Good evening. I'm calling to order the meeting of the Allenton Select Board for Wednesday, October 13th, 2021. This is Select Board Chair Steve D'Corsi. Permit me to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Diane Mahan. Yes, thank you. John Hurd. Yes. Len Diggins. Yes. Eric Helman. Yes. Staff, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Adam Chaplin. Yes. Doug Hyme. Yes. And Board Administrator Ashley Maher is participating remotely. Tonight's meeting of the Allenton Select Board is being conducted remotely consistent with an act signed into law on June 16, 2021, that extends certain COVID-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency. The act includes an extension until April 1, 2022 of the remote meeting provisions of Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 executive order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law. This meeting's order, which is referenced with agenda materials on the town's website for this meeting, allows public bodies to meet entirely remotely so long as reasonable public access is afforded so that the public can follow along with the deliberations of the meeting. Before we begin, permit me to offer a few notes. This meeting is being conducted via Zoom, is being recorded, and is also simultaneously being broadcast on ACMI. Persons wishing to join the meeting by Zoom may find information on how to do so on the town's website. Persons participating by Zoom are reminded that they may be visible to others and that if you wish to participate, you are asked to provide your full name in the interest of developing a record of the meeting. All participants are advised that people may be listening who do not provide comment, and those persons are not required to identify themselves. Both Zoom participants and persons watching on ACMI can follow the posted agenda materials also found on the town's website using the Novus agenda platform. Finally, each vote tonight will be taken by roll call. We have another number of important items on our agenda tonight. So let's see how much of the town's business we can get done. I'll now move to the next agenda item. Item two, COVID-19 update, Christine Bonjono, Director of Health and Human Services. I will promote her right now, Mr. Chairman. Good evening. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Good evening, Ms. Bonjono. Thank you for joining us. All right, thank you. So I have for you tonight just a quick overview of where we're at today with the pandemic and then with your permission, Chair DeCorsi. I'd love to share just a few pages of information that sort of summarizes the past 20 months, if that's okay. I know that you're on a timeline, you have a short timeline, so I will keep it very brief if you... Take as much time as you need. Great. So if I could just have screen share ability, I will share my screen in just a moment, but I just wanted to give you a quick update as to where we're at today. So as you know, the Board of Health enacted a mask order, which is in place for any resident, any person going into public spaces within town, indoor spaces that are open to the public. That mask order was put in place in August, the beginning of August as a result of what we saw as a significant increase in cases all across the town, the state, and the country. That was a result of the Delta variant, which was hitting both vaccinated and unvaccinated people. So we, the Board, the Board of Health, decided that it was incredibly important to put an order in place. That order will expire when we in Middlesex County have two consecutive weeks of low or moderate transmission. And so the CDC puts out a map that can be viewed by anybody at any time that categorizes counties. Massachusetts Middlesex County, which is where we are in Arlington, has been significantly, we've been in the high category for quite a bit of time. We're currently in the next step down, which is substantial, which is a good thing. So we're seeing a slight decrease in cases in our county. I'll just give you a quick rundown of the numbers. So in June we had seven cases of COVID, July we had 41, in August we had 151, September 139, and then so far in October 35. So if we sort of run the numbers for October, we're looking at, you know, we've come down a bit. So we're anticipating about 80 or 90 cases for the month of October. So it just, it demonstrates a decrease in cases. So that's, that's promising. At this time, our office still continues to obviously follow up on complaints about masks. We're now planning with the schools to hit the ground running once the vaccine becomes available for the children 5 to 11. So we're planning doing some planning meetings now to be able to roll that out to roll up clinics for children once it becomes available. And we continue to look at, you know, boosters, the Pfizer boosters now available. So we're looking at possibly putting those those clinics in place, although right now we're really focusing our efforts on putting vaccines for children clinics out in place. So I just want to share my screen briefly. So that's sort of where we're at currently. And I just want to share, it's going to just give you a quick overview of some of the information that we've been collecting over the course of the past 20 months. So this looks like a lot. So we've been Health and Human Services, which is made up of a number of divisions. We've been really working around the clock. I want to say 24 seven since last March. So, you know, contact tracing is a big one. I think that's really a big piece of what the health department's been doing. We had over 2200 positive cases over well over 4000 contacts that our department has been working on and working through. And then as far as resident support, you know, our department, Council on Aging as well as a medical reserve core volunteers did about 7000 food deliveries in partnership with the food pantry so that that was a major effort. That started last March, March 2020. And our office in addition to the police department we delivered 6000 masks. So you may remember back in the early days when masks were, you know, why do we need to wear masks I think that was a big question. Before that became official, our department was out delivering masks to senior housing, monotony manner residents and just residents in general that were in need of masks. So that was a really major effort that our department participated in. And then we also the Health and Human Services Charitable Corp established a fund that people were able to donate to and then we were able to distribute a significant portion of that funding to residents in the community. I wanted to just quickly let you know that AYCC pivoted quickly so the Arlington Youth Counseling Center pivoted and began offering telehealth visits so they offered over 10,000 telehealth visits over the course of the past 20 months, which is which is major because so many people were suffering so many kids were suffering through the pandemic and so to be able to pivot that fast and to be able to offer that much service was was quite amazing. On the COA on the council and aging side for the seniors were able to pivot and provide resources for seniors to stay connected and to have volunteers calling. So that was a great effort. And then the Health Department continued to enforce orders, the governor's orders as well as local orders to make sure people were safe and that they were able to follow the rules to make sure we prevented future COVID cases. On the vaccine front, you may remember our office participate in the early days, vaccinating we partnered with Belmont and Lexington and led the effort to vaccinate we've done over 6100 vaccinations. And as you may remember I of course was pretty vocal and my, my, my feelings on the lack of local rollout of the vaccine had we had the opportunity we would have been well over you know we would have had many, many more vaccines distributed among our three but but still so proud to say that our staff were able to jump in and get that many done. Then on the medical support side. In the early stages, you may remember a lot of cases and deaths and long term care facilities and nursing homes around the state so our team was really involved in the early days, working directly with long term care facilities to identify cases. So contact tracing, try to prevent the next cases. And it was really a scary time if you may remember. There wasn't a lot of PPE so that was another thing our office did led by our veterans agent Jeff Chung low. He collected PPE from residents and we're able to send that out to our long term care facilities as well as our hospitals in the area. And we also are medical reserve core volunteers work dispatch to go to long term care facilities because the staffing was a lot of them were quarantined a lot of them were sick themselves and they were unable to work so we were able to dispatch volunteers to go into these facilities that were nurses physicians and therapists they went into these facilities both hospitals and long term care facilities and and did did the duties that were needed so that was pretty pretty significant role that our health and human services department played. I just want to go to the next slide.  But I just wanted to throw up some photos quickly. As you can see from the top left. That was the first press conference after we had a positive case in a school child and we had to you know communicate to our community what we were doing and what what what was needed from them. And that was a really scary time for our community if you may remember. We ended up having to shut down one school in town.  And the reason for that is because a lot of the rules a lot of the decisions that needed to be made about closing things like schools and businesses, a lot of that happened, not at the state level not federal level but really at the local level. You know, an effort led by town manager chapter lean and a lot of the city managers and mayors in the area to meet with experts such as Dr. Biddinger and Dr. Walensky to really learn learn and understand what's what the science was behind COVID and then really being able to help us understand how to apply that to making rules and regulations in our community to try to prevent the spread and to try to stay ahead of it so you may remember local cities and towns came together to close schools before the governor made a decision to close schools so that was, that was a really big step and really helping to curb the the transmission. And the other pictures there's Marcy ship your eye from the Council of Asia and giving out masks and monotony manner. The police. I mean, Marcy was at the senior housing and the police read the monotony manner is a photo of some of our volunteer nurses that were working at South Shore hospital, our Arlington nurses that went down there that was amazing. There's the food delivery program that the medical reserve core in the Council and aging participated in and delivering 7,000, you know bags of food to residents throughout the pandemic. And then aging shifted a lot of their programming to drive through to keep people engaged, and to feel like to continue to be part of our community. And then again it's more food delivery a lot of food delivery at senior housing through the, you know the food pantry. And then the last picture on the bottom is our testing we did a drive through testing in last December so that was something that we were able to offer with Armstrong as well. So quickly pivoting over to our vaccine clinics which was really just a coordination of so many of our community partners so you know we had volunteers from our community, as well as all of the departments in town from the facilities department DPW. As you can see we had fire and police driving seniors from the parking lot into the clinic. We had everyone participating we had food link gave us flowers to give out to seniors as you can see and you have your own Ashley Mar from your office handing out those flowers. We really, it was a really great opportunity for us as a, as an entire government to come together and to offer this service to our community again as I mentioned before had we had the opportunity to get as much vaccine as we were able to dispense we would have been able to, to really, to provide our community at the local level. And we, we hope to do that for children and to continue to do boosters and whatever else is coming down the line because the, the mass vaccination clinics are now shut down and so that really gives us the opportunity locally to to be able to take that and run with it and be able to provide our community with the services they need so you know we did these mass vaccinations clinics we also did clinics in senior housing we were also able to do homebound residents of people that are unable to leave their homes, but still are an incredibly important population to serve because we did have a lot of people that receives treatment in their home and we're exposed to COVID through through their their care providers. So you know I guess we're at this point where we're really looking forward to the next phase where we're able to continue vaccinating and to really pivot to to vaccinating our children in our community so thank you for the opportunity to just give you a quick I tried to keep it as brief as possible but just a quick overview of where we're where we've been and kind of where we're we're going so happy to share this presentation and post it online if people are interested. Okay, that's that's great. Thank you Mr. Buncho and I'm going to turn it over to the board but I want to thank you for all your efforts and your team and Health and Human Services and in the Health Department because it, it was amazing you go back to those early days that you, you showed people weren't vaccinated people are very concerned about what was happening and there's a lot of information that was that was needed and you provided that through the town so so grateful to you for that. So I'll turn it to the board now for questions and comments and I have a few comments at the end. Mr helmet so start with you. Thank you. Thank you miss bonjourno and to your entire team. Which, you know, I, it's, I'm glad that you acknowledge all the other people in other other departments of town that was truly a team effort led led by our town manager and you yourself and so many others and it's really great to see those photos and to remember and to just take in how much it has been. I know that you're all really tired. And that is not over. And I hope you know how grateful your community is for always being there, putting up with people being frightened and frustrated and sometimes angry, and, and we often don't say thank you enough. That's what we do. I have one quick question just about the mask mandate criteria and you know Middlesex County is, shall we say and has an interesting boundary you know it covers towns all over all over the place so many of them aren't aren't as urban as we are. Is the Board of Health thinking about any alternative criterion if necessary in the future that if you know the whole county looks okay. Or doesn't you know that if you feel feel like the local near end data is different would you do anything differently. In addition to the county data which is what sort of drives a lot of the decisions that are made because the CDC recommends if, if a community is high or substantial the CDC is actually recommending that a mask mandate be put in place so we were sort of following what CDC was recommending, but you know they're not making a rule is not a law that they're issuing. We look at our local data, we look at our school data, we look at our sewage data so I've mentioned before the MWRA has a great presentation on their website that shows. COVID in sewage so basically it's RNA that's measured in the sewage that's that's pumped through the system so we're looking at all of that in order to make the decisions. Obviously, we were trying to do the best we can but I think that right now we're really relying on that CDC transmission map. Thank you. No other questions. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So is it appropriate to move receipt of this report. Okay, so I'd like to move receipt of the report. And, you know, and also thank you for all of you on your efforts on this part of your and the rest of your staff and the rest of the town staff, and I have always supported me the conservative approach being to handle this pandemic. And, and, and I think, I think it's clear that that was the right thing to do. And so I continue to support you that way. And I'm sure that you're good to a good job with the, the vaccination of kids, you know, and the booster should you when that's appropriate, as long as you get the supplies that you need so I'm not going to extend this anymore just say thank you once again. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. This is mine. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll second Mr. Diggins. Move receipt. And I do want to say to our health human services director. I'm really impressed by the fact headed by you and from which it ebbs and flows all down to other department heads your staff their staff that was really proud that in the middle of the beginning, we're in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of just doing what we needed to do to get by you advocated for more work for your staff. Instead of just sitting on your laurels and doing the bare minimum. And that certainly is a testament to your department that you had along with the other department heads I'm very appreciative. And I just want to set sort of an informational question but just want to remind people that, you know, Board of Health Health and Human Services is no question you can't ask them if that's not the right department, they'll certainly direct you or join with you to get the information or the services that you need. I myself was getting out information to all different people. And I was fretting about my own family members personal situation. And then all of a sudden I realized wait a minute, I've been telling everybody else about all these great programs at home services excuse me for the residents of Hamilton so it's not just for seniors, it's for disabled adults, young adults, if for some reason you're temporarily not able body. And so I wanted to ask Ms. You know, people are asking about people who have already received at home services in their residents about if that program is going to continue will reply to the regular flu shot will reply to any booster shots and are there any other services that people who find themselves homebound from medical or developmental issues that they should give you in your office a call. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you Mrs. Mahan. Mr. Herd. Thank you. And thank you for the presentation. I was hoping Ms. Bonjono could answer that real quick. You know what I'm sorry there's a pause there. I'm sorry Mr. Bonjono if you if you could answer Mrs. Mahan's question. I'm sorry about that. Of course. So, yes, our department. We work hard to try to provide services to persons that are homebound and absolutely as long as we have the vaccine and we have the staff, we will be out to help provide that to people in need for sure. Thank you. Great. Thank you. I'm sorry about that. Delighted there was a pause here and I just want to Mr. Now Mr. Thank you. Sorry Mrs. Mahan. I didn't know if I was supposed to proceed. I go by the direction of the chair. Thank you Mr. Bonjono for the presentation and all my colleagues have said this many times but for all the work that the board health and the health department does and has been doing this entire pandemic to keep us safe. It's really extraordinary. So hopefully at some point we'll get one of these these updates in person in the chamber but we certainly understand the situation now and better safe than sorry. You mentioned that the mask mandate is going to expire when we're low to moderate and right now we're on significant how many stages are there between low to moderate and significant that we have to go through to get there. Mr. Bonjono. Sure. There are four steps. There's high substantial moderate and low. So we need two consecutive weeks at moderate or low. So we have one more step to go down where we have modeled our regulation after the Belmont and most of the cities and towns around us really adopted the same regulation so we'll see everyone in the same in the same boat so. And did you see that for the county wide or does Arlington individually assess that. No it's by county so yeah it's the Middlesex County so right now if you were to look at the CDC transmission map which is posted on our website. You'll see that we're red orange and I think it's maybe yellow and blue. We're orange so we're one step down from high and one step away from the moderate. Most of the counties surrounding us also in the same significant range. So most of the country's red so most of the country's high right now or you know where we're one step down from red. And I'd say there are a few other counties in Massachusetts but the majority of our counties where we are red in Massachusetts but more orange and mass than the rest of the country which is pretty good so and again I think I'll sort of leave it at that. Thank you. That's certainly attributed to strong local efforts in the people in Arlington in our surrounding cities and towns. So, you know, just like you would say to everyone stick with it if you want to get there, you know, we all have to do it together so appreciate the update and look forward to talking soon on this. Thank you, Mr. Heard. Yeah, and I just want to get on a personal note. Thank you. Miss Bongio and health and human services. The September statistics showed 139 positive cases I was one of them. I had a breakthrough case that occurred in September. I got my results. I got a call from Lucille Nicholson of the Board of Health nurse to ask me how he was how he was doing answering questions, she even followed up a week later on a vacation to see how I was so I mean just a real testament to the to the complete nature of the follow up and the concern and I really appreciated it. And as I said, as fully vaccinated as a breakthrough case, it turned out to be a mild case, but 10 days of the flu and I appreciated the guidance. Also, just a message and then I have a question or two. We're at a stage here where each day we get further and further away from when we received our vaccine so it's really all about minimizing risk. I don't know how I got it that was mass but it's it's random so I know people can can be concerned about the continued mask mandate but believe me it's the more you can minimize the risk, the better your off you are and the one and one thing I would say, based on my experience to if you are feeling sick, get tested and stay away from people until you get a result because you just don't know. And, and again, while people vaccinated, and I'm sure I had a much lesser case because I was vaccinated. You want to try to avoid it and you want to try to avoid the risk of spread so I want to, I want to thank you because I saw firsthand what happens when you get the call on the follow up and again and I really appreciate that. The other thing I wanted to ask is we're now into to flu season. There are there is a need for people to get flu shots and I'm wondering if that if there's any clinics that we can refer people to they should go through their primary care physician and to pharmacies and maybe if you could just comment. As people get to the stage where they qualify for boosters, just the timing or whether it's okay to have a booster in a flu shot. You can actually get them on the same day. So that's, that's the great thing about the flu and the COVID vaccine, our farm, our local pharmacies all of them have the vaccines, both flu and COVID. We will continue to work on getting, you know, getting the vaccines and be able to provide boosters as well. We did run a senior clinic for flu a couple weeks ago, but we are now pivoting like I said to really focus on on preparing for children, the five to 11 year olds. Great. Okay, best of light. And I remember earlier when we were running the local vaccination clinic and there was that frustration because the state was going to the mass site. So hopefully they do return things back to the local level for children and for boosters. And so, again, thank you, Miss Bongioano for coming in. Thank you for your team and all the work that you've done. So on a motion to receive from Mr. Diggins, seconded by Mrs. Mahan, Attorney Heim. You heard? Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helman. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes, thank you. Mr. Dacorsi. Yes. It's unanimous vote. Great. Thank you very much. Right. We will now move to the consent agenda item three minutes of meeting September 13th, 2021, September 20th, 2021, September 27th, 2021 item four request for a contractor drain layer license, Milltown plumbing and heating Fred Webster. Item five request for a special one day all alcohol license for October 16th at the Robbins Memorial Town Hall for a private event, Amy Mullen and Kevin Cole. Item six for approval Arlington Open Studios lawn signs, November 1 through 13 2021 Tom Formicola, ECA executive director on the consent agenda. Start with Mrs. Mahan. Approval. Thank you, Mr. Hurd. Okay, thank you, Mr. Hurd. Second. Mr. Diggins. No comments, no questions. Thank you. Mr. Helman. No questions. Thank you. Okay. On a motion by Mrs. Mahan seconded by Mr. Hurd. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helman. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes, thank you. Mr. Decorsi. Yes. It's unanimous vote. Thank you. Next is item seven. Appointments. Equal opportunity advisory committee. Leslie Chang. Yes. Term to expire June 30th, 2024. Mr. Chaplin. Is Ms. Chang with us tonight? I thought I saw. Yep. There we go. I will promote her right now. Good evening, Ms. Chang. Good evening. We received your written materials, but why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're interested in the equal opportunity committee vacancy. I am here this morning and I just want to say that I am in power now I'm a attorney by trade uh, and I'm sitting in that office right now. So there's zero chance of my kids busting through the door. I like it that I've been living on and for about seven years really enjoy the community and. I served as a non-profit board member for about four years. In a local art center. wanted to do something with the town for a while, just was not sure about what, and I saw the opening in the town email seeking commissioners and volunteers to join, and I've been volunteering and attending the commission meetings since April of this year, really enjoyed the group, and I hope to bring fresh ideas to the board. I have some experience with diversity and inclusion. I served for Asian American professional organization for about eight years as a volunteer and then a board member. So I have some experience and hoping to promote diversity and inclusion in the town and town hiring processes and contracting processes. Great. Thank you. I'll now turn it to the board. Mr. Heard. I will move approval and just say thank you very much for your willingness to serve, the fact that you're still at work suggests that your time is very valuable to you. So the fact that you are willing to step up and serve on this important committee really speaks volume of your character. So look forward to working with you. Thank you, Mr. Heard. Mr. Diggins. I will, you made a motion, right? Okay, now I'll second it. Yes. Okay, I'll second it, and I'm going to gush a bit because this is my favorite part of meetings, is getting to read around resumes. Although I'm going to end up with an inferiority complex to me, but perhaps as a psych minor, you can help me out with that. But you not only get town emails, you read them. So that's a big plus. And I also love the fact that you help out the other minority groups, me and Latinx, me and Blacks, as I saw on your resume. But if that wasn't enough, you studied mutant zebrafish and plasticity, Alzheimer's and plasticity. A colleague of mine just gave a talk about tiled degraders and Alzheimer's. So sooner or later, we're going to get a handle on this disease. I hope so. Yeah, thanks to all the early research me on which we build, me that we will find a solution. So thank you so much, me for being a part of the town and serving on one of the committees. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. Mr. Helmuth. Thank you. One of the biggest reasons I want you to such a great place to live is that people do exactly what you're doing, which is say I want to help and I want to get involved. And it's just delightful to see your amazing background and your passion for equity, diversity and inclusion. And I know that you'll do great things in this role. And I just want you to know how much we appreciate you stepping up. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Helmuth. Mrs. Mahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I like my colleagues, Mr. Diggins, who's also gushing and impressed by your initial background in microbiology, molecular biology. And I, too, as a court reporter, when I got all your materials, I was working on a case that involved neuroplasticity in Alzheimer's. I took that as a sign. I just, not to put you on the spot, there's no wrong answer. You certainly have a varied background in terms of who you've represented, groups that you belong to. I think there was Alpa and a few others. How do you see your role, either blending in with the current members and or what it is you'd like to bring to the committee that perhaps we don't have much of or could enhance a little bit. So one of the issues with what I've encountered, at least through attending those meetings as a volunteer, is that we have positions that needed to be filled, but we are unable to find the qualified candidates. And we're hoping to promote a little more diverse candidate pool. And what I can bring is my connection to various professional organizations in the greater Boston area. I certainly have a lot of contacts in these areas and hoping that we can cross-post or promote some of the positions within Arlington and so that we can get a greater applicant pool that way. Thank you. And you certainly sound and have borne through your curriculum vitae or the woman to do it. So thank you so much. Thank you, Mrs. Mahan. Yeah, and I also support your appointment. You have a really impressive resume and we see this from time to time. It's really impressed by the fact that you went to the committee meetings, got involved before you were appointed, saw that it's something you wanted to do, but that that is really impressive to do that ahead of time. And I know you'll add a lot to the committee. So thank you for your willingness to serve. Thank you. So on a motion by Mr. Herd, seconded by Mr. Biggins for approval, attorney Heim. A man, a personal note, just note that one of the most important details is the left out at University of Connecticut Law School graduate right here. So also very exciting on that front. Mr. Herd. We are overrun by Suffolk Law people in this area. It's good to have that. That's right. Go ahead. Mr. Deans. Yes. Mr. Helm. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Dacorsi. Yes. It's unanimous. Thank you, Mr. Trang. Thank you very much. All right. Item eight, appointment to the Veterans Council, terms to expire June 30, 2024. Les Banks and John Fitzpatrick. Mr. Chairman, I see Les Banks. I don't see John Fitzpatrick on the meeting. Okay. If perhaps he's bogged on under another name, if he could try to raise his hand, that might help as well. All right. Well, he's doing that. Why don't we start with Mr. Banks and if Mr. Fitzpatrick joins us, we can have a separate dialogue. Good evening, Mr. Banks. Good evening. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm just fine. Thanks. Good. Good. Yes. So if you could, we have your written materials, but if you could just tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're interested in being on the Veterans Council. Okay. Well, I'm a lifelong Ellingtonian. I want to raise same house. As a matter of fact, Ellington Public Schools BU and first 21 years of my life and off to the world for the next 40 and decided to come back here and retire, believe it or not. So I've been back here for about 20 years as well. So the first 20 and the last 20. I had an occasion recently, or a couple of years ago now, to meet Jeff Chunglow and help him help me through some issues. And in the process became obvious to me why I hadn't volunteered before being a nine year active duty and lifelong vet myself. So I threw my hat in the ring with him and understand they need a couple of people and there are a few issues that he needs help with. And I'd like to be the guy that helps him. He's a real asset to the town. As you know, we're the only state in the US that has a dedicated VA guy and he actually gets called upon for previews other than Ellington and shouldn't have to. So he needs some help. And I'd like to be the guy to help him. Like I said, eight and a half years on active duty Vietnam mostly US Air Force. And that's about it. Thank you, Mr. Bankson. Before I turn it over to the members, thank you for your service in the Air Force. I will start with Mr. Diggins. Yes. And I'll echo the chair on the appreciation for your service and I will make a motion to accept your position of your year. I'm sorry, I'll break it out on the phrase here, but to accept your appointment to position on the Veterans Council. And I will say that in addition to being in aberration of your service, I am really in aberration of your willingness to keep going and not retiring me because I don't see myself retiring either than me. It's just life is too interesting to not take it as much as you can. And I just have a hard time believing that you're 81. So you're really quite the quite the inspiration. So thank you for your service and keep doing whatever you're doing. And I will keep an eye and watch and learn. Thank you. I'm only 81. So I got a few years left. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. Mr. Helmut. Thank you. I'll echo everything that my colleagues have said. And I would say, Mr. Banks, given your history of trying to retire, you're going to fit right in. And I'm glad that you mentioned the asset that the Jeff is to the town. He does great work for our Veterans. I do part of my day job. I work to support Veterans and have really grown to just increasingly every day admire the contributions they make for our country. And so I'm delighted that you're stepping up to help them out. Thank you. I hope you all got a chance to see the video we put together for Memorial Day. I did. I was one of the participants but a well thought out and well presented through ACMI and hasn't really gotten so much publicity as perhaps it should have. But it brings up most of the issues that Veterans will confront. And it's capitalization of what we need to do. So thank you. I did see that. And I appreciate you mentioning it. Thank you. That's great. Thank you, Mr. Helmut. Mrs. Mahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Also very sincere thanks for your eight years of service in the 60s and coming home after that and dealing with the aftermath of your service to our country. And I truly do appreciate it. My dad said, make sure you give the F what's guy a good hello. He's U.S. Army.  I'm sure you have pre COVID. Some pretty interesting stories. Probably more lighthearted than perhaps the pilots of today are dealing with. And I agree with you on our Veterans Affairs Director Jeff Chungo. He's beyond amazing and his wife Diane. I'm not his wife. We've been in events and they say, I want to thank Jeff and Diane and the people come up to me. I'm like, no, I'm not that one. But one of the issues that is sort of been dominating the big part of my heart. And I know also Jeff Chungo's is not only getting employment opportunities and services for veterans and their families, but the shockingly high suicide rate among our veterans. And I know Jeff, that's something, the 22 Club. And I'm sure that's something in whatever way of your expertise or background that you'll perhaps be able to add for that. Similar to what you're doing tonight, bringing the attention of the Memorial Day, ACMI video, encourage people to go to the ACMI website and download that. I'd really like to, just on a fantastic job on it, but there's a lot of people that are, for valid reasons, uncomfortable about talking about it, but it's an important issue to be addressed. I don't know if you have any comments on that. It's okay if you don't. On a personal note, I don't know if you remember that, but your grandmother was my babysitter. Thank you, Mrs. Mohan. Mr. Herd. Thank you. And thank you for your willingness to serve. And my colleagues have all mentioned this, but this cannot be said enough. Thank you for your years of service to the country. I'm going to agree with Mr. Diggins. I do not believe that you're 81 years old. So we're going to have to ask for a birth certificate to prove that. But I'm going to disagree with him on retirement though, because I can't wait to retire. But thank you for, Arlington has had a great history of veteran services. And it's continued immensely under our current director, Jeff Chunglow. Jeff does amazing work for our veterans in town. And we, even in the midst of COVID, we've still been able to honor our veterans. And I don't think a lot of seasoned towns have been able to do that in quite the manner that we have. So this is a really incredibly important position that you're taking on. And I know you don't take it lightly, but I really do want to thank you for your willingness to step up and serve on this council. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Herd. And yeah, I want to echo the comments of my colleagues, but I do want to say it is great to be appointing a fellow terrier. I also went to Boston University. So it's a college night tonight. For now, it's BU. And again, thank you so much. And just another quick word of Mr. Chunglow, Mr. Chaplain. And I participated in the Memorial Day presentation as well. And Jeff was amazing in terms of he wore every hat, producer, director, you met us, waited as long as it took. And I'd like to say it was only one take for my presentation, but he was very patient and really put together a memorable and moving presentation for Memorial Day. So thank you again for your willingness to serve and look forward to seeing you around town. Thank you. So an emotion to approve by Mr. Diggins, seconded by Mr. Helmuth. Mr. Herd. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helmuth. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. D'Corsi. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Banks. Thank you all. Now, Mr. Fitzpatrick may not be with us. I don't, his name is not on the attendee list. There is a phone number, a 781 phone number. I think I would just say if the 781 number ending in 170 is Mr. Fitzpatrick and he dials star nine, that should raise his hand. If that's not him, then clearly he's not here. Okay. It doesn't look like it. Okay. All right. So we did receive his written materials and his resume. So I will turn to the board starting with Mr. Helmuth. I'll move approval. Thank you. Mrs. Mahan. Second that and perhaps we could extend the invitation for him to come in another night. Sure. Thank you. Mr. Herd. No comments. Happy to support his appointment. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Same here. Happy to approve, man. If he does come in, I'll be able to wish him, you know, appreciate, express our appreciation in person. Great. Thank you. Mr. Diggins. Yeah. And I also support the appointment. So, motion by Mr. Helmuth, seconded by Mrs. Mahan for Mr. Fitzpatrick's appointment. Attorney. Mr. Herd. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helmuth. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Corsi. Yes. Thank you. Next is open forum. Except in unusual circumstances, any matter presented for consideration of the board shall neither be acted upon nor decision made the night of the presentation in accordance with the policy under which the open forum was established. It should be noted that there is a three-minute time limit to present a concern or a request. Before we open it up for a show of hands, I just want the public to know we have three items after open forum. We will be taking public comment on each of the three items. So, if you, for purposes of open forum, if you wish to talk about something other than items 9, 10, or 11, now is the time to do so. All right. Mr. Chairman, there's one hand raised. Right now, Kristen Anderson. Okay. Thank you. Can you hear me? Good evening, Ms. Anderson. Thank you. Kristen Anderson, 12 upland road west. I am a time meeting member representing increasing 13. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. During six rainstorms between July 2nd and September 2nd of this year, Summerville and Cambridge discharged 24 million gallons of sewage contaminated water into the El Wife Brook. It is time again to put pressure on the cities of Summerville and Cambridge in order to encourage them to start developing a new long-term control plan to separate their sewers and reduce pollution in the El Wife Brook. To the best of our knowledge, the existing long-term control plans were completed in 2015, and there are no new plans to further separate the sewers that discharge untreated sewage contaminated water into the El Wife Brook. As a leader in combating climate change, Arlington must prepare for its effects. We must become resilient to a wetter rain season, more severe storms, and rising sea levels. We must consider the environmental health of our neighborhoods and how the sewage discharges affect community health in East Arlington. Save the El Wife Brook is hosting a community walk on Saturday morning to raise awareness about active combined sewer overflows also known as CSOs, which discharge into the El Wife Brook. We will be meeting at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Arlington's Bicentennial Park on El Wife Greenway on the corner of Mass Ave. Route 16. We will go on a spooky treasure hunt for the active CSOs, which discharge untreated sewage into the El Wife Brook during rainstorms. This will be a two-part walking tour. We're going to cover approximately two miles, and we'll do the entire length of the brook. But we welcome everyone to join us for any length of the walk, and we ask the select board to join us for any part of that walk on Saturday morning. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Anderson. There's one additional hand raised, John Warden. Okay. Let me try that again. Okay, there it goes. Okay, I think he's getting closer. Good evening, Mr. Warden. If you're can see us, you need to unmute your microphone. Okay, I'm picking up, but nothing happens. Okay, I'm sorry. My hand was raised prematurely. I wish to speak on the matter, on the precinct matter, but I will, so I hope you recognize me then. I will say I hope during that discussion you will give Mr. Selbs a full time to make his presentation on that very important matter. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Warden. Are there any other hands, Mr. Chapterling? There are not right now. Okay. Sorry. No, there are. There is none. Okay. All right. Well, that closes open forum. I'll now move to the next item on the agenda. Item nine, discussion and vote, Mass Ave. Appleton design modification. John, we heard select board. Before we start this, this matter had come up previously before the board, and I had recused myself that evening. My sister-in-law is a business owner between Burton Street and Appleton Place, and under the conflict of interest statute, she's my wife, Mary's sister, and as such, she falls under the definition of an immediate family member. The threshold for a conflict is much lower with an immediate family member, and based on that, I felt it was appropriate to recuse myself. Last month, I am also going to recuse myself this evening, and I'm going to turn this part of the meeting over to our vice chair, Mrs. Mahan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just before we get started, originally I had planned for asking for a six-minute break after this agenda item. I should have anticipated that the chair would be moving us along on the agenda, so I'm not going to do that since I always think it would be in the nine o'clock hour or only in the eight. Excuse me, what I'd like to do for this, unless anyone else thinks differently, is first turn it over to our colleague, Mr. Herd, and then after that, if you think it's appropriate, Mr. Herd to ask the town manager. I'm chaplain and or our director of public works, Mike Rademacher, for any presentation.  So, Mr. Herd. Thank you. Might have just jinxed us, Mrs. Mahan, on the quickness of the meeting. Thank you. I will be brief, and I can turn to Mr. Chaplain or Mr. Rademacher for any details regarding the plan, but just a little background as to where we came to this updated plan. After the last meeting where we were given two competing plans, I had noticed and looked at aspects of both plans that I liked. So, this plan essentially came into being by me folding over one plan, taping it on top of the other plan and coming up with a plan that was plan one on the right side and plan two on the left side. So, this is in I want to thank the town manager and Mr. Rademacher and green international affiliates for jumping on this, getting a new plan drafted in the timeframe that we needed to in order to get before the construction period that we need to put the paint down on Mass Ave. So, what we have is like I said, on the right side, if you're looking at the plan, Mr. Mr. Chaplain, can you put the plan on the screen? Just as we can. Jason, are you able to put the plan up while Mr. Herd speaks to it for a minute? I believe so. Let me try that out real quick. And I think many people have it in front of them, but essentially I took the anything right of the crosswalk to the right side of Appleton Place from this view and took the aspects of plan one and then everything left of that crosswalk took the aspects of plan two. So, this incorporates kind of the critical safety measures that were advocated as you go on the west side of Appleton Place that will help create visibility for cyclists coming down for motorists on Mass Ave who are taking the left. It has all of the safety issues, the safety improvements that were in both plans right at the intersection and then it feeds into a lane as you go eastbound down Mass Ave and eventually becomes the share road. So, I know we're presenting a plan that some people don't think is enough. We've also got some opposition to this plan. So, to me, this is a good compromise based on the competing interests and really taking all the necessary safety improvements and putting them into the plan to make sure that we have the safest option that we can present. I know there's plenty of different views on this particular plan what's necessary. I honestly can look in the camera and say that I believe this is the safest plan that we can come up with. And as I mentioned before, we all know that ultimately we're going to need to revisit this intersection sooner rather than later to put a signal in and at that point there'll be a new plan that will make this all the markings here obsolete as we put new markings down to coordinate with the signal. And I think at that point, one of the