 Thank you and welcome. I'm calling to order this meeting of the only select board on Monday, May 2nd, 2022. I am select board chair Leonard Diggins and I will now confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me members when I call you name please excuse me please respond in the affirmative. This is my Han. Yes, thank you. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Mr. Corsi. Yes. Helmut. Yes. Mr. Haim. Yes. And board administrator Ashley Meyer is participating with not as a panelist. Tonight's meeting of the analysis like board is being conducted remotely consistent with an act signed into law on February 15, 2022, and that extends, certain covert 19 measures. that extends certain COVID-19 measures. The act includes an extension until July 15th, 2022 of the remote meeting provisions of Governor Baker's March 12th, 2020 executive order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law. The governor's order, which is on the town's website and referenced with the agenda materials for this meeting, allow public bodies to meet entirely remotely as long as reasonable public access that allows the public to follow along with the deliberations of the meeting. Before we begin, please note the following. First, this meeting is being conducted via Zoom. It's being recorded and is also being simultaneously broadcast on ACMI. Second, persons wishing to join the meeting by Zoom may find information on how to do so on the town's website. Persons participated by Zoom are reminded that they may be visible to others and that if you wish to participate, you are asked to provide your full name in the interest of developing a record of the meeting. Third, all participants are advised that people may be listening who do not provide comment and those persons are not required to identify themselves. Both Zoom participants and persons watching at ACMI can follow the posted agenda materials also found on the town's website using the Novus agenda platform. And finally, each vote tonight will be taken by roll call. This evening's agenda is potentially longer than it looks and I hope that we'll be able to get all the town's business done tonight before the third session of town meeting begins. I now turn to the second item on the agenda which is a discussion and vote on article 24, homeroom petition, I'm sorry, homeroom legislation slash financial estimates and budget documents. And we're gonna ask Mr. Corsi to lead us in this discussion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, so article 24, we talked about this early this year. This was put in at the request of the town manager and as a result of conversations I had with the town manager this year and a few years ago in a concern, the timing of the submission of the budget book that the manager prepares every year. Presently section 31 of the town manager act calls for the submission of the budget no later than January 15th. And that's to the select board and with copies to each member of the finance committee and in discussions with the town manager, three out of four years, the governor's budget with the local aid figures comes out after January 15th but before January 31st. And so in our discussions, I'd ask the manager if he thought it would be helpful if that date were extended. And for that reason and various other reasons he thought it would be. And so I had asked that this be put on. We've had some resistance from the finance committee to some questions from the finance committee on the timing of the submission of the budget and Mr. Chapter Lane, the chair and I actually attended the finance committee meeting last week. And what we had originally wanted to hear back from them on was how they felt about moving that date from January 15th through the 31st. And after a somewhat short discussion because it was before meeting, Fincom voted seven of five against this moving the date. And again, it's our recommendation to town meeting but we respect what Fincom has to say. So following that meeting, I had some discussions with the chair of the finance committee and suggested a potential compromise that might be acceptable to the board voting for town meeting, but also possibly could be acceptable to finance committee. And what that would call for, and I may ask Mr. Chair and may turn it over to Attorney Heim to walk through the changes because he has come up with to present to us. But in a nutshell, what it calls for is the submission of a draft budget by the town manager on January 15th and then a final budget on January 31st. That would be the change to section 31 of the Town Manager Act. Section 32 of the Town Manager Act presently calls for the select board to submit its budget recommendations which is basically submitting the manager's budget to Fincom on or before the first day of February. What the language that we're gonna hear from Attorney Heim is actually calls for it to be submitted by the first Tuesday in February. So actually sets a new date for the town manager to present the budget to select board for us to receive it and for us to pass it along. So that's the background of it. I felt that this is something that would be helpful to the town manager would still allow Finance Committee to do their work and hopefully through this compromise if it's acceptable to board members it's something we can present to town meeting. There was a separate issue on the warrant that maybe after this discussion I could talk about briefly if we have time, Mr. Chair but I don't know if Mr. Chaptolin or Attorney Heim would like to add to what I just summarized. Mr. Heim, you just shared your screen by all means feel free to go ahead and talk unless you'd like Mr. Chaptolin to start. If I may, I'll walk through this very quickly. So we'll be submitting home rule legislation. The recommended vote would be authorized like board to submit home rule legislation substantially along the following lines. I'll just slowly sort of scroll through this because it's really not a huge textual change for to achieve the purpose of what we're talking about. So essentially in section 31 of the Town Manager Act we would be adding language that essentially highlights a draft estimate which what we usually call the town manager's budget but a