Good evening and welcome to the Wednesday,

August 20th select board meeting.

I call this meeting to order at 6:05 PM

and we'll ask for, well, I will read the executive session

exemptions and then we'll go take a roll call.

Vote for exec going into executive session pursuant

to Mass General Law, chapter 30 a, section 21, A three

to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining.

If an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the

bargaining position of the public body and the chair.

So declares New England Benevolent Association,

local 82 Natick Police Officers Association,

local 4 96 Massachusetts Coalition of the Police,

deputy Fire Chiefs Association,

local 1707 International Association of Firefighters.

And I do declare that it would have

a detrimental effect in negotiations.

And the second item is pursuant to Mass general Law,

chapter 30 a, section 21, A 10

to discuss Trade secrets are confidential,

competitively sensitive,

or other proprietary information

regarding our electricity aggregation program.

I'll entertain a motion to

Move.

Second move by Mr. Evans. Seconded by Mr. Sydney.

Mr. Sydney? Yes. Mr. Evans. Ms.

Walger? Yes. And Ms. Pope? Yes. And I'm May, yes.

We'll return at approximately 6 35. Thank you.

At this time I'd like to invite everyone in the room

who is able to stand to say the pledge

of Allegiance and observe a moment of silence.

I pledge to

Allegiance to the flag

of the United States of America

and to the republic for which its Mind one nation under God,

indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

First up announcements.

I've gotta turn that

Off, but you gotta turn

the box down the bottom. Turn the thing,

The round thing?

No, all the way to the module.

Then the bottom of circular thing with lights on it.

Oh, I turned it off.

One moment please. There

We go. I had turned it off. Alright.

Thank you gentlemen.

Reactivated.

Mr. Erickson announcements.

Thank you. I just wanted to take this moment to announce

that we have made an offer

and it's been accepted for a new deputy town administrator,

finance director.

This is a critical position in the organization.

It's one that is gonna be open in the end of September due

to the retirement of our current longstanding director,

Johnath, John Townsend, who's been in that role

for eight plus years now.

And that person is Ari Sky. He's not here tonight.

He's actually on a family trip in Europe, so he's unable

to attend, which I wanted to make sure he took

before he came here because he needs to be well rested

before he comes into Natick

and enjoys the crazy that is Natick.

But, so we're excited to have re comes

with many years of experience.

He was previously in New Bedford for a number of years

as their CFO Prior to New Bedford,

he was actually down in county, former government outside

of Washington, DC and Virginia.

Other positions he's had in Massachusetts include

similar position in Watertown as well

as town administrator in Lakeville.

So he even has some town administration experience.

And so we're just excited to have

such a qualified candidate come in for the position.

We hired through him through,

we did use the assistance of a recruiting firm just

to help review some candidates.

And we had two rounds of interviews that both Bruce

and Linda were a part of, two separate rounds as well

as others on the team and on staff.

We brought in a member of the finance team.

We brought in other department heads as well as a member

of the finance committee and others.

So, and this was my understanding from for,

I wasn't in the first round, but I was in the second round

generally speaking, the, the sort of unanimous candidate

amongst the different rounds.

So we're excited to have Ari starting. He'll his first day.

There will be overlap with John.

We're still coordinating exactly

how those days are gonna work,

but it should be about two, two

and a half weeks of overlap with John.

So he'll be starting in mid-September as well.

Awesome. Congrats.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Awesome.

Obviously we're gonna miss John. Yes.

But definitely a great hire.

I think he's very excited to also go into retirement.

We'll enter into public speak.

Any individual may raise an issue

that is not on tonight's tonight's agenda.

And it will be taken under advisement by the board.

There'll 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 during public speak?

I, I guess I don't understand public

speaking terms of that form.

So public speak is if, if you would like to raise an issue

and make the Oh, okay.

Then you would come to the podium and we would listen,

but we couldn't respond.

Understood,

Understood. Okay.

Is there anyone in on Zoom who wishes

to address the board during public speak?

Seeing none, we'll move into proclamations. Madam Clerk?

Yes. Thank you Madam Chair.

I have a proclamation in honor

of the Saint Mark Coptic Orthodox churches 40th anniversary.

Shall I read that? Yes,

Please.

Okay.

The proclamation reads, whereas St.

Mark, Dick Coptic, Orthodox Church

of Natick joyfully celebrates decades of faith service

and fellowship as a beloved spiritual home

for the Coptic Orthodox Christian community since the 1970s.

And whereas from humble beginnings

and rented churches to the proud establishment

of its permanent home at 1 45 Oak Street

in 1985, St.

Mark has grown into a vibrant center

of worship and community life.

And whereas the laying of the cornerstone in 1991

by his holiness Pope sch the third,

the 117th Pope of Alexandria, marked a historic

and sacred milestone in the life of the church,

affirming its place in the heart of Natick

and honoring its instrumental role in appointing clergy

and guiding the church's early growth.

And whereas St.

Mark continues to flourish under the dedicated leadership

of its clergy who have guided the congregation

with compassion and devotion.

And whereas the church's ministries from its thriving Sunday

school and charitable outreach

to its senior support programs embody a deep commitment

to service learning and love.

And whereas the opening

of a new educational building in 2018 by his holiness Pope

Tiros two, the 118th Pope of Alexandria, stands

as a shining testament to St.

Mark's ongoing mission and vision for the future.

Now therefore be it resolved that the town

of Natick Select board proudly honors and congratulates St.

Mark Coptic Orthodox Church on its extraordinary legacy

and celebrates its 40 years of enduring contributions

to the spiritual and cultural life of our town.

In witness whereof, we have hereto set our hands

and cause the seal of the town of Natick

to be affixed on this 20th day of August, 2025.

Congratulations.

So moved. Second.

Moved by Mr. Sydney, seconded by Ms. Slager.

All in favor of issuing this proclamation, please say aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? It's 5 0 0.

The event will take place on October 4th

and I'll let the board know the time

when we get closer to that date.

Discussion and decision First item is Loker

Street, pedestrian bridge.

Mr. Sprat,

I may actually bring the

presentation up if you want me to.

Okay, yeah,

just gimme one sec.

It'll give Bruce time to be right back.

You wanna pass the proclamation

around while we're waiting?

Before you signed it, didn't we? No, I didn't. I did.

No, I did. We did, we did.

Thank you. Waiting.

All right. So I just have a, a brief update really

for you.

We've been communicating by email

and keeping you up to speed.

This is really for you

and for everybody else watching

of what's going on at Locust rate.

I know it's been a topic of interest.

So two Fridays ago, mass DOT came out

and did a bridge inspection on the Locust Street Bridge.

The Locust Street Street Bridge was shut down

to vehicle traffic in 1989,

but continued on to be a pedestrian bridge across the rail.

What is now the rail trail.

Pedestrian bridges get inspected about once every 10 years.

This was a 10 year reinspection of that bridge, which

frankly showed eminent failure in a lot of places.

Just some examples of the steel on the left side.

You see the holes in the steel like rotted all the way

through on the, the right side of the screen.

Connection points between two, between two steel beams

that are just rotted away completely.

On the next slide, you can see some of the damage

to the wood beams

and structure complete failure in some of those wood beams.

So the inspection report was really,

it showed the bridge was in eminent danger.

And on that day, mass DOT shut down the Locust Street bridge

to pedestrians the following week.

Last week we were working with DOT trying to figure out

how we're going to, to manage this situation.

At that time, as DOT advised

that we shut down the rail trail

and also advised us that they would be fast,

fast tracking the demolition of the bridge.

So fast forward to yesterday, they mobilized on the site.

We spent the end of last week with mass DOT police, fire

select board members, really trying

to plan out how we do this.

Well, a detour was set up on the next slide.

You can see that Closing the

rail trail off at Fisher Street, putting a detour

up North Maine, down bacon

and connecting to the trail at this point.

Now with actual demolition started today,

so that section of the rail trail is shut down.

We advise everybody to stay off that trail.

That's posted it is or will be posted. No trespassing.

Please take notice. So you can go to the next slide, Jamie.

The, this is what it looked like as

of this morning, as of this morning.

So it's a, a wooden structure with steel supports

with a wooden deck with asphalt on top.

They cut up and removed all of the asphalt today by hand

because no equipment could be on the bridge.

They'll be taking the deck down hopefully by tomorrow

and then start their, their true demolition.

So that's what the site looks like coming up

Fisher Street right now.

They are actively working.

They committed to actually continue working

through Saturday.

One of our concerns is having this active during the, the,

the weekend when it's really not monitored.

So they're gonna, they'll be working on Saturday.

They anticipate one to two weeks.

So as of yesterday, really one to two weeks.

And then the bridge should be down.

We'll be able to reopen the rail trail.

We have some work to do on the, on the slopes.

And then we'll have to make some final decisions on

what the final treatment

of the approaches of the bridge will look like.

Likely it will just be a guardrail to protect cars

and then let natural trees and and growth come up there.

So that's where we stand.

It's been a very fast project, incredible work

by the DPW team.

Bill McDowell, Brian Casey, our

communications director, has been super helpful.

Mass t's been unbelievable to work with.

Very well communication going both ways.

Everything's gone according to plan

and it's, we're really thankful that they fast tracked this.

It's kind of blows my mind that in that short

of a time we have a bridge already coming down.

My, I was fearful this was gonna be months or years and,

and it's going to be days or weeks.

So that's the current status.

Thank you Mr. Raat. Before I ask for questions for members

of the board, I just wanna say we have received

correspondence that asks us

to replace the bridge.

And I just wanna point out tonight is

that's a discussion for down the road mass.

DOT will not be replacing the bridge.

So any discussion of that's going to be down the road.

Right now we're very just concerned with the public safety,

safety aspects of this project.

Members of the board, do you have any questions

or comments? Mr. Evans?

Just a comment of the extremely

impressive responsiveness to all involved in this has just

been amazing and the communication throughout the

process, this has been terrific.

So thank you for that

and thank you for pushing forward on this so quickly.

Ms. Wilger and then Mr. Sydney.

Ditto. I, I have to say I have never seen a project

that has gone from a problem to a solution

being done so quickly and so effectively and efficiently.

And I hope you all take credit for this

because it's, you know, mast OT

but it's also our staff that really, you know,

got right on the ball to address the problem.

And, you know, we're really grateful. Thank you

Ms. Pope.

Yeah, I'm dilling all of these remarks.

I saw it in person and talked to with one of the DPW members

who was there and, you know, he just was all over it.

He was all over it. And it is a public safety issue.

And so I I I, I empathize with all of the folks who

use the rail trail very regularly and,

and somehow feel a bit displaced.

But I think elevating the, the piece

of public safety is huge so that they can return

to the rail trail without worry about their safety.

