001e um good evening everyone and welcome to the ashelin select board meeting for March 20th 2024 this meeting is being live streamed on waca TV and is also on the uh Zoom platform form and as chair reserved the right to uh stop any um participants who are in my in my uh opinion disrupting the meeting after uh one warning okay so we will um control of both zoom and in-person participants all right well thank you all so the the first item on our agenda is as usual citizens participation and if people so I see see see Mark do you want to do okay and anyone online there interested in citizens participation I see Joel's raising his thumb all right in his hand okay so um why don't we we yeah I'm not seeing anyone else
002U so therefore I will start with Joel uh on on the on the zoom so you can unmute Joel and um and also just a reminder that we we're using B basically three minutes per person so go ahead Joel are you able to hear me yes thank you uh yesterday at 11:06 PM right here in Ashland spring began and I want to highlight that while it means many different things to many different people for me it means that there will be far more bike riders out on the roads in Ashland and elsewhere and last April a new law went into effect that I want to ensure that we bring to every all the drivers's attention and I hope the select board and the town manager will help advertise this frequently the new law says that
003drivers must provide at least four feet of space when they are passing a bike rider if there's not enough room it means they just have to wait it's not optimal but that's the law the only option they have they don't want to wait is to cross the center line which is now legal even if it's a double yellow Center Line as long as it's safe to do so last January 7th I sent an email to the select board and the town manager highlighting some of the many very good things that were done to improve bicycle safety as part of the downtown Redevelopment project I was very appreciative to see those Chang but I also highlighted that several of the changes that were made I in my view uh have created an increased danger to bike
004riders and I'm asking the board again to follow up with me and others to uh whether they agree with my ideas or not but to at least hear me out on the subject and uh take a careful look at what enhancements could be made uh that's about it I you know I I many of the town that make big bicycle safety enhancements on their Road the busiest day for them of any other time of year is the day after an accident happens that's when they jump on board and really take uh Swift action I hope we don't let that be the motivating force here in Ashland thank you all right thanks Joel okay I'm looking CCE do you want to come up to the podium and thank you CC do at director of Massachusetts for
005safe technology and I appreciate that we've been having the conversation on technology safety here in Ashlin um at the last meeting uh Mr chair you indicated that you would like to have the radio frequency meter to measure your home and that you had been on vacation and I know I still have it officer manani I know you had also been on vacation and indicated that you wanted to research the wireless radiation issue so I'd like to ask if you've taken that time and what it is that you're finding I have to confess that I have not yet done it C so I'm sorry but I'm this week okay I'll do this week I'm going th the way through the report that uh you provided on your uh excellent on your link and uh but it's
006slow because I have had ey surgery and I really can't see too well since that time so everything's a blur so um well please note that in my follow-up email I also sent you a 20 minute video from Dr Kent Chamberlain who's the now chair emeritus of the University of New Hampshire computer and electrical engineering department he served on that commission is appointed by governor sonunu and he developed medical devices for much of his career that was what his expertise was in using radio frequency and he thought it was going to be a slam dunk that of course Wireless must be fine once he was appointed to the commission and began to investigate the peer-reviewed studies now industry will tell you that oh they're cherry-picked they went and did their due diligence they partnered with
007the University of New Hampshire library system and they vetted the science and in that New Hampshire commission report you will find that this is peer-reviewed published highly credible science telling us that our children are in Jeopardy in Ashland Public Schools and one of the items I sent to you in my followup was a 20-minute video of Dr Chamberlain walking you through the New Hampshire commission report and their findings so Joe if your eyes aren't great just stop and listen and thank you yeah Dr Chamberlain slides are provided as well he would gladly join me here to speak with you via Zoom I offered that to Paul Kendall who is heading up the building committee for the Mendes where they put wireless access points on the ceiling of every single classroom and the measurements I took
008there are extremely high High those children are in Jeopardy as are our faculty and staff I went to the board to the meeting last night for the building committee and I gave a three-minute presentation and I asked to be put on the agenda for their next meeting and Paul Kendall replied today that no he will not put me on the agenda so we can't keep passing the buck this is cumulative harm to our child every toxin is more toxic with dose and every day we leave these kids exposed and sit here and scratch our heads as to why we are having anxiety depression suicidal ideation ADD ADHD Alzheimer's this is all documented in the scientific literature so Rob I appreciate that by next week you will have used the radio frequency meter um you know
009I taught your daughter in CCD we are stewards of this Earth and we need our public servants to step up and start this stewardship here I've been talking to you guys about this for almost 10 years now in which time we've only Overexposed our children even more so it's time so if you guys don't step up my next step is to go directly to the parents and this is really bad Optics on you guys because I've gotten feedback from people who watched the last meeting when you said you guys didn't go measure you didn't read the New Hampshire commission report except for Yolanda so the Optics are not looking good let's let see what we can do let's partner together I am a world expert on this topic now so use what I have to
010offer and let's educate the citizens and give them a choice in how to access technology safely we don't want to take anybody's technology but we should not leave our children marinating in electrolution inside of our schools so all right thank you thank you CC back all right thank you right Mark um I see we just have Joel is can we put the Macky can we do a reset so that we don't just have Joel showing but we have everyone oh my bad thank you go ahead am iead yes you're all set Mark you're all set okay Mark 49 hoton Road Mass good spring evening um I'm going to follow up a little bit but I'm asking a different way for technology the um comprehensive plan how can anybody answer because I sent out a um
011email question M about what technology could be landed on it if at all being talked about and I sent out to um our economic director Beth if some areas can have a hope of being in this town and um she said yeah there's always hope so I'm understand for organizational leadership biot Tech all the Sciences medical medical backgrounds and everything instead this just having this town look at it from a what this town is now why can't the town be a future Endowment for people coming through and the elders to be living through a town that has a medical superiority others why can't comprehensive plan have a technology thought that's my question I'll take it I think Mark as we're doing the comprehensive plan we're certainly looking at everything and I think my if I'm
012understanding your comment correctly is how how can we incorporate the discussion of technology in the comprehensive plan as we're looking at the different areas and I would think that as we do it we will look if there is anything technologically related that we need to bring in um if I'm like a said if I'm understanding it correctly from a business perspective certainly if we want more medical here in town we need to um work at having space for medical and I know Beth is always looking to bring new businesses into town and um for that be that was an aim at that but the answer I'm looking for is instead of words can't there be some sort of a direction to put forth to have this town become 2025 viable more than what it is
013now I think that's part of of the plan right what what do people want to see and where um it's going to be part of the plan but as I as I said I think technology will be included in what do people want to see in their downtown do they you know I think it'll be part of the plan okay and last last thing for the town manager is that's my basic thinking that you you I've been known to say to you about the businesses what is what my aim has been for what a couple years now yeah so and with with uh with Beth about businesses having them come in and having shown what this what the town can be and how to be planned for and for this area state colleges with their
014graduates they they take up a lot of that those those plans in the courses and they have inter ship hopefully in this town they can take them in to go forward with that's it all right thanks Mar all right anyone else for Citizens participation before we go into our agenda items I don't see any hands raised okay um all right so our first presentation is uh on the water sewer Capital needs and potential discussion vote on various Enterprise funds to with the um uh uh uh water sewer and uh uh trash fees um and bag fees which are okay so I will and I think we talked about uh Dan and Becca doing their presentation first on the um because we I I like to think it might be a little quicker than the following
015discussion on all the rates but uh uh hope so come on up and thank you for doing this and I understand while you guys are setting up that it was a tour of the water treatment plan that Dan LED and I think you two were there and I'm not sure Claudia Brandy I missed it but uh be good to hear about what you saw there it was very educational and I think the first time I had been in the plant was probably a year or two after it was opened when I was a school Committee Member so to see the status of our facility in that short of time time it's understandable why we are having this discussion about some of these Capital needs go ahead Dan whenever you're ready all right good evening everybody
016thank you for having us um just going to run through hopefully a quick slideshow here for you just for people watching Dan Mah is the water superintendent correct that's your title did I get it right very general Foreman superintendent and you're joined here by Becca Becca Navaro and she's a town engineer she's our water and sewer engineer oh she's not going to be the town engineer okay keep her for water sewer okay sorry to interrupt go ahead we took me a long time to get her so don't take her away just yet so nope let's see there we go space bar space bar gotcha so basically this is just a quick slide giving you a quick overview uh of all the different projects that we have and I kind of go into a little bit
017more detail on all these you know throughout the slideshow um but this just gives you an idea of of uh what we're looking at uh as we move forward so we'll start out with uh the ozone replacement is uh one of the big items that we're we're facing right now uh you can see some of the photographs here of the ozone this is in the Water Treatment Plant uh the ozone system you can see some of the pictures show that it's starting to deteriorate there's some uh on the left lower corner is a repair clamp that had to be put on the stainless steel pipe uh because it was actually leaking there's a few repair clamps that are throughout the system um there is some active leaking on it uh during the tour you can
018see they could see where the the staining on these tanks from where it had been the water had been leeching out of the vessels so these are the contact vessels that so the ozone systems like the the teeth you know that's the the first part of the the water treatment plant this is what knocks out all the pathogens all the iron and maganese um and gets the process going uh so with this that's where a bigger part of our our water quality comes from um some of the effects of it is the stainless steel the the just the natural the way ozone works it's attacking the the stainless steel and it burns the carbon out of it which is causing the little pinhole leaks um then just the the the treatment plant was built in
019back in 2000 so life expectancy of the plant and some of these items within the plant is about 20 years so we're about 22 23 years out of it at this point so uh another part of it here is uh the top left is our ska system that's a a supervisory control and data acquisition system this is what actually controls the plant and all of our stations this talks directly to our computers this will give us call outs uh during the night time when things aren't staffed so if we have an issue with this with the treatment plant or any of the stations throughout the town um this lets us know what's going on with everything uh with the you know 14 different stations that we have in town um it also is continuously monitoring
020when the treatment plan is running it's uh continuously monitoring all the water quality different monitors throughout this throughout the treatment plant uh you also gives us remote access 24/7 so we can dial in on our phones or computers and see what's going on uh this also is part of the you know cyber security now that's being mandated through the DP so to we have to make sure that we keep these systems upgraded uh to to stay within compliance so this is getting into our water main Replacements um um 60 to 70% of our our distribution system is a transite or asbest cement pipe uh was came out in the uh 1940 to 1970s is when it was installed typically uh with a 50-year life expand uh life expectancy uh with the service Taps there's a
021saddle that goes on then you do the service tab typically we either have a failure at the Joint where the picture shows you where the joint failed or we have a failure at the service tab where that saddle pops off um so over the years in the treatment plant we have four high lift pumps to fill up the tanks within our system and because the system's so fragile now we have to run one pump at a lower rate and fill the tanks very slowly uh otherwise we'll cause water breaks throughout the town so with that comes added cost because we have to run the treatment plant long ER so you have longer run times longer uh energy use and everything else right now we we run the plant typically about 3 days filling the tanks
022and then we have a 24 to 48 hour period that where it shuts down and we use the water out of our storage tanks and we're typically we're seeing about two to three uh failures a month right now average throughout the year usually the summer it's like a Friday at 2:30 but um this is our short list where we kind of compiled we have we had a Master Study done with uh engineering firm Haley Ward that help us put together a 20-year plan for all the different Replacements that we should do throughout town this is kind of our short list of what we're looking at in the near future um so these are kind of our top projects um so the engineering is complete for all these so these are basically once you decide whether
023you're not want to fund the projects these are ready to hit the street and and get construction going this is our water meter replacement program um so throughout town obviously all our services we have about 7,000 Services throughout Town people have anything from regular demestic meter to irrigation meter um we found we have some unregistered meters uh that were coming across when we're doing uh surveys or or replacing meters we deal with the the leaks which then re reach into a baits where we try to help the residents if they had a problem with a toilet running or something like that or you can see where the spet on the side of the house exploded in the cold and causes a big Iceberg on the side of the house uh obviously meteor meteor accuracy wow
024sorry I couldn't tell what that picture was until you said it was so that was a spet on the side of the house that it burst and it just the water from spraying it just froze and just created a nice quite a nice ice sculpture yeah but uh meter accuracy is really important I mean that this is our revenue for for our Enterprise fund so it's important to keep these meters replaced and and keep the uh billing accurate and uh move away from try and get away from some of the estimated Billings and uh the last picture shows unfortunately a part where we have some theft where somebody had actually put a bypass around the meter um and then they had valves where they could throttle it so they would only get charged so much
025the rest of it would bypass around the meter so these are the things that we're dealing with yeah wow yeah and the the I have to say the meter replacement process is not difficult so I think ours was done I don't know like two or three years ago so it's typically it's not sometimes it's challenging depending on where they put the meter sometimes we come across where it's hard piped which means they didn't use the proper fittings so then they have to have a plumber come back or it's behind a wall in a finished basement yeah or yeah a water heater or something like that got in the way stair under stairs we'll keep moving on uh our tank program uh this is a picture of uh this Cedar Street tank so the Cedar Street
026tank was uh built in 1968 has 2.6 million gallons capacity we inspect it and clean it 3 to 5 years and you can see from the pictures here on the outside obviously the Coatings are starting to fail but also on the inside there's a ceramic coating and that's starting to fail as well so instead of going the 5 years we're going the three years we're going to have it inspected just to see how far we can continue to push this out but as you can tell from the pictures it's starting to be in pretty rough shape and we we need to address it what was the life expectancy you're saying it was built in 1968 1968 so as long as they're maintained prop ly they'll last a long long time when they have the inspection
027done they do they have a a way to measure the thickness of the gauge of the metal to make sure that the Metal's not deteriorating to cause fatigue where it could have a failure so okay our other tank is the uh the Woodridge tank that was built in 1989 that's a concrete tank so it's a little bit different it's a 4.3 million gallons um this is this tank we have actually valve that we can control through our ska system uh to be able to fill the Cedar Street tank um with both Tanks online we can't facilitate one and the other so we're able to control that um again this is on the 3 to 5 year where we're cleaning them but you can see the spalling and checking on the the concrete on the outside
028uh and again this will be inspected again this year to see where we're at with this but it has some graffiti on it post 911 uh when we do our sanitary survey every three years they recommended that we put a fence up around this so um I didn't want to push to have it painted until we get a fence around it so that we don't paint it and get graffiti back on it again before uh we have a chance to to secure it so is that on the cap is that on the capital list put fencing around it or it is okay for when what year um we actually we had some funding to do it uh this this past year so okay we're we're working on that this is our new uh Independence Lane
029Pump Station uh just to show you what what they look like when they're nice and brand new this was put online in the uh summer 2022 uh this has the you know vfd drives with all the ska controls the vfd drive is basically a drive that can be controlled similar like uh your your uh dimmer switch for your light you can start it slowly and you can Crank It Up make it go faster um so that it's a variable rate um so that gives you an idea of what the station looks like when they're new and then the next slide shows our ledgemere station um which is one of our older stations off of Bay Colony Road uh it was scheduled to be decommissioned years ago uh when we did the bracket Road and the
030bramingham um connection when they redid it so part of the MW agreement we in order to increase our capacity we have to do more work in framing him so that's a whole different uh animal so whether or not we're going to do a treatment facility in town look for look for alternative methods to deal with uh getting rid of our Wastewater but uh you can see the station's just it's deteriorating needs it needs help and that one's on the capital plan to be replaced to be replaced so one point you going to decommission it but it's going to be replaced as part of the m a agreement they they'd like us to to get rid of it but this station takes the flow from the Pawn Street side of town and skips it over to
