##VIDEO ID:lXbhTqIOHSM## all right I'm going to call the uh select word meeting to order uh tonight is gez Thursday January 16th 2025 um we have a full board tonight and we'll start with the pledge of elevance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay first up we have minutes um I believe we have them for the November 21st December 5th and December 12th of 20124 Mr chair Mr I make a motion that we accept the minutes for November 21st okay there second okay all in favor post all right Mr chair Mr Mar I make a motion that we accept amends for December 5th 2024 sorry all in favor I opposed okay Mr chair Mr Mar I make a motion that we accept the minutes from December 12th to 2024 second all in favor I I opposed chair I'm just going to abstain because I wasn't there okay so for um and one Obion do you have that okay uh 2025 license renewals we have none that was a placeholder in case we needed to um under new business we have discussion on request to exercise right first refusal of Horticultural recreational use um I just have a couple of announcements real quick oh okay SK for over go ahead um I have an announcement from the Norton VFW Post 8049 at 38 Summer Street in Norton is having a Super Bowl pajama party if you all are interested at 2 p.m on February 9th there'll be a potluck and a 50/50 raffle where your pajamas um re Across America is looking for help re across America Norton needs your help this Saturday the 18th is wreath pickup day please meet at the common cemetery next to St Mary's Church at 11:00 a.m. please bring a hockey stick Brew mop or anything that will allow you to carry multiple Reese at a time they will be picking up Rees at all three main cemeteries and need help at all and they need all the help they can get please come and help um if you have any questions and you can reach out to Pat Tarantino at 508 989 6764 that's all I have Mr chair all right thank you Mr meris so back to new business we have discussion on request to exercise WR of first refusal of Horticultural recreational use chapter 61a section 9 regarding the assessor parcel ID 11280 Zer Leonard Street Tom yeah previously um you V voted um not to exercise your right of first refusal on this property um since then uh there's a new purchase and sale agreement and that's why they're coming back to you again um to ask for you to vote again not to exercise your right of first refusal so you voted at your meeting on May 23rd 2004 2024 excuse me um not exercise you're right okay so we would do it in the positive right so so motion to exercise the right of first refusal and then we would say no right okay okay Mr chair Mr mer I make a motion that we exercise writer first refusal for assess as possible ID 11-28 lard Street nor Mass second okay motion of the second all in favor all opposed I I or abstention okay so that motion fails right what we want uh next we have a vote to declare the inspection Department's 2008 for Explorer as Surplus Mr chair Mr S I would like to um make a motion to vote to declare the ins inspector's Department dep inspection departments 20084 to explore as Surplus second all in favor I I opposed okay next up is to review and discuss the route 12340 intersection improvements technical memorandum Mr chair Mr Marson uh we have the chairman of the uh Town's traffic SE committee here if you uh would like him to uh answer any questions about this all right thank you Mr Kimbell do you want to give a brief overview or do you want to just jump into questions if anybody has any I think I believe you all have a packet right we make sure you get a packet so you have a some information and finding out how it works there there are three options that are on the table right now option one will be coming down Mansfield Avenue going to the right of the Unitarian Church uh across two private properties in back on ton Avenue option alternate number two come down Mansfield have going across two private properties going to the center of the common and reconnecting at ton Avenue and the third one which I know Mr un is very excited about is the roundabout possibility which would involve take the taking of many Poss was a property all around the present day common librry sare square would be abolished uh any driveways that are connected to that roundabout would not be allowed under Massachusetts law so everything private driveways Church driveways College driveways all those would have to be roted somewhere else so those are the three options that the engineers presented to us so far and be glad to ask any questions might have okay uh these are similar to the options we narrowed down a few years back we just had to have the engineers redrawn that's correct yeah the roundabout is a new version we we haven't we haven't seen that before Mr chair Mr meron um Mr Kimo could you just uh kind of give us a timeline of uh what the events are as this moves forward where we go for here yeah so our next meeting on second Wednesday of U February the Traffic Safety Committee would take a position on which which recommendation we would have on the which which design we think would make the most sense you know for the town uh keeping in mind that there's the potential impact on all the neighbors and what that could do to some of them a perfect example is the new the old library which now has new regress uh under the proposal for say the roundabout that has to go away so the gentleman who's going through spending hundreds of thousand of dollars restoring the library will not have a way to get in there is one example of it um so the other Factor we want to take into account is the cost of the Town taking easements and we're we're concerned about you know where the town's going to come up with that kind of money in order to to make that process happen so option one which is the uh going to the right of the church does take some property along with two buildings but we're told by engineering firm of of beta uh that um the state would probably end up paying for most of that the town would not have to pay anything toward that $7 billion the second and the third options uh would the uh taking going to the center of the