Acton Select Board Meeting - January 9th, 2023

001foreign [Music] good evening we 've just leaving an executive session the board has convened in Open Session I'd like to start out with resident concerns if anyone who has any concerns they'd like to raise that is not on the agenda please step forward and I would like to know whether you let people speak during the library discussion we we will be opening it up you will okay thanks hi I'm Karen hogsack I live in Indian village and I'm here tonight to register my disgust with your decision to remove Dave longer from the 250 committee on December 19th Dave is a long time and active member of the acting community and he's never been shy about his positions on various issues this committee had decades to vet Dave before you voted him onto the committee and

002swore him in but after he was sworn in you received a letter sent by sahana's Pruitt voicing concerns that she had only just recently become aware of saying she didn't know him she decided she needed to peruse his social media activity specifically his Twitter account Dave has 28 followers on Twitter he's not really active but still somehow she felt compelled to mind his Twitter feed for incriminating posts which she then collated and sent to you and others who all chimed in with demands that date be removed why was sahana allowed to vet Dave did any other committees go through this same vetting where are those background reports why weren't they shared with the public or discussed in public the way Dave's background check was was discussed what were you afraid of if you had been

003allowed onto the committee do you have so little faith and the other members of the committee that you thought he might derail their efforts I don't think so I think there's a lot of really good people on the on that committee so I think that it comes down to you removed Dave for you were punishing punishing him for his political beliefs every one of you when you are seated on this board you swore I believe two holes the US Constitution and the Massachusetts Constitution those Oaths bound you to uphold our constitutionally protected rights including Dave longer's First Amendment rights which he may very well have violated when you tossed him off the 250 committee our local boards are supposed to be nonpartisan but they become entirely agenda driven which has done nothing but divide our

004community when our state senator and our state representative send in opinions on various issues using their official letterhead they politicize issues and they politicize our local boards the local volcomob has involved itself in other local issues and elections in recent years always resulting in voices even slightly right of far left being silenced which I believe is the desired outcome the result is that people from all walks all areas of town whether teachers students parents community members in general or afraid to speak up they certainly don't want to run to be on boards like this that are controlled internally or externally by vicious ideologues who will go to Great Lengths to smear good people for no reason other than that they dare to share independent thoughts or as we've even seen in recent elections because they're

005white and I firmly believe this malicious silencing is deliberate we know ahead of time Which Way nearly every vote on this board is going to go because they're dictated your votes are dictated by your agendas not by what's best for the community when there's a vote of any actual consequence of to Residents the proposed battery storage facility on Discovery way comes to mind rather than hold a vote you pushed it off for another board to study because your focus that night was on Dei issues and renaming Columbus Day the comments you made during that Discovery way discussion as usual reflected your own personal agendas while ignoring the concerns of the community members present people are leaving Massachusetts in record numbers by always looking for ways to divide the community rather than seeking Common Ground you

006will ensure that actin will not escape this trend thank you thank you any other resident concerns I believe we got one in the audience and the virtual audience Matt would you let Franny in please yes Franny you should be able to speak hi this is Brandi Osman 16 Half Moon Hill I wanted to um thank Town manager for improving the visuals for people watching so thank you very much I am calling to just draw your attention to the letter I wrote to the planning board and the select board um well I cc'd this left board hoping that we can look at Kelly's corner and bring something to town meeting that's in the same Spirit as the zoning um warrant that we brought a few years ago and almost passed it almost had a super majority

007and it didn't pass um but without it I feel that we are moving ahead with all the improvements to Kelly's corner but without something at the end of the bridge so I want to make sure that we're really proactively figuring out what's going to happen and that we have as much control as we can over the um Kmart parcel and also just how the whole area is used so I just wanted to bring your attention to that email and I hope to talk to you about it more in the future thank you so much thank you Matt do we have anyone else that's all Mr chair thank you and noting the time I'm going to adjust our schedule just a bit because we do have a public hearing for a class 2 auto dealer license

008so we'll move ahead with that and then we'll get back into the chair and town manager updates afterwards show under Massachusetts General Law chapter 140 section 58 the Acton select board will hold a public hearing on January 9 2023 at 7 10 pm in the Francis Faulkner hearing room 204 Acton Town Hall 472 Main Street and by video conference and call in her class 2 auto dealers license or act and Lincoln Mercury Inc located at 184 Great Road Acton login instructions for computers can be found here from a computer please click on the link to join the public meeting actonma.gov meeting slash BOS or from a telephone dial 646-876-9923 and enter webinar ID number 503-918-785 telephone users may dial Star 7 to request to speak after joining the meeting computer and app users may use

009the raise hand feature to request to speak Mr manager I believe the applicant is here with us to present his business good evening are you looking for an explanation just kind of walk us through it okay sure I'm Coleman Hoyt I am the President of Acton Lincoln Mercury Inc which is a a bit of a confusing Automotive entity on Great Road because it's changed its names a couple of times and changed its brand a couple of times uh I am the uh Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealer on Great Road as well I have two adjacent Parcels 196 Great Road and 184 Great Road and we operate them as one but part of what we're doing at 184 Great Road is evolving and uh involves a different type of car business and we just want to

010make sure that we're in compliance and thought that it would be appropriate since we're conducting business there even though it's looks like it's one parcel it's a different address so we'd like to get mail there and make sure we're conforming to the Commonwealth's requirements and so forth that's the reason we're here thank you very much any questions from members of the uh David hi um welcome just two quick questions um how many cars do you intend to store on the site for sale to store well to I mean you're not keeping them forever but how many cars will you have um on the site for sale I think typically there are uh it's a it's a volatile number uh it can be as high as 75 and as low as zero depending upon things like

011microchips and the effect of the pandemic and the supply it's very volatile at the moment if you drive by there you'll see there are new cars up front but there's a sort of a different activity in the back with black SUVs that we sell through a different Channel nationally okay and and I know you service um cars at the uh Chrysler Ram Jeep dealer do are you also going to be servicing cars on this property yes and we we have been for a decade and that's part of the reason we're trying to make sure we're aligned correctly yes we have service bays in that facility as well thank you Jim I just want to make sure I was reading the map correctly 184 is the one that's right next to Dunkin Donuts yes it's an

012odd configuration it it's a it's actually a condo uh in a two unit arrangement with the Dunkin Donuts piece that's to the South thank you thank you um so just to ask for clarification can you specify um the differences between these two Parcels again um and you said that 184 is evolving can you go into a little bit more specifics on how yeah sure the um the larger facility which is the Jeep business which used to be Lincoln Mercury and uh uh I've been there for 35 years so this is a historic operation that that's primarily um cars that that you would consider buying the other property joining it is where we conduct a different type of commercial car business which is not applicable to a end user like you you would have to have

013special licenses to and a permit to hire to purchase those cars so they're very different any other questions from the board questions from the audience okay um I'll entertain a motion somebody can make one David I move to approve the class II auto dealer license for acting Lincoln Mercury at 184 Gray Road okay moved and seconded we need further discussion so we're all here all in favor of the motion please say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you very much for coming in thank you all right um getting back on schedule uh Town manager update just a few items to cover I wanted to announce that we were awarded competitive funding to participate in the New England um Arts Foundation foundation for New England foundation for Arts we're going to participate in a workshop series which

014will help us with our public art programs here in Acton it's very exciting economic development director planning office in my office will be participating in the program and we look forward to sharing more information about that later this year I also wanted to mention we've been getting a couple emails about the tax bills that were recent you may have received in your mailbox or or your however you get mail there's been an increase in many people's taxes and of course the cost of operating the town has increased as it does every year there are fixed costs that have increased but the real the real reason for the increase in people's individual property taxes is evaluations the average single family home uh increased 16 last year year over year in what was valued and so that's

015such a significant significant increase that actually when the select board did its classification hearing on December 5th it actually lowered the tax rate from 19.45 to 17.56 to be to comply with prop two and a half into account for the fact that valuations have increased so much so just a note to folks that may have been wondering why it's primarily due to the increase in how much your property has gone up it's not due to some new program or service that we're charging a lot more for um other items I wanted to mention that in this room we'll be talking more about the budget uh January 17th next Tuesday we'll be having the budget Workshop I look forward to questions from the select board and the finest committee and our staff is excited to make

016brief presentations at night I'll be I'll be attending the Human Services Committee in this room on Thursday night we're gonna we're doing presentations of all of our human services staff to the new the relatively new committee and it's been great great dialogue and we look forward to continuing that on Thursday uh there's a big event coming up on February 4th there's a movement across the Commonwealth uh where a lot of local newspapers have gone out of business or gone to digital only where communities are creating their own newspaper and the League of Women Voters is hosting a forum here in this room on a Saturday February 4th at 2 pm will they'll be talking to I think they may have someone that did it in another town or they'll have people that know what it's

017all about and there'll be a forum about starting a local newspaper and what that might take what what that might look like so so February 4th that's all thanks okay thank you members is any Jim um things um so you just mentioned the league which does a lot of really important work in town a long time member of The League Marge Kennedy passed away on December 28th and I'm not sure everybody knew that but she's been a really important part of the towns the town's Civic life for for many decades uh her service is going to be on January 28th um at 10 A.M at the Church of the Good Shepherd um I miss her the other thing is um we're we're entering the beginnings of the towns election season people can get can get

018nominating papers now for the the boards and committees that are open they have until early March to finish filling them out so it's I would encourage anybody to run who wants to run I think the more the more candidates we have the more I think that's good for democracy in that Spirit I'll say that I am running for re-election and so there I'll be thanks thank you images I have absolutely nothing of substance except to say Happy New Year thank you um my only update is to announce that the first meeting of the 250th anniversary committee meeting will be on Thursday January 26th at 7 pm uh room nine uh here in town hall was one of the select Woods goals to establish the committee and we did it uh we're almost fully staffed uh

