001now that we all stay cool stay calm but never forget what's going on and the atrocities that are going on over there whether you like it or don't like it and want to see it end and I hope it ends sooner than later um but it's those voices and you folks from area carry on those voices with with equity and pride and we just you know we wanted to thank you for all the work that you do as well so with that uh Mr chair thank you and so I believe uh we representative Jack Lewis and um a representative from Senator spilka's office Karen Adelman is here so if you folks want to come up together maybe and would that make sense and do your do your thing do our thing yeah thank you so
002much for this invitation let's make sure we get some pictures too we we're here it's all good it's all good I was with uh the town manager when we got the notification that ashon day had to be canceled because of the weather forecast and uh after the pandemic and a couple years with without ashle and day definitely were're very much looking forward to it uh but I think we all saw the postponed and got really excited but then when we realized it was postponed till next year we're going to keep the excitement going keep it going keep it going and you a big part of that day is being able to celebrate members of the community and so uh you get two celebrations uh last meeting and this meeting so it works it works well
003uh Bernie I just want to say I I I got to know you shortly after getting elected I was invited to my first eagle Scout court of honor uh and I I think I even said that day it was my first time in 12 years that I had walked into a room relating to scouting uh I had left scouting as a young adult Say Never Again uh done uh got your email or got somebody's email uh from The Troop inviting me in my capacity of course I had to say yes I got a citation uh and in the years that followed you all got me thinking about Scouts again uh so much so that the last couple Court of honors I've shown up in my uniform uh my kids have moved on to other things
004uh but for the last five years uh they've allowed me to be their their den leader uh Den Chief den no den leader I forget what the patch says uh but Bernie you do so much for the community uh but I just want to say for me you helped me get me back uh into scouting uh and I try to make all the Eagle Scout court of honors uh but as Joe said the things you do for the community are nearly impossible put into words so uh on behalf of myself the speaker of the house all of my colleagues uh I have an official citation uh from the Massachusetts House of of Representatives uh I'll read it uh the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the House of Representatives be hereby known to all that the Massachusetts House
005of Representatives offers its sincerest congratulations to Bernard Bernie Temple and recognition of being named ashlin's 2023 citizen of the year uh the entire membership extends its very best wishes and expresses the hope for Future Good Fortune and continued success in all Endeavors uh signed by myself the speaker and dated September 23rd which might have been Ashlin day uh that that date sounds familiar uh so again congratulations all right yeah why don't we do yeah taxing we'll do the Senate so yeah so come up here we'll do this'll do the one as well thank you thank you so much for having us the Senate President would have loved to have been here I mean on a week with so much heavy news as Clark manani said we think about how people in the Community Serve each
006other and it lifts everybody up so it's a huge privilege to be here and it was a huge privilege to meet you in the hall I don't have a history with you but you seem like uh certainly a shining light in this community um and it's really a huge pleasure to give you this official citation from the Senate which I will also read the Commonwealth of Massachusetts state senate official citation be it known that the Massachusetts Senate hereby extends its congratulations to Bernie temple in recognition of being named 2023 Ashen city of the Year excuse me citizen of the year for your outstanding commitment and service to your community and be it further known that the Massachusetts Senate extends its best wishes for continued success that this citation be duly signed by the president of
007the Senate which it is and attested to and a copy thereof transmitted by the clerk of the Senate which it has been so this is for you congratul great [Applause] congratulations well let's do ARA yeah Bernie what's you told me you had a long speech ready to go I didn't hear the one last time so I keep it short all right I got kind get sidetracked last uh couple weeks ago wasn't quite expecting this this here is it means a lot um there was a lot of hours that get put in with Boy Scouts I also work with the Lions and uh we do a lot of uh Eagle projects uh we just working on this one this last weekend so um somebody told me that my involvement with eagle uh Scouts has been the
008numbers like 52 or 53 at this point 53 I've been do this for I probably 15 years or so uh I got involved with when my son got into CB Scouts and the first day I showed up for the Boy Scout meeting when he crossed into the Boy Scouts they handed me a shirt and I was like I was very adamant that I didn't want the shirt but here I am this probably the third this probably the fourth or fifth shirt I've had now so but uh we do enjoy doing work with the community we do in in with a food pantry we get involved we have a great pancake breakfast is uh we do it in March um you guys are more than welcome to all come it's a good time great breakfast um
009and it's it's good to work with these guys sitting up here too I mean they they do a lot behind the scenes um and I'm appreciative of all of you thank you very much thank you for one more citation yes I always getet how much more verbose the like Senate ones are I should add a little flare to to this one uh no it's good no it's good okay I'll keep it I'll be um I'll be as boring as possible no uh so we also have a citation for the area group for everything you've done in Ashland and continue to do as the grand field Marshall with one l i that I looked at that like 30 times I'm assuming it's right Marshall for the ashin day event as is it two Wells this is
010a collector's item because there is a um but uh I I'm on your email list and I know you do so much more you're never shy about grabbing me at the farmers market or around town when you see me but uh I think you know it but you filled a a gap that existed uh in Ashland you're supportive of folks who maybe didn't always feel like Ashland was a community that looked like them or welcomed them uh but as somebody who's watched from afar tried to been supportive in the ways I can you've you've resisted the urge to just look Inward and be insular uh you've engaged the broader convers or broader community and conversations uh that sometimes can be messy and uncomfortable uh and somebody has to do it because if you don't we
011won't have them uh and so so so grateful to see that you're being celebrated in this way uh I just hope You' keep it up uh I look forward to the next email to learn about the activities you're having uh and the the vital conversations that that you're facilitating uh similar verbiage uh to to bernes but so the Massachusetts House of Representatives be hereby known to all that the Massachusetts House of Representatives offers its sincerest congratulations to the Ashland residents for equality and action area and recognition of serving as the grand field Marshall uh for Ashland day 2023 the entire membership extends its very best wishes and expresses the hope for a future good fortune and continued success in all Endeavors signed myself as your State Rep the Speaker of the House Ron Mariano and
012dated on September 23rd what would have been our uh flooded out Ashlin day so again congratulations very I have both L's I'm just gonna say I don't okay so also from the Senate Senate's get spell check the me Commonwealth Massachusetts state senate official citation be it known that the Massachusetts Senate hereby extends its congratulations to Ashland's Ashland residents for equity and action area in recognition of being named Grand field Marshall of 2023 Ashland day in gratitude for the support and awareness you've provided throughout the community and be it further known that the Massachusetts Senate extends its best wishes for the continued success of area that this citation be du signed by the president of the Senate which it has been and attested to and a copy thereof transmitted by the clerk of the Senate which
013it has been so congratulations all right all the area folks you guys anybody else want to come up yeah let's have a group shot we'll get after I think she'll say something you should hold your citations and maybe um Margaret uh introductions um are you gonna make another speech or you have anything you want to say should I say that now before yes why don't you do it now we'll take some pictures afterwards yeah do that picture and then we'll all right he is good yes that looks great hi good evening everyone uh thank you so much for being here today uh area we're humbled and uh we don't take this slight lead to be here and uh receive the grand field Marshall award and also um the recognition from uh the uh the state
014sorry the Senate and the House of Representatives um I would like to read our um our mission uh area is a group of people of color and their allies working together to ensure that voices are represented in the local Civic organization ations government and the schools we also support and promote people of color run businesses in Metro West area or uh as engines of economic development that benefit our community at large through Community Action we want to make Ashland a safe and inclusive community for all and first I would like to thank uh God thank my family for supporting me through this and I would love to thank the area board Cara Terell is not here but when I told her about what I wanted to do she was like I want to do this
015with you and this was 3 years ago we called a few of our friends and everybody in this room the Ashan Community um C uh all local clubs and committees in asheland and I feel like our entire Community came on board to try and support us we really didn't have a book how to do this but we had uh the urge and uh um so to make sure that you know di efforts are kind of you know brought to life in town of Ashland through the schools we've we appreciate the collaborations with the uh Ashan Police Department uh congratulations uh Cara Chief Cara on your appointment and we look forward to you know doing more work with you um thank you everyone for your guidance uh we want to thank the Ashland School Department for
016you know collaborating with us as well and hearing us and you know our suggestions and ideas and um we also want to thank um uh Beth is not here but she's also been a big p in terms of helping the business of people of color kind of you know uh shine a light on them as well and I would love to thank the select board uh Ashland de committee for having us uh Town manager I I guess like um representative Jack said we meet at the uh the town you know the farmers market and we have some inform foral conversations and we really feel like um our town has become really inclusive we feel comfortable and we have the new generation here the Young Generation we've made sure that they involved in uh a lot