draft estimate in writing that would be on the same timeline that it is right now 15th day of January. And we'd highlight the fact that this is prior to the receipt of the governor's budget outlining projected state aid resources of revenue for the town for the ensuing fiscal year. We'd add a paragraph basically establishing a January 31st timeline for the manager to essentially submit a revised financial estimate or revised budget that's informed by the state aid numbers and that would be transmitted to you just like the draft budget would be and finance committee members would also be cc'd on that as well. In addition, as Mr. DeCorsi referenced we'd also be making a very minor change to section 32 that essentially codifies the select board's obligation, although the finance committee members will likely already have a copy of it to forward the budget with any comments on or before the first Tuesday of February which could be anywhere from a couple of days to a week after the current deadline, which is February 1st. And that's it. So I think the actual textual changes necessarily the town manager act to achieve this are pretty simple. As a comment, the comment is essentially a summary of what Mr. DeCorsi said and what you folks all know from your practical experience which is that the manager oftentimes submits a draft financial estimate to the select board and that gets forwarded to the finance committee. And then that immediately has to be amended positively or negatively depending on whether or not what the state aid numbers look like. And the manager highlighted for me that we don't necessarily have final state aid numbers but we do have usually have the benefit of the governor's budget which gives us a much more accurate picture of what we should be expecting. So this comment also recognizes the finance committee needs to get working right away. And so it's imperative for them to continue to receive that draft financial estimate that they're sort of CCed on by January 15th. So it gives them a head start on the process that they need to be engaged in but it also builds in a timeline for this revised financial estimate informed by this critical data that otherwise we wouldn't have. So with that, I'll stop sharing my screen but I can obviously bring it back up if folks have questions about the textual changes or the sort of general nature of the comment. And I can tweak anything very, very easily with respect to this idea. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hyde. May you miss chapter one in? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Really there is not much more to say than what Mr. Dacorsi and Attorney Hyde just described but I would just restate what Mr. Dacorsi said that I think this is a compromise that both allows the finance committee the time they need to do their work but also allows the manager, the board and the board to issue a public document that can be tied directly to the governor's budget estimates so that there isn't a change in what's even presented publicly to this board after the governor's budget is issued. So I think there's a good government transparency financial accessibility argument to be made as a backing for making this change. And I would say I would give Mr. Dacorsi great credit for taking what was disagreement last Wednesday and bringing it towards what may very well be compromised today if the board votes favorably on it. Thank you, Mr. Chapter Lane. So I'll turn to my colleagues for questions, comments. I guess since we're in full remote format I'll just go down the line. So I'll start with Mr. Heard. Thank you Mr. Chair. And I would just like to thank Mr. Dacorsi, Attorney Hyde and the time manager and Mr. Dacorsi for all the work on putting this together. I think the time this discussion is giving me memories of being back into the chamber way back when I think that's when, how long we've been talking about this and you made a good argument for why this would be beneficial back then. And I know there was some pushback right away from this finance committee with good reason. And I certainly have respect for the view of our colleagues in the finance committee but I think through discussions and compromise we've come up with a good plan here that really serves everyone's goals. So I'll move positive action on Article 24 as described by Attorney Hyde and Mr. Dacorsi. Thank you Mr. Heard, Mr. Helmut. Thank you. I happily second that and also second the sentiments of gratefulness to Mr. Dacorsi particularly for hammering out I think was reasonable compromise. It strikes me, I completely understand and respect finance committee and appreciate finance committees eagerness and diligence at starting early but it seems to me that it's in everyone's interest including Fincom that we are realistic and honest about the numbers we have. And if we're kind of perpetually we're starting from a number that everybody knows is gonna change that we're much better off everyone's I think would be better off with this. So I hope that it does prove to be reasonable compromise that meets all the needs. Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you Mr. Helmut, Mrs. Mahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And having never served on finance committee Fincom I can't speak for many institution and knowledge or anything like that. Please there was a compromise having appeared before Fincom myself in the past. I know a lot of work at home work behind that. And I don't know if Fincom members or whoever sets the schedule maybe regardless of what the date is on the budgets that are pretty much the same year after year. I don't know if they stop those on the front end and to alleviate that problem but that's not something I have to I don't know Mr. DeCorte can give me a quick answer on that or not. There's truly no budgets that are like that but it seems like certain budgets are probably pretty much pro-former year after year. Mr. Corsi. Yeah, thank you Mr. Chairman. Yeah, Ms. Mahan that's right. Typically if you look at the history of the finance committee that the so-called general government budgets which we town clerk select go to office town manager those are usually done first they don't really change that much from year to