Thank you everybody. I will call the um July 15th, 2025 select board uh meeting to order. Let's start off with the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it
stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. So, I will go over the meeting overview real quick. uh 705 public comment for any items not included on the agenda. The exception to
that is uh when there's a public hearing. Um so you can speak on both um keeping it to two minutes. Just be mindful of uh other neighbors time if there's a ton of people who want to speak. Um followed after that uh is the
7:15 town manager report. 720 a community spotlight. 7:25 is the public hearing to discuss and vote on the traffic amendments. At 7:55, the Eastern Gateway priority planning update. 8:15 discuss potential override budget uh
review. 8:35 discussion on proposed Monasuri School of Mater Cabin. 8:55 discuss forming a water and sewer rate advisory committee. 905 discuss and vote on boarding committee. And I didn't turn this on. Discuss and vote on boarding
committee. the FY26 budget request. 9:15 discuss communication tracking method. 9:20 select board leaison reports. 9:30 is future agendas and 9:35 is discuss and vote to approve prior meeting minutes. And all votes will be roll call
because Melissa Murphy is on Zoom. Um, and with that, um, briefly, I just want to, um, just address the summer fire that, um, unfortunately happened last week and just wanted to thank the fire department
and our community partners for helping out on that. I'm sure Matt might bring this up during his report, but um, it's very unfortunate what happened, but the the best outcome is nobody was hurt. Um, and they can always rebuild over there if they choose to. And I know this board
and many others will be right there behind them if that's the route they're going to go. Um, so thank you once again to the Reading Fire Department for that. And with that, I will open it up to public comment. Um,
I'll start off. I almost forget your name, but I know you at CPAC every time. Uh, just name and address and try to keep it to two minutes. Uh Jane will keep time. She plays a harp noise so you'll know your two minutes are up. All right. Um Maria Morgan, 26 Lee Street. I
would like to express my dissatisfaction about the town unevenly disrupting education for students with disabilities by planning disruptive projects during the extended school year, commonly referred to as ESY, and not during the regular school year. Massachusetts last states facilities and classrooms serving
only students with disabilities shall be at least equal in all physical respects to the average standard for general education facilities and classrooms. Resource rooms in separate classrooms for students with disabilities shall be given the same priority as general education programs for access to and use of instructional and other space in
public schools in order to minimize the separation or stigmatization of eligible students. Current examples of reading acting out of compliance with these guidelines are first resurfacing the rise playground and second road work at Birch Meadow. Both projects significantly and disproportionately
impact ESY not just by impeding learning but also by introducing risks to student staff and caregiver safety. Town planners should plan such projects when no children are in school or at the very least give school personnel ample time and support to collaboratively develop contingency plans. It is unfair to
educators who plan to use the playground to address IEP goals to take the playground away without ample notice to develop alternate plans so as to avoid violating Massachusetts law that dictates all eligible students shall have access to school facilities including but not limited to those areas
necessary to implement the students IEP. the fact that the playground is unavailable for our youngest learners who are ages three to five um for three out of five weeks of their school program and our older students do not have a safe place to be dropped off is unacceptable. The town's students with disability should have the same
consideration as their peers who are in class during the school year. Reading is mandated to provide a free appropriate public education to all of its students, including those with legal right to an extended school year in order to get that education. The practice of scheduling disruptive projects only during ASY is discriminatory and must
cease. I encourage the select board to use all of its authority to motivate town planners to work better with the schools and respect the published calendar which always includes the dates for ASY well in advance. I have personally seen school school personnel work tirelessly to give equal consideration to all students and staff
and reading and it should be clear that we parents expect all municipal leaders to do the same. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Yep. Go ahead. Can I Is it okay if I still make a comment on the top?
Oh, of course. Yep. Just name and address, please. Um Dilly Wilson, 376 West Street. Um I'm a C5 board member. Um, I guess what we're hoping to bring up to the select board today is to consider our kids who
are in ASY when planning the projects. Um, I know my little guy goes to Rise and um, you know, with disabilities is very the playground is one of his goals. Um, interacting with and learning how to play. They're in the three to five year group. Um, and so we're hoping that the
town and the schoolwork can work together to try and minimize so that our kids, the kids who are in ASY, receive the same consideration that other kids do during the school year because for those in ESY, it is part of their school year and it's so important so that they don't fall behind. Um, so we know you
have lots of other priorities when you schedule projects. We just hope that we're on that list of priorities when you consider timing. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Maryann, do I have to wait to an agenda item to speak to? I was a little confused by your in
No. So public comments for NA items, not on the agenda. I mean, you can speak now, but then obviously you wouldn't have a second chance on the specific agenda item. Unless it's the public hearing and all bets are off. I'm here later for the fin, but I'm not
I'm not speaking about it. So, um my name is Maryanne Downing. I'm here on 13 Heather Drive and I want to speak to um the Matera cabin agenda item and I'm addressing this to um the select board
members, the town manager, you know, conservation committee members who are here. I appreciate your service and none of what I'm going to say is a knock on anything you're doing, but I'm here tonight because I'm genuinely baffled and more than a little frustrated by
what I've been reading in the um packet and the conservation committee minutes that seems to be a very um silent or quiet attempt to hand over pretty much all use of the Matera cabin and much of the conservation land to a
brand new private micro school called Malbury Forest at what I consider to be um a very unfair to the town financial rate that would make quite honestly 1970s minimum wages look generous. Um
let's start with the basics. Malbury First was not even an incorporated um entity when it went before the Conservation Commission. It was officially incorporated in May, not May of last year, May of this year. They may have run some small programs, but they've never run a fullear school.
They've never operated in Reading. And no one associated with this program, as far as I can tell, has any ties to our town. Yet somehow our conservation administrator and our conservation commission, which this select board appoints, appears to be proposing to let
them use Mata Cabin for 10 months, 5 days a week, 7 to eight hours a day for what the packet is saying is just over $9,000. That works out to about $645 an hour, far less than what we charge actual
reading residents and nearly three times what Malbury says in the packet that they're willing to pay. They want to pay only 3 to 5K for these same 10 months, which at the low end is about $28 an hour. You know, just for perspective, that's less than the federal minimum
wage when Jaws came out 50 years ago. And it gets better. The proposal in the packet assumes that Malbury will only need the building for 15 rainy days. 15. We had 11 rainy days in May. Boston averages 137 rainy days a year. In fact,
Malbury's own proposal says they will be indoors all winter, three months. And m at any time when there's inclement weather, let's be real, they're going to need this building a lot. They're going to want it at at the drop of a hat. And they also want to store their stuff
there 24/7 and get notified not notified if anyone else wants to rent the space. They want to bring in 20 kids plus staff close to the capacity of 20 to 30. They're basically taking over the building full-time. Meanwhile, actual reading nonprofits who need space, who
need cheap rent, like our food pantry, our mission of deeds, they would love that kind of access at that rate. Are we offering it to them? Not to my knowledge. Oh, and did anyone on the conservation commission pickup that the outdoor school plans overlap with deer
hunting season which by the way is allowed in northern bear meadow from November 6 to um October 6 to November 29th directly next to Matara's trails where bow hunting is allowed what could possibly go wrong so here's my ask town
manager assistant town manager please direct direct your conservation administrator to withdraw this offer um select board please direct your employee, the town manager, to to do the same. And and I respectfully ask that you work with the conservation
commission to ensure that our public lands and buildings are used responsibly, transparently, and in the best interests of both both fiscally and socially for all of our Reading residents. Thank you. Thanks, Mary. Just make sure you time everything.
I forgot. Sorry. Sorry. Jane wasn't timing that time, so I had no clue how long it was. Um, I did tell you. Thank you. Um, anybody else in the room before I go to Zoom?
Anybody on Zoom? I see a hand, but anybody else, Jackie, other than I see Liz with a hand. Yep, we just have the one hand. Okay. All right. Go ahead, Liz. Thank you. My name is Liz Ley, 516 Haveril Street. Um, I'm the parent of a
RISE student who attends summer camp at the high school from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and who is also on an IEP. And while my child doesn't qualify for extended school year programming, he still really benefits from the RISE camp and the use of the outdoor enclosed play
space. I'm here to urge the select board and the town to take into account the unique needs of all students at the high school rise location, but in particular our extended school year students when planning and executing construction projects on school grounds. Extended
school year services are not a privilege or an optional enrichment program. They are a legally protected component of special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which requires that students with disabilities
who need extended school year services receive a free and appropriate public education and they must be provided with those services beyond the regular school year. Extended school year services are designed to prevent substantial regression of skills and to help students maintain the progress they've
worked so hard to achieve during the school year. For many families, there are no alternatives. Without extended school year, our children are at serious risk of falling behind. My child, for example, struggles with alopment. Outdoor play is a vital part of his
summer school day, but doing so near a street without a fenced in play area raises really significant safety concerns. Another mom uh at the RISE program sent me a picture of him sitting on the street today and while he was listening and paying attention, I can't
always promise that with his challenges, he'll be able to stay safe. These programs were planned with outdoor secure spaces in mind. If construction removes access to those spaces, the town needs to ensure that contractors are
required within the contract to provide safe enclosed alternatives for our children outdoors. At a minimum, I'm here to ask for better coordination between town project managers and the school district. Construction timelines and notice should not be driven by crew
availability alone. They must be planned with our most vulnerable learners in mind and communicated in a way that allows schools and families to plan for contingency and to ensure our children's safety and access to education. Thank you for your time and attention to this
really important matter. Thank you. Anybody else online? Not seeing any other hands. Thank you. I'm sorry. It's Mattie's name. So used to Jackie. Thank you. Anybody else? Carla, I guess. Two
minutes. Name and address. Carla Nazaro 64 Lawrence Road. Um just in re um my comments will be to um in terms of construction times, it was
planned to be during the summer for a reason. Right now at the high school, there are three construction projects going on. I'm actually very impressed that our um facilities and engineering departments were able to get the
contractors to be on school grounds doing school related projects during the summer. Um the Rise preschool area right now was not suitable for ages 3 to five
and the the the um the the structure of it wasn't safe. It needed to be repaired. Um so it in the hopes of being the having the least disruption to the community, it was done
during the summertime. Sounds. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Last chance online. All right. Nobody else. Thank you. All right. We'll move on to
town manager report. Okay. Thank you. So, just to address the rise preschool um playground issue since it came up tonight. Um and I and I'll agree with everything Carla said on that. These projects are done during the
summer to be less disruptive. Um, we bid this out and the bid came back very quickly. I mean, I think the bid was done June 26th. Um, it was awarded June 30th. Um, and so we were on a very tight time frame. We're on sort of contractor
time once we entered down this path. Um, I'm very appreciative of the work that CPAC does um, and what they do to protect our most vulnerable children. I'm very sympathetic to that. um this playground needed work and we worked with the school department uh hand inand
on this uh throughout the project. I talked to Dr. Milchky today um and and he agreed I mean he was well aware as people are aware our people were aware and we agreed that this was an appropriate time frame to do this. I I apologize for the disruption. It will
only be hopefully a few weeks and then you'll have a newer playground there. Um, and at some point a lot of that equipment gets moved over to the Kllum when the kilum was built. So I I did send an email to the select board on it just to clarify when I knew this was coming up tonight. Um, so I do apologize
for the disruption, but it really could not be helped and both the schools and the town are on the same page with this. So I just wanted to say that. Um, I can move on to the remainder of the report now. So on June 28th, we had Porchfest in various locations in Reading. Um, I
went to the few of the venues this year. It was a fun time. A little bit of rain, but a big thank you to Alan Folds and Ace Folds and the entire Porch Porchfest committee for again pulling this off this year. I think they had 90 performers. Um, and I'm realizing that
we have some really talented people in Reading. As I go to these locations and hear people sing and play instruments, it's just incredible that this is all happening right in Reading. So, I'm thankful for that. It's it's an event I I don't miss every year. In terms of the curbside pickup of old trash and
recycling containers, that's happening through July and August on Saturdays. You can check our website for the dates for your pickup times. Um, we've told Republic not to take away old containers during the week. I guess there was an issue with that. Um, they they're well aware of that now. That won't happen.
And we're working to replace some of the containers that were taken um because residents could still use the old trash containers, although we encourage the new containers. So, um, but check the website for your dates throughout the summer. Just to clarify real quick so everyone knows so there's no confusion.
Okay. My trash is picked up on Fridays. Yes. Which means my trash gets picked up on Friday and then that Saturday that's on your timetable. That is when they would take my barrels. Yes. So that everyone else can scale that out. If their trash is Wednesday,
right? Then on your schedule you have online then that Saturday is when you would leave that out. the Saturday and it's it's online so it's it's related to your trash pickup day which Saturday you have but in talking to DPW was very
successful this Saturday we had 75% of the people left their old bins out and were collected so we're making a lot of progress there and I'll also remind people again I've reminded them before they can bring their own traers to the DPW yard any day Monday through
Friday 7:30 to 2:30 and just drop them off themselves if they prefer Thank you. Um I'm happy to announce we have a new police sergeant. Noah Clark was sworn in this month. Um he's been with the department since 2021. He previously
have served as our armorer and licensing officer since 2022. Um he's a great addition to the command staff and I want to thank want to thank him for stepping up and congratulate him on his promotion. Also um a big big news today too. We we
completed the process to be a green community finally after many years of hard work by a lot of people. Um we will receive the official designation from the state at an event we're planning later in August. We have a couple dates that I've sent to the select board. Um
that event will be held right here in Reading. We will actually receive the designation from state officials. So more information on that soon. And um thank you to everybody involved. As I said, it took many years to complete and so I see this is a major milestone for the town to finally be a green
community. Um, as we start to discuss budgets, we have an agenda item tonight that Sharon Angstrom, our CFO, will be discussing. Um, I wanted to mention that we have scheduled our first financial forum of the season. That is going to be on
September 17th, Wednesday night, 7 7 o'clock at the library with the finance committee, obviously, select board and um school committee as well. And that will sort of formally kick off our budget process, although we're getting a head start this year uh by bringing things to the select board way ahead of
time. Uh but that will be the official financial forum. We'll probably have a second one that we're working on scheduling as well. I spoke with the MBTA this week. um they are scheduling a meeting with the writing delegation and town staff um over the next few weeks um
probably by the end of July to discuss their progress on the sound study, the air quality study, the traffic study, the site location study that we requested. Um after that, they want some feedback from the town and from the delegation. They will schedule a public
meeting which I've been asking for until the public will see the presentation and have their feedback heard. So that hopefully public meeting will be later this summer, early fall and I'll keep you posted on when the date uh of the reading delegation and MBTA meeting is
to talk about this internally. Um better communication with the public has been one of my goals for a long time. We want to build stronger connections with residents and improve how we communicate. And so we're embarking on a project um to better understand residents needs, interests,
and how best to get the word out to town residents about town resources and events and opportunities. So we have started a a short communications survey which people can find on our website. We also posted it on social media. It's a
quick survey, only 10 questions. Um, so we encourage the public to take that and let us know how we're doing, what we can improve on, if they want to see a different way to communicate because communication is key. We want people to be in the know and um, we want to hear that feedback from residents. So um,
I'll I'll end the the report on that. Please send us your communication issues um, so we can work on better communication with residents. That it. That's it until community spotlight. Did you have anything or um No, I have nothing.
Okay. All right. So 720 community spotlight. Okay. Community spotlight. So today I wanted to shine a little bit of a spotlight on teamwork. And Chris, I know you touched on this, but on July 9th, our fire department responded to a large
structure fire at 186 Summer Al. This was a large, complicated incident that rose to three plus alarms. Um, the fire started at 1:00 am and took several hours to extinguish. I'm extremely proud of the incredible hard work of our fire
department and our mutual aid partners on this. Um, they were there all night. I I didn't show up until morning after everything was done. Um, but I could see all the hard work that went into it. Our chief himself was out there fighting the fire and um was pretty exhausted after
the event. So, I want to thank them, but also like I said, teamwork. We had an extraordinary amount of teamwork from other town departments. So, the police department did a fantastic job keeping the scene safe and they use their drone. We have a drone team in Reading. I don't know if everybody knows that. Um to to
look to see if there were any hot spots. So, you fly the drone above the building and you can see what's smoking and smoldering. Um, our DPW was was crucial in helping with the fire investigation afterwards and also increasing safety on the scene. And I'm told they removed a
large amount of water that had collected under the structure um and and helped there. And also our mechanical division uh kept all the all the um all the vehicles operating so that the fire could be put out. So, um, the importance of this and cooperation, it's not found
everywhere, and I can't overstate how lucky we are in Reading to have these departments working together, um, on a on an issue like this. The fire did not spread to other houses in the historic district, preventing possible property damage or even injury. Um, so I want to
thank everybody, all the town employees who answered the call on that. We really did yman's work. And one final note um for business congratulations. I'd want to congratulate Bunrady Tavern on their 10th anniversary in Reading. They opened
10 years ago shortly after I started here in Reading. And I remember is and her staff hustling to get everything ready for their grand opening and we were working on getting permits approved here and and it was it was such a big deal that they were coming to Reading. That was 10 years ago. I can't believe that. So, congratulations. And I
understand that just this week, Unrades was featured on the TV show Phantom Gourmet. And I think you can find a video of that online. I watched it myself. It's a nice fiveminute video. So, again, a big congratulations to Isish and Funratties for all they've accomplished. And we wish you many more
years of success here in Ready. Thank you. Thanks, Matt. And I didn't know a lot of what happened at the fire either until what you just explained. So, I'm really appreciative of everybody that assisted. Thank you.
Um, all right. So, 7:25, right on time, is the public hearing discuss and vote on traffic amendments. Do I have a motion to open the hearing, Karen? Motion to open the hearing on traffic amendments. Second, she have to read the
Yes. You have to read the notice. Read the notice. to the inhabitants of the town of Reading. Turn your microphone. Thank you. Sorry, Mr. Chairman. I'm sorry. I apologize for interrupting. I don't I wanted to just before we
started the hearing, um there is a truck in the parking lot trying to remove a dumpster from the parking lot and there are three vehicles blocking um just from the angle. So, if it's all right with you, there's a dumpster in the parking lot that's not supposed to be there and so
they're here to remove it. Um, it's not related to the town. And there are three um Toyota sedans that are parked in the way. Um, and if anybody is happen to be in this meeting that might be there parked against the back of the parking lot, be great if you could move. I think
we have room now in the parking lot. Staff have gone home. Um, so thank you very much. I apologize. No worries. No, we don't want people getting towed. Get to the bumpster out of there.
To the inhabitants of the town of Reading, please take notice that the select board of the town of Reading will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, July 15th, 2025 at 7 p.m. in the select board meeting room at Town Hall 16 LOL Street Reading. Mass are also available remotely on Zoom to act on proposed
changes to the following traffic and parking regulations. Amendment number 2025-6, limit parking between the hours of 7 am to 5:00 pm on weekdays from August 25th through June 30th without a Barrow's neighborhood resident or Barrow's school facility
permit. Amendment number 2020-7 limit parking on the following streets without a Barrow's neighborhood resident permit. Arcadia Avenue, Edgemont Avenue, Stewart Road, Shelby Road, Monroe Avenue, Garrett Road, and Arnold Avenue.
Amendment number 2025-8. Limit parking a vehicle between the hours of 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays from August 25th through June 30th on sections of Longwood Road. A copy of the proposed documents regarding this topic will be in the select board packet on
the website at www.reingmma.gov. All interested parties are invited to attend the hearing in person or remotely via Zoom or may submit their comments in writing or by email to town manager readingmma.gov by the order of Matthew Cornell's town manager.
Thanks Karen. Um so who is going to be presenting this matter? This is Deputy Amandola. You snuck in. Deputy Chief Amad's um good evening Deputy Chief Amandola. Um I wasn't going to plan on re uh doing our whole presentation unless you need
me to discuss it again. Um the only updates I was going to give you. Um some of you uh noticed that we had said placard or sticker and some people said it was kind of complicated. So at our police department, we plan to do both. If somebody wants a sticker permanently, they're in that neighborhood all the
time, they can get a sticker. If they want a plaque card, especially for the teachers, they can interchange that. So we'll offer both to the residents. Um, I was able to talk to uh Austin Prep today about the construction that they are planning and where they're at and when that's going to start. Um, they hope to
start the extra parking lot spaces around August 23rd. Um, and they said their contract will try to do it as soon as possible. The earliest they would see it finished is November. So, I always like to add several months to any con, you know, construction project. So, I
definitely think we're going to get into some of the winter months and that's why we have to act now to make the Barrow's neighborhood safe. Um, I've heard nothing in the last since the last meeting um opposed to that area except for today um the letters that you received. Some other areas that u we've
heard requested to also be kind of added to this or have some type of regalization was West Hill Circles asking to maybe have at least one side parking only. I know there's residents from Selfridge Road that also have problems. Uh we're trying to look at everything and not restrict every road.
