Select Board: October 16th, 2024

001e e e B have found that here so I'm really excited see all off the cuff like so yeah I didn't even write that down so didn't you chat GPT I did not chat GPT any questions or comments from the board just want to welcome yeah I just want to say welcome um also and uh it's great to have some new energy in in this position and uh welcome and uh what what sport did you play at Bridgewater I was a cheerleader cheerleader all right yes well I guess that goes right along with what you're gonna do here so exactly yeah yes all right thank you so much Makita or Brandy no just uh just echoing welcomes here you're very much looking forward to having you on board so thank you yeah Randy I will

002also say welcome um Ashland is a great place so um you will uh hopefully love it as much as all the rest of us do um you are here in time for Fall Fest which is this upcoming weekend um I know seriously so um so you'll get the first taste of sort of what what events in ashin can can be um I was just curious are you going to be doing um just because I I kind of get pulled into some of the stuff to um events for like um different buildings in towns to like the library and the community center is that going to be sort of part of it or is it mostly townwide events that you're going to be focused on do you know so Beth and I have really been talking

003about taking a more collaborative approach to this position so I briefly met everyone at the community center uh last week and I'll be meeting with them individually this week and next and I'm also meeting with uh Public Schools next week to try to get some um like build a little Bridge little Taylor Swift right there um no idea a the live being been trying to fix it on YouTube oh that was that was your phone ringtone come on we um anyway to try to like build a bridge between the people that work in this bu building and the people that work in the other buildings so I'm really excited to hopefully bring some new ideas and work on the events that everyone here already knows and loves great thank you yeah that's that's great because

004I was looking at different things and it's like that it would be good if there's some coordination between what the library is doing and what the community center doing is and what some of our community groups are doing um I would too say like to welcome you so what was your interview process like for this job and and did that help or hurt your decision to come here so I feel like I haven't even I haven't even told Beth this yet but I when I was applying was very very selective in the places that I was applying I was attracted to Ashland because I grew up in westbo so I feel like the towns are really similar we had similar events um I truly don't even remember hitting submit for this application I feel like

005it was just like a fever dream I was like that's that's the one I want to apply for and very quickly got an interview I was late to my interview because of the trains when they were all when all the little stops were coming down and they weren't going back up I called them in a panic and was like I'm going to be late but the way like they were so welcoming when I came in and let me take a few deep breaths before I started my interview and it was just really easy to talk with them I knew when Beth dragged me into Michael's office that it was probably going well so I felt really good about it and was really excited to get an offer a few days later so do you still

006so you grew up in westbo you still live there I live in Franklin now actually when did you graduate from westbo high school 2017 okay we'll check because I know some people in westbo you might we might know some people yeah my sister still goes to whhs okay yeah you took it easy on me on the interview thing I know you're like holding back so he badgered me for 45 minutes I'm just kidding it was like the same question over and over again so well and I would also like to Echo with Joe I think you you are very fortunate to to be working with Beth we as a town have been very fortunate to have Beth in what she's done and creating her role and I think with her guidance I I expect you'll

007have a fabulous experience here and I know we as a community will definitely love anything extra you can give us so thank you I'm really excited to really get started great good well thank you very much thank you and good luck thanks and I'm I'm sure we'll all be stopping in at some point awesome great well thank you very much good we're a little bit oh no we're on according to my watch we're on time we're now going to jump into is rajit joining us or not no just Doug okay uh looking at the new blight bylaw and then update on our donation bin enforcement well we were on time so I didn't know about the donation bin enforcement oh oh okay but that's all right that's all right okay that's so do you want

008me to describe how how the the blight bylaw came about and everything sure so it it's it's been about a year in the making and it started because we the um my office was getting a lot of concerns and complaints um about uh people that weren't taking care of their yards that were um you know junk cars um trash all over the place and these were mostly people that had just moved to town they were SP you know spending a million dollars or more on a on a house uh their dream home and they were very upset and so I I had approached Jen and and Michael about a a b bylaw and uh and after many enumerations um we have the one that you have now uh which was vetted by uh Town Council

009so let me explain this isn't in my mind and in talking with Raj this isn't a uh a a what we're you know we're not going to go out and because we don't a we don't have the Manpower and and like the rest of the zoning ordinances and by Town bylaws it's primarily um complaint driven so you know we're not going to go and harass people I don't have the time uh Raj doesn't have the time we're we're you know people come in and and or email me or come in and talk to me and they complaint a complaint to me it gives us another tool in our tool chest to be able to help the town and clean the town up you have a large number of people spending substantial amounts of money on

010their homes and they want you know this isn't about somebody's yard or lawn being you know 8 in tall this is about real complaints this is uh we we're getting more and more uh Raj is getting more and more complaints about rats because they're moving out of Boston into this area we had one area that uh one not too far away had had over 21 rat holes in their backyard about two weeks ago I got a complaint from a woman who was in tears they just bought a home their neighbor couldn't let her little girl right play out go run outside and play the neighbors's backyard was just overgrown with weeds and old Limbs and little bits of trash and um and they could see mice and when you can see mice floating run around

011all over the place you know there's a rat and she was petrified her daughter was going to get bitten and so this is what this BW is for this this isn't for to for punishment again this is about Not Just Junk Cars and it's also for commercial uh situations where we have commercial uh Pro problems with the commercial buildings Raj routinely finds finds issue issues behind some of the commercial buildings um and they they those are the places that you're going to get a a lot of rats and if we can't control the r population it's going to grow and you're not going to get rid of it so um again we're not uh this is this is for both commercial and residential it's townwide it's only if somebody complains to me it if we

012have to go to court we can say to the judge we have a bylaw this is the bylaw and we have to enforce it and we Raj and I were in court uh over uh a building on Pawn Street not too long ago and the wer was in there with uh six or seven people uh of enforcement officers and fire department people and they are all in there for blight issues and and things like that and the judge would you know the judge was asking questions judge Sullivan is's a great jurist uh and uh and he was and the minute they said under our bylaw this and we can't have this this you fix it you take care of it or I'm going to find you um so it's really helpful for us um unfortunately

013we didn't have this when we had to take the pawn Street Building to court but that would have that would have lessened the amount of time it took us to take care of that issue by months had we had this if we had yeah if we had the byon yes correct correct any questions questions Makita go ahead hi Doug um couple of questions um in an observation I I live I live in downtown Ashland uh and so I have personally seen an increase in the rodent population rats and mice uh many folks attributed to many things I had a chance to take a a quick peek at this and and I'm just I have a a commented a couple concerns I think uh the first first thing is is that I think that you know

014whether you're you you're spending a million dollars on a home or if you've been here for ages I think we can safely say that all the residents here in Ashlin deserve to have a nice clean and uh wonderful uh town and Community uh so I think this benefits us all I think uh on the other hand I I and this has been a concern personal concern of mine uh so I'll I'll come out and say that but I'll also ask um I am concerned about enforcement so what I heard you say was that you know obviously you're not looking to you're you're making sure that this isn't going to be used to harass people I I'm not exactly sure how how we can ensure that that is the case so you know because we know

015how neighbors can get with each other so is there a formal kind of review or mechanism or or or where where you determine like you know if this if it's like a personal dispute or if there's actually something wrong here or you know etc etc and how does that how would that communication how would that process look and I guess the other concern I have is you know for folks who um sometimes when you see trash and and those sort of things accumulate on properties you know it's an indicator of something else sometimes it's the homeowner maybe not having the financial wherewithal to be able to clear it and they want to clear it or they need help or they just don't know sometimes it's the elderly people have been in their houses for a

016long time you know so what are we doing to make sure that those folks are at least getting pointed to the resources that they need to take care of their problem and or getting the assistance that they need well for the first one [Music] um I've had a I've been a Building Commissioner building inspector since 1995 off and on and Raj has been around in the Board of Health a long time uh the police and the fire department are are also part of this uh bylaw um not so much um that they would do the handson but they get called to situations like the second concern you had and gives them the ability to look into it and get in touch with us but I think I think what it comes down to is a

017judgment called by us um as to whether this is just a complaint or I mean we we we get a complaint we we go out and we investigate we look at it we we try to talk to the person that uh is having a problem um we also I also in Raj also belongs to the task force that we meets once a month with Courtney from the community center which helps people with having emotional and physical mental issues and concerns the hoarding task force the hoarding Tas yeah the hoarding task force so so you know if we notice this like we have I was called to the fire department to to a to a home a few weeks back and realizing that there was an issue it's a single mother uh with other grown sons

018all living in this house no nobody wanted to deal with the one son that has this issue I went and met with Courtney and we had a discussion about it um and we're trying to figure out a way to deal with it because it could become a serious situation down the road um so not every complaint is going to you know immediately turn into a citation uh you know our knowledge and our you know what we do uh for our for our living and our expertise is going to go a long way um to figure these things out you know if I can get if if Raj and I can talk to somebody you know that we get a complaint again against and they can they will Rectify it that's great um if if I

019can't get hold of somebody I send them a letter hope I'll get a reply and we can start a dialogue in section four number four in the B law gives somebody a chance to go before the Board of Health which is going to be the governing body uh to figure out and work if it's beyond what Raj and I or the police and fire can do um so you know this isn't again this isn't one of those it's true treat it I would say it's going to be treated like the other bylaws that I enforce um you know Makita there there's a couple specific um Avenues to address what you're talking about um so specifically if somebody is issued a citation they have the ability to appeal that to the Board of Health um who

020would be able to hear and review things actually the um and then the second one is as Doug mentioned um so a person who gets issued a citation has the ability to appeal to um one of the enforcement agents or the Board of Health to you know instead of like having to clean it up right away they can submit a plan um because I will be let's just be very very blunt probably one of the bigger uh offenders would be the Valentine property um and you know obviously I mean we would probably want that that same type of courtesy right uh given given you know what we face it's a little bit more complicated but again it would be under the bylaw so those are two particular Avenues um as Doug mentioned we already have

021a hoarding task force in place that involves our social services and quite frankly you're probably going to see some overlap between some of the violations of this law and then the final thing is that there is going to be some level of subjectivity to this that you know requires their judge judgement but we did try to Define it as as well as possible in the in the definitions where we could thank you you're welcome thank you both Edie you feel free to email me or come and see me if you have ever have any concerns Claudia yeah I just had um kind of a few general questions um is there anything we have in place now how do we approach these problems now we don't well well under the health code but it's very very

022yeah we really don't got it um and do you know how many how many complaints typically say do we currently receive in course of a year or that I don't know I probably two or three a month and they a month they go up in good weather they I get more you know when Lawns and you know grass is growing and people have putting a junk out and things like that uh when it gets cold we probably won't don't get that me that a larger any larger number and then how many towns um around here do most towns have these a blight VW uh yeah I would say most towns do you know it you like I'll give you an example in and this is because framing him is you know it's a much bigger

023Community than us us but they have two full-time people that that's their full-time job is is taking care of their BL bylaw but typically it is um what we do which is the Board of Health and the building department work together on it and Lisa uh me who helped write it I gave a a general outline and then she she put all the legal EAS into it um but um you know she you know she had it right there she says oh yeah yeah a lot of people have this a lot of communities have this you know and and again I didn't mean that you know that all not only the local towns people I was just you know when I was saying about the new people coming into town I was saying that only

024because they're more apt to see it from a different View and uh and I think that that's that that kind of is a bit of a wakeup call because you don't want to get sedentary and you don't want to let this grow because the community gets a bad reputation you know it just and I guess then another question that I had was it looks like you have four um specific enforcement officers and then the ability to appoint to designate someone right according to the B law like well like my the building Building Commissioner Raj fire fire department the chief yeah and then like if I had a local inspector I could designate I understand so then one thing I was thinking just to kind of maybe deal with the subjectivity piece of it and and

025that's that's really challenging right would be before maybe citations would be um uh you know given um would it be possible maybe that the that a couple of the enforcement offices would have to be in agreement or have some kind of conversation um prior to just going and and and uh yeah I I think Raj and I would definitely well I mean we talk now about what's happening and what's going on uh with our with what we're what our jobs are and what we're enforcing and and things like that uh but now we I'll be honest with you writing the letter in the citation is a pain in the butt so it's not something that you want to be doing constantly it's just it you'd rather you know talk it out and talk to other

026people and I and I'm and I'm sure that we would uh Raj and I would meet together to uh to uh discuss whatever we find yeah yeah I mean it's always a challenge when we have to uh you know judge really on some level um what someone chooses uh obviously I I hope we're really talking about things like to the point of it being dangerous because of fire or health issues or things like that I I hope it is enforced for that at that high of a level that's what I that's what I foresee yeah I but I do think it's an opportunity and I think we all know properties that um it it's clear that they're not being taken care of and it it it serves as a quality of life it becomes a

027quality of life issue and again in any of these situations the goal isn't necessarily to find or or raise revenue it's to gain compliance and so that'll be our you know that'll be our foremost goal going into any of these situations and I do think it would be very important too to offer you know sometimes some social service services and it sounds like you do that now so that would be an important piece too yeah I mean what we're running up against now is is just as Doug alluded to just kind of a Manpower issue so you know Doug is the Building Commissioner also the zoning enforcement officer also does some project management work like he's you know managing the stuff around town hall um and so when you when you only have one person

028you need those three roles and you only have one person person to do it each of those roles like you have to cut it back a little bit like you know what they can do for it so um so that's something that you know we'll be working on addressing but even on the social services angle just kind of the demand that just continues to escalate um is is becoming a challenge Joe I just have one I'd like to piggy back what um Claudia just asked you uh Doug with respect to um absentee landlords oh we have we have in there language about um several things uh one we go after absy absentee landlords because they have they believe it or not they they have care custody and control of that property correct and it's not

029necessarily the tenants our job isn't to go after the tenants our job just like under zoning uh I don't go after the tenants I go to the landlord and I say to the landlord hey you better fix this you better do do what you're supposed to do or I'm finding you I'm not finding the tenant I don't care about the tenant so that's how we deal that's how you know I deal with it and and I think Raj is the same way uh except I think except for a couple instances with that that he has to over you know take care of um but um and uh you know the other way is um we have written in here whether the property is rented or owner occupied um okay yeah so the other thing Joe

030and and I apologize we we haven't even touched upon this but this is a big piece so part of this bylaw is also if there is a vacant property vacant or closed property you have to register it with with the town uh and make sure that you have a you know upto-date contact information and everything there is a fee associated with that that every Community I've been involved with that that we've implemented this there there is a like an administrative fee associated with it um so that way we'll have a record at least and you'll have contact information exactly right and that's that's purpose of doing that to have the contact information yeah that is okay that is uh that is from the uh Attorney General's office they uh when we brought them in in

031another town I had worked in we we had they had belonged to that and we actually walked around with one of the attorney generals that rein that program uh to all of the vacant homes uh and properties so that they knew that what was on our list so in the the future what happens is we we we turn it over to the Attorney General's office and then they the ones that chase and deal with it so it's a the town's attorney doesn't have to get involved and you don't have to pay pay those expenses or the expenses for mailings and and you know and everything else we we went to court for the one on Pawn Street just because the Attorney General thought it was a smart thing to do but you know the the