year and that sometimes it's a function of the subcommittee members too those subcommittee members were ready earlier but those are the ones you typically see early on you see schools later you see the last thing you usually see are the enterprise funds with water and sewer being at the very end of the process but you're right there are some budgets that are typically done very early in the process. Okay, thank you. And thank you Mr. Chair. Welcome. So yes, I mean I'm totally fine with this. I mean, I appreciate what Mr. Corsi did. I mean, it was very, it was a very interesting FNCOM meeting. It was my first one of attended long range planning committees we never actually had attended one FNCOM meeting when I was campaigning. I mean, this one was different from that one but yes, very much appreciated which was also very clear is that the FNCOM can get the numbers that they need for any budget any department when they wanted me the Tom managers made that very clear meeting. So this is just going to give us the flexibility meaning that we need in order to provide as the Tom manager said, better data to the public when we released the draft. So with motion from Mr. Herd for favorable action and a second from Mr. Helmuth, Mr. Heim. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chairman. Yeah. Just add something before the vote. Sure. Okay, yeah. And again, just in terms of the compromises I mentioned this has not been voted on by finance committee and we're not sure where they're going to come out. I was comfortable for the reasons I stated and for the reasons Mr. Chaplain and Attorney Heim stated that this was a reasonable compromise. They had good discussions with Chair Foskett but I just wanna, you know, we don't know what the finance committee will do with this evening but I certainly wanted to let the board know I'm comfortable with the change here. I thought it was a good compromise and I don't know if I mentioned the vote that they had last week was seven to five before this compromise. So it was a close vote to begin with and if I could just for another minute or two there was also discussion at the meeting last week about the timing of the warrant and when it's published by the select board office and the numbering of the warrant and there was concern that this year that they'd come out later than prior years and that they were looking for some sort of agreement with us as to timing on that. And my feeling on that is in a field the timing was perhaps two weeks after the warrant closes and I think that's appropriate for a policy of the select board and a goal for us to have. I don't think it's something that we need to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the finance committee but I wanted to give you full disclosure in terms of what else was discussed there. And so I think what I would propose doing is when we set our goals and we update policies we perhaps set that as a policy for publishing the warrant with the numbers and to the extent things were latent and I had a role in that this year as chairman I'm sorry for that but it's the way things happened but I certainly will be more involved in it. I encouraged members of the finance committee to involve the chair in any concerns that they have this year but it just didn't feel like something that rose to the level of requiring an agreement. So I wanted to point that out to the board in terms of additional discussion and originally what was a desire of the FinCon to tie that in with this, I view them as two separate issues. Thank you. Yeah, yes, Ms. Mohan. I'm just very briefly, definitely want to discuss that. I will say from previous years because the warrant is the select board's office as well as the town moderator and chair of finance committee. I can speak from personal knowledge that we're always ready to go. It's getting the other two pieces of the pie to allow us to do that final check off. So I just wanted to, I know Mr. DeCorsi is willing to put himself under the bus and that's okay but I can tell you that just about every year we're waiting to hear back from piece two and piece three of the pie. We're all set to go. So when we have those discussions, just if my colleagues could be aware of that knowledge and maybe we need to as a policy discussion discuss how we encourage, we can't require but the moderator who's new now, we have a new task we all know as well as chair of finance committee who's pretty relatively new to that position. So I just wanted to add that. Thank you. Well, thank you, Mr. Mohan. I mean, I guess I'll just add to what Mr. DeCorsi added. It was also suggested that if we had stuck with me the original plan, I mean, before the compromise that we pushed back to start a town meeting by two weeks, so that's out there. And that could have other ramifications but we'll save that for our discussion later on. So with that, I'll go back to Mr. Heim and to take the vote. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Mr. DeCorsi. Yes, Mr. Heim. Yes. Mr. Mohan. Yes, thank you. Yes, it came through a little strung out but I think you said my name Mr. Heim and I said yes. I did, did you know this? Okay, great. I mean, I may be seeing an unstable internet connection soon but usually it's pretty good here. So we're gonna move to item three now in this discussion of select board meetings. I mean, I have this on the agenda because I mean, as all of you who've been chair, know sometimes you see things coming and it becomes apparent that you're gonna need more meetings than you have planned, I mean. And so our agenda for the 16th is getting kind of stacked and there's some things that are coming after that that I know are gonna require that we have a meeting on the 23rd. And so I wanna see if members, if we can get a quorum for that meeting and so can members make that? Of course, Tom meeting will still be going on. That's a 100%. You can bet everything on that, you know. And so it'll be an hour long meeting. So I guess I'm seeing nodding heads. I'm not seeing any more. Okay, so then we'll have one on the 23rd. Great, thank you. And I'm from, I guess I'm getting a little paranoid about even with the 23rd, I'm a little concerned about waiting until the 16th of June for a next meeting. Once