001e e e board meeting for Wednesday June 5th thank you for being here uh I'm the current Vice chair Yolanda Greaves our chair uh Rob Sher has has stepped off so we will have to do a reorg a little bit later but we are starting at 6:30 with a legal update from Our Town Council so we will jump right into that and then we'll go into uh citizens participation after that because our Town Council has a hard stop that we want to meet so Lisa um thank you Yanda um and good evening everybody and welcome uh new members here um it's great to see all of you hold on one second Lisa if we bit more volume on this go ahead Lisa all right is this better one two three thank you all right so
002it's great to be there um since I've last met mostly uh mostly what I've been working on are actually uh fewer larger matters um given uh given the kind of the gravity of what we have um in front of us so obviously uh town meeting prep um was taking place and we just had a successful town meeting a few weeks ago um and a a part of that um which didn't happen at this town meeting but has been uh part of a lot of work that we've been doing is the MBTA zoning um and so I've been working with Town staff and I know there is a subcommittee that's also been working on it but uh we've been doing a lot of work on the MBTA zoning um and going back and forth with the
003Attorney General's office to make sure that uh the work that is being done with the town will be compliant uh with 48 section 3A um as well as uh the eohc regulations and we're pretty fortunate that the Attorney General's office has been willing to review all of these things um in advance so hopefully by the time F fall town meeting comes around uh you'll have something um that will be acceptable to everybody um we've also um as you know been working very hard on the negotiation and purchase of the Union Street property next to the public safety facility um that has been going on for a number of months as you're aware um and um that will all come to fruition in a week from today actually uh the purchase will occur and you will
004own the land um as of a week from tomorrow um so that will be wrapping up um also we've been working with the planning office and Michael in particular related to the uh 40b proposal on Main Street and the response resp to the mhfa um that's the Mass Housing Finance Authority as well as the board on that and uh one of the other large um uh documents that we've been working on um is the Waka agreement which actually amazingly um and barbar I see is on so you guys are going to be talking about this later on um we actually started this a year and a half ago um and then in particular with Earnest um the last since the last six months so um we're happy to see that come to fruition I think
005that that's a document that's going to be um that well will well serve the town as well as wacka in that and solidify that relationship uh in addition to that um we've been working on resolving the issues at Burnham Circle um which hopefully we're getting close to um and um those are the large matters that we've been working on in addition of course to our regular contract reviews and draft in license agreements and other related agreements and closing out the school project and things of that nature so I'm happy to answer any questions if you'd like um Madam Vice chair questions I have a hi Lisa how are you I'm good thank you I have a question on actually the the wacka agreement because I noticed in on the first page of it where we
006talk about the um the the it's like the first whereas paragraph where we talk about the Comcast renewal for a 10year term from June 13th 2014 through June 12th 2024 I know in April we just approved an a new agreement with Comcast so I didn't know if that those dates needed to be updated because um it would be it would be as amended we can certainly update that front page um because Brandy as I indicated we started this a year ago yeah um you know it wasn't that wasn't a a point that raised a lot of contention amongst the parties so got I don't think that but um I don't think that uh that wacka will have an objection to updating that date um and I can do that on the front page that's not
007a problem okay all right I just saw that and you know while we have you here I thought it was a good thing to to ask about so thank you yeah for sure yeah for sure okay anything else Joe uh good evening I have a quick question about the NBTA uh zoning uh which you you're working on I'm assuming you're working with Peter oh yes with that with respect to that what was some of the concerns that you may have had that I I missed the last meeting unfortunately so I I'm not sure if they brought that up during the meeting yeah so um Joe we didn't have any concerns what we did was when we had a draft that we thought was in really good form and this was before some of the changes
008were made right before town meeting um we sent it off to um the Attorney General's office for a review to make sure that if we're passed by town meeting and approved by eohc that we didn't have um any chance of having it rejected by the Attorney General as part of their regular review of the Town bylaws uh the attorney general made a couple of uh small edits to it um but nothing of any um any like substance they were more in form if you will so um so there weren't any big concerns in that nature okay thank you you're welcome any other questions Claudia go ahead um Lisa I was just wondering in terms of MBTA zoning um is anybody tracking communities that are raising objections or taking any types of action that type of
009thing um so there're certainly um tracking what communities have passed the MBTA zoning and I don't have that list in front of me but I can get it to you for sure Barbara excuse me um uh plaia um so um I can also tell you the ones who have filed litigation against um the Commonwealth um Andor uh the various towns so of course we have the uh the one on the Southshore and then we have Rockport um that has also filed both a federal and state lawsuit and I don't believe that there are any towns that have joined that but everybody's kind of waiting on the um the town on the Southshore which oh my gosh their name went right on my head starts with an m Milton Milton right so U the Milton lawsuit
010that case is going to be heard um in uh October and so we're going to get some reading out of that but um the Milton case is unique because um Milton town meeting passed the zoning and they are representative town meeting they have a charter provision that allows the public at large to put to a uh citizens uh to put to a vote by the public at large whether or not to overturn any actions of town meeting and that's what they did and that's where it got overturned and so I think that the the lawsuit from Milton is largely going to turn on those facts um the court May address although it's not been um I don't believe it's been asked to be brief but they may address the issue related to whether the state
011has the authority to um to pass this chapter uh 48 section 3A I think we all pretty much know that answer but um they they may address it but that's not the first and foremost in the Milton case I wonder too I'm not that we know specifically the towns but do you have a rough idea of of how many communities initially does this all involve the MBTA um zoning law and then how many have actually now filed a plan so there's you know 100 I think it's 177 communities that it effects and um I can get you the list of how many communities have passed it um I don't know how many have been approved by eohc um but um all the community all 177 communities complied with the requirements to do the first two
012steps the third step is filing the zoning and passing the zoning um or adopting the zoning and not every Community has done that but what I can provide to um to the board is a list of all of the communities who have passed or adopted zoning at this time I will tell you there are several communities like um Ashland who um have not yet put it to town meeting if they're required to have it adopted by the end of 2024 yet for various reasons you know planning purposes some want to hear what happens in Milton um and other reasons like that and then um there's some communities that don't have to adopt it until 2025 the small adjacent communities they I but I do know at least one small adjacent community that I because I
013represent them they adopted it this last year so um there are some small adjacent communities that aren't required to adopt it until 2025 Claudia just as uh we do receive emails here and there so it's a little bit dated it was came in miday and as of miday 61 communities had accepted and so it's probably at the state for review and I think that's what Lisa was talking about but they had approved theirs at So within the community they had approved it but it hadn't been accepted by the state yet that's yeah it's yeah that's what it's sort of uh implying and then at miday there were 12 communities that had not passed and that sounds like not something like where we sort of moved it out to November but they had taken a vote
014and it it didn't pass and so there was 12 communities that mid May and I think is 177 communities in total that it applies to right right so that's correct 177 thank you but I can that number is larger now I'll I'll get those numbers um Claudia and send it to you for sure thanks it could be useful to see what other communities have done yeah I was curious to see where we stand in the pth ours yeah yeah good okay anything else no problem no that's good thank you very much Makita any questions or no questions they could be coming at some point but I do have I do have one additional question that we something that we didn't talk about which you know I know we've been very focused on the the 40b
015um on Main Street but we do know that that we have to provide comment letter to um to Mass housing at the end of this coming month so I assume that you know I'm sure it's probably going to be on our next agenda but um because it's not on our agenda tonight but you know I assume that's on your radar as well yeah yes absolutely okay and I know that that's Susan was working on getting the feedback for up on the website today the 40 be on East Union perfect that's good to let people know and so we've got the um and the boards and committees I think I'll have to look at my email but they have until want to say the 10th is it the end of this week the end of this
016week sorry um to get their comments good thing is um you know a lot of the work was done in the first one right so in terms of our arguments and everything at least our major arguments I guess in terms of you know the amount of Housing and and uh some of the the characteristics the architectural characteristics so that's been done um so we don't have to reinvent the wheel to a certain extent I do wonder if some at some point you know based on the climate about affordable housing right um if it would moove us to you know offer some kind of Alternatives um you know just some ideas about what we might think it would look like in our community um you know I don't know maybe some of those that effort is
017for not but um when you say what it might look like what affordable housing might look like in our community or yeah it you know just not just visually but the the whole thing I mean the design aspect yeah all of it Joe I think that one of the things that that I think anyways I is that you know first of all is it truly affordable based on their formulas right right and then the other thing is what's the ultimate goal of providing affordable housing is it to put people in there forever or is it to give them the opportunity to build some kind of equity in which case one would need to have some kind of ownership right right and get in rental property that eventually you could be in a position to purchase
018um you know I mean I think in our community we've seen that so many people come into the community live in the condos that's that was their you know how they got their foot in right um and then chose to to live here so just a affordable apartments I don't know it just doesn't seem to me to be the way to go if if you're really trying to create long-term housing for I think sorry Joe I think that's a full discussion that we need to have but not only us but other communities as well right and more than us I think the the state right the legislature needs to be thinking about really what doable really mean what and what does really work you know I mean all those things instead of just you keep
019on you know throwing something against the W and I I'd make a suggestion too because you know we were talking about having committees come and and you know present to us I think the affordable housing trust would be a great one to bring and we can have that discussion you know as a as a group because I think it is it's a bigger it's okay to what Claudia said though I'd be curious to find out if there are any data got to turn your mic on there you go the mic is on okay like he that for the first month or so and then and then I'm on my own okay thank you but um I'm just curious um pursuing to what Claudia just said um you know I'd be curious to find out if