032judge Sullivan asked us well uh who's here from the town and we raised our hands we stood there and he didn't even talk to us the rest of the time but uh but it's a it's a really good system it's a really I'm glad that it's this is part of that system we don't have a lot of Bandon homes we have a few but not a lot of them and it's mostly because it's an elderly person or you know right something innocuous like that that uh you know the fam's uh trying to deal with whatever they're trying to deal with but it all gets overgrown it becomes a mess and it it CES a mess for the whole neighborhood sooner or later well I can I can remember a few years back when we had

033a town meeting uh I think Craig Davis was the chief at the time you know where I'm going to go with this with the uh with the uh Vehicles commercial vehic commercial vehicles and non-commercial Vehicles yeah and uh that didn't go too well I just want was that the night Craig was that the night Craig had the infamous line am I missing something here yeah that might have the ice cream truck 35u 35 minutes on one question oh it took it was incredible it may have been longer but I remember looking at the clock at 35 minutes and going oh my word this is crazy Joe you all set with okay thank you we have a long night so Brandy I can make it long no that's okay I'm not that caffeinated I'm going to

034hold everybody that so A couple a couple quick questions one we were talking about vacant properties how long should a property be vacant before it has to be reported there isn't really a timeline I me if we notice like somebody calls me or somebody you know or I drive I'm driving around doing inspections um then and I see a vacant property what I'll do is I'll come back and I'll talk to Terry or June and the assessors and see who the owner is and you know that's going to give me an idea if are they out of state is it somebody local and then you know you you try to figure it out it's Yolanda said that it's in the bylaw and I just happened to miss it so my apologies I you know what

035I got so much going on um one other one other question I had is um because the Board of Health is sort of the the overseeing body of this would it be possible for like a periodic report to go to the Board of Health just to say how many how many blight cases have been reported just just as sort of a sense check as to like what is happening because I think I think from my perspective that would make me feel much more comfortable of having some sort of sense check as to what what is happening with it part of the um agent report maybe yeah yeah I mean it doesn't have to be I mean like on a quarterly basis or something like that just you know there were five reported incidents they were

036all investigated three were resulted in a warning and were cleaned up I mean it doesn't have to be a lot of in-depth things but it would be something that I think would would be would be good just put um and then I have two technical things that I wanted to just ask so in and this is probably more for Jen um in section 2665 we're references paragraph B this is in the administration this is in number three um I'm not sure what sub paragraph B is referencing the first citation may be warning I think is that is that what you're talking about it is it says after completing an investigation pursuant to sub paragraph B above if an enforcement officer discovers one or more violations but I'm just not sure what sub paragraph B is

037referring to because I was trying to find is that the a first citation show be a warning maybe it should be sub paragraph B below yeah May below okay yeah so I think it's what it's yes I think it's B below which I can make that change and it's really just saying that the first citation may be a warning and that way it's not must issue warning all right I was just y yeah I was just looking at it and it didn't quite totally make sense I wanted to just um check on that and then there was just one typo on on page 10 that at the top let me find it hold on um oh it's alien in yeah that's alen aen instead of alen so the town has the ability to to apply

038alen I know it looks like alien it looks like Al but when you it's alien when you read it a couple times you understand just a typo just a typo that's all I um it was on page 10 I'm just looking at se 2665 yeah 266 D5 perfect I find about halfway through number five yeah I'm just going to change it in the warrant yeah okay that's all I got you means four no it's in section five 266 point-5 and then it's so oh on my is in other places but in that particular place as Brandy pointed out it reads as Al alen yeah yeah and then a couple paragraphs couple sentences down it just says alien yeah it's just missing just just just a small Tapo but I wanted to do that before we

039close the warrant yeah so that is all I thank you thank you for all your work on this because I think it is I think it's important stuff and I'm I'm glad it's going to town meeting so thank yous the definition yep um think she's a teacher so so I just want I just want to say thank you for bringing this forward this a blight bya is something we've talked about on and off um for a couple years so it's nice to see I like the way it's presented I think the what I'm one question I had regarding the registration of the vacant properties you said you've seen that done in other communities with that how well is that m maintain I mean do people do it willingly voluntarily or do you have to say

040okay we've now found this vacant property and we need to enforce them to fill it out and to pay the annual fee so it works there's two different ways it works one is when we when we're a finally able to get hold of somebody that has care custody and control of the property uh they'll either say oh geez I'm sorry we we tied up in court or blah blah blah whatever it is and the other one is uh chase me and Catch Me If You Can okay yeah in 2011 did this in LEL obviously a much bigger city um and uh it was shortly after the you know financial and housing crisis when you know a lot of banks were foreclosing and stuff and I would say at that time it was probably half and

041half we we had half um what what we did was a lot of banks own the properties and so we sent out a letter to to the banks with I mean we went through and saw how many through the assessor records and saw how many were owned by Banks and we sent letters you know to the bank saying they they had to register it um yeah I would say it was about 5050 so 50% you know complied right away 50% we had to kind of Chase or like that so if this gets passed a town meeting then does it come become effective right away or it has to go through the AG's office first so we wouldn't see this enforcement of December 1st to December 31st until next year right or right so it would

042get pasted and and about how many how many vacant properties do we have right now in town I don't think there's very many of them maybe a half a dozen if that okay yeah I I don't foree that being a big concern you know it's more trash and in in in health issues and safety issues and things like that good okay any other questions or comments no just thank you um this has been really helpful and great and I think that ashin does need need this so um yeah this is good Michael are you planning on doing a town manager town meeting event where the C the public could review this and ask questions okay yeah I mean have a date set up no okay but just so that we make sure we do okay

043great anybody have anything else for Doug thank you Doug you're very welcome you did a good job dou oh yeah before you go yes donation bin enforcement we keep getting pictures from the one specifically under so I gonna I'm G to I apologize it's other things have been on my Doug so I just want to say like I don't think you need to apologize because the at the very beginning like I was sending Doug out there each each time and Doug would make him clean it up and like literally two days later Steve would send a picture well that's what we're seeing now right is we got a picture on I think end of last week it looks like it got cleaned up and then we got another picture again this week and so that

044particular spot I I I have the contact information for the guy that's in charge of that I'm going just tell him he's got to remove him that spot think uh I'll work with uh Jen on the letter because I don't I guess it could get a little dicey under certain State statutes and laws and I so we have to be careful how that letter would be written right so my my suggestion would be to um so I think under the bylaw it's it's the property owner assumes basically the responsibility for that and so I think you know addressing it with the property owner have the property owner tell the the B okay to to do that or at least try that first um and then that way that avoids any potential for the issue yeah

045no I don't have a problem I'm just thinking of how where it's located about which which property owner that property that's located on I know it's right near the gas station it's near the gas station I'm not sure if it's like I'll I'll talk to wouldn't the permit and on file have that information right have permit there should be permits for each of these bins we only have the information for the uh owners of the boxes uh we don't have the information of the the land property owner that allows it because typically they just somebody who come so I have a friend that owns a business that does this actually makes a ton of money selling stuff and wora get clothing and stuff like sends it to Africa stuff but he um but they they

046typically it's a handshake deal the guy says don't bother me I won't bother you I don't care put it where it's not going to get in the way of my business and they don't they don't know anything but I I'll talk to the uh I'll talk to the guy at the gas station yeah I think actually the permit will have or the application will have the address where it's located so how many do we have in town how many of these donation bins do uh six or seven seven or eight somewhere around the 68 not that many so I see on the bylaw that that we we have like it's a it's a one-year license on these do we know when the license expires on that particular problematic bin at the end of the year

047probably mean it says our the license period for each donation collection bin shall be January 1st through the December 31st of each year so we don't we can tell them we're not renewing it this year you know that might be a way out you know because we are coming up on and we can give notice we have enough time to give notice sure yeah so I would suggest maybe that's the okay a path of Le resistance I haven't seen any issues in any of the other uh boxes um in my wanderings around town um but yeah that's that one site does for some ungodly reason it and have we have we have we um done any citations for that bin because in our bylaw we're allowed to yeah you know what it's just I now

048I accept full responsibility of uh of of not uh doing a citation there okay okay so you can take back all your I think thanks sorry about that it's still a lot it's still a lot to maintain so okay anything else for Doug so send that letter and tell them we're not renewing that one okay thank you very much have a good evening everybody nice to see you all good seeing you okay moving on to our next scheduled appointment apologize we're a little bit late uh a presentation update on open space and wreck plan by the open space and wreck committee just have to call up the presentation yeah looks like we have one member in person and another member online that's nice thank you all for being here okay hey all right so I

049have to peer over these when I'm talking to you and then down when I'm reading just you know what bring the microphone a little bit closer to you there you go that way our friends at home can hear you as well okay do you want me to wait for No that's jump in okay so um for those of you who don't know me I'm Roberta sulman I'm the chair of the open space and Recreation committee and I have here um Greg WS who's also a member of the open space and Recreation committee and the chair of the Conservation Commission and online is Judith salad who's another member of the open space and Recreation plan committee I want to thank you for the invitation and for your time on today's agenda and um I have this

050presentation um that I've put together to talk about the status of the open space and Recreation plan where we're at what our timeline is and the assistance that we need from the select board and town staff in order to meet that timeline um based on some information that I received today there'll be some modifications in this and I'll just sort of talk through them as we as we get going so for briefly for those who um are at home and who are new to town and who might not know about the open space and Recreation committee it was established by the select board in 1989 and for those two purposes to Foster conservation Recreation and open space planning and to create a land trust or an equivalent vehicle under which the town can accept and

051maintain open space acquisition um as part of as part of open space planning um our committee is responsible for creating and updating the open space and Recreation plan so the open Recreation plan open space and Recreation plan is updated every 7even years and it's submitted to the state's executive office of energy and environmental Affairs and they are the ones who review it and make sure that it conforms to the state requirements and state statute and then they approve it once it's approved um it will qualify us to apply for state grants for open space um improvements Acquisitions Recreation improvements Acquisitions um there are a number of conservation land and water and park conservation grants that the state um has through the executive office of energy and environmental Affairs the other elements the other reasons the

052plan is really important to the town is that it promotes Equity among neighborhoods particularly environmental justice neighborhoods where there's often Less open space and fewer recreational facilities the planning process is is designed to get input especially from those neighborhoods and try to look at providing more equity in terms of open space natural areas and recreational facilities the plan requires rigorous and extensive uh resident participation so in the end the plan will reflect the will of the residents and it helps to set priorities for government officials to follow and incorporate when planning and making land use decisions that impact open space Recreation and historical assets it also includes historical sites and historical buildings um essentially it's the town's Touchstone you know it's it's the plan that you look at that has an action plan based on

053Resident um input and that's what you look at in terms of of making um decisions this is for those of you who've never seen it this is the plan um that our most recent plan and this is what we're planning to update um in the next couple of months so there's a difference between doing your your previous plan and doing an update and the update Builds on the previous plan and not all sections have to be revised for example the history of the town of Ashlin pretty much is going to stay the same we could add a little bit of narrative about the last couple of years anything significant that happened but the founding fathers when it was incorporated all the rest of it that's not that doesn't need to be revised so there are

054some sections and we we're going to go through them there are some sections that are are like that as well so according to the open space and Recreation plan workbook that is put out by the state to help guide you in doing this update you revise the sections that no longer accurately reflect the character the needs the goals of the community that that you receive through the vehicles for public input so if what was a priority before for the public is no longer a priority then the action plan and the goals and objectives and the narrative need to be revised so that's primarily what the update focuses on is the public input in in addition to any um of the required maps that would change like since we did the last one the flood plane

055has changed so that particular map is going to need to be different and we're going to need to update a lot of the maps um themselves so here's the required content and it has to be presented in the plane in this order there's no flexibility to this it has to be um contain the content and it has to be according to these sections the red stars indicate that there's going to need to be an update because it depends on input from the residence So the plan summary is going to be different if the priorities of the residents have changed the introduction and statement of purpose is going to be different if the priorities of the residents have changed we have to describe the current plan process and public participation that we engaged in in order

056to collect input the community setting our regional context will change um because our position within the five Metro West towns could change according to a change in our demographics a change in people's income um framing him becoming a city now which happened since the last plan was done so there are different things that could be different there are things that could be different the history again will probably stay the same demographics will definitely need to be updated according to the census as will growth and development patterns section four the environmental inventory and Analysis pieces of that may change um Water Resources may change based on water quality and quantity for the town um you know the emergency connection to the MW that's been a development since the last plan so some things will be different

057Scenic resources and unique environments we ask the residents to try to tag some places that are particularly um Scenic or favorites of theirs um in town and environmental changes will definitely need to be updated with sustainability initiatives and the importance of climate change that's exacerbated since the last um plan was done section five is an inventory of lands of conservation and Recreation interest there's a very specific grid that we have to fill out in order to um talk about the public Parcels the private and the nonprofit Parcels so that also um needs to be updated the Community Vision a description of the process and a statement of the goals that depends um entirely on public input so does section s with the analysis of needs a summary of the community needs the resource protection needs

058and management needs goals and objectives and the 7-year action plan obviously um need to be revised and the public comments section needs to include a copy of any surveys that we have done to solicit public input um notes from any public forums that we do to solicit public input and the responses from the public section 11 is references to any doc doents that we use during our research including the census and then there's a list of very specific maps in addition to some other um maps that we had the last time that we would like to keep there and just update those they encourage you to use maps as a way to illustrate different points that you make in different parts of the narrative so we have approximately 26 Maps um that we're planning on

059updating and doing and and um about seven of them can only be done after the public input because they require public um input in order to complete those so people may be wondering um we're doing an a survey to that's one of the mechanisms for us to get public input right now um from from the residents in town and people may be wondering well we just did the comprehensive plan survey we've done two comprehensive plan surveys we're doing all kinds of surveys around town why do we need another one so I thought I would just put up there a comparison between the open space and Recreation plan survey that was launched on September 21st and is going to remain open until October 27th and compare that to the comprehensive plan survey so you can see

060the number of questions varies the number of questions focusing and drilling down on specifics of open space Recreation and historic IAL assets um is different demographic questions and then both surveys have an open-ended question at the end where people can say whatever they would like to say to emphasize either some of their previous ratings or say something new or say something that wasn't asked of them um in the survey specifically additional state requirements are rigorous public participation as I've been saying over and over again um Ada assessments through there's a form that we have to use Ada assessments of Municipal Park and conservation areas facilities and programs and those assessments have to involve people with disabilities or an organization that represents people with disabilities so that's a more intensive um specialized sort of Resident and

061public input that is also required in order to complete the plan the plan needs to be reviewed not approved the state makes it very clear that they are the only ones who can approve this but that the select board chair or town manager needs to submit a letter of review saying they had the chance to look at it as does the regional planning agency which is for us as MPC and as does the planning board so from the um open space and Recreation plan workbook on page 49 it says that you may concurrently submit your draft to the state for review while the municipal boards are reviewing the report and then to get final approval you have to be sure to send those letters in so our original timeline for completing the plan was going

062to be the end of this fiscal year June of 2025 we were hoping to do a survey a c you know a survey we were doing a couple of public forums we were going to revise the action plan and the draft um have another public forum so that people could comment on the revised draft before we finalize it and then the last time we did the plan we had a draft at the public library and a town hall so that people could go look at a hard copy and you know take it and read it if they wanted to um right right now we're looking at accelerating a timeline um to try to get this done more quickly however this afternoon um it came to my attention that the grant that the town is looking

