 Welcome. I'm calling the board of this meeting of the Arlington's like board on Thursday, October 13th, 2022. I am select board chair Lenny Diggins and I will now confirm that all members in person anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Van Hanh. Yeah. John Hurd. Yes. He's a Corsi. Yes. Eric Helmuth. Yes. Seth, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Sandy Pooley. Yes. Dot time. Yes. Ashley Myer. Yes. Great. Tonight's meeting of the Arlington's like board is being conducted in a hybrid format consistent with chapter 107 of the accident 2022. So, I know a lot 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 it's also being simultaneously broadcast on ACMI. Second, persons wishing to join the meeting via Zoom may find information on how to do so on the town's website. Persons participating via Zoom are reminded that you may be visible to others and that if you wish to participate, you're asked to provide your full name for the interest of developing a record of the meeting. Third, all participants are advised that people may be listening who do not provide comment and those persons are not required to identify themselves. Both the Zoom participants and persons watching on ACMI can follow the posted agenda materials also found on the town's website using the Novus agenda platform. And finally, each vote tonight will be taken by roll call. So, let's see how much of the town's business we can get done tonight and we next turn to the second item on the agenda that's the introduction. I'll just wait a little bit by the side of the slide. That's the introduction of Anna Litten, our library director and I'll turn it over to our manager, Mr. Fuller. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is my pleasure to introduce Anna Litten who is our new library director. She comes to that position from being the assistant library director and I know from having worked with her before in that position that she brings a lot of energy and excitement here to Arlington and instead of my talking about her, I would like to introduce her and have her introduce herself. The right height. That's good. Okay, thank you. Good evening to everyone. I want to thank Sandy and the members of the Select Board for inviting me to speak to you tonight. Sandy asked me here tonight to introduce myself and when I'm introducing myself, I often tell people I became a librarian for all the wrong reasons because I love books but I've stayed in the field for over 25 years for all the right reasons which is that I am truly dedicated to the mission of public libraries to serve communities with engaging collections, useful and usable spaces and community enriching services. Over my career, I've served many roles, reference librarian, a teaching librarian, a teen services librarian, a technology instructor, a community relations coordinator. I came to Arlington in 2017 as the Fox Branch Librarian. The Joy of Working and Branch Libraries is providing direct service, ordering books that you watch patrons pick up every single day, offering programs where families bring their young kids to engage with the library, creating comfortable neighborhood spots for every single resident to come in, find a seat, do their work, find a book, find something that's truly engaging. Engaging directly with the community every day is the joy of working in libraries. In 2018, when our former assistant director left, I knew that I could support the community, the staff, and the director. There was so much to love in my previous roles as assistant director, namely creating the Arlington Reads Together program every year, pulling in new partners to that program including Arlington Public Schools, the Dallin Museum, and others. Building connections across the town with town boards and commissions with community interested people and finding ways to make our work connect with the work of the community. And of course, working directly with the friends of the Robbins Library, such a fantastic support group. When the former library director, Andrea Nicollet, decided to move on to be close to family, I saw new opportunities to support the community, to learn, and to grow. I'm so grateful to the hiring committee and to Sandy for giving me the opportunity to continue to serve the community of Arlington in this new role. The pandemic period has brought a lot of clarity, both for libraries and for me personally. In libraries, in our library, we have seen increased use since the pandemic period. In FY22, we saw our highest circulation in many, many years, as far back as I could easily find data. We circulated over 936,000 physical and electronic items. We're now the fourth largest lender in the Minuteman Library Network, behind much larger communities like Cambridge, Newton, and Brookline. For me personally, I saw how my job matters every single day in a new way. We saw how much communities missed us when we were closed, when our buildings were closed. We saw how vital our services are to our community, and we saw how much people want to engage with their libraries. And it really brought a new joy to my work and a real meaning to my work. I wanted to share with you the mission of the Robbins Library. The library is a vital community resource. We create opportunities for lifelong learning, meaningful connection, and discovery for all. We offer outstanding collections and services to meet the evolving needs and interests of the Arlington community. I'm looking forward to so much. Honoring the public's trust with careful and appropriate budgeting, making sure that our programs and collections continue to meet community needs as they change, bringing new users into the library, and making sure that every single resident of Arlington feels welcome and that there's something useful for them in the library, and improving our spaces, making sure that we are accessible for all, that we are useful and usable, and that we offer warm and inviting spaces. I'm truly excited for the future, and I can't wait to share what comes next with you and everyone in the community. Thank you very much, and I will now turn to my colleagues to see if they have any comments, and you know, I'm going to start out in the virtual round. Just so, I'll tell you what, I'll start. Ms. Mahan? Ms. Mahan? Sorry for doing the phone and the laptop. I first I'd like to make a motion to approve Ms. Luton as our new library director. I feel silly saying welcome because you've certainly outlined everything that you've been doing here in town, and as many know, one of my first best jobs was at the library page at the Robbins Library, and I agree with you when you go into library services sometimes the worst thing is that you love books, and I served under a director called Jim Fish who came in and threw out a lot of the books. I almost got fired because I was going in saving books, checking them out so they could stay in. So I want to thank the town manager for the process, I had conversations with them to see how it was going along and doing our best to fill Ms. Nicolay's shoes, but I know that Ms. Wood, Anna, you're going to you've already stepped right in there and we'll bring us out of COVID and moving forward here in Ellison, so thank you so much for accepting this great responsibility, and I know you do well. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Bahad and Mr. Hurd. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll second the motion to approve of Ms. Litton as our library director, and just welcome. I know you've been working in town for a while and you're doing an excellent job, that's why the town manager hired you and put you in that position and put the trust in this really important position. You know, I grew up using the libraries in Arlington and particularly the Fox Library, but also the Robbins Library as I got up a little older, and it's even to this day where a lot of the kids transitioned to a virtual lifestyle, so many still rely on the library and it's important to have that there as a resource to make sure that kids don't forget about the way we used to get our information and it's a place for kids to go and study and it's just a really important place for people to come and congregate and Arlington, both really excellent libraries, lucky to have two libraries and they both are very well run and will continue to be. And again, I look forward to working with you and welcome. Thanks, Mr. Hurd, Mr. Thomas. Thank you. I have very little to add to those excellent comments, except that I love your vision of what a library is in the community. I think it's a very contemporary and fresh vision and your background, your interests really communicate that really well, so we're pleased to have you. Thank you, Mr. Thomas. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also want to echo the comments of my colleagues, welcome you as the library director and just hearing the comments from Mrs. Mahan and Mr. Hurd, that the library has been is a very important resource in the town, as we all know, and they talked about their experiences. My experience was up at the heights when the Dallin branch used to be there. My sister was a page in the library, so it just there were connections and I'm so impressed with the figures that you cited for the increases in circulation and I did take a look at the website in advance of the meeting tonight and I know that this is library card sign-up month, so hopefully you even increase those numbers further and some really interesting staff picks for for Beers Books about the importance of library, so thank you for your enthusiasm that we've seen here tonight for everything you're doing and look forward to seeing new initiatives and continued great work at the library. Thank you, Mr. Corsi, and yes I echo what everyone has said and and yeah and I think I might have mentioned this when when the former director talked with us and they mentioned the increase in circulation and and had mentioned that we were like the fourth in circulation and I think it's even better than that because I think if you you take into account the size of our population you know we might rank me that number one because we are smaller you know than those other communities mean and so it's a good job it's a good indication of how much people are are using the system and I know because I've seen some preliminary data from the survey I mean people really do use the library a lot I mean they care about it a lot it may be a function of the fact that the people who fill out the surveys are people who are inclined to the libraries we'll see you know but anyways it's great and and the more I see about what libraries are doing I mean they're really doing a lot to attract people who do tend to get answers and basic questions online me so I've seen some cases where they're doing 3d printing you know and and really helping people to learn with things that they just can't have at home I mean which is what I think you know libraries have always been about you know so so thank you very much I'm glad that we have a great system in where we can draw from the inside even when we compare to the outside so so thank you for being here and for staying and and with that on a motion to accept you know Ms. Linton in the position of library director director by Mr. Mahan and second by Mr. Heard Mr. Heine Mr. Heard. Yes. Mr. Of course yes. Mr. Heine. Yes. Mr. Degas. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. I truly appreciate your trust. So moving on to the consent agenda we have the minutes for the September 28-22 meeting. Reappointments to the zoning vote of appeals terms expire October 30-25 that will be Christian Klein and Patrick Hamlin. Number five for approval Arlington Open Studios lawn science through November 12-22 Tom former COLA ACA executive director and Annalise Ruggles ACA communications director. Number six a request for a special one-day beer and wine license on October 15-22 at Wittemaur Robbins house for a private event White Mountain ski runners. Number seven a request for a special one-day license. One-day beer and wine license October 22-22 Robbins library reading room for a private event Rihanna M. Ash and number eight request special one-day beer and wine license November 11-22 Robbins Memorial Town Hall for a private event Dora Gamir and so with that you know I'm going to keep an eye on both first hand up Mr. Helmuth. Mr. Chair I'd like to move approval with a brief remark of appreciation for the gentleman we are reappointing tonight to the ZVA. I think they're both joining us in Zoom. I know that we're probably not going to speak with them but I don't want to the moment to pass without recognizing the hard work that the ZVA does is one certainly the busiest and most demanding Town Boards Commissions and Committees and they both perform exemplary service and I'm thrilled that they are rejoining in and enough for more so I move approval of consent agenda. Okay great and I saw Mr. Hanh and go up but I also saw Mr. Corsies and go up with Mr. Helmuth so you get the second if you want. Second Mr. Chairman. Thank you and I also would like to have Mr. Helmuth's remarks. I saw her first hand over the past 18 months that the fine work that Mr. Klein and Mr. Hanhlin have done for the ZVA and I'm really happy that they are willing to to accept her appointments. Okay and so Mr. Hanh. Thank you Mr. Chairman. It's ZVA all day all night. Thank you to Mr. Klein and Mr. Hanhlin. All of us have been to different ZVA meetings and different capacities. Zoning Board of Appeals. I definitely appreciate that. Then volunteering their time we couldn't afford to pay them and I also want to take advantage of the opportunity that we did receive a letter of resignation from one of our Zoning Board of Appeals members so I will leave that to the chair to and the select board office to begin that process of advertising and conducting the interviews but in light of the heavy vote similar to other committees and commissions here in Owens and that the Zoning Board of Appeals has I know we'll move on that as expeditiously as we can. Thank you Mr. Chairman. You're welcome and so I'm not saying... Well I was gonna say the same thing as everyone else. I won't reiterate it but again I think the fact that we all read pulled something off a consent agenda to discuss is certainly a testament to the work that these two gentlemen have done and again happy to see them continuing because it's a board where experience matters so happy to be re-appointing both to the ZVA. Yes and I agree and I mentioned this a couple of times maybe even more than a couple do and tell meeting but Mr. Hanlon I mean his writing is just such a joy to read I mean he tends to write a lot but it's such an easy read and I always learn a lot when I read his emails made out so so definitely happy to have them both joining us or continuing on the the ZVA and so on a motion by Mr. Helmuth and a second by Mr. Corsi on the consent agenda Mr. Hanlon. Mr. Her. Yes. Mr. Corsi. Yes. Mr. Hanlon. Yes. Mrs. Mohan. Yes. Mr. Jacobs. Yes. Thank you. Oh rolling along on to appointments. So for the ACAC grants committee you know we have Kristen Podard time to expire on October 30th 2025. So is Kristen here. Yes I'm here. Thank you for joining us. Do you want to say a few words? I'm really pleased for this opportunity I'm a big believer in local community arts and I've had the opportunity to join the committee in several meetings now and I'm just thrilled for this opportunity to be a part of helping the arts flourish in town. I grew up here in Arlington and again just really happy and grateful for this opportunity so thank you. Thank you so I'll turn to my colleagues. See Mr. Hurd's hand. Move approval and welcome. Thank you for stepping up to serve. The motion by Mr. Hurd. Second. And a second by Mr. Corsi and I see Ms. Mohan hand go up. Do you want to say something? I was going to second it but I do want to thank Mr. Dodd looked over your submission for this position and I know it's something this committee you're certainly well versed in have already contributed so much that we really couldn't thank you enough and again sounds corny but Arlington truly is blessed by our residents. Some who have been here grown up here and some who have moved here later on and I'm always impressed by the caliber of people not only by their their experience but by their dedication and I just want to thank you Kristen for stepping into this and and helping to continue to make the arc flourish here in Arlington. It's amazing because I didn't realize how much the committee could be doing until they started doing it and I've come to expect so much and you guys go above and beyond so thank you so much and thank you for agreeing to do this. Thank you Dine. I need to get back to the screen with you all so if someone raised their hand I didn't see them so okay so I will close by saying I mean yes indeed we definitely appreciate you joining the commission and it is great that you have been a resident of Arlington and I'm looking through your resume again in your CV it's it's as with almost everyone that signs up for volunteer work meaning impressive people in town and so with that I will accept the motion by Mr. Herd being a second by Mr. Corsi Mr. Heim. Mr. Herd? Yes. Mr. Corsi. Yes. Mr. Heim. Yes. This is Mahan. Yes, thank you. Mr. Jacobs. Yes. Thank you. Take care. So Mr. Chair. Yes. If I may um I'm going to recuse myself on the next one uh Mr. Nagel is lucky enough to be married to my sister Sarah so though I'm not an illegal obligation to recuse myself just as in kind of in conjunction with past practices I'm going to recuse myself for the next vote. All right and we'll get in touch with you let you know when we're on to the next item so okay so next we have the or appointment to the Arlington Housing Trust Fund Fund uh uh Vic Marie Santiago and Jack Nagel and their terms to expire on October 31st 2023 so we'll turn first to Vic Marie if you want to say a few words. Yeah hi everyone um I I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this wonderful community I live in Arlington since 2017 I'm from Puerto Rico and uh we felt welcome for for this community and this is my way that I want to contribute so I thank you and Mr. Nagel do you want to say anything? Sure no I'm really looking forward to collaborating with all the members of the housing trust and other agencies in town there's a ton of potential that exists and you know selfishly on the housing authority side I think that you know there's really a lot of ways in which we could you know um make a big impact by being part of this so I'm looking forward to it. Thank you so I'll turn to my colleagues I already see Mr. Helmuth's hand up so so uh Mr. Helmuth. Thank you Mr. Chair um so I as that my colleagues know I'm the select board's designated representative to the affordable housing trust fund so I would love to seize the privilege of making the motion um to to appoint these two exemplary individuals. Also by way of explanation it's a background to my colleagues uh the board we these are filling two vacancies one of them happens I said one months ago and the other one a bit more recently but so Mr. Nagel of course has won under the board and will be representing the housing housing authority and Ms. Santiago is deeply impressive new person to the community that as soon as I read her resume in her letter I was as excited as as Ms. Linema and Ms. Kelleher who worked with her so I am just thrilled to have you both to work with as colleagues on this on this board as we do some really exciting work so thank you for your willingness. Thank you Mr. Herd and I see Ms. Mohan hand up. I'm going to do the phone so I will absolutely second my colleagues Mr. Helmuth's motion and I am thrilled by both Ms. Santiago and Mr. Nagel I growing up I lived on Skardner Memorial and Freeman so I didn't know it was monotony manner I knew of Kalman manner