things that wasn't mentioned at the last meeting is one good aspect of this very dangerous location in Allington is there are wide sidewalks. So, I think as we go into a greater construction phase, we can certainly incorporate some of the safety improvements that were in plan two that were originally presented to us such as the two-foot buffer between the car and the bike lane. And I think that's something that we can achieve when we do that second satellite. But that's how we got here. This is again, what I see is a good compromise. I see this is the safest version of this plan that we can come up with. And I'm asking my colleagues to support or to essentially amend our previous vote to adopt this plan in lieu of the plan one that we adopted a month ago. Okay, Mr. Hurd, can I take that as a motion to approve? I will allow, I'll leave it for my colleagues. Okay. Submit a motion. Okay, thank you, Mr. Hurd. Mr. Chapterling, the town manager. Thank you, Chair Mahan. So, we have tonight with us Jason Govan from Green International, the traffic engineer that's done the work on this plan, as well as Mike Rademacher, Public Works Director and Dan Amstead, Senior Transportation Planner. Just to restate very briefly what Mr. Hurd has stated. The genesis of this was just a few weeks ago after the last board meeting with Mr. Hurd requesting that we take a look at developing a hybrid option, as you all see on the screen right now. Mr. Rademacher quickly jumped on that and began working with Jason to draft such a plan. Dan Amstead's quickly thereafter jumped on board to begin submitting comments and suggestions of how to tweak and perfect the plan. Just a week and a half ago, I believe it was last Monday, the design review committee met to review and comment upon this plan and give it a public airing. And we really are moving on a pretty fast track on this to bring it before the board tonight so that we know what to paint as soon as possible. Mike Rademacher has worked hard with his crew at DPW to line up the requisite paint and contractor. Would have been ready to paint option one, which was approved at the last board meeting. If this is approved tonight, we'll be ready to paint this option. If this does not succeed tonight, we'll still be ready to paint option one. Mike can speak with a little more detail about that, but I think we're confident that we'll be able to get it done in a pretty timely fashion one way or the other after tonight's meeting. But with that, I think it might be a benefit to ask Jason from Green to walk through this briefly. And then back to you, Madam Chair, for a board and public comment. Thank you, Mr. Chaplin. I definitely want to call on Mr. Govan next. And then when we start going through questions from the board, I'd be interested in our DPW director, Mr. Rademacher, comments on any future projects with, as Mr. Herb cited, the wide sidewalks in this area, how that plays into, if at all, any future chapter 90 or otherwise projects. But Jason Govan? Yes. Thank you all. And thank you, Mr. Herb, for looking into this hybrid option and kind of bringing this to fruition. I think you did a good job in explaining kind of what's in front of us here. But essentially, if you folks were called during last month's meeting, as Mr. Herb said, we prepared two options and presented two options. Option one, which was shared lanes in both directions was ultimately approved. Option two was the bike lanes in both directions, which the bike lanes in both directions picked up where the existing bike lanes end, which is just east of Richardson Ave, up to the top of my screen here where my cursor is. And those bike lanes both extended all the way through this project area that you see here on your screen, all the way up to Forest Street and Burton Street here. The main difference here, so everything from Appleton Place going west to the left of my screen here in this area is the same as that previous option too. What we have changed is the area, which seems to be the critical area, especially for the businesses between Appleton Place and Forest and Burton. The previous option too had the bike lanes in both directions in this area and as a result, all of the on-street parking spaces on the south side were being restricted and there would be no on-street parking provided on the south side. What this hybrid option allows us to do is carry the eastbound bike lanes all the way through this area up to Forest and Burton where it will then terminate and pick up the existing shared lanes that continue east. So we have the bike lane in the eastbound direction. What that allows us to do is provide six on-street parking spaces basically just to where they begin just to the east of these two residential driveways here and they go all the way up to where we restrict them to improve visibility at the existing crossing at Forest and Burton. So that gets us six on-street parking spaces added on that were not being provided under the previous option too. We also are providing a varying buffer between this bike lane and the on-street parking spaces. It varies from two to three feet as the pavement width in this section does vary slightly depending on where you are. So we are providing that buffer to add some protection to the door zone for the bike lane in the eastbound direction. However, to fit this bike lane in, we do not have space to fit a bike lane in in both directions in order to provide parking on the south side here. So what we have is shared lanes in the westbound direction similar to option two. I mean similar to option one where the on-street parking on the north side is consistent with what is provided under option one. So essentially what you see here the main difference is that we have the eastbound bike lane and the shared lanes in the westbound side and in relation to the previous option two, we are adding six spaces that were not provided under that option on the south side to facilitate the businesses, several businesses here in this stretch as well as the residents on the south side as well. And that is basically a big overall summary of the changes from this hybrid option you see here relative to the previous option two. Thank you, sir. And before I turn to my remaining colleagues, Mr. Radamaka, do you have any comments brief or not on are you literally ready to hit the ground painting tomorrow next week? And if you have any brief remarks about possible future projects in the length of the wide sidewalks up there? Sure. As far as painting goes, thank you Madam Chair. We are working diligently to have our painting contractor ready to go on this. It won't be tomorrow, it will be hopefully in the next week or so. We're battling temperatures, this will likely be done at night and temperatures need to be 45 degrees or warmer in order for the paint to dry. So we're trying to find a good window to get this done. But we have been in constant communication with them, letting them know that we're going to, this is almost an important that we get this done this season. So I'm hopeful or confident we'll get it done within the next week or so. And as far as additional projects we have already begun discussions on getting a long term, more comprehensive design started so that we can move into a more permanent solution through this intersection. Understanding that there are some proposed developments in the area which may actually help us pursue certain grant opportunities to help fund a signal, signalized intersection here. So we're looking for every opportunity we can to move this forward as fast as possible. Thank you so much. Mr. Diggins. Thank you Madam Chair. And so through you I have a couple of questions being on one for Mr. Rademacher and one for my colleague Mr. Herd. So Mr. Rademacher, so we're not saying that we put down this hybrid and then we can't do option two before we come up with the long-term plan, are we? No, you can do, you know, it's just paint. We can grind it up, we can paint over it, just line marking. Great, great, thank you.  I don't recall off the top of my head, but I would say that's probably going to be about $20,000 to $30,000 in paint. All right, thank you. And so to my colleague Mr. Herd, through you, Madam Chair, you know, so you say that this is the most we can do and why is it that this is the most we can do? So if I said that's the most we can do, I don't know, I must have misspoke. Well, maybe I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I may not be quoting you correctly, but I get the impression that you say this is, this is, we can't do anything other than this. This is the maximum we can do. Nope, we can do whatever is presented to us. To me, what I had said is between the three options that have been presented to us, I feel that this is the safest, but that, and I know there's varying degrees and there's varying opinions on this, but of the three options that were presented to us, one, two, and now one and a half or moderate alternative one, this is the, what I've seen fail to be the safest approach and it addresses all the critical safety concerns and it's a good compromise of the competing interest that you have this intersection. Gotcha, I understand. So here's my statement on this and that is, see, I think that going west is okay. I mean, I think the bike lane makes it safer and I'm very appreciative of the efforts that has been put into creating this bike lane, but the problem that remains and that has been a problem all along, although it wasn't noted because the incidence to me with the death of Mr. Proctor and the injury, major injury by Leonard, I'm sorry, I'm forgetting your last name, Mr. Leonard, is that shared lane on the east side and so the Sherrow and the research just determined that the Sherrow's lead are not safe. I mean, I know we got me this one letter that indicated that by putting a bike lane in there that somehow you would increase the speeds of everyone and that would make things mean less safe, but that's not where most of the evidence is going on this at all and I really feel that we need to do something to make the westbound bike cyclists make that safer for them, a lot safer. Look, if we had been able to get blue bikes to give us a setup in the heights, we would have had it and the only reason we didn't is because they required that we have less than 3,000 feet between stations and so we would need a couple more stations against from Arlington Center being to the heights being and so already we're wanting to have people be used bicycles up to the heights. I have participated in the local rapid recovery plan and even though that is focused on the bike lanes, and it's worked with Lexington and Belmont, still they want to get a more the bike racks mean in the heights mean and and eels which is now everywhere Arlington, Louisville streets we want to see a more bike racks in the heights and that's all to get more people going to the heights which would be good for for businesses mean it's good for for active transportation which is good for health mean it's good for the environment and we just need to make that area safer be a lot safer for everyone and and we're just not doing it you know and and I I just want to push as hard as I can me to get those bike lanes there because I just don't want something to happen there and for us as a board you know to regret not doing the most that we can do and and the most we can do now mean is to put that bike lane in there you know to to protect people and so I wish that I had saved my one person to talk to on this board for you Mr. Hearn mean Mr. Helmut came to me earlier on saying well you you know transportation can you just talk to me about this but I really would like to have just been able to go back and forth with you on this in order to be help us both me understand made this intersection and this this this this section better and so I guess one more question to you through the chair is like is there anything I can say that can get you to support that bike lane going west now and if I could Mr. Diggins before Mr. Hearn answers just procedurally we have what is before us tonight so that's all we can vote on tonight so your efforts to direct this to Mr. Hearn isn't germane to what's before us tonight what was before us at the last meeting that's when the conversation and trying to convince your colleagues you know I've been on the board and sometimes I didn't even get a 2-2 vote there was a 1-4 vote and you know you have to move on and do what everyone's suggesting yourself Mr. Hearn that this is one step and we've discussed Mr. Hearn and Mr. Radamaka future steps that when funding comes in because of development up there and after the light goes in that we're still gonna know this nobody said this is the most we can do but this is what is before us tonight so trying to convince Mr. Hearn to change his vote from the last meeting is not legal you can only vote on what's before us tonight and I don't know if you want to add I just feel uncomfortable to me this is a good hybrid solution one of many to occur in the future but I don't know if you want to add to that Mr. Hearn and then I really want to move on and unless you have a motion Mr. Hearn well well I'm going to make a motion I'll withdraw the question to Mr. Hearn you know and so I'll ask you procedurally Mr. Madam Chair we uh well I'll try never wait never right here's I'll make the motion you know I will make the motion that that we accept this plan but I would like to add to it that we revisit in this this intersection made by February at the very latest is that acceptable first I procedurally I need a motion I did I just made the motion I'm sorry let me get my words out see the punctuation I need a motion to approve so that Mr. Audemarcker and other department heads can put the bids out get the painters lined up and if you if you want to have it in there um that I think it's already been stated that we're going to we're continuing to revisit this I don't know if February of next year if that's um I mean we could have yes we can revisit it in February of 2022 okay so that's the motion thank you Mr. Madam Chair thank you Mr. Diggins Mr. Hearn did I cut you off no you had essentially said what I was going to say what sorry that we had a we voted to approve option one so this is just trying to it's this plan versus option one and I think that's been that has been clarified so and I'm happy to revisit the we'll put the page down and we can spend time continuing this conversation because we can change it anytime um but if it's February Mr. Diggins can certainly work with Mr. DeCorsi if he's able to to have an agenda item in February to do so okay um with that caveat if anything happens before February 2022 this board will certainly consider it um Mr. Halman thank you I will second the motion if it hasn't been already um thank you and um you know I I'm looking forward to hearing what the public has to say I think that um my inclination is just very much to support this and this is why you know I also with Mr. Diggins preferred option two when we discussed that I think the board wasn't ready for that and that that's how the process works I really believe this option is a lot better I think the bicycle advocates that I've talked with believe that as well I look at the conflict zone where the bright green paint is on our screen and I see a bike lane going into that and the bike experts have that I've spoken with the safety experts tend to agree that that will slow bikes down because it'll narrow the travel lane it'll give them confidence it'll get their attention the solid green paint in the conflict zone is more visible to motorists and you know as we said and we all agreed the last time we discussed this none of these paint solutions will will will make a drastic difference in the conditions that have caused this the fatal and serious crashes but they can make a substantial difference and they're far better than doing