 Good evening, welcome to the Board of Selections meeting for Monday, October 19th. Unfortunately, I have to start the meeting for the second meeting in a row and ask for a moment of silence for the passing of Kenneth Simmons, a long time Arlington resident, very active in Rotary, a lawyer, a partner in a law firm. Very involved at the Rotary Club here in Arlington. Very involved with the Boy Scouts of America, father of three daughters and a son and wife, Carolyn was a member of the school committee. Just a terrible unexpected loss, please a moment of silence. May God bless you and his family. First item on the agenda we have a very special guest this evening, Mr. Steven Gilligan, our treasurer, Steve. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. I appreciate your time this evening. I know you have your time is precious. I know you have my memo and an Excel spreadsheet, which were forwarded to earlier, so I'll only summarize in as brief a manner as possible. We will be borrowing approximately $13.5 million. Over $9 million of the borrowing will be issued as notes, short-term bond anticipation notes. The purpose of that is because they're very high priced ticket items for lack of a better expression. The community safety building, Pierce Field improvements, and Stratton School improvements. By issuing notes, we will take advantage of even lower interest rates and defer the debt service payments of permanent financing for at least two years, which will be a positive savings to the town. The other $4 plus million is for capital improvement projects. We want the board to please remember that the water facility projects and the sewer facility projects voted by town meeting will not be borrowed under this issue. We anticipate MWRA, zero interest loans, grants, or other financing. So we'll be saving some money in that respect. Part of your vote, there are two votes I'm requesting this evening. First is to determine the useful life of certain equipment, which is part of the memo, and the board administrator also has the actual worded vote that is required to be assigned. You don't need to read it other than to say you follow the recommendation. And the second vote I'm asking for this evening is to proceed with refinancing preexisting debt. Those are issues from previous years 2006, 2007. The town will save in round numbers a quarter of a million dollars in debt service payments by doing that. And of course, we'll improve our overall debt position. I'd like to point out that in anticipation of the chairman's question, as to how much we will be saving in the borrowing on a AAA bond rating versus a AA bond rating, the savings over the life of the borrowing is $66,000. But I want to point out that that savings is only for the bond issue, not for the notes. When we permanently finance those bond anticipation notes, we will in fact triple those savings and be realizing the savings over the life of the issue of over $200,000. And we will continue to look at doing refinancing every single year where it proves an advantage to the town. If you have any questions, Mr. Chairman? Do you have any questions from the board? No? So can I have a motion please on the useful life of the capital equipment? Mr. Curell. Mr. Chair, I move that the board take the actions as recommended by the Treasurer regarding the maximum useful life of departmental equipment, according to the language as laid forth before us. It's a second. Second. Do we have a discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed. And may I have another motion please on refunding of the prior debt, Mr. Dunn. I move we approve the refinancing of the debt using the language in the memo in front of us. So second. Second. Discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I look forward to meeting with the board at your first meeting in November to approve those sales. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next we have a proclamation of November 13th, World Pancreatic Cancer Day. Is Colleen here? Okay, a motion that we so recognize that day, Mr. Dunn. So moved. Second. Second. Discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed. Anything we can do to help wipe out cancer. The following are consent agenda items. I'll read them first. And then if anybody's here wishing to speak on them, we will do that after it. So first, it's a request for a special one day beer and wine license for October 23rd for the Regent Theater Boston Bike Film Festival. Then we have a request, a special one day beer and wine license for October 31st at the Regent Theater for URO Night of the Rocking Dead. Next, a request for a special one day beer and wine license for November 6th, 2015 at the Robbins Library for Books and Bloom. I'm sure we'll hear from Patsy in a minute. That's the approval for the Regent Theater wine and malt application, the changes and corrections, and finally approval for the Lyons iMobile on street at Town Hall, 730 Massachusetts Avenue, on Saturday, October 31st on 2015. So Patsy, I see you're here. Would you like to speak first? So this is for the library for Books and Bloom. Right. This was an event that was originally scheduled for last winter. And we didn't make it because of all the snow. So it's rescheduled for the fall for November 6th. The rundown is that it's a play on art and bloom. Everybody's familiar with it at the MFA. And we do Books and Bloom. So the displayers choose a book that they then want to display through flowers. And then those displays are arranged around the library. And you know how a library is such a beautiful building. And this just enhances the beauty of it. It's a cocktail party, so people are invited to. And this one is bubbly. There'll be Prosecco and champagne and wine and sweet treats. And Don Hemwaltrio is going to play some fabulous jazz. So we hope people will come and support it. It does support the Arlington Garden Club and the libraries in town. And it's a very fun evening. So we hope people will come. The tickets can be purchased at the library and also through me online. And how do we reach you online, Patsy? Patsy at patsycramer.com. That's very good. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Anybody else wanting to speak on any of these one day licenses? Nope. On the lines, iMobile. OK. So on the consent agenda, can I have a motion? Will approval second? Second. Further discussion? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Anybody? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed. Next is an appointment to the Redevelopment Board, Kin Lau. Sir, come forward, please, for your grilling. My name is Kin Lau. I'm a resident at 184 Newport Street. I've been there a homeowner for about 10 years, rented for a month or three years before that. My background is I'm at 23 years as an architect in Cambridge. And last five, six years, I've been a multi-family housing developer, mainly working in Cambridge. So, and you're interested in serving on the Redevelopment Board, thank you so much for that. But you have a particular, I mean, obviously being an architect, but I'm trying to find ways where my skill sets can help the town. I want to get more involved in the town. My son is nine years old. He goes to the bracket school system. I want to be part of this community and help the community. Well, thank you very much for that. And now to the grilling board. Move approval. Move approval. That was a tough one. Second. Second. Any further discussion, questions? I'll just say, I really, I'm speaking for her. I'm sure all of us, you've got amazing qualifications. You've done a lot of work in the industry with a lot of different firms. And thank you very much. I think you're going to be a real asset to the group. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. And I can say this at appointments, but we have over 100 boards and commissions in Ireland and almost all of them staffed by volunteers. We absolutely couldn't do it without individuals like yourself. Thank you very much for the service you're about to give. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed. Best of luck. Thank you. Thank you very much. So I see Billy Lyons in the back. Next, we have a request on Monotomy, Grilling, Tavern, late night events on November 21st, 27th, and 28th. Billy? So these, we've become very popular with the reunions. So Friday night, the 27th is class of AHS, class of 1980. The following night is class of 75. So they were already, the wheels were in motion, and then class of 85 asked me to please help them because they didn't have a venue. So that's why that one's on the 21st, the prior Friday. We'll be serving food right up until the end. And I think when you think about it, it makes sense to go till 1 o'clock as opposed to finishing at noon, midnight, and then going to Cambridge for another drink. So I know I mentioned this when I applied for the New Year's Eve extra hour, and I just think it makes sense. So I'll take it that means you'd like it for these three, but you're thinking it'd be a good idea all the time. I don't know. Maybe someday. You know, I'm almost 2 and 1 half years old. You know, maybe someday the town would consider 1 o'clock. But you know, I'm in no rush. Things are going well. Even our food sales are even up from when we first opened. We serve over 60% of our sales are in food. So that means everybody's eating and drinking, which is a match made in heaven. So I'm very thankful for that. Good for you. Motion? Move approval. Sorry to have done that. Oh, sorry to have done that. I'll move approval and I have a question. So when is so with a 1 o'clock close, when do you actually, when is the last drink gets served roughly? I think you guys asked last year to do it about a half hour prior. So I'll just keep the same. OK. You know, 12, maybe start at 12.15, maybe finish, probably take 15 or 20 minutes to everybody. I mean, they're different. It's going to be different volume. Class of 75 was the peak of the baby boomers. They've already sold close to 200 tickets. 85 is a little bit different because there was less babies being born. So it won't be as big a crowd. Thank you. Yeah? Yeah, other questions? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Town council, do I need to do each night, or that vote covers the three nights? I think the votes for three nights is sufficient. OK. All right, thank you. OK. Thank you. Thank you. Marie, do anybody signed in on the Citizens Open Forum? Show of hands, anybody here for Citizens Open Forum? OK, please come forward. Except in unusual circumstances, any matter presented for consideration of the board shall neither be acted upon or a decision made the night of the presentation in accordance with the policy on which the open forum was established, it should be noted that there is a three-minute time limit to present to concern or request. Thank you. My name is Darcy Devney. I live on Thorndike Street in East Arlington. For whatever reasons, the town of Arlington has completely failed to plan and assign sufficient properly placed handicapped HP spaces for the Mass AvCarder project. No thought whatsoever went into the number replacement of HP spaces. Instead, Mass Highway engineers treated the inadequate five spaces as if they were memorial benches to be replaced in roughly the same position. It is not too late to honor the promises you made about this project and halt pavement painting until this issue is resolved. It is not too late. Perhaps now is the time to mention that when some people objected to the height of the planters in this project, sidewalks were promptly dug up and the requested change is done. No problem. Don't disabled persons deserve the same respect. I'm asking you to put an adequate number of handicapped parking spaces in the optimal places, such a simple request. I have some statistics. The Vision 2020 survey in 2012. As you think about living in Arlington, how do you experience the following? For handicapped accessibility, 27%, that's more than 1,000 respondents, said it is, quote, often or sometimes an issue. Of course, the people who answered not an issue probably weren't handicapped. The Vision 2020 survey in 2015, which you have in front of you, the relevant part, if any members of your household used handicapped accessible parking in Arlington in the past year, how often could accessible parking be found in different areas? For street or parking lots in East Arlington, 31% answered never, which was the worst rate of any of the areas of Arlington. Seniors and mobility. I think I also put the census there. Of Arlington residents 65 years and older, 16% reported an ambulatory difficulty to the US census. Handicapped parking placards. The number of current HP placards in Massachusetts has increased dramatically in the last several years. In 2007, there were approximately 283,000. As of January 1st, 2015, there were over 406,000 active HP placards. In Arlington alone, there are over 2,000 active HP placards. And each year, approximately 200 new permanent placards are issued, and more than 200 are renewed, and more than 100 temporary placards are granted. Nearby towns, Belmont, Cambridge, and so forth have also experienced increases. Even adding 10 more HP spaces to the current five would equal 15 HP spaces, which is still only 7% of the total number of parking spaces. Given the statistics I've just cited, that doesn't seem unreasonable, does it? Disabled people won't come where they aren't welcomed, and they can't come if you don't provide access. It is in a case of waiting to see if handicapped people want to shop and visit and enjoy East Arlington, and then putting in HP spaces. If you look at the map, you'll see an accessible Mass Ave. The five existing HP spaces are marked with Xs. And I want to do a little thought experiment. A is for Annie, who wants to pick up dog treats at the clip joint, 108 Mass Ave. B is for Bob, who loves the bacon and eggs at the Arlington Diner at 134 Mass Ave. C, Catherine needs to sign mortgage documents at Leader Bank, 141 Mass Ave. D, Don wants to mail a present at the East Arlington Post Office, 240 Mass Ave. E, Edith's been invited to a birthday party at the Capital Square Apartments, 252 to 260 Mass Ave. F, Frank has an appointment at Lexington I Associates, 281 Mass Ave. G, Grace attends a funeral at Roger and Hutchins' funeral home, 292 Mass Ave. H, Harry wants to talk with a mortgage broker at Remax, 319 Mass Ave. I, Isabel craves a regular coffee from Dunkin' Donuts, 369 Mass Ave. And J, John needs to go to a meeting at the American Legion Hall, 370 Mass Ave. Thank you. Thank you. Have you been to the Disability Commission? I have sent them several emails, yes. Have you met with them about this issue? No. I've emailed several times. I emailed the town back in 2009 when this project started. As you see this. I'm not aware, what promise did the town make on handicapped spaces? You said keep our promise. You got up as a member of the board of selectmen and said that one of the things Mass Ave needed was to have handicapped accessibility and it would be provided. And ramps don't do people any good unless they can park to get to them. Our goal was to make sure that we did not lose parking spaces, which we have not done in East Arlington. Mr. Chapterland, do you want to comment on this? Yes, certainly. So I've actually been in contact with Ms. Devney. Is that with Ms. Devney over the course of the past few weeks? And I think the statistics she raises do raise some good points about giving further consideration to accessible parking in East Arlington. However, what I had suggested to Ms. Devney and I would suggest to the board as well is that we finish the project as contracted via Mass Dot and Lynch Construction. But simultaneously bring this question to the Disabilities Commission, have them review, make recommendations for further accessible spaces, and then bring that recommendation to the board of selectmen for designation of those spaces. I know Ms. Devney found that to be an unacceptable course of action, but I think it's a reasonable one that can still be done in a timely manner and address the needs as she's expressed them. Questions from the board? Comments? Do you want to make a final comment? I think handicapped people have already waited enough. It's not like this issue wasn't on everybody's radar. Somehow we just got forgotten. Loading zones weren't forgotten. Planters in East Arlington weren't forgotten. But disabled people were forgotten. And I don't think it's sufficient, considering that we haven't even been able to during the construction, get any handicapped parking. I don't think it's sufficient to say, well, can't you just wait another year, another year, another year? I'm kind of appalled that Arlington just dropped the ball on this. You know, it's not. I don't understand why it didn't get done as part of it. When you're renovating a building and you're looking at ADA stuff, you renovate the building with the ADA planning in mind. You don't put up the building and then see if you can fit an elevator in. So I think that's a great disappointment to the handicapped people of Arlington. I don't know where I have a handicapped placard myself. And I understand. I mean, I understand. But this is the first time it's raised. Not during the entire project, five years on this project do we have discussions. Was this particular issue raised to us that there was insufficient handicapped spaces? I think the manager's recommendation is the best one. As we always do, let's rely on our disability commission to advise us on this. They're the ones who would know the most about this issue. OK? But anybody want to make a motion? I don't think under rules there is an appropriate motion. I think that following up with the manager afterwards is appropriate. But I don't think there is a motion that is appropriate. Thank you very much. Anybody else for Citizens Open Forum? OK. Item number 10, traffic rules and orders, presentation potential medical marijuana facility. Mr. Daniel Carton. Mr. Chairman, could I provide some context for the board before the presentation? Sorry, I had to jump in. So the folks here tonight from the Massachusetts Patient Foundation have provided a presentation for the board's review, along with a memorandum that I provided to the board. And I just want to frame the context of what the board could contemplate at some point is granting approval or a statement of non-opposition in regards to the location of a medical marijuana dispensary in Arlington. That is a prerequisite for DPH licensure for any corporation or group trying to operate a medical marijuana dispensary. If a local government, a community, a city, or town does not grant that, then their application would not be further processed by DPH. Tonight in the memorandum I provided to the board, what I have told the board is that I did convene a group of staff, which included the chief of police, director of planning and community development, director of health and human services, town council, myself, and the building inspector to take a look at the issue. What we said is that though we wouldn't, on the measure or matter of medical marijuana, advise the board on whether or not it was the right thing to do, we felt like based on Arlington being a community of limited resources and our understanding that this might be the first in the region, that we would advise not being put in a position to be the first in the region. However, should the board choose to desire to move forward, we asked that the board listen tonight. And then if it was so inclined to move forward before taking any vote, asking the group to meet with the impacted town departments, determine what cost impacts would be, figure out if there's a mitigation agreement that could be put in place, and then if that is possible, come back before the board for some disposition. So I just wanted to provide that frame for the board. So just before we start, I should have mentioned this at the beginning of the meeting. Mrs. Mahan is unable to be with us this evening. But knowing her, I'm sure she's watching at home. Hello, Diane. Gentlemen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. I'm Valerio Romano, I'm the attorney for the Massachusetts Patient Foundation. I've been working on this issue since day one in the Commonwealth. And in fact, many years before that, I'm also licensed in California. My office represents about 2-thirds of the groups or at some point represented about 2-thirds of the groups that are currently licensed by the Department of Public Health and about a large number of the dispensary applicants for this time around. So we're very familiar with this issue. And that's part of why I was excited to come before the board tonight so that I could answer any questions that the board may have about the application process, about mitigation agreements, about locations, communities, what other communities are doing. Very eager to do that. Massachusetts Patient Foundation is a great group. One of the things that my office does now is we do background checks on every group that comes before us. Every member, and we actually use a company that the Department of Public Health also uses to run these background checks to make sure that we're getting the highest quality background checks. So I know that the Massachusetts Patient Foundation members are the best we can find. And they're a great opportunity for the community of Arlington. One of the nice things about trying to site in Arlington, we think it's a great opportunity to help patients of the Commonwealth. There is also, and this has not been well-publicized, and it's odd because usually the press hops on things like this, but Cambridge has issued a letter of non-opposition or support for a group that is applying in Cambridge, which is essentially what the Massachusetts Patient Foundation is before the board asking for tonight. That letter is just part of the application process. It's a third phase, a siting profile. We provide that letter and evidence of interest and a property to the board. Excuse me, to the Department of Public Health, it comes from the board. So just with that brief introduction, I would like Mr. Leikoff to speak a little bit about the Massachusetts Patient Foundation. Good evening. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us. It's very much appreciated. Dan Cardin was not able to be here today. My name is Joseph Leikoch, and I kind of want to introduce you guys to a little bit about who we are. First, myself, I'm a Babson College graduate, graduated in 2009, spent a lot of time out here, very much a big fan of the state, and I'm excited to be back here and trying to better a lot of communities and a lot of the issues that are facing this really amazing state. When I graduated to an entrepreneurial school, I immediately started my own business with my brother. We make a product called Dreamwater, it's a two and a half ounce shot that helps you sleep, all natural, drug-free, zero calories, and you wake up feeling refreshed. We're in about 35,000 stores in the US, including every Walgreens, CVS, Target, up here, Stop and Shop, Star Market, Roach Brothers, things of that nature. So that's who I am. The executive director and the chairman of the Board of Massachusetts Patient Foundation is my father. His name is Rahmiah Lekach. In the 1980s, he started a chain of retail stores called Perfumania and grew it to be the largest specialty fragrance retail chain in the United States with over 300 stores in 30 states, publicly traded on the NASDAQ, and he sold its controlling interest in 2001. Simultaneously, he also had a fragrance manufacturing company that licensed, manufactured, and distributed in over 70 countries worldwide, fragrances under the brands of Perialis, Paris Hilton, Guess, Ocean Pacific, Maria Sharpova, and many more, which that company was also publicly traded on the NASDAQ and sold in 2007. Can we meet them? Absolutely. Just a couple in there. Listen, the better ones are, after that, we did the same thing, but privately held, and we had Katy Perry, Adam Levine, Selena Gomez, Ed Hardy, BCBG, True Religion, et cetera, et cetera. So a lot there. Can we meet the next meeting, please? I'm sorry, Daniel. Dan Cardin, again, he couldn't be here today. He started a lot of different medical services companies, the largest of which was doing a lot of patient lab testing for GI procedures. He had a national sales team connecting doctors with different testing facilities, and he was able to realize an exit a few years ago from that. As our CFO is a man named Andrew Mark Young, he's been working with my family for a very long time. He put himself through school after coming here from Jamaica, and he was a CFO of Perfumania from 1999 to 2005, then with our fragrance manufacturing company. We have also on our board of directors the local Habad House Rabbi in Wellesley, Western. So he started the foundation in 2000 after coming and doing a lot of different things around the world to help not only Jewish people, but really anyone in Eastern Europe who had a lot of issues and other parts of the world as well. We have a chiropractor on our board. She was a lifelong citizen of Massachusetts. Now she lives in Virginia, but back pain is something that people tend to look for prescription cards for. So we felt it appropriate to have someone who understood that level of pain as advising us. We also have as our chief agriculture officer, a guy named Mikey Thompson. He is one dissertation away from a biochem engineering degree from University of Texas. Really brilliant human being, and he currently has 350,000 square feet of cultivation in the state of Colorado. He also does a lot of one-on-one consultations with various patients and mixes special remedies just for their specific ailments. So he's very well versed in various different profiles within the medical marijuana space to be able to really offer a very unique proposition for the patients. I feel like I'm forgetting someone. Well, we also have a now boarder who's from Landtel and his company will be acting as our security directors for, so I don't know if you're familiar with Landtel. If you're interested, now I can give you a minute because security, obviously, is a big concern for these. This guy's nice. Good evening. Thank you for your time. A little history on Landtel, if I can. Landtel was incorporated in 1992, and since that time has grown to be a diversified corporation that offers a wide array of integrated communication security solutions. With a team of more than 100 employees, it's currently known as one of the premier installation and integration companies in New England. We cater to individual needs requirements of the clients across all segments, including law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, schools, hospitals, public venues, law firms, and many high-profile businesses. Because of our relationship with many state agencies, we have brought on very early on in the process by DPH to help design and come up with solutions for the further security, for the R&D dispensaries, as well as the growth firms. A lot of the systems that we are actually including in our security design, the security systems themselves, access control, surveillance, panic and holdup, video winter comms, and as well as a redundant security system that's part of the requirements of 725-110. That means that there is a separate alarm company who will actually be providing a redundant security system for the site. For security reasons, it's just a way for them to be able to control who's going in and out of the site. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions that you may have at this time. So, I mean, would there be a guard on duty? Like I just mentioned a number of different systems that are in place, right? That's correct. Would there literally be a guard on site? Yes. Or is it normally? I don't know. Yeah, so what security normally like, I guess. The way these are designed is they have a man trap or a Sally port, right? So a patient or their caregiver will present themselves outside of the dispensary, not even able to come in, and they'll present themselves with their state issued medical use of marijuana identification and a second form of ID. Then they'll be let into this sort of Sally port or man trap area, at which point there'll be a security guard that will inspect their identification again, make sure that it's valid, make sure they're allowed to be in. In Arlington, MPF, Master's Patient Foundation only proposes to site a retail dispensary, not the cultivation portion. The cultivation portion is frequently much larger and a different set of security requirements, but during a business hours, there will be a security person on site all the time. Absolutely. So is that a man trap, you call it, I think? Is that like a jewelry store would have a very high end jewelry store? Very similar. Yeah, it's kind of like, if you've got it on and out of a submarine too, that oxygen, it's you can't really get in. You present your ID outside, you present it again inside. And it's a requirement by the Department of Public Health. One of the things I've been fortunate enough to do is work with the inspections department through a number of dispensaries all throughout the commonwealth and we've gone through security plans over and over again. And I'm happy to work with this group because I know they have the resources to implement the utmost security. And so one of the nice things about working with the department closely is you really learn what they want. And this man trap is absolutely a requirement by the department. But if I'm sure all of us have lots of questions, but since we're on security at this point. So the security guard is inside. So a patient coming in with a lot of money in their pocket or going out with the marijuana in their pocket, there's no security necessarily. That would have to be by our local police of robbery. Right. I mean, your security guard is inside. In terms of the actual cash portion of that question, there will be an ATM available and accessible within the store. We don't want patients walking in with cash. Also in terms of generally patients leaving a dispensary, there's not been any reported crimes of that nature. And it's been, I mean, there have little, we don't want to overstate, you know, the fact is that study after study in a well regulated medical use of marijuana jurisdiction to show that there is no increase in crime. The police chief of LA back said, banks are more likely to get robbed. That being said, this is one of the topics that we want to work with the town of Arlington and the chief on implementing security that Arlington thinks is appropriate. For instance, in Framingham, we've been back and forth with the chief. We got a letter from there for another one of my clients recently. And one of the things we talked about was the parking lot attendant. You know, somebody who's also outside to make sure that traffic flows well and to watch these issues. I mean, at a certain point, just like somebody leaving a CVS or a Walgreens with a pocket filled of Oxycontin, at a certain point it becomes, it doesn't become the CVS or Walgreens problem. Certainly cannabis is a lot less dangerous than a pocket full of Oxycontin. And there is rarely even a security guard sitting in a CVS or Walgreens at all. And certainly no man trap, Sally Port, certainly no same issue with cash. Now the cash issue, of course, we would like to have an ATM inside. We'd actually ultimately like to do debit and credit card processing. Right now, unfortunately, given the nature of the schedule one nature, the controlled substance under federal law, it's a little iffy. There are debit and credit card processors that will allow the transactions, but you can't be entirely forthcoming with the processors. And so Century Bank is a great bank that stepped