 Welcome and Happy New Year. I am calling to order this meeting on the Arlington Select Board on Monday, January 9th, 2023. 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 your name, please respond in affirmative. Dan Hahn. Here. John Hurd. Yes. Steve Corsi. Yes. Eric Helmets. Yes. Staff, when I call your name, please respond in affirmative. Sandy Poehler. Here. Doug Hunt. Here. Ashley Meyer. Here. Tonight's meeting of the Arlington Select Board is being conducted in a hybrid format consistent with Chapter 107 of the Acts of 2022 signed the law on July 17, 2022, which further extends certain COVID-19 measures regarding remote participation until March 31, 2023. Before we begin, please note the following. First, this meeting is being conducted via Zoom. It is 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 participating by Zoom are reminded that you may be visible to others and that if you wish to participate, you are asked to provide your full name and an interest in developing a record of the meeting. Third, all participants are advised that people may be listening and not provide comment and those persons are not required to identify themselves. Both Zoom participants and persons watching on ACMI can follow posted agenda materials also found on the town's website using the Novot Agendas platform. And finally, each poll tonight will be taken by roll call. So let's see how much of the town's business we can get done this evening. And next on the agenda is the land acknowledgement. I would like to read the land acknowledgement that the board supported in the spring of 2021 and that was adopted at the 2021 annual town meeting. We acknowledge that the town of Arlington is located on the ancestral lands of the Massachusetts tribe. The tribe of indigenous people from whom the colony, province, and common health have taken their names. We pay our respects to the ancestral bloodline of the Massachusetts tribe and their descendants who still inhabit historic Massachusetts territories today. We'll now turn to Mr. Hurd who will explain how we'll handle the third item on the agenda of proclamation honoring Stan Shine. Mr. Hurd? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I sort of put this on by accident. It's not ready. It's going to be pushed to another agenda item when we can have him in. It was meant to honor his 44 years of service as a coach in town. But that will be kicked forward to another agenda item to come. All right. Thanks, Mr. Hurd. Well, now I'll move to item number four, discussion. Impossible vote on more effectively pressuring or requiring national grid to repair known significant environmental impact gas leaks. But before we move forward, I think, I will hear from Mr. Helmuth. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going to recuse myself in this discussion and vote because I'm an employee of the state legislature specifically in Massachusetts Senate, which has some oversight role of utilities. I think that it's best to remove myself from the discussion just to avoid any possible conflict of interest or appearance of conflict of interest that could affect future actions since the legislature has some oversight role of the utilities. Thanks, Mr. Helmuth and Mr. Corsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also am going to recuse myself from this discussion impossible vote as I do some legal work for national grid and consistent with my prior practice. I'll be recusing myself this evening. Okay. Thank you, gentlemen. I'll let you know when we're all done. We'll just give it a few seconds. So I just want to make it clear that the possible vote is not going to be on the resolution. It's really going to be on whether we take some other action. You know, we will, part of this discussion may be whether the resolution comes back on the agenda. But right now, I mean, I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Boland to discuss the significance of the gas leaks meeting and why it is that we are having this discussion now. Ms. Boland. Thank you. So my name is Ann Boland. I am a member of the town managers gas leaks task force and I'm also a member of mothers out front. And so the town managers gas leaks task force was formed in 2017. Initially, the gas leaks task force consisted of the town manager, a town engineer, a volunteer from the tree committee, the town tree warden, a volunteer from sustainable Arlington and two other town residents who are also members of mothers out front. In the first year representatives from national grid would occasionally attend. Currently David Morgan, the town's environmental planner, attends the meetings for the town manager. So an overview of the gas problem in Arlington and in Massachusetts in general. The natural gas distribution infrastructure in Massachusetts is the second oldest and most leak prone in the country. Gas leaks cause explosions, kill trees and emit methane, which is an extraordinarily potent greenhouse gas. The leaks are also expensive since gas customers pay for the lost gas in their bills. In Massachusetts, we pay up to $135 million every year for leaked gas according to a 2013 study by Senator Markey. And in the Boston area alone, the value of lost gas is $90 million enough to heat 200,000 homes. And this is from Harvard Boston University McCain study of 2015. So all of our information on the number of gas leaks that we have in Arlington comes from national grid. And so I will be telling some of these numbers as we go along here. But it has been shown that sometimes independent researchers find more leaks than national grid actually reports. Weston, the town of Weston had an independent gas audit and they found 66% more leaks, more gas leaks than were reported by national grid. So in 2017, when the gas leaks task force was formed, there were 234 reported gas leaks in Arlington. And trees were dying because they're being suffocated by leaked gas. We lost trees along Mass Ave right in front of City Hall, town hall. And right the current number of gas leaks as reported by national grid in the third quarter of 2022 is 198. So methane is the main component of these leaks. An intergovernmental panel on climate change reports that atmospheric methane is now higher than at any time in the last 800,000 years. And that methane is 80%, excuse me, 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of warming the climate. So you can see that the gas leaks problem is something that the gas leaks task force has been working to address. Some of the things that we've accomplished over these years is an increased communication between the town engineering department and national grid. Now they can better coordinate when the streets are open for repairs of gas pipelines and to avoid duplication and excavations. We've also helped with the purchase of a portable Baskham Turner gas detector for the tree warden to test for gas in tree pits before he plants new trees. This way we save money because the trees are going to have more of a chance of survival. The tree warden also keeps an inventory of trees killed by gas leaks. And the way a tree is killed by gas leaks is it's actually suffocated because the natural gas replaces the oxygen in the soil and so the tree can't breathe and that's why it dies. And so the tree warden keeps an inventory of these trees that are killed by gas leaks and has sent bills to national grid for reimbursement of these trees. Unfortunately there have been mixed results in getting a fair reimbursement with national grid sometimes offering just pennies on the dollar for the cost of the trees or claiming that the tree was killed by some type of fungus or some other disease without even showing proof of this. The tree warden along with the town council continued to do these reimbursements and we've also increased public awareness of the problem of gas leaks and the danger of methane gas both for health and climate change. We've published several articles in local papers and with the health of mothers out front gas leaks have been tagged to increase residents awareness of the prevalence of the gas leaks in Arlington and Arlington is actually one of the towns that has quite a few. We have more gas leaks reported than Cambridge or Somerville. We really are in a high have a high level of gas leaks. And so what we're asking with this resolution we feel like this is kind of low hanging fruit as far as addressing the methane emissions and is it possible that I could show a slide I don't know if. I could share my screen. This might help you out with that. No problem you weren't expecting this so it just goes a little time. Okay that's okay I just wanted to talk about there are according to the Department of Public Utility Regulations they have come up with ways that gas leaks are classified. So gas leaks are classified by grade one and this is a leak that is dangerous and it needs to be fixed immediately. It's maybe in a home in a building in a manhole somewhere that it has the potential of immediate danger and these are to be fixed immediately. Then there's grade two gas leaks and these have the potential of becoming dangerous and these are to be fixed within one year. But most of the gas leaks that are in Arlington are grade three gas leaks and these are gas leaks that are not considered dangerous at all and if they were discovered well they're there to be fixed within eight years of their discovery and then there is grade three SEI gas leaks and these are significant environmental impact gas leaks and these are large volume gas leaks and they have a 2,000 square foot area where the gas can be detected in a 2,000 square foot area from the center of the leak. And so these are the leaks that emit the most methane and a 2016 Boston University study found that 7% of all leaks are SEI leaks yet they account for 50% of the methane emissions. So we feel like going after our significant environmental impact leaks is low hanging fruit. It's a way for us to really get our address a large amount of emissions. And so as far as the regulation goes National Grid is supposed to repair these within one to two years. Now they have ways that they can get around this. And so these leaks have been well they probably weren't designated as SEIs even though they have been leaks in Arlington for quite a while. It was only in I