017of activities we do we usually you know bring them along um you know asheland is your home and uh what a beautiful um town to be in and you know beautiful spirit so we're very appreciative and we don't take this lightly and the work just continues so great well thank you so much did you yeah thank you Margaret very nice all right and this is if um anybody else okay you good if you guys if if you're ready this is the time we usually do you want to say anything or oh this is the time we usually take our big group photos so we'll all come out and take a picture with you if I'm assuming that's okay with the board sure let's go and we'll we'll all get together and I think if you
018want to join us for the picture you're welcome it's somebody we need somebody with technical expert [Music] over okay everybody one two three one more [Music] time twoes [Music] know yeah we have to [Music] ask you come on I'll sit down before I no photo boming in the back [Music] would just got inv I'll forward to you it's THS the 26 I'll forward the email that I okay I need to figure out what I did with the sheet that I printed out and hopefully brought is the board all back here I think we're back sir [Music] pleasure all right I'm going to call us back into our regular agenda if everybody's ready um so uh one thing I asked to just to have this put on the agenda to give this is as as we're
019all aware and as um as Joe mentioned earlier about the uh the events in Israel in the Middle East uh that started last week we did Issue a statement and I just want to um read that statement and part of the reason I'm doing this is because um one of the things is due to the limitations of the open meeting law this was a statement that I worked on with Michael and we did consult with Yolanda briefly on it uh but we uh just issued it and our feeling of what um should be said but um I also wanted to make sure I gave other board members uh a chance if they wish to to comment or add anything um and so I'll just read the statement that was posted I think on Facebook um
020that the town made um uh we are deeply Disturbed and horrified by the recent events in Israel and our hearts go out to all those who are grieving and those desperately waiting awaiting news of their loved ones while we recognize legitimate rights and aspirations of people worldwide we strongly condemned acts of terrorism brutality and inhumanity they have no place in the goal of a lasting and just peace in the Middle East um and also we issued that and then Michael at that time we also spread the news of a community vigil that was held last week um and the only thing I wanted to just add um to that statement I think in light of subsequent events that uh this is my individual thoughts I would just that that hope that people with power such
021as the state of Israel and the United States would use that power uh with humanity and wisdom when it comes to also the welfare of the palestin Palestinian civilians in Gaza so I just wanted to add that to that statement um so I just turning over the rest of the members if you wish to uh say anything or you don't don't feel like you need to if there's anything um you wish to State cuz you unfortunately weren't able to when we issue these kind of statements I like to have a group discussion and consensus but we weren't able to do that so any any any other board members wish to say anything or add to that you know I'll just you know say thank you very much for putting that together on our behalf um
022certainly uh this type of humanitarian crisis um is you know shatters my soul um you know there's no other words to use um it it's uh just um hard to understand how we here we are in this world in this St and age and that we uh still live with such barbaric um behaviors and such terrorism and uh and we have you know groups here where we I I just don't understand sometimes how uh people can do what they do to one another so thank you very much for putting that together thank you anybody brandy or um so I would also just say thank you for for putting that together on our behalf um I was at the vigil along with Rob and Michael um and I think that felt like something that we had
023to do as a community was to come together and and um and grieve together because that's what that felt like um and I've had conversations with friends of mine who um have family and friends in Israel and um people that are now serving in the Army and and in the military there and children who are fearing for their lives and so it it's um it is it's heartbreaking to imagine uh a world where where you know there first of all there's there's there's no no easy solution to it um and I think that when we think of the Next Generation just breaks my heart um so but I do think that um what we can do together as a community is um support one another through all of this and understand that people are coming
024um at this from different places and be understanding and give people a little bit of Grace um and just understand that the this is a tough time for for many people for many different reasons so that's all thank you Joe thank you Mr chair I briefly expressed my concerns and my feelings about this earlier uh I commend and thank you for uh Drafting and and presenting that letter uh publicly uh I think it's how we all feel uh it's not something that uh um we've grown up with this conflict ever since I can remember um and it's it's unfortunate I don't know if there's going to be a solution to this um we all say that we would love to see it but it's up to it's up to two governments they need to get
025together and settle their differences and I don't know if that's ever going to happen um someone needs to take the first step and it's not throwing bombs at one another it's it needs to cooler heads should Prevail and hopefully um with what's going on over there today and having our leadership over there now trying to help diffuse this if it can be done um we just need ask everybody to pray I guess that's basically it for coola has to Prevail and people realize that uh this is not the future for our kids to be to be involved in um it's it's a sad State of Affairs and hopefully it doesn't grow larger into something that turns into a world conflict that you know it's it's just sad it's it's really sad and uh it's frustrating
026and I'm sure it's more frustrating to those folks that live there and you know under severe you know worry as to what's going to happen in not just the next day or the next hour but within within minutes of what's going on over there so again let's hope that our leadership prevails and uh their leadership and hamas's Leadership can get together and try to resolve it it it did once so it's not that it's not able to happen is are you willing to make it happen so let's hope it does so that's all thank you thanks Yolanda do you have anything you want yeah I just want to say that um I remember when we heard about this as we were coming off our vacation and just the idea that people can do this to
027each other is is very hard to understand as other people have said here on the board and I would just say that I think we as a community are showing that we can care for each other even if we have differences and my hope would be that those countries and those people can find a way to resolve their differences granted it's a lot harder and a lot bigger but um I think we just have to work the way we can here in our community to keep supporting each other as we move forward with this thank you Michael you anything else you wanted to add just I have to say Michael wrote most of that statement I did a few at I tried to take credit we knew wow wow this is a tough audience tou
028I you know it just amazes me because human beings have like the capacity to be the most compassionate and warmest organisms on the planet and yet you have some people who just choose cruelty and destruction as as a way of life and you know as humans we also have the capacity rationalize things but I just don't understand how you can rationalize some of the some of the things that have have happened I just I don't know how your mind can twist in that way um and I think all we can do is model the behavior that we hope others um will eventually emulate and be tolerant of one another and be willing to work out our differences without using violence or you know resorting to anger trying to keep cooler heads in these situations but
029um it's a sad State of Affairs for sure it is all right thank you and uh all right so I think and um so we'll move on to the next item in our agenda so which is um well before cens parci yeah um before we do citizens participation I've actually we've got an actual uh human being in the meeting with us who is on our consent agenda so why don't you come up forward you're Josh right come on up here and um stand up to the podium uh I would just add he's on the consent agenda right right now he's on the consent agenda can we ask to take them out of the consent agenda and um I move that we remove item hold on D from the consent agenda and discuss it now all
030right second on that all those in favor say say I hi all right Josh you were yeah we were you were just going to be a routine consent agenda now we're going to interrogate you so you know okay bring it on all right great if you would mind being moved up in the agenda so I brief you know I reviewed your uh Talent Bank form seemed very well qualified so we're you know happy to have you um so I don't go ahead uh tell us a little bit about yourself and thanks for coming forward to do this sure happy to you know uh Barbara and Paul at waa asked me if I'd be interested in the position of course I happy to do it and uh you pending your approval so I appreciate it and
031uh basically I've been an Ashlin resident for close to 20 years I have two children in the school district one a senior one in the Middle School um and all three of us actually have been longtime volunteers with waca announcing ashin High School sports oh that's right yeah just about every one of them including swimming during Co so at this point you know Chase started when he was was my older son Chase started when he was in sixth grade and swimming uh announc an okay okay and actually we uh we learned about the opportunity at Ashland Day so a little call back earlier in the meeting great yep and uh yeah they were they were happy to have a sixth grader beyond the air of course you with some supervision and uh it's been wonderful
032it's been a great opportunity for him a great Growing Experience and skill development not just you know being on air but being able to express himself and think on his feet thing things like that he's inspired his younger brother who has jumped in a number of times as well including a girls lacrosse game earlier this year so that's great yeah thank you very nice questions or thoughts from the board anybody else want to I I just want to add I um I had a nice conversation with the folks from waca and they were uh very uh high on your on your list of doing wonderful things and they're looking forward to working with you you um there are some personalities there that I'm sure you'll know and uh and appreciate and you I think you'll
