 Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Allington Board of Selections meeting for February 12th, 2015. It is 7.15 in a little past, so I do call this meeting to order. Just a reminder that we are being filmed by ACMI, so please smile while on the camera. And I'd also like to note that due to some scheduling issues, I do appreciate everyone's patience with the weather. And you may have seen that we were slated originally to start our warrantiering tonight, but we'll be doing those at our next meeting due to some scheduling conflicts. That being said, we also had an emergency addendum that will start the meeting off, so I'll send it right over to Adam to get started. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This item is in regards to temporary suspension of metered parking in both of the municipal lots that are metered currently. Would you like an update on snow and ice as part of this agenda item or under new bedding? I think that would be excellent. Okay. So the item that I would request the Board's action for that we didn't presume would be happening for the posting of this meeting, it's come to our attention that the meters in this weather have significant operational problems and have been failing, as well as creating just a real significant challenge to keep them cleared and accessible with the continued snowfalling and frankly the higher priorities at this point for our DPW resources. So until we get through the thick of what we're dealing with, I wanted to ask the Board to vote to temporary suspend metered parking. Still keep the three-hour limits that are in there today in the lots, but suspend the use of the meters until further notice. Move approvals, spend the meters in the municipal parking lots until further notified. Second. We have a motion and second. Any further discussion? Joe. I was just wondering, I don't know if I should ask if through you, Mr. Chair, if I should ask the manager or the parking, is this some way to hood them or mark clearly that they're not in operation? Yeah, I know we're gonna try to hood them. I don't know if we have a formal hood, but we're gonna try to put bags over them so that would be clear that they were not open at all. Excellent. Thank you. Further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor of discussion from the crowd? Seeing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you, Adam. In general, I wanted to provide the board and the public a quick update on the status of snow and ice removal. I know I've updated the board via email. We've sent out town notices to residents. Also sat with ACMI today for their Thursday news broadcast. I just do a brief update. So very, very quickly, we are still focused on the mains. We've been doing overnight removal on Mass Ave. Started that last week, got interrupted by the last snowstorm and then started again last night. We'll be continuing that work tonight. We have crews in from MIMA that they provided as one crew that's been cleaning actually Broadway all day today, trying to widen out Broadway. We've also had crews focusing on routes to schools in terms of crosswalks and safe access for children to schools. Once we get through that, our next priority moving into next week will be starting to look at what we can do in a widening effort in the neighborhoods to try to alleviate some of the burden of the parking ban. Before we get to that, we're trying to moderate the use of our resources with this storm that's being forecast for Saturday night into Sunday. There's still varied forecasts. You know, we're waiting to see how that gets refined before we make any firm decisions about what we think we can dispatch next week. Once we get through that, once we get through the weekend, then we'll be able to see next week again what we can do in the neighborhoods, whether it be one side or the other and try to get some parking back and get some normal feedback. The only other thing I'll say is I have to just thank all of the staff at DPW immensely for the hours upon hours that they've put in. It has been incredibly tough. And they've just been amazing and been amazingly committed. Jimmy Dodge, the operations manager has been incredible managing the operation and Mike Rademacher is just he's a superhero. So if you see Mike, anybody sees Mike, please say thank you. And then I'd also like to thank residents for their patience and reasonableness. I think generally every day I've come into work the past couple of weeks, I've been expecting a lot more calls and visits to the office that haven't been there. And I think it's a testament to the patience and understanding of the population. And I appreciate that. That's it. Thank you very much, Adam. Comments from the board? Dan? This is now appropriate time. Okay, so I briefly spoken to Stephen before about that I wanted to express, I mean, first of all to echo what Adam had said about the town employees who've done the work that they have. But the other thing that I think we all as a town need to remember is that we're in an unprecedented situation. Like most of us were around one way or another for Blizzard of 78, though some of us might have been six. And