 I'm calling to order the meeting of the Allenton Select Board from Monday, December 20th, 2021. This is Select Board Chair, Steve DeCorsi. Permit me to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Diane Mahan. Yes, thank you. John Hurd. Yes. Len Diggins. Yes. Eric Helmuth. Yes. Staff, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Adam Chapterland. Yes. Town Council Doug Heim is with us tonight. He's not on the Zoom right now. And Board Administrator Ashley Maher is participating remotely. Tonight's meeting of the Allenton Select Board is being conducted remotely, consistent with an act signed into law on June 16th, 2021, that extends certain COVID-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency. The act includes an extension until April 1, 2022 of the remote meeting provisions of Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 executive order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law. The governor's order, which is referenced with agenda materials on the town's website for this meeting, allows public bodies to meet entirely remotely, so long as reasonable public access is afforded so that the public can follow along with the deliberations of the meeting. Before we begin, permit me to offer a few notes. First, this meeting is being conducted via Zoom, is being recorded, and is also being simultaneously broadcast on ACMI. Persons wishing to join the meeting by Zoom may find information on how to do so on the town's website. Persons participating by Zoom are reminded that they may be visible to others and that if you wish to participate, you are asked to provide your full name in the interest of developing a record of the meeting. All participants are advised that people may be listening who do not provide comment, and those persons are not required to identify themselves. Both Zoom participants and persons watching on ACMI can follow the posted agenda materials also found on the town's website using the Novus agenda platform. And finally, each vote tonight will be taken by roll call. This is the last scheduled meeting of the select board for calendar year 2021. So let's see how much of the town's business we can get done to close out the year. I will now turn to the first item on the agenda, which is an executive session to conduct a strategy session in preparation for contract negotiations with non-union personnel, the town manager, and or conduct contract negotiations with same, just to the public's benefit, we will, once we take a motion, we will be going into executive session and we will then have the executive session, we will come back to the public session and have our regular meeting and anticipating that will take place at 7.15. So if I could ask for a motion to go into executive session. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Okay. And I'll run the roll. So motion by Mrs. Mahan, seconded by Mr. Hurd. Mr. Helmuth. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. And I am a yes. Okay. So we will be leaving this platform and we will be coming back in 25 minutes or so. I believe everybody is back to the meeting. So I welcome back to the select board meeting for December 20th, 2021. I am going to take item three out of order. I will take that next on our agenda, which is a vote to ratify the town manager contract and says in the agenda, if appropriate, it is appropriate. So I just want to let the public know we met in executive session. The board took a vote, which I am going to ask that we repeat the vote in public session and took a vote to approve the town manager's contract for fiscal 22, beginning on February 11th, 2022 and running until February 10th, 2025. We then invited the town manager into the executive session to complete our negotiation on the contract. So I will start with the motion and then we may have some comments. I believe Mr. Hurd had made the motion. So I would ask Mr. Hurd to make the motion again. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hopefully I can do it more artfully than in the executive session. I'll make a motion to approve the town manager's contract as laid out in the parameters that were shared with us by the chair. Thank you, Mr. Hurd. And do Mrs. Mahon had the second? Second. Okay, thank you. Okay, and before we open up for discussion, just a summary for the public. We have been talking with the town manager for the past few months. And as the public knows, we had a earlier this year in the evaluation process, the town manager scored very high. We value his services to the town greatly. We wanted him to come back for another three years. It was a matter of agreeing to terms. We've heard from the town manager this summer about his commitment to Arlington and through the negotiations that we had that came through loud and clear. So speaking for myself, I'm really happy that he has agreed to do that. And we'll be with us again going forward. I do wanna summarize a few things that what we will do, if we were in the chambers, we'd actually be signing the contract this evening. But because we're by Zoom, we will be doing that over the next day or two. And then we'll be releasing the final contract. We'll make arrangements for members to sign the contract once we have a affirmative vote and the town manager will sign it as well. Just to summarize, we had various categories of compensation in the contract between calendar years 2019 and 2022. They included a base salary, a separate housing allowance, longevity, and there were other items within the contract. This new contract, we will have one item of base salary, the base salary beginning on February 11th, 2022 will be $233,000. There will not be a separate housing allowance and the longevity is now rolled into the base salary. The town manager has been with us for over 10 years under a default provision in the town bylaws. He was entitled to longevity. We have now taken that it is not a separate item. Town manager agreed to that. It is built in to the base salary. The only other change from the existing contract is that the deferred compensation provision, which was at 5% is now at 6%. So in the short-term, there are some changes that the town manager has agreed to. And I think long-term, there are some real benefits to the town manager in terms of staying here in Arlington and we're really excited about that. So speaking for myself, having worked closely with Adam this past year in particular as the chair, I see the value that he brings to the community and the great job that he does. And I also see the great challenges that we have ahead, physically with the potential for an override in a couple of years and other challenges. And I know he's up to that task. And so I'm thrilled that he will be joining us. So at this point, before we take the final vote, I'll turn it to other board members if they would like to offer any comments. And I'll start in order of seniority. I'll start with Mrs. Mahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for really guiding us through this process. Every time I've gone through this, Mr. Chapter Lane is one, two, three. Fourth town manager, I've had the opportunity to work with. Enjoyed three of the five thoroughly and one with the shortest tenure I'd get it. One of the things I really continue to value with the town manager is just how he conducts himself always prepared, respectful. And also willing, when I come in and I'm just ready to butt heads, he's always had an active and responsive conversation with me and just told me his point of view. And I laid out mine. And there were times one of us changed our minds, usually not, but we definitely got clarity. And I do appreciate that. And so I want to thank the town manager as well as the chair. Thank you, Mr. Ducorsi. Thank you, Mrs. Mahan, Mr. Heard. Thank you. And I want to thank the chair for your work and this process and thank the town manager for engaging in really, I think healthy and productive conversations throughout the contract process. I too am thrilled to have the town manager come back for another three years. I think every time we go to the evaluation process, we talk about how what a great asset the town manager is for the town of Arlington. And as we know, it's very sought after by other municipalities. So it's a privilege and an honor that he decided to stay with Arlington and to renew his contract. And we're really happy about that. I mean, the amount of effort in really just reasonableness that you bring to every issue, I think real is a huge asset to this town. We don't agree on everything, but just like Mrs. Mahan, I think when every time we've had a conversation that we on an issue that we haven't agreed on, we come out on the back end in agreement. And so I really value your ability to approach every issue with an open mind and be cognizant of the different opinions that you get from both residents, but certainly from this board. And I know that's not an easy hat to wear sometimes. So I do appreciate your demeanor and that respect. And you can't match Adam's effort level as a town manager. And that is certainly something that we value. So I'm very glad to have you coming on for another three year contract. And I look forward to working with you. Thank you, Mr. Hurd. Mr. Diggins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, Mr. Chapter Lane for accepting the terms. I mean, certainly, I don't know to what extent it's appropriate to go into any details. So I'm gonna assume not, but as you dig into the details of me, I think it becomes really apparent. I mean, just how good a person you are and how much you care about the town. And I appreciate all that you do. I mean, it's a really hard job. If nothing else, I mean, just dealing with five of us is hard, and then you get me, 8.30 on a Monday morning. And if you all think I'm intense in these meetings, it's like undiluted when me for 30 minutes on a Monday morning, you know, is I'm sure something else. But I mean, I learn a lot from you, I mean, and it's really a pleasure working with you and I look forward to working with you in any capacity, I mean, over the next three years or whatever amount of time, you know, it's to our advantage to work together. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. Mr. Helmuth. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chapter Lane for your commitment to this town. It has been clear to me for the many years I've been involved in town government as a resident in this past year, as a new member of the board, how much you care about the people of this community and how much you care about the people who work for the town. And that comes through loud and clear. That's something I hear consistently from people who talk to me. And I, you know, I said, I often say that the town manager, choosing the town manager is the most important decision that this board makes. And I think then a lot of respects that is true. It's a really hard job. Very few people, very few people can do it well, especially as well as you do. I think that we've seen that by the respect of Mr. Chapter Lane's peers in his electing into leadership, statewide leadership in this field. But we see this locally with a town manager who is remarkably accessible, is open and is honest. You know, I think that disagreements are part of the job, part of the nature of government. Disagreements with decisions, unhappiness with priorities that we all have to make. But the one thing that Arlington can count on is we have a town manager who will tell us the truth, who will do what he says he'll do, and he'll be honest with us. And I've seen that combined with incredible grace and professionalism, particularly under criticism, whether that's fair or unfair. And I think that you represent the town honorably and we are fortunate as we go into some challenging years to have you at the helm. And we appreciate you are sticking with us and look forward to working with you for many more years to come. Thank you, Mr. Helmholtz. Before I go to the, I wanna give you an opportunity to speak as well, Mr. Chapter Lane, and thank you again and that the floor is yours and then we'll take the final vote. Great, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I really wanna thank both all of you collectively as a board and each of you individually. I really have appreciated, some of you I've known longer than others, but I've appreciated our work together, especially over these past few difficult years. To pick up on the points that a few of you made, you're right that being a town manager really anywhere is a tough job. It's a tough job in good times, never mind, in challenging times like we've all been facing. But at the end of the day, doing such a tough job in Arlington, is the best you can get. And that's predominantly because Arlington is powered by amazing people. And it doesn't mean that any of us always agree on things, whether it be the manager, the board or residents, but ultimately this is a community that is powered by people that care about the community and want to advance things. And if you can have that as a starting point, you're in a good position. So I'm very excited to be able to sign this contract with the board and continue to serve the town. I'm very thankful for the consideration that you've given me. And I look forward to all the meeting, all the challenges that we have ahead. So thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chapter Link. So on a motion to approve the contract by Mr. Hurd, seconded by Mrs. Mahan, Attorney Hunt. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helmut. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Dacorsi. Yes. It's unanimous vote. Great. Thank you very much. And congratulations, Mr. Chapter Link. And thank you. You're on for another three years and we really look forward to that. So with that, we will now go to item two on the agenda, which is a request for approval for a vigil to observe January 6th anniversary at Whittemore Park from 6 p.m. to 7 30 p.m. Eric Siegel, 84 Milton Street. I don't know if Mr. Siegel is with us tonight. He is and I've just promoted him to panelist. Good evening, Mr. Siegel. Good evening. Sorry, I had to maybe rejoin the meeting. Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, we did something a little differently this evening, so thank you for rejoining. So we have your special event permit application. Why don't you tell us about the request and then maybe some new information that you have for us based on what you put in the application and then we'll open it to the board for questions. Sure, sure. As we all know, January 6th of this year, there was an attempt to overturn the results of legitimate presidential election in the United States. So in observance of that, there are going to be vigils for democracy all around the country. There's at least 150 I know that are organized already and I'm sure that there will be a lot more as the time gets closer. I wanna add to that the events on January 6th of this year were not the beginning or the end of efforts to frustrate democracy. I don't think I need to go into details about gerrymandering and voter suppression, et cetera, et cetera, but those are all important issues. And I think that that's why we feel that it's very important to have a vigil in Arlington and not coincidentally right on the Paul Revere route as well, which I think is relevant. This vigil is initially sponsored by First Parish, Unitarian Universalist. And obviously we have some space on the same corner, but I really feel like I would like this to be a town event, not a parish event. And now when I requested, I requested the lawn in front of the Dowan Museum. Is that the same as Whitmer Park? Yes it is. Okay, great. Okay, yeah, so I requested that space because it's central and because it sends a message that this is a town event and not just an event of a subset of the people in the town. Just two related pieces to that. One is that if you do grant permission for us to have the event there, I wonder if it'd be possible to leave the holiday lights around the tree until that date because that would just make the space a lot brighter and just less likely for people to bump into each other. And second, again, if you approve this request, if one of you could come and welcome people to the town, I think that would be terrific. But the essential request is, can we use the space on January 6th? The event will be from six to seven, but I'm requesting it from five to seven 30. So we have time for setup and tear down. Okay, thank you, Mr. Siegel. I will turn now to the board for questions, comments and I will start with Mrs. Mohan. Thank you, Mr. Chair and thank you to Mr. Siegel and members of the parish. And others who will be helping sponsor this event. I don't have any questions and I'd like to move approval. Okay, thank you. Mr. Herd. I can. Okay, Mr. Diggins. Yes, I just have a question to me. I see that the police detail is unchecked for yes or no. What's your arm thinking about that, Mr. Siegel? We'll contact the police and let them make a judgment about whether they think it's appropriate. All right, I mean, yeah, I'm happy to approve this, I mean, and you never know how people gonna respond to this, I mean, I'm all for it, I mean, but just be careful, I think to everyone, I mean, when we start seeing stuff on social media that we don't really know who's behind it being and so don't, I mean, if you see some negative stuff, I mean, just unless you really know who's behind it, I mean, don't assume me that there aren't other forces that are really trying to be so more divisions amongst us. I mean, clearly what happened on the sixth speed happened, there's no denying that, and the motives behind it, but I mean, I think there's also evidence to me that there are forces from outside of this country that are trying to magnify the differences amongst us, I mean, and help us, help us use that word ironically, me focus on the differences amongst us rather than the things that are similar amongst us and that our diversity is really a sign of our strength to me. So this is great, I'll try to make it, but I'm not sure that I can, but if I don't, it's not because of lack of support. So thank you for doing this. Thank you, Mr. Diggins, Mr. Helmuth. Thank you, thank you for organizing this. I think it's important and I'm happy to support it as well. Mr. Chairman, am I correct that do we need to specify in the motion about leading up the holiday lights or is that something that the tail manager can work out if possible? And Mr. Chapelle? So I'm going to guess that they aren't scheduled to come down before that date anyways, but they are both installed and removed by a private contractor. So there may be some limit to what I can do, but I'll see what I can do to make sure that they remain unless we're really locked in to having them taken down per contract. Thank you. Of course. No other questions, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Helmuth. Yeah, and I just have a comment and maybe perhaps suggesting a friendly amendment to the motion. Mr. Siegel, you mentioned at this point, you haven't had any conversations with Chief Flaherty in your anticipating, you don't know exactly how large the crowd is, but between that and the issue on the holiday lights, I wonder if we could include that this, you will coordinate with both the town manager and the chief of police just to check off that box that's part of your petition really, the event. Is that acceptable to? Yeah. Okay. And Mr. Mahan, is that okay as a friendly amendment? Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I should have said that sooner. I definitely accept both amendments. Okay. So yeah, and otherwise I am with my colleagues and I support this as well. So on a motion by Mrs. Mahan that was seconded by Mr. Herd, Attorney Hines. Mr. Herd? Yes. Mr. Deans? Yes. Mr. Helmuth? Yes. Mrs. Mahan? Yes, thank you. Mr. DeCourse? Yes. Senator Svob. Okay, thank you, Mr. Siegel. Thank you very much. Next on the agenda is the consent agenda. We have two items this evening, the minutes of the meeting of December 6th, 2021 and a reappointment to the Transportation Advisory Committee, Jeffrey Max-Studis for a term to expire 1231-24 on the consent agenda on Mr. DeGuns. I move approval, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Helmuth. Second. Thank you, Mrs. Mahan. Thank you, no questions. Mr. Herd? I would just say that having served with Jeff and since he lives across the street from me, I'm very happy that we're gonna continue to have his expertise on the Traffic Advisory Committee. And I have no questions either. So on the motion by Mr. DeGuns, seconded by Mr. Helmuth, Attorney Hine. Mr. Herd? Yes. Mr. DeGuns? Yes. Mr. Helmuth? Yes. Mrs. Mahan? Yes. Mr. DeCourse? Yes. Mr. DeGuns, seconded by Mr. Helmuth. Seconded by Mr. Helmuth. Okay, next we have a series of appointments in item six through 11. Item six through nine are appointments that were made by the town managers asking for our approval. Numbers 10 and 11 are board appointees to the ZBA. Mr. Herd and I had conducted interviews on that and we'll get into that when we come to items 10 and 11. So if we can invite the individuals who are in item six or 11 and I will run down through each individual but I will do 10 and 11 together and present on that. So Mr. Chair, you're okay if I promote everybody and the board can take that? Yeah, and we'll just go through it serially. I guess we'll have separate votes but we'll go through that individually. So I will call appointment six, or item six to start conservation commission, associate commissioner rather for a term to expire in item six 30, 2024, Myra Schwartz. Is Ms. Schwartz with us this evening? Okay, good evening Ms. Schwartz. You just need time to mute yourself. Oh, right, I'm on the other now. Thank you for joining us tonight. If you could just give us a little brief information about yourself and why you're interested in the conservation commission. Sure, well, I've been a resident of Arlington for almost 20 years and I've been involved with environmental issues here for ever since then. I've been, I worked for EPA. I just retired from EPA where I've been for almost 30 years and so I've been very involved in even working with Arlington when I was at EPA. I worked a lot with the DPW with Wayne Chenard on stormwater issues. I've worked a lot with the Mystic River Watershed Association and I've been involved more from a citizen's role working with the Watershed Association and the Arlington Land Trust as well as a while back, the Friends of Spiparm Park and I was very instrumental in the restoration of the park in the early days. So I'm getting funding for that as well. So I've just had a commitment to environmental issues in Arlington for a long time and I finally have time to devote to it. And I'm really honored to serve on this commission with all the very talented people on there that a lot of them I've worked with professionally as well. So that's it. Thank you. I'll turn to the board, Mr. Helmuth. Thank you. I'd like to move approval and thank you for your willingness to serve. I was fortunate to get to know some folks in the Conservation Commission when I was on the Community Preservation Act Committee and I quickly learned just how important this body is in advocating for and protecting our natural resources. You're eminently qualified. We are lucky to have you serving. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mrs. Mohan? I'm a gladly second. Thank you. I watched from afar Miss Schwartz in terms of her different hats that she's held here in the town of Allington already. Really excited by your background and planning and the Boston Harbor work, everything around that. You do not have to stay for this agenda item but agenda item 14, we're going to be hearing from soon one of your colleagues on the Conservation Commission regarding the flooding and pollution issues down at the Owife. We have the Nifty's permit process coming up. We only get once every 15 years to comment on that. We're going to sort of be strategizing on that and I'm pretty sure Mr. White is the member of ConComs. I think it's like water bodies working committee. So they have a separate facet for that. I just highlight that because I see all your expertise and I'm plugging you in where I shouldn't be doing that. Oh, that's all right. I might want to stay on. We might get to it quickly but anyway, but it's not a requisite. I mean, you had my vote, you had at hello. So thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you, I appreciate that. Thank you, Mrs. Mohan, Mr. Hurd. Thank you and thank you for your willingness to serve. You have a very impressive and very relevant breath of experience in your resume and I look forward to work with you and just thank you for giving your time to the town. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hurd, Mr. Diggins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And yes, as I read your CV, me and my jaw just dropped lower and lower. I was really impressed and yes, I really am going to be in touch because I'm going to need a lot of assistance as I get learned up on the CSO issue. From your experience, it's clear that you have insights from lots of dimensions on this difficult problem and so, yeah, I mean, I think you can bring me in a lot of light to this meeting. So I mean, I'd be able to take you out to lunch because of the pandemic mean, but I'll make it up me. But I mean, I'm really, I'm serious. I am going to be in touch mean to ask for advice and sources of things to read to get some real knowledge of what's going on with this issue. So thank you for your willingness to work with the commission and it's great having people like you. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. Yeah, and I also support the motion to approve that Mr. Helm brought forward and I was really impressed with your resume. And I have to say, I saw your resume first as you originally had expressed some interest in being on the ZBA. And as I was reading your resume, I said, well, you didn't even be a better fit for the conservation commission and my target in being put forward, I thought it was just fantastic. So it's just another example in our town of just the expertise that people bring to boards. And thank you so much for your willingness to serve. Thank you. Thank you very much. And so on a motion by Mr. Helmets, seconded by Mrs. Mohan for approval of the Schwartz's appointment to the conservation commission. Attorney Hunt. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helmets. Yes. Mrs. Mohan. Yes. Mr. Corsi. Yes. Mr. Namesco. Great. Congratulations and best of luck and thank you again. Thank you very much. Okay. Item seven is appointment to the Disability Commission for term to expire June 30th, 2024. Alina Gadeca Herrera. I'm sorry if I mispronounce your name, but if you could tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're interested in being on the Disability Commission. Yes. Thank you. It's Ileana. That's okay. I know it's like... Sorry about that. So I am a resident of Arlington for about 12 years now and I am the mother of a child with complex special needs and medical needs. First and foremost, I would say that's the way I always introduce myself as a mother. I have a background in medicine, but I kind of switch careers somewhat because of my own experience of having a daughter with special needs. And I have gained great expertise in the area of disability. I was able to get into a fellowship, the Land Fellowship Program, and I'm very passionate about systemic change. Really passionate about serving the community of people with disabilities and working with them alongside. And so I really have a vision for having more opportunities for people like my daughter within their own communities. And so it will be an honor for me to be a part of the commission and gain more knowledge and also give my own level of expertise in the areas that I have been able to gain expertise. Thank you very much. I'll turn to the board now. Mrs. Mahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I'd like to make a motion to approve. Ms. Herrera's appointment to the Disability Commission. And I just want to say from mom to mom, I have a similar family structure. And sometimes I guess I'd say I'm painfully aware of what the issues these kids and adults face, but especially even more so highlighted by the pandemic and that particular constituency being able to not only find the services, but to create the environment that the services are beneficial, that unless you've kind of walked that road, it's not quite understandable. So I'm so thrilled that you do bring that background as well as my day job as a court reporter. And I was at a deposition Zoom the other day and there's a physician down at UMass Memorial and blanking on her name. And she started a program through UMass Memorial. It's like a new kind of family practice medicine which recognizes services needed for young mothers and young families. And when I was reading your background, and I can't blank, the board has actually started a new board certification for this sort of, she's an obstetrician, but then there's another name to her job that addresses this new specialized area that's slowly being recognized. So I know you'll be there for everyone, young and old with disabilities, but I really think you bring a lot to the table that's much needed. And I can tell you have the energy just with your being a mom duty. So my sincere thanks to you. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Mohan, Mr. Hurd. Thank you. And I'll echo my colleagues' comments and just thank you. This is one of, we have many, many boards and commissions in town, but this one is just so important to the work we do. And we often tap this board for their opinions on a lot of the matters that come before this board. And it can be time-consuming to get involved, but your passion for the subject is clear, both from your resume and from what we've heard from you tonight. So I do thank you for stepping up and serving on this board. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hurd, Mr. Diggins. Yes, and I mean, again, very impressed, you know, with what you bring to the table, being in and in your background, being is touching and it makes us appreciate even more your willingness being to participate in the board because being life is challenging and people who are differently able, being have extra challenges in and it's important that we have a commission that helps us to make life a little easier. And what I think we've all realized is that we all benefit from this. I mean, the classic example are the curb cuts. I mean, they were originally created to help people in wheelchairs, but people with strollers use them and those of us walking use them. So thank you very much. And if there's anything any of us on this board can do to assist them, I'm sure we'll all be happy to respond to your call. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. Mr. Halnath. Thank you. Thank you so much for being willing to serve. The disability commission is important for all the reasons that my colleagues have mentioned and also we need you to keep the town accountable for real change, for measuring that change, you know, it's sometimes it's hard, sometimes things cost money. And I think that among all the other important things the commission does, keeping accessibility and awareness of everyone's needs front and center and everything we do is really important. And I know looking at your resume and what you're supposed to note that you will do that. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Halnath. And I echo the comments of my colleagues and thank you for your interest and just reading the objective in your resume. You can really see the passion and objective to working towards improving health outcomes for individuals with special healthcare needs and other complex disability. So thank you. And as Mr. Halnath said, yet we look to you to hold us accountable and really appreciate your willingness to do this important work. So on a motion by, let's see a motion by Mrs. Mahan seconded by Mr. Herd, Attorney Hime. Mr. Herd? Yes. Mr. Diggins? Yes. Mr. Halnath? Yes. Mrs. Mahan? Yes. Mr. DeCoursey? Yes. Mr. Hernandez-Cole? Thank you very much. Thank you. Item eight is a Envision Arlington Committee, Caroline Murray for a term to expire June 30th, 2024. Ms. Murray here with us tonight. Mr. Chairman, I have not seen her join the Zoom yet, but the next appointment for Mr. Fennelosa, he is here. If we could move to him and maybe Ms. Murray will be able to join shortly. Sure. Okay, why don't we do that? So we'll go to item nine, Park and Recreation Commission, Associate Member, term to expire June 30th, 2024. Josh Fennelosa? Good evening, Mr. Fennelosa. Sorry, it happens to everybody. Yeah, it's just have a mute issue. Yeah, the overrunner for me is about two times a night, so don't worry about it. Okay, good, good. Go right ahead. Now, I was still having, I don't know if there's an issue with your audio. It does look like you're unmuted, but we still can't hear you. No, let's see, so we'll... Can anybody hear me? Yeah, we can hear you now. Is that better? Yes. Now I can't hear you. Oh, boy. I'm gonna go ahead. If someone can... Yeah, I can't hear you, but... Go ahead. Yeah, so I'm Josh Fennelosa. Let's see, I lived in Arlington for 17 years. I also own a business in Arlington. I'm an architect. I have three kids in the school system and my interest in parks and rec mostly developed during the pandemic when my kids were finding lots of good gains about being outside and being out in open spaces. So I started spending more time in the parks and recs meetings. My oldest son brought a petition to the commission for some mountain biking trails. And so we've been working on that. So that's largely where my interest comes from. Great. Thank you. I'll turn to the board now. Mr. Diggins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll be happy to motion to approve Mr. Fennelosa's appointment. And I saw your kids' presentation to parks and recs for the mountain bike trails. That was impressive. I think his mom reached out to me to let me know that was happening. And so, yeah, that was very impressive. I don't know where it has gone so far or what the project, what was happening, but it's just really good to see young people taking the initiative and so that's great. So thank you for your willingness to step up on the Parks and Rec Commission. And welcome aboard. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. Mr. Helen. Thank you. I'll be second that. I appreciate your willingness to serve. This is Mohan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I have been following your young son's adventure. So impressed with how he's organized himself and his constituency. And I've had several conversations with our park and rec director, Joe Connelly, who gave me all the nuts and bolts of it. And then thank you to Mr. Diggins for, I know I drive, I definitely know I drive all of my colleagues crazy at one time or another, perhaps too much information. So thank you, Mr. Diggins, for following up on that as well as, I know my other colleagues are also aware. I'm thrilled that you're volunteering for this as well as having kids in, is it three, six, nine or six, nine, 10? I miss those days. I'm now talking about grandchildren. I have those ages. So it goes fast. So once again, sorry for being so verbose and thank you for your service. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mrs. Mohan, Mr. Herd. And thank you again for your willingness to serve. Hopefully after we put some ARPA funds to work, you'll have some nice new playgrounds to take care of in the Parks and Recreation Commission and maybe some new fields. So now this is, I have young kids, two, six and eight. So the parks and the fields are where we spend most of our time and it's so important to keep them up because you can see when they decline and it has an immediate adverse effect when that happens to our facilities and we're gonna have a lot of nice new facilities and it's important to keep up with them and make sure that being used appropriately the divided appropriately amongst the different uses in town. So thank you for serving and look forward to working with you. Thank you, Mr. Herd. Yeah, I also wanna thank you for your willingness to serve and this is a really interesting time to be in the Parks and Recreation Commission because there will be funds to improve playgrounds and there's upcoming plans coming up and maybe some new opportunities for whether it be Poets Corner or elsewhere in town. So best of luck, I support the motion and on a, which is a motion by Mr. Diggins seconded by Mr. Helmuth, Attorney Hine. Mr. Diggins? Yes. I'm sorry, Mr. Herd. Yes. Mr. Helmuth? Yes. Mrs. Mahan? Yes. Mr. Corsi? Yes. So now Ms. Foe. Congratulations and thank you again. Did Ms. Murray join us? Okay. That was an appointment by the town mayor. Well, town manager's appointment subject to our approval. I think at this point, if we have a motion for Ms. Murray. Mr. Jer, are we good? Yes. Yeah, even in the absence, I serve with Ms. Murray and I appreciate to all the town meeting members as well. And I'd be very happy to move approval based on my knowledge and for commitment to the town understanding of our government. Great. Thank you. Second? I'll second. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. Awesome motion by Mr. Helmuth. Seconded by Mr. Diggins. Any further comments? Seeing none. Mr. Chairman, just briefly, I've gotten three or four texts from residents and other town employees that have joined the meeting before. And for some reason, a handful of them seem to be having an issue saying that their email address is invalid. So she may have been trying to get in. I'm gonna, you know, I'll follow up with the town manager. Ha ha, new thing for you. I'll follow up with the town manager tomorrow and try to find out why that was. So she may be trying to get in and for some reason just hasn't been able to. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Han. So any motion by Mr. Helmuth? Seconded by Mr. Diggins. Attorney Han. Mr. Hurd? Yes. Mr. Diggins? Yes. Mr. Helmuth? Yes. Yes. Mr. Corsi? Yes. Mr. Dan, let's vote. Thank you. So as I said, item six through nine were town manager appointments subject to our approval. Item 10 and 11, zoning board of appeals, that is a select board appointment. And I had asked Mr. Hurd to assist me with interviews to the individuals who had expressed interest in the ZVA. We had one full member opening and two associate members with the end of the MuGar hearing. One of the full members stepped down and both associate members stepped down with a number of people of interest. And Mr. Hurd conducted interviews last week and the two individuals that we'd like to put before the board for approval for a full member, Dan Riccadelli. I see him, he's here with us tonight for an associate member, Venkat Pauley. I don't see him right now. We spoke to him last week. He indicated that he would accept the appointment if so voted. It turns out while we had a number of people who initially expressed interest, there was more interest in the full member position than we had spots available. So we still have an opening on the associate member, one associate member position. We will repost that in January and look for expressions of interest from the public. So Mr. Riccadelli is here this evening and we're here to answer any questions on his behalf or he can answer any questions. I told him we didn't have to make a statement or anything and people had spoken beforehand. So I don't know if you want to say anything, Mr. Riccadelli, I'm putting you on the spot, but thank you for your willingness to serve. Thank you so much. Yeah, I'm Dan Riccadelli. I've been a resident of Arlington for the last five years. I'm a registered architect in Massachusetts and I've been working in and around Boston for the last 13 years in that capacity. And so I often present to boards like the ZVA and be excited to represent Arlington's interests and be a board member. Great, thank you very much. And so I will turn to my colleague who conducted the interviews for the motion, Mr. Hurd. Thank you. I'd like to approve Mr. Riccadelli's appointments for the full spot to the zoning board of appeals. And thank you. We had a nice conversation a few days back and I was very impressed by your knowledge and your relevant knowledge as an architect, but also just as your passion and your desire to get involved in the town. So I look forward to working with you. Thank you, Mr. Hurd, Mr. Diggins. I will be happy to second that and to say, I'm impressed by your leadership in the equity, diversity and inclusion network at the BSA, so I think that'll bring a healthy perspective to the ZVA. Not that it needs it, it's just that you'll add more to it and I'm sure if you haven't found it interesting already in other parts of your life or other episodes, it's always very interesting to be on the other side of the table. And if nothing else to mean, I think it helps when you're on both sides of the table to appreciate the other person's perspective a lot. And I think that'll go a long way to serving in the town and the community at large because a lot of our issues mean really will affect me, not only Arlington, but the broader region. So thank you very much for allowing me the willingness to be on the ZVA. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. Mr. Helmut. Thank you. I reminded of something our town manager said earlier in the meeting about how Arlington is just full of residents who are willing to step up and get involved. And I'm impressed that you're willing to serve after living here five years. I hope you find it as rewarding as many of the rest of us have and that you enjoy being on the other side of the desk or the Zoom, depending on how the ZPA is meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Helmut. Mrs. Mohan. Ditto to my previous colleagues' remarks. And I really am, I say this a lot, but I'm definitely excited by your background and expertise that you'll be bringing because every member of every board commission committee has an individual career strength while also being a resident of Arlington. And one of the things I said before, my day jobs are court reporter, which is very dangerous because it gives me a little bit of knowledge on everything. But one of my first jobs was Blazing Granite, 75 Federal Street. And I learned the importance of chalk lines. And I know from your work as an architect in coordinating with the different crafts and specialties, not only around the areas of schedule, but also safety. I really feel you'll be able to bring that because you'll know to look for it. You'll know when it's not there because I'm a union member, but not with 103. 22-22. But one of the things we're all concerned about is workplace safety. And of course, one of my most recent cases is the Consigli Schnappel WL French Fatality. They had at the Wolfen Public Library. And there were things that I feel if Arlington had a job like that coming in between our building department, inspector, employees, as well as ZBA, and now especially with you on that commission board, would be able to recognize people in the industry that were obviously red flags. People know OSHA 10, OSHA 30, but anything beyond that. So I'm looking for you to keep that expertise as you have in the forefront. And I'm really excited. I try to stay out of all the boards, commission, committees, business. So when you're here, you're captured for me. So I have to, you're not captured, you're captured. I take advantage of the opportunity. But as with anything, I'm always available if it's any way I can help or any way else, but you don't need my help. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Mahan. Yeah, and I also, I was very impressed with your resume and with your enthusiasm for the job. And I should tell the other members that I did learn last week that we had been asked to fill these slots. And not only were we asked to fill the slots, but we were reminded to tell each candidate that if you do get appointed Monday night, your first meetings tomorrow night, December 21st. So, and Mr. Cadelli agreed to that short schedule. And we really thank you for that. This is a really technical board and you bring your expertise to it. So thank you for your willingness to serve on the ZBA. So on a motion by Mr. Hurd, seconded by Mr. Diggins, Attorney Hyde. Mr. Hurd? Yes. Mr. Diggins? Yes. Mr. Helmuth? Yes. Mrs. Mahan? Yes. Mr. Corsi? Yes. Mr. Adamsville? Congratulations, Mr. Cadelli. Thank you again. Thank you so much. I don't know if Mr. Tolle is, if you've had a problem with the Zoom, I can Mr. Hurd, and I can speak a little bit about him. We also had the opportunity to interview Mr. Tolle last week. He is an architect as well. And he has been very interested in getting involved in the town and actually has checked in quite frequently on various ZBA meetings. So I'll go through the same order on this one and I'll turn to Mr. Hurd. This is for an associate member position on the ZBA. Yeah. And I was also impressed with our conversations with Bankat. And I think he brings up some really relevant experience and passion from the conversation that we had with him briefly a few days ago. And I know sometimes we like to have people before us, but I would just note, as Mr. Chair alluded to, if for some reason some of the ZBA can't attend the meeting tomorrow, they can't meet unless they have both of these appointments. So I would move approval of this appointment for the associate position. Thank you, Mr. Hurd. Mr. Diggins. Happily seconded that, and I mean, I have a lot of respect for those who serve in associate positions because it's a certain extent, I mean, their level of passion and commitment is at least as strong as those who get to vote. I mean, and of course, they are pretty much the farm team for these committees, boards and commissions. And I guess in this case, it's a board. All I'll say is looking at his resume, I look at one chestnut place and I dream. I just dream. He's like, it's got views of Boston and it's like, that's an impressive structure. I mean, I'll just leave it at that. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. Mr. Helmuth. Thank you, no comments. Mrs. Mahan. Thank you, happy to support. Okay, yeah, and I am as well. And as Mr. Hurd said, we're impressed with Mr. Holi's experience and his interest in serving and willingness to start tomorrow night, as well and on short notice. So again, on a motion by Mr. Hurd, seconded by Mr. Diggins, attorney Hyde. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helmuth. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes, thank you. Mr. DeCourse. Yes. Mr. Nannes vote. Thank you. Item 12, under licenses and permits, this is our annual license renewals for approval. I will read all of the licenses. There were several documents that we received. There were some comments from various departments on some of the renewals, but it is license renewals for contracted drain layer, class one, class two, class two, non-premises auctioneer, lodging houses in keepers, secondhand dealer, public entertainment, automatic amusement, food vendor, common victua, victua, vict-tealer. Sorry, wine and malt beverages only restaurant. All alcohol restaurant, all alcohol club, theater license, all alcohol package store, and sidewalk cafe. These licenses are granted on an annual basis and the renewal would start in January. And so on licenses renewals, I will start with Mr. Helmuth. Thank you. I move approval. Thank you, Mr. Helmuth. Mrs. Mahan. I will second it. Mr. Chair and I have a sort of off the beaten path question that I'd like to ask through you to the town manager just very briefly, because I'm looking at all these businesses and I know that, am I correct? Is the Board of Health meeting tonight or a different night to discuss any possible additional or bringing back COVID-19 with the businesses, COVID-19 measures? So the Board met last Wednesday evening and isn't scheduled to meet again until January 11th. And I was going to talk a little bit under new business about what they might be considering. Okay, that's fine. Then let's wait for new business. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Did I second that? Yes, you did. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Mahan, Mr. Herd. No comments. Mr. Diggins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I didn't notice on the Board of Health that it seems that the listing for the establishment that closed is, and those that are that open, it should be switched speed. So it's just a minor administrative mean of correction. And I just, I have a question. I'm sorry, Mr. Chaplin, that I didn't ask this earlier. And maybe you should wait until then until our next meeting. But in the case of the establishment on Park Gav, where there was a complaint about lawn mowers, now it was recommended that we approve and I'm fine with that. I was just kind of wondering, do we have any, the fact that it was flagged, do we have a sense of the nature? I mean, clearly it's not illegal or I imagine the police department would have said something needs to change about this, but do we have a sense of what's going on there? I would say a few things. And then I would, with the board's chair's permission, defer to Attorney Heim about the proper way to potentially pursue any avenues of enforcement. But over the years, my recollection has been that we have had to enforce or take some enforcement action against that property for blocking the public right of way in the sidewalk with materials that have been stockpiled, stored or on display on that property, as well as the potential storage or at least suspected storage of hazardous materials and some of the drums or larger containers on site. There may be some other violations that inspectors have seen over the years, but mostly my recollection again is that we have taken action when the items being stored on that property flow off the property onto the public right of way in the sidewalk. Whether any of those amount to a revocation or non-renewal, I would defer to Town Council if he has a thought on that. Okay. I would like to hear from Town Council on that because now that I hear that it's blocking sidewalks, I mean, that's changed the tone of things for me a lot, you know? Sure. Yeah, and I had some conversations about this property with Attorney Heim, but I'll, why don't we turn to him now and then I have some comments on that particular property as well, but Attorney Heim. Mr. DeCoursey, would you like me to sort of rehash, not rehash, but outline what we discussed? Sure. So in response to the manager and Mr. Diggins and some of the other board members' comments, you know, the board has a couple of different options. If the property is inactive non-compliance, the board can grant the permit, can grant the renewal subjects to conditions to be rectified at a certain point in time and essentially have that permit come back before the board if those conditions aren't met. The other thing the board can do is essentially say, we will only grant this renewal if you meet X, Y, and Z conditions by a date certain and until that point, you don't essentially have a renewal. I think the board is pretty broad discretion where there's any violation of certainly public health regulations or town bylaws, including things like obstructing public ways. But I think the board has a little bit of room here to either say, we're just gonna renew this and we're gonna trust that our enforcement entities will essentially rectify the situation to renew with condition that says, rectify this by a date certain or the board will be reconsidering your license or then finally, probably the most extreme version would be, you don't have a license and we're not gonna renew it unless and until you rectify these conditions. So on the spectrum of possibilities, again, there's sort of trust that the town enforcement entities will take care of it. The midline is we're gonna approve your renewal but rectify these conditions. We wanna hear a report of compliance or we'll bring you back before the board and then finally, we're not gonna renew you until you meet A, B, and C conditions. I'm not sure we have enough specific information for that latter option. It would be probably preferable to have a little bit more lined up before we said we're not renewing until you meet A, B, and C. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Diggins? Well, Mr. Chairman, since you have had some discussion about this, I'm interested in hearing what you have to say. I mean, before I would recommend the harshest actually, I would like to hear from the owner establishment get some sense of the other person's point of view and explanation perhaps of why they are repeatedly doing this and maybe there's something that I can do to help. I don't know, but I try not to be really harsh without at least hearing from the person. But I'm definitely interested in hearing what you are thinking, Mr. Chair, before I recommend anything. Okay, thank you, Mr. Diggins. So as you can see here, the Inspectional Services and the Planning Department both identified this property for various complaints that have been received overcrowded with lawn mowers over the past year. And I don't know if other members have received calls or emails from residents. I've received a number of calls on this property. And I don't feel that the harshest line is the appropriate one to take, but I do feel that it is hard for our enforcement entities and in talking this over with Attorney Heim early today, I would prefer the middle route where we basically renew when holding up the license. We give a date and if there isn't improvements at the site, then we ask the owner to come in before us because this has gone on for a long time. The thing I get really nervous about at this site at 19 Park Ave, right over the bridges, there's a number of tires that get stored right up against the bridge. And as things get moved, the tires have actually been on the edge of the bridge. And it just is a potentially very dangerous situation with the bikeway right below. And with the lawn mowers and the snowblowers, it's an issue too. It perhaps is gonna become more of an issue in the back of the site because of the Housing Corporation of Rondlington property because it butts up against their property, not against their second building, but it's there. And I think there are some issues at this property that clearly need to be addressed. I don't feel that we should deny the license, but I don't think we should place it strictly on our enforcement entities to this point because I think it's difficult for them. So at least with that one, I feel like we may want to consider the second intermediate step that Attorney Hyman outlined. Mr. Hiller? Yeah, I think I'd like to amend my motion along those lines. And I think my only question is what's the best language and expectation? One question I have is, do we know is there currently a non-compliance situation? Do we know one way or the other? It currently isn't, if they're in compliance or? Yeah, if there is a compliance issue now at the present time. Then I'm just trying to think, do we say the situation to be resolved or if it's more of a long-standing issue, would it be productive to require that there be an action plan or an agreement with the town manager perhaps or to sort of address the various issues in the past? And a plan to rectify that, I'm open to guidance about how exactly what we're willing to say. Okay, maybe I could turn to Mr. Chaptolin. My understanding is that the property from time to time, things will improve to a certain degree and it may get to a