Wed Sep. 6 Select Board Meeting (Hybrid)

001foreign good evening everyone and welcome to the September 6 2023 meeting of the Ashland select board um this meeting is being live streamed through waca TV okay um I guess we'll start with citizens participation so if anyone wishes to address us if you're on Zoom use the raise hand function I see Mark is anyone else here for Citizens participation so Steve why don't you come up and um make your statement go ahead sure so as you know I was here about a month ago two meetings back with a couple concerns at my property I invited people to in this board to come look at the facts and review some information nobody nobody took me up on that I also invited the planning board to do the same I had one planning member review the material

002send an email indicating the plans didn't include the extent of work that was done on my law on my lot and apparently that was shut down by Town Council and an email came from Peter so I don't understand why I'm here I I see your mission statement for public participation I don't understand why it's so difficult to get people to look at some documents and discuss an issue but apparently in this town it continues to be another month gone by school's now open the work's not all done but nobody has taken the time or the invitation to sit down and look at the material and have a rational discussion about what's going on so I'm disappointed but I'm not surprised I would like to get an update as to why that the town has not

003taken the opportunity to address these issues I talked to my neighbor before coming over here and I understand same exact silence is going on with my neighbor so um it's not just my property or my my issue it affects other not large number of residents but other residents are similarly affected and being ignored so that's that's what I'm interested so let me um so this is the second time you've come here and raised these issues is there anyone here who cares to respond or or set out okay Claudia yeah you know Steve I I did uh send you an email I think one of the times that you emailed us and just explained that I would very much have liked to have been able to have a conversation with you in a discussion but because

004the first email correspondence we had with you there you know you were threatening um you know legal action and at that point I felt like I was not in a position to to be meeting with you in any way shape or form but I am someone who is always in favor of having conversation with with people and um you know I'm sure there were things important things for us to listen to but I think when when we start off on that foot I know for me anyways I think that I can't um then I don't I don't recall your email so if you can remind me of your email I was here a month ago I don't have any emails from you and uh maybe you're talking about years years ago but I have nothing

005from any any board member other than one planning board member uh in the last month I didn't I didn't respond because I don't have the expertise to deal with what your issues are but I would hope that there's a procedure that the town has to re address and resolve this one way or the other than getting letters from Town Council that apparently came to me but not my other neighbors my other neighbors told me they weren't similarly getting bogus letters but they have an unresolved issue so I talked to them literally at 6 30 tonight in one case and they're just waiting to find out what the town's going to do because the town is trying to move a boundary that's existed for 70 years that's one of the issues they also have property damage

006in their building as do I and everybody's putting the finger at somebody else so Town included Town sent the letter saying they weren't responsible due to you know what is it the king's Rule and present presentment I think it's been presented but even if that's the case um you know somebody needs to take ownership of figuring out who's responsible and getting the repairs done I shouldn't have to file a lawsuit to get repairs done you know that's not constructive so I just like people look at the damage understand what happened then they can inform each other as to what a good path is but right now nobody's even interested so that that's kind of my concern okay to you on August 21st after you had sent one again to us a second email on August

00720th and I just I'll I'll look for it maybe maybe it's in my junk folder but if you sent when I did not see one it might have thank you she sends out a lot of emails um Michael do you I mean is there anything you'd care to say procedurally or address you know like at this point is there is it would it be of any help if Steve followed up with you about making about a procedural question or what the next step is or yeah I mean it's really not in our jurisdiction it's um school property it is a school building project who the contractor now has control of the property right now for at least a short while um I think you know Steve you presented a case I think there's ample evidence

008um you know that supports what Paul and Lisa have been telling you um obviously if there's a disagreement about that it goes through legal methods so or legal channels nobody wants to go down that road but okay it's very easy put the fence back where it existed and then we'll all be happy at least yeah but I don't I don't think where the fence was was so it sounds like you should be corresponding with Town Council yeah and yeah okay and I don't know appreciate you Tom consulates told the contractor not to correspond I did meet with the contractor shortly after I was here um I made sure my signs were at the line of the existing prior fence because I wanted to make sure I wasn't misaddressing the issue from Town Council about being

009over the prior line you know within right Steve I will I will take care of that I will have a discussion with Town Council just satisfy my myself about what's going on but I can't give you any advice it sounds like you've been told to correspond with the Town Council so I think I haven't and I've just been I had an officer sent to my house after the no trespass was served they showed up at my house arguably in a violation of the no trespass because they didn't have a legitimate purpose other than to serve a letter from Town Council that happened I've spoken to the chief I understand the chief's going to ensure that doesn't happen again good but um as far as resolution I haven't heard anyone with an ear that's even interested

010in looking at the documents so okay thank you all right thank you uh mark I think Paul is there now I'll Gustafson is there I do want to jump in well should we just finished with Mark have we got them open and closing I think we'll have to do that anyway why don't we finish with Mark and then do what we need to get Paul in go ahead Mark he's the last of the public let's just wanted to make sure I wasn't accepting anybody's toes but yeah sure why not speaking and speak another turn um Road again to town manager did he get my Bunches of emails again today um yeah Mark I counted 12 today I think um and I think you're on the right track of with things and I appreciate the enthusiasm

011I I don't think I'm going to be able or the comprehensive plan members are going to be able to go through that that many emails at a given time so I would suggest maybe just be a little bit more judicious and selective of what you send forward and then also a lot of people have some hesitation on clicking third party links just because of you know spam and fishing and things like that so just be careful affording things like that those those might not get read or they might end up in spam without be the same as being the thoughts of maybe the cop plan people too I haven't talked to all the comp plan people um I can I can speak for myself Mark and I while I appreciate you like Michael said the

012enthusiasm and wanting to to be engaged in this whole process I like Michael said I don't click on links that people send me I just I've had bad experiences so um you know I would my personal perspective is I would love for you to use that email address to ask questions and um you know be engaged with us I I would I would probably say if you can reduce the amount of the the links that you're sending to us that would be a good thing now that would come up to the question I asked before in the last couple of meetings asking does people on Zoom get a chance to participate at the the comp plan meetings so we don't have a public participation section of our comprehensive plan meetings um we have quite a

013as you know we have a we have 29 people in the committee itself so it's it's a lot of folks um and we do have zoom participation for the the um the committee members and zoom is really um you know we like to be able to have hybrid meetings so that we can reach a larger audience but I'm not sure at this point if there's time for public participation on Zoom um for our meetings Yolanda I would also say this Mark that there will be plenty of opportunity for public input and and involvement in the comprehensive plan as it moves forward there's a good excuse me there's going to be subcommittees there's going to be special listening sessions there's going to be all kinds of work once we get the consultant on board so I

014know you really want you know you're excited about this and you want to participate but give us a second and give us you know a little time to get the the committee really moving forward and and get a plan in place on how we're going to do things and then participate as we are asking more involvement as we do specific questions and sessions okay okay and by uh answering it that way and okay all right you all saying that you're fear for a third party emails these are not third-party emails these These are straight from the government federal government and their branches in the uh the Committees that they have in Washington and other in the other places but it's definitely not third party but it was third party I would never sent it because

015I know the situation that it could be like uh like a like a hack and so the spyware and stuff like that sure Mark excuse me we've got to open a public hearing at uh 7 10. so um are you uh you know I hate to cut you off but are you finished now uh we can come back to you but it'll be some time after the hearings come back to me sometime okay all right thank you Mark okay it's being uh 7 10. uh we're going to open we have a public hearing and intend to open it but then we'll um suspend it uh for a few minutes to uh meet with someone who has to come and go so um I appreciate your folks who are here for the um fishing game who's

016that are they yeah if you if you would just allow us great thank you I appreciate it okay so I'm going to read the the legal notice uh notices hereby given to the select board will conduct a hearing regarding application for an all alcoholic beverages license a liquor license request is from Ashland Fish and Game Incorporated would be an additional license at this location the applicant currently has uh all alcoholic beverages liquor license for their main building which provides service to the bar and Rental room the new license will provide service to the Pavilion located near the softball field this is an Ashland fish and game three Ponderosa Road Ashland Mass public hearing will be heard on the matter at the Ashland Town Hall 101 Main Street on Wednesday September 6 at 7 10. you

017may attend in person or via Zoom parties wishing to be heard in this matter should appear at the time and place indicated above interested parties who are unable to attend the hearing May submit written comments to select board's office Town Hall 101 Main Street Ashland Mass 01721 or by emailing Susan Roby at s Roby ashlandmass.com.com sign Rob Robert chair select board so I opened this uh public hearing so moved all second all is in favor open to public hearing say aye aye tell you you're with us good okay oh yeah motion to suspend the public hearing for about five or ten minutes while we bring forward another item I'll second that motion's been made in second at all those in favor suspending the public hearing say aye aye aye great okay public hearing suspended and

018we're going to discuss uh we're going to meet with Paul Gustafson who I see is on Zoom Paul I think you're still muted if I can read it yeah I'm right here can you hear me okay yep we can hear you now so I don't know Michael did you want to say anything to introduce this subject or yeah so um Paul as you know is the owner of 433 Chestnut Street otherwise known as the hall house and was selected uh through an RFP process to purchase and renovate the home at the at 433 Chestnut Street and as part of that whole process first there was a set of preservation restrictions that were developed and that was agreed to and the board had agreed to that as well over the course of the construction period we

019ran into a few snags we came back here for a couple of meetings to discuss it and figure out some solutions which resulted in a couple of different obligations that are outside of the preservation agreement but are nonetheless important and so I will say you know what we're trying to accomplish tonight is basically a sign off from the board that the preservation restriction has been satisfied and that there are no outstanding issues related to the preservationist Restriction which you can say confidently and then the other thing there are two pieces of information again outside of the preservation restriction that we have talked about number one is a donation to the town and that has been agreed to at thirteen thousand dollars and then also assign a kiosk I should say an infra an informative kiosk

020has been um determined to be placed actually not on the 433 Chestnut property but actually in the towns right of way um and so we would be responsible for installing and maintaining it and so that brought up some concerns as well which Paul and I discussed in terms of long-term maintenance and he's actually going to have printed three additional sides you know the exact same side so if and when they need to be replaced we'll have something to replace them with interesting thought yeah that's a great idea um you know for those of you who've had a chance to review some of the pictures or actually had a chance to go see the open house I think I think you know everybody's pretty impressed with the with the way it came out and his use

021of some of the historical elements into the finished product and um you know we we learned a lot from this process I don't know of another community that has done something like this um so we didn't really have a model to work off of and uh you know while we have you know relatively certain the outcome that we had had hoped for there you know we learned some things along the way so if we ever want to do this again we'll just need to hold out make sure we remember that Paul did I pretty much cover everything from your perspective yeah yeah thank you Michael yeah you sure did that kind of covers it well can you hear me yep so um and so any further questions discussion thoughts just a quick question so the

022Thirteen thousand dollars ten thousand is going to the historical commission and three is for like maintenance basically and we put it all towards the historical Community okay I wasn't sure okay okay yeah the maintenance is now taken care of with the addition of gotcha the sign the signs being created so it's just a matter of replacing something happens all right um and then just as far as timing goes on the kiosk what does that look like I can't say for sure I think it would probably be good to have uh Paul does have um a persistent sale agreement I think put together with a potential buyer and I think it'd be good for that to kind of settle out and then we could go through and do that yeah I could quickly interject hmm sure

023yeah so um in terms of if the sign is agreeable everyone at this meeting I can go ahead and have that printed uh fairly quickly and then um as Michael said you know whenever make whenever it's convenient or makes sense to have it installed um we can do that but you know how the signs printed up uh ASAP did everyone how who designed the sign anyway was it that's I'm glad you brought that up um the historical commission uh did a lot of work especially Joan and Helen who actually has to have joined our meeting tonight so thank you both for the work that you did on this and uh Paul kind of in the print maker uh you know finagled with some Design Elements and everything kind of are these going to be similar

024to the ones that we have at Warren Woods similar they're actually going to be updated the materials yeah I think probably the the one that's um closest is that little kiosk next to Robert Hill Way that talks about the Wetland area if you've had a chance to see that I have not to go check them out okay in a few weeks they encased in um or at least covered with Plexiglas for protection or yeah Paul how would you describe it um yeah so the science the sign maker in Framingham all types which uh I think I think Joan actually contacted who uh is owned by Joan John grocer uh grocer family lived in Ashland for a period of time and you know very very good at what they do and they recommended a quarter inch

025aluminum laminate uh so it's actually printed right on metal okay we've got three signposts for rigidity of course secured to the ground Paul I'm just going to interrupt you briefly we have to open and suspend another hearing so do I have to read the whole thing yeah you got to read the whole thing unfortunately this okay um my apologies everyone so we're running a little bit behind we have another public hearing schedule is there someone here for the um Mike's Auto Body Mike's Auto Body somebody here okay so with your Indulgence we'll just we're going to open and then suspend it as we did for the other one okay so um notices here by given that the select board will conduct a public hearing regarding the change of location for Mike's Auto Sales LLC the

026business is currently operating out of Mike's collision at 183 magunco Road Mike's Auto Sales LLC 50 mcgonco Road Ashland Mass zero one seven two one a public hearing will be held on the matter at Ashland Town Hall 101 Main Street Ashland Mass on Wednesday September 6 2023 at 7 20 pm you may attend in person or via Zoom parties wish to be heard in this matter should appear at the time and place indicated above interested parties who are unable to attend the hearing May submit written comments at a select board's office Town Hall 101 Main Street Ashland Mass zero one seven two one R by emailing Susan Roby at sroby at ashlandmast.com signed Robert share chair select board hearing I'll say all those in favor of opening here and say aye aye aye aye motion