063to apply for has not been posted yet on the State website and has not been released so there is no we don't know right now what the deadline is for this we don't it we thought it was January 11th we I was told it was January 11th but it is unknown at this point in time because the grant has not come out it is not on the website it has not been posted and consequently there's no public deadline that's been posted either so while we're going to try to work this um as fast as we can to be done when the time comes when the grant is due um we should have more information by Friday or next week at at the latest as to what the exact um date is but we're committed to

064moving forward it's a heavy lift it's a big plan it's a lot of work and we are going to need help from the select board as well as from town staff in order to keep to the timeline it's going to be very tight um and I'm going to show you what that accelerated timeline is right now um action the major action items here and the the key group that's responsible we launched the survey on the 21st it's going to close on the 27th and we launched an English version but the state is really invested in the environmental justice neighborhoods with linguistic minorities they're really invested in finding out what the youth want what disabled people want and what people over 65 want what seniors want so we're doing an English version I have also um

065translated the survey into Portuguese and Spanish and I need to release that um and hopefully you know if we find out later that we have more time than January 11th we can let the Portuguese and Spanish versions be out there for a little bit longer past October 27th right now I think there were four Portuguese speaking people and like three Spanish-speaking people who filled out the survey out of right now as of this afternoon 266 responses so we're more than halfway to our goal of 500 but we really need to get a broader demographic of the Town represented we're revising narrative sections that are not dependent on public input so we can have those ready to go um I already talked about the Portuguese and Spanish versions we're updating the land inventory and we are

066going to need um information from the acting town accessor the property data and potentially access to the town's um GIS mapping in order to check information about properties that we have to be able to provide we can start creating maps that are not related to public input and I'll I have a list after this of the very specific things that we need from the the select board and from the town staff but creating Maps would be something that we would need help with we on this accelerated time line we don't have the time to learn how to use the gis for the maps that we need um analyzing the survey results and dra between the closing of the survey and the first public forum we're going to be drafting an action plan to present the

067survey results and the draft action plan at two public forums one is going to be on November 14th which is a Thursday at 7 p.m. the other is going to be November 16th which is a Saturday and that will be at 900 a.m. they're both at the community center and we have been told I think Jen knows this already from Kelly that we need to have a member of the select board open it up for US Open the building stay with us when we're there and close the building up afterwards in order for us to use the building um after after hours after we get input from the residents as to the draft action plan we're going to revise it again and um create the maps based on their input and then send the Conta

068content to the graphic designer um at the beginning of um December if we had more time what we would additionally do is again extend the Outreach to to linguistic minorities in town extend the Outreach to renters because most of the people who filled out the survey so far are Property Owners they own their homes extend the Outreach to disabled adults so that they can give us some significant input into um the Ada need needs and requirements and we would have that second set of forums so that the public could review the changes that we made to the draft based on their input from the first Forum if we have more time but if we don't those are the corners that we have to cut and it it's unknown what impact that would have on the

069on the plan's approval whoops hang on one second I need to go back okay so these are the Outreach activities we've done so far to promote the survey um we've sent email to the open space and Recreation committee's email list and our individual friends member list we've sent it to 15 Town committees and ask them to ask their members to not only respond but have their friends respond we sent it to the ashin high school families through the ashin High School principal's office and we sent it to all six of the youth sports leagues in Ashland we have Flyers all over town I hope you've seen them we've left some at Town Hall we're putting putting them around there's a QR code in the URL there um and we're putting out some additional Flyers now

070that tell people when the survey is going to be closing we're going to send a reminder again to the open space list and possibly also to those those Town committees again um it's been in the town manager newsletters um since the the survey launched and will be in the town manager newsletter until the survey closes it's been on at least three different Facebook pages it's on our committee's page on the town website and thank you Makita I was on her um inaugural podcast that will be I think aired starting on Thursday to starting tomorrow the show is not new but the format is okay okay so this is the assistance that we going to need if we're going to meet this timeline um help publicizing the survey so that we can reach our goal of

071500 as I said um when I left the house this afternoon to come over here we had 266 people so we are more than halfway there but we still need to get a much more robust response connect to any Portuguese or English-speaking staff to request make three requests help reaching out to limited English-speaking residents perhaps they could if they felt comfortable reviewing the Portuguese and Spanish versions of the survey to make sure that Google translate um is correct and also interpreting at public forums if we're going to encourage um linguistic minorities to participate and come to the Forum they're going to need some way of understanding the conversation and what happens at the floor we're going to need some help publicizing the forums and as I said we're going to need a select board person

072there to open it up um stay for the the two hours and then um Help Us close up we're going to need help creating all the GIS maps even the ones that can be done with public input and the ones that can be done without I've talked to um Steve Greenberg about getting the property data information we need from the assessor's office um and anything that town staff can do to help with that um the interim Town assessor if the town has an ADA coordinator who has Ada evaluations information or assessments about the different properties that we're going to have to look at that would save us having to go and do a site visit for each one of the properties to update them we also need to be able to um say who the

073Ada coordinator is and what the grievance procedure is for the town if someone with a disability has a grievance about against the town for um lack of accessibility of a facility or Recreation or open space programming we could use help facilitating the open space plan review with mapc just to get it done in a relatively timely way and then a letter of review from the select board chair or the town manager only one or the other is required if you want to do both that's wonderful that would be great as well so um before I take questions if you have any I just want to remind people this is the the survey and the QR code and these you'll see these around town um please fill it out uh we're planning on the current timeline

074to close it by October 27th if we have more time we'll leave it open longer and we'll let people know about that but um it's it's a a great way to make sure your voice is heard um in this particular plan and some things related but not totally on point that I just want to make sure I do now so I don't forget the open space and Recreation committee the historical commission and the Historical Society are co-sponsoring um a guided walking tour of the 12 historical sites in downtown ashin so that is this Saturday October 19th right after the farmers market from 1:30 to 3:30 we're going to be meeting in the Town Hall Parking Lot doing the guided walk and then um have light Refreshments back at Ocean House at the Historical Society I

075understand we set a rain date but I understand the weather's supposed to be glorious on the weekend so um yeah so enjoy and come with us please join join us for the walk okay that's it any questions great thank you for that uh I'm G to open it up to questions and or comments from the board first any questions concerns or comments Randy so just a quick question so the open space plan that you that you were referencing before that that has expired and and when when did it expire it expired in April of 2024 all plans expire after seven years okay that's just the way that's normal procedure that's the way it goes and in an email exchange years ago that I had with Melissa cryan at the state she said it's perfectly okay

076if towns let it expire it's totally up to them and at last check there were about 134 towns with expired plants so some towns never get another one they never do another one and other towns do an update so that they can um because they feel it's important to the residents in town and because they might also be looking at Grant funds right we would still need to be doing all of this work whether expired or it didn't it doesn't matter it doesn't matter that's still the previous plan that's the one that's going to be updated those are the sections and the content that we're going to be basing the new plan on making changes according to resident input okay all right thank you I think um I mean we'll talk about why we're thinking

077about doing this accelerated process I'm sure yeah um but you know you guys are still in the very beginning stages of this right so this hasn't been something you've been working on since the last plan expired we have been working on it since the spring but we set we set since early spring but we had set a different timeline you know we had given ourselves more time um and now we're trying to accommodate the town's need to apply for a grant whenever that is we don't know what that deadline is right now okay great thank you actually can I ask a follow on question is is it typical to allow it to expire or do is it more typical that you know it's about to expire that you might start the work a year beforehand

078so that as it expires you already have your next one in in the works we've done it both ways okay we have we've done it both ways and as I said a minute ago 134 communities a third of them in the state let it expire and just didn't do anything else right so you know IND each town does it differently y okay no I guess if you're going to talk some more I guess thank you first of all sure um it's certainly a big undertaking and I appreciate the work that the committee does um I think the most important thing at this point in time right is getting this done in a fashion that we can make sure that we qualify for the grant um I don't know if the report at that point has

079to you know you if there are some things that don't have to be done to perfection to help aid getting meeting that those deadlines and um I guess do we even we don't know what any of these deadlines are at this point we have some idea okay so I think that's the key right and then making sure that we work that you get the resources you need and that the town uh maybe makes sure that that we don't miss out a grand opportunity no nobody wants that to happen Makita any thank you very much sure yeah I just uh hello Roberta I just wanted to um piggyback on what Claudia just said so so yeah I think um you know one thing that you you had said uh that you know there were certain things

080that you were concerned about cutting Corners so that you could make a deadline but I guess my question is I also heard and correct me if I didn't hear correctly was um that the those items could diminish our chances for having the plan approved or um so I don't know if we want to you know cut Corners like you said though it's important to get we we do need to get the plan done as quickly as possible even though we don't know the exact deadline it's probably within the ballpark of whenever whatever it usually happens but um you know I think that at this point it's it's it's about getting the plan done but also getting it done in a way that it's going to be accepted and a way that we can use it

081for Grant opportunity so I I I guess my concern would be like not sacrificing any parts that could could be a deciding factor whether the plan is accepted or not so with your request for for staff help Michael and I have already chatted some so I'm going to let Michael jump in and sort of say where he feels that staff can help I think um I I I applaud you know first of all thank you for coming and giving us this update and I saw your request for staff I think there are places where it says open space and wreck committee members that I think staff might be able to jump in so Michael want you go ahead yeah I think um so I think if our primary concern is is the grant right now

082um and I think to your point Roberta by the way thank you for the presentation and all your work on this but um so if typically that Grant announcement comes out in November right we we would only have a little time to to get ready for a January submission date and I do think last year it was sometime in November when it was released and the due date was I believe January 11 um you know some of the staff requests I think um you know I did I did talk to Becca uh about the maps and um you know she had some thoughts about some other stuff and I think we can help um with that the assessor makes me a little bit nervous just because we do have um a you you know basically

083a consultant working on that and and his Focus really needs to be on getting helping get the tax rate set and getting things ready so we could send out the third quarter tax bills after after that so I I'm happy to check with him I think though just kind of looking at the list I'm a little with so much on the line I'm a little uncomfortable with having staff play like so much of a role but yet not necessarily having the responsibility for it um you know I I don't want it to be in a situation where like our staff get blamed for you know not being able to submit a grant in time when they don't necessarily have the responsibility for it um so that's that's like my major concern um I I think

084I I just I want to say a couple of things about that one is is that the committee is working really hard and taking a really heavy load to get it across the Finish Line to benefit the town to be able to apply for this Grant and so there are areas where we are either going [Music] to not be able to do it or not be able to do it very well and it's mainly the GIS mapping which they helped with before which was for them not a big deal and the property data that I understood that rich Ball gave us before was just you know a set of Excel spreadsheets that he downloaded from his system and handed it over none of these items here um requires a lot of time or responsibility for

085the plan what we need to know as a committee is if we're going to be pushed to get this done on time and we're saying we need help is that help going be available to us and how do we go about putting that in place like whom should we be in touch with about getting help from the board whom should we be in touch with about getting help from staff what do we do if that help isn't coming in a timely way and it's holding us up because we're not going to be responsible for holdups that have nothing to do with us that are coming from other places for people who are supposed to be helping us carry this ball so we're saying the same thing right we don't want to be responsible for something

086if um if we don't have responsibility for it right and so I think you know what I'm saying is that you know if we're going to have staff take on you know a role which which we're happy to do I I would I would like to make sure that we have the actual responsibility I guess question my question to you Roberto would be this right obviously you're a volunteer committee we're expecting a lot if if we said okay if we put the committee in a supporting role and allowed staff to take the lead on getting this completed and rather than the committee going crazy staff has looked at it and said they have a little bit more time to help maybe with some of the review of the survey information with some of the writing

087um I'd like to sort of take not take the complete responsibility away from the open space and wreck committee but to say look we know you guys have been working we know but and we're as a board and as a town we're sort of putting some extra pressure on you to get this done sooner than what you had planned I think that the requests from the staff are very they're important for us for information but they're minimal in terms of the amount of the time someone's going to have to put in no now now that's that's okay if for someone to give us an Excel spreadshe that they already have on their computer is not a a Time sucker Roberta I'm sorry but you have no idea what the staff have to do then if

088they're that busy how are they going to take it over I'm just saying you don't have any idea how it's not I how it worked I know how it worked before when we made request Roberto you go ahead and do it well you know what hold on Michael let's let's not let's all take it down a section A little bit the goal here is to get this plan completed and I know you've said that we're not sure of the timing of the grant but we're using historical data right historically last year it was announced in November and the Grant had to be applied for in January the reason we're looking for this grant is we have a large parcel of property that we're looking to purchase and we're try to finding a way where it's

089not just coming from the town where we can get these grants so what I am asking and we have three of your members here you know yourself and two others the as you have said this is a heavy lift this is a lot for your committee to do between now and November what I am asking and and seeing your feedback on is Staff yes they have a lot to do but this is that it's their fulltime it's their job right so we can say for this project because of the importance of getting this done we'd like to recommend and support the open space and recck committee by saying okay instead of that list that had osrc next to everything except for a few things what if we work with the staff and they're doing the

090they're doing more of the work and you're more of an advisory right so that some of the writing that's having to be done some of the updates some of the review of the survey data and or the analysis of the survey data rather than having it be done initially by the OS at RC group the staff can do the initial review of that survey data and then speak to this committee about it again not trying to take away anything but as a as a support we have staff and there is urgency in getting this done yeah I I understand what you're saying I think it does take away our sense of ownership as a committee and I'd need to talk to the rest of the committee to see if that's okay with them and it

091does sort of confuse me that Michael is saying that the staff is very busy and doesn't have the time and you're saying that the staff could take on more stuff to do I'm not sure where what I think it's a it's a sense of responsibility right so sometime and sometimes it's semantics so we have staff who are willing to take this on right they report to other staff they report to Jen they so the concern is they report to other staff they don't necessarily report to the open space and wreck committee so a sense of trying to work together but the understanding that the staff will ask questions and work with you but they may not necessarily it they wouldn't report to the open space and wck Committee in regards to getting this done they

092would take it on as a responsibility and ask for the open space and W Moore to advise because you're then not doing as much of the the leg work and the writing and things like that and staff would do that yeah I I think Roberto what what I was referring to like when you when you don't understand it's like some of these processes that you think are are very easy sometimes they're a little more complicated than what people understand and that's fine I wouldn't expect people to understand again my concern is again you know seeing staff up there a lot and knowing kind of what's on the line I don't want to put them in a position where if something goes wrong vice versa to kind of what you were saying like we don't want

093to be in a position where we would be looking to you for like feedback or or or something on on something that we had put together and like it doesn't get turned around in time and things like that without you know without having like the ownership or the responsibility of it does that I I don't I don't think that's a an unreasonable thought it it's disappointing because in the past when we've done multiple other plans in 2007 2010 2014 17 and this revision the open space and Recreation committee had that responsibility we did the plan and when we needed help from town hall we just went to the respective staff or the town manager asked for help it was no big deal we got the the task or the help that we needed and we

094moved on and and I would say the the one difference here is we are working with an expired plan doesn't matter it if it expired or didn't expire you working with the same we are we are then we are under a gun for potential grants right if we were not looking to purchase this property and potential apply for these grants we would have let probably let open space just go with their plan right but now that this grant has become visible and there's the need for a An approved open space and wreck plan that's the urgency and I would almost say it's taking some of the weight off of your committee to say okay we're going to we're going to take it inhouse let the staff do more with your guidance with your review but

