he extension or not even extension so much as a permanent uh measure to be put in place to allow for you know more easily remote hybrid and in-person meetings I can check in on the status of their efforts but I know for quite some time they've been advocating with legislators and the governor's office in that regard okay and then the only other thing I would say not that the committee doesn't have enough on its plate or its platter or whatever receptacle is appropriate to make the analogy to is you know I was looking at the respondents and you know 64 of 64 boards commissions committees etc um and I know I think under hybrid I think the highest respondents was like 28 or 38 percent one of the things and and if it's in here I missed it I apologize but um if they could just be a straight out um survey of the 68 entities that you all have identified um if they can be given I guess three options um if after no extension after July uh what would that committee prefer or be leaning towards maybe not ask them to make a definitive but what would they see they'd be leaning towards go back to in-person only um remote by certain members or somebody else or three hybrid and maybe there's a fourth question so my thing is before we talk about um you know what spaces we do have currently set up to do remote hybrid um if we do expand them and it is a cost and I know that I'm always along with the chair and others bringing in you know the override and long-range planning committee we've really been given the charge in the state to really buckle down and look at every little expense and you know the pennies nickels and dimes add up to a dollar also um might right now if I had my druthers I'd say perhaps look at the O'Neill community room over the community center police department which is probably quasi set up not totally um but my thing is of the 64 if it comes back that only 12 you know not counting school committee and select board because we are where we are um then that may determine um if there's any further need to do that investment um so I just put that out there just to kind of ruminate because I know this is just an interim report we'll go forward more things will be decided by July um and I look forward to somehow finding out um once we know what the parameters are the best way we can um deliver the services so thank you mr chair thank you mr. helman thank you uh thanks to my colleagues on the board my colleagues on the committee I have to say members have worked really hard much and uh you know it's it's been interesting work um it's been a good discussion and I'd like to offer perspective of someone who's been alongside this committee on a couple of points one of them is I think with respect to the research that mr. Diggins engaged with the witnesses are absolutely legitimate and we're also acknowledged by the researchers when they when they spoke with us the limitations I should say of the applicability but I do appreciate mrs. Seuss drawing out what we did here a surprising to a surprising degree and I don't think there's a fundamental conflict here the consensus of the remote committee is very pro remote access make no mistake about that this research notwithstanding I think the illuminating point for me in this research is that allowing remote access does may not automatically or inherently bring greater representation and I think it's important to know that because that suggests the course of action that if that's the case and we see some qualitative evidence or suggestions of that even talking with our own committees we are going to need to do more than just set the technology up we will we will need to really work on outreach and I appreciate Mustafa saying you know this doesn't necessarily just dump this on the DEI coordinator this probably needs to be something that's more infused throughout our government an ethos of of civic engagement and bringing people in and helping them believe that this increased access is for them too the second thing I would say just about cost because that's that's absolutely the right question we've looked a lot at this and this board and the time manager will have to make some decisions but these kinds of expenses are directly eligible for ARPA funds CARES Act probably covers some of them some of them there's that and I know Mr. Feeney and his his infinite skill has been creatively applying for grants from sort of the disability access into this the committee is actually not at this point I don't think we we believe that this would necessarily incur general operating budget impacts with the consideration of ARPA particularly which in other communities are using ARPA and use CARES Act funding to set this up and part of the purpose of that is to not only accommodate public health public health situation with remote access to public meetings but also with kind of to contemplate sort of some future proofing for you know where this pandemic or other epidemics may get us but but the cost is certainly something that we will need to further investigate after we get a sense from this board. Another point that came up was what happens after July if the governor and the legislature do agree that all remote access goes through July we still can deploy hybrid remote access without any change in the law our understanding of that that a majority quorum of the body has to be physically present so there would have to be some people in the room and you know but any participants who aren't on the board or commission can be remote and probably a subquorum of of members could be could be just as we did you know and in the select board chambers so I say that because I'd like to suggest a friendly amendment to Mr. Diggins motion that we not only receive this but we actually start moving on on looking