two Pathways there it's there's an existing one so the authorization of town meeting for that committee can be amended to increase the membership um the other way to go would to be to Institute a new school building committee um but there needs to be one school building committee that we submit to the msba as our as the town's represented this and and they have specific rules for that I've seen the form but who can be on it and everything right and typically in my experience you know there there will be staff positions the manager the town manager Town Administrator um my facilities director the superintendent um sometimes the business um the assistant superintendent for business oper and operations um those type positions are are on them usually as non- voting members um and the residents of the community serve as the as the voting members and and um in their in those capacities do do you have that form handy you could show I do if you give me a moment it's over two pages but this is the first page um so mcpo certified as a pman certification local CEO is a select board representative administrator manager that's myself School Committee Member superintendent of schools local official responsible for building maintenance would be Consolidated facilities representative officer authorized by a lot of construct buildings it's you know a school committee member or select board member so people's names can appear in multiple places for the msba um purposes the school principal is required so in this case it would be the Cunningham School principal is uh expected to be a member um member knowledgeable and educational Mission again that would be you know the superintendent of the school principal whose name could appear they local budget official or member of the local finance committee uh for milon could be a warrant Committee Member and then um the others are this is where you would put you know members of the community at large and you can have as many or as few as you like um but that's that's the msba form that they will um we will have to submit um once that school building committee is is form and this and this is step one in the um eligibility mod I mean step two in the eligibility module the first module correct first 30 days I think they listed as something like that again everybody should also realize that our uh commencement date is May 1 so we can't do I mean we can do all this preparation between now and May 1 but we can't submit anything until May 1 that's right starting May 1 just just to and I one second Mr zo I do see just just to add to that um um they were pretty clear with us on Friday that they don't expect much to be done from the committee between now and May 1st they don't expect a lot to be done during that period that okay Mr Cain any muted okay Mr Mr z Mr Coan your hand still up so I don't want to cut you off if you still have okay just wanted to make sure um so you know this is I think tremend news uh and and everyone should be thrilled uh about this this is uh something that the school building committee has been working for six years to do this is definitely not the first time we put in for msba um but I I think as a town we owe debt of gratitude to all of the members of the school building committee that have worked so hard and tirelessly to get us to this very very exciting Point um I think you know Mr Milano you've done a really good job of sort of walking us through this process here and I think what we can see through that process is that a lot of what we've uh looked at over the course of the last six years and and what the school building committee has has worked at to figure out um options and opportunities has you know this is an opportunity to stress test that with with the state um and I think it's a it's I think safe to say that the state maybe has a mixed opinion of Milton at the moment so the fact that the state is recognizing the school building you know the school overcrowding crisis to the the extent that they're willing to step in and fund us you know we should be very grateful for that uh and and uh also just acknowledge that um they have a high bar for this and we have cleared that high bar I'm not sure if we should be proud that we've were so crowded that we've cleared the bar but we have um but we're we're in a really good place right now uh thanks very much to the school building committee and their hard work um after after six years um and I will add to that I know and I'm sure Mr Wells you've heard this from msba that part of the um the attractiveness of of the Milton application was the fact that we have land that's been approved by town meeting for a school now I will add the caveat that of course they're going to go back as as Mr Milano said and look at multiple options around town this will be a process that will will um again stress test the entire assumption but the fact that we have land that we don't have to pay for uh that is uh ready and in educational campus uh to be used for a school was a was a positive so I think there's been so many people that have worked so hard a lot of them are sitting on this call some of them are probably watching Mr oor of course the chair of the school building committee um we owe a great debt of D great debt of gratitude to him for his work um but we're we're just in a really great exciting place I agree we don't have have to do a ton of work over the next couple of months but anything that we can do so that we can hit the ground running in May uh and and make sure that we hit all of our deadlines uh will be great so it wasn't really a question Mr chair I'm sorry it was more of a statement I'm just very excited about this I think as you are and as I think everybody is so I just wanted to uh to to app for a moment thanks for your Indulgence very welcome Mr Coan you have another question yeah I just I just wanted to add what Ben had said and we had mentioned it last night at the school building committee meeting um you know you you go from the accolades to oh god oh now we have to do it so we had automatically all of us had taken off our GE this is great hat and put on our okay now we got to do it hat so that's what you know I'm I'm I jump from from the Accolade to the Celebration to the okay now we got to go do it and we all did too last night so we good if I may miss must has her hand up sorry I didn't I couldn't see sorry go ahead thank you Mr Z my bad thank you sorry about that um so definitely this is great news um that we've been accepted into this process um I have a couple of questions Mr Milano so you've gone over the timeline a little bit which is good the letter um it said two different things you know that you would evaluate for two different options is that something that they normally do in those letters um for instance I know that our application was for the elementary but now they are allowing either or in their letter so I'm just trying to understand the process with that is that a common thing my second question is um how many other towns were admitted with us I didn't um specifically look at that but 22 22 okay and in the past how many have made it past this original um Step just to try to get a sense of you know what they've done in the past fa um so in terms of the board letter that you're referencing I don't know that answer I probably should um I think um I think what the better I think the right way to think about it in my view is what will happen in this eligibility period is is the msba and the town will agree as to what will be studied so the board action letter says a prek to five or seven and eight with prek so my expectation is msba is going to say hey Milton here are your two options you're going to be studying a prek 5 for 500 kids and you're going to study a grade seven and eight with prek for 600 students so whatever those numbers are and I'm just making numbers up there but I believe that's what um we should expect to see um and but I I don't have a good answer for that at this time I'll just say you know I I read the letter the same way as you is that we're studying the msba process we have to study cunning here and then the msba is is working with us on a pre a new prek 5 or a new grade seven eight with prek so it's really three kind of things that will be studied what can be done at Cunningham what would a new prek 5 look like what would a new grade seven8 3K look like so it's really kind of three buckets as I read the letter and then we'll get a better sense of that as we go through eligibility period here and and as a as a followup if I may um so we talked about 22 schools invited I'm just trying to get a sense of in the past like year or two when they're when they start off with that number typically how many make it to the next stage you know to the final stage I should really say what's what know ter trying to get a sense you know yeah I think this is a pretty low bar to to cross getting through eligibility period is not um this is not where districts get tripped up it's it's really at the later point when you're voting on the full project I worked at Medfield we had a fiiled vote with msba Medfield was ironically invited back into the msba so they had a failed vote msba said thanks you're out of the program and then they were invited back in this year three years after that point um so it's typically at a later phase where a district would get dropped from the MSP program not at this stage so I I would be surprised if it was any more than than one in recent years okay thank you Mr Co I'm gonna come back to you Miss must your hands still up you're good okay so just um I followed I followed the um the meeting very closely um when it was done I I very lucky that uh two of my new colleagues in January will both recipients to other communities at the same time and they were also both on the call one of them is a actually school committee current School Committee Member currently in another Community um so there were 47 applications am I right 47 or 48 applications they took one of the things that determines each year annually as to how many awards how many numbers are picked is the type of schools are applied for um if there are a lot of high schools in a given year the amount of the number is going going to be reduced I think I only heard one high school of the 22 and I think it was my correct there was a there was a votech in there that they took because there was there were a lot of comments from that Community about it about supporting Vocational Technical um high schools I think there was only one everything else was either a middle or a um an elementary and as far as the option question there was one other in the same boat as us that were given an option of um two different typ types of schools you know to to work or two different types in in this year's round and so I hope that kind of those are things I was listening to intently on the call they were very thorough and I'll wait till I make my comments on the end but they were very very thorough