ASHLAND TOWN MEETING 7pm

001e e e find a seat welcome and thank you for being here this evening the first order of business is what I call the preliminaries this is where I go through some of the basics and explain how we will operate tonight town meeting is not the comment section a select bard of school committee meeting order as a public forum or a public hearing what tal meeting is is a legislature for the town of Ashland and tonight we are City legislative session together we collectively approve the town budget vote on Capital purchases approve bylaws and more my name is Adam Schuster and I'm the moderator my job as moderator is to serve as the presiding officer of this legislature I believe that part of my job is also to ensure that those here in tenant understand

002what is going on I'll do my best to explain anything out of the ordinary if at any time you have a question about something please ask as there are likely others with the same question I'll be guided in running town meeting by the Third Edition of town meeting time which is published by the Massachusetts moderators Association and generally recognized as the authoritative guide to running Town meetings in Massachusetts joining me in the front of the auditorium are members of the school committee members of the select board members of the finance committee Town Council Lisa Town manager Michael Herbert assistant Town manager Jen ball Finance director Britney yak Pony and APS superintendent Jim Adams with me on stage are town clerk Cindy Livingstone and Deputy town clerk Chris Sullivan this meeting is being broadcast live and

003recorded for later rebroadcast on waca TV welcome to those of us watching to those of you watching when you checked in this evening you received an orange index card it is important that you hang on to this card as you will not be able to vote without it because votes will be counted based on the display of cards non-voters and members of the press May sit anywhere in the auditorium I will generally be able to determine the results of each vote by a simple show of cards in the event I am unable to do so we have tellers that will perform an actual vote count tonight's tellers have already been sworn in please ensure that you have turned all cell phones and other electronic devices to mute if you must take or make a phone

004call during these proceedings please leave the auditorium to do so the warrant that was posted and from which we will be working tonight constitutes a notice or warning to all voters of what we will discuss tonight town meeting can only take action within the scope of an article on the posted warrant similarly any discussion is limited to the scope of the articles on the posted warrant town meeting acts on motions if there isn't a motion before town meeting no action including discussion can take place in order to allow for discussion I will entertain a motion and a second for that motion after each article has been introduced and explained but before discussion commences once a motion has been made and seconded it is subject to amendments from the floor the procedures for amending an article

005are listed at the back of your handbook in the section titled selected town meeting procedures if you have a question or comment during discussion of an article make your way to one of the two microphones and wait to be recognized after being recognized please state your name and address and direct all your remarks to me please keep your comments brief and ensure that they relate directly to the article being discussed if you are unable to get to a microphone please raise your hand and I will have one brought to you when it's your turn to speak to ensure that we are able to hear from the greatest number of people each speaker will be limited to one three minute turn at the microphone during discussion of each article uh frequency limits will not apply during

006discussion of the annual budget but the time limit will if you are responding to a question please do so through me there should be no direct discussion between parties at town meeting all debate is to be conducted in a respectful and courageous manner no comments of a personal nature are to be made Rude Behavior especially shouting bullying and personal tax will not be tolerated and anyone unwilling or unable to comply with this rule will be removed I'd also last that everyone refrain from Applause and similar out outbursts during discussions with 14 articles in the warrant I see no reason that we can't complete our business this evening I'll do my best to keep things moving along but ultimately the length of town meeting is up to all of you in the audience we have some

007announcements this evening May is mental health awareness month despite many recent strides in how our society approaches mental well-being many Americans still don't have access to the highquality comprehensive treatment and care they need in fact the US Surgeon General has called mental health the Public Health crisis of our time across the country during May individuals and organizations will step up to raise awareness of and help address the challenges faced by people living with mental health conditions in ashin Department of prevention and Human Services invites you to learn more about the programs and resources that will be available throughout the month to support mental health including art saves Ashland on May 9th from 4 to 7 here at the high school to celebrate art and mental health for more information visit the town's website Ashlin mass.com

008and search Mental Health Awareness Month 2024 annual Town elections are three weeks from yesterday as always I'm predicting a beautiful day with nothing but Sun skies on May 21st the the date does change every year though I never say always say May 21st I always get the right date so I'd urge everyone to get out and vote and when you do take a neighbor or two with you everyone votes here at the high school and HS are open from 7:00 a.m. till 8:00 p.m. please note that vote by e that passes on to our business for the night article one here toown reports we have two reports tonight first is a report from the school committee and chair laor tosy good evening everybody I'm Lori tosy chair of the school committee sitting here with my

009colleagues and our superintendent and our assistant superintendent here to share with you just a few things about our budget this year um the details of the budget can be found on our website this is just a a condensed version just so you get the gist but please if you want more information do do reach out to me or go on to the website and search for whatever details you uh want more information about who's who's moving the slides thank you um these were a set of guidelines the the process um just briefly early in the school year the administrators superintendent Adams and his entire team principles and um other administrators get together and they have certain guidelines by which they go about making a budget or budget proposals this goes on for several months until

010they find that they have something that they want to present to the school committee we meet with all the members for uh a retreat where we have an opportunity to ask them forther questions and have a better understanding of what's being proposed sometimes we make changes there and then um maybe a month or two after that the school committee votes on the budget so what's presented tonight is the budget that the school committee has voted on um these we always use our mission and our vision and our core values to guide all of our budget decisions we have a new strategic plan um in the Ashland Public Schools which we've worked on for quite some time and again those are all the drivers of our budget decisions next please thank you um the budget request

011the proposed fy2 was $41 million 859 543 that represents a 4.1% increase and on the next slide you'll see the budget changes from the prior year we also we always have changes based on um salary increases and that's usually one of the biggest if not the biggest item in our budget changes um of note and again I'm not going to read everything because you can have an opportunity to get more information and I don't want to take your time tonight but um we are losing some Esser fund grants some funding that came in during the covid years that um helped us with our budgeting um some of that's gone now and we have also um started some new programs uh particularly the 18 to 22y Old special education programs and you can and we've had

012an increase in technology is another example um and increase in student services so that those are just some of the things that have had the most um major impact on our budget student enrollment that is always something that we look at very carefully um superintendent Adams works with uh an agency that evaluates uh budget projections and of course enrollment goes into all different kinds of things how much money we get from the state how much space we have in our buildings how much staff we need and so pretty cons consistently we have had increases in enrollment um an expected increase for next year um and then we also project down the line to have an idea of where our budget's headed um next slide please uh we show this at every town meeting and we

013have this discussion at every budget Workshop that we have and the reason why we share this it shows Ashland at the bottom of a list of per pupil spending uh we've been at the bottom of that list the entire time that I've been a school Committee Member which is now more than a decade and we've probably been there before that as well the good news about that is that um we are not at the bottom of any of these lists when it comes to Performance and quality of life here in uh the ashin school district and a lot of those metrics we are uh nowhere near the bottom um so it shows that we're efficient with the amount of money that we do get on the other hand um we don't get as much money

014as many other towns and there are a lot of other things that we need and that we could be doing if we had the uh additional amount of money and per pupil spending that other communities have next slide please next slide just shows our revolving accounts and um an example would be um the school bus revolving account money comes in from people who are paying for school bus transportation and money goes out to spend on the costs that we need to hire the buses and the drivers and so forth and we've had to take from our revolving accounts we started with a balance of 6.3 million a little bit more than that and we are offsetting the budget at down to 4,771 161 again um dipping into revolving accounts to make up for the loss

015of the Esser funds creation of the new special education program and and one of the reasons why we we show you that is that budgeting in that way a year after year after year is is is not a sustainable thing at some point the revolving account balances are drained and we need to figure out where the money will come to cover our programs um we do always want to share with you the anticipated needs Beyond 2025 um and the list that we share again year after year is not a bells and whistles like wouldn't it be nice if we had all these great new programs it's real needs that we we have right now but that our budget could not accommodate so just as an example um another physical education teacher replacing the turf replacing

