I don't think we we didn't originally um ask to change the start times for the budget purposes. That was that's what this conversation has just turned into. It it they're tied together because we changed that's not so there is a potential that if we do that we're putting kids on buses for longer which you'd have to be very transparent about which I can tell you right now no one's going to be in support of that. Parents will not be in support of that. Um and you're risking safety. I mean, you're potentially the more kids you have on a bus and the more you crowd the bus, put yourself up for for risk. They're unsupervised and nothing good happens on a bus. But you're making an assumption they're going to be overcrowded. So like that's the thing. It's like it's there's my kids's bus is already overcrowded.
And this could make pursuing reasonable updates more cumbersome for current owners or discourage new businesses from entering the downtown area. So, while I believe there is a collective agreement that these historic sites can and should be preserved, the creation of this district may do just as much, if not more, to potentially hinder progress and updates in downtown than it does to preserve the handful of historic sites. Um, we could be using our time and resources to preserve things uh individually like we did with Clover Road, like we saw outside of the establishment of historic district uh with partners that can commit to reinventing areas of our downtown while also respecting its history. Um, my colleague from Blush and myself, we actually uh inhabit a floral shop and an ice cream shop just with modern takes on it. um those modern takes on more traditional businesses that establish the storefronts that we're in seems to me to to speak more to the current culture of Ashland grounded in the past but with an eye on the future.
It's been overcrowded for so mine's not and I drive my kid to school every day. So for every scenario, right, there's But even one overcrowded bus is is just too much. Can we not talk over each other because all these points are important to consider. I mean, as simple as like my son having bands. I have to find a way to drive him because he can't get on the bus with his trombone because there's no room. So, I mean, I happen to be he happens to be on a bus that is overcrowded, right? Or that's packed. You know, my high schooler, I could say today, "Yeah, you know what? He has a ride with friends. When they need the parking lot and they can't drive or so and so's sick, he has to go on the bus." So, I mean, I don't know. I just I get it.
Um there's also been a lot of citations about being beneficial to businesses but other historic districts um have kind of encapsulated something in time and I personally struggle to see how freezing Ashlin's downtown in the current moment does that in the same meaningful way. So, I completely respect what we're trying to do here and ultimately agree that we should be preserving these sites. Um, but what from what I've heard on all of these topics is that this blanket district could serve to make things more cumbersome from businesses that are actively trying to make downtown thrive rather than provide any sort of benefit in trying to combat some of the properties that we've already lost. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Good evening. Bill Novakowski, 39 Lake View Terrace. Um, I will admit to being somewhat shocked and taken aback to see a document like this being handed out as we walked in.
But what if The risk is just what if instead of you know risking um you know the fleet by three buses, we reduce it and reduce our risk by reducing the fleet by two buses and instead make up that that third bus cost something else like the climate coordinator. I'm just throwing that out there. Yeah. So, I I think if if I were to go to Allstar and say, um, you must reduce our fleet by two. Um, but we're keeping everything else the same. You need to transport all of our students. And I I just I don't I don't I really don't know that they're I don't know what they would do with that because I've I've asked them to do that and they they tell me that they can't. Um, and I have no reason to believe um, you know, that they're telling me anything other than what they know to be true um, based on all the data they have.
Um, it seems that obvious obviously someone is rather rattled by the prospect that they can't do what they want in the downtown district. Um, we've seen historic properties being demolished and replaced by big box apartment buildings on Main Street. something that really is a visual blight that blocks the view of the church and everything else. Um, now the only person who could be damaged by a historical commission uh historical district um might be somebody who is planning on demolishing a building and replacing it by another big box apartment. And if you think 128 Main Street is a pretty building and you want to see more of them in downtown Ashlin, vote against the historical district. But I ask you to vote in favor along with myself because I like the way this town looks. It's got class. It's got style. And we should keep it that way.
I'm look I'm looking right now at some of the the number like the capacity numbers on some buses. So, Wiskanir does have those are those buses are um, less full than the high school um, than most of the high school buses. And I'm looking at like April riding numbers um, that Deb Deb Jones had pulled. So she she has the she gave me numbers for the capacity of every run um prior to the start of the school year um in in September after school started and then most recently in April. And so those um the capacity of the the BHS buses run anywhere from there's there's three um three buses that are about 31% full and then all other buses are anywhere from 52 54% to 85%. So, and I don't and these are just bus numbers. I don't know the geography of where all that where they all are.