but we've passed. And others of us, Dan? Yes, we're not. Others of us weren't even born then. Weren't even a thought at that point. But I mean, seriously, we've got more snow in one week than we did in 78. We've got more in two weeks than we did in 78. We've got more snow than a month in 78. And so we are in what is unprecedented territory. And we need to think about that and just it means that we're gonna have to hold our temper. It means we're gonna have to be thoughtful for longer than we're useful. And I very specifically wore my Red Sox tie today. I very carefully decided what ties to wear because today was the first day of spring. And so we just have to remember there is an end to what we're all enduring. And I think it's important that I'm delighted with how it's been going so far, but we're gonna have to hold our tongues and breathe deep for a little while longer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Dan. We've all had this conversation, but given the intensity of the storms and the veracity and the frequency, I've gotten maybe two, if you want to call them complaints and even then they've been apologetic. Looking at other cities and towns, Allington's doing a fantastic job driving down the app tonight. I saw all the signs that said no parking here. You know, there'll be a massive snowbank effort tonight. I did have a conversation as we all have with the manager pending 24 hours and how the doppel looks in the incoming storm for Saturday night to Sunday morning. I had just posed to the manager as we all have, if perhaps the eight or nine DPW employees on the snow fighters, if we if it's projected that it's definitely going to be a really big storm. I definitely appreciate, you know, the effort out here. If we can give them just those eight or nine, I'm just using that number. I think there's eight or nine snow fighters that are maybe give them the 12 hours before if it's forecast that they're going to be working once again, because they're just running on, you know, caffeine and whatever store that's open pomegranate farms that can give them something to eat. If it's if it's doable. Yeah, no, I think it will be doable. And Jim Dodge and Dan Warren have been very good about cycling in when we can try to be as safe as possible with the with the drivers, particularly the large equipment that you thank you. Joe. Thank you. I don't want to repeat too much what said, but I think it has been remarkable that the low number of complaints that we've gotten. I'll note that I was down last night at the there was the MWRA informational meeting about some water lines going in when Mr. Rademacher was introduced, all the residents who were there applauded him. And I don't think they're applauding because their streets are about to get ripped up and for a water line. So I think folks recognize the effort that's in there. I'd also note that I think a large part of the reason that we're not getting as many questions and such is just the excellent public information effort. It's been just extraordinary. I think between the emails and the calls to the home, it's been just extraordinary with links to extra information and where decisions haven't been made making very clear when they're going to be made and how to find out. So thank you to the manager and to Ms. Roman and the rest of your staff for that. And for anybody who was watching, if you had not signed up for the alerts from the town, this is the time to go now and to go to the town's website and to sign up. You can sign up for telephone alerts for email alerts and also we have our social media presence. So thank you. I think the public information piece is key and something like this. Thank you, Kevin. Yeah, I'm sorry to be redundant, but it is such an extraordinary effort. It deserves redundancy. It's something like 120 miles of road in the town of Arlington. Public. So does that not even count the private ways? Public and private 125, yeah. 120, 120. 120. And I know each of the last three storms, I have three times had to go out and I have a nice snow blower. I feel like a real man behind this thing that's got a headlight and everything. This baby will blow the pebbles. Unfortunately I don't have any pebbles. But you know, I've had to my driveway, my home three times per storm. How many times have clouds had to go 120 miles to cover it? So, you know, from Adam, Michael Rademacher, Chief Bob Jefferson, head of emergency services, the police and especially the public works employees. It's just phenomenal what they've been able to achieve and the number of private contractors we have who also have been doing the job and the public's, you know, being patient. I almost get into a fight with a woman in my water polities class because we're not giving out tickets for people not shoveling their walkways. And, you know, the 17,000 home sites in Arlington, can you imagine the man power, woman people power it would take to check all of sidewalks, you know, and everybody's doing the best that they can. But I'm very proud of the people that work for this town and the job they've done. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. I agree with everyone what everyone said tonight. And I'm very appreciative of everyone involved as well. So that being said, we'll move on. Mr. Gilligan, a authorized sale of $750,000 in MWA water bonds. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members of the board, I appreciate your time. What you have before you are the certificates for a water bond for $750,000. It is a no interest water bond loan from the MWA, the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority. It is for water main and water facilities that's part of the program that Director of Public Works, Michael Rademacher has been working on for years under the auspices of the town manager. You recently took a vote to approve a financial agreement and a loan instrument about a month ago. This is the follow up to that. Your vote to authorize and execute the bond will mean that on the 26th of February, we will receive $750,000 for the water mains, and we will pay that back in 10 installments of $75,000 each over the next 10 years, beginning the next fiscal year at no interest. And this is in keeping with the water program that's been underway for quite some time. I will remind the board if you don't mind that a year ago the MWRA suspended its water loan program. And I picked up the phone and called Mr. Rademacher and we both decided that we call our contacts and say, hey, gee, do you really want to discontinue this? And we both got the same answer. Thanks for reminding us. We'll get back to you when the program's back in place. Thank you very much. So it's all good news. Good. Thanks. Questions from the board. Kevin. Great job as always, Mr. Gilligan. Move approval. Do you need me to read this whole vote, Steve? You don't need to. All you need to do is move approval as the vote is recommended on language. Thank you. We have a motion and a second further discussion from the board. Joe. Yeah, I just have one quick question. Thank you. Thank you for the work on this. You said that this will proceed for 10 years out. Not the work, just the repayment. No, the repayments. But I noticed that what we're voting tonight only goes through 2020. No, on the other side. On the other side. You have two columns. Two columns. Oh, gosh. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Further discussion from the board. Seeing none. Discussion from the crowd. Seeing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Thank you, Mr. Gilligan. Thank you very much. Thanks, David. Moving on. Request for the endorsement of the Unequal Justice Program from the Vision 2020 Diversity Task Group, Miriam Stein. Hey, thank you. I would also like to thank Miriam for being thank you so flexible with her schedule and working with us as we reschedule these meetings time and time again. I've lived in Arlington since 1974. I'm here representing the Vision 2020 Diversity Task Group. We're here to ask you to join the other 20 co-sponsors of the program, Unequal Justice, Consequences of Race and Class in Our Criminal Justice System. This is part of a series of diversity conversations that we started at the Diversity Task Group last spring and your last sheet lists some of the topics. We chose this topic regarding the criminal justice system and race and class as a follow up to the December Vigil Black Lives Matter, which was attended by 400 people, 400 residents in Arlington. You can see from the flyer, the speakers are Fred Ryan, Paniel Joseph, Professor from Suffolk Law School and parole reform activists. The second sheet on your handout lists the 20 other co-sponsors, including the library, Arlington Public Schools, St. Agnes, St. Eulalia's, and a whole bunch of other groups. And we would very much like to add the Board of Selectment as one of the co-sponsors. Are you happy to answer questions? Thank you very much, Mayor. Questions from the board? Move approval? Second. We have a move approval on the second. Discussion? Joe? I would just note that I'm very happy. I saw an earlier version of this flyer and it's so nice to see Chief Ryan's name on here rather than the placeholder of the Acting Police Chief. So thank you. Thank you very much for the discussion. Dan? Yeah. I'm happy to support this. And I think I want to, I must admit when I first, the thing, when I first saw the email come in, I kind of, my heart skipped a little. I was like, oh, like, is this going to be, is this going to be unnecessarily confrontational? And I have the thing that I've been delighted to see is that it is cooperative and it is, and I think it's really a great way to approach this program. And I'm delighted to support it because I think it is positive. You know, there are other communities who haven't been able to do it as successfully. And so I'm happy to support it. An important strategy of Vision 2020 is to collaborate with everyone in town, including town bodies. So that, that is our approach. Great. Thank you very much for the discussion. Seeing none. Discussion from the crowd? Seeing none. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you very much. Moving on to the consent agenda. We have minutes of meetings from February 5th, 2015. We have a reappointment to the Open Space Committee, Elizabeth Carpatty, request for a one day beer and wine license for February 27th at the Robbins Library for Books and Bloom fundraiser. We have a request for a one day beer and wine license for March 14th, 2015 at Robbins Memorial Town Hall Auditorium for South Sudanese Enrichment for Families Gala, Ron Moulton and Catherine Lennox. Do we have a motion? We have a motion and a second. Second. For the discussion from the crowd. Hello, Patsy. Thank you very much. Well, the Super Bowl got us through the beginning of the storms and this is something that maybe will get us through the end of the storms. Books and Bloom is a very fun event that's held at Robbins Library. It's co-sponsored by the Arlington Garden Club and the Friends of Library. So it's a fundraiser that benefits both of those groups. It's a takeoff on art and bloom. And rather than a painting being displayed in flowers, it's a book that's being displayed in flowers. And of course, you know how beautiful our library is. So it's just a beautiful setting for something like this. It's Friday, February 27th, just a couple of weeks away from seven to nine. Tickets are available at the library and also through me. They're $25 ahead of time and 30 at the door. Some of the books that are being displayed this year are The World Atlas, which I'm doing. Child's Garden of Verses. Elaine Shea is doing the little engine that could in honor of her husband, Bill. What's something called the perfume collector. My sister lives on the mantelpiece and many others. So really a fun event. We've sold out the last three times. So I urge people to come and have a really fun night. Thank you. Thank you very much. Oh, we have a question. Yes. Just curious. What are the flowers used for the book, 50 Shades of Grey? Is that not one being sponsored this year? No, this was last year. It's a great event. I hope to get there. Thank you very much. Thank you, Fatsy. Is anyone here to discuss any other issues? Discussion from the floor. Seeing none. We had a motion in a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed. Thank you. We'll move on to the public hearing. We have a petition from Instar, Bailey Road, Massachusetts Avenue. I don't know how I'm going to follow that one. Instar Electric would like to have 107 feet of conduit on Bailey Road and Mass Ave. And this is for system improvement and system reliability. Second. We have a motion to second. Discussion from the board. Seeing none. Discussion, no one in the crowd. Slow night. So we have a motion to second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed. Thank you very much. Thanks for being here. Thank you very much. I will note before that what was taken. We have a note that all the butters were notified. So happy about that. The thing I like about this particular one is that the map includes the buried railroad tracks underneath Mass Ave. Which is always great to see. Don't dig there. There's no functional trains to put on it anymore. So it's okay. Just as there are no citizens in the hall here. So we'll read it anyway. Citizens open forum. If anyone watching at home, if you do plan on coming to citizens open forum, moving forward, there is a sign-in sheet outside. So please sign into that before coming in. Except in 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 be noted that there is a three-minute time limit to present a concern or request. There is no one here for citizens open forum. So moving on to traffic rules and orders. Other business. A discussion regarding chestnut street parking issues. Led by Mr. Greeley. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Through the manager and Corey, we did look at this, but it's at this time it's not advised that we make any changes. To be honest, what's happening is that there's a small business there and it has few spaces, but the employees are taking the space, so they're complaining that there's no space for their guests. So, of course, our first recommendation to them would be you go and park in the municipal lot and leave your interior spaces. I think it's six. Do you remember, Adam? Five or six. Yeah, I think that's right. And let your clients use the interior spaces, but we can't, you know, the fire chief, the police were all against changing. What they were hoping is that right along St. Agnes, we would allow more parking. So the recommendation is that I move approval of the recommendation to not make any changes. Move no action. Is that the way I should say? Move no action. We have a motion and a second. I will note that after what we there is a temporary suspension that we voted on earlier. So that might provide some temporary relief and we are getting the parking study group finalized and we'll be meeting shortly. So hopefully there will be, I don't want to say there will be relief, but it certainly an area we'll be considering. That being said for the discussion, Joe. Just wondering, have all of the appointees appointments been made for that parking? We're in the process of finalizing it right now. We did accept resumes and applicants, so we're still weeding through those. Thanks, Dan. I will note that, I mean, it's obvious to us, but it's worth mentioning