because that was sort of everything I would love to prescribe to um but I know how what the challenges are in terms of um not only reaching those who live in our housing complexes but those my family always rented all throughout the time growing up in Ollie's and Egginson Road, Bacon Street and so on and so forth so I know what it's like I know sometimes when affordability is a main issue for someone sometimes there's a tendency to not really connect to some of the opportunities that exist and part of that is because trying to get the right voices that can establish that connection and I think Vic Murray and Jack um I love the both the tie-in it's sort of a representative of process um with tenants that Vic Murray has will have continue to have as well as to make Jack over with the housing authority I'm thrilled for having that tie-in not that any other member of the committee also cannot accomplish the same but I definitely look um as the new young blood on the committee um for the two of you just to add your voices and really reaching out not only getting the message across but creating an environment of of not acceptability but just getting everybody comfortable to set um we all have the same goal nobody's no better no worse and we're just trying to make everything better for everybody so I'm really thrilled with you all I know you'll be hearing definitely from me and my colleagues in various times throughout the year and as always we remain available to you but I'm not going to tell you all how to do your job because I certainly read what you submitted and you're ready to hit the ground running so thank you thank you Mr. Chair you're welcome as a behind thank you Mr. Chairman just very briefly I just want to thank Ms. San Diego and Mr. Nagel for their willingness to serve on the trust as trustees and also with these appointments we truly are now in alignment with the the town bylaws in terms of the composition of the affordable housing trust fund so I'm happy for that and appreciate the work that Mr. Helmuth has done representing us um on the on the um on the trust yes thank you Mr. Corsi and and actually my favorite part about um one of my favorite parts about being on select board is is reading the the CVs and getting a chance to comment on them because because anyone can read them you know but I get to say a few things and first off for Vic Marie love the format of your CV I'm going to imitate it and it's just really played out very nicely and and and um the skills and software it's just I like it I like it a lot and then of course there's a substance to it which is very impressive to me and and there was a word I wanted to look up that just haven't had a chance to yet photogrammetry so can you just tell me quickly what that is yeah photogrammetry yeah it is a composition of different photos and you can create virtual 3d models oh cool nice nice you know well I think me me certainly the architectural background will come in handy me in in just thinking about housing and what what we can we can do with housing and affordable housing to make it you know what make it make the housing that people live in dignified me because just because it's affordable it doesn't mean that it has to look or feel me any worse me than than something that costs a lot less you know and so so I think I think that'll be certainly something that you could help with not only in Arlington but but just in general I mean community wide region wide and so thank you very much me and Mr. Nagel you know you're um you're just all over the place in terms of stuff that you've done me and you you strike me as as a person that can not only have that handle abstractions me but also can can get in there and and do the the work with your hands me I'm pretty much just an abstract guy and so fixing the light pole is like I would call John or Jack as you you said you are me and so so I'm just curious to be because giving your background how did you get into this field well I well I worked for the Department of Transitional Assistance before I worked for the Housing Authority and while I was there I was getting my master in public administration and then realized that housing authority you touch not only the the public administration in regards to capital planning trying to impact you know the community in general but then you also do the social service aspect too so it seemed like the um everything in one so that it really that's what pushed me in that direction all right great great well well thank you thank you both me and so on a motion to accept the appointments by Mr. Helmuth and a second by Ms. Wahan Mr. Heim. Mr. DeCoursey. Yes. Mr. Helmuth. Yes. Mrs. Wahan. Yes thank you. Mr. DeCourse. Yes. So 4-0 vote note for the record please that Mr. Heard accused himself from both the discussion and vote. Thank you. Great thank you guys. Take care and so all right so Mr. Heard is back I mean I will move on to item number 11 for registers in Rebecca Beltlion Beltlion termed expire on March 31st 2025 Rebecca. Yeah hold on. No problem. Hello. Hi. Am I on? Did I get this last name correct? Oh I need a pin to asking me for a pin. My last name is Betlion. Betlion thank you. Thank you Ms. Betlion. Yes thank you. Thank you. So so you want to say a few words? Sure. So I lived in Arlington for the past 11 years. I'm a single working mom and my daughter is a sophomore at the high school. She started at the Thompson at Stratton and then Thompson and now she's at the high school. I've also lived in Arlington back 93 to 98 and I worked in Arlington from 91 since 1991 to present a cumulative of about 25 years in Arlington so I know the community. I know a lot of children and families. I know a lot of children that probably are a lot older now that I might not recognize but when I heard that this position was going to be open I've always been a civics and a history buff and so I thought you know what I'm interested in doing this and I talked to Phil Lajones on the RTC and also John Warden who held the position before he resigned and it sounded like something that I would be willing to do. I've never served in government in any kind of capacity in a town government so I thought it would be a good opportunity to serve the people in my community and the town of Arlington. Thank you so I see Ms. Mohan hand up. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I'd definitely like to move approval of Ms. Betelion's appointment to the Board of Registrar along with my thanks. Elections have always been very important having grown up in Arlington but election officials jobs certainly have grown exponentially and really have never been so vital as they are right now and we need the proper balance we need the dedication that Ms. Betelion has. Are you a Rebecca or a Rebekah? I'm Rebekah. So yeah Rebekah is fine. I have a Rebekah so she goes by four different names so that's okay. But I do want to thank you. I know you know the importance of this position again I sort of not sort of grown up here one of my other first jobs when I was newly married was working for my husband's aunt and Mohan Powers. This is an election worker and I sort of got a little introduction to to me election was you're going to vote whoever's sitting there chest off. I didn't know anything about the Board of Registrars but now first as a parent and then as an elected official I've certainly a seen the importance and b seen that position along with other elected officials positions really grow and become vital so this is again one of the committees it's not a committee it's a board one of the board especially around elections that's really vital. I know you'll do a fantastic job and I can tell that you definitely have the acumen to really go in clean place and eye on the prize which is ensuring our elections and making sure everybody who wants to can vote. So I thank you very much. Mr. Betley on Rebecca. Mr. Hurd. I'd like to say second that motion and again just reiterate everything that Mrs. Mohan said very eloquently and just thank you for your willingness to serve. Well I will simply say thank you also and just so you know you know it can become a very exciting gig because in my election you know there was a recap and so you got to spend a long I can get what day of the week it was me was a nice long day hearing you know hand counted ballots made as so I got to get another glimpse of why this role is important. So thank you very much and so on a motion to accept the appointment by Mrs. Mohan and second by Mr. Hurd Mr. Hine. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Mr. DeCourson. Yes. Mr. Hone. Yes. Mrs. Mohan. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Davis. Yes. It's your unanimous vote. Thank you. Take care. Good night. Good night. Item number 12 CDBG subcommittee appointment Judith Gilou. Yes. Hi. Did I get that right? Yes absolutely. I did. How do you pronounce it again? Gilou? Gilou. Okay. All right. I'm not doing it quite right but a little closer than before. So do you want to say a few words? Yes. Sure. So I arrived with my family in Wellington 11 years ago from France and I'm a lawyer by training a business lawyer by training in France but then moving to the U.S. I had to kind of reinvent what I could be doing. So I started volunteering almost I would say professionally like I worked for Planned Parenthood for two years and a half on their hotline. Then I worked for real for the French consulate and four years ago I started working for the Department of Children and Families mostly from the office in Arlington and now through COVID we moved through Webex and we covered the whole messages and through that work I reviewed the situation of kids in foster care so I became very aware of the problem of fair housing and economic opportunities and things like that and during COVID I also volunteered at Eats, the food pantry in Arlington and through them I received their newsletter and that's how I got wind of the opportunity to serve with the sorry with the CBBG subcommittee and I thought oh that could be a good way for me to understand better how my town works. One year ago we became American citizens so I took a class with the Arlington Community Education that was actually called Guide to Town Government and I couldn't see right away how I could serve and give back to a community that really welcomed us so well and then this opportunity happened so I thought let's give it a try and maybe I can mix my experience with DCF on one hand and my experience as a lawyer on the other hand to try to help Arlington Community. Great well thank you very much me and so we have two colleagues here who are from the Select Board that are on on the committee so I'm going to just go to them for the motion in a second so Mr. Hurd hands up so Mr. Hurd. Thank you I'd like to move approval and again welcome and thank you for your willingness to serve. My dad was on the then board of selectmen and the select now select board for a long time and when I first got elected he said to me get on the CBBG committee it's the best way to be on because all you get to do is give out money to people everyone loves people on the CBBG committee and it you know it's great to me and it's really important the things we do because we do get a lot more requests than we generally have funds for so we do have to do some work and kind of prioritize things but it's also a lot of the money we give is spent in the year that we give it you can see the immediate benefit of the work that we do and the immediate impact the funds that we're able to give out to the community directly to the community so it is a it is a good committee to serve on or to work on with you. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Hurd and Ms. Mohan. I just want to second my colleagues Mr. Hurd's motion and he covered a lot of this but I want to thank you Mr. Guillo for and look forward to meeting you when CBBG first started out we would meet once a year we're now up to anywhere from three plus times a year meet to vote so sometimes that means four to six meetings and that's because of the times that we're in when new federal funding on top of the CBBG fund like the CARES Act you know everything out of COVID but now there's also other packages being discovered and the other thing that CBBG has sort of evolved into and I think you would be a great person doing this with your background not someone like you who's grown up in Allington and you know it sort of puts their toe in a lot of different pools so I know what's out there but the other thing is a lot of people don't know what grants we give out what programs social programs are available to them so we sort of have to come advocates for either answering questions but sometimes just going out and advocating for these programs and you will be a good woman to do that so I thank you so much with your congratulations on your citizenship I'm a court reporter so I have all due respect for Attorney S. Fry and I look forward to seeing you real soon on the CBB subcommittee meeting thank you thank you Mr. Chair Welcome Mr. Dacorsi. Thank you Mr. Chairman I also want to thank you for your willingness to serve congratulations on your citizenship and for your volunteerism in the past year and I think you will find I I'm not on to the CBBG subcommittee yet but I I think it's really interesting work and I know they will value what you bring to the subcommittee. Thank you Mr. Dacorsi you know so all right so I will say a few words in and and of course I express my appreciation in and and I'll again be a very impressive resume in a CB and and I have to say the mercurial trading of line I mean I was really fascinated by that I'm reading the line and then I see the ellipses and I thought wow he's like it's so interesting that she's just couldn't include it all and it just makes me want to more and more it's I think I'm gonna have to use that technique me sometime you know on my CVs it's the first time I've seen it's very clever use of ellipses but also you know the volunteerism I mean it was really impressive I mean and the the the great work that you do in helping people with STIs mean and as you said you give people objective information to deal with me difficult decisions mean and so so that in and of itself makes me feel that the having someone who understands me challenging the challenging positions that people can be in I think will make really good candidate you know good person on the on the committee and also notice that you have been involved with the Arlington Relay for Life mean so you really have been involved with the community so thank you very much mean and and I enjoy reading what TDBG does mean when they report out mean so I will not be competing you know for position on a committee I'll just let the people who are good at it continue doing they're good working and you'll be one of them so with that on a motion by Mr. Hurd and second by Ms. Mohan to accept her appointment to yield appointment Mr. Mr. Hyde yes yes thank you good night thank you very much welcome so on to open forum accepting unusual circumstances any matter presented for consideration of the board shall need to be acted upon nor decision made the night of the presentation in accordance with the policy underneath 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 mean so do we have anyone seeing no hands raised maybe one I don't have a name it's a phone and listener hello yes can you okay this is yeah this is Steve Moore uh I live on people on street and the members are on treat committee I have two things I'd like to quickly speak on tonight first is you might remember about a few weeks a month ago and uh two six to one hillside have item came up numerous times it was continued and then we continued and I've seen nothing on the agenda lately and I'm wondering what the status of that item is from either uh Mr. Hyde or whoever might know about that maybe Mr. Fuller well generally we don't answer questions I'm doing open forum made up and so we'll certainly take that as something you know to answer in and potentially the next meeting since you've asked me and I'm certainly curious about that myself but so anything else was continued to tonight and it's not on the agenda that's why I'm asking it's not on the agenda so it wasn't continued to tonight I mean um so so oh I believe I thought it was okay well that never mind I am still interested in that particular item at the disposal but the second thing I wanted to speak on was just to add my voice to your voices relative to the reappointment to the zoning board of appeals um I am uh the three committees we is onto that board so I attend all of the meetings and I've been doing that probably for close to two years now maybe a year and half and um the two gentlemen Mr. Kline and uh and Mr. Hanlon I it is so impressive the dedication and hard work that they put into this um as you as you pointed out Mr. Mr. Chair the opinions are critical and well written and and they have to be just right and they almost always are the multiple 40p projects that have been on their on the table uh the past two years plus now a new one coming up um that I've heard about um just these these men work very hard and the whole board works very hard and I just wanted to say I've been so impressed by the professionalism of that board with um that I've been exposed to over the past year and a half so thank you Mr. Chair thank you it's more so I don't see anyone else all right so we move on to an update by me on the Tom manager search process so we are moving forward at a nice pace I think we are on track with our timeline you know and uh probably tomorrow um if not then then certainly early next week me we will put be putting out an announcement of a forum for our residents means so that they can give us some input as to what they would like to see uh in our next Tom manager you know the format of the form of the forum has not been completely determined yet you know we Mr. Corsi and myself will be meeting with the consultant you know to work that out you know and we will also be a survey going out and uh it will extend at least a week before the forum and and extend probably a week after the forum and and and so uh we'll be collecting data that way and the goal still is to get the statement out at the beginning of December probably the first week in December uh it may very well be that we will want to have a brief meeting to discuss the draft collectively uh before it goes out but the intention right now is when the draft statement is created for the consultants to meet with us individually to get our feedback and if after meeting with us individually there's a desire need to um we feel that we need to have more discussion as a group then we'll pull off that meeting you know so so um that's it at this point means so if there any questions you know happy to hear them okay all right you know so um thank you and uh the next update is on a potential overnight parking pilot so I'm going to read something that I wrote and sent over to Mr. Corsi and and I could just talk about the content of it but I think um reading it I won't miss anything and uh right now I based on what we discussed I mean I will adjust what I've written and then put that into the document for the next meeting you know and and and and then if it warrants a vote we can vote on it but the intention is not to vote on anything now because you're just seeing you're just hearing this I mean and so we can have as much of a discussion as we want now but potentially have more discussion next week and then if we decide that we want to vote uh vote on it but that will be the agenda that will have a vote item or the vote word in the line item so so here we go um so after several discussions with the Tom manager uh the director of public works the chief of Arlington police department um captain Kiernan and officer Rito um we that is Mr. Corsi and myself have concluded that if we