 Good evening. I am calling to order this meeting of the Arlington Select Board on Monday, November 20th. I am Select Board Chair Eric Helmuth. Tonight's meeting is being conducted in a hybrid format consistent with provisions by the Massachusetts State Legislature for remote participation in public meetings. Before we begin, please note the following. First, this meeting is being conducted in the Select Board chambers and over Zoom. It is being recorded and simultaneously broadcast on ACMI. Second, people worsening to join the meeting by Zoom may find information on how to do so on the town's website. People participating either in person or by Zoom are reminded that you may be visible to others and that if you wish to participate, we ask you 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 found on the town's website, specifically the Select Board agendas and minutes page. There will be a number of opportunities for public comment at tonight's meeting. When those arise, I will mention it and at that point if you are participating in the room, you're in the room and you want to participate, of course, raise your hand. Same thing in Zoom, if you're participating in Zoom, you want to participate. At the time I announced the public comment, please raise your hand when I announced the public comment is open. If you do not know how to raise your hand in Zoom, now would be an excellent time to search for how to do so. Let's see how much of the town's business we can get done tonight. Our first item of business is the introduction of our new Veterans Services Director, Mr. Feeney. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased and honored to welcome Colonel Phillip McGovern to the meeting this evening in hopes of just offering an opportunity for a public introduction. Phil is going to be our new Veterans Services Director. We were very fortunate that he was able to join us during the Veteran Day Ceremony, which I know some of you had the opportunity to meet Phil, but also wanted to provide the public to hear a little bit more about Phil, sort of put a name with the face and know who it is that's going to be serving Arlington's Veterans for hopefully years to come. Excellent. If you'd like to come up to the table and give us some brief introduction. Thank you very much, sir, for joining our community. Great. Thank you very much. Thanks for the kind introduction, Jim. And thank you to the Select Board for inviting me here tonight to briefly speak with you to be introduced to you and the community that you represent as the senior elected leadership of Arlington. You know, I figured just to give you, you've probably heard some background about me or read it or, but in a nutshell, you know, for my career, since my mid-20s when I graduated from law school, has been more or less a hybrid itself in many ways of civilian and military service with some private sector work as well. In the front half of it, it was full-time civilian service employment and part-time military from the time when I enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard, the Army National Guard, after graduating from Suffolk University Law School. At that time, I, you know, I was looking toward serving as a prosecutor and after a couple years, maybe three and a half years out of law school, I did get hired into the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office and eventually into the criminal bureau after service in district court work. All that time, I was progressing up, getting serving enlisted for three years in the Guard. Commissioned as an officer in 1994. Next year will be my 30th year of commission service and that's when colonels, unless there are some day gonna be generals, are no longer, are gonna fade away, as General McAtha put it. And it's been an awful lot of great service in between in the military. I come to this job after spending 20 of the past 32 months on active duty at the Pentagon. I have, and like my career, it's overall has been hybrid, my current military has been quite hybrid and varied. I've served in all three components of the United States Army. There are three components, the active component, the National Guard component and the US Army Reserve component. When I became a major during deployment to Iraq in 2007 to eight, I was a National Guard officer. When we got back, I decided in that timeframe with the military being in a call to veteran soldiers to be on active duty quite frequently, that investing full-time as a strategic plans and policy officer in the active component of the US Army would be best for my service and for my career overall. So I've been 50-50 just about on part-time military service and full-time military service. The past 15 years, more that full-time. Currently in the US Army Reserve, I came off the 20 months at the Pentagon, joined staff. Coming back to Massachusetts, I was back here working for the National Guard. Again, after being in the active army, I returned to the National Guard, returned. I had never really left Woobin as being my place of residence while I was on active duty. But I came back, bought a house in Woobin. After getting back this past just two months ago, decided I would like to get back into municipal service, back into state service. I had actually worked for the city as a young kid. While I was in college and for the lot apartment of the city of Woobin. When I was in law school, worked obviously for the state. And coming back, I felt like getting reintegrated into a place where I could actually work with individuals and help them get the benefits that they deserve. As well as working with a full community to help the veterans community energize itself to be mutually supportive. And a community within a community as full-fledged integrated members. I think that the Veterans Day celebration, commemoration last Saturday was a great example of that. I think our Veterans Council is a great demonstration of that where some members are veterans, others are civilians of their entire life who want to work toward the goals of the veterans community and may have veteran relatives themselves and friends. So with that, I thank you for inviting me here. I'll guarantee you it's, I know I have big shoes to fill with the immediate predecessor, Jeff Chunglow, with his predecessor, Bill McCarthy. Both of whom have been extraordinarily supportive in the past couple of weeks that I've been here and as has everybody else working for the town. With that, I thank you. And if you have any questions of me, I'd be more than happy to answer. But I don't want to belay be a town because I know you have a lot of town business to do. We do, but thank you very much for your service to our country, to your community. And we're delighted to have you. I wouldn't call it fading away, but fading into a new phase. Fading into a new phase. I think in lieu of questions, I would invite my colleagues to make any brief remarks before we move on. And I'll start with Mr. Herd. Thank you. Thank you for coming in. Thank you for choosing Arlington. I was going to tell you you have big shoes to fill, but you covered that portion of my comments. I mean, I've lived in Arlington a long time and the veterans events have always been really an important part of our town events and the events had I as a kid growing up in Arlington and now as an adult really remember about the town. And it's certainly just one minor aspect of the job that you're filling. But I'm really excited to have someone who's so passionate about veterans. And again, thank you for your service, both active and as a reservist. And I think your experience will come in and take our already wonderful events and allow you to kind of put your own touch on it. And it's really important for our veterans and non-veterans to partake in those events. And certainly I like to bring my two boys down to those events. And it's always a good experience for everyone involved. So thank you for choosing Arlington and I look forward to working with you. Thanks, John. Thank you, Mrs. Mahat. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Colonel McGovern. We've already caught you quick at the firehouse and over there in the chair. And as I said to you earlier, I was a little trepidation. Once we had Bill McCarthy, Yorca, ask him how we got that nickname. There's no salacious story behind it, but it's a fun story. And Jeff Chunglow, definitely our big boots to fill. Nice to see Ami Green, my dad wanted to pass on. But one of the things that I think was so successful with Bill McCarthy and then with Jeff Chunglow and now with you is the many different aspects of a veteran's life and or his or her family. Not only here in Arlington, but as I mentioned to you sometimes because Arlington's known by its predecessors and now you for being able to help all veterans. I can't tell you how many veterans have been helped out by Bill McCarthy and Jeff Chunglow because that's the way they operate it. As you know, there's a lot of very serious issues that veterans have to deal with. Mental health and suicide, that was something that Jeff Chunglow really highlighted and something that I and others have worked on. And as I said to you before, and you certainly are very cognizant, I'm very aware of this is a strong suit that you definitely do have to help someone. It's truly just doing the four letters to help someone. And sometimes it'll be unsung hero, you'll be in your job because especially with veterans, regardless of what exercise or operation or war that they served in when they come home, as you know, and we discussed, it's very difficult to reach out for help. And the way that I've seen it successful, not just for Arlington veterans, but both Bill McCarthy and Jeff Chunglow helped other veterans who live in communities that don't have such a strong veteran service officer is truly just to do the help, maintain the contact. And unfortunately, there's gonna be a lot of good deeds that you do, we'll know in terms of the ceremonial days, things that you're working on and oversee, but there'll be a lot of things that you do that we probably won't know about. So I wanna thank you in advance and wish you nothing but the best of luck. And I'm always available and you're always available, so you and I will be very friendly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mrs. Mohan. Mr. DeCoursey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And Colonel McGovern, first of all, thank you for your service to our country, a true hero, and we're really honored to have you here with us, you've done tours in Iraq, in Afghanistan, excuse me, in your Purple Heart recipient. So thank you so much for your service and look forward to working with you going forward. It was nice to meet you last week at the Veterans Day ceremony and look forward as we go forward to working with you on the Veterans Memorial Park and getting the names of veterans up in the park and getting that renovated. So welcome and best of luck in the position. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, I think he said statements, but I'm usually the guy with the questions. And so I'm gonna phrase my question in the form of a statement because the town manager said that when he read your CV, it was as if it had been created by AI. He was just that impressed by it. That makes me wanna see it. And so I'll be happy to talk with you because I was really impressed with your talk being at Veterans Day. In fact, I called the latter part of the lecture because I felt there was a lot of information in there and I felt that you had a lot more that you wanted to say. And I wanna hear what it is because I think there's a lot to you and I like the whole hybrid aspect of things. And so I look forward to getting to know you better. I think you will have the potential to do some very creative things here in town. I mean, I think there are ways that we can integrate veterans into the community more. I mean, yes, they live here, but I mean, there are lots of opportunities for them to play more roles in the town, to support the town and then have the town support them. And I think you're a person who will realize those opportunities. So thank you very much and welcome aboard. Great, thank you very much. Thank you again. Have a good evening. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thanks for taking the time tonight. It brings us to item three, to review and approve bond issues and related matters under the determination of maximum useful life of capital asset purchases to be financed. Mr. Feeney. Thank you Mr. Chair. So this is a bit of a procedural matter in advance of the upcoming bond issuance that the town will be doing. So we're gonna be selling approximately $18 million in the first half of December. We've already had our bond ratings call. Just at the highest level, we'll be doing 10 million of exempt debt for the AHS project and then 8 million of non-exempt debt for a portion of it for the DPW project and then the remainder being equipment and projects as approved by the annual town meeting this spring. So of course, the treasurer and finance director will likely bring the results of that sale to you after it occurs, so sometime in December. But the procedural matter I referred to was in accordance with chapter 44, section seven for certain pieces of equipment that a community intends to borrow for. We need to get what's called a useful life certificate for those equipment purchases if we intend on borrowing for more than five years. And it has been customary for us when we buy ambulances and some larger pieces of equipment to borrow for upwards of six or seven years because that is generally the life expectancy we get out of that equipment because we do have our own motor equipment repair division and we're able to keep these things on the road. So this ask is based on our experience but also is based on simply dotting our eyes and crossing our T's to make sure that everything is in order for our upcoming bond issuance. So seeking the board's approval tonight for the items listed in treasurer Wayman's memo and that will be sent off to the group that's helping us issue the bonds in the coming weeks. Thank you, Mr. Feeney. I'll turn to the board for any questions, comments or motions. Mr. Diggins. I'll move approval. Second. No questions. Any discussion? Okay. So a motion by Mr. Diggins and seconded by Mr. Hurd. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous vote. Thank you. All right, item four. We have for approval a request for a special series of special one-day beer and wine licenses on the following dates, November 30th. December the 1st, December the 2nd, December the 7th, December the 8th, December the 9th, December 14th, December 15th, December 16th, December 21st, December 22nd, December 23rd, December 28th, December 29th, and December 30th at the Roast of Granola Cafe for a pop-up beer bar by the Arlington Brewing Company. And Ms. Maher, do we have, I believe you have Mr. Guernsey in Zoom? He is in Zoom, but his partner, but his partner, Thomas, is present in person. Very good. Well, you could, if you want to come up, sir, and you could bring Mr. Guernsey into, in case he wants to. Yeah, I'm trying. It looks like he may be declining the question. That's fine, yeah. That's fine. So, yeah, great, that's fine. So let's introduce yourself, and many of us are familiar with your business and your product, and I think favorably, but give us an idea of what you have in mind and what you're asking the board for tonight. Sure thing, so my name is Tom Allen. I'm co-owner of Arlington Brewing Company, and I'm the brewer, and I live here in Arlington, and I guess I should start by saying thank you. The town has been incredible so far. We had a lot of fun over the summer at the res doing our big beer garden there, and thank you to everybody in the town for being so supportive as well. I mean, the support has been overwhelming. We can barely make enough beer, which is great. So, we were thinking about how do we build on success that we had over the summer, and although it's been difficult for us to find a brick and mortar location here in Arlington, we wanted to continue to be able to sell beer and interact with people in the community and have that face-to-face experience instead of just selling all the beer in cans at liquor stores. So we had done some work to try to figure out what we could do with respect to events, and we met up with the owners of the Rosa Granola, Emily and Sarah, and they're great, and they were very excited about the idea of hosting a pop-up beer bar. So the idea here is, during the evenings, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, throughout the month of December, and then one day in November as well, for us to do a pop-up beer bar where we're gonna serve Arlington Crafted Beer to the Arlington community, anybody who wants to come, and then the people at the Rosa Granola will also be there, and they'll serve food and non-alcoholic beverages and some other treats as well. And so we were thinking that would be a great way to kind of continue on the success that we had had this year and really have some holiday spirit and get to know our neighbors and friends a little bit better throughout the end of the year, and just have a good time. Excellent. Thank you very much. Just a quick question, administrative question from Ms. Maher, just a clarification that these are all separate one-day licenses, right? So that we're presenting in one fell swoop, but each of them is a separate, because that's the only mechanism we have. Yes. So thank you very much, and stay put, and we'll see if there are questions and comments or motions from the board. Mrs. Mahan. First, I'd like to move approval. Second, I'd like to say to Tom and Matt, thank you for being here in Arlington. You've been everywhere between the res and town day and individual events. I think this is a fantastic idea, great location. The owners and managers of the Rosigranola are very well embedded in the community, and very respectful neighbors. So even though we are, and I'm glad you pointed that out, Mr. Chair, the only avenue available to us are individual day, one-at-a-time licenses, but I think this, as you say, this is a great way to instead of just putting cans on the shelves. Although I see a lot of them on Facebook, people looking where to get Sherlock Ale or something, and spypots. IPA, yeah. IPA, so it is. We did drop some cans today, and there still might be some available in Michigan, if people hurry. Yeah. So I wish you nothing but success, and I'm very impressed as we've all gone through your application. We're very mindful of whether it's a year-long liquor license or an individual one day with consecutive days that the proper precautions are taken, and you certainly have some really stringent rules laid out here in terms of that. So I wish you nothing but success, and I'm gonna do my best to get up to one of those days. I really don't have an excuse not to make one. Well, thank you. I hope to see you there. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Diggins. Yes, I will second it, and I'll also say I like your logo. Thank you. Is that the tower? It is. That's how you know that someone is from Arlington when they recognize the logo. Yeah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, very cool. Very cool, very nicely done, you know? That's it. Mr. Hurd. Happy to move approval. Oh, you're not moving approval. You're third in it. Third in it. Yeah. I didn't get there, get to the res, but I did go to the beer garden at town day. I was a big fan of the spy PA. The spy. But I couldn't get anywhere, then I was at a hockey tournament a couple of weeks ago, and a friend of mine from Arlington pulled out a couple cans of spy PA. I was like, I don't get that. He's like, you gotta go there at the five o'clock on Friday when they drop them off, and there's a limited supply, but it's great they chose Arlington. Really happy to see such success, especially amongst Arlington people. And I think, you know, the sky has a limit from there. So I like that you're in the, when you're in the infant stages of the company, and you can't stock the shelves full of spy PA. You have an opportunity to meet, reach out to the community. And I think this will be a really successful event, and I look forward to it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Allen. I'm also happy to support this, and I hope at some point with the success here, you're able to find a place here in Arlington and come before us for a more permanent license, or a permanent license, and if things continue for you, and it's a best of luck on these series of five events, three one day events, and going forward. Thank you. Thank you, yeah. Okay, everything my colleagues have said, and just say how impressed I have been. I mean, your homegrown business, of course, we have a lot of local pride, but you're really doing it right. You know, alcohol service is serious. I think, and every time I've seen you operating, you take the tips training and the procedures of policies really seriously. And as my colleague, Mrs. Mohan said, that's really important to this board. It's the way to keep the public as safe as we can. I know that you're really committed to that. You're also committed to a really high quality product. And your staff has been great. So, you know, can't say enough good things about you. We're happy that we're able to do this. Thank you for your understanding of the inflexibility we have with our mechanisms for doing this, but also as a fan of not only your product, but of the Roasted Granola's venue and the wonderful owners there. I also look forward to ambling down the hill myself and taking advantage of one of these. So, on a motion by Mrs. Mohan, seconded by Mr. Diggins and enthusiast, we thirded by Mr. Herd. All members, please say aye. Aye. Opposed. As unanimous, thank you and good luck. Thank you very much. That brings us to the Consent Agenda, items five and six. We have recommendations from Officer Cory Roteau from the Traffic and Parking Division of the Police Department regarding River Street, Brooks Avenue and Chandler Street School Zones and a reappointment of Daniel Riccadelli to the, let me just, I don't wanna say this publicly. ZBA. To the Zoning Board of Appeals. Thank you. I'll turn to my colleagues for any comments or motions. Overproval. Second. Any discussion? Okay, on a motion to approve items five and six on the Consent Agenda by Mr. Diggins and seconded by Mr. Herd. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed. As unanimous. Brings us to item seven, public hearings and this is the ever sourced petition from Massachusetts Avenue. We have Ms. Duffy. Welcome. How are you? Very well, thank you. Thank you for coming this evening. Thank you for having me. And Star-Elegic, ever sourced energy, respectfully request a granted location for the installation of 15 feet of conduit and Mass Ave at Broadway. The purpose of this work is to improve service reliability in the area. I will see if there's any comments from the town manager in this regard. Nope, good, we'll just report. Ms. Simhan. I would like to move approval. And I know we haven't been as successful as we want to in terms of our double poll issue. But I do want to thank Ms. Duffy for doing everything you possibly can to try to help coordinate that. I know one of the double polls that Mr. Dacorsi highlighted, the last time you were here and you took the pitches and sent them out is on Broadway, I don't know if the double poll on Broadway is adjacent to this work here. I just wanted to put a plug in there just in case it was, but I know it's a coordination and it's not just the company that you represent. And I do appreciate over the past decade or so even more the many times that myself and my former and current colleagues have called upon you and you've really gone above and beyond to try to do your best. So I appreciate your responsiveness. I unfortunately cannot say that for some others. Thank you, Ms. Simhan. Any other comments from the board? Mr. Dacorsi. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I believe you moved approval, Ms. Simhan. Yeah, I'll second the motion. And yeah, it's nice to see you in the chambers again. It's been a while. Yeah, and I appreciate the work you've done reaching out to Verizon. And I will be back shortly with another update to that, but that's more of a Verizon issue as you said. So that's all I had. Before we go to the public comments and the other comments from the board. All right, so this is a public hearing. If you would like to comment on this proposal on the approval, please raise your hand in the room or in Zoom. Ooh, the rhymes. Seeing no hands, an emotion to approve by Mrs. Mohan is seconded by Mr. Dacorsi. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? You unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving. You too. Moving to item eight, appointments. So we have two proposed appointments to the Conservation Commission. So we have Eileen Coleman and Sarah O'Farrell-Franco. And I believe both of them are present in Zoom and are being moved in as Zoom presenters as we speak. So let's start with Ms. Coleman. If you would like to unmute yourself and go on camera. Good evening. Please introduce, thank you for willing to serve. Please introduce yourself and give us a brief statement of what your interest is here. Sure. So I'm Eileen Coleman. I live in the Heights. I was formerly a conservation commissioner some years ago. I stepped down from that. I'm currently the assistant conservation administrator and the stormwater coordinator for the town of Burlington. And I have degrees in biology and environmental science and I've worked as an environmental perimeter. So I'm interested in stepping back on as an associate conservation commissioner if you're willing to count on it, Seth. Very well. Quick question for Attorney Cunningham. Do we need to move and vote with these separately or can we do them together? I prefer separately, Mr. Chair. You got it. All right. So let's just start with the comments and questions from the board for Ms. Coleman. I'll move approval. And say thank you for coming back. We know what it's all about and you're going to do it again. So that says a lot about the work itself and about you. So you bring a lot of experience and I don't know why I'm going to even say I'm confident you'll do a good job because it doesn't explain just how confident I am about how good a job you'll do. So thank you. Ms. Mahon? Second. And once again, thank you for your repeat entrance back to conservation commission. Although it seems like you haven't really stepped away from it at all. You just wearing different hats and happy to have you back as an associate member. And I know there's a lot on the conservation commission platter, artificial turf and Mugar and a whole bunch of other issues. And it's nice to have someone with the experience in the anecdotal history. There's really no learning curve with this appointment and that's much needed. And thank you so much for volunteering to do this. I definitely appreciate it. Any further comments from the board? Questions? Okay, good. Thank you very much for returning. And I think we're ready to take a vote. So we have a motion to appoint Ms. Coleman as an associate member of the conservation commission made by Mr. Diggins, a seconded by Mrs. Mahon. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? It is unanimous. And now let's go to Sarah O'Farrell-Franco. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Good evening. Same routine. You can introduce yourself and tell us about your interest in serving. Ah, so good evening. I know most of you. And the name is Sarah O'Farrell-Franco. I live at what you said off in the Heights. I am very interested in the work that the conservation commission does. I've been attending their meetings but the last seven or eight months. I value the work. I'm interested in wetlands and conservation and I'm really impressed by the many layers that go into making these decisions and balancing the needs of stakeholders while still, you know, keeping, you know, maintaining the regulations and make sure they are adhered to. So that's my interest and thank you for your consideration. My hands up. Wave your hands. I was gonna say, I was gonna jump Mr. Diggins but I didn't dig. Oh, I didn't see you. Raise your hand. Please, sir. So I very enthusiastically being a make a motion to approve this. I'm gonna screw the last name, sir. Sarah O'Farrell-Franco. Oh, I actually did that me when I was at ACMI. So, sadly, perhaps is more responsible than most for me being here. Because I started work at ACMI on Arlington Public News. With Sarah. And so, you know, I know Sarah's gonna do a great job because Sarah has very high standards. She does really great work and she's a quick learner. I'm really very dedicated. And so, that's why I'm so enthusiastic and about making the motion need. That's it. Thanks. Ms. Mon. I wanted to jump Mr. Diggins but I didn't dare. So, I'll enthusiastically second this motion. And I was very excited. Ms. O'Farrell-Franco. Ms. O'Farrell-Franco. But I feel funny just calling you Sarah. But that's basically how I've met you. You're going to be a fantastic addition to the Conservation Commission because you certainly in working at ACMI and covering all the multitude of different kinds of meetings, as well as my personal interactions with you, you definitely have a grasp for not only the issue but the different points of view around the issue. You've always done your homework and my homework sometimes. And in terms of being level-headed and a grasp of being able to listen more than talk, you definitely have scored the bank on that one. And I've always appreciated that. And I'm not surprised that you've already been attending the meetings and you're probably just as well versus anybody else with that, with your experience and background that you have, not just at ACMI, but in terms of your educational and employment endeavors. So, and again, all of our boards and commissions are very important for the town. And I always say we couldn't afford to pay you all if we had to, but especially with the different issues, as I mentioned before to the previous appointee, that some are longstanding like Mugar and some are just brand new, like the artificial turf. And I know we'll be well-served by your service on this commission. And I look forward to seeing you in action. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Any further comments or questions from the board? Okay, on a delightfully enthusiastic motion by Mr. Dickens and a heartwarmingly enthusiastic second by Mrs. Mahon. The cheerleader. All in favor of appointment, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Unsurprisingly, it is unanimous. Thank you very much for your willingness to serve. Thank you so much and I appreciate your work and happy Thanksgiving. It is a really wonderful example of one of the things that makes this town such a great community is that we have so many smart, qualified, hardworking people who are willing to serve. And I'm glad to know that the enthusiasm is warranted, particularly in these cases. Okay, it brings us to open forum. The preamble being accepted in unusual circumstances. Any matter presented for consideration of the board shall neither be acted on or a decision made in 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. And I will note to people in the room and on Zoom as well that what I would like to ask folks to do is to look ahead on the agenda. And if you want to make comments to the board on any of the next four agenda items, ask you to do that here in open forum just to streamline our process since we don't, none of these require public hearing. That's right. Attorney Cunningham, I learned to check with the public hearing police here. Yes, Mr. Chair. Thank you. So we have the long range plan update by Mr. DeCorsi, the comments on the AOA combined sewer overflows for approval to recommendations for the Transportation Advisory Committee and the Intermediate Civil Agreement for the 250th celebration. So if you want to comment on those, this is your time and also any other matter that you wish to bring before the board within three minutes. So if you are in Zoom, and I can't go, Mr. Anderson, but if you're in Zoom and want to be in line for public comment, please raise your hand at this time. We have at the table Ms. Kristin Anderson. Hi, thank you. Welcome and go right ahead. Okay. I live at 12 up on the road west and I am here tonight to thank you for working on this NPD's permit comment letter. And I'm going to let David Stoff talk about that a little bit more. But I also just really wanted to thank you in the spirit of Thanksgiving, especially Diane Mahan for being at the CSO meeting on Wednesday night last week. And also Town Council and Town Manager and Michael Rademacher for coming. It was an awesome meeting. There were 170 people logged on early in the evening despite the many schedule conflicts that people faced last week. There was a lot going on. And there were equal parts residents from Somerville, Cambridge and Arlington there, as well as people from Belmont and Medford. And what we have been trying to do at Save the L'Wife Brook is not be just an organization representing Arlington, but we're trying to get activists in Cambridge and Somerville on board as well. And what we discovered last week was that the CSO sewage pollution problem really does not end at the municipal border and neither does the concern for it. People in Davis Square and people in West Cambridge and North Cambridge cared deeply about this issue. So that was great. And I also wanted to thank Mr. Feeney for coming out for a tour of the CSOs a couple of weeks ago. That was, I guess it was just a week ago today. And I was really impressed by some of the comments that Mr. Feeney made specifically about some of the snags in the Brook that may be leading to flooding. I hadn't considered that, but perhaps that's something that DCR could address. And so anyway, that's all I wanted to