And you know, other credit may have been given to other individuals, but you guys were the folks that you know were the were the ones that the over all of you was overseers of the work that was really being done. That made a difference. So, that was my observation when I first got on. And I will continue that that observation because you folks are are very uh endearing to me because I've I've watched what you have done and made Ashland a lot better. But not just not for the children, but for the entire community as a whole. We we bridged the gap. Yeah, and it opened a chapter of of the some things, but we bridged the gap between when we first started. Joe, I might invite you back again. I mean, you have to keep on with this. Yeah, well it's um People were butting heads.
Departments were butting heads. It was us versus them Yeah. attitude. And when we saw and we looked at policies that would be beneficial for everybody to utilize, I mean, cooler heads prevailed. Everybody agreed that this may be the right approach to take. And that policy is in effect right now and I hope it stays that way. You know, maybe there's always a little tweak that needs to be done, but all in all, I mean, you're talking about the finance. The financial aspect of it. Right. I mean, any new money that comes in is a 70/30 split and the way it should be. And everybody benefits by it. It's not, "Well, we need this more than No, it's it's we're in this together." And and I think that attitude has has fostered you know a better and a great change of how budgetary thought process is being done in this community and in much much better than other communities around us.
Yeah, I would agree. I mean we're fortunate to have great relationships with the superintendent and school committees and the finance committee and you know, finance can be a little bit boring but it it's really kind of the the foundation of any type of organization and any kind of public services because unless you have money you can't really do anything. You can't put cops on the street. You can't patch roads. You can't do some of these projects that we're doing and so yeah, that was that was a pretty important important thing that we have because you know, it also not only did it carve out money for the projects that we're doing today but um it also started addressing our long-term liabilities and so we're planning for the future as well so we don't get caught off guard and we're you know, we're not totally kicking the can down the road.
You know, we're taking care of things like our OPEB liability which is health insurance for retirees. It's a fancy name for that and then also our rainy day fund which has been key. But Joe wanted you to just getting back to the projects one of the things that you know, you and I kind of shared a moment with was something that's very near and dear to my heart which is the downtown project. And I mean I can remember you and me and Carl kind of walking Yeah, the walk. We'll call it the walk. Yeah, down down Main Street and just kind of envisioning what it would look like with the poles underground and everything and what do you think about the evolution of that project? We're not we're not finished yet. We still got to get the poles down but we're almost there. It was funny.
I I was in the company of Carl a couple of couple of days ago and we were we were talking about that. I said remember the walk. He says oh yeah, the walk was it was that actually started that that movement that let's let's do it. Yeah. You know, and and the discussion came well, yeah, we make the sidewalks better and you know, beautiful crosswalks all night and yet to beautify downtown. We need to be beautifying downtown. Get rid of the all the pointless get rid of the get rid of the bloody We got a few sound effect buttons here which we haven't tried yet. Get rid of the bloody you know, wires and hanging you know, telephone poles out you know, put them out of sight put them under the ground and that then that whole that initial discussion actually came it came to fruition and and you know, within the next year or two.
Yeah, I'm going to I'm going to press the button. You're good. Here we go. There you go. Look at that. downtown. Yeah, hey downtown. And and it's and it's come and and people are happy with it. Yeah, especially this past year during the holiday season. Oh my gosh, it was incredible. It was absolutely incredible. You know, you see all the people you know, do the holiday stroll and get the getting the the business folks involved in it. You know, Beth has done a great a great job and Beth Reynolds or our economic development director. Town Hall looks so pretty. Oh, it looks very Oh, it and it and it'll continue. You you go from one building to the next and you know, hopefully we can uh put funding and make a line item of that and and hopefully that and maybe the business community sees that and helps towards that as well.
So we can we can all do that so. But it was very very nice and I know Santa was very happy to see it when he came down and saw all those he was very very impressed with how Ashland now getting getting into the holiday spirit real quickly. Yeah, and Santa's the guy to impress that time of year. It certainly is. You know, It's Santa Santa is really really uh you know, Santa when he comes to Ashland his favorite spot. It is favorite spot and I will have to say like I have a personal experience with that because and I like to share because my daughter you know, when I started here she was 3 years old and believe it or not she wasn't she wasn't totally convinced about Santa. And when Santa came to town one year she went and got on Santa's lap and Santa knew exactly what she wanted and I remember her getting on that lap and Santa said well, I hear you want I think it was like a Princess Sofia the First Castle.
