 Good evening, town meeting members, elected and appointed officials, town employees and residents. I stand before you from the Town Hall Auditorium, where the seats normally would be filled tonight in anticipation of the arrival of the monotony Minutemen to signal the start of town meeting. It is silent as we enter our second virtual town meeting, but there's hope we will be returning here next spring. Before I begin, I want to thank Joe Currow for his nine years of service on the Slack Board and Dan Dunn for returning to the Board to serve as an interim member the past two months. On behalf of the Board, I also want to recognize Select Board Administrator Marie Kruppalka for her 62 years of service to the town. Thank Ashley Maher and Lauren Costa for their work in the Select Board Office and thank Town Council Doug Heim for his role in drafting the Select Board report and comments. We've been through a great deal as a community over the past year. We continue to work toward achieving immunity from COVID-19. Presently, more than 51% of town residents are vaccinated. At the same time, we mourn the loss of 86 residents to COVID and the more than 570,000 persons in the United States and 3.1 million worldwide who have died from COVID. We are extremely grateful to the healthcare workers, first responders and other essential workers who have provided services to our residents since the onset of the pandemic. Many of our town employees, particularly those in the police and fire departments, put themselves at risk to provide services to the community without interruption. Thank you to all town and school employees for your service to the community. Special recognition is in order for our Health and Human Services Director Christine Bonjono and her team for the COVID updates and continued guidance that they have provided to residents and businesses. They have overseen the administration of approximately 6,000 vaccinations in Arlington, including those provided at the regional site run at Arlington High School and through vaccinations given to homebound residents. HHS staff have also conducted contract tracing for the town's 1,827 reported cases of COVID. They have also managed the town's COVID relief fund, which has distributed more than $150,000 to local families and businesses. I also want to highlight other instances where our town and school employees stepped up to provide services to residents and to support valued organizations in town. At the regional vaccination clinics held at Arlington High School, employees from nearly every department work together to provide a calm environment for Arlington, Belmont and Lexington residents, healthcare workers and first responders who receive vaccinations. For young persons in need of mental health services, our Arlington Youth and Counseling Center transitioned to telehealth counseling last April and since then have conducted more than 7,600 sessions with its clients. For those struggling with food insecurity, the town provided support through CBBG and CPA funding to the work provided by our valued outside partners, FoodLink and Arlington Eats. In addition, the Council on Aging coordinated food deliveries for more than 7,000 meals delivered by Arlington Eats. In coordination with volunteers and Council on Aging staff, our police department distributed thousands of PPE to residents of housing authority properties, to Arlington Eats recipients and to residents in need. Our veteran services agent, Jeff Chunglow, collected over 16,000 donations of PPE for distribution to hospitals, assisted living facilities and nursing homes. The planning department coordinated the distribution of approximately $1.1 million in CBBG and CPA grant funds for tenants and local small businesses. Our town manager, Adam Chapter Lane and his management team provided strong leadership and kept the community informed through his periodic COVID updates. Also, in the midst of the pandemic, we are encouraged to see the New Arlington High School, the cost of which has been supported through the generosity of our taxpayers rising on Mass Ave. As I stand here today, the state of our town is strong. It is resilient. Notwithstanding this, we face many challenges ahead that need to be addressed through collective action. The murder of George Floyd last May in Minneapolis brought the issue of systemic racism to the forefront locally, across Massachusetts and throughout our nation. It forced us to engage in difficult but necessary discussions in recognition of needed reforms to the criminal justice system and to address racial disparities in areas such as healthcare, education and housing. There remains much work to be done locally, regionally and across our country in moving toward a society that is free of systemic racism and racial inequities. Toward that end locally, I want to recognize the work of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Director, Jillian Harvey. Jill has been a leader in coordinating the community conversations that will continue again this year. She has also been instrumental in implementing racial equity seminars for our employees and the racial justice teachings that many residents participated in this past winter. I also want to add a note on steps taken locally by our police department under the leadership of Chief Flaherty. In June, in furtherance of its community policing model, the department adopted a duty tantrum policy and updated its de-escalation and training standards, which along with pre-existing policies already in place, brought the department into full alignment with national use of force reforms that were called for at that time. In recognition that this remains an ongoing process, however, Chief Flaherty stated the department's commitment to continuously review internal policies to see how they may be advanced to reflect what the community expects of the police department and what the department expects of its officers. Other challenges we will face in the coming years concern how we will fund the cost of providing core town and school services as well as priorities such as the creation of affordable housing. Town meeting will be presented with a balanced budget for fiscal year 2022. We must be mindful, however, that there are storm clouds ahead. The Finance Committee report contains a five-year plan summary that shows sizable deficits beginning in fiscal year 2024. As town leaders, we must work together to minimize the projected deficits and make sound decisions for our community while also providing the best services possible to our residents. The work we perform over the next year will be critical to address these challenges. In closing, town meeting will be asked to vote on 91 warrant articles this year. In our current virtual meeting environment, this will require collaboration, patience and respect for different points of view. As we begin tonight, I am once again reminded of the words of our late select board member Kevin Greeley and similar words spoken by the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We can disagree without being disagreeable. I hope we take these words to heart in our deliberations this year. Thank you very much.