020Statewide there are any data around or any studies that were conducted around affordable housing like what happened to people you know over time like you know where what were those outcomes and I don't know if that if that research exists but I think it might be interesting to find out so I think this is certainly a discussion for a fur further agenda item and a further meeting I think it's something we need to review um if you guys don't mind uh Susan sent out a statement Lisa if you don't mind I'm gonna quickly read our statement on your evaluation before we let you go it's not very long sure thank you very much because it says in Town Council and maybe should that I got cut off should that have said review okay so very
021short uh so thank you for those who filled it out thank you to Rob uh Makita you'll get to do this next year so this is just a quick summary and I sat with Lisa and Michael this morning reviewed the comments that all of all of us had made so this is my statement for the public to understand Town Council evaluation by the Ashton select board the Ashton select board creates a review of town council's full team and how they work with our staff and Boards each member rates Town Council on various as aspects of their role and how they work with Ashland based on this year's review the Town Council was rated with threes and fours on most items with a few fives all the board members felt that Our Town Council was very
022knowledgeable about the laws that guided cities and towns they are also knowledgeable about those specific issues that a Ashland has had to deal with one select board member wanted Town Council to be more proactive for certain issues we have dealt with in town another wanted Town Council to be in town more often in reviewing both items with lead Town Council Lisa me we discussed that she and her team are always available even if she's not here in Ashland also they can offer advice only when they have been asked for it and when given the board that they have been provided it to that they decide to use the advice that has been given uh Ashlin has had a long-standing relationship with Lisa me and her team and based on our combined review we appreciate it
023and look forward to continuing our relationship her team has been there for many issues and always been helpful and supportive um so at our next agenda at our next meeting we will have to do a review of their contract and whether or not we review it we do that every year right and that's it thank you thank you very much thank you it's great to see you and um I'll see you next week uh Yolanda to buy piece property sounds good thank you very much Lisa Lisa all right byebye bye now bye great before you move on Madame Vice chair quick question with respect to Town Council yes few years ago a lot of committees and boards were utilizing Town Council without our knowledge and at some point we set up a policy is that
024policy still in effect or have we gone in obedience with making sure that people fill out that there was a form that needed to be filled out and it came it came to the you know we've actually gotten away from that Joe um is is there a reason why because you know I don't yeah is it being is it being what's it's actually something of it um you mean um taking unfair advantage of it yes I I I I do think that that can potentially happen so one of the things that we've actually talked about is actually reinstituting um okay instituting something like that um I think you know for the most part it ends up helping us in the sense that we can't it does lead to some of that proactive type of work
025that we're expecting out of legal counsil but we have had a couple of instances where you know some of the things that really were reviewed by Town Council really really wasn't necessary they could have been reviewed internally or something but the time is clicking exactly and it's costing the taxpayers money I just want to make sure we're keeping you know for sure keeping tabs on that that's all what's interesting is when we met with Town Council this morning she said we are doing pretty well as a community staying within our legal budget and we are not running up bills that might have been run up 10 15 years ago so um so she's pleased with that but is our budget typical is our budget TP typical of other community yeah it's it's pretty typical um
026it's I I was kind of surprised I thought we were going to especially when we started going through the eversource stuff I thought it was going to really kind of creep up um a little bit Beyond you know what would be a normal I guess you could say legal budget for a community our size but it really didn't it actually stayed within and stayed pretty level I think over the years as as the I'm sorry has the NBTA uh community's law taking up additional you know work on Lisa's side yeah I mean it's it's certainly taken up she's been doing a lot of work on that I think you know what we're finding after you know after years of of of you know working with a similar team is that um you know things EB
027and flow right and so we might have a legal issue dour or of the year you know the previous year um that might have taken some time and once that's resolved you know you have another one like NBTA communities is for all intents and purposes this year okay um so like I said you know the overall level of work seems to be pretty you know the same the other thing our legal budget also encompasses labor Council as well which is also Town counil than different in Town Council and it's cyclical really depending upon um when we have contracts coming up you know we're fortunate now in that we really don't use labor Council for contract negotiations anymore we kind of gotten away from that practice and usually only at the end do we bring our
028labor councils in to kind of bless things things and and make sure everything's good okay one of the questions I had was um relation to to to cost because we do rev one of the items that we review Town Council on is cost but we don't really see a lot of transparency on it right um so maybe it would be helpful to review that like a couple times a year it doesn't have to be like frequent but just kind of like where we are where we're spending our money yeah because Diane I mean Diane definitely keeps track of it when she the invoices she breaks it down into different categories and stuff so yeah we definitely have that CU that would be I think it would be helpful CU then we can kind of have
029a better picture of well and we can then answer that question a little bit better more thorough I I also think as always it's always good to look at what our evaluation is and what are the questions that we're asking and make sure we actually can answer them so I think we can certainly look at that this year before we do it again next year okay very good moving into citizens participation if there's anyone here or online who'd like to comment please step forward all said go ahead my name and address please mark thank you I have two two things I want to talk about and um first of all the positive things I was pleasantly happy that I went to the state de Democratic town convention for my first time I got rise in
030from Chuck list and his wife I learned what thator a car is and we talked back and forth and I was there for the for the whole thing and it was a listening learning thing to do great my ride home miss Makita oh I gave her my life story on the way home when she was really paying attention and was acutely listened and everything and we even had to uh we were talking with Sensei human went cracking jokes all together nice so she is she me and her got to know each other and um tag on to that plus the other things going to happen the tag on to that was I'm going to ask if she did did you look into the diversification question no I didn't mark I didn't look into it okay
031I'll bring it up here and it's not it's it's nothing bad has in the history of the select board has there been a verifi other than Caucasian board member on this board ever to my knowledge no that this is the but I don't I did not go into deep detail but to my knowledge Makita is our first yeah saying same here just the the cursory research I've done so far that's what I found Mr Joe I have to agree I don't remember anyone PRI Randy um no I these people predate me so if they don't remember then we're at first I thought you were asking if Joe was and I was like no I soon remember the baseball stories so uh I I think I think we're having lots of Firsts I was going to
032say this this meeting marks a number of Firsts it's the first time that there are four women sitting on the select board which is Big we know that other boards in our Comm commun have had four women but this is for the first time that the select board has it uh there are other communities within the state that actually have either four or five women that have sat on their board so but this is certainly groundbreaking for Ashland which is a nice thing to see and it's it's been 12 years in the making so and Claudia you probably would say I would say that I've heard stories in my um from my in-laws on holidays about uh families in in Ashland and how Diversified Ashlin has become um and how un not Diversified it was
033for many years and so I would say probably unlikely y um that their in terms of families of color that there were I know um when my in-laws were growing up there were I believe there was like one or two families that um that they would tell about so I would say unlikely so as I said in mck's car I'll say it again welcome to the board thank you Mark now the mill building project I know on the agenda the comment letter is ready yep I've I've been putting my opinions to the planning board I gave him a couple grades one time when they first working on I got upset with them and all that I gave I gave a low gray B and then a grade Mark that's a can you do my evaluation
034and then when they they and then when they came back out to redo to make the official draft they did everything they got the data details everything that supposed to been with zoning people involved and I gave them an a at the end now with that my question how many of the board members are going to be involved with this comment letter and the project as it goes what's the department who are going to be involved so at this point in time Mark so what we did is for our initial comment letter to Mass housing so we solicited comments and critiques from different boards and committees in town and they provided that to us um as well as we solicited comments from the general public um which I think we received over 150 so 150
035of those so we took all that we had our own arguments meaning this the select board and and I A A Team here um had our own arguments as well um and we basically summarized all of that stuff into our comment letter sent that as basically a full packet of information to Mass housing that included our comment letter which was about 12 pages and all of the um boards and committees comments and their memos and then also all the Resident comments as well so you know what Michael thank you for that Mark I'm going to ask that you know there's a little more detail but it is a little bit later in our agenda so if you don't mind since you're probably going to wait because we might have some questions and comments as well
036that we'll let Michael finish that as we get into it in the agenda if you don't mind okay one quick PS and then I I'll sit how heavy the comments are from the zoning board um the comments from the zoning not how heavy are they well how much is are they since they are a big part you have the Forum here yeah not not that not that much and actually that's or planning board Mark zoning because they should be working together yeah not not that much which is that that's actually okay given the fact that they're going to be the adjudicatory body that sits in and listens to the basically runs the public hearing okay thank you you're welcome so before we go into our first item I was em sent an email um and
037asked the the person was going to try and be here themselves but he asked that I read this letter and it's one of the good letters that we like to get it's from Mike Connor who works in the Ashton public schools and he says good evening my name is Mike Connor I'm a teaching assistant at the Davis minda School I was hoping to be here tonight in person but a conflict has kept me away on Friday May 24th we took our 200 plus third graders from the mindes school on a walking tour of our historical buildings in downtown Ashland we wanted to give a big shout out to some of our town folks who spoke with the students at stops along the way Carl hackinson and Cliff Wilson at the Ocean House Melanie Connor at
038the Federated Church Mike Herbert at Town Hall these people gave up part of their day to add so much meaning to some of the sites that we visited they kept our students engaged in asking lots of questions I guess one of the best examples I can give would be when Mike Herbert explained that his job is to help run the town and a student followed with if you help run the town could you have a swimming pool and hot tub installed on the roof of the new mindz school I think Mike's response was something was was something better is going up there solar panels somehow I don't think the student thought that was a satisfactory answer to the question also a shout out to the asham police department for their help navigating the street Crossing