095the actual some of the writing I mean I don't have all the specifics as to what the staff can do Michael is looking at that but again the idea is that you got most of you have jobs we understand that right it's not that we don't want you we want you to be we want your input we want you to support this but it's the idea that if we're just just this time around right sometimes things have to change and that's how I'm looking at this right there are times that as select board members we don't have as much time and there's an urgent need to do something we rep we rely on our town staff so that's what we're looking at here is how can we shift more of the burden to staff have

096them re respond you know reporting to their managers and use open space and recck committee members more as guidance rather than you saying I need this and them getting it to you more shared burden I don't want to take up more any more time I just have three things left to say one is that um if you look at the open space and Recreation plan workbook that's published by the state that is supposed to be the guide for how you do this it's supposed to be driven by the public and by the committee by a committee and not by a couple of people in staff who are going to write this on behalf of the rest of the town so that's one thing the other thing is I'm not going to make that decision right

097now I'm going to have to convene a a meeting of the open space and Recreation committee and we'll get back to you with with our thoughts and third of all I still see this cognitive dissonance here that I can't get about it's complicated I don't understand it and the staff has too much to do to comply with what seem to be a couple of relatively straightforward requests yet they're going to have time to write the whole plan and use us as advisers and just do the plan by themselves I don't get that it seems to me they either have time or they don't have the time and I don't understand how both things can be what anybody here is saying I think what you're you're saying is not what we're saying yeah I don't I

098don't think when Michael was saying that things takes more time than you think that doesn't mean that the staff doesn't have time to do those things for you I think it's more that we have we we can you know sometimes you shift priorities and what we're looking to the staff to do for the next two or three months to get this done is to shift their priorities and their priorities would be shifting to help work on this plan and yes you're right and and I'd be actually interested if you could email the link to the workbook or where we could find that workbook on the open space you know from the state um because it's not like we're not looking to take out the public process right we're still going to use the information from

099the survey the difference is that we're going to take some of the burden off of the open space and wreck committees that's all and and again it's not that we're taking it all from you it's that we're looking to help have the staff shift priorities for this short period of time to help get the plan completed I I have an idea Roberto why don't so our next meeting October 30th October 30th so why don't you and I try to work like a a plan out um that you know you would feel comfortable with I'd feel comfortable with we're trying to do something on the Fly here um and then come back and we can present something if on October 30th because that wastes a few more weeks I mean would you be able to have

100a meeting between now and the 30th with your committee I don't I forget what your schedule it's it's the second Tuesday of the month so we would have to schedule a specific meeting and which we could certainly do with 48 hours notice I just have to Canvas everyone and see when they're available um and and but but maybe we can do something quicker after you do that and we could send it to the board so I'll wait to hear from you we before you go Madame chair if I may yep go ahead Joe you know the bottom line of this whole conversation ation is that the fact that yes we have put some undue pressure on on your committee but it was it's for the intent and purpose for the betterment of the community as

101a whole and I think that's what we fail to achieve here is that this grant is going to allow an opportunity for this town to expand open space we we understand that I I I know very clear on that know you do I I was a little disappointed in the conversations that had had taken place about 5 to 10 minutes ago um no one's trying to do un undo what you've already done or or take over that's not it I think that the town putting that burden on you wants to support and help in any way possible um and I don't think anybody is pulling the rug on the on the anybody's feet with respect to that you have things that you would like to see done by the M by the by the town

102by the town staff you have a list already maybe that's the starting point where you sit down with Michael and going over that you mentioned something about Maps well I know Alvaro was great with maps because when we were doing the NBTA zoning bylaw he was he was the map expert he whatever you need I'm sure he could do for you had asked Michael at the beginning of October for Alvaro to help okay and I'm it hasn't moved anywhere well well that doesn't mean we haven't had conversations I started out my I I I don't know what those I don't know anything about what's going on so I just well I think I think it's best that you sit down with Michael and go over what your needs are and and just work together with

103this and and hopefully your committee will work jointly because that's what this is this is all about it's about the town it's not about individ indviduals it's well all of us making something better for Ashland down the road especially with open space and and the potential use of recreation as well so mean that's the bottom line guys if this grant wasn't in play like this conversation wouldn't be happening we we wouldn't but but it's such it it is an important opportunity um and Roberto I I did start off by saying I did have some conversations with people I don't know if Alvaro is the right person on this one it might be Becca it might um Sophia and and Sophia Sophia's got and um yeah okay so I I think I think we have a

104a somewhat of a path forward obviously the the survey is still out there we will continue talking about it we will continue sending it out um Michael and Roberto will have a conversation about how we can have staff work together if you need me to sit in on the meeting please let me know um my goal is to two things one obviously to get the the plan done so we it when we go to apply for that Grant we can have it completed um and also to let this open space and Rec committee no you've been working on this we see that and this is a very special circumstance right I've attend you know years ago I attended some of those forums about the open space plan and and we had time to get it

105completed this is a different situation this is a different a different timing and event and sometimes we got to adjust how we do things to support that and that's it that's what we're looking at thank you for your time just one before you go just one thing about in terms of um maybe helping to get some increasing participation you know I think it was a great idea having go out to the high school families um I was thinking maybe you could talk to the principal and see if um students could be given the opportunity in some of some class to maybe take the survey surve and then you get that popular you might be able to capture some kids there I don't know how many but you might be able to get some I'll I'll

106write to her and see because Mike carer he's the one who connected me with Kelly and then the other person I think in the school department that might be able to help out is um the el director I'm not sure exactly what her what her tile is um but um she might be able to push it out to families that she communicates with on a regular basis who English isn't their first language so I'd really tap into um the schools a little bit I'll get back to get back to her and see if she can help in those two ways I was I I was also going to recommend that there's clubs and organizations around towns that we that you should reach out to as well I I'm just thinking of a whole bunch of

107them but you know I think we talked a little bit yeah um just getting that link out to them like and there are folks that you know but we can definitely help with that okay Roberto Just One Last technical question so the assessor data you're looking for is just property ownership Property Data um William child who's a former member of our committee who was the master of the inventory for a lot of years um was going to get me the exact information he needs so that we can make another reest to the assessor's office I was going to get it to Steve Greenberg actually is it is it like a table in the existing plan is it just listed as a table we took his information and we had to re do it in a

108different table because the state requires different information I guess one last question is there an electronic copy of the current plan that we can go take a look at I've sent it out to the board three times yeah you guys have yeah I think it's in like three three separate parts like I apologize if I missed that through my email like when Joe was chair I sent it out twice once in like October of his final year then may of his final year and the inventories were separate because it was too big to go all together so there was the plan and then each of the inventories it may be good for you to resend it because we have two new members of our of our board or is there a link is it posted

109I can I'll just resend it but it'll it's going to come in like four different pieces is there a link on the o Open Space website to it no okay it's not up I don't think it's up there and if it is the inventory is aren't up there okay so I think it's more just to let you know the new newer members sort of take a look as to what an open space and wreck plan looks like so but it's so but you're saying it's the the one that you have right there in paper is not currently up on your website no I don't think so I don't think it is okay but even if it is like I said the land the inventories are not right so I need to send those out but

110I'll I'll just send it out again to everybody okay is there a feel safe on that survey so somebody's already Tak it are you asking about yourself no I'm not asking about myself I'm just asking in general um I think we allowed more than one survey per device because we wanted to encourage families if they only had like one computer to have a whole family Do It um we didn't want them to feel like they had to summarize all their thoughts in one survey okay and that's where we going to okay yeah so and thank you Joe because I know you did fill it out thank you very much I IED great thank you thank you Judith for being here and thank you Greg Greg for being here appreciate that okay moving on in our

111agenda first item is review the special town meeting warrant articles Jen we received this as a separate item yes so you should have received a draft and and then um in the final agenda just a couple sort of small um small typos that I changed over the last couple days so the final should have been in that last final um upload from Diane um so town meeting is obviously um on November 19th um at the high school at 7 pm um we will have a child's care for anybody who uh wants to attend that has young children so Ashlin uh Recreation will be there um and can keep uh kids entertained having fun um while town meeting is going on um we have a couple you know we have our normal sort of uh special

112town meeting articles so free cash appropriation um and that always goes to the general stabilization fund um OPB and capital and other onetime expenses um this year we may have some that we'll put into the capital stabilization account um so our free cash came in at 1 Point s 2.7 I mean 2.7 I me sorry 2.7 um and so um we'll be meeting with h Comico over our Capital plan but right now now there's about1 $1 million $1.1 million scheduled in capital um projects um the second article um is a budget amendment and this is just really to um adjust our budget from um estimates that were made for the Opera funds and Mike you probably can explain a little bit better than I can yeah so um and it actually ties in a little

113bit to the free cash believe it or not being so high and kind in the overall Financial picture so um when we developed the FY 25 budget or excuse me the um FY no it was FY 24 that we got the free cash number for yes right so we ended up getting significantly more like $700,000 more in motor vehicle excise taxes um than we had anticipated and we ended up getting about $300,000 more in investment income than we had we had anticipated um so that's one of the reasons why free cash is so high so how does that lead into uh the fy2 appropriation well what we because those numbers did come in so high we did feel comfortable um basically bumping up our Revenue estimates for FY 25 um not by like a million

114bucks but like by you know 700 ,000 um actually I'll have to check it might have it might have been a total of around a million bucks but what we what that meant is that when we developed the fy2 budget we had planned on using to cover the deficit uh mixture of funds like stabilization funds um or sped stabilization funds um the overlay account uh but then also a good chunk of arpa funds so it doesn't look like we're going to need to use the arpa funds so also what we did in fy2 is we appropriated the remainder of arpa funds that we thought we would have less through capital and we basically did that under the revenue replacement clause in arpa that allows us to use it for that and so ultimately what would

115happen is that stuff would fall to free cash but we wouldn't have the deadlines attached to it that we currently have with arpa so now that we're not using as much in arpa funds you know just for to actually make up the deficit we actually need to increase our appropriation of arpa funds under Capital that will then fall to free cash again so this is actually all good news um complicated way of saying it's good stuff but um anyway so everybody following along yeah so so quick question so when we say we're going to use our arpa funds to cover what you know take those arpa onetime fee onetime income mhm to cover something in our budget right and then we you we use those funds but now we're not using general funds and that's

116how it winds up in free cash so the arpa funds are used but our budget then but then the end of the year we have free cash that's no longer arpa funds that have no no restrictions anymore correct I lost you there somewhere so for for our fiscal year 25 we had a million I know it was a little bit different a million dollar M difference right we were short a million dollars yeah let's keep it even so you said okay we're going to take a million dollars from arpa and apply it to the fiscal 255 budget corre correct what you're saying now is we are going to we're still going to use those arpa funds for the million dollars but we expect that our excise income and our interest income is potentially going to

117be higher so we're not going to adjust those incomes or are we we are so we're going to adjust those incomes but we're still using the arpa funds to cover the expenses per se right so think of think of it as um almost two different processes so there's the revenue side of things and then the the capital the treatment of it being appropriated for Capital so that was that was done as a way to go ahead and utilize those revenues in the budget m for those capital projects which we've already identified um but then we wouldn't necessarily use it this year but that money so that money would fall to free cash right and then you know we could basically redo it again um as other Capital when we do free cash but but the

118the the point being the Restriction of when we have to use those funds by has been met exactly okay exactly so that's that's that does that sense me just by saying that we're going to use it even though we know we're not going to use it yeah so we're we're appropriating it as part of Revenue replacement and so and so just think you know it gets spent um it it goes up into the cloud somewhere imaginary cloud and then it rains down free cash now you can't we wish right it's not free and it's not cash but Myck so so basically we're we're budgeting knowing that we're not going to use everything that we've budgeted exactly exactly right but knowing that we're going to have free cash at the end exactly because when free cash

119falls from the sky um it's uh so is it really that the Opera funds are getting used and the free cash is what's falling and well that's the thing when it goes up into the cloud with every other general fund revenue and it remains free cash you can't really put that free cash in a bucket oh it came from here it came from here it went to the bucket we've never had we haven't had this before yes but then so the reason we'll have extra to rain down is because we don't need that money to actually replace some of the revenue that we had anticipated we weren't going to receive so for this article are we increasing the expected income as so we're looking at the fiscal 25 budget and we're saying okay we're increasing

120the revenue number the projected the budgeted Revenue number but we're not increasing the expenses to those Revenue numbers right we're not increasing our exp we're not we're not are we increasing our expenses for fiscal year 25 ultimately that's what it's going to look like yeah with those number that with that additional expense falling to free cash because that's because the other thing has already been all set right we already had the budget and that so and using the arpa funds and so now when we get this additional money that that all of a sudden you know pays for some of this stuff so then the the what was originally arer Falls to free cash it changes it name yeah yeah which yeah on some level you don't even have to even I don't know think

121of it like that you can just okay does everybody have a decent idea yeah so I have a question now okay so now when next year rolls around right as we plan for next year what what does this mean to our future I mean it it changes things we still end up with a you know at least from the forecast perspective um you know we still have a deficit for FY 26 and it's still sub substantial but not as much so what's substantial when you say substantial um I think when we looked at it it was like 700k yeah because we were like 1.7 this year maybe 1 point two 1.2.4 I think okay okay so and that's if everything else holds out you know so let me ask a question how are we going

122to explain this attemp town meeting yeah that was going to be my next question too cuz because we are more I mean it's 9:00 my brain is only half mashed potatoes right now but yeah um but well the good news is it'll be 7:15 no but will you have like like a flowchart or something I'm thinking flowchart I don't even know if if we necessarily we we be getting into that level of detail um just I think the more transparent we can be with it is I would agree with that yeah just because I think like I said you know we're kind of In The Weeds on this because we know more than your average bear on this but the people at town meeting will not and if they don't understand it they won't vote

123for it or they'll think that we're hiding something and it's not that we're hiding anything not good look that's the concern think one of the things that's going to come to mind right away or we're going to hear about right away is trash stuff I mean that that's such a source B for people yeah I I what do you mean people will be asking increases in trash trash fees oh okay yeah right so you've raised these you've raised prices on things Bas what our expectation based on what our expectation was and okay and now it's raining cash now I mean trash we definitely don't want to so that's the that's what we're concern those things haven't aren't right you know that prediction of trash and the cost associated with trash isn't changing well and it's

124also separate because it's an Enterprise F right it's not it's not part of our general fund so I think that's where it has to be there's some clarity needs to happen that this is this is coming from our general fund yes and these are and this is based on I mean and the other thing is this could be completely wrong right we're basing this on an increase in excise tax that we collected in fiscal year 24 right who knows why that happened and the projection that you're doing now for fiscal year 25 is a projection is a budget for increased income in excise tax based on 24 yeah it may not h i mean it it may not happen it I'm just that's the other thing that's you know I'm thinking about like you know

125the whole transparency aspect and I think also what probably would be the takeaway and what would look worse is if you know it's a it's an explanation that is just too difficult for people to comprehend and they think you're trying to make it so complicated that we need to figure out I think that's much more likely we need to figure out a simple way to say look we we had this we had this free cash from fiscal year 24 because we received more excise tax than we expected so we've now adjusted I mean basically we're just adjusting our budget right we're we're adjusting our Revenue budget and that's all we're adjusting yeah but like revenue is not voted on at town meeting so that's you know I don't want that to be right like confused