033do them just fine and look forward to your additional uh leadership with uh with the cable advisory C thank you very much anything else no I'll just say that I I've had the pleasure of hearing some of you play byplay and uh and thoroughly enjoyed it and bring brings a you know a nice um additional uh layer to our Sports so I appreciate that and uh I think your sons neither would need much um oversight in in that sort of a situation I and uh they both to I you know know that they both have the skill to uh speak publicly it's not always the case with with kids at at such young ages so uh thank you for stepping forward thanks Claudia I just I think it's great that you've had the experience doing
034work for table to then step up and be on the board because you understand some of the issues that they're dealing with in regards to Staffing and just trying to cover everything that they're doing so thank you for being willing to step up and be on the board thank you yeah I'm really looking forward to it I'm really hoping we can establish more of a partnership with the school district and be able to pull more kids into this program and more participation I really enjoyed working with Steph marks over the years and I'm looking forward to working with Kevin as well uh the new athletic director oh great great and I would just note you're taking the place of Kim Wales who has resigned correct correct she's the one that and so I wanted to
035thank Kim for her service and also um and she resigned my understanding is because she's now one of the registar of Voters and felt she's been a registar of Voters and in reviewing some of our bylaws she felt she couldn't be a registar as well as be on the waca C advisory that's really so so thank you Kim for your service as well and just um just go ah real quick just I've known Josh for for for a little bit of time these days little bit um and I just I was so excited to see that you had um put your name in for this because I think that you will become a s a strong advocate for cable access which is um really needed um I think waca does an amazing job and I
036think that um between the coverage of of the sports and our town government and I mean honestly we couldn't we couldn't have functioned as as a board without the support of waca during Co and you know we we rely heavily on um on all the the types of you know live streaming and all sorts of communication that that wacka brings because we know that that people get their information and get their entertainment from waca so um so thank you for for all the work that you've done you know on the the on the one side of the mic and and um and we look forward to to seeing what uh what's going to be the next chapter for waa so thank you thanks Brand so we ready to sure I move that we appoint Joshua
037Abrams to the waca board of directors effective November 1st 2023 for a term that will expire on October 31st 2026 I'll second that motion's been made and seconded all those in favor say I I okay congratulations congrat thank you Mr chair if I may yeah U just one of the things I wanted to bring up is uh Barbara had reached out to me yesterday and I think it's only fitting to you know say this now that actually Friday October 20th is community media day oh and um so again thank you so wacka and Josh thank you for your service and continued service and um yeah so let everybody know Friday Beauty media day very good and don't forget Ashlin Hopkinson football Thanksgiving Day live on waca TV all right there he goes this involves a
038ra Now is it going to be live oh that's cool the football games are live streamed yeah yeah W all right this is a home game right yeah we only do home games we don't have the budget to travel all right get your bus to thank you play playoffs we travel yeah I was going to say right yeah thanks again thank you so now we're ready yeah real person yeah yeah very good trust me that's a good thing so so now I think we're ready for Citizens participation do I see anyone uh see Mark your hand is up go ahead Mark I think can he unmute unmute himself okay yes I can unmute myself I I noted by now good evening Mar Sony 49 haon Road Mass uh three things all all came up in
039the uh so far in the meetings is that thank you about the appreciation and um consolement about what's going on in Israel brother if Israel and Gaza could think Family Ties and and all that that all this will never be started but they have their own idealisms that shouldn't flash what it does and this is what's going on with them right there two is to say about the as cable is the um if it wasn't for the being on the town for the town license committee ACA would never been around but it's been around and has grown to be all positive all going good local channels for the town itself and for the home citizens and to see how it's grown in in inexpensively and greatly is a good thing for for for what's going
040on in the future three is my usual question to the man Town manager I know the compion plan meeting is tomorrow night correct and yes I am gonna be there I have almost given up on the idea of being on Zoom because I know that I could not participate unless I'm there in person so I am very grateful that I can I can be participate in person with the group once they break them off into groups and I appreciate the ground rules that are VI I put up last time that's good four this house is my dad is still up and around 98 years old Sue got a good heartbeat a 130 over 86 blood pressure wow 96 to 97 oxygen in his body a caregivers that come here all throughout the day morning afternoon
041and night of course I still stay up at about 3:00 in the morning to be the night hour but all those all good things and it Israel could think like I think in my house and this family this war would be very short so thank you all right thank you thank you Mark thank you Mark okay so um so our next item is under old new business is the comprehensive Plan update so who's doing the update I I can start it off and Yanda and brandy if you want to chime in um so as um as Mark mentioned we do have our next meeting tomorrow night um and what is planned on the agenda is we have some administrative items that we're going to take care of but then uh our consultant JM Goldson is
042actually going going to lead us through an exercise uh really the steering committee is starting to dig into some of the planning aspects of it so that looks good um website is up and running uh had a few tweaks that we needed to make um and that's happening and uh so the data requests that uh JM Goldson has asked for which was pretty voluminous um Peter and I have been working on that and we've got most of that done and completed uh that's you know back data and reports you know older reports and uh so yeah that's about it from my perspective I know there's other things but I figured Yolanda and Brandy you'd want to add to it so I would add let you go first you the market so um so the comprehensive
043plan was at the Farmers Market on the 7th on October 7th um we had some really good conversations there was um a lot of activity around our table which was good um so thank you to to the members of the comprehensive plan that volunteered their time at the the farmers market and thank you to everyone that came out to to to chat with us um we have a couple of asks from um for you know public asks one of which is um we are starting to collect photos of um special places for um that are going to be part of the comprehensive plan itself and so I don't know if the the um we have a flyer with with the the address I don't have it with me but but basically um I know that
044the website was having some some like kinks in it with the uploading of the pictures that has been fixed that has been fixed so we will be putting out a call to folks to um to submit photos and be a part of the comprehensive plan and um and just in general like we're going to be having a um I don't know if we we're going to be discussing a date tomorrow night for the December Forum but just to remind folks that we're going to be having a community visioning Forum in December um that we want the public to make sure that they're um coming out and being a part of because that's our first real um so we'll have to think about that because later we talk about the Valentine Forum as well so let's
045keep that in mind so but I think I think we're the the first meeting that we I mean I know we kind of talked about it I think the last time um our first meeting with Goldson was I thought really great I think that they are group that will um really help us pull this together in a really cohesive way and it will um be very representative of Ashland I think that their skill set is going to be on the the community engagement side and I think we're going to be um as we really dive into this process I think I think we're going to to come come out with a um a really great result because of it so but that's my perspective I would just add as well that I think it was
046interesting the beginning of our last meeting was a little tough of our comprehensive plan but then when JM Goldstein when they did their introductions and got us all engaged I feel like it sort of smoothed out some of the concerns that some of our members had the the one thing I'm going to recommend tomorrow at our meeting and it's been discussed for with a couple different people is we just had a Mendes meeting last night and it happens at the Mendes cafeteria and I know one of the concerns trying to move out of the library is there's not many other buildings in town that have the technology to either have projection and the internet and zoom and things like that and I think the mes cafeteria would be a perfect place for us to have
047our meetings and it would allow a lot more public to come and sit and listen and participate than it does at the library because at our last meeting at the library we have our table around and that fills up the space and then for people to come and sit so I'm going to make that recommendation tomorrow at our comprehensive plan that we move from the library which has been a great location but as we try to expand public to want to come and listen to our meetings I think the Mendes cafeteria is going to be a lot better so I think we should review that tomorrow night and then if we if people think that's okay then we just have to get on the calendar at the mes and Paul Kendall has offered to take
048a few of us through some of the technology it's pretty straightforward to plug in and stuff like that but I think it would be a great thing to do we were talking about that at the market so I so mes is good for virtu like people could be virtual and yeah because you can have your so Michael or you know someone would have a computer and you plug in so you'd have your you know Wi-Fi to be on zoom and you'd still use your owls for some of it but then you can project onto a pretty large screen so you could see people they'd see us through the owls but then if you're sharing information there's a lot more real estate to share that so that's great so if that works there may other events
049or forums there might be other forums that we say instead of doing them at the community center because we want to be able to do them virtually and if the library is a little small that we look at having them at the mes cafeteria so potentially even the Valentine event so that's all I have to add for comp thank you and uh surveys went out I got one someone apparently said I was an expert on Transportation so I'm going to wonder about their you know something you're well you're the upper Charles Trail guy that's it Transportation they're looking at me expert what do you mean so that's what they said in the email I don't know I'll do my best so and but so there how many of those went out um I think there