I was trying to keep it mostly to the Barrows neighborhood because that's where we have that safety problem with students and school and the most traffic. Longwood is very narrow. So that's why we asked for that. West Hill Circle is kind of the same thing. We would have to put signage on front lawn. So we were trying to maybe not do that,
but if that's what the residents would want. But again, we don't know how far to keep pushing it out because they're going to go somewhere. Selfridge Road is pretty wide. The problem there more is the trespassing through the backyards and that's something we're going to have to start out early in the summer um sorry schoolyards to get a hold of. So
that's just where we're at with that project of information. Is there any way you know we have a lot on our agenda tonight and we cannot see the speaker and the folks at home cannot see the speaker at the podium. Um is there any way we can shift the camera or because if we pull
this forward we block you so I don't want to do that but I'm good. Karen does my being. So wait, what's happening? You can't see Amandola. I think that's on here, but remotely it's different. Here we're seeing lots of people, but maybe on RCTV
it's just a dedicated person. I think this is just confusing. It's never like this remotely. When the person's speaking, the camera focuses the person. It should be remotely. All right, I'll pull it up and check. Okay, thanks. Yes. No, we definitely don't want four squares being brought. No, I don't think it's four
squares. I'm just worried that the speakers including residents and deputy chief Amandola are are off camera because the camera is not quite pointed correctly. I can confirm that we cannot see the speaker at the podium on Zoom. On Zoom. Zoom.
So that is what they're seeing. So on Zoom. Okay. So who controls Zoom in in here? Is that us? So actually hi. I just want to clarify if you pin there's two different views in this in the um room right now. Um, you can actually pin one of the screens.
So, if you see it says town hall select boardroom, if you click and you hover on the top right of that image on your Zoom, um, you can do replace pin and so you can see the deputy chief or you can change it to see the group. Yep, you're accurate. Yep, that's spot
on. And if I could address maybe some of the things that Letters had said today about we don't have any other type of resident parking besides downtown. We do have several areas in town that are reading resident stickers. Um, but that's because they're close to the tennis courts or Memorial Park where we kind of
felt we needed to leave it open to the public. Um, I don't see the Barrows neighborhood and Arcadia AB as something that needs to remain open. Um, and again, this was for the school traffic safety. So, that's why this would be the first time we would want the residential only in that area. also because we don't
know how many students from Austin prep live in Reading and I think they would devise a plan to get all the cars with the reading stickers onto that road and switch out. So that's why this was proposed not for the regular reading sticker but its own sticker in placard
Carla. Uh sorry lost my train of thought. Come back to me. I lost lost my train of thought. Oh I I got it back. Sorry. success. Did the construction get moved up? I thought it was next year.
They were saying that dependent upon money, they could start it soon or next year. So, it looks like they're started. We talked to them today. Okay. They said they're starting their driveway first and then getting to these extra spaces. And how many spots are they going to add? Believe it was in the 90s. And it's
still It wasn't enough still, but it's a lot more. Yes. Okay. I just want to I thought it was next year. That's good news. Thank you. Anybody else before I open to the public? Karen. Sure. Um, thank you for that and that is
good news. I'm I'm glad you were able to reach out to them. So, you know, one alternative if we're able to confirm that they're really going to get going that this could be more of a temporary solution um than permanent solution because, you know, it the residents
really have to be concerned with this problem to ask for more signs on their lawns. Um, and you know, the residents of that neighborhood in my mind, you know, that's where you live. And this is not these aren't main streets. These aren't Franklin Streets, not double
yellow lines. So, I I have a concern. Um, I have a concern that we need to prioritize the residents on those roads, but but if if Austin Prep is able to really make good on this promise, then,
you know, that could be a potential uh opportunity um to address some of the other concerns. I mean, I hope that this is temporary anyways, no matter how we enact it someday, and I'll be back here asking you to rescend it all. Um the hope the plan was to make more larger signs at
the beginning of each road, not the regular signage every 10 20 feet. So make bigger signs at the beginning and hit it heavy with enforcement to those students at the beginning of the year. So they're well aware they can't park there and over at
Green Street over there that area. There's not special resident parking over there. It's still open to resident only parking. They don't have their own specific area section parking like we're about to do here.
No. So, um it is Bankraftoft A has resident parking only because they didn't want like the baseball and the sports teams there. Um sorry, Harrison is another one that has certain times with resident parking sticker only. There's only one
other neighborhood in town, Gold Street, that has a house that has two dedicated spaces, and that's just something very old. Okay. So, this would be a first in learning where we are making it now isolated to that section because that's the biggest complaint that obviously we got today
which it's you know not saying it's a little hard to to pivot or make decisions based off emails that we got today but you know it seems to be a issue obviously um and I can kind of see where they're
coming from. you live in Reading, you you should be able to park wherever you want in Reading. And if there's a specific sticker that you can't get somewhere, we're now saying the president as opposed to everywhere else where we can do whatever we want with you have a um like I have the resident
and the depot sticker business thing. I can park wherever I want. I have no worries. But now even I can't park over there which is it's taken me two years to uh believe in this as well that it's needed in this neighborhood. I have always been of this is public streets. Sorry, we'll make it
as safe as possible but I don't think the reading regular sticker will help their neighborhood. That's why I've this is the first time I've ever been uh on board with it as well. And again, I hope it's temporary. I guess the saving grace is that if they are actually going to go
ahead and and move up their parking to being because I'm on board with Carlo. I thought this thing was next year or not even may maybe even happening for two years. So if you're serious and this is only an inconvenience in the in the beginning, I mean I I guess it makes it
a little easier for everybody obviously. Um, but obviously we'll open it up to the public so we can see what everyone else has to say. Unless you add something, Melissa, before I do that. Nope, I'm good. Thank you.
All right. If anyone would want to speak, just Sure. Know what the emails were in regards to were they Austin Prep parents? It's it's people that live in Reading that want to be able to park in the in the areas that
are over there that now are being restricted from being able to park there. So, take for example me, which it's not me, but I will not actually be able to park over there if this gets enacted, whereas other people can that live there, which obviously makes more
sense. I agree. But that's kind of the the seminal. I just find it interesting because I would you come to the post? I I just find that interesting. Name address, please. Sorry. Kristen Hags, 53 Arcadia. Um I just find that interesting because I work nights, so I'm in my neighborhood.
I have a dog. I walk my dog around that neighborhood. The only people that park on our neighborhood besides Austin Prep are literally the residents if they can even get a spot on the street. So I don't know who, you know, we have obviously we have the Bar School, we
have a unique neighborhood. Everything that Christine said, I 100% agree with. It's a unique situation. This has gotten incredibly terrible over the past few years because of the school basically admitting to taking on more students than they can
handle. They're overcrowded. They're doing it for money. It's 36 $36,000 a year to go there. Um I watched their meeting. They said they had no funding for their parking. It was going to cost 2 million and 5 million for the other
part of the project. They had no funding in process for that yet that they were going to have to start that funding. They said that at their last meeting and they originally submitted that in 2019. So I don't believe anything Austin Prep says. If you look at the parking that
they're proposing, it doesn't say anywhere it's student specific. So how do we know they're even going to use it for students? That extra parking that they're using. They don't have parking for parents. They don't have parking for visitors. They don't have parking for like when there's the huge games and everything and they're really trying to
promote their sports. There's nowhere to park there. When they have their graduation, they're literally taking over our entire street because they don't have any parking and they only allow two tickets, the prom, everything. I don't live in the city for a reason.
And besides that factor, it is completely unsafe. I've seen children nearly get taken out by Austin Prep kids on their phone. I've talked to the kids directly. They don't listen. They don't care. I've literally parrolled the street because I
get home and I worked like every night last year. I get home right when they're parking on the street. They are dangerous drivers. They they've almost taken out children. This needs to be addressed and I understand that it might be frustrating, but I think that what is
being proposed makes the most sense. Austin Prep has refused to work with the town. They've been given many options that they've declined and I don't believe anything that they say and I I watch their conservation meeting and you know I I I don't believe what they're
saying. So I I also think that they're not being completely honest with how many kids um they have that want to park. Could I just ask you a follow-up question? So when you mentioned that they had a meeting, you're referring to the conservation meeting, not an Austin
Prep specific. No, they had an a they they had a meeting regarding what they wanted to do with the softball field and the parking with conservation. And I listened to it and Dr. Hickeyi said right then and there and that was I don't even know was that May they had no funding for this project that it was going to be 2
million for the parking and now they're saying, "Oh yeah, we've got the money. We're going to break ground." And he you know they they originally submitted that in 2019. So, you didn't plan, you haven't like been trying to get funding. They have an Austin Prep fund. They have money. They they did various things. If
you look on their web page, you can see all the things they've done and they put the money towards they're not putting it towards parking because they're using Arcadia as a parking lot. They don't care about our children. They don't care about the kids that walk to school. I've literally seen small little baby children almost get taken out in the crosswalk by teenagers. I am in
healthcare. I know how I know what can happen if a kid gets hit. And I telling these kids are going 40 m an hour down the street. Austin Pep has a strict rule for their parking with their kids. If their kids don't follow the speed limit, they idle, they pass the buses,
whatever, they lose their parking. I tell them, they say, "Oh, we can't do anything." Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, well. They don't care that they're going to take out a kid in the crosswalk. But they'll take that kid's parking away if they don't follow the rules on their campus. But we can just like have it be
the wild wild west on Arcadia. I It's not right. And it's a unique neighborhood. And I really think this will push Austin Prep to actually break ground like they claim they're going to do. Thank you. First name and address, please.
Uh Bob Sherman. I live at 43 Arcadia. have I lose so I have total view of that crosswalk and I've seen some near misses. Uh about 38 years ago I came upon an accident where a little kid was hit and I never want to see that again
and that child did not make it and I just don't want to have to go through that again. So I'm for the blacket program. That's what's going to work. But there's one thing I want to mention. You're talking about the new parking lot they're putting in, 94 additional spaces, and I wasn't really prepared to
speak tonight, but there is a piece that talks about how many kids they have, how many teachers they have, how many parking spots they have, and with the 94, they still have like 60 spaces for kids that they kids are going to have to park someplace else. Arcadia A is the
easiest place for them to go. And usually we see 45 cars lined up in front of our houses. that's what's causing the issue with the speeding. Um, so I'm just saying that's not going to solve the problem. So if that's what you're waiting for to solve the problem and they're trying to bring in more kids,
too. So we're still going to have the issues if you don't vote this in. So I'm hopeful that you do. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else in the room? And then I'll go online after her. Hi, good evening everybody. My name is
Janette Vigorita. I live a resident attendant take place in Reading and I just wanted to share a quick thought about the parking permit discussion. I respectfully request that the board consider any parking permit policy allows for all reading residents to access, not just those in a particular neighborhood. That that could be as
simple as one permit per household. As a taxpayer as well as a contributor to the town's infrastructure, um I feel I should have equal access to all public ways. Limiting parking permits to only residents to one area unfairly excludes all other residents who also live there,
support the community, and abide by local rules or who even visit, you know, friends that live in those neighborhoods. We could be having a get together or party during the week, whatever it is. Um, we should not be penalized for the action limiting parking only to residents um, excludes
others and we should not be penalized for the actions of non-residents or a few individuals who may have violated the parking policies. In conclusion, I want to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak, but more importantly, thank you for considering a fair and inclusive approach to all ready residents.
Thank you. Anyone else in the room before I go on Zoom? Maddie, anybody on Zoom want to speak? Um, I don't see any hands, but I see one person unmuted. Yes, that me.
Yes. iPhone 45 name. Yes. Sorry. Um, I don't have a hand on this. I'm sorry. Um, Margaret Nelson and Robert Nelson. We live on uh 63 Edgemont Avenue. Um, I want to commend um Chief Deputy Chief Amandola on her work on
this project. we've been working together for her with for two years to try to alleviate this problem to keep our kids safer at Barrows. Um I don't think unless you live there you can actually appreciate the mess that this traffic situation has
been over the last couple of years. It really puts our children at risk, the Barrows kids at risk and it's very very very scary. Um I am in total agreement with this parking permit um resident permit thing. Um, I just have concerns
which I did email um a town manager about. One, that it's not going to cost us anything. Two, how is it going to be enforced? And three, the Barrow school parents, will they be have access to a an some
kind of um um sticker, which I think Chief Eandola addressed with a placard. So if anyone other resident wants to park there, if they could get a placard at the police station for no cost, I don't see it as an issue at all. And I think it's a a
wonderful idea. That's all I want to say. All right. Thank you. Anybody else on Zoom? Anyone else in the room before we close the hearing? So Karen, can I Oh, I could say if uh if
I may, I just want to say something. So I did I spoke personally with Dr. Hickeyi last week and he assured me that he is moving forward with the parking there. He knows that that's not going to be quite enough at 90 plus spaces will help but not get us all the way there. So I suggest a combination. We we go
with Austin Prep's parking solution, but also have the placards uh because there will be overflow into that neighborhood. So but he has been responsive to me. um and and he's well aware of the issue. Um he's gotten a lot of the same calls we have. He couldn't be here tonight, but I
told him that I would mention that we had spoken. So, thanks. Am I allowed to comment again on something that's As long as it's 30 seconds, I'll give you an exception. So, Kristen Hagster from 50 Barcadia. Dr. Hickeyi is in here for a reason.
Okay. He can break ground and prove that he's serious. He said in May he had no money. I don't believe anything he says. I'm still willing to bet he's going to start on those softball fields before the parking and it still doesn't say it's student parking. Okay. And it still
doesn't solve there. It doesn't cover the amount of students that drive there. Yeah. He realizes that that it's not going to solve. It just doesn't do anything about it. Okay. Can I just speak for a minute as well? Well, we'll close the hearing and then
and then I'm going to go around the board again. You know what I mean? Okay. So, Karen, can I get a motion to close the hearing? Move to close the hearing regarding traffic amendments 2025-6, 2025-7, and 2025-8. Second.
Seconded by Karen. Any discussion? Uh, roll call vote. Melissa, you're muted. Yes. Sorry. Yes. Karen Rosillis. Yes. Uh, the public hearing is closed.
Um, so I'll start off with Melissa. You want to dispute? Um, I I'll pass. I I'll pass right now. It's probably a good thing. Carlo, I guess Chief Amadola, if you could. So,
have you looked at that grid and when this gets enacted and enforced, where are these kids going to go? Well, that's why I'm saying my our first focus is on the safety of the Barrow's neighborhood and then we're going to have to take it piece by piece after that. And if the if a street is wide
enough to allow their parking and there's no kids at the same time, no parents picking up and dropping off at the same time, then we're just going to have to try to be there for enforcement and how they drive. But the bigger concern in this neighborhood was the parents coming and going at the exact same time, all the students. So that's
why we have to focus on this and then we'll have to see where they go and if they can park on both sides. If we have to bring come back, we had to ask you to restrict things. We can do an emergency temporary thing for up to 30 days if we need to. Um, no parking once you're inside. Okay. I I guess I haven't I've never had
a student over in Austin Prep. I've been there for a few games, but never really scrutinized the area. And if anyone in the room can answer this, you're telling me as of today, they can't get 30, 40 cars on grass or
cur like anywhere. They refuse to. I mean, they can. We've asked them to. I think they can use their whole right-hand lane and then they'll come back and say, "Oh, our safety people said you can't or our fire safety people say you can't." I'm like, "We didn't say it, but they're all He's telling me they won't do it." There's
certain reasons why they won't go on the grass, why they won't use the right-hand turn lane. Like, you don't need two exits. I don't care if traffic's backed up in your own place. So, they won't do any of that that we've asked. Yeah. And this is my point. This has been so aggravating to deal with this.
It's not fair to this board. It's not fair to these residents. It's not fair to that neighborhood. And the fact that Dr. Hickeyi or anyone from the school has shown up here once to answer our questions is a shame. So I I I hope you give out as many tickets as you can that
we're allowed to do because it's they've never tried to solve this problem on their own. And now we're making more work for us, more work for staff, more work for the police. And it's just not fair. And I don't know if any of them are watching, but this is a
disgrace for a private school of that stature to have this born on us and the residents. So, I know we can't make them do anything, but I just hope we can give as many tickets as we can and have cars towed. I really don't care at this
point. This is just awful awful that we have to deal with this and take up an hour of our meeting for that BS. Thanks either, Taran. I'm just gonna say I concur. Karen concurs with Carlin.
I was gonna say the same thing. That's, you know, enjoy tonight. Let's go play the lottery. I guess I'm going to make it a forceome at this point. Um, I am an equal opportunity criticizer. If I am going to sit in this
chair and criticize somebody for not showing up to meetings ever, I mean, they did to one of them, but still, um, to not show up. Uh, it's the same thing here. Uh, Dr. Hickey has never showed up in here. I haven't seen him on any
conservation meetings, none of these things. Um, Chris, can I just interrupt for one second? I'm sorry. Yeah. So, I also spoke to Dr. Hickeyi about this because I um I just want to say I'm in full support of the residents in the
Bars neighborhood and this has to stop. But I also did speak do to Dr. Hickey and as like I've said before, my daughter does go to Austin Prep. She will have her license. So I just want to make that known. But I asked him if he was coming and he said that he told Matt he would come, but Matt said he didn't
need to be there. So I'm just throwing that out there before we start criticizing people. We at the board did not invite him to the meeting, which whether that's appropriate or not, but when he said he would come, he said Matt said he didn't
need to be there. I guess I respond. So I did, like I said, I had a conversation with Dr. Hickeyi. We talked about this meeting. Um, and he said he did not want to come to the meeting. He he said it, you know, I don't want to quote him, but it was he knew it was going to be, you know, a
very difficult meeting, but he was, you know, supportive of what we were doing. I said he said, you know, I said, you can come or not come. There's no way we can make you come. It's up to you. I left it with that with that. That's my recollection of that. I didn't say you can't come. I didn't say you have to
come. I said it's up to you. He he when I spoke with him, he knew that he was walking into a situation that people were upset with him rightfully so. Um but he said he would have come but he felt like that you said that he didn't need to be. I just wanted to
if that was his understanding he misunderstood. I called him to let him know about the meeting. I sent him over the public hearing notices so he knew so he couldn't say why you having this meeting without inviting me. We talked about are you coming to the meeting? At first he said something about like a
firing squad or whatever. You know, like I said, I don't want to quote him directly. That's my recollection. I understand. I said, "It's up to you." I said, "You don't have to come. You you certainly are free to come. It's up to you." But I didn't say you didn't you couldn't come to the meeting. You shouldn't come. I don't know.
You don't have to. I you know, we we had just agreed at that point that he can do what he wants. I wasn't sure walking in tonight if he or members of Austin Prep would be here or not. Um, but that that's that's fair. So that's and it was a private discussion between him and I
on the phone, but that's my recollection of the discussion. So Okay. Right. Well, I guess this just makes things so much more interesting. Um, but like I guess if he was here, he'd be able to answer to it. I I don't know what to say
at this point. Let's hope. I I think yeah, it's it's more along the lines where I know we got the emails today and I was kind of uh hesitant to just just wide sweeping do what we were going to do and then all of a sudden we get a sloth of emails that
you know another angle that I didn't consider myself but hearing that it's allegedly in very direct air quotes going to start breaking ground potentially next month.
um um have to vote this in now. I would just like to say if it is delayed where it's next year or something, perhaps we have to take into other considerations um that the other residents were making and maybe on a case by case, you know,
uh anyone can go down and get a permit local thing and we can handle it as needed, something like that in the future. But you just have to tell Matt or or you know send us an email that they're breaking ground in August, things are moving on and then we don't
have to you know worry at that point. We'll do hopefully that's the case. Um so yes for me I'm ready to vote on this as well. Last chance. Anyone else? Karen, can I have a motion for
um the three each one one by one? Motion to approve amendment 2025-6 to the traffic and parking regulations as presented. Second. Seconded by Karen. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote. Melissa,
yes. Carlo, yes. Karen Herrick, yes. Rose Gillis, Chris Haley, yes. Uh 50. Next. Move to approve amendment 2025-7 to the traffic and parking regulations as presented. Second.
Seconded by Karen. Any discussion? Seeing none, Melissa, you're muted. Yeah. Sorry. Yes. Yes. Sorry. Yes. Karen Herrick. Yes. Karen Rose Gillis. Yes.
