 I'm calling to order this meeting of the Arlington Select Board on Monday, January 22, 2024. I am Select Board Chair Eric Helmuth. Tonight's meeting is being conducted in a hybrid format consistent with provisions by the Massachusetts State Legislature for remote participation in public meetings. Before we begin, please note the following. First, this meeting is being conducted in the Select Board chambers and over Zoom. It is being recorded and simultaneously broadcast on ACMI. Second, people wishing to join the meeting by Zoom may find information on how to do so on the town's website. People participating either in person or by Zoom are reminded that you may be visible to others and that if you wish to participate, we ask you to provide your full name in the interest of developing a record of the meeting. Third, all participants are advised that people may be listening who do not provide comment and those persons are not required to identify themselves. Both Zoom participants and persons watching on ACMI can follow the post of the agenda materials found on the website, specifically the Select Board agendas and minutes page. This evening there will be some opportunities for public comment at that time. I will announce them on the agenda. If you are in the room, obviously you can raise your hand just like you were in school. If you are on Zoom, raise your hand and Zoom just like you were in school in the modern era. If you do not know how to raise your hand in Zoom, now would be an excellent time to Google for how to do so. And finally, I will note that we have a pretty full agenda tonight. It may not look like it by the number of items, but our preparation packet was 189 pages. So I am looking forward to doing a lot of town's business tonight and I would, as always, exhort my colleagues and members of the public to pay close attention to the scope of items on the agenda so that we can get to everything and give it the attention that it deserves tonight. First item up on the agenda is item two and that is the Fiscal 24 First Quarter Financial Report. And we are pleased to welcome back, as always, our Comptroller, Ms. Cody. Good evening, Ms. Cody, and we've had the opportunity to review your excellent and detailed report as usual. And if you would like to give us some highlights and then have some time for some questions, we'd be delighted. Good evening, Eda Cody Comptroller. Thank you for having me tonight to present the budget report. I did note that you have a very busy agenda, so I will try to give you the abbreviated version of the report. This is for the Expensive Revenue Report for the first quarter of the fiscal year 24. For the period ended in September 30th, 2023. This is very straightforward. Everything is at 25%. The burn rate should be at 25% for both revenue and expense. And I will just highlight the most important items in each category. And if you have any questions, I'll try to answer all of them. On the expense side, the DPW department shows 51% year-to-date, I mean up to September 30th. However, the actual expenditures are only 26%. DPW encumbers a lot of their contracts at the beginning of the fiscal year, so that distorts a little bit the rate. Facilities is at 38% the same thing because of the encumbrances. And then two items, pensions, they're 100% because we transfer the annual assessment on July 1st, as well as the transfers, the subsidies and the contributions to the stabilization funds, they get posted on July 1st. The articles, you're not going to see them at 25%. They vary. They're all over the place because departments and commissions have two years to spend this budget. So we keep an eye on them. And by the end of the year two, we check in. And if the budgets are not spent, we take it back to free cash. On the revenue side, the motor vehicle excise is at 9%, but that is just a timing variance because the annual commitment from the RMV we receive in February, so that most of the collection happens on the third quarter of the fiscal year. Hotel tax is at 63% because we had a conservative estimate, although we've increased it by 139,000. This was a good year compared to the COVID years. The fees are at 44%. The main drivers are the ambulance fees, which are already at 50% because we increased the rates. And also the host community agreement fees, the cannabis commission control has new agreement regulations now. And municipal municipalities are prohibited from setting a certain percentage of the sales annual. Because of this, we cannot estimate it on the tax recap. Licenses and permits are at 39%, and this is again because of the building and wire permits. As you know, the costs have increased, so we charge the residents per a percentage of the total cost of the project. Interest is at 471%. We had a conservative estimate again, and the rates have been good. We don't know if the future is just as bright. I think we think that the rates are going to go down, but we enjoy it for now. The enterprise, all enterprise funds are on pace to meet their budgets. There's only one variance with the RINC enterprise, which collects all their revenues in the winter. So by the third quarter, we're going to see some good collections on the RINC enterprise. And the other funds were listed per your request. I have the ARPA and the stabilization funds. I just gave you the balances. No transactions on those funds. We just post the interest and we do the transfers to set the budget. With that, I would like to know if you have any questions and I'm ready to answer them. I have no doubt. Thank you very, very much. And I'll turn to my colleagues for any questions. Mrs. Mohan? First, I would move receipt of the first quarter financial report. And just two quick questions. One for the manager and one for the comptroller, I believe. Just sort of piggybacking on Ms. Kota's last point on opera funding. If I could ask the manager just very quickly, do you anticipate, like in the next six to nine months, am I correct that for opera funding, we have to have it all designated, not necessarily spent out by a certain point. And it's my understanding there's still about 20%, 25% of that that needs to be allocated specifically. And so should we anticipate in the next six to nine months a final word on that? Mr. Finn. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mrs. Mohan. Yes, there is still money to be obligated. And I would expect to be back before this board sometime actually before six to nine months. As those obligations need to be made by the end of December of this calendar year. So with that, we've already started preliminary discussions with even funding that has been promised to other outside entities to start seeing what their timeline is. Because if they weren't going to be able to spend it prior to the conclusion of fiscal year or calendar year 26, we actually need to know now because we can't reobligate monies after December of this year. So we need to be not only thinking about the funds still within our coffers, but also the funds promised to other agencies and entities to make sure that their spending plan is still on track with what it may have believed to have been, you know, 12 months ago, 18 months ago. So that process is beginning in earnest now that the manager's budget has been submitted and we'll sort of start taking a much closer look at that. Thank you. And then my only other question, just because it's something new and I love everything that's in here and how you've incorporated along with the deputy town manager, Mr. McGee, the different suggestions from the board members of other things that would like to see, which are always included in the next report. I'm just curious on the council on aging and AYCC when you talk about the timing variance due to the CDBG terms, I've just never seen that before. Does that mean that CDBG doesn't pay till a certain quarter? Is that something new or that's something you're letting us know that always existed? They provide the services and then we build them. But first, we need to make sure that the services are provided and once everything is signed, we post it. This is the, actually the money is in. It just wasn't posted in the first three months. Okay, great. As long as you say the money's there, especially the council on aging and AYCC, only to youth consultation center, although they may stand for something else. I know they're always counting pennies, nickels, dimes all the time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Diggins? I'm happy to second it. You know, I just have one question, but I'm going to try and answer it on my own and if I can't then I'll call you up. It has to do with the fee, you know, from the cannabis commission. I'm just kind of curious as to why the change. But like I said, I'll try and find that out on my own, but if I don't, I'll give you a call, all right? You want to know why they changed the regulation? Yeah, I'm just kind of curious, but I know that's kind of out of the scope, and so I'll look on my own if I can't find that out. No, I'll tell you what I know. So this various companies were not happy with the percentage that the municipalities were imposing. And they wanted to have the extra burden, let's say that's on the town or on the city, monetized to know exactly how much extra they are spending for the services that relate to the cannabis. So as such, they don't want to impose a certain 3% that could be, no, actually it cannot be more than 3%, but municipalities will have to actually quantify and present a report of how much it actually costs the town or the city to provide the extra services related to the cannabis. Oh, I see, that's interesting, okay, all right. There's a whole article on CCC if you go on their website, and they have a lot of details. All right, great, thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. DeCoursey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Cody, for the presentation, and always when we look at the first quarter report, it's while it's early in the year, you really can tell if there's any issues that we should be concerned about, seems like we're in really good shape in terms of collections and expenses, so I appreciate the thoroughness. One question on the Warren articles, all of the Warren articles that are listed there are from last year's town meeting, is that right? This isn't a carryover from prior years, for the second year, if you will. Some of them are, in the second year. Okay, so this is everything that we voted within the last two years at town meeting. Correct. Okay, good, thank you. No questions, but thank you again. It is always nice to put this in front of us and give us a vehicle to, you know, open up the town books for the public as well, and I always learn a lot every presentation that we get, so thank you. Thank you all, and ditto to that, and also I wanted to just point out to the public, and also my gratitude as a board member, the really conservative estimation and budgeting that the town does led by our town manager and his finance team. I think we've seen in Ms. Cody's report tonight some very good news that as a result of our not making assumptions we ought not to make about interest rates and other sorts of income that we don't count our chickens before they're hatched. We've been very lucky that the hatching rate has been pretty good. We know that that always wouldn't always be the case, but I think that that's just a good example to the public of how careful the town is with your money. And I wanted to call that out every time you look at the books. Thank you again, Ms. Cody. Thank you, have a good night. So any further discussion? We have a motion to receive the report by Mrs. Mahana, seconded by Mr. Diggins. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Five nothing vote to receive. Thank you very much. And third item on the agenda is a presentation on the Fox Library, and we are delighted to have our library director, Ms. Litton. I believe there's some slides coming up on the screen. You can introduce your guest and give them a moment for the slides that are here to also show up on Zoom. Excuse me. As that's coming up, I'll begin. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of this left board. I'm Anna Litton, director of libraries, and I'm joined by longtime library trustee, Adam Del Malino, and we are excited to come before you today to share an update on the Fox Branch Library. A new future for the Fox. Arlington has a long and proud history of providing excellent library services. The East Branch Library opened in the Crosby School, now the Leslie Ellis School, in 1917. Since then, library services have been an important part of the community fabric of East Arlington. Today, the Fox Branch Library is an important point of service for residents and busier than ever. Circulation has been steadily increasing over the years. Circulation increased 196% from 2013 when the total branch circulation was 41,000 items, slightly over 41,000 items, to our robust circulation over 121,687 items in FY23. That's 19% of our print material circulation. Not only does our annual visitor count continue to rise, but we're seeing more and different kinds of people access library spaces and services at the Fox all the time. In addition to the children and families who have all the time access library services at the Fox Branch Library, we see adults looking for workspace, tutors looking to meet with students, and an increasing number of visitors who choose to pick up their library materials in East Arlington. Library programs, like our popular Thursday morning storytime, happened in our community room, and over 7,000 visitors attended a program at Fox Branch Library in 2013. Our community room was booked for community use 347 times, but every single one of those people and every single one of those meetings was not fully accessible to all. So, Adam Domolino of 170 Newport Street, Precinct 10. While the Fox Branch Library is an important resource for our community, the building has never physically welcomed all in Arlington. The step at the main entrance when you look at the front door is the first barrier that anyone who is using a mobility device faces. Once inside that building, activities should be free and open to all so that they can all be shared in our community. And events for families or adults in the lower level don't necessarily welcome users of wheelchairs or other mobility devices. The adult restrooms are only really available on the lower level. And in Arlington we pride ourselves on creating an equitable community, but it's an important community meeting space and unfortunately it fails to meet our legal obligations and welcome all residents. So, what comes next? This, as many of you may know, is not the first time that the library has sought to create a new branch library that better meets the needs of our community. Many of you likely remember the reimagining our libraries project that we did from 2015 to 2017. COVID interrupted that work, but it also changed library use in Arlington. In the spring of 2023, when the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners announced a new round of grants for the Massachusetts Public Library Construction Grant program, the town submitted a letter of intent to apply for the funds. Over the summer of 2023, the Fox Branch Facility Needs Committee began meeting with the end goal of submitting an MPLC grant in May of 2024. This grant can cover up to 50% of eligible costs for construction projects. The town contracted with library planning associates to complete a library building program based on an extensive community feedback. We've been fortunate to work with industry leader Andrews Dahlgren on this project. As required by the grant, town meeting will be voting on a warrant article to see if the town will vote to apply for, accept and expend Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program grant funds if approved to vote and vote to raise an appropriate or take the form of available funds in the sum of $150,000. And that sum will be expended by the town for library assessment, planning, feasibility and or design. Our interest is in creating truly useful and usable library spaces, but we have a unique opportunity to think about other community needs as well. As communities look to address housing, some have turned to co-locating housing with public libraries. Currently, the West End Branch and Branch Library in Boston is being redeveloped as a branch library with co-located housing. Claire Ricker came before this body to speak about her work in creating a fit and feasibility study with MAPC to see what the possibilities might be to co-locate housing at the Fox Branch Library. Thank you. Our libraries are a truly vital part of our community. Our vision is that the library is a trusted resource that empowers community members of all ages to thrive, learn and create a vibrant Arlington. I want to thank the members of the Fox Branch Facility Needs Committee, specifically Stephen Corsi, for their help in our work so far on this project. And I hope that I can ask all of you to join with us in advocating for a new Fox Branch Library for our community. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. I'd like to turn to my colleague, Mr. Corsi, who has worked a lot on this project. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And first of all, a little receipt of the report. And thank you, Mr. Del Molino, for the presentation tonight. I've been really happy to serve as a member of the Facility Needs Committee. It's a great group. And as you look at the Fox Library, I know some of us, Mr. Herd, grew up going to the Fox Library. Ian Wallet is a great community resource. There are limitations there. And you see it right at the entrance. You see it. We have neighborhood meetings now in the basement of the Fox Library. Not all of our neighbors can go to it. And I think this is really an exciting opportunity for the town looking forward to obtain some grant funding. But in order to get that grant funding, we've got to spend some money and obtain an appropriation. So I'm excited about the possibilities. I met Mr. Dahlgren, who is the consultant. I was in a group with other town employees that met with him. I was very impressed with ideas that he had and what he's bringing forward. So I am really excited about the work you're doing. And that's even without getting into the possibility for the housing on upper floors, if that ever comes to being a great use of that parcel down the road. And this is really just for the library. But I'm excited about it. And I know you've done a lot reaching out to the community. You've had forums. You've obtained input. So great job on that. And let's keep the momentum going. Mr. Herd. Thank you for the presentation and all your work. I think it's in the six years I've been on the board. We've been talking about the Fox Library and improvements and needed improvements. And it's good to see some real concrete steps in the right direction. And I think what will come of this will be a really incredible product for the town, specifically the children. I did grow up going to the Fox Library. My name was always up on the wall for the summer reading program. Not as much as my sisters, but I read slower I guess. But this library is such an incredible community resource and it's the culmination of efforts of, it really is a community library because, you know, 25 years ago it was talks about closing the library. And the neighbors said no way. And they got together and raised private funds to support programming. And now the library still exists and allows the town to use it as a resource. And as now a parent I'm really grateful for the people that did that and I look forward to the continued work to take it to the next step so the library is accessible for everybody that wants to use it. So, thank you. Mr. Dickens, sure thanks. I mean, so yes, I mean I'm excited about this too. I think the last time it came up, I mean the whole notion of housing on top is very compelling, you know. And I very much hope that we can make that happen, because housing is important. But I think also vitality to me to that area in general and maybe even foster more usage of the library space. Because as you mentioned, I mean there's more than utilization of books, I mean that happened in that space. So I wasn't able to attend the Zoom session because I had a tech meeting that night and that was my only option. So I don't really know what was discussed there in terms of like the concepts, you know, but I look forward to being a part of that discussion because, you know, as far as I'm concerned, you can't think too big, you know. And also, let's think about where we want the libraries to be, you know, because I often say we don't let the future happen to you. Make the future what you want it to be, you know, and dare to think about what you want it to be. I know we can't control. We can't control everything, but if we have a good plan, I mean as events happen, I mean we can adjust our plan, we have a direction in which we're going, you know. So I'm interested in your thoughts, not now, I mean about the, we didn't see the internet coming, I mean 50 years ago, 60 years ago, you know, but it's here and it affected libraries and think about what it is that made libraries resilient enough to survive, I mean, and think about what we don't know is going to happen in the next 50 years, but what thoughts we'll be able to give to the community despite almost anything that happens. So good work, I mean, I'm going to look forward to more and I'll be voting for the article. Thank you. Mrs. Mahat. I will second Mr. DeCorsi's motion if nobody else has. I believe you. And as far as support, when I was in high school, one of the things I did, well, I had three jobs. One of them I fibbed and said it was already 14, about five months before I was and it was at the library. And I worked at the Fox in the Robin's Library for many years and back then I told someone I came on the board when Fred Flintstone was around. There was no Google. It was all Dewey Decimal System reference materials and we had one library director. I almost got fired because he was having us throw books out so I would keep stamping. Back then you'd stamp the cards. He's like, if it hasn't been stamped out in two years, I'm like, two years, but he caught me. But he didn't fire me. And I remember when I first got on the board and I had poured through the budget, which was a very difficult thing to read back then, it's nothing like we have now. And I remember raising about the Fox being closed and my then colleagues thought I was maybe telling a fib, but it was, but back then it was really hard to find this stuff. So as my colleagues have said, you know, hats off to all the town meeting members and residents who really worked on a part-time basis to keep the Fox functioning. And I certainly look forward to a lot of people who have said to me, they're very grateful for the schools when they can in East Arlington. But around the neighborhood groups, it really is difficult having the community meetings. The library, Fox Library and the staff has always been as accommodating as possible. By the numbers you've submitted, it's obvious that that room is being used and it's really like two and a half rooms that get used every little space. So I certainly look forward to supporting, making that accessible to all. And I'm really excited to see what both of you and Claire Ricker, our planning director comes up with for locating housing or something else that you know I wouldn't even begin to think of. And I'm glad you're also keeping that on the front burner. So thank you so much and look forward to what we have to do next to make it happen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. I'll just add that my appreciation for the excellent presentation. And my gratitude for the library director and her staff and the Board of Trustees and their work and my colleagues' work on that for preserving this wonderful resource. When I moved to Arlington 17 years ago, the libraries were the first thing I fell in love with. And I'm still in love with them. The libraries are a place for the community. They're a place for all. They're a place for learning. They're a place for togetherness. And it is a treasure. And the Fox is every bit as much a treasure as our main library. And I'm really excited that this work is moving forward. I look forward to supporting it as my colleagues and I'm sure will in town meeting and to see what we can do. I am also particularly intrigued and excited by the possibility of co-locating housing. As you mentioned, that's something Boston's taking a good look at and there's been some success with that around the country. And to me, that just reinforces this theme of togetherness and a community and a belonging that the library embodies. So I look forward to more to come and appreciate you coming here tonight. Thank you. Thank you so much. So we have a motion to receive by Mr. Decorsi and seconded by Mrs. Mahon. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Five. Nothing. That brings us to the Consent Agenda and I want to note that I'm going to remove one item from the Consent Agenda for separate consideration. That is item six, the request first, special one-day beer and wine licenses at the prior request of a colleague. Also note, frankly, that that was just an oversight on my part, not normally a beer and wine licenses I would have, of this nature, I would have just put as a regular item and I just neglected to do so. So the Consent Agenda is as follows. We have a series of appointments and reappointments routine to a number of commissions, the Board of Health, Conservation Commission, Constable Cemetery Commission, Disability Commission, Equal Opportunity Advisory Committee, Historical Commission, Human Rights Commission, Library Board of Trustees, Park and Recreation Commission, LGBTQIA plus Rainbow Commission, Allington Redevelopment Board and the Veterans Council. Once again, these are reappointments of previously screened and interviewed and serving members. Just reminded that we have 68 boards, committees and commissions. This is just a small chunk of them and again, it's just part of what makes Allington so strong is the participation of community members in these volunteer boards. We also have an item five under the Consent Agenda, the Black History Month Banners from the Allington Human Rights and these are on the Consent Agenda. We can discuss them if colleagues would like to of course but under one vote, it is the same banners as the prior three years in the same installation but as always I defer to my good colleagues. So with that I'll entertain Questions, Motions, Discussion from the Board. Despite the fact that you didn't read all the names, I'm still going to make a motion to approve the Consent Agenda. I'm just teasing you. I'd be happy to if I felt you. So I can't, all right. Any discussion on the Consent Agenda? All right, so we have a motion to approve the Consent Agenda items except for item six which has been pulled off by the chair. By Mr. Dickens is seconded by, was that you Mr. Hurd? Yes. By Mr. Hurd. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Is unanimous. That brings us to the item that I removed from Consent Agenda which is item six and I believe we have Mr. Guernsey and waiting in Zoom from Arlington Brewing Company. This is a request for a number of special one day beer and wine licenses. My understanding and the Board of Ministry can confirm this for me that these, this is a duplication of successful run of events that these two businesses, the Arlington Brewing Company and Roasted Granola held in the holiday season. And so they'd like to come to us to request some additional dates. And we have I believe Mr. Matt Guernsey available on Zoom from the company. Good evening Mr. Guernsey, can you hear me? Good evening, I can hear you. Yes, thank you. Excellent, good. Thank you for coming tonight. And would you like to briefly speak to your request? Sure. First of all, thank you to the select board for having me here this evening. We are indeed here to have a kind of a second round of this series of events. The first round began back on November 30th and ran until the end of the year. It was a resounding success. There was really great support from the town, from people who came from neighbors, from the Roasted Granola folks. It really was a great community event that I think it's safe to say everyone really genuinely enjoyed. And so we've taken a little time to think about how we might make some changes going forward to improve things, streamline operations, just generally make things better and see what we can do to continue it. And so that's what we've come up with here. So it is indeed very similar. The only changes really are that we are running for a longer calendar period. So this is covering three months. And instead of being multiple consecutive days for week, this will be Fridays only. Thank you very much. I'll turn to the board for any emotions, questions and discussion. Mr. DeCourson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you. I was the individual requested that this come off the consent agenda. And Mr. Grunty, I was happy to support this back in October for the November-December time period. And when I saw this again, I was just concerned about the number of days that were being asked because this is a one-day license and we also have a procedure for a permanent license. And since I had raised that concern, I did take a look at the ABCC regulations. And my understanding of them and they referred to in our policies is that an individual can have no more than 30 days per year for a one-day license. And the December time period, October, November and December time period that you had at Roasted Grinnell, that was 15. This will be 13 days. I know you want to do something at the res. I just want to put that out there. That to me is the upper limit of what we could do if you're looking to have the summer program and maybe looking to have something next December, you're going to bump up against that 30-day maximum. And so I got my answer in terms of what the upper limit could be on a one-day license, but I just put it back to you. I know you'd like to do other things through the year and if you'd like to come back in December, you've just got to be careful as to how many days you ask for. And originally, I was going to suggest that we maybe just approve this or make an amendment to approve it for the month of February to allow you to come back if you want to continue it, but just to be aware of that limitation. I'm not sure if you were aware of it when you put in this application. Mr. Grinsey, feel free to respond. Yes, thank you. So I'm glad you brought that up because it is an open question. I had been discussing this question with, actually, a lot of different folks because it is on my radar. We don't want to limit what we can do throughout the rest of the year. Of course, we have our collaboration with Arlington Rec coming up this summer for the concert series. We have a number of other things in the works that could be really fun, great community activities. And like you said, conceivably we might entertain the idea of doing this again in the 2024 holiday season. Now, so my understanding, I think it was a little different than yours. And maybe more importantly, I had discussed this with the select board staff who told me that they were gonna get some input from town council around what exactly that means in practical terms. I am not a lawyer, but my understanding had been from looking at other towns in the Commonwealth, that it was applications on an individual person basis, not on the company basis. Now again, I'm not the one to make that call, obviously, but the town council, as I understand it, was going to be weighing in on that to help us understand what the limitations were. Okay, no, think before, let me turn to town council. I know that you are the applicant on this application, I believe you were the applicant on the last application as well, so that's what I was working off of when I looked at those dates, but I know town council would like to, that's all I have to say at this point. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you, that's an important point. Yeah, yeah, Adrienne Gillingham. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I'm happy to provide a more complete analysis for the board if requested. However, I would note that the enabling statute, Chapter 138, Section 14, does contemplate the maximum of 30 permissible licenses for an individual applicant. I do not, I'll look at it further, but in my opinion, based on what I've looked at, with both the statutory language, and then also I looked at the, similar to select board member DeCorsi, the ABCC's regulations, as well as their questions regarding these licenses, and I note that on their own documents, they talk about no person shall be granted such a license as permitting more than 30 days in a calendar year. So I don't think that even whether it's a person or an entity, I think a reasonable interpretation of the statute is that it's 30 days for either a person or a person affiliated with a certain entity. I think it would be an unreasonable interpretation of that statute to allow a particular entity to put forward 10 different persons and essentially be granted licenses for every day of the year. I'd be surprised if there are other communities that have done that, I'm not aware of any of the communities that have done that, so I'm happy to provide further legal analysis, but I think that Mr. DeCorsi's expressed concern regarding limiting this particular entity by granting applications all the way through April is well founded and perhaps an issue worthy of a further look so that we don't run into a problem where this particular entity, people enjoy these events, is left without the opportunity to obtain licenses for events that people enjoy later in the year. Mr. DeCorsi, do you have any further? Yeah, no further questions. Maybe just a question from Mr. Grinsey. In light of that, and I'm happy to, I was happy to be one of the five members who voted to approve this license back in December, but in light of the potential limitation you have and without putting it in the spot, how would you feel about the month of February for right now that gives you maybe time to look at it to see what your plans may be later in the year and then come back if you want to extend that, but I think I just don't want to put you in a position where you're limited in terms of what your flexibility is and again, with the board, it's up to 30 days. I don't know how aggressive we want to be in terms of the number of days that we allow, but I put that to you just to give us some time, but I know you've already noticed that you're going to be open for, in February at Roasted Granola, so I wouldn't want to prevent that opportunity for you, but it seems maybe a shorter period for purposes of this approval with an invitation to come back after you take a look at things and develop a plan for the rest of the year. Mr. Grinsey, did you? Yeah, so I suppose in direct response to your question, I think at this point, we'd like to proceed with the existing application. You know, this has been a great event that we would like to continue. So as far as that goes, I think we should just proceed. I would also just add that my understanding, which I now understand differs from the understanding we've been talking about here, was based on precedent that came at least from the city of Boston and maybe from other municipalities around the state, because that, as I understand it, has been how they have operated many of the beer gardens throughout the city for the last decade or more, because some of them are established for the course of, say, three or four months through the summer, and these are not permanently licensed premises where they operate. Okay, thanks. Go to Mrs. Mohan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to second Mr. D'Corsi's motion. And I am not an attorney, which two of my colleagues are, including Mr. D'Corsi. I am a court reporter and I worked for ABCC for about 15 years, but I will say that back then the beer garden really wasn't concept and request and approval wasn't really as robust as it is now. I will say, with my ears on the board, adopting and comporting with ABCC regulations is really something that I ascribe to, that I like to adhere to just for continuity's sake. So we're asking, I believe, through the Chair of Town Council for some remarks regarding the 30-day. From my days, and again, it may be different from beer garden, getting to the 30-day max and then coming in with a different name. That was something when I worked there for about 15 years that wouldn't be approved, but I would ask if Town Council could also provide us with, if the ABCC, in light of beer gardens and there's sort of a new venture now, if there's some additional guidance or recommendations and if so, if those could be before us, it's for the full board to look at and perhaps we do want to incorporate those. So my question would be clarification on the 30-day limit. Also, is there any other language that treats beer gardens and or any like business to a beer garden with an extra stipulation since a lot of them very few have their home brewery site, which is where they operate 100% out. So if it could be sort of a two-fold explanation on that. Thank you. And I'll second Mr. Ducorsi's motion. Mr. Ducorsi, do you have a? I'm happy to prepare a report pursuant to Mrs. Mahon's questions raised and provide that to the board. Yeah, thank you. And I just wanted to, Mr. Ducorsi, did you actually have a motion? That's one of my questions. Well, no, it was more of a discussion at this point. And again, I asked Mr. Guernsey what his preference was, given that the potential 30-day limitation and he came back saying they still would like to go forward with that. I'm okay moving that just with the understanding that that 13 days, at least right now where we sit that 13 days could go to or towards a maximum of 30. So if we're approving this and maybe some new information may come to light, I just want you to be aware of it. But it seems like you are and you're going to take a chance on that. But if that's the case, I'm willing to move approval of this application. But I just wanted out there that right now there's 17 days left. And so just to bear that in mind, absent new information and further research because it is an issue with the roasted granola in particular as opposed to the reservoir and even town day is that where this is at a fixed location at a certain number of days you start becoming concerned about other establishments in town that have a permanent license for a long period of time. I know it's just one day a week, but at a certain number, it feels like you should be looking for a permanent license as opposed to a one day license. And that's what was driving my concern as well. Thank you, Mr. Gorsi. I do have a question, I use it by colleagues, but just this may further the discussion about the nature of the motion for Attorney Cunningham. Just as a hypothetical, were the board to approve the applications for each of the 13 days here? Does that, are any of those revocable? If the company were to say, we're actually not gonna use five or six of these at a later time. The language in the regulation talks about granted. So they may not be, I think that would be part of the research. I would like to just note too, I think that the language I saw talked about a calendar year for 30 days as opposed to a 365 day period. So likely that the one day licenses granted last December would not be applicable to the 30 day period in 2024. So worst case scenario for the applicant, they'd have 17 left in 2024. But I think the language does say granted, so as part of the discussion for tonight for the board, I would not count on those being revocable. Mr. Hurte, I believe you're next. Yes, and just to clarify, Mrs. Mahon, you, we're gonna second the motion then. So already seconded. Yeah, I'm fine voting to support the application in the motion. Again, we've put the warning out there. We're gonna go off of, regardless of anyone's opinion, we're gonna go off of town council's opinion. That's why he gets paid the big bucks. So, you know, in the event that it becomes, that there's a limit to 30 days of one day period in one licenses, then, and that's what we're told and that's what we're gonna go with. So you get to roll the dice. I think it would be a bizarre situation where the interpretation of the regulation is that you can just put somebody else's name on the application and get as many as you want. I think along the line of Mr. DeCorsi's point, I'm sure there's plenty of establishments that wouldn't mind just having Friday and Saturday beer licenses at a cheaper rate because that's when most people go to the establishments and purchase alcohol. But again, I'm happy to support it. I know it's a great event. I know it's well-attended and well-received. Hoping to get down there at some point maybe after hockey ends, but I wish you the best of luck and we'll see you soon. Well, I had three questions. Mr. Diggins? I had three questions, but they've all been answered. Oh, yeah. So I'm all set and I'm finally voting on the motion. Very well. And I am as well. Mr. DeCorsi, look if you want to contribute something. Yes, if you don't mind. Of course. I wanted to just add that we would love to be able to apply for a permanent license. That is absolutely something we hope to be in front of you to do at some point in the future. Real estate in this town is the challenge for us and finding that place where we can do it is the key challenge. And in particular, I might note that it would be helpful for us in the future if there were clear regulations in the town around the application of a farmer brewery, which is what we are permitted as in this state, for a farmer's series pouring permit, which is what we are eligible for instead of a typical beer and wine license. So it's a question for another day, but something that would be very helpful to be able to anticipate with this board in particular because one day we will be in front of you asking for that very permit. Yeah, thank you for that. And I think that may further inform Attorney Cunningham's investigation as well for options. We appreciate. Okay, so I think we thank you very much. I think we have for the discussion, we have a motion for approval by Mr. Decorsi and seconded by Mrs. Mahan. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? It is unanimous. Thank you, Mr. Guernsey. Thank you. And that takes us to open forum. This is the part I was talking about when I said if you're in Zoom, get ready to raise your hand. Accepting unusual circumstances, any matter presented for consideration of the board shall neither be acted on nor a decision made the night of the presentation in accordance with the policy under which the open forum was established. There is a three minute time limit to present a concern or request. Now I will, I want to take care to note that we will have a separate public comment period for the item nine, the resident petition for Park Avenue pedestrian safety. So if you are here in Zoom or in the room to talk about that, I would encourage you to wait until item nine for the open, for the discussion at that point. I will also have a public comment for item seven, the no parking signage on Wildwood Avenue. So with those advisements, if you are in Zoom and wish to participate in open forum, please raise your hand in Zoom. If you're in the room, please raise your hand in the room. Ms. Mar. Seeing no hands raised. Okay, very good. This thus includes the shortest open forum ever. All right, we now move to traffic rules and orders and other business. Item seven, the no parking signage on Wildwood Avenue. We have Mr. Feeney, tell me in the chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So in the board's packet, there was a memo as prepared by our senior transportation planner, John Alessi, following some internal discussions we had amongst our traffic safety group in review of a referral from this board made back in October. I do believe some of the proponents are here this evening who brought this matter to the board's attention initially, but following the board's referral to the town manager, we put this as an agenda item, as I said with our local sort of traffic and transportation safety team to review on site conditions, existing regulations and ultimately arrived at a recommendation for this board to further extend the existing no parking regulations that exist on Wildwood for the additional two blocks that are referenced between Churchill and Bartlett. That is indeed a busy stretch for vehicular traffic and as it gets down towards that intersection, curb to curb width narrows down below 24 feet. So it does get quite narrow and presents some issues with vehicular traffic being able to pass safely as well as some visibility concerns at the intersection. So collectively of staff, we advanced the recommendation that is before you this evening and that is such that no parking be allowed on the north side of Wildwood Ave between Churchill Ave and Bartlett Ave as indicated by the installation of appropriate MUTCD series signage and that the commensurate amendment to schedule one of parking in the town of Arlington traffic rules and orders be made to change the existing boundaries for the north side of Wildwood Ave to instead read Bartlett Ave to Loughlin Ave, no parking as opposed to Churchill Ave to Loughlin Ave, no parking. So a simple change to the traffic rules and orders. Thank you, Mr. Feeney. At this time, yeah, I will turn to any residents of the town in the room who'd like to come address the board and raise your hands and then we'll pick the money. So why don't we start with the gentleman in the back to come out to the table and ask everyone to keep their comments to three minutes please and good evening, sir, if you just introduce yourself and tell us where you live. And name is Jeffrey Braumer and I live at 30 Newman Way, Precinct 8. And I want to thank you, Mr. Feeney and the staff. They were very responsive. We collected a petition from everyone involved except one person, which I think it was about 30 people approximately, it's a very dangerous place. And my only question is because it's basically, the town is supporting it, is how long does it take to get it actually established? That would be my question. In other words, once it's approved by the board, how long then does it take to actually get the signs up? Mr. Feeney. Sure, thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, I don't have an exact timeline this evening. I imagine that it's something that we could endeavor to complete within 30 days. That's perfect. Thank you. That's all I really have to say. Thank you all for, and thank you. Thank you for coming out tonight, sir. Thank you. The person in the front row? Just introduce yourself and then. Hi, my name is Noel Dyer. I live in the second floor apartment of 15 Wildwood Ave with my husband and my seven-year-old. We've lived there for 