again, I don't know, I mean, I think one of the reasons we pushed back a little bit further ahead in time is because, well, chances are we'd be all done by Tom meeting by the 16th. I don't know about the 6th, but I guess I would feel a little better about having the 16th and the 20th and then waiting until the 13th, even if we just had an hour long meeting on the 6th. How are people feeling about that? Can we, just as a suggestion, what if we were to do like a Tuesday meeting where we could be in person and we could have a longer meeting? So you want a long meeting on the 23rd? I mean, if we're worried about, instead of, I mean, we'll see what works better for other board members, but I mean, for me, for my personal schedule to just kind of pump, keep pumping them week after week is difficult. I'm just saying, if it's a time crunch, then do it on a day that we don't have Tom meeting and we can go as long as the business suggests, but. What's the idea? I mean, I do have conflicts on Tuesdays in general, I mean, MBTA conflicts, you know? So, I mean, this would take priority, but if we could avoid Tuesdays, I mean, that would be good. So that opens up Thursdays, you know? So, but you're saying that the constant pump on Mondays aren't working for you to start? I mean, I'm just saying having a lot of shorter meetings is more difficult for me than just personally, than having fewer, longer meetings. I mean, after eight or nine o'clock, I can stay till one in the morning, but I mean, just with my family situation, a lot of meetings where I'm tied up between from seven to nine o'clock is difficult, but I mean, again, just go up, it's a board consensus. So I don't want the whole board to be put out because of my schedule, but for me, if we had, if it was a concern about getting business done and we're able to find nights where we could spend more time on select board business, fewer meetings, that works better for me. I hear you, I hear you, you know? Although we'll have a general discussion about that, I mean, another time, just really trying to work out in the near term, at least getting us through June, because we clearly can't make it from the 16th of May to the 13th of June without a meeting. So we got to have one between the 16th and the 30th, and preferably be about five days or so before the 30th for something that's coming up. I mean, and so whether that is on the 23rd, the 24th really is rough for me. I mean, it's just a long running MBTA commitment. Actually, that kind of got shifted me to Tuesdays in order to allow me to make the Monday meetings mean. So I guess I could open up the 26th, so 26th. 26th is better for me. It's better for you? Yeah, if we're gonna do a full night meeting. All right, and how is 26 for other folks? It's fine with me. All right, and so through the 26th, 7.15, it'll just be a full night, I mean, and we can put discussion of future meetings mean on that agenda to just in case we do need something before the 13th, okay? Great, so right now at this point, we have the 16th, 26th, the 16th at 7th, the 16th at 7th, the 26th at 7.15 mean, and the 13th mean at 7.15. Alrighty, so next on the agenda is for approval, the Argentine Heights Spring Fling Festival on Saturday, May 21st. So do we have Ms. Janet O'Rearden here? Great. Here, she should be joining the meeting right now, Mr. Chairman. Sure, thank you. Those who have, hello Ms. O'Rearden, how are you doing? Not hearing you, I think you're muted. Yeah, there you go. Yes, good evening, everybody. Good evening, thank you for having me. You're welcome, so you wanna tell us a bit about the Spring Fling, that's quite the tongue twister. I know, Spring Fling Festival. Okay, well, it's a follow-up role, this Saturday we're having the Spring Window Painting, there'll be 54 windows painted in 23 businesses in the Heights. So, and then two weeks later, we thought we would have a Spring Festival sort of to bring people into the Heights, see the windows, and then have some all sorts of fun activities for people to do, and there's a major environmental theme to this theme's festival as well. So I did send a proposal and an attachment, has everybody seen that, like what I'm asking for? Okay, so yeah, so this is the first of its kind. I mean, as far as I remember, I don't know if they've ever had a Spring Festival up in the Heights, but I've been working very closely with Cecily Miller from the commission, and that's a lot from the chamber, and we've got some other volunteers. And so far, it's turning out, I think that we've got quite a program actually, a pretty full program for everybody, I think that afternoon. And so I guess we can go over the things that I'm asking for, is that what I should do? Cause I don't want to take too much of your time, I guess. I would say, if everyone's read it, we can probably not go through everything, I'll just turn it over to my colleagues and ask if they have questions or concerns, and see if we can get a motion. Okay, sure. So going down the line, alternating the starting point, we'll start with Mr. Helmets this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd happily move approval. I appreciate that you took the time to meet with Officer Roto and the others to work out logistics ahead of time. That's always a great way to do it. I'm very excited to see what you do. I think that there's been some wonderful collaborations with the Commission for the Arts in the Heights in the last couple of years. So I'm really excited to see this idea and I look forward to attending. Okay. One thing I might want to ask, because there is, I did ask for the parking spaces, but now what about the bike lane? I think that's maybe going to be the issue tonight, whether, so we want to have the spaces and the two ends of Mass Ave just to sort of spread out the whole event, have the tables near the Heights Hub and have the table near the bus depot. So originally we just thought we would have the bike lane, I mean, excuse me, the parking spaces, they're only eight feet wide. And so if we have a tent or something, it might be better to have the lane as well. So I guess that I would like to know whether you think it's okay to have both the lane and the parking space so that we can, people can put up a tent if they