nothing and you know I believe that this compromise is far better than the one we had and I want to express my appreciation to Mr. Herd because I think that compromise is not a dirty word incremental change is not wrong and I appreciate the the effort that he put into this and certainly that our account staff and contractor put into this to to move very quickly to be responsive to that to improve this so I want to be on the record for that and you know the last thing I'll say is you know I think that we are probably putting off the what is probably inevitable you know I think that as I said last time and our our contractor agreed that we get mass stop funding to redo this intersection that it's very likely that they were required dedicated bike lanes in both directions and that is consistent with the connect Arlington plan that we all endorsed division of sustainable transportation that increases more equitable infrastructure for bicycles but you know I think my sense is that if this is as far as we can get now I am happy about that because it is substantially safer than it was so that's where I'm leaning now and you know I look forward to hearing any public comment. Thank you Mr. Helmets and I'm certainly agree and thank our colleague Mr. Herd for coming up with a third plan that keeps us moving forward and I want to assure everyone bicyclist pedestrian that those two categories are at the forefront of when we make by and large make decisions for the town I do know that for many many years residents in East Arlington we've had at that time we had I believe it was three fatalities and probably six to ten serious injuries people crossing in the crosswalk on mass app and CVS and I remember and I still from time to time have a conversation with the town manager on that because we still have it on our radar I remember Bill Dotson who was in his mid to 70s we come to East Arlington good neighbor committee meetings saying how as an elderly person who could ambulate but you know we're slowing down a little he predicted I'm going to get hit and killed someday in that sidewalk and I think he was just 80 and he got hit and killed by somebody in that sidewalk so he became the third or fourth death so I certainly haven't let that go but you know I think he passed six or seven years ago so I agree we have to put pedestrian bicycle safety as we look at everything we do and I know the town has been doing that so if I could ask Mr. Garvin I don't want to be a pain or dictator but if you could for now temporarily stop screen sharing in case residents want to speak but if you could have it on standby in case we do need it in the future now's the time from the members of the public if you would like to speak to the plan that is before us tonight as proposed by Mr. Hurd and developed by Mr. Rodemacher, Mr. Garvin and Mr. Amstatz there is a three minute limit Mr. Chaplin I see two you want to tell me who's first please first name is Petru Sofio okay we could promote him and if you can just give your name and address for the record please thank you hi thank you all for this opportunity I also want to thank Selectman I heard for bringing this back to the board so after the last meeting vote I was personally just name an address for the record oh yes of course Petru Sofio 8 Elmore Street Arlington so after the last committee vote I was a little disappointed as somebody who traveled versus that corridor every day on my bicycle it was disappointed to see that shared lane markings were chosen but actually you've come around and now that I see that 1.5 plan I'm actually pretty excited and I think that this is a good mid-term plan before we get to study the parking and I'm also very happy that this is going to be installed this year to improve my commute over the winter and in the spring another exciting thing about this project that hasn't really been brought up is that this would be Arlington's first protected bike lane there is a small section after Appleton Place that includes a protected bike lane so I really wanted to say that that's straight from Connect Arlington we have not had any protected bike lanes in Arlington before so that's something that really needs to be celebrated and that's a big achievement for the town so I think that this is a great alternative it's going to help you know I talked to the crossing guards at the intersection because I know them and I go by there all the time and you know they really want this change they're really excited you know because it's it's scary I mean I've watched that dismissal and their people driving through them or like through the intersection on the red light and you know almost hitting them and they have to stand in front of cars so they don't hit the students it's really terrifying so having these traffic calming measures the flex post for the bike lane the curb extension and you know the pedestrian improvements I really think this is going to save lives and I think that if we approve this for now and then we can bring you know two or maybe even a better protected bike lane option to the board in the spring we can get that going and then we can get the mass dot for reconstruction you know this is this is the process straight out of Connect Arlington and I'm really excited I'm really excited that this is occurring so I wanted to thank the board again and I hope you approve this option tonight thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for your remarks um Mr. Chapter Lane the next speaker is Mustafa Vrabu and it's just your name and address for the record thank you hello it's Mustafa Vrabu Shawnee Rowett Arlington um I agree with Petru that uh that this is a much better option than option one and I am thankful that the town and particularly I guess Mr. Hurd pushed for this option so I do encourage you to vote for it if this is the only choice um I guess I don't really understand the rules of the meeting where option the original option two couldn't be raised as a motion to be re-voted on or reconsidered but um I guess this is where we are and it's where we are I'd like to point out one thing on the westbound lane you have an 11 foot wide space with a six foot wide car so you have five feet left that puts you within two and a half feet of either doors or cars passing you for those of you that by not assumes that that car is right on the yellow line which it won't be so that car will now be moved over maybe a foot or two so you have about two to three feet for a bike to squeeze through there and as somebody who bikes and I don't know if you're familiar with the term pressure pass that's when a car comes by right on your shoulder it's a very uncomfortable feeling especially when you have parked cars with doors on your right side so this plan is an improvement it's not as good as the original plan two um it's a vast improvement because the eastbound lane is by far the more dangerous one but you've now funneled people into a very narrow space um on bikes as they head westbound and they'll be going slower because it's uphill so cars will want to pass and they'll be you know frustrated um and we have this plan and I'd certainly would vote for ask your vote for this plan over option one and I would ask this is not the safest plan the original plan two was the safest plan and again it's an improvement that's progress uh let's hope it works um let's hope there are no people getting smushed going westbound now um and I would reiterate some things that I've written before you're preserving parking spaces across businesses not in front of them the parking spaces in both plans in front of the businesses were always preserved they're always there they are never lost um so you're preserving parking spaces across the road from businesses in in Oregon and you're squishing people with this plan so if this is what we have please vote for it um it's an improvement there still are dangers that you're putting out there that are going to be forced conflicts but thank you for um coming forward with this and moving this you know another step forward thank you and just briefly um any of my colleagues could make a motion to reconsider but it would have to be on the same night as the vote was taken if we all of a sudden um took a vote on something that was not on our agenda um people pro and con could cry foul and could legally file a complaint against us because we have to give people notice of what we're voting and not just slip other things in so I just want to let you know and if I said anything wrong attorney heim if I was incorrect please correct me Doug heim town council I think that the chair is fully within her discretion to determine what's within the scope of the contemplating motion thank you um next um mr. check point brian restutia thank you and if you could just say your name and address for the record when you're promoted uh hi there it's uh brian restitution number 73 rankless street in arlington um I know last time this was before the committee I spoke at length and I had some strong words so I'll be very brief tonight and to the point um we know the plan before you tonight is not perfect um but I hope it's one you can approve and get moving on um and that we can continue to refine and improve this intersection along term uh thank you whoa you are kidding sorry you didn't even get 20 seconds now um mr. chaplain uh the next speaker is phil golf thank you and if you could just say your name and address for the record please hello there phil goff 94 grafting street in arlington I am also a member of the design review committee and I want to make this short and sweet but I don't think I'll hit the 22nd mark but I do want to express my appreciation to mr. herd other town officials and to green international for finding a compromise that I think does work reasonably well from a bike safety experience putting the westbound cyclist in that really challenging position of a narrow 11 foot lane it's a bitter pill to swallow for sure but I recognize you know bicyclists going in that direction they're going somewhat slightly uphill at that point going slower don't have the same dangers and this ideally is going to be a condition for them or for for people riding bikes in the westbound direction just for hopefully just a handful of years so I do hope the board does move forward with this plan uh for immediate implementation certainly before the weather turns I thought that last week um we did have very productive meeting uh the design review committee and I do see uh in looking at the revised plan that jason presented that uh a few of the comments and suggestions made by the committee actually made it into the um revised plan presented tonight versus the one last week which I think is is terrific and makes it just a little bit better that little kind of piece of protected bike lane that Petra had mentioned is part of it and some other features so I thank you um this clearly isn't the ideal that I wanted and others in option two but I do look forward to work with the town perhaps next spring uh when we look at the results of the parking study uh we're possibly revisiting that option to bike lanes in both directions and of course working with the town in the next handful of years to plan and develop a design that works in the long term thank you so much thank you so much I think there's one more Mr. Chatwin yes Scott Mullen thank you and if you can just say your name and address for the record please sorry you think I'd be better at zoom uh by now Scott Mullen 68 Henderson street can everybody hear me okay I saw a laugh um thank you uh for the opportunity to speak tonight when I spoke at the last meeting um my comments where this doesn't go nearly far enough but it's the best uh that we can get at this time it seems um and it looks like we're we're still there so I hope that this plan advances but I just want to get a little bit of context I live in east Arlington but I'm up to heights all the time I used to work there they have a pensies so I'm up there all the time uh Mariuchi the new Japanese market is amazing I was up there a few Saturdays ago on my bicycle which I rode on Mass Ave and on the path shared and when I got up there I realized well there's no place to park it and I actually did a canvas from Forest Street all the way to Trader Joe's on both sides of Mass Ave there's three bicycle racks three bike racks installed by the town it was an incredibly frustrating experience as you can imagine one of them is is in the plaza in front of the the dry cleaners right next to Charlie Proctor's ghost bike and I sat there for a few minutes and I just thought about that and I wonder if there's a chance as part of this plan or even separate that we add a bike corral on that wide plaza and that can give us an extra 10 or 12 bicycle parking spaces that might mitigate the two or three that are lost on that side of the street close to the businesses because if you can't park you can't park and what we seem to be doing is talking about parking for cars but we're missing the fact that people do other things as well so I did go up there last Saturday in my car because I had to get a bunch of big stuff and I had no problem parking near the Petco parking near the Wanamaker so just for context there so please approve this plan move it forward and thank you for your comments tonight um thank you um and I know our town manager and DPW director here and taking all this information and I do know that I believe Jenny Ray um with some business owners in the heights on down close to this area and some island residents I believe they did a walkthrough uh sometime this week yesterday today um do you know anything about that Mr. Chapter Lane just very briefly I don't want to extend the agenda too much because of me I believe there was a walkthrough it might have been a little bit further than just this past week um and I know there is a capital request in place for bike rack installation and expansion um I would actually if you don't mind Madam Chair pitch to Dan Dan do you know any specificity about plans for racks and the heights um sure thank you very much um yes I've talked about this actually with Ali Carter the economic development coordinator and so um realizing that there is sort of a dearth of secure bicycle parking in the heights in this area and in sort of in general within the business area so we're going to be actually talking about that tomorrow um there is some funding some capital funding excuse me that was um funded and is available this year that putting towards or going to put towards parks and some schools and there may be some additional funding that could go towards the business areas as well but I think there's additional capital funding that it comes into place next fiscal year so definitely there's some funding available in order to do this so what Mr. Mullen was speaking about okay thank you um so on a motion by Mr. Diggins seconded by Mr. Hellman to move approval of this current Mass Ave. Appleton design modification and that the select board will revisit this at the latest by February 2022 unless we um get any information before that um it's going to be a roll call vote and I assume uh Choney Hyne will register uh Mr. Diggins vote for him. Choney Hyne? Mr. Hurd? Yes. Mr. Diggins? Yes. Mr. Hellman? Yes. Mrs. Mahan? Yes. Please let the record reflect that it is a 4-0 vote with Mr. Diggins recusing himself from this discussion and vote. Thank you. Okay how about a three minute break to allow Mr. Diggins to come back on and then we can go into the very next agenda item so you're up in three minutes Mr. Chairman. I'm just back in the meeting so we will move on to the next item on the agenda item 10 discussion and vote re-precincting requirements and proposed reduction in number of precincts um before I introduce a speaker here I do want to just summarize um this issue as as you know has come is coming before the board as a result of the census that takes