001e e e I'm I'll see it two one two three mic check mic check testing testing testing when the testing one two three mic check mic check yep I hear it now you uh we're still not live on cable but that's not us I don't I don't see it there we go Yana you strangely look like the town seal you've been doing this job so long good evening everybody and welcome to the select board meeting for Ashland for September 4th 2024 happy September hope you've all had a great long weekend great start to the school um hard to believe we uh this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live by waca TV and live stream on Facebook remote participation is available using the zoom video conferencing platform any disruptions with the video conferencing platform will
002result in the platform being shut down in the event of A disruption broadcast in will continue on waca TV and live streamed on Facebook so with that let's start with citizens participation if anyone is here and they'd like to share something with us please step up and introduce yourself and your name and address please hi my name is AI Johnson I work I'm I live at for Roberts Road and um I'm part of the adop the street group in um I do from the Town Line of Framingham to the pretty much the fire station that uh stretched there 1.8 miles so my um concern is the the nips you know the uh it's um constantly picking them up you know and I know there's no no luck in Banning them but what I'd like to
003propose is a fee for the sale and distribution of the nips um I know that there there's like a pouring fee and alcohol licenses and all that so um I do not support the Banning of the nips but I I would think a separate licensing fee a permit of these non-recyclable single use mini containers no deposit um the the board regulates the sale of food cigarettes and alcohol so uh maybe they could regulate how these uh products are distributed or sold so I'd like to um suggest that in the alcohol the liquor store alcohol licensing process they could be a fee um to sell the nips um because they are single use no deposit non- returnable Min containers uh I would suggest a fee of $1,500 that fee could be used towards education cleanup put
004up some signs um something like that just to uh you know they when they get ground up you know they're going to go right into the soil and the water and all that the plastic you know this they throw out the cans and the bottles and everything but these nips they're a different thing you know so uh just as a prop this is about six weeks these are just the ones that I can you know get um I don't know how to go about putting it on the uh the the ticket or you know put it uh up for voting but it seems like it might be a good thing to have a nip fee not a van but a fee well well thank you for that input first of all I want to thank
005you for adopting that section of street thank you and doing the cleanup there I I know that that in itself is is a lot of effort it's something we'll have to talk about because depending on it's probably not just residents of Ashland oh yeah that are throwing their nips there people coming from Framingham we we don't know um we can certainly discuss it I I don't know if that anything will happen right away certainly not um but I want to thank you for bringing it forward and I think we as a board can discuss it um and maybe other towns that have tried to ban them they could have a fee yeah I was actually gonna ask it I'm sorry well I just want to say one thing I can do is I also sit
006on a regional board okay so I can ask around our neighboring cities in towns what they're doing if anything and see if we can come up with an idea together great you know if I'm may add I first of all I just want to Second thank you for adopting a street 1.8 miles is not a lot of Street that's a lot Sunday mornings is quiet so well you know very much appreciate your work on that thank you um you know I think what we're talking about here actually is is a state policy change um so I know there's been a lot of talk at the state level about banning n and I don't understand what the resistance is to it but apparently there is some probably from the alcohol industry I'm sure from the from
007the people who distribute them and make money from them yeah but if you're talking about like a separate fee or like a tax associated with that um I think it probably that that's probably more of a state law so in in addition to you know the local licensing Authority I would encourage you to reach out to like our State Rep or you know Senate President spoka or representative Lewis and just say that this is something that you'd like to try to accomplish and see what say just one more thing the uh the liquor store that's down here across from the Columbus Club I was talking to him one time and he says oh you can dump them in our dumpster oh that's so nice you know okay okay thank you I I just actually had
008a a a question and a comment too first off I want to thank you for coming here and bringing this this issue I know that there are a lot of folks here in Ashlin who who actually care about this because uh my neighbors and actually you and I have had a conversation about this as well at the market yep and um so I want to thank you for coming out tonight and and bringing those props to illustrate how bad the problem was in your opinion uh has this problem gotten worse over the past few years gotten better um but what have you just seen I'm just curious um it it seems to be constant okay you know and it's like I think I mentioned it to maybe Joe or something if you could fingerprint some
009of them it'd be the same people in the same place the same amount it's just there's the three Fireballs there's the uh whiskey whatevers you know and Y so uh it's a constant thing um the syringes are down uh but the um nips are constant okay yeah I'm curious as to really if we ask the retailers in Ashland who you know sell nips what they must have pretty easily I would think what how many numbers how many nips do they sell um yeah that's a good question you know because maybe that's something I don't know maybe that's a discussion we could have with them as well but it would be interesting to see I mean obviously yeah I think 100% that there's people just passing through oh absolutely it's not just ashon folks that go
010over there oh yeah toss them out but it would be interesting you know there's liquor stores in framan that's right yeah on either side of us but but it would be interesting to see how many are being sold in Ashland because uh you know if it's not a big part of their um retail then maybe it's something that they would agree to not sell I don't know I want to say we've had this discussion at least once or twice yeah over the years over the years there not something the unfortunate thing is you know it's what people want they went from a pint now to a ni type of deal you know so those people have those issues and they need you know that little that extra boost while they're working and they can't you
011know shoot a uh shoot a pint in them they take the nips while they're working type of deal that's always been an issue when we spoke Mada at the um Farmers Market you know I don't know if signs would do anything you know because it's unenforceable you know people throw some out the window you're not going to catch them but if they just saw you know it's don't do it well I mean yeah I mean just like a general sort of litter you know litter sign like don't litter don't you know something like that like may not nip specific I've done research it's better to say keep Ash beautiful then don't because they go don't and Y do yeah and and I know Michael had said you know that this is part on you know
012part of a state yeah um State oversight and so you know we can discuss it in further too and and make recommendations to to our to our legislators like we we can we can advocate for it thank you for all you guys do you work hard thank you're welcome and thanks andk you do appreciate you coming forward good it's a lot of we can continue with citizens participation maybe we could let you leave those here and we could get rid of them okay all set yeah Mar the Sony 119 Main Street nice and a very relaxed unstressed neighbor social person and happy to be in a house that is all common to the people there nice I would like to thank you I used to live in that neighborhood for 60 plus years and rubbish
013road is right after just be right after hi used to be called Park Street and yes used a had a property called Bishop's Farm and there used to be a hang out there so that's nothing new BR glad you brought it up but to bring back my new address I'm getting the mail there I'm getting everything there now all hooked up I I'm here to thank two people Town manager and Joe thank than you for the letters of recommendations my brother is proud that Joe came through my my brother also said don't bother the town manager he's too busy so I kind of said St part I already did and the other we got another person um was a woman that works out of the s s is that that was the third recommendation person
014I talked to her this afternoon and thanked her her name is Diane s nice and she is a family friend from the church and gave everything the house in progress at hathon is being gutted out going to be try to be solded by the end of September October hopefully I'm saying out of the way because two mindsets are good three could cause a problem so it's easier for me to stay out of the way it's also good to be a nextd door neighbor here nice takes less than two minutes from the parking lot to walk here and from the front less than a minute and a half but I won't make it a habit to become a pesty neighbor thank you thank you thank you Mark and I'm glad to hear that you're settled in
015your new residence and that it's worked out for congratulations I saw you walking downtown today I think it was and said up I bet you he's moved in good and Town's happy to see me not one add good yeah okay moving on next item on our agenda is review and vote on establishing a pouring fee in the amount of $500 annually so this is related to Clover road coming in it's not a regular beer and you know it's not a regular beer and wine license it's not a it's a specific pouring fee that we have to put into place and Susan was nice enough to sort of reach out and give us a fee a survey of what other communities have done so she's recommending the $500 and uh I think based on the work
016that she does with all of this I think that's a great recommendation any questions comments or discussion on this pouring fee Randy the only thing I think we need to add is the reason that we're doing this is because they brew their own beer but it's offsite right because of the type of facility it's a it's a tap room versus a a other restaurant that does beer and wine and or Al all alcohol yes so this pouring fruit is only for them it's not for all the other it's for anyone who if you know this they're our first if we get someone else who wants to do this it would then apply to them as well well but it's not like er is no this is just it's a pouring fee because they brew someplace
017else and they're selling their own stuff I'm just curious what what's the rationale behind a pouring fee because it's so instead of a instead of a regular Li uh alcohol license you do a pouring fee I it's also looked at differently from the state so this will not take away from our either all alcohol or beer and wine license count that we have and there's also if if you look at the language for the motion um it's a farming Farmers Brewing license so there's something associated with that that's why we need to do something different this is the first we've ever done and Susan do you have anything else to add I I just wanted to say um the gist of the whole thing is for consumption on site if they don't have a pouring
018license nobody can consume the product there they would have to take it to go okay so it's not a bob well no because you're not bringing your own there you want to C on ni I know um so I I guess my question would be if that's if if that's the case then are they still obligated to follow the same uh rules and regulations but tip certification and things of that nature as well okay yes there's no different that no it's just the type of license got any other questions then if I could get a motion to establish a pouring fee in the amount of $500 annually thank you in a second thank you all those in favor I I great I actually one question sure so for pouring Fe sorry let me put the
019mic on for pouring fees um because later on in our agenda in 3 minutes um we're going to talk uh talk to Clover wrote about um separate licenses for um for malt and then one for wine so correct so pouring fee is very specific as to the type of of um yes alcohol alcohol yes okay so they'll have actually two they'll have a a a beer or what what's this the actual the real name is malt beverage pouring license and a wine pouring license so they'll actually have to pay two fees one for for each license okay yeah it'll be a total of $1,000 for them yeah okay just wanted to because again part of it is we're setting it up because we haven't had this before so if someone else comes in and just