into doing the pilot because I think this is one thing we learned is this is complex enough that trying to roll this out to 60 boards and commissions at once is not at all feasible we want to roll this out to a small number of groups that are interested and the public is interested in seeing learn from that because it would be some hiccups you know and and get some insight into the technology into the budgeting and all this into the staffing that that may be required a lot of questions so do this in a pilot try to do that in the second half of this year and then see where we're at so I would with Mr. Diggins ascent he can speak to this after I'm done with my talking but suggest that we move receipt also refer to the town manager to study budget and implementation considerations from this report and then return to this board with recommendations for further discussion relating to implementing a pilot study this year and and the last thing I'll say is so I attended speaking of the MMA and by the way Mr. Chapman was mis was mistaken he is not just an ordinary member he is immediate past president it says so on the website so there you go but I attended an MMA webinar on this very topic a couple of weeks ago and one of the things that was really resonated with me and I think we should pay attention to is that our constituents expect a digital first experience with everything in their lives and their government is not an exception and I'm enough of a traditionalist that I don't personally want to contemplate a world where we do everything digitally and I know I'm there may be some difference of opinion on this board about that but but I think that from the resident's point of view participation the government you know we have all moved to all remote and I think a lot of people have been surprised and even pleasantly surprised at about how much easier it is to be involved in their government in public meetings so I think that we would do wise to take this opportunity with maybe some funding from ARPA from CARES whatever and the opportunity to hardworking people on this committee to start moving and get ready to and get ready to roll this out because I think our public is going to expect it and if you know and and once we're back to meeting in person it's going to be a change for some people not just the public but there will be some members of boards and commissions who realize that they can enables their public service if they're able to use these tools so this is you know not just a pandemic response I think that we are in a good way stuck with this and so I would encourage us to just seize that leadership mantle and anticipate what our constituents and our residents and volunteers will be wanting so anyway and I know that was a long field there was a friendly amendment buried in that and also a friendly shot at my friend who made the made the proposal so I'll I'll shush and let the chairs work it out okay thank you Mr. Diggins is that acceptable for a friendly amendment to yes it is and then after you talk this charity I have a question and then one short comment it's okay sure yeah yeah I just have a couple of comments and I also want to thank the committee for all their hard work Mr. Helmuth has kept me up to date from time to time in terms of what's been going on I know you've been doing quite a bit I did answer one of your survey questions and I certainly on your rank recommendations certainly would encourage and support hybrid participation for committees going forward I mean we we we saw that it it works with the with the public and would I prefer that all five of us were in the select board chambers tonight absolutely but if we were I certainly would want to allow for remote participation as part of our meetings just a question on you had identified different rooms that could be equipped for future hybrid uses but the range of costs there and I know these are estimates was from 3 000 to 125 000 and I imagine the lines hearing room might be done on the higher end of that but are there some room or maybe maybe not that you see it shaking your head but are there some rooms that are you you think will be easier at the lower end that maybe we could get going on sooner rather than later um well I can give a very short answer but then I'd like to ask Alex to maybe give a little bit more details but there are technologies that would work well for five people sitting around the table for example and Alex I don't know if you want to go into some more details on that and I second that I'd say it's less about the room itself and more about the meeting that you're trying to accommodate and make remote and then if we're talking about a meeting with five people and a single remote person and new materials to present that's a lot cheaper to accommodate than something say like the ARB where you might want two screens more than a you know a couple of cameras have a significant number of people in the audience and remote um and then on top of that which room are you in so it's kind of a two-part thing okay all right and and just a comment I I do think you you make a really good point there there are some committees that we found here um that remote may be the best way to go um as we go forward and and you know seeing that with some of the committees that I'm a liaison too smaller that I think it might be preferable so I'm glad you're you're looking into that as as a potential recommendation as we go forward on that so um Mr. Diggins did you want to add something further yeah so so a quick question me and perhaps it's to one of the members of the committee or or to to us meet I mean that is that are was there any exploration of for the meetings that are hybrid and recording them and then making them available I mean on YouTube