place every 10 years and as a result of that census and changes in population there is a requirement to take a look at precinct boundaries um on July 19th we received the presentation from a town collect Brazil um regarding a proposal to reduce the number of precincts from 21 to 16 we had a further discussion on the issue with public comment on September 13th I believe there was a public forum the next week and in September we announced that we would come back take a vote initially on the number of precincts after that vote was taken at a subsequent meeting we would take a vote on the actual precinct boundaries we pointed out that there were a number of things going on in the legislature in terms of the timing of legislative districts being drawn and a statute concerning the redistricting process that was going through the legislature the legislative maps have now been drawn they were drawn yesterday released yesterday and last week the governor signed chapter 56 of the acts of 2021 which concerns the reprecincting process and we'll get into that later too but it does basically state that we will follow the state's mapping process and we will have 30 days after the legislature selects their maps to submit maps to the state the process itself has to be completed by December 15th we're in an earlier track for that but I did want to point that out and there's just a lot of moving pieces here over the summer it was important to all of us to hear from the public we reached out to town meeting members we heard from a number of town meeting members and citizens a lot of that is summarized and contained in in our agenda items so what I was going to do miss brazil is with us tonight if we can promote her she had a brief presentation I was then going to open it up to public comment if any of the board members wanted to talk after miss brazil spoke happy to do that but I was thinking we'd hear from everybody and then have the board speak so at any time if someone wants to speak I wanted to show a hand and and I'll I'll recognize you otherwise we will go through all of the commentary and then and then have our discussion and potential vote so with that and and one other thing miss brazil did I see her here tonight good evening miss brazil she did send us a summary of the comments that were received through the forum and through the google poll that was conducted over the summer believe mr. chaplain has that maybe can put a link to that in the chat it is part of the materials that were sent to us okay great okay with that miss brazil sure I want to just um touch briefly on a number of things um and then um the two of the members of the reprocessing working group are with us so um it might be helpful for them to be able to uh join join us so we can you know they can we can get their perspectives and and uh they can answer some questions so um yeah I just want to sort of summarize um a little bit about um you know sort of where we are and um about the proposal that the reprocessing working group made um the responsibility really lies with the select board in this process to ensure that our precinct map meets the standards for population numbers and protects minority voting rights the secretary of state also provides guidance that communities of interest may guide our decisions about the boundary lines to address local concerns several of Arlington's most recent town meetings have focused heavily on zoning changes and the res precinct working group therefore proposes that housing and income are important data that we should consider when reviewing precinct boundaries the data is vaginal to help us determine whether the boundaries divide residents who should have who have shared interests in a way that reduces the chance that they could elect town meeting representatives who share those interests um the fact that as town clerk I proposed reducing the number of precincts and introduced an additional element to the discussion doesn't change the primary goal of considering how the boundary lines impact issues of representation the focus at this time should be on the residents and that means all the residents um the impact on town meeting and the finance committee has to be a secondary consideration um regarding the feedback I'd like viewers to understand that the community feedback submitted throughout the process covered a wide range of perspectives if someone asserted um no one cares how many precincts vote in a school gym someone else told us my polling place was very crowded when they added that third precinct um so you know this was especially true um around the details of town meeting people who opposed the proposed 16 precinct map aren't really arguing that it treats racial minorities or neighborhoods with similar income and housing badly and unfairly they're arguing that changing town meeting itself is hard but change is part of growth so yes with the 16 precinct map we would have 240 town meeting members instead of 252 the presentation outline uh we posted uh demonstrates the vast majority of decisions are made by around 200 members in the course of uh voting so the focus should not be on whether there are 12 fewer town meeting members but rather how those elected members actually represent local interests people can assert that 240 is worse than 252 ultimately that's an opinion it's not universally shared and it's not the most important matter at hand with larger precincts each resident would have the opportunity to elect three more representatives from their precinct the goal here is to get the map right resulting in town meeting members being more representative of the racial housing and economic profiles of their precinct um that's why we talk about increasing representation under a 16 precinct model uh the 16 precincts will be larger geographically compared to our present map so some town meeting members may not be able to canvas their precinct on foot as easily if keeping 21 precincts maintained a situation where everyone could regularly walk their precinct there would be more of a trade-off to consider but that's not really the case people have calculated how many residents each town meeting member serves and how many people live in a precinct our numbers are very low in comparison to other communities now and they would still be lower than the average if we reduced to 16 precincts this is not um this is not a radical change in terms of the numbers and the statistics um what is a radical change is this opportunity to re-envision our map to acknowledge how things have changed in the last 50 years 50 years ago the select board chose to establish 21 small precincts and I assume it solved a problem specific to its time the advocate article announcing the change to 21 precincts from 14 didn't provide a reason and no record of the debate was recorded in the minutes from that fall and there didn't appear to be public participation in the decision either so it wasn't a transparent process in 1971 so we can take heart despite our community's differing opinions now that we are including residents in the critical discussion and that we are for the first time in decades considering residents by using demographic data in our deliberations so I want to talk briefly about equity and what it means to consider equity in this process equity does not mean treating everyone exactly the same because that can perpetuate existing unfairness the goal is to take proactive steps to improve access to voting and representation voting and representation can be emotionally charged subjects because they are so vital to our rights as citizens the feedback from residents was very evenly split in the end there was no universal truth here that a majority can agree on and when you're talking about voting and representation it's important not to assume that a majority that agrees on something is even a good thing the working group started with two key ideas we committed to following the data rather than relying on the precedent set by lines that we're just familiar with given the magnitude of changes in the early state drafts and the possibility of changing all the lines if we changed the number of precincts we felt that if it was likely that most precincts would be affected it was preferable to level the playing field by having all precincts elect their town meeting members at once we feel this would be an open process that would be easy for incumbents and new candidates to place their name on the ballot additionally if we assume that there is an expense to running for town meeting it is not fair to place that expense on some precincts only distributing the burden of running across all the precincts in this case is the most equitable option the benefits to reducing election overhead are multi-layered it's less about cost savings outright and more about efficiency if we can spend the same dollars and get more services that's a win for the taxpayers and the voters that savings comes from reallocating the election workers that we hire now to run 21 precincts on election day so they would be available to assist processing mail ballots in the weeks before an election the senate has already approved their version of legislation that calls for the state to mail out vote-by-mail application postcards to all voters for state primaries and elections that tends to increase voter participation in mailing ballots which is great for voters and democracy but it adds a significant burden for my staff towns will also soon be likely we hope able to offer in person early voting hours for local elections and also have the option to mail our own postcard applications for local elections again these are great services for voters but they add expenses that we need to consider 16 precincts pre-sup some funding and time that is desperately needed if we are expanding the way we run elections my staff hours and overtime hours can't be can't be the default solution especially for a high turnout election moving forward there will be more costs to running elections and i'd like to manage that better and fewer precincts can help the public participation during this recent precincting process has been as open and transparent as we could make it the working group added the least change map boundaries to our interactive map tool so residents could see the data that we're working with keeping town goals and commitments in mind and i quote here we value equity diversity and inclusion and are committed to building a community where everyone is heard respected and protected our conclusion is that a minimal change is the wrong approach because it ignores the values that we are standing for and after studying the least change map we can see precincts where the outcome is worse based on our equity lens similarly we have found that many of the concerns raised about changing town meeting don't engage with the central equity issue there are larger and smaller representative town meetings with many more or many fewer residents per member our town meeting ratio of residents to members is very average in comparison to towns that have a ratio ranging from 246 or to down as low as 88 residents per member if we change to 16 precincts that would change our statistic that ratio statistic from 183 to 193 there's a very small change in exchange for increased representation if we want to explore a radical new town meeting that is vastly larger we can do that but it's a separate process reprecincting is the focus now and it's about drawing equitable boundaries it's about resident voting rights it's about working to make space for residents to run for town meeting from precincts that are more coherent demographically so ultimately equity and efficiency both point to 16 precincts the 16 precinct map has fewer lines dividing residents in ways that can undermine their voice at town meeting it considers diversity from multiple standpoints race and ethnicity housing type and economics and it better accommodates and accounts for future precinct population increases in areas where development has been approved or will need to be considered to comply with the state's housing choice and MBTA community's legislation the map allows better options for adjusting polling locations that improve access by having more residents vote along mass have the reprecincting working group recommends the 16 precinct model to you thanks thank you miss brazil and thank you to the members of the reprecincting working group who are with us tonight i miss lenma and miss harvey um so unless there are any questions right now i was going to go through public comment and then come back to the board um and i see the list of hands so we'll go down the list uh starting with uh i believe it's john warden who's first okay is this the video yes oh don't yeah we can hear you mr warden no good good evening good evening mr warden yes uh oh uh well now i can't see any of you but um thank you mr chairman i just speak very briefly and i refer back to that meeting uh that you referenced where this was uh this uh uh plan was first uh advanced to the select board and i was uh i was in the audience and i spoke to the spoke to the that issue on that occasion as well and i believe it was mr heard who in the course of discussion said that such a dramatic change uh from custom of the past 50 years uh should only be done after a robust community-wide discussion of the issues uh that discussion has not occurred i mean a lot some people have weighed in the local newspaper which i think very few people read has hardly mentioned the thing um that that form that was had was basically a farce uh and the uh some people have weighed in sending letters whatever uh but the the only way to really get the sort of uh community-wide and i think this this is important because people have been going to the same base except during covid the same voting places for years and all of a sudden they'll go to a place and say oh no you can't vote here anymore you're you're in some other precinct now well that's not really a very good way to encourage voting so i would um i i say that you should at this point adopt the simplest least change plan uh and then if you really want to get into reducing the number of precincts which is a pretty fundamental change in in the structure of our our town town meeting finance committee and so on then you ought to have that community-wide discussion and that can only be done in the post-pandemic area where era when we can have real meetings and real places with real people and have real proper good discussions of the issue so i i i urge you to stick with the 21 precincts for now thank you thank you mr warden uh next is john leone starting my video good evening mr leone evening mr of course the members of the town board town select board mr chaplain um john leone town meeting member precinct eight also a town moderator i've been a precinct town meeting member since 1994 i do recall the last time we re-precinct it was 10 years ago and at that point we made minor changes as possible to precinct lines i think we only moved three precinct lines and that was done between the town clerk myself's town town moderator and mr propelka with the board uh select boards executive secretary at that time and i believe there was one other person but we didn't go to the extent of eliminating five precincts there are a few few um comments i want to make first let's toss out the fallacy there's going to be any savings here um there's no real cost significance as far as the costs of mail in voting um being decreased that's not so i mean we're going we still have 32 000 voters in the town they all vote by mail whether it's mail with 16 precincts of 21 precincts it's still going to be the same exact cost it's not going to be any decreased um mr mark roth is in fall up walnut street to the calculation that appeared in last week's advocate i'm going to give the gentleman credit if we took out five precincts we'll save six thousand four