 Welcome. I'm calling to order this meeting of the RLC Select Board on Monday, January... Sorry, February 6th, 2023. I have a Select Board Chair, Leonard Diggins, and I will now 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 affirmative. Diane Mahon. Affirmative. John Hurd. Yes. Steve Corsi. Yes. Eric Helmuth. Yes. Staff, when I call your name, please respond in affirmative. Sandy Cooler. Yes. Doug Heim. Yes. Ashley Martin. Yes. Tonight's meeting of the RLC Select Board is being conducted in a hybrid format consistent with Chapter 107 of Acts of 2022, signed into law on July 17th, 2022, which further extends certain filming 19 measures regarding remote participation until March 31st, 2023. Before we begin, please note the following. First, this meeting is being conducted via Zoom. It is being recorded, and it's also being simultaneously broadcast at ACMI. Second, 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 you 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. Third, 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 an agenda platform. And finally, each vote tonight will be taken by roll call. So let's see how much of the town's business we can get done this evening. It seems to be a long agenda. Next on the agenda is the land acknowledgement. I would like to read the land acknowledgement that the board supported in the spring of 2021 and that was adopted at the 2021 annual town meeting. We acknowledge that the town of Arlington is located on the ancestral lands of the Massachusetts tribe. The tribe of indigenous peoples from whom the colony, province and commonwealth have taken their names. We pay our respects to the ancestral bloodline of the Massachusetts tribe and their descendants who still inhabit historic Massachusetts territories today. We now welcome Chief Flaherty and her statement regarding Tyree Nichols. Chief. Thank you very much and thank you for the opportunity to come in front of you tonight. A little over a week ago, the Memphis Police Department released a very disturbing video in which several members of the Memphis Police Department brutally beat Tyree Nichols. And in response to that, I issued a statement to the community that I'd like to share with you tonight. After viewing the video released involving Tyree Nichols and five former members of the Memphis Police Department, I am appalled, saddened and disturbed by the actions of the former officers involved. The Arlington Police Department stands with our community in denouncing the brutality that was suffered by Mr. Nichols. There is no room for policing. There's no room in policing for this lack of humanity. The women and men of the Arlington Police Department are committed to fair and impartial policing and treating everyone that we interact with with dignity and respect. As professionals, we are obligated to deescalate situations to intervene when needed and to keep our community members safe. We will continue to work with our community to help bring us together. The women and the men of the Arlington Police Department extend our condolences to the loved ones of Mr. Nichols. So I issued that statement to the community, but I'd also like to say that the members of the police department were aware and we acknowledge the history of policing in the United States. And we work every day towards making the police department better to be better police officers. Here in Arlington, our offices train regularly. I know I come before you often and talk about the different trainings that we do. We've recently conducted trainings in procedural justice. We've participated in several workshops on implicit bias, hate crimes and DEI. As you all know, we're an accredited police department, which means that our policies, our procedures and practices are in line with 21st century policing. Recently, the Attorney General's Office approved Moron Article 16 from town meeting, which is they approved the commission, the police advisory commission. And we're very much looking forward to working with members. I understand that recruitment is underway now to fill those commission seats. We are looking forward to working with the commission and we're eager to get started in the very important work of moving the police department forward, improving transparency and just making the police department a better place to work and making Arlington a better place to live in the community. Thank you, Chief. And so, do any of my colleagues want to say anything? Mr. Pollard. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to commend Chief Flaherty for taking the initiative to put out this statement. I think it's an important statement for the Chief to make and it certainly reflects the town of Arlington's commitment to having a good community policing type department. Arlington does not have any of the type of squad, the so-called Scorpion Squad, that the city of Memphis has. We run a different kind of police department here and I'm very proud of the work that the department does and the Chief Flaherty does to uphold the kind of values that we cherish here in Arlington in respect for life and respect for every member of our community. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Pollard. Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Chief Flaherty and Mr. Pollard. I remember our first meeting, Chief, you said to me that the ethos of the department that you lead is to be guardians and not warriors. Correct. And that stuck with me. And I think I see that play out every day in your leadership and that of your leadership team and your officers. I'm very fortunate and very grateful because those values and that tone comes from the top. And I know that you set that expectation and that example every day. Thank you for being proactive in issuing a local response to these terrible, this terrible event in Memphis. And I join with you in hoping that policing in America changes. Thank you. Thank you, and thank you for the statement. I echo the comments of my colleagues and the town manager. And I mean, it is certainly saddening that it's so many times we have to come together and have these conversations because of terrible events that happen across the country that continue to happen even as people stand up to injustice. But it is a reminder and I do think it's important for people in Ireland to acknowledge the incredible work of the police department. And we always throw around the term community policing and I look at the police department and the officers I know and it's amazing how many officers of the police department grew up in Arlington. I often say there's police officers or firefighters who, he was on my baseball team. He was on my hockey team. He coached me. He was an umpire when I was in Little League. And it really is certainly no offense to the amazing officers that have come from other municipalities. But it really is a police department that's made up of officers from this community who care about the community, care about the people in the community and the values of the community in Arlington. And it's really reflected in the work that you do as chief and the officers do below you. And it really makes me proud to when I see policing in other areas to see how we police in Arlington and it really should be commended. And I think a little more than it does get commended. So thank you. Thank you for your statement. Thank you for the acknowledgement and thank you for everything that you do. Thank you. And thank you to Mr. Hartman. All right. Mr. Hartman. Mr. Hartman. I'm not seeing the end. I'm just saying thank you chief for being on for coming. And yeah. kind of wonder why there's Mr. Hartman. I, I've gotten to know a number of officers who, you know, do the gym. But I've got a good sense of the character. even before I knew that they were police officers in and and and we and and more before I got became a member of the board and so so you kind of get to know people when you see them regularly at the genetic sense of their character you know man and yeah you don't know everything but you know me you know when you feel comfortable with people in and and so yeah I've always felt really comfortable with members of APD in and so me partly whenever things like this happen you feel badly for people in certain sectors because you know that they get taken with it and so I just really wanted a chance for you to let the community know what we do here in Arlington you know to provide you know for for a safe you know policing protective policing and as Mr. Helman said that Arlington Police Department are guardians of born warriors and I can also say for my work with you on the rape of commission being that you're held in really high esteem in many areas of the community and also know from the work that was done for the police civilian advisory board study committee you know that you and the department is held in high regard and it makes me happier that we have done the work being to create that police civilian advisory board because I think have we not mean and we were here now we would be wishing you know that we had kind of gone down that road but we have meaning we're getting ready to populate it and I think me hopefully there won't be other events like this but that would probably be the place that the community turns me for or some insights as to what you know police department is doing so thank you once again for taking the time to join us and take care thank you thank you all so next on the agenda we have the approval of sale of $190,000 in sewer bond dated February 27th 2023 to the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority for inflow and infiltration local financial assistance program we have Mr. Fowler, Interim Towne Man, Towne Treasurer yes nice to meet you all if you have any questions I'll try to answer them this is day three on the job so this is to approve $190,000 bond issue that was approved the town meeting a copy was included in your packet along with that there's a $570,000 grant that goes with it for total estimated project cost of $760,000 for water and sewer infiltration work within the town of Sharon the nice thing is it's an interest-free loan and a grant if any I don't know if anybody has any further questions or Mr. Hart welcome thank you no question and I wanted to point out Ashley was terrific she put up with me on Friday there were 10 pages of this missing she helped me put this whole thing together so we made it on the agenda so I wanted to publicly thank her thank you Mr. Chair I'd like to second it and just very briefly digress just a bit I welcome Mr. Fowler thank you appreciate you coming into the Treasurer's Office and I want to thank our town manager Mr. Pooler as well as our town Treasurer Mr. Fowler on a completely separate issue first week on the job regarding the parking meters out front yes that a lot of residents were very concerned about and I do appreciate the fact that the two of you and perhaps other staff met met so promptly discuss the issue and not only came up with a solution but also made sure you got it out to the proper venues and town website etc so I do appreciate that I'll other pick I one of my staff Sue's in pitched in and I would like to up the Chief Scott I was going to thank Corey at the police department who was terrific I spent about an hour with them on the phone we worked out a game plan I grabbed Sandy and within 15 minutes the few meters that was still working they were outside shutting them off they were all shut off before I left so everybody pitched in and got it done fairly quickly thank you and I just have one request and I talked briefly to the town manager about it something that maybe it wasn't new and I just never paid attention but it's my understanding that when someone wants to appeal a ticket there's a $5 charge could you look into that and let us know or let the town manager know to let us know if that is a new thing and do we really need that I don't believe it's new but I I did question my first day here when parking meters they one of the job we got two complaints the next day they were like for it was incremental I think it by today would be inundated with them they're my belief and I would defer to town council but I believe the charge the fight all the charges probably not appropriate according to prior rulings I've got from DOR and similar issues so if you could and I'll work with the town manager you know I'd like to get rid of that if it's not just we're so vigilant in terms of when we set fees for other things that the select board does so message delivered and that has nothing to do with you because your day three on the job but it really was a thank you for acting so promptly on that so thank you and I the residents were great too this started with a phone call from a resident who was upset but very polite and she actually gave me enough information that I could piece the rest of it together so it really was a group effort thank you thank you Mr. Chair for allowing me to digress no problem welcome you know so so on motion to approve the sale of the bonds by Mr. well first off let me check to see like other colleagues have any and they want to say our assets okay looks like we're all set to be so our motion to approve by the sale bonds we for one of nine dollars by Mr. Herring the second Mr. Heide yes yes yes yes yes yes thank you moving on item number five just the week near 2024 its own managers budget presentation we now turn to Tom Thank you Mr. Chair, I'm just going to wait till the slides so if you could go to the next slide just an overview of what I want to talk about talk about the general fund and how it fits in with a long-range plan and what we do and do not know about our long-range plan at this point what major changes and minor changes there are in the town's general fund budget and talk a little bit about FTEs in the budget. I'll then quickly go over the enterprise funds very quickly go over capital and then talk a little bit about some ongoing issues. So what you have in front of you on the screen now is the town's long-range plan as presented in the manager's budget that was presented to you members of the board and to the finance committee for consideration in preparation of the finance committee's report that will go to town meeting. It's the finance committee's report that town meeting will vote on and so this is a preliminary look at the budget as of February 15th. You can see that there is a 2.6 million dollar deficit projected for FY 25. If that deficit stays in place it would mean that we would probably need an override this coming spring. However that's not the end of that story I will say more about that in a second. Ashley if we could go to the next slide please. Thank you. Within the overall budget there are some things we know. We know for example that this year the town budget is going up 3.5%. I want to talk about that for just one second. Usually the town budget goes up 3.25% but because of differences in the way that we collect money for ambulance services where in the past about half of that money went into the ambulance revolving fund and half went into the general fund and now almost all of it goes into the general fund because of some changes that the fire department and Armstrong made in their billing arrangements and services. It meant that the town budget lost a little more than $100,000 in offsets. Those offsets usually help keep our increase down to 3.25%. So we lost the offsets but we gained more revenue in the general fund and so accordingly I've raised the town budget another quarter percent essentially to account for an accounting change and not have to make cuts in town services. The school budget overall is going up 5.3%. Capital will remain 5% of the overall budget. Our pension assessment is increasing 5.7% and we are using $357,092 of ARPA funds for various one-time positions, positions that are here in the budget only as long as we have ARPA funds. There are unknown things. One of the biggest of which is the Minuteman assessment. It's a 12.5% increase in the Minuteman assessment. This is partially due, as I've looked more into this, due to the fact that Arlington has the largest number of students at Minuteman and has been rising over the last few years. Although as I looked at it more actually that part of the assessment is actually comparative to last year gone down slightly. What's really, I think one of the things that's really going on is that the underlying Minuteman budget is going up 5% which is a larger increase than Minuteman has had in the last few years. I've reached out to them to ask some questions about that. We certainly, I know they've reached out to me to talk to the Finance Committee about it. That and the last of some of the capital increases mean a very almost a million dollar increase in Minuteman. We don't have a final number from Minuteman now so that's still a question. Health insurance right now is projected to go up 3.95%. We'll get the final assessments from the Group Insurance Commission at the end of this month and we'll see what that final number is. State aid in this budget is projected to go up 2.94%. I can already tell you that that's likely not correct. The assumption was that our unrestricted general government aid would go up 3% based on some of the preliminary numbers that I had heard at the Consensus Revenue Hearing and some of the things I'd heard from some of the people speaking at the Consensus Revenue Hearing. However, the governor has announced that the Consensus Revenue Increase is projected at 1.6%. That's a loss for us of just about $120,000 on UGA. So we know that now if the governor follows the previous governor's pattern of giving UGA increases at the same rate as the state revenue goes up. What we don't know is what chapter 70 school aid is going to be. That is a far bigger number. UGA, we get about $9 million. Chapter 70, we get a little over $16 million. So a percent increase in chapter 70 is just a bigger number. The governor said she will announce that before she announces the March 1st budget and we're still just all waiting to hear that. Similarly with what our assessments are, that's all tied into our budget. And then our offsets, again, those will change a little bit once we know what our health insurance numbers are. But they are usually up the same amount that the budget is up because they all kind of rise together. But as I mentioned, we lost a little over $100,000 in that area. So the offset number is up a smaller number. I would pause for just a second to ask if people have questions so far. Otherwise, I'm going to talk about what some of the override scenarios are. And certainly would be more than happy to answer any specific questions people have. But if there's anything I said that wasn't clear at this point. So in order for me to direct the conversation at this point, I'll need to stop this green share because that's the only way I can get my window to not be so tiny. I could just mention that Mr. Helmuth was the first to raise his hand. And Ms. Mahon raised her hand. Great. Thanks. So Ms. Helmuth. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Billard. How much confidence do we have in the school budget, particularly the special education costs that are projected for development next fiscal year? Any concerns that there being surprises there? No, I don't. I don't see so. I think the school department has been able to manage their special education costs in two ways. One is that they've moved as many kids as possible to be educated in-house as opposed to out placement. That saves a lot of money. And that's been a trend that they've been using for many years. The second is that they do have a Sped Reserve within the school department budget so that if in any one year their costs rise more than they anticipated, they can draw down from that reserve. It's sort of like our reserve fund. So I'm not worried nor have I heard concerns from them about that as a cost. Thank you. Ms. Mahon. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have two questions, both of which may not really be relevant. I'm sort of doing what I did on the treasurer's agenda item. If that's the case, if the town manager and or Chair of Long Range Planning Committee want to get me the information after the meeting, that's fine. The first one, which is definitely off the road, but do we know for Minuteman, besides that maintenance issue, which we spoke about at a previous meeting, so I won't go into that, but do we know or can we find out when Minuteman has its vocational opportunities outside of the mandated high school curriculum for adults for different trades? I've been following that. I've tried to go on their website to sort of get the graph breakdown of that, but they've been very successful as I would want them to be with that. To me, that raises the question of A in terms of those outside programs, which seem very robust. I've seen a lot where it's filled up. A is that a figure or numbers we can find out. If the answer is yes, but it's a really exhaustive cumbersome exercise, then I'm not asking for that, but the more important question is B, do any of those fundings go back in? Is it a separate fund for those monies or do some of it go back to? I'm trying to look at how we can offset Arlington's increasing costs to Minuteman, which eventually we do have to pay. I'm not disputing that, but just where they're really in a very good, unique, healthy, robust situation now with the new vocational school as well as the offerings that they're doing. It may be under state law that that's just a separate pot of money. If I'm not entitled to know what it is, that's fine. If it doesn't get to be applied, that's fine too. Then I have a new blood pressure pill. It's the generic and they said dry throat, so it is. It's nothing else. Sorry. The other thing is enough for tonight because I don't think it's, I've been following what we get in the MMA bulletins as well as the MMA's partners finance committee. I know there's preliminary discussions on the recent ballot question that passed that people know as the millionaire's tax. I understand that it's not completely defined except for it only has two specific purposes under the vote that it can be dedicated to. I don't anticipate I can get an answer tonight because we just don't know, but whenever we start getting to the point that we hear enough from either mass association of finance committees, MMA, and the mass mayor's association, whatever in terms of what that could mean to Arlington in the two specific areas that it could be applied to, what that does moving forward. Then on the health insurance, do you anticipate Mr. Manager that the 395 is really kind of in the ballpark in terms of what we should expect or is there something that you've heard whispers of or maybe see down the road that that could be a number that I dealt will go down? But if I could, Mr. Chair. Yes, it is. I will have to look into and get back to you on the minute man costs and on the millionaire's tax. The estimate that came out at the consensus revenue hearing was that they thought that during 2024 they would bring in approximately $1.6 billion from that. They really haven't started collecting much of it because the state collects it only once you have earned a million dollars. So maybe Jason Tatum is starting to pay that now because, but if you're on the red socks, I don't know when you get paid. Maybe it's not until the spring. So I know they are anticipating collecting the money this year and I do not think that Arlington will see into that money until FY 25. And then furthermore, I have not seen any breakdown as between education and transportation or town or city by city numbers. So we are all eagerly awaiting that. And then on the health insurance, the composite rate increase that GIC announced back in end of December, early January was a 6.8% increase. We had raised all of our rates in this budget and earlier than that by 5%. But it really makes a difference which plans people take. So I don't know if our people are taking the plans on the higher end or the lower end, because we don't know the specific rates for each of the plans yet. We just know the composite number. So I think there is a chance that our health insurance budget will go up more than was in this budget. But by how much? I won't know until we see the numbers. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I continue on with the presentation if that's all right with you. Sure. Thank you. Thank you. I also ran a scenario under which we would not need an override this spring. And again, these numbers are preliminary. They will become final once we see the state budget. But under this scenario, there are basically three factors this year and next year that would affect whether we need an override this spring. One is that if we have new growth of a million dollars for FY24, that new growth is for things that were already built by this last January 1st or things that are being built between now and June 30th, such as the development at MIRAC. I've been told by the assessor that we already have, he already knows of $750,000 worth of new growth that he can count on. And that doesn't include things that are in the ground being built now. It also does not include information from the state about the personal property or the wires and so forth from various utilities. So I would say we will know more about that as the year goes along. It is in line with what our new growth has been in the last few years, so I think it's not unreasonable number. The second figure is a 7.1% increase in Chapter 78. That would give us about $1.2 million in Chapter 78, which is about the same as we got for the current year, FY23. We do know that our enrollment increase for this year, 108 students, was larger than what we had for when we put together the FY23 budget that was 96 students. So if we are still getting credit for enrollment increases at the same numbers that we have in the past, if there is Student Opportunity Act funding that's continued along the same pattern that we've had, and in the future, I think, if that millionaire's tax kicks in. I think for FY24, a $1.2 million increase in State Aid is not, in Chapter 78 is not unreasonable, and then for FY25, a 5% increase, which would be, you know, 600, 700,000 somewhere in that range. So all of which is to say, I think we are very close to what needing or not needing an override this spring. We don't have the final numbers yet. Long Range Planning Committee is meeting a week from this coming Friday, so we will update them some. And as we get more information from the State, we will share with the Long Range Planning Committee and certainly share with the Board. I would just finally point out, next slide please, Ashley. In your packet, you can see a number of different scenarios. The first is assuming that we have a $2.6 million deficit, and what size override we would have either in June of 2023 or June of 2024, each override lasting two, three, four, or five years, and varying from one as low as $1.4 million, which would just get us through two years of budgets, and then we'd need another one. That would be a small override, about $102 per average single-family home, versus if we waited a year, it's still having a deficit, and we wanted a big five-year override. That would be a $1387 per single-family home override, a $19 million override, certainly the largest in the State's history. If there is zero deficit, these scenarios to the right, we don't need any override for the next two years, and then the numbers sort of fall out in terms of the amount of the override, either this June or next June, both in the dollar amount, a percent of the levy, and the tax implication for a single-family home. All these numbers will change. These are snapshots in time, but I wanted to give them to you so you have some sense of where things stand. I will just close my remarks by making a few comments about the enterprise fund budgets. The water and sewer budget right now is expected to go up 3.89% with the water and sewer budget. We are using retained earnings, or in other words, the free cash in the water and sewer budget, to pay for the debt service for the new DPW building, the part of it that water and sewer owes, so that that debt service this year, and I think for the next couple of years, won't hit the rates. Recreation has an almost 17% increase. That's really because the expansion of more and more programs as well. Recreation is not able to do a lot more things. Rink is similar in that regard. Transportation shows a 34% decrease, not because there's any decrease in the transportation services that we offer for vans to the seniors to go to the community center, but because last year, for one year, we tried listing a staffer who's always been in the budget. We decided that just confused things. We took a route again, so it looks like there's a dip in that budget, but in fact, the level of services will continue. And AYCC, 11% increase. Again, we do see increased service demands. We have been hiring more staffers there. They are really paid for by the insurance reimbursements for the children that they treat. And that is one of those situations. If the kids show up and we use the staffers, we have the costs and we get the money. If for some reason they don't, we don't need to bring those staffers in. They're on a call basis. So I'm not worried about that, even though it's a big increase. With that, I'm going to conclude my remarks and be happy to answer any further questions people have about the budget. Okay, so now please drop the screen share. It's like everyone can see you on the large screen, large window. Thank you. Questions? Mr. Corsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Coulter, for the presentation and for the summer and as members and the public can hear with the unknowns that still exist that hopefully we'll find out a few more things in the next month. Things will become a little bit clearer, but we are at a point that if it's not this June, unless the state aid figures come through, maybe we squeeze another year out of it, it's either this spring or next spring for the override. And Mr. Coulter had showed us the potential scenarios in terms of if you wait, the ask is much greater and it's much in dollars and as a percent of the levy and we've never had a successful override with an ask greater than nine percent of the levy and that was only back in 2006 when an override failed the year before. The last override we had of 5.5 million dollars was 4.7 percent of the levy and that fits into some of the three-year scenario of a June 23 override as well as in between the three and four years on the fiscal 24. So I think in talking at Long Range Planning and talking to Mr. Poole and to the chair, we thought it was important to get this out on the table to all of the members and to the public and you can also see some areas of concern here that we may want to look into a bit more and Mr. Poole mentioned Minuteman and for me Minuteman is we appoint Mr. Poole and it may make sense to bring him in just to give us an update as to what's happening particularly with the search for new members to the Minuteman district. It used to be 16 members and it came down. It is now nine members and part of the structure of Minuteman we have a weighted vote now so we have more of a say at school committee because we're such a big percentage of the overall enrollment. However as our enrollment has gone up years ago what we're hoping is our enrollment would go up with a new school but the other members and new members coming in would grow the same or greater than what our growth is and at least in the short term that's not happening but I know this discussion of increasing the capacity of the school and I think whether it's through a subcommittee or whether it's at a meeting here it makes sense to have him in to talk to us and perhaps coordinate with the finance committee too because they do meet with Minuteman from year to year believe Miss LaCorte is the Minuteman representative on their subcommittee. So that one to me since 2019 is really striking in terms of the five year plan back in 2019 called for three and a half percent growth in Minuteman's assessment each year and it's been nearly double digits every year and it's understandable in a lot of instances because in the short term we're still going to be a large part of it but it's a major concern going forward in terms of what happens there and I'm giving more comments and questions but I want to thank you again for the presentation and for continuing to provide leadership in terms of providing numbers, scenarios and ultimately a recommendation at some point in the near future. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Of course and actually I have a question for you so would you like to have Mr. Rudiment a conversation with them before we make the decision about whether to do a right? I think it's independent I mean because I think just to get a better understanding as to what some of the goals are and what's being done both in terms of new members and allocating capital costs for what few non-member communities are still involved up in a minute, man. Gotcha, no because that would affect the timing of when we try to have them meet with us or with some committees so that's why I ask. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Alex? I'm Mr. Mohan. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Just trying to sort of put a time picture on it. Does the town manager and or the long-range planning committee do you have, we're all about dates, cut-offs in decision so in terms of the override strategy, decision not strategy, the override decision and this may be something that you're discussing in a week from Friday but is there a date you anticipate say March 1st, March 15th, March 30th that you would say at this point that this is where the window closes because the state budget numbers do change all the time but there's a point where okay we're pretty close so is there a date or will you be discussing what that date is in terms of when we're going to say okay this is what we know from everything we're going to get especially from the state this is the date that we're going to say okay we're going to stop and call it here and stop moving forward as well as if there were a spring override vote in June is there a date again, to me March seems to be or is that something you're going to discuss at the next long-range planning meeting that a, okay come March 1st, March 15th, March 31st or some other date that's going to be it where we stop the clock and that's what we're going to see and that's what we're going to make the decision on knowing that those are the numbers and is the override this spring with the vote in June of this year is the override next spring with the vote in June of 2024 and if that can't be answered tonight that's fine but if I may, Mr. Chair? Yes, yes, go ahead. So at our last meeting we scheduled two long-range planning committee meetings one in February to continue the exactly the kind of discussions that you mentioned and then one in early March once the governor's budget came out to make some final decisions so I think all those questions are subject to conversations among the long-range planning committee. I also think even though and this is outside of my realm of responsibility or involvement we have to have some sense of what people out there in the community what committees are forming or would be ready to form on a timely enough basis to actually run a campaign. Again that is something that members of the long-range planning committee have some awareness of more than I do but it's an important issue and I know we'll be seeing that in one of those two meetings too. So I think those are the timelines. We'll have final numbers for sure by March 1st on the governor's budget and then make I think a decision soon thereafter. I'm not going to hold you to any dates because I know that but just to get a framework it's a pretty good bet that probably. So okay thank you. Thank you Mr. Chair. Move receipt of the town manager's twenty twenty four budget. Okay. Second. Second. Second. Mr. Helmets. Any other questions coming. All right so on a motion to receive the town manager's budget invited to behind a second by Mr. Helmets. Mr. Han. Mr. Heard. Yes. Mr. Corsi. Yes. Mr. Helmets. Yes. Mr. Han. Yes. Mr. Dickens. Yes. Mr. Heard. Yes. Okay, we're moving on to the consent agenda. So we have the minutes of meetings. January 9th twenty twenty three January 23rd twenty three and January twenty twenty three twenty twenty three twenty twenty three emergency addendum. We also have the Arlington Public Art Youth Band Initiative on Mass App in Arlington Center from April 1st to May 31st this year. We also have Black Black History Month Banners. We also have reappointments of Paul Paravano, Disability Commission Terms Expire on January 31st, 2026. Susan Rime-Ballmer of the LGBTQIA Plus Rainbow Commission Terms Expire on January 31st, 2026. And Monique Newberg also of the LGBTQIA Plus Rainbow Commission Terms Expire on January 31st, 2026. Number 10, a request. Contracted drain layer license, MC Mesa construction corporation, the render, the freight fees, a Broadway Street Peabody Mass Zero One license. So, um, can I get a motion? Move approval. Second. Okay, motion, okay, so a motion by this behind and a second by this is heard. So, I know that we have either Sarah Gurney or Stuart and or Stuart Ikeana here to speak for a minute or two on the Arlington Public Youth Banner Initiative. We will likely have them back at later meeting, you know, to talk a little bit more about these banners. So whichever one of you wants to go first. I'll go first and I will be very brief because I know you have important work to do tonight. Just a lot of it, not more than just a lot. So, yeah, I'm here on behalf of the Commission for Arts and Culture just to thank and introduce our dedicated coordinator of this year's Youth Banners Initiative, Sarah Gurney. And thank the sponsoring Gracie James Family