december All right I am calling the select board to order It's 7 o'clock We are all in person which is great I'm going to go over the meeting real quick We have public comment We
have leazison town manager reports We have a vote for inerson in person early voting on Saturday Uh we kind of got something about overlooked from last time Move to approve the reworld um waste disposal contract formally called
Vanta That's just our disposal contract not the pickup contract master plan and capital projects priorities discussion Pleasant Pleasant Street Center discussion vote to appoint town
Accountant for another term from July 25 to June 26 Future agenda and meeting minutes And I know there's been a lot in the room but um 3 weeks from today we have an election a local election and
um hopefully it won't happen but we don't want any political comments or any you know any campaigning um by anyone for public comment and uh so as part of that there's some good news and bad news bad news is RCTV is not doing a forum but
the good news is and this is that the Reading Democratic Town Committee and the Reading Republican Town Committee are doing a joint forum I believe it's next Wednesday at the library and also writing recap is also doing a forum on Monday both the school
committee and for select board so at least the candidates will get to an opportunity to put themselves out there and address some questions and a lot of people get to meet them so that's good and then so public comment oh anyone
signed in if you want to speak that'd be great how many want to do public comment one [Applause] [Music] New podium is much taller than the last one Um Vanessa Alvarado I am here as a representative from the Reading
Democratic Town Committee and I'm here with my counterpart Eric Burkram and I I chair the Reading Republican Town Committee Um and as Carlo mentioned we have um stepped into co-host um the official candidate forum for this year's
election All of the candidates have confirmed their attendance for next Wednesday The select board will be at 6:00 p.m and the school committee will be at 7:30 Um so more details to follow but they will be livereamed on um RCTV
and uh YouTube So really excited to present this opportunity um for the community Yes And we're looking forward to it too Looking forward to hearing from all the candidates It's great to have the full participation of everyone So y All right Thank you so much Thank you That's great
Anyone else in the room only once Nope Uh Jackie anyone on Zoom [Applause] no hands on Zoom Right Great Uh Chris these are reports
Thanks Carlo Um uh well not an official meeting Um Melissa myself Matt Jane Sharon Chris Cole uh and Michael Smith from Representative Jones office um attended
the MWR Advisory Board entrance fee meeting um last week that went over uh resident Paul Silva um his um letter that he ended up sending to the MWR regarding our entrance fee of $10.9
million and why uh he feels as well as the town as a whole uh should be returned to uh reading Um more specifically our buyin from the MWR was done uh before they changed the rules in
2022 That is waving buyin fees going forward Um about five or six cities and towns bought in back uh in 2002 or 2008 Um and reading accounted for about 45%
of the total entrance fees paid to the MWRA since inception um which obviously is not uh fair to reading in the slightest I understand they have their arguments for infrastructure and everything else Um but uh more importantly they gave us the
opportunity to speak freely They took us out of order on the meeting which was very um gracious of them without us asking Um and you know it was a good back and forth and letting everybody participate and speak And I think the overall tone and feel from the meeting I
came away uh being hopeful that something is going to be done regarding this whether it's the whole 11 million a portion whatever it is Um uh just seeing a resident go that far made to to make a difference in this
town is is pretty incredible It's not a slight to anybody else because like I said this stuff predates everybody for the most part Um but uh you can watch that meeting online from the MDR I highly suggest uh you
watch it just to see more of the um vernacular that's going on in with with this But listen our water rates are one of the highest in in the state and anything that's going to help that is is a benefit that we can all agree on
Um and then the school building committee briefly met Uh we approved how much was it 500,000 an extension um for BHNA to continue going forward um doing the design So we can still have um
the vote on May 13th as scheduled with the special election for Kiliman recal but they get to continue and that comes with a cost savings if the town as well as town meeting um supports it Otherwise we're
having an election regardless Um so that was covered at Kilo And that's it Thanks Take care Sure Um so actually this morning um the Mass Municipal Fiscal Committee u met today and
um one of the good items that came out of it is that the House and the Senate have agreed on agreed on a 27-month extension to the um hybrid meeting capabilities Um so they are expecting the Senate to vote
yes on it tomorrow and to be on the governor um Thursday and then be on the governor's desk as well to give us at least 27 more months of the way we've been operating and you know the world could be vastly different then but I I for one think that um we're all used to working in a hybrid environment I think
it's still pretty critical to um effective government So there was that Um there was a lot of talk about um federal dollars being cut to the Commonwealth and and how that's going to impact us Um
um specifically the state uh depends on federal Medicare funds for a huge amount of the budget So they are very worried about that Um if those funds were to not arrive in the Commonwealth we would not
have enough money in our rain day fund to take care of that that would be pretty pretty awful Um so they'll just keep an eye on that Um Senator Commerford um is um a lead on the bill before the house
um to establish a municipal and safety building authority like the school building authority which would be wonderful for communities looking to build senior centers you know new fire stations things like that So that is um
certainly something that everyone can reach out to our delegation and say yes we need help bringing our buildings up this code um for population changes for accessibility reasons for a whole host of
reasons we we could use the support So so that's good news Uh that a smaller bill that was similar to that but not exactly was on their agenda last time but it is again before our um delegation this spring And then there are some
municipal bond tax benefits discussion in process So we don't pay taxes when we borrow um municipal bonds So that's a huge benefit for towns and communities and um it's just kind of an issue that
is emerging week in in general No one would like that benefit to go away So we're going to hope that that doesn't change but that's something we will be keeping an eye on So that's what I got Thank you Mark Thanks Carlo So uh two
things One the um trust fund commissioners met last Tuesday Uh two things of of import One is this board asked if they would come on April 1st which is on our agenda to present some information on the various funds That's
confirmed So Neil Cohen the chair will will be in attendance and probably other members as well Um second is that um as part of the the course of business um we dedicated the available funds for
scholarships for scholarship foundation and others And as board members are aware there was a new scholarship fund that was established that I think um Matson no doubt about which is the David Savio Law Enforcement Scholarship Fund
So that was um approved and per the request um funds were set aside for this year starting this year So that's in place already So that's that's really nice to see that that's that's happening So the trust funds committee is going to um handle administer How many
scholarships do they have we have 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Look at that You got the answer 13 14 15 16 that we allocated funds to last Tuesday
So those are funds that exist and essentially the the commissioners need to go by the wishes of the donors Um and then there are certain expendable balances and you'll hear more about this next week in two weeks when when uh when Neil comes in to talk Okay Great
Um and then the second meeting was the permit building committee which I was not able to attend on Monday So I'm going to count on Matt to provide an update on the discussion from that one if I could So um we had the permit building committee had met um last night Um we had gone over gone over some
scheduling things You know we're we're pretty much on schedule for everything um you know talked again about things like one of the issues that keeps on coming up is whether the building needs to be a shelter and whether it needs a commercial kitchen and so I'm going to provide some more information from the
fire chief on that right now that's in the budget um for the building um so we're moving forward we have plenty of um outreach efforts we have two uh next week two forums um one at night and one in the morning that's sort of a coffee
and conversation forum to get people to know more about the project and we talked about that last night as well And also I'll mention in my report too but we're we're on track um to have the uh the forum on in April to to bring
together both projects and to talk to town meeting members about both projects there So that was pretty much the gist of the the meeting last night I don't know Do you have anything to add to it Jen there Yeah it sat right across I forgot I don't know No we're getting ready Um we talked
about the calculator that we're putting together So we're we've um hired someone to help us with that It'll be hosted externally Um and it's similar to the Nucket model So people can check which which particular project they want to know how and how it will impact their um
their tax So that's probably worth speaking about just a little bit more so so we know about it but so the community knows more about what it's going to be there Keep in mind No of course not Um so our operations department has um reached out to the vendor that built the Nantucket site So the Nantucket site's
great You put in your valuation We'll have an opportunity You can look up your valuation if you don't know it Your home valuation right your your property valuation Correct And um then you can put that valuation in and you can check I want to know what this project how this project will affect my taxes I want
to know how this project will affect my taxes And then you'll see that Um so or both One or either one or both So you you'll be able we'll leave that up um we're hoping to have that up I think maybe next week it'll be up that I think that was Katie was saying and then we'll
leave that up through um the election and after um so people will depending on what what may pass they'll be able to also continue to look that information up and we will promote that uh calculator um in an appropriate way on our social media site and our website um
once it's done So that'll be good there was some conversation about how do we represent um the portion of debt exclusion that is coming off that is being paid off this year right so the library uh debt exclusion will be paid off and so that will come off and so
there's some conversation about how do we build this with transparency but also reflect that your taxes will see a small decrease as well before this increase is phased in over a couple years what we're really trying to go for is simplic licity The number is there It's simple
It may be phased in because the borrowing will phase in for approved projects over two years maybe you know two to three years according to the CFO So we're not going to get too deep in the weeds We just want folks to be able to understand what it's going to be but
keep it simple and and clean Awesome Just to reiterate the the dates just for a moment So the um the recal public forum is at 6:30 p.m on Tuesday March 25th at the Pleasant Street Center That's correct The um the daytime
meeting sure I've got it right Thursday the coffee Wednesday the 26th at 107th It's 26th to 27th I have both dates Oh it's the next Yeah it's Wednesday Sorry It's 27th Recal event hall 10 to 11:00 a.m Thank you You are correct And then the the joint meeting proposed date
right now not the proposed date but that date is April 2nd April 2nd Wednesday April 16th April 16th Yeah So April 16th is the Zoom only and April 2nd is the live version And that um promotion will be up probably tomorrow if it's not