So thank you. And the entire team,

Mr. Sidney.

Yeah, I just did what my fellow board members have said.

I have to say, looking at that last picture of the

demolition going on, one

of my concerns going forward,

and I think we will have to pay attention to this somehow,

is that people will go down and up the slope

and either we're gonna make it possible for them to do that

or we're gonna have to monitor it and or block it somehow.

'cause there, I mean, you know, I don't know how many people

have walked across that bridge a lot,

but you know, it does appear to be some kind

of a connector for, for walkers.

So let's, let's see if we can find some kind

of a creative solution so that the neighborhood

is kept safe, even, even when the bridge is down.

Understood. Safety will be our priority.

The the good news is we just did the north main project with

a corridor for multimodal access.

So this bridge was from 1907.

So a lot has changed in that time.

So there, there are connectives ways to get around that.

It is a little longer obviously,

but we'll, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

You

Didn't dad joke. That was, that was, I'd like

to open it to members of the public who have any comments

or questions in the room

or on Zoom if you could raise your hand on Zoom if

you have any questions for Mr.

Sprat. Thank you Mr.

Sprout, and thanks for staying on top of this

and please send our best to your team and our thanks.

Thank you.

Oh, Mr.

Ostroff, if you could unmute yourself.

Hi, thank you so much for the opportunity to speak.

I wanted to just extend my appreciation, sorry.

Josh Ossoff town meeting member formerly on your board

and chair

of the Rail Trail advisory committee for many years.

I, I really appreciate how quickly the, the town

and MAs dot have worked together to prioritize safety

as you as board members probably know.

But I've got some information in your packet

that just reflects on some of the inspection history on the

decisions that the town and its consultants

and Masto made over the years about

the trail and the bridge.

And it's if

and when the board wants to talk about alternatives,

you know, the programs that may be available for funding to

explore alternatives to a bridge, I'm happy

to participate in that.

Please let me know whether you a appoint a committee

or just wanna meet informally with staff and board members.

I have some thoughts and I fully understand the concerns

of people that have written or,

or share their views in other forms on how

and where we might look towards

reestablishing a safe connection.

And while MAs dot who own the bridge has is probably

can be taken to their word that they won't replace it,

that doesn't mean that there are not other programs

and ways in which the town might explore doing that.

And, and that's, as I put in my memo,

that's probably best done as part

of a more comprehensive plan that hope the town can elevate

to the board's agenda for better safe pedestrian bicycle

connectivity in the years to come.

But just want to thank you

for your making this such a important town priority.

And yeah, it is concerning that

they have a 10 year interval for inspections.

That means that the bridge was inspected in 2013

and then maybe about 2015 and not until then.

So that's probably something for Masto

to look at their inspection cycle.

But that's again, not the board's concern today.

Happy to answer any questions

or engage on this with members tonight or in the future.

Thank you Mr. Os Ostroff.

Next on the agenda is the South Neek DAM update. Mr. Sprat.

Thank you. I come here with good news.

We've been in this cycle of permitting

for quite a while now.

We essentially have all

of our permits complete absent one eight M permit,

which is just authority from the MWRA

to work near their sewer line

that crosses further upstream of the dam.

That should be a fairly easy permit.

It's much more of a rubber stamp than the,

the arduous permitting we've been through.

So we're in very good shape.

I think the key things to point out from here

as we wind down our permitting, we'll be ramping up

our final design and then going

through the procurement process.

That will be from now, say September through through spring.

We will have mobilization

and site prep, ideally June, July of next year

with July August dam removal in 26.

We are waiting currently on funding sources.

We, we have funding available

through town meeting appropriation,

however, we've been looking at alternative funding methods

we should know by the end of this month.

Ideally if we have our dam

and seawall grant, which was for a million dollars,

which would cover all but 20% of the dam.

So we're actively pursuing grants

that we should know hopefully before town meeting.

That's our, that's our goal to, to have responses.

So that's, that's where we stand.

We're in, we're in very good shape

and kind of ending that permitting phase

and heading into pre-construction activities and,

and with everything going well,

we should see about this time next year removal.

Thank you Mr. Sprat. Questions for members of the board?

Ms. Slager,

Thank you for the update bill.

Hopefully we'll get one of these grants,

but if we do not, are there other grants

that we might potentially apply for?

So there are three grants we've applied for.

Currently, we're constantly looking

for new grant opportunities.

We've hit the major ones that will likely fund

just about the entire process.

So the short answer is yes,

but we're constantly doing that work.

The help of Bill and Jillian

and Claire really hammering down all those things.

We, we have other people looking

for grant opportunities for us.

Okay, thank you.

Are there questions from members

of the public?

Anyone on Zoom?

Thank you Mr. Sprat. Just,

Oh yes please.

You could just add one more thing.

You might see a camera up there now we're working

with our partners in Pegasus

and we've put up a camera that's taking daily shots

so we can monitor what the dam looks like

or looked like in high water, low level.

We're also taking sound recordings all in preparation

for a way to memorialize the the dam.

Thank you. Thank you.

Next on the agenda is the Charles River Park system update.

Snell.

Hello, I'm Angela Snell.

I'm the director of community services

and I'm here to give an update on the Charles River Park

improvements, kind of working

with Bill's team once they do the dam, we're gonna move in

and make some improvements to the parks.

We're looking at Old Town Park, Grove Park

and the multipurpose area.

This past June, we just finished a MVP grant

that gave us permit level designs and cost estimates.

We've been working with Weston and Sampson on this project.

The idea is to make accessibility improvements

at all of these areas.

And the next part of the project would be to do

permits for the project.

So there's permits, we put in a Community Preservation Act

application, which is moving to the public

public process next month.

So we'll be giving a presentation on that.

And then moving forward from there once we will be doing

those permits and construction documents and bid documents.

And then we'll apply for a second NBP action grant next

spring, which could help with the construction projects.

And we'll also be looking for funding opportunities

for construction.

We'll look at other state grants, federal grants,

additional CPA funding,

and we'll be exploring all that in the upcoming year.

And if anybody wants to see all the plans

and everything up to date,

we do have information on the town website.

If you go to the homepage, it's right at the bottom

of the homepage.

Or you can search Charles River Park improvements

and it'll take you right to all of our updates.

The plans that we've had from Weston and Sampson.

All the notes from community engagement

that has taken place over the last year.

Thank you very much. Any

questions for members of the board?

I had a question. Will you be seeking CPC money?

Yep. So right now we have an application in,

and that's to do the next phase of permits.

We just got notified actually today that we are eligible.

So now it goes to the community preservation committee.

We'll give a presentation

and they'll be public, a public hearing,

and then people can vote on it.

The committee will vote to hopefully support it

and move it to the October town meeting.

Wonderful, thank you so much.

Are there any members of the public

who have questions or comments for Ms.

Snell? Seeing none, I thank you so much.

All right, thank you. Good stuff.

Is Jay's online? He's online. Okay.

I'm gonna change the agenda a little bit.

We're gonna go to the summary of meetings

for Johnson School and I'm going

to ask Mr, where is he?

He's on, yep. Yeah, once he starts speaking he, oh, okay.

I am, I believe you guys can hear me. Yes.

Yes. Thanks Jay.

Awesome.

So the first topic that we're gonna talk

through is the Johnson future use

and the summary of meetings.

Just to kind of acclimate folks,

this particular document summary of meetings,

we're gonna continue to outline a six

month outlook of meetings.

So today we're gonna walk through, you know,

next month's September, going through February of 26.

The slide you're looking at is identical

to the previous time that this was presented.

May of this year. Ultimately was driven by community input.

There was a survey of 90 folks who talked about what type

of meeting types they would wanna see most.

And that's really what designed the entire plan.

The next slide gives you the six main

buckets of the meeting types.

I'm not gonna go verbatim, I appreciate that.

Some folks, this will be new to them who are on the meeting,

but on demand, Pegasus,

or you can check out the agenda item.

But these six meeting types will be

what I'll outline on the final slide, slide three,

which I'll spend about maybe five or 10 minutes discussing.

So you're now looking,

and let me just kind of acclimate everyone how

to best read this slide.

There's two essential categories of meeting

types that we'll have.

The ad hoc, if you look at your

Y access on the left will be on the top.

And those meetings would be outside

of the typical biweekly select board meetings.

And that everyone below the line

within the select board meeting category,

those would be embedded within the biweekly select board

meetings that naturally occur.

Anything that has a red triangle, that's a key deliverable

that ultimately will be insightful

for this particular project.

And then the high engagement opportunities up above.

Higher on the top, those would be the areas

that the public can get most engaged

and give the select board the largest

kind of swath of feedback.

The, they're numbered four on the top

and then the remaining 12 totaling 16

total meetings on the bottom.

I'll, I'll talk through some high level notes here.

Number one is a select board workshop

that was recently announced last week.

That's set for September 10th.

It is the only one that has a yellow highlight

because this is a key meeting.

This is a three hour meeting,

so we're asking the general public to give up a nice chunk

of their Wednesday evening on September 10th.

In exchange, we will allow quite a bit of feedback

and interactive sessions.

I'm not gonna read all the details,

it's linked on the homepage of the website.

Notifications have been sent through to folks.

But this, I would say we did a site walking tour already

that had about 60 folks.

And those were one-on-one sessions led by,

or sorry, one to many sessions led by select board members.

This might be similar in nature,

but it's gonna be more interactive

with imagine your colored, you know, colored stickers,

your Y, your sticky pads

and the six scenarios the town has outlined to start.

There's a survey out there to give some feedback.

Those are by no means final.

That's something for the public to react to.

We're continually to craft the scenarios

and use cases on the Johnson property.

The biggest takeaway from the site walking tour

is we need financials.

So this meeting is essentially to craft

and refine a small subset of scenarios.

So we limit the cost that we'll have to pay for a consultant

to do financial assessments.

So I'm not gonna talk

through the other meeting types as verbose.

But again, mark your calendars, anyone that's listening,

sign up for alerts and attend September 10th if you can.

Johnson, office hours.

These are very similar to select board office hours

that are held around the town,

community senior center, the farmer's market.

But these are onsite at Johnson.

We held our first one last week, August 14th.

We had 10 residents that show up.

And while that might seem small in nature,

in fact I don't think we've had select board office hours

that have exceeded that other than the fact that a lot

of people go to the farmer's market and walk by.

So we'll continue those meeting opportunities October 11th

and then a date to be scheduled in November.

Number four, this is kind of the fork in the road.

When we outlined the project plan in April this year,

we talked about the idea that an advisory committee,

which will ultimately be the select board's decision,

we wanna do some work leading up to this.

And so this meeting, very much TBD, the largest

variable to have this meeting.