think 2020 or 2021 that National Grid started designating the large volume gas leaks in Arlington. But we feel that it is we'd like to push National Grid to really make it a concerted effort to fix these large volume gas leaks. So we are asking that we have a resolution that we have presented and we're asking that this be accepted by the Select Board and sent on to National Grid that they repair our large volume gas leaks by June of 2023. And our resolution is actually based on 2021 data and there were 14 leaks. Now I just found out today that the third quarter data of 2022 reports that there are 21 large volume leaks which is a very big increase. And again I think it's and we feel as far as the addressing methane emissions for Arlington that it's really important that these leaks are fixed. And we also would like town support to verify if National Grid reports that they have fixed these leaks that we want to be sure that they really have been fixed. Thank you. And in our conversation I mentioned that I would like to find out how we can effectively get National Grid to need to fix these leaks because my live tournaments are that it will be really easy for them to get the resolution and say thank you very much and not do anything else. And you talked you told me that DPU the Department of Public Utilities is the entity that really controls what National Grid does mean and if anything we should direct our communication to them in my opinion and in my opinion that should come from the town manager. The town manager and I had a conversation and we're going to discuss this some more maybe tonight but certainly later on. But what I would like to maybe discuss before I turn it over to my colleagues are some other possible things that we could do in addition to or instead of the resolution that would potentially be more effective. That's a good question. My mother's out front has tried to do a lot of publicity regarding these large volume gas leaks. You know National Grid is pretty you know we don't have like you said and we've talked about the Department of Public Utilities really has the control over National Grid so I guess in terms of maybe just more publicity more public opinion getting more public opinion sway towards fixing these large volume gas leaks which is why I did want to talk about it tonight. Right off the top of my head I'm really not coming up with anything else. That's fine. I would turn it over to my colleagues and you can just raise your hand electronically. I'll help you out a little bit more. Can I see Mr. Herbert stand up? Mr. Herbert. Thank you for the presentation and the information. I'm certainly on board with what we're trying to accomplish here. If we want to send the resolution I think that's fine. I think it's well thought out and well written. I'm not sure that a resolution or proclamation is the most effective way to get the utilities to take us seriously on this subject. I think a demand letter what I'm not sure if we sent them before I'm sure we have is more in tune to get them to get to the legal department but I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I think that being a lawyer by practice an effective demand letter has to have some sort of a consequence for noncompliance. I guess I would ask attorney Heim if there's anything that we can put in a letter. We're asking them to resolve these issues by a certain date. Is there anything that we can put in a letter that says if you don't we're going to do this or we're going to send the resolution. This chairman man. Yes. So as has been pointed out what the legal department typically does when we have we're informed by the tree warden that a tree is damaged or killed by natural gas leak or some other town properties affected by gas leaks is we support or draft or get involved in seeking compensation for those damaged trees. Typically those things have been handled similar to an insurance claim process and haven't risen to the level of some sort of litigation. The town could certainly take a more aggressive posture with respect to litigation but I want to caution that that litigious posture would be primarily with respect to the direct damage caused to town property by gas leaks. For some of the reasons that we've sort of outlined the town absent some sort of special act doesn't have an avenue for a more straightforward injunctive relief. What would probably happen is you know it would be relayed to us that this is governed by the by a DPU and the town doesn't have the sort of jurisdiction to enforce by injunctive relief a more aggressive schedule or a change in the law in terms of how leaks are treated. So the legal department certainly could take a more aggressive posture with respect to damage and make something more public in terms of taking a more instead of trying to resolve matters going to court I'm aware that I'm pretty certain that the city of Newton did that a number of years ago but there's not a lot of options beyond either a special act or working more with our legislative delegation to change rules and things like that at the DPU level. Okay, yeah again I'm happy to support the resolution and send it I just feel putting the same tenor into a letter it gets a little more attention than we tell them that we're sending them proclamation but that being said I'm happy to move approval of the proclamation as well. I just want to make it clear Mr. Heard we're not going to vote on the proclamation tonight I just have it included as material for us to look at you know and so I had a discussion with Ms. Baldwin because I wasn't ready to put on the agenda for vote tonight but I did want to discuss this issue tonight and see if there were some alternatives that we could maybe come up with instead of a resolution you know and ACMI can I get the select board room be where the town of Arlington seal is and so I mean so so there's a seal that I'm seeing in zoom me and initially it had the chambers and and if I could get the chamber where the seal is that'd be good because that's the one that lights up when people are talking in the chamber okay we can work on it. Thank you Mr. Chair I would have seconded that motion but I think I'm hearing from the chair that we're not going to do that tonight which is fine but I'm definitely in support of the resolution also just trying to think as others are in terms of possible next steps I don't know if between now and the end of the month when the ward closes if the town manager gas leak committee that Ms. Bolen and others are on or mothers out front or the board or some other entity could perhaps come up with some sort of warrant article I don't know if that would have any teeth to it but I'm sure people are looking at that and the other thing I would suggest is I know we have her discussion of our goals meeting coming up soon between now and the next month or so months or so inviting our legislators in the senator and our two reps this would certainly be I know when they come in they give a report from the state house but they also say you know can you give us some marching orders the things that you'd like us to work on and this certainly seems like a topic that obviously they're aware of but we have a little more vigorous discussion about it as well as when we have them in the chair excuse me it's a head cold that's all the chair can sort of give them a brief expected itinerary so they you know can already be thinking about possible steps so with that if it wasn't when we do vote on the resolution I'd be happy to vote for that I don't know if you want to wait and put that on to another meeting office chair you have discussion of possible vote but definitely if we can think about it as a warrant article avenue that something we can do or definitely this should be and probably would be a topic of discussion when we have our legislators into a select board meeting in the near future thank you thank you miss mine yes I mean I'm going to think about this more about whether we bring the resolution to a vote because my general feeling about resolutions is that you show your resolve you don't talk about your resolve mean and so so there has to be something more a lot more me that goes with the resolution and needs to him my feelings are it needs to be clear you know and and just be concrete steps me that we are going to do me that are as effective as they can be you know and so so I mean I think talking to our state delegates you know would be one of those things we maybe figuring out how to work with other towns in order to do some other kind of suit you know so that we can really get not only attention you know of the public but also be perhaps the attention of other entities that have an influence being on national grid you know so so as I told miss bowling me you know it would be easy for us to do a resolution and then be done you know but I rather spend more time really trying to do something effective me then to spend a little time on something that has little to no impact on this ball yeah one thing that excuse me that I didn't mention that it has become as an offshoot of the town's gas leaks task force is that the local area developed a multi-town gas leaks initiative and those people also the town of Newton and Waltham and it's multiple different towns Wellesley Weston I believe have met with national grid and they meet quarterly it's it's a frustrating situation because things don't I just want to let people know that there has been that outreach to other towns okay I appreciate that so so what this does is this keeps us engaged in this ball and you know so we we all care very much about this issue being and I really want to work it you know I mean so it keeps us engaged until at least next meeting and probably beyond so so you and I will certainly be in touch before next meeting and maybe you may be in touch with other members of staff and of course you're always welcome to reach out to any other member of the select board so so I'm thank you for your time tonight for all the information being in this let's hopefully hope we can all be successful sooner than later okay thank you all right good night you know so on to item number five vote on 10 Sunnyside Avenue 40B you know Mr. Heim thank you Mr. Chairman as the board will recall actually hold on we need to bring our colleagues back