already up right now I approved it today And so that form is 700 p.m at the high school That's correct At the pack At the pack Great And that's a joint meeting Yes Both projects to be clear Okay That's great April 16th Both projects
April 2nd and April 16th No both dates Both dates April 16th is Zoom Yeah there's a there's a remote only option um for folks who can't make it in person or don't want to come out at night So there's a it's a fully remote option and then the that's the 16th and the second
April 2nd is a fully inerson option which will be on RCTV but will not have a remote participation option Okay And then they can play them on RCTV as well Thank you folks Thanks Carl Thank you Melissa
Um March 13th meeting they accepted and approved the David Savio law enforcement scholarship that Mark just mentioned Um it would be for high school students pursuing law enforcement or criminal justice Um Renie also has a new school resource officer Officer Mike Davis and
this started this week And then I did attend um the MWA meeting MW meeting with um Chris and Matt and Jane and Chris Cole last week and it was really interesting to
hear how much Reading paid going into their entrance fee to go into the MW considering there was there's 60 plus communities They collected $25 million and we paid almost 11 of that So and only six communities paid entrance fees
So it's it's an exorbitant number in I'm hoping I'm positive after that meeting and hearing that they will do something and give us some sort of a refund because we really paid a big chunk of that money It might be um appropriate to
bring this to our delegation They're aware Brad Jones had a um he shares it with them Yep So they are aware of the situation So hopefully we'll get some good news on that [Music] with that All right Thank you Um I
attended I think as all of us did or most of us the thing meeting uh last week right so that was uh helpful and I guess they're going to I think we're posted for tomorrow night as well if we want to attend and they're going to be voting um on the budget and the town u
meeting warrant articles and also even though I can't say much we're in the final stages of the interview process for a fire chief and might might give us an update So that's my uh my first
foray into that which is uh it's different for me So I look forward to that and then we'll be making that announcement in April Yeah In April It'll come before you You have to prove it Yeah Right Um and that's it for me So I'll pass it over to Matt Okay Great I
wanted to thank the um the Chamber of Commerce again for hosting Winterfest Although it was a little rainy this year still people were out and having a good time So I attended that and I also attended a legislative breakfast that was hosted by our chamber and some of the other area chambers last week and
that was very informative as well Um so thank you to to the reading chamber and all the chambers for making these events possible Um a reminder I I announced this last meeting too that we're going to be doing AV upgrades in this very select boardroom Um and that's going to be the week of April 1st So your April
1st meeting will be at the library We're moving that one to the library Um and that will take a week to get the AV up and running in this room and then from there on in it'll be perfect and for your use So I just want to remind people on that and we'll remind people again
because people are so used to coming here for um a quick second water meter update So so far we have 83 applications We've had 16 requests for inspections and DPW has installed seven meters so far Um
residents who are interested I think know by now you have to hire a plumber who will who will put the application on the website using our permitting section and the software and that will be scheduled so that and that's now open to all residential properties So the
numbers have gone up a little uh from last meeting when I gave the last update Um as Carlo mentioned we are in the process of hiring a new fire chief We had a very good assessment center a few weeks ago on a Friday where we we put
candidates through all sorts of um exercises and drills and we've narrowed it down quite a bit So now this week we are doing some interviews Uh Carlo is the chair of the select board will be sitting in on those along with the screening committee and we hope to have the process finalized in uh early to
midappril Um Chief Burns again is retiring at the end of May So we'll have somebody on board a new time Um also as mentioned FINCOM will meet tomorrow night They will vote on the budget and warrant articles for annual town meeting Um that'll be at 7:00 p.m in this room
And they've decided for special town meeting because you're not going to close the warrant until April 1st They are going to meet on April 2nd uh before the forum just briefly to approve those articles They didn't want to get ahead of the select board on that So they're going to meet right after you And
another reminder it came up earlier but most of my stuff does um the Kilum Recal um project forum um the live forum will be on April 2nd at the pack The Zoom uh version of it will be April 16th and we'll be having more information come
out tomorrow on that but that's been finalized Um and those will be the you know probably the final two times to put in some input regarding these projects before town meeting And I think not to make the meeting run longer I think Jane had a couple updates as well if you
don't mind So I just had one Um I just wanted to let folks know that the trash and recycling cart roll out project is rolling right along Sorry for the dad joke and I will go to my room Um anytime No Um
operations will begin the week of April 8th as most know Um residents will have their carts delivered right to their driveway Each cart is serial It's a serial number that's assigned to each property Um we'll be including more information about the program with each cart Um currently
7,682 households will be expecting their new trash and recycling bins Um 543 requests have been received for smaller trash or recycling carts and we've received 283 requests for uh secondary
trash or recycling carts So far um our orders are in the numbers are are in the the vendors are working on how they're going to mapping how they're drive driving these around town specifically So um we're going to uh it's going to be
quite an operation Um current trash and recycling containers um if they can't be repurposed um can be disposed of curbside and we will be picking them up on Saturdays from July 12th to August 9 So Republic will will come around and take people's old bins We can remind
people of that when we get there right we will remind people of that Oh yeah No it'll be on the information We'll continue to push that but they don't have to if they don't want to keep it they hold on to it till the summer and then and then we'll come collect and that's when we could arrange that with Republic Services because of the all the spring collections that they're doing in
all the communities So this is a special thing So that's why it's a little bit later And there'll be recycling not trash The old bins Just the old bins No I mean there will be the recycling trucks will be doing that not the not the trash trucks Trash trucks I uh I can kind deny which truck is coming around
to pick it up They're hard Well we have Who knows we have plastic collection This is just another one with different recycling content I I think they'll all be recycled but I'm not sure I think one can always hope I think we'll need to know Do you know you
want me to find out for you not this minute but no Thank you for that I can only do so much I will find it I will find out for you Um and then also DPW will be hosting their spring rigid plastic recycling event Yeah Which is a trash barrel It
can be a trash barrel Um on Saturday May 17th from 9 to 1 at the garage And I want to thank Chris Cole my colleague for giving me that information to share with you this even Yeah I think that'll be helpful K Thank you Karen But not everyone else is going to be able to make it That's right Yeah You know frankly I'm really thrilled that they're going to come to my house and take it
We're going to come pick it That's wonderful That's what I'm trying to say Like that's awesome Okay guys A quick question here is um when will the um the training go out on how to use the new bins and I assume we should start using them immediately upon receipt We definitely want folks to use them
immediately once they get them to start start using them Um and uh there'll be some information that's sort of it's like a door hanger that'll go on the handle of like a picture how to Yeah it's like a it's like a door you know 4 and 1/2 4 and a/4 by 8 in Um and it'll
have information on what you can recycle on one side and it'll have information on trash on the other side And there'll be a QR code for even more information that you will be able to get But um we'll tell you which way to angle it We'll have all of that Yeah Would you like that cover has to fit all the way
down ideally Um and yeah and about there should be about 3 feet apart and so forth Now right now there isn't the same automated arm collection necessarily that will start immediately Um we understand that Republic would like to
do that Um but you know so if we can get there fantastic Um and so that's why you need them to be certain distance apart versus having person come Yeah If it's heavy they can put on the back of the truck and tip it That's great So I will have two trash into recycling That's 12
feet across my driveway How am I getting my cars in and out of my driveway i mean carefully I don't Yeah I Well I mean put them on either side I don't know your property Um we can talk about it 3 ft apart That's crazy Well when you
think about it and what about like multif family houses that have one driveway or no drive or no driveway they'll put them on the sidewalk They also will pick up you know where we have on street parking for public services picks up in cities So
Yeah they don't and get them you know they're not going to and land right on the cart Yeah So can I suggest one other thing the QR code is great for most people but not for everyone Not for everyone So we'll have a video online or some other way for other people to
access I love a video idea A great idea Jane Great idea I bet I know somebody could film it Some people the hazmat suit Some people are a little busy and do a video Hazmat suit Yeah I'll get on that Is there a way for
people to who signed up for the different size non-default size barrels and recycling bins to check that they actually got on the list uh is there a way Well we've verified most of them individually I would defer to my colleague Oh Uh Mr Cole who Mr
Cole here like that Oh hi Um yes we've been taking phone calls at Um Chris if you don't mind coming up the pin room microphone can grab your Just wait for another week Right Podium's taller Several weeks Uh yes we have to answer
your question We have been taking phone calls at the office signing folks up for who want smaller carts Um you had a list at the senior center like some time ago as well Yes Yes And so if anyone has a question about if they you know what
they signed up for they can always call the DBW office so we can verify that information for them Great Thank you Okay Thank um don't go anywhere Now that I got you there uh I saw a bunch of complaints online regarding Prescott Street So if
you can just give us an update for Prescott and Wuburn Street I guess um just so people know that it's getting paved Oh the resurfacing Um yes Prescott Street will be resurfaced later later this uh summer It is on the it is on the schedule for this coming year And the
same thing with Wren Street Uh yes Yeah So if you can put that in the town manager minute too Matt because a lot of I I have I've never seen so many people unhappy about a particular street in Reading Yeah With just Bob's very upset Very upset Thank you
Chris [Music] Is there still a list um is there still a list on DPW that any resident can go and just check where they are in the list or what streets are getting paved this year um we're go we're finalizing numbers right now and you know we'll get
we'll be getting that up shortly Okay Thank you We good i think we're back All right Lara you're up next Hi Oh where is that so last time I was here to talk about in person early voting I failed to mention
that on Saturday um March 29th is it 28th 29th 29th that I have to be open um for in person for last day to register to vote So I have to be open from 9:00 to 5 That's right
