Select Board - May 21st, 2024

001of new ALS cases are reported every year and estimates show that every 90 minutes someone is diagnosed with ALS and someone passes away from ALS. And whereas on average patients diagnosed with ALS survive only two to five years from the time of diagnosis. And whereas the exact cause of ALS are unknown and there is no known cure for ALS. And whereas people who have served in the military are more likely to develop ALS and die from the dis disease than those with no history of military service. And whereas securing access to new therapies, durable medical equipment, and communication technologies of vital importance to people living with ALS, and whereas clinical trials play a pivotal role in evaluating new treatments, enhancing quality of life, and fostering assistive technologies for those living with ALS. And whereas the

002ALS association is the largest philanthropic funer of ALS research globally and has committed more than 150 more million 54 million to support more than 550 projects across the United States and 18 other countries. And whereas the ALS association is committed to accelerating the pace of discovery fueled by the hope that one day ALS will be a livable disease for everyone everywhere until a cure can be found. And whereas ALS awareness month provides an opportunity to increase public awareness of the dire circumstances of people living with ALS acknowledge the terrible impact this disease has on those individuals and their families and support research. Now therefore, we the select board of the town of Ashland to hereby proclaim the month of May 2025 as ALS awareness month in Ashland. We call upon all Americans and Ashlin residents

003to join us in supporting ALS research, advocating for increased funding, and standing in solidarity with those affected by this relentless disease. Uh, thank you for I forget what her name was who made us aware. Yeah. So, thank you for making us aware and uh just be aware it is ALS awareness month. We always try to share awareness of many different things. Okay, I'm now going to open it up for citizens participation. Yep, you're fine. You're And that was off. Yeah. Okay. A little green light. Okay. First of all, when I first walked in, I thought I was in the Flamingo Everglades. But then I saw the sign before I got walked out. Happy birthday. It's amazing um that they the use the useless go on and you're in one town still. Well, that's what I

004say when I when I semi um when I volunteer for committees. There's no way get it with me y'all me saying anything that and um congratulations being reelected Brandy and Joe. I hope it was a good turnout. But I'm here for I'm here for another reason. Monday night's comprehensive plan committee. There's two things that got me somewhat quietly upset which I didn't say anything but I sat through it. There was more debate on the tree law than it was caring for senior public housing. It's not settled well. And then I just trying to figure how can they how can you be more compassionate and demonstrated for inanimate objects other than humans. With that, I'm going to ask this our chair person and Brandy and through my and through our town managers, why is a subcommittee

005going to be formed and why can't I go on it without making a resume? Do you mean a subcommittee of the comp plan? Yep. Because the subcommittee is of members of the comprehensive plan committee. It's not a separate one that we are looking for new volunteers for. It's based on the people who have been part of the comprehensive plan process since the beginning. And there's a few of those people who feel like um they want to they they need some more in-depth work and it and it's we're almost at the end of this process. So, it was not something that we could that we felt we wanted to ask for new volunteers for, but the public is going to have an opportunity to review everything in the comprehensive plan before it gets finalized. It was

006said before the subcommittee they were looking for citizens to volunteer at that time. It might have been misspoke because it was residents of the sub it was members of the of the comprehensive plan committee who need who we were looking to do that. And how this comprehensive plan group from the very beginning said now shrunk to a third of the size. Uh no we only have two new two members that aren't there. It was 29 to start with every six districts. Right. And now there's 27. There was 29 that stopped though, right? It was down to about 20 that night. Uh, no, there were people online. There like three or four of them online. Right. The full committee right now is 27. We've had someone from We had the We had a ZBA me ZBA

007member drop off and we're and at this point we probably won't get a new ZBA member. And then we had um Moala from DEI drop off, right? But we're not adding back to it because our work is almost done. So I I would say Mark, if you want to if you want to have a conversation with either me or me and Brandy separately, we can do that. Um, I'm I'm staying up I'm gonna say for about a couple seconds and say that Asian senior group in this town, you have more of a more of a concern than trees. All I can say to that, Mark, is I think you just heard part of the conversation. We had actually discussed some of the senior housing on Thursday night. It basically got skipped over compared to the

008tree bylaw. It was just it was just the way the discussion went. It does not show relevance for one or the other in the comprehensive. It should show relevance both there. It should show relevance for people living and the future of people coming. Thank you. You're welcome. Sometimes maybe we should look at I think um discussion and consider that things that are discussed the least um are sometimes the most important. like at town meeting when we just very little discussion about the budget and then there might be a $1,000 item that gets a lot of discussion. Good point, Claudia. Thank you. The way it is. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Moving on our agenda, we have introduction of our two new assistant town managers. Michael, we might have to pause you to put the hearing in place,

009but Okay. Um well, thank you. Um so, yes, as as everybody is aware, we've had uh we've had a few shifts in in town hall and had some departures after many years of service here to the town and um people going in different directions in their uh career. And I can tell you one of um one of my my prouder moments as a town manager is when you span the organization when you do have some vacancies and you realize you don't have to look that far to find qualified great people to fill them. And uh so that is uh exactly what has happened in this case. And um so with the departure of our previous assistant town manager when that left a vacancy, we were able to use that opportunity to restructure a few things

010and um I do want to really reinforce for the public that it was budget neutral that that we had discussed. And so we now have uh two assistant town managers. And I think I explained uh to to everybody just kind of what some of the rationale was behind that and what we hope to accomplish with this new structure. Um and I can get into that uh a little bit later if we want to. But um without further ado, I I really uh am pleased and proud I really proud to um announce that uh Beth Reynolds is our new assistant town manager for community development and community affairs. Um Beth, I won't steal too much of your thunder here, but Beth has been uh working for the town for um almost 10 years. I'll let her

011say the exact number that um and uh so she'll be handling um you know certain aspects of the organization. I can let her get into that a little bit more. And then um Katherine Bird who has worked with us a little over two and a half years. She is now our and as the HR director um is now our assistant town manager for administration and operations. Um and again I just can't reinforce how proud I am uh of the fact that we do have these two qualified capable people here ready to step up in these roles. Been very very impressed with them and their work since they've been here. um not just the work that they've been assigned to do and what they're responsible for, but what they have um initiated and what they've taken

012on on their own accord and the growth that they have um they have sought and have worked hard towards. Um both of them you will find them in meetings taking notes, looking up things afterwards. Um it's just like they have not only talent but they also have a very very strong work ethic. And when you put both of those together, you can really get some amazing things happening and some amazing people. So, and that is another thing I want to uh impress upon everybody. Both of them are not just great workers, great employees for the town. They're also great people and just a really really strong addition to the management team. So, without further ado, um I'd like to introduce Actually, there's gonna be a slight further ado because it's 7:15. Great pause. Great pause.

013So, we timed that just right. We did. We did. Um, so we have to open the hearing. Notice is hereby given that the select board will conduct a hearing regarding an application for a grant of location to install 65 plus feet of conduit and 1 PMH number 28872. The applicant is NStar Electric Company, DBA Eversource Energy, Grover Road. Work order number 1481-6503 Ashlin Mass 01721. A public hearing will be held on the matter on Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 at 7:15 p.m. Parties wishing to be heard on this matter are invited to attend the public hearing either in person or by logging into the Zoom meeting. Interested parties who are unable to attend the hearing may submit written comments to the select board's office, town hall 1011 main uh Main Street, Ashlin Mass 01 01721 or

014by emailing Susan Robby srobeshandmass.com. Elan Greavves, chair of select board. If I can get a motion to open the hearing, please and a second. Second. All those in favor of opening it? I. And now we're going to put it uh sus uh suspend the hearing until we are done with our public announcement. If I get a motion to do that. Second. I hear a second. Okay. All those in favor? I. We're going to suspend the hearing. And now we can do the formal introductions. Sure. So, without further ado, um I'd like to introduce uh Beth Reynolds as our new assistant town manager for community development and community affairs and Katherine Bird as our new assistant town manager for administration and operations. And I'm sure you would like them to say a few words themselves. So,

015we'll start at the end. Beth, we'll start with you. Perfect. Thank you so much. I'm very excited uh for this new opportunity. I'm so happy to um continue my work here in Ashland. It's been nine years, four months so far. I'm I'm I'm in my fifth month, so almost nine and a half years. Um well, he asked specifically, so need to have the data. Um so I am very excited um about this uh new chapter. Um so my role will be to oversee basically the my focus is on communications um public engagement, procurement and capital projects. So I will be working very closely with our community development team which includes the health department, building uh conservation, communications, planning and economic development and then also recreation and senior services. Um so all those you know very

016public facing um departments. I will also work very closely with um my colleague Diane in um the town manager's office on uh procurement. So I'll be the chief procurement officer for the town as well. ulations. My name is Katherine Bird. Thank you. You're welcome. Assistant town manager for administration and operations. As Michael said, I've been here a little over two years, two years and eight months to be exact. On the 24th and this is my eighth day in the role as assistant town manager. Prior to that, I was the HR director for the town and I am thrilled to have this opportunity here with such an amazing team. I really do enjoy this work and it's an added bonus that we have a wonderful team here. So, with that being said, my role will be

017more internal facing. So, think internal operations, HR, infrastructure, the um select board meeting, logistics, working with Susan Roby very closely on those items. Uh and then the capital planning process. I will be teaming up with the human resources department still acting as the human resources director. We will be uh filling the role of assistant HR director as well um sustainability prevention and human services and then also the town clerk that department as well. Congratulations. Any questions or comments from the rest of the board? You're going to be putting a lot of time behind the Oh, there's plenty of photos. Congratulations. Great. I I'd just like to add that um you know, I think that um with Jen leaving us, it was a it was kind of scary moment for me. I felt like it was

018a huge piece of the organization. Yeah. And uh I knew how scary it was for Michael and a few other people. Um and so it was uh really, you know, I was very pleased that Michael, you were able to realize that we had some staff right within the team that um could really step up and and help to make this transition time very smooth. And um it was a great time to do some reg organization. And uh that's you know it's so important in challenging times to to uh make them work in your favor. So thank you all and and excited to have you uh in your new positions. Anybody else? So I'll just I'll just say um welcome to the table. We're really glad we're really glad to have you guys here. And it's

019funny because as this role has been sort of split between the two of you, I've gotten to know both of you over the years. And um and I think this really plays to both of your strengths, which is really first when Michael was like, "Oh, we're going to have two town managers." I'm like, "Oh, how's that going to work?" And then when we started talking about the split, I'm like, "Oh, that makes complete sense because just the um your strengths really will I I think this plays to your strengths." So, um, I'm looking forward to working more directly with you guys and, um, if there's anything that I can do to help you, feel free to reach out because like, you know, I want to be a resource to you and I don't want you

020guys feeling like you need to um, do this on your own. So, you got a good team. So, and just know that you have our support, too. And I like how symmetrical the table looks right now. Yeah. Yeah. Very full. Good. Okay. Well, thank you both. Congratulations to you both. And uh I think we're we have a great team moving forward. We do. And I and I was remiss earlier in uh not thanking the board for, you know, your support for this. Um it's uh like I said, we made it budget neutral. And I think the way we've kind of shifted things around is really going to allow us to um do and the way I've been I've been very careful about phrasing it, not necessarily do more, but do what we have in a

021more timely manner and I think put a little bit more attention into each thing as well. Attent attention and intention, I should say. And so, yeah, I'm I'm thrilled to I'm trying to be very reserved, but um I will say that their energy has certainly reinvigorated me. They have not skipped a beat. Great. Good to great things moving forward. Okay, moving on in our uh agenda. Um, Susan, do we have someone here for the from Eversource? Yes, you have Jacqueline Duffy. Jaclyn Duffy. Okay. If I can get a motion to reopen the hearing, please. So moved. Second. All those in favor? I. We are now reopening the public hearing for um this project. Uh was it Julian Duffy? Thank you. Hi, Jacqueline. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm filling in for Chris Cosby

022tonight. It's her anniversary, so I gave her a little break. Um I Eversource would like to install approximately 65 ft of conduit and one new pad transformer 28872. This is to provide electric service for the solar for six Grover Road. Okay. Uh we have the map in front of us. questions from That's pretty straightforward. Questions or comments from the board. Well, that's why they're doing a conduit. Conduit, right? Yeah. Okay, that's fine. Y be before we move on on and vote on it. Um, Jac, I do have a quick question for you. How's the uh how's the process going with trying to remove uh the double polls in town? Actually, before you ask her that question, Joe, let's wrap this up and then you can ask her that, okay? So we can keep this. Um,

023is there anyone here to talk against or for this project for the Grover Road Eversource? No. Okay. Um, Susan, did we get anything from anybody against this for this supporting comments? We did not. We did not. Okay. So, we've announced the public hearing. Is there any other information that the select board needs or any deliberation from the board in before we can close the hearing and take a vote on this uh project? Everyone had everyone has had a chance to look at the documents. It's 65 ft of conduit. I guess actually I do have one question, Jacqueline. This does look like some of it's in the road. Is that correct? Yes. So, um, will you be putting the road back to its best of original state after you're done? Absolutely. Okay. Because that's I know

024sometimes it's been an issue where work's been done and it's been patched, but it then causes issues moving forward. So, Okay. Yes. Great. Any other questions or comments or deliberation? No. I can get a motion to close the hearing, please. So moved. Okay. All those in favor? I. Is there any other discussion? Hearing none is I can get a motion to approve the project for Eversource as presented. So moved and a second. Second. All those in favor? I. So the project passes. But before you go, Jacqueline, go ahead Joe. Ask her your question now. Yeah. It goes without saying that we always hear that, you know, they're taking, you know, they're taking down these uh double polls and I haven't seen any action yet on that and it's it's it's becoming an eyesaw. And this

025is not just recently. This has been an ongoing issue for years. So I just wanted to know is there any are there any plans by Eversource to uh hopefully get this uh these this double pole issue corrected and and removed before before I end up in Wallwood. Um that I don't know. I work out of the Somerville office. I will send it back to the Salt Bar office and and see what is going on with the double polls. I appreciate that. Thank you. Sure. No worries. and then somebody will reach out with that update. Yes. Thank you. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. I do want to if you're watching this desk by the Ashley years ago. Oh. Oh. I got to have my mic on. That helps. Does that help, Susan? Yes. Okay. Yes. I