The goal would be to, you know, have some public input

and the select board to comment

and make a decision on an advisor committee.

Yes or no, I believe in an upcoming meeting,

the select board, which I'll defer to the chair if she wants

to discuss it might be having some preliminary discussion.

But this is a firm discussion in early 2026.

If you look at the very bottom of the screen,

there's consultant led financial assessments

that will be a result of the select board workshop meeting.

Number one, that will give a consultant three months

to look at scenarios

and the components within each scenario,

assign financial numbers

and then allow in this public forum to come back

and have a much more worthy conversation.

This is like a house remodel.

We started with talking to the architect of all the desires

and now we're gonna start to hone down into, you know,

within the finite financials, what is it

that the select board wants

to ultimately hone in on And then decide is it,

does an advisory committee have a role within that

or just broader?

So that's the intent of meeting four.

The, they're gonna be less exciting on the bottom,

I just won't be as verbose.

But the select board workshop will follow

that meeting one week later on nine 17 with a report from

that meeting, we'll be issuing a post-meeting survey as well

as potentially, well not even potentially, as well as

defining the consultant's scope

so the select board can make comment

before we engage with consultants.

A number, I'll go in order of numbers,

I'm gonna go to cut top down.

I think you guys can all track with me.

Item number 11 is essentially just a survey report

to get some process feedback from the public

as the year ends.

We will really kick this off in April.

So at that point we'll have, you know, a decent chunk

of months through the process

and we'll let the public weigh in,

what's working, what's not.

We'll continue to do quarterly reports,

so we'll have those scheduled the next one, October of 29.

And then we'll set up another quarterly report.

Those are the circles. If you look in January,

I don't have a date yet for anything in January and February

'cause we just don't plan that far out.

So the 2025 select board calendars what we have,

but we'll publish those dates once they become available.

This meeting, what we're talking about

is the summary of meetings.

I'll come back and give a refresh in November 19th,

and then later in February of 2026,

we will maintain Johnson speak,

which is the next agenda item Johnson speak.

Essentially public speak allows the public

to comment on any items that are not an agenda item

and to make comment, but the select

board's unable to engage.

So I thought this was rather slick.

We came up with a meeting type,

whereas if it's on a monthly agenda,

the public cannot only make a comment,

but also ask a question if this isn't present.

Anyone who's interested in the Johnson project is limited

to the particular agenda items.

So this, we'll see how the next meeting goes.

Maybe residents can weigh in,

but this is currently, it's a low lift

because ultimately we just added agenda item

and it tends to be 10 minutes or less,

but just gives people a chance to weigh in

with the select board and provide feedback that is,

well I think I probably held my 10 minutes.

Stay updated. Sign up for every update you possibly can.

And as a reminder, this is a two and a half year project.

Everything in yellow is September

through February of next year.

We're just talking about this section

and we'll continue to make progress

and ultimately make a decision approximately June

of 2027.

Thank you very much. Jay Chair? Yes.

Members, the board.

Do you have questions or

comments Mr. Evans? Yeah,

Just very quickly, I had the opportunity to walk through

with Jay, walk through Johnson School

and take a more in depth inside look at it.

And it was very helpful to me

to understand the state of the building.

Number one, the, the geography of the,

the area around there and, and the site.

It was also nice to see that one

of the things we promised the neighborhood was to have

periodic police patrols come in

and while we were there, a cruiser came up

and took a look around, made sure everything's fine

and it's all good.

Thank you Mr. Evans.

Who in the room would like to address the board

during Johnson speak?

And just show your hands one.

And Jay,

can you take down your presentation?

Yep. And by show of hands people online,

if you can let me know so we can gauge time.

Okay. Ms. Vickers, if you'd like to come, we'll go ahead

and open monthly.

Johnson speak.

Hello. Thank you. Brenley Vickers,

precinct eight town meeting member

Johnson Neighborhood resident.

I just, and speaking on behalf of a lot of people

that I know that are out of town prepping

for school on vacation, lost everything.

And people didn't want you guys to think that

because there is nobody here participating that

that meant there's a lack of interest.

There's no lack of interest. It's just this is that month.

Thank you.

Thank you so much Ms. Vickers.

Is there anyone online going once, going twice?

Mr. Gates and then Ms. G Gridley?

Yes. Wayne Gates tend to come us way.

I would just like to start an idea

that may, many may not know of.

And that is the potential to combine

o an open space opportunity at the Johnson School

with the combination of replacing the, the lost open space

at the Wilson property when,

and potentially resurrect the idea

of the Wilson Gardens affordable housing.

Anyway, that was it.

Thank you Mr. Gates.

Ms. Gly, if you can unmute yourself.

Hi. So just wanted to respond to STRs.

You mentioned that you recently had the opportunity

to visit the property.

I am assuming that meant on the in inside.

As someone who has never seen the inside, I'm curious of

what you saw, what your impressions are

and anything that you were willing to share.

Sure. I'm sharing

Please.

Sure. Thank you for that question.

It, you know, you, for me, it was the first time

that I'd been inside the building

and you, I kind of have had a learning curve as far

as Johnson goes because I did do the exterior walk

and had an impression of what it would be like inside

and thought I knew exactly what it looked like inside.

But having walked through it, I got a much better feel for

the space itself in terms of the height of things,

the landscape of, you know,

that it's one story on one side and two in the back.

And just, you know, having an opportunity.

I actually was having flashbacks to elementary school

and I went, I'm old enough that it, that

that school was probably a new newish

school when I went to school.

Not, not as a NAIC resident,

but what I was impressed with was

how much space there is actually in

that school itself.

Now, whether we can reuse that space

or whether we need to modify it as you know, that's,

that's up for discussion.

But what struck me was the opportunity to have

multiple uses on that property.

The playground was in use while I was there.

Jay and I talked about the sledding hill,

going down there and looking to preserve that if possible.

And just a really good discussion.

I was only there, we were there less than an hour.

And it was, it was time well spent.

I I I've learned a great deal about it, about the potential

for this area, this, this asset to the neighborhood.

Thank you Mr. Evans.

Is there anyone else who would like to discuss? Johnson?

Okay, thank you. I know it's vacations and vacation periods

and there are a lot of people out of town.

So as Jay mentioned, we'll be doing another summary

of meetings in on November 19th

and we'll continue to have our monthly Johnson speak.

Next up are water and sewer abatement appeals.

First up is Sean and Debbie Potter.

If you could come to the podium.

We have your application

and your, are they here or online?

Oh, yes. Okay. If you could unmute yourself.

And we, we do have your application, we know some

of the particulars, but if you could very briefly tell us

why you're seeking an abatement.

Hi, can you hear us?

Yes, thank you.

Okay. Yeah, I was saying that we couldn't,

trying to get my video on as well.

I muted. You don't need to do video. That's okay.

Okay, great. Thank you for hitting

You.

And your other half are both unmuted. Why don't you

They fixed it Rich.

It's okay. Yep. Stop that

Coming.

Yeah, we're good. Okay, good. Okay.

Yeah, just won't let us turn on a video.

It says disabled by the host, so

That's okay.

You don't need the video, but if

you could go ahead, that would be great.

Sure. Thank you. We were, we're outta town.

We had a death in the family,

so unfortunately we couldn't be there in person.

We were, we, we don't know what happened here.

We've been in our, our new home now almost exactly a year.

And when I went to pay the first bill, it was only $25.

And I, I thought

that was a little low considering our 10

year monthly average.

And prior to that was $40.

And when I first showed up at town hall, they said,

are you Mitch Rogers?

I said, no, that's, that's the gentleman

that sold us the house and

'cause he had an outstanding water bill.

I said, no, no, we're the potters.

We purchased the house from the Rogers.

I said, are we liable for that?

And you were told no,

which is why we just had a $25 service fee.

So that was our first quarterly bill.

The second quarterly bill was also $25.

And then our third bill, it was $9,000

during that third quarter, DPW came out

and they replaced, according to the bill,

they replaced the meters

and maybe the transponder for both

normal water use and irrigation.

And that bill had 2,148

for the water use charge, 1,582

for the irrigation charge

and 5,259 for the sewer usage.

These readings were done over the course of,

looks like one week, 2 25 to three one.

So we immediately, my wife immediately called

and said, what is this?

And, and you know, the, the,

the town clerks were very helpful

and they said, you're gonna have to appeal it.

We don't know. So we still have no idea how this happened.

What I, what I can tell you is the most recent bill,

which was, which came out July last month,

we accrued charges of $528.

Now we have irrigation. That's pretty reasonable.

You know, we have many friends

and families in Natick with irrigation.

They average with similar size lots.

They average between 300 to 600 a month.

So that seemed reasonable.

The watering habits

that differed in the last three months compared to October

and November when we had our irrigation installed,

new irrigation installed

and grass was seeded in October of last year.

So we only watered the lawn for about six months.

The amount of the time we watered the lawn over the last

three months versus that six weeks was about the same.

30 minutes, 30 minutes around every other day.

So I I, I would expect that maybe we had,

I don't know why we got $25, $25 fee,

maybe there was a billing issue,

but I would've expected the bill

to be almost exactly the same as the one

that we just received for $528.

So we're looking at this, we don't have a pool.

We, we, we don't have a nice rink.

Irrigation was turned off in November, so

that wasn't even a, a factor,

but somehow we were charged when the irrigation was off

for irrigation.

We're a family of three. There's no, there's no border leak.

We checked that again,

all I can say is we had the town came out

and they changed the meters, they changed the transponder

and all of a sudden we got this $9,000 bill.

And the only other thing I can say is that I,

there was definitely an outstanding water bill with Mr.

Mitch Rogers who owned the house prior to us.

The last piece of information is our bills say

that the service address is nine Craigie Street.

We do not live at nine Craigie Street.

So that might be the issue.

I don't know anything more than

what I've told you other than there's, there's, i i, it's,

it's seems impossible.

We're, we're confounded, we're baffled.

We have no idea how like even a $900 bill

we would've been calling about.

But this is a $9,000 bill.

So we're, you know, we're hoping that you,

you can help shed light on, on where the, you know,

where the mistakes might have been.

But we're hoping that you can resolve this and help us out

'cause that that's not something we can afford to,

to pay or maintain.

Thank you Mr. Erickson.

Certainly. Yeah. Thank you Mr. Madam Chair.

And, and I'll just provide a little bit

of when we did some research and,

and what we found out about what happened in this case.

So as noted by the, the property owner, this appears

to be a situation whereby the prior owner

did not pay that final water bill.

Now when that happens, our system doesn't send out new

and we, we, we were trying to figure out

what the glitch is here,

but it doesn't send out reads for the new water bills.