And generally we tend to make sure that we do inerson early voting on that same day as well So I'm asking that we have permission to be open for inerson early voting on March 29th Thank you
Um any discussion i think we're all in agreement I'm not speaking for everyone but you want to go right to a motion Move to hold in person early voting on Saturday March 29th 2025 from 9:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m Second Second Thank you Any
discussion seeing none Are those in favor 5 Thank you Lara And real quick while I have your attention the vote by mail ballots will be going out tomorrow afternoon So that anybody that's requested a ballot it'll be hitting your boxes in a few days Thank you Thank you
What's next oh vote two So we have the uh only a few pages cuz I guess it's a you know from a different contract uh that we're approving This is a an amendment to our
disposal contract Hopefully everyone got a chance to read it Uh the price is in there the increase is in there So I'll open it up for any discussion Yep Thanks So just a quick question Can you go through um why this is here did
the last one expire so this is an amendment to for continuation Correct So it ends end of 24 or end of 25 fiscal 25 and opens July 1 Yes So the current contract um with um Reworld formal income expires on June 30th of this year
Okay Um you know Reworld has um I I have Rich Connie here with me um who's the Massachusetts market area manager um that can answer any technical questions for you Um and he's also a writing former writing resident Um but do you want me to just quickly go through the
proposal with you yes please That'd be great Okay And the rate if you would too Yeah sure So um so our current tipping fee that we're paying right now is $101.30 per ton Um so this new proposal extension would be a six-year proposal
Um so six years because then it would align us with the next trash disposal uh the trash collection contract I should say that both contracts would align Um and this would so this would run till June 30th of 30 uh
2031 Uh the first year of the contract the tipping fee would be $98.35 which is actually 3% lower than what we're paying now And then years 2 through six would be based on the consumer price index for trash collection not to exceed 4 and
a.5% So um you know town staff has reviewed this including Sharon and we all thought it was very favorable Um we've run it by um town council um our um people at Mass D that we're in constant communication with that do these contracts every day and they
thought it was very favorable anytime you can tie something to the CPI um and yeah um it sounds great and the only downside of that is our annual budget increases are not usually that big So and this is
only one line item So just to keep in mind the picture that we all face as a community if insurance goes up by more than that and I I don't know that we've ever had a budget increase of 4.5% So that's not to exceed It's not it's not
the increase Not to exceed It's not the every year it's just pointing out our budget increases Okay No Um great Could be worse Question Um in our current contract with them do they um increase it percentage every
year yes right now it's increased um we're actually um finishing up a 10-year contract right now and that contract increases 3% each year Is that a fixed 3% or no matter what the CPI is 60 Yeah
the current contract is not tied to the CPI right so because of the 10-year contract we ended up at 101 because of the increases and now we're starting off a little bit lower with increases coming in the future right okay You good oh no
You're good Um thanks Carlo Um so this doesn't cover the recycling or it covers the recycling no this is just um trash disposal Recycling would be is included in the collection contract So just so everyone's clear this is not who
comes to your house and picks up the trash right everybody is aware situation That's Yes So this is just the disposal correct okay Um Yeah I I mean we're obviously starting out lower It can be up to 4 and
a half% It's just the same thing on a home equity loan It's going to fluctuate etc Sometimes you win sometimes you lose but it's not going to exceed So I'm I'm fine with the four and a half when it seems fair Um I don't know if I'll get this opportunity again So um what's your name
again i'm sorry Uh Rachel Rich could could you come up here and I I just have a I don't know if anyone else has a question but uh this is you know stuff that not everyone's privy to Where does our trash go uh Humil TTF
facility thermal treatment facility And what what gets done we receive the waste We load it into a pit A crane comes down feeds it into a series of boilers We have two boilers Um produces steam goes
through a turbine We generate electricity and sell the electricity to the grid as well as pull metals out uh pre and post combustion Wow And how many communities is the hay ro uh 30 30 Okay Interesting We also
have a facility in in Rochester that we do 1.2 million tons and we have about 60 municipalities and a series of five transfer stations in Massachusetts that that feed um our our TTFS All right So that that that's 90 No is it 60 then 90
would you say 30 or 90 abel does how many times 30 and then we do about 60 down So that's 90 So who does the other 200 and well some uh well in our transfer stations Brainry transfer station for instance we service uh eight
municipalities that go to Brainree and that is transferred the waste is transferred down to our Rochester facility Okay As well as Lynn transfer station The same thing we do four out of the five districts in the city of Boston uh three of them run through Lynn which
is transferred up to Haveril and then uh one runs through Bra which goes down to Cass for ultimate Okay So at the actual site in Rochester and Haveril there's not much waste as far as because you you steam the trash Is that
what I heard no we we we do 1.2 million tons a year at CBS right we generate 600,000 megawatts of electricity and pull out almost 70,000 tons of metals for recycling And up in Havil a little less
It's a smaller plant We do 621,000 about uh 300,000 megawatt and about 20,000 tons of of recycled metal Right Good Karen Great question So So you're burning the trash
We're processing It goes into boilers that create steam Yeah you mentioned boilers And then we feed it through uh turbine generators to produce electricity which we sell to the grid Yeah Um so yeah I was just wondering what
kind of how is your regulatory environment changed in terms of offging carbon all that kind of stuff Just curious Well our emissions are governed by EPA as well as mass EP and and we're consistently well below the threshold
required for emissions We have a website you can certainly go on and and take a look at at the uh emissions reports which you are required to report on an annual basis Thanks Any other questions all right that was Thank you I know more
than I did two minutes ago Thank you Okay I think uh are we are we good we have a motion Yeah Any question okay good Uh move to approve the reorld waste disposal contract as presented Second
Second Thank you Any discussion seeing none all those in favor 5 Thank you Great Thank you gentlemen All right moving along We have our master plan and capital projects discussion Jackie was nice nice
enough to put uh the master plan 2005 2006 in our packet quite lengthy While I didn't read it word for word I did scan the whole document and there's a lot of information in there
and it seems like we had MAP MAPC's assistance And then while she couldn't find it um when when at our agenda meeting she did send us um who was on the committee Um we still don't have the
charge but I'm sure we can figure that out uh with some help But there was quite a few members um on the committee and there is a uh I didn't know master general law was part of this when you're doing a master plan but there's
requirements that we have to uphold as to what areas in the master plan we have to cover uh which are more than half a dozen So I'll um I'll I'll leave it there I keep on not
counting right but I I get either 11 or 13 members Um but I I don't know who who is Chris who's the first person Is that someone from the board chris or the coward no the very first person that the first paragraph probably Chris Riley the
town planner He was a town planner Okay that's okay So I didn't count him So I got so if I count Chris three from CPDC four conservation five housing six three residents
nine chamber 10 and then a realtor which was kind of weird Just says realtor It doesn't say citizen So it said realtor Sorry capital R So that's I get 11 Does anyone else get 11 or did I miscount which page you looking at i was going to that page 211
that Jackie referred to Okay There's also a page that says master plan advisory committee Yeah that is um it's marked page 16 Um I guess it's inside the master plan document Page 16 in the
master plan document Yes Okay Hold on Uh it says a number It says the Oh yeah Right Yeah I looked at that I saw that too So that that's the 13 that I saw in the list Right But then the the minutes didn't refer to all 13 So maybe that was they weren't there
Okay Yeah I knew I knew I was either Yeah that's what I saw 13 cuz when I was making a list in my head without having this in front of me I actually got to 13 without knowing this Y like different boards and committees and some residents So So it jives but
the those minutes that Jackie provided us only had 11 Yep But this so we can do 11 or 13 whatever we agree on Obviously it's very broad participation that's expected and community input that's expected Um I didn't expect three from CPDC That's a lot It's a big commitment
Yeah I didn't see the connections by by group but I mean I see Andrew's in the room but I also um you know part of the questions in here relate to kind of who is most of this impacting and kind of where is it going so the I didn't read it word for word either but a lot of the document
talked about CPDC taking the lead on a lot of things as it relates to kind of land use planning and things like that obviously and those activities So having a heavy contingent from them I think probably makes sense Four of them is a lot to me to me I'm
just talking for me four a lot I I didn't have a chance to reach back out to CPDC um because I know that again I think I mentioned I had a quick discussion with Heather Clich a year or two ago about this at least a year maybe two just to kind of see what's going on um because I think they agree with the
need for a new master plan I think most people um do when they see it So you know again specifics not not exactly sure but probably would make sense to consult with them a little bit before kind of defining membership Yeah See which which groups you want to make sure are there All
right So I'm looking at this It's uh 13 plus the town planner Yeah Town planner wouldn't be a that's not wouldn't be a voting member you think Andrew probably not right no Okay All right Sorry Yeah that makes sense Um yeah I just think I
know how much of a heavy lift this is going to be for all these people that when I saw three CPDC I mean is that a quorum how many people are in CPD no six I think Quorum five plus an associate on the board So three is quorum
Oh three Yeah But so that may be part of the reasoning is to whatever we can I mean we're not there yet to formalize this committee but it's at least we have something to look at Y one of I could too So I looked through kind of the categories and again you
know uh more land use focus kinds of things you know all make sense I think one of the things I thought might we might want to consider adding relates more to um community uh community structure So specifically the world is changing This community is
going to have 30% people age 60 plus and the kinds of facility needs beyond housing Maybe they're in recreation or maybe not I think that's changing pretty dramatically And that ought to be part of the planning process is thinking about what is it that we're we're
thinking what are we trying to achieve same thing on the school side right what is it that we're trying to achieve there um what's what's the expectation i think that should be part of it What I've envisioned for this thing is that it it lays this stuff out but also when we're going through and we're looking at
capital priorities we look to this document right so you know boiler blows off You don't need to look at the document right but other than that you do and you kind of say well where does that fit in in terms of things so you know if these are the top three priorities here's a project that's down here Well what progress we've made in