016a boiler um and and the list has a lot of other items that are along those lines and um we show you that just to show that what we would be doing if we could have additional funding and also you know the point is that if we had additional funding we would be meeting these needs that are immediate and still not really in a position to um have additional for instance electives at the high school and certain other things that have always been on our wish list so we just want the community to be aware of all that so again as I said um thank you for coming to town meeting I am available to answer your question questions Mr Adams as well anybody on the school committee you can feel free to reach out

017to and thank you for your time and attention thanks Lori Now with an update on projects going on around town we have Town manager Michael Herbert or not patience Adam patience so good evening everybody uh welcome to town meeting um just uh really as I do every annual town meeting I want to give a brief update on some of the infrastructure projects that are happening around town and were previously authorized by town meeting and um I'm pleased to say that this year we've been able to accomplish a lot uh close out a bunch of things um and make some significant progress towards others first um is all of you know or many of you probably know um we successfully opened the Mendes School in August of 2023 um this has been a cination of years

018of work um I want to especially thank um uh Paul Kendall uh who was chair of the school building committee and the school building committee um as a whole for really shepherding this process project and um again getting it getting it opened on time are downtown projects so many of you have seen you know the brick inlays the new sidewalks the lamps um and the new street lights signage uh Landscaping so we call that phase one uh and phase one is now complete uh you'll see some contractors doing a little touch-up work um we saw them do that last week and a little bit next week so our next phase is actually basically making all the underground connections to the buildings um and getting that energized and set in a place where we can actually

019remove the wires from the uh poles and subsequently move remove the poles and at that point the project will be finished in June of last year we successfully opened our public safety building uh just like the Mendes school this is the result of years of um of work planning work and construction uh I I would like to thank uh assistant Town manager Jen ball and the rest of the public safety building committee for uh doing such a great job on this project um it's clear to see as you're going down probably saw it as you were coming to uh uh coming here tonight to to vote participate in town meeting it's a magnificent building and one that we're really proud of and um our public safety personnel certainly deserve this next uh just the Valentine

020barn on 133 West Union Street so that's essentially Route 13 5 um getting close to the community center so last year we embarked on a $1 million renovation uh and restoration of that Barn um that has that was completed in December of 2023 um as the weather gets a little bit warmer we'll be doing some more painting um we got to put some Granite steps in there but um hopefully we can get that open and let the public see it soon it is just a magnificent restoration of um an old 1700s Barn that timber frame Barn that you know some of these pieces of wood you just wouldn't be able to to get anymore so that's been great um next the regional YMCA uh Center so that is planned to be next to the doen

021donuts on Memorial Drive on land that was donated to the YMCA uh they have made significant progress too over the last year uh so first in terms of fundraising uh we or the YMCA was successful in securing a $2.5 million uh donation from math Works uh to basically Kickstart the fundraising and then we were also fortunate to learn that uh Congressman McGovern as well as Senators Warren and Mary were able to secure $5 million for the project through the federal earmark process um so I know the YMCA has been putting together the leaders ship cabinet um looking at doing more fundraising and earlier this week the board the YMCA board approved uh funding to continue and basically finalize engineering and doing some environmental work as well so happy to see that moving forward and then

022uh Pawn Street I think uh well that's still going as you can all tell um so where we are right now in the process is the old telephone poles um the utilities and eversource are removing those wires and then once that is done the old telephone poles will be removed and that will allow us to move forward with the uh basically completing that intersection with Algonquin uh there's some storm water work that needs to be done U which is uh pretty substantial and then also a final pave so um I know I appreciate everybody's patience um I've been stuck in that traffic before it's not it's not pleasant but hopefully we'll get this wrapped up earlier or Mast will get this wrapped up earlier or later this year or early next year so and that

023is it thank you thank you Mike article two fiscal year 2025 budget sponsored by the town manager and finance director to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate from available funds and or transfer from available funds in the treasury such sums of money as are necessary to defay charges and expenses of the Town including debt and interest for the ensuing fiscal year or pass on your Vote or take any your action relative there to start us off on the budget we'll first hear from town manager Michael Herbert again um so I have to apologize in advance this is not look as good as uh Lor's presentation uh looks that sharp but uh hopefully it'll provide some I think much-needed context uh for this year's budget which is really been kind of challenging

024um so first off we we were faced even after you took out um the request the additional request for funding from our department heads we were faced with a pretty substantial budget deficit and we were able to get that down to around 1.2 million and we did that through a variety of ways but it took us some time additionally as we were going through the budget we received some information from the federal government which uh gave us pause in the way that we are using our arpa funds our American Rescue plan act funds and so we had to spend about two or three weeks uh really just trying to come up with an alternative plan on how we were going to handle that to make sure that we didn't lose the millions of dollars that

025was coming to us through the federal government um so if you look at this uh if you look at the total general fund number um that is going up uh 5,142 n50 or 6.75% so it is going it looks like it is going up a lot but if you go up a couple of lines up you'll see capital projects of $2.6 million almost $2.7 million so those are the arpa projects um that we are including this year so that makes up a little more than half of the overall increase and that is so that piece is actually an anomaly um if you look at our our regular budget if you will um that's going up about half that so about $2.5 million and uh an increase on the percentage basis of about 3.35 um if

026you look through obviously if you look through the different um subtotals here the ones that you vote on you'll see a wide variety of um of changes some go up some go down um that is basically because we're you know removing things that you know we don't necessarily need for the company coming year adding things that uh are needed uh but then we also are using revolving funds substantially this year just like the schools are to basically balance our budget and so some of those some departments have those revolving funds and some don't so that's why you're seeing uh such a shift so if you include the Enterprise funds um the total is going up $5.3 million or 5.98% but again that's artificially inflated because of that Capital project number so just to talk a

027little bit about the okay uh to the budget deficit um so again it was pretty substantial this year U it's something we've experienced deficits in previous years and we've utilized a number of methods to address that but this year again it was $1.2 million and there are several reasons for that but the primary reason is that this town has relied on large developments ever since the 1980s to essentially subsidize the tax base what we call New Growth revenue and over the last five or six years we have really adopted what we call like a low or no growth strategy to um which impacts that new growth figure and when I say low or no growth strategy what does that mean well primarily it's been with property purchases so we've uh purchased the Colo property uh

028which was 35 Acres um which could have uh fit several um SE single family homes uh at least 35 but it could have housed a couple of multif family developments which uh can go into the hundreds of units uh same thing with the rail Transit District property which was a little over a 100 acres which we purchased um we purchased Tri Street um which is on the 126 side of town um that was almost 10 acres which which was scheduled to be developed um and then uh we all know that we uh we purchased the Valentine property as uh I showed you earlier uh and that was to basically stop 120 unit development from happening so we're really at a Crossroads uh as a community um when you have a budgetary situation like we do

029or what we call a structural deficit there's only two ways you fix those fairly common sense right you either have to reduce expenses or you raise revenue and so we as a community need to make a determination you know how we're going to approach uh approach this deficit over the coming year um this just shows the graph showing our new growth ever for the last 10 years you will see this cycle um repeat throughout the decades again since the 1980s where the economic cycle nothing gets built um and so we have relatively low growth numbers then you get an economic boom where you see a lot of building that new growth figure came up to $1.3 million um and then like we're still in an economic building boom period but again you're seeing you're not

030seeing um The increased New Growth numbers because again we adopted that slow or no growth policy um some of the additions to the fy2 budget uh include the restoration of two police officers that were reduced from last year's budget um to at the tune of $150,000 um we're including $50,000 in our it budget for permitting software which uh we think the public will find a lot more convenient than our current system um we have $50,000 in the DPW specifically Cemetery parks and trees to handle Landscaping of some of these uh prop properties that we have bought or that we have taken on responsibility and then we've added $50,000 into our facilities Department to help maintain um our buildings and that's especially important with the new buildings that we've brought on um I explained already a