031Chestnut Street yeah if we get rid of that station all that flow goes through Bracket Road and we don't have the capacity and framing up to do that right now so this is waste water not this is waste water correct we don't have the capacity to go through framing him through the bracket Road station right now in order to increase that we'd have to do I I don't know what the exact number is but it's millions of dollars worth infrastructure work and framing him to be able to increase that capacity and get rid of that station so I don't see the station going away anytime soon and there's work being done there now right passed it on the way here Bay Colony yes so as part of the uh 501 Pawn Street project uh that
032was faford property faford back in the day was supposed to connect that to uh the main line so we can go to Bracket Road it was never finished so it's part of the agreement for that 501 Pond Street they finishing that connection now oh they are so which will be good because that gives us a fail safe on that if that station never fails um we're not going to have an SSO it'll go gravity right to to Bracket Road to save us from having Wastewater discharge all over the place yeah this just gives you an idea of the this is basically mimic the water side of the capital overview it's the sewer side of it um so we' obviously split it the costs that are are uh both shared with water and sewer so the
033skate upgrades because that's a it's a shared system uh the inii program so the inii program is the next piece coming up um that we're working on right now that's for uh basically storm water removal out of the sewer system because we we're paying for storm water to go through the sewer uh so we're trying to obviously remove that uh that that is funded through 75% through the MW 25% we end up paying for so we're in pretty good shape with that uh and we're working on that right now um but again that's just to make sure we're not paying to have storm water treated as sewer this is just a quick comparison um that MD does they put out a rate comparison throughout the towns so you can see with the water piece of
034it we're we're very low we're on the very low side unfortunately on the sewer side we're we're one of the higher ones that's due to the Framingham charge um you know we kind of refer to it as the Framingham hostage feed but that we use it is the our sewer has to transport through framing 's pipes so they charge us unfortunately just about as much as the MW does to treat our sewer so if there's a way that we could mitigate that it would certainly be a huge savings so a treatment facility plant would work I'm sorry a sewer treatment facility plant would work certainly would because the money we pay Framingham is the money we could possibly put into the payments of the building absolutely you you'd pay for it real quick I think
035I said that about 10 years ago I think I think that's a whole other discussion the waste wastewater treatment and how we're going to handle it questions yeah thank are you at the end of your presentation D okay some questions thank you I did see um well I guess as I think you're just saying we saw that large item of $10 million in capital for water is that a sewage treatment plant so I guess at some point we're not dealing with that tonight are the rates cor with that okay that's more for the alternative what we have to figure out a way to to we're either going to have to spend money in Framingham to increase our capacity we're going to have to do our own treatment plant or do our own connection to MW
036to try and mitigate those those sewer costs and I would think a $10 is a $10 million is more more of a direct mwa connection right because a wastewater treatment plant 10 years ago we were hearing 20 30 million so D's kind of a placeholder more more so probably realistically is going to be the framing Hy doing the work in Framingham to upgrade that um but then we pay through directly to frame we're we're then paying Framingham to be able to use their service can still right we' have well that would be able to increase our capacity so then we wouldn't have to worry about doing a sewer more atorium to you know stop building and stuff like that I guess the question I would have and and certainly not something in the near term
037but at some point can we look at I know we've talked about potential connecting directly with the MW for our um for our sewer so through potentially Southborough what would that cost look like what would increasing our capacity through Framingham and continue to pay through Framingham look like and then what would it be to do our own wastewater treatment plant and again it's I know it's one of those things that obviously a wastewater treatment plant would probably be more expensive shortterm but long term would it be beneficial so I think it would be good to I'm not sure that s BR option to connect for MW they are for water but I don't believe they are for sewer oh they are they are sewer they don't have sewer yeah they don't have sewer they don't
038have sewer no so our only option is framing him is only framing him yeah unfortunately okay I think Doug has already done some preliminary work looking at at the direct connection and um Doug admirably I think tried to get the MW to see if they would pay for it um and uh not surprisingly they declined imagine that so um I was gonna say is why is why is Doug here is he does he have a speech prepared as well Doug always has a speech prepared just in case Doug is had a presentation at 8:50 oh okay want to get it straight oh thanks so he wears many hats here okay well and he overse I would think there isn't water is under our public works department so correct sure um while we were on that
039I I did notice and I could talk about it when um when Britney gets her presentation but she did have kind of a placeholder for the Framingham cost and a question about what it was going to be and I guess last year it was 800,000 and this year's she's budgeting the usual amount but I was going to ask can we find out or do we can we get projections like why is it kind of an unknown number it's usually done in re essentially is that accurate usually they send us an estimated what what they project our our sewer capacities to be so they give us an idea how much it's going to be and then what the actuals are they'll discount that if we overpaid so our final payment they'll discount the final payment that's
040for the sewage we're sending through right correct okay the problem is is like when we have the the water storms we have the big I ey spikes oh right that's that kicks up our gallonage really high so it it gives us them a false number that they kind of calculate their their numbers off of given how much rain we have if we have a lot of rain it enters the Wastewater system all of a sudden Bracket Road and Chestnut Street are Surge and they they're just pumping a huge amount of volume in one day all the extra water um and they look at those little spikes and they kind of average that out and that that kind of hurts us with our estimated Valu so this might not be a question for you but maybe
041for Doug do we have a long-term plan in regards to replacing all of our pipes that are being impacted by inii we're doing an aggressive inii program right now right but so but do we have a like do we know what we've done do we know what's next and do we have a plan to so that we we could put out to the public okay this is our plan to get everything updated in the next 3 years 5 years seven I mean how long is it going to take us so right now we we did a a a pilot program where we put sensors in the in the manholes and it reads how much water is going through there during certain times of the day uh then Haley Ward analyzed that we came back and
042a couple years ago did smoke testing and that shows where you have connections or or places where the water could penetrate into the system and then this year we're working on doing the repairs facilitating all those repairs and that's where the MD pays 75% of that and we're on the hook for 25% of that so that's uh going out to bid well no I I I know that we've been doing the work I guess my question is you know do we know what needs to be repaired how much needs to be repaired yes and do we have a plan to get it done and is it going to be one year two year or five years to complete all the work four years yeah go ahead so um the stuff that Dan just talked about
043that was kind of like the preliminary Identify some of the repairs that to be so this year we're going to put out to bid phase one of um and if phase one goes smoothly we might be able to kind of merge some of the other phases together because phase one was our largest kind of area with identified issues um but part of phase one is also doing some more inspection to identify further issues that may be there okay so this is kind of going to be our pilot year of really going through to fix the issues um and depending on how that goes it's going to kind of set us up for the next three or four years so but but so there is a potential plan in place and it's looking at 3 to
044four years yes perfect and is this under the storm water part of things or is this what this is through sewer okay and and in the inii program as much as we have a dedicated four-year plan it's an ongoing thing because infrastructure fails all the time right so it's it's an ongoing program that we just have something you didn't identify breaks then you're going to go fix that first obviously because we don't want to leak or it goes anything from manhole covers in the street that are cracked or broken or not sealed properly and you get a puddle around it and you know that that's the source of ini I as well all right well well thank you Dan there's no other I don't know if uh brandy or Claudia have any questions Brandy did
045go ahead if you want to is she unmuted yep now we can go ahead okay um so first of all thank you Dan um you know I was part of the the walkth through of the water treatment plant with with with Dan and Jeff um last week and and it was my first time through and I think you know as a resident you just automatically assume that the water that comes out of your TAP is is is clean and and um in good shape but you don't really think about sort of the process behind it um and so for me it was it it was very clear just how sort of scientific and how how much we rely on technology and all these components to be able to ensure that our residents have have clean
046drinking water and so um so first of all I just wanted to to say thank you for for all the work that you guys do to to ensure that because it's it's it's probably without doubt one of the most important things that that we can provide for residents without without even um people really kind of realizing it so um that's the first thing so you know I was looking through some of the backup um that we got in our packets for for the meeting and I just had a question about the Cedar Street tank and what what year you think that it's going to be um needing to be you know um painted and and and serviced I know you said that they're looking to do an inspection but I think I I had a
047question about like what year it was supposed to hit on on our like um I think we had like a three or four year plan and I wasn't sure if it was because it's I think the estimate was like 1.7 million I believe and wasn't sure if that was going going to be planned for FY 26 or FY 27 or if it's still like to be to be determined we were still kind of to be determined depending on how that inspection report comes out uh in all honesty we were hoping to be able to kick it out you know four to five years with everything that we have going on I mean we're we weren't expecting that the water treatment plant to need this this amount of work to be done to it and you
048know we we do need to get going on at least least start the process of replacing some of the water mains and getting some of this infrastructure up the date so um if we can push it off you know we'll push it off but only if it makes sense and only if the report says that you know it's safe to do so and I know at our last meeting we talked a little bit about the ozone replacement and just so how how crucial that component is to to having um clean drinking water and so um I know that that that is sort of like your first priority to to get that um that replaced and and kind of up to Snuff and um and then obviously the sort of like the longer term plan with
049with the water mains and um some of the other upgrades that that need to happen um so you know I know I've been on the board five years and we really haven't done any as far as I know like major infrastructure um investments into our water sewer um and it sounds like you know this is sort of the time that we we really need to to make sure that we we invest in the system um so from from your perspective you know this this is sort of a I know we were kind of talking about the the sewer um you know the question down the road of how we are going to handle that but um from an infrastructure standpoint you know this is I think it's important to kind of have a have a
050you know to to um to Yolanda's point to make sure that we um communic unicate out sort of the long-term um plan for for all the infrastructure investment because it is it is it's just it's it's such an important component of of of what needs to happen and I think people don't think about that nearly enough and I know I haven't up until up until this year so um you know the more information we have the better great so so the one thing I can add to that uh for you Brandy is that the the ozone system is our like I said it's it's the teeth of the plan uh that that is a our first hardcore source of of removal all these contaminants every year there's more contaminants coming up right now the big
051scare is the posos um we're fortunate we have very little we have trace of it in our raw water we have zero of it coming out of our finished water in our plant so um and then that's the ozone and the and the GAC filters working together to do that if the ozone fails and we have to go to plan B you know the plan B is going to put a lot more wear and tear on the filters a lot more wear and tear on the of the plant and you're not going to get the quality of the water that you're you're receiving now um so just uh add to that and and as far as the Wastewater alternative I just think it's important to keep that up front and just keep discussing it me
052you know obviously it's a big number and you try and figure it out but as long as you you stay aware of it and not kind of tuck it in the back room and say well we can't do anything with that just you know see if there is something we can do all right thanks Dan um just one last thing as Joe said I remember when I was probably my first first year on the board maybe yeah first year we started having a discussion about Wastewater and what we were going to do we had a really good presentation and did other things have you know sort of bubbled up as to what were priorities so I think we're at the point where we need to start see speaking seriously about what we're going to do
053now we talked about using the uh the Gil scull Camp as a leeching b the leaching field you know so I mean that's how far the the discussions had gone to why bought it right that's one of the reasons why we bought it you know and where we have you know water lines right right right on all the street I mean that water could be put right into that system type of deal you know so to speak to your point too is we have the aggregate property coming up soon too correct that correct was a joint process The Joint process and there are other towns that could possibly utilize that plant as well to help pay for that down the road one thing we got yeah one of the things we got to remember first
054of all is we need to get D approval approval no I me I mean all that's number one so number two the other thing we have to think about is it's not just the treatment facility itself you got to get the sewage there right so course you know you got to look at replacing piping um adding piping to get it there yeah adding piping uh pump stations you know all just just a question Dan you mentioned aggregate sorry to interrupt but uh yeah and I remember there's a rest did you say it's coming it's going to be in our hands soon or how is that 2027 or 28 yeah the timing is pretty good sounds so thanks Dan and thanks for that presentation um I think we're all understanding the need for good infrastructure when
055it comes to water and and Sewer for that matter and storm drains uh so I'm I'm presuming and from looking at the capital plan that it's Incorporated in the material that Britney's bringing to us tonight so um that's and that's we'll be discussing that so thank you Dan and thank you Becca for that um so I guess are we ready for Britney in the presentation I think it'll take about five minutes right is that what you were thinking 15 20 minutes all right let's just so just um just a process question um how do people want to so she's got three major areas to talk about right so we're talking we're going to start with the trash and uh the trash fees and that'll revisit that discussion and then I believe we're going to do
056sewer and then water um so I think I'm going to suggest as Britney goes through the presentation if people have clarifying or quick questions it's probably good to ask ask questions along the way yeah and then we'll wait for discussion I guess the question I would ask do we want to take each of these in turn as she goes or wait for the end and then talk about all three at once what what are we thinking here would be and and and Brandy speak up and if if Claudia is you know in terms of I think we'll have some detailed questions for each one so I don't know I'm just throwing out the idea do we want to deal with the rate issue all together at the end or just talk about each one as
057she finishes each each major area I think it would make sense to speak about each one as we go through it and then then at the end we can try to at the end see what we got y so go ahead Britney so you're going to do uh trash just in the the same order you sent it to us trash and then water and first water and sewer all the visuals are in your mind right now yeah okay very good we just start with water and sewer okay go ahead this is a very quick presentation for water and soore most of the data is in the memos um updated data from um when they were previously done and also just that we all know um Claudia won't be asking questions because she's not in a
058private area where she can do that so she's listening but she can't actively thank you for that and I do want to say this is a very thorough and detailed presentation with a lot of information so thank you Brittney for that it's a lot to go through I think you know you tried to cover all the bases with a lot of information so certainly appreciate that yeah the memos are very detailed the the slides are it would be a lot if I put the memo in in a slide format but okay can just one last thing can we make sure that all this information gets put you know after our meeting today even though it might be draft gets posted up so that people who are listening and watching can find this detail it's up
059it's up right is it all up there already okay perfect and we've been doing that right we've been posting the backup which I think is excellent so great thank you sewer okay so we can start on sewer how do I go back I don't know how to back all right we'll start with sore so fy2 revenues were projected to be obviously a little bit less than um expenses so the deficit for FY 25 for sore is approximately 418,000 so as you can see below that these are the projected deficits for sewer in subsequent years for 5year forecast get this and this is a current rates this is at current rates yes so this was just a a quick analysis on the next 5 years incorporating in all of the capital needs for sewer with exception
060of an alternative plan for Wastewater um so all the capital needs and the developments that are proposed in the memo um current other Revenue usage so this is what I would propose for rate increases over the next 5 years um to meet our expenditures so fy2 I'm recommending a 3% increase um that would generate about 175,000 in revenue and then also using retained earnings of 245 so the dollar impact to a rate pay would be approximately $27 and then going forward you can see the impact um on future years as to what it would be so 27 and 28 we would this would be annual okay thank y why would you not recommend a smaller increase 27 and 28 so we don't have to do as large of an increase in 29 well 29 is
061only a 1% increase so I didn't really think that was but drastic that being said I think I think we have to maybe relook at that Britney just because I don't think we want to get in a situation where we're currently in where we haven't done rate increases and we have a big one due yeah I mean we can certainly do 2% increases every year whether we need it that year or not just so there there's not a 4% increase in one year because the sore Bic everyone knows has a greater impact on the on the build and water does so for this Enterprise fund that's why I was recommending the hybrid approach for using retained earnings and a rating increase um to get to where we need to be okay Britney just um what