those three first are we okay that we can do that other project or should we allocate the funds up there i think that we're finding um we have more and more ideas more and more projects and to some extent fewer and fewer available dollars to accomplish them So we've got to be very deliberate in terms of what we do
So it may be that there's another category that goes onto this list beyond those that are already listed that relates We have a a um there's $150,000 community priorities budget I believe in the master budget What's the community priorities budget and accommodated cost
today is it 150k i I think it's close to that Yeah I can't Yeah So so we've started to realize that there are some community priorities that that um that stand out I just was hoping we could um start thinking about adding some order instead of more of the whack-a-ole approach that we used today Do you want me to recite the different categories
maybe that would help us Um so I read it Yeah Yeah Yeah absolutely And and I kind of felt like there's one missing Oh please Yeah Sorry I I mean I I think it's in there but not specifically like when I when we given what you just said So we got
facilities which is buildings Yep Right Land use housing which is affordable housing and housing Economic development which would be Eastern Gateway etc Right Historical and cultural councils which
would be historic buildings and the arts That's what I interpret that as open space and recreation very important given much of most of writing is open space uh and then transportation so if you wanted to add so what you said is
you know partly in facilities partly in recreation part partly in a few things housing so I I I'm not saying I don't I don't agree with you or disagree with you but I think it it's already incorporated But you kind of want to make it a
separate I I think that there's there's not advocacy for that There there's Well maybe you'd think about that in housing Maybe you think about that in facilities maybe you'd think about that in recreation but there's not um an advocate for it So the first category here in fact is as I'm seeing it on page
let's mark 16 character and identity Um so and maybe there's a big chunk that fits into there too It's kind of defining hey you know here are some priorities related to residents And you know what the fact that it cuts across those different categories I think is one of the reasons why it may need its
own I mean yeah that's that's why we're talking about it I mean this this affects the whole town and and and in in different ways right depending where you live depending what services you use Yep So um you think the seismic change
that's taking place at least in this country and specifically to reading u means that there are different you've got different folks in town So we've always had people who stay which is kind of cool thing about reading But now you're finding that a bigger proportion
are um post having kids maybe living at home maybe not We'll see Um and out of the schools and having different needs to be accommodated again cutting across those No no I I get it Like 20 years ago the boomer
generation weren't retired right now they're all retired and on the other side of life Not all of them Well you know not all of them but generally on the other side of life Not going to generally you're you're over the hill Put that way over the hill You're like
one You and I are the same age We're like one year away Go going downhill You know you know the point I'm trying to get But yes remember a year A lot has changed I got two years So um a lot has changed Correct Right societywise demographic wise you know
and but you know again that's why we're talking out loud I I don't know if it needs to be separate and how we like when I was before when I was making my list and then I looked at this document I didn't see you know like
council on a I wrote committees down when I was making my list I wrote council on aging select poet us none of us are on this CPDC obviously finan on fincom was on why do you think there were no select board members did was Mr Chafy and the other gentleman Oh yeah
sorry Sorry Those look at two different things There's this list right benoya list two different lists which is interesting Yeah So I think one is an advisory committee and maybe that's bigger Oh I'm not sure Andrew I don't know if
there's any color that Andrew could add I think sometimes good evening select board Thank you for having me Um I think sometimes there's the full advisory committee and then based on certain subsections of that plan they might go to different partners and invite different people for like that specific
economic development who should be there and maybe that's why in the minutes if they're talking that specific action there's some different people there that they either invited or went to or collaborated with but generally a dozen is about right
from what I've seen recent plans to give an example looking at so just reading through the housing section um a lot of it talks about you know 10% affordable housing state driven so we have some other housing goals needs ideas to be thinking about
also so um you know transit related could be one category um that demographic shift means you got more people aging in place so that has different needs and opportunities and you know things that from a housing
perspective we might want to encourage that are kind different from 20 years ago or or whenever the one before that was 1991 was the one before right before it Yeah 10 Yeah But my guess that's why I'm hoping that the the state had some
forethought and that's part of the ADU law that they kind of put in place to help Absolutely age in place and an accessory unit so that they're you know one door away instead of Yeah Absolutely No I think I think that's a great example and thinking about the impact of
that on what CPDC does on zoning requests that are going to be brought forward I think those are all the pieces I'm just I I guess I want to make sure that we're kind of we're realizing that the world is changing around us and we as a community are aware and and forward
thinking and the state may be ahead of us They may be behind us I think probably more likely behind um and but we're doing the thinking This is our master plan It accomplishes the state requirements and it's about what we want to do This is ready focus All right Mark and I have monopolized this so far So
who wants to go next chris Thanks Carla Um so we can get a grant Is that possible small hopefully right jane I think a small grant potentially Yeah And what
does the beeping what uh what does what does the grant actually cover um I I'll defer to Andrew but typically it's technical assistance I'm going to need help on this This is a big project It depends what type of grant you're looking for If you go to MAPC specific
grants they do like district technical grants Um and that could either collaborate to the town as a whole or certain districts and pieces of the plan If you look at their TAP funding technical assistance program um that's more broader technical assistance Their
general priorities in that are engagement related So if you seek certain grants they're typically used for certain elements of a plan or pieces of a plan I think the highest grant I've seen at least in some peer communities
for a master plan is about $40,000 when their total project cost was 120 Um and that usually was again shepherd the grant specifically mostly towards like engagement side
Okay Yeah Because seeing 200 pages that was done by somebody a group 13 people 10 people whoever it is is is pretty incredible Like nobody's got time to read 200 pages Maybe Mark did on a train He did he did it for the record I'll
quiz you after Um but like there is a ton of information in this like um so it would be good to get some help and also recoup some form of of money from that as well
It's good to know from like 20 years ago how reading this is so relevant like it's not it's spot on you know and and I just caught this and I caught it before but I'm making note of it and I don't know if there is someone on the school committee or school adjacent but it says
excellence of school systems obviously that's why a lot of people have come and live in reading but I don't recognize all those names from 20 years ago some are still active members some of us No some of us you know John Sasso still
active on town meeting Jonathan Barnes active on town meeting um Virginia Adams still historical So yeah So see a lot of names Yeah that's it as far as that for me That's all that recognize So like I was I don't know if any one of
those 13 is school committee or school committee adjacent Uh 17 Okay If anyone recognizes I know George was a resident Yeah Steve was a resident and Susan was a resident but I think one of them was school related huh oh yeah
Not in the committee I think Tim Kelly is a is a resident but I don't know Was he a school committee member i don't remember that Tim Kelly was housing Okay So he's still engaged I think Isn't he in the house if that's the Tim Kelly that we that we think we know I suspect it is All right Yeah Jack Russell Um
it's like remember I don't know if he was then retired I think he may have moved out of town I think who was then uh could have been select boards Certainly would have been chamber I think he was very involved in the chamber for chamber There was it was Tim There you go Sorry He was represent
chamber Yeah No no no no That was housing Sorry Chamber I have Pete Uh Peter uh Sargon was represent the chamber I think for our master plan we should have slash position next to them
So 20 years from now someone will be happy to know who these people represented Yeah that it was there was some fun right out There was some context in the minutes but not for everybody Yeah You know um like in those minutes wasn't mentioned and I know he
was on the board but was that was that 20 years ago i don't know if he was It's a long time but maybe Uh he was on the board when I when I moved here and that was 15 16 years ago stepped down in 2013ish So he might have been or right
before Yeah So that could have been this was not too far off the Yeah Yeah Yeah So anyway Chris all right So Melissa or Karen want any two cents um I'm just trying to understand what are we what are we trying to do tonight are the are just having a general discussion are we
going to authorize Andrew and staff to go and pursue a grant first and then come i don't know What are we trying to do tonight i I think we need to create a charge Maybe not tonight Okay This is a you know I think preliminary discussion Okay We couldn't find it Hopefully we
can find it I'm just looking that direction But I know I know I know if we can find it great Um if not we you know we can have a template and and fill it in Uh I think tonight was to
discuss how involved this is And you know when I when I saw Andrew's counterpart and then three CPDC members that's a heavy lift for that board Um but that's they're
planners No no no Right But that that's not the that that that's Yeah No that's that's 40% of the you know I think to me a person that's too heavy that that's too heavy Four questions did this basically become CPDC's charter in terms
of how they between this and zoning that's a lot of that And then I don't know if you read the memo too it was another six pages on top of 200 but there's a lot of short-term actions and priority plans since the master plan And that's typically what a master plan does
right is inform your next studies and the finer detail in actions because the master plan is benefit to many of the points tonight is it's looking at a longer term and trend right 10 15 maybe 20 years where something like the housing production plan or OSRP open
space and recreation plan is looking at a 5year trend and saying in the next 3 to 5 years what should we be looking at and I don't want to say that ignores the 15-year period but it's not the same look right and So um that's the benefit
of the master plan And what we've seen recently is it's a 2-year period It's $150,000 give or take um dependent on the format you look for I think the benefit of some of these other plans that we've done over recent years and
some could be updated and refreshed but not all of them need right like the 2005 master plan has your affordability gap analysis you don't need that maybe in this master plan because that's in your HPPA And so things of that nature that you can kind of pick and choose and say
this area of schools or wreck or other deserves a deeper look because we maybe don't have that like planning document specific there out right Yeah Mark is right The CPDC is responsible for ensuring execution of this plan and has made a commitment to