019in accordance with the uh with the charge from the select board and we'll move ahead uh should be very exciting thank you all right sir hi I'm Karin still I have a question about the tax bills so the assessments go up and the rate goes down so that the average increase should still be two and a half percent plus New Growth but the new houses and the new growth should be paying for the new growth so my bill went up seven and a half percent like and every I mean my average I'm a spreadsheet junkie five and a half percent on average for the last 10 years two of those years had 11 increases how can the same how can my house my modest house friends probably seen it always be going up by at

020least twice the two and a half percent Mr manager happy to talk to you offline about your specific property if that's what you're interested thank you all right um new and special business item before approve recommendation regarding the role and responsibilities of the citizens Library trustees uh John you want to lead off thank you uh so this is an item that we brought before you it's following up on some conversations we've had over the last uh year uh are as you all know the longtime director uh retired over the summer from the West Acton Library we had we have a new director of the Memorial Library who's taken on the role of overseeing now both operations and so and doing a wonderful job with that and so and when we met in July I presented

021to the board some options to staff the building for the summer and some recommendations for how we would move forward it included increasing hours at the West Acton citizens Library increasing programs increasing Services increasing access to information and those are all things that we've accomplished over the last few months the board appointed a third trustee at in in collaboration with the other trustees because it was a vacancy and that happened at the end of the summer as well and so now the full trustees have been meeting and and having a lot of input and and meeting uh regularly I would say including tonight um about about the citizens library but there Still Remains a certain amount of ambiguity about what the actual role of the trustees is and how that relates to what we need

022to do as an organization to run a successful program Library services that benefit the entire Community including West Acton Village so in the packet I did provide a memo it had a had a link to the July 11th presentation which actually wasn't working until we fixed it today so hopefully people figured that out if not I can share that out later and hopefully you saw it on July 11th but basically Council had reported that um the only language referring to what the trustees do was in that 1962 town meeting article in in that town meeting article it basically said the talent shall accept West action citizen Library as a branch of the Acton Memorial Library and then here we are however many years later and the trustees have been helping supporting the library doing several

023things they were efforts um that threaten the library Services there which the community got together and overcome and so we have a very successful library now but we still don't have um bylaws that identify exactly what the West act and citizen Library trustees do so in order to move forward in a way that we think is most effective I'm asking the board to consider directing us to take one of two steps or take to to take a step with one or two actions um we need to have clarification and so I'm asking the board to do is to direct us to work on either a draft local bylaw that specifically outlines the role of the trustees as it relates to the citizens library or prepare a draft change to the memorial library's documents that identify

024how the branch of the West Acton Library fits into that and then how the trustees fit into that so those are two different paths that are sort of with the same approach of clarifying the role of the trustees from West Acton into this Municipal operation I know that the trustees are here in meeting that they may have further to add but I just wanted to let you know what I'm looking for tonight thank you before we proceed I I understand we've got at least two if not three of the trustees available to participate and I checking to see if you folks have legally convened your meeting yet okay then just to make sure we don't have any open meeting law violations um you know to sort of give some folks my understanding what's going on

025and my commitment I think that whatever comes out of this I I'm 100 committed to the continuation of a library presence and a lack of a better term we'll call it the West Acton citizens library in West Acton and it's present building or something adjacent to it and I think you know I I've got some familiarity with the West Acton citizens Library actually served as a trustee there for a couple of years um so I it's important that there'd be no misunderstandings at least as far as as me as a selectman for the next two years and me as chair of this board for the next four months um we're 100 percent committed to maintaining that Library presence there and I think the important thing is and what I've been very pleased to see is

026with the recent collaboration since July with AML it seems like there's a great deal more opportunity for services there um I think you know some of this was started under Jen Friedman when she pushed so hard to get the West Acton citizens library in the Minuteman Library Network um here it's we're going to be faced with some fear serious Financial situations over the next few years and it's important that we make sure that folks in town who pay their tax bills get good value and we need to make sure that we do whatever we can to enhance that library to increase the readership to increase the patronage there so that we can justify having two libraries in this town I think that's a it's not unprecedented for living two libraries in one town but I

027think it's really important so just to let you know my personal commitment and what I'm hoping to see come out of this process with with that I will uh open it up first two comments from other members of the board Imager thank you um so yes I um for those who may not know I serve as the liaison for both the Memorial Library and our citizens Library so just wanted to provide a little bit of detail based on the conversations that I've had with staff with their trustees so also looking back at the 1962 town meeting uh article I I took a look at it and it does look that it does look like we did um vote to take on the citizens Library as a branch the wording was a little unclear in some

028places but ultimately that was what I had read it as and so I think that it's pretty clear that based on this um town meeting and I couldn't find also any other reference that um we did incorporate that as a branch but there have been some discrepancies um so one example is with our Minuteman system um we are I think the citizens library is um in the Minutemen system as an independent librarian so all of that to say um and that wasn't much talking but essentially even though we have been and are legally a branch in many ways over the past couple of decades we have been operating it independently but it was for a multitude of reasons um and I think that now we have a unique opportunity to try to in many ways

029address these discrepancies and try to find common Solutions and common paths and so um for me I do see us moving forward as recognizing this as a branch and so I'm glad we're having this discussion with our trustees today recognizing the citizens Library as a branch but also thinking about how do we move forward with trying to codify how we manage our citizens library and I will say Steph has been doing a fantastic job coming out of the pandemic has been really hard we have had a lot of Staffing changes um and every single day staff do their absolute best to keep the libraries running and our libraries wouldn't be up without them so I think that they've done a really fantastic job and I think that having them involved in the drafting process is

030helpful in terms of which one of these two directions we go to um I personally I'll give my personal opinion in saying that I think that integrating both these boards has its benefits um so for example one thing that we oftentimes talk about with the citizens library is the fact that it is a historic building which means it doesn't have to be ADA Compliant but for a lot of Library events that we want to host it does have to be ADA Compliant and so oftentimes we'll have if we have an event happening at Citizens We're required to have that event at AML or we're required to have a virtual component to that and so that's just one example of how integrating these two libraries and streamlining these processes can greatly benefit the library services that

031we provide across the town um so I do so I do see that as being my personal preference but would also love to hear what the other board members think and also what our trustees think because one concern that was brought to my content was brought to my attention was that the communication gaps and I think that these communication gap have happened for a multitude of reasons I think we're all trying to gain our footing we have had like different trustee changes we've had Staffing changes um but I think that um making sure that you know we we have people getting the information that they need um is important um so one thing that we noted recently was that um some of our trustees weren't on the list serves so you know stuff was sending

032us they do really well information about meetings and and uh events that we're hosting but trustees weren't getting that information in real time and we're sometimes having to hear it from secondary sources because there wasn't um this and this issue is being resolved but it's just one of several things that I think have caused a lot of frustration among trustees among staff in terms of how do we collectively work together and I think the goal is to collect collectively work together and I think that us as a select board having this discussion and finding or at least providing some direction as to where we see the roles and responsibilities of these trustees potentially um coalescing I think would be helpful and so I'm glad we're having this discussion today but yeah I would love to

033hear from our trustees and also you all as well thank you comments from other board members David uh thank you um so uh when I was first on the board um uh there are a number of complaints that that came to me about um inconsistent hours in the West Acton library or lack of lack of certain Services um like access to the Minuteman Library Network Services and uh being able to order a book and pick it up there and things like that those Services have improved a lot uh in in the recent year or two with the connection of the library to the Minuteman Network and Staffing um you know coming out of the Memorial Library you know and I'm not blaming anybody for what the way it was before there was um one Library

034director who did most most of the work and when so first of all she had she was a part-time person and she had a limited number of hours to start with and if she had something personal come up you know the library closed and you know people complained to me that says you know I went to pick up my book and the library was closed it's supposed to be open right and so that that was a problem and now that it's been operated out of the Memorial Library it's in it's suffering better and so I I think we need to have continued coordination there it's clear to me that the citizens Library trustees are not Library trustees under Masters juices General law they're they manage the gift fund for the library and and I think

035it's important that we recognize that and clarify that because right now there's um divided you know divided reporting or divided managerial uh uh situation with two sets of Trustees essentially doing doing the same thing for the for this like library branch so I think we need to clarify that situation um and um you know how we manage the gift fund that that is you know uh you know for this discussion but I think it needs to be clear that um as was uh uh done as part of the agreement in 1962 that this be clarified as a branch library under the at the Memorial Library thank you Jim [Music] so yeah I'm looking forward to hearing from the trustees too but just a short comment um so in the in the in the 1962 town

036meeting um where you know where the the branch library language was used it was also clear that we were you know continuing to have uh West Acton's citizens Library trustees so there was an important role to be played and still is by the by the trustees I I feel um there's an unfortunate phrase in there's a sort of an ambiguity that led an unfortunate misunderstanding in the um in the legal memo which noted that let me let me bring the language up because I don't want to I don't want to miss quote Town Council that's just a bad thing to do the most reasonable approach uh it's the rackel trustees having control over in parentheses only the wacko fund and um so that could mean that they don't have control over any other funds which

037seems entirely reasonable or it could be that that's the only thing they have control over is the funds and for me um that's not taking advantage of the strength that the trustees can bring to the operation which is that in a sense they are carrying the um the neighborhood experience the of using the library and what it's like what works well there I think they have a really important role in reviewing programs and reviewing ideas that can go on in that Library you know reviewing other kinds of changes to the library so in the process of creating something written no matter how we do it whether it's a separate set of bylaws or a modification of the AML bylaws I really want to see um you know a real a real robust description of the