say. Thank you. Thank you for your advocacy. Oh, you're welcome. Do we have anybody else in the room or in Zoom? Mr. Stoff? Good evening, sir. It's the introduction itself. Well, hello, I'm David Stoff. I live at 88 Fairmont Street, my home abuts the L'Wife Brook. And I am downstream from two active CSOs that discharge untreated sewage. And I want to echo what Kristen said about everyone appearing at the long-term planning meeting. I think that's a great change from the past performance of the town of Arlington. And I'm really happy that the town is so engaged in the process. So now the nice is out of the way. I've sent comments, and I don't know whether the whole board has received them, about the revised permit comment letter that is on your agenda. And there are two particular items in that letter that are really troubling to me. And that's the adoption of the town of Arlington of language that is written by MWRA's lobbyist, which is simply a frontal attack on EPA's Clean Water Act authority. And I don't see how that has any political support in the town. I appreciate the position that people are looking out for the town's interest by reserving appeal rights. But it's the provision in the permit, which is under attack, is giving EPA authority to attack I&I issues in various sanitary sewer towns through the permit. And it's a longstanding practice. It's 10 years of, well, the people I've talked to at EPA say they've been doing this for 10 years. And I think what we're seeing is wastewater industry opening up a new front in their attack on the Clean Water Act. And I don't see that that's really a thing for Arlington to be involved in. It's language that's prepared in anticipation of litigation. And what I suggested is that if we want to reserve our rights, we make Arlington specific comments, which will at least give the agency EPA something to work with. You know, some compromise can be drafted. And that's really the outcome of this because I don't see that the town has the resources to engage in that particular form of litigation. The other issue in the permit was contingency planning for climate change, which is something that I think has, you know, the town is a climate change leader. And at the Wastewater Advisory Committee meeting, I actually advocated for something like the language that the town has adopted. It's just that it should become Arlington specific. I mean, the problem with requiring that plan, that planning to happen in six months is it will never get through town meeting. I mean, you have to, you know, you have to realize that town meeting will need time to study the issue, as well as DPW will need time to draft a plan. And if you make it appear that it's being forced through town meeting, you court rejection. So, yeah, absolutely. I agree with the thrust of that comment, but let's couch it in Arlington specific language about town meeting so that we may get a result that works to our advantage. That said, I thought they were very strong comments. And they're, you know, each draft I see is so much better than the last. I'm, you know, I'm here because I'm hoping the next one is even better. So. Where do you see what Mr. Dacorsi did? Thank you. With that said, thank you very much for your comments, sir. And we'll be revisiting this topic of a publicly noticed agenda item just a little bit. Any other persons on Zoom who wish to participate in open forum? Ms. Maher. Ms. Maher has made a comment that she's here for TAC. Yes. But would you like me to let her know that she can speak regarding those during the agenda item? Oh, yeah, yeah, in this, yes, thank you. In this particular case, because she's the TAC chair, we would want her to be on that for the item. Yeah, I should have, I should have thought of that. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Maher. Appreciate someone's paying attention around here if it's not the chair. All right. Very good. The closed open forum for the evening and we'll now move on to under traffic rules and orders and other business, the update for the long range plan. And I give you the chair of the Long Range Planning Committee, Mr. DeCorsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And just to update the board, I said last time that the Long Range Planning Committee was meeting. We met last Friday morning, Mr. Feeney and Mr. McGee presented the updated long range financial projections based on the results of the override, inserted the commitments that are in place, had a discussion about the funds for the schools for fiscal 24, there's a net of $400,000 that will be allocated to the school department budget. We're not sure of the mechanism yet. And that may be something that comes up when we have our discussion on the time meeting warrant, but that was discussed. And we also talked about coming back in February after Mr. Feeney develops his budget recommendations for fiscal 25. But overall, and the Chairman, Mr. Helmuth, was here with me on behalf of the select board. But it really was an update based on the results of November 7th, a discussion about what's going to happen over the next few months. And when the governor's budget numbers come out, when Mr. Feeney's budget recommendations come out, that's when Long Range Planning will meet again. I don't know if Mr. Feeney wants to add anything to that. Mr. Feeney? Sure, thank you. I would just say that, yeah, the February timeline works well because we start to get information from the governor's budget with indications about what local aid may or may not be or what the percentage increase might be. And that is also, you know, we'll be more than halfway through the fiscal year and we'll have a good understanding of where some of our revenue sources for this year are tracking and if that's an indicator of what may be happening for a trend for a future projection. So that seems to gel with what has been customary in the past and those are the reasons why. That's all I had. Any questions? Let's go with Mrs. Mahun. I want to thank Chair of Long Range Planning, Mr. Corsi and our chair, Mr. Helmuth, for participating in these meetings, especially Mr. Helmuth, after serving in another musical chair in Vesta and Arlington's, that definitely appreciate that. The February meeting, I'll definitely keep in touch with the two of you and if it's something that myself and or any other board members want to also attend, I'll coordinate that with the chair, but I do appreciate getting the information back individually from Mr. Corsi and Mr. Helmuth and I also have had brief conversations with our two representatives to Long Range Planning, as well as the town manager, I have not had the opportunity, my fault, to speak with our treasurer or a comptroller. It's since, for years, when I first got on the board, I always advocated, is there any way we can get, you know, an audit report even yearly and now we get them quarterly? Not that the numbers and the information is not out there, but in terms of our day job, our family life, having the professionals who work for us in the finance arena, able to compile it and present it to us and for myself, individually, you know, save me a couple of hours of trying to pull from different categories, so if I could, Mr. Chairman, if I could just ask the town manager just very briefly, I had a conversation, is that okay? Of course. It has to do with Long Range Planning. Absolutely, yeah. I have numbers reporting. Sure. Regarding the general stabilization funds, the override stabilization funds and the building municipal trust fund in terms of maybe somehow incorporating, it's fine if there's actual number, budgeted numbers, but I'd like actual numbers, but, and I think you had a possible solution if that's okay, Mr. Chairman. Of course, yeah. Please, Mr. Chairman. Sure, so I think it would be possible to provide those up to date current figures in our quarterly budget reports that we provide via the finance team, often through the Comptroller, but I will note as well that the updated copy of the Long Range Plan that we're publishing will be carrying actual year-to-date balances for both free cash, the stabilization fund, the override stabilization fund and the municipal building insurance trust fund so that we understand not just what had been the budgeted figures, but the current account balances with accrued interest based on monthly statements from the banks that hold these funds on behalf of the town. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So that just saves me an hour or two trying to figure it out on my own and I apologize for adding more work onto something that is already there, but it's such an easy read for me. I just want to continue with that trend. So thank you, Mr. Chairman. Absolutely. Any further discussion? All right, thank you very much, Mr. DeCorsi for your update and for your leadership of the Long Range Plan Committee. I think that there's been a real value in the continuity that we've had over the last. You're leading up to the override in this year and I think beyond. So thank you, appreciate your service. Okay, and it brings us to item 10, the comments regarding the ALIFE CSO. And let's start with Mr. Feeney. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I will note that I would want to first thank Attorney Conningham for helping as much as he did with helping to prepare the draft. I do know that Mr. DeCorsi also took some time to sort of rework and reorder, much of what had been in the draft so that it would be a bit more organized and easier to read. I think that was sort of the victim of Mike and I kicking a draft back and forth a number of times on different occasions. So I know that you folks have essentially two draft versions in front of you that is based on information that Mike and I received from meeting with our director of Public Works, Mike Rademacher, from having met with the Mr. River Watershed Association, from Mike and I attending the Long Term Control Plan meeting that was referenced by some residents earlier and just generally researching the issue. What I will say is that we had some recommended comments from Mr. Stoff referenced earlier and I will note that he provided some language for in comment number two. Is it related to the inflow and infiltration plan? And after review, we believe that those are very good comments and are worthy of incorporation into Arlington's draft and it would fit well that if this plan does become a requirement of the permit that we lay out the circumstances why the six month timeline just really doesn't work for municipal governments that need to budget for those study dollars, bring it before the legislative body for appropriation, wait until those funds are available, conduct an RFP to get the consultant, enter into a contract, do the work. So we agree that a timeframe closer to 24 months would be more appropriate if this requirement were to be incorporated into the permit and we believe that we could accurately depict Arlington's circumstances that relates to that timeline in the draft if the board was in agreement. Any discussion from the board? Mr. Gorsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Attorney Cunningham and for Mr. Feeney for the work that you did and Mr. Stoff who was here. There was drafts of comments or letters that he had submitted. I know a number of the things have made it in here already in terms of public