050were uh three six n 12 probably 15 so it's it's broken down by category um the different elements of the comp a Ser a survey I haven't really looked at it yet but um so that's good yeah great all right thank you all so next oh a date to hold the public forum on the Valentine so that's a good segue seg public forum out so now we're talking about two big public forums maybe in December or what's our thinking here well originally we talked about the Valentine uh Forum being in uh November I think that we're going to be hard pressed to do that um December might actually be pretty difficult too and just to give you an update you know we talked about it at at one of the sele board meetings um I
051talked about it at the Historical Commission meeting had a good conversation with them they brought up all kinds of things that we didn't necessarily think of um and then I met with a number of our staff to kind of okay you know we got like this big picture thing let start putting some details to it um you know you don't want to go too far because you want to make sure that you're going in the right direction but at the same time there's some simple things that probably need to be answered and uh um I don't know I would say January is probably a much there's no real urgency to get it you know like we have to get it done in December I would say January is probably a much better date I guess
052my only con not concern but something to consider is as we start looking at our 2025 budget if some of the things that you've talked about doing in regards to the W Department moving there then some of that we may want to include in our budget and if we're too far along in the planning and Andor the budget are we then having to go back and the other thing that I mentioned to you as you said Michael is I'd hate for us to be so far down into the details and then go to the public and say this is what we're thinking and have the public go oh well I don't want you to go that way or how you know so that that's it's finding that balance of getting public input on your plan
053and having enough detail or too much detail for them to go well you've already decided what you're going to do so you're not going to listen to my input anyway so it's finding that balance that I'm concerned about if we wait you know or do we wait to do any of the more detailed work that you're talking about until we have the Forum and then go into it yeah I mean I'm hoping that we've minimized that risk simply because basically all that proposal is is from the original public input um but still yeah I think we you know we don't want to go too far down the road before before we get um okay an idea but I I I would suggest that January would probably be um and I can come up with a
054better better date by our next meeting and um okay that people pretty much thinking that's yeah so December will be the comprehensive plan form in January the Valentine that makes sense then okay um you know my only my only question is with the comprehensive plan Forum um because I mean that's that's really Goldson that's running that correct well um they would put together the program on our basically our Direction because so there's a couple of things that we have to think about uh with regards to that we have to think about first of all do we want to try to piggyback it with an event that's already happening in December and if that's the case what do we want that form to look like do we want it to be like a traditional Forum where
055you have you know set aside two hours and people sit at a table and listen to a presentation for a few minutes and then provide or more than a few minutes and then provide input or we do we want to have something that's a little bit more flowable and um you know people can walk in provide input and walk out as they're part of like the Holiday Stroll if that's ultimately the decision we want to go in um but I will say you know talking to Goldson that they can come up with the program but they want the steering committee to take an active role in um EX in facilitating you know the discussion however it it plays out and I would say that as you know having been on the comprehensive plan in the
056past and you were on this the the you know the Strategic plan one that people respond better to them you know their peer you know their peers and fellow citizens to Michael's point I think Goldstein will help us sort of lay out what it's going to look like but we're going to need to be there and take turns probably to to f facilitate and listen and and sort of draw things out that we might know better than Goldstein about different things Goldson I'm having a hard time with names ton some nights are are easier than others for sure all right okay so okay so we done with that um January yeah and the other reminder is we have a special town meeting in November right so yeah that's going on 28 the Tuesday yeah um
057okay the next item is the uh discuss Grant programs the baa Grant and select board Community Grant and um uh Susan had raised some questions and I think um Brandy you and sure want to discuss those yeah so so if you all remember um I think it was a couple months ago at this point we had um approved sort of a new program for the baa grants um where the we basically we broke it out into two two separate programs because um historically we've always had what we call the baa grants but the funding mechanism for um from the runner account was always only to um official 501c3 organizations because that's legally what we can provide um so we would open it up to the whole community and um a couple of things were were
058happening one um was that we weren't we weren't utilizing the funds in a in a really productive way we had a large account balance um at the end of each um after we allocated all the spring uh spring grants and so part of it was was trying to figure out a better way to utilize the funds ALS so um for those organizations that weren't 501c3 we had funded that out of the select board's gift account um which has a different funding mechanism which is the the Warren Conference Center fees which does not have quite the same um level of funding as the the runers account so that being said we we changed it so that the baa grants uh people could apply instead of 2500 to 4,000 um and up to 6,000 per um basically
059for over the course of two Grant Cycles is what we had approved and for the select board Community Grant groups could apply for up to um a thousand with a total of 1,500 for over the the two Grant Cycles so it's a little bit of a more complicated process um absolutely and so Susan had put out the the call to folks to apply for the grants and one of the the things that had kind of come up from it was that um um like an organization that had applied the last Grant cycle in the spring was saying that they weren't eligible for this grant cycle because they had received 2500 last spring where in reality because because they would fall under the Community Grant side um where you know in my in my frame of
060reference and this is kind of why I wanted to discuss it was you know I was thinking that this program was like a clean slate like we were starting from you know not looking back at the last Grant cycle because this is a new program it's got kind of new rules um and so you know my thought and again I want feedback from you guys is that um you know should we should we make this policy retroactive at all or if we I think it's cleaner if we just kind of on a go forward basis say you know this is the maximums per cycle per per two cycles um that way people understand sort of what what they can apply for so when you I'm sorry so when you say two cycles you're actually talking
061about one year because you have a spring and you have a fall Grant right okay so it's one year I think that's where the confusion was a little bit respect to that yeah well so one of the things that Susan had asked was whether whether or not it could be changed to a calendar year which I understand it would probably be easier from a from a you know kind of the only issue is that we're starting this in the fall so it's hard to kind of do a calendar year because we're starting it in Fall so you know my suggestion is this is a new program we start fresh everyone can apply for 4,000 for the the 501c3 or for $1,000 for the the community Grant and that the the maximums kind of get applied
062in the in in the spring if they decide to apply again so it would never matter um where in say an annual cycle you were so if you might apply in the fall and then again in the spring or you could apply in the spring for the first time and then again in the fall um so it wouldn't ever matter whether or not they were it's just whenever you applied the first time that's your first time and then you know Claudia and I as the subcommittee would just look at what was allocated the last time around just to make sure that the maximums weren't weren't you know weren't over right we weren't over on the max so it' be rolling yes ESS it' be rolling okay Dand does that make sense I know it's kind
063of I know it's really it can be confusing to kind of think about it but so I like the idea that we're setting these new amounts that we start with this cycle with that new program I can understand from Susan's perspective that it's easier on the calendar year but I also think that there are going to be some people who aren't going to apply now because they don't need the funds now and they'll apply again in the spring and then they can go two cycles if they want or there might be some people who apply now and they might not need the full 4,000 so they might apply for something less and then they can apply up to so I I think that it should be effective as of this grant cycle splitting out the
064two and then as Brandy said that as the subcommittee they'll have the list list of who got stuff in the fall when they go to look at stuff in the spring and not worry about what happened in May of this year but started as of this year this this grant cycle and just let it be on a rolling basis depending on when people apply and then I know Susan has asked that if that's what we're going to do that we extend the um application timing so that it's it can be made clear so I would I would almost recommend I think right now the application deadline was was on the test the 10th of October so I would say we push it to the end either the end of October or the first Friday in
065November one of the two right the 31st is a Tuesday if we extend it to that Friday that might be better yeah I like the Friday I like the Friday because then we'd get a couple of bites at Michael's newsletter right there you go oh right yeah um I just said so um does anybody here remember the the kind of the balance in the community Grant I know it's a small low do we know just generally what we're talking about I know I know we set the ,000 yeah I know we set or you suggested $1,000 based on the balance but I want to say it was like 32 I want to say it was pretty L like we just had we also allocated so the the gift account we use for other things too