And, and they did receive bills,

but they're the $25 readiness of sur not the actual usage.

So there was still usage happening from the purchase date in

mid-August until, until the read date in February.

But that wasn't being brought into the system like it would

have if that final read had actually,

or a final bill had actually been paid by the prior owner.

Once the prior owner paid that,

then the system played catch up.

In addition to that, we were,

we're doing a water meter replacement project

and transponder project throughout town.

So that was happening as well.

We actually tried to do it with the prior owner,

but they refused to let us into the property.

So once we found out we can get into the property

with the new owner, we did that project

and that's when that, again, that reed happened,

the read on the, on the then existing meter occurred.

And basically what's what happened here was

because there were no subsequent bills based on meter reads,

the usage that got billed that led

to the most recent bill was all the usage

that appears anyway from the sale date August 15th

or thereabouts to that February date.

And it came in one bill,

which meant it automatically hit the upper tiers.

Right. And that would have not been the case had it been

read on the quarterly basis.

So it's kind of a comedy

or perfect storm of, of sort of situations that occurred.

I don't think it was anybody's sort of fault per se,

but it is something that we're exploring to see

how we can prevent from happening.

Again. This hap this is only the time I've ever had this

happen where, you know, during a real estate transaction

that final bill does not get paid as quickly.

You know, then we, this rarely, rarely happens.

And then there was also the meter read

and some of the other things that were happening

with just our, our water

and sewer update program with, with the meter changes.

So that's in essence from our, our sort

of research what happened, it is the proper address,

the meter, both the former meter

and the current meter are reading properly.

So the usage definitely occurred.

The, the scenario though is that it it, it really came down

to all of the usage appearing to be billed at one time,

which then bumped the entire bill up to that high level of,

of the tier system.

So it's the pleasure of the board.

This is very, very unique case, right?

The, what I believe has been

provided to the board in email form is a version

of a potential abatement consistent with

how we've done other abatements, which is basically

bringing, looking at the typical usage for the property

for the prior three years

and then bringing the usage down to

the lowest tier that's above

that typical for an abatement amount.

That's the pleasure of the board.

But that's the, when we did our background research,

what I just explained is what we learned

and we are trying to figure out

where there might have been other glitches,

but in essence that what occurred

Questions for members of the board.

Go ahead, Ms. Walsh. And then Mr. Evans,

I apologize for not bringing this up earlier,

but I didn't understand that this was

what the situation was exactly.

So the information

that we have received from Ms. Donovan is our typical way

of looking at this, looking at prior usage

and given that there is no leak in this situation,

I'm thinking that more that we ought

to bill it at the lowest tier.

Not looking at prior usage,

but just the actual usage is, I think that

what we've heard is that the meter reads were accurate.

So we actually have the number that is of usage,

but it's just at the higher tier

because of how on our end the billing was all done at once.

So that's kind of what I think would be fair to do.

So just re recap and it might be, it might be

that this calculation is at the lowest tier.

I just can't confirm that because I don't know what that

It, it says, it says divide this over the it

They're basically billed at the lowest according

to this email from Ms. Donovan, it says it's the,

should the current usage be billed at the lowest tier

and then it gives the ab the amounts

and then the abatement amount.

Right. We can confirm that though.

If the intent is just to do the entire amount at the lowest

tier, we can confirm that I Yeah.

And if it's these numbers, great.

If it's not, we'll just match whatever that intent is. Yeah,

I'd

Agree with that.

I mean it's all subject to the board obviously, but,

So just to, to clarify that we'd be able

to provisionally approve this amount tonight

and say if there's a billing of all

the amount at a lower tier

and that that number is lower than the progress.

We'll just, I mean it could be this amount.

It very, it's kinda be close to this amount. Yeah, probably.

But we can then we can use our spreadsheet to basically

assume all the usage of the lowest tier

and that way the usage was used, right?

It's still being captured in a bill,

but it's just gonna be at that bill at that lowest tier.

Okay.

Yes, Mr. Evans.

And it, it just, it looks to me, I mean if their,

if their typical bill is somewhere around this $530,

you know, we're, we're talking what,

three quarters pretty much, you know, so that would be

about 1500 or something.

$1,800 something like I'm not doing good math, but Yeah.

And you have to look at the irrigation meter too.

'cause a good chunk of this bill was

during the winter, so That is

True.

Yeah. Yeah. So good point.

But you know, that's gonna, that,

that would be a substantially larger abatement than, than

what the, what the email says.

So what is the pleasure of the board?

I mean if, if my concern is that this bill is getting,

Just to be clear, what, what I'm proposing

is we know the actual usage

Yeah.

Bill is the lowest tier period. At the

Lowest tier period.

Yeah. And that would be the, and then, and then and

Then whatever the differences would

be the amount of the abatement. Correct?

Correct. Yep.

I I I'd make that motion.

Could we vote that motion tonight so

that there is an interest accruing on this bill

that cannot be waived? Yes,

Let's do that

And put, put

that calculation in the hands

of the town administrator. I want

This to come back if we don't have to.

Wonderful. So I'll take that motion. I

Move we bill the whole thing at the lowest here. Second.

Hold on a second please. Ms. Pope,

This is an a bit of a pivot,

but it sounds like all things were working, the,

the meters were working, why is,

is there this address con discrepancy?

I I'm not sure if there is an address Discre.

I mean I know that the,

I don't know that there, I mean I don't,

that's not what we focus on.

So we focus on the bill and the billing and that work.

But the potters claim that they live at seven Craig

and this is, they're being billed at nine, right?

Is that, is that correct? Mr.

And Mrs. Potter, are you, is your residence at seven Craig

Natick versus the nine?

So

Mute himself?

Yeah. I will say I know of other houses where the

official address and the mailing address are different.

Yeah, yeah. Sorry. It's it's pretty

Thank you.

We were, we were muted

and couldn't unmute again 'cause the host had to undo it.

Thank you for asking. There is no the,

there is no nine craigy that we're aware of.

Hmm. And so one of our concerns is someone's

using water somehow.

That is not us,

but we live at seven Craigy Street, not nine Craigie Street,

but the service address is nine Craigy Street.

I I also just want to back up a little bit.

We our, one of our main things is that the meter was broken.

That's why it was replaced.

So replaced in February and the trans, the

Meter was replaced because

of our meter replacement project.

And when we replaced the meter, we actually confirmed

that the old meter was working properly.

That's not why it was replaced.

We have an, we have an ongoing town wide

meter replacement project.

So the meter was not replaced

because of anything wrong with the meter.

It's because of the meter replacement project

that we're doing in every comm community throughout town.

Okay. And every time you have an opportunity to, to go out

to a place, I mean there is a systematic re

replacement going on,

but every time there's an opportunity at a house

where DPW is there checking on something related to water,

they swap out the meter.

We did this at my house when we re renovate kitchen.

Yeah, that makes sense. But when we were, when we agreed

to let them come, the

understanding was there was something wrong.

The understanding was that they were going to look

to see if there was something wrong

and when they found that the meter was working properly,

they went ahead and changed it.

That's my understanding.

And could you address the question about whether

or not somebody's using water?

Nobody would be using water.

It's based on the, the meter number. Okay.

Not necessarily based on the address. Address.

And, and there is no nine craigie,

there's actually a town on parcel right next to this that

we can certainly look into why this is noted

as nine instead of seven.

But it's not because there's somebody at nine

Craigy getting service. Yep.

I think because there has been such a thorough check

on all of like the media was working.

This is correct. I think it mean,

I don't know if it's our responsibility or theirs,

but I think for the sake of like ruling that out,

I think it's important to understand why they live at seven.

But this is billed at nine even if it's very simple.

I think that would be helpful.

Yeah. I will note that I I will note the parsonage

for Common Street is the, the mailing address is nine Beacon

and the official address is seven Beacon.

It happens and, and it's just, you know, the post office

and the, and the town don't agree.

If you can look into

Delivery,

we'll look into the address if that

Would be really good. Yeah. And

That again, we're grasping at straws here

'cause our, our usage hasn't changed.

Our habits haven't changed. We still don't understand.

I mean you, we hear you, you're saying the meter is right,

but where was the water usage again?

Our irrigation was turned off in November. Our,

Our, our rates went up in May.

So that might be part

of the problem or part of the system. We

Just have a very dire concern when we look at the amount

of usage that was that that it displays

and we're just scratching our heads going,

this is merely impossible for the,

we're we came from another area of Natick.

We had an average water bill.

Now granted we're in a larger house

with an irrigation system.

Our average water bill was $40

and we're taking into consideration the size

and scope of the house and we're taking into consideration

that we didn't have irrigation.

But this is exorbitant.

I think we can all agree a $9,000 bill in such a short

window of time, it's just not adding

up. We don't understand it.

Mrs. Potter, are you saying

that you lived in a home in Natick

and your average quarterly water and sewer bill was $40

Monthly.

So it was $120 a quarter roughly now much smaller house

that was the town of, that was the town of Wellesley.

We're on Wellesley water based on the area

of Natick that we lived in.

But to give you some context,

we didn't necessarily grow the family.

We didn't put in a nice rink, we didn't utilize a

Pool.

I hear what you're saying. If you're on Wellesley water,

don't they have different water rates?

Different water rates?

Well

of course there's different, there's different rates.

But I'm trying to give you context in terms of

It's not gonna be two orders

of magnitude different then. No.

Right. Do you under, do you understand though about the

tier system in Natick and why?

No, no, no. Okay. So let me explain it. It's based on usage.

So if you use zero to, let me pull it up.

I'm gonna, 'cause I want, I want this to be accurate

and this is thank you

May explain.

We tried and we tried to go into my 360 to try

to dig into some of this

and understand we, we can't, we can't get in touch.

It's not acknowledging our account number

or our name or our address.

We've made multiple attempts

And I'm not sure would we get any more information,

but maybe some of this is there too. Mr.

Sprat, could you come to the podium? Could I bother you?

I know you're not prepared for this,

but could you, do you know the water rate tiers

offhand where they cut off?

Because I'm looking online. I don't see it.

I don't, but I could probably pull it

up if you needed me to.

Let me just, here we go. I, I have it. I did find it.

So tiered billing means the more water you use,

the more per unit you're charged.

So if you use between, let's say

making these numbers up zero units

and 15 units, you're charged one rate

for that amount of water.

If you use between 15

and 50, you're charged a different rate.

The more water you use, the higher the rate goes up.

So what ended up happening in this situation is when,

when all of it hit at the same time,

it looked like you had used all of that water Okay.

In that period of time and you were automatically

charged the highest rate.

So what the board is suggesting is to take

what your actual usage was and charge it at the lowest rate

because we have no idea where you were in the tier system.

