Acton, MA Board of Selectmen Meeting 12/21/2020

001executive session and we're on the regular business agenda and the um first item is a follow-up discussion of the board's emergency meeting held uh on December 18 regarding racist comments during the acting boxboro F committee meeting um this segment will be in three parts I have a a s statement to read then uh John Manera will provide an update on the police investigation and David Martin will provide an update on the work of the um um DEC to date so um let me begin with this statement um in the statement the board of selectman issued unanimously on Friday December 18 in response to the vulgar and hateful racist messages sent to the school committee the prior evening we regrettably failed to express our sympathy and support to school committee members uh Kira Wilson cook of

002Acton and Evelyn obaya Isa of boxboro as chair of the board of Selectmen I apologize for the omission and extend our sympathy as a community to Miss Wilson cook and Miss AA Isa for what they were subjected to to Thursday evening theirs are voices that need to be heard and we thank them for their continuing service to Acton in boxboro um John if you would provide your investigation update uh thank you uh Mr chair at the meeting emergency meeting on Friday the board discussed uh an interest in pursuing the investigation right away uh we had already started that uh with the police department through Chief Burrows uh Chief buroughs reports that the detective division had started the case uh and has been working on uh with both local Regional and state Partners to uh try

003to determine what happened uh they're conducting interviews actively uh and seeking subpoenas for records that uh require uh such uh process uh there is the chief did wanted me to mention that there some of these process uh related part of the investigation may take longer than than people are used to um uh but there it's a priority it's a top priority in the department uh right now and we're we're pursuing it uh very aggressively yeah um I John it's it's absolutely imperative the um investigation um you know determine who are the individuals that were in involved with this attack on Thursday Thursday night and whatever additional resources we could provide um in terms of engaging um an outside firm um if it becomes you know that sophisticated and Beyond um um the U the abilities

004you know of our Police Department we need to do that and yes I discussed with the chief that um there if there's resources needed that we should pursue them I'm also very confident in the ability of our of our detective staff and and our department to use their existing relationships with state federal regional authorities to uh get this information that they need to conduct the thorough investigation and as fast as possible okay um thank you uh then David on the deic yes the deic uh the uh diversity um equity and inclusion commission was created three months ago it uh immediately began work on getting itself organized um you know with its Mission and and other things um uh the commission now is actively working on mechanisms to gather background information for its report to the

005board um uh currently uh the commission is working on drafting um questions for a survey um we would welcome anyone who would like to share their experience act and to do so at the beginning of any deic meeting um and if you're uncomfortable sharing your experiences in a public form um the deic has a policy that you can contact any individual member of the deic and relate your story and that member can then read your experience anonymously into the record at the next deic meeting um you can see this policy our mission links to Future ident agendas Etc at at the diversity Equity inclusion commission page on the town's website okay thank you so we're into um citizen concerns and I I understand we can expect um a significant number of citizens coming forward to

006offer comments um this will be the ground rules um for for for citizen concerns tonight um each speaker will be allowed three minutes that's what the school committee um allows in their process um David will David Martin will be will let uh will call on people and um and be our timer um at the two-minute Mark he will notify uh the speaker and then again at the and then again at the one minute Mark so um David if you would uh call upon uh the first citizen to offer comments okay and just so people know I need to know your full name in in Zoom just your first name or your initials or something is is not enough um K Wilson cook you're you can unmute and speak thank you last Thursday I was attending

007a school committee meeting when I was the target of a hateful verbal attack aelyn bayisa and I the only black members of the school committee were called the n-word at least 50 times in a Q&A box of our Zoom stream since the incident I have received an outpouring of supportive messages from many members of our communities affirming that my service matters to them and I am welcome here leaders and teachers from across the school district have reached out to me and my family the entire weekend and I want to especially thank the McCarthy Town Elementary School leadership and Community for rallying around my children I have received re supportive messages from town leadership in boxboro Harvard and mayard and heard from the members of our state delegation I thank selectman Jim Snider Grant David M

008Martin and Joan Gardner who spoke to me personally I also thank Town manager John mangera for calling me yesterday with support and an update on what the town is doing thanks to selectman Dean Dean Charter huh who sent me a note I appreciate this Outreach though I have heard nothing from this body's chairperson I strongly encourage you all to contact Evelyn with your support which you should already have done she is after all elected to look out for the students of Acton in boxboro just like me the statement the board of selectman unanimously voted on to approve on Friday was written without my knowledge or consultation it begins by recounting that someone sent quote a vulgar and hateful racist message to the school committee members end quote let's be clear these messages were targeted at

009the two black school committee members I assure you they weren't calling all the school committee members the n-word they attacked Evelyn they were attacking me don't erase us from the narrative there have been statements made by members of this body that there is no racism in Acton these sentiments have been echoed by many other people in community forums these are symptoms of a structure that's trying to erase people and problems that are difficult to confront don't erase me don't erase Evelyn don't have a meeting where we weren't me even mentioned even though we were the targets of the attack I am honored to serve Acton as the first black woman elected to office in our Town's history I believe that all the children of Acton deserve representation nothing and no one will stop me from

010providing that representation to our students and nobody is going to erase me or the problem s that we all need to confront thank you thank you one second please Al n you can go ahead and talk I don't know Alyssa if you're having a problem just could be another moment here it says that you're re using an older version of Zoom okay Alyssa I will come uh back uh back to you uh Charlie Cadillac you can speak he's mute yeah I'm okay yes thank you uh like everyone else I am very upset about what was done to our school committee members last Thursday but there is an aspect of this that I want to address tonight that upsets me also as we all know and just been confirmed by John the investigation of who did

011this is going on but at this point nobody knows who the authors of this ugly racist insults were or are however in many ways this incident which is done by somebody who may or may not be anywhere near a member of act Community or boxboro or for that matter Massachusetts or wherever uh is being treated as somebody who is a member of this community by various statements including a YouTube video that was just released by the schools that I have looked at it's six minutes long and I encourage everybody to take a look at it it's called The Acton boxboro leadership message of December 18th 20120 and I'll just quote a since I only have a few minutes I'll make I'll just read a couple of quotes now I have to say the People speaking

012are the leader leadership of the action school system administration principles and so on and although uh it starts by Maria alier saying that we feel compelled to share these views uh it appears to me that the people on this YouTube video are reading a script which some of them may agree with some of them may not you decide watch their eyes one minute left quotes this is a moment that we all need to pause and ask ourselves what is the kind of thinking that leads to this behavior and what in our community culture has unbled this to take place another quote while we do not know all the details about the incident and what was behind it this moment will remain em blazent in our community's history as a shameful and disgusting act I don't

013have time to read many more but you look at it I will repeat we do not know who did this to assume that it's a member of this community is unacceptable and I ask you the board of Selectmen to address this issue thank you thank you Charlie um Mike Roth bound please go ahead hey there can you hear me yes well thank you my name is Rabbi Mike rotham I live on Tuttle drive I'm the rabbi of congregation Beth Elohim and Acton and here we are again with the issue of and racism in our town we have heard this before we know the incidents that have happened before in the three and a half years that I've been here uh we know that an African-American student had their locker attacked with the message get out

014of our town and the n-word we know that there has been Nazi graffiti spray painted in town the word UDA and the yellow star we know that a middle school student posted on Instagram K click like to kill one Jew that students have joked with Jewish kids and said Hil Hitler thrown money at them and said pick it up you effing je we know that there has been an arrest of an African-American woman an immigrant mother trying to get to her child we know that there was a follow-up meeting where dozens of citizens of color described a town that subjected them to unequal treatment we know that there are reports of discrimination rentals housing and education and law enforcement and in the three and a half years that I've been here that I've been friends

015with Evelyn and worked with Evelyn I've we've heard that's not who we are we've heard this may or may not be somebody from Acton we've heard that people were insulted about charges that isn't them and that we were the racists and that we were the troublemakers and the one thing that I have not heard is that it is wrong that this happened under my watch as a member of school administration or select board or any other part of the Town leadership no one's ever said it's wrong that this happened in my town and I take it seriously that there's been a charge of racism and that as somebody who's in charge of some element of town leadership I take that seriously one minute left people are calling this a wakeup call this uh I would

016say this is a snooze alarm uh we've been hitting the snooze button for a while it's a wakeup call if we choose to be woken up we get to decide about what kind of town we live in and leaders of this town get to decide what they do about it it is not helpful to be more upset about charge of racism than racism itself it is not helpful to be more worried about the reputation of the town and the way that people feel and live and experience this town we have opportunity here to work together I am ready to help I am ready to do whatever I can as a religious as a Jewish leader in this town to work with my friends Kira and Evelyn and work with the good people I'm looking at

017on the screen I really hope you put me to work thanks thank you I just just a reminder to folks that I really need to know your full name to call on you so please rename yourself in Zoom if you're only using your first name or initials or something like that uh Linda Vieira please go ahead yes my name is Linda Vieira 441 grade Elway I am um reading a statement on behalf of indivisible act and steering committee in conjunction with Stella Co so I please I would ask that you you call on Stella Co after I'm finished speaking as I said we are representing indivisible acting steering committee indivisible acting area is an activist group Committed to social change and racial Justice we joined together with action and BOS boxo residents in expressing our

018outrage at the violent racist attacks directed at Mrs cook Miss Cook and Miss Abaya the statement the select board released says that the hate speech was sent to the school committee members and I just want to Echo what Cara said is that it that is not accurate it was addressed to two members specifically of the school committee Mr Abaya and Mrs cook both were not contacted before during or after the meeting that you held that resulted in your statement it seems that this is a violation of your own policy Against Racism from November 12th of this year 2020 this policy includes your commitment and I quote to listen to the voices of black people that inform the rest of us of the injustices that they have long endured Stella Co please would like to continue