are to move forward with implementing a pilot to explore reducing restrictions on overnight parking then we do so beginning next May at the earliest for the following reasons one it allows us to have more conversations with the community both formally and informally and two it gives us the necessary time to work out processes and details with DPW APD the treasurer's office the parking department and the select board's office tentatively we are thinking that the pilot would run for 46 months after that we would assess the pilot as well as obtain feedback from residents and staff and determine and then determine whether to one maintain or not change the current overnight parking pilot policy two change overnight parking policy in accordance with the fact is that we learn from the pilot or three conduct another another pilot where we decide on changing our overnight parking restrictions those changes likely would not go into effect until January 2024 similarly another pilot would likely not take place until sometime in 2024 as we discuss the possibility of doing the pilot next year please note that we will need to adjust the way in which the town charges residents who utilize the minstrel lots for overnight parking for those who pay on an annual basis we would adjust the annual fee based on the length of the pilot for example if we adopted a four month pilot we would reduce the annual charge by one-third of course this will require coordination with the treasurer's office and or the parking department and possibly the select board's office so even if we won't be ready to make a decision and to commit to doing the pilot as long as doing the pilot during the middle of 2023 is a possibility we should start a coordination with those departments as soon as possible so as I said we can discuss this tonight as much as we want but next week we'll need to at least decide on how to whether we want to contact me the treasurer's office me and the parking department and tell them to be prepared to charge people less for a the upcoming year in anticipation that we may do the pilot so that we aren't in a situation where people have paid and then we have to refund because that's a little that's a bit more complicated than just not taking the money in the first place maybe so with that and I'll open it up as I say to folks from my experience oh there's a hand okay Ms. Mahan please don't take my silence as anything except for I'm going to assume that after tonight we'll all receive a copy of what the chair has just read so that we can go over it I was paying close attention but I want to thank you for all the details that are included in there and my brain just kind of froze at about the fourth intersection of the different action steps that that you've outlined in terms of possibilities so what I'd like to do is definitely read and reread the materials that you've prepared for and I'll definitely have comments and or questions at the next meeting where we have this is an agenda item so I don't want to you know start asking questions and then I have retained everything you said and I asked a really dumb question instead of just a dumb one thank you Mr. Chair yeah no problem and I appreciate that me and and I'll say that one of the reasons that I didn't put this out was because I wasn't sure if I was going to want to edit it more before presenting it tonight you know and and so I wouldn't once we put it out two days from up go it would have been locked down and and due to some personal well I was just traveling more than I expected to you know last few weeks and so I wasn't able to get this to Mr. Corsi until excuse me Mr. Chairman we may have lost the other members for for a moment on the Zoom. I can only hear you through the laptop and you're no longer up on the screen and I can't see you oh oh you're back yeah I still see them hear us now yeah yeah can you hear us so then I'll turn to Mr. Hyme to find out me when when is the earliest I can get what I that statement I read to my colleagues when's the earliest you can distribute it yeah I think if it's just for informational purposes if you distribute it through the your administrator you can distribute it for just information when you can't engage in a substantive discussion right okay all right so then I can get that out me tomorrow you know I'll send it to you tonight or tomorrow morning and okay great so then so then you all can get it me and then and then we can have robust discussions me and and I'm sorry I seem to see Sean in here we're we can keep going okay all right so we're all set to go so any other comments or questions all right well well thanks for your attention me and move on to item number 15 me and and so okay try and stay on top of some sections of our goals me you know and and and so this one as I said it's going to be an emphasis on public communications customer service and resident engagement me and the one thing I want to have us try to work through me and probably won't get through tonight is how to handle email me you know because we have situations where people send us all email you know and when the email comes to all of us I feel that it is my responsibility as chair to either respond to it me or ask one of you to respond to it and I'm fine with that if everyone else is fine with that you know in the cases where only one of us gets it or let me rephrase that when we receive an email was just one of us in the two field sometimes it's not clear whether everyone else has received it or not you know and and so of course nothing I say will stop anyone from responding however they want the goal though is to one he reduce the inefficiency me if five of us receive the same message but we're not aware of the other ones receiving it me but also to make the answer potentially available should we find me that answer useful he then and I I want to have the conversation in public one because we need to but also because it'll be helpful to have the input from the town council as to what we can do within the confines of open let me just back up a little bit and say that recently we did create an alias me for the administrative staff me so then people go to the website they can send mail to to Lauren and Ashley and and Marie through the SB admin alias he I am considering asking me that we also create an alias me for all of us means so that mean that one address will go to all of us me and and also to the administrative staff and the reason I say that is because I've been informed by the staff that any mail that they get is automatically included and to the the record me and and so it is searchable through those agenda correct Ashley you know and and if people ask for it to be included in our meetings to correspond to receive mean and that's when it's put on the agenda that's the only time it would be from an email that's just sent to us wouldn't just automatically be put on an agenda right unless they ask to be placed on correspondence received right right but but if they don't ask for it to be corresponds received it's still put into if it pertains to something on the agenda right okay I mean so so so then it's really a matter of how do we I'm sorry I was honestly just cleaning my throat okay so so so then it really is a matter of how we want to track emails that we get that people don't want included on the agenda as citizens sends you an email we don't see that the only emails we see are if they go to sb admin right us individually right but if they send sb admin but they don't request that be put on the as they don't ask that it be indicated as correspondence received then it doesn't get mean okay there are some things that don't necessarily need to be placed on correspondence received right it's something we can answer within the office right and doesn't need a board vote or a referral to another committee right we would handle it administratively right right if it needs a referral to tack or we think the board outside of board info on a friday right other than that for example you know the one that's on correspondence received tonight right they had asked to be on correspondence received where it could potentially need a vote from a different board but needs referral from the select board right if it's an email regarding just questions about parking or something we can answer that doesn't need a vote of the board that would not be we would not put that on as correspondence received right miss on this chair if i can just say one thing sure the only thing that i would just add as a preliminary to this discussion is that the board chair still controls the agenda so to the extent that correspondence received gets put on an agenda and is addressed by the board it's up to the board to decide what's on its agenda it doesn't mean that correspondence hasn't been received i understand that you're making some you guys are discussing how you want to handle different parts of public correspondence but i just want to sort of separate the fact that correspondence is received from its placement on the agenda as a matter that gets some kind of public acknowledgement and discussion at a meeting of the board does that make sense i was up to you right until the last i guess i'm trying to see the distinction that you're making you know so i had it and then i thought i thought i had it and then i lost it at the very end so so maybe just repeat the last two sentences Mr. Chair for me the board receives a lot of correspondence the real meaningful difference between correspondence received and as we term it and all the other correspondence the board gets isn't necessarily who exactly it goes to if its placement on the agenda as a matter that is going to be in some way shape or form publicly addressed even if it's just we receive this letter from so-and-so it's duly received right so i just want to caution that that that the distinction between who gets sent what we get a lot of correspondence for example from the state or from you know another