the board of select men in the community to keep them apprised of the status So right I I I know we're a little topheavy Yeah I understand that But might be too topheavy Yeah Well again a lot of it relates to land use to
all those sections And so that's where they're kind of the they have the history they have they've kind of built some of the structures in some sense they implement the activities and CPDC just for awareness too has talked about
this in pieces um since the town meeting instructional motion I think last year we were a bit focused on state goals and priorities that we had to get through um and so at the start of this year we reopened that discussion and we're
hoping and trending towards a November town meeting update in terms of like quote charge type language that is a priority and need So you having this conversation now with them is perfect timing Yeah we got to keep this going and thank you obviously not this time
but I I and I also noted and we all know this 20 years ago we didn't have a PBC To me that would be integral to have someone on this committee that that's me personally So the like that was a that
stuck out A we didn't have it and b how important they are to us now uh for for our buildings and schools So um you probably just want to be careful that it's not Noah's arc right no no no I'm saying the parameters staying the
parameters Yeah but like I I I agree But even with the but it can't be small right it's too heavy of a lift It can't be small There's two paths to the committee right you can generally aim for general residents with some standing boards and
then bring the questions and answers to those that have been long-standing boards with institutional knowledge or you can build the board of all of those I think residents with specific expertise is going to be crucial Um so
Karen you hand up Yeah just um so I I I haven't read this fully every single page but I'm not really seeing I'm not really seeing a um a timeline not a timeline an expiration date for our next plan And I didn't I never saw that this
was supposed to last for 20 years but maybe this time around in the charge maybe we could be more clear and that could that could help influence the the kind of people we get involved the topics we cover If we say we want this we want this to only be looked out for
the next 10 years in general Right I agree Setting the timeline and setting a regular update which is what we do with every other plan 5 years seven years something like that For the master plan you could choose 10 15 I probably wouldn't go beyond that 20 is a lot Um
seems like this is a different town We don't even live in this town anymore So it's amazing Some of the concerns are timeless Yeah Yeah always any comments um no Just back to the membership Just a quick comment
like you said there's two paths You can do a smaller board and then just bring people in for specific topics or do a larger board with uh people that are on the boards of committees I just I worry about if we do a smaller board and then we're going to each of these committees
on each topic it's just going to delay this where if we bring the experts in from the committees and put them on the advisory committee it may just move it quicker is my thought just because then you're not going to each committee for you
know I guess Yeah So that's Yeah Great That 12 is usually the right number I've just seen some with like 25 26 That's a lot of Yeah No I'm not saying that's insane I'm bad I'm not saying but I just think that it would be important to get members from our current committees on
this advisor Yeah I I thank you I think if we can't find our charge if we can find a another community's charge cuz I'm guessing the charge is going to be pretty lengthy is my guess And I'd hate to start from scratch Why do you think the charge would be super lengthy
because it has to cover so much I I don't know I'm just guessing Yeah Well all the charges we've done we keep it rel like a mission statement We kept it to a page or two I I I understand Oh our charges have been like a paragraph No for committees Yeah they have Shorter than 139 pages Yeah they've gone they've
gone over a page in just words It's not charge I don't think they have Okay We can find vision statements mission statements charges Yeah they're not going to be that long But then yeah this the
one of the things we could do is kind of lay out some some expectations um in terms of how they'll work the things that they'll cover when they're going to kind of come back and and report progress things like that Those would fit really nicely in
the charter right just to make sure that we've got those correct Yeah Yeah I I think we should you know in the next several meetings not you know not the next meeting but kind of like hone in on when we want this to start you know kind of um and
then Andrew give it 18 months Is that is that 18 months so if they need an extension they need an extension but a small one maybe give them a got to define a an end date right so they have a goal and then um there's a community survey I think looks
like was done as part of this Oh I'm sure I'm sure Yeah I'm sure Yeah Last one was four years by the way not 18 months No but that doesn't mean that we can't No Was it no it was a couple years from that plan took two to three years I
thought to finish this one in front of us So and that's again because of some of the technical data pieces in it most likely to get all that data with the graphs and all the the real technical stuff So there's nothing wrong
with 18 I'm just saying like back then they picked this and me looking at this So uh All right Well okay I'm spitballing Yeah Could be two years I don't know Maybe what we could do is put together kind of what we want to cover and then get some expert feedback on
saying "Oh if you want to cover that scope you should count on X to get it done." Yeah So we're getting a quote from a consultant in terms of something I think we shared a few examples closer to the IPS switch plan because we felt like that was a good middle ground But
if there's desire to go deeper into certain areas like we can look at that quote kind of push it to its maximum limits and say focus add remove maybe not necessary um and use that right but
do we need to engage them before we even start the committee like before we even start it probably I'm guessing yes engage the consultant yeah um MAPC or whoever we should it wouldn't hurt and that's the thing too if certain grants tie you to certain consultants or are
there other are there grants that allow us to go either to an RFP or direct contract with a consultant of our choosing um so that would be the asterisk on a grant Um this consultant specifically for the quote is JMG um
Jennifer Goldson planning and design um who did the IPS switch plan That's why we went to them Um and they're working on the East Gateway District plan right now Um so it's a natural tiein So whether or not they actually got the
contract or award is a different question So I'm going to ask Jane and Matt if we applied for a grant next week What's the turnar around time no No Turn around 24 hours Stay open Well it takes I mean we could it takes a
lot to first get the application and everything Hypothetically saying if you started this process next week right yeah when 2 months 3 months depending on the grant So one-stop application is generally your number one area of interest for something like this There's a community planning grant available in
that that's due in early June If you got the award it would come in early September Then you'd looking to finalize the contract with the state Then a consultant you're probably looking at best New Year's 2026 to get a consultant on And then we'd also probably be asking November Town Meeting for either change
of existing funds or new funds to finish the rest of that contract Okay So a twostep process Yeah They open grants and apply and sometimes the grants like if you have your money dedicated first so they know that you have a match and
some in the game so we can chat Coincidentally they'll charge us exactly that amount Yeah Um What you for by the way um I think I mean that's a good start if anybody wants to add any more I I I I
think we just to be clear if you don't apply if we don't apply for one stop this June you're looking at next No no we got we are going to instruct town staff applying for grants is a good thing apply for all the grants
All grants belong to I wonder if it makes sense also to reach out to um well so you know John Sasso here was the chairperson talk to him a little bit definitely talk to John Weston at CPDC um maybe there are a few other folks to to talk to a little bit just even at
this point in the process um get some thoughts from them on scope timing etc before we kind of say okay here's the charter and then they'll say oh but we really wanted you to include this no no we could ask them to put on an agenda item right and in the next couple of meetings right i don't know You know they have to go They already have stuff
going on But yeah I I think this is not going to happen this spring or this summer I'm you know I was kind of hoping by the fall I don't want to go out next year It just seems like so far away It's only March But you know it's a process No No I I I
No I I get that And And Mark's not going to get to enjoy the fun because you know he's started this conversation He would be on it Well I don't know I don't know about that It's a conflict That's a conflict That's a conflict A clear conflict Clear conflict Well there is good news I just found Toxville just did
their master plan and it's 2024 to 2034 and it's only 48 pages I mean cuz it's 10 years Yeah To top fairs fair is half the town He's got color pictures too It's not all in like five different languages 5,000
residents That's all they have probably I don't know They have a pharaoh I was just trying to see um charges That's what Arlington is going through There's right now Rochester I think there's always a community doing Rochester twice tonight
Yeah There's a Florida master Uh all right We're good on this topic for now It's good good start I think get this in our package Are you ready to talk about the second half of Yeah we can We can Yeah Not enough about that slide Yeah I know The second part to this capital
[Music] plans both they tie it together Yes Very related So um I think what what we're seeing is that right now we've got a couple of
very large projects There are some mediumsiz ones and there are some smaller ones And there there are different pockets of funds all of which we don't completely understand yet but we'd like to And what I suggest we do um as a community is take a look and help
kind of figure out where the priorities are and again instead of the whack-a-ole approach you know with guidance but it's whack-a-ole right we're you know something pops up we we hit it and try to push it down for a while is to start thinking more more clearly hey these are the things we want to do And you know
what that may mean that we don't do some other things For example the first time the downtown activity came up right we we heard we had a grant that was a big downtown proposal and we were going to bring in quite a bit of matching funds I mean I think it was millions of dollars I don't remember the exact number And I
think each of us came back and said you know what great plan but not right now It's not high enough up on the priority list to to accomplish it that way Um now there's a second proposal in front of us that's actually going to town meeting that says hey you know here's a smaller
version of that too But it still is going to take it's going to pull out of some of those discretionary funds And the reason I I asked Carlo to you to put this on here is that I think we as a community need to think very clearly about you multiple smaller things where
they make sense versus wait a second let's for now let's kind of save it up and and put it toward these bigger ones And alternatively it may also be you know what some of those smaller ones actually are more important We really need to do those I'm fine with that I just don't want it to be haphazardly
done And it kind of feels like you know when I heard someone say um you know hey we have some funds available and this is something we could do I kind of recoiled and said wait a second we got some funds available Let's talk about what to use those funds for and let's make sure we're in agreement on what that is Um
you know interestingly talk out of school a little bit You know Birch Meadow 2 kind of came up um with less discussion than it probably merited and got through town meeting with less discussion than it probably merited Took a pile of cash to do that and you know plottable goals all