And Chris Haywood. Yes. 5. Move to approve amendment 2025-8 to the traffic and parking regulations as presented. Second. Seconded by Karen. Any discussion? Uh, seeing none. Melissa,
yes. Carlo, yes. Karen Herrick, yes. Karen Rose Gillis, and Chris Hley, yes. 5 Z. Thank you. The police department will get a letter out to every resident that it's affected and we'll explain to them how we're going to move forward with it by this
month. And like I said, just keep us updated if if you see some patterns evolving or complaints or tweaks you can make. Absolutely. Karen. Um, yeah. I would love could you potentially invite us u when we found out when the the big
opening day is because I'd be happy to take a ride over there and take a look at the situation for the parking permit that start or the Austin Prep. I'm sorry. Opening day like when typically like oh school opening I believe it's September 3rd for Austin Prep but I'll keep posted.
Okay. Because they have a bunch of dates on their calendar but we have to go look at a chance to do that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right. Gateway Gateway computer's locked.
Yep. 7:55. Oh, we're only three minutes over. Andrew, Eastern Gateway priority planning update, page 11 of the packet. Thank you, Selective, for having me tonight. I'm Andrew Mcnick, the community development director for the town of Reading. I believe there are a
few slides. Maddie, you're probably pulling those up now. Great. Thank you. Uh so we can go ahead right to the next slide there. So tonight we wanted to give you an update and a quick refresh on this area in this project and its process with the
previous work to date and the work that is ongoing um under the current scope and contract. If I can quickly start with just a few thank yous. First and foremost to my staff and my peers in Olivia and Kevin, our senior planners who have done significant work to date,
asking the right questions, building out the right processes, taking the right notes and understandings away from our conversations. Secondly, to form and place our lead architectural consultant on this, specifically Michael Wang, uh their lead who's been working
with us very he is very thorough. He is very easy to work with. He is on the zoom tonight in case there are any specific questions for him and his experience or the process to date as well. Throw in JM Goldson and Austin for their help and engagement support to
date. And then I'd like to thank the steering committee who will discuss tonight um and their work throughout the process to date. Uh but they've been committed and a lot of great discussions. So just wanted to start with those thank yous. Um so tonight again we'll go over some examples the
work to date and our next steps. Um, I'll try to be quick and thorough at the same time. Maddie, if we can go to the next slide, please. So, just to set the stage for the context for those unfamiliar with what we have deemed the Eastern Gateway going back um five to six years ago. The image
on the screen is um the ex a strong piece of the existing industrial district in town. Walkers Brook is to the plan right. Uh downtown is to the plan northwest. Ash Street and um South Main Street are
to the southwest. Uh the general context of the area is the existing industrial zone. There's about 60 to 65 acres highlighted there in that screen. Significant portion about 40 acres on what we call the north side of the district. The districts split between
the commuter rail line and there's significant um access challenges to each which is why we almost consider them as two different subdists between the north and the south. However, both maintain large commercial parcels. Everything is commercial in the area to date
commercial and ind light industrial. Um but this is the area of focus for the current scope of work. So, if we can go to the next slide, Maddie, just to set the stage on previous work and how we got here. This area has been highlighted in context as far back as
the economic development action plan, which was built in 2016. two areas highlighted as um what were deemed priority development areas which led to the process in 2019. If you remember what was called reimagine reading at the time working with Gamble
Associates um in that iteration to engage the community on significant on the opportunity to reimagine that area and what could be possibly presented there in future development scenarios. That did take a pause obviously in the
2020 to 2021 pandemic. We refocused on downtown and business support other priority areas during the that time and then just through that process right downtown zoning changes and MBTA communities and other really took precedent. Um but we did keep this in
mind as we tackled forward. So there was a refreshment in 2022 at the economic development summit at that time. And then there's been some ongoing um right ofway and corridor designs associated with that area from 2021 to the present which all really led to the scope of work that we're acting under to date
which is funded through a housing choice grant of about $100,000 and then some local contributions as well. So that's been fun that's funding this process and we're continuing the effort um based on those previous efforts with a little bit more significance in this case. If you
can go to the next slide please. So just for a refreshment back in 2019 this was an example presented from Gamble Associates based on the um public feedback during that process. What it's highlighting is general uses at the
highest level both existing and desired in the community that we heard from the date. Again, it's really high level at that bubble like information. But that was the intent of that process. Get the high level priorities and feedback. Things have changed since then, but just
keep this image in mind as we go forward. You can head to the next slide, please. So, in this scope of work and in this effort, again, we're building upon um and expanding the these previous efforts to date and really with the ultimate
goal to build a framework for future considerations that are directly related to zoning allowances and infrastructure. What this is is a very publicly engaging process. It's completely conceptual and visual right now, right? a lot of visuals to help support community
conversations that Michael is helping us build. Really to understand what's characteristic and fitting both in Reading as a whole and in the general area and geography. So reflecting on the area, identifying the local needs and wants to the next level, then putting
them on paper to see how we can act towards those things. We're we're tasked with doing the existing conditions analysis, zoning analysis of existing bylaws and regulations and really predominantly the uh conceptual buildouts and test fits which is what Michael has then brought on to do and is
doing a great job building out for us that we can take to the community engage as a whole um and find out what's appropriate and maybe what's not and where where is our appetite because this is a significant opportunity for zoning um in relation to that but also with
significant considerations for the town. And so that's why it's really important to make sure that as much feedback both from the general public and town leadership and yourselves is really drastic and super important to this process. What this is not and I want to
make it clear is actual development proposals. Once we release drawings on private land and things, right, people can get confused um or it's a challenge to say this is not actual the development that um is being proposed, but it's informing the zoning allowances
to possibly encourage something close to it in the future. This process in and of itself is not a full zoning proposal. Nothing's coming into town meeting this year. This is really to help CPDC understand zoning priorities for the area if they would like to act on it
which then further informs you guys town meeting and the general public as well. So we can head to the next slide please. Just some quick examples. Uh this one is a district plan process. You can see the bubbles here. Um this is Belchure Town in a district master plan that they
built with form in place. Um so you can see the bubbles here almost similar to the slide we had with the 2019 work with Gamble Associates started out this high level use identification where were they where are they where can we go and if
you head to the next slide this was the ultimate result of that process right that got down to the more technical level that started to get into building placements access points and um the real intensity that it could promote
and have in a district. So that's the ultimate process for getting here, which is why I caution again like that's not an actual development application. Neither is ours, but they're meant to inform community conversations. If you can go to the next slide,
these quick examples are really just to get the brains thinking on site capacity on the north side of the district. um general way in some of the existing areas like I mentioned it's about 40 acres on that side. Um so as an example
Daskam Road in Andover which many might be familiar with is a 15 acre site with about 600,000 square feet of usable area between residential and commercial. For context our existing site holds 300,000 square feet. Daskam Road is about 15
acres of um general area. So, a little bit smaller than that north side of the district, but again, significant opportunity um for what could be one day if that's where the town wish to go. If you head to the next slide, this is a more local example. Um
Vinsfield Marketplace many might be familiar with um and enjoy going to Vinsfield Marketplace is a bit bigger. It's about 90 plus acres versus our 60 65 in the entire area but and we did rotate it to fit but again just to get
the brain thinking about like the site capacity and what could be held there in a future scenario. You can go to the next slide. So just to summarize some of the existing uses again that north side of the district which is home to the market
basket general way stop and shop for cheese and longhorns. Um it's about 350,000 square feet of existing commercial area almost three4ers of which is that one general way site alone. Um so significant uh parcel there
and significant opportunity potential and existing uses there and strong existing businesses. It is mostly singlestory variety retail on that side of the district. Um, which is why some of that square footage and the floor area ratio uh trends a little lower, but
it does home that anchor use, right? Those grocery is so important to reading, so important to maintain in any future scenario because those are our only local grocerers to date. Um, and we've been talking through that
there is high turnover and some vacancy in the area both in general way and across the area. Really, as we talked through with property owners, the lack of um, street faces and visibility is a challenge for business in that site. If you're not from Reading, you don't
really know it's there. Um, besides Market Basket, there's not a lot of attraction there. So, it's been a challenge to maintain. Um, and that's something we can hope to try to solve in policy and regulations. The south side is home to RMLD campus and some more
light industrial uses. Um, the DPW is located over there for Corporation, Barbers Trucking. Little different in terms of the lots and lot sizes and their ownership. Um, but still well worth considering in this process and with the community at large. We can go
to the next slide, please. So qualitatively both in previous efforts and the effort to date um I just want to express at the high level what we're hearing back in 2019 we heard um components desired around compact
development transitionary development scalable development um but a lot of strong feedback on enhancing walkability and connectivity to the area cultural and public placemaking events that it's just lacking right now. the ability to
attract and retain businesses and market this as a destination and market reading as a whole as a destination. Um from the commercial side there's public private partnership for open space right of way other we've held to date an openhouse
kickoff which was held in late December mid December of 2024 to kick off this scope of work in this process. We engaged around some of the priorities we heard in that those previous efforts to see what was being reinforced and what was new thoughts. Um we did hear a
lot of similar thoughts in terms of but really expanded upon now trending towards those mixed uses right mix of uses being residential commercial light industrial um to sustain those connectivity improvements remain a high priority integration of open spaces the
area just does not have any green space I think it's 90% impervious area right now and even that 10% left I wouldn't call green space um so We've heard about that the diversity of buildings and types again that transition um from
commercial to residential important and of course as always with zoning and new development but there is a lot of questions around what that means for the town at large public services. Does it have impact? How do we solve those uh concerns and mitigate those concerns as
we move forward? Um all good conversations to have. We did then release a public survey based off of the openhouse feedback. um it had about 2 to 300 responses. We would have loved 500 plus um but we're using it at least to
continue to inform the priorities. It took an extra step in terms of priority um in these significant areas. Um but again reinforce the idea of creating new mixed use pedestrianization community use um in the area. And then
those those connection points remain a significant concern and a significant challenge to be able to get to and from the area. Next slide please. So we are working with the resident steering committee that was helped established to help this process both in
its understanding of the discussions that we need to hold and the engagement. Uh we have representatives from the planning board, the climate committee and the finance committee as well as general residents. We do have a select board representative that I know happened a little bit in a typical fashion. Karen was on and then
was elected to the um select board, but that is we are very happy with the committee to date. The conversations I think have been very strong. There's been other general residents welcome to attend and they've asked questions on the topic, the process, the plan and I think it's really helped informed a lot
of community conversations around this. We've had a general um variety of topics to date starting at general streetscape and placemaking opportunities that commercials face the needs and challenges in the commercial development sector, transit and connections, layout
and space etc etc but also strongly working with them to inform the engagement practice uh which we'll get to in the next steps. We go ahead to the next slide. So this is just a early example um of how the process can start to evolve
right we take the site and at the conceptual level start thinking what are possible access points both in out of the site and um in the site that we can try to foster in future regulations and promote for and then based around that
where can the buildings go where can the open space go where can anchors go what's the scale from one side to the other how does this really start to foster a development scenario and different intensities and different allowances. And so we've been working
towards building some concepts in and around thought exercises like this that we're hopeful to narrow down, bring to the larger community um and some focus areas to really engage with the community as a whole, get some reactions to it, understand the concerns around
them um and hope to build support um in the priorities we've heard to date and understand where the areas left we need to tackle. If you want to go to the next slide, please. So, those next steps in the short term for the summer, um, we're looking to
refine and condense some early concepts. We'd like to take them to focus group meetings. Actually, that's scheduled for July 30th at this time. We've got two focus groups looking to schedule to date. One being directly abuing neighborhoods. We did a mailing to about
300 properties directly abuing that district. Um we've gotten some good uh response rates so far. Hopefully we continue towards that uh July 30th date to see that trick out trick up. Please reach out if you received the letter and are interested. And we'd like to engage
with town meeting members as well in a focus group again as town leaders and good people that are fe on the ground active to hear from their constituents to inform them of the process. They're also very well informed about zoning process and zoning bylaws because they've dealt with it in the past. And
so understanding from them the challenges that they've seen in zoning bylaws and understanding zoning allowances and how it translates to development, making sure we can get out in front of that. Um that if something is brought to them in the future, they're aware of it. We've tried to get
out in front of some concerns um and some opportunity for them. We're meeting with property owners um in the area to discuss their intents, their thoughts on this process and possible allowances and the priorities to date. And then we'll continue with our planning meetings
internally, right? Reaching out to public safety, school committee, and the school department I'd like to reach out to really just to talk about growth in general and what that means for their divisions. Right? It comes up time and time again as we um engage in zoning and
housing allowances if this continues this way. So, want to meet with them, want to understand what they think about growth um and managed growth and maybe not directly this district, but just growth in general and what it means. Um in the fall, we're hopeful for some
grant awards related that we submitted for this district. Um a broader commercial market analysis just to inform us of retail trends, commercial trends um that we could look to write for if if desired. And also we wrote for a fiscal impact study to say if we allow
housing here and because of the significant scale of these lots um what would that mean to the tax base? What would that mean to the town budget? Where's the opportunity? Um here for benefit and new growth, right? New growth is a need. Um so hopeful for
those awards. If we don't get them, we'll try to figure something out. We are looking to host public workshops um in and around again those concepts that we hope to refine with some of the focus groups further analyzing further refinements based from there and get to the final deliverable by the end of
calendar year that CPDC and the community can use. Next slide please. So again wanted to come tonight get you this update. I know a lot of work has been going on in the background. people are aware of this. Um, but we wanted to come to you to help us understand what
will help town leadership feel confident in the process and the results. What are the topics you'd be interested for us to bring to you or the entire community um to provide research and get feedback on? And then I just want to keep in mind the Walkers Brook Drive corridor redesign
work that is hopefully going to kick off in the next few weeks um through another grant fund. Um, I know it's been about a year since we've engaged around that, but we got another grant for that and that overlaps somewhat with this and the long-term intents and possibilities of the district if we advance um
simultaneously. So, keeping that in mind as well and knowing that that's coming down the road. And that was it tonight. Apologies if I went a little over time, but I'm here for questions. Thank you, Andrew. Board members,
Karen, um, thank you for the update. Um, could you make sure that the psycho board knows when the f the focus group is going to happen? Yep. We'd love to hear what Yeah. feedback is from the Yeah, we're hosting both hopefully on
the night of July 30th. Um, and we'll run them back to back. Okay. Um, transportation. Is there a potential transportation concept in there? So, not in terms of public transit. I think
the way we're thinking about it is like allowed uses possibly could inform this is a transit oriented district, right? It's next to downtown the highway interchanges there. There's a lot of considerations there, but um there is an existing bus line there that like if new
development happened, can that get into the site, have adequate access to and from downtown to get there and to the orange line. Can we work with the MBTA to maybe improve that bus line that picks people up at Walkersburg right now but doesn't drop them off where they get picked up? Does that make any sense? I
don't know. That's it. And that's probably easier to achieve a second station, which would be awesome. And MBTA is our regional local transportation. I don't see it happening. I I I'd love for them to prove me wrong and tell me
that they're being served. I look at other communities and they actually have regional transportation for the residents. I feel like we're getting the Oh, you have a train, you're all set. Yeah, I never say never. Um, but the bus is a significant opportunity and if the train could ever get a second
platform down there, especially if it's developed and allowed in a certain way, possibly, but it does that feels even longer term um than other. But and we have we have their attention. We have their attention. I I want you
know writing we need to be aggressive on this um because they like to say no and um you know that's you know that's a follow on that I could you know ask um that I could send to you and say could you have the MBTA really give us a
presentation on the regional transportation services that they should be providing that they do provide and help the select board understand how we're benefiting from it and and the residents because I certainly I don't understand how we're benefiting for we have limited very limited bus service
and I and and you know the town of Amesbury has people little buses circulating and picking people up and getting them where it's not a very efficient bus route plan. Okay. Well, they're not the only community that does it and so that's a whole another issue. At least they have
a little localish bus route. We and and we are supposed to have local transportation support and I'm not sure ours is that efficient either for the example you just mentioned, but it's also so limited in scope. Sorry, I meant ours is not very
efficient valley desperately familiar with the Mbury, but they this seems pretty happy. And she's like, "Oh, you must be like getting some resources from them." And I'm like, "Oh," she's like, "Oh, the MBTA is your local transportation
provider." I'm like, "Well, okay. I'll reach out." You know, it could be that I just don't understand. So, I would love No, we we can do that. That's a good idea. It's probably long overdue. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. Anyone else? Karen? Uh, I would like to commend Andrew and
Michael and it's been fabulous working with you and everybody on the steering committee has been fabulous. And I can't beg enough for residents to participate in the focus groups if you have your opportunity because this is the beginning of a really incredible project for us. And I think um and I'm very
hopeful it happens before I'm dead. So so let's move it along. 20 years, you know what I mean? But you know, sometimes things take a long time. It started in 2016, right? And that's again the hard part to stress too is even if we do look at
zoning revisions, who knows when it it can encourage private development and we get an application and so on. So it is a long-term process for sure. Sure. That's very exciting. Carla, has Donis been invited to participate in
all this? We've reached out trying to get a date locked down. Um, but would love to hear his feedback. Yes. Or he is being reached out to has been and will continue to be. All right. This is, you know, obviously very ambitious and great great
presentation on how it can come to fruition someday very distant future. Karen. Um, but where would arbw go? So, on the south side, I don't know that we're looking at some of the same allowances or we're not hearing the same
priorities for mixed use and commercial development on that side. Um, we do need to re-engage with RMLD, understand where they're at, um, in their strategy. I know a lot's going on there as they transition, so we'll figure that out with them. um DPW
uh is probably coming up to a need um in the future. Right now it looks like that site still is their best option. Um some of the transition plans um just continue to hit walls and walls for the regionalization
of it. So right, this is related but unrelated a little bit. Prior to Greg's departure, he was trying to negotiate with is it Barrows? How do you pronounce it? Um, Marbus, Marb, do you know anything about that? Where that went? I know they have still their current
leases for storage. I don't quite know where their conversations left off or are progressing um for that type of development, but just curious. Okay. I know he won't acquire that property. Yeah. So, we'd like to actually engage with RMLD again, right? understand there
if anything has changed yet and then also reach out to the property owners ourselves in the town side to see um if we can get their long-term intents RMLD or not what are they looking at okay thanks y
Melissa did you have anything thank you I just wanted to say thank you thank you I just wanted to say thank you to Andrew for the presentation it was great um the only question I had you answered and that was just have we engaged the neighbors ers in that area to make sure we're getting their
feedback and to see what they're interested in doing. But that sounds like that's all happening. So, I appreciate that, Andrew. Absolutely. I just had two questions. So, I noticed that it was advertised on the town's site for the first time about the
Eastern Gateway Committee meeting last week or whatever. So, it's going to be like that going forward. I think the first meeting we might not have posted agenda but we posted an agenda for from onwards of January I think. Um but yes
that will continue to happen. We have the minutes we have agendas posted. Um and then my other one is kind of vague with all of this. It it I would love to have um uh Lfield marketplace here and the what you're envisioning and all that. I don't
know you know 99% of the people would want that over in that area. But I guess it's the more realistic is you're just trying to encourage it to happen. There is no guarantee that any one of these owners over there is going to do any of this right and that zoning is really right as
always just the regulation to try to encourage what you want whether it can or can't happen. There's a lot of other outside factors to that. Um but it starts at what's allowed and what's not. and the current zoning is what's what's got you what is there today right
and so that's why it hasn't been changed in 25 years um I don't think in that area so looking for new open space requirements and other but it does need to remain at a level that is practical for development um but also getting the town the right size approach and that's
the hard balance to get and when do you anticipate the committee work and zoning changes and all that would wrap up a year, two years. So, end of calendar year, we'd look for this process to wrap up. Um, and then it's really in CPDC's hands if they want
to prioritize the district any district changes in 2026 um or beyond. So, but it will it'll be there hopefully to be used sooner than later, otherwise we have to do the process again um like we are. So, but it will be up to CBDC.
Yeah. Yeah, and I'll just reiterate, definitely just stay engaged with the owners over there and try to see what you know what they want to be able to make this stuff happen in the future. Otherwise, all you did was your uh I don't want to say replacement 50 years
from now, Andrew. Not Karen won't be around then. Um but you know, we don't want it to be going through this all again. like we whatever they want, you know, we got to negotiate here and and see what benefits the residents, the business owners and try to drive this.
Yeah. And the balance we try to strike with them is understanding their long-term goals, but also that this gives an opportunity to increase their opportunity andor their value. If we can rightsize the approach in that way, it's either in their hands or if they choose to transfer and sell to others. Um, who
knows? But allowances and opportunity can help strike that that opportunity. So thanks. Anyone from the public in the room questions? Carla, go ahead. Name and address two minutes.