026I couldn't hear anything. I could see everybody laughing. Okay. We were talking about the flamingos. So, so if none of you heard that, we were talking about the flamingos that are in the front of our Okay, moving on. It's that kind of night. Um, moving on. Old and new business. We're going to review and vote on the subcommittee recommendation of the BAA grant and select board community grants. I'm going to hand this over to Brandy and Claudia. And I'm gonna hand this over to Claudia to start and then we'll we'll tag team. Okay, thank you very much. So, uh, Brandy and I met uh last week, I believe, and um looked at um submissions. So, I I think the there are two different avenues for grants. One is for um groups, organizations that are 501c3s

027and um so those are nonprofit organizations and then um there is a grant process for community organizations and the the um the money for these grants, the um the 501c3 money comes from uh what the BAA, the runners that we have running on behalf of the community raise. And so that money then allows us to um to really support organizations in town that are doing good work here. Uh so and then the community grants come from um rentals and what other things it's it's the Warren Conference Center. The Warren Conference Center. It's fees in lie of um I think it's in lie of tax that we receive from them. So we so for folks that are staying overnight, we get right the rentals up there. Okay. Um so anyways, just um we had a total

028of 33 grant applications um and they were eight from that were applied as community grant and 25 as the nonprofit um grants. Um okay. We are recommending that in community dollars we award $5,138.99 and in the 501c3 we recommend we award $63,179.80. Um so that would leave our just our current balances in community dollars. We would still have $53,54168 and that's as of today. um and $70,000 67 $70,67484 um in the 501c3 account. Um just to really talk a little bit about some of the the grants that we gave um or are giving the um the business Ashlin business association. So, these are community grants and they are looking to uh fund the funds to be used for hosting events that bring residents and business owners to town. Um they do a couple of events

029at the uh corner spot. They I know that they have done like movies the um programs for kids and things like that and they also um offer other opportunities for town the business owners in town to come together. um the Ashlin Day event committee um we provide they requested $1,000. Now one of the things too about the grants and I wasn't sure how much detail we want to go into but um there the 501c3 the nonprofit organizations are eligible for $6,000 over the course of two consecutive cycles. So, um, and the maximum of $4,000 in any single cycle. So, in other words, you can get $4,000 in this cycle and then next cycle you could get up to $2,000. Um, and then with the um community grant, it's $1,500 over the course of two. You

030can get up to $1,000 in a single time and then you would still be able to get 500 the next time around. So, that's the con consecutive and then it starts over again. and and just you know when we do receive the grant applications we look to see how funds have been used in the past so we ask organizations to provide that level of detail so we have information all right and um so sometimes some of the m sometimes people don't realize exactly or their numbers are a little off so uh Susan Roby is kind enough to keep an eye on things for us and keep track of when monies are um awarded so that we stay within what we've um is part of our policy. Let me see if there's um I was trying

031to pick a couple of highlights here. The senior center again um they they have a memory cafe over there that um they provide entertainment and food and so they have some money $500 they requested and we were able to give them um to support that. Um there are programs for trans um sustainability practices. That's that was another one. Ashpack. Some of you might know the Ashlin Special Education Parent Advisory Council that supports families um in the public schools with students with disabilities. Energize Ashlin. again they have some uh website work they wanted to do. We have a resident who um has a watercolor class that she does. Um so we support that that she does that at the community center. And what else? Green up Ashland. Some of you have seen people on usually some

032time in the spring around uh Earth Day where we have people out cleaning up our streets and it's amazing how much trash is out there to be picked up. So, we thank everybody for that work. The Clocker Club um that Okay, so now we're into the 501c3. So, the Clocker Club um you know, they support all student athlete programs in town and with a variety of they they purchase uh sometimes uniforms. Uh this is funds for this one is a new mascot that will last for years to come. Um some of you maybe have seen through the years the the clock the kiddos would dress up with the in the uh clock attire. So, I'll be excited to see what our new mascot uh will look like. They also asked for some funds for uh

033a 5K. Um that helps to offset the expenses of that and then uh they're able to raise some money. Uh the emergency fund, that's a good one as well. Uh so we awarded them or hoping to award them $4,000. Uh their funding is going to be used for shortterm financial assistance for Ashlin residents. So pretty significant. um we're really able to do some significant things in town, the farmers market. So, that's something everybody enjoys and it certainly does take some money to operate it and uh we support that as well. And they are they indeed are a nonprofit organization um that that bring a lot of positive um you know, not not only just positive items and food and that sort of thing, but just it's really a a great meeting place in town. um

034the firefighters association uh to educate residents about fire safety. They actually spend some time at the farmers market in the summer. Um and they give away free hats and hats and all kinds of little gadgets for kids, but it's, you know, certainly a great way to reach out to um to kids young. Um the music Ashlin music association. So again, um, another 501c3 doing a lot of work and lots of times we don't realize how many programs within the schools require outside support that the school budget isn't able to support. And so the Ashlin Music Association is a group of parents and um they support the um students with musical instruments that they can't otherwise afford. um they support students participating in a variety of regional musical competitions and experiences and and so um a

035great that's a great program as well. I think I think all good things. Yeah, all good things. Yep. You had enough? I I think so. I think what would be good I think. Um Susan, do we post the list of awardes on the website or not? Yes, all of the backup is posted. So that will be part of the backup, but I will also reach out to each of the organizations and let them know what the process will be from here. Great. I know I should have picked a few. My apologies. I should picked a few to talk about. It's all good stuff. We we did want to talk about Yeah, there's three that we want to talk about that we wanted to to bring to the entire board before we vote. Um, so if

036you look through the list, there were three that we hadn't um because when Claudia and I met, we felt like we needed more information from the organizations before we could award um grant funds to and there's three. There was the neurodeiversity support for children where the funding will be used for services or support not covered by health insurance. Um there's the veterinary chapency services which covers expenses of offering free weekly support groups to grieving people who have lost pets. Um they do support groups for people and a support line for those dealing with a a difficult diagnosis or loss of a pet. Um and then the third one is sportified um where the funds are going to be used to offset the cost of a track tournament which is held in July. Um so we

037had reached out to these organizations asking or Susan reached out to the organizations asking for more information because what we were looking for was um we wanted to see how these funds were going to be used and how they were going to benefit the Ashlin community. Um, I believe and I'm not even I know that that um the woman that runs Sportified um had her first year doing this. She had done it in Ashland. I don't think it's in Ashland this upcoming year. I think it might be Framingham. Yeah, it is. These are pages 28, 30, and 34 if you want on your Y. So, but you know, we reached out to find out how many like if it was going to benefit the Ashlin community and it from her response there was um going

038to be a lot of kids from the Ashlin community that were going to be part um participating in it um for the neurodeiversity support for children. So, hold on. So you're saying for the sportified one atract at this point you said you said you weren't going to do anything but now that you have more information are you recommending that we add that to the list? Well we wanted to bring it to the board. You know we didn't really have time to post another meeting anyways and we just thought um I think one thing that's come to light in in all this is that again and I know we've reworked the policy a couple of times but we need to tweak it some more. um that that sometimes it's hard for people to understand what it

039is we're looking for, what we're trying to support. And so I think that that's something that we need to put on a future agenda. Okay. So then maybe do you want us to vote the ones that you've already done and then why don't we do that talk about if I can get a motion to support the funding that was that was presented um in our packets. Yeah. Right. So moved. Okay. So moved from Claudia and a second from Joe. All those in favor say I. I. Okay. So, now let's talk through the other ones and decide what we want to do with those. Thank you. Okay. So, um so we were talking about Sportify. Let's let's we'll finish. Yeah. Do one at a time and then we could decide. Um so in your packet um

040you can see the response back from um from it came um Katrina uh Nikki. What page? Oh, yeah. Okay. She did the response. Okay. It's This is page 30, I believe. Yep. So, it's almost packet or in a separate packet that you guys do in the document. I sent spring spring 2025 grants. It should be in the It's in the form. It the one I sent last night. It's uh by page. Yeah, whatever works for you. I pasted the response at the bottom. Okay. Why don't you keep going? Okay. So, basically, um they say if we have 70 kids that she can state for certain that 25 of those kids are at least from Ashland that that participate. So, it's a more of a regional thing, but it is um there's a lot of participation

041for national. She's a national resident. So, um we've we've supported that in the past, but it was held nationally. So, and you said 75 students, 75 students. How many students in total participate? 70. 70. 70 students participate. And she says about 25 are from Oh, 25 are from Ashlin. So, do do we I'm sorry, Madam Chair. I I have a question. Do do we know why they relocated to Framingham as opposed to uh staying in Ashlin? there was an issue with getting the high school field. Um they had worked with DPW and there was a lot of back and forth trying to make sure that the date was open um because the schools have sort of precedent over priority over over the over the fields. So I think it was a stressful situation. And when

042is this is in July. don't have the well they might have summer program they schools have summer programs and so um but given given the information that she provided I I'm think it's something that we can my I personally feel like it's something we should support we should support okay um Claudia do you feel so yeah I I agree 100% I think that you know that it is actually a significant number of Ashlin children and Um you know all in all it let's face it it even if we want to explore how we should fine-tune the policy that's fine but but certainly this is not a waste of money right it's supporting ch local children and certainly there's a good portion that that and it's a multicultural like yeah it's a Okay. Yeah. I think

043they're doing other fundraising. Yeah, I would think that and it's not a requirement of ours that they that they find other funding, but I I understand your question, Joe. Okay. So, you guys are recommending we do the full 4,000 for them. If I can get a motion. Um, yes, 4,000 to support the full 4,000 for sportified. So, moved. Seconded. All those in favor? Okay. So, we'll add Fortified for a receivable of their grant. Next one. Again, you know, just as we're going through this and we come up, you know, somebody offers a good suggestion, maybe the policy, we add a question that says, where are you where are you getting funds from or where have you sought fun? Well, there was a question. Yeah. Yeah. I think at in some in some form I remember

044we turned this into a two-pager and that was asked. I don't know if that's I don't think that's the form being used anymore. Yeah, this is I think the what's in the here is every single question. Okay, included. Okay, next one. I think Okay, so the next one um I have the neurodeiversity support for children which is page page 30 30. Um, and so this is a um they're using funding to support services that aren't covered by health insurance and it's a um they are just this is the second year of the nonprofit and this is the first year they're looking to give family grants. So basically the um they're not focused on Ashlin residents and they do say that you know they are um you know that they could put a question on their

045um on their rubric next time that talks about Ashlin, but it's not part of their their um process. So, I'm not I'm my personal perspective is I'm not sure what connection this organization has to Ashland and how it would benefit the Ashland community. And so, as much as I want to support all nonprofits, you know, ours is really the intention behind it is really to support efforts that are happening in Ashland. So, and and benefit a larger Ashland community. Yes. Where where are they located? I don't even have that information. That's not clear to me in the document where they're even located. If you want to hang on a second, I might be able to tell you though. I'm just curious to find out how they found out about the grant. I I do think

046that the current state of um let's just call it the environment of nonprofits. Sure. I think I think my feeling is that um nonprofits are are finding it harder to get funding in different ways. So I I don't think that's a feeling. I think I'm trying to be I'm trying to be No, but but yeah, I mean it's tough out there for nonprofits right now. A lot of funding has been cut all the way around due to various reasons. So but I was just curious to find out like you know it's not immediate to me. I didn't see any kind of immediate connection to Ashland either. So, I was just wondering they are located in Ashland. 25 West Union Street. It doesn't say Ashland, but I I'm pretty certain they are. Okay. 25 West Union.

047We So, we gave them funding before. No, we Well, and and as I look at this, I'm like I understand that, you know, there as they're a business, but they're, you know, they're a non I mean, it's hard sometimes to understand that something can be a business and be a nonprofit and nonprofits are allowed to make money. Um, but the reasoning behind why they want the funds, I'm like, yeah, I don't know that that's a good reason. Is that is that the new company that uh Don't forget to turn your microphone on, Joe. That's the new company that took Efron's office, right? And we had we just had a ribbon cutting ceremony several months ago with respect to that, right? Yes. Okay. So, so I was thinking is that's would we want to and would

048it even, you know, be appropriate to maybe give them $1,000 for Ashlin residents that they support? I mean, that is selfish. Sure. Well, I I I think that's at least, you know, they're a nonprofit, so we want to help that, but I think it needs to be that it is just for Ashlin residents, right? The funds are being raised to support Ashlin residents. I understand anything we do supports them as an Ashlin business and yes they are a nonprofit but they are still a business and I think we try to we want to support businesses but in this regards I think we have to say it's for Ashland residents to supplement. Yeah. I mean if you is that appropriate is it for us to put that kind of qualification on it? I mean I think

049it is but I'm just Yeah, I would say so. I would say so especially when we advertise that the the funding that's being raised by the runners it goes to you know support support Ashland you know groups and organizations and programs. So if we if we alter that and change you'll have everybody and his brother doing the same thing. So I just be careful of it. Okay. It's a good point for go forward. Right. you know, when we're looking at the application again, you know, if you are like say we have nonprofits that um support Ashlin residents, you know, I want to see percentages. I want to see some sort of statistics around like, you know, in what way, how many, etc., etc., so that we can make the appropriate decision. So, and they she

050does say that they have received some um applicants from MASH already. I I think by the way, I think she's no relation to me, by the way. Okay. I don't know. I don't even know her. So, I just remember that her last name is a motion to give neurodyiversity support for children $1,000 in this grant round. I'll second that. I'll make the motion. I'll second it. Okay. All those in favor? I I And with the understanding that if they want to come back, they need to show how it was used for Ashlin residents. Yep. Okay. Uh, one more, I think. Yes. Yep. 34. Page 34. Yeah. So this is veterinary chapency services. Um and so we had previously given given them a grant um I think a year ago 4,000. Okay. And they used they