066like we just allocated 5,000 for the Niza Memorial site um um if you give me a minute you got ahead and keep talking yeah that was through the gift account okay so um the gift account being the community Grant or the yes yes oh okay so the community Grant is associated with with organizations that are not nonprofits because the baa wants us to do funding for nonprofits so and that's what I'm T so I've had like a couple discussions or a couple incidents recently where where people of town committees have come to me or we've just been discussing need for funds one was the The Cult Council and the other was a town Forest committee where they were thinking about funds and so I guess I'm wondering so if a town committee is looking for
067funds out of the gift account right now their Max is a th000 and I think the twole 48,000 in my notes that's probably for sounds about right 48 a little bit of money for the gift or the baa for the gift okay right so if if it's a town committee they're not a 5013c they can do a th000 and then if they go come again in the second cycle they can do another 500 right so I guess what I'm but and we just had the example of the Niza um Memorial that we we voted more so I guess that that was outside of the grant process that was us just seeing the need and well so that's my question you mean if we if I if I'm we're talking to a a um a committee
068and say wow it' be great to give them some money is that outside of this policy or how would that work or should we look at putting language in a policy that allows for something like that I guess that's my my question so I mean do we want to make an exception for Town committees on involved in Special Projects or allow that possibility so I think that gets a that that gets to be clui because for instance the ashin public library um applies for uh a grant and they are not they would be under this they would be under the Community Grant yeah because the friends are the friends group can apply under a 5011 but I think if we start saying certain committees can and certain commit like I just think I think it's
069cleaner if we stick to the grant cycle right and then if there's something outside of that then we handle that as a oneoff separately as a board someone would come and make a request to the whole board outside of your SubCom like for instance if if like the Town Forest had that um they had wanted that ATV years ago and you know that's a separate that's almost like a capital you know a capital purchase anyway so I guess depending on what they're looking for you know but if they're just looking for funds to to fund walks and to fund speakers and things like that they should be able to work within the the grant the gr all right so I think as as long as we have that understanding if someone's coming for a really
070a larer ask and feels they they should get more funds that's something that we'll handle um discuss as a full board outside of this process is that what we're kind of how we're seeing it working so if a group comes in I'm sorry and this would be a town a town of Ashlin government group of some sort that's that's my definition that's what I'm you know so one of the concerns that I that I have and I in your Lon you just said something and I hope I didn't misunderstand you you just mentioned that the baa is looking to looking for the towns to spend their money in non 5013c groups was that's part of their that's one of the isues that we had in the past is if they're not a nonprofit We can't
071use the baa funds that's why we split it out now okay we did it before but it would be the same process right everyone would fill out the same Grant and Susan would look at it and go okay we can use these funds or we can use these funds gotcha and now we're separated we're making it much cleaner from our perspective as well as for people sorry as well as people applying for funds that they know if they're a 5013c they can look to get more funds than if they're you know if they're not 5013c now and the one thing I would recommend is we look at if we're allowing um up to $6,000 per group per cycle at some point we may want to look at increasing the amount of money we ask people
072to raise because we're only getting you know we have what we have 66,000 66,000 coming in so Oh you mean the runners how the runners right at some point if we keep doing $6,000 per group depending on what we get we may run you know that's only six groups 11 groups so if a group comes in in November and I'll just use the wrong fingers gets $1,000 or request $1,000 and the committee allows them the $1,000 now in 202 four is that that a new Cy spring we were just saying that it's going to be a rolling C two consecutive so if someone comes in now and applies for applies for they're they're not a 5013c yeah so they apply for $1,000 if they decide to apply again in the spring they can only apply
073for $500 if they don't decide to apply in the spring then come the next then well and even if they do apply in the in the fall they can still they can go back again for another okay because it's nobody can it would be more than 10 groups because nobody gets $6,000 that cycle right but but our $66,000 is what we get for the year right right but I'm just saying it involves more yeah we'll monitor the levels of course right and we had said that if we ever get to a point where we're at 50% of the balance or more than 50% of the asks are more than 50% of the balance that we would Everybody by the same percentage right I think that's a good idea rather picking and choosing okay um so
074I think we're ready to um do a motion I mean I just want to make we need a motion I think I think we voted all this before this was just a we're going to move we're going to move dat so we're moving the due date to that Friday after Halloween which I think is the 3D I think it is the third right so November 3rd second third yep so November 3rd will be the deadline it's a Friday and then we're starting this CLE as the first CLE for the new process so if you apply this fall for the full amount as a nonprofit when you apply in the spring you can only get another $2,000 and if you applied this past spring you're still fine clean sleep y yeah um and then so what
075we'll plan on then is so if we close out the grant applications on the 3 then Claudia and I can meet that following week and we can plan to have it on the agenda for the November 15th meeting what what what meeting did you say November 15th we'll have we'll have the the full votes on the November 15th we'll have the recommendations for the gr R okay very good all right great um okay that brings us to the consent agenda motion to approve the consent agenda with item D having been removed I have a second by Joe and so all those in favor of approving the consent agenda say I I I oppos None great and micheel did you want to say anything about Britney L assistant Recreation director um actually no because uh we
076recently found out cu she is actually not going to accept the position oh sorry to hear that then we should have pulled her I think it's it's a moot point it's a moot point that's too bad okay it's uh labor is difficult and good news and bad news it's tough to keep people yeah probably got a better offer the only I just you know it's um thanks for Debbie and MOA for uh reupping for the cultural Council that's great um any other questions on the consent agenda before we move on no okay so that brings us I think to town manager's report yeah and I think we can be fairly Fair fairly brief here um so yeah just the fire department had an unbelievable movie night um I don't know if you saw the pictures
077but we had about 180 180 people come to that um yeah they had to like move they had to move the you know more trucks out of the Bays they ran out of cotton candy even after Lynn went and got some more so congratulations to them I know their public what were the movies uh PAW Patrol PAW Patrol oh Paw Paw Patrol and uh they had a great open house too as well so had plenty of people there pretty funny so it's nice it's nice to have a new building that has an apparatus Bay that can can hold trucks and kids wow that's something it's pretty awesome um just an update on the downtown project they should be moving to um finish up the bricks on the medians soon and uh from that we'll move
078move towards the punch list um on the streetcape work and simultaneously we're going to go through the um we're going to start the process of putting the bid documents out for the connections um at some point in the near future I did find out that Verizon has started pulling their cable they were kind of the last hold out so and then again once that's done then you it's taking the poles down so um it's really really getting there it's um pretty exciting um update on it we're still thinking spring is kind of the sort of Target for that spring y okay um so also on the budget uh you know I took a look at uh at our budget we seem to be we're in good shape only one I'm a little bit concerned about
079not necessarily yet but I'm just going to keep an eye on really closely is the um legal budget especially if we starting you know doing some of the actions that we've talked about that's accordingly got some expense associated with it if it's not covered through Maya and then um also we got notification of our free cash approval oh yeah I saw that yeah um are you all on that I got it did everyone else get it you might get it as the chair oh you know I might have you know and I kind of thought oh we should talk about this and I forgot about it but that was quite yeah do you want to yeah so our our free cash certification not cash yes not free not cash um is 1.7 million that's something
080um so about half a million less than last year which is fine that's actually fine um and then also retained earnings in our water Enterprise fund um it's about 1.5 million and for our sewer Enterprise fund it's about uh 1.45 million um our Solid Waste Enterprise fund it's 293,000 and uh finally for our athletic fields excuse me not finally but for our athletic fields 107 175,000 um 213,000 for the cable access Enterprise fund and now finally uh 213,000 for our stormw water Enterprise fund that's great so um healthy healthy numbers nothing um to be alarmed uh nothing to be alarmed at that's great so just so you know you know the free cash will divide it um accordingly um according to our policies so we will be putting more money uh this time in the
081special education stabilization fund which uh we've only done one time before um the good news is is that we took 250,000 out we're only going to have to put 200,000 in because the interest it it generated um puts us up above the cap so good news there that's great and were all those numbers in the letter that we received okay so we could forward it to these guys around to be helpful yeah absolutely I'll remember if I so it came a couple weeks ago and I said wow this is great news then I then I got went on to other things but so should have remembered that so well that's when I'm here for Rob except my memory is sometimes questionable um and then finally uh provided for you tonight just a hard copy of