want. I don't know if everyone, yeah. So I think that- Thank you. So my question is, did you discuss that with Officer Roto or other town officials? I did. Well, he said that I would have to, he said in the past, again, I think like an East, Feast of the East, they did have tents up on Mass Avenue, of course, and that would go into the bike lane. And he said, well, I think the bicyclists, probably not too happy, but that's something that you should just ask the select board about. But he didn't think that it was something that couldn't be done, but he just said, well, I think you should ask them what they think. And he knew that Len, Mr. Diggins is also an avid bicyclist and maybe- Okay, yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah. Okay. That's fine, I appreciate that. So I will move approval and I will be attentive to my colleague's thoughts, particularly in the bike lane issue. So if you want to further refine my motion, regardless of that or not, I will leave that in your capable hands. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Helmets. Ms. Mohan? I'll be happy to second that. And along with Mr. Helmets, I'm okay with giving approval for the, I think it's four and a half hours to the sidewalk space and bike lane. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Dacorsi? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, I'll also support approval on this as well. And I defer to you, Mr. Diggins, if there's any particular concerns on the bike lane issue, but given the length of time, I'd be willing to support this as well. Thank you, Mr. Dacorsi, Mr. Heard. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I guess I'll talk about the event first before I talk about the bike lane. I'm very excited about this. I live up in the Heights. I actually have been talking to Tom Manager for a couple of years about having some sort of festival up in the Heights that we had thought we were gonna do in conjunction with October Fest, but I think I was gonna call it Heights Fest. So spring fling sounds much better. And I think draws much more positive attention. And to anyone that thinks that the requests are overly onerous, I actually was gonna suggest making Mass Ave one way for the period of the festival. So I think what you're asking for is much more reasonable and measured. So I do look forward to it and I will be happy to attend this. I guess my concern with bike lane is not just for bicyclists, but it's also good to have a buffer between the event and the cars that are going by. And is it, if we come back and say that you just have the parking spaces, does it dramatically reduce the business's ability to do what they're planning on doing? You mean just like the tables, the organizations or anything? Or just what their plans are? Yeah, the plans are, I mean, originally we were just gonna have people were providing tables and chairs for these organizations. And so, so certainly eight feet is enough to have a table and a couple of chairs and for people to come up. We can do without the bike lane, but the bike lane would just give them more space if they did wanna put a canopy or a tent. That would be like 10 feet, at least 12 feet, you know? So my preference is to not go into the bike lanes and as long as they can do what they need to, what the business want to do and it doesn't hamper kind of the purpose of the event, I personally would prefer to leave the bike lanes in place, both of the cyclists. And again, you know, I have a couple of crazy kids that and you think of the kids sitting there and kind of shoot out into the street past whatever event is happening in the parking spaces, it's good to at least have a little bit of space between where the cars are passing by. So my preference is to leave the bike lanes in tax, but again, I mean, it's a poor decision. So I mean, I'm happy to move approval in, but as long as the event can function as it is intended with the bike lanes in tax, that would be my preference. Right, could I just mention, we were also thinking that, you know, that sometimes, and again, I don't even know if the organizations will all wanna put up a tent, maybe just a few, but we also thought if there were a couple of tents, you know, that would sort of alert people, hey, something's going on here, be careful, ride slowly. And by the way, we've been in touch with Officer Flaherty and we're gonna take over like, well, that that busy board up in the Heights, we're gonna have something put saying, you know, reduce speed of festivals going on, whatever for that day as well, coming from Lexington area. So they'll see that, that will alert people driving. I know we are concerned about people driving and we want them to go slowly down Mass Ave, but we thought that again, maybe a tent would sort of alert people, hey, something's going on, why don't you go slowly, you know? So just another perspective, but, okay, okay, yeah, but sure. Okay, Mr. Chair. Yeah. I appreciate that, you know. So, and just for the record, I do not ride a bike at all, you know? But I do care about cyclists, me a lot, you know? And I think it's because I don't ride a bike at all that I feel as if I can advocate for them a little more strongly. I mean, I know in a certain sense that's counting intuitive me, but it doesn't seem like I'm just kind of being, as the traders would say, it's selling my own book, you know? But yeah, it's just that. If when we had a conversation, you know, and I really appreciate the conversation, you know, at first I thought it was just going to be one spot. And I was even hesitant with one spot. And then I kind of wanted to have this presentation from you to get a really better sense of what the whole thing was going to look like. Because if essentially we had, I mean, people kind of milling in the street, I mean, and traffic was going really slowly, you know, down Mass Ave. And we had, I mean, police officers just really kind of watching traffic and guiding it through slowly. Then I'd be okay with taking the bike lane because like everyone is going to be going slowly, but that's not what's happening. And I really don't like the sense of cyclists having to jut out into the street, you know? And then you like to think people paying attention, but I