on the way they did this Mr Coan yeah um Nick had shown me today I forget what the school was Nick but it was um what they had a whole eight and a half by 11 page of options that they were exploring at that particular stage whatever that's I'm not suggesting that but it's just what can be considered that that was what can be considered and I I did a lot of research too as far as Rox Sand's question was concerned in 2023 December 2023 19 towns were invited into the eligibility period and only two NM and sou Hadley made it to the feasibility by October of this year so we're we're basically looking at us best and and NM had a May one commencement date self Hadley had a March 4th commencement date so they had extra time so you know you're talking October of 2025 before we finish our eligibility period and that's a you know there's not very many solid dates at this stage of the game that but that's one of them and you'll also see in the letter from on Friday that the msba is saying saying that July 21st of 2027 is the first time we can get approved for the money to start the actual design for construction so that dat is C that's another one of those not varying because that's when they will have they have budgeted the money for us so it specifically States if you look to the letter July 1st 2027 that's the first we'll know when we actually are given the money and we proceed to design and then construction from there I did a little work Mr Z thanks oh thank you um and and just confirming again Mr Cohan you're all done you've got your hand up still that's okay I just just don't want I don't want to interrupt anybody he's excited tonight yeah I'm excited I think everyone should be excited uh I I didn't mention but I I should have mentioned this that I think one of the the the real Hallmarks that of the school building committee's work over the last six years has always been to look at different options as they pop up and uh you know when there was potentially land in fonon that was available they have always pivoted to look at all possible Alternatives and and when we were discussing the school in July and in August uh Mr oror you know had we had asked that question of the school building committee and uh you know like what happens if we're doing this and then the msba money comes through and you know they there was always this sort of dual track approach sometimes it was like three tracks of trying to make sure that we were keeping all of our options open so I think you know Mr cohane his comments are are well taken in terms of like the timing and and the sort of continued uncertainty but I think one thing that we know for certain is that we are overcrowded as a school that's what Massachusetts has confirmed for us it's something that we've known for for many years in this town uh and I have full faith and confidence in our our School building committee's ability to to manage this process and and to continue pushing forward uh with that work um and uh I hope that you guys didn't drink too much champagne last night Sean that's all I'll say Thank you Mr Gohan you still have your hand up you all set no I did have on that line of the the options and and and everything I also wonder at this stage of the game early on we had a whole lot of and I hear this from a lot of parents I hear this from a lot of parents early on we had a lot of short-term options I don't know Nick how that fits into this because now that we have this extended you know we got a ways to go here um are we going to look into those short-term options I know we have been talking about the fourth floor on Cunningham but I don't know where that's gone again I'm just what I'm hearing from people and I'll put my hand down there I'm good uh yes the school committee did um has previously voted to um request additional funding for the Cunningham fourth floor in order to keep that project uh going um so that's that's the primary kind of um focus project that that I've been apprised of but there may be other things that they've been looking at knowing now we're on a longer term time Horizon until a new building opens we good can I say a couple things there's a lot of thank yous in here that we need and I just want to there's some things that that um Nick you and I were at there were and I was also one I think that Mr Cain was at so um I want to start first by thanking former School Committee Member adah rosar and she probably has no idea I'm going to say this tonight but she was the first one and I don't know how many years ago because I think I'm looking at the screen tonight I I think I'm the only one left on the board that was here when she first came forward and we first partnered with the school committee to make the first request for um School building committee assistant and even though it was thought to be a long short um she was adamant in doing all the work and making the effort back then on behalf of the school committee and and the children this town and I give a lot of credit for that second um like many and nikku and I talked about it a lot you know especially given the amount of money we received years ago how would we do and I I really want to Echo and paint the picture here as to one wanted to me it started to change which was when we had the the last most recent site visit at the conningham um not even is it even two months ago Nick I don't even think it's two months ago since they first came out here I don't five weeks ago but in that meeting the entire msba team came out and it was more than just the school building Community they wanted to hear from they wanted to hear from everyone and I give a lot of credit to both principal Holly con k from the kott and principal Jonathan Ren from the county who really were able to paint the picture of what day-to-day um life is like in these schools today and able to um really articulate the need in a way that you can't do it in a PowerPoint or on a screen or on an email they were able to do it in real life um verbiage if you want to use and also like Tom McCarthy who came in for Bill Bill Richie the conditions of the building things of that nature superintendent Burrows I don't remember if Glenn was if system former system superintendent Glen P was there or if it was the new assistant and I I'm sorry if I heard Katie's last name sus me at this moment I I think it was the first time but that I felt that day and Nick you and I talked about him when we left that they had really pay that the msba team had really paid attention and that um we were going to have a chance and this brings me to my final point which on that was that I really want to thank Bill Driscoll representative Bill Driscoll who um reached out to the legislative people from msba and they even willing to talk to me and I'm not even in office yet and I was able to at least articulate how strong this was and but he really carried um the ball there for this town on this and that it was after that that you could just see that we were now going to be in the 22 into the final point Mr all I I have to say this With all sincerity in a role that I never pictured I'd be in um there's been nothing but the warmest of collegiality towards this town in every aspect including um the most the toughest thing we've gone through which is the MBT in the nothing but support and and uh as I say collegiality are are um partnership towards every aspect of it and I'm really grateful and I really want to thank treasure Goldberg and all the all the members of her team from msba who really did a tremendous job I said there were 47 applicants they only picked 22 and um that's Nick that's a credit to you as well because you knew a little bit of the inside scoop and it was obvious that day that they all knew who you were and your relationship with them in the past C PA a big role on that and as I've said from the beginning we need to be strategic in this whole thing we got a long way to go but this means to Mr Z's point this is going to mean millions of dollars towards a new school paid for by the Commonwealth they will not have to be born by the residents of this town that's a really important thing Milton so that's really I have to say Mr Coan your hands up again so I'll go back to one last time and then do do we have motion this I'll be quick I just I just had I I just I get my moving forward hat on again and I just had a horrible thought I read in the regulations that if we jump start anything we can be disqualified so I think we need and I'll bring it up in school building I think we need to be careful about doing anything to Cunningham you know what I mean because it clearly states that in there anyway just had that thought last second so they were pretty clear in the meetings about the things you can do and you can't do and the things that they concern that concern them are things that you may do you Nick you can tell me if I'm wrong you can't go back and ask a reimbursement on under the grant um there are a few communities in that category that um had applied previously and lost and um this is a new application them many years later they can't they can't use any of this award towards what they did five or six years ago Nick you can correct no that's that's right and I think at to Mr gre's Point that's actually a good thing we should put on that radar that we may we may look at a minor renovation in the intervening time period And just so that they hear it from us and not the other way around that's that's a good point and we'll make sure to do that thank you for um for that OB I I think that came up in the meeting that night that day when we were him I think we I think in the site visit I remember Tom mccy spoke to it that did come up so um but you're right I mean that's mean we need to be strategic in this this is a lot of work this is significant no one would have a lot of people would never thought would get a new school building but it it's a testament to everyone of the mil Public Schools prior staff and past staff and the leadership and um everyone who's been involved in this so are we do we need a vote on this or I'm I'm like no no one so we are we good on this okay I just lost my agenda where did my agenda go um I got it back um all right where are we now uh so that item five item six okay item six so discussion update approval special time meeting February 24th 2025 special time meeting articles so one is a potential article MSA feasibility study schematic design appropriation and two will be a potential article msba for an updated School building committee to comply with msba requirements and we're not going to do that tonight we're going to do that at a future meeting correct so am I wrong so we don't have the spbc the school building committee article we don't have yet school committee I expect he'll take that up tomorrow school building committee did recommend an article last night um I only dist I was only able to distribute it afternoon so happy to regroup on that with the board at a later date but we would want to