or something later on because I think that's one good element me of of the use of this technology is that everything can be recorded easily that was definitely part of the that was the public survey question um I don't remember the exact answer but basically I think it was the middle answer in terms of people would prefer that it be recorded and be available for some considerable amount of time but it didn't seem like forever um and we've heard um and Alex or Jennifer can correct me but basically the you know video takes up a lot of room and the town has a lot of meetings that go for a lot of time so even though storage is cheap it does add up um so there was some con con discussion around the costs and we don't have answers we don't have specific estimates or anything but um definitely people would like the people people want the idea of the recordings it wasn't clear how many people would use the recordings that that was to be to be quite honest about all this um you know I'm not sure but I think for a sake of record it would be very nice to have the recordings when people do want to go back and see them um one age is how many people watch the ACMI YouTube videos and it's not a big number but I'm sure for those that watched it it was important so um there's other answers I mean I think maybe missus did you I'm sorry missus yeah I thought I saw missus raise your hand I'm not sure yeah so I think there was one question about whether in terms of cost whether a meeting was recorded and available to the public for a certain length of time whereas being recorded and sort of shoved someplace so that somebody asked you could bring give it to them um and I think that the former was a lot more expensive is what we understood so there could be a hybrid approach um in terms of storing and making meetings available um and I definitely think that this should be part of what the pilot is is studying and trying to learn from I mean so so then a quick comment based on this and then a question to to mr. heim you know I mean I'll say that be I wouldn't expect to be that people would watch the entire video that they would just go in for the information that they need you know see it and then and then you know leave you know and so the question to mr. heim is it would there be any problem any legal problem with us putting these recorded videos on youtube thereby bypassing the whole cost issue mr. chairman yes attorney hi um there's there's a very um high level question it's not actually just limited to youtube it's about what happens when the government utilizes private vendors to upload content you don't own that content so that's an interesting question it doesn't something that's limited to this we're not necessarily in control of that content um youtube is very convenient for a number of reasons it's hard to project what a technology like that or a platform like that would be like 10 years from now I don't see an immediate legal problem it doesn't uploading something onto youtube doesn't obviate us from having to comply with keeping meeting minutes and other things like that it's just another way to capture the same type of thing so my answer is in the short run not it's not a legal acute problem in the long run it's sort of a interesting question about how to handle not just youtube but other other platforms including social media and my final comment is kind of based on what mr. helman said towards the end and that is the I don't think we can capture this or study this in the pilot but I think we need to be concerned about the possibility that that people you know who like remote will gravitate towards the opportunities that provide that mean um and so there's only so much time in a day to meet and and and those of us who like trying to do a lot being or going to you know gravitate towards groups that allow us to do that mean and so you may find me that you get a different kind of distribution in participants because you don't offer the remote um capability so just something keep in mind I don't know if you can try to design the pilot and see if you can capture that because right now we're in a world that's kind of all remote and we haven't gone into a world where well people can do whatever like maybe government it's limited towards hybrid or or only in person and then non-government can do what it wants so one more reason for us to lobby to make sure that mean we provide more access that's all thank you thank you mr. Diggins okay and again thank you again each one of you for all the work that you're doing on the on the committee and we look forward to more reporting and there for me as we go forward so on a motion by mr. Diggins as amended by mr. Helmuth to receive the report and refer to the town manager for a review of budget implications of a pilot program uh attorney hon. Mr. Hurd? yes mr. Diggins yes mr. Helmuth yes this is mahan um yes and I wasn't paying attention I heard mr. Diggins um who seconded that so mr. Diggins motion originally was seconded by mr. Hurd and then mr. Helmuth offered an amendment that I took mr. Diggins um acceptance of it as a second thank you yes sorry mr. Corsi yes unanimous vote thank you thank you all thank you all item 12 this evening and then one thing I will say I thought we had 17 topics of interest tonight but I know people will come and go during during these meetings it's just a joke on the uh survey results there uh item 12 opera investment in affordable housing request from housing cooperation of arlington jennifer rake director of the department of planning and community development is miss rake she had a meeting tonight I don't know if she's able to yeah so if it pleases the board miss it miss rake's at the redevelopment board tonight so we discussed this matter before the