062what's the retained you had is it 2 million or 4 million to retained revenue for in sewer yeah let me double check one it is about 2 million okay all right um Britney um quick question for you I was just looking through through the memo um and the the 2024 um Framingham assessment ended up being lower than we expected or or however you know so when we when we build out for 2024 did that take that into account or did extra go into retained earnings or how did that work so extra would have gone into retained earnings but if we had any Revenue shortfalls that year we would have absorbed those Savings in FY 24 um also in previous years I was able to get a preliminary estimate from framing cam usually in January or
063February um they've had some turnover there and I'm not able to really get the information I used to be able to obtain in Prior years um and then also looking just at the trend there really there is no Trend it's it's all it's up it's down and I thought for forecasting sake just being level would be better for rate setting purposes instead of one year to 800,000 and then oh great FY 26 we need to budget for 1.5 million you know what do you what do you do you'll use half our retained earnings and a massive rate increase so I think using just a flat um a flat number would be I think that makes sense advantageous yeah abely we should hopefully we get clarification on that sorry Brandy go ahead okay no I just
064wanted to kind of just talk a little bit about because I don't I don't know if we've maybe we have so if I if we have I apologize but I think it's it's it's worth just kind of mentioning um sort of I I Know Dan had kind of raised it too but like we the the whole IDE the whole um Financial arrangement with Framingham for for sewer um you know and we we pay quite a bit to them which is why sewer is so much higher than than water um you know I don't know Britney or Michael if you guys want to just give a just a a 30 second background as to why why that rate is so high and why we why we pay that much to Framingham just for background for folks
065just very briefly um at one point the town was paying Framingham $5,000 um for that charge uh Framingham in the early 2000s wanted to raise that to 50,000 uh the town of ashin didn't think that was fair and denied paying that and so it ended up being litigated and going through an administrative hearing through the Department of Public Utilities um and unfortunately we lost that and now we have to pay like a percentage of the of the flow fees as well as a percentage of like capital projects as well so that's why it's so high and that is not a little close to a million it's a little over a million um and then you because you got to factor in because of the Herbert Street um that's part of the IMA or it's not
066named after me folks um just want to make that clear um that's part of it as well so I think in total it's probably like 1.2.1 that's what yeah at the highest it's been 1.4 but you're saying it goes up and down it goes up and down right every year it seems and it's based upon their in areas they look at prior year so if we had a new development coming on this year it's not going to get captured until a year or two later um so I would anticipate that 24 I would anticipate 25 going up we just don't have the the assessment yet okay any more questions on sewer or do you want to stay on SE well it's go go back yeah I don't know how to go back oh boy um
067I did Britney you did um so this does include uh some use of some retained Revenue right what it was the number something we have 45 of rain okay so we have of course a lot more than that but I know you're recommending we don't use it um I guess I want to push it that a little bit because what is it you're concerned about keeping such a large balance when we I'm mainly concerned about any future capital projects and with the Wastewater alternative not being known will want all the rechain earnings we can have for the future so that that's a major unknown doing this type of forecast but we're also cap we're budgeting our capital projects so how much retained well we do have Debt Service too for capital projects it's not just
068pay as you go it's we have Debt Service as well right so that's part of the budget I guess what I'm saying retained earnings are you know they're they're basically we don't have a current use for them if we're not budgeting them we we're keeping them against a rainy day I guess it's and I guess the the question is for us as elected officials what do we want to do charge people and through their rates or spend this really what is revenue Surplus from La past years and my you know that's the way I been kind of looking at it so I know you I know it's good to be conservative and keep those cushions but we're also like how much do we want to ask people to pay versus if we already have the
069funds how much of that we want to use and I think it is good that you put some of it in here and and used it I guess the question is how much and you know yeah so there is on page eight there the capital projects are on page eight what was it page eight so for sewer page seven and yeah page eight yeah yeah I mean I can I can just add a little bit I think there's two well three actually knowns that could you know catch up with us pretty quickly um and you know one is the the framy ham and the MW assessments right I mean those could be who knows with a really rainy you know year that we just had if if that's going to be extremely high and we're
070going to see a spike more towards like the you're going to call a mayor and fix it if that we'll fix we'll fix that the other thing is I mean we do have some very very old um infrastructure in certain places and you know you look at the ledge Mir and although we've got some planned upgrades you saw just from the pictures just the kind of condition it's in you know what if something happens um to that that's a little bit more catastrophic is probably a strong word but I'll use that term catastrophic in nature and we need to do something quickly you know retained earnings would give us a little bit more of a cushion to do that that stuff but I totally understand what you're what you're saying I don't know where that
071sweet spot is well I guess you know I think about our other Financial policies right we say we want to have an x amount in our rainy day fund is there a policy or maybe not that we have but is there a good basis to say okay you want to have X amount in your retained earnings based on the size of your sewer and water departments or your town or I mean is there something out there that gives us a guideline as to what should what we should be holding in our retained earnings based on what our community does for water and sewer yeah it's it's not clear guidance and then they always have this caveat it's Town Bytown basis right depending upon your Capital plan so again the the alternative to the Wastewater um
072you know that that's a huge project and just looking at the retained earnings I mean we only had 400,000 484 th000 just a few years ago right so we've been able to build it up right um through obviously rate increases and we've had Savings in certain certain areas but it must have been through savings cuz we haven't done a large amount of rate we had some we've had vacancies in certain areas so that we had turn Backs from salaries lines or um maybe some projects weren't able to be done um due to just resources Resource Staffing okay um so we've had turn backs due to that so I wouldn't anticipate there being any turn backs if these projects are really be able can get underway we wouldn't be adding to retained earnings right and one
073thing just to so you're recommending option four a 3% increase for this year which is Y which should be an average impact of about $27 a year is that correct an increase okay so I'm looking I'm periodically trying to look at Brandy to see if she wants to say something so um well further discussion or question appreciate that sure no I think for me that answers my sewer questions so yeah I guess I guess my only question is like I I um because looking through the retained earnings I I you know I I I feel like I if if if we can safely utilize a little bit more the retained earnings and take that dollar increase down a little bit I I just I would I would feel better if we could minimize the impact
074to to Residents because you know we're talking about like the so you know my my my stance is the the water the water stuff we need because we need we need the infrastructure investment now um the sewers the sewer stuff is a little less um like I I I get that that we have a shortfall that we have to meet but it's it's it's um it just if it it seems like the if we could utilize a little bit more retained earnings and decrease the impact to to Residents a little bit more I would feel I would feel like that was a a a you know a better a better decision for for us if we can do that because it is going to be a major water investment that we're going to have to
075do this year so something like option three Brandy which brings the average increase down below $20 is that is that kind of what you're thinking with a little more yeah yeah sorry I'm trying to I'm like working on like one screen trying to look between the back yeah yeah and and to the point we're looking at three different funds here tonight so all with different requests so um especially if you're have two years where you're not increasing it you know to do a planket right across the board so that way the years that you're expecting to be higher if you're to lower it at least you you can smooth bring smooth it out and yeah like you were saying about a plateau going directly right across at least you have an idea what your what
076your fist costs are going to be without any anticipated you know catastrophes that come down the road which is why we have the retained earing set aside for that I think if it's more consistent it's better more consistent absolutely and it plan and it's easier to plan uh for individual homeowners to realize what their what their bill is going to be or have an estimated uh bill with respect to that instead of you know up and down type of deal and that would be and I would be all for something like that okay are we ready to move on to the water presentation so just so just to clarify so we're looking at and I don't have the scenario three in front of me it's right here so okay so 2% 2% about s $18
077average but what does that do then for our out outlying like so are we looking 2% this year but increase retained energy I understand that it would be 2% and then retained earnings this year of 300 but if we're looking to even it out could we then say Okay instead of the 3% and the 4% increase next year do we do another 2% increase next year and do and even that out over the next few years you could do yeah two two two two right you could do that so you know and then you know and then as as we you know obviously we still have the retained earnings if we then if we need to use retained earnings we can but we're doing we know that it's going to be a 2% increase every
078year for the next four years and then in year in 29 we can do a 1% increase and at that point I would think we Haven it figured out what we're going to do with our waste water right in five years from now we we might not be doing anything but I would think that in five years we should be able to put a plan in place you'll have a bit of hold on it right the only thing I would and I won't be I won't be here with you folks next year when you but you can be on the other side yeah right I'll be complaining um but I would you know you may want to think about setting it for this year and then using that additional data to think about what to
079do next year I'm just sometimes it's good to look at both right so go with the go with the scenario three the 2% and the 300 from retained earnings with the possible thought of okay and not next year at this time when we're looking at the budget but maybe in the fall we have a more detailed discussion about what we need to be doing with some of these budgets and not during budget season when all of a sudden it's well we have to make a decision to make our budget for 25 just something to think about and you see the use too and again right well so I I usually do it I mean I would like to do these presentations sooner more in February or or late January because I do look at the
080usage from the previous calendar year so I use I utilize the most recent usage that I can I could start looking at on a fiscal year basis so there's a little bit more time to compile data um but end of January will be my and of course that changes with the respect to growth it changes with well it with growth but it's all it would all be factored into the analysis that's done in the memo prepared for you okay so we we'll look at the two% and the 300 in retained earnings look at that okay ready for water are you ready for water good question I am okay there so quick question for you guys um I know Claudia is not in a position to take a vote so but we would have to take
081a vote on on these these rates are we looking to vote at our next meeting I think so I think at this point it would make sense to wait and vote at our first meeting in April at least that way Britney can you know we can give her an idea of what we're looking at and then if that works for you I mean I I know you'd love one today so you can finalize these things but I think hopefully we'll give you some guidance I think yeah yeah yeah I I think I think you can come and lay a clear picture for us without necessarily having to to okay so moving on to water again we're expecting a deficit of about 476 for fy2 the subsequent years have been projected out based on assumptions and
082so forth um so these deficits obviously a little bit larger than sewer so like the sewer Enterprise fund this was just a quick analysis as to what a rate increase would look like um over the next five years to cover the capital projects and operating budget um going forward but not all the capital right not the big ones nope this would include the the big does this include the ozone it is because we would borrow for the ozone so the 21% would cover the principal and interest payments for the borrowing for the borrowing not a separate bar okay right right so it would be included principal and interest payments would be included in the budget now for the next 20 years okay um whatever capital is in that year okay um the Memo's been updated
083just to reflect if we're able to kick out that water tank another year depends on the inspection um and then this the increase was projected at 25 and it went down a little bit to 21% with um hopton's $1 million coming in um so this would be about a $50 impact a year for water at the 21% Michael am I wrong this is just hopkington going to get out but they guaranteed us that 1 million for this year what happens after this year that year is over with are we we have to find another way per amount dollar amount you know cover that million dollars that we were getting from hington because that would be an budget correct well that so I believe that million dollars is part of their town meeting yeah I believe
084that they're going to town meeting for a request for the million dollars already that's for hington I'm talking about like once that year is over with then we have that what I needed thank you if hington decides to tie in with the MW and not use our water are you talking we're we're shy of a million dollars because we were looking forward to getting anticipating that million well the the million is is a little bit separate than the operational cost but Joe you bring up a good point because if the town of hopkington no longer needs to use our wells cuz right now currently they pay 20 25% of the operating cost based on how much they draw you know if that goes away you know presumably you're not drawing as much water so you're
085not you you know putting as much wear and tear on the plant and everything but that's in theory I think in practicality and reality we would have to make up that revenue or a portion of that Revenue somehow okay we would lose about $240 to $250,000 a year okay so that's something we would have to make up some shape of form either through rate increase or our own water usage and it goes that way but if we have another rainy season like we had last year you know it's it's a catch 22 because we're not using the water but we're not generating Revenue as a result of it right we need the perfect season is what we need they just continue that cost and so our our cost for to run the plant would go
086down okay wouldn't actually be we would be losing that 250 but we wouldn't beend because we're not creating yeah so for those it would be on a one toone basis I think oh gotta I think so just just for the audience at home the super the water superintendent danmar is just pointing out that the operating cost should we stop servicing hopin operating cost will decrease a bit but not as much as our additional cost but it will be offset a bit okay thank you sorry you can come on up Doug if you like it's real quick okay but Joe just use the word guaranteed about the million dollars just so it's clear it's it's their portion of the project it's approximately million it could be 900 1.1 whatever 20 25% of what whatever what that
087money but that money would be guaranteed as a result of the and what's the retain Revenue in the water fund right now uh is it 2 million as well it's around million you put it in here I'm just not seeing it um sorry yeah it's about 2 million 2 million so we have another it's on page fair amount of retained Revenue available in this one as well okay Y and Britney just reminder Britney's original request and presentation was um I think a 25% increase um which I think was a $60 increase if I remember correctly um sorry I'm still looking this uh Brandy did you have anything you want to say or questions I'm just trying to go through all the all the back up in the notes um right there's a lot and I
088while you're while you're thinking it just you know just to note that Britney did put a pretty detailed um all the developments coming online and their various contribu ution to the revenue which is very helpful so thank you go ahead Brandy yeah I'm just trying to find where in the packet it is I'm sorry everything is kind of um because I did have some questions about um the sorry like no we're all the same we're all good trying to get through sorry I'm still waiting through sewer you know a lot of information yeah so I know that there was something in here about the like the billing tier I believe um and if I remember correctly like we had talked about usage had had gone down with water is that correct the average usage yes
089yes has gone down okay so um do we think that that's do we think that that's like a trend that's going to continue or do we think that that's pretty much leveled off at this point like from do we think that the the the revenue um shortfall that we're looking at is that that you know we're going to we that basically that we will actually um meet those numbers if that makes sense I'm sorry I'm trying to like dig here I'm hoping they meet the numbers for fy2 24 it'll it'll kind of come down to the summertime again and whether or not we're in a drought or it's a rainy season I tried using an average of of the user um usage over I look at a calend year basis so I look at calendar
090year 20 what we in what year is it 23 did I look at yeah January to December of 23 in order to put this together then I also compare it to Prior years just to see where we're at it's it's a little tough to to see where the usage is coming from it could be developments I know we've had developments come online um there also factors with the weather that play into it as well I'm hoping that we'll see a little bit more in Revenue it won't be that much more um but it it all comes down to the summertime yeah yeah well and and also you know just in general like um we were kind of talking about this the other day um when we were talking to Dan at the the water treatment
091plant and you know I I always hear from people who have like families that have higher usage um and complain about like the higher rates that that you know if you use more water you you pay you pay a higher rate for some of that water um so you know I always I always think like you know you know we need to put out some educa I I always like want to try to get people to use less water right um which probably doesn't help from a budgeting standpoint but from it makes me feel like we're getting more information out there but um but I do feel like you know if if we can help educate people about how to lower their water bills um we might actually you know maybe maybe people can um
092you know help themselves a little bit more too even though that the you know even if we need to increase the the rate of the water so I just wanted to put that out there because I think I think it's an important component to to um to water usage as well so yeah um thanks thanks for pointing that out I'd kind of for I'd forgotten about that so um Britany so you know you have your scenarios here but the rate increased 5% through 21% in the average bill how does how did you how did you work the tiers into that that data so the the tiers are included into a a large workbook that I have um I don't think I have so if so if we're saying you know you raise it 21% in