get it to the um Warren committee by early January I'd say so that they can do their work as well okay because I haven't even seen it yet so if that's if it's okay with the members can we put this off to the next meeting so we get it to the war Committee in a Time week fashion no objection Mr chair from me sounds fine Mr Coan your hands up again I I was I was going to am I unmuted yes I was going ask go ahead go ahead I'm good I was gonna ask if we could move up item seven BEC after these couple because there's a lot of items in six that really are affected by seven and I don't know if that's possible to do something out of order but I'm just asking I don't think we're going to do anything on S ton I don't think we're going to do anything on six tonight I think we're going to postpone it to a later a six you're talking six a one and two well there's a bunch of other things in there too I just would prefer to talk about seven before this if it was possible okay so let me think how I'm going to do this all right so why don't we suspend any future discussion on six I'm going to move us up to item seven M Miss Bradley has her hand up Mr chair I know absolutely no worries Mr chair you're trying to do a lot right now I would just like clarification on what Mr Caine thinks has to do what article numbers have to do with the um upcoming budget override I just more than probably I just think that article 7 is more critical than anything right now especially to well we're gonna talk about everything correct Mr chair We're Not Gonna not talk yeah so why don't we so I I don't think we need to do seven I don't see anything in there that needs because seven what we're going to talk about is s is not going to be in the February special town meeting so now that I go I'm reading off my phone so I apologize um if Mr could just tell us which um warrant article he's actually worried about that has to do with item number seven on today's list that would be um that would help me I'm worried about asking for a tax break when we're going to be asking for an override specifically so the home rule petition item is that the one that you're referring to Mr Cohan yeah yeah so item six you why don't we do this then so I'm going to we got a cell on this so so I'm gonna do this just I'm going to I do this this is item number seven no six six so I'm going to defer a discussion on item seven to a future to the next meeting and all the others I'm GNA go through and then we'll go to item seven so on item six so wanted two Nick do you want to speak to those more and then no I think I've distributed information to the board and we can regroup at a future meeting on it do we have any other go ahead Mrs Z just a quick question uh for Mr Milano um when would we need to meet in order to get the uh the the warrant articles in front of the warrant committee uh in a timely fashion just just knowing that there are a few holidays coming up uh yes I think our our scheduled meeting is the second January second weekend excuse me in January which will be the 14th which is pretty late so whether uh we find a time for a special meeting um you know in the first week of January after the holiday perhaps or um that first full week of January so I can regroup with the board and pull folks for their availability perhaps for a zoom call just to I thought that that might be the case and I know that I'm usually the reason for the second um a Tuesday being of choice but I can make the first Tuesday in January work if it works for others so um if I I just wanted to put float that out there for and I guess we could talking that but sorry go ahead Mr chair I just wanted that's fine that's fine so I I was gonna say the same thing so what I'm why don't we do that so to I'll be guided by what Mr Tom comes from what we all agree whatever is earlier that we can do just to make this streamline this and a quicker process for the war committee I'm fine with that if everybody else's Miss Bradley thank you Mr chair is there anything that is listed in the warrant articles this evening that we could vote on to start getting to the warrant committee so they can start getting their work done and we're not bombarding them on the 7th or the 14th with 12 warrant articles well I'm ready to go with that if you are let's giddy up all right so uh item number three appropriation from Peg access Enterprises fund for equipping the new meeting room in the former fire headquarters building for televised meetings are we all okay with that okay item I'm just gonna keep going no we're gonna vote on do you want a motion at the end y I'm GNA do a motion at the end I got you uh home R petition for liquor licenses on premises consumption restaurants uh item number four do we have a number on this what it's going to be yet Mr Mo or do we have to wait can we wait till later yes the draft um in the packet reviewed with um Town Council um including John Flynn is requests five additional in the to okay are we all okay with that yes okay good yes okay home rule appropriation for lead lines replacement program mrry you missed number Roman numeral five oh oh I'm sorry I missed five Tom B Amendment chapter 105 alcoholic beverages we all good with that that's on the um involving the deck in that I think we're all good that okay okay so now I'm going to jump to seven appropriation for lead lines replacement program for funding from State revolving fund that's a zero base right Mr Milano we've talked about that in the past zero this is specifically for lead line uh services and related work to um quantify lead services and start removing lead okay sorry I'm just trying to move this s but uh nine zba Amendment regarding accessory dwelling unit sign that's a planning board article so for uh just Mr chair so items Roman numerals 9 10 and 11 um of those um I believe 10 have been approved by the planning board um but nine and I'm sorry 10 and 11 have been approved um by the planning board number nine is not yet ready okay so we're going to defer that one so here I'm going to go I'm GNA because this wasn't in here I don't see this so I think I need a two motions so I need a motion first us from someone to open the warrant do I have a motion for someone make that motion I'll to open the motion made by Miss Bradley second by Miss must roll call vote Miss must yes Miss Bradley yes Mr cohain yes Mr Z yes and myself yes unanimous okay now I'm making a motion to approve um the following amendments under item six special Tom meic articles um article one did I did we include one did I no we're going right okay so we so we didn't do one or two okay we're going to start with three item so item three item four item five item seven item eight any other any we have any other seen 10 and 11 we haven't seen them though we haven't se I'm ready on something I haven't seen yes so that's why I I didn't clud those I didn't clud 1011 um but 12 are there any other potential articles Mr Milano at this point that we're going to vote on tonight oh we voting on this evening no but uh we've been in conversations uh with Miss Bradley in terms of the lighting one which um we would nothing's been circulated on that quite yet nope so we are gonna come back to that though M Bradley that will be a potent that on a potential articles that's a potential article right out yes Mr chair yes Mr chair absolutely is we just haven't crossed our tees and dotted our eyes okay okay Mr chair if I may I understand that Mr cohain may have his um thoughts about the home rule petition uh which is as a reminder to those who are listening uh a way that makes um the poorest seniors in Milton uh gives them a property tax break um and I understand why you would you know maybe want to have a discussion at town meeting about that um but this is work that's been done by both Mr Milano and Mr Connor's um it's a it's a uh it's modeled on something that happens in other communities uh and I would imagine that many people would be uh interested in having a discussion at town meeting about whether or not we can give our uh our poorest seniors uh a tax break it's it the the math on it is is low um I understand that there are other concerns but I I think it would be of uh a disservice if we leave it off of the warrant um if you'd like to discuss it more at a future meeting about whether or not we should include it that's totally fine but this is the first objection that we've heard of it and it's a little surprising to me that um it's not going through uh considering the subject matter okay that was a question for Mr cohain if he wants to respond to it first M so I just want to clarify what I did I did not all I did was put us in a position to defer it to speak to your second point at a at a lat that's all I did um no way shape or form are we eliminating that tonight I didn't do that so uh go to miss muster hand up first then back to Mr GL go ahead go ahead Miss Mar okay thank you um so I was the one who at one of the previous meetings had asked Mr Milano to provide some information um on the um the numbers and the amounts of money and and more information and he was going to provide that to me so for today's meeting uh I'm not prepared to talk about it because I got that information very late today and I I really should have gotten it earlier so in my case I I wanted to look at the information I think Mr Milano could attest to that I did just get it and um and I you know so I I'm interested in learning a little bit more about what that would mean uh and of course we want to help you know people that need help so I'm more interested in just finding out some more of the economics of it and so forth and I didn't have the information so for me for today I don't feel like I could vote on that today because I don't have that information and Mr Milano knows that I've asked for that so I think he could attest for that right okay Mr Caine in my um if you recall um Mr Z it was Miss Brad Miss Bradley who asked me why I wanted to defer to item seven before going to which particular item and I'm not ruling it out I just wanted to go to item seven before we discussed that particular item not saying not discuss it I'm just want to go to seven first that was my point okay well I'm I'm fine deferring it to the next meeting and Miss mustow still needs a little bit of time uh to look at the the numbers okay and I we haven't said it yet um but U Nick we were really sorry for the loss of your of your of your grandma we know that that has slowed down some some stuff and that's it's really tough um place to be in so uh you know this time of year is hectic and crazy as it is and dealing with the loss in the family is is is really hard so I'm 100% fine uh deferring on this that everybody's got a little time to to look at the the materials thank you yeah I um I ow Rock Mis must all that information couple months uh I don't know about a couple months at least a month ago so I was blowing getting out of our office I got it to her so and I'll I'll distribute to the rest of the board