019this statement if you could call on her um actually Stella does not have her hand up I'll call on her uh later Linda when she has her hand up let let me I'll just finish then for her no no no no you're wow okay you you have a minute okay these failures erase the true nature and impact of the hate crime Miss Abaya and Miss Cook were assaulted verbally while carrying out their official duties and then assaulted Again by your complete disregard for their experience their official roles their Authority and that their incp we respectfully ask that you follow your policy against racism by reaching out to and Consulting with both Miss cook and Miss aaya right sorry um and the diversity equity and inclusion commission about what your next action should be black lives

020matter should be declared as a Civic value of the town of acted and indivisible actant stands ready to join forces with anyone who is working for social and racial Justice thank you thank you Leo fman please go ahead okay can you hear me yes Leo fman right terrorist W West Acton in agreement with the select board I also deplore and denounce the vulgar and hateful racist messages to the school committee members I understand that the acting Town manager and police have initiated an investigation thank you please make it clear that there is an investigation to find the identity of the bomber it also appears that certain individuals believe that you shouldn't let a crisis go to waste one member of the select board stated that the bomber was uh Aon by white men trying to

021reinstate the mascot where is the evidence this board member has put gas on the fire something similar was also said during the YouTube video from the act and box Pho leadership membership uh message for2 20 in this video the superintendent called out a member of the save the Colonials group saying that the member insinuated that the incident was intentionally constructed by one of its Targets this member's comments were in response through a social media post that read to all the folks who support the colonial mascot what happened in tonight's school committee meeting was unacceptable if you can collect your people enough to organize comments and lawn signs you can organize yourselves enough to stop the hate clearly blaming this on the save the colonial scoup the group memb stated that there is zero connection between

022save the Colonials and the zoom bber he suggested another possible scenario remember an investigation was underway and we don't have any clear answer in a subsequent set of emails the superintendent and school committee this member clarified his statement but I have not seen any response to his thoughtful and compassionate words the first uh the people against sa the Colonials group want to control the narrative first they call out people that say there is acting everyone I'm spoken to agrees that there is racism what these people disagree with is the contention that act acting is a racist town what makes a town racist second they claim that the say the Colonials group wants to reinstate the mascot what I have said and others are saying is that we want the school board to receive end their

023decision until the community has more time to discuss the issues with the expense of getting rid of the colonial name why not give us a little more time to discuss the issues lastly communication is very important this issue is very very important we need all opinions discussed in a loving and respectful manner we need to listen to each other is there a way that we can have a discussion in this Co environment and not just post on social media where people don't try to understand what others are saying post on what they think they said or have been told they said thank you thank you Julia day hi my name is Julia day I'm at 169 neog Hill Road in Acton and um I'm just speaking from the heart I don't have a statement one

024thing I really want to point out um echoing on what some of the other members of our community have said is that there is an anonymizing power with some of our new tools for communication and I think it's really important for everyone in our town leadership to realize that that's a systemic problem racism also is a systemic problem and to deal with a systemic problem we need systemic Solutions I think we all recognize that we don't know who the person was and I agree we don't know if that person was an actin but this happened in an actin school board meeting and so it's imperative that we figure out a way to make sure that this cannot happen in Acton if we want to say that we are not a racist town we have to

025implement systemic solutions to ensure that racist acts cannot be committed in our official settings to people who volunteer their time to serve our community it's a truly horrible thing that happened to Kira and to Evelyn and it's so upsetting and I know that everyone here where I trust in my heart that everyone on this board would do anything in their power to make sure that it doesn't happen again or that it didn't happen in the first place but that means that we have to learn what to do in order to actually stop it from happening again it's not enough to say that we aren't racist if we don't do anything to make sure these racist acts can't be perpetrated against the people of our community so I hope that everyone on the select board and

026everyone in town leadership will really reflect on the best ways to protect those members of our community who have shown time and time again that they aren't being shown the protection and the care and the love that they deserve from our community one minute left that's the end of my statement thank you thank you Alysa niichel please go ahead thank you this is Alyssa nickel from school street I want to start by thanking this board for responding swiftly to last Thursday's attack during the school committee meeting I acknowledge that learning to be allies and effectively addressing racism is an ongoing process and mistakes are expected along the way we all have made and will continue to make them we are not effectively addressing racism when the conversation and drafting of a statement happens without consulting

027the individuals impacted we are not effectively addressing racism when an emergency meeting is called to discuss and vote on the statement yet no effort is made to reach out IR ly to the victims to express support extend an invitation to the table or seek input and feedback on appropriate steps to take we are not effectively addressing racism when the two white gentlemen who made problematic comments immediately following the incident are commended by name while failing to speak the names of the two victims Kira Wilson cook and Evelyn aaya and failing to make special mention of their service to our communities acknowledge publicly the pain of their public experience of a racist attack and invite their participation in the process of responding I acknowledge that the spirit in which Mr kadlick and Mr rera made their

028comments was good and well-meaning as they denounced the racist attack but I was appalled by the content of both their statements I was also dismayed that these two men were given special acknowledgement during the Friday emergency meeting of this board Mr click's statement was patronizing and demeaning I'm glad you've settled down Miss Abaya is not a 5-year-old don't get upset don't give them the satisfaction does Mr kadlick presume to have any right to instruct Miss aaya on her own feelings Mr rera argued that this is not the community he knows with a lived experience as a white person was there any thought given to the fact that this is the community missa and Miss Wilson cook experience said no recognizing this is Paramount to any attempt at sympathy he further added that This Racist behavior

029is not representative of most in the community why does that matter if it exists in a few it is our work to root It Out Mr CAD further surmises just tonight that this attack could have come from outside our community but is telling you that it is unacceptable to surmise that it could have come from within the community regardless of the origin of this particular attack we must stop stop suggesting that these attacks are common in our communities are not common in our communities if we continue to focus primarily on blatant and egregious acts such as this we are diverted from the work we must do and the reality we must face of the racism below the surface the systemic racism which those in positions of power predominantly white people benefit from the people impacted

030by racism must be at the table and part of the conversation your time's up thank you one second please Erica chin please go ahead Erica chin healed rod and acted I think many of you know my husband Derek so a big thank you to Kira and Evelyn for not giving up on us we need you and we need your leadership and quite Frank I know that John Benson David Martin Joan Gardner and Jim Snyder Grant and Jean Dean Charter aren't doing this for the big bucks either it's um you know admirable to be a public servant so I want to thank you as well and John murati for your steady leadership on many many fronts unanticipated but quite frankly um I said what can I do as a white Ally I'm a small business owner

031in town I have a Professional Services form firm for 15 years uh in industry but I also work part-time at brise and I had the eye-opening experience of being um in a white Ally affinity group in the summer so I said these materials were not developed by me who am I to curate the experience of people of color my daughter my husband my dark black nephew's um niece's partner it's not my role they are wonderful materials and I thought enough to send them to David Martin I know you said you'll look at them over the holidays and Peter light who gave me an immediate response and said I'm sending them to the leadership team with your permission I said please let's get them shared broadly and I will share them with anybody who is interested

032in seeing them the other thing um I have as a concrete recommendation is that the November 12th Acton policy Against Racism is a good start but it needs to be strengthened what I don't see anywhere for point two is where the town of Acton will oppose systemic racism in our community by implementing commu communication practices and other strategies and best practices is accountability Zero Tolerance we need stronger language this will not stand so um with that turn it over to the next person thank you thank you Melissa charge chish uh Parker Street uh I'm here with just a very brief statement just to be a voice of support for Kira and Evelyn and their Fierce advocacy for all members of our community and all children in our community um this I think is very safe

033and comfortable and easy for us to say that it is not who we are and these racist remarks are not who we are and it may not be who you are personally but it's quite obvious uh time and again we are seeing examples of this that it is who we are as a community it's important for us to acknowledge that and it's very important for all of our town leaders all members of this board not just some but all members of this board to use their voices to call this out in no uncertain terms thank you thank you K hog hi thank you civil discourse is an essential ingredient in a functioning democracy we should all be able to agree on that participants in a healthy democracy need to be able to freely exchange ideas

034and listen to those shared by others propose debate come to consensus vote sign and act this is how it's gone for hundreds of years I don't believe there's a shared belief that we can agree to disagree in this community anymore the spectacle of last week's school committee meeting was shared widely by the superintendent and members of the school committee it's as public as it is because the school committee and administration made it public it's no surprise they're now using the insu ensuing uproar to justify their vote to remove the colonial and label our community as racist the most visibly and justifiably offended member immediately Associated the comments to the mascot issue without any proof whatsoever after the meeting screenshots were posted on Facebook on a page followed by thousands Peter light sent out an email

035to the entire community that went even further calling out the post of a specific individual twisting his words to suit The Narrative pushed by the school committee and throwing red meech to their Facebook lap dogs in doing so he and anyone who supports his views are now targeted for online bullying ironically Mr light referred to that post as quote malicious silencing which is really the pot calling the kettle black malicious silencing perfectly describes the culture our school committee and administration have created in our schools and by extension our community students who Dar to wear Colonial gear are now called racists those who feel they won rubb it in the faces of those who were opposed to the change the harassment and online bullying by those who claim to advocate for inclusion and diversity has ramped

036up emboldened by the words and actions of our so-called leaders teachers are afraid to speak their mind for fear of reprisal from their colleagues and the administration adults in the community don't want to engage with those with opposing views because the retort is always the same denters are racist hom homophobic privileged stupid or whatever label the mob chooses to one minute left the adults that are opposed to Foster are supposed to Foster an environment of intellectual exploration in our schools instead stifled dissenting personal and political views by weaponizing words like racist there is zero tolerance for diversity of thought I know in my house we have Lively conversations because my kids aren't hearing the same viewpoints at home and at school we challenge their thinking and vice versa and at the end of these discussions

037we still sit at the same dinner table we don't call each other insulting names or up into tribes this cannot be said of most students in this District our schools are failing to teach our kids how to think critically about multiple sides of an issue how to respectfully debate and disagree with each other and how to come to consensus and move forward how are they going to become effective and compassionate leaders without these skills our kids are going to inherit this mess our elected leaders at all levels have a responsibility to set a good example for them the school committee and administration is an unmit unmitigated failure in this respect I hope the board of Select when will call out their unethical illegal and of actions by formally requesting reconsideration of the vote to cancel

