Select Board June 26th 2024 1

001good evening and welcome to the select board meeting for Ashland for June 26 2024 welcome we have a few special guests in the audience we have some Scouts life Scouts who are here learning about Civic engagement and about their community so it's nice to have them in the house uh and with that I'm going to ask them to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance pled alce to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all great to get it just like that we are calling this meeting to order Please be aware that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live via waca TV and live streamed on Facebook remote participation is available using the zoom video

002conferencing platform any disruption with the video conferencing platform will will result in the platform being shut down in the event of A disruption broadcasting will continue on waca TV and live streamed on Facebook um so welcome we are going to start with citizens participation if there's anyone here who'd like to speak to something not on our agenda or to our agenda please introduce yourself yeah evening 49 Ro let me stand back get the whole picture it is it is on the agenda thank you for saying that at the last second last night comprehensive plan the best group session they ever had work together understood together let's hope that the town is working to be together Mita you missed a great night last night so next time you come we can't put it on tape for

003you have a Mark if you remember I was there but then I had to leave because there are some logistical issues happening so I'm sorry I missed it but I will be there for the next one okay then we just have up and coming siblings come with you thank you great thank you Mark is there anyone else in person or via Zoom for Citizens participation if not uh we are going to we have a public hearing at 7:15 so we can't start that until 7:15 unfortunately because of how it's announced but we will jump down to old and new business let's start with item a announce the select board scholarship recipients Joe and Claudia if you'd like to take us through that please you ready sure thank you madam chair um we had the distinct

004pleasure of uh representing the board at class day and uh we had two presentations to give to uh Awards and they went to Andrew luago and uh Emily umholtz both deserving we had 28 total applicants uh for the scholarships and and and every one of them was deserving and I think Claud and I and tell me if I'm wrong I I think we want to tweak it a little bit because I think it was a little bit confusing to some of them because we didn't receive a lot of the uh requirements that were asked asked for so maybe if we go over and try to uh maybe make it a little simpler for them to I don't know how much simpler more we can make it but it's just you know it's pretty straight it

005straight forward but I think they got confused with the essay that they needed to right and it's not a letter of acceptance but a letter that you know what work did you do for the community and not for the school type and I think they got confused with that aspect of it just a little that's my go ahead well I just think that sometimes there's an overlap there right and so I think that some of the kids um were referencing trying to reference the overlap that might exist uh between those two uh types of service and that and I I mean I think if if that's the most important criteria for us then you know I don't know do we need to to wait it or do we need to you know spell it out

006that that's the number one just say it outright instead of making them guess um and then certainly the other thing for the you know some students who were missing um you know an item here or there so what we could do is just make it so it you know the submission is not accepted unless all these things are done right so um you know cuz I'm sure some of them didn't even realized that they were just being disqualified because they hadn't right um submitted all the pieces but well I know I mean Joe you can you and I can to attest this over the years right there's always the kids who they do it quickly or they don't submit everything or so I mean I certainly if we can automate it to Claudia to your

007point of if you don't have everything in it's not even accepted and you're notified of that the more automation the better please look at it and you know resend it re you know resubmit it talked it and I mean maybe ify the statement that we're looking for what they've done for the community and not just for their school so great okay thanks well thank you for doing that it's always a fun time to go and get to announ I just want to add that they were we had so many um and they they were all very deserving candidates um oh yeah you know and um I think you know I had the pleasure of knowing Emily when she went through Mendes and really knowing what uh you know a great kid she was and how

008even I can remember sitting with her a couple of times and having having conversations and she was uh so mature uh so so such a a together young woman at the time um really Beyond her years and Andrew came to us after Mendes um but I did actually you know we were kind of tied on this on the on the second applicant and did a little research and and heard some great stuff about him so um I think that um we were both pretty excited about the candidates and and only wish that we had more money to give to every Everybody yeah well that mean that's certainly a conversation right we up the amount we're giving to two we could certainly say do we want to spread the wealth a little bit but that so

009that's a discussion for another time okay great and just to um quick before we move on um so we gave two $2,000 scholarships correct so um so all you Boy Scouts back there take notes so this will be important things to remember as as uh when you become a senior y so but anyway so thank you guys for for your work on that it's always fun next item on our agenda because it's still not 7:15 yet is discuss setting up a joint meeting with the planning board so Claudia you had brought this up at a a board report so I just wanted to find out what people were thinking what are their thoughts about this and just to let you know we are also in the process of trying to set up a joint meeting

010with the planning board specifically for the comprehensive plan plan so yeah so I think the the the idea behind this um was more and I have had a opportunity to talk to a couple of planning board members was more that it was less of a a working session as um just kind of a a time to come together um and just have you know some conversation and and build a little uh you know cality amongst the two boards um and so so it wasn't necessarily to have um like I said to have be be working on one particular topic or that understand and and that was indeed you know I talked to Trisha and I think I talked to Kate as well um and and that I think is what you know when I originally

011had mentioned it to them that they they were interested in that okay kind of a meeting right thoughts from other members I I mean I think it's a great idea uh go ahead M yeah I I think that's a great idea actually I think we should definitely move on that you as we can be very helpful for a lot of reasons evenings Saturday Saturday morning Saturday afternoon I know it's tough those of us who work during the day and have lots of other meetings and stuff but um we have 10 people's schedules plus Town manager and possibly the town planner that we may want to have there as well so when see in the next uh conference of meeting uh in July the well the the The Joint meeting that we're looking to have with

012the planning board is going to be a presentation by the consultant and then they wanted that they're looking for that to be about a half hour and then they're looking for the comprehensive plan committee to go off and do some work based on that meeting so unless we do it before um but I think I I think the feel that I'm getting from Claudia is it's a more casual thing it's not sitting around this table I think easier we could certainly try to piggyback it have you know um some you know some snacks and and a meat and kind of a gathering beforehand right or it's a yeah it's a maybe a downstairs for an hour before and then come up okay yeah something along those lines or you know even a little bit longer

013I mean I'd certainly be willing to host something if if um that worked out better um you know I'm okay I'm open to open to what works for the members I I think it's a good idea I think that if we're going to try to get everybody's schedules together though we should have at least some I don't want to say meat on the bones but that's kind of you know why are we getting together cor yeah because we're going to not only are we going to have the comprehensive plan meeting where we're trying to get the boards together but we'll also have something coming up about NBTA communities at some point that we're going to jointly need to meet so maybe it's sort of a preamble to one of those two meetings instead of trying

014to get a third date where we all all trying to get together but I think it's a good idea I think I think the more that we work collaboratively it's it's it's oh definitely a good thing so okay great I'll reach out to Trisha and uh we'll get this going okay next item as it's still not 7:15 is vote on a one-year reappointment of Town Council so we did the review of Town Council we can only appoint them for one year and I don't there was no nothing in the packet for this so I think all of you maybe have hopefully met with Lisa and other members of her team from other things that you've done here in town so basically we just need to vote to extend their contract by another year do we

015need anything else on that Michael no it's just um it would just be the year ending June 30th 2025 and you know I would just say based on the evaluation that you covered during the last St in July 1 July yep all right so I'll make a motion to reappoint Town Council beginning July 1st 2024 and ending June 31st 2025 Jun 202 okay can I get a second second great thank you any other discussion all those in favor I I great 5 Z thank you all and we have our Town Council for another Year great okay can we approve the consent agenda see it's only one sure somebody wants to sure no that's fine we can do the consent agenda I can get a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented move and a

016second second all those in favor I I great consent agenda I'm just going to break away for a second for the Young who are watching us so you're looking at the agenda you have a copy of it for you in front of you right so if you notice there's a lot of items under the consent agenda and what happens is those are all pretty straightforward things that we don't really need to discuss that it's either reappointing someone or thanking someone um or let's see yeah those those are most of this uh approving minutes things like that so by putting them all in one item called a consent agenda we can quickly pass one to six items in as quickly as you just saw it you also we also use it at town meeting for certain

017things that are the same year after year you're welcome than for on the Town Forest yep okay great I have one question sure sorry um because I wasn't prepared yet to to vote consent agenda and I apologize for that but I think we only got one set of meeting minutes and our consent agenda said two I think we only got meeting minutes from uh from June 5th I don't so you missing the May 24th yeah I don't see meeting minutes from May 24th okay so we'll scratch that May 24th was part of it thank you okay sorry for the no okay it's okay nope that's okay okay moving back it is now 7:15 or it will be by the time I read this and we do have um bill here for for this next one

018so legal notice town of Ashland notice is hereby given that the select board will conduct conduct a hearing regarding the transfer of stock for Ashen Public Market Inc DBA Main Street Wine and Spirits Ashland Public Market DBA Main Street Main Street Wine and Spirits 197 Main Street ashin Mass 01721 a public hearing will be held on the matter on Wednesday June 26 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 on to the zoom meeting interested parties who are unable to attend the hearing May submit written comments to the select board's office Town Hall 101 Main Street ashin mass 01721 or by emailing Susan Roby sroy ashin mass.com Okay so we've announced the public hearing and we are reviewing a