039we needed to make with that said our third grade teachers wanted to say thank you to all for supporting our field trip and making it a Memorial Day for our students thank you the third grade teachers from the David Mendes School nice so I happened to be in town hall to get sworn in that day before our meeting and my was out there on the steps with the kids and it was it was great to see and it was just nice to know that our students in our town staff get to work together yeah great kids great uh great teachers obviously and you know I think it's funny Mike Connor call himself a teaching assistant since he's you know been a teacher in the schools forever before he retired but uh you know what was
040really amazing is just how much these kids know about ashl and history and um you know you expect a lot of blank stairs when you're like oh when was Ashland Incorporated and you know you four or five kids you know 1846 you know and they like when was Town Hall built and they didn't even look at the sign that says it was 1955 but I will say the one thing that's always the huge hit here is the jail cell absolutely do they still do the do they still do the third grade project where they have to go from place to place I was part of it this was part of it okay I wasn't sure cuz like when my son did when my son did it like it was him and me like you know
041walking around town and doing that stuff and it wasn't like a as as big could give a update on that yeah no you're right and I I've done that with a couple of kids myself and um and then you know Co a lot of things went away for a couple of years there so it's really nice to see these things come back and uh and yeah um you know I I'm I'm not sure that piece is fully back where they're visiting all the the stops independently um but they did bring back the tour with the third grade teachers and if you want a a little laugh the third grade teachers did a little tick Tok um before and after a field trip so it was it was very very cute some when I was at
042the reality Fair someone shared that with me and for me what was fun to see was that miss mcferson is still a third grade teacher and I remember her um my youngest had her for third grade so it's nice to see she's still there and yeah but the Tik Tok was pretty funny it was I think that third grade project is awesome and I wish like I know as a parent like I never knew any of that stuff existed so you know to be able to to to share that with the the grown-ups too is a good thing so anyway but that's awesome okay if there's no one else for Citizens participation we will step into our agenda the first being the RO board reorg so we need to vote uh chair Vice chair and
043clerk I'm opening up for nominations for chair to start I'll start it off I'll like to nominate Yanda Greaves as chair okay second I'll second that great we have a motion and a second all those in favor of Yolanda greeves being Chair say I I I and you are allowed to vote for yourself thank you that passes 5- Z and thank you I look forward to working and uh doing some great things together this year okay next uh Vice chair if I can have a nomination for vice chair all right I'll continue I nominate Brandy Kinsman as Vice chair if I can get a second I'll second that great we have a nomination and second for vice chair all those in favor say I I I great and Brandy voted for herself y 5 Z
044that makes sense and then the last would be for clerk I get a nomination for clerk I'll nominate Joe manani I'll second that and the one thing I do want to add to that is that we do have to uh pause our bylaw that says you can only be in a position for one year to support that nomination so the nomination with the pause as one that's okay with everybody all those in favor of clerk be of Joe being clerk say I I I great so we now have our new board chair Vice chair and clerk uh and then I think um moving forward there's information that I've gathered from other communities as to how they do some of the board reorg so I think through as we go through this year I'd like us
045to review that and see how we do it moving forward but thank you all great because typically just for people watching we rotate every year so right that's been our general General right it usually gives the opportunity for everybody to have the opportunity to be working in different functions within the board itself how to run it how to run the the meeting how to be part of the things that go behind the scenes of how to prepare for the meetings how they get the information out and and do all those things so it's it's been a well it's been that way for quite some time and I see a a form of uh select board member or selectman sitting in the audience way in the back with a red tie I think it's a red
046tie and um it's been like that for quite some time and I think that it's it's it's worked fairly well if people want to make a change I would hope that it uh it's it's done in a way that uh it's Progressive and not regressive in in in in some way so that's that's all I would have to say CU so far if it's not broke don't fix it okay I think that's me anyway moving on to our next item discuss the loc local elections and results um obviously the result Makita and I are sitting here as select board members uh I think the uh election count was 411 or something 443 total votes about three and a half uh perc turnout um so and uh yeah congratulations to both of you um congrat ulations
047to kg Ariana who won contested if you will a right in campaign and congratulations to everybody else and uh a special thanks to all the pole workers uh led by C Cindy Livingstone and her staff um it was a hot day that day and we all know that that gym is not air conditioned so um but uh again you know I think um you know turnout something that you know we always talk about uh and we always feel like we can make improvements on and um we'll continue to try to do that great okay any other thoughts on the election or results sir just congratulations to everyone who ran and to everyone who got elected yeah and thank you for stepping up to run okay moving on discuss and vote on the fiscal year 24
048year and transfers Michael want you take us through that sure so um uh I was I was explaining to Makita earlier as as she's been on a hot minute here you you know on the board what this actually is um so and just you know by way of background for everybody that knows um end ofy year transfers used to be done by town meeting um we have to do those at the May town meeting and I think it was a law in 2017 or 2018 changed that to where you could do end-year transfers um at the end of the year by uh vote of the select board in the fincom in the finance committee so what you've been presented to you in your packet is actually a combined essentially a combined list of really the
049transfers that would need to be authorized by the select board and the finance committee um we also have on here um you will see on here uh vote from the reserve fund which is uh the finance committee Reserve fund and only needs a finance committee vote but we included it here for the sake of transparency and just you know to make it conclusive um so I think it's pretty straightforward in terms of you know the transfers in you know we're looking at transferring a total of $761,000 um and that covers everything from the snow and ice deficit to um you know salary adjustments that were made uh throughout the course of the year um salary and and other smaller overages that happen you can see the detail associated with that uh just with some of
050the salary adjustments just to kind of give everybody an understanding of how this happens is so at annual town meeting we approve a single line item called the salary contingency line item and over the course of the ensuing fiscal year as we you know either settle Union contracts or make uh non-union adjustments uh based on cost of living or performance or Market based adjustments um we make those adjustments throughout the year but we don't necessarily make the transfers during the year what we do is we wait till the end of the year and do them here like what we're doing now so try to be as comprehensive yet succinct as I could with that explanation makes sense any questions on the document that we got go ahead Brandon so I have a question at the
051very bottom we have a a line item that says total estimated turn backs and it's approximately 7 $994,000 so that is what is left as sort of like extra cash in the budget at year end correct what happens with that amount that would fall to free cash okay that in any any additional Revenue that we've received over and above our Revenue estimates is what constitutes free cash okay and then so free cash we had alloc we had allocated a town meeting will this go into next year's free cash yes so when we close out this this year's books um when free cash is certified in September or October yes it will be reflected there okay correct y so our and then we have our policy as to what we do with the free cash that
052gets certified in the fall okay and the buckets that it goes into so this will become part of that gotcha okay I just wanted to just kind of yeah I just wanted to make sure we what Happ and so just to be clear these dollars were all part of the current fiscal year budget and they're just being reigned really with the needs of the Town exactly yeah yeah any other questions Joe just I'm rather curious M you said the f fincom and the select board have to approve this mhm what happens if one of the boards decides they don't want to go through that route what happens well then we don't have uh a balanced budget well no I I just yeah I want people to understand that because things happen emails are sent out
053things are put on social media it may not be the correct accurate figures and I just want to make sure that everybody is aware of that yeah that these are accurate figures and these are yeah okay yeah because it gets kind of tedious after a while it it can be you you'll learn it gets tedious can be thank you okay any other discussions on this yep just one other quick question was there anything in here that wasn't that was a big surprise to us from a from a cost perspective um you know not really um because most of it's most of it's pretty small movements but yeah yeah I I think you know believe it or not even though we didn't have much snow this year I was kind of surprised or snow and ice
054deficit was only only what it was um yeah we had some yeah but we you know we also use that opportunity if we do have a light snow Year to you know maybe do some improvements to equipment or stock up on salt you know do the things that we need to do so um so yeah it was probably surprise in the in the other direction Brandy it wasn't as much as I thought it was going to be okay well yeah that was actually surprising too you're right um in terms of um what did you say the workman's comp workers comp so so that was that was a good good news yeah okay uh if I can get a motion to approve the transfers for the fiscal year 24 end of uh end of year budget
055so mov in a second second great we have a second um a motion and a second any other discussion no all those in favor of the motion say I I I and that carries 5 Z thank you all very much okay moving on we [Music] have the agreement with wacv memorandum of understanding I believe we have the current chair president of the waca board with us today um and also we have Barbara Chism online as well uh Michael why don't you take us through this and then if Barbara and or John want to make any comments we can do that as well sure um thank you madam chair uh So Lisa alluded to it a little bit earlier but you know we've been working on on this agreement uh for a while which uh officially
056kind of consummates the relationship between wacka uh as our cable access organization and then also the town through the select board and uh essentially what this agreement you know you've seen what the agreement says and what all in encompasses but you know for those at home um that are wondering it really talks about like the scope of services that are provided kind of outlines some reporting mechanisms uh in place uh in terms of um you know annual reporting financial reporting things of that nature then also really clarifies uh basic basically the way the town receives Peg access or that cable access money through the franchise agreements that um we've just gone through how that gets relayed and uh essentially spent by Wacka as the cable access organization um I'm just trying to there's anything yeah
057pretty that's pretty much it I mean in a nutshell um and this is a five year agreement agreement yes any questions comments concerns I just want to I just want to say that I'm going to recuse myself from this matter so that makes sense just conversation V okay I know Barbara is listening Barbara um I I've always asked you I didn't have the opportunity to uh speak to you about this uh prior to but uh are you satisfied with the current uh memorandum of understanding that's in front of us right now Barbara are you there I don't know if you're I I can't unmute I can't unmute you're unmuted now you're okay you're unmuted now Barbara I'm here I'm here now I I was having I could not I could not mute myself before so