038the colonial if the mascot is going to be canceled a truly open and thorough process should be followed to ensure all voices are heard thank you thank [Music] you Elizabeth Olsson please go ahead hi can you hear me yes okay uh yeah my name is Elizabeth Olson lrip Road Acton um I I had prepared comments they have mostly been said I'm a little bit um dumbstruck frankly by the prior comment I can't believe that anyone is taking this moment to make arguments about a mascot setting that aside I want to speak directly to the board of selectman and encourage you as individuals as people to go back after this meeting and listen to the recording of Kira Wilson Cook's opening statement because I'm hoping that you will be able to listen to what she had

039to say and understand how as white people our response when someone is attacked verbally contributes to the pain of the assault Kiera and Evelyn were assaulted by a racist ridiculous individual but the way the board of Selectmen responded to that assault by not including them as people as colleagues in the ensuing ation compounded that pain and I'm speaking to you as a white person white people have a lot of work to do and I hope that you can go back and listen to what she said and think about how you can respond with more Humanity next time I'd like you to do better I'd like us all to do better that's the end my comment thank you Scott smyers please go ahead hello thank you first I'd like to make a comment about the racist

040insults at the school committee meeting they were completely unacceptable and do not reflect the opinions of anybody I know in this town and I've lived here many years um and I think one of the topics we have to focus on is these Zoom meetings that are a sorry representation of public meetings we are missing out on what public meetings are supposed to accomplish where we can have informative discussions with the respective boards and our peers and we don't get to have that in an effective way and we're obviously subject to some major drawbacks like what happened on Thursday night but when I first started doing Zoom meetings I was told the reason why they hide the chat the reason why they hide the comments is to protect the participants and the committee from uh getting

041derailed by uh problems such as occurred and I don't understand how those settings were not uh adequate and they should be adjusted all possible and we need to get back to normal meetings uh I really don't like it when uh the leadership either in this board or the school committee or the superintendent uh makes claims that the the town is a racist town or that other people say that it is not a racist town yet a town cannot be racist it's the individuals within the town or a city that can be racist not an entire town and that is a hasty generalization that's being used on a regular basis to make a straw man argument uh about the the colonial issue and trying to make it seem like that is about race which it is

042not it is only about race minute it is only about race from the opponents who are vac so they can get rid of them um that's all I have to say thank you David Hoffman please go ahead um the events at the school committee U and the racism that uh became evident there I find truly frightening my name is David Hoffman three Half Moon Hill I've lived in Acton for 39 years um I thought I knew our town and I'm discovering that I don't um that scares me for myself and it scares me on behalf of Kira and Evelyn and others who've been targeted I'm reminded of the statement I'll bet everyone in this meeting has heard it from Martin Luther King in his letter from the Birmingham Jail where he said Injustice anywhere is

043a threat to Justice jce everywhere we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single Garment of Destiny whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly the reverberations of the rist incident of last week will be affecting this town for a long time and I I hope that this board the select board will use its moral authority to set an agenda for learning in our community learning about the impacts of racism sexism homophobia and other kinds of bias I was very pleased to see the Interfaith clergy group using its moral authority to remind us of our duty to make Acton a safe place for all thank you very much thank you Daniel Roberts please go ahead uh Daniel you'll need to unmute yourself Daniel one last chance okay uh uh Liz diming please

044go ahead Liz you can unmute yourself can you hear me yes oh super I don't have a long comment I would just like to say that I'm a newcomer here so I have zero buyin to the mascot um my son's in kindergarten so the mascot has very little interest to me um but I would like us to separate I would like to request that we separate discussion of the mascot from discussion of the racist attack suffered upon two of our cherished members of our community Cara and Evelyn um it has really it shouldn't have anything to do with the other and I would like to separate the discussion of the attack that did actually take place from discussion of this is not our community our community is not racist well it is our community and

045our community apparently does have racists in it and does have a problem with racism and I think that we are getting a dist by other things when what we should be dealing with here is the racist attack that did take place that has happened to prominent members to Cherished members of our community and that's all I wish to say thank you thank you uh John that's all no more comments okay uh thank you thank you very much um okay um would you like a break we all set I'm Al all right um so um let's start John could we have your your update first uh yes uh certainly uh I just wanted to mention um recognize the recent passing of uh Chief Robert Craig and I want to thank the police uh the fire department

046and other uh past and current and former employees for uh recognizing uh and attending Services last week it's different obviously going to awake and a funeral in the current environment but it was nice to see a strong strong support for chief Craig uh who who did a lot for this community um shifting gears I also wanted to share some exciting news about a project that we started working on in January to create some videos about town to help uh promote Economic Development and several other uh things that are great about acting and we just released those today they're on the website if if you go to the web page and scroll down to acting video tour uh that's where you find those and we'll be doing some publicity on those in the next few days

047uh but it was a result of some some great work from um many people in the community and um I hope you enjoy them uh I've been asked finally chair to go to see them tomorrow night and present about reserves and I sent a memo to them last month and they want me to provide more details on reserves generally and and how we use them here in town so just want to let the board know that and finally I wanted to thank um all the staff and all the volunteers uh for a very busy 2020 and I appreciate all the work that everybody's done this year and um I look forward to working with all of you again in 2021 okay thank you um member minutes uh Jim there's the unmute button um I don't

048have any anything from my committees but I'd like to use my time to talk a little bit about um all these amazing comments that were just made um so just want to add my voice to everybody else's in support of of Evelyn and Kira um and I I would like um I would like the chair to to contact the two with them to offer our sympathy and support and and ask and ask them uh you know what else we can do the next thing I I wanted to say was um I I assume that we're all making mistakes from time to time so I I just want to appreciate the chair's opening statement to to you know explain what happened and and apologize for it um and I also made a mistake uh well probably

049more than one but one I'm aware of at the last at that emergency meeting um I spoke about uh that it was not it was shocking to me but it was not surprising that um This Racist attack happened because I you know I I I knew about previous attacks um and the way I phrase that um uh some people thought I was talking about um uh the the folks at the beginning of that very particular school meeting uh who were talking about the mascot and I want to make clear that that was not what I was talking about I went back and I hadn't seen the the school committee meeting but I went back and watched it and I didn't see anything you know um in what they said in that being the opening of

050the meeting that was offensive um so I just want to make clear I was is talking about um statements that I know about that have come towards uh Kira and Evelyn in the past and some of those were overlapping with the the mascot issue and finally uh just want to say um because it seems like there's some talking past each other uh around this topic of of racism and and and racists so I just wanted to share my assumption uh and that um because we've all anyone who grows up in the US has grown up with just tremendous loads of media and language and um teaching racial and ethnic stereotypes and in particular antiblackness so I assume those are all baked in to all of us including myself so in that sense I'm I'm very

051comfortable uh assuming that I am racist that that's that that's part of what's built into me I know for other people that the word racist is sort of like calling somebody a troll or calling somebody like that they have some deep moral failing I don't take it that way I take it as that it's part of how we're all brought up um and um that you know there certainly we all we have this ability because we're moral beings to decide that we want to do better than that and that's where the work of anti-racism begins where we can actually you know figure out how to undo some of that figure out how to learn about it figure out how to how to how to do better how to do less harm um and there's certainly

052some people who go the other direction um who are overtly racist who do the attacks the person who you know who attacked and and and and and Kira at at the school committee meeting certainly falls into that category so when people talk about acting being a racist town I doesn't bother me because I assume all towns are racist in the US um but I know that other people mean different things by that and so they are shocked and irritated by that notion um so I just want to explain those words that that maybe there are a lot of us who use racism in a different way than maybe we would have five or 10 years ago and that's led to some of this um miscommunication um I think that's all I wanted to say thanks

053thank you um Joan ask David nothing for me this week Chad David Dean I'm sorry yeah I think as everyone knows uh I was raised in this town I've been here 70 years and I've seen the town change a great deal um a couple of the things that that I think are were significant in the town in my lifetime was we had our first Jewish member of the board of selectman Fred steinhauer was elected back in the 60s we had our first female select person Mary Hadley also elected in the 1960s we' since had some great other folks that have come in here uh asian-americans like J adachi uh Jean Kong Chinese immigrant who chaired the acon boxor school committee and certainly having uh here Wilson cook just continues this tradition and you know I've

054always thought of acting as being a welcoming town but you know obviously I'm somewhat prejudiced in that feeling um but I just you know want to reiterate what I've said before in various forums is it you really want to do better we really want to welcome everybody here um and uh you know I think this is a great town not perfect but a great town and I just you know speaking as a member of one of the older families in town uh we want everybody here and we want everybody to be respected we want everybody to be comfortable here and everybody makes a contribution here whether it's the uh the blacks the Chinese Community the Indian Community the Hispanic Community everyone deserves a place here and and welcome here thank you okay um um briefly

055um I will reach out to um the Kira and Evelyn and ask what else can we do on their behalf um and to make matters um better in our towns um John I want to thank you for all the work that you have done guiding us through the pandemic um and we look forward to a a good 2021 and to being a much better place uh a year from now Okay so um John I guess we're we're up to a new spe uh new and special business item for it would be the covid response update thank you members of the board this week's update is is um a lot a lot of more news that's very sobering um I think we're at the point now where we've had 476 cases that we're aware of in

056the community uh since this started there are currently 52 people that are uh in isolation um as a result of uh having um covid uh that's 130 people that have uh that were aware of that have contracted the virus in the month of December and we're it's only the 20 it's only the third week C an alarming Trend um even more alarming and upsetting is that over the last few months uh we've become aware of 10 people uh that have lost their life to this uh uh which which means that um in the last year uh 30 people that that were part of this community uh lost their life as a result of this pandemic so it's it's very sobering to say that out loud um but I wanted to share that news and and