031little bit about arpa projects um and you know these are the arpa projects that were that were funded the Valentine project uh the land acquisition sidewalks turfield replacement and small building small business assistance actually I kind of skipped over just going over this uh this graph which is really really important um so the major budgetary reductions if you look at the bottom half for fy2 um to help make up this deficit or one-time fund uh usage as well so we redirected some of those arpa funds from the Valentine project to the budget deficit and that's about $810,000 um again this is what we call one time Revenue um usage of the overlay Surplus account um at 350,000 and I think the balance is 400,000 left in there um uh the additional shift to the revolving

032funds total 288,000 and then we're taking money out of the special education stabilization fund uh for 250,000 so one of the things that we really try to um what we really try to do here is to use your taxpayer dollars efficiently um and similar to the schools using their per people expenditure metric um we use expenditures per capita as an objective metric uh to look at government spending in efficiency and it's you probably cannot see all the towns or the names of the towns at the bottom but um if you will see here we're actually third from the bottom in terms of efficiency uh so it's about 4 $ 4,474 per capita now this also includes Enterprise funds uh as well so not just the general fund and then we hope that spending translates to

033um a moderate uh average single family tax bill uh so even with a substantial increase this past year Ashland is still you know on the lower half of average tax bills when you compare us to the rest of the region so um understandably uh $8,900 is is significant in substantial if you're living on $24,000 a year in Social Security income but if you look at it compared to the rest of the communities um we're average we're in the bottom half of the average so um and that is it all right thank you Mike as is our custom will now here from Scott wety chair of the finance committee thank you Adam uh my name is Scott wety I'm the chair of the finance committee with me today is John Moore Vice chair of the finance

034committee and other members including Ed Hart Jen Cooney and Chantel cam um and as Adam mentioned we do have one vacancy on the committee so if uh you find yourselves wanting to join us up here twice a year at Spring and fall town meeting please fop a talent Bank form and uh perhaps we'll see at a future meeting so a little bit about the committee we are a volunteer committee um we are not elected we are appointed by the town moderator to three-year terms that expire um at different times and our primary responsibility um are two things number one we are the authorizing body for expenditures from the reserve fund that is something that will be voted on later today as part of the town budget and those are designated funds within the budget set

035aside for Extraordinary expenditures um which I would say historically have been used to finance deficits deficits in the snow and ice operations um throughout um at the end of the year we also consider all articles within the town warrant both fall and spring and make recommendations on those that will have a financial effect on the town um in order to do that um we conduct public meetings periodically uh where we meet with Town officials to understand the financial implications of each of the Articles to the town finances today and the T Town finances into the future when it comes to the annual budget we meet with department heads to understand their detailed budget requests uh and our goal is to understand what they view as necessary to effectively run their departments okay what they present

036to town management and to the finance Comm committee doesn't always make it into the budget um quite frankly there are just not enough revenues to meet those requests as Michael mentioned so to balance the budget decisions are made by Town management um as to what is most necessary in the current budget so when it comes to the town finances overall um I think our view is in the our view is a town is in excellent Financial Health we continue to maintain an uninsured AAA Bond rating and that quite frankly is due to prudent financial management uh of the town over decades um I've been on the committee now for um almost 10 years or about 10 years or so um back to the beginning we established some Financial policies as far as managing um deficits

037and surpluses and how we share them with the schools and the town and I will say that's been working wonderfully over the last decade um and that shows in our bond rating and some of the reserves that we have for things like sped stabilization opep stabiliz stabilization and the overall stabilization fund of the town I mentioned that you know we're interested in you know passing this budget and and hearing what the town has to say about this budget but we're also as keenly interested in you know what we need to do in order for the town to succeed in the future I think Michael did a nice job of summarizing some of the challenges we have into the future um and you know that is something as a committee that we're going to be keenly

038focused on in the coming year and the years Beyond thank you Adam all right thank you Scott voting on the budget is a two-step process first we will review and vote on the Appropriations for each of the various accounts after action has been taken on all the accounts we will vote on the overall budget motion I will start by reading the names of a series of accounts if you have a question or comment on a particular item yell out hold after voting on all unchallenged items we'll go back and discuss any that were held Town manager Central purchasing telecommunications Town Council data processing town clerk elections town meeting board of registrars Human Resources all those in favor of the unchallenged items please raise your cards thank you and opposed P all they all pass Town

039accountant assessor's office Treasurer all those in favor of the unchallenged items please raise your cards thank you and opposed they pass Conservation Commission open space committee planning board inspectional Services Department all those in favor of the unchallenged item please raise your cards thank you and opposed Police Department fire department all those in favor of the unchallenged items please raise your cards thank you and opposed Health Department Council on Aging Recreation veteran services prevention and Human Services Public Library all those in favor of the unchallenged items please raise your cards thank you and opposed public buildings and property maintenance DPW Administration Highway snow and ice removal Highway Street lighting Highway combined fuel cemeteries parks and trees all those in favor of unchallenged items please raise your cards thank you and opposed school department ke Tech Vocational

040School all those in favor of the unchallenged items please raise your cards thank you and opposed debt total debt okay well we'll stay here because it's the only one we're going to talk about right now so mrone do you have a question on De why do they make that so high yeah very high um Julie nardone 86 Elliot Street um so I was reading the um mindes School building committee M minutes which are very thorough and it mentioned in December 23 and January 24 that it seemed like the school uh mindes project was going to be getting if I have this right an extra 5.5 million or 5.5 million would be um something that would be considered um so what I want to know is since it's in here um how is that going to

041affect the portion the portion of the overall Bond that the taxpayers pay versus what the msba pays if I have that right Mr Herbert that's a good question if your mic are on you could answer I was about to say we are now okay there we go um those are good questions Julie um and you're absolutely correct the uh the town in the school district ended up getting an additional $5 million5 .3 million I believe um in additional School building assistance funding thanks to the signifant the important work of Senate President spilka and representative Lewis um so we still have an amount to borrow like you mentioned and so that $5 million will be utilized to offset what we have to borrow so it'll translate into a direct savings to the taxpayer that does the

042$5 million does not mean we're going to increase spending on the whole project by five million so like the think it's 17 that might be left so it's you subtract it yeah I think I think it's going to be significantly less Brit Britany than been 17 million um the Project's still ongoing and so there's still some work doing but I think it was like seven eight million okay stilling yeah and just one more question um that I ask whenever I get up here is the co-payment for the of 750,000 for the public safety building in here again this year yes it's reflected yes okay thank you anything further all those in favor of the debt budget please raise your cards thank you and opposed a quick note before we get to the capital projects line

043the capital projects listed in the handbook are anticipated to be funded under the account of appropriation the appropriation we about to make is not for the individual items listed but rather for the account in total as such the individual items listed are not subject to Amendment capital projects hearing no holds all those in favor please raise your cards thank you and opposed employee retire ironment workers compensation unemployment compensation group health insurance other insurance salary contingency reserve fund all those in favor of the unchallenged Ence please raise your cards thank you and opposed water Enterprise fund sewer Enterprise fund trash collection field management cable access storm water all those in favor of the unchallenged items please raise your cards thank you and opposed we have now approved the individual items of the budget now we need

044to approve the overall funding mechanism for that I'll entertain a motion for the general fund that the following amounts be transferred from the respective accounts EMS revolving $200,000 sale of cemetery lots 3 $30,000 dog licenses $25,000 Recreation revolving $2,976 and the balance be raised in appropriated 76,2 218 for the water Enterprise fund the 3,373 555 be raised to water rates for the Sue Enterprise fund that's $ 6,446 155 be raised through the sewer rates for the rubbish collection Enterprise fund that 1,864 688 be raised through the solid waste rates for the fields management Enterprise fund that $13,988 be raised through fees for field usage for the cable access Enterprise fund that $500,000 be raised through cable franchise fees for the stormwater Enterprise fund that $393,000 761 be raised to the storm water rates and for

