Acton Select Board Meeting 7/25/22

001because we have a quorum of members of the Department of Public Works facility study committee present we might be discussing we'll probably be discussing that project and I posted the meeting so I'd also like to call the uh epw FSC meeting order as well and uh we'll adjourn that when we're done with the discussion of the public safety building uh first order of business is resonance concerns have anyone like to speak foreign just wondering if the town has a operations plan for when we lose power wrote to Taylor Road hyper road because last week last Wednesday we lost the power nothing there was nothing going on down there and it was a death trap thank you foreign thank you Charlie kind of like polar bear and part of the road I I last meeting you

002you had the report from the the commission or whatever it was called there was not much discussion and it was just accepted I would like to review the whole Dei situation for the record first of all and I've said this before and I will continue to say it the whole concept of diversity equity and immersion is acts absolutely opposite to the goal of eliminating discrimination if you identify people by their skin color by their Race by their religion by their gender or whatever you're perpetuating the very things that you want to eliminate I will keep saying it until somebody else figures it out second the report which I have now had a chance to read is pretty well useless it repeats a lot of the stuff that was in the original Dei Commission a report

003which Mr Martin mostly wrote which was supposed to determine whether Acton Deeds some kind of correction to its racial and other discrimination never never offered any opinion on that just went ahead and recommended this position the position is predictable it was a year ago in town meeting already discussed this rewarding money for a position that didn't exist yet but everybody knows it was going to be uh you don't have time to go through the 43 pages of the report but a lot of it is so totally useless like lists of all the boards and committees the town has we know what they are we don't need to pay somebody to give us a list and so on the other one thing I found pretty typical a lot of the recommendations were described as some people

004said this quoting somebody didn't name him uh the matter of the title came up and some people objected to the word officer why well that sounds like police and of course police you know we can't have that so change it no discussion no opposite viewpoint nothing just somebody said we don't like it so we change it it's about the whole report is like that uh anyway I also find it rather interesting that this report was written by A Woman's Group where's the diversity men are allowed nobody thought of that you you hired a group that was only women you won't be allowed to do that you know after this officer is in place whatever not officer sorry director director also tells me that this is not the end of it we'll probably looking at adding

005substantially to that department which may change a year from now when there's no money it'll be high on my list of positions to get rid of thank you hi I'm Karin Hawk Seth I'm part of my Indian village I agree with everything that Charlie said but I want to also talk about the cost of this position when it was proposed at town meeting last year I believe the article is for 85 000 which was 35 000 first study which we knew what the outcome of the study would be and 50 000 for a half a year of compensation is that correct so in this report it says that this position they're recommending that it could come in at a pay grade of 17. which ranges from like 140 to over 260 oh 206 thousand dollars

006and then with the average being around 160 and then by the time you add benefits and um you know the the pension contribution all the stuff I'm sure it's I'm sure it's probably 25 Fringe rate probably more um that is not what town meeting voted for um you know a half a year 50 100 that's a hundred thousand that's all in that's pension contribution benefits everything you're probably bringing on something that's going to cost at least two probably three times that um again town meeting didn't vote for that um I also want to just you know again with Charlie's concerns Abraham X candy in one of his books and I I don't read his books I see the quotes and I remember what suits my argument like most of us do but in his book

007he says the solution to past discrimination is present discrimination and the solution to current discrimination is future discrimination this is the road that Dei Dei and critical race Theory and all the stuff goes down our schools have already gone too far down that path we're seeing it degrade the quality of education and the atmosphere in the schools the town's going down that road too you should stop before we do any more harm to our community thank you thank you hello Scott smyers from Central Street I'm here about a different topic about 17 days ago on July 8th there was a incident at the Acton Discovery Museum in which an Acton Resident was arrested and has been charged for three felonies it was a politically charged incident it was a detailed police report and I'm concerned

008of the select board being consistent over the past year and a half there's been incidents that were not violent and had to do with prank phone calls and verbal uh uh verbal threats or misinterpretations that this the select board is Char has has called two emergency meetings and issued statements to deal with critical topics that could lead to violence here we have an incident that was violent there was an arrest or it was politically charged there were people from out of town there but the only person who got arrested was from Acton that same person has over the years uh made terrible accusations on social media has come to town meetings select board meetings school committee meetings and uh you know singled out particular people and uh you know criticized them and even dehumanize them

009on social media so I ask that the select board consider this event if you've even heard of it hopefully some of you have and treat it with the same sort of emergency response that you have previously for incidents that weren't violent at all um and I would also like a chair of the select board here Mr Charter to possibly review what the town manager and or the police on their redaction policy because I requested a police report from the Acton Police Department I eventually got a report at that time or a few days ago and it's different than the report that I have now a copy of that was actually at the courthouse and the parts that are missing from the one from the local Police Department report doesn't seem to make sense why that

010would be removed so please look into this on both fronts I've asked you about thank you thank you uh Matt can you uh let the first online speaker in please yes Mr chair the first speaker is Ruth Thatcher Ruth you should be able to see thank you Matt um yes I just have a question I don't know who to vote for I'm trying to get an update on the progresses for partner field when that projects could be finished and when the playground would be open I don't know what departments of contact okay thank you will unless the town manager to update us uh in his remarks on that thank you Ruth thank you I apologize now this next speaker's name baton yeah hi um so let's see uh if someone courageous said I asked a

011question about the last but it would be the one before that about this position but the town meeting at erdog and uh effectively hundred thousand dollars salary that this person is gonna get and the town manager gave me an answer that was it was confusing I wasn't quite sure what he said and of course I was not allowed to raise my hand again and my confusion is this we put something in front of the borders and the voters boarded a salary of fifty thousand dollars for six months which means that it seemed to me that if you're going to draft an article like that that means the voters have a say in the salary range of the new hire so now if we go and hire somebody with a higher salary range and to say

012that this has been budgeted for well it may have been budgeted for in the century may have some money but what does the vote mean at town meeting I mean if you authorized X and you go X plus something else where does that authorization come from so I'm I'm actually confused about what the voters powers are and what the town managers powers are on this exact same issue that the orders were that's very confusing to me I'd like somebody to clarify them because we're not talking about small dollars and you're talking about a new position and this bureaucracy will keep increasing every year they'll find new reasons it'll never die so it's a sizable amount of my tax dollars and I don't know where the authorization comes from thank you thank you okay is that

013everyone we have online oh yes thank you um Mr manager your update thank you uh first I wanted to mention that uh due to the power outage and some related uh things that happened uh throughout Town acting TV uh one of their pieces of equipment uh was impacted so people that usually watch this uh broadcast on YouTube uh that's not available right now so hopefully they found another way to watch us and if your friends usually watch on YouTube if you could let them know to find us on channel uh whatever Channel we're on on cable or also on the live stream on actinetv those both were right now currently um just a few other updates uh the one of the projects approved with the American Rescue plan acts here locally was to move forward

014on online e-primeting system to make it make it easier for businesses to do uh work here in the town and we are just finishing the procurement process for that and we're going to start the implementation of a new e-premeting system this summer so we're very excited to get started on that project and uh which you know it could be ready to go by the end of the calendar year which is our Target so if nothing else we'll have parts of it ready to go by the end of the calendar year so that's very exciting uh there were several things that I wanted to mention about legislative matters of that town meeting that that was held earlier this year there were a few citizen petitions and a few home rule petitions sponsored by the board and

015those are progressing through the process their one example one of them is the checkout bags um minimum charge for checkout bags it was a public hearing held on July 20th uh there was also a public hearing on July 20th for the alternate here alternate methods for public hearing notices which we filed uh we also had a home rule petition for 15-mile residency requirements being lifted and that's going to be filed uh this coming week so our state legislators are busy working for us to implement many of the local actions that we've requested of them through town meeting action uh on along the same lines of there's some potential funding in the state budget to help us out with narrow Park and also to help out Boston area Gleaners which we hope will be finalized and