up to taking these deposits in the Commonwealth. And what they've said is like, look, until we can be 100% transparent with the federal regulators, we're not gonna allow you to do debit and credit. And that's a function of Congress rescheduling cannabis or marijuana from a schedule one. And I mean, I'm not holding my breath for Congress to act, although it might be nice for all of us if they did. But what we do with cash is even if people bring it in, if for some reason, the ATM, they can't access it, whatever, we have frequent cash sweeps, right? So there's never more than a few bucks sitting in the cash drawer. It's always going into a safe and then we'll constantly perpetually having pickups from the safe to bring the cash up to Century Bank until we can do this debit and credit processing. Century has a number of options for this, they recommend. And also there are a number of new companies coming into the Commonwealth opening for justice purpose, people with top secret clearance who have been moving things around to Afghanistan for the last number of years and they're back and they're trying to look for a place in the industry and people with serious pedigrees who wanna move the cash around for these companies. So we believe that the cash part, we can make it safe. And then as far as we talked about the cannabis coming and going from the place or leaving the place, if you compare it to a CVS or a Walgreens, I believe it's far less of a security risk and we're gonna do far more security in that event. Thank you. So questions from the board or? Got a comment, not a question. Okay. Go up. Okay, Steve. Although if the animals, so. What? Yeah, sure. I have a couple of questions. Do you wanna make a comment first? I was gonna wait for questions to finish and comment. Okay. I do have a couple of questions. So we kind of got into it a little bit, but can you discuss the actual pros and cons that you've seen in other communities that you've worked in? What are our communities seeing on the ground? I know you said there's not a huge increase in crime, but what about the, I'm sure that you've gone through this process elsewhere, but how are communities receiving it that you've seen elsewhere? In the Commonwealth or? Yeah, in the Commonwealth, if you could. So so far in the Commonwealth, there are three dispensaries open. In the 2013, 14 registration or licensing process, they gave out 15 registrations and three are open. That's Brockton, Northampton and Salem. There have been no reported issues with crime. The only issue that's happening is that these dispensaries are unable to fulfill the patient need and they're actually running out of medicine frequently. Other than that, we would all have been very aware if there was a robbery or an accident. I mean, every newspaper and press outlet in the Commonwealth jumps on any medical use of marijuana story immediately. And there has been nothing reported that's like that. You know, there was, so I mean, there just has been nothing in the Commonwealth that's negative. And that's because the Commonwealth is the most highly regulated marijuana jurisdiction in the country. I mean, I was doing this in California, you know, years ago and even there, where there is no state oversight of regulation, there's either you're breaking a law or you're not, and individual municipalities issue business licenses and they regulate it that way. Even in California, early on, certainly in Oakland, when there was no oversight, you know, it rolled out and it was a shaky start, no doubt. But Massachusetts is exactly the opposite of that. If you look through the regs, the voters passed a five-page law in 2012. And the Public Health Council and the Department of Public Health, in conjunction with Lantel, helping them on the security regs, put out 50 plus pages of regulations on implementing the simple five-page law. The regulatory requirements are intense. The security requirements are intense. The diversion requirements, packaging. You can't make the stuff look like, you know, you can't make it look like candy, right? You can't have a Hershey's bar with, you know, fake Hershey's bar. You can't, you know, you, the packaging has to be totally innocuous. You just have, you can have the logo of your dispensary which can't have any marijuana stuff with it. It can't be, you know, attractive to children. I mean, every single thing has been thought out. The signage at the dispensary itself, no lights after dark, no marijuana signs, nothing. The only reason that, you know, this is for one to 2% of the population to get medicine. The only reason you're gonna know what's there is because the, you know, the location is gonna be absolutely spotless. And, you know, the patients are gonna know about it. But the rest of the public has no reason to know that a dispensary's there. Thank you. Another thing to add also is that, unlike in many other states, the state of Commonwealth of Massachusetts has put a nice amount of emphasis on home delivery. The Commonwealth in and of itself would like people to not have to leave and leave their homes to get the medicine. And we plan, I'm 28 years old. I buy everything on Amazon. I use Uber. I use to all these things. I think that there's a significant amount of convenience in home delivery. And we plan on very aggressively offering that to patients, not only in the town of Arlington, but in the communities that surround Arlington, just like any other dispensary location could theoretically provide home delivery to Arlington. But we wanna negate that from anyone else. And we wanna work with the town to branch out from here. And one more sort of response to the municipal effects of having a dispensary. There, right now, although Cambridge will, you know, will be open probably about the same time, assuming that everything goes smoothly for them. But right now, by not having a dispensary locally, there's something the department wrote into the regulations called the hardship cultivation registration. And hardship, one thinks, oh, financial, there's actually another form of that hardship. And that's inability to access a dispensary. So lack of access could be a hardship. And if there's no local dispensary or one that will deliver to you, then people can actually just grow virtually unregulated in their basements, right? Or their closets. As long as it's an enclosed and locked area, right? So that's a virtually unregulated cultivation. And I can guarantee you, there's some of them in Arlington right now that have, you know, that the DPH is or will be aware of that are sanctioned under state law. Once the dispensary opens up around here, the DPH will not issue any hardship cultivation registrations to anyone because the Massachusetts Patients Foundation will deliver to them even if they can't come or they'll have access. So that absolutely eliminates these unregulated grows that are happening basically all over with the fact that there's only three dispensaries open in the Commonwealth and many, many more patients that aren't being served by that need. So it's actually, you know, as far as what effects on a community are, the elimination of those hardship cultivation registrations are valuable. And another thing that the Found MPF did was they've instituted a program for providing low cost, small, small amounts of medicine to patients as well. So even if they do have a verified financial hardship, they can still come and get a gram a week or whatever they need just to medicate. Not enough so they can get ounces and go resell it, you know, but just enough to medicate and that's part of the other hardship. So they're gonna eliminate a lot of these issues that come up where there isn't a dispensary in fact. I do have one more question. Can you talk a little bit more about the agreements communities are receiving? You know, what would, what does one typically look like? What are municipalities receiving under these agreements? So yeah, from working throughout the Commonwealth, I mean, they really range the gambit depending on what a dispensary seeks to do. For instance, in Quincy, one of my clients there, we worked very closely with the mayor there to, and they were really ahead of the issue, really making sure that, and so there's a 3% of gross revenue goes back in mitigation agreement essentially to the city. That location is cultivation and retail. So they have, you know, it's a 36,000 square foot building. It's a whole different set of issues with cultivation as well. So, you know, in Plymouth, for instance, you know, there's a $100,000 agreement for cultivation only that goes up incrementally plus there's a property tax match every year. And they're sort of all over the board. If you'd like to get into specifics about, you know, what the foundation would be able to work with Arlington on, I'd be happy to talk to you about it. That's at your discretion if you want me to answer any questions like that. But I can tell you that Master's of Patients Foundation, as you probably got a little bit from Joseph's, you know, speech about, you know, who they are and where they come from. They're not in this just to make a killing. They're in this to actually come back to mass and give back some and be able to sustain salaries and work it out. So if they're, you know, this is a great group to enter in a host agreement with because they're not, they've already been successful. You know, they don't need this to get rich as if some people see the green rush, right? On top of that, this is a nonprofit jurisdiction in Massachusetts. So all these dispensaries have to operate as chapter 180 nonprofits. That does not mean that they're public charities though because the IRS will not give you that charitable organization designation because you're selling a scheduled uncontrolled substance. So as, but as a nonprofit, the way that the nonprofit rules are being construed despite the fact that they're not charities, they're limited as to how they can spend their money. They can't give, you know, they can't give revenue shares back to investors. In fact, there are no investors. There's capital contributors and lenders. There's no shares. There's no equity in the actual nonprofit. So hopefully if, and it seems like it will, given the patient population in Massachusetts, there will be some discretionary cash that will be available to give back to the host community in mitigation. And one of the ways that, you know, I see this working and I think it works best having worked with a lot of communities on this is you bring the stakeholders to the table and you sit down and you say, you know, what are the important things for