Good evening and welcome to the

July 23rd select Board meeting.

This meeting is being recorded by Pegasus

and streamed, so thank you very much, Pegasus.

At this time, I'd like to ask anyone in the room

to turn off your cell phones,

and I call this session of the select Board meeting

to order at 6:04 PM I mean, yeah, 6:04 PM I'd like

to invite everyone to stand

and say the Pledge of Allegiance and observe a moment of silence,

Pledge allegiance.

Allegiance to the flag in the United States of America,

to the Republic which isand All Nation under God,

indivisible, Liberty, and Justice for all.

Thank you.

First, we will do announcements

and I'll turn it over to Mr.

Sidney.

Thank you Madam Chair. I have two announcements.

Spark Kindness is celebrating Disability Pride Month,

which is the month of July.

Disability Pride Month is an annual observance in July

that celebrates the important contributions by people

with disabilities, encourages acceptance and inclusion

and brings awareness to the fast challenges people

with disabilities continue to face.

This month also marks the anniversary of the

Americans with Disability Act.

A landmark civil rights law signed on July 26th, 1990

that prohibits discrimination against people

with disabilities in all areas of public life.

And from the Natick Police Department,

they're doing Natick Police National Night Night Out on

Tuesday, August 6th, 2020 4, 25, I assume

from four to eight in over at

Memorial Field by the High School.

National Night Out is an annual community building campaign

that promotes police community partnerships

and neighborhood comradery to make our neighborhoods safer,

more caring places to live

National Night Out enhances the relationship

between neighbors and law enforcement.

While bringing back a true sense of community.

National Night Out provides a great opportunity

to bring police and neighbors together.

In 1994, the National Association

of Town Watch introduced the National Night Out campaign.

Community partners are invited to get together for a night

of fun education demonstrations,

and the opportunity to engage with our officers.

They'll be showcasing various emergency response vehicles,

a flyover of Massachusetts State police, air wing,

motorcycle, and canine demonstrations,

and their gonna be free food.

And so if I hope everybody shows up, it's a fun event.

Thank you, Mr. Sidney. This time we will

move to public speak.

Any individual may raise an issue

that is not included on tonight's agenda,

and it will be taken under advisement by the board.

There will be no opportunity for debate during this portion

of the meeting due to the requirements of open meeting law,

this section of the agenda is limited to 10 minutes

and any individual addressing the board during this section

of the agenda shall be limited to three minutes.

Is there anyone in the room who wishes

to address the board under public speak?

Speak. Seeing none, we'll move

to Zoom.

You ask. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Nevermind.

Is there anyone on Zoom?

Just you could raise your hand and we will unmute.

Unmute you. Seeing none.

Next item on the agenda is proclamations.

Sean Ke Eagle Scout Proclamation. Madam Clerk?

Yes. This is a proclamation in honor of Sean Ketty

and it reads, whereas Sean Ketty, a dedicated member

of Troop seven in Natick, Massachusetts,

began his scouting journey as a Cub Scout in first grade

and earned the rank of Eagle Scout on April 24th, 2025

before the Mayflower Council Board of Review.

And whereas Sean has demonstrated excellence in scouting,

academics, athletics, and service earning 26 merit badges,

and the 50 Miller, the 50 Miler award,

standup paddle boarding award

and election to the order of the arrow

and participated in two high adventure trips.

And whereas Sean served as assistant senior patrol leader

and instructor providing guidance

and mentorship to younger scouts while balancing his

rigorous academic schedule, AP courses

and commitment to football and wrestling.

And whereas Sean's Eagle Project supported a place to turn

a local food pantry by designing

and installing collection bins in grocery stores

and coordinating ongoing donations,

ensuring continued service through younger scouts.

And whereas Sean graduated from Natick High School

as a member of the National Honor Society

and received the College Board

National African American Recognition Award and the John

and Abigail Adams Scholarship for Academic Excellence.

Now, therefore, the Natick Select Board honors Sean Kedi

for his exceptional achievement, leadership,

and dedication to his community

and wishes him continued service

as he begins his studies in engineering at the Worr

Polytechnic Polytechnic Institute

presented this day.

Well, it is gonna be presented on the 27th day

of July, 2025.

Congratulations, Sean.

Thank you so much.

So moved,

Moved by Mr.

Sydney to accept the proclamation seconded by Mr. Evans.

All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Motion carries. 5 0 0.

Next item on the agenda is appointments.

Committee appointments. We are looking for two three year

to appoint two people

to three year terms expiring on June 30th, 2028

for the Natick net zero committee.

At this time, I'll take the interviews in order.

Is Ms Mora here or online?

Okay, we'll come back to her.

Priyanka,

SIA, did I say that right?

Roger Jarrett here.

Could you come to the podium, introduce yourself,

and we have your packet,

but if you could just say a few words

about why you wanna serve on the Natick net net zero

committee and how you, how you

would add to the committee.

Certainly. Thank you for taking the time.

My name is Roger Jarrett.

I've been a Natick resident since 1990.

I professionally,

I'm a a principal software engineer at MathWorks,

and what I bring is a first aid passion

for an environment at my own house.

I have solar panels, I have heat pumps,

I drive an electric car, I have a house battery as well.

And I've been very passionate demonstrating my passion about

making a difference in the environment.

What I bring to the committee is the ability to look at

and solve problems

and to get a group of people together

to look at what the problems are

and sort of the, think of it as a pro.

I've had, you know, 40 years experience

as a project leader getting things done.

Thank you. Questions for members of the board?

Thank you.

Can you tell, oh, I'm sorry. Go

Ahead.

I was gonna ask, thank you so much, Roger, for being here

with us and being willing to serve on this committee.

I wanted to know if you were familiar

with the Net Zeros action plan at all? Yes.

Okay. I, I've read through.

I think that, I think it's a very good plan.

I've seen it in action already.

I think there's a couple of places, you know, that due

to technology improvements, there are places

that there could be just small tweaks to improve it.

One example is bigger emphasis on the use of in,

of, of batteries.

House, house size. Batteries were larger for

reducing the reducing load

or it's actually called load shifting.

Thank you. Any other questions? No.

How comfortable are you leading efforts such

as public outreach, outside meetings? Yeah,

Very comfortable with it.

I have 15 years experience at the AMSA board of trustees

leading, helping to lead the school.

We, the net zero committee has five subject

areas that it specializes in.

Which one would you be able

to contribute to most?

I think either the house

focused on the residential aspect or the commercial aspect.

Okay. Are there any

other questions for members of the public?

Thank you so much. Thank

You.

And John Ebel.

My name is John Ebel. I moved into Natick in 1988.

I'm a professor of geophysics at Boston College where I have

been my entire professional career.

I am now getting ready to retire.

I'll be retiring at the end of this coming academic year.

And so I thought that this would be an opportunity for me

to give some of my experience and expertise

and some time to the native community

where I've lived for a long time.

I, my specialty is earthquake seismology,

and you may have seen me on television for that.

I have taught many courses in environmental science

and geophysics at Boston College, including a course

that I taught for five years

with a history professor called Powering America,

where we looked at the history

and the science of energy systems in the United States from

1790 to the present.

I have broad expertise, especially in the geosciences,

but my under degree is in physics, so I also understand the,

the physical aspect of many

of the environmental problems that are being faced.

Questions for members of the board.

I'll keep with my same question.

John, nice to meet you and great to have you here.

Thank you for being willing to serve.

My question is the same as I asked Roger,

have you had an opportunity

to look over the net zero action plan?

I haven't read it in detail. No.

I did scan it very briefly.

Thank you.

And the same question

as I directed the previous candidate.

How comfortable are you leading outreach efforts in outside

of meetings, public outreach?

Extremely. I I'm extremely comfortable with that.

I've been the chair of a music school, chair of the board

of a music school over in Framingham,

the performing arts center of Metro West.

I have done hundreds and hundreds

and hundreds of television interviews, radio interviews,

newspaper interviews, you name it, local,

regional, national, international.

I've done public speaking, local, regional, national

and international groups, leading organizations,

leading public relations outfit, public relations efforts

and, and just promoting to the public what we need to do

for sustainability is something I'm very comfortable with.

Okay. What I'd like

to do right now is just take a five minute break

and reach out to the two candidate, the other two candidates

to see if they're just running late.

Thank you. And we'll come back in about five minutes.

congratulations on your impending retirement.

Oh, thank you. We're back. Ms. Mora is here on line. Ms.

Mora, could you unmute yourself

and we'll let you into the meeting?

Hello, I'm here. Hi

Kate.

Ms. Mora, could you tell us a few just your,

what your interest is with the Net zero committee?

Sure, I'd be happy to, and I apologize I had the wrong

time, so I apologize if I'm joining the conversation late.

But my interest in joining the, the Net zero committee

stems mostly from my

interest in giving back to my community.

I recently have had an opportunity to stay home with my kids

and take care of my husband when he was having some serious

medical conditions.

And now I have the, the space and the time

and I'd love to give back to the community

that supported us through so much.

And the Net zero committee specifically interests me

because my previous life was as a architect

who designed net zero buildings mostly for educational

clients, but lots of different types.

And as a homeowner, I have done a lot at our home to

get our home ready for net zero.

We're almost there. We have heat pumps and solar panels

and I have some personal experiences now that I'd like to,

you know, be able to share and help the the town meet its

net zero goals through both my

personal experiences in my professional expertise

that I bring to the table.

Thank you. Ms. Mora questions

or comments from members of the board?

Yes, hi Ms. Mora, thank you for your willingness

to serve on the Net Zero committee.

I'll ask you the question that I've asked the other

candidates and that is, have you had an opportunity to read

or take a look at the net zero action plan?

Yes, I have. In fact,

I've been attending the net zero committee meetings

for a few months now.

I think I started in January or February.

And I think their, their goals on the residential side

of things and the commercial side of things

for the buildings in town are areas that I'm,

I'm particularly interested in helping with.

And I think I just generally am committed to the, the goals

that they have laid out in their plan

and would be happy to help with anything that they need.

Thank you. Other members, Mr. Evans?

Yeah, just a question. One of the things I read about

in your bio or

or application was an example collaboration

with Natick public schools

to reduce energy use and, and waste.

Can you give me an example of the conversation

or what the con those conversations were?

Oh, sure. I was referencing the,

the conversations I've had with the sustainability director

and other members on the, on the school building committee

in their efforts to launch the new Memorial school project,

talk to a couple of them about some of the things

that they're starting to look into there.

And then I was hoping that there was a kind of an extension

of that conversation that could happen in the future in

terms of the existing school buildings

and the, the goals that they have for their schools

and how they could lean into some of the net zero

targets that the town has.

Good. Great. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Other members of the board, Ms.

Mora, I just have one question.