notification which is so important particularly based on what happened on August 8th of this year where people were wading through Soorage around Aleifbrook because they had no idea about the event that had taken place and a place to a requirement, proposed requirement for communities in the MWRA to report complaints that they received for the nuisance odors that are emanating from the site. So I think on the draft sounds like there's a little bit more that you'd like to add here and I think we have until November 28th we don't have another meeting but if it's appropriate, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to move approval of the letter subject to additional revisions by the time manager and maybe by the chair to sign on behalf of the board too because we won't be meeting again. I'm happy to second that. I'm happy to second that and I do have some questions. So first question is, does this differ from what is on those agenda? A little bit more. Ms. Marr? The one that's on your desk was uploaded into Novus this afternoon. So how different is it from what was on Friday? It's like downloaded on Friday. Of course you could probably answer that. Yeah, the letters reordered and Mr. Fiends exactly right there was a couple sources of the information and so as it was put together it was in a couple different places in the letter. Here it's, we deal with each issue separately by the little tighter organization on the letter as a result of being able to look at both versions and reorder things. Okay, that's why I'm trying to answer that. But there's nothing new in terms of information. There's a specific reference to a DEP variance and the date that it was issued. That's probably the only specific change that was made there but everything that you see was somewhere in the letter that you would have viewed on Friday. Okay, fine, fine. So I'm trying to understand now this issue about six months versus 24 months. Me, so what is that referring to in here, Mr. Fiends? So I have the exact reference available to me at this moment. But it specifically pertains to what is called the major events planning provisions in the II plan or inflow infiltration. So that would be a bit of a novel requirement but I think what our Department of Public Works and Engineering team was frustrated by was that being a duplicative requirement? That is something that we've been doing as a community for over 13 years to identify those sources. We designed solutions for them and then we fund the fix on a rolling cycle through all of our different sewer rehab programs over the years. So that particular requirement is forward looking in that it requires a plan that is climate resilient if you will to look at a future of more intense storms. And I think Arlington being a MVP, 2.0 community, that is something we agree to in premise and principle. But what was at issue was potentially a separate requirement that we weren't sure exactly what would be required of the town or how we might fund it. We thought, oh geez, we're already doing that work. But I think the point being, if it is required we need to protect ourselves and that if it was required for us to generate that plan in but six months time that we wouldn't be able to do that given that we wouldn't have an appropriation to undertake that study work to generate that plan. All right, I got you now. So I understand that six months is too tight. Do you think we can do it in here? The reason I ask is that when you are telling someone that something needs to be done, mean sooner rather than later, mean another party, mean, and then they're saying, okay, well we want you to do something sooner rather than later. I think that we need to be careful when we extend our timeline out a long time. So I would say we extend it out only as long as necessary. Now I saw your reaction, this is about right. So I think I'm just kind of missing something here. So before I go on, I want to get the reason for the first one. Comments from the board? Yeah. Did you want to? Yeah, just be on your mind here. This is a permanent application by the MWRA. In addition to the MWRA, there are so-called CSO responsible co-permities, Cambridge in some way. We are then added for the first time, the last permit, we were not added as a co-permitee, I'm sorry, I'm not pronouncing that very well. Just by virtue of being in the MWRA system and being one of the 16 or so communities that send their ways. This issue isn't about what Arlington does. Arlington doesn't have any CSOs and that's why Mrs. Mahan reacted the way I believe the way she did. So we're talking about let's eliminate and mitigate CSO events. We're not talking about a sanitary sewer community like Arlington that is already doing so many things here already and doesn't have that issue of CSO outfalls. So that's why there's resistance to, okay, we've got this major problem here. Don't talk to us about dates that we're already addressing through our system and looking forward for climate change. That's why there's resistance. They're two totally different things. Okay, fine, fine. So if I could continue, Mr. Chair? Yes, please, of course. So because that was one of the things I noted too is that in the letter it said that we are now being asked to be co-permitees and we weren't and that shouldn't be the case. Correct? Me at all. Right. And so it seems like it's a mistake on that part. I mean, or they are kind of forcing us to do something to be new, but what would be the basis for them forcing us to be a co-permitee, you know? Yeah, I mean, I'm going to guess that that's a speculative question, but Attorney Cunningham? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I can address that, Mr. Diggins. There is some concern about this novel concept of creating these co-permitees for all the MWRA communities and what that might mean. I think it's unclear at this point exactly what it would mean. And I think there's some concern on the part of Arlington and other communities, especially Arlington as a sanitary sewer community who's doing quite a bit and doesn't have CSOs. What would it mean in terms of obligations for the town in the future? What would it mean in terms of cost for the town in the future? Those questions I think are difficult to answer at this time, but it's certainly not something I think is worth risking. I think the town on behalf of its select board and town manager should rightly object to that. And it's a novel concept legally. I think that question whether the government has the authority to do that regulatory in a regulatory fashion, I think it's an undecided legal question. All right, all right. So another question I have is, so why do we have as something that it's more specifically the town requested the draft permit be revised to address more effectively. And the last point is of local LYCSO facility. So what does that mean? Mr. Feeney. So that Mr. Diggins would mean a local treatment facility. So there are other CSOs in other portions that have different receiving waters that do receive some treatment upon discharge. These particular CSOs that impact Arlington are entirely untreated. Okay, yeah, that's what I wanted to make sure. It just seemed like we were, just by the rough interpretation I was like, we wanted to be more of the problem. And I knew that wasn't what we wanted to do. So I just made it to be clear on that. Okay, so I'll stop for now. But I'll be back if you allow me. All right. Chair is a minimum. All right. Thank you for your question. Of course, just briefly and then try to take time this month, but if there are two additional CSO response that will co-permit permittees, the city of Boston and the city of Chelsea. So I mentioned Cambridge and some will, it's actually four of them. Yes. They're complete that. We appreciate your completeness there. Mrs. Motton. Thank you. And I'm very grateful for my colleagues who unfortunately have been brought, you all have been brought along on the CSO ride, upstream downstream all over the streams along with the town manager and town council. And it's very gratifying for me to hear you all, a lot of what I would have said has already been said. And I can't say that was, or asked, and I can't say that necessarily was the case when I first started on this venture. I have had conversations as we all have also with the town manager and town council on the co-permity issue. And I know that's something that still has to be sort of flushed through to see, first of all, if it is legal, if they can do that regulatorally, why is there not? I got that. I didn't tend to. Yeah, I heard that one. Oh, so I said, oh my Lord, oh my God. It landed. Sorry, David. Sorry, Chris. And I had conversations as my colleagues here on the board have about other suggestions that have come up regarding the co-permity in DCR involvement or maybe no involvement, as well as if we get stuck with, we can't wiggle our way out of being a co-permity, which the last time the variance was up in like 1998, 1999, that wasn't the case. And it's premature now, but we've had conversations to say, okay, well, if they force us into this particular seat or position, is there something that we can do that's too advantage to Arlington in terms of our climate control flood plan? Can we explore DCR and other agencies? This is sort of brand new in terms of the NPD's permit variance hearing process. So I'm definitely on board with that. Agree with the changing the six month language that was in there for two years and Mr. Dacorsi and Mr. Diggins have really spoken to that and brought the points out. Re-echo the thanks to the town manager, to town council, to our DPW director for attending a meeting that started at six o'clock, which I think is disgusting, but did end promptly at eight. Did use the same conflict resolution team that we used for artificial tariff and I believe for one other matter before he ends, so. And I did say to the town manager, I don't know necessarily that you or Mr. Rademacher, Mr. Cunningham, learned anything new, but I think what was more important was among the initial 170 participants that they see it's not just the same old citizen activists, there's that Diane Mahan bleh, but it's nice to see that when the DPW director from Cambridge or assistant director, as well as some of them, they see that their counterparts are also on the Zoom call that indicates an awareness and a statement on behalf of the town in terms of this important issue going forward. I know we have until the 28th. I have been in conversations, but haven't had the chance to follow through. I know it's probably a long shot, but the tale of two cities with some of all, there's one of the two representatives, Luchia, who I'm saying her name wrong, who I think is fantastic, who's been at these meetings on behalf of the city of Somerville, unfortunately gets struck out by her other person and my personal opinion from the city of Somerville, Mr. Rachele, and at the last, he said it at the second meeting, but he said at the last meeting, which is the third, even more definitively, that this is my interpretation, so I'm following up with town council and town manager on this, that basically indicated that the city of Somerville was in violation of the current Nipides permit basically because they thought because of their new fancy system that they put in, they didn't have to do what was in the permit, so they