001officer of this legislature. I believe that part of my job is also to ensure that those here in attendance understand what is going on. I'll do my best to explain anything out of the ordinary. If at any time you have a question about something, please ask as there is likely there are likely others with the same question. I'll be guided in running town meeting by the absolute brand fourth edition of town meeting time. Make sure you all get your copies. Town council was goated into buying a hard cover copy. I got the soft cover. Uh published by the mass moderators association. Generally recognized as the authoritative guide to running town meetings in Massachusetts. Joining me at the front of the auditorium are members of the school committee, members of the select board, members of the
002finance committee, town council Lisa Meade, town manager Michael Herbert, soon to be former assistant town manager Jen Ball, treasurer, collector, finance director Cindy Sincada, and Ashlin APS superintendent Jim Adams. With me on stage back there are town clerk Cindy Livingstone and Deputy Town Clerk Chris Sullivan. This meeting is being broadcast live and recorded for later rebroadcast on WACA TV. Welcome to those watching us. When you checked in this evening, you received a green index card or piece of paper. It is important that you hang on to this card as you will not be able to vote without it. Because votes will be counted based on the display of cards, non- voters may sit anywhere in the auditorium. I will generally be able to determine the results of each vote by a simple show of cards.
003In the event I am unable to do so, we have tellers that will perform the actual count. Tonight's tellers have already been sworn in. Please ensure that you have turned all cell phones and other electronic devices to mute. If you must take or make a phone call during these proceedings, please leave the auditorium to do so. The warrant that was posted and from which we are working tonight constitute a notice or warning to all voters of what we will discuss tonight. Town meeting can only take action within the scope of an article on the posted warrant. Similarly, any discussion is also limited to the scope of the articles on the posted warrant. I agree. Town meeting acts on motions. If there isn't a motion before town meeting, no action, including discussion, can take place. To
004allow for discussion, I will entertain a motion and a second for that motion after each article has been introduced and explained, but before discussion commences. Once a motion has been made and seconded, it is subject to amendments from the floor. The procedures for amending an article are listed at the back of your handbook in a section titled selected town meeting procedures. If you have a question or comment during discussion of an article, make your way to one of the two microphones in the front and wait to be recognized. After being recognized, please state your name and address and direct all your remarks to the moderator. Please keep your comments brief and ensure they relate directly to the article being discussed. If you are unable to get to one of the microphones, please raise your hand
005and I will have a microphone brought to you when it's your turn to speak. To ensure that we can hear from the greatest number of people, each speaker will be limited to one three-minute turn of the microphone during discussion of each article. Frequency limits will not apply to discussion of the annual budget, but the time limit will. If you are responding to a question, please do so through the moderator. There should be no direct discussion between parties at town meeting. All debate is to be conducted in a respectful and courteous manner. No comments of a personal nature are to be made. Rude behavior, especially shouting, bullying, and personal attacks will not be tolerated. Anyone unwilling or unable to comply with this rule will be removed. I'd also ask everyone to refrain from applause and similar
006outbursts during discussions. Our journals fine. We have 20 articles in the warrant tonight, which is more than we typically have at annual town meeting. My plan is to complete the warrant tonight and I'll do my best to keep things moving along, but ultimately the length of town meeting is up to those of you in the auditorium. Some announcements. May is mental health awareness month. Despite recent strides in how our society approaches mental well-being, many Americans still don't have access to the highquality, comprehensive treatment and care they need. In fact, a former US surgeon general called mental health the public health crisis of our time. Across the country during May, individuals and organizations will step up to raise awareness of the of and help address the challenges faced by people living with mental health conditions. This
007year's theme is turn awareness into action with a goal of celebrating the progress we've made and recognizing the importance of mental health and challenge us to turn understanding into meaningful steps towards change. You can learn all about the programs and services that Ashlin offers by visiting ashamass.com and going to the link for the town's department of prevention and human services. Annual town elections are two weeks from yesterday on May 20th. As always, I'm predicting a beautiful day with nothing but sunny skies on election day. So, I'd urge everyone to get out the vote and when you do, take your neighbor or two with you. Everyone votes here at the high school and polls are open from 8 to 8 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Inerson early voting will be held Wednesday, May 14th, next Wednesday from
0088:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at town hall. You may also apply for a vote by mail ballot by 5:00 p. p.m. May 13th if you are unable to be at the polls on election day. The deadline to register to vote is this Friday at 5:00 pm. Final announcement. There are two vacancies on the finance committee. One is an immediate opening for a term that runs through June 30th of next year and one for a full three-year term beginning July 1st. If you are interested in serving, please complete a talent bank form at the town's website. I aim to fill the immediate vacancy as soon as possible. So, please get your talent banks in talent bank forms in. Modiator's motion. The moderator's motions are listed in your handbook on page four. They are the same standard
009motions that we approve each town meeting. So, I'll ask to address them as a group. Do I have a motion to approve the moderator's motions one, two, three, and four as printed in the handbook? Is there a second? All in favor, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed. That passes, but not unanimously. On to our business for the night. Article one here town reports. We have three reports tonight. First is a report from the comprehensive plan committee. And please feel free to turn the microphone around so you don't feel like you're facing or take it down. That's fine, too. Take it down and turn around. You said you just pull it up. Pull forward. I see. And then turn around you. Yeah, just whatever you're more comfortable doing. Okay. Thank you all. Um I'm
010Rajes Shri Kosh and I've lived in Ashlin since 2006 and I've served on several committees and community groups. Currently I'm one of the two co-chairs of the comprehensive plan steering committee. The other is Stacy Grant. She's right here and she'll talk about it in a little bit. This committee comprises 29 representatives from town committees, two members from the select board, two members from the planning board, and representatives from six precincts. I represent precinct 5. Together, we form the comprehensive plan steering committee. We meet every third Thursday of a month. U the meetings are hybrid and it's open to the public. Our agenda minutes are all available on the town website. Our role as co-chairs has been to enhance the committee's effectiveness through developing agenda, coordinate between members and meetings between town officials and consultants, moderate
011discussions, and encourage follow through of action items. An unsaid part of our role is also to ensure that everyone on the committee is heard and seen. The comprehensive plan was named envision Ashland by residents of Ashland and it is a forwardfacing plan and will provide a roadmap for the future growth, preservation and change. Our consultants are our technical professionals. They are our partners in the plan. Jamelson provide us with directions for broad and intentional outreach. They designed what's called the POP. We all like acronyms. public engagement and outreach plan. They developed a website where they regularly update the phases of the plan. The first phase was all about familiarizing with Ashland. Phase two of Envision Ashland aimed to determine the community community's aspiration for the town's future. They implemented three engagement tools through the winter
012and spring of 2024 to understand the community members hope what community members hope Ashlin will look and feel like in 10 years. As part of PR, community members were trained in tools such as meeting in a box to generate community conversation and a web-based crowd map platform to collect placebased suggestions. Members of the committee reached out to residents for their inputs. We showed up in every town event, athletic fields, coffee shops, dragonfly festival, farmers market, committees, boards. We even entered homes of people. We were everywhere. And we were glad about that because we surpassed our engagement goals as a deliverable aggregated community engagement summary was developed and shared with the residents. Last summer, JMG facilitated a workshop with the steering committee to draft the vision, core themes, and goals. Throughout the workshop, community members along
013with committee members had the opportunity to receive and give feedback. These sessions were critical and allowed us to reflect on Ashland's collective priorities regarding demographics, e economic conditions, open spaces, municipal facilities, land zoning, and so on. Once the vision, core themes, and goals were drafted, surveys were sent out to the public for additional output. In December 24, technical working sessions brought together residents with technical expertise along with town officials, department managers, and local board and committee members to determine a list of preliminary strategies. The strategies are tactical actions that we would look to do to meet our larger goals. Thank you, Rajri. As she mentioned, I'm Stacy Grant Lewis. I'm also the co-chair of the steering committee. Um, she spoke about what we've done so far and I'm here to just chat about what we're
014doing currently and in the future. So, I've been here s in since 2018, the end of 2018. I'm also the chair of the Ashlin Cultural Council. And as you've just heard, we've come a long way in understanding what matters most to you guys, to our residents. Right now, we're in the crucial phase of refining the strategies that will guide Ashlin's growth over over the next decade. This means taking all the feedback we've received from students to seniors, longtime residents to newcomers, and ensuring that the plan reflects a balance of priorities. So, sustainability, infrastructure, economic economic opportunity, housing, and preserving what makes Ashland unique, including our history and our culture. To do this, we have used JMG's consultant, Jen Goldston, and her team. Um, we've employed a subcommittee who's done the hard work of parsing through
015pages of strategies to make recommendations that made the process smoother. And we've really lent on each other of our 29 committee members who are entirely volunteer-based but quite experts in their fields including Roberto Schulman, um, Chuck Litz, um, Kyra Hume. There are a lot of people who are very devoted to this town. So, it's empowering to see that. So over the next few weeks, we'll continue narrowing down the short list that is based on the input of residents, town departments, and technical experts. Our goal is to make this plan not only visionary, but actionable, something that leads to real improvements in the lives of our residents. We welcome everyone to stay engaged as we finalize the strategies and begin moving into implementation planning later this year. After the strategies are finalized, we'll begin to draft
016the actual plan. This will be done based on your inputs and the expertise of the committee members and the consultant. This the goal is to have this plan finished by this fall and bring it all back to you at town meeting this November. We know that at times this process has felt tedious, filling out long surveys, attending workshops, letting us into your houses, um reviewing material. But every bit of input has helped shape a future that truly reflects who we are and what we value as a town. The vision we're finalizing now is one rooted in equity, opportunity, and belonging. A road map for an Ashlin where residents of all ages and backgrounds can thrive through every stage of life. As we near the finish line, we're deeply grateful to everyone who has contributed, especially
017our volunteer committee members. And we warmly welcome all residents to join us at our meetings which as Reesri mentioned happen on the third Thursdays each month. Your voice continues to matter. Thank you so much for your time. [Applause] Next up is the school committee and uh Superintendent Adams will be giving remarks for the school committee. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Is this okay if I sit back? Can everyone hear me this way? So it's not perfect. The PowerPoint. Is that Michael? Thank you. Thank you. We can skip right to the third slide. I'll make this quick uh as I recognize 20 warrant articles is a lot to get through in an evening, but I think it's I apologize for the way this is looking here. So, but that's fine. Uh I I think it's important with