The net zero committee has five work streams.

Which one do you think you,

you would be able to contribute to most?

I think I would contribute most to the residential

heat pump, or sorry, the residential energy

goals and is focusing a little bit more on the,

the heat pump coaching side of things.

I've started to do that training as well

and have been working with Mark Ralston to get certified

to help more formally on that front.

You know, going beyond just my personal experience

at my home, but to be able to lean into that one.

So that's where I'm have the, the most experience.

But I think both the commercial buildings as they kind

of get into the more of the multifamily

buildings that are kind of that in between zone

between residential

and commercial, that's something I'm

interested in personally.

The transportation side of things

or the waste reduction things,

those are things I'm interested in.

I'm certainly an advocate of, of use of bikes

and pedestrian friendly streets

and I do compost it myself at home

and I would, you know, be happy to help on those,

but they're not as necessarily the

primary places I could think I could give

most of my expertise to.

Thank you. Ms. Moore, are there any other questions

for members of the board or members of the public?

Mr. Scott?

Roger Scott 40 Water Street.

A A question may be Ms. Morrow could answer with

this heat pump being in the hot in the Northeast

and we experience cold weather.

Is it more affordable for the the town

to go with gas versus having u using heat pumps

because they run up your electric bill and other times

and is, isn't that what be the more affordable situation

for the residents in their homes and in the town itself?

Thank you Mr. Scott. Ms.

Mora, it is outside of scope but

because one of the questions that we're, we want to look

for is whether these candidates can be advocates.

I'm going a question.

Sure, yeah, I'd be happy to answer it.

I think in terms of the energy costs of,

of gas versus the energy cost of electricity,

there are some moving targets right now in terms

of the energy rates.

I've seen some proposals out there for energy companies

to actually offer lower rates to

homeowners that are using

electricity to heat their whole home.

So people who are using heat pumps to use the whole home.

So that could level the playing field between gas

and electric in the very near future.

But every home is unique

and I think the work that I've done

with the coaches right now

has really helped me understand the kind of case

by case situation

and being able to look at each individual home

and say whether or not it makes sense for that home to have

a gas system or, or an electric heat source.

So I would say that In the long term,

I think long term I think things are gonna keep evolving.

Right now there definitely will be cases

where it's more affordable from the dollar standpoint to,

to go with gas in a, in a particular home,

but there's also the long term impacts of the emissions that

that, that is gonna bring on for,

for the climate change and for the town in general

to keep burning so much fossil fuel.

So it's, it's a, it's a complex

situation and I think with all the expertise

around going to electric homes, I think it's something

that we can, can really work through as a community

and get our emissions down in the, to meet our targets.

Thank you Ms. Mora.

I'm just gonna allow the one question, Mr.

One more question. No,

I,

I'm just allowing the one question

because we're gonna go ahead and vote,

but thank you so much Ms.

Vickers.

Thank you very much. B Brinley Vickers.

I don't actually have a question on this.

More of a comment of someone who pays very close attention

to schools and the school committee

and the process with schools having anyone

and the net zero committee express such an interest in terms

of collaboration with schools,

I think is a real bonus and a real plus.

They can definitely use that input and stuff

and so I just thought I'd express that. Thank

You.

Thank you so much. I appreciate that.

Members, each of you should have a ballot.

If you could fill out your ballot, pass it over

to Mr. Erickson and then

after we vote, we will announce who we voted for so

that it's in compliance with open meeting law.

Thank you.

Thank you

Madam Chair.

The results are, I'll just go

and order Kate Mora with five votes,

Priyanka with zero votes.

Roger Jarrett with four votes and John with one vote.

So the two first we'll say how we voted. Mr.

Mr. Evans,

I voted for Ms.

Mora and Mr. Jarret,

Mr. Sidney,

Ms. Mora and Mr. Jarret,

Ms. Salva, Ms.

Mora and Mr. Jarret.

I voted for Ms. Mora and Mr.

Jarret. I voted for Ms. Moore and Mr. Ebel. Thank you.

I'd like to thank you all for your energy

and your excitement about energy matters

and putting yourself forward for public service.

The town administrator's office will be in touch

with you about next steps and getting signed in

and what you need to do.

And Mr.

Evil, I would not discourage you from other activities

and other boards that you might be interested in.

Thank you so much for coming out. I appreciate it. It

And I'm sure the net zero committee could actually

use your help anyway

And it was a really tough

Vote.

It was, it was. It was a very tough vote.

They're rarely easy. We

Moving just for a confirmation

for everybody watching that, there's two seats.

So the top two vote getters are the ones

that will receive a letter regarding the next steps.

Thank you Mr. Erickson.

Next item on the agenda is discussion

and decision monthly Johnson speak.

For this item on the agenda, we will allow 20 minutes.

Each person has two minutes to share their thoughts

or ask questions of the board about process

or whatever questions you have.

Some of them might be answered in the quarterly update,

which will be, which will follow.

But for now I'd like to see if there are anyone in the room

who would like to address the board

regarding Johnson School.

Yes ma'am. Please come to the podium and tell us your name

and whether you're a Natick resident or business owner.

Hi, Jamie Bason,

Natick Resident Precinct eight town meeting member.

I saw the report that the town sent out

and I didn't really understand it

because it's talking about selling the property,

which if you look at the use,

the preferred use case on page two of one

of the reports they sent out, which refers

to the flash vote results, the

sale for development was only 10%.

The open space ball fields parks, 73%

of people community recreation building, 69% of people

town building, 37% people

land lease, 14% nonprofit use

30%. So Ms.

Sen, could I just interrupt you for a minute,

can you tell me where you're looking?

Where it says that the town is

interested in selling the property?

So in the recommendation part it gave three options

of what they wanna focus on,

which was selling the like one part the building,

selling the playground, and then not,

and then you looking at it as a community.

One moment, Mr. Sydney. What? To answer that question.

Why don't we wait till we get to,

we're gonna have a presentation on this

and that might be more clear.

Yeah, that Okay. So do you want me

to wait till after? Yeah. Okay. If that's

Okay.

And there are actually six options there in two columns.

I'm sorry, what? There's

Six options.

There's six options in two columns.

Yeah, it's not just those first three.

Right next to them is open space and trails, field rehab

and playground and then new scenarios via workshops.

Oh, so maybe my phone wasn't pulling it up

so I'll wait till after. Okay,

Thank you.

Is there anybody online who wishes to address the board

regarding Johnson School?

Please raise your hand.

Ms. Slager.

I think maybe we'll wait for the presentation.

We've had an email with some questions,

but I think we can wait till

after the presentation for that.

I think it's a great idea. Thank you.

Let me have one hand mine. Ms. Lather. Ms.

Flas, could you unmute yourself?

Hi, I just wanna confirm so there will be time

for questions and comments in the next agenda item?

Yes. For public comments. Perfect.

Then I'll just hold and wait

to see what was presented. Thank

You.

Thank you. Is there someone in the room who wishes

to address the board regarding Johnson School?

Okay, so we'll move on to the next agenda item,

which is the Johnson quarterly update number one.

And I would invite, I would invite Mr.

Po Pavich to come up to the podium. And

Jen, can you?

Yep, I can bring it up. These are printouts if anyone

needs print as well.

Thank you.

While the presentation comes up,

Jay Port Paddock Town Communications director,

I am gonna walk through,

I'm gonna grab a printout just in case.

Good plan.

So the topic is a

quarterly update just to give a little bit of context

as we get the presentation up.

It's just a really simple one page summary

of this project date.

We kicked it off in April

and we committed to coming back every three

months and giving an update.

I'll probably speak less than five minutes

and I'd also sent the board an email basically suggesting

that I think this kicks off a conversation.

The work to date has been a lot of

town staff sharing information.

I think there's a great opportunity for the board

to kinda engage amongst themselves as well as the public

to ask any clarifying questions.

So just some context as I walk through.

So first slide, there's three items

in the body of the slide.

Number one is just kinda looking back the previous 90

days as well as number two.

Looking forward or looking ahead,

looking back there were five primary meetings and

or reports that were delivered.

If you've got a printout that's black

and white, trust me, all the checks are actually green.

If you look at the key, I would say they're all complete.

We committed to doing a certain number of meetings

and reports and all five of those items, I'm not gonna read

through 'em line items, we would rank them as complete.

Looking ahead, I think there's a couple different

opportunities for those while I'm talking

that wanna potentially look at slide four.

It kind of lays out a six month summary

of meetings that we committed to.

So this looking ahead scenario, there's the potential for us

to think about workshops.

The second item around Johnson office hours,

I did just confirm that, that with the select board chair

earlier today, we'll formally announce that.

But off the top of my head, August 14th

and October 11th, which is a Saturday

and Thursday respectively.

So we'll provide that to the public that's meant

to be onsite at Johnson office hours

where a given select board member,

a single likely would show up in the,

and the community can show up as they see fit

to ask any questions in a one-on-one or one to many.

Setting the next two items, the workshop

and public forum, I've gotta discuss against those.

'cause I think the potential for a workshop could,

from a sequential standpoint prove to be beneficial.

And I'll kind of walk through an appendix slide.

So those are the four looking ahead items,

which I would encourage the board asks myself any questions

or the town administrator as well as the general public.

A couple open items that we just wanted to make note of.

So everyone's aware that they have not been dropped

during the walking meeting that we held on June 25th.

There were a couple, well there were 25 questions that

the AI engine was able to discern.

I'd say about 15 of them are unique a lot.

There's a little bit duplicity, but we town staff

and the town administrator himself is

preparing those responses.

So I'd say in the coming weeks we'll publish those

and reach out to all the registered attendees

or anyone who subscribes to alerts for Johnson

Flash vote as a whole.

There's been a lot of, I mentioned this in a previous select

board meeting, I think there's been a lot of discussion

and potential confusion around

what Flash vote is and is not.

So I've committed myself to come back

and just do a broad educational session.

It's not unique to Johnson,

but it will certainly help the Johnson project.

Lastly, there's been some interest from the general public

around a building tour.

What we are gonna commit to at this point is to make sure

that the five select board members have a tour themselves,

wanna make sure that everyone's got a good sense of

what the current building is, TBD, whether

or not the building is part of the future use.

That's for the board to ultimately decide.

But we did sense an opportunity just to make sure

that everyone's familiar with the building of

what it is and what it isn't.

There's some additional resources that are all linked.

Those are very prominent on the webpage.

So it's just kind of putting those in there on the bottom

right of slide one.

Then if you flip over to slide three, I'll just briefly talk

to talk to what is labeled as town staff recommendations.

So as we've done the two flash vote surveys, use cases

and decision criteria, as well

as just hearing the general public talk about an interest in

financials, there's been a strong alignment across all the

surveys work we've done

and even the summary of the walking meeting.