mean, drivers are doing just about anything, but paying attention to the road, some of them. Most of them are really good, but it only takes me one to hit a cyclist and we have a bad scene. And I just want to do all I can to minimize that, I mean, and it would be setting a precedent. And yeah, we could pull back from it if we wanted to, but I just prefer not to. And also I saw some other comments that if this goes well, we want to do more of them. And yes, we do want to do more of them, but let's try to do more of them, you know, without taking bike lanes and out, you know? And so I know it's just a part of a bike lane, but it does force the cyclist to jut out into the road, I mean, and so I really would like to avoid that. And so I was happy when you explained to Mr. Hurd that it's not going to inhibit the businesses from achieving what they want. It's just going beyond being beyond that. And so let's try about taking the bike lane and there might be some other creative solutions we can come up with that gets that tent for the businesses. So I'm going to stop talking because I see Mr. Helmets stand up. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just because I was the author of the motion, like to amend my motion to move approval, but without the bike lane provision. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Helmets. That's all I got. Thank you. So do we have a second on that amended motion? Second. Thank you, Mrs. Mohan. And so any further comments? Questions, concerns? No. All right. So the motion from Mr. Helmets and a second from Mrs. Mohan. Mr. Heim. Mr. Chair, am I correct interpreting this as we're voting on the proposal as amended by the board? Are we voting on the amendment separately first? Oh, well, thanks for pointing that out, Mr. Heim. I mean, we are voting on the proposal as amended. Okay. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Of course he. Yes. Mr. Helmets. Yes. Mohan. Yeah. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Jean-Anne is voting. Great. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Ritten. Okay. So thank you. So all set except so we can do everything except not take the bike lane. Yes. Okay. And let's hope we can move, you know, in the future, this is sort of, we'll set this precedent and maybe more will come in the future as far as more events. And, you know, this is a trial for the Heights. I think this is, I'm looking forward to this and thank you for your support. Okay. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you everybody. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Okay. So let me pull up the agenda here. We're on to consent agenda. And so on that, we have the minutes of the meetings from April 11th and April 25th. Number five, number six is request contractor drain layer license with Eduardo Pinheiro. Number seven for approval Memorial Day ceremony, May 30th, 2022. Number eight, Charlie Proctor Memorial Ride. Number nine, Porch Fests at Whitmore Park on June 18th from noon to 6 p.m. And number 10, Summer Concert Series at Whitmore Park on July 13th, 20th, 27th and August 3rd. And so I turned to my colleagues unless the time manager sees someone, I mean, in the participants that he thinks wants to speak to one of these issues. So, Charlie? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think I would only note that Galen Mook from Mass Bike is zoomed in right now. Would you like me to see if he wants to say a few brief words about the Proctor Memorial Ride? Sure. While he's joining the meeting, I'll share with you that. I met with Mr. Mook and Officer Roteau in lead up to putting this on the agenda. And Officer Roteau gave the most warm thanks to Mr. Mook for his preparation and very, very detailed plans for this event. So I think that was worth sharing how highly Corey thought of the work put forth on this application. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mook. Thank you, Len and everyone on the select board and Mr. Towne managed those a very lovely introduction. I appreciate that. So the story is we're looking to do an event on the Minuteman Bikeway, which is a memorial ride for Charlie Proctor, who obviously we've been dealing with the aftermath of that crash for the past couple of years. And I'm appreciative of all the work that's like board in the town and the DPW and the police and all of have done to work on safety. This is an event to memorialize Charlie as a person. So it's actually following a day after his formal memorial service, the family and friends will be in town. We're leading a ride that's gonna start at the Bacau sailing pavilion at the Mystic Lakes. With the state police, DCR, we're gonna be traveling down Mystic Valley Parkway, come up through where we meet the town at Summer Street, and then we're gonna hop onto the Minuteman and the ride goes out to the end of Bedford, turns around and comes back. We realize that at MassBike, we understand the concerns around having large events on the Minuteman Pathway. So we were very cognizant and wary about how to approach the municipalities. We went to Lexington and Bedford as well to kind of discuss with their bikeways committees. Also learned that there's no formal process to actually ask for a collective event throughout all municipalities. So there's also a little bit of piecemeal, which is fine. And if there's any concerns around it, we aren't actually expecting that many riders. We're gonna cap it at 100 RSVPs. We're thinking that that's actually only gonna be close to 80 riders tops. Right now, we're only at about 30 and the ride is gonna take place on Memorial Day weekend. So it's on May 29th. But we're hoping that this is an event that is fully in support with kind of the safety and recognizing that this is not just, Arlington's concern, this is also state police concern, this is DCR concern, Lexington and Bedford. We're also hoping this can be an annual event. So we're working out some of the processes on year one to make sure this can be a success for year two, three and going forward. We did get a traffic management plan per request by state police. The state is will be out on Mystic Valley Parkway. We're gonna have detail out. We're gonna have a cone situation set up. So Mass Bike is fronting the