082an update on the priority projects uh that we decided on during the select board retreat um one department head wasn't able to uh to update it in time any more of those do I does everybody else have okay um but I think it's pretty self-explanatory just you know some notable things um you know upper Charles Trail you know we have completed an analysis of the town-owned properties and some restrictions that we have there um you know Valentine property we did talk about the Forum but we didn't talk about the barn that's almost done should be done by the end of the month and it's looking really good um nice it's looking sharp um change that public forum to January yes I'm going to come back to you at the next meeting with a more specific
083date um um I did get an update on the NBTA station oh yeah I was wondering about that um so I didn't get an update on an anticipated opening day but um I did get an update on the work that's been done so on the outbound side all the concrete has been chipped out and removed all the sand blasting had been completed uh the steel pans had been removed and about 90% of those have been replaced uh the awning has been removed and some of the steel cross beams are being replaced placed now on the inbound side that's had all the concrete removed and the pans removed and the contractor is sand blasting the steel and evaluating what steel needs to be replaced so then they will start removing the metal awning on that side
084um in the next couple of days actually working it's hard to tell it's hard to tell it really is because you go there it doesn't look any better so it's going to look worse before it gets better doesn't look any worse either at least from Michael I had a question CU I wound up driving down into to the parking lot the other day and it was available so are we are people allowed to park there or not I think still not I think that was by mistake okay yeah I did the same thing I went by oh that's open let's go check it out it's hard to see anything though yeah yeah I I think that they they're moving equipment and that that's sometimes cuz at the access road is open at times too that
085and you I've seen them moving equipment down there did you get a feel are they actually going to do something on the part that potentially replace the the cross crosswalk that's my understanding yeah that's that's going be a big deal if they do that um they might just you know I think they're evaluating exactly like like I said if if how much of the sand blasting would actually help or if they just need to go through and there was I don't know what they were doing today but it was smoke coming out I don't know if that was sand sand blasting okay it's really cool sand blasting is really fun it really is looks like it so um is is it going to you know I mean is it going to be painted look better
086I mean what's the end do we have a picture of the end product anywhere no we don't um and it's been difficult to really kind of get something it's been difficult to get updates right frankly um clock or blue painted blue because then you you don't want to paint it blue because then you have to they have to maintain it and it's going to deteriorate again so you want as simple as possible clean and simple as possible I would think yeah I mean you want to have you want to protect the steel right somehow so you don't end up in the same situation but um yeah well I'm sure there's there is to Joe's Point there's probably ways that could be attractively painted yeah if it was if it was painted I would think that
087would provide some protection I'm sure they're going to paint it the question is what you know it'll be the same ugly gray that that's Battleship Gray you know that kind of thing um also pretty soon Clover Road Brewery uh that will be moving forward to the uh boards and committee stage so that's great contracts signed anything lease has been lease has been um we just need to get the signatures on those and like I said then then we can move forward with boards and committee when when are they expected to open spring fall goes well oh good nice so planning board and conservation I believe just they might have to go to conservation for a storm water permit but um and to us for licensing yeah for the worker licensing and stuff okay okay okay
088so relatively straightforward is it just site review for planning board or is it think are they asking for special permit site plan Jen do you yeah can you chime in yeah yeah it's site plan and they'll they'll need a storm water permit so they will be going to conservation okay so okay so we'll see how that goes job um and uh that's about it if you have any questions on these I'll obviously reach out to it I want to say thank you for this I know it takes a little while to do this update but if every couple of months we could get this I think it would be helpful the one question I did have in looking at this quickly when you gave it to us is there's a couple of them that says
089waiting for info on funding yeah I I didn't get a chance to really review that that came in really late today so okay we have funding that's allocated as you can yeah because like there's money next to it so okay okay you can tell that comes from one department head yeah well you know their their name is next to a lot of items so it's understandable okay thank you you're welcome right and um that's is what I had J JB did you have anything not unless you I mean do you want to touch upon Citizens Academy you want to put that on our next meeting um no I think we can touch base on it um so one of the things that we talked about at the retreat is doing a Citizens Academy um so
090that's an opportunity to take a class of of citizens and um basically teach them about the inner workings of government and different departments and it's you know over a period of months and Jen has really been working with the department heads on putting that together and um just kind of the curriculum if you will and Jen do you want to go into a little bit more detail on that uh sure um so what we're hoping is that um our first class would be um probably limited to maybe 10 to 15 people just so that we can work out um sort of logistics and make sure that we're meeting meeting everybody's um interest and needs and that we can kind of make it an interactive process so that we want to make it you know pretty
091interesting make sure we can have opportunity to answer questions have maybe tours of some of the facilities so keeping it reasonably small um you know we're thinking about maybe doing a preference to um community members that maybe haven't served on boards or committees um for the just for the mere fact of maybe access to some of the Town departments and maybe um those folks that haven't yet been involved would have um some questions and not know necessarily how to access that information and maybe also um garnerish some interest in future board or committee work um once they go through the academy so right now we're sort of looking at maybe an 8 to 10 week um program will break up by departments um or sort of um like um services or functions or operations um
092I'm hoping to put out um just a very quick almost like a talent B form um for an application um in November and then sort of work through that and have it kicked off in January and that would allow us to go through um basically an 8 to 10 week class that will bring us right up to town meeting I'm hopefully getting people engaged at on things that would be on the warrant you know perhaps ending with um a ceremony at the select board where we can sort of um recognize people for completing the program but we were thinking about doing sort of an overview of what your government looks like at a local level and then talking to department heads so breaking it up by Public Safety Public Works Finance um Health and Human
093Services and some of our programmatic work and then obviously Community Development and probably having to split that up where it would be building Economic Development and planning one week and then Health conservation and probably sustainability on another week um and then sort of working with some staff that kind of interweave all of that such as it and figuring out how you know we can show their support and then having town clerk elections and talking about town meeting at the tail end of the of the program so trying to line it up with real life um exercise so that people can sort of see how how and when they can be engaged um with all of us okay question one yeah just a question SL comment so would that also include maybe a session or somehow
094tied into maybe the town clerks about running for office what offices there are what that means and yeah I think potential you know have a select board member that is there or someone elected Finance you know not Finance they're not elected but sort of talking about the elected board and what they mean kind of thing yeah one of the things we'll cover is like our government structure and and what that looks uh what that looks like you know go through the open town meeting process cover the elected boards the appointed boards and stuff for sure yeah I was going to you know you know what kind of curriculum would you have for like all the different committees all the volunteers and the elected officials and how that all works in the town government would be
095good part right others so question um so is this something that is going to be like what is the time commitment like per week for the average person because I assume most of these are during the day right or is this like an evening be evening oh okay okay yeah so good question I mean Brandy we've been trying to figure out how do I mean I think you started to do some of the um sort of thought process around you know how do you boil down um zoning you know down to uh a manageable amount of information and keep people engaged so what we were sort of thinking is that if we have small groups um like departments doing presentations that we'd be able to do it on a Wednesday evening alternating Wednesday evenings I
096think in Michael's newsletter we had put out one of the questions about you know what kind of time commitment Could you um see yourself um committing to and so you know twice a month seemed doable and that way there's some momentum um so Wednesday evenings maybe for an hour and a half two hours and that would be their commitment twice a month um and obviously different staff would be um presenting so there's their commitment would be a little bit different would this be hybrid or in person or in person person in person so no not a hybrid option correct why not like what's your thinking there um I think you know I think some things well first of all we're going to be on location in a number of of places so you know when
097we're doing the public safety module it'll probably be held at the public safety building if DPW would probably hold hold it out like maybe the water treatment plant um so you know just having that type of Technology carry around with you would be would be difficult well there might be some like I mean you could on Zoom you could record things so you'd have people's presentation available for other people to look at well like I think about like from my experience with leadership Metro West the value was was going to different locations and kind of understanding what people do in those in those spaces so you know rather than just like a a PowerPoint presentation I think people need to kind of really understand what you know in in order to get engaged I think