018the opportunity just to talk a little bit about the Ash public schools and where we are uh and what we've been doing in the past uh year and a half. Uh, I think it's time we finally feel like we're out of the COVID era, if you will, uh, and moving forward with with our strategic objectives, uh, where we're focused, uh, each and every day on doing what is best for all kids within our district. And as you can see up there, and I will not read them to you, but we are focused on four major areas as we continue to move our district forward academically. Uh as we continue to look forward for opportunities for equity, of of opportunity for all of our students in the district, uh and being very thoughtful and cognizant of
019the resources that we have uh and the resources that we need as we continue to grow as a community. Next slide, Michael, please. So, I want to just highlight a few things and and again, I'm I'm not going to read them all to you, and it's hard to see. I can certainly tell as you can see, uh people call this the new high school still. Uh it's 20 years old. Uh for those who who are new to the community, and uh we are certainly having issues with some of our technology and uh I apologize for that. But this being said, uh we are a district now of about 2900 students, preK through 12. Uh we have numerous special education in-house programs we've created. Uh this is my 16th year here in Ashland. Uh 11th as
020the superintendent and and I can say I'm really proud of of how we've built programming in our district to accommodate all of our students and to do the best we can. Sometimes it's it's challenging for us to to educate all of our students, but we are a public school system and that is our mandate and that's what we will continue to do. Uh we are approximately 21% of our students are on IEPs. Uh 7% of our students are identified as English language learners. That's a significant number. It's over 200 students. To give you a frame of reference, when I started in 16 years ago, we had less than 30 students who were identified uh as English language learners. Of this um population of 2,900 students, I always think it's interesting. We have about 28% of
021those students who live in condominiums or apartment complexes. Uh it's it's a pretty significant number. Uh and it's one of if you look at communities surrounding us, you can go to Actton um you know that's another community that has a large condominium and apartment complexes. Um and and it you know we we have a lot of students that come from from those um living arrangements. 40 languages are spoken within our district of our students. 40 different languages. I think when we look at our academic excellence, we tend to always look at the high school. Uh, and rightfully so, uh, it's what many communities would call the flagship of a community. And we've been fortunate within this district to have an outstanding high school. Uh but it it starts with the prek and the elementary schools
022and the middle schools uh middle school uh in in getting our students prepared to be at the high school. Um the highlighted uh in bold up there I I wanted to mention this. We gave 450 advanced placement exams. So that's those are college level classrooms that our students are are engaged in. 450 exams in 28 subject areas with 91% passing uh of a three a score of three or higher, which means they get credit when they go on to college for those classes. That ranks 20th out of 290 high schools in the Commonwealth. Pretty impressive. And you know, the high school was honored as an AP school of distinction. uh we continue to work, you know, uh on our mental health and our social emotional learning. I think it's uh it's evident that we need
023to um continue that effort. Music programming. Uh we don't talk enough about our arts programs and our music programs, but you can see up here how well our students perform uh out in in the Commonwealth. I think it's important that it's middle and high school, right? So, we're we're starting next year to have more opportunities at the Mendes School, grades three through five, which is important for our music programming. And then athletics. Uh, you know, we tend to in most high schools around the country think about our athletic programs at the high school level as being the, you know, the beall, the endall of of a high school career. I I tend not to think that way. Uh, but we do have outstanding uh opportunities for our students to participate in athletics and they perform
024quite well. So I'm going to conclude by next last slide Michael we have over this is these are just it's hard to read and I apologize again but what I want to emphasize is this over 200 colleges and universities in the past year uh have accepted our students this year we are sending students to Harvard Dartmouth Cornell John's Hopkins UMass Holy uh a variety of schools across Cal Berkeley, across the country, Syracuse, we got them all. St. Michaels, you know, we got a couple St. Mike's grads up here. So, um but but what I'm what I'm trying to get at is our students are prepared when they leave here. And that is a credit to this community for supporting our schools uh and our educators pre-K through 12, preparing them to be successful. Thank you,
025Mr. Moderator. Hope it wasn't over three minutes. Thank Thank you, Mr. Adams. I feel like even these glasses didn't help. Uh, our final report is from town manager Michael Herbert. M. Mr. Town Manager, the budget one? No, the regular one. Are you going to pass on that one? You Okay. The quickest town report you'll ever hear. And because and and because it's baseball season, we're going to start the evening off with a curveball. After some discussion uh about article two, we we came to the conclusion that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to transfer funds from a general stabilization fund into the general budget, the general fund to support a budget that hasn't been approved yet. So, I'm going to ask for a motion to put article two on the table. The intent
026will be to bring it back right after we approve the budget. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor of tableabling article 2, please raise your green cards. Thank you. And opposed. That passes unanimously. Article three, transfer from the special education stabilization fund to the general fund sponsored by the town manager and finance director to see if the town will transfer $300,000 from the special education stabilization fund to the general fund or pass any vote or take any action relative there too. The finance comm finance committee recommends the town so vote. Mr. Herbert. Uh thank you, Mr. Moderator, and uh good evening everyone. Thank you for spending a Wednesday night with us. Um, as the moderator has uh noted, this is a transfer from the special education stabilization fund in
027the amount of $300,000. Uh, this is being used to help balance the FY26 budget. Um, one of the primary uh drivers uh in uh some of our costs uh for the town um are related to some of the out of district special education costs. So, um, this is necessary to, uh, help maintain a balanced budget and, uh, maintain our commitment to our kids. Thank you, Mr. Herbert. To allow discussion, I'll entertain a motion that the town transfer $300,000 from the special education stabilization fund to the general fund. Do I have such a motion? Discussion. Come up to a microphone. We can't hear you from back there. Well, come up to the microphone, tell us who you are, and then you can ask me to ask him. Hi. Um, I'm Penny Black and I live in
028Ashland. Um, I'm concerned about $300,000 when I think about the importance of spe special special education and I'm wondering if we have fewer special ed kids and that's why we can go down or are the teachers saying that they want less money. This is going the other way. It's increasing funding to special educ. It's coming from the special education fund to move into the general fund to fund special education. I didn't understand. Could you explain it one more time, Mr. Herbert? Sure. Um, it's actually a good question. So, what we do each year, um, in the fall when we get what's known as our free cash appropriation is we take some of that money and put it in this special education stabilization fund. So when we do in incur some larger out of district special
029education costs, we've got savings built up that we can use to help educate them. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Anything further? Because this involves removing money from a stabilization fund. This will require a twothirds vote. We'll start with cards. All those in favor of the motion article 3, please raise your cards. Thank you. and opposed. That passes unanimously. Article four, fiscal year 2026 budget sponsored by the town manager finance director to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate from available funds and or transfer from available funds in the treasury. Such sums of money as are necessary to defay charges and expenses of the town, including debt and interest for the ensuing fiscal year or pass on your vote or take any action relative there too. I've made some changes this year
030and I'm providing both the school committee and town manager with a few minutes to make comments on the budget before we hear from the finance committee. First up is the school committee and again Superintendent Adams. Thank you. Thanks Mike. Go to the next slide please. I want to be really clear on on our process. Uh, as I stated, this is my 16th year, 11th as superintendent, and this to me was the most challenging budget environment that we've been faced with since I've been in Ashland. And the the depth of conversation between the Ashland School Committee, the select board, and the finance committee was at an all-time high. We met two times as a as a tri board. We met two additional times with just the select or with the school committee and then we had
031numerous meetings with our administrative team and certainly I I believe that our budget has continuously been um conservative in nature but trying to meet the needs of our community and our students. Uh that's this is what drives us our guidelines. Uh, I believe in presenting a fiscally responsible budget and I believe in making sure all of our students uh and our faculty and staff in this community get the education uh resources that are deserved. Michael, please. I think context is important. We have 379 employees, 221 teachers. We spend about $16,240 per child in Ashland for education. Next, we are asking for a 5.95% increase over fiscal year 25. So, our budget is 44,350,743 is what we proposed and finance committee, select board, and school committee agreed upon. Next, again, context is important. One might think
032it's only $44 million, but our actual budget is closer to $49 million. It's hard to see. Again, I apologize. It's that's a 48 up there. We have a lot of funding through grants, federal funds. Uh certainly that is a conversation within um the country right now. What will happen to uh the US Department of Education? what will happen to federal grant funds such as title one which is used to to fund in our case three teachers positions. Um so an additional $4 million over time using revolving accounts which we'll get to as well as um grants entitlement funds. Michael please. Thank you. This is really difficult to read. Uh but I I wanted to show with share and this is all online. Everything's posted. You can you can see this for yourself. But what I
033I highlight a few things in yellow I and and orange down below. I I think it's important to understand that we have we have five unions that we negotiate contracts, cost of living wages, uh steps and lanes based on experience. Uh and then we anticipate certain retirements throughout the year. It's not like you can replace always replace folks who are at the top end of their their salary scale scale with someone coming right out of college because I I'll tell you hiring a physics teacher is really difficult. Uh and and we don't have a lot of physics teachers coming directly out of college uh with bachelor's degrees. They've they've got masters or doctorates and and that's just the way uh the budgeting works. But in orange, you'll notice we have a we have approximate savings
034of 489,000 in staffing this year. That's that's a result of 13 less staff we'll have next year because of retirements, because of non-replacement of positions, and because of cuts that we've made. What I want to emphasize is we have not cut positions that will impact students in the classroom. They could be administrative positions which we have we have reduced as well. Uh and andor positions that we've had in previously that we've we no longer need because of the need of the students. Um and the last thing is transportation. Transportation's increasing by about $776,000 in the operating budget because last year we took $776,000 of our transportation revolving account. We charged $300 to use the bus. We use those funds to offset transportation costs and last year we used the revolving account. We can't do that
035continuously or we won't have the the revenue um to pay for it. Next slide. Student enrollment we're staying pretty flat in red 28 303 31. That doesn't include you saw the number earlier the prek is not included in that number. That's why the number I showed earlier has the prek. There is a bump in a couple years. Uh looking down at 2728 um about 2,800 kids K through 12. Next, please. Thanks, Mike. We talk about value. This is what we spend. $16,240 per child. This is where we land when we're looking at across the state, the tri our metro west area. and uh like districts, if you will, that this the state says are similar demographics to us. We're still at the bottom of the list in terms of what we spend per pupil. Significant.