020wants to do malt beverage they would do malt beverage or if someone else wants to come and have just a wine sh whatever so so several years ago there was u a family that was thinking of doing the same thing behind the town hall right so this would be suitable for for them if they come forward to us because they're going to do bre if they're no I think if it's is it onite it's onsite brewing and serving would it be this license it doesn't pertain to whether it's off-site or onsite okay what it is is if they get a state Brewers license the only way you can consume it in a premise is you have to have a pouring license to do so okay perfect thank you sue you're welcome any other questions or
021coming ments okay it is O it's late here we go legal notice and I think are they're coming in nope that's running uh are they on oh are they online Jamie's okay so if you are and we're allowing people to cameras on now right no we're still not okay so if you are online and if you are here repres presenting Clover Road Brewing you can go ahead and just put use the raised hand feature so we know who you are and then we can call on you I'm going to read the legal notice notice is hereby given that the select the select board will conduct a hearing in accord keep your mic's mic's uh mik for now uh notice is hereby given the select board will conduct a hearing in accordance with M Mass General
022law 13B SE section 19 CN for a malt Brewing pouring license Ashlin Brewing LLC DBA Clover Road Ashland 151 Main Street Ashland Mass a public hearing will be held on the matter on Wednesday September 4th 2024 at 7:15 p.m. persons wishing to be heard on this matter are invited to attend the public Hearing in person or by logging into the zoom meeting interested parties who are unable to attend the hearing May submit written sub comments to the select Board office Town Hall 101 Main Street Ashland or by emailing Susan Roy sroy asland mass.com if I can get a motion to open the public hearing so moved and a second second all those in favor of opening the hearing I the hearing is now open okay uh if we could have who's representing Ashlin Brewing unmute
023yourself and identify yourself please hi you have Jamie moldun and John moldun on the line wonderful welcome thank you so we are here to hold a public hearing first for your malt beverage pouring license and then we'll go into the wine pouring license if you want to go ahead and let us know how thing where are things at and we have all the paperwork in front of us but why don't you go ahead and start sure so from a licensing standpoint we've been approved by the ttb for both The Malt and the wine and we are in process with the state right now and they are coming out at a date that we're working on to for a onsite inspection for both malt and wine uh and obviously couple doors down we're under construction and
024working through that with some hiccups along the way contractors and and uh hoping to be open as soon as possible do you have a potential date or not yet not that we're willing to discuss okay very diplomatically done h i I'm I'm an internal optimist so I uh I'm gonna withdraw my optimism for now because it's being recorded okay that's fair soon very soon okay so we have have the floor P plan we see the difference right now between the the The Malt and the wine um any questions from the board looking at the design that you uh provided us I appreciate that thank you and uh Yolanda was able to give me uh an explanation as to why you have two different areas for uh beer and wine they have to be separate I
025guess when you when you do the the pouring aspect right now for for right now for this for yeah okay and when when will that change once these uh once we have the next hearing next hearing okay do you folks have a a back door because I notice you have two side doors uh where the old uh driveway is and then you have the front door area where the ramp is but is there a side door in the back for exit should there be an emergency that you have to exit from the back if there's an issue in the front of the building that you can't get through those two doors uh there's an existing exit in the back okay I just didn't see it on I I knew there was one there but I
026didn't see it on the uh on the drawing that's why I asked oh no fair question I don't have the for PL up but uh there definitely an existing exit on the back yeah no I know it's there I just didn't see it I didn't know if you blocked it off nope why do have two separate areas because right now actually Susan can you explain why they have to have two separate areas right now I think you can do it better than me sure so so the reason they have to do two separate areas is right now they have applied for a farmer's license when you're doing the pouring license because they have two different products that they're Brewing they have to be two separate designated areas for each product so they had to submit
027in floor plans that show the designation of where the beer and where the wine will be brewed and served so at the next hearing we're getting a little ahead of ourselves we'll have to do an alteration of premise which will allow them to use the entire space to serve both products okay it's just a process it's an Antiquated law was what the abcc told me they said that yes that's not a good sign why is it something different than what you heard folks no that's just emotionally how I feel so it's glad to hear it now any other questions I'm good the only other question I have um so for are like the plans and and forgive me because maps are kind of difficult to kind of Orient myself here but um outo outdoor seating
028you're going to be having outdoor seating on the The Patio I assume um depends what you're yeah yes yes okay so so consumption will happen out on the out on the patio as well yes so yeah and and that area also has to be approved by the ttb and the state and so the ttb has approved it on a federal level the state will come out an investigator will come out and investigate the outdoor pouring area as well so that's out here okay Yolanda just showed me how to read a map had a one so um so thank you okay that that makes that makes a lot of sense okay does anyone else want to see the paper version thank you you're welcome real Qui yeah second okay and then other than that we're just
029excited to have you here and look forward to uh to celebrating the official open whenever whenever that comes uh as soon as same as soon as possible I assume yeah for everybody no we can't we can't wait we have uh Jamie talk to the folks at the YMCA this week U and best uh been on me to finish because she has all kinds of Fun Town stuff planned so we're we're anxious we're excited and anxious okay good any other questions or comments okay um hold on I'm just looking for the the times yeah my for some reason my iPad is not bring it up quickly enough 11 to 10:30 11 11 to 1030 every day that's what I'm uh so the hours um you know I went over this with Susan so the hours that
030we ask for we we always ask for more y um in the event that you know we're going to have either special events or we want to open on a Monday holiday and so we do ask the select Board of the town for extended hours to begin with um but our Norm operating hours will be Tuesday through Sunday Tuesday through Friday will'll be open from 4: to 9: Friday we will be open from 3: to 9 and Saturday 12 to 10 and Sunday from Chang their hours 12 to 8 those hours so yeah so so but the the hours that we ask for on the application and the same though with the state we extend them to make sure that you know we cover all bases so that you know for Labor Day if we
031want to be open we have the possibility to uh be open for Labor Day and a holiday okay that makes sense y y okay if I can get a motion to approve the 19 CN malt beverage poring let's close the hearing y right are we closing the hearing yes okay if I can uh oh well I should do this thank you uh any other comments from anyone else on the board any other deliberation any other input from anyone in the room or online seeing none if I can get a motion to close the public hearing some second all those in favor hi hi if I can get a motion to approve the 19 CN malt beverage pouring license for Ashland Brewing Company LLC DBA Clover Road Brewing Ashland conditional on the approval of the 19c
032farmer Brewery Brewery license so moved second all those in favor I I perfect okay okay that closes that hearing uh I have to read the second one can you pull up the second my technology is slow tonight is that the second one hold on we're getting there oh maybe now's mine responding now is that the 725 yeah I need to do the 725 hearing you want me to read it on your behalf sure go ahead a public hearing will be held on the matter on Wednesday September 4th 2024 at 7:25 p.m. persons wishing to be heard on this matter are invited to attend the public Hearing in person or by longing into the zoom meeting interested parties who are unable to attend um the hearing May submit written comments to the select board's office Town
033Hall 101 Main Street asham mass or by emailing suoi at sroy Asam m.com Yolanda Graves chair and this is hereby notice is given to the select board will conduct a hearing in accordance with mgl 138 section 19B uh paragraph n for wine pouring license great motion to open the hearing so moved second all those in favor I okay um I don't know that we know need to go any other details it's now just for the wine license same same information um one question where will you be getting the wine from is that also something that you produce or so we'll be um producing a limited amount out of Ashlin and will also be contract with um a local Massachusetts Winery and so we're working out the details right now with a few wineries in Massachusetts
034um so full you know look for details coming out soon on that um but we'll do both we'll we'll do limited amount from the Ashlin location and also contract nice great okay I'm excited for wine because I my husband's more of a Beer Drinker and I'm a more wine person so to sit in separate rooms no no no no no by the time by the time they go to open we'll get that fixed that would be funny that would be F that would be funny no funny not fine so so I'm excited for one any other comments for or against this license seeing none any other deliberation I think we're good if I can get a motion to close the public hearing so moved second all those in favor I I I and then if
035I can get a motion to approve the 19 BN wine pouring license for Ashen Brewing Brewing LLC DBA Clover Road Brewing Ashlin conditional on the approval of the 19c farmer Brewery license so moved second all those in favor I great so we have those two licenses in place Susan is in the process of doing the next step and we've already uh published for the next meeting to be able to do the hearing to combine the two locate the two pouring areas I just want to say thank you to Susan who's been a huge help uh and is more qualified than the lawyer we pay a lot of money to great we we are thankful that we have Susan as well great okay uh any other business related to Clover Road no just good luck John
036and Jamie and we look forward to seeing you guys thank you guys so much we will we will see you all in h two weeks we love the signs great job sign signs on the building look really good people really are are enjoying seeing that oh good good oh good that's awesome yeah great all right thank you all very welcome thank you okay we're a little a little bit before 7:40 but I believe we have everyone here from fish and game so we can discuss this uh you're looking to host a fundraiser on Saturday October 5th from 5: to 11: you're requesting a one-day extension of the serving area for the outdoor Pavilion so who's going to be speaking on this matter if there's multiple of you if you could come up to the uh
037Podium and we can have a discussion I yeah so point of clarification go for it hi I'm Ashley ostes I'm the spokesperson for the fishing game Treasurer and also helping coordinate the event um however these two are holding the I'm good intro yeah that was very nice well done did you rehearse this one I'm uh Jamie trip 61 Pine Hill Road and ashin and my uh partner in this event that we're trying to plan is Tim Tim 14 time in road yeah so we are uh the ones running the event but we're looking at the venue to be at the fishing game club so that's kind of a why we're both here so and what is the event it's a fundraiser for uh flag football uh girls Ashland High School lacrosse and girls uh Ashland
