001and are live good evening everyone and welcome to the Ashlin select board meeting de December 6 2023 um before we get started I just wanted to just note uh ask for a moment of silence in commemoration of um uh the great tragedy that occurred in our our town and our thoughts and um prayer and compassion go out to the family and the many members this community affected and um also wish to thank the First Responders for the their quality and compassion in these difficult times so I just like to ask for a moment of silence thank you all and also I wish to note the passing of the father of our friend Mark donon is here tonight and our thoughts and prayers go out to the donon family as well um I do also just
002want to note that this is a difficult time of year and uh Michael reminded me the that the town has resources for people so don't hesitate to reach out and ask for help or or to get help on behalf of others if you wish so for the other board members wish to say anything um all right thank you um on another note on a a more positive note I I think it's appropriate to congratulate Ed Burman for being uh named a permanent police chief of the town of whan so congratulations to Ed I'm not sure how he juggles everything that he does and um so good for Ed so I think without further Ado I will um we'll go into um citizens participation do we have anyone here go ahead Mark okay thank you for
003the moment you gave gave a front there mark Sony foring on hathon road Cas Mass out way move back a little bit so I can get myself on here and um yes my dad did pass away on Sunday the 3D at 3:55 p.m. W family people around the bed and C in the hospice nurse did pronouncements I was the last one to to talk to him to hold his hand left hand left hand hot the hot and once he was pronounced I said to the side and the wheelchair was there have my brother and sister they opened up saw the emotion on their faces I said my last so I let them take in the moment this town is what made this is what made the sonies I invite everybody to open up the m
004re.com to read the obituary it's not lengthy you bet already know it's not lengthy you're going to see a real young man picture of him and um the visi hours I wrote it down with it's it is public The Vision hours would be uh 8 call at 8:30 in the morning to 10: the mass of St 10:30 in the in the burials at Wildwood Cemetery we wouldn't want any other way to be public because um this this family that grew up in Ashan my father grew up in Fram and Ashan is worth the time to say say thank to him and now he's back reunited with his W Ruth Ruth Simpson the Sony after 24 years so I'm saying in public m.com thank you for the briary notice I myself was taking care of him
005for nine years with the hospital people nurses everybody all the medical side and to see the phases of what he went through was tough but we're the Sony proud and I was at at the moment so I'm I'm saying thank you to mice and to my family we have now sealed the past wounds we had me and my brother are the same me and my sisters the same we're all together this is what families do and my dad who is a strong Italian waited to the the last second before he said goodbye on earth now he's up in heaven the gates are open and my mother's there thank you thank you Mark thank you um any anyone else for um citizens participation so I don't see any raised hands or anyone else approaching the podium
006so I'll begin with the agenda uh the first item on our agenda is U vote to close the tax classification a hearing so Michael if you just want to talk to us a little bit about that sure um so this is basically a formality at this point um as you know the board uh voted to go ahead and open and continue the tax classification hearing until and we can't close it until after town meeting uh just so we can incorporate all the U Appropriations if any that are part of town meeting and I believe that Susan had provided in your packet the language of the boat from last year um it's there at the very end and so it's it's essentially a motion to close and approve the tax classification hearing okay are you ready
007to I think so I move so uh motion to reopen the tax classification hearing second all those in favor of opening it say I I okay and then um motion to approve and close the tax classification hearing I'll second that motion's been made in second all those in favor say I I oppose motion passes unanimously great I would also note that Candi is here um for and she's what item is she here for um she's here for the whole meeting Rob oh she's boy what did you do robon maybe she's interested Rob so that perk your ears right up be a a long meeting so yeah I um believe it was item D which is the discussion about the approved senior workof program oh okay item D so unless you are here for the whole
008meeting well so 7:15 we have a public hearing is it something we can discuss in five minutes should reason wait D oh okay that's at the end of the list oh there it is at the end of the list of um LIC I don't have it on this one okay it might have been on the more discuss the community block grant monitor has been solved discuss the vote on the opin nope it's on the updated one that was updated on Monday oh all right well isn't that what Diane sent out to us today all right so when we get to that part mark Mike just except that we it's not on our agenda it is on the one I think it's got posted so I think I think we're okay there okay all right so
009all right so now we're on to uh do you have it Joe no so something changed between what Susan sent and then what Diane sent us yeah so it changed on the Monday oh right but I printed out what Diane sent out today and that did not have the updated this is the one I printed up from D is it on oh I apologize for that cuz I I am looking at that one right now and no it's not on there you're correct so do we know it definitely got posted um I'm checking that right now if not you might get to come back again think about that no I I think did you post it actually I actually think we could you know even if it's not yeah it's it's on the one that's
010posted good all right well let's let's go ahead was there any other information we needed for that or we're just going to talk about there well Jen was going to provide kind of like an overview about things and Candy you know if you want to start what we what got voted and approved at town meeting right and so now we're doing okay very good so we'll move on to that when we get um and also just so you know yeah she's here oh oh nice good um okay we have 3 minutes before 7:15 all right any you want to do the consent agenda I think so is anybody want to talk about anything on it no it's on the consent agenda that's why we don't talk about no no but people we pull it all
011the time I'm just asking if someone wants to talk about any of it um okay actually pull motion to pull motion to approve the consent agenda minus Item B which will review I'll second that all right all right so all motion's been made in second all those in favor say I I I those o motion passes unanimously okay so now we can talk about Item B yeah so my only question um because the item says I know we've received a a request from the um ashin Town Forest committee to reduce the committee size from Seven members to five voting members and it says in one or more associate members do we have how do we know how many associate members we currently have and to say it was four we have four um okay yeah
012this is updated Pages if you um I think there I have no issues I have no issues changing the the voting number um the numbers of voting members but I was just curious pretty sure we have four um on the Town Forest committee there's four Associates associate but they're only asking I was one or more oh so they can have as many as they want in this language I was curious what the what we had and what the language you know like just so any in terms is anybody have any concerns or issues in reducing it to five voting members and one or more I would think for them it makes it easier if they only have five then it's easier to get Quorum and to actually have a meeting Seven's seven is a seven
013can be tough yeah I I would also advise when um committees do come to you with expanded membership requests that you heavily evaluate it because I know nobody likes to say no to people but we do this is not the first time where we've had a situation we've gone up and then we had to go down and one of them this was this was five members right I think they they they us yes y yep I think that happened in space that happened I remember why a few times okay the other thing I would say is moving forward is that if someone has a request like this instead of putting it into the consent agenda let him come to a meeting we can give us we if we can get an update at the same
014time on what they're working on I would say moving forward if a if a idea committee asks for this kind of thing put them on the our agenda for the next meeting and then that way we can have a conversation but I move that we accept the request for the Ashen toown Forest committee to reduce the size from seven to five voting members and Associate members as they see appropriate I'll second motion's been made made in second all those in favor say I I I uh none opposed motion passed unanimously the Town Forest committee committee size has been reduced to five members and one or more associate members all right thank you for that now it's 7:15 so now it's 7:15 I'm going to open the U public hearing uh for an alteration of license