016approved there's also some exciting news coming out of the federal budget discussions as it relates to our historic home here in the back of the Town Hall Parking Lot that potentially could be some funding in the federal budget to help us with that this coming year so very exciting there's also a very interesting climate action legislation that I believe one of our select board members is going to tell us more about in a little bit other items of note we had a big power outage last week you all know that six to seven thousand people lost power in the community last week um eversource brought a full crew of people up to try to address it you've seen around town seven different locations where we have huge green trailers with huge green generators and those

017are brought in place to serve to keep the power going if the issues that they had that day happened again fortunately they were able to complete the repairs that were necessary and those generators that have been there since last week as a precaution will be removed tomorrow after the storm rolls through tonight assuming they're not needed let's hope they're not um I also want to mention that we I had a lot of people calling and ask us to open cooling stations which is something that we were always willing to do our public library next door uh it was open most of the days of the Heat Wave and since it wasn't open yesterday we actually encouraged people to go to the public safety facility if they needed a place with air conditioning we offered free

018transportation for that as well nobody used the service but we're happy to provide it I also wanted to mention the Dei director posting as directed at the last meeting I issued a news flash that went out to the community to publish the actual report and we are going to get started on the recruitment for that position very exciting position in August um just to correct some of the misstatements earlier tonight about the budget uh they've been two two-time meeting actions that are related to this position the first was two summers ago where the funding was approved for a study and then the first year of salary and then in the most recent budget uh funding was approved for the salary so we have the money remaining from the initial town meeting plus the funding in

019the current budget which will cover the cost of this new position and it would not be in the area that was mentioned earlier I believe this I-17 range is the the high 70s to the mid 115 range or so so it's not as high as uh was mentioned earlier and it's fully funded and approved by town meeting twice so and and I guess one other point on the study the purpose of that study was not to decide whether we needed a diversity director it was to help us establish a job description in an organizational structure and I believe they fulfilled that mission very well thank you other members David uh thank you I just like to correct a few more uh things about the the EIC which were stated as fact that are not fact

020so it was stated that I basically wrote the deic's report in fact I drafted a quarter of the report um other the three other three quarters were drafted by others and it was edited in public session um in the in DIC meetings um it was stated that there were no men on the study group that's not correct there was a man on the study group and um it also if you read the report it says that the main reason is not I mean the uh the fact is that an officer um uh it can't have uh connotations like a police officer but in fact the similar positions in town like our sustainability director or economic development director our directors and this position is similar to that and so it's record was recommended that we call

021it a director um thank you Jim um let's see as John mentioned uh the House and Senate have set a major climate Bill to the governor uh h-5060 that includes among many features a possible way for Acton to proceed to be able to regulate and possibly prevent and largely prevent fossil fuel infrastructure and new construction and major rehab the bill creates a pilot program to allow up to 10 cities and towns to try out a fossil fuel ban before they can apply towns and cities would have to create a corresponding home rule petition which you which we already did at the 2021 town meeting when we passed the clean energy bylaw and the corresponding home rule petition um however uh before the application can be accepted however towns have to fulfill one of three housing

022related requirements uh they have to achieve their 10 affordable housing numbers uh achieve achieve a safe harbor status under the 40b program or Implement Zone zoning changes that are called for in their recent housing Choice Law that we've started researching we had a presentation to us as a board earlier this year as near as I can tell so far and this is all very new the quickest way forward for acting would likely be the 10 affordable housing count since we are quite close and since there are projects under consideration that could get us the rest of the way there but please stay tuned as we get more information about this program uh when we do I'll recommend that we put it on our agenda so we can learn more and discuss our options um another

023way forward in decarbonizing our new buildings is via What's called the specialized opt-in stretch energy code and I I don't make these names up um it was it was invented in last year's climate legislation the program is still being finalized but it may make it rather difficult to build fossil fuel infrastructure into new buildings in major rehab any green Community like Acton will be able to opt into this building code it would require a town meeting vote to adopt this new code I'll be writing personal testimony to the doer which is responsible for this uh this this this code to communicate the importance of stopping as much new fossil fuel infrastructure as possible and if the timing is appropriate I'll I may bring a copy of that letter or a version of it to a

024future board meeting to ask for your consideration as a as a board letter and after the program gets finalized I'll recommend that we ask John to have his staff look over the program details and evaluate the impact on actin of adopting this optional energy code so that we can have a you know a meaningful discussion about bringing that forward to a future time meeting um On a related topic many details are coming together on working with existing building owners on decarbonizing I hope a future board meeting will be able to be presented with more information and finally an update on the low-income Community Solar System Program that town meeting approved last year um as you might recall this program was going to give large credits on the electricity bills of any low-income electricity customers who

025are part of the actin power Choice program at any level the solar developers who are planning to build on the WR Grace site and the town have had cordial and useful discussions on bringing this forward but we are currently stuck by inaction on the part of dpu to approve the final regulations that would make this possible as with the stretch code I'll be writing a short note to the dpu about this and and we'll bring it to a future board meeting for your consideration as a board statement that's it thank you yes um thank you uh really cool updates Jim um just wanted to know um that you know again um the reason why we talk about Dei is because we do currently see discrimination and this discrimination is not colorblind and that's why we

026can't take a colorblind approach to these types of solutions and so I will keep saying that as long as I keep hearing rhetoric on the contrary um this is steps forward in the right direction um we need to be bold in our action um and that's the only way we can truly achieve equality so you just want to thank everyone again and that's it for me thank you so I've got a couple of items um the uh for those who really like to watch YouTube um I recently filmed a segment specifically about the history of West act and that appears in the actor and focus on YouTube and uh dealt quite a bit with the uh some of the history of the West Acton citizens Library so it's might be worth a watch um Mr

027van gerardi uh possible for our next meeting if we could get an update about the status of Gardner field and also it if you and I could speak at some point regarding that some of the issues raised about the incident at the Discovery Museum and the uh the redaction of those uh police reports and kind of get an update on that and finally I it's we're having a lot of discussion about green energy and electrification but I think the incidents that occurred over the last few days uh during the summer with the failure of our electric grid here in town it's sort of a cautionary Tale for this rapid electrification was certainly very inconvenient that lots of people didn't have any air conditioning but it's going to be a whole lot worse if lots of

028people don't have functioning air source heat pumps so I think as we move ahead towards the electrification I think we have to make sure that our partners at every source and all the utility companies actually have the infrastructure that can support that and that there'll be a reliable Supply of electricity and delivery of electricity before we start telling people I have to pull their oil burners and gas furnaces out of their houses um it said we'll go to our next piece of business which is a special use permit yeah I can select board to hold a public hearing on July 25th 2022 at 7 10 p.m in the Francis Faulkner hearing room 204 at the Town Hall 472 Main Street Acton and virtually at back in mass.gov meeting desk slash boss EOS and the application

029Northeast Veterinary real estate LLC a special use permit on the zoning bylaw section 3.5.10 at 97 Great Road map G4 fossil 50. a proposed use is Veterinary Care application materials and how to participate remotely are available online of the Acton Town Hall so the applicant could come forward my name is Leo bertolani from Acton 97 great road is part of Weatherby Plaza which is located on Route 2A basically at the Concord Road in this intersection it is five acres 10 buildings 35 000 square feet of mixed use and we're proposing to bring the veterinary hospital two number 97 which is the furthest building um eastbound on the property I have done some research it's now at 272 Great Road which would be in the vicinity of Donlands to move to 97 Great Road maybe a