good Um was that necessarily the next and highest priority maybe But I'm not sure I don't think the community had a clear discussion on it I think the community discussed Bridge Meadow 2 I think they didn't discuss all the other things you know going on Um I just think we can be more deliberate about it and I
think we should take a look at these available funds and say you know what I love the master plan idea These are what we're trying to get done let's kind of focus our funds let's focus our activities here And the other ones maybe we don't do right now or maybe we we make them smaller in scale So that's the
reason why I wanted to kind of have this discussion Um how do we how do we make that happen this board hasn't been as much a part of the capital planning process um as in some other communities In fact some other communities have a capital planning committee
We don't do that currently We don't have that set up and and we're with just replacing a boiler I don't think you need a capital planning committee for that But when we're starting to talk about community priorities when we're starting to realize that there are lots of things we'd like to do we realize we have limited funds to do it So let's
make sure we're hitting the priorities the right way So specific to here town meeting's coming up There are some um uses of capital You know downtown is one one of the examples I'd like to know you know where do we have money that is available what are the restrictions on
how to use it make sure we're clear on where our priorities are and talk about how do we allocate funds to make sure we can get those important thing most important things done first Yeah I I I know what you mean Uh you know you use that as an example All
right and then you know things come at us uh some faster than others but yeah it'd be good to have you know what to me it's what you know needs and wants and what serves the community as a whole right we have all these different
parks all over the town that serve these little pockets of you know neighborhoods right and then we have the bigger fields and we have where we play soccer and baseball and you know the you know Parker and Koolage which have one has turf one doesn't So that's and what
needs to be done for the schools too as well I mean that's to me would be part of this even though it's not our job but that's part of it's it's all one bucket right it's just and the school is the majority of that bucket So we have to be aware of that that they're going to have
needs and other buildings you know our buildings as well Uh library should be good for a while but you know what upgrades do the town buildings need the fire departments and any kind of public safety building Water towers done super good there for a long time So yeah I I
think you know you you've been you know banging this drill for a while and and do we put it in writing do you want to form a committee i don't love creating more committees but if if we give them a goal and it it's you know kind of like I
don't want to say Simon's way kind of was a big circle and didn't really get us anywhere but it did It got us talking and got us looking down the road and then we looked at the whole campus as then just the original uh Simon's way
land Um so that I think that was good changing that But yeah I I typically am against foam in committee but in this case it it it could be warranted because you know I think you know on a
smaller side no but that's you know I don't know if anyone else has an opinion on forming committing and not not forming a committee but I think we've been kicking this can for years I saw Cameron first and we'll Okay No Um
I think we need to form a committee for this Melissa just a quick question Why wouldn't we include the capital planning in the master planning committee there may be a real battle Capital plans
are typically a shorter vision typically 5 to 10 years But yeah it's part I think it's part of it but you know we have stuff budgeted out in in in in the fiscal years in the in in the in the budgeting process right uh resurfacing
courts doing a roof doing then we co we kicked everything down the road right and unbeknowingly it cost us more money to do everything Every single thing we delayed because of CO for good reasons but everything just cost us more So if
if you look at fiscal 26 fiscal 27 fiscal 28 you'll see half a million a million you'll see okay we really don't need to do this over I mean we we'll delay it for two years to focus on something else So I think that's where
this is coming from the master plan but more high level you know where this is more pinpointed it that we know we need to do this I'm going to let Chris go first Do you have anything no I I think that we
would have to um I was just going to say you know it's a it's a good question and I think to your point it's this is a high level master plan that can inform the capital planning because before that that's perfect because when we're at
town meeting we're trying to figure out what are our priorities and that's part of the drum you've been beating You need a plan to say what are your priorities and then you look at the all the capital projects hitting us and besides fixing the boilers or fixing all the leaking whatever then we can inform the yeah
there's the emergencies there's the you know finding arsenic in the in the in the when we're doing a sump pump you know a substation and then oh stop the project half a million dollars more there's that then there's emergency stuff but like we if we if we made a list 1 through 10 and we were given that
list per what we have laid out now Either us five or another group might say "Well three should be one 10 should be five." And yep that's what that would be But right now it's like whoever's the
loudest drum kind of kind of bumps the for the mediumsiz projects they kind of bump the queue To me what would be to you i don't even know what medium would be No price wise No price I don't know The police station like several million The police station project the deciding we need to do the
floor at the state the high school Now if we decide to do a $2 million pickle ball thing I I call those medium projects versus the two two building projects we're working on versus you know half a million dollar and less the boiler projects just in general You might have other examples
Yeah I mean that's that's that's fair I don't Oh and I didn't even mention right the down Yeah the downtown projects things like that Yeah Things tens of millions obviously are big projects right you know think several million and under are more doable more realistic I mean
Birch Birch Meadow phase two have we even funed Birch Meadow phase two or three whatever we're on Phase two is funded And that's the last phase There's one more Three is in the process We haven't brought that forward Three but two is funded Two is funded Two is funded Okay
Soon No we have not completed two Right Right We haven't started construction on it It was approved at town meeting and the design work has now just about finished and ready to bid it pretty soon so we can start construction Okay I believe it was in the wreck meeting they
went over there was a bunch of residents concerned with how it was over in that area Okay Yeah Yeah Right Basketball courts things like that Yeah Okay I think all the all these things play well together Right Right So the master plan
is kind of the as you said high level kind of vision and then the capital plan is is more specific delineating watching for trade-off seeing what things have to happen We go through a capital planning process now where you know there's 5% set up for debt and capital and then you
know suddenly something's got to come in which means well we got to push something else off So there's a a process now that kind of moves the can you wait one more year on that yeah I guess we can okay move it out That's going to continue I just am thinking that we can give guidance with the master plan and then
even in talking about capital planning Okay let's you know let's make sure we're focusing on on this you know but this is coming up too Okay good Think about it How do we how do we have a rational process of thinking about it and this board hasn't really been involved in that and to a large extent
FINCOM hasn't either other than to you know say okay take it to town meeting come from the town so far and again you know boilers and fire trucks and you know all things you got to do you got to do The questions are more these community priorities and how do you fit those in and how do you how do
you rank them how do you stack them up and do you have frankly having more residents involved in those activities probably improves the chances that they pass no And and and I think you know I think pickle ball is a great example where
prior to co even though pickle ball was invented in the 60s not until co and there was there's been professional pickle ball Forget the recent craze and all these leagues and it's on TV but pickle ball was not in our
vernacular precoid and you know it's on commercials now It's in shows It is everywhere So all of a sudden there's a pickle ball community that wasn't in any master plan capital plan capital budget Oh we need
more courts and like that didn't exist You know our PPA was using chalk to play you know so there's that So you know Saras just did new courts Medford just did new courts a dedicated pickle ball court So that's a good example of okay that
kid kind of come out of that that was part of the whack-a-ole Like oh no like this is really popular and it's not going away as a community We should probably do something Um cuz you know Melrose just got shut down They have pickle ball courts by the neighbors So
there was Yeah So again was it a poor planning i don't know when it was done but that'll push people elsewhere but it's that I think that's a good example that's really current and not going away anytime soon How do
we serve that community how does that tie into the the active living center and blah blah blah So I I think a list would be good that we already have we look at it maybe have a discussion and then have a discussion about forming
a committee Yeah And maybe there's a formal process um where the board representatives of the board representatives of other boards um get together on a regular basis to explore what's going on in terms of capital planning and bringing I guess
I'll call it more community input into the process And again you know great for discussion thinking about how do how do we tackle it but maybe the starting point is to kind of have those discussions early see what's going on Yeah they bounce around a little bit but not the you know the big ones don't as much And we need to
fit them in right if we decide it's a community priority it should you know that should should have higher status I guess in some sense I was just going to say if we're going to do a committee we really need to make sure we get someone from each of our
other you know school department building department like everyone needs So then you're bringing all your priorities from the across the table and then because I think sometimes we're in like
Yes silence Exactly And we don't know what the other you know committee or department is looking to do Y So you know public safety we got to bring everyone in um just to have that conversation What are your thoughts and what are you thinking for the future so
I think that's happening to the town It's just not happening beyond that currently All right So you guys get together and you talk about what what department A what do you need department B what do you need we meet periodically Sharon um department heads and some of it is like
you said you know smaller things boiler whatever or larger thing fire truck Um and you're right things get bumped around and moved I mean it is capital and debt and so we rely on Sharon on the debt side of it too you know so she has a big voice in that and she's at a conference otherwise she'd be here to
discuss this with you tonight as well but um but any sort of community input we're always welcome welcome welcoming and you know Mark your point is well taken on that um Sharon's been dealing with it longer than I have I dealt with it a little as a department head but she's been dealing with the big picture
and I'm sure she'd welcome input from you know the rest of the community on it too there's a lot of it does falter her to figure out the debt side of it What could we afford and when you know because we plan out several years in advance So can I add to that and just to add on to