015premise to Warren Conference Center uh notice is hereby given that the select board will conduct a hearing regarding an alteration of license premise submitted by flick international corporation DBA waren Conference Center and in the alteration would include changing the license premise to include all the buildings and grounds within the Warren Conference Center and in complex excluding the parking lot Warren Conference Center in 529 Chestnut Street ashin Mass 01721 a public hearing will be held in the matter at ashon Town Hall 101 Main Street on Wednesday December 6th at 7:15 this meeting will be conducted in person however participants are also invited to join the meeting via zoom using this link and list the link uh parties wishing to be heard in this matter should appear at the time and place indicated above interested parties who
016are unable to attend the hearing May submit written comments to the select board's office Town Hall 101 Main Street Ash mass 01721 or by emailing Susan Robi at sroi Asin mass.com signed Robert Shar chair select board Okay so we have a motion to open the hearing so moved second moot motion's made in second all those in favor open the hearing say I I I motions hearing okay uh the motion's open sorry so do we have a proponent to come forward or a presentation representative of Y hi come on up and stand at the podium sure yeah go ahead if you have something you want to just as kind of a Prelude this is um a request for an alteration of the license premises to include the basically the whole buildings and grounds with a couple
017not notable exceptions and um Kim sternik is here from representing flick and uh Kim would you like to basically present your case and certainly uh we are a group-driven property um we are we have recently transformed one of our one of the buildings in which will become a small Cafe called Henry's place um and we're hoping that we'll be able to serve alcohol and we thought it would be easier and better for our business and for the community to premise the to license the entire premise including some of our field areas uh all of our events are all group-driven they're booked ahead of time we wor it's not open to the public the Henry's place will be open to the public and will serve as an outlet for light fair and hopefully beverage um for
018our new Community Club that we have started about a year and a half ago um as well as to our guests on property as well as to the general public anything else um according to this agenda um I'm to ask if there's anyone um anyone else speaking in favor or anyone opposed to this license um requirement come forward raise your hand if you're virtual or come forward to the microphone if you're here we get any notification via email from anybody I don't recall seeing anything thank you okay so any further information comments questions from the select board just a few so um is this to expand just to include Henry's place or are you looking to then have it be able to do well we're hoping we'll throughout the whole facility like I know you
019put a tent up in the summer um and you do events there so right now if you do an event there you can't alcohol there correct okay so you're looking to basically say okay we want to rather than cuz right now it's just in the lodge if I'm correct just in the lodge so we're adding other there's an addition being put on that's we broke ground on couple of weeks ago so that's going to be that's also in the alteration where's the addition being put on we used to have a patio area that was covered on the back side of the Hayden Lodge we've removed that we're going to be building a a about a 2,800 square foot uh room to be named and that will serve as meeting space as well as general function
020space okay um there'll be a deck outside of the dining room area which will enhance the experience for our guests there um we would also like to be able to utilize the fields it offers us the flexibility to do community based events as well as um to the to private events as well we had a lot of call for people who want to do fun things out there and the licensure would is somewhat of a drag okay I'm good go ahead you good Mr chair go ahead thank you um one quick question uh does that include the uh beach front as well beach front State Property so that's the that would absolutely I just absolutely not it would be within our property lines okay thank you yeah almost set thanks I have a a couple
021questions so um one of the in in our packet one of the locations is guest cabins so we have four cabins and I think that that was our corporate office those are overnight accommodations we wouldn't be serving alcohol okay cuz I part of the hotel it's okay I was just trying to figure out I think they wanted to incorporate everything but there's no those are rented privately and we wouldn't be okay serving alol um and the and the times and things are I don't think I saw that in our in our packet is there um is there limitations so we're hoping to amend it to our existing license which is a 1 a okay to 1:00 a.m. and all events are um 4 hours or less y I saw okay um and everything is is
022even if it's out in the tent there's the appropriate oh yes absolutely gotcha okay because we we have not done a um a premise I don't think we have any we don't have any premise licenses right now so you know I'm looking at this as like you know I think that if that if we were to to do a premises license I think the W I think this is the place to look at to do yeah um so you know I I I completely uh I can I I kind of I going through the map and how you guys are laid out and how how everything functions I think you know I don't I don't have um a lot of concerns with your process because it seems like because it's so event driven it is
023and it's not sort of a I don't want to call it a free-for-all but that's you know because that that that would be like my concern is if we had a premises license that was not controlled I guess you can say um then I would you know I would I would want to make sure we had some parameters on that so of course one of the parameters I thought I think it was mentioned in the uh in your packet that the parking lot was excluded from this location from I believe you can't yeah well we wouldn't do that anyway you can't serve alcohol in a park no but I'm just saying that was one of the restrictions that was on the for state laws yep okay I Michael yeah go ahead anybody Kim I just
024wanted to to clarify um so except for Henry's place all the other times alcohol will be served in the other places that's going to be contract pre-arranged contracted events yes is that correct with the exception being that we would hope to be able to offer beer and wine perhaps in the in lobby or something if you were a transient guest that was staying okay but the only bar that we would have open to the public would be at Henry's place and it's really cute and tiny I love it that it's called Henry's place isn't it fun do sound that's great that's great any further deliberation discussion before we close the hearing no um anyone to speak against it I asked before no one but caught one or two more people on so okay just remind
025people you can raise hand function if you'd like to speak let's see is anybody um okay motion to close the public hearing so moved a motion's been made I just said it oh okay second oh yeah sorry it's good she caught that that's good uh motions been made in seconded to close the public hearing all those in favor say I I oppose none Claud are you voting or participating I see you there she may have just turned just be listen I'll leave and then motion to wait I have to declare so we close the public hearing okay y very good go ahead motion to approve the extension of the Warren Conference Center to a premise license as presented in our materials I'll second that there you go Motion uh as to approve the license have
026been made in second all those in favor say I iOS license has been approved congratulations thank you very much thank you good luck we will we'll be interested to see how it goes so we may ask ask you back in six or eight months to find out how it's working for you great thank you good luck thank you all right the next is the public hearing for a livery license applicant is Anthony Gomes I'm going to ask the vice chair if she'd be so kind to read it my voice is giving out thank you notice is hereby given that the select board will conduct a hearing regarding an application for a livery license to Anthony J Gomes 14 Upland Road Ashlin Mass o 1721 a public hearing will be held on this matter on Wednesday
027December 6th 2023 at uh 7:45 I believe oh so then we need to wait I'm sorry we need to wait thank you nope I we will wait to read this until 7:45 we can go on to old new business so that's the annual license renewals which we all have a long list and I think we decided we don't need to read it we can reference the list by having it on our agenda then people can see what has been approved so um and this is all of our licenses in town this is this is like all all the the liquor licenses this is all the um common Vic license any sort of amusement Bard all of those lodging yep that's good yeah just it's good to describe it for the public what we're all looking