019change of stock option for this uh entity and that's it um if we are William if you could come up and take us through the change and why it's necessary okay actually motion to uh open the public hearing which I read second all those in favor I I perfect good evening will Goldberg from uh Main Street Wine and Spirits uh this is just house cleaning on some paperwork that uh that came to our attention in the past year just um when my father uh passed almost 27 years ago and my uncle passed 5 years ago they never properly split their business is in the eyes of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission and so uh this is all this is is just letting them know that my dad and my uncle don't own the business [Laughter]

020anymore okay good and we um unfortunately Susan's not here but either Jen or Michael from what I can tell we had everything we needed in our packet to approve this okay okay and as far as I'm aware we have not received any comments okay okay well congratulations on your your new business or about to be new business any um questions or well anyone here to speak against this not that I expect that but we just need to go through um any comments or questions from the select board regarding this bill is bullet's Market still in operation it is under new ownership okay okay because that was the other that was your your uncle's business right that's right that's right all right his uh his son sold it to the person that had' been working there

021for about 30 years so okay and that that took place last year last year yeah that's pretty much when all this came to light all came to light gotcha okay okay thank you wel okay any other questions or comments I can get a motion to close the public hearing so moved second all those in favor I and then if I can get a motion to approve the stock change as presented so moved second all those any other discussion seeing none all those in favor I and that carries 4 Z you are all set all right thank you now now congratulations now congratulations it's finally mine there you go there you go [Laughter] now the fun starts thank you right great nice kid okay moving on I see Steve Greenberg is here so if it's okay

022with Steve and everybody else if he's actually still there okay until we see him we will uh move on because my understanding is that Steve is giving the presentation from the affordable housing trust okay so let's keep going down our old and new business until we see Steve come back uh vote to approve a one-day bino Bingo license request from K&B crayons and Beyond to be held on August 9th 2024 at the VFW 311 Pleasants street we have the information this is basically just they're looking for a one-day license to be able to do uh this program and it is a fundraiser for kmbs crayons and Beyond a non-profitable a nonprofit charitable organization Michael we just need to vote to approve the one-day license correct any questions comments concerns okay uh I move that we

023approve the uh I I would ask for a motion to approve the one-day beo license as requested so moved okay Second Great any other questions or discussion all those in favor I I great and that passes good luck to them and if not doing anything that day go and support do we all need to sign should yeah you should sign you should sign a license okay we'll do that after the meeting yeah so remember no one can leave until we've signed that license great wonderful still no Steve well he's just said oh he just needs to maybe he doesn't realize he's here see oh now he's gone now he needs to be let be on some good medicine right he might might we want to make him co-host yep okay well as we continue working

024on that uh Michael you want do the town hall yes let's do the update on the assessment of the Town Hall sure so um so just a couple of updates related to town hall and essentially the infrastructure so one of the things that we have been working up on is um first of all basically securing the building uh had a significantly cracked beam um based on when the renovation was done I think around 2005 so what happened was the proper uh supports wasn't putting put in place in order to support the HVAC systems that were put in place so unfortunately that led to a pretty significant crack and twist in one of the main supporting beams which um so we've ended up going through and you know having to get an architect and engineer and

025so that's been fixed and secured so that's number one um the second thing we've been doing is I mean as you can see the exterior you know we painted it probably eight or nine years ago go but it's looking a little tired a little rough so instead of just looking at painting this time um one of the things that we've done is uh Doug Scott our Building Commissioner who's kind of heading this project he went and secured a lift uh with an architect to actually go through all the town hall and the exterior and kind of look at the places that's have rotted and and all of that good stuff and making determinations of what needs to be replaced and how it can be replaced and so he's taken that assessment and putting it all

026together and we'll put that out to bid later this year to do the work like whatever kind of replacement work needs to be done and then as well as uh painting and so one of the things I will make clear is that um you know we used a composite material for the steps cuz it felt that that was probably most appropriate but you know for the town hall proper if you will the exterior you know we'll be using more like the historical period materials you know wood Clapper and stuff like that good um so anyway yeah it was um as we all know how how hot it was last week and so you know Doug uh we've got some good shots of Doug up on the lift um with all of his safety harness and

027stuff so so has that mean support being been repaired or is it in the process beinged so it has been repaired yeah and there were a couple of other things like apparently there was another support that was supposed to be put in place um really kind of I'm looking up because it's kind of in this area and it was not so that's been taken care of and addressed not anymore we probably should have moved a long time ago Joe uh but now we're in good shape so okay any other questions um just um we had we had budgeted for this this year right like we had when we were looking at the budget for this was part of that Alle the 8 million yep are we thinking that this is going to you know depending

028on like how much placement and stuff is that is it going to align with what we had projected the the cost would be it should I mean I we I think we'd put in 450 okay and yeah that should cover it I was kind of hoping we'd have some more left over but it doesn't sound like you know based on Doug's estimation that that's going to and unfortunately pricing right now for cards like you know are are are higher so exactly yeah a nice nice okay any other questions or comments on the town hall question about the painting um we I'm sorry a question about the painting um do you ever consider using Rhino Shield Joe I think given the historic nature of the the building yeah are you you're talking about like a a

029composite type of more like a plas siding it's it's it's the type of it's the type of paint right it's more of a plastic it's a ceramic it's a ceramic type of yeah I think we probably be looking more at the traditional acrylic or I'm just saying it would last longer and it would save the towns taxpayers money over the years type of deal yeah I mean if if we wanted to go in that direction um then I mean we would look at something like a composite type of material for the siding but given that this building's on the national register I'm not sure exactly what be an interesting question to ask to see if they would they would allow that you know because I know a lot of historic uh places down down in

030Florida are using it so yeah yeah I'm I'm trying to remember the exact the Secretary of interior standards I got to know those with the Valentine with quite a bit um and and there's certainly times when it is appropriate to use that I if I remember correctly it's really more in a location that's not very visible to the public um but Town Hall was just on Chronicle on Mond right that's true true we don't want so okay good see seeing no other questions on the update on the town hall project and we see Steve Greenberg Steve welcome thank you uh if you're ready apologize for technical difficulty I tried to uh unmute and unv video but uh here I am great so thank you for uh inviting me to this evening's meeting and uh happy

031to answer any questions and maybe first I could tell you a little bit about what's new and what's going on with the affordable trust that'd be great sure currently uh is's a property on Main Street um that uh the trust has been working with the property owner and Habitat for Humanity uh to develop a single family home on that property and that's been a a a long time uh vacant parcel of land that that uh we're we're excited about the possibility of developing an affordable unit there and habitat's been great to work with the property owners have been great to work with so uh they're working their way through the process and the state so uh look forward to Habitat coming in front of various boards in town in the very near future and getting

032something uh put up on that lot that serves the affordable housing numbers here in town great another uh project we have been working I'd like to say collaboratively with the with the select board is uh Olive Street and uh the former sipson property that the town has owned for quite a while that property was purchased a long time ago with uh Community preservation act funds uh two buckets open space and affordable um it's a property that has some upins on the on the street and uh a lot of wetlands in the back and I think uh beavers probably enjoy that property more than anyone but uh we uh uh you know we did some Wetland studies years ago we had all that updated and approved uh with through the Conservation Commission and uh we took

033those new boundaries and uh setbacks and the trust retained a landscape architect a gentleman by name of Steven Cosmos and uh he's come up with uh some scenarios a very uh limited scope because again of the um the wetlands uh sort of make it a uh a small envelope so um I have a document I can if I'm allowed to I could share screen with everyone or uh just talk about it whichever you PR it would be great if you could show it I believe you're set up to co to um as a CO host okay yeah so you can just share your screen here with me yes so Joe it this didn't get into our packet but you all should have received it via email from Joe is that is that visible very good

034yep that's it okay so what um the landscape architect has done has taken a section of Olive Street that probably has the greatest depth in term in terms of setbacks with with Road wetlands and uh zoning and come up with a couple of different scenarios here that challenge uh both access to the parcel and uh and the number of units so the top left has six units with 12 parking spaces as does the uh the U rendering on the viewers right the uh parking gets a little complicated but the purpose of uh putting something like this together would be in the hopes of with the select board's approval going out uh with a request for proposals that gave those who might be interested in developing 100% affordable units on this property some ideas of what

035they could potentially develop so we would have for someone who' be interested a full set of uh wetlands and topography and approvals as well as these uh particular renderings maybe they could come up with something that fits better looks better um maybe has a few more units but again it's it's very Compact and uh so that would be the affordable component of the property and and again because of the extreme Wetlands there um I think the balance of the property would be for those to uh enjoy whether they want to walk back there and get their feet wet or uh just have something pretty to look at okay so that's um that's something we'd again like to further discuss with the select board to see if they'd be uh interested willing to go forward with

