Okay, so not revenue.

Good evening, RV one.

It is the meeting of the Natick Select Board

for January 10th.

It is six thirty seven. I'll call it.

Can you unmute Pegasus? Thank you.

From the top? From the top.

So it's now 6:38 PM This is the meeting

of the Natick Select Board on January 10th, 2024.

I call this meeting to order.

We're going to do a roll call vote

to enter into executive session for the following reasons.

A, pursuant to mass general laws Chapter 31, sorry,

30 a section 21, A three to discuss strategy with respect

to litigation where an open meeting will have a detrimental

effect on the litigating position

of the public body and the chair.

So declares Linda Lenin, etal versus town of Natick etal.

Docket number 21 dash CV dash 1 0 8 3.

District court in Massachusetts B pursuant

to MGL chapter 30 a section 21, A two

to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations

with non-union, non-union personnel,

or to conduct collective bargaining sessions

or contract negotiations with

non-union personnel town administrator.

Do I have a motion to go into exec session

Motion?

Oh, second.

So that is moved by Ms. Pope

and seconded by Mr. Joseph.

I have to do a roll call. We'll do Mr. Sidney first.

She's on Aye. Ms. Pope Aye. Ms. Coughlin? Aye.

Mr. Joseph? Aye. And I'm an aye.

So we are going to go into exec session.

It's this, this part

of the meeting is not open to the public.

We expect this to last approximately one hour for those

participating via Zoom or watching at home.

I would say probably tuned back in here almost about seven

30 and you should be okay.

So we're now in exec session.

Alright,

Let everybody in here. Hi.

We're back in from exec session

and going back into open session.

For those in the room, I'd like us to stand

for Pledge of Allegiance.

In a moment of silence, please.

Pledge Allegiance is a flag. The United States of America

To the Republic for which it stands.

One Nation Under Justice.

Thank you. Okay,

Announcements.

The first one is intention to call

Spring annual town meeting in 2024.

And I will read that the,

the select board hereby gives public notice of its intention

to call 2024 annual town meeting on Tuesday,

April 23rd, 2024 at Natick High School

at 7:30 PM All articles requested

for inclusion in the warrant

for the 2024 spring annual town meeting must be received

by the office of the select board

Natick Town Hall 13 East Central Street, Natick, mass

by 5:00 PM on Thursday, February 22nd, 2024.

The select board encourages petitioners

and others submitting articles

to provide such materials electronically

to select board@natickma.org by such date and time.

If submitting through this format, petitioners are advised

to request a read receipt

to verify proper and timely. Rich,

Hang on one sec.

Pegasus isn't on yet. Sorry about that.

Let me just see if we can get him

On.

You should be.

It's not coming up on Zoom though. Oh,

John, can you hear the meeting or see the meeting?

How's that? Oh, here it comes.

Yeah, there we go. There we go. So it was alright. Pegasus

From the top.

Zoom by. Alright. Yeah, I'll, I'll do it from the top again.

Said, the select board hereby gives public notice

of its intention to call 2024 Spring annual town meeting on

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024 at Natick High School,

starting at 7:30 PM All articles requested

for inclusion in the warrant

for the 2024 Spring annual town meeting must be received

by the office of Select board Natick Town Hall 13

East Central Street, Natick, mass by 5:00 PM on Thursday,

February 22nd, 2024.

The select board encourages petitioners

and other submitting articles

to provide such materials electronically

to select board@natickma.org by such date and time.

If submitting through this format, petitioners are advised

to request a read receipt to verify proper

and timely receipt by the select Board's office.

The select board further encourages

that articles be submitted in narrative format only,

and that maps and other supplementary supplementary

material not be included as part of the warrant article.

So that takes share of that Massachusetts

racial Equity Advancement and Collaborative Hub.

Ms. Erickson, do you wanna do an update on

Yes, and I will, with your

permission also look to Troy Smith.

Yes, please are just gonna see if he's on, I know he is.

I see him right in the middle of Zoom.

I'm just gonna ask him to unmute to see if he's there.

Just while, while we're getting Troy on.

Troy, just for those in the audience is our Director

of Equity inclusion and, and Outreach.

This is a program that Troy found

and submitted to through MAPC.

It's a continuation of the REMAP

or the Racial Equity Municipal Action Plan work

that the town did that MAPC is advancing.

And if Troy is on

and I see that he is unmuted, Troy, do you,

are you available to provide a little bit of just

high level background on this program and

and for the board, for the public?

Yes. Great. Yes,

Yes.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

It's great to have the opportunity to be

with you this evening.

I had the pleasure of being able to get

a submission that had been accepted,

and so we are moving forward with this

very significant initiative.

If you, you may have had a chance to look at the link,

but as you know, as, as you, if you read it, you

know about the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, which is

overseeing the administrative aspects of the program

along with being able

to draw from the work by the Gere organization,

which is providing the curriculum,

and that's the Government Alliance on Race

and Equity Organization.

And so we're gonna have an opportunity to work together.

There are going to be nine to 10 municipalities

that will have an opportunity to go to the federal building

in Boston to get technical support

on issues around equity, inclusion, diversity.

And there'll be a lot of collaboration

and opportunity to also connect with peers.

And so I'm very excited to be a part of this.

I'm also excited to be able to mention that we,

as of the day, we have nine cross-departmental members.

It's a combination of cross-departmental members

from town hall, as well as an individual

who is involved in doing outreach work in

Framingham and Natick.

And we'll also be bringing in a member from one

of our organization partner organizations Spark Kindness.

So the the goal is to really work together, collaborate

collaboratively in being able to move forward on our issues

and our initiatives on equity, outreach and inclusion.

I'd like to thank everyone here for your support

and thank you for the warm reception

and support from the select board and town administration

and all and our various officials.

We really appreciate it

and should be a, an exciting productive initiative.

Thanks very much, Troy. Any

Any questions?

I just wanted to Congratulations, Troy.

Great work. Thank

You.

I I thought it was a great application by Troy

and it's just a continuation of the great work

that we're trying to do around equity, inclusion

and belonging, outreach, engagement, diversity, all of the

above as an organization and within the community.

And I just wanna say thank you so much

for all the great work that was done, going back to

the diversity task force

and especially the work that was done by the Remap group

whose work really lays the foundation that we are able

to build upon.

And we have a few REMAP members who will be joining us

in this endeavor as well.

So thank you.

Thanks Troy.

Thank you, Troy.

Thank you very much, Troy. Thank you Troy.

Okay.

Okay, onto

dog license renewals.

I can read this one. This is a nice short one.

All dogs six month of age

or older must be licensed with the town clerk's office.

Mass General Laws chapter 1 37

licenses must be renewed annually by March 1st.

Failure to do so will result, will result in a 60, do

$50 late fee.

Failure to license a dog shall be punishable by a fine

of a hundred dollars according to Native Town bylaws.

Article 50, section 16 dash seven.

So please register your dogs by March 1st.

Thank you. Next up we've got the Town census reminder,

sir Erickson, do you wanna do that one

and I'll do the next two?

Sure. Sorry, I had pulled up

for the next two, not the census ones.

Let me pull that one up. Sure.

Another reminder from our clerk's office team

that the town census is due,

this is a really important annual occurrence for the town.

It really helps us with,

among other things just general record keeping,

but also provides us with a lot of important data

that we can then use in applications for grant programs.

Understanding population projections, understanding

other projections that have impacts on mass general law,

federal law, and other impacts.

It's not the, obviously the US census,

but it is still extremely important for, for everybody

to fill out their census forms

and get it back to the town clerk for proof of residency.

And also, just for the, for the information

that we glean from the census, please make sure

to complete your form accurately listing each

of the residents in your address as of January 1st, 2024.

So if somebody moved in on January 2nd, do not include them.

If they were there on December 31st, do include them

and please get that to the clerk's office as soon

as possible in this year.

If you have changes to the form,

please mark the changes directly on the form, sign and date

and return to the Kirk's office.

Any changes to a voter's registration will

require a voter's signature.

So if you mark a note on the voter's registration component

of the form, there will be a

requirement for the voter's signature.

And I appreciate everybody filling out their

town census. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Erickson.

Next up we've got a DAM

and community, oh, sorry, park Community Engagement.

This is an an a repeat

of announcement we made at the last meeting in January.

There will be three public meetings on the Charles

River Dam and parks.

The first is a hybrid meeting from

on January 16th from six 30 to eight

at Memorial Elementary School

to share information on the park design project

and gather early community feedback.

Second is a Zoom meeting on January 24th from six 30

to eight to share information regarding the town's approach

to down dam removal

and the upcoming state led environmental review process.

And the last is on January 30th, six 30 to 8:00 PM

an in-person meeting, covering the same damn removal topics

at Memorial Elementary School.

All of the meetings will be recorded in a memo

with additional detail on the town's plans

to conduct outreach ahead of the meetings.

I'm sorry that that was the memo to, to the board.

Strike that from the record.

Okay, next up is MLK Day at Natick High School.

Natick's 19th annual Martin Luther King Community

Celebration will be at the high school at 10:00 AM

on January 15th.

And special thanks to the many event partners,

greater Natick Interfaith Leaders Association,

spark Kindness, town of Natick, of course,

Natick High School, Natick for Black Lives Matter.

Natick is United Natick, Pegasus,

of course Natick 180 and others.

It, it is a celebration

and it's a very moving celebration.

And just to reiterate, it's at the high school this year.

It previously has been at Kennedy School,

so it's at the high school, 10:00 AM on January 15th.

Another big item is what's called help us fill the,

the van donate a non-perishable pantry item

to the Natick Service Council on MLK Day.

We encourage community members

and event attendees to bring donations to Phil.

The van items can be dropped off on Monday,

January 15th from 9:30 AM to 12

at Natick High School.

And items needed include obviously unopened,

not expired, cereal, dish soap, brownie mixes, cake mixes,

frosting, toilet paper, bull, young cubes, spices,

black tea, tomato paste, gravy and cream-based soups.

So please donate if you can, if you're gonna be in down,

or even if you're just driving by

and not going to the event.

Let's fill that van up.

That's it for announcements.

Just Okay.

On to public speak.

Any individual may raise an issue that's not on the agenda

and it'll be taken under advisement by the board.

There'll be no opportunity for debate

during this portion of the meeting.

This portion is limited to 15 minutes in any individual.

Addressing the board

during this section shall be limited to five minutes.

Do we have anyone in the meeting hall that wants

to do public speak?

Okay, seeing none. Do we have anybody online, Mr. Erickson?

Not that I'm seeing for public speak,

No.

Okay. Alright, so let's move on to appointments

to interview and appoint

to the Economic Development Committee.

Katie Love, I thought I saw her earlier. Okay.