hundred forty five dollars per election let's face it on our hundred seventy seven million dollar budget estimates he came out to 0.0038 percent of our budget so i don't even think costs should be discussed in the change of this magnitude it's not even a rounding error um currently 21 precincts 252 town meeting members 12 of precinct the new proposal by the town clerk in the committee 16 precincts 240 town meeting members 15 per precinct we're cutting out 12 town meeting members um i care about that with disenfranchising 12 people and the people that they represent now you might not think 12 is a lot but we have 252 town meeting members they all they don't all come every night we all know that but if we have less town meeting members it's going to affect our people who show up it's going to affect the quorum it's going to affect and lost a number of other things first finance committee one member per precinct we're cutting out five members they're already overworked we're going to have to rejigger the finance committee and how that works i'm not sure how we how we would do them in a five at large members i'm going to have to change all the bylaws and town manager actually make all this stuff work also a lot of the committees of town meeting forms gives the moderate of the duty to a point four six some other number of town meeting members if we're cutting out 12 town meeting members that lessens the pool of potential applicants for those positions so it's going to lessen the number of potential people that the moderator can appoint to those committees we have some 60 odd committees and if we start taking out potential members from those committees it's going to affect the pool of applicants and town meeting is where people usually cut their teeth politically if they want to run for this board they want to run for school committee housing authority they usually get on town meeting and if we have you're at about 340 so if you could okay if we cut out 16 down to 16 precincts from the 21 we're lessening that pool but lessening people who can vote in town meeting and we're also increasing the burden on those other 240 town meeting members in that they have a larger pool of constituents to deal with so i think that the board should really consider staying with the 21 meeting 21 precincts and just going with whatever plan has the least amount of change to precincts in order to keep some continuity with the process that we've had for the last 50 years thank you thank you mr leone next is don selzer mr selzer contacted us before the meeting he may have something that he would like to share some of the chapter lane i don't know if we can allow him to screen share when he comes on good evening mr selzer good evening thank you i'm don selzer Irving street this seems to be a night for third options so what i would like to present to the board and to the public a third alternative precinct map early on in this process it was thought that rebalancing would be a major deal requiring significant changes to all of our precincts but then the official census data was released in august and it became apparent that there were solutions involving fewer precincts and mostly minor changes it is relevant to your decision tonight about the number of precincts because it provides a clear contrast between the 16 precinct option with major changes and a 21 precinct map with minor changes and as we discussed earlier today mr chairman i have a short video presentation and request permission to share my screen okay and i think can we do that mr chapter lane on the mr selzer should have that permission right now okay and and bearing in mind that there is a um video presentation here and sometimes you have some technical issues with you i'll give you a little leeway on the timing thank you very much let's see if this works first time i've tried it every 10 years we are required to adjust our precinct lines to make sure that they are reasonably equal in size the 2020 census shows that of our 21 precincts we now have two that are oversized and three that are undersized in east arlington only precinct five is a little undersized that can easily be fixed by shifting over the small block at the warren street and broadway triangle as an added bonus these residents will now be able to vote at thompson school just a few blocks away rather than travel to town hall in arlington heights only precinct 16 is undersized a small sliver can be shifted from precinct 18 to correct this the affected residents will continue to vote at dalin as before in arlington center precinct 8 is undersized and precinct 17 just across mass av is very oversized by expanding precinct 8 to include the area between mill street and grove mass av and the bike path both precincts can be brought into balance all the affected residents are within an easy walk to town hall far more convenient than their current poll location at pier school precinct 15 is very oversized and no single neighboring precinct can absorb the entire excess the first shift is to transfer the northern corner of precinct 15 over to precinct 13 these residents will continue to vote at stratton as before on the east side a large block of 213 residents can be transferred to precinct 11 this is a neighborhood that is in the bishop school district and the residents will have a shorter walk to their new publication the final adjustment is transferring a small strip along summer street from precinct 11 to precinct 15 these residents will have a slightly longer drive to stratton to vote about 500 further than their former location at bishop with these few changes arlington will meet the requirements of fair equal representation the added bonus is that more than 500 residents will have a new voting location that is much closer to their home these changes also meet the state guideline of not diluting the voting strength of racial minorities only a tiny fraction of arlington residents are affected 98 percent will remain in their current precinct mr chairman i'd also like to just quickly address one point that you made earlier about the state legislature finally defining the boundaries for the middle sex 23rd and 24th with these two quickly mr selter there is no possible 16 precinct district that can be made to fit within these district borders if that is a concern to this board it is very easy to do of a 21 precinct model thank you very much for your indulgence thank you mr selter next is joe and preston good evening mr preston i'm here can you hear me yes we can oh good um thank you mr chair joe and preston mr um mr clake drive town meeting member of precinct nine for the moment um i i guess i'd like just like to move forward in my remarks to say um i really question whether this precinct 16 model furthers equity i was quite actually after i looked at all the statistics which are very complicated and frankly not correct some of them um i'm just shocked that you would argue that so let me go forward with what i want to say um i want to talk about how the option 16 precinct adversely affects our minority residents in arlington our non-white population is not evenly distributed throughout the town i think people know that that's concentrated in certain neighborhoods as predominantly white neighborhoods are added to the precincts where minorities are clustered the minority residents voices are diluted and i would like to give an example for instance the arlington housing authority family complex um 49 in a survey last year 49 percent of the residents self identified as non-white so we have a cluster of minority residents as more and more predominantly white neighborhoods are added to the existing precinct precinct one as required by the 16 precinct plan the ability of our non-white residents to make their issues known is greatly diminished diminished i hope everyone's following that um that does not further equity um because as you add more and more predominantly white neighborhoods to a cluster of minority residents their voices are diluted and their influence certainly is um for that reason um um i urge you to reject the 16 precinct plan and adopt what we just heard a the least disruptive plan so that these neighborhoods can still stay within their precinct and have the same amount of influence um i'd like to add one more thing because i think i have another minute um i about 20 seconds uh webcow at neighborhood that i live in has been joined on the other side of medford street with two very big neighborhoods which i and most people here don't know anybody there so we now it looks gerrymandered actually their suggested change is that we have this precinct that goes from mystic valley parkway to mass av and we would have to walk and with the mat right near mass av is the polling place people in my neighborhood would have to walk um over a mile to get to the polling place you miss precinct so you're at 330 so if you could wrap wrap up please oh i thought i was out of time no well no you're over time so if that's it that that's fine thank you for your comments thank you um next is um charles foskett thank you mr chairman and good evening mr foskett i had to get my camera here yes thank you thank you mr chairman and members of the select board i i've had the pleasure and the opportunity to speak with you before but i would just like to reinforce several of the speakers that i heard this evening and and note that this proposed 16 precinct plan is a disenfranchised disenfranchisement of voters there's no cost savings it will have an impact on the finance committee of which i'm a member and by the way i've been a member of town meetings since 1976 so that's 45 years and i strongly object to the proposed 16 precinct change one of the reasons that i object is that there is no mandate from the public from the voters or from town meeting to make such a drastic change in our representative town government and um what we basically have here is a proposal that's made by a very small group of people most of whom are not elected members of the community and in fact uh when the town clerk ran uh for office last time i don't recall that this subject of going from 21 precincts the 16 precincts was ever mentioned and finally and most importantly i'd like to note that the current system is not broken there's no reason to fix it it works we should as mr seltzer had pointed out undertake the program that requires the minimum disturbance to our current successful representation system thank you very much thank you mr poskin john gersh good evening mr gersh you need to unmute yourself thank you sir uh john gersh kippling road a town meeting member precinct 18 i would like to encourage the board to cause the least necessary disruption to town meeting you've all seen that minimally disruptive plan from don seltzer it does not dilute racial equity and any greater disruption than that really gives the distinct impression of a gerrymander and that just to me does not pass the smell test redistricting is required but hacking democracy isn't and i'm sorry but that's what i think i've been hearing from mr brazil that's all i had to say thank you thank you mr gersh next is jennifer seuss good evening this is good evening sorry to me so long to figure that out um jennifer seuss 45 teal street um just a couple points um i i i do know how emotional these questions can be i remember 10 years ago when 15 of the 21 precincts shifted the sense of loss that my precinct boundaries were shifting and that people i thought of as part of my neighborhood were no longer part of it um and i and i think that that's sort of a natural response um i don't think that should be the dominant reason that you make your decision tonight um i when i talk to people around town i i i do hear lots of people oppose but i also hear lots of people in favor of the 16 precinct model um i think people in favor of it may be less likely to come to a public meeting so you may not be hearing from them in person but i do think um that there is a lot of support for that model um i want to urge you to separate the questions of polling locations from this decision um as you know the board of staff men's life board can make a decision about polling locations at any time and that it may make sense to set to make different decisions in the future regardless of where what the precinct boundaries are um you know we have gibbs we have the high school command line we have possibilities of more drop boxes i i i do urge you to be really creative in the future when you make that decision which i know you're not making tonight or this month um i uh yeah that's basically it so i i i like the 16 model i think it does give us more flexibility i think um it it has some nice features of it um i guess just as a final thing i'd love to urge through the chair obviously at your discretion um if we could hear from people on the committee about the um issues of diversity inclusion and and racial minorities being you know brought together in a way that that that promotes equity um i'd love to hear more about how that decision was made and sort of what people's viewpoints on the committee were again at your discretion but just to make that formal request thanks okay i think thank you missus and and i will turn to miss brazil on just on that point um and i know there was written materials that that you had um published on on the equity focus but do you or any other members wish to address that right now i will refer people to to where that is addressed just chill do you want to talk a little bit about the uh the equity work um so thanks for letting me join tonight um so as part of the process that we started um when the working group came together we basically thought outside of the box um for us change isn't a bad thing especially for a community that speaks to wanting to endorse inclusivity and that you value equity and diversity this is a massive opportunity to do so um so what we did was we started by drawing our maps from scratch um not using the previous boundary lines but looking at the data we had in front of us so looking at race looking at income levels looking at age looking at where the housing authority was um and not using massav as a dividing line and so for us that was how we started to build up what the 16 precincts looked like and laying those over what we currently have you can see in some of the maps i don't know if folks have access to them all right now but you can see the differences in precincts where you would be cutting out blocks of community members um and what we were trying to do is make sure that no minority groups and minority groups can be in this context racial or by income um whether they're renters homeowners depending on what we're talking about um making sure that they were not you know kind of divided by different boundary lines and that they're all kind of able to vote as a single block um so that was more i guess speaking to our original process of how we considered equity versus just going with what we've always done thank you um all right is oh slanted what do you want to speak to that i see your hand up i don't know yeah sorry um hello kelly linema assistant director of planning and department of planning and community development um so i think the one other thing to think about here is i know there have been um some people who have said that having 16 precincts because those precincts would be larger in population would dilute minority voices um that is a concern one of the things that we were looking at in that is by drawing the boundary lines so that they encompass communities of color of our biboc folks drawing the boundaries around those lines instead of cutting through them and having 15 town meeting members instead of 12 town leading members represent that group it becomes more likely um with additional work and outreach and this process is not done with additional work and outreach that that community of people could elect somebody