##VIDEO ID:LhrfofU_IzM## all right good evening everyone and welcome to the select board meeting of Thursday January 30th uh looks like we have a full board here tonight we have Denise Kevin Roger Alec and myself and as always we're going to start with a pledge of allegiance iance to the flag of the United States of America to the stands naice all right and before we move into it I just wanted to um do a moment of silence for Josephine pinto and the sweding pinto family as I'm sure you know with there is such a tragedy about two weeks ago um the loss of a six-year-old girl so I wanted to have a quick moment of silence for Josephine okay thank you we don't have any appointments resignations retirements so I guess we'll move into minutes we have minutes for January 8th and 16th has everyone got a chance to look these over Mr chair Mr R I make a motion we accept the minutes of January 8th second all in favor I I I oppos okay Mr chair Mr mer on the minutes of January 16th there is a line that is crossed out in the minutes for us to sign uh number three of the conversation with the uh fishing game that wasn't crossed out in the um packet when we got it for discussion what is it you're talking about a page five page five um page five the 320 CMR Weir in the packet that we had was uh not across that I don't know if there was a change or if that if there was a reason for that on page page five on the minutes of for the 16th so why don't we just double check if that's correct and we'll revisit on next meeting okay thank you R thank you okay after new this business discussion and or vote to uh actually I'm sorry uh there's no licenses permits tonight do we have any announcements I have no announcements this evening anyone no no and we're going to move on to discussion and or vote on setting the date of the annual Town election which for some reason I thought we did this but we definitely did so Mr chair Mr Maron believe that if we didn't vote on this by the uh January 1st that it would automatically be set as the last Saturday in April correct we have Joe the town clerk here if she wants to thank you stilla town clerk um uh requesting to set the ele the local election for Saturday April 26 2025 um it did come as a request from a few people in my office to um limit the election hours from 8: to 3 from your for your consideration many cities and towns are limiting the hours of their local election to afford more time to count for rins after the election um and so I said I would put forth the request for your consideration and also for your consideration the location of the local election is normally at the school um I did get confirm confirmation today that um they're intending that the parking lot across the street will be ready in time and so just at your pleasure if you wanted to have it at the school or have it here um um I'll give my personal opinion I think we should probably stick to the middle school for this one um until everything's maybe complete out there and we're sure of it um that's just my opinion I'll open up to the board for that Mr chair question for Joe definitely going to be done well I personally can't guarantee that Mike do you know it should be done but do we have enough parking otherwise well we have that whole parking lot over there and it's a town election so it's not like people come in droves and it's not a Saturday so that parking lot which is typically occupied by uh employees wouldn't wouldn't be so I would think it would be substantially easier for everybody working the pools and as well as everyone in your office to do it here correct it yes that is one factor it would be easier for us to hold the election here in in Mike what are your thoughts on that as far as do you think the parking would be sufficient even if that I do I think there'll be plenty of room in there's plenty of room in here to R the town election I I do agree with that as well Mr Cher Mr W um Mike the town hall is not open on that Saturday so none of that parking would be taken up by employees anyway right right yes so that would be that whole parking lot would be available to anybody that wanted to come vot um as far as the time goes um I'm not necessarily opposed to having it end at 3:00 but um I think we might want to give more notice as as to changing the time that the uh ending of voting would be at 3 as opposed to at 5 more notice for a meeting for people to come voice their opinion um yeah and there there may be some I don't know unless you have some um idea of how many people vote between three and five I don't don't have those numbers no right so there may be some people who that's they only time that they can't come vote up want to cut the voting short especially if we're going to hold it here as opposed to at a remote M Mr chair good U three here uh my preference would be for the longer hours um just because I'm I would prefer to air on the side of um more availability for people exercise their right to vote while I'm inconvenience to vote to come a couple hours later um that's the beginning of Spring season for a lot of sports parents are very busy in athletic fields so I want to allow more time for folks to be able to fit that into their schedule for the day okay what is your thoughts on the location I'm indifferent way to take a St uh I