Okay. So the mo there's not a motion made yet,

but the discussion is, well there was a motion in a second,

but we're still discussing it, is

to look at the actual usage for both the, the

irrigation and the house usage.

And then Mr. Erickson's office will calculate

that at the lowest tier and come back or, and, and go ahead

and approve because that's what process,

We'll process an abatement at that amount

Process an abatement at that amount.

And keep in mind the usage is from the sale date,

or I believe it was around August 15th

to when we read it in February.

So that's nearly six months, six months worth of usage.

That all got caught up at once to that time.

Okay. So six months, that's definitely gonna be at the

highest tier every gallon, right?

Yeah. It's gonna, you're going

every gallon right to it really quickly.

Yeah. And that's part of the billing system challenge that,

that we're gonna troubleshoot a bit more.

But that was when, when basically the prior owner didn't

pay off that final bill.

It, it's a glitch in the system that we need

to figure out what, what happened.

But basically it didn't continue with the new

until they got paid off.

Thank you. There was a mo Yes, Mr. Evans, we

Just have also a follow up to, to assist them

to get registered for my 360 just to make sure

that the address

and whatever is, you know, moving, moving forward.

The, they have an opportunity to track

At their usage. Yep.

Yeah, with the, thank you. The updated meter.

The reason why we're doing it is

that you can actually get almost daily,

if not real time. I got

Daily. Yeah.

The prior meter was we'd have to actually drive

around town and take it, and you'd only get them monthly.

The, the, the one other thing we didn't really discuss,

thank you for all those explanations.

The sewer usage is a, you know,

is almost, not quite double,

but almost double what the water use

and irrigation irrigation use is.

And there's no numbers there.

It's just the dollar amount. Yep.

Yeah. So the sewer VE calculation is based on water in,

so the, the number of units that are in coming into

and irrigation is a separate meter.

So we actually do not charge sewer on an irrigation meter.

It also has separate rates for the water.

But the sewer usage is a separate, it's based on the amount

of usage that's brought into the house on the water side

and then build at a sewer rate.

And that sewer rate is a higher rate than the water rate.

And that it's not tiered either, is it? Sorry? Is it tiered?

It is tiered as well. So we gotta bring the sewer down

to the lowest tier.

We're doing everything down to the lowest tier. Lowest.

So don't worry about water, sewer, everything's coming down

to the lowest tier pending the vote.

But the sewer rate is a higher rate

per unit than the water rate.

But the units are the same

because it's assuming that water goes in that comes out.

Yeah. It looks roughly two

and a half times the water to use charge.

Yep. It's, that's charged.

We're actually more of a, a pass through.

That's what we get charged from MWRA sewer. Okay.

So the water at the town actually controls

or we handle our own water,

but the sewer goes into the MWRA system, which is the system

that eventually gets to downtown or the Boston Harbor.

Deer Island. Deer Island,

Okay.

Yep. Wherever it goes. Are there any more questions

from, from members of the board? That's

A good,

Good description.

Which Sydney moved. And Mr. Evans seconded. Ms.

Slager seconded. Well, it sounded like a deep voice.

I threw my voice Could All in favor, please say aye.

Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Mr.

And Mrs. Potter, somebody from the town administrator's

office will be getting in touch with you about the abatement

and the My 360.

Okay. Thank you. We appreciate your consideration.

Thank you. Thank you so much time

and welcome to your new section of Natick.

Thank you so much. Thank you Richard.

And Selmo, if you could come to the,

and just give us a very brief overview.

We have your application. Sure.

Okay. I'm just looking at the sewer bill

that I got back in April,

and it's four times the amount that I usually consume.

For years, I've been a Natick resident for 30 plus years,

raised three children.

They're no longer at home, haven't been for about 10 years.

There was no pooling of water in the house.

There was no pooling outside.

I I did have most of my explanation in the original

appeal, which was denied.

And what caught my interest was it was denied

because the person said they couldn't really

figure out whether or not I'm entitled to an abatement.

I'm paraphrasing the words. Yeah,

We have the letter. Okay.

So I, I see a usage here,

so this would be a financial disaster

for a retiree like myself that's trying to stay in Natick.

But these kind of things are really troubling.

I went down to the DPW says, listen, you know,

something went sideways here.

Folks said, well, is a toilet running?

We come up with all kinds of dialogue on

where this water may have been used,

but at the end of the day,

I asked when the last time my equipment was updated

and they said, well, it hasn't been updated.

And I, I, I've listened to what we've discussed

with the previous folks here.

What, what caught my interest here order selectman is, is

that there's an automatic default on,

while the equipment isn't an issue,

my equipment was never updated.

It was never replaced,

but the assumption was the equipment's working.

So I said, listen, can I get somebody out there to

mitigate this from happening again in the future?

They said, sure. So they got out there, took care

of it in short order, which I appreciate very much.

I went into 360.

I won't, some of the comments from the last person

that's in 360, I used to be a program

director in IT infrastructure.

So I, I understand how these kind of things can happen,

but it's very frustrating when all I have

for a safety net now is M 360.

I created some alerts,

but everything else, like data's not updated.

It's, it's, it's a work in process

and I'm sitting here looking at a bill

that I can't afford to pay.

And I am very distraught in terms of

what the decision might be here based on

what I've heard in the previous call.

Mr. Anselmo, can you tell me what you meant by

you can't get data out of the My 360? Yeah,

I have printouts of those.

I'd be happy to show you. Yeah, that would be

Good.

I said I could because I get daily notifications on mine.

I have all kinds of things that I have for examples

that your application is not giving fresh updates.

I went in and did the query, changed it

so I could do a little deeper analysis

so I could come here more prepared

to give you chunks of information.

But I think you have all that in front

of you in terms of the data.

You know, this, this quarter back in January

of 2025 was an anomaly.

And I'm very concerned that the default is,

well the equipment's working, so that water

Well, it's not really the default.

They usually test it. So when they came out to replace your,

your, I mean this is what they did when they came out

to replace my, my meter, I was renovating my kitchen

and we were pulling up the floor.

I asked them to come out and move the meter.

The sensor that my 360 picks up

is on the side of your house.

Okay. At least it's on the side of my house.

And there were trees that have grown up around it.

And so for a couple of days I didn't get a reading

and then I got a reading that looked like I had used

three times as much.

And so when I called DPW the answer was

it couldn't read on those days.

The trees are growing up around it. I had a trim.

That's probably the interference with the signal.

And now I get daily updates.

I understand that things happen

and I guess that's my point is, is that I am, I'm concerned

that the ownership of this usage is on me to

indicate that I didn't use the water.

I, I have no pooling in my house. I don't have a pool.

You go back and look over 30 years of water bills

nowhere near this amount

and you mentioned 360.

I think that's gonna be very important for me for as long

as I remain here in Natick to use that effectively.

So this never happens again.

But I, I've got printouts of, you know,

whether it's roots growing around trees

and your situation, I don't know, they just installed 360

for me recently, so I set up the alerts

that was working. So that'll,

Have you gotten alerts?

No. Okay.

Members of the board,

Madam chair, could Yes.

Provide a little bit of additional context. Yes,

That'd be helpful.

Thank you. Sure. So a couple things to note here.

One, as noted,

the resident expressed concern contacted the DPW department.

DPW department went out, confirmed

that the then meter was working properly.

And when there is no known reason for

increased usage

or an elevated usage, the policy

of the board does not authorize town administration

or the deputy town administrator to do an abatement.

So our automatic default is to deny that we need some reason

to base an abatement.

And when one is not identified by the owner

or by staff, then we don't have a a a known reason to do,

to process an abatement.

Therefore it's automatically denied.

And that's the right of the, the rate payer

to then appeal it to the select force.

So they choose. So that's what's happened in this case.

And in the case of, of this, this is also an,

an issue whereby the meter was,

the prior meter was working properly,

but in the case of going out

and seeing it, it's an older meter.

So yes, it was replaced with the replacement system

that we're doing across town.

Again, the updated meters.

And this is part of a, a multi-year capital

program that you're aware of.

So in this case, it's really the pleasure of the board.

There's no known issue as to

what may have caused this elevated usage.

The meters were working properly,

the property owner has not identified an an item

that town has not been able to identify an item.

It's really the, the pleasure of the board in this case. May

I ask a question, Mr. Erickson,

was his meter replaced in February?

No.

Do you know, do you recall when?

Yeah, it was just recently.

I would say more recent, the last 30 days.

But I actually, I got an email I'll

thank maybe give you the,

I believe it was more recent. Okay.

Yeah,

Because the abatement request only came in,

I don't have my glasses in June, but the date's in here,

it was in the last four weeks.

So I can give it to one of you if you like.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, the,

the project has been ongoing for two years now.

Okay. A year now. One year.

But it's still gonna continue for the next year.

Plus it's a three year project, so, okay.

It's gonna take a while to get through every single house

to update all of their meters.

Yes. Yeah. Thank you. But then we also use opportunities

when we're already going to a place to then take that

as an opportunity to update that meter.

Madam

Chair. Yes.

So I was, I'm, I was looking at the history that was

attached to the,

to the water bill and the usage.

It was, you know, monthly between, you know,

20 and 50

and then the May reading was 58,

which is the bill you received.

That was so high. Yeah.

And we don't have anything since May

in our report July.

Oh, thank you.

But what I'm wondering,

Oh,

That's is, is it,

is there any possibility that you, have you, I think,

have you checked your, your toilets for slow leaks?

Yeah, I, I have, I would say probably six

or eight months ago there was one toilet in the house that

for some reason I was hearing maybe a two minute,

like it needs to get up to the water level.

Right. I changed the equipment like six, eight months ago.

Never heard, I still hear it

because most toilets do that they refill a little bit.

But it hasn't been a consistent theme in my house.

Ms. Algo, thank you.

Thanks Mr. Al. Have you been checking to make sure, sure.

On my 360,

'cause like my colleague said, we haven't,

we don't have any information

after the May 1st read date.

So are you comfortable that

your usage since May 1st is on track to what you've had?

Or are you not really sure?

I'm not sure based on the reports

that I'm getting off 360.

'cause it says that reading not available for

February, March, April, may, June, July aug all the way

to August.

Because my understanding is they read the meters

once a quarter, once a read 'em every day.

Yeah. They're

Red every day.

New meters, they're red every day. Well on 360.

But if you don't have no red every,

Yeah.

So if you have the new meters, you should be able

to get daily usage.

Right. And I do have the new reader

and I, I'm not getting even monthly usage.

Nevermind drilling down to daily.

You, you do know that you have to select the meter number.

Yeah, I have two meter numbers. Irrigation and regular.

Okay. Alright. Which is an interesting,

these are very good questions.