028at here so all alcohol restaurant all alcohol retail wine malt restaurant wine malt retail Amusement Billiards Class 2 which is used cars class three which is junk and Salvage uh Club common Vic entertainment hobby lodging and taxi and Livery Livery I think it should be junk and Salvage not or is it junk and Savage Salvage okay Savage Savage junk Savage it be a first in the state it would I move that we approve the list of licens renewals as presented on the agenda I'll second motions been made and seconded all those in favor say I I oppose none motions been all the licenses listed here are renewed all right thank you businesses for staying in Ashland all right so I think the next one is um discuss the community uh block grant monitoring process and
029followup so if you'll recall um uh I as chair was sent a letter a finding letter um from our management of the Community Development block grant fund that had to do with and Michael will talk about it but um the um we hired a subcontractor to oversee some awards um uh and help to for businesses who were affected by the uh covid uh um um epidemic and um there's some issues with documentation of I think of my recollection of losses from from those businesses and then some of the business actually didn't respond to tell how they use the funds and um ol hlc whatever their new acronym is was not happy with um our subcontractor's management so they sent us that report and Michael has um my understand has done some extensive followup on that
030and so he's ready to tell us about how that's how that's going yeah rob you actually summarized it pretty well um uh there if just if everybody recalls um we were awarded almost a $5 million microenterprise Grant um to distribute to businesses that were impacted by covid um we uh select well we weren't given much of a choice on who we could select but basically we subcontracted with mass growth Capital Corporation to basically administer the program and so they um they're the ones who set things up um they used a state supported portal for all the documentation purposes um and so fast forward to 2022 late 2022 early 2023 and going back as the executive office of Housing and livable communities went back through and looked at the documentation basically kind of an audit they
031sampled a few different businesses and they saw that there wasn't necessarily uh the documentation that that was required that needed to be there and so that is what they are bringing to our attention and asking for our help in terms of U reconciling that um and so basically what uh we're doing we're trying to work with mass growth Capital Corporation although Beth is doing a lot of this herself reaching out to these specific businesses to try to obtain the documentation that is being required um so far we've really had very little luck um with with regards to mass growth Capital Corporation but um and I mean we're finding a couple businesses are actually out of businesses out of business at this point so uh best working on that we've got about another month um in
032order we have about a month in the time frame that executive office has given us to put our response together and and um and put forward so we hope to have more information at that point in time and what we have to do is we have to submit uh essentially a letter that says that we will comply with you know future Grant um obligations and internal controls and things of that nature um so we'll need to do that you know at the beginning of the year uh questions yeah just one question so if we were made or for forced to work with this particular vendor uh and they didn't follow up with what they were required to do do we have any I mean any recourse yeah or are we are we on the hook
033for anything because they didn't do what they were supposed to do I think that's yet to be be seen so um you know according to the letter that we have received it does not look like there's any Current financial pen penalties that are on the table they do say that um we cannot um basically contract with mass growth Capital Corporation again unless we submit to the executive office what that agreement is and they feel comfortable that mgcc can handle it okay um to answer your direct question I think if there was a monetary you know penalty imposed we would then have recourse to go back to M go back based on the agreement that we had signed with them good thank you Michael was that one of the companies that the state suggested the towns
034use yeah I mean it was pretty kind of this de broker by MPC yeah and I think it's important to note that we're we're crossing over a couple different administrations here um which I will say I feel has something to do with this um because amazingly like when we received this money they the state meaning the state wanted to push it out like right away and get it into the hands of these businesses as soon possible so I think you know under one Administration we were given certain instructions and mass growth Capital was given you know certain instructions and then you know with the new Administration coming in which admittedly is probably on the hook you know for any kind of um any kind of consequences associated with this yeah well I think was you
035know when I read it I was you know and I've been involved in these kind of relief programs as well I was a little surprised at well first of all that they didn't get good applications from people showing the need um and then the businesses you know their lack of response and the fact that it sounds like you're still having difficulty with some of these uh you know that's really very disappointing and somewhat unusual that they wouldn't document you know I did a PPP loan many of us probably did you know you just had to follow the documentation it sounds like these people aren't even bothering to do that and um are these are these any bu I I know this is a huge Grant and involves are these any local businesses that are I
036I do not believe there are any Ash businesses that were part of the 16 I was just reading that I was a little surprised at the kind of um it was a little Mass gr it was a little slip shot but you know I think they also expected kind of conscientious response from people who are getting these grants and it it sounds like there's a lot of resistance and that's that's very disappointing some unusual resistance or B basically um just Lac ofical attitude indifference and this is you know you get people complaining about misspent government funds and this is you know unfortunately but I but I was also thinking if a business got the funds and then they still weren't able to stay in business well that's true at this point fa you know once
037they failed because of Co even if they got these funds they they have no incentive to reply or to fill this paperwork un that isn't the case though you you got active businesses that are not responding is that correct apparently a couple have come back or it's come to our attention that they're not in business anymore I think the way you know Beth is approaching it first of all is she's emailing these businesses herself to establish a paper trail um and you know we will do our best She'll follow up with phone calls we'll do our best to get the information that we can even though this really should be Mass growth capital I was going to say because it wasn't Beth that got the businesses to work with us right it was mass growth
038Capital that well it's not just Ashland right number of communities and I believe it was 23 communities in each of the communities local officials in each of those communities helped identify the businesses that would be um utilized and mass growth Capital Corporation was really kind of the administrative agency that set up the submittables platform which was um you know the platform that they used for all of this documentation held the money you know all of that good stuff let me ask a question it was um I assume that that this was not the only block grant that was given to mgcc if it's like a state thing but we're not the only one so I'm I'm curious if if you've heard from other um sort of administrative groups of these block grants if there's other
039issues in other communities and they're kind of dealing with the same issues I don't know if you've heard of anything I have not heard that I mean Beth did say today that it seems like Mass growth capital is being sued okay I'm not necessarily sure by who or whom or What entity but um were receiving some more on other projects well we're the subrecipient we're the we're probably a sub recipient there Sub sub recipient so everybody's liable well that's a good point because I think the State dollars were coming from the federal government re H and then yeah I'm just I was just curious because if there are other communities that are dealing with this issue and it becomes a bigger issue because if it's a federal thing where the documentation isn't there and then