051used it for um doing a basically a um a support line for people to be able to call and for them to be able to staff when people have pets um that are either sick or have passed away and they're um it's like um chaplency for for folks who are grieving um the loss of a pet. And when we first um talked to them, we were talking about, you know, possible ways that they can connect to Ashlin. So, I had put Cali in touch with um with Candy at the senior center because I had said like, you know, it could be a good connection to help our seniors if they have a pet that passes away. Um it might be a good support for them. I I don't think that there was a connection quite

052that happened. And so there really hasn't been a lot of work done specifically in Ashland. She lives in Ashland. Um and she's been kind of connected to like Ashlin Animal Hospital, but there's no kind of focus on how to connect with with the residents with the residents with Ashlin res. Yeah. She's talked about um you know maybe doing some work with the senior center like and and that that would be a way and that she has done some work. It's the one that's Well, I'll I'll I'll take a step I'll take a page out of your your book, Yolanda, and maybe offer $1,000 to this group if it's going to be something that's going to be based in Except that we're we've we gave the money before and there was no from what it sounds

053like you guys are saying, there was no work done to specifically work in Ashland, right? That's what I'm hearing. Oh, so the work that was done wasn't based a year ago. It's not focused. It's not It wasn't focused specifically on Ash. They did a lot of good work with it. Okay. Yep. You know, I think they're providing a really good service. I think this is another one of those I mean, we've had some of these philosophy discussions about this program many years ago, right? That the the program the the goal of the grant money is to help as many people as possible. So, bigger sports organizations, bigger programs that support a lot of students or a lot of seniors. Um, and and also are we are we allowing, you know, some of these are are

054businesses and yes, they have their 5013C's as a business, but we're then supporting we're paying the business to do their work. I need to focus. And yes, again, it's a 5013C. They can make profits. we, you know, but it's like I I think not for tonight, but I think we need to have a further discussion about even though they're a 5013C, what is their purpose? And are we paying to allow more students to participate, right? Like we we're giving the Metro West Y $3,000, but that's that they could offer scholarships for Ashlin students to attend camp, right? So, they're not getting paid. They're using our funds to allow residents to use their services, right? And granted, that's what this is as well, but it's not specific to Ashley. Yeah. What I what I would like

055to see, I think, with an organization like this is is maybe the money is comes through the senior center or um through social services and that they actually receive the grant and then if there are people who, you know, want the services. Yeah. And I I think we Brandy and I talked a little bit about the senior center would seem to be a likely place where if a senior loses a a dog or a cat or a pet of some sort that it could be traumatic for them and difficult because they it might be you know a companion a companion right so not that everybody doesn't have dogs that are companions but it might be a little more traumatic for senior and living on their own or something. Yeah. So, you know, maybe if they

056wanted to arrange something with um the senior center, work with them to to and then the senior center were came forward and asked for a grant, they could do that. Yeah. Right. To work with them, then we would know that it was going I would I would entertain supporting that fully. Well, and what I would say is let them do some work and apply again in the fall. And if they show and again they would the senior center would then have to be willing to support that and do that course you know we don't want to we don't want to give them additional work without them understanding or or them saying yes this is something I mean an an alternate I mean an alternate way to look at it also is to basically you know

057if we want to give them a grant you know we do similar to like what the what you've done with the Y right you say like X number of dollars is specifically for Ashland residents who are grieving a pet and that widens, you know, that widens things too because even though that yes, seniors absolutely 100% need the service, but there may be some other folks too in town that may need it. Um, so I just wanted to to voice that possibility. I mean, I'd be willing if it was if we could put that sort of stipulation on it now to give them $1,000, too. I mean, if we can I mean, and then but it has to be for Ashley. I'd like to see I'd like to see there because did we ask them details

058about what happened with the first four because typically if someone has received a grant we then have to get a write up as to how they use those $4,000. Did we get that information from them? So it's really staffing this like um support support line and they do um like support groups. So they have group oh you know. So there's no but there's no data as to how many Ashlin residents So they don't they haven't collected like where people are calling from, you know, and that's that's interesting. I would think Well, anyway, um you know, I think we could, like I said, they they would have to collect that information. If we were to give them the money to to uh provide those services to Ashlin residents, if that's something that they're comfortable doing, then

059I'd feel comfortable giving the funds. But if that's something they're not comfortable doing, then so I think my a recommendation I would have is rather than give them more funds that we don't know if they can track is go back to them and say we support what you're doing, but we really want it to be focused toward Ashland. Is there a way for you to crack this as data so that you can support and say, "Yep, you've given us these funds and so many astron and and then see if it's doable and then decide whether or not we give them more funds." I think that's fair. Don't have a problem. Yep. We're okay with it, too. That works. Good. Good discussion. Thank you both for Yeah. I know this is a tough Thank you very

060much for all the time and effort. Yeah. and and it's like, you know, again, we want to be able to to help as many organizations as possible. It's just But we now are down to 70K. So, and um Susan, have we received all of our funds in for this round of BA numbers? We have a very little bit that Okay. We have a couple stragglers, but the majority of it we have. Okay. Stragglers. Okay. Good. Thank you, Susan. Okay. Any other discussion on this item? No. Okay. Again, Brandy and Yes, Brandy and Claudia, thank you for doing that. I know it's I know it's a lot um not on the agenda, but real quick, Joe and Claudia scholarship committee. Yes. We don't announce it until after graduation, but I just wanted to We'll be getting

061the uh information this week. Okay. Yeah. Wait, talk to Susan. And have you let Susan know who's attending class day on that Friday? Well, now now now that the election process is over, Joe's waiting to be elected. I'll be there. Good. He was worried. Everything was hing on last night. So, wonderful. Okay, moving on in our agenda. Discuss and vote on the acceptance of the surplus disposal procurement policy. We've read through this once. I think there might have been tweaks or not. I see there have been some edits there. There have been some edits. Um Okay. And I know a particular concern was um data sanitation methods. That's right. And so uh I believe you'll see that under section E um procedures and also the approved methods of sanitation and also who is authorized to

062carry out that uh that work. So hopefully that satisfies everybody's concerns. I'll say that that I was very happy to see section E and the detail uh that was provided in that section that pretty much um uh satisfies my concerns my over that. So, thank you for adding that. Thanks for getting that done. Good. Any other I agree. I agree. Um any other comments on this surplus disposal plan? No, I think they did a great job getting it done and and tweaking it so that way especially with the IT information. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Um, you know, Jen and Diane and Paul Yeah. You know, I don't know if you had a chance to jump on these yet, but I think uh a lot of eyes have been on it. Good. Okay. Good. Okay. If

063I can get a motion to support this updated surplus disposal procurement. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor. I I Great. Thank you. That passes. Thank you all too. Thanks for all the work who worked on it and tweaked it with our input. We appreciate that. And just you guys will update the date on it because it says April 10th. You guys will make it effective today. Yes, we will. Okay. Great. Thank you. You have stuff to sign. I don't know if that's part of it, but the meeting. Okay. Wonderful. Moving on, discuss liaison for historical bylaw committee. Um, as we all know at town meeting the historical bylaw came up. It did not pass. Uh, but I believe we all support it in some way. So, one of the things

064that was discussed is it was said by committee members that if maybe a member of the select board had been more involved or had been sitting there, there might have been a different turnout. So I'm off I'm putting it out there for a discussion of if one of us could be the liaison that when they meet and as they move forward um there's someone there sitting who's understanding and following it and come back to the report to the board and and tell us what what's going on or what they think. Any input? I' I'd be I first off I' I' I'd raise my hand to do that actually. I think it's a great idea. Um, I think that uh I think it's some better communication and coordination between everybody. I I I I think that

065everyone here basically wants to see the same thing. I think that there are different opinions and approaches to getting that done. I think if we can work together to to figure that out um and and then bring it back to to town meeting, I I think we'll see a result that uh that most folks will will find satisfactory and preserve the character of the town while encouraging business uh to flourish and thrive. So, other thoughts? I I think that's great. And if Makita wants is willing to do that, I think I think you would I think you would be the perfect person to to um to take that on. I think that that I mean I I completely support that. I also think that um we had talked about this when the historic commission came

066here. We were talking about possibly, you know, doing and they were in support of of, you know, maybe figuring out another source of another mechanism for, you know, historic preservation. And we were talking about possibly using CPC funds um as sort of more of a carrot versus stick. I think there's probably a way that we can do a combination of, you know, the historic district and then also, you know, figure out funds to be able to support this. Um, and I I personally think that that's like an important part of it if the businesses feel like they're supported and that there's funding to be able to say, okay, you know, Lunkers, like I was outside of Lunkers a lot this last weekend. Um, and so And I'm looking at those big windows and just the

067windows. I'm thinking to myself, okay, so if the owner of Lunkers wants to put in new windows, how many how expensive is that going to be? if there is some sort of um funding mechanism where we could help support that maybe they maybe they would and it you know I'm not looking at like the business incentive program because that's kind I'm thinking that's a little separate from this this is really specifically for why would you think that because it's it's such a facade I mean it is but it's not so if we had something very specifically for historic preservation if we were able to talk to town council and figure out like what how we can potentially do it. And if we can't do it through CPC, maybe we go the same route that we

068went when we did the um when we did the the business incentive program because the business incentive program is really to bring businesses here and to improve their you know to be able to to help them not necessarily specifically for historical. I think the historical stuff is important too, but so maybe we do a home rule like we did um with the business incentive program. Maybe we ask, you know, Senate President Karen Spoka had given us some funding to get that up off the ground. Maybe we figure out another kind of program like that to be able to help these businesses and support. It would be similar, but it would be separate because I wouldn't want to take away because we don't have a like it's not like we have this unlimited budget for the

069business incentive program and we want to continue to to to do that too. But maybe we can figure out something else and just be kind of concern I would have with that to see just for example seller insurance over a So, Michael, you grabbed the grabbed the microphone pretty quickly. I feel like you have something you want. There's a couple of things. So, first of all, I think um the ability to use CPC funds to um benefit private businesses has uh is is a is a pretty slippery slope, but we've done it here in town. Yes, but certain conditions have to be met. Okay. But because someone mentioned that to me and I'm like, we have, right? You know, we've done it with the Telegram building. We have two clocks on there that were paid

070with CPC funds. But if you look all across the But we also remember that it was turned down for the federated church, right? Oh, I forgot that. Yeah, I remember that. For the stairs and there were arguments brought up against that and there were that makes no sense. It was ridiculous. I I didn't know if it was the right decision, but sometimes the right decision is not always the legal decision. Um the other thing I think what we also have to take into consideration is the um the administration such a program. That's number two. And number three, I think we're in a place uh financially where we're talking about needs and not necessarily wants or extras. And we're talking about a program that I don't know of too many other communities that have. I'm not

071saying that we shouldn't do it, but I do think we need to kind of look at the priorities of um of the community and what we're using our funds for. Um it could I mean depending on what happens in the future CPC funds it could be used or maybe an option to use that for other you know other things although it's very limited in what you can use it for. So just a few considerations. So so the the federated church was before my time. Did that get denied by CPC or did who who put the kaibosh on that? It it got voted down at town meeting because uh a lot of the legal arguments that was put forward, I guess the legal argument carried the day, I guess you could say. Um there were some

072competing legal thoughts. Um I think it wasn't I didn't I thought I felt as though that the presentation needed to be different. Yeah. because I don't think anybody would not have supported it had they thought about if if tomorrow that building was in danger and we had the town had to step up and do it. I feel as though the town would do it. I mean that that's a historical building, you know. And we have we have 800 I think it's $865,000 in the historic bucket. Um, so it's like I'm I'm thinking could we talk to town council and get some guidelines and see and that's that's where we'd have to start, right? But but I also couple So a couple things. One, and I don't want to get too much into discussion about what

073should happen, right? But I think you know the the group needs to come back together, right? I think if Makita is willing to be our liaison. The other thing that was brought up is rather than doing a historic district, you do historic properties, right? That's been done, right? You go to and and you work with the business owners who own those historic buildings and say, "Okay, we'd like to put a historic restriction on your building. Will you work with us?" So those are, you know, so that's you know I just wanted to say that you know we I did attend the public hearing for this and also communicated um a little bit with them. So um and with some of these concerns so I'm grateful that you want to step up and do that. Um

074but they it wasn't that and they did come before us and it wasn't that we were totally ignoring them. I made some actually some suggestions about No, no. I I mean I think you know and and you know as chair this was one of the times where I was like I am not going to make us vote as a board one way or the other to support it. I really wanted it to go to town meeting so that the residents could say yes or no. Um sometimes I feel like as a board I you know it's better to say okay we because I think we all have different feelings about this about the different programs. So I think it was best. So but now I I think we wanted to come forward in some other

075iteration. So Makita, if you're willing to be that liaison and bring stuff back and and you know as Claudia went I went to at least one of their hearings and I didn't go to you know I mean and I was hearing from some of the members about some of the input that was not being listened to. So, well, I think I think part of the problem, my my personal perspective was that by the time they got to the public hearing part and by the time they came to us, it was fully baked, right? And this was we had the bylaw like it was drafted. So, it's hard to have the discussion about what is the best approach and is the businesses all on board with it and getting all that to happen. if it's already

076kind of baked in. And I get I get where they're they were coming from the process though, right? We sort of said to them, "Okay, go ahead and do this, right? We could have stepped in sooner if we didn't." Yeah. So, I think I think like having having a kind of a a you know, a different like kind of not starting from scratch, but starting like from a from a like okay, what can we do to make this a better process? Yeah. I think is is Yeah. Yep. you know, because we do want something successful that's going to to to work, but we also we also want to be able to clearly articulate what that looks like and what the process looks like and what the impact is going to be and have the businesses

077that are going to be impacted say, "Okay, all right, like I I get it and we'll, you know, we'll be we'll be partners in this." So, it's definitely a continuing discussion. Claudia, hold on. Were you thinking that you wanted to be the lead? No, I wasn't. Okay. But I I did want No, you do. I mean, sure. Yeah. Rock, paper, and there's nothing, you know, we could we can, you know, there's nothing preventing you from actually, you know, from us working together on this, too. I think we should do that. We don't want to official assign two people because then it's a subcommittee. But I'm saying it's not being exclusive or anything like that, but No, I'm glad you jumped in. But I do want to just say again publicly that these folks did a

078tremendous and it's so hard to to know how hard people work and then you go to town meeting and and you can't put it over the or or the ballot and you can't put it over the finish line. So and then Michael has one clarification for Yeah, I I remember what the what the rule was, which was you can use public uh CPA funds for private purposes so long as there's a public benefit. So, I think the approach we'd have to take is how historic this this would help preservation for the community which would be a public benefit. That would be the legal approach I think without talking to council. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. So, potentially potentially. Okay. And then if you do move forward with it, I would s Yeah. Oh, yeah.