I, you know, this is a layered, sending 360 out to folks

that are 66 years old

and never use technology can be challenging.

And I've worked in it for a long time

and I find it challenging.

I select one and the other and I get no data available.

And I'm not trying to belabor this point, I'm just saying,

you know, I'm doing, I'm trying to do my part to ensure

that I I use your time in a more efficient way. Yeah.

I'm wondering if maybe the new meters somehow haven't been

updated in what you're looking at

as data from the older meters. Could that be possible?

I don't know what that process is.

They replace it with the new one or do they keep that one

and put, just plug in another one in the side?

I don't know.

So the reason I'm asking

that question is let's say you do continue to have

a water leak that, you know,

let's say I don't think it is normal for a toilet

to keep flushing.

Right, right, right. So if you still have that,

you're gonna have your problem when you get your next bill.

So I I if I hope that somehow we can give you clarity on

what your usage really is. Right.

And that's what I'm hoping 360 will give me.

Yeah. And I was actually wondering,

there has been a water bill since may have you,

I I mean I just paid one so

Since may schedule.

Yeah, they rotate. They're not all on the same.

The towns in three and three different systems. Yeah,

Well, I mean, so he's got a bill here

that was sent out was so, so sent out July 7th

for the May reading.

We won't get one, another one in October.

October, October.

And and the previous one to that point was 168 previous

to this, this spike.

And that's because, you know, winter whatnot, my,

I am not using my irrigation.

And, and, and the new water rates went into place

on July 1st.

Well for the, for the bill leading up to that.

So they, they were voted up for that bill.

So could be a combination of things that are leading to,

And then that sewage obviously gets priced at a different

tier as you use more water. Right.

The water and the sewer. Both different

Water and sewer.

Yep. They all do. Yep.

Mr. Evans.

Yeah, just a couple things.

And, and not to belabor the point on the toilet,

but what you can do to check

that is, is just put, take the top of the tank off.

Right. Put a little food coloring in there. Okay.

And see if that dissipates. Right.

If you, if it's getting diluted right.

That means more water's coming in. Right.

And you'll be able to see that and it's a slow leaked and,

and you should get the toilet checked out.

'cause we don't, you know, want, want to

see this in occur in your next bill. Well,

Absolutely

Not.

The other piece that you brought up that I think is worth

the board thinking about doing is helping seniors

understand my 360 and, and,

and getting a,

I I'd say a tutorial and,

and sort of simplifying how, how to do it,

how to get it set up.

Maybe find some way to at least

guide people through using this who are seniors.

Because it seems to be that, that there, there's a fair

amount of population in Natick that could be

seeing this problem in the, in the future where they're,

they're older persons,

they don't understand technology or,

or are intimidated by it.

And let's make it less intimidated somehow.

Maybe we do that. And I wouldn't say that it was just

for seniors, but maybe we do a tutorial at the community

senior center, do a couple of 'em a year

and invite the public to do more awareness.

And I would be happy, more than happy to, to help in

that endeavor in terms of documenting nice little slides.

It doesn't need to be rocket science,

but I'd be happy to help in participate in that, in

that endeavor if that's something you're thinking of doing.

Sure. Alright. Ms. Wilger?

Yes. Thank you for that idea Mr. Evans.

I think it's a great idea. I don't think the,

the user interface, the UI for

that application is very good.

It is not straightforward. So I think it is more bold. Yeah.

Yeah. We, yeah, we, we we get it

and it's, I I think I can see it would be difficult for,

you know, people to not, not saying for you

But for other people. Yeah. I, I,

Yeah.

It would be diff may be difficult for them

to figure out how to use it. So I well,

Well if we waited to release something

that was perfect, we'd be still waiting.

So technology is just that way.

We need to release it and prove it as we go.

It's an IT process. I understand that.

Yeah.

You're talking our language.

You are. Exactly.

Any other

comments or questions from the board?

Moving abatement amount of $640 and 44 cents.

Second

Moved by Mr. Sidney, seconded by Ms. Slager.

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

It's 5 0 0. Thank you so much for coming out.

The town administrator's office will be in touch

with you about how to process that abatement. Alright.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Appreciate the work you people out. Thank you. Thank you.

Next item up, public hearing consideration

of accepting Graystone Lane as a public way. Madam

Chairman, may I have two minutes?

Yes. Let's just take a two minute break

and we'll be right back.

And we're back. Public hearing consideration

of accepting Graystone Lane as a public way. Madam Clerk?

Yes. The select board of the town of Natick,

Massachusetts will hold a public hearing on

August 20th, 2025 at 6:00 PM in the Edward Dott meeting room

in accordance with the pro provisions of the general laws

of Massachusetts chapter 79 and 82

and chapter 2 71 of the acts of 2016.

And consider to consider the laying out

and acceptance of the following

as public ways Graystone Lane as shown on the plans on file

with the Department of Public Works

to determine whether it is in the public interest

to accept this road as a public way

and to hear all persons interested in the

acceptance of sway.

A copy of the plans on file with the on file

with the Department of Public Works.

The virtual meeting link will be found

in the post-it agenda on nat.gov.

Need a motion to open the public hearing? So

Moved. Second.

Moved by Mr. Sidney, seconded by Mr. Slager.

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

Public hearing is open. Mr. McDowell,

Madam Chair.

Thank you. And members of the board Bill McDowell,

town engineer The board may recall that Graystone Lane

was originally on the fall town meeting Article 18.

During the process of recording that it was discovered

that a public hearing as we are having right now

properly advertised and mailed a public

hearing had not been held.

So in this particular case, we are now holding

that public hearing for Graystone Lane.

The condition of the road has not changed.

The original subdivision was approved in 2018

and completed in 2023.

The developer had requested that the road be accepted

as a public way.

All of the deeds within the subdivision

exclude the public way.

Fee interest is re is retained by trash enterprises.

So there's no damages associated with this.

This is being granted to the town.

Our recommendation from the D PWS that we were there,

we saw the in installation of all the utilities

and they were put in according to DPW standards.

So we would respectfully recommend

that Graystone Lane be accepted as a public way.

Since we've already heard this

and voted to do it, we can just take a motion to move

To accept.

Second

Move by Mr. Evans, seconded by Ms. Pope.

Just, just briefly, the,

you'll see on another item in the agenda

for sponsorship for town meetings.

So we do have to go back through that process as well.

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

5 0 0 second opposed the public

Hearing.

Second. Moved by Mr. Sydney. Second. Yes.

Actually, before we close the public hearing,

you do have to ask the public if they

Have any.

Thank you. Mr. Sydney. Does the public,

does anyone in the public have any comments

or questions with regard to what we just did?

Move to close.

Second.

Seeing none, I have a motion to close and a second.

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

Public hearing is closed. Madam Clerk,

The Select Board of the Town of Natick,

Massachusetts will hold a public hearing on

August 20th, 2025 at 6:00 PM in the Edwards lot meeting room

in accordance with the provisions of general laws

of Massachusetts chapter 79 and 82

and chapter 2 71 of the acts of 2016,

to consider the laying out

and acceptance of the following as public ways.

Jennifer Circle as shown on the plans on the file

with the Department of Public Works

to determine whether it is in the public interest

to accept these road, this road

as public ways, as a public way.

And to hear all persons interested in the

acceptance of said way.

A copy of the plans on file

with the Department of Public Works.

The virtual meeting link may be found on the posted agenda

on natick ma.gov and I move to open the public hearing.

Second,

Moved by Ms. Pope, seconded by Mr.

Sidney. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Passes 5 0 0. Mr. McDowell,

Madam Chair, members of the board.

Thank you Bill McDowell, town engineer Jennifer Circle.

You may recall you had a meeting on April

of 2025 regarding a street acceptance evaluation report.

Our recommendation at that time was that we did consider

Jennifer Circle to be a candidate that was advantageous

to the, to the town to accept as a public way.

In this particular case, Jennifer Circle is available

for the accelerated street acceptance process,

which allows us to use the original subdivision plan

for the acceptance.

We still do have to hold this public hearing in accordance

with Mass General Law,

which is why we're fundamentally the same process

for Graystone Lane.

However, Graystone Lane, I know you guys had seen

and approved before and had gone through town meeting,

we still recommend

that Jennifer Circle is an advantageous candidate

to be accepted as a public way in the town of Natick

to be added to our roadway inventory

and to add to our ability

to collect Chapter 91 from the state.

I'm willing to take any questions.

I was not here personally when Jennifer Circle was built.

It was approved in 1990.

However, I do know

that we have records in the engineering division

of when it was constructed and that it was inspected

and that all of the utilities under the utilities,

including the drainage, was inspected when it was installed

and did meet DPW standards at the time.

Questions or comments from the board?

Any questions or comments from members of the public?

Seeing none, I'll take a motion. Move to

Approve Ion

Moved by Mr. Evans.

Seconded by, I mean moved by Mr. Sydney.

Seconded by Mr. Evans. All in favor, please say aye. A Aye.

Any opposed? 5 0 0. Motion to

Close the public hearing.

Move by Mr. Sydney. Second. Seconded by Ms. Ger.

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

Thank you so much Mr. McDowell. Thank you Ms. Sugarman.

Next item on the agenda is

Cannabis Control Commissions social consumption regulations.

Saw her online. Yes, she is.

Oops.

Hello? Can you hear me okay?

Yep.

Great. Thanks. I'm trying to turn my video.

I don't know that the video is enabled,

but, oh, there we go.

Hello. How's everyone doing this evening? Thank you.

Great. So for the public, my name is Katie Sugarman.

I'm the Prevention and Outreach Program Manager

for the Natick Health Department.

I just wanted to bring to the board's attention some

regulatory changes that are happening at the state level

by the Cannabis Control Commission.

As I mentioned in the email that I sent

to the board last week,

there is a process

that's been underway at the Cannabis Control Commission for

a period of several months now to develop regulations

for social consumption.

So these would be, these regulations would allow

local communities to opt in if they so chose to,

to actually allow licensing for social consumption.

There are three different types of licenses that have been

approved by the CCC,

however, the language that has been developed

by the CCC is now open for public comment.

And so, Mr. Erickson, Mr. Evans, chief Hickson,

myself, have been, have had a couple

of meetings this summer, including one with the chair

of the CCC to get a little bit more information about

these regulations.

And we wanted to make sure

that the board was looped in on the current state

of those regulations.

The public comment period on the, on the

regulations are currently open for public comment.

And the, there will be a public hearing held on

September 8th, and that will also be the cutoff date

for public comment.

So any members of the public who would like

to comment on these regulations are certainly welcome to.

But if the municipality

or if this board wanted to submit comment,

this would also be the opportunity to do so.