So I think that allows the board as well as the public

to comment to choose whether

or not it's an advisory committee

or potential potentially the item number one

that the town staff is recommending.

And this would be the idea opportunity for a workshop.

So it's a little more interactive in like a public form

or other meeting styles, but have it select board led

and allow the select board

to really think about potential scenarios that could be,

have a financial assessment against it.

A lot of the dialogue we've heard to date is, well it's hard

to compare use case one verse two,

verse three without knowing how much they each cost.

So the idea would be kind

of like a modular line item cost assessment

that would be done either by a consultant or town staff.

But in order for us to clarify this scope,

these are potential scenarios.

We're not committing to doing anything.

So there are five items listed here.

The sixth one is a very, it's bolded

and it's basically any new scenario

we discover during that workshop.

So we can have six, 10, ideally not 20

potential scenarios that we have line item costs.

You can mix and match and figure out this,

but I think that would allow a little bit of teeth

to all these potential use cases that we're having dialogue.

So that workshop would ultimately be to hone the scope

that would be handed to another consultant

or staff to do the financial assessments against those.

The advisory committee is certainly still an

option if that's preferred.

And that could be a combination of

however the boards saw fit.

We just to kind of refresh everyone's memory,

we talked about a fork in the road early 2026,

which is when we would decide advisor committee yes or no.

So the opportunity here is we could do this work now

without an advisory committee still leaving the opportunity

for the board to choose to issue a charge in composition

for an advisory committee.

But at this point I think there's, there's been some degree

of we need an advisory committee.

When we ask why

and what that advisory committee would do, I think that's

where the conversation is not as clear.

So that's for the board to ultimately decide.

But we think that this could be kind

of a collaborative session.

The last item on the public forums would basically just be

to hold off on any public forms

and then ultimately figure out if we're aligned on the

workshop and advisory committee,

whether or not they play a role.

And those public forms would be to imagine if those were

to actually report out those financial assessment scenarios

and then the public can be engaged in that

kind of final outcome.

So again, just going back to slide one, we've got, you know,

looking back, looking ahead a couple open items,

but I leave it to the board any questions

and we can let the public

Thank you so much.

At this time, I'd like to, since the board has not discussed

use cases or really any of the materials

that have been presented to us

or the results of the walking tours, I'd like

to open up discussion to the board about

what they see as obvious next steps or Mr. Evans.

Yeah, I've just had a clarifying question, which is one

of the things that, that I heard loud

and clear I wa was with Jay.

So I, we heard the same thing, which is give us the

cost of the various different options and we can't,

because we can't make an an informed, we being the public

can't make an informed decision about what

can be done until we know the, the,

at least the ballpark financial piece of that.

But my question is for Jay is you mentioned

that we could do the financial sort of high level view

and then decide to do a, an advisory committee that

that drills down further.

Did I hear that correctly?

Everything except the very last part.

So yes, we could do the financial assessments

of all the scenarios we could choose

to do a advisory committee.

That charge of the advisory committee,

I'm not suggesting is limited to these financial scenarios

or otherwise I would leave that to the board.

But I'm just simply suggesting

that doing these financial assessment scenarios doesn't

commit us yes or no to an advisory committee

as to what that charge is.

I don't really have a point of view. Thank

You.

That was helpful

Mr. Sydney.

Thank you Madam Chair. As I've been reading some

of the emails that have been coming in

and listening to some of the conversations

around the community, what I've come to realize is that

people are not, don't seem to be clear to me.

And, and this could just be my perception,

but people don't seem to be clear

when we're talking about this project.

We haven't made any decisions regarding,

you know, how we might, depending on what the uses are,

we could consider What I

see, you know, in my experience with the property is sort

of three different sub parcels, which are the play areas,

the building itself, and then the forested areas.

And I think that when we start

to break breakdown what we want to think about

in terms of what this looks like, we want to keep in mind

that a lot of the conversations

have been around the play areas.

Not a lot of conversation around the wooded areas,

although I think they're, I personally think they're

important and,

and confusion about what we would do with the building.

So somehow I think we need to clarify our thinking around

that and get more clear with the public about

what we're thinking about relative to those things.

And I think that's gonna take time.

Right. We've had no discussion.

The, the board hasn't had any discussion,

so it's almost impossible right now

to be clear about what our thoughts are.

Right. Ms. Wego,

I totally agree with Mr.

Sidney. I have no idea what to think about this property

and what to do with it in terms of

what the alternatives might be.

And I mentioned this I think at,

at a previous meeting I was very surprised not having toured

the property before to see the topography

and how different it was.

And so to me that is a really, that might be a

limiting factor in terms of what could be potentially done

with it ledge

Geology.

So take a

Moment for a second.

Just got a report that they can't hear the board on Zoom.

Yeah, I'm not sure. I just saw that too.

I have my mic on

On Owen just went out. I dunno what

Happened.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

So should we wait for take

A

Break? Yeah,

Do a recess.

Recess till Matt says it comes back up. Yeah. Okay.

Back up.

Alright,

We

Just, so we're back in session recess.

No time to go to the girls' room. Wow.

I think Pegasus has gotta get back on the zoom call.

Yeah, I don't see Pegasus on here yet. Yeah,

For those of you watching via Zoom,

the internet went out shortly so it's back up

and we are, they,

They can hear, I don't

think

They can hear us. I thought the internet

Was up.

Yeah, they can't hear until Pega lot

Back in, gets logged back in

The sound.

But there are people watching it

on Zoom. Right. And they can,

They

Won't, they're seeing the

same thing we're seeing than they

Can hear they can air.

Okay. All, all they're seeing Is this

Okay?

Yeah, that we wait until we get the all clear.

Pegasus is back on, but I need to make them co-host

so they then can control the sound.

I think it said we should be good. Yes,

It says na sb up there.

All right, I heard that from the, can everyone hear now?

We had a temporary inner interruption

to our internet thumbs.

Okay, great. There we go. Thank you.

Yeah, technology, it's great and it works.

Okay.

Go ahead Ms.

So I don't know where I cut off here,

but I will just say that I think that there's,

I would get a lot of clarity by

workshopping some of these potential scenarios and,

and I really have no idea what the best use

of this property is at, at the moment.

So I think attaching dollars, one of the things

that we did here as a result of the survey is that we

don't want the town to spend a lot of money on this.

So, you know, we'll have to decide if there, if one

of these scenarios does come to be fairly expensive, what

what we would do about that.

So there's a lot of opportunity here

and I hope that everyone will come with their ideas for

what they would like their vision of this property if,

if we do do the workshop, which I think is a great idea.

So yeah, please be creative.

You know, we're, we're five people here, we're, you know,

we may vary in terms of the levels of our creativity,

but would love to hear some ideas from everyone else.

Mr. Evans.

Thank you. I agree with my two colleagues.

The other piece, which Rich just did as a

a a side addition is geology.

He talked about the ledge.

We, we don't know how much,

how many degrees of freedom I'll call them

we have with that site.

So, you know, is is it that it is interrelated?

I think with the, the, the cost of this, the other piece

that I'm really encouraged

to see is the select board walkthrough,

because some of you have been through that school.

I have not ever been inside that school.

I've been around at all the time,

but I've never been inside it that I know of.

So I I I'm looking forward to, to seeing that

because it's one thing to hear about it

and to talk about it with others,

but there's nothing like your own eyeballs to see either

what, what it, what its issues might be,

what it could be used for.

I view my chance of going in that is like going into a house

that you, that you know, needs work,

but does it have good bones?

Is could it be used for something that,

that might be appropriate.

And just a comment,

and this is my personal opinion, I don't see this

as a single use property.

You know, I see multiple uses on this property

and I think as my colleague Linda has mentioned, come

with your ideas, we don't have all the answers.

We don't pretend to. So get creative.

Thank you Mr. Evans.

I really appreciate what my colleagues have said and, and,

and I agree about the workshopping.

I think I, I got really excited when I saw that on the, the,

the looking ahead, the workshopping

and the fact that the public is gonna be involved in that.

I think that really speaks to the level of engagement

that this particular board wants to have

with the community about what it, the Johnson property,

how it should be best used.

I also think about, you know, two of the top things

that I think about are what the town needs,

the specific needs of the town

and then the character of the neighborhood.

I think about the character of the

neighborhood that's come up a lot.

And I can imagine that considering this,

the sentimental value that this building has,

that the school has, that the community has with it.

I think thinking through, I think a lot of

what you said Mr. Evans around, does this property have,

you know, good bones like

it re-imagining this, this property,

but doing it in a way that speaks to the,

the character of the community.

I'd really love to see that. So I'll end there.

One, one of the things that a resident proposed

was to ensure open space under chapter 97, which is the,

the Public Lands Preservation Act

and the possibility of exchanging land

that's elsewhere located, that's chapter 97 in town, to free

that up for affordable housing rather than putting

housing downtown.

So that's an interesting idea.

It's creative and it's something that I'd be interested in,

in exploring and getting town council

to talk about what that would look like.

A couple things, not, not to,

I'm getting technical Article 97 is what you're referring

to regarding the space. Oh, not

Chapter article 97. Yes.

Just for anybody who might be watching from home

and getting just any but a workshop.

I think an opportunity for the board

to really talk through things.

'cause similar to what has happened in the past when you've

sought a lot of input

and you haven't had opportunity for yourselves to talk

through, there's already been a

lot of feedback that you've received.

And having regular times on the board can then talk through

and digest what you've received is really what, when Jay

and I were talking about this workshop is an opportunity,

yes, public input as well during the same workshop,

but it's different than like a more public facing

workshop per se, or a public forum.

This is a little bit more of an opportunity for the board

to also hash through some ideas while also still having

public dialogue because I don't think the board takes that

in some instances hasn't needs time to do that

as well. So,

And one other thing when we were

Talking about that,

Sorry, one other thing I wanted

to say was that there's a strong desire

that the town not spend a lot of money on development.

If that's the case, then

what I would suggest is whatever we come up with,

what I would like is for us to ensure that

we don't develop the property such

that it precludes future uses when we do have

money, if that makes any sense.

Or we can raise money through grants or whatever.

So as assuring that whatever we settle on

two years down the road, if it is going to be driven

by financial considerations in large part,

then I wanna ensure that that doesn't preclude us from

actually doing other things with the property in the future.

Are there any other comments from members of the board

or ideas about the process?

Ms. Wilger, a question was posed

from somebody who couldn't be here tonight.

So I'm gonna ask you to, we

Actually have two, I meant two questions.

Yes. Two questions. The first one,

and this was an email to the select board, is what do you

as a select board, envision as the role

and value of an advisory committee?

What do you hope to gain from one?

And I'll start off with that. I mean, we did touch on that.

I think it's really premature to talk about that.

