 And welcome to the Board of Select and Meeting for Monday, May 20th, 2013. It is 7.15. First item on agenda is the Consent Agenda. We have an approval and reversal of the alcohol license for the Arlington Restaurant Group to return to Zocalo. Request for a one-day beer and wine license for Arlington Center of the Arts for the Retirement Party of the Hyderdee School Principal. Request for one-day beer and wine license at Town Hall for the Centennial Birthday Celebration from Trist and Patsy Kramer. Request for one-day beer and wine license and a road closing for the Santa-Santa- Wow, St. Athanasius. Thank you, St. Athanasius the Great for the Greek Festival and a re-appointment to the Open Space Committee. Do I have a motion? And is there anyone here who's here to speak for any of these? Come on up. I apologize for my thank all of you for once again considering our alcohol license for the three days of the festival, road closures and such. And we hope to see you all there. This is Mohan. Any questions? For the Consent Agenda. And I just want to check for the gentleman and with Mrs. Kruppelka in terms of police details because I think what we've had in the past isn't quite enough. So we have, you all have agreed to an appropriate. Absolutely. Police presence. Can I follow up on your question? And so I noticed in the packet we had, we didn't yet have the police signature. We've got that now or? Okay. That's one of the things on our desk. I didn't. I didn't. You can ask. Go. It's my understanding that we will, instead of two, have four. Double it. And that is agreeable. Just so you know, two last year, we actually had the three plus the shift commander, but I don't think that was noted anywhere because I had met with Captain Flynn last year. So we just, we completed the same plan as last year. No, last year you had four, but they were two from St. Athanasia that you had, I believe contracted and the other two in the interest of what was going on up there. We sent up there. So, but it's all worked out this year. And you all are fine. Any other questions or comment? For this note. No, I think the only thing I'd like to note is just to make sure it's clear with you that on the consent agenda, we're only approving the beer and wine license and the street closures. Your letter had referenced the use of that field, which I think this has come up in the past as well. That is not under the jurisdiction of the Board of Selectments. Correct. We have the letter which is in the packet just for clarification from the print. Yeah. Okay. Great. Thanks. Okay. So this is Mahoney just second. Oh, I'll second, but I'd like to note something too. I just think it's worth noting just because it's a rather unusual item on our consent agenda that the first item is reconsider and reverse a previous approval of a transfer of a liquor license. This is somebody else that would discuss it. Yeah. I'm sorry. And this is for Arlington Restaurant Group doing business as Zocalo in East Arlington. I think we should just note that we had granted a transfer based on a sale that was pending of the restaurant. The sale did not go through. That is why we're seeking to reverse that. And I think we just want to make that clear. It's not a punitive measure by any means. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak on any of these other events? Really? I just want to clear with Juliana the request for the centennial birthday celebration. It's actually the centennial celebration of Town Hall and Gardens. I'm the producer of, do I need to recuse myself from voting on that? I think putting that on the record is sufficient. Say again? I think putting that on the record is sufficient. Okay. Well then would you put it's executive producer. Executive producer. With credits. All caps. Hashtag. Yes. Okay. And no. No. Thank you. Anyone else who wanted to speak on any of these events? Anyone on the board? All those in favor please say aye. Aye. All right. Number one done. Number two, licenses and permits. This is a public here. I'm sorry. Really? Chairman, just before we go there, I think we have a special guest from Canada in the audience. Do you think you should be introduced to the people of Arlington? I don't know if that would, if he needs to do that. But I think we should note that we are not only in the USA being observed. We are now outside the border. It is an international audience today. That's what I wanted to say. Thank you. All right. Next. Will you do the rest of it in French please, Mr. Chairman? Jean-Paul Francaise. Oh. That was good. Sorry. All right. Now we're going to do a public hearing. We'll request hack the taxi business operator license. Mohamed Shahajan of Medford. This is tabled from 422 and 513. Good evening, everybody. Hello. My name is Mohamed Shahjahan. And actually I applied for license and permit. Right now I have a delivery and I have a mini band. And so when we saw you last, we were looking for a better description of what was going to be on the door. What the description of your business was going to be. Yes. Airport car and band. Sorry? Airport car and band. And so you're just going to have those letters on the side. That's it. Yes. With a phone number? Yes. Yes. Mr. Carroll. I think that's a good question about the phone number because not to jump to any conclusions, but I did see the vans outside I think. Those are your vans. They said Airport car and band. I didn't know the phone number on there. No phone number. There is no phone number. Yeah. I'm sorry. He's the one at the microphone. If you want to speak and be recognized. And I really do need him to speak. If he's the one applying for the license, I need him to speak for himself, I think. Thank you. If I find the permit and I do the number, the phone number. And you put a phone number. Mrs. Mahan. You will be driving this taxi. Liberty. Yes. So when people get in your taxi, they'll be talking and speaking with you. Yes. Yes. For how many years or years, one year or more years, have you done that? Three years. Three years. Three years. Okay. I understand English is probably your second language. Yes. You're still learning. Yes. Besides driving the taxi, are you doing anything else to help learn English? Okay. Yes. Yes. The reason I'm asking you is when we give, when we tell people it's okay to drive a taxi, we want to make sure that you're comfortable, you understand the passenger who gets in what they're saying. Can you speak to that at all? Or, you know, how comfortable are you? Yeah. I don't know what to go. Yeah. So one of, I guess, I think that what Mrs. Mahan is getting at is one of the requirements of being able to drive a taxi in Arlington is being able to speak English. Yes. And we're concerned. I guess I'm listening. In our conversations with you, this is our second conversation, I'm concerned that you don't understand everything we're asking you. Do you think, am I, do you think that's a fair description or do you understand what we're asking or? Yeah, I understand, yeah. So how would you, how would you convince, how can you allay my concerns? How can you make me feel better about this? Actually, right now I work with my friend at the shop on. Yep. And he give me job and I do. I'm sorry, could you speak up a little? No, I work with, right now with my friend at the shop on. Mm-hmm. And he give me job and I pick up and drop and. He gives you the job and you pick up and you drop. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think. Mr. Cura. I think one of the concerns that we've had in some of the discussions, I think this hearing and the last hearings, is the difference between the livery and the taxi. And I know in response to one of the questions this evening, I think Ms. Mahan asked about the taxi and you said, well, it's a livery. Yeah. And the taxi service, so the livery, as you described, where your friend gives you the jobs and they're set up ahead of time, perfectly understand that. But we don't give those licenses. The taxi, though, you would not necessarily get those jobs from your friend calling to you. You may be going to the taxi stand or have residents in Arlington who would, you know, climb into your car and then ask you at that point to take them to a certain destination. So do you understand? Yeah. And so they would expect to be able to explain the destination and have it understood and get to their destination in the quickest way possible because the meter is running and, you know, they're concerned with the cost. So it's a customer service job, too. So I don't know how more to explain that. Yeah. Do you have a meter in your car currently? No, I don't have one now. Mr. Really? I'm looking at the liability insurance. I'm not sure that's as much as we require. Although I don't, is there some other insurance that we're not looking at? Oh. Well, normally it's, yes, the million, but normally it's 20, 40, 50. Yes, combined single limit. I don't know if town council can speak to you. Well, generally this combined single limit would refer to some kind of excess coverage or umbrella coverage. It's unusual not to see the coverage of the primary policy as being at least the 20 and 40 required under the regulations. So I'm not exactly sure what to make of this. I don't know if this is the only insurance or there's another one. The insurance. This is the only one. Yeah. I'm not sure what this means. Yeah. Okay. I agree. So I don't think we're ready yet again. Okay. The third time we have to table those two. Well, Mr. Bray, I, you know, I don't think that from the discussion that we've had today that even tabling it, you know, it'd be worth it. I think, you know, I guess it would be no action on this. And I'll make that motion now. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Is there any further discussion? So I should say this is a public hearing. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak on this issue? Seeing no one. Is there anyone on the board who has another comment before we take a vote? This is Mohan. If I could, I know you work with the other gentlemen. If you two could talk. The first issue is the insurance, the deck sheet, the liability insurance page. Part of the reason that we're saying no action. We have a minimum, which is 2040 and that's not on here. Perhaps if you both could talk about that, as well as you're not precluded. You're not, there's no reason why you can't come back again, fix the insurance, as well as maybe speak with your associate about communication skills, speaking skills, because that's the other thing. So insurance and communicating. So right now, it's not a yes. Yeah, I'll echo Mrs. Mohan's statement. I'm also going to support Mr. Burns motion and it's for two reasons. One is because the insurance isn't satisfied. I think that one is probably easy to satisfy. But one of the reasons that we do the licensing is to check whether or not you can serve the public well. And I'm not yet convinced that you can. And I need to be convinced of that before I can support your application. So I really want to bring more caps into Arlington and I look forward to supporting a future application. But at this time, I'm not ready to support it. Mr. Greeley. Right. And we're trying to provide taxi service to the town. So without a meter, you really can't be at a taxi stop. I mean, you can make up a price, I guess, along the way. But without a meter there, passengers in a taxi like to see what the cost of things as well. So I don't feel we should just give a license to a livery. All that's doing is taking away airport runs from other taxi services in the town. Any further discussion? All right. All those in favor of Mr. Burns motion of no action was seconded by Mr. Greeley. All those in favor say aye. Aye. 5-0. Sorry. Thank you. Hopefully we'll get another try. All right. Next up, citizens open forum. Accepted unusual circumstances. Any matter presented for consideration of the board shall neither be acted upon nor decision made. The night of the presentation in accordance with the policy under which the open forum was established. Should we know there's a three minute time limit to present a concern or request? Is there someone here? Mrs. Fiori. Elsa Fiori. Welcome. I'm here on the business of the possibility of putting Mr. Toulmere back on the zoning board of appeals. If you got your packet, I am sent a copy of the short letter to. We did receive that. Okay. I have known about it myself for a couple of years because I'm active with some of the people down in Cambridge where I live right on the line. And I often go to their meetings and North Cambridge group has and others and I'm, you know, so I've been horrified. I'm also when everyone thinks that Kendall Square is a wonderful place. I think it's terrible. It's the traffic is awful. It's and I my understanding and I may be wrong was that Mr. Toulmere was in charge of the Kendall Square area, but it seems as if he's in charge of the whole business. I just think that anybody who owes 80,000 and some of the people in Cambridge say it's $280,000 to the city when he's given himself raises. And when they somebody stepped down and resigned, he put himself in the place without permission and without the other board members being there. So I'm just here to express my great concern that he may be put back on the zoning Board of Appeals. I think it would be damaging for the reputation of our town, especially the Board of Selectment and others consider that. So I have I have no intention of giving this to you unless somebody wanted. These are articles that have been in the Cambridge Chronicle over the past few months. So and it tells the same story that was in the advocate. A lot of people haven't seen the story in the advocate. So a lot of people in Arlington don't know the problem that has occurred over time. And so I'm sure that when they find out they'll be just as distressed as I am. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Fiori. Mr. Radocha. Okay. Bob, how are you tonight? Bob is fine. Bob Radocha, Columbia Road. I didn't intend to come up, but as I was crossing the street, Town Hall, celebrating Town Hall Day, I cherish this place, the garden and the library as much if not more than most people around here. I'm really proud of it. I remember my first days in the fort, he's sitting up in the balcony waiting to go to the dentist up in the far corner. And I remember whether it was what the dentist was, a town dentist or a four-side dentist. It doesn't matter, but I remember sitting up there as a five-year-old. Anyhow, in crossing the street, I noticed no clock. It's a blank. It's all taken care of. Thank you. It's being repaired as we speak, Robert, but one had to take it down in order to repair it. Good. Because I wasn't feeling good about the idea we're going to celebrate this in the blank up there. Good. And the other one is you're going to fix the railing out there that's loose on the steps. The one on the right side going down. You just need some stuff in the hole. Someone else on the right side. Okay. All right. So thank you. It's well done. And I appreciate it. Look forward to seeing you there. To be there June 7th, and you can see it. I will be there. My ticket number is 78. Okay. I'll be there. Is there anyone else who wants to speak? Welcome. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to address you tonight. I'm also here to oppose the appointment of Joseph to Lamari to the zoning board of appeals. The reason why this is so dear to me is the first time meeting I ever attended in town after living here 13 years was the 40 B meetings that he ran back in 2005 to 2006. And I remember how aghast I was at every time I walked out of that meeting about the way the meetings were run and the way the taxpayers were treated. I could give you plenty of examples. I'm not going to waste your time now, but it was profound. And there was a group of us that had gone. One of the things that he had demanded at one point, he would not allow the taxpayers to speak and he would only allow the developers to speak was he told us that we had to put our comments and write against him before the next meeting. And I actually found the letter that I submitted back from 2006. And yet when I got to the next meeting, I wasn't allowed to speak. And neither were many others. So there were many things that went on. And I have been following what's been going on in Cambridge. I just recently, back at my seat, I ran off a letter from the Cambridge City of Cambridge lawyers to his lawyers demanding $80,000 be paid back. I had brought copies of that for all of you. And I would just really appreciate if you would really look closely at this. His appointment ran up in October and he's been serving up for seven months. And I also found one of the problems in Cambridge was that he was running without a quorum. And I found the letter back from 2009, the advocate that he did the same thing here when Susan McShane retired and didn't notify the board. So I would just really appreciate you looking at it. And since I'm here, one other thing regarding the Chinese restaurant that's going in at the corner of Forest and Summer. I just want to express a lot of the about his concerns regarding the liquor license to 1130, where a lot of the places downtown are not open to 1130. I've just said not your average Joe's the other night and they were closing at 1030. There's no parking there for 50 cars. And I know there have been a request made to pave the back parking lot, which I'm concerned that we, that's an old swamp. And if it gets paved and there's no way for the ground to absorb water, it's going to go into other people's property. So if you could please just be aware of that too. And I thank you all for your help. Hi, Joe. Oh, excuse me. And that's it. Thank you. I will leave copies with everything I brought with Mrs. If I could leave it to Mrs. I'm just going by memory and I'm not saying this is correct, because I have so many things in my head like everybody else. But I believe on the 1130 liquor license or staying open till 1130 that when the proponent was here, I question about that. And he indicated an earlier time to close. Yeah. Yeah. I want to say it was 10 or 1030, but why don't we let Mrs. Cropelka check that? And then maybe. We'd really appreciate it. Larry, if you can. I know I remember the board. I think it was later takeout. It was later takeout, but earlier in terms of the restaurant and the alcohol license. So maybe if, like Friday, if you could call Mrs. Cropelka and we can clarify that. And then Mrs. Cropelka can send us email indicating if my memory is correct or not. I think you're right. Yeah. I think you're right. Is there anything else here for a citizens open forum? Thank you. It's a popular night. You guys did it. Let me help you tonight. You know, I appear here when there's something in the mill that has to do with housing zoning and things like that. I was really disturbed when I got a phone call yesterday that there was an article in the Allington advocate talking about appointments to the zoning board of appeals. And I said, gee, how can that be? Because I looked at the selectman's agenda and there is nothing on it about appointments to the zoning board of appeals. So I assume that there won't be anything coming forth this evening. That is correct. Okay. I just wanted to be sure of that because otherwise I would see it as a violation of the open meeting law. So just at the last meeting, the board approved a process for using the next and it's on me to do the interviews for the people. And my goal is to do the interviews next week and put it on the agenda for our following meeting, which is I believe Monday, June 3rd. Wonderful. I can be here again on June 3rd. Thank you very much. If it's brief, you already got your crack. But if you want to come on up and be quick. No, there's one thing I just wanted to add. You just didn't want you to hit your head on the TV. You just missed it. If anyone would, I would. I just want to add in my role as chair of the summer street neighborhood association, the approval of the Sims and the Brigham's unit combined is leading us to over 400 housing units in less than a quarter of a mile in our neighborhood, which is really a burden on us that we haven't even begun to overcome, I mean to address. So thank you. Thank you. Anyone else here who wish to speak under Citizens Open Forum? Hearing none. We will now move on to traffic rules and orders. We have an exciting night planned with the transportation advisory committee. So we've got just a quick preview. We've got three items. We've got two votes, Mass Ave, Mill Street, Jason Street, and we've got stop sign control, Laughlin and Wildwood, and we've got a discussion for the parking study. Jeff, are you up first? Who else would you like to come on up and come on up? Okay. Generally, if you put it next to the town manager or up on the... The truck board behind them. Well, they've got, they brought their own easel. I don't know. You put it right beside you, Jeff. Yeah, that's it. Okay. Oh yeah, that's good. Right. So just put it on the easel facing us right beside you, but that way the TV can also pick it up is what I'm saying. Yeah, let's do that. So you go behind the mic. Awesome. Is that good? Is that good? Okay. Good. You're probably all familiar with this intersection. We've seen it once or twice. Probably been through it once or twice. So this intersection has been on our radar for quite some time. As you know, there's issues crossing this intersection. The approaches of Mill and Jason are offset, which create crossing patterns which are dangerous at the intersection. The intersection experiences between seven and eight accidents a year, on average over the last several years. It's been historically the third highest accident location in town. It gets moderately heavy traffic volumes, over 2,000 vehicles in the morning and afternoon peak hours. Operates at deficient conditions a lot of times. So level service E and F in the morning and afternoon peak hours. There's queuing involved on all approaches at some time. Sometimes some are worse than others. And also the pedestrian phase of 21 seconds is deficient and doesn't meet current standards. We actually need 29 seconds. So that's something that has to be addressed anyways going forward. So as part of the CVS project, we recognize this and we're able to obtain what we call mitigation funding for improvement of this intersection, $50,000. And the TAC formed a working group to look at possible solutions and we evaluated alternatives to improving this intersection both for motorists, pedestrian bicycles, all modes. And we came up with some recommendations. I think we looked at four or five alternatives and a couple sub-options, but we came up with a list of improvements we think is the best combination of mobility and safety improvements for this intersection. I'll just briefly go through those. It was in the report that we submitted. Modify Mill Street southbound to have an exclusive left turn lane and shared through right lane. So there's two approach lanes today. They're not designated. Oftentimes the left turners line up in that outside lane. Sometimes they don't, but there's confusion doing that. On the opposite side on Jason to designate an exclusive right turn lane and shared left through lane for those approaches. Add a new signal controller. The signal controller is ancient now. It can't process any type of phasing improvements that we'd be looking at. So we'd upgrade that signal controller controls the timings of the intersection. Provide current, sorry. With the controller split phasing for Jason and Mill Street. Today those phases run together. So the vehicles often have a conflict and it's unclear which vehicles are going through and turning because there are no lane designations. And that's where we find most of our accidents occurring angle accidents coming across the intersection. So the best separation that we saw is to provide split phasing where each approach goes on its own phase with no conflict. So that's pretty typical engineering practice where you have offset intersections like that where the geometry is not aligned for safety reasons. So we would add the additional phase. They run together now where we split those. But instead of running an exclusive pedestrian phase we're suggesting running concurrent PEDs where they run with the traffic. So in that case we would not be adding a new phase. It would be just trading one for another. As part of that concurrent PED phase we'd like to run a three second advance for pedestrians. It's something that's being done more and more. It's being done in Cambridge quite a bit over the last 10 years. We check with the City of Cambridge traffic engineer