057hope that uh news that we have about vaccinations and and other things that we're doing will will make for progress and and have this stuff no longer continue to happen here uh on the vaccination front uh you've seen all the national news about the the vaccines that are now available um our number one priority and job from now is to distribute the vaccines to our First Responders uh they are part of phase one uh as as been outlined by the um authorities and so we're working with uh our neighboring communities to put together a model uh to get them vaccinated as quickly as possible and we should hope to have that done uh in early January uh if things go according to our plans and then we'll continue to work on how to roll out

058the next phases of the vaccinations and what and understanding what our role will be in that and we'll be prepared to do whatever we need to um to make that happen uh the what's happening uh at the federal level May create some changes in in car's act uh that's something that we're going to talk about just following this topic but I I just would mention that um what we understand about the the the federal relief bill that's being discussed it may change some things and some timelines that we're really up against right now so we can step that aside for a minute I also wanted to mention that the the cares um covid cdbg CV grant that we were awarded uh later this fall for $1.6 million to help with the uh four other the

059towns and ours to support micro Enterprises and public service providers we've really picked up speed on that process and uh we expect to have uh the program rolled out in January which we're very excited about we'll be helping some some people that need some assistance and uh I look forward to discussing that with you when we have the details finalized John how many um how many cases um have there been in the month of December 13030 is anyone have any questions or comments uh to for John okay um the next item would be the board um to vote um to um to vote uh to support uh no I'm sorry or to designate the town of managers the town's environmental certify La so that that's that's not that's not a promotion uh that's just a

060thing that I need to do for um that Federal Grant I just talked to you about I need to certify that they're not going to be environmental impacts to our work related to grading these grants okay move to a go ahead John please move to appoint Town manager to the environmental certifying officer the town's environmental certifying officer is there a second second yes second David is there any uh discussion on the motion being none okay David if you call the role please uh Mr Schneider Grant I uh Miss Gardner hi Mr Charter hi Mr Benson hi and I also say I so that's unanimous okay um the next matter item six is for to vote to support use of additional cares act funds for boxboro Regional School District um response expenses okay John thank you

061uh so I've been keeping the board up to date uh generally on how we're using the funding allocated through cares uh earlier this year I brought to the board uh the proposal from the district uh to use 435 uh sorry just over 400,000 for uh some technology improvements that they did to help do remote learning this year and um I have provided in the packet a breakdown of uh all the funding that we've used to date and the breakdown is as follows uh we've used um 100 sorry we've used uh we provided 435,000 to sub grantees which include the the Aon barille school district and minut man um School District we've spent 640,000 on things related to PPE building improvements remote work uh everything that we've been doing we're also starting to acquire testing kits

062and doing some testing in-house uh for our First Responders which is helping with um the logistical challenges associated with that and we also have funding set aside for FEMA uh the purpose of the discussion tonight is to uh seek approval from the board to approve a further request from this acon boxboro school district for um to make the total amount requested 347 which would include the previous request and and and a later request and some of the things that they were spending money on that they're looking for support on our uh wraparound services for their teachers and students uh a voice amplification system tents to provide for learning Outdoors and the the very successful uh and impressive community meal program that they have been running over there um for several months okay so are there

063questions or comments I just I I noticed there's approximately 193,000 uh $193,000 remaining of our of our Care's allocation and in the um the um bill that the the um relief package that just passed the Congress um the uh the uh uh uh use State on those funds has been extended for one year uh through December 30 um 2021 the exist the the prior law had we had to use it all by uh the end of this year um have we um did we previously approve the $395,000 funding request for the um um for the for the Regional School District uh yes I presented to the board and I don't recall if it was a formal vote but I I certainly felt that there was a consensus yeah um um I thought of perhaps this

064motion um to accept the allocation and use um of car's funds including the $470 um $1,617 to the act in boxboro Regional School District um as set forth in town finance directors Stephen uh Stephen Barrett's um memorandum um dated December to the town manager dated December 12 December uh December 21 uh 2020 don't move is there a second I I would say second but can we say in the total amount of 86634773573 iously did for it forget what I I okay go go with your original wording and I would second that okay so is there any discussion um for the discussion okay uh David uh please call the role uh Mr Snider Grant hi Miss Gardner hi Mr Charter hi Mr Benson hi and I also say I okay okay um we were going to

065discuss this item seven discuss open meeting law complaint from December 16 2020 and delegator response um uh Nina John and I um spoke earlier today and Nina will uh lead the uh discussion on the on the complaint and and response Nina sure um as folks may remember at your last meeting you also discussed a prior open meeting law complaint all also from Steve Ballard concerning um John Benson's um updates after uh that he provides to a wide network of board and committee chairs and his own personal Network after the meeting takes place which summarizes his notes and Impressions from the meeting um although that was previously widely distributed in response to Mr Bor first request this board decided to respond to the complaint by asking John mangera to um also push out that um Mr

066Benson's chair updates um on the town's social media um and where he is frequently doing those um covid updates at least I think once a week the thought was that he would provide um the uh there's updates in the same communication as those covid updates um after the board made that decision I should back up after that meeting the chair and John maner Audi did just that um the next day I believe that there was another chair's update from your previous meeting before Mr Benson emailed it out to his Network it was published uh by John mangera to uh the town social media channels um since that time we received another complaint from Mr valard for um essentially the same conduct complaining that um Mr Benson's distribution um on the Count's social media channels was

067not sufficiently public um um to satisfy the volter decision that I referred to before was not sufficiently made available to the public uh so he has filed another complaint on that front um although I believe pushing the summary out by social media certainly is making it public um there are something to be said for having those updates reside somewhere that is publicly available even after the fact and and easily accessible um after talking with the town manager and in response to additional correspondence from Mr Ballard uh there was a discussion about whether it would be appropriate to post the chair's updates um on the board of selectman's web page the selectman have our own web page where they post the agenda and uh the minutes uh we've discussed whether that is physically feasibly um and

068administratively possible I believe it would be um and our hope is that uh that would satisfy um Mr do concerns that these updates reside somewhere that is easy for the public to access [Music] um the only thing I would ask is um in Mr Ballard and and he's complained in later correspondence has referred to the chair's summaries as draft minutes that are required in VI the open meeting wall U Mr Ballard summar I mean sorry Mr Benson's summaries are not draft minutes they are his own personal notes and a summary of the meeting uh from his perspective uh the town and the board of selectman have someone who who takes the minutes and prepares the draft minutes that are required under the open meeting law and and um I want to make sure that this

069board understands Mr Benson's uh summaries that he produces of his own accord um do not in any way go towards the legal requirement of producing minuts under the open meeting so my recommendation that is that in response to the complaint the most recent complaint to Mr ballad um this board vote to uh direct Mr Benson and Mr Mander to take the additional step of placing the updates on the board of selectman's web page before or simultaneously um with his email to his broader network of board and committee chairs and personal Neighborhood Network I'm happy to answer any questions sure are there questions or comments for Nina and J sure um I wanted to understand what standard that places uh the non-chair people um in terms of um oh I don't know let's say I go

070to go to my Facebook page and say oh you know by the way we discussed this really interesting issue at the at the board of selectman meeting last night um you know here's a link to the tape or here's you know something like that where where um what's what's the line we have to be careful about in terms of how we communicate to uh the public over social media about our meetings so this has always been a really difficult question when the open meeting law was substantially revised in 2010 to figure out um particularly with the change in technology um and and the way you communicate with your constituents so nothing in the open meeting law prevents you from communicating with your constituents about what you're doing as a board member or how you feel

071about it at all uh the [Music] concern with um Mr Benson's summary is that it was going to a quorum of this board so if for instance Mr Benson did not copy any of the board members members here and simply sent it out to his personal Neighborhood Network there would be no open meeting wall concern um if you post it on your Facebook page that's available for all to see there's no meeting walk con ter if you post it to your personal Facebook page that has a 100 friends and and four of them are the other members of your the board of Selectmen then that does start becoming a problem um when the of meeting law was revised in 2010 often you can tell how dated it is because they were talking mostly about chat

072rooms so chat rooms used to be a big concern it's it's on the internet and you're not at a meeting but you know a quorum of the board could go into a chat room and have a discussion um that technology is obviously Advanced and there are many other places that you can have these private conversations that are not necessarily just phone and email um if your communication is going to be to if your communication is going to include the rest of the board then it should fall closer to the line of being something like a letter to the editor right I can write a letter to the editor of the beacon as a member of the board of Selectmen talking about my concerns on issues that come before by board and that's not a violation

073of the open meeting law even though I know the other five members also likely have subscriptions right um because that's sufficiently Public Communication so it's it's a spectrum that goes from there so if you're going to be communicating with with the public that you know is going to include a quorum of this board think about am I am I close to a letter the editor situation or am I am I close closer to the chat room situation got it does that help yes it does a lot thank you okay okay so um then what would anina your the motion you'd like us to to act on is just to delegate responsibility to um you and John mangera to prepare a response for Mr Ballard's complaint and that uh John and I um are to uh

074take the necessary action to publish the BOS updates um on the selectman's web page prior to we're simultaneously with the um uh the updates going out to all boards and committees and other groups yes covered it okay so move and second okay uh further discussion and um all in favor no I gotta call oh I'm sorry um Mr Snider Grant hi Miss Gardner hi Mr Charter hi Mr Benson hi and I also say I so it's unanimous thank you all very much on that um uh item eight is discuss the um um act in Housing Authority option agreement um since we don't have a votee vot uh to bring to open session um I don't think there's anything to take up on the item that's right okay so um then to item nine or to

075consider extension of reduced Reserve parking rates John thank you this is just related to our community parking lot program um over by the T Station as you probably have noticed the the commuting patterns of people have not returned to normal and it's not looking like they will anytime in the next few months so the board approved a a major reduction to the annual uh fee required to hold on to a spot and uh what we're asking here tonight is for you to extend that uh which I believe was supposed to end at the end of the year have it extend through um March and and start if we could keep the reduce the parking rate to $25 a month through the end of March and then we can reevaluate and hopefully things will be back