Foundation, our APS partners and this year's judges, but also specifically to thank the Select Board for supporting the use of public banner space like this. What might in some towns be considered mainly an advertising platform here in Arlington has become a communal space that reflects and spotlights the creativity and the cultural values of our community. Whether it's the Youth Artist Banners or the AHRC's Black History Month Banners coming up next or other expressive and educational uses. So I just want to thank the Select Board for its ongoing support and hand it over to Sarah. Sarah. Thank you so much for this time. I'm Sarah Gurney. I'm the Arlington Youth Banner Initiative coordinator. I'm here to propose the installation of the 22 banners in Arlington Center in April and May. This would be 20 banners of youth art and two banners of signage. This is the eighth season of the Youth Banner Initiative that was created in memory of Arlington Public School student Gracie James. Her family has continued to generously fund this project. This year the theme is Connections. The new Arlington Public School visual arts director has helped lead this project by managing submissions and art judging. We had 150 submissions and seven judges including Arlington Public School art department staff and two local artists and a Select Board member selected 20 winning artworks for banners. We have four middle schoolers and 16 high school students who were chosen and I can quickly show you the banners here. That was what we were going to say for later. Oh okay sorry about that okay yeah so we'll give you give you a lot more time all right no problem okay just what I did introduce yeah great with the idea that happened so great right so so thanks so thank you welcome Ian it's a great it's a great event you know great thing that you're doing right yeah um any other comments and questions from our colleagues all righty so on our motion to approve the consent agenda by Mr. Mahan and a second by Mr. Hurd Mr. Mr. Hurd yes Mr. of course yes uh Mr. Helman yes this is Mahan yes Mr. Diggins yes yes okay sorry about that okay we next have so except on the usual circumstances any matter presented or for consideration of the board shall neither be active on nor decision made the night of the presentation in accordance with the policy under which the open forum was established it should be noted that there is a three-minute time limit to present a concern or request so I just want to say that we're going to have um potentially two open forums tonight you know if you and we also have a hearing you know for the cdbg request and so if your comments relates to anything regarding cdbg please wait until the hearing you know and because we're going to have a second before I wanted to limit this uh to 15 minutes and so um Mr. Mayor can we have any hands up three all right Mr. Chairman someone in the in the room as well does their hand up okay so so then um let's take um Laurie Leahy Shona Markey's Rebecca Peterson and then the person in the room and that'll be it for this first forum Laurie oh I'm sorry I didn't realize you were meeting for me no I had to call you I had no I just call you as mine to wait for you to smile until it gets a call okay um I'm sorry my screen just am I okay so so now you can speak sorry okay Laurie Leahy I'm a town meeting member I am from precinct 21 and earlier today I wrote a an email to all of you um I realized I think I missed the deadline so I thought that I would just take a moment to kind of speak to my letter I won't read the whole thing but it's about the potential overnight parking ban removal pilot um so is that okay that I talk about that now yeah we have two minutes and a half to talk about what we want great thank you so much um so some of my I I'm kind of late catching up on the details of this but I did have a lot of questions um and so I'm going to go through my letter and just read those questions out loud in no particular order um so I think the first question I have is what is what is prompting um this ban or this pilot is it that you have collected a lot of complaints from residents or is it that you are trying to see if it's okay to permanently do away with the band so that the to further the some of the master plan agendas like specifically from more density and and less parking so um if it's the first one based on complaints my questions are um how historically has data been collected um about complaints and do we know what the complaints are if that information is being collected do we know that it's people don't like cannon parking that people are not told by landlords um that they don't have any parking available to them is it that too many cars for their driveway and where in town are the majority of the complaints or or those different types of complaints occurring um uh let's see is there a clear is is it clear what the select board is is what questions are trying to be answered by this pilot I haven't seen that written anywhere like exactly what we're trying to find out um how will the pilot be funded what are the expected costs of enforcement and additional staff if needed um um will this information that is collected from the pilot be made public and then lastly the timing of the pilot I saw that it was going to start in the spring and go over the summer which I would like to urge that you reconsider that given that during the winter when we do have snow after a snow event there's lots of snow in the street that takes up parking spots and makes it difficult to get out of your driveway and seems like would be a more realistic time to gather information about how a a lifting of the band would it work also um doing it over the summer as every summer I've been here June July and August are really kind of ghost towns it's a kind of a ghost town here like everyone leaves so it wouldn't really I feel like that would really skew the data um also the mechanism for people to be able to get back about the night okay so we'll be having more time for input on this right thank you thank you so um next this matter sorry I couldn't quite hear that if I up yes thank you um so good evening I'm Sean Markey and I live on I live with my husband and two kids on Gray Street at Churchill and I'm also a safety professional by trade so I'm here to share my concerns about pedestrian safety on Gray Street so the stretch of gray between Jason and Highland has no stop signs crosswalks or speed bumps yet it stretches alongside one of our most popular green spaces Monotomy Rocks Park entrance to the park at the base of Churchill and Valley is also a very convenient entry point for pedestrians Gray Street is also a very popular bypass for Mass Ave being a straight shot from the center to the heights and it can get very busy during commuter hours so this past Thursday morning my six-year-old son was almost hit by a car as we were negotiating traffic crossing Gray Street to get to our bus stop so every morning I wait until I don't see any approaching cars and then we run across the street last week my daughter jogged across the street and my son lagged behind I stood in the middle of the road yelling to get his attention as cars started approaching again so the cars were coming I went back to wait with my son but he darted out thinking it was still safe we were incredibly lucky that the approaching driver was paying attention so they sprung up and stopped just inches from my son if that driver was one of the many drivers that speed down gray my son would have most likely been killed so hills near Churchill and Endicott on Gray Street really limit visibility for cars, cyclists and pedestrians we've tried crossing Gray Street at different points trying the best combination of line of sight and visibility while also trying to avoid the areas of the road that don't have any sidewalks and we try waiting for cars to stop in both directions but they rarely stop we'll stand in the middle of the road expecting cars to slow down while our kids cross you'd be shocked by the number of cars that continue to speed towards us forcing us to run so we started calling the police in 2017 with concerns about speeding and sometimes a police car will park at the corner of Churchill and Gray but in the safety world we call that an administrative control and it's not nearly as effective as engineering controls like speed bumps so we really need to slow down cars on this road but we also need to ensure that they're safe and clearly marked crossing locations that are available for pedestrians in this heavily trafficked area after a recent tragic death summerville over hauling street they installed protected bike lanes raised crosswalks and pedestrian refuge islands so I ask us to look at our neighboring towns to see what they've done um based on the responses that I've received from board members so far I thank you for your time appreciate it thank you welcome so next we have here's that's Peterson I'm sorry I think it may have been someone else who was asked to speak it wasn't me okay okay and so um so if it wasn't you then maybe it was Steve Ward I did see three people I'm here I'm Rebecca Peterson is it my turn yes okay thank you so much um so Rebecca Peterson Florence Ave and I just had some thoughts I wanted to share about the overnight parking band and the proposed pilot um I know that two thirds of residents voted to keep the ban in place in 2013 and I really do feel like this ban keeps the streets free of permanently parked cars but it also contributes to safety to cleanliness to more reasonable car insurance rates and it just maintains our semi suburban field I used to live in a neighboring town that had a parking band part of the year as soon as it ended the very first morning at 7 a.m. cars would appear on the streets and not move until the ban took effect again in late fall it's made it really difficult to drive around very hard for our friends and visitors who might just be coming over for dinner to find a spot anywhere near our house and would often have people blocking our driveway who were you know parking inconsiderately the parking van is one of the reasons we bought a house in Arlington so we don't have to deal with that you know I don't want to try to find someone whose bumper is overhanging my driveway at 7 a.m. so I'm concerned also that the pilot is going forward when it seems like so many residents are opposed to it and I'm not sure that all of the aspects of the pilot have been thought through I know that Laurie mentioned uh the seasonal seasonal aspect of it you know what we don't have any winter data if we're doing the the ban in the summer is does this mean that the parking ban will only potentially be lifted in the nice weather and not in the winter um and while I support the overnight parking ban I do feel like that the current ban is very loosely enforced I don't see anything in the pilot that addresses enforcement of the proposed rules there's a study linked on the agenda website for tonight's meeting and it quotes um several studies that the Boston Region MPO technical memorandum put out and multiple studies are saying that you know fewer parking regulations leads to more cars I think there's about three studies in that document that's linked that says that so what's going to happen when people have more cars or leave their cars on the street all the time because they can and then my last point is that the town has been pushing a lot of measures in the past few years that increased density and reduced green space and developers have been allowed in a couple of recent projects to put fewer parking spaces in the projects so if the overnight parking ban is removed then people's personal property i.e. their cars are going to be stored on town streets so why would the town on one hand say we want to reduce parking minimums in new development to encourage mass transit or biking or walking but then at the same time they want to allow everyone to park on the street and make the location and the storage of these personal vehicles everyone else's problem so um i i just wanted to say that i feel like getting rid of the ban will make Arlington more congested and much less enjoyable to live in thank you thank you and so i do not have the name of this in the room but it is now that versus time sweet uh bob ridotia columbia road um i recently did a survey online and i'm not good at doing surveys online i'll tell you that up front but um one of the other questions had something to do what are some of your concerns and are related to traffic and things like that and i i tried to make a comment but i couldn't get the comment through and as a person that walks my dog often it can't help but note often you see cars driving excessively fast uh and saying well why what's the hurry where are you going what are you doing and i don't know how many years it was maybe um six eight years ago i came before the select man and the only one that was here i think was diane the rest of you are all in school doing something else i don't know i'm old you're old okay so you're here and i was concerned about the traffic and issues and um driving through some of all at the time i noticed i'm going through over speed bumps everywhere and i mentioned it here i said why aren't we looking into something like that just to slow it down and the answer was well the fire trucks couldn't get through the snow plows wouldn't be able to work they've been working in somerville and cambridge and the bumps they're not radical bang bumps they're 15 miles an hour over the thing but it slows you down and there are many streets in allington that could use a few slow down bumps slow easy going um you look up the heights you got park have it can be excessive at times flaunt's have and uh on the other one going down gray street park have extension on the other side farra street there's people moving on those streets all the time and a couple of speed bumps once in a while bring them down no big deal down at somerville i in fact they're putting in more on side streets there's one side street i go down every day there are four or five of them and it's not any longer than cleveland street and what are they doing they're doing it down there and they're controlling it i think we ought to be looking at it particularly in areas around playgrounds and schools just slow them down before they get to that point so i'm in favor of it uh speed bumps um i think can go a long way to cure in the problem and uh i don't think check with some of them find out how they get over the humps when they're going to a fire you know they they get there and they do manage to plow the streets and they do a pretty good job of that so just a thought for the future when you get around to that subject sometime thank you and thank you the reason i came here to do it is i feel bad for you sitting in an empty room and you're looking out at well you do have some people tonight but often there's nobody there and there's nothing like being on stage with no audience all right so i appreciate it thank you thank you and so so that now ends the first open forum we are moving on to item number 11 uh cdpg performance update for program year 2022-2023 and that will be with mary musinski community development block grant administrator good evening i'm mary musinski the community development block grant administrator with the department of planning and community development uh tonight i have two agenda items to review with the board first is the cdbg mid-year report and summary of applications for the up and then summary of applications for the upcoming program year and afterwards um during the public hearing the sub recipient sub representatives will present an overview of their program year 49 applications brief overview um just to get started this is the town's 48th consecutive year receiving HUD funding we are currently in year three of our five-year consolidated plan period um there are a wide range of uses that benefit arlington residents especially households with law low and moderate incomes over a million dollars has been allocated to affordable housing public parks and infrastructure public services and economic development activities this year some of the highlights from the mid-year report by category include for affordable housing projects the housing corporation of arlington is using grant funds carried over from previous years to continue capital improvement projects to their affordable housing portfolio arlington housing authority began their large capital improvement projects at the hauser building at drake village and at mid-year their fire alarm upgrade project is on schedule keratoss communities project has have been delayed due to staff turnover and supply chain issues capital improvements are forthcoming with contractor procurement underway as of december 2022 and public service activities uh most of our sub recipients provide public services to the community all are on track to accomplish their goals by the end by the program year's end notably fidelity houses monotony and manner outreach program has exceeded their goal for the year and the boys and girls club scholarship program has met their goal for the number of households served 443 residents have benefited from programming so far this year which is 38 of the goal reached by mid-year these numbers are a little lower mid-year than than usual council on aging's adult day health accomplishments will be reported with q3 and the boys and girls club swim safety program is scheduled to start in april so those accomplishments will be reported with q4 um for public facilities and improvements uh some public facilities projects have faced delayed timelines due to recent upheaval in the construction industry which has impacted costs and necessitated additional planning nonetheless all are moving forward dpw reported constructing 48 ada compliant curb ramps wintermore park ada accessibility improvements have been completed the final plantings and landscaping should be completed this spring food links generation generator project has been expanded to include other small related small scale projects to complete the fit out of the facility and their solar panel project is underway and the recreation department has completed the parment or playground renovation for planning administration uh which is our final category um dpcd has participated in a number of cdbg funded projects recently planning studies began to to update the model of the millbrook corridor that informs decision making about flooding and infrastructure improvements and our envision arlington's annual town survey has been released and will be available for residents to take until march first that concludes a portion of my mid-year report um if there are no questions about current cdbg activities i'll move on to the second cdbg agenda item which is program year 49 funding requests i've been talking to my colleague and see if there are any questions about mid-year none and yes we can move on thank you thank you so in recent years arlington has received an