as well um and we can have a about this future thank you Nick I appreciate that okay so now on the items that I have listed that we've gone through can I have a motion to yes both okay so Miss Bradley made the motion do I have a second I'll second second Miss mustow roll call vote Miss mustow yes Mr zo yes Mr Caine yes Mr Miss H Miss Bradley I'm Sorry Miss Bradley it's okay yes I'm my pictures are popping up with so I'm pointing at my pictures or it's all good I just want to make sure that Lynn got which ones we're okay with we're okay with three four five seven and eight that's it that's it okay you are a yes Miss Bradley sorry yes I am a yes and I'm a yes now I'll take a motion to close the warrant I'll make a motion to close the warrant M motion by Miss must I have a second second oh second second by Mr Z call those in favor Mr Z yes Mr Cain yes Bradley yes M mustow yes and myself yes item number seven discussion update fiscal year 2026 budget and fiveyear forecast operating override for fiscal year 2026 Mr Milano thank you Mr chair I have a couple slides to to walk through here in terms of uh the latest information on the budget so I will pull those up uh now um as we've uh discussed previously um our revenue forecast has been pretty locked in for a couple of months now um as we don't have a ton of variability year-over-year in terms of our revenues um you know our property taxes go up by an expected amount each year um potential future updates to the revenue forecast are pretty limited we may have to um revise New Growth upwards in terms of good news um our new growth has been consistently strong in the past couple years as folks are renovating their homes and as some of the uh projects around town have been um slowly coming online um so that has been a source of increased Revenue in recent years on the flip side local receipts when you might want to revisit to revise downwards as folks may have noticed um interest rates are starting to be cut which means our investment income forecast will is going to start uh going a little bit downwards it's been conservative anyway uh we think it is but just in terms of things that might change um over the next couple months are those two items and then lastly the big one is state aid uh we have a pretty conservative projection on state aid right now which is a $30 per student increase which is only about $120,000 and a 2% increase on our other state aid accounts last year the C pupil Aid was over $100 student so it it that can be a couple hundred thousand um the next um data points for RAR are the consensus revenue forecast that we expect uh this month if and it may have even come out I may have missed it um but the state budget will be released in January and that will be the first indication of what we use for state aid moving forward um and you know Finger stocks are better than $30 per people increased um over the prior year uh for the expenditures we've we've grouped them just into kind of General categories to to um help folks understand them so we have you know the town departments that are under the Town Administrator we have the school department under the superintendent and then we have a bunch of accounts that account for um shared costs whether it's employee benefits the insurance we carry The Debt Service we carry um so those are the three larger um buckets that we um sometimes look at the budget in um here is our fiscal 24 25 and 26 um amounts so 24 and 25 are what was approved by town meeting and the 26 is our forecast and as you can see it's about a a little bit over $10 million increase here over year um in terms of 25 to 26 uh shared cost I'm going to go through in a little bit more detail um just as there's one Big Driver here that I want to flag uh for folks which is health insurance but I'll walk through our shared costs um just because that's that's a budg grouping that we don't talk about a ton um first one is Milton retirement system our increase on Milton retirement system is nominal um and that is based on uh the Actuarial forecast for us and the funding schedule set by the Milton Retirement Board so that's already been locked in that includes the normal cost for um current employees expected future benefits and then um a NE an additional million dollars that is going into reserves essentially for the Retirement Board according to the their retirement uh according to the funding schedule that they approved if you recall we did that as well in fiscal 25 and included a million dollar additional um into the retirement system um to overfund that system Medicare is the Medicare tax we pay on a per employee basis um that's going up slightly based on increased payroll health insurance is um the big topic which has a significant increase um fiscal 25's health insurance budget was funded a bit with onetime funds so those need to be restored um and then next slide is a little bit more information so there are two um drivers of cost on health insurance from for the town first is obviously claims what is our claims expance um fiscal 25 our claims are tracking uh well ahead of recent years uh we've been on a um a really good run in terms of what our health insurance costs have been in the past few years where they've been below market and the trend we've been lagging below Market which is good news um but now we're regressing back to the mean uh in a bad way and um costs have been very significantly outpacing where they've been in the past few years we previously had been including a 5% premium increase um which you know we try to be conservative and perhaps that was a little more U positive than we should have been so in the latest version of the budget forecast we're using we've bumped that up to a 10% increase uh to account for the claims um history that we've been experiencing um and continue to see the town does have reinsurance we have stop- loss so if there's any significant claims that are very expensive um the the health insurance trust only pays about $175,000 anything over and above that is covered by um the reinsurance so um not necessarily all bad news but generally across the board uh medical costs are increasing therefore um our burden is increasing as well the other side of that coin is enrollment and fisal 25 enrollments are tracking well ahead of um where they were uh even a few months ago our forecast had about 698 people on the plans for fiscal 25 as you can see as of our October census uh we're at 714 uh the large portion of that change has been to uh family plans uh which are very expensive and I've used the the Blue Cross Blue sh family plan that we offer as an example the total premium for that plan is almost $31,000 the town pays uh 23,000 or 74% 76% of that and the employee share is 24% we have um attractive plans currently they are $ 4800 deductible depending on individual or family plan uh we don't have a high deductible plan currently um so our enrollment has gone up um and as you can see you know every time somebody jumps onto a family plan it costs the budget $23,000 over the course of a year uh those start to add up so between the increased enrollment uh that we've had to increase our uh Insurance forecast for and the increase in claims um we're seeing a significant increase in this health insurance budget from where we were um last year and this is you know we've been lucky where our premium increases have been below 3% for a number of years now um but this year it looks like that will change um certainly enrollment can fluctuate downwards Claims can get in much better shape but as things stand today uh we this is what the um big change in our budget is based on as you can see we're talking almost um a $3 million increase in health insurance Alone um from 24 to 25 part I mean 25 excuse me to 26 partly because um the 25 budget was funded in part um through one time monies uh a couple of other shared costs are other post employment benefits we refer to as oped which is primarily health insurance for retirees um we're putting money into the opab trust for our future liabilities um this meets the town's policy of contrib $2.5 million to our long-term liabilities because we're contributing uh over 1.5 to oped and a million to retirement so the policy contemplates those two Avenues uh for paying down the town's long-term liabilities um Unemployment uh we are budgeting at $100,000 uh there are occasional claims that the town has to pay for unemployment um I'll just note that in a non- override year where uh we have uh reductions to budget requests I would expect us have to revisit that unemployment line um if we expect that positions may be um unfunded or even layoffs uh contemplated insurance is uh you know workers compensation liability auto insurance Etc that's uh currently based on an 8% increase we'll receive some better information in the spring um a reserve fund is level funded uh in in 26 State assessment which is what we pay the state uh through the Cherry sheets uh and and we get state aid and then they charge us some money back so that's got a 2% increase in our forecast currently the general fund Debt Service has a has a decent increase um and that includes projects that have already been approved uh but we haven't uh either commenced working on or haven't borrowed for quite yet um new capital projects that are appr for borrowing at the upcoming town meeting uh likely wouldn't have any effect on the fiscal 26 Debt Service because our borrowing schedule means everything lags by a year or two on fiscal years before those costs start to show up I'll just the um only one that could have an impact is if any action is taken on the Cunningham project is that is expected to start on a on a faster track than some of our other capital projects and because it's um if the current budget for that is over5 half million dollar so that's just a a pricee project than uh we're typically absorbing for the general fund Debt Service and then the last shared cost of included it's small but it's the audit um that increase in cost is primarily due to we have an OP evaluation that we have to do in this fiscal year those are the shared costs that comprise about you know $35 million of the town's budget I won't I'm not going to go through in detail the town departmental budgets just in summary for the level service budget um uh we're currently forecasting 34.3 million which is a $1.46 million or 4.4% increase the school can committee um heard its uh level service budget um request a few weeks ago now um their level service request is about $6.3 million or a 9.4% increase um and that's just level service um which then if you take in the top here if you take the level service asks against our um revenues we're looking today with everything standing as they stand at a a deficit to close of about $9.5 million if you start talk about what needs are out there that folks have asked for um the schools again they talked about their needs based budget I think it was a couple weeks ago the first week of December perhaps