that no new equipment is procured without being its replacement being added to the end of the list So if the life cycle of this piece of equipment is 10 years at 10 years it's put on the list of we have to look at replacing this And sometimes we do the easy stuff
That's but that's every piece of equip Yeah Exactly So we start Yeah Exactly And then and and at that time there's an escalation cost that's estimated and it's put in for we think it's going to look good and then every single year it's revisited Does this make So
Sharon's very deliberate She takes a department heads through that process and what's new what's changed does this field need to have the turf redone you know what's what's the status here does this piece need to because we have to be responsible for all of the infrastructure and the capital equipment
that we have So you know it it's very deliberate and it's and it's a rigorous annual process Um and then it goes to town meeting and town meeting votes on it and accepts that that um as part of the capital with that is getting back to the fact that we don't have a capital planning committee and and some as you
were describing this I mean the financial forum used to we used to at least get together and do some of that We didn't call it a capital planning progress but often that's why we're having a forum because we had an unusual capital request So what I feel and I felt this way for the last four years is that we're not having any engagement in
this And when I say we I mean the community is not having enough input into the capital plan And it's not we're going to be pushing out firet trucks That's not what we're talking about Just point this is the way it was done You know this is what Absolutely
Absolutely And and I think the community has was so much easier when we had no money That's a piece but also the community has expressed desires for more what I'm going to call community priorities beyond just fire trucks and and boilers and things like that So to the extent that that's going to happen I
think we need to have a better proc a different and better process to handle that kind of stuff figure out what they are And if we end up having at different points in time potentially different sources we have um green communities funds as an example that ought to be playing into some of the things that we're talking about and how how we set
priorities If at some point CPA became something that happened that too would bring different kinds of funds So you know there are other pieces that could start to get added to this that you just want to have a way to have the community engage in some of these discussions Have it less of a a lastm minute loud voice
kind of activity and more more of a let's talk about it Let's figure it out And yeah you know these are the three you know which one what's two what's three Okay All right I think this was a good start I would like to move on please Uh next we have Pleasant Street
Center discussion I wanted to have this on again and for the main reason um to have an appraisal of the building So Karen brought up a good point that when we go to town meeting we should know um what the value of the building
is Um to me it's sell lease keep Those are the three buckets I can't think of any others Um so if I had a vote today it would be keep but I don't know if that would be lease or keep for us I
that that I don't know But if I had a vote today I would go keep not sell So then I have two more choices to make I have to make a choice from two choices So but and we can you know this shouldn't be a long discussion Hopefully we this our second time going at this But I think as we're town meeting
approaches uh in a little over a month we need to have some ammunition and and inform town meeting If May is a positive vote what are we doing with this building right So I think I think we'd all be in agreement
to have an appraisal done of the building a formal appraisal Um and if there's any other input that we want to talk tonight it's you know that's not the only topic but that was the main reason I put it on here so we could discuss kind of agree on that authorize
staff to have an appraisal done which should give us enough time to get one before town meeting and then we have a number Um because you know maybe selling it is really attractive I don't know I don't think so but I don't know Yeah So we've we've gone in that
direction and Jane can give you a little bit of an update on the companies we've contacted the pricing how long it will take Um because I think that that's right An appraisal is is right at this point I outlined other you know couple meetings ago other uses in terms of
rental lease nonprofits and whatnot So but you know we hear you loud and clear on the appraisal So we're moving in that direction Sure Really fast Which town made it it almost look the same as ours but let one less pay nic turn center for
the arts into that you know and you know not run by us right not run by not run by the town but so there's definitely options right I think you know we have to housing proposal step two whatever
whatever so I think a couple things one I think the most important one is is realizing that um in building recal that space is no longer the PSC space is no longer required for the senior center because there'll be a new one Correct So that opens it up to
different possibilities And I think what people are are asking is want to make sure that we've thought through the different aspects of what's going on with this right if we change this what's going to happen i don't know that we have to say here's exactly what we're going to do with it No but I think it's to say okay we know that there are
new opportunities We as a board have talked about it There are three or four that are on the table here right now is an appraisal There was an estimate of rental income that could be achieved There was an unsolicited proposal made redevelopment two years ago that was
kind of a a key ban lease I think is what it was or key part of it at least part of it again unsolicited We didn't we didn't request anything It just it just it came in So that was the notion that hey some people see that there's you know opportunity there We know that it has some historic significance that
might have value in terms of the keep side um you know what are the things that we could do that would make it a productive asset for the town and not so much a a cost center that right it' be nice to offset some of the debt you know
of the building yeah or or you know all you just talked about nic right so a a you know designated um you know new kind of activity back to this community priorities discussion you know could it fit into that maybe maybe not but again
on the possibilities but I think it's important that the community understand that it's it's not kind of sitting here saying "Yeah let's build a new center and then I don't know I guess we'll have to think about the recal the old PSC building." We're very proactive on this thing We're we're thinking through all the implications of the same way we're
thinking through the implications of what are the costs of operating the center what are the things that can happen at the center what does that mean doesn't have to happen elsewhere because it's happening there I'll uh wreck pays a lot of money in in uh rental fees Is
that an offset i you know again that's the kind of stuff I think that we want to make sure uh when town meeting members ask it there are pretty good answers available for you At least that's been thought about Yeah thanks Carlo I vaguely remember the
conversation with Simon's way and town staff taking an initiative on that uh and it being negative yet here they are taking the initiative on this and somehow it's positive Uh I agree both times were positive Um so it's good to
see that we're moving in in that direction I think for me it it comes down to the building is being replaced for a reason you are moving everybody that's over there as well as individuals in this building over to the potential
new uh recal site We are eliminating all of the the space required for the wreck people here in um veteran services etc Moving it over there moving the whole street thing over there We're freeing up all this space We have to recoup our
money from this building Point blank End of discussion that we cannot be on the hook It's being replaced because it's old There's so many issues with it People still complain about gas the stove whatever scenario that's happening over there is going to happen to
somebody else Whether we lease it or something it's built into some lease They have to cover the cost We have to do it's got to be somebody else's problem It it we need to significantly offset the cost of this building whatever it is for this to be a positive
outcome on the other end that we want It's that clear We We can't be wishy-washy flip-flop etc and then argue this a town meeting It has to be clear and concise that this building is being replaced as well as the individuals in
the offices over here and is going somewhere else and we are going to do XYZ to recover our money so that you can feel more confident in the vote that is coming forward because that's what you want You don't want the Pleasant Street
Center You want the new building I I I believe that's the the the consensus So don't make the mistake of keeping it and doing whatever for the for the good and the more benefit and in all of this We're already doing that on the other
end So I am very firm on on doing something with this whether it's leasing it out absolutely as long as it is a significant lease not some hokeyp pokey joke thing that you know that isn't going to make up the money like I said
on the back end So that's that is where I am uh firm on this Yeah Um could I just add so when we were looking at the uh the dollar store which was in fact open
um there was an appraisal done so um so and and you all went to see the building which is across the parking lot So I mean we kind of we know this is a valuable asset but I I don't sure that might be something that would be helpful for you as you're going through this appraisal process to pull up that
appraisal I believe we discussed it in executive session I don't know that we ever released it to the public but we did do one Okay And so yeah we will Correct Yes Yeah Is that really what you remember we did do one Yeah Yeah And I think it was in second session I don't think
Yeah that was two years ago Yeah Anyone else all right So I think we need to probably uh have at least one more meeting before
the town meeting And it I I I think we should give an update at April town meeting to what we're thinking but maybe something more formal at November town meeting is my guess
because we're not going to be ready Um but I'll I'll I'll put that I'll insert that somewhere as a placeholder for the you know before uh Tommy we have not meeting on the fir well I'll discuss that later Um okay Okay Oh yeah And I
well Jane can go first and then uh so I've reached out to I think five companies now I've spoken to two Um I hope to hear from another one tomorrow and I'll have quotes back on the variety of uh commercial market value and rental market value that we can um potentially
achieve through for that for that site So um I'm hoping because of the timeline and trying to bring this in before town meeting um that we can ink that contract next week Yeah just let us know Yeah once once I have the different amounts
and so forth then we'll yeah kind of see what makes the most sense for us Chris thanks Carlo So I understand that town meeting authorizes the money in town up to a certain point Obviously we get minimal we play minimal roles in the
day-to-day kind of stuff Town meeting authorizes the money Who's responsible then for this building is it the select board like I believe that it is whatever gets done with the existing Pleasant Street Center does that fall onto us yes
Is it a town building you You're in charge of town property like sell lease keep correct yeah I guess it would be So you would have to essentially surplus it like anything else and then if you wanted to sell it you know if you wanted to lease
it we can just work through town staff until meeting have to authorize sale of real estate or control of real estate to some extent You'll figure out the details We'll figure it out Yeah I mean certainly over the Support will certainly have a
say It starts here No because Oakland Road is us and I understand gave us that authorization but we have to put a warrant in front of Toming to do it So it's a you know it's a back and forth It's a circular Do you know Oakland Road was us anyway who do you think gave us permission to do that it was town