entitlement grant of just over one million and we plan to receive a grant of this size again for program 49 we estimate that the program income for the upcoming year will not be more than 20 000 program income funds have been trending downward as a number of remaining arlington home rehab loans decrease grant awards will be budgeted accordingly we received 21 applications that were submitted this year including new and returning applicants and projects the full application portfolio was included with the meeting materials we received requests for six new projects this year including for public services arlington center for the arts scholarship program arlington center for the arts program at housing authority locations and housing corporation of arlington's application for a civic engagement quarter in major position and then under public facilities and improvements robins robins library accessible restroom renovation arlington veterans memorial park and the zero waste committee's application for arlington on tap water bottle filling stations the department of planning and community development requests for funding includes cdbg program administration a portion of the plan salaries while working on cdbg related activities as well as objectives for program year 49 which include long-range planning for housing and related studies to help in the creation and preservation of affordable housing and minimize and minimize displacement and to conduct analyses to provide recommendations for the following plans connect arlington net zero action plan the affordable housing action plan the housing production plan and to begin development of the master plan update process so the next steps the application process include cdbg subcommittee meetings to review the applications and draft the budget recommendation for the board's approval thank you for your time i'm happy to answer any questions and then i'd like to request return the public hearing to allow cdbg applicants to share a brief overview of their proposals thank you so i'll turn to my colleagues any questions at this point mrs. mahan thank you mr chair um when after tonight and we do the next step of the cdbg subcommittee meeting um will we use the same framework in matrices as we have in the past meaning that besides every subcommittee member receiving the application um there was like a three or four page scoring yes for each project as well as um we didn't get it with the half year report so going forward if we could get traditionally in the past when we've gotten the half year report we also see the dollar amounts amount allocated you know 120 000 amounts spent to date half year and we have the same thing at cdbg usually three to four years um previous so that we can look at and we did make a decision i believe it was last year um it might have been the weatherization program or perhaps a year before where they had consistently been asking for six figures um and we had those numbers that we could see three years ago they asked for 250 immigrants granted two years ago they asked for 200 000 immigrants granted this year they're asking for 150 000 and that helped us make the decision to say we're we're going to stop funding that and uh the planning department looked into and saw that uh they didn't have the necessary uh sort of ducks in a row to accept the money so that what it did was when the cdbg subcommittees really making some people might say hey it's only a million dollars and you know the town budget depending on who you talk to is 90 to 120 130 million but it's like a really important million dollars especially when you're looking at some of the programs as you know that are 10 000 15 000 so very long question to say um when the cdbg subcommittee meets um will we and i'm open to doing something different that um makes the best use to everybody's time so i'm not saying we can't change anything but um are we going to have if not sort of the same information as we have before we're going to have the same information in the same format or the same information in a different format i plan to have it in the same format um but i wasn't sure about that five was it the five-year history that you were looking for so i'll be more than happy to you know absolutely that's very important information yeah if you could check with um was it miss malry sullivan if you could just say what she would do was um we wouldn't get it before the cdbg sub you know the packet that we got just had the applications and had sort of that scoring card for each um application but then when we had the actual meeting she would pull up through whatever technology um a spreadsheet so that the subcommittee could look at because traditionally i'm going to say 75 to 85 percent their projects were familiar with so we can look at that historical data every now and then there's something new and then that's a separate discussion so what she would do is say okay you know um she'd pull up each one when we got to boys and girls club we got to dpw curb cuts she'd pull it up and we could see that what the trend was for for some reason i want to say it went back as far as five years but maybe not but it was definitely least three so if you could just check with that and that really was helpful in terms of managing our time and when we were making those uh nail biting decisions um to to do that and traditionally there's been at least two meetings because um invariably after the first meeting even though we technically have everything before us and and mr. herd is also on the committee and i apologize for monopolizing played monopoly with my grandson this weekend monopolizing the time but um invariably after that first meeting when we're making those decisions that you know oh this is really difficult we have anywhere from two no more than four or five questions to the planning department saying can you go back to the weatherization program we noticed this trend um they haven't spent at the previous two years for 350 000 now you know can you go back to uh i should make up a name the gray paint swimming program and do they really need the 50 or and some and stuff like that so and very there's at least two meetings um and i'm not trying to make extra meetings anyone who knows me i always say i'm allergic to subcommittees so um but but i also respect the process in having the meeting so long way around that um thank you and welcome i don't mean to do all this to you but uh and also you know i have said to um a few i think at least one of the new subcommittee members but perhaps not all um just because of opera funding in the cares act we did meet um more than traditionally the one cdbg so i don't anticipate that there'll be a cares act or additional opera but there may be on the opera so um one of the things that i think is really beneficial is whenever you get if it happens that oh it looks like there's going to be something coming from the federal government um the soonest um and i'm not saying my colleagues on the subcommittee meeting don't follow the u.s treasury department and the federal government and all the different extra fundings that come out but um if as soon as you see that coming up uh if you could just do an email blast to everybody even if it's just to say it's a possibility it may not happen but if it does you know please be prepared in june august october so because we had at least two extra meetings um the cares act and some opera funding so that's it thank you very much thank you mr chair you're welcome mr mr corcy thank you mr chairman yeah i just briefly want to thank you mr musinski for the presentation but also welcome you congratulate you on your appointment as a cdbg administrator and then you just started the beginning of january and thank you for your efforts today thank you thank you of course anything else all right you know so uh and so i was just following on a little bit this amount with with my colleague this behind instead of about me in process so um she's made it clear to me that in the past there have been uh a longer hearing you know um and so so um i think that might be a good idea to do this year as well so i was one people who are in the meeting and who want to speak and to keep in mind that we may very well we have another hearing where more people can say more and so so um with that i mean i turn it back to this musinski i just want to thank the board very much thank you you don't want to say oh mrs mahan you don't look that old oh you're not old no i'm only kidding and then um can we now open the public hearing for um comments brief comments i'm just yes i'm gonna enable people to raise hands i'm not sure who's here to speak other than the people that are sitting in front of me so there's a number of people in the room that are here to speak but there's also i'm sure people on the zoom land that would like to speak so and mr chairman could perhaps we maybe stop with the people who are in the room and then um once you clear that go to the people joining us hybrid by zoom yes and so i was an impression that maybe some of the present there were going to be some on people present you know on given projects or topics so they can come up in whatever order they want all thank you thank you mr chair thank you members of the committee i'm anna litten director of libraries here in arlington and i'm very grateful to be able to share information tonight with you on the robbins library accessible restroom renovation grant application robbins library is a community gathering spot for all in our community each week we're open 63 hours to the public and welcome almost 20 000 visitors to our library every month our visitors range in age from toddlers and strollers to older adults using mobility devices our goal is to serve every single member of the community who steps through our doors with dignity compassion and the best library services possible robbins library's original building dates back to 1892 in 1994 as part of the library's major addition project two public restrooms were added to the first floor these restrooms are still the only public restrooms for the first second and third floors of the libraries our restrooms do not meet current american with disability act requirements toilets are not appropriately spaced from walls churning radius space is not adequate to accommodate a wheelchair the town's 2019 ADA transition plan calls out the robbins library restrooms specifically as an area for improvement on page three of the transition plan includes the following the robbins library is another example of a facility that provides access to most programs yet the facility lacks an assistive listening system in the community room and fully accessible toilet rooms which many individuals with mobility disabilities require in 2019 the library added assistive hearing technologies in the community room funded by library state aid this grant request seeks to address a stated need and bring the library restrooms into ADA compliance this grant request for a hundred and fifty two thousand dollars under the public facilities and improvements category gives better access to town facilities to anyone who might need an accessible restroom due to disability accident injury or age we hope the cdb grant committee supports town and library goals by funding this grant request and creating accessible spaces for all who visit our beautiful and vital library i look forward to answering questions from the subcommittee at a later date thank you hey stranger hello my name is lisa urban um i work at fidelity house and the youth program director um first of all i want to thank you guys for your support for the kids of our community over the years and also thank you for being able to meet in person i'm not a remote person up there and uh i'm so happy to just be able to meet up with you guys um and of course i'm asking for two programs that we run every year but um they're so necessary so i think it's important that i come here and you put a name with the program and um if you ever get the fidelity house and see it you'd you'd see the kids names with the program but we are asking for a manami manner um outreach program which includes summer camp which is a huge component of it um and then the school year program where right now we're just doing an onsite program onsite there and then also um scholarships so that the kids can use our programs memberships you know when they come to fidelity house um we're trying to be as inclusive as possible so that kids can use that program whatever works best for them and uh to be honest with the transportation is a key one for that program um but we use the cdbg money mainly for the summer scholarships uh it probably funds 21 percent of our the program that we run and then our um other program is for youth that we hire that work with the kids and uh have had a huge impact on the kids that work at fidelity house it the program is beneficial to the kids it's definitely beneficial to fidelity house but it's also beneficial to the kids that come to fidelity house um so i'm hoping you support us again this year and welcome back to regular meetings and thank you any questions i know you like to keep it short and sweet thank you thank you thank you welcome and we do that all night sorry i've promoted all of the people into okay okay i thought maybe there's another person in the room to speak no we're all set so we're set with people in the room okay great so so then uh maybe you have the order um which you put them in you know so so um let's um bring them up in and speak so do you have an order yep absolutely um hi everybody my name is kimberley sarah um i am here to speak about operation success um previously janet moire was running it and she's phasing into retirement so i'm the new face um it's been running for 24 years and we're just hoping that we can get the fund to continue to run it so for those of you that don't know it's an academic assistance program that we offer to middle and high school students that live in monotony manner so it is open monday through thursday night from 7 to 8 30 p.m and is staffed with all volunteer teachers and community members um and primarily we're asking for money for school supplies to give to the students both at the beginning of the year to make sure that they're set up for success and then to replenish them as the year goes on and anything that we need to help them with their homework while they're working with us each night um previously before covid we'd have somewhere between i think it was like 15 and 25 students each night and we shut down during the covid year um so our numbers are a little bit lower than they previously were but we are slowly growing our program every year uh we reopened last year and had about i think five students showing up um consistently now we have about nine showing up consistently um and really just trying not only to make it so that they have no like supply issues with finding success in their academics um but we're also instilling good study habits with them and we're just creating really good community bonds i'm actually a teacher at the oddison and i see these kids from time to time in the hallway and it's just a good way to make connections um so we are asking for five thousand dollars for school supplies to service what we are hoping to be 15 to 20 students next year as we slowly continue to grow um and we came up with that number that's what we usually have been asking for pre covid but just to think about it in the way that all um the inflation has gone up for everything and if you have kids think about all the money that you spend on school supplies when you bring them at the beginning of the year to get stuff but then also to replenish throughout the year um so it breaks down sort of that way for us um and we're hoping just to continue to grow the project and keep it going um i know janet wanted to say hi and thank you to everyone that has been supporting this program for years um and yeah thank you and also hi len um thanks for talking to the eighth graders a couple weeks ago i know they found it really helpful oh that was wonderful that was really wonderful and it was all remote and it was all wonderful so i know that yeah i know a lot of people who want any person all about that but us remote people we have a good time to reconnect be very strongly so great you know thank you you know thank you everybody so next hi hi erica thanks for having me i um put in two requests so i'll try to be brief and not overstay my welcome um the and one was for housing related capital projects the other was a social services request um so to start with the um capital request for our housing we've requested funding again um as we have in past years to support capital repairs at our buildings we do have capital reserve funds but um the cost of construction the cost of materials has not kept up with how those capital reserves have grown and in particular we have 70 of our units are in our scattered site portfolio so they're in smaller buildings of two to nine units that we have acquired over many different years on different schedules you know these are like Victorian two families and the cost to maintain those is just challenging there's there's no uniformity in that right now um so the money from the town has been really essential in helping us sort of maintain the integrity of our buildings and maintain these buildings um and to supplement our capital reserves so we're requesting $200,000 again this year actually i think we did not request anything last year i think in our executive director transition and some transitions we didn't do that last year um and it'll support us in doing things like new roofs new windows upgrading bathrooms new railings that kind of thing next year we do plan to do a capital needs assessment and one of the things i'm hoping to do is is think about how can we get some of our our disparate buildings on the schedule or see economies of scale so in the future maybe things can be a little more uniform but in the meanwhile and perhaps even still then this kind of money is really essential to maintain these older buildings um so that that's that request and then i'll just move right over to the other request which is funds for a new position a civic engagement coordinator completely different from the other and again this would be a new position and um the goal would be to help really build awareness and understanding about affordable housing among people in arlington but also to build voice and leadership among low income families here so that they can participate more in a few ways one way would be through tenant councils in our own affordable housing so that we can have the tenants who live in hca housing take a more active role with us on property management issues um and in working with us on you know what are the policies the management issues even programs that they'd like to see but in addition it would be about engaging our own tenants other low income families in arlington and even educating anybody regardless of income um helping people