sorry to get a little ahead of myself yeah that's all looks like everyone's in the room so Mr. Heim thank you Mr. Chairman as the board will recall you had a previous meeting to discuss the board's position with respect to the application so excuse me a second ACMI so right now I have a muted microphone in on the select board chambers means I'm not hearing anything and so he gave me a video that I wanted and now I don't have any audio all right the only way to get audio is to go back to the way we are then we'll just have to do that you know I'll let you know when I can hear Mr. Chairman can you hear me now I have a screen up and I may need to use that audio until you only get it back Mr. Chairman can you hear me this is Sandy Mr. Chair can you hear me this is Sandy I can did you say yes yes and I'll give you that feedback thank you Mr. Chairman thank you thank you thank you Mr. Chairman if I may yes I'll be quick the board heard an application for a site approval slash project eligibility an opportunity for the board to comment having received some information from your departments regarding a application for a development of an approximately 43 unit affordable rental housing property at Ten Sunnyside Avenue based on the board's discussion and my understanding of the board's position I've drafted a letter of full support this is a relatively straightforward project both from the perspective of messages the smart growth criteria and my understanding of the board's general positions and appreciation for the Housing Corporate of Arlington's approach to this incorporating many of the town's long-term plans into its design and the locus here if board members have any comment I'm happy to make any adjustments or tweaks based on a discussion here but otherwise I'd be looking for a vote to approve having the chair sign this and transmit it to Mass Housing thank you all right thank you Mr. time you know any questions comments Mr. Helman thank you Mr. Chair I'd like to move approval and that was not at the last meeting so I'd like to take the opportunity to express my own appreciation for HDA's innovative thinking for this project I did have the opportunity prior to that meeting to spend an hour with them in there in their team and you know I have full confidence in the ZBA's full betting of this and so our role is of course not to supplant that but you know from what I saw this this has a lot of promise I'm very excited about the potential for adding deeply affordable housing at a great volume and I look forward to seeing the outcome of the due diligence as the process goes forward. Great. Second. Thank you Mr. Hurt and any other comments Mr. behind Mr. Hurt and I think we're all set there. I will just ask Mr. Hurt and do you think it would be appropriate to mention the fair housing action plan as one of the things that this project helps to advance you know. Mr. Sherman of course if you'd like me to highlight the fair housing action plan I'd be happy to do so. Great. I didn't know if it was left out intentionally but I think it would be good because it means all affordable housing and certainly one of the issues that was raised with fair housing action plan was that we have the it's hard to afford to live in Arlington and that definitely affects me the the make up of the town so given that this is all affordable housing and some of it deeply affordable I think it really does help with our own fair housing action plan so yeah at that I mean I'm already happy to that be even more related. So I think that's it so on motion to approve by Mr. Helmuth and a second by Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. Mr. Hurt. So, I just need to get now the agent up. There's a little bit of a little scramble here at meet just been there. Okay. I'm there. So We now moving on to go Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm aware of the, just to give the board and the public a quick refresher on this process. What the board is tasked with tonight is you've received two complaints about dangerous dogs. Under Chapter 40, Section 157, those petitions have to be submitted in writing to the select board. Typically, which is what the board is allowed to do, the board has designated a department to investigate and determine whether or not a dog is dangerous in violation of state law and the town's bylaws. And again, typically that has historically been the police department. The board certainly can investigate on its own and have its own hearings. Or the board may decide that there's not a sufficient basis to cause an investigation to happen. But again, your practice has typically been to refer this to the police department. The police department will notice and hold the formal hearing where evidence can be presented by the party complaining about the dangerous, allegedly dangerous dog and the dog owner and any other witnesses who wish to sort of be present and provide evidence. Again, typically these hearings have been fairly formal hearings in the sense that they have a court reporter, there's a transcript generated. And the evidence is all considered before initial determination is made as to whether or not the animal is in fact dangerous in any way. And then secondly, what is the appropriate measure going forward to if the animal is dangerous to appropriately mitigate that risk? So if the board has any other questions, I'm happy to answer them, but the process tonight is is fairly straightforward. It's will the board cause an investigation into one or both of these complaints? And if it does, will it designate the police department? You have some other options. But again, traditionally, it's been the police department to serve to appoint a hearing officer to preside over that process. Thank you, son. Any questions, comments from colleagues? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a question, Mr. Chair, are we considering both six and seven or do you want us to consider six first and then go into to agenda item seven? So it's a question. So I will ask Mr. Heim. He does. I assume what you said applies to both six and seven, right? Yes, my apologies, Mr. Chair. Yes, I would take I would consider each separately and take a separate vote on each one of Okay. Thank you, Attorney Heim. I have a question really on seven and it has to do with jurisdiction and question for Attorney Heim. And I'm fine with the referral to the police department, particularly for number six. But I think there's a threshold question on number seven, if whether the dog is kept in Arlington. And so is that within the scope of what we would be asking the police department to look into it, or are we making that initial determination? Sorry. Thank you, Mr. Dacorsi. It's my understanding that this incident took place in Arlington, that the owner of the dog is not necessarily an Arlington resident, but that the sort of locus of the event was here and that the dog may be being kept in another jurisdiction, but at the request of the Arlington Police Department. So I think we do have jurisdiction over the incident itself and the dog. I don't believe the dog is licensed anywhere. So I'm mistaken. I don't believe the dog is licensed anywhere. So the only alternative here would be to not have any jurisdiction for this dog whatsoever. So I believe that in a less than perfect circumstance, Arlington is an appropriate place to have a hearing with respect to whether the dog is dangerous or not. Okay. Thank you attorney. I'm just concerned that at a hearing in the incident, there was a terrible incident with the, in both instances, that the police department may find that they don't have any authority based on where the dog is at the time of the hearing, but that is something that can be addressed at the hearing. The dog is registered in the town of Arlington. Okay. I'm sorry. Thank you. Both 60 and seven. Just the offender of seven. Okay. Okay. All right. Then that answers that question. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions, comments from our colleagues? And Ms. Mohan, I can actually even see you now. So raise your hand one way or another. Okay. I mean, so Ms. Mohan, yes. No problem. Take your time. Sorry. I have to delay. I have to do the audio through my phone. For the recommendation of town council, I'll just stop with the agenda item six. I'd like to make a motion to refer the agenda item six to the colleagues and police department to properly notice and conduct initials on hearing. Thank you. Ms. Mohan? Am I seeing a second? Second. Okay. Thank you Ms. Herk. So, any questions, comments? So all the most matters behind. And I'm excited, Ms. Herk, to refer to this department before a hearing, you know, Mr. Heineman. Mr. Herk? Yes. Mr. Corsi? Yes. Mr. Helma? Yes. Ms. Mohan? Yes. Mr. Dickens? Yes. So that was when number six number seven moved to refer to the police department for attorney Hems recommendation so I'm just want to interject that typically what's happening is they are referring for investigation and hearing by the police department and official notice will be sent by the police department pursuant to the board's vote should the board vote this way mr. Yes mr. Of course yes mr. Helm yes Mrs. Mahon yes mr. Diggins yes and I appreciate that protected that clarification mr. Thank you all right you know so we are now on to the second agenda the number eight minutes minutes of me on December 21st 22nd and 22nd December 21st 22nd 22nd emergency attendance and I the Arlington Education Foundation five-way race on May 21st this year Laura Fuller of the Arlington Education Foundation number ten request a special one-day beer and wine license on January 14th 2023 at Bobby's library for a private event Caitlyn Perkins and we're loving a real appointment to the transportation advisory committee the soji Takashaki Takahashi terms expire on January 31st 2025 I turn to my colleagues mr. Chair yes mr. Allen thank you mr. Chair I have a question about the item in item number nine and I just noticed that the application did not answer the did not check the box either way about police detail but the accompanying letter mentioned that that was the intention that was my first question my second question is I noticed that there was no statement from the recreation director or the police department of support or notes or concerns conditions