126I think a more succinct um sort of way to explain it will come through of like we'll meet with fincom once we have motions next week and I think they ask a lot of questions and we always do the town manager Forum that I think we get some questions and it like helps sort of hone how you present it in a way that's this actually this this makes me ask a question right if we're just adjusting our revenue and we're not changing our complete bottom line of the budget no we are no we are we are increasing expenditures I said that ear yeah I think we also have to give some background on arpa funding yeah I think I I think that's like a component of it because I don't think average people understand what

127our arpa allocation was what we have to use it for and when we have to use it by yeah no I I think I mean remember we already had one appropriation under this model and um you know it it it seemed to to car I mean you know we could we could go to town meeting and we can present it and it could go there could be no questions and it could be something very simple but I think we have to be prepared to be able to outline exactly what is happening with this in a way that is as simple as humanly possible okay that's just my my I know Britney will try to put put something together but I mean we're having a hard time at this table kind I I was going to

128say and I and I did want to say that I do agree with you Michael like you know we have to be careful when we are making that explanation that you know if it's so complex it might seem like we're trying to hide something I heard that and I agree with you 100% on that so I think that's something we have to be very very careful about and it's not that's not to say that people aren't intelligent no no just a lot of things in government especially Massachusetts Finance sometimes aren't logical it's like why why are you doing like why does this Mak sense right um and so like because people approach it from a logical standpoint point and and looking at looking at the way finances have been this past year or so and

129the way interest rates have gone up you may not see that increase in excise tax well for for new vehicles so you you know you have to prepare for that well so Joe it's kind of it's kind of like good point and you could apply it differently now the interest rates have gone down we're definitely not planning on the investment income that as high as as was yeah yeah so and those all that all comes into play at at some point when it comes into play we don't know we have we don't have that crystal ball right okay so we're good with that okay anything else on article two no just just one quick thing uh Jen you said something about uh the uh fincom when will they when were you guys going to meet

130with them to go over these yeah next Tuesday work to get all the Motions done next Tuesday all so I'll be there for the first part and then I'll run over to comp plan okay thank you right yep okay keep going yeah so article three is um the senior um property tax exemptions that we do every fall um and the board of assessors is meeting to get us our percentage before we meet hopefully um with fincom next week um article four is actually just a correction so there was a typo in um our um warrant um for the annual town meeting so the parcels of land that we um were authorized to accept as a gift from the um hington area land trust the wrong map so we just carried the the same map number

13118 for all four parcels and the map was supposed to be 27 and we accepted the wrong parcel and so this is just a redo just a yes and so we kept it exactly the same and that way it's a cross off so that there is um there is um there'll be minutes of the wrong number so that we didn't actually accept map 18 lot 100 um and so that will just be a clarification um we've been in contact with Hall to let them know as well okay um Article Five is asking for authorization up up to a million dollars uh for a borrowing for the water main replacement project which I believe um Dan Mau and Becca presented when you guys were talking about the water rates that was built into that y um

132article six is a CPA funding um this is really just to conduct a feasibility study in conjunction with the city of Framingham for the W compond so this is really to look at the Cino bacteria that's been happening you know at this point almost uh annually um to see if there's any remedy that they can do together so um we agreed to pay 25% um of the study and that's the cost for that okay um article seven is the blight by bylaw that we already discussed with um Doug Scott now will that need to have a hearing or no it's just general it's not zoning okay so our discussion here is helpful and they had they had one conversation at the Board of Health um they had to cancel last night and so hopefully they'll

133have another one okay and then if we can do a t manager Forum or something you had a specific question for Lisa there was something in there uh yeah so I just didn't know if we had to explicitly state if we needed to be able to charge um Municipal charges but it's referenced with the Mass General law so she took care of that all right thank you um MH and then um article 8 is accept the new um zoning by law which is MBTA communities has that had its Hearing in front of the planning board I believe the hearing is I thought it was like October 10th they had a meeting um I think they moved it to the next I think it might be next week I'll have to look I can get back

134to you though so the 20 4th or okay next Thursday next Thursday okay okay and then the last article is to authorize um purchase of open space land for the Town Forest which is the land parcel that we have been discussing with open space I did add that did it get in okay okay and we're going to make sure that the correct language so that there's not restrictions that we don't want on the property so would it no it will definitely have restrictions I I know it will have restrictions I just want to make sure it's the restrictions that we want yes okay could could we just um for the for the greater good of folks just we didn't really discuss what this actual purchase is about um and who we're purchasing it from and

135that type of thing are we at a point where we can discuss that now yeah I mean it's on the warrant so okay it's so um yeah turn yeah it's probably help um so yeah so the town um has been in discussions with um United Church of Christ uh it's the Southern Conference of United Church of Christ churches are you know the technical name um to acquire a portion of their large property which runs along Myrtle Street and Winter Street um and um it's a that total is 50 acres so it's five Parcels totals 50 acres we've been having a discussion with them about purchasing that property um and uh Rob St Germaine from the Town Forest committee um has been uh the the project manager on this the Project Lead uh because it's going

136to be part of the Town Forest ultimately so we would be purchasing purchasing it to be part of the Town Forest um and so after a period of negotiations with a couple of different parties uh we've arrived on a purchase price of 1.4 million um and so what we how we would be looking at funding that acquisition um would be partially with Grant funds uh ultimately hopefully up to half at at some point um it could be a little bit less depending on grants that we receive and that we're eligible for um and then 250,000 of that would be paid paid for by subury Valley trustees who would also hold the conservation restriction on the property um and then the rest would come from local funds um which we're proposing would be arpa funds uh

137we had allocated a certain amount for open space acquisition so um that would be the funding stack associated with purchasing this property again it would be for the Town Forest it's a beautiful property and um yeah hopefully um town meeting is not voting on an appropriation they just voting on The acquisition of the property uh because no funds would be appropriated part any other questions on that article any other questions on the whole town meeting warrant okay see seeing none if I can get a motion to close sign and post the November 19th special town meeting warrant as presented so moved Second Great uh all those in favor I and one AB wonderful so we'll have to sign something before we leave tonight correct okay perfect moving on we need to vote to sign and

138post the 2024 sex state election warrant for November 5th 2024 so that was in our packet um Michael or Jen any comments on this no I think it's pretty straightforward okay okay um yeah it's a pretty detailed ballot with everything with the warrant questions and uh yeah so I recommend that everyone you know if you got your little red booklet in the mail or go online and check out the warrant check out the state election ballot if I can get a motion to vote sign and post the 2024 state election warrant for the November 5th 2024 election so moved all those in favor I that carries exstension okay moving on review and discuss the OPB valuation report let me just make sure do you have it in your packet yes thanks Rob thanks Rob of

139the Year yes yeah we do from The Odyssey advisers yeah sorry I was just in a different spot so um had the opportunity to review it so every couple years were required to uh develop a basically a plan and an Actuarial Val valuation of our other post-employment benefits uh which is essentially entire retiree health insurance um and uh if you recall so we started a plan in 2014 that uh funds this uh liability two different ways so we take a portion of free cash um each year and that goes goes towards opab um and then each year as we bring on like a new employee we budget for what's called their annual required contribution which is what is required annually to be um deposited uh to pay for that person's health insurance move retiree health

140insurance moving forward um and so I'm pleased to state that um our liability actually went down um in total for this 2-year reporting period so we went from uh 63 million in liability to uh 60 million in liability um and that is mainly because of um a decrease of 6.3 million um and that was mainly derived by changing the discount rate um on on essentially our our returns um and the reason they felt comfortable applying that better discount rate was because of the fact that we've been so consistently and uh in a disciplined way contributing to the plan so um so that is what led to the decreased liability and six million six million um well then you add then you add in some other increases and so the total decrease is about 3 million

141okay that's why those two numbers didn't make sense exactly um and so what we're concerned with is is a number called funded ratio so of your of your OPB liability how much do you have saved of that and uh so we've gone from 99.96% um to 11.87% so uh almost a 2% jump in uh the two-year time period so you know our plan's working um and I think uh yeah I this is good news I mean that the fact you know 10 years ago we were at zero in our funded ratio and now we're um sitting at almost 12% I think you know shows the plan if if you if you follow it diligently it doesn't necessarily have a huge impact on operations but you can start planning for those long-term liabilities does this help

142with the S&P uh yes it does actually okay that's one of the things they're really starting to look at is what's your what's your outstanding liability really what they the main thing they look at is how much of your current contribution is going towards like retire health insurance and pension any questions on this okay all I can say it's it's great to know that we're 11% funded and people say oh well you need more but understanding that at no time will we get hit with a $60 million bill yeah so you're right because you know I me that you have to talk about that right because people are like well we have this liability of $60 million right now okay but at no time are we going to get a bill for $60 million because

143we have employees now who are still working who we're starting to save for and it's not until they retire so we're not going to have everyone retire and need These funds right away yeah it's it's an acred liability so it's over I I believe like 20 years oh no no no no I mean if anything I think Ashland is I mean there are communities that have more money saved already but there are communities that have less so I think we're we're we have a as Michael said we have a plan in place we're funding this liability on a regular basis and we're now at 11% whereas 10 years ago we had 0% yeah and I think you know a lot so I've looked at a lot of communities um because there is a report produced

144every other year that has um the funded ratio for all the communities and they also show what the discount rate is and a lot of those communities that have higher funded ratios they're using a higher discount rate which I'm not necessarily sure is realistic I mean when you're starting to put in 8% um you know 7% 8% % you're you're probably not going to see that on an annualized basis over yeah I mean you can make this def you can make this thing go away you know by a you know stroke of a pen I mean it's all on paper so creative financing exactly um yeah so good news um and thank thanks to Britney for um she always works with Odyssey to you you know get this report done so okay no other questions

145or action needs to be taken uh moving on to review and vote on the baa Grant and select board Community Grant recommendations from the grant subcommittee we're both looking at each other do you want to do you want to kick it off Claudia because sure I'll kick it off so um so Brandon and I met um this past Friday afternoon um and went through all the grant ations I think that we had uh about 28 um applications uh after we removed duplicates and some we're still trying to the whole process trying to uh you know improve upon that so uh it's easier for the people who are applying and for those that for us on on this end uh I guess I should explain a little bit so there are two grants that that are

146offered by the select board uh one one is funded by our baa uh Runners and and uh we are up to 26 that we have um bibs 25 I think 25 25 yeah okay and um and so in any case so it's funded like that and then we also have select board Community grants which are for non for not for nonprofits so the baa are for nonprofit organizations the uh Community grants are for uh for-profit organizations that are doing good in our community regardless of their uh tax status and that is funded um through things like the northeastern I mean the Framingham State um facility warrant Conference Center um and money's raised uh through their rentals and that um so the there's two types of the two grants are are the for a total of

147$6,000 if it's a 501c um Grant or it nonprofit that can be done distributed in two consecutive Grant application process and the it has to be a total of four can't be more than 4,000 in in either of those two um for a total of 6,000 over the two consecutive uh uh periods and then the the community are is a total of, 1500 over the over two application periods and that is uh at a maximum of 1,000 in one so if you get 1,000 one time you could get 500 the next for a total of, um so I I I hope that this this made sense to the um board members the documents that submitted showing uh exactly what what organizations had applied for previously you'll see there's one that just is uh focused on

148the the uh 501c three organizations um it shows what they requested their the their previous award if there was one uh those are actually in highlighted in in red for these and then what their their allowable amount would be at this during this process and then finally what they what we are recommending for their um for their award this time around and then at the very bottom of that sheet you'll see that it shows um again all those columns the amount requested by the organizations the uh there the allowable amount um their previous Awards and then the total recommended amount for this period um with also and what were our ending balance would be and that's the same on both sheets and then there is a third sheet you'll see called additional information so that

149was a sheet that some of the organizations um had additional information that they placed in other places on the uh form and so just if you wanted to read a little bit more about them uh you you have the opportunity to do so but not everyone um not everyone did that so it's and it wasn't necessarily required or needed so I don't know you brand you want to go through some of what we uh what we looked at sure yeah no Claudia did a lot of work on this because a lot of organization um with a lot of moving Parts because we were comparing things we were comparing what we had awarded them the last Grant round how much they were asking for we were going back and making sure they had submitted receipts and

150documentation about how they used doing a lot of work on this behind the scenes Susan Susan and Claudia were were um amazing getting all this getting all this allocated so we had um 16 organizations that applied for 501c3 grants um including the ash emergency fund the Ashen Music Association Area ashin Youth Basketball lacrosse soccer the Boy Scouts um uh the demons youth hockey Friends of the Ashland um uh Public Library uh friends of the Ashland Council on Aging L inclusion the Metro West College and Career Fair um which kind of goes under the PTO and the Metro YMCA the um oi Foundation uh sportify and the Stone Park music festival and so um we fully funded all the requests that we were able to up to the maximum for all the 501c3 organizations the total

151amount that we um that we recommend is 39,500 for the grant cycle where our account balance is a very um a very flush account at $ 177,178 and $49 um thank you to all the runners that that raise all those funds because we know that 25 Runners they commit to $3,000 each so that's at least $75,000 that comes into that account every year and some of our runners run um fundrais above and beyond so we thank them for all the the work that they do because it's really helping all these organizations and to that point too right so so we have 25 Runners I don't think we've ever not met or at least in recent years um utilizing all the bibs that we are given by baa um so that's we're raising a guaranteed $75,000

152and really we've fully funded all of the grants to the max of our um policy and and still only spent 39,500 so there's a lot of room here for people to to apply yep certainly certainly we need to encourage other non you know other nonprofit groups to reach out and apply Y and we have a number of nonprofit I mean I'm looking at some of these I'm going okay I'm thinking of ones that go oh now I know like the Garden Club did not apply this round because they had some fun sitting so I expect that they will apply in the spring uh some other organizations that aren't as active through the winter we want make sure that they hear about this and apply yeah and we talked a little bit about maybe in the

153future looking at if an organization is large very large and impacts a large number of people is that different or should it be treated differently than a small organization that that really impacts very few people so right um those are you know it's hard to sometimes make those kinds of and when you say that in regards to potentially having different levels of funding so if you're an organization that impacts this number of people you can apply for this size of Grant but if you're an organization that Pro that impacts you know a larger n a larger Community you might get be able to get it get starts to get really complicated it does specifically when we were looking at it it was about the the the Metro West College and Career Fair it's technically under

154the PTO but the PTO has applied for other funds in other Capac ities because it's such a broad organization right so that was kind of how that discussion kind of came came about and would you you know would you do it by the number of people served or would you do it you know differently maybe if they had suborganizations I I don't know we really just touched upon it because because it was just that particular thing kind of hit you you know right um and then moving on to the community grants there's two things I wanted to just kind of bring to everyone's attention one um we had there's there was an item on here for the Ashen Public Library which we always love to support um this specific request I wanted to make sure

155we kind of discussed because the um the library typically will ask for something under the baa or under this community grant for whether it's um I think we've seen things for books in different languages or we've seen like really specific librar things rather than programming they are asking for a programming request for this which typically would go under the friends of the library but again I think it's something they're they're um doing a lot of new Teen programming and this was to support the the the really big Halloween program that they're coming that they're that they're doing next next week so Claudia and I felt like it was it was a good thing to support but just it's not the typical Library requests that we get under under the so is was this actual funding