meeting and frankly given the uncertainty of when it would come up in the agenda we agreed that I would present this to the board so this is a matter that was brought to us by the housing corporation of arlington after they had previously sought funding from the community preservation act or from the community preservation committee to basically close out the downing square broadway initiative so I know a number of us were at the ribbon cutting several months ago but they are getting very close to lease up now I did reach out to the executive director interim executive director of the hca today I believe they have one tenant under agreement with a series of other tenants hopefully soon to be under agreement to be leasing up but with all that said there were a number of factors that led to the project having a budget shortfall when all was said and done there was a combination of factors some driven by site remediation costs going over budget some construction costs going over budget and a series of other factors the cpa committee ultimately decided that funding a retrospective project wasn't the best or most appropriate use of cpa funds and actually the chair of the cpa recommended that they talk with me and then ultimately the select board about potentially using some cpa funds to help them close out the project as is delineated in the memorandum that was provided to the board they have gone to a number of other sources to help them close out they've received funding from the north suburban consortium some funds from dhcd and they came to us they ultimately said we still have a six hundred and thirty eight thousand dollar shortfall to close would the town be willing to help with some funding source most likely orpa and myself in this rate had a discussion with both members of the board and the interim executive director of the housing corporation and at that point said if we are able to say three hundred and nineteen thousand half of the six thirty eight could you go back to dhcd and see if they would cover that other half the other fifty percent and they said that they think that would likely have a positive outcome and they would do it and amazingly enough the next day dhcd responded saying that they would fund um that portion if the town did affirmatively fund this three hundred and nineteen thousand dollar amount so i would recommend that the board uh endorse this expenditure of orpa funds it helps close out this important project in town and helps dhcd be able to both lease up and move on to whatever its next project may be in town and i would recommend that we take it out of the line that has not yet been fully endorsed in terms of details of affordable affordable housing unit production which of course would make less dollars available for future production but helps close out this project and and you know get get these apartments filled and again help the hcd move forward thank you mr. chaplain uh mr. helman thank you uh i'm very happy to move approval and uh and i want to express my appreciation for mr. chaplain not only to contemplate this but for his really skillful work um in in getting the state to cover um half half of this need i think that's you know that's pretty extraordinary and uh just speaks to i mean we're it's we're very used to this high level of of stewardship on the town but it's always appreciated and i think in the service of helping hca um it's especially valuable yeah and i i have no problem doing this with the with your adjustment i think that um you know hca is a viable organization that will produce future housing units so i think you know i have no problem doing that because i think that yeah we are we're assisting them with the very very recent production of museum housing and it was i was delighted to be at the ribbon cutting and to tour the units they are fantastic i mean there's a lot of them so it's helping people live in our community it's helping us with with our progress towards uh safe harbour status someday with 40b um and i think the hcd will continue to do that and these funds will you know will make it possible for them to make sure they can move forward on safe funding thank you thank you mr helmeth and mrs mohan i will certainly second um mr helmets motion to move approval to endorse um because this is opera funding and the way i understand this and i may come out negative but i'm saying it is a positive that um uh ultimately the decision um under the us treasury guidelines is the case of ollington with our town manager um but instead of um him just making that decision he's done as he's done with other facets of the opera funding he's come to the board and and asked for our endorsement and recommendation and i just want to double check with uh through you mr chair and mr chapterling that that's the case of what we're doing again here tonight mr treppler thank you mr yes mrs mohan that yeah absolutely and my plan going forward would continue to be every every arpa program that's yet to be endorsed i would want to bring back before the board as in order to create both board input but a public process for the expenditure of the funds and and thank you and i honestly am highlighting that in a positive way that while the law if you go strictly to the letter of the law it is the town manager him in this case in the future someday 10 20 years down the road perhaps hers um but i do appreciate the fact that mr chapterling as he's done in the past and he's continuing to do is not just unilaterally laterally making decisions which would be his right to do but it's really continuing to foster not just the relationship with the board to come back and and get our input and recommendations but also as an extension to the public at large that um these decisions are not made in a