14 years and actually also grew up on the first floor apartment where we have my mother there now. I have decision-making on the estate. We share the viewpoint of our neighbors that in the town staff as well, that's outlined in the bullets in the memorandum to Jim Feeney on 118, that the current regulations limit the safety on our street and could potentially cause accidents in the future, though there haven't been any in memory or by the police and the logs in the recent years. However, we're just concerned that one part, the no parking on the north side of Wildwood Ave would create a significant hardship for those living in the apartment of our house. We're in a two-family house and it's the only house with a single file driveway in the section being considered for the north side parking. So with one or two cars per apartment, we need to pull the cars out in order to get them in and out through the driveway. And we usually park cars on the street during the day. So if this went into effect, we'd either need to find a space on the south side of the street whenever we come and go, which is kind of currently a challenge with both sides available. So it'd be even more of a challenge if we only had one side. Or constantly pull multiple cars in and out when we're coming or going or parked blocks away. So that was one concern. And then also when there are no cars on one side, which is typically later at night, when there are less pedestrians, people speed straight up our street, which happens all the over. But if there were no cars parked on one side of the street, when parking uses at its peak, such as the high school students at afternoon or rush hour, like four to seven, there'd be more speeding when there are more pedestrians around. We have a lot of young children in the neighborhood, dogs and a lot of people going back and forth to Whole Foods walking. So it just seems like it may be a concern, the potential future accidents caused by leaving cars on both sides might be better than the potential future accidents involved with speeding in a child or other pedestrian. But at the same time, we do think that the current situation is not the best either. So we're not quite sure what a right solution would be, but we just wanted to raise that as a concern as well. So I think the intent here was probably to vote on this tonight, but we just wanted to kind of put out there that if the select board decides to move forward with no parking on the north side, we'd ask maybe for your help to help ease the hardship of the change creates for departments in our house and possibly others who only have like a two car driveway to buy the other two families by considering no parking on the south side, six feet from the corner of Wildwood and particularly on Bartlett, because that's a really hard intersection to get around and make the south side parking resident only from the intersection of Newman Way to Bartlett, which should probably be about six spots or so just so that we can have a better ease of getting cars in and out for our two departments. And there's some of this and precedents for this and the regulations for some streets in East Arlington. But if this is not possible too, we know this is just kind of our ideas out there. We would just ask the town be thoughtful about the options and get creative to see how everybody's core most important needs are met before making the decision. So that's what I had to say, thank you. Thank you very much for coming and stick around. Any other members of the public wish to comment either on Zoom or in the room? Okay. Ms. Bartlett, are you seeing anybody in Zoom? At this time seeing no hands raised. All right. I will shortly turn to the board. I wonder if Mr. Greening, do you have any reaction at all to any of the public comment or response? Nothing specifically beyond it. We did not necessarily contemplate any special parking restrictions or exemptions for resident only. If roadway with invisibility, where the underlying concerns that really is a consideration made absent who owns or drives the vehicles. Turn to my colleagues now. This is Mohan. If I could, I'd like to make the motion which I believe is a two-part motion, but is it okay if I make it all together or does it have to be separate? Why don't you, I'd like to move, move approval, no parking allowed on the north side of Wildwood Ab between Churchill Ab and Bartlett Ab and further move an amendment to schedule our parking traffic rules and orders as indicated in the memorandum. Mr. Attorney Cunningham, is that an acceptable form for the motion? It is, Mr. Chair. Well done, Mr. Mohan. Yeah, boy. It's like you've done this before. Maybe a couple of decades. So, Mr. Michigan's? So I will second that, because we can always adjust me. We can do, we can change things if we decide that we need to modify. And so I think being the second person who spoke brought up some good issues, being particularly the one about the increased, the possibility that the speed will, drivers will drive faster along that stretch because of the lack of parking. I also know that the more you try to refine these measures, the harder it is to enforce me. So if we were to say no parking, only during certain hours speed, then it's just harder to enforce that. I mean, so you don't wanna create the illusion that that will be what happens because we put that restriction in place. But I think as we deal with speed and how fast people drive in town, overall, I think this is something to take into consideration. And so I hear you, in respect to the visibility, I haven't really thought that through. And so I need to give that some more thought, but I guess what I'm really saying is that this doesn't have to be the end of the story when it comes to me, your location. So I'm gonna support it, but let's think about it some more. I'm happy to support, well, happy. I will support. That's always a force of habit to say I'm happy to support something. But I mean, whenever, traffic rules in order is tough. It's one of the tougher things that we do, even though it doesn't sound like it would be. I think anytime that you force any kind of change into the roadway, there's people that helps and people that doesn't. I think there presents a pretty clear safety issue I drive through here almost daily. And I think it probably creates an issue that there's also an issue other places in town. And I think I am persuaded by the memo of town staff that this is the appropriate mechanism to address the issues that are being presented to us. If other issues arise out of that, then as Mr. Stiggan says, we can come back and take another look at that. The good thing about traffic rules in order is we can change them anytime we want. So, you know, I think this is a good plan to address what's being presented. And I mean, I'm not, we've had I think discussions in many different forms about resident only parking. And I'm not aware of any place that we've actually done resident only parking because of the, it's just really not enforceable. We don't have a specific sticker for Wildwood Avenue that our officers could see. And as the town manager said, a car block in the way is a car block in the way, regardless of who owns it. So I'll vote for the motion. And again, you know, if a solution creates more problems than it solved, then we can take another look at that and we can address it at that time. Mr. Course. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, I'm also gonna support the motion. I will say to the second speaker, we would like to hear back from you afterwards and see how this is affecting you to see if there is something that can be done as well. So we're open to that. Thank you. Yeah, I have nothing further to add. I think that all the comments of my colleagues are really thoughtful and I certainly agree with them in every respect. So any further discussion on this? Yes, we have a motion to approve by Mrs. Mahan seconded by Mr. Dickens. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? It is unanimous. Thank you very much. Item eight, we have an update on the Parameter School Building by Mr. Phoenix Town Manager. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I appreciate you providing me the opportunity to give this update publicly as this is a fairly significant programming change, but also an excellent opportunity for the town and specifically the recreation department to move into the now vacant space that had been occupied by the Minotomy Preschool who has since moved out of the facility and finds its permanent home on the Arlington High School campus with the completion of the phase two buildings that look wonderful in this space had seen some partial renovation and largely was made accessible via an elevator, some wheelchair lifts and other ramp work on site to make it a more readily used public facility so that high school building project has sort of left us with a Parmeter School Building that certainly still has capital needs, but that is one that could fill a more pressing need for our recreation department to expand its program offerings to a larger number of Arlington's children. Specifically, I'm referring to the KidCare program, which is a State Department of Early Education and Care licensed preschool program, but we also offer an afterschool program as well. Both of these programs have long had a wait list and with respect to the preschool program, this would allow us to double our enrollment and then as it relates to the afterschool program, we could increase enrollment by about 44% and that afterschool program now currently primarily occupies and operates from the Gibbs School which is obviously an active sixth grade building so that does present oftentimes some scheduling constraints for use of different spaces for the recreation department so this would put the building sort of to what I hope would be its highest and best use and is sort of compatible with the existing wing being occupied and operated by the Arlington Children's Center. So we've learned that operating programs of a similar nature at the same site often provides for harmony as opposed to trying to have two very disparate programs coexist over time. So with that, we would obviously free up some square footage where the recreation department's administrative offices currently are at the backside of the Ed Burns skating arena so we would maintain a office presence for the rink manager or the rink supervisor at that location but then we would look at potentially relocating sort of skate, the skate rental operation outside of its co-location with the concession stand. Into its corner, you mean? In its corner, which is not ideal, into some of that square footage that's freed up but also sort of create a multi-purpose meeting and sort of venue space within the rink which is starting to see birthday party rentals and other needs appartinent to the facility itself so that would provide us a multi-purpose space to serve other needs within that building. So without going into exact program details, the one thing I didn't mention that this would also allow the recreation department to have space for is sort of non-school age programming during the school days, right? You have your preschool program and your afterschool program but there's also the opportunity to introduce some other programs for non-school age children during the school day at this site so something that we're confident the recreation department would program to the maximum extent possible in service of Arlington's youth. Good, thank you. And just to make sure that we're on the same page here, this is just for our awareness. There's no, this is within your purview to do so you're just informing us and don't need to vote from us tonight or then perhaps to receive. That is correct. Mr. Herd. Move receipt. I was gonna suggest dedicated locker rooms for the Arlington High boys and girls hockey teams but as you talk about the meeting space I feel like my son did have one of his birthdays at the rink and they set you up and they do an amazing job. Everyone's great at the rink but currently they set up your birthday party in the locker rooms which depending on what team was in the locker room before your particular event might not be the best place to have the house cake and pizza so I think a meeting space is probably a more efficient use of the time and but I look forward to that and it's good that we're able to start utilizing all the space that we have available so. Keen insights from the select board. Further discussion? Mrs. Mott. I will second move receipt by Mr. Herd and I wanna thank the town manager, Mr. Feeney as well as our recreation director, Joe Conley who I know will do with his staff a superb job of relocating to the Parment of School as well as resizing and revisioning Ed Burns rink arena and I'm also encouraged by we're also going to be able to perhaps bring back some programs which I saw in there which I remember going with my kids the Tots for two down at the Gibbs and I'm a grandmother now so I'm way far away from that but I remember when I was a brand new bomb and had a brand new baby and a lot of it was to how can I get a lot of energy take this kid somewhere that's safe. Maybe they'll take an extra nap or go to bed on time tonight but also the socialization that came along with it so I'm really encouraged. I'm not saying the Tots in two program as it was in the past should be completely replicated but I'm encouraged to see something similar along those lines that school age pre-school and pre-school so thank you. So please pass our thanks on to also to Mr. Conley and his staff. Absolutely. All right we have a motion to receive the memo by Mr. Herd and seconded by Mrs. Mahon. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? It is unanimous. Thank you very much Mr. Feeney. Okay item nine the resident petition for the Park Avenue Pedestrian Safety Improvements and with the proponents I believe here in the room feel free to come up to the table and Ms. Mar will get the presentation ready. And so what we'll do this evening is I didn't know if you needed to like you know some assistance lifting that petition with all the signatures on it. I thought maybe we'd have a Ronald Reagan moment of you know putting the weight of the papers down on the table. So I'll have you introduce yourselves shortly but just kind of the plan for my colleagues edification is we'll have presentation from our proponents and then the opportunity for anybody who is here in the room or on Zoom who wants to comment as a member of the public we'll do that. I'll ask Mr. Feeney to provide some updates on his end just for the board's information before we then launch into board discussion and questions. That's not okay to everybody. Okay so we have the presentation ready. Please do introduce yourselves. Thank you for being here. Good evening members of the select board. I'm Reverend Leah Lyman Waldron Arlington resident and pastor of Park Avenue Congressional Church. And Joe Salomon 128th Avenue Street. And my address is 18 Hillside Avenue. We are here tonight to present over 1,000 signatures of Arlington residents, business owners, employees, daycare parents, church parishioners over a quarter of all town meeting members and all seven school committee members to take action prior to the end of the 2024 calendar year to resolve ongoing safety issues along the Park Avenue corridor between Route 2 and Downing Square. I've lived in Arlington for six and a half years just a block away from Park Ave. And I've seen countless accidents and near accidents up and down that corridor including the intersection of Doom as my family likes to call it which is Park Ave, Walliston and Paul Revere where nobody knows where to go, right? And so many times I've heard from neighbors and fellow daycare parents and church members about near misses where they've almost been hit crossing up and down Park Avenue. And whenever I've talked to neighbors who are trying to get to work with the town to improve safety for pedestrians and drivers along Park Avenue, they just said that they are not able to get traction and they really wanna change this but we're having trouble figuring out what to do. So this is an ongoing problem, even a generational problem according to some folks who have lived here for decades, but it's one that we believe is fixable. This particular petition came about when on November 19th Linda Kohn, Park Avenue Congregational Church member and retired long time educator in the Arlington Public Schools, aged 81 was hit by a car in the crosswalk of Park Avenue just in front of Park Avenue Congregational Church as she was leaving a church event and she's a pillar of our church community. She's the person who chaired our committee to the search committee to bring me here so that I get to know and love this place that now I call home and her accident was frankly traumatizing for me and several other church folks who were there when it happened and responded to it because I watched somebody that I love almost die that day. Two months later after surgery and a lengthy hospital stay and ongoing inpatient rehab, Linda continues to recover. This has in many ways derailed her life and her family's lives not to mention all the ways the church has been affected. When we started this petition, I kept saying I didn't wanna see this happen to anyone else. Unfortunately another pedestrian was hit on New Year's Day in that same crosswalk and there have been other vehicular accidents as well since then. So I'd love for 2024 to be the year when we take action to make Park Avenue safer for everyone and to that end, I'll ask Joe to talk more about some of the possibilities involved. Thank you and something I forgot to point out was just give the word to Ms. Marmin you'd like to advance to the next slide and you can see what you've got in the screen. Yeah, so as Leah said, this has sort of been an ongoing issue. My parents bought a house one lot off Park Ave in 1980 and as part of the welcome to the neighborhood they were told don't let your kids ever cross Park Ave, right? I've talked to people who, you know, back decades before that got the same type of message. So this has been something that's been going on for a while. The photos we have here are literally just the past two years, right? So it is an issue and it's not just about the physical rush. When we opened up the petition we gave people the opportunity to give open feedback and what we heard is that even if people hadn't been involved in a crash being in this area and experiencing this it impacted them regardless and people indicated that they don't feel safe in their community essentially and that's also a solvable problem. So what we did was we did an extensive amount of outreach and what we wanted to do is to share not only the physical petition itself but a breakdown of who shares this concern. It's a lot of people, right? And it's not specific group to people. It's not the pedestrians. It's not the bikers. It's not the drivers. It's everybody, right? When people said this was an issue it's I've been in a car crash. I got hit when I was biking. I'm, you know, my daughter came home crying because she almost got hit by a car on the way home. It's a lot of businesses. You know, we specifically wanted to reach out because we know, you know, from the Mass Ave in Appleton there was contention around the use of the space in the road. In this case, we wanted to reach out and let them know. You know, this is a concern the neighborhood has. Do you share it? If so, please speak up with us. And they joined us here. As we have here, parents and grandparents of school children who use Park Avenue to get around to get to school. As Leah mentioned, the parishioners and town leaders, the school committee and town meeting members from across the entire town who share these concerns in their own communities. So, you know, the next is what are they asking for? And the first is a little bit of a feeling, right? It's a significant improvement in the area. And that's something you measure by, again, when somebody goes out to be in their community do they feel safe? And a couple of ways to achieve that are by having a safe speed limit. I don't know if it's made its way around, but we set the speed limit for Park Avenue when, I don't know if the name's really about, Carl Yashremsky was playing for the Red Sox. Yes. Bobby Orr was on the Bruins, right? That's when we decided what a safe speed was on Park Avenue. So it may be an okay time to revisit it. It's been a little while. And the other thing is to utilize these quick build strategies that we've been using in other areas in town. This is a way for us to not get sort of stuck in these long design projects that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for design and then millions of dollars to actually do. It's a way to go out there, have an idea and test it for pretty small money and to get a lot of feedback and to have an impact in the near term. So, you know, like I said, a lot of people share this concern. So why pick Park Avenue? So if we can go on, the town actually recently did the, like a refresh of the complete streets prioritization plan. And this is where with the consultant, they go out, they get feedback from everybody in town and they build an inventory of projects. And that line, all those circles on it, that's Park Avenue. So we've already gone and talked to people. We've already gotten the feedback. We've already asked where are the issues and they've told us it's here. The issue is that part of that report, we also get a cost and we get a duration. How long is it gonna take to do that full build and how much money is it gonna cost? And this is where we get stuck, right? So the floor of doing the long-term physical infrastructure is about $2 million and that's money that we don't have. So the issue then becomes, well, what could we do? And in those project lists, it tells you, well, we wanna do things like a curb extension. And this diagram in the top left is actually from a 2006 MassDOT project guide. And it walks you through how to do this, right? It's, you know, you just make the intersection a little bit tighter. You make it a shorter crossing distance. You tighten up the curb radius so it's harder to take a turn at speed. And this is actually something that we did, right? So the picture on the bottom left there is Mass Ave and Appleton. This is, you know, a very big project goes up and down Mass Ave. This one part of it was hugely meaningful because it addressed the one problem of people would just zoom up Appleton Street. And this type of solution on Park Ave, if you go out and measure how far it is side to side on Park Ave, the diagram says a typical two-way flow is 22 feet. Park Ave is 50, 60 feet in places, right? We almost have triple the space that we need. So a solution like this that we could build quickly would be hundreds of percents better than what we have today. So with that, I just wanna say that this is an area that clearly needs to be addressed, whether you go back decades and ask people, whether you ask the people that signed the petition today, but also Park Ave is a really great canvas for us to try this quick build approach at scale and learn from it. So what we would ask is that in the coming years, I mentioned to try some of these things, see how they work, see if they can solve the problems that we have and learn from it and make this something that is the town's just capability is all of this data is out there. We know where all these places are. Let's build our strength by using Park Ave as a place to test to just be able to go out as a town and to just do this from here on out. So with that, I'd like to thank Leah. I'd like to thank the folks that have joined us here, the folks that have supported getting the petition out there and the board and Mr. Feeney for their support and time listening to us this evening and with that, thank you. Thank you very, very much. I will now provide opportunity for members of the public here in the room or on Zoom to come address the board. So I think to facilitate that, you can go ahead and return to your seats and then we'll call you back. We have questions and we may well do so. So let's start with people in the room if anyone would like to speak to this issue. Please raise your hand and come on up. Thank you very much and ask everyone to keep your remarks to about three minutes if possible. Just introduce yourself. My name's Margie Bell. I live on Walliston Avenue. I've lived there for 19 years directly across from the church. My daughter's one of probably several referenced as having recently been closely hit. You can spend 19 years telling people to be safe, encouraging them to walk slowly, more needs to be done. It's shocking to me that it's taken this long to have such an acceleration of events in the last few months, but it's a ridiculous space. We have children coming out of the daycare there. We have the parishioners. We have children coming home from school. It's long overdue. Thank you very much. Carol, good evening. Good evening. Actually, I wasn't planning to speak, but I'm Carol Ludicke, I live at 125 Park Ave, precinct 16. I've lived there since 1987. So I've, we're three houses down from the Appleton intersection. So I've got a lot of experience listening to crashes and screeching tires and every time I hear a crash, I think to myself, how many have I missed? You know, how many times does this happen day after day after day? So that's the intersection that I know the best and I'm very familiar with all the problems there. Now we have right down the block for me is the other intersection that we were just talking about. I just, I was actually involved with a group of neighbors. We were working with the TAC for a while. I think it kind of fell apart because of COVID and some trying to come up with some money to figure out how to study the problem further. I'm, as we all are very upset at what happened to Linda Cohen and the other person who was hit recently, but I have to say that the silver lining is that it brought this issue back to the surface again, got a lot of people interested and brought us here today. So I'm just happy that we're having this conversation and I really hope we can make something happen and take advantage of some of the ideas that Joe presented. So thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Auster, good evening. Hello. I'm Adam Auster and I'm living now at 112th Park, which is just four houses up from the Walliston-Paul Revere intersection. And as such, I see every day the signs that got put up so quick by the crosswalks and I've seen a police presence that I don't think is usually there from time to time. And I really appreciate how quickly the town responded with education and enforcement, which are the two things that can be done quickly unlike redesign and engineering. I guess what I really wanted to say is to ask you is to consider to fund some of these not terribly expensive, not terribly slow quick build measures is to look at the capital budget as a possible source. I'm a town meeting member. We approved three quarters of a million dollars to do one intersection on Lake Street a few years ago. That was a project that was really championed by this board. And with a fraction of that money, I think you could do a lot of stuff. And I would say not, I mean, Park Ave is sort of critical, but there are other places in town that could benefit from a similar treatment as well. So I just wanted to say that. I think it should be on the table. People are driving worse now than they were 10 years ago. Anyway, I'd like to thank the board for your time. Thank you, Mr. Oster. If anyone is in Zoom and wishes to comment, and it says you please do raise your hand. I see we have David Morissette bringing in David. Also Grant Cook bringing them both in and have them ready to comment. And we'll go back to the room as well. So just rotate to Zoom for a bit. Let's start with David Morissette. If you're able to hear me, you can unmute and turn on your camera, if you like. Hi, it's a good evening. My name is David Morissette. I live at 225 Waverly Street. I've lived here, I've lived in Allington for about over 30 years at this point. And so I've been up and down Park Gap a number of times. In addition, I was a witness to Belinda Cone getting hit that day, and it shook me, and it still has shook me. Something needs to be done with that intersection. And I urge this select board to move forward with doing something. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Excuse me. Let's now turn to Grant Cook. Good evening, Grant. Mr. Cook, a chance to work with Zoom here for a minute. Ms. Marlowe, go ahead and bring in Henry Cone to have him ready. And then maybe Mr. Cook can work on his AV issues. Okay, let's start with Henry Cone. If you can hear me, go ahead and hear. Good evening, sir. Hi, good evening. I'm a Cambridge resident, but my mother, Linda Cone, lives in Arlington, and I grew up there. I'll keep this brief because there's not a lot to add to the wonderful presentation that Leah and Joseph gave. But I just want to say that there's nothing that can be done to undo this for my mother, but I really don't want anybody else to have to go through what she's gone through over the last nine weeks. And I think this is something that's been an issue for decades, and it's really important to address it now. And I hope that her accident offers a chance to do this because if nothing is done, this will keep happening. And thank you for considering this. Thank you, Mr. Cone. I know that I speak for the board that in expressing our continued wishes for her recovery and our sorrow that this happened. I think that you're going to find in discussion that there's a great deal of interest in making some real tangible progress. Thanks so much for your help. Thank you. Let's try again with Grant Cook. Can you hear me now? Yes, sir. Good evening. Good evening. I'm Grant Cook. I live on the Walliston just a few houses up from the Park Avenue Congregational Church. Just the layout of that whole area is just conducive to cars going fast. I mean, that the road you're able to take to turn onto Walliston at high speed because it's a hill, people tend to gun it. So crossing, as pointed out, so wide between curb to curb, it's a huge distance. And I was happy to see the idea of rapid prototyping, of putting up things to try with bollards that can be put into place. I think there are options to try things out to see how they help. And I drive through other towns and I see more permanent traffic calming measures everywhere. I see them in Belmont, I see them in Cambridge. And I think we should at least try some stuff here. And my son, he's forbidden to cross at my closest intersection. He has to walk down to Mass Ave or he ends up walking up to Florence to cross the road because that was the only safe point. So I hope we can do something here. Thank you. Thank you very much. Did anybody else in the room like to comment? Or in Zoom, of course, please raise your hand in Zoom if you'd like to do so. Okay, I think that is all the people. I want to note for the public that... Oh, yeah. Oh, there we go, sure. Of course, yeah, bring in the... Thank you. Thank you, thank you, Mr. Higgins. Takes a village. Or at least more select. Oh, good evening. Please introduce yourself. I'm Vincent Baudouin. I'm at 56 Silk Street on the other side of town. As Mr. Solomon pointed out, we set the speed limit on Park Avenue decades ago, I think in the 1970s. And since then, there is some things that may have changed. For example, we have new opportunities for driver distraction, mobile devices and so forth. And that makes collisions more likely. Vehicles have gotten larger, taller, heavier, and that makes it so that when collisions do happen, they need to be more severe. But I also just want to emphasize what Mr. Solomon said, that the solutions are within our reach. Essentially, we need to make the crossing distance shorter so that an elderly person or a pregnant person or a child can make it across in a reasonable amount of time. And then we need to keep vehicle speeds slower so that drivers have enough time to react and so that if there is a collision, which may happen, that it's much less likely to be fatal, much less likely to cause an injury. And as someone who lives on the other side of town, I also just really want to hope that the solutions that we deploy here might prove successful and that we could then begin to use them in other parts of town. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Anyone else wish to comment, raise your hand in Zoom or here in the room? Okay. I will note for the public that the proponents of this agenda item distributed to the board, a petition with 1076 signatures. And then I'll turn to Mr. Feeney for some comments before the board begins this discussion. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Let me just say that it's a remarkable amount of effort that went into that petition to gather so many signatures and I appreciate how thoughtfully it was presented, but also just the detailed presentation that was offered. I know we talked about a few different things during the course of those remarks. I would just offer that with respect to speeds, actually, Mr. Bodo and I had had a prior exchange regarding the speed limits in town and those which may differ from the town-wide 25-mile-per-hour speed limit that was adopted following the Municipal Modernization Act that granted the authority to do so. So Arlington does have a number of special speed regulations carving out different speed limits on different segments of different roads in town. You know, with respect to Broadway, that had been referred to the town manager previously and we looked into exactly what that process looks like for changing those and, you know, we've met internally now to discuss the impacts of doing that and it is my intention to refer for further discussion where it would be a sort of larger policy decision to have the Transportation Advisory Commission weigh in on sort of the recommendation to this body for considering sending correspondence to Mass DOT to rescind any and all existing special speed regulations in the community, thereby inferring that the 25-mile-per-hour speed limit would be in place. So just wanted to mention that with respect to speeds, it's something that, you know, if we're going to consider for, you know, one particular roadway, it might be something we want to consider holistically and previously tack was the body given that it was sort of a town-wide policy decision to weigh in on the initial change to moving to 25 miles an hour. And then, obviously, you know, the, you know, we've heard about two pedestrian strikes at this one particular intersection. I will note the town also did have two other pedestrian strikes since November that is a pretty significant uptick and I think it does speak to, you know, distractions with driving and a number of other things that have occurred. So, you know, having those four accidents take place really, you know, sort of struck a lot of staff, especially within the police department and they've been working with our communications folks to sort of launch a public safety campaign which, you know, I just noticed is now on the town's website banner but will be launched via social media and then we'll be trying to get our digital message boards out there as well, advising all road users to be alert, to be patient, to be visible and be safe. So, obviously, the police chief wanted to look at something that we could use to really message the fact that we have had four pedestrian accidents in town and a really short period of time and try to remind, you know, pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and really all road users with different tips that they can use to stay safe. And then, obviously, the intersection in question, I know I think Mr. Oster alluded to there having been some signs already installed, we were, you know, following this intersection, we did note that there were no pedestrian crossing signs at this particular intersection as there were at other intersections along the Park Ave corridor. So, we worked too fast track getting a full signage array, meaning, you know, advanced crosswalk warning signs as well as double-sided crosswalk signage at the crossings at this location. And, you know, with that, we do have, you know, we're hopeful that our engineering team internally will be able to look at other potential quick build solutions that we may be able to implement, perhaps not just here, but along the Park Ave corridor, as was alluded to during the presentation, at least six, if not seven, if you count Park Ave extension of the 17 projects on the town's recently completed, complete streets prioritization planned as submitted to MassDOT due reference, Park Ave, which is a pretty significant number of projects and is sort of a stated priority of the town. So, with respect to longer-term improvements, and I will note that, you know, the board members have my proposed FY25 budget in the gray book on their desk, receiving it, and you've also received it electronically. One thing that I chose to prioritize in my proposal, and as was supported by the Capital Planning Committee, sort of just prior to launching this budget, we did create some capacity within fiscal year 25 as part of something that I was hoping to prioritize in terms of increasing capital funding on three particular lines within our existing capital plan within FY25 that might provide a great deal of financial support to some of the efforts described, and those include our roadway consulting services line so that we would have funding to hire the appropriate professional firms to do any data collection, further study, analysis, and preliminary design work for intersections on the corridor. We also increased funding for traffic signal upgrades, so that particular line we did increase funding so that we would be better positioned to respond to dangerous crossings in intersections, perhaps with rectangular rapid flash beacons or other solar or electric displays that have found to increase crosswalk compliance at 90 plus percent, and have sort of been the crux of any new builds that we've done, including as was recently installed on Chestnut Street as part of that project, and then finally, we infused some additional funding into the roadway reconstruction line, not just in the immediate capital budget for FY25, but are also in my direction trying to increase funding on that line for all years of the capital plan to help respond to, you know, what I believe is sort of a growing need and desire in the community to, you know, take more permanent approaches and tackle more permanent fixes to some of our traffic safety issues. And then, you know, I do want to give credit as well to the Arlington Police Department as Mr. Oster noted that we have had, you know, since unfortunately the second incident occurred, we have had a cruiser maintaining, a police cruiser from the Arlington Police Department maintaining a presence at that crossing during peak periods, really every single day since that occurred, and that will happen into the foreseeable future. I know that we've already received some, you know, positive feedback from residents in the community, just thinking that that mere presence in a way oftentimes serves as a deterrent and leads to more compliant behavior, but has also put us in a better position to seek increased enforcement, but also do additional education in the area. So, you know, give credit to the Arlington Police Department for working with us to dedicate additional time and resources nearly every single day during peak periods, both before and after shift changes to help respond to this community concern. That's sort of, you know, all the updates that I have to share beyond perhaps, you know, taking some time now that we've received this petition and can review it more closely with town staff to see what other enhancements can be made. Thank you. So, I'll now turn to the board for comments, discussion. Mr. Diggins. Well, I mean, I think what the town manager is planning to do, I mean, is good, you know? I mean, and we look at, I mean, I'm on tax and transportation advisory committee, you know, and we look at, you know, a lot of different issues. We've been looking at Park Street for a while as people have expressed frustration, I mean, about me, the lack of any significant progress there. I totally get that. I totally understand, I mean, it's always a function of the resources that you have, I mean, and the resources, of course, or money media, because that also determines me what kind of, you know, people power we can apply, I mean, to find a solution. But I, as it came out of Connect Arlington, the Connect Arlington plan of this, Mr. I'm sorry, Solomon, just thinking Joe, you know, said me, quick bill, I mean, is something that we really want to try to do more of, I mean, and it once again requires resources, but it seems like you're putting some money aside, I mean, to that, I mean, and I think we can bring tax in more, because it's great that we have a thousand signatures, I mean, on this, but I would just say to anyone who has an issue in town, even if it's just one person, I mean, and you send one letter, make one phone call on any given area, I mean, you're gonna get, I mean, the same kind of consideration, and so, we do want to look to how white, meet up for potential problems, meet up, and solve for all of them as much as possible, I mean, the priority, I mean, in my, the way I kind of solve problems is that, it's a function of the probability that you'll have an accident, and the probability that someone will be seriously hurt, you know, and so that kind of helps you rank things, and then you have the resources, you apply them, meet up as they're available, meet up, and hopefully meet up, we can get more resources, I mean, to make this apparent to people that it is not only something that's important to everyone, me, but that we really wanna work on it, and hopefully to town, we can come up with the resources to make progress faster, but it's not for lack of caring, I'll tell you that much, and it's not for lack of awareness. That said, if you are aware of something, please do bring it to our attention, because even though I think we're aware of it, we may not be, so it doesn't hurt to let us know, so that's all for me for now. Mr. Erd? Thank you for the presentation, the work that was put in on this. I live in the Heights, my house side of, and my Dallin students walked to the Heights, not so much in the 19 degree weather, but when it's a little nicer, they walked to Galaxy to get their prime, and so they walked through these crosswalks all the time, and it certainly is something that I wasn't, before I was on the board when I was on TAC, I think we were looking at these intersections at that time, and it's a hard solution because at the end of the day, Park Ave was built way wider than it really should have been, and but I think we, in the response to these instances, it will help the town to generate, get the juices flowing. I know as soon as it happened, we'd had discussions about it, and I know the petition came through and it passed through me, but I didn't sign on to petition myself to do something, but I know a lot of my neighbors and friends in the area did so, but we are acutely aware of the problems of this intersection, and it is something that, it's good to see the steps are already being done to address the problem, and it's certainly for residents to hold us accountable to make sure that we continue towards the ultimate solutions that, I mean, it's hard to say that you can make any roadway safe, fully safe, but to, like Mr. Dickens said, use the resources that we have to commit as much as we can to making safety improvements here to prevent this from happening again, and hopefully we can, and I look forward to working with town staff and residents to implement those changes. Mrs. Mohan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for placing this on the agenda and sort of being the quarterback overseeing this, and I know we've all had separate conversations with the town manager, and I do want to thank every single, was it 1071? 1076? 1076? People, and thank them individually and Carol Ludicke and others that have, the pastor from the church, I'm blanking on everybody's name, because I think this is a great demonstration of town government, but also of residents. Sometimes they kind of do feel like the one, as Mr. Diggins says, but then when you go out, when just one person or one group goes out and speaks, your voice does get magnified, and this is a very serious issue, as recently as today I know. I was in with a unscheduled meeting with the town manager who was willing to accommodate me, and he said the concerns that I was expressing as recently as this morning, my four colleagues had also first to look at this particular intersection to see if there's anything we can do in the short term, in terms of the temporary ballads the board has spoken to and the town manager indicated he's also speaking with the engineering department and DPW in terms of maybe raised crosswalks or raised something at intersections or maybe there's some other engineering, it's not raised crosswalks anymore, it's something else. Definitely looking into that, as well as the flashing sign for pedestrians. My number one thing is honestly pedestrians, and I care about people in cars, I'm in cars too, but one of the things I'm hoping that really comes out of this is that especially for myself personally, that we really get a defined process. We have a great town manager here now that's been very responsive and has come up with creative ways to deal with other issues, and I think it's, I want to use Park Ave and God bless Linda Cohn and I think of her all the time, Ms. Cohn and wish her good health and I'm really sad she had to go through this, but something that we can sort of set as a model, see what the short term things are. I know I'm always like, oh no, please not another study in engineering consulting group, but I did say to the town manager where that's a requirement to get something done, I don't want it to be an impediment and none of us do to getting something done. So we're definitely committed to short term solutions that are temporary fix, maybe they become a permanent solution a better way and maybe it leads to something else, but also that we continue to look, I'm just, I'm going to say this every time I get an opportunity, we had an Arlington resident, Bill Dotson who for 20 years, long time Arlington resident, he even wrote back when the advocate was a community newspaper, they asked him to write an editorial about the dangerous crossing where he lived in East Allington on Mass Ave, one of the longest, everyone down there says it is the longest from the CVS in East Allington to other side of Mass Ave. I've had people tell me, I don't even walk anymore, I'm embarrassed to say I drive my car from Egerton, Chandler, Fairmont and for a good 20 plus year, Bill Dotson, member East Allington, of the labor committee, town meeting member said, I'm afraid when I get older, I'm going to be crossing in that longest crosswalk ever in front of the CVS and get killed. 