Okay, Ms. Love, if you would be kind enough

to give us the sort of elevator pitch for why you want

to be on the Economic Development Committee.

Sure. Absolutely. Can you hear me okay? Yes.

Okay, wonderful. Thank you.

First of all, thank you all for having me tonight.

I really appreciate it. I am now working

for the Natick Center Cultural District,

which has been a wonderful

experience in the last couple years.

I moved to Natick in 2013.

I have two small children who attend Brown,

and I've always been really focused on being involved

in the local community.

I have a background in sales, business development,

sales training, kind of wore many hats.

And I just really believe in our community.

I think we have so much potential

to bring more businesses downtown to be able

to build our businesses that we currently have up

and get more people downtown in partnership with all

of the amazing cultural

and arts events that we do in the town.

And I'm just really looking forward to being part

of the future of Natick for my kids and for all of us.

Okay. Thank you very much, Katie.

Questions from the board or

comments Mr. Joseph?

Not questions so much as I'm glad you applied,

Katie, I obviously we work together.

I'm, I'm the board's liaison to the EDC

and also active on the Natick Center Associates board

meetings too, and have two businesses downtown.

So all that being said, I'm, I'm thrilled that you applied.

I think you're an amazing contributor

to the cultural district.

I think you've brought a lot of energy

and would give capacity to the EDC

that we've been lacking in terms of sort of

what I'll call marketing execution.

I think, you know, you've got a ear to the ground obviously

with the work you're doing downtown, so I think it's great.

I, you know, we do have a liaison position

with the cultural district,

so I know Athena currently serves on the EDC.

My, I, you know, tangentially I'll,

I'll use the word concern with a very lowercase C

and that, I think, and one

of the things I've observed over the years is the EDC

itself, I think is, is sorely in need of rethinking in terms

of its role, its form and, and the like.

When we formed it in 20 2009, it was with the intention

of potentially spinning it out into a 5 0 1 C six

and, you know, have a public private partnership

relationship much like the cultural district

has with the town.

So, you know, I I see in, in having worked

with Katie is she would be a tremendous contributor.

She's a big thinker. She thinks strategically,

but clearly gets stuff done on top of things.

And that's the kind of one two punch we need in terms

of the volunteers in that role.

So I, I definitely support, support your candidacy.

Thank you Paul. She

Thank you very much.

And Mr. Joseph,

Thank you Ms. Love for applying.

I just wanted to know, excuse me, if you knew

that the meetings were at 8:00 AM

Yes, I do.

I believe that actually our one, the one tomorrow

that I plan on attending is at eight 30.

So I have about a couple minutes that usually

I give myself a little bit of leeway

to get there from school drop off at the moment.

But everybody's been kind so far.

But yes, I am aware. Thank you.

Thank you Ms. Lowe. Thank you for applying. Alright,

No problem. Happy to do

It.

I appreciate all that Mr. Joseph shared about Ms. Love

because I have gotten an opportunity to experience her in

and throughout town and do the native cultural center,

but I didn't know all of those things.

And so I appreciate her presence

as well as her willingness to serve.

So thank you.

Thank you

Mr. Sidney.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I real, I I am really impressed

by your resume and I really appreciate your applying.

I was really interested in one

of the things you said in your online application,

I feel you said, I feel that many of our policies

and structures are outdated

for the current situation we find ourselves in

and believe change is needed.

But I want to make sure we don't lose sight

of the incredible things that make this town a

really great place to live.

I really appreciate that comment

because that really indicates the kind

of balancing act we need and I really appreciate that.

I just wanted to say that and thank you so much

and I'm really glad

to hear you're also a big, big picture thinker.

Thank you. Thank you. I totally believe

that we can find a, a hybrid move forward to,

to make change, but also keep the integrity

of all the awesome things that we have already in town.

Thank you Ms. Love everything that

prior members have said.

I, I fully appreciate especially Mr.

Joseph's comments because he is worked with you so closely.

I did have a question, and it's just

because I didn't have time to look this up this afternoon.

What is a certified Clifton strengths coach?

Oh, actually a, so a strengths coach is, there's a large,

I'm gonna try and keep this succinct.

So a Clifton strengths coach is a person who have,

are you familiar with Clifton's strengths at all?

It's basically identifying themes that you have internally

that you're naturally gifted at

and it itemizes them through a testing process of okay,

about 34 and they usually focus on the top five.

Okay. And then it's kind of on trying with a coach, you kind

of work through trying to understand how you

use your strengths to your advantage.

The, the kind of layman referral concept

or whatever that I like to say is you think about a school

and a school takes a bunch of different kids who are,

you know, all shape sizes, thinkers, you know,

walks of life, what have you.

And we try and kind of, you know,

when we get them into school we say, you're,

you're not good at this, so we're gonna focus on

what you are not good at.

You know, you're doing really well in English,

but you're terrible at math,

but you need to work hard at math.

And the Clifton concept is you should really focus on the

things that you're already naturally inclined to be good at.

So yes, of course you need to, you know, be able to do math,

but maybe your English is, you know,

your English strength is one

that if you really focus on you'll

propel yourself in that avenue.

So it's kind of the concept of focus on what you're good at.

Hmm. Learn about what you're good at

and then put the energy into those things.

But also understanding when they can hold you back

and when they can push you forward

and happy to, happy to help you.

If you ever wanna take a strengths test,

I'm happy to, happy to

Do it.

That could be embarrassing.

I mean, I might not have any strengths.

No, thank you for explaining that, that

that was no problem.

The, the Brack center

All mine up.

Well, so the Natick Service Council

through the Brack Center actually does some strengths

and so I've been volunteering and helping them

and it's been a nice experience to kind

of get back my feet back into it.

But it was a big part of my corporate

culture of the strengths program.

So they put me through the program in New York. Yeah,

It has to help too from analyzing what

the EDC would would need also.

So that's, yeah.

Poor Paul. Maybe I'll put him

through a test tomorrow or something.

We'll see.

Alright. He, he studied hard.

I'm sure I'm not, I'm not hearing.

I get to attend and heckle the chair. Okay. All right.

So I'm looking for a motion to appoint Ms. Love.

So moved, moved by Mr. Joseph. Do I have a second?

Second Every by Ms. Pope. All in favor please say aye.

We have to do we have to do voice.

Voice roll call rather. Mr. Sidney?

Yes,

Ms. Pope? Yes. Ms. Coughlin? Yes. Mr. Joseph?

Yes. Naomi? Yes. So 5 0, 0.

Thank you very much Ms. Love the select board's office will

be contacting you.

There is a swearing in that you have to do at the

town clerk's office.

So the letter from the

select board's office will fill you in on all that.

Okay. Wonderful. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Okay,

let us now go to

select board updates.

Does anybody have something?

Where do we get through all that in announcements?

I have another one. Not a one.

Well I've got, I've got one brief one, Mr.

Sidney. Go for it.

I am scheduled to be at the farmer's market on Saturday.

Come down and talk.

Good stuff. I hope it'll be nicer weather than

we've had recently.

I hope I actually

You're inside, it's still.

Yeah, it's inside. It's at the Common

Street Spiritual center inside.

Yep. I'll be right inside the main door.

Very good. Thank you for that Mr. Sidney.

Okay, so now let's move on.

There aren't any others. Let's move on

to discussion and decision.

First up is a public hearing on the grant

of location on Summer Street.

The person I believe is not sorry on the,

I believe there is somebody to be here for that

from Eversource that's, or National Grid

and I believe they're not here yet.

Okay. I, I'm looking towards,

Yeah, I don't see them yet, Mr. Erickson.

Okay.

Thank you. So let's hold off on that one for now.

And Jamie, if you would keep track of

that and just let me know when.

Yeah, we'll see them when they

get on. I'll let you know. Correct.

Okay. So let's go on to public hearing notice,

approve renewal of club special permits.

Item B point of order. Yes.

Since it's a public hearing, can we

start before the time that's posted?

So the time posted, the public hearing notice is six 30.

Ah, be the times on the agenda

are always for reference only. Gotcha. Thank you.

Yep. Thank you for that good question

though. Okay.

Although the notice

You ready for me?

I am Mr. Sidney

Public hearing notice the select board

will hold a public hearing on Wednesday,

January 10th, 2024 at 6:30 PM upon the application

of the following clubs for the renewal

of a 2023 special permit issued in accordance

with Chapter 3 36 of the Acts of 2004 to allow the sale

of alcohol at functions at which the attendees are not

necessarily members of the Club.

Natick Lodge number 1425 of the Bene Benevolent

and Protective Order of Elks 95 Paint Street.

Paul Sanford, manager,

the Francisco DeSantis Lodge number 1411 Sons of Italy,

37 Washington Ave.

Marguerite Sancheti Manager,

AMVETS Post 79 79 Superior Drive.

James Sheridan, manager, veterans of Foreign Wars,

Nat Post 12 74 1 13 West Central Street,

Brian Prescott manager.

The hearing will be held in the Edward Delo meeting Room

13 East Central Street as well as remotely.

Anyone wishing to be heard in this matter can participate in

person or through Zoom.

Login instructions will be published on the

January 10th, 2024 select board agenda.

And I move to open the public hearing.

Okay, I'll second. Second. Thank you.

Who seconded?

Moved by Mr. Sidney.

Seconded by Mr. Joseph.

Okay, I am

going to first

Get a vote.

Yeah, I'm sorry. All in favor,

please say aye.

Mr. Sidney? Aye. Ms. Pope? Aye. Ms. Coughlin? Aye.

Ms. Joseph? Yes, Mr. Joseph?

Excuse me, I'm changing an agenda here and all my Yes.

Okay. Discussion.

Does anyone, do you wanna

I have a question.

Go ahead Mr. Sidney.

Is Mr.

Sheridan really the manager over there?

No. And I, IIII was going to comment on,

on on a lot of that

and let me bring the board up to speed on this

Mr.

Chair. Can I just a suggestion, do you want

to take them in order?

Yeah, let's do the, let's do

One at a time. Am we

Get through that am Yes.

Thank you. Any questions on the

Natick Elks Lodge?

No questions?

No.

All set.

Okay.

I am, that's not in

The, that's not in the packet is it?

It is.

Is it the Native Elk Lodge? It's not,

Oh, it's not in the packet.

No

Apologies on that.

Okay.

Is it in another attachment?

Lemme look up. Yeah, I'm just looking it up in the email.

I don't believe we, we got one for them Mr. Erickson.

Okay. Yeah, I don't see anything in my email.

So let us, let us,

We have somebody at the podium. Yeah.

Mr. Sanford.

Paul Sanford,

general manager over at the NA House

Microphone please.

Can you just turn the microphone on the

Mic that green on,

Sorry about that.