work that's going into actually doing the management plan around it. So happy to share that with the select board that's any concerns around some of the background details. But I will say this is a first for us. So in terms of running this ride on this date and happy to address any concerns as they pop up. Some of the ones that we've heard is how are we gonna message to our riders that the bikeway will be open for all users? So we're gonna be messaging very strongly that we're gonna be having riders ideally keep the pace at around average 10 miles an hour. This is the priorities of users on the pathway are going to be honestly the littlest ones and people who are walking and we're gonna have bells for everybody. Everybody's gonna have a little flag on or a little race bib so that they'll identify themselves. And we're gonna work on signage which also may or may not happen because I don't have to get requests for signage. But along the bikeway in Lexington and Bedford too about Memorial ride this date just reminding folks to stay to the right alert when passing, dismount when crossing and follow all applicable laws as well. So hopefully this is a great success and I fully am wary of adding more capacity with events or more demand on the bikeway and already kind of overstretched and capacity on a busy weekend. So we're wary of this and hopefully we're gonna mitigate any of those concerns. So with that, I don't know if that was anybody's concern but I feel like I had to address it. So I'm here to answer questions and if there's any interest in participating I can also follow up by sending a note of the RSVP link and I know Len's already chimed into volunteer for it. So yeah, no, no, not yet. Okay, well, we'll make sure that the invite goes to you. Okay, yeah, I haven't gotten an invite. Don't know if I'm gonna be available that weekend, but we'll see. Okay, I'm trying to throw it out there, but... Yeah, okay, good try, you know. So with that, any questions, comments? Motions? We're very happy to move approval, Mr. Chair. And this is on the consent agenda. All of it. Thank you. Sorry. Especially this one. Thank you for the time, guys, I appreciate it. You're welcome. Sorry, I jumped the gun, but I feel positively about this and everything else that needs to be connected. Great. Not to cut off the conversation, please. Oh, no problem. It's just that, you know, we got 14 minutes. That's why I'm kind of, you know, so yeah. I'm never here. Yeah, okay, you know, so thank you, Mr. Heard. Any questions, comments? All right, with a motion from Mr. Heard to approve the consent agenda in a second from, I'm sorry, Mr. Helmuth to approve the consent agenda in a second from Mr. Heard, Mr. Heim. Mr. Heard. Yes. Of course he. Yes. Helmuth. Yes. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Thank you. So we're now on to traffic rules and orders. Item number 11 is the Tom manager search consulting service and interim internal candidate solicitation. So that it's me and we have Mrs. Malloy has posted to internal candidates. I mean, department has me to see what interest there is in for someone to serve as interim Tom manager. And she and I will be talking next Tuesday to follow up on that. And also the other thing I want to accomplish on this item is to get my colleagues approval for the selection of, let me pull it back up again. Paranyme, community paradigm associates mean as the search form. So as you know, we have to take the lowest beds mean we had three bidders mean two were on close to each other. And for Mrs. Malloy and I, it was a pretty easy call to go with community paradigm. And so if you have any questions or concerns, I mean, I'm happy to entertain them. I'll see what I can do in terms of answering them. So... I'm Mr. Chair. Yes. I guess I would ask to you through you. I'm not sure if it's a town manager, a town council. Having done, I think this will be the fourth or fifth now, fourth, are we bound to take the lowest bid? Because I don't recall that. I don't know that we have any written policy on that. And my other question is, I just have concern where one of the principals is a current town, town of Allenton employee. So that's why I have had discussions with members of the subcommittee, not Ms. Malloy, not on that particular point, but on a different point. So, two questions. One, are we bound to take the lowest bid? And two, just in the spirit of complete transparency where one of the six principals is one of our, and it's not the town manager, Mr. Chapter Lane, is a current town employee. I'd really like to, and if we end up going with what's before us, that's fine, but I'd like to have as clean of hands as possible. I appreciate that. So, Ms. Hyde. So the answer is, because the contract is valued at over $10,000, they may not have been in the past. Also the amounts for 30B specials have changed over time. And we used an invitation for big process. Our options are to either take the lowest responsive bidder or to not take any of the bidders at all. So you don't have to accept anything. You don't have to use this particular response bidder, but of the folks that we got bids from, we are obligated to take the lowest unless there's a disqualification that would preclude, that would evidence that they're not basically qualified to take the look. So I'm not as familiar with the situation that Ms. Mahan is alluding to, but if there was a, they weren't qualified to take on the work, then you could go to the next one, but otherwise your options are to either take this lowest responsive bidder or to basically go back out and say, we're not taking any of these bids. We want to cast our net out. Hey, well, I certainly don't want to slow this down where I long, I've been saying as others have, would like to do this as expeditiously as possible. I just want to notice for the record that I do have a concern that, and it sounds like if we don't take paradigm, then we have to start all over and go from there. So certainly don't want to do that, but I just want to go on the record noting that I am caught aware of the fact that one of the five or six owners, principals of the company is a current town employee who is not Mr. Chapsaling, nor Mr. Attorney Hyme, and I'll leave it at that. Thank