076to normal by then move towards move to extend to the end of March the parking fee of $25 a month is there a second second um any discussion okay David would you uh please call Mr Snider Grant hi Mr Miss Gardner hi Mr Charter hi Mr Benson I and I also say I okay okay the um um next two are related to the River Street project 10 is update on the 53 River Street dam removal project uh thank you for this uh item I've uh I've asked Selby our L economic development director to provide a brief update and we also have our Consulting a member of our Consulting team here to give a presentation so I'd like to just bring those two into the group here if that's okay sure um Selby where are you

077there you are I already promoted him so thank you um Selby uh take it away I'll unmute first though thanks hi everybody uh I'm Selby I am Acton's land use and economic development director and with me tonight is Jim murak engineer with Malone and MC Brom um Jim will be sharing a screen in a moment with the presentation so um thanks John for inviting us tonight to give the board an update about the the the progress with the project at the 53 divver Street um site um timeline of the project to give you a brief um reminder the town acquired this property uh in November of 2016 um and we that's when we voted for it and we closed on it in January 2017 a year later um the River Street committee was formed and

078uh shortly after they started meeting we engaged with the Conway School of landscape design to work on visioning session with the community to determine what kind of uses they'd like to see with the pro with the property um so that was done through the spring um and then in July the uh office of dam safety found out about the dam and hired GZA environmental to conduct a jurisdictional analysis of of the dam um in November they did a phase one inspection report and the dam was classified as a small significant Hazard Dam and unsafe condition um we have engaged with the histor hisorical folks from the beginning we had the HDC um attend uh we were told that the entire property would be under their jurisdiction so we were working closely with them through this

079process um in December of 2018 the town was ordered to prepare an emergency action plan for the project uh for the for the dam and uh April of that year uh of 19 the town meeting voted to restrict the use of the property to CPA eligible uses open space Recreation historic preservation uh the property was acquired for $98,000 of of free cash um we received an award CPA award to do a dam removal feasibility study and a cultural resource assessment and just as we were getting started with that the off of dam safety issued the town a certificate of non-compliance and a dam safety order to remove or repair the dam by November of this year um we did an RFP for a feasibility study we awarded that contract to Mone broom who remains with

080us today um and I'm going to pass over to Jim to give an update of their work thanks Selby can you guys hear me okay so my name is Jim mure I'm a professional engineer and a certified flood plan manager with mon mid Brom um I've been leading the project as the project manager uh on our side working with Selby since um summer of last year when he hired us as he mentioned for the feasibility study to look at the removal of the damp um sort of assuming that you guys are all you know different levels of familiar familiarity with the site I wanted to just show a few photos of what the site looks like today and then sort of walk through what we've done I don't want to take up too much of

081your time but just give you a good overview of where we are um and then just answer any questions you all have uh so this is just a location map of the site showing the dam highlighted in red where Flo in Fort Pond Brook is going to the right of your screen with the arrows uh you can see the dam highlighted in red the impoundment or the former impoundment behind it uh to the left and then two bifurcated channels there's a primary Channel and what they call like a tail race that would have been associated with the old mills on the property um that they rejoin after the a secondary red highlighted building which was the um Foundation of an Old Mill building so this is a photo looking at the dam looking Downstream in

082what is the former impoundment um this used to be underwater but the dam was um has been the lowlevel outlets have been opened since at least I think we said 2005 if I recall it's been at least 10 years since uh it's been open so what's happened is all that sediment that's was trapped behind the dam uh some of it has washed away into what there's it's reformed its own channel and um it's revegetated the endowment so it actually looks you know relatively nice this is the Upstream face of the dam you can see there's a lot of Woody debris that's been TR traveling down the corridor and accumulating uh especially since it's been left open and the lowlevel outlets have been left open so the water level is not high enough for that debris

083to travel over the dam so now it's just getting stuck um you can see it's a a mixture of dry stacked stone masonry which is part of the historic Dam uh subsequent repairs over the years with concrete and earn abutments on either side this is the downstream face of the dam this is the primary Channel I mentioned there was two two segments of Channel this is the main river Channel with a 24 in pipe at the bottom you can see on the left hand side of the screen the lower part of the concrete that used to spill over when the dam was full and this is on the the northern side this is The Spill the tail race and the secondary Spillway um with a 30inch outall and we also see some some remnants of

084um buildings that were associated with the mill operations uh and we are in the process of investigating the history of the site and doing AR ological investigation so some of the um Remnant things that are found there may have some more um we may have more specificity as to what they were uh but at this time we just know that they're of varying stages and varying uses throughout the time it's been um in use so this is looking Downstream of the primary Channel you can see the remnants of the ston lined banks on either side of the river where there was likely buildings up to the edge or or some sort of use Mill use up to the edge of the of the river there are Stone in the center of the channel there are

085Stone peers that supported some sort of a structure over it probably an Old Mill building um and then in the background a yellow concrete building which was built back in like the 1950s on the foundation of the Old Mill building and then looking Downstream at the tail race um there there used to be Stone side walls to this channel as well but some of them have fallen in over time uh there's a lot of vegetation invasive species and things um and it's really just not functioning um probably as it once was this is a closer up photo of the concrete building this was associated with a painting company that was here on the site using this facility to store their equipment and some of their materials and then a secondary Pavilion that was also used

086for storage of materials so that just gives you an overview of the site so the um as Selby mentioned in June of 2019 the office of dam safety issued a consent order to either repair or remove the dam they found it to be in unsafe condition based on the inspection and um and based on its age it's built in 1845 it's not an insignificant Dam it's 15 feet high and that's almost 200 feet long um and given changes in hydrology over time and climate change um the design of this dam was really only suited for a 10 what is today a 10year event so back in 2019 when GZA performed their their um initial phase one evaluation they looked at the cost differences between what it would take to repair the dam or what it

087would take to remove the dam and they found that it would be an estimated four times you know if you look at the ranges it would be about four times the cost to repair it because really to get it to meet current ODS standards would require a removal and a reconstruction versus if you were just to remove the dam you're only doing half of that work or less so I think that's what prompted the town to hire us um later in 2019 and we completed our feasibility study in December um for removing the dam So based on that study we looked at a number of things U such as hydrology and hydraulics we looked at the sediment uh up stream and looked at the chemical composition and and just tried to assess um even flooding

088impacts if there are any impacts that would be associated with removing the dam that would be problematic for the town um and that that's a pretty comprehensive study if that I believe that's available uh for public consumption on the website and if it's not it certainly can be um either I or Selby can distribute that to anybody who's interested the result of that study came up with a concept plan to remove the dam and um as you can see our project goals were listed here um so we were trying to balance the natural restoring the site to some sort of a natural system that would be beneficial for you know the movement of water sediment nutrients aquatic organisms um fish passage habitat and restoring a reparan buffer and a flood plane and all the natural

089um things that we would want to restore the site to but also balancing the historic significance of the site being first constructed in the mid 1800s um you know trying to retain as many historical artifacts as as possible while still meeting current you Dam standards and safety standards was really our primary set of goals as part of that we also evaluated Downstream flooding of the dam um this was at the request of ODS for any Dam that is to remain they require an emergency action plan or an EAP which would evaluate what were to happen basically it's a document that tells you what were to happen if the dam were to be in danger of failing or to begin to fail um so as part of that you we've um we modeled we hydraulically modeled

090the damn failing and assessed what would happen Downstream and who would be what who would be impacted what Bridges would be impacted and then laid out a plan so that Community officials and emergency responders could respond appropriately and know where to go and what to do as part of that emergency action plan we had some mapping that predicted um that there would be up to six Bridges a few miles down up to a few miles Downstream at lb road that could be impacted by a flood wave if the dam were to catastrophically fail and just to give you an order of magnitude this is a list from that document depicting um the 66 properties which would be affected Downstream of the dam um by a catastrophic failure and not to go through these in detail

091but this is the sort of mapping that was provided in that document that R developed um showing the um inundation boundary in blue what you could expect the limits of flooding to be and then color coding the different um properties with three types of impacts um either being flooded being so close to being flooded that um the numerical model and topography may be deceptive and they may actually be impacted or just being impacted by a road closure and being stranded until the flood waters receed um and anybody who has any questions or wants to know more about that I certainly encourage them to um to download that that emergency action plan from the town's website and to take a look at that in more detail or certainly just ask me um so moving on with

092our uh dam removal project um the project elements that we came up with as a concept design include um removing obviously removing the dam to the limits to which ODS would no longer classify as jurisdictional which is important because um just breaching the dam and leaving a big chunk say 70% of the dam would still impound water and would still be classified as a dam by ODS standard so they have a a pretty rigorous set of hydraulic standards that they uh look for so removing as much or as little as a dam as possible to meet those standards was a primary goal uh restoring the channel through the former impoundment we'd like to try to use vegetative and bioengineering means wherever possible so cor logs and and live Stakes that would grow into Willows and

093and other shrubby materials um we had constructed some bordering vegetated Wetland areas um we were providing scour counter measures at the Upstream railroad bridge which which was predicted to be marginally impacted by the dam removal and there was a concept designed for an historical park on the site and I'll mention more about that in a moment um this is just a photograph of a project we just did um I think it was last year in Plymouth Massachusetts uh very similar Dam very similar impoundment we removed the dam uh this is this is what we constructed in the former impoundment as a naturalized channel so we'd be looking for a morphologically stable bankful channel in this condition I think is about 30 feet wide with a vegetarian vegetated um repairing buffer nice flood plane connectivity um

094you know the goal would be to not know for a casual bystander to not really even know that a dam was ever there um this concept and that's for the dam and for the river itself um for the up for the site leaving some of the like the abutments and the stone piers and and certain elements of historical significance are completely contrary to that goal of ecological restoration so we um we developed this our might landscape architecture at mic GM developed this concept plan which was based primarily on work that was done by the Conway school that had been U retained by the town a number of years ago to look at the site but it involves utilizing the space that's been open up opened up by the dam removal and restoring it along with