027to suspend the hearing until we can get back to it in a second all those in favor of suspending the hearing say aye aye okay hearing suspended thank you all okay um Paul go ahead I think we were with you before yep you're hearing on the sign and how it's going to be made so it's very durable uh John grocer at all type said it shouldn't last you know anywhere up to you know 15 20 25 years um uh with that use that material so with the three additional signs you know we've got we've got a long duration of uh of having that that sign at that location okay um yeah I think the sign looks great and thanks to the people who designed it who's at Helen and Joan that's right and Joan primarily

028and I like in just my own so people driving by will be able to pull over and read the sign is that basically like how well otherwise how else can yeah they would be able to do that you know hopefully they're not two cars at a time would be good if we can at least have some reasonable pullover space I think it'd be a nice you know it's a nice little addition people come by oh what's that pull over and read it you know yeah it's real history so it is and the selection of the site for the sign I was done with Helen Joan and Paul and Joe Joe was also a part of that as Joe yes good work Joe I'm still here I am Joe do you have anything you want to

029say about it no I think I think Joan and Helen involved something going on out there not me um all right yeah is there anything else um we can get on I mean I think this has been a great addition and I moved okay I moved that we vote to approve in the sign the certificate of have been met I'll second that motion's been made in second and all those in favor say aye Joe vote okay unanimous okay thank you and I do have we should sign this before we leave today okay and uh Paul the house is beautiful um you know I know I know you you showed the house to a few of us this last week and um for anyone that hasn't seen it it's it's a beautiful beautiful job utilizing a

030lot of the um old pieces and wood and and details from the old house so um so it is a beautiful beautiful renovation for their involvement in this whole project uh you know we all learned a lot from this and and hopefully that uh that experience will go forward with other projects in town and uh and I also appreciate the uh the other participants in this meeting for being patient allowing uh us to have this uh this discussion now I'm getting ready to jump on a plane so I can fly I had to kind of jump in and jump outside very very much all right thanks Paul hearing's been reopened okay what do we do now I read the legal notice um any any presentation or Susan anything on the documents you you sir may

031want to come up come forward yeah and go to the podium there speaking to the mics of people at home can hear you first of all I want to thank the board for your time sure um you know we we you'll approved us already for a beer and wine license and we've come to realize talking to people that on all alcohol license especially now with the introduction of all these like high noons and all this stuff that we can that's not considered beer and wine that's that's alcohol so it's this is a learning curve for me I'm getting that I'm catching on to and we found out that we really need to go all alcohol instead of just beer and wine for little reasons not not big things but we want to try to uh

032and I believe it will work better for the town because I believe you have more licenses in all alcohol than you do in beer and wine I don't know I don't remember no I think so but maybe it's possible so can I ask a question I don't sure I mean um are you finished with your state that's what and we've gone through you guys have already seen all the stuff that we've proposed it's just a matter of changing from the beer and wine to an all-out absolutely right okay same location I'm confused though because I thought that it was for the Pavilion this is for the Pavilion okay and but you have a beer and wine already for the Pavilion no we do you've already approved our beer and wine for the people that was

033already just confused as to like well maybe because maybe all alcohol for the Pavilion just the Pavilion we already have an all-alcohol license for the club itself we're just trying to get this for the Pavilion and I just I'm looking at Susan Susan is there anything you want to add for background on this application we've kind of talked about it but yeah just briefly um ultimately the application came in it went into the abcc there was a couple of additional pieces of of paperwork that were needed and um in the meantime they decided that beer and wine was probably not the best way for them to go okay it was to um having all alcohol license so um they decided to submit in and this will replace the other application that you approved in April

034okay so I think we got that clear all right thank you so um so that one comes back on our roll yeah which if you look at the motion it says that they have to return the beer and wine license back that we gave them okay and um when we did receive a letter when should we is it time to introduce this letter you received two I believe yeah there was one in our pack and then there was a separate one oh okay uh well I'm gonna read I'll read this one that I have and maybe you could read the other ones sure um this is uh Dear Mr share we your neighbors do not have an objection uh to the liquor license being acquired by us on the fishing game for the outside Pavilion

035we are concerned about the noise level I.E parties loud music Etc since the Pavilion is located directly across from our homes and many of us are seniors who like to retire early for the day we would appreciate your consideration of a closing time no later than 9 pm to mitigate noise level please understand we're trying to be respectful of all concerned thank you for your consideration is it appropriate to read their names actually I can't really they're sign these so I have trouble under uh pronounce understanding all of them anyway but uh so four people signed this letter what houses are across from the across the room well if you you can if you go across the river it's a very short hop in a jump oh okay and there is there's houses all along

036there and we we're more than willing to listen to their concerns if okay anything we can do to we don't want trouble with anything all right hold on because currently on the application it has 12 P.M to 1am for the hours for the hours that's what we wouldn't need to look that long hours for The Pavilion whatsoever the club still has to have the one o'clock just in case right right now we're just talking about we're only talking about the Pavilion so if we need to change the hours in the Pavilion absolutely the same one that's important oh okay so so yeah it'd be important to have the other letter and then also it's no it's the same level we've only gotten one letter no sir the one in the packet is what Rob just

037read how does someone have it we can read whoever is an email that was in your packet package yes um one of the neighbors that's right across there and the navals on either side of me we have a wide open area of grass right to the Pavilion which I can we can see in here at the time are you did you write this letter or yes I had I didn't write it somebody wrote it for me because I'm stupid uh okay it's called me so we have no problem at all with the with the fishing game they've been good neighbors all these years and we don't really mind that fact but where it is we're talking about the Pavilion it's a direct line to us and we were just hoping that maybe okay you know

038maybe the serving hours could be nine or nine Community or something so we'll we'll talk to this gentleman about that yeah because they had the other option excuse me they had the option of going to the clubhouse or whatever if they wanted sure that's all we asked okay no they've been good neighbors we have no problem okay we find that other letter yeah we found it nice to meet you okay go ahead you know whoever's got it I can do it um so the second letter that we got was uh I'm writing this email in regard to the Ashland Fish and Game Club Pavilions application for all alcohol beverage liquor license as in a butter at 281 Pleasant Street I am corresponding to express my displeasure with this application for the Pavilion liquor license the

039Ash and fishing game currently holds all alcohol beverage license for the main building and bar and Rental room Butters currently listen to the loud noises that comes from the Ashen Fish and Game Pavilion during sporting events in the early spring summer and fall Seasons The Pavilion is located directly across the street from a Butters residence with little to to no buffer little to buffer us from the loud crowds at softball games and events additionally this would directly impact our residences adding liquor accessibility at the Pavilion which is available in the main building I feel that this is an unnecessary component to add to sporting events please accept this as a negative opinion in this application process okay okay all right so um I'm sorry what's your name Ron Ron Ron Ron Ron why don't you

040go would you like to respond to those concerns um as far as noise as far as the ball field and everything there's no there's no games there's no anything going on after four o'clock in the afternoon um soccer's starting up now now we have the fall leak so that's a little later the kids are out of school now instead of doing it but it's only kids and it's only in the field we're not planning on having bands in the Pavilion maybe earlier maybe a DJ but I am we're concerned with the neighbors also we don't want anybody unhappy with us we want to get along with everybody and we're willing to do whatever we can and and we've been aware of that and I I came up with I propose a 10 o'clock close the

041Pavilion time at night because when you're having stuff nine o'clock is a it's okay but it's a little early for a lot of people don't even get started until nine o'clock but I I'm just trying to if we could get 10 o'clock that would and it I'm just trying to get along with everybody I think I think 10 o'clock is a pretty reasonable time and what nights would this be yeah you never know what is going on but most parties are on the weekends so like Saturday it would be a Friday or a Saturday night very few people rent the hall on a Sunday night it would be a Sunday during the day but but if you're having a party in the Pavilion we have them in the afternoon but it could happen at night

042and it's up to you guys on the time well yeah I'm proposing 10 o'clock I thought that was pretty reasonable but okay so I have a question you mentioned a DJ um do you guys have an entertainment license we don't but okay if if we do that we'd have to get that this is all right until you guys approve anything we're not going to try to get anything okay but once you approve stuff then we're gonna take our steps and and you know try to do more and more but so the DJ's under the entertainment oh absolutely okay or band or anything anything exactly yeah I just wanted to make sure like we know all about that but we got to start with once we get the license we know we can do stuff then

043we can ask you can we do this and then we can ask you can we do that okay until we know we can do anything down there we got this beautiful Pavilion down that we're not able to utilize right now we utilized it years ago there was a license there was a liquid license there and stuff years ago it got let go which never should have happened and now we're just trying to get the club back up to where it was years ago is basically what we're trying to do okay so I just want to clarify so Susan just to double check and you're cracking me up with the dog on your lap um very cute by the way is there current is there all alcohol is there beer and wine was that 12 P.M

044to 1 a.m is that what we approved yes yes okay so we changed that and it wasn't because when we had that discussion there the neighbors hadn't put weighed in and and we're concerned with the neighbors I guess the question is have you done any events under that license we've done zero okay we didn't we still had once you approved us we had to wait for abcc okay ABC we've got none of that okay so it's not like we can say how did things go okay this is why we're back here doing this trying to they're they that's all part of this ABC this is all part of this little thing if we say you know the Monday through Saturday 12 to 10 12 a.m 12 P.M to 10 p.m would that work absolutely and

045then we've done this with other bars and and restaurants that the residents can let us know right right now I'm sure in the winter there's even less buffage because there's no trees I'm suggesting every day 12 to 10. yeah why do they so the Le when we gave you the other license it was every day 12 P.M to 1am what I'm recommending is we do the same thing every day so Monday through Saturday I mean Sunday through Saturday 12 P.M to 10 P.M with a review you know maybe in a year and if as residents what we recommend is if as this happens if you have concerns report it to us and we can be aware and if if we have too many concerns you know because it's during the week and it's crazy then

046we can review it that sounds fantastic well you know so let's see what other and Joe if you yeah okay go ahead Joe thank you Mr chair uh Ron uh we had a minor discussion about this couple of weeks back um so if you have your uh license till 10 o'clock at night last call be at 9 30. correct okay so that should be part of the agreement yeah that should be written in as well makes sense for me to have no problem with you doing that is it isn't it with all of our licenses the last call is always a half hour before the ending without having to write it in well I don't know Michael Susan I'm not sure right if if you're if your ending time is X your last call is

047a half hour before is that correct Susan yes you have to have all the drinks off the bar by that closing time so that's normally what people do is it's half hour before and we don't always we don't put that in the um no the information okay but it wouldn't hurt um you could but he's like duplicating yeah Joe do you have other questions that that was it I think I think that uh the group that's looking for this has uh been Fair uh and I hope the neighbors feel the same way uh I had a conversation with Mr Nana tovich a couple of days ago and um you know his concerns were noise issues so you know I I get that I understand that and I know that uh Ron is uh you know

048he's a man of his words so I I don't think that he's gonna you know create a situation that's going to be uh disruptive to the residents and his uh neighbors and across the across the pond dear yes and just one logistic question for for Susan um so if we approve the all alcohol license the retail license that leaves us with three and then is it three beer and wine I'm just trying to keep track of things in my head so because they are a club they don't change your numbers gotcha okay perfect that that was which is wasn't clear when we were talking about it last time yes but now we know that because it's a club it doesn't hit our numbers okay thank you questions or thoughts on no it sounds like everybody's

049uh ironing it out I would appreciate an update on the numbers we have on those because I've kind of lost track now um the only thing I think Yolanda is a good the only the only suggestion I have but I just questioned needing to go to 10 o'clock like Monday Tuesday Wednesday is that important to you like what's it's not that important because I'll be honest with you we very seldom have a party on a Monday Tuesday or a Wednesday this is why I said to you Friday and Saturday nights are our big nights that's when something's going to go on and I understand the concern but it's really we very seldom have parties during the week nobody not too many people want to rent a hall on a Monday or Tuesday it's always a

050Friday or a Saturday and Sunday during the day very seldom Sunday at night Sunday afternoon we do get hall rentals but Yolanda what's the Sunday hours you're proposing 12 P.M to 12 P.M to 10 P.M on Sunday as well yeah I thought Sunday was earlier no I Saturday every day the same 12 to 10. what about Sunday Sunday through Saturday I apologize Sunday through Saturday so all seven days the same thing 12 to 10. so I would so here here's my rationale for that is something comes up they can get something on a Monday or Tuesday now they're like oh no now we can't also you know then they're having oh okay we we have it from this you know for these days but not these days but I think Sunday they should close earlier

051don't you guys like what I mean what's your Sunday Closing Time generally like what would you say 12 o'clock one o'clock right now our hours are open to close all right and what did you want I'll be quite honest with you if you go buy it 10 o'clock at night where the doors are pretty much locked up ball all the time we have hours in case nobody don't want to be open longer than we're supposed to so we've had some concerns of neighbors what do you what do you want at the Pavilion for Sunday schedule we want to be able to utilize it as much as we can but we will also be very concerned and and make sure we do not upset our neighbors again I just I just feel like if we're saying

052okay this day it's this day this it's let's start with this and if it becomes a problem then we can pull it back very very seldom we rented the hall on a Sunday I I mean I I think I agree with Yolanda that it needs to be consistent because I think changing the hours on different days is kind of it's confusing to everybody um and I would say like maybe we do review in a year and just and kind of put that in as as our Benchmark and we'll just make sure that the neighbors feel comfortable with with um totally acceptable and I understand all the neighbors concerns well I I will be personal like I said I have no problem giving my personal phone number to any of the neighbors you have an issue