Is that good? Yep. Paul Sand

Manager over at the Natick Elks.

I just talked to Donna yesterday

and she had all of my paperwork.

I I had uploaded it all

and she said she couldn't see it on the portal

but I sent it all to her yesterday.

She said it was all set. So, okay.

I dunno if there's anything else I deeded but

Just for clarity and I apologize, I was

had a, a personal matter in December that I was dealing

with, but is it the same application that was

similar application?

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm looking at a wrong one. Sorry.

Wrong email. Nevermind.

As far as I know, I know there have been no complaints

lodged on Na Elks to this point.

I probably shouldn't say to this point that I know of.

I'll just leave it at that. But

Should we defer this

until we actually see the application?

I would like to do that.

Yeah, we probably should do

that but, but let me offer a suggestion which is

we can also do a provisional approval subject to

a favorable email from Ms. Donovan

and then we don't have to drag Mr. Sanford back

in here for a hearing.

Is that okay with everyone? Yes.

Yeah. I move for provi provisional approval based on

correspondence from Ms. Donovan

that all the paperwork is in order.

Okay. For the Natick Lodge.

1425 of the order of Elks.

Okay. Second by Mr. Sidney. Okay. All in favor?

Mr. Sidney? Yep. Ms. Coughlin?

Yes.

Ms. Pope? Yes. Mr. Joseph? Yes. And on May? Yes.

So thank you for coming in much if I

Yeah

And I guess in discussion this is relevant

for everybody here over the next couple

of weeks I'll be convening as I had started a year ago

with the town, we had reviewed our off,

or excuse me, our on-premises liquor license policy.

We're gonna be undertaking one

for our off-premises licensees, mostly package stores.

But that's going to include club licenses.

So I'm in the process of working with a small working group,

including the Deputy Chief of Police, the head

of economic Development, Ms. Donovan and myself.

Just to sort of start

to look at the mechanics of what we've got.

We'll be including Natick 180 in that discussion

as well in terms of community impact.

And we will definitely be reaching out

to your representation.

We'd love to get feedback from you as we look at that.

No, nothing major, but we just wanna make sure

that they're current and, and sort

of reflecting what we want in the community. So thank you

Mr. Joseph, could I ask

that you include me in those discussions? Sure. Thank you.

Yeah, I'm gonna be in there

with the Natick 180 actually when you're there.

Yeah, no, no, no. I'll just have you

In the working group.

She does a working group and then you'll get

Perfect.

Yep. Nevermind.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Yep, you're good. Thank you.

Okay, let's move on to the Sons of Italy.

Any questions or discussion on Sons of Italy?

I have a question. Is there a

representative from the Sons of Italy?

Could you approach the podium please?

No arrest.

Is that on?

That's on. Thank you.

I was under the impression that Ms.

Marguerite was stepping down as manager. She has,

She has stepped down.

My name's Arthur Taio.

That should have been on the paperwork that got sent in.

She has retired and I am now the building manager

and the bar manager.

Thank you Mr. Taio.

Thank you.

Thank you for that question.

Okay, any other questions?

If there are no other questions,

I move provisional approval of the club license for the

Francisco DeSantis lodged 1411 Sons of Italy, pursuant

to confirmation from Donna Donovan that the change

of manager record has been updated

and submitted to the A, B, CC and the town.

Second. Alright, you're moved by Ms.

Coughlin, seconded by Mr. Joseph.

All in favor, Ms. Coughlin?

Aye.

Mr. Joseph? Yes. Ms. Pope? Yes. Mr. Sidney?

Yes. And I'm a S thank you

on to Amvets post 79.

You know what I No, I will,

I'll just go ahead, but that's fine.

Any discussion unless Mr.

Sydney had,

Mr.

Sydney had a question and I would ask that the lieutenant,

if it's okay with you, Mr.

Chair, Lieutenant Colonel, I just went blank. Sorry. Jack.

Jack Cunningham. Mr.

Lieutenant Colonel Cunningham approached the podium

to respond to questions from the board.

Certainly. Thank you.

Thank you. I'd just first like to just read a statement

'cause I think it'll address a lot of what's on

members' minds.

We did get a notice from the deputy chief and,

and Ms. Donovan that there was a, there were some issues

cited by the A BCC

and it's a return no action memo.

One is the manager of record.

The proposed manager

who signed the application statement does not appear

to be authorized to do so.

The proposed manager,

and I'm reading almost verbatim from what they wrote,

the proposed manager is also unable to serve as the manager

for personal reasons

and ask the amvets board to find another manager of record.

Second is improper signatory on the application.

The person who has signed the vote does not appear

to have been approved by the A, BCC

as an officer director shareholder.

And is not authorized to sign the signature.

No, the manager form does not appear

to be the manager of record.

Thus again, we're gonna look to, I'm gonna be looking

for a motion to get a provisional approval.

My understanding is that AMVETS has prepared

all the paperwork to get the A B, CC approval

and we will resubmit their application

and to ensure timely compliance, we're going

to schedule a public hearing

on their club license at our next scheduled meeting,

which is January 24th.

Mr. Chairman?

Yeah, hold on.

And they're also going to meet

with Deputy Chief Loza at the end of January

to discuss changing parameters

for the outdoor seating at AM vs.

Which has been a request for them. Mr.

Sidney, you had a comment or a question? Yeah.

Didn't, didn't we have problems last year with Amvets

getting the license right?

Or was that the vfw?

No, it was Amvets, but they remedied that.

Right. And I,

I'm disinclined to even give them a provisional approval

until they get the application right.

Mr. Sidney, could I address some of your concerns? Sure.

So over the last year,

and Lieutenant Colonel,

if you could correct me if I'm wrong, over the last year,

the person who was trained to be the manager of record

to replace Jamie Sheridan had gone through training

with the A BCC and the Natick group.

They were putting, they were trying to update the records

of the new officers and directors 'cause that information

and some of the documentation had been destroyed

or was missing after Jamie Sheridan's role as commander.

And after he had stepped down once all of

that had been put together in September, Kathy Lopez,

who was the person who had been training

and acting as manager of record, became very ill personally.

Yes, ma'am. That's correct. And

Had to step down and work less than 40 hours a week.

Yes. So for that reason, AMVETS undertook a search

for somebody who was willing to undertake a manager

of record for Amvets.

And I'll turn this over to Lieutenant Colonel.

Yeah. Let me just also amplify what Ms.

Coughlin just said.

Amvets worked to get into compliance and,

and as Ms.

Kauflin pointed out, this was due to an illness, not

to neglect or not to

defiance, anything like that.

So let me turn it over to Lieutenant Colonel Cunningham

for his thoughts on this.

The Amvets post 79

and Natick has been in disarray since

Jamie Sheridan

committed certain transgressions.

He's been suspended by the AM vets

and he's in the process of being expelled

for numerous acts.

Unbecoming an AM am

vet from day one.

Since it came to light some of the things that he did,

we've been trying to get him off of that liquor license.

We operate under a stigma with his name still on it.

And some of the employees are very reluctant

to continue their employment at the AM Vess.

Because of that, we try and reassure him that he has been

and will be expelled.

He has been suspended and he will be expelled.

Oh, we have chosen somebody

of unimpeachable character, Mr. Gary Fisher

as a monument in this town named

after his father, a World War II hero

and a straight, he's well known in the community

and he has agreed to take on the responsibility

of being a liquor license holder for the amvets.

We're looking forward to that

and looking forward

to a brighter day when we can once again hold our head up.

It became, it came as a shock to us that an individual

that we thought was honorable

was in fact not honorable.

So we're trying to move forward and away from that.

Thank you very much. Any further

questions or comments? Okay,

I just, just for

Joseph

Confirmation, and I apologize I'm not seeing it,

but you know, given the timeline of events moving forward,

this has all been, you know, in agreement

with Deputy Chief Loon.

Any concerns he's had have been

addressed Yes. To this point.

Yes. And I apologize.

I I got a late breaking email confirmation from

Donna confirming that she had that conversation

with Deputy Chief Lana and he's okay with, excuse

Me, and I'd like to further state that I've inspected all

of the paperwork and

that they're currently awaiting just the Department

of Unemployment Assistance

and the DOR Department of Revenue

certifications that are required.

And once those are received, probably by the end

of the week, all the paperwork will be timely fired filed.

I, I'd just, before we actually go for a vote,

I'd just like to thank Ms.

Kalin for, for shepherding this through not only this

latest period, but last year as well.

She did a lot of work outside of the select board meetings

to ensure that Amvets got back on shark.

So if I had a hat here, I'd take it off.

Sure. May I add that we are eternally

grateful for Ms.

Coughlin and helping us navigate this labyrinth

of paperwork?

Yeah, we have been trying to do this for months

and, and move forward.

Yeah. And I look forward to

Whatever we have to do to accomplish this.

Okay. Thank then Lis end Colonel,

do I have a motion I move to,

I move to provisionally approve the club license

for AM Vet's post 79 contingent upon full receipt

of all paperwork in the office by Donna Donovan

and confirmation and the provi, the provision extends

to January 24th when they will reappear

to answer any questions about paperwork

or questions that the board may have.

Okay. Do I have a second?

Second.

Thank you, Ms. Pope. So that's moved by Ms.

Coughlin, seconded by Ms. Pope. Any discussion?

Yes. Members

Of the public

We should be asking is anybody

from the public? I'm sorry, I

I have discussion.

Okay, go ahead Mr. Sidney.

Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and vote this given what Ms.

Coughlin is set, but if we have problems with amvets again,

again next year, I probably won't be voting

to approve a license.

I don't want to keep going through this cycle of,

you know, if they can't get it right.

I I think I, I appreciate that feedback,

but I, I'm confident that the, it's in good hands now, so

let's move forward and, and,

and there's been a lot of proactive work

to get this right, so I appreciate all that.

Any other discussion? Excuse me?

Nothing from the public.

Anyone from the public should talk?

No, I don't see anyone online. Okay. All in favor, Ms.

Coughlin? Aye. Ms. Pope? Yes. Mr. Joseph? Yes. Mr. Sidney?

Yes.

And I'm a yes also.

So, and that is provisionally approved.

Now we have lastly V,

but not least VFW post 1274.

Thank you all. Okay, so let us first go

to, let, let, let's do our questions first

and then have you speak if you don't mind.

Questions. Any questions from the board?

Nope. I felt good about it.

Also, sir, could you introduce yourself and Yes.

My name is Robert Lynch.

I'm the quartermaster of the VFW Post 1, 2, 7 4.

I'm on, I'm here on behalf of

Byron Prescott is the manager of record.

Okay. Any questions

or for Mr. Lynch?

Nope, not for me.

No, this is pretty, pretty well in order in my opinion.