I like the idea of, of waiting until

after we've had our forums,

after we've potentially had our workshop.

I don't think we know what the role is at this point.

I mean, the value I think is pretty clear.

It would be to help the select board make a decision,

but the, I'm not sure,

and I think it highly depends on what the outcome is

of the things that we're gonna be having

over the next few months.

So that's my opinion on that

Chair.

Yes. So I think there are two possible rules

for an advisory committee, depending on where they slot,

where the advisory committee slots in.

If the, if if we use an advisory committee early,

then it would be, you know, it's kind

of amorphous at this point.

We don't know because we don't know

how we would charge them.

But if we make a decision

and that decision is, for example, to dispose

of the property in some way, then we could

put an advisory committee to help us put an RFP together.

And that would be significantly later in the process.

So depends on, you know, what we, when we decide

what we decide, how we decide.

And part of it is, you know, is there,

is there a committee we'd want to have to help us decide

and then, you know,

later we might need some help for other reasons.

Mr. Evans?

Yeah, I, I tend to agree with what Ms.

Weer pointed out is I want to see, we,

we have said all along that we want a deliberative process

that involves the community to each step of the way.

I like the idea of the select board workshop that has a lot

of involvement in sitting down

and just brainstorm ideas,

right then e everything's on the table.

You know, we, we haven't ruled out anything.

I think we've heard a strong opinion about open space,

but apart from that, I, I have heard

numerous different opinions about

what we should do with this.

I think we should just continue down this process road

getting check checkpoints with the residents of the town

and figuring out, well, what's gonna work,

what's gonna work financially, what's gonna work from a fit

with the neighborhood?

What, what, what are the possibilities

and can we rank them at some point in the future, then

we in the future should we decide?

No, you know, great ideas,

we've had some great brainstorming, let's form a committee

and, and, and figure out what the charter of

that committee is to, to get us closer

to that final decision.

I don't know the answer yet.

I I have to say, when I, when we first discussed this, I was

diehard for a committee up front,

but I've now come to the realization that that was, I,

I'll leave out the first adjective that it was backwards.

So I I I think if we go along this path,

I think it's the right, right path to go

and it'll, I think we'll yield a lot, a lot more

productive answer.

Thank you for your thoughts Mr. Evans.

Are there any other comments from the

public, I mean from the board?

Well, if I may, I just want to clarify that I don't know

that I, I didn't want to imply,

and I realize I might have,

that I've made up my mind about disposal of the property.

I was just using that as an example

of why we might need an advisory committee later on.

I have no idea what we're gonna do

with this property at this point.

Thank you, Mr. Sidney. Ms.

Swogger, you have another question?

Yes. Second question is,

could you please consider defining on the record

and publicly the term mixed use?

What does that mean? That was used in one

of our flashlight surveys

and I think that led to a little bit

of confusion about what that meant.

And so specifically, does it refer to mixed land use,

meaning cell part of the land and keep the rest?

Or does it refer to building use, like they've said,

apartments at the top, offices at the bottom?

So that is the question, and,

and again, I'll, I'll, I'll start on that

and how I answered it.

I think it's, we have a, a term for mixed use that applies

to zoning, but I don't think that that was

what was meant in, in this example.

We more meant, you know, having different uses on

that property and not what

we would from a planning definition defined as mixed use.

So that, that's my take on it.

And other people can weigh in.

Mr. Evans. Hello.

Thank you Madam Chair.

That that was the reading that I had.

Also mixed use developments are, are more on, on a retail

corridor type situation.

Usually within walking distance of public transportation.

This, this is sort of on the outskirts of

that type of usage.

Again, nothing's ruled out,

but in my opinion, I agree with Ms.

Slager, it, it's talking about multiple uses

of the property, not necessarily in one,

I'll call it structure.

You're gonna have mixed uses retail on the ground floor

and apartments above

Yeah, I agree with both my colleagues

and I, I just want to add that I think we should avoid

that term in future surveys.

Find another way to say what we mean, which is multi-use,

multiple, multiple uses on the property as opposed

to mixed use is well known to be Yeah.

You know, commercial, residential, yeah,

That's good.

Good. Mr. Erickson?

Well, I actually respectfully disagree.

I would consider a yes and a yes to both those

'cause a mixed use, yes, in the traditional sense

that you see in like a Natick center might be residential

or commercial up top and ground floor retail.

But on a non main street like that it could be residential

with services in the building.

It could be a nonprofit and a,

and a town office in the same building.

It could be offices for a town

and a nonprofit running a daycare facility.

It could be a mix of uses.

So I, if, if the board wants

to narrowly define it, that's one thing.

Zoning actually is not as narrowly defined

as people may be think it is,

but I would argue it's the broader definition,

which is a mix of uses and mix use all in one.

I don't wanna preclude a use for the property.

So I tend to agree with Mr. Erickson.

If there's a groundswell of public opinion that

says we wanna have on part of this property, the first floor

to be retail, grocery store, you know,

pharmacy, whatever, and then, you know, housing condo

or apartments above, then

that's something I think we should consider.

But it could also be, I don't mean to interrupt,

but it could also be an

after school program run by a nonprofit and town offices

or some other use that's,

that is a mix of use in a building.

It's a mixed use building. Yeah.

So let's use,

If I can just clarify,

I don't think the mixed use applied to the building.

I think in the survey it was about the site.

So I think that's where the confusion comes in is it's, is

what is a mixed use on the Johnson property. Which

Could be,

It could be a building the above,

but it could, but it could also be there's no building,

you know, let's say we, right.

And it could be a mix of uses on the building,

Right?

A mix of uses but not applying to a building.

So going forward in terms of terminology,

why don't we say a mix

of uses on the property when we're referring

to multiple uses on the property.

And if we're referring to mixed use development,

we'll talk about mixed hyphen use development. Yep.

Yeah, I think that,

And can you clarify that

that works Mr. Porter pad, can you clarify

how was mixed use used in the survey?

I mean everyone can see the verbatim, it was,

the language was mixed use.

But I think the context is important.

We're all talking about it as we're defining a term.

Well in fact you were going through a five question survey

and off the top of my head, that was the third question.

Yeah. So you were presented with 10 use cases

and then we said a mix or a single use.

Now I, there's more fourth graders in Natick than there are

developers plus local government junkies.

Mixed use I know has a zoning notion,

but mixed use is just human language.

It's the most simple term.

And so in the report that was given that I,

while I didn't define it, it was just simply said,

for example, for a later discussion, it could be a sell

of a parcel for, you know, revenue

and then a building on the backside.

But to Mr. Erickson's point, all of the above. Yeah,

Thank you Madam Chair.

I, you know, I understand all of these,

all of this discussion.

My concern is what the public understands. Understood.

And, and so if we,

because a lot

of the development downtown has been labeled mixed use,

the public seems to think that's what we mean

and it's not what we understand it to mean.

We understood that the surveys was okay,

let's have several uses on the property,

but I think we've gotta make sure that we use terms

that the general public is gonna work right with,

and this confusion came about I think

because the term mixed use people associated

with the downtown developments.

So then would it be, it's

Strictly

the confusion, not that

I understand.

So would it be okay to follow my suggestion

that we saw talk about a mix of uses.

Mix of uses, talking about multiple uses on the

property and then mixed use.

Mixed hyphen use. Mixed use, which is the zoning term.

If we're going to be talking about developing

mixed use development, I agree.

I don't see a groundswell coming from the public where they

Want that ask.

Is there, was there a widespread confusion?

It was widespread. It was

Okay.

Yeah, I think between the developments downtown

and the MBTA communities act, that term is bandied

around frequently.

Okay. And, and that's what people see in the paper

and you know, but I like Ms.

Coughlin's suggestion of mix of uses.

'cause that clarifies it.

Are there any comments or questions from the public?

I'd like you to keep it to two minutes. So go ahead please.

Ms Bason, if you could just

reintroduce yourself please. Yep.

Amy Bason, Natick resident

precinct eight town meeting member. I actually think mixed

Is, is the mic on?

I think so. Yeah, it's green. It's too high maybe.

Yep. Can you hear me?

Much better. Okay,

Thank you.

So I actually think the mixed use would make,

would be clearer if it was separated

between one owner versus selling and,

and keeping the land with the town.

Which kind of brings me back to the original flash vote of,

you know, only 10%

of the feedback says they wanna

sell any part of the property.

So, you know, I'm just kind of confused why we'd focus on

that aspect at all really,

because that doesn't seem to be what the community wants.

Another thing is for the advisory committee,

I actually came up with some examples such as review,

reviewing the map in specs of the property,

including all inspections

and determine all permits that may be required

to move forward with the park and community use.

Develop a formal public survey for community members

to offer public input on park ideas or community concepts.

Present multiple design concepts

and cost options to the select board during public meetings.

Investigate all sources of funding opportunities, grants,

donations, funding partners and sponsorships.

Recommend a project timeline including potential phases

of development, construction design plan,

and construct a public park

and community space that will be an integral

and essential part of the town

of Natick downtown enjoyed today and for future generations.

And that those uses would reflect

what the Flash boat survey said

being in the 70 percentile for average.

And lastly, I just happened

to notice the Arsenal Park in Watertown,

which seems like a really cool new park

and I know you're looking for ideas, it's twice as big

as Johnson, but it has multiple spaces

and I think it would just get everyone sort

of thinking about how to have a really multi-use

area in a neighborhood.

So thank you. Thank

You.

Yes, please. Mr. Brunell, if you could introduce yourself.

Good evening, Matt Brunell, precinct nine.

Just three observations.

One is I would, I would say that as a member

of the Johnson community, that the term mixed use was

a very confusing term.

And I think if there was an opportunity by the town to

solicit more public input on this question

through another flash vote to really zero in on this idea

of multiple uses, I think

that the select board could gain in even more

of an understanding as to where, where people really

feel about the, what they feel about the building

and the the grounds.

Second is that as again, another observation as,

as you consider this, the potential of,

of creating the select board workshop process, right?

My hope is that you would really, again,

dig into the financial considerations questions

that would ask and, and potentially ask even more questions.

I think the, from the standpoint of, of the folks

who completed that survey,

there was still a very significant number who want the board

to go through this deliberative process

where they are thinking about the full range

of financial costs and not enter into an en entering into it

with say, a limiting view that,

that we can only do this amount.

And then the third, third observation I wanna make is that,

as the previous speaker mentioned, that

an advisory committee, so long as this,

this workshop process

and it sounds as though it's one that is going to try

to surface a lot of ideas.

An advisory committee could still have a, a real impact

in being able to advise

that workshop, that workshop process.

So even something that was being done in parallel

to be able to surface ideas.

'cause it as on page three

of the town staff recommendations in this big kind of

all caps new scenarios via workshop.