vacuum which they could be um but the town manager is endeavoring to um not only involved myself and my colleagues but also to get the information out as widely in a forum as he can so thank you mr chair happy to second mr helmets motion thank you uh mr herd thank you mr chair i'm happy to support this i think this is a really important project for our linton but it's also the type of project that fits kind of squarely in the allowance that we set aside to commit the opera funds to more increase to increase affordable housing units in town so i think this is the perfect example of how we should spend those monies for that purpose so happy to support it thank you mr herd mr diggins yes i'm happy to support it too and and uh i was wondering why the cp8 didn't approve and i understand your rationale so that makes me even more comfortable moving forward and i really am thrilled with the collaboration i mean um in the region the north suburban um course of consortium throwing in under k i mean that that just makes me feel good about regional support for housing and of course the state stepping in with um 319 k so all around just a good um good effort being by by um by the residents um and the leaders in the town of wells thank you thank you mr diggins and i'm happy to support this as well and and um for us as mr chaplain said approving 319 000 it's essentially a match from from dhcb on on 319 000 so this is 48 units of affordable housing that we want to see filled as quickly as possible and i think this will help hca do that and also probably help on linkedin eats move into the broadway location because there may be a relationship there in terms of when the work is done we certainly want to see that happening as soon as possible so on a motion by mr helmeth seconded by mrs mahan uh attorney hind mr hurt yes mr diggins yes mr helmeth yes mrs mahan yes thank you mr decorsi yes soon on the spoke thank you uh item 13 review and approve select board goals mr chaplain had sent us the revisions to the goals but i would turn it to him um for any comments thank you mr chair um given the hour i i think i would suffice to say that i i have updated the goals document as provided to the board uh per the discussion we had um at the close of uh last calendar year i think i captured everything that was discussed in the meeting um this very very much chance that i didn't fully capture anything so i'd be open to answering any questions making any additions or revisions or if it suits the board tonight um approving these goals would also be fine then we can build them into the budget documents going forward as well okay thank you mr chaplain uh mrs mahan excuse me thank you mr chairman um went to the select board's office they printed out out the um oh the goals and they're sitting downstairs in the novel so i don't want to run away um i didn't go through them um while i was in the office very quickly and um i do want to thank the town manager and the chair for um sort of i don't want to say backfilling but um as both said they would do um around the aleif um cso issue um putting language in there i read it um this morning and i started to think about adding different things whether it's you know nip well i think niptease is in there but you know d e p e p a but um then i reread it again and it's it's broad enough and general enough that i think if i get into any specifics it would limit it so um i think we have an appropriate placeholder in there for that um and um i know that the chair and the town manager on that issue um are also uh working with the time frameworks we have before us so um i would move to approve um the uh select board goals is compiled compiled by the chair and the town manager thank you mr chair thank you mr mahan i'm mr heard i'll second that motion and look forward to acting on our goals uh mr mr diggins thank you i'm happy to support it maybe just add you know putting mr on herd's head back together when it explodes but that's it okay thank you i'm mr helman no questions thank you okay thank you i'm happy to support it as well and thank you to the town manager who did the primary work putting putting this together following our meeting so uh on a motion by mrs mahan seconded by mr heard turni hind heard yes mr diggins yes mr helman yes mrs mahan yes and i apologize for not muting myself my clearing of the throat was not any simple little message it was my blood pressure medicine kicking in so thank you mr decorsi yes shenanigans okay thank you item 14 update in discussion uh mu gar and um i'm just going to turn it over to a turning hind for a brief uh overview in terms of what has happened i think the last time we talked about this the zba had issued their decision um the butters surrounding the mugar site have filed an appeal in the superior court the applicant oak tree um has filed an appeal in the housing appeals committee so turni hind if you could just give us a little bit of uh information on the procedural posture and i have a few comments and maybe some potential action items or discussion as far as where we we go as a board thank you mr chair i'll try to be brief um just to sort of recap this all stems from an august 31st 2016 application by arlington land realty for a comprehensive permit the site known as the new gar woods to build a um 40 b apartment complex in the series of townhouses uh on november 22nd 2021 the zba issued their decision on that that decision by the zba was appealed by arlington land realty and i'm gonna summarize this a little bit uh based on really two grounds one that certain conditions in that decision rendered the project uneconomic and secondly that it was outside some conditions were outside the scope of 40 b uh around the same time uh butters appealed as well they appealed