038additional responsibilities of the trustees which I guess I think it's really all I have to say I guess my question for the trustees would be where are you at in your process of discussing bylaws because I did hear that you had started discussing this topic and I'd love to know where you were on that topic I suspect that this is a conversation that's going to take more than one meeting so I'm fine with um having a tentative decision tonight but I think we need to continue the conversation friend I'm so quiet tonight under the weather but um I was I have a quick question and I don't know who to ask but what does the West Acton citizens Library what is the fund is it just a fund for that Library um for just any

039yeah so um to my understanding the gift fund is uh specifically for uses for the West Acton citizens library and so our trustees have been whenever there's like anything that we need to fund using money from that gift fund um the trustees need to vote on that but I don't know if anyone else has any other things to add and that's something that might remain like it would remain even if track if if boards were merged or whatever yeah a really good question I know there is there's a friends group that's also involved I would have to I think that would be probably a good question for Town Council because um that would also speaking of um the 1962 um town meeting it was clear that that would be one of the core responsibilities of

040a trustee so if we do have a library or if we still have the citizens Library running how would that gift fund be managed um what I would suspect is probably if we did have um a joint AML wackle board then it would be a joint decision but I don't know that something hopefully Town Council can help with the uh the the bit that I understand about that fund was you know it's a lot of gift monies that have been presented specifically there was a fairly large endowment made some years ago to it um but it was specifically to the West Acton Library um yeah at town councils here uh took looks like the way in on that specific question but I also forgot that I was supposed to introduce Maria to provide a comment

041when I was speaking so I asked you to consider that at some point here okay we'll go for the legal clarification first make it quick so the uh yes the the wacko trustees um are responsible for managing the trust um and and I think that the way that would be arranged if the boards were um the Board of Trustees were Consolidated or merged to a certain extent you could still have a functioning whackle committee or subcommittee of that board that would control that trust fund um or there are various ways to approach that but um that that legal Point you're making with respect to who controls those funds that is one of the only uh pieces that is clear um in the creation of the West Acton citizens Library thank you imager sorry yes um

042so just to add to that um I think that that is a good idea and the other thing that we talked about too was right now with the um citizens trustees there is ambiguity on the roles and responsibilities and the one key thing we know is that they are in charge of the gift fund and so one thing we were one thing that I think would also help with this decision if we did decide to merge these two boards was that it would give trustees potentially morals and responsibilities similar to the roles and responsibilities that AML has um so we would be using the same a similar framework essentially that we have but it also makes it easier for a staff instead of having to report to two boards which takes up a lot of

043time to then just report to one board so it essentially would streamline our processes while at the same time hopefully providing a little bit more flexibility um and power for decision making for um our citizens trustee so that's another thing I'll add but would love to hear from our trustees as well thank you um any other comments at this point from members of the select board then yes uh we have not heard from the Memorial Library director Maria if you'd care to make a few comments am I here now yay Maria Palacio director of the town of Acton libraries and that's Acton Memorial Library and the West Acton citizens library and I just wanted to give you all a quick for you at the select board the trustees and everybody here that's present just a

044quick uh progress report on how we're doing since we became a two Branch system here in the town of Acton so things have gone the transition has gone really smoothly from an operational standpoint we actively seek to maximize our resources and collaboration between both libraries in order to provide greater benefit to all actin residents one thing I wanted to clarify is that the citizens library is not set up as a separate library in the Minuteman Library Network it is it operates along with AML and we actually get one invoice for both libraries for membership and we just pay the bill so we've been able to add value since July when Jennifer retired to the services that citizens in the following ways so uh to David's point about consistent hours we've been able to stay open

045consistently for 24 hours a week as scheduled I think due to illness we had to close one time and another time when the library manager had an accident at the library we did have to actually we didn't close somebody from over here at AML ran over there so we are open 24 hours a week consistently we hired a library manager that's Kristen McLeod I believe she's listening from home we increase the visibility of the citizens Library through an expanded social media footprint so any social media that comes out any announcements of programs or services that we just put push them out along all channels along with the memorial libraries we've held several programs since July and we're planning several more some programs we already had are the Halloween story time the henna program which is

046super successful children's story time that we had in the summer we participated in the Holiday Stroll in December and we're including the Lunar New Year celebration in collaboration with other Town departments coming this month of January we're also planning a mystery book coffee hour starting this winter we plan to start a Chinese language collection we have added the Museum passes to our Central reservation system making them more accessible to West Acton residents we have trained 10 different AML employees to work as Citizens to help cover gaps with the addition of two more just this week so that's 12 people from AML that are trained to work at citizens we've received an indefinite loan of meeting room tables from Municipal properties until we're allowed to use gift funds to purchase new programming Furniture we continually ask

047weird for this request and we're hoping that it'll get granted hopefully this month maybe we'll see we worked with DPW to determine occupancy limits for the library especially for the program room uh because we want to make sure that we don't put too many people in there and that we are safely are able to have a program we continue to order new materials for Citizens and process them at Memorial and get them over to Citizens we order supplies for Citizens centrally as well so they never run out of things we're seeing an uptick in a number of visitors and circulation of materials as Citizens I did bring those statistics we purchased a new people counter to help us generate better stats for stated reporting which is so important and to help us look at hours

048and that kind of thing we've been weeding items that aren't circulating or that are in really bad shape as Citizens We're working with I.T and with Municipal properties to improve Safety and Security for staff and patrons we did install a panic button like we have at AML all of the doors were re-keyed and we're looking at other safety options as well Municipal properties applied to a CPC grant for Ada accessibility for Citizens and we've worked we are working with MP to replace we did work actually with MP to replace that faulty furnace um just probably around Thanksgiving and the heating system at a cost of about sixteen thousand dollars so those are some of the things that are happening from an operational standpoint really smoothly patrons are really happy staff are happy Kristen brings a

049lot of energy to that library and lots of ideas and we want to continue to do that thank you um does any member of the board have any questions for uh Library director okay thank you uh let's open it to uh comments from the West Acton citizens Library trustees hi my name is Tara Lucci it's nice to see all of your faces again I actually don't want to go first I want to let my other trust two trustee members go and we do have Dodd on the line and I'm hoping that you can promote her to be able to speak foreign 596-7360 dot can you you should be online now okay I am unmuted according to my phone am I we can hear you hi everybody hi everybody this is I want to trust these

050that are beloved respect and citizens library and I happen to be in Villegas Puerto Rico and it's a beautiful place but I want my participating tonight to be an example of how dedicated and I am to the citizens library and my concerns is that as trustees we have not been given a chance to participate in a single decision except the Museum passes which I myself voted to have increased availability but we want to participate we want to be you know collaborate with Kristen who is amazing and has energy but we have ideas and energy too and being assigned to just manage the fund is almost insulting to me because we paid money towards the open house during the acting stroke but we didn't even know that was the scheduled event but we were more than

051willing to give that but continue to just be out to purchase merchandise out of the fund and have no participation whatsoever is very concerning to me I don't understand why we cannot I really appreciate Jim's comments about the trustees and how much we can contribute and have contributed and and um I just I don't know where else to go from from there except to put that in the five hours which we have been working on developing and uh it's not something you can just obviously whip up but um I really really want that to be considered that the trustees want to be involved much more than controlling some good fun um and we're interested in programming and and how that can happen I'll be collaborate with Kristen and Maria and then I understand it goes

052to the programming uh planning committee but we should be part of that practice before before it gets the programming so I think that mostly what I really want to speak to and um I appreciate your attention thank you okay hi there I'm Annette lockery um thanks for the chance to say hello I think over the past several months things have gone really well we very much appreciated the support and involvement of the folks at Memorial in terms of leadership personality assistance and commitment I think no matter how citizens is viewed whether it's viewed as being independent or a branch doesn't change the fact that the involvement and commitment and contribution from the town through Memorial or directly how I'm not sure how the finance is working is is terrific I think it's a shot in

053the arm I think it makes a difference and I think it's a trustee and my sense of all the trustees we very much appreciate that and support that happening on an ongoing basis I agree with DOT I think it it feels appropriate for the trustees to have input on things in addition to the trust fund I think our commitment is very much to our community our neighborhood in terms of the personality and the charm of the facility and that's something that that happens in very small increments it's like personality changes that you may not notice when they happen gradually but suddenly they're gone and I think the commitment that we all share is to to keep the charm and historic perspective of citizens Library the way it is I'm really happy that a long time

054ago Jennifer Freeman got us on the um the the network so that we can exchange books all through towns and through the other towns I think that's that's basically it I think it's it's going very successfully we have begun talking about bylaws and I think even if this had this discussion hadn't happened um I would really urge that we'd be allowed to continue because I think the place at the very least for our first draft for that to happen for the bylaws to be put together is at the trustee level that the bylaws of what the trustees will do and be responsible for I appreciate that I'm sure beyond that happening they'll go to lawyers in the town and you know like any organization that's the way things work but we'd appreciate being able to

055finish our work and I think this time to do that whether or not it has to go to this time meeting or not I don't have any background to know whether That's essential but even if it is I think we could we could move things along a little more quickly if it's essential to go to town meeting this year but again I appreciate uh the commitment the town has made for the support and the collaboration between citizens and Memorial libraries and I think Maria and her staff have done a great job with us and we appreciate it thank you okay thank you Annette and uh um I really retired to take a look at this from a holistic View and what was being proposed here today and also the first thing I did is I