030mile mile and a half down on the left taking about 3 000 square feet in the history of the Great Road Vet was Dr Smith way back in the 80s then transferred to Dr Kellman in the 90s in Dr McGrath now who I represent in the 2000s they are open five days a week where petitioning under the zoning bylaw 3 5 10. Veterinary Care not to exceed three Hospital units and stay over if it deemed necessary for the surgery I think I can pretty much say that there is no stay over everything goes that day this is a light surgery anything large today goes to Waltham or Lowell or so on with with the animals so the as I said the days of five days a week there's a there's a part-time Dr Kellman full-time

031Dr McGrath we will use one and a half operating rooms which the half is just part-time but ten five um three five can relates to three so I guess we'll ask for three are there any questions I'll uh I'll open it to the board and to the public um this actually was was my project to uh examine I've reviewed it with the Town Zone enforcement officer we do have a draft decision that was in our packet I note that there does not seem to be any issues um and the only physical changes I believe is to the signage uh do we have any questions from any other members of the board David you say there's no changes uh except for science that's no exterior changes except that's correct yeah thank you uh any questions from

032the audience okay yeah Mr Clower I believe this facility now has a Doggy Daycare downstairs Willis continue I didn't see anything mentioned about it that's the two seven two secretary the Doggy Daycare is not going with the doctor and the Veterinary Hospital staying right there thank you at least you know as far as I'm concerned if we're concerned we're not bringing it down all right thank you uh unless there's any other comments I would accept a motion so moved Okay so the uh David ah is there specific wording otherwise I um I think we need a little bit more a little more yeah so um I I I moved to uh approve the um um uh site special permit at 97 Great Road or an animal hospital and thank you and I will add to

033that mandatory findings that this decision is consistent with master plan is in harmony with the purpose intent of this bylaw not be detrimental or injurious to the neighborhood in which it is to take place is appropriate for the site in question and complies with all applicable requirements of this bylaw David so sorry um I neglected to say actually with the conditions that are in the packet okay okay we have a motion we get a second okay second moved and seconded any further discussion all in favor of Dr Smith was a great veterinarian that's all I have to say all in favor of the motion say aye all opposed a day abstentions none thank you very much thank you all right the uh second public hearing notice that you have I given under chapter 140 section

034183 a of the general laws that the select board will hold a public hearing on July 25th 2022 at 7 20 PM in the Francis Faulkner hearing room 204 action Town Hall and remotely by video conference and call in on the application of Frolic and Detour three neighborhood park for an entertainment license a computer please click on the link to join the public meeting actonma.gov meeting slash BOS from a telephone dial -876-9923 and a webinar ID 503-918-785 telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting computer nap users may use the raise hand feature request to speak is the applicant available either in the room or online uh Lisa I know did you mention to Matt who would be joining us foreign would you like me to go over generally what

035this is uh or do you want to try to continue to sort this out okay yeah please do so this is a restaurant in town uh in off Great Road uh used to be the Red Raven about six months ago they reopened as frog and Detour and they're interested in having live entertainment and being licensed uh and being uh to be allowed to do that the license that's in the packet and with details and comments from staff is for live entertainment to occur between 7 and 10 uh seven pm and 10 P.M uh I believe on weekends only uh but we can double check that um the the hours are definitely seven to ten and uh any all the staff that comment that I believe did not have any uh specific concerns that with it

036being indoor music uh that's the summary that I have for you are there any questions um some kind of a little disconcerted the applicant is not present the the permit application does say Thursday through Saturday seven to ten inside not outside entertainment I understand that there was a a situation there two weekends ago with the that was not income apparently not licensed not in compliant with this you can't elaborate on this Mr Mr manager uh yes the the same establishment had some type of live music at their place two weekends ago and we received some complaints from Neighbors that live nearby which caused us to investigate and when we did so it was determined that they actually did not even have a license and they didn't know they do because they're a new business um

037relatively new to the industry and so they worked with Lisa this week and Julie parasonos our director of Economic Development to put this application forward and we did a public hearing as required through the low Sun and that was an outdoor music I think that was the biggest issue was it was Outdoors and I think what they're proposing is indoors thank you uh Congress from the board David um thank you uh yeah I think there's plenty of room indoors in this venue for for the entertainment but I just want to make sure that what we're voting on restricts it to being indoors because um with the condos nearby I can see how that would be a problem if it was Outdoors so is does the actual um uh license restricted to indoors the uh the

038license application is specific for indoors okay thank you comments from other members of the board comments from the public in the room um Matt I believe we have one person online that would like to speak we do Mr chair we'll be Linda and they should build a snake you hear me I yes we can yeah the incident that it happened from 12 noon to 11 o'clock at night um if they do it indoors do they agree they have those sliders because they're Fair influence and uh leave your Venue open to the outdoors the music is going to carry an impact the residents that live down in this way God would so um I ask that if we how noise is transmitted okay thank you we have anyone else Matt uh we do not Mr America

039thank you I would entertain a motion David um I moved to approve the entertainment license for Frolic and Detour with the understanding that the um the entertainment will be inside and with the doors closed thank you can I get a second a second okay moved and seconded any further discussion all in favor of the entertainment license with the Restriction that all entertainment take place indoors with the doors closed please say aye aye opposed abstentions okay approved thank you the uh the next piece of business we have is uh an update on Public Works facilities study we have Engineers here from Western Sampson who did the the study they have been engaging with the public works facilities study committee you know study committees had um monthly meetings for uh about six months now we've come up

040with come up to a point where we really think the Board needs to be updated a bit um and we're mindful of the fact that to move this project ahead much further it's going to require eventually some input from the budget and I will point out that this is one of the voted goals of the board for this year is to advance this project um certainly in addition to the questions that could be entertained from the select board I will certainly at the proper time invite any members of the public safety publicness Public Works facility study committee to make comments as well uh Mr kamoa thank you we have an I.T whiz right down at the end of the table um thanks Steen my name is John Cuomo Western Samsung Engineers we were hired by

041the town to perform a feasibility study for the DPW located at 14 Forest Road and the DPW building committee asked us to come tonight to give the board and the town an update on on the project foreign about this so I'll hopefully get this going in a second and then you came down the second ago did it it did okay I don't know why it's not going down now for me I will turn it off and turn it back on oh don't do that actually right down here right does that work too are you down here right okay all right thanks for your patience appreciate that um the agenda uh introductions my name is Sean Como I introduced myself already this is Mike Richard Mike's our um facilities leader of leader of the facilities group

042I'm going to go briefly through this about a 15-minute presentation then we'll open it up to questions Public Works facility in Acton what do they what do they do we always say that they're the First Responders who respond before everyone else can get out and assist the public so before the fire department before the police department before emergency crews could get on the roads the dpws there to clear the roads and and make everything safe so other responders can then do their jobs um they're on call 24 hours a day they um deal with the snow emergencies they clear downed trees they take care of oil spills accidents um and they're there whenever you need them accounts dpws is composed of six different divisions there's the highway division engineering trees and grounds the administration public

043facilities and then the transfer station they maintain 105 miles of Road they open up their storage garage for Mass vaccinations that we've had recently maintain all the town equipment and vehicles amongst many of their different responsibilities why does the town need a new DPW they've had this one for 52 years part of the reason is the facility is over 50 years old and misunderstood undersized in need currently of significant upgrades and repairs um the town's dpw's responsibilities have increased the population when the facility opened in 1970 was ten thousand residents less than it is today um the facility itself does not be current building codes energy codes accessibility codes and this undersized and at this point now kind of substandard facility negatively impacts the efficiency of operations and employee safety um interesting article that was