038Varsity soccer so uh trying to bring some funds together for the girls and the flight football program okay good so you're requesting so basically our our typical your typical license is noon to 10: at the fishing game correct and this event you want to hold it until 11: correct so we need to extend it by one hour for that day okay um you're not changing where on the site you're doing anything it's the same footprint that you've showed us and um generally we would like to request that we could um possibly serve beer in the field area um however we will be serving out of the Pavilion the regular footprint um and if if possible we would like to be able to serve just beer on in the field area that's possible okay hold on
039will that be separated get that information at all did you did you supply it is on the map um that I believe Susan had received and I thought she'd given to you she did my my docum so where the where the tent is um the bands in the middle and then there's alcohol there's a little alcohol spot on one side and the barbecue spot on the other so that's the idea should be in the backup would you like to see the print out piece to share with the yeah if you could pass that over and then i' like I add this might call Tonio the president of the club and then I'll be all a fenced in area which we would uh you know require if we need fencing or anything to keep people uh
040in that area that would be that would be the only thing that I would suggest on my on on my issue that would be fine we have a team that's ready to to put up anything that we would anything to make it trouble-free yes exactly when we're done yeah we'll pass that down thank you oh yeah that's where they want to put it so you're looking for us to extend by an hour on the 5th and also allow pouring on the field and also consumption right and consump right right right right and will it be the fishing games usual servers yes all tip certified all tip certified our regular servers will be serving the alcohol okay any other questions or comments you asked the question I was going to ask you the only thing I
041just wanted to make you guys aware of just it has nothing to do specifically with your event but the dragonfly festival's be going on that afternoon so just just to be aware it's going to be taking up quite a bit of space in downtown so just being aware from a timing standpoint we've requested and was approved for overflow parking at the DPW which is further up down the road Hond Roa if there's any overflow parking we can do that I'm also having parking attendance just so everybody Parks safely and gets in and out of there okay okay's the anticipated uh I believe they are saying 200 to 250 yes yeah okay we had the event last year and we we had 200 at the event last year so we're hoping to increase that this year
042and within our registration we when you when you register the event we we have a statement that we ask everyone to try to car pool or use uh other ways to get there so that we don't have as many cars congesting the areas what time is [Music] dragonfly is that afternoon to early evening yeah okay okay yes so the overlap won't be quite quite as much I just wanted to make you guys aware that there was some other stuff going on that you know would be there's no road closures though with dragonfly this year or are there isn't there this year aren't they closing the road because believe so they closly take place Corner Spot his um Historical Society the Ocean House the ocean house and there's a third third location by the library I'm
043not sure I forget but they've expanded Dragon downtown which again not but your event is from 5: to 11: so we'll just have to what I recommend is reach out to Beth Reynolds to find out information about dragonfly Festival yeah um so she'll be able to give you better information and if there's road closures and things like that yep have I have a quick question because I saw it on the news ton what uh what precautions are you taking for uh mosquito control and I have to ask because this is this is a big thing going on right now with tripol and everything else uh we do H regularly have the the state uh sends a team mosquito guys and they have been on our property um I can't tell you exactly how many times
044but I do see the guys there all the time with the trucks and okay I've been you know I've been in contact with them and just to say hey if anything comes up please come to me and tell me if you find anything they do a lot of research I'm not sure the extent to what they do but uh yeah it's it's it was on our minds as well so I have reached well they're right in North bro yeah they're not that far away so and they do it for free so you know a quick call you know just remind people attending you know bug spray and or provide bugs yeah just an idea you don't want you don't want you don't want to get ruined over the zapper y yeah Za so oh yeah
045okay any other questions or comments or concerns no oh I'm glad it's going to be uh at the fishing game like to see that being uh have have a good future in town nice okay if I can get a motion to extend the F the Ashen fishing games liquor license for Saturday October 5th till 11:00 p.m. and allow the consumption of alcohol on the field and that there is a fenced in area designating where that is so moved second any other questions or comments all those in favor I I and opposed good luck Lu sounds fun she's she's a good one she helps a lot of people glad I did a review last week how how much money did you make last year oh you're very welcome thanks buddy oh nice oh that's nice wow
046per team oh yeah oh yeah yeah yeah welcome to what we do for ashine day same thinging we canid large yeah I hear you all right good luck yeah good luck guys and good luck thank you pray for good [Laughter] weather don't jinx it I know I mean it it it could be like it was today or even like it was on Monday it was gorgeous [Laughter] H you're du one yeah you definitely are due one okay okay well that's all done moving on in our agenda we're going into our old and new business we're going to do a recap of our second session of the board retreat uh Michael I'm GNA let you start with this and then I'm going to ask for input from the board thank you um so yeah last week
047we uh ended our uh August Retreat sessions I guess you say we had meetings uh related to to that this year um overall just speak to the process I I thought you know we continue to try to improve um how this works and um you know I think we can say that that we definitely did this year U I appreciate everybody's you know willingness to be open and you know especially during the first session and talk about how you know we we can find our common purpose and and get that written down um our second session focused mainly on the projects and you know everybody here knows that I'm saying this mostly for the people at home and I think you know a few things few overall observations uh coming out of that uh evening
048was number one it was great for me to Simply for me from my personal perspective to sit here and and basically ask you questions and watch the board kind of Talk Amongst yourselves um we don't really do that that much you know usually you're asking me questions I'm answering you know there's a dialogue but um it was really great to see the board kind of have their own discussions and and come to some of your own conclusions and and um hope hope you noticed that um and appreciated that um and before we get to I'm not going to go through the whole list of projects everybody's okay with that right yes I don't know I don't know Makita might want to go through each one but um but in any case um I one of
049the things I think we did realize and we've known this for a while but I think it's going to be great to to get it down in writing is that we need to come up with a prioritization plan for new projects um if you know we have a history of wanting to um be helpful and to accommodate everybody and we just simply at this point in time don't have the resources to do that and so what we need to do is we need to come up with a system atic way and a transparent way to prioritize things in order to um basically determine what we take on moving forward because I think we can all agree the the the quote unquote project load we have now is not healthy for us as a team it's
050not healthy for our staff in general it's not really healthy for the community um because if you take on too many projects and you don't have the resources to do it things take longer things drag on you just can't put the focus on each individual project the way it needs to have focus and uh I think we've seen the results of that so uh I think that's something you know we're going to have to develop and uh work on moving forward um and then you know going to specific projects uh I will only mention the fact that we pretty much kept everything on the list except for a smooth few smaller projects and I think a key uh decision that was made was that we were going going to um as aside from hopefully later
051this year doing some repairs on the exterior trim and painting of the Valentine house we're going to put that project on hold for right now it is a big project number one just coming to an agreement as to what we want to do with that and there's so many different parties involved so we have the state we have that conservation restriction that was submitted last July that's still at the state um they haven't gotten to it and and you know they're going to give us well they they do give us the fact we have resource issues and um you know I think in some ways it's frustrating but in other ways we could take a page out of the airbook too and um so I you know I know that's going to be unfortunate news
052to some people it doesn't mean we're just going to completely drop it it just means that for right now we're going to do some things that we're going to make sure that that house is still stable and um you know Preserve our ability to make a decision for it Community decision for it in the future and um so that's uh just related to projects and then the Third Kind of overall theme that really kind of spanned over I think both nights was this issue of communication and you know I think again part of the prioritization process is going to be you know to have something that we can communicate out to people this is why we're doing this and that but I I think I did sense just like from the board um an interest
053in making sure that the correct information is getting out there um whether it's coming from us or coming from other people and that we're actually talking about real issues not fabricated issues or mistaken issues because the thing is is if you don't have if if things if misinformation is put out there and let's just disregard whether it's intentional or not for right now because misinformation is misinformation but if that gets out there the debate starts amongst residents and people starts centering around things that aren't real and it keeps us distracted and keeps us from focusing on real issues that we need to determine a solution for as a community and um it's a real problem in Ashland and I know a lot of people it's not just an Ashlin thing and and I did tell
054you that you know Beth and I are kind of doing our own little research and we'll have to present that to you but yeah it's it is um it it's I wouldn't say that other communities aren't facing it it's just I'm not necessarily sure we're the rule I do think we're the exception um in some of those cases so I think that's about as succinctly as I can put it great feedback from the board comments on the process on the discussion anything you want to add or I I found the whole um thing to be you know very informative I feel like I learned a lot um you know and and so it was it was very positive in that regard um it was was amazing to see the progress and the things that have
055been done in this community in the last 10 plus years um it in terms of the communication piece I think we all really want to figure out how to you know get get our arms around that um you know misinformation is is a problem um and and I do think it it's a problem in other towns I don't know if we're if it's a greater problem for us it'll be interesting to hear that data because that's something if that's the case I want our community to know that too um you know but I think that one thing that that I'm going to try to work on is asking people to um ask questions and be careful about what they say when they say it you know before you say something as a fact you should
056know that it is or isn't you know or it's true you should know it's true and so I think people need to check themselves before I say something you know say know it's true if it's a question I'd like to know if this is the case then then that's Fair let's ask that and see if we can get answers to people but I think we all need to be careful sometimes I know sometimes when I'm passionate about something I might you know say something that isn't exactly fact or that so I I have to always watch myself um but you know I think that's critical but but I think it would be nice if we could steer some of that online a little bit to um encourage people to be to ask good questions that's