Carla Nazaro, 64 Lawrence Road. Can you go back to um the site plan, please? And and so I guess my question, a few of my questions is I'm um um would like more insight on the order of operations
of how things are happening. And when I look at that site plan, I see that um the majority of that area is owned by someone else. Right. Right. Um and not by the town. Does the town have any out of that area? What is the
percentage that the town has control over? it would just be the DPW site. But the things I stress that the town controls are one the right of way design and um improvements on the right of way
and the road networks itself and to the zoning policy. And so if you improve both, you try to encourage development that fits both. Just as my two cents, if if um if the community gets together and um has
sessions and talks about their desires and what they want for their areas, but we know that we have um owners there that have their own ideas and it's their money and it's their property. Um, wouldn't it be beneficial to have
conversations with um, negotiations with those owners to say, "Here's your clean slate. If we could open up our zoning to you, what would be a priority?" And see where they're what their list looks like, and then come back to the group
and say, "Hey, what do you think about this?" It seems like it almost needs to be the owners who need to be involved with the process before the town is and um and if we you know if we're not getting grants for that where's that
money from is a whole another um so thank you thanks I think I can ask answer for Andrew at at this point it's it's he's made the attempts we can't force them and we like in general we can't force them to talk we can't force them to
change this even after the fact it's just he's putting out the invite And hopefully they might, right? They like this seems like it's in everyone's best interest, but some people are setting their ways and that's going to do too, right? And some of the property owners maybe don't develop the way the town
policies might go. But that's where the opportunity that if they get to the point that they want to sell, right? They're ready to retire, fly elsewhere onto other ventures that the zoning still for someone else could work it and that's where their increase in value can. But we are talking to them to try
to understand like if we continue down this path is is this where the market's trending? How does mixed use impact commercial development? Right? There's obviously a need to maintain that strong commercial base in town. If we trend towards mixed use based on the public
surveys and other to date um does that sustain the commercial? What's that growth look like? We're hearing from developers, owners, and de inside the property and outside the property that that would be a significant opportunity
and a significant attraction. Um, as this is one of the prime real estate areas left on the Route 28 corridor, especially in its relation to downtown and the highway. And so given the scale, there's a lot of opportunity here, but
again, a lot of considerations on the town end in that because striking that right line of possible buy allowances, but then things like the encouragement of for further allowances if you get the density bonuses of open space,
affordable units, etc., etc., just like we did with downtown is a chance, but there's just a lot to work and there's almost an endless number of opportunities and that's what makes the conversations hard and narrowing them down. But yes, very good
points on the property owners and development in general. So Maryanne, two minutes strike two minutes. Yeah, this is just very This is just a question and I might have missed it. Maryanne Downing 13 Heather
Drive. Um, you know, you know, this is straddling the MBTA tracks and and you know, some other discussions a few months ago, the MBTA is trying to move towards whether they get the turnaround track or not, you know, this every 15 minute train service. Do you have to
involve the MBTA in your plans? And how would you take into account if you're you're zoning for something and you do get this suddenly you have these this property that's there but now you have a train coming through every 15 minutes instead of once an hour. I just didn't
know if you had to involve the MBTA in anything because of what their plans are. Thanks. Great question. Um we don't necessarily need to involve them other than from the standpoint of how can we improve public transit to the area. Um, but it is of
consideration as we run through the layouts like if there's housing over mixed use housing options over by the train station. What does that mean? Any private development is going to have to go through permit applications with the MVTA or likely to be in their zone of influence 30 feet from their right of
way. Um, but it's not a significant challenge to develop adjacent to the to the rail line. Thanks. Anyone else in the room? Anyone on Zoom? I just want to say we have our consultant available tonight. I didn't know if he wanted to say anything about
it or are you are you good, Andrew? I'll defer to Mike, but he's on Zoom. Well, thank you. I just say good evening. I haven't had a chance to meet with you in person, but uh I think Andrew did a fantastic job of summarizing there. Uh I
think our conversations both with the community and with the steering committee have been very informative and you know have u shown that the goals I think are are consistent with uh some of the earlier studies but evolving in a logical way. I think some of the nice things that we've heard is that you know
the opportunity to make the site um you know more contextual to reading as a town uh in the future. And actually one one comment in particular was uh we'd love to see it in the future not look like a development but rather you know
sort of an extension of the of the of the surrounding context. And I think as Andrew said, there's just some tremendous opportunities here uh for placemaking um you know, cultural uh impacts and and mixed use and um you
know, I think it's a very exciting process and I it's headed in a great direction. Thanks, Mike. Karen, I have a quick question if I may. So, um there's this field in LOL, I think it is. It's installed on top of a building.
And I was wondering in your circles whether what Lawrence, thank you. H how successful has a model like that been? Because roofs of buildings that's, you know, it's a huge amount of space and I was pretty shocked to see it, but I was just wondering like what are you
seeing in the industry? Is that something we could potentially capitalize on? That's uh the the Riverwalk property in uh Lawrence which was actually I actually master planned that project for Sali um and uh that was an idea to um
you know their their challenge there with the fantastical old mill buildings to uh provide adequate parking for all the the different uses that they're accommodating there and again they're across the street from a a a transit station as well but uh you know that's
that's you know a lot because no buildings are looking out on that and if you don't want to be looking at the roof of a parking garage and and there's a need for usable, you know, uh publicly accessible open space like that. Uh they also have the river walk there in addition to those athletic fields. So,
uh that's just a creative way to to think about, you know, using a roof plane when when you're sort of limited, uh you know, uh in access. So there's there's there's you know every site has its own uh opportunities for unique solutions and uh I I think that's it's
neat that that's coming along the way it is. Okay. Are you seeing others being built? I was like wow this is a surprise and great it's wasted space but I was like it's going to be really hot up here. So I'm just curious you know a number of years later whether you've heard like
you know whether are others copying it or was it kind of a one-off? Um well that's that's very recent. I mean, that's just in the last couple of years that that's happened. And I think that's a pretty unique solution that someone
like Soly can pull off. Um, and uh I I don't think that that's a typical sort of cost-effective way necessarily to develop a public open space, but uh you know, finding that balance and um you know, that that's such a different environment than what you might find in
a more of a town center type approach because it's an old mill district. Um, and it is now you're looking out on a field of parking. Well, and you can say there's some similarities with the the way the north side is being used in the eastern gateway now with the the mall,
you know, typology and the sea of parking around it. And I think, you know, the the goal is is really to create something that feels more walkable and connected and and contextual to the surrounding context. So, okay. Thanks. there is intent that new
development like recreation and open space while maybe not a pure economic driver is that social driver that then drives the economy of new development and so having those amenities and private development is important nowadays and that's where we can capitalize
in different ways. Thanks. Anyone else on Zoom have a comment? No hands on Zoom. Thank you, Maddie. All right, Andrew. All right. I appreciate it. Thank you all. Thanks. Have a good night.
Good job, Andrew. Thank you, Michael. Thanks, Michael. All right. So, we will move on to discuss potential override, budget review, reoccurring discussion, page 28 in the packet. So, we have Sharon online, I believe.
Yeah, Sharon's on on Zoom and she put together the the memo. you know, I've been involved in this speaking with Chris about it as well. Um, so I think in the interest of time, we can maybe just turn it over to Sharon and see what she has to say about it and further discuss it after that. Y
take it away. Good evening, everyone. Do you mind if I share my screen? Go right ahead. So, I'm gonna um go through some of the things that I um was looking at. Um Matt and Chris Ellie and I had a meeting a
few weeks back talking about looking at our fiscal 26 budget to try and determine if there's any areas where we could have savings when building our fiscal 27 to get our free cash number down. Um, and I figured the best place to start with this review would be
accommodated cost given that accommodated cost has really been the source of our need to use more free cash is a lot of I'd say outside of the norm increases in the area of accommodated cost. And around this time of year, I'd be looking
at them anyway. when we do our projections out for several years um we are very conservative not knowing um all the details of what's going to happen in upcoming years and as we know information more clearly we we fill that in and and and it affects the future
years as well if we if we put a you know a standard percentage of increase in there so the first area I want to highlight to you is um pension the pension assessment so this area here I've highlighted the areas where I've
made changes. So, the retirement board every two years has an actuarial um evaluation of our um pension liability and the state requires us to be fully funded by 2040. And so, every two years
we have this valuation and we select a new funding schedule to get us fully funded. Two years ago, for fiscal 25 and 26, the retirement board had voted to go with an 8.3% increase each year um to get us fully
funded by 2031. So that was two years ago. And the timing of that was really off because even though it was only supposed to be 8.3%, it was like 16 16.8% in fiscal um
25 because it disproportionately hit the general fund. um because it's based on where people are working in the majority of the people working in um the general fund and if we have people coming in with years of experience our liability kind of fluxes because that liability
comes onto our books and we don't have as much money coming over. So anyway, that 16.8 was much more than we expected and it was it was alongside other increases in accommodated costs that were really outside of the norm. So this
year we had our valuation again and I am on the retirement board. So I shared with the board how tight the budget has become because accommodated costs have been rising way faster than our revenues. Um and the the actuary told us
if you want to stay on a fully funded by 2031 you need to do 10.7% every year. I'm like we can barely do the 8.3 without you know increasing. So I'm like can we go down? So, what we ended up doing was um taking a funding
schedule that pushes out one year and makes the increase each year 5.71%. And so what I did was for fiscal 27 and 28, those are the years I actually put in what the the numbers will be
according to the actuary. Um and it ends up being a 5% increase and we had an 8.3% increase there for every year going forward. So now I have a 5.71 or greater um there. That saved us $249,000
in fiscal 27. And then in fiscal 28 another 476. So the way it works is each year the amount that you're paying increases by another 8.3% but instead these numbers are now increasing by 5.71.
So fiscal 28 was a savings of $476,000 and in fiscal 29 um almost $715,000. So these numbers that I've highlighted here, these have changed since the April town meeting and what you saw in your
warrant book. The other area where I saw potential savings because we get a bill very early on in fiscal 26 for workers comp and property and casualty. I'll go over property and casualty first.
For several years now, we've had to come back to town meeting and ask for more money for property and casualty because on more than one occasion, property and casualty had been up 10%. Um, and that is outside of the norm. So, this year, what we noticed was that the bill, and I
mentioned in my memo, the bill the bill came in and it had gone down, but it hadn't been broken out by fund yet. So, I couldn't really say how it affect our general fund. By Monday, I did get the bill broken out and I was able to plug it in um to the general fund. And you'll
see that in in this case, fiscal 26, our expense will go down by 73,451. So, what we had as a projection was 73,451 higher. So, I'm plugging in what the real number will be. Um, and that reduces all of the other numbers as well
because we're basing it off of like a two and a half% increase. And so for fiscal 27, we save 75,287.28 we save 77,169 and 2979,098. And I think that this is a sign whoops a
sign that maybe things are starting to stabilize in some of our insurance costs. Obvious obviously that's based on claims as well. So that could go up and down, but the number going down is not something we've seen in several years. So that's a positive sign. The other
area of that bill is our workers comp, which was up here. Um, that went down by 9 90,680 from what I projected it to be based on what we were seeing. And then all these numbers fall in line because we kind of project
them up a conservative 4%. So in that arena, fiscal 27 we save $83,000. Fiscal 28 another $75,000 and in 29 about $61,000. So as we get information sometimes our financial forecast gets a
lot more bearable than what we see early on. So that's helpful. The one bad thing I did um come across and I did kind of learn about it um and I included in your packet is that I got um a memo back in April from the Northeast Metro Regional Vocational
School saying that they had adopted a a budget that was over 10.6% increase over the prior year, pointing primarily to increased costs, but also to um the need to borrow another $60 million um on their schedule for their building project. Um, and what I noticed from
that as well is over the last two years, we had an enrollment of about 36 kids um, attending that school go up to 51 kids. And so we're getting a larger cut of that above all their operating expenses and that um, capital charge for
the new school. And so for fiscal 26, we had a number of 1,295702 come in as an invoice, which you're not you're not on that screen right now. Sorry, Sharon. No, I'm sorry. I Let me put We're not on the screen. I didn't roll down it down
here. So, we had um we had a number that was $236,000 less um than what we what it actually got built for this year. So, it would be something I would have to adjust at a at
November town meeting. But the good thing is is the savings we saw on property casualty and for workers comp could be moved to this line and probably avoid us needing to use any free cash in 26. But 27 28 and 29 um those go up as
well. So we end up seeing an increase in expense for fiscal 27 of 245,000 for the school. um 255 255,000 for fiscal 28 and 265 higher than what we had in the book when you were looking at it back at the
April town meeting. So this one goes the opposite way not savings but actual increased cost because enrollment has gone up and our share of the capital has gone up and they've adopted a very large operating budget increase. So that was unexpected and we learned about that as
we're going into April town meeting. Not too late for me to do anything about it honestly. Um, but that's the only real bad thing I came across. So, I figure I'll I'll move on and tell you a little bit more. Monday, I received um
a letter from DO saying that the cherry sheet, our state aid, that's what they call our um state aid, the cherry sheet had been finalized. And the numbers that we got for state aid actually were higher than what I had projected them to be. We always when we're building our budget, we always just assume a 2 and a
half% increase over the prior year because when we're building our budget, we just never know what we're getting. This these numbers came in at 1998 8.90 higher than what I had originally projected. So that helped. Um so there's more revenue there by almost 200,000
than what we had hoped and that that kind of carries forward to the other fiscal years. all of these years would be higher as a result because we do 2 and a half% from what we got. So all of these figures would have increased and that will help our budget a little bit each you know every little bit is going
to count. The other thing that was very positive about what I learned on the cherish seat is that the state assessments which are the charges that we get charged that get deducted from our state aid went down by 78,486 which I don't think I've ever seen that
happen but beautiful we'll take it. And then we we increase that by two and a half because that's part of our state aid package. The way we do it, we don't know it at the time, so we just assume a two and a half percent. But that savings in fiscal 26 saves us 78,486.
So the combination of the state assessments and the workers comp and the property casualty pretty much covers the increase that we see for vocational schools. So we won't need to ask for any money, which is a great thing. But in fiscal 26, we do end up having a surplus
of 200,000. So if something is actually um needed, we we still have like extra state aid. So technically, you know, we could even take down free cash use if if we have nothing else that we need to the 5.8 that we originally planned. Um so
that's good news. We have a $26,000 excess um after I make these changes on our financial forecast to what we know now. Um so that's helpful. The other thing that the state aid projection does um as we were talking about let me go back to
the state aid so you could see the numbers. We actually get some increased revenue in each and every year by this number increasing by the 200,000. So it's almost the 200,000 plus another 2 and a half%. So fiscal 27 we gain another 204,888
in um state aid. um fiscal 29 or 28 $210,000 more and then fiscal 29 215,000. That's what we would project based on what we've always agreed. We would just assume a 2 and a half% and it could be more which would be helpful. It
could be less as well. Um but it does help our budget look a little bit more bearable. Um and then the state aid that we um the state assessments that we talked about those going down that trends that that of savings for fiscal 27 of 80,449
fiscal 28 another 82,460 and then in fiscal 29 84,522. So those numbers have gone down in each and every year and and kind of helps our budget a little bit. Other areas where I can see that there would potentially be
some changes is rubbish. As you know, our rubbish collection um contract is up June 30th, 2026. We were in a very long-term I think it was a 10-year very advantageous um contract where our
increase was only 3% a year. Um but we don't know what's to come with that, you know, being locked in for so long, what we're going to get when we put that out. Um, and we do have that going out to bid and we should have information before financial forum about that. But you can see that I've kind of assumed a 20% and
it could go either way. It could be worse than that or it could be better and that could help our budget. So that's something to note. It's not going to be better. I'm sorry. It's not going to be better. I don't think so. I think it's I think I
think it's likely to be worse. Um, from what I from what I could gather from what we were seeing from our public trying to get us to sign early, the numbers were not appealing. So, I'm I'm expecting it to be worse, but it could be better. Um, but that's what we have
right now because we don't have any more information regarding that. So, this updated forecast when you throw all these updated numbers in and we go back to what's needed to actually um you know balance the budget in terms of free
cash at April town meeting this number was $7.4 4 million and we've lost about three three uh 335 335,000. It went down um just by me looking at these few um pieces that we've got more information
on. In fiscal 28 we had a number of 8.5 million needed and now that number is down by $720,000. In fiscal 29 we're expecting to need 9 million620 no 9 million oh 9.62 62
million and that number is down 1.12 million. Um so we're making progress and as more information comes I'm hoping that it will continue to drive these numbers down. Um what else did I have for you? Um other areas I think that we could explore to help us with fiscal 27
is in our meetings with the PEC which is the public employee commission. We meet with them every year to um do a health insurance agreement. Um and we could potentially look at design plan changes. Um you know, offering some different
types of products to help people select different things that apply to them and maybe it could save us some cost for plan design would be maybe an area we could look at. Another area we could look at is maybe looking at the rules for our opt out program. We currently offer an opt out program that if people
qualify and they like take their a spouse's insurance, we pay them a certain amount of money. Maybe we could look at the rules and make it a little bit easier for people to get an opt- out bonus so that they'll select a one-time payment in in lie of actually having our insurance and maybe bringing our health
insurance cost down in the mix. So, those are things we could talk about. And lastly, um I think I included in the memo another thing that we could do that could potentially help our budget. I don't know by how much, but um we could look at our departmental revenues. I
mean, it has been a long time since we've done a comprehensive review of those revenues like dog licenses and permitting fees and ambulance fees. The last time we did a comprehensive one where we really looked at a lot of them was October of 2014. So that would
require involvement of all the department heads to um kind of look at their their departmental fees and compare them to other communities and see if there's any room for us to increase some fees that might help with our growth of our revenue. So if you guys have any appetite for that, we
could, you know, um talk about that and talk about doing that process and and see what it yields. Other than that, I do not have anything more on this, but we are going in the right direction. And this was just my first look. Um, other things I just was thinking about is it's
worth speaking on that in prior years where things were tight, we had gone to our 5% that we do debt and capital reducing it to like four and a half, you know, to get a little savings there. But that's something that I think we have to have approved by FINCOM. But those are
some of the things I'm thinking about. But I do know that um we've been requested to look at all the department budgets and see if we can find any savings in and in in all of them. And and so this is just where I started because this is really the primary area where where it all began to be
problematic because we started to see double digit growth in some of these accommodated costs. And accommodated costs are accommodated because they have they're things we have to spend money on. You have to spend money on utilities. You have to spend money on benefits. And we have our debt. We have to pay our debt. So all of these things
that we have in accommodate cost really need to be paid. So and sometimes they don't behave and out of district special ed is another one like it just there's only so many triggers that we can pull to keep things um in in line with what how our revenue grows and our revenue
could not keep up with all of the changes we saw the last few years in the combinated cost area. So that's where I started. Certainly, we can look at other areas and and whatever um department you suggest we go with next, we'll we'll dig
into that as well. Thank you. Do you have any questions? Um yeah, I'll open it up in one sec, but I just want to say that yes, that Sharon um met with me and Matt and we kind of went over, you know, all of this. We
didn't want to sit here and bring in, you know, department heads and start hashing out what are you cutting, what are you raising, those kind of things. It's more along the lines of that obviously the finance committee does the brunt of of this kind of work. Obviously in conjunction with town staff, so we're
not taking that away from them. It's more of just all of us being in unison because we know the overrides coming. No matter what numbers Sharon comes up with or crazy ideas that I may have or someone else may have, it's not going to prevent it from happening. It's more of
letting the public know that listen, the finance committee, selecting our town staff, we are all working together to make sure these numbers are as low as possible while still providing the same services that we have in the past and trying to raise funds in other
additional ways that, you know, are beneficial to everybody involved. So, that's kind of the thing. I I don't want it to make it seem like I'm micromanaging people or or anything like that. I I understand what the finance committee does and obviously um you
know, it's it's fairly significant. Um and I know Ed and Maryanne are here today obviously um specifically about this. So, um they've been heavily invested over the years as well. So, with that, I'll just open up to the
board if anyone has any questions. Carla, nothing. Melissa, are you good? I just have one question. Um, when it comes to the cost for the vocational school, um, you said that they added
another $60 million to their operating costs. No, no, it's their scheduled debt that they, you know, they they're doing it in. And so this this fiscal year, they have another tunch coming on that we will have more debt service on. So, as
the debt product borrowed, we get a bigger piece of it as they borrow because they're not going to charge it to us until they borrow it. It's fair. Okay. I misunderstood. I just wanted to make sure I at first it sounded like we didn't realize the 60 million was coming our way. But I understand that question.