056took a look back on historical minutes and I had the fun job of being the minute taker but I also looked back in minutes prior to my time for what the trustees did what they voted on which areas that they actually managed and while I understand that things evolve and change I think there are some things here that we may want to consider that the trustees be a part of that's above and beyond just the gift fund a few of these things that I saw that there were votes on were state aid hours programming the gift fund naturally and um the gift fund I know your question Fran was about what is the gift fund used for two recent uses of the gift fund was the two thousand dollar people counter that Maria mentioned and

057also the a thousand dollars went for whatever programming was thought of and funds almost as needed so we will continue to look at opportunities for the gift fund to support those programs in November of 2019 we distributed a community survey excuse me oh okay the state aid which was also voted on by the trustees thank you for that clarification I appreciate it now our now our two thousand dollars richer in our gift fund than I thought start thinking of ways to spend um thank you okay um in 2019 Jennifer as you know was was the head of the library and we distributed a community survey and the results of that survey really were three main parts more hours more programming and um being a part of the Minuteman Network moving from that voice of really

058the customer or the community we um covet hit as we all know so things slowed a little bit down but during that process Jennifer did find a way that we could become part of the Minutemen Network even though at the time we were not considered a branch according to Danielle who was at the AML there wasn't the level of great collaboration that we're seeing now at that time so we ended up joining that Network and I have the contract as an independent Library I don't know how it's invoice if it's separate items are together now but that's just historically what that was obviously since then we've had you had the July 11th meeting during which I think Jennifer kind of transitioned the role and John gave the update with the presentation that you all were

059able to view which was great the trustees unfortunately did not know that that meeting was happening so we didn't really have any visibility into that so I think that that at least we knew the meeting was happening but we didn't know there was an agenda item for the library on the agenda I guess you always know when select meetings are happening and I think that might be kind of where the communication gap started to fall down which is really where a lot of these problems I think are coming from because one of the key things that I heard is there have been a lot of great changes and improvements with the library with the hours with the coverage of Staffing and so forth one of the things that does cause me pause and worry is

060that it seems that anything that the trustees did before is being Stripped Away and it's just being relegated just to being the gift fund and I do think as a board we do have more to offer and what really gave me pause about the memo that is being presented today is that it talked about drafting bylaws and last month we actually dedicated almost our entire meeting to a working meeting that was very collaborative during which staff and Trust these were allowed to give input and talk so it wasn't just all the trustees giving information on bylaws or all the staff it was a collaborative collaborative effort and we were really trying to identify the role that the trustee should play in the library moving forward when I read this memo today what I read is

061that direct staff meaning the library staff only will draft these bylaws and then as you move on forward and I'm sorry because I'm a person who writes all the time so I do get very stuck on words but words have meaning as we all know based on the legal documents that have been coming through from Council this work would involve engaging with the AML trustees citizens trustees to me that word doesn't have any authority to engage or be consulted it's kind of like when I asked my child what time she wants to go to bed and she says nine I really wish you would have said 8 30. let's get ready for bed at 8 30. that's engaging that's not having any Authority are being able to weigh in or be an active member or

062having a seat at the table so with this language I really do not support this memo and I think that in the spirit of collaboration I I really do think these are just communication gaps and I think that if we shored up some of these words it's something that we could move on and I respect all of your opinions and the direction you decide to take but I would hope that you'll take into consideration the trustees who've dedicated their time I think I may have lost a couple years of my life this past month for this so that's a joke but if you could please take in consideration the value that the trustees are bringing to the table and I don't think it's just to be obstinate or to fight becoming a branch my goal

063is for all of us to work together and make this the best small Library we uh leveraging amazing resources at the AML and the and the team Maria and the team are doing a great job and I think we can continue to collaborate and work together being regulated to the gift and will not allow us to work together thank you I think it's very important for me to clarify something about the word bylaws um I in my memo I'm not referring to the bylaws that I think that you're referring to you're you're talking about you know we should vitalize that say we should have this many people that do this thing so the hour should be this the program should be that I'm talking about a town by law that gives a committee specific authority

064to do what they want which right now you don't have um and so I'm asking the board do you want to create a bylaw that creates specific authority to allow the citizens Library trustees to run their own Library or do you want to amend the special legislation for the Memorial Library incorporate them and identify exactly how the citizen Library trustees fit into that this has nothing to do with the things that you'd be discussing in your meetings about what goes in your specific policies and procedures that's not what this is this is a bylaw to create authority to do things like create policies which you currently don't have it from my understanding I appreciate that clarification um we I think that I wasn't thinking about the level that you think I was thinking about I

065was thinking about a trustee board that does have some authority to try to protect the space of the library as it as it has a local library feeling but I don't think that we're asking for carte blanche to do what we want we're really just asking to be able to weigh in in terms of as these bylaws are created and the only thing about this how this content is Right written is it doesn't feel like we even have remotely even a say to help drafting the bylaws I don't think it should be something that's done in an insular environment of the trustees or the staff I really would be looking for that to be more of a team collaboration as of an authoritative collaboration foreign thank you we have any questions for the trustees from

066the select board at this point if not we'll open up some questions from the audience okay to the audience I'm in China I'm a trustee at the Memorial Library um I do not want the incorporation papers for the Memorial Library to be opened up again to allow the West Acton library to be part of the to be under the Memorial Library I don't want that we have corporate members we have elected members and you guys are appointed by town meeting so that would be three different I mean that makes it absolutely a nightmare for the just for the staffing of the different sets of Trustees so I think that we should have Town bylaws which in cooperation you write which will give you a chance to outline which John just said the things that you

067want the trustees to do and I don't think that this is what you would call a you know we don't want to be the Memorial Library trustees do not want to be running the West Acton Library unfortunately some of our staff has already been committed to that which I think takes away from the Memorial Library and I would like to have the town have more staff just for you and not for both of us but I'm not sure we have the monies for that yet so I want you to um be calmer I guess more rest assured that we don't want to take you over in that way we think that if you listen to what John just said about writing bylaws like a committee writes bylaws because you will end up being like a

068committee and it will give you a chance to set out what you need to do or what you should be doing and what you shouldn't be doing or um and I think it you will be doing it not only with amongst yourselves but also with input from some of the people from Memorial Library because that's what the Memorial Library trustees do we look at different policies which may or may not have anything to do with you okay you know for meeting room policies book buying policies book Banning policies all that kind of nonsense we review those and go through them and pass them I don't know whether you guys are going to be doing that or you're going to be doing it underneath I mean I should think it would be a combination underneath the

069other things but yes keep your keep your trust funds no you can't have anything from the Acton Memorial Library Foundation it's Incorporated just for the good because you're not going to get it further comments from the audience uh but let's shut let me just get a comment from the library director first Tara before we microphone you guys stay close so I just wanted to speak a little bit about the challenge of having while I understand that there are two trustees and that there are some of us here that do um that want the trustees to have some kind of authority and to be able to develop bylaws and to set up their own policy the challenge that we are encountering that we've been working trying to work through these last few months is the duplication

070of efforts to get anything done or or passed so in a brand system and anyone who knows me by now been here seven months I'm constantly reminding people that I came from a 13 Branch Library System where there was one set of policies for all branches so the the trouble is when we have a policy say a programming policy a meeting use a meeting room policy a circulation policy which is really the most important one right now for AML it's really difficult to go ahead and try to write one for Citizens it should be the same thing and so that's what we're looking for is for for more collaboration in that it's it's a duplication of efforts um there's another thing that happens too that when the when the citizens Library decided to become part

071of the Minuteman Library Network and Minuteman I just did get clarification um it happened around November of 21 the Minuteman Library recognizes citizens as part of AML not as a separate library and so when they joined the network they agreed to abide by the rules set forth by mln and even state laws around Patron confidentiality so for example at Memorial one always has to bring their library card or their have their number or show it on the app at citizens that was not the the case that was not the practice and so even though some trustees here do say that everything's going well and there are no problems there is still we are even as we say this we still get requests to go back to the way things were and so what I'm looking

072for is consistency this isn't about a group this isn't about people we just want to do our job and continue to serve the people of Acton so the greatest difficulty is that duplication of effort so if we could find a way to streamline all of that policy making and have one policy and I know that and Chang doesn't want us to to get together but we need to find a way to collaborate so that we're not doing this twice and over and over and we can get to the business at hand which is offering library and Community Services to every member of the town of Acton thank you thank you Cara thank you um I have no problem with collaboration absolutely not and I have no problem with consistent policies um but I want Tara

073to know that what he's talking about is a bylaw that would override the associations by law it would make it moot right now under state law as the State Library Commissioners have told me that where an association doesn't have a bylaw where it is not defined by Town law that state law rules and section 11 of chapter 78 says that the trustees have control over the entire Library that's it I don't think they want to have control of everything they do want to be involved and they have been involved the fundraising there is a significant portion of the overall budget as compared to act at the Memorial Library so they they have been involved maybe Nancy will stand up he's a trustee for a long time and tell you what's the kind of things they

074did but I want to read to you the actual article 54 55 and 56 that are intertwined article 54 of 1962 says part of the property has been used as the West Branch of Acton Memorial Library then below that it has two separate articles one of which to raise money for to fund the branch and one to fund the citizens Association if in fact it was considered that the whole thing was going to be a branch why would they have two separate articles why would they mention part of the library has been used big difference and my last thing is about the Minuteman contract the rules that that so first of all it's a multi-party contract where the trustees were recognized as an entity a separate entity the town insisted on the trustees signing up