Arlington? You know, at the beginning of this meeting we talked about, you talked about, you know, issuing a bond, you know, and what is that money gonna get spent on? What is, what do you need? You need squad cars, you need, you know, what is it that Arlington needs and working with the foundation on supplying that. So as opposed to just saying, okay, give us a chunk of cash and then it basically gets spent by the town before you ever see it. So I think the people who have an idea of where it should get spent in mitigation should probably sit across the table from Joseph and Daniel and really work out, you know, and then you can sort of earmark in a community host agreement where that could be spent. But that's certainly at the discretion of the town and I know that this group is, you know, eager to work with the town and will be very generous in how this works out. Perhaps a new school. Well, you know, I mean, you know, it's funny, but if you, let's say you got, you know, a couple hundred or $300,000, I don't know exactly the number, but paying the note on a bond or on a loan, you know, perhaps a new school. I mean, honestly, you know, Massachusetts Patient Foundation can't afford just to buy a new school, but with that money, you could pay the interest on buying a new school, you know? So it's actually not inconceivable, you know? Thank you. And ultimately, you know, we're here as to be as professional as humanly possible in this space. People normally think of a dispenser, you think of like a 1970s pawn shop. For us, we know retail, we know how to be very successful with providing the patients the best possible experience when they walk through those doors. And that's what we wanna bring to Arlington and that's what we know we will bring to Arlington. With Perfumania, small, very valuable items, fragrances, easy to steal, shrink rate was under 1%, which is unheard of for a retail operation. And that's what we wanna do here as well. I actually did come up with a question. Based on something, could you tell me one thing that I hadn't heard about was that there was progress in Cambridge. And I'm curious both what you understand about the progress in Cambridge and what you understand about why there hasn't been a Boston area one yet. Okay, so the group that's working in Cambridge is not my client, so I'm not privy to anything inside, but I know they have gotten a letter. I'll take your hearsay. Yeah, exactly. They've gotten a letter of support or non-opposition, and they've secured a property. If you look at the letter and I have the template, and I'd love to hand out to you the template for the letter, the last line of the template is the board is verified with appropriate local officials at the proposed RMD facility is located in the zoning district that allows such use by right or pursuant to local permitting. And so you almost have to have an address secured in order to get the full letter that we're looking for. So they got a letter, they have an address. There actually is one at 21 Milk Street in Boston as well. That's Patriot Care. They actually had been through the zoning board of appeal in Boston. It took them a bunch of shots to the Apple. They went back and forth, but they did a great job and they have gotten their special permit for siting right in the heart of financial district. I mean, my office, we just moved, my office was at 10 Milk Street. 21 Milk Street is directly across street from my office. Virtually no on-street parking. Millions and millions being spent to big banks into the area. And there's going to be dispensary right there. But so Boston, Cambridge opening up. So really if you look at the map, there's 140 or so applicants right now. There's 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. They're really looking at the, everybody wants to be over here. So over the next years, once more and more are open and the sky hasn't fallen and there's money going back to communities every single town around here is going to wind up eventually with a dispensary. It's just a matter of time. And what's nice for a community to get in now early on is that there is some sort of, for lack of a better word, leverage on the community's part saying, look, we really want a good mitigation package. We're worried about our citizens. We want to make sure this money gets spent in mitigation of the perceived ills. Later on, there won't be that because they'll be more like a package store and they'll just sort of be all over and it won't have that. So getting in early on, I think is a good opportunity for the community. Mr. Carroll? Thank you very much. Thank you for your presentation. Of course. I mean, I certainly appreciate your entrepreneurial spirit. You're on the bleeding edge. But I gotta say, I'm not a hundred percent sure for myself that I want Arlington to be on the bleeding edge of this. Especially when we have a neighboring community that's so close to potentially having a dispensary set up. This has been a concern here. It was a concern even as the ballot question was proceeding forward. And I think we all recognize the town. Town's voters did vote for this, but I'm not sure that they voted to have a dispensary right in the community. I serve as representative to the Youth Health and Safety Coalition here. And there have been a number of worries as we move forward about seeing how this unfolds. And that's why I take kind of a cautious approach, I think, on this where I'm very worried about being the first in the area to proceed. But that having been said, I'm looking at your site and certainly you are in the buffer zone that's established by DPH, but I'm sure you're also aware that there's a heavily trafficked bike trail there. It's a school path and you're surrounded by an alley, several parking lots and what not, for what that's worth. I had a question on your organization. I mean, so it says you were founded and capitalized in 2015. Is that venture capital backing that you? No, it's all private. It's all private funds. All private funds. There's zero expectation of return. Okay, okay, great, thank you. And as I look at your team, I also appreciate that you have a chiropractor on board, but I was wondering, do you have internists or folks with pharmaceutical backgrounds who are part of the proposed project? So one of the issues that happened early on in Massachusetts is there were, most groups went and found a doctor to put on their board. And the DEA actually went around and unannounced, knocked on these doctor's doors, whether they're homes or their businesses. And they told them, they said, either you give up your registration to prescribe controlled substances, I mean, Percocet, or you give up your affiliation with this, with the nonprofit that's gonna issue, that's gonna help patients with the medical use of marijuana program. You know, and so after that, it's become more difficult to bring on doctors on your team. That being said, I'll let Joseph speak a little bit more about the composition of their team. Oh yeah, and I've actually spoken to various doctors about this. My mother had double bypass heart surgery in OHSU in Oregon, with one of the top cardiologists in the country. And I've spoken to him at length because my mom's family has a history of early onset Alzheimer's. And her brother's already experiencing some issues with that. And so he's been to Israel, where they're on a bleeding edge of medical marijuana research. And before he went to see that doctor in Israel, it wasn't even a conversation with him. But even in speaking to doctors here, the cardiologist, everyone has come out and said, for the most part, it helps. And more than anything else, when you look at the alternatives, you know, Percocet, Vicodin, they're just terrible for you as a human. You get addicted and it destroys lives. Medical marijuana does not do that. And so people actually tend to, like to now prescribe medical marijuana where it's available first before you go to the stronger opiates. But I think as far as direct response to your question, Mr. Coro, I don't believe that there are any additional MDs as part of the team, officially. But, you know, in Massachusetts, it became tough. I mean, virtually all my groups in 2014 had these MDs as part of the team. And the DEA really went around. And it was right around the time when the house was like the same week. The house, the United States House of Representatives was actually passing a bill to defund the Drug Enforcement Agency for highly regulated medical marijuana dispensaries. They were actually defunding the DEA. So the DEA at that point is scrambling, like, okay, well, how do we get these guys? And, you know, it could be a rogue agency here. I don't know. And since they backed off, that did happen, you know? And it was sort of a shame for the program because I think you're exactly right. What the program needs are more and more doctors to participate in it, not to scare them off. You know, I mean, that's exactly what we need. We need the studies to be, although they've been going on for decades, we need more and more data collection. We really need this, it's truly medical program here in Mass. One to 2% of the population. It's not, in Massachusetts, unlike California, for instance, the doctor has to have an ongoing role in the patient's treatment. They have to review the patient's complete medical history before they give them the certification for the medically used marijuana. California, you hear about people getting these things over Skype, right? I mean, there's just no interaction with the doctor. So this is really a medical program that we'd like more and more doctors to participate in. Well, that actually speaks to my next question. Is it your intention to accept certifications from out-of-state physicians? No, that's prohibited under the Department of Public Health regulations. It has to be a Massachusetts doctor, and it also has to be a Massachusetts resident. So there is no reciprocity with other states under the current formulation of the regs, and it has to be a mass physician. Okay. That's all I have. Thank you. Mr. Dunn? The comment, are you ready for comments? Motion even? Can I ask a couple more? Of course, I apologize. If you'd like to have the questions. Of course. Can I ask a couple more? So am I right? I'm looking at this 11 water stream. Is that right behind Domino's? Is it that medical building right behind Domino's? Right behind the Domino's, right here. We actually had dinner at, not your average Joe's, walking just to take a little rock. Yeah. But so how much space are you looking for in that building, or is it available to you? It's 5,000 