045The Economic Development Special Revenue fund the 3 $ 6,710 be appropriated from available meal tax funds do I have to motion all those in favor please raise your cards thank you and opposed and we unanimously have a budget for fy2 article three transfer to opep trust sponsored by the town manager Finance director to see if the town will transfer $350,000 from the opep contribution account to the opep trust trust or pass any or pass any Vote or take any action relative there to the finance committee recommends the town so vote Mr Herbert thank you Mr moderator so OPB is a fancy way of saying retiree health insurance um so it is a liability that we have to carry on our books and so we are in the process of funding that liability and weuse use

046two methods uh first is that we take a portion of our free cash each fall and put that towards the OPB trust fund which is dedicated uh to that liability but then second um we take so each new employee that we bring on um we fund basically their annual liability cost um and we do that through the budget uh through a portion of the health insurance budget so this is transferring that amount to the oped trust to allow discussion I'll entertain a motion the town transferred the sum of $350,000 from opab contribution account 01915 d5170 n to the opep trust account 88100 -49 710 do I have such a motion discussion see none we'll move on to a vote this would require a simple majority all those in favor please raise your cards thank you

047and opposed that passes unanimously article four transfer from special education stabilization to general fund stabilization fund to general fund sponsored by the town manager and finance director to see if the town will transfer $250,000 from the special education stabilization fund to the general fund or pass any your voter taking action relative there to the finance committee recommends the town so vote Mr Herbert thank you Mr moderator um so as mentioned before in the budget presentation um we are utilizing $250,000 uh from the special education stabilization fund for the general fund budget and this money is used to fund outof District special education costs thank you Mr Herbert allow discussion I'll enter hand a motion that the town transfer the sum of $250,000 from the special education stabilization fund to the general fund discussion see now

048will move on to a vote and for th for those folks who have been do attending town meeting for a while um when I tell you we only need a simple majority for this you're going to ask me why so I'll just tell you now back in the day it required a two-thirds majority to put money into a stabilization fund fund and to take money out of a stabilization fund a while back our friends on Beacon Hill said yeah that's too complicated and made it a simple majority to put money in and 2/3 to take it out then is decided that wasn't complicated enough so now you only need a simple majority to take money out of a special purpose stabilization fund which is what the sped fund is so now it will require majority

049don't laugh at me Jackie you the one who voted for it all those in favor please raise your cards thank you and opposed that passes unanimously annual five uh our annual consent article for General items sponsored by the select board to see if the town will vote the following consent articles which I will not read in their entirety grant program authorization Road contracts contracts in excess of three years lease purchase agreements revolving funds Grant easements please note that this article also makes a change to the community center rental revolving fund by renaming it the town building rental fund and all allowing for inclusion in the revolving fund of fees from any Town property that collects rental or use fees the finance committee recommends the town approv Article 5 as set forth in the warrant amend

050the general bylaw section 26-5 da and set the maximum amount that may be spent on revolving funds in subsection five of Article 5 given the routine nature of the items contained within consent articles they are normally voted without discussion as such I will ask for a motion and then move directly to a vote I'll entertain a motion the town approve Article 5 as set forth in the warrant and amend General bylaw section 26-5 da and further that the town set the maximum amount that may be spent on revolving funds in subsection five of Article 5 as follows senior program revolving $25,000 Town building rental $75,000 town of hollist and Animal Control revolving $114,000 Library materials replacement $5,000 hazardous waste revolving $10,000 sidewalk construction fund $50,000 guidance revolving fund $50,000 food inspection programs $20,000 electrical inspections

051and gas inspection revolving fund $150,000 tobacco Pro program revolving $10,000 ambulance revolving $900,000 Recreation revolving $500,000 vaccination clinic revolving $30,000 do I have such a motion uh this will require a two-thirds majority to the approval due to the inclusion of easements all those in favor please raise your cards thank you and opposed that passes unanimously article six the second of our consent articles the annual consent article for Community preservation act items sponsored by the community preservation committee to see the town will vote the following items Community preservation funds fy2 annual Appropriations from FY 25 estimated revenues to Community Committee administrative expenses $553 70 from FY 25 estimated revenues to Historic resources Reserve to community housing reserve and to open space Reserve $15,200 three each and from FY 25 estimated revenues to undesignated budgeted Reserve $736,000

052Oak Street Bond payment to appropriate $140,600 High School athletic fields Bond payment to appropriate $3,475 warm Woods Bond payment to appropriate $151,200 from the following FY 25 CPA Reserve accounts historic Spa resources Reserve $48,500 open space Reserve $ 4,838 undesignated budgeted Reserve $622 please please note that due to scribner's errors error the warrant erroneously refers to FY 2014 CPA Reserve accounts and the amounts were not updated from last year the amounts I read are the correct amounts and are lower than last year Valentine estate to appropriate $ 46,2 186 from the following CPA Reserve accounts open space Reserve $661 undesignated budgeted Reserve $3 39,6 72 pass any Vote or taking any action relative there too the community preservation committee recommends the town so vote the finance committee recommends the town approve the CPC consent article

053as set forth in article 6 as with Article Five due to the routine and recurring nature of this article I will ask for a motion and then move directly to a vote I'll hand I have to enter thank you but I have to ask for the motion first I move the town approve the CPC consent article a set forth in article six do I have such a motion all in favor please raise your cards thank you and opposed that passes unanimously may I help you next one's Community presentation committee uh I'm the chair of the community presentation committee so I didn't know yeah okay just I can't even see from here before we move to article 7 so you're jumping the gun a little bit you didn't know I had this section sorry before we

054move to article 7 I want to First address article 14 the MBTA Community zoning article this topic has been controversial in many other communities and I'm sure there are varying opinions in Ashland no doubt some of you here this evening came to express your views on this article and out of respect for you I want to read this now rather than waiting until later at its meeting on April 25th the planning board voted to keep their public hearing on this matter open to provide more time to actively work on the bylaw changes and at this time has no recommendation to give town meeting Mass General Law requires that all zoning articles must have a planning hear public sorry a public hearing which closes and a recommendation by the planning board in order to be considered

055by town meeting since that hasn't happened town meeting can't consider the article and no action will be taken on it Trisha Kendall chair of the planning board is here to provide a brief explanation of the planning board's action and where the matter goes from here please note that Trisha will be unable to answer any questions and we'll move directly to article 7 at the conclusion of her comments Patricia thank you Mr moderator Patricia Kendall 6 Rebena Road and I am current chair of the planning board in September select board member Joe manani and I along with the town planner and assistant Town planner began work to create a bylaw that satisfied the state's MBTA communities regulation in a way that respected the town of Ashland six weeks ago we had a plan that we felt

056good about though there was some risk to two two unbuilt projects both of which contain 25% affordable units four weeks ago the town received notice that a 40b application was submitted to the state for 10 to 60 Main Street in downtown Ashland a second 40b application has now been submitted for a site near the high school we had not wanted to use and did not use these sites in our proposed bylaw however because of the changed circumstances we are no longer confident that we are providing an m MBTA communities bylaw that is best for Ashland for the state the deadline to pass MBTA Community zoning is December 31st though we worked hard to offer this bylaw at Spring Town Meeting the working group strongly feels it should wait until fall so that we can see

057how the 40b process and other factors that induce risk into our plan will play out over the next six months our working group remains determined to offer Ashlin residents the best possible plan on which to votee thus the bylaw will be presented at fall toown meeting the working group will work the working group will diligently continue its efforts until that time when we have additional forums we strongly encourage you to attend we need to hear your voices if you have questions or comments before that time please contact the planning department and your input will reach the working group thank you thank you Trisha article seven appropriate funds for preserving the library interior painting sponsored by the community preservation committee to see if the town will vote to appropriate $40,000 in community preservation act funds fund