079And I think if you do move forward with it, I would suggest uh or or recommend that you look at identifying like a certain amount of CPC funds, right each year. Yeah. You know, like 50k or something each year that would go towards the program, you know, similar to what we do with the economic development program and budget for this year. Yeah. Okay. Do you is it something that um like because I'm just thinking like if if if if we have this like you know if we're if we're looking at it from both perspectives of like being able to do both things like the historic district and you know some sort of CPC funding mechanism. I think that might help if we bring that together at the same time is what I'm saying. I think

080it's important to have that as a Yeah. And then another thing I also think we should remember, I thought probably the most compelling argument uh on behalf of the historical commission was actually made by the last speaker who talked about actually living in a home that was in a historic district who had to make improvements herself to her property and really did not find it to be that ownorous u process or an expense. Um, so I think I think as you're thinking about subsidies for this type of stuff that should al like I mean is is a subsidy actually required, right? Yeah. Yep. So those are just the thoughts I would put forward. Is it something that you think that you want to talk to town council about? Is it something that we should talk

081to town council about? I mean I don't I think we can we can do that. Okay. And I think also I mean I think uh I think once once we reconvene there going to be some other ideas. We want to kind of open up um the discussion around some other ideas. So there's going to be some I predict like there'll be some ideation. There'll be some more suggestions you know. So I don't think I think folks watching this or listening to this right now shouldn't think that oh this is how we're going to solve this. This is a discussion. This is something that we're going to have to work on together. This is an option um a possibility that we can explore. But we really have to get some of these ideas out on the

082table, kind of figure out, you know, how we're going from there. So, I I suspect I say all that to say that I suspect that we'll be talking to legal legal counsel quite a bit over the next few months. It's CPC funds could just be another tool in the toolbox, right? Exactly. To make this Exactly. out of many. So, yeah. You know, yeah. Good. A lot of discussion. Yeah. Good. Yeah. Okay. Good. Wonderful. Um, moving on. We have up. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I don't think so. I think, you know, I don't think we need to take a vote. I think she's offered to do it. And Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for checking. Yep. Um, okay. Update on the 40B projects. We have three of them now here in front of us. Two are moving

083a little bit further along. One, the comments are due by the end of May. And at our seats when we came in were the the draft comments letter from two organizations for the newest 40B project. But Michael, go ahead. Yeah, sure. Um, so I will briefly mention 10 to 60 Main Street and 61 uh Waverly. I know with 10 10 to 60. Um, so for those who are unfamiliar with the process, you know, the applicant submits plans, the peer reviewer has an opportunity to review those plans and provide comment. Um the applicant then has the opportunity to address those comments either by making the requested changes or providing a response. Um I think if you uh look on the website the planning website which Albero has done a great job of updating making sure all

084the latest documents are up there. I think you will see um the applicant's response to the peer review letter uh for both the traffic um concerns in the peer review report as well as the civil review report. So I think you'll you'll see those um 61 Waverly I think they've just started that process as well. So so there's a lot of information there. Um, you know, I have not had an opportunity to really review the 61 Waverly one that much, but I have looked at um the mill site quite a bit. Um, some of the responses I appreciate the uh attempt to satisfy the peer reviewer's comments. Um, and I think the peer reviewer has been satisfied with things So, I I'd probably leave it at that. On the civil side, there's a couple of

085things that I think warrant a little bit more exploration. Uh, namely just some of the groundwater issues. Yeah. Yeah. Specifically. Well, if I can add to that, if you don't mind, Madam Chair, with respect to the 61 Wavely, the um the entryway has changed and it's going to be closer to the intersection. of East Union and Union that yeah the entryway has changed. So that's going to since the first submission the original developer. Oh yeah it's changed from the original developer original but not this developer hasn't changed. No, no, no, no, no. He's changing. Oh, cuz the original developer had the other side of the street, right? But now and now it's over by the high school. That's correct. Right. And it's like the high school is here and their entrance is here. It's not

086even lined up that we can say put a light in or anything. It's Yeah, that's Well, that's it. But now that's going to cause an issue because we're we're going to discuss it tomorrow at the traffic safety committee. So that's that's going to become an issue. And I know what the the comment's going to be. You know, you're going to have to redesign that intersection. Well, not at not at $2 million. We're going to redesign it at this extraction. Not our inter not our intersection. Why would that have to be redesigned? They should have to redesign their entrance and exits. Well, I don't want to get into a large discussion what I know, but I can tell you that that's that's been a that's been a concern that was brought up uh and as other

087matters have been brought up with respect to that. So, if you want to join our meeting tomorrow because it's going to be going to be quite uh okay. I think Beth might have a little insight. I know she's So, I've been following these um projects and 61 Waverly. They did match up their entrance on to match with the high school. Oh, okay. They did. So, yeah, let's touch base with Alvo first thing in the morning then before your meeting. Um I know they did line those up because that was a concern. They did change their entrance on the other side into Framingham. Maybe that's that could be the that Yes, that has changed. And there are off the top of my head, I'm sorry, I don't remember, but I believe it's a right turn only.

088Um, don't quote me on that, but that Okay, that has changed on the other side on the framing. All right. I did not realize there was a right turn. Yeah. So, double I'll double check with him. I'm pretty sure those entrances did match up. Are they adding some kind of light at the intersection? I don't think I don't believe so. So they are so 61 Waverly is just now starting their traffic. They've had like one or two meetings I believe on traffic only. Um that is the major focus right now only for that project. Um 10 to 60 Maine is almost completed with their traffic and they are moving on to landscape architecture um Tuesday. So Tuesday's meeting is the ZBA. Um both of those projects will be in front of them as well. Is

089there an I'm sorry Beth. Is there an amendment to the traffic study that they've submitted? Uh there are there tweaks to that traffic study for which one? 1060 Main Street. That I don't know. But Joe, I think, you know, I think they made a few changes. Sorry. Um I think they did make a few changes based on the peer reviewers comments. Okay. Um substantive. I think that's debatable. Yeah. Okay. That's that's going to be a concern. I think they were looking at sightelines. Maybe that's what you're thinking. So there are sight lines on that myrtle like correct. So they did address that. Um there was conversation about the building there and the sighteline but they basically so I wasn't able to attend that but I did I haven't gotten entirely through it but I got

090through most of the meeting watching it. And so they um basically the developer said they've done what they're going to do and if we want it moved or an additional sight line then they're going to take down the whole building. Yeah, that was basically what he said. And council push right back and council push back which I was glad to see. Um and because right now this the sighteline is a minimum. It's it's and and um you know it's he said there there's no way that they're ever going to um change the uh entry and exit to align with Pleasant Street because it would be cost prohibitive which is makes sense. So that cost right so that cost is going to be a burden to the town but it might be cost prohibitive for the

091number of units that they want. Yeah. Um so that there was definitely a little it got a little contentious. Um and then you know we waverly wave street waverly street. Did did you did you have you seen the videos? I have not watched the videos from Mr. Johnson. Are you getting those emails? Yes. Oh yes I am. You've got those. Okay. Yeah. So because he has traffic concerns that he has. Yeah. And he sent some videos too. Yes. Okay. All right. just to make sure u because I think that you know it's important I to and I trying to work out if time to go over there and stand on the corner and take some videos of maybe cars trying to take a right-hand turn or um whatever but there's certainly but uh I have

092grave concerns with 10 to 60 main and I know now they're coming with around the groundwater issues and um I did write a significant um email in terms of outlining What are we doing here? Right. Um it's in a flood plane. We're living in a time where um you know we don't the hundredyear storms happen much more frequently. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just crazy. Will be a good a good a good indicator of what happens. It's crazy to say that we're going to have a manager on site that and that our um I think it was our actually consultant who said that you know the good news is we get a couple of there would be notice about that kind of a storm so that you would have time to get people to move their

093vehicles out. Okay. You're going to get where do they move to? Yeah. Where are they going to move to? And that's and you're going to get everybody out. And then at what point do you say, "Okay, we gave you enough time. Now we're going to tow you out." Yeah. Um and then, you know, my concern too is if you bring that kind of flood water into into that, you know, what what do you what are you going to do to the surrounding properties, right? What what is going to be unleashed from the super fund site aspect of it? Um where are they going to pump that water in the river? And is it going to then make that unlivable for another hundred years? I I mean the concerns are just and so one question I

094had about all of this is what what exactly does the ZBA get to push back on? because so far I haven't I haven't felt that kind of and I get no warm and fuzzies from I'm not getting any warm and fuzzies from a consultant who was doing the traffic study. I have some issues with him. Sorry, I have to add consultant or I have to say it like it is our peer reviewer or a consultant. Everything's like at a bare min the minimum standard. He doesn't go he doesn't take he doesn't take it to the the highest level that he should and then work down. It's hot. It's a lot harder to work up than it is to work down. But are you kidding me? And I sat there and listened to them and I'm

095saying and he represents us. I'm sorry. He may be a nice guy and everything, but I don't think he's doing justice to this town. Sorry. I have to say it say it out loud. But but so what would you just in terms of the ZBA? Yeah. Oh gosh. Well, um I I think you don't mind if if I would I could rephrase that. What can they push back on successfully? Um you know, they can push back on anything, right, at the at at the local level. Um of course, this is a chess match. So, you've got to think about, okay, if I put in this condition or if I deny it, it gets appealed to the to the hack HAC. What inappropriate sorry um you know what is going to be successful uh successfully upheld

096there um and so you know there's three uh specific uh three specific push backs uh where you could be successful at the HAC. One is uh life-threatening safety issues. um basically uh dramatically uh negative environmental uh changes and uh for the life of me I cannot remember the third but it's not as solid I think as as the other two and so I think where our peer review consultants who advise the ZBA where they kind of get stuck is with their professional lensure and everything like you know what you know if if the uniform traffic code says that this is the minimum sight line, they kind of have to have to say, well, yes, it does meet the minimum sight line. Um, it might not be the best. Clearly, um, obviously it's not what we

097want, but you know, they might be limited in terms of what they can what they can say. Um, it's difficult. It's difficult. Claudia, what about something as simple as parking for example? Right. Our town bylaw says two two spaces to a unit and yes yet they don't have two spaces to the unit. So they that's okay. So that's a waiver. So that so the parking is associated with our bylaws. But isn't but isn't because it's a 40B, isn't there a way for them to not have to use our bylaws, but use the state parking bylaws? And at the state right now, they're looking to even dimin I mean, it hasn't passed, but they're looking to diminish the number of parking spaces per building. So, I think even though we might have a bylaw that says

098two per unit, if at the state level it's not that, then there's a they have to find that in between is my understanding. Well, even if it's not uh something at the state level, the fact that it's just a local bylaw means that as a 40B, they can go around, but but I just think we even though that's what they can do, I don't think we should just ignore these things, right? I think it needs to be raised. I think on some level it's how many things are are wrong here or how many things are are we having to wave, you know, at what point does if you have to wave everything, at what point does it reach a threshold where it's just not it just doesn't make sense. Um, so I I just don't

099want just because something I get it that they can because it's a 40B that they can ignore a lot of, you know, our requirements in town, but that I just don't think we should just pretend that they that doesn't exist that there they are. It is indeed, you know, above and beyond what we would allow. It's kind of late now, but it's it's time to start, you know, hitting up the legislature about tweaking, you know, the 40B rules and regulations to help um the local municipalities throughout the throughout the state um where they have to follow certain guidelines that and certain bylaws that each city and town has um within the Commonwealth to provide protection. Why why have bylaws then if they can s if they can just say oh we're going to put a

10040B in because we want to you know forget about what you what we need to do remember the goal of 40bs is to increase affordable housing hold on communities that have met their 10% are not dealing you sound like Jack now well I I'm I'm just saying that I I mean I agree the 40B the whole process what it does is not equitable it's not right it's Not, but that doesn't, you know, the the goal is affordable housing and we, as we've said before, one of what we're what we're dealing with is we did everything right. We had a an affordable we had our housing production plan. We had things in the pipeline and then because those things fell through, not because of what we did but because of those projects, where the 40B process

101needs to be looked at is if a community is doing these things and something happens, can they still be given some kind of timeline to get those things back in place? That's that's what needs to be addressed because just by saying what needs to be addressed is that 40B has been on the books since 1969 and where are we in terms of having done something for our housing crisis? We we're known certain communities there certain communities are at their 10%. Certain communities they're at 10% but what have we done for the state? What has how has that impacted the state in a positive way in in terms of housing? The first 20 years it did great but the last 20 years it hasn't done much. Okay. Well, then it's not doing much. And the other

102thing even Gavin, you know, um has there's a commercial now and and it says it isn't just about building housing. It's about making it affordable. Right. Right. Making it affordable. And and that's the key. That's the key. I mean, Michael says it. Nobody Nobody's moving out of Massachusetts to to go live in an apartment someplace. Oh, no. Right. Well, and and that's the other discussion, right? You talk to build you talk to developers and they like to do apartments because that's longer term longer term profit. Oh I understand and you know but and and as we know even affordable is not affordable right the is just and the other thing if the motivation is to make money then that you know I I think we're seeing that in our society all over the place. It

103doesn't necessarily help the people if that is the sole motivation and that for a developer that is the sole motivation. Yeah. And and we got to remember there's a balance there, right? Trying to make money is not a bad thing. It's how they're doing it. That's all. And the only thing I would just add is that I think one of the reasons that that Galvin is kind of pushing the affordable housing is because of the the bond bill that was recently passed about affordable housing. And so it's really not clear like how towns can um utilize that and take advantage of that. Right. And so that's it's so I think that that's a difficult really difficult thing. Um I've asked that of of our student. Yeah. and and I haven't gotten a clear answer as