040the state is trying to crack down on how this was administered you know if there is some sort of liability with mgc potentially you under audit so anyway that's just my two cents but it sounds like they're going to sounds like they're being reasonable as long as we're making a good effort and I'm glad that be unfortunately had to take it up but I think it's important for our own 16 16 well technically it was 14 because they they sampled 16 two of them had the required documentation like a not a good not a good ratio that's B 100 but how many businesses benefit I mean like oh gosh 60 to 100 businesses benefited from this program overall but they did a random sample right no no I understand that um so they just sampled
041the wrong ones yeah I'm kidding but that's what happened um okay you'll keep us posted on anything else one one kind of procedural question so what was the total amount that passed it passed through our finances right yes is it going to be part of our financial statement uh 4,950 th000 um that was the the total amount yeah so that'll be under our financial statement at the end of the year right I mean it's it will under under I think it's already passed it's different I think it was already on yeah right oh okay did it change our filing requirements at all because it was over didn't change our filing requirements and and actually it has been like our books have been audited since then and CU wasn't it 2020 or 2021 that this program
042was so it already happened it's done done and gone okay all right well thank you and hopefully be able to keep up the air all right where are we now discuss and vote on opt out for vote by mail oh yeah don't mind um Jen I'll turn it over to you to start it off the mail we're just going to pull this one right yeah the vote by we're going to pull the vote by mail I'm sorry oh okay yeah Cindy was waiting for some information from the state um and we checked right before and she still did not have that okay okay so then on just D discuss and vote on the town meeting approved senior workof program oh this is it this is candi's moment okay so um as you know um last
043week at town meeting we reaffirmed um our commitment to the senior tax workof program and then accepted sort of two Provisions one rather than having um a maximum amount each year that you can um earn it was a number of hours so up to 125 hours and then also allowing somebody who's not physically able to complete the hours um have somebody else um do their hours in their place yeah so we did a um just looking at our program it allows the select board to outline the program rules and so I just wanted to sort of um discuss some of those changes candi's already received several inquiries or at least two or three inquiries um for people who really want to start right as January there was nothing in our packet to no yes so
044yes um so in January just to um get started and then if you conceptually agree with the direction we can put together the rules um and do it as of January and do it as of January do our first meeting in January we can we can sort of airm it but then can start moving forward assuming getting people placed um so um it's 60 and over um which is that's did not change um previously we just had yet had to be a resident Homeowner of Ashlin we're thinking about adding a for minimum of five years so be here in town for 5 years to be eligible for that program um obviously you have to occupy the property for which the taxes are going to be um and so that if you had somebody that was
045going to work off your hours for you um the the law and the guidance from the state is that that person should also reside in that home yes so media family member not like landlords or right so immediately reside in the home um so the person who's working off needs to reside in the home as well yes is that does that make sense though sorry so it could be a spouse or it could be a child it's it's an immediate family member could be but a child May no longer live with them right I think about you know we have some senior citizens in town who are the parents of people who live in town and could it be that they at least live I mean if they don't live in the residence they live
046in town or something I can't get clarification but we can have immediate family and if it's required by law keep it in as maybe immediate family makes sense but okay um I'm sorry go ahead so this wouldn't work on behalf of anybody that uh needed community service hours would come and work for that individual ual per se you meaning like a student that needs Community it couldn't be dually it couldn't be du it they can use it both ways yeah so it have to be one all right thank you um previously we had a a not to exceed sort of gross annual um income for residents we've sort of looked around there are communities that do have a cap um many communities do not just with sort of your it's a service that you're working
047off and um and so you can either be you can also be eligible for the exemption if you if you met those um income so we were thinking about at least for this first year try that out have no no limitation in terms of what you're earning no no no income limitation for someone who wants to do this yeah so anybody who's over 60 that's able and that meets the requirements and can sort of it's really about basing uh matching skills with what we might need as opposed to um the income eligibility do you have an idea I mean like what do we so over 60 I think most of us don't think of I guess I'll speak for myself if people who are just like around 60 is not really being needing this or
048maybe not having in income we think of older people as generally receiving this do you have an idea like over 60 like what do we talking about in terms of numbers and so we we're going to actually have a cap for this for this year for 10 um is we also don't have unlimited number of opportunities I see so we still have to manage what's the cap did you say 10 10 we're thinking 10 last year we only had we only had three people participate last year um I think maybe our top maybe how many was the total six is and and the idea six and the idea now is in instead of a dollar amount it's ours and depending on if I I understand it correctly depending on what they do will determine what
049rate they're credited at correct so they make they'll make minimum wage so $15 an hour and so we can go up to 125 hours we we've previously been at 50 because our cap was really low and this so we're thinking 100 hours which is actually a lot of hours to do in a year um and so if we cap it at 100 hours at $15 an hour for 10 people we're talking about $115,000 you know they get $1,500 per person and for for the bud be potential 15,000 okay um and that's really all all the changes and so what we'll do is we'll create create little um blurs for the Departments that need work and that way we're able to match skills and then they would fill out paperwork and we would be able to
050place them but if conceptually we can agree on that I can put a um a rule document together to sort of and we can confirm that in January but at least candy can start working on getting people in place so that they can start working their hours so could this be you know like someone you know works in the clerk's office or so DPW needs someone to file or could they use this for working at the polls so typically we don't use it for working at the polls it's usually um but we we often have staff um in the clerk's office that's one of the Departments that does um usually participate uh senior centors sometimes the library um and then I think maybe the food pantry we talked about but there's some opportunities to expand
051it and we'll make sure that we have and people can sort of tell us where they're also interested and why are you doing 60 plus why not 65 plus that's the that's what the law says yeah oh the law says it has to be 60 plus oh okay but so you're talking about only 10 people so do you select are you going to select people like what happens if you get more than 10 yeah come to the microphone come on up here K you you've been here all this time you do something I know well um Candy Wilson I'm the director of the senior center also an Ashland resident um so my understanding is um can you repeat your question I just want to I just so there's 10 I just don't know what kind
052of demand I would the folks to the skill set that they have so we wouldn't necessarily want to place somebody in a role that they couldn't right but I'm saying what if you get more interest more requests than 10 so it would have to so other towns we could do it as a lottery it would have to be done as a lottery and that's what other towns are doing as well but we felt like in the last five years we haven't had more than six and so you know even if people are more interested because now we've had a little bit more public discussion um because it was I think been a a bit of time since we implemented and so if we even double that um and so we felt like 10 was a
053decent number it sort of matches I think Hollis or Hoppington has a similar uh cap some of the larger departments have um bigger CS is there a date that people need to like decide that they want to participate by or so typically the program runs January to December so they have to complete their work hours by December um 30th okay so I'm just thinking you know if it's rolling in terms of like if you didn't participate but most of the folks that do want to participate want the whole calendar year although 100 hours doesn't seem like a lot it is when it's it is 7:45 but are we okay are we agreeable to I think we're yeah so thank you and I'll turn this over to the to run this hearing so thank you thanks