common uh involves chapter 97 of the mass Massachusetts General warw it's a protected it's hisorical and protected it would take a two3 vote in the legislation in order to abolish the use of that property it would take the vote of the uh noron noron historic district the state historic district and obviously Town meting boot would have to be uh recognized in order to to do that and unfortunately uh depending on how long most of us are going to live if uh if we go to that route I've already been assured by many organizations that that will be a long Court action that will be taken uh against the town for trying to to use the historic property where the town common is today the third option with the um roundabout again closes all the driveways on the homes on U on the present day Library Square uh closes uh most of the driveways on that end of Mansfield Avenue uh closes down the the uh the driveway for the church and the one driveway with the extended parking for Wheaten cages that would all be abolished we'd have to go somewhere else we have to come up with a new plan uh that does take some land taking and the town would be responsible under two and three uh to come up with some money to help uh fund the uh taking of property so um those are the three options we have right now again we haven't gone through the process we haven't voted yet um as to what um what option we're going to recommend to the board once we do that it falls on the board of Selectmen select board to call a public hearing where people can come in and have some input on on which which of the three they like the best and try to come come up with some kind of consensus on what works best for everybody in town um once that process is done uh we go to uh the S board for their final approval and then to town meeting so there is there is a process involved under the tip program uh we're going to end up um being put on a list at some point once all the all the approvals have been uh accomplished uh it will be put on a tip and normally they take about 5 to 8 years to to run through U the process um because the intersection is rated F right now it's one of the worst in the area um we're hopeful the traffic committee is hopeful that once the town does their due diligence and gets everything in in place ready to go we're hoping that the state will step up and figure out a way to come up with some financing to to make it happen sooner than later and try to make some improvements on that that whole interception in the report I gave you all a copy of it uh gives you all the projected U traffic studies it gives you all the information I will tell you that number one is uh the second best scenario uh number two going for the common the first uh the third best scenario and the roundabout actually is the number one as far as moving traffic for the center to yeah um through you chair yeah just quick question the there is an estimated cost right and so I know in option three there is a proposed uh private driveway uh as a solution for those driveways that you're talking about that get removed right so is that I guess I like to understand is the cost that they have estimated in here Does it incl include the creation of like those private driveways um and then understanding what portion the state would Fund in each of these options and what portion we'd be looking for or need the town to help support and I realize we may not have a lot of clarity on that but I guess worst case scenarios yeah and that's something we need to get ironed out and nailed down before we make these decisions yeah because the like I said option one which goes by the church basically the engineer feels that the state will pick it all up because it's taking property the town W have to come up with any money at all the other two he said they probably would be some EAS we'd be responsible for but we don't know what those are right now yeah and it's something we have to clarify yeah M option one still has a lot of traffic times that are D which track's going to get worse as we go on not better so I'm a little concerned that's not enough of a relief for the air right yeah I would agree all right any other questions no all right thank you Mr K thank you sir all right next up we have the um Award of the contract for leasing of copy or SC equipment so uh we went out to bid for um copers and the lowest responsible bidder right now now is uh K Sarah um $1,134 36 um so I would ask U the select board to allow me to sign an agreement with Kera pending final review of all the equipment that they're going to provide us with through you chair y go ahead uh Mike just so I no what was the last contracted rate that we had for printer rentals um I am not sure what that was I didn't bring that what's that yeah2 a month 672 a month we pay could you be more specific 672 exactly or is it change a is that Mr chair Y is that with any of these people or is that you know John Marco is that any of any of these names of this Marco that's him that's who we have now so he he's going up that much almost double was was that a motion that was it is kind of funny the other to Reid we had three of them you know 10,000 to 13,000 and then the other three were a lot higher yeah a threee total too so is there threee total yeah well that's a that's a different of another that makes it lower actually a lot lower yeah quite a bit 280 281 threee total threeyear contract locked in at that rate for the year total total value of the contract have to so that's cheaper looks like 672 * 12 * 3 it's 24 192 that's going be the yearly that's that's going to be the yearly Mr chair Mr SN I'm confused I know me too so I'm with so so in The Matrix here it just says 12 month period you know 2750 20 so that's I think the 10,000 is yearly guess but it's a threeyear contract right so they locked into that rate for 3 years yes okay okay that makes more sense and includes maintenance okay so what Jen what did you say we're paying now for the two copers in this town hall it's 672 a month total okay and is this going to be more than two cop years or just two two okay yeah so this brings it up to 844 21% increase through you chair