036Next, please. To answer the question about special education, it was a great question. And the reason why we're asking for that $300,000 transfer is you can see the cost of special education out of district students. Students that that we've are not able to educate in our community no matter what programs we've created. We might have students who have to be uh in school for the blind or school for the deaf. We don't have those types of programming. Well, they're costly because there's transportation involved. There's se schools that are residential sometimes. So, as you can see, our numbers have gone down, but the cost is up about 20%. So, private residential schools or private special education schools are not subject to that 2 and a half% tax base or rate increase that communities are uh you
037know um subject to. And I think the next slide might be it. So revolving accounts, we talk about how are we spending the money that comes in school choice funding. So we have students who come into Ashlin who are school choice students. We take we can use those funds to help offset our budget. So as you can see, we're anticipating using $3.3 million of revolving accounts next year. school choice building rental circuit breaker is reimbursement for special education costs for students who are out of district. It's not a full reimbursement. It's a partial reimbursement. So, we got to be, you know, it's really complex. Uh, and I don't have time to explain it, but if you ever want to know, swing by my office and we can sit and talk. Uh, and our revenues are
038starting to decrease. School choice revenues. We had this number of years ago. We stopped adding school choice seats because our growth was significant here and we didn't have room. We're adding more seats back in now, but that doesn't mean they're going to be filled. So, as you can see, we're going from 5.5 million FY25 balance down to 4.5. Extrapolate that out in a couple more years and those revolving accounts are gone. And that means cuts will occur because school choice is funding eight 10 teacher positions. And listen, I this is the I'm never a doom and gloom type of person. I'm actually a pretty positive individual. Um, but as we continue to look forward to the future, and that's part of my job is to where do we land in the future and what are
039we going to invest in? Uh, everything in orange happens to be a capital issue for our community, whether they're boilers, keeping the pitaway warm, uh, building from 1927, sometimes things break, uh, roofs, uh, modular replacements. If you remember 10 years ago, actually it was 11 years ago, we we purchased modulars at the Warren School because our growth enrollment, those were modulars were meant for five years. We're 11 years in now, folks. Chromebook replacement, student management software. You can get an idea about $12.6 million of additional capital items that just the school side of things. And you know, it's it's it's a challenge for sure. I think that was it, Michael. So, but I want to end by just saying from a budgetary standpoint, I I'm really thankful to be in the community I'm in. And
040this community has supported the Ashlin Public Schools uh and our budget. Again, for my 11 years as superintendent, everyone has been supportive of what we're doing, and I and I couldn't be uh more thankful to this community, to Michael, to the select board, to the finance committee, and the school committee for continuing to advocate for our youth and and building the programs that we have and need. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Adams. Mr. Herbert. Thank you, Mr. moderator. You know, each year I keep on saying I'm going to not drive and try to present at the same time, but uh here we are. How's that working out for you? It's not working out too well. Um but thank you very much. Um yeah, good evening everybody. Um Michael Herbert, town manager, and uh I'm
041here also to talk about the FY26 budget. And I want to start off just echoing a lot of what uh Superintendent Adams comments were. Um and I'll start off with uh really the more positive piece which is really the level of collaboration that we experience here in this community between uh boards, committees and staff volunteers is really one of the I I would say the primary thing that makes this community successful. the things that you see happening in town now are built upon a spirit of collaboration, a spirit of creativity, a spirit of can do. Um, and that's the positive piece because generally I like try to take an optimistic stance towards things. But um also as Superintendent Adams said, this has been the most challenging budget year that I've experienced in my 10 years
042as town manager and my 12 years um in this town. Before I was town manager, I was also the finance director. And you know, when you get into budget challenges, there are two ways you can address those. And you hear those constantly. You either have you either increase revenues or you cut expenses. You know, this year for the FY26 budget, we're looking at significant financial challenges um to the tune of actually $2.7 million using $2.7 million in one-time funds uh to balance the the general fund budget this year. 2.7 million out of an $82 million budget. And what do I mean by one-time funds? Uh I'll get into a little bit of detail about what those are, but one-time funds is revenue or uh money that you have that you do not get on a
043recurring basis. They're savings, if you will. So, if you uh if you liken it to your household budget, you know, the money you put in your savings account, the money that you save, you keep that for a rainy day. You know, if you put a $100 into your savings account and you need to use that the following year, guess what? You don't have that $100 the year after. So, if you have a deficit driving the need for that $100, you either need to address that def you have to address that deficit or find $100 somewhere else or you have to make the cuts somehow. Um, and what we've done here in Ashland, again, using collaboration and creativity, we've been able to find a way to make things work. But quite frankly, folks, I'm out of
044silver bullets. Uh, we've done things like move to the GIC. We've uh which saves us which has saved us over $8 million since the time that we moved. We have consolidated positions. Uh we have consolidated like our IT department. We actually share that with the with the school department as well. We're one of the few communities in Massachusetts that do that. Most communities, the schools in the municipality side have their own IT departments. Um and we're very fortunate that we have an excellent IT director and staff here who makes it work because that's what we have to do. But again, folks, the silver bullet, um, the silver bullets are all gone. Um, like I said, this approach is unsustainable. Um, and if we do not see revenue increases in FY27, we will look at drastic
045service reductions and potential bond rating downgrades, which in turn increases our borrowing costs, which are things that you borrowing costs are things that you have to pay for through your taxes. So the more it costs us to borrow, the more your tax money goes towards debt service and not for services. So that's a very very important point. But I before I move on to the next slide and really I'm just going to concentrate on two things. Number one, this one-time revenue that we're using and just kind of paint a picture for you of what that looks like after a few years. Um, oh, thank you. The slide is not up. Um, fortunately it's just me talking so we're in good shape. Um, see, I can even go on to the next slide. Um, but, uh,
046but yeah, I'm going to focus on the onetime revenues. And then I'm also going to start focusing on the things that we're not able to do to provide the services that we need to do. These are are not extras. These are base level service um, expectations that we can't meet uh due to budgetary considerations. And before I move on, I'm going to ask you one question. I'm going to ask you what just put yourself in the position when you make a call to DPW or, you know, the fire department or you try to go pay a bill at town hall and not being able to get the service or the response that you need, not necessarily that you expect, but that you need. I want you to put yourself in that position and think about
047that. And I'm not trying to do fear-mongering or anything. That is the reality that we are facing, folks. That is the reality that we are facing. Um, one-time funds. Uh, this is a little hard to read too because of my great shadow, uh, shadowing technique. Um, I will not say this is about technology. This is all about my presentation skills, my PowerPoint skills. But these are some of the onetime funds that we're using to balance the budget this year. um 300,000 in the sped stabilization fund um 150,000 in overlay surplus and we're actually very very grateful to the uh board of assessors for releasing that and allowing us to use it to balance the budget. But then we're also using 2.2 million of our stabilization fund. That's our rainy day fund folks. 2.2 million. We
048have a balance of about 8 million there. So let's play that out. you know, costs rise and and we're facing the same pressures that you are in your household. Inflation, inflation is a killer. Um, like I said, just like you're facing with your household budgets. Um, but if we continue down this road and we continue to drain the stabilization fund, we're going to be out of money in the stabilization fund in three years and we will have nothing in case of like severe emergencies. And let's not forget there's things happening at the federal level trickling down to the state level which will eventually trickle down to the local level that will impact our budgets. Um so that's what we're using in terms of like big one-time revenue sources. But as the superintendent also mentioned, uh
049we're utilizing uh revolving funds as well. and revolving funds are specialized funds for certain activities, but we're drawing from some of those to help balance the budget in those departments as well. Um, again, it's completely unsustainable. So, again, that's the one-time revenue that we're using this year. And I just want to say we're doing it this year because we needed a bridge to think of a larger solution, a bigger solution. But that solution and that discussion has to start now. it has to start after this town meeting. Um, but like I'd mentioned earlier, we're also not able to provide even at the budget level that we are and utilizing the one-time funds that we are at the significant level that we are to fund some basic needs that the community expects. In fact, there were
050$1.18 million in personnel requests that we would not be able that we were not able to fund this year. um critical staffing shortages that we have throughout town. We have 209,000 in operational needs like equipment and services that we're not able to to use. And like I said, not able to fund, excuse me. And as I mentioned before, this is all still while using 2.7 million in one-time funds to help balance the budget. And before I move on, I'll just take a little aside and just, you know, explain very briefly what is uh causing um you know, some this deficit, driving this deficit. And like I said, it's inflation mostly. Um our health insurance budget went up 12%. Um that's similar to all around the Commonwealth that we're seeing. Um and uh also our pension
051assessment went up almost $300,000. Those two items alone make up the entire amount that we get in the two and a half increase, two and a half percent increase that we see in the tax level levy. So before all is said and done, those fixed costs, those things that we are obligated to pay for took up all the additional tax revenue that we got from the 2 and a half% increase. Sorry, I just wanted to make that explanation. Um, just getting back to some of the unfunded personnel needs, uh, we're looking at $472,000 in police and fire positions. We wanted to hire four more firefighters to help mainly staff and other ambulance so we could service the community. Um, we wanted to fund two police officers uh, dedicated to traffic enforcement. chief and and her
052team have done a great job of increasing enforcement uh with the resources that we have, but as you know, speeders are all over this this town um in different places and keeping up with them is uh a difficult task. Um 227,000 in administrative support. You know, some people might not think that that's important. I can tell you being on the front lines that is absolutely critical. we can't do what we do unless we have that back-end support um that's so critical to making this community go. Um if you look at things like the library and the senior center, we're not able to fund $148,000 in um critical needs. And then operations, just looking at like DPW and facilities and planning um 2 uh $222,000 in needs that we weren't able to fund this year. Folks,
053these are needs. Um we had a meeting with our department heads. We invited members of the select board, the finance committee to hear and and they give an explanation of their budget requests. And these aren't really extras. These are things that we just need to provide service services to the level of expectation that people provide. Um, and I'll just give you some more staff hour increases that weren't needed or that were needed but unfunded. So again, in the police department, we could have used another $100,000 for overtime and um other incentives. And these incentives, you know, we incentivize people to get trained in certain specialties, um learn certain skills, certain techniques, um also overtime is a very very necessary component of a budget, especially in our public safety departments, um in order to maintain a
054robust staffing level throughout the 24-hour uh cycle. Remember most of us with you know nineto-five jobs um you know go home at the end of the day police and fire and DPW a lot of times become a 247 operation. Um the building department uh we have $40,000 to convert a part-time inspector to full-time. I mean this is a very part part-time inspector. I mean, we have one full-time building inspector who is also the building commissioner who is also the zoning enforcement officer who also does capital projects. You know, the person, you know, you see the work being done on town hall, he's supervising that. The person who did the work, he was the same person who did the work on the Valentine barn or or managed that. One person's doing all that. um $30,000 in
055the library for increased staff hours for programs and substitutes. And then conservation um $28,000 to increase the part-time agent hours. We just have a full it different than like the school department where you have multiple teachers, maybe multiple positions in different grades and different departments. We some a lot of times we only have one in each department, maybe two. that person is the department head, the assistant department head, and the clerical staff allin one. Um, so we don't necessarily have a lot of room to cut. Um, but anyway, uh, obviously when we get to the budget detail, we we will be able to answer any questions that you might have regarding some of those numbers. But, um, again, I just want to send a very serious message and a very somber message, uh, to town
056meeting about our financial condition. And um I think we've done a remarkable job with what we have. Uh we we have a AAA bond rating. Um we're able to do some of the things that u the community wants. Um but if you want to continue to see sidewalks being built, you want to continue to see uh parks, trails, uh you know, property being purchased to protect open space, um we need to start having that conversation now in order to be able to continue it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Herbert. As is our custom, we will now hear from the finance committee. Uh, Mr. Wareski. Good evening, Ashlin. My name is Jonathan Moore. Mr. Sorry, you're all good. Thank Thank you, Mr. Moderator. I'm the vice chairman for the town of Ashlin Finance Committee. For those
057of you who don't know, uh, the finance committee is the authorizing body for expenditures from the reserve fund. funds set aside within the budget for extraordinary or unforeseen expenses including deficits deficits in snow and ice operations. The finance committee reviews all articles within the town warrant and referendums, deliberates and provides recommendations for each. We also hold annual meetings with department heads to examine operating budgets and evaluate requests. Four years ago, in wake of the COVID in the wake of the CO 19 pandemic, the town of Ashlin took proactive and prudent steps to stabilize its finances. We drew from the stabilization fund, our rainy day reserve, in anticipation of revenue shortfalls. Thanks to strong fiscal management of Michael Herbert and his team, those funds were fully replaced in a record time. Those actions combined with the
058years since of disciplined budgeting helped affirm Ashlin's AAA credit rating by standard and pores. This is a distinction held by only a select number of municipalities across the Commonwealth. This reflection, this rating is more than a number. It's a reflection of the town's reputation as a strong fiduciary steward and a leader in responsible financial, excuse me, in responsible municipal finance. However, we are now entering a new and more difficult phase. The challenges we face today are structural. They are not temporary. While one-time funds and stabilization reserves have helped us manage recent deficits, continued reliance on these sources is unsustainable. The stabilization fund cannot serve as a long-term solution to growing annual budget gaps. Without action, Ashland will face increasingly difficult choices that will affect core services and operations. We are nearing a fiscal tipping point.
059The time for temporary fixes has passed. Decisions must be made soon to address the imbalance between expenditures and revenues. If we are to maintain the level of services that our residents enjoy and expect, we must seriously consider revenue increases, whether through overrides, new growth strategies, or other long-term financial measures. The finance committee remains committed to supporting responsible policies that protect Ashlin's financial integrity and long-term prosperity. We want to hear from you. Please go to the town website, look for our meetings. We've set aside time for public comment. Nobody ever comes. You're invited. Please. Our goal is to help the town transition from short-term stabilization to sustainable fiscal planning that meets the evolving needs of our community. Thank you and go Clockers. Thank you, John. And I'll take this as an opportunity to say we have
060two openings on the finance committee. You've heard the important work that the committee's doing. If you want to be involved and help make those decisions, there are two openings. You might have heard that before. I won't say it again tonight. Town website, talent bank form. Voting on the budget is a two-step process. First, we will review and vote on the appropriations for each of the various accounts. After action has been taken on the accounts, we will vote on the overall budget motion. I will start by reading the names of a series of accounts. If you have a question or comment on a particular item, yell out hold. In this case, it's okay to yell. After voting on all unchallenged light items, we'll go back and discuss any that were held. Town manager, central purchasing, telecommunications,
061town council, data processing, town clerk, elections, town meeting, board of registars, human resources. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards. Thank you. and opposed. That passes. Town accountant, assessor's office, treasurer. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed. I see one in opposed, but it passes. Conservation Commission, Open Space Committee, Planning Board, Inspectional Services Department. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed? Pass. Police Department, Fire Department. All those in favor of the untalented items, please raise your cards. Sorry about that. opposed. That passes. Health Department, Council on Aging, Recreation, Veteran Services, Prevention and Human Services, Public Library. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed?