036an RFP and uh I think the other uh most recent update to the affordable trust is that we're at full membership Carlton Phelps has joined our ranks so that brings our membership to five and uh he's new he's new to the uh to the trust but in our last meeting he very much participated and we look forward to his future interest and and future additions to the uh for the trust and what we're trying to get done great questions or comments Claudia go ahead and then Brandy hi Steve um just I have a couple of well one question about the Main Street property um so how does that work when somebody like the owners have are selling it or well they must be selling it to Habit that for Humanity to build well um like

037any real estate transaction Claudia you need site control um so they have site control they have a purchase and sale agreement with the property owners they needed that to uh present not only to the to various boards here in town but to the state okay so uh there is a contract they haven't shared it right right I think that's private between them and the property owner but um so I guess I guess the thing that I was trying to get at is if somebody owns property and they um you know want to make it available to a developer would build something or in this case Habitat for Humanity is it is it sold at a competitive market or is rate or is it discounted in some way or does the the state participate because it's

038um going to be you know for affordable housing or um I don't think the state contributes in terms of of financial yeah um I think the biggest Financial contributor here will be the town of Ashland through the affordable trust yep uh because you know to as mentioned earlier in talking about rehabbing town hall construction costs are silly um soft costs to get something approved uh is not cheap so I would say that you know 10 years ago 15 years ago the purchase price on this property uh is probably what's reflected in the contract so it's um it's probably a 25 30% of what would be market rate but um I think cloudy it all depends on the project but you know sometimes property is donated right you know the YMCA project is is a donated

039parcel yeah I know I know it is yeah it's not the easiest parcel and maybe that's why it's still available yeah but um I hope I answered your question or if I didn't please tell me how I can better better answer the question yeah no I I think you have and then um the the Olive Street property um so that is so that's currently owned by the town and then for it to be affordable units how does how does that work they're they're set by that the certain formula in terms of price um there is is are there some priorities given to people who work for the town it depends on the size of the final project okay um I I think unfortunately with Main street that won't be the case but I think that

040can be certainly part of the RFP that um Town residents might get uh certain advantages in the potential ownership or rental of the property on Olive Street um but um there pretty strict guidelines about that the um again as as I mentioned earlier the parcel was purchased with CPA funds out of the two buckets open space and affordable so um anything that was sold there would have to be affordable or built there would have to have deed restrictions relative to Affordable so I hope that answers your question yeah so and and those though a developer there right it is it are they I'm just asking I guess it is developing a property that is going to be affordable housing and as lucrative as it would be to go and and develop a property that isn't

041affordable housing or you know I'm trying to understand what the impetus would be for a developer to step up um there wouldn't be impetus for a market developer okay this is a project that uh entities like habitat or others that might be looking for tax credits but I don't think that would be the case here uh this is not a financial gain by uh the town or the developer if we do something on B Street or Main Street it's uh it's a negative it's a negative Capital uh know Improvement if you will couldn't they go to the state right there's there's housing the the Housing Authority at the state that if they're building affordable housing they can get some kind of financing as well there's funding available for that if you look at um like

042Robert Hillway they were able to get how some funding to help build that parcel build that R Hill Way was actually um a federal program and there were tax credits and that that took years to get approved yeah yeah on many different levels that that took years to get approved um in a in a case like U Main Street and a case like Olive Street I think the um the financing would most likely come through a state approved Agency for the homeowner right but in terms of uh Development and Construction um I think it would be uh one of the primary uh fund sources would be the trust right okay and then and then you're always kind of looking for a non a nonprofit developer if you will absolutely okay and are those um do

043we is there a pool from which we kind of seek out I know we put out an RFP but do we also advertise it with oh I I think that you know willing I think Jen could speak to that uh but the irfp is um broadly advertised uh based on state guidelines 30b guidelines and uh there are a number of nonprofit developers out there I don't see a lot of them U banging on the door to to get a project that is going to depend on a local uh funding and uh and possibly some State assistance but I think we can get it done I'm actually very confident we can get it done at a price right the other thing too is the developer doesn't have to purchase the the land because that's town-owned land

044so that there's there is that component of it right the Olive Street parel the street so they're they're starting at a different point than if they had to purchase so the profitability is is a little bit a little bit so I think there'd be some subdividing you know I don't I don't see um if it's a if it's the individual units are purchased I don't see those individual units taking uh any ownership of the balance of the land available in the back I think we would have to uh look at a plan that's subdivided out in development parcel and the rest would stay with the to and what is the in terms of their going through to the permitting of that with the planning board and that is it what's that similar to is it

045typically be similar to it would be a 40b yeah it's similar to a 40b that's I guess yeah so it' be the zoning board of appeals okay Michael you wanted to add something and then BR yeah so so Steve what you're saying is like we would have to give the property basically to the developer and then we would probably need to make an additional Financial contribution right to make it financially feasible that's 100% correct from the trust from the trust from the trust correct from the trust from the town you know it comes from the town from CPA to the trust to the developer and the trust right now has significant funds um well those funds aren't as significant as they used to be but there there are there are some doll in the trust

046so I also Envision um when we get there to go to town meeting and um look say what the town has to say about this project and uh ask for some funding at that uh at that time right so right now uh there's still affordable I mean there's housing money sitting in the CPC bucket that has to be then moved from CPC to the trust but so the monies are would not be on top of what the tax rate in any way shape or form no no okay thank you Randy so thanks abolutely um thank you Steve and and the whole affordable housing trust for all the work on the Olive Street project um I know the last time I think that you were here we were talking about you know what potentially that could

047look like and you had to do a lot of work on the the wetlands delineation and all the the the surveying and all the the you know the groundwork to even get to this point so seeing seeing a sketch with with actual units on it is is uh pretty pretty cool I think so um so thank you for all the work on that and I'm I'm looking forward to to seeing this kind of go go to the next step um I was just curious you know you had mentioned ownership or or rental and you know are these are these looking to be like probably two bedroom units or how big how big of how big little houses are these or or I guess that's I I think the state prefers three bedrooms if it's a

048property for sale um so um I think that would be the U the way we would hopefully write into the irf and uh I think I think in a development like this uh the trust has talked about it for a long time and I I think Joe uh would back me up on this that we're thinking more of a for sale rather than a for rent okay uh certainly like to see home ownership and you know what happens with entities like I Habitat for Humanity there's a lot of Sweat Equity from the purchasers that goes into literally from the ground up they're involved in the construction and uh you know pride of ownership I think is important so you know we certainly want these to be an asset to the town and to those that

049are going to live there great um and then so as far as the whether it would be you know is it like an you look at certain Ami for for these types of units you would you look at Joe just said 80% so um that's kind of what you're looking for yeah okay right you know I think they would probably sell probably you know in today's world they probably sell around $300,000 which okay you know that's affordable in today's world yeah absolutely well not really but it that's what the numbers say um so just to talk about the 80% it's 80% Ami the area mean income so who would be eligible for these types of units um and with the am with the current median it's it's the so the large of the family the

050uh more income they're allowed to make Ashlin is in the so the the districts are set up by Hud ashin is in the Boston District so the allowable income is quite substantial you know 100,000 plus so the larger your family the more you're allowed to make okay and and it has to be your first home is that true uh there are some caveats there podia but typically your first home okay and this is into perpetuity so um deed restriction would be in perpetuity I think that'd be one of our not only the town but the state's requirement right and other just just from a time frame perspective um what what are your thoughts about like timing for you know to put this out to bid for an RFP and um what I'm looking at gen

051to um so I was just curious from from from your perspective what what that kind of looks like well if if you want to make a motion U certainly look forward to working with uh with Jen to U we to yeah I I just like there's a lot involved in these things I also you know we're doing our Retreat the first meeting in August and we can talk about timing and how this fits into the other projects I think a lot of work has been done but I think before we I mean I I'm you I'm like ready to jump in but we know that a lot needs to be done uh any other questions or comments because if not I have a yeah the only quick comment I wanted to make with with respect

052to what Brandy just brought up is that the Woodland delineation we were really surprised at how much land we actually lost over the years yeah uh when we did our first uh Whitland delineation and it's quite substantial I mean we're talking we're talking about a ball field we wanted we were thinking about putting a passive you know Recreation P that's all gone yeah all of it's all gone because of the delineation all well because how the wetlands have increased how they increased yes that would climate change would that be uh I think be the Beavers more than anything else the Beavers the be so Steve thank you for coming and and chatting with us I just had a couple of comments slash thoughts on housing and what we're trying to do here in in Ashland

053one of the complaints I hear from a lot of people is we're doing a lot of rentals and not a lot of purchase so the idea idea that these would be for purchase rather than rental I think is a great idea uh the other thing to think about is I'm looking at the floor plans and you know their three-bedroom we also are hearing that people are looking for other forms of housing right not looking for maybe larger units they're looking for smaller units um instead of these being single you know single family is it possible to make these two family but smaller um just things to think about is it something that we could do senior right small senior housing that's affordable I don't know those are just some of the things that I've heard