156to the library or still through the friends this was so we we funded the friends through a different request under here right so the friends was um we funded 2,000 because they had applied 4,000 last yeah last Grant round this 2000 goes towards the next mini golf event okay which is in the spring which is in the spring so so you know so this this particular event at the the library is $1,000 we felt like when we put it in our recommendations we we we recommended to approve it but wanted to just talk it through with you guys yeah okay so it's it's in this list correct but it's under the non nonprofits correct because it's a town Department right basically so it's not a nonprofit so I have The Corner Spot the ashon senior

157center ashon healing Garden ashon day oh yeah okay um and then there's one other thing that we did not fund and I just wanted to to talk about that too so um MSM blow dry bar or dry bar um requested requested funds for um marketing and payroll and so you know that really doesn't fall within the spirit of our policy I do think we I've never honestly I've never thought of this as something that we need to include in the policy but I think we probably do to state that these are organizations that are like not for-profit organizations because we're not this is not the point of this is not to to support a bus a business that goes under Economic Development and they can apply through through Beth's grants it's more beths so we

158decided not to fund that and then I would also say at some point in the next couple meetings um we should probably put some language in policy just to specify that and I can help I can put that yeah if you want to give a recommendation and then bring and then say what meeting you're available I mean I don't think it'll be a large discussion but certainly yeah but I think it I think it's important to have that in our policy I that makes sense so people understand yes y okay in the senior center we actually funded at $500 less than the request only because they they asked for500 and they had already it's written up well they hadn't but it's written that we can only fund a thousand out of the 15 in any

159one cycle right so okay great if I can get a motion to vote to approve the recommended funding as presented by okay all those in favor I and a big thank you to Claudia and Brandy for doing this work very much appreciate it I know it's a a lot of work but and thank you to Susan in when she watches this back thank you Susan for all your help on this so this has been good okay moving on next item in our agenda is to discuss the Citizens Academy and community and discuss Outreach for participants and the program will begin in January of 2025 Michael do you want to start us on this I'll Jen take it or Jen that works too um so we are super excited about kicking off our second annual Citizens

160Academy um it's a 10-week program we really sort of we finished the first year last year right around um May and June we got a ton of feedback along the way and tried to just tweak this program just a bit so we're going to open up um the application process at the end of this week it's on our website under Citizens Academy um there's a very e easy Google form that people can fill out if they're interested um we're hoping to have somewhere around 15 we had about 16 um people in our program last year that was a really good number but I think we could accommodate 15 to 17 people probably um so 10 weeks um 2 and fourth Wednesday evenings from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. um it will be in various locations

161in being able to talk to department heads and sort of learn about how your local government works you have a lot of opportunity to ask questions um we'll take a tour of the public safety building again um people like to take a tour of the Public Works garage just to sort of see some of the capital Investments um so we'll continue to do that and it will kick off the first um the first meeting will be January 8th and then go through um May um I try to align some of the discussions with when we start the budget we'll talk about Finance so we can set of follow along and then also um talk about town meeting right before town meeting sort of make sure that we're people understand procedurally so what what type of

162Resident are you looking for to participate in this so I think we're looking for people who um may not have yet been involved in committees you know might have some questions might be interested um in local government may want to find a place in which they could volunteer we'd love to sort of foster that kind of public service and volunteerism through the program and so we had people last year nobody I think just one person had ever served on a committee um I think that they were able to sort of really get a feel for how the government works um at a local level um because I do think people who are on boards and committees have different level of access to our staff and so they sort of start to learn how it all

163kind of works so that's really what we're looking for yeah I think um right you know I think we're we're looking for people who have a genuine interest in in government and and and learning how it works with an eye of of being involved more in the future and that takes the many different shapes and forms but uh you know we did have a couple of the last couple members of the last class I did think they had applied to be on boards and committees I think one had to pull out of one um some of them attended their very first town meeting after and have and started to really sort of get engaged in that process which is great we definitely have a couple of volunteers couple more volunteers um the community centers a

164couple in the food pantry just in terms of like if they're only able to give a couple hours you know sometimes a border committee might be a bigger commitment but they're able to sort of get connected um it's been really nice couple even talked about running for office next year so good I don't think any for select board so that's a big step so questions comments know it's great heard great things about it y yeah thank you um the only thing I would I would when you were talking about DPW and and Trucks and Things um it might be great to take them through the water treatment plant because that was a really great experience for for me and I'm you know you do that I'd like to go to really she wasn't on yet

165when we did that so I mean we we are investing a lot in our infrastructure and I think like that's a really good way to kind of bring it home um and then I had another question but again my brain oh my God there's a roof it'll B back um I have another question while you're thinking okay um how if you end up with 30 applicants how do you choose them so in the in the Google form we do ask if you've been if you have participated in a board committee and we give priority to those who haven't um last year it's sort of just we were it was like almost random it was a little bit of a randomize so we we ended up having about 35 people um we did have we sort

166of moved down priority people who had been on boards and committees and then we randomly picked um sort of like the number of what yeah Rand folks that didn't make it last year will they be will they get first priority this this time around yes so there are a couple that actually were chosen and then ended up having to sort of defer they were you know once they got their work schedule they were like you know I actually don't want to take somebody else's spot is there any way I can have a spot so I will reach out to those folks just to sort of see um if they are still interested and if this schedule aligns with their other commitments um thank you you know who also gets I don't know if you mentioned

167this like gets a lot out of this is the department heads yeah who present it they the the only one thing again I heard lots of great things about this is and I think I've mentioned to both of you that I would ask that one at the end of it you bring the people who participated here to the select board so that we can ask them about their experience uh and also celebrate the fact that they've made it through because I think a public graduation accept you know a public celebration of the fact that they've gone through the 10 weeks and it would be great to hear what they've learned and and again it's it sounds like you probably will get enough people to participate but I think sometimes it's just good to to to

168show people what's going on for sure so that would be my only I remembered my question okay um would you be open to having like a couple high schoolers join like it's a it's a it's a time commitment yes um I think we thought about it last time um and I can't remember if we had to have 18 I don't remember what we did but I if they have to be 18 or because of I'm just thinking you go or something experiences for kids I think it would be incredible if we could have some high school students involved you know if there are a couple spaces held for a couple high school students I think that's I mean what a civics lesson yeah you know I wish we could do it with all the high

169school students in some capacity honestly um but if we can only get a couple to do it that's great I I do have a question as well um as we're going through these citizens acmy um I think it's great you know I think they should come before selp so we can give the program even more and those folks more visibility and call them out but I think it would also be interesting to actually track like kind of outcomes so you know like a year on two years on to see to get some data from them to find out like what their level of involvement in the town is so we can point to that and say like hey this is a great program and this has actually spurred spurred more development I I'd actually um

170be curious to find out if those individuals end up encouraging others to participate in the town as well so that would be some great data to collect in certain yeah how did you find out you're yeah your we're still in contact with so many of them are at the dragonfly Fair Street Fair it was like yeah and we actually did have just sort of and it's obviously it's only one year and so um just in the in that process you know somebody who was a participant had somebody had reached out to me mid like mid program and said can I jump in I've heard it's really great and I feel like I'd like I'd like to join um and so obviously we didn't have him come in Midway because he missed half the program but

171certainly said we're going to do it next year and hope that you so they definitely at at least Midway through was there was some excitement around and they were definitely talking to their sort of neighbors and family and friends which was great um but I think I you know I agree we could obviously get some real data as move forward the the other thing I've seen I mean I I think this is a great program and and I applaud you both for for doing it and encouraging this um is there a possibility and again I've seen some other communities do this where it's not a full 10 week session but it's a one morning or one night a finance 101 right to help people understand find Town Town Financing because it's not the same as

172personal financing or government something so that it's popup session yeah it's like a it's a Saturday morning and we're going to talk about this who wants to come join us at town hall or at the community center or at the library and I mean I think about it and it doesn't necessarily just have to be you guys because we have you know but is it something do we want to think about that right because one of the things we're always talking about is increasing our engagement with the community right we're going to be and shortly we're going to be talking about our our um select Board office hours right I was thinking if there if they had a focus like that those select Board office hours that might attract that might attract people as well

173right so that could be something so just you know something to think about yeah so i' I've definitely thought about like brown bag type type of uh lunches you know and covering like you know what's what's the basics of of budgeting you know what are your Revenue categories what do you what do you have to think of um Finance can be pretty dry but um usually when you apply like real world like experiences to it it gets a little bit more interesting and the best way to do it is just have them have them do a budget okay you got a million bucks and you got 1.5 million in expenses you got to consider how you going to make the right how you going to make the choice I mean and it could even be

174a a zoom to your point a brown bag lunch right so on a once one Friday a month or second two Fridays a month we publicize a zoom meeting where it's we're discussing this and you come and we present for the first half hour and then we open it up to questions and and discussion for the I don't know yeah I think you know and and Brandy you know we we've talked about doing one on development you know for a while because I think that would be really helpful yeah I mean that was God we had that conversation at least two years ago yeah I mean this which like retrospect would have been really like if if we would have had time if I would have I was offering to do it and I didn't

175have time to do it but it would have been a a good thing but I still think it's a I think it's yeah I just explaining to people like we're not the developers in so many right like 90% of these cases obviously like a Robert Hill Way is a little different well it's interesting someone shared about a project in Detroit I don't know if any of you saw that and so I watched it and I'm like okay this was a private company a very large company that went in and did this project and I'm like my my response to these people is go find the companies if you can find a company that wants to spend millions of dollars here in our downtown to redevelop something I'm all for that but it's private Redevelopment not

176yeah I think government Redevelopment I'm like oh okay you see especially on social media you know some post well well why can't we do this and you go in and you like read the details and it's a private entity that's actually so that was government's not involved at all anyway so just other things to consider but certainly thank you for being willing to do the Citizens Academy so when is the application going up Jen so it should be on our website by the end of this week and then it'll be open until December 2nd I believe and then we'll get class interested if you've never participated and it just happens that you're watching this meeting consider applying and and participating they not due January 11 yeah you're going to put it on your too soon

177we'll start January 8th your newsletter yes yeah okay perfect okay uh 2020 2024 Mass Save climate leaders that was interesting Michael W you or Jen yeah this is this is actually really um exciting we haven't really publicized it uh a whole lot yet but um each year uh the sponsors of Mass Save they choose uh usually it's around 13 or 14 climate leaders across the state and so this is uh it's awarded to um private companies nonprofits and in a few cases municipalities and school districts um and it really recognizes the work that they've done towards Energy Efficiency and uh so this year we were pleased to be selected as one of 14 uh mass mass safe climate leaders uh across the state um for you know our years worth our years work in doing

178our years of work gosh I'll get it right um in doing Energy Efficiency projects ranging all the way from you know the amesco project to the Solar projects to you know the new buildings that have geothermal and um you know one has solar on it and one is solar ready so um and you know really made note of some of the Outreach work that Sam was doing um into like minority communities and it's just um yeah I think I think there was one other municipality this year last year there was one municipality so it's pretty cool recognition and so um they'll be having a ceremony I think later in the year at the state house so you know it comes with millions of dollars yeah no Claudia sorry so so we we've officially been I

179mean it there was first thing that we were nominated and then October 3rd it was announced that we actually won yes well congratulations I think it's you know if we if it if we get invited to the state house I think we should yeah it's go and attend and yeah that's great nice well and it's certainly something that you might be able to put on some of these grants right yeah I think that you know they have like a a symbol that you can use now um you have to oh maybe we should make some signs for when you enter ashin that you know usually it says you know 2,000 Boys Baseball champs we could say maybe say something they made they made a stick those about I'm sorry somebody's not offended we had to

180make room for the football that's right that was a good one too B sofball still up there I know I noticed that yeah once in a while girls make out yeah this certain certainly something to applaud to you know and size that's great yeah and special thanks to Sam you know she's really done a lot of great she's really so did we like apply for this it just oh okay no you had to be nominated and I think I think tlock um played a role in that for sure okay yeah she's good nice so thank you yes okay awesome okay well congratulations to our community next discuss select Board office hours and how to continue after the farmers market closes for this season so one of the things I had suggested was we look at

181when the library is having their book sale um but I like cla's idea of not only having select Board office hours but maybe it's a come have a discussion with us about budgeting or come have a discussion with us about a subject so thoughts on that and it's the first Friday I'm sorry it's the first Saturday of the month that they have their Book Sales thoughts I think it's a good idea I also like the idea of having like themed discussions too um just because of folks are curious they can come out and and and chat with us talk about that okay um but yeah I think that the challenge and I think we talked a little bit about this like how do we remain accessible right you know in a place where people go

182um so they're not going out of the way to see us but they're going to go anyway and I think the library is a good choice for that it's book sale do we want to look at at the community center right I mean for the seniors I know Michael you do your once a is it once a month yeah actually we had it today yeah and it's it's you know not just for seniors but it's usually mostly senior you know so maybe one of us try to go with Michael when he does that to just have another you know set of ears listening and and report back yeah they can be pretty pretty interesting discussions I bet so okay so are we thinking um November 2nd I know I'm available I am not okay yeah

183check your calendars and see but December December so it would be December 7th yep now December 7th will be um the Holiday Stroll righty start when does that start typically noonish yeah so we could do something in the morning we could do something in the morning yeah or or maybe even concurrent if people are out right if people are out we could probably I was going to say something here but they usually use this space for shopping so that wouldn't work but maybe one of the rooms in the library yeah no and if they're having a book sale I do think like the book sale ideas is is the way to go because you know if if we're um just having a table at an event it's not it's it's not so like something like

184at the stroll I think it's better we'll play on the second and the seventh and I'll reach out to mina see if we can do something at the library okay Bry I'm gonna go ahead yeah I would just I would suggest like if you're going to have like discussion on topics just really kind of make sure you're solid on some of the information that I hate that I hate for us all to get in a position where oh well I heard this at the yeah and it yeah it might be well I feel like if we're going to do a topic that I mean I personally anyways would need to sit with somebody somebody well I think we should have like we should get like maybe like one one page briefing you know sheets together

185for different topics before we do them yeah I I think I I I don't know if we could do that but I also don't know if that's going to be the questions that you'll get will be kind of with contained within FAQs yeah but we could try to get like the top 10 we can identify like the top 10 you know or something like that or FAQs and just sort of make sure that we're ready to answer and if we don't know the answer we don't know the answer we shouldn't make it up and we should try to get better no I I and I know I know you won't I just we can also we can also kind of lead with things because there there's going to be like a natural budget cycle where

186people are much more concerned about the budget right I mean and so we will'll be we'll be talking about it a lot at our meetings leading up to sort of the thing is nov the November one we could say we'll be answering questions about the town meeting right and make sure that whoever is sitting there understands everything and had can you know or not just saying like we're just going to talk about the warrant but just say hey you know if you have questions about the warrant come and talk to us if you have you know it's it's because I think you know do you do you know about our new blight bylaw that's going on the town W warrant like do you know what that means like come talk to us right right um