We are still very early in the process.

This building was open for you have about 30 seconds.

Thank you. This building was open for 70 plus years.

Let's try to get as many ideas up on the whiteboard

as we can before we, we make even

limiting decisions about

what the future of that site could look like.

Thank you.

Thank you so much Ms. Flas.

Hi. I'll keep my remarks very brief

because I feel like Ms.

Baston and Mr. Brunell have kind of covered it.

I just, the two one question I wanna have is, is, and,

and audio cut out for a little bit,

but there were comments how the concern

of not expending too much financially on the property

has been raised.

And I'm curious, that's my question of where, where has

that information come forward?

Obviously we have to be careful financially.

I think Jamie's points about going

after grants, going after funding.

Ms. Coughlin, what you were saying about being able to

do land use, like those creative uses

of the space is really worth pursuing

and needs to be part of this.

And I think there's some real experts out there

that could help that in advisory capacity.

So I'm curious, you know,

why are we already prematurely thinking about

how much it would cost?

Comment, just to extend on the mixed use.

There was a very clear messaging in the closure of Johnson

that that building was not, the perception was

that it was not able to be rehabilitated.

That it was, that it was kind of a lost cause to be able

to be a DA compliant.

It would never be worthwhile.

So I think most people in the community would've been coming

in with the idea that that building couldn't exist.

And so community uses would not

really be about that building.

I've still been curious about whether that's actually true

because a lot, a huge range of numbers came back

and forth about what it would take

and I, I, that's something I'd really like to know

very clearly with external expert expertise on it.

And then just finally, I just think be really, like I,

I'm just mindful of the optics

of reducing short-term public input

and having be an open process.

I think there's a lot of fear and skepticism

and I think, you know, it was a clear message from the

community that we want, we don't wanna sell off the land.

So for the first two scenarios listed in the slides

to be partial sale for a million dollars, partial sale for

2 million, $3 million was a little concerning.

And when I looked at the slides, I actually read it

as partial sale for million dollars would fund open spaces

and trails partial sale for lots, three

to 5 million would fund field rehabilitation

and playground enhancements.

So I think we just need, I, I just, I urge you to be

mindful of getting as much community input as possible

and the optics of how decisions may have already been made

can be perceived by the community from constituents

and neighbors that have,

that have called me and talked to me about it. Thank you.

Thank you Ms. Flas. Ms. Ms. Vickers.

Thank you. Brenley Vickers Precinct eight.

Also a town meeting member. I'll try to be quick with this.

I wanna say that I was a part of

the group in the walking tour

and might have been one of the most vocal people talking

about the money and the finances first.

And so I thought I would explain myself a little bit upfront

what I was looking for in that.

And what I was talking about in that is

that there were some very grand, large ideas

that were coming out like a swimming pool to use it as,

because that was one of the largest options.

And I feel like people were having a hard time saying,

well I don't know how to give an idea

when we don't understand where the select board stands.

Is the select board in a position where they feel like,

yeah, if the use is right,

they'll put a debt exclusion on the ballot.

Right. I feel like that's where the question was trying

to go in, in the sense of

finances leading the conversation,

not actually leading the options

but leading the conversation.

Because if the select board is in a place of not wanting

to have any impetus for

a debt exclusion, then that changes the options.

Also, I feel like there's a difference

between an advisory committee and a workshop.

It's kind of already been mentioned previously. Yes.

But I feel compelled to say it right now.

I feel like a lot of the options are relying solely on the

surveys and that's the survey.

Those questions aren't allowing an actual

conversation back and forth.

Ask a question, do the homework, come back

and have another conversation with it.

For instance, you brought up the building,

we haven't had the conversation of whether

or not there's a business out there that would be interested

in doing some of the a DA compliance

for a 25 year lease.

Like we haven't had those conversations yet.

And so I feel like when we're discussing options,

we are being limited because we haven't put together a brain

source to have bigger picture.

It's very easy for everybody to say we wanna keep the

baseball field 'cause it's there and we see it

If 30 seconds.

Okay. Also, the wooded areas are play areas for those

of us that live in the neighborhood.

The fields are play areas, but so are the wooded areas.

So I would hate for us to think that they're just woods.

They are also play areas and walking areas

and hangout areas for people in the community.

And just the one last thing, another thing

that hasn't come up that I think is potential since

we're talking about costs.

Where does the select board stand in creating a Friends

of meaning?

The basketball court needs some help.

The CPA has funds, but the CPA won't let the

Stickers. I need to stop you there.

Can I just get that one last thing out?

The CPA won't let a group ask for funds

to fix the property without approval from the people

who own the property, which would be the select board.

So in order for us to do something like that, we'd need

to be able to have a conversation about whether

or not we can create a friends of

or ask for those types of grants.

Or the select board can just ask for the grants

that's from the CPC.

In fact, an individual can do it if they own the property.

Right? But since the select board owns

it, I wanna address a couple things.

You said the question about what the board is thinking.

We're, we're think what you hear in,

in an open meeting is what we're thinking.

There are no discussions about what we're going to do.

So to the extent that you've heard, not you specifically

or the public has heard the select board is leaning this way

or that way, or they're unwilling to do X, y, z.

If you haven't heard it in an open meeting,

the select board has not discussed it.

Period. I understand

that there's some collective trauma in the neighborhood

with regard to previous processes that is not this board.

So I wanna be abundantly clear that this board is going

to respect the open meeting process

and we've laid out a very generous year

and a half, two year thoughtful

process to engage the public.

And we are having those conversations with the public.

We did that. People have been talking about

all kinds of things with us.

So we have been having these conversations on the

walkthrough during, you know,

during office hours at the farmer's market.

But the board is not talking has no,

I'm not gonna let you speak again

'cause we're ending this topic, but thank you Ms.

Vickers. The board is

taking in as much information as we can,

and this is the first night that we've had the opportunity

to engage and even talk about what the terms mean.

So again, if you haven't heard it in an open meeting

and it's not in the minutes, then the board's not thinking

it, they're not letting finances lead it.

It's a consideration. It's been raised by residents.

It's a consideration. It, it may be that

the select board gets, applies to the CPA for money.

We can do that because we own the property.

We don't need friends of necessarily.

But there are lots of ideas

and I encourage those of you at home

who don't participate necessarily in the question answer

or the monthly Johnson speak, send the ideas in.

Those are all public record.

It'll be posted on the agenda

and they're available for everyone to look at.

Ms. Slager, did you have something?

No, I just wanted to address the, the issue about,

you know, the concept of the, the financing.

And I just wanted to point to the result of the survey,

which said the, the second flesh out survey, I believe,

which said the preferred financial approach is

to work within existing funds.

And that was supported by 48% of the responders,

which was 37% higher than the second choice.

So that's what the results

that we're getting from the survey.

But I do wanna say that that is not going

to at least limit me.

I mean, if we come up with a really fabulous idea

that is going to cost money

and it's something that everyone thinks is a great idea,

then we will move forward with how the best way

to finance it would be.

So even though that was the survey result,

it's really gonna be dependent on, on, you know,

what we come up with in our workshops

and in our, our various forums and,

and what we hear from you in the public as to

what the use is gonna be.

So just

because the survey says doesn't mean that

that's necessarily going to be the final outcome.

Thank you Ms. Schlager.

Is there any other comment from a member of the board?

I'd like to move on to Chief Fork's presentation.

I'd like to thank all of you who participated in the Johnson

speak and in the quarterly update.

I'd also like to thank our communications director who's

been working assiduously on this process to ensure

that there's the maximum amount

of participation available by the public.

So thank you very much.

Chief Orke, could you come to the podium

and introduce yourself?

Thank you Mr. Poi,

Very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Good evening.

Jason Skee proudly serving as your fire chief. Mr. Erickson.

I was hoping you could give me privilege

to share my presentation.

Do you want me to run it? Do you wanna run it?

I'll try to run it from here if you don't mind.

You should be

All right.

How does that look on your end?

Able to see it? I can't see it. I can't either.

We don't, I don't have the proof. Could

We be sent the presentation so

that we can follow along on our

Computers?

because that's too far away from me.

Yep. Mr. Eric said he's gonna send it. Yeah,

Sorry, I thought you guys were on Zoom as well, so I No,

We're not all,

All,

Your Honor.

Thank you.

Give you a second to catch up.

So while you're loading that up, thank you very much

for having me here this evening.

You wanted a brief update? Thank you.

So when I first presented this

to Mr. Erickson earlier today, he said, Bravo,

great presentation, you hit the mark.

You were very brief, but in reality this slide is

to say thank you, thank you for the last three years

for your support of my leadership

and confidence in my ability

to lead the Natick Fire Department.

I also thank Mr. Erickson, Mr. Marshall

and Mr. Townsend for their support

over the last three years.

And then more, most importantly,

I think the individuals of the department.

So these are the faces of the department

that are out there every day.

Some of these are happy moments.

Some of these, the middle picture with the big mustache

and the smile that's at two o'clock in the morning at a fire

alarm, they still managed to smile.

We had a gentleman in the lower left run the marathon.

And then one of my favorite pictures, it's kind

of sandwiched in the middle, is the picture

of the baby in the firetruck being held by a,

a, a then young man.

And then there's a picture below that of a grown baby

that recently joined their department

and a father that is getting ready to retire the end

of next month after close to 32 years of service.

So pretty proud moment.

Pretty, pretty neat to see that actually come to fruition.

So we'll get right into it. We'll talk about data.

Again, this is just a brief snapshot,

it's just kinda give you a highlight of where we're at.

So looking at the first six months of this year

and comparing it to the first six months of last year,

so we're at 3,239 calls this year for so far.

And last year we were at 29 75 calls for service.

So we're up about 264 calls.

We still maintain a ratio of about 65% EMS related

and 35% fire related.

Moving over to the upper right hand corner,

that's a neat little map that our new software does.

It shows us a heat map of most,

where most of our incidents are.

You can almost make out the, the image of the dog.

And then the four crosses that are on there are symbolic

of the four fire stations that we have in town.

Moving down to the lower left, this is one of my favorite

data points to track.

It's the number of simultaneous calls

or multi occurrence

of multiple calls going on at the same time.

That is up over last year.

Right now we're about 82% of the time.

We have multiple calls going on in town.

So when you look at the largest section that's blue, we,

that means we have two calls going on.

And then the next largest portion, the the red

and the lower left is when we have three calls going on.

So that number is creeping up as well.

And then the interesting, you can barely see it

because of the, the, the size of the pie chart,

but we've actually had two occurrences this year

where we've had 13 calls going on at the same time.

So that is becoming more and more common.

It's more and more frequent and that's something

that I expect to see at the end of this year.

I expect it to be ahead of where we were last year.

It's perfectly timed this part of the presentation.