you, Ms. Mahan. Anyone else, questions, concerns? You're not looking for any kind of emotion, Mr. Chair, are you? Well, it's a good question. I guess I don't need emotion. I did get emotion last week when I told you about the intention to move forward with posting for the interim, meaning that we're going to review the bids and come back to you with a selection. To me, this is kind of going to, it's a bigger step forward, and so to the extent I got emotion on that one, I would like to on this one, I will say this, I mean, I am perfectly happy to take Ms. Mahan's concerns back to Ms. Maloy, and I would do that even with emotion, so what emotion would do is allow me to comfortably move forward, should I bring the concerns to her as she allayed my concerns? Well, okay, I'll make it easy. I move approval of us, the town moving forward with paradigm consultants for the town manager's search process. Thanks, Mr. Herd. I guess I'll go down the line here, so I've heard from Ms. Mahan. Mr. Herd, Mr. Corsi? Yeah, I'll second Mr. Herd's motion, and I wasn't aware of the second issue, Mrs. Mahan raised, but I mentioned that person is identified that person would not be participating in this assignment, and I think that's something that perhaps you can work out with Ms. Maloy and Attorney Hine, and again, not knowing what the facts are there, but I mean, if there is some sort of issue that there's a town employee who is also principal here, I think that's something that, as I said, I'm happy to second Mr. Herd's motion, but I just want to make sure that there's no issue with that going forward. Yes, that's easy enough to do and something I would want to do anyways. So thank you, Mr. Corsi. Mr. Helmets, any comments, questions? Yeah, just happy to support this, and I would also want to just give you an expectation if we do indeed have a town employee who's principal, my expectation was that they would more than likely recuse themselves from participating in the process subject to advice from Attorney Hine and Ms. Maloy. So that would be my request to investigate that. And for me, that would be more than likely an acceptable remedy for any potential conflict of interest. Thank you. All right, thank you. And so look for the comments from me. So I think we're all set with this discussion at this point and with that motion to approve the selection of Paranyme Associates for the search firm from Mr. Herd and second from Mr. Corsi and Mr. Heim. Mr. Herd. Yes. Mr. Corsi. Yes, Mr. Helmets. Yes. I'll vote yes. And I'll just carry my colleagues' remarks regarding the current town employee who is, I believe he's called our assistant town manager who is not Mr. Feeney, nor Mr. Pooler, but it's in charge of our records request. And I don't have any issue in terms of his work performance or anything like that, but I think if the chair could go back and I know my colleague, looking over the list, can I pick out who this individual is? And if we could, I just think in the interest of his or her position with the town as well as being a principal with Paranyme, it would also be to their benefit to also issues from the process. So I don't mean to be so sub-diffused with it, but thank you. So I'll support this, yeah. And yes, for me, and it's fine. I mean, it's totally fine. I mean, I'm not, I think what you're doing, Ms. Mahon, is appropriate and totally fine, and it's worthy of further discussion. So as I said, I mean, this is not going to rock it as forward, it just gives us the ability to move forward in 10 days, but this will merit a discussion with me with Ms. Maloy tomorrow, so thank you. And let me get back to the agenda here. Mr. Chair, did we conclude that vote? We need to vote. I'm sorry. I voted yes, I'm sorry. So unanimous vote. And thank you for noting that, Ms. Mahon, and I'll be sure to vet the issues appropriately. Appreciate it. And further, Mr. Chair, if I could, just if we could request to report back on that particular issue, the board just in case there was a mix up about to the very current status of the situation, I think that would be good to have that public as well, just so we, just so we're all clear on what their outcome with that discussions. Yes, yes. Yes, Mr. Herman, we'll get to do that in our long meeting on the 26th. We'll have time for it. And with that, we'll move to correspondence received. And this will be really short on my part because I put this on because I have forgotten it had been included on the consent agenda. I got a email from Mr. Petru asking about the left term restriction on Appleton and Mass Ave. And I remembered that this letter had come through in and I looked for it, but didn't see it because I was looking at the wrong place on the agenda. So Mr. Chapter Lane told me that, well, we discussed this, what's up? And I told them, and so maybe he might have a quick report for us on what's going on at that intersection. So thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wasn't able to confirm what had been installed, but as we had discussed, this board already voted affirmatively at its March 20th meeting to approve what's requested in this memo. And I will work with the chief to make sure that what was approved, that if it has not already been implemented is in fact implemented. Okay, thank you, Mr. Chapter Lane. So is that your hand up, Mr. Hart? A motion to receive. Thank you. So any other questions, comments? I just, I mean, the timing is just handling it, but I did drive by that intersection the other day with the sun blaring and was recalling that we had voted on that. So whatever haste we can put into figuring out the left-term restriction, I think is important. Thank you, Mr. Hart. So with the motion from Mr. Hart and the second from Ms. Mahan on C to the letter, Mr. Heim? Mr. Heim? Yes. Mr. Corsi? Yes. Mr. Heimman? Yes. Mr. Mahan? Yes. Mr. Deane? Yes. Mr. Heimman? Thank you, Mr. Heimman. So quick around the new business. No, you gotta get to town meeting. Can I make the motion to suspend and reconvene reconvene at 8 p.m. at the regular town meeting? Thank you, Ms. Mahan. Second. Mr. Heim? Second. Mr. Heim? Yes. Mr. Corsi? Yes. Heimman? Yes. Yeah. Mr. Deane? Yes. Mr. Heimman? Two there, folks. Yes. Go open at the town meeting. Mr. Cora, bye. Bye, bye. Bye.