um and they actually broke that out into two years worth of um things that they're looking at uh 1.3 million in the first year and $800,000 in the second year um Town departments have submitted uh about $2 million in request uh to fund needs-based items um but that uh list hasn't been um reviewed or or Whitted down in any way by myself yet so that $2 million reflects what folks have asked for without any adjustments um for myself so uh I wish I was here with um a Rosier forecast and and better news but uh the reality is that um you know our our revenues you know we can count on anywhere between three and4 million do new money a year um we have been uh fortunate like every other city in town of Massachusetts to have had significant infusion of federal funds in the past few years um but as we all know and as we've been talking about for a number of years now that uh is coming to an end and as we voted earlier uh in the meeting that arpa funding really is is down to we were talking about $22,000 out of um out of millions of dollars that Flo through the town in the past few years um so um that's what I presented I have a couple of slides here in terms of a little bit of history and and what this and a half million dollar is in context so this is a history of our tax levy um the highlighted the orange highlighted years are override years on the right hand side you can see what percent increases a year were on the average single family tax bill so 07 there was an 8% increase that's for to 2010 which 11 and a half% increase um for an operating override as well I think um some debt came some debt exclusion perhaps Library came on that year um onto the budget in 2018 um there was an override for that was about a 7 and a half% increase on the average single family tax bill um and then just using just saying okay there's a $99. half million difference between what the level service requests are and what the budget for the revenue forecast is uh what does that mean for fisal 26 if if the town were to say okay let's just plug that with an override and and go on from there there so right now we're looking at about a 3% increase in the levy that's already baked in to our base revenue forecast so any override would be over and above that $3.3 million increase um so 9 a. half million would bring uh the year-over-year tax increase um to close to 12.8 million which would be an 11% increase uh roughly on tax bills um in fiscal 26 so um you know we can we can mesh or um study some other scenarios I just thought that this was helpful kind of in terms of thinking in round numbers of of what does um that impact look like um and right now at that $9 half million dollars without reductions um in level service asks as they exist that's not funding um any increases in service anywhere across town departments or School departments um that's just as we've you know um budget together in the past couple years uh relying on some uses of onetime funds uh you dig a little bit of a hole and now it's time to um come up with a way to to resolve that or or go back to departments and start reducing budgets and just and put that into um kind of one scenario is if we have to develop a balanced budget which we do for Tomy no matter what um you would look at some use of free cash we have about 4.5 $5 million certifi so one one road map could be using free cash for our retirement payment for our oped payment for the reserve fund for operating budget support using free cash for Town and school Capital as we continue to need to um invest in capital even if um we have heavy asks on the operating budget um $155,000 and the free cash is already um obligated only to opioid settlement purposes and then you know a half a million this is just what I did in this scenario so stabilization our budget is going up um no matter which way we look at it the budget will go up uh so we should be helping fill up our reserves for a year where we're in a true economic downturn you know the our budget forecasts aren't being affected by a recession or a depression or any economic downturn um it's this is a matter of how much money can we collect versus what of our cost so in this scenario um with this kind of use of free cash based on the needs that we have in front of us we would need town and School departments come in at a less than a 2% increase um from fiscal 25 to 26 to balance the budget um so that's that's a million millions of dollars in reductions from their ask for the schools and a and you know half a million dollar reduction in what the school and the town is looking for um which would have you know widespread effects across town School dep departments um so I went through that I think a little more quickly than I meant to but just um kind of the high level takeaways is we have the level service asks those are $9.5 million greater than our budget forecast today any needs would be above that and while we do have some things that we need to fine-tune on both the revenue side and the expenditure side we feel pretty confident in those estimates um right now um with the caveat that in January we expect some things to change based on new information coming out and um I'll just leave I think I'll leave that up for a moment and happy to take any questions or turn it over to the board for discussion don't I'll jump at once questions comments Mr Z thank you Mr chair I'm sure we're very all anxious to talk about uh this but um so uh Mr Milano thank you for the presentation um you know I'm just going to lead off by saying the American Healthcare System is broken we Single Payer like the insurance racket that is being run is terrible and there a lot of people are upset about that and um it has consequences in the private sector and it also has significant consequences in the public sector not much we can do about that on the select board except say say it and so I'm I'm I'm going to say that um one item that kind of stood out to me Mr Milano was the uh Cunningham uh renovation I think you said it was 5 and a half my understanding was that that was like a $2 million budget yeah um is did we uh and I was aware that it had gone up I wasn't aware that it had gone up that significantly uh yes I was gonna say it it'll go through the capital budget process um but there is an ask to increase that appropriation from 2 million to just over five and a half um to to build out the four additional classrooms and and move the library that's a big dig level uh miscalculation in terms of the cost I I I I just it I'm curious about where the where the numbers came from and who vetted them so that when we said yes to two we were actually saying yes to five and a half well the project hasn't started so uh in terms of any any construction hasn't started um I think the Architects came on board the former Consolidated facilities director that was where the number came from um we we went with that going a town meeting last year obviously was approved the town meeting as The Architects are brought on board dove into it a little bit more um the realities of public construction right now in Massachusetts just I mean it's a thousand square foot as we talked about even with the new school um this is a little more complicated where you're you're actually renovating space so it can get a little bit trickier so um no okay just to be clear that it doesn't mean we're going to spend five and a half million do the needs of town meeting approval before it were to go forward um so that is that is going to come through through the capital and select board and in town meeting process for the annual town meeting for an adjustment to that um project and uh we'll see where it goes from there great I appreciate that clarification thank you Mr chair Mr I just want to comment On's um remarks there so the on the insurance thing of the third person today I've heard make that comment on insurance companies and you're 100% correct second on the capital request um so we haven't I don't think we've seen it yet we have a meeting on Thursday so they are going to have to come back and I this is going to be you're correct I mean this is a huge you asked for two million we're expecting it to already be starting this year and now you're not not even starting you want another $3 million that's there's going to be some ANS with the capital committee over this I know there isn't I don't I'm not sure yet what the path is going to be how to do this but um you're correcting that Miss mustow and then miss cohane I don't okay uh thank you Mr chair um so I wrote down a bunch of little questions here I'm hoping Mr Milano can answer them for me um the first thing I would say from anyone who works in healthcare it's very complicated I don't think it's as simplistic as a Single Payer system it's very complicated system um but to your point I mean the premiums are outrageous um can you speak about I know that we gave a holiday um can you speak a little bit about what the cost was of that holiday Mr Milano that we um gave believe it was a health was it health insurance holiday um or something so I wanted you to speak about that I'm gonna give you a bunch of things you want do one at a time um probably one at a time if that's okay easier um we had contemplated including a premium holiday this year um so we reduced the town's appr ration into the health insurance trust um in the budget for that which on the town side is about a half a million dollars um so that has not we have not done the premium holiday yet it was contemplated and included in terms of a budget process that we would um and we're continuing to evaluate that through the fiscal year okay because I'm trying to understand what the cost would be doing that you know um you know $450,000 to do that okay um the other questions I have um I know in the past with terms of Works comp we used to have a program where they came in I don't know if who did it but they came in um and it they did some kind of training like and how to properly you know pick things up and different things um biomechanics and things and that helped reduce some of the uh the injury so I'm wondering um do you know anything about that it was done in the past and it seemed to help and I don't know if they have programs like that still or you know so yeah no our chair offers a number of programs and and we'll do trainings whether they're Department specific um for for different things actually our workers comp experience has been really good so that General Insurance categories for all of our insurance workers comp auto insurance property insurance professional liability so it's it's all of those categories where we're seeing a little bit of an increase but um our workers comp has not been going up uh very high and our our modification our experience on it is is good right now so we're in a good um uh run right now um on the expender CH Outlook can you explain on the shared um on one of the first Pages the FY 25 looks like it's lower than 24 and 26 uh yes so um yeah it it does look a little odd