authority that might only go to the chair of the select board because of the nature of the correspondence that doesn't some of that makes a swan to the agenda because it requires some action the board right some of it doesn't require any action the board it's obviously correspondence it's obviously received the difference is is that it's not put on the agenda something that's going to be publicly addressed by the board right and i'm interested in part of what you're talking about is trying to discern what criteria are going to make it be on the agenda and what aren't but i just i just want to be clear that part of it is always going to be discretionary right and and really what i'm getting at though is is how is it that email mean to the board can be placed in a location where it is searchable and people can find it because my understanding now is that the only way to search mean for email that has been sent to the board is if it's on Nova's agenda i'm sorry mr are you suggesting that searchable by board members or searchable by all other persons both particularly board members but also mean also also the public sense i mean since anything sent to us as part of the public record anyways i mean uh if i may mr there may be some things that are not part of the public record automatically in this sense that there are many exemptions to the public records laws if you get sent sensitive information especially if it's something about like an employee for example that isn't automatically something that the board has to make searchable and discoverable right usually we get a request the records access officer mr feeny typically you know runs through a process to make sure that this is something that does not that is not exempt from disclosure right yeah so it's anything i mean clearly there is sense of the stuff that we get for example that wouldn't be but but any any other email me i'm just trying to to discern trying to get emails sent to us made more easily available mean to ourselves and others and i'm gonna stop now because i have more to say but see mr herd's hand up mr herd items that were mailed to the select department if we put truly before email so just as you're trying to confirm we have confusion sometimes among residents that says you know my email was supposed to be on correspondence received there's no right to have or obligation of the select board to put any correspondence on correspondence received that's that's really just another an opportunity for whoever the chair is or the office to put certain correspondents in front of the board so i mean i think in continuing the past practices we would have either items that are sent to the board that a board member forward so the chair affords to the office and says please put this on correspondence received or items that the chair or the board want to put in front of the board and it's not necessarily a situation where someone sends an email says please put this on correspondence received i think in most cases we would do that but it's not a requirement um in as far as all right i don't think there i have certainly nothing higher than my emails and people can log in and see what i i get emailed to me but i mean there's public records requests for particular emails where people can put our public records request on a certain subject and we have to produce any emails that we have i don't know that there's a desire or really if it's the right of of citizens to just go through all of our emails and like attorney heim said the emails that are sensitive the emails that have to be determined whether or not they can be disclosed so i think to to the extent that people want to see our emails if it pertains to a particular subject they can do a public records request and and then we have a public we have so many of these requests that we have a public records office officer that handles these requests and that's how people would access our emails but i don't think there would be any place either on our agendas or on the town website where some people where people would just be able to search any emails that we we have received without them being produced via the public records request process and i think that's how generally they receive our emails and to as far as who responds we get emails that have all of us on it and we can't reply all because of the open meeting law so i mean i think it's just the discretion of individual board members what emails they want to respond to there could be instances where me and Eric have the same thing want to respond to do two different emails and we can respond to that person individually i don't think we need a coordinated effort because there's emails that i respond to and some emails that either tone or subject matter i decide not to respond to it again that's that's a member that's the discretion of the individual board members so i mean i'm so i'm just i'm not sure we need a centralized way of handling that outside of how it's handled currently thank you Mr. Chair you're welcome welcome give me the chance just don't turn on my video yeah i've lost it yeah i can't i can't okay i know so that way mr. herr can see me like nodding me when i'm agreeing with them eight hours so um is behind thank you mr. Chair i don't see you maybe you're shaking if you don't agree but i'm i'm very hesitant not in favor of adding another sort of email communication vehicle i know we all have our email addresses then we have our town email addresses which i did not want um the case in point of what happens now which is i'm at a you know 30 to 50 percent rate of people who contact me through the town email um that i get it um and i don't know maybe this is something mr. Fuller our town manager uh our new it director could possibly solve it was a sort of a promise or a when it was first posed about myself having the town email account i was afraid it would slip through the crash along with my Verizon account and i was told that it keeps it very easily um if anyone emails me at my demahan whatever it is town dot island dot ma us that um the it department could automatically when that comes in send to my Verizon account so that i wouldn't miss any of those well that's never happened and i know i've run across um at least a dozen times a year that either somebody else gives me a heads up for the person um either i do finally get to the town account or they email me at Verizon and then i explained my college that i didn't get it so my fear is creating the third opportunity it's going to be yet another way that um somebody could fall through the crack so i don't know maybe i i wouldn't would ask mr. Cooler to review mr. Chairman to contact if he if he could contact the it director and see if there is any way um when the first discussions came about this new town email account which is now an old town meeting account um i was told it was a very simple fix so um they could get forwarded to it i can make sure i get it that hasn't happened so i'd like that to be looked into if it's a cumbersome process then it won't so um i'm not in favor of having yet another one as well as mr. heard i wanted to open meeting law concerns um i think uh in terms of emails i like to do with the chair in the soft board office set up sort of an administrative sb admin um email uh account i think that's great and we should continue on with that that's something that i um myself and current and formal colleagues really push into former town manager mr. Chastoling to sort of set up to try to get some things off the platter that never came to fruition so um and i know i've had conversations with mr. cool about that but i think in terms of i understand what you're saying in terms of emails if you know if we all get it individually and how many of us respond respond that's fine i know i've always had a practice even before email it used to be their office to send it out but um i consulted with town council that i can't directly email you all but if i truly get something a that i'm not answering of hiding or given a position on and b it's purely information that as long as i funnel it through the select board office to staff and say please forward to my colleagues in fyi or if i get something that is sensitive as town council pointed out and maybe employee information or um worry or anything like that that's something that i sent to um either town council's town manager and under their discretion to get forwarded so i think if we create yet a third opportunity um it's you know i wouldn't be helpful for me because i'm still falling behind on my variety of accounts in my county email account and i think one of the worst things is that i mean if we choose not to respond to somebody then that we choose to do that it's you know whatever higher or whatever we encounter then we understand that but i'm just afraid it's going to be yet another opportunity there's already one more thing for me um fall through the crack um and this is just going to add a third one so um i may lose this fight because that's why i want the county mail account um because i was told don't worry that won't happen in this means effect well it does happen and it can't get fixed so i'm just not in favor of this but thank you um i'll stop there thank you yeah and i was shaking my head at me because it's not really a matter of losing a fight and it's really this is more for us to just kind of determine if we want to change the way that we handle emails in and maybe we'll gradually change in one direction or another or maybe not but i do want to to say that we when in the cases where we all get email ends and it's it's a fairly let's say straightforward and um kind of email me for me if i know that one person's responding i mean i would just assume not respond you know because it's like it's dealt with you know and we don't see each other being inside i don't necessarily know that someone has responded i think you all have seen the two cases where there's been a transportation related