So the, looking at the lower right kind of keeping track

of calls by day.

Monday is our busiest day of the week.

Right now in the first six months of the year.

Friday's not too far behind it.

The middle of the week tends to be about the middle

of the road and the weekends we taper off a little bit

doing a quick equipment update.

So the ladder,

and I am very happy to report to you

that we are seeing progress.

The photos that you see, the upper right is a, a picture

of the cab that was under underway under construction

in the last month or so.

And then the bottom two photos are more recent.

Photos of a couple weeks ago we're slated

to go down the end, the beginning of September

to do a final inspection before it leaves the factory.

So that's an exciting moment

and I know that Phil on the finance committee is gonna be

ecstatic because that is the single question he's asked me

every single year at finance committee.

So I'm happy to report that this time when I go

to finance committee that will have a new ladder truck

that's been, that was ordered in June of 22.

So that's quite a long delay and kudos to Mr. Fisher

and the fleet crew for keeping our current

fleet up and running.

'cause it is definitely past its expected service

life ambulances.

So we currently maintain a fleet of four ambulances.

Two of 'em are primary, two of them are reserves.

Our two reserve ambulances are tired.

Our second primary ambulance is also on the tired side.

We're we ordered an ambulance as quick as we could

with the delivery date of November

of this year is what we got.

We also, in this year's town meeting,

we had approval for another ambulance.

I'm expecting to see that sometime in 27,

probably towards the fourth quarter of 2027.

And that's important. The,

our primary trucks work hard.

Our reserve trucks aren't really reserved trucks

because they spend a lot of time up on the front side

of the fleet that allows for preventative maintenance

but also routine breakdowns and maintenance issues.

And as you're aware, this past two weekends ago,

we had an incident where two of our spares were down

and then another primary truck broke down.

So we were actually left with one truck

for a short period of time.

Fortunately reached out through Mass Fire District th 14,

we had four of our neighbors offer to let us borrow a spare.

So the, the town of Weston was nice enough

to loan us an ambulance for about a day

and a half before Mr.

Fisher's crew could get the trucks back up and running.

And then the other piece of equipment we have on order is an

engine that's due in the spring of 26.

And we ordered that, I believe it was the spring

of 23 town meeting.

One of the other areas that I concentrated on this past year

was professional development.

I'm proud to say that 92% of our offices

attended a two hour supervisor liability training.

So that was put on by the Department

of Fire Services legal team

and basically kind of identified,

clearly identified the liability that they have

as supervisors and why it's important to do their job.

96% of our offices attended an eight hour company office

training that was put on by a retired fire captain from the

city of Worcester that was basically focusing on their basic

job duties and responsibilities

during fire ground operations.

I'm actually in talks with him to bring him back sometime

after the first of the year.

We had three offices attend the eight hour

Man versus Machine program.

That's a really cool program.

I'm jealous that I haven't got,

had the opportunity to attend that program.

It's a, it's an expensive program to run.

One of our neighboring departments was nice enough to

afford us three spots

and basically they take lifelike mannequins

and put 'em into different difficult extrications like a

meat grinder or rebar impalment, a lot

of complicated complex extrications.

So we have three officers that were able

to attend that training.

In the three years that I've been here,

we've slowly increased the participation of the deputies

to attend the the Fire Chiefs Association

of Massachusetts Professional Development

Ceremony, excuse me, seminar.

It's focusing on advanced leadership topics.

This past year the theme was adapting

to an inspiring change, kind of four

of the highlight speakers, Simon Sinek,

if anybody doesn't know about him, great leadership topics.

Really his presentation was talking all about the why

and why we do the things we do.

The Sussex fire chief gave us a quick presentation on the

problems and challenges that she deals

with over across the pond.

Retired police commissioner Linsky from the city

of Boston gave o gave an overview about the marathon

bombings and basically when no one else is leading,

you need to step up and lead.

And that was a very touching and moving presentation.

And then Bill O'Brien used to be with the Patriots now

with Boston College,

gave a real inspirational leadership presentation.

And then three of our offices attended the IFC New England

Division Health and Wellness Symposium.

And we've actually got a couple different benefits

that we've, we'll talk about later on

in the presentation from that.

And then we've assisted with securing 12 spots in fire off

at one and six spots in fire offs.

At two training over the last year on the health

and wellness side, we conducted skin cancer screenings.

So the Department of Fire Service office free can skin

cancer screenings to members

of the fire service if they meet certain criteria.

We hosted that here in Natick.

I believe it was three or four different opportunities.

We had an esophageal cancer screening.

That's probably the weirdest exam I've ever been through.

You basically swallow a little pill on a string

and they drag it up the back of your throat.

It doesn't hurt, just feels really weird.

But that was, and we had two members

that they identified should do additional followup.

So it's good, good use of early detection.

And so far everybody has reported out

with no adverse effects.

The Firefighter Heart Health Initiative that was sponsored

by the Newton Wellesley Hospitals

Community Collaborative.

That was a great program. They did it over three months

where they came in and spoke to each group.

The first one was talking about the ben, the kind

of benchmarks of your blood pressure, what the ratios means,

body mass index and identified things to pay attention to.

The next month they came back

and did a strictly dietary program

and then the third month they came back

and did a fitness routine with everybody staffing.

We delayed the filling of vacancies going into

this calendar year due to the budget, the challenges

with the override and the hiring freeze that was implemented

with that have, with that changing in the override passing,

we're going forward with filling the vacancies that we have.

We have four retirements this year of long-term employees.

And by long-term employees, we're talking 30

to 32 years worth of service, still dealing.

Dealing with the challenges of trying

to fill vacancies in a more rapid pace.

This month we were fortunate enough to, we have on the 27th

of this month, we have a firefighter that is academy trained

and a paramedic that'll be starting

with us coming from another department.

And then we'll also be interviewing the first week in August

for an additional five candidates.

And then an interesting data point that I pulled out

that I thought was pretty interesting,

and I don't have an easy way to go back

and figure out where we were,

but the average years of service right now in the department

is 12.7 years.

I expect that that was probably closer to 14

or 15 years, a couple years ago.

With the retirement out of a lot of our senior population,

I expect that to drop a little bit more

before we probably balance out and maintain that 12 to 15.

Again, I wanna spend a little bit

of time tonight talking about our fire operations.

I think I spend a lot of time talking about EMS

and I think it's only fair to spend a little bit

of time talking about the, the fire side.

A very interesting statistic looking at the first six months

of the year across the entire country, there's been 1042

F fire fatalities reported in the US

And then when you zoom in, I know it's a little bit hard

to see on the presentation, but Massachusetts alone,

we've had 13 and the last week, week

or so, we've actually almost doubled that number.

So the chart on the right is also an interesting trend.

I think it's the first time in a long time we're starting

to trend in the opposite direction.

Years ago we used to have a lot

of people smoking in their homes.

So fire deaths were at a relatively high level.

I think that tapered down. Now we're back on the up rise.

So looking at a 10 year snapshot,

we've actually had a 27% increase in the number

of fire fatalities of across the

country in the last 10 years.

So that's when you kind of compare the apples and apples.

That's a 5% increase in population,

but it's resulted in almost a

30% increase in fire fatalities.

So when we look at the next couple of slides,

I got a couple little videos

and I'm hoping that everything's gonna work well

when I click to the next slide.

But I'll put the caveat out there.

And the first thing I'll say is, is

that this is not picking on lithium ion batteries.

I'm not anti lithium ion batteries.

This is just the reality of this is great video footage

that shows how fast and how rapid the fires develop.

And really at the end of the day, it's not the fire

that's probably leading to a lot of these fatalities.

It's the toxic products of combustion.

It's the smoke that's getting to people long

before the fire does.

So this video, it's really quick and short.

So it's a lithium ion scooter

that's being charged in an apartment.

This is a big problem

that they're having in the city of New York.

He hears a pop and it really, what I want you

to focus on is not that it's a lithium ion battery,

but the fact of how quickly it goes from a normal situation

to a pretty catastrophic event.

So all of that smoke is toxic,

it does have some nasty chemicals in the smoke.

But also when you look at that, how rapid

and how quick that grew

and spread, you really don't have the time

that you used to have.

So growing up,

you know Mr. Erickson probably being the oldest person in

the room, it was the old legacy furniture

that was natural materials, right?

That doesn't exist anymore.

Everything is made out of polyurethane foam and plastics and

and and stuff that burns very rapidly.

But it produces a very toxic fme.

And that's the stuff that's

reaching out and grabbing people.

So this one, I love that video

because it's how I feel that I, whenever I'm out

and we're doing something

and this, the news media's around,

they always gonna capture you at the weirdest time.

And for whatever reason that video, it froze on

that lady's face, which you

had the weirdest look on her face.

So this is another more recent incident that happened.

I apologize if you can't hear the sound,

but they hear a pop in the bathroom,

they start yelling that there's fire.

Everybody's obviously panic stricken

and within a few short seconds, again rapid fire growth,

rapid progression of the fire and spread across the house.

So again, not, not to pick on lithium ion batteries,

but those are some of the challenges that we face.

We are dealing with more and more incidents around them.

But in general it just, these are great videos that show you

how rapidly a fire goes from nothing

to a very catastrophic event.

Oh,

So

EMS operations, talk briefly about that.

So we are running two ambulances.

They're running pretty steady 24 7.

The split between the trucks roughly 50 50.

One of the trucks is doing slightly more.

But it's the luck of the draw.

When we look at the lower left hand corner,

that was calendar year 2024.

We in the first six months, again just a snapshot

of the beginning so that I can compare apples and apples.

We only requested 97 times mutual aid from another community

for EMS and we gave away two.

And then this year we're on track, we're at 123

and we've given a little bit more mutual aid

but still not nearly as much as we're taking.

And then in the upper right with that chart, something

that we've been better able to quantify

with our data set is when is this mutual

aid request coming in?

When do we need the help? And I think this is gonna gear

some conversation down the road, excuse me.

But majority of our time seems to be in that eight

to four block and then four to midnight.

So between eight and midnight is where majority

of our requests for mutual aid come in.

And then on the overnight it happens less

frequently, but it still happens.

So as we look to the future,

so right now I'm currently working on a

long-term strategic plan.

When I first got here, I did an informal strategic plan.

So I sat down with you folks, town administration kind

of got the direction that you expected.

I sat down with all 90 members of the depart, 84 members

of the department and gained their

perspective on what we should do.

And that was how I formed my strategic plan

and my vision for that three years.

As I switched to year four in February,

I did a SWOT analysis theme with each

of the individual groups.

And I didn't do a whole lot of talking, I did a whole lot

of listening and I gave them an opportunity to kind

of give some guidance and some direction.

So that's one component.

We're currently in the middle of finishing up

what is called a focus exam with Drexel University.