and I realize this is kind of a repeat what but with an expansion of last time so I think all I've seen is is the the very fine you know the applicants organizations attestation to this but I guess my question my second question is that is that usual for us to approve in the absence of formal formal information from the town departments and then my back and my and then to remind my first question is is that an issue about the police detail on the form so it's all that boils down to us is that ready for us to improve to approve so I'll turn to Ms. Meyer if I may Laura Fuller the applicant the petitioner is here if you would like me she's now a panelist if you would like me to allow her to speak pertaining to Mr. Helmets questions sure thank you Mr. Chair I think yes I think that would be welcome before that though I think there's an administrative and policy question for the time manager or or attorney Hyde your discretion that I think you know my I mean I don't want to know what the applicant has to say but in terms of the policy issues I raised I'm not sure I have an answer off the top my head about whether or not they can proceed if they haven't you know technically filled out the requirements that way the manager has a position on it if the board is inclined to correct essentially an application I think the real issue is just whether or not we have the information to satisfy the board before you make a this is the first time I've had to deal with a road race like this so I will just say that I had been contacted by the petitioner earlier where she informed me that she'd been in contact with the police and so forth but I think maybe having her answer that some of those questions directly what I see from the attachment to the agenda is a permit application with nothing on it I don't know if that's what you see too it's just a form I saw my version that is partly filled out yeah yeah it could be a PDF reading issue on the other hand well my intention was to see if that answers some of the questions I understand the administrative element of it but I was hoping that she may be filled in some information of our dealing with this apartment maybe other entities in town so miss Fuller yes good evening thank you my name is Laura Fuller I am a member of the board of the Arlington Education Foundation and we'd like to thank the board for consideration and and for the approval for last year's race which was quite successful honestly we our intention is to hire a police detail honestly I filled out this form similarly to the way I filled it out last year which did not check that box until at the completion of this process here tonight but our intention is to hire a police detail to help us manage traffic especially on the bike path what we found last year is we had a lot of cyclists peddling against the the direction of the race and that was an issue as well as controlling traffic and that was primarily around stop and shop when they had some deliveries early in the morning I'd like to remind the board that this race is at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning and honestly Mass Ave is quite quiet on a Sunday morning at that hour it's only like at the end of the race where it picks up but yes we will we intend to engage a police detail I have been in contact with the Joe Conley of the recreation department as well as Sandy Fuller and and the folks at the police department about this race and they've all approved it yes mr. Thomas thank you Miss Fuller and I'm thrilled that the event was so successful that you want to expand it years this year that is wonderful wonderful news and we'll certainly get this done to my colleagues I think I would feel better hearing directly not that any reason to doubt what we just heard at all but just as a matter of procedure given how we normally do permits having something written from officer Rito and from mr. Conley just just verifying that and inviting any comments that they have about advice to the board for conditions I would prefer to see that before that as long as this does not mess up the timeline you know for doing it seems like this is pretty well in advance but that's something we could do perhaps in our next meeting Mr. Corsi thank you mr. Chairman and I agree with mr. Helmuth on this and we have done in situations where the event is coming up between meetings so let's say this event was next Saturday and we're not meeting again until January 23rd we might make a conditional type approval and I was happy to support this last year I'm glad the event was successful and I'm inclined to vote in favor of it again but I think where we do have time I would I would agree with mr. Helmuth that maybe it's best just for us to have the complete document at our meeting on January 23rd and vote again voted at that time so and if you're taking mr. Helmuth's comments as a motion to table this it continue it I'll second it. Any comments? Questions? Colleagues? Okay so I guess maybe to help you know the police department mr. Helmuth you know I mean what what is it that you would like for them to say I mean like what level of detail you know would you like from them so that it meets your satisfaction? I would just you know I just appreciate something written from each of them indicating their approval indicating at their option any comments they want to make any recommendations they want to make to the board for further conditions. So if they say I approve no comments that we have to decision? Sure. Okay just understanding so that we don't get to next week you know and or next meeting and it's not enough information. All right so on a motion to table till the next meeting you know well hold on I guess I might need to untangle this from from the rest of the consent agenda because as far as the consent agenda so I think we're going to pull this all in and out you know the consent agenda and deal with it separately you know so any other comments on the consent agenda? Well I actually have a question. Yes. I would like to move a full list of items 8, 10 and 11 on the consent agenda. Okay thank you. I'll second that and just say happy birthday to the gentleman who's having his party and it reminds me that my 40th birthday is coming. I don't know if I'll have it at town hall but getting old. I'm not hearing it. So there was an item I need to get to it so I guess it was on that party actually have a question because it's really a matter of consistency was in maybe it was on two consent agendas ago where they said that they were going to take their alcohol home or in a car and and to my surprise we said no. So is that the same thing that's going on here? Is there a consistency issue with it or is there something different about this one? Mr. Dacorsi. I think the last time what was said is at the end of the event that each person who visited the event will be provided with some alcohol to take home with them in their car. This is the man who's going to place unopened bottles in the trunk of the client's vehicle. I think that's not really worried about consistency based on that. Okay fine fine. Now I'll take the clarification of what I asked from Adon. So Adon, I think we all discussed this one all out. So on emotion approved elements 8, 10 and 11 of the consent agenda by Mrs. Mahan. And second by Mr. Herd, Mr. Heim. Mr. Herd? Yes. Mr. Dacorsi? Yes. Mr. Helman? Yes. Mrs. Mahan? Yes. Mr. Diggins? Yes. Thank you. And so now on item number nine of the consent agenda we have a motion to table to help our next meeting by Mr. Helmets and second by Mr. Corsi and Mr. Heim. Mr. Herd? Yes. Mr. Corsi? Yes. Mr. Helman? Yes. This is Mahan. Yes. Mr. Diggins? Yes. Okay great. Thank you. And so we're now on to open forum and stuff in unusual circumstances. Any matter presented for consideration of the board shall need to be acted upon or a decision made tonight of the presentation. In accordance with the policy under which the open forum was established, it should be noted that there is a three-minute time limit to present a concern or request. So Ms. Mahan, we, well first off, we have the one that wants to chime in. I'm looking at participants list. I'm not, okay we're seeing Susan, Susan. So we'll of course bring in Ms. Susan, you know, and get the clock ready, you know, we'll start that. Hi dear. Hi everybody. Just hang on just a little bit and we'll see if Ms. Mahan can get us a clock. Not, I'll put the black phone and get a little time for that. Okay, there we go. Okay, there we go. Okay, Ms. Dams, you can start anytime. Thank you very much. I am, I just wanted to follow up on Anne Boland's terrific presentation of the Gas Leaks Resolution you spoke about earlier in the meeting. I am the tree committee representative on the Gas Leaks Task Force and have been since the beginning five years ago. There were a couple of items in the resolution that I wanted to highlight that was not discussed when you just discussed it. The first is that we shocked this resolution around two boards and it is endorsed by a very impressive group of boards and I'd like to read the boards in town that endorsed it. And those are Conservation Commission, the School Committee, the Board of Health, Arlington Fire Department, Park and Res Commission, the Open Space Committee, Tree Committee, Sustainable Arlington and Clean Energy Future Committee. So these committees represent a wide swap of people doing all kinds of things in Arlington and I think I would ask the board when it has a chance to please reconsider doing what the resolution asks, which is that the board adopt the resolution and then send a copy of the resolution with a letter to National Grid which asks them within 30 days of the date of the letter to repair the leaks before June 30th, 2023. So it's a very specific ask. We asked the select board to copy our state delegation, the DPW Superintendent Department of Planning and Community Development and Department of Health in town and also a public information officer, also the chair, Mr. Nelson, the chair of the State Department of Public Utilities and finally to place a copy of the letter in Arlington Advocate, your Arlington patch and ACMI and the Boston Globe. And the whole point of this is, and also I want to mention that other cities and towns have signed a similar resolution and sent it to as I took the people that I just mentioned and the whole idea is to raise consciousness and to really put pressure on. The DPU is not putting much pressure on National Grid and National Grid is trying as hard as it can to pretend that it is helping things instead of not helping things for us to get to a greener future. So I just wanted to mention those and I think that was, that's all I had to say. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Who stands? Anyone else? That's him. So actually I see Andrew Meier. Is my audio working? Yes. So I just wanted to follow up on the second dangerous dog hearing tonight, which I submitted with my mother. It was item 7 on the agenda. So this incident involved our family dog that was killed in an unprovoked attack on November 16th of last year. And the caretaker of the attacking dog was a resident of Drake Village, which is a public housing building for Arlington residents. From the police report it says that quote, he stated Ziggy, the attacking dog was not his dog, rather he was sitting full for its owner and that he did not know where she lived or when she was coming back to retrieve Ziggy. So I'm bringing this up because it seems like from the reports Ziggy was being kept at Drake Village, which is managed by the Arlington Housing Authority. And they have specific rules about registering and restraining dogs. So I emailed the manager of Drake Village and also the executive director of the Arlington Housing Authority. And I do appreciate that they responded back quickly about my concerns. However, I didn't get that clear of an answer about what kind of action steps might be being taken about prevention of incidents like this in the future, especially considering that Drake Village houses elderly and disabled residents. And this incident took took took place right next to the Arlington reservoir and herd field where families with small children and pets bought on a daily basis. And it seems like a similar event could could could occur again if another resident of Drake Village decides to take in a similarly dangerous animal and it's not flagged. So I'm not sure if this is the best place to address this issue, but I just wanted to raise this concern in case this this elect board has ways to help with public safety issues like that. So that's it. Thank you for coming. I'm not seeing any other hands. Are you? Just got to get back. No problem. No, I don't see any other hands raised at this time. Great. So we are set with open forum. I just need to get this. That's my agenda. So that's the appointment for health. So we have a Peter Rice. Mr. Rice with us. Yes. Good evening. Hi. That's right. So thank you for your willingness to be a member of the Board of Health. We want to tell us a little bit about you. Yes. A Bostonian actually. I went to Northwestern University undergrad and then to Boston University for medical school and I trained at UMass and Worcester. I married a New Yorker and I was taken behind enemy lines for 25 years and two years ago we moved back to the Boston area while I was a surgeon physician for about 25 years. I became interested in teaching. So I made a transition to teaching actually high school students. I became interested in public health as a way to teach students about critical thinking and evidence based medicine and trying to get them interested in this. And so I participated in a couple of times down at CDC and Atlanta for teachers. And I became quite taken with public health and teaching about public health. And as you know over the last two and a half years this has been quite an issue. And so I would like to become a part of government in the sense that I would like to see how this works. And I think the skills that I have I could be a part of this. So we've enjoyed living in Arlington and that's why I applied. Well thank you Mr. Rice. And so I will turn to my colleagues. Mr. Helms. Thank you Mr. Chair. And thank you Dr. Rice for your willingness to serve in your fascinating career. I think it's terrific the direction your career has taken. The education is really important. The critical thinking is really important. Public health is deeply important. And I am grateful for your willingness to serve your community. I move approval Mr. Chair. Second. Thank you Mr. Helms. Thank you Mr. Herd. Anyone else comments? Yes I want to express my appreciation to the teaching element. And I think it's just really great because I think along with making decisions, meaning the ability to explain the decisions means a lot. And public health these days is really important. But also it can be a little tricky given that the extent to which science is having to compete with politics a bit. When it comes to policy making. So thank you for your willingness to be a member of the Board of Health. So on a motion to approve by Mr. Helms and second by Mr. Herd. Mr. Heim. Mr. Herd. Yes. Mr. Corsi. Yes Mr. Helms. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Davis. Yes. It's unanimous vote. Thank you again. Take care. Thank you so much Mr. Chair and the select board. I very much appreciate it. Thank you. Second approval. And that is Mr. Sherry Graham approved for the Council of Aging. The term to expire on June 30th 2025. Scram here. Just unmuting myself. Sorry. No problem. So you want to tell us a little about yourself. Yep. So I'm Sherry Graham. I'm an applicant for the Council on Aging Board position. I've been a resident of Arlington since 2003. I have a 16 and 18 year old now. So now that my kids are older, I have a chance to go back to volunteering more. And I was interested in being more involved with the town and giving back to the town that's given so much to us. And also a position that could potentially leverage my experience as a family physician. I've had numerous experiences working in hospice in hospitals, assisted livings, home visits, nursing homes that have definitely led to an appreciation of the importance of community supports for seniors. And I think that's really important. And I think that's really important. And I'm definitely a passion about improving aging in place. Well, thank you, Mr. Graham. So I am turning to my colleagues. This is of course. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to move approval and thank Dr. Graham for her interest in the Council on Aging and in a very impressive resume. And you thank you for your work in primary care, as the liaison to the Council on Aging, assuming there's an affirmative vote, I look forward to seeing you at the meetings. Second that. Any other questions, comments? Yes, well, I'll just add, it's really great to have been another doctor being in an important position in town. I mean, Council on Aging, this is critical, especially since all of us hope to be old enough to be a benefit of the services that are offered by town. I mean, I have, I pretty much focus on transportation, being in other aspects of my civic life, and being transportation for elderly folks is a big deal. I mean, so you just become more aware of the needs of elderly people and just how important it is to have a good functioning Council on Aging, so I'm sure you'll make it better. So thank you once again. So on a motion to approve by Mr. DeCorsi, and a second by Mr. Helmets. Mr. Hunt. Mr. DeCorsi, I'm sorry. Mr. Herrick. Yes. Mr. DeCorsi. Yes. Mr. Helen. Yes. Mr. DeCorsi. Yes. Mr. DeCorsi. Yes. Yes. I'm just looking. unanimous. As I said, thank you. As I said, Mr. Hyam, I totally understand. So, okay, we're moving on to traffic. It was important business number 14, a brief discussion with 17 service reductions. So as you all may recall, I think it was about towards the end of December. And there was an announcement that the MBTA was reducing its service on the 77, especially during the morning rush. And I was able to find out, being through a very good source, because I've done some work with the MBTA on the Rider-Ozak Committee, and I've gotten to know a fair number of people there, especially in service planning, that what happened is that they reduced, they reduced the number of buses on the 77 route by one during the morning rush hour. And that took what's called a headway, which is the amount of time between buses from nine and a half minutes to 11 minutes. And the rationale is that they don't have enough drivers for one, but also there is absenteeism, which has been a problem for a while, even before the pandemic. But that hits the 77 particularly hard because the 77 is the only bus, key bus routes that used to be called coming out of the garage, that serves the area, serves our area. So when a driver is missing on another route, that may have a headway of a half hour or so, because there are only two buses on that route, then they are going to pull a bus from the 77. The hope is that by deploying a driver to another route or having at least another driver that you can deploy to another route, it will make the 77 service more reliable. So it may be a little slower, I mean, I have the minutes versus night and a half me, but it is better than having the big gaps that happen when you have to take a bus away because not only does that often cause me a gap, but it's not an even gap because when you pull that driver out, it causes a bit of a domino effect to me. So that's what's going on. So I just wanted to explain that. And I had a conversation with representative Garberley and he confirmed that he had the same information and then I am going to try to get representative Garberley to come and talk with us, not only about the service on the 77, but also what we can do, what's likely to happen about assessments and when, I mean, and so I can't promise when they'll happen. I'll just say that myself and Garberley are in contact fairly frequently about MET services and the services in our own in particular. So that's my point of information. So I will happily entertain questions and comments, advice, suggestions, I'm Mr. Corsi. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you for the explanation. I just want to acknowledge that the number of emails and calls that we have received from people who are concerned about the lengthier times, particularly during rush hour. And I understand there's a problem with labor and I also heard what the incoming governor Healy said last week about wanting to hire more employees for the T, but I think we should continue to look at this and show concern because at 77, as you know, Mr. Diggins is a very important route. It's a very important route for our students in the morning for people going to work as well. And so to the extent that I know there's a shortage of drivers, but I think we should continue to press for as good a service as we can possibly get on this line because of the frequency and the number of people who rely on it. Thank you. You're welcome, Mr. Corsi. Anyone else? Well, this is the end of this meeting. That's the side of me. I've been in touch with my representative properly and we definitely want to have more conversations with the T, but also with the legislature to find out what is going to happen with assessments and when and I could talk about T stop a whole lot, especially the utilization of it by students, but maybe we'll just have that issue on the agenda with maybe other parties participating in the conversation. So all right, so I will move on to the next item and that is an update on the time manager search process. So this will be quick. Where we are on schedule and potentially we may potentially be had a schedule, especially if things go next week as we hopefully will be in. And so I just created this space here in case I need to provide more of an update, but thankfully in my conversation with the consultant yesterday, we feel that we're in good shape. So that will segue us. Well, first I'll just stop and ask any questions or comments. Okay, so we'll move on to item number 16 and that is hopefully a approval of town manager screen committee. So I had a conversation with T'Corsi yesterday that's led to some follow-up conversations today and for the second staff person, well, we have the superintendent, she agreed early on to be a member of the screen committee and for the staff, Christine Brunscherner, the director of health human services named me very much, being happy to be a part of the screen committee and we will also have Karen Malloy and the director of HR made a, she will be a part of the screen committee in ex-officio position, so she will not be voting, but she will be there cleaning today. Just give advice based on her long and wide experience with the town being. And so with that made, we have myself and Ms. Mahan last meeting told us that she's gonna have Kate Therry, so I think we're now waiting to hear from Mr. Herrick, Mr. Helmets and Mr. Corsi who they have selected. So I'll start Mr. Helmets. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased that Dan Dunn has accepted my invitation to be a member of this screening committee. So I nominate former select board member, Mr. Dunn. Thank you. Oh man, not him. I realize it's a controversial pick. Of course we loved Dan. Am I next? Yes, yes, I'm sorry, yes, yes, I'm sorry, you were talking and it's all right. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I am happy, I spoke with Jennifer Goodwin today who from Arlington, very well-known and well-respected in someone whose opinion I certainly hold in very high regard, she accepted thankfully. She was concerned about the meetings conflicting with her son's hockey games, but I told her I would never expect her to miss hockey games on account of the meetings. So I am sure that the committee will schedule around that. So I'm happy that she'll be part of the process. Thank you, Mr. Herrick, Mr. Corsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, and I'm happy to announce that my selection and she has accepted is Emily Shea, Arlington resident and a business owner here in town. I agree. So with that, I think we have a second screening committee made of and so can I get a motion from someone to approve that screening committee? If you need me to build them names again, I will, but I think, Ms. Smart. If you could just go through the names one more time for the record just so I have a clear statement of the committee when writing the minutes. Sure, sure for me. So we will have Superintendent Elizabeth Mahomet and Christine Boincerno, Karen Malloy, I'm an ex-officio physician and Kate Therry, Dan Dunn, Jane Goodwin or Jennifer? Jennifer, sorry, Jennifer, Jennifer Goodwin and Emily Shea, and myself, and myself, you know. And I see Ms. Mohan, Ms. Mohan. Yes, first I'd like to move approval and if I could ask the chair or human resources director Ms. Malloy to the chair after tonight sometime this week, it's sort of pro-former that all the committee members receive some correspondence. I had originally told my, I told Kate Therry when she asked about the time commitment. I said four to six hours, but I think up here it may be six to eight. So I did follow up with her about that, and also just a letter to the committee members so they know who the other people are, the estimated time commitment, as well as that the meetings will be, I assume, either hybrid or remote and considering current conditions for them. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, yes, Ms. Mohan, and certainly the first meeting is going to be all the more being in and less, and the committee will then decide how it will handle at least the remaining meetings, and the time commitment, I would say probably to count on eight. So we have a move of motion for approval by Ms. Mohan and seconded by Mr. Therry, any other questions or comments? Okay, so on a motion by Ms. Mohan and seconded by Mr. Therry to approve this meeting committee. Mr. Khan. Yes. Yes. Yes. Ms. Mohan. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Yes. Jean-Anne Oswald. Great. Yeah, so, and with this, I mean, I think this will keep us being on track for maybe being a little bit ahead of schedule. Hopefully we'll have that first meeting next week. And so, so with this, we now move on to items number 17 and update on the overnight parking pilot. And so, I take it you have seen, and hopefully read, being the memo by Mr. Cooler. I'm gonna drop it, hopefully, because I know you have. You know, it was a good memo, nice and concise, you know. And so I'll ask Mr. Cooler if he wants to say anything. So first, just a matter of process. I believe that there was a technical glitch with Nova's agenda, and that it was, and only recently that the memo was available to other members. So, given that, I think it might be appropriate for me to give a brief recap to the members of what's in the memo, if that's all right with you, Mr. Chair. Wow, and so after I said, we dropped it, hopefully, it was a total confidence I'd find out. They didn't have me, because we're glad that's fine. Of course, Mr. Cooler, please, thanks. Thank you. I had met with the police chief, the fire chief, and the DPW director, and also had a side conversation with Joan Roman, our chief information officer about some of the issues around overnight parking. So, there were several questions that Chair Diggins had posed to me a while ago, which I shared with those people, and I want to share their responses with you tonight. First question was whether this pilot should be town-wide or in East Arlington only. The police chief had strong feelings that this should be a town-wide program, one because it would be sort of fairer all residents around town, and the other is that even though there's sort of more of a need for on-street parking in East Arlington, the police department actually gets more of its complaints from residents west of Pleasant Street, and so it was her feeling, and I think other members of the police department, that if we're going to open things up, it should be all across the town. The second issue was whether there would be one side or two side parking, and everybody agreed that overnight parking should be only on one side at a time. The next issue was whether there should be a fee or how big that fee should be. There was not a consensus about that issue. There were some people who were in favor of having no fee, and some people who thought that there should be some sort of fee. There was some concern about the ability of lower income residents to afford a fee. I think there was also a consensus that if there were a fee waiver program, we would have to have clear rules to be easily applied by whichever staff, and in my memo I suggested it be the select board staff that administer this, but whatever staff administer it need to have clear rules about how to waive those fees and what those criteria should be. Permits, it's preferable to issue an overnight parking permit and to require the permittees to register their contact information, in other words, their email address or their telephone number, so that the town can contact them in case of a snow emergency, overnight street sweeping, or the need to move their cars off the street for any other reason. I would just mention that in certain parts of town, we do do street sweeping overnight just because cars are off the street, and that's an important thing for DPW to get that done. So I think what we would want to do is require all those people to get a permit to sign up through Arlington Alerts, which is a system that we use for notifying people now. There was some discussion about signage. There was no consensus on that issue. Some people thought it would be necessary to put signs throughout town from a customer service point of view, notifying people that overnight parking would be allowed by a permit. Frankly, other people did not think that that was necessary and noted that in other communities they don't do signage all over the place. I would say if we were to post signs, that would be a major undertaking. If DPW were to do it across the whole town, it would literally take several months just with their own staff and they might even, they'd suggest that they might even want to bring somebody in. So if we went with signage, that would be a major decision. Moving cars off the street is essential that the town be able to move cars off the street for plowing in particular. A car left on the street after, during a snowstorm can be a major impediment to plowing and could limit the excess of traffic and public safety vehicles, particularly fire vehicles, to move down the street. We are able to ticket cars, but we are not able to tow them, particularly during a snowstorm. So I just wanted to raise that as an issue. I don't think it's a defining issue, but I think in any pilot, it would be essential to see how many cars are obeying the calls to be pulled off the street. So notifications, I already mentioned, requiring people to sign up for Arlington Alerts, where they would receive text emails or phone calls for snow emergencies or targeted notifications for street sweeping. Other communities have other notifications such as flashing lights at major intersections, if you were ever in Summerville during a major snowstorm, you see those. If the town were to do some sort of permanent overnight parking system, investing in something like that would, A, need an appropriation and we would need to cost that out. But I do think thinking about how we notify people is an ongoing issue. And finally, we did discuss the period of the pilot program. There was strong consensus that an overnight parking program should start during warm weather, i.e. not during the snow season. And we thought that perhaps a program starting this spring and running through the fall would supply good data to be able to evaluate the pilot. And then at some point, if that seemed like a positive thing, having a further program that starts during the snow season would be appropriate. That is the sum of those conversations and my memo. And I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. Poehler. Before we go to questions, I'll ask Mr. Borsi if he wants to make any comments. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd just like to thank Mr. Poehler for the memorandum and for meeting with the department heads, police chief, fire chief and DPW director. We had had discussions previously. We'd run a forum, Mr. Chair and I, and we had received questions on a number of these topics in a meeting that the chair and I had with the town manager. They also came up, so I appreciate that this being in a format and having that input. And just based on what I had said previously, I support moving forward with the pilot. There are still some things to be worked out here. The big thing in my mind is the fee, where we may go with that. And certainly on signage, if we're having a pilot program, I wouldn't be in favor of widespread signage because I think we gather information first. But I think one of the purposes here is to get the information to the other members of the board and to hear how they react to it too because you and I have been closer to this than the other members, but hopefully this helps that discussion process. Thank you. And I'll just say I think, you know, well, maybe I shouldn't say anything now. Yeah, I'll wait. So I'll turn with my colleagues and we need more questions or comments. Mr. Hartner. Thank you for the note. It was concise, but very easy as well. Yeah, I think I agree with just about everything in there and have some thoughts on some of the outstanding issues that we'll address at some point. I don't, I think we'll all probably come to the consensus that we don't want to put the burden on the DPW for town-wide signage. I would anticipate that some of our athletic fields would be in disrepair for a few months if that were the case. One question. So you mentioned Summerville and I spent all the time in Summerville myself and twice a month. We'd all walk outside and half our cars would be gone and it was street-stripping day and they were able to tow cars. So what is it in Eilington that restricts us from towing cars if cars were parked when they were supposed to be that Summerville has the in on? As a Summerville resident and having been towed myself, I know that Summerville, I mean, Summerville has a $6 million a year parking office. So they have a big office. They have contracts with tow companies. In the memo, I mentioned the fact that I think towing cars during snow season or during a snowstorm would be difficult. I think that's different than the street-stripping. So I just think it does raise, it may raise some public safety issues that we need to pay attention to down the road once we see how the pilot works out. Okay. Thank you. Looking around, I can see Mr. Humberson. Thank you. And I'm kind of glad for the noose agenda glitch. I do now have the memo that popped in, but I appreciated that presentation very much, Mr. Towne Manager. My question is, I agree with my colleague, Mr. DeCorsi, that a ton of wind signages would not be appropriate for a short-term pilot program. But if we were to do this to limit it to one side of the street, how exactly would we communicate and enforce that without signage? Mr. Coulton. Mr. Chair. Yeah, yeah, yeah, please. So I think during a requiring people to get a permit, at that point we would notify them of the rules. I mean, I suppose at some point somebody's going to have to pick odd or even, but that's a policy decision above mine. That makes sense to me. And I think also over time, our general ability through the town website and other forms of communication to notify people would accomplish that. Thank you. Yeah, I hadn't thought about the permits. I mean, I think my desire would be to make sure that we have a very definitive point of contact with each person that can be affected so that they might, we hope, we hope the website and the internal alerts, because they are wonderful, people, everyone will see them, but everyone might not. So, you know, the permits would be good. I guess that begs the questions. We would also need to communicate the requirement to have a permit, but so I think that makes sense. My other question is, have we determined, do we have an expense estimate for a permit program, what that would cost to roll out, what the offsets would be from the fees, and if this will be revenue neutral or not? Mr. Chair, I'll take a first crack at that, and then I know you and I have had some discussions about the fee issue. So, we still need to do a cost analysis of, and I mean, frankly, we have not come to a final decision about who administers this or I made a suggestion, but that's just a suggestion. I think there's also some policy discussions or considerations people have to make about whether a fee would simply recoup whatever nominal cost there would be, or whether, since we could charge a higher fee because we're essentially not just offering a service, but offering an amenity or benefit to people. And I know just from some of my discussions with the Chair that there's been some conversations about what the appropriate level has been, and so I would say before making a final determination about what the cost might be, I think there's a policy question about whether we want to charge a high fee or we're just a nominal fee, and take it from, that's how I've thought about it at least so far. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Treasurer from this line. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Mr. Chow, Manager, for your report. I think I just have two points on this. The first point regarding administratively, I see that more coming out of the Treasurer's Office. Since the Treasurer, I believe still, part of this gallery is also at the Talking Clerk, and that's why we transferred the overnight parking that the Select Board approved as well as other parking issues through the Treasurer's Office. But if you look at the staff between the Select Board and the Treasurer's Office, there's definitely more hands on deck in the Treasurer's Office. So I just would put that out there. I know we're not making that decision here tonight, but I think for continuity's sake, all things parking should flow. Through the Treasurer's Office unless this board or any other governing party appropriate to see differently. And then I agree in terms of signage and not wanting to exacerbate CPW and having to hire on additional people. But I do know, I don't know, I think it's Watertown and I can't think of the two other towns that might have been Newton that when I've driven through just as a point of consideration I wouldn't want to see blanket signage all throughout the town, but either for a pilot program or it's just something that a pilot program is adopted. I guess I would say perhaps the five to seven gateways or gateways into Arlington, which would also include two on Maths House, one in the center, one closer to the height, one up by when you come off through two on podcast, when you come into Arlington from Cambridge. There's designated areas that, you know, whether it's a pilot program or if it's a permanent program. I know I've seen it in Waltham or Watertown where it says just the gateway entrances to that city that overnight parking is allowed. And I think they list each year odd or even size. And then the third point that I'd like to point out, I think during snow emergencies, the town does have the authority to tow. I know we did do it years ago because I remember being called out to ride with some of the DPW trucks to kind of help with the smooth of the transition. And so I would say not for the pilot because it's being discussed for spring to fall, but it was something that we did adopt. I think we can show, we just need to establish that relationship with that particular trolling company because you can't afford to, I think at our next meeting we'll get the results of the long range planning committee's discussions that Mr. Corsi chairs and I know the town manager has along with his staff provided a lot of financial updates and things like that. So I'm not looking to hire anything extra, but I don't think there's, if there was something legally that we need to do so we could tow, we should, but I don't think we have to. I think we have the ability to do it. I'm not saying we should, but if we do go to a permanent program, then that's something that I think and I can be corrected. We can do, we don't have to put anything in place in terms of a warrant or anything else unless I'm mistaken and we'll have to make arrangements for that. And my thing would be, I wouldn't want to be towing because that's all time, but I would just put forth not to be decided tonight, that if people agreed with that, that that would only be an effect during snow emergencies, which is really when we want to go curb to curb and it's usually because we have to or we have a major storm event coming in and we really need to for safety-fake and safety for schools and things like that. So I'm not saying, we should tow all the time, but for future discussions, if this is a permanent program, I would like to have the discussion during snow emergencies, which could be zero or it could be declared snow emergencies by the town manager, it could be zero times a year. I think one year we had up to four declared snow emergencies you know, for extended days. That's it. I just wanted to put that out there since we're discussing things, but we're not making any concrete decisions tonight. And if I'm incorrect on the ability for the town to tow, please anyone correct me. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Mohan. So Ms. Mayer. Okay, no problem. So when it's not on the big screen, yeah, when the, so now I have it on, well, nevermind I was about to explain the technical issue, but anyways, so here's my thinking. I mean, the goal is just to communicate with everyone a lot. I mean, and so you have this report back from the town manager, I very much appreciate him reaching out to all of the members of his staff. At some point, it just made more sense to me for the town manager to interface with his staff then for this, of course, he and I to try and set up meetings with them because if there was necessity for a follow-up then the town manager would be in a position to do the follow-up much more quickly than we could. And so I very much appreciate this. I would like for us at our next meeting to keep the conversation going and start answering some questions in about whether or not we want to do this townwide or not mean the timeframe and also start working on thoughts about the policy behind the fee. I mean, what are we trying to get at with a fee or not having a fee? That's the first binary aspect of it in the next one. If we decide yes, then what that should be and what our goals mean based on that level of fee or intention. So I'm going to put it on the agenda for the next meeting. And I mean, I think we are all on consensus with respect to signage, mean and same side, one side of the street. I did have a question for the town manager. Right now, what happens with people who don't move when it snows? I mean, there's an emergency. I shouldn't say what happens. I mean, what is the level of problem with people who don't move? And I think it's probably on that first snow, right? Well, in general, Mr. Chair, we work very hard with those people to get them into town or school lots and get them off the street. And so they do know those people who have limited overnight parking permits we are basically pretty active with them in terms of moving them off the street. And in general, we have pretty good luck with getting those people because it's a relatively small enough number to be able to park at either our municipal lots or various school lots. Gotcha. And what about the people who aren't parking? Well, who are parking overnight on top of permits? I mean, essentially my question is, what amount of, what kind of problem do we have with people parking on the streets during a snow emergency? I'm not aware that it's currently a big problem because as I say, we know the people who have those permits and are able to work with them. If people are generally parking overnight and without authority, they get ticketed. The police do enforce that and the police would enforce that going forward. But in my discussions with DPW and police, they did not bring that up as an issue. And they did mention the efforts that we do take to get those people into those lots. All right. Well, if it's not, if it's just not anything, we don't have anybody, people that we have to get off street students by telling or whatever, then it's fine, it's good to get the status closed. It's not an issue in that respect. So, okay. So the other thing is that Mr. Corsi and I would also like to hold another forum with residents. I mean, and so I'm hoping that at our next meeting, we can maybe find out some of our intentions. I mean, they kind of bring that before residents. I mean, if we haven't signed it all out, that's fine. Maybe they can help us sign it out. But for the sake of just having people be as aware as we can make them, have another forum, get some more input being in. And then, so that would be early February. And so then either, I guess we'll have first meeting this the sixth or something. And then we have three weeks off before next month. So then the last week of February, I think we want to make a decision as to whether we're gonna go forward with the pilot or not being so that we can aim for starting in May 1st, and running it six months through November, perhaps. And if we fail that target, then I think we could make the June 1st target. So let's try and make a decision by the end of February. And so, that's my thinking. I, if you have any comments or suggestions, feedback, any kind, I'm all ears. Okay, all right. So there's no need for a vote now. Just an update discussion, so I should memorize that agenda. Okay, yeah, I'm pulling up here. Okay, so I guess we're at our second open forum. So do we have anyone that wants to say anything? All right. Okay, great. And so our next response received, meaning we have a recommendation for tree maintenance by James Plumbing, turn to my colleagues. Move receipt. Thank you, sir. Motion received by Mr. Hart. Second. Second by Mr. Helmuth. Questions, comments? Okay. And so on a motion to receive by Mr. heard and second by Mr. Helmuth. Mr. Heine. Yes. Is it a question? Yes, Mr. Helmuth. Yes, this is Mohan. Mr. Diggs. Yes. What happened? So we now on to our new business, Ms. Meyer. No, no business. Thank you. Mr. Heine. No, no business. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ms. Chloe. I'd just like to make the announcement of two policies that I recently put out. One is on banning of the use of rodenticides by town departments. This is consistent with policies that's voted by town meeting last year. So that will be posted on the town website later this week. The second policy I put out was a memo which I copied the select board on, but was to the conservation commission and the park and record commission saying as to artificial turf fields, it is not my intention. In fact, I will not put forward for funding, permitting or construction any new artificial turf fields in town to allow a period of further study of these fields. There's been questions that have been raised all along about the materials used in these fields. And I think it is necessary for there to be further study of those issues. And so that will be in effect through the remainder of my term into July. Those are the two policies I put out and wanted to inform the board and the public about. Thank you, Mr. Poehler. Mr. Corsiz. No new business. Thank you. Mr. Herter. Yeah, I just wanted, as we sit here, our meeting bring up that I think we, whether we have an agenda item or just do it, we seem to be the only municipality left in the world that doesn't allow the public to come into our meetings. I think everyone else does. I don't really see the need for it. These meetings work better when we're face to face. It's nice to have members in here with us. It's nice to have people right in front of us. I would encourage people when they're able to do it to come in. That's when our meetings were a lot more enjoyable and a lot more efficient. We certainly saw some technical issues today and glitches that we see with the hybrid format, which I know we're gonna continue to investigate and improve and use in certain situations, but I would like to see the discussion and if not the outright allowing the public to come back in, because I think there's some members of the public that are, they used to come to our meetings that might not be as comfortable with the zoom format that don't come or aren't heard because of it. And again, I think I'm not aware of any other municipality that doesn't allow the public to come to the meetings. I would like to see whether it's on an agenda item or further discussion about that so we can get back to life. Thanks for your time, Ms. Ellen. No new business. Thank you. Ms. Mohan. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair, very briefly. I just want to say that I've requested received and returned to the town clerk, my reelection papers for the select board and she informs me my signatures are certified so I definitely will be a candidate for reelection. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Ms. Mohan. And yes, I'll be joining Ms. Mohan in the race to do this for another three years because, well, sometimes I'm just a glutton. And I'm genuinely excited about the motion of engaging residents again and explaining to them why it is that I would like to continue to be on the select board. And my other piece of new business is that the civic engagement group is going to be hosting a forum with Metropolitan Area Planning Council on the 26th of January. It's going to be all remote and I'll get that posted on the website that's breaking news for here now and kind of backing up to some of the town managers said about the dental sites. I mean, I think there is a plan for there to be a forum, educational forum, the fully public regarding the use of dental sites that's going to be probably hosted by the Board of Health and maybe some collaboration with the civic engagement group. So with that, I'll take a motion to adjourn. Nina said. Mr. Chairman, Matt. Oh, yes. I believe we have two items on the executive session. Oh, right, right. I'm just completely forgetting about that. I'm sorry. Thank you, thank you. Yes, we need to go to the executive session. So Ms. Mohan. Can you hear me? I don't know if I unmuted myself. Okay, I was gonna say we have executive session. So I'd like to move that the Board enter into executive session in accordance with mass general law 5960 and 214 as well as in accordance with any general or special law or federal grant and aid requirements including but not limited to the approval and the release of executive session minutes and that are regularly scheduled to let Board meeting will adjourn from current with the adjournment of our executive session meeting. Thank you. And can I get a second? So on a motion to join the discussion by Ms. Mohan and second by Mr. Herd, Ms. Mohan. Mr. Corsi. Yes, Mr. Helmut. Yes. Ms. Mohan. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Ms. Mohan, executive session. Thank you.