than go ah uh mik other other departments that also rent printers and could we get any discounts with volume and have each one pay their portion yeah I I don't know um where they are on their leases okay yeah something to think about going forward like we have different department that have the separate printers if we can kind of accumulate all of them you get a bid for in maass we might get a better rate and then have each of them separately paid Steve y ahead am I seeing this correctly three total for the 75 PPM that's this option there's three different options here seems like that's the total for the option number three option equipment option number one can you explain oh so I'm back with Kevin I'm confused right so with that being said wouldn't that I mean let's say the kosara call it it's 2750 call it three grand you know that'd be a lot right okay so the option number three so that's that's for the highest right so it still is the okay so it still is the 844 a month that's what it would be because that's the option you're selecting right yes okay can you explain like the difference between speed the options the amount of copies per minute what do we have now right now we have the uh 75 per minute and a mograph machine do you remember those one of those you to roll the yeah I like the way those smelled oh my gosh Jen you're you're laughing you don't know you it's just the way is being said some of us used to use them for other purposes than minog graphing um chair you control this meeting please all right so just to just so I understand this Mr chair um the option number three is the same um 75 pages per minute that we are using now and that cost would be 10,134 36 per year yes 3,378 * 2times three * three three so that's for the so that's see now we're back with it's 33782 per year per year for the three-year total of 10,134 so we're paying we're back to paying less yeah okay okay well that's great so we're paying half of what we paid before is that I just want to make sure I'm clear technology you fantastic Pro suddenly doesn't look so bad does it before we ruin this I would love a motion Mr chair Mr Parson I make a motion that we allow the town manager to uh sign a contract with K Sur for their three-year term of 10,134 36 for copy second motion a second all in favor I I opposed all right excellent that was painful do we have any other business uh Reon reasonably anticipated your government at work all right next up we have the town manager reports um so an update on the demo of the Town Hall um the fire department the antenna and guywire situation has all been uh taken care of uh there's some minor work that remains at the chimney um some connection connectors are back Ed but um we have the guywire off the old building um all the hazardous material bait's been completed um the temporary separation wall has been constructed between the Old Town Hall and the fire station um interior utilities fire protection Plumbing HVAC electrical technology they've been cut and capped are relocated and right now there's design work going on um for a new structural steel column to support the roof from the second floor deck at the front west corner of the fire department and um so that once that's done then the demo can start and it's anticipated that demo will start the last week of January Mr jar Mr Mar um Michel these all of these things that you just spoke of are all covered under the budget that we voted on at Tomy yes okay um update on uh the former Council on Aging building I reached out to National Grid um for the option that if we decide to sell that property we'll still need access to our salt shed in our water tower Outback and if you're out if you notice out there now there's kind even on the uh assessor map they have um paths more or less thr where National Grid comes across our property we go across their property so I've reached out to National Grid um our contact connected me with the real estate department with the hope of uh connect getting easements established right now there's no easements everyone just does it and if we're going to sell that property we want to make sure we have easement to be able to get back to our salt shed and our water tower the future so hopefully uh National Grid Works quickly on that Mr chair Mr M Mike did they give you any uh indication of uh how long this process might take they didn't so in the meantime uh people have been contacting me that are interested in renting the building um the hard thing is like I said to someone if we decide they were talking about we renovate this and do that well I don't know if i' want to do that if we're going to sell it eventually so um I I'll look at I'll come back next week um have it on the agenda on the next meeting um see what you want to do if you go out for an RFQ we could there's been a lot of nonprofits actually looking to use the building and that's something you'd have to decide are you really looking for money or you looking for someone that could use the like um St Vincent depal visiting me the other day they're losing their space in outar and they're looking for a site um so there's a number of nonprofits that are looking so I was going to say do we have't decided what we're doing the property yet cuz I don't remember having that decision yeah we haven't decided I told them and I told everyone that reaches out it would be an RFQ anyways we couldn't just let one person use it but after um and as you probably saw the state supreme court decision on the MBTA zoning um so the Supreme Court ruled that the MBTA zoning is a law there's nothing we can do about it and it doesn't just involve losing grant money um if if we do don't uh set up a district and uh meet the guidelines of the MBTA communities Act then the Attorney General can sue the town of Norton and will be in court and I just sent to you um a grant the fire department was applying for this is the first I've seen of this and I've asked other departments when they apply for Grants if this is on them let me know um it says the the receipt of Grant funds is contingent upon the grantee being able to certify that it will comply with the