095memorializing certain elements of the site um you know and after some public feedback uh we had gone to the HDC and presented that um there was some some concern of the layout so had we had just sketched another one now neither of these it's important to to note are in any form final the dam removal is progressing but the park design still I think it needs some public input um so these were shown to the reg the state regul to meepa and to and will be shown to the Army Corps uh and to the D just to show them the holistic view of how of what the site could look like but we do need to get our permits for the dam removal so we uh we intend to show a a line a delineation

096line a demarcation line on the plans that depicts you know the waterw work and the dam removal work to be going forward and then site restoration may may be changing in the future as the design stands right now we're at about a 60% level uh and and those are the plans that are going forward in the permitting process um we thought it important to highlight some of the elements that were keeping on site that we were going to use as focal pieces for the Future Park again this is just one one concept of what that park looks like and that may change drastically uh we have a long permitting road ahead we have already begun the mea process and we applied for an environmental impact um e environmental impact report waiver u based on on

097all of the work the feasibility analysis and uh doing an expanded enf they call it um and we were granted that waiver which was which was great news because that was a lot of work that really wasn't necessary for this project um but that was really just the first stepping stone um we're currently in in chapter 106 um review with the uh the two local historic commissions and the mass historic commission uh which will then uh upon getting getting a green light there we'd be going forward to Army core to D and submitting the noi and um and just going forward from there I'll let um actually this probably a good time I think I'll let sby finish off with the Regulatory and the next steps so uh thanks Jim so as um as Jim

098mentioned we received feedback from the mass historical commission the active historical commission the active historic district commission um as a result of those comments um we have updated the the cultural uh resource assessment that was done before the 60% plans were complet and we have also initiated an archaeological investigation of the site um we did an RFP process and gr Pape was selected as the lowest um quote um which we have to abide by under chapter 30b supplies and services massal law um so they were on site early last week um starting their mapping of the site and when conditions allow um hopefully early January um they'll they'll further their archaeological investigation they'll produce a report which will then be furnished to the uh historical commission Mass historical the historic district commission um and allow

099them to complete their review under Section 108 the national preservation act um once we have those comments um we can move forward with the rest of the permitting again we need local Conservation Commission approval um we need Army Corps of Engineers approval um D approval um and and historic we need a specificate of appropriateness from the historic district commission um we we've also received quotes from U Landscape Architects to work with the community uh to design a final Historical Park um and we'll we we we're waiting for the findings of the archaeological investigation to inform that discussion um and so that is uh that completes our update well thank you Selby so um John the question uh you have for us is to approve a plan to consider voting to approve a plan to remove

100the uh the hazard Dam at 53 River Street yes I think um tonight's presentation I think was uh very well put together kind of update to where we are now but I know the board has been kept up to date on this project from the beginning through it Liaisons um and various other methods and I don't think that there was ever a time that the board had a meeting and voted to formally move forward with removing Dam and so tonight we were just asking you to consider taking that step so that there's no confusion um as we continue the process uh as to where the uh executive body of the Town stands on the issue okay so with John's request in mind do we have any uh uh questions for sby or the experts de

101Jim I'm sorry de has to hands up yeah danan yes sby I I saw that you had reached out to the uh historical commission folks thank you for that and invited them to to join the archaeological team down on the site and walk around and and provide uh input uh were they able to send representative down there and has that uh communication begun yeah the communication began um before the the field work and my understanding is that Doug Herrick um from the historical commission and a potential future member of the 53 ver Street committee um visited the architect team on site on Tuesday great thank you very much uh David yeah I just want to say I'm I'm uh leaz on up to this committee and I just want to say that um the the

102choice of removing the dam is really since we're ordered to do something with it is is either remove it or rehabilitated right where Rehabilitation is not only more expensive but um also has long-term maintenance imp implications um and so it's hugely more expensive and so um uh and I also want to say and and I know I'm probably using the wrong words but the the the dam removal project um as the design is so far removes just enough of the dam to make it not a dam officially not a dam and leave some of the earth and sides in place so you can see where the damn was again James can correct me if I'm wrong so um it it's just wide enough so that for um uh uh whether it's a hundred-year event or

103a 500 year event I don't know but um enough space so that it's not ever backing up any water yeah I I just like to amplify what David has said um I think it's really important to understand that the dam should be removed uh this is s of the the state-of-the-art these days these sorts of dams are being removed all over the country uh for purposes of ecological restoration uh you know the the thought of having a you Scenic Little M Pond was great and curryer knives kind of thing but you know we've gone beyond that we know that there's issues with it and I think you know once we're through with this we're going to be left with a a much better situation you know the only thing that I can say is you

104know and I think it's well addressed with the uh the goals of the committee is to make sure that to the maximum extent possible the historic resources are preserved and celebrated but uh you know the the underlying concept has to be to uh eliminate the hazard uh eliminate future maintenance costs and uh you know do whatever you can to improve the environmental situation down there thank you joh move to to approve the removal of the dam we have a second I I'll second but Peter Barry has his hand up oh oh Peter Peter please go ahead yeah now I just wanted to add to the discussion I certainly uh would support this motion but uh Selby you mentioned the 75,000 I guess it was the CPA funds uh that paid for the study I know

105You' applied also for Grants to pay for the actual cost of removing the dam and I don't I don't know if I heard you mention that but uh where's the money going to come from so we did receive $75,000 as our initial CPA award and then um and that paid for the um the the dam feasibility study as well as the two cultural resource assessments we received another $120,000 at last town meeting and we're using that to match a municipal vulnerability preparedness Grant that's to um to pay for the design and permitting of this of the dam removal project uh our hope is that the final construction of the dam removal will be paid for with state grants um if it is a municipal vulnerability preparedness Grant it would require 25% match but there's also

106a dam and seaw wall removal or repair um fund that is out there and those projects fund up to $2 million and they Bridge multiple fiscal years to allow for a complex project like this to take place um those are typically um typically due the applications are typically due in the summer and they never announce their 2020 Grant so I'm not exactly sure when the next Grant opportunity will be available for that program um but I am in contact with the state um resource there who manages that program and as soon as the rfr is out there we'll be applying for uh funds to remove the D any further questions uh Jim um this is just an awesome project it's really exciting to see it laid out I I've been at the periphery so I

107haven't you know seen any of the design development before I just want to say I'm thrilled about it um the one question I had was I'm um I'm a little unfamiliar with the Topography of the site uh will it be uh is the intent that um users coming in off of River Street will be able to access uh all of this at at you know at ada8 grades or do we need stairs or you know what what's is is there is there enough of a grade difference that that's an issue Jim do you want to take that one yeah so um the two concepts that we laid out the Landscape Architects laid out did account for Ada accessibility up to the site of the former Dam and they actually took down some of the the

108the broken up concrete from some of the uh older repairs and take and the proposal was to pull that down to those big Stone slads um at the I guess it would be the northern abutment of the dam and to have an ada8 accessible trail go up to sort of like a pza little um patio I guess you would call it there where you could look over the alignment of the former Dam and see the abutment over by the train tracks and just have a bench or something there so it was kind of neat uh and the second proposal or the second layout uh retained all of the Ada accessibility but once you get sort of over that abutment and into the former impoundment there's a 15 foot grade change there so um yeah so

109it the proposal for that was more of like a cedar Wood Trail to go into the BBW area to the um and to sort of enjoy the um the raran area but not to have that as any sort of formalized pave Trail or anything but that may change whenever you know the landscape architect who takes over um you revises the The Proposal great thank you yeah I just wanted to let the board know two things first of the I don't think it was said here the goal would be for removing the dam at the end of the next next summer summer 21 when the water levels are low at the end of the summer and um to proceed with the design of the um Historic Park um as soon as um the the archaeological assessment

110and the approvals from the section 106 review and the stor commissions um come come in further questions or comments okay we have a motion that's been seconded being there's one more hand up sure Lou York who's on the on the committee one second L go ahead Lou you have to unmute yourself I'm still looking for you to there okay can you hear me yes so one one piece of information that I heard here is a bit of a surprise and that is the dam is coming down in 2021 uh I seem to recall at our last meeting it was coming down in 2022 have I got something wrong there no it all depends on when we can get the grant okay so one thing that's not been discussed that I think should be discussed in

111front of the BLS is the impact on Downstream residents of having that Dam in place for one or two years where we are witnessing climate change which is driving us closer and closer to 500e events now the commit has gotten tired of hearing me say this over and over again but we live Downstream where we have experienced flooding for years and to tell me that you want to leave some portion of the dam in place when Jim has explained that we really need to remove the dam and talk about what it was rather than leaving portions of it in place means really Downstream that we are either having our homes flooded our septic systems flooded uh our bridges in the town infrastructure destroyed so I'm I I'm on this committee I I I think they've

112done great work I'm in favor of the dam removal but I haven't heard anything at all about Downstream thank you is there any response Selby David or Ju Ju Just to explain here and and and we remove the dam the the the downstream folks in that uh uh diagram that uh James put out in the middle of his presentation are at risk right if we were to get a hurricane here or uh something uh you know next you know may uh before the dams removed um uh that there's that uh risk of flooding the downstream of Butters until this project is done am I still on yes so so to amplify on what David just said I think our biggest problem is how do we know as as a as a community as a town

113how does Acton know when to implement the emergency action plan what's the trigger for it Dam's dams under under the kind of kind of situations that I'm talking about dams can go very quickly and you know it seems like we're relying upon the first person who gets hit with a wave of water to sound the alarm and there's elderly and disabled folks Downstream and we have elderly and disabled folks Downstream that we need to understand how the town is going to deal with thank you I'm done I'll turn it over to John or whoever wants to thank you you so um how do we respond that's a fair certainly a fair question that's a great question and it's something that um you know the emergency action plan laid out some uh some ways that we