but the reason for that is in 24 the town made it's final reement I can't hear you what was that I'm sorry sorry is that okay yes thank you uh sorry about that um so in fiscal 24 uh we had made our final um payment into the retirement system for full funding of the system um so I think our payment was almost $8 million in that year and then we hit full funding so almost $5 million of Our obligation to the Milton retirement system were taken off the books so in fiscal 24 our shared costs were higher because we were making these big payments into Milton retirement fiscal 25 they Dro significantly because um we're no longer making those big payments $2.5 million flow to the general fund budget $2 and A5 million went to OPB into retirement so it's a reduction because we hit full funding in our our payments the Milton retirement were lower it's back up this year because of health insurance okay and um you mentioned the state assessments I'm wondering if you could provide a list of of where our state assessments go you don't need it right now but if you could forward that I'd appreciate that and this is again these these budgets are Level service no additional staff correct that we're looking at yes um the the point is and what we ask folks to do is tell us what it costs to provide the services you're providing today um not adding new services and that's the school Department's approach too I I don't want to answer for them in terms of do that mean absolutely no new staff because I think there's times where they need additional Staffing around um special education and other services so and I don't know that that's the case this year and I I don't want to speak for them but in our in our case from for the town departments right now there's no additional staff included in the budget there are increases to town departments we are increasing for utilities we're increasing the Consolidated facilities for example ask for an increase because the cost of doing work has gone up um Department of Public Works we've included a level service increase to our vehicle and maintenance and repair lines because what it cost to repair a fire engine three years ago is not what it cost to repair one now so we need to kind of level set some of those budgets so that's included in level services but it's not necessarily an expansion of needs they're not repairing more vehicles or you know somebody's vehicle down street that just cost more to repair the town's vehicles that they bought always done so that's a little bit of context on the staff side no new staff salaries and wage increases that are obligated yes and then on the general expenses side adjustments for um where we're seeing price increases that limit our ability to deliver those services and then with regards to the um this form with the with the that shows like the years that we had overrides yep on that graph right now can you speak about um what the how like what the dollar amount was that we went out for so we went out for $3 million override we went out for 4 million like what are the dollar amounts that coincide with those years these are percentages but I'd like to know how much we asked people for um and then with that I wanted to talk a little bit about this 11 point something percent what the dollar amount really equates to sure um no and that's um the percent is helpful because obviously 20 years ago it's a different number so right I this is based on the state's information that Department of Revenue keeps on their website so the 20 27 operating override was 2.4 million the fiscal 2010 operating override was 3.4 million the fiscal 2018 operating override was 3.1 um so actually Less in 2018 than it was in 2010 so that explains why um was higher in 2010 than it was in um 2018 so that's a considerable I mean if you're talking you know a 9 million and the the largest ones we've gone I know these are different years but has been in the threes basically that's a huge difference right and in in not dollar amounts it's a it's a big one and then in terms of the percent increase it tracks a little bit more closely to 2010 I obviously wasn't around in 2010 so I can't speak uh with a whole lot of uh experience as to what um what was going into to the decisions at that point I'll just point out that um yeah it's it's high in terms of dollar amounts and it's it's certainly high on the percent side and so this is my final question I'm sorry um so you're talking 11 point something increase so is that equating to like an a million dollar house like $1,100 or so a year is it that simp no that's that's a good way to think about it uh the average house is um close to is over a million now their average tax bill is about 11,000 so you'd be looking at a 10% 11% increase so in the ballpark of anywhere from to $1,200 and back of the enfl map all right thank you sure you sure you sure okay for now yeah I'm good okay so just so just before I go I see Mr Z and Mr Cain first Mr Z so this is just the first look it's we not voting anything tonight so what I had asked Mr Milano do was just to kind of we need to get this out here so we can start to have questions about this just I don't want to a little bit of historical is that um in each of those prior to overrides the number that was sought was a number that was palatable that that both the town and the leadership thought the resid could absorb just a little bit of History to one that's more modern and around us you may all recall last year the town of brry was in a similar they're looking at a $16 million the same what what would be on nine for them was 16 they sought an $8 million all right which was their first one that they were ever successful in okay Mr Cain and then Mr Z and then if Brad I'm just gonna good for tonight I'll just keep going along is that okay okay Mr Goan um I had a question for Nick um what is the pro you know the time frame for this I have a couple of questions but my first is you know what is the time frame for the school department getting back to you to us or all departments for that matter so the requests are in the ball's really in this board's Court sorry to to put it in yours but I what we really need kind of a twostep kind of guidance select board at this time not necessarily tonight but soon and I think the first one is is an override off the table and if override is off the table entirely then I go back to the schools and I go back to my departments and say all right now we're at less than a 2% increase let's Whittle these Department ass let's Whittle these budgets down um and that's what we spend the next you know little while doing if the answer is no we're we're not contemplating that scenario and we're going to do an override as a matter of the right number then we you know we spend some time kind of working with our team to figure out um what is a number that works from our perspective and then B how do we make this sustainable so we're not having this conversation next year um you know what what options do we have to build in some resiliency and some stability for a couple of years or a few years so that we're not kind of putting the taxpayers back in the same position and I think part of that is being realistic about Revenue forecasts and expenditures and not um not getting what is needed to to kind of build in some of that um stability over the next couple years so it's it's not an easy answer I I think I think right now the information is is where it's at requests we can work on for the time being but I think the big picture questions for this board are really is a no override at all um option what um you're directing us to go down and if it's not then we'll build that non- override budget for the town meeting warrant because we always have one in there but we'll spend a lot of time thinking about um how to structure something that works and then my my next question is um and this may be the next step but how do we build confidence when you know we just had the 2020 4 budget and we mentioned this at the finance committee we had the 20 24 budget for the schools initially 15 days after we closed the books we're saying we got 2 million turned out it was 3.8 million and then come um this year we're asking for what it was an 8% plus increased level funding for the schools and now we're asking for um 9.44 so moving forward how can we gain some confidence that the 2027 number can be done do you know what I mean I mean you know and not not even just the 2027 number because we have problems with 2025 because the budget was based on 2024 and that was off so we could have problems right now and I just how do we you know we're going to have to gain confidence and their numbers somehow no I agree but I think the message is there's no way for the town to absorb you know year overy year 9% budget increases and um for the foreseeable years after 26 those acts are going to have to be you know honestly like 3% right around 3% in order to make this work for a couple of years um communities have entered into where the select board and school committee have put pens of paper on an agreement saying we acknowledge and we won't submit budget requests that exceed certain percentages so so that's a pathway we could go towards too with um your colleagues on the school committee in terms of kind of memorializing and making that commitment um over the next couple of years Mr Coan set I'm sorry I'm Mr Coan you all set now yes I took my hand down thank you Mr Z thank you I'm gonna I I'll be very brief oops sorry they trying to get my hand down um just some high level stuff so number one I think this speaks to the need for Milton more than ever to diversify our tax base expand commercial opportunities in town so that we don't have to put tax increases on residents's shoulders every year this is It's we're at Mission critical and this is what's happened when we've styed business growth for decades is that we have this ridiculous high percentage of our tax base is dependent upon single family housing uh second is I think we also have to recognize that 20 2004 was 20 years ago so when we look at override numbers that are 18 19 years old and we try to compare them to today we have to take in inflation and consent and in you know 2000 $3 million in 2004 is about $5 million today so it's not an Apples to Apples comparison so I just want to caution us from saying well we've never done this before see Miss must put her hand up so I'm sure she's going to tell me about inflation being complicated too but we can't we have to make sure that we're being very specific about our current dollar values and my final point is inflation is not going to stop uh it in fact it may get worse and so I I hear what Mr cohane is saying about trying to go in with confidence I think the top thing that we need to do as a town is trust our folks who are uh giving us numbers but then also verify the numbers that have gone through the process so I think you know when we look at the schools when we look at the town are we get we're