Massachusetts general laws including General law chapter 4A section 3A the MBTA communities act Community compliance with the MBTA communities Act is determined by the executive office housing and Liv livable communities so if we don't establish a district and become compliant with the ACT we could be losing out on all grant money so they they stated the deadline for this right into June or July is that correct right so Mike this I through you chair sorry this is comes from a contract you currently have this is just an example you received from somebody um this is the fire department applied for a u Public Safety Grant and uh they actually didn't receive it but this was right in the uh and they have to sign it by when they didn't get it oh they didn't get it but okay gotcha so is it is it just being held up or did they say no they said no not specifically because of that right right exactly right it's just this is an example of that it's it's actually part of the grant process now yeah gotcha so hopefully we can have something come before the the town that'll um that'll pass Mr chair Mr meron I believe uh looking at the agenda for the next planning board meeting that uh that is on their agenda yep yeah and they've been working really hard on it I I know so okay Mr temper go ahead um so at one of the previous meetings the question came up about um the agreement that we've signed um with fishing game and what options we had so um I reached out to Town Council and asked a series of questions um number one can the select board end the agreement and how and the answer was in my opinion the agreement may be terminated only if DFG the department of fishing game agrees to the [Music] termination see section 11 of the agreement stating that this agreement shall be in effect until mutually dissolved on Modified by the department and the municipality the second question I asked if the select board ends the agreement is the town liable for any cost and so the agreement does not address liability for cost I expect that if DFG has not expended any funds for the construction of the boat launch the town may not be liable for any cost however there is no specific guidance on this issue however as you know when the state provides funds to municipalities for specific project there is usually Express or implied agreement requiring the municipality to repay the funds provided if the property is used for purposes other than the uses supported by the grant or for purposes that materially fear with the anticipated use I expect that DFG has a similar condition third if the facility is built can the town sell the property would the sale have to be contingent on the boat launch facility remaining answer section five of the agreement states that the town shall not use or permit to be used any parking spaces or open areas within the facility for purposes other than public access are for purposes that are inconsistent with the provision of 320 cmr2 without the written consent of the department in my opinion so long as the agreement is in place the town is bound bound by that requirement the town May convey the property provided however that the buyer uses the boat launch area or any portion that constitute the public access facility solely for Public Access um including but not limited to boat launching ramps car top water resources on the Massachusetts including about Elm to boat launching ramps car toop boat access areas parking areas sport fishing peers and shore fishing areas it appears from the uh construction plans that the following portions of the property are part of the public access facility the 12 car parking area the path to be constructed through the property and the boat launch area itself in my opinion other areas of the property may also be PO with spaces open areas within the facility if they're reasonably necessary for the safe operation of the boat launch including any vehicle turnaround areas in the opinion from fishing game this was number four in the opinion from fishing game is the opinion from fishing game accurate the town can lease out the property as long as there's no impact on the launch area answer my opinion that the town that my opinion is Town May lease portions of the property that are not part of the public access facilities and or the open areas of the public area facilities provided that the use of the leas areas does not interfere with the access to or the use of such Public Access facilities okay uh questions yeah so so Mike I just want to clarify there is some some space both to the left and to the right of the accessway in the parking lot where it's open space where I would argue that is not necessary for the operation of the boat ramp where we could place the the the current wec nor kayak in some of that space that's located there I it seems like there's a lack of clarity about where would be feasible number one for nor kayak and B um I think there's been some mixed messaging about whether or not they could use that space behind the house but as I'm interpreting um the contract in legal opinion I'm going to say yes there is some space behind the house where can be used and so I'd like to recommend or suggest that perhaps could we draw out where would be a good a couple of good options for North kayak to locate their business that they want to place back there and then just get confirmation inform the state this is where we're going to place it okay if they push back then let's discuss it at that point but I would inform them this is where we're going to place the business and they should be able to operate the way they do today right yeah I'm go with that yeah okay you want to see the map Dave have you seen the map I have seen the map okay my concern is that my did you come on up to the the yeah just yeah Dave L nor kayak operations manager um conversations with Brett from fishing game he was pretty clear that there would be no storage of anything behind the house as it was a state facility and I said well you know the town you know we kind of talked and said we can maybe go off to the side or whatever he was pretty pretty adamant no and then you know he was like you know you