 Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Selectments Meeting for June 17, 2013. Just a reminder to everybody that from Memorial Day to Labor Day, we have informal meetings, which means some of us choose to take advantage of it and not wear a tie. Right, Diane? The tie's in the back until September. All right. First up is our Consent Agenda. On the Consent Agenda, we have the minutes of meetings for June 3, 2013. We have a vote for the Arlington segment of the Susan G. Coleman three-day breast cancer walk and a year-end transfer from the deputy town manager. I just want to note that we have on our desk who was something that was in our packet a memo from Officer Ratau regarding the Coleman walk, where he's saying there are currently no objections, and Sergeant Kiernan has been in contact with Ms. Ricker. So there's a tentative safety meeting planning on June 25. And Andrew, did you want to talk about, but Andrew's here if he wants to have questions. Mrs. Mahan? If I could ask my colleagues in Delgens that first I make a motion to approve 1A and 1B. I do have comments on them. Okay. The reason why on 1C, I'm going to ask for two separate motions, and I'll explain when we get there. So move to approve on 1A and 1B. Second. Second. Second. Okay. Comments, Mr. Kiernan. And on the minutes reflect under item six, that during discussion I did state that I had no objection to the issuance of a permit for three tables, and that my only objection was based on the passage between the bike rack and that fourth table. I don't want it misconstrued. Ms. Kopak, you got that? I'll talk to him afterwards. Okay. So with that, let's accept that change, Ms. Mahan. On 1B, I do as a cheerleading coach at the Arlington High School. Where? Sorry, where are you? Oh, I'm sorry. On 1B, the Susan G. Coleman. Oh, yeah. I just want to, once again, just bring to the town manager's attention that not so much of the cheerleaders are involved, but one of the other things that we're asked to do is have the hose, I call it hosing stations, and usually DPW, either Jimmy Dodge or Dan Warren. And it's only on excessively hot days. We set them up. The cheerleaders take care of it. So when the walkers come through, they can walk through a mist. And I was just looking at the CCs. So for that particular function of it, I'll just leave it with the town manager to once again coordinate that through DPW. Okay. Is there anyone here from the walk who wanted to speak? Okay. Any further discussion? Consent agenda minutes as amended and the walk subject to conditions. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Ms. Mahan. Okay. I have one question to my colleagues and then one question to the town manager and or. Do you want to make a motion first? First, I'd like to make a motion to approve the end of year transfer request with the exception of the Comptroller request as, and I've spoken to town council about this, it speaks to transferring money because one telephone operator was out sick and another telephone operator had to fill in and that telephone operator is my mother. So what I'd like to do is vote the rest of the requests as one vote. And I can vote for that and then take that separate and I will abstain. Yep. Okay. So we have a motion. Second. Second. Any other questions? Just have one question. If the town manager, and I don't expect you to know this off the top of your head, if you could provide to the board the, because we've had two or three vendors on the IT department request because there was a vacancy. I believe somebody retired and we hired an outside IT vendor as well as anticipate either continuing that or going with another IT vendor. If we could just get some information on that. I'm just curious if it's one in the same, who the vendor was and what the services were. And I really do have, unless you already know the answer. No, I can provide that for you. Okay. Any further discussion on this? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those abstaining? Aye. Three, zero, one. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We have appointments up next. Arlington Historic District Commissions is Charles Berry and Michael Bush here. Because you both, why don't you come on up to the microphone? And you can go, you can race to see who gets to the microphone first. We've got your CV, your resumes or whatever they sent us. We read it. Thank you very much for volunteering. You just tell us a little bit about what brings you to this commission and why you're interested in helping out. I've lived in Arlington for 30 years. Could you start with a name? I can't tell you apart yet. I'm Charles Berry. Good to meet you. Nice to meet you. I've lived in Arlington for 30 years. I'm Charles Berry. Good to meet you. Nice to meet you. I've lived in Arlington for 30 years. I've lived in Arlington for 30 years. Good to meet you. Nice to meet you. I've lived in Arlington for 30 years. A degree in architecture. I've been a builder for 40 years. And I've always enjoyed the architectural fabric of Arlington. I think it's a real asset to the town. And I have got to the point in my life where I want to start giving back. And I feel I can contribute to that. Thank you. By elimination, I'm Michael Bush. I've been an Arlington resident for about five years now. I was a restoration carpenter until I was about 30, when my right wrist decided to give out on me. And these days I'm an optical engineer. But I own a grand old wreck up on Mount Gilboa. And my various neighbors have suggested that I should do this. And it struck my fancy. So I have. Thank you. Comments, questions? Thank you. Move approval. And I just would say to Charles, both Charles and, is it Michael? David? No, Michael. No, Michael. Charles and Michael. I'm thrilled that you have a background in commentary and restoration, regardless of how much you can do, as well as, I know Michael's here. It's not a conflict or anything. But you are Alma Mater of the Chairman's College of Choice. So I thought that was interesting. But I'm so impressed at the fact that not only have you bought in Arlington, that you bought a historic home, everything that comes with it, you fulfill the requirements for the, and I always get this wrong, historic district commissions. But that, as you say, you're willing to not only do that, but as you've cited from the microphone, do it not only for yourself, but for your neighbors, which includes the town of Arlington. And I'm eternally grateful for that, because I have several friends who live in historic homes. And it is a big commitment. And I really say hats off to both of you for doing this. And thank you. Second? Second. Second. So thank you again. Volunteers make this town run. And we get, as a select one, we get to see a parade of them. And we get to say hello. And then, you know, you go and do great things. And we really appreciate it. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Four-zero. Thank you very much. Thank you. You're all set. Thank you. All right. So next up, it is after 7.15, we have public hearings on licenses and permits. So we have just a review for those people, for people who have just joined us or people at home or whatever. We introduced new licenses, a new licensing system here in Arlington. And at the time, we also put a limit on the number of licenses that can be given out. And so we started the year with some 20-odd that were renewed from previous years. And then we've had a number of requests. So we're at the point where we have two licenses left. And we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven requests here today. I believe that one of them isn't actually here today. So it's probably going to be six. But we only have two licenses to give out regardless. So obviously for the person who's not here, we would have the option of tabling. We have the option of giving none out. I would, if the board chooses, I would suggest that we hear and ask from each individual, and then we entertain any motions that we see fit. And I'm also, since it's a public hearing, I'm going to invite everybody. I mean, we're going to go through all the licenses. I'm going to ask for input from the public if anyone has anything that they want to say. I'll do our motions and comments. Is that okay with everybody? All right. So first up, doing business as Everest transportation. You are up first. Are you here? Could you come on up to the microphone? So we've all got your application. And I think we've all had probably had a chance to check it out. You want to tell us a little bit about your experience and why you're looking to... Thank you for wanting to be in Arlington. Tell us why you're looking for Arlington. Pardon me. I started in the cab business in the water town first. I started in 2007. So I drive down in that town for two years. Then I work in the Boston city for three years. And right now I'm working with the Liberia with the Uber transportation. But this is a very great opportunity. So that's why I fill out the application for the taxi melody. Questions? Just a moment. Oh, does Mr. Bernhardt have his hands up first? Did you get that first? Mr. Bernhardt. It doesn't matter. Sorry. Yeah, you just mentioned you're working for Uber. Yes. Is that going to be... So if I go on my app and I say, when an Uber cab in Arlington, would you then come pick me up here? Yeah, definitely. But once I get on the taxi, that's going to be a separate different business. So I will probably know better to have the taxi medallion from the town. So the cab you'll be driving in Arlington will still be going through Uber? No, I will not attach to the Uber. So that's going to be totally different. But right now just for my reference, I'm working with the Uber. But if I got the medallion from the taxi, then I will just do the regular taxi. Okay, so there will be no Uber at that? There will be no Uber. Okay. We are outside of Uber average. If you go to the Uber map, they don't go to Arlington. Maybe something. Yeah. Mr. Mohan. For all the applicants, I believe with the exception of number seven, who already has some hackney licenses in Arlington, I want to pose the same questions. First and foremost, I'm concerned about your familiarity, your knowledge of the different streets in Arlington, how to get from point A and point B. And the other thing on your particular application, and you'll hear, I'm going to do this with several others, but not all. For your location of your proposed depot, you have five O Colony Avenue. We don't have O Colony Avenue. Right. We do have O Colony Lane and O Colony Road. Right. So what is your correct address if you were successful? O Colony Lane. So that's... So that's... Change that to O Colony Lane. Right. And I'm just curious about where you're mostly driving out of Hoover in Arlington. You could probably put a lot of Alantonians on certain streets and they wouldn't know where they were. How are you going to be familiar? How are you going to know where you are in Arlington to get to another point? I understand you know how to get to Cambridge, Boston. Yeah, but just if I got it, I will go through the Atlas map and then I will just find it out. It's not a big deal for me to find it out. You would go to the what? I'll just check on the Atlas map and then once I start, then it's not going to hard for me to find out. Atlas. Oh, Atlas. Atlas. I'm sorry. You know what? I'm deaf in this area. I'm sorry. That is when I have a little bit of problem. Okay. So you would rely... I'm very good with the Atlas map. Okay. And the other... The other question I have, unless this is... He's already received this. Insurance information. They don't have to have insurance until after they get the license. They don't have to. They don't have to sign it to us before the license is given out. Are you familiar with your insurance liability and what I'm concerned... What I'm interested in. Right. What I'd like to know is bodily injury, collision and property. Right. I have a liability for the one million dollar, but those kind of burglies, maybe if I selected, maybe I'll go through the insurance. So whatever required from the town, I'll go through that requirement. Okay. And the reason I bring this up, it's not just for you, it's for everybody else who's here. The chairman is working, I believe with the town manager on different areas of the Hackney licenses. And one of them is, as has been identified by the city of Boston, looking at appropriate insurance coverage. So it's not... It's basically the requirement we have now, I think we need more, but that's a concern for me. So thank you very much. Mr. Carroll. Thank you. I also had noticed the old colony lane, five-old colony lane, and I noticed that one of our other applicants also is proposing to depot there. Yeah. Are you essentially working together? Yeah, we are just kind of friends, you know. So I'm planning to move on that at this, so I just use that for, you know, like my name also. Right now I'm not living there, but I'm planning to move on that building. So that's why I put it that as a, you know, reference. So in my friends' partnership. Okay. So your friend actually has sufficient parking spaces for both your cab and his, you know, pending your move? It is in and out, but for the... If I got a, you know, the... I'm planning to apply for the, you know, the apartment there. Yeah. So that's why I put it there at this, you know. But if I select it, I can find out the parking, you know. I might, you know, pay for the monthly parking, so I can do that things. Okay. Thank you. Can I just follow up on that? That's a question, maybe, I don't know if the town manager or town council, both number, as Mr. Curell, as Joe cited, this application and number six site in an apartment on Old Colony Lane, can we give them permission to have that be a Hathne depot? You're not... I mean, if it would be a zoning violation, I don't know that would be a separate issue. Under the old rules and regulations, there was a requirement that the cabs actually be kept in Arlington and this board voted to eliminate that requirement. So they don't have to be kept in Arlington anymore. And if this board approved the license, that wouldn't operate as a special permit or any kind of override of the zoning bylaws. So there'd have to be a separate inquiry made to the building department. Okay. I guess that... Oh, Mr. Curell. What would a change of the depot location require the Hathne operator to come back to us or if they would have changed their depot location? In my follow-up... I say it doesn't work out with the apartment. You know, I have a one request, like if it doesn't work out in the... I have my own parking in my residence right now. So I can park there until I find the, you know, the location around here in the Marlington. Is that where you keep the car now or you keep it somewhere else? Right now I'm keeping the car with mine, the where I'm living in Riviera. Oh. So for the parking, I don't have any problem. I have a two parking there. So... But I'm just trying to put the, you know, the, you know, address over here then when I switch with my partner, the ship, maybe so he can also... Easy for the other partner. So that is the reason. So I had one comment. That was about the color scheme or insignia. So it's... It's important, you know, I think that we need to improve our application to make the question more clear. But one of the things that's important is that when someone gets a cab, they know which company they're talking to. Right. Because that way they can talk about whether the service was good or, you know, they can... or bad or whatever it is. And so simply having a white car with a name on it isn't sufficient. It actually has to have an insignia on it. Right. And so if we choose at some point to make a vote on this one, I'm going to ask that whoever makes the motion note that in their motion that we have to have a more clear insignia before we actually... This description isn't sufficient to approve the license, at least. Right. In my opinion. Okay, so on that color, you know, the white color, you know, the mandatory, right? The color of the car is fine. Right. It's what's going to be on the door that matters. That is fine because even in the Boston they require the white, you know, the cab because it's a visibility thing. Yeah. So if I've selected, you know, I have a car the black now, but I can paint it and I can make it white. It's not a big deal or I can buy the end of the white car. Okay. Yeah. So what I'm putting the point I'm making right now is the color of both the cab. Right. It's what's on the door. Right. What's on the door? Okay. Hey, questions. All right. Thank you. Our next up is Anant Dungal. Did I pronounce that correctly? Yes. Wow. I got lucky. Doing business as sunshine transportation. Yes. Good evening, gentlemen. My name is Anant Dungal. I've been doing this cab business for five years. I drove the Boston cab and I'm putting good knowledge of Boston and Arlington too. I used to live for a while with the friends and I'm moving to Arlington next month which comes with the two parking tour and I have my own car which is all paid and if you get a chance I would be happy to serve to Arlington. What part of town are you moving to? Gardiner Street. 180 Gardiner Street. Well... From the next month, yeah. Questions? I hate to be... Yeah. I mean... Do you want to go first? Maybe you might ask some of my questions. I don't want to be... So my first question is so you're currently working... So you're driving your own car and you're working for Uber? Yes. And so becoming a cab in Arlington would you continue to work with Uber? We are just a partner. I have nothing to do with it. If I get a chance to do that over here I can just quit over there and start to change my car all around and make a cab. But that's what your intent would be. Yes. That's what I intend to do. Okay. And you heard... So I told the previous gentleman that the description about the color scheme and insignia that it's very important that we have a clear insignia on the door so that people can know which cab that they're purchasing from. So you don't have this one specified so I'm just saying that if we approve this license as a term of that license you're going to have to specify one. Exactly. The reason I didn't specify it I want to see what kind of radio service they have here. Yeah. If I get the radio service they might have their fleet and I have to go with them. That's why I didn't specify. If I have to go alone I'll do the appropriate coloring and if they have their own color like any cab company I will change the color with that thing too. So there is no single dispatch service in Arlington? There is a dispatch that covers the number of the companies used but not all of them do. And if you choose we'd still expect you to be your own brand. If you're working with a different radio you could work with a different radio service but if you're actually going to become part of that company you wouldn't be applying as yourself anymore you'd be applying as part of that. So is that the case? I'll do everything for myself I'll start over and I'll put the right color what color you approve from that point up I'll put the phone number business phone number whatever comes. Okay. Other questions? Sorry I didn't get to what you wanted. Mrs. Mahler? No, no. Again the question of because some people have said to me in many cities and towns not just Arlington they get a taxi cab and they feel the ride was longer and the fare was more because the driver was not aware of the streets and roads. So what I would like to ask you since you're coming from Saugus right now how would you be able to provide the best service picking up and dropping off in Arlington say Lennon Road and I want to go to Saugus. Well I can't tell you the detail now but there are a lot of apps and the GPS we occupy my car it comes with the GPS so I wouldn't be any hard to do that like going to the airport and coming to the city to the Arlington it's a pretty easy job we have been doing like even I worked at the bus and I dropped the people here and to take the people from here too so when they got the car. So you would have a dedicated app and GPS? Yeah we do have a GPS system in the car. I know you have it but would it be dedicated to this? Yes, it will be separate GPS system. And then the other question I have just because you said at the microphone you're planning on moving to Godnus Street you said 180 and your application says 186. So those are the same company because I applied for the 186 and she said it's going to be you know it's going to be 180. So it's the same company because they had a two apartment available there but now I end up on 180. Now 180, okay. But I can give you the proof that I'm moving and I can get the thing from the rental office. Are you moving to just because I grew up in the projects which is now apartment autonomy manner and I lived on Godnus Street in Freeman. 186, are you moving to the housing authority apartments? I'm pretty sure that's... I wasn't sure. I have nothing to do with the housing. I just applied it. They approve it. So I'm not getting any benefit from them from the housing or anything. I guess my question to the town manager or town council would be I'm pretty confident having lived on... Let me see. When I lived on Godnus Street I lived on 203A and that was housing authority. And unless 186 is a private residence but I don't think it is all we allowed is a board of select men to let the housing authority apartments be listed as a depo location for a Hackney license. Well, it wouldn't... Anything this board would vote in terms of issuing a license would not grant or restrict any right that the applicant may have to park a vehicle at his residence. So if he's allowed to park a taxi cab at his residence and his residence is housing authority property then this wouldn't change that. If he's not allowed to then this wouldn't change that either. He would have to work that out separately. I want to investigate that and only because living on Godnum Memorial in Fremont I know then and it may have changed the parking restrictions were very in terms of commercial vehicles and other things. So I would just say on this one along with the chairman's suggestion regarding subject to more clear insignia that we also have it subject to on this particular one that it is an approved parking use by the Alling and Housing Authority. Okay. Mr. Curell. Thank you. You've noted in your application that you maintain the highest customer satisfaction rating with UBIT technology clients. Could you talk a little bit more about that? Is that published somewhere? Are you given rankings as... Yes, like working for Uber they have like a rating system. We have to maintain the certain rating 4.5 to 4.5 to 5 for a start rating. So I've been always above the 5 rating that are dealing with the customer and explaining where they want to go and how people in the car when they got the people in the car. So that's what I was talking about. And how is that collected? Is that based on surveys after? You know this. Like after you take a ride in an Uber cab you rate the driver and the service that you get. So that's how that's priced off. Excuse my ignorance. No, sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Further questions? All right. Thank you very much. Thank you gentlemen. Thank you. Next up... Goyubel Jolie? All right. I've got... I'm not seeing anyone. I was expecting someone to be absent but I wasn't sure who it was so I think that's who it probably was. Sharad Aryal? Welcome. Come on up. Thank you for coming. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself? Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am one of the residents in Arlington since October 2010 and I'm doing the cab business. I mean, I lease medallion from someone and I do run the cab business in Boston. I have hired some people, two people for the first morning shift and night shift. I'm 60 years old so I want to work until my last breathing and one most important thing I would like to comment in front of you guys. There may be so many people older than me who may be interested to go to the church or temple if you give me an opportunity to work for the Arlington and the residents of the Arlington. I will provide 8 to 12 Saturday or Sunday. Any days 8 to 12 will be free ride from their home to the Arlington church. That is my proposal to the city and the rest, you have my paper. Whatever is yours wise. You were suggesting free ride from 8 to 12 on Saturday and Sunday. From Arlington residents to the Arlington church, not beyond the Arlington city. Arlington church? Business to Arlington church? Residents to Arlington church? First in Arlington. Church. I'm sorry. I thought it was wrong. I do have to tell you, we're a town, not a city. You know the difference? It's a town, not a city. I'm sorry. It's okay, just so you know. I'll just, I'm going to question. So do you run your own cab company in Boston or do you work for somebody else? I work for somebody else. I lease the Maryland and I work for them. Okay. Other questions? Just to be fair, because I've asked everybody else sort of the same questions. In terms of, I will say that I'm a little concerned that you and the previous applicant number three have the same address. This is a court report of that. And I understand what was said, but on my universal question, in terms of being new to Arlington, how will you, I'm thinking of people who feel like, oh I got a taxi cab driver that really didn't know his or her way. How are you going to pick somebody up on Third Avenue in Arlington and bring them down to Brooks Avenue? The first thing, I'm not 100% out of everything. I know something and somewhere and the rest of, which I don't know, I ask people to guide me. Okay. Okay. And then did you finish? I didn't mean to cut you off. Yeah. Okay. And then my, not really question, because it's been pointed out by Mrs. Cropelka-Marie you don't have to provide the insurance until you're granted the award. But one of my concerns has been that the chairman and others are going to address is that in terms of insurance to not only collision, auto, but also bodily injury. What do you plan on, not committing yourself, but what do you plan on in terms of that issue? I would like to buy the full coverage insurance for me and for my guests. There will be four people in the cab generally. Also be secured. I will buy that kind of insurance. Okay. Thank you. Yes, Mr. Pardin. Thanks. Now, do you have like a GPS navigation system? Yes. And I would assume that every cab driver has a GPS navigation system. So maybe in light of the question if that's okay, if you could just state whether or not you have a GPS or navigation system when you get up here so we will know that you can get from point A to point B in an efficient manner. That goes for you and everyone. And that's really the only point I wanted to make. Okay. Well, I think the chair is going to note the insignia. Actually, why? And I'll note the insignia as well. And I think you've heard what our concerns expressed. But I'm going to come back to the insignia as well. So the cab you're driving for Boston, you said you lease it. But this car that you described here, this is one that you own separately from that. Yeah. Okay. So you heard me talk about the insignia of the previous applicants. Okay. Any further questions? No. Thank you very much. Thank you. 101112. Is that correct? I think that's right. 13. All right. This is a chair for my mic. Would you like a chair? Would that be more comfortable? Yeah, absolutely. Do you mind grabbing one of those empty chairs if you don't mind? And then that mic points down really. You can have a seat. Yeah, yeah, you can have a seat to tell me about surgery. I don't want to keep you on your feet. I'm sorry. Thank you. It was surgery on my legs. Getting over there, we're recovering. Good. Rick's got a roller-cup surgery. So we're both handicapped, but we're doing the job. So between the two of you, you're one whole person. Good. Yes. All right. The honorable board, good evening. Town manager, town attorney, and secretary. We're requesting an additional license to serve as the Arlington COA and special needs transportation for in town sped. We've had situations over the winter when demand for an additional unit has been necessary. Mr. Chairman, if I may, I would like to address the honorable board about the most recent taxi permits that have been issued. It will only take a moment. We have put together some history on the licenses from the past. We would like to submit that information to all selectmen for their review. It may clear up a lot of issues that are at hand. It will only be a few minutes of reading. And we would like to submit a copy to the town manager, the town attorney, the secretary's office if I may. You can submit anything. We'd be delighted to read it. So is this what you're about to read or is this something you separate? I also would like you to read. OK. I'm assuming after the meeting we'll do it. Well, I can only pay attention or read. I can't do both. New applicants, we are asking that the board be on a fair and level playing field with those new issues. We are requesting and suggesting that the board check new applicants' registrations, registration dates, articles of incorporation, insurance certificates, and dates of insurance, including name of insurance company, et cetera. There's only two insurance companies that write taxis and the commonwealth. As well as vehicle, meter, and equipment inspections, we are in accordance with all the above mentioned. We additionally are requesting that the new applicants have signed a tax attestation form individually or corporately, that their drivers all have been approved by Hackney at the Ellington Police Department and specified in the rules and regulations and given a driver's Hackney license. Our drivers are all English speaking and are quarried, vested interest. We have a physical office that includes payroll and staff, a two-way license FCC radio for instant communication, multiple telephone systems, and multiple telephone lines, computers and fax machines for communication. We are currently developing and upgrading our company handbook, setting the minimum standards for the drivers, which includes public safety with the emphasis on driver and passenger safety, accidents and radio procedures. Our staff must adhere to cleanliness, vehicle inspection of damages, schedule maintenance, et cetera. We have a non-smoking policy that all must adhere to and our drivers know this town like the back of their hand. They know the front doors, the back doors, the alleyways, the sideway doors because they have been residents here for the last 25 years, 80% of them. Our intentions in the past as well for the future are to maintain our current standards. We have an obligation to the town of Wellington with no exception. We would hope that the new applicants have the same intentions. We feel that the town has a fiduciary responsibility to the community and its taxis as we have a fiduciary response for the town and the community. Our taxis are for the town and its people. We do not own them, we run them for the town and we have in the past. Although we encourage competition and after 35 years of service and without infraction, please bear in mind that we are servicing the residents of this town in public safety and convenience at hand and our number one priority. Finally, regulation, taxi rate structure and recent complaints. We need regulation regarding pricing, et cetera. The current regulation is unclear. As published in the newspaper after last April's meeting, it was suggested that the rates be increased from 320 to 380 with a ceiling of $4 a mile. Because of the rate confusion and as a result, we have not raised our rates since that meeting of last April and we have remained at $3.20 per mile. However, we've had complaints of overcharges from other carriers and the ridership due to the overcharging, especially in the last couple of weeks, nothing we cannot deal with. I would like to reschedule, oh, on the overcharging and if the board would like to reschedule to discuss those issues, we will make ourselves available. We will, however, apply the new rate of $3.80 as a maximum that was approved as of last April, 2012. Thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you. You know, what I put in front of you, there's only two to three minutes of reading and if you need me to respond to that, I'd be really glad to. Okay. So I didn't just thank you. I did want a couple of the comments you made earlier about the quarry and the meters and the insurance. We do require those for all licenses to be issued. There was one that you mentioned, the tax attestation. That one I don't believe is a member of our, part of our current requirements, but there's other items you discussed. They all sounded like the laundry list of items that must be in our office before the licenses issued. Yes. We agree. Yes. Okay. The other thing is if you get complaints about other carriers, I definitely encourage you to forward them along to the police department and our office because we need that feedback. We collect the feedback already from the public and if you have additional information you want to pass, that's useful to us. We have done that already, Mr. Chairman. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Glad to hear it. Questions? Diane. I just want to say in terms of the insurance, I've seen it before, so I'm satisfied with that in terms of my question regarding knowledge of Valentin roads and lanes and streets and abs. I'm comfortable with that. I do want to let my colleagues know and the applicants that I was, besides the services that you provide the council on aging. On aging. Yes. Which is part of the fleet that he has right now. And as a result of the livery changes where you lost some of your livery licenses because we don't do those anymore. You have to do it mass court that has affected you. I did receive a call and I think as my colleagues are aware I'm somewhat more knowledgeable in terms of the special needs students in the lab collaborative and the likewise. And I know Mr. Kuro is also aware of this, but Rick Ianelli who is, and I'm probably going to get his title wrong and show you can correct me, but he's the supervisor of transportation for the school system. He called and said that there has been a great need. They do call upon this company quite a bit and they fulfill the requests as much as they can along with the council on aging, but he wanted to put his recommendation in that, I think it's called under the 70 student transportation and falls under that, that he really was requesting if possible. He understands there's only two left. We may give out none. We may give out one. We may give out both, but that this is besides the common service that's being presented at the microphone in terms of transportation, Allington residents and one gentleman said, Saturday and Sunday residents to church that there was a school official who is in charge of this who said if there's any way, it would help him in that capacity. I actually have a question on that. Are you under contract with the public schools or? Yes. You are. Yes. And they're all Corey checked through the school. I mean, I know that through your company, but I know they also have to do it through the schools as well as they have to comply and they do with lab collaborative. Well, I need to be a little clear if I may interject for two seconds. You know, at the police department, when we send somebody up, we send them a letter of introduction. Police department then tells us, as I've mentioned here before, that Tom Sullivan, good name Tom Sullivan has a very bad driving record and we are recommending to you that he does, or he will not be driving in this community. They will not tell us why. So they more or less dictate who's going to drive and who's not going to drive. And so far as the regulation regarding, you know, these prices and rates, I mean, that's always going to go on, but it's been really bad in the last two or three weeks. You know, we have a major overhead. I'm sorry, I'm going to stick with the board questions for now. Sure. Further questions? I apologize, but I will do one now. That's okay, Mr. Chairman. I mean, I understand there's an awful lot to digest here and I applaud Juliana. She's worked very, very hard on this. I think I'm hoping what I have given you kind of summarizes what's really gone on here for many, many years. And I hope that it's digested, but digested properly. We have a vested interest and we need to know, my guys are saying to me now, well, Rick, I'll tell him my son, Ricky, Ricky, what should we do? Just to counsel on aging at discount, we've lost a lot of our work and it's kind of unfair. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry, I'm lost. So on the one of the second to last page where you have the driver list, the people that drive you, I believe there are 14 currently on the list. Yes. So is that just an anticipation of receiving the 14th? Those guys are behind the wheel. They work either days, nights, or weekends. Okay. And they're current. You have more than one person. No, that may not. I understand, it was just, okay. Yeah, you can't, I really have to be clear about this with the town and the community. And in any town, not a city, in any town, the town needs to come to somebody that they can go to to keep their eyes on what's going on. We have worked very hard throughout the years to do that. If a sergeant late calls us, we need to know this right here and now, we know. Everything is recorded, every call, not just once, but three times. Here in our office, on the driver's way bill, and then on the daily and weekly summary. We have records, we keep records. And it's bailed this town on a few occasions. I don't need to go into that right now, but every community needs someone that they can go to, somebody that they can trust. And I feel as though I'm not any better than anybody, but there isn't anybody in this business any better than I. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, next up, we have Moff to Yusuf. Welcome, thank you for coming. Yeah, you can tilt that back up. Yeah, hello. So tell us a little bit about yourself and what brings you here? Yeah, hello, yes, my name is Moff to Yusuf. I've been driving five years, two years in Cambridge and also three years in Boston. Okay. Yeah. You're driving now in Boston? Yeah. And so do you own your own car? Are you working for somebody else? No, no, I work for somebody else, yeah. Questions? Ms. Mohan, you're up. I guess just what I've asked the previous applicants in terms of your knowledge of the town of Allington and how you would provide the best service in terms of getting from point A to point B where you haven't driven in Allington, you've driven in Cambridge and Boston. I understand you can pick someone up in Allington and go to the airport, but I'm asking you about... Yeah, I mean, I know some area, just mid-time, most of the streets, you cannot memorize in your mind. Yes, I use the GPS system. Okay. Yeah. Okay, and then the other question would be, I'm sure you've heard the discussion about insurance. In terms of collision, auto, and bodily injury, if you are successful, what type of insurance will you obtain, get? I mean, depending on the insurance, what type of insurance they have, like most of the taxi, they do, I think, liability insurance or... Do you know what the limits you're looking for are? No, you have to get liability insurance, but you can pick... The old level. Different level. Yeah. You can pick one thing, three things, five things. So I'm interested in collision, which is really collision and property damage. Auto, which is your car, and bodily injury. Yeah, I want to do three of them, both the injury and auto, yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you so much. Thank you. Sir, you share an address with another applicant, also here. Are you working conjunction, or applying conjunction with another applicant? No. That your address... I see your address of proposed depot location are the same as the next person we're hearing from. No, I don't have a depot. 364 Ringyar. Correct. Yeah. I noticed that the next applicant who is coming up is also at 364 Ringyar. Oh, yeah, difference, yeah, difference. Two difference. You're not applying, take it. No. Okay. So how do you, are you working together? Are you friends, or like, how is it that... Just can you explain the connection? Which means the next application? Mr. Nagash. Mr. Nagash, a different person, yeah, he's here. And so are you working, are you friends, are you working together, are you run a business together, or what? We know each other, yeah, we work together, yeah. Excuse me, Mr. Chair. Yeah, they appeared to identify two separate apartments on that address. Oh, do they? Okay, that's all right. I actually had to go there. Thank you. Okay, thank you so much. For the questions. Oh, I'm not done yet. Sure, sure. Yeah, okay. What type of car will you be driving? What type of car will you be driving in Arlington? Yeah, I mean, I request maybe van, I say. A van? Yeah, yeah. And you understand that what the Chairman's asking for, that we've asked the other applicants to put, you know, an insignia on it? Oh, which one? Like on the door, like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you understand that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it does have to be more than a sign, it has to be distinctive so that people know who you are. Oh, yes, yeah, absolutely. Okay. So on your application, you didn't fill out an email address, do you not use email or? I use, yeah, some time, yeah, most, yeah. Can I, could you, yeah, so. Okay. Could you follow up and pass that along to Marie from our office because. Sure. Yeah, it's not, we missed that on there. Okay. For the questions. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Next up, Shamsu Nagash. Nagash. Welcome, thank you. Thank you for coming. Can you tell us about your application? Yeah, my name is Shamsu Nagash. I've been working for almost 14 years in Boston. I'm driving for 10 years. And just, I wanted to drive in Arlington now. So I'm curious, so if you've been driving, I guess I could ask some of our other applicants that I never just, never occurred to me until now. So you've been driving in Boston for 10 years, but now you wanna work in Arlington. What is it that made you, what makes you want to make that change? Yeah, the change is in Boston is now, I'm just working with somebody. Just I wanna own my business and to try myself. Questions? Mr. Mohan? Just the same two questions. Were you, you have been driving in Boston for, I think you said 10 years, driving in Arlington. I want you to tell us how you will be able to give the best service in terms of getting people from one point in Arlington, place in the Heights, to another point in Arlington, a place down Calwen Manor. How will you get from point A to point B? Yeah, that's it. The first thing is, yeah, I know the areas sometimes. And if you don't know, yes, I have to use the street guide and GPS. Street guide and GPS. Okay. And then the other question is it's not required right now, but if you are approved, what are your plans in terms of your insurance liability coverage? Yeah, but that's the best one. I wanna use the best, that's the cover of mine and my customer and all the injury, everything. Okay, so it's, I can't right now, what I can require you to do in the rest of the board is what we have currently on our application. But my question, what I think I'm hearing you say is collision, property value, auto, and bodily injury? Sure, yes. Questions, Mr. Chair? Yeah, I just asked the question that was asked of the previous applicant. Do you own your vehicle now? No. You do not. Do you know what you would be looking at for a vehicle? Just, I decided on the car. Okay, thank you. And so I have talked to the previous applicants about the importance of having design on the door. Did you hear my question about that, or my statement about putting the insignia on the cab door? So in the previous conversations, the previous people have come up, I've talked about how the path on the door, there has to be something that makes you distinctive so that people know who you are. Yeah, I have to, yeah. Okay, so do you have an idea what you would do? I'm curious, what design would you use? Do you know what design you'd want to put up? No, yet. Okay, all right, cool. Further questions? All right, thank you. All right, so we have just heard seven, I lost track already, six applications. This is a public hearing, is there anyone here who wishes to speak on any of the applicants? I'm not seeing anyone from the public. Motion or comments? Mrs. Mohan. Right now, what I would like to do is, and I'm not of the opinion to give out both licenses tonight, but you know, and I'm not saying I'm gonna be successful on the motion that I'm going to make, but I feel really strongly of approving request number seven from Allmont Transportation Company, where I recognize they already have 13, and this would be 14, but they lost two in a half. Arlington, not Arlington. Oh, what did I say? I'm sorry, is it number seven, Allmont? Yeah, they're doing business as Allmont. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, yeah. So the request from Lewis Tricello, DBA Allmont Transportation Company for one where I have heard requests from various agencies in the town as well as the school, and there is a need there and it is fulfilled as well as the explanation of his business and how he operates in conjunction with the town of Allington as well as the Allington Public School. So I'd like to move approval on the request number seven from DBA Allmont Transportation Company. Is there a second? Not yet. All right. I think it's gonna fail for the moment. If you could just withdraw it just for a second so I could suggest another way. I'm sure the chair is thought to be stupid. I have not. Okay, I was wondering if it might not be in order. Some other situations where we've had very limited number of licenses to give out and a lot of applicants, we've gone through and taken a straw poll of the members of the top two choices. And I don't know if that makes sense in this situation or not. I'm open to it. Is that the, I think you... Or one, if you don't feel like you can... I'm trying to do top two, the only reason just because they are businessmen and, you know, I have no problem saying no. But my, it's... They're in my top two. Right, so if you, I would yield to Mr. Curell if you, however you wanna handle that. I think that would make sense seeing if I didn't get a second on one. It just might have a sense it might be a role in the motions. Mr. Curell, since you're suggesting it... Yeah, you go first, I go last. I go second to last. My top two, if we were to grant both licenses this evening would be Arlmont Transportation as well as SNS Transportation. What number is that? That's six. Steve, are you ready to make a straw? Yes, I, my top two would also be Arlmont Transportation and Sunshine Transportation. I'd like that he kept a high rating with Uber which I know is not always an easy thing to do. I really appreciate that experience. And I think that would translate to a successful cab business in Arlington where if you've never been in Uber cab they are very well-capped. And I do believe that they ride next in service and that's why I'll be supporting him. Okay, can I just get... So you're seven and four? He was. Okay, and Mr. Curell was at six and four? I'm seven and six, six and seven. Six and seven, sorry. Okay. I'm gonna go with seven for the reasons and I'm going to go with Mr. I'm gonna agree with Mr. Brighton on seven and four. Seven and four? And Mrs. Mohan, you certainly clearly signaled seven. I did signal seven. Some of the applications I was concerned with addresses and also with, I have heard from some people and I stood on Howard Street. My name is across the street. I don't wanna say their names, but if I have to I would. I saw a cab go up and down Robbins Road forever and it was one of the newly licensed so I'm gonna keep an eye on that. But so I was prepared just for seven. However, I am willing to support in light of my colleague's comments, the Sunshine application with the subject to, first, as the chairman has pointed out, actually who wants to make the motion? So I think what we'll do, so hearing what we've got is let's, we've got one that was pretty clear. We've got one with two votes let's, and I suggest that we'll entertain a motion and see if it, it's still in my mind as possible. We could end up two, two, and then we see where we go. All right, but let's start with number one. So Mrs. Mohan, why don't you make your motion again? In regard to number seven. First, I'd like to move approval for request number seven, Lewis Trichello DBA Amont Transportation Company, subject to a more clear insignia designation to the board of selectmen. And all conditions. And all conditions contained therein. We have a motion. Second. Second. Any further discussion on this one? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. All right, so we've just awarded a license to Amont Transportation. Mr. Burnett. Excuse me. I move approval of the awarding of one hackney license to Sunshine Transportation, Annette Dungal, subject to all conditions. And specifically the conditions of the insignia. The parking. The Zippo parking. The parking depot, yes. Mrs. Mohan. And could I add a friendly amendment to that? Also subject to that it complies with if this is an Allington Housing Authority apartment. Yeah, I think it's depot. I think the depot parking being approved, or permitable, covers what you're looking for. Is it am I correct? Having lived there, unless the rules have changed. So could we just make sure? I don't want to grant something and have the housing authority. So what part of the motion is that it be a legal and permitable depot location? And if it's 180 or 186? Maybe 180 is a private residence. I know 186 of 99% shares housing. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Kerr. And I will join you in supporting this. I, in the straw poll, I think that they would have been my third choice, but straw poll, I supported SNS. Primarily because the gentleman has been in the community for several years. I figured there's some familiarity with the community as a result of that. And I mean, I should have made that clear as well as this offer of a public service. But I do defer it to my colleagues who have experience with the other taxi network with which the sunshine operator has worked. So I will support you. Okay, any further discussion? All those in favor please say aye. Aye. That's 4-0. Okay, so now we have a number of licenses outstanding. We have the option of rejecting them or we could take them indefinitely. And one of the, and I think it's depending on which we choose, it has an impact on their fees. The fee that I like, the application fee. Pardon me, so let's table them in the application fee. I was gonna say one a table in light of the fact that you're working on some information you're gonna provide. Maybe we'll have one will become available and stuff like that. Right, move to table. Second. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Okay, 4-0 to the table. All right, so we have made it through licenses and permits. Next up, we scheduled for 7.30, not that we really thought we'd be there, it's here at 7.30, but the revised CDBG requests for FY13 and 14, town manager, chapter eight. So earlier this year, the board approved and forwarded the town meeting, which town meeting approved preliminary budget for CDBG for this upcoming fiscal year. That budget was based on a expected or projected 5% cut in CDBG funding. So several of the public service programs that we cared very deeply about were cut, had their funding cut from what they were funded at last year. Somewhat surprisingly, we received our funding allocation from HUD and we actually received $119,000 more than we expected to receive. So we were able to make a decision to reallocate funds back. So the CDBG subcommittee made up of Chairman Dunn, Mr. Byrne, myself, Carol Kowalski and Anna Witton met and discussed where to reallocate those funds. So the board has before them this revised budget. We were able to reallocate more funds to the affordable housing program. Their funding was increased by $28,348, able to allocate more funds to the Arlington Home Improvement Loan Program. Their funding was also increased by $28,348. If we look at public services, what we did was anybody who was cut was brought back up to what their prior year budget amount was. And then several other programs, including the Adult Day Health Scholarships, the AYCC, the Monotony Manor Homework Support Program actually had their funding increased from the prior year's budget. So overall $17,000 was added back to public services. And then under public facilities and improvements, we increased funding to the Boys and Girls Club Locker Room Accessibility Request. It's a capital improvement. They had asked for $25,000. The prior budget had awarded them $15,000. We were able to give them the full $25,000. And the Facade Improvement Program had been funded at zero and we were able to fund that at $15,000. And the final amount we were able to put back was under planning, number one, under comprehensive master planning. We were able to increase that from $50,000 to $70,000, which will help with a master planning effort. This is the mom. It may be that I had a long day, but I'm looking at what's before us, what's in my packet. And I just wanna make sure I'm reading this right and maybe I'm not seeing it right. If we go to public facilities and employment improvements, Boys and Girls Club, I have town manager preliminary budget of $25,000 and requested. Where do I see that it was zero? Are you just telling us that? Where am I missing that? I'm sorry, I was telling you that. So, okay, that's what I'm saying. Okay, so, all right, so you're telling us that. So what is actually being awarded is requested or preliminary budget? The column to the far right under town manager board of select men preliminary budget. That's, those are the new funding amounts that we're asking the board to adopt tonight. Okay, so like, am I reading this correctly that housing, authority, life and skills center building is going from 400 to 100? No, no. Is it the other way around? This is where I'm getting confused, I'm sorry. The column amount requested, that's how much all of these groups, agencies, programs requested several months ago. Okay. There was then an amount that was awarded or recommended several months after that, but a month or two ago. When we thought we were going to get less. The column now under town manager board of select men, that is now the most up to date column of what we're recommending with the new funding amount that we expected. Okay, so the column I'm looking for, you're telling us from the microphones is what I'm saying. I don't, I'm just trying to, as you were saying that. And then the other question that I had was master planning. Is it at 70 or 50? 70. It's at 70. And do you know, because I know we're limited on planning, what previously encompassed that 50 now 70,000? Like what, has that always been a planning? Yeah. Consultant study group or? No, what I would say is in past years, more of the planning staff has been funded by CDBG. Okay. However, HUD in recent years, really in the past three fiscal years has started to urge the town to push full-time planning staff off of CDBG onto the town budget and we've done that. That however has freed up planning money that can be spent on planning or administration. There's a cap on planning and administration of 20% of the total allocation. So moving money onto the general fund for those staff positions has freed up master planning money. When their master plan is done, there will be some planning funds available to be reallocated in a different manner. I'll ask two questions and I apologize to my colleagues. Under administration, the audit costs, that's an audit specifically to CDBG, is that HUD or is that Powers and Sullivan? Powers and Sullivan performs it on our CDBG program. And am I reading it correctly that we're not allocating any money for legal services? You're, that's correct. So if the need arises and I'm not saying it for myself personally, but for legal services, whether it's affordable housing or the like, how do you anticipate funding that? If there was a need that arose in terms of legal services, we could have a discussion about reallocating some unallocated funds. From CDBG or unencumbered cap? CDBG. From administration or somewhere else? It would be from unallocated funds. We're under the 20% cap so we have room if we needed to allocate it. And is there a figure on here of what the unallocated funds are to date as well as could I leave on the table one of the things we had discussed in past years similar to what you're doing now is to have a three quarter review, three quarters of the year through. If for some reason, similar to what we've done here, you've spent, you've allocated 40 and you've only spent 17 that the town manager and the CDBG committee has made a subcommittee has made aware of that and we can reallocate that. So I'd just like to at your convenience, no rush if you could just provide the board with what is in the unallocated funds right now and then if I could just leave it on the table that that's one of the things we had asked under Carol Kowalski. So what we did in this year is so when it comes around time to start doing the CDBG budget process, that's also roughly the three quarter. It's actually even a little bit before it's more like the 60% period. So this one runs from July 1st. Yeah. And so when we meet in February getting ready for the April public hearing and I'm trying to remember, I'm trying to remember if we've brought that information back to the board this spring. We've never done that yet. I'd like to, but maybe the case didn't arise. Maybe the exercise was done and there wasn't. I'm not saying come back with $6,000 is left but I'm just saying. I can tell you that as a subcommittee we absolutely had this conversation in February but we may have failed to bring it back to the fold. All right, thank you. Further comments to discussion? Okay, so I do have a comment and that is just that one of the things that I really liked about the putting the money on the comprehensive master planning is because it is essentially kind of a one shot deal. And I don't mean like one plan we never plan again but this is an expense that we don't plan on doing on a regular ongoing basis. And one of the things we need to emphasize to all of these groups that we're serving through CDBG funds is that this year is like increased amount of damage as we're really doing to speed these numbers declining as we have to push everybody off of CDBG and we are kind of doing our part ourselves by saying we're spending this on a one time money. So next year if we did get a big cut where is it going to be? For us it's going to be really obvious and for us it will also be not that painful. Whereas for other groups you know, unfortunately it will be more painful. And I think this is one of those crazy votes where the time manager gets to vote. Oh, that's right, you're right, you're right. So can I have a motion from the board? Yeah, I move to approve the CDBG budget as presented. Second. We have a motion and second. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Everyone say can we find yes including the time manager. All right, thank you. Next, common victor licensed transfer. Joan Ping Lin at Great Walk. God bless you. Welcome. Hi, good evening. My name is Anjia Viercourt. I'm the paralegal of the Cheney-Quest Commons office. Tonight I represent the applicant Joan Ping in the DBA Great Walk restaurant on the application. We are sitting at the board to approve our application. Basically it's just for the transfer change of ownership. The new business owner is going to keep the same operation. Chinese take out, mostly take out, have a few sitting there for a patient waiting restaurant. They will keep the same name, same menu, same hours of operation, remain unchanged. We will be happy to answer the question if the board have any questions. From the board. Does Joe work? I was just wondering, has the applicant been, I wasn't clear. Have you been working at Great Walk or is this a new restaurant? No, he hasn't been working at the Great Walk. Well he actually, it is the first business he will own if the China approve his application. But he has more than 14 years experience in working at a restaurant. He currently employed by the Peking Tokyo restaurant at Cambridge as a chef. You anticipate most of the staff staying on for now? Yes, yeah. I mean obviously some changes, yeah. As my understanding, the couple, the seller is working at the restaurant themselves. After they sell the business, of course, they will be gone to somewhere. I mean, they'll be tired. So Mr. Niem will manage the restaurant and his family will be helping him. Okay, great, thank you. I have a few questions and I think one, the chair usually doesn't, in terms of serving alcohol and that. So I'm not gonna ask that question or give that recommendation in terms of what they might wanna do. On your application, what is your seating capacity? Now I believe they have. And the reason I ask this is no listed seating capacity and am I reading this correctly? There's only going to be two employees? I think not. Has God blessed those two people if they're working 24 seven? No, now they have 12 I believe. Okay, well if you could, because on the application there's no seating capacity. I don't know if you had that there. And if you could tell us the actual number of employees, you only have two listed. They have two in, I think that's the error, that's a mistake. They have maybe three in the kitchen and one in the front. So they will have four in total. Do you wanna double check that? Yes. With waitresses and hostess? No waitresses. Okay. They will just have one fund taking the order and three serve in the kitchen. Okay, and that's seven days a week. Those four. Seven days a week. So it should be four employees. I'm sorry, I'm just. Yeah. I'm in the room. Yeah, I understand. It's field tertiary early. And the seating capacity currently is about 40, 60. No seating capacity. Okay, and then the last point I had was on your maintenance program. Yes. One of the things that I don't see there and I just wanna point it out because the business is already there and it's established, but I just wanna make sure it continues because of any neighbors. A trash maintenance program. Of course. That's in accordance with the town bylaws in terms of when you can't come before this time after that time. So if you could ask them just to update that and or obviously as far as I know I haven't heard any complaints. I'm gonna assume that they're gonna continue with the existing trash maintenance collection. I can sure without asking them because when we do the health plan review application we have already asked the same question to them. They answer they will keep the same trash removal commonly to provide service to them, which I believe pick up twice a week. They have a two yard dumpster in the back parking lot right now. Yeah, they will be the same service. No, I only ask it because sometimes when neighbors come in and they say you didn't ask, so it's very important. I give my usual speech for alcohol, there's no alcohol license here. Oh, okay, I read it wrong, sorry. Mr. Farron, you'll be continuing the same delivery service. Yes. Thank you. Pardon how? Any further, we'll move motion, I need a second. Second. Because I can't even say my words. Any further public who's here for this public hearing? Any further discussion? Thank you for choosing our curriculum. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Four zero. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, build on doing business as retro burger and ice cream. Welcome to Arlington. Why are we your last obstacle? Pretty much. All right, we'll try not to be too difficult. All right, as you know, my name is Bill Maund. I am an Arlington resident. I've lived here about 19 years. My wife and I moved here in the early 90s. We've raised our kids here about three years ago. For better or for worse, we went to the restaurant business. We started on Cape Cod in 2010. And we are working hard to transfer it into the Arlington business. So we're occupying space at 795 Mass Ave. And we hope to get up and run in sometime with this summer. Are you still running a business at Cape Cod? No, no, we're trying to move everything here. So we're all in. Okay, questions from the board. Mr. Carroll. I'm thrilled to see that that space has been vacant for a while. So I'm thrilled to see you coming in and willing to take it on and fill it. And I hope you bring some of that Cape Cod, the Cape Cod tourists this way. Ms. Maund. First, I'd like to move approval. Second, I have no questions because you have everything in here from your trash maintenance program on. And we have insurance with a million dollar liability. So it is, I'm a court reporter during the day. But what about your collision? I don't think I'm going to need that. And third, I want to say hats off to your not man enough options. Because when I looked at that, he has burgers that's like, I think one's like the Yarmouth burger that my husband could devour too. And then the not man enough option. They're absolutely political incorrect. I think that's a great restaurant or tour of marketing. My family's in the restaurant business. And when I saw that, I said, oh, I'm going to have to pass that on. I'm going to give it our best shot. So thank you. Will you be renaming some of those burgers to more Arlington burgers? Yes, yes. I didn't want to jump the gun and change the menu just yet. Now, if Mr. Greerly were here, he would ask for, did you bring any samples and name one after me? So in his steam. Yeah, we will have an Arlington burger. I'm sure we'll probably. Don't name any after us. We'll do away with the Yarmouth burger. I'm pretty sure. All right, this is Mohan's booth. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Thank you very much. I mean, welcome to the Arlington business. You are already welcome in Arlington. Thank you. All right, next up, Adam Rosario, second hand dealer license. Thank you for your help with the chair earlier. You're welcome. I knew he was in need. So tell us about your business, please. Well, currently I own a business in Auburn, Massachusetts. It's called Adams Estate Jury. And I've been in the business for over 10 years. And I've learned everything from managing and sales to actually learning about the back end of the business, which would be actually the product pricing development, a little bit of everything. So with my knowledge, I opened up that location and it has been very successful in doing so. And I do a lot of business in and out of Boston. And a lot of people were pointing me in this direction that Arlington is a great town, great location, surrounding towns here are, it's a good, good, good, I guess I would say surrounding support area. So I believe it's the heart of the area. I've been looking at the map and the location that I'm looking at currently is already a jewelry store. So it's in a good area. There's a barbershop next to it. I could see a lot of potential success. The clientele's a little bit older than I am. And that's the majority of my clientele. Questions from the board? Trying to find it, if Mrs. Kruppalka or my colleagues could help me. Just where you put change in awning. Oh yes, yes. Do we have something here from planning or is that just building has to approve that? Planning has to approve it also. Is it in here or am I missing it? Or I would just point it out that when we, as we say, when we make motions to approve, which I assume we are subject to all conditions, I just usually this planning report in here. It's in here, but as the business owners encouraged to apply to inspection services for signs from the private fabricating. Okay, I thought we used to get something from planning also on awning, but I'll let Dr. Gates approve it after. Okay, thank you. Yeah, I think that the bottom line is, make sure that you get your plan approved before you get the sign in the awning built, because it's very awkward when you pay, shut out the money, and then it doesn't meet code, and that's always unpleasant. It works much better if we get it approved beforehand. Absolutely. I understand that only 25% of the window can actually be labeled. So that's something that I've already taken into consideration. I understand there is historic areas within Arlington, so I would love to stay within those borders and actually hopefully add to it, because I am in a state store, and everything I do, I do as tastefully as possible, and I try to add to the town. I actually brought some ads that I did here over Christmas, and just, here's a statement that says that Adam's a state jury. Our showroom collection is all about quality and character. We believe heirlooms are created so that legend can live on. It's our mission to bring the beauty of unique, antique, estate, and vintage jewelry to our customers. Come visit us this holiday season for a gift that makes sure, to make sure that special someone smile. It says, Adam's a state jury where exceptional quality meets rich history. I'll move approval, and I really appreciate the effort you put into this, and choosing Arlington. It seems, and I like that you were told by someone else, and hopefully you go and tell someone else that this is a great place to run a business with that. Good luck, thank you. Thank you. All conditions? Yes. And seconded. Is there further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Four zero. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Next up, Citizens Open Forum. Accept an Unusual Circumstances. Any matter presented for consideration of the Board shall neither be acted upon nor a decision made the night of the presentation in accordance with the policy under which the Open Forum was established. It should be noted that there is a three-minute time limit to present a concern or request. Is anyone here for Citizens Open Forum? Mana. How can we help you tonight? Yeah, I'm Richard Langone, 12 Swan Place. Town Meeting, member precinct six. What difference the year makes. Basically, I'm here, and I want to express some concern about the way that us, the 94% of people that pay taxes in this town, the majority of the taxes, are being treated. When we come to a public hearing or we come in to discuss anything matters with the selectmen, we're put on the agenda at the end. And I think that taxpayers, and if we're the face of the town's taxes, we should get a little more respect. And the reason I became a town meeting member was because I had issues with the selectmen, a revenue issue, it seemed to me. And it seems that the revenue issues in this town are based, they seem to be going after the middle class and the elderly. People I talk to on the street, the elderly are moving out as soon as they retire, they can't afford to live here. Their children can't, if they stay in the town, their children can't afford to buy here. This town's got a valuable real estate market. And if an elderly person moves out down, down off of Wheaton Road in that area, down by the projects, they take the top of the house off, put another top on top and make it a two-story, sell the house twice the money. And people outside of this town waiting to come in and take it. You're losing a lot of history by forcing the Allentonians out of this town. I think that the residents of this town, the backbone of this town should become town meeting members and help to change the way the direction the town's working. I don't believe that all the elected officials and in town meeting members are not working in the best interest of the taxpayers. So I hope, I don't have to so far on deaf ears, I don't have a bigger audience you got, but I hope that the citizens, the hard working class citizens of Allenton get together and start participating as town meeting members and trying to make a change. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Langone. Is there an analysis we should speak under Citizens Open Forum? Seeing none, we will move on to item 15, vote water and sewer rate adjustment. Mr. Jocely, Mr. Rodemacher, and Chris Woodcock of Woodcock and Associates. All right, thank you, Mr. Chairman. So before the board tonight is a proposal for water and sewer rate adjustments for FY 14, that is really the culmination of a year's worth of work. So just going back a little bit, to provide a little bit of background, about a year ago, the board voted to increase rates for FY 13. At that time, we talked about how in the past the board had voted on multi-year rate increases, but we were asking for a one-year rate increase to support the budget while we performed a rate study. And that rate study was gonna be focused on several factors that had come before the board and the board had been interested in, as well as some factors that had been raised by members of the Finance Committee, most notably Ryan Ferrara, who really spurred us to move forward with this and gave us a lot of help in setting this stage for a nice comprehensive rate study. The factors that we were looking at were the increasing MWRA debt costs and the pressures they were putting on our budget, questions about seasonal rates and second water meters for irrigation use, unaccounted for water, and what a meter replacement program would do to make up for some of that unaccounted for water. The frequency of billing, as you know, we're currently semi-annually billing, and there was talk about whether or not we should bill more frequently. And finally, looking at our usage tearing to determine whether or not the rate blocks or the tiers of usage that we billed at were appropriate given current levels of use. So we went through a process of finding Chris Woodcock, who's here tonight, and he's been before the board to introduce himself and talk about his methodology in the past. And we worked together with Mike Rademacher and Chris on a study to make a recommendation that's before you tonight. So before I asked Chris to talk about the study he went through and talk about everything that he found, I just wanna quickly talk about the recommendations that are before you. So there's really two sets of recommendations. There's rate adjustments that the board is being asked to vote on tonight, and then there are other proposals that are before the board that don't need to be acted on tonight, but address a number of the other matters that prompted us to do this rate study. So the two things that the board is being asked to vote on tonight are a 7.5% rate increase for water, sewer, and the administrative fee as of July 1st. And then as of January 1st, creating new water and sewer rates as well as new private fire service charges and further amendments to the administrative charges. And those are in new tiers. We currently bill at tiers of zero to 200 CCFs per year and over 200 CCFs per year for water, and zero to 1,000 CCFs every six months for sewer and over 1,000 CCFs every six months for sewer. The new tiers being proposed would bill at tiers both at six month intervals as opposed to a year and then six months of zero to 30 CCFs, 30 to 60 CCFs, and then over 60 CCFs. So those are the two issues that the board is being asked to vote on tonight. However, as of July 1st, 2014, we're telling the board that it's our intention to convert from semi-annual billing to quarterly billing. For several reasons. First, there's a benefit to cash flow, but also that will allow us to set the stage for capturing quarterly usage data that then in July 1st of 2015, we can start to bill for winter usage of water to figure out how much people are irrigating so that they're not paying extra for the water they use during the summer that's not going back down the sewer. So we'd actually be billing sewer at the winter water usage rate. One further thing to point out, the conversion to quarterly billing is still an ongoing internal discussion. We've had meetings with IT and the Treasurer's Office, I know the Treasurer's here tonight, and that's something we're hopeful that we can do successfully by July 1st of next fiscal year. So with that, I'll turn it over to Chris if it's okay with the chair. Mr. Whitecock. Thank you. I think Adam's probably covered much of what I was gonna say, so I'm gonna try to skip over some of the remarks. He certainly talked about what it is we were looking at the various tasks and the elements that we looked at. In going through and doing this, the first overall thing we really need to look at is what are your expenses gonna be in the future? We know what the budget is this year. What are they gonna be in the future? I've projected out 10 years. There's a spreadsheet that has the 10-year projection on that. It's provided to the town, it's yours to do what you've paid for it. What I'd admonish is that's a long period of time. Anything after three or four years is pretty speculative with financial projections. They're there, but look at them with that, John DeStuy, if you will. In general, what we looked at is about a 2% increase going forward in the town's operating expenses. We looked at the MWRA assessment separately because they're huge. They're half of the water expenses, two-thirds, three-quarters, actually, I think, of the sewer expenses. And we've taken the projections that the MWRA has publicly put out there. Now, I will tell you, I use those public projections. They're typically a little bit high. So if you will, these are a little bit conservative on the high side, the projections of expenses. On the capital cost, we've used the town's engineering consultants, I believe it was Western and Samson's, projections for water department expenses. They vary from year to year, but it was basically about a million dollars a year that they were looking at. To finance those, we looked at a $900,000 a year loan from the MWRA. They loan money out, they do it at a very great deal. It's 10 years, 0% interest. You can't find money that cheap. The other 100,000 of those capital projects on the water side would come out of the annual water rate, water revenues. The one exception is a $2 million loan that we've projected in fiscal 2015 that would be used for the meter replacement program to put in new meters. The payments for those would probably be starting and happen the following fiscal year and fiscal year 2016. On the sewer side with the capital costs, again, the town has a fairly detailed capital program for what's needed for the sewer side. It's initially about a million dollars a year, a little bit higher than that, drops down over time to about three quarters of a million in the latter years. To fund that, what we looked at is to continue to get loans from the MWRA for the sewer side. These are a little different. They're not offered annually, they're offered every other year. It's about three quarters of a million that the town could expect to get every other year to help towards the sewer expenses. Even better deal in the water, 55% of it's actually a grant, so principal forgiveness, if you will. The other 45%, at 0% over five years. The impact of that though is that in the years when there isn't any MWRA loan or there's not enough from the MWRA loans, what pays for that? And what we've put together is a plan that would initially start with about three quarters of a million dollars, go into a capital fund. And I use that term somewhat euphemistically. But if you think of a separate sewer capital fund, money going into that every year, some years it'd be a positive balance and it would go the next year. The idea was to try to keep a somewhat steady amount coming in every year from rates. As I said, it started out at about three quarters of a million dollars the first year, dropping down to a half million dollars in the latter years. Again, those are somewhat speculative. I suspect there'll be more projects and that may come up to three quarters of a million in some of those latter years. I know there was a question that was asked about doing that much funding out of revenues, three quarters of a million dollars out of rate revenues. What about borrowing that? And we did look at borrowing that, borrowing all but $100,000. So we just got $100,000 a year from rates. The town would then issue its own bonds. And I've assumed 20 year bonds, 4% interest rate on those. And what it does is it saves in the initial years, as you can imagine. You don't have that big expense that's spread out over the years over the term of the bonds. But at a point in time, and I didn't go out far enough to see what that is, but probably after seven or eight years, it's gonna start costing more because you're gonna be paying for all of those bond issues in the initial years and then all the future bond issues that come with it. So if you were to bond it, what you would do is you would save in terms of lower rates. How much would you save a percent or two each year? But in the latter years, you'd be paying much more than that because now you're paying interest on those bonds. I think this is a somewhat typical case of pay me now, pay me later or sort of passing the buck onto the next generation, if you will. The next task we looked at is water sales. Once we had all the expenses, how much water are you gonna sell? There's a chart in the report, the memorandum that you have that shows that those sales have been dropping. And that's been happening all over the Commonwealth. It's been happening all over the country for the last dozen years or so. And there's a number of reasons for those. And I think we maybe even talked about them at the last meeting. If you'd like, I can go into that a little bit. For purposes of this study, I'm projecting that they're gonna level off now, that that's gonna stop, that the drop isn't gonna continue to happen. I hope I'm right. Fortunately, you're in a position in Arlington where you have sufficient funds and reserves that if I'm wrong, if sales do drop, if it continues raining like it did last week and tonight, and sales do drop, that you do have enough to cover it. I'm hoping that- You're cheering for a drought is what you're saying. I don't know, I got a lawn and my wife's planted an awful lot of really nice stuff lately, so no, I'm not. Sorry, I'm just kidding. I know. But anyways, I've assumed that the sales are gonna stabilize over time. I think one of the reasons for the drop in sales is the economy. The economy seems to have picked up a little bit, so I'm hoping that that's sort of gonna be part of the reason why it stabilizes. The only exception is in the year fiscal year 2016 when I have estimated a 2% bump, an increase in sales as a result of putting in the new meters from that $2 million meter program. And it'll stay stable after that. Once we have the expenses in the sales, it's really divide the dollars by the gallons and so many dollars per gallon in the simplest terms. One of the things that I looked at is the current rate structure. Again, Adam described that, and just increasing across the board. If you need 10% more revenues, just increase everything, 10%. Your water rates right now are a little unusual. They go from zero to 200 cubic feet. It's sort of an arcane instead of gallons. I don't know why, but everybody uses 100 cubic feet. It goes from zero to 200 cubic feet is one rate and anything over that in a year is a higher rate. And it accumulates throughout the year. That's very unusual. I've only seen that one other time in 40 years of doing this. Dude that does that. On the sewer side, it goes from zero to a thousand 100 cubic feet every six month filling period. So they're very different rate structures on the water and the sewer. It resets at the start of the next filling period is the more typical. And there is a $20 and 31% administration fee right now that's billed every six months to everybody. Doesn't matter how big, how small you are, what size, meter, what kind of customer, you have that. That's a little unusual. Typically those types of charges vary with the type of customer or water meter side. And I'll explain that a little bit more later. In the report, I've listed what the projected increases are each of the fiscal years. Those are projections. I don't think anybody's asking you to, if I'm correct or if I'm wrong, to adopt those at those points. Those are more informational as to what kind of increases you'd be looking at in the future. The secondary we looked at is new blocks. Changed that zero to 200 a year, zero to 1,000 every six months. And based on the analysis that we got, and we got detailed analysis of every individual account within the town of how much water they used every six month period. And we're able to, with the wonders of computers, to say how much in different ranges. The blocks that Adam indicated we're looking at for both water and sewer are zero to 300 cubic feet, 30 to 60 hundred cubic feet, and then anything over 60 hundred cubic feet. I understand there's been questions about where did those come from? Why did you pick those? The zero to 30, about half of the people in Arlington use less than 30 hundred cubic feet in six months. And about half of the use is less than that. So it seemed like a very good point where I can say, okay, half the people use less, half the people use more. This may be a good cut off where the price is going up to start to encourage some conservation, some wider use of water. The over 60 cubic feet, there's only about 10% of the people, of the customers. And it's mostly businesses within town would be subject to that. 90% never go over that amount. But it is about 25% of your sales would be at that highest tier. They're also picked to be easily modified for quarterly use. So instead of zero to 30 hundred cubic feet and 30 to 60 per six months, it'd be zero to 15 and 15 to 30. If the board agrees to go with quarterly billing, it's something that could easily be done. The rates would stay the same. It's just they would drop the usage by half. As Adam said, the other two elements of that are to include a new service or administrative fee. The intent of it is to recover the costs of billing, collection, meter reading, things like that that are the same for everybody. It doesn't matter whether you're housing authority, my rex ever lay, you know, whoever. Everybody costs the same for a stamp, for a meter reading, that type of thing. The collection costs from the treasurer's office. The other part of it, though, is related to the costs of water meters, buying them, testing them, replacing them, and the service lines, the pipe that goes from the street to your house. Those sometimes need repair. And those do vary by size. The larger the service, the larger the meter, the larger those costs are. And that's the difference and the reason for a difference in those fees that are presented to you in that memorandum. In total, those revenues would generate a little over a half a million dollars a year of additional revenue. One of the reasons for those is to help fix the revenues. Water and sewer systems are basically fixed cost operations. Almost all of your costs are fixed. The MWRA assessments are fixed and that's the biggest piece. Your debt is fixed. There's very little that varies, at least in the short term. In the long term, you can impact the MWRA assessments a little bit, but most of your costs are fixed. And if everybody stopped using water, your costs are gonna be the same for the year. The idea behind having this service charge, this meter charge, would be to help stabilize those revenues, make them a little more predictable so we don't have to decide whether we're gonna have a drought or not. It'll help with that a little bit. It's only a half a million dollars. The other part was the charges for private fire sprinkler connections. Buildings that have a connection to the system, a pipe running in, running to the little sprinklers you often see in buildings that have those. Those people are getting a service that others don't. It's a valuable service. It saves tremendously on fire protection. It saves tremendously, frankly, for the fire department too in terms of time and effort for the fire department, but there is a benefit to the user for those and they should be paying for them. It's a fairly common fee around the country to have that type of fee. So we've recommended that. And again, that fee is really just paying for, not the water, the amount of water that comes through and goes to the sprinklers is, you know, I could master cart it. It's very small, but the cost of providing oversized pipes, storage, capacity, that's where the real cost is and that's what's included in that charge. The other alternative that we looked at, and I'm not gonna spend much time on this unless you have questions, was to look at seasonal rates. It was one of the things that we had talked about Adam, Michael, and I, and I think I may even talk to the board about it when I first met with you. We're not recommending anything like the seasonal rate. The seasonal rate is typically something where higher rate in the summertime when water's more expensive, lower rate in the winter time lots of capacity available, lots of water available. It's very popular in the West, Southwest, places that literally don't have enough water to encourage water conservation. We shouldn't be wasting water and I'm not suggesting that we waste water but there isn't that urgent need that there is in other parts of the country that we have here. The MWRA would love to sell more water. They have lots and lots of water. The reservoirs are full. The other problem with the seasonal rate is it almost requires monthly billing but certainly quarterly billing in order to find out what is the winter period that you're using? Does everybody getting billed in December, January, February, March to say that's your winter period? No, we don't have that necessarily at this point because you're billed every six months. We haven't really got the information to do it so it's really more of an implementation problem and a lack of necessity for it. As Adam mentioned earlier, we also looked at billing frequency changing from semi-annual bills to quarterly bills. This is starting to also happen an awful lot in the Commonwealth to make that type of change. 20 years ago, 30 years ago, semi-annual bills were not uncommon. They're pretty uncommon now. The MWRA does a survey every year. In their latest survey, only 10 of the 60 community surveyed bill semi-annually. Everybody else is quarterly and there's I think a half dozen or five of them that bill monthly now. I also looked across the whole Commonwealth. There's a company tie-in bond that does a study of water and sewer rates of every all 351 cities and towns of what their rates are and their billing frequency and across the state, only about a third bill semi-annually every six months. Much more than the MWRA survey. I think that's skewed by a lot of the smaller communities. You look at little towns out in Berkshire County or Hampton County that only bill every six months, small budgets and that's all they do. I think I can almost guarantee you that within the next 20 years you would certainly be billing quarterly despite what you may decide tonight and you will likely be billing monthly within the next 20 years. If you think of all of the other utility services you get cable, television, internet, telephone, gas, electric, everything is monthly. Water and sewers, the only thing that isn't and frankly New England were somewhat unique in not billing monthly for it. The next item we looked at, this is a big item, was second water meters. As the cost of water and sewer has gone up, particularly sewer, the Boston Harbor Cleanup and what's happened with that and the cost for treatment at the MWRA, more and more people have said, hey, wait a minute, my water use isn't really indicative of the amount of sewage that I put back in the system. I water my lawn a lot. I fill my swimming pool. I have a car wash that I run, that type of thing. And you shouldn't really be billing me on water use because it isn't necessarily what comes back in sewage. Now frankly, that's true of just about everybody. Not everybody's, all their water comes back as sewage, but for the most part 85, 90% are. But there are people that have a much lower percentage return, 30, 40, 50% of car wash, I think is probably a very good example of something like that. In some cases a laundromat, water that's lost in the drying process that doesn't come back. Nurseries and people certainly with big lawns. I'm not asking you to take pity on people with big lawns and huge irrigation systems. However, there is an equity question there. That's water that's not coming back to the sewage system and you're charging them for that. This is a problem that's running across the Commonwealth and it's gotten to be a bigger and bigger issue in recent years in a lot of cities and towns. I can assure you you're not the only one dealing with this question. I'm looking at it for a number of cities and towns right now anyways. There are several solutions to this. You can allow a second meter. I think Arlington used to allow a second meter. No, you didn't. You can allow a second meter. Somebody to put in a meter that measures what's going on to the lawn, what's going into the swimming pool, what's evaporating through laundry machines, that type of thing. And that's quite common to do that. Frankly, it gets to be a bit of a pain in the neck. You have to put in a second meter, read the second meter, test the second meter, take care of it, who owns it, who pays for it. There gets to be issues and a lot more. Meter reading and billing and putting in new billing systems that'll take total consumption, subtract the other meter, that type of thing. Another way of doing it is to base everybody's water and sewer rates on just a percentage of your water use. Okay, I understand all the water doesn't come back with sewage, so I'll bill you sewer based on 80% of your water use. Worcester does that, Norwood does that. Frankly, I think people in Arlington are bright enough to figure out that if you're only billing it on 80% and you raise the rate 20%, six of one half dozen or another, it doesn't really do anything. But it is done and it's fairly common to do it and a lot of people are happy with it, thinking they're getting a break because they're only billed on 80% of their water use. The method that we're recommending for Arlington that's getting to be used more and more is to look at the winter water use of every account. It's gonna take some doing to do that and that's why the recommendation is to implement this a few years from now. But to look at what people use in the winter time, when there isn't irrigation going on, when there isn't people filling pools, washing cars, that type of stuff, and say I'm gonna base your sewer charges on what you used in the winter. I was on a sewer board in Whalen for many years and that's what we did. We just said I'm gonna get the water departments winter water use, I'm gonna figure out everybody's bill once a year in March, once they have that winter water use and I'm gonna send you the same bill for four quarters and then I'll recalculate it the next March. In terms of the revenue stability, it's even better than property taxes. I know exactly what's gonna come in every year because once I figure it out in March, I have it and it's gonna be the same bill for everybody for every quarter. It's gonna take some doing to put in a system like that, it's gonna take some work on the billing system to implement it. That's what the recommendation is though for the second meter. The last thing we looked at was the level of debt service assistance that's provided by the town to mitigate water and sewer rates, essentially transferring a portion of those costs to the general fund, to the general tax rate. So taking it off of water and sewer rates, putting it on your tax rate. It's now been set at $5,593,112 a year and getting the debt from the MWRA, I can split that between water and sewer and how much is each. One of the things we were asked to look at is what happens if we change that? Either up, down, eliminate it. And in the report, there was three different examples. Eliminate it, I think cut it in half and then increase it to seven and a half million dollars. And obviously, you can go anywhere in between and you can extrapolate from that what those amounts might be. That's clearly a policy decision if the board as to how you want to do that, how you want to recover those costs. There is only one other town in the Commonwealth who's doing it. It was a provision of the statutes of the Commonwealth that allows towners to do that. When the MWRA sewer cost started going up, Arlington availed itself to it. Winchester did in terms of residential accounts only, not for non-residential. Lastly, there was the implementation schedule. A lot of this stuff is going to take to implement. We'll take changes in the billing and collection system. And I probably can't emphasize enough how difficult that is. I think we tend to look at having computers and the power of computers and others is something we can do very easy. It's not, it's very difficult to implement a lot of these changes. Within different billing systems. And so again, working with the staff, we've come up with a proposal to go ahead with the 7.5% increase now that you've been talking about. You were talking about when I was here last time. I think Michael's given it to you in years before. That 7.5% increase each fiscal year. Go ahead with that on July 1st. It's going to cost you a bit more money. You need more revenue than a 7.5% increase will give you. It'll cost you about $600,000 on an annual basis. Again, fortunately, you have sufficient reserves to cover that. So that's not a problem. And that plan of the 7.5% increases, envisioned drawing those reserves way down. I wouldn't draw them down much more than that though. And in fact, what we're suggesting is come January 1st of 2014, you go ahead and implement the new tiers, zero to 30, 30 to 60, the new service charges, meter charges, and the new fire charges. And that will then cover all the costs for the second half of the year. The net loss for the fiscal year would only be about 300,000 for the water and sewer enterprise funds. Then on January, I'm sorry, on July 1st, 2014, six months after that, convert to the quarterly billing. It'll be difficult. I'm not gonna candy coat it. You'll hear problems, there'll be issues with it. There'll be screaming coming from this building, from people who work here having to do it. It's not going to be an easy thing to do. But as I said, it's something you're gonna be doing anyway sooner or later. You might as well bite the bullet and do it now. I think it'll help in a lot of ways. Again, a lot of that is discussed in the report to you and I won't repeat all of that. And then in July of 2015, implement the new sewer rates based on the winter water use from that prior winter of end of 13, beginning of calendar 14. So we have the quarterly water consumption for that period. You can use that and use that for all the sewer bills going forward from July 1, 2015 forward. That was an awful lot of information for you all to absorb. I thought you said Adam covered most of it. So let me stop there. I'm sure you probably have questions. Adam, did you have more on the presentation that you wanted to go or are you doing? Did you have anything you wanted to add, Mike? Okay, John. Thank you very much. Thank you, very thorough presentation. I also want to thank the town manager and Mr. Rademacher, the DPW director for actually briefing, they briefed each of us on this also so that we could be sure to understand what was being undertaken. I think none of us here would like to be having to raise the rates every year, which we do unfortunately have to do, but I think it's important to remind folks why we are at this point. I mean, if you go back over a quarter century now, we'll all remember the morass that was Boston Habba that used to be administered by the Metropolitan District Commission, and it was a great place for you to have ribbon cuttings in the towns for the new sewer and water projects and then just forget about it, water was considered and sewage was considered basically a free commodity and the costs were never really thought of. And that's why what used to be the flounder capital of the world now has no flounder left in it at all. The beaches were unswimmable and it's not really that far from here and it's easy for communities like ours and the other 59 communities in the MWRA district to forget about that, that we helped to contribute to that problem just as we draw on the water infrastructure out in the central and western parts of the state and the vitality of that, I think was driven home to all of us just a few years ago when we had a big failure and we were without water for a couple of days and a boil order. So those are some of the things that drive the cost. I mean, right here in Arlington, we'll be seeing this, I guess starting this summer, we'll be seeing a major replacement of our water and sewer infrastructure and some of those pipes are what, 70, 80 years old. That's what drives a lot of the costs as far as the increases. And so I think it's important that, you know, any of the rate payers who may be watching that that's why we are at this point where we have to continually meet our burden to make sure that that system is brought up to the 21st, brought up to the 20th century, never mind 21st and a lot of progress has been made. I really like the thought that's gone into this. I like the fact that price sensitivity is being put into the model where no longer is water looked at as a free commodity. And I think in the future, as we break this down into more tiers, there'll be more price sensitivity there. One thing that as we discuss this, I think it's important also to remind rate payers and maybe watching at home though that as they look at these, this escalating rate structure, it's an incremental rate structure, just like your income tax works. It's not as if you're going up to a higher rate per gallon or per cubic foot for your entire water use as you increase in usage, it's a stepped system. So I'd encourage anyone who's interested to, I know it was posted online to pull it down and take a look at that. But I think that is important that that price sensitivity is there and it gives individuals and families more control, I think over their costs by having that rather than just having the two tiers that we currently have today. I like in this proposal the quarterly billing is in terms of allowing families to control their expenses on a more regulated basis rather than being hit with two larger bills throughout the year. And I recognize that we got a memo from the treasurer and I recognize there's gonna be a lot of strain on the treasurer's office and the postal operation as well. And I sympathize, but I think that for our, the residents of town and consumers, especially when we are forced to assume ever greater burdens in this area, that's important. Mr. Woodcock mentioned that Arlington is one of the only towns that adopted some debt assistance. That was to avoid rate shock back in the day. And, but we probably can't really tweak that too much lest we pass that through to the taxpayers. It's a, there's a lot of dynamic tension in these models. I mean, in that between the taxpayers and the rate payers and there's also dynamic tension between our need to meet our revenue targets but also our conservation goals and not wanting wastage of water. Lastly, I appreciate the creative approach to the, to the issue of summer water usage that doesn't get returned to the system. You're right, there was a town meeting warrant article that was submitted I think last year and it was not, I don't think it was recommended by this board and it was not adopted by town meeting but it was an issue that was recognized and I think that this is a creative approach. So I only have two questions really on the proposal before us. First on page three, you make reference to the water meters and changing that the customer meter service charge. It says these costs are greater for customers with larger meters. It costs more to purchase, maintain and test larger meters and customers with larger meters can require the use of more of the fixed capacity costs than customers with smaller demands. I understand why it would cost more to purchase. I'm trying to understand and this is not understanding how a water meter is put together. I look at testing and I think, well heck to test the brake lights on a Fiat is the same as to test the brake lights in a Hummer but maybe I don't know how a water meter is put together. Does a larger water meter necessarily, does it have more connections typically and therefore more moving parts that need to be tested? No, it's actually the physical process of testing it. Most of the 95, 98% of the meters in Arlington are five eighths inch meters. You've probably seen them in your basement or something. And those are really easy to test. What happens, somebody comes in and does a couple fittings, puts in a new one, takes it out and tests it usually. When you get to the bigger ones, the two and the three inch ones, it's not possible to do that. And generally what you have to do is bring somebody in from a meter testing company and do it right there on the spot. The small ones you can do, it gets me more difficult as they get bigger. But the two and the three inches is the largest that there is in Arlington, but the two and the three inch, maybe even the one and a half get to be pretty difficult to move there. They're big and you don't really pull them out and you bring somebody in to do test them. And frankly, they should be tested more frequently too. A lot more water going through them, a lot more money, if you will, going through them. And sort of the protocol is to do small residential ones every 10 years or so and the large ones, particularly three, four, five inch ones or three, four, six inch, even annually. Some of them do it. So it's the cost of doing it in the frequency both. Okay, thanks. And I just have one more question to know. I'll shut up. I'm always a fan of phasing. I always like a cautious incremental approach, but I do see that there are a lot of phases in this phasing in. And the particular area where I have a question is why the implementation of the new tiering and the implementation of quarterly billing is not phased in conjunction with one another. I understand why the winter usage would be put off a year because you're looking for that quarterly billing to be able to accurately monitor what winter usage is, but I don't understand why those other two phases are split. I think and you started off mentioning the work of Adam and Mike and I would echo that. I mean, the whole analysis was made easier and made more smoothly because of really deep involvement of both of them throughout this process. And one of the things that we looked at was going ahead, well, let's go ahead and do the quarterly billing in July, why don't we just do it right away? And it's a difficult process. You had mentioned a note you have from the treasure. I just briefly saw that this evening when I got here. It's a difficult process to do that. You have the capability now to read the readers instantly, the radio reads the network that you can read them. So it's not a matter of sending somebody out and looking at meters the way it used to do, but it's taking that information that's now being put into the billing system every six months and doing that twice as often, doing it every quarterly. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but there's the postage, the stamps. Again, I looked at the Treasurer's Report very quickly, but there were things in there that I noticed about the bill stuffing machines, the environment down there, things like that, that I think will take some time to look at and address and make sure everything's working because what you don't want is to switch to quarterly billing and have it not work. Yeah, no, that's all clear to me. I'm just wondering why the quarterly billing is not implemented at the same time as a new block rate structure. Oh, it could be. You could put off the block rate structure for a whole year and do it later like that. I think the idea was to try to get it into place now, get the new idea of those new blocks in place so people are used to them at this point and frankly stop some of the bleeding that's happening. If the seven and a half percent increase, as I said, is gonna leave you short $600,000 or so for fiscal 14. If you put in the new blocks in January, it'll cut that in half, basically. I would just quickly add, it was the financial reason of getting the new tiers in January that kept it there. We did work with the Treasurer myself, Mike, to look at a January one date for going to quarterly and that was just too quick to get the operation up and running so that's why we have those stages as you pointed out. Thanks. So I think we could do it later. We can choose to do that. It's just that it drills deeper into our reserve. We'll let it go. Who's next? I'm going last, I'm gonna let you guys ask them out first. No, I feel like I'm being piggy, so I don't want to. Steve, can I get a little more? Thank you very much and I'm not gonna say too much because I think Joe covered most of what I was thinking regarding the report. In other communities, I know you've worked in many of them. Have you ever seen online bill pay for these bills? Yes. Yes, I'm not sure exactly what you're saying. So I could just sign online and pay these bills as many communities. Through your MasterCard or something like that. Often there's a charge for it because there's a charge for MasterCard or Visa for processing and sometimes some communities, water departments will eat that and just incurred as part of their costs. Becoming very common and online, seeing in real time what your actual water use is too and graphs of it and things like that. I wasn't sure which but both of those, it's a lot more frequently that's starting to happen. Yeah and I appreciate that and just going through Mr. Gilliam's report, I think that a lot of these concerns can be taken care of with technological updates and I hope that's something we continue to work towards. Thank you. Steve, do you want to go or do you want to step up now? Whenever you're ready. All right, I'm gonna keep going. I'm gonna go down my list and then I'll call and then you're on my list. All right, just a couple. I don't think I have any questions but I just have a few comments about the process and the output and so on and so forth. I definitely don't want to be increasing the rates that Joe talked about. The MWRA sends us a bill. We have to pay the MWRA so as a board we have to choose the most sensible and fair and appropriate way to distribute that cost to the people who use water and I think that the proposal we've got in front of us significantly improves the way that we're passing that cost on to the people who live it down and so I very much support this. I'm really happy with the process we've got here. I'm really happy with the way we looked at so many of the elements that are included in this question. It isn't, we didn't just take one dial and turn it. Like we looked at everything we've got and we said, okay, what is the right and the bottom? So I'm really happy with this whole thing. And that said, there are some tweaks and changes that as a board we can choose policy-wise and differently but I think we're entirely appropriate. Like we still have all the knobs in front of us and I think that this report gave us a good idea of what knobs we can turn. And if we choose to do something like, you know, this is too many phases, we want to do fewer phases and we accept the conflict. I think that's a very appropriate conversation for us to have. But we have to pay the bill as we all know. Second, I'm really happy with the proposed solution about how to handle the, to remove the need for second meters going forward. Joe, as you noted, this did come up in a previous time meeting. One of the things we said was we were gonna study the issue and this is the study and this is the result. And I think that Mr. Carabello should be really happy with this proposal, but he'll be unhappy with the year that's attached to when we actually implement it. But at the same time, this does, this more fairly puts the cost of sewer with the people who want. And as an engineer, I would describe the solution as elegant. And I think that elegant is a high praise for a solution. I think I'm really, so in order to pull out that elegant solution, we have to move to quarterly billing. I also think that quarterly billing is good from a customer service perspective. I think as a town resident, you prefer a quarterly bill because you don't get runaway meters or the runway meters are found faster, stuff like that. I do look forward to being able to pay that. Like if we can make this be the first one that's like that you can subscribe to this as an online bill and not get like this. To me, it feels like a bill that we can make in our first true totally electronic bill. The taxpayer subsidy element of this where the part of the debt is on the, if we weren't looking at a seven and a half percent increase and a more revenue in December, how would we advocating trimming that number down? And one of the things I kind of ran on was saying, you know, I'm going to continue to try to freeze that and roll that back. I don't think it's appropriate looking at these numbers to roll it back any further. The rate increases as you know, it's big enough, but I just wanted to signal that if I had an opportunity, it certainly wouldn't be to make it bigger. It would be moving to make it smaller. Can you come home with me tonight and talk to my husband? Sure, yeah, does he want to be bigger? He wants lower. Oh, he wants, yeah, well, yeah, I mean, he- He wants the trimming. Yeah, okay. And the one thing that I don't feel like this we've totally nailed yet. And so I've said this to Mike and to Adam in private and in public. And I'll say it again in private and public. The unaccounted for water is still higher than I'm comfortable with and higher than other towns. And I know that part of your analysis was looking at an account of water. I know we've got a series of programs that are looking at an account of water. I just want to, you know, as far as I can, further encourage the research into that because the one thing that we can do that actually, you know, if there is a pot of money out there, you know, that if you dig out enough holes, we'll find a hole and at the bottom of that is going to be all of our unaccounted for water. And that'd be nice, you know. All right. That's the end of my list. Unaccounted for water. That's like unencumbered cash. We've gone from free. Well, you see, I actually don't, I never use the words free cash. I always use unencumbered. You've got me saying it, so. But unaccounted for water I think is like, you know, yeah, diplomatically correct. I'm with you, I'm with you. Some questions and 10 words or less is fine. I'm not looking for big substance. If I am, then I'll schedule a meeting with any of the individuals. And some of the questions I have, I think when the treasurer gets up, he'll address them. Not that he hasn't addressed to the memorandum, but first of all, I'm just curious historically, the 7.5%, who came up with that originally? Was that just the town doing the computation, the 7.5% increase? Was it a consultant? My understanding is that was a cooperation between the prior town manager and prior DPW director. Okay. That goes back probably four or five years now. Okay. And I raise that in the sense of, I understand what we're doing right now. We're just doing the 7.5% and we have a possible scenario of estimated revenue increases in future years. What I would like to see in terms of what I'm looking at right now is something that's more balanced. And what I'm saying is, what on page three where it says 2015, 3.4, 8.2 sewer, and then 6.0 the next year, 9.4. And then if you jump ahead two years to 2018.5, negative 0.25, in terms of managing and budgeting, part of the reason why we're going to quarterly is to say, okay, you can get a handle on it more. I would just ask in the future, whatever projections come before us, if we can get something that's, if it can't be a flat 7.5% or 5% and 2%, if it can be something that has not quite a varied fluctuation there. And I understand this is just sort of a guide, but in terms of going with, and it seems like we're going to do that, but there's gonna be some logistics quarterly billing to say to people we're trying to give you a handle on it. I'd like to see a little different revenue increase there. The other questions that I had was, it's been cited right now, we can do the 7.5, but we'll have the $600,000 deficit loss, but we have 2 million in the water enterprise fund. I'm just wondering, either the tail manager or the former finance committee member, what's our bare minimum balance on that enterprise fund? So that's a good question. And I asked that in the sense, the reason, why am I asking that? When we're gonna do future years, and it's not gonna be 7.5, when we're gonna do 14, 15, 16, 17, can we factor some of that in? So we would, we have never agreed to an actual number, but we would want to have somewhere around two months worth of revenue or maybe 15 to 20% of revenue. So we probably don't wanna go very much lower. In fact, we wanna be in a position that's a little stronger than the position we're in now, to be able to protect against rate spikes or fluctuations based on a dry, or excuse me, a wet summer, or just some unexpected matter happening so that we wouldn't be in a situation where the board would have to consider very large increases to make up for a problem. Can you sort of investigate that? What is the finance committee, whether it's Powers and Sullivan, whether it's Mike Rademacher in concert with the consultant in terms of, as we start to get a handle on what the water rates and things are. I'm confident that it's 15 to 20%, it's just a matter of executing that as a town financial policy. Okay. Can I actually answer? Yes, no, definitely. And so we are losing, or we're spending our reserves at a rate of $600,000 a year, but if we execute the proposed plan by doing a rate increase in July and then the tiers in December, or January 1st, that's only half, that's $600,000 a year, that's only six months. So we're talking about spending down 300,000, not the full six, 100. Okay. I got that correct, yeah, okay. But just as the enterprise fund fluctuates, where it does, if we can just get a formula. Yeah, and I just didn't want you to think that we're spending all six because we're only talking about three. Right, no, exactly. I'm just, I'm challenged by these funds and everything. Sorry to interrupt. I do like, and I wanna thank the consultant, Mr. Woodcock and the town manager and TPW director for spending a lot of time with every member of the board and the selectmen as well as tonight. I just wanna clarify just so people know the point when you were talking about the zero to 200 cubic feet per year, the rate of 482 and then over. So basically, one of the question I had was I saw zero to 200, 482, over 200, 710. And what was told to me was that you wouldn't be charged, if you were a little miss piggy and you were 300, 400 cubic feet, you wouldn't be charged the 710. You would be charged $4.82 for the first 200 cubic feet. Then once, am I saying that right, it's a cubic feet? And then once you hit 201, 201 plus, then your fee is $710. That's correct. So it's not, because some people could look at this and say, geez, I'm 312, I'm gonna get that. And the same thing accordingly with, and I'm just saying this actually to get it on the record to make sure it's my understanding. Same thing with the sewer, the zero to 1,000 cubic feet. Again, it's 587 and then when you hit 1,001, anything from 1,001 there on is 1172. You already answered the question about the private fire charge, how it stays. I just want to note that it stays the same flat right now for the next, up until 2016, up into a two inch diameter fire prevention meter. And that's just for the regular homeowner, but then it does go up consecutively over years past from what the consultant has cited. You know, you check the citizens once every 10 years, you know, annually for someone larger than that. Okay, so, I anticipate that the, the treasurer will get up because I was just concerned. I would like to see in the future because it seems we are going to go to quarterly billing. What the schedule would be and what would the recommendation would be from the treasurer and whoever else he deems appropriate in terms of I have no idea because I don't pay the bills. When, what the schedule for real estate and excise primary excise taxes. So taking that into account what would be the best opportunity for sending this bill out as well as we have a description of equipment, personnel and storage that would be needed but what those actual costs were and where they would come from on the water meter replacement program. Is that something that we're already undertaking because people have said to me, you don't have to replace my meter. They did it so the guy can stand outside and not come in my basement basement. So that there's two different issues. There's the automatic meter reader and then there's the meters themselves. So the automatic meter reader program has been done town-wide. There has been some meters replaced when we've been able to get into homes to inspect for some pumps or other matters but town-wide there's still a meter replacement program that needs to be separate from the automatic meter readers. And one of the things I had asked my Mr. Audemacher and Mr. Chapter-Lay, when we do that that we ask council on aging senior center to come up with some sort of senior plan because I know a lot of elderly residents don't like people coming in their house. And if we can find a way that we're not coming in your house, coming through your basement, whatever council on aging, because I know they're very sensitive to those issues. I did ask the town manager and I'd leave it also to the treasurer that what the post is, how much we can actually put in this new quarterly envelope if on occasions, and I'm not saying this should happen all the time, but if there's for some reason, we can mail out four sheets and this bill is three sheets, if there's for some reason we have a town issue or a town notice, do we have another sheet of paper that we can put in there that doesn't add to the postage? If this quarterly billing is, that's it, you're maxed out, that's fine and it should not be political purposes, it should be something else, new trash program, things like that. And then besides the treasurer answering my question, I think we really need to renew, and I don't mean to just say this, I'd like to get something really substantive out of our state delegation, and maybe one of it is the MWRA debt assessment, if they can get a some relief on that, we have these meetings, we talk at each other and we're gonna get you more money and we want more money, but one of the things when I met with you all and that I heard from the speaker at the microphone is we're kind of bearing the cost for that, and when we have our goals and our mission meeting, one of the things I'd like to do is identify whatever amount of number, five, eight things from our state delegation and say you gotta come through on one, and if we went through that sort of exercise, if everybody agrees, I think that getting some sort of relief on the MWRA debt assessment is the thing. So leaving my questions on the table about the logistics. Or anything? Yeah, Mr. Gilligan. How's that for a segue? Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I thank you members of the board. The questions have doubled my time from three minutes to probably six, but I'll try and be succinct. First and foremost, my memo of May 30th to the town manager was a response to his request for what impacts would occur with treasury operations with respect to changing the water and sewer billing cycle to quarterly. Let me start out by saying, I don't like that term quarterly for a specific reason. People think either fiscal year or calendar year quarters, if we look at a calendar year, the first quarter would end in March. To answer the specific questions that was asked by each of you earlier, real estate taxes go out on a quarterly basis based on fiscal year. They are due August 1st, November 1st, February 1st, and May 1st. They are mailed out approximately five to six weeks ahead of that due date. So having a bill processing date and a receivables date that coincides with the real estate tax collections coincidental with water and sewer is going to cause issues. Would you have a different term you'd rather we used? I'd like to use 90-day billing cycle. We can call it quarterly so long as when the time comes to establish what those quarters are, we pay a focused attention to that because it is a critical issue. Now, in addition to the real estate tax billing, there's also motor vehicle excise tax billing. And what we call commitment one or primary bill one, which is mailed out, processed in February and due in mid-March, is 30,000 bills. That also impacts the water and sewer billing cycle that you're anticipating. Now, I want to be very emphatic. What I'm discussing are issues that must be addressed. I don't regard them as barriers to implementing quarterly billing. I'm just pointing out issues that we have to deal with. All right, and I think they need to be done in a very detailed manner. I think we can make this happen, but there are obvious concerns that we have to deal with. Remember that going to a quarterly billing cycle will double the number of bills being processed. We will go from 28,000 bills to 56,000 bills. That will double the postage, will double the materials cost, and will increase the labor costs for the production, processing, and collection of those bills. As you see in my memo, that's going to impact the Treasury's budget to the tune of approximately $30,000. It will also impact the operations of the water department as well as the IT department. Now, Mr. Byrne made a comment about online payments. We are implementing a new online payment service provider as we speak. We expect that new service provider to be in place within the next four to eight weeks. We're hoping closer to four rather than eight. But keep in mind, online payments are generally have a success rate of four to 16%, depending upon the community and the type of bill. So we could be looking at an initial 4% participation rate of online bill payments. Just keep that in mind. A convenience of technology does not necessarily mean a major shift in attitude or trends. We're hoping that it does, but it doesn't at the outset. Also keep in mind, there's been discussions of electronic bill presentment. With electronic bill presentment, state law, with respect to motor vehicle excise and real estate tax, does not allow forgoing hard copy billing. It's a legal requirement. That's not the case with utility billing. So there is an opportunity to try and offload the production of a hard copy bill with an electronic bill. Keep in mind that there is a charge for electronic bill presentment. It ranges from $0.40 to $1.25. Generally, that fee is borne by the bill payer. So someone would opt in to say, yes, I want an electronic bill and I'm willing to pay that fee. A community that makes the determination to absorb that fee runs the risk of 100% success rate than having to pay for 56,000 electronic bills. That's just food for thought. But we are at some point going to be looking at electronic bill presentment across the board for all bill types, even though we will not be able to eliminate real estate tax and motor vehicle excise tax. So that is in our game plan. Also be aware that we have already drafted a billing and bill printing RFI. We're not able to get that out as yet. It needs to be fine tuned, but we're in the process of online bill payments. So we expect to get that out before the summer ends. So we're moving in that direction as well. I also wanted to specifically have talked about labor cost, postage, and material cost going up. Scheduling is a critical issue. Physical environment is an issue. I think we can deal with that. Specifically, to Ms. Mahan's question about, can we utilize quarterly billing with respect to making inserts, community, or town inserts? We currently do that today. We can insert a Buxler for a single page. We can shift to a number 10 envelope and include larger inserts in water and sewer billing. The advantage to that is we are in no way violating state law by increase. If an insert increased first class postage, we're not breaking state law. Can't do that with a tax bill. So again, we have opportunities here. The other thing I want to mention is that if, I think this could be an advantage, not could be will be an advantage, if the rate structure that the board is contemplating, not only a rate increase, but going to a block rate structure can be used to eliminate capital project borrowing that will be a major positive impact to the town. Even though we are currently availing ourselves of MWRA zero interest loans, as well as grants through the local assistance programs, we know that at some point, those local assistance programs will be eliminated and that the zero interest portion of the loans may also be eliminated. Although we currently have zero interest and we're currently looking at low interest, historically low interest rates today with respect to issuing municipal bonds, the investment marketplace is second guessing the Fed. We don't know what's going to happen again on this Wednesday's Open Markets Committee meeting and Fed decisions, but we do know that interest rates will go up and we strongly suspect that when they go up, there will be a little jump followed by a large spike in borrowing rates. So if we can eliminate capital project borrowing for water and sewer, the town will be in good stead if we can do that with cash payments and be able to schedule that over the long run. So there's a lot of positive impacts with respect to quarterly billing, but there are definite budgetary and operational issues that need to be addressed and they need to be done in a detailed and focused manner. And I wanted to bring that to the board's attention. It's not just a matter of, oh, we're going to quarterly billing. And the key point is picking the proper 90 day cycle. And trust me, I've looked at every month of the year and we're always coming up with an issue, but I think we can find the best positive approach. And I've been talking with the town manager about that, as well as Mr. Radamakar, as director of DPW. And I think we can achieve an across the board positive goal. And if the board has any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them, but the scheduling is the biggest one, as well as the budgetary impact. And I'm prepared to also put that budgetary impact in my budget for the upcoming budget go around this fall. So we'll be prepared for whatever the board decides to implement by next July. So we'll be moving forward with you. If you have any questions, be more than happy to answer them. Thank you, Mr. Gillian. All right, thank you. Think everybody said their say. Does anyone have another say? And does anyone want to make a motion? We have two recommendations from the town manager. One is to set rates starting July 1st. And the second is to set rates in a new block structure for January 1st. Those are the two votes you're asking us to make today. So moved. Second. Any further discussion or comments? All those in favor, please say aye. That one. Four zero. Thank you, thank you everybody. Thank you. So that was a lot of work put into that one, right? I know, I'm glad we spent the time on it. Next up, policy on banners, Ms. Rice. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The town manager asked me to prepare for the board's consideration of draft policy to address primarily the use of the brackets on these street light poles that are all five of town. And secondarily, I added sandwich boards in the median, which as the board knows, are frequently requested and frequently just erected without permission. It may be less problematic to sort of leave that out, but I included it for the board's consideration. I wanted to point out for the board that this draft policy, which is in your materials, is only a permission-based policy. It doesn't provide any zoning relief, no need to put it. It is the case with most signs that are not town erected, that would be fall into the promotional, educational, directional, informational part of the zoning bylaw, and that would advertise an event in a different location, which obviously would because there aren't any events taking place on the light poles. Most of those would be accessory signs, which are not allowed under current zoning bylaw. They can be allowed in the zoning enforcement officers opinion by special permit of the zoning board of appeals. So this policy does not attempt to delineate what is or is not acceptable from the zoning point of view. This is purely to assist the board in creating its permissions as the custodian of light poles, inside blocks, and other things. When the board gets requests, and I know those requests have become much more frequent at the department level for private groups seeking to erect banners, things like that, advertising private events. I have chaired a copy of this draft proposal with the town's new economic development coordinator. I have discussed it with him a little bit. I believe he's speaking out of turn to say that he's in agreement that policy would be an advisable thing, although I don't know specifically about this one. So if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. Diane. First I want to thank Town Council for bringing back the broad of selectmen hanging. I thought I'd just would see that again. I called the selected officer and I said whose idea it was to do it in the first one. Photographs were attached to my draft. I don't know anything about it. No, it resurfaces again, just when you thought it went away. Just speaking as a member of the broad of selectmen, I just want to ask, is it already inherently applied in here in terms of liability? Should a private group, who bears the responsibility that God forbid and happened once a town day many, many, many years ago that a banner comes down and causes damage to a car or injury to a person? Who bears the cost of that? It could be any party involved. It could be either the town or it could be the party place in the banner. One question that I embedded in the draft policy was whether the board wanted to require insurance. Now, for non-profit organizations, that might be a hardship. I think either way, there has to be insurance and I think we need to. If the board wishes to extend the availability of that advertising space to non-town entities. To date, as long as I've been here, it's been my understanding with one aberration that I believe was not authorized by this board that the only use of those light bulb banner brackets was by town, it was always in the library, but town entities. So if the board wished to permit private entities, non-town entities to use those brackets, the board would have to consider whether it would require liability insurance for those. What I recommend here and the board can certainly explore other things, but my recommendation is that the board allow the use of those light bulbs only for town entity, events for town entity sponsored events. And the reason for that is twofold. One is it minimizes first amendment problems that might arise when private groups ask permission to use those banners. It becomes a problem of you're no longer able, you're not able to discriminate on the basis of content. So you may be in the situation where you're being faced with requests by an organization that many people will find offensive. And then you would be somewhat limited if you'd allow other non-profit groups to use those banner spaces. The other thing is that that type of signage is not allowed under the zoning by-law unless it is erected by the town. Okay. That's the reason I make that recommendation. That's fine. As long as we stick to sponsored by the town or a town committee, if we really stick to that guideline because I can see other worthy non-profits, 5013C is coming in, you have the language outlined there. And then the only other comment that I had is, and I'll leave this to the town manager, the sandwich board on public sidewalks, it was a little bit, I was a little chagrined at the last meeting when we had a business owner up and we were talking about asking him to move the sandwich board so that people could get through and it was stated that they're not allowed and he didn't agree to even move that. Which is one of the reasons why I did not vote to endorse his outdoor seating because I did not see him cooperating with this board. Quite a few people have pointed that out. Since that's come to light, if whatever appropriate authority agency department head could follow up on that, just because, and he brought it to our attention as well as debated not moving it to a safe place to me, you know, but whatever. But my future question would be if that case arises again, if Adam could let us, the town manager could let us know tonight or in the future, do we, besides all things go through Marie, who enforces that? Is that Christine Conley? Is that police department, non-emergency? It would be a building inspection. Okay, all right. But just again, with that's been pointed out, I've had, I mean, every Dunkin' Donuts I've walked into and one Starbucks, funny enough, they commented on that particular thing because they watched it at home. Thank you. And I wanna make clear, I'm not recommending that the board needs to implement a policy with respect to the placement of sandwich boards, but we all know that they get placed. I think we should. Thank you. I can think of two that we've approved that I can recall specifically. One is a farmer's market and the other one completely just lost Chamber of Commerce. Thank you. It's like I had it. And blood drive. Yeah. But that's in the center, I will not walk into it. But I'm actually gonna say, I don't think I've approved the blood drive ones. Like maybe in past, maybe you've done it in the past, but I can't at least myself recall having both of you. I don't recall either. Yeah, in the past year. Joe. Thank you. Thank you for working on this. I mean, certainly there are a number of activities and there are a number of activities alone that are town sponsored and sponsored by committee. So I think it's important that we act on this to make it clear that these town sponsored events will have potential access to the polls. I do have a question on this though. So under Roman numeral two, only A, enters for events or activities presented or sponsored by the town or a town committee, or B, traffic informational, educational, directional, or promotional signage installed by the town or at its direction, maybe hung from the brackets, the polls, et cetera, et cetera. So installed by the town, I'm just trying to get at whether that precludes, for example, I mean, one of the examples that's come up is one of the merchants groups in the area has wanted to identify the area. And we've had this in the past, we had this in Capital Square, where the area has been clearly identified. So I'm trying to determine whether this policy precludes banners, which identify the particular cultural, historical, or commercial character of the surrounding area. No, it wouldn't, but I would expect that those would be installed by the town. I mean, you certainly don't want private parties to be in the area. So when I was reading through this, prior to this meeting, I was reading it to say that they would not be precluded, but we would have to grant permission for that type of signage, which is identifying signage in nature. Right, I think this is certainly the board would want to discuss with the economic development coordinator, but they would not be precluded under this policy. Okay, because that's very important to me, that we do allow that, that we do potentially allow signage that does identify the cultural, commercial, or historical character of a particular area. I mean, we're seeing things like that coming out of the master planning process. I think in the memo that we got, there was discussion of that, of a cultural arts district per se, but we've talked a lot about the identity of place, and I want to make sure that that's not precluded, and that we're not precluded from working with private groups to help us make that happen. Right, but I would say the final decision and any kind of accessing of the polls would need to be done at the town level. Right, okay. Absolutely. No, absolutely, no, no, no, no question. Oh, I just want to make sure this doesn't preclude that. Okay. My, so I'm in favor of this, I think it's good. Marie, I think, so one of the things I did briefly talk to Marianne about this, and one of the things that Marianne said was make sure you build a process with this, and we're not supposed to find a process in this policy, which I actually think is a very healthy thing, but I think it should come, I think that, provided we go forward and we approve this, I think what we should talk about is this like you and Marianne or whoever, creating something like the taxi permit, but something that's just for us, for us for this, is such that if someone wants to hang the banners, you're going to have like a one page form, and I strongly suspect that one of the questions is going to be please attach a sample of what the design will look like. Juliana? I just clarify on that point. If the question is with respect to hanging the banners, the way this policy is drafted right now, no private parties are going to hang the banners, maybe come by the town, if the town chooses to co-sponsor an event, the town was, I mean, the select were asked recently in a creative move to co-sponsor an event, the board decided to, that's fine. So I think what you might want to be thinking about is how to request a co-sponsor an agreement. Yeah, so actually what I was trying to, I'm curious if you agree, so the last one that's in section two is the one that I was hanging my hat on, which is the Board of Select would must approve the hanging of any such banners or signs in the period of time which they will be hung. And so I was trying to come up, I was suggesting that we have a piece of paper that helps, you know, this is the document that's going to carry it to us for us to take a vote on it. Right, and maybe this internally is a little inconsistent because yes, the board must approve it, but earlier in policy it said that only something that is for a town event or a town sponsored event. So it's maybe, maybe I didn't draft it very well. You're really looking, right now you're looking at two levels of approval. One is, are you going to co-sponsor an event? And the second is, are you going to approve the banners? So maybe I could fix that to make it a little more user friendly. Okay, yeah, Dan. You just popped a line of inquiry for me. Do we also want to perhaps have some sort of time limit or maximum thereof or? I think to me that's still in our, I mean, it is explicitly something we get to decide. Okay. That's good enough. I mean, if we wanted to set the policy that we're gonna, so the way I look at it is we can attempt to bind future boards of selection, but that future board of selection could change this policy anyway. So we get to choose it, you know. Here's what I'm thinking is that for some reason, one group comes in and gets to stay up for two weeks because nothing else is going on. And then another group comes in and says, well, we want the two weeks and we can only give them 10 days. If we can have some language that says up to 10 days, 14 days. Yes, I guess that, I... Diane will agree, because she's been on the longest. Any sign for the banners that ever came before us, including all the library signs, you know, the month to read or whatever, we always get a sample and the board has always approved it before the signs are put up. Right, but I'm saying that that should be a part of what this year. Exactly, and they tell you there's going to be up to 30 days or, you know, 15 days or something, but the board always gets to approve it. That's what this says. All right, it's not a makeup break point for me, but we'll just keep it in mind in terms of... I think we should do it, let me keep it in mind. Okay, that's fine. So, Juliana, I haven't, I don't yet see the problem that you see. Okay. All right. Joe? I think my, again, I'll go back, back to what I was talking about before. The only issue I've got is that the title of the policy talks about the use of town-owned property for event publicity, and I think it's really for publicity signage. So you think that is fixed? Yeah, and I think in the preamble, it says to govern use of its fixes with the temporary posting or installation of signs or banners to publicize upcoming events. I'd like to see, or the unique commercial, historical, cultural character of an area. Or the unique commercial, historic, or cultural character of an area. No, I have a question for Joe. Just a little dialogue. Now, are you talking about more permanent signs or these types of banners that go up and down? Banners, banners, banners. I will tell you very specifically that I know that the commercial merchants group in the center has looked at what Capital Square did a number of years ago. Now, I know those banners actually stayed there quite a long time, but under this, I think it's reasonable. We would have to set some guidelines. We don't want all of the polls taken up and then you have no space left for event promotion. So there'd have to be some parameters left. But I think banners by the very nature aren't permanent. They degrade pretty obvious. I think once the process is fully developed, what Mr. Cureau, what you're getting at could be that, let's say Town Day had banners. The board approved that. They could be up for 14 days or a month. And then there's no event. And an Arlington Center Business District banner goes up as a gap filler. And then there's another event and then that goes up. And so maybe there's always something up based on what Mr. Cureau's talking about. And that will develop itself and see how it works out. But I think that's what you're getting at. When there isn't an event being publicized, perhaps the district itself is being publicized. But what? Perhaps the district itself is being publicized. Correct, correct. And I wanna make sure that that's possible, that that's still possible. I'm also realizing there's a timing issue here with one of the other upcoming town events, which is the block party that we approve some things. But I think we're dead. As far as I'm concerned, and Juliana can correct me if I'm wrong, we can approve any proposals we want, even without approving this policy first. We've been doing it one off forever. We can do it one off again until the policy. Yeah, yeah, I just realized this very moment, the light bulb just went off that, oh, we made the meeting before the block party for this policy proposal, what we haven't. I don't feel like that should block. I don't know what to do. Do we want to approve this as amended, or do you wanna, do you wanna, are you? Let her have a final crack at it. Do you want another edit, or do you wanna ask to approve it? No, I'm happy to circulate it again. Okay. Additionally, I'm not sure if the board made a decision with respect to insurance for sandwich boards, or you just don't wanna address that right now, it's fine. Well, it would essentially be the town. No, but the sandwich boards, yeah. Because you can have multiple sandwich boards, although you can't have multiple views of the same bracket. Cyber, that we would, okay. But maybe you don't even need to address this right now. I mean, I could take that out as well, because it seems like the pressing need is very much. Yeah. It's just a stickler on me. You want it? To not have insurance, yeah. I don't know, maybe not an exhaustive search, but maybe find out if there are any other cities and towns that, what modality they, what, what. Yeah, I did do a search for similar policies in cities and towns and was not able to look. I mean, we have people, if they run through our ovens, with them, or they have to have insurance, right? To me, to not have the insurance, I think is. When? Well, since you're recrafting it and doing it up, and making some revisions to it, maybe if you could just see if there's an answer to that question, I'm just. Yeah, so let's, part of me says, so I understand what you're after, so in, I like having insurance, but I also like having flexibility to change my mind. It's my only thing. So, for Juliana, I guess the way I look at this is, for Juliana to do a good draft for us, we have to give her direction about what we want, so I think it would be, as a board, owe her an answer on her question, and so Diane clearly would prefer to put in insurance. And it could be the way you could craft it, as you could say, you know, you could have insurance, like we do right now with the taxi cabs companies in Boston doesn't, everybody's finding out it's woefully inadequate. If you say you have to have a minimum amount of insurance policy of whatever. So, and I would, and I'm okay with talking about insurance in general requirement, but I want a way out if I don't need to, which I think is different from Diane's position, so I think you've got to get to see it. I think we might be on the same page, Mr. Chairman. What if we, you know, said something along the lines of, you know, we would hope that you would request or consider, but do not require, you know, to give us that leeway. Because quite frankly, I don't think that it's necessary, but it would, that would at least start, you know, they would then look into it, and then they could see whether or not it was reasonable on those private business owners. Joe, where do you, on insurance? I see, I'm with you. I think I like having that, I like having some flexibility on it. So, I think we're going to direct, Juliana say, insurance can be waived by this board. Is that, I know, you know, no, I think it's careless and not, you know, but it's the court report. Yeah, I know where you're at. I'm just telling you. All right, so, Juliana, do you want to amend that and send us some of the draft? Any further conversation on this topic? Nope, but, I'm wondering how I get myself out of this, this, this pickle. Well, what I need is the Arlington live block party, potentially as a need for, I'd say probably for up to 10 banners, they may not use them, but that's July 13th and we don't meet before then. Yeah, you're in trouble. I am in trouble. Unless we give general approval to the town manager. Unless you wait until new business and discuss it and ask for a vote. Yeah. Plus we give general authority to the town manager to approve town sponsored, use of those polls for town sponsored events. Let's do it, let's do it in new business and do it specifically for this event. I don't want to have to create a new policy, personally. Gotcha. I'd rather just do the thing. Anything else over that end? Next up. Parking fees. All right, so, little bit of history yet, trying to figure about how far back we've been on this one. During conversations last year, we got a question from Mr. Bailen and others about, it was last year, about whether or not the fee was too high. We asked the town manager to look at what the fee, what the composition of the fee should be and he provided a form. There was Mr. Bailen and others to a 10 voter article to the town meeting. Town meeting approved a resolution. I forget the exact language of it, but it was essentially in favor of lower fees. And so, and I agreed both before that and at the town meeting to make sure that we would talk about this at a future selectments meeting, which is what brings us here. So, I think that the appropriate thing probably is for the town manager to talk a little bit about the document that he has and what the pricing suggestion is. Diane, then I'm going to ask you to talk about what the parking subcommittee said and then let's have a discussion, I think. All right, Adam. So, going back to the memo that had been provided to the board during the town meeting discussion, I looked at two issues, the cost of the first issuance of this overnight parking permit as well as every subsequent reissuance after that first year. And the major difference being in that first year, there's a somewhat great deal of inspection work that needs to be done by the police department, fire department and then permit issuance by the Board of Selectment and the Treasurer's Office. All of that doesn't have to happen in each subsequent year in terms of the cost of producing the permit. So, looking at the hourly rate and the time spent by those departments for year one, as well as a figure that I used for both that first year's issuance and every other year's reissuance, something I called allocation of a scarce resource. The first year came to $186 and every other year came to $50 or $51. So, to talk a little bit about the allocation of the scarce resource, the point I was trying to hit on there is that those folks who receive this permit are receiving a special benefit that very few people in this town receive because of the overnight parking permit. So though there isn't necessarily a cost of producing that there is certainly some value or incentive being given or not incentive benefit being given to those people who are awarded this permit. That's why I included that for the Board's discussion. This was again discussed, this was again discussed at last week's parking subcommittee, so at that point I turn it over to Ms. Mahara if she wants to address the committee's decision. Okay, we did discuss this issue and we discussed it from keeping it the same to making it uniform to what we charge the town lots, charge the public street the same as we do the public lots, a dollar a day, $365 a year, as well as what was presented from the town manager. And the parking subcommittee all recommended that in light of the recent vote by the citizens on the overnight parking ban, in light of the fact we're talking approximately 75 residents out of the 24, 22,000 or so that have this benefit and the fact that we're an overnight parking ban town, we wanna maintain it at the current rate of $200 a year, as well as we have not heard with the exception of some residents on one street of any of the other residents who seek this relief to us every year haven't heard any requests that the fees exorbitant should go up or should go down. And it was felt by the subcommittee to recommend keeping it at 200 for each year because it keeps on the table the fact that we're trying to really in somewhat effect deter overnight parking because we do have an overnight parking ban. And the $200 we looked at other cities and towns who do comparable who have overnight parking bans, they also do the same thing. And it was also pointed out that and this is for the current Board of Selectment to ponder that originally we, the Board of Selectment had very strict guidelines in terms of you had to be a true hardship case. You had to be Highland Ave, Park Ave. You cannot build any when people would come in in East Arlington on Agaton Road on Fairmont Street and say I have parking for three but now I need four cars, two per. They were told no. And we seem to be getting into the slope of, I rented this place and the landlord won't let me or now I have five cars that it might give this Board some relief if we got back to it truly is a hardship case in the future. But it's up to a majority of the Board of Selectment but the parking subcommittee recommends that we not make everything uniform but that we keep it at the $200 a year and make that motion. So motion from Mr. Mohan. I have comments but I tend to, as Chair, I try to sit on myself and make myself the top last. So I confess I'm itching to speak and if you guys want to go, go and otherwise I'm gonna let myself, Joe. Yeah, unfortunately I can't second the motion. I like the analysis that the manager's given us as far as it goes. I think it is reasonable to take a look at the allocated costs and establish a yearly permit fee and then, I mean probably what we should be looking at is breaking this out. There's an application fee and we have to determine the first year application portion and then there's a recurring permit fee year over year. It's the same thing as what we've got here. Hear me out but one thing that I think it does still, I understand the concept of the allocation of scarce resource, I'm still not clear how we're backing into that number. What I think I'd feel more comfortable with is if we were including in here an analysis similar to what's done for the police fire. Oh no, there is an analysis here for the Board of Select in the first year but there isn't for the subsequent years. I guess in subsequent years what some of the additional clerical costs is for reissuing the permits but that's about as far as I've looked at it. I'm just not clear how we get to that $30 on allocation of scarce resource. There is no grand formula behind it. Steve, before I make any sort of announcement just to hear out the discussion. I would not be against having the, at least whether it be officer or toe or someone that he works closely with on these issues. Go and re-examine the parking spots to see if there are any changes. Different curb cuts can occur, different science can be moved. So you're talking about a renewal. Yeah, a renewal. So a more in-depth examination upon the renewal of a license and in which case I would support staying at the current 200. If that is not going to occur and we are just going to renew it, I would, I think maybe going from 200 down to 100 and including more of board of, as Mr. Cure said, a board of selecting analysis on the recurring years and then examining that and then making a decision. But so that's kind of what I'm thinking. So my thought is that I'm not person, I'm not fretting the exact number on either of the things, but I do support something that I think Joe said, but I would phrase as there's a first year fee and there's a subsequent year fee and the first year being higher and the subsequent being lower. So, and I would support 200, 100. I would support other numbers, but I do support, I respectfully disagree with the parking subcommittee, which does good work and I hate to disagree with them and I feel like I've disagreed two out of the last three times and I, and I, and I, and I, I mean, at some point we should evaluate whether we want a parking subcommittee, honestly, because there's a lot of time, including officer or tell that we spend on these issues and it kind of seems like, sometimes you got to make tough decisions or let's not have a parking subcommittee. Okay. Honestly. Yeah. Because it's a waste of, class a waste of their time. Yeah. I like to think that it's an unusual batting streak that I've got going right now, but I'm definitely aware that I've got batting streak right now, but it doesn't change my opinion. No, I would just say if you're putting a group of people together and maybe I'm the wrong person, take me off, but, you know, if you're putting people together for their expertise and their recommendations are consistently ignored, whether because it's uncomfortable or whatever. I mean, it's not that we just sat down and I mean, this was a lot of, you know, several over the course of a year, year and a half that we had these meetings and we were told, please go back to the drawing board, please look at this again. This fee amount, does parking subcommittee came back in multiple times? We, how many times have we discussed the overnight parking fee in our meetings? To this year? Yeah, for this year only. We've probably had maybe three, four. Really? Yeah, I'm not counting last year. This originally started out last year. When we did the analysis so that Swan Street and Forestry could get on the parking there. And since we've had it, the only thing that we've met on, did we have one meeting regarding Swan Street on this overnight with the warrant article that was to balance it? No, I'm just saying, you know, for what it's worth, but whatever the majority of the board comes up with, but you know, and I think it's a good idea. Honestly, what Mr. Byrne brought up is, again, it would be an additional cost, but if the fee stayed 200 per year, having officer Roto go out and look at the 72 to 75 that we have and see if there can be a curb cut so that we can get back to the original spirit. And again, it was, and I don't mean to be chastising, but getting away from the original reason for granting overnight parking permits. You could not blast into Highland Abapal River and you didn't have a place where the town would grant you a curb cut. We could. I think that's a very good suggestion because I think, I know, and that's the other thing. We've been out, I can't tell you how many times, to just about all 75. Between last year and this year. I definitely appreciate that the reasons we're giving permits is different than what was originally done. And I think that so long as we're talking, like if we're doing that on purpose, it's a healthy thing. If we're doing it by mistake, it's a bad thing. But the fact that we're actually, the fact that our policies are evolving over time in and of itself, that doesn't scare me. It's only, we just have to be doing it for the right reason. No, I just want to respect the overnight parking ban, which is what this town has voted in. That's the point. I mean, what we're doing is not respecting Okay. So. Oh, okay. I would, I would quibble with the, with the choice of words there. Okay. It does have to be respecting. The town has consistently in town, meeting voted that they want to. Yes. And maintain the overnight parking ban and your parking subcommittee is saying in order to do that. We need exceptions. Well, we need to be firm on exceptions and recommending 200 per year. Mr. Ballin, did you want to weigh in? Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the board. I think you all know my opinion on this, cause I've been before you several times as well as at town meeting. Do you recommend $186.29 and 51.71? No, I don't actually, I will get into that. What I, what I recommended at town meeting, which town meeting did pass as a resolution by a majority of the members was $150 for the first year and $25 for each subsequent year. The basis for that was very simple. Mr. Chapter Lane did a very honest assessment of the actual costs. And as I said many times to you before, there's a very clear Supreme Judicial Court opinion. I don't know why you're not concerned about it. It's very clear. Permit fees have to be tied to actual costs. You can't make up numbers that you feel are numbers you would like fees to be. They are based on costs. You have on a piece of paper now a very honest assessment of what the costs are. The only thing I quibble with Mr. Chapter Lane's assessment is the $30 allocation of scarce resource because I think as he acknowledges and I give him credit for trying, he acknowledges it is a number he made up to try to sort of factor in other issues, but it is not part of an actual cost. The numbers are very clear of what costs the town to do these permits every year. I have no problem with the additional costs for the first year. $150 is reasonable, even though I think that's a little padded. I tell you for sure the fire department does not spend an hour assessing each property. But nonetheless, I'm not going to quibble with a few dollars here and there. $150 seems very reasonable to me for the first year. But you have very clear written documentation of costs for subsequent years. It's $22 more or less. Rounding it to $25 seems to make sense to me. But I'm baffled by why the members of the board, the Park and Civil Committee, continue to try to push this fee issue beyond what is actually legal. And I really, really encourage you to think about that very clearly. Ms. Mahan keeps mentioning the overnight ban and the unfairness issue. I've said many times before, make it very clear what the criteria are for an exception. Not everybody in town will qualify. This is not for convenience. These are for people who have no other options. Charging them an excessive fee, just a made up fee, isn't the way to discourage it. The way to discourage it is to have clear policies on who can apply, who can't. An application fee, I would suggest, a nonrefundable application fee will discourage a lot of people. It's $150 a year. But again, if the board intends to support $200 flat fee every year, it certainly won't be the end of it from my perspective. I think you really would be incurring liability here for the town. That is completely unnecessary. And you certainly won't hear it at the end of it from town meeting either. And I guess the only thing else I would say from this one place resident is that if it is your policy to go ahead with keeping the $200 fee, I would like to know how residents on our street can go return this to a private way. Because basically, we were promised something that was taken back. At this point, I think we'd like to go back to be a private way. But anyway, what I really want to just emphasize is you seem to be suggesting something with this, making this a large fee to discourage people from applying it. Honestly, it doesn't make sense to me. As I presented before, there are loads of cities and towns around here that have permit fees. I understand it's a little different. But essentially, the cost is the cost. The cost is printing, et cetera, all the administrative costs of a permit. Nobody else charges more than $30 a year. I don't understand why Arlington is trying to turn this into a revenue stream. Thank you. Thank you. All right, so we have a motion that hasn't been seconded to something. Do you either want to second the motion or do you have a different motion that you'd like to make? I have a question for Marie. Sure. Of course. How many hours would you say into either you or Marianne or the board's office puts into a renewal of a parking permit? They come to. Yeah, just not for the first year, for the second, third, fourth. But we don't give it out the second year that you're downstairs to see the only thing that I will add to the reducing it the second year. When it says of Adams, it has the treasurer's report analysis. It does not query goes to every card during that renewal. Now, whether it takes him or not, whether to go down the whole street, I'm not with him. Sometimes I do go with him. We went to every house on Forest Street in Parivirbo. We've done all that. But now whether it would take him an hour of his time, I'll pay to get down Swan Street. I couldn't answer you that. That's not the answer I knew. We just do the initial parking request. We have the hearing here at the Suckman's office. And then we notify Steve. He gets out the permit. And then every year, in my understanding, Steve sends out a renewal at December to have it come back for January. So their office takes care of that. But we don't think of that. So I think I'd like to make a motion. I don't think I can give you the, I don't think you should. You've got to pass the gavel if you want to make a motion. But that's what I'm asking. Who do you want me to pass the gavel to? Who's passed it to me? Well, but you also have a motion on the floor. No, well, normally what happens as a courtesy is Suckman's motion gets seconded and then voted down. But we don't have that courtesy anymore. So my motion dies, so pass the gavel. All right. I feel like I'm starting back again when I was first at Suckman. I think you're getting, I actually think you're getting, I think it's very polite. I don't think there's anything. No, I'm just saying in past practice, normally. It just said, unless somebody says I want to burn down all the buildings in town, as a courtesy, you second it. And then the person fails, but whatever. So Mr. Dunn? I'd like to move, although it's due to fee of $200 for the first issuance and $100 for subsequent issuance. Motion by Mr. Dunn. Is there a second? I'm not prepared on that either. Then someday you're going to have to make a motion, too. I'd like to make a motion, yes. So I move that. There will be that, you know, the first year, there will be the $200 free. And then on the subsequent years, it will be $75. There will be a $75 free. And that is the treasurer's cost plus the allocation of scarce resources plus the police hour from the additional fee from Corey's work. And that's where that comes out to like $75, $27. And that's what I'll make that motion. I can certainly support that, so I'll second it. Like I said, the numbers are not, truly, I'm not wedded to anyone. I wanted the tiers, and that's perfectly fine. OK, motion by Mr. Burns. Seconded by Mr. Dunn. Any further discussion? Yeah, can you run that by me again? Yes, sir. So it would be the $51.71 from the cost of producing the reassurance plus the police hour and a half from the top. And that comes out to approximately $75. Could I ask Mr. Byrne, are you including in your motion this what I possibly heard suggestion of having Officer Roteau, when he can fit it into a schedule, going out to the renewals and the ones that can? Well, as Marie said, that's already done. So yes. No, that's not done. Marie said that they drive by. The renewals. Yes. He's going to add that? OK. So that that will be done, because I think we'll find quite a few. I assume you need to go to the $75, which will include Corey to go to every house to check the vehicle, et cetera. Yes. See if it's back in there. Any further discussion? If not, we want to get. I just don't feel comfortable with the allocation of scarce resource. I'm sorry. I'm just. Joe, where are you? I'm trying to, like, I would like to just dispose of this. I'm going to, you know, as in, like, I give you, like, this is a parameter of stuff that I'm excited about here, which is having a two-tier. I'm looking at, like, $160 and $75, which backs out that $30 of allocation of scarce resource that just puts in the allocated costs that are here, taking into account on the second year. I'm sorry. Did I say $75? Yes, $75. Well, it takes into account the police time on the second year. All right, either we take a vote on the current motion and then see where it goes, and then you make your motion. Or, I mean, we're falling out of line with it. We kind of look silly-willing up here making motion. So unless you're withdrawing your motion, but might. No, I'm not making a motion. Okay, there's a motion on the table, seconded by Mr. Byrne. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? No. Okay. Motion fails. So. Mr. Curo, do you have a motion or are you ruminating? I move. I move a schedule of $160 in the first year and $75 in the second. Second. Okay, motion by Mr. Curo, seconded by Mr. Dunn. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? No. Three to one. Three to one. Oh my god. Thank you. All right, parking done. Next up, ZBA appointment. So as the board knows, we have unfortunately received the resignation of two members of the ZBA. The ZBA needs four votes in order to approve a special permit. It does have enough of a form in order to disapprove a special permit. But regardless, it also, if a special permit request comes in, they have to schedule a hearing within 65 days and they have to act on it 90 days. And they're non-dependent. So the good news is the clock is not running. We definitely have sufficient time to make appointments. We have enough of a pull from the previous set of applicants that if it was the will of the board, we could appoint one or two members right now. However, what I would recommend is that we have actually asked the Selecting Office already to advertise. Set a deadline for July 12th. I suggest that the board have me interview those people that I would make recommendations for us to approve at our July 22nd meeting. I am fine with that. Can I add a three-spammer? One thing I think that we obviously not everyone agreed on, but I think what we've heard from the members that worked with Ms. Tulumeri and Ms. Lugarelli, that they had quite a bit of, I guess, parliamentarian knowledge into the zoning board and the history of the board and everything that kind of encapsulates what that board does. And I hope, and I urge whoever's watching too, that has that knowledge to apply. And I hope that's something you'll strongly consider when looking at these candidates. All right. Thank you. And you did actually remind me of another point that I'd like to make, which is that the by-law requires at least one of the members be a lawyer and another one of the lawyers must be an engineer or an architect. And one of the existing members is an architect. So the two, right, I'm sorry, so one is a lawyer and one is an architect. So that means we've satisfied the special requirements, but that does leave us with two open seats. So I've got a process taking with teams that are very vibrant. Do I have the agreement of the board that that should be the process, or do you want? Yeah, I don't know if you need a vote. I just want to make sure that I'm going to. This has obviously been the item of controversy. I want to make sure that it doesn't get to us. And I will hold it high esteem, your recommendation. All right. Thank you. All right. That's it for ZBA. Correspondence received. We'll receive. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. We've received a letter from the Richard Davie of the Mastio T regarding the Chapter 90 funds and the amount that is being released to us, which is not the whole amount because of pending state legislation. Could I also note we've received from the Mastate Lottery Commission that the Mystic Wine Shop has filed an application for information as well as the actual application for a keynote to go game. And we have 21 days of receipt of this letter. If we object. So I don't have any feelings on it right now. But just because we received it, I believe today. So we have 21 days' response. So if whatever. I think just to be clear, I think from the description, this isn't one of those monitors that's installed is what I, the way I read it, it said there's not a monitor. It's whatever keynote to go is. You sit there and watch the screen. I've never played it. I don't gamble on the soil. I just want to note that we got it. And if we don't object, then we don't respond. That's a motion? Yes. Correct. Is there a second? Can we move receipt? Yeah. Second. All those in favor? Second on move receipt. Jeez. You guys have, I don't know. No, no. Jeez Louise. That's called just exhaustion. All right. New business. I have nothing. Juliana. I have no new business. Diane. I live in the neighborhood. This was also discussed at the parking subcommittee. I'm not even going to tell you what they recommend. But I would like to bring to the manager's attention if he could have the police department receive quite a few complaints over the past year or two greater Boston motorcycles right across from Jimmy Steakhouse for the past year and a half. They've taken up all of Mass Ave with not only motorcycles they're selling, but also ones that they've repaired. They have been spoken to. And so then what they started to do was park three and then leave four feet park three. So they're in effect using all that. But now it has snaked up to Quincy Road, which I mean, I went by the other day and there were 10 bikes. Maybe one, I'm going to stop in the gas station that's right there, but I know just about everybody who works there, unless one of the gentlemen and there's no woman is taking a ride in the motorcycle. So they're now creeping around the corner and residents have been complaining about that. And especially during the week with the Odyssey and middle school, it's a nightmare up there anyways. Because now people are parking so that, so if the town manager could ask the police department to look into that and start issuing whatever the fine is. I mean, I don't mind them taking some of it, but they literally take all of Mass App beyond all the way to the corner and now they're going up Quincy Street. The other thing is I just had a conversation with the town manager. I appreciate Mass DEP's fast response on the oil tanker spill that we had. And I did speak to the town manager, Mr. Rademacher about this. I believe the Nipdy's permit process is coming up. The what process, right? Nipdy's is the agency out of DEP that the city of Cambridge and Somerville has to go to continue dumping. They're still, yeah, they're runoff. The CSOs, the combined fuel flows. When the project originally came out where Cambridge is eliminating about 75% of them, but not 100% and they discharged into the L-Wife to the Arlington side. Every five or 10 years, the Nipdy's permit is up. And I remember going to the last one with Clarissa and we were saying, you know, we would like all the CSOs eliminated. I apologize. Is this related to the spill? No, no, in the sense that I want to capitalize on the fact that they acted so quickly on this, that we thank them for that, but that we also bring up the fact that the Nipdy's permit process is coming up soon and what they committed to was we can't do this in this first 15, 20 year phase plan. We can do it in the next. So I kind of want to piggyback on something where they did a good thing and responded to it and just let the board know that I've asked the town manager and Mike Rademacher to find out when those hearings were and what the board had done in the past were designated two members of the board. Anybody's welcome to go, but you know, to go and speak at that. And that's all my new business. Okay. So was there, so you've got the town manager looking to, is there a specific thing else you wanted us to do with that? Not until we get the information of when the next hearing is. I apologize for being dense on that one. I was not, I was not tracking anything, unfortunately. Joe. Just a couple of things I wanted to say. I went to a third master planning session which had 85 participants showed up at the Hardy School. It was a very, very informative evening. A lot of stress put there on the lack of commercial and industrial property in the town. That came out loud and clear, among a number of other things. It was a great session and they really, they really conducted well. I know if Mr. Greeley were here, he'd want to make sure that we thanked everyone who came out for the 100th of the town hall and thank everyone else here and Mr. Berner and Mr. Chapter Lane for their singing performances. It was great and anybody who's going by, especially at night, I'd urge them to look up on top of the town hall to the clock which is now illuminated and is working. So, interestingly enough, all the discussion at town meeting about clocks, the, I guess both the church in the corner and ours were fixed in the same week. So, now if you don't have your watch, you know what time it is, your cell phone. You know what time it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then just lastly, for your advice during our previous discussion, we have been working hard with the ATED or organizing the block party. We made a lot of approvals for several meetings ago and I know departments have all, and the Selectman's office have been helping a lot logistically. I did want to try to get our approval for, I'm going to say up to 10 banners. I don't know that it's all going to be used, but just as a contingency. So, if I could move approval of the hanging in the center of up to 10 promotional banners for the Arlington Alive, Summer Arts Block Party within the parameters of the draft policy, shall I say, within the parameters of the draft policy that we previously discussed this evening to be hung no longer than July 13th. Is there a second? Okay, I have a question. Sure, sure. So it will be, so the up to 10 banners will be hung only on the day of the event. No, not on the day of the event, leading up in the, I see, I blew this one. What you have to do is, if you're seeking permission, you can get permission from this instant. From this instant until through July 13th. Up to 10 banners to be, hung anyway. No, no, from the, we actually have on the light poles, we have, I'll second that. We've been hangers. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed. No, I'm aye. Okay, I'm sorry, I just didn't, I didn't. I was doing, I talked with Marine. Exactly, and I didn't know where you were and I didn't want to record you. I apologize. Any further business? No. Steve, no, no business. I had two things that I want to talk about. Juan, Joe already did. It was the 100th of town hall, which was almost two weeks ago. It was an absolutely fantastic event. I enjoyed myself immensely. I, it was, it was one of those things where, you know, it's going to be a town event. You know, you're going to see a lot of people you expect to see and it's going to be a fun thing. But it turned out, I think it really exceeded all of my expectations by a lot and I really enjoyed it immensely. So the select homes, the people who did the, the back work, you know, Maria and her helpers who did the ticket sales and from Brian Rarick who did the stage management to Patsy who did so much work for it. I think it was a fantastic event and the building got an event that was, you know, quite worthy of the 100th anniversary. I think it was a, it was a really good time. I'm sorry I did not get a chance to stand out on the roof, but it was raining a lot. The second item I had was also a social call in nature, so to speak. The Rotary had an event on Tuesday which was their annual awards dinner. I was there, Mr. Cura was there, a number of other town. Mr. Talcott, Mr. Chapter Lane. Mr. Chapter Lane, in fact gave the keynote at the event and a number of town volunteers were recognized for the service that they give to the town. It was a good event and I enjoyed it. And I also brought a proclamation that you all signed. You're all done. You're all done on the signature too as well. So that was it for new business. Move to drum. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Welcome everyone. Calling to order the meeting Board of Select in the town of Arlington Monday, July 22nd, 2013. Thank you all for coming. I'd like to open this for a moment of silence. The town meeting member Nancy Sweeney who's also a member of the Human Rights Commission and a longtime volunteer at the Jason Russell House passed away last week. Our thoughts are with her family and friends. Could we have a moment of silence please? Thank you. Just a quick note about tonight's agenda. I'm gonna be moving one item up, the memorandum of understanding. I'm gonna move up after the treasurer. Another element is just in case anyone was working from the original agenda. We issued an addendum today that has an additional borrowing on it. And so we're gonna be covering that with the treasurer when we talk about his item. Okay. First up, consent agenda. We have the minutes of the meeting from June 17. We have a whole series of reappointments. These generally get bundled into every six months at this point, 45. These are reappointments that come from the town manager. Board of Health, Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick. Board of Youth Services, Anne Horgan. Cemetery Commission, Michelle Hasler. Conservation Commission, Curtis Connors. Nathaniel Stevens, Charles Tyrone. Constable Richard Boyle. Disabilities Commission, D. Heidi Hampel. Human Rights Commission, Sherry Barron. Library Trustees, Joyce Radosha. Open Space Committee, David White. Anne LaRoyer, Park and Recreation Commission. Leslie Mayer, Personnel Board. Richard Terry, Trust Fund Commission. Augusta Haydock, for the Trust Fund Commission, sorry, Vision 2020. Mary A. Harrison. All of those with terms to expire on June 30th, 2016. Sorry, Mr. Chair. Also, William McCarthy for Cemetery Commission. I knew I missed something there. Thank you. Thank you. William McCarthy under the Cemetery Commission. Sorry about that. Under Park and Recreation Commission. James Robillard, Terms to Expire, 630-14. Donald Litters and Jennifer Rothenberg, Terms to Expire, 630-15. And those were all reappointments. In new appointments of new election workers, Barbara Gardner, Martin Caldwell, and David Fuller. Do I have a motion? I move approval. Second. Any discussion? All right, is anyone of those people I just named here who wishes to speak or be? Yes, I saw someone move. Thank you for your service. Was that Mr. Stevens? Come on up and say hi. Take the praise for all of the committee members who do the town's work. Thanks very much on the Cemetery Commission. We appreciate the Board of Selectments' support and the town manager's support with all our issues and at least but not last, Juliana Rice for helping us with any of the issues when we need support. So thanks very much. And the other commission members could not make it tonight. But they thank you as well. We are delighted for your service and thank you for coming up and accepting the reappointments of so many people. Thank you. Any other comment? All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye, 3-0. I should also have mentioned Mrs. Mahon and Mr. Greeley are both out of town tonight. This meeting had originally been scheduled for last week and then I asked it to be moved and so that caused some scheduled collisions. They regret that they can't be here with us. Next up is item number two, appointment. This is a new appointment as opposed to the reappointments we just did to redevelopment board Andrew G. Bonnell. Mr. Bonnell? Yeah. Come on up to the microphone. You can tilt it up a little bit. It's very flexible. Tell us a couple sentences about you, why you're interested in this board. Thank you. And of course, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. I'm a four-year resident of Arlington looking to expand my involvement in the community. I'm an attorney of an office in Wuburn. Practice in the area, I have some experience before becoming an attorney in redevelopment, economic development, land use planning. And when I saw that the position was open, it really piqued my interest and seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to really get involved with Arlington and help the town move forward, particularly with some of the things that are happening in town right now. Thank you. Questions? Yeah. Mr. Kira? Did I understand part of your practice currently is property law or? Yes. Yes. Property and real estate development. No, thank you very much. My only comment is welcome to the hot seat a little bit. Some of the, you know, some of the board, that board handles some of the controversial issues that really shape what Arlington is gonna be like. I understand. I'm looking forward to it. You know, it's all good. It's all good debates. All right. Any further comment or discussion or motion? I move approval of the recommended appointment. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. 3-0. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Looking forward to working with you. Thanks. Same. All right. Mr. Gilligan, next up, requests for borrowing. We have requests to proceed for the capital projects. I vote to extend equipment and the late agenda item to the town manager to accept the grants and loans from the MWA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members of the board, I'm here to ask you to allow the town to proceed to borrow over $7 million. That $7 million is for capital projects authorized by the 2013 annual town meeting. It is for $1.2 million in sewer projects, $650,000 in water facility projects, and $2.4 million to permanently finance the last phase of the construction of the Thompson School. In addition to that, I'm also asking the board to vote to extend the useful life of certain equipment which was spelled out in the memo that I forwarded to the board last week. Not all equipment within these projects is being requested to have its useful life extended. The request is to allow for the borrowing to be more advantageous to the town and also allow us to have an extended coupon which means we will not start to make a first payment until into the next fiscal year. It's advantageous to the town financially. Excellent. Do you want to talk about all three or one at a time or how do you want to do it? Whichever, whatever you prefer, Mr. Chairman. Let's go through all three. Okay, so we've got the capital projects which is over $3 million. Those are spelled out in the Excel spreadsheet that I forwarded to you which were all voted by town meeting. Again, the water project and the sewer project, I'll touch upon the water facilities main project. That is the emergency addendum item that also you mentioned earlier unbeknownst to the town at the writing of this memo. The MWRA has included the town in a local water sewer assistance program project where we will receive an interest free loan of $550,000 which only leaves the town having to borrow $100,000 for that water project. If it was not on the agenda tonight, it would not have been able to be on the agenda until your August meeting which then would have delayed the issuance of those water bonds for another 30 days into September. Hence the request to have it discussed tonight. And also part and parcel of that vote is for your authorization for the town manager to act as agent for the town in authorizing that loan. Questions? We're gonna have to do three separate motions. Yeah, yeah. No, no, it's very straightforward. I think, thank you. So, Mr. Chair, I move to make sure I get the language right. I know I have to be very specific on this. I moved to proceed with borrowing as outlined in this recommendation for the town of Arlington to issue general obligation bonds, GO bonds for capital projects totaling $3,575,350. School construction, GO bonds totaling $2,443,750 and four cents permanently financing current bond anticipation notes bans for Thompson School construction general obligation bonds of $1,200,000 for construction of sewers and $650,000 for construction of water facilities. Is that correct? I'll second that. Well done. Any further discussion? All those favor, please say aye. Aye. Three zero. Mr. Chairman, you did that in one breath. Yeah, and I have a question for council actually as I make this next motion. Do I need to read out all of these lines or can I reference it in the motion? Oh, no, you can reference that. Okay, thank you. Because I don't have that many breaths tonight. Okay, I moved to, it's all right. I moved to vote to extend the useful life of certain equipment within borrowing as stipulated under GL chapter 44, section seven, nine and seven, three, A. The recommended vote for useful life of equipment as provided by bond council being enumerated in the memo provided to us by the treasurer dated July 16th, 2013. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, aye. Aye. Aye. Three zero. All right, we're two for three. Last one. Yeah, let me just go. I'll grab it. Go for it. I'm not going to be as in depth as you are. I love that. Thanks. We can just, or you can do it. Mr. Gillian, is this the motion that I would like? That's it. Perfect. And the administrator to the board has the full vote. Yeah, excellent. I move that the board of selectmen authorize the town manager to act on behalf of the town as its agent and executing agreements and performing any and all actions necessary. Second. That sounds good. In regard, and that's in regard to the. To the MWRA. Yeah, excellent. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Mr. Treasurer, anything else? Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I just like, as I stated in my memo, I will be appearing before the board in either late September or early October, having proceeded with the bond sale. And we will time that in the best interest of the town with respect to a sale date. And I thank the board. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. All right, one item to be taken, we are going to take item number 13 for approval, draft Memorandum of Understanding, Battle Road Scenic Byway. Ms. Oluski. Hello, thank you. This is Clarissa Rowe and. Angela Oluski. Sorry. And I just, there was a four page memorandum in your packet. Both the town manager and the town council have reviewed it. It's between the towns of Arlington, Lexington, Lincoln and Concord. It's setting up a management structure for the Scenic Byway, the Battle Road Scenic Byway. I think the things that would concern you the most are what kinds of powers you're giving away. There are no powers being given away. The any money request would have to come back to the board of selectmen. The way I read this and obviously Adam and Juliana can talk about it. The ultimate power really resides in the four select boards, but it is a way of setting a program for the management of the Scenic Byway. The four towns are members. The National Park is a member and the membership is spelled out. I think it's pretty self-evident. Pretty flexible and not too rigid. Anything to add to that? Question. Reading through this, I think this is very straightforward. I think it's very exciting that we're fine. I know this has been on hold for a while, pending the availability of some funds to push forward the Battle Road Scenic Byway project. And I'm very excited. I know we have the right people also representing the town in this. So I will move to approve the MOU, pointing out the need for one small clerical change in the first page under Roman numeral one, number two, the first line, the spelling of funds at the end of the line seems to have dropped a lot. Funds, we need to be. Funds. Well, I thought I wanted to disperse funds. We'd love to disperse funds, but we're dispersing funds. That sounds great. So I'll also move. I'll second, and I'm excited about this as well. Thank you. I think about my early days in town meeting and how we were talking about Lexington Concord, everyone talks about them, and we need to make sure that Arlington gets involved and so on and so forth. And this feels to me, it's been years of work, but this feels to me like some of the articulation of that progress. And I think it's really exciting. I think this is going to, I believe that this is going to be an organization that's going to help, you know, ATED and others really drive a lot of economic development for the town. I'm very excited about it too. Thank you very much. Can I make one other point? Mr. Chair, one thing I'm excited about in this is that it's always struck me that as we try to compete with our neighboring communities, that the presence of the National Park Service there gives them a great advantage compared to us. I'm glad that we are now in an agreement like this where we do have some kind of a formal relationship with the Park Service and the National Historic Site. And one of the things I actually asked the representative from the National Park Service about was trying when the maps are republished. And of course they're just about to be republished just fall, but in the next publication to include Arlington in the map. And I think that would help tremendously. And he promised me before, but I think this time he'll keep this promise. Excellent, excellent. For the discussion, all those in favor please say aye. Aye. 3-0. Thank you very much. All right, next item on the agenda are public hearings scheduled for 715. It being after 715, we can start the public hearing. And these are a discussion of the alcohol compliance report. So I am going to invite our detective to run. So we have six restaurant or life disease that we are going to discuss. I'm gonna invite the detective to talk about the process, the procedure, and the events related to all six. And then we're going to go forward and hear each one of the, go through each one of the six licensees one by one as listed in the order of the agenda, barring anything unexpected. It's also worth noting that the board has previously adopted a set of, what's the word I'm looking for? Guidelines. The guidelines, thank you. So we have a template of response. First we are going to be doing essentially finding a fact to see if we think the reports are accurate. And if we think that there is a violation, then we can follow those guidelines. But the guidelines do give us flexibility if we think that a given violation was particularly, you know, egregious or minor. So I guess with that, if you could introduce yourself and walk us through all six, the process, the procedure, so on and so forth. Okay, good evening. My name is Gregory Foley. I'm an inspector with the Allington Police Department. On Tuesday and Thursday, June 11th and 13th, the Allington Police Department conducted alcohol compliance checks on various restaurants and liquor stores in the town. We utilized two underage operatives prior to going out on the street and checking the businesses for their compliance. We take all their personal property, I secure it in an evidence envelope. I keep it at the station. They have no cash or anything in their pockets. All the cash that's used during the compliance checks are provided by me. Prior to going out, we also take the underage operatives to our booking room and we give them a breathalyzer. Prior to going out on both nights, they both operatives scored 0.00, which is no alcohol at all. And at the end of both nights, we do it as well. And on the end of both nights, they both came back 0.00. So there was no alcohol consumed during these checks. They signed off on the Town of Arlington guidelines. The Town of Arlington release forms prior to going out. And we went over the Commonwealth of Mass Compliance guidelines through the ABCC, the Alcohol Beverage and Control Commission, where they understood what their role was in the operation. Like I said, we used two underage operatives. We took photos of what they were wearing prior to going out on both nights. I also conducted the checks last year in 2012 as well. Thank you. And then just so you went through essentially half of the checks on one night and then half of them on another? Yes, just to kind of break it up a little bit and not get overwhelmed doing all the establishments on one night. On Tuesday the 11th, we did 17 checks. And on Thursday the 13th, we did 19 checks. On the first night, Tuesday the 11th, we had two violations. And on Thursday, we, during the 19 checks, we had four violations. Mr. Cura? And just to elucidate on that point, just so everyone here and at home is clear, checks were performed on every single liquor store and other restaurant which serves alcohol in the town of Arlington. Well, correct. There was two places in town, La Posada up in the Heights. They, it's bring your own alcohol, which we don't, we're not gonna supply the kids to go in the restaurant. And the other one was the Arlington Diner, which had changed their hours for the summer. And they closed at three in the afternoon. So both nights we went out, we left at four. But there's been no violations there prior to 3 p.m. As far as I know. But they should be aware that they're subject to a check just like any other. Because this could happen on a different day next year when it'd be open for business. And just to, so the people at home and in the audience know what we have in front of us. So we have the report from Inspector Foley and it describes in the cases of the ones that where there was, you know, it says no sale, ask for ID, no sale for ask for ID for most of them. But then for some of them, you get a description like the two operatives sat at the table close to the Coke refrigerator in order to bottles of Bud Light. The waiter brought two bottles long and so on and so forth. So we've got a written description of what the operatives saw as reported by Inspector Foley. And so that's part of what we're looking at and talking about when we talk to these licensees. Okay, any other questions or comments? All right, if you could stick with us and see if we have any future questions, we go along. First up is Mana House from 9A Medford Street. And it should be noted, this is a second offense. You came before us last year and we found that you had violated the policy. Can you talk to us about this report? I'm transferring it to my daughter. I will translate for him. Okay, thank you. Can you give both of your names, I'm sorry if I didn't. My name's Ina Choi. My name is Sung Jo Choi. Thank you. So I do remember exactly what happened that night. There were two people, it was a man and a woman, they came in and they sat down and we gave them a menu and they were looking at what to eat and I heard them what they wanted. So while that was happening, I was taking care of another table and then when it came back, they just wanted beer. So I said, you know, we can't just give beer, it's a restaurant, you need to order at least something. So they were like, okay, well, can you give us like another minute? And I said, okay. So then I came back and they just wanted miso soup. So at that point I was like, okay, well, I guess that's fine. So I gave them miso soup but while I was doing that, like I gave them the beer first, I opened it for them. But then when I went to the kitchen to the miso soup, at that point I just remembered that I was supposed to check their IDs. The owner did remind me too, did you check their IDs? And I was like, oh, I forgot, I should go check. And then, but at that point, the other waitress already gave them the check and they already paid and they just left. So yeah, and then at that point I pretty much expected that I would come here because he has been warning me about this. And but other days I did not forget. It was just that one time I forgot. Questions or comments? Let's start. So after you came last year, we... Oh, it wasn't me I came last year, it was my sister. Your sister, but after... Sorry, your establishment was here last year. Yeah, as a restaurant. Oh yeah, as a restaurant, yes. You, we handed out a penalty of, I believe, two days. That's three. Three days of not serving alcohol. What type of impact did that have on your restaurant and do you think that that didn't, I guess that punishment didn't prepare you guys well enough to make sure it wouldn't come here again? No, it definitely did prepare. It actually losing that three days caused us to want to lose money and that really affected the owner. And yeah, I got in deep trouble right after from the owner. So right after I always checked. So just that time I just forgot. So we're split second. Thank you, Kara. What specific measures were taken after last year to ensure that employees... How many employees are there at the establishment who would be serving? Just two. Two? And what specific measures were taken to ensure that the compliance checks were, that the people didn't forget? The owner would always tell me or the other waitress. I'm sorry to pull that. The owner would tell me, like remind me, yeah, every day. Well, not every day, but only when I work. I work Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday nights, so yeah. If he knows I'm taking out alcohol, he'll say, did you make sure you checked? And I always check right after or right before I give it to them. I go back out and then I say, oh man, check your ID, please. And then they always give it out. So Mr. Chair, how are you proposing to proceed this evening? Would you like to, are we going to hear from all violations as we go? As we go. Yeah. I have some comments. I don't want to hold off making a motion. That's fine. I was just just chairing it. I was thinking that we should take, unless there's a specific reason, I'd be inclined to handle each one as we go. Okay. I agree, I think they're all individual, so I can just answer this. So from what I hear is we've got two checks and two failures. We've got a failure, we came here, we talked about processes and implementation to make it such that we wouldn't have a failure again. Clearly whatever processes we talked about and did not work. What changes will you make to make sure that there isn't a strike three? What changes, what changes are we going to make so that we don't get a strike three? Yeah, like no matter the age, I'm always going to check. It's the law I'm not going to forget this time. So I guess I'm not satisfied with that because people come, people go. It's not one person forgetting. It's not one person remembering. You've got a systematic problem here. It isn't just a single person. Like I guess one of the things that, if I'm an engineer in engineering backgrounds you talk about, you don't have, you can't plan for the next time someone being smarter. We don't get smarter. We have to build a system around that. Frankly I'm unconvinced that you know how to stop this from happening again. I need to hear that you can adopt a process that's going to change, that's going to make a different result. Well I mean it's common sense that I have to check it. It's the rule. We're over two. Yeah. Common sense is not prevailing. Yeah. So you were here for our last hearing. You heard the steps that a number of the other restaurants were taking to avoid repeats. They include things like documentation, training, checklists, signage. There's a whole bunch of things like that. Have you adopted any of those? Last year, when I was doing the hearing, when I was at the restaurant, when I was at the strike, they told me what they were doing. They asked me if I did anything like that. Yeah, he did it all. And could you elucidate? Well, for the most part I remember he would always just tell me. Or not when I'm working, but during break time, like right before I work, he would say can you please make sure you check your IDs so that we don't have to get in trouble. And... All right, I'm gonna ask my question again then. What are you gonna do differently to prevent this from happening again? Because just so we're clear, I will not vote for you to have a license if you promise changes. You clearly aren't, the process you're using is not acceptable. You have to come up with a new one. And if you don't commit to a new one, I'm gonna personally be supporting revoking your license. I mean, new rules. Like what to do with my parents and me, and what to do with my mom. Like, you can't tell me what to do with them. I mean, they have to tell me something else. They believe in that and give me a license. I think it's better for me to think about my dad. So I... What do you want them to do? Because we're not really sure exactly what we can do. Because I know that forgetting is not intentionally there, but what do you suggest that we could do? Because I don't know. Mr. Kira, is your staff tips trained? Sorry? Is your staff tips trained? Yeah. So the training should have given you some guidance around what to do. I mean, I think perhaps one suggestion might be to take the training. Yeah. But I do have a question for you. I mean, did you set any policies and any expectations with your customers after the last time? I mean, what is the expectation? Is the expectation that you'll be carded if you appear to be underage? So ever since that time, the thing I got annoyed was, like when I would check their IDs, they would find it kind of ridiculous, even though it's a rule, and it's a small restaurant. So I don't know if that's why either, but I would explain to them, like this, we got a penalty like a few months ago, and we don't want that again, so we need to check the IDs. It's not because you're over 80 and I don't believe you. It's because it's the rule, and I have to do that, because I don't want to get in trouble. But, and I would check it every day. It was just that one night, yeah, just for a split second, I just forgot. Okay, so could I continue this question? I want to believe it's just one night, but we have no way of establishing that. It's a big coincidence when we just do the checks once a year that that would happen. I tend to be on the same page with Mr. Dunn on this. Our guidelines say that as a guideline, for a first offense, the guideline is to suspend the license for three to five nights, for a second offense, six to 10 nights. We always have the option, though, to revoke the license. Within that, we have discretion, and we're gonna have to make that decision tonight. The way I think about this is I take this extremely seriously, and I think starting from the harshest penalty and then work back. If somebody didn't show at all, I'd say forget it, that's a lost cause. If somebody shows but is not able to demonstrate a real clear plan, as Mr. Dunn stated, that also, for me, is a strike against them. Things that help, and we've seen this, and we will see this in some of the other hearings, are when licensees provide us with plans. A couple of licensees proactively provided us with plans and procedures for how to avoid this. Other things that I'll be taking into consideration tonight for you and for the other licensees, so if anyone else is listening, is whether or not there are repeat violations in successive years. This is a real problem, that there are repeat violations in successive years. And I think we have now a number of repeat violations tonight, regardless of what we do with the other licensees and the others, three strikes definitely is out for me. And two, maybe, if I'm not convinced that there's a proactive plan to address this. Yeah, going off of that plan, I think that what I would do if I was in your shoes, would probably be have a card, everyone policy, moving forward, and I know other restaurants, I believe, put up signs to instruct their employees on how to kind of go about this. And I do agree with my colleagues that we're not really, you're not explaining that process to us. And it does give, it does make me a little hesitant to, on how to move forward in this circumstance. But just saying that you're not gonna forget is that's not what I'm looking for, at least. And I don't think that's what anyone else up here is looking for, either. I don't know if you want motions yet. I've got a thought for a motion that perhaps one of you might wanna make that I would come in. And that is, so the way the town council has asked us to work is whatever motions in the memo that she provided us. One of the, is that whatever decisions we make would kick in after our next meeting so that she has time to write up the formal results of these hearings. And I would be interested in supporting a motion that is something that's happening, 10 days or whatever, but is actually indefinite until we receive a written plan for mitigation of prevention. And I'm sure that our offices, Marie and Marianne, will be able to help them put together, show examples that we've received from other things. And the answer, and if they come back. You're saying no less than 10 days. I'm saying no less than 10 days, and indefinite until we get a plan that we as a board approve. So that gives them the option of they come back with a plan and we approve it on August 19th, which is our next scheduled meeting. Then that would be the suspension where we vote. If they fail to come back with a plan that is satisfactory, then that suspension is indefinite. I think we'd be on a solid legal ground on that. Is that correct, Ms. Rice? Yeah, I just, I guess we'd want to, better understand about indefinite. Would it be indefinite until such time as they've provided a plan in the future? Until we approve one. Okay, yeah, that's fine. And do you want 10 consecutive days? Yeah. I think that's, I think we kind of have to do that. I mean, yeah. But that's my suggestion, the image. I think that's a fine suggestion. So I want me to try to frame it. I move to suspend the restaurant liquor license for Manahouse for 10 consecutive days, starting on, and I know the recommendation was the same day of the week, so. They were a Thursday. Yes, to commence on a Thursday and to keep the said suspension in effect until such time as the licensee is able to produce a plan that meets with the board's, a plan, a mitigation plan will meet with the board's approval. Do we have to give a specific date in that motion that this will start or just for Thursday? Well, I think what we were saying is that this would be following the. Yeah, but let's say we should, let's put a date that would be the start. What is the start of the suspension? That's 23rd, would that be 19th? If we say Thursday, it would be Thursday, the 22nd, Thursday, August 22nd, August 29th, September 5th, or the Thursdays. September 5th. That way it gives the licensee an opportunity to come in in August and cap it. Our second death. Any comment, Ms. Rice? So do you understand what we're proposing? Sir, you're giving us, so we're not going to sell off over 10 days? So we are suspending your license for 10 days. 10 days. To starting September 5th. Okay. And that suspension is more than 10 days. It is indefinite until we receive a written policy that you adopt that meets our approval. So you have to get us something, which presumably if you give it to us, our next meeting is August 19th. The deadline for you to get our agenda for August 19th is the previous Thursday. If you get us something by that Thursday, we'll consider it on August 19th. And if we approve it, then you have a 10 day suspension. If we fail to approve it, your suspension starts on September 5th, and it continues until we approve the plan. There's a lot of good samples from some of the other restaurants in town. And there's a lot of process stuff that you can do. Putting signage on the liquor cabinet, having employee trainings, having refresher courses, redoing tips trainings. You can see we're pretty skeptical. I forgot to split second. You're over two. Like we've only checked twice. You haven't gotten it right once. I'm pretty skeptical. So I might make a suggestion that, although I know it's probably somewhat uncomfortable, you might wanna stay and listen to some of the other licensees and see if there are some ideas that they're bringing forth that you could adopt also. Good idea. Okay. Any further discussion? We have a motion from Mr. Kerro, seconded by Mr. Byrne. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Thank you for coming. All right. Next up, not your average Joe's, 645 Massachusetts Avenue, first offense. And I guess I should have said at the previous one that our first offense are recommended to is three to five. Three to five, thank you. And our second offense are recommended six to 10. So we just handed out a punishment that is on the heavy end of the second offense. Gentlemen, can you introduce yourselves and talk to us? My name is Steve Silverstein. I'm the founder and CEO of Not Your Ever's Joe's. With me is Joe Gottlin, Senior Vice President of Operations. And John Forbush, who's the general manager of the Arlington restaurant. Thank you. I thought you dropped off this envelope, but unfortunately it was too late. I reviewed it just a minute before the meeting, but I haven't seen, I haven't read it closely. I can walk you through that. All right. Listen carefully to the previous hearing. We regret and embarrass that we're here. We've been in Arlington for 12 years. I've served over a million and a half people. I'm not sure how many previous things were conducted in our operation, but this is our first offense. It's unfortunately, Joe will explain to you the process that we went through. Joe actually said, well, why don't we offer it to help? And I said, yeah, but we're here too. So we admit clearly the cases written up by the inspector. We had a young lady who was trained and I think you'll hear about an extensive process that we go through. And I'd say beyond that, we've served over 25 million people in the state of Massachusetts. And we've never had meaningful, whatever the exactly that means, liquor issue in the state of Massachusetts. So we had a young lady who was trained, who signed that she was trained, but she didn't follow the policy. So maybe if you would like me to, I'll ask Joe to take you through our process. Thank you. Please do. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Board, in what you have in front of you, and I'll just walk you through it quickly. On the green tabs, the first tab will be our policy book, Book of Joe as we call it. And the tab that's highlighted there specifically states our policy as it relates to alcohol service. And if you look at that, it specifically goes to the point of carding potential underage guests. We set a policy and we set our buyer. We felt at a reasonable place where if anyone looks 35 years or younger, we require our staff to card that person. And I can tell you, we receive a fair amount of email complaints from guests who have been over the age of 21 but did not have their proper identification and we refused alcohol service and they took exception, but we don't sway on our position there. The second tab gives you a signed document that will require every new employee at their orientation and training to sign off that they acknowledge the policy and specifically rewrite the policy again for them stating that they are required to card anyone 35 years, who appears to be 35 years or younger and sign that document understanding and it's also written in that document that failure to do so will result in immediate termination of their employment. Something by the way we take to heart, providing job opportunities for people throughout this community for example and to terminate someone we don't take lightly, but we believe this kind of violation is serious enough that will require that immediate action. The third tab is their acknowledgement that they read the book of Joe and accept all the findings there so it's another second document that we require their signature to further make the point that they understand our policies and procedures. The fourth tab shows you in our training materials how this subject is covered and not only do we discuss the carding process but also the topic of over serving or looking for behavior on guests who might come in who have been drinking elsewhere and the responsible policies and procedures that go along with that and then the final tab is our final exam that we require for any employee, server or bartender to be allowed onto the floor. It's a 50 question quiz I believe and it shows in the tab that one of the questions is to write out the policies specifically rates to carding, all of which this employee who had this violation completed. On top of that we've submitted to you the signed documentations of these policies from the employee in question. And furthermore we show documentation whereby once we looked into this, once we were notified by the board at what happened we did in fact terminate the employee immediately. There's one other page there on the back that shows a list of 25 employees. Those are all of our employees in Arlington who are responsible for serving alcohol either as servers or bartenders. Our liquor license in the town of Arlington does not require us to have all employees serve, say certified, some other towns do. They do require our management team to be served, say certified, all of which are and we have documentation to support it. When we were notified of what happened it was a wake up call and as Steve said and someone who's responsible for operations certainly disappointed and embarrassed that we are even having to be here we immediately took steps to have every single employee in our Arlington restaurant serve, say certified. They have completed that certification. I believe there's two additional employees that were on vacation that were required to complete it before they come back on the floor. And furthermore Stephen has gone so far as to mandate that not only in Arlington but in every one of our 18 restaurants we will require all employees to be served, say certified as a requirement of employment. We take this very seriously. As Steve said we've been in business in this town for over 12 years. We take pride in what we do and the jobs we provide but when it comes to alcohol serving we understand how serious this is and how important it is. I'd just like to introduce John Fullbush, our general manager if you had any questions for him. Thank you. Do you have anything you wanted to add? Just wanted to mention that I have been with Knockdriver Joe's for over 12 years, hired hundreds of employees, I have never had an issue with this in the past. I go through the same orientation with every single employee that's brought in to any one of our locations and I haven't had an issue up until this past June. And I do have that additional list if you don't have it in your packets there of all the certifications. Thank you. Questions on board? This is extensive. Yeah. Well I definitely appreciate the professional manner that you're dealing with this and the steps that you've taken to ensure this won't happen again. I think you've heard before that that's something we're pretty keen on and it's for the safety of our town and of course you understand that. So last time we did for a first offense would suspend the license for three days and I would be comfortable moving forward to that right here in my colleagues discussion. So that's. I'll support that motion when you make it. So I appreciate you coming forward. I appreciate you taking responsibility and you guys have done what we would, what we really ask for in a situation like this. I mean, because we don't want the mistakes to happen but at the same time when they do happen to figure out what changes are gonna make to keep them from repeating is obviously the key to future success. And I really, I do support still that we enforce our policy. I think that we should give you a suspension and I will support that. But at the same time, I think that you're, I'm quite confident with the steps you're taking. We won't have to worry about round two. And I will also be supporting Steve's motion. I do think the steps that you take and go above and beyond and well, but I think just as you take this seriously and feel that you have to have a no tolerance policy and your own enforcement internally, I think that we also just for consistency's sake, also have to have a be consistent with our policies as well as we go forward. So that is the lowest end of our guideline. And I appreciate that. Obviously I would like to challenge that. But if I understand your basis for that, I can't, I'm sure there are other good operators. It sounds like the past violators received three days. It just seems a million and a half people later, you're gonna affect 25 people's paychecks. I think we have an outstanding record. I can't imagine with the documentation what we could have done differently. You have a young lady who chose, we don't escort them to their tables. One thing is we operate in Virginia, Maryland is that they have fines for the employees also. And I was sitting here saying, God, I hope this never happens again. But it might be something you wanna consider is to put some skin in the game for the employee who not only was terminated, but has a monetary fine because I can see a scenario. Unfortunately, despite all these efforts, I don't know what else we could have done better to be honest with you where we could find ourselves in a situation and we're the ones that are penalized. Yet it wasn't, we did everything that I think would be reasonably expected of us. That's an interesting question. Ms. Rice, do you know does state law permit our rules to put to administer punishment to the server as well, or are we constrained? Well, the way the Massachusetts law is written is purely in terms of the licensee and actions that can be taken against the license itself rather than individual fines. Under Massachusetts law, as it currently stands, this board doesn't actually even have the authority to administer fines to the licensee. Only the ABCC can do that. So you understand, is that we've taken all these steps. I honestly, I guess I would challenge not at this moment, we have other, you have other business to conduct tonight, what we could have done differently. No, I am going back to that point about, you know, potentially financially charging an employee. I think of it more as, you know, a team atmosphere. You know, a while, you know, you do institute all these steps, which I think are fabulous, you know, looking at it from, you know, the outside looking in or from my perspective is that, you know, we're not looking at this one, you know, individual, we're looking at, you know, the team as a whole and the whole operation. But, Mr. Chair. I do agree that the establishment, though, has gone above and beyond, and I would be willing to entertain the three-day suspension being non-consecutive nights, three Tuesdays, three consecutive Tuesdays. I wasn't quite willing to go that far, but I was thinking let them choose the three consecutive days. Of their Tuesdays? Yeah. No? I think that we have a policy in place that we've, you know, kept intact and wild. So we have changed the start date in the past. But we've also, you know, we've had the last, but at the last time we were handing out these punishments, we did, you know, people did come to us with steps as well, and we didn't seem ready to. Yeah, I guess I would say that this has been of all the times, you know, of all the people we've talked to so far, this has been the most convincing. So, I'm, yeah, one of you two gets to make a motion. It would, it would, you know, obviously as Steve stated it, we would have loved to not have any suspension, but I also understand your point of view to be able to choose the dates would be helpful. As you might have seen, we've made a sizable investment in our Arlington restaurant on the Wannis. If any of you have been in there, the entire interior is being redone. We're really excited to roll out this new prototype to the town of Arlington. There's a lot of excitement and enthusiasm. We're changing our uniforms. There's just a lot of nice things going on. And so the timing of this could be detrimental to the business and to the employees. And I guess having some control over when that happens could be helpful. I'm, and maybe I won't get a second, but I would move to suspend not to average Joe's license for three days in the month of September to be designated by the licensee provided the licensee informs the selectman's office of the chosen dates by August 50th. I will second that semi begrudgingly, but I'm... It's probably where we are. Yeah. Any comments before we take that vote? I mean, you don't have to, just if there was a last question. No, we understand your perspective. I think you understand my perspective and I appreciate your willingness to dialogue it. Okay. Thank you. Any further discussion? No. Ms. Rice, any comments? I don't recommend it, but it is within the board's purview to take this action if it chooses. Any particular, just because it's a violation, it's a deviation from our recommendation or from our guidelines or is there anything else? My recommendation is always that the suspension run consecutively starting on the day of the week on which the violation occurred. Okay. I'm personally prepared to run a file of Ms. Rice's guidance on this vote. Yeah, I think I am too. Okay. Further discussion? I'm sorry. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Double checking. 3-0. All right, thank you very much. Thank you. My last, we will not be here again for this. Go ahead. Thank you. I will wait back at your place though. So, all right, next up, Sabzi. 352A, Massachusetts Avenue, second offense. Aye. Introduce yourself, please. May I run class for that? Aye. Joan Sabzi. I'm disgusted and embarrassed, disappointed to be in front of you again, obviously. Since the last time I was here, you know, tried to do the checklist. I took the suggestion of one of the board members that we ID everyone. It's signed up. The Hirees Jose, the gentleman, was tip certified, surf safe certified. He's not with us anymore at the restaurant. Every precaution, I mean, now since then, again, you know, what I can do next is, you know, I put signage on the cooler where they pour the wine. I put a monitor in the kitchen so I can watch them and be careful. Just hired a new guy. I had my wife go in. Secretly order a drink. Thank God, you know, just whatever I can do, even like I don't have to wait a year or whenever this thing operations are, I'm gonna do my own. Make sure that they follow it. Again, it's, but it is my responsibility and what the, you know, what the staff does. Any suggestions or any things? I mean, we have a guideline that, you know, when they hire, they sign off on it. It's brought up. I mean, we don't have meetings every day. It's a small restaurant, you know, three staff. I mean, I see them every day. But I mean, I make a memo now in my cell phone to just be, to remind them again, check ID. Don't risk it. I mean, I mean, but then at the end, it's a human nature and you wish that people, you count on their good judgment and that they follow up on it. And my job is to help them and make it easy for them and that's it. I mean, I really feel terrible to be here. I know it looks terrible. We've been open two years and twice. I know your face is, it's terrible. I don't want to. But I'm in it in the long run with a license or without. We live in Arlington, married in Arlington, put too much money into a little place and whatever it takes, I'm gonna move forward. Now, can I guarantee you 100% I'll never see you again? I'll be lying if I say yes, but I can guarantee you 110%. I will do my best, whatever I can, whatever I can do to not be here, that's in my control, absolutely. I just want to note that before the meeting you, in fact, last week, you provided us with some documents. Yeah, right away. I just did that. Just, I mean, and then I think at night, what else can I do so it's not repetitive? I'm gonna change the paper on the cooler so it's not always the same color. It's green and then it's blue and then it's yellow. So it shows up on it. I particularly like this one, which is on the front of the fridge. You've got something that reminds people at the moment. Yeah, before they pull it out, it's like, hey, go back and just check again. It's, I mean, they're kids and for them, it's just a job. You'll be lucky if they stay six months a year, but whatever I can do to let them know that they're doing me a favor to do their job right. Mr. Kira, and what is your standard for ID checks? What's the expectation you set up with the systems? The standard is just to take the guessing work out of it, ID everyone. No, I mean, if they get insulted, that's the customer we don't even want. If they don't get it, it's because of that customer. If they're old and they have a kid, I think they would appreciate it if they go to an establishment and their ID is checked. Funny part is the waitress that's still with us, Bahar, who was the waitress last time, she almost checked, you know, she checked a couple that was way older and the guy was a little bit upset and he pulled up his wallet and he was a cop. He showed his badge, but she was like, I'm sorry, your wife. But that's what you want. But on that day, I know it seems terrible because it's two times and we did that. Jose, tip certified, Cersei, mental lapse, and here we are. But it's my job too. Next time he opens the fridge or he's about to do something, help him out, help me out. Put a monitor in the kitchen so I can see it. So if I can see somebody at a table and doesn't check ID, at least I can ring the bell. Hey, what are you doing? My inclination on this one is to do a straight 10 day suspension, but to accept the measures that have been presented to us as a good faith effort to prevent recurrences. I did appreciate that they were provided to us ahead of time so that we had a chance to review them. I note that there is a log in here of when employees received the uphaul training and guidelines. We do have examples of the signed policies and pictures as well of the signage that is around the restaurant to remind staff as well as a full-size blow up here. We ID everyone, which really goes to the heart of the question I've been asking the other licensees. What's the expectation that's set up with customers? And I think especially, we heard with the last licensee that they have confidence and they have demonstrated that they are able to use some kind of discretion, but I think that with a second violation, I think it is important to take, as you say, take the guesswork out of it. So I appreciate that. I'm willing to accept this as a good faith effort and not have an indefinite suspension after the 10 days, but it is a second violation two years in a row and I think we do take this seriously. I'd lean more towards sex myself, which I think, so I think that, Steve, means that you get to call the shots. I was thinking, I think that eight might be appropriate if we came in the middle. Just because I do think that having a second fence, we have to show that we are very serious about this. And I'm not saying that you're not, right? I think that you have made a lot of points to show us how committed you are to running your business well. And that's something we appreciate. And unfortunately, we do have to take a measure and I'm sure you understand that. Absolutely. So I'll move that the call license of Sabzi restaurant will be suspended for eight consecutive days starting Thursday the 25th, the recent September 5th, Thursday September 5th and with no further actions needed after that. Second. Any comment? Any further discussion? No. Ms. Rice. Fine. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. 3-0. Thank you. I'll see you again, but again, not here. Exactly. Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. Next up, Shushay, 43446 Massachusetts Avenue. First offense. Okay, this is. Hi, could you introduce yourselves? Okay, sure. My name is Wendy and this is my mom, Mrs. Low and she own a restaurant. I'm a manager here. You're the manager of the restaurant? Yes. So could you tell us about your reaction to the violate, what to the report, whether you think it's accurate, what steps you've taken and so on and so forth? Sure, yes. Well, the restaurant we have been here is about over 30 years. And I think we are the first restaurant, Chinese restaurant in Arlington too. And this is our first time too. So hopefully this will be our last time too. And I will change our guideline and will be more carefully and to train my staff more carefully. And I think the time they come to check, I was away with my mom. So I think we had a new service person. So that's why, you know, I don't know what. I asked the bartender, who's just my brother and he told me he was, I think he went to deliver. So the new person, they didn't carefully. He think he's older enough. The age, I asked her, she told me, you know, they looks like over 21 because I think she asked those two men for the license for the ID, but they say they don't have. And she was thinking, she's just, from her look like, you know, she'd say, look like over 21. So she serviced the two, I think it's about like a bottle wiser for the two men, you know. So that's why the, how that happens. So I will, you know, more carefully in the future, you know, to, you know, train my staff, you know. Yeah, when I was reading this, I did find it interesting that IDs were asked for. And then that was just kind of disregarded. Yeah, they did check, they did ask for ID. But I think they say they don't have ID. So, and. So she just stood by herself. She think, you know, because time my brother's not there, I think he went to deliver. But, you know, either way. I know, I understand. The fact that she's new or she could have been there for 20 years, that really doesn't come into play here. Yeah, I understand. So, and I, as, you know, I guess I'll ask, as we did the other individuals who came up, what type of like overall policies have been implemented since this has taken place? And to make sure that this won't happen again. Well, we probably had to have the, you know, just, you know, have the class or something, you know, for the, you know, for them to, you know, taking some class, you know. And the Y and B, you know, class, you know, or we have just have hired someone to train them, you know. Yeah, well, I think, you know, you saw, I mean, you've been here and you saw some of the other people before you. And they've, you know, put up signs. They've, you know, taken real proactive steps and it doesn't, you know, real concrete, you know, steps and you just, I'm not getting that. You're prepared to do so. Well, well, the last thing I only, I can say, it's no ID and no service, you know. That's why I would tell my staff, you know. Yeah, I think that's how it should be. Yeah, that's why I'm going to tell them like that, you know. So don't look from outside, you know, the age, you know. Just think, guessing the age, you know. Mr. Cure, do you mind if I go? Please. So I'm definitely concerned that you're not making structural change, that you're not recommending that you're going to make structural changes. Saying that you'll train them more isn't a structural change. That's doing the same thing again. So we've seen three people come before you. Two of them brought real concrete steps. They said, you know, we're doing this change in the policy. We're doing this change in the signage. They're doing this difference in their training. They're doing this in terms of their, you know. Each, the two of them had very specific steps. One of them did not. And, you know, I was very unimpressed with that first one that didn't make any commitments. Whereas on the other two that are making commitments to make changes, I'm, you know, I believe that they're not going to come back. The first, you know, the first group that we had here that was going to make any checks. We're going to see them again, because they're going to make the same mistakes again, unless they, or actually we won't, because they won't get their license unless they change. So for me to support continuing your license, I'd like to hear you commit to certain, to making concrete steps in your process. We'll keep this from happening again. Written, you get to choose them. They're your business. But I mean, some of the things that other team, other, I've worked with is written training, periodic checks, like monthly refresher courses, tips training, serve safe training, signage for your customers, signage for your employees. Like these are all things that are very specific and some, like they're process changes that are significantly different from saying, I'm going to train them better. Are there anything that you're prepared to commit to? I think a way to follow up the one you told us. I'm sorry to say it again. I will follow up, you know, and just tell them to do, you know, the things more, you know, tell everyone to be in training enough for this, you know. Yeah, I'm not satisfied. It's not concrete enough. Do you understand what I mean when I say it? Yes, I do. Okay, but are you unwilling to do any concrete steps? Yes, yeah. Mr. Cura? I'm inclined to take the same formula that we took on the first one this evening and to recommend a five day suspension that continues indefinitely until we receive a plan that the board can approve. And I recognize it's a first offense and that for me that's somewhat of a mitigating factor, but I don't have a lot of confidence that there are concrete steps being taken. I probably won't be supporting that. I thought that, you know, that was appropriate for Manahouse at the beginning strictly because that was a second offense and we didn't see, we didn't hear any steps to get better. And at the last time we handed out punishments, you know, we went through this process. I think that would have been, that what you just recommended would have been the strictest punishment that we gave out throughout the whole last process. Sure. And so I just don't think that really evens out at this point. I will. Makes sense too. I don't think that needing after a first offense, I, you know, while I hope that concrete steps will be taken, and, you know, I'm sure that I'm confident that they will after, you know, no one wants to go through this process, which why would you? But just having a first offense, I do think that, you know, a five day suspension is appropriate, but I don't think that, you know, we have to, or I wouldn't be inclined to add, you know, extending circumstances to that penalty. I think that five days is, you know, that shows that we do mean business and we're very serious about this and we're not, you know, we're not taking this lightly at all with being that it's a first offense. That's how, that's how I feel. So I'm more inclined, I had support, Mr. Carrow, and I can't support just a simple suspension. And my reason, and so I agree completely with your statement that this were, that I'm behaving differently than I did the last time, but I also feel like I learned from the last time. And the answer is, is I feel like we stepped up, we talked with each one of the people who came up there, we talked to them about, you know, steps that they needed to take, we got a lot of lip service, and then they showed back up again. And I feel like what I learned from that is, I need to see from the license holder that they're committed to changing behavior. And I believe I just asked, are you, will you commit to making any concrete changes? And the answer I got was no, which I'm frankly quite flabbergasted. And until that answer changes, I'm unwilling, I do not think that they should hold the license. Okay. No, I don't see that though. And what, why with say, Sabzi who we just dealt with, they, even last time they did bring very concrete, sir, they brought, you know, they was actually very impressive what they were willing to do. And that, you know, so I don't think that even just showing those concrete steps means. It does not guarantee success. I agree with that. And I don't think anything actually guarantees success, but well, obviously we need a second for anything. So it looks like it's two to one. And I'm willing to. Well, yeah. So we get what, I mean, one of us can hold the gavel until we get a second. So we should just come to agreement on what we want to do and make that motion. I'm feeling pretty strong. So I love you guys. Yeah, I mean, I think that we do have to require some steps. I mean, I'd be willing to go a little shorter on the duration, even just to four, just in deference to the fact that this has been a long standing business that hasn't had other violations for, with an indefinite suspension until we approve a plan. I'm confident with that. Okay. So I, so I move, I move a, I move that we suspend the liquor license for Shanghai village for four consecutive days, to commence on Thursday, September 5th. And that said, suspension shall remain in effect indefinitely thereafter until such time as the board is presented with a mitigation plan and approves it. So the motion that we're about to take a vote on is so unclear is, so it's four days. Our next meeting is August 19th. We invite you to provide a written plan for how you're going to prevent this from happening in the future. Okay. Thursday before August 19th is our deadline to get everything on the agenda beforehand. If we see that plan and we approve it on August 19th, it's a four day suspension. Until we receive that plan and approve it, it's an indefinite suspension but it starts on Thursday, September 5th. That's the vote we're about to take. Okay. Any particular comment you want to make right now before we take our vote? Well, I don't think it's a head choice, right? I don't think at this point you do. Okay. Ms. Reis? Go ahead. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye, three zero. Thank you. Okay. Next up, sweet chili, 474.72, Massav, second offense. Oh, my name is Verde Khairarati Khan. I'm a manager of sweet chili. Last year I was here, I felt embarrassed and I also hire a tip training instructor come in to teach my way staff. And this year has happened again. I'm gonna rehire the tips training person to come to teach my way staff again. And then I will also put up the sign for the customers and for my way staff to remind them that before they're serving, they had to check the ID. And I always tell them that, you know, from what I learned from the tips in our training class, anybody under 40 years old, just check their ID. I've been open to business for 16 years. Comments, questions? So where do you think this went wrong this time? Because this is two years in a row now that- My wet twist, she just, she's had a bad day with her personal, she has a personal problem. And then she never checked the ID. You're reasonably certain you know which employee this was? Yes, I do know. As soon as I got the letter, you know, I told them, see I told you guys many times to check the ID. And you know, last year I got one and this year I get it again. I don't know what's gonna happen. And you know, they say sorry. I say sometimes sorry, doesn't cut it. I'm in trouble, not you. And you know, I say, you know, I'm coming for the hearing tonight. I don't know what's gonna happen, but I can promise you, I won't be here next year. I will do my best to not gonna let the third time happen. I will rehire the tips training person again and then put up the sign for the customer and at the service bar station. So thank you for coming in. I get how serious you're taking this and that's you know, truly noted. I will recommend the attendee suspension as with no circumstances following that. I think you realize what has to be done and you're trying your best to do that. So I guess I'll go ahead and move a 10 day suspension of sweet chili's license starting on September 5th. I'll second that. I would prefer it to see it in writing the plan, but it sounds like you've definitely thought about this and you've stepped through a number of specific actions that you plan to take and I feel satisfied with that. I'll second the motion. I agree with your assessment. I support that as well. So we're about to take a motion vote on a 10 day suspension starting September 5th and with the sincerest hopes, the changes you're making keep us from seeing you here. Any further comment? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. 3-0. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Last but not least, Szechuan Dumpling, 1360, Masao, first. Thank you, evening. My name is Kwan, I'm the Szechuan Dumpling owner and I just own the restaurant like five, almost five months we knew in Arlington. And then unfortunately I got the letter from the broad of selection a couple of weeks ago I knew that we got a violation about my employee and they never checked the customer ID maybe under age four, like a BNY. After a fight out, I know that was on June 11th which is Tuesday, was my day off. Unfortunately it happened, you know and then I have a very serious like training and then warning to the two waiter who work on that day about I tell them need to know that they have a right and they need to check every customer ID like 35 or under. And then I definitely like, I believe they not gonna do that again and because they know that there's like a last change if they really want to work to my restaurant. And here I promise that it's not gonna happen again in my restaurant before I really need my employee to check every customer ID in the future to keep away, you know, the violation or trouble. That's all, yeah. Would you like me to start? Please. So I guess thank you for taking this seriously. What I didn't understand exactly and what you just described is was there any part of what you just described like a new policy that's happened since or was that all stuff that happened before June like the training or is this a new training that you just described or? Well actually I have two waiter, they just knew here in my restaurant. Yeah. And yeah, unfortunately I never, you know or maybe talk to them about like they need to ID every customer look like 35 or under. And that's why maybe the problem happened and then I read up to, I got the letter, I know we got a violation. I have a restaurant is talk with them about have to ID all the customer in the future. When do you anticipate hiring your next employee? I'm sorry? When do you think you'll hire your next employee? Right now or next? Like when do you think you're, when are you hiring a new waitress or waiter? Do you think like later this year maybe? Well as soon as they come, they... What I'm trying to get at is, how are you gonna train the new ones differently? Well, well in the future if I have like every new, like waiter or waitress working in my restaurant, I have to talk to them first and then make sure they will check the ID, customer ID, like wherever customer look like 35 years old or under, they have a right to do that and they have to do that. Is your training only verbal? There's no written, no test or anything like that? No. Have you considered putting in things like that? Yeah, I will. Okay, so if you look at some of these other restaurants have come up that have had problems, some of the ways that they've mitigated it in the future is by adopting a more rigorous training program. And so one of the people who just came up said, didn't indicate that they were willing to change their training and I found that pretty frustrating. So are you saying that you're willing to change your training for the future to make it more rigorous? Yes. Okay. I'd like to hear, can you tell me, yeah I guess, do you follow what I'm, like the more concrete things that you can say that you're willing to commit to doing make me feel a lot better about us not seeing you for a future offense? Yeah, well definitely we will do more training to my employee and then definitely we're not gonna do that, make that a violation again, like. Do your employees go through tips training? Yes, they do. Not quite there. Yeah, I mean I feel like there's a definite will to make improvements but I would like to see them really more concretely. And I'm leaning towards the same measures that we took with two of the other licensees. Yeah, do you think like as we've talked about like putting some signs up on the beer chest, is that something that you'd be willing to do? Yes, I would. And you'd be willing to maybe ensure that if everyone who's even gone through tips certification would be willing to go through that again. And so I think those are the type of, that's what we wanna hear up here is what I've, I don't wanna speak for my colleagues, but I think that's kind of what we're looking for to hear from you so we know how to move forward. So if you could give like a brief guideline if you'd be willing to do that or in what else other steps you might take, let's just. Well, I will, I will try to talk with my, we stop or we wait or we dress about have to check all the ID to all the customer in the future to make sure that we're not serving like customer underage. So definitely we're not gonna make that happen again in the future, yeah. I'm leaning towards four with an indefinite suspension pending a written plan similar to what we just did with Shanghai Village, I think, just we would just wanna see in writing what you're just a summary, some of the things that you're thinking about now putting into place for controlling this if you could get it to us within the next couple of weeks then on August 19th we could take that up, but. No, I'll second that and I think you're committed to this. I do. I think that you definitely don't, it's clear you don't want this to happen again and I do think that just for our sake seeing something written out would be really helpful. So if you could get that to us I will support this and I'm sure we won't see you here again. All right. Sorry, did you want to make a motion? So I'll make a motion. I'll move to suspend the liquor license for Sheshwan's dumpling before consecutive days commencing on Tuesday, September 3rd, said suspension to be for an indefinite period of time until such time as we, the board receives and approves a written mitigation plan. Is there a second? I'll second that. Okay. Do you understand? Yeah, so we're about to, we're about to take a vote. They'll suspend your license for four days starting on September 3rd. We need to see a written plan for the changes that you're making in your process, whether they're new signage, whether they're written training, written tests, whatever processes that you are willing to commit to that you think will keep this from happening in the future. You submit those in writing. Our next board meeting is August 19th. Okay. We need you to submit them the Thursday before, the Thursday before that. Talk to, come into the office or call up the office, talk to Marie and talk to Marianne and they'll help you, but ask me things you're committing to do. If we approve that plan, then it's a four day suspension. If you don't submit anything in writing and if you choose, and if you, or if we're not satisfied with your plan, the suspension is indefinite until we get a plan that we approve. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Comments. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. 3-0. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Well, that was number four. Number five, outdoor seating. Thank you, Inspector. Thank you. Oh, I apologize, Inspector. On behalf of Chief Ryan and the members of the Yalink the police department, I thank you for your time. This is obviously an issue that we take very serious. I apologize for not, I was thinking of saying it to myself. I was gonna have to call, I was gonna call on you and then I moved right on. No worries at all. All right. Thank you for having me. Thank you, Inspector. Thank you for staying with us. Sorry about that. Next up, my fault. Outside seating permit on three, barismo. So what punishment would you like? Yeah, kind of no. So, Hong is here, but I'm gonna be doing the speaking. Sure. Do you wanna point him out to her? Thank you. My name is Jamie Vincendale. I'm the manager of barismo and we're applying for an outdoor seating permit. As part of the due diligence, we took some time to put out a draft of the same materials we gave you and we put it out and tried to get some signatures just to collect some information, let people know we're doing about 140 signatures. We are looking to expand the seating, not expand the seating, sorry, to add seats outside would be six seats inside and additional eight seats with tables. And four seats roughly on two little benches. It would be a small barrier of planters of about two feet in height to separate the road. And what you can't see on the plan is there's actually a tree right at our neighbor's space so it just kind of nice shade gives it a nice divide there too. So we chose to put it to the edge there but still giving up room for people to open doors. The only comments that I had coming back from customers or about it was what are we gonna do for bike parking? Which I don't have an answer to that but as far as what the plan is, I think we're hoping to make the neighborhood a little nicer and achieve more of a cafe feel. Just I wanna note from the planning, report to the planning department, public sidewalk of the site is 15 feet wide, applicants propose to use 11 feet of sidewalk for outside dining leaving four feet free for pedestrian travel which is a minimum amount required by the town. Applicants have also demonstrated sufficient insurance coverage. And that was in addition to, that was just a part of a memo we received from one department and from other departments. I just thought it was particularly helpful. Comments? Questions? Mr. Carroll. Yeah, I just wanted to note for the board's sake that as I did with the last application for outdoor seating, I did visit the site and take a look and it does seem to square with all of the reports that we received that there is sufficient space there for this. I think it would actually be an amenity to the place. And ironically, I think the last application we received for outdoor seating, the bicycle parking was there and actually impeded the ability to have the furniture without constraining the passage on the sideway, in my view. But I didn't see that there. I think that this would be a positive amenity and I'd like to move approval subject to all conditions as set forth. I have a question, maybe. You're going to second for this question. Yeah, I will second. Although my question is maybe for Marie I might know this best. When we were giving out the outdoor furniture to the Capitol Creamery, do you remember how much space they had on the sidewalk? So they had four feet as well? Okay, no, I was just curious. I was trying to picture what there is to here. No, I think this will be a great addition to the neighborhood. So looking forward to supporting it. Me too. Anyone in the audience here to speak on this license? Further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Three zero. Thank you very much. Next up, request, wine and malt license, change of manager for Zocalo. Hello, Janet Federico. How are you today? Good. Good. After tonight, maybe I want to withdraw now. Sorry? After tonight, I might want to withdraw now. Yeah. Well, you know. There's some easy things you can do. They will keep this from ever being a propable. Well, we're on. What's your alcohol policy? No, under 35. Actually, this is what I do now. I've been doing for the last three years for the manager. I come in on Friday and Saturday night, just as a second set of eyes. So I walk around from six to nine o'clock and just check each one that they are doing their job, the waitresses. So you're moving to a full time now? Yeah, she wants to take a little time off, so I'm going to go into a position. But I'm still going to keep my Friday and Saturday days as a second eyes on the liquor. Okay. I'll move approval. Second. Any further questions? No. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye, 3-0. Thank you for coming in. All right. Item number seven, request, common victual or license, a new one, Whole Foods Market Group doing business, Whole Foods, 808 Mass Ave. Who do we have to join us today? Good evening, how are you? Very well, thank you. Mr. Chair, members of the board, my name is Mike Scott with Madam McClendon and Fish. With me is Jim Strange, I'm a project manager for Whole Foods and KB. The NAICS, who has a store manager and team leader for the Whole Foods in Arlington. We're here tonight to talk about the post changes from the Johnny's to the Whole Foods. Yeah. And as part of those changes, we'd like to propose some indoor seating at the front of the store. And since the seating is within a grocery store, I thought it'd be helpful to have a plan that shows what the seating is located in the front of the store along Arlington Street. Is that? Oh, sorry. No, I apologize. Yeah, keep going. I thought I saw an easel there, but I realized now it's a tripod. It is though. Sorry, I keep going. I have one delay, but you can see the seating at the front. The seating is 30 seats with five cables. Whole Foods has a seating at 26 of stores of CV licenses, without any adverse effects with community. It's something that the customers find helpful to be able to consume with their foods on the premises. There's no wait staff. It's all self-service. You probably know it's been a similar whole foods. So it's something that they've been successful with at other locations and like to do it here in our home as well. Kate is here to answer the question about the operations of the work. James knows her safety instructions and we have to answer the questions about that as well. Any questions? Thank you. So I've used, so I've been to Whole Foods, I guess, do you have two in Cambridge or more? I've been to two of them in Cambridge. And I think I've been to one up in Wuburn. So the seating I've seen has been on the outside of the cash register and between the cash register and the public, so to speak. Is there anything about the Arlington configuration that would be different from the other ones that I've seen? It's really not. It's the opposite of the cash registers between the cash registers and the front wall of the building. Yeah. Okay. I'll move approval. I'll second. Let's just, I just want to ask one question. I mean, usually we have a fixed menu, typically just out of curiosity. Did I understand this is a rotating, you'll have rotating selections. So this is buffet style for the most. That's correct. We don't have a. Or some of it's served directly. So you can see an exhibit D of the application. There's a discussion about the menu items and there's 500 menu items. There's not a set menu. It changes with the seasons. It changes with the days. Some are served and some are just, you select yourself. Okay. Okay. I think out of 500, I think we're good. Did you make a second there, Mr. Kara? Yeah, I second. Okay. I think this is the first time Whole Foods has come before the Board of Selectments since you've come to town and I want to welcome you to town. I'm very excited to have you here. You obviously have really big shoes to fill. Food master was a big part of our community and you know, a lot of people worked there or shopped there and so on and so forth. And so you're a different store and a different place but I think you'll like it here. And I'm really glad that you've chosen to come and do business here in Arlington. Thank you. I think it's also noting that my understanding is that Whole Foods had extended jobs to most, if not all of the staff who had been at Johnny's at other stores around the area. And I want to thank you for that. That's correct. As well. Great. Any comment from the public on this license? Mr. Kaplan, do you want to come to the mic? I'm just curious if you could give us a anticipated opening date. I'm sorry, do you mind coming up to the mic? Okay. Thank you. We have millions of people at home and they can't hear you. The opening date is in public yet but I can tell you it'll be before our fiscal year end and our fiscal year end is the end of September. So it will be before then. All right, thank you. Quick. I guess you're lucky Mr. Greeley isn't here for that sort of sample. Yes. 500. Any other public comment on this license? Any further discussion from the board? All those in favor please say aye. 3-0. Welcome to Arlington. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next up, Citizens Open Forum. Expect, except in unusual circumstances any matter presented for consideration of the board shall neither be acted upon, nor a decision made the night of the presentation in accordance with the policy under which the open forum was established. There's a three minute time limit to present a concern or request. Mr. Harrington. Thank you. Stephen Harrington, Columbia Road. I noticed earlier I came in late that you were punishing people for bylaw violations and of the alcohol licenses. And tonight I'm here to hold you accountable for bylaw violations. And it's something that's near and dear to my heart. I was here two years ago and most of you weren't on the board at that time so I'll be gentle. But I think it's atrocious that the town of Arlington is using Mount Pleasant Cemetery as a municipal parking lot. You've been doing this now for four or five years. The manager, after I showed him a picture of a fire engine and the track across someone's grave site told me that this would continue until 2015. Now because of the construction on the public safety building and because of the construction on that section of the street there are 40 or 50 vehicles parked in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery every day. That's against the town bylaw. And it has a sign right there. Two years ago I came because it's personal to me because when you come into Sacha Maav across from the public safety building my parents, two of my aunts, two of my nieces are buried in that cemetery and they had been encroaching on the graves. Today I happen to be going by and the usual 40 or 50 vehicles are parked all the way down, Sacha Maav and on the side and there was a service. And the people of that service should be appalled at the town of Arlington allowing their municipal employees and contractors to use that cemetery where our loved ones are buried to park all day long because you're not gonna use Summer Street which is totally open for parking and just as close to the public safety building they could use along the bike path there's municipal parking there, give them permits. You have a need, you have a responsibility, you have a responsibility to make sure that your employees and you ask the manager to tell them in no uncertain terms that they should not be parking in the cemetery. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Arrington. Is there anyone else who's here for Citizens Open Forum? Mr. Kaplan. Thank you. I had some specific questions related to easements in item 14, is it better, should I wait till that time to ask them? Yeah, I'll give you a brief opportunity to ask then. I mean, I'll give you a brief. Okay, they're very focused on and primarily on the financial aspect, so. Sorry, I'd rather do it under then. So like, I'll give you a, I'll give you a shot at the mic then. Thank you very much. Anyone else who's here for Open Forum? Mr. Chair, can I respectfully request a five minute recess? Yes, it has, we've had a busy meeting. We're gonna do a quick five minute recess. We'll be back, it is the dot of nine o'clock. We'll be back at nine o' five. Okay, we are back from our recess. Thank you very much everyone for your patience. Next up is item number nine, request for stop sign at the intersection of Woodside Lane and Oak Hill Drive. Jake Upton. Yes, I'm Jake Upton, I'm with Arlington 360. We are developing the Arlington 360 project. As part of the special conditions for the project, the traffic advisory committee to the ARB had been involved with kind of reviewing the traffic studies that were done and making recommendation during the permitting phase of the project. And there were special conditions put in place to do some traffic improvements to offsite locations to help with the overall traffic flows. The areas that, one of the areas that was identified was at the bottom of Woodside Lane where it comes into Oak Hill Road. There was sort of a tendency for people because of the wide curbing to sort of not really stop and kind of merge into traffic. And that had created some potentially dangerous situations and the traffic advisory committee had recommended in that area in their study to bring in the curb lines. So to restrict the entrances in the egress from those roads to slow them down. And they also suggested that we consider putting a stop sign in. And obviously, that would be at the discretion of the Arlington Board of Selectment. So they suggested that we come for a vote to have the stop sign done. It was really on their recommendation. So that the board is aware the curb, the pinching into the curbs and the ADA sidewalk entry points of those curbs have already been installed. So the new curbs are in. All of the work is done on this except for the striping of the crosswalk, I believe. And so we're just holding off on doing that until we have final clearances as to whether we're adding a striping for the stop sign and the actual stop sign itself. So I have a diagram here. The board would like to take a... I think we got a, you know, we got a small version. See it, it's sort of small type and everything. Yeah, I can see it. But again, it's just a normal stop sign. It's all engineered through our traffic design group and it's really at the discretion. So we've been encouraging neighbors to have opinions one way or the other to, you know, weigh in on the decision. And from our perspective, it's really a town decision. We're ready to go either way. Questions? Well, since this came from TAC and I truly respect all their recommendations, I'll move approval. I don't think that's subject to all conditions, but I know thank you for a very in-depth presentation and I look forward to getting this going. I'll second the motion. I'm very familiar with the area. This is a heavily trafficked pedestrian area for students going to Bishop as well as to the high school in particular. And it can be tough when you're coming down that hill. I think it's very appropriate. It'll be an amenity. I mean, I know there were a few off-site amenities that were part of the project and I'm glad to see this going forward. Anyone in the audience who wanted to comment on this stop sign? Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. 3-0. Thank you for your patience. Okay, and also wanted just to extend an invitation to the board of selectmen to come have a tour whenever is convenient for you. Just give me a call or contact me and we'll set it up. We'd love to do it. I know you give a tour to a previous version of this board and I couldn't make it so I'd really love to see what's going on up there. Okay, well I'll send a note around or post my email address with Marie. That'd be great. And we'll make a plan. I'd be really excited to do that. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thanks, Jake. All right. Next up, vote special municipal employees as related to the Arlington Historic District Commissions. Stephen McCut, McCowden Chair. Is he here or are we doing this on the basis of the memo from Liz Rice? I'm gonna see him here. I did receive a request from the district commission for information on the special municipal employee designation. This board has made that designation on other occasions for other volunteer boards. I've provided the same explanatory information and Mr. Bacowka has provided a letter on behalf of the commission indicating that the commissioners and the executive secretary do meet the requirements for designation as a special municipal employees. I'm happy to answer any questions. But basically the root of this is that you can, if we designate someone as a special municipal employee, we can only do that if they are, let's say two, not compensated or compensated a fewer than 800 hours per year. Correct. And then we do this, we give them, once we make this designation for this position, people hold this position, can then both work like they can appear before the town basically, it's like lawyers or architects or whatever, they can be contracted and do this volunteer work. And if we didn't do this, they'd have to choose between one or the other. Correct, some of these boards are staffed with professionals with sort of specialized areas. This one in particular, you have architects, landscape architects, other boards you have attorneys, accountants, other architects, people who represent clients. So if they're locally based, which of course you need to be on these boards, without the special municipal employee designation, they're somewhat hampered in their ability to carry on their livelihood before other boards. This designation does not permit them to appear before the board on which they serve, but just other ones. Unless they're appearing on behalf of themselves, is that correct? Yes. Yeah, okay. I think that's fine, it makes sense. Could you get, do you have a sense? We don't have actually a comprehensive list of all of the previous positions that have been designated special municipal employees in the town. Right, there have been more since, I have been here, I know that the school committee was done many years ago, but since I've been here of the redevelopment board, and the assessors, and I think this is the third one. Okay, great. Go ahead and motion. Yeah, I move, I move the problem. I'll second. I'm sorry, I think the retirement board as well. I'll second and just say on the basis that we really rely on our volunteers for quite a bit of work and to limit our volunteer force. Absolutely. To be as cool as shown in our part, in my opinion. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. 3-0. Next up, on number 11, four approval policies of town owned property for publicity and promotion, and time allowed for banner. So we have a draft policy that is, Ms. Rice, I know you refined this for us since our last meeting. That's correct. I incorporated the changes that the board had requested at the June, 27th, 17th meeting. Any comments, motion? No, I move approval of the policy. I'll second. And I just wanna say thank you very much Ms. Rice for all of the work in this. I mean, I've talked quite a bit with the manager. As I've been going around to different meetings and groups, it seems to be a lot of pent up demand out there for use of banners. And they are a great amenity if they're used properly. So I'm glad that we're putting some structure around this and I'll be bringing, as we have on the agenda, the next item I'll be bringing something to you to utilize this policy right off the bat. So, is that the 11B or is that something else? What's that? 11B. 11B. Okay, that's correct. All right. I'll second. Yeah, all right. For those, I guess so the key to this policy is that if anyone wants to put up banners, as you have to find a group within the town, a committee or commission within the town, you will, who will be your, Mr. Werber, I'm losing already, the endorser. Sponsor. Sponsor, thank you. So if you don't want your banners, do you have to find a sponsor within the town? And then come to Oscar approval. And then come to the board selection. That's really two steps. So the board selection could be the sponsors, but it feels like in general, we want to reserve that for unusual occasions. So to me it seems like town day is one of our logical sponsors, but there aren't too many after that. Yeah. I agree. I'm actually listed out for the manager, maybe, I don't know if it's appropriate, we could put that in a form for the packets. I listed out for the manager, some that I'm aware of that are hanging out to have potential and pending requests that I've heard. And I'm sure that there are a lot more because I'm just one of five members here. Any further discussion? All those in favor of approving the new policy, please say aye. Aye. All right, three, zero, that's done. Mr. Curator, would you be? Yeah, this should be very simple. You'll recall that at our last meeting, this board approved the hanging of banners to promote the Arlington Live Summer Arts Block Party, which I will say was an astounding success and you can read all about it in the Advocate, our new reporter, had a great story in the front page of the Advocate about it. Maybe I'll talk about it in new business depending on how late we are. But those banners, which as you will call, were sponsored by ATED, were very specifically designed such that the event-specific information could be removed. It's a lower portion of the banner. The Arlington Live is really a broader initiative for the town, generic branding, if you will, of the cultural offerings of the town. So my motion is to permit the top Arlington Live portion to remain in place until the next set of banners rotates into place, which is likely to be, town day is likely to come with a request. But would you like me to make that request specifically? Okay. I'm at August 19th to see, and we'll hang them before we get approved. Okay. So my motion is to permit the Arlington Live portion of the banners to remain in place until the next set of banners is rotated in. Second? Arlington. I'll second for discussion for the time being. I have one on, from, I agree that I like the signs up. I think they look great in what they stand for. One thing with setting this policy that, I do have one question about is that, I think I'd like to put a specific date on when they would come down. Specifically because moving forward, setting a policy that just says banners can stay up for the time being until something else comes. I don't know if that's an appropriate policy step to take, or there might be Christmas banners hanging out there in the middle of winter. Oh, absolutely. We allow policy like that. Well, let me tell you some of what I've learned about banners, I learned more about banners than I ever wanted to learn. So we, very appropriately in this policy, we set, said that the town must be the ones to put them up, put them down. There's a cost associated with that, and that can't always be scheduled within a shift. I mean, so there is a cost that has to be levied. So in the scheduling, I think it's helpful to have a sense of what the queue is of requests that are coming in, because it's possible for the organizations then to partner with one another and to make it easier on our DPW so that when one set is coming down, the others are going up at the same time, and you're not, crews aren't going through twice. You are absolutely correct though. And I had a brief discussion with the manager about this as to whether or not it should be enshrined in our policy or should just be an operational guideline to have actually a regular rotation so that an expectation can be set. This is like the last time that the chair said that he would like to see some procedures around this in addition to the policy. So one way, Mike, is that you can set, say, a date of, say, September 30th or whatever. So no later than September 30th. We're gonna make it to be the future decision. Yeah, I'd be comfortable. So that's fine. So no later than September 30th or until such earlier time that we might approve. Okay. I'll second that. So we got a motion to be second in the other discussion? No. Mr. Manager. All right. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Okay. Next up is update on utility poll resolution. Mr. Leonard is here and he's requested, and I know that Mr. Leonard came into the office and requested an update on the utility poll resolution. So as many of you will remember, Mr. Leonard came to us with a 10 motor petition in the spring. And we agreed with what he was trying to do that we didn't agree with the specific mechanism that he was trying to choose. We created a utility poll working group which we recruited three people successfully for that we approved for. And that group has held at least two meetings. And I think that they've had a couple other informal ones. They've gone out and they've surveyed a number of polls and they've given themselves kind of an interim reporting back on those polls. And I indicated to them that I thought it'd be healthy if they came back and reported to the board as a whole shortly after Labor Day. And so that is my current, so that's where that particular project is at this time. Mr. Leonard, is that the update you're looking for? Yeah. Looking for three? Please do. Good evening, John Leonard, Precinct 17. As most of us are aware, there was an incident of the utility polls coming down on June 2nd of this year. At that particular time, there was no actual real idea on what brought these polls down. At that particular time, according to the newspaper article, Town Manager was informed by public works that it appeared Rott could have been involved. I was just wondering where it's over a month now, how that, for lack of a better word, investigation turned out in regards to was any new information discovered? Either by way of the Town Manager, I have talked a couple of times to DPW, micro-automaker, he's been very helpful. Unfortunately though, it appears that he, as I would call it in my language, he's being stonewalled by the usual it happens. And I know that doesn't satisfy me and I don't think it satisfies many of the residents of Wellington with all the work that has been going on to basically say, hey, if a poll falls, that it happens. I wonder if there's any way he could elaborate. Is there any more information? Come on to the scene. I have, so I know that we didn't know that the utility poll working group, we did, that had just happened when we were meeting and we did definitely note that. Mr. Adams, did you have any particular update on that that you thought? Well, so I guess I'll say, Bear's mentioning there was very strong winds that day. Poll didn't just fall down, but on-site DPW staff that did see the poll, as you mentioned, saw rot, but there was no further forensic investigation into the material contained in the poll, so there's no further information. But the suspicion is that the poll was rotted. The reason I mentioned this is because there was some questions that quoted you, Adam, that basically said you weren't sure how often Verizon investigates their polls, but that a way of the article, which I have a copy of, that questions would still be asked that the investigation would continue as to try and look at all aspects of this. Again, like I say, we just basically say it had happened and that's it, or is there anything more questions being asked? Should we just basically say that if a poll falls and our length of it falls and that's it? I think that that's a good... I hadn't framed that specific question about that particular rotting to Verizon. I know that the Utility Poll Workgroup was talking about public safety and looking at that ball in general, like it was one of the things, I will make sure that I pursue that specific question with the Verizon guy. I haven't asked him that specific one. Have you had a meeting with the Verizon people since the incident? In another article in the same newspaper dated 3, 14, 13 of this year, it states that John Leonard gave 20 problematic polls to the Board of Selectment, which will then be addressed one by one with Verizon's help. I don't know where that idea came up that I was going to be involved, but I'm curious of the 20 somewhat pictures that I presented to the Board of Selectment back in February. Has any of them been bought up to Verizon? And the reason I mentioned this is because I personally went out and looked at all 25 locations yesterday and nothing's been done. Oh, Mr. Leonard, I'm not sure if that's true. In fact, I'm fairly certain. I think that I'm not sure exactly what the quote was, but definitely you did help hold, thank you, provided us with pictures of the ones you thought were, and those were definitely the starting point that I used with the Utility Poll Working Group. And I didn't, if there's an intimation there that you were gonna help with that group, then I didn't mean to make that. And I would have to double check, but that was definitely the first set of polls that the Utility Group worked at, and there were definitely a number of them that they looked at and they thought were fine. So I don't have that, unfortunately, I probably shouldn't have, but I don't have their first review with me. When I mentioned these causes, like some of them done at Edgerton Road, is blatantly obvious because that double poll tilted has been there, whatever, but it is a number of factors. In other words, it's not just because the poll was straight. I brought out in the pictures a number of factors, cables hanging, cables cut off, not protected, old equipment left up. So if the individuals, meaning no offense to them at all, are basically just looking going out and looking at the structure of the poll, that's not what that picture is supposed to be given, the message I've been given. Mr. Leonard, there are still seats available on the working group, and if you want to help out, your help will be most appreciated. As I mentioned before, I mean no disrespect to anybody in this room, but I can't work with it. We've lost 14 years, and again, meaning no disrespect, you did vote against my original motion. I mentioned that I'm better off working independently on this because I'm getting much more accomplished than another comedian possibly losing another 14 years. Some of the other highlights that have come up that I have found about on my own investigation is that I have talked to members both active and retired from Verizon. At least one of whom is on our working group. And some of them have laughed when I mentioned, could you please tell me how many poll inspectors Verizon has and how often the polls are inspected? Just using Verizon as an example. And the comments that I have gotten is, John, give it a break. Verizon hasn't had poll inspectors for 10 or 15 years. If we haven't had 10 or 15 years of poll inspectors and the majority of the polls in the town of Verizon, then I mean, I'm not saying we're sitting on a time bomb, but what are we waiting for? In regards to like, it's just waiting for an accident to happen. Other examples I've come across is, I talked to a member of EnStar just the other day. And they basically said that in an area such as Verizon has in Arlington, they wouldn't necessarily inspect the polls belonging to EnStar. They have what they call it to me as a walking group where in an area where there is a lot of EnStar polls, they would designate a certain time and their walking group would go out and check their polls. But in an area such as Arlington, where Arlington basically has a lot of Verizon polls, they would not have a walking group. I contacted, I believe it was ICN. ICN basically stated we don't have poll inspectors. We don't test the polls. All we basically do is we just go up a poll and maybe test a foreign voltage. But as far as the structure of the poll, Mr. Leonard, we don't have anybody. The general impression I seem to be getting is that if it's another utilities poll, why bother? Because if it hits the fan, it's gonna be their problem. Other things I have discovered, up in five corners, they replaced a couple of polls up there over a certain period of months, I guess. When they went to check the polls to see who the ownership is of the polls, they put nine X stickers on the polls, a spalf thing. But nine X stickers, nine X hasn't been around since 1997. God forbid by the time all of us are going, people are gonna assume that nine X owns those polls. But yet in the same right, where this accident happened on Mass Avenue last month, they put Verizon stickers on the polls. There's no rhyme, there's no reason. There's no set of rules here. Other locations have also, other conversations I've had. Every poll in a town of Allington, every utility poll, has to be grounded. Whether it's done by a Verizon and an Insta or an ICN, every poll has to be grounded. Shortly before tonight's afternoon, I checked out the three polls that were replaced on Mass Avenue, none of the three are grounded. These three polls just went in. There's no grounds on them. But there's a nice Verizon tag on them. I'm wondering, again, what on board is the board of selection possibly need of a town of Allington need to say, how long is this gonna go on? Mr. Leonard, we've heard what you had to say. We've adopted a policy that we think that in the long run it's gonna change, or it's going to help change the behavior of the companies that have polls in Arlington. We're gonna, unless this board sees fit to make a change in the short term, we're going to let that policy run and see if it works. And I don't see, you're not telling anything that's gonna make me change my mind or change the way that I'm tackling this. Why am I having a problem understanding then as I proposed with the resolution that the Massachusetts general will always give the town the authority that the board of selection doesn't want to use that authority? Because as we told you at the Selections hearing, because as we talked about at the town meeting, we do not read the law the way that you read the law. That law does not give us the authority that you think it does. But yet town meeting overwhelmingly sends you a message that it does. No, town meetings have a message that they think that there's a problem that needs to be resolved. But with all due respect for town meeting, I'm a member of town meeting and I have high respect for that institution, it is not a lawyer either. Mr. Kerr. Mr. Chair, I think I've raised this previously. I mean, I think it was properly stated at town meeting. I went through the transcript that was provided to us and our packet was properly stated that the problem is that local boards, local municipalities do not have tools given to them in the law to specifically enforce and penalize the utilities. I mean, if you just sat here, you just saw we do have specific authority and for example, liquor licensing. I think you just saw us exercising that because the law gives us specific ways in which we can penalize those establishments. We don't license the polls, we don't have that authority. Now, several years in a row, the general court has had pending legislation to try to give authority. And there is probably maybe one action that we can take tonight. I looked it up today to see the current status. House number 2952, it's currently, I think it's still with the joint committee on telecommunications, utilities, and energy. I'll read it because it's very short. It just says section 34B of chapter 164 of the general laws is appearing in the 2010 official edition is hereby amended by inserting after the word poll in line five, the following, provided further that a city or town may enforce this section by the enactment of a local ordinance or bylaw, prohibiting double polls beyond 90 days authorized by this section, violation of which may be punishable by a fine not to exceed a maximum of $1,000 per occurrence. Now, this was favorably reported out of committee last year. It didn't make it all the way through the legislature. It's making its way through again this year. Mass Municipal Association has it as one of the top legislative priorities and they update us on it. If the MMA felt that communities had the authority already to regulate this, I don't think they'd be making it one of their top priorities. They realized that we need this ability. I'd like to move that this board write a letter to the committee, the joint committee on telecommunications, utilities, and energy expressing our support for this bill and giving local communities the authority to. I will second that. I actually attended that hearing at the state house and there were several other bills that also dealt with different fines for double polls. Yeah, I know there are similar ones and this just seems to be the one that the MMA has. Yeah, and hopefully it does move forward. And it's something I'll hope to pay attention to as well. But I think writing a letter is a good step. So just to clear things up for the record, no matter what I presented to you and those mass juices, general laws, you're saying that you can't use them at all. I'm saying that though, I do not agree with your interpretation of those laws. Okay, I just wanted that for the record. Finally, there is a couple of organizations which you might be aware of, but I thought I'd bring you to your attention. The ANSI, which is the American National Standard Institute, is the institute which measures the strength of telephone poles or utility poles. NESTIC, N-E-S-C, National Electric Safety Code which put the design for poles for ice, wind, et cetera. The reason I bring this up is because on any of the poles that I've examined in the town, there is nothing on the pole that would be, and they're probably not required the utilities to do this, that would label for the common man to basically see this is the type of pole this is. And what I'm getting at is that, let us say if I put up an average pole in the town of Allenton and then do it or whatever, kept adding, kept putting stuff on it, there's nobody that could prove that that pole cannot handle that because the type of pole, class of pole as they call it, is not marked on the pole and the records are not available for any town. So I guess what I'm getting at is it's interesting to go around Allenton or even other towns and just look up at a pole and wonder, my God, look at all that stuff up there. And there's nothing on the pole that basically says, that's okay, I can handle it. So, and there's nothing that were basically the owner of the pole to stop saying to, as I said before, tenants, come on, sure. Pay me so much. And I'll let you use that as an access to get to your location. There's nothing at all, even on the poles, the new poles that went up that basically says, this is to let you know, 20, 30 years down the road, I can't take much more. There's just too much weight. Mr. Chair. So I think again, I mean, this is a state issue. Interestingly, this shows you how boring I am. Some of my summer reading, I pulled a book out of Robbins called The Age of Edison, which was trace the history of the electric light, electric lighting. This brought an awful lot of the book, an awful lot of it. Talked about this problem of wires being strung everywhere on poles, issues with poles. In the early days, telegraph operators were getting zapped because they were stringing electrical lines with telegraph lines and telephone lines and everything else. So it's not a new problem. Unfortunately, this goes back 120 years, but we have to rely on the state. The state's put in some regulatory frameworks around this, but they didn't see fit in their wisdom to give us a lot of tools. That's why I think that this one step here of trying to put a line in the sand and getting the ability to actually levy some finds actually gives us some concrete force. I'm not gonna care otherwise. It's only when you hit the pocketbook that... Well, against Mr. Currow that they say, these requirements, for lack of a better word, are in effect now. But what's the punishment? What's the penalty that's in there? Are we allowed to find? We aren't. What I'm getting at is there's nothing maybe that says, okay, it says standards that they should live by, okay? Right. And maybe there's nothing that says that they, they're out of the find. But I guess what I'm getting at is just, there's no watchdog effect on this. That's right. So... We're in agreement. How does a town of 300 and some odd towns determine, is that a safe poll that's going up even tomorrow in some locations? We're in agreement. This is what I've been trying to get across from the very beginning, that somehow, if you're gonna come into our town, you're gonna do business our way. But that's why I'm proposing that we vote to express our, and join, you know, we're joining other communities. Other communities have expressed their support for this to allow communities to levy fines and adopt local. Lastly, and then I'll leave you alone. I noticed that last Thursday when I was making my rounds, there was an organization called Waveguide, a waveguide stringing cable up Mass Avenue from pole to pole. And as far as I can determine, it seems like they've gone all the way to Lowell Street. Some of them came to this line at least to Lowell Street. They might just be an organization that it's a contract that it's been hired. Yeah. Could I maybe members of the town be enlightened? Is there, they would have had to come through your office. They did, they did the hearing. I forget exactly what it was. Is it fiber optic or? I try to remember what it was. I thought it was an internet, it is data, like a mini is data, yeah, yeah. I don't remember up top of my head, but I remember the gentleman came and he saw, he was in fact, he's here twice over the course of a month or six weeks. He had work plans for us. They went through our building approval. Okay, because I have noticed in two locations, one is pole 111 on Mass Avenue, which is right in front of Marble Tile. And I think another one is pole 98. That basically, if you let me finish, as I say, every pole is supposed to be grounded, the grounds are gone. Mr. Leonard, I appreciate your attention to these details, but there are more efficient ways to report them. I have nonetheless, I'm sure having heard your suggestion to look into them, I mean, we'll follow up and make sure to look into those, but I invite you to keep giving us that information, but I'm not sure we have to get a, yeah. I'm not sure that now is necessarily the right moment. I hope it's not the right moment when somebody touches a pole and there's no ground on it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Leonard. So we have a motion on the table. Is there any further discussion on it? No. I agree, I think I would like that power too. I think that would be very comfortable. Other than, I think. We'll write a letter. We'll, the motion is, write a letter of support to the joint committee on telecommunications. I imagine utilities and energy. Which in general, when we write these letters, we're smart enough to CC our delegation and so on and so forth. Exactly, other than saying that, hopefully I wish Mr. Leonard would coordinate his efforts a little more with the working group, as opposed to just coming before us and dealing with that, I think that's the right funnel of communications. Yeah, I agree with him. I continue to agree with him on the root issue, but I don't necessarily agree with him. I think that the policy, the process, the policy that we've adopted is the right, the best tools that we have to tackle the problem, as you described. All right, with that, is there a motion, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. 3-0. Ms. Rice. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Oh, pardon me. I should say. We were not talking about the vote, but taking the instrument on the Mass Ave corridor project. That's correct, Mr. Dunn, and that instrument has been provided to the members of the board, two originals you're being asked to generate, and in those two orders of taking, which will be recorded at the Registry of Deeds, they contain all of the temporary and permanent easements necessary for conducting the renovation and improvement work on the sidewalks in connection with the Mass Ave corridor project. As you know, the town meeting voted in 2011 to authorize the exercise of this authority. We've been working closely with Mass DOT to have the takings appraised and to calibrate the timing so that it wasn't done too early because the temporary easements, which are three years, do begin to run as soon as those instruments are recorded. So because now my understanding is that the advertising date is expected to be in the fall. This was the appropriate time to have the board execute those instruments, get them recorded at the Registry of Deeds, send out the communications to the property owners. We have already sent out two rounds of communications. Most recent, July 1st, honor about July 1st. At the behest of Mass DOT, suggested we send out what was called an offer letter where we set forth what we expect the appraisals to date to show and explaining about the project. We included an FAQ page. We provided contact information for the planning department for anyone who had questions. I understand some people have called up and had some questions or needed more information. There would be another more formal round of notices of taking that will go out after the instruments are recorded and people can take those along with the W9 form, which we did provide in this most recent mailing and will provide access to in the website to come in and seek damages associated with those takings and those are damages that have been appraised by a qualified appraiser that we selected and retained. I'm just regretting not asking this earlier. I don't see the actual vote that we lost to taking. Yes, I'm sorry, I didn't write one out, but I would just ask that you vote to execute the instrument of taking in the form that's been provided to you or substantially the same form in case some changes have to happen. I don't expect that there will be any. We were making last minute changes up until about three o'clock today, but I think it is complete. But so I would just say if the board would vote to execute the instrument of taking or something in substantially similar form for recording at the registry of deeds. So moved. All right, so we'll go to the second. The second, Ms. Kaplan, I've forgotten you. Is there any board discussion? Ms. Kaplan. Thank you, Chairman Dunn. There's some questions in the interest of the public. How many total parcels or deeds are affected by this? The number of parcels is around, and I'm sorry, I don't have the spreadsheet with me, but the number of parcels is around 130. The number of total easements is around 225. Okay, have all the... Or 230, if you include the permanent ones. Yeah, have all the appraisals been completed? Except for, yes, all of the appraisals have been completed. There are a handful that will need to be redone. Okay, when these appraisals were done where the property owners offered to walk the property by the appraiser. They were. Okay, do you have signatures to that effect or people declining? We don't require people to sign. The appraiser handled that and has certified in connection with each of his appraisals that that opportunity was afforded. Okay, I've heard at least one report where the owners just weren't contacted or offered that. And so what's the total value for all the appraisals? It's approximately $82,000. Okay. And then the costs associated with the takings and the registry of deeds, fees and everything together. What's that total? The registry of deeds, fees are $75 per recorded instrument. So that's $150 plus $75 per page for the plans, which are 14 pages. 14 times 75. Okay. All right. How much is all this gonna cost? $150 plus 14 times 75 plus 82,000, assuming everyone demands. You know, some people have already made donations of the damages amount. Some others may choose to. They certainly don't need to. 20, 85,000 clients. Okay. How many donations do you have so far? I don't know. I think around a dozen. Okay. And these are revocable so people can change their mind. Okay. All right. And so these funds are coming out of Chapter 90 state funds that would otherwise be used for road repair and sidewalk repair. Is that right? They're coming out of Chapter 90 funds. I can't address the rest of your statement. Well, Chapter 90 funds are usually used to fund road repairs and maintenance, right? I don't know that these funds are coming at the expense of other funds. Yeah. Is there any supplemental funds coming from the state then just for these takings? I think you could safely say that yes, we would have used this money for other things. Okay. All right. And how much would it cost to just fix the bad sidewalk? Say 40 or 50 feet or so that. I've never seen an estimate that 40 or 50 feet. I think Mike. Mike, so we're honest with you. I show you've done those been very on point constructive questions. I've thought about this. Okay. All right. So thank you. I guess the total sum then is what eight? You said 85,000? Approximately. Okay. And that includes hours of legal work and everything or are you doing having to do all that? I'm doing a legal work. Wow. Okay. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else who wanted to discuss the vote and the takings on the takings? Thank you very much. All right. Mr. Jayver, please say aye. Aye. Before that is a three, zero vote in the affirmative. Thank you. Correspondent received Jane Howell who would like to thank the board for the receiving of our award of the Board of Circus Award or two per which I'm sure we thank her for thank you but she was the one who did all the hard work in this case. She was. Yeah, do I have a motion for a seat? So moved. Second. All those who are in position. Aye. Aye. Three, zero. New business. Right. I would just like to introduce what the avenue is. Spencer, I'm sorry, I don't know you last night so I'm just wondering if there's gonna be a new board. Bill. Welcome Spencer. Welcome to Arlington. I'll be back on the 19th for my request for a candidate. We look with breathless anticipation. To Ianna. And nothing new, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Adam. I have a few things. First, I wanna thank the board for their participation in our goal setting session in June. I know when we come back together in September we'll be once again furthering and finalizing those goals so thank you for spending a Saturday morning with me in June. In the board's packet there was a letter of grant award from the DEP from Commissioner Ken Kimmel in regards to a Mystic River Watershed grant we received. That was received in partnership with the Mystic River Watershed Association, the town of Arlington and the town of Belmont. The grant amount was $39,580. And that's gonna allow the towns along with the Mystic River Watershed Association to conduct research and analysis and review characteristic runoff criteria, surface and soil conditions that should hopefully result in identifying sites that could be used for future low-impact development projects that can provide additional water quality improvements. So I know our own town engineer, Wayne Schwinnard, put a lot of effort into getting this grant put together and will also be putting effort into seeing the grant expended. So I thank him for that. I also wanted to let the board know in their packet was a report based on the public website survey we had released as the board knows we're currently redeveloping and redesigning the town's website. And as part of that we asked citizens or really anybody who utilizes the website for feedback. So we had a nine-question survey. Just over 1,300 people took the survey and our public information officer, Joan Roman, condensed all of those results into a report which was provided to the board and will also make available on the town's website for anybody who took the survey to see the results. Some interesting results came back. Most people seemed to look at the site for what you would expect, town service information, contact information, emergency information, election information and so on and so forth. And the number one thing people would like to see added to the site or enhance that we currently don't have is online payment or permit transactions. So though that's not part of the website design, it's also something that's currently underway. So I think that was some interesting information we received back from the public in that regard. Want to let the board know and the public know that through the good work of our legislative delegation we did receive an earmark of $307,450 in reimbursement for last year's microburst. I believe the microburst was a year ago last Thursday or Friday, so it's just about a year since the microburst that we learned of that funding. So again, it seems like a long time coming but really due to the good work of our delegation staying on top of that and having it included in a supplemental budget. So I'm very happy about that. And finally, the board was provided with a memo on their desks tonight. We have five new police officers who graduated from the police academy on Friday. We're sworn in officially today in the selectments hearing room. And I had the opportunity to go to the graduation on Friday and I know Selectman Byrne was there and he might want to talk about it a little bit as well. And it was a real class act and I was proud to have five of Arlington's newest officers graduating from a class of 46. And that's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Andrew, Mr. Kirak. Thank you. I just, I think I just wanted to thank an awful lot of our town departments and employees for their support and help with the Arlington Live, the Summer Arts Block Party. In particular, the DPW, the police and fire did a lot. The fire department was great, helping us to stage a lot of the supplies and materials and tap into the electricity and they rolled out an engine which was for the children who attended, which was really a huge, huge hit, really made a big difference. And I want to particularly thank Mr. Chaptilane and Ms. Kruppelker and our office staff who gave us a lot of help and Ms. Rice also advised us on various aspects of this. And again, like I say, a number of our other departments and the building inspector and health department and such. It really was a great event. It was interesting to see Broadway Plaza used the way I think it was envisioned to be used with people congregating and using it. And I since then talked to a lot of the merchants in the area and they said it was just a huge shot in the arm for them. The summers are slow and they had just steady traffic coming through throughout the day. There are a lot of families with young kids, a lot of families with young kids came through that day. But some of the businesses told me that they were even seeing an uptick later in the week. People who had kind of gone quickly into their shops maybe and then wanted to come back and explore more. And I think you know this was an initiative that was really kind of jointly spearheaded by ATED and the Arlington Center for the Arts with also some serious involvement from the Regent Theater as well. And I think as kind of an experiment and a pilot project to see what we could do with the creative economy to try to marry some of those aspects, it really was a great day and a great experiment. And we learned a lot from it. And I wanna thank this board for the support for some of the various measures that we had to take as well to close the street and such. It was great. Yeah, I'll be quick. I just wanna follow up with Adam's comments about the police officer graduation that we attended on Friday. Just like to recognize John Costa, Thomas Kelly, Jess Scarbo, Bobby Smith and Alex Stodik who are new firefighters, are new police officers. They don't know, and what a ceremony that they had in Old Vanu Hall. This particular class they were going through when the Marathon bombings took place. So I think they had a little different experience than some of the classes before them. They all did the run to remember which was a half marathon that was completed by the entire class and they ran in form which was pretty cool to hear. And they also all graduated with a GPA over 90%. So that also makes you feel a little safer. And a couple other tidbits. We did see officer Dick Donahue from the Transit Police gave a pretty spectacular speech at the ceremony. And one thing I was, I guess I shouldn't be surprised to hear but just a other tidbit of information was officer Sean Collier had the highest GPA out of anyone who's ever gone through the Transit Police Academy and they have a new award named after him starting this year. But other than that it was excellent and we're lucky to have them. Thank you. All right. I do have a couple items that won't be too long. First off I want to just thank the town manager and our delegation again for the work on my first funding. It's a big deal and I'm really appreciative of the work that got that done. Received a letter and email this week from a gentleman who parked his trailer for two nights in the town parking lot who spent approximately 3,000 words seeing the praises of Marie Copoka. And so Marie converting school principals across the country one by one into fans where I like to mess chooses. You gave an excellent service and he was really glad to receive it. And my last item is about the CBA when we took the vote last month. I had originally planned on scheduling appointments tonight and I confess that I got nervous when we didn't have a lot of appointees. We're getting, or excuse me, applications as we're getting close to the deadline. And so I asked the office to extend the deadline and re-advertise which they did we then proceeded to get enough applications that I think were in great shape. We have had our first application that came in so the clock, so to speak, has started ticking. There needs to be a hearing. I have to double check my math to really be sure but it's approximately September 19th that the hearing has to happen by. So I have every expectation that we'll be able to make appointments at our next meeting which leaves sufficient time for them to schedule and act on a hearing before that does. So I just wanted to keep the board update on that since I changed my schedule. Okay, thank you. That was my last item. Do we have a program? I think that would be good, I think. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Good evening and welcome to the Selectments meeting for Monday, August 19th, 2013. It's 7.15, I call the meeting to order and it's been brought to my attention that I don't usually make the announcement and I should that this meeting is being recorded and by members of the audience and by ACMI. So expect that that's why we have all the cameras and the microphones. All right, first up is the consent agenda. We have a number of items. The minutes from July 22nd, we have four approval paperwork corrections related to the update and transfer of issue, excuse me, updates, excuse me, we're updating the issuance of stock for monotony beer and wine. We're doing an approval for automatic amusement devices at the VFW on Mass Ave. We have a request to waive parking restrictions at Tufts and Foster Streets for the school year from Leslie Ellis School. And we have a request for the Center for the Arts, the 14th annual Arlington Open Studios, which is on October 20th. And we have approval of the annual Town Day Road Race on September 21st. And we have reappointments to the Tree Committee, Mary Ellen Orano, Eliza Burden, Lisa Decker, Patty Muldoon, Sally Nation, Ed Trembly. Is anyone who's on the consent agenda wish to speak? Mr. Greeley. I move approval for B through G. Second. Any discussion on B through G? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Could I have a motion on A? I move approval of A. Minutes of meeting, July 22nd, 2013. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Abstain. Abstain. So that is three in favor and two abstentions. The end of one. Number two, vote authorized notices of taking on the Mass Ave. Corridor Project. Ms. Rice. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Board's been provided with a memo explaining that sort of the, not sure what number step, the fourth step in the taking process after the approval of the orders of taking, which this board approved at its meeting on July 19th, is the issuance of notices of taking, which go to every affected property owner. And the notices of taking need to be sent out after the instruments of taking are recorded. So because there will be 170 or something of those instruments, what I've done is requested that the board authorize your staff to execute those instruments with your signature stamps. And the draft vote that I've provided for you would effectuate that authorization. And that is an appropriate way to execute these documents. Mr. Chair, I move that the Board of Sluckman hereby approves the issuance of the notices of taking to be issued in connection with Massachusetts Avenue Corridor Project and authorizes the use of its signature stamps by Board staff to execute said notices. Second. Mr. Mohan. I have a question. Mm-hmm. When we mail them all, are we gonna do certified mail, return receipts? Not, no, the expense would be prohibitive, but we- Legally, we can just send it out in the regular mail. Yes, we can. It's really, yes. Thrilled to have with us this evening a deputy town manager, Andrew Flanagan. Andrew, how are you? Good, Mr. Grayley. Where are we on this MSF project at this point in time? It's gone through 100% design and we're hoping to put it out to bid either late fall. But has highway approved, federal? I don't know the absolute status, but I can get your answer on that. I think that's what we're still waiting for, right? Julianne, do you know any different? I'm not aware that there's any formal approval process beyond what MassDOT is already working on with us. Yeah, well they've approved, but what I understood is we're still waiting for federal highway. Certainly the federal highway has sent back comments and things like that and the town is working with federal highway to provide them information they've requested for, but they've requested, but I'm not sure if there's sort of a switch that flips on before advertising. My hair was a dark, deep chestnut when we started this process. Hopefully I have some left when we get that final approval. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Any further questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. I'll post. Thank you. Next up, for approval, Skugmese revocation of common victual and wine and malt licenses. In our packets as boards, we have a letter from the former attorney of Skugmese. In part he says that he is aware that his client has relocated to Mexico. He's aware of some unpaid rent and he says neither Mr. Martini nor, neither of the names on the license are currently operating. And so we do not think that, he does not believe that the current operators are licensed to operate the restaurant. Is there anyone from Skugmese or any of these individuals here to speak? Mr. Chair, move we revoke the license. The common victual is the wine and malt beverage licenses. Second. It's moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. 