about that operation. We're pretty confident that that's a good approach. So that'll allow the pedestrians to step off the curb three seconds before the vehicles. It allows the vehicles to see the pedestrian in the walkway. They have control of that intersection and they continue to pass through on the intersection. Provide pedestrian countdown timers and audible alerts something that can be updated. It should be updated right now. Slightly reduce the width of Jason Street Island. This island is, you're probably driving through there, it's slightly bent and we call it, you have a lane and a prayer. You don't have to get through there on that approach. That's not wide enough. Barely get two small vehicles maybe through there. But if we can shave about a foot, a foot and a half off of that, we could at least queue up two or three vehicles for the left through lane and the right turn lane in that approach and get a little more capacity. But we don't want to eliminate the island. We think it's nice for pedestrian refuge as well as the aesthetics of the island. So we like to keep it. So I think we can actually shave it and reform it a little bit, but keep the island to get a little more capacity and traffic. And then provide a yellow-green arrow in the eastbound direction. Now you have a green arrow and it just shuts off today. So the vehicles turning left don't know and westbound vehicles don't know when that's happening. So at least if you have the yellow arrow, you know, hey, we have caution. It's yellow, proceed. It's shutting off. The westbound is going to be coming towards us in three or four seconds. That's a safety issue. So you're really providing just one new arrow for that eastbound approach. It's already there, but it'll change from green to yellow. And those are essentially our recommendations. Mrs. Mohan? I don't know if you spoke to eight. And then I have questions about coordinating. I did not speak to eight. And I had a question on that. My question would be when you're talking about number eight, I'll let you explain it. I'm wondering, is this a vote of the Board of Selectment to ask the all-entry police department, the parking subcommittee to look at that in signage? But if you could speak to eight, and then I have some questions. Yeah, eight. There's on-street parking allowed in front of the sporting goods store. If there's a vehicle parked there, it really reduces the amount available queuing for vehicles. It doesn't sound like a problem, but if you have one vehicle there, it could really mess things up. We know the sporting goods store, people use that space, but in the morning peak hour, really the issue is the morning peak hour, we're thinking can we really, can we prohibit parking at least for the peak hour to 9 a.m. or so? And so keep that clear. So it could be a measure of enforcement. So we've had discussions back and forth on the TAC, and we wanted to get the recommendations in place to address this, but ideally we would not like to see a car park there during the peak hour. So maybe after you get one through seven in, you'll come back with along with, I know Corey Ratau from the Olive Police Department sits on the committee, you'll come back with a no-parking 7 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday or whatever. So number eight is a work in progress. Correct. Did you want to speak? I have questions. No, just to number eight. Why don't we make it no-parking? Why are we, you know, I'm just wondering, it's one space. Why don't we just take it away? The sporting goods store is closing. I don't know what's going in. It's more than one. Huh? Two spaces, we're talking. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not familiar enough with the store. What time does the store even open? It's actually closed. Yeah. When it was open, was it even open in those hours? It would open at like 9.30. Because I see the auto parts, parked cars parked there. Because, I mean, I may have done this morning, commuted once or twice. And yeah, I see an auto parts car more often than that than anything else there. So would you be opposed if we jump the gun on you there? I'm not opposed to it as long as you're comfortable with the business aspects of the parking. We'll talk about it a little bit further, I'm sure. Okay. Maybe making a motion to put a no parking. Well, we don't have any motions yet. I'm inclined to say let's keep going with the questions for now. And then the, my other questions center around some emails from Jean Benson and Peter Fuller that this board has received. Right. You have provided and we have on our desk tonight an answer to that. But since I know that they asked the questions and are waiting at home with Jean Benson, I was wondering if you could, I'm trying to go through this here. Basically he's talking about item number three, the signal phasing and possible backups on Mill Street. And then item seven regarding the green yellow arrow for lefts on Mass Ave, Jason to Mass Ave. And I know you talked about vehicles, split cues, but if you could, you did provide a response basically about split face vehicle cues and about not running the westbound lane, westbound left turn from Mass on to Jason. Right, right. You speak to those. Yeah. So with, I think he was asking, can there be first of all a left turn lane on Jason Street? There really can't be, there's not enough room to provide two full lanes there. It's really just one lane in that direction. We can provide a little extra by shaving that island just for a little storage really, but we can't do two official lanes. So for that reason, we can't run two left turns at the same, at the same, you know, same phase. So that's the answer to that, unfortunately. The second one was, can you provide a westbound left turn on Mass Ave to Jason Street? At the same time as eastbound. You can't do that unless you change one through lane to a left turn lane really in both directions. So you're going to be losing the capacity of that through, it'd have to be left turn all the time, you know, 24 hours a day. We really need the two through lanes to accommodate that traffic volume. The only other way, if you wanted to keep the two through lanes is eliminate parking. So if you want to, if you look to eliminate parking on Mass Ave, you can maneuver around, you know, we didn't look at that as a viable option because we really thought the major issue was Jason and Mill, the crossing. Yeah, sometimes it's difficult but not particularly unsafe to make that westbound left turn. And the volumes aren't, in the morning there are about 100, a little over 100 been the PMP car or less than 50 vehicles. So it's not, it's not a huge movement in the PMP car where you have the most volumes. So I think it's a good comment. Yes. But I don't think that's the best solution to do that. I think there's too many impacts. There's other impacts I wouldn't get into with additional safety issues with providing a, provide a lag phase which would come later. So I'm not even going to get into that. And then Peter follows comments on two and six which are basically saying, seems like a good idea but I don't think you're going to have enough room to have two lanes there with the island. You already addressed that. Right. Right. You can't have, can't have two full lanes. Trapped a trail is through. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Can $50,000 pay for one through seven? Yes. We do that we amend the traffic rules and orders for steps one through seven and refer eight to the parking subcommittee. Second. All right. We have a motion to second. For the comment. Yeah. With where it talks about requiring 29 seconds of crossing time now when it was out of date before. Right. You think that's an issue throughout town or is that kind of just on this one intersection? No, case by case basis. It's an issue. The manual on a traffic, uniform traffic codes has changed in the last few years to make it more time for pedestrians to cross. So as we're upgrading intersections, we're addressing that. It'll be addressed at all intersections eventually. But it's something we know we noted here that we'll have to be changed. I was just curious about that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And thanks for the work on this. Sure. This has been a tough one. In the report, you list out the existing conditions and no build and then four different build scenarios. And you come to the conclusion that build scenario four, which gives a level of service of E. Both the AM and the PM is the preferred option. Right. There was one option that had actually a better level of service that you said in here that although it shows the lowest overall delay, it was eliminated because of safety concerns. Right. Combination of Mill and Jason streets running together along with concurrent pedestrian crossings would reduce pedestrian safety. Could you expand on that a little bit? Yeah. Yeah. So you'd run the same signal pattern as today. Jason and Mill run at the same time, same conflicts, except that the pedestrians would run concurrent so that the pedestrians would go at the same time as both of those phases at the same time. Yeah. So if you just wanted to focus on traffic and forget about safety, both pedestrians and vehicles, okay, that's one extreme. It's not the extreme we would recommend. Or we did not recommend. So it would actually, it would be less safe than it is today. The way I was thinking about it, because I had the exact same question, Mr. Kira, and I actually only figured it out when he was talking earlier. And I was thinking about it because when I'm doing, I'm saying I'm coming out from Mill Street and I'm making the left towards town hall and I'm sitting there watching that oncoming traffic, watching that oncoming traffic, and I'm waiting for the hole so that I can dart through and go on Mass App. And then if you put a pedestrian there, you know, I'm going to miss them, but we don't want that to be. It's going to be interesting. Exactly. So for that, I came to that conclusion, too. Yeah, it was just kind of testing what would that look like. Yeah, great for cars, but bad for everybody else. Do we have any further questions? We have a motion from Mr. Greeley, seconded by Mrs. Mahon, to approve items one through seven and to refer number eight to the parking subcommittee. Mr. Greeley asked the $50,000. It's actually $42,000. $8,000 of the 50 was used to put in a preemption signal for emergency services. So that's already at the intersection. So one through seven is approximately $42,000. Actually, I meant to ask about that. I forgot. So when an emergency vehicle is approaching, it goes green for them so that that can clear through. That's not coordinated with mill and summer, right? But the same preemption we've installed there at the same money so it would clear out one and then the other theoretically. Yeah, they're not coordinated. They're not connected in that respect. But the emergency vehicle would essentially get them coordinated by moving through them and triggering both. Is that? If they're in that, moving that direction. Yeah. That's right. Mr. Kuro. I think the only other thing I want to say is I'm fine. I'll vote for the motion. I just, I hope that we'll be able to act on that parking recommendation. You know, maybe one of our upcoming meetings this summer because it seems to me that now is the time probably to make the change before a new tenant goes into that location. So there are no false expectations that are, that are set up. That's a point. Your parking subcommittee is usually pretty prompt. So. What's that? Yeah. Yeah. The members of the parking subcommittee have been informed. That's correct. Yeah. All right. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Five, zero unanimous vote. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next up. Recommendations for the stop sign control on Lachlan Avenue at Wildwood Ave. Hill Road. Good evening. My name is Howard Muse. I'm co-chair of the attack. And we had a request to look at the stop sign or the location of stop signs that basically two locations that are adjacent to each other on Wildwood Avenue at Lachlan and Field Road. Field Road separates from Lachlan just south of Mass Ave. And so they both cross Wildwood very close together. There are already stop signs on three of the approaches, the intersection of Lachlan and Wildwood. The fourth approach has no stop sign. And one of the approaches, the eastbound approach, has a stop sign but no stop bar. And then the other intersection has no stop control at all. So we were trying to look at figuring out what is the best way to add additional stop control if it's needed. And although we didn't look at any collision data, we have been, a number of near misses have been reported at the intersection. And in the materials we sent you, there are a couple of pictures of when you're at the intersection, you can see that it's hard to see approaching cars that might be coming. All three streets appear to be relatively low volume. And the major street appears to be Wildwood. So the logical place to put stop signs if we were going to would be on the field in Lachlan Street approaches. And as I mentioned, the volumes are not enough to warrant, Jeff referred to the manual on uniform traffic control devices which provides criteria for installing stop signs. And from a volume standpoint, we don't actually meet it at this location. But one of the other criteria for installing it is a location where a restricted view exists that requires road users to stop in order to adequately observe conflicting traffic on the through street or the highway. And I think that's the situation that we have here. And based on that information, we've recommended that we install the fourth stop sign on Wildwood Ave westbound and add plaques on each of the stop signs that says it's an all-way stop or four-way stop. So basically everybody has to stop at this location or would have to. Add a stop bar at the location that does not have one now. We believe that basically if we have stop signs all around, the stop bar helps indicate where people need to stop. It's usually right at the location of the stop sign. And then install stop signs and stop bars on both field road approaches to Wildwood Avenue. And so that's our recommendation to the board of selectmen. Questions? Mr. Greeley. Again, a very thorough job by TAC. To what degree would the cutting of the hedges on that island help this problem? Because I was there today. They're huge. They're large bushes. Large. This moron came zooming past me. I, of course, cautious driver that I am had slowed down, but you really can't see on this island. So I wonder if we also could put that in here. Cutting them back would help, particularly for the south bound approach on Field Street. And however, coming the other direction on Field, it's very difficult to see to your left as you're heading towards Mass Ave because of the geometry of the intersection there's a fence and some other things there. So again, I think it would be a good idea to trim those bushes, but I think also to continue, we would stay with the recommendation to install the stop sign there also. One second. I got this question half a dozen times over the weekend and I called Corey Reteau and you mentioned it and it really seems basic and mundane. But when you say stop bars, can you explain to people that are watching what a stop bar, people are like, is this a bar? Not that it's a going to get above light. Right. It's a painted white line on the roadway that extends from the stop sign across the roadway to the middle of the roadway if it's a two-way street. And one of the other comments I got that I'll leave with TAC because we give you a million and five things as well as the town manager is I did get along with after two people who said, what is a stop bar? The next question was, well, why don't we do that where every stop sign is? And I don't necessarily need an answer to that, but people when they found out what that was, it sort of seemed the natural course of. And I understand we have all sorts of painting requests and things like that. But I got that question twice after I explained what stop bars were. So I just wanted to pass that on because one person said, you know, if we can't go out and do it at every stop sign, is this something that the transportation advisory committee or the town manager might want to think in the future, whenever we're installing new stop signs, recommendations that to automatically include stop bars. And I'm going to leave that to the greater powers that be in terms of what that cost is and what we have for labor and how intensive that is. So I just wanted to pass that along because I got it. And thank you for explaining what bar you were talking about. For the comments, questions. Mr. Greely, did your motion include any reference to Bushes? You know, it did not because our excellent town manager was writing notes, as I said it, and I'm betting that he was making a call on this in the morning. He's writing something bad. Will they ever stop talking? Was it something like, does this executive producer think he's special or something? No. So yes, we refer that to the town manager. Excellent. We have a motion for Mr. Greely, seconded by Mrs. Mahan. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Five-zero. Thank you. Mr. Muse, I think you're on again. Would you start with Laura? Excellent. So we are here to talk with you tonight about a parking study about the commercial area in Arlington Center is where we've started. This ball sort of started getting rolling last spring when a town meeting adopted a warrant article to look at, to investigate implementation of paid parking. However, there wasn't any funding with this. So we just sort of started it internally with TAC, which formed a working group that included Howard Muse, Officer Cory Reto, Scott Smith, Paul Kent, who represents the Chamber of Commerce on TAC, Marie Kripalka representing the Selectments Parking Committee, and myself. The group was formed to sketch out some of the goals and collect data on parking. The preliminary goals established were to improve the efficiency and management of parking in Arlington Center. TAC and planning, and the planning department each came up with $2,000 so that we could collect data on occupancy of parking, both public and private, in the center. So this year's town meeting allocated $30,000 in the capital budget for a parking study, and we were interested in discussing with you sort of the preliminary scope of that plan, and we really welcome your input at this time. Whatever recommendations come out of the study, we'll come back to you to discuss and implement as you see fit. I'll now turn it over to Howard, who oversaw the collection of the data and the recommendation. Thank you. I noticed that in the copy of the memo that I got, it didn't have a figure that was referenced, so. I brought some cotton. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I coded things. You and Clarissa. She loved colors. Yeah, except I can't see her. You're color blind. That's right. Oh, sorry. No, no, no, no. I'll translate. That's all right. I can follow it. The focus, as Laura said, was on the Arlington Center and you can see from the graphic the areas that we were covering in terms of the study, which includes Mass Ave. between Academy Street and, good, I'm trying to blink. It's the other end. Next one down from Medford. I'm sorry. Franklin, thank you. I'm getting to that age where I forget things more quickly than I used to. We also looked at Pleasant Street, Swan Place, Medford Street, and the two parking lots at Russell Common and Railroad Lot, and also the parking right in the area of the fire station there. And in the chart that we showed you or handed out to you, we identified the areas where there's one hour meter, one hour spaces on Mass Ave that are not metered, two hour spaces that are not metered. We listed the spaces in the parking lots as three hour metered. When we did them, when we did the counts, they were two hour spaces, but I think they have since been re-signed to be three hour spaces. And then there are permit spaces in the Russell Common Lot and then the spaces, particularly along Pleasant Street are unregulated. And that constitutes basically the study area that we were looking at. And we came, identified what we called some issues or I think questions that we think need to be pursued. One of them is that there's a mix of one hour and two hour spaces on Mass Ave and I quite frankly did not realize that myself until we actually did this study. And you can see on the chart or the map that I'm not sure there's any particular pattern to the way the one hour and two hour spaces are allocated. So one of the questions is is whether or not they should all be two hour spaces. In terms of enforcement, the one hour spaces right now are difficult to enforce because the parking control officer doesn't go around frequently enough to catch it. But if that should ever happen I think some people would be very surprised they had a parking ticket for being there in more than one hour. A second question and I think this is not a new question is whether the on street spaces should be needed to a short turnover and an adequate supply of spaces for customers going to the various businesses in the center. And we did collect some data that hopefully helped us to address that issue. The monthly permits in the Russell lot there are monthly permits available but a question comes up as well there should be a mechanism for all day parkers who are infrequent parkers. Right now there's no mechanism to do that if you occasionally need to park there all day. And finally there's a deissue with the Russell and railroad lot meters which tend to be very unreliable. The difficult to use if you've ever been out there in the middle of the day they're hard to read if the sun is in the right place. Also in order to use them you have to stand in a dry vial which is not the best thing to be doing. And you have to be tall. That one I didn't have to worry about. I can't tell you I don't mean to but you have to be tall. So in that study area we had a total of 565 spaces. About 220 of them were on street spaces and the remainder about 350 were in the public lots. So the bulk of the supply is in the lots. There's a table on the third page of your handout that just shows we did two things when we collected data for this. One is we did what's called an accumulation count. We just sent somebody around every hour and count the number of cars that are parked in each segment of the roadway or each part of the parking lot. So that over the course of the day we could see how the lots fill up or how they empty out and when they're most busy. Surprisingly, well maybe not surprisingly enough I was a little surprised that the peak utilization is at most folks are there for the restaurants and some other businesses. And in fact in a couple of locations you actually have more people parked in spaces by people being in illegal spaces. But even in the middle of the day we were getting the on street spaces were anywhere from 82 to 97% occupied. So a lot of times for a retail area you want to have lower utilization than that to have places for people to park when they get there basically to allow the turnover of spaces. The other thing we looked at was how long people were parked there. So and we did this just for Mass Ave Spaces and this was done by doing what we call a turnover count. The counters went out and recorded the license plates. They record the last three digits which is enough to be able to track how many hours a car is parked in a space. And one of the things that we found was the turnover in the one hour and two hour spaces was basically similar. And by turnover we mean how many cars park in the space over the course of the day. And the number was close to five. And in terms of average time in the one hour spaces it was one and a half hours and it was a little bit more than that in the two hour spaces. So for the most part the one hour and two hour spaces are operating the same way. So the distinction between them I think is not recognized by most. There were not a lot of cars parking more than a lot of time but there were some including some that were as much as five or six hours in a space. And to the extent that they're there that's one less space available for somebody who needs to run an errand or shop or whatever in the center. So we developed we have very good base information I think that we collected in this and we're suggesting that the $30,000 allocated for the study be used to hire a consultant to address some of these issues in a little more detail probably reaffirm or do an additional count just to verify what we found in the information that we collected. And the study would help identify the existing usage patterns and again I think that's something we have a lot of information on. Revenues and costs to maintain the parking supply potential measures to make it more efficient for employees long term parking for employees convenient parking for customers alternatives for pricing including free parking which we have now on Mass Ave. And the revenues and costs associated with various pricing mechanisms time limits how much time should be allocated in various places and then based on whatever recommendations might come out of that then look at the best management for various pricing alternatives type of equipment location enforcement signage those types of things also we thought that there were two items that prior to the adoption of a parking plan the study may take a few months and it'll take a while to get a series of recommendations that consideration be giving to more immediate action to improve directional signs to the parking areas especially Russell common and internal signage identifying the types of spaces and location of spaces I think Russell common law can be very confusing at times as to where the metered spaces are versus the permit spaces and again I talked about earlier moving ahead with making all on street spaces to our spaces on Mass Ave. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is such a timely issue. One of the things that I've been doing over the last few months is meeting once or twice a month with a new merchant's group. I know Ms. Winger has met with them as well and although the group is established to try to promote the center commercial district, inevitably the subject turns to parking and it turns to a lot of these longer term issues that you've outlined for this for the proposed study and I think you've really hit it on the head with things like user friendly long term parking for employees because we know that the businesses in our center have different and sometimes conflicting needs for parking. They need to park their employees and they can't always afford to have their employees getting up in the middle of the day going out and switching their car at the risk of getting a ticket especially at times where there might be only one person on the staff but they need to turn over on the other hand for retail businesses need to turn over on the other hand to keep the customers coming and going. You highlighted a few things that I've heard a lot. We've talked a lot here and elsewhere, a town meeting also about signage and the meters and their disgrace. The meters and their disgrace in this town and I know that we've kicked this around and we're going to get there. I know we're going to get there. One thing I'm very glad of though is that you highlighted a couple of things that you're recommending happen prior to the parking plan and the parking study being undertaken some immediate issues and I really hope that we can take these up. We're talking about directional signage and this isn't like the long debates we had a town meeting about historical signage and marking landmarks. This is simply helping people to find the parking location whether it's the entrance to Russell Commons off of Medford Street that isn't very easily marked or the entrances off of Mass Ave. You've stated it yourself that most of the spaces are in the lots but a lot of people who are visiting our town don't necessarily know that those lots are there. If you go up to Moody Street in Waltham you have no question in your mind when you go up Moody Street where you go to park the directional signage there for the parking lots is very clear and it jumps out it's very uniform all up and down the street so I hope that we can get there and we can take that up before the study is taken up but also the signage within the lots in your opening remarks you even mentioned that you said well we looked at the three hour spots but I think the signage was changed during it from two to three well it isn't all changed actually it's inconsistent I believe the limit in Russell Commons for example is all three hours but a lot of those signs say two another problem that we have is although and I don't know if your study really draws it out although those permit spots are really time based there are certain times when those are free and open to the public I believe after six in the evenings it's free and open to the public and that's not clear to a lot of visitors and patrons to the businesses it's not listed on the signage at all so I hope that we as a board and the manager working with the manager can really take this seriously and get some of these short term issues addressed relatively expeditiously while we take up some of these others and I hope then that once the consultant is retained we talked about this at a previous board meeting when we had a representative from the center merchants here that the center merchants can be pulled into this discussion as well with the consultant I'm glad that we have representation from the Chamber of Commerce the center merchants really are very specifically focused very heavily weighted towards the retail uses within the center and I think the Chamber brings another aspect of the business community to that but I think it's important to have those voices at the table we have that so I'm sorry I don't usually like to sit here and talk and spout but this is so timely I just really appreciate the work thank you Bern I echo everything that Securo just said I agree and the time ring is actually ideal it's nice that when town meeting ends a week ago and then this comes right up the pike and I think we're very lucky to have you guys and girls doing this of course is $30,000 about it enough for a consultant to do a project like this and take this on? it certainly wouldn't be if they were doing a full study we're hopeful that by having all the information that we've already collected and we've analyzed it we could hand them all that information that that's one of the expensive parts of a study is just getting all the existing conditions done so we're hoping then that allows them to move on to addressing the policy issues and the various possibilities in terms of management and equipment and that sort of thing it'll be tight it's a start only other than that I think everyone on the board agrees that as long as this project is an end to the meters that we use in the center I think it's a step in the right direction thank you with all due respect to my colleagues we've been discussing this for 25 years easily you have 15 this is some wonderful data so I just had to ask a couple of questions if I had to ask you the question is 565 spaces adequate the answer would seem to be yes, based on all these utilizations, 93% 77, 98 some of them close 64, 77% 565 typically what you find on any parking study is that when you take the total number of spaces and the total utilization it's adequate what happens is that certain key locations where everybody wants to park are very heavily utilized and then the more remote locations aren't as heavily utilized and sometimes you can get around that by your pricing policy and other management procedures that can help you maybe reallocate the way people park so a 9 hour day did you have people check every hour how did you gather this data we went from 8 o'clock in the morning till the last count was at 7 in the evening and some of the every hour yes I'm just curious whether two things were tracked and I don't know how you could but was it tracked how many seemed to look for spaces but couldn't find one in other words how often were all the spaces filled so that on the on-street in particular the second thing I was curious about is the one hour parking spaces everybody deserved a ticket because they stayed in the one hour spaces one and a half did you count number of tickets no and in talking with officer Roteau he said that it probably would be very unlikely for someone to get a ticket because of the length of time it takes his officers to make the circuit okay thank you very interesting Miss Amon I actually have like eight or nine bullet points but I was peeking at what you wrote down you might take some of mine I don't want to I'm kind of peeking over and I think you have some of my points I'll start with number zero because you know I count from zero right first off the unregulated spaces those are truly you can park all day yes okay and most of them were parkers there for five six or seven hours so I think it's mostly people who work in the center parking there number my next item is I will reemphasize that the meters are a real problem and one of the things that I want to be sure that everyone thinks about and Laura this probably falls on you as the town representative of the committee in a lot of ways is how the actual workflow of the management of the meters works because one of the things that we struggle with right now is that the town the people who manage the meters tend to work they've got a set of hours during the day where they're more likely to be working and then where they're not working during the holy cow the air conditioner which is blowing I know sorry thank god I didn't cuss my parents were killing me you're going to put that on the checklist too yes the filter is clean I study that because it's on the floor sorry about that so the meter breaks at 7 o'clock at night for instance the regular town staff is at home as they should be and that means that we don't really get to it until the next day and then say we need to call for then we need to get the outside vendor to come and he comes the next day then he needs parts and it comes three days later and you've had a meter that was out of commission for eight days and everyone is calling me and well they should so I just want us to really think about whatever choices we make for the new meters that they fit operationally with the town and if the town should either change its operations to match the meters or we should hire a vendor to manage that for us or we should operate operationally how that will work for the meters I completely agree that early signage wins will be a good thing if we can do that insofar as it's obvious to us that we can put up blue P parking signs and you know it's going to make sense and so whatever I think doing some of that in advance of the finish as we can is a good thing and my last comment is on the one hour and two hour question uniformity for uniformity's sake isn't something that I would consider to be important so if you think that uniformity makes sense for a very specific reason but at the same time I think that some of those one hours actually are there for the right reasons in terms of like what businesses they're in front of and things like that I just don't I'm not prejudicing a conclusion but I'm just going to say you don't have to be uniform just to be uniform right okay those are my, this is Mohan okay piggybacking on the Chairman's comments how many of you guys have knocked out on the blue P parking signs the parking subcommittee discussed that and was about to embark on that but then we got in my words bogged down on swan place on overnight parking on all day parking so if the parking subcommittee at its next meeting in concert attack because we indicated that we did want to do that on totally agree with the meters in the lots not to be joking about you know you have to be tall again the parking subcommittee also discussed that and the treasurers on it and of course we were told in a bunch of other people some sort of temporary fix A for the fact that you truly do have to be tall I've been in there where you have to stand on the curb and if you're elderly especially you can't with the solar glare and then the other thing is I don't know if tack can give us any recommendations on this and or again this was discussed with the parking subcommittee but a lot of that got pushed back because of some town meeting warrant articles proper signage that when the meters out as other my colleagues have spoken to you know six o'clock at night you know you can park there you don't have to use that then my comments to tack directly just because it would be helpful and I had a conversation with the manager I can't even remember when I spoke with you Adam on