become more aware and more educated and informed about how to participate in local processes particularly around housing issues so for example in the past year i remember thinking when the housing trust was doing its action plan oof if we had this person we could have engaged more people in that housing trust action plan process or now that mbta communities the town is doing a public process there wow if we had this staff person we could be engaging more people and educating them about how the town makes decisions um so you know this is a new program and the reason why i'm going to the town is because it can be hard to get money for new programs from external foundations i'm hoping once we can show some outcomes that in the future then we'd be able to go to some of these more other traditional sources and not have to come to the town um but the goal would be a real investment in local low income families so that they might feel more confident more capable more understanding of how to participate in public forums um where housing or other issues related to low income families come up and then we could have more voice from these populations which i think would result in better conversation richer conversation better outcomes and decision making in the town so that's the goal for that thanks so much you're welcome any questions comments from our colleagues okay we'll move on thanks sir the next person will be jack nagle oh good evening everyone um i'd like to thank the select board and the in the cdpg subcommittee on behalf of the residents and the board of the alton housing authority for the many years of generous giving to our various programs whether it's for capital or as you've seen from some of the others uh for the other programs that benefit our residents either directly or through different scholarships and things like that so um i'd also like to thank the others on this call who are you know volunteering or running these really important programs that um really make a difference for our residents but moving on to the project that we that we're applying for funding this year we're requesting 300 $2,500 and the reason for that number is that's the assessed cost for this project by the dhcd system at this time this project is extremely important it's going to update the exhaust exhaust fan and ear handlers at the house building which is our largest single affordable housing development in our portfolio and and as we've seen over the last few years you know these types of systems are extremely important extremely important piece of the infrastructure in our buildings relate to health and safety um you know this is something that we identified during the pandemic or more recently over the past year and I really um sought to to address it as quickly as possible the the original this is the original system for the building that um installed in 1975 it had an original shelf life of 20 years in dhcd extended that shelf life for another 23 years which expired in 2018 so um as you can see it's it's an extremely important update and um and we look forward to your continued support and if there are any questions from the subcommittee or otherwise um you know we'll be happy to answer thank you any questions okay thank you the next person will be kevin flood okay i'm muted here um hello everyone uh again i'd like to you know thank the select board again for your support throughout the years of the boys and girls club and all the all the programs activities that we've run over the years there and this evening um you know i'm requesting some funding for financial assistance for families during the summer months for our scholarship program and that's to help parents and caregivers who work in need uh you know full day care for their kids uh we're looking you know during the summer we run a bunch of programs we run a kids own program for ages five to nine full day uh creative explorer for three to five a boating exploration program uh with kayak and sail boating paddle boating some stem programs um and a program for 10 to 12 year olds are extreme summer where kids go on field trips and experience uh you know unique spots throughout the state so um we are requesting 20 000 uh for that scholarship program to help all these uh families and kids that uh need that extra support the summer the other program that we're looking for uh support and requesting funding for is a swim safety program uh we're running an american red cross program learned to swim um safety skills and stroke introduction the safety skills that we're going to run are going to include entering exiting the water without you know without uh stairs or ladders uh submerging under water and breath control back floats front floats survival floats uh treading water and deep water orientation and uh you know each activity will culminate with uh some water games at the end of each lesson so again we all know the importance of knowing how to swim and um we anticipate that you know this year's program that we're about to run uh in april will be a huge success and uh fully anticipate um if we're fortunate to get funding for next year to repeat it again so um thank you very much for your support and your consideration thank you you're welcome any questions all righty we're all set thanks again thank you good evening everybody mr chair and the select board it's great to be here again to talk about um cdvg this sneaks up every year um but i really value the time that we have to present these programs um at the council on aging um we have applied again for our three um grants that are extremely important to us um very a very good part of our budget and the services we provide um i first also wanted to really thank everybody for the role that all of you and in our town as a whole played in the renovation um for the community center that reopened since april um since that date we've had over 2000 um residents over age 60 come in and sign up um to be a part of our center and have really started engaging in our programs and our meeting with social workers accessing the um services of our nurse and really all of the social interaction that the center was built to to provide so i'm really proud of that and i wanted to thank everybody um in in that we have you know our three grants really are necessary in providing services to all of these folks that are accessing the center um the three grant applications are for our transportation program for our volunteer and transportation coordinator which is a part-time staff position at the council on aging and also our adult day health scholarship program so i'll just give a brief a brief overview of those programs um our transportation program um this year is projected to complete over 8 000 rides for adults over age 60 um and that encompasses um quite a big chunk is through our senior um accessible fans that you probably see around town um since the reopening of the center we've had a huge surge in the need for those vans um we hear quite frequently that the parking around the maple street location is not ideal and we um offer the van ride for free now for rides to the senior center so people can get to us without having to worry about parking and we're hoping to be able to continue doing that um we also continue to provide people with rides all over town to medical appointments and grocery shopping um on the vans and then outside of town through volunteers um and also through partnerships with uber and our taxi program um our volunteer and transportation coordinator position that i mentioned is that is the other um application that we have applied for through cdbg um is the is the person that really coordinates all of the ride requests and scheduling and also all of the volunteers that the coa manages some of those like i mentioned are volunteers that provide transportation but others and we have about 300 volunteers this year um are doing all sorts of things like being greeters when you come into the center um they are monitoring programs they're assisting with our hybrid programs they are delivering um you know turkey dinners on Thanksgiving morning and thanks to all of you who participated in that um and really managing managing all of those volunteers that make it happen our our small staff mostly part-time could not do without our volunteers um and finally our adult health scholarship program is really vital to people in town that need an additional level of care that our center does not provide um cooperative elder services is in town on Broadway um it's a wonderful adult day health program that is available to people um it is an expensive program it is a um it's something that a lot of people need and caregivers need so that they can get respite from um caregiving for their family member their friend their their spouse their partner um and again it provides another level of monitored care um that we don't provide at the community center so these scholarships help um give give residents the opportunity to try the adult day health program um for about a month basically that's about the funding that they get from the scholarship to try out um the adult day health program and see if it would be a good fit for them and there is um eight about 12 residents so far this year that have been able to participate in the program thanks to these scholarships and we're hoping to double that the second half of this year um so those are our three applications and I'll always be available for questions um if there ever are any but thank you again for the opportunity and thank you and I I I I know this is that I know what's the transportation element you know there are some concerns about how fragmented it is I mean across the municipalities and how in about people who need that transportation they have a hard time getting from point A to point B I know this doesn't really apply to what you're asking for I guess what I'm thinking is that I I know that there's going to be another initiative to try and coordinate all these services again I mean every four years being the velocity and PO metropolitan plane organization does this coordinated um immigration transportation plan and there is a big place to try to you fill the gaps and then connect everything and one big person behind that you may notice Susan Barrett um from Lexington and so um you know we we try before but we just have to keep trying I mean and so maybe some time maybe think about that to me for next year's being application you know so so thank you for all the work that you do being for um the council aging so yes thank you so with that the next person the next person is Larry Spotnik hello hello Larry hi uh good to see you all I'm here uh on behalf of two organizations that are within uh both last year's and the the coming year's uh CDBG activities the first uh I'd like to talk about food link briefly uh if I can so we successfully completed uh in July of last year installation of a 17 kilowatt backup generator uh in the event of a local power outage in the area we will at minimum be able to keep our refrigeration system our loading dock doors our lighting internet and a few other important electrical circuits operating because food link itself operates about 300 and I'll say 50 days a year regarding this coming year and and something that uh Mary mentioned is a 24 and a half kilowatt uh rooftop solar uh array and the expected completion on that uh is May 15th of this year this year uh that will offset all of our power usage for our 280 square feet of walk-in refrigeration and freezer storage space uh it'll offset a little more than the power that we use for that um and just as a reminder food link uh collects and distributes more than 1.2 million pounds of food each year and that those distributions go to about a hundred agencies including about 10 to 15 locations and entities right here in the town town of Arlington maybe even closer to 20 uh second reason i'm speaking to you is on behalf of the zero waste committee uh where i'm co-chair and have been involved uh in that committee for about seven years uh so we should recall that at town meeting last year uh the meeting approved a new bylaw uh that we were proponents for to ban the sale of bottled water in Arlington and it went into effect just this past November 1st and this affected impacted convenience stores and and a bunch of takeout restaurants uh it also affected uh some iconic venues such as the capital theater and the region theater i'll report that um so this was uh water in plastic single use bottles uh a number if not the you know the majority have uh begun the sale of bottled water in aluminum bottles uh we knew this would be a result of of that ban uh aluminum is much more highly recyclable material than the plastic and consumers uh just have a much greater tendency of saying to themselves yes i am going to make sure i get this bottle into a recycling bin uh whereas plastic bottles more often than not uh tend to end up as trash and and litter also degrading a number of things so uh as we were contemplating that that article for town meeting we knew that we should be thinking about uh i guess you could say mitigation um of this impact uh it's not necessarily for the businesses but for the community uh and this was about making drinking water available in more public locations around town and so you know we've had lengthy discussions uh interactions with Mike Rademacher uh with Joe Connelly at direct department and also with um Jim Feeney in facilities and uh we launched an initiative that's known as Arlington on Tap last fall probably in September we started trying to gather uh you know some political momentum in town you know with the three folks i just mentioned uh and others and we also were able to work with uh Sean Garberley at the state level and he was able to secure a fifty thousand dollar grant earmarked for Arlington specifically uh to fund the installation of outdoor bottle-filling stations so together we've identified four the first four of what we think will be a network of hopefully around a dozen uh bottle-filling locate you know stations or locations around town the first one is uh you know almost complete uh only not complete because of the season that we're in but in conjunction with the herd field renovation undertaken by parks and rec and possibly funded by some cdbg money i think um a new bottle-filling station will be uh have its installation completed in the spring uh when the new field is open all the infrastructure all the underground work uh was done in the in the fall and very early winter so that will be the first uh and that will be mostly paid for out of that fifty thousand dollar grant the second and third locations are uh at right near uh in uncle sam's plaza possibly connected to the small structure that uh is at uncle sam's plaza and the third will be down and uh at thorn dyke field kind of in the part of the field that's close to the the dog uh the dog park down there the fourth location is what we uh of what we propose to cdbg to help with funding uh on and this will be uh as the three that i just mentioned are along the minute man bikeway uh where they're not only cyclists but just walkers um uh folks pushing baby strollers and uh you know just enjoying uh themselves and the nature part of the nature that the town can offer this will be at the intersection of mill street and the minute man bikeway so that's the a fairly busy uh minute man bikeway intersection uh that's kind of right near where shattuck hardware is we're pinpointing the exact location uh i'm actually talking to folks at intercontinental real estate they're the developers and owners of the brigham square apartments and they own property well that that complex uh abuts the bikeway but they also own property that's uh closer to where shattuck hardware is in fact they own that building that is currently vacant that's directly across the parking lot from the shattuck hardware building so this might be cited on their property uh i'd like it to be cited on town of arlington property but uh we're still kind of working through the details of what the possibilities are uh and that's uh that's a summary of what our request is uh from the committee to cdbg about the sixteen thousand dollars uh toward the cost of of that bottle filling station thank you thank you sorry just gave a little bit back there any questions comments all right question oh mr heard yeah maybe i'm losing my mind but did he just say that there was a request for food link i just don't see it on okay i thought he said he was reported asking for a new one no thank i just wanted to make sure that we didn't miss something on our list here thanks sorry if that was confusing all right so the girl said i did say i might be losing my mind so i guess last but not least definitely not my name is tom formicola i'm here from the arlington center for the arts and i want to say thanks to the select board and cdbg subcommittee and the department of planning for this opportunity arlington center for the arts is proposing a new partnership with the arlington housing authority offering monthly art programs to low income residents at all five aha sites from october 2023 through may 2024 the grant request is for fifteen thousand dollars it's primarily for instructor fees and materials uh over eight months we'll conduct 40 sessions that will engage 10 to 20 students each um in total we anticipate serving 600 unique and returning participants aca has had a series of planning meetings with the aha staff and we've also begun conversations with the tenants associations at the sites uh introductory art making classes will be intentionally designed with low barriers for participation to maximize engagement in a welcoming and respectful environment the goal is for participants to discover their own creativity and to appreciate the expression of others fostering new connections between neighbors and inspiring community pride we hope these experiences will encourage participants to further explore the arts and become more actively engaged with the local cultural community with the successful completion of this program we hope to institutionalize these on-site opportunities to facilitate more engagement and free and low cost activities offsite and to promote scholarship opportunities at aca for students who want to take a deeper dive aca has submitted a second request for five thousand dollars in fact for scholarship funds which will serve adults children and teens through our year round classes and camps last year we provided 13 full and partial scholarships to students from low-income households we hope to double that number this year so thanks to you all for your consideration of these proposals which are developed to advance diversity and equity and inclusion in a healthy and a vibrant community thank you any questions comments Alex have one certainly not least uh in your application you cited a recent study conducted by animating democracy in a program for americans before the arts i checked out the site it's an amazing site it's really a great site