044in the 1969 acidic newspaper Regional newspaper um there was a meeting similar to the one we're having tonight where they decided on the size of the building that they would build originally the design was 36 000 square feet they decided to cut 12 000 square feet off the size of the building um and ended up with the side the building that you have today on Forest Road uh came in at 265 000 construction costs um 10.62 cents a square foot that's kind of incredible um but the town not only increased from 14 000 to 24 000 today during that decade of the 60s the town doubled in size so it's possible that due to the uh the cuts that were made and just the phenomenal growth that act and experience that facility was outdated sooner

045than it it should have been in terms of size um the current condition it's it's failing the CMU walls are not reinforced vertically they've been buckling they've been hit from the inside the vehicles are larger than they were uh when the facility opened there's they're very tight for space inside so they've they've had some issues with clearances lots of equipment needs to go outside this is equipment that their useful life is reduced because it's stored outside and exposed to the elements um dangerous interior storage as a mean that was site built I think by the DPW staff itself it's was needed but it's um it doesn't meet OSHA the railings are dangerous the stairs are dangerous the clearance the Headroom clearances are dangerous um a lot of storage has to happen outside so we have

046shipping containers that have been converted to storage units with a fabric structure overhead to serve that need uh here's a photo of the the storage garage um packed with vehicles the get all the vehicles inside which is really needed it's a million dollar investment by the town in these these vehicles a new six-wheel dump trucks three hundred thousand dollars or more um it reduces the life of the vehicle to keep them outside so they they bring them in but it takes a lot of time to fit these vehicles and equipment in the garage that they have now very inefficient here's a photo of a have a a recent project it's a Center Drive aisle storage garage with diagonal parking and no Center stacked parking because there's enough room for the vehicles and equipment um employee

047support staff space is lacking training spaces non-existent there are facilities for women in the building separate facilities for women in the building vehicle maintenance area is very cramped dangerous poor ventilation poor indoor air quality a newer facility would have plenty of height for lifting large Vehicles plenty of clearances for Workshop equipment and tools and modern ventilation system that would act automatically in the presence of noxious gases um new fuel Island wash bay fluid storage areas that are safe and contained we went we met with the DPW staff we met with the um superintendents and the administration and went through a programming exercise we developed the size of the different spaces and their requirements came up with a program met again with the with the staff and with the DPW Administration and and found areas to

048reduce the size of the facility we ended up with about a 10 reduction in the overall size and there could be other efficiencies gained as the design progresses but um we put in contingencies for circulation space and for the building itself elements that can be reduced as the design becomes more fine-tuned conceptual plants we this is the existing site the southern half of the site is taken up by the capped landfill and the transfer station of the northern part of the site off Forest Road is the DPW with access from Forest Road so we looked at a number of different schemes on the site based on the overall sizes that we determined in the programming programming exercise we also looked at reusing the existing building which is about 25 000 square feet we had Structural

049Engineers evaluate the the building itself it's there are many limitations under size structure on reinforced CMU that would not necessarily mean a savings by salvaging the building itself it's also this location is is would be difficult to work around in terms of new construction so we came up with a preferred alternate and the preferred alternate is the site plan that we're looking at now it keeps the existing salt and sand storage which is relatively new and that's a that's a pretty significant savings for the town relocates the fuel Island which is used by all the different departments in town to closer to Forest Road so that Vehicles aren't having to go into the center of the DPW Yard um having that circulation separated how this would be a huge benefit and a safety um consideration

050the large storage garage would allow for all the vehicles owned by the department in a large number of the pieces of equipment motorized equipment to be stored inside where their life would be extended environmental considerations would be starting up diesel trucks outside in the cold when they're out doing a snow emergency and they need to come back to the yard to rest they're not bringing the vehicles in hey the plows on the front of the vehicles don't allow them to come into the garage and store them so they idle in the yard and which is not ideal indoor storage minimally heated to 60 degrees would allow for cleaner efficient operations start up both diesel vehicles and um maintenance of of hydraulics for plows and other pieces of equipment on the vehicles um Dean mentioned that

051we met with the Acton green Advisory Board last week we we were we had a very good conversation with them and listened to their concerns for and their desire and the counts mandate to get rid of fossil fuels and fossil fuel infrastructure so we brought with us one of our HVAC Engineers who's familiar with geothermal Heating and Cooling we talked about a number of ideas a number of ways that this facility can be sustainable and contribute to the towns Forward Thinking goals this is a kind of uh theoretical site of a DPW we've been thinking about dpws and how they can be more sustainable and contribute to the actually the health of the community um If This Were a new site um there's a lot of things that we could do but there's a lot

052of things that we could do on the existing site at 14 Forest Road um site uh interventions like biosoils vegetative shading we we have a little bit of that already electrical vehicle charging stations now with the municipal opt-in that could be 10 that could be twenty percent of parking spaces to be required to be have electric charging um you're right next to the the solar field at the town's landfill is there a way to tap into that energy along with green roof energy from the facility itself a lot of this is I think you might say lead light but uh very applicable to a building in a facility that would serve the town for we always say 50 but we talked last week with The Advisory Board green Advisory board about 75 years because of

053the embodiment of carbon and construction materials and you know why design something to be obsolete in 50 if we can get it to be viable for 75 years the building itself we do this as a matter of meeting energy code but for Best Practices super insulated building envelope cool roof it's a little Beto roof a white roof reflective limits Heat game super insulated roof solar roof take advantage of the orientation at 14 Forest which is the way we have it now it's about a Southwest orientation which is pretty advantageous um clear story Windows bringing natural light limit limit uh electric lighting along with occupancy sensors shading devices again just limit heat gain solar glazing limit heat gain um bring water harvesting you know we could collect water on the site for for irrigation in inside

054the building um geothermal heating and cooling energy efficient equipment and systems um radiant floor heating throughout these are all all definitely things that are within the realm of of practicality and possibility um Wastewater management so currently the facility lacks a wash bag so trucks get sprayed off in the yard um Kohl's Brook I think has has some impacts with conductivity that could be related to the historical use of the DPW site uh anything that we do on the site now would be a significant Improvement in managing Wastewater and managing runoff and managing salt that gets somehow into the waterways um Dee stratification fans that's keeping the heated air pushed down it's just another efficiency measure water efficient Plumbing fixtures durable materials again we're booking out a 75-year potential building of low boc materials so that's

055you have a healthy indoor air quality operable windows for individual comfort we talked a little bit about the future of of the DPW Fleet being electrified this is coming it's not today but probably five to ten years both are going to see larger and larger vehicles with with electric batteries what does that mean for the DPW in the uh in the future well what it means now is you need to design this facility to be adaptable to that you need to get the infrastructure for um electrical infrastructure for charging you need to have rooms that can be converted from maybe maintenance of of gasoline and Diesel powered vehicles to maintenance of electrical electric battery-powered Vehicles battery storage areas so forth you need to train your mechanics now to work on electric vehicles fire protection would

056become big if you're storing a lot of large Vehicles indoors with powerful batteries that can ignite so how is that handled um the benefits of an improved code compliant facility for the town safe environment for the workers protect the town's investment and Equipment more efficient workspace resulting in more efficient response times to better serve the public an example of the DPW um crew doesn't need to spend an hour to to fit their vehicles in every day at the end of the day or to move certain vehicles to get other pieces of equipment out there would be more time spent doing important jobs for the town rather than inefficiencies the facility now is going to need improvements it's going to need a new roof it's going to need wall repair structural repairs it's uninsulated masonry right

057now um and it's I think the fourth biggest energy user in the town at least according to our meeting last week with a green Advisory board so we want to reduce the carbon footprint greenhouse gas Emissions on the site um anticipated costs uh it's not 211 or 11 I forget what it was 1065 a square foot uh unfortunately not um so this is a chart that kind of shows what's happened over the last three four years some of it is the the pandemic but it seems like those those fluctuations of that volatility is kind of evened out the um the actin dpws projected right now and this is a high level estimated 585 a square foot which puts it towards the lower end this is the green line is a five percent escalation line from

