001essentially each building which in many cases great thank you okay so 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 don't remember exactly hopefully we'll get some good bids in we're anticip 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
002of infrastructure um is uh Transformers for the project 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 spilka's advocacy I think she was an important person as part of this uh we did find out that those 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 interrupt you on that they're being shipped on the E we've
003had similar issues when we were doing the public safety building certain certain items are going to be shipped out a certain dat 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 they shipping from um China so answer that um well got it y thank you so yes so okay moving on to Mendes uh so work on the fields is continuing there has been some ongoing discussion um we've talked about at a previous meeting with um with conom 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
004forward 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 I think about the the lack of of movement happening on Pond 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 pre good siiz Culvert um needs to be redone over on the Market Basket side uh so that was designed and
005everything 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 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 no that's another piece and so the utilities are are working I think 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 be under no those are not underr going to be on the new po 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
006the 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 will 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 notifying them of the work that's going to be done and this is a sidewalk that will go on the east downside 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 to the community center okay okay so um that um and we think that that
007work 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 are 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 Yer 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
008that the public can go see or not yet like is it yeah they can they can access it I mean the walk the trails are there and the parking is now is the is it lined yet I don't think it's leding is still blocked 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 area have have been taking a oh yeah they've been walking there yeah which is nice so um and then we're just another big one um that's more recent has uh just been the ozone filter so we're working on that and um getting that out the bit have we done the design out the bid yet yeah okay so so that major that first major piece is done
009and then uh Clover Road um so so the plane board process is complete and um shooting for an august/september opening nice yeah John's doing some work and I was told that there will be a ribbon cutting July 18th for Starbucks Starbucks in the afternoon okay I think four o' is what I heard so yeah fingers crossed fingers crossed yes so a lot of good stuff happening in town um yeah I mean 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 oh wow good okay well that was quick that was quick so yes surprisingly yes okay um that'll be great update on the
010mass trails yeah um wow yeah so a few months ago we put in 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 um that is part of the upper Charles 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 to uh basically that celebration in Holliston on
011Friday have to give a lot of kudos to the upper Charles Trail committee um and Joel specifically Joel our B Joel did a ton of work on that application um he he did a lot of work himself on that so um so major major congrats to everybody um thanks again to Senate President spilka and uh representative Lewis for their advocacy um for this project but um so the next step is just engaging with that land owner and find finalizing what that looks like and um I'm gonna reach out to Joel and we're probably goingon 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
012couple of different ways so that way to get people up to speed um 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 33 mile Loop that goes Ashlin to hopkington Hopkin to Milford Milford to Holliston into Sherborn 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
013to Northampton the other part of that is you go from Sherborn 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 goes 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 that we have in Holliston 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
014been 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 to take a little while and if any of you have ever been in 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 rail bed so we have half the time we've made some good progress but these things take time
015fortunately 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 Yan if you don't mind just to explain a littleit because we say a lot you know what makes our project a little bit difficult is that we don't have an existing rail bed right so what makes it easier if you have an existing rail bed is two 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 we're trying to work with or get
016easements 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 and 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 that trail you should go check it out because it is 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 the Dy the um is it it's the dke trail so you know where the paintball
017company 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 AOL so but it's been you know probably the late 1800s early 1900s since it's been there there's no more track it's just the raised area for the for the Dyke Trail and if you follow 126 it takes you from 126 into Framingham into a big CSX Yard Rail Yard it's a rail yard from CSX so Framingham is in the process of trying to work with CSX they have some real funder they have some real funding in Framingham to bring theirs from the Chris Walsh Trail
018which is around Farm Pond they already have a little section of their trail that goes near um where's the MW RTA Road what's that road but it goes into downtown yeah so the 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 our 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 nine 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
019further 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 then that's really cool yeah so so yeah um obviously 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
020initial 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 town 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 a 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
021that done at our probably July meeting so that we can get the naming reviewed and move 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 at Town Hall Town Hall will be closed next week on 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
022on 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 the Corner Spot uh put on by ashlin's United really tremendous Community event um unfortunately I had to miss the juneth celebration uh that area had last weekend but I was able to roll up my sleeves and participate in uh the ashin cemetery uh cleanup uh was really more like digging holes but it was it was to be more specific uh lots of them but um but it would that was a a a great educational opportunity to find out not just about you know a memorial art
023preservation 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 yes um in the fall I think that's when their next push is going to be it was pretty hot out there yeah it was a hot weekend but it was a lot of fun so good okay Claudia yep 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