It's that we end up getting a bigger piece as more kids from reading decide to go there. So it's hard to predict because we don't necessarily know what the enrollment is going to be well in advance. Yep. Absolutely understand. Okay. Thank you so much for going through this with
us. I appreciate it. So, just Oh, go ahead, Karen. Thanks. Um, thank you, Sharon, for going through this. Um, I had a couple of questions on some line items that I saw up there as well. Um, could you talk to us a little bit about the sped
contingency line 202? That number is provided to me by the school department, actually all four of those lines. Um, but I think what I remember from my conversations with them is that they had um several students
that were in danger of going out of um out of district that they didn't know that they were going to be able to accommodate these students and some of them I think had um needs that would require boarding somewhere. So they're very expensive
contingencies that are built in because they think that there's a very real possibility that there'll be students that on on this list of possibly leaving in fiscal 26 to go to an out of district. Um and so that's what that
contingency is and I want to say it was like eight students that they had that they really felt that very strongly that many of them might end up in an out of district placement. Okay. I mean, I wanted to highlight that that is, do the math. Is that $700,000?
Yeah. I mean, it's a lot. It's absolutely a lot. But I think that the placements that some of them had and not to get into details about what they had, but when you add um if some if a child needs to live away um that's a very different it's a very expensive and I
think they had eight to nine kids that they had these different issues where they were addressing different needs that might need to be met and I want to say more than one had maybe a need for going to a school where they have to live there. would would when when would
you get um kind of confirmation that that number is real even if it's just a placeholder because there's a chance we could need that. Uh I would definitely um hear about that somewhat soon from the school department. We have not um begun our
discussions yet on budget related topics. this number was given to us, you know, in preparation of the fiscal 26. Um, but if there were savings there, um, you know, that would help us tremendously. So, definitely a conversation to be had, but this I was on vacation one of the weeks of that I
was trying to pull away some of this information. So, I have not had the opportunity to meet with the school department to kind of hash out that number. Um, and the other thing that they do there too is they do have a special ed stabilization fund. Um, and I think that sometimes if the access
that's in there is is not too much, they put in like a couple hundred thousand of what the excess is at the end of each year into the stabilization fund to help fund these things in the future so they don't have to have such big numbers. But Dr. Dr. Milichaskky was very convinced
that he had a lot of people in this grouping that he really felt were going to need the out of district placement, but there weren't no contracts were in place yet. Okay, I appreciate that. I'd love to just keep an eye on that. Um, and then
the other line item is the RMLD payment. I don't remember what number that was. The RMLD payment is revenue. What is your question? It looked like it was going down. it is going down and actually it has changed so I should highlight it. Um so
I had it going up like you know one or two% but it is based off the prior year's kilowatt hours sold and I recently received correspondence from Armald you know quoting what the rate would be based on the actual hours sold.
So, um, so I don't know what would cause that, and we certainly can talk about that, um, with RMLD, but I haven't had any detailed conversations about what's causing it to go down, but it is going down, and that was a concern. Okay. No, I appreciate that. It it it has been increasing at least 1%
annually, their sales or kilowatt sales. So, I'm a little curious about that. And also, there's two components. One is variable and one is fixed. Um, but that that comprises both, doesn't it? That number you have. Yeah. I mean, they give us the calculation and I didn't get to delve in and compare it to the calculation I
received prior to see what where the distinction is of what is causing this to go down. Um, I want to say I just got that number last week. Um, so I can definitely dig deeper on that number and try and figure out what's going on there because going down I would like to at
least keep it stable or have it rising but this is the kind of challenge that we have. you know, sometimes they have years where they sell more and others, you know, other years where they sell less. So, and I think I believe it's based on the prior the prior year sales.
Yeah, it would just be remarkable and and I'll take a look at the stuff as well um their forecast. That's a little surprising. All right, thank you very much. Thanks. Question. Yes. So, this is to Matt. Uh so, we're less than a year away from our rubbish
contract expiring. When do we start the process of bids and stuff? Well, we've started hand that over to Jane because she's running that process. Great question. Love a great question. Uh, so that bid's already out. Um, and
it's a very competitive process. Uh, we've had a number of we've had two addendum rounds. So, qu series of questions that vendors can ask us and then we issue answers. And then we just issued our newest answer. I think it's either today or it's coming out
tomorrow. written. Um we have a lot of vendors um who have pulled the document and asking us questions. We think we are in a competitive environment. Um and we have worked very very hard to make them sharpen their pencils. We um will have
all of our bids back proposals back at the end of July. Our intention is to award to have an understanding of where we are, do any negotiations we need to do, and award a contract at the end of August. So, um, Sharon has those numbers
in hand for next year by the end of August. All right. We only have one meeting in August. Are we going to be part of this? Two meetings in August. Two meetings in August. Are we going to be part of this decision or no? Who to pick? No. No. Okay. We will pick.
Okay. We can share you the information be good. Yeah, we're going to make them work really hard for our business. Sharing is caring. Sharing is caring. I care. I'll share. Um yeah, so we can we can share that with you. It's a we'll see what we come back with and um what's
advantageous, but we are you did this so we would have it before accommodated cost would be done so that we could as far out as we can. In addition, the um the winning company may need to procure a new vehicle, a new truck if they need
to add add the roots. Um and the uh lead times on those procurements are very long. And so sometimes they lease them as well. So that that whole procurement on the part of our vendor side is something we took into account as well. Looking for a fiveyear contract, I'm guessing.
That's correct. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks. Um, so just to piggyback off Karen's question of the RMLD payment thing that I didn't see going down either, nothing
goes in like how is RMLD going down? My electric rates are only going in one direction. I understand that it's based off kilowatt hours, but I got to assume people are using more energy year over year over year. I mean, that's all I see all over TV, right? But they're using more efficient energy.
But still like it just seems very I don't know very odd that play it back in the next meeting. Yeah. Um so then a couple other things that I
have real quickly. Um just other ideas kind of unique out of the box wish way of thinking. So, um, Matt reached out to everybody, all the department heads. Um, he mentioned, uh, one of the
not criticisms, but we asked about, uh, so, uh, about the conference rooms at the library, the booking, it's five days or more, whatever their scenario is. Um, and Amy is looking to change that at I think the next meeting, um, to be a
little bit more, I think 48 hours or something. Obvious two days instead of two days. So obviously that's not moving scales, but it's more of we're all going in the right direction that that is going to increase money. It's probably minuscule, but like these are the ideas that I'm kind of going with that, you
know, it might seem small, but 30 small ones are going to add up over time. Um I also brought up to Sharon the whole wells situation that we're still on wells in Reading. Somehow we're paying for wells. it's still part of the ISO river scenario that somehow money is
coming from somewhere to be able to be doing that. So, you might have to take a hit to get rid of them, but and then in the long run it might pay off. Um, I already went over the overtime and painting fire hydrants. That's not happening again, which is good. um uh
the signs on the fences for sports teams, the bylaw, obviously that's something we have to work with the bylaw committee, but this is a way to raise some revenues for uh recreation. Um and then obviously the bugs and street center will be discussing that um in the future as well. And I don't know if we
can do anything about the dispensary vote that happened years ago. Maybe it can happen again kind of thing if people have an appetite. But obviously that is a significant um financial increase that we could get to. So those are the kind of you know things that we've been kind
of working with. So I don't know Maryanne Ed if you guys had anything or anyone else from the public. Maryanne, thank you. Maryann Downing is chair of the finance committee. Um Sharon, do you have any graphs showing um like like
you've shown us and shown Tom Meing the pattern of free cash usage and when it's going to you know go down because these are all you know nickel and dime things to me the big thing is we need you know 6 to7 million of free cash every year
and we have what 19 I don't know how much we'll get certified you can't divide you know seven into maintain that many times we have regeneration. So I think if we're going to have preliminary override discussions, it should just be
put out in public um you know that that situation and where we're going to hit the limit where we want to keep a certain amount of free cash as free cash you know to maintain our bond rating. These are the kinds of things we we discuss all the time at finance committee and we don't always get into
it here in in select board. So, I don't know if you have one of those charts handy, Sharon. I do not have the chart financial forum. That'd be great. We're not Isn't override discussion on the agenda? Yes. Isn't this related to the the need for an override?
No, we're we're going over the charts that she's prepared in the areas she's looking at pre-budget planning. So, we're not pulling up other charts tonight, but that's a great suggestion. No, I think I mean I absolutely can, but I do want to point out that it's too early for me to have an actual free cash number
because June 30th was just a couple weeks ago. Um, and so I could show you what we had prior, but so much has changed and we don't know what our regeneration looks like for the current year. I think one of the major things that we'll be looking at at financial firm is what I project that number to be
and that will be um the beginning of that discussion. And I think that would be the time we would really look at those charts and see, you know, because I want to know what that number is because if free cash starts to go down significantly, um that's a problem. And
um last year, I think our regeneration was over $7 million, but we had money held because we got a federal grant that did not um pay us by September 30th. So, they held it and it was over a million dollars. And that same grant, we're still waiting for the money. So, like
some things can work against us when it comes to regeneration. So, but it's way too soon for me to give you an estimate of what our free cash is going to be as of June 30th is as if you don't have it, right? No, I I think it's just more the principle of it. And the reason, you
know, we're all trying to save money, but the the reason ultimately is going to be is we're we're having to every year we're supplementing our budget by some and and we can either keep our free cash, whatever it is, at steady state or it's starting, you know, the trend is
going down and that's that'll come up at the financial forum. But I think, you know, that's the reason for the override really. Yeah. It's one of those structural things because most of the costs that increased over the last few years are not going to go down, but they might start to
stabilize and we need to fill that gap that it caused. Um I think I mean it's we we did see some things go down here, but in in areas of like benefits that tends to not necessarily go down, you know. So, some of the big hitters that
we had that caused the need for us to use an unusual amount of free cash, I feel like, you know, they they're just going to start to stabilize and that would be when we stop seeing free cash needing to go up. But until we know more about the future budgets, conservatively, we're showing more free
cash because rubbish is coming up next year and we don't know what it's going to be and we have a high number built in. So as we get more information, we we build the budget in and we figure out, you know, what do we want to do from here? What kind of conversation do we want to have? What, you know, how long
can we last with the free cash that we have? What is the year that we need to think about asking for this override, right? And then just the last thing I'll add to is, you know, all the union contracts came up around 2027 and that's going to really be I think the that's what the towns around us are seeing
having override issues. I think that's will be part of our financial forum discussion. Thank you. Thanks. My other goal with this that I told Matt and Sharon was um obviously we can't solve a $140 million budget. Um but
going from six to 7 million the difference between those two is what I was focusing on trying to hit that. Um because the numbers only going in one direction. anything that we can do to bridge the gap between the six to the seven. If we go six to six now, like
it's just showing that, you know, we're willing and able to just kind of come up with um a pathway forward because then that's going to be the way to go in subsequent years beyond the override and whatever else happens. So, did anyone
else from the public have anything? Anyone on real quick? Sorry. Uh yeah, Ed Ross, finance committee. Um 16 Kensington A. Um so Chris, just on the on the on the back end of that, uh Sharon, thank you so much, you know,
again for uh for this amazing work and especially what you've uh been able to analyze in your first pass. Um I think there's some, you know, like you had some really good ideas that were in your memo and even some of the stuff that you talked about tonight. But again, I think
Chris, it hits it hits right to uh to your point. I think we need to be able to give the public um you know the confidence that we're asking all the hard questions um and that we're doing all this analysis to making sure that every dollar that goes out is is is thoughtful. Um so um not that we didn't
already have it before, but you just give us even more confidence that uh that we're executing on that. So really appreciate all the work, Shar. It's I know it's I know it's not easy and it's always fluid. So um really appreciate everything that you did. Thank you.
Anyone else online? Maddie? Nope. No hands on Zoom. Okie dokie. All right. Thank you all for this. Um, like I said, it may or may not be uh reoccurring. Matt, me and Sharon will go over something, find some other stuff that we can bring forward. Um, and
obviously the financial forums are definitely uh uh something that everyone should attend. All righty. Uh so we will move on to uh discussion on proposed monastery school of entire cabin. I know Brian you wanted
to say something first. Okay. And you don't have you can take as much as I just brief. I'll be done. Okay. Brian bro uh 15 lane. I'm the chair of the conservation commission. Um, I'm here tonight to express my
strong support in that of the Reading Conservation Commission for the proposed Malbury Forest School Ethioperic Conservation Area. This proposal first came before us several months ago. From the beginning, we recognized that this was more than a simple request to use
town property. It was unique opportunity to support environmental education in a way that deeply aligns with our mission. As the town's municipal environmental agency, the conservation commission is charged with protecting reading's
natural resources, our wetlands, forest, and open spaces, and promoting public understanding of the benefits they provide. While regulation is one part of that work, education is just as critical. Our
long-term success in protecting the environment depends on a public that understands and values it. Programs like Malbury Forest School help cultivate that understanding early. In the spirit of the book Last Child in the Woods,
which speaks to the growing disconnect between children and nature, we see this proposal as a part of the solution, a way to get kids outdoors, engaging directly with the land and the life it supports. These are the kinds of
experiences that create lifelong environmental stewards. The school will primarily use the bare metal conservation land with minimal indoor use of the material cabin demanding for bathroom access and shelter during
inclement weather. The program does not seek to alter the landscape or limit public access in any way. Instead, it adds value by placing young learners in direct contact with nature. It reinforces the importance of
conservation not just as policy but as lived experience. There's also a practical benefit. The modest license fee paid by the school would directly support the commission's work across town, including trail building and maintenance, habitat
restoration, pollinator plantings, and public amenities like benches and signage. These are small, visible, and yet meaningful ways we help keep our conservation areas welcoming and ecologically healthy. And every dollar helps. In short, the Malbury Forest
School offers a missional aligned use of town conservation land that educates in nature about nature nature and for the benefit of nature all while generating support for continued stewardship. The conservation commission see sees this as
a valuable partnership and stands firmly behind it. Thank you. Thanks Brian. Sure. Was do we have anything prepared? Was Chuck gonna speak or Chuck is here. I think there's representatives on the school from the
school that are on Zoom that could answer any questions and and talk about it. I mean there's no vote required from the select board. the property is under the care custody and control of conservation. However, there is work um on the town side to be done if this is going to happen. We would schedule a
DRT, get um police, fire, everybody involved to talk about any issues. There also has to be a license agreement negotiated. Um that would require me, town counselor to work on that and hash out details. And there's also the accreditation piece which from talking
to the school department um hasn't happened yet and may not you know be completed until fall at this point according to the superintendent. So there's a long way to go. Um I've asked all along for a little more public process and and that's why I think it's a good idea that it's on your agenda. Um
but again no no vote from you. Would like to hear your opinions on it. um if you as a representative from the school, if it's the pleasure of the the board to have them speak about it, that's where we're at. Thanks, Matt. Yeah. No, I um when I uh
when I first heard about this, I I looked more into it and I did see that at a prior conservation meeting, it was mentioned that um that Chuck wanted to move forward with uh you know, select board support. Um, so therefore, here we
are. Um, you know, I I would have liked to have found out about it differently uh than from a resident, but you know, it is what it is at this point. Um, so I guess if who is on for I think it's Mary. Is is she the one from the school
that would want to just give us a a quick two three minutes kind of because we have it in the packet. um but just give us a kind of general, you know, over overview of what you're looking to do kind of thing. Sure. Hi, and thank you so much for
having us this evening. We actually have much of our team here. We have Dr. Amy Froolo, our co-head of school, and James McGovern, our board mener. Uh Anna Pa, one of our educators, and Anarie Faustst, also one of our board members
here tonight with us. and we're just so delighted. We know we've had a wonderful conversation with the conservation commission which was as as Brian mentioned started a couple of months ago. Myself, I'll just introduce myself. I am a I hold a PhD in geography from UC
Berkeley. I am an educator and also a filmmaker and a parent. And this school started as an initiative essentially to create, as Brian mentioned, a land stewardship focused program that will that will
simultaneously bring children closer to nature as well as create an accessible learning environment for children who aren't necessarily going to thrive in more conventional settings. And our program is you know our curriculum is designed in relation to the Massachusetts curriculum standards
through a Montasauri and forest school lens with an eye to accessibility in learning. So adapting and and bringing the best practices of accessible learning pedagogies to the forest. And I guess you know what else I can
just say is that again to emphasize this idea that we really do believe that this is a sort of synergistic relationship with the conservation commission because we are creating stewards of the land from a young age in this very uh fast changing
moment that we're living through. And that of course we anticipate offering in kind support in the form of you know first of all having land stewards on site every day which watch over the property in the area engage in invasive species removal. That's the children who
do the invasive species removal during their school and and that we will be cleaning the cabin each day after use. And uh additionally we'll organize and encourage our families to take part in work days at the conservation commission where you know wherever that is needed and at the cabin. And finally, you know,
the last thing I can say before, of course, the fee is that we that I myself am a professional grant writer with around 20 years of experience and that I have offered that grant writing services pro bono to the conservation commission to work on any I know that there's a lot of anticipated or desired projects that
they have in mind and and and that's something that I can certainly offer as a form of support. And of course finally um you know our use of the cabin while we have been operating as a homeschool co-op the last couple of years and so we have been entirely outdoors this past
winter really showed us that it was important to be able to have shelter for inclement weather and that is why we started looking for a place that might be able to offer us that kind of shelter just during the like very cold days in the winter. So our program again is
Amy can you know speak to this a bit more but entirely outside and inspired by that the learning that can happen only in the forest uh that that is sort of not actually possible or much more enriched than being in a traditional
classroom. So, and of course, uh, we do plan to pay a fee which I think is being discussed in relationship somewhat to the rental fee schedule that is the cabin that is currently uh being charged at the cabin. We don't intend to have in
any way exclusive use. As I understood, the cabin is mostly used in after school hours and on weekends when that's mostly when it's being rented and and so we're not going to be in the cabin during those times. And anything that we, you know, might donate to the cabin, like for example,
youthsized chairs would be for public use as well. And of course, all of that would be in conversation with the conservation commission. We wouldn't bring in any anything that the conservation commission wasn't okay with us using. And I guess finally I'll say, you know, when we sort of were first
thinking about the fee structure, this is a pilot year. Uh we are waiting, we've waited to begin enrollment in order to confirm the comp the the location and so we're not sure what our enrollment is going to look like and that will impact the amount that we are able to afford in this first year. Um,
we certainly we were looking at the amount that is the yearly upkeep of the cabin which I believe from the writing public documents was around 6,000 5 to 6,000 a year. So that's something that we are sure we can commit to. Um, but again due to the sort of late date of us opening enrollment, we just aren't sure
what our finances are going to look like. And the final thing that I'll say about, you know, our accessibility in terms of our tuition fees, our fees are much are actually lower than comparable programs in the area, which I'm happy to provide comps in there in that document that that we that
we prepared. Uh we have a graded tuition scale and that means that our higher income families essentially subsidize lower income families and our our school is nonprofit and it is a nonprofit and tuition goes entirely to pay our wonderful educators, insurance and
materials. Our board is fully volunteer. I myself am working pro bono this year to get the school launched. And we're really doing this because we firmly believe that we need to create this option for children and and families who
sort of don't feel like they have other options. Thank you, Mary. Do board members or Chuck, did you want to say something? I saw your hand kind of go up. Well, I don't I I just uh I think the only thing I want to say is
and Brian did a great job and Mary, thank you. It's Chuck Tony, Constitution Administrator of Arlington. Jeez, tongue writing. Sorry, a little nervous. But I just think this is an exciting program and you know the conservation commission
has um worked very hard at Mater Cabin and we have a pavilion and we're building a deck out there and we've worked on the meadow and we're being noticed and this is what you get when you work hard and people notice you and they want to be part of your program and
I appreciate the school being here. um and uh seeking us out. I know that they came to Arlington also, but um they came to Reading and I was there. I'm I'm connected to Arlington. I live there, but um I didn't ask them to come and do
this presentation. Uh they they found us on their own, but I'm happy they found us because I think it's a great opportunity. A lot of kids can't be mainstreamed and they need uh programs like this to to to be schooled and to
you know to grow up and and to feel like they belong. And I think this is a great opportunity and this is going to offer 20 spots to um kids that really wouldn't have this opportunity otherwise. Uh we can talk about article 97. We can talk
about how this fits. We can talk about all the uses that uh we're going to be able to collaborate with with the school and all these parents, but it's just a win-win for I think the conservation commission, for reading, and for the
Montasauri Forest School. So, I really hope that we can find a way um for the select board to allow us to continue um on this path to see if it works out for the town and for the conservation commission. But that's that's all I'd
like to say. Thanks, Chuck. Board me. Well, board should go first. Yeah. Um did you have something Karen? I'm gonna open it up to everyone after the board, but yeah. Did you
sure and I don't have to go first. Oh, whoever. Sure. Thanks. Um, so for me, school has, you know, wide ranging meanings. Are are you governed
by anybody for the school? Who is I guess the governing body if there is one or is this considered homeschooling? I'm just trying to understand what this is about. We are a nonprofit
micro school, a private micro school. And so that means that we that our board is the governing board. And as as we mentioned at the start, we will seek accreditation from the Reading School Board. The state
of Massachusetts doesn't actually license private schools. that's done at the at the town or city level. All right. So, so who would approve the curriculum? Our school committee. That's right. Okay. Right. Thank you. That answers that question. Um and you mentioned it's
mid July. I'm guessing you're trying to open this fall or this winter. I don't know when you're trying to open. Um this. Yes. Okay. And then the capacity for your first I'm going to call it year you like you can accommodate you're saying up to
20 correct in your pilot year what I read and then what what has your been what has been your student body in your other uh locations is it always been around 20 is it been 30 40 or what's your it's actually been around six
okay all right we've been a very small program when we actually anticipate again due to the late date of enrollment that who are probably going to be around 10 children this year. Okay. Um, and this is a question for Chuck. I've been to Mater, but when you enter
the property, is it one car in or is it two lanes? How wide is that entrance? Uh, the property has two lanes, has a dedicated exit and entrance. Okay. Uh there's no signage but there's a medium in between and you know people
I just want to make sure if someone's trying to come in or out they're not you know nose to nose there is enough track and and this might be part of your question but we did have uh per uh porchfest event and we were able to fit uh up to almost 40 was it
39 39 cars at good yeah um That's it for me right now. And I know this would be your inaugural year, but I guess what's in our packet that is from
I guess us internally. And then what you propose there's a pretty big discrepancy and you know we don't want to burden anybody but in your your information that was given to us was 3 to 5,000 for the first year
and then we have a fee of about 9,300. So I guess how would that get worked out based on number of students you get? That's correct. Yeah. Well, based on the number of students and our ability to fund raise between now and hopefully September.