probably would prefer here if we feel pretty confident the parking lots over there ready just because we have there we have had problems with conflicts with the sports the back of the middle school before so yeah with that I'm okay either way I just want to make sure people know about it at a time they don't go there thinking they're going to vot to the middle school yeah good Mr Snake I mean we have this beautiful new town hall I mean what are we talking about here like that's I think we should try it here rip the Band-Aid off and see how it goes yeah and maybe for this year we could put a a tripod sign or something in front of the Middle School to say voting being held at Town Hall before pull into the parking lot so they can see see that the big wrong way sign yeah exactly that's a good idea all right okay so um so Mr chair Mr Maron do we need to take a vote on this yes uh do we need to take a vote on the entire timeline that was that was my question yes for the the whole timeline here so um what do you mean that no for the deadlines or just the just to set the election okay so so to set the election uh date time and location Mr Mr Marcy I make a motion that we set the uh annual Town election for April 26 2025 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Town Hall second okay U any further discussion all in favor iOS okay excellent thank you for your time thank you thank you Jim okay um next up we have the discussion and or vote on terms consideration agreement regarding the easement for the rich property located at 77 to West Main Street uh and zero West Main Street on Route 123 so um town meeting voted to uh give you the right to negotiate um an easement and now it's just a matter of um whether you ask the developer for proposal of what they want to pay each year for that easement and how long you want to Grant gr that he new okay we have Mr Rich yes thank you very much it's it's no one of the rich properties so we'll call it the um former yeah right I think the Northtown properties that c us the that uh as far as the easement I thought that the town granted the easement Perpetual easement on that and I'm not so sure that there was a time liit so I think the EAS would go in perpetuity I'm it is remember with the the we talked about licensing and that's the reason why we went P the town hall for the for meeting so it's like a Perpetual e and I'm not as far as my suggestion would be just to put the restrictions that they have to maintain it and I keep it open to the public forever okay Mr chair Mr mer didn't we vote on this easan already Yes and I believe we did you voted to support the article to Grant the easement and at town meeting they voted for the easement that's correct they voted to give um you the right to issue an easement so now it's just a matter of do you want some compensation for that Mr chair Mr Mery do we have uh many other easements in town that we received much compensation from I don't believe we receive compensation for I could be wrong I don't think so I can't think of it yeah I think I think the majority of it is is um M maintenance and also actually Paul can probably speak for that if you no okay sorry and also are there uh any easements that the town is asking for from other uh land owners as well that we wouldn't want to have to pay compensation for I can't think of any that we have on that we have given yeah to me this one's pretty straightforward I mean I think um Mr chair Mr Mark I make a motion that we uh Grant an easement for the uh what are we calling that property now the former oh no the uh Northtown Northtown properties that we granted easement for the Northtown properties in perpetuity Mr chair with the stipulation any stipulations as far as maintenance I was say that they maintain it I say so even exchange in my mind if we give the easement as long as they're maintaining that piece of property so I agree yeah so is that that I would uh move to uh amend my motion to include to include the maintenance of EAS okay that the other part that the e requestor is responsible for maintenance to be clear yeah okay is there a second second all in favor I I opposed extenstions I all right thank you Mr okay thank you thank you we'll be in touch and we work out the details about that thank you number three everybody is here for I think a special town meeting regarding Elm Street who's up he everybody um so um Paul are you going to come up here or stay there um so the water and store Department um has uh gone out to bid and they have a contract to sign for their work on um Elm Street and as you know we have a $3.5 million Mass Works grant that is dependent on uh that work being done by what time in 2026 do you remember well uh well the grant needs to be finished by the end of June of 2026 2026 so um you know we we thought we would be well along our along the way by now but um it would have been held off and um so we're looking to see if we can schedule a special time meeting to allow the water s Department go to borrow for this project did you want to show if anyone has any questions about um about the project I think you all know what it is Mr chair yeah Mr Senator yeah I just kind of want a status update on the project that would be great I'll just show it up y green Dam it here we go there it is that's the