058yep that's okay you've been unmuted so did you did you hear Joe's question than thank you um yes um um yes we are um uh pleased with the agreement um I just want to thank our consultant suusi and Lisa me for working together to provide a um a good agreement and we look forward to being able to um work well with the town going forward as we have in the past so um yes it's been a long time coming and we're glad that this agreement has come to fruition great you know I will I will add it's um so this agreement actually gives wacka quite a bit of flexibility as well in terms of how they can get and procure equipment and really kind of gives them said flexibility and Agility in terms of um
059doing what they need to do so it's really good John any comments sir uh good evening thank you madam chair uh John featherston 98 Heritage Avenue uh I'm just going to blame it all on Makita because uh Makita did all the hard work and uh kudos to her and congratulations Makita and uh uh no but I mean I think we're all very very excited about the partnership uh I mean one one thing that I you know just a personal opinion ever since Michael has been the town manager uh I think wacka and the town have had a phenomenal relationship and I can only see that we can do more things I mean with your involvement in the station I mean I'm just personal note my favorite show of all time on wacka was badges so
060I don't know like what what happened with that but uh I mean I think there's Good Chemistry Between the town uh I think we've got some uh new people on our board that have some new ideas that we can look to do better collaboration but uh you know C kudos to uh attorney me and our attorney for making this happen and we're really excited about it so good okay any other comments sorry goad I just said a couple oops thanks a question and a comment um in terms of viewership do you know how much of your viewership is by Facebook watching programming that way or how much of it is on one of the uh channels I think the handsome man back there would would have a better answer for that for me but uh
061that's you Paul uh talk not me the important thing is the rest of us knew that when you said hansome were you talk yeah um I I we don't have exact numbers because uh the cable companies keep those numbers for themselves as far as the amount of like neelon type numbers um but we do get a lot of feedback from the community that people do watch especially the government meetings and things like that and I know that uh some of our recent pieces like we did a thing with the um Make A Wish Foundation that had a couple thousand views on Facebook um the sports do really well so we we get a lot of views on online definitely it's very important that we are online as well as on the channels yeah great I
062think it's I think it's very important that we have that sort of a connection or availability to the community and it does have a couple of different ways to reach people it's um certainly without newspapers being what they used to be and that and I I can remember when reporters said in rooms like this all the time and so um it's really important that that we have this um yeah I definitely remember we would do you know debates and there'd be three newspapers there plus us and now it's just us so right so thank you the other question or comment I have is it would it be financially our responsibility if we wanted to add another room in the community um that could do live broadcasts um you know with Community participation in that you
063know we've had a couple of times where we thought we might fill this room I don't know maybe it was just dreams but um who who would that be our financial responsibility or Wacker or joint effort or so it I mean it would be waka's responsibility within the Appropriations that provided to them at town meeting so you know we can't ask them to do you know $100,000 worth of work and and give them $50,000 worth of a budget but you know to that end I I think there's actually some conversations happening to look at maybe expanding maybe some like at the community center which has a larger room you know to to look at doing things like that great thank you but you know Claudia I think you're great idea because that's that's one of
064the things that we've kind of talked about too is you know to encourage people to still watch TV because a lot of people are out there cutting the cord you know let's just be candid uh we have to look at avenues like that and involving seniors uh Mr Herbert is is the guinea pig uh but his new podcast which I recommend everybody go to the wacka website and see you know and that's going to be a focus of us you know like to your point I remember many of times I would pick up the phone the next day and call the Metro West Daily News and go uh you got something in quotes here that I didn't say you know like what's going on here uh but you don't even have that anymore and the
065only way people are going to get access to what goes on in their communities is by cable access and by what wacka does so we have to look outside the box to kind of expand that through social media through podcasting but then even doing more Live Events like you said at the community center and stuff like that so we're really excited about it one thing too might be to make sure that people understand you know because people get their television access in so many different ways you know if I was say I was a FUBU customer or would I know how to access cable could I even access it at that point you know currently no but but it's something that's definitely right so I think maybe even publicizing different ways that you can access
066your programming would be um you know something to try to push out into the community a little bit but with the ability to go live now on Twitter or X or whatever you want to call it now and you know Paul does a great job with getting it up on Facebook live and stuff like that uh we're going to have to educate the community as like okay maybe you don't watch it on traditional you know cable access anymore but we have 12 different other ways that you can watch it you know so great thank you thank you we look forward to the partnership great same likewise John thank you go ahead Brandy um so thank you this is this is great thank you for all the work that that you all have done to to
067make this possible as as Claudia kind of alluded to It Whack is a huge part of our community Comm and is really important to the connection with our residents so so thank you for for all that you do um one of the things that I was uh I I was looking at in the in the agreement was um section8 that talks about annual plan and budget and it says that honor before October 31st wacko shall provide a um an annual plan and budget outlining activities and programs for the upcoming fiscal year which I think is great um and I would I would kind of put it out to the board and to you guys too maybe it would be worth you guys coming after you have put together that plan to us and we can
068talk about it together a little bit too because um you know it would be great to kind of hear from you what you're planning for for the year so that's just my personal suggestion but I I know one of the notes that I put was so they they're if they're doing the report who is that report going to and to your point Brandy I mean and it's and there's I think a a balance because they sort of have autonomy so it's good for us to know what they're doing but they do have some autonomy so it's not like it's going to come to the board and we're going to take a vote as to what they're doing but to your point it would be good to know what they're planning so we can help support
069it and publicize it and things like that right yeah yeah so y that'd be great thank you guys okay if I can get a motion to vote and sign the memorandum of understanding between Ashland cable access Corporation wacv and the town of Ashland so moved and second okay okay all those in favor say I I I and nay and abstain so Makita so 401 yeah Makita is abstaining wonderful thank you all and thank you Michael and staff for working and thank you Barbara for working to get this done appreciate that okay thank you all y thank you okay moving on discuss our summer meeting schedule so in looking at the calendar our next meeting which was scheduled for juneth obviously we are not meeting on that Wednesday now that it's a holiday um so I
070don't think we put anything in the packet with dates the last the last uh so um I had recommended we were going to check if the school committing school committee is meeting on Wednesday Wednesdays in this space and they are right but aren they're not meeting on the 26th right do you remember um or Sue did you somebody checked that s did some did you check if they're meeting on the 26th the school committee you're muted still sorry um the school committee is not meeting they their last meeting for the summer is on the 12th okay so I would like to recommend that we do our second meeting on June 26th if that works for people sure and then in looking at July um our first meeting should be the 3 but hopefully people are
071on vacation so I don't recommend we meet then so we were thinking the 17th and potentially meet once in this in July and or uh do a meeting that would be a potential board retreat on a Wednesday evening 17th is the Wednesday right the 17th is our regular scheduled meeting so I think we should main keep that same time 7 o'clock or you going to do okay um and were you thinking about like the retreat don't recall exactly but I thought we were thinking the first meeting in August we would do the The Retreat the then we were thinking for our first meeting in August which would be August 7th would be more of a retreat so it would still be a regular meeting time we would still do it here obviously available to the
072public but more of a discussion so Michael would give us an update on the project similar to what he did last year and then other items that we thought we would want to talk about okay I I know this is really challenging but I'd like to suggest that we try to have um some kind of a joint meeting with at least the the the planning board and you know almost either as part of our Retreat meeting maybe we have to extend it by an hour or so um and what would be the purpose of meeting I I think really just to kind of um maybe build build relationships a little bit and try to um have some conversations about what the community what community is faced with that impacts um you know planning board and
073how the planning what the planning board actions they take and actions that we might take um and and I just think that that would be um be helpful to have a just a conversation about some of the challenges that is this with future projects that are coming down the road yeah potentially yeah you know it could be certainly when you say future you mean 1060 or yeah yes yes I think the wav street we have some conversations about all those things and I think trying to meet with them is a great idea I would recommend we not do it during our Retreat meeting only because I think you know as as a new board brand new member you've been on for a year I think it would be good for the five of us to
074sit and chat and work with Michael and Jen and review some things but I certainly can reach out to the planning board to see um and maybe you and I can chat a little bit more about what you envision that meeting being uh in regards to having a joint meeting with planning that any other thoughts I'm sorry um could I'm sorry could you just um so the 17th yep July 17th which was on our which should have been on your agenda it's the third Wednesday and then the board what date are you proposing the board August 7th August 7th which is the first meeting in August okay great so they're both kind of they're both already on our calendar and then we would have our second our regular second meeting in July I mean sorry
075in August on the 21st and at that meeting we would do our reappointments um for boards and committees and any other items that may need to be voted and discussed before the end of the summer so really the only difference is that we have only one meeting scheduled for July July correct okay okay and then if people are interested in the planning board meeting that could be a second meeting in July potentially depending on what their schedule is and what they're working on the thing is I I would say um we're going to be probably reconnecting on MBTA communities with them so maybe we wait until we have like that more solid that's good and kind of tie it all together so it's one but you know plus we'll have some updates from the comprehensive