075as a separate entity and the rules which I have no problem with were the rules about Minutemen about the treatment of the data regarding the Minutemen so I don't think these guys have a problem with that either I just want to be careful about I I back when there was a transition plan or you know just sharing Staffing and you know a lot of stuff everybody loves um but I mentioned is this a hostile takeover and I was assured no this is this is a collaboration to get more consistent hours in programming Etc so I want to be really careful that we don't undermine the very effort to Leverage The Wonderful folks in West Acton that spend all this time doing this work and I urge you to hold off let the process take forth

076they sit around in the meeting talking about what do you do what do you don't do I'm not going to go in the librarian's desk and you know all this stuff right let that happen for a little while and see how we're going I mean if you want a cheap way to do it then don't create a town meeting battle that's for sure because that's that's sure is that gonna cause a lot of effort to be spent on something that is not about programming and about the culture of the citizens Library thank you thank you are the comments from the audience Matt do we have anybody online that we should speak uh there are no braised hands Mr chap thank you um defer to comments from members of the select board David um thank you

077Mr chair um so it's clear to me that having these two libraries as separate entities is not workable um that's the way it was and it kind of worked but didn't work well it's worked much better as they've become closer and closer um it's also not workable as as Maria said for for staff to operate under divided management right that's just you know if anybody who's been in a in a a job position we've had two managers it's it's a nightmare situation right um as as she pointed out they need one set of policies for the libraries um and I think that people um in town expect to be able to do things at those libraries right and that's was certainly the feedback that I got um before they you know they started to to

078become closer um you know people complain to me as a slug board member that they couldn't do things at the at the citizens library that they could do at the Memorial Library so sorry I just said that the people citizens complained to me about things that they could not do at the citizens library that they could do at AML this was a couple of years ago and the situation has gotten um better over especially the past year um so um uh I I I think that we need to operate the citizens Library as a as a branch I think it needs to be clear that that way um I think the you know the um the the things that citizens Library trustees would um like to do kind of violate that if this is not

079a not a not a workable uh situation it's clear that they are not Library trustees under Massachusetts General law Town Council has said that so I think that we need to start on a on a direction to make it clear that the citizens library operates as a as a branch of the Memorial Library thank you comments from other members of Blackboard Jim this has been really interesting the part that I did not understand at all before was the um the difference in approach and uh that you know you you referred to this Maria that that um you know that Anne Chang as one of the trustees was speaking about you know um really not wanting to get into the business of um managing the citizens Library not wanting to get into the business of thinking

080about policies for the citizens library or the programming for the library and on the other hand I totally get your dilemma I mean that the the difficulty the extra work that it takes of having to have uh you know a policy for one library and then perhaps a slightly different version of that policy for the other Library um so that that's a that's a really interesting dilemma that I don't think any decision that the board could make tonight would resolve I think we got some structural conversations that have to continue um uh you know in it involving the all you know three parties here the the staff and and the the Memorial Library trustees and and the citizens Library trustees um um yeah the other thing that I picked up on that was that I

081hadn't really put into words before um was that when you were talking about um you know consultation or engagement as being similar to when you offer a child a bedtime um what I hadn't realized before but makes perfect sense to me hearing it is that you trustees you you you feel like you've been treated as children um and uh you know sort of kept in the dark uh not being given clear Authority being given sort of vague Promises of authority but not really getting it um so I don't know how to fix that but I I I am sure that um so you alluded to there was a problem with the email shell so that people were not getting uh alerted to things so that's certainly an easy fix that has to be done right

082away if it's not done already yeah um if I'm in the middle Maria um and um you know I assume that that's got a long history behind it so that's why I think there needs to be more more of this three-way communication and if people from the board can be helpful in that then that's great um but I don't think we have enough information and Clarity of direction to say oh let's definitely go this way or that way tonight John I think the the purpose of this discussion being brought forward now is that there's been 70 years of that ambiguity and being in the dark about what the authority of the trustees is or isn't or what it's it's basically been generational the every group that comes in kind of had their own way that

083they they did it and it was very successful then there was something that happened at town meeting where it had to be reset and and here we are and there's still nothing in our bylaws or books or anything that outline what the trustees of Citizen libraries do other than what it said in 1962 time meeting so what I'm asking for is Direction on how we can clarify that and I gave two options for how that can be done a new general bylaw that outlines exactly what the citizen Library trustees are and is and what they do or the option of more formally combining it into the Memorial Library documents and those are there may be a third option but I'm not sure what it is and so I think the sooner we can start the

084com down the path of which one of those paths you want me to take the sooner we can get clarity that the trustees have been looking for for decades thank you uh Maria you looked eager to say something else thank you thanks again for letting me speak I just wanted to clarify that the issue with the with the shell is I formed the show I asked it to form a shelf for the West Acton citizens Library trustee so we have one email the problem was that some of the members of the board had not been sworn in again for 2022 and that's why they didn't get it this was not trying to not provide information or to withhold any information and um we've made every effort in my very lengthy director's report it's only been

085like a one or two pager for Citizens but the Amo trustees can attest because it is a bigger Library we're doing way more that I give a really high level of details so actually everything that I shared today has been shared throughout these months so thank you for that I just wanted to clarify thanks thank you friend oh okay John I think I think the two options you pointed out are certainly a valid I would propose as I did earlier that there could be a third option and that is to enable us to perceive the way we have coming up with bylaws it you would certainly have a crack at it obviously in terms of the hierarchy of the way the town runs but I think having us work with the staff the folks we

086work with for Memorial and come up with the bylaws for the trustees I think I would recommend that be considered see that's not an option that's before us the trustees don't as I created in 1962 don't have authority to create bylaws and so that's what we're looking and council is going to help me explain that I have a feeling what people are talking about when they're talking about bylaws we are not talking about an individual Board of Trustees set of practices or like rules and regulations that may be called bylaws of that board plural we are talking about a town bylaw singular that gives that actually gives that Board of Trustees some some legal Authority right now you're in a legal legal No Man's Land right you you don't have any what we call enabling

087legislation which sets out your authority to even operate the library itself beyond the fund or to create your own um bylaws plural for how you operate as a board so what we're talking about here is not talking about drafting your operational rules what we are talking about is um drafting your enabling legislation that actually creates the board and its Central um big picture duties not fine minutiae um you cannot the the board itself the idea that that there's this third option that the board can just continue the way it's going and create its own bylaws is not a legal solution to the structural problems that um are facing the town that are facing your board and that are facing this select board by virtue of the fact that there is no enabling legislation does that

088help clarify what we're talking about here and and why that option of just can having the the trustees create their own bylaws is not um a workable solution here a town by law is is a legal creation that is adopted by Capital meeting so thank you for that I think I understand it better now are you saying that way back when for example when Memorial was put together somebody had the wherewithal to create bylaws for the trustees of that library but when trustees were put together for Citizens Library nobody had the statutory wherewithal to do the same thing correct so let me it's completely different um Acton Memorial Library was created by a special Act so you can be boards and committees can be created in a number of different ways the general court at

089the state level can create um uh entities and agencies way back when they created the Acton Memorial Library by something called a special act that is the second option John put forward is talking about amending that special act which is a state law um so it would be voted on by the general court and it would amend the structure of the Acton Memorial Library to Encompass a specific role for the West accent citizens Library now boards and committees as you see all the time in Acton can also be created by town meeting and so town no one has ever created um and enacted the the West Acton citizens Library Board of Trustees and gave them any Authority except authority over the trust fund so what we're saying is um that 1962 town meeting boat just

090did not do enough um to to establish the Board of Trustees um with all the legal Authority you all want to have or all the legal Authority you all have been believing you're acting under so we would like to correct that omission okay thank you oh friend I think my questions for John but I'm not positive um is Citizens following aml's policy now or not I'm not sure uh you mean the internal how it operates the policies of the citizen library is it following the identical procedures of the Memorial Library so no they're they're there's an absence of policies which is what the trustees have been working on is creating those them five loss to them and being able to delivery manager director um pretty much the same amount of eyebrows so thank you could

091you please identify yourself there okay Nancy lenichek [Music] um the citizens library was incorporated into a library before Acton Memorial Library was and I'm I'm confused that does that mean that they just never bothered with bylaws but like sink that the distinction here is that the West Acton citizens library was established as a private basically a private club if you would back in 1880 or thereabouts yeah and they they operated as a private entity in order to use it and and then they basically turned their building over to the town in 1962. and then which was long after the Memorial Library was founded so that became a branch okay I wasn't aware that they had ever actually become a grant a branch I never saw that that by law I'd kind of be interested to

092but um they were yes originally you had to pay I believe a nickel and and then you could come and get any of the books that you wanted um and that's how it worked and then um I think the the nickel stopped before 1962. quite a while but um oh yes I was a trustee for a zillion years um and did a lot of reading and I never found the bylaws from that town meeting do you have them Jim um the bylaws in 1962 no there were no bylaws generated there there was I'm sorry minutes that you know yeah I'm sorry I'm still not sure with the question the 1962 town meeting right when West Acton citizens library was um declared a branch of Memorial Library it was the language recognized that the that part

093of the citizens library was acting as a branch I I would refer you to the uh the collection of Acton Town reports okay which there's a really nice bound set over at the Memorial Library which I've referred to in the past check the the excerpts from the 1962 annual Township okay yeah thank you all the town meetings Warren articles in our research it very clearly was the intent of the 1962 town meeting to adopt West Acton citizens Library as a branch of Acton Memorial Library there it is I see it part of the property yeah thank you again just to read the the part of that act article 52 of 1962 town meeting the only mention of the fund was in the section three that in the event that at a town meeting you decide