square feet on the third floor. On the third floor? Correct. And you don't have any idea, perhaps you do, what number of people might go in there in a day, right? You said maybe 2% of the population in Arlington, that's what, of 43,000, that's 1,000? Is that, did I do that math? Anyone there correctly? Right on there, just under. Just under 1,000. It wouldn't necessarily be only our own community. No, they're not all going there in one day. Yeah. We did a traffic study in Quincy when we thought that they were only gonna be maximum of 35. Originally, the department had said in the first year that they're gonna issue only 35. And then in years after they could do more. And when we first did our traffic study in Quincy as part of the special permit process there, which we got the special permit there, the traffic study was minimal. It was absolutely negligible. There was no issue with traffic whatsoever. And this was when we thought there were gonna be a maximum of 35. There are 140 or so new applicants now, the Baker administration, where the governor has actually said medical marijuana, he's open to the opportunity to have it help opiate abuse and opiate addiction. He's actually says that this is the new application process they've said is gonna be far more market-based and there's just gonna be a lot more openings. So we think that our traffic study there, where we said it was negligible, it's gonna be less in a couple of years from now by the time NPF gets to open. And there is a lot of parking though for any eventualities at the building, there's a municipal parking. Well, yes, there are spaces. We know the park. There is a great need for parking in Arlington if you've really looked into it, as a previous speaker just alluded to in terms of in particular handicapped spaces. Okay, thanks, Mr. Chairman. And also leading up to this meeting, I had an opportunity to speak with the building inspector, Mr. Byrne. And he informed me that our location is possible under local zoning. It's a special permit. It's actually redevelopment board with environmental review. But he said, look, I'd have to speak to the town council, if I were to put that in writing. And when I said, well, can I make that presentation orally? And he said, absolutely, he wouldn't. So we did have that conversation. Right, we've been through the zoning part of this in terms of where it would be allowed. Mr. Dunn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I'm definitely in a place where I don't want to, I'm not ready to say yes to the actual application and to sign the paper that we passed to the DPH tonight. But I think that this is, but I think we need more info before we can make that particular, take that particular vote. But I look at this issue in two different ways. I look at it both under principle and under practicality. And under principle, I think that this is a civil liberty issue. And I think most importantly, it's a humanitarian issue. I think that the reason that Medical Marijuana was approved by the voters of the Commonwealth is because they saw the need and they saw the people who were hurting and they saw that there was a completely insane set of laws that are governing it. And they thought that they could cut through some of that. And I would feel terrible if we in our position were part of the problem there. We are in a place where we can cut through some of that. And I would like to do that. It's worth noting that when you went to the ballot here in Arlington, it passed by more than two to one in favor of it. And I really do think that people understood that meant that there would be Medical Marijuana in Arlington because I think people understand that their votes have consequences and I give them all the credit for that. But I don't, so that's the principle aspect of it from a practicality aspect of it. It needs more information. We need to understand more of the details. We need to understand what the relationship would look like. And so towards that I'm gonna make a motion. And my motion is that we direct the town manager to follow as he indicated in his memo to talk to the applicants about what mitigation and agreement and come forward with a more detailed proposal. I'll second that. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, yeah, Mr. Byrne. I'd like to actually provide a reason for why I agree with Mr. Don. So I think I actually would have been ready to sign a statement of non-opposition, but I do agree with Mr. Don that there is some finer details that have to be worked out. And I do also echo the sentiments about Arlington's vote that was taken in 2012. And I think that really is speaking largely to my position on this. But last week we were at, Mr. Cureau and I were at an opiate forum here in town. And I really do think there is a spot for medical marijuana and pain management and kind of taking away kind of and moving away from dependency on opioids in that. And I think that could have a really, a strong effect moving forward on the opioid crisis. And thirdly, I think it's a smart financial decision as we've heard tonight. The town stands to gain a lot in pursuing this. And we're staring down an override. We're looking at that exclusion. And that's, and we always, we talk about revenue and how we don't have enough of it. And this is an opportunity to really pursue some and working it out in a way that isn't the best interest of a town. And I really hope that we do pursue that. So thank you. Okay. Any other comments? Yeah, Mr. Cureau. I'm sorry, I won't be able to support the motion. Like I said, I would really like to see how this plays out in other communities in the area. Knowing that there is a proposal already in the works in Cambridge, it seems to me that there is a possibility for our residents too, who wish to avail themselves of medical marijuana to do so, should that go forward. I don't feel comfortable with such a new venture in the Commonwealth being one of the first, well, guinea pigs really for lack of a better word. I'm not comfortable moving forward. I'd be happy to make that direction after we see, maybe have some time to see what Cambridge's experience is and have that factored into the analysis. But we can't factor that into the analysis until they have a track record. So I'm very sorry that I won't be able to join. Mr. Chairman, may I speak to timing? Very briefly, I know that there's, so thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate it. So the Massachusetts Patients Foundation will probably not be open if we are lucky enough to proceed in Arlington, will not be open for probably two years here. We're not talking about six months. We're not talking about a year. There's months left in the Department of Public Health process. Then they have to build out a cultivation facility somewhere else in the state. And that takes considerable time and money. And after the cultivation facilities build out, they actually have to create the medicine for the patients. All that while they'll be working with local police, fire, health department, youth services, youth groups, providing substance abuse counselors if necessary, working with the local community. So we got a couple of years before. So if at all it eases your concern it's not like this is happening next week or next month or even next year that one will be open in Arlington. It will be some time from then. And by the time Arlington is open, there's a nice thing that Arlington has is the special permit process. So you absolutely thoroughly vet our plan in opening here. And that will take place over months. It will be quite some time before we're able to engage in that. And you'll see the other ones opening up in the Commonwealth. So within a couple of years by the time we're open, the other 15 will be open. And Arlington will have the opportunity to sort of look at what's been going on. The sky hasn't fallen for the first three. And I absolutely understand your concerns, Mr. Currow. This is a very polarizing issue and I get it. But I think the timing might not be quite as sort of doomsday or urgent as, just if I don't know if that helps or not. And I apologize if I'm saying the obvious. Thank you. And I appreciate that. I appreciate that. But recognize that the special permit process won't take a lot of that into account. And so as far as the broader policy issue, for better or for worse, I think it rests with this board. And I'm concerned at this stage. I mean, I know you said that a number of physicians have supported this, but the organized medical community in the Commonwealth was not on board with this. And they're just ramping up medical education and formal medical education around this. And I'm very concerned about being a party to this. And I recognize the financial incentives that are there. But I think for me, I think it's tough for me to take that and weigh that against the, what I consider a broader policy concern. So that's kind of where I sit right now on the question. Okay, so it took us forever to get liquor stores and we have always been quite careful in terms of these type decisions. I'm a little hesitant to support Mr. Dunn's motion tonight, only from this point of view. Mrs. Mahalan asked that we don't really take any sorts of votes this evening. But I most certainly want the input of our Chief of Police, of our Director of Health Services and others before I would be ready to sign a letter saying I don't oppose it, but I don't oppose it. So, but I just need a heck of a lot more information at this point in time. I mean, I do believe that it is part of a healthcare system. I think it's far less damaging than alcohol, but those are not related to. So, you know, with your permission, Mr. Dunn, I would like to just direct the manager to start these discussions before we officially take a vote on whether or not we would sign a letter. Am I right? That's all you're asking us to do so that we don't oppose. Mr. Greeley, my motion was simply to direct the town manager. Okay. That is the only motion I made, it was to direct the town manager. I know, but she still asked we don't take a vote. So, but that's all right. You put a motion out there. No, Mr. I'm sorry. I forgive me, but we're not taking a vote on the, but explain the letter to me again. It's just, we always do it not. We're not doing this tonight, but. So I'm gonna just, you don't have to call me your manager. Thank you. If you look at the second sort of blurb down there, template B option, the other one would be from the executive officer, either one, they're substantially similar. If you look at the language of, excuse me, if you look at the language of the letter, it's