076plan after we have our two working meetings for the comprehensive plan in June and July it's going to be September when we do a joint meeting no no I'm not saying I'm not saying joint about just as an update from comp plan right after our June and July meeting not the whole comprehensive plan but just update the boards so but yeah because there will be there actually will be another joint meeting that happens to do the phase two presentation to both board but that's so focused on the cop CL I feel like some of those right meetings that are going to come very specific are very focused and and they don't have the flavor that a retreat has right um in terms of more of an open discussion so okay so you're looking for more
077of a retreat feel with the planning board um are people open to a SAT because I mean for 10 people I don't know a Saturday morning or I think it's going to be really tough in the summer yeah I think it's going to be really tough to try to get everybody's schedules because the one thing about like having it on either having a retreat either on our regular scheduled board date or like theirs is at least half of the people are already committed right so you know so let's let's do this I will reach out to Trish Trisha Kendall I don't I'm me yeah I did mention it to her recently um and why don't we do this if you know you have vacations planned or you're going to be away get me that schedule
078like I know I'm I'm not available the first weekend in August um and I know Makita you had mentioned that you have some work travel and stuff so get me your get me your schedules for June through August I will touch base with Trisha and Claudia you and I can chat so I can get a little better feel as to what you're what you'd like to accomplish and I can present that to Trish and see what she says make sense okay but otherwise we will be meeting on June 26th July 17th August 7th and August 21st unless of course something comes up and we need to have an extra meeting but does that sound good to you Michael four meetings in the summer yeah perfect good okay so that's our schedule good okay the next
079is discuss and vote on the process for annual appointment to boards and committees members expiring August 31st I don't know that we need to take a vote tonight but I'd certainly like to have a discussion and I'm going to I don't usually do this but I'm going to start so just to help Makita and Claudia this is a process that we've been trying to tweak and update for many years we go so far and think okay this is how we're going to do it and then we pull ourselves back because we can't come to a cision or we're sitting here in June trying to make changes when we need to make a decision so typically the last I don't know probably since I've been sitting here um it used to be we would do these
080reappointments in June and then and then it made it said well that doesn't make sense because if we have new board members coming on you're probably not even completely familiar with all the boards that we appoint you're probably not completely familiar with all the people that are on those boards and Susan did do a nice job of putting in our packet the list of people who are up for reappointment at the end of August so we've talked about term limits for people on these boards we've talked about having people who are up for reappointment applying to be reappointed and again we've never made those changes and again because we're here in June I don't know that this is the time to make those changes um but I I'd like us to look at it for
081the future yeah for the following year uh so right now what happens is Susan reaches out to these people who are up for reappointment she asks them if they'd like to be reappointed and if they say yes then she puts the list together and at our last meeting in August we say okay we're going to reappoint these people um that's where it's at now does anyone have any appetite to make any changes for this year I think it's really tough for this year so I mean we've had this conversation it's like groundhog day but um but you know looking at some of these I don't know I think because we always try to encourage new people to to get involved in these boards and committees and it's really hard when people have served in a
082certain capacity for a gazillion years which sometimes happens sometimes it's people have a lot of technical knowledge so something like Conservation Commission people will serve a while but it takes a real it takes some time to kind of understand what what the regulations and the laws and what their task to do so you have some institutional knowledge there but I do feel feel like my personal suggestion because I I feel like having people apply is kind of tough but I do think that that that these boards should discuss people that are on their boards and make a recommendation to us as well like you know if because there's there's four positions in conservation you know the Conservation Commission should meet and discuss it I think my personal perspective is that they should say yes we
083we want we want these people to serve again or we don't want them to serve again which is not something we've done in the past in the past it has just been Susan reaching out to the people to see if they would like to be reappointed so but I was trying to think of a of a of a way to kind of have a a bigger discussion about whether people should sign in for another three years and if they should be reappointed yeah well I I mean I there's another factor I think as well you know you look at some of the boards here you see these vacancies and I'm just curious like you know what you know uh you know doing the board appointment and such like you know we want to make sure
084that these slots are filled as well um you know what it what's currently in place right now with these boards and how are they active do they actively try to fill these vacancies or said something yeah so we we we actively recruit so if we have vacancies it's on the website and we talk about them here at our meeting and what happens is if you are interested in a vacancy you fill out a talent Bank form yeah Susan replies to the talent Bank form and if they've and if they have a number of of committees listed she will send that person's information to the chair of each of the Committees that they're interested in and they are required and requested to go to a couple of meetings of that of that um board or committee
085so let's say someone is interested in open space right and so they'll go to that meeting and then the chair or the current members of that committee respond to us saying this person has been to our meeting so we recommend that the board appoint this person um what we sometimes do is and we haven't done this a lot recently is a lot of the times we'll know the person or someone on our board will know the person say oh yeah this would be a good a good fit um we have tried in the past inviting people to our our meeting to say okay let's see who these people are and ask them some questions and if they are the right person recently for zba zba and conservation and conservation we've zba we we interviewed two
086people and then we voted and and appointed one of the two based on some of the recommendation and information from the zba uh conservation I think we talked about conservation we did I don't think we've actually aced anyone in right we talked about someone had stepped down and that we we haven't filled that yet because they haven't they haven't mention regulatory these regulatory bodies are are like crucial to making sure that they they function well the you know like we also appoint we also appoint people to the Council on Aging and historical commission and a bunch of other commissions too boards that aren't regulatory that a lot of times we show up on our consent agenda right but um we try to if if and if there's you know obviously um the the Committees kind
087of weigh in on some of those recommendations too when when we have well and we we asked them to we asked the the Committees to say okay you've had two people or you've had one person come sit in on your meetings do you feel they're a good fit for your Board and they'll let us know that and then if if there's only one person and someone here knows the name we're like oh yeah that makes sense and we'll put that in a consent agenda and say okay appoint that uh with some of the regional work I do I've been trying to reach out to other towns and committees to see how they do it and it's been eye openening how some other communities do it but they went through a whole process in how they
088actually they actually have specific bylaws and rules as to how they appoint people and so again not something we can do for August I don't think this year but certainly as we're going through this process start talking about it and maybe put something different in place moving forward because I think that could be an item for a retreat yeah yeah yeah so so just to be clear so thank you for explain the process because maybe there are some folks that are that don't you know know how how do all these where do they come from where are they coming from um yeah so uh just to be clear like so the concern is uh the way we're doing it that there there there isn't the opportunity for more folks to participate for new people to
089particip and so we're looking for different ways to make sure that we can that up okay great correct if I may just for an example we just did it with the affordable housing trust um we had a vacancy um gentleman saw there was there was a vacancy applied uh filled out a uh Talent Bank form Mr FEPS and um came to a couple of our meetings and uh his background is exactly what we were looking for uh because he has a lot of experience with housing and Mass Housing and a lot a lot of the technical things that need to be done and uh he was a great fit we all thought and then we made the recommendation to the board and then they appointed him to the committee so it worked out well so
090in those kind of situations it's it's working I think where some of us have had some frustration is not getting new blood and not and and having certain boards and committees that have had the same people which there's benefit to that but as we've seen here on the select board there's also benefit to having new people come in to sort of look at things in a different way and have different input and for me that's one of the things that I'd like us to work on but again it's June people go away for the summer I think my recommendation is we keep the process that we currently have and to your point Brandy we keep doing this yeah um but I I think unless people have other suggestions that we think we can Implement quickly
091yeah yeah I I don't think we can really Implement anything quickly but I do think that the best or an important part of this would be to um make even before a a committee or a commission or whatever has a vacancy people are become aware that those groups exist right um because if they don't know they exist they aren't going to be interested in being involved obviously right and then because I think you know to your point to to sit around in a group with of four or five people and go well I I don't think you should be on it anymore because I think you stink right I mean how do you no no no right right so I think it's important to kind of you know what's going to be the crer sort
092of create some interest in the community in in ways that that can become involved right and uh there needs to be a transparent process where everybody understands the rules and that there's turnover so I'm just hearing the requirements here and it sounds like there are other cities in towns that so maybe we can kind of scoop up some of those best practices and examine them but it doesn't sound like this is something we're going to be able to to put together this evening no no no the one example I had they started discussing it in September they had the discussion with all their boards and committees through the fall they finally implemented their program in February and March now they're they Cycles a little bit off of ours but I see if if we can
093make this something that we and and and I see this as because I know Michael's like don't add anything to my plate um but I see if this is something that we as a board can start looking at with Susan's assistance again not putting it on Susan to find figure this out but to give her some better tools and to give us some better tools to determine who's who's going to be the right fit for certain committees so yeah and I'm looking at like this list and you know open space and wreck has two vacancies correct which I was like Wow open space and rack has two vacancies I'm surprised they haven't like tried to put a call out for for people to apply and want you know because open space and R they have
094what nine nine people they're a nine member n uh yeah no didn't we drop them down to seven we dropped them back down to seven which seems odd 1 2 3 4 five six that's six of their people are up but maybe that's just the vacancies the other thing I I I I would recommend we do and we sometimes talk about this is during every meeting that we have vacancies is just put a just like we have some of these other reminders right we have the two reminders later on about s of looking for someone for the naming of the public safety building and the historic district study committee maybe we start making sure when we do these reminders that we put reminders on for the vacancies that each committee has yeah and put it