098people need I think I think it's a great idea I think it's I think it's I would piggy back up on on that and that in person you get that cohesiveness with your group whereas some if some are are via virtual and I mean all that was great during coid and I know some people still have issu you know health concerns but I think especially for the first one in person if it's a twice a month commitment and I love the idea that it would be for people who aren't already on committees or boards or have been on committees or boards that we really try to get new people engaged so when that goes out you know let's publicize the heck out of it and I would send it make sure we reach out to
099the schools and ask them that whatever flyer we have we can ask them to send it through their school emails um you know put the flyer out there as well the the only issue with the school flyers I don't know how much you know is that they they no longer go out in the in the emails there's there's like a yeah you have to connect yeah it's really not I would I would as a parent I've gone on it once and it was only to see if the comprehensive plan flyer there's not even a list of what's in there it is basically a you know a folder and it has all these different um you know informational Flyers how else would we get it I mean unless we do an email to people on a
100list an right I mean there's got to be well maybe if maybe if Michael wrote a little blurb and sent it to Jim or to the principles maybe as them to do something different yeah with a the link to I would also say if we can get it into the next edition of town pages I don't know yeah you know like yeah unfortunately really yeah it is part of um we're doing Ashlin access that will be coming out in the beginning of November and so a little there's a little blurb on that and then we'll build out a website that just has sort of information there um we've been trying to ask questions in the poll for Michael's newsletter and ter of you know what what what topics within some of the Departments are most
101interested to you so that we can make sure that if we're doing presentation so we'll be taking that data but sort of you know starting to sort of tease that out um through the newsletters but it will be there will be a small article in the ashin access okay okay great sounds good thanks jie all right so Michael are you that's it I'm done very good okay all right so that brings us to board reports want to start with Claudia are you ready sure um yeah I don't have too much we had a a school building committee meeting last night um I think the exciting this is always something exciting happening over there these days but um you know is the they've been working on the fever feverishly uh on the playground and indeed the
102playground um will be available to students within a few weeks and it looks looks great um I saw them today they were putting another coat of paint on the I think the the paint at self is actually some kind of special paintting the in the uh underneath it is um some kind of rubberized uh material so is a Battleship Gray paint no it's blue and green um it makes me want to be able to go play on the playground again yeah it's pretty nice and there'll also be a basketball court that will be available at this that time um as well it won't have its the lines painted um but and then the uh the Bus Loop is being completed and the bus Loop is going to be um you know finished soon and again
103at the same schedule these projects are all will be available I believe turned over to the town basically um at the same time and uh that will get the buses and the parent drop off completely separated the way it should be yeah I mean that's the way it was designed um so so really you know great progress um they're got a few other things they're working on on over there um next week I've been invited uh by Senate President Spa's office to the citizens legislative seminar for a couple of days um so I'm headed uh in there and uh so I'm looking forward to that great great all right Brandy um thank you so um a couple of things one one thing that I was thinking about um I had seen a post on one
104of the Myriad of bulletin boards on Facebook um that was talking about you know leash issues dog leash issues in the town forest and um the post was basically saying oh the town should you know enforce and you know it there's a myriad of issues with enforcement because you have to be in the right place at the right time and you know other things but it got me thinking a little bit about um you know how we communicate our leash laws and what the ramifications of dogs being off leash could potentially become because we see that when we when we have dangerous dog hearings which are um by far in a way the most awful thing we do yeah because it ruins everyone's lives um and it's it's difficult so um I wanted to see
105if the board would um support kind of like I'm happy to work with like our Communications team and trying to put together some social media posts some information out there about just just letting people know what they should be doing and what they should be aware of because we're not going to be able to enforce every single offleash dog but we can help communicate what the ramifications of that could potentially be um and what to do if what to do if you're bit what to do if your dog is attacked what to do if um you know like because there is a process in place to to reach out to animal control and file report so just making sure people are aware of it so if if the board and Michael were supportive of that
106I'd be happy to kind of work on that a little bit do do you want to be on the agenda for the next meeting to discuss this or well just let us know I guess because I think this is important enough it should be on the agenda when you're ready to discuss or whatever I think you know so sure so just let us let us know when you're ready but that's I mean that sounds good to me I just think I think the more information we can put out there the better and then um you know I I I think people don't think through I don't think people understand no the ramifications if you know people are like oh my dog's well behaved I'm like well my dog's a sweetheart but but you know just
107once just once so you know and I would never let her off leash because she's a maniac but um but sh I think it's a great idea because I I saw that post too and of course people are like well if it's the state park you got to reach out to DCR and I would say that this applies to all property in Ashland right any of our open space you know stuff like that I would also recommend you touch base with Donna Walsh our Animal control officer she may have some information that so that you're not recreating it yeah she may have some information or that she has access to from the state or something like that also you want her to buy into or you know whatever we put yeah absolutely she should like
108understand and okay F discussion yeah okay so but I think you know if if you guys are supportive of that we can do that and then put it on a future meeting actually okay thank you um and then the only other thing I wanted to just say was we had um we closed out Corner Spot with Fall Fest this last weekend and um there were I don't know know how many people but hundreds of people at fallest I saw the picture 400 um the Drone pictures were amazing that's what so thank you Paul Paul did the Dr pictures I was wondering who the who the Drone who the Drone was controlled by um so I just wanted to uh thank um Beth Reynolds and U Melissa Hayes for a really great season at Corner Spot
109um and then you know we've seen so much success come out of Corner Spot and has just become a real Community Place not only for these sort of signature big events but also for movie night and for um cultural things like the ashin Indians um use use Corner Spot and The Mom's Club and so it's really become this this major Community spot so just wanted to thank them for all their hard work this this past season also the Ashen Farmers Market is closing out their regular season this next Saturday and I just wanted to thank all the volunteers in the board for all the work that they do all the high schoolers that show up um exceptionally early in the morning to set up the tents and uh deal with us cranky people at that's
110great uh at me so um and then also just there's trick-or-treating happening next week here in town hall and and around um so next Wednesday from what 4: to 6 um yes and if if you don't mind just go ahead it's it's actually being um expanded a little bit from what we've done in previous years so kids will come here and they'll get a pass that they can then use to go to Subzero uh Crossroads physical therapy and get candy and treats there and then end up at the Ashland Public Library but um I would encourage you between now and then to go downstairs um and see what uh what the finance team has it's got to be Britney oh downstairs I'll to do that that's tonight after the meeting we can go down there
111so just wanted to wish everyone a happy happy Halloween and and uh come on out to town hall in the the general downtown next week it'll be it'll be a fun fun time so that's it for me great thank you Joe thank you Mr chair um couple of quick things uh this past Saturday uh yolander and I uh worked the farmers market needless to say it was a great day with no rain which was the first one in a long time and um some of the concerns that people had um when they came and spoke to us on the uh at our table um had to do with some uh Street um conditions uh on Green Street and hildo Road area some of the ruts and uh turrets that were they were concerned about because
112especially on Green Street there was a deep drop down there and they were worried about that area yeah the back area there uh be Green Street is that right off of um the one that the area I know it's real steep yeah right where you hit um the road H yeah they they were concerned about that okay there there's a construction site there they're building a home there right um how they able to get a home in that little section of property that's I'm sure they got a special permit I'm sure anyway um housing housing I know housing uh there was some sad War concerns uh gentleman came and was a little concerned about some of the sidewalks downtown and uh it it wasn't funny but it was the way the way he made his
113made his concerns but uh it was we we understood and we told him that some of these things are on a uh you know a list of the B to get everything done and resolved so he was he was specifically Cherry Street yeah no sidewalks on Cherry no sidewalks on Cherry it's on the list yeah and we the explanation was provided but I don't think he was satisfied with the explanation but it was provided anyway um and then um a young uh couple came in uh with their with the young children you had just left and I wish you were there but uh they were worried about uh speed around town especially in some of the uh developments and the cut through uh in Algonquin uh was a concern for them with they live down