Do I have a motion to approve? So moved.

Moved by Mr. Joseph. Do I have a second? I'll second.

I wanted to get on the scoreboard.

All in favor, please say Aye. Mr. Joseph?

Yes, Mr.

Sidney? I'm back.

Yes. Sorry I was muted.

And that was you that seconded Bruce?

I am the secondary. Yep. And Ms. Pope,

I have something very small. Yep.

For Alright. I,

On their application at the net

income, you can't read the number.

I don't know if it, I mean that again,

it's very small and I don't know.

Yeah,

That's just something

that can be rectified at a later time.

Yeah, that's interesting

because I, I had the number is 6 56.

Okay. Yeah.

See I'm able, I'm able to read that there was another,

you can read it think net

Income. Okay. Yeah,

Yeah. Which page are you

Looking at?

Seven. The last page.

See I

Page two also has it.

Okay, well page seven of the doc of the PDF or page,

Page seven of the PF.

Okay, so it's page two of their profit and loss record.

Page seven of the PDF document. So

Okay. It's

Thank you.

Yeah. 6 56 0 4. Yep.

Yep. It's also on page.

Yes.

Okay. Okay. Thank

You.

It's also in the handwriting on page

Eight.

Is 6 2 6. Yeah. Thank

You.

Okay, Ms. Kauflin Aye. Okay.

5 0, 0. Yes. Thank you sir.

Okay, thank you very much. We

Close the public hearing

If I may just before that, Mr.

Chair, we were able to locate the Elk's

application that's now on Novus.

So if you refresh your screens,

you can see the app Elk's application.

Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Okay.

Close the public hearing moved by Mr. Sidney.

Do I have a seconder? Second. Thank you Mr. Joseph.

All in favor? Mr. Sidney?

Yes.

Ms. Pope? Yes. Ms. Coughlin? Yes. Mr. Joseph?

Yes. Honor. Yes. Alright, we're done with that public here.

Alright, thank you very much. Okay.

Okay, so on

to, let's see, do we want to do

statement, these grant of location?

Yes, we can. I do have one person in the room as well.

Okay. Although the grant of location that, oh no,

we do have a 5 0 8 number for that person online.

Sorry. Okay. We do have that person as well.

Okay. So the

Pleasure of the chair.

All right, Mr. Sidney, do you wanna read

this or I can Sure.

Public hearing notice in conformity with the requirements

of section 70, chapter 1 64

of the general law's notice is hereby

provided that the select Board

of Natick will conduct a public hearing on Wednesday,

January 10th, 2024 at 6:30 PM at the request

of N Star Electric DBA Eversource Energy

and Verizon for obtaining a grant of location

to install one new pole number 1 78 3 A

and one anchor guy at Pole 1 78 3 A on Summer

Street, Natick, mass.

This work is necessary to provide electric service

to number 21 Summer Street.

Natick mass plans are on file at the

town administrator's office.

The hearing will be held both in person and remotely.

Anyone wishing to be heard in this matter can participate in

person or in that virtual meeting being held through Zoom.

Login instructions will be published on the

January 10th, 2024 select board agenda.

And I move to open the public hearing.

I a second. Second. Thank you Ms. Kauflin.

Thank you Mr. Sidney. Okay.

That public hearing is now open. Need to vote.

Vote

Yes. It is not yet open.

I have jumped in that. Mr. Sidney?

Yes.

Ms. Pope? Yes. Ms. Kauflin? Yes.

Mr. Joseph? Yes. And Army? Yes, it is now open. Okay.

Thank you. You guys are keeping me in line. That's good.

Okay. All right.

So do we have someone from

Eversource on the line? Yes, we do. And they're

Muted. Yes, this is

Great. Go ahead. Yes,

This is Christine Cosby.

Christine, welcome. Cosby, this

Is, this is Christine Cosby from Eversource.

Welcome. Christine,

can you tell us a little bit about this?

I think this is a Stonegate project,

I believe if, if

Yes it is. Okay.

So

New, a new building under

a new building under construction

and we're requesting permission to install a new pole,

1 78 over three A

with an supporting anchor guy at that pole.

1 78 3 A. Okay.

And the purpose of the new pole would be

to provide a new service, electric service to that building.

71 Summit Street. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Any questions from the board,

Mr.

Yes, Mr. Sidney?

Yeah, I'm gonna share my screen.

I'm sorry you're on the phone and not on Zoom.

I have a, a question about the location

of this Paul. I have

A question. Okay.

And maybe, so I'm looking at

what I believe is number 26 Summer Street,

which is across the street from number 21.

Yep. And there's a,

a parking meter and there's a little sign

and next to the building there's a, you know, some kind

of a, a huge green junction box.

So I'm trying to figure out exactly

where this pole is gonna go.

Is it gonna go like right next to the parking meter?

I don't know if I,

I I I'm not looking at the same plan that y'all looking at.

Well, if you look at Google Maps, which is what I did,

is they've got an image of the, of the area

and it's pretty current because the construction is there.

Okay. I actually went out there yesterday.

I'm sorry, go ahead. Go ahead.

I went out there yesterday

and of course there was still everywhere,

but I don't recall that that pole is gonna be near one

of those parking meters.

Well, it's gonna be across the street from,

from the building, right?

It's gonna be across the street from the building. Yep.

Is it okay if I reference the plans

that are provided in the packet?

Yes, please.

Sure.

So the plans provided in the packet show the proposed

location of the new pole, actually further down on Summer

Street, more approximate to

the Middlesex Savings Bank building.

Oh, down this way? Correct. Okay.

So,

So there's a driveway there

and it's keep going. It sending a house.

Yep. Keep going.

Okay. There's a, there's a pole.

Yep. And a little bit further down,

there'd be a new pole placed approximately in this area.

Okay. And which way is the guy wire gonna go?

Where is the guy wire gonna land?

The guy wire is gonna land behind the sidewalk

In, in

A hip guy.

It, it, it's gonna be a sidewalk fixture, which, you know,

people plows can go, it won't get into this,

it won't interfere with plowing plow

and it will go behind the sidewalk.

Okay. So right now that's like a garden.

So we're gonna go into that garden area.

I guess that is a question for the applicant.

It's a great question. 'cause there's also access

to the Middlesex Savings Bank and the handicap access.

I guess a question is on what side of the ramp is the pole

and then the guy wire or the guy pole, I guess.

Yeah,

Ms.

I, I honestly, there was

so much snow out there yesterday when I went out here,

I didn't see any of that, but I don't know if anybody from

town engineering or DPWI don't know if they made any

of their comments or recommendations.

So I apologize for that

When

You're, I didn't see any of that.

When you're on site, can you explain

where this was proximate to the building

of the Middlesex Savings Bank?

Not really. I mean, it was in, it was in front

of the building of Middlesex Savings Bank,

but more closer to it.

It across the street was much more closer

to the new building that's being constructed.

But the, but the, but the plans show the new proposed pole

being on the side of the street of Middlesex Savings Bank.

Yes. But if you, if you look across the street,

I'm trying to get some where

The

building that's being took.

Yep. No, I appreciate that. And, and I apologize for the,

for the questions, but if you're looking at the Middlesex

Savings Bank, I'm just trying to get a a sense from

where along that stretch in front of Middlesex Savings Bank,

the pole would be located.

So if I'm looking at Middlesex Savings Bank,

there's a flag pole in a landscaped area.

There's a, an existing pole sort

of on the property boundary.

There's then the entrance way to the Middlesex Savings Bank,

It looks like.

I mean, if I, I, so I brought up the, the plan that they

provided that, that was in Novus, right.

It's really close to the stairway.

Yeah.

Which is, I mean this is, you know,

I'm concerned about sidewalk access.

I'm concerned about, you know, I don't know where the bounds

of town property is versus Middlesex property.

Right. And,

and I was concerned about access

to the parking meters and things like that. So

Let me ask a hypothetical.

Right. One of the things that was in the memo,

memo from the town engineer is

installation cannot be performed until

after the Winter Street opening moratorium ends in

April, 2024.

So there's time for us to kind of get answers on

where this actually sits and,

and whether it's problematic or not,

and that, that's kind

of a question we can ask both Eversource

and the town engineer to,

to allay any fears that we might have.

Does that make sense?

Yes,

Ms.

If it came down to it, Bruce,

I mean the reason they give is that they're providing power

to this 21 streets.

And is it possible Bruce, or I mean chairman or

or Jamie, for them to find another location to have

to rework and I, I don't mean like far off somewhere,

but even in this general region

to figure out another place to put it.

That's kind of another question that can be asked

of the town engineer.

Yeah. Or, or perhaps come from an existing pole

that's approximate to the site.

Okay. Right. These are pro

potentially questions for Eversource.

I don't know if Ms. Crosby can answer those either. Right.

I don't know the engineering requirements

or the power load requirements at this location. Yep.

Yeah, I, I personally would very much like to see,

you know, a picture of where this is gonna land

as opposed to the, the map,

the map only helps me a little bit.

It's not sufficiently detailed.

It doesn't really tell me, you know, what might be impacted.

It's a very tight location.

That whole strip on Summer Street is a very

tight location anyway.

There are a lot of poles there already

and I just wanna make sure that we're not gonna

negatively impact, you know,

plowing, walking, parking, getting to parking meters, signs,

you know, visit, sign, visibility,

like there's a lot of stuff there.

Yeah. Yeah.

Oh,

Thank you Mr.

Sidney. Mr. Jess, I,

I think the chair hit it on the head.

There's no urgency, you know, tonight necessarily.

You know, I just, I actually went to Google Maps

and if you do the aerial view as opposed to the street view

and use their legend at that point

and zoom in the most, it would appear that the guide wire

and the pole would go into the, we, excuse me, to the east

of the flag pole based on just a ballpark there.

But I agree, I think we need to get this right.

It looks like it's safely outta the way of the ramp.

I'm never a fan of poles going in the middle of sidewalks,

especially within 20 feet of an accessible ramp.

It just bothers me on principle,

but I understand the right of way issue.

But that said, I think, I think you were right.

Let's, let's let's delay it until we can get the exact

and then we can vote something but it,

but it doesn't look like it's gonna be an issue.

I think we just need to make sure we

have the right paperwork. Yeah.

Yeah. Ms. Crosby, would it be acceptable for us to

ask that you come back on the 24th, which is our next date

and next available meeting

and meanwhile we work with the town engineer and,

and ask them to you?

We'll, we'll put our questions to the town engineer,

probably through the town manager

and just get them addressed at, at

that next meeting and then move on. That's fine.

And, and probably working with Ms. Crosby

to get pictures, I would think.

Yes. That's why I was asking Ms. Crosby.

Oh absolutely. That that's fine.