095out there or every once in a while like it goes into Michael's newsletter that we have V that to on these committees it's not that it's not transparent people just need to know where to look for the yeah right right maybe just that type of a reminder I think you should you should start making Tik toks and videos [Laughter] really it's a new way to get the information isn't it going to be like banned in like a six months or so very tented young man so pod podcast away right oh boy let's do one technology techy technology thing at a time okay so again I don't know that we have to vote but I would just say that we continue this year with the process and I would ask Susan that you know we we
096make sure Michael gets the list of all the vacancies and that we start recruiting for some new people and then look at it for next year okay Susan do you need anything else from us for that item no I'm good but one thing I am going to do is I'm also G to add to the list what the average number of meetings are that they have had since January just to give you an idea of what the workload is for each group that's a great idea y great okay that's awesome thank you okay yeah that's big moving on uh so Michael you already started this the update on the Mass housing letter in regards uh to Mark's comments but was there anything else you wanted to add to that yeah so I mean we had
097just talked about the um you know the process so far with with it being at Mass Housing and being at what we'll call the site eligibility phase and just you know to answer or get to some of Mark's questions you know let's just say that Mass housing does say okay you know this project does uh warrant a project eligibility letter um and it gets that letter and so they do subsequently apply you know for comprehensive permit uh so then that would go to the zoning board of appeals okay and the zoning board of appeals would be um the one responsible for adjudicating that having the hearings um and uh basically you know I think through that process we could find kind of where some of the uh I don't want to say different pressure points
098are but where there could be different areas for agreement or or a mutual agreement with the developer to make things better I think one of the things I mean we spent a lot of time on this comment letter uh which was good I think it was a good exercise and I think it was I think it's a strong letter um but I think some of the you know some of the things that you know you you spent some time doing was also prioritizing the issues and um I think that is going to come in handy as you know we go through this process in terms of what's most important what's not important um and then some things that I think are a little bit more subjective in nature so let's just say some of the
099design elements right I mean the good news is that as a community we have gone through the process of implementing this form form based code and you know have basically articulated okay these are the design and Architectural criteria and elements that we like to see in our buildings and that's laid out both visually and verbally and um and graphically and so in fact we actually included you know basically an example of that in our letter and uh so I think you know we have a template from which to work from uh as a community if we do want to see design changes which we do uh towards this building as well um but um you know other than that I don't have too much more about the letter itself just to thank everybody who made
100comments both the boards and committees and uh as well as the residents uh and uh certainly the select board's uh guidance and thoughts I did receive you know confirmation from Mass housing that they did receive it and that they'll let us know so now that we know that they've received it and reviewed it we will put the whole packet up on the website of the town website so people can go and look everything at everything that you submitted so yes I did ask for that to be uh posted today okay um up where all the other information is so um people should have access to that great any questions or comments on that letter I think we did a lot of work on it a lot of work yeah okay good than you know I
101thought we put I thought we put together a good uh a good argument um and uh and uh yeah we'll we'll see how it goes on to the next on to on to the next one next um I just I was just scrolling through my packet and I just want to go back for one thing it says on here that we need to thank the public safety building committee I'd like to invite the whole Committee in and do our thanks publicly maybe at our next meeting I think they did a lot of work and I think it would be good to acknowledge everybody who was on it so Joe what do you think I don't I think it's a bad idea okay I just quickly now that the land acquisition will be completed by next
102week and we're looking to do a design parking lot for that specific area there I was wondering if the uh public safety building committee the the members themselves be part of that that process where they were originally involved in the parking design originally your thoughts so continue the committee until the to be part of the parking design I don't I don't know what's I I mean I I think we certainly can um I'm trying to um I'm trying to kind of think of the elements that would be why don't you think it through I don't think we have to make a decision tonight but let's yeah think that through and decide okay for sure thanks yep okay so I did notice just back to the onto the next thing that the um the next the
103OAS bis at Ashland the one across from the high school is up on the website for public comment so yeah um and so we're putting together the comments letter at the end of this month I know we had talked about that when Mark was up there but I just we should probably just mention that too yeah June 27th I believe is when our comment letters du one one quick thing with respect to that that talking about it's a cross from the high school and that's e Union street but the actual entry area is going to be off w want to consider calling that area W Street and not E Street because they won't be any access from E that location so that may confuse some people just a thought I think technically the address is
10461 Waverly I think that's the technically 135 yeah yep because that's a more accurate location than the cross from the high SCH correct just just make just clarify Mak sense okay okay Michael you'll put that link in your the feedback in your I will yeah as well as you know a link to the information again and and all of that stuff yeah and maybe you know because it would wouldn't be bad if people were able to reference the letter too yeah you mean the existing yeah the one that we just went in so I don't know exactly where that's posted but maybe if they could be some kind of uh connected somehow connected yeah on the same page or something yeah it should be so if 4B projects or something right well actually yeah if
105you go to the planning section of the website and uh there's a section that says current and past cases before the Planning and Zoning Board if you go to the bottom of that page I think I think it's titled potential uh developments in front of the zoning board because technically we don't have you know an application yet and both of those projects should be there Claudia yeah so I'll tell you it's kind of it's all kind of buried right so right now the way it's set up it on the homepage right there's a there's a planning T tab right not tab but okay and that takes you to the form that Susan created and and has posted but from there there's no connection even to like there's not even over here on the menu on
106the side here there's no connection to the planning board so or to current projects so I don't know maybe is it worth it just to make a separate page and call it 40b projects and have everything right there yeah and have everything so like the news flash section at the bottom have it point to towards that yeah we could certainly do that I think because I think if you click that right now it'll take you just to the mill the mill one is is that what you're seeing this one right here takes me to the form it should have the documents also at the bottom yes I'm sorry it wasn't like that earlier today so yeah sorry it pictured all the documents but it's not connected to the other 40b gotcha right I'm just I
107see what you're saying might be they all so it might be like good to have everything on kind of like one so what I'd recommend if you guys have suggestions on that put them in writing to Michael and Susan so that they have the suggestions as to what you want to what you know what you think would make sense in regards to having it accessible to the public in an easier way okay so work on that yeah okay for sure moving on Farmers Market requests so the Farmers Market has reached out regarding the select board and town manager participating on Saturday and on June 22nd and I have responded um that I'll participate for both of those I'm actually doing the area one so the one on the 22nd area had reached out to me
108a couple months ago to do the juneth one so as part of area or as part as select board representative for um oh because St Steve reached out to us I don't think Steve and I was going to reply to him and then I saw it on our agenda so I was like oh I'll just wait till we talk about it but ARA Maggie Moki had reached out to me a couple months ago on it okay so um so doesn't mean you can't be there oh you can all there you can be there I just um okay so I wish you had chatted with people that's all before you replied that's all well we all represent the select board in different capacities we do but for okay so but I don't think Steve knew that
109um that Maggie had reached out to me when he that's why I'm saying it would have been I wish you had let us know that you had been reached out to to be the select board representative because I also reached back out to Steve to say I would be the select board representative so that's all we have two I was just going to say if we're there and someone wants to speak you have designated people and if somebody else well I know a lot of times they have these things scheduled and planned and pretty tight there's a lot of things going on so okay we'll we'll we'll figured that out yeah I planned my I planned my travels around it hold on wrest no okay moving on uh farmers market so I know you chatted
110with Jean I also chat with Jean we try to have select Board office hours at the farmers market either one or two days I think she said she's going do two days I have dates so the um because we were also looking to do comprehensive for the comprehensive plan so we got all sorts of dates um so the dates that she was able to give us were um the 22nd so uh June 22nd and September 7th and if we wanted to do July August um we could probably work to get a second tent at the second Community tent at the farmers market September 7th September 7th y so um okay I know I can do the 22nd not sure about the 7th okay okay did you say you are or you're not I am okay
111so 622 and 97 okay okay I can do the 22nd yeah I can't do the 22nd but I can do the seventh all right me if there's if there's three of us or four of us we don't have to be there at the same time we we try to rotate through the hours so okay yep all right so just 9 to No 9 to One 9 to one yeah I mean sometimes we've left by 12:30 because it's quiet after that so so we just kind of do we like do shifts like yeah so we say okay who can be their first thing who can be their and we oh cool okay yeah so basically it's it's a good way it we found like last year we did them once a month and it was a
112really good way for people to come and chat with us yeah right because people go to the farmers market yeah and people want to stop and chat and I've seen I've seen you all out there I mean okay so 622 and 9 to7 9 to1 Brandy if you want to maybe send something out so we can like fill in slots that we have it planned that'd be great yeah okay uh next reminder ashon High School graduation is Friday the 7th at in the evening if you are planning on going please let them know because they do assign they do save us seats in the front um so if you'd like to go it's it's pretty cool to be there as a select board member uh so if you're interested please let them know and if
113you if you want you can do it through Susan and I know Joe and Claudia will be representing us at class day Friday during the day great okay and we'll announce our select board scholarship winners at our next meeting we'd like to do it after we've done it at graduation rather than before um okay next two reminders 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 and I know we've seen at least one or two already for that and then the other reminder is the board is seeking residents to serve on the historic district study committee interested parties should complete a talent Bank form for that as well then our next reminder is that free covid tests are still