062Passes unanimously. Public buildings and property maintenance, DPW administration, highway snow and ice removal, highway street lighting, highway combined fuel, cemetery, parks and trees. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed. Pass. School department. Keith Tech Vocational School. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards. And opposed. That passes. Total debt. All those in favor, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed. Employee retirement, workers compensation, unemployment compensation, group health insurance, other insurance, salary contingency, reserve fund. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed. I'll move to enterprise funds. Water enterprise, sewer enterprise, trash collection, field management, cable access, storm water. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards. Thank you. And
063opposed? Passes, but not unanimously. We've approved the individual line items in the budget. Now, we need to approve the overall funding mechanism. For that, I'll entertain a motion for the general fund that the following amounts be transferred from the respective accounts. EMS revolving $200,000. Dog licenses $25,000. Recreation revolving $12,975. And that the balance be raised and appropriate 79,331,386 for the water enterprise fund that 3,953,249 be raised to the water rates. for the sewer enterprise fund that $6,365,469 be raised through the sewer rates for the rubbish collection enterprise fund that 1,800 I've got a wrong number here. What's the D? What is the correct number? 1867 1867011 I have an extraneous number. $1,867,11 be raised through solid waste rates. Apologies for the Fields Management Enterprise Fund, $114,933 be raised through fees for field usage for the
064cable access enterprise fund at $390,000 be raised to cable franchise fees for the Stormwater Enterprise Fund at $45,255 be raised to storm water fees. 405 406 255 406255 not my finest hour transcribing these the 406255 erased the storm water rates again apologies for the economic development special revenue fund that $338,593 be appropriated from available's meals tax meals tax funds do I have a motion we've already had the discussion so we'll go right to a vote this will require majority All right. All those in favor, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed? Pass unanimously. And we have a budget. At this point, I'll entertain a motion to remove article two from the table. Do I have such a motion? Discussion. All those in favor, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed. That passed unanimously.
065Article two, transfer from the general stabilization fund sponsored by the town manager to see if the town will vote to transfer available funds from the general stabilization fund to support the FY26 general fund budget or pass any vote or take any action relative there. Two, the finance committee recommends the town approve the transfer of $2,256,720 from the general stabilization fund to defay charges and expenses of the town, including debt and interest for the ensuing fiscal year as set forth in the FY26 general fund budget. Mr. Herbert, thank you, Mr. Moderator. And uh I just want to apologize for the technical difficulties. as I try to get the warrant up on the screen. But um you know I explained this uh during the budget presentation um we are uh looking to transfer 2,256720 from our general
066stabilization fund into um to help support the general fund budget. U currently we have a balance of uh 7.9 million Is that it? Correct. Oh, sorry. I thought there was more. My apologies. Um, to allow discussion, I'll entertain a motion that the town transfer $2,256,720 from the general stabilization fund to defay charges and expenses to the town, including debt and interest for the ensuing fiscal year as set forth in the FY26 general fund budget. Do I have a motion? Discussion. Seeing none, we'll move to move to move to an immediate vote. Oh, I'm sorry. Could could you just say what you said again? Was that leaving 500 or excuse me, 5 million in a stabilization fund? What's the balance of that, Mr. Manager? So, is there 7.9 now or 7.9 after you take two and
067a quarter out currently. Okay. So, it will be about five and a something left. That's correct. Thank you. Any further discussion? Thanks. We'll move to a vote because this involves money leaving a stabilization fund. It will require a twothirds margin. We'll start with a hand count, a standing count. All those in favor, raise your cards, please. Thank you. and opposed. I declare twothirds majority that passes. Before we move to article five, a quick update the self 50 to 41 at half time. Article five, transfer to OPED trust sponsored by the town manager finance director. See if the town will transfer $375,000 from the OPED contribution account to the OPED trust or pass any vote or take any action relative there too. The finance committee recommends the town so vote. Mr. Herbert. Thank you, Mr. Moderator.
068I think uh we talk about OPEB twice a year at town meetings. So, I think you know hopefully most people know what that is, but for those of you that don't, uh, OPEB stands for other post-employment benefits, um, it is a fancy way of saying retirey health insurance. U, but more importantly, it's a liability that we have to keep on our books, um, effective, uh, based on a Gazsby government accounting standards board um, change that was made quite a few years ago. Um, and this is part of our strategy on how we fund those long-term liabilities. Um, this part of our strategy, uh, we take money each year, uh, for every new employee that we bring on, we try to fund what's known as their annual required contribution. So, what does it take each year
069to fund that long-term liability for that employee for that year? Um, that is what this number is, that total number, uh, 375,000. And then um just the other part of our strategy is um in the fall when we do get a free cash uh number, we do take a portion of that and put it in the OPM trust. And I'll just say it's been a successful strategy for us. Uh when we started this about a decade ago, we had zero uh money set aside for this long-term liability. And we're now up to um over $8 million. Um, more importantly, our funded ratio, which is what percentage of our liability do we have actually have funds set aside for, has gone from zero 10 years ago to 12% now. So, uh, slowly but surely, our strategy
070is is making strides and um, we would just like to continue that with this article. To allow discussion, I'll enter a motion. The town transferred the sum of $375,000 from OPED contribution account 0191551709 to the OPED trust account 8 A810-49710 such a motion. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to an immediate vote. This will require a simple majority. All those in favor, please raise your cards. Thank you. and opposed. That passes unanimously. Article six, annual consent article for general items. The state of the town will vote the following consent articles which I shall not read in their entirety. One, grant program authorization. Two, road contracts. Three, contracts in excess of three years. Four, lease purchase agreements. Five revolving funds, six grant easements. The school committee recommends the town approve article five as set
071forth in the warrant and set the maximum amount may be spent on revolving funds in subsection five of article 5. Given the routine nature of the items contained within consent articles, they are normally voted without discussion. As such, I will ask for a motion and then move directly to a vote. The motion I will ask for sorry that the town approve article six as set forth the warrant and set the maximum amount that may be spent on revolving funds except section five of article six as follows and none of these numbers have changed since last year senior program revolving $25,000 town building rental $75,000 town of Hollist animal control revolving $114,000 library materials replacement $5,000 hazardous waste revolving $10,000 sidewalk construction fund, $50,000. Guidance revolving fund, $50,000. Food inspection program, $20,000. Electrical inspections and gas
072inspection revolving fund $150,000. Tobacco problem program revolving$10,000. Ambulance revolving 900,000. Recreation revolving 500,000 vaccination clinic revolving $30,000. All those in this will require twothirds maj majority due to easements. We'll start with card count. All those in favor please raise your cards. Thank you. Opposed. Article six passes unanimously. Article seven, annual consent article community preservation act items sponsored by the community preservation committee. See the town will vote the following items. Community preservation funds FY26 annual appropriations from FY26 estimated revenues to committee administrative expense $72,747. from FY26 estimated revenues to historic resources reserve to community housing reserve and open space reserve 138,218 each and und designated budget reserve $967,528 Oak Street bond payment to appropriate $131,150 from the undesated budgeted reserve account. C to High School Fields bond payment to appropriate $292,600 from the undesated budgeted reserve
073account. The Warren Woods bond payment to appropriate $148,125 from the following FY26 reserve accounts. Historic reserve $47,400. Open space reserve $39,994. Undesated budgeted reserve $60,731. the Valentine estate to appropriate $45,936 from the following CPA reserve accounts. Open space reserve $6,564. Undesated budgeted reserve $39,372 or passing and vote or take any action relative to there too. The community preservation committee recommends the town so vote. The finance committee recommends the town appro approve the CPC consent article as set forth in article 7. As with article six, due to the routine and recurring nature of this article, I will ask for a motion and then move directly to a vote. Uh entertain a motion that the town approve the CPC consent article as set forth in article 7. Do I have such a motion? Uh this will require
074simple majority. All those in favor, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed? That passes, but not unanimously. Article eight, appropriate CPA funds for the creation of the Ashlin Arboritum sponsored by the community preservation committee. See if the town will vote to appropriate up to $500,000 for the creation of the Ashlin Arboritum and that to meet this appropriation, the sum of $200,000 be transferred from the open space and recreation fund and $300,000 from the undesated account from the community preservation fund balance with unexpended funds as of December 31st, 2028 being returned to their funding source or passing vote or taking any other action thereon. The community preservation committee recommends the town so vote. The finance committee recommends the town so vote. Mr. Go ahead. Uh, thank you. Aaron Lad, chair of the CPC committee. Um,
075I have a 2-year-old at home and when I come home, sometimes it doesn't matter what I do, he just wants to say no data, no data, I don't want to help you. And sometimes I get a warm welcome hug. I felt like hearing from the town manager and our school committee. It was the no data, no data, no data. Hopefully this evening I can be the yes data, I love you, want to give you a hug. So, I have some good news from CPC to present tonight. Article 7 really illustrates that CPC is uh we have two bonds that will be paying off the next couple years. Our revenues are exceeding our current spending limits. We're growing our uh available funds. So hopefully this is the good news of the evening, some of the fun
076projects we can do. Um because of those proposed uh outlays and inlays, uh the three projects we have for tonight hopefully are some exciting improvements for town. The first one presented here is the arburitum. So, what you're looking at on uh the blurriiest PowerPoint I've ever seen um is a locust area of what used to be the Cadillac paint site. Um so, along Elliot Street heading toward Sherburn about a quarter mile from the Sherburn line. Uh there's a piece of property there highlighted in green. Uh the town has cleaned up the property. Uh we put in some parking spaces. You can see in the aerial image that a rough um clean up of area has commenced. I don't know if you can go to the next image or not. That's uh the image on the
077left is what it used to look like. I think that's five or six years ago. The image on the right is somewhere between 2020. Um so that's a few years ago. If you went there today, you'd see somewhere between. It's been kind of uh loosely cleaned up. If you go to the next slide, 2023 again, walking trails been inserted. Um some basic cleanup of the site. And the next slide, what we're planning to do, uh, make our first Ashlin Arboritum. Uh, it's a really exciting project to put in gazebo seating, uh, tree species. Um, I feel like Ashland is getting more Instagrammable, maybe because I'm a millennial, but either way, uh, the bridge downtown, an arboritum. These are really exciting projects where people can really enjoy town. Um, and I hope for your approval. Thank
078you, Mr. Lad. To dis allow discussion, I'll enter a motion the town vote to appropriate $500,000 for the creation of the Ashlin Arboritum. That to meet this appropriation, the sum of $200,000 be transferred from the open space and recreation fund and $300,000 from the undesated account from the community preservation fund balance with unexpended funds as of December 31st, 2028 being returned to their funding source. Do I have a motion? discussion. Seeing none, we'll move right to a vote. This will require a simple majority. All those in favor, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed. That passes unanimously. Article nine, appropriate CPA funds for the dig digitization documents for the historic preservation. Steve, the town will vote to appropriate up to $110,000 for the digitization of the town of Ashlin records for historic preservation and
079that to meet this appropriation sum of $12010,000 be transferred from the historical resources reserve account from the community community preservation fund balance with unexpended funds as of December 31st, 2028 being returned to their funding source or passing vote or take any action other action relative there too. Community Preservation Committee recommends the town so vote as does the finance committee. Mr. Lad, I wish I had as good a pretty a pictures to show for this, but working with the town clerk um on um ironically a motion after planting trees of working on removing um paper records to make them digitized. Uh this is something that a lot of towns have done. Um, this is really a a saver for, you know, long-term recordkeeping, reducing of paper waste. Um, you know, this is something that probably been
080done a long time ago and hopefully it will help Cindy for a long time to come of digitizing a record so people can look them up, know them, um, in a digital format to allow discussion and a motion. Yes. Wait a minute. Oh, you weren't done. No, I didn't start. I wasn't told it was a two-part. I apologize. Uh Curtis Hoffman, 58 Hillale Road. Um I, as a recovering archaeologist, have provided the town planner with a series of records of pre-Uropean archaeological sites within the town. These records are not to be available except on a need to know basis. Uh, and so I don't see that those would be included in what gets digitized for public consumption. Dr. Hoffman, this isn't discussion. Yeah, it's not discussion. We haven't haven't gotten there yet. Oh, sorry. So,
081I thought you were part of the presentation. So, just erase that from your memory banks. Don't go too far, Dr. Huffman. To allow discussion, I'll enter a motion to see if the town will vote to appropriate up to $110,000 for the digitization of the town of Ashlin records for historic preservation and that the me and that to meet this appropriation, the sum of $110,000 be transferred from the historic resources reserve account from the community preservation fund balance with unexpended funds as of December 31st, 2028 being returned to their funding source or pass any vote or take any action thereon. Do I have a motion? That's your queue, Dr. Hoffman. Thank you. Uh Curtis Hoffman, 58 Hill Road. As a recovering archaeologist, I have You really want me to do this, right? Okay. I have provided
082the town planning office with a uh series of paper records of pre-Uropean sites within the town. These are only available on a need to- know basis and therefore should be excluded from the digitization project. because that's the conditions under which I obtained them from the Massachusetts Historical Commission. So, is there a question there or a statement? Uh, it's just to advise the project managers of this very worthwhile project that there are certain records that should not be made digitized and available to everyone because they are more sensitive records. Thank you, Dr. Huff. or not. You could travel. Those would not be included. We We're doing archived uh vital records, meeting minutes, town meeting minutes, stuff like that. Important stuff. No, I'm only kidding. No, I don't. I mean like stuff that people would want to
083look up online. So, yours is very important, but it will not be included. Thank you to our town clerk despite her snark. Did you have a comment, Mr. Herbert? Okay, I thought you did. Uh, any other discussion? We'll move to a vote. This will require a simple majority. All those in favor, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed. That passes unanimously. The clerk said she'd vote for it, too, but she's not a resident. Article 10, appropriate CPA funds for additional funds for the dog park site improvements to see if the town will vote to appropriate up to $60,000 for the Ashlin Bark Park site improvements and that to meet this appropriation, the sum of $60,000 be transferred from the open space and recreation account from the community preservation fund balance with unexpended funds as