104to how we can how we can actually utilize funds for that because you know we've had we've had this discussion like I mean it's the affordable housing discussion is real like we we would I would love to be able to create real affordable housing and you know we were we were just talking about that at the comprehensive plan meeting and like Monday night oh my god that was only two nights ago. Um, it's been a long week. Actually, I thought it was seven. No, five, six nights. Oh, no, that was the other one. Yeah, but but you know, like that's, you know, so that's a that's a tough nut to crack, you know, really. And um you know my my question is that you know the ZBA I just I my worry my big worry

105is that um you know they have so much on their plate right now with all these projects. Um, and we have these peer reviewers and I think we're relying very heavily on the peer reviewers to do the the lion's share of the work for this and which I think is the right thing to do. Um, but you know, to Joe's point and to Claudia's point, like we have to make sure like the the peer reviewers are are advocating in the best possible way because the ZBA is I mean, I haven't watched all the meetings. I've watched a good number of them, but not all of them. Um, and I don't find like the ZBA is the one asking the hard questions. They're not. and which I I think they're relying heavily on the experts, which

106um they could do, but I'm I'm waiting for like the hard questions from ZBA and um so I mean we've got to be able to or Lisa, you know, somebody needs somebody at the table needs to be asking the hard questions. Okay. So, um, because I just feel like like I was disappointed with 10 to 60 Main Street about the traffic stuff like I am not not as disappointed as as Joe, but I was disappointed. So, but you know, because because it's not even just like it it wasn't even a discussion. What would it take to realign that intersection? It was like off the table because the peer reviewer wasn't making them do it. Right. Right. Um it was that was horrendous that and the same thing like I'm I worry about when we get

107into the civil stuff when we get really into it and it's like okay well you know are they meeting the threshold of of the hundredyear flood and what that looks like. And they were talking about parking at the MBTA station. Well, what's the reality of that? What are they really going to be able to you know can they actually do that? Can do they actually have a plan for that? um how are they going to evacuate that that site and not only that but like what's that you know can you imagine the traffic yes be trying to evacuate all of those people yes and and I think it was our consultant who said yeah well those types of storms you have a couple of days to do that kind of thing it's like so what

108are you here for so so I I just I I just want to make sure that that we really We're really asking those tough questions because if if we get to a point where ZBA is looking to condition the crap out of these projects, and I'm just using that as a technical term. I like it. I did too. I like that. If we're looking to them to like condition the crap out of these projects and we haven't asked those tough questions, I don't think we would have anything to stand on. And I just want to make sure that we do. Yeah. I mean it it would be tough to put that into the decision if you haven't even asked. Correct. Right. So I'm I'm hearing these concerns. Bless you. Bless you. And bless you. Sorry.

109The ZBA is you know their own entity. Um is there anything we as a select board either I mean obviously as individuals people have gone and have made statements and have stuff like that. Is there anything we can do as a board to encourage the ZBA if we feel that's appropriate to either ask some of these hard questions or to encourage the use of an I mean I don't know a a peer reviewer who is going to be a little tougher or is that something we can do or is it we have to do this as individuals and keep pushing them as individuals? It's a good question. something that we should ask legal counsel what what our forte should be. Yeah, I think um I think there's a couple questions there. Um you know, talking

110about how the select board can support um the ZBA and and making sure that the right questions are asked. The second one is can you switch peer reviewers midstream? Um and I don't I don't know the answer to either one of those. I mean, I know they do have to vote on the peer reviewer at the at the beginning of the process. So, I'll have to check on that. Um, because my understanding is at least the traffic consultant that we have, we felt that our peer review our our traffic consultant was a strong traffic consultant is my understanding. Very, very strong. Very strong. You know, a lot of lot of experience. So, it's surprising. I I watched one of them. I didn't I haven't had an opportunity to see all of them. I you know

111one of the first ones I saw I felt like he was asking some good questions. So to hear that it hasn't stayed that way. It's a little discouraging but I also know our ZBA is working very hard. So I don't want to Yeah. You don't want to make it sound like they're not. Yeah. And there's a way, right, to say, for example, there's a way to say that um, you know, they legally meet the sighteline, but it is at a, you know, a bare minimum. Uh, isn't something I would, you know, really recommend, blah, blah, blah. There's a way to to phrase those things, but, you know, he might have to say that that it that it meets the standard, right? But, but it's not editorialize a little bit here, you know? Right. Yeah. I'm

112also thinking of the people that are going to be living in that complex. How are they ever going to get out of there? Like honestly, like, you know, and maybe the to go right up Myrtle Street. But well, that's that's the concern. But it's but it's crazy. They're not going to be able to come out on the main street side and be able to go anywhere in the middle of rush hour traffic. They'll be violating Mass General. So, so that that's the one Joe, you keep bringing that up that from according to mass general law, you cannot cross two lanes of traffic to make a left. That's correct. So, why are we not It brought it got brought up at one of the at one of the hearings, but they were talking about the Myrtle

113Street side. The Myrtle Street side isn't two lanes of traffic. No, no, I No, I understand that. But I let them not argue about it because it they were they were correct. It didn't impact that section. Right. It didn't it doesn't impact Merl Street. You brought that up a couple times. So, part of me is like, we should have a police officer sitting there and we could be ticketing the heck out of these people, couldn't we? It's happening all the time. If you're taking a left out of there. Yeah. Well, I You're not going to be That's You're not You almost can't do it anyways because there's too much traffic. Correct. I mean, maybe you can do it at 10:00 in the morning. I don't know. But my point is Joe is saying that there's

114mass general law that says you you are not allowed to cross two lanes of traffic to make a left turning left out of a driveway and that's considered a driveway just for maybe another discussion is it happens all the time on that at that I see it all the time as I'm coming around from Pleasant Street people taking a left to get in front of me and there's no sign that says no no no left turn. So anyway, right, not the people listening to those anyway because So if you wouldn't mind, could I just ask you about 55 West? Yes, 55 West. And um how do you want to send me, you know, some comments that you may have? Look, I will be very very candid. I was a little surprised about um uh what

115I had received from other you know, boards and companies. Not not much. But I will, and this is the candid part, I think um personally and I think kind of my read of other people is I think we've been so disappointed with Mass Housing's um right treatment of our comment letters and and some of the ways this this has evolved that you know I think there's some of us who are like why bother, right? Just to be very very frank. That's the feeling that I I get is that we we do have this feeling of, you know, we're beat before we start. So, I feel like there's not we're not putting enough into it because we feel, you know, Yeah. I I mean I I think especially at the mass housing that like this initial

116level. I mean I think about how much time and effort we spent on the mill building when and it was and then even the time and effort spent on 61 quite as much as the building but I think Yeah. So could we could we just back up really quick and because we haven't really discussed 55 West West Union at all as a board. Um, could we do like a brief overview of what the project is and what it's looking to do and what where it is in the process, etc. Um, it there wasn't anything in our packet about the project. No, I assume it's on the planning board's the planning department site. Um, I've heard about it, but I honestly Haven't we haven't received any details? No, not that I've seen. How many units is

117it? Can we just like get a little information like that? I can't remember. I didn't know. 125. Make sure I get the right unless you have it right on the top top of your head. Excuse me. I was about to say if you want you want to move you want to move on to consent and I'll Okay. Yeah. While you're looking that and then we can look at that. Um Okay. While he's pulling that up, uh, we have our consent agenda which has a number of oneday liquor licenses. Susan, I noticed in the consent agenda there are times for those one day liquor license. Was there a reason for that? We don't need to do hearings for each of these, do we? No. Okay. Those were moved and they they were originally up at the

118top and I never removed the times. Okay. Okay. Wonderful. Okay. So, good. You answered my question. Yes, thank you so much. You're welcome. I was wondering that as well. Great. Um, so we have a number of the one in the consent agenda and I believe there's only one of one or two of them that's new. Most of them have been at the farmers market before. So, uh, basically what it shows is the dates that they're going to be at the farmers market and they have to have so much um there's certain information that they need to have and I believe it was all in our packet to support these. Okay. So, if I can get a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. So moved and a second. Second. All those in favor? I

119I. Farmers Market, you are all set with those. And uh while I uh while Michael keeps looking, are you I'm going to ask, are you here for a special reason or just listening? Oh, come up to the mic. Tell us about Spice Water. Yeah. introduce yourselves and thank you for being here. Any samples? Not in town hall. Thank you for the opportunity. Only kidding. Only kidding. It's nice to meet everyone. Um I know uh all the paperworks in there and all of that stuff is good, but uh we have some friends that live here in Ashland for a very long time and they had a lot of great things to say about the market. So when the opportunity arised this year u or arose to allow uh farmer breweries and farmer distilleries to become a

120part of this we decided that you know this is one of the places we wanted to start um doing to we're in several other markets around this town at this area Hington here Malro uh we're in Milbury we're infra so um we're very happy about this uh we want to get a chance to get our name out there we've been open for about two and a half years now. And uh during that time, we've created over 16 different types of um spirits in our lineup. Uh some of them we don't have right now, like our maple flavored rum, but uh we do plan to bring that back. We have five um actually international award-winning spirits already. Um some of them we'll bring with us, which is our Elm Street Lemonchello. Uh so it's a traditional

121Italian lemonch cello that is um based the name is uh based off of where we are in Milbury. Uh we have a full tasting room there as well as all of the products um that we serve. So what we plan on doing um is um keep but keeping in um making sure that we're following the law as we should with the ABCC. All samples will only be a quarter of an ounce um from us. But uh some of the things that we can do is we can add a little bit of flavor to it. Like for example, our agave spirit, which is our version of tequila made completely in Milbury with um organic agave nectar. It's one of our fastest selling things. Like we've sold 60 bottles in the last three three weeks and we've

122only had it for three weeks again. So, um, but we'll add like a splash of margarita mix in there just so that people can have a chance to see what it's like in something. Um, of course, they can try it on their own as well. Uh, we're also, um, very active in the Blackstone Valley Chamber. Um, so, uh, we like to make sure that we're connecting with other businesses as well as individuals. So glad to see that uh Blissoint Metery uh Jeff and I met when we were doing um the American dream with Sam Adams. So we're both alum of their program. Learn a little bit more how to do business, how to run uh you know advertising, those kind of things which is part of what we're doing here. Um as well as Rushford

123and Sons uh who we're actually collaborating on a few projects coming up. Nice. Um, so it I I think you'll find that the three of us will work really well with the farmer and market. Any questions anyone has um or any kind of concerns, bring it up to us right away. We want to make sure things are done correctly. Perfect. Great. It's nice to see some new businesses and our farmers market. So, thank you. Thank you. Great. And I am actually hard of hearing. So, just if anybody does have question, please let me know. Speak up and it's always good. Great. I've been able to get through it 52 years now, so you know how to work. Good. Well, thank you for spending the time here and we appreciate it and we look forward to

124seeing you at the farmers market very soon. Well, thank you. And you said your first name is Barry. Is it Barry? Is it Barry? Okay. Barry Bacon. Thank you. Great. Worester. I grew up in Worcester and then Milbury and then um been here all of my life. So my both both my boys are now and one's a WPI, the young one graduated university main. So you'll see on there uh the application that my wife and my two boys are also um tip certified. Wonderful. We love a good family business. Love a good family business. And even a couple of our employees that are there are lifelong friends I've known since middle school and high school. Great. That's awesome. Does your distillery do you have um do you invite guests to come to your distillery and

125Oh, yeah. and and view it. Yeah, that might be fun. That might be a fun trip. Road trip. Road trip. We'll have our menu there so you can get a chance to see what we do um at the distillery. Some amazing things. A crazy one is we call the New Englander. Doesn't sound like you want to drink it, but it's a it really is good. It's gin with moxy and woristure sauce in it. Sounds weird. That does sound weird. Actually tastes like a sasparilla. Very nice root beer. All right. And then homemade beer. Yeah. Right. Kick to it. A kick to it for sure. Definitely has a kick to it. Good. Well, thank you. Appreciate. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Great to meet you. Okay. Okay. Let's go back to

12655 West Union. So, thank you for uh thank you for that little rep reprieve. Um, so, uh, the project itself, it's 116 units on a little shy of five acres. Um, it's AC, it's, uh, off of the MBTA or excuse me, Memorial Drive, um, across from the Dunkin Donuts. Uh, 87 units would be market rate, 29 units would be um, income restricted. Uh 72 units would be uh onebedroom units. 32 units would be twobedroom units. And then you would have 12 threebedroom units. I believe it's 52 um 52 feet uh four and a half stories. Um and I'm giving you basically a very very high level overview of this. Michael, I apologize. Could you just give me those um numbers again for the the one and two bedroom units? Yeah, the unit counts. Sure. It's

127um 72 onebedroom units. Yep. 32 twobedroom units. Yep. 12 12 threebedroom units. Thanks. Um and so I think probably the best way forward uh Oh, I'm sorry, Michael. What's the uh breakdown? You said that how many were income restricted and of those do we know what bedroom counts those are or Sure. Um just let me do a little math on the fly here. It's very scary. Um so just with the affordable units all of them um are at 80% AMI. So, you would have 18 one-bedroom units, eight uh twobedroom units, and then three threebedroom units. Those would be affordable, the affordable ones. Number three again, I'm sorry. Well, three number three. And you know what? I'm going to send I'm going to send this to you. Okay, great. I'll send you the application. and I'll

128send you the architectural plan set and then if you do have some comments if you want to get them to me um uh may I know this doesn't give you a lot of time but on Monday um I can assemble something to send to mass housing on Wednesday I'll give us a little time and I'm assuming that the uh the entryway to this this project will be off of Memorial Drive correct correct Monday is a holiday y Memorial Day be good. If you want to send it to me on Tuesday, we'll make sure we get it done. Good. It sounds good. We'll make sure we get it done. Okay. Any other It might not be thorough, you know, when uh when we finish writing, but uh you're using thorough now to write things. Not Yeah,

129you mean thorough. No, thorough. I'm saying it won't be as good as thorough. Oh, okay. Okay. That was probably the wrong author to confuse that with thorough pretty quick. How about long fellow? So sure, you know, you know how many parking spaces for that one? How many parking spaces? That was good. 180 184 surface parking uh spaces which equate to 1.58 per unit and and no commercial. Correct. It's just straight housing. Just straight housing. So, um, oh, I was just gonna say, so, so the the, um, the project is being done by John Dudley here in town. Um, and he wasn't open to doing any sort of commercial. When I chatted with him, he said, "There is a Dunkin Donuts across the street, so it's not like I'm going to put a coffee shop in

130it. The YMCA is going to be opening a little bit further down the road. They're going to have a gym. They're going to have child care." He said there's going to be co-working space in the basement of the building. Um, and he felt that that was the best use of the space rather than trying to add commercial. He also owns the the property across the street where he's going to be looking to do some commercial. Felt that for this particular property to make it across the street as in the eastbound side of 135 on that small parcel. Yeah. Is that co-working space going to be like something that the community can rent? Potentially. He's like that's something he's open to because that that that's a resource that we don't really have in town right now.