058improvements to paint the interior of the library to preserve the historic Library $4,000 from the undesignated reserve said funds will to be available until December 31st 2026 at which time any unexpended funds will be return to their funding sources or pass any Vote or take any action other action relative there too Community preservation committee recommends the town so vote the finance committee recommends the town so vote Mr lad now I feel like I'm following an elephant in the room after the NBTA thing but that's okay um article 7 uh related to article 6 as you can see from our CPA funds uh in a moment of opportunity uh we are having greater revenues than our expenses and we're paying off our bonds over the next few years so CPA funds are actually growing in reserve

059counts and present a great opportunity for the town uh giving us CH to do projects like the library um it's a CPA funded project from several years ago but the interior first floor main space on the ceiling uh need some paint restoration to match what's there um and a great opportunity to continue the work we're doing at the library but I did just want to comment on the previous article that CPC is paying off our debts uh funds are growing and giving us opportunity to do great projects like this so thank you Mr lad I'll just do a a public shout out that uh maybe next year we could have a report like that under article one we used to what I think town meeting found that useful I'll find some pretty pictures we put

060in scoreboards today over at the middle schools and I think I did the round the town trip today doing the uh TR Brook Trail Riverwalk projects Town Hall they're all great CPC projects that are going on and uh concluding so than that's great but I was referring to actually the balances in the account that's good too yeah to allow discussion on entertain a motion that the town votes to appropriate $40,000 in community preservation act funds to improvements and to paint the interior of the library to preserve the historic Library $40,000 from the undesignated reserve said funds to be available until December 31 2026 at which time any unexpended funds will be returned to their funding sources do I have such a motion discussion seeing none we'll move on to a vote this will require a

061simple majority all those in favor of the motional article 7 please raise your cards thank you and opposed that passes unanimously article 8 authoriz the select board to accept gift of land sponsored by the town manager to see if the town will accept the gift of real property from the hopkington land trust or take any action relative there to the finance committee recommends the town so vote M Greaves thank you thank you Mr moderator this uh is a donation of land that we have to accept the hopkington land trust is an organization that we're actually working with to hold our CR for the Valentine property and as we were speaking with them they have a couple of really small Parcels here in Ashland that they would like to donate to the town so in this

062article we're just looking for your approval to allow the select board to accept that donation as a gift of property thank you Miss Greaves to allow discussion entertain a motion that the town accept a gift of real property for the hopkington land trust shown as town of ashon assessors map 18 lot 0142 to be for conservation purposes and to be under the care and custody and care custody control of the select board and the property shown is town of Ash assessors map 18 L 0067 and map 18 L 0074 and map 18 l010 for General Municipal purposes all the foregoing properties to be under the care capting control the select board and to further authorize the select board to execute any documents to effectuate this transaction to have to motion discussion uh Curtis Hoffman 58

063hildale road do you have any sense of what purpose you might use these Parcels for at this time usage of the parcels my understand oh miss grief sorry I didn't see you before that's okay my understand we are currently just looking at them for open space they're very small Parcels they're not connected in any way so it's just open space thank you seeing no further discussion we'll move to a vote this will require a simple majority all those in favor of the motion on article8 please raise your cards thank you and opposed that passes unanimously article nine reauthorize the fire truck and middle school locker project borrowing sponsored by the town manager and finance director to see at the town will vote to amend the motion taken under article four of the May 4th 2022

064annual town meeting to increase the appropriation for the fire tower truck project and the girls and boys middle school locker room project to determine whether this appropriation shall be raised by borrowing or otherwise or to take any other action relative there to the finance committee recommends the town amend the vote taken under Article 4 of the May 4th 22 annual town meeting to increase the borrowing amount of projects by $264,900 27 that the total appropriation for the capital project be 1,964 n227 cents Mr Herbert thank you Mr moderator um so as this says this is basically um amending a vote that was taken a couple taken a couple of years ago uh in order to purchase uh a tower truck and then also renovate the girls and boys locker rooms at the middle school um

065so a couple of years ago when we first did this we basically crafted language uh that we thought would basically address all the issues that we needed to unfortunately when it passed and we got to bond Council which is essentially the legal team that um you know blesses uh our bonds before we we put them out there we found that uh there was a difference in interpretation than what we had so um so unfortunately we're back here uh a couple of years later and uh we need to increase this appropriation by 264,000 thank you Mr Herbert to all discussion I'll enter hand a motion to town amend the vote taken under article four of the May 4th 2022 annual town meeting to increase the borrowing amount of the projects by $264,900 $7 that the total

066appropriation for the following capital projects be 1, 9649 127 as follows girls and boys locker rooms Middle School $200,000 Firetower truck $1,764 n227 and that to meet this appropriation the treasur is authorized with the approval of the select board to borrow a total amount of $1,700,000 under and personal to General Law chapter 44 section 71 or any other enabl Authority and issue bonds or notes of the Town therefore and to reallocate $264,900 27 cents of excess Bond proceeds previously borrowed from the projects described in the warrant which amounts are no longer needed to pay costs of the projects for which they were initially borrowed council do I need to read those projects excellent do I have a motion discussion seeing none will move to a vote all those in favor of the motion on article

0679 please raise your cards thank you and opposed that passes but not unanimously sorry that I declare a 2/3 requires 23 majority I declare two-thirds majority on that article 10 reauthor public safety building Bond sponsored by the town manager to see if the town will reauthorize the borrow and approve for the construction of the public safety building to include the land acquisition related to the public safety building or pass any Vote or take any action relative there to the finance committee recommends the town so vote Mr Herbert thank you Mr moderator um so this actually references or is in regards to property that surrounds the public safety building um that is owned by the faford corporation um it's a property that the town has interest in for a number of different reasons so first of

068all it would help us provide some additional parking for the public safety building additionally it's been uh identified as a parcel that is critical and important to the uh creation and construction of the upper Charles Trail um and then additionally um it could be used with a lot of site work uh to expand the cemetery if and when U we needed to do that so so I just want to clarify and make sure everybody understands this is not increasing the authorization uh authorization amount at all this is just repurposing the bonds that have already been uh borrowed to include using it for land acquisition thank you Mr Herbert to allow discussion and a motion the town reauthorized the borrow and approve the construction of the public safety building in Article 1 of the January 24th

0692021 special town meeting an article 9 at the special November 28th 2018 town meeting and reauthorized an article two at the December 21st 20221 special town meeting to include land acquisition related to the public safety building do a motion discussion because this relates to baru and this will require two-third majority all those in favor please raise your cards thank you and opposed that passes unanimously article 11 authorized a Wastewater Capital was water treatment Capital project sponsored by the town manager Finance director and director of Public Works C the town will vote to appropriate transfer or otherwise provide $4 million for the engineering design construction and all costs incidental and related thet in order to replace the existing 20 plus year old ozone system at the water treatment PL plant located at 229 house Street or

070take any action relative there to the finance committee recommends the town so vote Mr Herbert thank you Mr moderator um so as this says this is actually to uh authorization to borrow $4 million to replace uh the ozone filtration system that is in our water treatment facility U which is now believe it or not over 20 years old uh so equipment obviously wears down and eventually needs to be uh replaced so this is an expensive uh component but it's a really really important component um as the ozone system is really kind of our Frontline treatment system and filtration system for our water that we distribute out to the community um it uh filters out different contaminants and really it it does a great job of filtering out things that really change the Aesthetics of the

071water like manganese and and other uh other minerals um so it's what provides uh clean drinking water for the community so again we project these costs to be $4 million um we do anticipate that the town of hackington because they utilize some of our water and also share in the costs of our uh operations and actually the construction of the water treatment plant uh they will be uh appropriating $1 million to help pay for this so ultimately we hope the town will only be on the hook for $3 million but we do need to ask for the full authorization thank you Mr Herbert to allow discussion entertain a motion if the town appropriate $4 million for the engineering design construction and all costs incidental and relative related there to in order to replace the existing