053you call me I'll straighten it out right away okay I appreciate it any other matter for the public hearing before we close the public hearing anything else so uh Joe go ahead I'm sorry just one one question because we have those hours uh slated uh for noon to 10. it doesn't mean you have to keep that open until 10 o'clock I mean yeah if you see that it's slow you can you can share it down whenever you feel it's right the shadow I mean so I mean those are just guidelines and you can shut it down earlier if you wish you just can't extend the hours but you can you can serve yeah no I would suggest because the neighbors were concerned about the noise okay so anything else we're ready to close the public

054hearing motion to close the public hearing the motion's been made in second to close the public here and all those in favor say aye aye always opposed so the public hearing is closed we can now deliberate I think we have a motion or I haven't created them I haven't read it yet but we have something that we approve the request for the all alcohol liquor license for the Pavilion pro at the Ashen fishing game provided they withdraw the wine and malt liquor license that was approved on April 26 2023 with the hours in today's Sunday through Saturday from 12 to 10 pm with a review in a year with a review in one year second motion's been made in seconded all those in favor say aye aye all right motion passes unanimously okay so you

055have your license thank you very much I appreciate your time you've all been great to us and uh we're gonna try to be great to the town great thank you very much thank you thank you for coming in okay so now we need to reopen the motion to reopen the public hearing from Mike's Auto Sales LSC okay motion's been made uh do I have a second I'll second most of us made second to reopen the public hearing for Mike's Auto Sale all those in favor say aye aye [Music] good okay motion is up hearing is reopened okay um before we start with Susan is there any procedural matters on this you guys can come up and you know when you get up there identify yourself and Susan anything we should know before heading into this

056no I think Michael has it all okay okay good evening everybody Mike mcclellan's from Mike's Collision okay oh that Michael okay now I get it sure sorry go ahead um so I believe we had a five card no show no display license at 183 magunco Road um it's been a very small utilization of the license we don't sell a lot of cars we found that magunco road is not a hot spot in our sales uh but it is an asset to have the license for the company uh whether it be um buying and selling cars that were wrecked or or going to buy a cars for the rental company that we have at the shop but it's definitely not a great retail location uh for for car sales so I think probably in the last

057eight to 12 months we've probably done four to five cars and so but it's something that is is utilized and is a benefit to have to the company so um but that's moving up to 50 mcgonquin Road I just wanted to be able to have that license transferred if the boy felt it was fit thank you okay thanks questions or concerns for any does anyone else want to say anything about on this public hearing uh on this matter anybody in on Zoom or in the we didn't receive any written material on this right other than sort of yeah yeah okay is anybody should we read that introduce it in I see it here you can reference that you've received yeah you know basically he was in support that Mike's Collision is a good business and

058he supports them great okay any questions thoughts Joe I'm good with it okay anybody else the plan looks good so yeah all right I'm gonna make a motion to close your public hearing a second motion's been made to close the public here and all those in favor say aye aye aye all those posts of the motion the hearings close so now we can deliberate on this application no other questions any anybody else have anything to say we can approve the request from Mike's Auto Sales LLC to move their class 2 license from 183 magunco road to 50 magunco Road and that we hold the issuance of the license pending finalizing the certificate of occupancy thank you boy we haven't voted yet got a little bit uh motion's been made in second and all those in

059favor of approving the license hi say hi Joe you're you're cool right thank you now you're good thank you for your new location yeah good luck in the expansion Michael you did a really great job at 50 magonco thank you thank you you'll be like one of these things is not like the others I get that a lot great all right it's a great job we did I did promise uh Mark Mark that he could continue Mark if you could you have something you want to say fairly briefly if you can really really thank you for the re-time Democracy on that Hawthorne Road and it was cut it was stopped at saying that the uh he said in all those all those um things I said we're a third party thing third parties and you

060were fearful opening you know but I was saying they're all from the uh federal government Washington DC and they are what they expand is to every state in the United States and any and every event of what they're going to be concerned with for businesses and economic growth and all that and then especially the census one I've been saying it out all right census was and and all the bio biological biotech once because I'm I was looking I'm still looking at it saying that we should grow through those uh of these grants and help fill the Gap the costs but again we've still got the uh the comprehensive plan people without what 29 29 people and they don't have to do what I can do to try to help to give give a sense of

061a Direction so that's why I was I've been doing this and I'm going to continue to do it in our third party I'm not afraid to say because they were then I would have been affected by my computer too but I said that because it would have they were the boomerang but this this is what I'm doing this is what I'm sending to fill that Gap and to help the board get a sense of a direction of a person that's not on it who had wanted to be on it really bad but I just also wanted to get my input in and it's not pushing the envelope per se it says given forth ideas that they don't put in the agendas because they think of ashes that's a small town and understanding that it's Ace

062a score to two years with you gotta work it you gotta get fourth so this is my worker to get forth that helps show the grants and if they were third parties I would never start at this point they're not this is by way of going forth even though I'm not on it and if I can't participate with the zoom like like this part right here is uh well this is my only way I set it out to help the group and I think all right thanks Mark sure that's good and you know I I think just I think Michael gave you some advice about you know making you know making account maybe cutting it down a bit so people have time to look at it but certainly appreciate your your input and you know

063stay stay involved so I think thanks Mark I think we have to move on now and yeah thank you again for the channel again this time and it will continue but I will also want to make sure that my voice does not get lost sure understood thanks all right thanks we'll make sure that doesn't happen okay all right very good so the next item I have on the agenda from is the Valentine estate to review proposal and schedule a date for a public forum so yes so the Valentine property does everybody know about the Valentine property just a little bit just a little bit Yeah so um you know for those of you who are not aware if you know people are watching at home Claudia I'm you know uh you're newer to the board

064so the town purchased the property in 2018 and didn't necessarily have a plan um but really the reason we went ahead to purchase it is first because we wanted to stop the development of 120 units at the location and number two we wanted to preserve our right essentially to have a plan and make use of this property and again that was in 2018. since that time we have gone through a long and Winding Road of what we're going to do with this property we've received a ton of public input through three public forums just basically select board three public forums numerous emails from residences residents and I'm sure that you've received people coming up and making comments and then also there's been a the Valentine property committee did a lot of work and not only

065in terms of the history of the property but also what some of the other properties around us do that have similar characteristics and some of their models and really so what you're going to see in the proposal or what you see in the proposal is nothing that you haven't heard before it's it's very very much an amalgamation of all those things that you have heard and so what I wanted to do is is present you know Yolanda you're always saying okay we're doing this one million dollar renovation to get the barn basically stable um if you see it if you've driven by it recently they've got the paint going on the floors are going and it's it's looking great but the next question like you say Yolanda is what's the plan well here's the proposal

066for a plan um and so before I get into it I just want to outline what I'm hoping we can come out of tonight with is I'd like to have some general support from the board on this it's very very high level so it's very short of details so if I could get some some general support on this and then also if I can get your support on scheduling a public forum where I can present this and get public comment on it as well that's what I'm hoping you will be favorable to tonight any questions before I just kind of dive into some of the details when do you want to talk about the schedule maybe at the end if you're amenable to that um so first of all I should say that we've got

067a couple of guiding documents guiding statutes related to this property that we have to acknowledge so first of all is the article 97 restriction which does not allow us to sell or at least the property and then we have conservation restrictions that we have to adhere to because we bought the property with CPA funds and um and then also it's in alignment with the Restriction that we have on the Hicks property the development restriction on the hex property everybody following me so far and it was kind of like a lot just I wasn't certain that we couldn't lease it but that's we know not we can't lease even we can't have someone run a facility for us um it would have so you could do a short-term lease but that's not a long-term capital kind

068of lease it could be a short term like for example at Hopkinton there's somebody that runs a boat rental on this in the state park you know that kind of thing yeah it would have to be non-profit um it would have to be it could be a commercial Enterprise and again but you could have minor kind of rental or Facilities Management sounds like yes okay absolutely okay absolutely um so the conservation restriction also has some basically some prerequisites that we have to adhere to um and also Carl and Yolanda and I worked on a draft conservation restriction for the property which I believe Carl sent to the board back in June uh and got some feedback on and so that's actually with the state right now once they approve it it comes back to the

069board and the board will need to approve it as well I should point out that this proposal was not reviewed with the proposed conservation restriction holder yet but nothing in here is inconsistent with what we've what we've talked about Yolanda with um so um that's kind of the background and just kind of setting things up for tonight and really what this proposal does is it it's really like I said before an amalgamation of the ideas and the programs of different properties both in the Metro West Region and also within and outside of the state in order to you know by drawing from this diverse set of influences we can develop our own unique property and our own unique offering here for the town and also the region and it's really important that we do something

070that complements and doesn't necessarily compete with others for a variety of different reasons it's always better to work together and grow the pie than it is to try to cut up the same size pie into different pieces you know ultimately everybody gets smaller pieces if you do that and essentially what the property would be would be an Agricultural Center which is actually the name it's an idea that Kate Valentine came up with and essentially it consists of a barn that is a multi-functional space that can be used for Town meetings musical performances artists bazaars um you know Town get-togethers could also be rented out for things like weddings and private parties which will get to the finances will really kind of be the base from which we operate from financially it'll you know need to

071be and um so that would that would be the barn if you will the house would be really kind of set up into two distinct purposes so first would be a community space at the bottom and then also space that sets up and helps support the functions of the barn so we're looking at a kitchen you know that can handle you know what we're talking about in terms of events and stuff it would also have rooms where if we do have weddings you could have a bridal party you know a change that's how Holliston uses their property and then really on the second floor we would use that space as offices for newly formed Parks and Recreation Department now I want to point out that that doesn't mean that we're going to replace a Recreation

072Department and the space of our Recreation Department within the community center this would be an additional space we'll obviously have to ramp up Staffing if Parks and Recreation takes on this property and then we're also probably going to have to look at that anyway just to really kind of manage the fields the way that they need to be managed but I can get into that a little bit the other flavors not up the fields there correct correct and then the property itself the the grounds you know I don't know if you've seen it you know recently but last year Carl Robin and a few other people did a lot of work in terms of clearing out a lot of the invasive species and so you know there is it's cleaned up quite a bit and

073you can really visualize walking trails that are going throughout the property not necessarily at this point connecting to anything but it could be self-contained the land area that we're talking about is similar to Cadillac paint where we're putting walking trails so you could kind of think of the similarities there and then also an all-natural Wildlife Corridor or maintaining an all-natural Wildlife order for wildlife to continue to use there's a lot of deer a lot of turkeys a lot of other animals it was yeah we'll do that we'll uh we'll paint a line since you stay on this side Maybe no no I I was going to say something um anyway so that's a general framework of what we're talking about doing with the property so from a programmatic element what you know you know I've

074talked a little bit about the barn and all the cool things that we're going to be able to do with the barn again this would also be an agricultural center and instead of replicating the same types of classes and arts that you see at like Hopkinton Center for the Arts or tcan are amazing things what I would propose is that we set up something that really kind of Harkens back to the Agricultural and industrial history of Ashland and also the region and look at doing classes and artists programs that center around things like metal smithing um textile Fabrics glass blowing that's always my favorite Woodworking and wood turning from what I could tell there's not really a facility in the region that offers that so one of the um one of the links that I

075put in there where we draw in for inspiration from is from a place called snow Farm up in Western Mass and that's a little bit of a different model because they have Artisan residents but it's the same type of crafts and the same type of stuff that's that we're talking about here and then also you know we could also have you know basically a place within the house and also if the barn if it makes sense to do it in the barn we could do this as well where you have different types of artist displays so one thing that would be really really cool is if you had a room dedicated to the Valentine family and there are some very prominent members of the Valentine family historical and present and basically having a room dedicated

076to some of their work I think one of the um great Arts of Kate Valentine was actually the poet laureate of New York and I think most of her material is at Radcliffe but there's still some outstanding material that could be part of part of the display and part of a library at the Valentine property um so any any comments or thoughts on the uses that I've talked about so far I'll just open it up to people and Joe raise your hand or make some noise when you want to say something there he is you're you were muted so you said I will oh you will okay so my only question is um you know when you talk about the glass blowing and the metal working and all that stuff are you thinking of that

077in the barn um I think you could do some in the barn I think you know you would have to set up a space outside yeah of the barn to do some of that because like I'm thinking of like fire in the barn it's probably not it's not great it depends on if we fire proof it a lot of glass blowing places they have the Kilns that but they're interior they're inside but they're protected okay if you've ever been to an interior glass blower place okay um have you heard from like Artisans that are interested in doing this I think I mean because part of it is like I think I'm like oh it would be great if there's like a market for it you know so like I think a back about like how

078we did the the fire station downtown and I'm like maybe we need to put out some sort of like an RFI and engage because you know we've talked about this so we can come up with all these ideas and it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to resonate with people that are actually willing to come to Ashland or to do those things I mean I think I think an event space that's multi-purpose is like the way to go because I I think we do need a place that we can have events I think we need that um I mean to have it be flexible is like key um I just I just don't know how much I would like before we start thinking of like you know sort of like hearkening back kind of thing I

079don't know what that kind of Market looks like or what the um what the appetite is you know yeah I mean I think I mean I haven't done like a rigorous analysis yeah I've talked to a couple of different people who are intrigued with the idea and um you know there is a mobile glass blowing Studio who has you know basically he goes around to different places okay um and does that but that would be you know if everybody's supportive of the idea you know collectively public that's something that we would need to get more information on yeah and that would be the next step kind of refined for the form yeah yeah but I will tell you we will not compete with HCA doing traditional pottery you know painting Arts you know things of