084of December 31st, 2026. Is that correct? 2026. 26 being returned to their funding source or pass any vote or take any action other action thereon. Both the community preservation committee and the finance committee recommend the town so vote. Mr. Lad, uh the reason for being 2026 is several years ago the CPA uh approved uh funding for an original project. Um and so this is an add-on to that project. So we kept a similar timeline for completing the project. Uh so that project um has, if you're not familiar, uh we're looking to build a bark park, dog park along Memorial Drive across from the middle school. Um and that site now has full budgeting as we've talked about all night about inflation costs. This also covers the entire site improvements for that project um and gets
085it to its completion by the end of next year. Thank you, Mr. Lad. to allow discussion. I entertain a motion the town appropriate up to $60,000 for the Ashlin Bark Park site improvements and that to meet this appropriation sum of $60,000 be transferred from the open space and recreation account from the community preservation fund balance with unexpended funds as of December 31st, 2026 being returned to their funding source. Do I have a motion? Discussion. Hi, Cara Terrell. Three Hillale Place. I'm the president of the Ashlin Dog Park Committee. So, the Ashland Bark Park Committee is a group of volunteers who have been working continuously for almost 10 years to bring a dog park to Ashland. In 2020, the town of Ashland allocated a parcel of land on Memorial Drive between the Upper Charles Trail and
086the solar panels to be the home of the Ashland Bark Park. The Ashland Bark Park Committee has held numerous fundraisers at the Corner Spot Farmers Market and with local businesses. We've also been the recipients of generous BAA grants. These efforts have raised about $14,000. Our budget to transform the the current land into a one and a half acre dog park and on-site parking is estimated to be over 500,000. We have been approved to receive the Stanton grant that has funded 25,000 for a design grant as well as 250,000 in hard construction costs. Previously, the Ashlin Community Preservation Committee unanimously voted to award the dog park $215,000. We are now asking for residents to vote to appropriate up to 60,000 for the Ashlin Bark Park site improvements. The CPC funds will cover many budget items such
087as fencing, gates, benches, and a storage shed. We need your vote. Thank you. Thank you. Loren Armenti, can you hear me? Chestnut Street. There we go. Um, I love dogs. I think it's a personal choice to be able to afford a dog. Dogs are extremely expensive. They are annually costing an individual oh in the range of $500 a year to own a dog. Uh we've the town has already given these folks public land. I'm strongly against additional money going to a personal choice to have a dog and I know that people love dogs, but having lived here for 25 years and dealt with the folks at the state park who let their dogs run without leashes despite the leash law and are belligerent about asking them to leash their dogs. I'm personally have an issue
088with giving them more money. That money could go, as we've heard, to another teacher, English language support, raises for the librarians, raises for the town employees. So, I'm strongly opposed. And I don't know the details about the previous votes where the money is already allocated, but at this point, given what we've come through with the rising costs and the threat to federal dollars, please consider not giving more money to dogs, of which there are 90 million in the country. It's too many dogs, too much money. Please reconsider this allocation. Thanks. Before we move on, I'm going to ask town council to speak for a moment and explain the limitation on use of funds out of the CPC. Oh, that's what I was going to say. Go ahead. So, the the CPC funds can only be
089used for the projects that are defined um in the CPC. So, open space uh open space acquisition, parks, things of that nature, historic preservation um and affordable housing. They may not used to support the operations of the general town of the general town operations. Thank you. Council Laura Irwin, 251 Winter Street, dog park committee member. The dog park is in need of an additional $60,000 from the community preservation committee for the storm water mitigation so we can budget other money to go toward opening the dog park with the amenities the dog park needs. The Ashen Dog Park Committee has been working for at least nine years to have a dog park in our town. We have funding from the Stanton grant for $250,000. In addition, we applied to the CPC in November of 2023 and
090we were generously awarded $215,000. We are now in 2025 and bids are higher due to inflation and particularly because of the required storm water mitigation that we need to do on this parcel of land on Memorial Drive to get a permit for construction. This is based on actual bids on estimates. Please vote in favor of an additional $60,000 for the Ashen Bark Park and let's bring this amenity to Ashland. I also wanted to add that as a committee, we are looking for subcommittee members. Not tonight. It doesn't relate to the article in the warrant. Okay. Can you put the microphone back in the stand, please? Thank you. Well, you can just you can move the whole thing up. Just just the the end just just straight. Hi, this my name is Karen. I'm on Warren
091Road in Ashland. I'm also on the dog park committee. Um I just want to point out a couple of good reasons why having one of the a dog park in our community be worthwhile. Um it would really reduce the off leash activity that we do see in other areas of the town like the state park, the town forest. Um it's something that's needed to reduce that area. And also it it can also increase property values. Um, dog parks have been proven to increase uh a community more activebased neighborhood um mentality and it, you know, improved increased property value can bring more revenue into the town. So, please vote. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Can I get someone from AB to just adjust that mic stand, please, so people aren't going on the tiptoes to fix
092it? Thank you. I see them coming. Okay. Um, any further discussion? Once we get the mic fixed, it's all yours. That's why you're wearing the uniform you're wearing, sir. Hi, this is Kenard 26 Ridge Road. And just more of a general question about the dog park and any other initiative is I hear a lot of money being allocated to different things, but I don't hear what the ongoing maintenance requirements are for these projects. and we heard from the town manager that our costs are increasing and it's going to likely need increases in revenues. So, as we talk about these things, I'd like to also add what's the ongoing costs for maintenance uh for these projects. So, just a point in general. Okay, Mr. Manager. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Thanks. Uh thanks for your question, Ken.
093Um so I'll have to say that the um the town has been working with the uh dog park committee to look at some shared responsibilities in terms of the maintenance uh working with their DPW um and that has been formalized in a memorandum of understanding and we're just working through that with the Stanton Foundation now and hopefully they will agree to that. Uh bureaucracy's sake. Um, I also find this proposal to be just shockingly disappointing. And I believe that it is going to serve as a barrier to growth as well as a a deterrent for young people looking to put down roots and make a mark on our town. Many of you sitting here have had the opportunity to do that. I've gone to school with a number of your children and some of your
094grandchildren. Um, you had the opportunity to change the downtown as you've seen fit. And I think it's shameful that you would rob that opportunity from future generations. I am currently looking for houses with my fiance and have been for the last six months. We have taken Ashland off of our list and this proposal is exactly one of the reasons why it feels like Ashland is going to be completely stuck in the past while all the other towns in Metro West are blazing a new trail forward. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Deborah Nielsen. I live on Ramblewood Drive. I uh would like to read a message that I received from Naen Me Nesbbit. She is the only residential building owner within the proposed historic district which is the purple house. And I quote, I am in
095favor of the historical changes that are being proposed. Please read this. It's short and sweet and I am all for this. End quote. The intent of this district is to benefit everyone within Ashlin's community by preserving all of our history that is downtown. The proposed district in Ashlin includes many errors and many styles. So we are not locked into one time period. It is not the intent of the historic commission or the future district commission that will be established to block any business efforts. It is the historic it's the intent to be flexible to work with property owners but to keep the historic integrity of downtown intact. Um, it is also the intent to support the downtown businesses within the proposed district. We want they want we all want to see business succeed in downtown
096Ashlin and it is not an us versus them situation. I'm highly in favor of this district and to suggest that this would in any way rob Ashlin of business opportunities is just a fallacy. All you have to do is drive through Hudson and look at what has gone down gone down on in downtown Hudson. You will see restaurants, apothecaries, cremaries, all kinds of new businesses that have been established within the confines of their historic district. Thank you. Thank you. Here we go again. Um I'm Brandy Ken, Brandy Kinsman from the select board. I'm at six lucy French way, but I'm here speaking on my own behalf. I'm not here representing the board tonight. Um first of all, I just want to thank the historical commission for all the work that they've done on this and
097acknowledge that it has been um a long process for you. Um I know this started initially with the genesis was the the mill building which um unfortunately with 40B uh circumvents local zoning. Um and the intention of this bylaw is really good. Um my concern really is um just how it would be implemented. Um, I I do have some concerns. So, we all know that there are unique um buildings in downtown Ashlin that we all love. Um, Jim talked about the Federated Church stones. Those buildings should absolutely be preserved. Um, it adds to the character and the uniqueness of Ashland. But there are many parcels that are on this list that would not necessarily be those that we would want to preserve the facades. Um, the young lady in front of me had talked about
098lunkers. That is a an an old building. It is a historical building, but I am not sure that as a community we want to ensure that that building facade never changes. Um, and so when we look at how this would be implemented, um, a better approach I believe would have been to establish individual building local historic districts and other towns have had a lot of success with this. Um Welssley has five individual um local historic districts. Needam has one in front of the attorney general. Um the city of Somerville has over 200 individual um local historic districts. It is something that could be targeted and would be much more I think applicable to our downtown rather than blanket approach. We have um we have invested millions of dollars in revitalizing our downtown and we have
099seen private investment come in to support that. We saw that with um we've had new businesses come in Crossroads PT. We've had Subzero Ice Cream and most recently Clover Road and that has added to the vitality of town. And I'm just concerned that this particular bylaw would um would would would not serve the community in the way that that um the community intends it to. So um so I would my personal view is that um this particular bylaw as it's written should not be passed. Thank you Jim. If if a question is asked you you can certainly answer it. The concern is her opinion. So there's really no response to her opinion. Let's get through. That's not really a question. We've heard from both. We've heard from the presentation that there aren't. She's saying there
100are. If we want to get legal counsel involved, we certainly can. But we're not going to go back and forth every time someone says something that might be if you think it's wrong, we're not going to start going back and forth. We'll be here all night. Hi, uh, Lisa Churchill. I live at Sierra Drive. I'm also the property owner of 20 Street and the business owner of Lush Bouquet. My property is one of the many private properties that's going to be included in the historic district, but is designated as non-historic. When I bought Tal six years ago, I knew I wanted to bring something new to Ashland. It was maybe somewhat of a romantic dream to buy a downtown flower and gift shop um like we see in the movies, but we've done it for
101the last six years. Um and I'd like to think that my business represents the new vision for downtown and all that it can become handinhand with the improvements that the town has been making in downtown. Um at least once a week a customer will tell me how happy they are that Blush is here in Ashland and they wish there was more of the same. They want to see a thriving downtown with stores, restaurants, events, and more. and it's starting to happen with my business, with my friends at Subzero, our new friends at Clover Road. Um, but the the proposed historic district will slow or stop any further development of that kind. Um, there's nothing I want more than an adorable downtown. This proposed historic district will not create that. It will not encourage us to
102update our buildings. It will not provide grant money for us to pay for the increased standards they're imposing. It will not promote growth or new business. It will simply tie us up in paperwork restrictions and increase costs while freezing our downtown in time. There are currently no storefronts or buildings available for rent or purchase. So where can new businesses go without some level of development required? Um and the 60 plus day process of paperwork, public hearings, and imposed restrictions which is in addition to existing town processes will discourage any new developers or business owners. Now, during this, I've been repeatedly assured that as a non-historic property, none of the restrictions apply to my building, but that seems to be currently there's no guarantee that it would continue to be the case. So, why are we
103burdening the property owners and the businesses with additional red tape? To be clear, I understand the desire to protect meaningful and significant historic properties, but not at the expense of the property owners and definitely not at the expense of non-historic properties that are being swept up in the current district. I'd also like to note that no property owners or business owners were consulted during the entire process that the historical commission has gone through. We received letters in the mail, but there was no discussion that ever took place. Um, I was told recently by the commission that it was simply an oversight on their part, but it feels like a huge oversight. Um, the commission is claiming that they want to help us, but how can they help us without a true understanding of what downtown
104looks like from the inside? So, I think you know where I stand. I oppose this district. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Marcia Renie, 41 Bay Colony Drive. Um, I was born in this town and I'm lived here most of my life. Um, and what I want to use, what I want to stress to this group tonight is that we are a community. I own a house, but I want to live in a community. And a community means that we we think about the needs of each other all the time. And yes, being a property owner gives us certain rights, but we all live under zoning laws. We live under other kind of restrictions because we want our quality of life as a group to matter. I have seen too many times in my
105life here where we have waited too long as a community and a property owner who's come in and has their single vision of what they want to do with a parcel or a building and then for literally for the rest of time we have to live with that single person's vision. This is wonderful to me this opportunity that we can have a group of people who are going to be appointed are going to have guidelines. They're going to be appointed by the elected board of select select board to represent the needs of the community. There's a lot of hysteria about what they're going to do, but we have seen in other towns that this works. It's a way for us to not let something happen without any kind of oversight that makes us lose something
106precious to our town. And I I'm really sad. I'm I'm so proud of Naen who wasn't here, but but sort of stepped up to say this is a good thing because yeah, maybe it's some restrictions on me, but I'm thinking about the larger community and this could be a really good thing. Let's think a hundred years from now and maybe if we do the right thing tonight, our children's children will be able to appreciate the history of our town. And I'm sorry if I'm a little emotional, but I'm so tired of Ashland being a dollar short and a day late on these kinds of things. So, please let's have some vision. Let's think about a community and how we can work together through a group of citizens who care about our community and our history.