for town meeting who represents them um so while the overall proportion of people of color or um actually people of color um not necessarily economic in economic interests or housing types is diluted but while people of color may be diluted by the overall population they are more able to elect somebody for town meeting who looks like them and then I think the one other factor in that is because Arlington particularly when you look at us compared to some of our peer communities we do have a small um community we have small representation in our black community we have a lower than average representation on our Latino community but a lot of in a lot of ways those communities the way the types of housing that people in various communities of color live and the economic characteristics of some of those some people in those communities not all um but do more closely correlate with economic interests so when we start to take economics and renting versus homeownership into account when we draw the precincts so that we are maintaining those communities within a certain precinct should our demographics change in the future which I do believe the town anticipates that it will those precincts will naturally incorporate um a more diverse population. Great thank you Ms. Lenomer um all right I don't believe there are any other hands Mr. Chaplain is there any other hands up oh sorry I just I just have one more thing to say or clarify I did hear twice from previous comments that you know this reduction that we're suggesting is disenfranchisement that needs to be cleared up that's this process can no way be misconstrued or considered disenfranchisement because you are not losing the right to vote you are not losing a privilege you are simply having to rerun just like everyone else so that term just really has a much bigger meaning and it's really not appropriate for this conversation. Thank you Ms. Harvey and I'm going to go to the board we'll come around I agree with you on the on the disenfranchisement I'm going to address that when I when I speak as well but thank you for for your comments there Mr. Chaplain. So there are now four additional raised hands from members of the public two people for the second time. Okay why don't we do this it's two people and I probably should announce it well kind of just two two people there for the first time why don't we take those two and then we'll go to the board. Okay the first name so I didn't open up yet if you could let us know who that is okay. Hi Judith Garber. Hello good evening Ms. Garber. Hi Judith Garber 130 Mass Ave. I'm also a timing member in precinct four I'm slightly torn on this issue the pros I really appreciate everything that the working group has done I I think it's great that they started from scratch I think that the new precincts both in the 21 version and the 16 version that don't separate by Mass Ave make a lot more sense especially you know I looked through the interactive map on the the renters versus homeowners and you can really see how on the 16 precinct map especially how you don't have any renters left behind with by themselves in mostly homeowner precinct and vice versa as well and I agree Ms. Brazil that as town meeting discusses a lot of zoning and density related issues that you know to make our voices heard is really important I my one concern you know and this is I I know that a lot of community groups have been doing a ton of work in the past couple years on getting new folks to run for town meeting and I think that it is a little bit of a bird it's a bit of a burden to run again and I'm just really worried that all the new folks that you've gotten on town meeting this year many from underrepresented groups like people of color and renters are going to have a tough time running again the very next year or very close to year I'm just worried we're going to lose that progress that's my one concern there but I do like the new precinct map so I wanted to throw my my voice in there as most of the arguments have been against thank you Mr. Thank you Ms. Cabra I muted myself there sorry yeah who's next Mr. Chaplin Elizabeth Dray okay good evening Mr. Good evening select board good evening members of the precinct working group thank you for your time I also want to really thank the members of the precinct the working group this is a very complicated and emotionally charged issue and I know it hasn't been easy I also want to stay up front that no matter what you decide tonight I will have to rerun for my seat I am in precinct 8 I know that and I also want to say that I support diversity increasing diversity and equity in in Arlington and I also support that we make those decisions about those issues based on facts and that we use clear and accurate and precise language when we're talking about it and when we start talking about this idea that because some town meeting members have are going to be forced to run again we should make them all run because that's more equitable it's really more equal and I so I just want to I think it's really important that we understand that what we're that's an that's an equalness argument and not an equity argument right so for equalness because some town meeting members representing precincts that are out of compliance must run for reelection then every town meeting member must run for reelection regardless of the circumstances equity would look really different and it would say that because some town meeting members have to run and recognizing that all incumbent and aspiring town meeting candidates have different circumstances that the town will will create policies and procedures to ensure equity in their ability to campaign and so I also have this concern that so just to finish that like this concern that we're using the word equity when we're really saying equal and I want to be really clear about that I also am concerned that online the information being put out only compares the information from the current map to the 16 precinct map and the new the new 21 precinct map and doesn't compare it to the least disruptive map that has been presented to the working group several times so we really can't see apples to apples how diversity and equity is impacted in in in all three maps and I know that Mr. Seltzer has done some data crunching which shows that there really is not any negatives to the least disruptive map regarding diversity and equity so I would love to see have the ability as a resident to look at all three compared to each other online so that I can make a data driven decision thank you so much appreciate it thank you mr. okay is that everybody who has raised their hand once because I'm not really inclined to go back again for a second round because I don't want to hear from members so if that's it I think we will move on to to um comments from the members of the board yes that is accurate Mr. Chair Mr. Seltzer and Mr. Foskett have their hands raised okay all right I and I'm sorry but I I think we you know we went through once there and then we have heard from them so I'm going to turn to the board now um for for comments motions um and I'll start with Mr. Herd thank you Mr. Chair now I would like to thank Ms. Brazil Ms. Lyonamon and Ms. Harvey for all the work on this on this um on this effort and I do want to address a few comments that were made in regards to public outreach and public comment this certainly in it's been a short timeframe that we've had to address this issue but I think both Ms. Brazil and the working group have done really an excellent job of reaching out to residents providing information to residents as to the rationale for why they're looking to reduce number of precincts and responding to resident inquiries um so I certainly want to thank them for those efforts and in I think it's an unfair criticism to say that there was some sort of a farce public form or what not that because I think we we have made those efforts to reach out to residents I well I understand the arguments in favor at this time based on the review of the materials increase that I've had and input from many many residents both positive and negative but certainly at least in my end it seems to be more concerns about the negative impacts or the unintended impacts that this could have on our voting and our representation in town meeting I for me I think we've opened up a good discussion here I think we'll continue this discussion and this could be something that in the future we decide is right for the town but as of right now from where I stand as I weigh the benefits the proposed benefits versus versus the negatives that I see and the potential disruption I would submit a motion to retain the 21 precincts thank you Mr. Chair okay thank you thank you Mr. Hurd uh Mr. Diggins thank you Mr. Chair I will second it for the purposes of discussion um and um I have um a couple of questions I'm not sure to whom to direct them so maybe you can help me out is this Mr. Chair and um we're back to Fincom what do you think would be the solution to that in the near term if we went to 16 well so let let me just try take that that the town bylaws says that you for um finance committee it's based on the number of precincts and if it's an even number of precincts you add one member to create an odd number um so you what what would happen is that the town bylaws would have to be amended but that wouldn't be amended before next year so I mean there's been discussion as to how how you address that and and that that would have to be something that done that takes place through a bylaw change so um just so so so right now we have the 21 members and so if we were to make the change now would we keep that 21 members going into um the next town meeting and then after the next town meeting no well I'll defer to attorney hind but my my understanding is if the number of precincts are changed then the number of members of the finance committee would have to comport with the number of precincts um right from the point that you make that change Mr. Chair you I would I would I would think so yes all right all right all right um got you and so okay and and there's nothing we can do in the interim to boost the participation of FINCOM we need to provide more more um more more assistance more more people to to work on the issues not absent that change um okay I guess there's a matter of whether they're official members and I'm just kind of thinking out loud just trying to come to a solution on that all right thanks and um so um the other question is perhaps directed to miss brazil uh and and and and the other members of the working group um was there any analysis done of of the um elections in 2012 and maybe the elections after that you know I did a little bit of looking the as um miss pointed out it was actually 15 precincts that changed and not three and uh and so uh I did a little bit of looking to see the how many candidates and and and what happened in the subsequent years did you all look into that to see if there were like any negative impacts of all 12 running no um but I'm not sure I understand your question what's tricky when you look back at local election turnout statistics is it's it's more driven by um you know who's on the ballot um you know the contested races and stuff so it's it's so variable um I would I would have a hard time drawing a conclusion that there was a direct connection got to the precincting I hear you and and then I'll just say you know to you in response to your presentation about 200 um members essentially voting in and in town meeting uh that was the case up until 2020 and in 2020 it spiked up 20 percent I mean 240 you know and I would I wonder why he could have been virtual town meeting so so so I just need to put in that little plug for for vpm uh so um look me I I um I as as I've mentioned several people me one of the things I often do when I have these kinds of hard-ish decisions to make me you know is is try to argue me not so much the other side of it but actually kind of argue it in reverse and so if if we were to have 16 precincts being and then we're to try to argue to go to 21 I think it'd be a hard argument I think people would go well I mean you got 16 one add five more me that's five more sets of ballots to deal with I mean it's going to be more expensive even though we could say it's not going to be a whole lot more expensive and then if you were to say well you get 12 more town meeting members I think people go well that's probably not worth worth the the the the effort you know and and and also if you were to say well instead of having 15 people that can represent you or from which you can choose be it uh well not from which you can choose but 15 that will represent you you're gonna have 12 I think people feel well now I have me fewer people that I can actually vote on and and and have an impact we in a body of 240 versus 252 but once again we're dealing with small changes in the the nominator so so I find it the fact that I can't get from 16 to 21 easily makes me feel that me 16 perhaps has a a lot more um more um value to it uh I mean personally I do like the idea of being able to have 15 people um representing me because it really comes down to to personalities mean who you know me me me me we're in that that space me where the where of course let me back up a little bit me we wouldn't want to have 200 precincts me and then have like micro representation of course we don't want to have one or two me but when you get into the realm of the 10 8 10 12 of 16 me then it really does become a matter of how many people uh you know me because it really comes down to race for relationships and I think me that that the 15 gives me a greater chance of having a relationship with a town meeting member but another reason I don't feel that that tied up in in the number of people who are representing me is that he when I was a town meeting member and I still am hey but when I first was only a town meeting member uh and I would talk to people in at the gym who were in a different precinct it'd be like you know I'm so happy to be a town meeting member whatever issue you have let me know because even though you can't vote for me I care about and I think we're very much that kind of town so so I'm not too concerned about the the number of town meeting members per precinct but on balance me like I said I do like the fact that that I would have 15 members that I could potentially have a relationship with and also one thing I've noticed about the one of the other things that don't concern me about the size is that I kind of noticed in setting up the the precinct meetings me a lot of times the precincts will combine because the uh there's just not enough the participation being in the smaller precincts mean to warrant having 21 um precinct meetings so a lot of times we'll have two or three precincts combined together so I think that kind of argues for the fact that me we can stand to have me more people in a precinct who knows maybe we will then end up with 16 precinct meetings uh uh and I to support what Ms. Garvis said I do like combining crossing over Mass Ave I think that really gives a a lot more power to the representation of the people who live along Mass Ave who have a very different experience I think than most people in town most of them are renters but also I mean Mass Ave is a major thoroughfare so I think it's good to combine them and have their voices have have them allow them to have stronger voices and and you know um usually in situations like this these tough ones mean um the the letters w w jd comes to mind and I I know for those of you who know me you're probably wondering you know have re precincts become my road to Damascus uh but but actually it comes down to someone that I have come to trust a lot and and have me this person has such integrity and and if someone were to propose something like this we I would go to that person to say what should I do so I would ask J