080that nature they'll eat our lunch um we won't be able to do like a music like a like a real music venue like amazing things or a tea can um just because again they are so developed and they're so willing to put the money into these things and they're already established that's the thing um I did mention actually this stuff to Kelly Grill who's the director at HCA and she she thought it was a fabulous idea and thought it would be you know something to um something where we could partner yeah but you know I don't want it to make it sound like that what I'm talking about is like the major component um it's really going to be around the events at the barn that are really going to generate I think the enthusiasm

081and also the revenue right so we see to keep this coming yeah okay how does how does the revenue aspect work in terms of um I'll get to it I basically so I just stopped at the uses so if you just had any any questions about that I can certainly go into the financial stuff right yeah no I I you know I agree I looked at the websites that you had given us in the document in terms of um and certainly some interesting things to do and I was thinking I you know it might even align a little bit with some of the things that Steve's doing I think with the Council on Aging in terms of trying to bring some different activities to uh you know and involve younger seniors that that it might

082be good for them so um but the part that cons it mostly concerns me I think is the whole idea of how do we sustain that right how to pay for it I mean I hate to be a wet blanket no no that's always our sticker so are you set Claudia yes I think this is a great as you said executive sort of big picture what it could be I love the ideas that you have here I love the idea of making it a multi-faceted location so that the Community Gardens because they're always running they're you know they're running out of space I'm sure more people could use yeah and there's water there right because I remember when we looked at Cadillac paint and potentially trying to put some extra sights for the community garden

083at Cadillac paint but there was no water source right and and they're having to lock their Gardens at the community gardens because people were going in and stealing vegetables so I think if we can increase and do that up there it goes back to the history of the farm and stuff like that the trails I think is great um and I know you said you're going to go into this for the financial but a couple things so right now there's no plan to put any heating or Cooling in the barn that's something that I think we have to discuss once we have some legitimate experts okay because as I look at I mean it's a beautiful barn but at most it can be used from April thrill October depending on the weather and certainly if

084you you know if they want to do the Indoor Farmers Market there even if it's a little chilly in November it would work but I think that's something if we're going to really look at doing this long term it's something we would have to look at then again and this is part of when you go into financials but a couple questions as you go into it just the potential cost of Park and Rec right expanding that department what would that mean and then is this something where we could create could ha could there be a non-profit Friends of the Valentine Barn that does fundraising to help with this facility is that a possibility right I think about you know we have the friends of the public library we have the friends of the Council on

085Aging and I know in your financial synopsis to us you're like you know we haven't done well at fundraising but this is a different thing and I think there are people who might want to participate and be a friend of the Valentine property that are not seniors so they don't want to be friends with Council on Aging and oh yeah well I like what the friends do but I'm not going to do my membership every year so yeah I mean you know the the possibilities are really endless and just because you know our past doesn't I always say our past doesn't always have to nope it doesn't have to be yeah exactly um so as a community we can make a determination as a group every day to do something different um and I think

086you know that's going to be important um yeah I mean there's a bunch of different things that you can think about from a financial perspective maybe we probably just to see if Joe has anything Joe do you have anything uh to add about the uses before we get into the next phase here no I think the uh the program that Michael has uh before us is some of the things that I was looking forward to especially the use of uh multi-purpose aspect of it and generating Revenue to the support itself uh not completely but at least maybe 75 percent of it to do that similar to what the uh the Holliston group has over there at the Houston uh historical society and the monies that are generated over there through uh weddings and bodies and

087and whatnot so yeah no I think uh I think it's a nice plan uh it's going to take time to do it and do it right so I'm all for it great yeah all right you know I just had one more um question that I meant to ask um is there enough land there that it might support a playing field for children or I can't put one I don't think we can uh I don't do the formulas you could do that with article 97. formalized Recreation let's do a playground or Recreation I think it can only be passed I believe it and based on the Restriction that we're that we've talked about it would only be passive Recreation but you could maybe have like a fit Trail or something like that maybe a fit trail

088that might be considered passive Recreation but not an actual so you couldn't have a soccer field no no and actually I think the quality of the land itself doesn't doesn't lend itself just because it does rise to a steep hill and on the lower end there is a significant Wetland area as well as a stream that goes through so you want to keep it informal um the other thing I I would add um I think the wedding venue ideas I mean I like the proposal and I think the wedding venue I think there's a market out there for reasonably priced nice wedding venues that are local and kind of easy to do yeah so there's definitely a market for that I think Warren Conference Center is booked up two years in advance yeah hollison I

089think is one um yeah I I would agree so that's probably where we've done the most research is related to that and you'll want to thank you for you know getting back to useless thank you for bringing up the community gardens I I've left that out but that is a critical component good idea um so yeah so now I will get into the financial plan um and we've talked a lot about it but mainly what's the important thing that we would do is you know we would utilize an existing or establish a new revolving fund so everything expenses and revenue would go through that same account that would have to be authorized at town meeting each year you know similar to what we do with our other Enterprise funds so we'll have to have basically

090a budget for operating expenses and also a budget for Capital expenses and like both Hopkinton Center for the Arts and Holliston they usually go to CPA when they need to make some improvements and their CPA committees have been traditionally have been favorable towards helping with that and helping with the maintenance and then so the operating expenses or it's it's a math exercise so we'll have to look at what we need to spend and then we also need to look at how much revenue we're going to bring in and how are you going to treat the fact that there's a town office there is how does that financially work I mean wouldn't it with the town then pay some rent or into this operating fund or how would you know you know what I'm saying to

091help support it because it's an office space in that case so how are you how are you thinking about that um well I think you know I think a lot depends on how we want to treat the fields moving forward whether we want to continue with an Enterprise fund or whether we want to use a revolving fund so Parks and Rec would oversee the fields and you know I'm kind of glossing over that but that is a big issue we've heard that from Doug Small yeah I see that as a kind of associate but really kind of a separate issue we can move forward with that and how to do it yeah it'd be good to have staff there for this Readiness facility if somebody's around that's great there's a couple of different models that

092we could explore further so Holliston and the Thayer Homestead Medway both have an on-site caretaker yeah um so they're a little small you got to support it does the in self Pro they have a in Southborough yep the corner of 85 and Route 30. oh that little house yeah yep you can rent that and I mean it's very small but it was in downtown Southborough yeah just uh oh that downtown yeah okay yeah I mean it's their downtown yeah yeah okay I know what you mean yeah yeah so and that's also owned by the town right the town owns that I believe so yeah I know they have a caretaker um I definitely think this is moving in the right direction I think are there any restrictions on what can be done to the barn

093on the inside the interior in terms of so not on the interior but that that's that will be a discussion that we'll need to evolve again once we get some experts um you know do we want to do something like HCA and sheetrock most of it um or do you want to keep it natural most of the people I've talked to and I've talked to a lot about this want to keep it natural yeah as much as a barn look I mean yeah you don't want a big blank wall yeah exactly and I also think if you look at HCA and what they're doing there as you said they're an art center and their big thing are the classes and the theater performances and the music performances and also I mean they also rent it

094out for events um they have big money benefactors oh yeah yeah and they have a pretty good sized budget so yeah but I think if we look at this as a more rustic place right people go all over for rustic wedding venues I think if we can keep that feel I think the discussion I think as you said the next thing is bringing this to the public and getting their input I I personally think at some point we're going to want X not get rid of the second floor but access that second level I think about like at the Warren Conference Center when you're in that main area they have that second floor where you can go up and be up there as well as I think I don't know the other thing I think

095moving forward we would want to maybe have a committee that works with you on this so that because there are a lot of people interested in this and I think if we can you know not just have it on you but have people who are committed and who want to you know work and design and and plan and and but you know stuff like that might be a good thing yeah I mean I think we have to use our experience oh yeah in history with that to come up with the right formulation yeah and uh the right balance there discuss this um don't you think what was that joke every I I don't know are we still discussing what we want to do with it or we're going to move on to it I think

096I think we moved on to discussing the finance and administration okay so I wasn't sure did you have anything to say but it sounds like we're revolving right back to the beginning again I have a question sure so um we didn't talk about the renovations of the house because that will be like a big component of it too we haven't got to it yet okay I wasn't sure because we were talking about finances I wasn't sure if we were you know we were talking about the the operating expenses but there's like the big chunk of change that we'll need to um yeah so I did talk to Doug Scott about this it's really hard to get a real estimate um for the house or for all of this that we're talking about but you know

097he put a price tag of four million dollars on it and we can't hold them to that um but you know he's he's got more experience than any of us or all of us combined actually so um you know I think that's something that we could we could work with now two million dollars you've already allocated two million dollars of arpa so we did one and then there was where did the second million come from because we had done the renovation well initially we had looked at doing the Karen money okay but then we decided to do and we had we were going to use uh part of the money that Karen got us we did have it as part of arpa our arpa allocation initially initially then I was like okay well maybe we

098can use the money that Karen spilka got us and then looking at some of the details I'm like let's just switch it back around and we'll do downtown with the Karen money and go back to arpa okay we may need to re-review that because I can't yeah I can't I think that would be good because I in my mind I see like 750 000 for an arpa funds for the barn and then the CP the CPA funds and then we were making up the Delta like there was a little bit of a Delta yeah but I don't remember but there's been a lot of like movement with different yeah he's going on it twice though and so I've moved forward just on that boat okay it would still be good to review because the Public's

099going to want to know right if we if we look to move forward on this with these finances where are we getting the money to do some of this work and then the other two million I mean excuse me Joe Joe did you have something you wanted to say no Mike can finish his comment I just okay go ahead I do have a question about the the house part of it anyway okay so we will have a Delta using you know Doug's very high level estimate of two million dollars um in you know potentially we could go to CPC for that we could look at general fund there's you know is that something you can um could we bond that I mean is that does that so be part of the capital budget or the

100law or the bonding we would probably Bond even if we use CPA it would probably you know maybe a portion of it would be a large chunk of that but then the rest of it would be bonded yeah so you you do your budget would be monthly yearly Bond payments as opposed to trying to come up with like two million dollars yeah essentially because I don't even know if we have that much CPA that we could devote towards yeah right I mean I worry about like like trying to come up with two million I mean that's like yeah that's like because I remember when we first started talking about this that we had said that if we were going to be if we were going to do all this on our own we were going

101to need we were going to need to go back and ask for like a debt exclusion or some sort of additional funding from from from residents yeah but we don't think we we think it's possible that we can actually do this without that when we had that discussion arpa wasn't part of the equation okay and um you know we've striked while the Iron's hot well we're very very fortunate um in that regard that we've got a lot of that money and we have to use it certain date right exactly 24 or 20. you know everybody else is freaking out because in a couple weeks the whole federal government could shut down but at least the arpa funds my understanding is they'll still be available as of right now 2026 is when they have to be

102used okay but yeah I think um I think getting back you know Yolanda you know talking about like the committee and stuff like that I mean this would be a town Department that would be operating it oh okay I see what you're saying right the park and rec okay you could probably have like an advisory committee um I think more for the the creation of the you know what we do at the barn what we do for the house in regards to you know historical aspects you know or not I mean I don't know yeah something to think about because you know it's something you want some working group to continue you want some public input well that's why I'm suggesting we go ahead and get four have a public forum and then um I'm

103also going to review this with the historical commission and the Conservation Commission as part of the CR so I think like I said I think we just want to use prior history and experience to help inform how we move forward and Yolanda to your point we do have to have this spent by 2026. we'll be here before we know it I would just kind of look at how we got to this point and where we are now and just kind of use that to help inform us right future you know that we we've had it for five years and yeah we've only got three years yeah yeah but we also had you know two and a half three years of covet in there so I mean I tell people that all the time right things

104got a lot of a lot of things had to get put on hold not everything but yeah and and this was never the intention we were never we were never intending when we bought the property we were never intending to spend the money to to do the renovations ourselves right we were hoping to get someone who would do fundraising right so that was the intent so plan where I think we're probably at like plan e at this point yeah I mean I I will say thank God for arpa funds yeah um um I mean I I don't know what we would do quite frankly well without that um did you have a lot what else do you want to present about this Michael um just in terms of the house you know I think that

105I mean there's nothing we can do in the barn if we don't have the bathrooms that are only in the house right to to be able to use you're going to have to have some public facilities like that um so I think a kitchen that if you're going to have a wedding venue you know a lot of commercial kitchen yeah I do have a question Claudia I'm sorry I didn't really mean to interrupt you but um before Michael uh ends his uh conversation we're talking about putting uh office space in there uh Town Office Space um with the renovations uh the ADA compliance act comes into play and are there any federal Monies for that assistance to make that compliant uh under those regulations you know potentially um you know in terms of the requirements

106for the public to be accessible to offices that's something that we would again need to explore we'd also need to um you know there's also the potential for waivers to it being a historical house there's the potential but to Joe's Point even for the staff it wouldn't it need to be ADA Compliant if you have staff that needs to access the second floor or I don't know I don't know okay we could definitely okay some waivers okay yeah I just throw that out there because I don't want to put the wrench in the works here you know have them through this that's all yeah yeah I would that's important um it's an important point and you know like I said we're talking about a lot of things that we don't necessarily have the answers to

107right now we'll need to have an architect or an engineer and again that's kind of what I'm hoping is that it's some you know General support behind the idea and then we can move forward with hiring an architect who can help us flesh this out a little bit more give us more realistic ideas of what's possible what's not possible what you can do what you'd be given up if you do that Etc and then also provide a high level estimate um you know based on something real yeah it sounds like a needed Next Step but you know it don't want to necessarily do that unless unless you we've got support for you know for this is that a question you want a response to right now yeah I mean well it sounds like you're generally