107And so I am strongly in favor of this. Thank you. Please. I I'm not going to tolerate outbursts. I promise I won't. Okay. It's John Ellsworth, 22 High Street Extension. I would like to talk a little bit about experiences that Marggo and I had when we moved into downtown. We moved into a place called 81 Main Street. Glam Beauty Parlor is there now. They own both both of the doors. We renovated a small space for four agents and an administrator, added heat, added added air conditioning, did the stuff to render it useful. Within a year, we'd outgrown the space. And we went looking for space. And we looked at tele inappropriate. We looked at the office behind uh Stones in not available. We looked at the the granite buildings, decrepit. That's the best word that
108I can use for the condition of the building. I know we all love the look of the building. It was unworkable. And happily, 91 Main Street came available about the time that we were looking. and we took a lease on 2,000 square feet. We went in and gutted it and added four conference rooms and an air lock and and an expensive rug. The rug was the most expensive thing that we put down. That surprised the heck out of me. Uh new heating, new air conditioning, land, local area networks, all the kind of stuff you have to have to have a a real office building. We added two conference rooms, eight workstations, lots of stuff. 2,000 square feet is workable. Within about five or six weeks of us moving into the space, the selectman had found,
109and I wasn't on the board at that time. I I had uh I had left the board, uh a a committee of three people came by reviewing downtown. So, this has been going on quite a while. and they walked into our building and they, "Oh, you've done a pretty good job inside, but your front window is really ugly." And it was. It really was. Marggo and I were looking for ways of making it look attractive. And you know what was deemed attractive? Downtown Felmouth. And they wanted us, or they suggested, they didn't say they wanted that we put some cubby holes in the front window and we display various real estate pieces in it. uh and basically dress everything up. Well, we had looked at that, or rather I had looked at that. It's called
110cabinetry. It was a $25,000 addition to the thing just to have the cabinetry in the front window. An impossible suggestion, and that's my concern. I refer to a committee like this as a cuteness committee. She called it an adorable downtown. Okay. I would like a good-look downtown, too. But if you look at the buildings that have been improved upon, take a look at Ralph and Brian Chver's Ashlin Lumber, that looks great. And you know what? It meets it meets the requirement of the planning board and all the things that have to go into building the outside of a building. How does a planning board got to wrap it up respond? I'm winding up. Uh, Adam, how does a planning board respond to this committee when this committee says no, it's not sufficiently cute. It's not
111what we want for five people who are not elected for five people who are are just picked up off the street or they're interested. I shouldn't put it, I shouldn't denigrate it. They are interested in downtown. Okay. How do they react to the planning board which actually controls this stuff? Thank you. Um, my name is Robera Sulman, 28 Woodrich Lane. I'm the chair of the Open Space and Recreation Committee and the Open Space and Recreation Committee's representative to the Comprehensive Plan Committee. Um, I wanted to urge people to vote in favor of this. Are you speaking on your own behalf of No, I'm speaking on behalf of the committee. I was about to get to that. Um, I represent the committee and we voted to endorse this bylaw um, change and this Warren article and
112I'm urging folks to vote for it as well tonight. I think that what we're looking at here is the preservation of what we value and the preservation of things that are really important to us downtown. It's a connection to our past. And in every single open space and recreation plan that we've done and in the comprehensive plan, residents have overwhelmingly said that the historic preservation of historic buildings are important to them. It affects their quality of life. It's part of the reason they moved to Ashlin. And I think it's time that we listened to um what the residents want. Otherwise, why do we keep going back and and asking them? I think that it protects property values. Other towns around it have used it as a great liftoff for development of their downtown area. And
113I think that what's people were talking about what's shameful and what's not going to work. And I think the really the thing that's shameful is ripping down and pulling away and destroying the history for future generations. Um people once it's gone it is gone and people will just never ever have it in their lives again. Um the someone more eloquent than I said history cannot be preserved without preserving its physical manifestations for these are the things that are witness to the stories of our past and carry them forward into the future. I think it's incredibly important that we preserve these buildings. Going one building at a time is clearly not the way to do it. The only way to do it as advised by the Mass Historical Commission. The only thing that gives full and
114permanent protection is to establish a historic district. And I have two questions that I wanted to ask Jim for clarification here. This bylaw, my understanding is that it does not prevent changes to a building. They just have to go through the commission. So all this talk about we can't change a thing ever is really not accurate. And the other thing is that um did you make any effort to reach out to property owners during this process? Thank you Robera. Yeah. Um we did reach out to property owners during the process. We've had um three years of continual meetings. Uh letters have been sent out, social media posts have been sent out. Um, and we've had two public forums, one public hearing of which many of the people that are speaking tonight were at and had
115their questions addressed and had their concerns aired. Um, so I'm not hearing anything new tonight. However, um, what was your other question? Can changes be made? Would changes I'm sorry, what can changes be made to buildings? Changes can be made to buildings. Yes. The way the system would work under the if it's a historic local historic district, there will be three things. It'll be a certificate of appropriateness. Um if it if it if it's a minor change will not be affected at all. The only change will happen if a permit has to be pulled. Um anything you have to do to fix up the property without a permit wouldn't even come across the radar of a historical commission. Anything other than that there would have to be and sometimes like we said we wanted to
116be flexible. Um, no one's on the commission yet, but the future commission hopefully will be flexible in that if it's a minor thing, if if it's not a big deal, if it's not the right kind of thing, but it looks like it should belong, then it can be it's fine. Um, minor changes can be made, paint colors are not part of this. U roofing colors are not part of this. Um the guidelines that are suggested are for builders and developers or property owners for give them some kind of thing of what a commission would be looking for in some kind of proposed change. Um they're not written in stone and they're not the bylaw. They're suggestions. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. Uh my name is Lauren Crowley. I live on Webster Road.