slide it's bright enough for you um so as you know this is the project uh on Elm Street and um there's a $3.5 million Mass Works Grant water rates will pay for Improv ment to the water M of 2.4 million and the remaining share is 2.5 million um this project will be done similar to the way the project was done on uh West Maine where uh betterments are assessed to the land owners along the way and then those land owners would not have to pay the sore tieing fee when they tieing to sore um so that uh remaining share 2.5 million breaks out to 75 uh for 64 housing units along um Elm Street in milit teras and then 47 Elm Street would be assessed uh a betterment of $1.75 million and um the developer um excuse me is um Kali development and devco North America are the two uh companies that are teaming up to develop the property and they're in the process right now of seeking funding and also um looking at any possibilities of tips that they they could obtain um right now um it's not like the typical Business Development where you could go into Mass development and get a a a tip for a commercial property so they're looking at a different type of tip PA you want talk on it right this is actually the Tiff they're looking for would would be administered by the executive office of Housing and livable community so it's more geared toward a residential development because this the proposal that devco and Kali have have told us about is primarily a residential project be we're looking at roughly as you can see on the bottom bullet about between 145 and 155 residential units and and on the first floor somewhere between 10 and 20,000 Square ft of commercial so it's predominantly a residential type of proposal and that wouldn't qualify for the typical tiffs that the town has issued in the past such as bral nyum and um El appliances so they're we're you know they're in touch with the state to um pursue that um Tiff approval uh it's a different one there's study there's a study that needs to be done before we even uh approach doing a a tip agreement that the state has to approve Mr chair Mr CH is this the only option we're looking at because when we looked at this before I could have SW there were three options one was a direct line without wiring the tie that is that on this presentation I don't know I think this presentation was just showing all of the properties being uh being connected but correct in the past we have talked about an option where would just be going directly to that site and uh would not allow a a connection to the Residential Properties yeah I remember cuz i s remember thinking that was the better option so I'm surprised that we're not seeing that here today can we go into a little bit more as to why the urgency and we can't wait a month to regular town meeting why we have to do a special town meeting in March it it it's a timing issue particularly with the grant having to be the grant funds need to be expended by June of of uh 2026 so the concern is if we delay it so right now we do have a contractor who's accepted a bid and right now they've already extended it once for us uh it is extended through March if we continue it uh we run the risk that they might walk away and we'd have to rebid the contract again and the shovels really need to be in the ground by the summer in order to to uh meet the the construction deadlines Mr chair Mr M um can you tell us what's changed from last year's fall town meeting till now I don't I don't see a huge difference from when it was taking off the war at last year's fall to meeting what's different I I don't see that much has changed at all um actually what what has changed we as we asked for a commitment from the developer did we get that um what what has changed is I believe um with their bid process uh that the water and sword the price did come in a little lower than this so um um right so did we get that commitment from the developer the developer is working on their financing right now so no no I I just straight answer yeah um because that was my major contention last fall is that we don't have a commitment from the developer so go go ahead Mr chair yet to to pck back on your point has the developer um updated you as to where they are with financing you know and anything um they did uh give us an email recently that said they're working on the financing but they haven't uh uh I think they're still looking at that Tiff option to reduce their fin do they have potential timeline for that knowing I'm sure they know the time is of the essence as far as the grant goes right we we've made that clear to them and I I do I do believe they may have you know possibly we're we're anticipating them covering this $25 million Delta is that I would not I would not recommend that they cover the entire amount um because um I don't think we want the homeowners to have to pay the sore tie-in fee so if they'd cover at least 50% of that other portion at least uh the homeowners along the street would pay a betterment and they would have to pay the salian fees so this is a question I had the last time we talked about this if if the developer is paying that 2.5 million why would there be a fee to the homeowner if they pay the whole thing why would the homeowner get a fee anyways they're getting the full amount paid um they if it's