108supported I think so it sounds like you're generally supportive of a forum public yes definitely I'd like to do that if possible in early November I don't have exact dates picked out but Joe are you good so far okay yeah I think I mean yeah I think this is good forward progress and you know there's always going to be questions and issues and funding and you know all sorts of stuff to work out but I think you're moving in a good direction and thanks to you and Carl and Robin and everybody else who was involved in this and well a lot of people um have had their hands in this in some way or another again the Valentine property committee did yeah a ton of research not only on the history of the property but

109also you know what other types of facilities like this are doing um yeah it's got It's got the potential to be a real yeah it's really kind of not just for us but for the reasons yeah oh yeah I mean you think people go up to like Vermont New Hampshire and go to places like this and do funky little things you know I mean we can do it around here you know have any of you ever been to an event at Houston the Holliston Barn never been to an event but one time they were getting they were setting up and I Dro I stopped in I specifically was like I want to go see exactly oh that's interesting and uh it's a great little space yeah but it's it's got a vibe to it oh

110yeah it just kind of makes I mean it's a cement floor um but it looks like a barn and they I mean they've had it for a while and in the late 70s they put the kitchen and the bathrooms on the back of the barn so they don't even notice it but it's a it's a great space and I think I mean that was something when we decided to purchase this that I was always like we can do that or something similar with our barn where is it is it a downtown right on 126. right across from their police station okay so par I'm just curious so are the parks and rec department would be responsible for the management of the barn as far as like booking it and all that stuff um and then

111would our Communications team be responsible for marketing it because I think part of it is gonna have to be I mean like that's gonna be a big thing um well you get the right person in place they can do the bookings the marketing you know okay they can do that now that may be a full-time job like you know just dedicated to that I think that's something that we have to well certainly certainly if they're going to be also managing the fields right I mean we've we've said that our the marketing for our Fields has sort of fallen off I mean we used to be doing some great marketing and we used to be getting some great events now we're no longer the only town that has multiple turf fields but certainly if we could

112have someone not only marketing a barn but Stone Park and other areas and the fields that would be a great thing yeah how big is the house in terms of how many upstairs I mean could you have a caretaker and still have room for some offices yeah you could you could yeah that could offset the salary of have you ever been in the house I I have but so we did uh not to plug the show but um two years ago I think so oh yeah we have been talking about this one we did an around the clock that like walked through the downstairs and the upstairs so double you know check that out there's some really cool in built-in woodworking drawers and cabinets and in the back part of the house yeah it was

113yeah do you want to try do you say you wanted to set a date tonight or you just want to throw up if early November sounds good for you I can go back and I think so I mean you don't want to go in the late November so yeah we got town meeting in late November where is it when is oh there it is 29th right the town meeting is the 29th yeah so yeah I agree and then you're getting Thanksgiving and then December so yeah early November is probably the time yeah yeah and this has been really helpful for me because some of your questions I'm sure or what some other people are going to ask too so I can start putting together some materials and he said I'll probably have a overhead map

114image for the Forum that you know shows where the Wetland is and yeah cool what we what we're thinking did you get your questions answered Claudia because you attached those three so it's the three Parcels together on the Google Map that makes the whole thing yeah I sat with Mike for a little bit to uh just you know go over some of the questions that I had about the property so good good I did and there are some seems to be substantial field space there available for both parking and walking in natural areas so good yeah that's the other thing we did not talk about is parking yeah right parking is going to be a key so I did a really rough rudimentary analysis that something occurred to me could we do parking right on

115135 during events can you like create a space where people could pull over and on the side of the road I doubt it and with the addition of a sidewalk well maybe that's yeah well I mean we own the land so in that case you wouldn't be doing all of it you're talking about the spacecraft the frontage well we do on the Valentine property but you know beyond that we that's what I mean but I just I'm in trouble I mean even if you have a pullover space for five or six cars could be helpful I would think but well I don't know but what would be good when we get the sidewalk completed and we have the crosswalk it's really a stone's throw from the Valentine property the community center and the Valentine oh

116that's good so people could park at the community center if it makes sense or the schools the schools the Middle School is right there if the sidewalk gets extended that's not that far of a walk yeah I think Robin and Cindy would be open to um entertain the idea of using part of their property for parking I mean it gets used that for the State Park summer yeah interesting yeah I know that Court well some there's something to keep in mind as we designed the sidewalk about how we might want it to maybe create some parking space so maybe yeah I really do think that would be difficult yeah I mean like right on 135 well like if the sidewalk comes in a bit and then you've created some parking space though except that you

117have the historic stone wall oh well there's that we don't know which side of the road yeah no I don't know the sidewalks that's true yeah right that's true so something to think about anyway okay okay that's great so you're all generally supportive of this yes yeah let's keep on the way it is very much though all right all right well no that's great thank you Michael yeah why did they put the boards over the um the zip board yeah oh no no he said over the plywood he said I really like the plywood hey you know he likes The Rustic look if there's anything we've liked from this is that there there's a diversity of opinions all across the map yeah all right well thank you Michael that's that's great I'm glad to see

118we're moving forward on that and putting all these ideas together um all right the next I have is the baa Grant discussion and um this I believe uh Brandy uh put something together along with Susan and um Yolanda you're also who's oh no um Claudia is on also on the subcommittee so I presume you guys have agreed on those things and I think did everybody have a chance to kind of read through it it's in the packet um so I don't know I can give a really brief synopsis so um I think we started this discussion back in March um where you know we we obviously you know our town gets 22 bibs for uh from the baa for um for being a Marathon Community we ask the runners that run on behalf of Ashland

119to raise three thousand dollars that goes into our Runners account the runner's account then um gets used for our baa grant program that the select board then allocates amongst multiple organizations um through the year the um the organizations that are able to use the runner's account are 501c3 organizations um historically we've opened up the grant rounds to any organization in Ashland with a maximum of twenty five hundred dollars um the kind of the thought process around revising sort of our our uh our grant program was really to better utilize the the funds that the um the runner's account accumulates every year um I think I'm looking at like what I had from um from the last cycle and we had like forty six thousand dollars and that's before any of the runners even start fundraising

120for this year um so to better utilize those that balance um an established kind of guidance for groups that are not 501c3 because we've been utilizing the select boards gift account which is um coming down quite rapidly I would say um we use that money for a variety of things in town that money is is funded from the Warren Conference Center um room room fees in lieu of taxes and I think that if I remember correctly and Susan May uh you know definitely um correct me if I'm wrong but I think that that account generally it grows we estimate 15 to 20 000 a year so it's a much smaller bucket of money that we use for a large amount of things in Ashland including we just set aside last meeting 5 000 for the

121nianza memorial we use it for the volunteer breakfast and the runners breakfast and a lot of things that we do so um the other thing was that um you know we really should I believe ask organizations that have received funds in the past how they've used it um give us some information as well as like receipts of how they've documented the use of those funds um and then you know over the years we've kind of um had some some internal guide posts of how we allocate funds from one organization to another but it's not necessarily kind of a consistent process um so you know create standards that's just generally more Equitable across the board um so what I proposed was really to separate it out into two programs one is a baa grant program which

122is the runner's account and that you know before they used to we used to cap it at 2500 and I'm I'm suggesting we we raise that to four thousand dollars to better utilize the funds one of the comments that was provided the last time we talked about this was well what happens if there's a lot of organizations that have a lot of requests um and so you know how do we make sure that that amount isn't um dwindling down before the next Grant cycle and so I included that um if the total of all the requests for a grant cycle exceeds 50 of the balance in the runner's account there'll be a pro rat a percentage reduction of all Grant accounts to ensure that only 50 of the account balance is used um and this

123will also establish a maximum Grant award through two consecutive Grant cycles of six thousand dollars total for the and this is just for a 501c3 um and if all right if sort of all the things have been checked off if they provided a summary of what what they've used the funds in the past if they provided receipts and they have justification as to why they're requesting the money the recommendation would be to to um to grant them the funds that they're requesting up to that four thousand dollars um so that is the baa grant program separating out sort of a select board Community Grant which still allows us to um to give money to those organizations that don't have 501c3 status um but to a lesser amount so that we can fiscally be responsible for

124how we control the select board gift account for for all the other things that we use it for so um basically it's a lot of the same um the same types of things that we are allowing only a thousand dollars for the grant although they can apply in the second um the the next Grant cycle for uh for another 500 if they would need that um and then um it is the same thing that they they need to provide some rationale for how they've used previous funds in the past and it would come before the the full both of these would come before the um select board for for a full review and vote but the subcommittee would would review all the the applications and um kind of go from there so I know that's

125a lot but the major changes were really the the 50 Pro rata um you know to maintain the runners account to make sure we we maintain that that amount um did you have anything to add to that or do you no I think [Laughter] comments first of all this is I think very good very well thought out I like that we're increasing the amounts I like the fact that if we have too many applications everyone gets reduced not okay well we'll give this one every everything and that person not as much I think it's as you said it's a little more Equitable and it's not based on okay what we think is more important yeah so I think that's a really or needed you know I think that's a great idea I like that you've

126split out those cut those that are 501 3cs and those that are not I think those that's a good thing my question for you is is it a rolling 12 months right so if I'm an organization and I apply I applied in the spring and then I apply in the fall right so that's my twice but if I'm an organization I didn't apply in the spring but now I apply in the fall when the spring cycle comes up we'll go back and look at what they did in the fall correct okay so we'll have to be aware of the previous the previous Cycles um awardees so that week okay yeah and then for those that it's their second sort of bite of the Apple if their first one had to be prorated because of the

127number of um applicants applicants if they come back the next time and they don't and there isn't that right there aren't as many applicants would they then be able to get the full four thousand or would it depend on what they got in the first round so it didn't max out above the six thousand so if so if they did so the idea is okay so for if the first the first round you know they can apply up to four thousand dollars right um say we give them three thousand dollars they can then at the next cycle apply for three thousand okay yeah three thousand so that it's still the six yeah okay okay good yeah that's what I figured I just wanted to sort of and that's that's like my thought because I think

128yeah because it sets the max round is it like a distinct a stingier yeah I know you just said so is it like spring and fall is it around and then they start over or is it you know what I'm saying I think it's just two consecutive grants so right any time so it could be whatever yeah right so for some people it could be within a calendar year right so for some people it could be spring and then fall and for other people it could be fall and then so for your typical like well say soccer I think they pretty much apply twice a year so they would pretty much go down to three thousand each time then is that how that would work they would apply for say four thousand the first the

129first time um and they could apply for two thousand the next Grand cycle and and I would and and you know to that point like you know soccer I would like to see a summary of how they've used that so it offsets six thousand so then they give you the summary and everything then what can they apply for they can apply for the 4000 again or does do they have to right okay so it starts over that's what I'm right just like rolling 12 months depending on when your first application oh okay so okay so it's within 12 months and after that you start over Okay and for everyone we would make this effective as of this grant cycle I think it's great Joe yeah you're muted you're muted still muted there we go sorry

130about that no I uh I like the way you folks uh divided it up and made it Equitable for everybody um my my question is and I didn't hear it and maybe I zoned out when you were talking about it but um I apologize when you're talking about new sports we're talking about town youth sports right and not uh School related Sports so I think like like clock or Club is is like a 501c3 they've applied um I I understand that but I thought in years past there there was a there was a common common area where this didn't support budgetary line items so I have a concern about that it's not that I don't want to give it out but in years past that was part of the uh yeah so I think we've

131supported it we supported school um but they weren't organizations yeah before it was like the football team per se but it was like the boosters of the parent right yeah the 501c organizations that support the school I would say is what right and I understand that Claudia I just the example that was made earlier was uh the socatima lacrosse team well I meant that you saw it sorry you I meant Youth Soccer okay all right that's fine yeah that's all that's all I have to ask I'm good with it and I know that um we've received I think requests in the past to help with like hockey rank time like um yeah that's true fees and things like that it was yeah and so I I think something like that or something and that would

132fall more under this community Grant right because they are not a 501c right oh I see we could we could you know theoretically like decide to support if if they needed yeah um I think this is this is good I just had two um what's when you say valid request so what's the do we have a definition of what a valid request is so when you guys are going and screening this application what's the is there a criteria like um is that here or do we have it somewhere or what makes a what makes it something that's going to be approved versus seen as not approved other than we know you're you're going to require that they give us the history if they have it but is there other things in their their non-profit or

133if they're for-profit they're in a different group but what's what's the definition of valid I guess is about or is there so I I would say that if if they are an Ashland organization that requests funds for a specific purpose whether it's a 501c3 or another group in town because we've had we definitely have other groups that request um funds and they've provided sort of the rationale behind it and how they've previously spent money I think that's a valid request so you'll do some judgment no we don't want to do judgments I think that's the difference here well I mean but well yeah so so I I would say if they if they provide if they provide the information to us about what they're looking to do we're not going to pass judgment to say

134you know what that's really not a good that's not a really good project you know we're not gonna We're Not Gonna help support that because because because honestly part of this is is trying to remove some of our discretion amongst picking and choosing right right okay and I think but okay okay so so but okay that that's my that was one of the reasons that I thought this was typically do we have more grants uh more applicants than we have monies so last year and I think part of this also was Susan Susan can also talk to this too we had partly because of covid because of the way the FI and we had gone a couple of um what we would typically have as Grant rounds and we didn't do grants we had quite