093the average average bill is going to be $353 right how does that you average the tiers somehow to come up with that yeah so attachment C on the memo it breaks down you input all the usage per tier and it breaks down what the average person would use so all right so this is some sort of average tier use yeah this is an average bill an average so it takes what the average person would would utilize great okay thank you and that's yeah I think that's the best you know for an imperfect world I mean that's I mean we're not going to be able to say to every single person this is what your bill is going to be no it's uh sorry and and as we all know that households are changing on a
094regular basis one one year you have four people in your house and the next year you have two and sometimes it's consistent or not consistent so Britney just I apologize if you went through this but she laid out these options so there's one through five and the options are 5% through 21% and their basic is the basic variable how much retained earnings is being utilized right so that's right it starts we could go as low as 5% and use 485,000 of retained earnings in in the 21% is at zero use of retained earnings in line with Britney's feeling that we shouldn't be using retained earnings so well so this 21% would only cover fix will get 25 or yeah I think yeah and then 26 we be looking at another 16% increase so if you
095want to talk about smoothing out the rate increase over the next five years as well I don't the averages of these increases but so there's there's 2 million I think at one point you said there's 2 million retained ear you talking about 997 yeah so if you use say 500,000 a year it lasts for four years we'll wipe ourselves out okay all right other other things about the water fund what are thoughts thinking about how to approach this I I think the 20 I think you know the 21% is certainly better than the 25% um I I I agree with for this one not using the retained earnings I mean unless we used a little bit like I'm looking at scenario 4 if we did a 20% increase I was trying to be mindful with
096the sewer knowing that that that has a larger impact on the taxpayer so I was I was more mindful on on the sewer using more retained earnings um water has a less of an impact yeah but still an impact Joe or brandy well BR you I mean Britney thank you um you just almost answered my question because you said if you don't use the retained earnings it's you know it's a plus but you know I I feel like we're taxing the people to keep you know uh a savings account uh for the future and that's not what the Enterprise fund is actually based for I mean it's for emergencies things that come up and and they keep you know the the balance of a of a water bill to be you know palatable to people
097um and again 21% in one year is that's it's I mean I like the idea when we talked about the sewer rates to keep it flat I mean this is now now we're doing Peaks and valleys again and and and it goes against what you were talking about with the sewers so if there's if there's a way we could keep that that Plateau right across the board I mean I would be in favor of that and I don't know what that figure would be within the 5 years that you have here between the 5% and the 21% but I mean I I I would feel more comfortable going something in between and using some of those retained earnings St I've set that sure that that deficit if anyone has their phone on them and wants
098to average it out yeah let's let's Brandy anything else on the water before we tackle the trash fees and yeah the the only thing I the only thing I have a question on is so you know the retained earnings for for water we have a lot of capital that we need to like an infrastructure issues that we could potentially um that that's gonna that I think I think that's going to be sort of like the big the big thing for water like we have all these all these capital projects on the on the horizon that we need to to do um the idea of you know I mean I don't want to I hate raising water rates on anyone at all but um I feel like if we don't if if we don't kind of
099have a mind to to use those retained earnings for you know unplanned water main breaks or um you know if we do have to to do the the Cedar Street um water tower you know there's going to be a lot that's that's potentially um interesting I don't I I I feel like I I feel like the the um the use for those retained earnings is much closer on the water side than it is on the sewer side if that makes sense so you know I I worry about you know spending down the retained earnings too much so you asked if someone had a calculator Claudia is watching and listening if we did 11% M um to even it out over the five years I um I don't think we'd have enough retained yeah I think
100we would because if we're using if you're looking at this chart with 10% we would be using 375 11% it you know probably a little bit higher or I mean a little bit less 10% but Claudia had the similar question that I did is like how do you determine what you want in your retained earnings right like I said for our rainy day fund for the state for the town we our goal was I think 10% of our budget we want in a rainy day fund should something happen and maybe that's something we need to look at okay looking at what our potential Capital costs are what should our retained earnings be in these Enterprise funds as well in regards to what we want to use I mean to to everyone's point right our our
101rate payers are paying in based on their usage but obviously our costs are not as much as what they're using otherwise we wouldn't have retained earnings so how can we find a balance there to have retained earnings to do some of these bigger projects but also not make as large a hit on an annual basis with our rate increases so in terms of are you are you guys suggesting that this is something we should take on as part of this process or think about for the future or I I I mean you set the base now I think we you know we look at it for this cycle but again like I just said a little while ago don't wait until January or February to have this discussion right look at at our Capital stuff
102and what our needs are and try to and I don't know if we'd be able to meet like a fall time frame because that's your end of year for you um Mid July to probably the end of September yeah I'm not saying exactly the fall I'm just saying that I feel like we're we're sitting here and it's one of those things right it's not until you sit through this a couple times you go oh yeah it really you know and when we're not having to raise rates right it's like okay this is our r okay it's all okay let's just keep moving forward but when you start having to raise rates certainly these amounts you start going oh wait a minute is this really how we should be looking at it that's all right so
103I just want to point out though for sore and water though there's so many assumptions built in if you do a fiveyear like a 2% right that's assuming that the developments are going to come online of course and so forth and and the inflation is not going to go out of control again so there's are there are a lot of assumptions built into it right I think there's inherently a lot of variables here' done a great job of trying to incorporate but they are variables and that's where I go back to you know looking at this every year and seeing where we're at and and adjustments but anyway okay yeah because I mean that's a good point I mean we're in this situation with the trash fund so we expected certain amount of Revenue coming
104in right and we didn't get it even with the increase in bag bag fees we didn't see we didn't see the revenue we expected we may see it not yet not yet we still have some time uh anything else Brandy before we push on to everybody's favorite subject P thr what direction do we want to give Britney well do we want to do that now or wait till one thing I'm thinking we have three different things and maybe we should look at them Al together in terms of impact and what we want to well I don't know that Britney's going to be able to give us the full impact right like right now no I mean us like if I'm if we say are we going to raise all these or are we going to
105maybe say I mean I'm I'm going to make a push not a push but I'm going to suggest that we look at these all three together and their impact people so right now right we said okay instead of the 3% for sewer we're going to do 2% okay that's an average of $176 68 for water and I don't know if you did this one as well and I'm not finding it right right now you're saying 21% M and that's about $50.2 per person okay well what if we go to 20% we we understand what we'd use for retained earnings but what would that be right per per did you I would you know I would push for a lower something break you the 15% like what would the per so the average bill you mean
106yeah average I could calculate it I didn't calculate that one I only calculated the uh 20 21% so 21 So 20% it would go up $49 excuse me 48 um and then on if 15% it would go up 30 okay so 35 excuse me 35 35 if we did 15% okay okay but that if you do 15% you're using 250 right 250 in retained earnings which to me is like I don't I would even go lower than that but um that's where I want to look at all three together and what we're you know what we're putting you know moving to do and but that now for water so we have no we 50 $502 for 21% about $41 for 20% and $35 for 15% okay yeah okay okay and then now we can go
107to trash trash okay go ahead and whoever is waiting we apologize this conversation is obviously taking longer than we expected but it's an important one happen there we go is um yeah everyone who who is supposed to be here at 8 and 8:20 are here so oh yes we here we here for 850 so was trash first yes in the packet yes it was so if well these guys are getting ready so um I'm just looking at her you know just a little we did increase uh the flat fee and the bag fee last last year by 50% and 40% we had a lot of discussion about that um and now I think just a let me know when you're ready Brit okay I'm ready okay go ahead all right so yes last year we
108increased the the flat fee by 50% and the bag fee by 40% um this was enough Revenue just to cover the FY 24 deficit so we we knew that we were going to have to relook at this um this year so the FY 25 revenues and expenses we're looking got a deficit of approximately 100,000 for FY 25 mhm wow it's going to be a fun commute home um is something going on wind wow very wind yeah so the next five year of deficits are you can see on the uh slide um so the forecast assumptions we're looking at a 3% cost of living wages 4% increase in the trash removal cost each year so that 4% um is factored in throughout the uh remainder of the 5 years but the contract ends in FY 27
109so the 4% is a placeholder for 28 and 29 yep I can't see move this there we go so for fy2 the proposal would be to increase the flat fee by 15% and the senior rate by 10% the increase for the regular rate payers would correlate to a $31 increase in the flat fee annually annually okay and for senors that would correlate to an $11 increase so combined this would generate about 158,000 for the town and that's the flat fee and that's the flat fee okay so this was requested at the prior meeting was reviewing the tonnage I think maybe by Brandy or are you Yanda um so in reviewing this year's Revenue FY 24 the first 6 months it looks like we're on track to collect about $100,000 less than what we budgeted and
110and looking at the tonnage tonnage did go down the first 4 months and it appeared that recycling did go up not percentage per percentage but then the tonnage goes up drastically November December January February just very recent data yes this is very this data is very is this year fresh and it Compares it Compares it data yeah it Compares it till last year so I don't know how how many bags people bought last year to get them through this year but I would anticipate they're being they're going to run out soon yes a a correlation in the increase in the bag sales I just don't know when that's going to hit all right it could be um the next 6 months of this fiscal year 24 it could be next year I don't know but
111it it seems as though we might be six months to a year behind every single year with the B just a that's just observation of people's behavior is very hard to right analyze um anything there so with that said I am I am optimistic that the bag fee will go up it's just a matter of when um so I would re bag Revenue I was going to say optimistic that the Fiel go up I don't know that we want to be optimistic about that the bag cost I'm hoping that sales will go up a little bit um so I would recommend increasing it by 15% um for FY 25 now I just want to say if if at the end of FY 24 it really does come in a lot lower than what we anticipated
112or budgeted I would probably come back before you to increase the flat fee um to cover that for next year for for next year I would probably visit you sometime in September or October so we would adjust it through in the middle of the year the flat fee so and we're going to stay with the two Billings um I'm not sure yeah we just have to coordinate with our treasure collector on because I saw your data on that and the back that we're only at I think you said 85% for the first Bill yes and that went out yeah I I think there's a little bit of lag time when people pay which is which is typical yeah but I think that now that there's two installments people might take their time a little bit
113and paying the second Bill and that can go into the next fiscal year which will throw off all kinds of things kind of it up you know it's it's it's a timing thing more than anything yeah all right Randy um thoughts on this and yeah and trash or um yeah no I I appreciated the the data on the the tonnage because I think that really is um important information and um because I was wondering whether or not people were just throwing out less trash or if people were doing the uh hoarding bag thing and I I think we have our answer to that um so when I was looking at the different scenarios and the different percentages and things like that I was trying to kind of come up with something that was and I
114ran out of time be honest I was trying to do this today um you know I know you're proposing a 15% increase in the flat fee um for households and then 10% for seniors um and you know I know that um you know we do try to to keep keep the feed is lower for seniors um I know I mentioned it would be great to be able to do something that's more based on income versus versus age I know that's probably a nightmare to to um to manage and and administer but um you know at some point it would be good to kind of know if that is even a possibility at some point I know it's not for this fiscal year so I I totally get that um I would I was trying to
115figure out if we decreased the from 15% to something like 12% and did the same for seniors so instead of 15 and 10 we did something like 12 and 12 if we would um make up the the um if we would be able to to um to come up with a revenue for the deficit and I don't I didn't get to the point where I could make that totally work but that's kind of what I was thinking was something a little bit l less than 15% for um for everyone basically because I I think I I know there's not enough senior households to make up for the um there's a lot less of them than than the regular households but I do think I I would I would want to do something that's that's that
116has parity across the board for everybody um but that's just my my perspective you know I I'll I'll throw something out here as we're um get it okay no no one got it um Doug thought it was funny at least I you have to ask people if they got your joke Rob I know it's bad um so uh the one thing I I I do want to I want to introduce this idea that um you know we looked at these last year and looking at these three major funds my my suggestion is because we're looking at a couple things tonnages going up um which to me indicates one there's a revenue Source from the bags but also that people maybe should be thinking about recycling a little more and we should be thinking about how
117to encourage them to do that also we looked at this last year and did a fairly Hefty increase and I think your deficit that you're projecting was what about over a 100 thou just a bit over 100,000 for FY 25 so this increase would cover the next three years yeah so um so the other thing I'm proposing is we think about one year and review cuz we just did this one and that we just why don't we just raise the bag fees by your 15% which gets us what 880,000 or 100,000 I'm not opposed to the back fees so that the the flat fees would generate enough Revenue to cover the FY 25 deficit and if the bag Revenue came in or didn't come in it wouldn't impact your job is to be conservative make
118sure we have the money I'm looking at a little differently cuz I'm looking at the public undergoing a lot of inflation stress and I'm trying to figure out how we can minimize our impact on that so I I certainly appreciate your position but one I I think one of the things we're looking at across the board increases here one of the things we should think about rubbish just increase the bag fee give people the incentive to not throw things out to recycle more and see how that works next year we'll probably I think your projections alone from bag fees will cover the projected deficit right next year I think that will collect the bag fees that I budgeted for this year into next year yeah but we won't collect enough bag fees for what we
119budget or increase the bag fees for 25 I don't think that will yeah I think if if we increase the bag fees by what she's recommending don't increase the flat fee I don't think we're going to generate enough income to cover our costs based on what Britney told us theoretically if people are buying the bags right if they buying the bags they're buying the bags but based upon based upon the data but I thought your projection for the bag fee increase was around 80 to 100,000 880,000 to 100,000 is that yes that's that's assuming that people buy the Bago starting July 1st yeah which yeah right so it's it's a bit of a there's nothing certain about it but I'm not sure it has to be certain because we have retained Revenue so let's if
120and worst comes to worst we spend some of that I'm just looking at the big picture here and you know price yeah you do have some retained Revenue in in trash right the other thing you got to think about also is if you increase the back piece um 15% that's what BR is Project 15% but that's what she's requesting if you if you want to look at increasing it more let's just say at some point yeah so one of the things you've got to be concerned about is illegal dumping right and that's why I'm not I'm saying that and I'm maybe it shouldn't be 50 maybe it should be 10% but I think Britney's deciding that 15% is a kind of and I tend to agree is an increase but it's not going to it's
121not going to throw people off that much um we're likely to they're likely to continue to buy so the additional the additional cost Brandy I mean Britney I'm sorry that you uh provided us that's a 15% increase uh for the large and small Flex bags and that generates a total of 11 16,21 and that'll take care of the deficit just for this particular year if we collect all of if we collect collect it if understand and I get that um but that doesn't leave anything for the following year no no so recommend this recommendation covers the next three years um so 15% each year prior I mean each year after no there's a hold on let me go to last SL it would cover the deficits through FY 27 okay and then the next increase
122wouldn't be until FY 28 and 29 so this 15% will take care of right up until right and the and the bag increase will take us through the end of FY 27 and you've also got and we we're looking at a year or two I guess Gap in terms of developments and their housing developments which is what you did but after two or three years we're starting to see Revenue coming in for most of these developments right so we got a bit of a gap to cover so that that's what I was going to ask Michael uh like one 101 Main Street I mean uh chestn Street they don't do their own uh trash collections it'll be town collected no they would do their own okay so we we're not generating any interest I mean
123any any money from them not for trash but we also aren't generating any expense right there's no or anything like that right okay all right that's one thing and um you know so we support the condo communities with trash service but they're starting to opt out I think um interesting yeah was at a joint Association condo community's meeting last night and one of the things that they said is that they had just a couple of the you know that's like four different associations I think two of them voted to you know do their own trash service just because it's more convenient for them um so if Doug that's probably new information to you because I just found that out last night yeah well they voted for it so so that will affect our revenues but