054candy did you I'm sorry did you have a question sir about this I have a letter for the public oh yeah we're about to start that we're about to read that so if you want you can step up um so it's now 7:45 notice is hereby given that the select board will conduct a hearing I guess I should put my glasses on regarding an application for a livery license for Anthony J gos 14 Upland Road Ashen Mass a public hearing will be held on this matter on Wednesday December 6th 2023 at 7:45 p.m. at the Ashen Town Hall parties wishing to be heard on this matter are invited to attend the public hearing or can participate via Zoom interested parties who are unable to attend the hearing May submit submit written comments to the ashin
055select board Town Hall 101 Main Street Ashlin mass 01721 or by emailing Susan Roby sroy Asin mass.com um I move that we open the public hearing as read I'll second that okay okay uh so we're opening the hearing so if you could come up to the microphone sir oh we should vote right I yeah I I we vot okay 41 call the V yeah I'll call the votes s okay so this is now our public hearing yes my are you Anthony I am Anthony jigs okay um can you tell us a little bit about what you're looking to do and what you're looking for with this license well I'm retired like a 72 years old sitting at home for nothing I need to do something myself with the liy license I met the other day
056one of my friends he said why don't we apply for the liy license I said how how do I do that if you go to the town hall they will assist you love it so uh that's why I'm interested to uh make some little money okay and can you explain a little bit about what your business is going to do for the Family Maintenance so you're you're going to be a liery service yeah certain hours are you going to have a special car I I have a car okay and I don't know how many hours I can do it but I will try my best okay more hours and um so theivery it's you're going to just do it from your home yes any signage at your home or anything like that no okay um
057so we did have we did have someone email I I don't know if it was one of your neighbors they had some questions but we were able to answer that um one of the concerns was operating 24 hours a day would you think you'll be pulling out at 2 am. or yeah no problem but the idea is you're just going to use your car yes and from what we read you're really just looking to do local trips help people get different places yes ma'am okay okay any questions just on the on the application uh Mr Gomes uh the business name and you put down taxi delivery license permit what is actually the name of the company that you'll be running it's not not that company is running from my home I understand that but you
058have a business name do you have a name for your business just Anthony goony just Anthony go okay thank you okay is the difference business name and Anthony G if if you wanted to have a business you could have a business name or just can be Anthony goes that's fine too yeah I can change a letter on right yes you would just need to let us know that okay yeah yeah um any other questions from the board do I have anybody via Zoom either here to support or uh go against this Livery license request if you do please use the raise hand function down under reactions to let us know and I am seeing none there's a little hand there but I think it's the cursor um that's Jen's hand um okay so seeing nothing
059on um of questions to be asked uh I'd like to uh make a motion to close the public hearing I'll second that great uh all those favor of closing the public hearing I I that carries 4 z um any other discussion or debate no okay I move that we approve the taxi delery license uh permit for Anthony J Gomes at Upland Road Ashlen Mass I'll second that great uh all those in favor of the motion I I opposed zero and that passes you are officially in business as a taxi and livery service good luck thank you congratulations congratulations thank you all right thank you y um can he give you I mean we could take it here now but you might have why don't you hold off because you might have some other yeah why
060don't you come back yeah and come back during normal business hours during business hours to pay everything and get a stamp and everything tomorrow y you can do that tomorrow great what time should I come so we're open from 8:00 to 4:00 or 3:30 I'm sorry any particular time I anytime anytime between those hours thank you so much you're welcome you're welcome good luck thank you all right well thank you um Madame Vice chair for handling that for me I appreciate it so that brings us to number six on the agenda if I if I'm tracing this right to Priority project update uh from the town manager yeah um so downtown I think I don't think there's been too much of an update since the last time we talked about it thank you and thank
061you Candy it's good seeing you um essentially uh the road work is done um as you can see they've done a really nice job we're at the point now where we have a monetized punch list and we're going through those um and uh so hopefully those can get resolved without too much angst and too much drama and you know they're small things like there's a couple concrete panels that are cracked some of the bricks are cracked a lot of those have been replaced already um and so the next step is really to start moving towards um taking the poles down uh one question that I've talked to you about a couple of trees and different plantings and is that part of the monetized punch list or okay I mean I know we we won't do
062anything now that has to be a spring thing but um and so the next thing is moving towards taking the poles down and so Verizon is finally moving and getting a lot of their equipment installed Comcast is in a pretty good place um they're essentially waiting on us now at this point um eversource has a lot of their equipment in um they do have a delay with Transformers that they need um we need about 12 Transformers um we've got about 10 the required ones so we're still waiting on two Hopkinton and their project is having a very similar experience um I've said as long as we're first um you know I said that with Karen's office on the phone and I put put them in a bad spot um so uh so want to acknowledge
063that and how are the connections to the homes and businesses going the underground connections so we'll put that out to bid in January okay um as part of that we've had some I don't know for those of you that were at the tree lighting or maybe the manora lighting last year um we seem to have some issues with that electrical circuit so we're going going to include yeah the hot chocolate effect it was not it was not good um and so we're going to go ahead and incorporate fixing that as part of the building connections oh good good good so that work will be done in the spring and then once that's connected um we energize the system make sure everything's working and then we start the process of taking the wires down and then
064the poles so ever Source anticipated having that done mid 2024 the poll is down okay so we we're still on track for that yes great and yeah it looks the downtown looks great especially with the the holiday lights up and everything yeah I I will say to add to this uh the milpond SLO way observation deck um so the deck is been completed what needs to happen now is and DPW is doing this work um there's a little bit of an incline that needs to be done to make it ADA Compliant and so they're working on that they're working with Nic oara with um you know getting the right granite and stuff for that to make it work and thanks to Nick so so that's downtown uh moving on to Public Safety uh we do
065have some news there Jen you want to talk about it sure so um the correct doors um have arrived which is great news yes and so uh they've been working to take one door at a time down one you know set of doors um at a time so that we can continue to operate and uh they've coordinated with the fire department so they're moving apparatus to make sure that they can maintain um their ability to respond to calls um we have two fully operational and the third should be if not today in the next day or so um and they'll doing one at a time and so over the next two to three weeks we'll have the rest of the Bays done and complete they do look um a lot nicer they're definitely can even
066just when you look at them you can tell the quality so I'm really happy that that um has happened I think even the opening the opener that it's a lot quieter um even the hinges the sizes of the hinges are like double maybe um which have they done first the the one closest to the the school like you're going up the hill so you're going up the hill and you can really tell that's I figured I'd ask I haven't been by there for a few days yeah so there's a you know the window um when you go back go by at night it's super evident in terms of so that's done and then solar is also complete um that is also done so really just working on some last minute um uh punch list items