i mean it's all about creating civic engagement through arts and culture it seems like it has some some really good articles there so so just seeing that was really a big a big plus for me in terms of just learning more and and and seeing some other possibilities so i think it's really a great program and for for for everyone but especially me for the residents of our policy authority community so thank you very much for bringing this forth i hope you get the funding so so so with that i think we are done with the presentations by the applicants being and so i will turn to the residents being or participants in the meeting to see if they want to make any comments and with understanding me that we will very likely have being a bigger hearing at some point after the cdvg committee some committee has done its work i'm going to be limited to 15 minutes so that we can move along with the rest of our agenda so um any hands i see no hands at this time all right all right well great you know so then uh we'll move on uh to the next item mr chairman can i move receipt of the uh 2024 request for cdbg funding sure second all right all right so any questions comments all right now for me it's on a motion to receive of the mid-year report by um uh mrs mahan and second by mr herd you know mr herd yes mr of course yes mr helman yes this is mahan yes mr diggins yes it's unanimous vote great all right moving on so we are into the traffic was recorded part of the agenda next time discussion of vote and act relative to the cost of living adjustments for retirees mr hon thank you mr chair i'll try to keep this short the short version of it is that legislation signed by the governor chapter 269 of the acts of 2022 gives the select board the authority to approve or disapprove of a uh cola increase that was previously voted on by the arlington contributory retirement board for fiscal year 2023 for basically all retirees the board has any questions i'll do my best to answer them from the perspective of the legal side of it but the short version is is that the local option that provided for these increases by retirement boards was essentially amended to make sure that the select board of any given town or the mayor of any given city would have the ability to vote on it to approve it as well thank you thank you thank you so i turn my colleague move approval and i have one question do i understand that also the retirement board has or will have to also vote on this or is it just us correct uh uh mrs mahan i'm sorry mr chair if i may yes the retirement board uh to my understanding already voted on it um but they have to approve it and then it comes to you okay so i'm assuming they did if it's come to us okay thank you move approval second any other questions comments well i'm gonna ask a quick question and maybe mr pooler can help with this so can someone just help me understand what's going on in years 2034 35 meaning uh uh mr chair if i may yes please you have two schedules a kind of before and after schedule of what the funding for the system would be based on the same assumptions of an annual 5.5 percent increase and essentially the difference between these two schedules is that if we move forward with uh this funding then by f y uh 23 uh if we don't uh fund this i don't approve this we would have to appropriate 24.9 million dollars to the retirement fund if we do approve this it would be 26.3 million um what's going on is there's an annual cost of about 170 thousand dollars that then plays out over time gets amortized in the retirement system um so it uh it will affect how quickly we fully fund our retirement obligations but if i may add i think it is a reasonable thing to do given that this matches what social security is doing for retirees under that system uh and in my opinion it's uh fair and welcome for our retirees yeah and this is more just for my edification you know basic stuff means i don't have a problem with uh going forward so one of one of the basic questions so the the net 380 payments that 66 for 12 number that never changes what does that represent um i don't know it's it's something that's just baked into their funding schedule it relates back to something that i would have to ask them that's okay sorry sorry sorry about that mr mr board i i forgot to talk about this earlier so i just uh so anyways um so seems like oh mr mr corsie thank you mr chairman just a question i imagine the retirement board voted the the five percent i know the legislation is up to five but just so we're clear what we're voting on to thank you all right thank you all right so on a motion to uh approved by this is mohan and a second by mr mr herd from this is fine mr herd yes mr corsie yes mr helman yes this is mohan yes mr dickens yes it's unanimous vote thank you great thank you um moving on so an update on the town manager search process that's so we did our first round of interviews me last thursday went very well and um and we'll be doing our second round of interviews tomorrow from 10 to two uh and and so um uh i am sure we're not going to have any problems getting um uh presently bringing force to me and at least three candidates and uh it's been a really good experience to me and looking forward to tomorrow i had told you all uh that it would be likely that we would want to do the final interviews with the board um during the week of the 20th meeting but uh since then i've talked with um bernie lynch me they told me don't need to do some more work so it's likely that we wouldn't be able to um to those interviews until the week of the um 27th at the earliest so i just wanted to let you know in case you were in clearing time out uh moving to the 20th so so um that's where we are um any questions mr helman mr chair just to make sure i heard you correctly uh that went by kind of quick um the so you the week of the 27th is that activity by the screening committee or would that be the first uh potential work by the select board on the finalist it'd be the first for the select board okay and thank you and um at what point will we have enough chance to talk with mr bring in mr lynch and have a discussion about what kind of process the board as a as a whole wants to lay out um for evaluating the finalists because i you know so far we haven't done that yes well i would imagine that earlier that the board in toloto would do that it would be at the meeting on 27th um which is more music to think that we would be ready to go over me and talk um sometime that week at the earliest thank you sure and it may very well mean that he could provide an instruction set but if we want to have uh an instruction set and conversation with them that would have to take place in the context of a football meeting so that would be the night that we do it it may be a program meeting after that um any other questions comments okay all right um we're done and um we're um um 15 discussion and vote overnight parking pilot so as i am providing the notes being uh the point of this discussion now is trying to get a handle on how much to charge uh for the permits you know i had a conversation by phone with um mr heim you know just to get a sense of the what really goes into determining the fee uh and what could we do being in order to have the cost of permit reflect the um um concerns that we have about exploitation for lack of a better word being of of the ability to do overnight parking so for instance mean um if one wanted to have more than one permit being um would it cost the same being as one permit or could we have a rationale of a legal viable rationale for why that um should cost more you know and so so mr heim i got the impression mr heim you know that there is a path towards that mean um um it could potentially be challenged you know um and at some point mr heim if you want to raise your hand and step in and correct me or add more more flavor to things you know a more telling me i welcome you to do so uh but but this is this is going to be the tough part you know how how do how how do we price it and as mr mr heard um has emphasized and i didn't really mean try to rework the title of it because i didn't want to seem as if mean we're trying to move them um but then we're trying to be evasive or or or in any way disingenuous mean it is more about us being less restrictive mean um with allowing overnight parking than it is about just opening up the system um completely to anyone parking overnight but what we do need to do though is come up with a way in which it is enforced mean um equally you know and so even though i and i think mr coursey are viewing this process mean of or the rationale for doing this through an equity lens mean of mean still the the the permitting process has to be done you know in a way to treat everyone uh equally mean so so i'm going to open this up for people's thoughts and feelings i do want to add that um we are going to have uh another forum on the 16th you know uh and i would say if more if any of you other than mr coursey myself want to attend i'll be happy to make it a special like board meeting mean so that you could be attended and participate as much as you want but i imagine that when you know um we'll we'll hear more a lot more from our residents especially since it's seeming the since we're coming to the end of the process we're going to make the decision one way right now i think people are getting more engaged mean and and um try and get some feedback being passed to pricing hopefully and um by then mean obviously coursey and i myself can at least toss a number of two out there not ill will be engaging residents for a number that they think would work being in one way or another um so i'll stop there i'll see if there any comments or questions mr hurt so the potential vote on the agenda here are you looking for us to come up with a number tonight and vote on it well yeah as as we have been voting so far me like so we've pretty much been going around the horn just to see if people are in an agreement being with with something you know so like if i can ask either the chair or the town manager is the am i correct is the lot permit still a dollar a day 365 dollars a year yes it is it seems to me that that's the easiest and most efficient number to put on this permit and i think it would make it i think that there was issues that we had come up with where what do we do with is it fair for somebody that bought a year pass for a lot and i would this isn't really what's being asked of us but i would think that if somebody has a pass for a lot already we could just say right you know transfer that fee tier that can be absorbed as your pilot fee but i mean i think that's a good round number that we've used and it is twofold it gives us money to fund the pilot but also is we do want i think residents have come out and shown that there's people foreign against us and you know we do want to make it so and that we need to do a little more education the public because we even heard tonight multiple residents talk about lifting the parking ban which is not what we're doing it's just easing how we give these overnight parking permits so we you know we need again we need to educate the public on that and those i think they'll see that once it happens but i think that number provides our basis for you know for the people that need it are going to be the ones that come and get the permits and not just everybody that i mean it's a big enough number that i think people that don't need it who just want to park in the street for convenience will be turned off by that figure and it will give us the most accurate results so i think as we kick numbers back and forth i would say 365 dollars or however it's built out of it's built monthly or yearly but the dollar a day figure seems like the most appropriate number to put on for the overnight parking permit thank you mr. chair and i think mr. this helmet oh go ahead mr. chair were you gonna make a comment well yeah i think well yeah i'm gonna make one and i'll just say that you know um so the analysis i did for the last meeting with respect to it and um how who was paying for these mean i found that about 30 percent being were making a case for why they would not pay you know that amount you know so i don't know if that ratio will hold up being across town but i think if it does come down to the fact that we can charge a fee that on reflects the cost of running the program being with understanding that a significant number may be discounted or or not have to pay being they would potentially justify being that higher costs well that's this helmet oh so mr. chair may yes thank you thank you um since in the in the two weeks since we last had a meeting have we made any progress mr. chair or perhaps a mr. dumb manager if you wish in ascertaining or estimating what the administration cost of this program would be i'm not you know so and it's really going to be a function i think of how many people mean utilize it you know i mean we're certainly going to have the staff capacity to do it in and so we could you know just i guess determine you know how much time that person is dedicated and apply the a portion of salary to the cost mean um the other part would be enforcement in and i could ask the town manager to work with the chief to get a sense of how much more enforcement it has to be done you know but those are the only two costs i can't think of at this point we're not going to be doing no i'm not going to be putting up any sites into well that would factor in all to the pilot costs whether that factor into the cost long term i can't say mr. collard thank you mr. chair um i've not tried to look at the cost partly at because of a conversation that dug and i got to this afternoon about whether we need to look at this as a fee that whose cost we need to justify by providing the backup or whether this in fact is a license that we can charge for the town council can explain that in more detail if necessary but it's essentially selling something that the town owns or has that uh for what basically whatever fee we want to charge um and so in that regard one i don't know that we need to then figure out what it costs to if there are additional incremental costs um and we are collecting this fee the only way to recoup those costs and apply them would be to amend whatever budget so for example if um office x were administering these passes giving them out and so forth and there was a cost to do that and that office needed an extra thousand dollars to be able to do that we would have to ask town meeting to amend the budget that's now been presented in this book by a thousand dollars and say that the offset to that is this fee income or license income as the case may be thank you uh mr chair i believe that attorney hind may have something to add up with your permission yes please thank you just to add a little context to what the manager was referencing so generally speaking when we talk about a fee structure for some kind of service we're sort of talking about some statutorily empowered ability that the town has to charge a fee and that fee has to have some reasonable rational relationship to how much it costs for the town to provide that that's sort of the baseline and there are some tweaks on that that might uh that the chair mr diggins and i discussed which might be you know let's say you have parking that costs a certain amount of money um per the first two permits but there might be an additional cost associated with your third and fourth and fifth permit because there might be things that start to come into play when you start talking about folks using a service so much that collectively if you don't sort of artificially suppressed demand the town takes on additional costs it wouldn't have taken on otherwise this is sometimes called like ingestion pricing in certain places like new york city has that i believe boston has entertained the notion of uh a permit fee for parking that gets higher as you have more cars town manager clever person that he is also um talked about a sort of separate way of thinking about that i had not really thought about before which is whether or not well we might are alternatively phrase this as more of a license to use a public good rather than a permit fees system i'll admit that i don't know off the top of my head based on the recency of that conversation uh how we would have to structure that in order to consider it more of a license for a public good rather than a fee for specific service um so that's a sort of wrinkle on it that i have to consider sort of independently and what might have to be the parameters of a parking program that's considered more of a license rather than a permit so again you know traditionally we've thought about these things more as like okay what does it cost to make sure that you've got an enforcement person to go out there you get stickers that you put on cars or whatever um but if you were thinking about it in a different way i suppose as long as it would pass legal muster um there's not a reason that we can't do it i just i have to dig in a little bit to figure out whether something that's a little bit more novel might be feasible and i'll be i'll also be candid with the board i frankly don't know nor do i'm nor am i 100 confident that all cities and towns have sat around and thought we have this parking uh permit cost because we're following parking permit fees under the emison case versus we're doing it because it's the way we've done it parking meters are governed by a different statutory authority and have a little bit more uniform regular regulation from minnesota i think thank you both uh is an illuminating discussion i think it is not inconsistent with some of the comments by my colleague mr herd if i were to venture to guess i think that the the fee for the town parking lot probably not based on an estimation of a cost to the town but is in in fact the town selling something you know a piece of something you know what i like about this concept is that it is resonates with some of the input we've received from the public which is that the overnight parking or the parking in the streets are a public asset that that the town you know by the residents of town and corporately um and i think that in consideration for use of that asset a fee is is reasonable i like the idea of a fee being enough that it is used uh as mr herd suggested by people who um have have a strong need for it and i think we we certainly need to think carefully through that lens of equity that mr uh diggins mentioned but nevertheless i think that's appealing to me particularly for a pilot and i and i find myself kind of warming to the idea of really thinking about this is not necessarily changing the overnight parking ban but but changing the um the tools that we have to allow people as we do now to park overnight so i think this has been interesting and helpful to me i'm glad to hear about the public forum which i think is in about 10 days if i've got my calendar right a suggestion and a request i would make to those running the forum is