054people say certainly the the small house thing that you're you know it's sort of something that's a lot of people are talking about instead of having a bigger house having a smaller house we could potentially fit more units on the the land any thoughts on that I I do have a thought on that and it's unfortunate um I've had the pleasure of putting my sister's house on the market she lives in uh she lives in poppington on Lumber Street she's surrounded by mcmansions and uh the house is 780 Square ft I'm not going to divulge the uh price that it's under contract for but you would be shocked I can imagine talking between $500,000 yeah for 780 foot house bring that house to ashin you're talking about $425,000 Bel y um I think I think

055the development world out there um has a has a good understanding of the market and the right nonprofit developer knows what uh the state wants and what the town wants and I think we can we can guide an RFP to get uh as much Bay for as many buckes we have to spend as possible okay great yeah I I think all three of these I I like the ones where they go completely off the street to get into the development I think because of Olive Street and either the oneway circle around or the entrance in and out something that gets the houses and their front part so they's not all the homes are not going in and out of olive stream yeah right okay great any other questions or comments for Steve gentlemen any questions

056that you would like to ask no the reason I'm asking that Steve is we have three boy three Boy Scouts here who are learning yeah so they they came specifically to hear about affordable housing I'll be happy to talk to them anytime yeah so you can reach out to Steve Greenberg he's very knowledgeable he's is so great get better my friend if there's no other questions yes feel better Steve if there's no other questions uh thank you very much Steve for coming and speaking with us and we look forward to moving these projects along thank you I appreciate the opportunity thank you for you thank you for your work on this yeah okay byebye so many years ago Jen and I and Brandy had the opportunity to actually work on a Habitat for Humanity house

057when it was being built in Holliston so I think that's certainly one of the things that as habitat comes into our community with this house they am sure would offer opportunities for people who want to volunteer to help build it's actually pretty cool to go and help and then see the house get built and as Steve said with Habitat for Humanity whoever is selected to be moving into the home they also have to put so many so much time and energy working on building their own home Steve called it Sweat Equity yeah great okay wonderful thank you for sharing the information Joe beforehand appreciate that moving on in our agenda update on the de Andi project Michael and probably Mita as well yeah definitely and and Makita or Jen please feel to jump in here

058but um so you know I'm happy to say that we've basically concluded our engagement with I success Consulting and T Rene smth um or the energetic Dynamo that is the principal of said firm um and uh so we got basically a a lot of good actionable information from the surveys and the interviews that we did which was u a key component uh the first component of of this stage which is developing a Dei action plan and um again just to kind of refresh everybody's memory we did um interviews and surveys of both um you know Town leadership also employees and then also community members and basically got their take on uh basically what their experiences have been uh and what they have witnessed and things that they feel that are important in the Dei realm

059moving forward and we got a variety of responses back which we did review as the Dei task force with um uh with the consultant so since that time um Jen and I have met with our department heads to to review basically the employee um stuff and go through that and talk about basically what our potential next steps could look like um we still have to meet as the Dei task force and do the same thing and I think our although we don't have specifics right now our next step we know is to do more of a communication out with the community to explain this is kind of where we are with the process this is what we've heard and then these are a couple of steps that we're going to take based on the on

060the information that we've received from an will the report be available for the public to read yes okay um and so that's pretty much it in a nutshell Makita or Chen do you you know have anything to to to add to that no that was a pretty good run that was a pretty good rundown of of what's happening so yeah I don't really have anything to add Michael thanks for the recap yeah thank and thanks to the Dei task force again and Makita and Jen being a part of that but then um also the other members I think they've been very very critical in terms of providing feedback a good set of eyes good questions to help guide this process and thanks to the community and everybody that participated let's say y absolutely will we

061be able to take this report and roll it into our work with the comprehensive plan yes perfect yes and that that was one of the primary I was about to say that was a key focus of what we were trying to do here so absolutely great yeah Mita and I have been very very in sync in terms of the fact that from the very beginning that we can't have a plan that is sitting on the shelf it has to be right it has to be actionable and it has to be executable so yeah okay any other questions regarding the project from anyone else comments just one quick question were you guys satisfied with the survey and how it came out was you surprise were there any surprises that uh you didn't take you know I

062well I'll take the first part um you know I think that the methodology was sound I was actually very impressed with the uh consultant and um how they actually conducted the survey and and just uh how we gathered the data I think was very sound and solid so you know the results that we have are a good starting point I think for us uh it's not the end all be all certainly won't uh you know give us any sort of uh complete answers uh but I think it's a good starting point yeah Michael I don't know if you have or Jen if you have anything to add around that yeah I I thought like Makita said I think the survey the the methodology and everything was sound so I do believe that what we have

063is a good accurate uh base from which to make decisions from or to work from I think the range and the breadth of answers that we had elicited I guess you could say like a range of different thoughts and maybe even emotions for me and I'm sure for everybody else um I was very appreciative of some of the D data that we received especially from some of the employees because it didn't um you know even though it was focused on diversity equity and inclusion um you know there were some other things just about culture that kind of um came through that was pretty interesting and um something that I think that we can use moving forward so and this included not just general government but the schools as well the well I mean people um

064certainly opined and offered their opinions on school yeah but um but it was not yeah so that I think that there are a lot of opinions about many things um in town uh the town Services especially but also just business you know folks experience generally in town around this um and of course there are a lot of families who were part of the schools who responded and shared some of their experiences um in that survey as well but there there is definitely Joe to get back to to answer the second part of your question and there there is definitely a diversity of opinion of of uh different experiences in town around this issue so I think again I think it's going to be a solid foundation for us to uh start rolling up our sleeves

065and taking some action so when you talk about staff you're talking about General government staff was part of that and part of that discussion I mean I know the schools have been doing some work as well exensive work several years ago even for sure okay great any other questions or comments no thank you Makita for being on that thank you Michael and Jen for your work on that I know it's it's very important that we look at what we're doing in our community because of how our community has changed in the last 15 20 years it's it's definitely our community looks a lot different than it did before so yeah well I you know I think every Community should change no matter what the community itself looks like I think that um you know we

066are a world we're not just a these communities anymore or even countries right everything is um and I don't think we can ever have real peace and and a a good world when there are people starving and people uh you know there's too many imbalances right throughout the world so um I think uh it's nice to certainly be in a community that Embraces that but yeah everybody needs to great thank you for that Claudia moving on discuss and vote on the Mass housing comment letter for the Oasis at Ashland located at 61 Waverly Street and as of today we have received 40 comments you all should have received this packet unfortunately it was as we were coming in but there's a lot of similarities to this response as there was to the mill response where

067we had a lot of input so Michael do you want to take us through this and is there any big difference that we need to be aware of um well there there's there's a few I I think not necessarily big ones but things that you know we should kind of run through and uh you know as you mentioned Yolanda you know you all got this as you're coming in and um I do apologize for that this obviously uh way later than gives you an opportunity to kind of digest this and and um you know make some comments associated with it but um you know essentially you know the the the letter itself I I mean the the lead in in terms of our rationale against why we think this project is not good the way

068it is presented um really hinges upon the work that we've already done in developing housing throughout the community um both in terms of what has been built and what has been permitted um and then you know we also reference the fact that there is an additional 250 units that we're talking about aside from what we've detailed here that is at least I I guess you could say for lack of a better term on the table with the mill proposal urrently before Mass housing uh so this is a little bit of a different project and a little bit different site than the mill first of all um the whereas the mill has been seen and visible and has been talked about and plans put together for you know four years um you know this site itself

069really we haven't seen anything about it for you know since since I've been here for for a while so it's relatively new and then also I think um you know there's very there's very little information that's required by Mass housing um as part of their application package um and I think you know with a developer with like the mill project SLV which has experience in Massachusetts doing a lot of um a lot of 40b projects I think in their application you see a lot of data even more and above what's required from Mass housing whereas with this one um it is a relatively new development company in at least in Massachusetts um you know technically their their LLC for this project is RSP Acquisitions but it's essentially the parent company's posern realy Group which um

070is based out of Rhode Island and they've done a couple projects now in Mass at least have one uh that's built and one that's in in the in the pipeline but they provided relatively little data um associated with their application as well so it's been hard for our boards and committees to um and our staff really to kind of take a look at it and um and basically find specifics to I don't want to necessarily say take issue with but at least evaluate um but that being said there are some um and just again like the the the project design itself so if you're just looking at Aesthetics you know you look at what was envisioned by the town through the Wildwood mixed juuse District where this project is located um which was you know