131So that's that's that's something he's open to that it's you know space that people could go and sit there and work. Yeah. He was open to that. Okay. Yes. So we can I I should also point out that uh Mr. Dudley had also indicated that although he is moving forward with the mass housing process what the intention was and correct me if I'm wrong is that he was doing that just to basically secure the place in line uh but he's willing to delay the opening of the hearing by several months uh in order to let these other projects play. Yeah, he had called me and and indicated that as well. He intended to be friendly Yep. So, I would say like I I get that my personal perspective and this is my personal perspective. I

132I like John Dudley. He's a great guy. He's done a lot for Ashland, but a friendly 40B is the the notion behind it is that that it is in partnership with the town and this is not in my opinion a partnership with the town. So, um, so I would just personally not use that phrase. I know he wants it to be a a a good working relationship, which I completely get. Um, I also know that, you know, he's trying to get in before we hit safe harbor. So, you know, so there's that, too. So, you know, we're trying to we're the problem is is that um all these 40B projects are going to hit at once and we're trying to manage the services and the growth of this community and trying to respond appropriately and

133it's it's going to be a tough it's going to be a tough go of it. So, um, so while I respect his decision to to file this because because if he files when he when he puts in his application through mass housing, that's what starts that's that's the so like even if we would hit safe harbor doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because he started the process with mass housing. Correct. So, yeah. So it's so which is why he put in the application when he did because if we do get if we do get these projects through ZBA we will hit safe harbor. That's correct. Yeah. So I have a quick question. You don't mind Madam Chair? It's it's not on the agenda but it's part of the 40B projects that we've been discussing. UC do

134we have any idea where that status is right now? Haven't heard anything. have not heard. Wow. Yeah. Wow. That's a bit frustrating. So, the land court decision hasn't come down yet. No. And those those you guys went in for those hearings in March, February. Yeah. February or March. And the indication that we had received from the judge was that a decision was pretty imminent. Something must have happened for them to have to wait. Yeah. And I didn't get any, you know, I haven't received any update either from uh UGC's attorney or uh town council. So that is something. Well, is that something we could follow up on? Just Oh, definitely. Okay. Thank you, man. Oh, not a problem. Okay, moving on. Town manager reports. Michael, thank you. Uh, yes. So, I'm going to start off

135with the uh the local election. Um so first of all congratulations uh Joe and Brandy on your reelection and congratulations to everybody who um ended up uh gaining a seat uh on the respective boards or committees. I think uh most everybody running um was an incumbent um for all of the seats except for planning board I believe. And so, um, congratulations to Camilo and Scott for, uh, as they embark on their, uh, their journey. Bet time. Um, or, uh, sorry. Um, as they, uh, embark on their planning board careers. Uh, we ended up having 548 voters. Um, so about 4.2% uh, local turnout. Uh the last day to register to vote was May 9th. Uh really have to give credit to Cindy and Christopher and their and their staff, their respective staff and the pole

136workers. Um you know, you see a lot of the same pole workers year after year. It's a long day for them. um even the ones who are doing it as shifts and um you know Cindy and Christopher do a great job of organizing them and they just do go in there and plug in and do do the hard work. So many thanks to them and uh again congratulations to the winner and we'll continue to work on winners and we'll continue to work on turnout. Um, moving on to town meeting recap, unless anybody has any questions about the the local election. So, um, we ended up with 234 registered voters uh at town meeting, which is um which is more than than what we've had uh more recently. Um and uh again congratulations to everybody who

137came out and uh you know if you were supporting certain things and it was successful again congratulations. Uh some of the comments about the local historic commission. Um, I hope I hope they take some solace in the fact that, you know, it was a high bar, meaning that it was a twothirds vote and um, you know, they they actually did have a simp more more than a simple majority of people vote in favor, but um, it's tough being so close sometimes. Yeah, been there. Yeah. But, um, you know, other than that, uh, everything else went relatively smoothly. Uh, where there was, uh, discussion and debate, I thought it was, uh, It was pretty healthy. I And I know this happens every time, but I'm always so disappointed when an article, you know, that people are

138there for and then they don't stay to finish out town meeting. Um it it's it's just disappointing. We saw some people leave after one of the first or second articles and then we saw a lot of them leave after the historical district. And um I don't know how can we how can we encourage people to stay until the end and participate because there was some other discussion that was just as important. So and so again uh thanks to to every um all the staff members and volunteers that uh put on the production that is town meeting because it is it is quite a production and they do a remarkable job. I still think we need blue tablecloths. Blue tablecloth. Red tablecloths. How about we just make sure I can flip uh change screen to change.

139Well, start with that. We make sure that we can project. Yes, the projector wasn't working and Paul had to go and get something else and it still was a terrible you know there's so many times um in a day I think we probably say what would we do without Paul Carpenter and it's town meeting is where he really shines in front of a lot of people I mean he can make these things ma like magically happen um so again u and we'll we'll now start the preparation for fall fall special. Katherine uh will be uh leading that charge. Um project updates. Michael, one second. I'm sorry to go back to to voting. Do you know how many people voted before um election day? How many people voted in early days? I think the first um

140election first early voting day was 38. Have there was only one early voting day Wednesday last week. So, I think it was 38 or that might have been like 50 something. Maybe maybe the 38 number last night. Cindy said like 50ome people did early voting. I think I asked her earlier in the day before the day was finished. Yeah, could have. Yeah. Okay. Um so, just on project updates, uh I will start off with one that's actually not on this list. Um Cadillac paint or they Ashland Arboritum. Um, so, uh, Becca Solomon and a number of volunteers. Excuse me, I knew this would happen. Just I'm going to go back to the other agenda item. Thank you, Cindy. Um, 55 voted early. 55 voted early. I had I love it that she's watching. I know.

141She She told me she was going to watch. So, she's she's in it for the long haul tonight. She is special. Um, that's great. So, um, yeah. So, Ashland Arboritum, Becca Solomon and a number of, um, her weed warriors, her weed warriors, um, went and attacked the Ashland Arboritum and, uh, using a big DPW truck, they hauled like two huge loads of invasive species that they had pulled out. Wow. That's great. On a Saturday. And um you know I I think I think it that's actually it's it's probably one of the it's just the latest example I think of of our staff and volunteers working together after hours if you will um to make to make something happen make something special uh for the community. So we're looking forward to uh to moving that forward.

142Do you know I mean do you have any other information on this weekend Beth? Just kind of what they did or what they were for the cleanup. Um gosh I don't have like numbers of how much that they um took out but in three hours they had cleared an area that was larger than they were expecting to. Trisha Kendall uncovered a tree that um will now be Trisha's tree. Um, so they were able to identify things that they were able to save in that area um and really clean out to really get started. There's obviously more work to do, but we do have um a contract with the company that's going to start the arboritum. We're meeting on Friday to discuss timing, but they're going to start the Tuesday after Memorial Day. Um, and the

143you'll see this spring the pergola will be up, the benches will be in. Um, but the amount of invasive species that need to be removed there and remediated um will take a little bit more time this spring. So, we'll probably plant everything in the fall is what we're thinking um just because we're we're up against the summer months and that's not the time to plant and it's too many um items to risk losing in the summer heat. So, two questions. One, so the parking lot has not been open, right? Correct. So the park is not available yet to people. Correct. Okay. Um it's you can walk in. You can. Yeah. Oh, the neighbors use it all the time. Yeah. And then the question um how if people are interested in participating in this invasive weekend,

144whatever warrior, whatever they Becca calls it. Yeah. The weed warriors. The weed warriors. How would they get information or sign up to be notified of when that's happening? Yeah. They can contact the conservation um department. Okay. at town hall and we'll um I mean we advertised that in the newsletter leading up to it. So join that. I missed that. One thing I think um you know there's there's a lot of work being done in I think in the town forest too with invasive species, right? Yeah. And I think um it it would be a good thing to put something in the newsletter about why it's so important to to work on to get rid of the invasive species. You know, I maybe it seems obvious love that she will be happy. You know, you know

145who will also love that is Mike Jones and Rob St. me who I think is on their their personal mission to eradicate um barberry which is a well you know and part of my motivation is I think people are saying why are we spending money to do such and such and such and such right and now this in particular is is volunteers but um I think it's important for everybody to understand sometimes why it's better to do this than to just let it go. Right. I see what you're saying. Yeah, that's No, it's good. That's very good. The very short answer for those that are watching, um, invasive species take over and crowd out native species. Um, and just because they have no known, you know, predators in the both the animal kingdom and the

146plant kingdom. Well, why? I almost sounded like a biology major there, didn't I? And what's interesting is plants that some we sometimes think are native are not native to new to New England. So yeah. And then and then Beth, you know, if you want to continue, Beth had her her first meeting with the Warren Barn group. If you just want to give an update on that, I'll let you do that. Yeah, sure. Um so that project is going full steam ahead. Um I met with the team. They needed to do um just a few tweaks to the path and the parking lot, that small parking lot they're putting in for fire and safety. Um main that was their main concern was access to Henry's place. So this will actually allow more um access to that

147just in case of any fires. Um so that's really great. So they pretty much have the plan set. Um they had a few little things that they needed um the town's approval on as far as ballards go in front of the barn doors because um just to just to avoid having to put in um an oil water separator because you can actually fit a car in the barn. Um so there are going to be ballers, but they are really preserving the historical look of the building by putting in um hitching posts. They look like hitching old hitching posts. So they're doing a really great job on that. I I think that project I think everyone's going to be very pleased with the way that that project comes out. So, they're actually going out to bid

148um in the next month or two. Um and they'll have it out for about 30 days, I believe. So, they're looking to get started this the end of the summer fall. Nice. Nice. I know we were really close to signing off on the ML. Yeah. Is that the lease? The lease. You mean the lease is all signed? Yep. That's all done. I think I know that Jen was trying to get that done before she left, but I wasn't. She did got it right under the wire. Um, and uh, it's not on the agenda, but I did review the dog parkou um, sent that over to Beth. I think we're in good shape to move that one forward. Um, Pawn Street. Um, so, uh, I was able to hop on a call recently with uh, Dennis

149Gianetti uh, from Senate President Scopa's office as well as MASDOT. I know uh Beth, you probably were on the coordinating call on Wednesday with uh with some of our team, but you know they so they're continuing to do the work um you know along various parts of the corridor. Um they had anticipated getting done I believe it was in August uh but Eversource u needed to do some work just inside of or Pine Street and going inside of Alangquin which was going to take about a month. So instead of doing having them come in after the roads paved and all of that good stuff going to go ahead and have them go in and do that work believe at the end of May. That's that's what they're anticipating. Um and so that would push the

150project out to September. So it would still be be a month, but at least we wouldn't be they wouldn't be cutting into the pave the new pave. Well, that makes sense. Makes sense. Good. So that's uh that's still scheduled to be completed. Every time I drive on it, there's something else a little bit different. Something else cleaned up. There's something else changed and moved. And that is still seeing progress that Dennis and I did uh um put some um pressure on for uh was just the cleanup in the me. You know, I understand Northern Construction, which is the contractor, hasn't mobilized, but that doesn't mean that we should have to live with that, right? Um, that's good because I I was asked a question about Pond Street specifically and like when is it going to

151be finished and people haven't seen a lot of act activity, so I think they're wondering what the timeline is. I I can understand that. So, so yes, it's still anticipated to be done in 25. So, I mean you I mean we have we have a number of projects that could potentially be done in 25. Cadillac paint, the Warren Barn, Pawn Street, um Dog Park, dog park. So, um yeah, we could we could have a pretty productive 25, the second half of 25. Okay. And so, just an update on open positions. Um so I will start first with uh the director of planning and economic development. We have been interviewed interview after interview. Um so it has been a lot of time spent interviewing candidates for some open positions. I will have to say though we've

152got some really good candidates and it's been great to hear why they're interested in applying and they'd like to know how busy we are. They appreciate that. Um but um we hope to finish up the interviews for the director of planning and economic development this week and hopefully extend an offer to somebody. Hopefully uh they would accept. Uh and that would be great to get that done this week. Um very good. So uh and on the assistant HR director position um we have interviewed a number of candidates um and extended an offer to uh one and she has accepted and her start date and temporarily kind of still working all of that out is Tuesday the 27th. Oh my gosh. Wow. That's right. You did say the 2. Yes, it is next week. Uh, unfortunately

153it's too late for that. Oh, that's right. Yeah. So, um, so yes, here's the notification. Um, and well, we just found out today. Uh, so, um, unless you Well, if you just found out today, then we could say based on that, we could handr write it and add it and approve it, right? For sure. Okay. Um, I would like a motion that would allow us to vote in a 14-day waiver for the new assistant uh HR. And what is this person's name? Yeah. Katie Cool. Katie Cool. Yes. C O K O L. K U HL. K. Okay. So, a motion to wave the 15-day waiting period. Uh, on that. So, moved. Okay. And a second. I'll second that. All those in favor? I I um we added that to our agenda because we just found

154out. So, this is definitely where items might be added that were not expected. Correct. Absolutely. And it's important to get that. It's very important. We want to be able to start. Wonderful. Okay. And u so we are also interviewing for the assistant town planner as well with uh with the hopes that if everything line up right, we'll have a director of planning in economic development at least accepted and potentially could do some interviews as well. Second round. Nice. Nice. Okay. Great. Um and then um you yes we also has have the open open position of director of prevention and human services. Oh update on that. Sure. So we have started interviewing uh for that position as well. We interviewed a couple weeks ago and then the director was out of the office for a couple

155weeks. So we're going to start that back up um hopefully within the next week or so. And this is replacing someone who's leaving or French and there's an over there's planning to be an overlap right before she officially leaves. Yes. So Kristen is staying on um a part-time capacity to help us and also to help us with the interviews as well. Um and then hopefully there'll be a little bit of overlap and then and then um I would love to bring our newly constituted finance team in to meet the board um at a future meeting soon. Just u that'd be great. They are it's uh it's again internal promotions and we did uh hire uh Paul a new new employee uh Bill Stephanie's assistant town accountant role. So he started last week. Lot of faces.

