 Okay. You ready Mr. Gallagher? Okay. Please rise for the senior to star Spangled Banner accompanying Mr. Gallagher. Thank you very much Mr. Gallagher. This evening if we are diligent, works right through, we may be able to get done. In that regard, buy your goodies from the tennis girls in case we get out before the break. We don't really got all that set up about this. We want to make sure they get that sold and fund those tennis rackets. I assume everybody's been sworn in. I hope so. I recognize the Chairman of the Board of Select Mr. Dunn. Under motions that I hope never become relevant. It is moved that if all the business of the meeting as set forth in the warrant for the annual town meeting is not disposed of at this session when the meeting adjourns to Monday May 13th 2013 at 8 p.m. All in favor please say yes. Opposed? Okay. We're going to meet. The yeses win. We're going to meet Monday. Maybe not. Any announcements or resolutions? All right. Mr. Harrington then Ms. Olszewski. Thank you Mr. Moderator. Sean Harrington precinct 15. I'm rising to acknowledge one of the members of town meeting actually. It has come to my attention that one of our members received honorable mentions in the recent photograph competition in the portfolio section, which was held by the Boston Press Photographers Association. The competition was tough. It was between some of the winners were professional tennis players to you know anywhere between famous tennis player to a world-renowned fashion designer. I just want to congratulate John Warren, a longtime town meeting member and former moderator for getting honorable mentions. Ms. Olszewski. Angela Olszewski precinct 17. I just want to let everybody know that the Historical Society has a lecture here at Town Hall. It's called Town Hall and Character. It's May 21st at 7 30. So be good opportunity to meet all of those people from Arlington's history. And I just want to remind you that the Jason Russell House is now open for the season and that's open for tours Saturdays and Sundays from one to four. And I would be happy to talk to anybody at break about the benefits of being a member if you're not one already. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Jamison. Thank you. Miss moderator Gordon Jamison precinct 12 and co-chair of the Arlington Recycling Committee and the moderator asked me to make this announcement. The community collection day on Saturday is Rainer shine. We're clearly praying for shine versus rain, but it's Rainer shine. It's nine to 11. Don't come early. Don't come late. And if you have any papers left over from town meeting you want to recycle. There's two blue bins in the back and one on the exit over here. Nine to one. Thank you, Mr. Dice. Thank you, Mr. moderator. Thank you. Any other announcements or resolutions? Mr. Greeley. Thank you, Mr. Moderator Kevin Greeley, Board of Selectment. I was asked one more time just remind people about the 100th Centennial. That would be repetitious. The Centennial celebration of which would be 100 years of the town hall and gardens. That's going to be Friday night, June 7th. If you want tickets, Marie Krippelka, any of the three leader banks in the town of Arlington or online through Patsy Kramer. So we invite all of you and would love to see you there. All the it's Richard Duffy doing the history and then there's going to be the music of those 100 years. So please join us. Thank you. Thank you. Any others? Seeing none. Any reports or committees? Mr. Tremblay. So we have to take article three off the table, Mr. Tosti. All in favor? Opposed? Article three is off the table. Mr. Tremblay. Mr. Moderator, I'm bringing up the report of the tree committee. And I did not make copies for everybody's on everybody's seat because I know it takes trees to do that. And we're all going to just we're just going to throw them out. I'm sorry, Gordon, recycle them at the anyway. So it's up there. And we'll I'm still going to plug the trees. Oh, yeah, one other thing. For all of the town meeting members here and also anybody listening at home, if you've had a new tree planted, or even the one that's a year old planted by your house anywhere near your house, we'd appreciate it if you'd water it. It's been a little dry and you know, the town's got made quite an investment in trees this year and it'd be a shame to let them all die because we can't be bothered to water them. So that's we'll meet my request. Okay, now that we have three off the table. Remember the first night I mentioned that we were gonna dissolve inactive committees if we didn't hear from them. Well, I have a little list. I'm going to call out this list. If anyone does not want to dissolve these committees, say so and then we'll take a vote to dissolve them. Come on. The Community Preservation Act study committee, the maintenance study committee, the news rack study committee, the noise abatement study committee, the open space committee, the power company feasibility committee, Sims hospital advisory committee, telecommunications committee, and a traffic signal committee. Does anyone want to keep those? Which one? Which is Community Preservation Act. Are you volunteering for that committee? Alrighty, so we'll not dissolve the Community Preservation Act. And we have Ms. Mark. Alright, well, maintenance study committee, news rack, noise abatement, open space power company, which you're in a chair you should have reported. Okay. Any of the others? Talk to her you can get on it. All in favor of dissolving the committees except for the two that I just mentioned and say yes. Opposed? Too bad. Those committees are hereby dissolved. I'll advise you, Ms. Kruppel, Ms. Stephanie. Any other reports of committees? Mr. Tosti? I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. We got to finish first. Article 3 be laid upon the table. All in favor? Opposed? That brings us to article 35. Appropriation, financing, or construction and recreate, oh, the source and storage facilities. $1,200,000. Anybody want to present on that or we're just going to go ahead and vote it? This is something we do every year. All in favor? Seeing no one else? If you want to speak, all in favor, please say yes. Opposed? It's affirmative and I so declare it, that brings us to article 36. Appropriation, financing, construction of water mains and water facilities. Oh, on article 35, you declared 85 town meeting members of present and voting in the affirmative. Okay, thank you. That's a two-third vote. Thank you very much for reminding me. The same on article 36, $650,000 of water and water facilities. Anyone want to discuss it? Seeing none, all in favor, please say yes. Opposed? It's affirmative vote and I so declare it. It's a unanimous vote and I so declare it. Ms. Clatham-Clerk, you've declared 85 town meeting members of present and voting. Thank you. Article 37, appropriation of committees and commissions. $19,900 for various committees and commissions is printed out. Anyone want to discuss this? Seeing none, all in favor? Opposed? That is an affirmative vote and I so declare it. That brings us to article 38. Appropriation for town celebrations. $10,167 to be spent in your report. Anyone want to discuss this? Seeing none, all in favor, please say yes. Opposed? Unanimous vote. That's a unanimous vote and I so declare it. That closes article 38. Brings us to article 39. Appropriations miscellaneous. Finance committee vote for $11,071 to be spent as detailed in their report. Anyone want to discuss 39? Seeing none, all in favor, please say yes. Opposed? Unanimous vote and I so declare it. That closes article 39. That brings us to article 40. Appropriation, water, bodies and funds. Mr. Trembly. Mr. Trembly, president 19. Mr. moderate, I have a question. When we're studying water bodies, do we ever study how much, what the salinity is of our water bodies either during the winter or in the spring? Mr. Roderbeck, could you head up this as public works? No. Do you know who heads up this endeavor? Salinity levels of the water bodies. The work is to remove invasive species in the most part. So this is strictly weed removal? Correct. We have no idea how much salt goes, whether it effectively changes the salinity of the mystic lakes or anything. It affects maybe how the weeds grow or anything we don't know. Correct. Any chance of finding out? I could look into it. We had a hands full to just use the funds in order to remove the invasive species each year. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Smart. And Mr. Laredi. Mr. Moderator, the name is Stamps. Oh, I'm Stamps. I'm sorry. I don't think you've ever gotten it right. But anyway, oh, maybe once or twice. I haven't. I've called her smart. I've called her at something. That's another Stamps. Susan Stamps, Precinct 3. I noticed that this appropriation is for maintenance treatment and oversight of the water bodies. I assume the treatment has something to do with getting rid of invasive plants. And I'll refer back to my remarks the other day about the mailing I got from the spy pond park committee about asking homeowners to lower the phosphorus content of their fertilizers and take other measures. Because as Mr. Rademacher explained in certain parts of Arlington, the runoff from lawns goes right into spy pond. And if it's a high phosphorus fertilizers, invasive species really love those. And if people want to reduce the amount of money the town is to spend, then I'd actually like to see the town make a townwide appeal for homeowners to use low phosphorus fertilizer. And I was wondering if the town might be willing to do that. Thanks. Thank you, Ms. Stamps. Mr. Laredi, you are next. Then Ms. Howard. Thanks, Mr. Moderator. Crystal Laredi, Precinct 7. I have a couple questions on this. The appropriation for this item has increased significantly over the years. Typically it was on the order of $15,000 to $20,000 per year. And now we're up to $50,000. And I'm wondering why the large increase? Mr. Chapter Lane? Adam Chapter Lane, town manager. The appropriation, as you can see from the document that was handed out several nights ago at town meeting, really meets up with the plan for taking care of spy pond, the reservoir and hills pond. We have the plan for what we've done for 2019 as well as 14, 15 and 16. So my I guess what I would say in past years, the need was there and not met. And this appropriation has been requested last year and this year to be able to meet the needs that have been identified in these water bodies. Thank you. My other question, Mr. Moderator, which gets back to a couple points of the previous speakers, is whether the town has reached out to any of the local colleges or universities to see if they might conduct some of the studies that the town is now paying for. Not just for salinity, but more generally related to water quality and actions to improve it. I'm concerned about the amount of chemicals that we're applying to these water bodies when in fact actions by homeowners and others may be a more appropriate way of solving the problem. Mr. Chapter Lane, has anyone asked the local universities or colleges for recommendations? I don't believe we have, but I think it's a good recommendation that we should explore in the future. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Ms. Howard. Jane Howard, precinct 10 and a member of the spy pond committee of vision 2020. I'd just like to answer a couple of the questions. Go ahead. One in the past we've had several studies on salinity done by MIT and Tufts. There hasn't been one recently, but a number of, we started the spy pond group in 1996 and for a number of years we had work done by both MIT and Tufts. Salinity was one of those studies. The mailing that Ms. Stamps is talking about was not a mailing, it was a hand-delivered flyer that goes out every year to the total spy pine watershed, 740 acres of it. And again, as she indicated, urging people not to use fertilizers that have phosphorus or if they do, lower than 4%. And this has been delivered either by residents or students at the high school in the workplace program to the whole watershed every year, again this year as well. Thank you. And I guess the increase in the allocation was necessitated, especially because of the water chestnuts at the reservoir. All those sharp ones. Yes. Other things as well testing and so forth and treatments for spy pond, not much for hills. But you have that all in a print out as the town manager indicated. Thank you. Ms. Howard, do you remember what the salinity findings were when they were done in the past? No, I don't. But they did follow it for a number of years. So perhaps that's something that we should bring up again. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Deist? Passed. Anyone else wish to discuss this article? Oh, Anne. Thank you. Anne LaRoyer, I think 17 and also on the chair of the open space committee. I just wanted to mention that the Mystic River Watershed Association does have a lot of volunteers that do studies of the water bodies, especially Millbrook. And so that might be another resource that we could utilize more. They're relocated right here at 20 Academy Street. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, we had an appropriation of $50,000. Please say yes. Yes. Opposed? Say no. It's unanimous vote and I so declare it. That brings us to article 41. Mr. Dunn. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Procedurally, I think there are two votes here, the finance committee vote and the selectments vote. We're going to go with the selectments vote because the finance committee has the procedural problem in it of some sort. So we're just going to use the selectments vote, just so the meeting knows what we're focusing on. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. So to be clear, the blue packet section, article 41. So this is talking about what's referred to as the CLAMP project, Clean Air and Mobility Project at the intersection of Mass Ave and Route 60, just right up here close by a town hall. This is permission for or this is related to eminent domain. Most of the requests under eminent domain are temporary, such that the building project can be done. A few of them are permanent, but they are small. They're related to changing the configuration of the intersections such that we can have handicapped accessibility, curb cuts and ramps going up into them. There's no appropriation attached to this eminent domain. We don't anticipate there will be any significant cost, it could even be as low as zero and it would be paid out of the grant money or Chapter 90 funds. Oh, we pass. Anyone else with to discuss this article? Ms. Fiori? I'll say Fiori Precinct 2. I won't say that what I saw yesterday was anywhere near as mild as this appears to be. We came down Route 2 starting up as many of you may know Crosby's Corner and what the Department of Transportation has done up there is horrible. They have dug up so that all of the houses that you never knew there, including a brand new, totally a very large apartment complex, are just standing right out there. They have dug right close to houses right to their front doors. I was so horrified that I mean, my understanding is that they're worried about Crosby's Corner being very dangerous, which of course we worry about the danger here at Mass Avenue and the Cross Street. So what they're planning up there is two large curb bridges that people are going to be able to go over the road. I haven't really seen the plans but I just kind of imagine the end of it because it's really totally destroyed the beauty of that area. Now what I'm wondering here is a simple question. You probably have had a meeting that I might have missed, but where would we see a copy of the plans that indicate what's going to be done at this intersection? Is there a copy on the website? Okay Mr. Rodemacher. Mike Rodemacher, Public Works. You can, plans can be viewed at the Engineering or DPW office and I believe a planning office as well. Okay. Thank you very much. Is there a set on the website as well Mr. Rodemacher? I believe so. I don't know for fact but if there isn't we will get some up there. I think there is. I hope everybody really looks at it and takes a good look because some of these things turn out not quite like you expected them to. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Ruderman. Thank you Mr. Rotemacher and Michael Ruderman, Precinct 9. I commend Mr. Rodemacher for offering to get the preliminary right-of-way plans available so that people do have a chance to inspect them for this job. With great deference to one of our most senior and well-informed members of this meeting I can attest that the Mass.Highway project in Lincoln and Concord at Crosby's Corner and this job here do both proceed under eminent domain but of a scale of totally different dimensions. The job in Lincoln and Concord right now is a sort of thing that people work on once in a lifetime and this is a rather standard ordinary typical sort of town-scale project and I can say that not simply being a member of this meeting and having reviewed the materials for this job but working for Mass.DOT for the Mass.Highway department in the right-of-way office conducting the eminent domain on that very job in Lincoln and Concord. It is a once in a lifetime endeavor and it has nothing to do in scape or size or or of cost with this job. Thank you. Yeah, no I didn't think you had me. I got you on the list Richard. Mr. Klein was next. Thank you Mr. Moderator. Christian Klein, Precinct Ten. I know on the list of parcels there are two for whom the owner is unknown and I would just like to ask what endeavors the town has taken to find out who owns that property so they can be properly compensated. Yes, Rice. Thank you Mr. Moderator. Juliana Rice Town Council. As part of this process title work will be done on every parcel and the correct owner we will endeavor to identify them. If we're not able to identify them we record there's a process under the statute where you record the taking and someone can come forward and you can take as against unknown owner but there is a process for them to come forward. But most likely through the title work that will proceed this process if in fact any takings are necessary that information will be will come to light. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you Mr. Moderator. That means Mr. Gilligan can take it. Mr. Langone. Mr. Gilligan take that property. Thank you Mr. Moderator. Mr. Langone, Precinct Six. I have seen that map about the Route 60 Cross and Mass Ave. You have to speak a little closer to the ego Richard. I've seen the plan of Route 60 Cross and Mass Ave. I went to the public hearing on April 23rd and they had 25% it says there was 25% of the plan was done at that time. Is that true? 25% Mr. Dunn. Yes on April 23rd there was a 25% hearing sponsored by MassDOT that we attended and participated in. Are there going to be more hearings? Like a 75% when it's the plan is? There is. Mr. Rodger will know the full schedule. Is it just the 75% as the next... I think the only required one is a 75% hearing. Because at that hearing there was a lot of controversy about the parking spaces that were going to be left and people want to take spaces out. And seeing I live in the center and we're kind of connected to this whole issue I just want to make sure that we're informed about what's going to happen before it actually does happen before they take parking spaces away. Go ahead Mr. Dunn. I think you've got a very valid concern and I think you're absolutely right that is one of the contentious elements of that and I think that it will make it easy for you to keep abreast of the issue by getting updates on the town website and hearing about alert stuff but I agree it's something that needs to be watched and it's going to be a conversation throughout the whole process. I will also say that I have seen the diagrams and I agree with a lot of it. It makes sense what they're doing. It has to be done because of the congestion and I understand the federal money that they want everything to flow evenly. So I'm going to pause to what I already saw on the issues. So hopefully it all works out smoother than the other part of town did. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. moderator if I may I will note that the plans are indeed on the town website. If you go to the town website and you search the word clamp it's the first result that comes up. Okay great. Thank you Mr. Harris. So when I really, oh E.J. Harris precinct five. When I really really needed to win a debate round I thought I would go to case was that Kilo V. New London was wrongly decided which is all about eminent domain issues and running that case against a bunch of obnoxious Yale debaters really convinced me that I like opposed to eminent domain ideologically. And so I wonder if we anticipate any of these requests being opposed. I imagine the answer is no but I just you know like to find out. Mr. Dunn to answer this question. We certainly have no indication that they'd be opposed. Thank you. Mr. McCabe. Mark. Mark McCabe precinct two. I stand to terminate debate on article 41 and all matters before. Motion to terminate debate. It's been seconded. All in favor please say yes. Opposed? No. In my opinion that is a two third vote. Thank you. That closes article 41 brings us to article 43. We've already voted 42. Appropriation. Harry Barber community service program. All in favor please say yes. Opposed? No. Madam clerk to certify that there are at least 85 town meeting members present in voting in the affirmative. Thank you. It had to be a two third vote. Thank you. That closes article 41 brings us to article 44. Harry Barber community service program. Anyone wish to discuss this? Seeing none all in favor please say yes. Opposed? Unanimous vote and I so declare it. That closes article 44 brings us to article 43. I'm sorry brings us to article 44. Getting ahead of myself. Appropriation for the manufacturer first phase of historic signs. Mr. Hayner. Bill Hayner precinct two. Last year we passed an article for the design. Tonight my understanding is where they're seeking money to create these signs. Have we seen the signs? Mr. Chapter Lane. Adam Chapter Lane town manager. So your understanding is correct. Last year a town meeting funded an appropriation to do a design to develop a prototype for the signs. The contract was awarded to a design firm in January utilizing those funds. We've not spent funds to date but we have begun work and expect an invoice soon from that group. So designs will be forthcoming in the upcoming months but we've not yet seen a design. So Mr. Monterey just for clarification. We're being asked tonight to buy a sign that we haven't seen. Yes. I don't know about the rest of you but I find it difficult to spend money on something I haven't seen. So I am opposed to this motion at this time. Mr. Harrington. Stephen Harrington precinct 13. I also rise against this motion for the very reason that we haven't seen any sign. It's been over a year as well as it's phase one. Mr. Moderator is there a second, third, fourth phase? What's phase one mean? Mr. Chapter Lane. Adam Chapter Lane town manager. Phase one is in regards to the historic sites that have been identified in last year's warrant article and this year's warrant article. Further historical and cultural sites in town would be part of future proposed phases. So I'm opposed to this. This is again one of I guess three different warrant articles spread out through this whole town meeting. I'd like to see a systematic approach. I don't think that we should go putting up signs for non-profits. For the most part have they tried to do any fund raising on their own. Mr. Moderator, my understanding was I was here last year at town meeting and we voted on a design. What was the design firm that was selected? Mr. Chapter Lane. Adam Chapter Lane town manager. After procurement process utilizing an RFP was issued, the design firm Roe Buresi was selected? Was that the same firm that showed us a prototype of the design last year or not a prototype that actually gave us a document last year at town meeting as a friend of a selectman that saying that this was a process that would go through and was that the same firm that provided the document last year? Sir. Adam Chapter Lane town manager. Quite honestly I'm not sure that perhaps someone from ATED could answer that question. It was. I looked into it. I'm sorry to do that to you but it actually was. I think that's really not a good thing. The firm had a connection with a selectman at the time. We were shown it as though they weren't going to be getting the bid. It was just something that they were doing as a favor. Now we find out that they get the bid. They've had a year to produce a design. We don't see a design. Let's wait. Let them come with a design. Let's take a look at it and decide next year. Thank you. Thank you sir. Mr. Chappett. Thank you Mr. Motto. I had a role in Chappett Precinct 12 and a member of the Arlington Tourism and Economic Development Committee. I support this project because this is the next phase in this whole project of upgrading the value of art and art elements here in the community and a means to make folks understand who we are and what we have to offer. It was a logical step. We had a meeting with the winner of the design contract about three weeks ago and we got into a lot of discussion about just exactly what we want to see with these signs. It's an open kind of thing. It needs to be done. It needs to be done in some logical order. Now if we take a negative approach on this and don't provide any money to do the signs, we're just delaying for another year what something that we need to do going forward. Sure. We couldn't on the first round put up the money to do the signs until we had an idea of what they were going to look like and where they were going. We were primarily initially to go to key locations and points of interest in the community. The Dowling Museum, the, I'm sorry about the name, the Shawan Mill. You understand that the Shawan Mill is so unique and it still makes oral picture frames. Nobody in the country does this. Nobody. This is something we should be able to be proud of. And so those are the kinds of things that we're promoting here and that's what the signs are all about. So I absolutely urge you to support this program. Miss Fiore, you're next. Poor Uncle Sam. He's been waiting a long time to get a sign so that the people who live in Arlington who don't even know that we have an Uncle Sam statue will finally find out that we do. Many years ago, the town meeting, I'm not sure that I was in town meeting although it could have been that long ago. Somebody wanted to put up a statue to indicate that Uncle Sam was born here. But the town meeting I assume in its lack of wisdom at that time which it's prone to show once in a while and decided they didn't want it. So what happened was a man whose name is on the statue that's over in the center and I'm sorry to say that I forgot what it is. He said he would pay for the statue himself which he did. He ordered it. He had it set up in Arlington and it's sitting over by what used to be the original bank there the building that people don't even seem to know was once a bank. The sad thing is the day that the man was here was the day that the church burned down there and they were in the center. So everybody was watching the fire and not looking at Uncle Sam. So I'm not sure whether waiting until next year is a disaster but I'm on the Uncle Sam committee with several other people and we have at least seen copies of a sign. This is Indian Village and Essex County and lost my other one I think. Well we have a sign. There's a sign at the Jason Russell House that's at the bottom of Mass Bay and the Uncle Sam sign would be similar to that and have Uncle Sam committee at the bottom. You can wait for a year but the thing is people are working on it and I think it would be good if we could get going but we need money to get going. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Fiori. Mr. Laredi you are next. Thank you Mr. Marder and Chris Laredi precinct 7. I too rise in opposition to this article. I questioned it last year on principle and I think people need to understand that three of the four entities that will benefit from this spending are not town entities. They're private non-profits and what I find really troubling is the lack of engagement of those non-profit entities in the funding. Typically when governments do this type of effort they get co-funding or at least some contribution from the beneficiaries. We don't seem to have that at all here. It's strictly a government handout. I want to give you an example of where the town has done this kind of thing in the past and a few years ago the redevelopment board got a grand total of about $5,000 for a storefront improvement program through the CDBG funding program and that money was used to design new signs in storefronts for a number of businesses and a few of them went forward with the implementation but the implementation costs were entirely borne by the beneficiaries so it was a cost sharing program and it seems to me that there is room in the town budget for economic development and money like this but I believe the CDBG program is the appropriate place for it and these types of expenditures should have to compete with all of the others within that program. I'm also troubled by the size of the expenditure this year because I asked specifically about it last year and whether the $20,000 appropriation include any amounts for construction and installation of the signs and here's what one of the proponents of the article said the manufacturing of signs is actually a lot less expensive than the design of the signs that's something I found in my work of 31 years it's the thinking about how the sign works and where it goes and what it says that's much more complicated than the actual construction and installation of the signs yet here we are a year later with another expenditure for the same amount and frankly if these signs as the vote indicates are going to be at the entryways to the town and presumably they're on public property I'm not quite sure why the town DPW isn't doing the installation itself so the other thing I think this committee could really benefit from is consulting with the Uncle Sam committee which seems to be able to do things on a shoestring budget and get engagement from other parties without using town funds so I hope you'll join me in voting against this article certainly we don't know what we're getting and we need to get that engagement from the beneficiaries who certainly ought to be able to pay for the signs themselves and their installation on the other hand if you do vote for it I want to thank you too because I view this article and the $20,000 spent last year is an excellent poster child for the opposition of the next override that the people behind me are planning thank you Mr. Carman a few thoughts first couple speakers got up and talked about the fact that we haven't seen the designs for the what are we going to call them plaque signs whatever so that's a reason to delay and vote it down well I haven't read the new textbooks that the school is going to answer I haven't seen the design of the police cars that the police department is going to buy I haven't seen the fire trucks that the fire department is going to buy I think what we're doing is getting caught up in a little of this rule of small numbers where it's $20,000 so we can get our hands around it and micromanage the heck out of it but when it comes to the larger expenditures we're we just sort of hold it to a different standard I think we talked a couple of times about the Uncle Sam committee and how they don't get money for they don't get money for plaques or statues or things like that but that's the next article if you read article 45 that comes after this is to give the Uncle Sam committee the money that the Uncle Sam committee asked for another thought that I just want to point out it's more of a nuanced point I think and you know when I sat at the finance committee meetings I don't think I think we thought a lot about it it doesn't probably reflect as well as doesn't this report if you read article 44 which is this if you read article 45 which is the Uncle Sam statue the proponents of each article wanted the money to be expended under the direction of their committee it didn't seem in our opinion to be a very good idea to let that happen so we moved it to the direction of the town manager because the thought did come through our minds that wait a sec you know you do have these moving pieces going on here and if it's not coordinate it doesn't look right it's disjointed the easiest way to either pull it together or frankly just kill it is to put the town manager under the accountability and it just seemed what that did is it sort of even the playing field that leveled the playing field and it just sort of made things fairer you know and then my last comment is it is just you know when it comes to these overall expenditures of historic signs and things like that it really is at the end of the day just a policy statement about what we want to do in the direction of the town you hear a lot of people discuss or talk about how Arlington has these great historic assets but for some reason from you know Boston or Charlestown out to Lexington and Concord we're just a pass through and does the town want to you know promote the you know the history of Arlington the historic assets our culture things of like that you know including the historic I don't know not the historic that I don't want to call it a shed or whatever the heck we voted for earlier in the meeting but we'll call it a shed temporary whatever whatever guest center it's really just a it's a policy decision I mean do we want to promote it or we not if you want to promote it you have to pay for some of these things to promote it it's difficult that yet again it's a disjointed thought if you say well yes I want to promote the history of Arlington you know and sort of elevate the status of Arlington in terms of you know the battles and things like that and say well I'm not even I'm not throwing 20 grand at it that's way too much money I mean so I mean in my opinion just speaking personally I mean I do think it's a good thing I mean I think if we're going to make the commitment to you know promote these assets that we have to then fund it look is $20,000 real money to me most of you of course it is in the grand scheme of a hundred whatever million dollar budget no I don't think it's going to be the lead story of the next ride but you know maybe I'm wrong so you know I would I would ask you to support it you know thank you. Thank you Mr. Moore Mr. Rowe I'm precinct four I asked town meeting to step back a little bit and look at the name of the committee that's sponsoring this it's the tourism and economic development committee the purpose the bigger purpose of the historic science is to bring more people more tourists into Arlington we have something that our historic sisters Lexington Lincoln and Concord don't have which is great restaurants wonderful theaters beautiful open spaces the point of this is not to give an unknown benefit to the struggling historic resources that are in town the purpose is to bring more business more people more cars more bicyclists more walkers into Arlington to have them understand what the history the rich history of Arlington is I won't go into some of the past personal privilege mentions of me yes I did ask a friend Andrew Bressi to give me some ideas he competed in a completely open and transparent system in fact his proposal was the low bidder which is why he was chosen this is an exciting thing to be happening in Arlington we need to make more of what we're doing what we've done here we have the bloodiest battle of the whole revolutionary war in Arlington and does anybody know that no and yesterday when we were two days ago when we were out with a minute man national park we asked them to add the Arlington sites to their national park service map and they plan to do that the next time that they print it which will be in a couple of years this is is the start of something that we hope will really bring more tourist dollars into town have them stay at our hotel have them eat at our restaurants the scenic byway work that had been slowed down has just started up again and that will be a federal designation for the battle road that will include the for us included Lincoln Concord and Lexington to once again bring more and more tourist to this area what we want to do is to bring Arlington up to the standards of the other three towns this is not a lot of money the past speaker and I thank him for that I think the finance committee grilled us and do grill us about everything that we do but we are going down a new road and I asked town meeting to please give us a chance next year we hope