058um 2021 and the upper blue line is more like a 13 escalation line um we're just getting more information in from recent bids we did have a 576 bid that came in in the last month and that's 576 a square foot um anyway that's the Acton DPW construction costs at its current square foot in the range construction costs only of 27.9 million um and then the total project cost range 32-34 depending on on where the soft costs come in next steps um I think that the next step is to advance the design to a point where you can get much better and accurate independent costing information um at that point that you could then decide how you want to proceed with the project if you wanted to do it as a single uh one project

059or if you wanted to then phase it based on available funds and the appetite of the the town to move forward with that um the you know once the independent cost estimate and the 60 design is done you'll know enough to go to town meeting and put it before a vote the um you know 60 would include a lot of investigatory steps such as um looking at geotechnical data for 14 Forest Road um doing an environmental site survey determine if there are any kind of impacts from petroleum or other um chemicals are contaminants looking at the existing building the the hazardous materials there when you demo that you'll need to consider how you're going to handle either asbestos PCB or our lead paint which is most likely in in the building and that concludes the

060brief presentation I guess open it up to any questions thank you thank you questions from the board Jim um I'm wondering uh Dean or John who's studying whether we need all the vehicles that we have I mean since this is driven by the large number of vehicles we have if we needed less the whole thing would cost less so I was wondering who's is that in the scope of this study or is that something that is being done internally or or where's that info coming from John uh we're generally always monitoring the the equipment that we have and the equipment that we need in managing that through our 10-year plan and the thing that's that we do as a relatively small Department uh but we have to do winter and then we can do non-winter

061operations you wouldn't want to have sort of a small number of vehicles that you can do heavy duty snow plowing with and use them all year for everything else you do because that that's an efficient use of equipment so we tend to have a lot more equipment than people but we're always looking for ways to reduce what we have out there that we have to maintain okay um the next question was if anyone knows at some point the because you asked about the solar on the landfill at some point uh the ownership of that has the potential of reverting to the town and then there would be options for you know how do we use it flexibly uh right now it's you know it's locked into a our purchase agreement um is there just do

062we know when the uh the windows for um you know purchasing the equipment and making it ours when those windows are I can I can take a stab at that there's actually two pieces to solar down there there's what's on the roof which is quite a bit older and then there's the larger um facility on the top of the capital landfill I believe what's on the roof is about 15 years old at this point what's on the landfill probably in the 10-year time frame I believe that they figure it's amortized after 20 years my recollection this is going back to pre-meet the I believe that there are options in various points along the way to purchase the the existing landfill solar operation and I believe that there's a schedule of values that was associated with

063the original contract but kind of vague all of that was things I was involved in you know 10 years ago um okay one last question for now um oh I wrote it down um oh yeah so the costs of um I assume we have to have a whole alternate site for a while for DPW operations um because during construction you can't you know obviously operations can't continue there and operations have to continue somewhere so does any of this price include the cost of um you know gaining access to an alternate site and setting up a temporary facility and if not do we have any ballpark idea of how much that's going to be I believe that's outside the scope of what we asked Western stampson to do but John if you've got any thoughts on

064that yeah um you know that that cost is tied into the estimate um but it's a very kind of loose number it's it could be you know the town could find space for administrative staff in their offices already or someplace else the biggest challenge I think is vehicle maintenance is to find a place for vehicle maintenance vehicle storage is is um you can you can kind of live with that for a little while Outdoors but it's not ideal vehicle maintenance so we'd have to find a home for um so and and the guess is about a year and a half before this facilities is is built especially if it's here if there's you know if there's an alternate site then that goes away but yeah that's an additional cost for building on this site it's

065not large enough to to accommodate construction and operations thanks David uh thank you um you only talked very briefly about the transfer station is that are we considering this one project so this is this is really just about the Department of Public Works and we're reporting I guess we're putting the transfer station off to the side for now we did initially we'll get both of these operations at the same time and then transfer station is part of the DPW but um that part of the project is not included I think that's actually a good approach to deal with both uh separately um uh the um I'm just curious to mentioned the vehicle storage would be heated to 60 degrees um why it's so warm right you know you know I'm not speaking facetiously I mean

066most you know you can store vehicles in an unheated garage even if it was heated to 40 or 50 degrees that's going to seem very warm when you're plowing for a 20 degree snowstorm um that's that's kind of the typical temperature that we've they've kind of set to um allows for some you know heat loss and then kind of re reheating of the space so and we insulate between the storage garages and then adjacent areas like vehicle maintenance or admin spaces um we could investigate going colder diesel you know starts up very nicely 60 we um but we can investigate you know how low can that actually go the diesel truck will start at 40 no problem as well right it will it will at 15 it diesel truck would have for 20 maybe even

067um or certainly colder right it is it does it gets a little you know in terms of just the exhaust and the amount of uh it's almost like an oil you know leak or something you get a lot more kind of obnoxious kind of exhaust the colder you are so the the reason why I ask is that you know an enclosed garage will throughout most of the Year maintain itself above freezing even when the temperatures outside are below freezing and so the amount of heat required to just raise it to 45 or something I just throwing that I was like is much less than to eat it that huge area to 60. and so I think um you know we should be uh you know and then you know the heating infrastructure doesn't need to

068be as big right so correct um anyway I think that you know um you know my my personal growth at home is unheated and it only drops below um 32 when the temperature outside is in single digits right so um I I think it's you know because you get heat by the ground you know especially a concrete floor underneath the um the the building anyway um I have a question for the manager is it the intent to have all DPW functions in this building or is the thought to happen when it's done obviously um or is there uh another plan so I think it's being designed to cover all the operations that are there currently I think any of that we decide to add to it for convenience or operational efficiency we haven't made those

069decisions or uh not through yet but something definitely worth looking at thank you and I just one more thing to keep in mind for um uh electric uh vehicle charging facilities is I I think we should make an assessment as to what vehicles we um would charge um overnight and which vehicles need to be charged and reused again right away you know maybe trucks that are used by the tree crew for example Disney can be charged over overnight but um uh and I completely agree that plow trucks are we're quite a ways away from having those be electric but um they're also but there may be need for other vehicles to be able to be recharged in half an hour unused again and so the charging infrastructure should reflect that thank you thank you Fran

070David sort of asked my question and that I was curious if all the DPW employees were located at this at the building currently so all the employees that work in the highway division the trees and grounds division engineering the transfer station employees kind of flow back and forth between the transportation and this facility uh newer parts of vpw include Cemetery but they have a facility and infrastructure on another on the other side of town or nearby but not not on site um facilities I guess would be the one division of Public Works that's not inside that building they are the director sits next door and the staff are on the Move throughout the facilities amateur thank you for letting me catch up with my notes um yes so just a few quick questions um there

071was a chart um and I was wondering if you could go back to it in the PowerPoint slide um that was um it was a table and it mentioned like the square feet um so I think um the revised plan said that we were aiming for around 47 000 but I missed it um so I wanted to go back to that a better way to do it yes this one thank you um so I was wondering if you could so right now are we looking at revision one like that that's right okay yes and then what's the revision two what is that related to that is to be determined so um there will be more revisions during another phase of design okay so that's like the next phase this is where we are now okay

072and I guess um additional efficiencies should should be or could be realized through the design process so okay great so the goal is to ultimately potentially decrease that it would be yes I mean we I think I mentioned we put a lot of contingencies in for unknown circulation space so we've developed spaces and and then uh you know like a muster room and a locker room and an office a size associated with that but we don't have quarters and my you know uh exact size of mechanical rooms and structure so we put in a large contingency and then that would typically go down as as the design progresses so you we would probably see another reduction in the square footage but um that's still to be realized I guess great that's helpful thank you and