124again it would also then impact loing the Tipping fees right we would gain the Tipping fees because we're not generating a tonage correct okay any any well so in terms of this so we're we're running a bit late uh how much more discussion or things do we want to talk about for these three things in terms of next next meeting I think we have information but I'd like to take a little more time and go through some more of this sure on my own yeah okay um you know it's interesting Brandy you said 12% and 12% and that was in Britney's documents as well oh it was yeah there was something about a 12% increase in your doc in the documents CU I'm like oh that's interesting that she said 12% um oh that was
125for FY 28 oh okay oh yeah never mind I thought it was all 5% SC right do you want to give us a dollar amount like for a total increase for all those well we're talking about trying to add all these right like how much do we want to add to people's you know do we think they can afford $100 do we additional do we you know where are we at you mean for all three together for all three together that's interesting right well that's what we were talking about right yeah so I don't know I I still think for the trash we should just increase the bag fees by 15% and leave it alone and then the others the um if I'm remembering um uh the water was that was that that was the
126one with the big increase but it's correct not a I would you know I think we should look at least for the next year use of these retained revenues to offset a chunk of that I think we talked about going down to what um and then claudus are you in touch with Claudia yeah she and I have been yeah does she want to unmute and say something no she can't she and she's now gone she had to jump off so so one thing question do we have retained earnings at all on trash yes so we have less than 300,000 in trash so over the last three or four years we've used about 800,000 of our trash retained earnings to balance the budget yes and that and that's the B that's to take care of the
127deficits over the year over the last three years remember the projected deficit next year is only what 105,000 or whatever 118 so we got 300 in retained Revenue so I guess what I'm saying if if you said to us hey you know we want to keep the total increase for these three um Enterprise funds less than $75 or $75 or less we would have to use retained earnings but we could come up with a plan that would help you I think that's I I mean because I think that's where where you were going right you're like let's let's look at all of these and I think that's I okay yeah Brandy what is what number sounds feels good I I think you know oh never I I I don't have I it's difficult for me
128to kind of like run numbers right now but I think if um if we can if 75 is doable I know we were kind of going back and forth on on on water quite a bit so but I if we can figure out a like sort of a a um um a number I think 75 sounds sounds right to me but again I don't I'm kind of I don't have my notebook I'm kind of um it's a working so number I think SE so if we could look at add all these together we don't increase more than 75 annually and I would say that's with the flat fee because the bags we don't know right we well I would I would push back on that because we want to like the the trash is different
129from a lot of these because we're trying to encourage certain behavior and my position is to put it on put it on the bag feet because we want we want people to decrease uh what they're throwing away to increase um Recycling and we've got a a solid waste problem that's not this is why we're having this problem every year so we got to look at how to decrease and so we should give people the right incentive uh I think instead of increasing everyone's fees so there's no incentive or everybody pays why don't we try why don't we try to keep the 75 with the back feet obviously we can figure out the average what an average household would utilize why don't we why don't we try that okay don't have I don't have a problem
130I think that's a fair inequitable yeah cuz cuz it it hits everybody it doesn't eliminate certain groups or whatever just right across the board and that's fair all right Brandy you ready to move on I'm ready to move on thank you righty so thank you all where are we in the agenda I think we have the longsuffering Helen we still have we still have uh three things that we supposed to get to before our 850 so I I think I think um the cemetery discussion can be relatively brief because because Helen and Joan um have left no no and the historical commission had presented a lot of information and what the board had wanted was them to come like work with DOs like do and I to come up with the plan um plan and
131costs right a big thank you guys for coming in and bearing with us yeah and they um so they provided a lot of that information previously as part of your yep um part of your packet and then Doug and I have worked with them and have got a workable plan that we think can help so okay so do we want to I think this is a great project do we need to talk to folks about it need update US based on what we asked them Helen go ahead hi um yeah um I think that the uh packet pretty much I think explained to all of the costs that we can anticipate at this point um and you know how how we're planning to the there there's a pretty good explanation of how we're planning to
132run that you had ask for sort of a mockup of the uh cleanup training weekend so we've kind of included all of that and some of the information from TNT to give you an idea you know of who they are and uh why we like them and um there's a bit of a I think an Excel sheet here with pretty much like you can just sort of look at that quickly and kind of get an idea of what all the costs are and I I I was thinking maybe you'd have questions more I wasn't really planning on doing as much of a presentation tonight as I was planning on answering questions about the information we sent so okay thank you questions thoughts uh about it I know I I have to confess I spent a
133lot of time on the on the Enterprise fund review and uh didn't get spend a lot of time on looking at their plan but well from the from what I have seen and and read and discussed with you folks at the last time you were here um you guys are very thorough um I just I just get concerned about the fact we're going to do all this work and I'm hoping uh are you going to do a presentation FR a CPC to get funding for that as well we do plan to go to the CPC um probably next year yeah okay for or for next year okay all right because I mean I know at that's a historical piece of property and we have an historical bucket I don't see why this whole project can't
134be funded out of that particular barl yeah I think this year Michael had said that there was a lot going on this year with CPC so we sort of kind of put that off because we didn't really have all of the uh cost expenditures yet which really once we go through this cleanup training weekend and we get a better idea of how much work has to be done professionally as opposed to what the volunteers can do we'll have a better idea of what the the total cost will be so that we can not only approach um CPC but we can see what we're getting in uh donations uh through our fundraising there's a cost associated with the weekend right the spring 24 volunteer weekend $2 to $3,000 assessment right yes and we have that cover
135so we have that covered we have the the uh survey covered okay um I think we have everything we needed for this this year was was covered and we are also anticipating once we get approval from you uh that there may be some additional money coming and we can't guarantee that but we we would be hoping there would be some additional money coming in through uh some donations that uh our fundraiser will be doing okay so we already have those costs cover so Helen the extra time will give you folks more time to prepare our actual costs and and the work that's going to be done by volunteers and see what's Works needed after after that work is completed is that right yes exactly okay so so Michael you're saying that the funds that are
136here we're looking to cover with the Guston money because it was put into to okay yeah and and donations if we need to but I think all of it can be covered under the Guston okay okay okay I think I'm good to make a decision y okay Randy anything no the information in the packet was really thorough and I think it kind of filled in a lot of the blanks that that um and and questions that I had from from when you were um here last presenting it so thank you thank you guys for for taking this initiative on and wanting to do a lot of this abolutely um work yourself so um we appreciate that very much we probably need to take a motion to okay I move that we approve the moving forward
137of the volunteer program presented by the historical commission for the cemetery project second motion's been made and seconded um all those in favor say I raise hands uh we need to do a roll call vote because BR she's out Point yeah she's out so go ahead um Brandy uh kinman I manani I Greaves ey share I so that's 4 z y with one member absent right okay thank you does that cover it Michael yes perfect thank you guys very thank you for doing all very much for your patience thank you can I one one quick comment yeah sure um first I just want to say that we appreciate your your um support but we also appreciate um the Board of Health and the um conservation um he and in the DPW the DPW is very
138receptive and as short-handed as they are they're willing to to do a lot with as long as we're um considerate of their time and we certainly will be so great thank you and I'd like to also add to that so we're very excited uh for the community uh as well because this is a very you know solid Community project um and we are utilizing a lot of volunteers so I would love to invite everyone on the select board and anyone who's listening uh we'll be putting out the information if you would like to come and join us we would love to have you when when will you be doing the the work what's the weekend so we don't have the date because we were waiting for the approval so we will be coming up with
139that very shortly and I let everyone know perfect cool thank you thank you thank you you all right so very nice um so the next item is uh uh Beth Reynolds with an update plan on the former police department building that's great knock it down let's wait and see what she says go ahead Beth what did she say okay we might Maybe make that happen for each um so thanks for having me here tonight we've been doing a little bit of work um planning for the police station uh the downtown police station 137 Main Street um and I'm here to just sort of give you an update of sort of what overall just a very general um overview of sort of where we're at with that at this point so as you know there has
140been a great need in the I would say the last year especially for additional parking spaces in downtown uh we have a lot of new business owners uh lots of successful businesses in downtown that just are creating a little bit more of a need for parking um so we have looked at this space um and what you have in your packets is um just a very rough handdrawn sketch that i' done um just kind of measuring the space and looking to see what we can put in there for parking spaces so it still a work in progress obviously um but we also um in in doing in looking at all of this we did look at the surveys that we got when we did the fire station when we put the RFI out and then
141oh yeah consequently the RFP in between those two um things we actually did survey the community and we asked what would you like to do with the fire station what would you like to do with the police station so um you know the the results that we have that we've that came in for that um basically were leaning towards um people really wanting to preserve the fire station not necessarily the police station um so I mean I can certainly share those with you if you're interested in that um but a you know a lot of them 209 out of 388 surveyed said yes to uh wanting additional parking so just wanted to note that we did have some feedback from the um community so what you have in front of you is some additional Park
142paring um but we would also put in a popup park right in front to sort of just to keep with the Aesthetics of downtown um and to really kind of you know screen off that that asphalt um basically just to make it nice and green in the front um and to soften that parking lot and that those needed spaces um so there would be that nice small park there in the front that there's a beautiful tree that would remain I was going to say is that the green area where the sign is basically build it right around that tree and then um it would it would just lend itself to you know a place for people to stop and sit have a cup of coffee we could have events there it would be a nice
143addition to the Holiday Stroll and the tree lighting um so there's a lot of opportunity there as well as adding in some um additional marking making it nice and safe we are adding a uh fence to the rear of the building along the train tracks um that land was just surveyed um so we will be adding that shortly just for safety purposes um we don't want anybody going well there's no fence there now no no there never hasn't been for years and that's that's interesting yeah well that's it but it is isn't it usually the the te's responsibility to have a good fence I mean that's my understanding so I don't know there's not even a chain link fence not on that side side there is on the other side well that's interesting okay sorry
144to interrupt but you know one of the thing to think about I mean should we be you know talking to the te to like put in a fence I don't know are they missing a fence that whole stretch I don't think that all all of the train track has fence right but think about the farmers's market yeah no but well that's another issue but okay I I don't want to interrupt what you're saying but it's a surprising to me in the downtown area there's no fence that's a little unusual that on that section okay go ahead Beth I'm sorry to no so that is um so we're looking at adding in well I believe there's about 18 spots there now um to 20 um we are looking to be able to increase that from to
145about 30 to 35 spots double double Lots yep they would be angled parking very much like what's out in the uh Town Hall Parking Lot yeah yep it would look pretty and just looking at this sketch so the in and out would be where it is now that wouldn't get changed correct so the parking that's along the fire depart the the firehouse would that stay yes so that's part of the Clover roads plan is to create a uh seasonal outdoor patio there um I thought that was in front no that's a well so that's that will still be there as well so they are building out a knee wall there and then about along the side so what they found was when they spent a little time at the fire station there's no sun that
146hits that front patio um that they're going to build it it will never be in the sun um it is in the morning it's lovely sun in the morning you're not sit at a at a brewery in the morning not during beer drinking time so they really were looking at that side so they're in front of the planning board now to add a seasonal uh patio right on the side there where those spots are and then they'll be removed um in the winter months for parking closer to the building okay um so that will be still an in and out at that location um and then the parking lot would actually be a oneway so you would actually go one way into the parking lot and then out okay uh do we have a cost
147estimate no no okay just really trying to get an idea of how you feel about just I mean what I would say is in one of Michael's surveys or in one of your surveys put this out to the public saying you know this is what we're we're planning what do you think would would you also entertain um putting solar solar panels up like like the ones that we have at the high school sure you know that parking lot so they generate additional it's an inter downtown yeah you're going to knock the building down and you're going to have open you'll have open space people have people have asked about EV Chargers as well um and so we could do a couple EV charger stations there's programs now through the state for new EV Chargers to
148get grants and stuff absolutely yep y good that's good point yeah um Beth just in terms of the parking on the railroad trucks are you thinking of any plantings back there to kind of screen the tracks or to make that's where the fence will be yeah so the fence will go right up all the space is used up there's no space for right margin okay there's parking there for lunkers too for their employees and stuff so four spots for lunkers that directly in the back area in agreement okay yeah in agreement with the town all right well you know I know you got a lot of things jugl it might be interesting to try to screen the the tracks with some kind of plantings if it'll fit but so the only problem is rub is
149that when the so the parking lot will go right up to the prop it goes right up to the property line you need so it would be on the it would be on the state property if we wanted to screen it okay yeah so you don't think you can set back at all I me I guess not unless we want to put the fence on State Property no I meant if you move the parking spaces back you you might parking we lose parking you would lose the okay Randy had a question oh I'm sorry go ahead Brandy thanks um I was just thinking like timeline wise what is um what are your thoughts as far as I mean obviously we' need to put something out to bid and and things like that is that are
150we looking at this year for for this project or is that you know what what's your what's your thoughts on that Michael you want to answer that one um first step is get money right so that was going to be and actually that's one of the things that we we talk about later under TM reports is actually the our legislative budget requests for this year because that might be some we might ask for money that might be something that we could ask for money for that's an interesting thing um and if that's the case then we wouldn't you know get that until August or September and when the economic development money that we had um I've got to figure out a whole plan for that um I was just going to say the same thing
151we got some money specifically for Rail and around the rail and remember it's all allocated and then oh it is all allocated already so I've got to take it from somewhere else which I can do I can do and um you know I did had sent an email just saying that we had some complications arise out of that just in terms of what the definition of obligated means we're still working through that so okay um a quick question with respect to the 119 Main Street would you fence that area as well or put some sort of uh barrier so that the uh the folks that are residing they don't have to look at the parking lot where now they just look at a building now that's going to be removed and that's right oh the
152um the Ashlin house yeah there is a fence in between the property they have a fence and they have green um screen they've got really huge arbiv property y their fence is on their property is on their property okay all right yep exactly yeah okay all right I'm good anything else so do you need anything else from us for this just like it sounds like a good idea and Joe said a sledgehammer a sledge I'm ready so want to help with the demo J you want ack you want me to for you that's a fun so we've got to do kind of you know best got a sketch and it's a really good sketch very good my father would be very I know that the engineers can work from that but I think it's a
153good sketch so and Evan has you know done some preliminary looking at this so we'll have him he was on so that was good he's still here we'll have that's great yeah Evan's been a great help um he's yeah formalize it a little bit more exactly with that right and yoland said something about a survey or trying to get the design out just maybe you could you know we could we could throw something together in the newsletter and just say this is you know this is the plan I think we got to put this sketch in the well we we'll have a better one you just got to sign it at the bottom Historical Society yeah I'm touched I'm touched I am the daughter of I am the daughter of a civil engineer Joe so
154I did learn a few things all right all right thank you all right thank you all right so moving on now the presentation for the roadway Traffic Safety Committee update and we got back on and Joe's moving out into the audience to make his presentation so thank you and this was you know our ongoing effort to U have committees you know come see us for an update and maybe spend a little more time with them than during board report so I would love to thank you Joe thank you thanks Rob uh thanks the select board for inviting us this evening um as you know we're part of the Ashland Traffic Safety uh study committee and I'd like to introduce uh the members some of them are not were not able to be here this evening