057very Fair um because I think we can get people answers but be careful about saying something that isn't true and then people end up with misinformation okay Makita yeah um I have I'll Echo everything Claudia said and I'll also add that you know it's it's fascinating um being out in community and talking with people about you know how they receive information on the town uh the issue of information disinformation and misinformation does come up quite frequently I just had a conversation with some folks last night about that very topic and I feel like well no I shouldn't say feel I've heard that there is a real hunger in the town to be able to uh take this head on I think a lot of residents want they want to be able to have the correct
058information they want to be able to help their friends and Neighbors when they're then they don't have the right information to let them know what's really happening and they want to make sure that they're a positive part of that process because I think one of the things that we talked about as a board when we got back together when we got to to talk about this was that it's a it's going to be a community effort it's not just you know Michael with the newsletter which is great it's not just selectboard us getting in the community it's going to take all of us it's going to take a village to really make sure that you know we're communicating we're hearing each other and that we are sharing correct information Makita I'm curious the people that
059you chatted with where do they currently get their information if they get it good question um Madam chair so uh the town manager's newsletter came up frequently um and I actually had a chance to talk with some folks from a neighboring town as well uh over the past few days and they've actually pointed to the town manager's newsletter as a great way to find out what's happening in Ashlin um so I think that was probably the the most uh dominant piece uh there was some Talk of the TV as well the waa as well but um but yeah those were the two things that I heard mentioned good uh okay most frequently good good nice Yeah Joe or brandy any thoughts just just a piggy back what everybody said I just want to say that
060it can be very demoralizing you know when you when you when you put a lot of heart and soul and effort into doing something and then some a group or an individual provides you know bad information or false information and that gets out there and people tend to believe that and not call or ask those who are are are involved to head on with it um so it it can be very demoralizing and that's when I mean that's when differentials happen with with with different things with different groups and it becomes it becomes an issue and now you don't know who to believe MH you really don't know who to believe so again Michael you know sending out that information and providing that information is great doing the uh you know the office hours is
061is another thing um you know again but it's the it's the people's interest what they're interested in and we saw that a couple of weeks ago they were more interested in the dogp than they were asking questions about what was going on in the town and and rightfully so that that's a positive good thing that you know that people are looking forward to so you don't want you don't want to believe in the negative you always want to accuate on on the positive and enjoy and enjoy the town and the things that the town provides as long as it's you know with the correct information that's all and it's just and it's a shame that some individuals uh do that whether they do it purposefully or they do it unintentionally but it just s yeah
062okay Randy so I think our conversations were really great I think that you know it's funny because we set aside what two hours for it and it kind of bled into three and a half um was I should never have brought the food I should never brought the food you brought the snacks and we're all good to I I know snacks note to sell so so yeah so a public thank you to to to Katherine bird who who furnished our snacks for us yeah she she she did call me the next morning like what happened so but wasn't just me but but but the discussion was good because I do think we don't get enough time to really do a date deep dive into some of our some of the issues and that's what's good
063about a retreat I mean we only do it once a year but it's really a working session for us to to Really dive into something that's not just a overview of of of an issue and I think that I'm looking forward to to really kind of going into the communications um discussion more in depth I think that we've come a long way as a town in our Communications I think back to when the newsletter used to be something you did once every few months whenever like literally because because it was something that you knew was important to get information out there but it's it's a lot of work so it's it's a lot of work for it's a lot of work for our Communications team um and a lot of work for for for you
064and the staff um so you know we appreciate that but it will be a good discussion to kind of go into that go into that more and figure out other ways that we can communicate I do think that you know when we talked about our priorities and our projects um I would like to have that list that we talked about and have it have it at an open I mean our meeting was open but like a public discussion about that project list and and talk about that a little bit more um you know we talked about the Valentine property we talked about the dog park we talked about um you know sidewalks and what that plan is for for that and I think I think a a broader discussion about some of those projects would
065be of real interest to a lot of a lot of folks watching especially when we start talking about things like a sidewalk plan and things like that so um but I think it was a I think it was a I think it was a great a a great it was a good tool great great couple of meetings so it it it's funny I was talking to someone and they said so how do you as a board go into real indepth discussions and debates and because it is hard to do on camera right we have a certain amount of time we have specific things on our agenda that we need to discuss and debate and and let the public see but I think the discussion that we had that night would have been hard to do
066on camera because of the tangents that we went off on and that it would be hard if someone just jumped in to understand so I I agree I think doing the retreat is helpful and I guess to people watching the reminder is no specific votes or decisions were really taken we talked about the project list we will bring that to an open meeting I mean and again the meet the Retreats are open let me restate that we will bring it to a televised meeting so that we will talk specifically about the list and and what's being worked on and what is maybe going to be put on a back burner and all of these projects will get done they're just some of them have to be back burner so we can finish some of the
067other ones that based on what we've heard from the community is a priority one of those big ones is the comprehensive plan because that comprehensive plan will then help determine the timing of some of these other projects but what I actually enjoyed was because for Makita is brand new since May and even for Claudia even you've been involved in a lot the discussing and sort of reviewing the history of some of these projects and I think Route 126 is a great example of a review of some of the discussion and debate that we're seeing I I was talking with someone and they said what's something that you've done since you've been sitting here that you feel you might not have originally done and I think about the meal sales tax I mean I'm I mean
068conservative I'm I'm a fiscal conservative right I want to make sure that if we're spending money we are spending it wisely I don't want to add another tax if we don't have to I remember when Michael came to me and said so I'm going to recommend that we initiate the meal sales tax here in Ashland and I was like another tax what are you kidding me and the rationale behind starting that was we as a community we're going to do this meal sales tax and the the major re the first reason we did it for was so that we could pay for the $325,000 that we needed to spend to do our 25% of design for Route 126 and then there'd be portions for economic development and other public things going on that was an
069investment by the people in our community but it was also the investment of people who came to our community to eat it's still an investment of people who are coming into our community who have you know and that $325,000 that we said okay State we're going to spend this to do our 25% design and then lots of me meetings and trips into town into into Boston to keep the project going is getting US Route 126 um so it's just interesting the history of things and how we get to things and it was a pleasure reminder it was yeah sometimes realiz andiz you know as long as you have it's just like wow yeah when you put it all in one place right right that's exactly yeah if I could expand just a little bit 126
070that is such you know I that is such a Case Case book or you know stud case study that's what it is um of how like like this whole system of government works and how when taking on too many projects happens you know it can kind of slow a little bit of progress but it is a state project I do want to remind everybody that but so it was my first month here and Ed Bates and Steve Greenberg came to see me and you know Ed has been working on had been working on 126 yep for 2025 years and they were like well she she comes into play later in this in the story and Ed Ed and Steve were like okay we've negotiated with the state that if we do the 25% design um
071they'll pick up the rest of the design and put it on the tip now before us that kind of concept had not been done before now it's rather routine yes but there were but Ed especially was like you know we've been trying to figure out a way to make this work for 20 25 years can you help us figure out a way to make this happen and so so I put on the professional staff hat and I'm like okay well what can we do obviously revenues at this point in time you know the finances were the finances so here was an opportunity to here's something that we could take advantage of Y and so you know you had citizens and volunteers you know working with staff to come up with a plan to do something
072and then that needed a town meeting vote and so that's where you have people like Paula Parker come into play and all the advocacy work and others of course the amount of advocacy work that was done for that um we had a very large turnout for that vote which voted favorably for the meals tax and then you know we moved forward we did the design on time we did um got all of that done we had those big Community meetings over at the at the war schol just talk about it and because we did not just a engineering study we did a we did a design design yeah yeah and um you know it that it worked so the state lived up to their end of the bargain they paid for the rest of the
073design they put it on the tip um and so we started construction again covid happened but you know I think you know we probably could put a little bit more focus on it if we weren't doing all these other things that required attention as well so I think it's just a great example of kind of like the way this form of government can work and you know just a you know book in the communication piece and you know I recommended everybody read that savior City and Makita you read it in like a fraking weekend I'm still three three quarters of the way through but one of the things that's really interesting and I've been looking into this subject more is this idea of this almost like a social contract where you know we're doing our
074jobs but the citizens and the community they have a role to play too and I think this is what you're going to to call out when misinformation is happening and people are intimidating others from speaking and ensuring that you're on a a Level Playing Field you know and you're right it's that's not just our responsibility that's the community's responsibility you know obviously if people make mistakes and everything you can you can handle that with compassion with empathy but you know when there's Bad actors that play and I'll just say it Bad actors um you know it's the community job to say hey no that that's foul here that that doesn't work here and um we appreciate what you're trying to do but we don't appreciate it so yeah anyway I'm glad you you you found
075the process enjoyable I think next time we'll do it during over a single day on a Saturday Claudia you had something you wanted to say yeah I was just thinking um in terms of the projects and that that you know it might be interesting and I think it might be able to do it in just a couple of hours would be short video clips about each where you say Okay Route 120 is the 126 project and then take a minute or two minutes max to talk about it and then boom and then you know we could post it as a you know either I was thinking actually as an entire clip and then you know if you're learning something on YouTube all the time I'm jumping ahead here and there or you could we could