more of a zoning endorsement really than anything else. I mean, you know, it's not saying we support marijuana. It's really saying, you know, we don't oppose this group and their zone to site in Arlington and we've checked that their zoning's okay, right? So it's the department, you know, during the first application process, I know the department went through the ringer with towns because they didn't give this kind of guidance, right? So there were letters of all shapes and sizes that were getting through or not getting through. So they gave this kind of guidance and I think they did a great job really watering down the letter significantly so that, you know, a board would be able to, would be able to sign the letter and not feel that they've taken such a strong position one way or the other about the medical use of marijuana program or the group itself. I mean, it's a significantly watered down letter compared to some of what we were seeking in the first application round. And they did that expressly. So that's the contents of the letter and I hope that answers the question, Mr. Chairman. Okay, Mr. Dunn. It sounds, if you just want to, without a vote, to ask the town manager for more information, I'm perfectly okay with that because that's what I'm getting what I seek either way. That is what I'd like to. Is that all right with you, Mr. Chapter Lane? You're not sure what we're asking? I'm happy to be the bad guy here. I think that the board should take a vote with the understanding from Ms. Mahan that no substantive action is being taken. That the only thing the board is voting to do is to direct the town manager and the relevant department heads and personnel to prepare something more substantial from the town's perspective, including a consultation with the folks from the foundation on what essentially would be in front of you for a more substantive vote. Is that a fair summary, Mr. Dunn? I even used the word, yes, it is, because I think I would have had a little bit more emphasis on the conversation with the applicants, but essentially yes. So there's no substantive vote being taken tonight as to whether the board will oppose this medical marijuana facility, whether it would put in a letter of support under the right conditions or whether it would put in a letter of non-opposition in the right conditions. We're just trying to vet what the conditions might be if the board were so inclined to put in a letter of non-opposition, if that makes sense. Mr. Chappell would. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to simply add to that, Doug's right on. If the board votes on this tonight, every individual board member will still have the opportunity to vote for or against the further information we bring back on the question of approval or non-opposition. Not only that, I believe that should be adhering that night because I think there's many members of the public that might have something to say about this, especially those who might live near Leavenwater Street or whatever. Okay, yeah. Mr. Chairman, if I may, I mean, to Mr. Currow's perspective on this, there'd be nothing wrong with voting against the motion saying that I don't want to have any further discussion of this. I understand that, and so maybe Ms. Mohan would be missing out on the opportunity to vote and say I don't want to have any further conversation about this. I don't want to misrepresent it. I'm just saying that the way I understand Mr. Dunn's motion is not that the select member would not have the opportunity to essentially say yes, no, or we essentially take no position whatsoever. Right, I'm ready, I'm clear, okay. So, right, anybody else want to say anything else, or no? Okay, so on Mr. Dunn's motion, and seconded by Mr. Burrin, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye, and all those opposed. No. Three to one, we are taking no specific action to basically asking for more information. Thank you very much. We really appreciate your time tonight. Okay, thank you. I'll be the bad guy too, I will start bugging Mr. Chaplain all the time to make sure I get as much information over to him as possible, so. This will surprise you, you won't be the first that will try that. Yeah. If I get billed like the billed money out of us. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Good luck. Thank you. Thank you, see you another time, I'm sure. Aye, Mr. Chapter Lane, resolution house 2870, natural gas leaks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I may, these are two separate resolutions for two separate bills, but I'll speak to them at once and allow the board to deliberate. These will brought to my attention by the Mass Sierra Club and a representative of Cambridge Heat, which is a home energy efficiency cohort in Cambridge, as well as having a counterpart in Arlington. Actually back at EcoFest in the spring here in Arlington, this came to my attention, and then was subsequently further brought back to my attention with some media attention brought to just the sort of the quantity and frequency of natural gas leaks. If you hadn't seen it in the map that I provided in the agenda item, you may have seen it in other sources, sort of this spectographic map of all the leaks in Arlington. So it's a problem. There's health and safety issues regarding gas leaks. There's methane release, which is environmentally unfriendly, and then there's just the fear and unsettling feeling that residents get when they smell gas, call the gas company, and the gas company says it's not severe enough to fix it, and you have to deal with that smell, not knowing if it's dangerous to you, your family, or what might happen. So these are two separate bills that a number of other communities, including Cambridge, Boston, and Waltham, and several others, have voted resolution in support of. The first one, House Bill 2870, would prohibit the gas company from passing on the costs of unaccounted for gas to the rate payer, to the individual, to the business, to a community like us. So when they leak gas, we all pay for it. We all pay for that unaccounted for gas. This bill would move to prohibit that, to have that instead of going to the rate payer, eat into their profits, and then, in fact, give them a much stronger financial incentive to repairing those gas leaks. The second bill, House 2871, would require the gas company to replace gas mains or gas pipe whenever a significant upgrade to a roadway is being performed. So that would, if we're cutting the road open, let's get in there and do the work at once, so we're not cutting the road open a month or a year or two years after we've just put down some fresh pavement. I can't say that I really know about the likelihood of either of these bills passing, but I do think they both support the sentiment and position of at least the administration in regards to dealings with National Grid. There's a lot of good things about our relationship with National Grid. There's also a lot of frustrations that we have with dealing with National Grid in terms of gas main replacements. So happy to try to answer any questions. I think there may be a representative from Mass Sierra Club here to answer any questions you may have, but if the board so chooses, I would appreciate support of these resolutions. Would you like to speak, sir? Hi, David Zeek, and I am with the Mass Choose chapter of the Sierra Club, and I mainly just came to answer questions if there were questions. I have been very busy myself in trying to communicate with various municipalities and get them to vote on these. This is very influential as, say, Jamie Eldridge, the author of the Senate version of this bill and Lori Erlich, who's the author of the House version of this bill, to hear from communities. So a resolution in support of these is something they can kind of take to the bank, and as more communities agree that this is the right thing to do, then we're also kind of racking up the percentage of the Massachusetts population that's agreeing with this. So I think it's a very good thing to do. I would point out that National Grid, and well, any utility company, is a highly regulated business. So they do what DPU tells them to do, and they set their rates in a discussion with DPU. You know, they're reimbursed for these spot fixes, they're reimbursed for lost gas. These are things that are negotiated, and those costs are put into the rate and so forth. So it's not like they're going to change their way in some sort of a business opportunity. There's no real business opportunity for them here. What needs to change is the game rules, and that's what DPU does, DPU sets the rules. So when we lay down a marker, like you can't be reimbursed for lost gas, that says, okay, well, we're gonna have to, we're gonna have to take care of it, right? We can't allow a pipe to just continue to leak for 20 or 30 years. You may have heard that we just had a 30-year birthday party in Boston for one of the leaks there. It's just that, and it's not about the amount of the gas that's leaking. The weather leak gets fixed is about how dangerous that's perceived to be. Is it near a building? Is it near some sort of ignition source or something? If it's out in the middle of a cornfield, it can pretty much be spewing gas like crazy. But it's just, that's the measure. Is it dangerous or is it not? And if it's not dangerous, there's really no motivation to fix it. These laws will do that. And the second law, the 2871, about fixing when the road opens. This is, as I understand it from talking to DPW operations elsewhere, this is the biggest issue is coordinating, paving and gas line installation. And then if it's an emergency, the gas company is fully authorized to come in and just dig up the road to fix an emergency leak, of course. So it's very common to have a leak pop up. They come out, fix it regardless of how new the pavement is. And because of the aging pipe, the corrosion of the pipe, that tends to push the pressure in the pipe a little farther down the line. So three weeks later, there's a new leak, 50 or 100 feet further on, come out, fix that, and so on and so on and so on, until the entire pipe is replaced. Now National Grid has a 20 year plan, or they say they're planning to replace all of their pipes within 20 years, get rid of all the old infrastructure, all the old pipes. Hopefully this kind of an action would just accelerate that process and maybe get all of this out of our system in five years. And at the same time, stop spewing methane into the atmosphere, which is 84 times as bad as carbon dioxide in terms of retaining heat in the atmosphere. It's a short-lived gas, actually. It's got like a 12 year half-life. Carbon dioxide has like a 100,000 year half-life. So if you stop spewing methane into the air, then within 50 to 100 years, it'll be gone. And we won't suffer that part. So, okay, I guess I kind of get carried away, but I'm happy to answer any questions. Any questions? No? Thank you, sir. Motion. I move that we pass along to our representatives that we support both of these bills. So I'm doing two agenda items and one, I guess. With your second? Second. Both, we can do on both. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Okay, so thank you very much, sir, and we support both of the resolutions. Thank you, Jim. Thank you. Item 13, move to open the warrant for the annual town meeting, 2016, to close when? January 29th. January 29th. Mr. Chair. Okay, motion on that? So moved. Oh, okay. I think that was a tie, so I'm going with Mr. Burns. Second. Second. Mr. Burns motion is seconded by Mr. Carroll, but it was so close, I want you to know. We can't wait for town meetings. Yeah. I can't believe it's already gotten open this day. I know it, isn't that surprising? So opening of the warrant, we as always encourage people to please pass your warrant articles through our town council. He just loves that, and he's certainly a very, has great expertise in that area. On the motion to open, are we open at when? Tonight, literally? Is it tonight? No. No, until December 1st. December 1st, so we open at December 1st. At 8 a.m. At 8 a.m. and close January 29th. At 12 noon. At 12 noon. Start your act. All those in favor of Mr. Burns motion, very closely seconded by Mr. Carroll, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed. Anything on correspondence received? Move approval. Aye. Move receipt. Second. And second. Any further discussion? All those in favor of receipt, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed. No business, Maureen. No, I have nothing to request. Mr. Hine. No, no business. Mr. Chairman. Did the Yankees make it to the playoff? They did make it to the playoff, Mr. Chairman. They just didn't last particularly long. I'm sorry. So who are they playing? I'm sorry. Mr. Chapter Lane. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple quick items. I had previously advised the board about the potential need for a special town meeting to fund the Stratton School Reconstruction that's currently contained in the capital plan, but the schedule of which would need to have further monies allocated before the next spring town meeting. We're currently honing in on the potential for a late January special town meeting. What we're trying to do is marry the need for money really up front for portable classrooms and then money a little bit further along for the actual construction of the Stratton School. And we're trying to squeeze that as closely together. We're going to finalize what we're and when we think we really need it tomorrow night at the Permanent Town Building Committee. And then I'll bring back a recommendation to the board at the next meeting for consideration of scheduling of a special town meeting in January. Also want to tell the board my plan is to work with town council to get an RFP, already been drafted by town council for 1207 Mass Ave, the DAV before the board at its next meeting for consideration and then issuance. I tried to do it for tonight but didn't get that done. Want to tell the board I went to a school facilities working group meeting tonight at five o'clock to start to talk about scheduling and timing of how we will address the school enrollment issue that was discussed at the September 24th meeting. The biggest takeaway of that is we're going to call together a school enrollment task force, which will be a subsidiary of the budget and revenue task force, excuse me, as actually the chairman had suggested. I'm going to try to do that within the next several weeks cooperating with the superintendent so we can have a group that will meet in public to really look at all options and begin to make recommendations before next spring town meeting about what we will need to do, what investments we need to make and what we should be considering. Want to also tell the board, you've probably been hearing some of the feedback about the traffic signal changes at the intersection of Mass, Mill, and Jason. Would you like to sit behind what I've gotten so far? I'm in intolerable condition, sorry. I've actually commented, I've received probably more emails on this than any issue since I've been town manager. But they're also the most courteous, respectful emails I've received. I mean that, I really mean that. People are being very courteous and judicious but requesting some action. So very quickly, this was a tax study funded by money that came from the CVS special permit when CVS went in several years ago on Mass Ave. Tack made a recommendation, brought it to the board, the board approved it. Now it's been implemented, frankly several years later after the recommendation had been approved and users are not necessarily experiencing it as favorably as the engineering suggested they would. So I don't think that means that we pull the plug on it today but I did email the co-chairs of Tack. I've been speaking to Mike Radomacher about it. I'm gonna put everybody in a room, figure out what we think we should do, communicate with the board, communicate with the public and make some decisions about where we should go. As I'm sure you're hearing, seems to be the major concern is the concurrent pedestrian phase where traffic is allowed to turn while pedestrians are crossing. So we're gonna have a focus on that and to see if we can still get benefits of the left turns off Mill and Jason that seem to be a positive without having the fear or danger that people seem to be experiencing with the concurrent pedestrian phase. So I'm telling you that tonight because I know there's a lot of attention on it. We're looking at it very closely and we're gonna try to make a sound decision and recommendation to the board. AYCC, Arlington Youth Counseling Center, Gala this Friday, Friday evening, excited about that. I think it's the fifth or sixth year they're doing it. So that's a great event to support a very important town function. And finally, this Thursday, we're having the department head retreat offsite, actually bringing in a speaker who's an Arlington resident in regard to mindfulness and just trying to get everybody's head checked, checked out for a little bit, give some people some tools to deal with the stresses of the job and come back re-engaged for the winter to come. So with that, I know that's a lot but that's my new business for the night. Where's the offsite? It's at Grandview Farm in Burlington. John Petron gave us a good deal. Mr. Bern? One thing, last week, Mr. Hero, myself, Adam all attended the opiate forum that was put on by Arlington Youth Health and Safety Coalition, I'm sure Joe will speak of it, but it was a really great event. I thought it was very informative. Definitely wanna thank Sean Garbley, Ken Donnelly, Chief Ryan, Maura Healy, the Attorney General, District Attorney Ryan, Mike Duggan from Wicked Sober who really is doing tremendous work as well as Rebecca Wolfe and Dr. Alex Wally for being a part of it. And I've gotten a ton of feedback from it and people are just really, really seem to think it was extremely beneficial and I hope I think that there were some takeaways that we can start working on to see what we can do. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hero. Thank you, I was gonna say no new business but actually Mr. Bern did raise this and I will say that last Friday I attended one of the regular Mass Municipal Association legislative breakfasts and they always open these up to kind of general discussion. It's generally a number of legislators, selectmen, town administrators and the opioid crisis dominated the question and answer. Usually it's attacking the state funding and local aid and such, but it dominated probably about a half hour of the hour that was allotted was on this one issue. And I did share some of Arlington's experience with the other folks there especially the benefit that we've seen with the clinician on staff and make sure the legislators and attendance understood that part of that support for that role comes from DPH and that that's something as they're taking up this legislation that's been proposed by the governor that maybe they wanna consider that model on that aspect as well as a big bang for the buck. That's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Just while on the opioid issue, at work I actually work with people who don't live in Arlington. As shocking as that would be. And you hear about things in other towns and the Medford mayoral race, the opioid crisis is playing a lot in and it's interesting hearing those conversations about how other towns are talking about it and thinking about it. Anyway, the item that I was gonna bring up was just to inform the board that Joe and I met with, before it's balding, the chair of the Minuteman School Building Committee and had a candid conversation that I don't think resolved anything but at the same time the conversation is good and worthwhile. And between now and our next meeting I've got at least two meetings that I think three scheduled with Selectman from other towns trying to chew through what's going on. There's definitely a timeline and there's definitely a process and there's a Minuteman School Building Committee hear the clock of the state funding clicking very loudly and it's a little bit open question right now. I mean, not even a little bit. I really can't read the tea leaves about whether or not they are going to wait for somebody to say no and then call a district ballot or if they're just gonna call a district ballot without it regardless. They may even do something. They have the power to announce that they like to vote to take on the debt and then we have every town has 60 days to call a special team town meeting and reject their vote. They may even take that path. So, I mean by they have the right to do. It strikes me as bad politics, but anyway. So no solutions yet, but definitely conversations. Thank you. That's it. I just want to clarify that I realized a comment I made earlier no way or any or am I condoning the use of marijuana other than outside of medical use and that needs to be crystal clear to people. It's like our policy on alcohol needs to be done legally and responsibly. I have no new business. Motion to adjourn. So moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Next meeting is voted select on November 9th. Good night, Arlington.