the way the bylaw is written up with the water and sore Department if you don't pay your V if you're not paying your betterment you have to pay the salian fees um to recoup the costs that they're paying right right now for the uh treatment facility that we have you know that treatment fa facility has been expanded and the few users that are on soore right now are paying for that debt that they uh want to treat the waste waterer treatment plant has and more use as you get on the smaller that portion it will be and so as they tie in new people they haven't paid a better they charge a sore TI fee which goes to help reduce those cost of the borrowing for the expansion of the plan so I'm having a very hard time with this one because I don't I don't really believe anything's changed here and I and I would hate to lose that grant money but I Mr chair Mr s if you don't mind um so a couple couple things um the first thing is is that [Music] um I feel like we are straying a little bit from the agenda item because the agenda item is specific to the town meeting and not this particular project even though it's kind of sort of like that but the second part of that is I think we I feel like we have a lot of questions here that we'd like answered before we decide on whether or not we're going to have a special town meeting so maybe we could all submit some questions on on on this because I I feel like we're all in the same position of thinking we we took this off the it was not voted on a town meeting and we're all kind of thinking like what's different what's changed so maybe we could get a little clarification around that and maybe take it up at the next select board meeting and then make a vote on this and maybe expand the agenda item talk about the project itself and then also talk about setting a town a special town meeting I with you 100% I don't want to push it off any longer I know timing is of the essence but I also feel like we're all little off balance here that we could use some more information to make a more informed decision so I agree I agree 100% thanks for realing the in Kevin yeah appreciate it you're all welcome okay so we don't need a motion for that thanks Paul yeah thank you Paul just got darker in here is it crazy just ask an NBTA next up we have the discussion and our vote on the future use of the former Council on Aging property located at 55 55 West Main Street all right Mr chair um I just wanted to see if um the board has any preference um anything that they'd want to see there um are you concerned um about just see to get the best bid if we rent it out the highest rent or are you looking to do an RFQ where you put some more weight on nonprofits or any anything uh any thoughts you have before we go out and do that Mr chair Mr this uh may be straining a little bit from G that's all right I I'll make sure you don't go too far um where do we stand with uh National Grid on the property looking to get an easement from them um we're still working on that with them we it's National Grid so it takes a long time that from the projects Mr chair I think you know we're looking at what are we doing the with the property in the meantime um it's going to take a little while for National Grid as we expect um and I think it's what what does everybody think might be the best use uh short term instead of it just sitting there um if it makes sense to let someone use it maintain it you know whatever or at least get some Revenue out of it for the meantime and then once that that easement is settled then we can make a decision at that point are we able to do anything shortterm or is it um well that depend on who wants to use it and and I don't think we have to be that concerned right now shortterm about making a lot of money but it's a benefit to have someone in the building at least pay the electric sh set the overhead I mean right now we've shut the water off and uh you know there's not a lot of cost but still it's better to have someone in there maintaining Mr chair Mr um Mike do we have you had um a lot of interest in the building I have from from nonprofits mostly from nonprofits looking for a donation of the building um I believe they'd be looking um I I do tell them that it could be short term so if you want a building that you can use but not I wouldn't spend money renovating so we could do as is you know annual lease you're responsible for everything Mr chair I'll sorry I thought we had decided yet if we're going to sell it or lease it or what we're going to do with it is that is that not correct yeah we haven't decided okay so you're looking to just lease it for the short term that you're talking about yeah if someone needs space shortterm one of the charities um until we we get easements from National Grid that would allow us to have access to our water tower and salt shed and back um we would have a tough time selling it plus we have to uh have Provisions for all the equipment that the school department has in that garage behind the old Senor center before we sell the property so it could be a while before we' be able to sell it could could we and is there precedence of being able to share the lease amongst a couple of different nonprofits that they don't need a full week worth of use right have two or three of them a couple days each