114available at Town Hall we have our consent agenda if I can get a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented had a qu question sure what does designating somebody a special Municipal Employee do they get a they get a prize that's what I was afraid of no no so it actually means that they can work multiple jobs um within like different communities in a different town so Tom Curran who is our food inspector although when you designate a position position as a special Municipal Employee you designate the position so he he also uh does food inspections for other communities as well so this allows him to keep working for us okay do I have a motion I I need a motion I'll motion it okay I'll second that perfect so Joe has made it
115Brandy has second all those in favor of the consent agenda I I I okay that carries 5 Zer thank you very much okay moving on Town manager report project updates all right so pressure is on me I can feel it feel it so uh just with priority projects up updates uh we'll we'll start with downtown so um you know we had a good meeting yesterday to talk about putting out the bid uh documents for the building connections uh what we have found is that we do have a little bit of a hurdle that's out of our control that we need to overcome and that's namely the fact that eversource is still waiting on two Transformers that they need to complete their project um to make it work so there's a total of 12 uh in
116the project and so we've got 10 uh and so they need two more and so apparently they were having a really hard time getting them from overseas so but that's to get their Transformers couldn't is there a reason we have to wait to send out the RFP well because each of them ties in to well they don't all tie into the Transformer but like a if they're in a specific section of town it does impact like that section of town with the building connections look like because we've been okay so we're waiting to send the RFP until we know we can actually do the connections or no no no we can still we can still move forward with that but it it's is going to limit our ability to actually make the connections okay so
117moving forward but we can go ahead and do the work and get all the wiring and stuff in place um so 126 so they they have done some Paving um I I am hearing that they are going to need to in the future uh shut down all of 126 for a little bit and uh we'll have to come up with a detour route in order to do some of the Culver work Culvert work that's associated with the project um and that's more towards the uh I would say the Northern end of town um so that that's the update on 126 do we know timing of that or I don't have specific timing yet um but I'll will get that for you so ideally if we can have that finalized before our next meeting so that
118we can review it and publicize it and approve it and and get yeah will they be looking to do any night work to do that I don't think it's it's going to be done at night you think it's going to be daytime okay um so double check and so that's what I have uh for priority project updates I know Mendes is still you we're working with uh concom uh just you know working through some stuff with that uh which uh I'm confident will be resolved soon okay uh okay moving on to comprehensive Plan update so uh those of us on the committee know that we received the uh aggregated Community engagement summary report summary uh Light reading yeah so I I totaled it up it's almost 400 Pages oh um summary yeah so and I
119have not admittedly I have not had a chance to go through it all um I didal budget um not that I could there's little bits and pieces um that that you summary like different parts um there is a summary document but uh all total it's it's like 400 pages one of the things I did say though is and I want to double check is make sure that they captured everything um you know I was looking through some of the listings of of input and I didn't necessarily see everything so uh it could be I just missed a page um or not but I definitely want to double check that and then we'll be having our visioning sessions coming up um coming up soon so looking forward to that uh and we're not going to have
120our regular meetings um regularly scheduled meetings because we'll be doing that July is still July is still up in the air yeah okay um let's see so update on the Warren Barn um well the good news is is that the mass school Mass State College building authority um has agreed to in principle to take on the oversight of the construction of the war Barn um so we would basically pay them the money that we have and they would go ahead and oversee the construction um of that which is a huge win for us is that takes that load off of our plate so that's that's the 100,000 foot view right so the devil's in the details so what uh we have talked about doing is creating a working group that would uh include representatives from
121you the town um also the MS the mass State College building authority Framingham State and then flick to talk about essentially uh three different uh memorandums of understanding or memorandums of agreement so one would be uh essentially the the agreement whereby we give them the money and they do the oversight so kind of um more of a formality than anything but you know uh has some particulars associated with that the other one is a license agreement for them to use part of our property to build that rink that uh Dr Hamill came and talked to the board about the board was uh supportive of so do that and then the third is an ongoing operating Arrangement between Framingham State flick and the town in terms of how to use those facilities who uses those facilities
122who pays for the operations things like that who manages it who schedules it okay yeah so Framingham State is proposing that they would manage it um or flick that the the organization that they have that or that runs the conference conference center would basically do that but you know we need to work all of that out so we're talking about forming a working group so Jen is going to participate from the town but I wanted to see does a member of the board want to be a part of that um and if so who would you like that to be anybody interested in participating yeah I think I would be interested in participating you have the time and okay okay okay so then include Claud yeah we can we can include you as part of
123that absolutely um yeah so that so that's basically okay basically that um anything else I missed we had a real brief meeting yesterday um okay I I do have one question with respect that I know it's very prel preliminary but would Ashlan residents or any group within the town have first priority in using that facility that's all part of what this agreement would look like agreement will be right as long as that wording is in there so that way because the taxpayers ultimately playing paying for that you know so yeah so that want to make sure that's uh those are types of the details and and the operating requirements that um that would be worked out through thata thank you so it' be good um so next that I have on the agenda is just
124an update on the Staffing study that we're doing and so just to remind everybody we're doing this in two phases so the first phase the one that we're conducting right now is a is is our non-public safety departments phase two will be our Public Safety departments and really it's looking at our staffing um and our staffing levels Visa basically our activity levels and what we're expecting from our community and our employees and also like compared to other communities so if you have a baseline of service you know what do other communities you know what is their Staffing look like um in terms of numbers and structures in addition to um well in comparison to us so I you know I'm excited about this I don't know if excited is the right word I could be
125depressing um but I I think this is going to give us some real objective data about some of the things that we've talked about in terms of our workload and what we're trying to accomplish so the current phase that we're in right now the process is so they're in the middle Colin Center who the Edward Collins Center who's working on this um with us is actually they're conducting interviews with their department heads and different staff so that's the first part so we're doing that Jen anything you wanted to add in relation to that does have anything to do with accreditation aspect could that be part of it could be part of it Joe it could be part of it um but uh but accreditation would be at the public safety level right or is also
126town accredit I'm I'm I was assuming you were talking about APD Joe yeah yeah it could definitely you know factor into that potentially blending into what what they were trying to do right few years ago correct oh and that's still very much a goal okay yeah still very much a goal um and then let's see finally just an update on the dog park JB I'll let you you want to use your own mic excuse me it doesn't matter but um so I we've actually had a little bit I can't remember the last time we provided an update we have re-engaged um with a designer um that also has a civil engineer I was able to meet with the Conservation Commission at their last meeting just to sort of I mean our biggest hurdle is certainly
127the location in terms of the wetlands that surround the um proposed dog park um and so the Conservation Commission is open to having a site walk similar to what we did for the public safety building just to sort of so so our designer um sort of has um big picture concerns that they might have so that we can go in prepared um when when we do our full notice of intent so I'm in the process of trying to schedule that um now you let me know when that's scheduled because I think I'd like to walk with that and hear what they have to say sure thank you and that's really sort of where we are right now they're doing um they've done some test pits just to make sure they're checking the soil um we
128had one conversation um with department heads and then also Cara was there Cara trell as part of um at least for part of it um you know there was some conversation about I know the committee really wanted to have it open year round um our designers are recommending that possibly we um close it for the winter months or maybe more importantly might be is the spring and that's really if we're trying to keep it as natural as possible the dog when the dogs um can sort of Ruin um root systems in when it's like the mud season um and so just sort of thinking about what that may look like um and then they just had some other they're sort of looking at um other natur more natural looking um dog parks u in Massachusetts
129just to sort of think that through um and we do have to have our design ready for um the Stant and Grant review by the end of this year and really February is the sort of drop dead right we have to get them to review it and hopefully give us funding for it by then okay great okay any questions anybody on on related matters sure um I was just curious about how uh the Clover Road Brewery T room is coming along at for the fire station I thought it was going to be open by now it's good weather for an IPA yeah so they're working on their their license at the state level um and then they've the architect came in today or this week earlier right to do some things they're still going through
130site plan um with the planning board and planning board had asked for just a cross-section of their the patio that would be out um in front they I think that they've had some um fits and starts with their architect and so uh the hope is that they'll have the final piece of material in by the end of this week and then at the next planning board meeting they'll be able to sort of work through that process but so the planning board has been asking for actual materials that they're using no they want to just see how it what the what the patio will look like okay it's supposed to be a Rao to flatten it out from where it's at right now does it take this might not be a fair question does it take
131longer um to bring things to come to fruition in our community than it does in others because I can tell you that that's what people say to me all the time about any project that we're trying to get to come online such as you know I mean what was somebody else talking to me about besides that I I don't know if it was Murphy's at the time how long that took or something else that took two years and um yes I I I mean my experience um yes it does take things a little bit longer here uh to to happen and um could be for a variety of different reasons um you know I I I think you know in the in the with Clover Road I think you know the planning board's been asking
132for this same documentation for a while right and I think it's just the applicant has been delayed in getting that information to them but there are certainly other circumstances with other projects that have taken a just another reason why maybe we need to have some kind of joint meeting because I feel like you know we we really need to figure out ways to to make things easier for people who want to come to our community and do something productive that will make it what we want our community to be um and and have it be not a painful process yeah because I and I also think that um and I've just heard this well I was about to say antidotal but it it is from you know developers um you know one of the reasons