usually getting good information when the information isn't correct like for example in the Cunningham instance where we've gone from two to five and a half million why was that why did that happen right so if we have a shift of like 10 more families signed up for health care insurance and healthcare insurance premiums have gone up 20% I'm less concerned about the 10 families and I'm much more concerned about the 20% of the healthcare premiums so we really need to start asking ourselves some tough questions in this town because we're not in a sustainable financial situation and we will not be until we have either more taxpayers paying residential tax dollars or and more commercial residents is playing paying tax dollars we need more tax revenue for this town we're not sustainable we still pay on the state average $2,000 less per pupil for our schools so it's not like we we're shoveling money into a cash cow our schools are underfunded compared to our peers but we still have these increases so just drastically cutting the school budget isn't the isn't the right solution either because we're already below State average and that's going to kill property tax values finally I'll just make the point that if we do go forward and with a no override and we have significant unemployment that as a result that's also going to affect our budget as Mr Milano alluded to we don't have a big unemployment budget right now but if we start laying off folks because we can't meet our payroll that's that number is going to go up so again it's not a zero sum game where if we just cut a position like a teacher that we're suddenly off the books with that with that cash so I I think that we're at a dramatic moment of this town where we have to start making some real tough choices and for sure we know that the current trajectory of what our tax base is and what we need in this town is is not sustainable thank you Mr chair I don't need to say anything else about this okay it's 9:30 I really want to move this along but miss must just can be brief um yes I will um so I do have a comment to say uh I'm glad first of all Mr Z is such a mind reader that he knows what I'm going to say ahead of time so that's great but what I was going to say was that the the last override was in 2018 my question for Mr M is um whatever we're deciding to go out with you know you you can't go out the ne the following year going back to people um so I whatever you decide or the board decides we need some guidance on from from you talking with uh on the school side and the town side and also um what is going to sustain more than a year or two uh because that will be important because you don't want to go back out um you know shortly thereafter and with all that being said and done the other question is is what is the time frame that we'd be looking at doing that I think by the end of mid January would be great by the end of January is is is probably where we want to be you know have and had a decision made so it's um a busy month thank you Mr Cain final off Mr Cain and then M Bradley I haven't talked yet so uh I know so I miss Bradley then Mr way I I I I I'm sorry M partially in answer to to um Nick and that you know this is a question to the board I think this is a question to all the people and I think this is you know our job is going to be to convince them that this is right and this is what we need and and in and in order to do that we need to explore this from both the expense per perspective and the revenue perspective not just Revenue so I you know we we have to be I think we have to be able to we have to be convinced first so that we can sell this because you know it's that's basically what we have to do to the people I think come when we're presenting this is that we did our homework and we looked into the expenses and revenues as much as we can and did as much as we can and here we are that's just where I I see us having to go thank you no more question be assured we will be doing that Miss Bradley thank you so much Mr chair and I promise to keep it brief no go ahead I'm you've been very quiet tonight haven't I yes remember that so so all I wanted to say is um as somebody who like you Mr chair has been dealing with this budget now for almost a decade um there are things that EB and flow and one thing that is a constant is that the cost for health insurance and the cost that we pay people will continue to rise year after year if you look down into what our executive session is about to cover it is a whole bunch of contracts that are up we did not think that we would be paying some of those bargaining units what we're paying bargaining units as of right now right we might had to go to mediation there's a lot of things that are an XY factor that we do not have control over so well it is all well and good and I appreciate all the hundreds of questions about things and how to lift boxes and you know look under the rug I think that there needs to just be a baseline agreement between us on what are things that we can't control that we have to just accept and I don't want to talk about health insurance until we're blue in the face because guess what guys we have to accept what it is there is no way around it I've tried to get the gick or the GIC whatever you guys want to call it I was a member of the GIC for many years I've tried to do that here it's not going to work I get it but at some point we need to just start from a starting point of okay we all agree to this now let's do some digging because as Mr chair has just said we've talked a lot tonight it's it's not that it's not I I love it I love listening to you guys all talk because usually it's me so I just want to to come to a place where we get to in January where this isn't going to be or maybe it has to be a separate meeting where we only talk about the budget because we used to have a finance committee which I know is next on your agenda Mr chair and I can't wait to discuss that but if we're going to discuss this as a five member board this deeply we are definitely going to need another meeting not just our regular meeting because this will take hours for people to understand exactly what's going on with the budget and we are very lucky that we have Amy that we have that new wonderful person over at the schools and I cannot think of her name and I'm so sorry to her and we've got Joanna and all of them are looking at this with new eyes there is no more money stashed away stored in a little magical box the magical box was used we found all the boxes we used them up last year I promise you there is no more boxes and so when we look at this we have to make sure that we are looking at it and starting from the same point and that is all I'm asking the select board to do is that we all agree to some starting point when we do this thank you Mr chair thank you m brownley so two points let us be brief and then I'm going to move because when a lot of time I keep getting a zoom invitation to an executive session keeps popping on my phone at 9:30 um so first off um first to Mr Z's point I'm G try to on all them just quickly to Mr Z's point I I hear you on the commercial but just give a little historical 2018 to in 2018 um Steen Ry and 88 WF known as mod St and the were just coming into an existence 88 WF is a building as I number one tax pay today in time there was no Nara there was no Abby park there was no all Madre Mr not my um Japanese restaurant there there was no Mr Chan those none of those existed and I Mr mono and I've talked about just in Restaurant t so that pressure 131 Elliott wasn't built yet like that pressure is always going to be there um is in the push between commercial and residential and we're always trying to protect the quality of life here from what it is what people enjoy so I think what I what I'm going to do is defer the next question the next item on the agenda and schedule a meeting just for this purpose because I think we need to talk about this at length I think everyone needs to look I think to Mr Milano and Amy you know the whole Finance team needs to just keep um us surprised and I think to miss Bradley's point and we'll have to look closely at what it is we can afford and what we can't afford and to and finally to miss M's point we definitely want to make this so it's sustainable so that we're not you can't go back in three years say okay let's do this again you just have to and so Mr M I give you some credit you've done some hard work on this this is not an easy thing to do been through this more times than I could count this will be very hard and the one thing that I think for all of us here tonight we need to be together on this and I was going to end up at Miss Bradley hands Ned we're moving on and you can I just want to speak about about the next item so before you defer it I would like to speak about the next item all right go ahead and then I'm going to defer it you need agreement from the whole board Mr chair to do that not not to defer well she I could defer right because I forgot the Zar can do everything I forgot about that no just say see I'm just you brought a good point up that like it's 93 just real quick what I want to say about this next agenda item because I don't think that the general public knows is that there currently is not a select board finance committee right and so what has happened is that I resigned from the select board finance committee because I did not feel that I was given information that I needed to make sure that I had what was necessary to make informed decisions to recommend to the select board this is a this is a big shift and I understand that when you had a three- member board you guys didn't have one was totally different there was three of you oh my gosh now my dog's going to like attack my kid hold on one sec so so it was a different time right there's only three of you guys that you had to talk to now we got five people having these discussions at length with five people like this is going to go on forever and and and no offense to anybody who's asking questions I don't care asked 900 questions I do not care but you are shifting the way that the select board has operated since I've known about it on the warrant committee so God what you guys must have done that a while ago when you went to a three to five I'm just saying that before we disband a finance committee or before we change the charge of a finance committee we should really stop and think about what that entails because part of the other conversation we had tonight had to do with arpa funding which could have all been vetted at the finance committee level and it would have taken three seconds here and it didn't and so there's there is an efficiency piece of this and there's also a public piece of this whereas if we are not having a finance committee then who's making all those decisions is it is it happening between Nick and you and and Lizzie I don't know I don't know because that's those are things that I've seen over time now and I just want to