Okay. And hopefully there won't be two feet

of snow on the ground again.

It's already gone now. Yeah, that's right.

If I ask an, a picture of an example of a similar situation

for this, 'cause along this stretch of Summer Street, there

does not appear like any of the other polls have a guy wire

or a guy pole next to it.

I think it'd be beneficial for the board to see an example

of what this pole plus the guy wire would look like,

just given the tightness of this sidewalk approximate

to the building, approximate to the street itself.

If you have an example of that to bring, I think

that would be a benefit as well for, for just visual sake.

And it might not be one in the field here,

but it'd just be good to know what that looks like

And, and can we make sure we're not actually

approving something that's gonna land

in Middlesex property.

Yeah.

All good questions. So Mr. Erickson, why don't I work

with you to sort of ate questions

and we'll give them to the town engineer

and Eversource and ask them.

Yeah, I mean unfortunately Ms.

Crosby's on right now, so I'm,

I'm assuming she's taking

diligent notes about some of these requests.

But we can certainly do a follow up after the meeting. Okay.

Alright, very good.

So let's postpone any decision on this. I know Mr.

Durant is here.

Are you here to talk about the ever social pulse?

Yes. David Durant on Mock Street Precinct five.

Mike please.

He's on, just turn the mic.

He's on. He just was walking up.

Oh okay.

The light's on.

Yeah, it's on. Okay,

Perfect.

The, well I'm not available on the 24th.

I won't be in the state, so unfortunately I won't be here.

So I'll state my concern tonight.

I don't think the select board should approve

any new pole installations for Eversource

or Verizon until the double poll situation in the

town is satisfied.

They are violating general rule chapter 1 64,

section 34 B, which was part of the Electric

Industry Restructuring Act in 1997.

They're also violating the black

by town bylaw 78 A, which includes a fine

if polls aren't MO removed in a certain timeframe.

It's getting kind of ridiculous in the town

where I've seen double poles just driving here on

South Main Street that have been in that location

and should have been removed years ago, years ago.

And at a hundred dollars a day, fine, according

to our bylaws, we could hire three people to go around

and manage this and still make money on it

and save the taxpayers money

and a safe environment for them to walk, bike,

ride, and walk their dogs.

It's needs to be addressed.

I've heard it wasn't enforceable in the past

from the select board.

That's a law that's not enforceable from the select board.

But I find that kind of silly.

I don't think we put laws in the books

that aren't enforceable

and I don't think we have bylaws on our books

that aren't enforceable.

And I urge the select board to move forward

and get these utilities to react

or find them appropriately.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Let us

agree to move this.

That will be, you know, that, that, that's kind of,

well I'm not gonna,

Mr.

Chairman, do you wanna recess the public hearing

until the 24th or do you wanna close it

and re and open a new one?

Let's recess

to 24th.

Are you making a motion Rich?

I think you can just recess.

I don't think you need a motion.

Sure. I don't need a motion. Okay, let's do that then.

Okay. Alright.

On to the next one. Order ensure abatement appeal.

So just for clarity for everybody online, the

public hearing has been continued to the 24th, right?

Just past the board has typically

taken an action in that case.

I know you can probably just do a resource,

but the board has typically just voted

to continue to the next meeting.

We can do that

And have a

just date certain and yeah. Okay.

Okay. I, I'll make that motion and continue to the 24th.

Okay.

At six 30.

Mr. Sidney? Do I have a second?

Second.

Ms. Coughlin? All in favor? Mr. Sidney?

Yes.

Ms. Pope? Yes. Ms. Coughlin? Yes. Mr. Joseph? Yes.

And on me? Yes. So we're on to the 24th. Okay.

Now we're onto the water and sewer abatement appeal.

And let me first ask Mr.

Sorry, and I hope I'm pronouncing your name.

Is it Hiro? That's

Really good.

Yarro? Yeah. Okay.

Could you please give us sort of an summary of

what your re abatement request is? Sorry.

Of course. Absolutely. Wanna do a mic check

you guys online to hear me? Okay. Hear you.

Okay,

You're good.

Happy New Year everybody. Thank you

for hearing me out tonight.

I'm a NAIC resident as of July, 2022.

My name is Geraldo Yarro.

It's actually easier if you remember that.

Geraldo Rivera guy, for those of you that have the wisdom

of age like I do and I remember him from the eighties

and nineties, Geraldo is a good way to call me.

We moved into the Graystone area, a development a little bit

considered South Natick.

And I'm here to appeal to an abatement process

that was denied based on an incident that occurred middle

of 2023 re regarding a water leak in our irrigation system.

From this point, I'm glad to give any context,

but essentially it was failure of two things.

One is the water Smart system was mostly an operative

for a large part of 2023, indicating

that we could not do our regular checks of spend

and we could not do our normal alerts for

leaks that we relied on.

Unbeknownst to us that the system was down, we were alerted

to the water leak simply because our bill came in.

The bill came in in July about,

I actually have the date right here

and a timeline, gimme one second.

So the first alert was July 20th when we got an email from

the uni pay system that our bill was $2,400 and above.

At that moment, we contacted the very next day,

contacted the city, tried to figure out what's going on.

The city confirmed that this was the irrigation system,

and then also confirmed that it was potentially a leak.

We immediately remedied the leak

that very day we started with the remedy.

We shut down the water irrigation.

The very next day we actually got our landscapers to find

and mitigate the leak.

So at that point we knew that the system was no longer leak.

However, based on the fact that the bill that had come in

actually corresponded to a June 1st reading in the three

months previous, we knew we were in for a doozy

because not only was the $2,400 bill corresponding

to time passed the entire month of June

and up until July 20th, we knew

that the leak was still leaking.

So we made calculations.

We put in an abatement appeal for the irrigation process,

which was understandably denied based on policy.

But the next bill came. I already made some calculations.

I kind of knew what was the hit and it was $5,900 bill.

At that point we put in a second abatement request,

which was also denied.

And this brings us to now ultimately the rationale is that

we came to rely on the water smart system, both

for tracking our usage and the alerting system.

In fact, we signed up

for the Water Smart System August 2nd, 2022.

It was working perfectly.

We got a random alert in October of 2022.

It was an email on October 4th,

which was a few days after the reading.

And we thought we're covered, we're great,

leaks are well taken care of.

But when we talked to the city

and we tried to access a water smart system,

we were informed that the water smart system had not

been working for a few months.

We couldn't see our usage

for the past three months at that point in time.

So we didn't have any way to track the usage

and no alert ever came.

The city did take care of alerting us,

but unfortunately the alert came by way of a mail,

an actual physical piece of paper that arrived on July 24th,

four days after we had detected the leak.

At that point, obviously we had to move stuff from savings,

put one of our kids to work,

sell a kidney, but we managed to pay.

So we, we decided that we were not going to

be delinquent on the payments we pulled through.

But there was significant hardship in

savings diminished because of this.

The reason of the appeal is because of that,

although we understand clearly that the

policy doesn't cover irrigation leaks, it is a circumstance

of the water smart system

and the failure to indicate a system

that we were told was going to be a great reliable source

to detect leaks was just not working.

We did determine that if the water smart system had been

working then the June 1st measurement, the one

that ultimately comprised the $2,400 bill would've been

adequately done a few days later,

based on the October 4th alert that we got the year past,

we expect maybe three days

after the reading, we would've gotten an alert

that would've allowed us to mitigate the problem

and probably save over $4,500.

So we're seeking some sort of restitution for that extra.

And I did make calculations of spend based on,

with Judy's help, what our neighbors spent was in terms

of usage and consumption for similarly sized plots.

So all our calculations aren't based on the entire bill.

They're based on what would've happened if

we didn't have a leak.

How much would we have spent? It was a very hot summer.

So we understand how irrigation

was probably turned on that year.

We did not have any dry

demand for irrigation.

So we went very conservative in terms of what we're asking

for, and it comes out to something that we believe is fair

and responsible comparative.

And that brings me to the end here we are.

Okay. Thank you Ms. Sierra.

Questions?

I had a question. So I, I use water Smart, it's set up

to send me text messages.

So they're instant I'm looking at, so the

documents I'm looking at show that you received a water,

a water smart.

I have so many windows open a water smart notice

in July, and you anticipated that there was a problem.

And that's your 2000 change bill.

But it wasn't until October

after the second bill that you initiated irrigation repair.

No, we did not get a water smart alert over text

or email at all.

We haven't gotten one for this particular leak.

The way we were alerted is that we saw the unit pay bill

and that started a, a phone call to the city.

Very helpful with Judy and she helped determine

and pull out measurements.

That's how we determined it.

The water leak was fixed the very next day.

So the water leak was fixed between the 21st

and the 22nd of July.

Our abatement process for the first bill, the $2,400 bill

happened around that timeframe, end of July.

He actually put in the abatement for

the first bill on the 31st of July.

And then the second bill, the bill

with the 54 50 $900 came in October 4th.

That second bill also merited an appeal,

sorry, an abatement process.

We put in the abatement process on October 10th, six days

after the bill, the leak was fixed the very next day.

So the question, so I'm, I'm looking at

a water smart notice written by mail July 19th.

Correct. And after that you initiated repairs.

So between on the, on the read date of September one,

that's the $5,729 irrigation bill.

Why would you have had that high of an irrigation bill? If,

Well, because September 1st accounted for the use of July.

Right. And we didn't repair the leak until July 21st. July.

So that's 21 days of a leak. The September

One bill is for a time period.

September arrears. June one to September one. Okay.

So it's, it's a previous period obviously.

And then quarterly it takes about a 15 days to a month to

Get the bill.

And although we did get a WA physical mail,

I don't know if that's what you're calling me.

Water Smart alert, it was issued or written on July 19th.

Yes, we know this because it's on the actual piece of paper.

Right. But it didn't get to us until July 24th. Okay.

Via physical mail. It's, it was a weekend.

July 19th I think was a Thursday.

The weekend happened July, if I'm recalling correctly.

24th was either a Tuesday or a Wednesday.

And by that time the leak was totally fixed. 'cause

So did you have the irrigation system installed in 2022?

No. So the house is actually new, right?

The house was built and delivered in May, 2022.

We actually checked with the builder

if that was under warranty.

And unfortunately May 10th was the date that the,

that the house was no longer under warranty.

That's it's exactly one year, May 10th, 22 to May 10th, 23.

So they said, sorry. So the irrigation system,

we, we have no idea what could have happened.

It could have been natural causes.

The reason it only happened in, in, in May,

we believe I backtracked

and I said, well, let me do some math.

And we, I believe that around May 18th

or somewhere abouts is, is when it happened,

is when we turned on,

the irrigation system was getting hot and muggy.

We had turned everything off for winter.