076potentially post it as little individual ones that you clip if you wanted to know this particular particular thing yeah um and you could even include links to those in in your newsletter each week and if it's a one minute two minute video or something you know I'm more apt to take a look right especially if it's something that is of interest to me yeah CLA we're fine in one to two minutes is actually too long I mean people like those 20 second 20 20 second 30 second but but but I mean I don't want to say what what's happening with my attention span nowadays thanks to uh our friends at Instagram and and such uh but um I think Claudia you're you're making an interesting point one of the things that we did talk about
077was having a another meeting around communication Brandy mentioned that as well you know uh being in it one of the things that I like to do is make sure that you know we we we're very close to identifying the aspects of the of the issue and then we'll solution after we have identified the issue and have specific Solutions around that so I'm looking forward to using uh using uh creativity not just from this board but from the community on the whole uh to figure out ways to to deliver information in a way that people can consume right and understand and share in a positive way so um but I think we do have a lot lot more work on that front to do and I'm looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and helping out
078in any way I can yeah think it'll be good after your big project yeah and then I just had also had just one question now now where where does the meal T meals tax money continue to go what's it funding these days so um so it is all devoted to economic development now and we did two home rule petitions related to it so um we did one home rule petition that basically partitioned that money and allowed it to be that went into a separate fund The Economic Development Fund and then we did a subsequent uh home rule petition to allow us to use that money to help private businesses and use grants and stuff and that's the first that was the first of its kind in the state um and uh it's been wildly successful
079so yeah when we talk about some of the grants that have been awarded that's what what's funding some of them those grants so the bringing those businesses in and you look at all the businesses that's that that have come in dol Del tomorrow you know Zeta fencing Zeta fencing Crossroads ice cream Play Starbucks you know so some of these businesses took advantage of that business at Mazy you know and again that whole Strate the whole strategy for our economic development program you know somebody had made a comment that it's about building new buildings no what we wanted to do is take some of these vacant and dilapidated buildings like the Blockbuster building that sat vacant for how many years overgrown and stuff and yeah and turn those into papos yeah the old papaginos telecon building
080before Steve and for you know help yeah and so what you do is you make a small investment of town funds um you know 20 $330,000 and that sometimes closes the Gap and allows a business to actually come here and then invest sometimes in like the case of do to L hundreds of thousands into these spaces and bringing them back to life and so you're not only bringing new businesses into town you're also taking spaces that have fallen into disrepair and might not be good examples of a community's value and you're turning them into great spaces again the Blockbusters are great just probably the most prominent example because it's right on 126 and it was Standalone and God it was bad um and to see what Mazy turned that into and it's unfortunate that they
081got an offer they couldn't refuse at three million bucks and you know they you know decided to sell and so we do have Chase which uh coming in which I think they're going to be a great partner but um but again that's what that's used for and you know yes when we started the meals tax we were putting money towards like $7,500 towards the library $7,500 towards the community center um and there was something else those was were monies that were they needed it for programs and stuff too so it wasn't like it was it wasn't helping the community at exactly they were they were time when we needed it right we haven't needed the economic development we haven't needed the meal sales tax for those no programs we've been able that's why we made
082the decisions it's not that because we just took it away from them it was because it was decision that by bringing more businesses into town we'd you know these other organizations in these other departments would still be funded without those dollars yeah and as our finances have gotten better we were been able to put more money into that if you look at our Council on Aging budget now compared to where it was in 2015 when it got that 7500 bucks it's significant like we've added uh activities coordinator part-time van driver programs you know I guess the other thing that sort of this discussion has made me think about is as a government we have to be fluid yes right we can make an initial decision about why we're doing something but part of our job
083as the select board working with you as Town management and working with other boards and committees that are making political and finan cial decisions is we have to be fluid about what we do we can't strictly say okay we said it was going to only be used for this and then only do that because at some point they don't need that anymore because the general go the general budget can help pay for some of these things so I think that I think for me as I've been sitting here is that that understanding of government and how we do things is fluid it's not okay this is what we've signed on to and this is what we're doing forever it's like this is what we signed on to initially but as we go along we we
084can adjust that and and with the idea that we're doing it for the best interest of the community well it sounds like it's still the overarching goal oh it's still the overarching go right right so I I I I really love what you said and and I think it's important it needs to be doubled down and maybe sh from the rooftops it you it's not just fluid but agile you need to be agile and the the Crux of that though is how can we most effectively communicate right that right and that's something that we need to to do because I don't to your point I think most folks think of government as an immovable or slow moving entity when in fact it's a very fast moving sort of creature right well it's fast moving internally
085well well it's fast moving on some parts and some slow but on externally it looks like there's no movement but if you go underneath the surface there is an enormous amount of activity going on at all times and that's something that I don't think most folks who don't you know do government on a regular Bas basis um you know that's where I think a lot of confusion and a lot of a lot of misinformation and disinformation arises from so I think if we can figure out a way to illustrate that point I think we're we're going to be like halfway there just my humble opinion yeah um but great point but and I think it's important to note some of those decisions about like okay re doing the meals tax and having it all go
086towards economics development so that wasn't a town manager assistant Town manager decision that wasn't a select board decision that was a town meeting boat so the community showed up and voted on that it was a community decision um and I think that's all Al an important thing to to hit home too because I think sometimes the way people portray things especially like the meals tax is it's almost like it was a staff the evil staff you know decision or or something to that effect you know that's one of those situations where it just wasn't an outright falsehood but it's implied yeah and I think it's important to know the community voted for that but the discussion specifically for that meal sales tax was in one they brought up the first time it was discussed H
087right there was no then followup of to your point when changes were made to how we're going to use that sales tax that was not brought up oh yeah because the emission of that did not fit the arc I do think that you know there have been a lot of new people that have come into Ashland over the last five 10 years so you know when we talk about the meals tax what year was that 2013 okay so we're talking 11 years ago and so you know to the point of being flexible and changing and things and to makita's point about communicating it I think I think we have to we have to keep reminding people the sort of what we're what we're doing the the the interesting thing I would bet is that if
088you ask if at the farmers market this Saturday if we ask people what do you think the meal sales taxs get used for I would how many of them will even understand that the meal sales tax is a tax that comes to us and are even aware of it on their bills people aren't aware of it that's see that's the that's the other part is that the majority the majority of residents I would say 10% of residents have a really good understanding of what we do I think you're generous say I think you're generous with 10% okay so I'm gonna say 10% because I'm gonna just you're not Optimist I'm an optimist I would say 25% of the the residents probably have like an idea of some of the things going on in town but
089you know then you're talking like 65% of the population that may know about one thing or another thing just because downtown is under construction and they have to go through a detour and that's how they understand what's going on in town so you know it's the we do and we do a I think I think we do do an excellent job of communicating what is going on right now but I think to the point that you know Makita was making we have to kind of we have to we have to approach things from a different perspective that like not everybody's going to have the history that we that we have think about probably three years ago when they started doing the work on Route 126 and the roundabout was starting to be worked on and
090people are like a roundabout why are they putting a roundabout there right what who who made that decision well if you go back eight years from there when we started doing the design and having the discussions and but if you just came in town three years ago or four years ago and you're seeing this roundabout you don't have the history you weren't at those charettes where we talked about it so to your point right people don't have all the history as to why we're where we are now and they don't and more history yes and more important or as important context yeah history is part of that context but not full fully of that context so I think to bry's point to your point everybody's Point here we I think we're talking you know the
091same same uh we're saying the same thing you know um the puzzle is how do we most effectively communicate and it's it's and it's it's also a two-way street you know um the one thing before before I shut up about this is I will say that you know one of the things that when I was running um for select board uh that I I had frequent conversations with people about was this attitude that government like there's the government and here's the people we are the government we citizens are the government you know but there's in my mind there's no separation so I think this is again this is a this is a joint effort you know uh between uh residents staff you know all of us who make the composite parts of this thing that
092we're trying this thing ashin this beautiful Town Ashen that we're we're trying to improve together so I think that's the spirit that this board is entering these these discussions in and I'm really looking forward to continuing that and working with folks to make that happen we might be excited about another meeting we might you make that I'm sorry I was going to make that suggestion that maybe we should entertain to one another Retreat instead of having one yearly maybe we should have biannual uh Retreats well I I don't I think we were talking about we're talking about communication meeting a special communic again I don't we weren't planning on on camera right it'll be an open meeting but it would be more bringing some other people to have a discussion about communication and Beth and
093I just need to finish our stuff because we think that will help inform part of the context of that discussion as well but that leads us right into the next item on our new business agenda there is discussion of the select board upcoming meeting dates so we're meeting and one more time in September and I don't have the date off hand the 18th so we have a meeting on the 18th we are not meeting on October 2nd because it's the first night of one of the Jewish holidays I apologize for not knowing sh thank you we will have our regular meeting on the 16th of October and then we'd like to add a meeting to October 30th so that still gives us two in October what that means though is then we'd meet October 30th