the figure one Allington Center parking regulations and you outline one hour two hour three hour not metered in the future as you go forth if you could apply percentages to that and why am I asking for that on Pleasant Street which is green and unregulated just me eyeballing it it looks like that's 20% of the parking spaces I know there's been an individual who's been very the ciphers who's been speaking a lot about we could solve all the parking problems on Pleasant Street by eliminating the parking that's there so in the future if we could allocate all these different one hour two hour three hour unregulated etc what the percentage of parking that encapsulates in terms of just the Allington Center area the other thing is I would anticipate and it's probably already in the works that the consultant along with TAC also is working with the planning department and the master plan consultant because there are some things as I was reading this and you were talking that I would like this consultant to consider along with the Board of Select has been meeting and or individually has not already met the consultant in terms of how we go forward and one of the things that I don't know if it can be encompassed but should be maybe taken into consideration and is on the master plan which is a Jefferson Cutter turnaround shuttle bus service something in that area one of the things that we're talking about on tourism and economic development is how do we get tourists here how do we increase business profits how do we increase the businesses that contribute taxes so it's not just residential ninety six four ninety seven three and one of it is getting the tourists here we need a place to turn around that's Jefferson Cutter and then comes in the issue of shuttle so if you could kind of keep that the other questions that I had were when the consultant is looking at this along with the signing percentages to to the different types of parking in Arlington Center if there could also be some sort of compilation or recitation of exactly it's a little bit willy nilly because it's gone by my opinion you know business driven requests as well as others the fifteen minute parking spaces that not so much the taxi and you spoke to about the three hours and my colleagues two hours and everything else like that and then I think that's it, let me see straight out meters and then somebody has said to me and they cited Conkin, New Hampshire and I'm not saying this is a solution and if you all think it's appropriate for the consultant to look at but I have been up in Conkin, New Hampshire as a court reporter where you know when you look at first map one hour, two hour, three hour unregulated fifteen minute thirty minute, etc Conkin, New Hampshire has just a basic kiosk that is every fifteen, twenty feet there's no time regulation it's just you gotta keep going out and buying that ticket and you can only buy it for a max of, I'm not really sure I think it's two hours each so I don't know what you can do with twenty thousand, I don't want to add to the bill but that had been suggested to me at town meeting and those are my comments but I really would like the percentage of the first thing that I said the breakdown of unregulated Pleasant Street is twenty two percent of the parking, I would love to see that kind of data that's really, sorry Mr. Chairman, second time did you actually point at me when you said and if you're elderly no we go to the tape is that instant replay did I do rightly so I apologize but again, what a wonderful wonderful job you have done, how thorough you have done on this do you remember when we we, Diane must have been here, right when we actually talked about building a parking garage at the Russell Commons at a second floor to the parking garage what a waste that would have been based on these, based on this count at this point one thing I would say Mr. Gurley I don't interpret that as there's room I interpret 93% as you're driving around in circles looking for a parking spot but look at parking lots 69% 88% but not enough to build a second level to it 88% of the library, you're right but 88% of the library, you're looking for a spot who doesn't look for a spot in the library? I'd only note that I've talked to a number of the businesses around town who have said that their business has been down this year and so we have to layer that on as well that we do want room to grow and so that is specifically something that I've heard some as much as 20% so this was but this was done in November closer to the holiday season November 15, November 17 but in the down year I didn't mean to have a discussion so I think it's appropriate for us to move receipt on this second Mr. Gurley's motion all those in favor please say aye aye we'll do 5-0 and then I'll hang on a second Bob actually I'll do that, so Bob we'll do the vote in a second Bob it isn't a public hearing but you're one of our favor people how can we help you please briefly I don't understand why we have to do a study they've done a study we know what the problem is and we're going to spend $30,000 to find out what they've told us already there are a couple of things going on in town the enforcement has it it's all over the place down in the municipal parking lot I can count anywhere from 20 to 40 cars in the meeting spots that have permit stickers and those meeting spots were supposed to be for the commercial component of the town it's the AC kids I've walked through there in the morning and you see them all pulling in and I'm saying why aren't they in the other space and they say well what are you going to do well that's part of it and I've seen people struggle not knowing where they should be down there they put the money in the thing and they can't find a place and then they don't think they belong anyhow that's one of many different things and I think it's about time this town has to grow up and put in some parking meters in the business districts we see that in all the surrounding towns and we're bigger than they are and that's one way to manage it this business of marking the tires and then coming back two hours later people and we don't enforce it we have places where there is signage one two-hour parking up by the high school they don't tag anything from Bartlett Ave north to the high school on the street it's all day up there anyhow it's a combination of enforcement and I think they've hit everything they need to hit here we don't I don't see why I don't agree with you I think there are things that are still on resolve for instance what do we replace the meters with okay I'll tell you Waltham has smart meter system out there I'm sure and so does Davis Square but we don't want to debate that right now go ahead ready to move on that's it I just opposed to spending money on this thing they've done the job and I think with a little more help from somebody in town we should probably come up with some answers thank you thank you so while we have one of the things that came up at our last meeting Mr. really mentioned it then afterwards and I've been thinking about it was as a board we worry about whether whether or not we use tack too much I mean we've sat here tonight and you've given us three fantastic pieces of well researched information that gave us the tools that we need to make smart decisions and that is really valuable and we thank you we don't thank you enough but we thank you for providing so one of the questions we have is are we using you appropriately are the things that we can do that will make your lives easier that we still get the you know the rewards that we enjoy from this excellent committee yeah what did we refer last meeting remind me it was whether or not there's going to be a stop sign or a school zone how much signage around the school zone around which school was it yes but we also debated whether to send to tack and this ties into the parking in the center the region placement of the bus to our potential removal of the taxi stand so please do you want to come up to the mic and have a thought can I just add to that what we're looking for is is there is there a template that can give us in terms of you know this is something that the board of select you know you don't need to refer to us or do you think we need to have a meeting of the mines at a certain interval or maybe have a meeting of the mines once so go from there first of all you can take to the residential parking hello one place thank you we don't mind not doing that this is a different animal the center so that was a focus study I talked to Adam a little bit about this today we enjoy the work we do it's a dedicated group volunteers that we have but we're volunteers and we can no we got some things off the plate tonight so now we can get going little lake street quarter how to be pushed back jason street neighborhood there's probably 10 other things but those are some big ones I think with regulatory regulations like you mentioned the school zone I don't know if that's actually a functioning it's not a functioning school I don't know why you wouldn't it's a property we own that has a school use it's used as a school okay I think the tack was formed for some of those questions regulatory signage is if you install it and it's not properly installed it's not enforceable you could even have liability issues with that so I think that's one use the tack you should still use us for regulation signage someone wants no parking or 15 minutes but I think communication if something comes up I don't think we have to wait to get a letter from you to say hey we should just get together and talk and say is it best served by border select can you do this, could tack do this what's the best approach for doing that project large projects sure we're involved in the lake streets and the intersection projects and so forth but there's a lot of gray area with the smaller ones stop signs are regulatory so you're the regulatory authority you could put it up without asking tack sometimes we've had issues in the past where we put something up and take it down and that happens anyways with signage signage is tough in a lot of places sometimes it gets installed in the wrong place you have to go back that's just the way it is but I think if we communicate more it's always better I will certainly take that advice anybody wants to add to that from the board keep it coming is what I just heard so I'll definitely work hard to make sure that we manage the right flow I know for instance we've got one that I haven't talked to yet coming up that maybe you read about some stop signs on Edge Hill Road but on future agenda items we'll work harder to make sure that I talk to you about them beforehand before I bring them up for the board and we'll work with the time manager I'm sure on that anything else, happy? alright, thank you very much for all your time and effort alright, that did number four and number five, next up is six Mr. Currow, Arlington Live thank you very much Mr. Chair you have in your packets memo that I put together I think I've discussed this at a few of our previous meetings I think that Ms. Olszewski has also discussed this when she's come before us to report on the ATED work the ATED is a lead sponsor for the Arlington Live Summer Arts Block Party which is receiving funding in part by the Arlington Cultural Council the committee is working also with the Arlington Center for the Arts the Chamber of Commerce the Regent Theatre a number of others to put this together the idea is that think of this as a larger but more discreet version of what our neighbors in Somerville are doing with their I think summer streets they're calling it with their blocking off parts of the town for summer festivals we're looking to have a number of musical performing groups from noon to five on Saturday July 13th with a rain date of Sunday July 14th the Arlington Center for the Arts is also helping us to recruit artists and crafts people to set up in tents we're working on pulling together sponsorships for the event as well as a few food booths with a preference towards Arlington vendors who maybe some aren't right in the center I know there are some who have expressed interest in participating to that end I met last week with Officer Ratau and Lieutenant Conroy they're very gracious we walked through the site took a look at the Broadway Plaza location as well as the