024could use some additional fields in the town um I think it was this week that we were scheduling a walkth 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 it 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 the community members they have a little restaurant in Henry's place um they have a very small
025membership 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 pickleball courts to uh 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 select board Town town meeting um and the 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 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 piggy back what Claudia just said um participated at the farmers market uh select board table
026uh 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 CU it was it was uh it was a lot of fun um love the music I thought I was an animal kingdom it Disney because of the music I mean it was phenomenal and and it's and watching the kids as they were walking 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 projects that are coming
027into town and what can ashon 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 is 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
028there 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 six months ago when it got really really bad I think they ended up racking up about $220,000 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 I think discouraged with kind of where the performance is going and so actually this past Thursday and 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 was confusing this past week it was very confusing so a lot
029of the residents and I know in my neighborhood some didn't put the their trash out and sure enough Waste Management showed up you know so their trash wasn't picked up and they you know I get a phone call what are we going to do I said well give the DPW a call you know when they're open on on on on Friday and so that you know have them 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 D why brought this up I did not bring this up he's happy to report that it was it was definitely confusing this it there was no delay for trash and
030Wednesday was a national holiday so I would have expected trash to be delayed by a day right 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 holiday days are are considered um oh and I think with this being a new one people might have been confused and lastly with respect to the farm is Market uh being there for the table uh we had several new residents come up and introduce themselves yeah and they were they were estatic 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
031they were very happy and they look forward to 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 and Melvin Jones was the international founder of the of the lions in the United 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
032right which is our community center here in the library uh so and and make sure they have plenty of water to stay hydrated and uh AOC I mean ACO 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 like uh we met on the 18th and we that's many concerns that the residents have we would love to be able to put sidewalks and crosswalks and 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
033attention 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 Brandy hi um I'll be pretty quick um I just wanted to thank the ashin farmers market and area for a really great juneth program um 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 it it like Joe said it's a really great
034way 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 the 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 we want to look at the 27th or do we want to just do the
035August 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'm not sure what we're doing but okay I know summer's hard Saturday hard the thing 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 these 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 yeah I I I think that's that's great and that way there's some there's coverage and there's actually more folks that people can come up
036and 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 yep all right that sounds good all right so okay and then we'll plan on August 10th as well as a the next date okay yep okay um and just to piggy back on what you guys were talking about with the with the Community Club over at Framingham State this upcoming Sunday is an Ashlin day so that's the second
037one 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 to go rent Kayaks or um I think on Sunday this next Sunday it's they had it this past weekend as well I saw that you have to sign up for it but you can okay try out like standup paddle boards and stuff like that which I always am SC 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 stand up 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
038of 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 there 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 them 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 there you 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
039great 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 Xfinity 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 that 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 me you probably see a slight decrease
040in your bill probably 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 LZ I don't have to do that Brandy talked about Ashland day at the University Club last day of school was J was June 18th so congratulations to everyone who finished the school Year and be safe and sound until through your summer two other updates for in uh issues down town so at the outdoor YMCA Center they now have outdoor new pickle ball courts oh and there is a ribbon
041cutting 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 don't have to commit to both weekends 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 mortal the groom is mortal and the bride is Immortal so some of the signs have been what is
042this event like so so is it like an acting opportunity is it like an 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 chair 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 of volunteers because as I said it's
043a 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 all safe one one quick yes go ahead 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 uh Metro West favorite band uh it's uh Back Pages they're very very good I'm sure you've heard them before for uh the folks that know
044Inky fair 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 it went well great uh so we appreciate that and uh 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 find so where where does that money go when 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
045we would send them $80,000 with the understand give everybody a free bag or something yeah I have one more Point yeah um yeah yeah uh 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 keep out of the hand out of little hands especially but really out of everybody's hands or you might lose a hand so there's certainly enough places that are doing fireworks oh so many Holliston is doing stuff June 28th in Framingham that June 28th yes they're doing something Ms belong
046in newshire m80s belong in New Hampshire yes they do okay 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 congratul to you three thank you is great if I can get a motion to adjourn so move and a second second all those in favor I I thank you for joining 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 in about at either the farmers market or other great events stay
047safe and we'll see you all in a few weeks thank you thanks everybody