117I've been here since 2022. Uh, I also run the Sub-Zero ice cream store in the center of town that would be part of this district. Um, I'd like to echo the sentiments that I do think that historic preservation is an extremely important part of our town, our community, and communities everywhere. But ultimately to me, it feels like Ashland has less of a district, but a few sites that were highlighted tonight. Um, from what I understand from the from the committee directly is that it's more difficult and cumbersome to establish the sites as compared to a contiguous area, which we're talking about tonight. Um but most of the commercial space that ends up wrapped up in the district is not historic but would still end up being subjected to the additional bylaws um just so be
118by being in the district. Um, I have heard uh that it's been explained that while certain properties, the one that I occupy currently is not uh historic and would not be subject to the conditions, any changes to that property, would still need to be processed by the commission and by nature of being included into the district, which does add yet another town approval process for a business trying to operate in the center of town. um with all of the exceptions that would be likely uh that's being talked about here tonight, even it does raise the question as to why so many of the locations are included in this historic district in the first place. Uh as once they are subjected to the extra bylaws, there's no guarantee that the exceptions um would come to fruition
119for those properties. Uh and even if it would be a quick process, it's still an additional task to which an owner or occupant would need to comply. And this could make pursuing reasonable updates more cumbersome for current owners or discourage new businesses from entering the downtown area. So, while I believe there is a collective agreement that these historic sites can and should be preserved, the creation of this district may do just as much, if not more, to potentially hinder progress and updates in downtown than it does to preserve the handful of historic sites. Um, we could be using our time and resources to preserve things uh individually like we did with Clover Road, like we saw outside of the establishment of historic district uh with partners that can commit to reinventing areas of our downtown
120while also respecting its history. Um, my colleague from Blush and myself, we actually uh inhabit a floral shop and an ice cream shop just with modern takes on it. um those modern takes on more traditional businesses that establish the storefronts that we're in seems to me to to speak more to the current culture of Ashland grounded in the past but with an eye on the future. Um there's also been a lot of citations about being beneficial to businesses but other historic districts um have kind of encapsulated something in time and I personally struggle to see how freezing Ashlin's downtown in the current moment does that in the same meaningful way. So, I completely respect what we're trying to do here and ultimately agree that we should be preserving these sites. Um, but what from what
121I've heard on all of these topics is that this blanket district could serve to make things more cumbersome from businesses that are actively trying to make downtown thrive rather than provide any sort of benefit in trying to combat some of the properties that we've already lost. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Good evening. Bill Novakowski, 39 Lake View Terrace. Um, I will admit to being somewhat shocked and taken aback to see a document like this being handed out as we walked in. Um, it seems that obvious obviously someone is rather rattled by the prospect that they can't do what they want in the downtown district. Um, we've seen historic properties being demolished and replaced by big box apartment buildings on Main Street. something that really is a visual blight that blocks the view of the church
122and everything else. Um, now the only person who could be damaged by a historical commission uh historical district um might be somebody who is planning on demolishing a building and replacing it by another big box apartment. And if you think 128 Main Street is a pretty building and you want to see more of them in downtown Ashlin, vote against the historical district. But I ask you to vote in favor along with myself because I like the way this town looks. It's got class. It's got style. And we should keep it that way. Thank you. Enough. I'll end discussion if we have another outburst. Sir, John Dudley, Chestnut Street, Ashland. U I've run an exterior remodeling company for over 25 years. is we do probably over 100 projects a year that touch some type of historical
123commission uh in the permitting process for exterior remodeling work across Mass and surrounding states. Many of the homeowners or renters in these districts have no awareness that they're in them until they try to get a building permit to do some needed work and they're typically pretty shocked at how regulated their properties actually are. And as we're tossing around words like suggestions and things like that, these are very binding. And if you look into some of these details, which you have to do into something like this, they they they can completely block your ability to get a permit and do this work. So just you have to be really careful when people say things use words like that. I understand the desire of the historical committee and others to prevent the demolition of historically relevant buildings,
124but this bylaw is not the right way to do this. I believe it's too broadly applied to the streets included and could have severe long-term consequences on the properties it will regulate and I think I agree with several of the people that mentioned this earlier. Um not to mention a major regulatory hurdle time and cost to do basic exterior remodeling work. So even even a quick little look at at the way this was set up uh window the windows that are prescribed there's even a permanently a fixed grill. So just a b we make money off this too. So the more expensive it is, it's better for a remodeling company, but it's not good for people that own these. So on a even the grid configuration on the windows could be one and a half
125to twox the cost. You know, a per permanently fixed SDL or authentic divided light versus something that can be removed. Simple things like that. And there's a whole bunch of them. You have to really look into this. So this ultimately leads to deferred maintenance and a lockedin aged look and potentially even blight. I know we we can think of some of the areas like Nucket where that didn't go that way, but it can do that to downtowns. So the existence of a existence of a bylaw and design guidelines, this is the other part that goes along with this is very problematic particularly in these towns as you get start to get into some of the cities. So even though the design guidelines are not set in stone, historical committees use these to regulate as they
126are far more thorough and specific than the bylaws. So in my experience uh more so than the actual bylaws is what they use because it's hard to look at a bylaw a lot of times when these committees are trying to actually look at these projects. They look at the guidelines and these guidelines grow. they can ultimately grow to 100 plus pages. So, and the and the design guidelines are controlled by the committee and can be changed at a simple committee public hearing by a majority to vote and then changed that ultimately changes the lens from which these projects are looked at or reviewed. And review means regulated, subject to the bylaw as determined by the committee, not permitted by rights. So, people have to be really careful of what they're giving up. So, if enough
127people really see the value in this, we should approach a bylaw that applies to individual properties. Like you heard before, Somerville has 200. plenty of towns have plenty. It's more work for individual committees, but if it's worth it, we should do it. And the bottom line is we should not pass this bylaw as it's being presented to us. The long-term consequences are too severe, and if enough people want this, it should be sent back to the drawing board, drafted to be applied to specific properties that want it. Thank you. Thank you. Um, just before we get to the next speaker, Paul, sorry. I'm going to limit discussion to those people who are in line right now. already in line. It's too late to get up. By the time the people in this line get up,
128we will have been going at this for over an hour. I think that's enough. The people who are in line now. Paul, uh Paul Kendall, 6 Revena Road. I'm not going to speak for or against. I'm not I don't have a strong opinion either way. I have a couple of questions related to uh some of the wording and then just want to make sure there's uh people that are considering this understand that it's not just about uh preserving existing buildings but so the two things are the definition of demolition in here uh seems to be broad. It doesn't seem to be only the face of the building. It says any facade of the building. Uh so if that is working with uh section 3662 uh it seems like even if somebody needed a permit to
129do something on the rear of a building that's not visible from the public way that they would need to come before this commission to go before the building commissioner could issue that. So I want to make sure that's was the intent. It seems a bit broad. It probably just needs a better definition. Paul, I'm gonna pause you there. Is that a question or Yeah. Yeah. So, it's it's clarification on that. And then the other component, why why don't we do a piece of mail? You want to pause the time, please? Um, council, do you want to address that or do you want to let the committee address that question? Mr. Moderator, I have the author of the bylaw here with us, our consultant, and I believe I told you in advance if it would be
130okay if she would address this question. If she if she's the expert at answering the question. Absolutely. She's the expert at answering this question. Absolutely. Oh, you've grown tall. Well, if you can get the microphone to move, you can pull the whole stand. Oh, I got it. Now, you must have some good good vitamins here. Um uh yes, this is the uh standard uh guidelines that it's this is the standardized law that's been tested in court. And yes, so the definition of demolition, I should back up a second. So, anything that's reviewable would be something that's viewable from the public way. But that's not what that's not what it says. That's my point. It's very clear visible from anywhere outside of the building. That's the one part in the in the bylaw that does not
131say from a public way. So, it broadens that. The whole the whole bylaw is only for those things visible from the public way. So if you've got something on the back of the building, you have a definition and then you have an application in another section that says it. So I'm just like I said that's that's just a concern. I don't think it was the intent but it the way it reads and and and again I'm just bringing that up as a uh so okay sounds like sounds like the intent is what I think the intent is but yes actually and I can say this is the standard this is the one that's been tested the standard bylaw that's been tested in court. So um legal counsel uh you know at the attorney general's office
132has found that those definitions and then the overall for the public way seems to have um is reconciled correctly. Okay. Thank you for thanks for that answer. You want me to start the timer please? So my second question is to uh to the commission. You have a quorum set at four, which is unusual, and then you have uh your decision at a simple majority, which is again odd. And so, particularly when you have a time frame that you have set up and you have to then wrangle more members. Just wanted to understand the the reason for having a higher number. You have a supermajority for a quorum, uh, but then only have a simple majority for taking action. Yeah, I I wish I could speak to why that um has played out. That's um how
133MDL says so that's not the basis of MGL says simple majority for both. So why do why does ours say four for a quorum? Uh let's double check what it says. It says four for a quorum. It does in 324.3 it says excuse me 324.6 four members of the commission shall constitute. So let's not argue about what it actually been that's been what's been vetted by the attorney general's office. I I don't know is the answer. I don't know the answer. Okay. And then so the other component that I was going to say is uh we've talked about preserving the buildings. Uh just to be clear, this is any activity. So if you want to have a blank if so take where uh we do the farmers market, somebody wants to construct something, it also
134is there. So it has to be approved. All alterations or buildings have to be approved by this commission. I'm not saying that's good or bad. We just been spending a lot of time talking about preserving buildings. This isn't just about preserving buildings. You would need approval for any construction. Yes. Other than the exclusions that are set up like paint color and that and uh roof shingles and the exclusions that are set up. Yes. I am Lori Dudley from Chestnut Street and um I'm also a historical romance writer. So, I appreciate history, but I also have learned through history what happens when you give your rights of um public rights to just a few people. Um the these historical guidelines, I actually printed them out. They're 13 pages long. Um and it's not always what it
135says, but what it doesn't say to um these guidelines as they were written, it says that it doesn't involve paint as she had said in in roofing colors. However, that does invol uh the style the material, the type, if it's a prefinished product like vinyl siding or Everlast or fiber cement, it's already they end up having a say in what is being put on your house. We these are people who have paid for these properties that had a vision for these properties and that now will not have any say on the front face of their property. What is the main view of what this looks like? Um what also happens is that these products tend to be historical products are very expensive. Typically if you are reverting back to something that is for a specific
136time period they tend to be more costly. Uh and what happens then is then is this the price goes up. People don't can't afford to have these repairs done and so then the property ends up deteriorating in value over time. It's also a ton of red tape. It's it's a lot of time period that passes before anything can be done. We already have permit processes and and everything. Um and also somebody had said something about a cohesiveness that they wanted for the town. We have a planning board already in place that provides a cohesiveness for our community. So um that's all. So I would prefer this not to pass. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Margot Ellsworth. I'm sorry, Margot. It's We're moving over here. Oh, sorry. No worries. She can go. That's fine.
137Kathy Rooney, 136 Fountain Street. So, before I went to the one of the hearings, so the historic commission, I ran into one of my new neighbors who owned a historic building on my street in town, and I started talking to him about what he was doing. This this property is not part of the historic district, but this property owner has been consulting with the historic commission already because they have lived in town for 30 years. They understand that they've bought a historic property and they understand the value of keeping that property, the facade, the front-facing facade looking historic because they understand what it does to the vistas in the town and what it looks like. So, I'm really confused. This is the that person's a business owner in town. I'm really confused when I hear
138all these other business owners saying they don't want to comply and that they think it's too expensive. We've had a lot of other bylaws passed where many of the same property owners have gotten up and complained about the HERS bylaw when it was first put into effect and they said it would be too expensive. And then at least one of them turned around and built one of the best developments in Ashlin that's still talked about. So old places matter because of economics. Old places are deeply beneficial to people because of the way they give us a sense of continuity, belonging. They inspire us with beauty, awe, and sacredness. And because they tell about history and learning, and because they foster healthy, sustainable communities. Numerous studies have been done by the World Bank, Ruckers University, the
139world in the United States, all over the United States. And they all talk about how these districts improve towns. as if old places are only worth keeping for economic reasons or if they can justify themselves economically. Combined with the many other benefits, the benefits that are hard to measure economically, which are deeply beneficial for people, keeping and retaining old places seems like a no-brainer. I object to the notion that everything in life has to be reduced to an economic equation. But imagine if these studies could capture the full value of the benefits old places give people. The sense of identity and belonging, the awe of beauty, the creativity and imagination, the valuation would be, as Randall Mason put it, calculating the incal incalculable or pricing the priceless. Thank you. Thank you, Kevin. Margot. Hi, I'm
140Marggo Ellsworth, 22 High Street Extension here in Ashlin. been here 50 years. Uh came here because we had privacy, because we had space, because we had a great school system. And it truly is a good school system. Um in the presentation of for this this change, I'm hearing a lot of iffy kind of dialogue. Hopefully the next committee when it's formed will do this. Hopefully, I don't want hopefully. You need to know when you vote on something like this this uh um ruling, this change, you need to have your absolutes lined up. Now, I have a deed on my property. And probably if you own a house out here in this town, you have a deed. You pay your taxes, you pay your insurance, you have control of your house or your condo. However, if
141you want to do a change on your property, you go through many tiers to be able to to bring that change about. Now, you're adding another tier. It may cost you more money. So now somebody else has control over your house. I don't want to have anybody else have control over my property. I pay the taxes. I pay the insurance. I maintain it. No one should be able to tell you what you can do with your home. So that is my there are enough controls as there are. And when I hear the word hopefully, it makes me nervous because you really don't know what you're voting for in absolutes. Thank you. I am against this measure. Thank you, Beth. Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Uh my name is Beth Reynolds. I am the director
142of economic development and community outreach for the town um of Ashland. Um, over the past two years, I've closely followed this planning and discussions surrounding this proposed bylaw. I've watched public meetings, listened to community feedback, and sought out perspectives from those who would be directly affected. Let me be clear, I deeply value Ashlin's history and the character that makes our town unique. Preserving our history is important, as seen in our downtown fire station, a great example of honoring the past. However, I do not support the proposed bylaw to create a local historic district. I have concerns about the impact it would have, particularly on our small businesses in the downtown area. This bylaw would create yet another layer of town oversight, another approval process for businesses that are simply trying to operate and make improvements
143where they can. While the proposed historic commission has suggested that changes to non-historic buildings would likely be approved without issue, there is nothing in the bylaw that guarantees that outcome. Once properties are included in the district, they are fully subject to these new regulations regardless of current intentions of the commission. I would like to go back to my reference of the old fire station. Clover Road Brewing poured a large amount of money into that bu building after leasing it from the town last summer. The process consisted of several meetings, the planning board, design review, and the historical commission. It took months to get through that process and I fear that if we add another step, it may deter someone from putting the time and money into such an endeavor and just go somewhere else. We
144already have tools in place to ensure design consistency and thoughtful development. Adding another level of review risks sending the wrong message that Ashland is a diffic difficult place to do business. That perception matters. I've spoken to several business owners who are worried about this bylaw about potential costs, delays, and the loss of autonomy over their own properties. I believe we can protect Ashlin's historical character without creating additional burdens that discourage investment and progress. I hope we can find a better balance, one that honors our past without putting our future at risk. Thank you, Beth. Ma'am Audrey Coulson, three Shadow Creek Lane. I've lived in Ashland for 10 years now. Before that, I lived in another town. I was actually living in a house in a historic district. Lived there for 50 years. The historic district
145was created about 30 years in for while we were there. and I have dealt with them in replacing windows, getting a sign for a business, um adding addition on the back of the house and changing the back doorway and extending the porch there. Had to go through the historic district and I had no problems at all there. So they deemed every project that I had, you know, brought forward to them to be appropriate because as I was planning and talking with my contractor or architect, I said, "This is a historic house. We want to any changes I make have to be appropriate." So, we kept that in mind and the historic district always passed us with flying colors. So, I'm in favor of this. Thank you. Okay. Kard, 26 Dear Ridge Road. I'm actually speaking
146for Adam uh Saxs who couldn't be here tonight. He's at two Esther Lane. Uh Adam wanted to point out that he is representing himself solely. Adam grew up in Worester where his grandfather started the home window. Can Can just to be clear, I do not allow people to speak for other people in in town meeting, but where they are both residents, I'm going to allow it. Okay. Thank you. Uh Adam grew up in Worcester where his grandfather started a home window home improvement business more than 75 years ago. Business moved from Main Street to South Ridge uh right next to Coney Island. It's a significant move for the company. Unfortunately, when they wanted to renovate the building, which had become historic districted, they were told that they could not put in windows that they wanted
147and the cost of the put in the windows that did comply was six times the cost of the standard window. Ultimately, they felt it was more appropriate to move the business again, which was another significant undertaking. Ironically, the building they moved from is still vacant today. While he agrees that guidelines can be helpful, we do not want to discourage businesses from making improvements. We should look at offering incentives versus penalties. Thank you. Sir, good to go. uh Joel Arbiteman. I have listened very carefully to the people who are critical of this article and most of them I don't mean to characterize them as a group but it seemed to me and perhaps to you that most of them were realtors, developers, business owners and landlords. And all of them are in business to make money.