didn't bother doing it anymore. Mr. Rachele, I think is his name, R-A-I-C-H-L-E, and that they might have to actually go back and go down out there and check out some of the, they only have one CSO, and to me they're the worst offender with that one CSO, but again, that's my personal opinion. So I am exploring with the manager and town council, perhaps not, well either perhaps in this comment letter, highlighting that since he said it at a public meeting or just saving that in the back pocket for as we move forward, because fortunately, unfortunately, the MWRA process, this is the Nipides permit process, but the MWRA process still has a shelf life all the way up until I think early to mid-2026, so, but we do have more time to add more comments. I agree with if the chair could sign on behalf of the board so that we can expedite getting that in time to the November 28th, and again, I can't thank everybody enough for, and Ms. Rowe also has been a very ardent advocate in the beginning when we started down this road, we would go in, Clarissa and I, Ms. Rowe and I to represent Arlington, and then we'd see the city of Somerville and the city of Cambridge and the DPW director, assistant director, two or three different attorneys, their environmental planner, our environmental planner, David Morgan, and also Wynch and Odds also, but back then it was just Clarissa and I, so my heartfelt thanks, along with back then it was East Arlington Good Neighbor Committee, now it's saved the Alweif, Brooke, that it's nice to see town officials in there and I think we'll make some headway, we won't get everything we want right away and I recognize that, but at least I think we're on the path to actually move forward for some positive action, so thank you. Thank you. Mr. Hurd. Thank you. I just, I don't want to reiterate the comments that board members have made, but I do want to thank everyone that's been involved in this process from board members to the town, to the residents. I think all the work that's been done regarding CSOs in the past few years has prepared us for a quick response in a manner that sometimes, the applicants might not be used to and it allows us to put up a good fight and put forward our arguments against a pretty significant problem that affects our residents and residents around us and I would say I know a lot more about CSOs than I did a few months ago, but I'm glad there's a lot of people in our community that know a lot more about CSOs than I to really put together a good front here and I think we have an excellent letter here and with the revisions that were suggested, it seems like after years of talking about CSOs, I don't want to say exciting, that's the wrong word, but it's good to actually have a avenue, a specific avenue to voice our concerns and I think we can make some positive change with this. For the comments, Mr. Chairman. Questions? I mean, just so I can understand because we are in the talking. I mean, partly I just want to understand better, but also I end up talking to people about stuff, I mean, so it helps me to be able to explain things. So as a permittee, if we were to call permittee, we would have more say in the matter, I mean, would we get, I mean, what would we get for that? Attorney Cunningham. Mr. Chair, I think that's, unfortunately, Mr. Dickens, I don't think we know and unfortunately the risk is that we get something we don't want, which is potential liability and cost. There could be some positives to it as well, we just don't know, but I think the negatives are, the potential negatives are significant. All right, Ada. I think. The time manager? Yeah, I think I would just add to be clear that copermittee status, as I understood it, was in relation to our being an MWRA community that sends its ways to the Deer Island treatment facility. So we were listed as a copermittee as it relates to the discharges from Deer Island, you know, some ways away from Arlington and in conjunction with a whole number of other communities that send their waste to Deer Island. So I think this town consolidated to, it was a novel concept and it wasn't well elucidated exactly what that meant or didn't mean in terms of the copermittee status and what that might hold in the future. All right, well, in answering that, I could answer another question I had. So I'm all set now, Mr. Chair, thank you. Yeah, yeah, thank you. Good. Any further discussion? So we have a motion by Mr. DeCorsi and seconded by Mr. Diggins to approve this, a subject to revisions from the town manager with the approval of the chair of the board. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? It is unanimous. Thank you all for a good discussion. And thanks to everyone for their work, education, advocacy, and labor. And it takes a village to write a memo. That's what I like. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, item 11 for approval, Transportation Advisory Committee recommendations and we can bring in Ms. Swan from Zoom. I want to bring to the board's attention that we have two memos. The Rossin Road and Broadway improvements and then Jason Street and Hillsdale Street and just noting that for the second one of these, the recommendation is actually no action be taken. So I'm not sure that that one requires a board vote since it's an advisory committee and there's no action pending, but for the first one there would be if the board sees fit to implement this particular recommendation. So good evening, Ms. Swan. Thank you very much for joining us and for your good work. And I'd like to tell us about the memos. Good evening, select board. I am Laura Swan, the chairman of TAC. I should also add that a longstanding member, Jeff Max-Tudis and our newest member, John Aslanian, might also be attending via Zoom. John Aslanian actually worked on this memo and he is the newest appointee to TAC. So thank you all. Let me just go over the background of Rossin Road and Broadway. If you recall, there was a letter from the school committee about several areas of concern, including River Street and turning that into a school zone, which I believe officer Rito spoke about earlier this evening. Another spot was here along Broadway and TAC looked at Broadway and the intersection of Rossin Road and it turns into Foster Street south of Broadway. So it's kind of Broadway, Foster and Rossin. But the main recommendations have to do with Rossin Road. Oh, I thought, sorry. There was a recommendation to expand the existing no parking zone on Rossin Road, basically to the first driveway. This would lose one parking spot, but it would make it easier to enforce the no parking ban and make it easier for approaching vehicles heading south on Rossin to actually see pedestrians in the crosswalk. This is going to be done in conjunction with APD also enforcing the existing parking regulations at key times, particularly in the morning from 8 to 8.30 as children are approaching the Gibbs School. There was also the recommendation to install marked crosswalk across Rossin at Broadway where there's not an existing marked crosswalk and moving the stop bar closer to that crosswalk. So basically tightening up that intersection and making it very clear to drivers where they should be stopping and where to expect pedestrians to be crossing. There was also the request to gather some traffic accounts at the River Bates, Moran and Broadway intersection to check to see if the signal was having cycle failures where cars were going to be stuck at that intersection for a long time and were perhaps trying to cut through the neighborhood and use an alternative street such as Rossin to avoid that. This would also meet the sort of medium term plans to improve the Broadway corridor which will happen after utility and trenching work which I think is due in the 2024 construction season. There's also a longer term recommendation to tighten up the geometry of the entrance to Foster Street, basically to make the corners a little closer together and shorten up that crosswalk which would also happen when Broadway is resurfaced at eight. Let's say the medium term, no, it's too long term. And yes, to monitor the traffic volumes on Rossin due to changes in basically the construction release of delayed delays on Route 16 which are sending some more vehicles down River Street and Rossin Road than have been previously been going through that neighborhood. Great, let's just consider this one and then we'll move on to the second memo. First, I wanna check with the town manager to see if you had any comments about the tech recommendations and I think my specific questions would be, you know, I think it's pretty evident that this flight board wouldn't be voting on long term recommendations now in terms of scope and budget and planning but if there are any short term recommendations that do require a board vote and if you have any views on those, you welcome them. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So as to the short term recommendations listed, I have no concerns. And as you noted, the long term recommendations would be subject to funding and additional capital planning measures as Ms. Swan alluded to. All right, so I will turn to the board for questions, discussions, and potential motions. Thank you. Sure, Eaglin, did you? Yeah. Mr. Heard. Thank you for the presentation. I'll move approval of the short term recommendations. And I'll second, you know, and I guess my question though is, so can we discuss timelines perhaps, maybe on the short term and the long term, you know? So because we need to talk about whether or not we want to do the long term, right? And so I guess the question is like, when do we have that discussion, you know? Because I'm concerned if we just say, okay, well, this is something that needs to be termed later. If we don't determine when later is, maybe then it's just kind of, so I'm gonna develop a little tracking system so that we are aware that it's still there. But I think at some point we just determine when we're going to, you know, at least initiate our end of the follow up. Mr. Heard? Yeah, I mean, I think I would just suggest referring the long term recommendations to the town manager to a view and come back to the board maybe with the timeline. Anything we come up with would probably be relatively arbitrary. So I think if we refer the long term recommendations, say that, you know, we're passing on the long term recommendations to the town manager for feasibility and he can come back to us with a timeline and, you know, with discussions with his staff to make sure that they're recommended, I guess. We'll follow up, yeah, so. Because we always, the goal is to close the loop with whoever brought up the issue first off, you know, and then we tack, you know, and ourselves, you know, so, because things, without real intent, things can just get pushed down the stack, you know, and so we always have to have some kind, I think, kind of mechanism forcing it back up because stuff comes up, so that's all, you know. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Any further discussion on the Ross and Rodin Broadway improvements? I think we have a motion by Mr. Hurd and seconded by Mr. Diggins to approve the short term recommendations. All in favor say aye. Aye. It is a unanimous vote. All right, and then let's turn to the second memo. Ms. Swann, if you'd like to make some comments about the work that you did and the recommendation. Yes, so there was a request for a marked crosswalk to or from Jason or Hillsdale over by Menominee Rocks Park. In my predecessor's time, TAC had recommended to put a crosswalk in, across Jason Street, right at the entrance to Menominee Rocks Park, and we had TAC members go and observe Jason Street. They found that most of the people were crossing with that crosswalk or north of there, and there was not enough pedestrian traffic to warrant another crosswalk south of the park. There were some other observations that traffic seemed well-behaved in the area and that traffic was stopping for the pedestrians that were observed crossing an unmarked crosswalks and that very few people were crossing near the island but that there were enough lulls in the traffic that they seemed like they could find a gap and cross safely. So our recommendation was no change to this current configuration. Thank you very much. I'll turn now to the board for any questions or comments. Okay, I will just add my gratitude. Every time I see a TAC memo, I have a high degree of confidence that a lot of good work has gone into it. I appreciate the visuals and the report. It makes it really clear for us as the responsible parties for traffic to understand what you're talking about and it's great. So I think it's also to your credit that you're willing to say sometimes, hey, we don't think anything needs to be done. I think it's just as valid and important as an outcome as the other thing. So thank you for your work and to your colleagues who drafted these excellent memos. Okay, thank you very much. It turns us to item 12, the Inter Municipal Agreement for the 250th celebration. Mr. Feeney. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So before the board this evening is an Inter Municipal Agreement with Concord, Lexington and Lincoln to enter into some Battle Road 2025 or IE 250th celebration planning efforts, jointly with some of these neighboring municipalities. The goal would largely be to share services and costs related to marketing, public relations and events management given that all municipalities have an interest in the events surrounding this celebration and we think it would be wise to be advertising the same to the various different audiences both in our region and outside of our region that may be traveling to the greater Boston area. And frankly, I've just anecdotally from the initial planning meetings we've had, we've seen the benefit of knowing which community was having which event on which day. So you're not necessarily in competition for the same visitors at the same time and you can plan your schedule of events accordingly but we're hoping that this effort would help us reach as many people as possible. Obviously, the board would be the executing authority here as we're looking to demonstrate commitment from the community's leadership to this important celebration and ideally from the management perspective just looking to work together with these other communities to ensure a safe, successful and collaborative lineup of events and activities. So I will point out that there is, for lack of a better word, a buy-in to this. This is something that has been discussed at length with our local 250th committee upon which the slide board member heard is on. We have identified the sources of funding for Arlington's buy-in and that would be comprised of two $25,000 payments, the first of which the local 250th committee was received a successful vote on a warrant article appropriation for fiscal year 24 at this year's annual town meeting for $25,000 and then I had previously programmed $25,000 in for regional planning efforts pertaining to the 250th celebration into an economic development bond bill that Arlington was the recipient of. So those two sources of funds would serve as our buy-in for this program. And then I guess one final detail that I would point out is that this agreement essentially sets up a core group of eight people, two from each municipality that would be able to attend daytime meetings and take votes on which consultants are chosen and the individuals on town staff that I would propose appointing as Arlington's representatives would be Katie Lezai, our new economic development coordinator who's been joining all of their, not only the regional planning efforts but is helping to bring the next multi-community 250th meeting to Arlington Town Hall as well as Deputy Town Manager Christine Barniorno given her ability to corroborate with not only other communities but the various different departments in town that would play a role during the events and celebration. Thank you, I wonder if our representative to the semi-quincetail committee would care to offer any comments or motions. Sure, good work on that. Thank you, I practiced. Yeah, I do want to thank Tom Andrew and all his work and okay, he's done a lot of work on this. This was a proposal that was made about a year back and it helps in the celebration, it really solidifies our relationship with a couple of our neighboring towns to work together for a time. That's exciting and probably going to be quite chaotic and it helps us pull resources. We're competing with tourists and visitors from Lexington and Concord and some of the more traditional tourist site towns for lack of a better way to phrase it. And so I think working with them to make sure that there's events that happen during this time that Arlington can highlight and they can kind of push people our way. And then just as Tom Andrew said, we're gonna have a lot of consultants to help us put together the right events to attract people into town and the costs are pretty dramatic and to work to pull resources for consultants, for marketing, it'll be very beneficial to the town. Everyone on the 250 committee has been very excited about the prospect of the Intermediate Disability Agreement since it came, since we first heard of it. And so it's good to see it coming together and it will continue the work that we've been doing and we'll do for the next year and a half as we look towards April of 2025 with a test run in April of 2024 and it's exciting. I think it will be a really, really interesting time for the town and a great opportunity for Arlington to highlight its history and its current business offerings and restaurants and other, Arlington Bruin and everything else that the town has to offer. I think it will come to light and it will help us well beyond 2025. So again, I wanna thank everyone that's put work into this and it's exciting to be moving forward with it and move approval. Thank you, Ms. Mohan. Oh, Ms. Mohan, thank you. Mr. Chair, I will definitely second that motion. I saw different language in here that it's a four-year contract but it can be ratified or re-ratified every year but then I saw two-year. So is this a two-year or a four-year with a continuing once a year every year of re-ratification? Am I reading this wrong? I'm just confused by reading it. I had the same, I had the same. Okay, can you repeat it again? Sure. I've read in here this is a four-year, just in terms of what we're signing, this is a four-year agreement then I saw the two-year, then I saw the every year sort of a perfunctory re-ratification of it and then I also saw language that said it could also be extended in additional two years beyond the initial term. So is this a two-year or a four-year with a possibility of an additional two-year? I would, Mr. Chair. Yeah, attorney going in. The term is as he says, it is confusing, Ms. Mohan. I think the term is as it says, September 1, 2023 through June 30, 26 with an option for a further extension, but I think the term most likely based on the celebration that's going to end at that point, I think the only thing I'm gonna have an opportunity to opt out at that point and not participate and further agreement with the other communities beyond that date, which is probably the most likely result, but the language is a bit clunky. Okay. No, that's fine. And then our buy-in, is it just the one buy-in at 50,000? And I'm not complaining, I'm just trying to see what the whole parameter of it is. Is this a one-time buy-in of the 50,000 or there will be another one or two more buy-ins? This is the only buy-in that I'm aware of, and then there would be an agreement with whomever the consultants are that are chosen that if we wanted specific additional Arlington-only services that we would have a mechanism to pay for those separately as Arlington expenses, but the general buy-in remains 50,000, and that's what has been budgeted. And again, I think I just have two more questions. Sure. I'm definitely in favor of this, and these are just housekeeping questions. They're not anyway negative or anything like that. And curiosity, is the other three communities, Lincoln, Concord, Lexington, are they also a $50,000 buy-in or is it different? Yeah, I think that, in fact, that's in the appendix if you scroll far enough. Yeah, all equal shares, yes. And then I see that, thank you to the town of Concord. It's not a city, right? Town of Concord, who seems to be doing a little bit more share of the work in terms of overseeing and the funds and things like that. So don't necessarily need an answer tonight, and we're not talking a $10 million, $2 million budget, but I'm assuming that in terms of any sort of reporting or auditing that the town of Concord will do that since they seem to be the administrator of this and that there will somehow be some reporting vehicle back to the other three member communities. And I just say that in terms of, I don't wanna make any more work for the town of Allington in terms of RFPs, consultants, consultants chosen, but just having worked on events as we all have, you know, whether it's a PTO event, a Town Day event, et cetera, and this is definitely a one-time sort of event and there's gonna be many, many different consultants on that. Oh, do you know where I'm going? Go ahead. No, sorry, but I think the one issue raised, Ms. Mahan, about the reporting that's dealt with in section 10 of the agreement that is Concord who's got the duty to provide financial statements annually. Right, but I was just curious and I don't need an answer to this tonight. Is that gonna be done in House Concord by Concord's powers and Sullivan or Concord's control or whatever? I'm just curious. I know it's Concord. Yeah, I wouldn't specifically know which entity within Concord is gonna. I'm just curious in terms of it. And if they say we're really not going to explore that we need that level of auditing, then that's fine. I'm just curious if it's that sort of thing. And the reason why is just in terms of sometimes if one group is in control of a one-time event like this and it's overseeing RFP and other things and somehow you fall into the trap that the one person picks the one consultant over and over again that really is in producing A, the committee will know that but B, sometimes when you find out about it it's a little bit too late. But I'll leave that to the town manager and Mr. Hurd who will be on the committee for this, so thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Hurd. Yeah, and I just wanted to clarify the timeline. The reason says June 30th, 2026. We often talk about the April 2025 because that's where the bulk of the celebration in this area is going to be the beginning of the Revolutionary War. But