155for other commitments one person just appeared is he on your committee uh Evan Evan's there oh yeah Kevin Lang Lang me y Evan yeah yep we all the th those two are very vital to this to this committee as well so but I'll get to it uh Lieutenant uh Rich Briggs from the Ashland Police Department Michael Dua a retired fire department uh worker uh he works with our traffic Lighting Group uh Mike is the expert when it comes to all this with with respect to downtown lighting and and and any traffic lights through throughout the town so uh and hopefully he's training someone else just in case um I would hope so okay I would hope so um it's just like the old you know Water and Sewer Department you know there was one gentleman
156that knew everything M walkup and it was all in his mind and when he passed that went with them yeah that's not a good thing no it's not a good absolutely not right so um Donna Walsh who was a bus coordinator for the town uh school school district Kevin langmeier uh douy small Evan White Al um alvarro Espinosa uh assistant Town planner Pete matek uh Town planner uh Chief Roby uh Chief Rosy and myself quite a so we have we have a very good core of individuals uh and their expertise when it comes to uh traffic and studies uh f f none uh Ed bman used to be on the committee um he uh but when he took over uh the job in Orland he he had to he had to give it up the
157position so um unfortunately I took over by default as Che because nobody else wanted it h so what did they deal with me uh the purpose uh of the committee has many facets um we investigate and develop uh safety concerns throughout the town and uh as it pertains to traffic concerns pedestrian safety and roadway uh development and issues reported by the citizens um a focal point of all citizens concerns is the regarding uh of safety issues in their neighborhoods and uh in other areas of town as well uh from roadway repairs to speeding issues and other safety related matters that come to our attention via emails or letters themselves or we even have uh residents that come to our meetings and sit and talk with us uh we allow anybody to come it's an open
158meeting uh it's it's uh on uh we have an agenda and everything is uh for public hearing um they can easily come and sit and talk with us all and um discuss their issues and a lot of the concerns uh are looked at and uh we try to act on as much I'm going to ask you um is the camera not on on that computer that we're not seeing Joe at the podium uhoh did I touch something probably no it just says Podium that's okay they know what I look like well you're you're speak sh it it's on wacka when Joe's speaking we can see I'm on wacka oh that's interesting and on and on okay that's fine and un Zoom as long as he can be seen in the two places that's the important
159thing thank those people sorry sorry to inter Jo no you're not interrupting at all um okay we tried to resolve these uh any any types of concerns or questions or uh incidences that people have uh and they come to us and we talk about them uh again one of the biggest concerns is speeding throughout throughout the town and uh sidewalks to be very honest we've been talking about that for a number of years um and Kevin Lang has been uh very very responsive been very helpful when it comes to uh anybody that has an issue when it comes to speeding in the in in their areas or in their neighborhoods and we do a study it's a it's usually it takes four weeks to do a complete traffic study um with the little boxes that
160calculate uh the things that this this uh equipment can do today is incredible it provides the dates and times of the most uh prominent uh traffic uh concerns uh the number of vehicles that come through um U and uh the average speed and it breaks the average speed down in increments of uh 10 15 miles an hour so we can break that down right from 10 m hour 15 mil an hour and so we get we get a pretty good average as to what goes on and in most cases a lot of people say oh the cars are flying they're doing 50 m an hour and they're actually doing 35 which is actually the speed limit so you know so it and most folks when they get those reports we provide them a copy of
161the uh the report themselves so that way they may not believe what we have to tell them but we give them an copy of the report so they can see it you know firsthand and if they don't believe it then what we'll do when we have time because there are other studies that we have to do in different other parts of towns once all those are completed again it usually takes four weeks it's a couple of months and we explain that to the folks and then we go back and we do another assessment of that same area and basically when you get the two assessments they're almost the same so the people have a better understanding there is a big push and I know Doug will attest as with Kevin that um a lot of
162folks are looking for Speed bumps in their roads and you know this will slow down traffic but it also creates additional issues and one of the issues is a liability issue and a lot of towns are aware of that because if you put speed bumps on a roadway and they're there and there's an accident and as a result of the speed bumps causing that accident the town is liable so and we so we're concerned over that so we make sure that you know and we've sat down and we and we've talked with Lisa me over this as well so we have you know we have a a concern that whatever we do we want to make sure we do it so it doesn't put the town in Jeopardy you in the long run now there
163there's permanent speed bumps there are speed bumps that you can put down you know seasonal speed bumps types of deals um you can have the ones that are nice and smooth they they rise up and down so they're not a great impact but if you're going a high rate of speed and you get one of those you can go Airborne no matter how you know smooth it is or whatever so we have to be very careful uh we don't want to put anybody in arms way as a result of some of the things that we see are people think are u a solution to a particular problem so it comes down to a lot of things and it comes down to Manpower basically people want more radar in their neighborhoods they want to see more
164police officers presence well you know that's great you know our Police Department is is down Manpower right now and uh you know they can't be at the same place at the same time you know daily there's other locations in town that where their needs are uh are required so um I Know Chief rosi has done and as has uh Deputy uh Chief vula uh had their have their men and women go out and do you know different Radars at different times a day throughout throughout the town and so uh we're dealing with an right now which is current um You probably saw the sign on Water Street not a throughway because there are people that are using that as a cut through because they don't want to go all the way down to Pleasant uh
165Pleasant and Maine and use the lights so the folks that are traveling East on Pleasant Street heading towards Maine they're the ones that are making that turn and coming down through Water Street and and it uh you know it's very narrow it's and it's it's kind of you know wide turn and you now you have delivery trucks and you have vehicles that are going probably a little faster than than the 20 M hour that uh is is required to go through that area so there have been some concerns and one gentleman uh is very uh vocal about it and um you know we we we're trying to repase them but you know it's it's a public way you can't stop people going through a public way you can put signs up to how slow people
166down or whatever but it's a public way so we have these we have the you know the legal M matters that we have to be concerned about too when we do things so if we put put a sign up we come to you folks to to get the okay we just did one on Acton Road not too long ago uh it was a stop sign at uh Pine Hill in Acton uh we got we got the they okay to do that and that's resolved a lot of a lot of speeding coming down Pine Hill in that area so I'm not Pine Hill I mean Hill so that works very well so we're we're we're trying to meet all the me uh all the needs and the concerns of the residents but again it comes to
167Manpower and and basically and so with the committee is trying to do the best they can and U yeah you know crosswalks and sidewalks we have a new side uh new crosswalk that's being uh built thank you through the state on codal road I'm sure if you passed by you've seen that already uh that's not a solar piled one unfortunately so we'll be taking that over and I know Evan is waiting for the okay for that uh from the board so uh at some point you know maybe at our next meeting we can take a vote to pass that so we can get that sure okay done um we have a new crosswalk uh up off of uh uh Edgewood Road on 135 and you saw the the caution signs that you know making people
168aware of it uh that's part of this process that we're putting in uh the crosswalks I mean sidewalks along 135 hopefully starting late spring late May um so so on that matter so where we so there's already a sidewalk on West the westbound side just past uh the gas station right correct but that doesn't go all the way I understand that so where are we adding sidewalks to get to the I'll let Doug explain that to uh the new sidewalk is going to be eastbound pretty much from uh the state park road all the way down uh to just across from Indian Spring Road and they'll be another crosswalk there as well okay good and why why did we put the crosswalk if we're going to extend the sidewalk down to Indian Spring and we're
169going to put a crosswalk there why did we put a crosswalk up by the other Road where there are no sidewalks because that's where the there will be a sidewalk as part of that we just did that right now because we have a lot of students that want to get to the other side to walk on the sidewalk that's currently there and that's so they're walking on the so now they're going to use that side that crosswalk to get to the sidewalk to the so they'll be walking in front of the Valentine property on no sidewalk to get to the sidewalk correct yeah and unfortunately that's that's the safest route right now that we've looked at it's it's not the best route but it's this it's it's what we can work with and and if
170we feel comfortable it's safe enough okay so but that's believe me we've had we've had many discussions over that and we finally made that uh recommendation so um these studies like we said um when we do the traffic studies take three to four weeks and um we get a more accurate uh resolution and conclusion to what people are looking for so I got I have two two other questions so in regards to where next sidewalks are going I know it's something that's dou Doug has been working on is the traffic study committee working on that as well to determine based on requests and needs where the next sidewalks are going in town well that's that's something that we'll sitting down with Michael to go over we know the biggest one right now was Route 135
171because of the because of the students that are walking through the mes school I mean the middle school and also the state park because now we're having people Park along 135 we see people parking at the middle school to walk up to the state park over the summer because the right because the parking is because the parking is full and we don't want you know Mr Hicks and his family to have to go through what they went through haven't determined so have we determined that we're we're we're just going to do sidewalks right we're not going to make that multimodal I think that's what we end it up correct we just said we're going to just do sidewalks as of right now dog is shaking we were not able to okay okay the engineer that
172looked at it said that it was it was just the utility polls of the issue okay and then my other question this goes back to what Joel arbitman brought up um and I thought we were getting these the 4 foot signs about bike riders we're seeing them on I'm seeing them in all other towns and I think I saw one on civille but that's a state road have we put these on our own roads on entrance into our towns Kevin Kevin my understanding is we were getting them or we were waiting for them at some point Kevin you can y I received those prior to the winter uh we didn't get them on schedule so those are for the springtime uh we have 16 of those signs and we have't kned out to go around
173perfect good thanks for but I'm have retainer but that's a spring project after Marathon okay perfect um before we get to Joe is there any anything else you want to say or anyone else on the committee wants to say anything to us about there know Evan if you anything you like to to add to to what we've talked about uh no I just the um there's a there's a contact from the state that's just asking us to uh uh accept the the ownership and maintenance of the uh crosswalk signals on uh quarterville going forward um so if we could get that on the next meeting that would be helpful and and that's just the one as youve as you're on Caville just before you take the right on to right right by Johnson right right
174okay and you and that's so that because there's a sidewalk on one side and then there's a sidewalk on the other side and this crosswalk is now going to get you from one side to the other safely and use and be able to use the sidewalks that are there that are currently there without any addition sidewalk great no it's good so thanks Evan and I don't know if we can vote on that tonight but we because it's not on our agenda to do it so I think we we'll just need to add it to our next any other uh other disc Brandy did you have questions or thoughts yeah so first of all thank you Joe that was a that that was a good um a good presentation and summary of what you guys have
175been up to um quick question I know that we've talked before about um putting in a cross crossing signal at uh Fountain and 135 and I that's that's on your radar as well correct yes it is yeah y a pedestrian Crossing signal is that yeah okay yeah because because now the way that because there's no real um medians in in the road kids high school students are literally running across 135 so um so I was curious what like from a timing sale Point what that might look like you know I wish I wish Mike duok was here because Mike was involved in that aspect of it and unfortunately he's not here this evening but um do do we own those now that crosswalk at 135 in Fountain those are ours now that's all our they
176know they were temporary at some point and then we asked to keep them permanent with the public safety building okay and I and I know that um Michael was talking to pair when we were doing the public safety building and they had come up with some some some work some prelim minary design work for that for that intersection um but that I don't know where that's going to go right now yeah do you want yeah hi um yes so that intersection itself the first thing we're doing is we're actually going to do a temporary patch to get through the marathon the next step is we have to replace the water main right there so that's hopefully going to be part of this Capital request um for this summer okay and then next year hopefully we're
177going to be able to break ground and uh reconstruct that entire intersection and put in some cross crosswalks so we're you looking at at least a year at least a year maybe two years depending on get all the funding and all that yep great great thank you thanks um so I hope that answers your question Brandy yes it does and then as far as like budget goes I mean I know sidewalks are you know a a big a big Capital uh lineup item for us and and things like that but some of these smaller smaller projects do we have um do we have funding set aside for things like you know stop signs and and this this was my this was my last item on my did you read over my notes uh probably did
178you always do um the the last thing I just wanted to talk about was was the funding of some of these projects that we have available uh that we're trying to do and I know Kevin um is very much involved in in purchasing and and procuring of some of this material um you know like street signs uh solar uh powered crosswalk signs uh post I mean they're expensive and and Kevin if you can give us a brief uh summary of how much it would cost just to put like like the solar power crosswalks that we have right downtown how much it would initially cost the town if it would if we need to put additional ones throughout the town good U so a request to have an RFB put in with just the initial signs
179the solo signs themselves at the crosswalk with an additional advanced warning ranges anywhere from $7,000 to $8,000 for a complete system that's just purchasing it that's not installed and time and power right well if they're solar powered then they you know they're they're pretty well you know self maintained that way right they're not not hwi so is this kind of something we appropriate every year as it would be nice it would be nice I know that street signs are expensive and you know Kevin it it not only does you know it costs to get the signs and the post but like he just said he just mentioned you know manpower to dig and and get everything done and it takes time away from the the regular duties that that are involved with the DPW so
180this additional work that they have to do as well because they have nothing better to do I would consider it's part of their their duties right it's not it's not as consistent as other things that they do but putting these things it's part of their and changing and changing some of the sign locations after we after we do a determination that maybe you know the sign needs to be moved so it's it's right it can gets it can get a little bit uh sure go ahead so sorry Joe so your landed um just so you know so Kevin's position right now his title is stormwater Tech trffic control it's a fairly new position that he's been in for the last two years it's a new thing for the town of ashon it was much much
181needed oh yeah Kevin's doing a terrific job and all this stuff but um as far as funding for a lot of these things so right now we have the 150,000 uh I think it's arpa funds that we've been using on top of that we use complete streets money um but as far as a regular operating budget there's some money in there but it's it's not not so you know and I wasn't saying that but no I was just asking yeah so actually and that goes to my next question so six years ago we did the whole complete streets project we had funding through the state through I think mapc we we had a whole list of projects yes we've done some of them certainly Elliott and that in that whole area is it time to
182revisit that Andor is the road Safety Committee looking at that list of projects that were identified all those years ago and then adding stuff to it and then potentially applying for more grants for complete streets if there's still money time to look at it but it's it's almost like we already have a you know we're looking at Cedar Street sidewalks next I mean we we kind of have a we have a direction we're heading in um but yeah and it is time and so year one which which we just finished which took about four years because it's part of the downtown project is done that's done now we're looking at uh put putting in an application for year two okay for the complete streets funding okay okay so but I think we we also need
183we do need to start being more realistic about what we can take on and what we can do no I I agree right so I mean that's that's the conversation we always have right so we have we have these projects that are winding down but we don't want to overload ourselves so much it's it's a balancing act because we have to figure out we need we want to we don't stop the the complete streets projects that we're working on but we need to figure out what we can do with Manpower and things like that but I guess my question is is the review of it and the potential for Grants and things like that is that something the road Safety Committee is doing or do we want to bring another group back you know I'd
184be willing to sit back on that and review it again um you know and bring other people if if you give us that charge I don't see why we wouldn't be able to do that okay but I think you know to to to your point I think it's you know we should think about the process and if we want a wider body or W A Wider group to have input and and and you guys brought up two very important things sidewalks and complete streets and I'm I guess I'm kind of wondering the overlap with the comprehensive plan process because these are both things I I see as kind of long-term projects that Transportation review of the comprehensive plan oh yeah so you know so and to you guys so what's your role interfacing with the
185comprehensive plan and part of you the comprehensive plan is maybe a year two years away with getting we're we're in our information gathering phase okay so it may even be longer that you guys should definitely be part of that next year we're presenting the comprehensive plan so I guess from the comprehensive plan perspective we need to look at sitting with with someone from your group well Ed no Ed burman's on our yeah but Ed's not part of our group anymore oh right he isn't part of our group but I mean he could also tell you what he's done what we've done but he doesn't know what the fut bring you guys in or we can do that's fine we be more than happy to sit down in regards to the transportation perspective of it I