135a bit of funds um that we weren't we weren't kind of we didn't have enough to we didn't we didn't spend it all we didn't even spend nearly what in my um my my other thought are coming in going to the what you would call the community groups uh which you're limited to um a thousand dollars right and and up to a total of 1500 through the so the only the only suggestion I would have is like leave yourself a little flexibility like if you get a someone who wants more than a thousand and they have very good reasons you know it may be that you apply some sort of um no exception I think this is allow this is taking that you know oh I think this is good versus that well right it's

136not that it's good it's just that they have a strong reason I mean I guess that's yeah but if we think that we need to have that higher amount then make that a higher amount overall I think a thousand dollars I mean I guess okay so I guess that does we don't have as much in the in the select board yeah right so part of it is part of it is we don't want to give out more than half of what we have so if we're making those higher if we were to make that higher we would be able to do less of them or fewer right if we have 10 people looking for a thousand dollars that's ten thousand dollars if we have ten people looking for two thousand dollars yeah I just yeah

137all right so in brandier analysis show that it really should be as low as a thousand dollars and I just don't I don't remember what the typical Grant has been is that a big decrease in what we've done in the past so trying to remember um I didn't I didn't go back and look to see this last time around what the requests were but generally speaking the um you know we see we see these requests for um like the Ashland Public Library we see it for I'm thinking of like like the fire the fire station needed some things for the opening of their open house yeah so small relatively small the Community Gardens like a typical person who's not a non-profit that does these classes yeah right which I think are a great thing so

138I don't know and I I don't recall offhand how much she requests for that but they're generally relatively small amounts all right okay so um Joe anything else all right are we ready to consider this yeah I would move that we approve the the changes as recommended and written and presented our Bia grant program so the motion has been made and seconded all those in favor say aye aye opposed none thank you to Brandi for writing this up and working with you Susan yeah and Susan great job basically Done Right very thorough you guys designed a system you're going to implement so and I like the new application as well I was going to say so we didn't talk about the application at all go ahead um but Susan had put together a new application

139and um the only thing I would ask and I'm looking at this and I didn't I didn't get a chance to review it before the meeting so I apologize but um are we because I know here on the first page it says are you a qualifying 501c3 and it says no Then no do not proceed I think we still want the application I think we do want them to apply or did we gonna are we gonna do a separate application Susan what was your thought what my thought was is to do two separate ones okay because you're you're changing up the criteria on the maximum allowed gotcha okay I thought we could be more specific that way gotcha okay maybe maybe just we could put a link to the other yeah or some instructions so

140they don't go away sad geez yeah oh no yeah no I'd like to I'd like to post them both I just didn't have an opportunity yeah okay yeah yeah of course all right very good okay I just wanted to make sure like that that um that we had a we had another kind of venue for the kids so my recommendation if we're gonna have two of them Susan is that when you go to apply it's very you know there's two of them there and one of them is for non-profit organizations and then the criteria for that and the other one is for regular and what the criteria is and the potential that you can apply for makes it much clean yeah if it's nice and clear and well and well spelled out okay well thank

141you and then I have opened the fall be a grant round submission due date of October 6th so do we need to vote on that yeah okay uh any further discussion about that does that all make sense due date October 6 will work guess my only question to Susan is is will everything be up you know how quickly will you get these two new forms up and does October 6th it gives them about a month does that work I just threw that in as a date it's completely up to you guys um you run into Columbus Day with the October 6th yes it would be the 18th so you could make it do anytime after the sixth if you wanted to but if you want to vote on it I would say try to vote

142on it by the 18th otherwise you're getting too late okay October 8th so does that work for you guys if it's a deadline of October 6th then you would have like a week and a half to review and yeah we could do have them ready to present at the October 18th meeting and maybe um maybe Michael could send the actual even you know links or attachments out this week and this is uh email I thought you was like sending something out generally I'm not no no no as part of the as part of your account manager's email let people know you know a link to the changes and yeah oh good sweet all right so you know what could I just say one thing could thank you so do we need to make a motion

143yes I move that we open up the fall baa grant program with a submission due date of Tuesday October 10th at 5 pm does that work Susan I'll second that motion's been made and seconded to open to be a fall Grant around on October 10th all those in favor say aye aye opposed on okay all right that passes okay the next item is to discuss the closure the MBTA station Renovations timeline and impacts okay so we'd I think just suggest to put this on to kind of update and discuss whatever we needed to I don't know if anyone has anything new to talk about with that or updates Michael Brandy me um I do know that the Framingham lot was full today was it packed um I talked to Dennis Gian Betty he was going

144to send something to the MBTA letting them know like hey this thing is full it would really be nice if you could open up Ashland station yeah part of it if we and um I know Brandi do you have you been to the station ladies do you have anything so I was there yesterday and um I literally I mean driving to Framingham is like I gotta build in more time but that's a whole other that's a whole other thing but um I ended up missing the express train the the 740 Express train literally I got I pulled into the lot and it was leaving so but um I was all the way in the backup parking at the banana lot at 7 40. like that was I mean so that's filling up so you know

145you were saying that the the parking lot was full it was probably full by eight o'clock like it it was um that's interesting so uh So like um I did I did hear from um uh Sandra monticino over at Daniel's table their their renting spots too um so I don't know if maybe and I know the city of Framingham has some Lots I don't know how what their capacity looks like but you know it might not be a bad idea um if you know we want to put together like a like a one-page sheet of just like other options for people like and post it you know it doesn't have to be a lot of information and we don't have to be in the the parking business but um just resources yeah yeah I wonder

146if we yeah you know create like some listing or something like that that we can put yeah I did not so I can report on Southborough I was there today and um it's still not quite full at least when I did like maybe they have 10 spaces left well now it will be now that I've yeah I'll be there next I'll be there tomorrow but yeah I mean so I don't know so there's some space available there uh but it's not it's not a ton of space um I'll call I did not hear back from Mike Mueller about his discussion with the construction company but I think part of their part of it was that I think they wanted us they're waiting to see how things work out but it sounds like I don't know

147it sounds like Framingham is is full um but I'm not sure are we hearing a lot of complaints and you know I'm not sure we'd hear it anyway but yeah I wish we knew how many spots short we are you know because it would certainly make it easier to try to tackle the problem or make suggestions yeah um but it sounds you were there one time yes yesterday at 7 40 in the morning so that's kind of on the later side of Boston commuters right that is right after literally right after the the last Express train that really the well actually there's I think there's um well I mean but there's a lot of there's I mean there's an eight o'clock train that that I ended up on that was pretty packed on Framingham so

148what does those people do I don't know at that point so interesting oh my God like I gotta go in tomorrow I'm already dreading there's already six yeah anyway the Columbus Club is that pretty full now we put that out no no they're still advertising okay so we're still advertisements there's about maybe 20 to 25 spaces available maybe there's something going on any spaces in Ashland are absolutely out of the question no they're not but I think they want to be pushed to do it you know Oh you mean aside from the station I don't think we have anything available like burning no I'm at the station yeah no because I know when they they've combed so you can't when you come down on Memorial Drive you can't go to the right but you can

149go to the left which is that's the smaller parking that's funny you know that's still open so you could kind of sneak in there yeah but then what do you do no the shuttless well does the shuttle go down into the into the lot and turn around last time I saw him which is a while ago a week ago and the show was right in front only on the Memorial Drive side right because they have the parking lot on the Pleasant Street side that you would think if I mean everybody thought that that's where it was going to be yeah well I'll call them again and see maybe they have more information and maybe you know with this information that Framingham is looking full maybe we can get them to do something yeah I think

150they're you know putting together with some resources is a good idea yeah that's good you know because you know Burnham's is available um you think I mean would it be available if we were to say to them look they want them Danny would they'd open it up you think or so look it's been open the only thing is that they didn't necessarily want us to include that in their message leading up to the construction period but people could potentially buy monthly passes there is open with how many does he have like 50 spaces a good amount of space so if he's willing to sell monthly permits you get a permit you're good if you don't would you walk up on the street go down no the shuttle should then come to the other side you

151have to come to the other side they'd have to change the way they're doing it yeah I'm just saying if they don't um yeah that's a long walk it's not I think oh you're in High Street Go Up High Street and then come down the little road assuming they keep it open though like this whole thing was supposed to be shut down so I don't know but yeah I guess presumably you can walk around the gate Rob yeah yeah yeah oh yeah you can walk around half the time anyway well they finally closed it when they started this Construction I don't know if someone is trying to figure that out see some of the headlines and you go yeah all right well I'll I'll give Mike bowler another call and see what they're thinking if

152anything I don't know but it sounds like we're getting full capacity okay they're all coming to Southborough now Rob yeah come to Southborough it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to keep some kind of pressure on them too so that they move in a timely fashion well is anyone actually I am not visually seen what they're doing has anyone seen I've seen today there was definitely some work in there I'm not sure what it was but there was was looks like they're still moving in supplies to me Joe yeah they were moving in supplies but they were also taking out a lot of the stairs pedestrian crossover they were taking all those out that's good yeah I was there today I get yelled at you got yelled at who yelled at you oh somebody in

153a green vest and I said okay I don't need that I don't need this all right all right so I think we're done with this one uh anything else all right so I think Michael you wanted to discuss the all-premise liquor license sir yeah it just you know if you're talking to a few of you um I'm just going to preface this by saying I don't think this is something that you want to do but there is there is the opportunity for the board to issue all premises licenses um which basically doesn't restrict alcohol to a certain area but is allowed across the whole premises um you know you think about something like the Fish and Game Club where they have a large tract of land you know if you issue an all-premises license there

154people could presumably go up you know into the woods you wouldn't know if something was happening or not happening it seems like a very very loose way of doing things which seems to be antithetical to what the board has traditionally done that being said Susan has done a little research I don't think she came up with much about communities that do utilize this and Susan can share that with you Susan would you mind no thanks Michael ultimately what I found only one community that I could find that currently has this and that's situate they have two golf courses in that Community one is privately owned one's publicly owned and in both cases they have a liquor license that covers the entire area all the other towns that I spoke to all do things very similar

155to the way we do it where they have a liquor license that covers a specific facility if you do an all-alcohol license um it becomes a bit of a management nightmare whoever the the license is under their name they're responsible for where that alcohol goes and we have an establishment that's looking to do that I have not seen what their plan is if they have a management plan in place but I didn't want to pursue it without bringing it to your attention to find out if it was something you were even interested in entertaining so I find it interesting Michael that you say no to this I only the and the reason I think I think about the Warren the Warren conference center right and we want to be you know we want to be

156able to work with them and they have their Lodge which current The Lodge in the hotel currently have the liquor license so they can do stuff in those two locations they've already come to us to see if they can do something in the White House in the front and they have their tent and I think about it okay if I'm having a wedding and I'm in the white house for part of it and then I go to the tent for another part of it if I could you know walk with my glass of wine or walk with my champagne I think again not for everybody and maybe not the fishing game because of the woods and stuff like that but I think for an organization like the Warren Conference Center this could be beneficial to

157them it could allow them potentially to increase their rentals and increase the ability to have more events going on at the same time if they could have this sort of all-premise remember that could be potential competitors of ours in the near future I'm not too concerned okay okay so that I mean based on you know what we had talked about at the agenda setting meeting I think it's something that with the with the Warren Conference Center in particular I think it would be a benefit to them which in turn would be a benefit to the town are they the ones that are asking yeah what are the other applications potentially so what happens what happens if something if people take booze down to the water and an accident happens and then you know like I'm

158just thinking liabilities that's actually state land you know the beaches stay true probably so that would probably be prohibited um it's not their property right they do run events that is yeah well does that give them the yeah that's it so they have some sort of lease or arrangement with DCR I just don't know if it if it would include drinking alcohol having alcohol on the beach I don't know you know I don't know one of the potential things that you could look at is when they roll out a management plan maybe you restrict if they give you a map and you could say well you can only do this area you can't do your whole 50 acres or whatever they have you can't have it on the ropes course or something oh come on

159so like with outdoor spaces the board has has generally been uh strict is not the right word but just we have delimited like the quarter spot yeah I mean you've you've definitely but we've also with The Corner Spot we've let it grow a little bit right it used to be a very little section and then we realized that that didn't make sense so now it's basically the whole Corner Spot so we looked at it we made one decision and then we're like wait a second if people want to get food and sit at the tables they need to be able to bring their beer there so we've looked at that I think I don't know I I think it's something we should consider um but that's just me and so how would it work in

160general though like so we would have what x number of these types of licenses or could any license be converted to this yes Susan did you ever get any guidance on how many of the or is it just you could do in all any of your all alcohol licenses is all premises correct ultimately when you when you approve a liquor license part of the application is the area in which you're licensing so in most spaces it'll say the building is located in a strip mall it consists of so many square feet this many exits in a situation like this it's the same exact type of license only the outline of the property your licensing would be a much larger footprint it may consist of five different buildings and so many acres and all of that

161I mean I think about it when we when we started looking at outdoor dining right when when we had to help our restaurants because of covid right the ability to then have their business and have their liquor licenses outside I mean I think about TJ's how now they have that beautiful parking lot I think about Ashland Ale House and they have their patio and to me this would be something that would potentially help the Warren Conference Center so and part of this we Define where they could serve right it sounds it sounds like we could do that we could look at their their map and say okay you know cut it off at the beach cut it off at different areas and but you know like I said they they have that that tent out

162there that they can't serve alcohol at right now but if they could that could potentially like it could expand the number of events they're having where they could be serving alcohol the thoughts are um I'm not sure how this fits in we would have oh go ahead Joe I I do have a question with respect to that in Yolanda brought up a pretty good point with respect to that um having having those liquor licenses uh in and around those general areas uh what's the what's the liability um we offer that to the you know we offer that to the to the client that wants to expand and lick their the area of operation to serve to serve alcohol uh is the town do we are we even receipt of a uh an insurance binder that