email and i'll email you all saying i'll take care of it and that's not to say to anyone don't respond you can go ahead and respond but it's also to let you know that if you are wondering whether someone's going to respond at least you know that that that i am planning on responding me and so for me then it would be good if my response was also lobbed somewhere means so that you could go and see the response means so that you would not only know that it's been responded to but you'd also know the the natural response so that if a similar question came up me you could go and search and see the answer mean and and respond yourself like maybe you're having a conversation with someone you're like oh well this came up me and then responded i kind of remember that it was worth you know it was a decent response mean and so you'd have a way of getting that information so that's that's the rationale behind trying to create kind of a repository for the information mean and i'll say just today there have been a couple of cases where i was thinking it would be good for people to know about this so we had one case where it means someone need just like i guess they are jack hammering a wall or something mean has been going on for a while mean and and there's an issue and so they they have reached out me for me some advice or some for the time to deal with it mean and the second one is escaping me um right now um it might come back to me but but anyways mean these were things where i felt that mean it would be good for you to know about them because they came to me in as chair and and i think one was cc to the town manager mean and so i felt that it would be good for the folks to see this mean and then to see the responses i was just trying to create a mechanism mean so that folks were more aware mean other communications that were going on and information that goes along with them because i thought the information mean the responses from the town manager um were good you know oh the other one was involving the the the uh electricity the the ace program mean uh and and so so that's the that's that's the rationale for having the discussion you know and what what town council advices kind of what i do which is um i say i know all of you have gotten emails from the select board offers from me um but like on the ace program the electricity program as well as the jack herring himmering um i know we're all aware of that um so i i would like to just continue with the process that the board has been doing which is if you think it's information that you know you kind of have a benny and the rest of the board doesn't know and you think we should then funnel it through the select board's office ask them to forward it to us um as an fyi but like forwarding on the ollington community electricity program we all are well aware of that um i'm you know ever since uh the fed uh raised the interest rate and then the national grid and n-star said we're increasing 62 and 88 percent um i like you all i mean i probably get weekly anywhere from 8 to 14 people asking me about ace and the town's electricity program and i wouldn't send those all to you because you all know that information you know that's me just doing my job which you would do the exact same job so um like i would just say i would put in a plug for um if you if any one of us gets an email and it's sort of new information you know how do i get a town day rules application i'm not going to forward that to you all because this this it's not that but uh on something that's sort of pressing and and brand new um whether it's like ugar if i get something with al-wife cso's or anything like that i mean you all know what you get from me that it says please forward to my colleges and fyi um and to me that's a hey i got this heads up i'm sending it to you which i think is what i'm hearing um the chairman speak to um i think doing it that way versus saying everything that everybody gets goes somewhere the repository um i think it's i wouldn't it's not something that i would ask for thank you mr chair yeah i appreciate that and the intention isn't to have everything go on there um it was more so be like the cases where someone did forward it because they felt that it was worthy me of of being transmitted to to their colleagues me and right now that simply goes to us me and and me no one else really has access to it and by that i would think by anyone else i'm thinking maybe colleagues coming along later on me who aren't on the board now i mean if there was a way they could search me like we can search me for items me on the agenda through the nervous the novice agenda platform then they would have access to to the the the the issue and and the response means so so i'm really not trying to create me more traffic and i'm really just trying to create a way for us to access me the useful information that's in the email that is being forwarded or received me so so that's it and so this is just an idea you know and so so hey i'm not expecting us to vote or anything on it i'm just kind of put it out there's something for us to discuss and see if there's potentially a way to make the email the information we get for email more available and more useful for us that's it mr helmeth thank you mr chair thanks for raising the issue i do appreciate just the workflow problem that you raise i've you know noticed it myself there are some building inefficiencies for each of the five of us having public email addresses which i love by the way myself but you know we because of because of the winning law we can't copy each other our responses so we don't we don't know who's respond to one unless you know unless somebody tells somebody in a non substantive way what that is the one common threat in this is that for a lot of routine requests i routinely let our town staff do their job and i will forward requests to the town manager for for information because they know it firsthand there's no sense in my you know trying to pretend like i know anything and so and that in that in those cases the town manager and his team his or her team can can deal with the duplication and i think you know copy and paste as needed for for responses i i think it might be useful mr chair to think about you know our role identifying the business needs as we would say in industry the operational and workflow needs and maybe it may be lean on our town staff to propose solutions that maybe we haven't considered tonight i do have some serious concerns about the idea of any kind of automatic repository and i think if i understand town councils attorney heim's cautions correctly we couldn't just dump those you know those in we can't have an unvented open access uh access to anyone's email box for for various legal reasons and important ones um you know perhaps you know something that would be a whole other product in a whole other function of a website and it would be kind of a strained invented manually maintained you know database of things but that might be an overkill the other thing the other concern the caution i have is is um i very much get and appreciate the desire to save save members the time from needless thing responding to requests that's already been adequately responded to but i would want to be careful not to infringe upon members prerogative to do so as elected officials who answer to the public um and i know that that's not the suggestion here at all by any means it's it's not that's not the intention but i think the effect could be unintentionally chilling um of our of our desire if we have one to respond individuals individually people um and be responsive to to the folks who elected us so you know i like i said i think i appreciate the workflow challenge here there is a there is a built-in inefficiency um i'd be interested mr chair if you want to continue brainstorming with some town staff to try to think about if there are technology solutions that would make it easier and not and not more work um you know for the rest of us or for the staff um but those are just some of my my thoughts off the bat thank you mr chair all right yeah everybody else is spoken i'll say a couple things i i think this is something that that you agree with with comments that both mr herd and and mr helmeth made it in terms of um if there is an issue that comes up in and you as chair you get first crack at it feel it should come before the whole board it's your prerogative to put it on the agenda i also agree there are requests that come in and whether it's just to me directly the whole select board and if i think it's something that is an issue that the town manager through his staff can can deal with i will forward it and say i've received this want to send it along to you and i think i think that's you look at it on on a case by case type basis um on that night and i will know you know we've been example of two pieces of correspondence tonight and this is a little bit different but we received from mr pooler these are two issues that came up at our last meeting this is a good use of the correspondence received because we're getting responses to things that came up last meeting so that's the type of thing we're looking at but i i i agree on the prerogative issue the other thing is i may give a different answer to something than you do so if you're trying to coordinate me answer my answer you know i i'd like to to craft my answer for myself as opposed to for the board if it's something that the board needs to look at on a particular piece of correspondence or an issue that comes up then it's probably best discussed as part of its its own agenda item well as mrs helms noted me there was there was never any suggestion that people couldn't respond on their own i understand what mr helms is saying is that being it just the existence of it creates a chilling effect you know it's a it's an argument that you know it's it's not the same as a slippery slope argument but it's always the kind of argument that i