Thank you. Enough. I'll end discussion if we have another outburst. Sir, John Dudley, Chestnut Street, Ashland. U I've run an exterior remodeling company for over 25 years. is we do probably over 100 projects a year that touch some type of historical commission uh in the permitting process for exterior remodeling work across Mass and surrounding states. Many of the homeowners or renters in these districts have no awareness that they're in them until they try to get a building permit to do some needed work and they're typically pretty shocked at how regulated their properties actually are. And as we're tossing around words like suggestions and things like that, these are very binding. And if you look into some of these details, which you have to do into something like this, they they they can completely block your ability to get a permit and do this work. So just you have to be really careful when people say things use words like that.
Um the 30% full could be on one side of town and that you could combine with the other 30% um bus, but they could be on opposite sides of the town. So, I don't but just looking at that and this is no scientific way to do it and this is certainly not how Allstar would do it. Um I I I assure you but just looking from like a very basic um way on how you maybe could combine, you know, you'd have to take six of these buses and combine them right into three runs. Um you're you're looking at having those combined runs at least 100% full in April and beyond 100% full certainly in September. Um, and again, this is not a scientific way to do it. Um, but but just looking at at the data that I that I have in front of me.
I understand the desire of the historical committee and others to prevent the demolition of historically relevant buildings, but this bylaw is not the right way to do this. I believe it's too broadly applied to the streets included and could have severe long-term consequences on the properties it will regulate and I think I agree with several of the people that mentioned this earlier. Um not to mention a major regulatory hurdle time and cost to do basic exterior remodeling work. So even even a quick little look at at the way this was set up uh window the windows that are prescribed there's even a permanently a fixed grill. So just a b we make money off this too. So the more expensive it is, it's better for a remodeling company, but it's not good for people that own these. So on a even the grid configuration on the windows could be one and a half to twox the cost.
And so again, if I were to go to All-Star and say, you've you've got to you've got to reduce these two the fleet by two, I I I'm just I feel like I'm giving them an impossible task that I've already asked them to do, and they've told me that it's impossible. Do you know what I mean? And I I think I think Case, I appreciate that. And I think I think the last thing that that I'll say on this and I'd encourage the the someone to make a motion on whatever you're interested in here at this point. But um good faith honest brokers that is Allstar. They're in business at the end of the day. They serve the students. They do a great job for us. They're in the they're in business to make money. They without hesitation with an existing contract said we if we do it this way we can reduce by three buses.
You know, a per permanently fixed SDL or authentic divided light versus something that can be removed. Simple things like that. And there's a whole bunch of them. You have to really look into this. So this ultimately leads to deferred maintenance and a lockedin aged look and potentially even blight. I know we we can think of some of the areas like Nucket where that didn't go that way, but it can do that to downtowns. So the existence of a existence of a bylaw and design guidelines, this is the other part that goes along with this is very problematic particularly in these towns as you get start to get into some of the cities. So even though the design guidelines are not set in stone, historical committees use these to regulate as they are far more thorough and specific than the bylaws. So in my experience uh more so than the actual bylaws is what they use because it's hard to look at a bylaw a lot of times when these committees are trying to actually look at these projects.
That's $250,000 to them. They're not just selling off the buses. So, this is important. And they're not um laying off any drivers because of the driver shortage. They want to make sure they have enough to cover everybody. So, they're doing that in good faith. So, I've got to assume if in another scenario we ask them to take buses off um or reduce buses and they say we can't do it, it's they've already said to Brookfield, we we enjoy your business. We want to work as partners and we we would reduce if we can. So I think that that's something that just needs we got to be careful to not conflate those two particular issues and just separate them because um from my view and I know Casey has really probably had a level of irritation in terms of talking to to to Allstar at this point the um they they're honest brokers in this so that what they're telling us I I I have to believe I have to have faith in Can I can I um just say we've we've revisited this argument like this is um you know 2.0 0 of the discussion we had at the last meeting.