So I don't know if E Mr. Erickson wanted to add anything to

that or if you wanted me

to get into a little bit more specifics about the three

types of licenses that are on the table

for consideration by municipalities.

But happy to answer whatever questions I can.

Yeah, part of this was just to bring the board up to speed

and the public up to speed on this new type of cannabis

adult use cannabis sort of option, I guess,

that the Cannabis Control Commission

is putting out there for communities.

If you recall from when the, when

cannabis just adult use cannabis became an option

for communities, the, you had to actually vote to opt

out if your community had voted in the election back in

2016 for cannabis.

And Natick had voted for in favor of cannabis.

I think it was like a 54 to 46 vote at the time.

So the town would've had to opt out the town at that time.

The select board indicated the, the desire

and then we eventually brought it forward

to actually regulate cannabis,

which is why we have the zoning in place.

And we have a, a bylaw in place

that basically makes the select board the licensing

authority on annual basis as well.

This is a bit different, it's actually opting in,

but we know that the board is gonna

potentially hear more about this.

We want to get ahead of that dialogue one, just

because we want to be able to provide comment

to the Cannabis control commission as one of, I would argue,

you know, there's a handful of communities in the state.

We're not necessarily the leader,

but we're definitely up there in one of the, one of the,

the communities in the state that, that put in place zoning,

you know, ahead of other communities.

Not the first one, but, you know,

we're in the second or third round.

And so we just wanna make sure the board is aware of this.

We're gonna provide comment regardless

to the state about the, the social consumption.

But this may be something coming down the line

that the board will be asked to, to consider.

Or if the board doesn't have to be today,

we just want you to make aware of it today.

But in the board coming in the coming weeks

or months, want the community to consider.

We have to think about that. 'cause there is, you know,

it's, it's an election, not election.

It's a, it's a town wide ballot vote, vote ballot.

I believe it's a ballot vote Ballot. Yeah. Yep.

Yep.

Mr. Sidney.

Thank you Madam Chair. So as I understand it,

this is basically like a cannabis bar,

right? That's the kind of

Pretty much, it could be food product as well.

There's a lot of different ways for doing it.

And as Katie mentioned,

there's three different licenses that are part of this.

Katie, without going more than like two seconds, you know,

elevator type moment,

can you just explain the three licenses?

Sure. So the supplemental license would be potentially

granted to an existing cannabis operator.

So somebody who's already licensed by the CCC

and approved locally to sell cannabis.

So supplemental would be adding onto their business.

So it could be sort of like a, a bar so to speak,

added onto their business for cannabis consumption.

Another one would be a marijuana event organizers.

So that would again be for a business

that is already approved to either

it's already approved to sell or produce

or deliver cannabis in some way.

And that would be for special events.

So that could be like a temporary, like a temporary permit.

And then the third one hospitality would be

for a non-cannabis related business

to essentially get approval to host events.

So an example might be a yoga studio that wants to provide

edibles as part of a special event that they're doing.

So those are essentially the three different types.

Thank you Ms. Sugarman,

are there any other questions from members of the board?

Depending on where these regulations go,

'cause they're not fully in in place.

We may be back before the board at a future time

seeking just potentially further guidance from the board.

But again, this is something that, that could be a topic

of conversation coming in the pipeline in the community.

We know in some communities it's, it's, it's

a hotter topic of conversation. So, okay.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Sugarman.

Thank you Katie. Thank you

Consideration of select board sponsorship

of 2025 Fall town meeting warrant articles, first two

Boden Lane right of way and the Jennifer Circle

and Grace Stone Lane Street acceptance.

So let's start with the Boden Lane right

of way, Mr. Erickson.

Sure. Thank you. And we're still trying to

exactly get from legal counsel the process here.

So Boden Lane, this is regarding the right of way

that's over the MBTA tracks basically from Route 1 35 to

the intersection with Tamarack and Burning Tree.

That right of way, well all of Bode Lane

was accepted back in the 17 hundreds.

However, that stretch of right away has been impacted

through the years railroad went in, there's now a bridge.

So in essence what we need to figure out,

and this is actually coming as a request

or requirement from Mass DOT, if you recall, Boden Lane was

actually brought out of service as a full on,

it was a one lane road bridge, it was hit

by a train is my understanding.

And therefore it was no longer able for a

auto use.

And so Mass DOT is committed

and the state is committed to replacing it for,

for similar purpose

that it was previously at no cost to the town.

However, because the right of way is has this

very long history, they still need

to confirm the ownership of the right of way.

So what we're trying to figure out with care

and legal counsel is what does that actually mean?

In the case of this stretch of Boden Lane, we, we know

that it was accepted at some point in the 17 hundreds.

We also know that at some point in the 18 hundreds the

railroad went in and they put a bridge over it.

It might not be exactly what the 17 hundreds noted

'cause that's more words versus a plan.

But then we also know that there's all these parcels in

including subdivisions

that were built in the fifties and sixties and eighties.

And that go up to a point that's noted as Boden Lane.

And so we can piece together

what is Boden Lane based on all those other plans,

but we need to figure out the mass DOT needs

something more than that from the town.

So we're trying to work through what

that actually means for the town.

And I know Bill has more to say potentially to that.

So go up to the mic bill and in essence legal counsel is

saying, well maybe, maybe we do a confirmatory right

of way plan or maybe we do a confirmatory

action like a street acceptance that we're doing

for Jennifer Circle or Graystone. Bill, do you wanna add to

That?

of six today we got a response from Mass DOT

that a confirmatory layout.

Basically the select board would sign a plan

that says there are no new lines or ways created,

but it formalizes that layout that is now Bowden Lane

that we cannot find a document, either a deed

or a plan that created that.

However, everything agrees, as Mr. Erickson said,

we have a shape that is everything other than Den Wayne

and all the, the select board has to do is just confirm

that layout that's adequate to DOT. That's

Adequate.

Okay. That's new news as of,

So don't need, we don't need to take that one through.

Okay. As far as the warrant article,

the other Warren articles,

Jennifer Circle and Gray Stone stand

Should have stopped me earlier.

I could have stopped that whole explanation.

I'm just kidding. You now have the history so

that when we bring the plan back, you know

what the history is, but there was the option that we needed

to have a warrant article in this case.

So we put it on for the consideration,

but according to that knowledge,

we don't need a warrant article.

If something changes between now

and the end of day Thursday,

you may see a warrant article added that maybe is sponsored

by the town administrator for example.

Because I think we just wanna run this determination

by Caris to make sure she's in agreement with that.

Okay. So no need for the board to act on this now,

but be aware that it might be a town administrator sponsored

one depending on what Caris says.

But this what Bill just

mentioned actually makes it a lot easier.

Does that mean we won't have to do any takings?

There's no takings in any

of this, regardless of the process.

Okay. We were clarify,

we were contemplating doing a confirm what's called a

confirmatory taking, which just means that we're confirming

that we own the, that we have it

and it would've been a way to clear title in the registry

of deeds, but we're

hoping that we don't even need to do that.

Awesome. Yeah, so there's no

takings as part of any of this really.

Yeah.

Okay. Warren article, Jennifer Circle

and Graystone Lane Street acceptance.

So I'll just briefly say those would be

two separate warrant articles.

Yes. One for each, but it's just basically

what you just voted on and the public hearings

and putting those as warrant articles.

And we have that language

for street acceptance warrant articles move,

we put them on the warrant.

Second. Moved by Mr. Sidney. Seconded by Ms. Slager.

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

Mr. Sprat, before you leave, I just had a question.

Who should, if somebody's having difficulty with na, I mean

with the My 360, who should they call at DPW?

Call the main number and we'll get you likely to Tony Kamo

supervisors for water.

I was actively listening

and we'll do some sort of a tutorial even if

that stays online for now

and then we can do something else. But

That sounds great.

I was also contemp, maybe this is a NAIC 1 0 1 topic

and then there's a video of it that then can be That's

A great idea.

That's a great idea too. A great idea. Absolutely.

Cool.

Or some type of similar type of video that Sure.

And we can put it online.

Thank you so much, I appreciate it.

I wanted to catch you before you ran out. No problem. Thanks

Guys. Out now run.

Now run. Go Warren article establishment

of high hybrid town meeting committee.

Cross that bridge. Yep, you're good.

Thanks Jeff. Come on up. Mr.

Alderon Town Moderator is here.

Thank you Madam Chair and select board.

Jeff Alderson, your town moderator.

So I had proposed a language for a select board

to put a article in the warrant to start

what will probably be a relatively lengthy involved

and very public process for evaluating,

potentially establishing a hybrid town meeting option

for town meeting members.

Just a little context in history, I,

after the conclusion of Spring Town meeting this year, in a,

in a spirit of continuous improvement,

I pulled the existing town meeting members

in an informal survey.

I had 50 respondents out of all

of our currently seated members.

And the, the vast majority of those that responded said

that if hybrid town meeting were an option,

they might take advantage of it.

And then when asked a follow up question, under

what circumstances would you take advantage of it

and why would be valuable to you?

There was a litany of different, different options.

Some, the most obvious of which were,

if I had a medical issue

and could not attend in person,

I still wanna be a part of the town.

And when I saw that, I said, well,

those are some pretty committed people that want to,

you know, continue to vote even if they're on their sick bed

or recovering from knee surgery or other examples they gave.

Other examples were business travel, time management,

you know, dealing with family emergencies,

kids travel, things like that.

You may be aware that there's discussion happening,

you know, with, with the state legislature about the,

the ability for open town meetings

to have the ability to be run in a hybrid.

But for our purposes as a representative town meeting,

we have the option to do so.

We just have to review our bylaws, look at our technology,

create the plan and the, the guiding documents to, you know,

sort of give us the rules of, of how we're going

to execute upon that.

Also, it takes a little bit of willingness

and I, from the top, and I tell you as your moderator,

I am willing to embark on such a project.

And, and I do feel that one of the,

I didn't campaign against many people, but I did,

but part of my campaign pledge to to, to voters

and I was talking about even beginning running

as a moderator, was really looking

and investigating this, this as an option

to increase the democratic process for the town of Natick.

The language that you see there, just to, just

to point out in the attachment that was included,

the proposed warrant article language

is just above the line.

It's just that pithy that ends or any action there too.

The what's proposed below that is a potential motion

since I proposed the, the,

the motion text via email in that attachment.

I've also had a conversation with Randy Natick Pegasus.

He said he'd be more than happy

to participate on such a committee.

He didn't care who appointed him.

So, so my little note about it, I dunno

who the appointing authority is, he says, you know, Jeff,

if you want to do that, that's fine, I'll do it.

Or someone else from his team, he's happy to.

There is a note also in the, in the draft motion,

like I'm not sure if funding is required for this group.