that the signs will be up and then any of the meetings that we have are public meetings we invite anybody who wants to come to them to come to them we will post our meetings on the website since there seems to be an awful lot of misinformation tonight and you can be part of helping to design these signs they are historic signs but they are not supposed to do anything but bring more people to our wonderful town thank you hi Harris precinct 5 I have a couple of questions but before I do that there was a specious argument and you know how those bother me the reason we don't need to see a police car is because we all know what the police cars are going to look like and we know what the fire trucks are going to look like and we don't care what's in the textbooks A because that's not our job it's the school committee's job and we're not the ones who are going to have to look at the textbooks my question is let's assume I don't anticipate this being true but let's assume that the design we get is terrible shaped like a goat with Hail Satan on it whatever imagine the worst case scenario in your head presumably we'll decline we'll like reject that as a design and either send this person back to go make another one or you'll have to come back to town meeting and ask for money to do it again is that correct Adam chapter lane town manager I hesitate to engage a debater such as yourself but I would say to that question the answer really is we will have failed the tourism economic development committee will have failed if we come back with a design that we haven't already had a good feeling about so the process won't there won't be a sort of a mystery vacuum of what's going to come back there's going to be a very thorough process of discussion that's going to guide what's going to come back so certainly there could be some dissatisfaction with some of the details but I would be very surprised that something so surprising would come back and if the design does come back in a dissatisfactory manner we certainly would push back for a different design and we wouldn't manufacture the signs and so if like I said I don't actually anticipate that scenario materializing but if that happens and we make this appropriation but it's not ready to be acted on what happens to the money it just goes back in the general fund and we reappropriate it next year I don't yeah I basket you it would yes okay even better one less article we have to fight about so I guess my last question then is is it your intention to manufacture a terrible design that's the worst case scenario I'm going to go ahead and suppose the answers you know you could just shake your head that you don't intend to do that yeah so it as much as that's the case I think the concerns about we haven't seen a design yet probably don't make a lot of sense the prudential question of whether or not we want to have these signs I think is a different matter that everybody should probably be thinking about for themselves I'm inclined to do it I have weirdly conflicting political views and as much as I'm fine with government handouts but not fine with eminent domain but I think that sort of we need to keep our eye on the ball in terms of this is a policy question it is about moving the town forward in terms of becoming a tourist attraction and that's really the question we're discussing not the particulars of whether or not we're going to have a goat-shaped tail Satan sign because I just assume that that's not going to be the issue Mr. Harrington Sean thank you Mr. moderator Sean Harrington precinct 15 motion to terminate debate we have a motion to terminate debate all in favor please say yes opposed in my opinion that is a two-third vote we have a force to recommend a vote of the finance committee for $20,000 for signs all in favor please say yes opposed in my opinion that is an affirmative vote and that ends the debate on article 44 brings us to article 45 Uncle Sam committee more signs $2,000 for a plaque Mr. McKinney hold on hold on Hugh I got you where's the clicker? first of all I want to make something clear the signs oh go my name is Lawrence McKinney I'm precinct 7 and the chairman of the Uncle Sam committee yeah Brinkham can you see it should I turn the light off it's fine okay come on Lawrence go your time's running at any rate I want to thank you all for your support we have many many of our current and former members here I see Janis Weber and Bobby Hillis and Carl Wagner and Hugh McCrory and Andy O'Brien we actually have people here but I want to make something very very clear the $20,000 and the $40,000 mentions that has to do with general signs that are going to be at the beginnings of where people come into Arlington that is to say all these other places have signs that tell you what they are there's nothing there for us so here's what we're talking about we don't have a site sign as you pointed out the other three have Farba 1C3s we're not able to afford these kinds of signs that tell you what is actually there the dial-in sign is very attractive it tells you this is the Cyrus Dallen even the Cutler Gallery has a sign and I can tell you those signs cost quite a bit of money but there's no way to know who that is there's a little sign in the corner oh it's for the dogs nothing could tell the passing visitors where they are town meeting is aware that even wooden signs are expensive so we decided to make a wooden one like the Jason Russell house so that was our plan we'd ask for $1500 $500 for brochures $500 for town day buttons and flyers $500 for a good temporary wooden replica sign we are such a penny ventures then at the last moment we discovered colonial brass the only authorized manufacturer of replicas has the original models they'll make one for us solid metal authentic permanent and just in time for the tourist building that is exactly the design we're not going to fool you this is what it's going to look like that and if you want to know what's going to be on it that and you want to know when you're going to have it you're going to have it in July okay what's the problem quick change it to $2,500 for brochures $500 for the sign well we got it in we got the new article with two hours to spare $2,500 $2,500 for Uncle Sam committee is like a million you cannot amend a funding article after the war closes how do we get the sign that wipes us out we can't let this opportunity go but nabbing such a deal leaves us with nothing to expend on anything else no town day supplies no brochures we've been careful with our pennies your Uncle Sam committee in five years has spent less than $2,500 for the hired shebang town days parade surveys planning logos buttons banners cupcakes planning an actual results we can all see so unlike the Jason Russell house the Dowling or the Schwann we have no non-profit to sell memberships or raise funds or the like our only source is the town and we can't change the rules we have been encouraged to appeal to some discretionary town fund to help fund the sign without leaving us broke we hope this assembly will approve our umbil application through appropriate channels after town meeting to restore our tiny operating budget by increasing our total allotment by the thousand dollar shortfall a permanent sign is really a capital expense permanent town property but this was a chance too good to miss we are told funds are available and we hope to be instructed on exactly how to ask with that ad we hope you will support the current article unamended to guarantee an appropriate permanent sign for Uncle Sam Plaza just in time for the tourist building I thank you for your patience hey Mr. McCrory a precinct 20 and uh secretary of the outgoing secretary of the Uncle Sam committee um I had a question which I think is important uh regarding this article and that is the sentence which the finance committee voted on saying that the this fund shall be expended at the discretion of the town manager is that what we're going to be voting on tonight or so can someone explain to me how this how these funds will be expanded which differs normally normally how funds are expended from the committee will there be a different procedure as what's happened in the past Alan do you want to speak to that Mr. Tosti will address your question as you can see most of these are spent under the direction of the town manager so uh you would proceed in cooperation with the town manager to take bids on your sign or however you want to do it but he you have to get his right now uh if everything is done procedurally correctly I don't see any particular reason but we pay him a great deal of money to sort of keep his eye on all these things but it shouldn't be a problem for you okay Mr. Tosti I have another question which you may be able to help me with so when you say um all the procedures are followed with correctly what do you mean in terms of issuing purchase orders right I mean any time you expend public funds for something like this there's procedures in law as far as what you have to do if it's above 30,000 you've got to follow these if it's above 10,000 or 5,000 you need to follow these probably for something of this magnitude you're talking about taking a couple telephone bids or something like that okay and does that need a vote of the