2015, he was crossing in the longest crosswalk ever and he did get killed. He got struck by a woman, 61 year old woman, I believe, from Woobin and she was cited and all that. And you know, that's something that every time I get an opportunity, this is the first time my colleagues will tell you that I brought that up, but I do want to thank all the residents and if there's anyone who said, well, I didn't really do anything, I just signed it. No, honest to goodness, as with my colleagues, I went through and read every single name, a lot I knew and a lot I didn't. So I appreciate them sending those sentiments and I'm definitely continue my commitment to and I was very pleased when I did talk to Mr. Feeney, the town manager, he brought up some other new engineering solutions that have sort of gone into designs and redesigns that he's going to look at and the big thing is if it's applicable, but the other big thing is the money, but I do think as has been pointed out from the proponents in my meeting with the manager that there are currently some short-term fixes that are there, whether it's police, police president, new signage, I'd like to see if we can do something which the manager discussed with me and I'm not committing him to anything, that's for him to say what the plan is, but you know, citing what we had planned to do and have done at Mass Ave in Appleton, what we've done down by Chestnut Street, I still want to get that CVS for bill dots and somehow get that fixed, but definitely keep us on our toes, continue with the feedback. If you see something that just really could be making it worse or it's, hey, this is pretty good for a short term or whatever, definitely want that feedback also, because it's the troops on the streets, the boots on the ground that know what's going on out there, but I hope you get the sentiment of this board individually and collectively as well as the town manager and others that we are committed to this and I will respect the process where we have to have a study and do whatever, whatever the manager said it tonight and he said it to me this morning, whatever groundwork you all have already done with fact gathering in over 1076, expressing a desire to do this as well as if we can somehow use that to expedite the process along, it certainly will happen. So I apologize for being so verbose, but I wanted to get Bill Dotson in there because I can just hear him in my, because he would come to meetings and he sounded your neighbor committee and he would say, God bless him and say, you know, I'm afraid, I'm not just saying this, somebody's gonna get killed and it could quite possibly be me and he said it for like 20, 25 years and I think he was 81 years old and he got killed in 2015, so. Anyways, thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. DeCorsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to thank the petitioners for coming here this evening and for the presentation, Mr. Solvon and Reverend Lyman Waldron and truly, truly sorry for what happened to Ms. Cohn with the accident and the others that have been hit and this, I really want to make this a priority based on what we've heard and based on experience. We talked about this being generational. I grew up at the top of Wallston on West Street between Wallston and Appleton and for two years going to the Autism, I crossed Park Ave at Appleton and that was in the 70s and it was tricky then and it's still very tricky and in the intersection, the two crosswalks down at Wallston, there's just so much going on there and I think distracted driving is a real issue today beyond what it was previously but I think quick build measures are absolutely essential. I think we're all here committed to doing that and looking long term and it takes both this board, I believe Mr. Solvon is on the Capital Planning Committee, it's Capital Planning Committee prioritizing things, it's working through the town manager, I've had good discussions with the police chief and I believe the police chief has been in fairly constant contact with Reverend Lyman Waldron about doing different things, the presence, the signage and it's absolutely essential and it's really the whole length of Park Ave too. I was on a walk last summer coming down Park Ave to take a ride in Oakland and just after I turned, there was a car accident behind me. That's a very dangerous intersection and over the years the town has done a great job on Lake Street with the crossing at the bike path. Years ago Pleasant Street was wider, that was narrowed, it's time for Park Ave and unfortunately beyond time but resources make that very difficult and that's a shame that something that had happened here brings us here tonight but I think this should be a priority, I think it will be a priority on roadways and I think we need to work together through this but I just, when I think about how many years ago it was that I was crossing the streets and we still have these concerns, it really, it's very upsetting and so I think we've got the message here, we're committed, let's work together, let's stay in contact, let's get the things done quickly that we can get done and look towards improving things in the future. Thank you. I am really grateful to the residents who worked so hard to make sure that we got the message and I live up in that neighborhood as well and I've had the opportunity to meet with a couple of the proponents and something that was made very clear to me as Mr. DeCorsi just said is that although the intersection of great concern by the church is particularly dangerous, there are known issues and a known history of crashes with pedestrians and cars and bicycles at each of the major intersections all Long Park Avenue. And I think it's a really good time to look at that whole corridor as a project particularly since we are aware that the road was built at a time where roads were built too wide and people will drive accordingly but it was also built as was pointed out before people had the distractions of cell phones and of GPS and of everything else. And I think with respect to the speed although members of the community have certainly helped to educate me and helped me continue to educate myself that speed limits alone are not sufficient in the enforcement that were not sufficient to improve safety that narrowing the path of travel and sometimes roadway treatments to make a safety for pedestrians across and those things road design have the most impact. However, speed limits send a message, they send an expectation and I'm grateful to the town manager for his intention to send the whole package of the special speed regulations to TACC. I think that's appropriate. I would personally ask for a rapid turnaround on that as a priority and I think I know that I do have confidence in you and your staff to help the TACC leadership prioritize because they have a lot of other things we have also said are a priority. But I think with respect to Park Avenue there's a third of a mile stretch that's 35 miles an hour and I think that as a driver it's very difficult to remember what speed you're supposed to be going whether with whatever direction you're going and I include myself in that. And I don't know that 35 miles an hour for a third of a mile saves anybody any measurable bit of time on the trip and it's certainly not worth the trade-off of safety there. If that's something that we can do quickly I would personally be very interested in looking at that but certainly happy to take the wider look as well if we can get a timely analysis of that by our expert volunteers on the TACC because we have similar requests in other parts of town where ever since we did adopt the 25-town wide back in 2017 I think that we have these remaining exceptions that are confusing to a lot of people. So one question I had for the town manager is what is the capital budget that you've contemplated here maybe go into some detail about how you might spend that for quick build materials and also frankly replacement ballers because they do tend to get beat up. Thank you Mr. Chair. So I think first and foremost we need to get a little bit more data collection and site analysis done through our engineering teams to determine exactly what quick build strategies are most applicable and exactly where we may be able to employ them. We have sort of a intersection that is the subject of this focus but there are a number of other intersections along the path. So I'm cautious about committing to anything in particular knowing that there is a very long corridor and that there is a number of different potential solutions to be considered whether it be signage, paint, ballards, flashing lights. You name it there are a number of other strategies. So in the absence of very specific information and detailed plans and road layouts with surveys that give us exact widths and turning radii what I try to do in terms of trying to prioritize measures of this nature is to try to put additional funding in each of the lines that I thought might be applicable in the capital budget to provide us the necessary flexibility when the time comes to be able to make both short and potentially even mid or longer term investments to I think that I don't want to, again we don't have a design but if there are instances where we know it is just a bump out or curb extension that should be constructed there given our experience with some of the ballards in other locations it may actually, if we can fast track an actual build from an operational perspective that will serve us well because the ballards tend to get moved, knocked over, broken and they require a significant amount of maintenance so I think we've also learned in some instances if there's a very clear cut measure that all engineering guidance points to that I personally would look towards instead trying to make that built improvement as well. So I think there's certainly a lot of moving pieces and a lot of considerations to be made given that we haven't engineered anything yet but one thing I would add in terms of the bigger picture that you think about the Mass Ave rebuild, the Arlington Center Safe Travel Project, the Minuteman Lake Street Project, the recently completed Chestnut Street Project, we're bringing the Mass Ave, Appleton Corridor design to a head really, we need that next transformational surface transportation project in the pipeline for the community and I think that what I'm hearing from the board is that this corridor should be prioritized as such. Of course there are a number of other roads in town, another number of other intersections but what I'm hearing that really this is what should be getting queued up in the pipeline for significant improvement. Yeah, thank you very much. My final comment would be that I think since I joined the board now three years ago I have consistently heard a lot from residents about traffic safety and that's not unique to Arlington by any means but I think there is, what I perceive as a cultural shift in evolution in town and I know that when I first started talking about this with previous town manager, they were pretty candid to say that Arlington has not been a town that has done speed bumps. Nobody really does an actual speed bump anymore. We have speed humps, we have speed tables, speed cushions, raised crossings, everything under the vertical deflection countermeasures category. Still that is a change for Arlington but I think something that I would personally hope that the town manager and town meeting and department heads and my colleagues contemplate is the direction in which we may follow the trend that we're seeing regionally. Driving through Belmont, through even in Cambridge and in Boston, a lot of these countermeasures are in place on side streets. It does affect my behavior as a driver and I think we have the budget that we have, we have the personnel that we have to maintain those countermeasures so I know that we have to prioritize, we can't do it all at once, we're not the size of Somerville or of Cambridge. Nevertheless, I think that when it comes to how Arlington thinks of its streets and its safety, I hope that we are ready to contemplate a change and how we think about what we're willing to do and what kind of roadway changes we might be willing to experience even if that means a bit of slowing down which is the point to make it over a speed hump at times. That's something that's a larger discussion but I'm really interested in seeing leadership here in this room and others to keep that discussion going. So I notice that we usually do a motion in a second to receive the report and we don't care to make such a motion for the addition. Second. Any further discussion? So we have a motion to receive the petition by Mrs. Mahan and seconded by Mr. Hurd. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed? It is unanimous. Thank you all. Item 10, Discussion and Potential Vote. Select Board warned articles for annual town meeting and I should say potential discussion and potential vote. This was a placeholder put on here to see if the Select Board did have any direct warrant articles that we wanted to place on. This would be the opportunity to bring those forth. So we'll start there. I think if, whether there are or there not, I think Mr. Feeney could at the board's invitation outline some of the things that you might be considering putting on sort of on our half but under your name. But first I would say if members of the board have any specific Select Board authored warrant articles that we'd like to put on for the warrant before it closes. This would be a good time to bring that up. Mrs. Mahon. And I'll try, I'm gonna try to whip through these quickly. One is just, I don't know if you can do it, considering you work in the state house, if we could just find out where our home rule petition is regarding the change for the Town Manager Act that we voted at last year's town meeting. Number two, the one or two warrant articles regarding what we did this year with moving the date of town meeting to further clarify that. Originally I thought it was maybe going to be coming from the Select Board, but now I'm hearing perhaps the election modernization committee or something else. So I'd like to know who's in charge of that one or two, is it one or two and who is doing that? And then, oh gosh, what was the third one? Warrant article, do you remember this morning? Mr. Feeney probably doesn't remember. There was a third one, and I thought Mr. DeCorsi might have raised it, maybe not. If I think of it, I'll raise my hand again, but if someone, which I don't expect the answer on this tonight, if it's something you could follow up, please do, if not, the home rule petition for the last year. Right, this was to follow up from last year's and then the two, oh, and then the third one was, I remember it, I'm sorry. The one, I think it was one warrant article regarding private way repair. Is that coming from this board? Is it, if it is, is it a revolving fund warrant article? Is it an enterprise fund warrant article? So check on the home rule, two on the date, and then the private way. Those are the three, I'd like to know if they're coming from us, if they are, if they're not. So we'll keep a list going here, yeah. Anything else that members want to put on the table for discussion? I haven't talked with the top manager yet. So we didn't have our meeting last week. So maybe I'll talk to him, you know. I don't want to drop a bomb on him, you know. But it doesn't have to do with this building, you know. So, that said, you know, so, we'll see, you know. No, I was just, I mean, she brought up the one that I was most concerned about. No, no, no, no. I apologize. I mean, save me, save you time. You know, I suspect it's probably the town meeting procedures committee that's probably going to put that article in for changing, or giving us some latitude for when we set the first day of town meeting, you know. So, Attorney Cunningham, is that your understanding that we have a warrant from them? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, Mr. Diggins is correct. The town meeting procedures committee is submitting that warrant article. Good to know. Yeah, this is a good opportunity just for the board, whether or not it's under our own name to make sure the things that we were interested in or have a sponsor at some point. So, with that, Mr. Feeney, I think you had some things that you were planning to discuss and I think I might even cover Mrs. Mahon's questions. Sure, thank you, Mr. Chair. So, and I know Attorney Cunningham could speak to the prior town manager act change, but I will know we would be submitting something similar for a contingent warrant article depending on the vote taking place in April for the appointment of the town clerk in the commensurate changes that would be required in the town manager act. So, we would be looking to advance that on behalf of the board during this town meeting. I do have a placeholder drafted in consultation with Attorney Cunningham, a warrant article one in particular to establish a private way repair enterprise fund. And then I would ask the board to consider a separate warrant article to consider amending the private way repair bylaw as it exists today. There's both a change that I think we need to contemplate as a town, but also some changes that were being contemplated by some members of a private way association that were facing challenges with our bylaw as written, with how it treats associations that may only want to vote or embark on bettering or repairing a small number of streets within the association and having it be necessitated that everyone in the entire association be asked to vote and us having to do that via snail mail petition. So, I think there are some certainly modernization adjustments we could make to specific provisions within the private way repair betterment, but I would also think that where we're seeing an uptick and the number of private way betterments coming before the board, that we might want to consider sort of an inverse shift in terms of the amount of funding that we require upfront for those projects. As it exists, we have to collect one third of the project funds, but with how expensive these projects have gotten since frankly this bylaw was put into place where they used to be 10, 20, $30,000 projects. Now they're much, much more because that's what roadway construction costs and that we're starting to see a larger number of them hoping to be done in a given year that in order to serve more roadways and get them done in a more timely fashion we may want to consider flipping the bylaw requirement to guarantee more money down. And frankly that would align with what we've actually been seeing since I did an analysis of data back to the year 2020 and on average we collect at least 78% of the money upfront so really what we might want to consider is aligning the bylaw with our current experience that we can guarantee having funding to address more roads in a more timely fashion. I think that one that would end up before this board as well is some changes that our Economic Development Coordinator and folks in our Planning Department would like to see to our vacant storefront registry bylaw and how that impacts second floor vacancies which are currently covered but may not be the best use of finding resources or places for display of art. So I think those are things that I would just touch upon at a high level for now that I would expect with the board to be hearing at a future date. Thank you very much for that preview. We will look forward to the warranted article hearings to hear the details. Attorney Cunningham. Mr. Chair, I think that Mrs. Mahan's concerns of at least two and three have been addressed but question number one which was related to the status of the last year's homeward petition to amend the Time Manager Act. It looks like just last week, it was filed by Representative Garbley, Senator Friedman and just last week it was read second and ordered to third reading so it's proceeding at a good pace so that's a good sign. That happened on the 18th of January. Oh, thank you. I didn't know that. Yeah, no. I guess I was a little confused about the private way of funding me but we can talk about it, you know, because if it's, if it's expensive mean then we want to lower the amount that they put down. Were you saying like so a third is too much to ask for because it's expensive? No, a third is not enough to ask for. Not enough, okay, all right, all right. Because the town would have to set aside a significant budget to cover that remainder. Okay, I misheard you, so now that I understand you, I'm no longer confused. Thank you. That's, I think 90% of the private way requests during my tenure have happened in the last year, so I guess that's why. In, you know, if I could. Yeah, of course, yeah. As you noted, we continued to run out of money quite readily. Yeah, yeah, that's the problem. The enterprise fund mechanism would establish a way for those, you know, what approximately has been 25% of those proceeds are received as general fund receipts. This would allow those special assessments as they flow in with that 5% interest rate over the next, you know, over the, the five years that follow the project directly into the private way fund to help fund those projects moving forward. So to provide a, you know, somewhat steady source of revenue. And it would allow for an easier mechanism as well. If we were to see a significant project come forward, we have a couple sort of massive private way associations, right, that we may not be able to fund through the general fund, but that which we might need to bond for that having that enterprise established would allow for a more easier, more easy accounting of that debt service the years moving forward for the residents that would continue to contribute to those projects. So it would put us in a stronger financial position to consider a couple of these tweaks to private ways given that many of them which were developed 30 or 40 years ago now fully at end of life. So I would expect them to continue finding their way in front of the board. Good. Yeah. We'll look forward to exploring that in depth when we have the warrant article hearing for those, for those items. Great. Any for the discussion on this item? Okay. I don't think we need a vote for this, but I'll declare that one done. And that brings us to new business, accepting cases of emergency in accordance with the open meeting law, the board will neither deliberate nor act upon topics presented in new business. Ms. Marr, have you any new business? The only thing I noticed that the warrant article period closed on Friday at 12 noon. Duly noted. That is it. Attorney cutting him. No new business other than that, Mr. Chair. Yeah. You were scooped, Mr. Feeney. You have two items of new business. I will try to be quick. One, timely, given that our comptroller was here earlier this evening, and I will tell her that I made these remarks or ask her to watch the video. I just want to extend to her my deepest gratitude. So we, and this is sort of inside baseball, but we just updated our chart of accounts for the first time in over 20 years in our accounting system. We had over 30,000 accounts. They were not in alignment with the sort of Uniform Massachusetts accounting standards. So this is a project that we began in earnest back in 2020. And only with all of that preparation and work with orgs, objects, like getting into the true granularity of how we account for things across our entire town and school system. So this has been many years in the making. We just launched it a couple of weeks ago. We've been working through all the kinks. So I just want to give the comptroller personally, just the highest level of kudos I can for the amount of work that went into this and for this task to finally be undertaken after all these years of wanting to do it is just remarkable. And the assistance from our IT team and specifically Lisa Hansen, once you create a whole new chart of accounts, there's then this massive web of coding behind the scenes that links all of the various town staff and all of the departments and their different levels of permission to all of these new accounts. So a significant amount of programming but also training across townwide is something that we recently completed. So I just wanted to acknowledge that given that it's something that public would ever know that goes on but was a significant undertaking with many members of our financial team, IT team as well. And then similarly, something that may not be seen by a lot of people but we had that recent snow event the past weekend and towards the tail end of that event, sort of what we call our water shop but the folks who provide our water and sewer services with the tail end of a weekend full of water main breaks, sewer leaks, got called to then perform snow removal activities as that is a DPW wide activity. Then saw a deep freeze following that event that was then bringing yet more water main breaks because it was a sustained deep freeze. So those folks put in a significant number of hours, straight time and overtime working in some of the worst conditions that you can imagine being in a deep cold hole full of water. So I just wanted to extend credit to those folks for their work that often goes under the radar but they work hard to restore services as quickly as possible overnight on weekends. So just wanted to acknowledge their recent efforts as they've been sort of herculean. Thank you so much for that Mr. Feeney. Mrs. Mahan. Did know what Mr. Feeney said because whenever I feel the cold, cold, cold weather, I think of all the water pipes that burst and my younger days I'd be down there a lot more. I'm down there a little bit but not as much and really and then on top of the snow event then the ice event and nowadays I think because everyone can text and go on the internet and be on different user groups 10 minutes after something happens notification goes out and the road's terrible. You know, but I remember seeing that and then within I'd say an hour and 40, 45 minutes I heard and then saw and I'm up in the hills as a lot of us are so but thank you for mentioning that. And I do wanna thank the town manager as well as this board on the CSO issue that really is a sort of five or six prong I don't wanna say attack approach to do that and I really wanna commend the town manager for recently providing us with the update along with the assistant or deputy, I can't remember who's deputy and who's assistant Mrs. Bumjourno and I know attorney Cunningham has been and might have been to this meeting and I just would ask the chair to as soon as possible coordinating with the town manager in light of the most recent sixth approach that the town manager and his staff have found an avenue of possibility for us on the CSO issue. If, and I know the commissioner Arrigo has already been to Arlington but whatever the manager and the chair can do to whether to invite the commissioner to the town manager and his staff and or if the chair can make it or if we can go to him because one of the other things that Mr. Feeney and I and I know my colleagues have spoken with the town manager on this issue is making sure we've identified for the six different approaches what partners we need to bring in to coordinate with it to make sure we're really buckling down and doing everything right. So I think extending a invitation for coordination via a meeting whether it's in person or Zoom with the DCR commissioner who has been fantastic and I was told the manager this morning I was talking to some of my union friends who are heads of local four 103, 22, 22 and they have very positive things to say and that's it for my new business. Thank you. Great. Mr. Irv. No new business. Mr. Degorsi. No new business. Mr. Diggins. A little bit. So first off being that I thought the MLK event was very good. The gentlemen who spoke ended up talking about poverty and how Martin Luther King was really focused on poverty and that's a big deal. I think it's the biggest deal if we can really get people out of poverty meaning we'll be a much richer society world as a result because as I often say, if the wealthy will get even wealthier if the poor aren't poor because the poor will be able to buy a lot more stuff and contribute to the society a lot more. And so I bring it up only in the context of the potential that we may have some ARPA funds meaning that we have to deal with meaning. I know it's hard to identify or locate people who are low income and it's really, it's just kind of, we have a society that creates poor people and then we can't help them because we can't find them and so I hope that we can put some more effort into that, meaning if the funds are available. So that's one, the other is, and this is a question I know because we dealt with the MLK ban or the Black History Month banners. As some of the calendar that there was entry for ACAC, is that in anticipation of them asking for those banners? I think we have like April and May set aside for them. Have they already requested them? This is the ACAC. Huh? Have you heard of school banners? Yeah, those associated with the, Yeah, so you might want to check on that because I think they might be doing something different. I just mentioned. They have reached out to me in the last couple of months and I just mentioned. They have reached out to me and let me know that they were going to be requesting something different. Okay. There's somebody else that will be on the agenda kind of upcoming meeting. Okay, all right, because it was just automatically blocked out. I just want to let you know because then if someone else wanted it, then you could, okay, fine, great. And the last thing, well, two more, you know, they're kind of related though. So I just want to thank Johanna Meyer and I could get which other committee and town she's on. I mean, I think it's one of the committees under the Envisionary and Umbrella, but she has been helping the standing committee create the survey, the annual town survey and do the analysis. And in fact, if it wasn't for her, I mean, pretty much it wouldn't happen to me or I think it would happen. It'd be a lot different and probably not nearly as good. And so I just want to express my appreciation for her for doing that. The survey is now out. And at the town committee, I told folks that we have a question on there about how you can make town meeting more appealing. You know, and the town manager had an interesting idea about how we can make it more appealing than we do, would you like to say, Mr. Manager? I would admit not much thought had gone into the idea I shared that meeting other than, you know, I thought it might be nice to get a dunk tank for all the select board members. Someone had told me that that had been done and many years ago and I thought- You used to have that at town day. Yeah, so I'm willing to say that if we get 10,000 responses by the survey, maybe we can work on making something like that happen and since Mr. Herb wasn't at the town committee meeting, I was here, you know, so in the town manager, you know, so that's it. Thanks. I have no new business, but all I can say that suggestion is you first. Move to adjourn. Second. All right, we're motion to adjourn by Mrs. Mahan, seconded by Mr. DeCoursey. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Unanimous, we are adjourned.