It may very well be that they need some sort of funding to,

to, if, if such a committee were to exist,

I don't know necessarily the block blocking tackling

where, where that funding would come from.

I do believe though, if this were on the, on the warrant

for the fall, likely sun funding source might be free cash

from, from the fall.

But we can, the motion text would,

would explicitly say the amounts

and sources which have not been

discussed, that is a draft motion.

It does not need to be included in the warrant.

Obviously I'm happy to answer any other questions,

but this is really just to start the process

and just to explain what the process might be.

If this article goes in front of fall town meeting

and the committee is established, the likely next steps

after that is they would start

to meet relatively immediately to try to prepare some sort

of report or recommendations for the SPRINGTOWN meeting.

And at the SPRINGTOWN meeting, whatever those actions are

that we take at SPRINGTOWN meeting,

we would then start the process of potentially reviewing

and engaging vendors, updating policies and documents.

If there are bylaw changes that are required for the town

to adopt a hybrid town meeting,

that would probably be also part of the proposal

for the spring 2026 town meeting.

We would engage with vendors, find quotes, what have you,

but probably, and and if there's a budget amount

that's also approved at springtown meeting,

we could actually engage with a vendor.

The earliest that we could pilot something would be

fall 2026.

And that's pushing it.

I don't think it would actually happen earlier than that.

Just to give you a sense of what process this kicks in

motion, if we decide to start this journey.

What your question, I had a question.

So I'm wondering if maybe the funding

could be moving $30,000 out

of the CR BBC's special council budget since they have

68,000 left.

My understanding is that with the fall town meeting,

the RCS act duties are concluded

and they'll be returning monies.

I don't actually know the process, like when a committee

releases funds, where that goes

and if it just goes into free cash.

And so by identifying the source here as free cash,

I think it's, you know, tomato,

it's sort of gets the job done.

I do know that they're gonna be returning the vast majority

of that dollar amount and I there's no way

that a hybrid town meeting would ask

for anywhere near that amount.

30,000 sounds fine.

I was just picking a number. A number.

Sure. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you Mr. Sidney.

Yeah, so a a couple of things.

I don't have a problem. I I wanna start

by saying I don't have a problem with this idea,

but I will say it is a legislative process.

You can put a warrant article on yourself,

you don't need us to do it.

I suppose I'd be happy enough to co-sponsor,

but I would in, in my opinion,

because I said on both town meeting

and on the executive board, I think this should be sponsored

by you and I think you should be the appointing authority.

That's just my opinion of this

because it's, this is a purely legislative

process, my opinion. Ms.

Charleson, if, if I may just,

just respond briefly to one thing.

I think part of the, we're seeing in terms of the draft

of the motion, which is draft

and we can absolutely incorporate

that feedback into the motion regarding the, the composition

and the appointments because it

involves such a cross-functional team of people

to execute town meeting,

including people from the administration, folks from Natick,

Pegasus, folks from the clerk's office,

which is no longer elected.

It's now a, a hired position from the town.

That's why I felt it was as important

that the select board had a say in some

of the appointments. Yeah,

I don't have a problem with that either.

I'm just saying I think you should be the appointing

authority since this is a

legislative process we're talking about.

We should, I I I like to keep, I personally like

to keep a really bright line between those, those roles.

I take it

Members of the board comments, Ms.

Slager?

Sorry. Yeah, my, my no, it's okay.

My initial reaction was the same as as Mr.

Sidney's, but I, I think I,

I can see the logic be behind Mr.

Alderson argument about why maybe the select word

and it also would make things much easier

for you at town meeting

because then he could still preside over the article.

It wouldn't have to recuse himself.

So, but I think we need to be really clear

if we are the sponsors that, you know, this is not us trying

to step on the legislative toes

and that, you know, we're doing it

because it involves the town clerk is a town employee that,

you know, I agree with Mr.

Sidney, maybe we don't need to appoint anything.

Maybe it's the moderator that appoints the entire committee.

I don't think we should be involved with that,

but I would be willing to, to be the sponsor for it just

because it does make things easier.

And, and for the all the good reasons that you mentioned and

For the exact reason you stated,

that was my intent in asking the

select board to sponsor the article,

Ms. Pope,

I would be in support of this 100%.

I mean, many of the things that I ran on was about

accessibility to government

and, you know, during the pandemic, this was something that,

you know, wasn't, it wasn't really an option.

It was needed, it was needed for mothers and,

and parents with children

and people who wanted to be involved.

And we have been, you know, trying,

I I feel like talking about the many,

many ways we could make our meetings more accessible.

This is a way to do it. And so I'm on board with this 150%.

And so if, you know, and I agree with you Mr.

Sidney about, you know, kind of the, how we do this.

I'm, I'm, you know, very mindful of that

and kind of the, the the methodology, the methodology

behind it and our approach.

But I'm absolutely on board.

Mr. Sidney.

Yeah, I, a couple

of things in there completely separate from each other.

One is in the article itself

because there's a funding request, we don't know

how much it is yet,

but I think the scope of the warrant article has

to include a request for funds

and to see what funds the town will appropriate

should be in the text of the warrant article.

I agree. So amend that however needs to be amended.

I'm, I'm gonna repeat what I said.

I'm willing to, I'm willing as a board member to co-sponsor,

I do think that the town moderator should be at least

a co-sponsor on this.

He can still present.

Yeah, but

What, what is your thinking, Mr.

Sidney? That,

So it's, it's just that bright line.

Like if, if, if the select board is the sole sponsor

of an article about hybrid town meeting and yes.

Accessibility and all that stuff is important.

It looks like it, it just, the appearance of

encroaching on the legislative process.

I, I just want the, you know, I want it to be apparent

that there's a cooperation between the town moderators,

the head of the legislature and,

and the select board as the executive body.

I mean, I could agree with that in terms of collaboration

between the two, the collaborative for forward progress.

Do you have any thoughts on that, Mr. Mr. Evans?

I'm torn because I, I recognize Mr.

Sidney's point of the co-sponsorship,

but on the other hand,

if we make the moderator the sole appointing authority

for all, everything on this committee, it, it kind

of puts the control back in the moderator's hands.

So I could go either

Way.

sponsorship of the article. I

Understand what you were saying

And, and we could, he, the, the makeup

of the committee could be he appoints everybody,

but the select board appoints one person or something.

I understand that. I

Understand.

to point everyone on that committee

Agree.

FinCon

Just like, but I'm really talking about

sponsorship here.

Okay, so we all agree that he, that we would,

the preference from the select board is

that the moderator appoint all of the Yes, yes.

Okay. So we're all in agreement there.

We're still the,

We're still talking about sponsorship.

Yeah, I, I feel like I agree with you in, in principle,

but I think that if we're very clear about the rationale

about why the select board is, is being the sponsor

as opposed to the moderator

and that, you know, if the moderator is willing, let's say,

to go before the finance committee

and put something in writing that says, you know,

as a courtesy the select board is agreeing to sponsor this

And that he asked us to do

That and that he asked us to do it, then I

Think that goes a long way

If

that is actually documented and in writing

and if I'll put it on the moderator to make sure that

that goes in the book.

So yeah. If, if it's

Spoken like a fin comm chair.

Well, I, I just, I just remember hearing, you know,

and I've been on town meeting 20 years now

and there's always that subset of people

that are gonna stand up and, and complain

because, you know, we're stepping on legislative toes

and I just wanna avoid that. There's

No way to avoid that.

There's no way to avoid it's gonna happen.

What we're going to do though is

If I, if I may, I, I do appreciate the delineation.

In fact, my predecessor made it very clear to always look

for those opportunities to make that line even brighter

with my sharpie when I could.

But what I'll say is, functionally speaking, the,

forming the committee, I think the, the spending

of funds at this committee is probably the biggest thing

that would happen in this fall.

The committee, the committee

will make its own recommendations.

It'll have to be, also have to be voted in front

of the legislative body in front of town meeting,

whether it's a bylaw change, a handbook change adopting,

you'll, you'll see other recommendations from a separate

article from CBRC about adopting town meeting time version

four or addition four, which has commentary about

how to run a hybrid town meeting.

So you're gonna see other things put in front

of town meeting that come through the legislative process.

I'm confident

that there's no thumb on the scale

either way related to that.

Partly as I, I also do my primary videos when I interview

sponsors of article or articles

and talking to myself is gonna be a very interesting

proposition unless there's someone I'd like

to have sitting next to me talking about

what the implications are for town government overall.

I think part of, part of this, it's, it's not unilaterally,

yes, town meaning itself is a legislative body,

but we don't execute without partnership and collaboration.

I think that that's the point. I'm happy to co-sponsor it.

I I have talked with other town moderators

and other towns related to how they handle this.

And part of the issue is that if,

if I am sponsoring the article at town meeting

also look not a, not a, a perception versus reality thing,

there might be a perception that I personally have a thumb

on the scale and the outcome because I

want it to go a certain way.

Therefore my personal sponsoring,

it means it goes a certain way.

That's not what would happen

of course, but that's just another,

It's a

Perception.

That's the other, the other side of that coin.

And also someone may, someone from the public

or anyone would say, why, you know, why are you speaking

to this issue on the floor of town meeting as the moderator,

I may need to speak on the floor

of town meeting on this topic

because somebody asked a question.

If we had a hybrid meeting, if we did this,

how would you know, how would the moderator, you know, act

or, or handle a certain issue or something.

This would gimme the flex.

I think the most flexibility

to be a participant in the process of, of the appointment

of the committee and getting it

through town meeting in terms of not just this town meeting,

but all the subsequent ones.

It's just the, it's just the kickstart of the process.

But I'm, I'm happy to go any other direction.

I'll take a motion.

I move, we co-sponsor

and with the, with the amendment to appropriate,

allow the appropriation of funds.

Understood.

I'm good with that.

Moved by Mr. Sidney. Seconded by Ms. Slager.

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

Passes 5 0 0. Yeah, thank you Mr. Anderson. Thank

You. With that amendment. So

Yes, with the amendment it passes with the amendment

and adding the, in the, in the warrant article,

adding about the, the funding language.

Thank you. I'll be in touch about

the changes. Thanks. Thank

You.

If I may ask, while Jeff is here,

just the logistical question, what do, what is,

what do you feel is needed to understand

what potential budget, like do you have an amount in mind

we can talk off as well? I

Just didn't know.

I outline the, the components of it

and if you'll notice the way it's,

it was written in the draft of the motion itself.

There were some components that, that I,

that I enumerated there.

Part of it's public outreach in this case.

It's not just the audience,

it's not just the members we have now,

it's the members we don't yet have

because this is not an option.

So I do believe there should be some sort of public outreach

or campaign, whether that's working