that i think that we will get better public feedback the more prepared we are to present scenarios of what this could look like with respect to operations um and in potential costs but i would also just to echo something i said at the last meeting it's really important to me that if we are doing this is the pilot program that we'll be able to describe it and defend it as a pilot program and to me that means really being explicit to ourselves and with the public what we want to learn how we will evaluate success or failure what we intend to do as a result of how we learn and and how and how we learn those things so um i think that's really important for me as as i consider potentially voting on this that we have clarity about that and i think that that would be able to describe that to the public would also increase the quality of the public feedback that we get that i want to hear before i'd be prepared to vote but this has been helpful and i appreciate that thank you mr chair thank you mr howman anyone else well with respect to what you want mr howman i understand me and and look i would love to be able to construct a study me that could give you like conclusive results that would be very hard to you know uh me you'd have to come up with control you'd have to probably run the experiment being for a long time being for us to be able to answer the um the i think those kind of definitive questions that would say whether this worked or not i mean it's like is it all we'll be looking at the number of complaints mean mean how many people are now parking being um are you utilizing overnight parking being are they doing it because of the the experiment that we're running or are they doing it because conditions have changed me it's just so it would be just nearly impossible to control for everything you need to control for for me to end up with a study that'd be convincing to me you know so i have said from the beginning me i see the pilot as informing us of how to get to the place we want to be uh which is to allow um to allow us to have more permitted parking for those who need it you know it's interestingly i mean i guess because the universe runs on irony we haven't had anyone come to this lightboard meeting you know lately say like i really need you know uh overnight permit parking but it used to be something that we would see i would say he'd be uh once twice in the air it means and and so but you don't know what the man there is underneath that mean that people just aren't coming because they know they're not going to get it you know certainly in the survey that we did you know for the for the first four and even the four of me there are people who were making a case for why they needed me and and in some of the links that i provided me there were studies that show that the people who a who have low income me are the ones me who really need their cards you know and and to the extent now that he we are putting another burden on them mean to to get to their job is far away or further away or not accessible by transit i think we are doing them uh the service mean and so i would like to try to remove that and so for me it isn't a pilot to say me whether we do this or not it's really a pilot to inform us as to how we do it being as so so the information i'm looking for is like me what happens to me do we see a lot of overnight parking a lot of people the APD are saying this is this is a problem i just can't i don't want to leave you to think that i can give you me some kind of metric mean that you're going to find satisfying because i don't think i can come up with one that i'm going to find satisfied so really it's a matter of helping us get from point a to point b given that point b is where we want to be so i guess really what we're going to try inside is that is that is that point b where we want to be and what is nature first off do we want to get to a point b and what is it like you know did that make sense mr helpings yeah i appreciate that mr chair i am not asking for a randomized controlled trial i think that a qualitative study is is plenty good that's all you can get with this and that's that kind of pilot i have in mind but i think you have identified something that is important for for us to have clarity amongst ourselves and with the public is this a is this a pilot that will help us decide whether to make changes permanent and whether to do it or not would we potentially roll them back that's that's been my assumption up and up until just a few seconds ago actually is that what i was thinking that this would really be a trial and that kind of pilot and i think you're articulating a different idea of what a pilot could be and i think that's a legitimate idea but that is a new dimension of this that i think we really need to be clear about with ourselves and with the public about what we intend to do including including thursday night so um so it's new information for me to think about and i i appreciate that further articulation and if i could add to the the clear intent i mean uh is to stop the uh before winter time and i understand the argument that the winter is a different kind of task being but essentially the the the risks we think being um during winter are high enough i mean that that it would be a problem we had too much marking me that we really want to stop and see how people are utilizing this ability you know we're getting a lot of demand for it and we're getting a lot of cars on on the street you know then we need to have a conversation with dpw and apd whether or not i mean this is something we want to continue uh during winter you know we're assuming that we we won't want to continue through this winter at this point and that we stop and then and then just evaluate you know so that's why we're saying we're likely to stop in um november and december you know i mean so if you consider that a rollback it would be a rollback you know but but if there's low utilization you know and apd and dpw said say well we need to see what happens we would take that into consideration and come back to the board in total and have to make a decision you know whether or not we continue so so i have said yeah this is of course thank you mr chairman yeah i i want to thank mr herd for putting out the number because that i think that gives us now um we had talked about different aspects of a pilot and now that is something to get feedback on at the forum and and i think the intent remains clear that we'd like to to start this in may and it will continue for more than one season won't just be the summer it would go into the fall and again we want to receive feedback on it but now we have the elements laid out for feedback and for going forward and i think clearly there needs to be some more dialogue with mr pooler and attorney heim on on some of the um aspects of the of the of the fee structure whether it's a license whether it's a fee but i think this this moves us forward and puts us in a decent position to receive more feedback and and again knowing that the goal is to do something in may but we may receive some feedback and and change some things but at least now we have the structure uh if we have a vote on this tonight of what the the various components and that's the one remaining item that you had left on on the memo that you sent to us so i may think it gives us a decent structure to go forward and and to receive more input from the public thank you mr chairman thank you um any other comments questions well mr coursey we're gonna have to trust us to see who craves that at all points so uh so i i guess the um i'll figure out by when i need to know me how many of you are going to attend the the meeting so that we can publicize it as either just a forum or a special like coordinate okay i mean if we know right now that while they're three then we can go ahead meet and publicize it as a specials like we're meeting oh mr helmet i i plan to attend okay so then there we go yeah three no great thank you you know so all right i think we can move on this point you know no more comments questions all right so the next item is uh vote on the community equity audit report and so so we have in front of us you know and essentially we're just going to vote to receive it tonight you know as you know we have a forum scheduled for the 13th meeting um where this will be presented in full and we will be taking this take lots of comments being from from residents you know and so this will also be a situation where if we know that three of us want to attend it will be uh declared specials like one meeting you know and if there are three of us that want to attend uh and we want to hold the on the actual receipt of the report he until then we can do that otherwise we can go ahead and just officially receive it now and then have that full presentation being on on monday so move receipt i'll second mr herds motion to move receipt i don't think i got it out it's a race all right well you gave it to this to her mr chair just for my benefit uh frankly but also for the public uh could could someone provide the deep the complete details or the time in the place of the um of the forums i think you said the 13th i assume that's a week from today yes the week from then you know and it's going to be hybrid you know and the fiscal location is going to be at the puny center and it will run from six thirty to eight o'clock you know i i do plan to attend if that informs your decision about excellent great so it will be especially important you know so happy to have you anyone else you know so yeah more than three oh um oh you know it's funny so it's just two at this point so do we have a third i'm sorry i was just thinking that there's an automatic i was thinking mr corse he's just a company made everything everything so we only have two at this point you know do we have a third well okay right right and and if you're not sure you know then we can just advertise this as a special important meeting and um if it turns out that we don't have to redo that it won't be but at least at this point we won't have um received it and officially so um any questions comments on the report all right so emotions received by mr harry and second by mr mahan this is fine mr herd yes mr corse yes mr helman yes this is mahan yes mr diggins yes mr nanomist vote great so moving on item number 17 a vote on the select board administrator so um this is the boy uh and i conducted uh interview two candidates you know two internal candidates in and uh it was a it was a it was a great experience uh because you realize me the talent that exists out here in town you know and in some respects the decision was difficult and in other respects it was an easy decision you know and and we did decide to go with mrs ma'am sorry mrs mrs mire there you go something married to the job now that's what you know and so so once um welcome her i mean as the uh new board administrator assuming we get a bullet in a second you know so um yes yes um i do want to thank you in uh mrs maloy for um overseeing this process and as well as the both of you um giving each member of the board the opportunity to express um their thoughts as well as keeping us informed of the process um i've been through this let's see i did not miss a picture but mr dunlap miss cove who is now mrs maloy mrs quipelka um so of all the times myself going through that because i'm the old one um this has been uh the most informative process speaking nothing no reflection on on the previous um board administrators or i think it was executive something when mr dunlap was here so with that i'd like to uh make a motion to approve um miss ma'ar ashley ma'ar as our new board administrator and i i do want to thank her for um really filling it in this role for several years now um and it's pretty much been seamless um you know having you here as well as um working with the office and office staff um and as i said to you before it's been several times i've gone to pick up the phone to call marie mrs quipelka um and this would have been one of the nights going home in the parking lot because i know uh one of the last conversations i had with her was how highly she thought of you and um putting the personal how much you and the rest of the office were there for her on a personal level but certainly had a very serious conversation with her regarding um her position and moving forward and she had nothing but glowing um kudos uh to you so thank you miss ma'ar sorry i can't call you marie um but i'll talk to you in my head on the way home so thank you mr chair thank you miss ma'ar this was from mr jerry uh second the motion and just saying that this was an excellent choice easy choice and mrs mahan just talked about this but miss mar has i think a lot of people don't know if you're not on this board that you're not gonna know how much ashi has done over the past couple years with some transitions in that office um how it got done i don't know the secret that only you'll know but it certainly has been a heavy burden to bear so i think we're in good hands and i just wonder if we get invited to have tea in your living rooms as well but for anyone that didn't know that was a nod to our former administrator um but again happy to support this and welcome mr of course thank you mr chairman and first of all i want to thank you and miss maloy for conducting the search and as mrs mahan said for for keeping us informed i want to congratulate miss mar and and thank her again we did the members have have said it but these past few years we were understaffed in the um select board office and and you really stepped up and i just saw it since i've been on the board in 2019 how you've grown on the job how you've taken more initiative and and done things where there a lot of days it wasn't somebody there to help you and you figured it out and we really appreciate that and and uh appreciate everything you've done um these past few years and and uh want to congratulate you uh once we take the vote here on the appointment thank you mr myself thank you mr chair um in addition to all the fine comments that my colleagues have said uh i want to acknowledge my appreciation for your dedication miss mar it's not been an easy couple of years and you've demonstrated the kind of commitment to high quality public service and responsiveness that we need in the office and you know you someone who always says yes when i have a question or need quickly and and thoroughly and um i look forward to many years of that and more as we go thank you congratulations i'll just add me because i think it's just not interviewed me i was really interested you know with with your responses to um a pretty pretty um tough interview that this is below i put this together uh for for folks being uh and it's very clear that this is the job uh that that you want and that you can do it and and i did not have that conversation that this is what hon had with this propellant could be uh because i was afraid to and i didn't want for me to think you mean that a job's afraid to i yeah i can't get myself to have that conversation so it's good to know that that's what she felt i had that impression uh because of the way that he was referring that she communicated with ashley long after she stopped communicating with me though uh and so that indicated that uh certain confidence in the relationship that she had and we all know that uh if marie didn't respect you she wasn't going to interact with you and so just the fact that she's dead meant a lot um in terms of how much she valued and respected um uh miss marie so on uh motion to uh approve the appointment by mrs mahan and second by mr herd mr hon mr herd yes mr corsie yes mr helman yes mrs mahan yes mr diggins yes unanimous vote congratulations so we now move to our second vote for him and so um how do we have any hands just uh oh that's get that item sorry did i get that i'm sorry i did sorry about that i have to do it i have to do it at least once a meeting right and uh and it's not even that i'm in a rush you know so uh so future like we're meeting to be uh so uh so our next one's on the 21st the i am thinking you know uh i think you just look out uh the mondays and march mean and then we finish early finish early you know maybe we'll meet the 20th you know uh but i mean i certainly do the 6th and 13th you mean um plan on the you know 27th but i'd like to i'd say the reserve is 20th just in case so it's not is there um we're all set for the february meeting so we're doing march right i just want to okay and um what i wanted to say was um could we possibly um nail down three days just where i believe we have 19 citizen i will know that we have 10 oh you do not i'm sorry the 27th so there will be 10 of the 19 that we've received on that meeting okay well how about if um the chair has proposed two mondays and um if we we do need a well i'll leave it at that i'm i'm thinking we may need a third meeting in march i don't know people kind of want to um i'm thinking uh get a sense of is it another monday or is it a wednesday or something else so um i guess i wasn't clear when i said look out march i just meant like we just like assumed every monday march mean i mean and maybe if we are fortunate that we won't need 20th you know but my i was just reserved every monday you know if we finish early drop drop the 20th 27th anybody um and i just want to add to it wasn't my idea but 10 resolution 40 something i got i was advised me that we can do it you know i mean so we're gonna give it a try you know so but um we will we'll see what happens to that judgment because i'm seeing some things coming so we'll see you know can we just run down what the what the dates are in march yes please yeah there's 16 20 i mean 16 13 20 27 6 13 6 13 20 20 okay thank you yeah and um as if never worry about this mr. chair um what i'd like to do is actually continue what we've been doing is um i will endeavor myself to look at 10 citizen warrant articles look at them and have a conversation with you um about sometimes i can sort of get a good estimate in terms of how long that will take but my only thing is um i'm gonna uh have to remain firm just for family reasons to try to stick to that 11 o'clock rule as much as possible plus my brain just starts to i'm already wandering and it's what maybe a little after 10 okay a little after so yeah um and the other thing is i don't want to i'm gonna look at the what the 10 citizen warrant articles that are scheduled and then i'll have a conversation with you because i i i i'd feel really um concerned that if we could only get through five to seven for those three sitting around and we didn't get to them and they have to come back so if the chair and i do discuss the agenda every agenda beforehand anyways but i will make it a point to come down come down to the office look at them and then um if we can get 10 done in one night with all the other regular business um that's great but i also know we have the owl wife on so it may not be 10 i think that's a little ambitious but i'll i'll have a conversation with