And this is one of those items that we gained by going

to the health

and Wellness symposium that I mentioned in the beginning.

And that's a fire service organization culture

of safety exam.

I don't know how they got to focus out of that

'cause the acronym doesn't work out.

But basically it's an anonymous study.

We had close to 80% of participation, mid seventies,

80% participation in the study.

Completely anonymous.

So I don't know who answered what or how they answered,

but it's gonna help us identify some

of our challenges and some of our issues.

And then the hopes is that taking some of

that information out of that, comparing that

with the SWOT analysis

and some of the other work we're gonna do

with our strategic plan is gonna set some of our goals

and objectives for the next several years.

And I think one of the other neat things with this is

that they've identified through this study,

and this has been going on since 2012,

has been several departments in Massachusetts

that have participated in this.

But one of the goals is to basically use that data to try

to help reduce injuries in the department.

So those are all good things that we have going on.

Our next steps is we gotta assess our path

to increasing our staffing to meet the community growth

and demand in the community.

And I think that the best avenue to pursue with that is

we identified that we have a growing

need for a third ambulance.

At the same time, we still have two pieces

of equipment in the downtown station that are understaffed.

And I think that working with Mr. Erickson

and the finance team in the next budget cycle, trying

to come up with a plan and a path forward to address both

of those needs where they're gonna be

complimentary and overlap.

We're getting ready right now to go out

with a station two study.

I, I'm kind of excited to see how this goes.

So we broke this down into three phases.

We're looking for a space needs analysis

on what's an ideal station.

So what's an ideal single engine four person firehouse.

Then the second phase of that is, is take what

that ideal model is, look at our existing building

and how close can we get to making the two match.

I don't think we're gonna get a hundred percent

because of the challenges with that lot,

but the reality is, is how much can we do

to improve the existing building to meet

that need well into the future.

And then the last part is, is what do we have for options in

that area to evaluate and and review.

And I think that when we look at how we're gonna deal with

that, I'm, I'm pretty excited to see how that

that comparison goes.

And I think this is a good proactive move between facilities

and the fire department

and evaluating what can we do with the building.

We have a lot of future capital items pending in

that building, but is that the best idea

to dump those items into

that building when it may not be viable long to the future?

We're working to identify risks and trends

and strategies to reduce

and I think where I'm really trying

to target there is we do a lot of calls.

We seem to have a gravity problem

with a lot of our population.

So how can we identify

and how can we get some community risk reduction out there

to identify what's causing them to fall

and try to break that cycle and limit that.

And we do a large volume of lift assist too.

We're always looking to increase our training

and our training opportunities.

I'm very excited about a program we have coming in October.

There's a, a young lady up from New Hampshire,

she works very closely with their CIS teams,

which is their critical incident.

Stress management widened across the state.

She gave us a presentation at that health

and wellness symposium that I mentioned

at the beginning of the presentation.

And there was six

or seven of us at the sitting at the table.

There was three from Natick,

there was a couple from another department and then one

or two from another department.

And she talked for about an hour and a half.

And at the end of the presentation we all looked

and turned at each other and like she just described

each and every one of us.

So really what she does is she talks a lot about,

and the neat thing about this program is

as significant others are invited as well.

So it's an effort to kind of improve communication

and understanding for how first responders mentality works,

how they debrief, how they kind of unwind and,

and with the goal of trying to overall wellness

for our families and, and all

of our members in the department.

And then the other thing that we're working on in the fall,

which will also be a cool transition.

So the National Fire Academy has been working on

this thing they call nearest.

It's the National Emergency Response Information System.

And what that is is, so we currently report

to the National Fire Incident Reporting System,

but that's, we report every month

and then halfway into this calendar year,

they release a bunch of data on last year's stuff

and you can't get anything live.

This is gonna allow us real-time access to a lot

of data points, not only in our own community

but other communities as well.

So we'll be able to watch emerging trends, emerging threats,

and be able to track stuff in live time as opposed to a year

and a half after the incidents happen.

Questions. And again, that was a 30,000 foot elevation view

I could have, I think you guys know by now that I love

to talk about the department and

so I could probably sit up here for another hour and,

And I love that you love data, so thank you so much.

That was very impressive.

I'd like to open the floor

to questions for members of the board.

Ms. Slager.

Oh, thank you Chief Ky I

not having seen this presentation in advance,

I kept writing down some questions that I had

and I kept crossing them off because you covered them all.

So Yeah, very, very impressive.

I just wanted to, speaking of data, do you have any sense of

we get the third ambulance, what that might mean in terms

of mutual aid requests, you know, how would

that change the department and what would you see?

And you know, and obviously we potentially get more revenue,

so what are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, and I think if we go back to, it's gonna be,

when we go back to this slide Here,

the bottom left corner,

when we look at the multiple occurrences, I think

that will have a positive impact.

Do I think we'll a hundred percent eliminate the need

for mutual aid and the amount of the, the

significantly high amount of mutual aid?

No, I think we're still gonna need mutual aid

because there's still gonna be times

that we can't handle our calls

and as that number on the 3, 4, 5 continues to creep up,

which is what it's doing, it's trending up,

we're still not gonna be able to meet that demand.

So if we put a third ambulance up today, yes,

we'll positively impact that.

Will we erase it a hundred percent? No.

Also, whatever we positively impact it by,

yes there will be an increase in ambulance revenue

that will capture, will it completely cover everything?

Not likely.

Thank you. One more. Maybe one or two.

So in looking at again, the data,

because you know that's the things that,

that I tend to focus on.

Do you feel like we have the right

distribution of resources?

I know at one point I had seen some data from years back

that most of our EMS calls were in the West Natick area.

I mean, do we feel like we, we've got our distribution

of resources right to be able to

minimize our response times throughout the town?

I think the simple answer to that is yes, I think

that we're in a good spot.

I think that, you know, if you gave me a blank slate

and I was starting over from beginning,

would it potentially look different?

Yes. But unfortunately we're, you're kind of trapped with

where stations are and where buildings are

and you're limited on where you can move them to.

If you, basically, if we were playing a video game

and I was able to move them anywhere that I could,

that might be altered.

But based on what we have, I think what they're best poised

to serve the community the way that we're set up,

I think our staffing could use a little bit of a boost.

And I think you're starting to hear a lot of that, a lot

of the problems that they have across the state

and even on the national level,

there are problems that we have as well.

You know, a ladder company downtown, two person on

that is not really sufficient for doing things.

So how can we bolster that staffing while still

increasing our ambulance coverage?

We could cross staff that at the, the third ambulance

and put those additional per personnel on those trucks.

So we get those trucks up, say 80%

of the time they're operating at a much safer level

and the other 20% they're covering the ambulance calls.

And those are just rough numbers. Those,

those aren't exact numbers.

Thank you. Just one more, one more.

So it was interesting that you saw that

that falls is something that you're looking into.

Any other thoughts about reasons for calls?

I, I know that you probably have worked with Natick 180

about, you know, potential substance abuse reduction.

But are there other areas

where we might engage our community services

or other organizations to potentially re reduce calls?

We could stop with allowing urgent care

facilities in the community?

Those, those do contribute to a significant volume.

We do have, one of the newer ones is a high volume facility.

They see a lot of patients, they expect about 10%

of their census goes out well when you see a lot of patients

and 10% of that ends up being a fairly big number.

So I'm seeing that the,

those facilities hit us a little hard.

And then when I pull the data on some of our more

stagnant populations, the,

the like the healthcare facilities, the

assisted living facilities that have 150 beds, 130 beds,

I was expecting to see numbers at like 0.4, five,

0.67 units per calls per unit per year.

And based on small snapshots of data I'm looking at,

we're seeing closer to 0.9 calls per data.

So some of those facilities are a little

bit more taxing on us.

And then as you look it, it's hard

to compare a facility like, I don't wanna say a facility,

a set of apartments like Avalon that's getting us somewhere

around 0.25 calls per unit per year.

So we start having some facilities down here downtown

that are starting to open up.

I'm expecting to see a 0.25 calls per apartment a unit.

So we have the ability to calculate some of these things.

Unfortunately sometimes these things are in motion long

before we have the ability to affect any sort of change.

But at least I know that as these facilities come online,

I can say to you, yeah we're, we're up

by 264 calls in the first six months of the year.

I expect that we're probably gonna finish off another five

or 600 calls by the end of the year.

And I can attribute it that

to these facilities coming online

or some of these healthcare facilities

that hit us at a little bit higher than

what the expected rates are.

Thank you. And again, great presentation Ms

Po.

I would agree. Chief, thank you for your presentation.

My question is about regionalization.

Thinking about I guess the regionalization of the calls

that we've talked about over the last year

or so, how does that play into the work

and the looking forward and,

and just the bandwidth of the department?

So I think regionalization is one of those funny words,

especially up in the northeast.

Everybody's afraid of it.

One of the things that I will say is

that the Massachusetts Fire Service does a phenomenal job

of moving resources

and assets all across the state to help each other out.

So when the city of Brockton had the fire in the hospital,

we actually had a ladder and an ambulance

that were on the way to the city to help out

and support those, those operations.

So we move, I'm trying to think

of the simplest way to explain it.

So we're a member of fire district 14,

there's 15 fire districts in the state where

with 23 other cities

and towns inside our district,

we can move resources very quickly and very easily.

That district can also go to other districts

and support statewide.

And then also when you start looking at some

of the other resources that we've regionalized within the

department, our dive team used

to be a Natick specific dive team.

We've moved to the district resource.

It's good because it increases the frequency

of our divers getting quality training as well as incidents.

They were activated for the,

the incident in Framingham that happened over the weekend.

Fortunately Framingham had divers on duty that were able

to affect the rescue much sooner than the district team.

We're also members of the District 14 technical rescue team.

So when there's, you saw over the weekend that Southwick

the sky ride broke down

and they had the rescue of the people

that were hanging over the alligators pits.

They activated the district seven technical rescue team.

Well, district 14 has one that we're a member of

state hazmat, which I'm also very

passionate and, and a member of.

We represent fire district seven and 14.

So we cover from the mass Connecticut border, Oxbridge

to Blackstone, up to Concord.

So we do a lot of regional regionalization as it is.

And I think the involvement in regional teams

and regional opportunities is great for our personnel

because it gives 'em training, it gives 'em exposure so

that if we do have an incident in town,

they're more well equipped and more prepared to handle.

Thank you Mr. Sydney. Mr. Evans.

Thank you Madam Chair. I just have a couple,

I don't have the, I have the more qualitative ones,

not the quantitative 'cause those have already been answered

on the PPAS turnout gear.

Where, where do we stand on getting rid

of our inventory of PFAS gear?

So I did have, I did have a bullet point in there that I

probably glanced over in the presentation.