that between the funeral home on one side and a church on the other is that there's a lot of really, I'd call it like burst parking, like it's very event driven and it's problematic. And there's definitely, I mean, I won't pick on the church too much, but I will say that on Sunday morning sometimes there are people who do things there that really deserve tickets and I'm frankly glad that we're doing some more enforcement down there. Thank you very much. So we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? And sure, Mr. Chairman, but they were notified, right? Yes, oh yes, yeah, we contacted them. And we'll now notify them about that. Yes, we will. Thank you. Well, that wraps up tonight's agenda. So, new business, Marianne? No new business. Doug? No new business. I just wanted to officially announce, I can't recall if we talked about it at the last meeting, but the budget and revenue task force which was impacted by one of the earlier storms will be held prior to the board's next meeting on February 23rd at 6 p.m. Thank you very much. Kevin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, only that. Marianne, watch me here. We hope on February 23rd to have a preliminary on parking or no, it's the march. It's going to be March 9th. March 9th, excuse me. So I have nothing, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you. Two things for the Chairman when he deems appropriate with the town manager, whatever steps we need to be taking for the Community Preservation Act in terms of the warrant article, in terms of, you know, the committee, when we should start sort of scouting out interests for things like that, I'll leave it to the Chairman for an appropriate time on that. And then this is sort of a rhetorical new business. Mr. Greeley and I have experienced this firsthand when we had that microburst, but I did have a conversation, as my colleagues did with the town manager now, that we're in the middle of this storm and MIME is involved, and there's the possibility of some federal funding as well as there will be a supplemental file by some of our state legislators, and I foolishly asked the town manager if he felt that he was up to speed in terms of tracking all these costs of the storm, which again is really more of a rhetorical question. He was already aware of both of those avenues, and I guess whatever, the MIME, you've got that down pat, perhaps at the budget and revenue task force meeting, I don't know if that's an appropriate discussion, but I do know different reps and members have already, especially of cities, Worcester and Somerville and likewise, but we do have a Wellington delegation, perhaps we can ask them to, you know, every little bit helps, as the town manager pointed out from MIME, we may not get it for 12 to 24 months, but everyone is talking that there will be a supplemental and I think it's whoever gets in there first, fast and furious, so I just wanted to put that for us all. Thank you, Mr. President. I know that last week, Joe and Adam and I went to Minuteman for their most recent update, and they unveiled some proposed buildings. There was, I forget the exact ones, but there's like build new, there's build renovate, there's just renovate. They also had a much less involved version of a no state money aspect of it, and I guess I have some editorial thoughts on what I think about those building plans. Of course, the other thing that's going on, I guess I'll share the editorial thought. My editorial thought is that they are aiming for a school that I think is, I am unconvinced, they think that they can get 620 students out of the sending towns, and I think they're wildly optimistic. What are they currently doing? About their theory is build a new school and we'll get a higher enrollment, which, yeah, and I agree that they will, but they literally are saying 50% more, and based on it, and I just don't buy it. The second aspect of that, as we all know, is the regional agreement which has 10 towns approved and 6 that haven't, and I did not walk out of that meeting feeling like we were going to turn 6 of those towns into yeses so we'll see. It'll play out. Oh, the other aspect, the other piece of news is to me, anyway, was that MSBA had originally said that the deadline for choosing which plan was to be this January as in last month, and they gave yet another extension which common wisdom is would be the last until, was it July, Adam? Oh, July, 2016, yeah. No, this year. For the next step. Right, for the next step, which is choosing which one you're actually going to do. Anyway, so any other questions? I'm sure Joe or Adam are, I would be happy to answer. Thank you very much. That's it. Okay, Joe. Yeah, I mean, just to piggyback on that, I mean, one of the it was a lively meeting. It was a lively meeting that some of the towns that have not signed the agreement yet have made pretty clear that they're interested in getting out of the district, but they haven't stepped up to concretely ask to exit the district, and they really, that really creates a catch 22 situation. And one of the spokespeople for for those towns was one of the other select men was very strong in his belief that we should actually write an addendum to the agreement that's already been passed by 10 town meetings, specifically naming towns that will be allowed out on day one, should they choose. You might recall that we all, we were one of the communities that adopted the so-called Needham amendment where we resolved as a board that we would not get in the way of any community that wanted to get out, but some of them are feeling that that's not a strong enough guarantee and that they wanted really in writing that they will absolutely not be blocked. So it was a lively meeting. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, through you may ask a question on this. Yes. I don't know. So six want to get out and their primary reason for not endorsing is because they want to leave not because they don't like the formula about changing the weight of the votes or is it both? I think that there's a lot of ambiguity. So like for instance like Dover for instance which is the smallest sending town under the new agreement their costs would go way up and so they are really the easiest example they should ask to withdraw but even they haven't pulled the trigger it actually said that they want to withdraw and there are other times for instance like I hadn't heard this until Friday but Belmont is just apparently their most recent reason that they're unhappy with it is that they don't like the capital allocation on that but there's still lobbying efforts Adam in particular is working with they have a group what do they call it the collective task force they've created the impossible dream task force which is to go to each of the six towns and convince them to go to each of the six towns and convince them that they should do it and so in particular Belmont yes can I respond yeah that's fine there's sort of two issues with what Mr. Kuro articulated from the point of view of the other communities A, you know there are representatives from each of the communities at those meetings but they can't speak for their community so it creates an almost impossible logistical challenge for all of the communities to put in writing the six communities that think they want out when there's no guarantee that those six communities will go to their town meeting and successfully achieve the vote to pull out of the town meetings so there's sort of like a back to the future of thinking things are going to happen that might not happen in creating some serious problems so I think that's probably my two problems in one but that's the challenge so we are going to meet as we have that internal minimum working group I think we'll pull together a meeting to talk about our strategy but it's very challenging yes and if six get out can we find six to come in we don't necessarily have to we don't really need to because those six they were set at the meeting I haven't double checked it I haven't double checked the math you jogged my memory of actually the second thing I wanted to bring up most of those six still want to send their students to Minuteman there's a break even point in the formula it's about somewhere between seven and ten students if you send less than that it's a better deal for you to be out but still send your students there to the non-member so that's sort of the balance and some of them were upset because the formula and the agreement has a minimum assumes a minimum of five students even if they're not sending five and I'll say that I think it's fair to say that Arlington was kind of had a bull's eye on us from some corners in the room because we've taken a strong position to defend the representation of the town and we've tied the building project to that there was no one in that hall who was confused about what our position was there was no confusion each one of us got up and spoke to it so we've got a bit of a bull's eye thank you for the impossible dream task force Adam's doing the work there I'll move that the only other thing I want to mention I think Patsy mentioned Elaine Shea for the books in Bloom I think Elaine might be coming to us want to come to us the next meeting I think she's talked to some other members about the work she's been doing on domestic violence with her upstanders initiative and as it so happens we're coming up on White Ribbon Day which is part of the Jane Doe initiative where specifically men stand up and take a strong stand in raising awareness against domestic violence so if you want Mr. Chair I'll follow up with Elaine but she gave a call over the weekend and I just wanted to let you know that so that's it thank you very much I have one piece of new business last week I think it was last week yeah maybe two weeks ago with the storms either way we have two new firefighters we have two individuals graduated from the firefighter academy Sean O'Brien and Brian Borges I don't know Brian but I know Sean quite well we grew up playing little leagues a good friend of mine and I'm very happy that both of them went to the academy that they were selected and I think they'll serve the town incredibly well and so I'm pretty happy about that but of them that no new business and a second all those in favor please say aye aye