186mean we' be more than happy to do it but the funding is the big issue you know again people are looking for this but that's where going for state grants and complete stream like we were able to do we we got I think the first round we got $425,000 that helped us do Fruit Street Elliot Street and and the um speed zones around the school the speed zones around the schools and the a the ADA Compliant ramps and all that stuff so right so here's my question I guess to Brandy and you about the comprehensive plan process so people presumably are identifying oh I think sidewalk should go here I think this needs certain things and some of it interfaces with what these folks are doing so how does that kind of how do we
187kind of integrate as we identify these things right and as we're getting ready to write write the comprehensive plan and say okay this is what's been identified at we will go to them or ask them to come or as we're having the discussion on transportation and infrastructure we would certainly include their committee yeah that that we be more than happy to do what needs to get done cuz again the basic line is the bottom line is we're all doing this for the safety community of the town and for the residents to to enjoy the you know being able to walk Here There and Everywhere and have our students safe safe walk to school to and from so you know uh any other we eligible for all these grants yeah I was going to ask Joe
188if he had any questions but he's up there no I my question is we could we could use the extra fun I did have well two things I want I I do want to encourage you guys to look at the speed bumps very closely and the liability and the WEA I know there There's issues with the weather and stuff but you know I've seen them in other towns very effective on certain back roads and you know we do have an Enforcement issue the other and you know with police time and things like that uh the other thing I want to kind of put in in your head is you know the um the traffic camera for speeding tickets or other enforcement and we don't I know Massachusetts right now doesn't allow it i' I've had
189a discussion with representative Lewis and there seems to be a lot of push back but I've seen it work very effectively in placees it worked on me I was a victim of I paid New York City of like $200 from my kids speeding down I'm sure they were very thankful yeah but I mean it it is it's an easy process you get a $50 ticket in the mail they have a picture of you speeding somewhere they say some technician certified that you were speeding if you just pay the fee you'll be done I you know to me it's like what a great idea one of the concerns about that is the privacy of the individuals that are driving and how it can be abused well and profiling I mean there's a whole bunch of things
190that can come out of this I'm sure there's is we've had this discussion used not only in other states but in other countries with no privacy issues with no concerns I mean like don't forget which state we live in yeah I know okay I saw a picture of my I got a good picture of my daughter's boyfriend speeding in my car so I was on to him so how long was his boyfriend it's actually about $200 worth yeah $200 thank you guys for thank you and thank you all for your we appreciate it thank you for thank you for coming and giving us the update thank you for the work that you're doing thank you guys thanks for showing guys yes thanks for being here did you have another comment Evan your hand is raised
191or anyone else there yeah I just uh it was in response to um you talking about the grants um actually do have a couple of Grants applications out right now um one's for ADA compliance on the uh West Union sidewalk um and the other one is uh shared streets and spaces um we're waiting to hear back on both of those for for that same project um we're also going to be looking at U putting in a complete streets application like Doug said for Cedar Street sidewalks as well wonderful great is that the whole lake of Cedar Street or uh what how did you are you focused in a certain area or because I've got a number of people asking me about Cedar Street all the time I would I would prefer just to do from
192East Union Street to Captain Em Right now the first Captain em and and then there are I think there are too many land issues further up the street as you get towards Elliot Street and so East Union near the high school down Cedar Street captain makes sense you got kids walking to school right so great right and eventually it might link with the trail so yeah that's all it's all good well thank you guys great thank you thank you for that update appreciate it all right have the different thank you so the next is an old new business process and timeline for guess what it's time to do the Town Council evaluation yeah and so thanks Doug thanks everybody um so yes just um the Town Council evaluation is a little bit um simpler as
193you know compared to the town managers evaluation and so what I would propose is that on April 5th so we'll distribute the um the evaluation forms um and then u i prop our next meeting right is that right no it's a it's the Friday after your next meeting okay um so have those evaluation forms due to me by April 5th the week of April 8th I'll spend that week compiling all the individual evaluations and then April 17th um which is a Wednesday Rob as as the chair you and I would sit down to with Town Council and go over the evaluation and then at your next um meeting in May or excuse me your next meeting um which is the is is April 17th so yes it would be the next meeting in May um
194look at um you know if you so choose to do a reappointment okay okay and that would be the the Wednesday before the election correct correct okay okay right so because we have because of when may fall when may starts town meeting is week May 1st I believe oh town meeting is May 1st yeah so we might have to do it we might have to do no because then we have a meeting on May 15th and then the election is May 21st exactly that's my last meeting I believe right okay so we could do that so does that work for everybody yeah that works so we we vote to appoint or not appoint pres uh on the 15th but the the week before uh well you have the April 17th is okay I just got
195to kind of review my schedule but that sounds like it'll work yeah okay and if not we have a little bit of a buffer built in there between and the reappointment vote would be you know if you so choose and um sitting down with uh Lisa to go over her firm's evaluation so if that doesn't work Rob we can yeah does that involve contractual review at all or like I'm trying to we never actually no it's um it's under the charter so it's a year-long appointment right um so right but we don't look at the terms of the contract or the price or anything like that as part of this process correct we just look at the term and if we're going to renew it correct so I do have one question that's I'll piggyback
196that um and Yolanda had just told me um your evaluation form we're still using the old form correct right oh yeah we can talk about that now feel I guess Yolanda said that the form was sent out to everybody I did not get that that's no I'm not sure it's sent out yet so CLA is not here but Claud and I reviewed it uh she did I think a great job in almost like automating but it's the same form but you guys will get it and now forgetting the schedule but you'll get it there's going to be a Google form sheet that everybody kind of shares but you'll get your section you fill it out um do the comments just like before it will then automatically it will then calculate the average instead of me
197having to do it it'll also collect all the comments in a in a form kind of like yep in a and then I'll use that oh and then I guess the thing to talk about before you complete it or at some point in the process you sit out we all sit out with Michael individually presumably I think with the form already filled out yes yes and then once that's then finalized it'll all be summarized through this sheet that Claudia is putting together but there's no change to the current form my I have two questions SL concerns so yeah um with the current form right and how we've done it before is I would fill it out and I would give it to Michael and Michael would be the only one who would see my comments
198and my scores is that hold on let me finish so that would be the and then he and I would talk about it yeah and sometimes I would change things sometimes I wouldn't change based on our conversation and then I would give it to the chair okay so are you saying now that the minute I fill it out Auto that automatically gets not necessar no well because I don't think that's a good idea so that's too bad that Claud is not here to discuss it I think she could do it so that it would stay until you finalized it because the other comment that I have is my individual each of our individual ones do not get made into public record right the only thing that get made into public record is the compiled one
199that the chair does and as the chair you get to read through them and say okay I'm GNA use this comment I'm not going to use that comment and I would hope that that is that you don't that we don't just say okay all the comments are there now and that's what's well that was going to be my question that's why I wanted to talk about it today and Brandy speak up so yes it's now possible to just include all the comments and so I guess we need to have a discussion if we don't want to do that then I guess I need to know that so couldn't you limit the um the viewer to myself and and the chair you know you for what all the comments or you know the the evaluations as
200they get um yeah I I I think so again I'd have to go back to my tech expert Claudia because to yanda's point which is a it's an excellent point when you sit down we individually sit down with Michael you may want to change it and you may want to change it so you don't want to hit the finalize cuz once you hit the finalize you're done right so you're going to give Michael a copy of of your recommendations or your evaluation that's not finalized so that way you can make these changes and I don't know if that's allowed I think you should be able to do that just from a technological and legal perspective because I don't I don't know if Google will will let you do that because I don't know well you
201would you would you have a draft filled out and um whether you probably save it or download it and you print it out but but each of ours needs to be saved separately correct to go to Michael so can't sub it what's that subm it I was gonna say like a Google form you know you basically you fill it out and you hit submit right I think because of the changes that Claudia made when you hit submit it now goes into the compiled one I think or it could I mean but you could probably also hold off and there must be a way of doing that so to you I Yolanda I think you had a suggestion here which is um I think you could fill it out and print out a version that you
202have and then we could talk about it and then if you had any changes you could make the changes and then hit submit I would think so right but I okay I I just think that to you know typically to save paper I send it to you electronically we look at it when we sit and talk about it so I don't know I I guess these are questions we have to ask I mean we have some time to do but I just wanted to make sure that the same my L I'll talk to Claudia after this and we'll you know we'll make it so but the one main thing I did want to just make sure you guys don't want to see all the comments in one document you want to go with me synthesiz
203that's the way it's been yes no I understand I just think that I think it's important that you look through the com that the chair whoever it is looks through the comments and determines you know cuz if there's five comments that are identic all five of them don't need to be there you can synthesize that and say okay based you know something all right that's my board's in agreement with but yeah yeah Randy anything else to add or not no I I think I I agree I think that the summary should be you know basically a a one to two page word doc not a Google form you know output so um okay so I wouldn't want to see everybody else's comments I think my goal is the one that needs needs to see them
204then and it needs to be all right thanks so I'll follow up with Claudia and we'll work it out okay uh and we finished the Town Council evaluation okay a vote to accept and sign gift of land zero Fountain Street rear is authorized in November 29th 2023 special town meeting I did too you know so this is the Bell property so you did have um you did something but yeah not this you did have the town meeting um you did do something and I can't remember exactly what it is but this is the next step so we're we're we're at the stage where you actually vote to accept a gift of land we' got do everybody sign that and everybody signs that I hereby move that the select board accept a gift of land therein
205known as number zero Fountain Street rear Ashlin Mass including 10,890 square feet more or less and shown on assessor map 010 lot 0045 as authorized pursuant to article four of the nove November 29th 2023 town meeting and further to authorize the chair Robert K share to execute and enter enter into any and all documents necessary to effectuate the acquisition of said property is there a second to that motion I'll second motions made and seconded roll call vote we'll start with Brandy Kinsman I manani I gavves ey Sher I okay and so we'll sign that and pass it around I yeah I've got the official version Oh which one do you want me to sign a different one yeah okay you just practiced on yeah I I got it I got my first name right okay
206all right so while we're signing this around the next thing is the dis or just a reminder or discussion of the uh the marathon breakfast on April 13th 2024 9 to 11 the tjs for our Runners yep and that's always a very nice time it's always fun yep very good we need to authorize any funds for that or are we good um I think we'd let Susan you when she gets back she can help calculate that a little bit better and then and then we would come back to the board Brandy okay that's good uh reminder select board Grant cycle is open submissions due by March 31st nomination papers are still available I think the deadline's what April 2nd to get them in um free covid tests are still available at Town Hall yard waste
207collection begins Monday April 21st April 1st April 1st 2024 continues to Monday June 3rd no yard waste collection April 15th which is Patriots Day are May 27th which must be Memorial Day right yes um we did the marathon breakfast the only um so I guess that's it for old new business volunteer breakfast March 23rd at 9:00 a.m. that's the Saturday so that looks um that's this Saturday so it looks good and one thing um kind of occurred to me uh and maybe something for you guys to think about in future years since this is a we get all the town committee members maybe it's an idea to um uh invite our legislative delegation for two just to make them available but also to have them here what all Town committee people are talking about and
208I think they'd be interested in attending that so when you guys think about it next year I think they've been invited in the past so I I don't think we invited this year I don't know about this year or last year but I know pre-co we were inviting them because I know they both showed up yeah oh did they well I think it's a good practice and it's really you know we don't you know it's really you know we go around the room and people talk a bit and it's briefly and it's a really good exchange of ideas so one thing to you know we should get back to that I think um okay um so consent agenda I move that we approve the consent agenda as appointed uh as presented second second go ahead
209you got it brandy brandy seconded it okay all those motions main second roll call votes start with Brandy hensman iani I Greaves ey share I the consent agenda oh and just noted Dan who was our star earlier today is now on the MW Advisory Board is there anything you want to say about that perfect it makes per like AB Yanda said I think it makes perfect sense I think you got to know Dan a little bit over your last couple meetings and at you your tour of the water treatment facility and know how knowledgeable he is um so makes it's a perfect what kind of issues I mean you know just in general they deal with that that effect I know it's you know water quality you know the wholesale wholesale rates you know things
210of that nature so but it's an Advisory Board it's good to and it's good to have is is every town have yes okay so it's very good all right thank you so that leads us to town manager report yeah so I mean I can I've got a couple of things that are not listed here but I'll start with the ones that are um so did everybody get a chance to review the 2024 goals update no but okay do you want me to go through them all it's a couple Pages or do you want to what do you guys think is it something maybe we maybe highlights Michael yeah yeah okay um so downtown I mean we've talked about that um with um doing the building connections and so we're getting right of Entry agreements at
211this point in time with uh the different building owners um Mendes uh we're working on determining that final borrowing amount if if there is one we might have enough money um additional money from the MS usba reimbursement to cover that and then we also are meeting with our consultant to talk about the um inflation reduction act uh credits solar credits or I'm sorry energy credits that we would be getting um upper Charles Trail so we did submit the mass Trails Grant application um you know Rob and and Joel and Tony and Jen and Pete and Alvaro and I had a meeting on Monday just to talk about engineering and you know what to what extent we're looking into do we have a date for hearing on that you know just off hand do we have
212any oh um I don't recall aren't they rolling grants I thought no there's a specific period yeah um so Town Hall roof so those roof repairs are going to start Monday right um and so that's that's an important everybody saw the the pictures of the the beam yeah um BTA station is completed um Town Hall painting and upgrade so we're going to look at going out to bid soon we've already developed or Doug's already developed a kind of a overall first draft of um a scope of work uh Hopkinson IMA so Hopkinson has signed that extension we need to put that on an agenda and the board would need to sign it as well um NBTA zoning I think we're in a good place with that based on the last meeting that you had the
213joint meeting um with the planning board Clover Road's moving along it's still before the uh planning board um Jen do you want to talk a little bit about dog park um just I know you've been meeting with the designer um so it's taken us a bit um so we had a concept design um and then in the middle our designer retired and so just trying to find another designer that's willing to sort of pick up um where our previous designer had let left off has proven to be a little bit more difficult than I had anticipated um we did meet with Framingham and uh they just had completed one a year ago and we got a name and so um Peter and I and Alvaro met um with Framingham and then reached out and we've
214been working with a designer we haven't signed anything yet um and they gave us a proposal um through design all the way through construction and so just trying to work on that it's a little bit um more expensive than I had anticipated so just making sure that we have the funding and a lot more or just minimal U no it's just a little bit you know just a little repetition in terms of they're going to look at the concept um but they really will do their own design and so there's some uh cool yeah so I think that's pretty much the highlights um so obviously we got a lot going on and a lot of prog great progress has been made um just thanks to uh to our great staff so that's the update on
2152024 goals um one of the things I do want to discuss that we talked about is um so each year our legislative delegation looks at putting in earmarks as part of the state budget and so I thought we could just talk briefly about that one of the things I would suggest I mentioned it earlier is ask for some funding for the uh police station um in that project and then also uh some money for Cadillac paint to finish that up or the Arboretum project so I don't know what the board members feel interesting feel about that would we and you're talking about getting money from the state would they expect that okay legis yeah yeah why not yeah so's so the schedule um yeah so we just all right so they're going through the house