094to dissolve the library for a fifths vote then the fund there was an image of the fund but before then this paragraph two shall elected the town meeting of Board of Trustees that's completely separate doesn't have any language a branch um and so uh it's my understanding again from the mass um the State Library Commissioners that in the absence of specific uh bylaws or a special act or Co-op what they call Association corporate documents that state law prevails sorry that's already looked up that is only true if it meets the criteria being an association Library again the town has asked for our legal opinion of that we've provided that I'm sure they appreciate your legal opinion here as well well it's not a legal opinion I'm saying that it is right here the Library Association

095of West Act and the citizens Library Association of West Acton so I feel like it's time to get another legal opinion and it's my understanding that um arts and committees are elected can I stop you right there thank you and I I will tell you that we have Town Council here and if you as a private individual wish to retain your own lawyer to uh to investigate this why certainly as a citizen that's something you're welcome to do so I'm looking for any further guidance from the rest of the board and as I'm sure the town manager is looking for guidance David so I'm just trying to set up something that is workable here right and it is clear that having citizens Library trustees have you know major input into the hiring of staff at

096the library running the library is not a tenable situation when that staff is being provided from the Memorial Library if they had enough business to sustain their own staff um then that might be true but it's a it's a little Library right and they cannot provide good service to our citizens with um just a completely separate Standalone staff um not to mention is I don't believe uh that's the expectation of citizens in town you know citizens sorry citizens want full full service at the little Library um and and and that that's that's important to them and if we and we cannot set in my opinion we can't set something up with um and put staff in the position of reporting to two bodies that have authority that's just not workable and I know that you

097were talking about them treating as children I I'm not trying to be you know you use words like that to criticize anybody but one uh entity has to have the authority to run the library and one entity may be consulted about things right and and so I think that's just the way it has to be and if we we need to uh we need to set something up and as town meeting to set something up that is workable over the long term and we we've been in this situation several times just since I've been on the board of having this ambiguity of how this library library operates um so I I would like to see us clarify that this is a branch of the Memorial Library and assign um some duties to the uh citizens

098Library trustees but mainly that's the gift fund right the running of the library the details of the programming the hiring of the staff cannot be on the table for them thank you Jim um so I think that after a while the best solution is going to be the direction of amending the special Acts and having a board that consists of people that are currently on the actor Memorial Library award and currently on the citizens Library board uh to manage the the system which includes the main the you know the two branches of the library however if we tried to go to let's talk this through let's say we go to town meeting with a proposal to amend the special Acts and the Acton Memorial Library trustees recommend against it it's not going to pass so

099we would be stuck again so I still think there's work there's there's still communication work that needs to be done between staff and the Memorial Library board and presumably the citizens Library board too as well to find a common way forward or else it's not going to work at town meeting um so you know if it's helpful I mean I'd be happy to vote in favor of the notion that we should be headed in that direction but I don't think it's appropriate for us to try to shoehorn this into the current town meeting because I think there's a bigger a bigger set of communication issues no it could be that Ann is not speaking for the entire trustees I mean this may be a simpler problem than I thought but I think it's worth I

100think that has to be explored before we could take this to the town meeting foreign hi Miriam lazak I am also on the Board of Trustees and I would just like to clarify that Anne was not speaking for the entire board thank you well um looking at my fellow board members does anybody think that we're going to be ready to go to town sorry about that um so I do um so I also do think think that personally I think the best way forward is to integrate for collaboration and getting more feedback into it and so I would be I honestly would be comfortable in voting I think that us voting provides Direction and US voting today does not define what the roles of these trustees would look like our vote today would be to

101essentially decide which one of two legal Pathways do we take to achieve hopefully this end goal of providing a strong Board of Trustees however that looks for our town and so I I think that you know our places to really just provide that direction as opposed to saying these are your roles and responsibilities as trustees and if we you know and this is how it's different for Citizens versus Memorial of anything so I do see us moving forward in potentially exploring um amending the special Act but I also and I think that maybe we could say like something around the board recommends this um and uh would um essentially direct staff to draft it but I do think that maybe even adding in um contingent on votes of approval from the citizens trustees and AML

102or something along those lines um to make sure that our trustees feel like they have um a say um an actual decision-making power in the drafting of what this um special act Amendment would look like or what these five or what potentially this bylaw would look like although it seems like for the bylaw it's more straightforward it just provides um the enacting ability for trustees to then create their own policies so thank you well I think no matter which of the two paths we take I think is going to be real hard lift to get this ready for town meeting which is only four months away um so I I was going to ask you to phrase a motion but I see David his hand raised so so I I completely agree with everything everybody

103has said that it involves further discussion and that kind of thing I was going to make the motion that um but instead of saying 2023 town meeting say future town meeting if it happened to be magical that you know everybody everything is agreed in four weeks fine but if it can't be it can't be right so I I would move to direct staff to prepare an amendment to AML special legislation for a future town meeting to clarify citizens library that citizen library operates as a branch library and outlines specific duties of this is Citizens Library trustees okay we've got a motion uh can I just offer a friendly Amendment um contingent on votes of approval from the citizens uh trustees and our Memorial Library trustees before I accept that um um if a group doesn't

104agree where are we right I think it has to be a consensus thing so I don't agree with that that it's a vote um I mean but I think there has to be this you know discussion and consensus um um you know I I'd be happy to say after discussion and consensus or something and for just so that I'm clear what consensus mean like in general the majority seems in favor for her yes I mean we do that okay and everything from great um I may I restate my uh motion Mr used to um I uh I moved to direct uh staff to prepare uh uh a draft amendment to AML specialist legislation for a future town meeting to clarify citizens Library the citizens library operates as a branch library and outline specific duties for

105Citizens Library trustees and that all efforts be made to have this be a consensus decision foreign I yes I'll second that yes okay we have a motion and second further discussion from the board right yeah so um I formal vote could potentially extend the process but I do think that providing tangible decision making so that if you know if you know one group of the trustees whether it's AML or citizens isn't comfortable with it that there is that back and forth with between staff and I think that as liaison potentially that's something that I could help with this is trying to make sure that um our trustees do feel like they are part of the process so it could be and and that's why I think that I'm okay with with the motion is because

106um I think that that's something I can work with with the boards to make sure that our trustees do feel like they're being heard in the process but also that we're really giving value to um the work that staff um is doing to try to put together something um that helps our libraries run more efficiently thank you further comment from the board just one comment quick and I like how you phrase that to make the libraries run more efficiently for the town thank you we're ready for a vote all in favor of the motion please say aye aye opposed abstentions okay I think we have a password Mr manager thank you I'd like to thank everyone involved in this the various trustees and Library staff and interested members of the public item five discussion of

107potential articles for annual town meeting I defer to assistant Town manager Mark Hall for this one please good evening excuse me I'm in your online packet and on your desk our latest versions of the article spreadsheet and the timeline to the election and the town meetings further discussions if you could make them in the stairway would be great thank you so the board voted on December 19th to close the warrant on December I think it was December 19th December 19th yeah to close the warrant on February 15th this coming so we still have about five weeks remaining to receive citizens petitions of which we have received none so far um in the spreadsheet you'll see the usual articles that we have every year but also highlighted in yellow are the articles that are unique to

108this year for a total of 35 maybe it's 34 now um I can step through all of them or just take questions on the ones that you have an interest in describe them as best I can I think the uh I think probably that the most interesting ones are the uh amending the zoning bylaws you can kind of walk us through those a bit sure a few of them are probably eligible for consent they're just going to be what we would consider housekeeping articles renumbering accessory apartments that is um I believe there's a a lettering issue in the sequencing that needs to be corrected in in the signed by law there's an omission of the LED light color temperature that they want to add that would match another section of the zoning bylaw and a

109correction to the term uh just from distribution plant to Distribution Center to also match another section in the zoning by law to the zoning bylaw proposals that are that would probably not be um eligible for consent would be the firearms um placement or locations that that's been discussed here before and the other one is a modification to the zoning map which is the groundwater protection districts that would be to account for Wells in other towns where the zone 2 extends into actin and it's not currently shown on Acton's zoning map it's shown on the state map but not not our local map I believe that's the five zoning related and could you walk me through the uh chapter K personnel chapter K I believe is an older bylaw and it seems like some sections of

110it may have been superseded by the town Charter and where there's a town manager authority to do hiring there may be some Antiquated language in that bylaw that we want to look at and and perhaps modernize or eliminate okay um going back to uh number 13 uh men's zoning bylaw Firearms dealer do we have a a draft by law yet or what's where does that stand in the process I have not seen any draft without bylaw I even talked with um Christian gershard and she said she's waiting on whether the board wanted to move forward with such a a proposal for this town meeting okay thank you um questions from other members of the board David thank you um what is item eight the disposition of remaining balanced Douglas gate School building project that one

111just came in today it came in from the a b School District to both Acton and Boxborough and that is to the disposition of of the remaining fund balance of the gates Douglas School building project which is in excess balance apparently so I don't know the amount um the the request was just for a placeholder with details I'm on the school building committee yeah so they they um there are things they may want to include in the project so maybe that's what that's that's for okay um for the firearms dealers didn't we vote to ask the staff to make a draft um and so if Christian is confused then I'm confused the the direction that we got that night was to come back in January which I guess it's January with more information about that

112so I think this is a placeholder just so we don't lose track of it and we'll probably have something for you at the next meeting or in the meantime okay and and um the groundwater protection districts that's specifically for the new wells that are um it's it's actually related to Wells that are in other towns oh that's okay but but not our wells also right there's no changes for not not to my knowledge I mean there might be with oh I was kind of under the impression that there was but maybe not okay so um that's that's fine this specific placeholder is for that other matter okay um uh thank you and just I would be willing in order eager to get the draft language for these articles piecemeal if they're available please meal rather