163holds the town homeless and and I'll leave I'll use the con spot for for an example um the property is owned by the affordable housing trust and is the affordable housing trust named as another uh group that's not held liable in this insurance policy is that something we have to look at each individual uh request for that so that the town doesn't become responsible or liable because right now anybody's looking for to show anybody it's Deep Pockets and nobody is without that so I just want to make sure that everyone is covered by it isn't the liability on the business that's serving the alcohol insurance right they you know I would think that as these breweries or whoever come into the Corner Spot they have liability insurance for their business and for what they're doing

164it wouldn't be any different than at the Warren Conference Center now they have liability for what they're doing even if it's on our property well you know what that would be one of the requirements of the one day liquor license right right with the one day liquor license they have to have insurance I just want to make sure that we're not we're not opening up Pandora's Box here in respect to that that's all so if you so the way the liquor license works is that if you have a liquor license for say the white building on the Warren Conference Center property you can't take a drink outside of the building I don't know that I believe that's that's the case right which is like I said when we so if you had if you allowed

165for them to have a liquor license for any place on the property where they set up a tent well right now and it would have right now it would have to be separate so right now they have a liquor license that covers the lodge and the hotel right right those those are considered one thing right and they're looking to have a liquor license for the white house because there's no connection they'd have to have a separate liquor license similar to what we just did with the Ashland fish and game right they have their their main building and now they have the Pavilion right those because they're separate they each have to have a liquor license by doing this premise liquor license everything on the property as we Define it could have one liquor license right

166well I was just thinking if you gave them a liquor license as well for any place on the property where they had a set up a tent right so that would give them the flexibility of putting the tent wherever right but yet it had to be I don't know if you could do something like that Claudia that is a possibility they opted to not do that they said they haven't had requests for liquor in that tent so we don't currently license the tent so so why do they need an all-premacy because they wanted to add a member's Lounge in that white house and they thought rather than having to come back at some other point to add on if they found that they wanted to say they wanted to add a patio to that building

167every time they make a modification to something they have to come back and get that included so they thought this would cover them if they could cover the entire property got it you're muted Joe thank you so my question is if if we would allow this for one one premises would would then would that open it up for us to have to deny or like so you know because I can see I can see your point about the Warren Conference Center but I also worry about like other spaces and whether or not that would open up this huge can of worms about you know whether it's it's um you know I don't know I I well that's a question so so would that be something that people would then check off that they want it

168on an all-premise so it's part of their license so that's one of my question so it's not a separate it's not like in a separate list it's any license could be an all-premise license Susan is that it if they asked for it correct when they put they put inscription of their property they would include exactly what they want included all right and so they would then we would then decide whether to grant them and all premise or a different kind of license I guess right and you certainly would also need to require them some sort of management plan how are they going to control the liquor so is this um so what do we what are we thinking of doing with this just allowing them to apply for an off-premise and thinking about it is

169that yeah I mean I you know I think you know if if you're if you're dead set against doing it all out all premises license which it doesn't sound like you are dead set against it then we would communicate that to the Warren Conference Center in any future party that might request it but if you want to say hey let's look at this on a case-by-case basis um have him submit an application you'll have an opportunity to hear it and make some adjustments and changes as as you see fit I think on a case-by-case basis makes sense right depending on the business depending on what they're doing depending on there's you know I think as we know not not everything is the same right we've looked at some business and we've changed their hours we

170haven't allowed them to go as late as we could or we've curtailed it different things so I think I think if we are open to it and at least then work with them potentially if they really want it it could be a positive for them and maybe maybe to that point we you know build in what we did with fish and game we review it on a regular basis instead of just letting them kind of go and right instead of saying good luck to you instead of in December we just automatically renew everybody you know we lead our list with some of these ones that we are concerned about in November before we renew in December we do a review has there been complaints have there been issues have you know how many times have

171the police been caught whatever um you know has there been accidents related to the alcohol and if there hasn't been okay then we renew it again for a year I mean I would be open to doing it on a case-by-case basis others thoughts Claudia Joe what do you guys think I'll let Claudia go first yeah no I would I would be open to it I mean and I think it would have to be on a case-by-case basis I mean it makes it more challenging for us at times but too bad um if we think it would work in one place and not in the other then I think we have to be prepared to explain our rationale okay I know and I'll add just one more step to that I don't see why we shouldn't

172uh ask legal counsel uh for for an opinion with respect to that we have we have that available to us sure so that we're on tetaphor when we make those decisions so it doesn't come back to bite Us in the uh derriere when um when it hits the fan yeah are you talking about the whole concept or on a case-by-case basis or case-by-case basis right now okay you know the other thing we're going to have to think about is the Valentine Barn is a town property to be able to rent that for weddings we're gonna have to be able to offer alcohol on town properties does that work we issue a license to ourselves is that was that the deal we generally we generally don't allow any alcohol right in town buildings I think it's

173it's a bylaw right is it a bylaw the recreation we allow alcohol at the corner spot right but it's not a pound in your Center yeah not since I've been not since I've been here can you get a one-day license at the seniors you can't serve alcohol but right now the quarter spot is the it's the vendor that gets the license right not the town right so I don't know it's something to think about when we get that far yep okay but but you're saying we when we get that far we have to think about it no we need to start thinking about it as because if we're proposing spending all kind of money on turning that into a venue where we can rent it out I guess I'm just assuming we got to be

174able to serve alcohol right I guess I'm assuming we'll be able to no yeah no the reason I said is because I think we're going to be able to solve that one well then again isn't it doesn't it just become a one day license for somebody at the at the Valentine estate the same as it does at Corner Spot and there it's their liability and everything we'll have some time to yeah no but I think it everybody's going California sober now so I don't even know sober I'd forgotten that one all right if we if you get enough out of this one you guys know what I think we're kind of willing to approach this yeah right yep okay everybody good with that yep um looking for people interested in running the Boston Marathon okay

175start working out you guys all right here we go not happening I know some people have already expressed interest yeah so what's this about or just just to try to drum up uh interest in our bibs Susan you were really just thinking about this from a notification standpoint right that's correct I just don't want anyone to say I wish I knew about it oh yeah all right so we'll start if you're okay with it we'll start advertising yeah that's great so we're looking for 12 people or more and what date when do you usually pull the name Susan Susan I have submission uh is October 15th and then we'll pull it within a couple of days after that okay so if people are interested they need to email you um that they're interested by October

17615th yes and there is a there is a link on the website where they can fill out the form and it'll automatically submit to me perfect and Susan are these is this an Ashland residence only except for the Nord people remind me how that nope everybody's name gets drawn they either get awarded a baa Invitational bib or they get waitlisted okay great well look that's a good thing I put out you like to run yeah and you want a fundraise yeah um okay so the next is the consent agenda which is a long list there is I just want to note that the firefighters Grant Michael is going to talk about that under Town manager report so is there anybody does anybody want to hold any of these or discuss any of these separately nope

177agenda as presented the motion to approve the consent agenda has been made in seconded all those in favor say aye aye aye Joe you good okay yeah we're good consent agenda's approved okay that gets us to town manager report yeah so you know obviously I have these items listed I I have a couple of others if you'll indulge me as well but you know first um we'll get with all the good news how's that um so update on the downtown project um so everybody knows they've paved Hallelujah everything I will have to say the paving job this time was much better than the last time we actually made them repave a section of Front Street because we weren't too happy with the results um but I really have to give a big shout out on

178the paving to um Mike Carter who is our new construction administrator and Kevin langmeyer from our DPW Kevin kind of went out there on his own time all overnight and he really really did a good job kind of overseeing some of that work currently they're working on the crosswalks so they've done yeah they um I had an idea that would really make it pop and um it's stamped asphalt the way they do it's incredible so they have done um they've done water they did Concord in front today yeah oh really yeah it might have been the first one they did because I didn't see any others yeah they've done the ones on water in Maine and then they just did the one the crossing here at Town Hall as well so they'll be finishing up

179the crosswalks and then moving on to doing the medians you know where it has that just asphalt right now that'll be done as a cobblestone so this looks good then they have to do landscaping um I've got to put up a guard rail do some Landscaping punch list items and then giosio's contract will be done yeah it looks great oh that's very nice awesome awesome yeah so uh and then you know the next phase is the building connections to the utilities underground and then removing the poles right so um great to see that happen do you see it I'm sorry go ahead Joe yeah you're probably going to ask the same question Rob do you have a timetable as to when that's going to happen um I'm Joey I'm gonna try to learn from previous

180mistakes and I'm going to say October 31st for for the streetscape work to be done okay and and do you see a lot of like um traffic uh the reduction or you know traffic uh delays from the work they have left to do I don't because I gotta speed through on my way to Southborough yeah I mean yeah you know we have to do the painting so hopefully we'll be able to do that at night because it's been flowing pretty well lately that's my yeah they've done a great job but it's just it's coming it doesn't wait for you you know it's coming out it's funny um on Friday when they did the crosswalks at Water Street I went I walked down there to see and you it's great I mean you get the aspects

181of the downtown project they're done you see the sluice way that's we got the bids for that and opened and that's I get I think we're in under did I sign the contract yeah it's not the contract um what are they doing with that again so what they're going to do is they're going to rebuild the observation platform okay and then um where the sluice way was they're going to make a walkway okay um cool interesting and it won't and it won't you'll still see like the stone of this loose way the it's exterior okay perfect ran it once so you see that and then you see you know what we did recently with the Mill Pond Park renovation and everything you just like oh it's all coming together it's great you know it gets

182you excited um speaking of excited uh Mendez School opened up um a huge milestone um yesterday really without incident just have to give a big shout out to Paul Kendall and the building committee as well as a school committee in the select board and all of our staff and the project management team that our project team that worked on this another piece of new two pieces of news there will be the open house this coming Saturday and then also rob you were on this email Brandy I think you were on this email but we got an email recently from the msba saying that in recent legislation that was passed a hundred million dollars was put in the msba budget to pay for cost increases and escalations in previously approved projects and it looks like we're

183going to be eligible for that so Paul forwarded that to the building committee so that at our next meeting we're going to review that you know the number that has been thrown about has been in the three million dollar range for increased reimbursement wow big thanks to Senate President spilka Jack for Jack Lewis representative Lewis for what they did but yeah just another huge milestone for the town we've had a few of them this year with the public safety building and downtown and now Mendez so ancillary to Mendez is uh we have well we have to pay for it so so we do have our last borrowing associated with this coming up next week and so we're looking at about a 20 million dollar issue um that might be a little bit too much what

184we're doing is we're doing it as a short-term borrowing then once we know for sure what kind of reimbursement we're getting and what the final costs are we can you know permanently borrow that for whatever we need any concern that doing short term and then waiting our interest rates are going to be that much higher or it's it's something we've we've actually we were talking about today and wrestling with you know do we do a three-year term do we do a five-year term I think we'll stick with the three year which would give us you know we can go out to bond any time okay between that period okay um so but you know we got our ratings call on Friday and those are always a little nerve-wracking so you know s p will analyze

185our you know everything like our economics and our management profile and our budgetary performance and hopefully we'll still end up with AAA rating um yeah this Friday will have the ratings call so um do you think the shutdown will is that they even mention that at all is it on their radar screen which shut down Rob there's a few there's there's others if you're thinking about the UAW strike shutting everything down there so yeah I just I was just wondering if that's starting to make the rounds the potential government shutdown is an annual actually almost a semi-annual I know isn't it that's depressing but true that's uh what we've come to yeah um I still have a couple months to figure something yeah and they will uh right and then at the end of October

186um yeah okay that was it October 1st let's be optimistic why not sure you know Rob which wrong is always available but so is what's right there you go so um so next is the update on the grand reopening of the community center so that's going to be on September 12th I had to do a lot of work based on the flooding I don't know if you had an opportunity to get over there but it's it looks like a new building even though it's not um one of the things we did find through this process is just the construction methodology back in the day it was not good so we had to do a lot of repair work that um wasn't necessarily related directly related to the flood but it allowed us to see that

187so um but anyway it's an exciting time um like it looks great in there so hopefully some of you or all of you will be able to go to that yeah maybe I mean I have some meetings up but I'm hoping to stop by probably on the later side awesome um and then so Rob you had mentioned the assistance for firefighters grant for 921 000 almost 922 000. so that is a shared Grant between Ashland Hopkinton and Southborough fire departments so basically it's for the air packs you know the the breathing apparatus which is very very expensive I think ours is pretty updated 15 years old I think Southborough is around the same time this is great we're all going to be buying the same pack so when we show up at the scenes you

188know we show up at a scene together we could you know reuse that and everybody knows how to use it so congratulations to Chief Roby who was was there a lead town or where the so we're the lead a community for this nice um but Chief Roby deputy chief um more hand and Captain Bowland I really have to give give them a lot of credit for for getting this this is a big Grant this is yeah and to work regionally I think is so important for something like this because I'm sure if it had just been Ashland we might not have gotten it but by reaching out to the other communities and working with them it yeah sure it made it more appealing to the whoever was giving this is this the Federal grant this

189is federal it's through FEMA actually Southborough actually a couple years ago tried to get this on their own and they were denied yeah so that's really really good is it appropriated already a little budget humor there it could Anything Could Happen yeah um so just a couple more things so first of all we're getting confirmation as to whether or not it's still going to happen because of the event or because of the rain but the Stone Park music festival is happening at Stone Park at three o'clock so on Saturday and that's really geared towards classical music Grace uh Sun Jun Moon who was an Ashland resident and also teaches at Center music it is organized and directed this she's really put together an All-Star Ensemble to do some performances so hopefully they have a piano