5-0. Next up, for approval, draft liquor license suspension decision and preventative steps. We have, so at our last meeting a month ago, we heard from six different restaurants on, and we found each of the six having violated their liquor license. And Ms. Rice has provided for us drafts of the final decisions for us to approve. So, and just for those of you who aren't here, three of us were president at the meeting. Two were out of town because they were unavailable partly because we rescheduled the meeting. I don't know where, this is behind. Apologies for not being here. And I did speak just very briefly with the chair on this issue. If I had been here, and I don't know if my colleagues want to entertain this, just as a court reporter and doing this over the years, I really like consistency in terms of how we treat each business establishment. And I understand from viewing the tape and the material submitted for the first offense violators. Not your average Joe's got one day less. They get their choice of days. And I know they made statements that they put a lot of money into the restaurant and the like. However, I feel small business owners, it's just as hard if not harder. So I was wondering if my colleagues, A would entertain, treat them all the same, including what we've done in the past. And I'm not sure Julianne Rice can correct me if this is something that I believe it's the police chief in town council or something from ABCC. But in the past, I always thought that the night that they committed the offense is included in the suspension. Or is that just, I'm thinking of ABCC? I traditionally, and the police chief also traditionally makes the recommendation that the suspension should begin on the day of the week when the violation took place. And I would advocate for that. And having worked in Boston at ABCC for about 12 years as part of the reason for inconsistency, but also including the night of the offense, that's sort of like, that's their punishment. That's their penalty to help you learn a lesson. It's sort of like I get a speeding ticket. If you pay for it, I really didn't learn my lesson as well as, so I was wondering if there's any appetite amongst my colleagues on the first offense violators that they all receive the same suspension with the night of the offense to be included. I'd make that motion just for discussion. I'll second the discussion a little bit. I appreciate your search for consistency throughout these punishments. But if we're gonna hand out the same punishment to every single restaurant, why even have them come in? We have a hearing, we listen, they prepare presentations. We listened and discussed. And I think that the precedent we set at our last meeting was that if you prepare, you are ready to take corrective steps and you have those policies in place that you will, I guess, get a little bit more leniency because our main goal is to make sure this never happens again. And I think that's exactly what the punishments we handed out did. So I won't be ready to change that. Do you mind if I, or do you want to go, Mr. Carrar? If I could just say just a few words. I think that you zeroed in on not sure if it shows. Actually, for my own part, the vote wasn't based on the amount of investment. The vote was based on the track record of that restaurant of 13 years of no previous violations and the establishment brought in real voluminous amount of material. I mean, really impressive amount of material as to their policies, the measures that they're taking, as well as they specifically described actions they had taken with the specific employee in question. There was really a level of seriousness that went above and beyond in that case. And that's why perhaps it seems a little unusual, but it was, I think, given the amount of material we were given around that, that's what guided that specific one. But we did really take into account, I think, and through a deliberative process, we determined how serious the measures had been, were that had been proposed to remediate the situations in each case. And that's why we utilize the discretion in our policy. Mr. Greeley. Well, then I'd ask Mr. Kearrow, why Shanghai First Offense in 30 years was given four days? What's the rationale? First in 30 versus first in 13. What's your rationale for giving them four over three? Well, the rationale there was that we didn't feel that there was nothing that was presented to us in terms of a remediation plan. It was nothing that was brought in really in terms of. Well, you're arguing it was one in 13, so I'm going to your argument. Yeah, I understand that. I understand that. So they're punished twice. That was only part of my argument. Wait a minute. So they're punished twice, four days, and they have to start on September 5th. Isn't tonight an opportunity for them to come in and say, here's our remediation plan? Do we want to hear it before we make that kind of decision? I'm absolutely planning on hearing from the various plans, but one of my questions, actually, I want to clarify your motion. Is your motion to make them literally identical, or was your motion to simply change Shanghai and Sichuan from three day to four day? And I'm particularly talking about was it your intent to remove the submit preventative steps? Definitely not that. Okay, so you're only trying to change the number of days? Yes, I was trying to, since it's all their first offense in 30 years, 13 years, and then the other. And then the only other thing I would add, and I can split my motion is I really think it's important as part of what we give out in our penalty, that it includes the night of offense as town council and the police chief. And I know, working over the ABCC, that's consistent. And then the only other thing that I did discuss with the chair, and this is just my observation, is I believe perhaps some of the information that the corporate people from not your average Joe's were very well prepared, came in with a lot of materials, took it seriously and addressed it. But I think perhaps with some of the other business owners, just from viewing the tape and knowing them, I was saying like hackney licenses, sometimes I say to people, what's your insignia going to be? And sometimes when they come to the microphone, I always say, okay, what are you gonna paint on the side of your door? So I don't know if there was, I only speak one language. Some of them speak English as their second language. So I was afraid maybe some of the not seeing that they're coming forth. And I don't know if there was 100% understanding on both sides. And I won't point to specifics, but. Mr. Greeley, I'm gonna take my turn. No, no, I should turn it over. And that will be it. Yeah. So, several thoughts about this process. And I'm gonna address what I think is probably, to me, one of the less relevant ones, but I'll tell you, the day that it starts on, I think that is up, we didn't, I agree, I know, and I listened to our council when she suggests that particular day. However, we didn't bother, we did not choose to write that into our guidelines. And it is up to our discretion. So it's to me, I don't, if we're doing it for a good reason, I don't mind changing that specific day. To me, and let me address now what I think is the bigger issues of this, which is, so last year, we sat here and we had four restaurants who came before us with violations. Three of them, and we asked them to make changes. We asked them to never come back, under the circumstances, and three of them did. And so the lesson I learned from last year is, we didn't do enough last year. Like the steps that we took weren't enough. And so I thought for a while about what that would be. And to me, it was I want to see these, someone who violated the liquor license, come forward with a set of substantive steps that will make a difference in how the outcome will be the next time. And so that's why we attached, or I recommended, or for what I supported, attaching, submitting the preventative steps to the board. And I definitely am looking forward to hearing from some of the people who have that step to come forward and hear about those things. I will also say that on the Shanghai House, at the time during our conversation, I misunderstood the woman who was speaking from Shanghai, and I only learned that after the meeting and I regret that that miscommunication happened, I don't regret still requiring preventative steps because I really think that those are a thing, but I know that at the time I was more upset than I needed to be because I had misunderstood and for that I'm sorry about that. And towards the discussion that Mr. Greeley and Mr. Currier was just having about not your average Joe's, I was impressed with their dedication to preventing a recurrence. And there was no one else who stepped to that microphone last month that had that dedication to preventing the recurrence. And that was why I was willing to support what is clearly a lesser punishment for them. And so it wasn't a big size of business thing. Now I agree, the size of business enabled them the resources to treat it more, but at the same time, some of the things that we heard of that microphone made my jaw drop in terms of failure to understand that we have to do things differently. So all that said, I'm inclined to hear from the various people and then talk about Mrs. Mahan's motion and everyone else's that, okay? All right, is there anyone here from not your average Joe's who wants to talk right now, given what they heard? Is there anyone from Shanghai who'd like to talk right now? Do I see you out there? Would you wanna come on up? And just so that people at home know that in our packets, we received a copy with Shanghai of, let's see, from this day on, the manager will remind waitstaff of the alcohol serving guidelines every day. It is required to staff to check the ID of customers under the age of 35. And there is a policy that every employee, I'm assuming, has to sign and there are some pictures of signage in the restaurant. You already on it. Okay. Thank you for this package. Is there anything else you wanna add? And I do apologize for misunderstanding you at the last month. Oh, that's okay. It was only afterwards that I understood that I... I was confused at the time too, you know. So it's all right, yeah. What else would you like to, is there anything else you'd like to share about this packet? Well, just wanna repeat again, okay? Well, after my family and myself was very, we take it very serious about this matter. And, you know, after this, I would tell my, you know, waitstaff, you know, if any, you're not sure, I mean, the ID, I mean, the age of, for example, like, you know, if it's, now it's 2013, right? If the person that was 1992, right? So you have to see if the month, not just the year, because, you know, 92, if it's in October, it's not over 21 yet. So that's why, you know, now we teach them more, you know, and the press, you know, make sure the date is not expired. And plus, you know, the picture, sometimes they can, you know, make a fake copy, you know, those things that we try to current all the waitstaff, you know. So, thank you. Any, thank you. Any other questions from the board? Mr. Kerrell? Yeah, hi, thank you. Thank you for coming back and for providing the information. Yeah, I just had a question on the policy you caused. I see that has a signature line and such. Is it the intention to give this to each employee and review it with each employee? Yes, we post on the, we post on the, you know, the waitress station, yeah. But I see there's a signature line, so are you intending to review it personally with each employee and ask them to sign? Thank you. Okay, any other questions from the board? Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, next up, Szechuan Dumpling. Is there anyone here from Szechuan Dumpling? And so for Szechuan Dumpling in our packet, we have a copy of a policy and some signage on the bar. There's one thing that I don't see explicit. Oh no, here it is. If you're in any doubt about the, no, that's not it either. I guess my question for you about the policy is who are you checking? You mean the customer or? Yep. We checking, I told my employee, is we checking every customer, they look like 35 or under. Okay. Yep, and then I got one policy over there and they post one on the, like a waitress station and after the other paperwork of that day, I have, you know, like a conversation with all of my waitress staff after work to require them to learn at least like one time and then read it and then I have another one in Chinese letting know, have to be checked, have to check all the customer, look like 35 or under. Otherwise we're gonna be like legal to serve alcohol, like in a restaurant. Yep. Questions? This is mine. Just cause I don't hear very well. I just wanna double check that I heard you say you had, you had placed a poster at the wait station. Yes ma'am. I'm just a little definite here, I wasn't sure. Any other questions for the board? I do have one which is, so I just recommend that the 35 isn't on this policy. You didn't write that part on there. I told you, but I'd write it in Chinese but I never asked. Okay. Put it in the English. Of course. I mean because it's a good to have a policy but if you don't remind people when to use the policy it's a positive part. Yep, yep, exactly. Any further questions from the board? So I would be carded then. Oh, right. Of course. I was waiting. I was waiting. I had to use it, it's okay. Chestnut brown. I dance. All right, thank you very much. And then I have like a little question over here. Sure. Is it possible, can I appeal, appeal like we have like a four days, like a liquid license expansion from September 3rd to 6th. And then I just curious, I was here like last month on July 22nd. Three gentlemen from not your average girls. They also like a first offense but they only have like three day expansion instead four. So here I appeal if it's possible to have three instead four. You're saying you're doing an expansion on September 3rd to September 6th? Six. And you're saying not your average girls had four, and I mean had three and you had four and you're... Yes, it's a possible two. Okay. So Mrs. Mohan has made a motion to do exactly what you are requesting. And I think we're gonna finish hearing from everybody else and then we're gonna take a vote and consider what you're asking for. All right, thank you so much. Thank you, Dan. Thank you everybody, thanks. Next up is Metahouse. And from Metahouse we have a letter from the owner and some pictures of signs that are on the serving, on the bar, excuse me, the refrigerator where the drinks are and signage that's actually on the table. It says ordering a drink, I'm going to have to check your ID. Thank you. Do you wanna, any other comments or thoughts about this? No, honestly, I think the visual really is gonna help. No more forgetting, none of that. Questions from members of the board? Nope, thank you. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Is anyone from Sobsi here? Sobsi did not, had already provided their items. Is anyone from Sweet Chili here? Okay, neither the, just so we're clear, those two were not obligated to appear, neither was not your average Joe's. So if they had chosen to, they were certainly welcome, but they weren't obligated to be here. So we have a motion from Mrs. Mohan on the table, Mr. Greeley. So have we received notification from not your average Joe's? We went to notify us. They did. They did. In September 2nd through the 4th, which is. They chose three consecutive days, which mooted one of the elements of the recommended punishment, which would they have, or yes, which they had separate days. Well, just a couple of points. First of all, Mr. Chairman, I strongly support your position with having three of them here a year ago that have now returned, and perhaps for us to be even more, you know, trying for a different result. These are serious offenses and we recognize that this is what leads to unfortunate accidents and problems, but I very much support Mrs. Mohan's motion that we change Shanghai and Sichuan dumpling from four days to three days with all due respect to my colleagues who were at these regional hearings that I was not. So your view is certainly more important than mine in this case, but I've sat through a lot of these and we have often had people here who don't come prepared with a very solid plan in place, and I think you have made it clear they better from now on. We have also, in a number of instances, allowed the owners to choose the date. So Mrs. Mohan's point, maybe when we review these, we look at that again about, we wait them all do it on the same night or we let them all choose. I mean, this is a big hit for businesses. This is many restaurants, in my opinion, their money is made at least as much on alcohol, that the margin is greater on alcohol than it is on food, and others of them, it's just a service they provide and food is their main business, but I really think that I would like the message to go out. I understand we have the three to five day leeway here, but I really think we, once in 30 years for Shanghai, I'm not as familiar with seshuang dumpling. You know, I feel we should give them a little break even when we add language as an issue. I'm sure the corporate boys from Not Your Average Joe's didn't struggle with the English language when they were before us, but I wasn't here again, so. But I would ask for leniency in this case, and it's not leniency, we're removing their license, their license to serve alcohol for three days, and again, I respect my board and what you've done and where I hear, I'm pretty sure I would have thought for the same thing, I want it clear to people, your first offense, you're losing your license for three days, period. And I can certainly understand if you don't, as the chairman has now warned, come in here with a nice attitude of where darn sorry it should not have happened, and here's why it won't happen again, there probably will be more stringent suspensions in the future, but I just support Mrs. Mohan 100, yours was basically both of these to three days, am I correct? Just that, and on the issue of the night of the offense, I feel having this discussion, you all already had the hearings and there's an action plan in place, and it would be unfair to change that, but I do take the chair's suggestion that in the future, looking at our guidelines, first have the discussion, I'm not saying three of the five of us agree with that, but I think it would be unfair, where you've already given it out. So my motion would be, as Mr. Grayley said, to treat all three and give them all three days, instead of one, a three day and two or four day. Mr. Brown? I am not going to support Ms. Mohan's motion. I'm not going to support it because in the guidelines, we have to look at, we can do three to five days, and what that is based on is the presentation that's given to us, and in my opinion, it became very clear, you know, where not Travis Schoes did have a substantially better presentation, and you know, whether or not that comes down to their resources, I'm not sure, but I think that if we're just going to give out the same punishment to every single first offense, why even have them come in? You know, we are, our job is to, you know, kind of weed through the presentations and see what we're comfortable with, and I think that the three of us, I'm not speaking for them right now, but at the last meeting, we made it clear, we listened very intently, we had an in-depth discussion, and I'm still comfortable with our conclusions at the last meeting. Mr. Kira? I'm inclined to support Steve's position on this as well. Sorry, I see that, but you in the swing seat, but I agree, there was just, it's a level of preparation, and we actually, the next set, the second offense is we also see the same, where we did not give the same sanction in each case, and it was related to the level of, unbelievable. Of preparation. You don't see language as a barrier in giving people, what about the presentation tonight? Did they not come forward with plans? Wasn't that what tonight was to give them the chance to do? If people want to do it. And if you're really going by presentation, it means everybody better hire a lawyer to come in here, and I don't really want to get into that on this. Hey, sure, but I, boy, your compassion on a language issue here, because two corporate guys come in who speak English well, and two Asians who come before us who don't speak it so well, maybe had some misunderstanding, but have come forward with plans, you're sticking it to them, in my opinion, unfairly. I have some, I have a comment, but if you wish to reply, then. Go ahead, Mr. Chair. I, what I wanted to, the parts that I felt most passionately about this, we got, which is the, what I, at least a studying and interest from the parties of how to change the behavior, whether they can actually commit to it, whether or not they can actually execute it, is something that only time will tell, but we at least got better than I'm gonna train, you know, I'm gonna train them better. Towards the point of, on the first offenses, and something you said earlier, Mr. Early, which was, if there's a first offense, then, you know, and we get, then there should be a three days and we can go from there, and also towards the question about whether or not the presentation was good enough. I'm, given where we, I'm willing to look at where we are now, as opposed to where we were a month ago, and so, well, the attitudes, the present, not just the, when I say presentation, and I don't mean, you know, what are they wearing suits? I mean, what was the content of it, and what did they actually talk about substantive issues? Those things do matter to me, but at the same time, we got to where I think we needed to be, and given that their first offenses, I'm willing to say that they're all three in the same place at this point, because I think that they have all three gotten to the same place. Two of them took longer than the other, but they got there. So, I'm going to support Mrs. Mahan's motion. The starting dates, I think, are still, because the not-your-average shows would have been an interesting argument, but it's been mooted by the three days they changed, so I'm glad that we don't have to argue that one. Mr. Burr, no, Mr. Currow, sorry. I need to ask a clarifying point of the chair. Please. Because I feel that you had put this proposal out on the table around using the indefinite suspension until preventative steps were presented as kind of the lever, and now we're saying that actually the trade-off for presenting the preventative steps is not just to avoid the indefinite suspension, but also to reduce the original. Honestly, if I think back to where we were... But I'm willing to be flexible. I just want to understand better where your thinking is on this. Where we were a month ago, the question of three versus four, I just didn't think about it that much because it didn't concern me as much. And I don't remember which one of you made the motion, and given that the motion was there, I didn't care passionately enough about four versus three. Perhaps I should have said something at that time, but the parts that I really cared about got into the motion, and so the three versus four I didn't worry about. Clearly, Mrs. Mahan and Mr. Greeley are passionate about the three days and the precedents that they've set in previous administrations, so to speak. And they're persuasive to me. They clearly are passionate about three versus four, and that is persuasive to me. Just to be clear, because I am willing to be flexible, I just want to understand, because this proposal on the indefinite term of the suspension was presented as the lever. But if... I'm not sure I'm understanding this. My recollection, though, was that this was kind of a creative proposal that you had placed on the table during the deliberations. And I think that if you feel confident that... Oh. It still meets the spirit of it. I do. Oh yeah, so I think... I am willing to be flexible on this. I think that the preventative steps that we've seen in these packets meets what I was shooting for last month. And it's definitely more than we got a year ago. Will they be back in a year having screwed up, you know, or are any of us gonna be here for strike two or strike three? Only time will tell. But I feel better about it now with those steps in front of me. I just had briefly on the last three where we do have two different terms. I totally agree with that because I did view the tape and I felt those three second offenders were all on the same playing field, did all their presentation that night. There wasn't... And I'm in agreement with two at 10 and one at eight because I listened to what you took in the evidence and that made sense to me. Mr. Curell. Oh, sorry. Where was the second offense? That's where I'm at. Yeah, I understand and I'm also willing to reconsider but I think that changing this right now says, moving forward, if you're caught one time, don't even bother come in. Just send the policy to the board and we won't have a discussion on it. And that's what I think we're essentially doing now. And I don't think that's a strong way to move forward. So I'm not going to change. Mr. Curell. Well, I actually, I would agree with you if somebody didn't show up, but we, I think the goal that we were shooting for is to have a policy. And so if that is the result, that's fine. I'm willing to be flexible in this and to, I'm sorry, but to swing to our other members' position on this, I guess for three reasons. One, because the chair, you seem, you had put this creative solution out during the hearings. You seem to feel confident that this is satisfied. The fact that, I don't think it was presented to us that how, just how, I don't think it was clear to me that with Shanghai Village that they had been in business for so long without an offense. And there is the matter of misunderstanding, I think, during the hearing. Also, a piece of information that wasn't in the written pack at some Shenzhuang dumpling that they are actually going to take proactive measures to address any potential language misunderstandings within their staff. I'm willing to go along with the motion. But I just want my colleagues to know that, that these decisions last month were taken in good faith. With Mr. Greeley, which I've said, I respect my colleagues and this is my only chance to discuss it, so I wasn't here. So I would have made these points. To me, as I looked at it, two of these first offenses are being double hit, four days versus three, and they have to start on a particular day. So I think all we're doing here, we're still slapping them more than we are not your average Joe's. But, you know, and I think, Steven, we are now discussing it, and sorry I wasn't here for the last time to discuss it. But if we're doing this, where we're giving people a chance to come back to present their plan, I think they've done so and I think it's reasonable. All right, any further discussion? So we've got a motion on the table that would have the effect of reducing Shanghai's suspension from four days to three, reducing Cezuan dumplings from four days to three, and it also has the effect of accepting the preventative steps in writing, which we had said must be delivered to the board. Seeing nodding, so I think we're ready for a vote. All those in favor, please say aye. All those opposed? So vote four to one, the matter is disposed of. Okay, next up, transfer of common victual or license. Mr. Pang, Ms. Pang, of Dragon Pang's Ink, doing business as Golden Taste Restaurant. Ms. Pang, I apologize. Yeah, that's fine. Hi, good evening. My name is... Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize. Don't worry. Chair or Madam Council, did we not have to also adopt a motion to approve the drafts that Ms. Rice had prepared for us? I kind of assumed that I was implicit in the vote. Would you like another vote? No, that's fine. I have by hand made changes on those two decisions, which your staff will input tomorrow, and then they'll be finalized as voted. Yeah, I, okay. Okay, I'm sorry. If there are any other changes that the Board wants to vote, I'm happy to take it. I apologize. Please start. Don't worry, thank you. Let me introduce myself. My name is Andrea Kuo. I'm the power legal of Attorney Court's common service. Tonight I represent the clients, Mr. Quen So Ping. He is the president of the Dragon Pang's Ink, doing business as Golden Taste Restaurant at 14 Meffel Street. Our application is basically for the change of ownership of an existing restaurant serving food only low alcohol. The new owner and operator will keep the same name, Golden Taste Restaurant, same sitting capacity. The only change he's looking for is to extend the business hour to 1 a.m. Seven days a week from Monday to Sunday. So beside that everything at the restaurant, the layout, the design, and the food nature is going to be the same, Chinese takeout. What are the current hours? I think they open until 11. I have some comments, but I guess on that last point to Town Council, do we have, why do I have 12 a.m. in my head that don't grant later than that? There is a town by-law, and I'm sorry, I don't have it in front of me. I didn't realize that this was the issue that was being requested, but there is a town by-law that limits the hours of restaurants that can be, when they can be in operation. And I wanna say it's a different, an hour shorter on Sunday. It may be. So when we take the vote, can we make it contingent that your hours of operation will give you as late as we can under our town by-law? I understand, for some restaurants with legal license, they have a lay open on Sunday at 12 noon? Right. Yeah. The thing about Sunday is that it has to close earlier. I think, but we have to double check the hours. All right. So what I'm saying is our vote will be contingent, will be based on, has to be consistent with what our town by-law says, how late you can stay open. We'll give you whatever we can under our by-law, but I'm pretty sure 1 a.m. is a little too late. So I'll just let you work with Town Council and the selectman's office. All right. So our vote will be contingent on that. You have to comply with that. That's all right. And then I just had two questions if my colleagues don't, or if my colleagues wanna go first, right? No, you're up first, go for it. Okay, I just wanted to just double check in terms of your maintenance plan. The waste management company, have they been the same waste management company that has been servicing the restaurant before? I think before they have another majority serving, providing to Yathomstab, and now they're trying to compare the price. Okay, I was gonna say, yeah, which one the price better, which better service better, they will definitely do it. Fine, because I've never seen them here before, but can you just make sure you are the manager? Sure. Make sure the trash maintenance company knows. We also have a by-law of when they can come to pick it up Monday through Saturday, and then I don't think this pick up on Sunday, but that's another thing you'll have to check to make sure waste management is familiar with it and JRM and stuff, but I don't know that McGogan is. And then the other thing, if you or the manager could also check on the lawn care company that you have, if you can just make sure they know that the town of Wellington had a long discussion, about a year and a half about leaf blowers and lawn companies, and tail meeting came up with a compromise of how and when and how long you could use the leaf blowers. So can you make sure, maybe through the selectman's office, you can get a copy of that and give it to your landscaping company as well as this one. I don't think the building is right in the center. There's no green land. No, but there's certain things, certain times you can operate them. There's certain, tail meeting agreed to a compromise, no more than 30 minutes. They said per square feet, one leaf blower per 6,000. All the landscape companies in Arlington participated in this compromise, but I don't remember seeing pro-tech. So I just want to make sure that they're aware of it so that you don't get a call from a neighbor or whoever because a lot of people in Arlington are aware of what the new rules are. I just don't want you to have, so just check those two things in terms of make sure the trash company knows when they can come, not too early, as well as make sure the landscaping company, and they may already be aware, just because they weren't at that group of meetings, make sure they know the new bylaws. You can get that through the selectman's office. Thank you. If that's that would be it for me. I saw Mr. Currow's hand up today. No, I apologize. The approval subject conditions are set forth. Second from Mr. Mohan. Any further discussion? So we had a number of conditions. The hours are specified as set by the bylaws and the other conditions are from the various departments and I think the points that Mrs. Mohan made are very well received, or well-spoken. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Thank you very much. Welcome, good luck. Thank you. Make sure you card. All right, next up, request outside seating, sidewalk at Yummies, which is 474 Massachusetts Avenue. Would you mind stepping over to the microphone please? Thank you. Welcome. I'm Martha Penzenic. I'm the architect of Yummies and I'm here to represent my clients and I have expanded packages here that I would like to. Okay. Thank you. I am not. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good to see you again. I didn't get any shut up. I'm just back from a weekend with her. I'd like to start with the drawings and these are two slightly different proposals. The package that you received first was just of the outside and then I had a request from the building inspector to show the seating that would be removed inside during the time that the outside seating is being used. So that's why you have a bigger drawing here. One drawing, which would be the first one in your packet, shows retractable belt barrier at the outside edge of the seating next to the curb and then the second one shows planters there instead. So I wanted to speak to both of those things as we go along. As you can see, in each case there are three outside tables, two seats at each one for a total of six and we're proposing to have an umbrella at each of the two outside tables because we wanted to keep the umbrella canopy small at six feet and couldn't really put a third one in the middle because there's not that much room. We've got an expanse of 16 feet nine inches for the storefront width. As you can see, we have four feet 10 inches between the storefront face and the edge of the canopy. It's greater to the table. It's six feet six and a half inches and this more than meets the town bylaw requirement for sidewalk width, for people walking on the sidewalk. The sidewalk there is 10 feet 10 inches from the face of the storefront to the inside face of the curb. We decided to put the tables to the outside edge instead of right in front of the store because there's kind of a natural barrier set up there by the tree grates so that this way people can just continue walking straight on the sidewalk. They don't have to kind of weave around the tables. In the other package that you have, there are in the photographs of the umbrella, the table, the chair that you've seen before and I've added in the retractable barrier but there are also two photographs and one of them shows a retractable barrier at a restaurant and then the second one shows planters, low planters which in responding to comments that we got about the first package and a problem with the higher planters, we would propose putting in short ones much as you see here. This is at Barismo in East Arlington. I saw those this weekend. Yeah. Don't peek at them. Yeah, yeah. Move approval of the presentation. Sorry, I just want one moment. So just to, if I remember correctly, the sidewalk here at Barismo is wider, right? It is wider. Just wanted to double check that it wasn't. I think it's probably around 12 feet. There are three, probably four foot sections and then there's a little brick strip and then the curb. Okay. Mrs. Mulan. Move approval. All right, we will move. Love to draw a condition. Is there a second? Second, but I do have some questions. Seconds. Mr. Cura. If I, thank you for all of this material. We did get some, I think you know we got some comments back from the planning department. So it appears that you've addressed the issue of the planters because the concern there is the ability for cars to open their doors when they went by. The umbrella span, I'm looking at this material, I don't see how tall the umbrella is that they said that you would need an eight foot height on that. Yeah. And yeah. We would make sure that's the case. Okay. I think that that's important also for the same reasons, obviously for passing pedestrians. And it looks like when I compare the Barismo to your plan that you're actually planning to only have two seats on each table. Correct. Correct. So that you're not taking up quite as much width. Right. Okay. Mrs. Mohan, did you mean to move the planters or the barrier or either? What the, in accordance with what the planning department recommended. Oh, do they say that the planning department says- Doesn't it say in there? I'm going to find it. They actually said they weren't prepared to. Yeah, they didn't actually. Yeah. Mr. Chair, that was going to be my question. Which way are you going? You've shown us two options. Right. Well, it's for discussion. If you felt that one was better than the other from your standpoint. So. Okay. Well, then could we pass this and ask that it be referred to let her speak with planning and let them because I feel they haven't- Well, I'd like them to weigh in on the second one. Just on that, but we approve the tables. I was approving what was originally before us. Let's go for it. I apologize. So I feel I'm comfortable supporting the retractables. I'm not comfortable with the planters as currently described. Oh, okay. So I definitely could be persuaded that especially if the planning department came back and said, oh no, actually now I'm totally fine with the planters. That changed my mind. But I actually really get their point about, because the other thing about this picture as you see is, sorry, we just- Well, you may not show me the point that I made Mr. Chairman about parking and opening doors. Exactly. Yeah, that definitely really did concern me. And in the example with barismo, those planters are, you know, that looks like a couple feet off the curb, whereas the diagram of the planters in this big thing, the planters are really right on the curb. They're not literally on the curb. They're on the edge of the curb. And so part of me is like, you know, if I see it and it has the, if it works out really well, and it actually turns out there's more room that I can visualize right now, then maybe I'd be okay. So maybe you're right. Maybe I would rather just defer to the planning department. May I ask a question? Sure. I had located everything such that it would be keeping the available sidewalk to its maximum width. We can reduce that down to four feet. I feel- Yeah, no, I like the sidewalk too. Yeah. Sorry, yeah. So actually the reason for me that this one is relatively easy for me to approve is because you have so much sidewalk space there. I mean, you really are fitting into the same footprint as the tree grate just about. And I think that that's a, I like it. I think it's a really- Thank you. Mr. Deputy Town Manager, would you be comfortable with us leaving this in the hand of the planning department? Absolutely. Okay. Yeah, I was just going to, on this picture, these chairs would be removed. So if you can picture these three tables being pushed over. It makes a nice little- It's very nice. Yeah. All right. I don't know. I just want to make sure planning is okay with that. Whatever the final plan is, it complies with everything America with Disabilities Act as well as it says in here that the sidewalk use services can only involve the sidewalk and if we get into, it's also not taking out one or two parking spots. That's why, so if we can refer this to plan, I'm comfortable with that. Any further comments or discussion or are we comfortable with that? No. Please say aye. Aye. Thank you very much. So should I schedule an appointment with Carol Kowalski to discuss this? Yeah, and I'm sure you'll be able to get it done one way or the other. It's just a matter of making sure they're happy with the parking. Okay. Thank you very much. Is that good? Thank you. I like it. I think it's going to be neat. So I, yeah. They're live. All right. Next up, Officer Ratau. He's going to talk to us and we've got a couple of different items for you. For us. First up is parking regulations on Field Road, Billy Road, Loughlin Avenue, Churchill Avenue, and Newman Way. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. Good evening, everyone. Basically, we've been receiving complaints about the people parking in excess of the time limits in that area of Bailey Field, Newman, Churchill during the day. And we've been getting calls to enforced parking there and they've really started to come in towards the end of the school year. As you understand, it's probably mostly high school kids and rather than trying to just start off with only a couple of weeks of school left, try to say, you know, explain to the person, you know, it'll alleviate itself in a little bit and we'll address it prior to school starting. One of the things that we would like is to have consistency in the area as there's some areas that it's one hour parking, some areas two hour parking through research. Some of these things I found out have been up for 25 to 30 years, but they were only supposed to be trials, but they've been there all the time. So what we're hoping is that being that the signs have been there that long and so that we can truly enforce these complaints when the people come in that we have it consistent in the area, because it seems a little backwards that a long mass abbe can park for two hours, but in front of the residences you can only park for one in some of the areas. So that was what's asked. I laid it out each street took measurements of where it should be just to change the signs. The ones that are already one hour parking change to two hours, make sure that the other ones that are still supposed to be a trial period for 30 years that they're in the traffic rules and orders in article five section two, schedule one. And then also along that island in Lachlan they actually allow parking is posted for parking on both sides of the island to remove that parking alongside the island so that it really makes an hour roadway. So I think it's a little safer if we take out the parking along the island. It's pretty much it if you have any questions. Mr. Greeley move approval second. Second by Mr. Byrne. Any discussion Mrs. Mahon? Just one question. I gathered that you're going to be coordinating with the superintendent and the principal so that everybody's not surprised when they come back in the fall as well as I can, I can hear the. That's calling me now. That's what that's why I when it was asked to me to try and get signs that were faded and replaced and everything and I was so close to the end of school year. So it's going to be coordinated with the school resource officer, the principal and so forth so that, you know, they know they know it's coming because we mentioned it to him at the end of the year but it's going to be reminded to him again before school starts. Okay, good. I'm going to be hiding on the football. I understand. Any further discussion? All those in favor please say aye. 5-0, thank you. Thank you. Officer Tobe, Bates Road traffic. I don't have my nose with me. I thought this was going to be pushed off till the next meeting. Oh, would you, if you want us to. And I, oh, you have a copy? I'm here. Thank you. In a nutshell, this was a matter that came before the board, before with Bates Road looking for traffic calming and measures and also asking for time parking limits on the roadway to alleviate some commuter parking. I had originally wrote an opinion and they came back and they asked that it be addressed with the Transportation Advisory Committee, which I'm also on. And since I had already been working with it, I said I would take the lead on it and also in the interim, the two petitioners, Ms. Romano and Ms. Baron. She can't, both of them came in the meet with me and the chief of police since I had already been familiar with the area. Over the past 10 years, I've been fielding complaints about speeding on the roadway. I had done numerous traffic studies on the roadway and it appeared to be more of a visual and perceived problem than an actual problem because all the data always came back that the speeds weren't as fast as they always assumed. And even as part of the massive corridor project, accurate counts came in and took counts and their speeds that they received were pretty much about the same. But nonetheless, I said I would take it on again and took some measures. One of the things they were concerned about was a crosswalk by Raleigh. So I had a crosswalk warning signs placed up there. Prior to doing any kind of counts, I did place a portable traffic trailer to it's a speed awareness monitor so people would understand how fast they were going. I had it out there for about a month or so, both directions just to alert people they've actually commented that it appeared that it had an effect. And then I waited to the spring when we had good weather as this came about towards the end of fall and I put out more counters again and I took my third set of counts in 10 years and the data pretty much came back the same that there's no significant speeding on the roadway. And as you can even see in your packets there where I put in like a enforcement estimator and it came back listed as a low reason for enforcement on the roadway. And I was giving it a pretty generous margin of saying I believe I said 36 any car going over 36 miles an hour which isn't most police officers won't stop someone going 30, you know, five, six miles over but I gave it such a low one and it kind of show you that it's really a low percentage. And also there was complaints of truck traffic where there's signs posted saying no trucks. I'm not sure if you're aware or not but only mass DOT can impose a truck restriction. Those signs have been there for ages. And there's no truck restriction. I've double checked this with mass DOT so the signs should not be there and most truckers who drive around locally usually know when restrictions exist so you might get some trucks going through there but nonetheless it wasn't really any significant trucking going through there. Believe I didn't review but I think it accounted for about 1% of the traffic traveling through there. And so I'm sorry, sir. No, I just wanted to the chairman and I'd like to speak only after you're done. Okay, basically in a nutshell, in conclusion, my feeling was that there was no need for traffic calming on the roadway as traffic is moving as it should be within, you know, tolerable with intolerance of the posted speed limit. However, the posted speed limit sign that's on the road is another sign that's not supposed to be posted because it's an absolute speed limit sign and there's been no speed assessment that's been submitted and approved by mass DOT to have a speed limit sign on that road so it should be a thickly settled area like pretty much every other side street in town. So my suggestion, because since it is illegally posted by law it's supposed to come down but just so that they wouldn't lose a sign there we could put an advisory speed limit of 30 with a thickly settled over it and that would kind of still have, it still would have a sign on the roadway. It just would be the proper sign to have posted on there. And also since the truck restriction does not exist and the low volume of truck traffic will probably negate any chance of mass DOT saying we need to put in a truck restriction that the sign should come down. Mr. Greeley. So I move that we remove that truck sign and that we place the 30 mile per hour speed limit sign with the thickly settled sign. Advisory speed limit sign, yes. Advisory speed limit sign. And it's so interesting to me that the two who complain about speed on that street are yet opposed to a traffic signal being placed on Mass Avenue which to me clearly would slow down traffic but perhaps not. Maybe I'm wrong. I've been wrong before. It is worth commenting that the two of those they did after having those conversations they did withdraw some of their requests. They learned a lot I think through this process. Second. Second, is there a further discussion? Thank you for this. I forgot they also after discussing with them they withdrew their request for two hour parking. Right. And the speed table they took off that too. Yeah. I would just say thank you for this. It's a thorough memo. I mean this is a key point. Very well done. Thank you. Any further discussion? All those in favor please say aye. 5-0. Unprepared to everything. All right next up we have a request. One space on street overnight parking at 72 Newport Street. And it is from Omkar Vartek. Come on up. We've got a letter in our packet from Mr. Vartek and we also have a recommendation from Officer Roteau to not grant this because it doesn't meet the criteria that we usually use. So you're swimming upstream but go for it. Sure. Good evening ladies and gentlemen. As stated in the letter, I'm resident of 72 Newport which is listed as condominium. And it comes with two parking spaces. The other two parking spaces granted in the driveway belong to the other unit at that location. And we have three vehicles unfortunately. And I currently park at the Bracket School which is a 10 minute walk up a 40 degree incline. And I need to remove my vehicle from there before 7 a.m. So that's the reason we submitted a request to allow us for one parking space in front of 72 Newport. And Newport Street is a low thoroughfare street. There's not much through traffic through that street. And I do not believe it would be an inconvenience to the general public. And it would cause, it would really alleviate a lot of inconvenience that we're currently facing with this situation. Thank you. Mrs. Mohan. I did go by there and viewed it from the street. And I understand your dilemma because I live at 23 Howard Street. I have the same issue. I have a handicapped parent. I have anywhere from four to six cars. Viewing it from the street, I'm going to be recommending no action. I want to explain why. If I look at it from the street, there's a very big garage that if you had three combat cars, you could put them in there, but you could definitely put two. Then there's a long driveway that you could put four or five. And then there's also, and I have the same thing, you can also put another car because the driveway goes like this. There's the big garage, but then there's also some paved land here. And I have the same situation at my house. And I get up at 4.35 in the morning because I have to move my mother's car, my daughter's car, my car. So I don't want to set a precedent that we're granting overnight parking. One of the things is hardship case and parking doesn't exist. And it is a condo association 72 and 74. I believe it's for the two residents to work out with their condo agreement that they have. You can definitely park six, seven cars and they're easy. And I don't, it isn't really hardship. It's a pain if it's not a hardship when you have to get up and move cars around. And we do have a piece of correspondence from another neighbor on Newport Street, not 72 or 74, another neighbor saying, this situation exists everywhere, please don't grant this. And I don't think this fits our criteria in terms of when we do grant overnight hardship. Was that a motion? If I may make a comment? I'm sorry, we're gonna go through everybody and then I'll give you another chance. Mr. Really? Well, I wanted to ask you a question. So when you moved in, did you know you had three cars and only two spaces? Yes, as Madam explained, we were hoping to utilize existing parking spaces there. But the thing is that our neighbors have a young child and there's one more on the way. So that's the reason we cannot block the driveway at any time at all. And because they are gonna have young children and God forbid if they need to have an emergency in the night and they need to leave, we wouldn't want, if you're not home or anything like that, we wouldn't want anything that to be an issue. And probably that's the reason they will also not agree to us propose. We proposed this to them, but they were not ready to do that due to this particular reason. So you're asking for this until the woman has the baby? Am I understanding you? You're only asking for it so they can get out in the middle of the night? No, I mean, I don't think they would be ready to do that because they're gonna have young children and I don't know if it's their paragraph that since we do not have more than four spaces allowed by the condo association, that is not something they would be agreeable to given their situation as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can I just add there are only two registered vehicles for this address, according to the DMV and only two registered drivers. So there is no third car. I would. And there's a condom or something. I'd actually like to hear this comment. You're up, Mr. Chairman. Could you comment on what you were just about to say about the two registered vehicles and two cars? I can provide registrations of all three cars which state the address of the new port as supporting documents. No, thank you for that. But also I'm gonna support Ms. Mohan's motion here. And I think that or I understand that parking is a difficult issue and I think we all do and we've tried to deal with it to the best of our ability. I would urge you to speak to some of your neighbors and see if maybe they might have some room that you could potentially rent a spot. And I think that's the best way to move forward. I think you're gonna have to get a little creative, unfortunately. Right. So I'm sorry about that. Thank you. I have distributed flyers all through the neighborhood but I didn't get a single response. I've spoken to the immediate neighbors on Newport and the federal speed bar. None of them have even one space pending. Mr. Curator, do you have a comment? Yes, I will also be supporting the motion in favor of the two of no action. I mean, you said you have documentation of three registered vehicles but you only have two licensed drivers. Is that correct? No, there are three licensed drivers. There are three licensed drivers. Well, I mean, unfortunately this is a situation we need. I mean, I'd recommend also talking to other neighbors about potentially sharing keys or whatnot. That's coming down. Yeah, well, it's unfortunate but we did receive negative recommendations from the police department, from the fire department and also from the butters and certainly the police and fire are concerned about the public safety as well. My comment is, so the town has chosen pretty emphatically to have a no parking on the street rule. I was the last year at the ballot box I've got 66 or 64%, I forget what it was and I have no problem overturning that the will of the voters when there is a hardship case but unfortunately I don't think you're meeting our criteria of hardship. So Mrs. Mahan has made a motion. I don't think it had a second. Is there a second? Second. And having been moved in second is there any further discussion? All those in favor of Mrs. Mahan's motion of no action, please say aye. Aye. I'm sorry, it's a tough but it's a dead town and we have a, the parking is a real challenge. All right, thank you for your time. Thank you. Okay, next up we have a vote to approve the 55, excuse me, $550,000 MRA loan or assistance grant. The town treasurer is unfortunately unable to be here because of a family issue and so he asked that we approve this in his absence. The show moved. Is there any, is there a discussion? Second, any further discussion? No. Thank you. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. That's four zero. I think Mr. Kiro has briefly asked himself because I did not call us a break, which evidently I should have done. The other thing I should have done, Officer Rutoas, thank you. Yes, thank you. I confess that I get like this thing, I'm like, okay, that one's done and I move on to the next one and I forget to say thank you. And I thank you for your time and coming in. I'd like to thank you, Mr. Chairman, for thanking. I'm in the middle of these two. Can I just, why Officer Rutoas is still here? When I get to new business, the board of selectmen we all received an email from a gentleman who did the request answer center was contacted by Dan Warren. I'll be happy to give you this. Regarding Warren and Franklin and Dan Warren, no relation to Warren Street, suggested that this issue is more appropriately addressed by the board of selectmen. So we didn't get it through the request answer. That was his response. So what I'm gonna do, you don't have to take it now. We're gonna talk about it in new business and probably refer to TAC and it will get in the cycle. I just wanted you to be aware of that. I actually, so just so you know, I emailed the chairman of the TAC this afternoon and I asked him if they wanted it. I haven't checked my email yet, see if there's a problem. Okay, cool. We're tap dancing for a moment while we wait for our fifth member before we move on. Yes. Is it already? Okay. Can I give Corey a copy of this just so you know what we're talking? Corey, do you want to check? I'm not asking you to do anything official until the official person asks you, Joe. Joe, I'm sorry, I would apologize. I forgot, I didn't cause a break. That's fine, okay. We've just been dancing. We have. We haven't done anything. Next up is item 11, National Grid Petition, Sunnyside Avenue, Fremont Street, Dennis Regan. Good evening, my name is Dennis Regan and I'm the permit representative of National Grid. And tonight, National Grid respectfully request your consent to install and maintain 152 feet more or less of four inch gas main in Sunnyside Ave, Arlington. From the existing four inch gas main at house number 59-61, northerly to Fremont Street and approximately 78 feet more or less of four inch gas main in Fremont Street from the proposed four inch gain in gas main in Sunnyside Ave, westerly to the existing six inch gas main. Both approval, nothing to do with our conditions, we'll set forth. Second, and thank you for notifying the butters. That's the Mahana. And just one question under your additional conditions, under number six, when you talk about any disturbances and sidewalk, roadway, that would include if it should happen any driveways of the residents. I know you don't anticipate that to be happening, but I just want to make sure that that's included there. It's not just the town and land, the curb. It's if that gets disturbed. I'm not saying it would, but you're committing to it. I held to very high restoration standards here in Allington, and I'm sure we'll hear that. Careful cutting trees. Okay. Any further discussion? But there are butters here, right? Thank you. Oh, sorry. No, you were absolutely right, Miss Freely. I would have screwed that up, and I thank you for catching it. Are there any butters here on Fremont Street who wish to speak to this issue it being a public hearing? Thank you for the more reminder, Miss Freely. I would have sailed right through it. Rightly so, as it turns out, Mr. Chairman. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Next up, same public hearing, Dennis Regan, National Grid, Grove Street. Grove Street Place. Oh, thank you. Yes, Grove Street Place, thank you. National Grid hereby respectfully request your consent to install and maintain approximately 188 feet, more or less of two inch gas main in Grove Street Place, Allington. From the existing two inch gas main to House Number 22, Westerly, to Serve House 29. Second. Move to site, Mrs. Mahon. Same understanding under Number 6. And then just as an aside, because we have you here, we do have a utility company that the Chair, I don't know if you want to speak anything to this. Sure. Yeah, I'm not sure it's relevant to your company at this time, but we have a problem with double poles, unsightly poles, and unsafe poles, as in power lines. You do pipes. I'm on the pipe side, I'm on the gas side. I understand. But, so just in- Is National Grid, the electric analysis? No, it's, well, sorry, it is, but it's Verizon. And so, most of the poles are Verizon, and Verizon is the company, let me take a step back. Because of this problem with the poles, we've adopted a policy that says that when individuals from utilities come before us, if that utility has a problem pole, we're going to talk to them about it, and perhaps not approve anything for that. And I guess I'll be surprised if we come to that with your company, but at the same time. I just wanted to let them know, because the utilities say it's not just us on there. Yes, before we start these jobs, we have to go for a street opening permit. And with that goes a pre-construction conference with the Public Works Director. And everything is... It probably won't happen in your case, if it doesn't be very rare, but I just want as the utilities come forward, let them know that we're embarking on this journey. I think you're, I think, yes. I hope, I suspect we'll never need to have this conversation. But just in case, there is a policy, and we'll talk about it if we get there. I understand. All right. Thank you, thanks. We have a motion and a... I'm sorry. Oops, yep. Excuse me. Thank you. I did, I almost forgot. I just forgot to get sidetracked. Do you want to come on up to the microphone, please? No, you were not rude at all, sir. If you could come on up to the mic, introduce yourself, and let us know what your thoughts are. Dennis Regan, you're the one that represents the gas company. Yes. We're in the road street place. Sir, if you do mind just address us. Oh, excuse me. Any questions, I'll be happy to refer through again. Order of Selectment, and Rika Palka, who I know, the manager and deputy manager, and Mrs. Rice. Appreciate just speaking on this because we have a street that's small. It's a dead end with a turnaround, and it's been really caught up with repairs from the gas company at the moment who has done exceptional repairs. But there's been previous ones, and the place was paved in 76. The asphalt is very tough, dry, and very bad condition. It actually looks very messy. We're just wondering how it will be addressed. We're not stopping the gas company, gas companies, as their rights, and so forth. But there's no plans that we have to see how the mains will go up. It's just stated that it's going to be 188 feet, and so forth, to the abodus. Do I have a map of your feelings, primarily on the even-numbered side, if possible, off the edge of pavement? So that's what the plan is. But things could change when whatever happens out there with the pre-construction conference, or with issues with the digging, or whatever, but that's the plan. And we, bound by state law, if it's more than five years old, by the way that we repair it, by the compaction, we normally backfill three-foot deep hole in what they call six-inch lifts. Plastic pipe will probably be installed here, and they put it in a bed of sand, and then they put six inches of the fill, and they pack it down. Additional six inches, they pack it down, come right up about a half foot before, and they put the rough asphalt in, and then they put the finished asphalt in at the end. Yeah, I'm aware of that, but they did have, they have already done some lines to different, they already have put in some lines to different abutters, and the main now has decided that it has to be bought up, and we understand that. But if there's some manholes or whatever that, we don't know where they're gonna be. Now Mr. Regan is mentioning that it's going to be a shot way off the sidewalk, but we also have a stream there that comes, it's an old brook that is between properties and crosses streets and comes up very high. So there's a lot of things that have changed plans as well, I'm aware of that, but that's why it's been cut up so much. It was, original cuts were made, and then they found that it wasn't, there was no main there at all, and then when they got through they found out that they didn't feed another house that should have been. So one way we could possibly go forward is that we've talked to Mr. Regan fairly frequently, and you can look over his plans and make any recommendations, and we can approve it, and then you'll get a chance to talk about it, and if there's something that hasn't done up to code, then we can talk to him about it again. We can invite him back to a meeting and ask him to talk about it again. Our options right now, however, though would be to say we could disapprove the permit, which doesn't sound like the right things for us to do. So I guess I'm inclined to say that perhaps you two could exchange phone numbers, go outside and walk through the plan, and then if there's any future conversations, and you have something that you're not satisfied, you know how to get ahold of Marie, and Marie knows how to get ahold of us. Well, how's the town going to handle the street though that has more paving put in by gas company than by the town of Allenton? In other words, the ratio there of other trenches that are already in, it really needs to be paid. And I just want to double check. This is a town road, not a private way. It's a town road. It is, okay. Mr. Deputy Town Manager, Acting Town Manager, can you review with the DPW Director what the schedule is for the repaving of that road? Right, we have a pavement management program, and each road in Allenton is assigned a pavement management index, and we'll pretty quickly be able to see where it is in terms of future plans. So the answer is I think we'll let the DPW Director and the Town Manager handle that answer. A few years back, I don't know whether it's, well, a few years, it could be 10 years or 12 years back, they put liquid on and then just put stones, and that is not a great surface. It's a short time of six months. It was 12 or 15 years. No, no, we'll definitely follow up on that, and if it's not going that way, just call Marie and we'll get it back on track. I think that's right. Thank you. Very good. Are there any other butters who wish to speak, seeing as I've screwed this up twice now? No, no. All right. Any further discussion from the board? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. 5-0. Thank you, Mr. Regan. Very much. Thanks. All right, next up we have an appointment. Cynthia L. Hamilton for the Arlington Historic District Commission. Hi. Hello. I'm Cynthia. I'm Cynthia Hamilton. Thank you. I should have eaten dinner before I came. I just want to share a few sentences about yourself. We have your letter, I think, and a note from Mr. Ward. And tell us about why you're here and what brings you. I was born in Arlington at Sims Hospital. Went to school in Arlington. And five years ago, I bought my childhood home back at 45 Jason Street and loving every minute of it and very interested in historic things in the neighborhood. And I thought I'm almost historic myself. So I'll give some time to it. Questions from the board? Do I have a motion? So I'll move approval. Second. Second. Any questions? Thank you. Thank you very much for serving. Volunteers make the town great. And we really thank you for your time. Look forward to it. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. 5-0. Thank you. Next up, zoning board of appeals. So as the board knows, we have two vacancies from resignations on the board. And I asked the board to recommend a process where I interview the applicants and come forward with recommendations. We had four applicants. And I met with them all. I'm really happy to say that we got a really good crop of candidates. It's also worth noting that the bylaw specifies a couple different professions that must be filled on the ZBA. And those professions were actually already filled before we actually got to these. And nonetheless, one of the people I'm recommending, Christian Klein, is an architect. So we would have double the architect on this. Christian Klein, unfortunately, cannot be here tonight during the interview process. He was quite clear that he was out of town. So I'm assuming we're going to follow our usual procedure and invite him to come back at a future meeting. I think it's up to the board about whether or not you want to fill the seat, make the vote, and still have him come, or whether you want him to come before you make the vote. It's up to you. The board does have a meeting that it needs to conduct in the month of September. And I guess it would be nice to fill it for that meeting. But I suspect that we can do that for first September meeting. The other nominee is Walter Fye, who I do see is here in the back. So Walter, do you want to come on up and introduce yourself? Tell us. I'll put up 15. Walter and I served on the finance committee for a few years. Hello. My name is Walter Fye. I live in Arlington, been here 20 years, been on the finance committee a couple of different stints. Want to help out around town, like to help out around town, saw the position posted. Thought I might be useful on the committee. So here I am. Mr. Greenlee, move approval on both wholeheartedly for both. Second. Any further discussion or questions? Thank you very much, Mr. Fye. Thank you. All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Marie, could you in a 5-0 vote? Thank you. You're in. So who should I follow up with? Talk to Marie. Yeah. OK. And we can also do an email introduction with the existing board because you do need to schedule a meeting in a timely, not urgent, but timely fashion. Mr. Cappaleca, you'll follow up and get Mr. Klein to come in at our next meeting, whatever it is. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks. All right. Next up is Citizens Open Forum. Accepting 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. It should be noted that there is a three-minute time moment to present a concern or request. Is there anyone who's here for the Citizens Open Forum? Mr. Langone. Good evening. Richard Langone, 12-1 place. Tom meeting by my precinct six. Starting in March of last year, Diane Mahon, Kevin Creely, and a series of secret meetings of the parking subcommittee directed the police to harass the residents of Swan Place by ticketing their vehicles that they had been granted resident parking permits. During April and May, more than 35 tickets were issued. When one of the residents wrote in late May, complaining of the unjustified tickets, town officials used his complaint as an excuse to remove the residents parking permits that Swan Place residents have been granted for decades. Again, this decision was made by Mr. Creely and Mrs. Mahon in secret meetings that violated the Open Meeting law as recently as determined by the Attorney General. In May and June, dozens more tickets were issued at the SWAT Place residents lost their permit parking that they had paid for. In an open meeting in December, Mr. Creely, the chair of the board, turned off the cameras and stormed out of the room when confronted by these facts. We all know the facts. Illegal meetings using the police to harass the residents and implement an unstated policy. An illegal taking of the permits that residents of Swan Place have paid in a cowardly treat from the confronted with the unconfrontable truth. You should all be ashamed. Thank you. Is there anyone who would like to speak for Citizens Open Forum? Next up, item 15, update, friends of our LinkedIn Council on Aging Events, Art Budnick, Mr. Budnick. Delighted to have you here. I've come with props today and a special guest. Excellent. This is Susan Karp, executive director of the COA and I just wanted to let you know that the race is moving along fine. We've improved it. We have electronic bib-chip timing this year and it's being very intergenerational this year. We've started, because we have enough families and getting involved with it, we'll have some tables and craft tables for younger people to get involved with things for the after-race award ceremony timing and things of that nature. And just in general, it's been a good way to outreach to the community. It's been a very good way to get extra funding involved for the COA and in a second, I'm going to defer to Susan Karp and she can kind of inform you of some of those things. But everyone, it's coming up on September 8th, run, cheer, or volunteer and try and get involved if you can. We appreciate it very much. Excellent, Susan. Thank you and just very briefly, I mean, I'm really excited about this for a lot of reasons. As Art was saying, it's an intergenerational piece. It brings the community together. It's good, it's a good, healthy, fun kind of thing. Certainly as the beneficiary, I would be remiss in not singing its praises, but to tell you the truth, it's not all just about fun and games. Through some of the funding that we've received through the Friends and in 2012, the Council on Aging received $10,000. We were able to put our geriatric nurse through two different evidence-based trainings, which then he can turn around and provide health and wellness programs for free or low cost to the seniors in Arlington. That's just one piece. We were able to purchase and secure a software program that allows us to track different events within our senior population. And as you know in Arlington, it exceeds 9,400 that are 60 years and older. So that's a significant number. It enables us to do programming. It helps us understand some of the more frail elders, and then that spins off into an emergency preparedness piece that we're working on, that the Friends have also helped to support. So you'll see us at Town Day with our emergency sheets that we're hoping to share with the seniors that are not only beneficial to seniors in the event of an emergency, but for town personnel that are entering the homes trying to come to the aid. Certainly there's the fun and the social. When we put on events with entertainment and food, we can draw at least 80 people, which is a significant number in the main hall across the way. So I think the biggest piece that's coming up is on October 26th. It's a Saturday. We are hosting an event called Living Well 60 and Beyond. This event is designed for the individual that's 60, all the way into their 90s, their family caregivers, and everybody in between. And the Friends is a major supporter. We're gonna be having it at the Hardy School, and we have Dr. Paul Rea from the Alzheimer's Association that will be our keynote speaker, as well as Atria Long Meadow is providing free lunch for the first 200 seniors that sign up. So it's a day that will be full of information, take-homes, and just ideas on how to stay as healthy as you can in Arlington. So many people feel that you have to leave, and in reality, there's so many resources locally that even though you advertise, and you say it's in the town report, until you identify yourself with being that person that needs that service, you often overlook and feel that you have to leave. So we say thank you very much to the Friends. We hope to see you out there running shoes or not. I'll be the one serving the water at the end with the jazz band. So I hope to see you, and thank you for all your support. And lastly, if you want one of these medallions after Ernie. Oh, yeah. That looks very nice. They're handcrafted by one of our volunteers, Bob Brown. Oh, wow. He makes them all for us and things of that. Mr. Greely, I'm sure you were about to do what I was about to do. Well, I doubt it because I was gonna say how depressed I am that I am of an age where I could go to the event, which was explained. But I'm also of an age where I can't run the race. If I drive it, could I get a tin, a tin replica of that or something? Maybe we can craft a special medallion for you. I wanted a little car. I always think that I did the Walk for Hunger one year. I remember that when you did this. And so I walk every street. He's in his car smoking, drinking Dunkin' Donuts coffee, checkin' on me. Then he drives the next block to the next street as I'm walkin' along. Sorry. I was gonna ask what Mr. Flanigan was gonna do for the race. I'll be among the chairing, but town manager chapterling does intend to run as he did last year. All right. Is he challenging? He normally throws out a challenge. I don't know. He hasn't decided on a challenge yet. We'll push him on it. And remember, think sun. Talk about race improvements. Did you take that steep hill out of the end of the race? That's funny. We say it's all downhill to get to the very end. Of course. It was fun last year. And I'm sure it'll be great this year. We'll proceed. Thank you. All those fare please say aye. Aye. Thank you very much. Thank you. Looking forward to the race. Okay. Next up, we have hanging of banners in our LinkedIn center. So we as a board recently adopted a policy and that policy is now coming back to us in the form of actual requests. First up is town day. Low of approval. Second. Thank you. All right. And so one of the criteria is that they're for banners is that we have a sponsor from the town. And in this case, this board is the sponsor. I don't know if we've ever formally taken that vote, but we clearly have. I think we clearly. It's absolutely. Yeah. Is there any discussion on this one? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Next up, taste of Arlington, Arlington Commerce, Jennifer Tripp. Hi. So we'd like to hang banners after the town day. Banners come down. We'd like to put the taste of Arlington banners up. And this is co-sponsored by the town. Low of approval. Second. I will comment. So I know that I voted, I took the vote. I agreed to sponsor this. So I'm going to support this motion. And I voted and I'm going to do it because I said that I would. But in retrospect, I actually wish that we had held out and suggested a different department be the sponsor. And if it rolls around next year, I'm going to suggest that we try to push it back to the Bureau of Economic Development. I just want us to think about it pretty clearly about what we are or are officially sponsoring. Town day, we're obviously intimately involved with as an office. We're less involved intimately with your event. And I confessed to when I thought we were sponsoring it, I felt like it was more of like a symbolic act and I didn't realize that we were kind of tacking ourselves onto it. So all that said, I'm supporting it. This year, no sweat. Next year, I want to have one. There is no taste next year. So we're all set. I am not. I'm not canceling it on you. Two years. No, no, two years. Thanks, see you. Yeah, exactly. Ms. Carol. I have a question because we do have as the next request here, I think, yeah, I wanted to know if you could address that. Yeah. Did you talk to Alberto? I have spoken with Alberto, but I wonder if we could discuss it here. Who do you want to talk about? Do you want to take the vote on this one, or do you want to? Well, they're going to be hanging the same time. All right, next up, Arlington Film Festival. Let's talk about it at the same time. This is not competition. No, it's not competition. We work together. Yes, good evening. Thank you for hearing us, April and Alberto Guzman of the Arlington International Film Festival. Last year, the select men were kind enough to let us put up our banners in the city, advertising the International Film Festival, and we were very appreciative of that. The Economic Development Officer, sorry, facilitated that. That was the gentleman that we had worked with after coming and presenting to the select men that we were actually having the festival. There was no mention of banners at that point because we hadn't even thought of it. This year, upon hearing that there was a reconsideration of banners in trying to get some kind of a policy enacted, we sent a letter of request to the select men, which I'm sure you've all had, you've received by now. So we would like to just follow up on that, find out if we would be able to hang the banners and what the policies actually would be. Mr. Kerl. So I did meet with Mr. Guzman. We discussed this briefly. I facilitated placing the AIFF on ATED's agenda this coming Wednesday, but we're a little bit out of order. I realized, though, that the chamber and the Film Festival are looking to coordinate this so that they're sharing space. So I've been inclined to support the chamber. I'm also inclined to support AIFF contingent upon them receiving sponsorship from ATED if that's in order. I think it's great to see these two organizations actually cooperating together, too. That was a motion, I'll second it. All right, so it sounds good, but why don't we actually roll these then both into motion? Just do both of these together. And Mr. Greely, I think you made the original motion. So can we perhaps amend your motion to add the motion? Yes, sir. And so that's- Try to move BNC. Yes, BNC with C approval contingent upon ATED. Yes, second. Yeah, Mr. Burr. I'm gonna support this and I'm very comfortable with it. Moving forward when these signs come down, these banners, I'd like the Arlington Alive banners to go back up. I think that all the banners that we have in front of us, they're all events. And as we spoke before, the Arlington Alive banner is not really an event. It's more of a good feeling. And I think it really represents something that we're striving to move forward to. And I'd be more comfortable with those being up for a long term, if that's appropriate. If you'd like to- I would say that it'd be appropriate. We'd have to just determine who picks up the class. Yeah, okay. It may actually be that we don't have any up there for periods of time. I don't know if that's- Yeah, I mean, if we can put them back up, I think it would be fine. I think it looks nice. I agree. And I'd rather have those up long term than something that represents an event. All right. Can I just ask Adam, if he could follow up with DPW, if they're Andrew- You're not alone. I'm sitting too close to you. Andrew, if you could follow up with DPW and find out if there's a time, or a season, or a part of a time of season where they don't recommend having banners up. And maybe they're cool with it year round, but they may say in terms of massive snow and ice operations, if you could just check on that. So I'm sorry, excuse me. We just wanted to clarify dates that we would be able to hang our banners as well as if there's a cost associated so that we could understand that. So the dates would be, yours are going up after 10, so 10 days, the 21st, and Marie doesn't like me to say the word, but Reindate the 28th. And- Okay. Oh, that's right. Oh, is it Reindate the 22nd? No. 28th. Follow me. 28th. 28th. Right, yes. So that would be the start, as what a post town day would be when yours go up. And then I'm assuming that we're talking about taking them down after the festival is over, sometime after October 27th. The exact date that we're talking about after October 27th, we haven't yet come to a resolution yet, and I'm not even sure what we're going to, I think we're going to give a recommended range and go from that. That's fine, we're more concerned about when they go up. So that's- As for cost, I don't know how we've been handling the cost yet. They come up with the cost of the actual banner, right? Well, they bring- Not the banner. We eventually don't know. I think we should clarify a little bit. That was, yeah, that was deter- Yeah, I'm the expert. That really has, I think you'll have to work through that with the town manager and DPW director. But one of the goals, I think in our taking these votes has been so that there can be some cost sharing with the previous older. So for example, with town day coming down at the same time that yours are going up, we're not incurring then a double hit of an uninstallation than a subsequent installation. But I don't think that we can quote the cost here. Part of our new policy has been trying to fit because we had been concerned about the cost and stuff like that. And so I actually don't know what it is yet. Let's ask Marie, let's ask the town manager and see how they're doing it. But for yours going up, clearly, you're splitting them with town days going down. So that at least is part of what's going on. Okay. So let's- Okay, excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So we've got a motion. We don't actually have an, let's, should we set an end date that says to come down in early November or as, as convenient to the DPW or whatever. Yeah. All right. Yeah. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Five-zero. Done with the banners. Next up for the Transportation Advisory Committee, Scott Smith, Parking, and Crosswalk. And we're talking about across river at Cornell and University and the south side of Purcell from North Union. That's Parking. Oh, sorry, Crosswalk. So Mark Crosswalk across river at Cornell and University on the north side of the intersection. Okay. Scott Smith here from TAC. This case is coming out of the Thompson rebuild. View it as some minor changes to the walking routes and traffic patterns. Basically the walking route makes more sense on the north side of university than the south side now, given where the entrance of the school now is. So we propose adding a crosswalk on the north side of the Cornell River University intersection where there already is a crosswalk on the other side and a traffic supervisor placed. So that's what that's about. And the parking on Purcell, which is a public way, and I looked on the web, it has no restrictions now. We're proposing some extremely short-term parking on the school side of Purcell to support kindergarten drop-off, which will be away from the main drop-off, which will be more towards Everett, as it's been in the past. A little approval on both. I'll second it. Just a question regarding the short-term parking. Is that only, is that between specific times? Like is that during school day parking, or is that a permanent 15 minute? We were back and forth on that. Purcell is fairly narrow. Could go either way. I would recommend permanent, and given that this is a new school, I wouldn't be surprised if we were back in November of some more tweaks. So I actually had the same question, and I would actually, I would prefer to put only during school hours. And I just want to give you my motivation. My motivation is when you use the schools for evening events and things like that, it just seems, you know, the parking is going to stack up all around there. We might as well use those spaces as much as anything else. Okay, I'd like to just, just as advice. See the signs on school property are saying 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. staff parking. And so we're looking at opening up the spaces on North Union in the evening. So maybe less parking on North Union itself. So we have a motion for Mr. Greeley. I don't know. Were you moving 24 hours? Do you want to, do you want to, is your motion 24 hours, your motion for part of the day? I would, I would support, you know, count to five, my friend. What would you, what would you support? I would, I would rather do the 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. That's what I was doing. Okay. I saw him typing that right in my phone. Yeah, cool. Okay, any further discussion? No. Is that all right with you, Scott? My friend. Yeah. Anyone here wanted to talk about that? It doesn't look like that. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Thanks Scott. I'm actually, before we do the calendar, just because I see, I want to do correspondence because I see Carol patiently waiting in the audience. Under correspondence received, we have Carol Bann, who is a traffic concern, parking concern relative to the whole food supermarket. And I know it's my intent to probably refer this to tax. So Scott, do you want to hang out just for a minute while we, Carol, do you want to, did you want to speak to the, do you want to climb up and take a minute? Please. Not about leaf blowers, I'm sort of refreshing. I'm Carol Bann, I live on Bartlett Avenue and I'm a town meeting member for a precinct date. I'm here representing the residents of Bartlett Avenue who are thrilled to get that whole food is coming in because we haven't been able to buy milk since Johnny's left. But at the same time, Whole Foods is going to be the only supermarket that has an entrance and an exit on a residential street. So we're anticipating there's going to be some traffic. Johnny's had traffic, but this is going to be bigger because people are going to be coming from Belmont to see the organic lettuce. So we were wondering if there was going to be any sort of accommodation for the overflow parking that's going to be on our street. People are going to be parking on the street, probably all the way up the street. Also, when you come out of the parking lot, people are going to be cutting up to Route 2 going up Bartlett Avenue. And we were wondering perhaps if there could be, I don't know, some sort of flared curb or something that would keep people from bombing up there or to give a visual cue that it's a residential neighborhood or maybe even, dare I suggest, a no left turn sign as you come out. Ideally, it would be nice also. OK, I've got one more thing. Oh, yeah, we'd like to have a traffic study done on our street. I caught that in the beginning of this meeting. And if we could have one done before Whole Foods opens and then afterwards so we can sort of have a comparison to see exactly what the impact is of the store, that would be fabulous. So my inclination is that I would definitely, I would have to refer to TACC. I am, I suspect I'm more interested in what it's like afterwards than I am before. But if you can't compare it, you don't really know. You can't compare it to what it was with Johnny's either. No, but we can compare it to what it is with no store and then what it is with a store. I would defer to John's piece. Johnny's was a tax judgment. If they want that information, that would be my personal preference. But I know that having spoken to a couple of the members individually, so obviously, read your correspondence beforehand, which makes me say, OK, what do we do with this? And I did talk to a couple of TACC members. And I know that their inclination was that they would rather wait until the store was open. I think that everyone agrees that the traffic study should happen, but we should. But isn't the point of a traffic study to have a comparison otherwise, why even have one? I mean, you know, because the reasons you would do it, it isn't a question about before and after. It's about what the road's capacity is and whether it's being used safely or not. So it could be that the traffic goes up by a factor of 10, or it could be it goes up by a factor of 100, or it could go up to be a factor of two. It isn't the factor that's the matter. It's the matter is what the actual usage is. Well, the factor impacts the people and the quality of life for the people who live there. They're very concerned about the speed and the volume. I completely agree with that. But I think that it's the end state that matters, not where you started. Mr. Greeley? Well, we don't have statistics from Johnny's to compare. So I agree with you that let's wait until the store is in there. Mrs. Mohan? I would just say, based on the correspondence we received to requesting TAC to have this on their agenda, that we refer this to TAC, because we can't really tell them, give you the opportunity to meet with them and make your case. And they may say, you know, we agree. We're not the ones, I'm certainly not the ones in terms of transportation and traffic and all that. So what we have on the correspondence received is your request to have this go to TAC, as well as one from Patsy Kramer, who had a conversation with Elizabeth Carr-Jones, who suggests that she refer that. So what I would say is, since we move received correspondence received, that we also refer these two issues to TAC. And then you can make your pitch to the experts. And they may agree. I don't know. I'm not a terrific good. That's OK, Mr. Chairman. But just to point out, we are the traffic and parking commissioners. I mean, we're referring it to TAC to come back to work. But we will have to make a decision on that. Mr. Cure, Mr. Bernadette, comments? Thank you. Good path. All right. You've got a motion? The second. Did we get this? Yeah, this is referring to TAC. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Zero. Thank you. Thank you for coming. OK, next. That was both of these, correct? That was both of them, yeah. Next up, we are going to look at schedules of the magic calendar. So I recommend in September the 9th and the 23rd. Oh, no. The 9th is right after town day. Marie-Marie, we don't want that. The 23rd was the day that was, no, your 21st. I mean, 21st, right. So I said that wrong. I'm meaning 23rd is right after town day, not 9th. Correct. How about as a 16 and 30 or 9 and 30? People have anything else? I may be for 16. I may not be able to. So how about 9 and 30 then for two days in September? Is that all right? I think that's good for me. OK. Yeah, that's fine. Yep. Hang on just one moment. Thank you. Yep, 9th is good. Hey, she's. No? OK, that's a go. And then in October, so 14th is Columbus Day, and we will have just done the 30th. We could do 7 and 21, so that would be like 30 and 7. I can't do the 21st, but that's no reason for the board not to go ahead. Well, 7 and 28 works. Was it not? It's fine with that. 7th and 28th. 7 and 28th? Let me just go with me if I have everybody else. Yep. OK. For the year. So in November, I can't do the 11th. Well, that's Veterans Day. Veterans Day. Oh, there you go. I can't do the 25th. I'm up 4 and 18. All right. That works. Yep. December, it looks like we've got an election. Every month. Yeah. On the 10th. 2 and 23? And 23 be our? The short meeting? Early short meeting? Or no? How about 2 and 23? I mean, it's up to you guys. I don't mind. I mean, 9 is the night before the state election. No, so Marie said no. So either 16 and 23 or 2 and 23? I'm inclined to say that it's 2 and 16, but I could go either. I was thinking 2 and 16 as well. That's OK with me, but. The only downside to doing that is it's going to leave us a long stretch without a meeting at the end of the year. And I have to bet that we're going to have to have, there's always something that we have to do just before the year. So we may end up having a morning meeting on the 27th or something like that. But we can cross that bridge when we get there. Yeah, see how it plays out. Yeah. Cool. I'll throw a Wednesday night. I mean, we did that one, yeah, we did a Monday and then the following Wednesday. Whatever works, you know, but. Marie, do you have any deep thoughts first or 2 and 16 OK with you? Marie, do the select tones have a gig in December with the Catholic Women's Club? Wednesday night. So is 16th meeting we start early? I think so. OK. And then Dan hosts some wild party somewhere for us. I'm on the 16th or right. That would be the second. You're two parties. I do have two parties. It was a September party, too. Oh, is that the pig roast? It is. All right. So we've done number 18. We've done our correspondence received. I don't think we did an executive session. Let us go on to new business. Mr. Kupalka, Ms. Rice. I do have a new business, Mr. Chair. Thank you. With very mixed emotions that I announced to the board formally that I'm going to be leaving the position of town council later in September to accept the position of Deputy Chief of the Government Bureau for the Office of the Attorney General in Boston. I'm very honored to have been asked to return to that office in an upper management position. And it's a really good opportunity for me. But it is hard for me to leave the town. I've been here for a little over five years. I've learned a great amount while I've been here. I appreciated the support of all of the department heads and the board in its different iterations. And I will probably be leaving at the end of the third week in September. But that hasn't been set for sure. I know the board has received a memo from the town manager starting the recruitment and transition process. And I've offered to be available to the town manager and his team to provide any assistance I can and to my replacement as well to provide any assistance I can through that transition. And I hope that will help make it a smooth one. And I want to thank the board for all its support during my time here. So Juliana gave me a call this weekend and said that she was planning on making this announcement. I was very distressed. Good congratulations on this job. I wish you the best in this new gig. But I think you've been really good for us. And I'm very sad to see you go. Mrs. Mahon. I just want to say, same conversation, very bittersweet. But I'm very proud and honored that we have had her for five years. And having worked in the court system for the position that they actively recruited her for is really, in the Attorney General's Office, a great testament to your legal knowledge and credentials. So I really feel proud, as another woman, that you're going to go to a higher ranking position. I'd like to think that Arlington helped contribute in that. But I really am honored as a fellow woman that you've been offered this position and you're more than qualified for it. And you're going to be very, very, very busy. But you're used to that. Mr. Greeley, I saw your hand go up. So in the five years you've served, who would you say is the most outstanding member of the Board of Selectment under which you have served? Just go ahead and say it. I don't think it's obvious to everyone. It's obvious to everyone that it's Mr. Greeley, of course. Therefore, we cannot let you go. Truly, the Attorney General's Office is gaining in its alofts for Arlington. You've done a wonderful job. You've been a real pleasure to work with. And you've been right, 98% of the time at the age, but best of luck, Julianne, and I'll surely miss you. You're going to stay living here in Arlington, correct? Well, we'll talk about that another time, Kevin. Already? You're way behind on the news, buddy. Oh, man, sorry. So I spent the last three plus weeks traveling over 6,600 miles around this wonderful country of ours. And I had a nice welcome. When I crossed the Massachusetts line yesterday, it was traffic and tolls. Everybody else had these nice signs. We had traffic and tolls. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse than sitting in dead stop traffic just west of Sturbridge, I got a call from Julianne. And my family was in the car. And they said, why did you just inhale so sharply? I've really enjoyed working with you. I think you've really set a new standard, both here on the board and when I was over with the school committee. And I noted many of the other people in town, town meeting members, and members of other boards. You've been an indispensable resource and with a great sense of humor also, which I think we all appreciate and need as we go through this. Certainly a new standard will be set at the Attorney General's office. And we wish you nothing but the best. And hope we didn't drive you away with those few times when we did just go right against your advice. Not better off. Drive right over it. But thank you very much. And I'm sure there'll be much more time for longer compiles. Yeah, this is devastating news. I'm very, very sad to hear. But of course, I'm happy for you as well. And it'll be greatly missed. I know a lot of department heads are also equally as upset as we are. And I hope that we can stay in touch, of course. And best of luck. Thank you. We have a one-world meeting, right? Yeah, I guess so, yeah. Definitely that's OK. Does this mean that when open meeting complaints, your office is the one that handles them? Well, it is that bureau. I'll be precluded from participating in anything having to do with the town of Arlington, at least for a year. So I don't know how much help I can get. Can you put particular names on a list? OK, OK. Anything else? Or was that enough? I think that's enough for now. Mr. Flanagan. Not at this time. Kevin. Nothing. Thank you. Diane. Just a couple of things. One is, I understand we've hired an animal control officer. Many outstanding candidates. I talked to Karen Malloy. I've been getting so many questions about what's happening with that. So I anticipate, I'm not sure if tonight or at a future meeting, we'll be giving the information. But I understand the woman that we hired, I don't know if I can say it, because I don't know if she's been offered or accepted the job. We're still in the process of finalizing the office, so. Then I won't go out. The nation will be forthcoming. I just want to let people know out there, because I get asked all the time. The other thing is, two issues. One was on Egerton Road, which Andrew has been following. Adam Sotted and Andrew followed up. There's a ridiculously scary double poll out there. I'm ready to push it over myself. But I think you said they committed to an action plan. Right. And so we'll be moving their utility during a planned outage on the evening of September 5th. And we've talked to the cable companies, and they'll follow soon thereafter. They can move their utilities, and we can finally come to a resolution on that poll. And do they know how long the planned outage is? Is it like an hour between 1 AM and 5 AM? I don't know the exact duration, but I can get that information for you. And maybe if you think it's appropriate to tell an email alert or something, so the residents know. And then the last thing, just in my frustration of DCR, Sunnyside Boulevard in the Greenway, I contacted the governor and said that we had met a year ago last July. Thank you for the first part of the meeting that Mr. Grilly and I went to, which was reimbursement for the microburst. But that sort of brought me back, making phone calls and calling the governor, which I'm kind of embarrassed that I had to do that. But that's because of DCR. Is that DCR, why they have committed to a plan, which I have right here, back in June of last year, with the then commissioner Lambert and Dan Hunt. I have been contacting Dan Hunt, the legislative liaison, as well as Representative Garberly and the senator, and have been told over and over again, this is going to happen next week. The maintenance plan is going to go in since July of last year. So that's why I contacted the governor, said I was very frustrated. There is a new DCR commissioner. And I believe, Andrew, there has been some movement on that, do you want to? I had a discussion with the new commissioner's chief of staff last week, and I'm meeting with some members of the staff on a different issue this week. And our goal is to have another follow-up meeting with all the stakeholders back at the table. And one of the things that Adam wanted to do is get the new commissioner out to the site, like Commissioner Lambert and Commissioner Sullivan did. The Selections Office has a copy of this, what they agreed to for maintenance. What they did was they went down and mowed all the wetlands, which really infuriated the neighbors. And I've asked the town manager and acting town manager to have Con Con look into that, because usually you can't even cut it yourself. They say yes. So that really infuriated the neighborhood that not only had anything been done. So did contact the governor, things are now moving. And hopefully I don't have to do that again, because this really is a small issue that should be settled. And that's it for my new business. Thank you. Do you think the board should be taking an action on that as a point? Well, why don't I, maybe we can put it on the next agenda, and then I'll also distribute this action plan, and then we can take a vote to have whatever communications to whomever gives in or the opportunity to meet with the chief of staff beforehand. Yes, I think a vote on this board would be prudent. So if this could be on the next agenda. Thank you. Ray, can we put that on? Thank you. I'm stuck with my words. Joe, no new business. Steve? Julianne knows it was enough for me. The only item that I have is we are currently trying to schedule a long-term planning committee meeting that may in fact happen before our next meeting, and if not it will be shortly afterwards. And then I'm also looking at scheduling. We've been talking about budget revenue task force meeting. We haven't done it in a while, but it is getting, but just in terms of keeping them up with some frequency. And that's either, we're looking at the end of September or early October, but just so that the board knows. And given actually the scheduling that we just chose, September 30th or October 7th, we'll be the next budget revenue task force. Good, I'm glad you haven't been. Yeah. I don't like waiting until December. Yeah, we'll do it, yeah, we'll see how it goes. All right, that was it that I had for new business. Move to adjourn. Second. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. We are adjourned.