094we'd meet again on November 6 for our first meeting in November we'd meet on November um Town meetings on the 19 we' meet on we'd meet before the town meeting on the 19th and probably not then have a meeting on the 20th because we'll have been at town meeting the night before and then our next meeting would be in December on the 19th are we looking at a six o'clock or six probably six o'clock to to if there so that way if there's anything we have to discuss and vote either for town meeting or other things that Michael needs us to vote couple other meetings that we are looking at of course on September 23rd we have our joint wrong month we have our joint sort of get to know you with the planning board
095that'll be downstairs again it's an open meeting but it's a non-televised open meeting um on September 23rd I did hear back from both school committee and finance committee to do a tri board meeting and right now November 16th is a potential date um I did hear that the chair of the school committee is now not available on that date but the rest of her committee is so we have to determine if we want to do it that date because November 16th November 16th it looks like that's a Saturday it is a Saturday okay it was going to be a Saturday morning 9:00 to 9 to 11 9 to 11 probably that that way we can decide what we want to present there Michael and I are with Britney can work on it no um I
096don't know even and even if it is it's not they do they do a holiday but I bet to the holiday one will be on the 23rd that's last year it was outside it'll probably be you're right you'll probably be the 23rd because the weekend before Thanksgiving so does November 16th work for people the 16th for a tri board yeah yeah yeah yeah is October November November November 16th I can make that work yeah I can do that okay so then I can let them know that the one thing I did want to ask so so we have the September 23rd meeting with the planning board uh get to know you yep thing um we're going to plan to try to have them join our next meeting for the comprehensive plan yes for the 18th
097so can we combine I know we are also going to have to have another meeting with them to do MBTA communities to have that discussion and a vote of what we're going to you know yeah because they're going to have to the planning board will have to hold a public hearing on the on the zoning change prior to town meeting so is there a way that like could we com could we combine could we combine MBTA and comprehensive plan at our next meeting so we have one less joint meeting that we're trying to coordinate like I don't know I'm asking the question where planning board is on MBTA zoning so well it's the four PE four person group yeah so Joe subcommittee well I the last time we spoke Trish said that a good portion
098of her committee U was in alignment with what we what we presenting so uh hopefully it's changed since then um I hope it hasn't right but U I just don't want it to get overbearing on on people you know to break down the discussion I'll talk to Trish and see what she's thinking I'm just worried that we're not going to get all these meetings because the other thing would be that because their meetings are the second and fourth Thursday of the month yes so I'm just trying to be sensitive to everybody's schedu because there's a lot it's highly unlikely that I'd be able to attend on the 18th just on September on the 19th I'm saying on the SE on the cyboard meeting scheduled for the 18th because I'm traveling oh okay oh okay I
099just wanted to I think we disced that told me that before the summer but yeah y okay okay yeah okay um what's the latest we can do joint with planning board on MBTA zoning and it should be should it be before their public hearing most likely has to be it has to be okay I figured but ad okay once it's once it's in the paper you can't make any changes because they can do the hearing even after the warrant's closed right they can do oh okay oh so we have a little time in October to to do something I was thinking yeah I was thinking like we had to have like our our plan and then have it basically the what would go in front of the the planning board for their hearing before the
100warrant closed you should have your med yes so no changes to the zoning article can happen um after the warrant closes and so really after usually just sort of where we are in timing usually whatever is put into the paper for the hearing unless we have enough time to have a second hearing with the posting requirements it has to we can't just change it and so once it's in the warrant and we'll be closing the town meeting warrant mid October so like at the October 16th meeting okay yeah the special town meeting requires two week two weeks two weeks is Advance okay and the 16th is four weeks that gives us some extra okay we always build that extra time yeah no no it's good to it's good to have extra time okay I will
101reach out to Trisha and see what she thinks if we do comp plan and MBTA zoning on the same night in September the 18th okay well well it depends what else we have to put on it yeah and I I don't have a full listing I mean there there is there's a way to accomplish all this we kind of has we would all kind of have to adjust kind of like our um um kind of the way we approach these discussions I think for okay of a better term and then when did you think you wanted to do the communications discussion let me check in with Beth and see how she's doing on some on her piece and then um yeah we we'll get back to you with the time okay good okay okay I
102can get the timeline too for Pete and Alo have laid out the timeline for the hearing I thought I had it I can't find it you could for that to everybody that'd be great okay and the farmers market in November is the 23rd okay perfect okay so we'll plan on the 16th for the tri board wonderful we talk about all the money we're going to spend at the market there we go uh so just a couple of reminders Stone Park Musical music festival piano competition is scheduled for September 7th with a rain date of September 14th can I add something to that real quick sure she's looking for volunteers to help out that day okay so uh to set up and clean up at the end of the uh the recital so if anybody's interested
103uh get a hold of Grace her names and on and all the uh all the advertising and stuff okay thank you yep thank you uh the ash hop porch Fest is also September 7th from 2 to 6 p.m. uh different locations in ashon and hopkington and then it it finishes at The Corner Spot so all kinds of information you can find about that the eth annual Kitty Fen wall car show on 400 Main Street fundraiser for the American Cancer Society is Saturday September 14th uh start uh 9:00 a.m. to 2 fun times also always lots of good cars and their rain date is September 21st and they realize that's Ashland day and that's the next reminder Ashland day will take place on Saturday September 21st from 9:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. and this year they
104will be opening a time capsule 1963 uh the fall baa Grant round and the select board Community Grant round is now open submissions are due by September 30th and information can be found on the town's website we are also looking for I ask could I ask real quick favor before you move off of that sure could we um put on the website under news um a link to to the to the grant round and also for the the marathons stuff too cuz I couldn't I didn't see anything under news and sometimes if people have to dig a lot they find they stop looking so if we can put it like a little blurb and a link on the news that would be awesome and then uh we are looking for individuals interested in running the
1052025 Boston Marathon if you are interested complete the form on the town's website and submissions for that are due by October 15th and names will then be drawn at random last reminder special town meeting on Tuesday November 19th at ashon High High School the meeting will begin promptly at 7 p.m. put it on your calendars uh MBTA zoning will be on that town warrant because we have to make a decision then um because we have deadlines by the end of December uh make sure you are aware of what's going on there of course supplemental budget discussions and things like that uh on to consent agenda um I'd like to I'm going to make a motion to re to remove B and D so motion to accept and approve the consent agenda minus items B and
106D so moved second okay all those in favor say I I I we are moving B because the minutes did not get included in our packet so we'll push that out to our next meeting uh d uh we need to approve ashwani as a regular member not as an associate member we got an email from Roberta relating to that so we could we make that Amendment or it has to be advertised that way could we make an amendment tonight yes so we're gonna I'm G to I'm going to move that we appoint asheni chitnavis to the open space and Recreation committee as an as a member with a term to expire on 83126 so move I'll second that great all those in favor I okay uh and I believe that's everything on our list we
107now jump down to town manager report Michael you're up just before Michael I did find the timeline so um I think what the planning board had discussed at their previous meeting was that they were hoping to sort of back backtrack um from their public Hearing in October 10th is what they were hoping so their Thursday meeting before we close the warrant okay um and so that would require them to get it into the newspaper by I believe the 19th or the 20th of September so the 18th I think is sort of um where we would have to have a conversation where any changes might need to happen so once it goes into the paper it's it goes in verbatim yeah I know Peter was down there today talking so I'm sure he some of that
108y so September 18th September 18th if we can do comp plan I would say recommend we start with comp plan and then going to NBTA zoning I think that's going to make the best because we're going to need to have that discussion before before it gets advertised advertised it makes sense okay good Michael yeah um so just uh under priority project updates before we get into like some infrastructure things I do this is mainly for the people watching at home I I know there's been a lot of questions like what's going on with the 40b projects and the fact is is that it's still with Mass housing Mass housing still doing their review process and again before anything moves forward at the local level um Mass housing has to issue what they call a site
109eligibility letter and uh so they go through a review process before doing that um and so it's still in that process and it has been for the last last few months so um that's what's going on with those uh priority projects like the infrastructure things I don't have too many updates except when you know we did uh have a call yesterday Yolanda and I um with the uh 126 folks um well mot specifically and uh this was a meeting uh put together by uh Dennis GM Betty on behalf of Senate President spilka and who is in attendance as well as representative Lewis um and uh we got some very very good updates um I think I'll just start with some of the problems so moving forward what we're finding a challenge is that we this
110is I don't think any secret but um Verizon has to move their lines from the polls and then Comcast can get in and move their lines and so once those lines are moved to the new poles we can take those old poles that are in the middle of the roadway out and that kind of unlocks a lot more work that needs to be done but the problem is is that Verizon only has one crew um dedicated to this type of work in like specific regions and right now that crew is working on the project in NAIC which has a similar issue similar issue um so uh one complicating factor is that Verizon likes to come in and just do the whole thing at once like the whole stretch the whole Two Mile Stretch um we
111did find out that if Verizon was able to come in for a couple of days and move you know specific sets of lines called their service lines that would actually unlock a little bit you know we could do a little Northern construction and the state could do a little bit more work on 126 so we're going to put some pressure on Verizon to do that that's not the way they do things that's not protocol um but Dennis was very clear that um you know that would be very well received by the Senate President pressure on Verizon and is that something I was thinking as you were talking that we could encourage people in the community to well I don't know people in the community I mean go ahead the one thing that they that they