113than waiting for the entire warrant um just to you know be able to give feedback on them thank you Jim yeah I had a comment about um possibly missing a change it would be along with the specialized opt-in stretch code which is number 15 here those those regulations are final so we are certainly able to vote on those the along with it is a related bit about the the 10 Town fossil fuel pilot that was enabled in um you know the last big State climate legislation we've seen draft regulations for that that describe an approach that's has a a bylaw for towns of a model bylaw to consider which basically says yeah sure we're going to adopt the opt-in specialized stretch code but we're going to cross out the parts that say you can use

114fossil fuels so basically the opt-in stretch go provides a way of building with all electric and with fossil fuel Wilson has different requirements for each and essentially it's a little more complicated than that because they disallow certain things they disallow the regulation of certain things it looks like it would be a bylaw that would be a passable you know as soon as the specialized opt-in stretch code was passed so I I would recommend we have a at least a placeholder there it's you know we'll have to work I know that Town Council has been working with the other towns that are in a very similar situation that are part of this 10 10 Town pilot so we may get some new information from them about how to handle the fact that our town meeting might

115be you know happening before the final regulations there may be a Way Forward yeah make us just a small comment specifically related do we have to I saw in the bottom of the 10 town uh thing that um towns have to accept that the the ten towns have to specifically accept to the laws that we passed previously the actors are acceptance or must there be another article to accept that's part of the clarity that we're seeking you know they issued some guidance on it and you know as was mentioned in our Uptown council's meeting to learn more exactly about those type of questions but we can flag that one if it hasn't already been flagged if it is the way I think it is I think it has to be another article that we specifically

116have to they name us as one of the possible ten towns but then somewhere like at the towards the bottom it says if towns want to do this they have to accept this and I didn't know whether what we passed already when we passed the bylaw and the home rule counted is that accept acceptance or whether we had to do something else right there does appear to be an actual application form in addition we wrote a letter right away that John wrote that said you know yeah we want to be in the pilot but there does seem to need to be an an additional act so we'll get the details from Town Council I personally I I think that it would make things a lot cleaner if we did bring such a thing back to

117town meeting again to make it very clear um I think you know people have had a chance to think about this for a year or so and there might be some arguments pro and con that could be made and I think the town meeting is the best place to make it so I think we probably do need a placeholder in case those regulations are have been completed in time I think I think a question for the manager is at what point do we want to sit down and start talking about uh assignments for these well I think the ones that aren't highlighted in yellow are safe to assign now uh and then we can expect that there will be another you know 15 or 20 or maybe even more assignments as more things develop getting

118closer or we could just plan to do that um in early February and look at the whole thing done yeah let's let's go for February I think thank you other comments from other members of the board David is this short enough to do on one night it's only listed as one night right now just because there was no need to divide it up right away um it's probably not a single night town meeting just looking at this list you don't think it's single night I wouldn't because other other than consent um uh what there are 13. so I just was thinking we do 13 articles a night oh no no so so so last year didn't we have close to 50 articles of course we don't know what citizens petitions are going to happen but

119last year we had close to 50 articles um and so it was the most articles we had seen in probably 10 12 years yeah I I think just the the firearms dealers and the minimum voting age probably could each take an entire night in themselves okay agreed all right um need further guidance yeah and this I guess this would just be the point where you know we let it let you know where we're at in terms of the placeholders and if there's anything that you think needs to be added you've already given us a couple but if there's anything else that you think is missing if you let us know we can start adding it to the list of things we're working on [Music] comments from board members Jim um I guess is along your

120lines Dean about wondering about assigning these um the ones that are you've mentioned too that I think are going to be both you know tricky complex and controversial uh and um to pass them is going to require you know a communication strategy getting the word out about these things having educational forms is probably not going to be enough to Simply film a you know a six minute video of one of the select board members standing up and you know showing a couple pictures so the sooner we do assign these the sooner we can you know get to work on you know hearing from people about them and communicating back and getting the dialogue going so that it's it's you know it's ready for telling me well I I think Imager you were the select board

121member who specifically recommended the goal a minimum voting age um do you but yeah I'm more than happy to um to take that on um but yeah it's it's definitely up to the board and David specifically because I know we both um had talked about um putting this on and David I think you were the select board member that communicated that you're most interested in the Firearms dealer regulation so do you want to take lead on that so you can start getting your arguments together sure that that that's fine and um uh you know for the for the others um um were you going to do them all right now I was just I would I don't think we need to wait to February from my point of view but I'd be happy from my

122point of view to have a little bit of time to think about them before next meeting so if we maybe we can just do that you know make the decisions in January but next meeting if it's if it's not too crowded in the schedule okay why don't we plan on this plan on the 23rd I believe is our next meeting um and we can uh and we'll assign them and depending on what you wanted to do uh Mr chair last year um um I was prepared to um speak to any of the um consent items that got held I mean I could do that again if you want or you you could do that whatever you think is appropriate it it involves some study and whoever is is uh who's ever going to do that

123because you have to you know be able to you know have a couple slides usually on those in case they get held okay thank you all right any other thoughts on this all right so item six Ace of Parliament foreign thank you yes I'm pleased to report that the president when he signed the large appropriation bill or whatever you call it at the federal level and the house approved at the house approved and the Senate approved it included a local uh funding that was advocated for and and put in put in before the Congress by congresswoman Laurie Trahan uh is and we're very pleased that as a result we have 750 000 that's been allocated uh in the federal budget to restore the historic ASAP Parliament House to provide event space to facilitate meetings Library

124programming cultural events and maintain historic integrity and visual impact for Woodbury Lane and to restore the appearance of the universal the municipal complex that also hosts as a library in the town hall so with this excellent news we have found yet another external funding source to help with a very uh important local high priority need and so I just wanted to touch base with the board on on that we have funding from that you've allocated from our Opera allocations and there's a little bit of money left over from a CPA funding that was approved by town meeting and so we have a a Project funding which we can put together a project and we want to move forward on it I just wanted to make sure that you know the last time we brought it

125before the board the concept that we discussed was to take the existing building rehab it well get rid of the taller structure that you can see that faces Town Hall bringing it down to its smaller core original structure and then add a small addition on the back to facilitate bathrooms and just kind of utility space and then kind of use that as a indoor outdoor meeting in gallery space studio for use by Community groups or the public or slack board meetings or whatever whatever we want to do there and so we would like to move forward there's been interest from members of the community that want to participate in sort of taking this thing forward and so I'd like to start working with them and the designer who's still on board to start working on

126that to try to move this project forward with the funding secured we can maybe have a plan together this this spring um it's optimistic to say we'd start construction in the fall but I want to I think we have the funding secured and I want to move forward and I just want to make sure that there's any if there's any concerns from the board that we that I hear them now so that we can incorporate that into into next steps well I think the two pieces of input that I would provide for you was that the funding that we have right now in hand is the most funding we have I I don't want to see you know somebody come up with a a more aggressive plan that's going to require additional funding because obviously

127it's too late to get it from town meeting it's way too late to apply for CPC funds um let's just get it done um it's been hanging around long enough I think we just I think we're talking in the neighborhood of a million dollars and I from various sources and I I would expect that we should be able to get some credible result for a million dollars back there for a very small structure I think you know in some of the designs that have been kicked around for years the concept of reducing it to its smallest most historic core I think is is still viable it's still important the other addition I would suggest is that when you look at design there's a very large chamacypus tree out there beside it Evergreen and I think

128whatever work can be done to make sure that we try to preserve that tree I think that's a a real nice aspect to the campus so I'd like to see that preserved if at all possible it's the only input I've got I'll look to the other board members Jim um yeah I'm comfortable with certainly going ahead and using the you know the federal allocation for the Ace of Harlem house I think it makes a lot of sense I guess I'd wonder if um if John if knowing that you have this 750 000 would you want to have the board consider reallocating any of the 300K of the arpa money uh to to other needs that now seem more pressing um okay I would not recommend that I think that part of the application or the

129process that we engage with with Congressman trahan's office was the fact that we did have local funding to match what the what she would put in in as as the earmark so I don't know if how that I don't think that would impact it but I I don't think that was how we envisioned this going I thought we envisioned it going as we need more than we have town meeting said no to what we were thinking last year we need to find another source we found it we want to move forward and get this thing done great come true Fran I'm so excited for this to move forward um and also can you work this into your larger project of the um parking lot as well like sort of an adjacent project when this is

130going on yeah so part of what we'll need to do is sort out what happens with that little driveway that's next to the building the existing family's driveway which goes up to that nice tree that you like so there'll be some consideration for the site and how it's kind of its final recommended layout and that will be incorporated into the design work that we're seeking funding for town meeting to redesign the whole complex for parking a pedestrian and bicycle improvements so yeah so it'll be it'll be combined but this is probably going to happen first because we don't have the funding for the parking lot at this time will there be it's your um plan to come forward with uh you know to try to work up with the design team that's the best use

131of the funding we have and then come back once more to the board for us to give it a thumbs up yes there are several people that have you know an interest in what what happens back there and I think I'd want to engage with all of them including a member of the board I think there was one assigned in any event yes we would come back and say Here's a final plan we're about to go and get it done any any last comments or concerns and then yeah so we we would do that and I don't know the schedule at this point there's a lot of we have a lot of things going on in transition wise but I did we did talk to the architect and said it listen if we get this