potentially we could give you a car you could trailer stuff in and out but you know there's no doing lessons or programs you know we are program based business we don't rent Kayaks we've never just rented kayaks by the hour yeah um yeah know I think I think based on what I'm what I'm reading and how I'm understanding all the opinion and the contract and the drawings I think there is space da I think that either Brett was mistaken misunderstood this would be news to me like I said I've reached out numerous times and I haven't heard back from anybody on anything so if someone can pull a map out and show me and and the way we actually couch it back to the state would be and you know folks also you know an option isn't to bring all our gear from directly behind the house through a parking lot you know 200 ft to the water that's not an option if we were to do this that have to be a way around this parking lot because we can't have clients walking through and interfering with the parking we do have a you know groups of 10 12 kids in the mornings and then you know some bigger groups depending on you know who's coming and different organizations that are coming so um you know getting people from the front where we're currently allowed to park down to where our gear would be you know I I'd be more than open to take a look but I you know I okay so at this point I think the town manager is a clear direction as far as putting some some sites together on there that are I mean I met with conservation and it was we were just like so we're going we're going to we just you know we're given the town manager some direction to to put together some sites for the next meeting um yeah I would say put together some sites and and mik when you folks one second okay um might you send it to the state I would say is our interpretation that this Falls outside the facility and does not interfere with the use of the facility and so we're proposing these locations as potential locations for uh the town to lease for use and you don't have to say what it's being leased for just that we're going to lease it right yeah yeah okay has anyone checked what the you know if there are requirements you know you have to do things cuz you know as a car top access you know some of the things that aren't allowed are like fish in within 40 ft of the access and stuff and uh interested to find out if there are any distance requirements um because it is very tight down there the the parking area is going to take up considerable amount of the property um and you know I've talked to conservation and we've looked at the map if you guys see something we didn't I'd be interested to to look but with the time is ticking for our season um we you know we're grasping it straws now if we're going at the Town land cuz typically we have our lease for this year done by now we have camp registration that would be going online in 30 days so so our next meeting is the 30th so is that feasible to to have some options by then like okay so we'll have something some options so has anyone talked to fishing game about the also the rules and the permit that's required we can have that included in the in the disc Because the actual access the what that is part of the state facility right including with the parking so it's going to be from the top of the parking right to the water's edge that is the facility so yeah um I you know if if there's a different conversation you folks can have with Brett than the information he gave me I'd be more than welcome to hear it there's also the matter of a permit from the state and what that permit allows because we would be using the facility which is the entrance to the water that is the facility let's make no mistake about that so the the I mean the first step is to make sure that there's space on there that you can use bibly and then we we'll take it from there so I think we put this on our agenda for our next meeting well we got to look at the rules too at the same time so when you approach the state you got to if this then this absolutely so that we have clarification because for months I've you know I'm I don't know what we're going to do but so so for you chair Dave just just so I understand you're not looking to do anything in the access way in the parking lot other than walking through it to the water correct we don't want to walk through the parking lot that would not be a good idea with kids and Young families and stuff like that a path there is a pathway in there too right so using the path to get to the water the parking area is going to go within about 25 ft of the water's edge so I'm not sure where this pathway that they're talking about what I'm saying for Access for the kayak company on either side of the parking area we would have to have a path come down to where our gear is like an option should not be anyone walking through or using the parking lot to access the water that's for the people using you know the parking area so we don't envision our clients or want our clients to walk through that parking lot cuz it it's going to be an active area with people backing in and out we would want to access on either side of that to get to the water CU it wouldn't be appropriate to have people walking through the actual parking lot okay right so we'll we we'll have this on our next agenda thank you thank you M for coming in appreciate it um is there any select board report in mail I look at that with you later nearing none uh I approve the warrants as written and our next meeting is January 30th so um declaration by the chair I declare under general laws chapter 38 section 218 two but the purpose of the executive session will be to discuss strategy with respect to negotiations with non-union Personnel I.E Town manager because a discussion of the strategy in 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 microphone I move that the board go into executive session the general Law chapter 38 section 21 A2 for the purposes and reasons declared by the chair and with the board not to return to open session therea second okay we have a roll call Denise hi Kevin hi Roger hi Alec hi and I an I thank you very much