112said to us was Verizon isn't hasn't held up the project yet right so things aren't not things aren't not being done because of Verizon yet and there's there's a two-step process there's a there's one type of wire that they have to move and then Comcast can do something right and then there's another wire that they have to put in for the whole length that's going to be a bigger project if they delay doing that part of it then it could actually be delaying the project um I mean I don't think I don't know that we need the community to start putting pressure on Verizon yet I don't from what I could tell and well wait a second though I'm thinking I don't know who might say that they're not delaying the project but I think
113to the community it feels like the Project's being delayed yeah well I think so one of the frustrating things that I experienced coming out of that call is that we've been told for a while now that Verizon is delaying the project and so you know mot wanted to be very clear well they're not delay the project try to you know they're I'm sure it's one of those things where have to work with Verizon in a lot of different places so they have to yeah I know I understand but it's just to me for for some reason or another there was an expectation that it would have happened by now right and now it hasn't is it because our expectation was incorrect or because they've delayed the prodct they're not acting yeah something like I I
114I think it comes down to resources for Verizon and we could all well that I was going to say you know we can relate to that in some in certain certain things right resources but you know they are a private entity uh I think if you have Verizon as a service provider something tells me prices have continued to go up um the fact that they only have one crew doing this work you know I I think we can debate whether that's a prudent use of money on their part but you know the fact is these utilties and telecommunications companies they got a lock on stuff do do we have a sense from Mass do what the timing is going to look like because because I think part of it also is is maybe I'm just
115you know part to claudus point is like the communication hasn't been consistent from Mass doot on some of these timelines and stuff so is there you know can they can they not only you know I'm glad you guys had this meeting I'm glad it went well but like more on a consistent schedule they meet they meet with Doug Small and Beth I think weekly every week they have an update meeting and from what we got out of this meeting was if Verizon finishes the what they're working on in in NAIC if they can come here and then do their part before the end of the construction ruction season then they can start working on the Culver and the moving of the alanin trail if they can't get it done before the end of construction season
116and of course end of construction season depends on weather weather if they can't get it done before the end of when they can be pouring cement and things like that then it will they're they can't do anything until the spring cuz we're looking at like probably november-ish is sort of the the date what so what they said I should say I should have started at the outset so what they said is that we can expect you know now with everything that we know with the situation we can expect to be done or that project can be done in Spring late spring summer of 2025 right okay so finished finished finished yeah so what's delay in the the the cover work I can't they can't until they can move the poles they can't move the road
117they can't do the Culvert until they do the I mean it's all connected I mean it's the big thing is that Algonquin Trail intersection and and having to move stuff and and there's a couple different culbert related issues so we did talk about things that they could do like how about the intersection of Elliot and pond with the retaining wall and that W work there poles if you if if you look at it the poles are in the right turn lane so until those are they can't finish that turn lane oh you're right okay there is some culbert work it's a different culbert work that they can do as well as finish some sidewalks and um we encouraged them uh to do that did they do they do the covet work as well they subcontract
118someone they have committed to finishing and striping north of like um D doing the markings and stuff no north of Algonquin to the ashin the Framingham Town Line the parking finishing up those sidewalks that they should be able to do by the end before the before the winter including the the cross the crosswalk that's related to the Dyke trail and stuff like that yeah because the signs are already up yeah yeah and is there any work is there any part of this that our DPW is responsible for at some point well no okay that's but um you know that does bring to me to my next and final point that we or discussion item we had with them is that our DP actually went up there to do just like some maintenance like some Mowing
119and stuff like that and so one of the things we we let them know that we were very unhappy with is just the lack of Maintenance with what they've got and you know mentioned the roundabout and the the weeds and stuff and understand that you know final plantings aren't going to be done until it gets closer to finished that's normal but we did let them know that we expected more maintenance ongoing maintenance and they were quick to point out that that was the contractor's respons responsibility and I said well yes but it's your responsibility to make sure the contractor their contractor I didn't say this on the call but what is interesting I know some people I've been chatting with some people who live up on spy glass and apparently last summer before they put
120the additional soil on it it was all Clover and it looked very nice yeah it did look nice and then they put the additional soil on it that was going to be better for planting and it was so much better we got it got so yeah so um they are they have committed to giving us a um a maintenance schedule yeah in sticking to that so that was good news um plus or minus three or four months no I think I think they know we're pretty serious now you know it it and nothing against Doug and Beth you know they're great uh and they're great advocates for the project but you know when you get the town manager the select board chair representative from the Senate President office and you know your State Rep on
121a call it it becomes a little bit yeah you know stuff to be yeah so yes no I think this is one of those things we we we hold them to it I mean Susan Susan will tell you we've had we've been having these discussions you know in our office you know there's it's look if we we want to make something happen yes we might have to depend upon another party you know they play maybe even the predominant role in making things happen right you know it's our responsibility to make sure that they know how important it is to us and helping them get it done so and holding them accountable to it y okay that's why John moldun doesn't know doesn't want to tell you when it's going to open and I don't either
122but I know what we have said internally so a little smaller operation right very small yes true just a little okay we'll start we'll start small Sye to yeah yeah we start small we'll get bigger so um so yeah I think you know I I took the historical Commission on a tour the Valentine Barn today um they had not seen it so it was really good to show them they were really pleased um with it um yeah downtown we're you know bids are still open and hopefully we'll get some good bids uh for some of that site work and Jen you wanted to give an update some of the stuff you're working on uh sure so just quickly here so we are working um for Town Hall the exterior um we need to do some
123work to preserve um Town Hall so some exterior um repair work and then ultimately painting and so um there will be some Communications forthcoming on on start date but it will be in the next couple weeks um and it will probably be about a six to eight week um project and so there will be some disruption to sort of the flow of traffic um Town Hall will remain open we'll make sure that everybody still has access um to The Ballot Box that's outside and that can come in because it will sort of align with um the presidential election so um Doug Scott here is sort of running point and we'll work with sending Livingstone um to make sure that we um are able to make sure that everybody can vote um and park safely um
124and then also I just wanted to let everybody know that we were able to go out to bid for landscaping or really mowing um and some weeding uh support for our DPW so for Cemetery parks and trees we um have contracted with a company called um Yellowstone so you may see them starting this week um they'll actually be doing mowing on 10 of our properties um and most of it is really downtown so Front Street um the library Town Hall Corner Spot um down Cherry so the big grass leading over to um Stone Park and then the big grassy area by the Pavilion but not the fields um they'll yes yes it's really just mowing some some weeding um just to sort of help take the burden off of um Cemetery pars and Tre so
125you'll see them properties so I I have to ask the question we didn't go local we it was open yeah it was open oh okay so nobody bid well we had we had three or four I'd have to look at the tabulation sheet um but we were required to go with a low bidder that's so we went in with a low bid and who had the lowest responsible bidder and so I just you know where I'm going I know I get it but you know unfortunately I understand I understand but you know like all us to just never mind yep okay anything else Jen okay thank you thank you Michael yeah so um just a couple other things uh we had the you know the election uh on Tuesday yesterday it is yesterday yester um
126so many thanks to Cindy and her staff for you know putting on a very smooth operation um I'm going to wait until the official results get certified before you know we start talking about that but um you know it's a lot of hard work putting on an election and they do a great job well between early voting and absentee ballots and um yeah can you look it up real quick he told meate I talked to Chris and he said because I actually was interested in the split how many people did early voting and 15% of the people yeah voted and and um yeah I think I understood it correctly and then 7% uh to the polls in person wow he said the polls were dead yeah they were there wasn't much on the ballots I
127mean no there wasn't so congratulations to the winners and thanks to everybody who you know was willing to put their you know put their name in there you know it takes a lot of guts to run for office so um so there's that uh the West Union Street sidewalk project so that's begun you know got the details out there start doing things um one of the things I really uh want to thank the board for their support for and and um also our staff is the overdose awareness event we had last week so uh Kristen French uh and her team you know put it together we did it at the public safety building the planting of the flags and uh you know it's a really powerful statement when you see and it is just like
128the perfect location it really is for it so it was nice to have you know some of our elected officials and our staff and some community members um show up you know and I just you know I think about it you know Kristen just does an amazing job and I'm I'm just so proud of the fact that we have you know a person you know dedicated to that effort you know in a team of course around her but um you know we're you know we we didn't have that a few years ago and uh you know it was one of the first things we wanted to do when I became Town manager manager and um you know Jen really kind of helped design or really designed and shaped it so kudos to her as well
129and continues to oversee that department so yeah it it was just a real solemn event you know you think about missed it yeah how many people slides are still up yeah no just the event I was I had really wanted to be there but okay 27 2700 people voted about a little long yeah so not a great turnout and and um so and then one final thing I'm sure I'll think of something as you guys are going around but um you know we talked you did the reminder about the Stone Park music festival and um if you get a chance I I hope you can just swing by at least and and support Grace has been trying to put this on for two years yeah uh she's a local resident she's a teacher at Center
130music she has a lot of Ashlin students um she's passionate about classical music and passionate about what it can do for a community and I mean you know she's really brought together like some top notcho artist down so is she like bringing grand pianos to Stone Park oh my gosh C can you just reiterate like just time and date again for folks um this weekend this Saturday I think it's 7 is from oh I don't the dat the time isn't on here hold on hold on hold on but Stone Park music festival you couldn't find that but sorry folks it's been a long weekend 4 p.m. yep so isn't the porch Fest happening it currently as well so it's a beautiful day for music all kinds of thank you thank you for tying it all