the chair and it'll be his call in the end thank you yes well i i appreciate that mr cometh thank you mr i believe attorney hi may have wanted to make a comment on that yeah i just want to know uh for the thank you mr chair i just want to know for the board that um mr mawn and i discussed and and the resident petition articles this year are very heavy on resolutions um so a good number of them are resolutions a good number for other ones are about formations of study groups or committees i think there's only three articles that actually propose a bylaw amendment that our resident petition articles so what it's worth that informs the board's consideration and schedule um we have a lot of uh uh resolution and we have at least one or two articles where the same person filed multiple articles that are sort of related together so for your consideration and i'm sure as miss mahan says that you know you guys will sit and walk out and if it doesn't if that's too many uh let me i'm happy to work with whatever you guys want to do miss allen thank you mr chair i appreciate that i want to second mr mahan's request to observe 11 o'clock devil and i think i i suggest that really be a consensus if not a formal board policy um and that you know i leave that to others to know exactly how that works but i think uh if we at least have a clear idea that that's what we want to do and we can have that discussion my view of this would be do the best we can with scheduling the agenda items and we'll get to what we get to you know and if things need to spill over that that's how it works in the other board meeting so we do we do try to get it done but i think that hard stop is good for the quality of the discussion i think it's also respectful of the public's time and those participating in the hearings as well can i hope mr chair to that um i don't think that is codified because i know when i first got on the board believe it or not you'll be shocked i remember leaving here if i got out at 12 12 30 i was a happy camper um we would go after 1 a.m but that was a different time and different border that's a true story so um because i used to want to stop but it didn't so um perhaps moving forward whether it's an update to the select man's handbook because we have to take a vote every time we isn't in the select man's handbook okay all right good that's all right i missed that as was pointed out to me when i was chair and hearings until 12 30 you see that i was going to say the two chairs before mr diggins had some trouble with the 11 o'clock film being one of them i i i do i do recall there was that we were asked there was no a dictatorial well i'm taking it that this third time we understand so he's not and that he wouldn't put him on if he didn't think that he could cover them in every small amount of time the only concern is that there may be things coming up on the agenda that he's not aware of so that may make it all impossible for us to cover everything in what i try to i try to get these three hours and 15 minutes you know 10 30 throughout the time when you know i begin to to lose it and that's one of the reasons that as you notice me we don't tend to have more presentations and and in the case of the equity audit i asked to have that on a separate night to really give it me a lot of time rather than than rushing in because i am one that would have more frequent and shorter meetings me and then and longer meetings especially if we're going to do the operation you know towards the end of the meeting so so you're not gonna get any problems with me with sending it down at 11 o'clock because i hope that we're done well before then you know so so um so then our wheel came with the six to 13th you know just look out all the Mondays and hopefully we won't be 20th mean so it will plan on the 16th 13th mean we'll see how we're doing but at least we will up reserve the 20th you know man and definitely 27 because that'll be the last one before the election and are okay with that i didn't hear you smile oh i guess most of that i guess we we scheduled that that first that first Monday after the election yeah i don't think i don't think we should go beyond that right or no no yeah no we we have to meet by law to at least organize so that's what april third is that what's the first monday right third so i think we're set there so now now the second vote before you know do we have anyone who wants to talk with us okay um yeah the board constantly and adam lost her okay all right so we're gonna lock it down with those three you know and then we'll clock thank you so um Steve more can you just want to unmute your mic mr board hello can you hear me hear you loud and clearly okay great i'm ready to go okay my name is steve ward i live here in arlington center i'm coming back for one last attempt to bring the board's attention to a seriously flawed and corrupt candidate selection process for the tenant member of the board of directors at the arlington housing authority the housing authority arlington housing authority represents close to 60 million dollars of public taxpayer money with a four and a half million dollar annual operating budget the oversight is supposed to be handled by the board of directors when we have a corrupt program for candidate selection which was never prescribed by the state law that created that member everybody participated including you when you selected a 23 year old person to who's been in the country for eight years to represent 500 people who are elderly and disabled forgive for going all that what we have to do is i have contacted the department of housing and community development i've contacted every member of the board here of selection i've contacted the director of the housing authority and i've contacted the chairman of the board of directors i've contacted garbally and i've contacted freed in garbally said that he would handle it i'm and that was over two years ago i've never heard a word back i've tried to contact them i get nothing the department of housing and community development insists that this is an issue that has to be dealt with by the legislature to define how those candidates are selected otherwise you are standing the upper potential of facing as many as 30 candidates for you to review i know that is not what you're looking forward to and what you did the last time was you forced six of them to quit you ended up with six people in and selected one we have i'm soliciting your participation in this because it's a serious business the oversight of the housing authority is absolutely necessary it is an element that has been neglected for years and years very few people know anything about the housing authority including some of the people who are working there we need to get this done and i'm soliciting your attention and your gravitas in persuading garbally and freeding to get this done by the legislature we've got a year and a half to do it i thank you for your attention and i look forward to your participation Mr. Diggins is more than familiar with who i am thank you thank you thank you hello and good evening uh i'm ready to start thank you um my name is Constantine Plotanik and i live in uh in east allington uh earlier during the meeting you've mentioned that you haven't had a lot of people come in and sort of provide their opinion on the in favor of lifting the parking van i've been following this really closely um i have my in-laws come a couple of days a week to help us watch the kids and they have to park on the street because our driveway is full and it is um not a pleasant process to go request this parking waiver and there's been a number of times where even though i requested the waiver somebody can buy and still give me a ticket i have to submit a form saying this ticket was issued in error eventually the ticket gets rejected i can't imagine that it that is a process that doesn't cost any money so i think there is all the reasons to sort of have this pilot i think the fee suggested is relatively reasonable at least for somebody in my position i i can afford to pay it especially if that would allow somebody with lower income to have a reduced fee um and um you know i don't think this city is going to turn into a madness where we're going to be park bumper to bumper and hanging over people's troveways i think that's not going to happen um that's i just wanted to say that i've been following the process closely and i am very much in favor of the pilot i hope it goes through um you can have the remaining of my time thank you thank you am i up yes um thank you uh mr chairperson and congratulations to the board for being meeting in person i wish i could i wish i could join you it just didn't work out tonight and i just wanted to say a few brief words about bus service um i spent some time digging into the new schedules that the nbta put forward along with the new routes uh that i think we all know about and i was really interested in what they meant for arlington because although there's a lot of information from the t it doesn't really answer that question in a straightforward way which turns out uh that there's a 20 reduction in the number of trips to the red line from arlington compared to the schedule we had in 2019 before all the cuts came from uh from covid and and the fallout from that and uh the counts that that is based on are in a report that i've shared with the board um and i just wanted to make a couple of notes um i didn't evaluate the entire plan the entire map i didn't even evaluate the entire impact on arlington but i thought the red line trips were pretty important to people and that's why i focused on that um bus transportation is key to many town goals for housing and sustainability uh maybe if there were better bus service parking wouldn't be quite so tight um given that the t says it's increasing bus service by 25 percent this is concerning to me and i just wanted to share uh what i had learned um thank you thank you so that closes out our second open forum and with that we move on to correspondence received in and as adam oster mentioned um it is the new bus service report by him and um and the other correspondence is on traffic concerns on great avenue by shawna and christin markey in southern gray street so i turn to my colleagues on this very comment thank you mr chair i move receipts and referral of the traffic concerns to the tech traffic advisory committee um and the mbt bus service report for which i am very grateful by the way uh to the town manager for his consideration it's uh as it relates to any action he may choose to take in communicating with our legislative delegation or other state officials and this one um i will second that and i will just let my colleagues know um um the board actually my colleagues probably already know the board has received other correspondence on the on the gray street issue um but they didn't make it in time as we all know so they'll appear as correspondence received on the next agenda and i have a memory that one of the um residents uh cited that she previously served on one of our town committees um and it had something to do and i'm not remembering it right whether it's transportation or disability or accessibility or something like that so um when we get to that next agenda we can just mirror the same um action we've taken now so thank you and i'll second mr helmets motion i think that's really like uh age friendly you know community you know so i'm not sure committee that was but it was me um it was went into helping our to become recognized as an age friendly community you know so um that's i saw a hand motion there mr coursey was that say something or no that was just to fix my hair all right so all right so on uh motion to uh receive and refer you know um by mr helmets and second by mr mahan mr hurt mr heard yes mr coursey yes mr helmets mr mahan yes mr dinghens yes so all right folks it's 1020 can i get a motion sir jerry you're gonna do new business oh sorry i'm rushing through it again so i ended so i'm not new business uh uh this is my miss mar you're married already yeah i have no new business thank you this time uh two very quick things um for the board one i just want to say thank you to those residents who checked in with the town council's office prior to submission of their warrant articles the board requests this we do it for a reason to try to get the matters in a posture before the select board finance committee and uh zoning community development board so that the substance of what folks want to do is the primary focus rather than some procedural defects we didn't actually have a great um participation in that part of the process this year and unfortunately there'll be a few hiccups because of that but i want to say thank you to the all the folks who did uh take the opportunity to check in with me so i could try to get their warrant articles in the best shape as possible um secondly i wanted to let the board know that i'll be out the 21st the 24th um the school vacation week if you will uh deputy town council mic cunningham will be back in the office that thursday so if there's any questions that the manager or the board has attorney cunningham will be available that thursday and friday but i'll try to wrap up any business that we know is going to be on the agenda in advance to make sure you have all your supporting reference material by the end next week thank you just two things uh one i i've sent notice to the board already but i just want to say to the public that we have hired a new uh deputy town manager his name is alex mickey he is the current uh finance director for the town of hamilton he's also worked for many years in the city manager's office at dpw and it departments in the city of lol and he will start on march 6th and i will have him introduced to the board at that time the second thing i just want to mention is i have spoken to our planning director and have asked her to communicate with the redevelopment board to ask them to consider moving all zoning articles to the fall town meeting um they are considering that um they may have a couple that would be uh consent agenda if we have a consent agenda this spring but i think it's important one um to give the planning department some flexibility uh there's still so much understaffed and i have a lot of important things i need to take on i think would be better if they took on zoning at town meeting in the fall um i also think that um we need to do a better job in town of having zoning articles presented to town meeting with some structure i.e. uh how they affect things like either affordable housing or business development and i did not see that in the 12 articles that were on the agenda now they may in fact relate that way but i think it's important for town meeting to have some structure that way so um i have made that request i believe the redevelopment board is considering that tonight um and i hope that they go along with that suggestion so i guess i have a question to mr. hyde so so then what is the process by which that happens because that's going to be a special town meeting so so then for for any residents that then submitted a zoning related article how do we make that shift over to mr. chair if i may i'm just going to be very careful here because this isn't posted on the agenda but it's kind of a relatively straightforward thing in terms of the arb the arb can sort of withdraw its articles postpone them with respect to any resident petition articles the arb couldn't do that without their consent it would have to be on their consent with some sort of uh pledge to bring those articles back which we have done and at least one occasion recently um because uh the timing of um some of the pandemic related things and the ability to have a more full-throated discussion at a later point done thank you Mr. Courses thank you mr. chairman just one thing and this is mahan referred to it but i did this was going to be my new business the just acknowledging the number of letters that we had received with concerns on gray street and i know we made the referral and they'll the letters will be um on the next agenda but i'm very familiar with that intersection at church hill and and gray because walking from monotony rocks back if you go from monotony rocks down to towards mass av that's where you cross and it is a dangerous intersection both in both directions and the cars are coming up gray street i find that that can be just as dangerous because you're as you're going across so we had talked previously and we appreciate all the work that tac has done but um you know at some point i would still like to see if there would be a way to get some sort of inventory from tac in terms of what's being worked on and and maybe get a sense of priorities because this this feels like a priority to me um based on what we heard and just just based on what we've seen thank you welcome is mahan no new business thank you mr chair thank you mr chair um i also was going to bring up the the general issue of the gray street i think we've all received a good half dozen emails and they have all made a lot of really good points in addition to the points that have been made i think for me is a question of new business and a direction of future discussion with the town manager and with the board i would like to i think that might be time to re-examine the question of uh engineering based solutions including the potential for you know what we used to call speed bumps i mean there are speed tables there are a lot of other other more gradual things and i don't know if that's the right solution for this uh site i have no idea um but i do know that other communities are using um engineering solutions like this for safety and um just in not only in response to this near miss incident but other things that i've heard i think in my two years in the board i've heard more from residents about traffic safety and pedestrian safety than any other single issue with the possible exception of tom meaning re precincting so i i would urge us to just keep in mind of all things being on the table it's a complicated discussion um both in terms of capital budget and public sentiment about it um but um but this has certainly redrawn my attention to that so i'm glad to hear some some noise about that tonight thanks for telling me sir no thank you and i have no business i'll just say it like that so expected uh missing things on the agenda i am trying to do this the uh paperless when i'm here you know so but i've also tried to facilitate you know the movement of the meeting so i've actually added my my phone into the process i'll i'll get this all worked out but then my chair will be over uh so anyways thank you for your patience and i sometimes have these little hiccups in so um with that i think it's time to ask for those to adjourn by mr heard we have it in a second second by mr coursey so i'm mostly adjourned by mr heard and second by mr coursey mr behind mr heard yes mr of coursey yes mr helman yes mr mohan yes mr diggins yes yeah i just thought that was fast