073then um the second question was um you did mention all the different um sustainability measures that are being considered so the list of what you had mention um so the uh the solar um you know the garden shed I think that was mentioned electrical vehicle charging station are all of those being considered are you adding more to the list as you go forward so just wanted to know where where that is sure um you know we just had our initial conversation with the green Advisory Board last week we're also aware of the new energy code that's coming online in 2023 I think August the municipal opt-in uh you know the town I think Acton is a town that's at the Forefront of of kind of limiting um fossil fuels eliminating fossil fuels so there's so

074there are a lot of opportunities here this facility um to to a kind of investigate into employees sustainable measures and now those aren't the only ones but that's kind of the the list that we have for now um and they seem like that these are not um like even Cutting Edge at this moment these are things that are available and and have been employed before it's just municipalities don't always have the appetite for the additional cost of doing these things great thank you um this all sounds great um and looking forward to um hearing more as as the project continues um but this was a good update thank you thank foreign thank you um so I I would I know David you asked the question about where's transfer station lie in this um a couple

075of things that the that the study committee has been dealing with one early decision that we made was that there are so many moving Parts with a transfer station there's been discussion in the past about you know we have a transfer station where we go to on all roadside pickup it just really complicated the entire process so early on the committee made the decision that would focus solely on the existing Highway Department building so I think that's that's a an interesting you know a crucial part of it and that's why we really didn't have a presentation tonight about that but obviously something's going to have to get done at some point down there um you know the other point that was raised and we discussed it briefly during the goal setting is that the very

076real situation with the fueling station which is going on right now tanks are approaching the end of their warranty life they don't have to be removed but you know there's 25 years old and uh that fueling station is right in the middle of the site so if there might be a way um as this moves forward to take that peace in advance and get it out of there move it to another location you'll have the benefits of having tanks that you have a lot more confidence in and also it would clean up the site quite a bit and of course you've got the other related issue of the fueling stations not only for all the town vehicles but there's also about a hundred School District vehicles that drink from those tanks how much of that

077they're going to continue to do and whether they're going to Electrify their Fleet when there's a whole nother question and something you have to discuss really think about sizing the tanks but to replace those tanks would certainly be a shared cost between the town and schools as long as they hope to continue they participated in the in the initial tanks and all of the fuel usage is all tracked and those bills are sent to the proper entities so that's another piece of the puzzle that makes us think so interesting um I'd like to do at this point since we do have some members of the study committee here if there's anybody uh from the facility study committee that would like to make any remarks or questions so I I'd certainly invite you to the uh

078to the podium and then when we get done with that we'll open it to other members of the public good evening I'm Roland board and also remember the finest great and as Dean said earlier this evening you know we'd be really careful when we look at electrical electrification because exactly what happened this week you know I had how's the middle working the power went out lucky if I had what I had to get done for the day but car came back on is on for two hours and I went down for another four hours you know what happens if somebody who's on oxygen he's that bad electric can be on all the time you know how we're going to deal with that there is not enough electrical generation anywhere in the country to support a

079full grid and everything going electrical tomorrow morning let alone in 20 years from now so I really think that when we study these things too that we have to be aware of that you know great planning for a facility that can handle that in the future I fully agree with that but we also should be looking at battery backup families and the days that the solar is fully going we have tons of like today or not today but yesterday we had Sun for the last two days fantastic let's harness some of that hold it you know we're not good at a candidate for wind we don't get enough wind in this area to do that it's also inefficient so I think we need to look at what we are planning for our infrastructure within the

080town especially with this facility since it is so old that we need to be aware of that and figure that out thank you any other members of the study can read like to make any remarks my main Chan um I have questions about the capacity for the solars things I thought that they had a life expectancy of 20 years that's why the contracts for 20 years and then every year that they were used their efficiency dropped by a certain percentage um I would like to see that somehow not happen I would like to see them last maybe 50 years and not drop so precipitously and I don't know whether we are ready for that kind of thing or not um we definitely want to use as much solar as we possibly can but I don't

081want the town to be stuck with costs and solar panels that are absolutely Obsolete and not usable because from what I've read there's no place to recycle solar panels and they go in people's landfills and that's not a good solution so I know Jim and you're on the um Greenport advisory committee I think that that's something that you should help the committee with perhaps and um bring the information back to us into our contractor please thank you okay do we have any uh comments from folks online Matt yes um uh yeah I have a question in the comment I want this uh I see a lot of references to geothermal healing these days at town uh it's some presentations do we have any data as to how reliable it is and how often do these

082things break over a pre or five years band is it cost effective uh how deep do you have to go and get the heat from you know given that we live in New England I mean there's not much I don't know about geothermal but I don't know how reliable it is how cheap it is do we have enough mechanism in order to fix a broken geothermal system um there just seems to be a lot of unknowns and people have asked I don't know who knows about this and I don't know if it's that mature that we can force uh all this stuff on us and secondly this is solo I mean just to let go of what I'm excited and some you know I think D might have mentioned there's a lot to store that

083we started romance size and you know the the machine it does go down and there are dirty little secret foreign to third world countries and they get the task is going to the Quran we we can look the other way so there's a lot I can say about solar panels but we have romanticized it to a point and it's just it's not good and the the net carbon footprint is not produced by that much if you from here from Soup To Nuts from production to destruction uh and you know not for discussion here but unless you have a bag of nuclear power solar and root is not the solution so I don't know what this is all about but my main question is about geothermal can somebody answer that John um I'm not an expert

084on geothermal uh I think the town probably will will find out what's you know for the fire station with the elementary school um you know it's it's a it's a measure it's a means to get off of fossil fuels as best as possible the pumps can be electrically operated um you know it's it's uh in theory it's it's going to save um on greenhouse gas emissions um and I don't know that there's anything else available um to cool and heat a large facility like this geothermal seems to be the best option but I don't know if you know the the long-term kind of reliability issues have been worked out hey David yeah so get the geothermals of mature technology it's in use in lots of different places it's basically pumps and refrigerant it's not literally

085not rocket science in the case of the fire station I believe that it pays for itself in about 12 years um and in the case of the elementary school I believe it pays for itself in about 17 years so it is more expensive to install but it's much less expensive to operate um the air source heat pumps are a little bit cheaper to install and a little bit more expensive to operate thank you yes sir I thought we were taking questions from the committee and then it went to online and uh the red general public anyway Scott smyers Central Street I have a concern we hear about electric vehicles I have an electric vehicle a bicycle I think that's where the technology is about right now and barely you know I think bicycles still could

086be improved upon I think we have a long ways away to get to really full-size trucks that we need to operate a town and one thing I haven't heard anything about is what are we going to do with the toxic waste associated with the recycling batteries once we have all these wonderful electric vehicles which I'm saying sarcastically solve all our problems we have no more fossil fuel consumption we have a lot of batteries a lot of battery acid a lot of toxic chemicals a lot of rare Earths is that going to be recycled in that new DPW facility I'm all for the DPW facility I understand it needs to be done I understand I would like to see the minimum amount of pollution happening at this facility that's good but it has to be within

087reason and I don't see that we can trust people that insist that we're in a climate emergency to make those reasonable decisions so battery toxic waste what are we going to do with it and number two not that this has to do with the facility itself but when you go to the transfer station you go to the DPW facility you look around that property it there is every single invasive plant in Massachusetts on that property you know there's more to the environment than sustainability I think this isn't an engineering issue but we're looking at this property we should be trying to do something about these invasive plants because they're just spreading around they're drifting out into Route 2 drifting up and down the wind from the highway all over you know you got every single