067and then a couple of the change orders that had long lead times and so that's really you know really wrapping up this point nice that's great okay okay minda school I think probably the big news is that we've got the playground open uh since our last meeting um and so we uh that was that was a fun a big thing fun thing to sign off on and uh so the kids were really really appreciative of that you know the other thing we're working on is with you know some of the new infrastructure funds that came on board or came online I should say there's the opportunity for municipalities to take advantage of energy solar energy tax credits that we weren't necessarily able to before because well we don't tax get ourselves taxed um so the
068rules have changed a little bit around that um but that's the good news and so we might be eligible for a significant amount of of money um based on those credits for the Mendes school and its solar project that's the good news the bad news is that nobody's ever done this before so we're all kind of like figuring out how it works going along so where where because it's not did we set we didn't create solar for that right on the window it's solar ready it's solar ready and then it's also got other energy effici gy right I mean has a lot of energy efficiencies but okay can we utilize the uh public safety building for some of those tax credits as well um I think that would be credited to the school to the
069school project solely the school project okay yeah but it piggy back on it yeah yeah okay so that's Mendes um Valentine so we've been at the 90 the barn has been at the 95% complete stage fors a couple weeks now um it it looks incredible um what's still remaining is they have to do finish up a little bit more of the flooring which is the uh you know 2in roughs on boards um and then also the barn doors so the barn doors have been painted and they've been you know protected um that's happening in the shop those should be going up pretty soon um and then after that one of the final pieces I don't know if you've noticed this but there are a couple of doors that we basically restored um on the sides
070sides except there's a sizable step down so Doug is actually working with nicara again to you know procure some uh some Granite steps for those sites but you know it's it's pretty utilitarian of course and but it's it's pretty nice we we have a date on our calendar right for January believe it's 27th or 29th oh I believe for the Forum 27th or 29th yeah let me let me double check I'll have to go back to my notes but we did establish a date I think it was the 27th the 27th is a Saturday so it must have been the 2th 29th okay Monday because I had a date of the 22nd so if we pushed it out to the 29th that's fine okay yeah did we have that on our schedule do we get
071that I just don't I know we talked about it didn't we had talked about it so okay the 29th perfect and then you know nothing really on the Warren District so think that's pretty much wraps up Priority projects and I'm just I'll renew my ask to have the upper Charles Trail put on this list here yeah thank you okay well public safety building should go off soon so that would be good no good Mena school should go off soon well except that we still have all the field work and stuff to do true true and new the new traffic patterns have already started yes and it worked out it's worked out pretty well so far there's no backup of any of the parents that are usually parked on on conquer Street Goodbody they shouldn't have
072been parked on conquer Street at all since the Mendes opened cuz they were pulling up along the back the buses were too oh no the buses were using the they were still a tack right now everything is working well oh good yeah everything's working well hopefully cuz boy there was a lot of planning there's a lot of there's a lot of space there for sure okay Town manager yes so I've got a couple items here on the agenda and a few items that are not on the agenda so I'll start with the ones that are on um so special town meeting recap obviously we had town meeting on Wednesday last Wednesday um we had about 81 81 people attend um so not a giant town meeting but we didn't have much on the warrant we
073only had eight items um all items passed um including our free cash appropriation which um funds our long-term liabilities and then also our Capital program um town meeting approved the 41c and a half exemption which provides tax relief for seniors um we did uh do the senior tax workof program as as we discussed earlier there were a couple of land related things one a donation from the Bell property and uh also an easement on High Street so both of those are being worked on by Lisa you know to finalize that stuff and move it forward um and then the liquor license uh the authorization for the board to submit a home R petition for the liquor licenses we need to start working to put that together for the board to to vote on and uh
074the other two were CPC articles so um and so those passed as well so I thought um thought all in all we we had some sound issues uh and we had some AC issues yes AC um but those were resolved thanks to our crack team at wacka and the people that they work with as well as our facilities team um so that was it was fixed in relatively short order so it was it was a good meeting great um so other items Michael yeah so I have um so it says up here update on the clinician and that's the um jail diversion program clinician so uh the town and her police department has contracted with Riverside uh Community Care um who has uh selected a person to work with us um as our clinician for
075the JDP program um it's local resident Kirsten quern um so she uh she has uh started her training process and and everything so we think she's going to work out really really well um I think many of you probably know Kiren nice what did you call the program Michael the jail diversion program jail diversion is in is it a ride along or just kind of like a call it's kind of a it's really call based call based yeah so she'll respond to yeah okay um there there are some Ride Along aspects to it as well nice uh the other things I had so you know first of all um we just had we just had a great weekend um in terms of events um so Saturday we obviously had the Holiday Stroll in the tree
076lighting and uh the town just looks smashing uh have to give Beth a lot of credit it's like a Hallmark moment I've had more than a Hallmark movie I've had more than one people more than a handful of people say that y um but we do have the lights are just professionally done so and it makes a huge difference um the stroll was a big success you know our vendors we had increased our vendors by a third um they ended up you know doing being wildly successful oh that's the tree lighting was successful Santa made it um in that freezing cold and you know he had a long Santa was very warm he had a a long list or long line of people who were waiting to to tell him all of his good stuff
077or all the good stuff that they want for Christmas so everything went off pretty well um Santa spent a lot of time in Ashland Santa yes at The Corner Spot day so wow so that was pretty cool um and also what was going on Saturday was our conference of plan open house and so we had set a goal as a steering committee to get a hundred people participate as part of that um we had just shy of 160 we had 159 uh provide feedback so it was really really great the room was was always busy um want to thank everybody who was involved um with putting that together including the consultant and our working group Yolanda yourself folks Kate and Beth um want to thank the Mom's Club for providing um that was kid activities
078um and so the kids drew what they liked about Ashley and what they would like to see in ashin those were the best those were so fun to see I think I think the consultant's going to scan those in and it's going to it's going to be part of yeah we talked to you know the best one was a popey's chicken the popey's chicken more rainbows cuz you need more rainbows the I I mean they were all good but I really like some of the realistic ones you know like looking for the skate park and different playgrounds and different things but the more rainbows was good Popeyes was fun so but again there was one that I questioned somebody had said no Waste Management you know no garbage trucks yeah trcks but I question whether
079that was a child here draw this picture Kid you never know never know great it was drawn by a coyote it was but it was it was awesome was good a lot of good conversation lot of people so we should have more a Consolidated look at that feedback um at our next steering committee meeting yep so I'm looking forward to seeing that I did get a chance to scan some of the Post-it notes and it looks like there were some really good feedback provided yeah and there was a lot of part you know thank you guys for doing it and Michael was there and all the steering committee members a lot of enthusias a lot of a lot of members were there it was good very helpful um and then on Sunday we had uh
080the dwali event which is basically combo town of Ashland and um Ashland Indians Club um event and that was great Brandy was there with us uh they actually collected uh $300 to donate to the food pantry oh nice um and uh it was it was a great event a lot of the kids performed um and it's just amazing the kind of talent that we have here from dancing so this was different than the one that they had back in November right yeah okay so this one was at the middle school it's usually at The Corner Spot yeah they had they had the rung goalie and the um okay so okay that explains it the one they usually have at The Corner Spot yeah so it was it was good it was really good good and