So we are completely pfas free with the foam.

We got rid of that a couple years ago. That's all gone.

The pfas free turnout gear,

I think the cart got put before the horse a little bit

because there's drawbacks

to the new gear that they're putting out.

So part of our gear right now,

the PAS is in the moisture barrier.

So our turnout gear is three components.

One component of that contains PFAS.

Unfortunately the new stuff that's out on the market

that came out back in two years ago February, it was about,

it was about coming up on about a year ago came up.

One of the things that they didn't realize is that part

of our, the success of our turnout gear is

that it's gotta breathe so it offs lets us

let heat go and the new gear doesn't do that as well.

So we're starting to see a lot more heat related illness

in injuries and it's not,

and it's also not holding up when it's

laundered when we wash it.

So I kind of pumped the brakes,

we demoed some sets from our existing manufacturer

and then we just placed an order for

10 sets of gear from a new manufacturer that came out

with the newest addition.

So before I go and expend all of the full capital item

that we requested, we're doing a little bit of experiment

to make sure that, that we're gonna buy the best gear,

not just knee jerk and say, Hey, we got rid of pre-pass

but the gear's junk.

So we're, we're doing our due diligence

and the hopes is that one

of the manufacturers had promised us,

which the set we just ordered

was gonna be an improvement over everything else.

And so we're working through that process.

Great, great. Terrific answer.

Another, the other question,

and actually I've got two,

well the first one was you talked about the four retirements

of longtime employees

and the five candidate interviews coming up.

How many of those people have to go through the, well

you have five candidates being interviewed.

Are those people who've already been

through the fire academy?

Yeah. So they'd have what, six months to get through?

Yeah, and that's part of the lag

and that, that's the challenge where we're constantly hiring

'cause we're trying to train and educate

and get them up to speed and it just, it it, it's a process.

So we, the one candidate that I mentioned

that we stole is a unicorn.

He's already academy trained and he's a paramedic.

So that's, that's the ideal way that we can recruit.

But that's, especially in the confines

of civil service can be hard to do.

The other five candidates.

So that was the only candidate

that I got off the paramedic list.

The other we're interviewing six candidates

for the five spots.

Those candidates are basic EMTs.

So we'll end up

and we'll be doing the fire academy with them,

which is a 10 week commitment

and then paramedic school, which they'll be working

during paramedic school,

but there's still significant time that they're gone.

And fortunately we have the tail end of a grant

and we had some, some increased funding in the budget

that we put in last year to the year

before to account for knowing that this is gonna happen.

Okay, good.

My, my last question is more a comment which is I'm really

heartened by you talking about working

with town administration both

to get the third ambulance purchased, you know,

given the long lead times that we have

and also adequately staffed.

So kudos for looking ahead of that, getting ahead of

that problem as best you can.

Thank you

Mr. Sidney.

First of all, thank you for a really comprehensive

and interesting presentation.

I really appreciate all of the information you gave us

given and I want to focus on ambulances.

So you're proposing a third ambulance,

which I think is a great idea.

I, and you know, if you had, if, if we had unlimited money,

which we don't, how long do you think it would be

before you'd want to try

and bring a fourth an ambulance online?

So I don't think I'm prepared to answer that question

'cause I think that you, I think you understand

that I always look at the data and see what supports it and

although, you know, it'd be great to have, you know,

if I had unlimited funding, you would have a ladder truck,

an engine a, a deputy chief down here out in West Natick,

you would have a fully staffed ladder truck, an ambulance,

an engine, you'd have an engine

and an engine staffed, fully staffed down there.

But the reality is, is that we don't have unlimited funding.

So I think that if the data trends the way that it is,

it'll probably be long after I'm retired.

So I wanna talk about

time, you know, time and service because you know,

and we've discussed this before,

when we had an emergency room here in Natick,

a typical call would be, you know,

an hour or so, right?

Something like that, going to Framingham

or Newton Wellesley, that's increased significantly.

And my understanding is that there's been some

rumblings about changes over at Metro West as

at Framingham Union that may impact their ability

to provide emergency services, which will send more trucks,

more of our ambulances down to Newton Wellesley.

How's that going to Im impact our response time

Negatively.

I think that's the simplest answer.

I I the, our healthcare system I think is a lot more fragile

than we're willing to acknowledge.

We're also spoiled in the northeast

because we have a significant volume of hospitals.

But I do would say that any closure

or any impact to an emergency room is going

that's in our service zone,

which is the two that you identified.

If either one of those closed,

it's gonna have a negative impact on what we're doing

because we're gonna have to go to the next ring out,

which is gonna be further into Boston

or even potentially into Worcester, which is,

and we all know how awful traffic is. Well,

Mar Marlborough just got taken over by UMass Medical, so

that may, may or may not be a viable option.

How long does it take to get an ambulance back in service

once it goes down to Newton Wellesley?

It all depends on how quick we turn it around.

I would say that you're probably typically,

if they immediately take the patient

and allow transfer of patient care,

they're probably at the hospital for 10, 15 minutes

and then they're on their way back.

So 20 minutes, half an hour back.

So you're probably talking rough guess 45 minutes.

Okay. Thank you very much.

And I do really appreciate all the work you're doing to, to

with our, with our fire service to and

and EMS service to,

to make it the most professional it could be.

Thank you

Ms. Pope.

Did you, Ms. Pope, did you have any questions? No,

No, I, you answered my question.

Thank you. I just had two relatively quick questions.

Who are mutual aid communities

with whom do we have agreements?

Everybody? So our immediate mutual aids.

So depending on what we're doing, we use Framingham

and Wellesley as our two primary fire mutual aid.

But we have an alarm, we have a 10 alarm run card

that goes out further.

So we go and that's something that I changed before.

We were pretty heavily relying on district 14,

but we have a Newton and we have a Needham pieces

of equipment that are like 10 minutes away.

So instead of pulling a truck from seven,

eight communities away, we're pulling from

a community that's one away.

So we, again, we have our, our immediate mutual aid.

We do a lot of work with Framingham

and Wellesley, we do a lot of work with Wayland, we do a lot

of work on the turnpike with Weston

Sherburn uses us a handful of times a year for

mutual aid for an ambulance.

Dover. This past, you've noticed

that the uptick was a little bit on the mutual aid

responses out of town.

Dover was using us a little bit more this year

than they have in years past,

but we pretty much will we do,

we'll respond anywhere in the state

and at the end of the day,

we'll anybody around us, we'll come in.

And can you just briefly list the primary challenges

that the department faces for staffing

Briefly?

So I think one of the, one of the biggest challenges

as I have right now is the, the, the speed

with which we can hire and the available candidates,

qualified candidates.

It's getting harder and harder to find qualified candidates.

So we're investing more

and more in training those candidates

to bring them up to where we're at.

And then as far as staffing, I really, I think

that we're in better shape than some communities,

but we still have some work to do to improve

a few comparisons against the national standards.

We are below national standards across the board,

but our engine companies being staffed at

three I think is a good start.

And we have one that's staffed with two

and then the ladder truck again staffed

with two is not an effective company.

So those are the two areas of

my greatest concern is getting the two pieces

of apparatus downtown.

And when you look at our greatest fire hazards in the

community, I'm less concerned with

the hazard of a building like the Avalon buildings up there

because they're fully sprinkled buildings.

They have multiple ways out.

They have, they have a building that's current, it's modern,

it's designed to protect them.

So yeah, there's challenges that that could happen

and there's definitely challenges

and issues that can arise out of a facility like that.

But the risk versus a fire in the downtown here,

which can take out blocks

because they're old construction, they're close

to each other, they're wood, the streets are narrow.

So trying to get to that district is definitely our

more challenging spot.

Okay,

I appreciate that. Thank you.

Are there any other questions from members of the board?

Thank you for a fantastic presentation. You have

A hand

Up on Zoom?

I wasn't planning on taking public comment.

Okay, we're running the meeting behind Ms.

Dorin, can you unmute your microphone?

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes.

I wanna thank Chief Skee not only for this presentation

that I'm so glad I heard, but also for all that you

and your firefighters do.

Fire is my worst fear since I was a child.

I actually, I couldn't even light match

until I was a grownup.

I was so afraid of fire, a house next door burned down

and so I, you all are my heroes.

All first responders are, but especially firefighters

and I happened to have placed one of the calls this year

that led to the increase over last year's call numbers.

I am still grateful for the service I received in the form

of two firefighters in an ambulance and four in an engine.

I did end up needing the ambulance to go to Newton Wellesley

and really their level of professionalism

and just kindness, it was top notch.

So thank them. I do have a question about the pie chart.

In one of your earlier slides, the occurrence

of multiple calls, the little pie section up

with 13 calls is shocking.

It seems unmanageable,

but I'm wondering, can you give a sense just off the top

of your head, what percentage of calls are fire related

and 'cause those are more critical.

Mine was not a fire related call, but that concerns me.

I would hope we have enough, you know, of all vehicles

and staff to address any and all fires in the town.

But do you have a sense of what percentage in

that pie chart, can you speak to that just quickly?

I didn't actually pull that data point to look at,

but I would say that a lot

of times when we see a spike in call volume like that, the,

the, the high numbers, when we, last year I think it was,

we had a couple occurrences of 15 and a couple of 2122.

Those are usually tied to weather related incidents

that occur in town.

More often than not they're probably skewed more towards the

fireside in that particular case.

But those two, those two episodes of 13,

I can't speak specifically if they were

to which way they were a fire or EMS related.

Thank you Chief, we'll see you again in about a year.

I'm not taking any more call. We're running behind.

I'm sorry Mr. Scott. Next item on the agenda

is a tax title update.

Mr. Townsend, before we go to that, I would like

to make an announcement, which I had meant, I had meant

to make earlier in the meeting.

If you're here for the hearing on Gab

Gaab Gatsby's Chop House alcohol license.

That's been continued to next week, seven 30,

July 30 at 7:00 PM

and the hearing for relief alternative dispensary violation

of adult use marijuana establishment license policy

that has been moved to August 6th.

So we won't be hearing those two matters.

And Mr. Townsend, you're up.

Thank you Madam Chair, members of select board,

John Townsend, deputy town Administrator

and director of Finance, to give a quick update on the

progress with the tax title as the memo

of course center memo.

I hope every everyone had a chance to take a look at that

and I'm happy to report that the muni module

for tax title actually is working now.

So we're fairly confident that we're gonna be, be able

to move through the sequence of events with regards

to the tax title issues coming up without any sort

of problems with regards to the Muni module itself.

Year to date collections, I apologize

that paragraph is a little bit tortured,

but what it's trying to say is that we,

we've collected $1.403 million since our last

report back in January.

So our collections have continued to be strong

and the collector's treasurer office has been working