088species there please take it into consideration I've been told that the big pile of wood chips up front that goes to a bio fuel facility is just unsorted material that probably contains a lot of invasive plants and I see people almost every week filling up their free wood chips to bring to their yard unknowingly spreading invasive plants likely around their property all right so please take that as another environmental concern besides sustainability thank you thank you David so virtually all electric vehicle batteries are recycled today um the lithium there's no battery acid in the lithium battery the lithium is easily recyclable the cathode and anode metals and other there are lots of different cathode and anode um chemistries they can be complicated to extract but there are also um right now they're all done in

089one way or another and there are startup companies that have more innovative ways of extracting the cathode and anode chemicals out of the batteries thank you Alyssa Nicole School Street um I just wanted to say that I agree with Scott about um a more holistic View and looking at the the plants there that are invasive as part of the committee's work and I also agree um with David about the questioning the need to heat the facility to 60 degrees when the presentation was made last year I was really surprised to hear because I thought that diesel vehicles today use block heaters and so it's not such an issue to start them and they don't need to be kept in a warm facility so thinking about lowering the temperature without creating a lot of fumes that

090is going to be harmful to the workers who are driving them and I don't know how this fits into geothermal versus air source heat pump but I'm wondering if the committee has considered radiant um heating because you mentioned the concrete floor we have part of our houses concrete um slab and we've got radiant floor it's much more efficient thanks thank you I think um I think there has been some discussion about radiant plus lab heating I know that's part of what we've got in the uh in new fire station John I think you might have addressed that as well yes true and we've we've employed that type of heating and a number of our facilities not very common thank you well unless there's any other oh Jim to some final comments having heard all these

091really helpful questions and comments um so just to confirm I think we have this um in the last Capital plan we have this sitting in as borrowing and fiscal year 25 and 26 15 million dollars a year so just just to sort of let people know that you know we're we're not ignoring the fact that this is incredibly expensive um and that it has to fit within a capital plan I'm not aware of any huge grant opportunities for building DPW facilities you know unlike some of our other facilities we were able to get you know some compensation for I think this is going to be on us so you know I'll be interested in the fincom analysis and the staff analysis about how that you know how that bump of borrowing impacts the things that

092we want to do um the um comments about electricity and batteries and solar came up um so the the the the usual situation in contracts like the contract that's running the uh the solar at the transfer station is that if the town does nothing um the the owner of the solar panels is responsible for taking them away and returning the site to the previous state so if we don't see a financial advantage to using the parts of the contract that allow us to buy the solar panels then we can just wait and they all go away um these these panels are getting better each year but we're typically seeing a one percent degradation every year um so you know 20 years has lost 20 it's not as financially fabulous but it's still generating a lot

093of electricity so it may make sense for us to uh to buy but I I I'm not I don't have my thumb on either end of those scales because I think there's too many unknowns there um uh the other thing came up about electricity in the grid and storage um so all of our heating systems except for those people that have wood stoves um turn off when the electricity goes off so it's a problem we have now the nice thing about electricity is compared to you know say natural gas is that there are batteries so we can't actually store we can actually build up local storage near where it's needed um that's you know we're not going to you know suddenly build a you know a natural gas storage facility in Acton to take care

094of a situation where the you know the natural gas doesn't flow into actin um as hap as has happened in you know in other states um but electricity on the other hand is something that we can both generate ourselves and store ourselves so in terms of resiliency uh I think it has a lot to say for it um I think that was it thanks Dean thank you and uh I would like to start the project sooner than you're talking about the 25-year borrowing thing for the whole mass of it I would like to get the tanks out of the ground right away because I'm afraid that since their warranty is nearly up or their warranty is up what happens with your water tank is the three days after your warranty is up the thing breaks

095open so we've got diesel fuel and gasoline and all sorts of other things and we should get it out of there and get it moved as quickly as possible so I would like that part to be on a capital plan for the upcoming whatever the Maytown meaning because it's no longer in a Maytown meeting so we can get that section because it's right in the center of the property if we move it over to the side we can then do better planning and you know we can find out whether we can do have enough room for geothermal we can find out whether we have enough room for all the other kinds of things that we need to do so that's something that I think we should I could hope the board would push forward because

096I'm afraid the tanks are going to leak and then we can have a 21-e and then we'd really be up in trouble thank you any other comments hurry well Mr manager how do you think we'll be interested to see how this is going to fit into our budgeting process Capital planning process for the next year um I think we've been speculating our question stamps and about um looking at moving towards a 60 design um I'm sure we can have that conversation and and start soliciting some costs on it so that we can do some long-range planning so the capital planning process will start this late summer early fall uh we'll continue I guess I shouldn't say start but we're going to start working on revising the 10-year plan uh to and we'll plan to publish

097it um by the end of November I think is a detentative time I'm looking at so we'll certainly seek feedback from the committee and the board um as we continue to work on that 10-year plan thank you all right uh thank you Mr kamo thank you the presentation we'll be in touch thank you um just as promised I will uh ask for motion to adjourn the Department of Public Works facility study committee meeting any of the numbers of Community Care to make such a motion to adjourn moved and seconded uh all in favor of adjourning AI okay thank you very much appreciate your attention um next discussion proof charge the committee to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the commencement of the American Revolution which is a really long title so we've been calling the 250

098committee um there was a draft charge that I wrote up um which has been in the packet so I'll just to give you a little bit of background on this uh obviously this is one of the goals that the select board set um my thought process was that this could conceivably be a large enough event or series of events that we really need to get planning early so even though most of this isn't going to take place until somewhere around April of 2025 I think it's worthwhile getting committee together and as far as the list of the members trying to engage all portions of the community to really make this sort of an inclusive event but obviously the focus is on the events of April 19 1775. uh if you have any comments or questions

099from the board David yeah I think this charge looks uh very good um I did the only thing that caught me is possibly missing is coordination with surrounding towns um uh I would like to see something added there um you know I I think we could have a more powerful celebration potentially I mean I don't I'm not pre-judging what the the events would be but I think there could be a more powerful um set up events if you know they were coordinated with other towns it doesn't make sense for all the towns to do all the same things um you know or maybe we could do a bigger thing together or um whatever anyway I think we should uh coordinate with uh with other towns thank you other comments from board members Jim just um

100I I just thought it was really thoughtfully put together and inclusive and at a time when um looking back at our history has caused such a sense of you know Division and you know people talking at each other uh I just saw this as a really nice uh coming together of um you know different different points of view and uh you know all focused on same period of time thank you comments imager yeah I want to Echo what people have said um to David's point I think that um including other towns could be interesting um to Jim's point I did also think that the language was inclusive um and I think that the nine members that you've listed um as those comprising the committee um do seem appropriate for what this committee would be tasked

101for so I thought it looked good on my end thank you and I'll just agree with what's said it looks good thank you uh I know one comment that I received was the question about the designee from the action box or Regional School I put down Regional School Department and the question was do you mean a school committee member or do you mean a school staffer and I frankly left that deliberately vague um you know what I I would like this to include the schools there's been lots of discussion about how much in the way of of history is being considered in any schools this public school system now I think in an Ideal World I'd like to see somebody like a department chair from social studies Department I think they could add a lot

102to this but I would certainly believe that open to uh however the school district wants to appoint somebody and that's a little bit of the background in that um there's also some questions that have been raised about you know is there a lack of focus here should we focus more precisely on the events of the revolution um I did include the other information the other possibilities of things we could discuss but I think a lot of this I wanted to make this charge broad enough so that the committee could kind of go where they would like to um I had some very exciting conversations with uh Maria Palacio our new Memorial Library director she got them all in on this whole idea of starting to open up the library a lot more for author events