to over to superior court um and their basis in very very short summary is basically that uh some of the uh the decision itself was faulty and that there was some information that the decision lacked that it should have had before rendering it uh what happens when you have two appeals essentially simultaneously from butters and from an applicant is the applicants appeal to the housing appeals committee takes president so the superior court action under chapter 40 a by the butters is essentially stayed um while the housing appeals committee's examination of the applicant arlington land realty's arguments are assessed the butters also filed a motion to intervene in that action so they're essentially joining it the current the most current update on that action is that the hsc wanted the parties to engage in sort of the mediation to see if the issues could be resolved the zba took the position that they were interested in that only if the butters were also going to be a part of that mediation uh because that's the only way that there would be some sort of final resolution to the inherent disputes involved um i'm not sure that that mediation is going to happen it's not a hundred percent clear to me but um obviously if there was some resolution that was mutually satisfactory to a butters the zba and by association of town and the applicant then that would resolve the matter absent that however i think we're probably looking at anywhere from a year to 18 months uh for an hsc decision to be litigated and how that primarily happens is by prefelt testimony but um after that uh assuming that the hsc decision is either in favor of uh the applicants or the zba it doesn't really matter the butters suit would then proceed in superior court which i would expect to be another 12 to 18 months maybe more than that so um just to give a time frame for all of this we're probably looking at about three years uh before the earliest before this uh matter would be resolved if it was litigated to its end conclusion um obviously in the meantime there's a number of things to be thought about by the zba by this board it did speak with special counsel attorney witton in advance of this meeting he'd be happy to um meet with the entirety of the board in an executive session to provide uh a attorney client communication essentially about the status of the case and of course i'm at the ready to do that as well so with that mr chair if that's a satisfactory sort of base rundown of the posture um i'll look forward to any discussion from the board okay thank you attorney hindering and i just have a few comments before i um open it up to to board members and i just want to elaborate a little bit on um what what attorney hind said and uh mrs mahan and i had had a meeting recently with attorney hind and mr chapterling regarding concerns about um conservation issues with the with the with the parcel and the decision itself and um one thing again we we weren't a party to the uh to the matter the zba issued its decision um and they issued put in place several conditions on the site um post approval conditions and and one of them i'm going to refer to and and talk about a little bit but but maybe suggest to the board that we do take up attorney witton's offer to meet with him in executive session um concerns conditions that happen after the fact and one of those conditions is to test the groundwater elevation at the site and um there are other conditions that were put in there as well in terms of the applicant funding a cleanup of the site people where they do any work on the conservation so-called conservation parcel and and also put money into escrow to allow the town or a organization to clean up the site and and restore um the conservation area there the applicant filed its appeal and essentially objected to all of the conditions and and any condition that was post decision and that would include a testing requirement which they had agreed to it would include their funding um the cleanup now they may come back and say they were arguing in the alternative but we've got to take their appeal for what's written on it and they they made very general objections to the entire decision and they made some specific objections to various conditions and i i think you know for us we've been going through this as a town for a number of years there are significant environmental concerns on that site and environmental concerns that do have to do with groundwater flooding localized flooding and stream flooding and to have the applicant say they were going to do something and now see them um filing an action to the housing appeals committee challenging conditions i find very disappointing and i was going to go into a little bit more detail on this conservation testing issue but after talking to returning home i think it's best in hearing the offer that we received tonight i think it's best for the board to have that session with attorney witton to talk about options and and talk about where things stand on that issue the second thing i want to say and this has to do with the additional land there um that the site proposed for development i'm going to round is between five and six acres at least about 12 acres that would be known as the conservation parcel and there was a requirement to for oak tree with the applicant to fund a cleanup before any part of that parcel is transferred whether it be through a conservation restriction or whether it be transferred to the town now they are within their appeal challenging in a general way even that condition and my feeling on that is and the town manager had sent a memo or letter to the zba back in march of 2021 in terms of what conditions the town would like to see if there ever was to be a transfer of the open space parcel