190competition which they'll be um bringing in piano are they doing the competition no the competition was done before oh okay I was gonna say that's that would be cool we could put it in the Gazebo yeah um so there's that another really good thing is uh I don't know if all of you know Natalia Melnick um I know Claudia knows her she's a sophomore at Ashland high school she is looking at doing this sending Sunshine program and so she is um basically you have teens and it doesn't have to be teens it can be adults too that write cards that go to seniors and you know just encouraging messages um so we've worked together and we'll be holding the first session uh September 14th at five o'clock at The Corner Spot and we also have

191some dates scheduled with Mina so if you can stop by that'd be great um you know what time five o'clock yeah Natalia Natalia's Natalia is cool she um she actually started her own ice cream business like a few years ago and it actually does really really well so Italia's treats I think that's what it is so awesome awesome work on her behalf and oh then we get to end on this note um so and you know that we've had some vandalism issues recently and uh unfortunately we had vandalism at the nyanza memorial site within the last couple of days it's um it's disturbing it's disappointing especially because we're looking at refreshing that and hoping to have it open in time for Kevin Keynes the 25th anniversary of his passing obviously we won't be able to

192do that um now because we're going to look at having to replace the sign that we did and all kinds of stuff so um you know I I will say that I'm going to talk to the chief about this tomorrow it's gotten to a point where I think really need to start cracking down and not necessarily look at diversion programs and you know play nicely do we know this who's I mean there's do you have an idea who's doing it and um we don't for this one well we did for the Stone Park vandalism that happened which actually happened throughout Town remember the Little House in the town for us yes got hit some people's homes um really yeah it was pretty bad so that's unfortunate and so one thing just related to that is

193at at the last meeting you voted um I didn't catch this you voted to do the five thousand dollar Grant uh for the Kevin K memorial fund as a reimbursement Grant um which makes things complicated um I hope you'd be amenable to just doing the grant the way we typically do it which is just get the information put them in as a vendor and and send them a check you know is that amenable to yeah I think so I'm not even yeah I didn't even yeah I didn't even notice yeah I didn't catch it so so um yeah okay do we need to change something do anything or do you need to I don't look I'm really necessary so all right I think we're all good with that right yeah and see that's what I

194have even anything baby any update on the watch well I think we found um The Nest it's actually a little bit away from the trees But continuing to diagnose these are yellow jackets they've had a yellow jacket Nest all different kinds Rob all different kinds but the nests you found though that's what I'm uh is pretty effective to spray them so you've been using traps just to go back Michael I'm looking at the minutes for the request for the five thousand made a motion to authorize funds to refresh the nyanza memorial from the select board gift account not to exceed five thousand dollars which was seconded by Miss Kinsmen okay there's nothing that says it's a reimbursement a reimbursement okay yeah well that maybe that came that came up because it was up to five

195thousand not to exceed five thousand right so if you're writing a check the check would be in the amount of five thousand that's what we could do though is just any we could do the 5 000 anything that's not spent return right it makes it a little bit more complicated oh I see because it's not to exceed it's like you have to come up with that you mentioned tonight become the vendor in the bill list yeah right do the exact amount we can deposit it and if they don't use it all it would come back to us right because it's an up too yeah that's fine all right that way we don't that way they they can be moving forward and not have to wait for our next meeting to vote something perfect thank you

196for looking you're welcome um and that's what I have okay thank you continue up for board reports all right so we'll start with board reports Joe you want to go first yeah I'd be happy to Mr chair uh not a whole heck of a lot to report other than uh traffic study committee meeting uh next week uh go over certain uh sidewalk discussions and uh new new sign locations for uh probably pedestrian crosswalks so that's one of the things we'll be doing uh affordable housing trust with I apologize we uh we plan on getting off uh summer Hiatus and getting back to the grind and trying to uh find the developer to uh start getting some affordable housing units back into town and um this is the last week that we'll be uh doing a

197fundraising for ration day for the coin sales uh they were very brisk this year and thank you to everybody who uh helped contribute and hope you enjoyed the uh the fruits of our endeavors the corn was very very good this year and uh we hope uh we'll be able to do it again next year and excellent day is coming up September 23rd uh everything's coming along very nicely this is time where whatever I have left on top of my head will be pulled out very quickly um because now with everybody and their brother now wants to get involved because now they know that it's actually happening and it looks like the weather May hold out for us so let's hope so and that's all I have all right thank you thank you Claudia you want

198to go next yeah I don't have uh too much of them we were away for a while but I was also excited this week about the opening of Mendes and it was really something to see it come to fruition and uh and to see students you know going into the building and coming out and that big huge Loop that that uh gets really most of the cars if not all of them off of Concord Street is pretty exciting um and you know I think you know Mike you thanked everybody and certainly I Paul if if you're still there I I try to thank you as often as I can because he's just been amazing in this project and uh the amount of hours he spent and even yesterday I saw him outside the school looking

199at how things were moving along and he I know he was in the building to make sure that the geothermal cooling system was working we certainly put it to test this week um and very successfully I understand that's great um and so it it really is uh you know really a testament to the Community as a whole and and not only thank you to all the people who've worked so hard but also to you know every single citizen in this community who's helped to make it such a great place for kids to learn and grow yeah great well thank you um Randy sure thanks um just a couple of things one I don't know if Michael if you had mentioned the the Public tours that are happening at Mendez on Saturday did you okay sorry

200it's been a long week and it's only Wednesday yeah one of those at like noon or something I think it's in the afternoon the Mendez is open in Public tours all that time yeah that's great so um so you know I would definitely I'm gonna bring my family along so that they can they can see the new building so which which is which is great um Yolanda and I are doing office hours at the farmers market next Saturday morning the 16th the 16th um from um we haven't figured out but like morning nine nine to twelve basically um and so that leaves um one additional date for office hours at the farmers market before they close down which is um October 14th we have the date so I wanted to see if there were any

201takers that I'm not I'm not around that weekend but if there were anyone that would be willing to to offer their their time to because these NBC have comprehensive plan at the pharmacy so Joe you said Yeah Joe sounded like he was interested I can't do I can't be there for the comprehensive plan but I could be there for the 14th we have a uh an engagement on the 14th okay so probably unavailable as well so Joe Joe and Yolanda does that sound good yeah sounds awesome okay I will let our marketing people know um and I just want to let folks know that there is movie night at The Corner Spot this Friday night so that's right um back to school um sponsored by the ABA and I know seti's kitchen is going to

202be there with food and um waca TV always does a really great great uh production there so um just want to encourage all the kiddos it's the movie is Super Mario Brothers so I haven't seen it but I'm assuming it's it's extremely kid-friendly so come on down to the corner spot and I know that there's a lot going on this weekend and a lot going on um the next few weeks so um and just uh I'm glad everyone's back at school and hope everyone has a good healthy school year and uh you know hope this heat works soon for for all the kiddos in the schools so that's it for me thank you her bra of Summer it's the only it feels like I know this is it waited till this week okay Yolanda so

203a couple things uh this coming Saturday is the Kitty fenwell car show from nine to one if you want to just go look at the cars that is free if you want to bring a car I believe it's 10 bucks so that is always fun and as I said that starts at nine o'clock later in September the MetroWest Regional collaborative we're having our first meeting we've been off basically for the summer it's a zoom meeting it'll be eight to nine thirty if you're interested in getting the link for that let me know and I'll get you on the list then we are having our Trail Summit so the Metro West Regional collaborative works with a lot of different groups and on October 26th at Loring Arena it's an in-person Trail Summit with David lutzenheimer from

204mapc giving an update on the trails that have been created and how we're working regionally and even expanding outside of the region on the trails and the landline so that's always a great event and the event will start at luring Arena and then I believe there's a possibility to do a walk on part of the Framingham trails that have been created what time is that uh I think I think it's starting at 8 30. wow and if you're yeah it's like 8 30 to 10 30 is the the speaking and then if you have time you can go on a walk then Rob mentioned this earlier we have our planning board joint meeting on September 14th so that's we're scheduled to start at 7 15 with them a little bit about that yeah and then

205just to let people know so the YMCA is moving things forward uh I think if you've driven on Memorial Drive there's now a path up into the site and they're still moving the project forward so those branded steps yeah and they're the why will be having their dream auction in no on November 8th which is a wins yeah November 8th so I know that's still far away but I just want to get on people's radar again it's always a great event it's fundraising for the Y and their programs and that's going to be awesome yeah yeah do they have a timeline yet uh we're in the stages of getting the initial funding so you know bigger donors um I think they're hoping you know 2025 groundbreak some kind of thing and then no tickets available

206but I just want to let people know John Oates is actually coming to Hopkinton Center for the Arts uh from Hall and Oates uh this coming Saturday it's their big fundraiser like I said unfortunately it's sold out but um I'm actually going to get a few minutes to interview him on Saturday so you'll get to see a clip of that on around the clock if not this show the next show so [Laughter] yeah and that's it great thank you uh my only item was the um yeah the just to remind folks about our meeting next Thursday join me with the planning board at 7 15 on Thursday and I discuss with Trisha here's the agenda we have and she made a recent request so I just uh discussion type of topics the first one of

207course the MBT communities act and then um as as time allows oh and I sh interim zoning related to comprehensive plan other items of Select board planning board coordination and issues so folks should think about what you want to talk to the planning board about we've had some things that have come up uh and then the um uh the fourth thing is the planning board associate member position now I should say that their agenda for that night is really just us so 7 15 they really don't this is their full agenda so they don't have other projects or anything no so if people are amenable to spending a little more time we can so but I did want to this plenty board associate member position typically that takes what half an hour 40 minutes depends

208on how many people you have I think they're not gonna have more than three so yeah I know we talked about this like it is an hour so what are you know what are people thinking I would like to keep it to an hour if we can just but that's that's that's my preference other people Joe or you know Rob everybody has a comment they're going to want to make so I don't know and I was going to do it for me and I was fine uh anything more than that it's just uh repetitive I I guess it depends on what we're going to hear about the MBTA communities Pro um Community yeah I'm not sure how long you know how long is that going to take I would think for an associate member interview

209the the maximum a half hour and I would hope that they would forward us the talent Bank forms of the people so we can have a chance to review it before the meeting and in regards to other comprehensive plan interim zoning I don't understand how we can start that discussion well well I think we should start it whether I mean it may be that we decide to continue it or we decide we don't need to continue it but I think we should have that discussion unless I mean assuming it's it can be a short discussion it doesn't have to be like if people don't want to I mean I'm just feeling that we should have that discussion and other people's feelings so I think we should at least broach the subject it may be that

210oh we may determine no this is not something we're going to pursue or we should discuss it further and we'll do it at a start at a different time okay so I think that's if that's the if that's the parameter of the discussion that we feel like there's some things that we want to be talking about right in conjunction with the comprehensive plan going forward but I think there's certain things that we've all said um you know inclusionary zoning that is part of the comprehensive plan discussion yeah and the zoning related to that um that absolutely yeah I mean I think inclusionary zoning is important but I think well I think it's part of as we're doing the comprehensive plan as we're looking at housing and other zoning things I think it should be part

211of that and it should go out to the community again I don't know that we need to do inclusionary zoning now while we're getting the comprehensive playing I don't think we have the resources to do that too so I mean that's fine but I'm just saying that's the kind of discussion I think we should have and if other people have brought up other issues such as um the affordable housing percentages in projects and things like that um and how the planning board may be approaching so I thought it'd be good to try to at least open up that discussion and have that in terms of coordination bring up these issues and it may be that we're saying okay we've got certain things we want to talk about or do we want to continue having this

212discussion and you know should we schedule another meeting that kind of thing so if people are going to be there and say no we don't I mean that's fine with me but I think we should kind of have the two boards kind of hear those you know have those viewpoints and decide hopefully quickly comment on the inclusionary zoning uh waiting any longer than we have already is going to push Town back into uh there is with respect to affordable housing ratio to get to that 10 percent and the longer we delay the more developers are going to come in and set what they want for their standard and the planning board has no has no meat to to say no we have an occlusionary zoning bylaw and this is something that you know you have

213to follow so so Joe you don't want us to wait on inclusionary zoning you want us to have that discussion to get it passed long enough all right okay okay and so I think part of what you know so we'll try to keep this meeting you know I think it's going to go more than an hour but I mean hopefully not too long um but well Brent do you have some is it a short knife I mean I I just well I want to be considerate but well I want to I just want to be clear of what we're trying to accomplish because what what I fear will happen when you open up those kinds of conversations is that it first of all it's very circular and second of all if we don't have if

214we don't have like clear things that we are trying to address we're it's gonna we're gonna spend an hour talking about something that has no I I just I yeah all right so let's keep it under control I mean in part let's identify issues and then what will come out of that I think is should we be discussing this further and if so how I mean I think and if the majority of the people there think it's important to continue this discussion or don't want to can just that's fine with me but I think we should just at least attempt that and then we'll um okay and then we'll try to keep the the planning board associate member position I mean Trisha was understanding that she just came to me today with that because they

215think that I mean so I think it's a joint yes so that's the question so it's a join a point if they're ready for next week of course if they're ready and they can give us the information beforehand so we can review it right by all means but if if we're not getting it till the day of it's hard to do it okay fair enough all right so that was my little thing about that that probably should have been an agenda item but anyways I apologize and that'll get posted yes I think we'll we will post it uh Susan I'll check with you tomorrow I think and does that make sense okay good all right and that's all I have so motion to adjourn until the 14th all is in favor of a journey until

216the 14th bye hi Joe you're you're good okay great thank you all right some of you on Saturday at the Mendez open house