Okay. So is there an amount that you can't afford? If it if it's if is is 9,000 the amount per year if they get to full capacity of 20? So, so we were asked uh with a meeting with town council to to uh base the uh fee on uh
the actual um fee schedule for the cabin. So, that's a 2hour minimum over 180 days with a 15 full day um amount and that came out to 9,200 or 300. And so that's where that came
from. Uh, I think that that would be a fair amount to ask for. I'm not asking about that. I'm just asking about the, you know, now we work that out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's all I'm asking. You know, that that didn't include some other stuff, but but again, this is a pilot program. Yeah. What what makes me
excited about this is uh almost to say, wow, if we could get them here for three years, what would this uh fee look like in year three? and they had uh January, you know, starting in January to recruit and the cabin worked out and they liked it and they wanted to stay,
right? And it became, you know, a desirable school to be at? Gotcha. Is there a number, and this is for Mary now, is there a number in your second year that would make you decide to renew
it? I mean, because if let's say you get 10,00 Yeah, certainly. I think that that 9,000, you know, that number that was worked out, the 9,200 number is something that we are sure we could hit in the second year. It's just that as I
mentioned, like the late date that we're in private schools usually start recruiting in January. Yeah. Yeah. And and it's July. No, very late. My question was, say you get to 10 this year, which would be a good thing this late in the in the game, and then you start recruiting for the
next school year and, you know, we have a horrible winter, everyone gets scared. Um, and then you get 10 again. Would you not like what is this agreement going to look like for her to opt in, opt out? Is it going to be one-year terms
and like so you only get 10? gee, I can't afford $9,000 with 10 students or that just takes away from, you know, the whole the whole program. So, I'm not wishing that, but like I'm just trying to play this out. It's going to be I'm guessing a yearto-year contract that she
has to decide in whatever month to renew it. And if she only gets pen, she can withdraw and not use the cabin and and and try to move the school somewhere else. What are the who who's going to do all this negotiating? Sure. So, unfortunately, we're only
looking at a pilot program for one year. So, anything beyond that is something that we desire. We both have to we as in the school and the conservation commission. We would both have to see if this works out. It seems like it's a
good partnership. I believe they've been looking for something that works for a while and it seems like this works the best out of what they've told me with the cabin, with the field, we have a pavilion, we have a garden, you know, we
have wooded area, we have open area. Um, it's uh it's it offers all the outside spaces other towns, but with a cabin, it becomes something that's actually workable. So it sounds like this January from what she said it would come to you
say we want to do another year. Yeah, something like that. This is the pilot year and they have to start recruiting for the next school year, not in July, you know, much more in advance. And then we have to you have to go before you, I guess, conservation commission and say, "Okay, we want to do another year."
Well, great. We have 20. And then the next year, that's that's what I would expect because some there's a drastic drop off. Well, so the cabin can only hold so many people, right? And then so that would be the limit, but I'm not sure they're trying to grow uh that much. It may it
may happen. You know, we're just looking at one year right now. I I don't know how the second year would would start. I guess there would it be a conversation and if it if it seemed like it worked out real well and I don't know. I don't Mary, how would what does this look like
to you uh as far as a second year? And um I guess your desire will your desire to uh put some roots down. Yeah, I think we are looking for you know a collaborative process that lasts and I do think that that Jan, you know,
January as a time to assess and have a conversation and say, okay, what can next year look like? that that seems pretty reasonable and that it does seem like, you know, once we sort of have proof of concept that we'll have a better idea of of what our recruitment would look like for the following year.
And I'll say our sister school out, we have a sister school in Indiana. They kind of similarly started fairly quickly and with a very small group of children and by the second year they had a a waiting list of like 15 kids that they couldn't even fit into the program
because there was just so much interest and it really like hit the need in the community. So we're hoping that a similar thing will happen here. All right, last question. How do we uh manage that property now in the winter as far as plowing?
So, the town uh plows and creates a pathway to the cabin. The cabin's not usually rented during that time, but they keep I mean, a lot of people use uh the walking ability around M and then check out the uh pavilion and whatnot.
So, it's plowed. It's just not first on the list right now. So, that was my question. So, It has to come up to the level of our schools plow they get plowed, right? Yeah. I'm so I probably answer a little bit. No, I don't even know if any
changes have to be made. I think that the pilot year we're just going to try to, you know, not tax anyone on this. I think the school is so small that they can accommodate uh different situations. And if it if they don't plow, maybe there's no school that day. Maybe it's
an extra no school day or something else happens. I'm not I'm not sure. That's right. I mean, our you know, we'd be happy to stay in in conversation and if the plowing is going to happen at 10 a.m. have a late start. And that's actually a pretty common thing for even
public schools to do is to have a late start. No. No. No. I I guess what I'm gonna go and act because it was budget talk tonight and money talk was that we're not incurring overtime to make sure we get this done. It needs to get done anyway because it's
our property. But you know what I mean. The cabin's already taken care of by facilities. They they clean it and empty the trash after every time we have it rented out or there's programming from the recreation department. It's uh you know
Most of the ad work is not done by uh the DPW. It's done by myself and and volunteers, but they do plow. Um and they're there when we need help and it's their responsibility. We try not to ask them to do anything because, you know,
it's we just have a lot of volunteers and we have a lot of volunteers that know about painting and woodworking and things like that. So, it's it's not always needed that they're there fixing stuff. And with with more cars on the property than normal in the winter, if this goes well, will that cause a problem for
so the cars five permanent cars? And you know what? I I was listening to last night's meeting and I thought it was really funny that the uh 885 Main Street said, well, they based their uh traffic patterns around 10 cars. And I said, well, that's exactly what we did with
six students, you know. So, I I thought that was kind of humorous, but we actually think we're going to have 10 cars coming in and out and four permanent cars sitting there when there's plenty of time. All right. I'm good. Thank you. All right. Thanks.
Karen. Yes. Sure. Um, is that a member of the public or is that a member of the school board? I think that's Elizabeth is part of the school, I think. No, no, she's not part of the school. Oh, we're not at the public.
Okay. But we'll get we'll get to you. We'll get to you. Don't worry. Sorry. Okay. Um I just want to commend the conservation commission and Chuck for bringing this innovative idea to us and and holding two separate public hearings at least. I know I attended one. I don't even know if I attended
both. And um um you know, I've had a number of conversations with Mary and um I've been impressed with how prepared you are and how you've been approaching this as a collaboration from the start. I I feel like we don't see that with
everyone who wants to do business with us and um there were other options that they could explore in this committee including the Girl Scout camp. So, but since being elected to the select board and serving as a liazison for the conservation commission for two or three
years early on, I've always been concerned that we have this amazing asset in Matera cabin that sits empty 70% of the time. And so to amazingly, and I didn't hear anything different tonight, to amazingly then have this
program, small program who could potentially fit, you know, I know people do reserve it on the weekends and the evenings and this little limited like 10-month, nine month program can literally fit in when this space is not being used.
The upstairs is currently a warehouse for chairs no one wants in town, which is like dumb. But um and car and you guys have had to do so much to maintain the property anyway, Chuck, bringing in those volunteers a couple years ago just to get the exterior painted. So, you
know, you've been creative as possible with this property, keeping budget constraints in mind. So, I learned I learned a lot tonight as well. So, I appreciate the answering the additional questions. Um, I I would love to give this pilot a chance and I know it's really late, so the one concern I have
is I want to make sure Yep. safety is important. Sometimes those DRT processes become a bureaucratic process. I I don't want to see that happen here. Um, great example that we had porch dust and we didn't have to do a DRT meeting to have a porch fest and obviously that was way
beyond what we're going to have. But I did get at least one call from a resident who wants to make sure they can get in there and walk. And you know, I said, "Thank you. Yep. If you have this concern, other people will too." And there are two parking areas for material cabin. So, um, I'm comfortable that this
small pilot is a good opportunity for us. There's demand in the community for this. What a wonderful opportunity for reading residents. Um, and I, um, I've had some folks, um, bring up concerns that we've had with
the other school that wants to come on Main Street at a much, much higher volume in the middle of a densely populated neighborhood. So, I feel more comfortable with a pilot program. you know, even at a full capacity,
this property is um kind of isolated um and it's not close to other neighbors. And so um I still see it's a pretty good fit and it it would be wonderful that if we didn't have it sitting around empty 70 80% of the time because empty
buildings burn down. So um those are just my thoughts. So, um, I can't think of any more questions, but I've been a lot of good questions tonight. I don't have any questions, but I I spoke with Brian before the meeting and I think it's a really interesting
approach and I think um I have a nephew who lives in Tennessee and this would be right up his alley. So, I'm very sorry that he doesn't live here to take advantage of this because I think it sounds great. Melissa, did you have something? Yes, I did. Thank you. Um, thank you for
um, coming tonight. I appreciate it. But I did have a couple questions. So, you mentioned um, a previous school. So, where was that located or where were you located? Yeah, so we've been operating as a essentially as a home school co-op since 2012. Okay. And that had been located uh, again
entirely outdoors in Stonem uh, at Whipill Park and we have a very good relationship with the conservation commission there. The reason that we are looking for a different space is because we realized after this winter when it was 20 degrees for six weeks that we needed access to indoor space and
they're just they don't have that. Okay. And then why what happened with Arlington that that didn't work out? Oh, it's just the same situation there. We also have a great relationship especially with the conservation manager there. They're wonderful group but again there's just no indoor space. Um, and
essentially we started looking around and I'll just say to sort of speak also to Karen's point and thank you so much for this sort of very enthusiastic welcome. We part of the reason that we're interested in conserv working with conservation commissions is our commitment to to conservation and to
public land and to sort of bringing people to the awareness of the importance of public conservation land because we could also work with a private with private land or we could go to a church and you know that's next to a forest and and for us it feels like a
really exciting synergy to sort of be held by a public space And you know, also there's more people that tra that sort of traverse through public spaces. And so we have had a very strong relationship with with our neighbors who
who are regular users of Whip Hill and that's like a really important part of of our school is sort of having that connection to the community. Got it. So I have a couple of concerns to be honest. Um the biggest concern for me is the
liability of being on town land with young children. Um, you know, you mentioned neighbors coming through, but like our children today are in schools and everyone has to be Corey checked, but you're going to have strangers going through your area with ch young
children. Um, you know, have we talked to the fire department? Are there any issues if someone got hurt and they can't get in there? Um, Maryanne bringing up hunting season adjacent to this area, which I didn't even realize you could do in Reading. Um, that's
concerning. Those are concerning things when we're going to have young children in those areas. Um, I fully understand that the school up the street from you is much larger than what this will be, but you know, we have a lot of residents
worried about the impact of traffic and um and so if we're adding more cars to that area and then people that may want to use that area for, you know, residents for personal use, that's a concern. Um,
so I guess the one thing I don't understand and just, you know, correct me if I'm um misspoken, but you said that you were a homeschool out of Stoneham and using that, but you am I wrong in saying that I read somewhere
that you guys just like incorporated in May of 2025? We Okay, so homeschool copes don't actually have to exist as incorporated entities. When we decided that the school, that's when we filed articles of incorporation.
Um, answer your second question about liability. We have full liability insurance from Great American and we will issue a certificate of insurance to the cabin, to the conservation commission, and to the town of Reading as we have in the past. Um, as for
children being outside, Massachusetts has now regulations around what are called nature-based preschools. And there's a lot of them actually. It's a growing trend. It's very exciting. And essentially, all of these schools are on
public land um or sort of public spaces. So, for example, Boston Outdoor Preschool Network, their first school was in the um the Arnold, I suppose it's called, arboritum in in Jamaica playing and and it's just a sort of
understanding that children are in the public. I mean, it's it's actually in some ways a lot safer because children are out and being seen rather than being in a classroom where where things couldn't happen or or being in a sort of one-on-one situation, you know, in a
where they're sort of on supervised. Um and and the same exists for the Wright Lock program in Winchester that the same applies to uh Wildwood Nature School, which is out in Hopkin. So, we're part of a larger network and a community of
nature-based schools that that are sort of confronting the same questions. Claire, um Okay. Uh yeah, my biggest concern is definitely the liability and then I definitely would love to have some input from the
fire chief and police chief on any concerns with if they had if someone got hurt, could they get in there appropriately? Um so and also EEC requires us to have a full evacuation plan which we plan to create in conversation with the town and
with fire. um as you said, you know, and we haven't done that yet because we don't have access to the architectural plans of the cabin themselves and and so but that is something required and that we would have before the first day of school. Yeah. But my understanding is is you really wouldn't be in the cabin much. Am
I correct? That's right. Yes. So, it's just it's still important to have that conversation as you've mentioned. Yes, absolutely. I guess the other part of it is is that right now we're basing a fee off of you using the cabin 15 days a year, but as you said, last year's
winter was much harsher than normal. And so I I mean that's a piece of it, too. We'd have to have a conversation about that or I would hope that the conservation commission would have a conversation with you about that because um we we as a town are going to incur
fees for electricity, heat, any plumbing, maintenance, shoveling, all of that. And um with our budgets being as tight as they are, I just don't want to we cannot be spending money on extra things that you know aren't being covered by
the school. Um I don't have any other additional questions at the moment. Thanks Melissa. Um yes, so I just uh I came into this a little weary.
not say that, you know, that's a negative. It's more along the lines of, you know, uh I have obviously my biggest thing is financial concerns. Like that's going to be like uh for the rest of my life essentially, but um the way that
you know hearing this now tonight, you know, it's seeming a lot more beneficial, I think, uh to the town. I know that my own personal experience is that um I have both my girls, one is at
uh Camp Wakanda, the other one's at camp Rotary uh for the whole summer. Um I want absolutely nothing to do with cell phones, iPads, any of the stuff for any of them. And obviously it costs more money for me to do that, but you know,
these are the kind of things that, you know, it's it's unique. Um, and uh, it serves a obviously a purpose. Um, but my only caveat with all of that is once
again it comes down to the finances where it has to work for you and it has to work for the town of Reving um, as well as the the residents um, as well. But to Karen's point, obviously this is sitting vacant. If we can make money off
it, great. But it has to be fair to um whomever is going to be going in there. We don't want to be playing favorites and and setting a precedent where now someone else is going to come in. We got to give them a better rate. Um so my biggest concern other than obviously
kids and security and safety which will be paramount forever is just the finances. So, I know in the packet these numbers are based off uh it says $20 an hour, which is a the rental rate is for a reading nonprofit.
So, to that I would say, are you a reading nonprofit? Our goal is to be to move I mean our operations exist where the school is and so our goal is to be in Reading. So yes, I mean for the
year that we would hopefully for the year in the foreseeable future we would be a writing nonprofit. But do you have to file paperwork and do all that kind of stuff I assume for that or what's the deal? Sure. Yeah, we can pretty simply change our address to be in writing on our articles of incorporation.
So you already have a nonprofit to begin with kind of thing. So we filed articles for of incorporation for our nonprofit and um anticipate being able to receive our 501c3 status. Um we are an emerging
sorry we are joining a network a national network of of Montasauri schools called the wildflower network. And so through the wildflower network they have about 75 schools. They have maybe 18 in Massachusetts. They're micro schools. So all of them have like somewhere between 15 and 40 or maximum
50 kids and and so and so through Wildflower we would become a 501c3. All right. But you would agree though that that if you aren't a running nonprofit that you should you should be getting
the rates that you know obviously you're getting a discount for using the thing for 10 months out of the year when we're not. I completely understand that. I'm not I'm not going to be like you're paying the flat rate this entire time because that doesn't make financial sense to, you know, to us or to you
obviously. And obvious a discount um based off the amount of hours that you're going to be taking out there because it's not being used. So like everyone wins in this scenario. Um, but for us to give you a reading
nonprofit rate when you're not a reading nonprofit just doesn't sit well with me when other reading nonprofits um like was mentioned earlier before the food pantry, the um
uh Mission of Deeds, RCTD also is a nonprofit. Um and two other three of those people could use matern technically. I don't know if they've explored it, but um I mean the rates that they're charging to be in the places that they're in range from
$30,000 to $100,000 a year. And it doesn't sit well with me to see that we're just going to go 3 to 5,000 and give uh the rate being, you know, an out of town rate for this, you know. So obviously those numbers can be worked
out with um with conservation that um in in you know it has to work out for you and it has to work out for us. Um but like that just has to be checked and kept in mind that we're basing this these
numbers of stuff that doesn't currently exist as of right now and it may not exist into the future. most likely you said that you're going to be, you know, incorporating and filing and doing everything else, but like if we were if we were basing that off as as private,
you know, whatever, the rate goes up even higher. Um, but once again, just kind of because you're using it for 10 months out of the year. So, I understand there's some wiggle room there. Um, so I just think if you can work on those numbers offline with conservation and
that to become more beneficial to us. Um, I understand the pilot year it's hard starting a business from scratch. I did the same thing. No money like and you're going to hustle and that's the way that it goes. But it's got to be
fair to everybody because otherwise we can't sit up here and charge somebody else some other rate in future. Doesn't matter who they are. Well, we're just going to have to reduce all our metallic cabin rental rates across the board to kind of, you know, keep things in sync.