187right tell them the specifics of what's on it yeah okay so good we'll get there okay thank so November 2nd I can definitely do that I don't know if anyone else wants to and I'll and December SE 7th and I'll reach out to Mina and what what's the time on at the at the library what time it's during I don't know that we have to be there whole time during their book sale their book sale I think is from 9:00 to noon yeah Saturday morning on Saturday morning yeah okay so I might be able to do that I'll I'll have to I sign up for the SE for December for the 7th yeah and I'll figure out my schedule so I won't be able to do that neither one just December I won't be able

188to right right yeah I know yeah so if Makita um oh no okay so we'll figure it out because yeah a lot of us tie help out yeah let let me find out about what's going on with the the with the stroll yeah oh the stroll yeah but yeah I know I'm usually here by 10:30 or so helping people we could do like an early session at the library early session at the library maybe my family doesn't need to see also folks need help with the stroll I'm happy to volunteer for that too okay I'm going to ask you to read the reminders I'll be right back okay um time all right so um the reminder final Farmers Market of the season is October 19th from 9 to1 over at 125 Front Street um thank

189you to the farmers market the Ash and farmers market for another successful season um it's been a really good it's been a really good year it's fun to be it's I think I've only missed like two or three farmers markets this whole season so it's it's it's a um it's a true Gem of the community so thank you to them I know they're going to be doing a um a pre-thanksgiving sale too I don't have the date but just everyone can keep that on their mark on their um on their radar reminder uh inperson early voting hours are Saturday um October 19th 10: 4 uh Monday October 21st 10:2 Tuesday uh the 22nd 10 to 2 Wednesday the 23rd 2- 6 Thursday the 24th 10- 2 Friday 10:25 9 to noon Saturday 10:26 10 to

1904 and Monday 10 uh the 28th from 8 to 3:30 you have one more on the other side and I have one more on the other side which oh thank you sorry thank you I'm going to just borrow this really quick um the 29th 8 to 3:30 Wednesday the 30th 8 to 7 Thursday the 31st 8 to 3:30 and Friday the 1st 9 to noon so everyone get out to vote whether you vote by mail vote early or vote um in in November 5th so um vote off it yeah and the the voting the early voting is going to be in the basement of Town Hall during all those hours so um reminder our next select board meeting is October 30th um two weeks from tonight usually we meet the first and the third Wednesdays

191but we had um an observance of the Jewish holiday we did not meet the first Wednesday in October so we are meeting the uh the 30th in two weeks um reminder that yard waste collection every Monday with the last pickup on Monday November 25th um reminder oh here we go the pre-thanksgiving farmers market again my brain is mashed potatoes will take place on Saturday November 23rd at 125 friend street from 10: to 1 and a reminder that textile SLO recycling the pickup must be scheduled with simple recycling at 83550 68 or go to simpler recycling.com we've been read def nicely done nicely done thank you okay moving on uh motion to accept the consent agenda as presented um can I remove item can I remove the minutes from September 30th um from the consent agenda

192to discuss okay okay uh so consent agenda minus the September 30th meetings minutes I have a motion and I get a second okay all those in favor hi hi okay and September 30th yep minutes yep um hold on sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry here we go um I had two things one um up at the top of the meeting oh it was um it yes so at the top of the meeting agenda it says hybrid meeting and that was the meeting that we were only remote yep so if we could change the hybrid to zoom because we did not good we were not in person um and then just a small typo at the very end that um under the adjournment um it says Mr manani motion to approve adjourn at 227 just take out

193approve because it's just motion to adjourn yeah and that is it so small really small stuff but um let's do this let's push them to our next meeting okay that way they'll be adjusted so we'll just add those to our um October 30th meeting okay next moving on to uh if I could get a motion to go past 10 o'clock so move second all those in favor I thank you very much Town manager reports Michael priority projects yeah I actually got a lot um so just under priority projects I'll start with the Warren Barn so there's not you know as much of a push uh as there would have been I think um prior to a couple weeks ago so um the the State College building authority decided they would not take it up at

194their last meeting um they because we still don't have the cost proposal you know the the full report yet so um so they would like that to be developed they'd like to have the M kind of in place or at least see a draft of them before they move forward so speaking of the estimate um you know the full the full estimate for the for the full scope came in at like well I think it's up to like 3.6 now total um and before you know Dale had proposed that we would um or FSU had proposed that we would cover half of that so we pushed back on that um got that down to 1.5 million we still might have some questions about that it might need to be a little bit lower but 1.5

195that they're looking from us from us we already that includes out of that 1.5 is some money that we' already planned yeah we had already planned on 1.2 1.2.2 okay okay so we're looking for 250k correct so and and I think you know we we might uh it might be fair for us to say like our contribution really shouldn't be 1.5 but FSU um is is kind of maxed out so I think you know an approach that we could take is um if we do pay the 1.5 and we do feel like you know maybe it's 50 or $75,000 more than what you know would be fair what we could do is when we're doing theou for the operating agreement we could you know try to compensate us that way so okay um so I

196think that's the approach we'll we'll take when would you expect to maintenance it you know because thatou is going to be you know covering maintenance rental fees you know who gets a portion of what use of it it's all of that um so that's the waren barn um downtown so they are scheduled to start next next week um actually doing the um the uh the conduit work to make the connections to the buildings so so someone asked me a question so when we have to do the conduit work are we having to do any digging MH okay so the so basically you think about it is the main line is there and now to get to each of the buildings we have to dig put the conduit in and make the connection right so we

197actually have to go on their property we have to dig and lay the conduit over to the you know meter box and the second phase would be to come in and run the wire make the connections okay run the wire yeah run the wire from from basically the street to the building so do we at least have in the you know in the main conduit that was done do we have the the leads like the is there you know so to the edge of the street we have the pipe and then just from the edge of the street on the on the building's property is all we have to dig yeah I mean do you see you'll see on like the sidewalks those like Plastics where yeah those are those handholds and those are where

198where you so we're not going to have to dig up any of the streets or any of the sidewalks potentially there's yeah I think there's a couple places on the sidewalk where we might have to have to chip in but um part of part of the scope is if if if they need to do that they have to replace it okay and there's a few other like cleanup things that they're going to need to do too so um Montenegro Square they've got to relay some of the braks I mean something that's really kind of outside to to the work but um yeah they are going to send out the notices um I believe tomorrow and look at starting next week now they are going to work with each of the business owners each of the

199property owners to make sure that it's um not as impactful like Billy Goldberg asked you know please don't work on these days around the holidays we we'll be able to accommodate that so but it's it's it's exciting to start moving that forward um so that's good I have one question for you with respect to downtown project yeah did we we have a bunch of light standards that are still on Cherry Street by tilv are those going to be utilized downtown yeah those are actually for 126 oh those are for 126 oh okay yeah so cool yeah and actually 126 um I have heard I have not confirmed that Verizon will be in in a couple weeks nice so so that's great um so moving on to uh the upper Charles Trail meeting that we had

200last week so uh if you had recalled I I think I had cced you on correspondence where I was requesting a couple votes from the upper Charles Trail committee and uh they did vote to uh support taking that Enzo property by imminent domain if that's how you know how you want to move forward they also voted to utilize the $2 million that's been allocated for a 25% design nice um to hopefully put that eventually on the tip and we'll look at you know within that RFP kind of if they'll break it down in phases as well so well we're GNA we hope um and then one of the reasons why we're also going to have it broken down in phases is like if you could only do like phase one or two we'd be a

201to that yeah um let's see the YMCA they'll be at the at a future meeting y right yeah so YMCA we're planning on having them come here uh on our first meeting in November to sort of give us in the community update on where things are at with the new Regional hoit family YMCA yeah so that's that's exciting I I've mentioned to you before I think the site plan's really good um tomorrow ashin is hosting the Metro West Regional collaborative in mpc's annual Metro West Trail Summit so we're going to have representatives from uh you know all different Metro West communities Come and Talk Trails uh I think Senator Eldridge is going to be there Senate President is planning on being there um and I think a number of you are planning planning on in

202so this is actually the third time we've had this Trail Summit here in Ashland the first one was probably 11 10 years ago here in here in town hall we met and then people spread out around the building and discussed it and then probably about six years ago we had one at the Ashland State Park it was a little earlier in the season and we were outside and we walked some of the trails so it's nice to have her to come back to Ashland and it's being sponsored by the Metro West Regional collaborative who was a big supporter and that's one of the mapc sub regions what was uh the one last year and fringing at luring that was the same no there was one here at the community center that was the Town Forest

203the Town Forest that's what it was yeah that was the Statewide Town Forest right Town Forest conference yep um so yeah it's uh let's see Pete and I will be presenting on the upper Charles Trail y um Metro West YMCA will be there talking about their project so yeah should be interesting yeah um next uh on the agenda here uh just an update on the organizational strategic plan I don't think it started out this way it's just kind of morphed into it so um we we basically wanted to have an all staff meeting to to you know talk about certain things but you know as we were planning for it really be became the Genesis of like okay we need to do like an organizational strategic plan so um we invited all of our employees

204to attend a meeting um uh back in September at the library on Friday morning um and we basically started off with just talking about what's important to us about the work that we do um you know how that gets exhibited and then what we want out of a workplace environment um and I I don't know it was really cool we split up into small groups for part of it um had you know some young people who don't necessarily you know get a chance to kind of like take a lead role facilitate some of those groups and came back and we collected all the data and we actually went through and ranked it you know our values related to why we do the work we do or values related to a workplace and then how those

205values get exhibited very similar to what we did here at the select board um and so you know we had we had almost 60 employees it was it was pretty cool um and they were not shy uh which I was a little bit worried about at first but that that that dissipated as soon as I opened it up um and so actually tomorrow what we're going to do is we or not tomorrow but Friday um we'll be doing this meeting again and so we formulated some goal statements based on on what we have and so employees will give an opportunity to to basically provide ideas like how you know how would we achieve this goal and stuff like that and so we'll go through and we'll rank those and then um we'll put together kind

206of a final plan and present it to them at a at a third meeting and get their feedback so they've never been engage like all I can't find any other community doing this they usually do it with department heads um but I think it's great having having all the staff it's unfortunate like some of the police in fire can't show up just because you know it's not their shift and they've got other other plans but yeah it's really cool great so um and dragonfly yeah before I get to that I'll get on some others so uh we met with Paul Bowden last week uh Paul's really concerned with the AV setup here um the age of it and in fact this went out yesterday yesterday uh we were having a meeting in here yeah the

207projector went out the projector oh okay yeah so um we're looking at a a different type of setup um here we're actually looking at maybe getting rid of the screen and actually having a pretty large TV back here what that would require us to do would be to remove the seal and what we would do is when we're basically active we would have the screen blank and have the Seal Seal on the screen so um so Paul Paul's really now he's definitely um nervous about this he was like yeah you gotta meet with me this week I'm like Paul I can't this week this is just not not it um so we're not going to replace the projector no we'll replace the projector it'll be oh with the with the monitor yeah with the monitor

208we'll also have a bigger monitor here so people so you're going to project onto a monitor no no you're going to replace the the projection with a monitor right so you're not going to replace you're not going to buy a new projector no we're not going to buy a new projector okay that projector is going away okay yeah that's what I said so we're not going to buy a new projector you're going to use a TV to so it'll be a monitor similar to what we have there yeah so it'll it um and i' been concerned about like the the size of the screen and Paul assures me with the Fidelity like it makes all the difference I'm like Paul I trust you buddy um and then just a couple other things before the dragon

209fly so I did speak to Lisa thit from the EPA happened to run into her in the parking lot they were getting ready to do some field work so they're going to start um constructing that uh that next solution for the um the plume area so that super supercharged uh pump or extract uh system oh okay um and uh they're also looking at injecting stuff in the ground that would neutralize it uh they're just making sure the right chemical composition to make sure it's effective and where would the new device be put near like where Worcester air conditioning is okay so um so that's let the businesses know that that's okay yeah what's What's the timing on them just does she know um she didn't she didn't know for sure um and she didn't know

210the timing of when exactly they're they were going to start but okay um they did get the bids in they done the engineering they did get the bids in so yeah and this was the funding that that came through from like the federal infrastructure Bill correct right okay correct so that's really good news I mean that that's actually moving forward um and we do have trick-or-treating um here at Town Hall uh in the afternoon up until you know 7 o'clock when we meet you guys can come early if you want but you have to be in costume I'm I'm I told Jen this I'm like I'm I'm I think I might actually dress up this year so if anyone else wants to dress up with me I will join you you know this I won't

211be dressed up for the meeting there be no costumes for the meeting but like there may be some minimal effort beforeand why not not your cat ears mita's like don't put me in this position noid no that is a hard no okay that's a hard no but I'll tell you this is this event has grown I mean it started out I'm like Halloween was on a Wednesday night I'm like let's go get some candy for the kids and stuff and some of the some of the the employees here dressed up and now to see this place and last year it was awesome just walking through town hall now they're already it's already decorated and it's amazing yeah yeah yeah yeah they get into it but now you get the businesses involved and they're going to

212be involved this year last year was so cool Mark was talking about how it was like all busy you know it it is like you know that dog on pedestrian lights on all the time you know that's a good thing yeah exactly so yeah it's a half day yeah Kell is it now it's it's so gosh and we I used to buy the candy but man it's getting expensive um bu line item know and then um so finally yeah just uh congratulations to the town and everybody and and especially Beth on just a really successful dragonfly U festival and it was it was so great to see so many people outside of Ashland coming in and in addition to Ashland people but you know it was really really really packed and moving saw so many

213different people and um what was really really really great was to see um Andrea and Chuck green who were and Steve and Bonnie who were you know The Originators of of the first one and just you know they were they're here to experience it which was the 10th one and they just were really really pleased to see how it had grown so I do hope next year we could maybe shut down the streets and incorporate the water a little bit more I think you can't like when I first came into town like you can't you can't underestimate the power of having like a water feature right in we did that one year for dragonfly we did it for two or three years it was remember chuck had those years yeah the things with the irating

214things floating fire things um and it was like you can't you can't Overlook the water as as I mean towns would kill to have like a river kind of and falls like running right in their downtown yeah right across their downtown and did you have anything Jim okay um yeah that's it okay what oh you're right yes um darn no it's good it's just kind of put it out of my memory um so I did H hear from Mass housing late this afternoon um and unfortunately I haven't had a chance to digest their whole package yet but y i chance to look through it yeah um so unfortunately they approved both 40b projects basically as presented um so 250 units outage it it is it's it's it's shocking I was I was quite the the

215the one and I said this to Michael the one thing that stuck out for me when I I read their letters was they acknowledged the housing that we'd already built they acknowledged a number of different things and how it would impact us but they also said that we are short 381 units of affordable housing we Ashland the town of Ashland from the 10% from our 10% number okay we need 381 units of affordable housing to get us to our 10% these two projects affordable oh they their definition their definition of affordable right their guidelines of affordable but that that's that that is that that's their our that's how we didn't get out our percentage of housing of what is Affordable is based on their their guidelines right so we have projects that unfortunately some larger

216projects that were only 10% affordable so we only can count 10% of those units so approved as presented there's like no the developers have been directed to work with the community there's a couple there are a couple of points that it's been recommended look at this look at that that kind of stuff I was going to ask if there is any kind of any kind for design purposes like if there any is there anything we do we have a voice about like how this looks this is what infuriates me is so Mass housing you know they'll look at you and say well you know they have to go through the local zoning board of appeals and the you know you can impose conditions and everything and they conveniently leave out every time yeah if the