07220 plus year old ozone system at the water treatment plant located at 229 house Street and authorize the town Treasurer with the approval of the select board to borrow set a under under and personal to General Law chapter 44 section 71 or any other enabling Authority and to issue bonds or notes of the Town therefore do I have a motion is there any discussion seeing that none we'll move on to vote this involves borrowing and will therefore take a two-thirds majority all those in favor please raise your cards thank you and opposed that passes unanimously article 12 update bylaw demolition delay for historically or architecturally architecturally significant buildings sponsored by the historical commission see if the town will vote to amend section 125 of the general bylaws demolition delay bylaw for historically or architecturally significant

073buildings as indicated in your warrant book or takeing other action relative there too the finance committee defers its recommendation to town meeting Miss gri yes John griid wsha Road I'm member of the historical commission um we're looking for your support for an update to the demo de demo delay bylaw the purpose of the demo delay bylaw is to encourage owners to seek out persons who might be willing to purchase preserve rehabilitate or restore rather than demolish ashlin's historically significant buildings also to allow time to explore economic opportunities which may allow for preservation of the threatened properties is not to prevent demolition next slide please oh sorry currently an owner anticipating a sale of their property with a possibility of demolishing a 70 plus year old building can go through the process if the building is

074determined to be historically significant they can wait out the delay and not have to to come before the the historical commission again next slide please there are two changes we're requesting the next slide please first if the property is sold the new owner must go through the process for current determination second if three years go by with no approved plan the owner will need to go through the process again basically we've added a sunset Clause the hope is that you can support the changes to encourage owners of historically significant properties to seek out opport options that will preserve Asin historical buildings for future Generations thank you thank you alloud discussion and hand a motion the town amend section 125-530 oh sorry thank you for pointing it out I'm ler jar to High Street we live

075and operate Burnham's restaurant with all the talk about buildings at previous meetings there's no mention of the people that live and maintain the buildings my husband has lived 90% of his 71 years in our building through good times and bad during his childhood there were two families of Taris with lots of kids living here we raised two children of our own here there was also a lot of turmoil in the tragic death of a child it will be extremely difficult for him to see this building gone compared to someone who once said I drive by every day and would hate to see that building gone but it's time to go we're both in our 70s and there are health issues he works more than 60 hours a week running a stressful business in maintaining an

076old building and a 2 acre property my work is greater than 50 hours a week the major lesson I learned from a very difficult time in my parents lives was that you must get out of your big old house while you're still physically able to do so so we are counted on the sale of our property to retire and downsize you already have imposed a 12 month away but that's not enough for you yes it would be nice to preserve some of the historical features but we fear you will push for a full restoration that very expensive cost for a developer would have to come out of our sale price we hear all the time that we have a very desirable property but that does not mean valuable to the seller our fear is that

077your increased restrictions and others like the increased cost of new construction proposed with the specialized Str stretch code will drive developers away to other larger properties without historical buildings a situation is very similar to the old fire station Mr Herbert said the value of that combined property was about $1.5 million but any offer to purchase will be nowhere near that because of the cost of renovation there was a lot of optimism for that potential but you were not able to find an interested buyer the RFP process brought interested business owners to tour the property one said the building is too small needs a lot of work the return on investment isn't there another said the cost would be an excess of $2 million to renovate not feasible for any business owner we realize there are

078people in Ashland that would be happy if nothing is ever built here our dilemma when we are no longer able to keep the restaurant going we probably won't be able to afford to live in this building on top of all this our insurance company notified us recently that our fire and liability insurance will not be renewed not from lack of payments our insurance agent said lots of carriers have decided not to ensure older buildings the new Cod I'm I'm to ask you to finish up please expensive one 10 more seconds to all of the residents who own a nice home in Ash you could likely sell it in a month or two maybe even get more than the asking price if you needed to retire or if you suddenly needed to pay the cost of

079a long-term care facility yet you would like to prevent us from having that same opportunity we are outraged that a member of your commission accused us of gaming the system this is no game sir we are fighting for the ability to support ourselves for the final chapter of Our Lives thank you that was my beautiful wife excuse me sir it's I'm going to go to the other side of the auditorium oh I'm sorry but then please step out and we'll call you back if we need you ma'am h Nicole for Elliot Circle uh this change to the bylaw doesn't keep you from selling your property it only keeps you from waiting out a delay bylaw and then letting the uh the person that purchased it buy it with the delay bylaw in place the person

080who buys it can go through the delay bylaw process like you can and they can also see please don't direct your comments to anyone in particular other than me sorry like okay so the the person buying a property in Ashland will be able to go through a delay bylaw process regardless and so it does not it does not indicate that they would not be able to sell their property thank you sir uh Dan jari uh Burnham's Pub host two High Street Ashland I live at uh couple of years ago I decided it's time to retire I had 45 years in running the building but through all the ups and downs of running the business and I approached the historical commission but the reason I did is because I talked to several people in the highest

081and best use of the property would be to develop it it is a good location for something that's not my business I've been run on the uh the pub for a long time uh but the next owner would probably want to develop something so I took the initiative to go to the historical society and put in an application for Demolition and I told them at that point in time I have no plan right now I'm just putting you on notice that there are probably going to be changes at that address and I feel it's best to get it out on the on the uh on the table so that everyone can react now I haven't done anything further other than further look for uh uh opinions on the best way to approach uh either selling

082or or or getting in business some way shape or form or making a deal with the developers often times these these options are these real estate options are based on what they can and can't build and often times you can't come up with the final price until they go through the process of going through the permitting process and uh it's it's a moving Target I don't know I'm trying all of my Equity is in the building so I'm trying to extract everything I can out of it because it's the only thing I got to to to live on as a retirement now I think this this bylaw by expanding it is only going to interfere with it and make it higher as my wife just said my insurance company is not going to renew my

083insurance and the reason given is because it's an old building and all the new by I mean all the new uh laws requiring uh or payoffs for insurance are very expensive for an old building because it's hard to assess exactly what values offer an old building it's just a very difficult position to be in I hope is used to be 9mon delay now it's a 12-month delay I hope this is defeated I would appreciate the uh support from the town's people thank you thank you uh Jim neelsen uh 35 Ramblewood Drive uh I am currently the chair of the historical commission the purpose of this amendment is not to go back and revisit prior properties that have already come before the commission uh is our understanding that those properties will be grandfathered and not affected

084by this amendment the purpose of this amendment is in the future to go ahead and have people come up with a plan before the demolition process takes hold and it's it's a way to increase uh Coop participation between the town and the owner before the property is demolished if the property is deemed significant not every property in National that's over years old will be deemed significant or historically or architecturally uh um something that needs to be preserved um there are many properties that have gone before us already this one um there's a bunch in that area they won't be before this and they won't be affected by this amendment um they're effectively it's like the mill buildings for example we have no control over that that's already been before us and it's already gone so

085it's not going to affect um currently anybody that's already gone through the demolition delay I can't stress that enough this is going forward um this is a way too to try to work to preserve some of the properties not to prevent anybody from selling their property or any of that uh we're not trying to take away anybody's livelihood or or anybody's retirement I just want to make that clear thank you Town Council I was going to can we get an opinion on the the veracity of that statement so Lisa me Town Council Mr moderator I would just like to clear this is a general bylaw so there is no grandfathering under the general bylaw um however the there's no change to the length of time of the of the delay it's still 12 months no

086matter what so um this changes the fact that if the building is turned over the new owner must file for a delay um and then um after three years the the delay that had been approved if it's not used goes away those are the only two changes Miss nardon would someone please lower that microphone so Julie's not breaking her neck yeah thank you right before we leave thank you Paul thanks Paul um historic preservation which is what this is trying to do actually is economic development and I think part of the reason we struggle with our downtown unlike Ren um revitalization unlike some other places is because we've lost a lot of our historic buildings and it's all driven by Believe It or Not people coming down they want to learn about the history of