Um, but like I said, I do like the idea. I like the goal of what you're doing. I like it being more accessible to um uh lower uh income families, obviously. Um, but that's my biggest thing. if you could
work on that um behind the scenes and just kind of hash those kind of things out for me, that would be great. Yes, fully understood that that concern. And again, we are right now a Massachusetts nonprofit. So, we filed articles of incorporation as a as a Massachusetts nonprofit. So, that is our
status. We just haven't yet received our 501c3 from the IRS. and and I understand where you're coming from and and as I said I we intend to move our address to Reading because we will be in Reading and so that is what makes a lot of sense to us and and yes I wasn't sure you know
where exactly that conversation about arriving at a final number was going to be had but of course like we are open to conversation about it and and us just really understanding like being able to start enrolling and knowing what our enrollment is going to look like is that is going to determine how much we know
that we can af forward. Oh, yeah. It's a complete unknown and and I understand you're you're starting from behind the eightball. It's July 15th. So, um, no, I I wish you the best, but like I said, it's it's just going to be fair to us and it has to be fair to
you as well. Um, so, you know, hopefully truck and everyone can work offline and kind of work something out that it makes sense for everybody. I I wouldn't like to see the $3,000 number at all. Like, that is a non-starter. Um, and I think you know that now probably that's not
the case either. But if you have four kids, I I would understand more that that is more realistic. You know what I mean? But if magically you have 20 at the start of this year, I don't want to be hearing that it's $3,000 rate or whatever and it's pilot and all this
like it's got to make sense for the next person. Not not just on this land, for anywhere else that we're doing things in town for people. So, I know you're providing a a a very much needed service uh not for just for this community, for
for everybody else, but that's where I'm at. So, thank you. I guess I'll open it up to the public now. I'll start in the room and then I'll get you Oh, sorry, Elizabeth. After I get I think it's one person. Yep. Go
ahead. So, name and address in two minutes, please. Yeah. Evening. Um Will Finch 51 Mil Street and um member of the trail running trails committee. Um uh we we've been working downstairs and
we have a garage that's for our materials that are stored down there. I believe also the town forest committee has some materials there. Um, and I definitely can concur that the cabin is often not used. It's empty. You
know, I'm retired now, so I'm over there occasionally during the week and there's just there's nothing going on. Um, so this would be very beneficial, I think, not only to financially, but also having eyes and
ears of kids and teachers in the area um to help police the area. Um, occasionally there's issues um that occur um that we we wish we had more eyes and ears to keep an eye on. Um, so
and you know the having the the ability or a school like this for kids to experience the outdoors as I have all my life, I can understand the the benefit to that. Um,
so and I don't see that that this school would interfere at all with the trails committee activities on the property either. So, all right. Thank you. All right. I will go to online and Elizabeth.
Two minutes, I guess. State your name and address. Thank you. Um, Elizabeth Joyce, 92 Green Street in Reading. I've been a resident of Reading since 2018. My husband and I have a newly five-year-old daughter who
for the past year has attended two forest programs. She has attended uh the Wright Lock Farm program in Winchester part-time and also the community farm school program in Carile part-time. Um
my husband and I are both teachers. We're both educators and we sought out this time this type of programming for a multitude of reasons that I'm happy to go into if it's helpful to anybody at any other time. But I'm familiar with both of those programs. I'm also the executive director of a nonprofit
organization and have taught nonprofit management at Simmons University in the business school. So I'm familiar with that aspect of this as well. I understand that I've heard, you know, I've been listening here, hearing some of the concerns of the committee and and certainly understand, you know, in
engaging with anything new in a town that you have to go through that process. Um, I do want to enthusiastically tell you about the amazing experiences that my daughter and the other children in these programs have had, which is why
Wright Lock, as an example, in Winchester has a giant weight list and, you know, much more demand than they can than they can manage. uh and and I know that they cooperate with other towns and other schools that are looking to find out, you know, because they have been a
well-funded program. They also work cooperatively with um with other groups starting up local programs that have questions about how they've how they've managed risk. right lock as an example also on a piece of public land that is
open to the public and managing um you know Melissa asked the question about when you have a school and you do the Corey on anyone who's there I asked those same questions when I was thinking about sending my daughter there so there is good data available to us from a
number of local comparable organizations that I'm happy to um connect you with people at those organizations if that's helpful to any of you in this decision process. Uh mostly I would say that our kids today, no matter where you fall on
sort of the political spectrum or any of that, I think that most of us could agree that our kids are facing too much of the wrong kind of adversity and not enough of the right kind of adversity. And what I mean by that are, you know, the challenges of being outdoors and
dealing with the cold or dealing with um hikes that feel challenging, those sorts of things. And that's the primary benefit that I see in both of these schools that I've had the privilege of being a community member of in this past year is that these children are are
learning the skills. as as you said um about you know your daughters being in camp and wanting to be away from cell phones and iPads and all of that. This type of school is in demand for a reason and I as a resident could not be more thrilled about this prospect and I know
a number of other families in town that are really looking for these kinds of programs. Thank you, Liz. All right, Joseph. I guess for people uh on Zoom, it's it's hard to hear when the timer thing goes off, but just try to
keep it to two minutes. Joseph, thank you. Certainly. Uh Joseph Flurry, 21 Street Conservation Commission, associate member. I'm here to express my conditional support with reservations for the pilot proposal by Malberry Forest School to use Matara Cabin and surrounding conservation land for a forest school program. The school's
conservation environmental values, accessibility, land stewardship, community care. They align closely with the mission of the conservation commission. Their nature-based curriculum rotating outdoor classroom model show both educational depth and thoughtful care for the land for schools
like this help children build meaningful lasting relationships with nature and they instill the values of inclusive stewardship from a young age. And programs like this also foster early civic engagement, environmental responsibility. I've seen this firsthand through cleanup events, school field
trips, town leadership coffee chats and family events, and other conservation properties in Reading like Mlette S Morgan directly behind my home. My four-year-old finds something new about nature and the environments ask my wife and me about every time we visit. These types of ideas not only enrich our community, they also open up creative
self-sustaining models for funding board and commission projects, especially as the town considers future budget constraints and a potential override from the start and following the pre following this previously as a resident, not as a new commission associate member in July of 2025. I believe the commission has emphasized the importance
of a formal licensing process involving town council, the town manager, select board participation. When the pilot was approved in late June, it was with the understanding that town council and town management would draft a licensing agreement with the applicant and that the commission retain the right to revisit or pull its current support
based on final terms. And um outside that accreditation process, the DRT and town reviews that are still contingent with the licensing agreement. One key concern I have is the proposal annual fee of under $5,000 even for a pilot program. It's below the published material cabin rates, $20 per hour for
ready nonprofits. And I personally believe it doesn't reflect the actual level of indoor use during a full seven-hour school day five days a week. Particularly in the colder months, cabin will be heavily used and we should ensure the town receives fair compensation for clearly or clearly
defined in kind value. Spaces used by young students. They need regular upkeep and that impact should be a part of the discussion. I I do see this firsthand with my son's daycare classroom. That said, I believe these concerns can and would be addressed through a strong licensing agreement. Whether for this school year or for future ones, clear
terms on usage, compensation, logistics, they should be essential. With that framework in place, I support continuing to explore this innovation partnership. I applaud the creative thinking behind this proposal and its alignment with our conservation values. I offer support and principle contingent on fair and transparent licensing process. Let's get
this right for the benefit of the town and for our shared open space. Thank you. Thanks, Joseph. Uh, Walter, did do you want to say something? Two minutes name and address, and it's hard to hear on Zoom when the timer goes off. So,
Walter Talbet, 33 Pasture Road. I'm also a member of the conservation commission. Uh, I'm a retired public school teacher and contrary to what people think, school teachers number one rule is responsibility is not education. It's
the safety and well-being meaning of their students. And when Mary and her staff made a presentation to us at the commission, I asked very many direct questions about safety. They answered them very correctly and they're very concerned about the safety and
well-being of the students. I'm definitely in favor of them using the material cabin. Thank you. Thanks, Walter. James, did you still have your hand up for a reason? Yes, you're muted.
Yeah. H Hello. Um address real quick. James McGovern. Um I live in Rockport, Massachusetts. Um as a board member um and a retired public school teacher. Um, I became involved in this
uh process and project um out of a desire to see a constituency that that didn't feel as though their needs were being met um met. And um as a professional educator, I believe my
number one purpose has always been to meet the needs of the community um that in is in question. Um so I I I think this is a tremendous opportunity and that's what drew me into it out of out
of retirement I might say. Um and um I'm just going to I my question is what people are talking about financial issues in a in a and I understand specifics are difficult. Um but I am curious for the sake of our fundraising
and targeting various goals. Um do people have a number in mind that people asking these questions? Is there something we should specifically be working toward that would make it fair to you and and relieve that stress
because we we are a community-based group of people trying to do right by um the world we live in and we're grateful for this opportunity to be in reading. So what what is there anyone who might have any input about what that number
might be? I guess for me I can answer that James. It's um whatever the current rate is um for the status of of the applicant if it's if if on say you start September
15th if that's the the day that school starts if you are a reading nonprofit um you would be getting the um reading nonprofit rate whatever that is. If you are not then we are you know we are going down the avenue of a a completely separate and different rate based off
that um expectation. So whatever the calculation is on that I know in the in the packet the numbers that we had uh all I saw was 3 to five grand and I I thought that's nowhere near what it is and I understand like I said there's going to be a break obviously because
you're using it more. So obviously you should be getting a a little leeway here compared to anybody else, but it has to be um within fair and reason with whatever that rate ends up coming out to. So they can work behind the scenes in this. I would think it it's closer to
the $910,000 mark. Um I could be way off, way under, but like anything under that for me would kind of be a non-starterish. But I understand it's the um the first year pilot program. You
have six kids or something. I understand it's more difficult to get that number. So it's going to be a scale based off uh I'm sure that can be worked into a into agreement. If you have seven students, here's what seven student rate for the initial year is going to be. We'll see
how it works out for everybody. It works great. You know, kind of the rate going forward. So that's kind of where I'm at. There's no set number. Yeah, you know, it's based off the amount of kids and whatever status you have on that day to be fair to all the other nonprofits in
Reading and and everywhere else. Okay, I understand that. Yeah, Chuck, I guess Chuck has a followup to that, James. Thank you, Chris. Uh, so I do want to support what Chris said. Uh, that was the same advice we got from town
council. So, we are near that $10,000 amount. So, town council urged us to use our um fee rate and to come up with that number so that everyone would know at least in our group when we had our discussion. So, I
let Mary know that and it's the numbers fluctuated over our conversations, but when we're talking fairness and you're talking about what do we want, it seems like that's pretty close to where we're at. Now, there's people in town that
think we can get more or it's worth more based on what they have their kids go to school and daycare and things like that. I don't choose to go there because this year is a pilot program and I think that
we all have to learn uh you know what can come in and what kind of help we have. uh you know, so Mary's offering some um some grant writing if that comes up and I know there's a couple of opportunities in town that that may be
uh you know well received. So just getting back to the number, we'd like to get close to 10 if this works out like uh other communities. We would like more because we uh the
town the conservation commission has a lot of work to do but that's only with the success of this school. So I think that's the hard number. I just wanted to ask a a question. Would this facility need a podium? Yes.
It's not a comment. It's just a Would this facility need its own dedicated custodian? And what does that cost the town including accommodated costs? If you have a school, maybe not five kids, but if you've got, you know,
20 20 kids and two adults using a building 5 days a week, it bathrooms are going to have to be cleaned. I mean, things are going to have to happen. And I don't know what a custodian costs us, but I would think you're you're you're talking a few thousand dollars a month
to cover those costs. So, I I don't know that the 10,000's enough, but the town manager probably has a better sense of what does it cost just like with the senior center I mean and recal when it's expanding I feel like that you know they can they can have kids pull the weeds
but you know making sure no one falls on the ice cleaning the toilets cleaning the sinks like we we have to cover that I think Mary you had your hand up to respond to that I'd love to just respond quickly which is that in our proposal we have we plan to clean the cabin every day after use
and early at the end of the week. That's our intention and our and and our agreement. So, so I I would just assume that obviously once again this is the pilot year, but if that isn't upheld, subsequent years,
there's going to be different charges incurring, etc. But from reading your packet, I think I think uh the janitorial things are the least of our concerns at this point, if I had to gauge it. So, could I just add something? So, um I just want to say that uh since we're
using our fee rate and when we rent the cabin at a minimum of two hours, the custodians show up. So, they that fee um that fee that they're paying incorporates the custodians because we rent it to other people for just two
hours and rent it for four hours, rent it to three hours, but every time that happens goes on the calendar and facilities understands that and they come by and they clean it. So that's kind of built into the system and what Mary and her team is going to do is
extra so there'll be less work and that will probably be noticed. So maybe facilities doesn't have to show up uh or stay there so long and the plowing is already happening also and so trash
pickup plowing and cleaning happened. Now, we were never told um that we couldn't use the uh janitorial services, that's what they're called, uh 365 days a year. We were just told every time
that we rent it, put it on the calendar so they know to come and clean it. So, I think it's it was thought about. Um but this is more than, you know, this is more I get that. But, uh it should be incorporated in that fee schedule.
We'll just go to Amy first real quick. Two minutes, name and address. Thank you. Hi, I'm Amy. I'm one part of the the school. Um I just want to say that Monasuri I've been a Monasuria teacher certified in 2004. So I've been teaching for 20 years um in formal schools and in
nature schools and a large part of the Monasuri curriculum is life skills. And so part of their learning is taking care of their immediate environment both outdoors and indoors. So part of that is teaching them to take care of their space and they have cleaning chores and so they're learning how to do that. So
we would as part of the kids learning they would be taking care for instance cleaning the bathrooms um sweeping the floors making sure that there's space to clean and eat every day before they leave and that's part of their daily. So, not only would it not incur more more work for Castile staff, but you
know, our hope is that we make it less work for them because that's part of our teaching with the students of them being part of their community and really taking pride and respect for the spaces around them. So, and that's part of what we're teaching them is that before they leave, they make sure that everything
that do is cleaned um if not as well better than when they left. And so that's something that you know we talked about this as a staff that beginning couple weeks of the year the school year um is all about teaching the students about you know safety about taking care
of environments what that means to do custodians and their immediate the built environment as well as thank you Amy Carla did you have something real quick two minutes I address
Carla Nazaro um Lawrence road. It sounds like there may be a a difference between costs that the town incurs and um fees that the conservation that's going to collect. So maybe there's a clause in there about potential costs incurred by
the town that would be covered. If it turns into a full-time custodian, the town shouldn't have to pay for that, so to speak. But if it's something that's built in, that's maybe a different story. Um, just my suggestion. Thank you. Anyone else in the room?
Anyone online? Brian, I guess you quit while you're ahead, but we'll go. [Music] Yeah. Um, so a lot of this talk is about the exact dollar figure. Clearly, that's
important. We haven't had much chance to talk with them yet to negotiate to figure things out. Much like this is kind of a out ofthe- box approach to the use of conservation assets. Um I'm sure we can come up with some creative ideas
of how to arrive at the cost. One idea that's been raised is perhaps there's some magic number uh per child. That way there's built-in scaling. Uh if they have more students, then the fee paid would go up. It's it's just an idea that
hasn't been negotiated. So I think if you're looking for the number tonight, it's premature, but we get the point that we want this to be fair to the town as well as the school. I would say let us work on it. I think that's the
overall theme that you've heard is that our concerns are safety, security, and obviously the financial aspect of it. So hopefully that can get hammered out behind the scenes like I said and it can work for everybody, not just us, for them as
well. So Liz, you already spoke and I already said real quick while we're ahead because it's getting late, but um may I just ask you a clarification question? It's just super brief. Um I you have said a couple of times are you a reading nonprofit and I'm just
wondering just from the perspective of how the state and also the IRS deal with nonprofits where they recognize them by state rather than town if you have a working definition of what you mean by reading nonprofit just so that that question can get answered. If you're if
you're mailing addresses in reading, that's kind of how I would a mailing address. You know what I mean? Like if I did 71 Tennyson Road, my house or something. I'm I start a nonprofit like that kind of thing. Not, you know, downtown Boston or something like that. So, incorporated in Massachusetts with a
reading mailing address. Yes, I understand you can get a PO box and now I'm just creating loopholes in this, but it's got to be, you know, it has to be legitimate that people understand that this is on the up and up and we're keeping a fair playing field for everyone. That's all.
Matt, I ahead to grab it. So, just to be clear, I my sense from the board is you want me to proceed ahead with the license agreement with talking to town council with moving in that direction. So, I sort of put that on hold until select board happens. And also I mean I'm saying yes for me but I'm saying
also the school aspect has to get squared away too. That's a separate process. Absolutely. Like that I don't want to say the non-starter but like the school state I'm not we're not going to put extra burdens on them at the state they're but
the conservation commission is in charge of this. I mean we're not here to put extra burdens. I'm just saying we would be starting a school that is all of a sudden bypassing the school route if they don't get accreditation from the school. They're going they're going that from my conversations with the superintendent
they're going to be on the the next No, I'm just I'm just saying that that that has to be one of the concerns. It just can't be that we're not here tonight to tell them what to do though. That's my concern and it's coming late to your No, but you can tell me what to do. So So I'm I'm gonna just go ahead. So I
Thank you. I just wanted to clarify. I think everyone's on the same page here how we feel with with everything and and you know, we'll see what comes of it. Okay. Thank you. But thank you all for coming um and showing up. You know what I mean? It it means significantly more when people
come, you know, from the program. I expected you just to be here. So having everybody else obviously is shows that you're uh a lot more serious about this than I thought. I agree. Thank you. It's very late. Yes.
Well said. I agree. Thank you. It was a pleasure meeting you. Thank you. Do I want to take a break? Are we are we powering on to the next item? Does anyone need two minutes? I want to skip the next item, please. Motion to which is next item. I'm going to skip
forming a water. Yeah, I would say defer to Yeah. Second. You're skipping that one. Uh budget request. I like to skip that one, too. We can't skip the budget. Why not? I disagree with skipping cuz Chuck is
here in conservation. Well, Chuck, you're not going to like what I'm going to say, so you can stay. Uh, so we'll move on to discuss and vote on board and committee FY26 budget request page 72 in the packet. Should we have a real I'm sorry, a point of information. Should we have a real
motion to table this item? Because I don't even think Karen got a chance to weigh in. I didn't hear from Melissa. So, but I'm on board with that, but we should probably just have a formal motion to table until another meeting. I don't think we discuss. She's right. Procedurally, that's what we should do. Okay.
We should just get it in the minutes. Okay. So, I second Carlo's motion to postpone table for water and sewer rate discussion committee whatever that is. Second discussion. See? None. Melissa.
Yes. Yes, Karen. Yes, other Karen. Chris, yes, I was there. All right. Page 72. And the big thing on that is yes, it starts at 72. All the combined numbers, but other the emails
and everything uh follow that. Right. Did you have Well, it's just the typical request we make every year. You know, the way we've done the budget the last um four or five years is that instead of breaking it out by committee, we have a lump sum under a select board item and then the select
board gets to choose what the amounts are. The thinking behind that is some years some boards and committees will need less money, some will need more. So, it grants you more flexibility to give um certain boards and committees what they want. So, I had sent an email out to all the chairs. This is the
feedback I got. We have $20,000 in this line item. The the total request was $29,480. So, obviously, we can't meet every request. Um, and I put in what we did last year at the bottom of that summary sheet. So, you see where we were last
year. So, pretty simple, but you would need to decide. Carla, did you want to start? Oh, sure. So I obviously more has requested than we're allowed to give or award I guess is the right word but uh
so seeing these amounts and and I like that conservation historical um forest I think there was an email but uh they put what the money was for and climate just said a thousand bucks so you I wish they
gave us a little bit more detail. I don't know what climate needs money for. Um, I guess we gave them money last year. I don't know what they used it for. That's not here. So, for me, I would scrap that alto together. That's only a thousand bucks. Not a big deal. Given the conversation tonight, uh,
conservation, at a minimum, I would cut in half. Sorry, Chuck. Um, and then historical, um, get rid of the 5,000 or give them less. Um, we have to a we have to get to 20 and b given our budget constraints and we want to set a good
example. So historical maybe I don't know what the five and I know what the 5,000's for but what does 2,000 get them I guess would be a question. And then trails I get it. They're always um is it the same as last year? Yeah, trails the same as last year. I would cut that in half
as well. We all got to feel the pain. Sorry. That's just my recommendations. truck. He didn't say why he wanted to cut us in half. You just said because of the conversation tonight. Yeah. Given if you get some income if you get some income that'll offset what
we So, okay. So, if this works for the school, if it doesn't work for the school, where are we? I I would still propose to cut it a bit. So, because you're the highest ask, too. We are the highest ask, but we did not
come in. So, I don't want to argue, but I'm just going to say like, you know, the conservation certainly with the money we got last year, we were able to attract a school like the Montasauri Forest School into our properties and we're using that money to to help the
town. Um, I understand you you want to cut it, but um I would ask you just to at you know, at least look at what we wanted to spend it on and cut it on something that you don't think is needed rather than just saying, "Hey, half is
uh where we want to be." Yeah, I think Brian had a presentation and maybe that should be a presentation. No, I I can appreciate that and and and regardless of the school, I would be advocating to cut this a we have to cut
9,000, right? no matter what to get to the 20. And then we want to set an example is I want to set example as a board that we're talking about over talking about budget that guess what not everyone's going to get what they want this year and and you know so if you if I had to pick one item and I don't know
what is in the detail of it signage and kiosk is a big ask three grand I didn't understand invasive management that's an ongoing thing material cabin improvements you know put that on the school um fence repair you know negligible landscaping negligible. So
the big asks are the on this is the evasive and the sign. I wouldn't I wouldn't say cut all 8,000 but this is just me talking Chuck not not everyone else but every everyone's going to take a hit in my opinion in this categories.