committee or would it just be a linear a unilateral decision for any member of that committee to make to expand I would think you'd need a vote of the committee it could be good for the committee to meet with the manager after the first year to go through procedure okay and then proceed to try to encourage you know a couple people go to this Dowan Museum find out who made their sign work it out with the Soekmans committee who's there looking at and sort of try to cooperate with this together that sounds like my understanding as well in fact maybe if you roll this all into one you'll get even more interest in doing it just a thought okay yeah so I think had it not been for that clause in this article I myself would be voting against this article even though I'm a member of the Uncle Sam committee I'm going to preface this by saying we need signs in the time we need signs that the Tourism and Economic Committee have suggested we also need signs for the Uncle Sam statue I was recently at the Uncle Sam statue and saw quite a few tourists there actually Asian tourists and they were they did look bewildered I mean they were looking around I was in the car so I wanted to jump out I have my kids in the back to try to explain what the statue was so we definitely need a statue my concern and I think some people have mentioned it earlier is how these funds are expended it's my belief that anytime we expend funds it should be a by a vote of committee and the same with purchase orders purchase orders should be issued via vote committee I would like to see that happen on the Uncle Sam committee and I'm actually resigning from this committee as of tonight also regarding expending funds I would also like to see open bids I think anytime funds are expended there should be at least more than one bidder on that I would also like to see that we actually have a sign believe it or not by Uncle Sam committee but no one knows about it it's really pathetic in terms of the quality of the sign that's needed in Arlington we need signs that are like I've been displayed tonight permanent signs of a certain quality of a certain standard which tourist immediately recognized as being tourist signs we have a small sign which is probably 20 years old which is like I think it's covered in laminated plastic it's barely illegible so if we're going to do signs let's do them right I support the tourism economic committee let's get it done right and I support this article as long as the town funds are expended in an appropriate way thank you sir Andy O'Brien precinct 16 and member of the Uncle Sam committee in Arlington and you go by the Cyrus Dowling museum and you see the sign for Samuel Whitmore and his courageous deeds of the day of the American Revolution most of us would probably be unaware of his existence or his great deeds if it wasn't for that sign most people in Arlington aren't aware that Uncle Sam was born here the statue sign is not very good we really do need something to make a bronze or a aluminum sign you have to have a mold and the making of a mold is can be quite expensive much more than the sign costs it just happens that colonial brass has the molds for the type of signs that you see at the Jason Russell museum the committee did have a we kind of argued back and forth about we really do want to keep costs as low as possible and some members actually resigned because they felt that we had to work harder for due diligence on this but even one of the members that resigned did find that there's really not another competitor out to make a cheaper sign so I urge that you vote for this in the end the wording on the sign as you could see up there it is available to see it's not offensive in any way the sign is pretty basic looking it looks like other historical markers that people are familiar with and I think this will be a step in the right direction to give Uncle Sam his place in history of this town thank you Miss Barron I'm curious and maybe I missed it but I'm wondering why this endeavor is not going to be a 501c3 charity I've worked my career is in working for nonprofits and I think you'd have a lot more leeway if you were a 501c3 you would deal with your own money you could have a drive to get the sign you could have a fundraising campaign to clean it because years ago when I was on the initial committee many moons ago we priced out cleaning that statue you have no idea what that cost is and if the goal here is to capitalize on something that is unique absolutely unique to this country there's only one birthplace of Uncle Sam and it's here then I think we ought to be looking to not nickel and dime everything to the lowest price possible so forming it as a 501c3 I think is the right way to go and I'm wondering why that wasn't thought of Chair the committee is going to address that I'm glad that Ms. Baron has shown up she was on the first committee that met like twice in five years Lawrence answer the question the fact is that we could not possibly put together a 501c3 it has been extraordinarily difficult to get two or three members of a committee to make a 501c3 we would have to not only spend the money for the lawyer we would have to put together an entire board of directors we would have to print all sorts of stuff and who is going to pay for this we don't know it would cost thousands and thousands of dollars this true we don't have a 501c3 we can only go to the town there's nothing else we can do but if Ms. Baron would like to help put together a 501c3 and do the legal work and find the people to be on it and do the fundraising boy would I like to see that it's been hard enough with just three people if we can find six or seven more people to be on a 501c3 put the money in there raise the money please will you really join the committee okay that isn't going to happen but I would I would ask Ms. Rice then I mean I really don't believe the expenses are what the purchase order is already on it's being made no but with regard to the 501c3 I don't think it's going to cost thousands of dollars to form I don't think you need an attorney I think you fill out a form I've done two 501c3s Ms. Baron I know exactly what it costs all right well I still think that perhaps you could enlarge the committee and do fundraising anyway thank you Mr. Kaplan Bill Kaplan precinct six I want someone else move the question I'm just curious we seem to be having an awful lot of debate over a $2,000 sign we just approved $40,000 for signs I mean this seems pretty small potatoes I don't really don't know why there's so much I get so much dissension on it Mr. Swilling might help us out Nathan Swilling precinct four move to terminate debate on this article we have a motion to terminate debate all in favor please say yes opposed my opinion that is a two third vote we have a recommended vote of the finance committee for $2,000 to buy Uncle Sam a sign all in favor please say yes opposed in my opinion that is an affirmative vote so declare it that terminates article 45 brings us to article 46 appropriation pension adjustments for former 25-year accident disability finance committee recommends zero anyone want to talk about zero dollars seeing none all in favor please say yes opposed my opinion that is a unanimous vote and I so declare it and that closes article 46 brings us to article 47 OPEB appropriation for other post employee benefit trust fund anyone wish to discuss that seeing none all in favor the recommended vote of the finance committee please say yes opposed unanimous vote and I so declare it and that closes article 47 brings us to article 48 appropriation fiscal stability stabilization fund recommend a vote of the Fincom $5,773,000 dollars anyone wish to discuss this Mr. Harrington Steven Harrington precinct 13 so this is $5 million not $2,000 we should discuss this we should discuss it because it's I think it's the fifth largest appropriation in this town meeting out of three or four dozen appropriations with budgets and whatnot it's $5,773,873 and the comment if you look in your yellow book is in a word pathetic it doesn't tell you why is this $5,773 and I want to know why is it is this the amount that was forecast is it when I looked into the finance committee's meeting minutes it's a fudge factor it's what's left over so my question is Mr. Moderator did we project when the override was passed how much money was going to be deposited into the override stabilization fund for fiscal years 12, 13, 14 Mr. Tosca it seems to want to answer that Mr. Tosca thank you Mr. Moderator I think it's very important that the town meeting have a clear grasp of the long term planning process that the town goes through especially people who you know some speakers complain about people anticipating the need for future overrides or scheming to have future overrides and some of us myself included don't particularly like overrides and the purpose of the long range planning process that the town has is to delay the frequency and the amount of money that has to be voted by the citizens to exceed the limits of proposition two and a half the override stabilization fund is where this money is put and I'll get to answer Mr. Harrington's question in just a second I'll put on your own time could you answer the question I just want to know