We had done the typical blowout of the water.

So I have no idea what could have happened.

Could have been maybe a little bit water there,

frozen pipe, something burst.

We couldn't detect anything other

than the pipe was ruptured.

But it wasn't until it gotten hot and muggy

and the grass was looking a lot more yellow than normal

that we started turning on the irrigation system.

And that's probably when the leak happened.

Now the leak was underground.

It was something that we couldn't detect from the outside,

but the leak was significant.

About 500 gallons a day.

That's a whole hot tub full of people playing

around in it a day, which is a lot.

And this accounts for the very large bill.

As best we could determine, we did some ground analysis too.

Where was this water going? Is it going into our basement?

Is it going to our neighbor's basement?

Well, it turns out that there was a tiny slope

that was detected and the water was moving to a,

some sort of conduit that made it just go to the drainage.

So we did not detect any further damage.

And that was a really good thing.

But once it was fixed, it was fixed the day after.

And then my last question is for Mr. Erickson.

Could you talk about the water Smiths?

I, I'm a member, I use Water Smart

and I was unaware that it had been down.

Could you talk a bit about that?

I'd have to research that a little bit more.

The water smart system, one thing about the water smart

system is, and this is a newer property, so it's

with the newer technology, some of the older technology

that's still tied into the Water smart system might only be

updated on a monthly basis.

Whereas some

of the newer technology is more real time.

I don't know if it's exactly real time,

but it's just more real time than on a monthly basis.

I'd have to confirm the outage at this time.

I'm not debating, I just don't know

for sure if there was an outage.

I do find it interesting

that there was also a letter sent in a good way,

sent from our staff at that time, which to me indicates

that there might have been some type of

uniqueness about this situation.

So I'd want to confirm that

with the water department though, to confirm that,

that there was an outage. I just don't know for sure.

Okay. Thank

You.

Thank you. Sorry, I don't

have that answer for you tonight.

That's okay.

Okay. So what do we want to do here?

Do we want to, you know,

I I I think the resident has done everything in

their power to try to fix the leak

and is using water smart and,

and did not get the information in a timely manner.

And as a result, you know, for 500 gallons a, a day,

it is gonna add up real fast to a large bill.

Is there anything that we can do to

help mitigate this cost at this meeting

or do we need to do further research on it?

So that's really the pleasure of the board in the past

for irrigation systems.

And one of the reasons among many why irrigation systems in

the policy doesn't necessarily have a remediation measure

of afforded to the deputy tier 10 administration is

the water was used.

It's not as if we can remediate something not going into a

sewer system, for example, from the bill.

The water was used. And it's just challenging for us to know

what direction the board would like us to go in with regards

to a potential abatement, assuming

that's the direction you're going today.

In the past, what the board has

occasionally done is looked at historical averages

of the property, which is, as we know,

a little bit difficult in this case

'cause it's a brand new property.

But that has been in the past

and then billed at that tiered rate

of the historical averages.

In this case, we only have one year,

and so we usually took the average

of the previous three years.

What we did do is look at

also in the past the board has looked at,

'cause the water was used.

So by abating this completely

or partially it is an impact on

the other users of the system.

That's just a a for, for the knowledge of the board.

What the board has also done in the past is depending on the

situation, looked at billing,

maybe looking at the historical average or

or a last year average or an average

of the neighbors charging that.

But then billing the additional at a lower tier,

like a tier one rate.

'cause it is a tiered structure so that

as more water's used, the cost goes up.

We did look at that scenario whereby

we looked at the last year Bill took that as historic.

I know we don't have three years, but we took that

as historic and then did a calculation on the amount used

above that if billed at a tier one

and what that bill would be.

Okay. For both the bills.

It's just another way of looking at it

and it's consistent with

how the board has looked at that in the past.

It's hard and I appreciate the work of, of

the resident here doing, looking at

how the other people have used it,

but that, that the board has not used

that approach in the past.

We were just trying to look at

what might be a viable approach compared to

how the board has looked at these types

of situations in the past.

Should the board want to and desire doing an abatement.

It's also the pleasure of the board to ask us

to look at three, four different other ways of calculating

and come back at the next meeting with those calculations.

So it's really the pleasure of the board if you want.

I do have those numbers here.

Yeah, if we could certainly just go through some

of those numbers and you know, we have sort of the, the

gross in every sense of the word figures.

Sure. 6,200. But

So based on last year's figures,

the two bills in question, the the, the heavier bill,

which is the October bill,

but the June one to September one date,

my understanding is last year's usage was 107 units.

This year's usage was 304 units.

The other bill, the usage was 93 units,

whereas this year's usage was, I'm sorry,

107 units in this year's usage was

Four hundred and four eleven four four eleven four, four eleven.

Okay. My apologies.

Last year's use on the, the, the previous bill, the May bill

or the, the bill that covered the May timeframe was

last year's bill was 93 units, whereas this year's was 1 56.

Okay. And that's just for the irrigation meter.

The rest of the bill is not

in question, is my understanding.

So recalculating the bill,

if it were just to be last year's usage of 93 units,

the, I'll start with, I'll call it bill A, which is the bill

date of seven 18, covering the period

leading up to the end of May.

So it would've been when it was first turned on 93 units,

if that were calculated at the present year rates would've

been 1001 72, 79.

The additional usage of 63, if it were billed 63 units,

if it were billed at just tier one,

that would be an additional 6 19 92 for an adjusted bill

of 1007 92 71.

So the abatement on just that bill would be $619

and 92 cents on the other bill using

the same math, same logic, same calculations.

170 107 units would be 1000

372 79.

The additional usage

of 3 0 4 billed at tier one would be 1000

364 96 for an adjusted total bill of

2007 37 75 with an abatement.

Amy, could you repeat that please? Sure.

Adjusted bill of 2007 37 70 5 cents

for an abatement of 2009 9 1 36.

Okay, so the, the, so for for the first bill,

the original dollar amount is of just, again,

just the portion that is related to the irrigation meter.

One thing to note is we do have a $5 fee per meter.

So that is also calculated into the numbers I

provided the bill, just again, the irrigation component

is 2060 9 96.

The adjusted bill would be based on this proposal

of math 1007 92 71

for the second bill, the original bill,

5,000 729 11, updated

or adjusted bill 2000 737 75.

3,500

Total? Yes. 36 37. 3,800.

I got 36, 11 28.

Oh, sorry. Yes, I was looking at the wrong number. Yep.

Sorry. 3,500,

Correct.

36, 11 28.

I just took the abatement amounts of 6 19 92 and 29 91 36

and added those abatements together.

Sorry, what was the second figure?

I, I wrote that down. Yeah,

For, for bill B was 2,991 and 36 if I heard correctly.

Okay.

Yeah, I wrote that down wrong. Okay, thank you.

Six

plus.

And you, what was your net, net figure? 36 11 28.

Yes, correct.

Okay.

So they have paid,

That would be the ab

That's the abatement.

That's the abatement amount. Correct. Got

It.

Okay. Does anybody want to do a motion,

Assuming that's a pleasure of the

Board, assuming that's what we want

to do And I think we've done this previously,

so I think, yeah.

Does anybody want to do the motion? I'll do

Actually in discussion.

I mean, I'm, I'm sympathetic here and,

and this is a, a tougher one.

I mean, I think I, I'd like to get more research

to understand what happened with waters smart.

I think one of the things we strive

to do is educate the public

that we have a system in place that they can rely on.

I don't know what warranty the company gives

or we give, obviously it's a sort of

provided as a, an additional tool,

but we don't assume responsibility for it necessarily.

But I can't think in my

now almost two terms serving on this board, anybody coming

as well prepared, articulate,

and prepared to deal with lik as this,

as this gentleman has.

And you know, my, my thinking is,

and I appreciate the administration's calculation

of the abatements, but I'd be inclined

to split the difference between

what the resident is proposing at 6,200

and the proposed abatement of the town administrator

and potentially move an average between the two.

And I think in proposing an abatement of 49, 0 5 89

sort of, it's, it's difference.

And shows, you know, reasonableness, I think in the sense

that yes, this will go back to the rate payers

and yes, there are some, there are lots of costs

and risks associated with owning a home.

But at the same time, I think, you know, we try

to encourage our community to take advantage of these tools

and in this particular case they had done so.

I, I feel comfortable doing that.

I I thank you for that Mr. Joseph.

I I had the same opinion that, that, you know,

as you folks always know, I'm always walking infomercial for

what, what are smart.

So it is a failure of, of, of that particular system.

And I, I agree that we should pursue it with the, the vendor

and, and see if we can, you know, get some assurances

that, that there's at least some sort of fail safe or backup

or, 'cause people do rely on this, you know,

stuff happens, right.

And that, and that, that's just the reality

of the world we live in.

So I agree with Mr. Joseph,

and I think I've, you know, we've had a few

of these abatements and I've, the level of research

and comparisons

and the activity to

remedy the situation, they're all, you know,

relatively immediate things and, and thorough.

And so I'm supportive of the 49 0 5 89 suggested,

And to be clear, just predicated on the confirmation

that there was the outage, but I'm not disputing that.

We just wanna make sure that that's scopee.

So Yeah. So do you want to make that motion or,

So yeah, so I, so I move an abatement in the amount

of $4,905

and 89 cents subject to confirmation

by administration of the outage.

Okay. Lemme just ask a question of Mr. Erickson

if we do not

confirm the outage or you,

Sorry, just to clarify, you mean if there was no outage,

If there was no outage,

Well confirm whether or not there was an outage.

That I don't wanna be correct.

I I said it incorrectly. That's right.

Could we then come back here

and look at that 36, 11 28?

I mean, you could vote that now you could always say if

there was no outage then this is the abatement

or we, we can certainly come back. Don't Yeah, like

An

A and BI wanna be mindful of

the residents time as well. Okay.

With that amendments.

Okay, sure. Okay.

And I'll second that. And what's the motion? The discussion?

The motion is 49 0 5 89 abatement

subject to confirmation of the water smart outage.

And if not confirmed,

Nope.

If the confirmation says

that there was no outage, does that make sense?

There? We're gonna confirm either way. Okay.

Okay. Thank

You. I don't, I don't want this to be like,

oh, we didn't confirm that INVESTIG

Investigation, the investigation comes

Up.

If investigation is,

And if, if I may add one thing, the confirmation

that the system was out was done when we called the water

department, and I forget

who it was, but it was over the phone.

But one of the things that I would make sure that I check is

that I come from a IT world, make sure that the system

was out for our house.

Yeah. Because it's a newer property.

Maybe the old houses, maybe somebody says no, it was working

for 80% of the people.

Understood. So it's, it's mostly around that.

Okay. And I'm not, I'm not debating that,

unfortunately we don't have that person here.