148That's not an evil to seek profits and to have good commerce here in Ashland. We appreciate that. But let's look and the other key argument that was made was an argument that this is a pile of bureaucracy. We already have way too much and it's costly and timeconuming and it's burdensome. And let's look at 128 Main Street where the church has disappeared. Let's look at the monstrosity that is right on our doorstep at the mill building. Who has the power? The residents in trying to craft the community the way they seek to build it or the developers and the realtors who make money by destroying our heritage, our historic buildings and gutting the character of our downtown. and they have the laws in most cases on their side. This is a chance for us to
149say enough. There's no indication that any of the people who spoke on behalf of this article are unreasonable. I may have this wrong, but I thought there was something where the select board whom we elect would appoint at least one or more members or whatever the mechanism is here. And these are not bad people. We're trying to preserve the character of the town. If we don't vote for this tonight, we could lose any building. There's nothing stopping a developer. Let's say the guy, I don't know who he is, and I don't know what his interest is, but let's say the guy who owns the Jstone Inn wants to put up whatever he wants to put up as long as it complies with our current zoning code, but there's no historic district. We need to we
150need to step up and we need to do it now because we may not get another chance at this before other buildings are taken down and put in jeopardy. Thank you. Jim, you have the last comment. Thank you everybody. It's been a lively discussion and I'd just like to wrap things up here by just commenting on a few things. Um, first of all, I understand the intent of the district is is to help Ashlin's downtown business district, not make it a and make it a destination to help retain its character as a whole. Now, not everybody's going to like this and things are expensive. Another part of this is there are certificates of hardship that will be issued. So, if you come to the commission and saying you can't afford to do it this way,
151the commission will work with you. Okay, when I say hopefully, we can't predict what a future commission will say, but we can't do any of that until we establish the commission. Um, another issue that hasn't been brought up and to it's it's more ecologically sound to reuse old buildings to start from scratch and put them up u brand new construction. I know construction people don't want to hear that, but uh it's more ecologically uh sustainable. um the conse comprehensive plan committee, all the polls that I've seen and all the numerous numerous um questionnaires that have gone out says that the town of Ashland favors historical preservation. Now, if it was my business, I mean, I understand the commission wants to work with the businesses. Um but on the other hand, it's for the whole town,
152not just necessarily the business district itself. We purposely looked at the downtown of which there's only eight buildings out of 25 and there's four monuments and there's park areas that aren't historical. So there's only eight out of 25 that we're talking about that would not be histo be considered historical anyway. Now, the last thing I will say is that, you know, we live in Ashlin right now and it's our time on Earth, but we're not here forever. And everybody that owns a piece of property in this town only owns it while they're alive or while they own it. You know, I'm talking about something here, not just for today, but something for the future. You know, and if you don't preserve your past, there will be nothing left for them to see. And like I
153said, there's currently plans underway for downtown Ashlin for a major building to come down. Um, I don't know the details and I'm not going to say until because I'm I've heard rumors, which is all I can go on. But we're guardians of the properties that we own right now. I own a house in Ashlin. I'm not going to live there forever. You know, someone else is going to live in that house someday. And like I say, this is a chance now while we can. It's taken three and a half years to get to this point. If you want to go and do each build building individual, Somerville can do that because it's a city. It only has to go through city council and the mayor. Bam. Historical commission. We have open meeting town meeting. And
154it takes a long time to get to this point. And the other thing about that is it would be great to do it higglypiggly. You know, if you could you'd have 25 different commissions. Who's going to be on all those committees? We already have trouble getting people to be volunteers in this town. No one in this town, no one on any of these commissions or committees is getting paid. This is all free labor, folks. We're doing this not because we want to see people go out of business downtown, but we're doing it to preserve the historic character of the town we live in. And with that, I thank you. Thank you. We'll move to a vote. Uh my typical process would be do to do a card count, but given the interest, I think everyone
155would prefer to have an actual numerical count. So, we're just going to move right to a a hand count. Tell us the front, please. That's you. The tellers are going to get into position and when I ask for your votes I'm going to ask you I'll ask as I normally do All those in favor uh to to raise your cards, please keep them raised until the tellers come back here. We want to make sure they've had a chance to count all the votes. So, all those in favor of this article 15, please raise your cards. One Thank you. All those against the article, please raise your cards. Put your cards down. There were 111 yes votes, 66 no votes. Given that this requires a two-thirds margin, it fails. In favor, 111 opposed 66. In order
156to pass it, it would have needed 132 votes. Just to be clear that the clerk verified that I did the math right. Article 16, land take you from multimodal trail sponsored by the select board to see if the town will vote to authorize the select board to purchase acquire. Sorry. After discussion and review, we are pulling this article. Thank you. Article 16 is being withdrawn by the sponsor. Because it's being withdrawn um because it's being withdrawn by the sponsor, no action is required on the part of town meeting. Article 17, zoning bylaw accessory dwelling unit sponsored by the planning board to amend the town of Ashlin zoning bylaw section 76 7.6 accessory bylaw. Try this again. Section 7.6 accessory family dwelling unit by omitting the existing section 7-.6 and its place adding the languages printed
157in your handbooks or passing vote or taking the action relative there too. The finance committee defers his recommendation to town meeting. Miss Kendall on. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Um, in August 2024, Governor Healey signed the Affordable Homes Act section 8, which allows ADUs, accessory dwelling units up to 900 square feet to be built by right in single family zoning districts. Final versions of these regulations uh came out in January of 2025 and the planning board has been working to bring the Ashland ADU bylaw into compliance with the state law. Um, so what is described here in this bylaw is um removing Ashlin's uh ADU bylaw, which um only allowed for um a family member to live in that um in that ADU and it was a a different size requirement and the current ADU bylaw
158as proposed brings us into compliance with state law. The planning board did um vote to support this article. I'll be available for any questions. Thank you. To allow discussion, I'll entertain a motion that the town amend the town of Ashlin zoning bylaw section 7.6 accessory family dwelling unit by omitting the existing section 7.6 and replaces it with the zoning bylaw printed in article 17 of the warrant. Dr. Motion discussion. All righty then. Uh we will move to a vote. Zoning is normally a two requires twothirds majority for uh to pass but given changes in Mass General law this requires only a simple majority. So a simple majority wins this vote. All those in favor of the motion on article 17 please raise your cards. Thank you and opposed. That passes unanimously. Article 18, update bylaw
159flood plane sponsored by the planning board to amend the town of Ashland zoning bylaw section 8.1 flood plane overlay district by omitting the existing section 8.1 and replacing it with language is printed in your handbooks or pass any vote or taking any action relative there too. The finance committee defers its action recommendation to town meeting. Please note there was a scrier's error in section 8.12 section two. The words of the should have been struck through and the correct verbiage is local zoning bylaws relate to community compliance with the national flood insurance program NFIP. A variance administered by the board of appeal section 9.2 from this section. Miss Kendall. Thank you Mr. moderator. Patricia Kendall, six beneer road and current chair of the planning board. The planning board sponsored this amendment to the current flood plane
160overlay district bylaw due to changes in the FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Agency flood insurance rate maps, which affected two small areas in Ashland. Without modifying our bylaws, Ashland's ability to utilize FEMA insurance would be at risk. for questions. I'm going to rely on Ashen's conservation a agent, Becca Solomon, as this is a kind of complex wording in this bylaw. Uh, but the planning board did vote to support this article. The last time um the flood plane overlay district bylaw was updated was in 2014. Thank you. You allow discussion. I entertain a motion the town amend the town of Ashland zoning bylaw section 8.1 flood plane overlay district by omitting the existing section 8.1 replacing it with the bylaw as printed in article 18 of the warrant except that the words of the following the words
161section 9.2 in section 8.12 subsection 2 shall be omitted. Do I have a motion? could have been here a while. Discussion. Everybody still tired out from from historic commission? Uh, see no discussion. We'll move right to a vote. As with most zoning articles, this requires a two-third majority. All those in favor, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed. This passes unanimously. Article 19 update site plan review sponsored by the planning board to amend the town of Ashland zoning bylaw section 9.45.3 procedures for site plan review and design plan review as noted in your handbooks or pass on your vote or take any action relative there too. The finance committee defers recommendation town meeting. Ms. Kendall. Thank you Mr. Moderator. Uh Trisha Kendall 6 Rebek Road. um this bylaw as you can see um in
1629.4.5 it's just the text that is being mentioned basically that we're trying to start cleaning up the bylaws to bring make things a little bit more consistent uh within them. This is maybe the first of what will probably be um many changes little by little uh through town meetings. Changing this to 65 days instead of 30 days brings the site plan review and design plan review um into alignment with mass general law chapter 48 section 9 which is the plan which is for special permits which is 65 days. So, we don't have to change this by Mass General Law, but we're trying to bring our site plan review process and design plan review process in alignment with the special permit process because often we are dealing with those two permits at the same time in
163the same project. Thank you. Thank you, Trisha. To allow discussion, I'll enter a motion. I'll entertain a motion. I'm not entering them, but the town amend the town of Ashland zoning bylaw section 9.4.53. 4.5.3 at step fourth in article 19. Do I have such a motion discussion? I'm guessing none. All right. This will also require two majority. All those in favor, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed. That passes unanimously. Article 20 is being withdrawn. There's some conflict. The attorney general's office and department of agriculture can't agree on anything. So until they make an agreement, we're pulling this article, bring it back potentially in the fall. There being no further business, I'll enter a motion to dissolve. Second. All in favor? Anybody want to stay? Okay.