114are to address that and I think we will certainly follow up with um Mr York and his neighbors to talk more about that um to make sure that they're informed of exactly what what our plans would be in that scenario I know there was a meeting a few weeks ago where that some of that stuff was discussed uh as relates to the EAP but sounds like we could we could do some more to to make you feel comfortable with uh what our plans are so we can follow up offline on that um through Selby if that works okay can can I get one more thing in sure you're back thank thank you you're being very very generous to me John should be the the real issue is we a number of us have gone through

115the EAP with a fine tooth con we understand what it's about we understand how it was developed how do how does the town know when the dam starts to go who's watching it who's watching it that that that that's the real question understood okay thank you okay okay um if there's no further comments then David if you would please call the role uh yes um Mr Snider Grant hi let's take that damn down um Miss Gardner yes hi Mr Charter hi Mr Benson I and I also say I okay good so um before we go to the uh Steve Anderson farewell let's just go through the four consent items um consent item 13 committee appointment frany Osman associate member Cemetary commission term to expire June 2023 14 committee appointment Eric Larson full member green Advisory

116Board term to expire June 30 like uh what did you want I just wanted to hold that one and the next one for a tiny change the um 15 would be uh committee appointment Peter Barry associate member green advisory War term to expire June 30 2023 you want to hold that yeah thanks okay um and then committee appointment Peter Barry act and Housing Authority term to expire April 1 2025 to fill current vacancy left by Ryan pz so um if I have a motion first um to um approve consent items uh 13 um and 16 second second um David if you just call the role please uh Mr Snider Grant hi Miss Gardner I Mr Charter I Mr Benson I and I also say I okay um Jim to um to the Eric Larson and

117Peter Barry appointments sure um this was just a little miscommunication along the way it turns out the green adviser board currently has uh two associate slots available and no full member slots available so these would both be uh Rewritten as associate members uh I think that's a change to Eric's uh Eric's appointment um the other the other change to both is that because these are associate memberships uh they get redone uh like normal at the end of June each year so the the the these these would be appointments until June 30th uh 2021 2020 is it 2021 or yeah okay so it's like a six-month appointment yeah yeah okay so um let me then read uh 14 and 15 uh 14 is committee appointment Eric Larson associate member ring Advisory Board term to expire June

11830 2021 15 committee appointment Peter Barry associate member green Advisory Board term to expire June 30 2021 so um then um do we have a motion um to approve consent items 14 and 15 so move second as amended second as amended okay um and David just call the role please uh Mr Snider Grant hi Miss Gardner hi Mr Charter I Mr Benson I and I also say I so it's unanimous okay so um our our last item for this year is uh the uh a salute to Steve Anderson and um I I had invited a a host of of old Selectmen who had worked with with Steve um and um I hope they all expressed you know they'd love to be on board I hope they're here um and we'd like to do it the

119way it was done for Roland ble where the people are all on the screen and it's kind of a freewheeling salute in Old stories wor stories if all the old select people just raised their hand um no I you're a current select person Jo I was an old select when Steve was around my first experience with Steve was on the W Grace situation and Grace wanted to build duramic batteries separate a plant and we had the site plan and I had asked a neighbor of mine who worked for Goldberg and swo what it would cost for a study of the site and it was $100,000 so I put as part of the approval they would give us $100,000 for the study and Steve Anderson said I couldn't do it and I said watch me and

120they gave they gave us the $100,000 and then when GZA went on site they discovered a landfill with barrels and my neighbor called me and said Joe we got to do something I said how much is that he said another 50 and Chris Barrow was the town manager and I sat in his office and I said I have to call her BL the vice president of GRA for another 50k and he said you got to be nuts I said watch me and he said her blood said yes so that's how we got the money to do the study on site well done um is Janet Adai here yes she's she she On video okay um John I just want to mention that I've uh I've promoted to panelist uh former town councel or I guess

121current Town Council Steve Anderson we're all here here he is hey [Music] Steve Janet I asked you to sort of uh lead off because uh you guys were College classmates well that was you see now you spoiled the surprise because that wasn't known when I okay I and and I I didn't know him back in col but anyhow I just wanted to thank uh uh John for inviting everybody to participate in this um and I do have some notes about looking back I think my first interaction with Steve was when I was on a Conservation Commission so that's over 10 years ago and um we had a decision involving a property in Spring Hill Road uh Joan will remember this because this is how I met Joan and her husband but the project would have

122required a very long driveway that would have cross a large expanse of wetlands to reach a tiny SWA of Upland where the developer was proposing to build and and I was I guess the only one who thought that it should be denied and and so I ended up having to make all these arguments and I drafted I drafted a decision which I guess is unusual for Commissioners but because I trained as a lawyer I had some of the ability but um The Next Step was to send it to Steve for review and Town Council at this point I didn't really know who he was and so while I was waiting to hear back from him I went and Googled to find out who he was what his credentials were and I thought oh he was

123in my college class and I didn't know him but you know wouldn't have been that unusual because there were 15500 of us 1,200 men and 300 women and think with those odds that all the women would have gotten married to Harvard men but anyhow we didn't um but eventually uh Steve got back to us with with the draft and he was pretty merciful uh in his edits uh was pretty stinting and didn't rip bleed all over the page but um I'm always pleased to meet classmates that I whom I didn't know when I was in college in fact I probably met a lot uh since I've graduated whom I didn't know but it's always a lot of fun and so that was true with Steve from Conservation Commission I did go to the board of

124Selectmen in 2010 and had more opportunities to work with Steve on legal issues um one of his roles because at that point uh he was still Junior enough that he could be at Town meetings and he sat on stage uh uh during Town meetings and I remember that I was fairly new on the board and I had been assigned uh to present all of the Union agreements and I was not a labor lawyer uh so I had to prepare by teaching myself the basics of uh Massachusetts labor law and and I wasn't feeling all that confident about the presentation but afterwards Steve gave me really enthusiastic feedback which made me feel just terrific it meant a lot to me and then later when Steve who's by the way if you don't know this he's a

125really serious cyclist uh started doing fundraising uh pan Mass uh rides I was happy to join the large numbers of people who would support him um and now I'm just going to say to Steve this is when I talk to you and I'll try to not look at my notes but it's been a real pleasure uh to meet and and really get to work with you um and I think the fact that you I you turned out to be a classmate sort of made working on the board of Selectmen even more fun for me um when I was on the board I felt as if I were with a very large family uh the odd collection of people but we all got along very well worked very well and I I really enjoyed it and

126you were part of that mix but um I I wish you a perfect retirement and I'll leave it to you to fill in with the tals and I hope to see you at our new next class reunion in 2024 but thank you very much for all that you've done for the town over the years so and I I hope this won't be the last time that I see you so Lauren unmute too hi hi Steve I feel very honored to be here to wish you a wonderful retirement um I have nothing but the best memories of when I was a selectman and and planning board member too I think you you used to jump in on some of those issues and you were all always looking for the win-win for a way to to resolve

127problems uh legal problems and issues in a way that everyone could kind of be in a good place when uh final decisions were made and I appreciated that so much and I remember also um you making a a speech at one of the um WR Grace hearings um with the EPA and I was so moved by your speech by your love of the environment by your heartfelt um you know desire to see that you know our our cleanup went really well and that they really stuck to their agreement of um what they would do to clean it up so I I just thought it was one of the most outstanding things anyone had ever said or or made a case for so thank you very much and I wish you the best of enjoyment for

128all your years of work I hope you have as many years of fun and enjoyment and family time take care thanks sure yes uh I don't know do I have to put my this is Paulina Paulina hi hi uper I don't quite know how this how this works keep talking okay all right well my goodness no one's ever said that to me before usually please stop talking um I would like to just say what a pleasure Steve what are um Steve was to work with it was like many Selectmen I think I was a deer in the headlights the first year like oh my God what is going on here and he always was calm and quiet and well reasoned well thought out thought out took us to Solutions like Les Lauren had said that

129were win-win uh and in there were there were times when it was really overwhelming like like every year of the board of Selectmen there's always way more legal issues than you think there's going to be uh which is an unfortunate factor of being being on the board of swan but um I really appreciated uh Steve's guidance and his support and his sense of humor which really did help cut the uh the tension at various important times because I do tend to get wound up so I really appreciate him having the the the hand on the chain to keep me from saying or doing things that I would have regretted forever so I appreciate that and I wish you all the best in your retirement and hope you have a marvelous time thank you thanks uh

130who who who else oh I would just like to say thank you um Steve I I didn't often work with you I think I was working with Nina more but in the years before I became selectman I saw you um at work and I also always appreciated being taken care of by your company um I just always felt like we were in good hands and I could just you know relax and rest assured you were doing a good job um so thank you very much for that thank you Fran and enjoy retirement anyone else yes hi St here you realize it's been 20 years since I left the board doesn't seem possible possible and we had a good 20 year run together we were a great team you Don Johnson and I was being chairman

131I think two or three times in that time period And I remember lots of times when uh you would say just tell me what you want the outcome to be and we'll bring it do you and you were so patient respectful you know all I was was a housewife back then by the time I finished 12 years with you I probably felt like I was almost a lawyer but the sorry that that was what happened yeah but um the best memories or the worst whichever are dealing with 40 and we had some bees I mean you remember the woodlands oh yeah that went on forever but the one I'll never forget is Franklin Place and this was probably 2006 or 2007 the Franklin Place developer whom we will not mention he's not in town anymore

132Left Behind quite a legacy um he brought in a 36 unit condo thre story building project as one of our first 40b projects right outside of Acton Center well you can just imagine three story building just down the road from Aton Center nobody liked it but we were quite green at that time with 40 beads so we were you know open to discussion and collaboration with meeting that happened Steve came Town manager me as I think I was chairman plus ACCC the developer and I don't know if the developer lawyer was there or not so we met up in room 204 Steve closed the door everybody was sitting around this table and within a nan second that project went from 36 units to 12 yeah and that was it there was no more discussion about