I think that's what she was into at the time and I tell you her just smile like this amazed look on her face and she she came out of that little hut a believer so I always got a a special place in my heart for for Santa here in town. Jen, what are some of the other projects that you uh that you really like and are proud of? I mean we've got so many. We got 126. We've got the Mendes school. We talked about the public safety building. Um what any of those or ones that I didn't mention that really kind of resonate with you? I mean all of those for sure. I mean I think all of them have a a part in sort of transforming the physical part of our community. I do love sort of programs also. I think we've come a long way in our programs.
I think at the library we have a crazy amount of programs. Any given day you can find um something that you're interested in. I think with recreation and our seniors sort of just keep building on programs and I think sometimes when we're thinking about community we think about the physical places and sometimes I think we also need to think about the programmatic where you can actually connect with some people that you may not otherwise cross paths with and I think that is invaluable and I think our staff does an amazing job with that. I'm lucky enough to be part of Ashland is United that also does programs like Breaking Bread which actually Joe was at. It was a very cool program I'm waiting for I'm waiting for it to come up again. Yeah. Yeah, again that guy was awesome. Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
Yeah, so they do sort of programs intentionally connecting people that might not otherwise cross paths and I think if we're talking about physical projects another project super proud of is the Trolley Brook Trail which you know, you know, on its face you're thinking it's less than a mile. It was sort of the easiest piece of the Upper Charles Trail because we we owned the property but it was one of the projects that really sort of far surpassed my vision. Like I was really surprised and now I I walk it almost every day but it's a beautiful path that you know, you're weirdly sort of trans transplanted or something into the into the woods from Megunko Road. You know, Megunko is probably the most industrial I mean next to Nickerson Road off 126. Megunko is pretty industrial and then you just walk into this environmental you know, beauty.
Yeah, it's like almost magical in a way that it sort of brings you to this place from like you said the most industrial you know, you're walking not on a sidewalk to this through the street and then you end up on this beautiful path for a little bit of a mile. It's so that project was surprisingly satisfying in terms of you know, what I had envisioned and then to actually see it. And again it's the start of something that will be much much bigger that will take likely years and years and years to come. The Upper Charles Trail so which we're making some progress. When it happens it'll it'll be a beneficial beneficial for every you know, everybody you know, whether they ride bikes or they just walk the trail. Right. You know, so Right. which would be nice. Um You know, I'm sorry my name interrupted you Mike.
The the programs that you were talking you know, that you had mentioned these programs are are essential for everybody. You know, not just groups of individuals but for every every sector of our community from children to the to the seniors and without these programs you can build great buildings but if you have nothing to provide activities for these programs you know, for these for these buildings. You know, like you said the library my God. I mean going back and look at what we had for a library and then they were very limited with what we have and you know, we had a one of the size of this studio was the was the children's aspect of which was downstairs in a musty old you know, basement and they had they did the best that they could do but now today you have a vibrant children's library that is just so full of activity.
Oh yeah. It it and no wonder why parents love it you know, and you know, support it. Yeah, it's a good good opportunity to give a shout out to Lois McAuliffe who her last day actually as a children's librarian was yesterday and she'd been there for over a couple of decades but Mina Mina Jain who has been our library director now two or three years has just done an amazing job of bringing programs in for sure. I think you know, one of the things I wanted to just kind of pivot towards is just talking about you two individually and why you got into you know, public service and and Joe I'll I'll ask you specifically what made you decide to run for the select board? Well, there was this there was a a discussion that was being had in front of a select board well at the time a selectman board that was actually shutting out people's opportunity to speak on a topic.
And it happened to be and this was this was the Warren Woods matter that the whole project was Warren Woods and it was in a discussion stage and the unfortunately the folks that were you know, were on the select as selectman at the time didn't want to hear it. So they shut the people down. And that's not what town government's about. Shutting you know, the voices of people should be heard especially from my officials. So, it annoyed me. I can remember my father's voice telling me in my ear to if you don't like what you see and if you don't do anything, you're part of the problem. Right. So, I said, "Okay." In my mind, I said, "Okay, that's it." I talked to my family to make sure it was okay with them cuz I knew it was going to be uh time-consuming in in in the beginning.