103and speaker series and that sort of thing so it it does give us a little more latitude the other point that was raised is I put down that we would dissolve the committee on September 30th 2025 my thought was that this would give us enough time so that if you want to include something like your reenactment or commemoration of the Battle of Bunker Hill you can still have that within the charge of this committee and the question is raised well how about 1776 what are we going to do for that um so I would be okay with extending the duration of of these committees but I I have a real fear of these um zombie committees that just won't go away so that was the date so if anybody has any from the board is

104any suggestions to that I would certainly entertain them um and I guess I'll open it up to any questions from the audience Dave lunger Wampanoag Drive so um the draft charge I believe is overly broad it diminishes the focus of what we are commemorating commencing on April 19th uh 2025. acting 250 should be constituted with that date in mind being a nationwide launch of an educational and celebratory recognition of the Freedom Movement leading an elite up to independency on July 4th 2026. whereby Acton had a central pioneering role I have four points which are in order regarding the current charge encompassing peer historical periods such as the Civil War while very much worth recognizing and teaching about and cameraman writing is out of scope for this committee the 250th anniversary of the start of the

105Civil War is not in the until the year two thousand one hundred and eleven 89 years from now the committee should liaison appointed liaison with other organizations focusing on year 250 commemorations for example the national parks department the America 250 Foundation the president's advisory 1776 commission and I agree with other people that mentioned about other towns like Concord and Lexington and Arlington um very much involved with April 19th number three there does not currently appear to be room on this committee for the public at large the nine members listed and the entities that they come from should be reconsidered and separated out as support and Logistics from steering and add slots for regular acting citizens the dissolution of the committee should be extended extending at least another nine months the commemoration is a window from

106April 25th through Independence Day of 2026. I hope that you see fit to take the remaining weeks of Summer to revamp and improve this committee charge thank you thank you hi Karen Hawk Seth uh Indian village still um I agree with everything that Dave was said I want to reiterate I think it's overly broad you're talking about the dissolution date you know only going say nine months I don't you have there's a reference to the Civil War in here I don't understand why I mean that's like should we go to you know Vietnam and Iraq war where does it end um I think it should stay much more focused on you know April 19 1775 to July 4th 1776. I'm also concerned about the um the committee the constitution of the committee um I would

107hope that I would hope that the person representing the schools if there's a person is somebody not just from the social studies department but a U.S history teacher and there's not that many of them so it might be putting them on the spot um I hope it's not somebody from the school committee that committee has shown themselves to be hostile to those of us who are proud of Acton's role in the start of Revolutionary War and again I agree that there should be a lot more room for citizen participation in this in this committee or if there's some committees whatever there should be an opportunity for anyone that wants to participate to do so thank you thank you Scott smyers Central Street um thanks Dave for your well done comments I agree with those thank

108you Corinne I agree with them as well and I I just want to follow up by saying I volunteer to be on the committee I'm not in any of these qualifying categories but I'm very passionate about this topic I went to akron-boxborough high school I didn't play any sports but I still am proud of the colonial uh history here so please take that into consideration and I'm glad you're doing something with this actin 250 I think that's very important it's a very unique part of our heritage and I think it's uh I'm hoping it doesn't turn into something that it shouldn't be should stay focused on celebrating those events thank you thank you hey Amber Clower Piper Road thank you for coming up with us and thank you David I think it's vitally important to

109stick with April 19th that's I thought that's what we were celebrating um I've got two relatives buried under Monument out there that were there that day and other cousins cousins of married cousins back then that's what they did it was related to all of them but um we do have to I think stick with April 19th and celebrate Act and the way it should be celebrated thanks thank you do you have any um Matt I believe one person would like to make a comment online yes hi thank you um yeah some of the other things that people said this has to be focused I I wish you would get rid of references to the Civil War and even the assets related to the Native Americans uh because this this particular event was basically if I

110could read the British and the Colonials and we need to keep focused on this event which is basically the founding of the uh the the modern uh uh Constitution uh constitutional republic that we have one concern I have about the number of people in the country let's say it's nine is the composition of the committee and what is very disturbing uh uh I find not just an acting but in in the country as a whole is that this company might get hijacked by people who are fundamentally anti-American uh you know where they see America as perpetually racist or dysphobic or that phobic and they see American very negative terms as effectively the source of all problems um uh I mean I can go on and on and what I don't want is I mean to

111use uh I don't want somebody within a with with thinking that the 1619 project you know is the real family of America to be on the committee that celebrates this because it will be hostile to the very concept of the founding of this country so I mean and I've I can almost stay with high certainty that no social service teacher today in America in this walk American Social Studies departments are going to be qualified candidates in terms of their attitude towards America to be on this committee so I'd like people who genuinely love America for its freedoms for his final founding ideals to be on this committee and not I mean I'm an immigrant who's been here for 40 years and I perpetually feel that I love this country more than many other people around

112town who are actually eloquent about the racism in this country so thank you thank you all right I what I would propose is we've got another meeting in uh late August I propose that I take this back um and take into consideration some of the comments were made and bring back a revised charge we we do have the luxury of time on this so I I would propose to bring it back uh Jim um I think it's right that we you know probably having more discussion time is good um on the other hand I want to support this effort um so um an alternate way of thinking about this is that we approve the charge as it is tonight with the understanding that like every charge you know we revisit it we reconsider it um

113be nice to be able to launch you know launch this process and show our support for it as soon as possible and then um you know consider revisions you know either in August or you know whatever it makes sense foreign I think Jim's idea is a good one you know especially with regard to the uh the date that we dissolved the committee I mean we obviously have a very long time to consider that right if we if we want to extend it through uh uh July 4th or a couple months after July 4th of the following year we can do that at any time in the next next three years so um uh anyway uh I I I I think we could you know consider moving ahead well I you know it's on the agenda

114um my preference would be uh a few folks to give me a little time to go through this um clarify the focus a bit and certainly spend some time thinking about the size of the committee um and make sure that we've got enough usually have a hard time finding volunteers for committees but maybe this this will be an exception to the rule um yeah a whole room full of them right now um so I I would prefer to to be able to bring this thing back uh in just a month and I think I'll have it in in somewhat better form that all right thank you to my fellow board members for all the support on this it's great I just want to make sure that we've got support of uh of the community as

115well all right um moving along to the consent agenda item 7 approved meeting minutes May 23rd July and July 11 2022 approve executive session minutes July 11 2022. prove Town manager contract Point Kate Warwick full member Conservation Commission turned to expire June 30th 2025. or 11 reappoint Liam Clower full member Cemetery commission term to expire June 30th 2025. item 12 request the use of town roads bikes not bombs September 11 2022 approve amended date for one day alcoholic beverage license district 14 Freemasons narrow Park picnic Pavilion August 14 2022 approved by the board on May 9 2022 approve a one-day alcoholic beverage license Chantal Kuhn exchange Hall August 20th 2022 accept gift Recreation Department for 100 from Thomas lockerby and Kathleen mccrickard to support a dog park in Acton I do 16 except gift Recreation

116Department for 100 from Ryan dranka to support a dog park in Acton accept gift Recreation Department for 300 from Sandra Traylor to support a dog park in Acton approve refund request Cemetery division or twenty four hundred dollars for Richard Savage for the return of unused cemetery plot at Woodlawn Cemetery and approve a one-day alcoholic beverage license sub to New England narrow Park picnic Pavilion two July 30th 2022. now except a motion to approve consent items 7 through 19 inclusive so moved second okay moved and seconded all in favor motion say aye aye opposed extensions thank you very much I'm looking for one more motion I move towards Aaron second moved and seconded to adjourn at 9 00 pm all in favor say aye aye opposed extensions thank you very much foreign