071really supposed to be a self-enclosed and self-contained mixed use District that had a variety of uses like commercial residential open space recreational um you know obviously the project as proposed uh through this 40b sticks strictly to residental and um so it just in that element in that Essence it kind of goes against what the town had envisioned um specifically with regards to the buildings themselves so the height um is something that I think that we've all taken issue with so we're talking about on the site two four-story buildings into two five-story buildings so on the site under the traditional zoning um I'll call the traditional zoning or or zoning I should say um you could do a five-story building as long as it's mixed use um if you only decided to stick to like a

072residential only building um the limitation was three stories and so obviously you see a deviation from what our zoning is by having four and five story only residential buildings um so I think that's something that we um you know we take some issue with uh with regards to infrastructure of course Water and Sewer um is is very very very important um in detailing you know the issues with our our water supply and you know look the fact is that we do have this supplemental connection now to the MW but we're Limited in what we can basically take from Southboro in terms of gallonage uh I think it's 300,000 gallons a day um uh so you know there there's potential to bump up against that even if you don't look at the Mill project itself um

073and then also the town sewer system you know we've talked about the limitations associated with that both from a physical perspective but then also from uh again a paper perspective and what we're allowed to basically what they call an interbasin transfer um from you know the Basin that we withdraw water from and then because essentially what we're doing is we're drawing water out of our basin and we're transporting it through our sewer system to Boston Harbor um and so again there's limitations that we're allowed to do through de um and that and then also with what we're allowed to basically transport through framing Hamp system through the intermunicipal agreement um and so again the addition of 226 units is is not going to help that at all um so one of the things that we

074found uh I'll just say frustrating um to a certain extent is that um you know in order to really kind of identify what Wetlands resources that you're potentially impacting you have to have an up-to-date delineation or you should have an up-to-date delineation uh what they have pres what um the developer has provided is really kind of an estimation of what the Wetland resources are um that is significantly out of date by a couple of decades um now the person who did that work Joyce Hastings um I don't know if she's retired yet but Joyce has done a lot of work in Ashland and in Metro West uh through glm Consulting um but Joe just as you mentioned um how much the re resource area Wetland resource area had grown on Olive Street over the past

075you know 15 years you can imagine having a very similar situation here and so I think a real delineation needs to be done in order for us to see what the impact is and I think that's going to impact the conceptual plan as well um uh traffic concerns um oh wow uhoh uh obviously a little bit different than what the with the in terms of the specifics than what we had with the mill site but um the fact is is that 135 in Waverly Street is is really kind of the main thoroughfare corridor from east to west you know running through Ashland and so um again adding I I think there's 431 spaces you know adding 431 cars let's just say take that for what it is exactly and and then I think also the

076fact that it's proximity to the public safety building which um you know obviously there needs to be you know quick egress from our Public Safety vehicles to do that and granted we have you know signalization and everything that's been put in place but um you know anytime you're adding that volume ex exactly right exactly um they provided no storm water plan so it's been really really hard to evaluate what the storm water impact would be uh again I'll draw a comparison to um you know what we saw with the mill proposal where we had an idea of what they were thinking of from a storm waterer perspective uh using underground systems and things like that you know we could we could point out where that could be a concern we really didn't have that much

077of an opportunity with this so um I think given all of that information or lack of information you can say um you know I have you know that the board uh is not supportive of this project as as it's presented and uh is asking Mass housing to to deny it as as presented did we ever mention did we ever mention the fact that this proposed project is directly across from the bracket Reservoir and the potential storm water coming off of that could potentially be an issue to the bracket res I don't think I mentioned specifically bracket reservation um but I did mention the fact Joe that you know given the pitch of the site the fact that there's a lot of ledge so you're not going to have a lot of infiltration you know both

078during construction and after construction you want to be concerned about the runoff I'm just want I'm just wondering if that may have been or could be a potential issue for them you know yeah I mean I can certainly add some spec specificity to that seems like a good idea um because you know the other thing is you're talking about again the pitch of the site and I know they plan on flattening it to a certain extent but it's it's not going to be that way way throughout the whole site you know you don't want to have a whole lot of water run off that washes onto Waverly Street or 135 that could freeze over especially you know that presents some challenges as we know that all too well from the public safety building right well

079and from cus right I mean that's built on a huge hill and the amount of problems they had and they and they had plans for their retaining pool and things like that so yeah yeah prior to being built so we were able to see that well and then they built it they had issues yeah so we did um so in addition to our letter you know I did like similar to the last packet include the information that we had received from other boards um and then also the information that we had received from the public and putting the form up and everything online questions or comments speak of storm water um I just have a question Mike you know in terms of the I know we talk about our our sewer um that all of

080our waste water goes through Framingham and that's through an inter Municipal agreement and um so so so we're at capacity in terms of or maximum what we are allowed to put through Framingham at this point yeah so there's different there's different limits Claudia so there's like an annual limit there's uh a daily limit there's a peak limit and uh with regards to the Framingham I am um we exceed what's allowable under our Peak limit at at certain periods like during certain storms and things like that okay so and and is it because um is there more capacity that that would be on us to purchase or is there not that capacity even out there there's potentially capacity that we could we could purchase you know the other thing that you hear us talk about in

081terms of being able to expand our capacity is working hard on our inii program um and making sure that any kind of leaks that we have in the system that contribute to what is flowing in as as part of our sewage is that's just regular groundwater is cut off so that preserves uh that capacity for actual sewage to flow right so there's you know time if you know how do we add all these units if we we can't or there isn't the capacity to to send the waste water through I I I think that is a a good question pretty good basic problem that is a a good question it's a pretty straightforward problem G already said that the sewer moratorium was well that the well the housing moratorium housing the sewer one the sewer

082was okay okay although just remember you know with a 40b project they don't that doesn't impact them yeah but if there's if there I just don't understand you know if there isn't the capacity to do it then well there's I mean and that is a broader conversation Claudia that's happening across the state especially with the NBTA communities law because there are some communities that don't have sewer and and so you know talking about you know putting projects in at the density of 15 units per acre um you know developing a septic system and having you know a a piece of property that can handle a septic system that would or an on-site wastewater treatment plant right um it's very very it's one of those open-ended questions that the state didn't necessarily think about when they

083went through and and passed this quote unquote well-intentioned law you know and then again in their proposal these are all apartments there's no nothing that no home ownership involved in this correct it's all rental and all and that doesn't have to be the case with a 40b correct right you you could have home ownership you can have home ownership um and obviously there's benefits uh to each each one um you know the primary benefit to the town for the rental units is that uh 40b you get to count all of the units towards your affordable housing inventory which gets you closer to that 10% which in turn allows you to turn away 40b projects that are not necessarily desirable um whereas with ownership projects you're only allowed to count the the affordable units the true

084affordable unit okay however and why that is I I still have not been able to get a straight answer and if and if the the real goal is to give people the opportunity to have you know perhaps ownership then it would seem to me that if if you're doing it for that reason right which is supposedly the reason this is happening that 40 BS are in place they are to provide affordable housing and I would think in the longterm some kind of ability to purchase and own then you need a you need a stepping ground right you you can't people aren't going to get ever get into the market for the most part if they don't have lower I don't know that their idea is that we're going to provide affordable housing and that's going

085to get more people in the market I think the idea behind a 4B yes they can do they can do purchase but the idea is just how how can we increase the affordable housing stock right and we're seeing more and more rentals rather than home ownerships right you're not seeing condos which is what you used to see in buildings like this right they would be Condominiums and part of it probably the affordability or the long-term profitability there's a lot right and yeah Poss Market factors really I would imagine Drive these sort of decisions C like in so far as these developers and what's profitable to them and out as rentals yeah no I understand that what the developers are in it for what I'm saying is what is the the state in it for right

086yeah yeah I think you know certainly you know when 40b was um Incorporated in the late 60s you know the world that we live in in Massachusetts was very very different in a number of different ways I do know with like the NBTA communities law you know what the the overarching goal is even though I think the state has done a horrible job of really kind of saying this is from an economic development perspective and the concern that you have high wage highly skilled workers that are leaving the state to other parts of the country because of high housing costs the idea is to create enough housing to and I would assume you know know by just through traditional Market forces bring housing costs down just through flooding the market with units that people will

087end up staying here my my a lot of years under the beyond that now a lot of years that we have history and it hasn't seemed to have done that well I agree and and quite frankly I think you know from one of the things that I've had a hard time with with the NBTA communities law is that you know those highly skilled High wage earners that are leaving the state because of housing are not leaving to find cheaper Apartments they looking to find cheaper single family homes they want a way to get into and that's just antidotal information on and I would say I would go so far as to say that maybe single family homes aren't necessarily everyone's goal any longer that that too has changed some but but I think that ownership

088the ownership piece probably still is there particularly for that those those people who are leaving the state because they're highly educated and they want um you know to work and be able to buy something I think there's they don't want to live in an apartment for right I mean I think there's a lot of complexity around this issue and you know I I think that there you know 20 years ago 25 years ago a strategy for uh folks I think in that meeting those demographics would probably be to initially rent and be able to save money to be able to put a down payment on a house uh anecdotally that's kind of how my hubby and I did it um but you know Market forces as they are availability how it is some of these