and one of those conditions was that the site would be cleaned up so if the applicant is now taking the position through their pleadings that they are going to challenge this decision i think it behooves us as a town or as a board to reach out to members of the conservation commission to see what the extent of the authority is for potential enforcement actions because why should we wait to see what happens with this appeal if they don't want to work with us and this has been held off before and there's been discussions but again i'm going to take them for what's in their pleadings if this is a route that they want to go down i think we as a board should be talking to the conservation commission whether it be a smaller group of the of the board or whether it be at a full meeting to say what are what are the actions the conservation conservation commission can take one to see what type of compliance there is on the site since the cleanup and and and whether any further further enforcement action is necessary so i'd like to highlight that right now for the board but also suggest that if we could reach some consensus for a future meeting to meet with council to talk about some of these other sensitive um issues relating to the appeals and to the environmental conditions so um with that i i will go in the same order as the last item um mrs mahan and i had met on this issue so i'm going to start with her uh for any further comments um thank you mr chair and you've definitely encapsulated anything that i would say um at a public meeting um and i i definitely uh want to hear from my colleagues on the board but um i think a good next step as you have suggested and attorney hind is um the executive session with our um co-counsel attorney wooden um because i really don't want to go into discussing possible legal um i don't want to say machinations but legal avenues that this board could explore because that's definitely more fitting for uh the executive session so i'll just leave it at that and i'd be interested in hearing from my as you are from my other three colleagues about re-adjourning this in an executive session with attorney william attorney william attorney wooden hind and the town manager thank you mr chair thank you mrs mahan mr hurt thank you mr chair for the update um yeah i agree i i think from this board's perspective as far as our next steps and the strategies that we can take to fight the the project the best avenues to first meet with attorney wooden and we can have those discussions and kind of formulate our plan from there so i agree with that and my support going down that road thank you mr chair thank you mr hurt i'm mr diggins um thank you mr chair me yes i supported in that i definitely would like to have the executive session it'll give me time to go back and watch the recording of what you just said that was quite the explanation and then i need to review it because there's a lot there and i'll learn a lot more in the executive session so i look forward to it thank you thank you mr diggins mr helmet thank you yeah i strongly concur with uh with the chair's line of argument and proposed action thank you mr helmet attorney hind did you want to add anything further or i don't know if that's i mean we will we can coordinate it and i think we have a consensus we don't necessarily need a vote i will schedule an executive session and coordinate with the turning hind but i don't know if you wanted to add anything further on this i think the board's uh stated well uh what its concerns and motivations are for wanting to talk about this further so especially given the hour i think i'm almost that thank you okay okay thank you attorney hind so i will move on to the next items on our agenda which is correspondence received i'm going to take them all in order and then and then ask for action from the board item 15 a request for crosswalk on mass av alexander finley 1490 mass av item 16 return of community events elizabeth lock chamber of commerce executive director and item 17 comments regarding overnight parking pilot program steve rebelock 111 sunnyside av uh mr herd um so i will move to refer item one in three to the town manager um i don't know if he if he has any opinion as to whether or not he can handle that through his office or whether we should uh refer those attack mr chapter so i i think on one i can at least start with the senior transportation planner mr amstutz in drafting a response uh as a as a preliminary response yeah and then move receipt of item number two thank you uh mr diggins well um i will second that but i i'm inclined to make a friendly amendment that me three mean go to uh well the chair and myself have received that me but it seems like it's referring more to that pilot and we're working on that in uh of course in concert with you all to extend open meeting allows me and the town manager but i think it would really go to to us so yeah that's all okay thanks okay thank you mr diggins i'm mr helman yeah um second that or needs needs to be um and happy to support that thank you okay uh mrs mahan um did mr diggan second that or mr helman mr diggan seconded mr herz motion and his amendment was seconded by mr helman so i i just have it down that mr herd and there's a reason i'm doing this um there's been power out of this all over town uh mr herd move receipt of correspondence received refer to the town manager number 15 and number 17 thank you all state thank thank you mr mahan and i have no further comments on that so uh on a motion originally by mr herd seconded by mr diggins attorney hind herd yes mr diggins yes mr helman yes this is mahan yes mr corsie yes okay uh new business attorney hind no new business thank you mr chapterland uh two pieces of new business one i wanted to share