point where an inspector needs to go out there. So at any one time, maybe okay today, next week, it may not be. Is that what you have found, Mr. Chaptolin? That is exactly what I would have said. Yes, yeah. Yeah, so, I'm happy to have had this refined, but I think to require that there be an agreement with that sort of the town manager's purposes and in helping to ameliorate that situation and discussion and agreement with, for how to avoid these recurring problems in the past. Are you comfortable with that? If council thinks that's something we could legally have teeth with? Yeah, Tony Hime, would you prefer a date at Tony Hime to see improvement or an agreement? Yeah, whatever you think, whatever it is. I think I'd like to see both paired together. So what I'd like to see is that the approval of the renewal of this license is conditioned upon satisfactory compliance with any outstanding issues. And a demonstrated plan for managing these issues going forward by a date certain. And I think that you can pick a date with a little bit of time to be fair to these folks, but I think from what the manager is describing, what all of you are describing, there's both a tendency for acute issues to develop and then for these things to recur. And I think it's in everybody's best interest, including the operator, to not have repeated enforcement calls, but rather develop a management plan for these issues so that we're not doing this in the middle of a permit cycle, but we're doing it when the board has some leverage, but also there's an opportunity to declare it. So it was a long-winded way of saying, I would say that you should have fixed a date certain for basically a report to say that, we're satisfied with their efforts to improve these conditions now and outline how they're gonna prevent future violations. Yeah, that sounds really good to me. I would welcome the guidance for my colleagues at the town manager on a date. Can I ask, is the second or last Friday in February from the town's perspective, and what it needs to do and how long that would take? Is that too ambitious? Is that too much time? I'm trying to think, starting in January, we have the month, because I wanna give time for both sides, the owner and the town, whether the second Friday or last Friday in February, I guess I would ask the chair or the town manager that that's a good date or advise me otherwise. Yeah, Mr. Chaplain, give any thoughts on the date? I mean, I feel like the last Friday in February would make sense, maybe just giving that extra couple of weeks in case snow hinders any cleanup or efforts towards compliance, just giving us a couple more weeks might be helpful. And so I would just, it's Mr. Helmets motion, I don't wanna hijack it. That's just kind of my, I'm thinking of the process and all that. And as you are, thank you. I invited the hijack, a friendly hijack is always welcome. Yeah, and I think what I like about a written plan and agreement is that we're not just saying, now, do better this year. I think we want something concrete in writing that will specifically address the nature of the complaints that we've had and an acknowledgement that there's a way that, this is what we're gonna do to keep having kind of the repeat visits from the special services. So, yes, I would amend my motion to conditionally apply that, approve the renewal conditioned on a correction of any outstanding problems and the acceptance by the town manager of a written plan to address, to prevent recurrence of these issues in the coming year. Okay, and that would be by February. By February, yes. Thank you very much. Yes, thank you. Okay, great. And you're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Hamilton. Is that, Ms. Mohan? Is that, if that's acceptable, take a second, if you'll accept that amended as a second there. No, definitely. I just, I can't do two Zoom meetings and check my calendar as, and definitely as the chair can and that's why he's chair and I'm not. Okay, so we have a motion by Mr. Helmuth seconded by Mrs. Mohan. And before we come to the vote, I do want to say one thing on Mr. Diggins' comment on the Board of Health that has been corrected on the online version that was caught earlier today. But if you downloaded it earlier, it didn't reflect that, but if you go on the online version now, it is accurate in terms of the closed and the open categories. So on a motion by Mr. Helmuth, seconded by Mrs. Mohan, it's approval of everything outright except for 19 Park Ave, which is the conditional approval with the dates to have a plan submitted in agreement by February 25th. Mr. Diggins? And I will vote for it, but I just want to send a signal how I feel about sidewalks, I mean, and this compliance thing, for me, I mean, the sidewalk, if it's blocked, should be cleared tomorrow, you know? And for me, I would ask for a plan within the next two to three weeks because if they're just violating, I mean, the permit, I mean, the rules, I mean, it's like, I'm not too big into the leniency on that, but like I said, I'm going to go along with this because I get it, you know, I mean, and so I just wanted to send a signal. That's all, thank you. Yeah, and I'll tell you, the sidewalk is not blocked right now. There are other issues and we've got some tire issues on the side of the property, but the sidewalk is clear right now in front of the property. Great. Okay. All right. Attorney Hunt. Sir? I would note that he, I'm happy to, that we are taking care of this, but he is one of the most delightful business owners, and I'm sure we'll be able to work with him. All right. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Well, thanks for that, Mr. Hurd. I appreciate that. Yes. That's coffee down. Mr. Helmuth. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes, thank you. Mr. Dacorsi. Yes. Mr. unanimous vote. Thank you. Next is open forum, 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. It should be noted that there is a three minute time limit to present a concern or request. So we'll open open forum and Mr. Chaplain, if there's anybody who wishes to be heard. Right now there was, there's one hand raised by Patricia Warden. Good evening, Mrs. Warden. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay. Thank you very much. As you said, Patricia Warden, precinct eight. I did want to let you know that, I'm sure you do know, that the State Department of Housing and Community Development have just come out with written rules referencing recent legislation. And those rules, if carried out, would be devastating for East Arlington. They demand a huge increase in housing density in the entire area within half a mile from Airwives and BTA station. That area includes up to approximately the hearty school and with things like wetlands, Thornton Field and Magnolia Park eating to a small part of Massachusetts Avenue. To avoid a takeover of that attractive and very cohesive community by developers of apartments, buildings and towers, please direct the Arlington Planning Department to work energetically to design zoning to protect East Arlington. That requires your very strong direction since the Planning Department has for years been moving in the opposite direction. On another matter, East Arlington also deserves an end to the combined sewer overflow problem which has gone on for too long and affects hundreds of Arlingtonians and thousands of neighboring residents in the well-financed city of Cambridge. Surely the town couldn't oppose it and end to this problem which is an environmental and public health hazardous situation. Surely, since our town manager. And congratulations, Mr. Chapter-Lin. Surely he, since he is a member of the Metro-Mexico-Elysian Coalition and vice president of Metropolitan Area Planning Council and president of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, surely he can help bring an end to the combined sewer overflow problem. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Wooden. Is there anybody else for open forum? There are no, yes, one additional, oh, a hand went up and then quickly went down. I'm, okay. There's one additional, two hands. Now, Leah Broder and Linda Varone. Okay. And that will, two more and that that will be at this evening for open forum. So, Ms. Broder. Hi, forgive me if I'm talking out of order. I too wanted to speak to the combined sewer overflows and I see it's on the agenda. So do I just withhold my, okay. Well, I'll tell you what, you hear why don't you, you can make your statement now because I'm not sure where that, I know we're gonna have a presentation but I'm not sure how much time we'll have for full public participation. And so why don't you go ahead and speak. Okay, thank you very much. Leah Broder, 44 Michael street. I'm a town meeting member for precinct one and a resident and neighbor to the ale wife, Brooke, which I use on a daily basis and participate with neighbors in annual cleanup. There is a very active neighborhood group that takes care of this land. And we, I see it as a, not just an open space resource, but an integral part of our pedestrian and bike network in town and as well as a critical piece of habitat. So the bird watching and observation of wildlife, there is incredible. And as I've learned recently about the extent of the combined sewer overflows, I think this is a serious public health threat, especially as we see water levels rise, storminess rise through climate change. It seems just a matter of time for that bank, for that Brooke to over spill its banks and knowing that there's untreated sewage in the water means that there's a risk now to our whole neighborhood so I just wanted to add my voice to the others who are asking you all to do your best to lobby for an elimination of the combined sewer overflows from the Cambridge, Somerville and MWRA outfalls. So thank you very much and thank you all for your service. Thank you, Ms. Brugge. The next speaker is Linda Barone. Hello. Good evening, Ms. Barone. Hi, I don't know if this is the appropriate time for me to bring this up, but I'm one of the people that's concerned about the crosswalk on Chestnut Street. And I'm not seeing that on the agenda that I'm looking at. Is there some, well, I know you can't answer questions on this thing, but I just want to let you know that my interest and strong concern about this issue is continuing. Okay, thank you, Ms. Barone. Okay, and that concludes open forum for this evening. Moving on to traffic rules and orders and other business, item 13, creation of semi-quincentennial committee. John V. Herd, select board, Mr. Herd. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was actually embarrassed when I read the agenda for tonight. I feel like I was plagiarizing, so I should at the outset say that Mr. Currow, our former colleague had reached out to me in the process of creating this committee. We had originally taken a vote to create the committee, then with the caveat that I was going to come back with the parameters of the committee. So, Mr., what you see before you in the agenda was drafted by Mr. Currow based on a review of the charge of the Lexington committee, which has a similar charge to what the Arlington committee will be. So, he took it and he massaged some of the appointments to fit Arlington's committees that we have here and to fit Arlington's needs, but I do want to acknowledge his work in creating that document. I told him if he wanted to come today and take the credit for himself, he could, but he had a conflict tonight. So, this is the committee that we're proposing for the Sydney Quincentennial Committee. And it is, it still seems far away, but there's a lot of planning that has to be done. So, the committee does really have to get going pretty quickly, especially with some potential funding sources to help to phrase some of the costs for the celebration. So, we are looking for the board's approval of the proposed committee parameters with open to any friendly amendments that the board might have. Okay, thanks. Thank you, Mr. Hurd. Mr. Diggins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be happy to make a motion to approve the creation of the, well, the parameters as spelled out here and by Mr. Kiro, and I wouldn't dare amend anything that he's written. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. Mr. Helmuth. Thank you. I'll second that. This is really important, first of all, for the public to understand what happened in these events, but I think that Arlington has, for a long time kind of gotten short shrift from historical awareness and tourists. Really important things happened here. We know this here in town, and so I love the creation of this committee to really shine a spotlight on the important part that Arlington played. I will note it knows that there is a spot for, select board member to be appointed, and when the time comes, Mr. Hurd, I have a nomination. Thank you, Mr. Helmuth. Mrs. Mohan. Definitely no questions. I don't know what the screening guidelines are going to be. Perhaps one of them is in advance, born members of this committee to practice saying that really big $100 word before their first attempt at an actual meeting, because although it is kind of bring some brevity to it. So no questions. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Mohan. I was practicing it all afternoon. Okay, and I support this as well on no amendments, no further comments. So an emotion by Mr. Diggins, seconded by Mr. Helmuth, Attorney Heim. Hurd? Yes. Mr. Diggins? Yes. Mr. Helmuth? Yes. Mrs. Mohan? Yes. Mr. DeCourse? Yes. Shannon's vote. Okay. Item 14 is a discussion of the CSO outfall on ill life group, both the ones in Cambridge and some of it. Diane and Mohan, Vice Chair, I know we're gonna have a presentation tonight from Miss Anderson, but I will turn to Mrs. Mohan to begin the discussion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm gonna try to be as brief as possible. I was involved with the last NIPDES permit process regarding the CSO discharges and outfalls 15, 16 years ago, advocated strongly with the East Island Good Neighbor Committee and friends of the Little River and groups in Cambridge to eliminate all the CSOs. We were successful with getting two eliminated and we're told doing all five wasn't in their 50 year plan and it's an admirable goal and blah, blah, blah, blah. And so this past year, I started having conversations first with the town manager and the chair about first inquiring, I had a feeling NIPDES was gonna come around, but then also had a extended conversation with town council before our goals meeting, select board goal meeting to start thinking about not just the NIPDES permit process, avenue of relief, but perhaps others. And we discussed it at our goals meeting. And I also asked for this agenda item for Ms. Anderson and Mr. White, who's on our conservation commission, who chair, a co-founded, I believe, the Save the Owl Wife Committee, which again, a lot of great expertise. I attended a Zoom meeting a week or two ago. Again, I want Ms. Anderson and Mr. White to speak to their efforts because I agree with all of them. I made sure at the goals meeting, what I said was I didn't wanna steal the thunder or flooding and let them explain themselves, but I just wanna like, President Ms. Anderson and Mr. White and members of the Save the Owl Wife Committee, I had asked my colleagues after we all discussed it because flooding, sewage and future potential climate change issues down there will be exacerbated. So we have sort of a Nifty's Owl Wife permit placeholder in our goals. And I said, after tonight, then with you and the chair and the town manager could kind of further redefine the points. So I did cite Nifty's MWRA and speak with the chair, who's also an attorney. Our town council and Adam brought up EPA and the other thing I did it because I'm gonna have to ask, unless Ms. Anderson and Mr. White knows if we could get any relief under the current, I think it's Boston Clean Haber Act guidelines out there. So with that, I don't want to labor the point when I know Ms. Anderson and Mr. White, I'm confident they have prepared a presentation and will be much more informative. And then after that, presentation's over, after I hear from all my colleagues, then I'll put my two cents in again at the end in terms of any future action steps. And I understand if what it is, is we get a lot of information tonight and we need time for the chair, the manager and town council to really parse it out the right way. So thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mrs. Mohan. And I see Ms. Anderson is with us. Before she starts, I had a nice conversation with her over the weekend. I want to thank her for her commitment to, with her advocacy on this issue. And for those of you who haven't seen it, seen it, she made a very impressive presentation to the Cambridge Finance Council, not Finance Committee, but a subcommittee of their city council regarding this issue. So I will turn it over to Ms. Anderson for her presentation. And then we can have comments or questions from the board. Thank you. I'm, my name is Kristin Anderson. I live at 12 Upland Road West. Thank you, Arlington Select Board, town council and town manager for giving us your attention this evening. Thanks, especially goes out to Chair DeCorsi and Ms. Mohan for working to get save the ill-wife Brooke on the agenda. We appreciate the hard work that the town has done over the years to address the problems in the ill-wife Brooke. David White is with me here tonight. David is a long time Arlington Conservation Commissioner and member of their water bodies working group. David and I founded sound save the ill-wife Brooke because attention needs to be brought again to the problems of pollution and flooding in the ill-wife as we are beginning to see the effects of climate change. A major effort was started 20 years ago to clean up ill-wife Brooke and close the combined sewer outfalls, AKA CSOs, which release untreated sewage water during storm events from Cambridge and Somerville. Through the combined efforts of MWRA and the adjacent communities, including Arlington, many improvements were made and six of the 12 CSOs discharging into the Brooke were closed. Quite unexpectedly, we are now seeing that those great achievements from the first plan to close the CSOs are losing ground to climate change with its wetter rain season and more frequent and dramatic storms. What we once thought would be an 85% reduction in CSO discharges is now completely eclipsed by the effects of climate change. In 2021, there have been 50 million gallons of sewage contaminated water discharged into the ill-wife Brooke. This is the same volume of sewage contaminated storm water discharge as compared to the base year of 1997, which is the year that the MWRA chose as the design year in its original long-term CSO control plan. During flood events, unsafe and untreated sewage water from the CSOs flows into the homes and yards and parks of our East Arlington neighborhoods. A review of FEMA flood maps reveals there are an estimated 1200 East Arlington residents, 3,500 Cantabrigeans and 300 Belmont residents living in the Little River, ill-wife Brooke, 100-year floodplain. Stormwater discharges are also a problem that needs attention, but the causes and solutions are different. More work must be done. By organizing and collaborating with area residents and officials in Arlington, Cambridge, Belmont and Somerville, we can achieve a regional political solution to this problem. The solution must be modernization of the 19th century combined sewer infrastructure that discharges sewage contaminated water into the ill-wife Brooke. The sanitary and storm sewers can be separated so that sewage does not mix with stormwater. Then the remaining CSOs can be closed. Green infrastructure must also be part of the solution. Stormwater can be naturally filtered and cleaned by trees and plants. Wetlands vegetation will slip up groundwater as the roots aid infiltration and send the rainwater into the water table where the water becomes a resource rather than a waste product. The ill-wife Brooke can become a safe place for area residents to live near as well as being a safe place to enjoy boating and fishing in the summer and ice skating in the winter. It can support wildlife habitat for fish and eels which in turn could feed great blue heron. It can be an asset rather than a liability. 20 years ago, select board member Diane Mahon was working on these same issues with Senator Will Brownsburger, then a Belmont selectman on the tri-community flood group. The tri-community flood group serves as a model for regional collaborative success. That group effectively solved the repeated 100 year flood events that were plaguing the ill-wife area neighbors every two to three years. We would like to hear Ms. Mahon's ideas about making improvements in the ill-wife. And we are here this evening to respectfully ask for your support. There are crucial regulatory deadlines coming up as well as once in a lifetime federal funding opportunities that are meant for this purpose. Save the ill-wife brook could benefit immensely from the town's support, specifically. And here's my laundry list of requests. Communicate with adjacent communities and the MWRA and work with them in addressing the problem. Perhaps revitalize the tri-community group that was effective in addressing the issues. Request information from Somerville and Cambridge about the scope and costs of completing the CSO separation work. Help us to advocate for state and federal funding to address the problem. Provide legal assistance to help us evaluate the current agreements and the upcoming hearings and filings. Provide engineering assistance to help us evaluate the stormwater studies and other technical documents as well as the recent discharges. Please show your support by working with Save the Ill-Wife brook on this important concern that affects many Arlington residents. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Anderson. And I don't know, maybe you can send this to us later, but one of the things that is coming up at the end of this month is the requirement of the MWRA to release a water performance report on the various CSOs. And I think that's the next milestone that is ahead of the MWRA as part of this process. And I think what we're going to find here is that what's going on in the Ill-Wife brook, it fire exceeds what they thought for the control year and certainly the current conditions as of several years ago. But if I could ask you maybe at some point the next day or two, if you could send us that presentation, the PowerPoint that you had from that presentation, because it does lay out some of the timelines nicely in terms of what's coming up. Sure, absolutely. And there is actually already a draft of that report that I saw. Unfortunately, it is for the year 2019, not 2021. Okay, all right. Thank you. But it would be great to have help understanding it. Sure. Okay, so why don't I turn to the board now for questions or comments. And Mrs. Mohan, let us off. So I'll have her to last in the order here. And I'll start with Mr. Halmuth. Thank you. It's nice to sort of meet you in person. And I want you to know my knee is all better. I'm sorry I had to miss the walk that you did a few months ago. So if you do another one in after the weather, I would be very happy to go see the show until the end. So thank you for doing this. This is tough work. It's a long slog and it is so important. And I'm glad that you are, you know, calling out the big factor that's changing and that is the climate, you know, and that that has blown all the benchmarks, you know, out of the water, so to speak. And I guess my question for you is, first of all, you know, I will certainly have my commitment and I'm sure my colleagues to doing what we can. And, you know, there's very little that Arlington itself can do as you have said. Do you have any advice for us about the best leverage that we have and in citizens, the Commonwealth have to talk to these communities who are in a position to spend the federal money, to do something about this upstream? You know, what's the best leverage that we have to convince them to do the right thing and to make this a priority? Well, I think that times have changed over the decades and people who live and in Cambridge and in Somerville and the elected officials who represent them have changed their ideas. And I think that the main thing is that we need to let them know that this, they don't, I don't even think they know that this problem exists. I don't even think a lot of Arlington residents remembered that this existed. Is this problem, it's been going on for so long and it's sort of out of sight, out of mind. So I think just bringing it to their attention will be helpful. And also understanding some of the debate behind it. And also it's really important that we get federal money for this because if we don't get federal money for this, the MWRA has a mechanism to pay for it. And that mechanism is to pass the costs along to the ratepayers. Well, the ratepayers in Chelsea and Everett can't afford to pay more for water and they can't afford to pay for sewer infrastructure upgrades in Cambridge and Somerville. Yeah, thank you. I'm glad I asked. I think that you really raise a good point that the people who are in charge of their own governments in Somerville and Cambridge, I think largely will care about this. And so getting the word of them is a great idea as well as working with our state delegation that Arlington is fortunate that one of our state representatives also represents part of Cambridge, Mr. Rogers. So I know he's involved with this and has a connection there. So yeah, I'll leave it at that and hear the thoughts and questions from my colleagues and thanks again for your work. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Helmuth and Mr. Diggins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Usually I'm all about the questions, but I know so little and I need to learn a lot before I really have intelligent questions. So I'll just ask a general question. To what extent is this a political problem and to what extent is this a technical problem? I don't know. Let me answer the technical problem question first. I don't know how much of a technical problem it is. And this is one of the reasons that we're here tonight because if we could better understand the scope and costs of upgrading the sewer infrastructure in Cambridge and Somerville, it would be really helpful for us to know that. This sewer system, it's literally over 100 years old. We have the technology, Arlington has never had CSOs. We have the technology to not be sending pollution, sewage pollution into the El Wife Brook. So, but I don't know the scope of it. I don't know how much it's gonna cost and what kind of technical challenges lie ahead. As far as how much of a political problem is it? I don't know how much of a political problem it is with Somerville. I think that Cambridge is gonna be helpful. I'm not sure about Somerville. I'd like to think that they'll wanna do the right thing, but I'm not sure. All right, thank you very much. I'm sorry. Okay, so you know how problems that towns have often get pushed off to their edges? That's what's happened here. Cambridge and Somerville have pushed their sewage off to the edge of town. And that I think is part of the political problem. All right, thank you. I'll be following up with the town manager and with the new commissioner that we have on the conservation commission and with you. So I have a lot of learning to do. And so I look forward to it. That's what it was. We can get you up to speed really fast. You have my, I think you have my email address. Send me links, PDFs, everything I got. Thank you. All right, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dickens. Mr. Herrick. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I'll move receipt of the presentation if appropriate and then I would just say that like Mr. Dickens, I'm certainly not the expert on CSOs on this board, but I am really happy for the presentation. I want to thank Ms. Anderson and Mrs. Mahan for years of advocacy on this issue. And it's something that I can, is definitely pique my interest and it's something that I'd like to get involved with and learn more about because the idea of untreated sewage and any water body is really disheartening. Never mind water bodies are so close to island to presidents that we serve. So I do look forward to having conversations and doing whatever it is that we can do, all be limited, but whatever this board can do to advocate against the CSOs, I'm happy to support. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Herrick. Ms. Mahan, I'm going to make a few comments and then I'll turn it to you. This is the end of the first round. And I also want to thank Ms. Anderson and I was familiar to a certain extent about the CSO issue. I've done some research of the past couple of weeks knowing that this is coming before us. And it is an incredibly complex issue. And this issue, which is related to the Boston Harbor cases that were filed in the 1980s, this, these cases were filed against the MDC at the time and they precipitated the creation of the MWRA in 1984 and 1985. And the federal district court has actually been supervising this litigation since 1985. And in 2021 is actually a critical time period for that was a goal to have that the long-term control plan implemented and in place and perhaps put an end to the litigation and it doesn't look like that's going to be the case because as Ms. Anderson said, I'm just going to cite the Somerville CSO, which this year at that one alone, which is right across from nearby the hotel and the home of tweets on the Somerville side of that by the Brook, there's been a discharge in calendar 2021 of 18 million gallons, 17.98 million gallons of combined sewerage and wastewater into the ill life Brook from that location. And unfortunately, the MWRA issues quarterly reports as to their progress and the one they issued earlier this year, they said that Somerville 1A, which is that the sole CSO in Somerville is the sole ill life Brook outfall that MWRA is forecasted is likely not attaining the long-term control plan goals by December, 2021. And that's why this report that's going to come out I think is so important because it's, they're not going to meet their goals for this one. They feel like they may be meeting goals for the other five that are along ill life, Brook not completely eliminating them. But as I looked at this and as I talked to Ms. Anderson and did some more research, part of the problem here is the cost. And I spoke with Representative Rogers over the weekend and he put it this way, it's not a lack of desire on the community's part it's a lack of money to address these issues. And I think that clearly is the case with Cambridge with what they have before them. But I think as a board, this is a unique opportunity to try to work with our state delegation to identify state opera funds because the governor actually was looking to set aside $400 million for sewer and water infrastructure improvements on the state's allocation of opera. I think that got whittled down to about 175 million. But I think that's clearly an area where we need to work with our delegation. And I didn't include Senator Brownsburg in that. I know he attended your session last week, but it seems to me that there's an opportunity to try to improve things through those funds. As you said, once in a lifetime properly, opportunity to do that, you've already advocated to Cambridge to try to use some of their funds to improve this yourselves. And the infrastructure bill, I think again, we've got to reach out to our federal delegation and see what can be earmarked and how that comes through, because I will tell you the representatives along the Merrimack River have worked very hard to address CSOs out there. And we've got to try to work collaboratively, in my view, to try to get additional funds to improve this situation. And it's unique because they're not in Arlington. We don't have standing to intervene, but it affects Arlington families. As you said, there's 1,200 families in the ill wife Brooke floodplain that can be affected by this. And certainly something that I think we should try to get involved with and advocate, but try to work collaboratively with our neighbors and with our delegation. And then certainly I think we're all willing to do that and really look to what comes out of the MWRE reports at the end of this year, because that should guide next steps. But with that, I will turn to Mrs. Mahan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And of course, knowing me, I want to overreach on this and probably have 10 to 12 different possible avenues we could explore. Now that's not feasible, not just in terms of cost, but in terms of staff and time and allocating that. What I'd like to do after tonight is work with the chair and the town manager. Now that we have that placeholder for our life, NPDs, outlining some, if I could put all the ideas down and if anyone else wants to add to it, and then we've already had our goals meeting, but perhaps when we vote, either vote our finalized goal document, maybe have a brief discussion that night to see what, if we're advised pick the top three, pick the top four, it has to be the board that makes that decision and certainly not me. What I'd like to do in the short term is investigate things that are really kind of low cost and things that were in agreement, whether through tri-community or through MWRE process, which is, and I think some of them, when we had the tri-community working group, it was Belmont, Arlington, Cambridge, and we invited Summable, went down to try because the then mayor would only send the recreational director and didn't really take us seriously. So yes, it was a political issue that back then, he just didn't wanna deal with it, which is fine, but I'm encouraged we have a new mayor in Summable now. When we would have the tri-county community meetings, really should be renamed because it should be the four communities, Cambridge took it very serious, then it was a little bit of a political issue, but it was mostly a revenue issue with Cambridge and with MWRA, but they said O and O Reardon, who I believe is still a DPW director who is fantastic and he always did everything he could recognizing that. So they're definitely more receptive to it now. I mean, I felt Cambridge was open, but it was kind of still a political issue and I agree now is the time to strike on that, but the other thing is if Town Council, I know he's already started investigating this, can look into what they're already in violation of. There's supposed to be a process that we get notified when there is a CSO just charge. Summable I think recently really messed up on one and I think it was cited, but it was after the fact. The other thing that MWRA and then MDC and now DCR was part of the previous agreement was there's supposed to be, and I know it sounds silly, it's supposed to be signed up so that when people walk by, they don't just see CSO 1A. And what happened was MWRA and then MDC now DC, no DC out, they just didn't want to do it. So the town of Allington ended up doing it, but then when DCR, and I'm blanking on the planners and they dance something because I just- Dress call. Not my favorite. Oh, I just have a block on that, you all know why. When he went down there, took all the signs down that Allington had put up that DCR was supposed to have there and he's refused to put them up. So that's like a short-term thing because I think once people have knowledge, like Mr. Diggins said, I'm hearing this and I want to know more, but a lot of people don't even know what the issue is. So moving forward, I'd like the board to have a discussion around our strategy for the NPDES permit process because we do have a role in that. That involves planning, involves the board. I'd like to, as we discussed at our goals meeting, explore EPA, look into, we didn't say this, but if there's anything under the current Boston Harbor Clean Act, definitely want to revitalize in some form what we used to call the Tri-County Committee with a different name, but I know now Senator Browns, I mean, I started it with members of the Sange-Canada Committee, but I think you were on that too, Kristen, with George Layton, Elsie Fury, and Will Brownsberger, who was then a select board member. So I guess I would ask the chair if he could just ask the staff to include in board materials, just a roster of who was on that Tri-County Community group, and where everyone seems receptive to this, I will say with all due respect, some of them in Cambridge, if you look at their revenues, not even looking at the opera money, there's money there, as well as looking at state of opera funding. So those I guess would be my first thoughts, and then just continuing to work with my colleagues, the manager and town council about maybe by whatever meeting we have the final draft report of our goals, if something can be crafted of things we actually can do legally, there may be things that, nope, there's no relief in Clean Opera Water Act, so don't put that on. So that would be my premise, is to start working through the chair and everybody else and get our game plan for, I think we have like four different areas that we should focus in on, but I'm not the person to guide that because it's the select board, it's not Mahan selects. So, and my colleagues have the chair who's also an attorney, he can run circles around me on that stuff. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, thank you, Mrs. Mahan. And I think we will put this on, you know, have regular instances, we'll put this on our agenda for talking about, I may create a subcommittee and talk to, I mean, talk to Mrs. Mahan about that or talk to other members and working on that, going forward and come back before the board, but I think there are a number of areas that we can get information to the board, we can look at some of these dates coming up where I think there's a public comment period in February for the report that's gonna be issued in December. So that would be a time period to work on comment, but in really work without delegation too, but so Mr. Diggins is hand go up, Mr. Diggins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And it's kind of based on your comments made and comments of Mr. Mahan and Ms. Anderson. So roughly how much would it cost to solve this problem? I think it's an originally the ill life Brooke area was looked at as there was, I think originally 12 CSOs, now it's down to six, there's four that are in Cambridge, one that's operated by MWRA and one by the city of Somerville. And I think the original estimate for the whole ill life Brooke area, and this going back a couple of decades was over $112 million. I don't know, and I think Ms. Anderson, I spoke about this recently, what the cost is for any particular one CSL, but I think it's related to the entire system. So it's hard to get a handle on that within the documents. And I think that's something that we need to try to take a look at, but that's one of the reasons why these variances have been granted too, because one of the criteria for a variance is that the cost to correct this issue, and this isn't my personal view, but the cost to correct it outweighs the benefit, okay? And that seems cruel when you're downstream and subject to flooding, but that is one of the criteria and the regulations. Attorney Han, did you wanna add anything to that or? I'm sorry, I'm just trying to go up and then, okay. This has been a very full-throttle conversation. The level of detail that I offer is probably not appropriate for this particular moment. So I'll look forward to working with all the folks from say the LWIFE and the board and the manager as well as a lot of our terrific staff who know a lot about this issue as well. Okay, yeah. And I don't, Ms. Anderson, you and I had that conversation the other day about trying to get a better handle on cost. And maybe this is in the short term making incremental changes too and getting using our funds to make incremental changes. We don't know the answer to that yet. We need to learn more about it and encourage, I would say the MWRA as much as anybody to get involved in this thing because they control a lot of the reporting. Yeah. That was very helpful, thank you. I'm sorry, Ms. Anderson. Oh, no, I think Mr. Diggins, you're absolutely right to be asking the question of how much it's going to cost. And that's one of the questions that we have that hasn't yet been answered. And we're hoping that the town can help us to find out what that is because we're pretty confident that Cambridge knows how much it will cost to separate their sewers and close their CSOs. And Somerville, I think also knows. So it's maybe a matter of reaching out in a friendly way and asking them or maybe the town council could FOIA them use Freedom of Information Act. But I think that takes a really long time and it would be good to know because if we knew how much it was going to cost then we would know how much money we're asking for. Federal or state funds to pay for it. It seems it's a crucial question. Thank you for asking that. Yeah, thanks. Freddie, hi. Yeah, this I do think I can provide a little bit more discrete sort of feedback on. So I think that one way to think about it is these are really sort of connected ecosystems of permits. It's not just the Niptes permit. It's the MS4 permit. It's a lot of interrelated things. And so part of I think what the community is experiencing and responding to is Mohan and Ms. Anderson have both raised is that in the original projections for what the CSO control plan would achieve didn't necessarily anticipate the impacts of climate change and more extreme weather events. So part of