156A lot of new faces faces faces in new positions. Um a lot of lot of new energy. Anything else I miss Katherine? But it's all budget neutral. Remind people that yes, there's new people sitting new places, but we have not added to the actually. So yeah, actually a little bit less. So um great and uh so we'll move on to the internal organizational development plan and I will turn it over to Katherine to discuss that. Thank you. So back in spring and summer of 2024, the management team had started receiving some feedback from staff, department heads, u regarding workload equity, burnout, communication. Maybe it wasn't always so clear. Um and then professional growth. People were looking for opportunities to grow. So, uh, we got together, we brainstormed ways to get to get at what we

157could do to make things better for the entire team. Uh, and so we started planning out a staff retreat. So, it turned into two staff retreats and, um, we invited all staff to both retreats. We had about, I would say, 50 employees at each um, in the fall of 2024. We held the retreats on Fridays so that way we had some um space for employees to come and and hopefully have some time that was uninterrupted as much as they could uh to participate in this. So in September of 2024 we worked uh with employees again there are about 50 attendees uh both small and large group settings. Uh we discussed and ranked our top five of the following. So we talked about why we do the work that we do. our top five workplace values

158and how we know our values are being met. And um and so that was that first meeting. We spent about two and a half hours working on that. And then in October of 2024, we came back together as a group again, had approximately 50 employees attend. Again, we worked in both small and large group settings um on translating the value statements from the September session um and put those into actionable goals and implementation steps to come up with a plan. And so from there, and I can't take credit for all of this plan, uh Jen and I worked really closely um on this and we spent a lot of time sifting through all of the data that we collected from both sessions. We really tried to be mindful of all the voices that were heard,

159all of the um statements that were made to make sure that they were included in this plan because again this is this is our organization and so we wanted to make sure that everybody's voice was heard. And so that's how we sort of put together this uh draft plan and then also an action plan which you should have in your your packet. It's I think we called it an activity chart. And so our intention uh back in the fall was to or I should say winter was to present the plan to staff earlier in the spring of 2025. However, we had some changes pop up um and some larger projects going on. So we weren't able to meet with the staff until May 16th, which was this past Friday. And so we invited all staff

160once again to get together uh and meet to present the draft plan. And again, we worked in small and large groups to collect feedback on the plan as well as the action items that we presented. Um and so we collected that data. We're going to go through that data because we want to make sure that again all of those ideas are incorporated into the plan and the activities chart. Um, and then this morning after staff that attended the meeting on 516 had some some time to sort of live with the plan, read it and review it a little bit more, we asked for feedback again just to see if there were, you know, any further comments um that they had. And so, uh, I think as of this meeting, I think we have four, you

161know, four people have responded with some some additional feedback. So, that's great. Um, and then we'll also be sending out the draft to all staff who were not able to attend with a different type of feedback form just to collect uh their feedback once they've reviewed the plan and action steps. So, in addition to their internal input that we've collected from the staff, we'll be using recommendations from um external sources. So, we're working with the Collins Center on a staffing study. Michael and I have a call tomorrow to talk to them about sort of where we're at with that study. And then we'll also be looking at community input um once the comprehensive plan is complete. Uh and then the goal is to have this organiza organizational development plan to be a living document that

162will evolve with staff feedback, expert guidance, and community needs so that we may build a comprehensive sustainable organizational development strategy. that will help us attract and retain um talented staff to convin to continue to provide high level services to the community. Yeah. And I'll just add I think um you know Katherine and Jen did a great job on the plan. Um I think uh also you know Katherine and Beth worked with me to you know facilitate things as well as uh Cindy Livingstone like our small groups. But you know, I think just it is really really special to get the group together. We don't have an opportunity to do that as staff a lot. But and gosh, a lot of things we take for granted just in our positions because we do know everybody is

163believe it or not, not everybody has opportunities to know and interact with anybody. So the benefits we get out of these um just go far beyond the reports and what you see on paper. uh the camaraderie that's built, the teamwork that's built, um the things we learn about each other. Uh we had some some fun trivia uh games as well to uh do some ice breakers um or not ice breakers, but uh just to get to know our colleagues better. But, you know, I will say um there were some some very um serious uh um points that were brought up uh during the meeting. Uh things that uh we do need to address and things that we um we need to I don't want to say address quickly, but uh we need to show progress

164that we're working on them in order to maintain I think staff morale. um ma maintain or improve staff morale um and then also en ensure that um you know people are fulfilled coming to work again you're not going to be fulfilled all the time you think that's that's and I don't think anybody's asking for that but um it is uh it was a very interesting conversation but overall very very positive I think people uh do enjoy the work that they do. They do enjoy the team. They do enjoy the people that they work with. So, that's something that to our ears, you know, it it makes us makes us happy to know that at least we have the bones in place. I think you can tell from when you look at the action items that

165um people are happy and they want they want more interconnectedness, right, with each other. Um that really came through to me. So I think the other thing that really came through is it says under responsible parties person it says K bird a lot does no but uh I do it it comes through that they're just looking for connection and that um that would build pride and in their positions and you know the workplace. So looks really good. Thank you. Other thoughts, comments? Um, yeah, I would uh piggyback on what you said, Claudia. Couple couple of comments or question. Uh, first off, this is a lot of really incredible work. So, I want to say good job so far, folks. Um, I think it's important uh for for uh our our citizens to to know that,

166you know, all the work that you're doing here in so far as morale, interconnectedness, and such directly translates into quality of service to the town. Um it is important you know to have those things in a workplace because that makes folks uh not just more motivated but um really uh well yeah more motivated to to do their jobs do them well uh and to continue uh delivering you know high value services. So I think you know a lot of folks may think oh this sounds like a lot of extra stuff and like all the warm and fuzzies it's like well there's a real uh there's a real purpose behind this. I mean, and yes, the warm and fuzzies are important, too, but but there's also an operational concern around this as well that I think

167folks need to understand uh for that that will yield positive results for everyone here in Ashland because this work is being done. Um, quick question. I I just uh want to get some clarity on the uh expected deliverables from the your work from the Colin Center. like what is after the engagement like what are you what are you hoping what is the result uh that you're looking for after the engagement and what's the deliverable there. Um so what we're basically it was a a two-stage it's a two-stage kind of process. So first of all we're looking at just some baseline comparable organizational data across departments from a number of different uh communities. Was it 18? And then from there, what we've done is and where we are right now is taking a deeper dive into

168three communities. One that um spends, you know, relatively the same size as Ashland, but spends less um than Ashland uh and that would be the town of Milford. Um one the town of Medway that spends comparably to what Ashland does and then one uh the town of Sudbury which does um which spends, you know, significantly more. And so what we want to do is we want to take a look at what services are being provided by the four communities Ashland and those three. And so is it proportional to what's being spent, right? So um you know and I guess probably not the most scientific question, but you know when you're looking at this data, what is each town getting for their dollar, right, in terms of services? Um, and I think I think we want

169to make sure that, you know, we are we are providing a good value. Um, and there's a number of different ways you can use that. Comparative data is one method, you know, that you can you can use to help gauge that or triangulate that. So, that's that's that second piece that we're kind of we're kind of stuck on right now. We're trying to figure out the way forward. Oh, who's the town that is the um spends less? Milford. So, uh, is there a completion date for the engagement? Like, we we hope to clarify a lot of that tomorrow, Makita, when we have a a call with the executive director. That sounds like really interesting and useful information for our planning. So, I'm kind of very intrigued to find out what Yeah, same here. Yeah, same

170here. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. So, quick question, just a followup on that. Like so the Collins Center um plan that we're gonna receive, do they when you say like they spend less, are you talking like total budget? Are you talking specifically for the municipal side or on a on a per capita basis? I mean, if you look at the total budget, it's not going to be well, I guess, you know, if you did look at the total budget, you'd end up kind of with the same ranking, if you will, but really, this is more like on a per capita basis. Okay. So, it's like, and it does include, I think, uh, schools when we did the calculation. So it's basically like average tax like the amount that the average taxpayer pays the amount that's spent

171amount that's spent. Okay. Which as you know is made up not only of taxpayer dollars but state aid dollars local receipts. Okay. Essentially take the budget divide the total budget divide it by the number of people. Okay. All right. Because I'm that way you can normalize it kind of equalize. Yeah. No, no. I'm just I was just curious because like we have, you know, our financial policy talks about how we how we allocate schools side and um and also it would be interesting to see these communities too, how many school age children they have because that's like a that's also a driving factor. So I I assume the Collins Center will provide a lot of that kind of background too as far as um so we can definitely fill that in. Whether it would be

172the Collins Center, you know, finding school population is pretty I just want to make sure we're like we're we're really kind of having a very open look at what it what what those numbers entail. So you want to get a full picture. Yeah, it would be helpful. Yeah. I I think just overall if we have an understanding of like methodology, I think that's what Brandy's talking about. If we could get an idea of like what what that is so that when we do get a chance to take a look at it, we know what we're looking at. We know how to analyze it. But we'd love I' I'd love to see like just what that methodology is. Um and maybe we'd all like to see a copy of of of that because Sudbury may spend

173a lot more money on schools than we do and Sure. am less on the municipal side, you know, like it just I you know, it'll be really interesting, I think, to see um because I think once you get that data, then you can also decide where you might want to do a little deeper dive. Now, obviously, we wouldn't necessarily use the Collins Center for that, but we could do that. I was going to say that some of this data is available online already through MAPC. We've u and I'm sure I think the first round utilized. Okay. because they've done so many different studies and they they collect data on a regular basis about what communities are doing. Yeah, I'll use like the the good uh IT example. Paul always threw this out and Katherine have

174a little bit more closer experience with the town of Medway than I do, but I believe so like we have five people in our IT department that supports town and schools. And I think Medway the total is like 14 between town between municipal and school. So I have a terrible memory. That was two years. Okay, that was two years ago. Go. I don't think they have that many though. Um I'm not sure what it looks like now, but Okay. I don't think there are that many, but Okay. How How do you even it out for a town that like Milford that has, you know, many more businesses and a much larger Well, hopefully their IT department's not um supporting the businesses. Well, I'm not talking about their IT department. I'm talking about overall how does

175it how do you make it compare to us? Yeah. Yeah. I'm not necessarily sure striking difference to me, right, is Milford's Well, that would probably show Well, that would show up in your tax base, right? Very different. Um, very That's something I think you'd probably want to know, right? And their budget might be, right? They could have a similar budget to us, right? But how that budget is funded, are we looking at that as well? Wouldn't it be offset by what they're raising from their businesses? Yeah, I don't Well, I mean, and that that could be important data, but you're looking at what is being spent as opposed to where the money that is being spent comes from first, which I think is probably certainly an important I think information to have, but wherever the

176money, like you got to spend the money somehow, where wherever it's coming from. Um, so that's really kind of why we're looking at service levels and what's spent. Again, we're that's a completely like the makeup of the tax base is a completely separate thing than what is being spent in what's being spent and what are you getting for it. Okay. Yeah, that's that's what it is. Again, I think if we just saw like we're we're talking about methodology here. So, like if we could just see like a write up of like, you know, how how the study was designed. I think that might answer a lot of questions that we're asking right now and then we could, you know, come back with follow-ups. But I think that's that would be helpful. But I think that

177the what you guys have put together here is great because I think it's I think 100% it does sound like that this is really bringing this staff together and it feels like people are having a voice in how um their work environment, their career development, all that stuff. So yeah, and I will say actually some of these changes that you're seeing here at the table like with just kind of the restructure really a a Part of that was based in some of the feedback that we got in the fall. People were having a hard time getting facetime with their managers. Um, with me um and we were hearing that that was something that was really really lacking. Um, and so part of the whole rationale behind the structure was to hopefully, you know, be able

178to to get us out a little bit more and just, you know, even just some quick contact. I mean, what is it? People don't people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. It's and you know it's trit and it's um maybe overused but man sometimes they're overused for a reason. It's because it's true. Good. Any other questions on the organizational plan? Moving on. Yeah. Um, so I did receive u a call from our senator, Senate President Spila, who um was successful in including uh $500,000 in um additional complete streets funding uh through the supplemental spending bill that was based specifically on transportation and education. Um so my understanding is that I um believe that might be in conference. I I don't know. I I haven't got the latest update

179but um we feel confident that we will receive something. So is the plan because I don't know six five six years ago we put a complete streets plan together. We worked with green I think to you know do that work. Yeah. So, are we like ticking stuff off of that list that this funding will help pay for or what's the plan if should it come through? Um, so you know, complete streets in this respect, it was it wasn't necessarily limited to the complete streets program, okay? But, you know, work that would help us comply with complete streets policies. Okay? Uh, we can use it for sidewalks. We could use it to tick off some of our complete streets plans or plan Yeah, we have some flexibility and it was designed that way. I'm realizing it's

180probably more than six years ago because it was before Pete was here. So, okay. So, so thank you um Senate President Spok. It's uh it is always um it's always nice when you get a call from the Senate President and you know she's got she's got good news on the other line which which she does relatively often. Good. Um and then let's see then next the pen ultimate item uh is the IMA intermunicipal agreement between the city of Framingham the town of Ashland um to do the preservation study over on wash. So just to let you know we were using CPA funds uh for that. So um I think you'll see the scope of the study. I believe we included that in your packet everything. So it's good to to move forward with that. That's

181been a long road. Now, did we This didn't get voted the last town meetings. Has this been voted before the 25? It was the 24. It was in the at the 24. All 24 we voted. Okay. I I was just I thought we had done something but Okay. Any comments or questions on this agreement? It's pretty straightforward. Okay. Um and then again, last but uh not least, uh we did want to talk about dates for a board retreat. Um, and so we've identified three Saturdays, I believe in July as options. I know we were going to try to talk to the Warren Conference Center and see if those they were available. Oh, Susan, did we have a chance to hear back from them yet? I reached out, but I haven't heard back. Okay. Um, so

182hopefully if you can let us know. So, the dates that we're looking at are either the 12th, the 19th, or the 26th of July for possible retreat. I'm not available the 19th. And I'm not available the 12th. I'm not available the 26th. Sounds like the 12th. Okay. Looks like we're looking at the 12th then. Yep. Um, what time would you want to start? Would I I would anticipate us working in the morning and going in breaking for lunch and maybe, you know, putting in another hour or two in the afternoon. How early do people like to start? 4:30. 8 nine. Not 4:30. Nine would be great. Nine would be great. Yeah. Nine o'clock. Nine o'clock. Okay. Nine to one, nine to two. Um, I would say can can we just book from 9 to 2:30?