114in a condo area and um I said you know it's one it's it's a private area it's posted 25 mil an hour but you know we'll talk to uh Chief Rosy and make sure we can you know get some you know visibility down there with traffic and they were very pleased about it and they they were thankful and they were happy about it um I'll put this up uh this is our annual Town Halloween parading party it's going to be a third Thursday this year um first kids nights out is the Friday before Halloween this year and uh so that so we had to change everything around which was which was that's not a problem with us that's always a great event and uh you know having having worked it a number of years years
115ago I'm sure it's just as great as it was back then as it is now and um so uh 6 o'clock to 8:00 is the uh the time we meet at uh Montenegro Square and if it's good weather we will parade down to the new mindz school I still have to find a path to make sure that we don't cut across anything that's being worked on uh so we'll everything's pretty fced in fced in right now so yeah so we'll probably go up to the main entryway with the sign is and go that route yeah so that's I think that's what we'll do and everybody gets uh boie bags they get apple juice they get uh Duncan munchkins and and all the good things and first first first and second uh Place prizes and different
116age groups get uh $25 gift certificate to Target and moms and dads if they get dressed up too they get U there's a costume uh award for them and it's a $50 gift certificate to uh brenham's men oh good so you know so if you can do it that would be great and uh lastly I would just like to say that um I just I I get concerned about what's going on in this world and I and I and I pray every night that this gets resolved and cooler heads prevail as I worry about not only my children but my grandchildren and um you know so and we all need to worry and and hopefully cooler heads prevail and we end up in a world of love there was a sign I saw it said
117why do we wish people rest in peace when we should be living in peace great thought and I'll leave at that thank you Joe thank you a couple things so I'm actually going into Boston for my MMA policy meeting this Friday which should be good and we are going to be discussing the governor housing Bond bill so we've got some details on that so our next meeting I'll I'll bring that uh discussion back and where things are with that uh next week on Thursday we have our Metro West Regional collaborative Trails meeting this should be a really good one it's uh taking place at luring Arena um if people are interested they can either email me and I can forward them the invite it's a discussion about the trails and how they're connected not only
118in our region but through the Massachusetts and how they're going different places Framingham has made some real progress in their connection to the Bruce Freedman Trail North so it should be it's always a great event to hear what other communities are doing what time is it when is uh I believe it's 8:30 to 11 8:15 to 11:30 on Thursday the 26th next so I'll forward my invite and that's and that okay thanks and that's an inperson it's an in person yeah because what they do is they have a discussion and then if you have the time they're going to take people on a walk of the new part of the trail in Framingham okay sounds interesting and then the last thing is I'm on the board of both the hopkington Center for the Arts and
119the Metro West YMCA and they have partnered for an Halloween event called The Haunt and it is a haunted town called Dead Woodville it is taking place at the ropes course at the outdoor YMCA and it's not super scary it's it's a performance per se as well as some scary things but nothing too scary this is its first year the price is pretty pretty low for what you could what you'll get um it's you can either go to the hopkington Center for the Arts site or the Metro s YMCA site or you know you just look for the haunt and it should be a lot of fun and if you go you will see me there but I won't tell you where okay that's funny so I will be there Friday I'll be there more
120than just Friday and Saturday but the the tickets are available for Friday night Saturday night and Sunday and on Sunday they have a familyfriendly version the first hour so 5:30 to 6:30 so if you don't really like scare but you still want to go to it this interesting that you can go a little bit earlier um so cool no they will not make kids cry I mean it is recommended 12 and up but the familyfriendly version a little bit younger but they do they should be it's not really conducive to strollers cuz it's literally in the ropes course so you're walking through the trails and through the ropes course and the ropes course is used so I'll leave it there there is no rain date if it's pouring down rain it won't happen but even
121if it's drizzly it'll be happening yeah yeah what's the day done is it did you say it's multiple the yeah it's three nights the 27th 28th and 29th starts from it's from 6:30 to 10: the last walk through starts at 9:30 that's interesting okay and Sunday it starts an hour earlier and like I said it's a kid-friendly EV event and uh I'm glad some of the things are Digs at Hopkinton and N us that's good all right very good if you go through it they deserve you'll see that elevated bike lane so the uh the dangerous streets I was I was actually told told that because of the new configuration in downtown hopkington their public their emergency vehicles cannot get through oh because of the fix not yet so anyway that's wild yeah I made
122the I made the mistake of driving up 85 to Hopkin in center today and the traffic is backed up all the way down the hill there they got it worse than us they're still doing a lot of we're going to get ours done before theirs yeah well that's great I'm not going but I'm just generally after that Legacy Farms their traffic's tough yeah yeah anyway that's all I got all right thanks Yolanda I just um just a housekeeping thing um in December I just wanted to just at least touch on our December meeting schedule so you know usually we're the first and third traditionally we have we considered not meeting twice in December so right now we're scheduled for December 6th so um what's the thinking should we just keep that one date for December
123and not schedule anything else um you know with the thought that if something comes up we'll we'll meet but is that sound good to everybody that makes sense rather than trying to shift it and you know people have other all right so just so for your planning so we'll meet December 6 and right now we don't have any other schedule for December okay um the I um Micha totally fine yeah all good you can live without check my calendar now yeah right um the uh MBTA uh commu rail committee and the um which I chair and the sustainability Committee of the advisory bill um Advisory Board had a joint um meeting on think on Monday uh with um to to listen about the mbta's commuter rail electrification and schedule update so I we had a
124long meeting but I think um just a quick update they are serious about electrification or moving ahead on other lines are not really uh the Framingham Wier line is really just slated for uh what he called good repair um and improvements in the short term so there's no distinct electrification uh was my understanding but they are looking at uh the other big news was the locomotives are um that they all that they required I guess in the 70s and 80s are approaching end of useful life and we'll need wholesale replacement uh early in 20 2034 something like that so that's a big budget Capital Cliff that they're they're approaching but they seem to be um you know sincere about electrification moving forward apparently there's a new kind of diesel fuel which is a lot less
125carbon in it and less particulates which sounds great um and um and they did talk about the schedule a bit there was some kind of apologies for the way they implemented it without a lot of without enough information um and they are um and we talked about some of the issues with the new schedule which is kind of uh but we did uh did get a commitment from them to deal with us directly uh with The Advisory Board directly when reviewing the schedule and to increase their public Outreach about it in general and there if you remember well Pride brand Andy knows this uh I don't know if the others but you know trying to get the new schedule ahead of time was very difficult and um so that was something I said okay so
126what's the new schedule you couldn't find it so anyway but so that was just that's just a quick update so they did commit for better public Outreach and more uh discussion and then some review with The Advisory board so that was good um the only the other thing is um you know uh the upper Charles Trail implementation team is meeting tomorrow with the town manager or he's Michael's part of that of course and I think who else is is um and um Peter Alvaro and Jen great that's we got the All-Star crew so we're moving ahead uh on on that um so I'll give an update next meeting um we all got the notice about the Diwali event so kg is very good about inviting and telling us about things so that's uh November 5th
127so for us to think about um I did want to do a shout out to Carl and uh Carl hackinson and Greg wans for their Warren Woods uh event I was not able to attend but I heard it was very nice and it was great for them to to do that so um and the other thing was the ashin public library has is having an event tonight that we couldn't go to but um they they're a great crew and uh hopefully they're having a good event they also had their online auction oh did they yeah for romance books and things like that how to work out to I don't know I bit on a couple things I'm going have to see if I oh did you I don't know it ended at 8 so hope
128doing really well the first like day or two Happ some of the items went for some real money I was like wow yeah well that's something speaking of events there's the Town Forest um conference I think Saturday right yeah is anybody yep uh I any anybody go I know Michael's there m seeing anyone else attending I'm I'm not so seems like a good event so uh I did uh you know while we're talking about events I I have been suggesting to people that if they uh if they're holding an event and they want us to attend it doesn't hurt to send us an invitation yeah uh like kg's very good about that and like people may think oh I'm you know I'm doing a lot of publicity but we sometimes we miss things you know
129and it doesn't hurt to ask you know especially if you want a long speech from me you know we get invited to the flu clinics too oh that's good that's and I'm early yeah all right so I think um that's it for for me Mr chair I forgot to add one thing my bad on it uh just an update on the uh MB uh ta uh zoning group oh yes very good and um it was a very uh productive meeting and uh looking at the uh GIS maps that we've been utilizing through um DPW uh some of our work may not be you know as as rough as we thought it was going to be that's great to hear so uh at our next meeting we'll have more of a definitive group should we put
130you on the agenda or why don't you wait and let let us know give us another meeting to go through that and that way we'll have more definitive that's great you know answers questions yeah but it's moving in the right direction and uh we're very uh very pleased with how it's how it's going around now if ugc can uh pull through that would be even nicer yeah so that's it thank you all right thank you if there's no other item motion toj second all those in favor of adjourning I or adjourn thank you all thank you thanks J