meeting That's all and I wasn't part of that That's what we were told Yeah At least I guess we can get a clearance clarification All right Yeah Well yeah I can I can talk to town council about the actual process but you as the select board will have a big say in it and when it becomes town property
you have a very large saying Yeah And and you know trying to save maybe some money Should we go back to the company we used to do the appraisal yes I concur And I reached out to them very recently Just I don't know if it
will save us money Well you know uh Miss Heric helped me with that contact and um they know the town and I haven't done most recent commercial appraisal for parcels So for us so it makes really good sense to get back So that's who I'm hoping to hear from tomorrow All
right So it it'll cost X Um would that come from some existing town fund is that the what we would do to make that happen so in other words if if it's you want it inked what's required to ink it yeah we would
have got to make sure we I'll talk to Yeah you got to make sure you got the money We would talk to Sharon Okay Thank you I'm soliciting quotes and we'll competitive information Parker need another roof or something that we can just keep using them
All right Next is vote to appoint town accountant I say yes Let's go to the motion I'm just kidding Um well it doesn't say discuss It just says vote So we could just go to the motion then discuss Who made that agenda item what
just says vote I know Not me I'm just noticing it now But we're going to discuss it Let's make the motion and then second and then discuss Good Good Move to appoint Sharon Angstrom as town accountant for a term
July 1st 2025 through June 30th 2026 Second Thank you Any discussion yes he's Oh Chris Bark this time All right Uh this is once again a resounding yes for me Sharon Angstrom uh does a
stellar job in this town She handled all the questions at the finance committee the other night um with class and cander and whatever adjectives and synonyms thesauruses you want to use Um but no Sharon is is great and I I hope she
stays here until I'm gone So whenever maybe beyond maybe even beyond Thanks So um Sharon has been the accountant for how many years 15 longer than me Um 15 16 years I want to say Yeah So I think she came in she
started after me So what does that put it in timing is it So um I've been here 15 years and she started after me So okay So she had before me and 10 years somewhere 10 to 15 So my point being she started out pretty pretty green I would
say Um but she got a lot of support initially from some previous town managers in particular and then has grown into this role really really well Um I have full confidence that she has command of what's going on and kind of
how to give us advice uh how to make sure that we don't get into too much financial trouble at least Um and I think that's great and I think she's a real asset and somebody that it's important to support and keep her in the town I agree I I think we're very fortunate
um as a community because you know I I know there's communities that run well and not run well and you know I I think we're fortunate to have Sharon and Sharon wanted to stay That's another big part of it You know we're not um seems
she seems very committed and um does a lot for us Anyone else yeah I concur with my colleagues I uh yeah I would love to see Sharon continue with us for many years
All right All those in favor 5 Excellent Yes Future agendas Uh April 1st we are not adding anything Just FYI you got to go to like
page like 600 to Yeah Unless it's 25 Unless it's an emergency We're not adding anything Um all it looks lengthy but a lot of it's quick stuff Some of some of it's quick Not April Fool's joke
Yeah that is my three-year anniversary of my shoulder surgery So just so you know do we celebrate that i think so We're going to have cake for me and for Mark Perfect You first
Um so April 1st is pretty pretty jam-packed Um April 22nd um is I I really haven't you know we haven't really talked much other than what you see in there about beyond uh
the 22nd Uh the 22nd is after the election and before Oh that's a good note Sorry guys um that is school vacation the 22nd uh of the two members with children Is that going to be a
problem because we could move it to the 15th if the 22nd is is April vacation The residents of the town reelect me which I hope they do I'm going to be away both dates Okay Both dates Well yes
The way my kids school vacation worked we're gone the 15th to the 22nd Christopher I think Autumn's going to an Amsterdam with her mother So I think I am good Oh wow Good for her Wow You guys and Oh no Mexico Autumn Whatever She's going
somewhere to this discussion Okay We'll get a kid partwhere We have kids We just don't have school age Do you have a senior retreat to go to hang around i'm supposed to sponsor somebody who's going to be a member soon
Two years Two whole years That's a long time That's a long time Two years You joined the ARP of 50 right in pickleball years that's like seven years Two years of regular years Um all right So I'm okay putting it to the 15th if
that or we can leave it the 22nd I am totally open since I'm in control of the agenda right now Um what the board wants to do I I am fine I'm not traveling I'm fine either way If uh anyone wants to
keep What happens with if it gets moved to 4:15 does that bump all other meetings or does it not no it would go 4:15 right to May It would be a month because we have town meeting It wouldn't No it wouldn't bump No no doesn't really
sound like there's a reason we need to move it Yeah I'm just asking Yeah there might be a benefit So having it closer to town meeting might be a benefit Yeah I I just I just Um Okay What day is town meeting again 28th as long as it's not the next day
All right So we can leave it No problem 22nd And so that takes care of that So all I have um I think we all got it Correct me if I'm wrong Bill Brown sent us I had a hard time reading that Yeah Well Will deciphered it and Matt and
Jane deciphered it because I couldn't I couldn't read it either But it it was it was his handwrit he was right whatever you wrote was right um as far as our flags go and it's going to be more of a policy decision I think or more point was that
we so we fight we fly the flag of the commonwealth and the American flag in this room and in the common we fly just the American flag um and if you read the law that he's referring to general law yeah it seems to say that the you know
both flags have to be flown um and it talks about in in good weather that sort of thing Um and Will will comment Will Will did a lot of uh give a lot of color on it So so the way we I make a suggestion Yeah sorry You're right We're deliberating Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry So
anyway that's that's that's where it is Um so I'm going to put on a future agenda Sorry Thank you Um you'll have to look at it to see Yeah So that's all I have You know it's like uh what's Big Bang Theory you know flags you know that
um anyone else have a Mark do you have a parting uh parting future agenda for us just wait Um doesn't mean the I think the commissioner of trust that's on there on April one would appreciate going early if that's doable I see that
the first item on there after leazison if that's possible that would be great I know that they would appreciate that Um they don't want to be professional people Let me let me ask you this Mark You think it'll take long because I don't want Lara to come you
know wait till 9 I don't It's not going to be a long How long you think I should budget for that half hour Um less Yeah I think that probably 15 to 20 minutes for the descriptions of things and then board questions and then I think that Neil can
um provide something next week ideally be reach out to to Neil Cohen just to ask him if he can kind of submit information in advance so the board can read it That'll speed things up quite a bit because there there's pretty clear stuff Yeah I just try to have st I
just try to have staff on early as best as possible Yeah I think 30 minutes is probably going to cover it and and and maybe they' send them back with homework worst case Okay Um All right So we were going to have um uh Burbank come in and
talk to us Yeah that's on there somewhere Where is it right below trust funds Oh was it early i think it's No Yes Update on Burbank funds Not Not the No that's not the meeting with the Burbank coming to talk to us about rental lease payments for
the future Can we put that somewhere cuz this is the I thought I thought we did Hold on We're supposed to have an annual operational discussion meeting with them Yeah it's right there It's in June May it's there Well having um Okay What What
day is that may 27th May 27th It's on the second home page It breaks Okay that could work We haven't done this part of a select word meeting ago so you'll need a little time for that
Like at least 30 minutes At least 30 minutes if we keep it quick I imagine at least starting maybe I don't know We're not We'll figure that out later No no no It's just an annual you know how things are going It's in the lease an annual operation Yeah Like RCTV is
supposed to do it once a year but we haven't done it So it's like kind of like that Okay All right So that's in there Anything else from anybody no Good minutes So I'm sorry Did you put the ADA discussion in there that's next
week as well Yeah Are we going to be ready oh it's a discussion So I don't know Oh all right Okay fair enough It's not next week right you first Yeah two weeks Yeah the next meeting Our next meeting Okay All righty Do you want to have a more PSC discussion before town
meeting in which case cuz Mark wants to have it just be a standing item like right after select board liazison report I mean it was discussed I'd say if we got had the appraisal in say yes I think it's too early in my opinion I think
you know I know it's important but I think we're just going to say the same things we said tonight honestly All right Maybe add it to the 22nd Yeah I'll think about it And I can give you an update on how the appraisal is going Sorry I was thinking for the 22nd I wasn't thinking Yeah Okay I mean I lose
all control after the first So um I I'll It does make sense to probably put it on I'll help Yeah it should be on the 22nd I agree It should be on the 22nd and hopefully that's a month away Hopefully we'll have something but who knows um
All right On to minutes Jackie can you put the minutes up please i thought they were good as written No we had we had to make a correction So I I did watch the video Yeah remember last week we couldn't do the minutes Oh sorry I couldn't remember how we wrapped that
up Yeah basically we said we watched the video and uh if you go to our uh Oh god I cannot read that What the heck is that it's neon day at Birch Meadow today Oh boy what is that it's It's the Birch
Meadow Edit I Oh the green just doesn't show up very well It's really hard to All I know it was said that we are commercial property owners not business owners Correct So if that says that we're good Yeah I don't know what that says It says
commercial Okay Huh you want to read it we can read it into the record I just can't read it I can read Can you read it that would be great You want me to go Matt so suggested revision Taylor Gregory feels
their character was attacked by members Botchi and Haley They also feel Bach has a conflict as a pickle ball instructor and the lack of disclosure during pickle ball related business Lastly they feel Botchi and Holly Haley both have conflicts and should not be voting on
setting the tax rate because they both own commercial properties in town Yeah that's fine So we just changed that last sentence really But yeah you want me to read So that was the edit that we didn't agree on or whatever because I don't know I I don't know what was said So
there was that and then I think one of you maybe had a minor change that we did or didn't do No Was that it all right So let's go to the next one please Jackie The fourth Um I have nothing on that
one So you have a Yep something minor No Okay I have a motion Oh you have a motion Oh so we're all good So we do have You want to do one by one or just say well one's amended one's Yeah one's not a good So move to approve the meeting minutes from
February 18th 2025 as amended Second Second Any discussion seeing none all those in favor 5-0 Thank you Move to approve the meeting minutes from March 4th 2025 as written Second Any discussion seeing none All those in
favor 5 Thank you That's a rare occasion on that one Um motion to motion Second Uh all those in favor 5 Hold on Let me check my time stamp 8:55