081it was at the middle school which was good because Sunday the weather was lousy and it would have been a miser they would had to cancel it if they had landed outside so good and then the last thing I have is just I mean I've brought to your attention the fact that we have some issues with the roof yeah um and that was on our list for 2024 to one of our goals to get done so we're expecting bids um on that roof uh fixed to come back in January 16th right so yep um we successful this time around so um so yeah I'll keep you updated on that how that goes and uh jendy do you have anything okay I think that's us all right thank you so we're ready for board reports Y
082and Claudia if she want to say anything just raise your hand but we'll start with actually what Brandy has her poem so we thought we would have Brandy do her do yes finish on that how could I have Miss forgotten that all right very good she has her poem so we we'll let her do her last all right so Joe why don't you lead us off sure I'm happy to be lead off hit not a problem they need to be able to hear you yeah they may not want to uh the holiday lighting and holiday St like Michael said it was an awesome time um it was nice to uh see Santa back and doing the things that uh they enjoyed doing um I had heard that uh four four children sat on Santa his
083lap and they came from the Ukraine and their families are here in town oh wow and um each one of them they were separately they had come through the line separately and one of the elves had told Santa that um they're from the Ukraine so Santa asked what they wanted for Christmas and they said Peace in my country that was it yeah that was it for Santa I can tell you that right now yeah man oh man out of the mouth of babes I just wish our world leaders could hear these things and make those decisions but anyway um it was a great time I enjoyed it um the Ashland uh traffic study committee uh we met a couple of weeks ago and one of the biggest concerns right now is is is speeding uh
084in and around the areas uh uh many areas of town and so we've been talking about that we've been talking about you know the the uh possibility of putting speed bumps in if that's a you know uh something that could happen uh the other is more visibility whether our police police officers out there doing right are um even if they just gave you know written warnings instead of written citations that you know hurts the pockets of you know of anybody because there it's a lot of money you know with the additional fees that they put on the uh the citations today uh it's just not like $25 speed fine now it's plus 150 and and and other things so you're looking at $300 to $400 uh at a whack but anyway so we're talking about
085that uh I just want to make mention that we have the uh employee recognition uh luncheon uh this Friday at 8 right so on the 8th which is it's always a fun thing to do and uh the manur lighting is uh December 10th from 6:15 to 7: and I'll hold this one for for Yolanda cuz I know she's a lion so she would hype up on that and um just to uh it's been a tough week for well tough weekend uh for the town of Aram we lost a lot of uh great residents in town uh just recently uh uh Helen blong is saying her passed away she was an assistant teacher uh she she was a teacher's assistance for over 25 years at uh in the Ashland School System very loved and very caring
086person and I wish her I wish her peace and and and rest and her condolences to her family the prel family another tragedy uh that just happened over the weekend um and uh Mr Don Gus guess used to look at us when we go visit over there and uh he just said I don't know about you boys and that's exactly what he would say I don't know about you boys and we there was there was a hidden message in there and we all got it we believe we all got oh yeah and then some and then lastly my uh my godfather may you rest in peace Richard Morini we just lost him the other day and we uh buried him today we miss him so that's all I have to say but you know what
087in the Christmas of thing in the spirit of Christmas you know what they're all with they're all up there looking down at us and they're smiling and proud of all you guys so you know I will not spoil Christmas I will enjoy that and I will keep them in my memory with a smile in my face amen that's itk good job thank you a couple things again congratulations to Beth Reynolds and all the people who supported her the stroll was such a big hit so many vendors were so happy um and it was nice to see Subzero open they were I every time I walked by I'm like oh I'll get and the lines were too long get longer they so ice creams I believe 265 that's great so congratulations to them and to everybody
088who who participated I know for all the businesses it was really good so what a great way to kick off our holiday season um a couple things coming up so the Lion's Christmas tree lot is still open as you said um they're expecting it to be sold out probably sometime this weekend so if you haven't gotten your tree yet go grab one there and as you know it all comes back either to the community or lions ey research so great organization and it's always great to go see people there tomorrow morning is our December senior breakfast uh also at the senior center there's all kinds of events I think next week There's a senior party there's something the following week and Senior the senior center is for people 16 and older so if you want
089to go and meet some new people and have some fun inexpensive events it's always it's always a fun place and they're so welcoming so check out their calendar they have all kinds of fun stuff going on you guys are always welcomed as a guest of me if you want um a couple of other things so this Saturday the 9th is illuminate Ashlin starting at 4:30 it starts at amar's dance I think you can go on Facebook find out information about that a lot of different performances all around town I think it should be a nice day uh also just that you know there's a bunch of holiday events hopk having happening at hopkington Center for the Arts they have a couple of concerts they have um some vocal concerts this weekend as well throughout there's
090a comedy night all kinds of stuff so if you're looking to get into the holiday spirit check out the hopkington Center for the Arts and if you'd like a smaller a bigger Nutcracker at a different theater uh The Nutcracker at the Norwood Theater and I always like to plug that one because that's the one I work on um and that is nove December 15th 16th and 17th always if you've never been to the Norwood Theater it is a beautiful space to see a performance it's um it has been refurbished back to its original from the 1920s wow very nice yeah cuz at one point it was two movie theaters and they took that all out so that's a fun one um let's see and I think that's all I have just except to say you
091know happy holidays to everybody um be there for your friends be there for your neighbors be there for your family through this through this time of year and may we all get safely into the new year yep thank you that's what I got I have one more thing to I forgot that uh Santa is going to be doing a townwide uh run through parade on Saturday on Saturday stting at sir right yeah we're going to be using quiet sirines I don't never heard of a quiet sirene but it ought to be interesting yeah so well that's good so keep uh keep look on Facebook cuz I know the uh route right has changed a little bit so just keep an eye on that and great thank you Jo just watch for the sirens so we're
092not currently scheduled to meet this month so we won't meet till after the new year so happy New Year to everyone and um Yolanda your discuss your some of those events reminded me um Holliston on the upper Charles Trail does a first night y that culminates in that tunnel I don't know if people but I would you know if you're available first night it's a great kind of and it shows the kind of potential you can do with a rail trail in terms of the things they do there's also a new one in Framingham for first night on the that makes sense Charles of course of course they what of course of course what's what's their Trail no um Chris was it the no it's not on the Chris Walsh Trail it's the um if
093another town successful with something just trust framingham's going to take it but so Framingham has a first night event yeah but the Holliston Trail event is a lot of fun and they have that area down there Blair Square now is completely done they did such a nice job there a fful anyway fun event for first night um so the only thing I wanted to um you know I had a good talk so the news is MBTA did post that the station is reopening December 23rd I think many of us heard um and they are going to I had a good talk with M Mike m Molly the um the uh the commuter rail coordinator um manager and um is we will get a detailed kind of description of what happened it's just that these kind