133why some ashin projects are like so big is because they know how long it's going to take the grind the cost associated with that so they kind of make that up on the unit count side um so yeah it's a balance right it's a balance have a question okay for Michael uh status with the YMCA and uh anything with respect to ugc and where we stand with them nothing so no updates on ugc but Joe I haven't checked in in I can let you know what's going on with the YMCA so they're still in their fundraising phase they do have a design set and with having received $5 million of federal funds for the Early Childhood section right now they're looking at doing a phased approach so phase one would be the Early Childhood section
134as well as sort of the gym and the main section and then phase two would be the pool and the Aquatic Center okay the idea is that should their funding change and they get all the funding that they need that they would start on phase one and immediately go to phase two but it will depend on the funding uh and but they do have a group on place to sort of start reviewing and creating some of these designs and I believe right now shovel in the ground is sometime in 2025 okay well that's that's good news and is is Enzo's firm the project I don't know how many of you remember Enzo Scalera used to be in town now lives in Hopkinton but he has his his company is the The Firm that's been brought
135on to do some of this engineering and design work and working in regards to mov and his company is now here in town too he uh works out of Nick O'Hara's place on Ponderosa there yeah yep anything else so I had a another town manager related question not on this particular list but um the sidewalks for 135 where is that sort of in the so that did get it it's permit from concom okay so so moving on to the next phase which is just doing a couple more tweaks on the engineering piece and then the did we sign the contract we haven't signed the contract for the for the bid the construction work um because we were doing map we're going to do the mapc bid if I remember correctly cool we haven't signed the
136contract for the construction yet but that's coming okay um and was it finally decided to be on the eastbound side or the westbound side uh I believe it is the eastbound side yeah sorry I had to think so it'll be added so at the crosswalk it'll then be on the other side corre okay okay good any other questions for Michael if not we'll go into board reports so Makita this is an opportunity for you to talk about anything that you've gone to involved in things that you have coming up related to town or regionally that you'd like to share so oh sure you get to go first okay um yeah so uh last weekend I was at the opening of The Corner Spot yep on Saturday it was incredible uh just so many great local
137vendors there a lot of families great turnout just a a beautiful beautiful day beautiful occasion um great to see people out taking advantage of this incredible community resource so um yeah that's all I have to share Claudia well I spent a lot of time in my house in the past couple of weeks um lucky you but uh I just did want to just mention a couple of things um that uh within the last uh well couple few days so some of our Sports teams I I don't know the the girls lacrosse team's doing really well um there was a um a video posted and I was trying to find out where it was posted but I don't think I got a response about that um in any case um of Anna magenes who who scored
138um behind her back at the end of the game so it was it was very cool so was it it was a fun video and then uh ESPN uh picked up a former student who uh Brandon Grover who is now um a student at uh I think salv Regina making an un a spectacular catch um in the Outfield and and so ESPN picked up and and um you know had had that on on the airwaves if you want to go looking for it you'll see it um and then I did want to congratulate um you know all of our high school seniors and uh and I I you know thought a lot about them in in recent days and thought about uh certainly um I think uh for me personally you know it's really been
139a great joy to have known um so many of them through the years um and I wanted to congratulate two employees actually there were many from Warren school so I probably shouldn't even go there because I can't even name all of them there were like seven retirees from the Warren school um Jen temple being one of them who yes I saw that we all know I she had two generations of my family's children so um and and I think six others as well uh Trisha Kane being one of them um so I I like and then at the mindes school um Carrie Underwood who um has 30 plus years with the district and uh and Rose delgo who um you know served as the gatekeeper at the uh at the minda school for many years
140in many ways so congratulations um to to all of them as well so always a smile on your face yeah absolutely always all right thank you great thank you Brandy um so I was also at opening day at Corner Spot that was fun um and then talking about our graduating seniors um Michael Yolanda and I were at the reality Fair on Friday and that is like my favorite one of my favorite favorite things although I came home and I I I I just I didn't want to talk to anybody for a while because all you do is talk for for like six hours all you do is talk but um you know it's a great way for kids to kind of have a good understanding of what real life is you know after they graduate
141high school you know what rents cost what cars cost what insurance cost what a dog costs um cell phones like all the stuff that their parents have just provided for them for so many years they realize that they have to learn how to too um life skills like it is it's totally life skills so in this particular graduating class I'll Echo what Claudia said is really special to me because my son is a year a year younger so so many of those kids are I've known since they were like two three years old and so um so I I I I joined Claudia and saying you know congratulations to the class of 2024 I will also be at graduation cheering for all of them in the front row so I'm excited to do that so
142that's it for me okay Joe thank you elanda uh Claudia and I will have the honor of representing this board uh for class day um where the scholarships will be uh handed out but um this is the class that uh was hit by Co and you know went behind the eightball with the with their education they were fresh well they were freshman well freshman but it's still it's your freshman year is always your your building your building box for for for a better for a better uh education and so I I give them all the credit in the world for doing what they've done and completing all the tasks that they needed to do even though some sometimes it was uh you know at home in front of a screen and not socializing and getting
143all those skills so they they did a they did a Yan's job and I and I wish them very all all the best in the future um so congratulations to them and to the and to the staff for providing all the uh the needed uh education that um that that was required uh traffic study committee we meeting on June 18th um we had to uh we had to postpone a main meeting because of uh scheduling issues um summer concer series begins on June 28th 7:00 at gazebo uh um we we're holding off on announcing this one band that uh we hope gets to play the first band the first summer concert uh they're trying to get their schedule set up and if they do it's it's going to be a pretty good one so anyway
144that's that's going to happen June 28th and right through to uh August uh 22nd um because we know the school's going to start pretty soon after that so uh and then coming back uh this year um uh Metro West best corn sales and oh good a fundraiser for for Ashland day um so look for the signs it'll be at lucky Farms again very uh very appreciative of uh uh Mr Patel getting all that for us and allowing us to be there again and uh because it's the best con ever and um that's basically all I have to say and there was one there was one student that I that I had heard uh ran track and went to the Nationals look that's it I couldn't remember and congratulations that's awesome totally awesome and Kudos and
145I didn't I didn't see anything in the papers or anything local about that so somebody missed something because that's quite an honor yeah it is absolutely yeah he's an awesome baseball player too and he he because he's just so fast that he he you know quit baseball so he could concentrate on track but yeah don't be surprised if you don't see him in the Olympics right seriously I mean he is fast probably in four years maybe maybe maybe now I don't know he didn't get the speed from his dad I know I know and he didn't CU I coached him and I know it didn't happen but congratulations that's all I have good okay couple things for me so yesterday I attended mpc's annual meeting in Boston uh we heard from the transport no from
146energy and some of the new initiatives that they're working on for clean energy and solar so some things that I may want us to look at to see some of the new programs that they have that could be interesting for us uh opening day of the farmers market is this Saturday so that starts at 9:00 a.m. looking forward to their 14th year 14th year 13th year uh also I attended the reality the reality Fair on Friday it was interesting in the past have always been part of the budget department where we sit and go through the budget and this year there was a student Jessica who graduated in 2018 who created a new booth called Civic engagement and basically talking to students about what it means to be involved we wound up talking to them
147about getting registered to vote and while we were standing there Michael was with in the same booth with Jack Lewis U Mariana from Jack's um office and then Jessica who's from Senator spilka's office and we were chatting like okay so what can we do while we're here and talk to these students and we were able to create a QR code and get it printed out and we probably had 30 students register to vote right then and there so that was just great to to be able to do that and sort of the five of us pull that all together and we were discussing how can we get them engaged even more next year so we're contemplating having actual debates so Jack and I said oh we could you know debate for 2 minutes and have
148them their feedback or see what that's like to hear different sides so we're always thinking about what happens what we can do um how we can engage them even more so obviously as with all the booths sometimes they just step up and make sure they get their signature but we had a lot of students who were really engaged telling us what they thought about Civic engagement and how they could be involved so that was really cool uh so we talked about opening day on Friday June 14th up in Marboro the Metros Regional collaborative is having their legislative breakfast so this is an opportunity and if you don't have if you're not on the mailing list I'll make sure you get invited it's an opportunity to hear from MPC so Lizzie Wyant one of their um
149assistant executive director will be there Leia Robbins part of their government Affairs team will also be there and then our local legislators are there to have a discussion and tell us what's going on uh so that's happening on Friday June 14th uh let's see the other thing also on June 14th this is over in hopkington they start they kick off their Friday Night concert series these are outside these are also free concerts it's on a Friday night and uh they do an offer you know pay what you can kind of thing but they have some really good bands as well so that's just another opportunity to see some live music outside and that is all I have so pretty good Brandy 8:32 not bad maybe 8:34 if there is anything else I do I have
150one thing I want to say okay I forgot to congratulate you and welcome to the board and I look forward I look forward to working with you really do thank you now I'm done now you're done yes I think uh it's this is we actually weren't talking about this but before we got on camera we were talking how this is historic for Ashland in many ways this is the first time that there are four women sitting on the select board we've increased year-over-year over the last three years uh this is also the first time a person of color so it's great to have that on our board and we thank Makita for stepping up and we look forward I personally look forward to what we can accomplish in the next year in supporting uh our
151community and Michael and Jen moving forward yeah and and I just want to thank the people of Ashland for allowing me to step up and uh to be a part of this body and to uh uh serve them and to make history with all of y'all so great with that if I can have a motion to adjourn and a second second great we will see you back here on June 26 that will be our next select board meeting uh enjoy June 19th and hope to see you at the farmer Market any Saturday starting this Saturday uh all those in favor of adjourning I I I thank you all that wraps up this meeting for Wednesday June 5th we will see you back here on the 26 thanks so much for watching e for