I just wanna make sure that we, just

for the board's sake, confirm that as well.

Or just belt and suspending. Okay.

So the, the no outage

Discussion, huh?

The no outage amount would be 36 11 28, right?

36, 11 28. Yes.

I just wrote it down. Okay. Any discussion?

Who seconded?

That was seconded by me.

Okay. All in favor, Mr. Sidney? Yes. Mr. Joseph? Yes.

Ms. Pope? Yes. Ms. Kafa? Yes. And I'm a yes.

So thank you again. Or I can tell you that you are an IT guy

because there's a, there's a logic and an order and,

and an analysis that went into this.

So appreciate all the homework you did

and you made our, our jo our task a little easier

tonight, so appreciate that. I'm

Glad to hear that.

Happy New Year. As for our next step, when,

how would we know what?

Sure. So, so once we confirm a letter will be provided

and what usually happens is a credit goes onto the account.

Okay. We can certainly, if that's problematic,

we can certainly work with you on a potential rebate,

but usually it's a credit onto the account that we do,

that we would process on our end

through the collector treasurer's office.

Okay. I appreciate it. So the letter will be physical

and it will be coming from the water department or

It'll be coming from the town administrator's office.

John Marshall, who did the initial letter, we'll work

with Donna Donovan and the town administrator's office

and we'll circulate it

internally and we'll get a copy to you.

Fantastic. Thank you for the clarity

and have a great night everyone.

Thank you. You too. Thank you too.

Sorry for the year. Happy new

Year.

New welcome to Natick for a year now.

The watershed moment, Southern

California.

Well, well, well you probably recharged the

water aquifers, so

There you go.

I don't think we need that now though. We

Have plenty.

Not anymore. We did that. Alright,

Thank

You. Thank you. Good night.

Yes.

Okay, next up

the facility management increase

of the rates at the William Chase Arena as supported

by the Rink Oversight Committee.

I'm happy to do that, Jamie, if you,

because I was at the rink oversight meeting. Sure.

And we also have Travis Farley on as well from the rec.

Travis didn't department. Travis.

Travis, you stayed here this late,

so I'll give words to you.

So

Thank you Mr.

Chair. Can everyone hear me okay?

Yes.

Great.

For those of you who don't know, Travis Farley,

deputy Director of Community Services for Parks and Rec.

I'm here tonight on behalf

of the Rink Advi Oversight Committee to notify you that FMC

or Facility Management Corporation has notify us

that they plan on raising our rates nominally

for the 2024 2025 season.

We're gonna be going up from 262 to 272

for a 50 minute sheet

and 340, 314 to 326

for a 60 minute sheet.

And again, this is for the 20 2024 2025 season.

So next year we wanted to get ahead of it

to let our users know

and give them plenty of time to notify everybody

that this rate was gonna be going up for next year.

That's why you see it coming before you.

Now, the rate hasn't been increased since 2020.

Before that it was 2016.

So it's, it's, it's roughly every four or five years.

FMC to their credit, has really try to keep the

costs in line with other public rinks.

And we did take a hard look at the surrounding rinks

and we try to be competitive.

We try to be similar to what they charge locally as well

for other similar rinks across the board.

But the, the vote was unanimous five to nothing in support

of the rate increase.

And that's why you see it for you now.

Thank you Mr. Farley. Any questions or discussion?

Seems reasonable based on what the Metro West average is

and the typical increase cadence. Yeah.

Thank you Ms. Well, yeah,

and in the discussion there, Mr. Farley

pointed it out is they haven't had an increase in a couple

of years, but they've also invested in the

facilities also with the roof,

new locker rooms, new storage.

So they're, we're getting great bang for our buck in,

in terms of supporting youth hockey.

They support youth hockey,

adult hockey, high school hockey.

It's, it's a very

frequently used rink.

And I, and I did not try to extract a Zamboni ride,

although I was in my, I really wanna do that.

So

See if we can make that happen.

All right. Thank you. They can bid for it.

Do an auction item for something. That's an idea. I'd do it.

I think it should be a privilege of the chair.

I'd do, I just like,

and they'd bring me over with the Zamboni bony.

Okay. So I need a motion to approve.

So moved. Moved by Mr. Joseph Seconder.

Second well, and seconded by Ms. Coughlin. All in favor?

Mr. Joseph? Yes. Ms. Coughlin? Yes. Ms. Pope? Yes.

Mr. Sidney? Yes. And I'm a yes also. Awesome.

Thank you Travis. Thank you. Thank,

Thank you for giving the time

and I'm sorry I couldn't make it in person, so thank you.

No you're not. Just stay. No

Worries Travis.

Be truthful. Have a good night. We don't mind you too.

That was the Eddie Haskell clause. Yeah.

Mrs. Clear. Okay, next step is Johnson School.

Next steps. Jamie, can you give us a

Quick run ab Absolutely.

And this is more just a general update.

It doesn't actually require a decision,

but it's on here just because we wanted

to make sure that the board was aware.

So Johnson School in December, the school committee

voted to basically,

I guess return the school to the town

or the select board for care, custody and control.

This is a fairly standard part

of the process when a school is de determined

or deemed to not be a necessary school use under master law.

There's a very defined process and they started

that process in December by taking

that action and that vote.

Since that time, the school department along with myself,

we had to sign and submit some paperwork to the state dsi,

department of Education and Secondary Education.

There is also an action that is going to be asked

of the select board, which is basically

to sponsor an article

for this upcoming spring annual town meeting.

'cause there's a town meeting action that has to be taken

and then that that,

and one of the reasons why we're doing it now in advance

of the school closing is the school committee needed to take

that vote at least six months in advance

of when the school would be no longer in their use.

And they're anticipating that this is the last school year

for the use of that school that's been worked through

with the superintendent, with the school committee,

with the residents, with the neighborhood.

So this is the last year for that school as a, as a school.

So this is more of an update to this board.

One to just let you know that you will be asked the sponsor

or your, it'll be on your docket

to sponsor an article at the upcoming town meeting.

The town meeting. You just opened the warrant tonight.

So you'll be seeing that on a future agenda, you know,

sponsoring this action of town meeting.

And two, one thing that we've been looking at for a number

of months, and it's part

and parcel with the initiative

that we've been looking at actually for a number

of years on the town administration side,

is really space management and use of space.

The Johnson now being something that would be divested back

to the select board.

Our intent is to wrap that.

Our being town administration's intent is to wrap

that into that conversation.

You recall, we've been trying to really understand

what the future of the Coal and Rec and Park Center is.

We're also working on this human services study

that should be wrapped up actually at the end

of this fiscal year in June or July.

And the human services study, one of the outcomes is

to provide us with some understanding is from the space need

perspective, programmatic, yes, we need to understand

where we're taking human services programmatically.

And that's more of a, you know, birth to,

to later in life exercise.

So it will include rec

and parks, it will include the entirety

of the community services department, human services,

mental health, you name it.

But there's also a corresponding understanding as to

what space do we need to actually accomplish that.

So our intent is to take sort of a, a multi-pronged approach

to this analysis.

In the short term for the Johnson,

what we're gonna start looking at is really what,

what is the building shape?

What do we need to do for short term costs, if any,

because it's gonna take us a little while

to finish the long term study

of once we get the human services study,

then what's next in our space needs analysis,

we're gonna have to look at the coal.

We're gonna incorporate the e-school into this look.

And the Johnson School will be part of that as an overall,

along with our other existing buildings.

That though is a longer study.

So first we're gonna take an immediate look.

What do we need to do to secure the building once it's

brought over to the town, it's in good shape.

Fortunately, we have a shared facilities department,

so we already know the shape of the building,

but there's still gonna be some costs there.

We also might, in the short term, look at

what infrastructure might be necessary if we

need to use it for a purpose.

The coal center is in pretty rough shape.

There might be a need to use the Johnson in some way,

but even before that,

what we are also anticipating is sometime this spring,

likely in the March timeframe, doing some type

of community forum with the neighborhood just to listen

to ensure they're aware that we want this

to be a public process.

We want public engagement.

We're not sure where we are yet,

but when we do get go along with the process,

there will be some public engagement.

Similarly, we're gonna be engaging with the residents of

where the Cole Center is located.

Similarly with the E school when we go into this,

but again, we're we're that, that's down the road.

That's several months, if not six to 12 months down the road

because we also want to have that human services study

to help inform that work as well.

I just want this board to know that we do intend to have

that process be inclusive and,

and have a lot of public engagement.

The reason why we would start a meeting immediately in the

Johnson neighborhood is just understanding that

that school is still a fabric of

that neighborhood at this time.

And we want to be mindful of that and, and listen from that.

The coal has been also a fabric of the neighborhood,

but the Johnson is going

through a pretty significant change.

So that's it in a nutshell.

I I, I do intend to, once

we go a little bit further along about understanding the

building, I, I intend to just provide a little bit up

regular updates to the board.

I can certainly put the intent in writing

if the board would like to have that.

Just so we can map out what the next steps are.

I have two pages of notes just for my meeting

that we had a number of, of weeks ago on this subject.

Again, we're looking at the short term,

but also the long term short term,

more as a short term vision.

Long-term is gonna be that long-term understanding

of space needs holistically in the entirety of the town,

including the Johnson.

Thank you Ms. Erickson. I, I, I think any

Questions on that front?

Sorry, I would like to, to get it just a high level. Sure.

Some of the things that you have, I don't want you

to go crazy on it.

You got other things you need to be

Doing.

That was my intent. I just, I wanted to make sure

that you heard first though,

before you saw an agenda item

to sponsor something on town meeting floor.

Yeah. And the vote has already

been taken by the school committee.

They did that in December. That was

In December, right, right. Yeah. Mr. Justice,

No, thank you.

I appreciate it. It definitely,

that summary I think would be helpful for community members.

That's obviously a very sensitive

topic for a lot of neighbors.

I guess the one question I had,

so you were looking at the building shape

and you mentioned that can we repurpose it

if it's not gonna be used as a school,

be given its a DA limitations

and some of the things that sort of gave it constraints,

like does that represent a change of use and

therefore create situation where it's not usable

because of those limitations?

So there's a lot of

considerations that are part of that

question. Some of its cost.

The answer is depends. That's fine. I just was

Curious about that.

Some of it depends on the future use, right?

Some of it depends on, so

with, with a change of use, you are correct.

There's an obligation to bring the building up

to code compliance, the full extent of that cost.

We have estimates from years past of studies

and it's, it's not inexpensive.

It's certainly expensive,

but much depends on then what is that next use.

The past studies, we're really looking at it

as a school use, which under master general law and EE rules

and regulations has certain obligations

and requirements for types of classrooms and other spaces.