217developer doesn't like them they can just appeal it to the housing appeals committee which again 90% of the time they fine for the developer that is what makes a 40b so controversial it's it's yeah you you could deny it you could you could deny it when it gets to the zba but and they make it sound like oh then it's over but it's totally not it's absolutely not and remember I mean remember the Valentine property and I think they had wanted what 140 I think the zoning board gave them 99 and they appealed that uh and and they were definitely going to win MH so um so would inclusion would an inclusionary bylaw would that have helped the town at some point keeping those 10% up to 25% no no because we wouldn't have we

218wouldn't have had an inclusionary we wouldn't have had an inclusionary zoning bylaw 25% it would have been like 12% yeah it because because the density would have been so high like the tradeoff and an inclusionary zoning bylaw would have been so high that there wasn't there wouldn't be an appetite in the like it it would be so so far out of whack from other communities like it it wouldn't it wouldn't it they there the trade-off wouldn't wouldn't be wouldn't be there so everything that we had looked at was like looking at I think the highest we looked at was like 14% I want to say at one point for inclusionary zoning um it would have it would have helped what would have helped would would be the ugc property not being stuck in land court

219and absolutely so so you know that kind of thing yeah so if you had those 180 units because it wasn't stuck in Lan court with over some stupid lawsuit and the 120 units at Pawn Street you know if if he had constructed those after he had gotten his permit um and if Chestnut Street the new building could have been 25% versus 10% well see all of those that had put you over your 381 units so why why wasn't 100 in the street not 25% what kept that from not happening can anybody give me an to ask the planning board I would say the the underlying zoning said 10% the they were not they were not going to push for the The increased density that it would have that it would have been to include 25%

220the developer wasn't looking to negotiate and could have possibly had the developer not build it and go to another location so so the the thing about the thing is like I I get what you're saying Joe totally get but that's how we got into these 40b projects like like the mill building project was in front of the planning board it was not economically feasible they took their ball they went home and they filed a 40b it's so much biger than we want because because you know it wasn't economically feasible and so so we we could say all day long that the planning board should have done this or the planning board should have done that but at the end of the day the underlying zoning said 10% he met the 10% and you know the

221the other option is always this 40b thing and we've always talked about it like well if we're not infe harb we are to 40b we had a we had ath to Safe Harbor because we had our housing production plan we had the ugc permitted we had the pawn Street partiel permitted so there was a path to stay in Safe Harbor we just didn't so well it wasn't it wasn't Town St not doing yeah that was but that's what usually happens right you as a town you can be planning and planning and doing and doing doing and something happens beyond your control yeah and you get into this situation now what was was really disappointing to me was that they approved both 40b projects that with no changes so yeah it'll be forwarded to you guys

222it was sent to a few of us and then so so what happens from what happens from here so I mean they now have the green light to apply with the local zoning board of appeals I know for the mill project uh Pete had a a voicemail from the developer of the mill project I mean seems like right after we got the letter so and then once it's filed I think the time the time Horizon I think for a zba is six months yeah you you have to open the hearing I think within 30 days it might be 45 um of receiving the application yeah and then it's yeah and then uh then it has to be done within months un unless you know you and the developer can agree to extend it you know

223the thing is with 40b applications you don't need to have engineered plans you really only need to have the schematic um you know for the the zba process it it's ridiculous it's really broken is a zba they have a heads up that this was no no I I literally got it late this afternoon so not aware of it yet yet no yet unless unless Peter notified Peter might have forward it to the doubt it yeah doubt it so so yeah so that is the next step so we very well could have two applications at the same time y it's a huge lift huge lift now let me ask another question because so once so once these two projects are permitted that would put us in Safe Harbor because we would be at 10% and okay

224are we can we make a CA like I'm just I'm worried about anything else in the pipeline that could get filed as a 40b before these projects get permitted is there like any mechanism that prevents that no okay no no as soon as the comprehensive permit is issued um you know you could you could file to put those units on your subsidized housing inventory um so where I would think that once we know once we have those permits we're going to want to update our housing production plan I don't know if we necessarily need the housing production plan updated right or do we I think you do I would I would say better to have it because depending on what else gets built in town yeah we could hit our 10% and then a bunch

225of single family homes get added and all of a sudden we're out of our 10% so you gotta think so there's um so we need 381 units right so let's just say ugc and and 501 Pond don't get built um which I think they will get built some but let's just say they don't and you're adding on 250 and 226 so 476 units you're already like almost 100 units over what you need based on the 2020 census so we'll be in a good POS and then Lord knows if you add on ugc and you add on the others not going to be in a good position I well you're not going to be in a good position from a number of angles but at least from a safe harbor standpoint you're going to be protected

226for decades so unless unless they change the rules um halfway through so again having the housing production plan even if we have all this stuff in place I mean I I think it makes sense to do that I think we should do it just for you know as a planning exercise but once you get that 10% you don't necessarily need the housing production plan and making progress on it to get to the safe heart correct but from a planning perspective of having that in place you're right we don't need it from a safe harbor perspective but and who's to say what the state may do they they may change they may change the rules the numbers they may say okay 10 now we now you all need %. correct that's I mean I think I

227think there'd be a lot of push back from a lot of communities if they went from 10% to 15% affordable well let's not worry about that right now let's just you know let's timeline for these things now to happen yeah that's that's a good the only thing I know is just like what I said when they submit the application you have 30 days to open the hearing and then six months to you know do the hearing and issue the decision unless the developer in the town agrees to extend it and so okay so how long do you think it's going to take them to to get the application in yeah I'm sure it's ready to go okay and then and then we have 30 days to open it yeah okay and then um jeez it's

228unbelievable so I you know in my then when would when will they be able to add them to the the how long will it take before we able to add them to the to the numbers to the numbers yeah once the permit's issued I mean we'll we'll file the paperwork so how long will that take long will that depending on how long it goes to get them through the the the zba process but you're saying after the comprehensive permits issued and we submit for them I don't know they the state can be slow but in my experience they they've added those units pretty quickly after they get it and and what kinds of things can could we do to try to at least raise a huge stink about all this and take some kind of

229so I I if we want to have this discussion I think we should do it at a next meeting and have it as part of an agenda item um you know we're sort of announcing that we've received the letters today we haven't really thought through what the process could be um so I think if we if we feel like we want to have that conversation we can look at having it at another board meeting and I'll um I mean now you're notified and um you know we make sure John's notified you know I'll put it out to the community and part of your newsletter on Friday newsletter we'll put it out on so so you'll forward it to John tomorrow if Pete hasn't done that and to the rest of the select board and to

230the planning board yeah I'll send it to to you okay great um so yeah it's going to be uh rough Seas for a while yep okay boy I thought we were going to end on the dragonfly thing because I forgot about this and um that's okay it's okay board reports Makita I well you know I I was at dragonfly and it was pretty awesome and and uh know in all seriousness so like it it was a tremendous Community event and um you know I I want to e of the sentiments of others I think it was really beautiful to see not just like our community turn out uh on MOS but also see our neighbors uh come out for this incredible Civic event and uh also a great Economic Development event it was awesome to

231have those vendors up and down the way uh really a a I think a proud day for the town a very proud day for the town and uh I think more like that please so um there you go so yeah that's great and uh apparently I'll be at uh our our um our office hours on on December 7th so but I will not be there uh in November uh but yeah I'll just keep it keep it brief for that okay Claudia um yeah I just to didto everything that Makita and Michael both said and thank you to Beth Reynolds for uh you know just the tremendous amount of work that that took but because it was very very special to see uh so many people out the weather was great and um it was unlike

232as day sorry Joe no I knew you were G to say that no so anyways but it it was just a wonderful day it really was and uh so uh I just want to say thank you for that and um and I just wanted to recognize the DBW for the work that they're doing currently on West Union Street Street um you know the real the um the sidewalks really taken shape in the last uh couple of weeks in particular the a lot of concrete's been poured at this point um so uh you know they are taking out the guard rails that are in the middle of the sidewalk right yeah they're out they're out okay I haven't I haven't been that way for a while so yeah it has a whole different look I did

233send you folks a note we did apply to have the poles nice good oh good and so um you know so it looks great and and actually I picked up a a young woman who I saw walking today who um is in high school and she said yeah look at that sidewalk that's so great so I mean even even the high school kid you know is excited about that's great that's awesome so good stuff and uh yeah in terms of all this this uh 40b stuff I'm in favor of trying to find some ways to uh to fight back buses and protest hey it's not the wouldn't be the first time we done that've gone to Boston over something tell you yeah okay Joe thank you madam chair um again thanks to uh everybody that

234had their hand in the dragonfly Festival it was wonderful we had a lot of fun so a lot of friends from from the past and uh years past uh they're having a good time so it was uh greatly appreciated it was a lot of fun and thank you to everybody that put their time and effort into it and to the volunteers that were that were out in the boat so which was cool me this time but it was it was very very nice I just want to bring up that uh the 24th is our annual Halloween parading party um we are using them in this school again we got the okay to use that and thank you for your assistance and helping getting that and uh so we we'll be making uh 300 goodie bags

235and I won't want to see a piece of candy for six months from now you know but we're getting there so that's uh this 24th from 6:00 to 8 we start at the Montenegro square and if anything has to do with weather which I'm sure it'll probably rain like heck um I hope not I hope not either but my the way my luck's been this year supposed to be a great week next year yeah it's supposed to be beautiful Joe I remember one costume you have for the gr you had an umbrella I did I had a parasol yes and that wasn't all I had and we will not go there we will not go there uh and then we have like I said 300 goodie bags Donuts uh apple juice and uh uh prizes

236for costumes uh and parents too so the parents come dressed up be prepared you'll be the first ones out there in the out on the uh floor we used to do it backwards the the parents were the last ones but by the time we get to them they were all gone so they're going to go out first so that's Snoop and change good so looking forward to it okay so that's it so thank you madam chair you're welcome Brandy um so I wanted to mention something I I read an article that was really interesting um on the town of Brook the the town of Brookline does a um a compost food waste drop off program which I thought was really interesting through Black Earth and one of the things that that we we use Black

237Earth for the curbside composting which is great but it's not inexpensive for people and it's um so I I've always tried to figure out ways that we can make it more Equitable and also you know help offset some of our trash costs because we're always trying to get trash out of the out of the the the the waste stream and composting is a really great way to do that it reduces the amount of orange bags that everybody uses um so Brookline does this waste drop off this compost drop off where they have four locations and they have these locked boxes and it's through Black Earth and um it's just like our curbside compost except you bring your compost to these sites and it's a locked box and you have to sign up with black Earth

238to get a combination to the to the to the to the to the program I thought it was really interesting I haven't like so I wanted to just kind of mention it I was going to reach out to Brookline and just get some information about like how the program is working um what their cost structure looks like um if they've had any incidents of like you know people putting their trash in a compost thing or if there's cameras and like yeah like a donation bin I don't want to do any more donation bins but basically it's a free program for for residents to be able to drop off their compost and so I don't know I thought I thought it would if if it was something that was interesting to the board I would go

239and check it out with Brookline and and report back and put it on an agenda just to see that makes me think of not necessarily going through Black Earth but we have the Community Gardens we have the new Arboretum that we're starting I'm wondering if we can do some kind of compost drop off but maybe it doesn't have to be with black Earth the I don't know the only thing about Black Earth which is really great is that you're able to compost things that you can't compost in a trash pile cuz we used to have a we used to have a compost pile out back and you you can't have can't do the meat bone you can't do the bones and the yeah okay so but true so I don't know what the cost would

240be and you know if there's any sort of State programs or anything that would help like Grant funds or anything like that but anyway I thought I would just I thought it was really interesting and I would say reach out to Brooklyn but also touch Bas with Sam yeah our sustainability okay yeah I will do that okay anything else um just a couple other um quick things our comprehensive plan is meeting with the Consultants um on next Tuesday the 22nd to start work on our strategies these are all like the subcontractors um so we've done our we've had that survey out where we talked about the vision and goals and the core themes we had a lot of participation um we're actually the great news is is we're up to 114% of our goal for

241participation um our goal was to reach 15% of Ashland and we're we've surpassed that already and we're still still getting more feedback on different parts of this plan so yay thank you to everybody who um who has participated in all of our all of our surveys um so far it's been great and so we are meeting um 7 o'clock at the community center next Tuesday the 22nd EV with all of those folks um and so that'll be the next sort of like the next phase of of all of this um and then I just wanted to two quick events that are happening um one is the Fall Fest at Corner Spot on Saturday 3:00 to 6: p.m. so it doesn't it doesn't um conflict with the historic walk oh good okay um 3: to 6

242it should be a beautiful day so come on out to Corner spot there's always it's always like the closing event so there's food and Beverages and games and music and so it's always a Fall Fest is always one of the best things um and then I also wanted to just give a um shout out to the um the ashon library who's doing this I kind of mentioned it before this teen this Library teen event um Halloween bash next Friday night from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. um the teen librarian Laura is doing a lot of work to try to help get more teen participation it's a hard demographic so um my kid is on the teen Council and trying to try to help with that cool so ni um but that that has they're they're doing

243like a Haunted Trail and face painting and they have Palm readers and Tarot cards and some really cool is into that stuff she really is I'm I'm thinking I'm I might go get no they're not going to allow me in I'm I'm not I don't fit the demographic but it's tarot cards I have something for you oh okay all right um but it's for kids age 12 to 19 is the the the age R oh 12 to 19 okay so um but have Alex go if he's interested it'd be fun anyway she's like Maybe not maybe yeah um and that is all for me so thank you great so as Michael mentioned tomorrow morning we have our the trail Summit sponsored by the Metro Regional collaborative M mapc it's great to have that back here

244in Ashland uh Ashland Community Theater is performing Rocky Horror the musical it will be I believe it's the 25th 26th and 27th at Ashlin VFW so go and check that out and then the haunt which is happening this weekend the 19th 20th and 21st and the 26th 27th and 28th of October it also ties into the hopkington Center for the Arts Wicked weekend so the second weekend they also have a family event on Saturday and they have a 5k on Sunday where you can get in costume and go run it should be a lot of fun they also have a pickle ball tournament that's happening also at the Metro West YMCA so the haunt you can get your tickets it is time tickets uh every 10 minutes it will take you about 45 minutes to

245get through the wedding at dead Woodville um a lot of fun we had a rehearsal last night we have a dress rehearsal tomorrow night I am participating again this year and as I said what's fun is it's a fundraiser for both the Metro West YMCA and the Hopkinson Center for the Arts so your ticket uh goes to support some great programs and uh I'm sorry to have missed the dragonfly Street Fair um I was on vacation we do do that every once in a while we hadn't done one in a while so but thank you to everyone who worked at it and made it it sound like it was wonderful so I'll have to see if I can get to Fall Fest on Saturday and that is all I have if I can get a

246motion to adjourn here at quarter 11 I have a motion and a second all those in favor that carries 5- Z our next meeting we are slightly off schedule we did not do one on October 2nd our next meeting will be Wednesday October 30th so come bring your kids uh for the Halloween festivities and then hang out with us at selectboard if you'd like and that wraps up this meeting for Wednesday October 16th be safe and happy Halloween e e e