183Not saying we would use that whole time. Okay. Um, and so July 12th, 9 to 2:30 and we're looking at potentially doing it at the conference center. Correct. Um, going back going back old school. Yeah, we haven't done that in a while. Um but I think also just thinking about the structure of this u I think you know one of the things that we have realized over the last few months especially with the FY26 budget discussions is that we have um some some fiscal pressures make uh to say it lightly um that certainly need to be a priority uh but I think we also need to look at kind of what is being done. I think we need to prioritize things. Uh just remember if you say u yes to everything that means nothing is

184important. Um and so I think you know we need to make some hard choices uh at that point. And so I think if we could spend our morning focusing on that. Um and then the second part once we have those identified the second part like in the afternoon we can start identifying what we're going to need to start having a little bit more um substantive discussions on those items. I think that would be at least the the the skeleton I guess you could say of a structure but uh certainly open to feedback. Okay. Yeah. We have further discussion about the retreat as we do have our have our June meeting. As long as we I think before we go on the retreat, as long as we can identify exactly like, you know, what what what

185our outcomes, you know, what we're expecting to accomplish that day, make sure we stick to it, whatever that is, you know, before that, that's fine. Just keep make sure that we stay on target. Yeah. Yeah. Nikita, have you ever heard of appreciative inquiry as an approach to this? No. Okay. I thought I thought if anybody sitting at the table you might you might have known this with your with your with your background but um we actually used that approach on Friday. Appreciative inquiry is a is um a way of approaching solving problems that you know the traditional model is okay what's broken how do we fix it right appreciative inquiry starts off really kind of like what are we what are we doing well like which of the projects are we doing okay how do

186we do more of that how can we take what we learn from those and how can we replicate that then yes I am familiar with okay so just a different but by by a different moniker but But um but yeah, I think you know this I think you've noticed we've built off uh previous retreats. You know these have become an iterative process and I think the last one we had it was um I enjoyed you know basically uh framing a few things for discussion and letting the board have that discussion and then providing input and providing data to help you you know facilitate that or you know that discussion. So, and I thought it worked. I thought it worked well. The feedback that we received, I think. Okay, good. Anything else, Michael? That's it. Okay.

187Uh, we have two items left in our agenda. Our board reorg and our board reports. Do we want to flip them or are we good with doing the board reorg and then the board reports? Either or. Doesn't matter. Okay, let's do it. We have 16 minutes before 10:00. I don't think we're gonna get it all done by then. I don't think so. Okay. Um, let's flip it. Let's flip. Let's do board reports and then we'll do the board reorgan and finish it off. Yes. Okay. Makita. Well, uh, let's see. Uh, just want to say a couple things really quick. First off, again, thank you so much to town clerk and team and volunteers. Democracy starts in your backyard. I am very, very appreciative of the citizens who took the time to vote. in yesterday's election

188and also participate in town meeting. Uh let's keep that going folks. Um also looking forward to having our uh select board uh u I think not open house but like what do we the uh at the farmers market? What do we call it? Office hours. Yes. Office hours. Yes. Yes. So I'm looking forward to doing that this summer. It's uh it's going to be a busy one and I think uh I am very encouraged by seeing the kind of participation that we've seen leading up to town meeting and hopefully that will continue. So uh yeah, that's all I've got. Okay. So, Claudia, yeah, I don't I guess I haven't been doing much, but so I don't have much to say except that I would certainly uh second Aita's comments in terms of uh all the

189hard work that goes into having a town election and all the people that came out to vote. Um, and I was really happy to see that we ended up with u the planning board positions filled. Um certainly happy to have you both back with us. So thank you and it's been a busy uh it's been a busy time for everybody and so that's it for me. Okay, Joe. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh first and foremost, I would just like to thank everybody uh that came out yesterday uh to vote, express their democ democracy at at its finest. And um I appreciate the support. I I appreciate the campaign that was done with Brandy and with Carlton. Um they're very professionally done. Um it's always nice to see that people have integrity when you run for

190office and not have to rely on negativity, but this was a positive u uh campaign for for all three of us and I really appreciate the fact and um I was thankful for Kent to to remind us of that and do the things that we needed to do. So I wish him while he's still on the affordable housing trust. So I will be seeing him and we will continue working. Um next week there is a uh a brown greaking ceremony uh at 487 uh Main Street and it's an actually an affordable house that's being built through uh Habitat for Humanity uh with the with the work of the town and approval of the town. So I believe that's Thursday if I'm not mistaken. Yes. So uh hope you can make it. Uh I did send

191something along to all of you. So, I hope that I hope you have the opportunity to be there. And tomorrow, um we have the uh uh roadway traffic safety committee. Um a lot of the topics that we discussed tonight will be discussed at that that meeting. And I just want to make people aware that uh one of the topics that will be discussed um is the potentially the potential of private roads being gated off. And that's something that we need to be aware of because that's definitely going to cause some concerns and some issues safety wise and road rate reconstruction wise if this especially if they're private roads that are being gated off that we then plow and and well so I right now I know there's many years ago there was a memorandum of

192understanding. I don't want to get into the this big get into the details, but I just want to say that, you know, we're working on it and hopefully it'll there'll be a a positive resolution instead of something that's going to be u blown out of the water. Anyway, so with that, that's what we have. And again, thank you everybody and u I'm happy to be back to and yes, it is this is my last this is my last term. I just want to let you know it's already done. It's already done. No, no, I may have said it. No, no. age becomes a factor, you know, and I want to watch my grandson play baseball. So, yeah, that's gonna be a lot. Great. Yeah. So, that's it. Thank you, Randy. Um, so, uh, I just

193want to echo everything that that Joe said about the election. Thank you to everybody that came out. Thank you to the town clerk's office, um, and all the volunteers. It was a great it was a great yet cold cold, um, day. And so, everyone that came out to hold signs Bill Bill Gath is is Joe's uh number one number one supporter. So it's it's always really good to have people come out and I you know there um a contested election is a is makes us all a little bit better. So um and thank you to Yolanda and and Wacka for hosting um the candidates forum which I thought was a really good discussion. Um there's been a lot going on with this election. So um the last thing I will say is thank God it's

194over. So um other than that, we've been very involved in the in the comprehensive plan the last week. Um we've had two long meetings. Um last Thursday we met. Um Yolanda had facilitated the the group and did a great job. Um and then we had our consultant come this past Monday and we went for three hours on Monday and um we are almost done with our strategies that we have um kind of called out and evolved a bit and um soon very soon we will get into the drafting mode of a comprehensive plan and um with the hope that this will be in good shape by like September. So, um that is the goal. So, like you know with with this to go to town meeting in November. So, more to come on that. Um

195I will I put a note here to send out information on select board office hours to all you guys because I never did send that email. Um, so that's on my to-do list. And um, next Friday I am going to be joining um, a lot of volunteers and uh, the class of 2025 at the reality fair um, again this year and this is um, near and dear to my heart because this is my son's class year. So um, no tears. No tears. A little tears. A few tears maybe. not next Friday, but um I will be part of the um the charity and community service booth and talking about all the good stuff that um that we can do as a community to make a difference. So these kids leave Ashland and continue to to

196give back. Um so I'm looking forward to that. Student council runs that and they do a great great job. So, um, and we'll meet again before graduation and then I'll have some tears. But, so, but that's that's it. My household is a crazy place these days, so, but all is good. So, I can't complain. I just need some I just need some sleep. So, good. You need sleep last night after the No, no, last night I was I was Yeah. No, I went to bed at 9:00 last night. Nine o'clock I was done. Nine o'clock. It's been been a long week. A couple couple of things. As Brandy mentioned, I've been sitting in the comp plan meeting. We had two nights. Uh it was very interesting being asked to facilitate as our um consultant couldn't

197be there. Uh and I really enjoyed working with the group to get people to have a discussion. So that was a good very busy two nights. Uh tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. I will be in Welssley for an in-person Metro West Regional Collaborative meeting. What's interesting is Mark Drezen who is the current chair head, chair, president, I forget what his title is for the MAPC is actually retiring sometime in June. So, this will be one of his last in-person events with our collaborative. Um, always good discussion with the other select board planning board members from the 10 communities that are part of the MA of the Metro West Regional Collaborative. As Brandy said, I had almost forgotten Friday I will also be at the reality fair. I had previously done their budget booth but last

198year a past student created a civic engagement booth and to on this Friday so it's myself, Michael, uh Jack Lewis and then his aid and then an aid from Senator Spila's office and we're looking to have some mini debates either with the students or in front of the students to sort of talk about different things and show them how they can get involved. One of the big things we started last year was getting them to vote and we actually had a QR code for kids who hadn't voted or had not registered. So, that will also be one of the things that we're doing. Um, if you would allow me to indul indulge just for a couple of minutes. So, I want to thank the board. It's been a crazy full productive year from last May

199to this May. I want to thank you for having been allowed to be the chair. Uh, I remember when I was considering whether or not I was going to run for another term and I had a number of people say to me, "We need you to stay on." I'm glad so far that I have. I know I have two more years, but it's always a little bittersweet when you step down as chair from having that one role and now part of a member. And my goal has always been that even though I have the title of chair, it's not my board, it's not my decisions, it's the full group. And I hope that that's what I've been able to give all of you this past year. Full participation and full and I know it didn't

200always happen, but that's that was my goal. There was two projects that I hoped to finish this past year that just did not get past and over that finish line that I look to finish working on the how we do a reappoints for committees and the volunteers that we appoint. It it's one of those things that we had some really good momentum and then life got in the way for both Makita and I and then also Claudia and I had talked about trying to change the evaluation process that we do for Michael and again different things and certainly this past spring with positions and people leaving that didn't happen. So my goal is to continue working on that and again just thank you for this opportunity. Thank you to the community for supporting me in

201this role and I look forward to supporting the next chair and vice chair. So, thank you. And that moves us to our last item on the agenda, which is our board reorg. Uh, so we need someone to be nominated for chair, vice chair, and secretary. So, I guess I will I will say this. So generally the way that we work for anyone who's watching and doesn't know is we rotate. So the chair the chair position in in general um obviously runs our meetings um works to put together our agenda for these meetings. Um and also responds to the public the emails that come in to the select board email. Um the chair responds because open meeting law prohibits um them from or for all of us to be basically participating in that in that process.

202So um and it's it's an organizational job. It's a lot of it's a lot of work. Um but we generally have the chair for a year because we rotate. So last year when um when Yolanda had um was was next up to be chair um we had all talked about um my being vice chair for this year which I did when it's been a great year. Um Joe was next in line to be chair and so um I think that if Joe is um amendable to it, I think that I would love to nominate Joe Manyani as our next chair of the select board for this next year. Well, that's up to Joe. It's up to me. Huh. Well, I I I appreciate that and I I would be more than willing to uh try

203to fill the shoes that Yolanda did. She did a great job this year and I'm sorry that I did not acknowledge that during my board reports. That's okay. Don't worry. Do not do apologize, Joe. No, it's it's it was welld deserved and I apologize for not even bringing that up in my mind. So, anyway, yes, I would be happy to accept that. Then I will second it. Okay. All those in favor of Joe becoming chair for the next year. I I thank you. That passes, uh, we now need a nomination for vice chair. Um, someone So, so I'll follow up with what Brandy said. So, uh, had we done the regular rotation, I would have been chair, Joe would have been vice chair, Brandy would have been clerk. Um, so would you would you I'd

204like to nominate Brandy. I was going to say, can we entertain doing that? Yep. And with the we have to allow you can nominate her to be vice chair with the allowance that she can see been be in the same role for two years. For two years, right? Yep. Is that scenile? Yep. If I can get a second. Second. Okay. All those in favor of Brandy being vice chair and allowing to bypass the role of only being in one role. Okay. And then we need a nomination for clerk. Nominate Claudia Bennett. Okay. In favor of Claudia becoming clerk for the next year. I Okay. Thank you. We have a new slate. Uh Joe, if you'd like to close us out. No, I think I'll I'll let that I'll reserve that for you. I'll reserve that

205for you because Okay, then that's the right thing to do. It's just 9:59, so we don't have to go past 10 o'clock. Uh, thank you all. If I meet and and just one quick thing, thank you, William. I appreciate that. So, remember the the flamingos that you see are for Joe's birthday. So, happy birthday, Joe. Happy birthday, Joe. Is today your actual birthday? No. No. Okay. Memorial Day. Memorial Day. Celebrates for Yeah, I guess. Well, you know, some people celebrate for a month. So, there we go. Birthday month. Okay. Happy birthday, Joe. And thank you, Yolanda. Absolutely. Thank you. You're all welcome. If I can get a motion to adjurnn. So moved and second. All those in favor? I Thank you all. Uh that closes our meeting for Wednesday, May 21st. Our next meeting is

206Wednesday, June 4th. Uh have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and see you in June. Batten down the hatches. No kidding. For sure. All right.