yeah I'll let you know um who's interested and see what we can do yeah you get a sense for how much they need to use it and we can probably assess have the shared leas Arrangement maybe we could call it the Norton um nonprofit building the nonprofit Center the nonprofit Center and have many different nonprofits use it because I know for example like the Girl Scouts are looking always looking for space and they end up using the media center or something like that but if we could create something where it's it's a it's an available space for any nonprofit that wants to use it that might be a pretty cool idea case the cook yeah okay next we have the discussion of vote to declar of the police department's 2001 Ford E350 van as Surplus Mr the chair Mr Rich make a motion that we vote to declare the police 2001 board E350 v as surus second all in favor I I okay uh we do there is one thing under other business not anticipated um something came up today and I'll let Roger is GNA go through this Mr chair so it's um come to my attention that um there's going to be some action taken um about a piece of property on Hill Street that the uh planning board has uh voted on and the I'd like for us to be able to discuss that for a little bit here this evening yeah do you want to read what what came and why this is U merg so anyways there's a company Premier fence that has uh put in a uh proposal to the planning board to uh put their business in on Hill Street and um it's gone to the planning board and it was uh voted down at the planning board and I believe that they're going uh to court next week about it and um I would like us to um disc have a discussion about it and U possibly um take a vote to support the action the action of Premier fence to uh to talk about whether we think that the it's a reasonable proposal or not so we we didn't vote on this before but I believe um the traffic safety presented it to us right and they approved it so before we get any further into it I just like to make sure that it's okay for us to talk about it because I just come on I just found out about it I guess I'm not sure are you asking us to kind of override with the plan Bo it's excited absolutely not what I just want to do is I just want to discuss it and maybe amongst ourselves come up with a either uh support or nons support of the project I guess it's not our rule let what to do that this planning water would you want to have an exec session with representatives from the planning board and our attorney to get an understanding of where this case is I think that might be a good idea rather than discussing it where we could end up affecting the town's negotiating position yeah the the reason I love this is because there was a request of the select board to to write an endorsement letter um I believe from the um the Traffic Safety Committee so that's why that's why I allowed this during the yeah it wasn't from Premier F didn't reach out and ask us to do this yeah I don't I don't feel like I have enough information to be able to do that without being able to talk to the planning board and the folks that made the decisions and why we've discussed we've discussed this project a few times here Mr chair get back um I believe there was a letter of support from the traffic committee that we received at some point is that correct do we do we have that anything like that from the Traffic Safety Committee yeah I don't I don't remember seeing that but I don't know if it was a letter more than than they supported it it was unanimous I know that they they took vote on the project and um so before I go any further I just want to make sure that I'm not overstepping just even talking about it yeah so I think I think that might be correct as far as we don't want to get ahead of any litigation um right because that's where it's heading right it's sort of yeah imminent legislation which we also have to be very careful about discussing even though it's not in litigation now no it it is oh it is in litigation now okay so that's why want to keep this to the certain scope of you know whether we want to endorse a letter of supporting it or not and it kind of seems like so I would just if if I could I would like to make the uh as a uh representative from the board on the Traffic Safety Committee I would like to make the board aware of uh what the Traffic Safety Committee did um at their meeting when the premier fence came in and talked about it I'd like to let the board know about that if we could that that's what give with me so um back on November 15th at the request of the planning board Premier fence came in and made a presentation to the Traffic Safety Committee about their proposal um to build on a site on Hill Street um after making their presentation to the Traffic Safety Committee which includes a representative from the select board the police department the Norton fire department the Norton school department the Norton highway department and citizens at large there was some discussion and then there was a um unanimous approval by that committee to um in favor of the project um that's all I don't want to go any further than that with with what we're talking about here okay so I think I think we should do uh an executive session to get caught up on this so our next meeting we'll have an execu