131together need to get out and appreciate thank you for tying it all together absolutely and that was really cuz when we were talking about a date and I said this could work out perfectly is Sport so gazebo Fest gazebo Fest there you go but it could be a great day of music you know I was walking downtown today and I'm just like you know what dang it this is like especially when I was walking by C Road like you know this is what we were thinking 10 years ago it was like Yep this is what the this is what all that downtown discussions and yeah and and I saw you know I see more people walking downtown and it's like that's what we wanted and so you look at the downtown project itself got to
132get the dang poles moved and you know Clover Road and you know you know some of the the new buildings I know there's always some you know debate about design and architecture but some of the businesses that have moved in you know and all the events all the activity that's happening you know that's just happened within the last 10 years it's like awesome so speaking of the project um any movement on the ARA piece with respect to connections like I said it's still still open still open yeah and we are really so this is just for like the site work digging the trenches and all that stuff we are really encouraging local uh local contractors to bid we think this would be a good project for for them for them yeah yeah so hopefully they
133um hopefully but we still have to go for a little bid though right yes right because of the proc okay yeah we just need to get bids well yeah yeah that's that's the first start let's just get some bids so yeah okay and uh that's it for at least now okay board reports Makita board reports well um just to piggyback on uh what Michael mentioned about the election I do want to thank the staff for all the work that they do to put on an election you know uh I think sometimes we take for granted what it really takes to make democracy work so thank you for the citizens for participating yesterday thank you for the candidates for participating yesterday and there were some there were some contested contests there were some contested contests late
134um there were some some some some offices that were contended uh so there was there there was a quite a bit going on yesterday um you know election wise but it's always good to know that democracy is Alive and Well in support reported here in the town of Ashlin congratulations to the folks who won their elections including our state representative current state representative Jack Lewis and um I think and thank you for Colton Phelps for running and all those who ran uh to preserve our Democratic process uh so I just wanted to acknowledge that I was going to say something about porchfest but we kind of covered the whole music thing I'll say it again this is going to be a great weekend get out have fun you know listen to some of the talent
135great weather it's gonna be awesome is it know suppos to no it's gonna be [Music] awesome beautiful weather for Saturday exactly and of course because it's going to be beautiful or even if it weren't so beautiful uh your humble select board Representatives will be at the farmers market once again uh and I will be joining our happy uh band of public servants there to listen to you and your concerns and um talk about some of the probably some of the stuff we talked about tonight so that's that's my board report good Claudia uh yeah not too much since uh last week but um you know I I was a feel like four weeks in a row wow I was able to attend the uh overdose awareness and it it was very well done and um
136and very powerful really um you know I know I've I've seen um you know some difficult situations uh through the years and uh it it's it's um such a it's it's so important to recognize those lives and recognize that struggle and uh and show our support and love for uh families families and and people who are are struggling with that nice thank you Joel I just everyone's uh Claudia you said it very very well I'm sorry I missed it um but uh throughout my career as a police officer I've seen my sheare and it's uh it's very uh it's very powerful and it's very uh very hurtful to everybody and even to the responding officers that have to go to those calls you know sometimes we forget about those folks you know so we we
137think about them as well uh one quick thing um I hope you folks got the invitation uh for Habitat for Humanity um I think it's the 16th no you didn't get one nope okay well let me I will then I will send it to you it's um September 16th uh at 10:00 10 to 10:30 and Habitat Humanity will be at 487 Main Street that's Monday the 16th Monday the 16th okay 10 to 10:30 and that's when they'll be probably putting a shovel into the ground for a affordable housing unit going in who me yeah yeah yeah but not the one that I want but yeah I'll throw that dig in anyway uh but that that's great Ash day again is coming up uh I know the classical concert and portrait is all just it's just
138it's a great time I'm just waiting for an ACDC concert to come up around and you know do something like that I may be old but I still love that music anyway yeah right who knew who knew right um so again aent Day is coming up we're looking forward to we have over 150 vendors wow yeah yeah and we and that's not including all the free committee vendor wow very fun good it's going to be a lot of fun and uh so it's uh it's pulling the rest of my hair out for the next two or three weeks but we're but we're working on it and it looks it looks like a lot of fun so I just hope we have the same weather that uh is looking for Saturday you know uh if we
139have a tropical storm every Saturday be this nice for the for September we'll be good oh yeah that would that would work for me so I saying my novas and everybody else do the same but uh again thanks thanks to uh Christine and her group for for all they do and um I want to shout out to uh Steve Mitchell and um for what they do up there the community center and I would be beside myself if I didn't wish my wife a happy anniversary before I left Happy 43rd hun you put up with my aunt it's for 43 years it's today today it's today yeah yeah she you can say that again I I don't deny it I don't I don't deny it but anyway yep love you H I'll be home soon thank
140you okayy to say no rush did you hear the oh man all right to follow that one okay um oh man um I know we talked about the op opioid overdose awareness uh event um so you know one of the things that that Kristen French and her team does is the decisions that every turn Coalition and the work that they do at the high school level and the partnership with our Board of Health as well and so one of the things that was interesting to me at that event was that they were Distributing Naran so um so I think I think the more that we normalize things like that um the more we talk about it the more we have resources available to our um to our community the the the less Flags we will
141have to plant in the near future so um so I I also just wanted to say thank you for for for um for such a for such a great event and and bringing awareness and I do agree that the public safety building is the is is the best place I know we had it at the farmers market I think in past years and I think this is this yeah the public safety building was great so um and um talking about events this Friday night is back to school night uh movie night at The Corner Spot they're showing if the movie um and again the weather's been really good so I think that they'll have a a good night this is sponsored by the ABA and um I think cti's kitchen and I want to say
142dorgan are having their I think they're doing food and and wine Empires doing Beverages and refreshing concessions is doing ice cream and um so I think it things kick off at like 5:30 and the movie starts at 700 so bring your kids bring a blanket bring some chairs bring bug spray um and come out and enjoy a really a really good night um and then talking about Ashlin day the um the God willing the comprehensive plan will be at ashin day I've signed up for a lots thank you I'll be there all day thank you um not in the booth come find us Lisa Churchill at Blush bouquet is giving us her pink tent for the to day so um come find us in the under the pink tent and um we're hoping um to
143have a a survey for residents to be able to to take to give us feedback on our our vision and goals um so we're meeting tomorrow night again knocking on wood um we're definitely meeting tomorrow well we're meeting tomorrow night okay but they get the information to get it done that's the knock on wood so yes so we are the copy heads of plan steering committee is meeting tomorrow night to finish the unfinished work of our last meeting and um hopefully have this buttoned up so we do have a survey because um the comprehensive plan will also be at the farmers market next weekend not this weekend but next weekend the 14th so the 14th at the farmers market and the 21st at Ashland day and um hopefully that all comes well it we we'll
144have it'll all come together so um but uh so we're meeting tomorrow night and um and again you know Saturday looks like a great day so kick it off at the farmers market with us who wouldn't want to come and talk to us at the Farmers Market on Saturday morning so food bring food buy food bu food so anyway that's all for me I'm good thank you oh okay yeah yeah okay so if you want Ashlin day corn no later than Sunday okay extra okay there you go sounds good couple things so there's been conversation going back and forth and for those of youve been sitting here for a while regarding our open space and wreck plan so um the plan was completed in like 2012 they started doing work for they have to do
145it every five years or thereabouts they started doing one again in 2017 they had submitted to the maybe even earlier than 2017 it got submitted to the state we had gotten comments back went back to the state we had gotten that particular round of the open space plan was never fully approved and now it's 2024 and we have to do one again sounds like the 126 so well that's moving forward so so open space and W is going to have to be doing some stuff where this is important is um we're looking at some grants for some different things that require us to have an open space in recck plan but I know it's something we've been discussing as a board what's the status so the last one never got fully finished and they're in
146the process of moving forward to do the next one I got that from Roberta um as well so they need to start the getting the project again and then have it reviewed and approved uh we appointed people to the historical district committee to talk about creating a downtown historic district they've been having meetings um I got updated by one of their members they were originally thinking they want to put it on the fall special town meeting I don't know that they're going to be ready for that so just so you're aware if anyone talks to you about it um I'm going to look to try to get for more information probably not for our next meeting because we're going to put it full but maybe in our meeting one of our meetings in October we'll
147try to get an update from them on where things are tomorrow I um I sit on the MMA policy for municipal and Regional ad Administration policy committee we I'm actually the chair this year and we have our first meeting of this year tomorrow we're going to get an update on the different things that the legislature did finish during their session but we're also hearing that they're still working which they don't usually do they're there's just something recently that they reviewed and passed at the yeah so they're still working which we don't usually see in a this type of election cycle but they're still working which is nice to see it's the one I'm the one I have it's a zoom meeting yeah yeah for for members on the committee and what's it's a nice mix
148of members of Select board uh Mayors City councilors and then um a few other appointees so so that's tomorrow yeah go see go listen to some music this weekend and I think that's all I got until the 18th so second all those in favor I that adjourns this meeting for the select board Ashlin select board September 4th it's just after N9 o'clock I expect our next one will go a little bit longer um but thank you if you've hung in there thanks for watching and remember one will be at the farmers market but we are always accessible via email phone call you know find us talk to us give us your input give us your feedback did you just say knock on a door knock on our door okay Joe says knock on our door
149[Laughter] so thanks for watching have a great rest of your week and we'll see you on the 18th enjoy the upcoming weekend e