often have a problem you know using as a reason for not doing something you know uh but you know but that said like i said this was just put out for discussion you know me one of the goals is just me you know me trying to improve me you know the way you know we communicate me with ourselves mean and and residents and it was just something that had been something that i had been struggling with me you know since i've been on the board and had talked with some at least one of you um well actually only one of you about it so so um so that's it you know so so i am i'm we have the one alias mean i i guess the maybe something i'll ask you to think about you know and staff maybe is whether we do want to create another alias that makes it easier for people to send mail to all of us you know and and so just think about that i'm not going to ask that now because maybe we do want them to actually have to like me put in the names for each of us meet um so that they really do have to work to send it to all of us as opposed to an alias that would be like you know select board all or something like that so so think about that and and and unless there's more to say on this um we'll move on and we'll go ten something else mean maybe next week because next week might be a pretty light agenda i mean i will not do these on on nights when we have a lot on agenda i mean but it is a way to just kind of keep our goals in front of us and certainly if folks have something that they would like to bring up related to goals and these are goals that are sb goals mean uh or maybe sb mean and tm goals mean uh so so i think we're sat here and we'll um move on to correspond this received you know so we have a request for a stop sign on Dudley street at braddle street by mark weiss a number 17 a memo regarding public safety overtime budgets by saini pooler town manager and number 18 a memo regarding the status of chat in the street once again by the town manager attorney my colleagues and motion by mrs mohan and mr mr okay sorry mr helmets a little slow on getting to your hands so mr hurt got it you know so so any um comments questions yeah mr helmets thank you thank you i just want to express my appreciation to the town manager for the uh the two detailed memos uh that one correspondence received i thought they were informative and i appreciate the time that went into that and the responsiveness uh to select for requests on this mr chairman on mr weiss uh number 16 if that should i don't know if it should go to tap or if it should go to our traffic enforcement division officer rato so i'll leave it to the chairman to have a conversation with the town manager uh which way it should go thank you sure thank you thank you you know and so yeah i just do want to say that um me i really appreciate the the responses uh mr pooler and you know and thankfully me and since these are on the agenda it will be searchable uh due to those agendas so that when they come up again because because in the case of the overtime budget i mean i kind of recall that one from town meeting and it's just nice to have a place to go where you can see like a definitive response me and so so i very much appreciate that and and i'll say to the chestnut street i mean i'll stay tuned there's more to come on that meaning we may be having an update being from tack me at our um our next meeting you know so it's because um yesterday's tack meeting was um quite productive meeting it was a long meeting a lot of came out of it and we'll be seeing you know some results of that at our next meeting so um yes i will take mismahan advice and i'll talk with you mr manager meaning about that item because i was thinking myself i mean how do we handle stop signs i mean and and it may need to go to tack i'm not sure mr hurt tack i know that a t stop is an automatic stop so there's no there's no traffic analysis that needs to be done so i think the town manager's office can just handle the installation of a stop sign because there's no no there's no different change to the traffic rules in order whenever there is a t stop that doesn't need to be a stop sign because by law you have a stop sign so should be something i think we could resolve pretty quickly and not put have to burden tack with it all right well thank you mr hurt it's always helpful to have another member attack on the board you know so all right i think we're all set here so on a motion to receive by mismahan and second by mr hurt mr hurt yes mr decorsi yes mr helman yes this is mahan yeah mr deans yes thank you you know so i'm looking in attendees mean and and we're all along here you know except for miss gilbert you know so i think we're all set with open forum in and so i'm going to do new business now so this is my new business thank you mr hind no new business thank you mr chairman mr puller no new business thank you okay and i'm gonna go to um the virtual land meet um mr helmeth new business mr hurt hurt no new business mismahan my new business is the dba opening which we already talked about so nothing thank you and of course thank you mr chairman yeah just briefly um and this was mentioned earlier tonight and this is mahan mentioned that we received the resignation from mr mills and we often are appointing people at our at our meetings and there were two longtime committee members who's resignations were one we received today mr mills mr warden had stepped down it's on the board of registrars and um i want to thank them for their service mr mills was on the zba during the mu gar hearings which are very lengthy the other 40 b hearing and many other hearings and and he's actually leaving town that's that's what's precipitating his um leaving the zba mr warden had served for for years probably decades on the on the board of registrars so i want to thank him for his service so fortunate to have people to step into positions but we also want to thank people who have served for a long period of time who are leaving and then just one comment um during the pandemic we talked about the select board being the laboratory for remote meetings and in person and fully remote and i believe this is the first time and and it is good to see how we can run a meeting where there are more meetings more members attending remotely than are in person and and i think the technology we wouldn't blip with the power here but it just shows you what you can do and and what we will continue to look at as as we run meetings and receive public input but i think i think it was interesting just to see how how that worked and at least from here in the chambers it was very easy to hear my colleagues and and to see them on on issues and and um so i think it was successful yeah yeah thank you yes yes so whether it means is for health reasons me or it's necessary in or what's the matter convenience as i've told you all me me me please we technology is our friend here and it'll make things easier for us i mean so so i'm glad that you were able to utilize it and so i have um four quick items the new business made on the first me i saw that uh notice a news article about the exact agnes's 150th anniversary i mean that's impressive made for any institution need to celebrate 150 years here in orlington so congratulations on that the second is that i would like to have a conversation about the beautification committee we have it as our goal to populate that committee and so i'm gonna put that on the agenda although i may reach out to you mr herd is my plus one on this mean um so i know there's been some work with the chamber on this so just want to give it a little heads up on that and i did actually mention it um doing correspondence received that we're going to have some updates from tack you know next meeting you know and and um and finally you know want to congratulate um erica swartz being on conducting a really um a very enjoyable um annual meeting for the housing corporation of arlington on tuesday he asked me to speak and i had prepared two speeches because i was up two minds you know and i had them pick you know one of them kind of randomly and so i gave them the creative speech beat uh uh and so that was fun but it was a really nicely done event in and the aca as we all know do um they do great work mean and i think erica is really a great um addition as the new executive director so um with that i'm going to end on the land acknowledgement you know my general pattern is to do on the land acknowledgement on the first meeting of the month you know i'm trying to adhere to the spirit of of the resolution and that is that we do acknowledge me what has led me well the knowledge and pass me and and i'm not doing it every meeting because i think sometimes by not having something i mean you are more aware of it you know and so if you do it every meeting at the same time you know it just becomes kind of habit mean that people don't focus on as much and i am putting it this month mean at the end and partly because i saw sustainable arlington do it you know and i regret that haven't been to some of their meetings um lately i'm going to try and get there and i thought that was a interesting place to put it because instead of doing it at the beginning we're going to end um thinking about the land acknowledgement and we acknowledge that arlington is located on the ancestral lands of the massachusetts tribe the tribe indigenous people from whom the colony province and common wealth have taken their names we pay our respects to the ancestral bloodline the massachusetts tribe in their descendants who still inhabit historic massachusetts territories today and i think it's particularly appropriate given that we celebrated um indigenous people stay in early beginning of the week so with that i'll take uh motion to adjourn second so on a motion to adjourn by mrs mahan and second by jimson's horsey mr heim mr herd yes mr decorsi yes mr helman yes mrs mahan yes mr dayton yes see you next time thank you good night everybody take care good meeting