session with that so Mr chair Mr Mar from what I understand it's going into litigation um a week from tomorrow and that's why that uh I think that uh we I was looking to see if uh if we could have some discussion about it or maybe if we wanted to uh send a letter to the planning board from the select board above it I I I understand that and I do tend to agree with that that because of the litigation um we really should have the planning board in here to kind of speak to us about it that I mean that's where I'm so does does KP have that I guess meeting minutes from Traffic Safety Committee anything like that showing the support from Traffic Safety Committee not that I know is that something that we I think I don't think we can take action on I think the tra Safety Committee would have to present that to them directly that that's something that we should yeah and all due respect I think the Traffic Safety Committee uh perview is much different than the planning board looking at it from a different perspective so I want to understand planning board's perspective before I make any kind of decision yeah and and I mentioned um update on that um case for our next executive session but I we probably should get an update at all any of we Y which there shouldn't be many but okay anything further is there any all right now we're on to the town manager's report all right um so the old town hall building um would have been down today but they blew a hose on the uh on the machine so so the parking lot's not going to be ready you saying I did send a picture but to Chris kichel and I told him it's his fault cuz he condemned it so I I did notice that there was still some drapes hanging on the back of the select for there well um and another item uh got a call today that New England Rodeo is moving to a new location out of town so they won't be coming back in February to their license okay sorry I don't um do you know if there's anything going to happen on that property have they said what they're doing with that property um I know a developer has been in that is looking to develop that property into housing so love to see another radi that was fantastic FKS yeah and just uh what's the date for Founders Day got your number R June it's right here it's um my calendar it's not no June 28th all right that' be June 28th I believe it's the 28th of June just a reminder that we uh um we do um the carnival starts on that Thursday right and the carnival will start on the 26th it'll be the carnival June and then Founders Day on June 28th as part of the uh Carnival in that in behind the El school and uh right now there's only three volunteers on the Founders Day committee so if there's anyone in town that wants to help out if they can really reach out and uh volunteer you can reach out to myself on Melissa and conservation she could use the help on that um I just wanted to give you an update on uh we're updating the website and one of the items on there will be if you go on to uh Mansfield's website I think Foxboro you'll see that they have C click fix on there it's a a program where you can go on to the town website or you can download the seat C click fix app on your phone and we're going to start with four departments in town Highway water and sore Board of Health and police so if you're have an issue with a Poole you want to uh report for example you can take a picture of your phone and send it through the app uh see click fix and then they can respond back to you uh through that program too so it would be a good way um for departments to be alerted to things uh that people see out there that uh need to be addressed um and just uh the update on the fishing game uh from our last meeting uh you Brett Sherry was kind enough to send back uh the plan with an area marked um we're not in kayak could operate um his concern is this year if construction is still going on obviously they don't want people um there during construction but once the construction's done from um on the north side of the property from Mansville lab back beyond the existing house on that side of the driveway coming in is an area that nor kayak could use um for parking and also storing kayaks thanks Mike and what is the time when construction you finished yeah I I've got to ask them they're getting ready to start tearing down trees now um it's amazing how long some of these things take but it's a driveway a parking area should take that long but I'll I'll reach out and find out from I'm looking at the oel hall yeah anything else no thanks anything for the select board report in mail okay um I approve the warrants as written and I declare under gen general laws chapter 3A section 21 A2 that the purpose of the executive session will be to discuss strategy with respect to negotiations with non-union Personnel I.E the town manager because discussion of the strategy and Open Session could compromise the purpose of the executive session and with the board not to return to open session at the conclusion of the executive session Mr chair Mr rich I move that the board go into executive session under General Law chapter 30A section 21 A2 for the purposes and Reasons tocl by the chair with the board not to return to open session thereafter second Denise hi Kevin yes Roger yes Alec yes and I'm yes by thank you all