087the place and see these buildings they can be a lower rent for artists to come in and I think if we continue down this path we're just going to have apartment buildings is everywhere in this town and that's it if that's what you want I don't know thank you Mr Kendall Paul Kendall six reben AER Road I do understand the intent of this uh and I don't uh disagree with the intent of it my my concern is that you it doesn't take into account the typical process for someone like that homeowner that a developer is not going to purchase the property a lot of times before it is permitted so they will go through the permitting process and get it permitted and the sale is pending that but then that will reset the demolition bylaw

088when and so I think this needs to be amended to account for what the Practical process is for these types of developments because they're essentially going to get get a second bite an apple that you've already uh really evaluated and there's no change because the intent was to get a project permit and then uh sell that permitted project and property to that developer that's where a lot of times the value is is a permitted project on a property uh that's what the developers are going to want so I'm I'm a little concerned is that that that's you know I understand the intented it I don't think it's I don't think it's going to operate in the way that uh it's intended and quite frankly I also uh in somewhat relation to this I think more

089time being spent on developing an objective rubric and and way to evaluate these properties because what I've heard from over and over again is uh not a not a clear understanding and and kind of I don't want to call it arbitrary because it's not I don't want to demean what people are doing and their opinions but that it's somewhat arbitrary how something is deemed to be historically s or architecturally significant and things like that so I'd like to see more time spent on that this as it is I understand the intent of it I don't think it's going to work the way or I think it's going be negatively impacting for that typical process for uh how you get a development done so thank you me I believe you've already had a turn to the

090microphone yeah I don't get a second you don't okay uh Joan your presentation doesn't count as a time of the microphone this moderator is a possible to put a substitute Motion in uh if you present it to me in writing I'll be happy to consider it is it Joan is it going to be significant because if it is I'm happy to table this and and move on to after Article 13 to give you a chance take a motion of author to table article 12 until after Article 13 Action 13 is completed all those in favor thank you opposed okay that passes but not unanimously article 12 is tabled until the conclusion of Article 13 Joan um I would encourage you to visit Town Council up front while you're writing so you can make sure any

091changes youve made fit within the framework of the bylaw Article 13 update bylaw accept specialized stretch code sponsored by the sustainability committee see the town will vote to amend section 98.7 sounds like a radio station sorry of the general BW the town of ashin bylaws entitled stretch energy code or take any other any action other relative there to note that due to scrier error the warrant was printed with an incorrect effective date if you look at section B it says September 1st 2023 it should say January 1st 2025 and that'll be corrected by the forthcoming motion the finance committee defers his recommendation to town meeeting Ash thank you Adam um can go to the next SL okay so we we've actually talked about this in a previous town meeting but I just want to um

092highlight again that what we're discussing right now is the specialized code uh the town already operates under the stretch code so the state of Massachusetts has three separate codes and we we really are only focusing on the specialized codes last time we had this discussion there was a lot of confusion about attributes of the stretch code that that were discussed and and those don't apply right now for this article at all it's only the specialized codes if you don't mind moving to the next slide um so what this specialized code does it's one applies only to new constructions so it does not apply for any Renovations of any kind it's purely new construction and it has really three three requirements it says one all new buildings must be either already fully electric or should be

093pre-wired to be electric so that when you're building it while the walls are down you're able to put some wiring in and it's much cheaper uh number two it says that buildings that are planning to use either natural gas coal or any other kind of fossil fuel must include on-site solar but then they provide exemptions where solar is not feasible for example if the lot is a shaded lot uh you don't have to put the solar in and then there are specific requirements for large buildings where if you're a new single family home that's greater than 4,000 square ft that should be all electric or should be certified as a net zero building or if it's a multif family home greater than 12,000 ft that would include commercial property for example those should be certified

094as as as passive houses um so the real purpose behind the specialized code is to really make it simpler to switch towards electrification um we've done a lot of work in town we've adopted a a goal for achieving that Zero by 2040 and buildings constitute the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Ashland uh but we continue to build buildings that are still reliant on fossil f fuels and those buildings are going to last for 50 or 60 years 70 years um and so effectively we're continuing to just dig the hole deeper and so what we are early asking is to adopt a code that has been reviewed has been adopted by a number of other towns in in in the state of Massachusetts and um really start making the shift now so that we

095have some hope of achieving the goal that we set for ourselves if you don't mind going to the next slide um again I'll just reiterate these points um one the code only applies to new construction it has nothing to do with remodeling your existing buildings do not get impacted by the code at all two uh there was a lot of conversation last time about construction costs uh in the last two to three years a lot of data has been collected that suggests that the um the the additional cost of building you know to this stretch code or to the specialized Cod is about 1 to 4% I have had conversations in the last uh few months as we've been talking to a number of stakeholders about um you know what they're really seeing some of

096them are suggesting 5 to 10 but regardless there are a number of um very significant incentives that also come into play and most importantly while the cost may be a little bit higher there's significant payoff because you're really only paying for electricity at that stage um the code is not a band on fossil fuel uh that's something that we've heard a lot of times there are still paths that you can adopt fossil fuels it just requires higher efficiency and then again this solar exemption has uh uh there is an exemption for shed Lots uh ashin has actually been quite good about leveraging our Green community status getting state grants uh there is now a new program called the climate leader that does require adoption of the specialized code um and so it's C certainly our

097hope that that you will vote to do so next slide uh again not going to drain this slide but as as of now there are about 36 communities some of them right uh around us as well that are seriously looking at this Hopkins got their their Town board coming up as well um and so we have spent time in the last year working with the building inspector we brought in thee to hold multiple sessions those have been posted publicly uh we've had uh uh we we've uh presented to the ABA um we've had we've had pretty good good participation from Builders from Architects just explaining what what the code includes and and and to answer questions again those materials are now available to us as training materials as well uh and we do have access

098to additional training if it's needed uh which is one of the reasons why the the the code only starts applying in Jan so it gives us time to transition over um and then the final slide so again it's basically a necessary step to to fight the climate crisis that we have we've made a commitment uh We've made a paper commitment at this stage uh but but we've got actually start taking action towards achieving those goals um it makes new buildings Future Ready by avoiding f future retrofits um reduces the overall operating cost of those buildings it does allow both electric and fossil fuel uh though with fossil fuel you do have to meet a higher efficiency standard and then qualifies the the town for uh additional grants thank you thank you Ash to allow discussion

099I'll ENT hand a motion to the town amend section 98.7 of the general bylaws as outlined in Article 13 with the change in the effective date to January 1st 2025 do have to a motion discussion Mr Hoffman a question if this is adopted will it apply to 40b projects can I um no yeah good thing you didn't say any words o Sony 49 all for this for the new constructions all for because when developers come in they're going to see that we're going to be updating what they want to put in and it's new consruction electricity I'm not going to stay up here for the three minutes I guarantee it I'm saying go forward sustainability make this town go forward as a net zero climate leader and understand that Jen Z behind us will thank

100us for it Glen Travis 35 Franklin Road um I have a lot to say about this particular subject Way Beyond three minutes but I will keep it to two and a half here we go uh I'm the principal of an architectural design company GMT Home Designs I've lived in Ashlin at 35 Franklin Road since 2003 and my design office is located on Pleasant Street near downtown Ashlin we design both homes and Light commercial spaces as both a designer and an Ashlin resident I want to Advocate that as a design company we vote for the opin code for new construction I have personally done a tremendous amount of research on this topic since January 20123 to come to this conclusion since this directly affects the industry that I am passionate about and deeply involved in I