in all the joint meetings that we've had we've talked about the possibility of a series of events that could last the whole year into 2026 as so did the war. So it's the, that's the rationale for having it and in June 2026 versus June 2025. All right, well the event's over. We don't need to participate in this anymore. There could be more events that happen whether we do it here in Allington or in some of the surrounding towns that we do over the course of that year. And I think the option to extend is, as Attorney Cunningham said, I'm not sure that Allington will extend beyond that depending on what the financial commitment becomes. But if this becomes a really successful way to generate tourism at that in 2026 it could be that we say all right, let's keep this thing rolling and work with each other to try to get more people in our region. Thank you, Mr. Heron. Thank you for your work on the committee. I'll just add that I think in addition to the streamlining of costs there's also some potential advantages and I'm very happy to support this to just the streamlining of coordination to communication and messaging. So that it's very clear and I like that the agreement is very specific that it spells out Allington will get a quarter of the effort in the consulting hours and then get products specific to Allington. But I think having one consultant with an awareness of what all the other towns are doing really lines us up well for a coordinated and streamlined message that will serve the public well but it's sort of Arlington well. So it's all good. Mr. Diggins. Yeah, through you Mr. Hurts. So how did you come up with the 200K number? I only asked it because it seems low because my initial question is does 200K be for all three years or is it for every year? So it seems like it's for all three years to me but. I didn't come up with the number. That's the number I got to us and that I think because I mean there's more money. I certainly don't want to set everyone's expectations that this 50 grand is the only money that Allington's going to have to spend for the celebration. This is just more the number that the city of the town's rather came up for as what we could all put in for consultants and marketing and the like and if we're getting, when we share expenses we're getting more bang for the buck but I mean Arlington will have public safety is going to be a big expense. And our 2025 committee has a number of working groups under it and there's one that's dealing with budget and once we're dealing with events and public safety and all that. So I think we'll have a clearer understanding of the total costs within the next six to seven months but the 50, the 200,000 is just what the season towns thought that could be allocated to joint resources for consultants and marketing and whatnot. I hope you get a lot for it but if not, I think it's worth investing in. So we should maybe be prepared and it's all, so I read through the whole thing. What happens if a town bails out? Bails out in what sense? In what sense? Because you can say that you don't want to be, so let's say, I don't want to call out a town because I don't have any reason to believe that one town would or not but have we kind of thought about what would happen if it became three? Attorney Cunningham has an opinion? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Diggins, good question. The provisions in section seven of the agreement would apply at that point. So it would really depend on the scenario and each individual town would have options under the terms of that particular section. All right. Yeah, all right. I have read that, all right, it's fine. I got about what I'm going to get for now. That's okay, thanks. It's because it's not a problem at all. So I'm all for this and I'm looking forward to it, especially the psychographic analysis that will be done by the consultant. Okay, any further discussion? All right, so we have a motion to approve by Mr. Herd, seconded by Mrs. Mahad. Some people call me Mr. Mahad. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? It is unanimous. Thank you to all for their good work on this and we look forward to more. That brings us to new business. You might notice that one new thing about new business is that it's back to being called new business. The chair upon reflection realized that really, I think I was over solving for the problem by the previous new title. My concern had always been that the public might think the new business would be a free-for-all where we could improperly and perhaps illegally to bring new matters before the board that had not been publicly noticed 48 hours in advance and it occurred to me that a simple disclaimer that has been added under new business does the trick. Does anyone, so we'll go on our usual cycle for new business starting with Ms. Mahad. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I turn it back on him. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I wanted to mention related to the setting of the date for annual town meeting beginning in 2024. The first night of that town meeting is scheduled to conflict with the first night of Passover. Unfortunately, the town does not have flexibility to change that date pursuant to the town bylaws, which does not provide flexibility the way that the setting of the annual election does. I've spoken to the moderator regarding this issue and it is the intention of the moderator to seek all procedural avenues to prevent or to preclude from taking up substantive matters on night one of our annual town meeting so that those who observe Passover or have family or friends who do do not miss substantive votes as part of the annual town meeting. Obviously, the moderator is somewhat beholden to the body in what it wants to do, but it's the hope that procedural measures will be able to be taken so that people don't miss substantive matters if they're observing Passover on that Monday. In addition, the moderator mentioned that he intends to evaluate with maybe perhaps other town meeting members the possibility of bylaw amendment so that in the future, the select board would have the option to reset a date rather than the fourth Monday in April and not be so fixed to that particular date. I did note that this is the first time this has happened since 1967 when Passover has fallen on that fourth Monday in April, but it will occur again in 2035. So it's something to think about and not just for Passover, but just to give the select board some flexibility to deal with any issue that might come up that might warrant consideration of moving it perhaps a week or whatever the board might decide as opposed to the lack of flexibility or discretion that the board has to exercise now. Mr. Feeney. Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I could, I'd like to just take a moment to acknowledge some new hires and just welcome some staff to the organization for both the months of October and month to date in November. So we hired and welcome Aleotius Banks to the police department as a dispatcher. Karen Medine is the head of circulation in the library. Charlotte Brief Pills to Health and Human Services as our new Health Compliance Officer. Recently I've hired Michael Olson, again within Health and Human Services to serve as our new Sealer of Weights and Measures. Chris Keating in Public Works as a water systems craftsman. Katherine Sullivan also in Community Safety, police as a dispatcher and Vanessa Nguyen in the Comptroller's Office who will serve as our new junior accountant. So just wanted to welcome those folks to the organization. Thank you. Thank you. I'll just interject that I forgot to read the disclaimer that I was so proud of. Which is so amazing. Well, no time like the present, except in cases of emergency, the board will neither deliberate or act upon topics presented in new business. So you've been warned. All right. Mrs. Mahade in new business. I feel like I should, but I don't. I know new business. Mr. DeCorsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A couple of things. Last week on Monday, Chair and I attended a tour of the new phase two of our LinkedIn High School. It was very impressive. It's the humanities wing and includes a new library, cafeteria, central spine area and also saw the new administration offices. It looks like everything came out just great. And I know from what I'm hearing the students are really enjoying the experience as are the teachers. Going forward, phase three is the gym. Phase four will be the turf fields that have already been approved and we're all excited for those opportunities for students going forward. The second thing I just wanted to bring up briefly, another event last week that I attended in, also the chair was at this one as well was a night honoring Bob Sprague who was transitioning as editor of your Arlington still on the board, but he was the founder of it. And when you look back, what has happened with local journalism and really at the loss of a one town newspaper, the Arlington advocate doesn't exist anymore on its own. Your Arlington has served a vital need over the years in terms of informing the public as to what's going on with events, with local government and Bob Sprague has done such an outstanding job over the years doing that. So I was happy to attend that, to thank him for servicing the vital role that he's played in the town. Thank you. We have seen a lot of each other last week or so. What are you two doing now? That's right, I know. Mr. Diggins, I thank you, Mr. Chair. So the town manager and I have talked a few times about how we want to work on things before our hands are forced by something bad happening. And so I appreciate the manager telling us about the accident at Park and Mass Ave. And interestingly, the day before, I had heard on the news about, you know, there was this young child that had been killed in an intersection and over, you know, by a truck that I think was turning right. I mean, the truck had the ability to turn right and the child had the light to cross. But because of the height, the truck just didn't see the child, so the driver wasn't held accountable, you know. And the parents have really worked to make sure that, at least that intersection, well, the town actually, after did, made it such that at the intersection, you have walks in every direction, as opposed to just walks in one direction and then walks in another direction, another phase, you know. And thankfully, at that intersection, that's not the case, you know. So at Park and Mass Ave, I mean, you get a walk signal in all directions, you know, and I know that's the case seen in other intersections in town. I mean, the other big ones being of Park and Pleasant Mystic, meaning, and I'm sorry, Mass Ave and Pleasant Mystic, meaning also Mass Ave and Lake Street. So at least that's not an issue here in town, you know, I mean, I'm happy for that, you know, but I do, once again, I mean, appreciate that we do effort, at least me to try to at least examine problems and potentially come up with solutions to them before they are forced on us, you know, so. Thank you. And I have no new business and I believe that is the time to invite a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. You have a motion to adjourn by Mr. DeCorsi and seconded by Mr. Diggins. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? We are adjourned.