089apartments I'm looking at these rental prices they're almost as much as or even more than you know a mortgage situation so like the question is to Michael's point you know what kind of you know what what's happening here how are we achieving these goals um and then of course there's also the issue of you know not just the high you know people who are making a lot of money aren't the only ones who are having trouble trying to find a place to live you know so there's affordable housing and there's low-income housing there's a general housing crisis you know in the Northeast in our our city and I to all of your points I don't know if current policy uh direction or recommendations are addressing any of this adequately right um so you know I

090mean personally I I I think you know what the state should be concentrating on is more on the wage end you know um but that that's just me I can't remember if it was the times or the globe that did an article a couple weeks ago go just doing an analysis of renting versus owning because they are talking about the fact that more more people now are choosing to rent and making that choice as oppos and choosing consciously not to own that's right and they go through the the financial factors but of course it makes sense in some cases to rent only because housing prices now are so high Visa you know what your what people's incomes are what interest rates interest rates exactly money's expensive but it used to be that you did that

091you rented so that you could save money because it was cheaper to rent than it was to exact but the other thing to remember is this is all cyclical right it is I mean I remember when we were buying our you know we we were we did the same thing we rented an apartment for a number of years then we looked to buy I think our interest rates were 111 12 133% to buy our first condo wow right in the '90s that's what interest rates were for things 15 yeah yeah depending the even higher right and then they went back down and and now they're going back so it's it's just like housing and work and interest they're all it's all cyclical I hope econom getting taking notes Here economics a little e economics 101

092we're sort of going a little off track but um any other questions or comments specifically to the comment letter that has been pulled together any changes or anything like that that you need to see so my question is are we planning to kind of Workshop this because I'm I'm not or or maybe we take a bit of a break and we have a chance to actually read this because I don't know if I'm comfortable voting on The Letter without having a chance to actually read the letter disagree I I think that's fair Randy because I to be honest I haven't really had a chance to really look at it or okay you just got it absorb it so either way like if we want to Workshop it together we could do well we could either

093Workshop it together or we could take 10 minutes and with that I mean some of it is similar to what we saw for the other letter um so either we can walk through this Michael took took us through some of it or we can take a 10-minute pause and have the opportunity to read through it which what are people feeling I mean the the other thing Yolanda is I mean I don't have a time like like noon tomorrow that it has to be in like it has to be in tomorrow so you know if you wanted to look at it overnight and provide me comments you know tomorrow during the day I can spend time um i' I'd rather take 10 minutes and read it through and then we can have some consensus and that

094would be helpful for everybody because you're going to need our vote on it and I'm not comfortable voting until I read it so I don't disagree yeah okay okay great that's okay so Mack I don't know if you can put something up on the screen we're going to take a 10-minute pause so we can read through this document and then we'll be back at 8:30 so if you're watching I just if you're joining us back thank you for your patience uh we we had continued discussing because we didn't want to hold on we are currently doing project priority project updates and Michael is updating us on the downtown project thank you Michael you're welcome so and um so you know those bids will be due I think um in a month to six weeks I

095don't remember exactly hopefully we'll get some good bids in rticipate in the work to be around $750,000 um hope knock on wood um and so that's one piece of good news um the second bit uh which is really really good news is that uh one of the things that we've been missing in terms of a key piece of infrastructure um is uh Transformers for the project uh my remember recall I've I mentioned that um specifically we were missing um two Transformers that you know specific specs you know that allows them to be underground and everything it wasn't an Ashland issue it was a Statewide issue um and I'm happy to say um through uh Senate President sp's advocacy I think she was an important person as part of this uh we did find out that

096those Transformers are going to be shipped on July 8th so um again thanks to the Senate President for uh for her for help in kind of loosening up the uh the uh the wheels uh to get that to get that moving so that's good so if I may interrup you on they're being shipped on the eth and we've had similar issues when we were doing the public safety building certain certain items are going to be shipped out a certain day do we have any idea when we're going to receive them and when will the work begin Joe nobody's guessing on those we just all we're saying is we they're where are they shipping from um China so answer that okay um it'll be a while got it y thank you um so yes so okay

097moving on to Mendes uh so work on the fields is continuing there has been some ongoing discussion um we' talked about it a previous meeting with um with concom like an enforcement order that's currently in place and stuff so uh I'm happy to say that on oh excuse me on Monday I think uh we've worked out an agreement uh to where everybody can move forward and feel comfortable with things um uh so we'll do a few studies with the understanding that they'll basically serve as a Baseline and not necessarily if anything adverse comes back um it's won't be basically held against the project so um so after many meetings and months that is over um so Pawn Street and I know we did receive an email uh recently just about some uh some potential rumors

098I think about the the lack of of movement happening on pwn Street uh so it did respond but just for the general public um there has been that project has stalled out a bit because one of the major components is uh doing a culvert pretty good siiz Culvert um needs to be redone over on the Market Basket side uh so that was designed and everything when they went to go build and implement it they found that it wasn't going to work so they're in the process of redesigning it now um not L exactly exactly uh that that that is my understanding from you know the people that I've spoken with um so that that color doesn't have any effect on taking the polls no that's another piece and so the utilities are are working I

099think it's Comcast is up next transferring the the the lines um so that is happening as well um we'll talk about uh P's Trail those going to be underground no those are not underground they're going to be on the new poles the new polls um just some projects that are not necessarily what we've what we've called priority projects but you know major projects and projects of Interest so uh the sidewalk on 135 so we did get the order conditions from the concom and so we do have the contract um is in place um with the Paving Company um that's also going to be do the paving company be doing the sidewalk work so um and so the Design's been finalized we've actually put together the draft letter uh that we're going to send to Residents

100notifying them of the work that's going to be done and this is a sidewalk that will go on the eastbound side from the crosswalk that we put in all the way to the community center or all or in front of them will it go all the way to Olive Street or where is it the community center okay yeah okay so um that um and we think that that work will be done before school starts that that is it it should be it should be yeah um so I think you know some of people might have seen updates on the Arboretum or Cadillac paint and just the fact that you know we do have the paving of the parking lots done uh just want to clarify and make sure everybody knows that the actual Trails themselves

101are still stone dust it's just parking lot that's paved um and so a design will be done over the summer and um with the hope that that will be completed and uh we'll start the plantings in the fall so isn't it looks so much better than what it was I mean it's hard to imagine what that site was um just a few years ago is it something that the public can go see or not yet like is it yeah they can they can access I mean the walk the trails are there and the parking is now is the is it lined yet I don't think LED parking is still locked off yeah still but I do know so let's wait until it's l then before yeah okay but I do know like residents in the

102area have have been taken oh yeah they've been walking there which is nice so um and then uh we're just another big one um that's more recent is uh just the ozone filter so we're working on that and um getting that out the bit have we done the design out the bit yet yeah okay so so that major that first major piece is done and then uh Clover roads um so the plane board process is complete and um shooting for an august/september opening nice open yeah okay John's doing some work and I was told that there will be a ribbon cutting July 18th for Starbucks Starbucks in the afternoon I think 4:00 is what I heard so yeah fingers crossed fingers crossed yes so a lot of good stuff happening in town um yeah I

103mean you kind of start adding up all these things it's a it's a good is that market that that's going into the old Dairy Queen is that still moving forward in the planning board process that got approved right that got approved THS oh wow good okay well that was quick that was quick so yes surprisingly yes okay um that'll be great update on the mass Trails Grant yeah um wow that was big yeah so a few months ago we put in a uh a a Grant application to the Mass Trails um Department division uh if you will for $300,000 which was the the max that we could apply for to uh for land acquisition or easement acquisition for a couple of PE pieces of parcel off of 126 um that is part of the upper

104Charles Trail and um I will be very very honest I thought we had a snowballs chance in hell um just kind of given kind of where we were with the property owner um but we found out last week uh that we were awarded that Grant $300,000 so we Yolanda and I as well as members of the upper Charles Trail committee um went to uh basically that celebration in Holliston on Friday have to get a lot of kudos to the upper Charles Trail committee um and Joel specifically Joel B Joel did a ton of work on that app ation um he he did a lot of work himself on that so um so major major congrats to everybody um uh thanks again to Senate President spila and uh representative Lewis for their advocacy uh for this

105project but um so the next step is just engaging with that land owner and F finalizing what that looks like and um I'm going to reach out to Joel and we're probably going to have him come to our second meeting in August to talk about about an update and next steps and where they see things and also sort of talk about how we want to move this project forward because there's a couple of different ways so that way to get people up to speed uh the the exciting thing about this and it was very nice being at the event is for those of you who don't know so our part of the upper Charles Trail the goal is to have a 33m loop that goes ashin to hopkington Hopkin to Milford Milford to Holliston into