101have relationships with many Architects and designers as well as many Builders and we've had some robust discussions on this very topic this will make Ashlin more sustainable and let us keep our official Green community status here's what it means opting into these stretch goals will require all new homes and commercial buildings to meet higher standards of Energy Efficiency you'll hear a lot about what's called hers rating hers stands for home energy rating system and it's a scale of 1 to 100 where lower is better lower hers rating means the house is more efficient the stretch code requires new homes built today to be about 55% more efficient than a house built in 2006 which honestly is not that long ago the optin hers rating goes down to 45 and 42 respectively now it's at 55

102and 52 depending on the design path to get there an independent study showed that meeting this code adds about 1 to 4% to the initial cost of building a new new home I understand that that's not nothing and could be a bit more but it's a small percentage for a new house and you start saving on your energy bills right from day one the long-term gains in my opinion far outweigh The Upfront costs this code isn't perfect we need the state to provide a bit more clarity to coste effective requirements for additions and renovations to older homes which this is not about that's a separate issue in where there is confusion a year ago that's not what we're talking about here tonight it's specifically for new construction the benefits for all of us here really

103outweigh the concerns in my personal and professional opinion so I encourage everyone tonight to lift up that orange card 10 seconds to spare well done um I'm going to make this tall again that's hi my name is Martha Coleman I'm a resident of 44 Alden Street um I moved to Ashland last June with my partner Ryan he's over there he works at the library um and um since being here I've had the pleasure to be involved in a lot of community organizations in including the newly formed energized Ashland uh group and I've learned a lot about uh what you guys are up to around town locally when it comes to sharing information with your neighbors about how we can move towards climate resilience um I am a a member of the aformentioned Generation Z and

104um as somebody who doesn't plan to have kids much before the 2030s I think that doing this move now and ensuring that we do our utmost to reduce uh the impact that we're having on uh increase fossil fuels in the atmosphere increased climate crisis is really really critical um we know that that as as Ash mentioned that buildings are one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases in Ashland um and because of the commitments we've made to to to reduce to Net Zero by 2040 it really feels like this is not an issue of if we do this but when we do this and I'm just standing up here to say like let's do this now let's do this today let's not wait any longer um to secure that future um for our town and

105and for future Generations thank you thank you did I see someone up there no Trisha Trisha Kendall 6 re Bena Road I want to point out that I'm talking as a resident and not as a member of the planning board first I did want to make one clarification and someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think it's not an automatic no for a 40b project for a 40b project um the the project would have to ask for a waiver from the town bylaws which they can do with everything else um but I don't think it's an automatic L but I just wanted to make that clear anyway so so it's a win the lottery option so we have to win the lottery to get to get the okay now I'll just continue

106with Trisha Kendall resident um in the fall I spoke against adopting this bylaw not because I'm am against sustainability but because I am an architect at that time the updated stretch code was brand new and everyone in the building industry was struggling to understand stand and implement it it felt very unwise to me to jump on board with an additional energy code that was not fully understood 6 months later the stretch code is still difficult for our industry but this is the specialized code in sustainability it is said that the greenest building is the one that is already built any new home or office building requires land Building Materials energy and other resources that could have been saved by not building that building if if however a new home or other building is to be

107built the specialized Cod will work to strongly discourage the use of fossil fuels in them new buildings will be asked to help compensate for the resources they are using by being all electric buildings Net Zero buildings or by using solar panels in high school almost 40 years ago I first heard the phrase think Global act logal and it has been a part of my thoughts ever since Ashlin will not change the course of the world through ad option of this bylaw but we can do our fair share I will be voting yes thank you thank you um I'm Chuck Lids 150 Oregon road I serve as the vice chair of the sustainability committee and I want to just give a very very big picture on this there's a lot of complicated regulations it's I've spent

108tons of time um looking at that with this comes down to is if you think that climate change is a major issue and a major problem we're facing then this is as complicated as it is the best step we can possibly take and I hope everyone will vote for it thank you seeing no further discussion we'll move to a vote on Article 13 this will require a simple majority we'll start with a show of cards all those in favor please raise your cards thank you and opposed Article 13 passes at this point I'll take a motion to bring article 12 back from the table do I have a motion all those in favor bringing article 12 back up please raise your cards thank you and opposed so okay back to article 12 I have a

109substitute MO motion The Substitute motion U if you just follow along in your your warrant book it'll probably be clearer the underlining section B that starts if the building or premises changes ownership the new owner must resubmit dot dot dot the subs motion is that if the building or premises changes ownership without an approval plan the new owner must dot dot dot so it's the insertion of the forw without an approval plan after ownership on the first line of section B is that clear to everyone with the motion Mr moderator um I it's my writing you can't read it's approved past tense a p r o d not without an what I say approval yeah yeah it's your writing of course it is thank you for the clarification without an approved okay uh without an

110approved plan is that clear to everyone what the mo substitute motion is sure let me read the entire revised section B it would Now read if the building or premises changes ownership without an approved plan the new owner must resubmit a request for a demolition permit and the demo delay process will be repeated per chapter 125 okay now that everyone is clear what the motion is do I have a second for that substitute motion okay there's a second for the motion we'll now open discussion on this motion the way this will work is there will be discussion or not of the substitute motion once the discussion is finished or doesn't happen we'll take a vote on The Substitute motion if the substitute motion passes we'll go back to discussion of the article as we normally

111would have if the substitute motion fails we'll go back to discussion of the article as it currently reads did you have a comment Joe I just want to want to make a comment that um Mr Kendall brought up a good point and I think that it was never the historical commission's intent to have someone already have an approved plan and have to come back if it was sold sir rangarajan Krishna morti 59 blue J Lane so in order for this somebody to be able to sell their house they're going to wait wait a year get an approved plan then put the house on the market is that what we saying I I'm not saying anything the the article says that if the building or premises changes ownership without an approved plan I imagine approved plan

112could happen the day after they put the building on the market Council I think the intention is is that if you have a buyer you can come in with the buyer get the plan approved and then move forward or you can have a plan approved ahead of time and so long as the plan stays the same you don't have to wait again but in any case it's going to be a 12 month demo delay correct unless the commission lifts the delay because they've approved your plan okay thank you okay any further discussion on the substitute motion this moderator I just like to clarify that it's not automatic that it's that someone has to go through a 12 month delay they come before the historical commission as Council just said if there's an approved plan and

113and the commission waves the 12 months that there would no be no 12 month delay okay final comment on the substitute motion I I have a question sure Mr can you move closer so I can hear in the microphone thank you my name is Alexis Christopher I live at 435 Captain Ames I just have a question how do you know that you are historically or ar architecturally in the this category that's a good question who would like to answer that question Miss on Friday yes um what happens is if your house is 70 years old or more or the building is 70 years old or more and you want to apply for demo demol demolition permit then you have to come before the historical commission to determine if it's historically significant that means it could

114have the building itself could be historically significant if be could be historical um things that happened in that building um or they can decide that it's either um in too much disrepair to be restored or um they can also help you to find people to help you restore it so I think the answer to the question is there are no objective guidelines it will depend upon the building itself yes it just starts with the 70 years yes there are in fact you you've actually been up before not for this you're right not for the substitute motion I apologize y okay there are yes okay there are in fact guidelines which all historical commissions use based upon the national histar preservation act of 1966 at the federal level there are four criteria some of them is

115gfred mentioned that is it is associated with a particular historic event event with a historic person an architectural style that is unique or the work of a master or likely to yield significant scientific evidence and those are the four criteria which all historic commissions use thank you okay seeing no further discussion we will now take a vote on The Substitute motion all those in favor of the substitute motion please raise your cards thank you and opposed substitute po motion passes The Substitute motion is now the main motion for article 12 is there any further discussion on article 12 seeing no further further discussion on article 12 we'll move to a vote with the substitute motion being the vote motion all those in favor please raise your cards thank you and opposed article 12 passes there

116be no further business I'll entertain a motion to dissolve second all in favor I'll oppos thank you