132Federal funding are you on board to help us again come January February and they said yes so we we can definitely get started again foreign moving along item seven discussed the latest concept plans for the new Main Street campus parks now to put this in context the select board goals August 2nd 2021. goal number 10 work with the Acton dog park committee and the Acton Housing Authority on design and construction of a dog park in a cohesive design for the whole site now over the years suing period of time concept has come forward about the peace in between the dog park and the anus Manor project being a elder-oriented Park area and that Dennis Dale has been hired to do a the design and so this is sort of an update let everybody know where

133we stand that there might be one of two decisions that we might ask the board to weigh in on at this point uh to move this project ahead so I will defer now to the manager thank you I just wanted to make sure that the board and and in this venue the public knows about these projects um because I received the request from Resident who said I heard there's something going on there and they didn't know about it so I just thought okay it's time to just make sure that everybody's aware of it um because I think it's pretty exciting that um the entrance to sort of heading up the hill is going to look entirely different with some exciting things to really meet some core needs in the community housing open space and other

134amenities so I don't have any specific concerns that we needed to iron out tonight I just wanted to make take the opportunity to make sure everybody knows that these were this work is underway and I hope there's a if there's any questions I'm happy to answer them I see we have Steve Trumbull who's the chair of the Recreation Commission here and I know there had been requested Rex sort of take point on many of these issues and also note we've got a member of the dog commit Park committee here as well so yeah I just wanted to just give you a quick update so we had uh one formal meeting prior to the holidays we we have always taken the position of supporting the two bookends of the McManus Manor and the dog park and

135not to get in their way um uh we have our next meeting a week from Thursday on the 19th and there will be some work that has to be cleaned up I'm sure after that and then we would like to come back to the select board to to give an update of where that is and what we think might work going forward we have a couple of challenging spots one is that there's not a lot of soil in the front part of that area from the that was removed over the years and um of course now that the the sewer and the big band is Center have gone through we've been working with the dog park I think Tom and I go to a lot of meetings but um we're we're really work looking forward

136to to bringing that back but we we're really in the middle and um we're addressing certain things and making sure that you know we're cognizant of of various activities around there like sidewalks and the use of or non-use of Isaac Davis way and all of that so more to come in about a month I guess thank you okay uh any other anybody from the dog park here to weigh in I think I've I've been liaison of the dog park committee and they've they seem to be coming up with almost a final design so Tom good evening Tom Gillespie with the chair of the dark Park committee we now have a design from Dennis Dale who is the designer and it's nice that he's able to sort of immediately connect work on the dog park with

137future work on the senior Park as well we have a design that has been modified to take the sewer extension into account and so that is how we expect to move forward we think the effort to pull that ahead because that really decouples a lot of the stuff wonderfully going on with the housing project with the dog park design the dog park design that Dennis has come up with is about sixteen thousand square feet accomplices a all dog area and a small dog area like we had talked about and it's a very attractive design the parking lot continues to come off of that small egress that's fairly close to route two there's no involvement with Isaac Davis way in that and we have accomplished a public forum where we went over this design and then

138also a survey that was sent out where we got a number of responses back asking some specific questions about usage even ground cover some amenities Etc so with all that sort of final data Gathering and process we're ready in the new year to work with Dennis get a final design done we will take that to Stanton and then use that for applying for the construction grant for Stanton and be pressing ahead this year so it's very exciting questions Jim um you mentioned and it's you know you've been clear on in the maps how how the entrance is sort of opposite the the you know the the entrance ramp there yep um does that mean that you need to uh coordinate does the state need to sign off on this design as well um perhaps Mr

139chair would speak to that but we have checked into some of that rather than just assume well there's a there's an existing curb cut in that location which accessed an existing residence so I know there has been you know there's possibilities at some point down the road that there'll be modifications to The Interchange of Route 2 and Route 27 but I think we're in pretty good shape at this point with that um and it does give good visibility in both directions so I think that's important yeah and again the scope is about 10 to 12 parking spaces so it's a it's not a huge um Source or drain all right well thank you everyone again for your support and your efforts thank you for all the work you've put into it it's been what five

140years okay uh can I just ask uh Mr chair do you have an idea when we would try to get a Consolidated plan with some pictures and things like that I mean it's just very oh it's all very exciting um I think the uh I think that plan will probably come forward probably after that meeting that's going to happen in a couple four weeks respect thank you yeah that's uh so that the bottom line is you know we've we've engaged all stakeholders I've seen three different plans for different pieces it's just a matter of combining them and doing some fine tuning I think I would expect the product back be before the board uh middle of February it's very exciting thank you okay next town manager review process now seems like we did this just

141the other day um and we're not going to start right now but um I've been working on a revised review document which is considerably simpler than what was used last time I think last time there was 15 categories and then there was opportunities for extensive commentary afterwards and I think a lot of board members myself included felt a little overwhelmed by it that document actually was something that was probably more appropriate for a town Department had to review one of their employees somebody that they that they deal with and interact with every single day and it just was was pretty overwhelming so there's a new document that's being developed right now I'm working with the town manager and the HR Director on that there'll be about 10 categories they'll still be ample opportunity at the

142end of the document to provide a narrative in any particular examples and input um but uh the rest of the document would be much more simple and straightforward uh importantly we're going to be really stressing on trying to come up with looking forward what sort of goals we have for the town manager in the next year in the past what's happened is we've never really come up with specific goals for the manager so the manager has sort of taken over the select board goals and done really an admirable job every year that I've been here in achieving most of them but you know there's a few of them that are not really appropriate to to gauge the manager on for instance we had the discussion a few minutes ago about lowering the voting age and

143that's really a political decision um so you know whether that passes or feels a town meeting there's certainly be no reflection on the manager and should not be viewed as such so I think it's important that we do start looking very seriously at at calls for the manager in in future years um but I think you know looking at the nice updates the manager has given us on progress he's made on the goals is uh you know a great sign so the important thing is um we'll probably at our meeting on February 27th we'll be handing out the document we'll go on electronically I'm going to give everybody about two weeks to fill out their individual reviews and send them back to me I'll be the lead reviewer on it I will work with the

144HR Director on that as well we'll compile that um so we'll give you about until about March 13th on thereabouts and then we'll be hopefully have the document done and back before everybody so that we can start talking about this in the end of March or very early April the important thing for me is to get this done while we have the present board in place and that it not be close to the election and most importantly not be involved in all the craziness that occurs right at the last couple of weeks before town meeting so we've got a little bit of time but I think that's pretty much my message it'll be a different document it's still under under review right now we're still working on it um but I do need a fast

145turnaround you know if we don't get if I don't get uh responses back from all five members of the board we'll have to move ahead with whatever responses we do get any questions Jim um first of all just thanks for thanks for diving into this really important question of of how Town managers evaluated and I think all the moves they're making are consistent with where we need to go one of the breakthroughs about last year's was that we remembered that we were allowed to ask for a self review first and having John draft up a response to the you know 15 or 10 categories was really helpful um for us to you know remember what you had done to remember to get a view of your perspective into how you're working with the rest of

146the organization which we only see in you know little little pieces um so I'm hoping that's part of the process too most certainly is yeah because we forget these things it only look through your calendars on your phone so many times you'll remember what y'all what you did in the last year any other question images yeah thank you um this all sounds good to me um one good question with regards to um the town manager go um are we envisioning this to be like broad goals that we would essentially recycle and reuse um for years to come or are we looking at specific like kind of like the select board goals in the moment what are the short and long term goals in the moment that we are hoping uh to work towards well I

147think a lot of the goals we'd be looking for for the manager it you know would be very specific to him and his team um and you know the for instance is a we have a challenge right now with a turnover and in Personnel on the finance Wing that'll be resolved before we get into this process but if we seize that kind of a challenge coming up again and we realize oh boy we've got uh you know an eight-person department and five of them are all resigning retiring then I think a goal would be something along the lines for the managers to you know find a way through that lack of help um are you going to reorganize are you going to provide Replacements that sort of thing so I think they'd be uh they'd

148be more personalized great thanks John if you have any thoughts as to how we'd like to parcelate your work for you yeah thanks for the opportunity I do think that you know there's things that I'm required to do by Charter which probably shouldn't be goals uh unless I'm not doing them and you could say you really need to make sure you do this next year for example but I do think that you know the conversation that we had earlier um would be a hard one for me to be assigned but that's the kind of thing you could say I need you to figure out the situation with next year or whenever and that could be a goal I wouldn't want six or eight of goals like that but that's the kind of things that you

149know you have them as select board goals which I you know I take as as partially mine or I take ownership in those and that's fine they could be the same you could have it could be a software goal and a Time manager goal doesn't have to be all new things um I'd actually prefer if it was duplicate um so yeah that's and I'm happy to it when I did the self-evaluation last year I believe I provided four or five examples of things that I thought would be a good goals for me to work on um so that yeah I know and I would probably do the same this year thank you all right um consent items item nine except dear from the Acton Lions Club 15 Christmas tree certificates for distribution at the discretion

150of the community services coordinator item 10. approve multiple one-day alcoholic beverage licenses for theater three located at 250 Central Street item 11 a point Joan Burrows as associate member of the commission on disabilities until June 30th 2025. item 12 appoint Melissa Wingfield as a full member of the commission on disabilities until June 30th 2024. on 13 pointless a nickel as the historical commission representative to the 250 committee until September 30th 2026. item 14 point Stephen Crosby is an associate member the Acton Minuteman representative to the 250 committee until September 30th 2026. 1915 approved the executive session minutes from 2010 to 2015 for release item 16 accept gift from William Janowski of a Honda em 2500 generator for use by the Acton fire department and Emergency Management well entertain a motion to accept consent items 9

151through 16 inclusive so moved second moved and seconded all in favor of accepting these items say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you I moved to adjourn we get a second second moved and seconded to adjourn all in favor say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you [Music]