make sure that we are being as open as possible to our residents on what is happening with our finances what is happening with our next steps I mean do do people know that you're also the chair of the capital committee I don't know do people know I I don't know what people know and so there's a point in time where you start to look at this and say all the power is being concentrated and there doesn't seem to be input from a few people who understand the budget and so Mr chair I'm asking you before you disband this and and I'm happy you're going to defer it so before you do that I would like you to stop and think about what that means for for input from our citizens what that means for how this looks publicly and for what this means for our time because it is going to need to be an extra meeting for the five of us to discuss it because I love y'all but y'all got a lot of questions and it's not just me it's all of us together as a group and we should but there is a time and place for that so I know you're going to defer this and that's totally fine I'm I haven't said a word tonight I've been really good because this was my issue and now I'm stepping off my issue and I'm just going to keep us moving forward but Mr chair I would really like for you to not try and kill the finance committee yet okay okay so just can I comment just a second please please please please I'm not trying to kill anything and we did not have a finance committee the first few years that we had f it didn't start till I think our third year as five as a committee of five I was reminded by a member of the town government study committee which when I asked Mr Milano about it and the former Town Administrator M fan both said to me the question that was posed to me the statement that was posed to me is true when the Chown changed former government from a three- member board to a five member board with a strong Town Administrator that Town Administrator was vested certain responsibilities and one of the main responsibilities is the budget and all finances he is the leader of that team and I've I'm I'm GNA leave it because I G to let him speak to it he's not ready to speak to it tonight so I'm going to defer it from that and then I'll add it to another J and I'll let Mr mono speak to this and what he thinks where he is and then we'll go from there is that okay so I'm going to defer it for tonight and we're going to move on to I don't know where someone's going to have to remind me where we're going because um we're going to 18 right now okay so I'm gonna defer that and go to 18 which is Mr Milan to you T administrat as before uh thank you Mr chair uh just a few um notes um we do have a new DPW commissioner it's been a while since we met but Marina Fernandez our our prior town engineer uh took over as the DPW commissioner uh beginning on December 2nd so welcome to her uh just in time for uh snow and ice season which doesn't snow anymore we'll start knocking on some on some wood so I don't jinx her and the team down at DPW um and huge thanks to Tom McCarthy so Tom had stepped in to serve in an interm capacity upon uh Chase's departure and did that for um two months really and uh you know a lot gets done in town because Tom is uh helping it get done so appreciate his his assistance in this time span and he's happy I'm sure back to just be focusing on Consolidated facilities um uh Peter Rizzy I I can't remember if I had mentioned this at our prior meeting um but we did make an internal appointment um so Peter Rizzy has been moved into the water sewer superintendent position that was vacated when Greg mckinty was promoted to assistant Commissioner of Public Works um earlier this spring um we do have a few open positions still the town planner uh still open so if any folks um are interested in that position or know anybody who may be please let us know Cheyenne Frasier the um assistant director has been um stepping up in a huge way since Tim Zer winsky left at the end of November the town engineer position is open uh upon Marina's uh promotion uh so again any interest please let us know the environmental coordinator position uh is open as well um also sits in engineering um although we think may have uh a candidate there um there's been an issue it's been in the news and elsewhere about um checks going through the mail and Associated problems with that so if you can um just a suggestion from folks to uh send money in a way that is not a papercheck I know around the holidays people often send payments to relatives but just something to keep in mind uh We've uh Milton's been the victim of it and and we've had checks stolen um Milton police have been involved in investigation that resulted in um some arrests um out of town related to some um checks being seized and taken out of mailboxes including uh somebody had a key to a mailbox so uh please keep that in mind uh this holiday season and speaking of the holidays um uh we had the holiday tree lighting a couple weeks ago in East Milton so thanks to everybody that put that together um you know Anthony mustow and John Driscoll who helped out with the tree Joe par leio from the chamber for helping uh coordinate it all the other businesses that played a role and especially um our gpw team I probably will miss somebody but from anywhere everybody from Tom McCarthy to Aldo Brian McCarthy Jack cro Kevin Lin um who else am I missing Sarah David Burns was down there so uh a number of people put that together uh behind the scenes so thanks to everybody Milton Fire for driving Santa over Milton police for the details so um a lot of people go in uh do a lot of work around that event we appreciate everybody's support and um I'll be asking the board uh to meet um prior to next week to approve placing a manora um on the landing on the deck as well um and thanks to um a few folks in town um including Rabbi Benjamin who are interested in in um in donating manora to the town to be used and displayed um alongside our other holiday decorations on the deck um so I I just Ben had mentioned this in the meeting that uh folks who wish to donate to that effort um can contact uh the congregation uh and rabby Benjamin to do so um and thanks Mr Wells and Senator Senator electroll and and Ben and others for um assistance uh as we've been working on this that concludes my report at this time Mr chair thank you um just a couple points will be quick just uh on a sad note I just want to make too many sad notes this year but uh two weeks ago this town lost a very young man Jared Crowley A Gifted individual from me Milton who died suddenly at the age of 42 he leaves behind his wife Jess and two young kids but for those who know Jared was the creator and the builder of the giant sandbox at mil Music Fest each and every year and had a huge theme behind it Jared also constructed projects for children with M AWI foundation and one very young girl was a Cancer Victim in this town who gratefully today is in remission she wanted to have a treehouse in her life and several years ago Jared built the most unbelievable treehouse in her backyard um the Ser up a family over on Rose Street I was fortunate to be able to visit it go up inside at once nicer than my house um he will be surely missed he was truly a man who was led with kindness in so many ways and um it's a big loss for this community like so many others too many others we have this year and I think a good note I think you covered everything of the tree lighting and um the holiday and all the other all the other community events that have taken place in this town um it's a credit to so many people who care about their home and about the quality of life here so thank you to everyone during this holiday season that's pretty much all I have I don't think I forgot anything did I say one thing absolutely thank you um so all right I have two quick things one was just actually well no the Rotary Club did the tree lighting yes did and so I wanted to do a shout out to Walter White who set that up it was freezing cold I got there late so I was coming from work um but the other thing was um on January 15th at the COA at 5:30 is the community health um Improvement plan which is called the chip uh and so it's based off the community health assessment um and they're going to um talk about um some things to prioritize and so forth so I think if we could get you know anybody on the selectboard wants to come that's great um and people in the community and um Caroline asked me to make sure that everybody knew about that tonight so thank you is this a part two of the last one that was the opioid the one that I saw that was the opioid um this is the community health assessment that was done this is um prioritizing some um action plans around that so okay okay thank you um future meeting dates Tuesday January 14th but I think we may swap that am I correct um and Mr M you let us know we may flip that to the first Tuesday am I correct that right Mr yeah that would be fine that works for everybody else that work on if we just let Mr mran don't know um that would be great I'll have to okay and then uh future agenda items Mr things defer to tonight go ahead Mr just real quick if anybody's watching and they want to help contribute to the manora you can give taxfree as a gift it's Beth Shalom bluehills.org select the the rabbis discretionary fund and put town manora as a note and you can give a charitable gift um and that will go towards helping uh pay for the minora sorry I just wanted to plug that website no worries no that's fine um okay future any other future agender items on the things we would deferred from tonight to the next meeting anything else going once going twice at 9 we have the um the the lighting um bylaw Mr Milano that will be ready for that that's on that's the one mentioned that's you deferred for tonight thank you so given that I'm going to make a motion we down I'm going to make a motion to go into executive session pursuant to mastering Law chapter 308 section 21 a-3 to discuss strategy with respect to Collective bagging following units Milton car unit of Southeastern public employees mil professional management association Milt public employees Association Milton firefighter is local 116 Milt Police Association Milton Superior offices in Milton Library Association I don't know if okay no coming back yeah we not coming back that's why I was just going to ask we will not be returning to public session we'll be adjourning did I cover that correctly because I'm reading off the regular agender doesn't have all that language I think I covered it Mr chair okay so now roll call vote Miss Musto yes M Bradley yes Mr cohane yes Mr yes and myself just before we exit Nick it's a different link right so we got to exit out and then log back in it's a separate link um actually why don't we um why does everybody stay here we can just stay on this webinar and we'll lock it once everybody leaves everybody everybody sits tight all right W don't you do that then [Music] on he [Music]