094of releases have to go through the governor's office so there's kind of a a kind of a delay from the time they post something and that we get the so he's very aware of our interest and I think they're going to schedule I think Senator spilka's office has requested some sort of ceremony so people should plan on that um Co I don't know but I imagine it would be that day but I'm not sure but we'll be hearing about that I think so yeah so that's ni nice and I did have a good discussion with him I'm sorry yeah what is the 23r Satur yeah so I'm not sure what's going to happen so we'll we'll see I guess um I think it would be nice if they came and did a presentation on what
095they did I don't know if we can request that we can we can always request it especially virtual or virtual you know let us know what improvements what was changed and I didn't I didn't think they ask him that but we are he is going to give us a description was it what color what was it painted we didn't get asked of colors I did have a good discussion with him about you know safety in general and they are taking it very seriously actually doing an investigation we'll share a report um and both for along the tracks and at the Main Street crossing apparently there's some improvements that they've already done I guess Statewide so uh they're very um aware of the issues and are working on it we should be hearing more and kind
096of in line with that I was just going to you know maybe talk think about if maybe have a meeting in uh January or February to kind of follow up on kind of uh CommunityWide safety and wellness issues both kind of a broader range and I discussed a little bit with Michael and maybe Kristen uh would be here or something like that well so more to come on that I presume people are interested and think that's a something that would be helpful so useful so um all right so that's that's it for me and without further Ado I'll turn it over to Brandy for our what has now become a a holiday tradition yeah so um so this started my first year on the board um this your fourth one this Fifth Fifth yeah is
097it really one yeah oh yeah oh my yeah I think time plus yeah no it is I guess we can't call her newbie anymore no no Claudia is our new newbie um but uh this has become kind of like my favorite thing that I do is the last meeting we have I just kind of it's like a year in review in poem form so um and it's gotten longer so I apologize in advance it was a full year it was a lot of so um so Ed to Ashlin 2023 2023 was a very busy year making huge progress on projects we can cheer our public safety building with doors was finally complete a beautiful facility for the best fire and police on the street we celebrated the opening of the new minda school with amazing
098technology and a rooftop learning space that is so cool work continues on 126 sidewalks are almost done maybe getting closer to the end fingers crossed everyone downtown is really beautiful with the lamp posts and the brick and the painting of the lines the second time definitely did the trick we look forward to the polls coming down next year and no more aggressive bees that we have to fear oh lots of work on The Barn at the Valentine all built with historically approved materials to make it shine the finished Hall house was gorgeous with reclaimed elements of Warren's days after much discussion about staying true to the plans which caused some delays the community center reopened after the repairs happily no more water damage even after a slight pipe leak scare our Board of Health held
099the successful Ram Clinic over at Keefe provided much needed free medical services to those who needed relief our housing moratorium was nixed by the state and planning for MBTA communities with minimal Town impact would be great the news came that the economic development Bill finally came through will help fund new sidewalks starting with Route 135 it's true hopkington honored Ashlin for a 100 years since the marathon start line moved presented us with many Marathon Treasures unexpected but we approve the EPA is returning with funding for a second round to remove deep contamination Underground we started to work on the comprehensive plan with 29 committee members from throughout Ashland despite some challenges and vision Ashlin plans for our future and we boarded a school bus with Ed and Michael for a three-hour tour after years of
100asking the MBTA came to work on our sad train station with the goal of safe commuting lighting and our plentiful parking which will be a celebration we worked on our budget and are looking ahead tough choices are in our future support more funding or cuts and services instead we said Thank you to Steve for his 12 great years and Claudia has made an impact right away that is definitely clear we reluctantly increased trash fees we exited Civil Service finally as planned denied the Spencer statue to be built on Community Center land we gave our graduating senior Scholarships in baa baa grants 2 celebrated marathon runners retirements and the goofy guy Gyros girls Lego crew loved the Rangoli at dwali fall fast a Corner Spot came together at the nyanza healing Garden a beautiful tribute that
101means a lot mini golf at the library Board office hours at the farmers market both were new we were sad to miss Ashland day but with all the rain what could we do Holiday Stroll and Town Hall trick-or treat both bigger than ever with downtown businesses joining in which was so neat lots of good stuff coming our way Starbucks with a mural we shout hooray Clover Road Tap Room is coming to the old fire station congrats to Subzero ice cream opening in its downtown location the OPA Charles Trail gets a green light and a rumor about pickle ball that is sure to excite the Ashen Arboretum AKA Cadillac paint will be a beautiful Park this year with Trails we can't wait the project at the Mill building is gone for now but we will see
102if it comes back in another form as a 40b town meeting said yes to the dog park whether there will ever be a tree bylaw is a question mark for me personally I completed my first year as chair I now thoroughly appreciate all the work needed to be truly prepared I love the work that I do with all of you and the amazing Community we serve with everything that we do our town staff and volunteers are the best I have such gratitude our town is so very blessed and as we approach the end of this crazy Year I wish you and yours so much holiday chair very nice and we've done a lot this year very nice you could put all yours together be like a history of the oh yeah you know that's true
103true put them in some sort of volume or something this is why I don't have any decorations out for the holid oh you can't use keeping you busy yeah so but I love doing this this is like one of my one of my favorite things that how long take you to do something like this um like I take one night and I just like write down things and then then I think to myself how am I going to ever get this like into any sort of form and then it just kind of starts coming together it's pretty chronological right you try to they try to do it yeah or at least like put things together that make sort of sense that's nice so it's fun and like I said it's a good it's a good
104way to avoid doing all the other things that I should be doing that's how you prepare for the meeting yeah but but uh you know it's it's been a good it's been a really good year and I it's it's funny because when we were at the Festival of Lights on Sunday I said this and it's really really true it's like it's just I'm seeing this weekend and how this weekend came together especially like so much gratitude so much gratitude for our community all the people that work really hard to bring all this stuff to our community for all the volunteers including all of us that spend so many hours and people people I don't think people have any clue what it takes to kind of keep all of this together um and it's just it's
105I'm I'm walking through downtown on Saturday I'm I'm like this is why we do this this is why this is this is all worth it because because this is these people this community is all just it it it's love so that's you know that's my take so yeah we're not doing it for the salary that's for sure no we're not not even the pension I just found out there's no pension damn yeah incre it 100% thank you it's great yeah we would be remiss if we didn't thank two people in the far right of me no that's true this is our end of year meeting that's true so thank you very much for everything that you've done for all of us uh your leadership and your guidance has uh definitely made Ashan a much better
106place this year again and we'll continue as we keep this the boat the the HMS asham going straight forward and doing the things that needs to get done it was a revolution yeah thank you so thank you both well said Joe yes very well said good okay so happy holidays everybody and happy New Year happy Hanukkah um what's that oh Claudia oh she's applauding thank you Claudia hope everything's well we're sorry you can't be here with us and PR kiddo yeah yeah so we'll see everyone first meeting in January January 3rd is it January 3rd okay yes all right well thank you all so that's a good night from the ashin select board meeting and happy holidays and new holiday you all motion to adjourn oh I guess we should do that yes all those
107in favor joury say hi thank you happy holidays everybody ho Merry Mary