They look at the guidelines and these guidelines grow. they can ultimately grow to 100 plus pages. So, and the and the design guidelines are controlled by the committee and can be changed at a simple committee public hearing by a majority to vote and then changed that ultimately changes the lens from which these projects are looked at or reviewed. And review means regulated, subject to the bylaw as determined by the committee, not permitted by rights. So, people have to be really careful of what they're giving up. So, if enough people really see the value in this, we should approach a bylaw that applies to individual properties. Like you heard before, Somerville has 200. plenty of towns have plenty. It's more work for individual committees, but if it's worth it, we should do it. And the bottom line is we should not pass this bylaw as it's being presented to us.
I feel like we've um brought up the salient issues here and I'd like to go around now and just get a feel for are you ready? Do you have a budget scenario picked out are where are you on this? Um because I think it's time to bring these two issues together. Um I think we've made our points really well. So I'm going to ask you if you want to say like I'm between A and C. I'm between B and C. I'm firmly on B. um or if you're not sure yet that that's important information, too. Um Rob, yeah, I'm not too sure. I I remember the survey and a lot of the parents really wanted to keep it this way, so I was just kind of leaning towards that, but I also realistic. I understand that we can't fight a losing battle. So, I'm just kind of stuck in the middle at the moment to be honest.
The long-term consequences are too severe, and if enough people want this, it should be sent back to the drawing board, drafted to be applied to specific properties that want it. Thank you. Thank you. Um, just before we get to the next speaker, Paul, sorry. I'm going to limit discussion to those people who are in line right now. already in line. It's too late to get up. By the time the people in this line get up, we will have been going at this for over an hour. I think that's enough. The people who are in line now. Paul, uh Paul Kendall, 6 Revena Road. I'm not going to speak for or against. I'm not I don't have a strong opinion either way. I have a couple of questions related to uh some of the wording and then just want to make sure there's uh people that are considering this understand that it's not just about uh preserving existing buildings but so the two things are the definition of demolition in here uh seems to be broad.
Okay. Thank you, Erin. I'm really undecided which the way the law go um to be perfectly honest. So, You know, I also am a little bit concerned about the new buildings going up. You know, we have a lot of new apartments coming up that are going to be finished this summer. So, if children are there and our enrollment goes up or you know, I think that we really need to be cognizant of that, too. So, you're not So, I'm just kind of decided where I'm at. Sarah, I've narrowed it down to B and C, but I don't think I've 100% decided between the two. Joy. Yeah. Um I don't feel like I can make a decision um on what scenario based on um where we go with the healthy start times. Um I'm not but I'm certainly not willing to take that risk and put us um facing a liability.
It doesn't seem to be only the face of the building. It says any facade of the building. Uh so if that is working with uh section 3662 uh it seems like even if somebody needed a permit to do something on the rear of a building that's not visible from the public way that they would need to come before this commission to go before the building commissioner could issue that. So I want to make sure that's was the intent. It seems a bit broad. It probably just needs a better definition. Paul, I'm gonna pause you there. Is that a question or Yeah. Yeah. So, it's it's clarification on that. And then the other component, why why don't we do a piece of mail? You want to pause the time, please? Um, council, do you want to address that or do you want to let the committee address that question?
I'm not okay putting um increasing our students on buses for longer. Um so which scenario seems most compelling to you? Um I guess B or C. Um more um B because I'm not in favor of cutting the point 2 French teacher based on numbers um are high class sizes already and then the increased enrollment interest with French. The one thing we talked about just to that point, Joy, um at the last meeting was that we are going to really sharpen the pencil in some areas like professional learning and other areas with the principal. Um if in fact as Mark does the schedule for next year and is working on that if in fact we still need that point 2 because this is designed back in December um we will find a way to if we need the point 2 to have the point 2 and we will trim and shave to Rose's earlier point all over the place to find that $15,000.
Mr. Moderator, I have the author of the bylaw here with us, our consultant, and I believe I told you in advance if it would be okay if she would address this question. If she if she's the expert at answering the question. Absolutely. She's the expert at answering this question. Absolutely. Oh, you've grown tall. Well, if you can get the microphone to move, you can pull the whole stand. Oh, I got it. Now, you must have some good good vitamins here. Um uh yes, this is the uh standard uh guidelines that it's this is the standardized law that's been tested in court. And yes, so the definition of demolition, I should back up a second. So, anything that's reviewable would be something that's viewable from the public way. But that's not what that's not what it says. That's my point. It's very clear visible from anywhere outside of the building.