106Sherborn little bit in Framingham and then back into Ashland so you have that Loop that then goes to Sherborn in Framingham so that you then have the North and South in Framingham they got funding to do what they call their Chris Walsh Trail which will go around Farm Pond which will then connect to the Bruce Freeman Trail which goes further north which then connects to another trail that goes Boston out to Northampton the other part of that is you go from Sherborne into Holliston and into Milford then the goal there is to continue south from Milford so that our little Trail our upper Charles Trail Loop will be not only part of a big structure here in Massachusetts but in What's called the north south Greenway basically the goal is to have a trail that

107goes from Maine all the way to Florida and this little portion so people could hop on their bike in Maine come down take a loop through Ashen come see all the great things we have in hollison and then continue on their merry Way South so that is there's getting there's a lot of federal federal support and funding there's a lot of State support and funding a lot of people have been working on this for a while of course if you don't know one of one of the drawbacks we have here in Ashland is we don't have that empty rail bed like Holliston did but I think we have our our Trails group and we've been working on this for a while I I foresee it happening it's just one of those things that's it's going

108to take a little while and if any of you have ever been at a Trails event with me one of the things I say is we've been working on our Trail actively for probably 10 years now we did the group Holliston had to work for 20 years on an existing on an existing railed so we have half the time we've made some good progress but these things take time fortunately right now there's a lot of funding and support at both the state and the federal level which was why this getting this grant was key for us to continue the work on that project and yolan if you don't mind just to explain a little bit because we say a lot you know what makes our project a little bit difficult is that we don't have

109an existing rail bed right so what makes it easier if you have an existing rail bed is to fold so first of all usually you're only dealing with one property owner right maybe two CSX and maybe you know another train related entity which makes you know whereas with us we've got 10 or 20 that were that we were dealing with property owners that were trying to work with or get easements from certainly purchasing the land in back of the public safety building is going to help with that connection look at how we can do it from the cemetery up in back of the public safety building up until the high school and with this grant getting funding so that we have the Dyke Trail off of 126 that heads East and if you've never walked

110that trail you should go check it out because it it's a really cool Trail and then the goal is to go now further west we already have it built in that we're going to cross Route 126 so now we're going to with if we can make this property purchase work we continue west from the D the um is it it's the dke trail so you know where the paintball company is on Route 126 as you're heading north just after it there was always this break in the guard rail and that's called the Dyke Trail it takes you into Framingham and Sherborne it's an it's an old trail I think there used to be a trolley there it was a trol so but it's been you know probably the late 1800s early 1900s since it's been

111there there's no more track it's just the raised area for the for the Dyke Trail and if you follow that from 126 it takes you from 126 into Framingham into a big CSX Yard Rail Yard yeah it's a rail yard from CSX so Framingham is in the process of trying to work with CSX they have some real fun they have some real funding in Framingham to bring theirs from the Chris Walsh Trail which is around Farm Pond they already have a little section of their trail that goes near um where's the mwrta road what's that road but it goes into downtown yeah so that d d I think so I want to say it's not Dudley no um um what's really cool and one of the reasons i' I know about this is the m

112our Metro West Regional collaborative helped kick off working with mapc they have someone in their group uh David luten Heimer who has been helping with these connections and again probably 10 n years ago we had a kickoff here in town hall where Not only was it the members of the Metro West Regional collaborative which was the eight you know 89 units but we brought in Holliston and Westboro and further west and further east and a little bit north to have the discussion and so that work is moving forward and again because of all this infrastructure money of wanting to improve and get people out of their cars is is one of the reasons this project keeps moving forward so Blandon Avenue Blandon that's it yeah Y and that's really cool yeah so so yeah um

113obviously great news so yeah yeah okay and then uh you listening Joel thank you for all your work yes thank you Joel oh uh just the last thing it wasn't on the agenda so Claudia Jen and I met with Framingham State Mass College building authority Mass State College building authority and the design design team if you will uh to talk about the Warren Barn last week too so had a good initial meeting thank you Claudia for being willing to do that okay now a number of reminders now that we're back live let's see vacancies on various boards and committees affordable housing trust has a vacancy for an associate member conservation Comm committee has a vacancy open space and Recreation committee has two vacancies storm water advisory committee has a vacancy sustainability committee has a vacancy

114Town Forest committee has a vacancy for an associate member if you are interested in any of those you can go to the website and fill out a talent Bank form uh and we will be appointing people as soon as we have some also the board is seeking resident to serve on the naming at the public safety building committee interested parties should complete a talent Bank form we'd like to have that done at our probably July meeting so that we can get the naming reviewed and moveed forward we are also seeking residents to serve on the historic district study committee interested parties should complete a talent Bank form and again that's one that's going to be a pretty short lift free covid tests are still available at Town Hall Town Hall will be closed next week

115on Thursday July 4th our summer meeting schedule our next select board meeting will be on Wednesday July 17th we are having a retreat meeting on August 7th and then we will be having another regular meeting on August 17th plus based on conversation we are going to be looking to do some joint meeting with the planning board and we will have probably two of them or different ones so be on the lookout for that that is everything on our agenda let's do board reports so Makita why don't you kick us off okay um let's see uh I think a few a few weeks ago uh I was uh delighted to be able to attend the Ashlin Pride Celebration In The Corner Spot uh put on by ashin United really tremendous Community event um unfortunately I had

116to miss the juneth celebration uh that area had last weekend but I was able to roll up my sleeves and participate in uh the Ashland Cemetery uh cleanup uh was really more like digging holes but it was it was a to be more specific lots of them but um but it would that was a a great educational opportunity to find out not just about you know a memorial art preservation and the importance of that uh but really learning about the history of the Town a little bit more so I was uh really energized to uh be part of that event and I know they're going to be looking for more volunteers to help with that um in the fall I think that's when their next push is going to be it was pretty hot out

117there it was a hot weekend but it was a lot of fun so good okay Claudia y so um we had a uh meeting of the mindes building committee recently and um you know that project is really wrapping up quickly they are doing a lot of site work now um and finishing up the fields kind of very exciting to see all that come to fruition we certainly could use some addition fields in the town um I think it was this week they were scheduling a walk through to just uh just check on the status of everything before we come up to um basically a year since completion in which case a lot of um the warranties would be potentially expiring so they they kind of um you know do that to make sure everything's what

118it should be at this point in time um Mike mentioned about the Warren Barn that certainly is exciting up there to um to have like Framingham State partnering with us and and certainly you know they're making so many changes up there in terms of what they've uh made available to community members they have a little restaurant Henry's place um they have a very small membership fee I think it's about $120 a year something like that and um 150 maybe and it includes um you know the ability to use the pickle ball courts to um use the the beach area and some of the boats and kayaks Etc so that's exciting what they're they're doing up there um and then on Saturday I was able to participate in our uh selectboard Town town meeting um and

119the juneth event um so that was really really an enjoyable um morning um enjoyed hearing the the speakers and they had some musicians that were very very talented and uh so that was a great day so I guess that's it for me okay Joe thank you madam chair um to pigy back what Claudia just said um participated at the farmers market uh select board table uh it was a lot of uh it was very interesting uh throughout the throughout the stay there um I actually stayed till the till the end because it was it was uh it was a lot of fun um love the music I thought I was in Animal Kingdom at Disney because of the music I mean it was phenomenal and and I it's and watching the kids as they were

120walking by they were dancing and they were celebrating it was just a lot a lot of fun it was fantastic I I I loved it immensely um the interesting thing about being at the table uh we had about 10 to 15 people throughout the day stop and um one of the major concerns of discussion that they brought up was the barage 40b project that are coming into town and what can Ashan do to prevent it explain to them there's not much we can do other than write letters to um Mass Housing and to try to get them to understand where we're at and the concerns that we all have and one gentleman uh didn't want to talk about uh the 40b project he was really concerned about waste management and asked about trash pickup and

121is there any current written action in the current contract that would penalize waste management for this repeated missing of trash pickup throughout the community and I asked I told him I said you know what I don't know I really don't know but I'll find out and we'll we'll ask so is there is there something I I I don't know yeah there is there's uh there's in there sorry in their contract there's a pretty well outlined and detailed uh list of penalties and um we have we have penalized them before um I want to say 6 months ago when it got really really bad I think they ended up racking up about $20,000 and what we'll call fines and their performance turned around a bit and uh but lately um we've been very very very uh

122I think discouraged with kind of where the performance is going and so actually this past Thursday in Friday there were a couple missp pickups and I instructed Doug to uh find them and I think there was a concern there was no mention that trash pickup would be delayed because of the holiday and I think confusing this past week it was very confusing so a lot of the residents and I know in my neighborhood some didn't put the the trash out and sure enough Waste Management showed up you know so their trash wasn't picked up and they you know they get a phone call what are we going to do I said said well give the DPW a call you know when they're open on on on on Friday and so you know you can have