the cost calculation that we'll have to be thoughtful about is not just the actual infrastructure for the CSOs themselves where sewer and stormwater intersect into basically a single pipe and then as an outfall but also what are the things that Cambridge, Somerville even Arlington can continue to do. I know we've already done a lot of great work on this to absorb stormwater which I think both Ms. Mohan and Ms. Anderson alluded to. So there's all sort of holistic vision of how to reduce stormwater which aids the reduction in CSO discharge. And then there's the actual infrastructure of the sewer outflows themselves where they combine with stormwater. So it's just so folks know that there's sort of these intersecting costs and strategies that can come together. And I think what I'm hearing from Ms. Mohan and other members of the board is that you'd like to have as comprehensive a set of considerations and strategy that both involve holding CSO permit holders accountable but also trying to support the necessary political action to allocate resources to help them. So I'll be happy to work with manager and select board to outline what the sort of boundary lines are between some of those things. Thank you. Tony Hyme. Yeah, and one other thing I'll just add, I mean, this again is still being supervised by Judge Sterns, a federal district court judge. And it's part of a much larger piece of litigation that dealt with Boston Harbor pollution and the rebuilding of the Deer Island treatment plant and then the movement of wastewater from the South Shore to Deer Island. And this is a, while it's an important piece, it's a smaller piece, but it also makes it more difficult to find what specifically is going on with the Aleph Brook area because you will see updates that are sent into the court and there'll be updates about Aleph, but it will be updates about what's going on in the Charles River, what's going on in various areas. So it's very complex, but I mean, I think we can start digging through that a little bit to get more information. But again, in the short term, I do see an opportunity here to try to advocate for funds directed to it. So it's a little unusual because we really wanna advocate for funds to be spent in a different jurisdiction, but it's to our benefit that it happens. Right. Okay, Mrs. Mahan? Yes, I just need the mute button. I'm exhausted. I would ask through the chair of the town manager, I know we have two of our conservation commission members at our meeting here tonight. Thank you, Ms. Schwartz. You didn't have to stay, but I'm thrilled that you did. I would like to either the chair or the town manager reach out to conservation commission and see previously with this process, 15, 20 years conservation commission had a very active role, but I'm not going to pretend to tell them what role they should be playing because things have changed. I know there's a water body subcommittee there. So whatever's the appropriate way through the chair or town manager to ask the chair of the conservation commission, first, if appropriate, and if so, when appropriate, let them know, maybe the two chairs, Mr. DeCorsi and conservation commission chair can speak and say, the select board is coming up with an action plan around this event, around these different permits and processes. Please tell us what role you all should play and could play so that we all work in concert together. And I'm not going into an area that's already being covered with people with far more expertise on the conservation commission and I could really mess it up. So however we can get that done, the answer is, which I don't think will be, there's nothing conservation commission has no role. I would accept that, but I know there isn't. So I just want that coordinated. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will not raise my hand again. Thank you, Ms. Simone. And I will talk to Mr. Chapelle in this week about that as a follow-up and we will continue to discuss this as a board. And like I said, I may create a subcommittee type structure too. Mr. Helmut. Thank you. I just wanted to second my colleague, Mr. Herd's motion of receipt of the report and add my gratitude for a good discussion. Great, thank you. Okay, any further discussion from the board? Okay, so on the motion for receipt by Mr. Herd, that was seconded by Mr. Helmut. Attorney Hyde. Mr. Herd. Yes. Mr. Daines. Yes. Mr. Helmut. Yes. This is behind. Yes, and thank you, everyone. Mr. DeCorsi. Yes, thank you, Ms. Anderson for your work and for the presentation tonight. We will continue to talk with you. Thanks so much for your time, everybody. Sure. Okay, so moving on to correspondence received, we have three items, item 15, parking concerns in the vicinity of Arlington High School, item 16, reading of land acknowledgement at select board meetings, and item 17, notice town manager vacation buyback. Mr. Herd. I'll move receipt. Thank you. Mr. Diggins. I'll second that. Thank you, Mr. Helmut. Support that. And I wonder, would we want to refer the parking letter to the town manager for appropriate action? Yes. Thank you. Mrs. Mohan. No questions. Thank you. I don't have any questions either. So on a motion by Mr. Herd, seconded by Mr. Diggins, Attorney Hyde. Mr. Herd. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helmut. Yes. Mrs. Mohan. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Senator Amosko. Okay. New business, Attorney Hyde. No new business, thank you. Mr. Chapterlander. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a few quick pieces of new business. One, I wanted to thank Mike Rademacher and the whole team at DPW for very quickly after getting the approvals from MassDOT for putting out some of the temporary measures and signage on Chestnut Street. I know we heard from a resident under open forum about the continued urgency, but DPW worked hard to get signs up as well as putting out the temporary ballards, and I wanted to thank them for that. I also wanted to follow up with the board to let you all know that, I believe with the board's last full meeting concern about the placement of the Bluebike Station in Arlington Center behind Uncle Sam Plaza was expressed. We have found a new location. We're going to put it back in the parking lot, which will ultimately still be a temporary location, but we will be able to barricade it such that it can stay there throughout the winter so that there can be used throughout the winter months of the system. I will notify the abutter as well as the abutter's attorney of that. We won't be able to move it until the first or second week of January based on when Bluebikes can actually get out to move it, but we do have a plan now to remove it from its current location. And then finally, I'm sure by now we've already the news, but I did want to mention that Mayor Wu announced this morning in Boston that the city of Boston would be requiring proof of vaccination status for entrance into restaurants, gyms or fitness centers, or entertainment venues. There's a number of other communities in the greater Boston region that are considering the same. We have started discussions with our Health and Human Services staff as well as a brief discussion under new business at last week's Board of Health meeting. No decisions have been made. Ultimately, I think over the course of the next few weeks we will have a series of discussions trying to figure out what is best for our Arlington residents and Arlington businesses. Speaking here tonight, I would say how we end up recommending from a staff point of view might very much rely on what Cambridge does. If Cambridge imposes such a requirement, it may in fact create a barrier for our businesses if they're not requiring the same given people's choices. But there's a lot to work through. The thing I want to make clear is it's being considered, but no decisions have been made. And ultimately recommendations will be formulated based on what we think is in the best interest of our Arlington residents and businesses. And that's all I had from the business tonight. Thank you, Mr. Chapter-Lean. Mr. Helmuth. Thank you. I just have one brief item. And this is really a heads up on some new business that I think may be before the Board in the future. I've heard from a number of residents about some increased concerns in some recent closed calls in the Wachuset and Appleton Street intersection of late. And I mean, this happened because a town meeting member I happened to know really well wrote to me and I was responsive and encouraged a few other people to write to me. And they've been in touch with the Select Board Office. We were not able to get this on tonight's agenda in time. But fortunately, I'm grateful to the chair and Mr. D'Corsi for expressing interest in that. I believe is planning to put that on our agenda at a future meeting perhaps as early as next month. So I appreciate those who wrote to me into the Select Board Office and know that we will take a close look at that when we enter next opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Helmuth, Mr. Diggins. No, new business. Happy new year, everybody. Thank you, Mr. Diggins, Mr. Hurd. No, no business, Mr. Okay, Mrs. Mohan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My new business is the town manager's new business regarding the Board of Health. I know they, I now know that they've had a meeting sounds like they may have a meeting or two in the future. And I know there are times they activate their list of businesses, email or whatever. So if it's already been done and or it's gonna be done again that there'll be a meeting to not only get feedback or test the temperature from these businesses because it's getting so I can't really go many establishments in Arlington to A, get a sense, but also provide some information because I think a lot of it is just people don't have all the information. So when you don't, sometimes it's a reaction to expect the worst. So, and that may already be in the works. So I'm just reiterating the obvious, but I'm getting a lot of, how come I didn't know? But then I've gotten, well, I did get an email and I'm like, you should read it. That's all I'm assuming. And then also I've had Chestnut Street down there. I don't know if the chair or the town manager can possibly reach out to Ms. Varone and let her know that, you know, we're discussed this at our goals meeting. We also put that in under transportation as part of our joint goal with the town manager that these improvements, signage and temporary balance have been made and this future ones to be determined whether it's a legal issue that we have to clear or it's a seasonal issue that we have to wait for. So I'll leave it to the chair and the town manager on how to make sure she gets that information only because God bless her. You know, she's not at the meeting when we got to this point and not that she should be. So thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mrs. Mahan. And I have a couple of pieces of new business. First, last Friday, Mrs. Mahan and I attended the long range planning committee meeting presided over the long range planning committee meeting and we are still in what I would call a discussion phase. We've got to get to an action phase pretty soon. And there is another meeting scheduled for January 7th. And one of the issues that came up we thought we might have preliminary revenue estimates from the state in advance of last Friday's meeting. We did not have that. So there will be some preliminary revenue numbers that will help guide us on January 7th. But we are facing deficit, significant projected deficits in fiscal years 25 and 26. Right now we show a deficit, a projected deficit of about $1.3 million in fiscal 24. That needs to be eliminated. And I think there's agreement that that needs to be eliminated so that the first year that we see a deficit is 25. But we're getting to the point where, as I said, we need action and we're hoping that that happens through dialogue between the members, the two members, Mrs. Mahan and I on the select board. We've got school committee members. We've got finance committee members and we're Tom Manager and his staff as well that we'll see some movement because it's just every month that passes without reaching consensus is makes it that much more difficult to take action as you get closer to a deficit period. So we'll keep the board posted on that after the next meeting, as I said, which is on January 7th. I thank Mr. Helmuth for the update on what shoes at Avenue and Appleton. And I will be putting on an addition to that. In January, we had talked about having a attack update if you will in terms of what's happening with items that we refer to tech, that I'm hoping to do that for January 10th. It's either gonna be the 10th of the second meeting in January, but I think it's appropriate because we get asked from time to time, as I said, what happened to that item that you referred and tech is doing great work. But I think it's good for them. It's good for us to know the status. Last thing I wanna say, it's getting near the end of the year. I've had a lot of discussions with my family, friends, supporters, and I have made a decision that I will be a candidate for reelection to the select board this April. And I hope to have the opportunity to continue to serving the town and with you, fellow members of the board. So with that, that concludes my new business and thought it was a really great meeting tonight. Just reinforces my decision to do that. So thank you, everybody. And we'll take a motion to adjourn. We'll adjourn. Next second. Okay, motion by Mr. Diggins, seconded by Mr. Hurd, and turn it high. Mr. Hurd? Yes. Mr. Diggins? Yes. Mr. Helmett? Yes. Mrs. Mahan? Mr. Chair, thank you for the bestest, last new business news I've heard in a long time. Yes. Thank you, Mrs. Mahan. Mr. Of course. Yes, for me. Sooner or misphobe. Okay, happy holidays, everyone. Happy holidays, folks. Happy holidays, everybody. Thank you.