the question I'm answering your question sir so there was any forecast made so the long term planning committee plans the needs of the fiscal needs of the town over a number of years when you run up against the structural deficit limitations of proposition two and a half either the services in the town have to be dramatically cut or the town or the people in the town go to the public and say let's vote for an override and that results in a process in a plan the money that is the increase in taxes that is voted in an override and any other surpluses according to the way the planning process works get put into this override stabilization fund so there's a number that's forecast when the override takes place it's put into the override stabilization fund and then if there are additional surpluses the town is still the town manager and the school department are still living within the fixed budget and fixed growth limits and additional funds go into this override stabilization fund oh did you answer his question okay no he didn't there was no forecast made so we don't know if this should be four million seven hundred thousand or six million seven hundred thousand and that's what I have an issue here there's actually no information we talk about the finance committee vetting these numbers and who knows if it should be more or if it should be less if it should be more then we didn't do a good job forecasting and we're falling behind if it should be less then we're not providing the services to the town that we should be providing and so I think it's a very important question and I didn't like I don't appreciate not having a simple question answered we could have taken the amount of revenues that we had by two and a half percent for three years we could have taken the expenses three and a half percent they were going to allow the school department to go up and three percent or whatever it was for the town and you could have had a forecast it's very simple to do there's no forecast here thank you very much thank you Mr. Tosti you're next in the list yes there was a forecast there's been a forecast in this town every year since 2005 when we did the first override at the back of each finance committee report over the last seven or eight years there has been the five year forecast and whenever I've given the chairman's report I have specifically led your attention to that five year forecast so you could and I've gone through it sometimes and so you could study it ask questions there's a long range planning committee that meets several times the year to update this as the numbers change now how did we come up with this number so if you go to C1 you see the summary there and what happened is the finance committee was going through all the numbers is the goal is to put as much money away as possible I don't you could also call this instead of the fiscal stability fund you could call it the taxpayer protection fund it's designed as Mr. Fosk said to put overrides as far into the future as possible so that we don't have to go back to the taxpayer to fund current services so the last number the finance committee voted I think it was on April 10th was the five million seven seven three eight seven three how did we come up with that number that's the number so that bottom right hand number is zero in other words it's a balanced budget we are trying to put as much money as we can aside and there you know in the five year plan is the number that we've set aside for this year five million seven seven three now is this number the same as we had projected three years ago no it's not it's higher than it was when we first went to the people because not only were they successful and the people were generous in granting us the override but the management of the town led by the town manager at that time with the board of selectmen got the town into this group insurance commission at the state level which has saved a substantial amount of money so the money that we now can put in is much higher than we had first forecast that means you know we have balanced budgets according to this into 2018 and hopefully beyond that so again there has been a forecast forecast by their very nature are constantly changed and upgraded but they have been at the back of every Fincom report that has presented to you over the last several years thank you sir well you have to go back and look at the reports I mean Mr. Tosti can look that up for you Mr. Tosti still has four minutes I only bring the last year I don't bring like all these back Fincom reports but this is last year's report to you we had fiscal 14 about 2.3 million was forecast going into the fiscal stability fund the reason it's higher is because we have much higher savings in the group insurance for employee health and we also our free cash numbers came in much higher so we were able to use that money to fund the budgets therefore putting more money into the fiscal stability fund okay Mr. Moore did you have your hand up okay Mr. Carmen right in front of you I got you Mr. Gilligan the more times you raise your hand it doesn't mean you can get on the list twice Dean Carmen precinct 20 the member of the finance committee I think there's a simpler answer if you look on page 4 which is the chairman's report and I'll sort of bounce here the report starts with the town is now entering the third year of the three year plan and it's been developed as a promise to the voters in exchange for their approval of the tax override in 2011 and so if we go back in time and I actually have the courtesy of Mr. Bayer sitting next to me the 2011 report so the way these overrides work in is in year one the town collects more revenue than it expense and in the override stabilization fund it plugs that number so whatever is the plug conceptually in year two which should have been about even and then in year three the town would have collected less revenue than it was planning on expending and it would have taken money out of the override stabilization fund to fund services that's how the five year plan worked conceptually except over five years it's how the three year plan works so the original forecasted number is zero so what were you going to put into the fund in year three we're going to put nothing into the fund we're going to take money out of the fund so the difference between the budget in actual is we were going to collect no I shouldn't say that we were going to expend probably five million dollars plus more than we actually did in the current year which is explained in the second paragraph on that page which says I mean the second sentence which says the plan has worked well not only because of the successful override in the caps on town spending but also because of successful implementation of the legislation allowing Tows to enter the state group insurance commission to cover their employee health insurance and so now I know what my last stop before I sit down is if you do go to the last page what you'll notice and this took me a lot of figure out is if you look at the number if you look after revenues you have ABCDEF and then you have total revenues and even if you look at where are we going into we're in FY13 we're going into FY14 you'll see it's a hundred thirty two million three twenty seven forty four so that's the total amount of revenue the town is going to collect the expenditure or total appropriation which is K is the same number that's how you balance the budget but Mr. Harrington's right so that makes the number in between a plug because we're spending less than we're collecting which is line J five seven seven three six seven three now and here's where it gets kind of tricky if you go down to the reserve balances you'll see under in the same year you'll see that the override stabilization fund has actually grown year over year by the amount that we're appropriating into it and so it went from seven point eight million to thirteen point six million next year it's scheduled to go to fifteen point nine but then we take money out of it or at least in the plan we do town meeting will actually have the final say on that so if you get to FY 2016 and you look on the very bottom you'll see the override stabilization fund goes down to four hundred sixty three one one four well how do I know that's the number off the top of my head I wish I could do math that quickly but if you go back up to total revenues you'll see the same work and same line or the same name of J at the bottom is F at the top override stabilization fund then the money comes out so probably I think I started by saying it was a simple answer and then I probably made it as clear as mud so I apologize if I did but that's the general jest thanks thank you sir mr. Gilligan thank you mr. moderator steven Gilligan town treasurer I asked how meaning to support favorable action on this I wish we were actually appropriating more money and I'll explain why as the town treasurer I sit on the long range planning committee I sit on the financial working group subcommittee I sit on the budget and revenue task force what I also do is every year I make a presentation to the rating credit rating services that rate our bonds and give the town a credit rate and one of the things I present is the financial picture of