Because we all know Donna runs the Magnani household. Yeah, yeah. I will say this right here. I'm not I'm not I'm not ashamed to say that my my my skirt's a little high right now, but yeah. And uh yeah, she's definitely the boss. There's no doubt about it. In any any Italian home, the mom's the boss. I don't care what people say. Oh, for sure. But anyway, long story short, she um they said, "Fine." And um so, talked to some of my friends and we started this, you know, campaign to run. Um I was very uh I was hip I was humbled by the support of the And and still received over the last, you know, three terms that that I ran and uh I think I hope people still trust and believe in me and my heart is to do the right thing for the community.
I know that the current board that I that I sit on, uh we still have that same process and um we all feel the same way. We still have a commitment to this town. And um so, but that that's that was one reason. It was just the lack of not being able to speak and have and be heard on a on a matter was was was very compelling to me. And I think it's be compelling to anybody. You know, that's why I'm glad that we still have citizens participation, you know, during our meetings. Uh even now with Zoom, you have more people available to to speak if they they need to speak. So, uh but that was one of the reasons and then other other uh issues that we talked about, the public safety building. That was a big concern for me for over the years and I'm very thankful that we're able to complete that.
And to the uh young lady sitting to my right, uh Jen, she was the uh brick and mortar of this whole project because she was procurement officer and she did more work behind the scenes than in front of us. So, you know, a lot of kudos to her for for the work that was done. And uh we still have a couple more things left to finish on that, but uh Just a couple more. Pretty soon we'll be able to dissolve that committee. Yes. Because we're all, you know, That's right, Joe, uh which you're the chair of. I should have mentioned that at the beginning. Jen kind of has the project management Joe is the chair of the of the building committee, you know. I was a spokesperson. The person that did all the work, unlike Paul Kendall with the school committee group uh school buildings uh committee.
This young lady was the one that did all the work. Well, Jen yeah, Jen did a lot, but don't uh don't discount the role that you had, for sure. For sure. She gave me she gave me the latitude to do that, so thank you. But uh but yeah, Jen ran a tight ship on that project, for sure. So, uh Especially with especially with those people that were in the project in a in building the building itself. You know, you had site supervisors and stuff, but yeah, they would come to her and Jen would make a quick phone call or two. Oh, for sure. Yeah, and then uh then things would happen, for sure. Jen, what about you? I mean, so just a little bit of for those of you that know well, you wouldn't know, but you know, the history. Jen and I have known each other for, gosh, 12 Oh god, no.
It's 14 years now, right? So, we both worked at the city of Lowell um for a while, but you know, you had been there for a while by the time I started in Lowell, but what what got you into public service? So, I think I've always been sort of driven for um community impact. Uh so, in Lowell, I actually had a very different role. I worked within the police department um really building programs. And so, again, I think that's part of the reason why I think programs are so important. I saw that sort of the transformation it can have um in an urban environment and how much um reach really small programs within a one department could have. Um I moved to the state for a number of years, I about 7 years I worked for um the Commonwealth and the and under the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.
And um what drove me back is sort of the distance you have when you're in the state from actual community um and and people and sort of seeing any impact that anything that you're doing is making on a day-to-day basis. And so, sort of driven back to come uh to a community and sort of put all of my energy into sort of um helping transform a community and I think Ashland has been really welcoming to me and so, I feel like all the work that I tend to be behind the scenes um sort of intentionally, um but I can also see the change happening and that's really fulfilling for me uh personally. And so, I didn't have that necessarily when I was working on policy work um even some of the real work that we were implementing um sort of essential services at the at MEMA, um you don't actually see what's happening on the ground and I think that's really important and you can't get that um anywhere else and I really do love the sort of small town feel that Ashland still has as opposed to um some of the more urban areas that I've worked in um because you can really sort of be pretty flexible in some of the programs and some of the larger projects that we've worked on.