133it and the developer walked out with his mouth hanging open and that was Franklin Place and that was Steve his ability to negotiate was incredible and I hope you have a great retirement lots of fun thank you so much yeah um anyone else before we get to Steve Barry yeah I'll Steve uh first met uh in the late 1980s my wife was practicing out of a small office at 33 M Vernon Street behind the State House on Beacon Hill and Steve and art left Palmer and Dodge and moved into 33 M buron Street into an office that my wife had moved out of because it was too small for her so Steve and art were sharing one desk on the top floor of a four floor walk up uh behind the state house so it's

134it's uh it's not very much in distance but it certainly is a long journey from the top of 33 M verish Street to the top of Milk Street have an elevator to get there uh but uh congratulations Steve on all your success welld deserved due to all your hard work and uh certainly your legal Talent thank you for all you've done for the town and you know one day I was walking to my wife's office and uh ran into Steve dancing with the Morris dancers stre of Beacon Hill I think we might have a picture if John can share the screen um the Morris dancers uh I believe are TR it go back to uh the Middle Ages and I spoke with Steve a couple of years ago and asked him and uh he still

135is involved with the Morris dance group I don't know if you can jump that high anymore Steve but certainly I hope you enjoy uh dancing into your retirement and uh welld deserved again thanks again for all you've done for the town thank you Peter wow can we take that picture down um any other uh folks wish to speak well just a quick thank you um you know we overlapped tiny bits uh back when I was in the land stewardship committee and um and and also just when I was in the audience just seeing you um you know be be masterful be uh Pleasant be uh and bring people together and find Solutions in a very calm way um n would you like to say something about your Mentor I will briefly but I think Dean

136was gonna speak also oh okay I'm sorry yeah Steve I I just like to uh renew our acquaintance uh when I was working on Town staff you were always you know one of the mentors and one of the calm voices in the room and uh and certainly we all appreciate it from a uh a a lower ranking point of view that you always were respectful you're always somebody we look forward to working with so enjoy your retirement Peter um Peter Barry um obviously U Anderson and creger did did very well at the top of 33 was it m bur Street um and then they they moved across the river to Bullen Square in in in East Cambridge uh uh Benjamin and Benson were the first tenants in 43 Thorndike and you must have done well

137because you got really nice space just uh just across the courtyard at 40 uh 47 and uh you know your firm just started growing exponentially and you took over uh I think it was probably two floors at at at at 43 uh before you you know moov down to the uh canal art I never really got to know you there I got to know art creger and in the early 90s uh he was the first lawyer who really learned how to do it right he'd bike in from Newton and shorts Park his bike um on one of the light poles and that's how he went to work I don't think he changed all day and then he you know you know back out and uh at seven o'clock and went back to Newton Nina you're

138on there's not anybody else well I would I would like to say that um well I think John wants to to say a word there I saw a hand go up quickly from thank you n um just from the staff perspective um I um I think when I first started I went to visit you in Boston and I appreciate your you're welcoming me into the uh what's going on in town and introducing me to Nina and uh working uh with me to get acquainted with things from a legal perspective and I appreciate your everything you've done for me over the last three years uh there are some other members of staff that wanted to say something I don't know if if you can do that sure please is Tom I know we' asked Tom to

139come well I know that Roland ble was going to come uh but he's uh markal is going to speak for him instead and I Lisa toml is in here somewhere that wanted to say something can we get Lisa oh let them all please yeah Lisa where hi Steve Mark called I just um can you hear me um I just want to um say what an honor and um what a pleasure it's been to work with you and learn from you especially uh for all these years it's been it's been quite some time a lot of town meetings um I do have a letter from Roland ble that I'll read and you'll just have to imagine it's in his voice hold on with one sec dear Steve I wish you all the best as you enter

140retirement after your long and distinguished career you are an accomplished trailblazing attorney and scholar in the area of land use environmental and Municipal law your achievements leave a lasting Legacy for many younger professionals who work in these fields your ethical conduct is a beacon of light and your professional accomplishments set examples that will remain relevant for many years to come it is with heartfelt gratitude that I reflect on the 20 years of having the opportunity and privilege of working alongside you together accomplishing so many projects and resolving so many issues and cases through all these years you were an inspiration to me as I observe you as a man with passion integrity and creativity at their best you were persistently looking for Innovation and seeking New Angle and approaches to finding good and practical Solutions

141to seemingly insurmountable problems as a particularly bold example I remember the cost effective containment methods for railroad Corridor contaminants back then a novel approach along with crapping also novel legislative amendments that allow municipalities access to subsidize brownfields insurance for rails to Trail conversions it is fair to say that these ideas resolv impasses that might otherwise still stand as impediments to rail trails in Massachusetts while working with you you became a partner and friend I want to thank you for that gift may you have many happy and fulfilling years in retirement will ble Captain planning director retired thank you so much Mark and of course Roland um Lisa I don't see Lisa on is Tom Tidman here well I see Town manager that must be Lisa of course it is yes I'm here hello H Lis

142hi so uh Steve you have been wonderful you've always been wonderful and helped me so much with all of your you know everything that you've done uh with C fion I'm very happy that you have helped us with everything that we have done since 2014 I appreciate it thank you very much thanks um any um body else on the town side okay uh Nina okay I'll I'll um add to quickly here from uh The Firm perspective at least she's got um some retirement speeches before outside of this context from The Firm but I'm happy to add that here I'm also happy to tell you not much has apparently changed that Anderson and creger art is still biking to the office uh many times in short in the middle of Boston and it is highly possible

143that art and Steve will soon be sharing a desk again because um they're probably going to lose their offices given Steve's retired state and and arts semi-retired state so um it'll be just like the just like the old great like the penthouse over 33 Moon Burton yeah there you go [Music] um Steve has an incredible Legacy to look back on and be proud of uh certainly first and foremost a firm um that has grown from one person to then two people and now up to about 45 lawyers 55 or so employees Al together um each of whom is um I don't think I'm overstating it by saying they're they're completely obsessed with where they work you've created this firm that has this amazing culture that um gives people real joy and and pride to work

144in and be part of and and they don't feel like it's a job uh down to uh every single person that works there they feel they're part of something and they take a lot of pride in that and that certainly is is a a tremendous Legacy that um I think few people uh will will have I would also say that the town of leg acting is certainly part of your legacy as well you've been involved in a huge number of projects uh you know really everything that's happened in that town uh in the last 30 or 40 years you have had a mark on whether it is um creating it from the start getting it over the Finish Line bringing parties together um often times you know I know full well people don't often see

145the how involved Town Council is in many of the issues um nor should they I learned from your model on that front uh but but I know uh how involved you've been in in all of those decisions and the amount of time and dedication and effort you have spent on um uh your public sector clients most importantly acted um so I've learned that uh sitting next to you for the past 12 or 13 years um with Aton um it was the first assignment I think I had when I got to the firm was working on a memo for acting with Steve and I really learned how to be a municipal lawyer um Steve as you've heard is a tremendous uh Mentor not only as um a lawyer but also as a very involved parent and

146an athlete at the same time uh all of those I aspire to be as well so um he does make me feel like okay you know I can be a a great lawyer as as well as uh good at these other things in in my life as well and it takes a lot of work I don't think Steve's slept much for for 40 something years as far as I can tell um but I I am working on uh on fulfilling all of that as well so um the one thing I I know that I take away from sitting next to you in AC and and watching you work through all of their issues and project s is you were Relentless in figuring out how to solve the problems um as you've heard from all of

147these people on the screen you were never someone who was going to uh take no for an answer or just say you know nope we can't do it and at the end of the story there was always a way that you were going to figure out creatively how to make things work um and and again not just on one side of The Ledger but on both sides of the Ledger if you could and I take that um creativity and stubbornness with me we have very different styles in in approaching our clients um but I I hope I have that level of creativity with me and and your ability to um think through a problem is like nothing I've ever seen from uh another lawyer so acting should rest assured when I when I am approached

148with problems I certainly will think um you know okay we've got a St block here how would Steve handle this so thank you Steve thank you so much and everyone who's here tonight I hope I can get through this because this is very moving and I really really appreciate all of the sentiments that you've um said this evening and all the support and friendship you've brought to me over the decades that we've worked together um Janet was kind enough not to say that our next re reunion is our 50th reunion but it's it's been a while since we've been doing this um and as I was thinking about tonight I was thinking that really I'm the one who has benefited from having the relationship with all of you over the years because you may not

149know it but you are a wonderful client individually and collectively as a group of people who are so thoughtful supportive fair-minded forward-looking inclusive open-minded and respectful of others views and others positions that it really taught me a lot of what became my way of doing things over the years I mean Joan was the one who taught me you don't take no for an answer when she went WR Grace and got her $100,000 I remember that conversation I was absolutely right you should not in any way shape or form of cut that money it was the worst M Grace ever spent but it opened the door to this amazing environmental cleanup en acted and it was a ground greatly thing that Joan did to geta to step up and before super Von was on the books

150before 21 he was up books Joan was on the case and the boy was on the case and it really he took on a life of its Stone as super B was enacted and the CLE up went forward and I think from each one of you I've learned something along the way whether it's patience or persecutions or just open-mindedness willingness to listen to the other side understand what they're saying and find a solution that works for the town and works for the other side so something can get done those are all themes that yes I was part of but I learned a lot how to do it from my relationship with all of you and the one thing that most of all I learned is that each and every one of the Selectmen the the

151elected official the appointed officials everyone in the town had one and only one thing at heart and that was to do that was what was in the best interest of the of the town as a whole and that that message that sort of theme evoked in me a spirit of you know pulling together to get things done and having such a a passion in my heart for this client in this town these people that I think it's G to stay with me forever and so that's why I have so much to be grateful for um that you gave me the opportunity to serve the town over what turned out to be 42 years of practice since the first conversation I had with Joan and others in the town back in the late 1970s so thank

152you thank you anyone else okay so um listen that would conclude our agenda for this evening um um we'll meet again on January 4 and um best of the season and Merry Christmas to all we just do need to adjourn David so if we have a motion to adjourn so move in a second second and last call of the role for 2020 Mr St Grant he's muted how you muted okay unmute that's so important um I uh Miss Gardner I Mr Charter I Mr Benson I and I also say