So can I actually join the convers sorry that's fine. Um, so what I want to say is kind of in line with what Chuck was saying about the individual items and where you would uh
see that there was room to cut. I I think you have to remember I understand I said to the financial part I understand you guys are going to have some constraints. You're all going to have some constraints but that doesn't necessarily mean that that conservation gets trimmed 50%. Uh I
think it's important to remember the conservation until recent years didn't have a budget. So we are far behind because we didn't have money to spend until the past uh three years or so. And so we're at a deficit as a starting
point. Now let me just talk to the invasive management for a minute. That's a follow on to the tens of thousands of dollars we did this year in beginning the process for restoring bare metal. So if we did that work for tens of thousands of dollars and we don't work
on invasive management for it, you lose the benefit of the thousands of dollars we just spent. So that makes that more important. Um likewise with things like the science and kiosk, that's been an ongoing campaign we've been doing to
slowly over the years update the signs. The signs are originally from the 70s. They're these brown wooden signs that the boy scouts occasionally update, but we've been gradually moving them over to the town format. If you look at the sign
at Mata and Pineville, they now look like a town building sign. Uh that helps with uh the image of the town, the pride that the residents might have in conservation as opposed to seeing it as a negative. We want to educate. We want
people to see us as a helpful organization, not just the committee of help. And so um just a blanket cut it in half without considering those things I don't think
is is a right approach. There's a phrase that we always use when I used to work for a living, you know, fair not equal. And so that's the idea there is it doesn't mean you have to cut it by 9,000
whatever everybody everybody takes an even trim. Uh what's fair it doesn't have to be equal what's fair and since we are behind the eightball for all the years where we didn't have a budget and we couldn't do the ongoing maintenance
and the ongoing projects. We're at a deficit and there's deferred maintenance to do. So, I don't think it should be an across the board. Uh, everybody gets cut the same thing. I I think we have a reason to be looking for this money.
When I started this, I didn't know the financial constraints we're going to be talking about. So, I was asked to to put together our needs. This is not wants. Wants a funny word, but these these are
our needs. And these are overdue. the section on the tools. Uh you know, we had we had various cleanup activities and we're begging people to bring tools. Uh right now we're begging people to bring sprinklers to water the new
plantings we just put into bare metal. That's $18,000 worth of plants. If they all die from the heat and the money is thrown away. So these things are necessary in order to uh maintain what
we've been doing. This is not new pie in the sky. This is a continuing plan. No, I get it. Your conversation started off great until you said the word but I mean there's other other organizations here that also need money. I'm not discounting your work or what you're
asking for, but you went a considerable amount over last year. And I'm going to stay on the invasive part. And this is just me talking. I don't know what the other four have to say, but everyone's going to feel I don't want to call you in pain. Everyone's gonna, you know, cut back a little bit
because even though if we cut this 29 to 15, right? That's $5,000 less than we allocate. Yeah, that's a drop in the bucket. But if we don't set the right example for the tone that we've been talking about, then we're not doing our
job. I'm not saying you take the biggest hit. You have the biggest ask. Biggest ask this year. But there have been past years where talent forest $100,000. Right. Right. But because it's fair, not equal. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I I totally hear you. And it's late. But that's where I'm
coming from. That's all. And if you get three to $5,000 from this school, that's a win. It's a guys. Don't go the three to five. Well, not for the first year. No. That's that's all I'm saying. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm not saying I'm
right. It's just for me. We could pick a number. 20% 30% of your asks uh get cut. But got to start somewhere. I just think Brian that that we have 20,000 total amount requested is 29480. So
someone's going to end up unhappy. And yeah, I understand you're here advocating once again, which is phenomenal, but like we're gonna cut $9,480. So, and I'll get to my portion. I guess Karen, you can go next. I just um you know, I learned something
recently. Um and it's not true of all commissions, departments, but I understand the conservation commission is able to bring in revenues for the town through um permit permitting fees. I kind of was aware of that. I just didn't put it all together. Do you have
any idea how much you guys brought in last year? Yeah, probably 20. Yeah, a few big projects. Um, but I could check on that, but I was So, what happened to that money? So, uh, our fees go, uh,
I guess you're gonna come up, Chuck, if you're gonna Oh, sorry. I was It was late. I forgot myself. Sorry. Um so our fees have two parts. The state side and the bylaw side which I call the town side. The through
statute the conservation commission is char in charge of the state fees but they can only be used for office office expenses. So what we're talking about here and what's on that chart that Brian Bo presented is not part of anything
that we can use the state fees for. um the town fees go into the general fund and that's just how it is. So, I'm not making a case one way or another, but it it is they I don't like the system. This is a new system. I
don't want our certain boards and committees having to come and beg us and and you know, duke it out. This is insane. But I did want to make the point that they're bringing in money. It brought another revenue opportunity to us, which might, you know, fingers crossed, might
help. So, it's even more strange that you would say that you're so far behind on the funds you actually need when you you're actually bringing. So, it's something we could also add to our budget discussions. And that's why I asked, you know, what's the scope? How much is it? It's not the only
department. Wreck wreck also brings revenues in. And so it's but it's something that we can talk about going forward. And it's true and something you need to think about. Four or five years ago um material cabin was just a cabin and the
field was just wooded field that no one took care of and we didn't have Mlette and Morgan. Conservation is in charge of taking care of Mlette and Morgan. It has some money left in a grant. So we're we're getting some help with that, but
we're still doing a lot of friends of Mlette Somal and Morgan. Chris Haley participated in one of our work days. That's what we're going to do to take care of those. So what we have, we have a lot of land and now we have assets on those lands and we need to keep those
assets in a usable safe condition. So our asks as we keep using our money to improve our land is only going to come up. So it supports what uh Karen's saying. It this system may not work in the future for conservation because and
maybe for other groups too because we have a deck. A deck is being built on the back of Mater Cabin. I'm doing that through a grant and through volunteers. That's no problem. But now we have an additional asset. We have the cabin. We
have a deck. We have a pavilion. We have a cart path to it. We have, you know, a two pollinator gardens, one at Mater. So, so we have all these things and all these things need something. It's not like we're and the pollinator guy gets a
little bit of a budget so we can keep going. And this is part of the money that we're putting out there. But I'm going to end this with with this thing. The trails committee, the town forest committee, and all of our land use partners, we're friends with. So, I
don't want to take their money either. So, I can tell you Trails definitely needs so much more money. They can spend what they asked for in one week and I think we did it two years ago. So, it's just tough. It's tough all around. I
appreciate where you guys are at, but you know, that's the reality. Thank you. Thank you. Karen, did you have a thought? Not I meant the other one. Oh, okay. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. I'll finish up then. Okay. And it is it's a little hard to make $20,000
request $20,000. Um I'm not in favor of not using this full budget because I've asked for it to be increased. Unlike every other line item, this hasn't increased since it was created three or four years ago. And that's a concern because what in this world hasn't gone
up a little bit. So I I mean I maybe we can wait on the sign. I mean, but I'm concerned about the invasives and I don't want to lose the headstein head headway you made and I know climate advisory is out there going to events. So, leaving them funless isn't like the
greatest idea and it's minimal. Um, maybe the archiving could be reduced a bit so they get some of it done and some of it done next year. Still not enough. I know. Still not enough. You're still So, get the scissors. Get the scissors. Fair enough. That's We only have 20,000. Are we at least in
agreement that we can get this budget spent? We're not trying to like save money here. Me personally, I will spend 20. Yeah. I mean, like I said, 5,000, you know, if you're with 5,000 every week, different story, right? I'm okay with the 20. Okay.
So, get the scissors out. Tell me you want to cut. Yeah. Yes. Melissa, so in the note that we received from um the climate advisory committee, they mentioned that they didn't spend their money last year. And do they get to keep it? Does it come back to us?
It it would go back to free cash if they don't spend it. The fiscal year already ended. So, right. Last year must have regenerated to free cash. That's that's where my mindset is is moving the thousand from climate because they didn't use it before to conservation.
Yeah. And then simply the prior year's numbers that are all listed there. Um, that's what I I would agree with. So, meaning Yeah, I'm in agreement with that, Chris, as well. Conservation got six grand last year.
We're now moving a thousand from climate to that up to seven and keeping all the other numbers identical. I mean, if if conservation got seven grand, you can do invasive and then figure out what else and then come up with a sign when Monasuri gets us $28,000 or something
fantastic. Um, it leaves you in a somewhat okay uh position, but we have to test somewhere. We'd all like to give you more money. We understand the trails, the amount of donated work that these people do is is, you know, the $30,000
maybe uh a month at some point. It's like I'm cognizant of this kind of stuff. Yeah, we don't have to get paid. We only got 20 grand. We don't get paid. So, the select one has no no number on this. We shade of yellow. I can agree to that. So, we can move on. I I like that idea. I have things to
say. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Karen, you're saying we're moving on. I'm like, wait a minute. I said we can move on. Oh. Um Karen, I'm not the chair. I'm not the chair. Carrying the hat. You have the Thank you very much. Um
I don't think it's fair to climate advisory to just knock them off just because they didn't spend their money. I think that if anything cut them in half, but they're not here to defend themselves either. And so, yes, they had an opportunity to to provide an email, which I believe he did, but um I I don't
think that's fair since they've gotten money in the past. What's the money for? I don't know. That's not up to us to decide. You know, everyone else is going to know what it's for. It's it's in your pocket. The next page. He's on the next page and it has something to do with new signs and things like that. But but if we're going
to give them money, we have to trust they're going to use the money on something that that's worthy of it. And since they didn't spend the money this year, we shouldn't penalize them this year for not spending it last year. If anything, we should thank them for not spending it last year because it went back in the fund. So, for me, I'd spend it all, but I think you're all pretty
aware that I would say that um having met with the the fourth committee and the trails committee and all the progress they've made and it would be a horrible shame to have everything go uh reversed. And I think that at a minimum,
keep keep where it was last year if we're not willing to raise any of the money and figure out a way to work with them on different ways for them to raise more money. I don't I don't think us just saying no, you're not going to get it and leaving it there isn't going to help the committees that that we're charging to take care of our town. You
know, these are really important parts of our town. And to just say you figure it out, I don't think that's fair. I don't think it's us supporting them at all. So that's my point of view. But where would you want to cut? You never mentioned cutting anything. We have you have to cut $9,480.
I said I think that if at a minimum we just leave it where it was last year and then we have discussions with them to figure out how we can help them figure out how to make things work for what they're looking for. So if there's grants that they need people to write for them, whether they have them on their own committees to write them or if
they need someone from the town to help them, you know, put out bids to people that may not even know that the conservation commission needs a sign, you know, maybe somebody's willing to donate the money to them. But if nobody knows about it, how do they know they need the help? I just think that to other people's
points about conservation, if you cut it down to what it was last year, which is six grand, and they can do invasive, which they said is is critical, fix a fence and get some landscape tools. It's all critical. No, but like that that I assumed if we
gave conservation uh $6,000, they're doing the invasives. And I'm not even on conservation and I know that's what they're going to do with the money. Like so what else are you cutting that means like maternity doesn't get improved? Like I just I think it's
sometimes Chuck is out there on Friday nights. He installed that fence up there. Well, no. Hey, why not discounting the fact that the town runs on volunteers and some of these people we don't even know are doing the things that are being done out here and the amount of money
the boy scouts and all these are saving us. That's like every other day they're doing something out there and then the the mission group or whatever is going to be coming and doing all that stuff next. Like all of these things aren't factored into these numbers which would balloon into
hundreds of thousands of dollars. Right. The pollinator garden I know for a fact at Birch Meadow was done by a resident. He made all the ball what do they call the all the pollinator balls at his house himself. Thousands of them. We subsidized him last year $500 and
we'll do the same. Right. And that and that's great. But like to to to the point we Oh, so we should we keep it at 20, keep it the same as last year or or or cut climate in half? That means someone else is going to get 500 less. But, you know,
it's, you know, we all want things, but we don't always get them. So, I I you know, they it Okay, I I agree with you. They didn't use it. They shouldn't be punished. I don't consider it a punishment. It It's I don't know how
much $1,000 gets you for climate advisory, you know. So, I the other ones there are are open space, you know, the archivist. That's a big ass $5,000, you know. I don't know if that gets the whole job done or part of the job done.
I don't know. I think that stems from ARPA is some of that money that ARPA the historical I think used for that and now it's carrying on. But like that's definitely a want not a need. I I think all of us are under agreement that that's going away. I I know they all used ARPA money and I
think that it's our job or it should be a goal to try and help them figure out how we can help fund them now that ARPA money is gone. you know, some some places still have ARPA money that they're spending, but to just cut them off and say, "Well, this is all you're going to be able to get." I think that if you're the leaz onto the company to
the to the committee, take an initiative, meet with them, figure out how we can help them raise this money somehow. I don't, you know, that's my point of view as far as a liaison to the committee. This is the first I've seeing of any of this. I know I met with the town forest committee
with Karen and they would love 50 grand because that's a yearly thing and trying to talk about how to help them achieve that so that every year they don't have to keep revisiting you know start all officers from scratch trying to get money I think they're coming to town meeting or something is in the works to getting
their own line item and then obviously if they go away then that's more for the other ones that are here we we got to cut $9,48 like that's where we're at. So, um, maybe to split the difference, we move
500 from climate over to conservation and keep the numbers the same as last year. If we can all get an agreement on that, I could I can get behind that. I can do that, Carlo. Yeah, Melissa. All right. Is there public comment, please?
Sorry, forgot Angela. Thank you for reminding me. Oh, wait. Did I already do public? I think so. Anyway, I had Angela named Yep. Angela Binda um Orchard Park Drive. I have served on the um historical commission and I know they it's
materials. They're not, you know, these aren't for salaries. Um and my both my SK boys are Eagle Scouts, so I know the work they do. I would hope for $9,000. Really? I would ask you to go back to
town meeting and just say, can we take $9,000 to fund this? to be saying, you know, we need we need to cut 9,000 when we just allocated millions of dollars for recreation. I think you need to think of this that a
lot of this is recreation for people who don't play sports. Not everybody plays a sport. There are lots of people who depend upon hiking, walking trails, walking their dogs. these sorts of
passive recreation is just as important as as the fields are for some people. So the trails, the town forest, the conservation, those are really important. The climate advisory, I don't
know. I'm guessing that it's just supplies that they need. I know that the historical commission used to have a thousand dollars for supplies before this came up that before this system came up. And you know, think of what we spent. I won't I won't go into
particulars, but think of what we expected to spend on recreation this year and what we ended up spend spending. Hundreds of thousands of dollars more than we thought. So, I think that, you know, millions of dollars for recreation this year. So to
kind of be saying we all need to tighten our belt. We need to pull in $9,000 from these committees and town departments, you know, that that maintain our natural spaces which are
recreation spaces for a lot of people. I would say please don't even try to cut. I think that they've been, you know, they're probably very conservative in what they're asking for. go back to town meeting, ask for $9,000. 9,000 is really
a drop in the bucket. It really, you shouldn't be fighting over $9,000. And these are hardworking um committees and commissions that really, you know, I know that they only ask for the bare minimum and they get so much volunteer time. So, please fund what they've asked
for and please ask for the rest from town meeting in November. Thank you. Thanks, Angela. Anyone else online? Jane is online. Jane not online. Um if if the board approves
this 20,000, I'm would like a moment um to take a stab at the other nine. Um and then come back to the board. Yeah. Before we It's not on the agenda, so we can't start exploring all these other options. But offline, you and Matt, they can see
what we want to do. But like Yeah, it's we got 20 grand. This is the motion. We're still all in agreement. Moving 500, keeping the numbers. Is that how we're Well, I mean, we're voting on the 20
grand. I could plan on this for now. Yes. Um, all right. So, Karen Rose, you have the motion. You fill in the numbers. So, it's 500 followed by 6,500
followed by 1,500 followed by 6500 followed by 5,000. Yep. And they don't have to worry about them in the extra nine. No, that's that's
not move that the board allocate funding for the following boards and committees. Climate Advisory Committee, $500. Conservation Commission, $6,500. Historical Commission, $1,500. Town Forest Committee, $6,500. And Trails
Committee, $5,000. Second. Seconded by Karen. Any discussion? Seeing none, Melissa, yes. Yes. Taran Hurry, yes. Karen Rosillis, yes. And Chris Haley, yes.
I don't even know where we are in the agenda. I ask that we table the next item as well. Discuss tracking me. Well, I guess Thank you. Thank you. Second. Okay. Uh discussion. See? None. Melissa,
yes. Yes. Karen, yes. Karen, yes. Layers on reports. Are we skipping this? Motion to skip on reports. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, second. It's just going to be longer next month. That's only for you, Karen, and nobody
else. Did someone say second? I seconded it. Yes. All right. Any discussion? No. Melissa, yes. Carlo, yes. Chris, Karen, Karen was gonna Is that a yes? Yes.
Chris Haley. Yes. Future agendas are in the future. Uh, anyone want to do we want to add that or we skipping? I I'm comfortable with all the features that we've got right now. Everyone's good. We don't have to skip
anything. Melissa, future agenda. Uh, no, I don't see anything else or can't think of anything else that needs to be added. I got an up more of an update if uh where does it stand with the master plan committee with us and CPDC? How's that going?
Update. So that would Matt or someone you you're the chair. Yeah. No, I met with Heather last time, but I don't think there has been any movement beyond that. I think CPDC it was charged with kind of feeling things out and obviously the chaos that's
erupted around that is on CPDC itself with other other schools. Yeah. I think we need to get an update. Yeah. Yeah, we can we can put an update on for the future on this committee. It's a great Didn't you ask last time for an update on RCTV in I thought it was going to be
in Matt's it was we were well it was going to be in um I don't know any other future agendas. All right. Uh discuss and vote and approve prior meeting minutes.
Changes to me. I didn't send anything over. I just found one. Um, NextStep Ministries is is called Next Tech Ministries. It's in the second set of minutes. Oh, I I have a change. Not Not That's
me, but it was brought up that Oh, sorry. Let's So, the first set of minutes. So, are you on the first or Karen's on the second? So, we'll start at the first. Do you have anything on the first? A second. Let me double check. So, I
don't hold things up. Just a note, we received a suggested change on the first set of minutes for the 10th. Um, I'll bring it up on the screen right now. It's what's highlighted in red right here.
Who said that? Carlaaro. That's the one I was going to mention. Yes. Okay. So, that's already there. Thank you. Yep. Typically, I would like to mention I I'm in agreement with you, Karen. I I don't think that we should be
allowing the public to drink minutes, but if Carlo was willing to change if Carlo was gonna loophole this, which I was at the meeting and Carla was not in in that in that cohort of in favor. That was she made public comment
and she wasn't So, is it in public comment then? Yes. Yes. Okay. But I agree. We should be letting the public suggest residue. Okay. I agree. All right. So that's on the first set
with that addition. Everybody seems good. Um Melissa. Yes. Okay. So um first we'll start on that one. Karen for the motion for that as amended. I think did Karen have a change on Oh,
no. Okay. Motion to approve the meeting minutes of June 10th, 2025 as a as amended. Hang on one second just because I can't find it again. Can um I know I just I can't find it. Maddie,
can you do a search on next space tech and just make sure I got the right set of minute meeting minutes because I can't find the change. Next space. I think I think it's on the second set. Okay. I just want to make sure we change that. We vote by accident. I just want
to make sure we get it correct and I'm having a hard time finding it. I don't have the word step as being in our minutes other than Stephen C. No, you have to search on Next Space Tech. Oh, you wanted to say Yeah. And I can't do that. My computer's about to die. You can get a new computer
on technical difficulties. Next Tech Ministries is on page 100 of the packet which is on the 24th meeting minutes. So you're good for us but you're good on that one typo. Yes.
So it should be next tech. No step step step but we're voting. Okay. Yes. Move to approve the meeting minutes of June 10th 2025 as amended. Second. Second.
Seconded by Karen. Any discussion? Seeing none, Melissa. Yes. Karen, yes. 5 zero. Uh, next set of minutes. We just had the typo thing fixed. So, just anyone else have any changes?
No. Seeing none. So, Karen motion is amended. Move to approve the meeting minutes of June 24th, 2025 as amended. Second. Seconded by Karen. Any discussion? Seeing none. Melissa, yes.
Harlo, yes. Karen Harris, Karen Rosen, yes. Chris Haley, yes. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. Behind the uh no discussion. Melissa, yes. Carlo, yes. Karen Harris Gillis. Chris
Haley. Yes. We are journ. Good night, everyone.