216bill now correct and um okay so we just got to get it to Jack and Karen sometime I guess the next couple weeks or whatever yeah so they come to the breakfast do we hav't invited you know what we're um asking for I could call Jack I mean in terms of monetary amount bring yeah yeah do you have an estimate about what we need for the arbored and yeah between between between 100 and 200k is kind of the the guard rails that um Jack and Karen have both both said you know we need to be realistic about so these are per item or per item okay yeah oh okay okay all right so oh that's great okay I thought for the arbored it was like 100k to finish that and do we have any idea
217for the demo and creation of the parking lot for the police station I had put in 150 to I would ask for as much as we can right okay oh okay is there any other I think those are two good projects that if we can get some funding from the state for those I can't think of anything else I mean we don't have a good design what we want to do with Valentine so I don't think we can ask for anything there yet right um do we think that the CPC funding for the dog park is going to cover the potential costs that you know this new designer is going to to lay out for us potentially I don't think that the CPC would fully cover it but that was never the intention um we
218would have to go and get Stanton Grant funds right but that was in the plan right going applying for the so I mean and that's and that's one of the that's one of the reasons we kept the dog park in this year was because we need to apply for those Stanton grants before the end of this fiscal year right isn't that what was we have to be ready to go um by we have to have a full design and I just confirmed this last week with a full design to a panel review um by the beginning of 2025 to be ready to go for construction in the fall of 2025 and then their Grant sunsets completely right right so we got to we got to get moving because otherwise we lose half of our funding
219yeah okay I was just curious whether or not like if we thought that the the price tag was going to go up based on this new designer um if we needed to ask for an earmark of say 50,000 or something like that from from our legislative delegation or something to cover that Gap U Brandy as part of our initial um concept design and feasibility study he did uh that Designer did do um an estimate and I and I did share that with this designer in getting a new estimate and asked him if he thought that was still a realistic estimate and he he did believe that it would be okay all right that's great news just you know so Jack last year got the upper Charles ear Mark which so which I don't think we've
220spent yet right so but we don't have to worry you know we don't have to worry about spending it by June 30th or anything correct we're okay for a while okay so yeah let me double check on that sometimes they do when it done by June 30th sometimes they give you all the time in the world like with the Cadillac pain a marks we had all the time sunet date on it yeah it wasn't a Sunset date on it right so let me double check on that so all right all right so get some good direction good ideas and if people come up with anything else we can and then Jen did you just want to cover the warant Articles sure yeah so yeah I was hoping to get you a draft but there was
221a lot of moving Parts with other boards um and committees and so um but I did want to give you at least a run through and then hopefully get you a solid draft in the earlier than even the packet that way maybe if we can still close it by our next meeting that would be great if not we we have the opportunity to to do it at the second meeting remind me what are the issues with war articles yeah I'm going to go through all of them oh you're yeah yeah real quick um so on the annual we always do town uh reports um which is usually pretty high level um overview and then we'll have the budgetary article so obviously our budget presentation a transfer to the opep trust um I have to confirm
222whether we'll have a transfer to the sped stabilization fund Britney and I are meeting tomorrow on that um we have an annual uh consent article um that sort of goes through those high level those five items the only sort of difference this year is that um we'll be adding a revolving um account or modifying a revolving account so that we can take in um rent from the fire station lease right now we we don't have an and that way we'd be able to build that up if there's any Capital um improvements that need to happen um we have the annual consent article for CPC um CPC has two possible funding um articles they're sort of working through the details uh right now one is to appropriate funds for the design and Engineering of the Dyke
223Trail portion of the upper Charles Trail um I believe that they have requiring some additional information um before they'll fully support that and you guys think we can move ahead with that because there's been so many changes that something we want to I think we can move ahead with getting the um getting a quote SL estim for the full trail design and engine just kind of throw it out yeah okay I'm not sure we'll be able to get that in the time when you say the full Trail you mean border to border in Ashland or for the Dyke Trail no this would be it would be more than the Dyke Trail but not the full border to border it would be um Rob what did we talk about yeah is the Joel is right there
224probably champ CER I think uh yeah that sounds right Beyond C no yeah you're right it's to the hop State Park no not that far that's border that's basically border to border oh we were GNA yeah we'll have get it but okay have not follow and I'm not time wise I don't know how like what the turnaround will be but anyway um and then the second um article that CBC is entertaining is appropriating funds to preserve the library there's an interior paint in the sort of the historical section um of the library we have done some analysis on the paint and so moving forward there to to restore that that um and then we have um two possible reauthorizations of uh previous borrowings one being the public safety building to potentially um expand it to
225we never had an included land acquisition and so to include the words land acquisition and there is a um there is a balance left on that borrowing so we would potentially be able to use that um for for land um um purchase and and maybe a some additional parking um and then the I think you heard about earlier from Dan to authorize um the borrowing for the ozone we do a borrowing article and it would be um The Debt Service would be out of the Enterprise funds um and then there's three General there's three General bylaw updates potentially um the historical commission wants to modify slightly the demo delay bylaw that we've just recently adapted um just to include um a three year so if it changes ownership after you've done a demo delay you'd
226have to do it again um and then if you if the determination has happened um within 3 years without a planning decision you'd have to you would have to elapse and you'd have to do it again and so that it's not right now the way it's read if you do it once it will just sort of stay with the property um the other addition that they were hoping for but it doesn't make sense to be in the bylaw is to add a fee to the application I think it was $125 and I I spoke with members of the commission just to let them know that that that falls in your purview so we're pulling it out of their bylaw in terms of like fees yeah the fee structure yeah to the to the yeah and
227I still think I don't we don't I don't think we technically have a demo delay well we do have an application we have a it was a there's an application in a review process and then once you get to demo there's obviously a demo application and a fee for that but the demo application is what kicks it off the demo application kicks off the demo delay delay so so then they're paying the right if they're applying for a demo they're paying a fee for that yeah so mechanically it might make sense to just change the demo fee maybe you know but but we'll figure that out um the second bylaw is a to add an additional um bylaw for blight and so that's really for blighted properties in terms of like if if there's um
228issues around a property that um that people haven't necessarily taken care of their property it gives us something to be able to we've tried this we've looked at this before haven't we we've never brought anything to town meeting so we've always we've we've talked about this would be nice to have mhm um um and so you know now we're actually I think sometimes it's been discussed and then we decided not to bring it to town meeting correct um I remember having a discussion about blighted properties I don't know that we ever got to I mean not since I've been here that we've got it to a place in which there was a bylaw that but there's definitely been tons of discussion yeah well that's I'm saying that we've had discussion as to whether or not
229we're going to we're want to bring something to town meeting and what it would mean and right okay how did this get specific properties that we've had in the past who's who's pushing this or where's it coming from we I mean we've had I mean we've had complaints over the years um the building inspector we coming in through residence but I mean in terms of you or Jen decided that this is a time to try it like how did that come about well our Building Commissioner is um certainly on board with this and I think he's the one who actually drafted okay the Board of Health okay and we've got some properties sounds like that this has been issue okay yeah I mean well I'm not going to name addresses sure now but for um
230but yeah been some all right for sure okay um and then the third bylaw is sorry motion to go past 10 o'cl second all those in favor going past 10 o'clock roll call vote Brandy uh sure Yes Man geves ey SAR so excited sorry that's okay um so the last bylaw is to bring back the um specialized stretch code so I think Ash talked about that at our last meeting um and that's just bringing back the same language um that was previously presented and I know that they're doing some work and they have a forum scheduled or an open meeting scheduled for people to come and learn more about that um and then the last one is the mea zoning um which we discussed at our last meeting so just one of the things that's
231sort of the moving parts to make sure we have it it correctly that's everything I have at least thank you yeah it's um shape enough to be a fuller one than usual y um and then last item um on Town maner reports is just a comprehensive Plan update and we're still in the public engagement phase um think we're seeing we saw a lot more surveys come in over the last couple of weeks um which is good we've had had a lot more meeting in meeting in the boxes or focus groups um that uh you know where we've we've gotten more input and more feedback and at this meeting this week I think we're going to talk more specifically about who's doing what and making sure that everybody on the committee is is trying to host
232at least one meeting and we've extended the engagement period originally it was going to end at the end of March and it was decided because of timing and different things that we felt we wanted to have another month so now the engagement period is ending April 26 so there's another month for people to do their Forum SL meeting in a box there's more time for people to do the surveys and the crowd mapping and things like that so sounds good y so all right that's that's it thank you okay um all right so I think that leads us to um board report so we'll start with uh Brandy you ready to go with a board report from your remote site there um I don't have a whole lot to report um just you know we
233do have a a comprehensive plan meeting tomorrow um the consultant won't be there we're just really kind of game planning for the rest of our engagement period um and then um yeah I think that's it I'm sorry my brain is my brain is is understandable is Swiss cheese at this point so I'm gonna call it I'm gonna call it a night on my end so great thank you I'm good all right Joe anything to uh uh just just briefly uh last Friday just want to report and I'm sure everybody will have this we uh we did a tour of the uh water treatment facility up up up off of house Street treatments and I have to tell you um very eye opening very informative Dan did a Dan and Jeff did a wonderful job doing
234in their uh presentation and providing us uh all the insights about how our water looks is the way it does and what it takes to get it the way the way it to look and the way it to taste and um it just reminds me of the uh the public safety building you know it's in a it's in a scenario or situation right now where you either pay me now or pay me later and this you don't fool around with water I'm sorry it's a it's a necessity you know so you have to get it done and I hope the t's people say that and I I'll I'll Stand Up on Tomy floor to argue for that to get this to get this passed because it's it's it's important uh you want clean water and
235uh it's going to cost but over a period of time I think we've done pretty well as a town maintaining uh the the viable drink on water that we've had so but that's all I have thank you thanks Joe Yolanda I have a few things first I attended the ym community breakfast uh as did Michael and it was very well attended two big announcements so in the federal government $5 million was earmarked for the uh the section of the YMCA that will be the early learning facility so that helps and then also the name or will be something with the hoit family y uh for the regional YMCA so that was nice they've really supported the Y in various ways so those are two of the big announcements that came out of that event uh
236I was at the college fair on Saturday trying to get people to fill out stuff for the comprehensive plan uh Michael was there as well as well as some other members I'm going to be at the Warren literacy night tomorrow night also for the comprehensive plan couple of other things coming up that people might be interested in on April 4th it's the hundred-year celebration since the marathon started in hopkington oh yeah we should talk about that um I don't know if any of you got received invites thanks for bring I know we were all we were all invited last year when we celebrated the last you know 100 years ago that Ashlin covered it right so if you haven't received an invite I know Michael said he was going to look to forward it um
237I can as well Tim kilduff from the 26.2 Foundation said we should you know in the I saw him at the YMCA breakfast yeah so Michael asked and you know we have we should get an invite and I think put it on our schedule yep and Michael did and thank you for bringing up but so Michael brought up this idea of a gift do we want to talk about that now or what do we think yeah I think so so yeah it's um I saw Tim at the Metro West visitors bureau breakfast the next day and he said you know he he talked about the event and said you know hope you all can attend um but one of the things he said you know it'd be really nice you know if Ashlin was able
238to do something you know not as extensively as what hopkington did for us last year but you know something for them to um just to commemorate the 100th start of the marathon from Hopkinson and I I suggest we have a clock um just like with a little plate you know in recognition of you know 100 Years of the Boston Marathon starting in hackington something to that effect but it all started here in Ashley yes so yeah I think that's a great try to have a positive attitud yes of course of course with a little Zing to we find zinging Zing all right so thank you and Brandy you're on you know yeah we'll do that yeah we'll get the invites and we'll see if we can make it yes April 4th it's a Thursday night
239I believe yeah okay uh two other things so uh March 28th it's a Thursday morning Metro West Regional collaborative we have our regular meeting and we're going to be getting up an update on the I90 interchange if you're interested in hearing that if not I will bring an update to our next meeting and the last thing is if you've never been 495 Metro wets partnership has their day on the hill it is scheduled for Wednesday April 24th from 11: to 1 and it's an opportunity for local officials to go to Boston through the four uh 495 Metro West partnership it's a great day to sort of meet your legislator I mean we do that anyway but just to meet with other representatives from other communities in the 495 Metro West um region so if it's
240not on your radar try to put it and if you can go great and I believe that's all I have for tonight great thanks Shand I just had two quick uh updates for the MBTA one is the fair reduction proposal is moving ahead Believe the full board approved it at the MBTA so that'll be something that's going to go in the state legis just a reminder that's the 50% Fair reduction for lowincome um and that's moving ahead that will be a legislative budget item so at some point um you know we may choose to support or not say anything about it but I would suggest we think about supporting it as it goes through the process um and the other thing we did have a commuter rail subcommittee meeting uh last week and it was
241an interesting presentation from the just briefly they're pretty much saying commuter rail ridership is close to preco numbers again but it's a different uh it's a different ridership it's not it's not the old it's not the commuter traditional commuters it's weekend off peak service workers um and they they think they've been very successful in changing the schedule so that people use it around the clock are are you know during the day um and weekends with all their different incentives so they um they're looking at ridership numbers approaching uh the other you know pre earlier um measures the other thing they talked about or the other uh thing that came up was the spring schedule and just this could impact us um Worster is pushing hard to restore their heart to HUB um Express and they're
242pushing to to make it faster by not stopping at certain towns between Wier and Framingham for example so they could be um and they are actually there's a number of you know legislative delegations talking about so it could impact us to the fact that you know they they're under the tea is being pressured to remove stops to have that Express go faster and that could mean we could have maybe one less trained we could not have the express stop here which you know was a good thing for our mters so you know that's something I um I I I I made the case that Ashlin is a very major stop and they should continue it U maybe there's some other stops they should get rid of I won't say which ones but um so there
243is that so to the extent and I did talk to uh representative Lewis about that um and there you know there a series of meetings the T thinks they've done the analysis they they're not sure they want to drop all these stops but you know worcester's pushing hard to you know do that so did you have something you wanted to say I just wanted to say that why would the Tea Stop not not stop at their biggest parking lot right between Worcester and Boston right that's basically what I said well that's true well they you know I think they they are analyzing and look at ridership and boardings and and trips so I think that's in our favor but I did want to you know throw that out there that's underactive discussion and I don't
244know Brandy did you have any uh thoughts on that are thinking about that um I I mean personally I feel like the the tea has finally gotten it right with the amount of Express trains that they're running because they are running a little bit more than they were yeah right after the pandemic and so um you know I I think I think having it just stop in Framingham is tough because there literally is no parking left in Framingham you know you'd have to rent private private spots to be able to park and inham but yeah um I mean I get why they would do that but I'm I I am you know I think all of us that that live west of of Framingham on the on the train line need those Express trains so
245I I think it's not in any of our best interests to eliminate the you know the stops in between you know yeah and my understanding is it's they're talking one train the one they call it the heart to HUB Express um and it's going to be one super fast train I guess but and the question is it'd be good if we were still on that stoping ashin and not in framing him well I don't think that's likely to happen but yeah there's more parking well it's true sense but then again said they don't always make sense yeah all right well thank you that's my just update from that when they're going to finish the work at the station oh um no so and they just got some light work to do like some paint I
246don't have a DAT they've been working steadily I don't know what's left of wre the lights I guess right is that pretty much are they painting the entire the Battleship Gray I thought it was already there I think they would have painted it before they opened it yeah um I think it got too cold before okay all right uh so I think that's it motion to adjourn so all those in favor of a journey say I roll call Brandy says I every all right bless Randy yeah and Brandy thanks for sticking with us and Claudia hope you're the best hope for the best God bless you all good night all all thank you night thank you [Music] bye