If, if it's, it really depends on

what that next use would be.

A couple of things that we have on,

on our plate is really just looking at, again,

the internal needs in the community services, rec and parks.

Even the school department, they've talked

for years about a family resource center

or some other type of, of resource center that we are,

we're sort of outta space here in town hall.

We'll have a new superintendent starting next year.

So we'll have to incorporate

that person's vision into this as well.

And, and some of the other services that are coming out

of the, the community services and the human services study.

There might be a need for incubator space

for i for, for some things.

Whether it makes sense to go, there is another story.

One thing that in working with the building commissioner

so much depends on what the use is and what

and how you access that use will determine

what improvements we need to do to any building.

This isn't unique to the Johnson School. Yeah, sure.

Thank you. So long story short, I don't know yet.

That's fine. And that's, that has

to be part of what we analyze.

We do know that, that it does have good bones.

It's just got a lot of compliance challenges as well.

A DA compliance challenges. Absolutely.

And other challenges. Absolutely.

Any other questions? Okay.

Thank you for that. Next up is referral of zoning articles

for spring annual town meeting.

This I think was an Amanda memo,

Correct?

I can just briefly in brief, again, this is part

of the master law chapter 40 a section five process

for zoning amendments.

As I've explained to the board in the past.

And, and the public section a, sorry,

chap master law chapter 40 a section five obligates that a,

a zoning amendment proposal be submitted to, in the case of

of a town, the select board

for referral to the planning board.

There's timelines for that referral.

The select board has to do that within, I believe 14 days

or 10 days of the submission.

That starts the time for the planning board to schedule

and hold the public hearing

that's required under master general law.

That's separate and distinct from our town meeting process.

It does not mean that it's on the warrant for town meeting.

The planning board or any sponsor

of an article would still have to submit

that for town meeting.

Historically, the town has done that concurrently.

My firm recommendation

for the last eight plus years has been, let's decouple

that a little bit, especially for more complex zoning.

And we've done that successfully a couple times

through the years, but now we're actually really

getting traction with that.

And this is a great example of that in brief.

This is a continuation of the work that CED and Amanda

and the planning board have been doing this.

These article or this article

actually was on the town meeting warrant for the fall,

but it was still being worked on and it,

and the desire was let's, let's move it

to the next town meeting.

So the intent is for them to sponsor

for this upcoming town meeting, but this is really just

to allow them to start their public hearing process.

Yeah. And it's related primarily

to the use regulation schedules

and some of the off street parking

and loading requirements in the zoning bylaw.

Okay. Questions? Work comment.

Is this one or two articles? They're proposing

Two,

Technically.

Two, they might hold them as one public hearing.

I'm not sure how the planning board intends to do that.

Yeah. But there are two amendments.

Okay.

Or two sets of amendments.

So any questions? And do I have a motion

to refer these two?

No moves. Thank you Mr. Sidney. And do I have a second?

Second. Thank you Mr. Joseph. All in favor? Mr. Sidney?

Yes. Ae motion?

Ms. Ms. Pope couldn't hear the motion.

I didn't hear the motion. The motion is to, to refer the

two zoning bylaw requests

that were received from Amanda Loomis

zoning bylaw use regulation schedule

and associated sections.

And the others amend zoning, bylaw off street parking,

voting requirements.

And those are just being referred to the planning board

for their review.

Okay. And just for the record,

under master law chapter 48, there's only certain groups

or people that can make the requests

and technically this request

is coming from the planning board.

Right. So the planning board is seeking, they still need

to go through, even though it's going back to them.

Right. You still need to go through

Requesting that we, and it doesn't

Mean we smart them, it just means

that we let them do their job. Right.

So it's largely an administrative function of the board in

A public notification function.

Yeah. Thank you. Good question though. Okay. Okay.

Rich, I guess Ms. Pop? Yes. Okay. Ms. Coughlin? Yes.

And I, can I ask you, Paul, you did not Mr. George?

Yeah, I second and I'm a yes also,

so that'll be referred.

Next up we have

refer three proposed zoning amendments

to the planning board.

Yep. I can speak just briefly to this,

although we do also have the person

who submitted the letter, Pete Di Peter Di on the on the

call if the board has any questions similar

to what you just voted.

National law Chapter 40, a request for zoning amendments

submitted to the board for referral to the planning board.

In this case, it is on behalf of the owner

of the 200 Pond Road property, which is

the address technically is a Wellesley address,

but the property that's the subject

of this proposal is in Natick,

but you access it through the Wellesley property,

a 200 pond road.

There's three proposals on here,

but all for the same property.

Three zoning. I'm not,

I'm sure not all three will come to town meeting.

It's really up to the proponent in this case.

But you can see it does include the

three proposed amendments.

Questions members.

Again, this does not,

you're not confirming support

or lack of support by taking this action.

It's strictly

The pass

Through. I can comment

Joe, go ahead Mr. Sid.

Yeah. We've received a number of emails about this

as a board and I just want, I want the public

to know that it's not

up, it's not really up to us to stop or start this project.

We're gonna, we'll refer these to the planning board

and let the planning board do the right job.

It's up to the planning board to vet these things

and it's up to town meeting to approve them.

So I just, I I wanna make that clear to the public that

that's what's gonna happen here.

I appreciate all the opinions from

the public about this both pro and con,

but it's, this is an administrative move

and not necessarily support

or advocacy for this project at all.

Thank you Mr. Sidney. I I'm gonna read a, a statement

that I'd like to put on the record

because for the same reasons that Mr.

Sidney was just speaking,

the select board is taking no position on this

and will not be sponsoring this warrant article.

This is a citizen's petition

and the petitioner is responsible

for reviewing the warrant articles with the planning board

and finance committee.

It will then be up to town meeting

to consider whether they're supportive

of this zoning change or not.

The only action the select board is taking tonight is

to refer these articles to the planning board.

Should the zoning be approved by town meeting,

the planning board process

for granting a special permit may begin.

I want to be clear to people watching at home

or on Zoom that the project review is independent

of the zoning change, right?

By by town meeting, approving this zoning change.

That does not necessarily mean that they approve that

that project is approved.

I just wanna be abundantly clear that that's not the case.

If I may just briefly also, oh, sorry. Oh, go ahead.

I was just gonna clarify that the zoning,

this process is strictly the zoning amendments has nothing

to do with town meeting articles.

The proponent or, or somebody who,

who would be sponsoring it could be a board,

it could be a committee will still need to submit one

or all or none of these articles

for submission per the deadlines noted previously tonight

for, for the town meeting warrant,

this is strictly just starting the,

the public hearing process in front

of the planning board under Master Knowledge chapter 40 A.

Alright, thank you for that clarification.

And given that,

and given what you just read, I guess one

of the questions I have, you said the select board will not

be taking a position.

Does that mean when the time comes for us

to consider town meeting articles,

we will not debate this particular article?

No. Thank you for that question.

What, what I meant by that is that

the proponents, I wanna be careful how I phrase this.

The proponents approached us

and asked if the select board was interested in sponsoring

this zoning change as an article and we declined to do that.

Now, once it becomes a warrant article,

like all warrant articles, we should

offer our opinion on that.

So thank you for clarifying that.

I probably should have been a little tighter

on my phrasing there.

I appreciate the clarification. Thank you. Okay.

Okay. Any further discussion?

Okay. Do I have a motion to refer these three

zoning amendments to the planning board?

So who's moving that?

I'll second.

No one has moved it. So you're, then I'll

Move it.

Kristen. Oh, I'm sorry Kristen, I didn't hear you.

Okay, Kristen and Rich

and all in favor, Kristen?

Yes.

Okay. Mr. Sidney. Sorry. Yes, I said Kristen.

I'm sorry. Ms. Coughlin? Yes.

Mr. Joseph And I'm a yes also.

So those are also referred. Okay.

A special town meeting. Okay.

This one is on me, so I should probably

talk a bit about this.

The as as you may recall from our last meeting,

that was a joint meeting with the CBRC,

we agreed that it made sense.

It didn't make sense to rush through this

and do a special town meeting sometime in February

or thereabouts because it would interfere

with the finfin comms work.

The town administrators work on their budget

and it made more sense given the feedback that we were able

to provide to the CBRC, to

to work on perfecting the language so that it would be ready

for a special town meeting.

Our intent is to have that run concurrently

with the SPRINGTOWN meeting.

And by that I mean both meetings will be,

will start on the same day, but one of them will be,

and I'll, I'll probably not use the correct term

and the moderator will correct me in the future,

but we basically suspend one, either the special

or or the regular, most likely the regular and,

and go to the special town meeting.

Our intention is that to have the special town meeting be

dedicated to charter and bylaws.

We are having, you know, obviously anyone could submit

any article for whichever warrant they want to put it on,

but we want to urge people to

submit articles that are i'll,

I'll just call 'em regular articles or,

or not dealing with the charter

and bylaws to the regular spring

annual town meeting

and reserve the special town meeting for

furthering and, and hopefully completing the work on the

charter and bylaws changes are there.

And I will, we'll work on a date

to do this essentially,

and we talked about this a little last meeting, we have

to provide 28 days notice to people

once we've announced the warrant.

We can also, so any time up to 28 days

before the, the town meeting that we just opened

had named at, can't think of the words,

intend to open the town meeting.

If we back up 28 days from that, that's,

that's the legal requirement to do that.

I wouldn't anticipate us doing that.

We'll probably announce it sometime around February

so people have plenty of time to think about

what they wanted, want to put on that special.

But once we open the warrant, it's going

to be a very short timeframe.

I'm not, we haven't finalized the decision on how short

that timeframe is,

but we don't want to leave it open for weeks upon end.

Again, we want to keep it narrowly defined.

The reason I wanted it on the agenda tonight is

to give people a heads up to start thinking about

things they might want

to put on a special town meeting warrant.

So more information to be provided in the future.

Are there any questions and board on the board members? No.

No. Okay. All right. Thank you.

Okay, next up is consent agenda.

So there's one item on the consent agenda.

Approve Lauren Barlow's request

to occupy a public way for junior's.

Pause for a cause. Seventh annual

5K walk run on April 28th, 2023.

Anybody wanna remove it or should we just vote it?

Let's vote it.

Move to move to vote.

The move to accept the consent agenda.

Okay. Do I have a second?

Second.

Okay. All in favor, please say aye. Mr. Sidney?

Aye. Ms. Coughlin? Yes. Ms. Pope? Yes. Mr. Joseph? Yes.

And I'm a S so 5 0, 0. Okay. Town administrator notes.

I do have a couple of just brief updates please.

And given the time I'll try to keep them extremely brief.

One, I just wanna give a, a big kudos to my team

for all their support that they gave me for some

of the personal issues that I was grappling