123a call um my husband who is the family he lets everybody know if trash is going to be delayed um we get emails that go out to all the family members they can get put on his remember brought this up I did not bring this up he's happy to report that it was it was definitely confusing it there was no delay for and Wednesday was a national holiday so I would have expected trash to be delayed by a day and it wasn't and it was not they picked up on Wednesday so they're pretty they're pretty clear in the flyer that they put out we posted yeah of of what holidays are are considered um and I think with this being a new one people might have been confusing and lastly with respect to the F's

124Market uh being there for the table uh we had several new residents come up and introduce themselves yeah and they were they were ecstatic about the town uh they didn't realize that ashin offered so many different variety of uh opportunities and events for them and and they they said this is a lot better than where we came from and they were very happy and they look forward to uh staying here in town for quite some time and they were very very pleased and we all welcome them to to Ashland and a big shout out to uh Bill gath who uh last Tuesday received the Melvin Jones award um he uh that is the highest award that the Ashland Lions can bestow on Melvin Jones was the international founder of the of the lions in the

125United States so congratulations Bill and uh during this heat advisory I just would like to remind everybody to check on their senior citizens uh if they live in the area make sure they're okay make sure they have you know a cooling area or provide a right to a cooling station or Center that's that's made available through the town community center right which is our community center in the library uh so and and make sure they have plenty of water to stay hydrated and uh AOC I mean ACL also advises us to make sure that our furry friends are also uh in the shade or inside where it's cool and keep them hydrated as well traffic study committee would uh will met on the 18th and we that's many concerns that the residents have we would

126love to be able to put sidewalks and crosswalks on every single Street of the road uh in town but that's not going to happen because of budgetary issues and um we are we are working to the best of our ability but everything comes down to human nature you know it's people that drive they drive fast they don't pay attention to the signs you know we have signs up not to through away but people still go through it anyway because they don't want to be delayed and it's very frustrating extremely frustrating so uh bear with us we're working on it and that's all I have Madam chair thank you thank you Joe brand um I'll be pretty quick um I just wanted to thank the ashin farmers market and area for a really great juneth program

127um uh it was it was uh great to to to be there on behalf of our board um and you know the table that we had was um thank you guys for for for pitching in on on office hours at the farmers market um I think the way that the it it like Joe said it's a really great way for people to come and talk to us which is which is you know it's it's a good opportunity um I did want to talk a little bit about the um our next dates at the farmers market just so we can make sure that we're all on the same page um generally we're trying to do like one a month um and the July date I know that the um I think it was the 13th or

128the 12th or whatever that date 13th the 13th and the 20th were the two dates that I had floated by the farmers market came back and said they couldn't do the 13th so and I know a lot of folks can't do the 20th um do we want to look at the 27th or do we want to just do the August date the August 10th because with the with the 4th of July holiday and everything in there like I I'm just so I wanted to just see what you guys thought about that I I'm not sure what we're doing but okay I know summer's hard hard the I'd like to recommend is maybe we reach out to a couple like school committee and planning board and say hey we're getting the community tent for one of

129these dates does you guys want to join us because that could give us different coverage I don't because I don't know if they're actively doing that we can do that it's not a bad idea I I I think that's that's great and that way there's some there's coverage and there there's actually more folks that people can come up and right interact with yeah so do we want to tentatively think to do maybe that that July 20th date and then ask I'll I can reach out to to right you know just send send it out to to their whole board to both planning and school committee and say hey we're looking to do a town tent do you guys want to join us for part of it all of it whoever wants to show up okay

130yep all right that sounds good all right so okay and then we'll plan on August 10th as well as a the next dat okay y okay um and just to piggyback on what you guys were talking about with the with the Community Club over at Framingham State this upcoming Sunday is an ashin day so it's the second one yeah so um I hadn't seen the thing about the first one and then I was like oh it's a so it's a good opportunity to go test it out so if you guys want want to go rent Kayaks or um I think on Sunday this next Sunday coming they had it this past weekend as well I saw that you have to sign up for it but you can try out like standup paddle boards and stuff

131like that which I always am scared about but um but it uh they have all sorts of stuff over there pickle ball and tennis and things like that I'll try that standup uh paddle board Randy with you if you if you're looking for someone to be a buddy to be adventurous with all right deal both of you on the same board holding on moral support moral support probably going to be a scenario yeah so resting on my knees there's no standing yeah and then just the only other thing um when when Joe and I were at the the table at the farmers market our friend uh David Sandro came over and was talking to us and David's such a great guy and he watches our he watches our meetings and so he um even records

132them so I he says to us all the time that he sees us on TV so I I I told him we'd give him a shout out y go so um David we know you're watching and thank you for for hanging in there with us so yes good to see you last weekend great that's it okay couple things we received a letter from the from Comcast and I just wanted to read it to the public so you're aware as part of their ongoing commitment to keep our customers informed about changes to xinity B TV services we wanted to notify you that the Pack 12 network is seizing operation on June 30th 2024 so as a result the Pack 12 network will no longer be available as part of the Comcast lineup so if you watch

133that I don't know if you do they've also then implemented a channel slate change and you can check that out to keep our customers informed during this period and you are getting notified of this in your statement but I figured we could read it here as well should probably see a slight decrease in your bill probably not yeah no couple things so legislative event with Metro West Regional collaborative happened on June 14th it seems like forever ago was a great event was so fun to have a lot of different communities together and discuss we didn't have that many legislators because they were dealing with budget still but it was it was a good event uh Claudia touched base on the Mendes I don't have to do that talked about Ashen day at the University Club

134last day of school was J was June 18th so congratulations to everyone who finish the school Year and be safe and sound until through your summer two other updates for in uh issues around town so at the outdoor YMCA Center they now have outdoor new pickle ball courts oh and there is a ribbon cutting happening for that on Thursday and then if you love Halloween and you enjoy acting or even just want to give your hand at acting uh the proog there's a uh a new event it started last year called The Haunt It is a fundraiser between the hopkington Center for the Arts and the ym Metro West YMCA and they are holding auditions on Sunday for people who would like to go it's a two weekend event in the end of October you

135don't have to commit to both week end but if you love Halloween and you want to have an opportunity the event this year is a wedding at dead Woodville where they have a I think it's a moral the groom is mortal and the bride is Immortal so some of the signs have been around town what do this event like so so is it like an acting opportunity is it like acting it's an acting and Andor dance opportunity got it you audition to be a witch or you audition to be one of the members of the town so you could be part of the church you could be a bridesmaid you could be they have so when they did it last year they had a doll shop they had a town hall they had an electric

136chair they had a laundry they had chops um chops Diner uh and because it was out on the YMCA property they had their their camp and someone died at camp and so uh yeah so if you enjoy Halloween and you want to participate they are looking for a lot lot of volunteers because as I said it's a two weekend Endeavor this year and they're looking for people you don't have to commit to both weekends so but you can go to HCA their website and there are some signs around town talking about it and that's all that I have so our next meeting will be on Wednesday July 17th so happy 4th of July be safe with your friends and family be aware of our First Responders who are going to be out there keeping us

137all safe one one quick yes go I'm sorry I'm sorry I just wanted to bring up that uh our next summer con is going to be July 19th it's a town U Metro West favorite band uh it's uh Back Pages they're very very good I'm sure you've heard them before uh the folks that know Inky far and and his band that's who they are come and enjoy them um our last uh concert was that first concert last Tuesday we had about 125 people show up the first one which was very nice so we appreciate that and starting next week July 5th Ashland will be selling its favorite corn oh nice be ready to see that that lucky farm so okay I have a quick question just about trash findes where where does that money go

138when we find them so Claudia it's technically not a it's it's not done as a fine it's actually done as a withholding of payment oh so like so they send us an invoice of you know $100,000 and let's just say they've racked up 20,000 in fines you know we would send them $80,000 with the I think maybe we give everybody a free bag or something yeah I have one more Point yeah um yeah with the July 4th weekend coming up uh I just wanted to remind folks that in Massachusetts uh fireworks are illegal uh so uh I think that um you know with pets and kids and such you know just be careful and be safe uh take the chair's words to heart but also remember that those fireworks are something that we want to

139keep out of the hand out of little hands especially but really out of everybody's hands or you might lose a hand so and there's certainly enough places that are doing fireworks oh so many Holliston is doing stuff June 28th in Framingham June 28th yes they're doing something Ms belong in New Hampshire m80s belong in New Hampshire yes they do and thank you to the three life Scouts that are in our audience tonight along with their sponsor Mrs K Michael thank you very much I learned something tonight that a life Scout is the next step before Eagle Scout and I just learned that tonight so congratulations to you three thank you cool is great if I can get a motion to adjourn so move and a second second all those in favor I thank you for

140joining us sorry for the hiccup with power outages not much we can do about that and we will see you again at our next select board meeting on Wednesday July 17th but I'm sure we'll see you out and about at either the farmers market or other great events stay safe and we'll see you all in a few weeks thank you thanks everybody