location and of the street area that we would like to use for the block party festival we're looking for permission from this board to block off Broadway from Mass Ave to Franklin Street with the detail officer obviously at Franklin to allow the access to the central fire station as well as that small portion of Alton Street before the driveways there's some driveways behind and behind right turn right turn is actually working with us as well on this what he is from right turn it's not anticipated there'll be any blocking of sidewalks in front of businesses and the communication is going out to all the businesses to make sure that they're aware of this and to invite them to actively participate if they so wish but we would be looking to set up a flat bed on some of the parking spots for the musical performances use a small portion of Broadway Plaza as well for a smaller performance area during set changes as well as some info boots so I'm looking for the permission from the board I describe it all in the memo of what we're looking for the hours we're looking for permission to block off Officer Atoll, Lieutenant Conroy indicated that we would need two detail officers for this to control the entrance and access and that they would could assist with temporary relocation of the MBTA bus stop that would be impacted there as well in addition to this I am asking for a wave because we're taking away some isn't this this is quite the timing on this agenda because we're taking away some parking spots temporarily on that day we're asking for a waiver on the Central the Russell Commons parking lot fees that afternoon during the festival to accommodate visitors to the to the festival itself that sounded like a motion that is a motion on that last point that you spoke to with the Saturday event with the Sunday rain date are you asking for the waiver for the Central parking fees meaning the parking lot you just cited from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. or starting I was asking for 1 to 5 which are the hours of the festival I I just say because you cite a 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. then you cite a 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. the hours of the events we're looking for closure of the road from 10 to 6 to allow for setup and breakdown there are some the parking spots right next to the memorial on Broadway I didn't take a precise but there's a small section of spots looking for that starting at 8 because we're bringing in a flatbed it's two waivers you're requesting you're requesting at 8 a.m. on the parking spots closer to the central fire station and then you're requesting 1 to 5 p.m. in the actual municipal parking lot I think it's something I just want to make it clear if you want to think about it a little bit we have staging in one area and then we have parking I'm requesting permission for the road closures the road closure from Broadway to Franklin from Broadway to Franklin and Alton Street up to the the driveways behind that business block from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. with spots that are referenced here actually having the enforcement the closure go into effect for those parking spots starting at 8 that day so that's the first request let's take that separately so let's take that first so staging starting at 8 a.m. and total closure starting at 10 a.m. at this area you referenced by the central fire station that motion you literally want separate motions we can if it's easier just so we let the police we have one motion about the closures all those in favor I have to say that my personal opinion we should close it because we close it for town day because you're going to have people coming in to unload things and what have you in the parking lot municipal it's confusing of them taking some from 8 o'clock so what we've done in the past what has always allowed us to not to take anyone during the center during the festivities in the parking lot it's much easier for them to know in advance that there's going to be no fee for the whole day and it's easy to get the message out to everybody but you decide how does this differ from town day I'm not clear what is different about this than town day what's different about this this has a specifically arts angle it's not a showcase of general merchants and civic organizations and what not artists will be setting up booths so visual or hand artists will have will display their crafts who gives a permit to who gets what booths and stuff well ATED is the lead sponsor of the event Arlington Center for the Arts though the distribution of of the booth spaces themselves so they're handling the applications for that piece but it's a focused event around the arts it's a focused event around the arts performing visual crafts and there'll be six like six booths as an amenity so can I get a booth to display my artwork for example of course I'll get you to schedule okay so the first motion is I know where the streets are blocking off from trying to picture it is there any residential houses that will be impacted by okay so we have a motion on road specifically for the road closures with the rain date of Sunday Sunday July and we're making it from 8am to 6pm yes you should do that if it's easier to just make it one blanket 8am to 6pm closure it's easier for I feel like we're a little more in the weeds on these than we often are so be it that's fine you want to give me more it's probably make it easier we have a motion on the road closures made by Mr. Cura seconded by Mrs. Mahon all those in favor please say aye aye I have a second motion I'm requesting for the same hours that we just voted from 8am to 6pm that there be a waiver of the Russell Commons parking lot fees enforcement on that day is there any further discussion on the parking no but I have an unrelated question okay let's do this all those in favor of Mr. Cura's motion seconded by Mr. Greeley related to parking fees seconded by Mr. Mahon the two parking the two police detail officers who is paying for that there's a budget for the there's a budget for the event so is it a town budget is it a no it's sponsorship it's sponsorship it's cultural council money sponsorships booth fees Mr. Cura did you have any additional motions I did not anything else on this item select an award Mr. Greeley yes Mr. Chairman we had a nominating committee that has made 10 recommendations to us 9 14 recommendations to us and then there have been two additional recommendations added by one by myself and one by Mr. Cura and so what I would like to do is move that this slate be approved but before we do that I just we have one two three four groups that have been nominated and I wonder does the board feel that's too many groups during one you know we only do this once every five years so we've got nine yeses no I'm sorry Mr. Greeley I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine no but I thought that meant they qualified under those areas and they didn't know where to place the others no I just understood I didn't mean to each one you know what I'm saying it's nine like that's a no no I understand why are they placed under the awards that way that's really nominated okay so you had like three nominated for the Diane Mahan award but only one could get it there is only one Diane there is no Diane Mahan award so sorry one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine right and then two additional so I move that we approve the nine recommended from the committee and the two recommended by individual members of this board are selected do I have a second is there any further discussion Mrs. Mahan not to step on the third rail but just to Mr. Greeley's point of the nomination of groups do you want me to split the vote well no because in the nine there is also a group nominated in there so what I would say is I would ask Mr. Greeley and or Mr. Greeley and whoever is working on this to from what I can see the three groups that are nominated to sort of set a parameter in a format in terms of I assume that we'll be giving something besides just saying you know here you go John Doe but if you have a group of 21 or a group of 30, 40 that you come up with some process in terms of it's one if it's one thing or you know I'm assuming something's going to be concerned about the logistics I'm concerned about giving 21 things to like say group is 21 members I'm just going to say that as a for instance I'm sure that we can figure out a delegate so I would ask you to yeah let me the if you remember five years ago we tack because of the kind of work they displayed here tonight we're given an award and I believe we just brought up to the co-chairs I believe is how we made that award you know I'll leave that to Mr. Greeley and others to you know right that's all all right we have a motion and a second is there any further discussion all those in favor please say aye 5-0 Mr. Greeley do you have any comments on the awards or do you want to save that for later well should I now announce and who just won no you should say when we're doing the awards or what Marine is it that we get that last Thursday the 27th of June stay tuned to the 27th of June to find out who won the selection awards okay that's all right with me all right Mr. Chaplin no no oh sorry we have to let them know before him you can let a few people know but we don't have to say it right now right but I mean we'll have to send letters to these award winners okay and we also have to figure out what should we give them as awards and that's my point I'm blanking well we'll talk to Mr. Heard we'll figure it out what's that a firm can't shake no I think we should make them all get a tattoo award winner wow Mr. Chaplin would you like to talk about the goal setting anything to shut up freely I'm going to call you elderly again I didn't say that so last week I mentioned that we would have to have a agenda in the place where we discussed setting a date for the goal set we met last year on the Saturday more than a few percent of our discussion I believe we met again we met twice yeah I think we met again on Saturday morning I don't know what we'll need to have to meet again this year I think that was sort of the first time the advantage or the more convenient it is there's a lot of new people so I was hoping we could set a date for sometime in June or July depending on the awards availability we talked about a Saturday morning possibly meeting outside of the normal meeting so my first inclination is to do a Saturday morning again I don't know how do people feel about that I think I prefer that as well if it can truly be a Saturday morning yep I think we can do that Saturday and I will say because I know my schedule I've got the 8th and 22nd available so the 8th is the day after the 100th and the 20th which takes us to the 22nd not the 8th I'm sorry that is the day that we flipped the mattresses at my home and so I can't break that particular I have um school I have a husband away, school, coaching cheerleading, cow wash I'm tied up until my first available Saturday in June and it doesn't have to be dependent on me it is the 29th which I apologize and like I said if everyone else can meet that's fine the only Saturday in July that not available is the 20th so somebody's in town on the 29th is rolling his eyes why does it have to be a Saturday didn't we do a late afternoon too no we did two Saturdays we did one night one Saturday I think we did a Saturday morning we did a Saturday morning we did a Saturday morning it was June 23rd our first one Saturday morning and then we did one Thursday night why don't we pick a Saturday that we can actually all make and then go see if we need a second can people do June 29th work for everybody else no no no don't break up your plans it's okay no you have plans on the 29th why are we just dismissing Thursday to 7 why are we just dismissing is that a problem for you is that a little early generally for me 6 to 8 7 to 9 what do you mean at 7 why don't we do 7 to 9 can we do 20 or 27 no we can't wait what's the thing is the 27th is the Selectman's award we can do that right that's true good point we can practice on the 20th I think that doing a Saturday morning has magical effects for being able to think about it does I don't mind doing a Sunday afternoon I have a tea time at 7am every Saturday morning I'll give one up do you? no no no really I'll give it up I'm not worried about it I'm sure just pick the one that works everybody else 29th and we'll do 8.30 to noon 9 to noon 8.30 to 10.30 why don't we say that if we have to go longer is earlier better for you I'd rather get it 8.30 to 11 11 8.30 on the 29th right Mr. Chaplain that works what I will do is to get it further and I think that's why we had a second meeting location that's good that's good thank you all for your flexibility and the use of your time. Any further discussion on that? Correspondence received. Elaine Crowder. Summer street, four street commercial area. Peter headland sign requests. Do you want to move on the sign request? Do you want to actually move referral of that to tax? So moved. We have a receipt and a motion to tax. Is there a second? Second. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. New business. Nothing other than just to remind you of that, I hope you're all going to watch the two stars tomorrow night, Mr. Greeley and Mr. Curley. And 730 sharp. 730 sharp. That's all I have to say. Okay. Nothing new, Mr. Curley. Mr. Greeley. Yes, well, I wanted to also mention tomorrow night, I'm going to talk about the town hall and character here at 730. And myself, it will be the Robbins brothers, the Robin sisters will be there along with who is Chuck portraying. Cyrus down. Cyrus down. Be here. You're really going to miss it if you're not. And the other is again a reminder about the celebration, the centennial celebration of town hall and gardens on June 7th. Welcome everyone. And I would like to ask that you approach through Marie and the Selectman's office, you can either three liter banks in Arlington or I don't mind through Patsy kramer and Mr. chairman with your indulgence I'd like to announce a fundraiser that's going to be held for two of the Boston Marathon victims, Patrick and Jessica Downs, both lost a leg. design on Sunday, June 2nd, from 9 to 345, this is on Broadway in Arlington, Pear Tree Hair Design. We'll be holding a fundraiser and they ask people to sign up to have their hair done that day. I had my hair cut there recently and look how beautiful I am or not. But all of the money goes to this Patrick and Jessica Downs. If you're interested, please call 7-8-1-646-0033. Again, 7-8-1-646-0033 Sunday, June 2nd, 9 to 345 at the Pear Tree Hair Design. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Greeley. Mr. Mahalo. I have actually one item for new business that I believe the Chairman is going to speak to, so I'm going to defer to that to the Chairman. The other is surrounding DCR. We've had a couple of issues come up. One was the logistical, early logistical traffic nightmare that we had that traffic tied up on Route 60 in front of the police station. That's the town manager. He spoke with Dan Hunt of DCR. DCR had contacted the town. The National Grid also had a detail out there that has since been resolved. I believe the town manager had a conversation that there would be better communication. And the town. Attempts to, because we got quite a few. That also backed up traffic into Medford as well as the town manager and I, along with Representative Goverley, have spoken to Dan Hunt and or the Commissioner or the Governor even regarding final outcome on sunny side. We had a meeting back in July of last year about some really low cost ticket items that hadn't been done. So I just wanted to inform the board that the town manager and I and others have been working on that. If I could, I've received quite a few, especially from town employees as well as residents of the town, asked through the Chairman to the town manager and I know it's been discussed on the list and there was an article written. And I saw Jake Upton the other night and told them I'd be talking to him about it on the Sims. Employees slash affordable housing, the 26 units. Originally there was talk that there might be preference to some employees who work in Arlington but can't afford to live in Arlington. That units would be available. But I think, I'd like to get some clarity from the town manager and from Jake Upton and others regarding I believe it's 26 units and I think it's just affordable housing. I don't know that there's still employee preference. There's not. But if you could, people are asking me, you know, when does that open up? You know, because they're really moving forward on that and they've already listed the townhouses and other things if the board could be provided with. So when people contact us in terms of how they apply for that and when they should. And then the last thing with the exception of I'm going to leave it to the chairman for my fourth item of new business which he'll probably cover is I just want to highlight again because we've been asked to that the master plan which is not the Mass Avery design which a lot of people in Arlington seem to think, seem to confuse the two. The master plan sort of is, you know, the vision for the next 20 years. The consultant and Carol Kowalski is and have been meeting with individual members of the board as well as other stakeholders. There's meetings coming up. I can't remember when the next one is. I know it'll be on the town alert. I don't know if you know off the top of your head 20 but really really come to that and just and one of my colleagues might speak to that under their new business. That's it. Thanks. Sure. Thank you. Just two things real quick. Ms. Mahon. You just jogged my memory. I think I mentioned to the town manager the state treasurer Grossman was in town about a month ago. I was speaking to him. He mentioned that he has a program for municipal employees will do bulk searches for unclaimed property for the employees and he's willing to work with cities and towns on that. So I mentioned that that might be something to look at. And I just wanted to let you all know that getting ready for tomorrow evening. I brushed up my character acting skills this morning. Mr. Waller has pictures. I think to prove it at the library. I did appear before a rousing crowd of one and a half to two and a half year old children only made one of them cry in my performance as Clifford. So Mr. Greeley I hope you will agree that the challenge which you laid down this past summer has been satisfied through this. No. It's on Facebook. I saw it. It's on Facebook. I posted. Thank you sir. Thank you sir. I'll set. Yes. I guess I'll follow up on Mr. Hans comments. The master plan community meets the first Thursday of every month. We switched it up. It was we have a meeting in here. We're going over to the senior center next month. And we they are having 3 or 2 or 3 different dates around town. I believe 3 one down at Hardy school, one the high school and another up the heights. The kind of like a follow up to the big meeting we had. I guess it would have been about 6 months a year ago to kick it off. And just kind of building off that. And it's really getting underway. I'm very happy with how it's going there actually for the committee. And I was invited as well. They're doing a little bus tour around town. Kind of just kind of go over and see the sites and see what we can build on. So it's going smoothly and I'll keep you up to date. Thank you. I had 2 items tonight. Both of them are headline minute man. The first is that I was quoted in the globe this weekend. And I wanted to clarify my comments because I don't think the context came through the way that I would have chosen if I was talking to you all and anyone who's watching at home. First off, I'm very focused on what I perceive is the big picture, which is we have a school that needs a significant infrastructure investment and we have a regional agreement that needs to be rewritten or modified in some way. And I'm I spend a lot of my time and attention on trying to work on those issues. And that's really the part that I'm that I'm the most focused on. The question on who should lead Minuteman, whether superintendent Bo Quillen or anyone else, is something that I think is best left to the Minuteman school committee. And that is something that I said repeatedly to the reporter, but I'm not sure that necessarily came through that way. It's up to them. And I don't want to mess with that process. And I regret that anything that I said in my comments that made it sound like I wanted to get involved. So that was a Minuteman story number one. Minuteman number two is last week, the time manager I met with the chair of the board of second of Belmont and their time administrator, David Cale. And we we had some very interesting conversations. I think that one of the big upshots out of it was that we talked about how some of the sending towns, in particular, the larger ones could engage with the master school building authority to try to impress upon them how important it is that they have a role in helping us keep this regional region together and built appropriately. Because, you know, we're trying to herd 16 cats and the state has to help us herd those cats or we're not going to get anywhere. So I don't think there you know, there are no formal decisions, but there's definitely we agree that we're going to pursue a couple meetings with the school building authority with probably inviting Lexington and others. Yeah, yeah, I just want to make the point, sir, that it is unfair to take one quote on from you and somehow think that you're divesting all of our efforts on this matter to Belmont and Carlisle or any of that. You have consistently been on top of this, consistently raised questions about it. And then for at least 20 years, we've been fighting this agreement as to how fair is it that Arlington, which has the most number of students, go to the school, has the same vote and authority as a town that's in one student to that school, or two, I guess. Well, it's number one. But it's ridiculous, you know. So anyhow, you fought that continuously and you're unfairly attacked by at least one letter I wrote from a concerned citizen. Thank you, Mr. Mahon. And thank you. That was the piece of new business that I knew you would articulate better than I did as well as I know how it is to be giving quotes and you don't get the choice of everything being included. And as you pointed out, that the eyes on the prize and I talked to Paul Schluckman about this today is that we, you know, the only thing that I think this Board of Selectments should be helping to champion through the chair because you have as Mr. Grilly has cited, spent an awful lot of time working with the Minutemen administration as well as school committee is getting that school renovated it really needs to and any concerns that people have Paul Schluckman said to me today, the MSBA involvement oversight in terms of the Thompson School Project and all the other elementary schools is really focused and highlighted. So there's no way we can stumble on anything like that. And the only other thing that that I would add to that is a any politician would love to write the story that appears in the press and we don't get to do that and be we did receive a request from an individual to afford a copy of their correspondence that was sent to others to Minutemen's school committee representative. And I think that's the appropriate avenue for that to go. Thank you. That's a good point. And the Arlington representative is Laura Morissette. She's appointed by the moderator. And I know that she welcomes, you know, conversations about Minutemen. She I think she represents as well as you have because you've been on this as finance committee member and now, Chairman, if you were done, I moved to turn one. Oh, no. Oh, sorry. Oh, no. But this is a very, very important aspect, at least for some of us up on the on the board. Yeah. The next meeting is our first meeting after Memorial Day. Relaxed dress style. Mrs. Mahon, do you have a motion to turn all those favor? Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Sorry. I'm sorry. Should that also that June meeting be our alternative transportation night? We couldn't do that. Because we can be informal dress and I am I spend X ready, I will ride my bike down here. But I can't see it. Does it also mean we can wear white shoes? Yes, you can. Would you rather save it for July? I want to save it for July. Okay, done. All right. So move to adjourn. All those in favor of adjourning, please say aye. We're adjourned. Thank you.