the town and its reserves and its spending levels credit rating agencies like to see reserves this number was projected the long range planning financial committee and the sub the work the financial subgroup agreed that we needed to increase our overall reserves because number one we currently have a good cash position because of good works that the select one and the finance committee have done in saving money reductions in health care costs a decrease in mitigation in school spending have allowed us to increase our reserves we need to do that credit rating agencies do not like to see the money in an undesignated fund balance they look at it as an easy way to grab money and spend it willy nilly by putting the money into a stabilization fund we are committing to the credit agencies that we do what we say and we say what we do if you do not appropriate this money or you appropriate less we're going to have to explain why and that's not going to be good news when it comes time to get new credit rating reserves are a good thing stabilization fund utilization requires a two-thirds vote general fund money is a simple majority rating agencies like to see reserves thank you mr. moderate okay I'm just going to point out one thing there are no substitute motions or amendments so this is all we have before us and now it's 9.30 we're going to take a 10 minute break but five seven articles left two three four five six take the break John we haven't heard from John mr. Marr you have the floor John Marr has the floor mr. Marr has the floor please sit down to be quiet our precinct 14 I move to terminate debate on all matters related to this article okay we have a motion to terminate debate on this article all in favor please say yes opposed okay this is a appropriation to a stabilization fund it has to be a two-third vote all in favor of the appropriation please say yes opposed it's a unanimous vote and I so declare it that closes article 48 brings us to article 49 appropriation long-term stabilization fund $1,000 to the long-term stabilization fund we want to talk about this see yes Mr. Klein you want to talk about the long-term stabilization fund yes mr. Warden oh you're correct mr. Warden thank you very much Madam clerk on the last vote article 48 you certify there are 85 top meeting members present and voting affirmative thank you mr. Klein thank you mr. Warden thank you mr. Klein precinct 10 just a quick question what is the difference between this stabilization fund in relation to the previous one mr. Tosti is going to tell us the fiscal stability fund is a fund that's set aside to build up but with the five-year plan it will be eventually drained down so if you want it's a rainy day fund it's it's going to be spent the long-term stabilization fund is an emergency fund that will not be spent just because it's a rainy day it'll be spent because we have a true emergency for example I was asked a couple weeks ago about what happened if the court case is settled and we lose that would be a reasonable fund to go to for that type of the situation this is fund again it's appropriation to a stabilization fund requires a two third vote all in favor please say yes opposed it's unanimous vote and I so declare item clerk to certify the 85 town meeting members present in voting affirmative thank you that closes article 49 brings us to article 50 appropriation overlay reserve $200,000 to be appropriated to be transferred from the overtake of money out of the overlay reserve surplus account anyone want to discuss that mr. Jamison thank you mr. moderate Gordon Jamison precinct 12 for those of you unfamiliar with this process the overlay reserves the overlay the overlay reserve is something that the assessors put aside every year to cover abatements on property taxes and when they have finished that process for any number of years they put the money back into the budget that's what we're voting here in that process I am I have a question I understand what we're doing today voting $200,000 but Mr. Tosti's long range plan on the back I note that this year while we anticipated $900,000 to be appropriated there was actually $1,045,000 can someone answer tell me why it was so much higher whether these funds can be expended for anything other than abatements and if not we I would expect that we'd have a good $750,000 maybe coming back next year Mr. Tosti do you understand his question can you answer it we've been draining certainly draining his bad word but we've been utilizing this fund for many years now in fact I think in past years we've actually utilized a little bit more and what's happening is it's sort of starting to meet actually I don't anticipate you can't keep the amount we put into the fund low and then keep making out a lot of funds because the middle keeps growing so I anticipate in the future we'll actually be getting less money back out of this fund and that's one of the reasons we're trying to build the overlay fund up to a bit of a little higher level as I understand the overlay funds can only be used for the year in which they're appropriated so the assessors put a million almost a million and a half last year and if you total the abatements on an average year it's about at the very very most $1,000 so I tried to contact the assessors and did get any response on to why it was so high this year and assuming that they don't have any use beyond the $600,000 I would anticipate that most of that money that went in this year will come back to his next year or at least a significant report in the vote that we're having today but next year this is the amount the assessors felt that they could comfortably declare a surplus this decision really is entirely up to the board of assessors both the amount of the overlay and the amount of the overlay surplus so we get our guidance from the board of assessors if it turns out in the future that they have more money coming back then we could use more money we're just trying to be conservative okay thank you it's your question a little more precisely I guess the numbers are completely out of general the reason it's going up is there's a revaluation intensity increasing in the next couple of years and that always means that they need more reserves but they usually only go to $900,000 which is what they projected for this year based on their history they chose the higher number and look at the financial plan the history is flat thank you thank you Mr. McCabe slight correction to a statement that one of the previous speakers made the overlay is money that the assessors add to the budget after we do our work we don't have anything to do with that they pick a number and have to be within the limit then if they have money that they feel they do not require for a particular fiscal year they have to declare it surplus if they don't declare it surplus nothing happens once they declare it surplus and the amount then it's up to us to appropriate it from the overlay reserve for purposes as stated in the warrant thank you anyone else wish to discuss this article seeing none all in favor please say yes opposed certified 85 town meeting members are present voting in the affirmative thank you she says yes that brings us to article 51 appropriation tips fee stabilization fund to third vote on this $164,000 Mr. Tosti members that have been in town meeting for a long time this is truly a wonderful moment in 1984 the town got roped into signing one of the most horrendous contracts that we have ever been involved in and that was the contract that required us or got us into neswick which is a waste recovery plant up in north and over year after year all the promises made to us by the state as far as what a wonderful deal this would be didn't work and the budget and the amount of money that we had to keep funding for that kept going higher and higher and higher to try to overcome this we tried to put as much money away as possible and we have been drawing it down ever since this is the last appropriation from this fund it will disappear and an entire error goes away anyone else seeing none all in favor of this appropriation please say yes see the animus vote and I so declare Madam Clerk to certify 85 town meeting members of present voting affirmative thank you that closes article 51 and brings us to article 52 transfer of funds cemetery commissioners anyone wish to discuss this seeing none all in favor please say yes opposed I declare that a unanimous vote Madam Clerk to certify 85 town meeting members of present voting affirmative yes she does and that closes article 51 and brings excuse me article 52 and brings us to article 53 my favorite free cash I declare a unanimous vote Madam Clerk to certify 85 town meeting members of present voting affirmative she declares yes Mr. Tosti article 3 please I move that article 3 be taken from the table I'll say removing article 3 from the table I'll say removing article 3 from the table I'll say removing article 3 from the table I'll say removing article 3 from the table I'll say removing article 3 from the table please say yes opposed Mr. Tosti article 3 is off the table I move that this town meeting be dissolved all in favor of dissolving the 2013 annual town meeting please say yes opposed I declare the meeting dissolved thank you