with the board that i've had a series of meetings with town council the moderator and assistant moderator the town clerk and the director of health and human services to begin talking about town meeting preparation for this year and the short version is that we are going to plan on parallel tracks for both an in-person town meeting and or uh or a virtual town meeting given the uncertainty of both the trajectory of the virus as well as an uncertainty about what statutory allowances will have at that time we thought it was most prudent to plan for both if we do meet live the current thought uh for in person would be to have town meeting take place either in the red gym at the high school or potentially in the new auditorium as both of those options would provide more space for people than the town hall would so i think this will be an ongoing matter obviously that we work on over the course of the next few months leading up the town meeting but i did want to share with the board the public what our preliminary thinking and planning efforts would be focused on the next matter and i'm sure this might be a theme for our new businesses i just wanted to thank the whole team at dpw for back-to-back challenging storms very different in their condition very much the same in the level of work and the number of hours that crews had to put in the dpw team did a great job tackling uh over 20 inches of snow in earlington a little over a week ago and then with only an inch or two of ice and muck and sleet had to work for the same amount of time and equally did a very good job keeping the roads safe and residents as safe as possible so i just wanted to give a public thanks to those teams who have worked a lot of hours over the past week tackling winter in new england thank thank you mr check the line uh mr helmeth uh thank you no new business but i would like to heartily uh second everything mr definitely just said about our dpw crews and hard work thank you mr helmeth mr diggins no new business thank you mr heard uh no new business other than to also just want to thank the dpw um it was some concern over whether or not our saturday hockey game for canceled which was a big hit to me as a crazy hockey dad but there was concern whether we'd have any sunday hockey games into the work of people like our wonderful dpw we did have sunday hockey games so i was able to calm down a little bit thank you mr heard mrs mahan um two items on the uh town managers report regarding town meeting um definitely would be it will be interested in that and um would assume that if we did do it at the high school in the auditorium um i haven't checked lately i'm assuming the elevators if they're not already functioning they will be by then um for those that came to the stairs and then um regarding the uh we're in amendment over the department of public works i've been posting every day from uh i always do it from different town facebook pages and the like but um as most people know and we all know there's it wasn't just the actual storm itself but it's been the storm cleanup and even as recently as yesterday last night you know and i've been through all the cities and towns not only getting mass av curb to curb so you can park but i live near the otterson middle school and and um getting those snow mounds and and making sure that the ramps whether you're in a stroller or you're physically handicapped and you need those as well as i've made my runs down um the other schools um they really pushed back those corners and um made it accessible for any anybody that um really can't be climbing mounds of snow so i spoke briefly to the town manager and i'll um sort of hit you all up later in terms of um maybe doing a diagostino's sort of early dinner or lunch thing um that we can all chip in for um because we can use talent funds for that but um uh just to sort of thank you um you know didn't want to do it while they're out there you know working um getting all the stuff done and probably have 15 20 minutes for break but um i might do something with you all just so there's a a food thank you to all of them and i just want to ask the chair am i correct do we have an executive session tonight we do we do okay no further new business okay thank you mrs mahan and i also want to echo my colleagues thanking the dpw for the great work that they did these were long duration storms and and and really um really took a lot to to clear the streets and they did a great job and uh also soon the town continues to put some great pictures on the website of the dpw in action and there's actually a short film that i saw that uh was really impressive as well so thank thank you um so that will conclude new business um as i just mentioned we do have an executive session um which is to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law or federal grant and aid requirements and the specific item is the approval of executive session minutes of january 10th 2022 um could i have a motion to go into executive session um mrs mahan uh it's so moved and i just want to double check um when we come out is for the purposes of to adjourn or is it to come back out into public session um as a result of any action we may take an executive session regarding the minutes just just to adjourn okay so move to go into executive session when we come out of the executive session for the purposes to adjourn thank you thank you go over second second second okay the motion is made by mrs mahan seconded by mr helmet attorney hon mr herd yes mr diggins yes mr helmet yes mrs mahan yes mr decorsan yes okay we're in executive session okay and if i could ask if there are any participants who were watching through zoom if they could log off at this time and then once that is clear we work in the executive session